Fourth Avenue Café - Chapter 5
Title: Fourth Avenue Café
Pairings: Akame, slight Ryopi
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jin's a successful artist when a fight with his friends forces him to seek stress relief in a little café where he meets what he considers, the strangest people.
Chapter 1// Chapter 2// Chapter 3// Chapter 4
Chapter 5:
Jin was grinning like an idiot as he made his way down the street, humming his newest, yet-to-be-announced single while coming up with random lines for new songs in his head. In his hand he was holding onto an envelope as he made his way to the café. Greeted by the golden letters and the warm tinkling of the bell, he smiled.
“Welcome!”
“Hello,” he nodded to the owner of the coffee shop and took his seat. Within moments there was a waiter standing next to his table, he blinked and recognized the other as the person who’d taken over Kame’s shift a couple times, he looked at the other’s nametag.
Ueda Tatsuya.
He blinked again and looked up, wondering if the other was going to take his order or if he was just going to stand there and glare at him. After a long pause between the two, with the tension building rapidly, the singer pursed his lips and asked lightly, “…yes?”
Something snapped as the waiter slammed his hands down on the table, shooting him a threatening look that could rival both Ryo and Pi’s when they were seriously pissed off at him, “I can’t believe you kissed Kame yesterday!”
All the customers turned and stared for a moment before returning to their own business at hand.
His eyes widened, that wasn’t what he was expecting at all. Then there was a loud “who did what to Kame!?” and within moments, Koki and Junno were there surrounding his table, he gulped and scooted back.
Koki stared at him, clearly stuck between being shocked and angry, “You did what!?”
“What’s going on?” Jin looked over to see another waiter, one he’d never seen before, emerge from the back.
Crap, this is bad…
“Maru! This guy kissed Kame yesterday!”
The other’s eyes widened as he made his way over, “What!? Kame!? Our Kame-chan!?”
Then he found himself surrounded for real by the four waiters, he continued scooting back in his chair until the chair hit the wall and the four closed in on him, causing him to slide down slightly, trying to make himself as small as possible. “Did you really kiss Kame-chan?”
He looked at the owner of the café who no longer had a happy smile on his face, it scared the crap out of him and he sank further in his chair, doing his best to look helpless and adorable.
It didn’t work.
“Did you!?”
Jin let out a squeak and directed his wide eyes to Ueda who was probably the angriest-looking out of them all, he gave a small nod and when the four looked like they were about to eat him alive, he closed his eyes, raised his hands in front of him for defense and shouted, “it was only on the cheek! I swear! I only kissed him on the cheek!”
-------------------------
The stood at the door to his apartment, he leaned against the frame in an attempt to look cool, “So I guess this is the end of our first date hm?”
Kame nodded and smiled, “thank you, it was fun.”
“Yea it was,” there was a long pause, he rubbed his neck and gave a nervous grin, “…so should we kiss?”
The other laughed and placed a finger over his lips, a devilish grin on his lips, “sorry, no kisses on the first date.”
He pouted, “No kisses on the lips?”
Kame shook his head and repeated what he’d just said, “No kisses on the lips.”
“Fine,” he tilted his head and gave the other a peck on the cheek, “there, that’s fine right?”
The waiter’s eyes widened as he gingerly placed his hand over where he was kissed, face slowly heating up, “I-I guess…”
He smiled, “good.”
“I’ll see you next time…” he spoke softly and began walking away.
“Be careful!”
The other called back with a wave, “Yea! Goodnight!”
Jin grinned to himself before heading inside, “goodnight…”
-------------------------
When nothing painful came, he opened his eyes cautiously to find the four still staring at him.
“So there was no kissing on the lips?”
“There was no kissing on the lips,” he repeated, desperate to stay alive.
He watched as the four relaxed, just slightly though, “well, at least it was only on the cheek…”
“That better be all you did to Kame,” Ueda growled, leaning forward threateningly, causing him to shrink back even more. He couldn’t help but silently note that if he was to slide down any further, he’d fall off his chair.
