Fourth Avenue Café - Chapter 10
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// Chapter 6// Chapter 7// Chapter 8// Chapter 9
Chapter 10:
After that day, Jin made his way to the café right before they closed, whenever he could, which wasn't often, but he tried. He tried his best to keep his questions simple, yes-no questions to avoid stressing the waiters, who had all kindly agreed to go along with his game, out.
The bell twinkled as he walked in.
“Welcome.” Nodding his greetings to the owner and Koki, he took a seat. Taguchi looked over, “do you want coffee today?”
He shook his head, “no thanks, not today, I get to sleep in a little tomorrow. Have to go test out the stadium for the concert in the afternoon though.”
From what he’d gathered from his previous questions, the missing waiter was still alive and in Japan and that the other waiters saw him frequently. Also, he found out that the waiter hadn’t found someone else yet, which he had to admit, helped ease his anxiety by quite a bit.
“Your concert’s coming up in a couple days, hm?” Koki asked good-naturedly as he made his way over. “It’s all I see in the streets and on TV nowadays, everyone’s talking about it too.”
The singer nodded again. How these people managed to stay in a good mood after a long day of work was beyond amazing to him. “How is Kame today?”
The waiter blinked, “is that your question for today or are you just wondering?”
It’d been eating him up for quite awhile now, how the other was actually doing, whether he was happy or sad, lonely or enjoying himself. He gave a shrug, not wanting to bear the conscience of taking advantage of the other by asking two questions instead of just one, “I’ll use it as my question.”
“Well from what I heard earlier, he’s in a really good mood today, so I guess he’s doing pretty well today…?”
Jin gave a weary smile, “I’m relieved…hey,” he pulled out an envelope from his bag, “I know he told me not to contact him but…can you give this to him anyways? It’s not bugged or anything; it’s just me being a stupid rebellious idiot.”
The waiter gave a lopsided grin and nodded, “sure, consider it done.”
-------------------------
To Kame,
I know you don’t want me to contact you but…
I’m going to find you,
No matter what it takes,
I’ll search for you until the end of time.
So keep the faith.
Yours truly,
Akanishi Jin
-------------------------
His concert was scheduled about two weeks before Christmas, all for marketing sake. After all, his single was going to come out a couple days after that. And what teenage girl wouldn’t die to get a limited edition of his single as a Christmas gift?
Brushing aside his thoughts, he continued practicing.
All the preparation had been made for his new release, all that was left was the first performance. He paused in his singing when there was a knock on the door. Looking over, he could see his manager standing there, “…yes?”
And behind his manager, he could see Pi and Ryo jumping around, trying to wave at him past the suited man. He suppressed his grin and looked up, pretending to pay attention to the man while watching the two from the corner of his eyes.
His manager fixed his tie and cleared his throat before he started, “The staff people were asking about the lip singing for this concert…”
“Oh…” he pursed his lips, “…do you think we could not have any lip singing for this concert?”
The other looked shocked, “I’m sorry, what?”
“I don’t want any lip singing for this concert.”
“But-”
Jin shook his head, “tell the staff that I’ll be doing all the singing for this one.”
After his disgruntle manager left, his best friends hopped into the room, “wow Jin, you’re going to sing through the whole concert?”
“Yea-”
Ryo tugged at their sleeves, “let’s talk about this over lunch, I’m starving.”
-------------------------
Over lunch, Yamapi was still staring at him in wonder, “I still can’t believe you’re going to sing the whole time.”
Ryo nodded, unable to voice his opinions vocally due to the food stuffed in his mouth.
Jin shrugged, he thought about the VIP ticket that lay in his desk drawer and sighed. “This was supposed to be the first concert of mine that Kame went to…and now he’s god knows where…”
He had it all planned out too. The waiter would’ve sat up in the VIP seats with Ryo and Pi to keep him company. Half way through, he would’ve dragged his friends down to perform with him, then the four of them could’ve fooled around backstage, eating gifts and reading his fan mail out loud to him.
Pi frowned, not really liking his friend in such a depressed state. He place a slice of his meat into the other’s bowl, then grabbed one of Ryo’s and stuffed it in his own mouth. The shorter man glared at him, mouth still full of ramen.
The singer laughed, “You guys are coming right?” The two nodded, “then we’re doing that weird radio Christmas thing, right?” They nodded again, “good, at least I’ll have you guys to keep me company.”
“Hm…”
Suddenly Ryo jumped away with a scream, the two stared at him, Pi’s finger hanging in midair where the other’s leg was a moment ago. The eldest blinked, “what’s wrong Ryo-chan?”
“There was a bug on my leg!”
Yamapi stuck his lips out and wiggled his fingers a couple times.
