JE/NEWS/KAT-TUN- "Guardian Spirits"
Title: Guardian Spirits
Universe: JE/ NewS
Theme/Topic: N/A
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: NewS, KAT-TUN (Nakamaru and Massu centric)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC, Stupidity, AU
Word Count: 4,139
Summary: In the AU related to “To Serve and Protect” and “Waiting to Come Home”- Massu’s job is the most important one of all.
Dedication: For Joanne’s fic request! I’m sorry I suck at writing Massu. But yeah; I remember some months ago you wanted a Maru and Massu centric fic so I thought I’d use that request for this fic. Because I’m cheap like that, okay? SORRY. Also, you get it now instead of closer to Christmas because if I have this lying around I WILL BE CONSTANTLY REDOING IT until it’s just completely incomprehensible. SO, to save me that pain, early fic present! LOL
A/N: God so I probably should have given up on this after page one, but I didn’t. I kind of just kept trucking stubbornly along until I wanted to bang my head on the desk for how melodramatic and stupid this turned out; I think it’s been rewritten in certain parts so many different times that the versions somehow bled together and don’t make sense anymore. Also, there are probably like, seven billion editing mistakes in here given the two days I’ve been poring over it and “fixing” it, so forgive the nonsensicalness of um, everything. BUT I’M DONE? I guess? I still have Nico’s holiday fic to write next, and that one will most likely be even more doubt-inducing than this one. LOL So glad I’m not doing an open holiday request meme again this year. WOULD DIE.
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!
“Doesn’t that bother you?” Nakamaru asks, loosening his tie a little as he sits down to lunch with Masuda at the dumpling place near work that they both like. He pauses to frown as disapprovingly as he can over Massu’s shoulder, towards a group of junior agents huddled together at one of the long tables behind theirs.
The younger agents are whispering amongst themselves, no doubt about the various different rumors currently circulating the office as to why Agent Masuda has his arm in a sling right now; they’re probably taking bets on how he got shot and how long he will be off of active field duty while he heals.
Nakamaru also suspects that a lot of the subsequent snickering and knowing looks in Massu’s direction center around the fact that in an agency like this, people with talents like Masuda’s aren’t considered much better than human shields in the first place. It’s disgusting.
Masuda, however, doesn’t notice the nosy juniors at all; he just smiles warmly at Nakamaru before digging into his gyoza rice bowl with great fervor. “What is there to be bothered about?” he asks around a mouthful of dumplings.
Nakamaru looks incredulous; “What, so you’re okay with being considered nothing more than a human shield? You’re totally fine with having all the juniors talk about how they hope they don’t get your job when they’re assigned to their teams?”
Massu blinks. “But I like my job.”
Nakamaru sighs. “Well, I know for sure that Taguchi doesn’t like the stuff that comes with the job; he gets this kind of hurt puppy dog look in his eyes whenever Koki brings up the grunt thing or the cannon fodder thing, and I think he actually gets mad about the human shield thing. What does your team say to you about it?”
“Every person on our team is important,” Massu fills in obligingly. He grins.
Nakamaru almost rolls his eyes because it just figures that Director Yamashita would spew exactly that kind of happy-go-lucky inspirational word vomit that doesn’t actually mean anything; it figures even more that Masuda would believe it one-hundred percent too. “Yeah, well, regardless of that, I still think it would feel more equal if you guys actually got a title or something,” the older agent poses thoughtfully. “Like for our teams, there are the official leaders and then the ‘specialists,’ right? Your undercover agents, the computer experts, the snipers, the bomb guys, the criminal psychologists and stuff. They’ve got those ‘special’ abilities on one hand, but on the other, they’re still required to do what you can do too- the regular agent work. Makes them seem more valuable or something since they’ve got titles on top of everything else. But I bet if they at least gave you guys an official name instead of just calling you regular field agents, people wouldn’t look down on you so much for being normal anymore.” Pause. Grin. “Hey, what about Physical Exertion Specialists? That’s got a nice ring to it.”
Massu blinks. Twice.
Then, “People look down on me?” he asks, and his lip starts to wibble.
Nakamaru sighs. “Never mind.” He pushes his dessert plate towards Massu before that lip wibble can get any worse.
Massu immediately smiles when he sees the offer of red bean mochi. “Hey, thanks!”
They eat their lunch.
~~~~~
Some months later, Masuda’s arm is all healed up and he is placed back on active duty; naturally, he’s ecstatic to get to work with everyone at full capacity again.
His first big mission back is a co-op bust with Nakamaru’s team and Massu is even more excited about that; he hasn’t gotten to work with Nakamaru since they were junior agents together.
“Alright,” Director Kamenashi starts during the strategy meeting, as a blueprint of the premises they are raiding comes up on the projector, “According to surveillance reports the targets have been running low on food for the past three days. We don’t know about the state of the hostages yet, but we can’t take that into account until after the building is secure anyway. We’ll enter the building from here, the basement entrance, and here, the south wing. The fodder will lead and…”
“Woah, woah,” Shige frowns, and stops Kamenashi by raising his hand in the middle of the director’s sentence. He doesn’t actually wait to be called on before speaking though. “Fodder? Did you really just say that?”
Kame looks sheepish at having slipped up like that; “Sorry,” he says, flipping his notepad around and gesturing to the bullet points written on it, “That’s what was put down in the shorthand from this morning’s meeting.” He glares at Koki as he explains this; the bald sniper just grins back at him unapologetically and flashes dual thumbs ups.
“Anyway, as I was saying…” Kame sneaks a sideways look at the end of the table towards Taguchi, who is pouting at him, and Masuda, who has no idea what is going on.
