Fic for sapphira_angel
Title: Pikanishi
By: razberrycreme
Pairing: Akanishi Jin/Kamenashi Kazuya
Rating: PG
Genre/Warnings: Extreme AU
Notes: Thank you to my beta for editing quietly and ignoring how ridiculous all of this is.
Summary: Kamenashi Kazuya wants to catch ‘em all.
“You got here pretty late,” Takizawa says, looking concerned, “The other juniors took all of the pokeballs already.”
“All of them?” Kamenashi asks, fidgeting. He feels awkward standing here in Takizawa’s office with Johnny hovering nearby. He got here late because baseball practice ran long and, well, he hadn’t really wanted to come anyway. All of his teammates tease him for being a Johnny’s trainer. Running around singing and capturing pokemen isn’t the coolest thing in the world to be doing and they didn’t shut up about it until Kamenashi hit two home runs in a row.
“Well,” Takizawa hesitates. “There’s one left, but it’s kind of-” He pushes down a lever and a knitted pokeball with a yarn pom pom pops out of the machine. Kamenashi stares at it doubtfully.
“You, take what you can get,” Johnny pipes up helpfully in a raspy voice.
Kamenashi sighs and shuffles his feet, then says, “Okay.” Takizawa raises his eyebrows and picks up the pokeball.
“If you’re sure,” he says, handing it to Kamenashi. It feels soft and warm on his palm, the yarn bumpy against his skin, and a second later the room is filled with bright light that Kamenashi has to shield his eyes against, stumbling backwards. When it fades there’s a boy his age sitting on the pokeball machine, legs dangling, humming something that sounds familiar. He beams at Kamenashi.
“I’m Jin! You’re my trainer!” He says, and opens his arms, still grinning. Kamenashi looks at him with reluctance but he’s already stepping into range and feels Jin’s arms loop around his neck and squeeze. He pats Jin on the back, feeling embarrassed and kind of happy. Jin reminds him of his dogs.
“Are all pokemen like this?” Kamenashi asks over Jin’s shoulder when Jin still hasn’t let go.
“No, not usually,” Takizawa says, chuckling. “He overwhelmed the other juniors and they picked others. You’re welcome to wait until next week for the new pokeballs if you’d like.”
“This one has potential,” Johnny says, shaking his head at Kamenashi. “You, keep this one and take it as fate!”
“He is very powerful,” Takizawa offers.
But Kamenashi’s only aware of Jin’s arms tightening around him when Takizawa mentions the others leaving him, Jin shoving his nose into Kamenashi’s neck. He rubs Jin’s back reassuringly.
“I’ll take him,” Kamenashi says, feeling silly, because Jin is not some t-shirt that fits well that Kamenashi is asking to be rung up and bagged. But Jin just pulls away with a huge smile and says, “I’m going to be the best pokeman ever, I’ll sing really high and catch a lot of pokemen for you, Kame!”
“That’s not my name,” Kame says, though it sounds good. He likes it better than Kamenashi. Or Kazuya, which he always thought was an awkward name and he grimaced whenever his mom called him by it in front of his friends from baseball.
He pauses, then says, “How do you know my name?” Jin shrugs, his arms still resting loosely on Kame’s shoulders. Kame likes that, too. It makes him feel boxed-in and safe. He doesn’t even notice Takizawa and Johnny watching them closely in the background. He’s in his Jin-box now.
“You’re my trainer,” Jin explains simply.
“Huh,” Kame says, feeling a little dazed. “Yeah, okay.”
--
Jin tags along with him everywhere he can, his empty yarn pokeball in Kame’s bag. Jin doesn’t like it in there, it’s too confining. (“I like it out here with Kame!” he said. Kame resignedly put the pokeball back on his nightstand and let Jin climb into bed with him.)
It’s kind of embarrassing at baseball practice when Jin’s sitting on the bench watching his every move. Kame can feel his gaze on the back of his neck and thinks it’s awesome at first because it makes him play like a hundred times better. He feels like he could take on the New York Giants if Jin just sits there and watches. But the others think he’s weird.
“Don’t you think it’s creepy, being stared at all the time?” Jiro asks, wiping his nose and glaring at Jin mistrustfully.
“Um,” Kame says, looking over at Jin, too. Jin waves and Kame waves back before Jiro turns the glare on him.
One time Kame scored a home run and Jin got so excited for him he started jumping up and down and singing, “I always want to live on the edge!” It’s not until Jiro shoves him and yells, “What are you doing?!” that Kame realizes he’s singing along and Jin’s harmonizing and those flashes of light were pokemen releasing from their pokeballs and crowding around the two of them. Kame feels abashed and stops singing at once. Jin just looks bewildered.
“Why’d you stop?” he asks. Kame hunches down a little under Jiro’s hard stare and tries to shoo off the pokemen back to their respective trainers. He fishes out the knitted pokeball from his pocket.
“Jin, return,” he says, a little guiltily, as Jin says, “But-” and vanishes in bright light.
When he gets home Kame puts Jin on his nightstand in his room so he won’t have to think about it. He eats dinner and watches TV with his brothers with the niggling feeling of guilt in his stomach. In the end he says he’s going to bed early and snags a plate of dessert to take up to his room as an apology for Jin.
“Jin,” Kame says after a half hour goes by and Jin refuses to come out of his pokeball, “Jin, I’m really sorry.” The pokeball remains stubborn on his nightstand. “I brought you pudding,” Kame offers, and feels a rush of relief when the familiar bright light flashes in front of his eyes. Jin takes the plate of pudding from Kame and goes to sit in the opposite corner of the room to eat and sulk. Kame gets up from the bed and goes to sit next to him. Jin doesn’t move but he grumbles a lot and elbows Kame twice on purpose under the flimsy guise of shifting around to get comfortable again.
“Jin,” Kame says, nudging Jin with his shoulder, which basically means he leans a little to his left because they’re squished in tight between a bookcase and Kame’s desk. “I’m sorry I made you get into your pokeball. The guys were upset that you almost captured their pokemen.”
“You were singing too,” Jin points out, stabbing his pudding with his spoon.
“Yeah,” Kame says, “They were mad at me too.” Jin slants him a sideways look and takes a calmer spoonful of the pudding. He even offers it to Kame.
“Sorry your teammates got mad at you,” Jin says grudgingly. Kame closes his mouth around the spoon and tastes relief.
“It’s okay,” he says, turning as much as he can in their tiny space, “I thought it was really cool, anyway. All we did was sing a little and all those pokemen came out!”
“I know!” Jin says, excited too. He puts the empty plate and spoon down on the floor with a clatter so he can face Kame, too, and puts his hand on Kame’s knee. “It could be like that all the time once baseball season’s over and you have time to have fun!” He says, grinning, his eyes shiny with happiness.
