[JE] [FAIRY] Sleeping Beauty: Akame-style
Title: Sleeping Beauty: Akame-style
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG
Genre: Crack, fluff, angst
Words: 5900
Disclaimer: I don't own any of them, dammit.
Summary: Thanks to a curse placed on him by a wicked fairy, an exhausted Jin Akanishi won't be waking up after his twenty-third birthday. Can Kame set things right?
Author's Note: Once again, comment conversation with Matchy -> plotbunny -> fic. In this case, the idea that Jin's survival was dependent on Kame. I took the idea and ran with it - slowly, because I've done something to my back - so if it turned out weirder than usual, blame it on the painkillers. It's sort of Sleeping Beauty with a few aspects of Card Captor Sakura in there (Touya/Yukito, anyone?).
Sleeping Beauty: Akame-style
When Jin Akanishi was born, there was much rejoicing on the mortal plane. His parents were delighted, and friends and family alike joined them in celebration.
But if one were to close their eyes and keep very still, listening attentively to the sound between one heartbeat and the next, they might catch a few scraps of the celebration that took place on the spiritual plane. A dozen fairies clustered round the cradle where the infant Jin lay asleep, and they spoke words unheard by his mother, who rested near him.
And the first fairy's words were this.
"Good looks," she said, pressing an ethereal hand to the baby's forehead and smacking her lips in a self-satisfied way. "Every little boy appreciates those sooner or later - first when he wants to charm his way out of trouble by giving some older woman the puppy-dog eyes, and then when he discovers girls." She paused, then added, "Or boys. Doesn't do to make assumptions, these days. Not like the Middle Ages, when you could usually be certain they were going to grow up and look for a princess to marry..."
The second fairy rolled his eyes. "Our esteemed colleague opts to give young Jin Akanishi the gift of 'good looks'. I favour something more practical." He laid a gentle hand on the baby's tiny throat and said, "Beautiful singing voice. Even when his looks fade, he'll still be able to give something to the world."
The third fairy, who was wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt, grinned widely. "And when his voice goes, he should have a little something left." She touched her hands to the baby's, saying, "Guitar skills." A couple of the other fairies nodded appreciatively at this.
A sporty-looking fairy who looked as though he'd rushed over from a football match (which indeed, he had) laid his hands on young Jin's legs. "Athletic ability," he rumbled out. "Can't neglect the physical side of things."
The fifth fairy snorted. "I thought we'd decided he was going to be a musician. Be a bit more specific when you give physical gifts, all right? Like," she caught the baby's hips between two ghostly fingers, "really impressive hip rolls."
"Doesn't 'athletic ability' cover that?" the sixth fairy asked.
"Too general," said the fifth.
"Oh." That shut the sixth up for a moment, but he came back with, "If everyone else is going to be so shallow as to think only of this boy's body, I suppose I'll have to take care of his soul." He laid his palm flat over Jin's chest and whispered, "A gentle heart."
Everyone else was impressed by this and wished they'd thought of it first. All except the seventh fairy, who thought that all boys needed a healthy dose of aggression in their lives. She gave him a temper, in case he turned out to be an athletic, musical wimp with a gentle soul.
From the eighth, Jin received courage; from the ninth, determination. The tenth fairy gave him a sense of humour, and the eleventh followed it up with the gift of integrity.
The ceremony was nearly complete. One more fairy to go, and the full dozen would disappear into the glorious, sunny July afternoon, leaving the infant Jin Akanishi endowed with a wealth of presents that would serve him all his life.
Just as the twelfth fairy was about to bestow his gift, a thirteenth fairy appeared at the baby's side. This one was not like the others: where they were goodness itself, she was evil incarnate, and she didn't like what she saw.
"My old 'friends' are gathering without me again, I see," she sneered. "No doubt spreading beauty and light throughout the universe as usual. It makes me sick!"
"Then don't watch," the second fairy snapped irritably. "Nobody invited you."
"You want I should make her go away?" the seventh fairy offered, but a couple of the others shushed her and said it wasn't appropriate to beat someone up at a gift-giving ceremony, even if they did deserve it.
"You should let the cookie try," said the wicked fairy with an evil - what else? - glint in her eye. "I'll stain this child with her blood and he won't last another five minutes."
"You'll do nothing of the kind," said the second fairy firmly. "Be gone from here; this child is no concern of yours."
"Oh, but he is," she cackled. "Because I know your plans for him and I have no intention of letting him succeed in bringing joy to so many people." She spread her hands wide over the baby's cradle; the others made a grab for her but passed straight through her body.
An ominous silence stifled the room, the only sound the faint breathing of the sleeping mother and child. Outside, the skies began to cloud over, hiding the afternoon sun and promising to deliver rain in its place. The wicked fairy brought darkness and despair wherever she went.
"I curse this boy, this Jin Akanishi, to die on his twenty-third birthday, when he's had enough time to win the hearts of everyone around him and break them all when his life comes to an abrupt end! The pain and suffering will be glorious!"
With one final malicious laugh, she vanished. On the mortal plane, the baby Jin stirred uneasily in his sleep, and the twelve good fairies watched him anxiously.
"So much for that," the sixth fairy said gloomily. "We might as well go start over with some other kid and hope she doesn't find out."
The twelfth fairy finally spoke. "We're not done yet; I haven't given him my gift."
"Can you countermand the curse?" asked the second fairy.
The twelfth fairy adopted a calculating expression for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't think so. Death is a nasty business to mess around with - the best I can do is to soften it a little." He looked down at the baby and added, "I *was* going to give him the gift of common sense, but I suppose if he dies at twenty-three it's not much of a lifelong present. Let me see what I can do."
Ten agonising minutes passed as the twelfth fairy stood before the infant with a hand pressed to his forehead, and the other fairies could do nothing but watch in terrified silence. Eventually, the baby cooed a little, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"I haven't saved him," warned the twelfth fairy. "I can't...but I have arranged matters so that he may be able to save himself. Sudden death, with which he was cursed, represents an instantaneous loss of life force. I can't remove a killing curse, only twist it slightly."
"What do you mean?" the second fairy demanded to know. "Twist it how?"
The twelfth fairy explained. "Rather than being hit with death on his twenty-third birthday, and lose all his life force at once, I've arranged for him to lose it gradually, beginning when he reaches the age of twenty-one. He will drain a little each day, and by the time he reaches his twenty-third birthday, he will have none left."
"And he'll die anyway," the fifth fairy pointed out. "That's your great plan? To kill him slower by making him really tired for two years?"
The twelfth fairy gave her an exasperated look. "Think about it. When you lose your life force, you have room for someone else's, right? Except in the normal way of things, mortals lose it all at once and have no chance to replace it. The exact parameters of the curse, which you can feel for yourself, specify that Jin Akanishi will die due to an instantaneous loss of *his* life force. Not someone else's. If he's given it by another, it will keep him alive."
"And I'm sure people will just be lining up to donate," the seventh fairy snapped.
"With that combination of gifts? Are you kidding me?" the twelfth fairy joked. "But life force cannot be stolen, not without resorting to black magic; it must be given freely, and in love."
