fic for matchynishi
Title: Johnnies of the Runway
By: tretton & unrequitedangst
Pairing: Akame
Word count: 3,427
Rating: PG
Genre/Warnings: AU
Summary: When Kame finds out that he's going to be a contestant on Project Runway, he doesn't know what to think.
When Kame finds out that he's going to be a contestant on Project Runway, he doesn't know what to think. Or he does know what to think, rather, because he's sure everyone who signs up to be on a reality TV show thinks exactly the same thing. But Kame isn't everyone. He hadn't been dreaming of fame or fortune when he went to that first audition. He hadn't been thinking about getting to the final three and presenting a collection at Fashion Week, or even making it onto the show, he'd been thinking about not throwing up on the judges.
"Kazuya, you're going to be a celebrity!" his mother tells him.
Kame doesn't want to be a celebrity. Kame wants to make beautiful clothes. When he gets to the Project Runway sets and says this during his first one-on-one interview, though, the cameramen complain he isn't exciting enough. Apparently the first guy they interviewed said something about his aesthetic being the faerie world as reflected in couture, and the guy after him said, "paaaaaaaaan!" It all seems rather unprofessional, but when Kame gets back to the Project Runway apartments that night, his roommates explain that this is the kind of thing they're supposed to do.
"Haven't you ever seen Japan's Next Top Model?" Uchi asks, popping a handful of caramel popcorn into his mouth. "You have to be memorable in this industry. You have to be fierce. Make people remember who you are. It's the only way to get ahead and to stay there."
"What you need," Kame's other roommate Koki says, "is a catchphrase."
"A ... catchphrase?" Kame asks. "Like a slogan?"
"Yeah, exactly!" Koki says. "That way, you won't look like an idiot because you'll always have something to say when the cameras are on you. It's like product branding? Like how that Moriuchi guy always goes on about how rock and roll informs all the clothes he makes, and Uchi says that pink is his life--"
"It totally is," Uchi says. "Everyone dismisses pink because it's supposed to be, like, a girl color, but I want to bring it back. I'm going to make it fresh and relevant again."
"What's yours, Koki?" Kame asks quickly, before Uchi can get started on how much he loves pink couture. (Uchi, Kame has learned in the half an hour since they first met, is kind of a scary guy, especially when it comes to Hello Kitty.)
" 'Make U wet'," Koki says.
"That's --" Faintly obscene, Kame thinks. Horrifying. Somewhat pornographic. "--unique," he says weakly.
"I know, right?" Koki says, beaming.
As it turns out, constant horror seems to be a prerequisite for being on a reality show. So is insanity. Kame becomes increasingly convinced of this as the hours tick past and he's introduced to a whirlwind of his fellow designers: Subaru, who stares at everything, Chinen, who is frighteningly young and even more frighteningly obsessed with Ohno, Nakai who is ... not frighteningly young but still adamant that his age in no way affects his fashion. (Nakai is also sort of obsessed with Ohno but Kame tries not to think too much about that part.)
It's going to be fine, Kame tells himself, and is almost able to override the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. All Kame needs to do is focus. He just needs to remember what he's here for--what he went to fashion school for. This is his dream. Kame's entire life has been leading up to this. He's not going to let anyone distract him.
***
Matsumoto Jun holds a long speech about his designing ethos before they start their first challenge. It involves a lot of rainbows and glamour and the true essence of purple and after a while even Kame can’t help but tuning out a bit. Maybe it would have made more sense if they hadn’t just been invited to drink champagne with Aiba and Matsujun in something that looks like a warehouse. Maybe Kame’s just too sober. He doesn’t think too much champagne on a churning stomach is going to turn out so fabulously. Kusano looks like he doesn’t care about designing while sober at all, already pink-faced and trying to inconspicuously edge his way towards the table full of sponsor-donated bottles. Chinen is staring at his soda in contempt. Kawai is mimicking Matsumoto behind Nakai’s back, forcing a red-faced Koyama to try to suppress his choked laughter. Yasu is trying to chat up Aiba in a corner and Ueda is nodding reverently, hanging onto every word out of Matsujun’s mouth.
"They’re going to make us design from those garbage cans over there," Uchi hisses in Kame’s ear.
"Nah," Koki objects on Kame’s other side. "They did that third season."
"But without further ado!" Matsujun says and smiles widely into the camera. "I’ll now take you to your first challenge. Designers, follow me."