“Yeah,” Kame says, grinning back. They sit together for a quiet moment, cramped, before Jin makes a vague move to get up and Kame catches Jin’s arm and blurts, “Where do you want to go first?” so Jin won’t leave. Jin tilts his head in thought. He hasn’t really heard about a lot of places. He’s pretty much always been stuck in that ball, waiting for someone to choose him, but now when he’s not with Kame he watches TV and learns random things from shows. One time Kame came home from school and said, “I’m back!” and Jin turned from the TV to look at him with wide eyes and asked him if he thought he had an evil twin, and whether that twin would have an evil Jin as his pokeman.
“Let’s go to America!” Jin says, brightening. “Like California. That’s where they make all the movies! We could capture movie star pokemen!”
Kame laughs and says, “I meant where do you want to go in Japan.”
“Oh,” Jin says, deflating a little, and shrugs. “I want to go wherever you go,” he says, and shakes off Kame’s hold on his arm so he can hold his hand. Jin’s so different from the guys on the baseball team or at school, Kame thinks as Jin smiles at him. He’s embarrassing and clingy and selfish; Kame suspects Jin would love to have Kame to himself all day every day but as much as that sounds like fun Kame avoids it, makes sure that Jin stays away at least for a few hours because he also suspects that Jin would grow bored of him if he knew everything about Kame.
“Let’s go tomorrow,” Kame says, and finds he really means it. He’ll miss baseball but he can play that anywhere and the guys on the team sort of hate him for almost stealing their pokemen. At first he was miffed for all the cold shoulders he got because he didn’t even do anything and it’s not like he didn’t return them to their pokeballs right after. But then he thinks about how he would have felt if someone had sung Jin away from him and he understands. If that happened he’d probably punch them in the face and coax Jin back with a trail of puddings. “We can set out in the morning.”
“Like, early morning?” Jin asks cautiously, nose wrinkling.
“After breakfast,” Kame says decisively.
“Like, an early breakfast?” Jin presses, still looking skeptical about the whole thing.
“If you can’t get up in time I’m putting you in your pokeball,” Kame warns serenely.
“Fine,” Jin says, sullen, then picks up the empty plate and extends it toward Kame. “In that case I want another one.”
“In a minute,” Kame says, because he still doesn’t feel like getting up yet when Jin’s long legs pressed up against his is finally starting to become comfortable. Or at least numbing. “What kind of pokeman do you want to catch first?”
“A Nakamaru!” Jin says, perking up. He puts the plate back down again so he can gesture with his hands. “I hear they have really funny looking hair. And their songs are really weird, like scratchy noises and beeping. Don’t capture a Taguchi, though, they’re really boring,” Jin says, making a disgusted face.
“Okay,” Kame says, laughing, “I’ll try to find a Nakamaru for you. And we’ll stay away from Taguchis if we can.”
“Are you going to capture a lot?” Jin asks, looking a little worried. It’s just occurred to him that if Kame met the thousands of pokemen out there and captured them all Jin might not be his favorite anymore. Jin kind of has to be his favorite now because Kame only has him, but if he has a bunch-
“We’re going to capture all of them,” Kame says with a competitive glint in his eyes. Jin nods and relaxes, reassured by Kame’s words and the little squeeze Kame gives his hand.
“So can I have more pudding?” Jin asks, and at Kame’s look he says, “I’m a growing pokeman! I want to be strong to capture all of those pokemen!”
“I’m pretty sure too much fat will change and weaken your voice,” Kame says, but he clambers to his feet anyway. Jin goes up with him since Kame forgot they were holding hands and ends up pulling him up by their intertwined fingers.
“Not that much,” Jin protests, bending back down to grab the plate and tugging Kame a little. “Besides, I don’t have to be able to run, I just need to sing. If I get fat I’ll just sit there.” He brightens at a sudden thought. “Maybe I won’t fit into my pokeball! You won’t be able to shut me in there anymore, so ha! Give me my pudding!” Kame only rolls his eyes and pulls him all the way downstairs.
--
They end up catching a Koki first instead.
They’d just started off, waving goodbye to Kame’s mother with backpacks filled with food and supplies and Kame holding the map firmly in front of his face while he double checked the street names even though he totally had a GPS in his pokedex and used that, too. Jin had fun walking through the streets and seeing all the people and shops and asked Kame to buy him sweets every time they passed by a candy store.
Kame’s on the verge of caving as they pass by a stand selling water candy when the seller drops an entire tin as her hands fly up to her face in surprise.
“A wild Koki!” She says, pointing behind them. They turn and stare, excited; it’s the first time either of them have seen a wild pokeman. The ones around Kame’s neighborhood are all captured or startup pokemen, mostly docile and nonthreatening. The Koki standing in front of them looks like a gang member, all grizzly blonde hair and mustache and tough stance.
“I can take him,” Jin says in his best macho voice, though his voice quavers a little. The Koki snorts and comes closer, looking for a battle.
“Go, Jin,” Kame urges, “Sing the song at baseball practice. I’ll help you.” When Jin sings it starts out scratchy, a little off, but then Kame joins in and Jin straightens his pitch and they’re strong, the song lifting into the air like an arrow. The Koki flinches and his eyes narrow but whenever he tries to use a rap attack it just starts to blend into their song, and Jin urges Koki along until Koki’s grudgingly rapping into their melody, matching their beat. He goes with a reluctant blast of white light into Kame’s pokeball. When he’s sealed a skull appears on the pokeball, silver and black but kind of cute.
Jin stares at Kame, wide-eyed and breathing hard. It’s anticlimactic - Kame had always imagined that battles would drag on with him and his pokeman bruised and scratched up but heroic till the end, their notes strained but pure, the wild pokeman finally giving in to their sheer will and perfect pitch. But it’s still their first battle and they won and Kame’s giving Jin a tentative smile, looking worried.
“You okay?” He asks, tucking the pokeball in his pocket and moving forward to check on Jin, running his hands down Jin’s smooth arms and patting his baggy cargo pants to make sure there aren’t any hidden cuts.
“I’m fine,” Jin says, grinning. He looks tired but happy. “We won, Kame!” He throws his arms around Kame and laughs. Kame swings him around once and smiles when Jin lets go.
“Sorry it isn’t a Nakamaru like you wanted,” Kame says.
“It’s okay, Koki looks cool,” Jin says. “Scary, but cool.”
“Yeah,” Kame says skeptically. He feels like it’ll be tough trying to train that one. “To celebrate, let’s get water candy!”
