[JE] Enlightenment
Title: Enlightenment
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff
Word count: 2,000
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit.
Summary: Jin's emotions are usually on display for everyone to see, but now they're in colour, too.
lip_stick_love and maya_morning, I did warn you guys this was a silly little bit of fluff that doesn't go anywhere, didn't I? I wasn't kidding.
Enlightenment
Jin didn't realise he had a small lightbulb hovering above him until Junno, whose line of sight was slightly higher than everyone else's, pointed it out. Jin promptly checked himself in the studio's mirror; sure enough, there it was, a tiny bulb hanging six inches over his head and glowing faintly scarlet.
Kame studied it carefully. "This isn't some new, elaborate kind of hat, is it? Because I think you can do better."
"It's not a hat!" Jin yelled, and they all watched the bulb brighten till the red blazed.
Ueda tried to knock it aside, but his glove went straight through. "Some sort of projection?" he offered.
"If it's a projection, how come it keeps following me?" Jin paced in front of the mirror, back and forth, back and forth, but the damned thing just would not go away.
"Maybe it's haunting you," Koki teased. "What did you do to upset a lightbulb?"
The mere mention of hauntings sent a shiver down Jin's spine, but he brushed the thought away. After all, who'd ever heard of a ghost of a lightbulb?
Nakamaru frowned. "I don't think it's an undead lightbulb. Try leaving the room again and see if it goes too?"
The moment Jin stepped outside the studio, KT-TUN moved as one man to block the door.
"Hey!"
They ignored his cries of protest. Then they ignored his thumps on the door. (Jin was strong, but there was no way he could shift all five of them at once.) When everything went silent from the other side, Kame peered out to find Jin sitting on the floor, eyes closed, knees tucked under his chin. The bulb was now a dark blue.
"You can't tell me you didn't know we were going to do that," Kame said. "Stop sulking and come back so we can figure out what to do before the photographer gets here."
"It's a good thing he called to say he's running late," Koki added, and Jin looked up from his knees just in time to see Koki spooning up behind Kame in the doorway, practically breathing down his neck.
The lightbulb began to morph from blue to pale green, pausing on a pleasantly minty shade. That gave Kame an idea. He whispered it to Koki, making sure to give Jin a good view of his lips just barely grazing the skin, and finished off by blowing gently in Koki's ear.
When the mint gave way to grass green, Kame knew he was right. Just to make sure, he grabbed Koki's hand, tugging it round his waist. Koki improvised the next part, slipping the other arm round to draw Kame back against his chest.
Now the lightbulb wasn't just green, it was flashing, and Jin's eyes were seething.
Kame took pity on him. "Congratulations," he said, stepping away from Koki. "You have a flying mood ring."
-----
There were definite disadvantages, Jin found, to having a lightbulb broadcasting his emotions. At least it could only be seen by the other members of KAT-TUN. They discovered this when the photographer entered unexpectedly and didn't notice a thing, and when Yamapi materialised to gatecrash a late lunch, he didn't see anything either. Of course, this might have been because he was staring so intently at his food, but still...
Kame thought it was weird, but incredibly useful. "Next time you go completely blank while we're filming, we'll be able to tell how you're feeling!"
"I wonder what colour 'boredom' is?" Ueda speculated.
"That's not fair! You guys are cheating!"
"Better watch out, he's getting angry!" Koki pointed to the reddening bulb.
Nakamaru looked up from his textbook. "I don't think we needed the lightbulb to tell us that..."
Even Junno found the strange little light useful, since he could tell when Jin was getting irritated with him and likely to start becoming abusive. It didn't help him dodge the rest of the group, but it was a start.
For Koki, it provided an excellent early warning system to help him gauge just how far he could take his flirting with Kame before he had to start running for his life. When he felt like taking risks, he'd push all the way to emerald green...but if the light began to flash, it was GAME OVER.
After one particularly severe incident, Jin had managed to get them all barred from his favourite Italian restaurant and there were several other patrons complaining of hearing damage.