The second fairy, who'd always understood the twelfth better than anyone else, saw where he was going with this. "You gave him a gift of binding, didn't you?" he asked quietly. "If the person who loves him most wants to help him, he'll be able to bind that person to him, and share their life force."
The twelfth fairy beamed at him. "Right! Young Jin will only be able to receive it if the other person wants him to have it - but if they love him that much, they'll want it to happen."
"Great plan," the seventh interrupted, "but there's just one snag. How's the person who loves him most supposed to know about all this? The other side can communicate with mortals, but we can't."
"Well...no," the twelfth admitted, "but the desire to help should be enough. Basically, if someone loves Jin Akanishi enough to want to give him their own life, that's exactly what will happen, except that they'll both survive."
"Bound together until the one who loves him reaches the end of their natural lifespan, and they die together," the second fairy said solemnly.
The fourth fairy promptly ruined the beautiful mood by looking pointedly at his watch and saying he had to get back for the second half, because his reputation as the most spectacular striker of the spiritual plane was going to suffer if he didn't score at least another three goals for his team. At this, the gathering broke up, and the dozen good fairies dispersed, leaving young Jin Akanishi to his fate.
And what a fate it was.
-----
"You're tired," the voices whispered. "So very tired. Wouldn't it be nice to go to sleep...and never wake up?"
Jin told the voices in his head to shut up, only realising he'd accidentally spoken out loud when the remaining five members of KAT-TUN turned to stare at him.
"If you didn't want to hear my story, you could've said so earlier," Koki complained. "I'm almost done."
Shame-faced, Jin nodded an apology. "Sorry, I was thinking of something else. Please go ahead."
With a mutter of how Jin obviously hadn't been listening in the first place, Koki finished his story about a recent bike trip. Jin didn't hear how it ended, but he hadn't heard much of the beginning either. He was too tired to concentrate - tired enough that he probably shouldn't have agreed to go out with the others after they'd finished filming a commercial.
The whispery voices in his head didn't help, either. The last thing Jin wanted to hear was confirmation of his own exhaustion, and if he hadn't been so worn out, he'd probably have been more worried about hearing voices.
A sharp elbow caught him in the middle of a yawn. "You're spacing out again," Kame warned. "If you're that tired, why don't you go home and get some rest?"
Kame was by no means alone in having this thought. "Yeah, go home," Nakamaru echoed. "If your eyes get any darker people are going to start mistaking you for a panda."
"If you fall asleep in your food again, we're going to take pictures," Ueda promised, brandishing his phone.
Jin was horrified. "Again?"
Ueda smiled. "Just kidding."
Everyone laughed, though in Jin's case it had less to do with merriment than nervousness. What scared him was that he could easily have fallen asleep in his food and not realised it - at least for the past few months. Since turning twenty-one he'd found it harder and harder to get enough rest to see him through the day, and now that he was less than a week away from his twenty-third birthday, the situation was worse than ever.
It hadn't been quite so bad while he was in America, even if it had made it difficult to concentrate on his studies. But since his return, his life had been an endless round of rehearsals and concerts, interviews and photoshoots, and filming Cartoon KAT-TUN. It was tiring, and while no-one, including Jin himself, had expected him to insert himself seamlessly back into the normal flow of things, it felt like he was never going to catch up.
No wonder he was having to resort to naps in odd places. Pi had taken it as a personal insult when Jin had fallen asleep during *his* turn at karaoke, and refused to speak to him for a whole six hours. Then there was the time he'd almost dozed off while they were filming Cartoon KAT-TUN, and if Nakamaru hadn't moved his shoulder Jin would've embarrassed himself in front of their guest.
Not to mention the numerous occasions he'd fallen asleep on the train. Jin didn't think it was wise for him to drive at the moment - if he fell asleep at the wheel, he'd probably kill someone...even if it was only himself.
But that was what the voices wanted, wasn't it? For him to go to sleep and never wake up again. They'd been with him for as long as he could remember, thin, harsh-sounding murmurs that had only developed into words over the last two years, and he'd never dared to ask his parents if insanity ran in the family. He didn't really want to know the answer.
Kame put a hand on his arm. "I think I'd better escort you home. At this rate, you'll be asleep before you get out the door."
Jin nodded dully and rubbed a hand across his eyes in an effort to wake himself up. The restaurant was stuffy, hot air filled with spicy scents, and it would be so easy to just close his eyes and...
"We're leaving first," Kame said tersely, and threw some money down on the table.
Jin staggered to his feet, reached for his own wallet, then realised Kame had put down enough for both of them.
Kame read his surprised expression correctly. "Pay me back when you wake up."
Jin gave an apologetic wave to the others and stumbled blearily after Kame, taking great pains not to trip up on the pavement. He didn't have to walk far; Kame hailed a taxi and bundled him into the backseat, climbing in after him.
He managed not to fall asleep on the ride home, which he considered something of an achievement, and Kame paid for that as well. They didn't talk, not until Jin was standing on his doorstep and fumbling for his keys, and Kame simply reached into his jacket and found them.
"Are you going to be all right alone?" The younger man sounded horribly anxious, and guilt gnawed at Jin for the trouble he was causing everyone. "Do you want me to stay? Because you look terrible."
Jin dredged up enough energy for what he hoped was a perky look. "Don't worry about it. I just didn't get much sleep last night, that's all. I'll make up for it tonight - we don't have to be at that interview until one, right? I'll sleep in."
"You'd better, or the only quote they'll get from you will be 'zzz...'," Kame teased. Having opened the front door, he prodded Jin inside and handed him back his keys. "I'll drive us tomorrow, okay? But I'm not carrying you down to the car, so you'd better be awake when I get here!"
"I'll do my best," Jin promised. He thought if he set three alarms, it might be enough to wake him in time.
"Good." Kame turned to leave. "See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," Jin repeated, "and thanks."
Kame nodded and walked down the stairs, leaving Jin alone in the apartment. He prepared for bed in record time...and fell asleep before his head even hit the pillow.
-----
The next afternoon found Jin sleepwalking his way through a magazine interview, during which he tried his hardest to be funny and interesting, and ever-so-slightly aloof when the inevitable awkward questions came up. Getting fourteen hours of sleep had helped, but not enough, and he had to keep pretending to fan himself to cover the frequent yawns.
"It's no use," the voices whispered. "They all know you're just going through the motions. You might as well admit defeat now - give up, and rest your head in your boyfriend's lap, why don't you?"
"Kame isn't my boyfriend," Jin mumbled. The gasp from the interviewer alerted him to his having spoken aloud again.
Luckily, the others covered for him. "Of course he's not," Koki said cheerfully. "I am!"
Nakamaru feigned shock. "Koki, you're cheating on me with *that* idiot?"
Junno got in on the act. "He was going to tell you, really he was," he told Nakamaru sympathetically, and so sincerely that Jin almost believed him. "But he thought you wouldn't be able to handle it, not after the way Ueda left you so cruelly."
"Don't bring me into this," Ueda muttered, frowning until Koki nudged him with his foot, forcing him to add, "Because you know I've always wanted Jin for myself!"
"Uh...guys?" Kame spoke up. "You can stop now. I think you've said enough."