He clears his throat. “Agents Taguchi and Masuda,” he corrects carefully, “Will lead two teams of three on the ground as our main assault force. We need to be quick and mobile on this one.”
He continues talking like nothing is wrong; it only makes Nakamaru even more indignant on Massu’s behalf.
~~~~~
“You’ve got to speak up for yourself in situations like that,” he urges his friend later, as he dons his bulletproof vest. “Otherwise it’ll just keep happening over and over again.”
Massu doesn’t stop smiling as he checks his weapons; “I don’t mind.”
“Why?” Nakamaru asks, because he really doesn’t get it. How can Massu be so calm about being disrespected like that? “Even I mind.”
Massu looks around for a moment, and when he is certain no one else is within earshot, cups a hand over his mouth secretly. “I don’t mind because,” he whispers to the taller agent in confidence, “I already know what my title really is.”
Nakamaru stares at him. “Um... huh?”
Massu grins. “It’s a really important one, ne.”
Nakamaru is almost afraid to ask, but does anyway. “Right… so what is it, exactly?”
“It’s a secret,” Massu tells him, with a wink.
A moment.
“Let’s go to the van now, okay?” Nakamaru suggests, and suddenly feels really, really tired.
Massu beams. “Okay!”
~~~~~
“Ne, Shige,” Tegoshi asks his teammate as they gear up nearby. “Why are Massu and Taguchi-kun called things like that? It’s kind of weird, ne.”
Shige sighs at how indelicately the younger agent brings up the subject while they are in the middle of preparing for a big job. He almost decides to ignore the kid outright, except that Tegoshi isn’t suiting up anymore; he’s blinking up at Shige with big, curious eyes as he patiently waits for an explanation.
Shige supposes he ought to just give it to him now, or they will never get out of here on time.
“They call them things like that because places like this rate your value as a human being on how much you can do for them on the job,” Shige explains. “Guys like you and Nishikido-kun are considered special because not just anyone can do what you do, while guys like Massu and Taguchi aren’t as valuable because they do the stuff anyone can do.”
Tegoshi frowns when he hears this, looking vaguely distressed. “Eh? But Massu is really valuable to me!” he declares, like his opinion of Massu is all that really matters in the world.
He’ll always be selfish like that, but Shige supposes that on the one hand, it also means that Tegoshi will never really take the agency’s value system to heart no matter how much they try to indoctrinate him.
On the other hand, he’ll always be selfish like that.
~~~~~
“Maybe,” Koyama whispers carefully to Koki as they ride to the location together, “we shouldn’t say those types of things about Massu and Taguchi-kun anymore, ne? I think it hurts their feelings.”
Junno is hopeful when Koki cracks open an eye at Koyama from the other side of the van.
A beat.
Then, “Did you say something?”
Koyama laughs nervously and goes back to checking his gun.
~~~~~
They get to the estate shortly thereafter and get into position; Massu’s team is in charge of taking out ground security and disabling the enemy’s surveillance equipment while Taguchi’s team is in charge of taking out second level security and freeing the hostages.
“This is going to be cake,” Koki crows as he prepares his rifle alongside Ryo.
“I will never like you, so please don’t talk to me,” Ryo replies methodically, and sets up his equipment exactly fifty feet away from the younger sniper.
Koki snorts. “Whatever.”
~~~~~
“Everyone is confirmed in position,” Yamapi reports three minutes later, as he and Kame survey overhead video of the estate from satellite camera. Ueda calmly maintains the visuals for them at the console and waits for Tegoshi’s aid from the inside to tap into the enemy’s surveillance network.
Everything is dead quiet.
“For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this,” Yamapi murmurs to himself as he prepares to give the attack order.
Kame puts a hand on the older leader’s shoulder and tries to be comforting. “Don’t worry,” he reassures Yamapi confidently, “My plan is perfect.”
~~~~~
When Massu is shot, it is because the plan isn’t perfect after all; in the rush to get them out of danger, no one took into account the fact that the hostages could be a threat as well.
Massu might not have any ability with computers like Tegoshi or Ueda do, or undercover talent like Shige and Jin; he can’t do anything with explosives like Koyama and Nakamaru, and even though he’s a good shot, he’ll never be as surgically precise as Ryo and Koki are. He is however, fast and strong; he’s got good reflexes and his vision is perfect.
That’s why he’s the first to notice when the hostage suddenly turns on Tegoshi as they are being led to the exit; Massu immediately sees the gleam of the pistol’s nozzle in the dim light and the fact that it is pointing directly at his teammate’s head. He manages to push Tegoshi out of the way just in time because he’s fast and strong and has good reflexes and perfect vision.
When Massu is shot a spray of blood erupts from his head and falls all over Tegoshi’s face and hair; Nakamaru knows tiny little details like this about that moment in time because he’s standing right next to Massu when it happens. He watches helplessly as Massu hits the ground because he is too frozen in horror to really move right away, and he might have been killed on the second shot from the former hostage’s gun if Junno hadn’t been right behind him, yanking him down and throwing them both behind a pile of firewood.
This is because Junno is just like Massu- their jobs are the same, their titles the same, their ridicule exactly, exactly the same.
But sometimes people forget that they’re also both faster and stronger than everyone else too.
A second later Ryo’s shot takes out the arm of the hostage that is holding the pistol and Koki’s takes out the back of his leg. He screams and tumbles to the ground bleeding; he immediately starts chanting the holy commandments of the cult that had abducted him from his college campus three weeks ago.