The bell twinkled, there was a long pregnant pause before a new voice spoke up, “…what are you guys doing?”
The four turned and Jin fell off his chair in attempt to sit up, on the floor, he looked over to see a very confused and slightly worried looking Kame. Three of them mumbled some incoherent excuse before leaving and going back to their original tasks. The younger man walked over to where Ueda was still glaring at him, he shot the other a pleading look from the floor.
The waiter tapped his friend on the shoulder and spoke lightly, “…Tat-chan? Why’s Jin on the floor? Tat-chan? It’s okay, calm down…Tat-chan?”
Ueda’s shoulders relaxed slightly, but his eyes narrowed as he made the threatening gesture of ‘I’ve got my eyes on you’ before ruffling the younger waiter’s hair and walking off without a word.
Once he was gone, Kame helped the singer up back onto his seat and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, “…sorry about that.”
Jin looked around at the other waiters, “Your bodyguards are…scary as hell.” He felt a shiver go down his spine as Ueda sent him another death-promising glare, “especially that one. How did he know I kissed you anyways?”
The question brought a faint blush to the other's face, “…you had lip gloss on, it left a mark and Tat-chan took is kind of badly.”
“Yea, just a little…” he sulked a bit and pouted, “I think I just lost twenty years of my life from that…”
Kame gave a soft laugh, “you’ll get used to each other.”
“I don’t think he’ll get used to me unless I’m dead somewhere, probably killed by him.”
“Don’t let it get to you, Tat-chan’s taken on the role of my protector, that’s all. He’s been looking out for me for years now,” he smiled fondly at the other waiters, “they’ve all been, but Tat-chan especially.”
“Why? Were you bullied?”
The waiter shrugged, “something like that…”
“I see…” Jin sat back up a little, maybe they weren’t that bad…he looked over at Ueda again, he looked just as scrawny as Kame, he couldn’t imagine him fighting with anyone.
“Don't look down on Tat-chan, he knows how to box.” Kame explained, reading his mind.
“Oh…”
“I’ll go get your drink,” the other said as he walked off, adjusting his uniform as he did so.
--------------------------
When Kame returned, he was rewarded the sight of his best friend staring at the singer who attempted to give a nervous smile. He bit on his lower lip to stop himself from laughing as he placed the drink down.
Behind him, Koki and Nakamaru walked past, giving him a pat on the back, “our shift’s up, we’re going out for dinner, see you later.”
The younger waiter nodded and smiled, “see you guys later.”
And then there were three…
He looked from the waiter standing in front of him to the one behind the counter to the one who had gone to wait on someone else, someone outside. Breathing a sigh of relief, he handed the envelope over, “here’s your card for today.”
Kame took it and opened it, taking the card out, “Oh, so I’m only forty today, you’re getting closer, but my birthday’s in February, not November.”
“You should’ve figured it out by now that I don’t look at which card I pick, I just take it off the shelf, buy it, and write in it.”
The waiter shot him an amused look, “right now, I’m trying to figure out if you can read.”
“Hey! I can read!” He huffed, “haven’t you heard? Variety is the spice of life.”
“Indeed it is…” Kame opened the card and read the few lines that had been messily scribbled in it.
Second date?
Phone number?
-Akanishi Jin
“Well?”
“Sure to the first one, don’t have one to the second one.”
Jin blinked, “what? You don’t have a phone? Like a cell phone? Or a house phone? A walkie-talkie maybe?”
The other shook his head, “I’m staying at Taguchi’s right now and I’ve never really needed a cell phone so I never got one. And a walkie-talkie, I asked for a pair for Christmas but I never got them.”
He gaped, “You’ve got to be the low-tech-est person in Japan…”
“Thanks?”
“Even homeless people have cell phones nowadays!”
Kame shrugged, “They’re higher-tech than me I guess.”