Jin gave a grin, “You mean Pi’s fingers? I think he was trying to be suggestive before you did that…manly scream and jump away thing of yours.”
“Are you alright, Ryo-chan?” the younger singer asked with a snigger.
Ryo moved his chair away from the younger singer and sat back down, sulking a bit, “just leave me alone, you jerks.”
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Time passed by amazingly fast, and before he knew it, the day of the concert arrived. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he went through the final preparations one last time. The audience began pouring in by the hundreds to watch him. It was a feeling he never got tired of, the excitement of performing in front of thousands of people, hearing their cheers and applause.
He took a breath and stepped onto the stage, singing, after the announcer called him out.
The crowd roared.
Stealing a glance up to where the VIP seats were, he suppressed a sigh. Ryo and Pi were sitting there with large grins on their faces, so close to perfection, yet so far… He could imagine Kame sitting up there with excitement that would rival his own.
Jin took another deep breath before the chorus came back.
If you’re not here directly, I’ll at least make sure my voice reaches you.
-------------------------
Near the end of the concert, he stood up there with Ryo and Pi on the stage with him, he gripped the mike hard. His throat was sore from singing and his body was sore from dancing and running around, but it was also refreshing. He began to speak, “these next songs are actually going to be on my newest single which will be out in a few days so please buy it. Here’s Kizuna and Care.”
Jin could feel his friends watching him as he closed his eyes, body moving to the music as he began to sing.
Suddenly, he couldn’t hear the crowd anymore; he couldn’t hear the music that blasted in his ears.
Everything had gone silent.
He kept his eyes shut.
During those few minutes, all he could see was Kame’s smile, all he could hear was the other’s voice, quietly singing with him.
He raised his pinky to his heart,
“That time, that place, this bond won’t disappear.”
-------------------------
When he opened his eyes again, Kame disappeared once more and everything came rushing back so hard, he could do nothing but concentrate on keeping his balance. Fortunately for him, he didn’t get much time to let the sadness set in.
The next thing he knew, Ryo and Pi had their arms slung around him, the youngest singer looked over with a mike in his hand and laughed, “Wow Jin, you looked so passionate there! I could feel my heart pounding in my chest really hard! It was like doki-doki!”
A grin reached his lips, “what are you talking about? I’m always passionate when I sing!”
“I think Ryo-chan was about ready to cry when you finished singing that song!”
The shorter man looked over with a frown, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, “I was not!” They laughed. “But yea, I’ve never seen Jin quite that passionate before, it was amazing! I guess even you have your cool moments every now and then. Crap, now that I’ve seen you singing like this, I have to go and buy the CD!”
Pi raised his free hand, “Me too! Actually, I think everyone’s going to have to now, how can anyone say no after watching that?”
They were doing their best to cheer him up, he could tell. As the days passed by, he could feel his gratitude for them growing and growing. Honestly, he didn’t know where he’d be without his friends.
They were his most valuable assets.
He slung his arms around the two with a wide grin as the audience cheered, “You two are the best,” he said away from the mike.
Ryo blinked and looked over confused, “what!? I can’t hear you!”
Pi just grinned and tightened his grip on shoulder.
-------------------------
After the concert, the days continued to pass. On the day before the releasing of his single, he walked into the café after filming a talk show and smiled at the waiter. It was Nakamaru there today. He noted that he hadn’t seen Ueda in a long time. Despite how they had come to more or less and understanding of one another that day, they still didn’t get along.
“Hello, busy day hm? Taguchi’s out today. Coffee?”
“Oh…yes please,” he sat down and stared at the empty seats around him and across from him. Suddenly it felt kind of lonely, not having anyone sitting in front of him or standing by him. He missed being surrounded by the waiter, having information pried out of him effortlessly. “Hey…can you do me a favor?”
Nakamaru looked over from the counter where he was currently making his cup of fresh coffee. “Sure, what is it?”
Jin took out the CD from his bag, the cover was simple,
Kizuna/Care
Akanishi Jin
And there was a card attached to it. He handed it over to the waiter, “can you…”
He set the cup down in front of the other, “Give this to Kame-chan? Sure.”
“It’s the first very first limited edition copy, I managed to steal it today,” he grinned, quite proud of himself.
The waiter laughed, “You had to steal your own CD?”
“You’d be surprised at how stingy the company is.”
Nakamaru gave a kind smile and took the two items, “I’ll make sure this gets to him.”
“And…”
The elder looked at him, “Yea?”
“I don’t know how to ask this…” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Kame…he won’t be lonely this Christmas, will he?”
Again, he was given a kind smile, “Don’t worry, he’ll be spending Christmas with his family this year.”