Koyama automatically moves to secure the hostage-turned-shooter while Shige secures the gun; Nakamaru’s heart is pounding in his ears and it’s only a second or two later, when everything is over, that he realizes that Junno is covering him, shielding his head with both of his arms. When Nakamaru remembers to breathe again, he also realizes that his teammate looks like he is in pain, too.
Junno grits his teeth. “Did he get you?” he asks, gently.
“No,” Nakamaru murmurs. “I mean… I don’t think so.”
The taller agent manages a smile when he hears that. “Okay.”
The wails of sirens pierce the air moments later.
~~~~~
Junno’s dislocated shoulder will be sore for a few days after landing on it wrong when he was trying to get Nakamaru to cover, but he smiles around the ache and thanks Nakamaru for staying with him at the hospital even though it’s late like this; he never expected to have company for such a minor injury, especially on a work night.
Nakamaru smiles helplessly and would offer to see Junno home as well, but in truth, he is still waiting on something else altogether.
“It’s okay,” Junno tells him with that invincible grin of his, “Maruyama-san said he doesn’t mind picking me up.”
Nakamaru nods. “Um… rest well,” he offers, awkwardly.
“You too!” Junno replies, waving after him as he leaves the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
~~~~~
Two wards over, Nakamaru joins Yamashita's team outside of the emergency room.
Tegoshi is crying softly into Ryo’s shoulder while Koyama sits on the floor with his knees pressed up to his chest. Yamapi is scarily expressionless, and Shige is the only one who nods in greeting to Nakamaru when he arrives.
“Any…”
“No,” Ryo snaps, before Nakamaru can ask. He rubs small circles on Tegoshi’s back and glares silently at the wall.
No one says anything else after that.
~~~~~
A few minutes later-or a few hours, Nakamaru can’t really tell- a doctor comes out of the ominous double doors covered in blood, he smiles encouragingly at the group in the waiting room. Nakamaru isn’t sure about the details as the doctor confers with Yamapi, but he overhears that there was a lot of blood loss, the bullet just grazed, head wounds bleed a lot, he’s still unconscious, blah, blah, blah.
Given that all the news seems to suggest that, yes, Massu will live, everyone is swiftly ousted from the hospital soon after with the promise that they will be called if anything changes.
Tegoshi stops crying but his eyes are all puffy and red; Ryo snorts and calls him pathetic before gently offering to drive him home. They can stop somewhere and get cocoa if he wants.
Koyama and Shige both leave together too; Koyama looks like all the tears he had been holding back this whole time are about to pour out in a torrent of relief at any second now. Shige pretends not to notice; instead, he quietly takes the keys from Koyama and offers to drive this time.
After a moment, when it’s just the two of them left, Yamapi looks at Nakamaru and asks if he wants a ride back to the office.
Nakamaru only nods dumbly.
Yamapi pats Nakamaru’s shoulder in understanding and they wordlessly head out to his car.
~~~~~
When they get back to the office parking lot twenty minutes later the agency is dark and empty; Nakamaru’s car is the only one left in the lot. He unbuckles his seatbelt and moves to get out, but finds himself hesitating for a moment before opening the door. Instead, he looks at Yamapi like he’s trying to figure out some sort of weird riddle.
“Eh? Is something wrong?” Yamapi asks.
The older agent doesn’t answer right away, takes a deep breath. Then, “Massu said that every person on your team is important.”
Yamapi smiles crookedly when he hears this. “Every person on every team is important, ne.”
Nakamaru nods and gets out of the car.
~~~~~
Come morning Massu still hasn’t regained consciousness; Nakamaru goes to work feeling strangely bitter at the world.
When he hears gossip already starting to erupt about why Massu was shot yesterday Nakamaru yells at the junior agents talking about it around the water cooler; he makes them go buy everyone coffee and donuts at the shop around the corner and tells them he’ll personally recommend them for clerical work in the agency for the rest of their careers if all they want to do is stand around blabbling to one another like middle-aged women all day.
They’re sent scurrying in the face of his uncharacteristic angry mood and stay silent for the rest of the morning about what happened, but it doesn’t make Nakamaru feel any better.
~~~~~
When they get the call that Massu is awake some hours later, everything suddenly feels like it is rushing out of Nakamaru all at once. He slumps face down onto his desk, exhausted.
His exhaustion is only allowed to last for a second though, because before he knows it, Tegoshi and Koyama are both sprinting into his office; “If you want to come visit Massu with us there’s still room in Ryo-tan’s car,” Tegoshi offers, and is smiling so big no one would ever know how hard he’d cried last night.
Nakamaru gets pulled up by the two of them before he can answer yes or no properly; he’s thrown into the backseat of Nishikido’s car without much ceremony.
“Great, now I’m going to have it cleaned to get the smell of moron out,” Ryo snipes bitterly when he sees Nakamaru sitting on his brand new leather upholstery. Nakamaru takes it as proof of the sniper’s renewed good spirits.
They get to the hospital not long after that and it all kind of goes in a blur for Nakamaru from there; Tegoshi and Yamapi manage to team up and sweet-talk the head nurse into letting them all visit at once on the promise that they won’t be too rowdy with Massu. She twitters at them both and falls for every single charm they have; as such, the six of them are all allowed to squeeze into Massu’s room, but for no longer than an hour.
“Uwah, Massu, you look like a mummy!” Tegoshi giggles as they pile in, and plants himself neatly on the edge of Massu’s bed.
Massu grins and sticks out his arms in front of him, obliging Tegoshi’s assessment. “Urrrrrr,” he groans, doing his best to sound like a monster and failing miserably. Tegoshi yelps in faux fear and ducks behind Koyama anyway, eyes twinkling.