“But people your age…”
The other raised a brow, amused, “People at the age of 60 and 40?”
“No…” The singer gave an exasperated sigh, giving up, “you win…” he took a long swig of his coffee, “how about Saturday this time?”
The waiter gave a slow smile and nodded, “sure…”
He grinned, “it’s a date then.”
-------------------------
On the way home he received a text from Tackey.
Guess which darling little kouhai of mine I saw running away from the paparazzi the other day with the mysteriously attractive waiter he’s not so secretly lusting after? Fu fu fu fu~
Sincerely not yours,
Tackey
Jin gave a crooked grin and wondered what he should do in such a situation. “I should reply, go to sleep and think about the consequences tomorrow, that’s what I should do.”
Quickly replying with a:
Shut up and go cuddle with that visually appealing dancer of yours.
-Jin
Satisfied, he stepped into his apartment and got ready for bed.
-------------------------
“Hey let’s draw!”
“But I’m terrible at drawing…”
He watched as a younger version of himself sprawled out on the floor with a crayon in his hand, the other boy watching doubtfully from the side. “It’ll be fine, you can’t be that bad.”
“But I am.”
“Well no one’s here to judge your drawing skills except me, so draw.” The boy did as he was instructed and sat down and began drawing. After awhile he heard himself laughing, “you weren’t joking! That’s the ugliest pig I’ve ever seen!”
This caused the other to pout, “I told you so…and it’s not a pig…”
He sat up, “don’t worry, I’ll teach you. Here,” he grabbed the green crayon and placed it in the other’s hand. Then he helped the other, guiding the boy’s hand, “here, first you draw a circle. Then this, and this then…”
The other asked him quietly, “Jin, what am I drawing?”
“You’re drawing yourself! Look you’re done! Here, sign it.”
The boy furled his brows but signed it anyways, “thanks…”
He didn’t give the other a chance to speak, “I’m going to keep this okay?”
“Okay…”
“Don’t worry, I’m going to keep it safe, it’ll be with me for the rest of my life!”
“Jin-kun! Your mother’s calling for you!”
He got up hastily, paper in hand, “coming!” he looked back and grinned, “see? I told you, you could draw. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The other gave a smile and nodded, “bye.”
-------------------------
He woke up scratching his head, “the hell…?” Looking at his clock, he still had a good hour and a bit before he had to actually get up, but deciding that he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways, he got out of bed.
Making his way to the back of his closet were he kept a bit of his childhood memories, he blinked tiredly, “maybe it’s in there…”
Pulling out a box, he blew the dust off and opened it, inside contained pictures and old toy cars he’d forgotten about. He smiled at his old toys and continued digging through his old possessions until he came across a stack of paper.
He took them out and flipped through them, most of them were his. He couldn’t help but grin at his lack of skills, then he flipped to a shaky drawing of a turtle. Blinking he looked at the bottom of the page, at the signature which wasn’t his.
Kame…?
“No way…no way no way no way,” he clumsily crawled around and made his way to where his phone was sitting, grabbing it, he called his mother. “Hello? Kaa-san?”
“Jin? Is something wrong?”
“Sort of, can you tell me who I was best friends with before Pi? You know, before we moved.”
“Huh? You mean Kazu-kun?”
“Kazu-kun? Who’s that? What was his full name?”
“…I think it was something like Kazuya…Kame…Kame…”
He felt his breath get caught in his throat, “Kamenashi Kazuya?”
“Yes, that’s it. Is something wrong?”
“No…I was just curious, sorry for calling you this early.”
“Don’t worry, do your best today.”
“I will, thanks kaa-san. Bye.”
Jin hung up and sat there, completely awake. Letting out a shuddering breath, he managed to mutter to himself, “no way…”
No way in hell…
--------------------
A/N: Well...I'm back. No RyoPi in this chapter ;( Ueda's very protective here, as you can see. Happy New Years and all that! And it's true! I've seen several homeless people with cells! It was so weird XD Thank you commentors! Enjoy!