"I appreciate that you're having fun playing with this," Kame said to Koki afterwards, "but if you ever start talking about your fantasies of me in a public place again, it won't be Jin you'll have to worry about."
As Koki didn't feel inclined to do battle with Kame's hard-earned muscle, he figured he'd better keep all those beautiful but graphic dreams about teasing Kame with his tongue-piercing to himself.
Then there was the 'Cartoon KAT-TUN Theme Park Special!', where the six of them had to divide up into three teams and search Tokyo Disneyland for clues hidden by the crew. For some of them, they had to go on rides before park staff at the end would present them with a piece of paper with a clue to the next location. For others, they simply had to visit a particular shop or restaurant, or track down a certain Disney character and talk to them.
The day started off well, with Kame emerging from Space Mountain looking slightly sick but happy that he'd managed to get through it, earning his team a clue. Jin's bulb remained irritatingly neutral, but when he and Kame ran into Minnie Mouse and she handed them their next clue, it flushed pink.
"I think she's adorable too," Kame agreed as they walked away.
Jin looked back, glancing over to where Minnie was talking to one of the other park employees - this one a pretty half-Japanese girl - and the faintest hints of purple began to creep in.
"You think Minnie Mouse is hot?" Kame said, surprised.
The bulb didn't go red but Jin's face sure did. "No, I do *not* think Minnie Mouse is hot," he hissed. "Stop reading me. We're on camera!"
"Because it's okay, you know, if you think she is. Even when you haven't been drinking."
"KAME!"
A fangirl with a video camera popped out of the bushes. "Can you do that again?" she said. "Scream his name? A little more needy-sounding, if you can."
It was at this point that they established that 'embarrassment' was mauve.
After lunch, where the food had come with a) a pair of Donald Duck stickers, b) a clue and c) the waitress's phone number, their next port of call was the Haunted Mansion. Jin wasn't looking forward to it much. Under any other circumstances, he'd have been happy to be sitting in the darkness with Kame, but riding in the slow-moving car through a house of ghosts - even fake ones - while a voice droned on from the speakers, telling them in great detail exactly what was scary about each room, was not high on his list of favourite activities.
And of course, they were being filmed. They got to jump the queue, which meant Jin was spared the torment of standing out in the graveyard and listening to the wails of the unquiet dead, but he had to wait inside while the crew rigged up the camera for their car. He fidgeted over in the corner, not really paying attention to the explanation they were being given, trying to ignore the dim lighting, spooky sound effects and unearthly chill.
"Time to go," Kame said. "Don't even think about closing your eyes in there; I need you to help me look for our next clue. Keep an eye out for a white card, okay?"
"You've got to be kidding me." Jin scratched his arm and wished he'd worn a warmer shirt. "Why do I have to go in?"
Kame smirked. "How many rollercoasters did you make me go on? Consider this my revenge." He glanced up at Jin's lightbulb, which was dimming from neutral white to sickly grey. "Is that fear?"
-----
By the time they were half-way through the house, the pale grey had given way to charcoal. Jin didn't mind haunted houses so much where he could walk through and run out the door if he wanted to, but ones where he was stuck crawling along in a vehicle were intolerable. If something made him jump, it was all there on camera; if he saw or heard things that made him uneasy, he was trapped with them until the car moved onto the next room. He was being forced to deal with it all at someone else's pace, and he didn't like it one bit.
He pushed closer to Kame on the seat, heedless of the camera in front of them, and felt marginally calmer for the contact. The glowing red eyes in the wall of the study wouldn't allow his nerves to untangle too much, though.
Kame sneaked a quick look at the bulb, which made him retract his earlier warning. "If it's freaking you out that badly, just close your eyes," he whispered. "I'll look for the clue."
"You got through the rollercoasters," Jin forced out between clenched teeth. "At least the Haunted Mansion doesn't make me feel sick."