“Yay!” Jin says, and runs forward to buy two sticks from the storekeep. He comes back with a whole tin.
“Jin,” Kame says, doubtful. “We can’t afford all of that.”
“She gave it to us for free!” Jin says, handing Kame his money back. “For saving her store from the wild Koki and stuff.”
“Oh,” Kame says, and bows in thanks when he catches the storekeep’s gaze. They put the tin in Jin’s backpack and each start nibbling on their sticks of water candy.
“So what do you want to do now?” Kame asks, looking over at Jin. “Are you tired? Do you want to go to a pokecenter and rest?”
“I want to keep exploring,” Jin says, determined. “You said you wanted all of the pokemen, right?”
Kame frowns. “Yeah, but-”
“Kame,” Jin says, and when he reaches for Kame’s hand Kame’s surprised to find that he’s meeting Jin halfway. “You don’t have to worry. I’m going to be here to protect you.”
“With what, your water candy?” Kame mutters, embarrassed. Jin fits their fingers together and laughs when Kame starts swinging their hands in retaliation.
“Yeah, if any more Kokis appear I’ll be like rahhh!” Jin says, brandishing his stick of candy. “And they’ll be like ahhhh and we’ll have another one,” Jin finishes, smug.
“Can you have two pokemen of the same kind?” Kame asks, laughing.
“Why not?” Jin asks, walking backwards to face Kame with sudden indignation. “We’re going to get all the pokemen, right?”
“Ah,” Kame says, raising an eyebrow, “So I’ll have a huge collection of Jins by the end, won’t I?” Jin stops abruptly at that, so Kame bumps into him embarrassingly, narrowly missing kissing Jin’s cheek, their noses nudging.
“You can’t get any more Jins,” Jin says, looking troubled. His hand tightens around Kame’s. “Kame.” Jin wants to say, you won’t be able to tell me apart from the others, or I won’t be your favorite anymore, but if he does it’ll be true and Jin doesn’t want to believe it.
“Okay, Jin,” Kame says, pressing his forehead against Jin’s and meeting Jin’s gaze; Jin should look bug-eyed from this proximity but he just has big warm brown eyes staring back, the skin on his forehead bunched up in distress.
“Promise,” Jin says, and untangles their hands so he can bring his hand up between them and hold out his pinky.
“I promise,” Kame says, and pinky swears. “But even if I did get all of the Jins in the world,” Jin protests and tries to pull his hand apart, looking sulky, but Kame holds tight, “even if I did,” he presses, “I’d still know that you’re my Jin.”
“Oh,” Jin says, looking happy. “Okay. Maa, we can get some more Jins if you want, then.”
“Nah,” Kame says, grinning, “None of the other Jins could be as good as the one I have now. Besides, if I had any more Jins I’d run out of food,” he adds. Jin tries to smack him but Kame keeps their hands firmly together so Jin only manages to awkwardly bump Kame’s shoulder.
They set off again after that, Jin grinning and saying, “You can’t have any~” when Kame tries to go for seconds of water candy, running away when Kame tries to lunge for his backpack. Except they’re still holding hands so Jin only ends up running down the road and pulling Kame along, laughing breathlessly the entire way.
--
They spend the next few days just wandering around exploring, occasionally bringing Koki out to let him get used to hanging out with them. It’s awkward at first, since Koki’s technically supposed to be a more powerful pokeman than Jin is but he’d gotten beat anyway. He was still sort of sore about that at first, but then Jin offered him some water candy and it turned out that Kokis had a weakness for sweets so from then on things had eased up.
They go into pokecenters when they’re tired and meet interesting people, including someone named Koichi who’d traveled all over Japan and had pokedexes filled with information on hundreds of pokemen, with knapsacks and pockets filled with exotically patterned pokeballs. Koki and Jin and Kame just stare in awe. Jin says that Kame will end up just like that one day, traveling the world and showing off his thousands of pokemen, releasing all his friends so that they’ll fill the entire room. Kame isn’t so sure; it sounds exciting but he’s already pretty happy having Jin by his side and Koki, too, who somehow looks after them and, Kame suspects, looks extra-menacing whenever shady characters try to approach them in the pokecenters because all of the people allowed to come close have been so nice.
Koki doesn’t like being crammed up into the pokeball either so they sleep in comfy bunks. Koki’s always in the top one because Kame’s worried Jin will roll over and fall off if they take the top, and of course Jin insists on sleeping in the same bunk as Kame and looks menacing when Koki offers to share, even though it’s out of politeness and Koki totally looks relieved when Jin says, “No! Kame and I always share,” like it should be taken for granted. Kame’s relieved, too, and when they say good night he’s happy to climb into bed and have Jin to warm up the blankets for him. He’s always too cold but lately with Jin there like a full-body electric blanket he can stay warm if he moves close. Jin takes care of that for him, too. By the time they wake up Kame usually finds Jin sleeping on his shoulder, hand curled delicately around his arm.
“Kame,” Jin whispers, still too loud because his face is about two centimeters away from Kame’s, “Are you awake?” Kame opens his eyes and nods, almost head-butting Jin, they’re so close.
“Are you having fun?” Kame asks. He’s a little worried because while Koki is a new pokeman he’s had Jin for a little while now, and he still hasn’t evolved. Jins evolve when they’re really happy. Kame looked it up on his pokedex when Jin was busy joking around with Koki and they were coming up with new songs together, Jin learning to rap a few lines while he gave Koki voice lessons. He’s worried that Jin is secretly sad, or at the very least discontent. It’s strange because Kame thinks Jin’s usually pretty easy to read and he doesn’t seem unhappy. He wonders if he should buy Jin more good food; the pokedex says that Jins love to eat.
“Yeah,” Jin says, smiling. “I like meeting new people and seeing new places. And Koki’s nice!” he adds, an amazed lilt to his voice.
“Oh,” Kame says, a little disappointed and kicking himself for it. Jin watches him for a moment in the dim light and scoots even closer so that Kame can feel Jin breathing on him.
“Stop it,” Kame says, half-heartedly trying to poke him away.
“I like being with you the most,” Jin says right in his ear, like it’s a secret. He scoots away again and smiles, looking embarrassed.
“Oh,” Kame says again, pleased this time, and Jin smiles back shyly. He waits a moment, just savoring Jin’s happy expression, but presses on, “But is there something else you want? Something making you unhappy?”
“No!” Jin says, a little too loudly, and both of them glance up at the top bunk. Koki doesn’t stir, so they turn back to each other. “No,” he says, and now that Kame’s eyes are adjusted to the light he can see Jin flushing. “Nothing,” Jin says, and turns so he’s on his back, a little further away now, but not quite out of Kame’s reach.