As was so often the case, Kame was right. The interviewer, her face a furious scarlet, had passed out in a fit of fangirlish glee.
Thirty minutes and a great deal of cold water later, the interview drew to a close without any more slip-ups on Jin's part. The rest of the afternoon miraculously cleared itself as an unexpected cloudburst put paid to an outdoor photoshoot, and KAT-TUN went their separate ways to make the most of their free time.
Jin sat back in the passenger seat of Kame's car and resisted the temptation to close his eyes and fall asleep to the gentle patter of rain against the windows. He settled for turning the radio to the loudest, most obnoxious station he could find, but Kame turned it off again.
"I've got a bit of a headache," he explained, and smiled apologetically. "The lights were shining right in my eyes."
Jin shrugged. "It's okay."
They didn't talk much on the drive, but it was enough to keep Jin awake. By the time he had to exit the car, his body felt as heavy as stone, and moved with just as much ease and flexibility. "It feels like I've spent all day practising dance routines," he grumbled as he climbed out. "Really energetic ones."
Kame practically pushed him up the steps, taking the keys from him to open the door. This time, he followed Jin inside. "I'm going to take something for my headache," he said as he passed by on his way to the bathroom, "and then...oh, just try stay awake for a few minutes, all right?"
Jin removed his shoes and padded into the kitchen, thinking it would be polite to offer his unexpected a guest a drink. When Kame caught up to him, he was standing in front of the fridge, staring blankly at the contents without seeing them at all. The cool air felt soothing against his skin, and he sank into a comfortable chill without resistance.
Kame reached past him and pulled out a bottle of water, then pried the door free from Jin's fingers so he could close it. "It'll start beeping in a minute, you know."
"What? Oh...yeah, I guess so. Do you want a - no, you've already got one." Jin was aware that he was doing a woefully poor job of playing host; fortunately, Kame didn't seem to care.
They shared the small couch between them, and Jin could feel his eyelids beginning to droop as he relaxed into the cushions. He shook himself awake and glanced apologetically at his guest.
"So," Kame began, keeping his tone light, "I'm not your boyfriend, huh?"
"I wasn't saying that to you."
"I didn't think you were. So, what do you call the person you've been secretly dating for the last year? And if you say 'girlfriend' I'm going to pull out all your hair by the roots."
Jin winced as Kame tweaked one of his curls. "Wouldn't dream of it," he assured him. "I wouldn't call it a year, though. You can't really count the six months I was in America."
"I did."
"Really? I'd have thought you'd have found someone else."
Kame laughed. "I was too busy working! When would I have had time for anyone else? We all worked very hard while you were away."
"I know." He'd kept up with their activities via the Internet, wondering how they were getting along without him. Did they even notice? He hadn't been at his best when he left, and he'd been a wreck thereafter. How long would it be before he fell asleep for good, and would anyone care?
"It won't be long now," the voices promised him. "Won't it feel good when you don't have to do this anymore? When the world moves on without you and you don't have to try to catch up?"
Jin ignored them. "You can't really call it 'dating' either. It's not like we go out that much."
"That can't be helped - we're usually so busy," Kame pointed out. "Besides, the last time we went out, you fell asleep half-way through the movie!"
"It was boring!"
"Well..."
"Don't tell me you didn't think so too."
"All right, I have to admit that it was a bit dull," Kame confessed. "I think Yamapi must have recommended it as a joke."
"Must have," Jin agreed. "How about you plot revenge while I take a nap?" He gave Kame his most winsome smile, which was, sadly, at less than half its usual strength.
"A nap? You only woke up six hours ago!"
"I know, but..."
Kame sighed and pulled out his cell phone, jabbing viciously at the keypad.
"What are you doing?"
"Making you a doctor's appointment. This is getting ridiculous, Jin! You're sleeping *all the time*!"
"I'm not asleep now!"
"Only because you're arguing with me!"
Jin didn't want to see a doctor. That meant admitting there was something wrong, far more than the loss of a few hours of sleep, and he'd have to explain the voices, and how good it felt to lie down and just give in to them...
"Jin!"
Kame was shaking him roughly by the shoulders, keeping him awake. Jin blinked away the haze in his eyes. "Still awake," he muttered, and made a grab for Kame's phone. A short tussle ensued, which Kame won easily as Jin was half-asleep at the time, but Jin snagged the strap while Kame was trying to finish dialling and the phone ended up half-way across the room.
Kame made no move to retrieve his property. "If you've broken it, you're buying me a new one."
Jin's response was swallowed up by a massive yawn, and Kame shook him again. "I'm awake, I'm awake!"
"Only just." Kame let go of Jin's shoulders and gave him a puzzled look. "There's obviously something wrong with you - it's not normal to sleep so much, and you're still so tired!" His tone went from bewildered to hesitant, touching on a sensitive subject. "Are you...depressed, at all? Is that why you're sleeping all the time?"
"I don't have the energy to be depressed," Jin said wearily, hugging his knees to his chest. "I'm not ill, only...tired. It doesn't matter how much I sleep, or how much food I eat, or how many vitamins I take - nothing helps."
"And it's getting worse," Kame stated. "It wasn't this bad before."
"Nowhere near," Jin agreed. "A couple of years ago, I just needed an extra hour's sleep some nights. Now I can't keep awake for more than a few hours at a time. Pretty soon I'll fall asleep and never wake up again."
The voices had told him it would happen, that one day his slumber would be permanent, but if he mentioned *that* to Kame the younger man really would drag him off to see a doctor - a psychiatrist. The press would love it, but it wouldn't do wonders for his career. Not, Jin reflected, that he would have much of a career left anyway if he couldn't stay awake long enough to keep it going.
"That's not going to happen," Kame told him fiercely. "I won't allow it."
Jin didn't recognise the laughter as his own, at first. It belonged to someone much harsher, who'd seen everything the world had to offer and rejected it all. "And how do you plan to stop it? Lend me some of your own energy, your strength?"
"I would if I could," Kame said quietly. "I didn't wait for you while you were in America, wondering all those months if you were ever going to come back, only to watch you sleep the rest of your life away."
"There won't be a 'rest of your life', boy," the voices whispered. "Three more days, that's all you'll get. You'll be completely drained. Why not go now, with a little dignity? Kiss him goodbye and break his heart for the last time?"
Three more days would take it to Jin's twenty-third birthday. The voices had never been so specific before, and Jin didn't doubt that they were accurate. He was running out of time.
"You can't save me."
"What's happening to you?" Kame asked, the first hints of panic seeping into his voice. "What aren't you telling me?"
Jin shrugged off the comforting arm that was creeping round his shoulders. "That I won't be waking up again after my birthday."
"I don't know which doctor you've seen but get a second opinion!" Kame ordered. "Get a dozen of them! You're a healthy young man in good condition-"
"Who can't stay awake long enough to last through a date," Jin interrupted. "I'm so tired, Kame. It's like...just existing takes so much of my energy that I don't have any left over to do anything with."
He slumped down, letting his legs slide back to the floor, and gave up on the struggle to keep his eyes open.