When they enter the wood shop connected to the warehouse Kame sort of wishes it had been garbage all along.
***
They get thirty minutes of fitting with their newly assigned models at the end of the first day. Kame suspects it’s because Nakai has been bitching to the producers about his outfit being a sculpture and not a piece of clothing all day long.
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WORK WITHOUT THE RAW MATERIAL?" he yelled when walking through the door after the third time he came back from trying to find Matsujun. Kame thinks he’s a little stressed.
"I think we’re all a little stressed," Uchi objected during their joint cigarette break. "Nakai is just going through the five stages of fashion disaster."
Kame has to admit that the models piling in are a welcome change to the previously tense mood in the room. It takes ten seconds before Uchi gets into an argument with his model about the painted pink details on Uchi’s vest but Kame can already tell that Uchi seems to like Ryo. Koki is trying not to seem too thrown by the appearance of Junno, Koki’s model, and Junno’s attendant blond hair while Massu is just being introduced to a model who gives off and air of even more extreme perkiness than Massu himself. Kame didn’t even think that was possible. Across the room Nakai is still staring in disbelief at a very young boy who has tried to introduce himself as ‘Yabu Kota’ twice now without getting any sort of coherent response from Nakai.
"Oh, yes," Matsujun says and does an elegant pause by Kame’s workstation. "Your model is late."
"Um," Kame says and tries not to let any of the panic show on his face. If only because there is a camera right by Matsujun’s shoulder. "OK. So what does that-"
"Don’t worry about Jin," Toma’s model suddenly says from where he’s half-way into some sort of trashy-looking t-shirt that’s made out of protective gear and working gloves. "He’ll show. He’s just really bad with… Uh. Directions."
"Didn’t you all come here by agency cars?" Matsujun asks, his chic eyebrow raised in discreetly evident skepticism, sort of like he looked when he got his first preview of Koyama’s plastic see-through shorts.
"Um." The model hesitates. "Jin never uses the agency cars. He had it added to his contract that he’d get to drive his own car to locations."
There’s a pause in which everyone in Kame’s immediate vicinity gives him sympathetic looks and wordlessly laments Kame’s fate of getting stuck with that model. Then Matsujun shrugs, everybody gets back to their frenzied attempts at getting the clothes off their models without actually undressing them by force and Kame is left standing by his dress form, suddenly feeling even less confident about his wood chip shirt. Koki keeps telling Kame that it looks awesome but Kame’s not so sure. Koki is, after all, the one currently trying to attach actual planks to the shoulders of his jacket. Kame would have loved to get Uchi’s opinion but he’s still busy blocking the way to the brushes Ryo’s trying to get his hands on.
"Do you want to use Pi when we’re done?" Toma asks Kame. "He says Jin is taller but otherwise they’re pretty similar." Toma gives Yamapi a little smile, like they have some sort of private joke they share and Yamapi just beams right back at Toma. Kame catches himself thinking, well that happened in a nano-second and then sternly tells himself that he’s not going there. Kame’s just not that sort of person. Even when trying to create high fashion out of wood shop waste, going on three hours of sleep, half a glass of champagne and the four bites of salad he had time to swallow at lunch break before he had to run back to the work room because he’d just thought of a way to attach the lining really neatly.
"He will show though," Yamapi assures Kame again.
"Then I’ll just wait for Jin," Kame says and tries to smile.
***
20 minutes later Akanishi Jin walks in with his long, shaggy-looking hair on end, giant girly sunglasses covering half of his face and still smelling of the cigarette he’s evidently had time to smoke on his way over.
"Jesus," he sighs when he slumps to a standstill by Kame’s workstation. "You cannot believe the day I’ve had."
It is not, by any possible definition of the concept, love at first sight.
***
"Hey man," Koki says, standing in the doorway to the sewing room when Kame jerks his eyes up and away from the frantic readjustment of the waistline of his pants. "Sorry about your model."
"What?" Kame says and sits up in horrified alert, ready to run up the stairs (it’s quicker than waiting for the elevator) to hair and makeup for the third time in the past hour. "What about Jin? What is it now? What?!"
"No, no." Koki holds up his hands. "I meant. Sorry. About getting the bohemian model."
"It’s not so bad," Kame says faintly. Maybe a little shrilly because of the obviousness of the lie and the cameraman in the corner.