“Massu is scary!” he exclaims with a pout. “After we came all this way to visit him he’s definitely become a mummy, ne!”
“Don’t be dumb,” Shige sighs, “A mummy is wrapped all over. He’s just wrapped on his head.”
“But mummies do get treasure,” Koyama announces next, and smiles broadly as he presents Massu with a giant fruit basket. Massu’s eyes get as big as plates when he sees it.
“Is that all for me?!” he asks, awed.
“Dumbass, you can’t possibly eat all of that by yourself without getting sick,” Ryo snaps.
Yamapi grins and clarifies for Ryo. “We’re all sharing, ne!”
“Okay!” Massu says, and looks just as happy to hear that as he was to see the fruit in the first place.
Nakamaru doesn’t say a word the entire time; he accepts apples peeled by Koyama and sliced by Yamapi wordlessly as the six of them talk like nothing at all is wrong, like Massu didn’t almost die protecting them less than twenty four hours ago.
Eventually their lunch break is over and they have to get back to work; Nakamaru leaves a smiling, waving Massu at the hospital feeling somehow, even more ill at ease than before.
~~~~~
“How can you guys just do that?” Nakamaru asks in the car on the way back. He can’t hold it in anymore. “You act like nothing happened at all!”
Ryo glares through the rearview at him. “Tego-nyan,” he says, “Throw that moron out of the car.”
Tegoshi laughs. “Don’t be silly, Ryo-tan,” he scolds his teammate sweetly, before turning to look at Nakamaru with bright eyes. “We do it because Massu isn’t happy unless everyone else is, ne. And the happier he is the faster he’ll get better, right?”
Silence.
Then Ryo grumbles to himself about how no one listens to him, though he doesn’t move to disagree with Tegoshi first.
He does, however, vow to never take another member of Kamenashi’s team in his car ever again.
“Because they’re all stupid.”
~~~~~
After work is done Nakamaru finds himself outside of Massu’s hospital room again, instead of out eating dinner with Koki like he’d agreed to last week. It’s fine, Koki probably forgot anyway.
“Oh, you’re back!” Massu greets when he sees Nakamaru standing in the hallway outside of his door. “How was work?”
“I still don’t get it,” Nakamaru starts, and ignores Massu’s question completely.
Massu blinks. “Don’t get what?”
“You,” Nakamaru tells him, and takes a seat at Massu’s bedside. “I don’t get you. You nearly died yesterday. You nearly died doing exactly what the agency expects you to die from. What’s worse is that it’s the same thing that makes us think you’re not as valuable as other members of your team. How can you smile about that?”
Massu cocks his head to the side. “I’m smiling because I’m happy to see you,” he explains, with no pretense whatsoever.
A beat.
Then Nakamaru groans and rests his chin on the mattress. “I don’t get you,” he reiterates, feeling helpless in the face of his friend’s undaunted cheer.
Massu pauses for a second when he sees Nakamaru looking pained; he turns thoughtful as he tries to find a way to help, forget about the fact that he is the one currently in the hospital bed.
Then, after a minute or two, he lights up again. “I know!” he says brightly, and snaps his fingers. “I’ll tell you my secret, ne. That will definitely make you feel better, right?”
The older agent blinks. “What?”
Massu’s grin broadens. “My secret about my real title, ne. No one knows what it is but me and Kusano. So now it will be a secret for just the three of us! Won’t that be fun? Something cool like that will definitely cheer you up, right?”
Nakamaru isn’t sure why Massu is convinced that something like that will help with his confusion, but to be fair, in Massu’s head a lot of things that shouldn’t make sense somehow seem to. “I don’t…”
“I protect everyone!” Massu exclaims before Nakamaru can politely decline the invitation. He throws his hands up in the air when he says it; he looks ridiculous. Ta-da.
Nakamaru stares. “You…”
Massu nods gleefully. “I protect everyone.”
Nakamaru thinks he is confused now.
Which is fine, Massu very helpfully goes about filling in the blanks for him. “See? That’s why I don’t mind being called a shield, ne. Because a shield is a strong thing that is used to guard something really precious, right? Like a person’s heart or stomach or neck. But since I get to guard my teammates, the stuff I have to protect is even more precious than that, right?”
Nakamaru doesn’t really know how to respond.
“And I’m human too, so being called a human shield is actually really great! I mean, I might be kind of mad if they called me a wooden shield or a bug shield instead.”
“But it can’t not bother you,” Nakamaru starts to protest, “The way no one thinks you’re important has to be annoying, right? Massu, they think you’re expendable.”
Massu’s smile never falters. As far as he’s concerned, he’s got everything figured out already. “Even though some people might not think my job is important, I know it is, ne,” he assures Nakamaru. “Kusano and I talked about this a long time ago; we figured out the big secret together. You see, the agency doesn’t want people to think we’re important because if they knew, they’d get jealous, ne. That’s why they don’t give us any fancy titles or anything. But our job is actually the number one most important job out of all of them!”
“It is?”
“Un! Because if no one was there to protect the others, then they definitely couldn’t do their jobs, right? And if that happened, nothing would get done at all and hostages and stuff would never get saved.”
The younger agent sits back happily then, triumphant in his logic. “So that’s why I don’t mind.”
Nakamaru swallows. “Because your secret title is…”
“Team Protector!”
“Team…Protector.”
“Yup!” Massu’s smile is luminescent at that moment, singularly undefeatable.