“But,” Kame starts, and Jin interrupts, “I’m tired, Kame, let’s sleep.”
“Okay,” Kame says, taken aback, a little hurt. “Good night.” He’s the one who moves close this time, pressing his cheek to Jin’s shoulder reassuringly. He doesn’t fall asleep for a long time, though, and when he wakes up Jin’s already out of bed and talking to Koki in quiet tones, Koki nodding and slapping Jin on the back in understanding. Kame feels excluded and gets up in a bad mood that doesn’t let go even when Jin sees him and says, “Good morning, Kame!” He manages something in response and goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He doesn’t see Jin deflate a little, Koki patting his shoulder.
Kame’s spirits are starting to lift when they walk for awhile and there are blue skies everywhere, the weather mild and breezy. When Jin gives him another worried look Kame smiles in response and watches in amazement as Jin grins back, brightening.
And then a wild Nakamaru crosses their path, stepping out of a clothing store in a new sweater-vest and grey pants. Kame remembers looking him up in the pokedex the first time Jin mentioned wanting one - he’s a beatbox type, which is traditionally weaker against rap types than singing types. He gives Jin an apologetic look and says, “Go, Koki!”
“But I-” Jin says, and then his jaw locks and he returns to his pokeball without Kame even asking him to. Koki wins, barely, only after he’d figured out Nakamaru’s beat and rapped around it until they were making a song whether Nakamaru liked it or not.
“Nakamaru, return,” Kame says, and sighs at the pokeball in his hand. Its surface turns into a grey-and-white argyle pattern. He pockets it and wonders if it’s even worth it.
They head to the nearest pokecenter after that and Kame starts to become seriously worried when Jin refuses to come out of his pokeball even for dinner. Jin’s skipping dinner! Kame keeps thinking, and it’s your fault! No wonder he can’t evolve if you keep making him miserable! over and over again. Koki and Nakamaru chat amiably over the food and shoot him concerned glances every now and then.
Now Nakamaru and Koki share the top bunk while Kame and Jin are still on the bottom, though tonight Kame climbs into bed and rolls onto his side to face the pokeball laid carefully on the pillow, pom pom side up.
“Good night, Jin,” Kame sighs, and reaches out to turn off the light.
--
“Is Jin still upset?” Koki asks the next morning on the road when Kame sighs for the tenth time and stares at the pokeball in his hand.
“Yeah,” Kame says, forlorn and a little irritated. He spots something up ahead and says, “Guys, do you mind going into your pokeballs for a minute?” They exchange glances and shrug, both disappearing when Kame says, “Koki, return, Nakamaru, return,” and Kame wishes every pokeman would be as agreeable, but no. So Kame has to go into the grocery store and browse. He buys a bagful of ingredients and heads to the nearest pokecenter. He asks for directions to the kitchens and bows respectfully when he gets there, asking politely if he may use one of their pots and a spot on the stove, please. It’s not yet dinnertime so the chefs and helpers agree and even offer up suggestions and spices when Kame’s trying to make the pasta.
He brings the pot, some dishes and cutlery, and a large checked picnic blanket to the fields outside the pokecenter and says, firmly, a little pleadingly, “Jin.” After a breathless moment there’s a flash of light and Jin’s sitting on the blanket, still angry but there, at least. And suddenly Kame’s angry, too, because all he wanted was to play baseball as a pro and here he is tired and sad and it’s all Jin’s fault for being the stupid leftover pokeman no one wanted.
Except Kame does want him. Kame wants him a lot, more than he realized until Jin disappeared on him and made him scared because what if Jin doesn’t want him? What if Jin sees a better, nicer trainer who makes him happy and helps him evolve?
“Jin,” Kame says, frowning, “Please tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing,” Jin says stubbornly, “How are things going with your new favorites Koki and Nakamaru?” Jin asks, glaring at him, and that hurts, but Kame sees the same insecurity in Jin’s eyes that he sees every time he looks in the mirror, and that’s worse because Kame never meant to make Jin worry about that. Jin should never worry about how much Kame likes him.
“They’re not my new favorites,” Kame starts, but Jin says, “You’re lying! You chose Koki over me yesterday, and I was watching you from my pokeball, you weren’t even upset I was gone because they were there with you. You had fun with them.” Jin looks stormy and furious.
“Only because Koki’s the rap type and Nakamaru’s-” Kame gives up trying to explain and catches Jin’s gaze. “I’m sorry. If I want to capture lots of pokemen I’ll probably have to use Koki sometimes. And Nakamaru. But,” he says sincerely, “I’ll never like them the same way I like you.”
“Yeah, because you don’t hate them,” Jin sulks, completely obtuse.
Kame laughs and hits him. “No, you idiot, I’ll never like them the way I love you,” he says, smiling with sudden embarrassment, heat rising to his cheeks.
“Really?” Jin asks, looking at Kame in awe, his mouth hanging open.
“I wouldn’t joke about that!” Kame says indignantly, still smiling. He hesitates a moment, then says, “Do you- I mean, I’m your trainer, so I guess you have to, but-”
“Don’t be stupid,” Jin says, a brilliant smile spreading across his face. He reaches out and his smile widens when Kame’s hand meets his, their fingers intertwining naturally. Kame tugs, startling Jin into toppling close, and Kame catches him easily, other hand sliding up Jin’s arm and shoulder and neck to cup his cheek carefully and urge him close. Jin’s eyes close in a quiet butterfly kiss before Kame’s mouth reaches his and they kiss, the two pokeballs out on the picnic blanket jittering around in something like applause. Kame pulls back and smiles slowly, lazy and content, and Jin smiles back and starts to glow. There’s a light around him, bright enough that Kame can’t make out Jin behind the glow but he feels Jin’s hand squeezing his, firm and reassuring, and when the light dies down Jin looks the same but his clothes are baggier, his hair is a bit longer, and he’s wearing a black fedora.
“Kame, I evolved!” Jin says, excited, and throws an arm around Kame’s neck, pressing them close together until they tip over onto the soft green grass and roll around, laughing, until Jin’s new hat falls off.
“I evolved and it’s all because of you,” Jin says above Kame, so that all Kame can see is blue skies and Jin’s smile. He ducks down and kisses Kame then, sweet and warm. There are two pops and shiny flashes that Kame dimly makes out but he feels in favor of ignoring them when he can touch his tongue to Jin’s lips and keep kissing instead.
“Okay, guys, I’m hungry,” Koki protests loudly, “But you two are making us lose our appetites!”
Nakamaru pipes in with, “Save that for later, way later!”
But Kame just tangles his hand in the hair at the nape of Jin’s neck and deepens the kiss when he feels Jin make a happy noise, warm and content underneath Jin and the sun.