-------------------------
To Kame,
This would’ve never happened if it wasn’t for you.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you,
Akanishi Jin
-------------------------
The days continued to pass, and his singles continued to get sold out within the first few hours of the day. Finally, when Christmas arrived, the three singers found themselves trapped in a radio broadcasting room.
“Hello, welcome to this year’s Christmas radio marathon special, we’re about to start. This is Akanishi Jin.”
“Yamashita Tomohisa.”
“And Nishikido Ryo.”
The three grinned at each other as Jin spoke into the mike again, “just to tease you for a bit, we’ll make you wait for more, after these commercials.” During the first commercial break, the staff brought in snacks for them to munch on while they waited.
Ryo and Jin quickly grabbed a couple before Pi could demolish the whole thing.
A moment later, the youngest singer took his phone out and took a picture of it and updated his journal before digging in. “This is really good!” The other two took a bite of the snacks they managed to grab and immediately nodded in agreement.
By the time he finished what was in his hands, the commercials had ended. Jin leaned towards the mike, “and we’re back!”
Across the table, Pi blinked and picked something up, “hey look, mistletoe!”
He laughed and looked up, “if you’re going to talk, at least talk into the mike!”
“I found mistletoe!” the youngest singer announced into the mike, “Merry Christmas!” He made a wet kissy noise into the mike, “Jin, Ryo-chan, you guys do it too! Give a kiss to the fans.”
The two laughed and followed his example, Ryo had a grin on his face, “anyways, let’s start this-Pi, stop eating!”
“But I’m almost done!”
“You’re almost done!? Give me that!”
“No! It’s the last one!”
Jin watched as they fought for the last piece, which, of course, Pi ended up eating, “can we start now? The listeners can hear you fighting you know…anyways, ignoring those two, please call in or email us with anything and everything! We’ll be here for a long time so please talk to us!”
-------------------------
As the radio show continued, it was almost midnight, and they only had an hour left before they got to head back to Pi’s for cake. Jin looked at the screen and read the message out loud, “Jin-kun, Ryo-chan, Pi-kun. Merry Christmas! Do you believe in true love? If you were to find them, would you spend Christmas with them? And what would you do?”
Ryo answered first, “I believe in it. And I’d definitely spend it with them. From morning to night! Take them out for dinner, give them their presents, then probably we’ll head back to my place and kiss for the rest of the time.”
Pi nodded and looked over at the shorter man, “Yea me too! And my Christmas date…it’d probably be something like Ryo-chan’s, or more special, like take them to the beach or something. And when we head back, there’d be a lot of hugging too, while a movie plays in the background,” he gave a laugh, “but we wouldn’t be paying any attention to it.”
The two looked at Jin who stared back, nostalgically before blinking, “Huh? Oh…I want to believe in true love but I’m not sure right now…don’t get me wrong! True love doesn’t seem to believe in me either, so we’re even!” The three of them shared a laugh, “If I were to find my true love, I’d definitely spend Christmas with them. Actually, I’d spend everyday with them if I could. We’d probably hang out somewhere, if there was anywhere special they wanted to go to, I’d take them there…and yea, I’d make it as special as possible for them.”
“That sounds nice,” Pi commented.
“Yea…”
“That wasn’t helpful at all!”
Ryo laughed, “that’s besides the point! What are we doing after this? We’re spending Christmas together this year, right?”
“That’s right, I bought the cake already! It’s huge, it’ll probably last us days!”
“You mean it’d last you a day, right?”
Jin looked over, “Ryo-chan, you got the movie right?”
“Of course, and did you buy the snacks?”
He paused, “…opps?”
The two looked over, “You didn’t buy the snacks!?”
“I…” Suddenly a phone call came in, the three looked around, he took the chance to use it as a distraction. “Oh! Looks like someone else is calling, let’s see who it is!” The call was relayed to their headphones, Jin adjusted his headset a little, “Hello, Merry Christmas! How can we help you today?”
There was silence.
The three of them blinked and looked at each other, “hello…?”
The silence continued, then there was a soft click.
Pi frowned, “It seems as though we just lost our caller, let’s see if we can get him back…” After a moment, they were told that the call couldn’t be traced as it was from a public phone. “…it seems we can’t reach him. Maybe he’ll call back later…well, whoever that was, we wish you a Merry Christmas!”
Ryo piped in, “And a happy new year!”
Jin gave a thoughtful look before another email was relayed to them, forcing all thoughts out of his head, he looked at the screen and continued the show, “Here’s another email. Dear Akanishi-kun, Yamashita-kun, and Nishikido-kun…”
-------------------------
As they were heading back to Pi’s apartment with snacks from vending machines as the stores were closed at that time. The three of them were walking closely, shivering from the cold, “why is it so cold!?”