-----
Kame contemplated slapping Jin to shock him into waking, but decided the effect would be too temporary to do any good. There had to be *something* he could do to help - he refused to believe that Jin was right, that nothing could be done and his fate was inevitable. It didn't seem real, somehow, that anyone could sleep like that.
"That's because it isn't real," a small voice murmured in the corner of his mind. "At least, it isn't natural."
(On the spiritual plane, the good fairies watched anxiously as the twelfth, the one who'd twisted the curse, broke the laws of their kind and dared to communicate with Kame.)
"Who said that?" Kame wondered.
"I did!" The voice was indignant now.
A second voice - the second fairy, in fact - joined in and said, "Get to the point, idiot; we don't have much time and if they catch us talking to mortals they'll clip our wings."
"Sorry. Right, I'll keep it simple, because it's obvious you two are never going to come to the right conclusion on your own - not while *she's* whispering poison into his mind. That old hag..."
Kame didn't usually hear voices in his head, and to have a pair of them arguing was quite disconcerting. It wasn't, however, as alarming as he thought it would be - they had a pleasant, almost cinnamon flavour to them, a warm, sweet presence in his mind. Not threatening...but definitely not expected.
The second fairy coughed politely. "We can hear you, you know," he said. "Don't worry, we won't be here long. Here's the short version. Jin is going to die on his birthday because his life force will be totally drained. He's been losing it in bits and pieces since he turned twenty-one, for reasons which I'm not going to go into, and if he can't replace it, you'll be KT-TUN forever."
That, at least, made sense to Kame. If he was going to be stuck with voices in his head, at least they were logical ones. "How can he replace it?" he asked in hushed tones, hesitant now to wake Jin and be seen talking to himself.
"That's where you come in," the twelfth fairy said brightly. "I hope it's you, anyway, because there's no time to find anyone else. Jin can receive life force from the person who loves him most, if that person makes the decision to give it to him. It can only be given with love, you see."
Kame got the distinct impression that the owner of the voice was blushing. "The person who loves him most?" he repeated. "Isn't that a bit vague? His family probably love him most."
"Yes," the twelfth fairy admitted, "but I dare say they're not *in love* with him. You are."
Kame felt a blush creep along his cheeks. "I am? What makes you say that?"
The second fairy snorted. "Please. We've been watching over him all his life, which means we've seen an awful lot of you too. After everything that's passed between you, you're still here, aren't you? Longing desperately to save him though you don't have a clue how to go about it. You'd do anything to help and protect him, and if that's not love, I don't know what is."
"Besides, you'd like it if he stayed awake long enough for you to make out again," said the twelfth fairy slyly, giving Kame a mental elbow in the ribs. "Been a long time, hasn't it?"
Kame scowled, then realised the futility of the gesture since his companions in conversation were internal. "That's none of your business."
"Quite," said the second fairy. "Our business is: do you love Jin Akanishi enough to give up a portion of your own life force to him?"
Kame thought about the man sleeping beside him, about the fights they'd had and the good times making up afterwards. Thought about the highs and lows of their career, about their debut, about dramas and dance steps and drinks they'd downed in celebration. Jin was by no means perfect as a bandmate, a friend or even a boyfriend, but he made a lot of people happy, and Kame loved making him happy in return.
His answer was never in any doubt. "I do. Now, how do I help him?"
"You're positive?" the second fairy asked. "You won't have quite so much energy as usual either - for a while, at least - and you'll be bound together for the rest of your lives."
"Technically, for the rest of *your* life," the twelfth fairy added. "When you die, he dies - simple as that. Basically, his survival is dependent on you."
"It's a bit like having a pet you can't get rid of," the second fairy said in long-suffering tones, and the twelfth fairy mewed like a kitten.
Kame's impatience peaked. "I get the point, and yes, I'm positive. Now tell me what to do!"
"Oh," said the twelfth fairy. "Didn't we tell you? Just kiss him!"
With a 'pop' that left his ears ringing for a moment, the two uninvited guests vacated Kame's head. Relief washed over him as reality made a welcome comeback, and he contemplated the sleeping figure of Jin Akanishi.
Could it really be that simple? Kiss Jin and wake him up, as if they were a couple in a fairy tale? Or had Kame reached for the wrong bottle in the medicine cabinet, and the two voices in his mind had been the product of a much stronger painkiller than he'd intended to swallow?
Still, even if it had only been wishful thinking, it couldn't hurt to try, could it?
Whatever the reason behind it, Jin's sleep looked peaceful, free from nightmares and strange voices, and so deep that he didn't even stir when Kame placed a hand under the curls at the base of his neck and gently turned his head. He leaned forward, careful not to crush the sleeping body in front of him, and pressed his lips to Jin's.
With that one kiss, Kame tried to will Jin all the life force he needed to keep him alive. Jin's lips, warm and dry against his, slowly parted under the pressure placed on them, welcoming Kame inside; his eyes flew open as Kame's tongue began a slow, tentative exploration of his mouth.
For Kame, it felt like he'd just run a marathon, or perhaps finished the third encore on his second concert of the day. His body went from being taut with tension to being loose and languid, limbs suddenly limp from exertion. But it was a good feeling, this tiredness, because it came from giving a precious gift to a loved one.
For Jin, it felt like being on-stage, with coiled springs in his body just waiting to release their stored energy. His limbs tingled, and the blood that had travelled so sluggishly round his body picked up the pace. In the back of his mind, the voices cried out first in fear, then in pain, then in bitter humiliation.
Then, they disappeared altogether.
Kame released his hold on Jin's neck and fell back against the cushions, panting, and Jin stretched out each limb in turn, marvelling that his body moved so easily once more.
"You look worn out," Jin commented. "I must be one hell of a kisser."
"Hah," Kame retorted after he got his breath back. "You were asleep for most of it. It's all my doing, and I hope you appreciate that."
Though not blessed with a great deal in the way of common sense, Jin was surprisingly perceptive at times. "I don't know exactly what you did, but I do appreciate it. I feel amazing!"
"And I feel terrible," Kame groaned, "but at least the voices told me it would only be for a while."
"You've been hearing voices too? Mine weren't very nice, but I think they're gone now."
Kame smiled and leaned his shoulder against Jin's for support. "Mine told me to give you a gift, and that your birthday would've been too late for it."
Jin blinked back a tear. "It's the most valuable gift anyone's ever given me," he said thickly. "I don't know how to thank you."
"Well...you could start by paying me back for the meal and the taxi last night. And you might have to cover for me for a while, the way we've all been doing for you."
Jin nodded. "I can do that."
"Good." Kame yawned so widely it made his jaws ache, looked at his watch, and refused to believe how early it was. "There's something else you can do for me."
"Name it."
"Let me stay here tonight. I can't drive home like this and my family will worry if I'm fast asleep when it's not even six in the evening yet. I can take the couch."
Jin wouldn't dream of it. "We can share the bed again; it's big enough." A thought occurred to Jin, one he hadn't had the energy for in far too long. "Ne, Kame, now that I'm awake again we could-"
Kame's shake of the head forced Jin to break off sharply. "No, we couldn't. Now *I'm* exhausted!"
"But, Kame...."
Jin's wail of frustration made it all the way to the spiritual plane, where it was echoed by a number of fairies who'd been hoping for a show.