By: razberrycreme
Pairing: Akanishi Jin/Kamenashi Kazuya
Rating: PG
Genre/Warnings: Extreme AU
Notes: Thank you to my beta for editing quietly and ignoring how ridiculous all of this is.
Summary: Kamenashi Kazuya wants to catch ‘em all.
“You got here pretty late,” Takizawa says, looking concerned, “The other juniors took all of the pokeballs already.”
“All of them?” Kamenashi asks, fidgeting. He feels awkward standing here in Takizawa’s office with Johnny hovering nearby. He got here late because baseball practice ran long and, well, he hadn’t really wanted to come anyway. All of his teammates tease him for being a Johnny’s trainer. Running around singing and capturing pokemen isn’t the coolest thing in the world to be doing and they didn’t shut up about it until Kamenashi hit two home runs in a row.
“Well,” Takizawa hesitates. “There’s one left, but it’s kind of-” He pushes down a lever and a knitted pokeball with a yarn pom pom pops out of the machine. Kamenashi stares at it doubtfully.
“You, take what you can get,” Johnny pipes up helpfully in a raspy voice.
Kamenashi sighs and shuffles his feet, then says, “Okay.” Takizawa raises his eyebrows and picks up the pokeball.
“If you’re sure,” he says, handing it to Kamenashi. It feels soft and warm on his palm, the yarn bumpy against his skin, and a second later the room is filled with bright light that Kamenashi has to shield his eyes against, stumbling backwards. When it fades there’s a boy his age sitting on the pokeball machine, legs dangling, humming something that sounds familiar. He beams at Kamenashi.
“I’m Jin! You’re my trainer!” He says, and opens his arms, still grinning. Kamenashi looks at him with reluctance but he’s already stepping into range and feels Jin’s arms loop around his neck and squeeze. He pats Jin on the back, feeling embarrassed and kind of happy. Jin reminds him of his dogs.
“Are all pokemen like this?” Kamenashi asks over Jin’s shoulder when Jin still hasn’t let go.
“No, not usually,” Takizawa says, chuckling. “He overwhelmed the other juniors and they picked others. You’re welcome to wait until next week for the new pokeballs if you’d like.”
“This one has potential,” Johnny says, shaking his head at Kamenashi. “You, keep this one and take it as fate!”
“He is very powerful,” Takizawa offers.
But Kamenashi’s only aware of Jin’s arms tightening around him when Takizawa mentions the others leaving him, Jin shoving his nose into Kamenashi’s neck. He rubs Jin’s back reassuringly.
“I’ll take him,” Kamenashi says, feeling silly, because Jin is not some t-shirt that fits well that Kamenashi is asking to be rung up and bagged. But Jin just pulls away with a huge smile and says, “I’m going to be the best pokeman ever, I’ll sing really high and catch a lot of pokemen for you, Kame!”
“That’s not my name,” Kame says, though it sounds good. He likes it better than Kamenashi. Or Kazuya, which he always thought was an awkward name and he grimaced whenever his mom called him by it in front of his friends from baseball.
He pauses, then says, “How do you know my name?” Jin shrugs, his arms still resting loosely on Kame’s shoulders. Kame likes that, too. It makes him feel boxed-in and safe. He doesn’t even notice Takizawa and Johnny watching them closely in the background. He’s in his Jin-box now.
“You’re my trainer,” Jin explains simply.
“Huh,” Kame says, feeling a little dazed. “Yeah, okay.”
--
Jin tags along with him everywhere he can, his empty yarn pokeball in Kame’s bag. Jin doesn’t like it in there, it’s too confining. (“I like it out here with Kame!” he said. Kame resignedly put the pokeball back on his nightstand and let Jin climb into bed with him.)
It’s kind of embarrassing at baseball practice when Jin’s sitting on the bench watching his every move. Kame can feel his gaze on the back of his neck and thinks it’s awesome at first because it makes him play like a hundred times better. He feels like he could take on the New York Giants if Jin just sits there and watches. But the others think he’s weird.
“Don’t you think it’s creepy, being stared at all the time?” Jiro asks, wiping his nose and glaring at Jin mistrustfully.
“Um,” Kame says, looking over at Jin, too. Jin waves and Kame waves back before Jiro turns the glare on him.
One time Kame scored a home run and Jin got so excited for him he started jumping up and down and singing, “I always want to live on the edge!” It’s not until Jiro shoves him and yells, “What are you doing?!” that Kame realizes he’s singing along and Jin’s harmonizing and those flashes of light were pokemen releasing from their pokeballs and crowding around the two of them. Kame feels abashed and stops singing at once. Jin just looks bewildered.
“Why’d you stop?” he asks. Kame hunches down a little under Jiro’s hard stare and tries to shoo off the pokemen back to their respective trainers. He fishes out the knitted pokeball from his pocket.
“Jin, return,” he says, a little guiltily, as Jin says, “But-” and vanishes in bright light.
When he gets home Kame puts Jin on his nightstand in his room so he won’t have to think about it. He eats dinner and watches TV with his brothers with the niggling feeling of guilt in his stomach. In the end he says he’s going to bed early and snags a plate of dessert to take up to his room as an apology for Jin.
“Jin,” Kame says after a half hour goes by and Jin refuses to come out of his pokeball, “Jin, I’m really sorry.” The pokeball remains stubborn on his nightstand. “I brought you pudding,” Kame offers, and feels a rush of relief when the familiar bright light flashes in front of his eyes. Jin takes the plate of pudding from Kame and goes to sit in the opposite corner of the room to eat and sulk. Kame gets up from the bed and goes to sit next to him. Jin doesn’t move but he grumbles a lot and elbows Kame twice on purpose under the flimsy guise of shifting around to get comfortable again.
“Jin,” Kame says, nudging Jin with his shoulder, which basically means he leans a little to his left because they’re squished in tight between a bookcase and Kame’s desk. “I’m sorry I made you get into your pokeball. The guys were upset that you almost captured their pokemen.”
“You were singing too,” Jin points out, stabbing his pudding with his spoon.
“Yeah,” Kame says, “They were mad at me too.” Jin slants him a sideways look and takes a calmer spoonful of the pudding. He even offers it to Kame.
“Sorry your teammates got mad at you,” Jin says grudgingly. Kame closes his mouth around the spoon and tastes relief.
“It’s okay,” he says, turning as much as he can in their tiny space, “I thought it was really cool, anyway. All we did was sing a little and all those pokemen came out!”
“I know!” Jin says, excited too. He puts the empty plate and spoon down on the floor with a clatter so he can face Kame, too, and puts his hand on Kame’s knee. “It could be like that all the time once baseball season’s over and you have time to have fun!” He says, grinning, his eyes shiny with happiness.