Yamapi looked over and teased the other, “Because it’s December? Come on Ryo-chan, you’re supposed to be the smart…ter one.”
They continued walking. Jin couldn’t get his mind off the call that had been cut off. A million ‘what-ifs’ filled his mind. He sighed, watching his breath disappear into the night sky, “what if I never find him…?”
The two looked over, surprised. Pi spoke reassuringly, “Don’t worry Jin, you’ll find him for sure.”
“Huh?” He stared at his friend, unaware that he’d voiced his thoughts out loud.
“Kame-chan…you’ll find him for sure! We’ll help you look for him too, so don’t worry! Right, Ryo-chan? We want to find Kame-”
“Nashi too,” he nodded seriously, “we’ll find him, Jin. We’ll definitely find him so you can stop going insane now.”
Despite how he could no longer feel his fingers or nose due to the cold, his friend’s words warmed his heart and caused a smile to surface, “Thanks.”
Pi smiled, “What are mabudachi for?”
-------------------------
A Christmas cuddling threesome and several weeks later found them back in the studio. Jin continued to write his songs, continued going on talk shows which were still going crazy over how well his single was still selling. He had several more lined up that week, and even more the week after that.
He gave a sigh and slumped in the chair in front of his makeup table. Lucky for him, he had finished his filming for the day and after much persuasion, he managed to get the next day off in order to match his best friends’ off-day. There was a soft knock on the door, he looked over, “Come in.”
Much to his surprise, it was Pi who stepped in with a frown on his face. Something was wrong, he could tell. Pi never knocked on his door.
Worry ate away at him as he watched his friend, “Pi…what happened?”
“Ryo-chan got a call earlier and he ran out saying that he was going to take the rest of the day off.” Something in Jin’s mind clicked, something was definitely wrong. Ryo never skipped practice, especially not without a good reason. “And he’s not answering his phone…I’m worried.”
Jin got up and slung an arm around the other’s shoulders, “don’t worry too much about it Pi, he’ll call you later when he’s got the matter under control. He’s coming home tonight, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know, I hope so…”
“Well you know what,” he began packing his things, “I’m sleeping over tonight whether you want me to or not. We’ll wait for him together, okay?”
A small smile reached Yamapi’s face as he nodded, “Thanks Jin…”
The singer shook his head and returned the smile, “What are mabudachi for?”
-------------------------
So the two of them stayed up that night, watching movies new and old and playing games until their eyes began closing on their own accord.
Around three, there was a soft buzz from Pi’s phone, three-quarters asleep, the singer picked it up, “…hello? Ryo-chan? Are you alright? Where are you?”
A sullen voice replied him, “I’m coming home now…I’ll be back in fifteen minutes…bye.”
There was a click.
Beside him, Jin looked up, “Is he coming home?”
“Yea, he’ll be back soon.
“Ah…”
The two sat there in weary silence until there was a soft knock at the door, Pi got up and answered it. He couldn’t find the words to greet the devastated looking singer so he wrapped his arms around him, embracing him tightly. “…where’d you go?”
Ryo stepped in and kicked off his shoes, Jin stood by the hallway, watching. “I went back home.”
The taller two exchanged worried glances and led their friend to the couch, “what happened?”
The shorter man was trying to hold back his tears as he sat down between them, “Chibi died…I should’ve treated him better…but now he’s gone forever…”
They listened as he began sobbing, offering their comfort when they could. “Ryo-chan…”
“I don’t get why I’m crying…I mean, life goes on right? Even if someone precious to you goes away…life goes on, eventually I’ll forget this…I’ll laugh and smile again…I just can’t do it right now, that’s all. Life will go on…with or without Chibi…” He took hold of his friends' sleeves gently, “just…you two…you’re not allowed to go anywhere without my permission, okay?”
“We’re not going anywhere Ryo-chan, not anytime soon, and not without you,” Pi muttered, hugging the other from one side as Jin did the same from the other.
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Later that night, Ryo was the first to fall asleep, Pi soon followed after. Jin was slumped against the armrest, staring at the wall across from him as the younger two leaned against him, sound asleep. He thought about what Ryo was saying,
Life goes on…no matter what happens, life goes on…
With or without you.
Jin continued thinking about that statement until his eyelids grew heavy and refused to stay open.
Eventually, he drifted off to the sound of the other two’s even breathing.