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG
Genre: Crack, fluff, angst
Words: 5900
Disclaimer: I don't own any of them, dammit.
Summary: Thanks to a curse placed on him by a wicked fairy, an exhausted Jin Akanishi won't be waking up after his twenty-third birthday. Can Kame set things right?
Author's Note: Once again, comment conversation with Matchy -> plotbunny -> fic. In this case, the idea that Jin's survival was dependent on Kame. I took the idea and ran with it - slowly, because I've done something to my back - so if it turned out weirder than usual, blame it on the painkillers. It's sort of Sleeping Beauty with a few aspects of Card Captor Sakura in there (Touya/Yukito, anyone?).
Sleeping Beauty: Akame-style
When Jin Akanishi was born, there was much rejoicing on the mortal plane. His parents were delighted, and friends and family alike joined them in celebration.
But if one were to close their eyes and keep very still, listening attentively to the sound between one heartbeat and the next, they might catch a few scraps of the celebration that took place on the spiritual plane. A dozen fairies clustered round the cradle where the infant Jin lay asleep, and they spoke words unheard by his mother, who rested near him.
And the first fairy's words were this.
"Good looks," she said, pressing an ethereal hand to the baby's forehead and smacking her lips in a self-satisfied way. "Every little boy appreciates those sooner or later - first when he wants to charm his way out of trouble by giving some older woman the puppy-dog eyes, and then when he discovers girls." She paused, then added, "Or boys. Doesn't do to make assumptions, these days. Not like the Middle Ages, when you could usually be certain they were going to grow up and look for a princess to marry..."
The second fairy rolled his eyes. "Our esteemed colleague opts to give young Jin Akanishi the gift of 'good looks'. I favour something more practical." He laid a gentle hand on the baby's tiny throat and said, "Beautiful singing voice. Even when his looks fade, he'll still be able to give something to the world."
The third fairy, who was wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt, grinned widely. "And when his voice goes, he should have a little something left." She touched her hands to the baby's, saying, "Guitar skills." A couple of the other fairies nodded appreciatively at this.
A sporty-looking fairy who looked as though he'd rushed over from a football match (which indeed, he had) laid his hands on young Jin's legs. "Athletic ability," he rumbled out. "Can't neglect the physical side of things."
The fifth fairy snorted. "I thought we'd decided he was going to be a musician. Be a bit more specific when you give physical gifts, all right? Like," she caught the baby's hips between two ghostly fingers, "really impressive hip rolls."
"Doesn't 'athletic ability' cover that?" the sixth fairy asked.
"Too general," said the fifth.
"Oh." That shut the sixth up for a moment, but he came back with, "If everyone else is going to be so shallow as to think only of this boy's body, I suppose I'll have to take care of his soul." He laid his palm flat over Jin's chest and whispered, "A gentle heart."
Everyone else was impressed by this and wished they'd thought of it first. All except the seventh fairy, who thought that all boys needed a healthy dose of aggression in their lives. She gave him a temper, in case he turned out to be an athletic, musical wimp with a gentle soul.
From the eighth, Jin received courage; from the ninth, determination. The tenth fairy gave him a sense of humour, and the eleventh followed it up with the gift of integrity.
The ceremony was nearly complete. One more fairy to go, and the full dozen would disappear into the glorious, sunny July afternoon, leaving the infant Jin Akanishi endowed with a wealth of presents that would serve him all his life.
Just as the twelfth fairy was about to bestow his gift, a thirteenth fairy appeared at the baby's side. This one was not like the others: where they were goodness itself, she was evil incarnate, and she didn't like what she saw.
"My old 'friends' are gathering without me again, I see," she sneered. "No doubt spreading beauty and light throughout the universe as usual. It makes me sick!"
"Then don't watch," the second fairy snapped irritably. "Nobody invited you."
"You want I should make her go away?" the seventh fairy offered, but a couple of the others shushed her and said it wasn't appropriate to beat someone up at a gift-giving ceremony, even if they did deserve it.
"You should let the cookie try," said the wicked fairy with an evil - what else? - glint in her eye. "I'll stain this child with her blood and he won't last another five minutes."
"You'll do nothing of the kind," said the second fairy firmly. "Be gone from here; this child is no concern of yours."
"Oh, but he is," she cackled. "Because I know your plans for him and I have no intention of letting him succeed in bringing joy to so many people." She spread her hands wide over the baby's cradle; the others made a grab for her but passed straight through her body.
An ominous silence stifled the room, the only sound the faint breathing of the sleeping mother and child. Outside, the skies began to cloud over, hiding the afternoon sun and promising to deliver rain in its place. The wicked fairy brought darkness and despair wherever she went.
"I curse this boy, this Jin Akanishi, to die on his twenty-third birthday, when he's had enough time to win the hearts of everyone around him and break them all when his life comes to an abrupt end! The pain and suffering will be glorious!"
With one final malicious laugh, she vanished. On the mortal plane, the baby Jin stirred uneasily in his sleep, and the twelve good fairies watched him anxiously.
"So much for that," the sixth fairy said gloomily. "We might as well go start over with some other kid and hope she doesn't find out."
The twelfth fairy finally spoke. "We're not done yet; I haven't given him my gift."
"Can you countermand the curse?" asked the second fairy.
The twelfth fairy adopted a calculating expression for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't think so. Death is a nasty business to mess around with - the best I can do is to soften it a little." He looked down at the baby and added, "I *was* going to give him the gift of common sense, but I suppose if he dies at twenty-three it's not much of a lifelong present. Let me see what I can do."
Ten agonising minutes passed as the twelfth fairy stood before the infant with a hand pressed to his forehead, and the other fairies could do nothing but watch in terrified silence. Eventually, the baby cooed a little, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"I haven't saved him," warned the twelfth fairy. "I can't...but I have arranged matters so that he may be able to save himself. Sudden death, with which he was cursed, represents an instantaneous loss of life force. I can't remove a killing curse, only twist it slightly."
"What do you mean?" the second fairy demanded to know. "Twist it how?"
The twelfth fairy explained. "Rather than being hit with death on his twenty-third birthday, and lose all his life force at once, I've arranged for him to lose it gradually, beginning when he reaches the age of twenty-one. He will drain a little each day, and by the time he reaches his twenty-third birthday, he will have none left."
"And he'll die anyway," the fifth fairy pointed out. "That's your great plan? To kill him slower by making him really tired for two years?"
The twelfth fairy gave her an exasperated look. "Think about it. When you lose your life force, you have room for someone else's, right? Except in the normal way of things, mortals lose it all at once and have no chance to replace it. The exact parameters of the curse, which you can feel for yourself, specify that Jin Akanishi will die due to an instantaneous loss of *his* life force. Not someone else's. If he's given it by another, it will keep him alive."
"And I'm sure people will just be lining up to donate," the seventh fairy snapped.
"With that combination of gifts? Are you kidding me?" the twelfth fairy joked. "But life force cannot be stolen, not without resorting to black magic; it must be given freely, and in love."