“Yeah,” Kame says, grinning back. They sit together for a quiet moment, cramped, before Jin makes a vague move to get up and Kame catches Jin’s arm and blurts, “Where do you want to go first?” so Jin won’t leave. Jin tilts his head in thought. He hasn’t really heard about a lot of places. He’s pretty much always been stuck in that ball, waiting for someone to choose him, but now when he’s not with Kame he watches TV and learns random things from shows. One time Kame came home from school and said, “I’m back!” and Jin turned from the TV to look at him with wide eyes and asked him if he thought he had an evil twin, and whether that twin would have an evil Jin as his pokeman.
“Let’s go to America!” Jin says, brightening. “Like California. That’s where they make all the movies! We could capture movie star pokemen!”
Kame laughs and says, “I meant where do you want to go in Japan.”
“Oh,” Jin says, deflating a little, and shrugs. “I want to go wherever you go,” he says, and shakes off Kame’s hold on his arm so he can hold his hand. Jin’s so different from the guys on the baseball team or at school, Kame thinks as Jin smiles at him. He’s embarrassing and clingy and selfish; Kame suspects Jin would love to have Kame to himself all day every day but as much as that sounds like fun Kame avoids it, makes sure that Jin stays away at least for a few hours because he also suspects that Jin would grow bored of him if he knew everything about Kame.
“Let’s go tomorrow,” Kame says, and finds he really means it. He’ll miss baseball but he can play that anywhere and the guys on the team sort of hate him for almost stealing their pokemen. At first he was miffed for all the cold shoulders he got because he didn’t even do anything and it’s not like he didn’t return them to their pokeballs right after. But then he thinks about how he would have felt if someone had sung Jin away from him and he understands. If that happened he’d probably punch them in the face and coax Jin back with a trail of puddings. “We can set out in the morning.”
“Like, early morning?” Jin asks cautiously, nose wrinkling.
“After breakfast,” Kame says decisively.
“Like, an early breakfast?” Jin presses, still looking skeptical about the whole thing.
“If you can’t get up in time I’m putting you in your pokeball,” Kame warns serenely.
“Fine,” Jin says, sullen, then picks up the empty plate and extends it toward Kame. “In that case I want another one.”
“In a minute,” Kame says, because he still doesn’t feel like getting up yet when Jin’s long legs pressed up against his is finally starting to become comfortable. Or at least numbing. “What kind of pokeman do you want to catch first?”
“A Nakamaru!” Jin says, perking up. He puts the plate back down again so he can gesture with his hands. “I hear they have really funny looking hair. And their songs are really weird, like scratchy noises and beeping. Don’t capture a Taguchi, though, they’re really boring,” Jin says, making a disgusted face.
“Okay,” Kame says, laughing, “I’ll try to find a Nakamaru for you. And we’ll stay away from Taguchis if we can.”
“Are you going to capture a lot?” Jin asks, looking a little worried. It’s just occurred to him that if Kame met the thousands of pokemen out there and captured them all Jin might not be his favorite anymore. Jin kind of has to be his favorite now because Kame only has him, but if he has a bunch-
“We’re going to capture all of them,” Kame says with a competitive glint in his eyes. Jin nods and relaxes, reassured by Kame’s words and the little squeeze Kame gives his hand.
“So can I have more pudding?” Jin asks, and at Kame’s look he says, “I’m a growing pokeman! I want to be strong to capture all of those pokemen!”
“I’m pretty sure too much fat will change and weaken your voice,” Kame says, but he clambers to his feet anyway. Jin goes up with him since Kame forgot they were holding hands and ends up pulling him up by their intertwined fingers.
“Not that much,” Jin protests, bending back down to grab the plate and tugging Kame a little. “Besides, I don’t have to be able to run, I just need to sing. If I get fat I’ll just sit there.” He brightens at a sudden thought. “Maybe I won’t fit into my pokeball! You won’t be able to shut me in there anymore, so ha! Give me my pudding!” Kame only rolls his eyes and pulls him all the way downstairs.
--
They end up catching a Koki first instead.
They’d just started off, waving goodbye to Kame’s mother with backpacks filled with food and supplies and Kame holding the map firmly in front of his face while he double checked the street names even though he totally had a GPS in his pokedex and used that, too. Jin had fun walking through the streets and seeing all the people and shops and asked Kame to buy him sweets every time they passed by a candy store.
Kame’s on the verge of caving as they pass by a stand selling water candy when the seller drops an entire tin as her hands fly up to her face in surprise.
“A wild Koki!” She says, pointing behind them. They turn and stare, excited; it’s the first time either of them have seen a wild pokeman. The ones around Kame’s neighborhood are all captured or startup pokemen, mostly docile and nonthreatening. The Koki standing in front of them looks like a gang member, all grizzly blonde hair and mustache and tough stance.
“I can take him,” Jin says in his best macho voice, though his voice quavers a little. The Koki snorts and comes closer, looking for a battle.
“Go, Jin,” Kame urges, “Sing the song at baseball practice. I’ll help you.” When Jin sings it starts out scratchy, a little off, but then Kame joins in and Jin straightens his pitch and they’re strong, the song lifting into the air like an arrow. The Koki flinches and his eyes narrow but whenever he tries to use a rap attack it just starts to blend into their song, and Jin urges Koki along until Koki’s grudgingly rapping into their melody, matching their beat. He goes with a reluctant blast of white light into Kame’s pokeball. When he’s sealed a skull appears on the pokeball, silver and black but kind of cute.
Jin stares at Kame, wide-eyed and breathing hard. It’s anticlimactic - Kame had always imagined that battles would drag on with him and his pokeman bruised and scratched up but heroic till the end, their notes strained but pure, the wild pokeman finally giving in to their sheer will and perfect pitch. But it’s still their first battle and they won and Kame’s giving Jin a tentative smile, looking worried.
“You okay?” He asks, tucking the pokeball in his pocket and moving forward to check on Jin, running his hands down Jin’s smooth arms and patting his baggy cargo pants to make sure there aren’t any hidden cuts.
“I’m fine,” Jin says, grinning. He looks tired but happy. “We won, Kame!” He throws his arms around Kame and laughs. Kame swings him around once and smiles when Jin lets go.
“Sorry it isn’t a Nakamaru like you wanted,” Kame says.
“It’s okay, Koki looks cool,” Jin says. “Scary, but cool.”
“Yeah,” Kame says skeptically. He feels like it’ll be tough trying to train that one. “To celebrate, let’s get water candy!”
“Yay!” Jin says, and runs forward to buy two sticks from the storekeep. He comes back with a whole tin.