Pairings: Akame, slight Ryopi
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jin's a successful artist when a fight with his friends forces him to seek stress relief in a little café where he meets what he considers, the strangest people.
Chapter 1// Chapter 2// Chapter 3// Chapter 4
Chapter 5:
Jin was grinning like an idiot as he made his way down the street, humming his newest, yet-to-be-announced single while coming up with random lines for new songs in his head. In his hand he was holding onto an envelope as he made his way to the café. Greeted by the golden letters and the warm tinkling of the bell, he smiled.
“Welcome!”
“Hello,” he nodded to the owner of the coffee shop and took his seat. Within moments there was a waiter standing next to his table, he blinked and recognized the other as the person who’d taken over Kame’s shift a couple times, he looked at the other’s nametag.
Ueda Tatsuya.
He blinked again and looked up, wondering if the other was going to take his order or if he was just going to stand there and glare at him. After a long pause between the two, with the tension building rapidly, the singer pursed his lips and asked lightly, “…yes?”
Something snapped as the waiter slammed his hands down on the table, shooting him a threatening look that could rival both Ryo and Pi’s when they were seriously pissed off at him, “I can’t believe you kissed Kame yesterday!”
All the customers turned and stared for a moment before returning to their own business at hand.
His eyes widened, that wasn’t what he was expecting at all. Then there was a loud “who did what to Kame!?” and within moments, Koki and Junno were there surrounding his table, he gulped and scooted back.
Koki stared at him, clearly stuck between being shocked and angry, “You did what!?”
“What’s going on?” Jin looked over to see another waiter, one he’d never seen before, emerge from the back.
Crap, this is bad…
“Maru! This guy kissed Kame yesterday!”
The other’s eyes widened as he made his way over, “What!? Kame!? Our Kame-chan!?”
Then he found himself surrounded for real by the four waiters, he continued scooting back in his chair until the chair hit the wall and the four closed in on him, causing him to slide down slightly, trying to make himself as small as possible. “Did you really kiss Kame-chan?”
He looked at the owner of the café who no longer had a happy smile on his face, it scared the crap out of him and he sank further in his chair, doing his best to look helpless and adorable.
It didn’t work.
“Did you!?”
Jin let out a squeak and directed his wide eyes to Ueda who was probably the angriest-looking out of them all, he gave a small nod and when the four looked like they were about to eat him alive, he closed his eyes, raised his hands in front of him for defense and shouted, “it was only on the cheek! I swear! I only kissed him on the cheek!”
-------------------------
The stood at the door to his apartment, he leaned against the frame in an attempt to look cool, “So I guess this is the end of our first date hm?”
Kame nodded and smiled, “thank you, it was fun.”
“Yea it was,” there was a long pause, he rubbed his neck and gave a nervous grin, “…so should we kiss?”
The other laughed and placed a finger over his lips, a devilish grin on his lips, “sorry, no kisses on the first date.”
He pouted, “No kisses on the lips?”
Kame shook his head and repeated what he’d just said, “No kisses on the lips.”
“Fine,” he tilted his head and gave the other a peck on the cheek, “there, that’s fine right?”
The waiter’s eyes widened as he gingerly placed his hand over where he was kissed, face slowly heating up, “I-I guess…”
He smiled, “good.”
“I’ll see you next time…” he spoke softly and began walking away.
“Be careful!”
The other called back with a wave, “Yea! Goodnight!”
Jin grinned to himself before heading inside, “goodnight…”
-------------------------
When nothing painful came, he opened his eyes cautiously to find the four still staring at him.
“So there was no kissing on the lips?”
“There was no kissing on the lips,” he repeated, desperate to stay alive.
He watched as the four relaxed, just slightly though, “well, at least it was only on the cheek…”
“That better be all you did to Kame,” Ueda growled, leaning forward threateningly, causing him to shrink back even more. He couldn’t help but silently note that if he was to slide down any further, he’d fall off his chair.