The pants didn’t fit Jin when he put them on this morning. "But I just fitted them yesterday," Kame said in distraught confusion. Jin cocked his hip and contemplated himself in the mirror before he turned to Kame and said, "You don’t think it has anything to do with the yakiniku me and Ryo had yesterday, right?"
Uchi let out an outraged sound and stopped tucking in Ryo’s shirt.
"I didn’t have any yakiniku!" Ryo said defensively. "I ate like, one piece from Jin’s order. Then he told me to stop leeching."
At least Jin looked a little guilty when Kame turned back to him.
"I lose weight really easily," Jin said and scratched his head. "I just forgot about the show being today."
From then on it had been a steadily declining slope heading towards fashion hysteria. Because of the approaching deadline Kame had sent Jin to hair and makeup by himself to have time to fix the pants in a somewhat acceptable manner. 15 minutes after he’d left Jin stormed back in with half of his hairdo still in curlers, informing Kame that Koki was trying to sabotage Kame.
"What?" Kame said and pricked himself in the finger when his hands kept sewing but his brain went blank.
"It’s true," Jin insisted. "He’s up there telling everybody your outfit would look better with a more gansta hairdo."
After another 15 minutes wasted on trying to mediate between Koki and Jin, Kame walked back into the workroom with only an hour left until deadline and the waist of his pants still detached. And now it was 30 minutes till deadline and frankly, quite frankly, Kame didn’t even have time to think about just how much of a disaster having Jin as a model had turned out to be.
"Whatever you say man," Koki says and gives Kame one of his soppy encouraging smiles that are sort of horribly out of place on a bald, tattooed ex-thug that got into fashion after he started sewing in prison. Even if the incident Koki had served time for was actually more of a drunken confusion on the subway than any substantial form of crime. But Kame barely notices. Kame just keeps on sewing.
***
Jin comes back from the bathroom with a tear on the side of the shirt when it’s ten minutes till deadline and Kame just stares at the hole for the longest moment.
Don’t panic, Kame’s mind scrambles. Don’t- and then it’s just white noise.
Five seconds after Matsujun has told them all to the get their asses onto the runway Kame makes one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make in his life. He takes the scissors and cuts the tear bigger until some of the frizzy wood chip sort-of fabric drapes over Jin’s right hip.
"Cool," Jin comments in appreciation.
Kame just prays to god that isn’t the sound of his imminent downfall.
***
Half-way into the review of Kame’s outfit Kame starts to tentatively cling to the hope that Ohno’s copious use of the word ‘groovy’ is actually a positive thing. He’s not 100% sure. Trying to attentively take in the judges words while to Kame’s left, having just received pretty harsh comments on his "macaroni-esque esthetics", Koyama’s crying in a decisively unsubtle manner is a little difficult. Then Ohno subsequently turns to the rest of the designers caught in the glare of the spotlights and asks them, seemingly genuinely confused, "I don’t get why Kame’s looks so awesome when you other people’s stuff looks so carpenter’s hangover though. Nino, do you get that?" and Kame has two seconds of survivors guilt. But that’s before Jin sort of hugs him from the side in barely suppressed glee that feels like it seeps right into Kame’s body. Kame knows what a smug designer looks like, he’s watched four seasons worth of them. And now he also knows why they look so stupid on camera.
"Nino, what do you think about Kame’s outfit?" Aiba says, rather sharply but still somehow perkily, when Ohno and Nino’s discussion about the unfulfilled potential of wood-based fabrics starts to get out of hand ("Really retro, like it could have pixilated images on the lining," Nino says intensively, Ohno nodding in serene understanding).
Nino, who has yet to offer a single appreciative word for any of the designers works so far, narrows his eyes and looks over Kame’s outfit one more time. He tilts his head, gives a barely audible sigh like actually, what Nino really would like to talk about is computerized suits but if all Aiba wants to know is what he thinks of this retarded challenge, then fine.
"I don’t hate it," Nino says.
Five minutes later, when Nakai jumps off the runway to try to attack Ohno for asking him why exactly it is that his tie looks like a giant condom, Kame is still on so much of a dazed high be barely notices the commotion.
***
"OH MY GOD!" Jin says the minute Kame comes backstage after being informed of his results in the first challenge, "WE WON!"