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A/N: Whoo, managed to post! A long chapter too! ;D I'm yet another year older! Unfotunately, I'm not going to lie, this has been a terrible birthday week. Hopefully next week will be better... I'm wondering, should I split this fic up into two parts, like a sequel, or should I just make a long fic? Yea...anyways, thank yous commenters! 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// Chapter 6// Chapter 7// Chapter 8// Chapter 9
Chapter 10:
After that day, Jin made his way to the café right before they closed, whenever he could, which wasn't often, but he tried. He tried his best to keep his questions simple, yes-no questions to avoid stressing the waiters, who had all kindly agreed to go along with his game, out.
The bell twinkled as he walked in.
“Welcome.” Nodding his greetings to the owner and Koki, he took a seat. Taguchi looked over, “do you want coffee today?”
He shook his head, “no thanks, not today, I get to sleep in a little tomorrow. Have to go test out the stadium for the concert in the afternoon though.”
From what he’d gathered from his previous questions, the missing waiter was still alive and in Japan and that the other waiters saw him frequently. Also, he found out that the waiter hadn’t found someone else yet, which he had to admit, helped ease his anxiety by quite a bit.
“Your concert’s coming up in a couple days, hm?” Koki asked good-naturedly as he made his way over. “It’s all I see in the streets and on TV nowadays, everyone’s talking about it too.”
The singer nodded again. How these people managed to stay in a good mood after a long day of work was beyond amazing to him. “How is Kame today?”
The waiter blinked, “is that your question for today or are you just wondering?”
It’d been eating him up for quite awhile now, how the other was actually doing, whether he was happy or sad, lonely or enjoying himself. He gave a shrug, not wanting to bear the conscience of taking advantage of the other by asking two questions instead of just one, “I’ll use it as my question.”
“Well from what I heard earlier, he’s in a really good mood today, so I guess he’s doing pretty well today…?”
Jin gave a weary smile, “I’m relieved…hey,” he pulled out an envelope from his bag, “I know he told me not to contact him but…can you give this to him anyways? It’s not bugged or anything; it’s just me being a stupid rebellious idiot.”
The waiter gave a lopsided grin and nodded, “sure, consider it done.”
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To Kame,
I know you don’t want me to contact you but…
I’m going to find you,
No matter what it takes,
I’ll search for you until the end of time.
So keep the faith.
Yours truly,
Akanishi Jin
-------------------------
His concert was scheduled about two weeks before Christmas, all for marketing sake. After all, his single was going to come out a couple days after that. And what teenage girl wouldn’t die to get a limited edition of his single as a Christmas gift?
Brushing aside his thoughts, he continued practicing.
All the preparation had been made for his new release, all that was left was the first performance. He paused in his singing when there was a knock on the door. Looking over, he could see his manager standing there, “…yes?”
And behind his manager, he could see Pi and Ryo jumping around, trying to wave at him past the suited man. He suppressed his grin and looked up, pretending to pay attention to the man while watching the two from the corner of his eyes.
His manager fixed his tie and cleared his throat before he started, “The staff people were asking about the lip singing for this concert…”
“Oh…” he pursed his lips, “…do you think we could not have any lip singing for this concert?”
The other looked shocked, “I’m sorry, what?”
“I don’t want any lip singing for this concert.”
“But-”
Jin shook his head, “tell the staff that I’ll be doing all the singing for this one.”
After his disgruntle manager left, his best friends hopped into the room, “wow Jin, you’re going to sing through the whole concert?”
“Yea-”
Ryo tugged at their sleeves, “let’s talk about this over lunch, I’m starving.”
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Over lunch, Yamapi was still staring at him in wonder, “I still can’t believe you’re going to sing the whole time.”
Ryo nodded, unable to voice his opinions vocally due to the food stuffed in his mouth.
Jin shrugged, he thought about the VIP ticket that lay in his desk drawer and sighed. “This was supposed to be the first concert of mine that Kame went to…and now he’s god knows where…”
He had it all planned out too. The waiter would’ve sat up in the VIP seats with Ryo and Pi to keep him company. Half way through, he would’ve dragged his friends down to perform with him, then the four of them could’ve fooled around backstage, eating gifts and reading his fan mail out loud to him.
Pi frowned, not really liking his friend in such a depressed state. He place a slice of his meat into the other’s bowl, then grabbed one of Ryo’s and stuffed it in his own mouth. The shorter man glared at him, mouth still full of ramen.
The singer laughed, “You guys are coming right?” The two nodded, “then we’re doing that weird radio Christmas thing, right?” They nodded again, “good, at least I’ll have you guys to keep me company.”
“Hm…”
Suddenly Ryo jumped away with a scream, the two stared at him, Pi’s finger hanging in midair where the other’s leg was a moment ago. The eldest blinked, “what’s wrong Ryo-chan?”
“There was a bug on my leg!”
Yamapi stuck his lips out and wiggled his fingers a couple times.