The bell twinkled, there was a long pregnant pause before a new voice spoke up, “…what are you guys doing?”
The four turned and Jin fell off his chair in attempt to sit up, on the floor, he looked over to see a very confused and slightly worried looking Kame. Three of them mumbled some incoherent excuse before leaving and going back to their original tasks. The younger man walked over to where Ueda was still glaring at him, he shot the other a pleading look from the floor.
The waiter tapped his friend on the shoulder and spoke lightly, “…Tat-chan? Why’s Jin on the floor? Tat-chan? It’s okay, calm down…Tat-chan?”
Ueda’s shoulders relaxed slightly, but his eyes narrowed as he made the threatening gesture of ‘I’ve got my eyes on you’ before ruffling the younger waiter’s hair and walking off without a word.
Once he was gone, Kame helped the singer up back onto his seat and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, “…sorry about that.”
Jin looked around at the other waiters, “Your bodyguards are…scary as hell.” He felt a shiver go down his spine as Ueda sent him another death-promising glare, “especially that one. How did he know I kissed you anyways?”
The question brought a faint blush to the other's face, “…you had lip gloss on, it left a mark and Tat-chan took is kind of badly.”
“Yea, just a little…” he sulked a bit and pouted, “I think I just lost twenty years of my life from that…”
Kame gave a soft laugh, “you’ll get used to each other.”
“I don’t think he’ll get used to me unless I’m dead somewhere, probably killed by him.”
“Don’t let it get to you, Tat-chan’s taken on the role of my protector, that’s all. He’s been looking out for me for years now,” he smiled fondly at the other waiters, “they’ve all been, but Tat-chan especially.”
“Why? Were you bullied?”
The waiter shrugged, “something like that…”
“I see…” Jin sat back up a little, maybe they weren’t that bad…he looked over at Ueda again, he looked just as scrawny as Kame, he couldn’t imagine him fighting with anyone.
“Don't look down on Tat-chan, he knows how to box.” Kame explained, reading his mind.
“Oh…”
“I’ll go get your drink,” the other said as he walked off, adjusting his uniform as he did so.
--------------------------
When Kame returned, he was rewarded the sight of his best friend staring at the singer who attempted to give a nervous smile. He bit on his lower lip to stop himself from laughing as he placed the drink down.
Behind him, Koki and Nakamaru walked past, giving him a pat on the back, “our shift’s up, we’re going out for dinner, see you later.”
The younger waiter nodded and smiled, “see you guys later.”
And then there were three…
He looked from the waiter standing in front of him to the one behind the counter to the one who had gone to wait on someone else, someone outside. Breathing a sigh of relief, he handed the envelope over, “here’s your card for today.”
Kame took it and opened it, taking the card out, “Oh, so I’m only forty today, you’re getting closer, but my birthday’s in February, not November.”
“You should’ve figured it out by now that I don’t look at which card I pick, I just take it off the shelf, buy it, and write in it.”
The waiter shot him an amused look, “right now, I’m trying to figure out if you can read.”
“Hey! I can read!” He huffed, “haven’t you heard? Variety is the spice of life.”
“Indeed it is…” Kame opened the card and read the few lines that had been messily scribbled in it.
Second date?
Phone number?
-Akanishi Jin
“Well?”
“Sure to the first one, don’t have one to the second one.”
Jin blinked, “what? You don’t have a phone? Like a cell phone? Or a house phone? A walkie-talkie maybe?”
The other shook his head, “I’m staying at Taguchi’s right now and I’ve never really needed a cell phone so I never got one. And a walkie-talkie, I asked for a pair for Christmas but I never got them.”
He gaped, “You’ve got to be the low-tech-est person in Japan…”
“Thanks?”
“Even homeless people have cell phones nowadays!”
Kame shrugged, “They’re higher-tech than me I guess.”
“But people your age…”
The other raised a brow, amused, “People at the age of 60 and 40?”