And Nakamaru can’t help it; when he hears his friend’s logic he laughs for the first time all day.
He thinks that Massu is a really, really amazing guy.
Even more, he’s glad that Massu’s team already knows it too.
~~~~~
The next day at work, Nakamaru goes to Junno’s desk and invites him to come have lunch with him for the first time since the formation of their unit.
“There’s this really good dumpling place down the street I like to go to sometimes,” he says.
And when Junno smiles at him, Nakamaru is startled to discover how much it reminds him of Massu.
END
EDITS PLZ.
Universe: JE/ NewS
Theme/Topic: N/A
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: NewS, KAT-TUN (Nakamaru and Massu centric)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC, Stupidity, AU
Word Count: 4,139
Summary: In the AU related to “To Serve and Protect” and “Waiting to Come Home”- Massu’s job is the most important one of all.
Dedication: For Joanne’s fic request! I’m sorry I suck at writing Massu. But yeah; I remember some months ago you wanted a Maru and Massu centric fic so I thought I’d use that request for this fic. Because I’m cheap like that, okay? SORRY. Also, you get it now instead of closer to Christmas because if I have this lying around I WILL BE CONSTANTLY REDOING IT until it’s just completely incomprehensible. SO, to save me that pain, early fic present! LOL
A/N: God so I probably should have given up on this after page one, but I didn’t. I kind of just kept trucking stubbornly along until I wanted to bang my head on the desk for how melodramatic and stupid this turned out; I think it’s been rewritten in certain parts so many different times that the versions somehow bled together and don’t make sense anymore. Also, there are probably like, seven billion editing mistakes in here given the two days I’ve been poring over it and “fixing” it, so forgive the nonsensicalness of um, everything. BUT I’M DONE? I guess? I still have Nico’s holiday fic to write next, and that one will most likely be even more doubt-inducing than this one. LOL So glad I’m not doing an open holiday request meme again this year. WOULD DIE.
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!
“Doesn’t that bother you?” Nakamaru asks, loosening his tie a little as he sits down to lunch with Masuda at the dumpling place near work that they both like. He pauses to frown as disapprovingly as he can over Massu’s shoulder, towards a group of junior agents huddled together at one of the long tables behind theirs.
The younger agents are whispering amongst themselves, no doubt about the various different rumors currently circulating the office as to why Agent Masuda has his arm in a sling right now; they’re probably taking bets on how he got shot and how long he will be off of active field duty while he heals.
Nakamaru also suspects that a lot of the subsequent snickering and knowing looks in Massu’s direction center around the fact that in an agency like this, people with talents like Masuda’s aren’t considered much better than human shields in the first place. It’s disgusting.
Masuda, however, doesn’t notice the nosy juniors at all; he just smiles warmly at Nakamaru before digging into his gyoza rice bowl with great fervor. “What is there to be bothered about?” he asks around a mouthful of dumplings.
Nakamaru looks incredulous; “What, so you’re okay with being considered nothing more than a human shield? You’re totally fine with having all the juniors talk about how they hope they don’t get your job when they’re assigned to their teams?”
Massu blinks. “But I like my job.”
Nakamaru sighs. “Well, I know for sure that Taguchi doesn’t like the stuff that comes with the job; he gets this kind of hurt puppy dog look in his eyes whenever Koki brings up the grunt thing or the cannon fodder thing, and I think he actually gets mad about the human shield thing. What does your team say to you about it?”
“Every person on our team is important,” Massu fills in obligingly. He grins.
Nakamaru almost rolls his eyes because it just figures that Director Yamashita would spew exactly that kind of happy-go-lucky inspirational word vomit that doesn’t actually mean anything; it figures even more that Masuda would believe it one-hundred percent too. “Yeah, well, regardless of that, I still think it would feel more equal if you guys actually got a title or something,” the older agent poses thoughtfully. “Like for our teams, there are the official leaders and then the ‘specialists,’ right? Your undercover agents, the computer experts, the snipers, the bomb guys, the criminal psychologists and stuff. They’ve got those ‘special’ abilities on one hand, but on the other, they’re still required to do what you can do too- the regular agent work. Makes them seem more valuable or something since they’ve got titles on top of everything else. But I bet if they at least gave you guys an official name instead of just calling you regular field agents, people wouldn’t look down on you so much for being normal anymore.” Pause. Grin. “Hey, what about Physical Exertion Specialists? That’s got a nice ring to it.”
Massu blinks. Twice.
Then, “People look down on me?” he asks, and his lip starts to wibble.
Nakamaru sighs. “Never mind.” He pushes his dessert plate towards Massu before that lip wibble can get any worse.
Massu immediately smiles when he sees the offer of red bean mochi. “Hey, thanks!”
They eat their lunch.
~~~~~
Some months later, Masuda’s arm is all healed up and he is placed back on active duty; naturally, he’s ecstatic to get to work with everyone at full capacity again.
His first big mission back is a co-op bust with Nakamaru’s team and Massu is even more excited about that; he hasn’t gotten to work with Nakamaru since they were junior agents together.
“Alright,” Director Kamenashi starts during the strategy meeting, as a blueprint of the premises they are raiding comes up on the projector, “According to surveillance reports the targets have been running low on food for the past three days. We don’t know about the state of the hostages yet, but we can’t take that into account until after the building is secure anyway. We’ll enter the building from here, the basement entrance, and here, the south wing. The fodder will lead and…”
“Woah, woah,” Shige frowns, and stops Kamenashi by raising his hand in the middle of the director’s sentence. He doesn’t actually wait to be called on before speaking though. “Fodder? Did you really just say that?”