The second fairy, who'd always understood the twelfth better than anyone else, saw where he was going with this. "You gave him a gift of binding, didn't you?" he asked quietly. "If the person who loves him most wants to help him, he'll be able to bind that person to him, and share their life force."
The twelfth fairy beamed at him. "Right! Young Jin will only be able to receive it if the other person wants him to have it - but if they love him that much, they'll want it to happen."
"Great plan," the seventh interrupted, "but there's just one snag. How's the person who loves him most supposed to know about all this? The other side can communicate with mortals, but we can't."
"Well...no," the twelfth admitted, "but the desire to help should be enough. Basically, if someone loves Jin Akanishi enough to want to give him their own life, that's exactly what will happen, except that they'll both survive."
"Bound together until the one who loves him reaches the end of their natural lifespan, and they die together," the second fairy said solemnly.
The fourth fairy promptly ruined the beautiful mood by looking pointedly at his watch and saying he had to get back for the second half, because his reputation as the most spectacular striker of the spiritual plane was going to suffer if he didn't score at least another three goals for his team. At this, the gathering broke up, and the dozen good fairies dispersed, leaving young Jin Akanishi to his fate.
And what a fate it was.
-----
"You're tired," the voices whispered. "So very tired. Wouldn't it be nice to go to sleep...and never wake up?"
Jin told the voices in his head to shut up, only realising he'd accidentally spoken out loud when the remaining five members of KAT-TUN turned to stare at him.
"If you didn't want to hear my story, you could've said so earlier," Koki complained. "I'm almost done."
Shame-faced, Jin nodded an apology. "Sorry, I was thinking of something else. Please go ahead."
With a mutter of how Jin obviously hadn't been listening in the first place, Koki finished his story about a recent bike trip. Jin didn't hear how it ended, but he hadn't heard much of the beginning either. He was too tired to concentrate - tired enough that he probably shouldn't have agreed to go out with the others after they'd finished filming a commercial.
The whispery voices in his head didn't help, either. The last thing Jin wanted to hear was confirmation of his own exhaustion, and if he hadn't been so worn out, he'd probably have been more worried about hearing voices.
A sharp elbow caught him in the middle of a yawn. "You're spacing out again," Kame warned. "If you're that tired, why don't you go home and get some rest?"
Kame was by no means alone in having this thought. "Yeah, go home," Nakamaru echoed. "If your eyes get any darker people are going to start mistaking you for a panda."
"If you fall asleep in your food again, we're going to take pictures," Ueda promised, brandishing his phone.
Jin was horrified. "Again?"
Ueda smiled. "Just kidding."
Everyone laughed, though in Jin's case it had less to do with merriment than nervousness. What scared him was that he could easily have fallen asleep in his food and not realised it - at least for the past few months. Since turning twenty-one he'd found it harder and harder to get enough rest to see him through the day, and now that he was less than a week away from his twenty-third birthday, the situation was worse than ever.
It hadn't been quite so bad while he was in America, even if it had made it difficult to concentrate on his studies. But since his return, his life had been an endless round of rehearsals and concerts, interviews and photoshoots, and filming Cartoon KAT-TUN. It was tiring, and while no-one, including Jin himself, had expected him to insert himself seamlessly back into the normal flow of things, it felt like he was never going to catch up.
No wonder he was having to resort to naps in odd places. Pi had taken it as a personal insult when Jin had fallen asleep during *his* turn at karaoke, and refused to speak to him for a whole six hours. Then there was the time he'd almost dozed off while they were filming Cartoon KAT-TUN, and if Nakamaru hadn't moved his shoulder Jin would've embarrassed himself in front of their guest.
Not to mention the numerous occasions he'd fallen asleep on the train. Jin didn't think it was wise for him to drive at the moment - if he fell asleep at the wheel, he'd probably kill someone...even if it was only himself.
But that was what the voices wanted, wasn't it? For him to go to sleep and never wake up again. They'd been with him for as long as he could remember, thin, harsh-sounding murmurs that had only developed into words over the last two years, and he'd never dared to ask his parents if insanity ran in the family. He didn't really want to know the answer.
Kame put a hand on his arm. "I think I'd better escort you home. At this rate, you'll be asleep before you get out the door."
Jin nodded dully and rubbed a hand across his eyes in an effort to wake himself up. The restaurant was stuffy, hot air filled with spicy scents, and it would be so easy to just close his eyes and...
"We're leaving first," Kame said tersely, and threw some money down on the table.
Jin staggered to his feet, reached for his own wallet, then realised Kame had put down enough for both of them.
Kame read his surprised expression correctly. "Pay me back when you wake up."
Jin gave an apologetic wave to the others and stumbled blearily after Kame, taking great pains not to trip up on the pavement. He didn't have to walk far; Kame hailed a taxi and bundled him into the backseat, climbing in after him.
He managed not to fall asleep on the ride home, which he considered something of an achievement, and Kame paid for that as well. They didn't talk, not until Jin was standing on his doorstep and fumbling for his keys, and Kame simply reached into his jacket and found them.
"Are you going to be all right alone?" The younger man sounded horribly anxious, and guilt gnawed at Jin for the trouble he was causing everyone. "Do you want me to stay? Because you look terrible."
Jin dredged up enough energy for what he hoped was a perky look. "Don't worry about it. I just didn't get much sleep last night, that's all. I'll make up for it tonight - we don't have to be at that interview until one, right? I'll sleep in."
"You'd better, or the only quote they'll get from you will be 'zzz...'," Kame teased. Having opened the front door, he prodded Jin inside and handed him back his keys. "I'll drive us tomorrow, okay? But I'm not carrying you down to the car, so you'd better be awake when I get here!"
"I'll do my best," Jin promised. He thought if he set three alarms, it might be enough to wake him in time.
"Good." Kame turned to leave. "See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," Jin repeated, "and thanks."
Kame nodded and walked down the stairs, leaving Jin alone in the apartment. He prepared for bed in record time...and fell asleep before his head even hit the pillow.
-----
The next afternoon found Jin sleepwalking his way through a magazine interview, during which he tried his hardest to be funny and interesting, and ever-so-slightly aloof when the inevitable awkward questions came up. Getting fourteen hours of sleep had helped, but not enough, and he had to keep pretending to fan himself to cover the frequent yawns.
"It's no use," the voices whispered. "They all know you're just going through the motions. You might as well admit defeat now - give up, and rest your head in your boyfriend's lap, why don't you?"
"Kame isn't my boyfriend," Jin mumbled. The gasp from the interviewer alerted him to his having spoken aloud again.
Luckily, the others covered for him. "Of course he's not," Koki said cheerfully. "I am!"
Nakamaru feigned shock. "Koki, you're cheating on me with *that* idiot?"
Junno got in on the act. "He was going to tell you, really he was," he told Nakamaru sympathetically, and so sincerely that Jin almost believed him. "But he thought you wouldn't be able to handle it, not after the way Ueda left you so cruelly."
"Don't bring me into this," Ueda muttered, frowning until Koki nudged him with his foot, forcing him to add, "Because you know I've always wanted Jin for myself!"
"Uh...guys?" Kame spoke up. "You can stop now. I think you've said enough."