Jin gave a grin, “You mean Pi’s fingers? I think he was trying to be suggestive before you did that…manly scream and jump away thing of yours.”
“Are you alright, Ryo-chan?” the younger singer asked with a snigger.
Ryo moved his chair away from the younger singer and sat back down, sulking a bit, “just leave me alone, you jerks.”
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Time passed by amazingly fast, and before he knew it, the day of the concert arrived. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he went through the final preparations one last time. The audience began pouring in by the hundreds to watch him. It was a feeling he never got tired of, the excitement of performing in front of thousands of people, hearing their cheers and applause.
He took a breath and stepped onto the stage, singing, after the announcer called him out.
The crowd roared.
Stealing a glance up to where the VIP seats were, he suppressed a sigh. Ryo and Pi were sitting there with large grins on their faces, so close to perfection, yet so far… He could imagine Kame sitting up there with excitement that would rival his own.
Jin took another deep breath before the chorus came back.
If you’re not here directly, I’ll at least make sure my voice reaches you.
-------------------------
Near the end of the concert, he stood up there with Ryo and Pi on the stage with him, he gripped the mike hard. His throat was sore from singing and his body was sore from dancing and running around, but it was also refreshing. He began to speak, “these next songs are actually going to be on my newest single which will be out in a few days so please buy it. Here’s Kizuna and Care.”
Jin could feel his friends watching him as he closed his eyes, body moving to the music as he began to sing.
Suddenly, he couldn’t hear the crowd anymore; he couldn’t hear the music that blasted in his ears.
Everything had gone silent.
He kept his eyes shut.
During those few minutes, all he could see was Kame’s smile, all he could hear was the other’s voice, quietly singing with him.
He raised his pinky to his heart,
“That time, that place, this bond won’t disappear.”
-------------------------
When he opened his eyes again, Kame disappeared once more and everything came rushing back so hard, he could do nothing but concentrate on keeping his balance. Fortunately for him, he didn’t get much time to let the sadness set in.
The next thing he knew, Ryo and Pi had their arms slung around him, the youngest singer looked over with a mike in his hand and laughed, “Wow Jin, you looked so passionate there! I could feel my heart pounding in my chest really hard! It was like doki-doki!”
A grin reached his lips, “what are you talking about? I’m always passionate when I sing!”
“I think Ryo-chan was about ready to cry when you finished singing that song!”
The shorter man looked over with a frown, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, “I was not!” They laughed. “But yea, I’ve never seen Jin quite that passionate before, it was amazing! I guess even you have your cool moments every now and then. Crap, now that I’ve seen you singing like this, I have to go and buy the CD!”
Pi raised his free hand, “Me too! Actually, I think everyone’s going to have to now, how can anyone say no after watching that?”
They were doing their best to cheer him up, he could tell. As the days passed by, he could feel his gratitude for them growing and growing. Honestly, he didn’t know where he’d be without his friends.
They were his most valuable assets.
He slung his arms around the two with a wide grin as the audience cheered, “You two are the best,” he said away from the mike.
Ryo blinked and looked over confused, “what!? I can’t hear you!”
Pi just grinned and tightened his grip on shoulder.
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After the concert, the days continued to pass. On the day before the releasing of his single, he walked into the café after filming a talk show and smiled at the waiter. It was Nakamaru there today. He noted that he hadn’t seen Ueda in a long time. Despite how they had come to more or less and understanding of one another that day, they still didn’t get along.
“Hello, busy day hm? Taguchi’s out today. Coffee?”
“Oh…yes please,” he sat down and stared at the empty seats around him and across from him. Suddenly it felt kind of lonely, not having anyone sitting in front of him or standing by him. He missed being surrounded by the waiter, having information pried out of him effortlessly. “Hey…can you do me a favor?”
Nakamaru looked over from the counter where he was currently making his cup of fresh coffee. “Sure, what is it?”
Jin took out the CD from his bag, the cover was simple,
Kizuna/Care
Akanishi Jin
And there was a card attached to it. He handed it over to the waiter, “can you…”
He set the cup down in front of the other, “Give this to Kame-chan? Sure.”
“It’s the first very first limited edition copy, I managed to steal it today,” he grinned, quite proud of himself.
The waiter laughed, “You had to steal your own CD?”
“You’d be surprised at how stingy the company is.”
Nakamaru gave a kind smile and took the two items, “I’ll make sure this gets to him.”
“And…”
The elder looked at him, “Yea?”
“I don’t know how to ask this…” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Kame…he won’t be lonely this Christmas, will he?”
Again, he was given a kind smile, “Don’t worry, he’ll be spending Christmas with his family this year.”