Kame looks sheepish at having slipped up like that; “Sorry,” he says, flipping his notepad around and gesturing to the bullet points written on it, “That’s what was put down in the shorthand from this morning’s meeting.” He glares at Koki as he explains this; the bald sniper just grins back at him unapologetically and flashes dual thumbs ups.
“Anyway, as I was saying…” Kame sneaks a sideways look at the end of the table towards Taguchi, who is pouting at him, and Masuda, who has no idea what is going on.
He clears his throat. “Agents Taguchi and Masuda,” he corrects carefully, “Will lead two teams of three on the ground as our main assault force. We need to be quick and mobile on this one.”
He continues talking like nothing is wrong; it only makes Nakamaru even more indignant on Massu’s behalf.
~~~~~
“You’ve got to speak up for yourself in situations like that,” he urges his friend later, as he dons his bulletproof vest. “Otherwise it’ll just keep happening over and over again.”
Massu doesn’t stop smiling as he checks his weapons; “I don’t mind.”
“Why?” Nakamaru asks, because he really doesn’t get it. How can Massu be so calm about being disrespected like that? “Even I mind.”
Massu looks around for a moment, and when he is certain no one else is within earshot, cups a hand over his mouth secretly. “I don’t mind because,” he whispers to the taller agent in confidence, “I already know what my title really is.”
Nakamaru stares at him. “Um... huh?”
Massu grins. “It’s a really important one, ne.”
Nakamaru is almost afraid to ask, but does anyway. “Right… so what is it, exactly?”
“It’s a secret,” Massu tells him, with a wink.
A moment.
“Let’s go to the van now, okay?” Nakamaru suggests, and suddenly feels really, really tired.
Massu beams. “Okay!”
~~~~~
“Ne, Shige,” Tegoshi asks his teammate as they gear up nearby. “Why are Massu and Taguchi-kun called things like that? It’s kind of weird, ne.”
Shige sighs at how indelicately the younger agent brings up the subject while they are in the middle of preparing for a big job. He almost decides to ignore the kid outright, except that Tegoshi isn’t suiting up anymore; he’s blinking up at Shige with big, curious eyes as he patiently waits for an explanation.
Shige supposes he ought to just give it to him now, or they will never get out of here on time.
“They call them things like that because places like this rate your value as a human being on how much you can do for them on the job,” Shige explains. “Guys like you and Nishikido-kun are considered special because not just anyone can do what you do, while guys like Massu and Taguchi aren’t as valuable because they do the stuff anyone can do.”
Tegoshi frowns when he hears this, looking vaguely distressed. “Eh? But Massu is really valuable to me!” he declares, like his opinion of Massu is all that really matters in the world.
He’ll always be selfish like that, but Shige supposes that on the one hand, it also means that Tegoshi will never really take the agency’s value system to heart no matter how much they try to indoctrinate him.
On the other hand, he’ll always be selfish like that.
~~~~~
“Maybe,” Koyama whispers carefully to Koki as they ride to the location together, “we shouldn’t say those types of things about Massu and Taguchi-kun anymore, ne? I think it hurts their feelings.”
Junno is hopeful when Koki cracks open an eye at Koyama from the other side of the van.
A beat.
Then, “Did you say something?”
Koyama laughs nervously and goes back to checking his gun.
~~~~~
They get to the estate shortly thereafter and get into position; Massu’s team is in charge of taking out ground security and disabling the enemy’s surveillance equipment while Taguchi’s team is in charge of taking out second level security and freeing the hostages.
“This is going to be cake,” Koki crows as he prepares his rifle alongside Ryo.
“I will never like you, so please don’t talk to me,” Ryo replies methodically, and sets up his equipment exactly fifty feet away from the younger sniper.
Koki snorts. “Whatever.”
~~~~~
“Everyone is confirmed in position,” Yamapi reports three minutes later, as he and Kame survey overhead video of the estate from satellite camera. Ueda calmly maintains the visuals for them at the console and waits for Tegoshi’s aid from the inside to tap into the enemy’s surveillance network.
Everything is dead quiet.
“For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this,” Yamapi murmurs to himself as he prepares to give the attack order.
Kame puts a hand on the older leader’s shoulder and tries to be comforting. “Don’t worry,” he reassures Yamapi confidently, “My plan is perfect.”
~~~~~
When Massu is shot, it is because the plan isn’t perfect after all; in the rush to get them out of danger, no one took into account the fact that the hostages could be a threat as well.
Massu might not have any ability with computers like Tegoshi or Ueda do, or undercover talent like Shige and Jin; he can’t do anything with explosives like Koyama and Nakamaru, and even though he’s a good shot, he’ll never be as surgically precise as Ryo and Koki are. He is however, fast and strong; he’s got good reflexes and his vision is perfect.
That’s why he’s the first to notice when the hostage suddenly turns on Tegoshi as they are being led to the exit; Massu immediately sees the gleam of the pistol’s nozzle in the dim light and the fact that it is pointing directly at his teammate’s head. He manages to push Tegoshi out of the way just in time because he’s fast and strong and has good reflexes and perfect vision.
When Massu is shot a spray of blood erupts from his head and falls all over Tegoshi’s face and hair; Nakamaru knows tiny little details like this about that moment in time because he’s standing right next to Massu when it happens. He watches helplessly as Massu hits the ground because he is too frozen in horror to really move right away, and he might have been killed on the second shot from the former hostage’s gun if Junno hadn’t been right behind him, yanking him down and throwing them both behind a pile of firewood.