As was so often the case, Kame was right. The interviewer, her face a furious scarlet, had passed out in a fit of fangirlish glee.
Thirty minutes and a great deal of cold water later, the interview drew to a close without any more slip-ups on Jin's part. The rest of the afternoon miraculously cleared itself as an unexpected cloudburst put paid to an outdoor photoshoot, and KAT-TUN went their separate ways to make the most of their free time.
Jin sat back in the passenger seat of Kame's car and resisted the temptation to close his eyes and fall asleep to the gentle patter of rain against the windows. He settled for turning the radio to the loudest, most obnoxious station he could find, but Kame turned it off again.
"I've got a bit of a headache," he explained, and smiled apologetically. "The lights were shining right in my eyes."
Jin shrugged. "It's okay."
They didn't talk much on the drive, but it was enough to keep Jin awake. By the time he had to exit the car, his body felt as heavy as stone, and moved with just as much ease and flexibility. "It feels like I've spent all day practising dance routines," he grumbled as he climbed out. "Really energetic ones."
Kame practically pushed him up the steps, taking the keys from him to open the door. This time, he followed Jin inside. "I'm going to take something for my headache," he said as he passed by on his way to the bathroom, "and then...oh, just try stay awake for a few minutes, all right?"
Jin removed his shoes and padded into the kitchen, thinking it would be polite to offer his unexpected a guest a drink. When Kame caught up to him, he was standing in front of the fridge, staring blankly at the contents without seeing them at all. The cool air felt soothing against his skin, and he sank into a comfortable chill without resistance.
Kame reached past him and pulled out a bottle of water, then pried the door free from Jin's fingers so he could close it. "It'll start beeping in a minute, you know."
"What? Oh...yeah, I guess so. Do you want a - no, you've already got one." Jin was aware that he was doing a woefully poor job of playing host; fortunately, Kame didn't seem to care.
They shared the small couch between them, and Jin could feel his eyelids beginning to droop as he relaxed into the cushions. He shook himself awake and glanced apologetically at his guest.
"So," Kame began, keeping his tone light, "I'm not your boyfriend, huh?"
"I wasn't saying that to you."
"I didn't think you were. So, what do you call the person you've been secretly dating for the last year? And if you say 'girlfriend' I'm going to pull out all your hair by the roots."
Jin winced as Kame tweaked one of his curls. "Wouldn't dream of it," he assured him. "I wouldn't call it a year, though. You can't really count the six months I was in America."
"I did."
"Really? I'd have thought you'd have found someone else."
Kame laughed. "I was too busy working! When would I have had time for anyone else? We all worked very hard while you were away."
"I know." He'd kept up with their activities via the Internet, wondering how they were getting along without him. Did they even notice? He hadn't been at his best when he left, and he'd been a wreck thereafter. How long would it be before he fell asleep for good, and would anyone care?
"It won't be long now," the voices promised him. "Won't it feel good when you don't have to do this anymore? When the world moves on without you and you don't have to try to catch up?"
Jin ignored them. "You can't really call it 'dating' either. It's not like we go out that much."
"That can't be helped - we're usually so busy," Kame pointed out. "Besides, the last time we went out, you fell asleep half-way through the movie!"
"It was boring!"
"Well..."
"Don't tell me you didn't think so too."
"All right, I have to admit that it was a bit dull," Kame confessed. "I think Yamapi must have recommended it as a joke."
"Must have," Jin agreed. "How about you plot revenge while I take a nap?" He gave Kame his most winsome smile, which was, sadly, at less than half its usual strength.
"A nap? You only woke up six hours ago!"
"I know, but..."
Kame sighed and pulled out his cell phone, jabbing viciously at the keypad.
"What are you doing?"
"Making you a doctor's appointment. This is getting ridiculous, Jin! You're sleeping *all the time*!"
"I'm not asleep now!"
"Only because you're arguing with me!"
Jin didn't want to see a doctor. That meant admitting there was something wrong, far more than the loss of a few hours of sleep, and he'd have to explain the voices, and how good it felt to lie down and just give in to them...
"Jin!"
Kame was shaking him roughly by the shoulders, keeping him awake. Jin blinked away the haze in his eyes. "Still awake," he muttered, and made a grab for Kame's phone. A short tussle ensued, which Kame won easily as Jin was half-asleep at the time, but Jin snagged the strap while Kame was trying to finish dialling and the phone ended up half-way across the room.
Kame made no move to retrieve his property. "If you've broken it, you're buying me a new one."
Jin's response was swallowed up by a massive yawn, and Kame shook him again. "I'm awake, I'm awake!"
"Only just." Kame let go of Jin's shoulders and gave him a puzzled look. "There's obviously something wrong with you - it's not normal to sleep so much, and you're still so tired!" His tone went from bewildered to hesitant, touching on a sensitive subject. "Are you...depressed, at all? Is that why you're sleeping all the time?"
"I don't have the energy to be depressed," Jin said wearily, hugging his knees to his chest. "I'm not ill, only...tired. It doesn't matter how much I sleep, or how much food I eat, or how many vitamins I take - nothing helps."
"And it's getting worse," Kame stated. "It wasn't this bad before."
"Nowhere near," Jin agreed. "A couple of years ago, I just needed an extra hour's sleep some nights. Now I can't keep awake for more than a few hours at a time. Pretty soon I'll fall asleep and never wake up again."
The voices had told him it would happen, that one day his slumber would be permanent, but if he mentioned *that* to Kame the younger man really would drag him off to see a doctor - a psychiatrist. The press would love it, but it wouldn't do wonders for his career. Not, Jin reflected, that he would have much of a career left anyway if he couldn't stay awake long enough to keep it going.
"That's not going to happen," Kame told him fiercely. "I won't allow it."
Jin didn't recognise the laughter as his own, at first. It belonged to someone much harsher, who'd seen everything the world had to offer and rejected it all. "And how do you plan to stop it? Lend me some of your own energy, your strength?"
"I would if I could," Kame said quietly. "I didn't wait for you while you were in America, wondering all those months if you were ever going to come back, only to watch you sleep the rest of your life away."
"There won't be a 'rest of your life', boy," the voices whispered. "Three more days, that's all you'll get. You'll be completely drained. Why not go now, with a little dignity? Kiss him goodbye and break his heart for the last time?"
Three more days would take it to Jin's twenty-third birthday. The voices had never been so specific before, and Jin didn't doubt that they were accurate. He was running out of time.
"You can't save me."
"What's happening to you?" Kame asked, the first hints of panic seeping into his voice. "What aren't you telling me?"
Jin shrugged off the comforting arm that was creeping round his shoulders. "That I won't be waking up again after my birthday."
"I don't know which doctor you've seen but get a second opinion!" Kame ordered. "Get a dozen of them! You're a healthy young man in good condition-"
"Who can't stay awake long enough to last through a date," Jin interrupted. "I'm so tired, Kame. It's like...just existing takes so much of my energy that I don't have any left over to do anything with."
He slumped down, letting his legs slide back to the floor, and gave up on the struggle to keep his eyes open.
-----
Kame contemplated slapping Jin to shock him into waking, but decided the effect would be too temporary to do any good. There had to be *something* he could do to help - he refused to believe that Jin was right, that nothing could be done and his fate was inevitable. It didn't seem real, somehow, that anyone could sleep like that.