“Jin,” Kame says, doubtful. “We can’t afford all of that.”
“She gave it to us for free!” Jin says, handing Kame his money back. “For saving her store from the wild Koki and stuff.”
“Oh,” Kame says, and bows in thanks when he catches the storekeep’s gaze. They put the tin in Jin’s backpack and each start nibbling on their sticks of water candy.
“So what do you want to do now?” Kame asks, looking over at Jin. “Are you tired? Do you want to go to a pokecenter and rest?”
“I want to keep exploring,” Jin says, determined. “You said you wanted all of the pokemen, right?”
Kame frowns. “Yeah, but-”
“Kame,” Jin says, and when he reaches for Kame’s hand Kame’s surprised to find that he’s meeting Jin halfway. “You don’t have to worry. I’m going to be here to protect you.”
“With what, your water candy?” Kame mutters, embarrassed. Jin fits their fingers together and laughs when Kame starts swinging their hands in retaliation.
“Yeah, if any more Kokis appear I’ll be like rahhh!” Jin says, brandishing his stick of candy. “And they’ll be like ahhhh and we’ll have another one,” Jin finishes, smug.
“Can you have two pokemen of the same kind?” Kame asks, laughing.
“Why not?” Jin asks, walking backwards to face Kame with sudden indignation. “We’re going to get all the pokemen, right?”
“Ah,” Kame says, raising an eyebrow, “So I’ll have a huge collection of Jins by the end, won’t I?” Jin stops abruptly at that, so Kame bumps into him embarrassingly, narrowly missing kissing Jin’s cheek, their noses nudging.
“You can’t get any more Jins,” Jin says, looking troubled. His hand tightens around Kame’s. “Kame.” Jin wants to say, you won’t be able to tell me apart from the others, or I won’t be your favorite anymore, but if he does it’ll be true and Jin doesn’t want to believe it.
“Okay, Jin,” Kame says, pressing his forehead against Jin’s and meeting Jin’s gaze; Jin should look bug-eyed from this proximity but he just has big warm brown eyes staring back, the skin on his forehead bunched up in distress.
“Promise,” Jin says, and untangles their hands so he can bring his hand up between them and hold out his pinky.
“I promise,” Kame says, and pinky swears. “But even if I did get all of the Jins in the world,” Jin protests and tries to pull his hand apart, looking sulky, but Kame holds tight, “even if I did,” he presses, “I’d still know that you’re my Jin.”
“Oh,” Jin says, looking happy. “Okay. Maa, we can get some more Jins if you want, then.”
“Nah,” Kame says, grinning, “None of the other Jins could be as good as the one I have now. Besides, if I had any more Jins I’d run out of food,” he adds. Jin tries to smack him but Kame keeps their hands firmly together so Jin only manages to awkwardly bump Kame’s shoulder.
They set off again after that, Jin grinning and saying, “You can’t have any~” when Kame tries to go for seconds of water candy, running away when Kame tries to lunge for his backpack. Except they’re still holding hands so Jin only ends up running down the road and pulling Kame along, laughing breathlessly the entire way.
--
They spend the next few days just wandering around exploring, occasionally bringing Koki out to let him get used to hanging out with them. It’s awkward at first, since Koki’s technically supposed to be a more powerful pokeman than Jin is but he’d gotten beat anyway. He was still sort of sore about that at first, but then Jin offered him some water candy and it turned out that Kokis had a weakness for sweets so from then on things had eased up.
They go into pokecenters when they’re tired and meet interesting people, including someone named Koichi who’d traveled all over Japan and had pokedexes filled with information on hundreds of pokemen, with knapsacks and pockets filled with exotically patterned pokeballs. Koki and Jin and Kame just stare in awe. Jin says that Kame will end up just like that one day, traveling the world and showing off his thousands of pokemen, releasing all his friends so that they’ll fill the entire room. Kame isn’t so sure; it sounds exciting but he’s already pretty happy having Jin by his side and Koki, too, who somehow looks after them and, Kame suspects, looks extra-menacing whenever shady characters try to approach them in the pokecenters because all of the people allowed to come close have been so nice.
Koki doesn’t like being crammed up into the pokeball either so they sleep in comfy bunks. Koki’s always in the top one because Kame’s worried Jin will roll over and fall off if they take the top, and of course Jin insists on sleeping in the same bunk as Kame and looks menacing when Koki offers to share, even though it’s out of politeness and Koki totally looks relieved when Jin says, “No! Kame and I always share,” like it should be taken for granted. Kame’s relieved, too, and when they say good night he’s happy to climb into bed and have Jin to warm up the blankets for him. He’s always too cold but lately with Jin there like a full-body electric blanket he can stay warm if he moves close. Jin takes care of that for him, too. By the time they wake up Kame usually finds Jin sleeping on his shoulder, hand curled delicately around his arm.
“Kame,” Jin whispers, still too loud because his face is about two centimeters away from Kame’s, “Are you awake?” Kame opens his eyes and nods, almost head-butting Jin, they’re so close.
“Are you having fun?” Kame asks. He’s a little worried because while Koki is a new pokeman he’s had Jin for a little while now, and he still hasn’t evolved. Jins evolve when they’re really happy. Kame looked it up on his pokedex when Jin was busy joking around with Koki and they were coming up with new songs together, Jin learning to rap a few lines while he gave Koki voice lessons. He’s worried that Jin is secretly sad, or at the very least discontent. It’s strange because Kame thinks Jin’s usually pretty easy to read and he doesn’t seem unhappy. He wonders if he should buy Jin more good food; the pokedex says that Jins love to eat.
“Yeah,” Jin says, smiling. “I like meeting new people and seeing new places. And Koki’s nice!” he adds, an amazed lilt to his voice.
“Oh,” Kame says, a little disappointed and kicking himself for it. Jin watches him for a moment in the dim light and scoots even closer so that Kame can feel Jin breathing on him.
“Stop it,” Kame says, half-heartedly trying to poke him away.
“I like being with you the most,” Jin says right in his ear, like it’s a secret. He scoots away again and smiles, looking embarrassed.
“Oh,” Kame says again, pleased this time, and Jin smiles back shyly. He waits a moment, just savoring Jin’s happy expression, but presses on, “But is there something else you want? Something making you unhappy?”
“No!” Jin says, a little too loudly, and both of them glance up at the top bunk. Koki doesn’t stir, so they turn back to each other. “No,” he says, and now that Kame’s eyes are adjusted to the light he can see Jin flushing. “Nothing,” Jin says, and turns so he’s on his back, a little further away now, but not quite out of Kame’s reach.