He resolved to keep his eyes open, succeeding even when they passed the mirrors that made it appear that there was a spectre in the car with them, but when a grisly skeleton suddenly dropped down mere inches from his face he had to turn away, only just remembering in time that it probably wasn't a good idea for him to bury his face in the folds of Kame's shirt while they were being filmed.
Kame leaned across to pluck the card dangling from the skeleton's hand, patting Jin on the arm. "Nearly there."
Kame's hand was cold; Jin jumped halfway out the car, knocked the camera askew, and spent the rest of the ride trying to get it back into position. At least it stopped him noticing the ghosts.
-----
The lightbulb was responsible for other awkward moments too, principally because it made it very difficult to tell a convincing lie. When Nakamaru asked Jin if he would have time to help him with some English preparation that evening, Jin said he'd be happy to do it...but the bulb glowed faintly red with irritation, which Nakamaru couldn't help but notice. It wasn't that Jin had any plans for the evening, but he wasn't in the mood to stay in and study.
Similarly, when they next had a cooking contest on the show and Jin was one of the judges, he was supposed to say the guest's tasted best. Which he did, even though there was so much salt in it that he nearly choked. He managed to keep his true feelings from his face...but the bulb glowed a garish orange, causing the other members to burst out laughing for no apparent reason. Worse still, when Jin tasted Kame's dishes, it went from orange to purple.
"Later," Kame murmured, voice sultry, and Jin wished the studio floor would open up and swallow him. It was one thing for the other members to know he was seeing Kame, but for them to know exactly when he wanted Kame, and just how badly, was more than a little humiliating.
There were benefits too, though. When Jin's bulb was blue, everyone was extra-nice to him, and when he showed up for work with an orange lightbulb and a badly-concealed fever, they covered for him as best they could. Jin was starting to adjust to having his emotions even more visible than usual...but there was one aspect of the situation he was never going to get used to.
"Why do you keep stopping?" he asked after Kame had broken off a kiss for the nth time.
Kame grinned sheepishly and pressed Jin back against the pillows, giving him a better view of the rapidly-darkening purple bulb. "Checking out the lightbulb. I'm trying to keep an eye on our progress!"
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff
Word count: 2,000
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit.
Summary: Jin's emotions are usually on display for everyone to see, but now they're in colour, too.
lip_stick_love and maya_morning, I did warn you guys this was a silly little bit of fluff that doesn't go anywhere, didn't I? I wasn't kidding.
Enlightenment
Jin didn't realise he had a small lightbulb hovering above him until Junno, whose line of sight was slightly higher than everyone else's, pointed it out. Jin promptly checked himself in the studio's mirror; sure enough, there it was, a tiny bulb hanging six inches over his head and glowing faintly scarlet.
Kame studied it carefully. "This isn't some new, elaborate kind of hat, is it? Because I think you can do better."
"It's not a hat!" Jin yelled, and they all watched the bulb brighten till the red blazed.
Ueda tried to knock it aside, but his glove went straight through. "Some sort of projection?" he offered.
"If it's a projection, how come it keeps following me?" Jin paced in front of the mirror, back and forth, back and forth, but the damned thing just would not go away.
"Maybe it's haunting you," Koki teased. "What did you do to upset a lightbulb?"
The mere mention of hauntings sent a shiver down Jin's spine, but he brushed the thought away. After all, who'd ever heard of a ghost of a lightbulb?
Nakamaru frowned. "I don't think it's an undead lightbulb. Try leaving the room again and see if it goes too?"
The moment Jin stepped outside the studio, KT-TUN moved as one man to block the door.
"Hey!"
They ignored his cries of protest. Then they ignored his thumps on the door. (Jin was strong, but there was no way he could shift all five of them at once.) When everything went silent from the other side, Kame peered out to find Jin sitting on the floor, eyes closed, knees tucked under his chin. The bulb was now a dark blue.
"You can't tell me you didn't know we were going to do that," Kame said. "Stop sulking and come back so we can figure out what to do before the photographer gets here."
"It's a good thing he called to say he's running late," Koki added, and Jin looked up from his knees just in time to see Koki spooning up behind Kame in the doorway, practically breathing down his neck.