This is because Junno is just like Massu- their jobs are the same, their titles the same, their ridicule exactly, exactly the same.
But sometimes people forget that they’re also both faster and stronger than everyone else too.
A second later Ryo’s shot takes out the arm of the hostage that is holding the pistol and Koki’s takes out the back of his leg. He screams and tumbles to the ground bleeding; he immediately starts chanting the holy commandments of the cult that had abducted him from his college campus three weeks ago.
Koyama automatically moves to secure the hostage-turned-shooter while Shige secures the gun; Nakamaru’s heart is pounding in his ears and it’s only a second or two later, when everything is over, that he realizes that Junno is covering him, shielding his head with both of his arms. When Nakamaru remembers to breathe again, he also realizes that his teammate looks like he is in pain, too.
Junno grits his teeth. “Did he get you?” he asks, gently.
“No,” Nakamaru murmurs. “I mean… I don’t think so.”
The taller agent manages a smile when he hears that. “Okay.”
The wails of sirens pierce the air moments later.
~~~~~
Junno’s dislocated shoulder will be sore for a few days after landing on it wrong when he was trying to get Nakamaru to cover, but he smiles around the ache and thanks Nakamaru for staying with him at the hospital even though it’s late like this; he never expected to have company for such a minor injury, especially on a work night.
Nakamaru smiles helplessly and would offer to see Junno home as well, but in truth, he is still waiting on something else altogether.
“It’s okay,” Junno tells him with that invincible grin of his, “Maruyama-san said he doesn’t mind picking me up.”
Nakamaru nods. “Um… rest well,” he offers, awkwardly.
“You too!” Junno replies, waving after him as he leaves the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
~~~~~
Two wards over, Nakamaru joins Yamashita's team outside of the emergency room.
Tegoshi is crying softly into Ryo’s shoulder while Koyama sits on the floor with his knees pressed up to his chest. Yamapi is scarily expressionless, and Shige is the only one who nods in greeting to Nakamaru when he arrives.
“Any…”
“No,” Ryo snaps, before Nakamaru can ask. He rubs small circles on Tegoshi’s back and glares silently at the wall.
No one says anything else after that.
~~~~~
A few minutes later-or a few hours, Nakamaru can’t really tell- a doctor comes out of the ominous double doors covered in blood, he smiles encouragingly at the group in the waiting room. Nakamaru isn’t sure about the details as the doctor confers with Yamapi, but he overhears that there was a lot of blood loss, the bullet just grazed, head wounds bleed a lot, he’s still unconscious, blah, blah, blah.
Given that all the news seems to suggest that, yes, Massu will live, everyone is swiftly ousted from the hospital soon after with the promise that they will be called if anything changes.
Tegoshi stops crying but his eyes are all puffy and red; Ryo snorts and calls him pathetic before gently offering to drive him home. They can stop somewhere and get cocoa if he wants.
Koyama and Shige both leave together too; Koyama looks like all the tears he had been holding back this whole time are about to pour out in a torrent of relief at any second now. Shige pretends not to notice; instead, he quietly takes the keys from Koyama and offers to drive this time.
After a moment, when it’s just the two of them left, Yamapi looks at Nakamaru and asks if he wants a ride back to the office.
Nakamaru only nods dumbly.
Yamapi pats Nakamaru’s shoulder in understanding and they wordlessly head out to his car.
~~~~~
When they get back to the office parking lot twenty minutes later the agency is dark and empty; Nakamaru’s car is the only one left in the lot. He unbuckles his seatbelt and moves to get out, but finds himself hesitating for a moment before opening the door. Instead, he looks at Yamapi like he’s trying to figure out some sort of weird riddle.
“Eh? Is something wrong?” Yamapi asks.
The older agent doesn’t answer right away, takes a deep breath. Then, “Massu said that every person on your team is important.”
Yamapi smiles crookedly when he hears this. “Every person on every team is important, ne.”
Nakamaru nods and gets out of the car.
~~~~~
Come morning Massu still hasn’t regained consciousness; Nakamaru goes to work feeling strangely bitter at the world.
When he hears gossip already starting to erupt about why Massu was shot yesterday Nakamaru yells at the junior agents talking about it around the water cooler; he makes them go buy everyone coffee and donuts at the shop around the corner and tells them he’ll personally recommend them for clerical work in the agency for the rest of their careers if all they want to do is stand around blabbling to one another like middle-aged women all day.
They’re sent scurrying in the face of his uncharacteristic angry mood and stay silent for the rest of the morning about what happened, but it doesn’t make Nakamaru feel any better.
~~~~~
When they get the call that Massu is awake some hours later, everything suddenly feels like it is rushing out of Nakamaru all at once. He slumps face down onto his desk, exhausted.
His exhaustion is only allowed to last for a second though, because before he knows it, Tegoshi and Koyama are both sprinting into his office; “If you want to come visit Massu with us there’s still room in Ryo-tan’s car,” Tegoshi offers, and is smiling so big no one would ever know how hard he’d cried last night.
Nakamaru gets pulled up by the two of them before he can answer yes or no properly; he’s thrown into the backseat of Nishikido’s car without much ceremony.
“Great, now I’m going to have it cleaned to get the smell of moron out,” Ryo snipes bitterly when he sees Nakamaru sitting on his brand new leather upholstery. Nakamaru takes it as proof of the sniper’s renewed good spirits.
They get to the hospital not long after that and it all kind of goes in a blur for Nakamaru from there; Tegoshi and Yamapi manage to team up and sweet-talk the head nurse into letting them all visit at once on the promise that they won’t be too rowdy with Massu. She twitters at them both and falls for every single charm they have; as such, the six of them are all allowed to squeeze into Massu’s room, but for no longer than an hour.