“No…” The singer gave an exasperated sigh, giving up, “you win…” he took a long swig of his coffee, “how about Saturday this time?”
The waiter gave a slow smile and nodded, “sure…”
He grinned, “it’s a date then.”
-------------------------
On the way home he received a text from Tackey.
Guess which darling little kouhai of mine I saw running away from the paparazzi the other day with the mysteriously attractive waiter he’s not so secretly lusting after? Fu fu fu fu~
Sincerely not yours,
Tackey
Jin gave a crooked grin and wondered what he should do in such a situation. “I should reply, go to sleep and think about the consequences tomorrow, that’s what I should do.”
Quickly replying with a:
Shut up and go cuddle with that visually appealing dancer of yours.
-Jin
Satisfied, he stepped into his apartment and got ready for bed.
-------------------------
“Hey let’s draw!”
“But I’m terrible at drawing…”
He watched as a younger version of himself sprawled out on the floor with a crayon in his hand, the other boy watching doubtfully from the side. “It’ll be fine, you can’t be that bad.”
“But I am.”
“Well no one’s here to judge your drawing skills except me, so draw.” The boy did as he was instructed and sat down and began drawing. After awhile he heard himself laughing, “you weren’t joking! That’s the ugliest pig I’ve ever seen!”
This caused the other to pout, “I told you so…and it’s not a pig…”
He sat up, “don’t worry, I’ll teach you. Here,” he grabbed the green crayon and placed it in the other’s hand. Then he helped the other, guiding the boy’s hand, “here, first you draw a circle. Then this, and this then…”
The other asked him quietly, “Jin, what am I drawing?”
“You’re drawing yourself! Look you’re done! Here, sign it.”
The boy furled his brows but signed it anyways, “thanks…”
He didn’t give the other a chance to speak, “I’m going to keep this okay?”
“Okay…”
“Don’t worry, I’m going to keep it safe, it’ll be with me for the rest of my life!”
“Jin-kun! Your mother’s calling for you!”
He got up hastily, paper in hand, “coming!” he looked back and grinned, “see? I told you, you could draw. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The other gave a smile and nodded, “bye.”
-------------------------
He woke up scratching his head, “the hell…?” Looking at his clock, he still had a good hour and a bit before he had to actually get up, but deciding that he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways, he got out of bed.
Making his way to the back of his closet were he kept a bit of his childhood memories, he blinked tiredly, “maybe it’s in there…”
Pulling out a box, he blew the dust off and opened it, inside contained pictures and old toy cars he’d forgotten about. He smiled at his old toys and continued digging through his old possessions until he came across a stack of paper.
He took them out and flipped through them, most of them were his. He couldn’t help but grin at his lack of skills, then he flipped to a shaky drawing of a turtle. Blinking he looked at the bottom of the page, at the signature which wasn’t his.
Kame…?
“No way…no way no way no way,” he clumsily crawled around and made his way to where his phone was sitting, grabbing it, he called his mother. “Hello? Kaa-san?”
“Jin? Is something wrong?”
“Sort of, can you tell me who I was best friends with before Pi? You know, before we moved.”
“Huh? You mean Kazu-kun?”
“Kazu-kun? Who’s that? What was his full name?”
“…I think it was something like Kazuya…Kame…Kame…”
He felt his breath get caught in his throat, “Kamenashi Kazuya?”
“Yes, that’s it. Is something wrong?”
“No…I was just curious, sorry for calling you this early.”
“Don’t worry, do your best today.”
“I will, thanks kaa-san. Bye.”
Jin hung up and sat there, completely awake. Letting out a shuddering breath, he managed to mutter to himself, “no way…”
No way in hell…
--------------------
A/N: Well...I'm back. No RyoPi in this chapter ;( Ueda's very protective here, as you can see. Happy New Years and all that! And it's true! I've seen several homeless people with cells! It was so weird XD Thank you commentors! Enjoy!