Behind Jin’s back Koki rolls his eyes and Uchi sort of looks like he’s just entered another dimension of bullshit. Half of Jin’s shirt sort of falls to pieces when gives Kame a giant, celebratory hug. And Kame doesn’t mind any of it. Because no matter what happens in the next challenge, not even Jin will be able to get him eliminated.
***
Later that night, when Koki and Kame are the last ones to go to sleep, Koki turns to him with an important look on his face and says, "But you’re going to switch models now, right?"
"Yeah…" Kame says before he thinks it through. Partly because that was one of the few things that kept Kame sane while working with Jin. The continues chant of, It’s just for the first challenge. Even if I get eliminated I know won’t be working with Jin again. And partly because. Well. Jin is a disaster. A very fierce walker, Kame has to give him that, but none the less a disaster on all other areas of his occupation.
Still.
"He did sort of help me win though."
Koki looks at Kame as if he’s lost his mind.
"Kame. He ripped your shirt. How is that helpful?"
Kame shrugs a little half-heartedly, knowing Koki sort of has a point. "Aiba liked the asymmetric drape."
"Yeah," Koki scoffs and looks around wearily, even though all the cameras have left for the night. "Aiba liked it."
"What’s wrong with Aiba?" Kame frowns.
"Nothing," Koki says airily. "And if he wouldn’t wear all those floral shirts he’d be even more kick ass of a washed up model."
"I think that’s a bit harsh," Kame says uncomfortably, thinking that if it’s not on camera it’s sort of not fair in this context. At least when Uchi calls someone’s design "reminiscent of a baboon’s ass" he knows there’s a high probability of his getting into a fist fight at the re-union taping.
"Whatever," Koki goes on with a dismissing wave of his hand. "The point is, if you want to win, and I mean win any other challenge whatsoever, you cannot do it with Jin as your model."
"Yeah," Kame says quietly. "I know."
***
The thing is though.
As Aiba’s silhouette bounces into sight behind the Project Runway Japan logo the next day, Kame still hasn’t made up his mind. It’s not that Kame disagrees entirely with Koki. Kame does want to win this competition, wants to win it desperately actually, and the addition of Jin might seem like a glaringly obvious disadvantage to anyone who’s ever been in the near vicinity of Jin. But at the same time, that would also mean Kame’s forced to pick someone else’s model. The obvious choice would be Yamapi. It’s been pretty much evident from the day all the models walked into the work room that Yamapi is sort of the star of his agency. And rightly so. Yamapi might not have worn the winning design yesterday but nobody had failed to notice how even Nino had looked a little pink-cheeked when Yamapi walked past on the runway. But then, Kame thinks, and nervously shifts in his uncomfortable seat while glancing at Toma, Yamapi and Toma had seemed to hit it off so instantly. ("You didn’t have to do that," Kame had heard Toma tell Yamapi after the judging, "You didn’t have to tell them the shirt was comfy. I know it’s uncomfortable to wear." "Oh my God, Toma," Yamapi said, rolling his eyes in a fond fashion. "You think they’re going to check? You think Ninomiya Kazunari is ever going to stoop to putting on a t-shirt made out of working gloves?") Consequently there’s no way for Kame to break those two apart without coming off it looking like, well, the selfish jerk who broke Toma and Yamapi apart.
"Kame!" Aiba says when all the models have lined up on both sides of him on the runway, sounding like he can’t wait to hear what Kame has decided on. "You were the winning designer in the last challenge. You get to pick your model first! Who do you pick for your next challenge?"
"Well," Kame says shakily, stalling.
Kame can feel Koki’s stare in the back of his neck, in the corner of his eye Kame sees the resigned slump of Toma’s shoulders and to Kame’s immediate right Uchi’s looking at Kame with thinly veiled fascination. The longer it takes for Kame to dump Jin, the more intense the buzzing confusion of his fellow designers get. Jin on the other hand looks completely spaced out. Which is when Kame realises that this is probably it for Jin. If Kame doesn’t pick him, it’s highly unlikely that anybody else will either. Judging by the absent expression on Jin’s face Kame isn’t even sure Jin cares about that. But, to his vague confusion and faint horror, apparently Kame does.
"I pick Jin," Kame blurts. Before his brain catches up with what it is that he’s just done.
Behind Kame, Koki gasps.
And when Jin smiles at Kame like he knew Kame would pick him all along Kame isn’t sure of, between the two of them, who’s actually the bigger idiot.