“But,” Kame starts, and Jin interrupts, “I’m tired, Kame, let’s sleep.”
“Okay,” Kame says, taken aback, a little hurt. “Good night.” He’s the one who moves close this time, pressing his cheek to Jin’s shoulder reassuringly. He doesn’t fall asleep for a long time, though, and when he wakes up Jin’s already out of bed and talking to Koki in quiet tones, Koki nodding and slapping Jin on the back in understanding. Kame feels excluded and gets up in a bad mood that doesn’t let go even when Jin sees him and says, “Good morning, Kame!” He manages something in response and goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He doesn’t see Jin deflate a little, Koki patting his shoulder.
Kame’s spirits are starting to lift when they walk for awhile and there are blue skies everywhere, the weather mild and breezy. When Jin gives him another worried look Kame smiles in response and watches in amazement as Jin grins back, brightening.
And then a wild Nakamaru crosses their path, stepping out of a clothing store in a new sweater-vest and grey pants. Kame remembers looking him up in the pokedex the first time Jin mentioned wanting one - he’s a beatbox type, which is traditionally weaker against rap types than singing types. He gives Jin an apologetic look and says, “Go, Koki!”
“But I-” Jin says, and then his jaw locks and he returns to his pokeball without Kame even asking him to. Koki wins, barely, only after he’d figured out Nakamaru’s beat and rapped around it until they were making a song whether Nakamaru liked it or not.
“Nakamaru, return,” Kame says, and sighs at the pokeball in his hand. Its surface turns into a grey-and-white argyle pattern. He pockets it and wonders if it’s even worth it.
They head to the nearest pokecenter after that and Kame starts to become seriously worried when Jin refuses to come out of his pokeball even for dinner. Jin’s skipping dinner! Kame keeps thinking, and it’s your fault! No wonder he can’t evolve if you keep making him miserable! over and over again. Koki and Nakamaru chat amiably over the food and shoot him concerned glances every now and then.
Now Nakamaru and Koki share the top bunk while Kame and Jin are still on the bottom, though tonight Kame climbs into bed and rolls onto his side to face the pokeball laid carefully on the pillow, pom pom side up.
“Good night, Jin,” Kame sighs, and reaches out to turn off the light.
--
“Is Jin still upset?” Koki asks the next morning on the road when Kame sighs for the tenth time and stares at the pokeball in his hand.
“Yeah,” Kame says, forlorn and a little irritated. He spots something up ahead and says, “Guys, do you mind going into your pokeballs for a minute?” They exchange glances and shrug, both disappearing when Kame says, “Koki, return, Nakamaru, return,” and Kame wishes every pokeman would be as agreeable, but no. So Kame has to go into the grocery store and browse. He buys a bagful of ingredients and heads to the nearest pokecenter. He asks for directions to the kitchens and bows respectfully when he gets there, asking politely if he may use one of their pots and a spot on the stove, please. It’s not yet dinnertime so the chefs and helpers agree and even offer up suggestions and spices when Kame’s trying to make the pasta.
He brings the pot, some dishes and cutlery, and a large checked picnic blanket to the fields outside the pokecenter and says, firmly, a little pleadingly, “Jin.” After a breathless moment there’s a flash of light and Jin’s sitting on the blanket, still angry but there, at least. And suddenly Kame’s angry, too, because all he wanted was to play baseball as a pro and here he is tired and sad and it’s all Jin’s fault for being the stupid leftover pokeman no one wanted.
Except Kame does want him. Kame wants him a lot, more than he realized until Jin disappeared on him and made him scared because what if Jin doesn’t want him? What if Jin sees a better, nicer trainer who makes him happy and helps him evolve?
“Jin,” Kame says, frowning, “Please tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing,” Jin says stubbornly, “How are things going with your new favorites Koki and Nakamaru?” Jin asks, glaring at him, and that hurts, but Kame sees the same insecurity in Jin’s eyes that he sees every time he looks in the mirror, and that’s worse because Kame never meant to make Jin worry about that. Jin should never worry about how much Kame likes him.
“They’re not my new favorites,” Kame starts, but Jin says, “You’re lying! You chose Koki over me yesterday, and I was watching you from my pokeball, you weren’t even upset I was gone because they were there with you. You had fun with them.” Jin looks stormy and furious.
“Only because Koki’s the rap type and Nakamaru’s-” Kame gives up trying to explain and catches Jin’s gaze. “I’m sorry. If I want to capture lots of pokemen I’ll probably have to use Koki sometimes. And Nakamaru. But,” he says sincerely, “I’ll never like them the same way I like you.”
“Yeah, because you don’t hate them,” Jin sulks, completely obtuse.
Kame laughs and hits him. “No, you idiot, I’ll never like them the way I love you,” he says, smiling with sudden embarrassment, heat rising to his cheeks.
“Really?” Jin asks, looking at Kame in awe, his mouth hanging open.
“I wouldn’t joke about that!” Kame says indignantly, still smiling. He hesitates a moment, then says, “Do you- I mean, I’m your trainer, so I guess you have to, but-”
“Don’t be stupid,” Jin says, a brilliant smile spreading across his face. He reaches out and his smile widens when Kame’s hand meets his, their fingers intertwining naturally. Kame tugs, startling Jin into toppling close, and Kame catches him easily, other hand sliding up Jin’s arm and shoulder and neck to cup his cheek carefully and urge him close. Jin’s eyes close in a quiet butterfly kiss before Kame’s mouth reaches his and they kiss, the two pokeballs out on the picnic blanket jittering around in something like applause. Kame pulls back and smiles slowly, lazy and content, and Jin smiles back and starts to glow. There’s a light around him, bright enough that Kame can’t make out Jin behind the glow but he feels Jin’s hand squeezing his, firm and reassuring, and when the light dies down Jin looks the same but his clothes are baggier, his hair is a bit longer, and he’s wearing a black fedora.
“Kame, I evolved!” Jin says, excited, and throws an arm around Kame’s neck, pressing them close together until they tip over onto the soft green grass and roll around, laughing, until Jin’s new hat falls off.
“I evolved and it’s all because of you,” Jin says above Kame, so that all Kame can see is blue skies and Jin’s smile. He ducks down and kisses Kame then, sweet and warm. There are two pops and shiny flashes that Kame dimly makes out but he feels in favor of ignoring them when he can touch his tongue to Jin’s lips and keep kissing instead.
“Okay, guys, I’m hungry,” Koki protests loudly, “But you two are making us lose our appetites!”
Nakamaru pipes in with, “Save that for later, way later!”
But Kame just tangles his hand in the hair at the nape of Jin’s neck and deepens the kiss when he feels Jin make a happy noise, warm and content underneath Jin and the sun.