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To Kame,
This would’ve never happened if it wasn’t for you.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you,
Akanishi Jin
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The days continued to pass, and his singles continued to get sold out within the first few hours of the day. Finally, when Christmas arrived, the three singers found themselves trapped in a radio broadcasting room.
“Hello, welcome to this year’s Christmas radio marathon special, we’re about to start. This is Akanishi Jin.”
“Yamashita Tomohisa.”
“And Nishikido Ryo.”
The three grinned at each other as Jin spoke into the mike again, “just to tease you for a bit, we’ll make you wait for more, after these commercials.” During the first commercial break, the staff brought in snacks for them to munch on while they waited.
Ryo and Jin quickly grabbed a couple before Pi could demolish the whole thing.
A moment later, the youngest singer took his phone out and took a picture of it and updated his journal before digging in. “This is really good!” The other two took a bite of the snacks they managed to grab and immediately nodded in agreement.
By the time he finished what was in his hands, the commercials had ended. Jin leaned towards the mike, “and we’re back!”
Across the table, Pi blinked and picked something up, “hey look, mistletoe!”
He laughed and looked up, “if you’re going to talk, at least talk into the mike!”
“I found mistletoe!” the youngest singer announced into the mike, “Merry Christmas!” He made a wet kissy noise into the mike, “Jin, Ryo-chan, you guys do it too! Give a kiss to the fans.”
The two laughed and followed his example, Ryo had a grin on his face, “anyways, let’s start this-Pi, stop eating!”
“But I’m almost done!”
“You’re almost done!? Give me that!”
“No! It’s the last one!”
Jin watched as they fought for the last piece, which, of course, Pi ended up eating, “can we start now? The listeners can hear you fighting you know…anyways, ignoring those two, please call in or email us with anything and everything! We’ll be here for a long time so please talk to us!”
-------------------------
As the radio show continued, it was almost midnight, and they only had an hour left before they got to head back to Pi’s for cake. Jin looked at the screen and read the message out loud, “Jin-kun, Ryo-chan, Pi-kun. Merry Christmas! Do you believe in true love? If you were to find them, would you spend Christmas with them? And what would you do?”
Ryo answered first, “I believe in it. And I’d definitely spend it with them. From morning to night! Take them out for dinner, give them their presents, then probably we’ll head back to my place and kiss for the rest of the time.”
Pi nodded and looked over at the shorter man, “Yea me too! And my Christmas date…it’d probably be something like Ryo-chan’s, or more special, like take them to the beach or something. And when we head back, there’d be a lot of hugging too, while a movie plays in the background,” he gave a laugh, “but we wouldn’t be paying any attention to it.”
The two looked at Jin who stared back, nostalgically before blinking, “Huh? Oh…I want to believe in true love but I’m not sure right now…don’t get me wrong! True love doesn’t seem to believe in me either, so we’re even!” The three of them shared a laugh, “If I were to find my true love, I’d definitely spend Christmas with them. Actually, I’d spend everyday with them if I could. We’d probably hang out somewhere, if there was anywhere special they wanted to go to, I’d take them there…and yea, I’d make it as special as possible for them.”
“That sounds nice,” Pi commented.
“Yea…”
“That wasn’t helpful at all!”
Ryo laughed, “that’s besides the point! What are we doing after this? We’re spending Christmas together this year, right?”
“That’s right, I bought the cake already! It’s huge, it’ll probably last us days!”
“You mean it’d last you a day, right?”
Jin looked over, “Ryo-chan, you got the movie right?”
“Of course, and did you buy the snacks?”
He paused, “…opps?”
The two looked over, “You didn’t buy the snacks!?”
“I…” Suddenly a phone call came in, the three looked around, he took the chance to use it as a distraction. “Oh! Looks like someone else is calling, let’s see who it is!” The call was relayed to their headphones, Jin adjusted his headset a little, “Hello, Merry Christmas! How can we help you today?”
There was silence.
The three of them blinked and looked at each other, “hello…?”
The silence continued, then there was a soft click.
Pi frowned, “It seems as though we just lost our caller, let’s see if we can get him back…” After a moment, they were told that the call couldn’t be traced as it was from a public phone. “…it seems we can’t reach him. Maybe he’ll call back later…well, whoever that was, we wish you a Merry Christmas!”
Ryo piped in, “And a happy new year!”
Jin gave a thoughtful look before another email was relayed to them, forcing all thoughts out of his head, he looked at the screen and continued the show, “Here’s another email. Dear Akanishi-kun, Yamashita-kun, and Nishikido-kun…”
-------------------------
As they were heading back to Pi’s apartment with snacks from vending machines as the stores were closed at that time. The three of them were walking closely, shivering from the cold, “why is it so cold!?”