***
By: tretton & unrequitedangst
Pairing: Akame
Word count: 3,427
Rating: PG
Genre/Warnings: AU
Summary: When Kame finds out that he's going to be a contestant on Project Runway, he doesn't know what to think.
When Kame finds out that he's going to be a contestant on Project Runway, he doesn't know what to think. Or he does know what to think, rather, because he's sure everyone who signs up to be on a reality TV show thinks exactly the same thing. But Kame isn't everyone. He hadn't been dreaming of fame or fortune when he went to that first audition. He hadn't been thinking about getting to the final three and presenting a collection at Fashion Week, or even making it onto the show, he'd been thinking about not throwing up on the judges.
"Kazuya, you're going to be a celebrity!" his mother tells him.
Kame doesn't want to be a celebrity. Kame wants to make beautiful clothes. When he gets to the Project Runway sets and says this during his first one-on-one interview, though, the cameramen complain he isn't exciting enough. Apparently the first guy they interviewed said something about his aesthetic being the faerie world as reflected in couture, and the guy after him said, "paaaaaaaaan!" It all seems rather unprofessional, but when Kame gets back to the Project Runway apartments that night, his roommates explain that this is the kind of thing they're supposed to do.
"Haven't you ever seen Japan's Next Top Model?" Uchi asks, popping a handful of caramel popcorn into his mouth. "You have to be memorable in this industry. You have to be fierce. Make people remember who you are. It's the only way to get ahead and to stay there."
"What you need," Kame's other roommate Koki says, "is a catchphrase."
"A ... catchphrase?" Kame asks. "Like a slogan?"
"Yeah, exactly!" Koki says. "That way, you won't look like an idiot because you'll always have something to say when the cameras are on you. It's like product branding? Like how that Moriuchi guy always goes on about how rock and roll informs all the clothes he makes, and Uchi says that pink is his life--"
"It totally is," Uchi says. "Everyone dismisses pink because it's supposed to be, like, a girl color, but I want to bring it back. I'm going to make it fresh and relevant again."
"What's yours, Koki?" Kame asks quickly, before Uchi can get started on how much he loves pink couture. (Uchi, Kame has learned in the half an hour since they first met, is kind of a scary guy, especially when it comes to Hello Kitty.)
" 'Make U wet'," Koki says.
"That's --" Faintly obscene, Kame thinks. Horrifying. Somewhat pornographic. "--unique," he says weakly.
"I know, right?" Koki says, beaming.
As it turns out, constant horror seems to be a prerequisite for being on a reality show. So is insanity. Kame becomes increasingly convinced of this as the hours tick past and he's introduced to a whirlwind of his fellow designers: Subaru, who stares at everything, Chinen, who is frighteningly young and even more frighteningly obsessed with Ohno, Nakai who is ... not frighteningly young but still adamant that his age in no way affects his fashion. (Nakai is also sort of obsessed with Ohno but Kame tries not to think too much about that part.)
It's going to be fine, Kame tells himself, and is almost able to override the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. All Kame needs to do is focus. He just needs to remember what he's here for--what he went to fashion school for. This is his dream. Kame's entire life has been leading up to this. He's not going to let anyone distract him.
***
Matsumoto Jun holds a long speech about his designing ethos before they start their first challenge. It involves a lot of rainbows and glamour and the true essence of purple and after a while even Kame can’t help but tuning out a bit. Maybe it would have made more sense if they hadn’t just been invited to drink champagne with Aiba and Matsujun in something that looks like a warehouse. Maybe Kame’s just too sober. He doesn’t think too much champagne on a churning stomach is going to turn out so fabulously. Kusano looks like he doesn’t care about designing while sober at all, already pink-faced and trying to inconspicuously edge his way towards the table full of sponsor-donated bottles. Chinen is staring at his soda in contempt. Kawai is mimicking Matsumoto behind Nakai’s back, forcing a red-faced Koyama to try to suppress his choked laughter. Yasu is trying to chat up Aiba in a corner and Ueda is nodding reverently, hanging onto every word out of Matsujun’s mouth.
"They’re going to make us design from those garbage cans over there," Uchi hisses in Kame’s ear.
"Nah," Koki objects on Kame’s other side. "They did that third season."
"But without further ado!" Matsujun says and smiles widely into the camera. "I’ll now take you to your first challenge. Designers, follow me."