The lightbulb began to morph from blue to pale green, pausing on a pleasantly minty shade. That gave Kame an idea. He whispered it to Koki, making sure to give Jin a good view of his lips just barely grazing the skin, and finished off by blowing gently in Koki's ear.
When the mint gave way to grass green, Kame knew he was right. Just to make sure, he grabbed Koki's hand, tugging it round his waist. Koki improvised the next part, slipping the other arm round to draw Kame back against his chest.
Now the lightbulb wasn't just green, it was flashing, and Jin's eyes were seething.
Kame took pity on him. "Congratulations," he said, stepping away from Koki. "You have a flying mood ring."
-----
There were definite disadvantages, Jin found, to having a lightbulb broadcasting his emotions. At least it could only be seen by the other members of KAT-TUN. They discovered this when the photographer entered unexpectedly and didn't notice a thing, and when Yamapi materialised to gatecrash a late lunch, he didn't see anything either. Of course, this might have been because he was staring so intently at his food, but still...
Kame thought it was weird, but incredibly useful. "Next time you go completely blank while we're filming, we'll be able to tell how you're feeling!"
"I wonder what colour 'boredom' is?" Ueda speculated.
"That's not fair! You guys are cheating!"
"Better watch out, he's getting angry!" Koki pointed to the reddening bulb.
Nakamaru looked up from his textbook. "I don't think we needed the lightbulb to tell us that..."
Even Junno found the strange little light useful, since he could tell when Jin was getting irritated with him and likely to start becoming abusive. It didn't help him dodge the rest of the group, but it was a start.
For Koki, it provided an excellent early warning system to help him gauge just how far he could take his flirting with Kame before he had to start running for his life. When he felt like taking risks, he'd push all the way to emerald green...but if the light began to flash, it was GAME OVER.
After one particularly severe incident, Jin had managed to get them all barred from his favourite Italian restaurant and there were several other patrons complaining of hearing damage.
"I appreciate that you're having fun playing with this," Kame said to Koki afterwards, "but if you ever start talking about your fantasies of me in a public place again, it won't be Jin you'll have to worry about."
As Koki didn't feel inclined to do battle with Kame's hard-earned muscle, he figured he'd better keep all those beautiful but graphic dreams about teasing Kame with his tongue-piercing to himself.
Then there was the 'Cartoon KAT-TUN Theme Park Special!', where the six of them had to divide up into three teams and search Tokyo Disneyland for clues hidden by the crew. For some of them, they had to go on rides before park staff at the end would present them with a piece of paper with a clue to the next location. For others, they simply had to visit a particular shop or restaurant, or track down a certain Disney character and talk to them.
The day started off well, with Kame emerging from Space Mountain looking slightly sick but happy that he'd managed to get through it, earning his team a clue. Jin's bulb remained irritatingly neutral, but when he and Kame ran into Minnie Mouse and she handed them their next clue, it flushed pink.
"I think she's adorable too," Kame agreed as they walked away.
Jin looked back, glancing over to where Minnie was talking to one of the other park employees - this one a pretty half-Japanese girl - and the faintest hints of purple began to creep in.
"You think Minnie Mouse is hot?" Kame said, surprised.
The bulb didn't go red but Jin's face sure did. "No, I do *not* think Minnie Mouse is hot," he hissed. "Stop reading me. We're on camera!"
"Because it's okay, you know, if you think she is. Even when you haven't been drinking."
"KAME!"
A fangirl with a video camera popped out of the bushes. "Can you do that again?" she said. "Scream his name? A little more needy-sounding, if you can."
It was at this point that they established that 'embarrassment' was mauve.
After lunch, where the food had come with a) a pair of Donald Duck stickers, b) a clue and c) the waitress's phone number, their next port of call was the Haunted Mansion. Jin wasn't looking forward to it much. Under any other circumstances, he'd have been happy to be sitting in the darkness with Kame, but riding in the slow-moving car through a house of ghosts - even fake ones - while a voice droned on from the speakers, telling them in great detail exactly what was scary about each room, was not high on his list of favourite activities.