"That's because it isn't real," a small voice murmured in the corner of his mind. "At least, it isn't natural."
(On the spiritual plane, the good fairies watched anxiously as the twelfth, the one who'd twisted the curse, broke the laws of their kind and dared to communicate with Kame.)
"Who said that?" Kame wondered.
"I did!" The voice was indignant now.
A second voice - the second fairy, in fact - joined in and said, "Get to the point, idiot; we don't have much time and if they catch us talking to mortals they'll clip our wings."
"Sorry. Right, I'll keep it simple, because it's obvious you two are never going to come to the right conclusion on your own - not while *she's* whispering poison into his mind. That old hag..."
Kame didn't usually hear voices in his head, and to have a pair of them arguing was quite disconcerting. It wasn't, however, as alarming as he thought it would be - they had a pleasant, almost cinnamon flavour to them, a warm, sweet presence in his mind. Not threatening...but definitely not expected.
The second fairy coughed politely. "We can hear you, you know," he said. "Don't worry, we won't be here long. Here's the short version. Jin is going to die on his birthday because his life force will be totally drained. He's been losing it in bits and pieces since he turned twenty-one, for reasons which I'm not going to go into, and if he can't replace it, you'll be KT-TUN forever."
That, at least, made sense to Kame. If he was going to be stuck with voices in his head, at least they were logical ones. "How can he replace it?" he asked in hushed tones, hesitant now to wake Jin and be seen talking to himself.
"That's where you come in," the twelfth fairy said brightly. "I hope it's you, anyway, because there's no time to find anyone else. Jin can receive life force from the person who loves him most, if that person makes the decision to give it to him. It can only be given with love, you see."
Kame got the distinct impression that the owner of the voice was blushing. "The person who loves him most?" he repeated. "Isn't that a bit vague? His family probably love him most."
"Yes," the twelfth fairy admitted, "but I dare say they're not *in love* with him. You are."
Kame felt a blush creep along his cheeks. "I am? What makes you say that?"
The second fairy snorted. "Please. We've been watching over him all his life, which means we've seen an awful lot of you too. After everything that's passed between you, you're still here, aren't you? Longing desperately to save him though you don't have a clue how to go about it. You'd do anything to help and protect him, and if that's not love, I don't know what is."
"Besides, you'd like it if he stayed awake long enough for you to make out again," said the twelfth fairy slyly, giving Kame a mental elbow in the ribs. "Been a long time, hasn't it?"
Kame scowled, then realised the futility of the gesture since his companions in conversation were internal. "That's none of your business."
"Quite," said the second fairy. "Our business is: do you love Jin Akanishi enough to give up a portion of your own life force to him?"
Kame thought about the man sleeping beside him, about the fights they'd had and the good times making up afterwards. Thought about the highs and lows of their career, about their debut, about dramas and dance steps and drinks they'd downed in celebration. Jin was by no means perfect as a bandmate, a friend or even a boyfriend, but he made a lot of people happy, and Kame loved making him happy in return.
His answer was never in any doubt. "I do. Now, how do I help him?"
"You're positive?" the second fairy asked. "You won't have quite so much energy as usual either - for a while, at least - and you'll be bound together for the rest of your lives."
"Technically, for the rest of *your* life," the twelfth fairy added. "When you die, he dies - simple as that. Basically, his survival is dependent on you."
"It's a bit like having a pet you can't get rid of," the second fairy said in long-suffering tones, and the twelfth fairy mewed like a kitten.
Kame's impatience peaked. "I get the point, and yes, I'm positive. Now tell me what to do!"
"Oh," said the twelfth fairy. "Didn't we tell you? Just kiss him!"
With a 'pop' that left his ears ringing for a moment, the two uninvited guests vacated Kame's head. Relief washed over him as reality made a welcome comeback, and he contemplated the sleeping figure of Jin Akanishi.
Could it really be that simple? Kiss Jin and wake him up, as if they were a couple in a fairy tale? Or had Kame reached for the wrong bottle in the medicine cabinet, and the two voices in his mind had been the product of a much stronger painkiller than he'd intended to swallow?
Still, even if it had only been wishful thinking, it couldn't hurt to try, could it?
Whatever the reason behind it, Jin's sleep looked peaceful, free from nightmares and strange voices, and so deep that he didn't even stir when Kame placed a hand under the curls at the base of his neck and gently turned his head. He leaned forward, careful not to crush the sleeping body in front of him, and pressed his lips to Jin's.
With that one kiss, Kame tried to will Jin all the life force he needed to keep him alive. Jin's lips, warm and dry against his, slowly parted under the pressure placed on them, welcoming Kame inside; his eyes flew open as Kame's tongue began a slow, tentative exploration of his mouth.
For Kame, it felt like he'd just run a marathon, or perhaps finished the third encore on his second concert of the day. His body went from being taut with tension to being loose and languid, limbs suddenly limp from exertion. But it was a good feeling, this tiredness, because it came from giving a precious gift to a loved one.
For Jin, it felt like being on-stage, with coiled springs in his body just waiting to release their stored energy. His limbs tingled, and the blood that had travelled so sluggishly round his body picked up the pace. In the back of his mind, the voices cried out first in fear, then in pain, then in bitter humiliation.
Then, they disappeared altogether.
Kame released his hold on Jin's neck and fell back against the cushions, panting, and Jin stretched out each limb in turn, marvelling that his body moved so easily once more.
"You look worn out," Jin commented. "I must be one hell of a kisser."
"Hah," Kame retorted after he got his breath back. "You were asleep for most of it. It's all my doing, and I hope you appreciate that."
Though not blessed with a great deal in the way of common sense, Jin was surprisingly perceptive at times. "I don't know exactly what you did, but I do appreciate it. I feel amazing!"
"And I feel terrible," Kame groaned, "but at least the voices told me it would only be for a while."
"You've been hearing voices too? Mine weren't very nice, but I think they're gone now."
Kame smiled and leaned his shoulder against Jin's for support. "Mine told me to give you a gift, and that your birthday would've been too late for it."
Jin blinked back a tear. "It's the most valuable gift anyone's ever given me," he said thickly. "I don't know how to thank you."
"Well...you could start by paying me back for the meal and the taxi last night. And you might have to cover for me for a while, the way we've all been doing for you."
Jin nodded. "I can do that."
"Good." Kame yawned so widely it made his jaws ache, looked at his watch, and refused to believe how early it was. "There's something else you can do for me."
"Name it."
"Let me stay here tonight. I can't drive home like this and my family will worry if I'm fast asleep when it's not even six in the evening yet. I can take the couch."
Jin wouldn't dream of it. "We can share the bed again; it's big enough." A thought occurred to Jin, one he hadn't had the energy for in far too long. "Ne, Kame, now that I'm awake again we could-"
Kame's shake of the head forced Jin to break off sharply. "No, we couldn't. Now *I'm* exhausted!"
"But, Kame...."
Jin's wail of frustration made it all the way to the spiritual plane, where it was echoed by a number of fairies who'd been hoping for a show.