When they enter the wood shop connected to the warehouse Kame sort of wishes it had been garbage all along.
***
They get thirty minutes of fitting with their newly assigned models at the end of the first day. Kame suspects it’s because Nakai has been bitching to the producers about his outfit being a sculpture and not a piece of clothing all day long.
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WORK WITHOUT THE RAW MATERIAL?" he yelled when walking through the door after the third time he came back from trying to find Matsujun. Kame thinks he’s a little stressed.
"I think we’re all a little stressed," Uchi objected during their joint cigarette break. "Nakai is just going through the five stages of fashion disaster."
Kame has to admit that the models piling in are a welcome change to the previously tense mood in the room. It takes ten seconds before Uchi gets into an argument with his model about the painted pink details on Uchi’s vest but Kame can already tell that Uchi seems to like Ryo. Koki is trying not to seem too thrown by the appearance of Junno, Koki’s model, and Junno’s attendant blond hair while Massu is just being introduced to a model who gives off and air of even more extreme perkiness than Massu himself. Kame didn’t even think that was possible. Across the room Nakai is still staring in disbelief at a very young boy who has tried to introduce himself as ‘Yabu Kota’ twice now without getting any sort of coherent response from Nakai.
"Oh, yes," Matsujun says and does an elegant pause by Kame’s workstation. "Your model is late."
"Um," Kame says and tries not to let any of the panic show on his face. If only because there is a camera right by Matsujun’s shoulder. "OK. So what does that-"
"Don’t worry about Jin," Toma’s model suddenly says from where he’s half-way into some sort of trashy-looking t-shirt that’s made out of protective gear and working gloves. "He’ll show. He’s just really bad with… Uh. Directions."
"Didn’t you all come here by agency cars?" Matsujun asks, his chic eyebrow raised in discreetly evident skepticism, sort of like he looked when he got his first preview of Koyama’s plastic see-through shorts.
"Um." The model hesitates. "Jin never uses the agency cars. He had it added to his contract that he’d get to drive his own car to locations."
There’s a pause in which everyone in Kame’s immediate vicinity gives him sympathetic looks and wordlessly laments Kame’s fate of getting stuck with that model. Then Matsujun shrugs, everybody gets back to their frenzied attempts at getting the clothes off their models without actually undressing them by force and Kame is left standing by his dress form, suddenly feeling even less confident about his wood chip shirt. Koki keeps telling Kame that it looks awesome but Kame’s not so sure. Koki is, after all, the one currently trying to attach actual planks to the shoulders of his jacket. Kame would have loved to get Uchi’s opinion but he’s still busy blocking the way to the brushes Ryo’s trying to get his hands on.
"Do you want to use Pi when we’re done?" Toma asks Kame. "He says Jin is taller but otherwise they’re pretty similar." Toma gives Yamapi a little smile, like they have some sort of private joke they share and Yamapi just beams right back at Toma. Kame catches himself thinking, well that happened in a nano-second and then sternly tells himself that he’s not going there. Kame’s just not that sort of person. Even when trying to create high fashion out of wood shop waste, going on three hours of sleep, half a glass of champagne and the four bites of salad he had time to swallow at lunch break before he had to run back to the work room because he’d just thought of a way to attach the lining really neatly.
"He will show though," Yamapi assures Kame again.
"Then I’ll just wait for Jin," Kame says and tries to smile.
***
20 minutes later Akanishi Jin walks in with his long, shaggy-looking hair on end, giant girly sunglasses covering half of his face and still smelling of the cigarette he’s evidently had time to smoke on his way over.
"Jesus," he sighs when he slumps to a standstill by Kame’s workstation. "You cannot believe the day I’ve had."
It is not, by any possible definition of the concept, love at first sight.
***
"Hey man," Koki says, standing in the doorway to the sewing room when Kame jerks his eyes up and away from the frantic readjustment of the waistline of his pants. "Sorry about your model."
"What?" Kame says and sits up in horrified alert, ready to run up the stairs (it’s quicker than waiting for the elevator) to hair and makeup for the third time in the past hour. "What about Jin? What is it now? What?!"
"No, no." Koki holds up his hands. "I meant. Sorry. About getting the bohemian model."
"It’s not so bad," Kame says faintly. Maybe a little shrilly because of the obviousness of the lie and the cameraman in the corner.