And of course, they were being filmed. They got to jump the queue, which meant Jin was spared the torment of standing out in the graveyard and listening to the wails of the unquiet dead, but he had to wait inside while the crew rigged up the camera for their car. He fidgeted over in the corner, not really paying attention to the explanation they were being given, trying to ignore the dim lighting, spooky sound effects and unearthly chill.
"Time to go," Kame said. "Don't even think about closing your eyes in there; I need you to help me look for our next clue. Keep an eye out for a white card, okay?"
"You've got to be kidding me." Jin scratched his arm and wished he'd worn a warmer shirt. "Why do I have to go in?"
Kame smirked. "How many rollercoasters did you make me go on? Consider this my revenge." He glanced up at Jin's lightbulb, which was dimming from neutral white to sickly grey. "Is that fear?"
-----
By the time they were half-way through the house, the pale grey had given way to charcoal. Jin didn't mind haunted houses so much where he could walk through and run out the door if he wanted to, but ones where he was stuck crawling along in a vehicle were intolerable. If something made him jump, it was all there on camera; if he saw or heard things that made him uneasy, he was trapped with them until the car moved onto the next room. He was being forced to deal with it all at someone else's pace, and he didn't like it one bit.
He pushed closer to Kame on the seat, heedless of the camera in front of them, and felt marginally calmer for the contact. The glowing red eyes in the wall of the study wouldn't allow his nerves to untangle too much, though.
Kame sneaked a quick look at the bulb, which made him retract his earlier warning. "If it's freaking you out that badly, just close your eyes," he whispered. "I'll look for the clue."
"You got through the rollercoasters," Jin forced out between clenched teeth. "At least the Haunted Mansion doesn't make me feel sick."
He resolved to keep his eyes open, succeeding even when they passed the mirrors that made it appear that there was a spectre in the car with them, but when a grisly skeleton suddenly dropped down mere inches from his face he had to turn away, only just remembering in time that it probably wasn't a good idea for him to bury his face in the folds of Kame's shirt while they were being filmed.
Kame leaned across to pluck the card dangling from the skeleton's hand, patting Jin on the arm. "Nearly there."
Kame's hand was cold; Jin jumped halfway out the car, knocked the camera askew, and spent the rest of the ride trying to get it back into position. At least it stopped him noticing the ghosts.
-----
The lightbulb was responsible for other awkward moments too, principally because it made it very difficult to tell a convincing lie. When Nakamaru asked Jin if he would have time to help him with some English preparation that evening, Jin said he'd be happy to do it...but the bulb glowed faintly red with irritation, which Nakamaru couldn't help but notice. It wasn't that Jin had any plans for the evening, but he wasn't in the mood to stay in and study.
Similarly, when they next had a cooking contest on the show and Jin was one of the judges, he was supposed to say the guest's tasted best. Which he did, even though there was so much salt in it that he nearly choked. He managed to keep his true feelings from his face...but the bulb glowed a garish orange, causing the other members to burst out laughing for no apparent reason. Worse still, when Jin tasted Kame's dishes, it went from orange to purple.
"Later," Kame murmured, voice sultry, and Jin wished the studio floor would open up and swallow him. It was one thing for the other members to know he was seeing Kame, but for them to know exactly when he wanted Kame, and just how badly, was more than a little humiliating.
There were benefits too, though. When Jin's bulb was blue, everyone was extra-nice to him, and when he showed up for work with an orange lightbulb and a badly-concealed fever, they covered for him as best they could. Jin was starting to adjust to having his emotions even more visible than usual...but there was one aspect of the situation he was never going to get used to.
"Why do you keep stopping?" he asked after Kame had broken off a kiss for the nth time.
Kame grinned sheepishly and pressed Jin back against the pillows, giving him a better view of the rapidly-darkening purple bulb. "Checking out the lightbulb. I'm trying to keep an eye on our progress!"