Yamapi looked over and teased the other, “Because it’s December? Come on Ryo-chan, you’re supposed to be the smart…ter one.”
They continued walking. Jin couldn’t get his mind off the call that had been cut off. A million ‘what-ifs’ filled his mind. He sighed, watching his breath disappear into the night sky, “what if I never find him…?”
The two looked over, surprised. Pi spoke reassuringly, “Don’t worry Jin, you’ll find him for sure.”
“Huh?” He stared at his friend, unaware that he’d voiced his thoughts out loud.
“Kame-chan…you’ll find him for sure! We’ll help you look for him too, so don’t worry! Right, Ryo-chan? We want to find Kame-”
“Nashi too,” he nodded seriously, “we’ll find him, Jin. We’ll definitely find him so you can stop going insane now.”
Despite how he could no longer feel his fingers or nose due to the cold, his friend’s words warmed his heart and caused a smile to surface, “Thanks.”
Pi smiled, “What are mabudachi for?”
-------------------------
A Christmas cuddling threesome and several weeks later found them back in the studio. Jin continued to write his songs, continued going on talk shows which were still going crazy over how well his single was still selling. He had several more lined up that week, and even more the week after that.
He gave a sigh and slumped in the chair in front of his makeup table. Lucky for him, he had finished his filming for the day and after much persuasion, he managed to get the next day off in order to match his best friends’ off-day. There was a soft knock on the door, he looked over, “Come in.”
Much to his surprise, it was Pi who stepped in with a frown on his face. Something was wrong, he could tell. Pi never knocked on his door.
Worry ate away at him as he watched his friend, “Pi…what happened?”
“Ryo-chan got a call earlier and he ran out saying that he was going to take the rest of the day off.” Something in Jin’s mind clicked, something was definitely wrong. Ryo never skipped practice, especially not without a good reason. “And he’s not answering his phone…I’m worried.”
Jin got up and slung an arm around the other’s shoulders, “don’t worry too much about it Pi, he’ll call you later when he’s got the matter under control. He’s coming home tonight, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know, I hope so…”
“Well you know what,” he began packing his things, “I’m sleeping over tonight whether you want me to or not. We’ll wait for him together, okay?”
A small smile reached Yamapi’s face as he nodded, “Thanks Jin…”
The singer shook his head and returned the smile, “What are mabudachi for?”
-------------------------
So the two of them stayed up that night, watching movies new and old and playing games until their eyes began closing on their own accord.
Around three, there was a soft buzz from Pi’s phone, three-quarters asleep, the singer picked it up, “…hello? Ryo-chan? Are you alright? Where are you?”
A sullen voice replied him, “I’m coming home now…I’ll be back in fifteen minutes…bye.”
There was a click.
Beside him, Jin looked up, “Is he coming home?”
“Yea, he’ll be back soon.
“Ah…”
The two sat there in weary silence until there was a soft knock at the door, Pi got up and answered it. He couldn’t find the words to greet the devastated looking singer so he wrapped his arms around him, embracing him tightly. “…where’d you go?”
Ryo stepped in and kicked off his shoes, Jin stood by the hallway, watching. “I went back home.”
The taller two exchanged worried glances and led their friend to the couch, “what happened?”
The shorter man was trying to hold back his tears as he sat down between them, “Chibi died…I should’ve treated him better…but now he’s gone forever…”
They listened as he began sobbing, offering their comfort when they could. “Ryo-chan…”
“I don’t get why I’m crying…I mean, life goes on right? Even if someone precious to you goes away…life goes on, eventually I’ll forget this…I’ll laugh and smile again…I just can’t do it right now, that’s all. Life will go on…with or without Chibi…” He took hold of his friends' sleeves gently, “just…you two…you’re not allowed to go anywhere without my permission, okay?”
“We’re not going anywhere Ryo-chan, not anytime soon, and not without you,” Pi muttered, hugging the other from one side as Jin did the same from the other.
-------------------------
Later that night, Ryo was the first to fall asleep, Pi soon followed after. Jin was slumped against the armrest, staring at the wall across from him as the younger two leaned against him, sound asleep. He thought about what Ryo was saying,
Life goes on…no matter what happens, life goes on…
With or without you.
Jin continued thinking about that statement until his eyelids grew heavy and refused to stay open.
Eventually, he drifted off to the sound of the other two’s even breathing.
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A/N: Whoo, managed to post! A long chapter too! ;D I'm yet another year older! Unfotunately, I'm not going to lie, this has been a terrible birthday week. Hopefully next week will be better... I'm wondering, should I split this fic up into two parts, like a sequel, or should I just make a long fic? Yea...anyways, thank yous commenters! Enjoy!