The pants didn’t fit Jin when he put them on this morning. "But I just fitted them yesterday," Kame said in distraught confusion. Jin cocked his hip and contemplated himself in the mirror before he turned to Kame and said, "You don’t think it has anything to do with the yakiniku me and Ryo had yesterday, right?"
Uchi let out an outraged sound and stopped tucking in Ryo’s shirt.
"I didn’t have any yakiniku!" Ryo said defensively. "I ate like, one piece from Jin’s order. Then he told me to stop leeching."
At least Jin looked a little guilty when Kame turned back to him.
"I lose weight really easily," Jin said and scratched his head. "I just forgot about the show being today."
From then on it had been a steadily declining slope heading towards fashion hysteria. Because of the approaching deadline Kame had sent Jin to hair and makeup by himself to have time to fix the pants in a somewhat acceptable manner. 15 minutes after he’d left Jin stormed back in with half of his hairdo still in curlers, informing Kame that Koki was trying to sabotage Kame.
"What?" Kame said and pricked himself in the finger when his hands kept sewing but his brain went blank.
"It’s true," Jin insisted. "He’s up there telling everybody your outfit would look better with a more gansta hairdo."
After another 15 minutes wasted on trying to mediate between Koki and Jin, Kame walked back into the workroom with only an hour left until deadline and the waist of his pants still detached. And now it was 30 minutes till deadline and frankly, quite frankly, Kame didn’t even have time to think about just how much of a disaster having Jin as a model had turned out to be.
"Whatever you say man," Koki says and gives Kame one of his soppy encouraging smiles that are sort of horribly out of place on a bald, tattooed ex-thug that got into fashion after he started sewing in prison. Even if the incident Koki had served time for was actually more of a drunken confusion on the subway than any substantial form of crime. But Kame barely notices. Kame just keeps on sewing.
***
Jin comes back from the bathroom with a tear on the side of the shirt when it’s ten minutes till deadline and Kame just stares at the hole for the longest moment.
Don’t panic, Kame’s mind scrambles. Don’t- and then it’s just white noise.
Five seconds after Matsujun has told them all to the get their asses onto the runway Kame makes one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make in his life. He takes the scissors and cuts the tear bigger until some of the frizzy wood chip sort-of fabric drapes over Jin’s right hip.
"Cool," Jin comments in appreciation.
Kame just prays to god that isn’t the sound of his imminent downfall.
***
Half-way into the review of Kame’s outfit Kame starts to tentatively cling to the hope that Ohno’s copious use of the word ‘groovy’ is actually a positive thing. He’s not 100% sure. Trying to attentively take in the judges words while to Kame’s left, having just received pretty harsh comments on his "macaroni-esque esthetics", Koyama’s crying in a decisively unsubtle manner is a little difficult. Then Ohno subsequently turns to the rest of the designers caught in the glare of the spotlights and asks them, seemingly genuinely confused, "I don’t get why Kame’s looks so awesome when you other people’s stuff looks so carpenter’s hangover though. Nino, do you get that?" and Kame has two seconds of survivors guilt. But that’s before Jin sort of hugs him from the side in barely suppressed glee that feels like it seeps right into Kame’s body. Kame knows what a smug designer looks like, he’s watched four seasons worth of them. And now he also knows why they look so stupid on camera.
"Nino, what do you think about Kame’s outfit?" Aiba says, rather sharply but still somehow perkily, when Ohno and Nino’s discussion about the unfulfilled potential of wood-based fabrics starts to get out of hand ("Really retro, like it could have pixilated images on the lining," Nino says intensively, Ohno nodding in serene understanding).
Nino, who has yet to offer a single appreciative word for any of the designers works so far, narrows his eyes and looks over Kame’s outfit one more time. He tilts his head, gives a barely audible sigh like actually, what Nino really would like to talk about is computerized suits but if all Aiba wants to know is what he thinks of this retarded challenge, then fine.
"I don’t hate it," Nino says.
Five minutes later, when Nakai jumps off the runway to try to attack Ohno for asking him why exactly it is that his tie looks like a giant condom, Kame is still on so much of a dazed high be barely notices the commotion.
***
"OH MY GOD!" Jin says the minute Kame comes backstage after being informed of his results in the first challenge, "WE WON!"
Behind Jin’s back Koki rolls his eyes and Uchi sort of looks like he’s just entered another dimension of bullshit. Half of Jin’s shirt sort of falls to pieces when gives Kame a giant, celebratory hug. And Kame doesn’t mind any of it. Because no matter what happens in the next challenge, not even Jin will be able to get him eliminated.
***
Later that night, when Koki and Kame are the last ones to go to sleep, Koki turns to him with an important look on his face and says, "But you’re going to switch models now, right?"
"Yeah…" Kame says before he thinks it through. Partly because that was one of the few things that kept Kame sane while working with Jin. The continues chant of, It’s just for the first challenge. Even if I get eliminated I know won’t be working with Jin again. And partly because. Well. Jin is a disaster. A very fierce walker, Kame has to give him that, but none the less a disaster on all other areas of his occupation.
Still.
"He did sort of help me win though."
Koki looks at Kame as if he’s lost his mind.
"Kame. He ripped your shirt. How is that helpful?"
Kame shrugs a little half-heartedly, knowing Koki sort of has a point. "Aiba liked the asymmetric drape."
"Yeah," Koki scoffs and looks around wearily, even though all the cameras have left for the night. "Aiba liked it."
"What’s wrong with Aiba?" Kame frowns.
"Nothing," Koki says airily. "And if he wouldn’t wear all those floral shirts he’d be even more kick ass of a washed up model."
"I think that’s a bit harsh," Kame says uncomfortably, thinking that if it’s not on camera it’s sort of not fair in this context. At least when Uchi calls someone’s design "reminiscent of a baboon’s ass" he knows there’s a high probability of his getting into a fist fight at the re-union taping.
"Whatever," Koki goes on with a dismissing wave of his hand. "The point is, if you want to win, and I mean win any other challenge whatsoever, you cannot do it with Jin as your model."
"Yeah," Kame says quietly. "I know."
***
The thing is though.
As Aiba’s silhouette bounces into sight behind the Project Runway Japan logo the next day, Kame still hasn’t made up his mind. It’s not that Kame disagrees entirely with Koki. Kame does want to win this competition, wants to win it desperately actually, and the addition of Jin might seem like a glaringly obvious disadvantage to anyone who’s ever been in the near vicinity of Jin. But at the same time, that would also mean Kame’s forced to pick someone else’s model. The obvious choice would be Yamapi. It’s been pretty much evident from the day all the models walked into the work room that Yamapi is sort of the star of his agency. And rightly so. Yamapi might not have worn the winning design yesterday but nobody had failed to notice how even Nino had looked a little pink-cheeked when Yamapi walked past on the runway. But then, Kame thinks, and nervously shifts in his uncomfortable seat while glancing at Toma, Yamapi and Toma had seemed to hit it off so instantly. ("You didn’t have to do that," Kame had heard Toma tell Yamapi after the judging, "You didn’t have to tell them the shirt was comfy. I know it’s uncomfortable to wear." "Oh my God, Toma," Yamapi said, rolling his eyes in a fond fashion. "You think they’re going to check? You think Ninomiya Kazunari is ever going to stoop to putting on a t-shirt made out of working gloves?") Consequently there’s no way for Kame to break those two apart without coming off it looking like, well, the selfish jerk who broke Toma and Yamapi apart.
"Kame!" Aiba says when all the models have lined up on both sides of him on the runway, sounding like he can’t wait to hear what Kame has decided on. "You were the winning designer in the last challenge. You get to pick your model first! Who do you pick for your next challenge?"
"Well," Kame says shakily, stalling.
Kame can feel Koki’s stare in the back of his neck, in the corner of his eye Kame sees the resigned slump of Toma’s shoulders and to Kame’s immediate right Uchi’s looking at Kame with thinly veiled fascination. The longer it takes for Kame to dump Jin, the more intense the buzzing confusion of his fellow designers get. Jin on the other hand looks completely spaced out. Which is when Kame realises that this is probably it for Jin. If Kame doesn’t pick him, it’s highly unlikely that anybody else will either. Judging by the absent expression on Jin’s face Kame isn’t even sure Jin cares about that. But, to his vague confusion and faint horror, apparently Kame does.
"I pick Jin," Kame blurts. Before his brain catches up with what it is that he’s just done.
Behind Kame, Koki gasps.
And when Jin smiles at Kame like he knew Kame would pick him all along Kame isn’t sure of, between the two of them, who’s actually the bigger idiot.
***