“Uwah, Massu, you look like a mummy!” Tegoshi giggles as they pile in, and plants himself neatly on the edge of Massu’s bed.
Massu grins and sticks out his arms in front of him, obliging Tegoshi’s assessment. “Urrrrrr,” he groans, doing his best to sound like a monster and failing miserably. Tegoshi yelps in faux fear and ducks behind Koyama anyway, eyes twinkling.
“Massu is scary!” he exclaims with a pout. “After we came all this way to visit him he’s definitely become a mummy, ne!”
“Don’t be dumb,” Shige sighs, “A mummy is wrapped all over. He’s just wrapped on his head.”
“But mummies do get treasure,” Koyama announces next, and smiles broadly as he presents Massu with a giant fruit basket. Massu’s eyes get as big as plates when he sees it.
“Is that all for me?!” he asks, awed.
“Dumbass, you can’t possibly eat all of that by yourself without getting sick,” Ryo snaps.
Yamapi grins and clarifies for Ryo. “We’re all sharing, ne!”
“Okay!” Massu says, and looks just as happy to hear that as he was to see the fruit in the first place.
Nakamaru doesn’t say a word the entire time; he accepts apples peeled by Koyama and sliced by Yamapi wordlessly as the six of them talk like nothing at all is wrong, like Massu didn’t almost die protecting them less than twenty four hours ago.
Eventually their lunch break is over and they have to get back to work; Nakamaru leaves a smiling, waving Massu at the hospital feeling somehow, even more ill at ease than before.
~~~~~
“How can you guys just do that?” Nakamaru asks in the car on the way back. He can’t hold it in anymore. “You act like nothing happened at all!”
Ryo glares through the rearview at him. “Tego-nyan,” he says, “Throw that moron out of the car.”
Tegoshi laughs. “Don’t be silly, Ryo-tan,” he scolds his teammate sweetly, before turning to look at Nakamaru with bright eyes. “We do it because Massu isn’t happy unless everyone else is, ne. And the happier he is the faster he’ll get better, right?”
Silence.
Then Ryo grumbles to himself about how no one listens to him, though he doesn’t move to disagree with Tegoshi first.
He does, however, vow to never take another member of Kamenashi’s team in his car ever again.
“Because they’re all stupid.”
~~~~~
After work is done Nakamaru finds himself outside of Massu’s hospital room again, instead of out eating dinner with Koki like he’d agreed to last week. It’s fine, Koki probably forgot anyway.
“Oh, you’re back!” Massu greets when he sees Nakamaru standing in the hallway outside of his door. “How was work?”
“I still don’t get it,” Nakamaru starts, and ignores Massu’s question completely.
Massu blinks. “Don’t get what?”
“You,” Nakamaru tells him, and takes a seat at Massu’s bedside. “I don’t get you. You nearly died yesterday. You nearly died doing exactly what the agency expects you to die from. What’s worse is that it’s the same thing that makes us think you’re not as valuable as other members of your team. How can you smile about that?”
Massu cocks his head to the side. “I’m smiling because I’m happy to see you,” he explains, with no pretense whatsoever.
A beat.
Then Nakamaru groans and rests his chin on the mattress. “I don’t get you,” he reiterates, feeling helpless in the face of his friend’s undaunted cheer.
Massu pauses for a second when he sees Nakamaru looking pained; he turns thoughtful as he tries to find a way to help, forget about the fact that he is the one currently in the hospital bed.
Then, after a minute or two, he lights up again. “I know!” he says brightly, and snaps his fingers. “I’ll tell you my secret, ne. That will definitely make you feel better, right?”
The older agent blinks. “What?”
Massu’s grin broadens. “My secret about my real title, ne. No one knows what it is but me and Kusano. So now it will be a secret for just the three of us! Won’t that be fun? Something cool like that will definitely cheer you up, right?”
Nakamaru isn’t sure why Massu is convinced that something like that will help with his confusion, but to be fair, in Massu’s head a lot of things that shouldn’t make sense somehow seem to. “I don’t…”
“I protect everyone!” Massu exclaims before Nakamaru can politely decline the invitation. He throws his hands up in the air when he says it; he looks ridiculous. Ta-da.
Nakamaru stares. “You…”
Massu nods gleefully. “I protect everyone.”
Nakamaru thinks he is confused now.
Which is fine, Massu very helpfully goes about filling in the blanks for him. “See? That’s why I don’t mind being called a shield, ne. Because a shield is a strong thing that is used to guard something really precious, right? Like a person’s heart or stomach or neck. But since I get to guard my teammates, the stuff I have to protect is even more precious than that, right?”
Nakamaru doesn’t really know how to respond.
“And I’m human too, so being called a human shield is actually really great! I mean, I might be kind of mad if they called me a wooden shield or a bug shield instead.”
“But it can’t not bother you,” Nakamaru starts to protest, “The way no one thinks you’re important has to be annoying, right? Massu, they think you’re expendable.”
Massu’s smile never falters. As far as he’s concerned, he’s got everything figured out already. “Even though some people might not think my job is important, I know it is, ne,” he assures Nakamaru. “Kusano and I talked about this a long time ago; we figured out the big secret together. You see, the agency doesn’t want people to think we’re important because if they knew, they’d get jealous, ne. That’s why they don’t give us any fancy titles or anything. But our job is actually the number one most important job out of all of them!”
“It is?”
“Un! Because if no one was there to protect the others, then they definitely couldn’t do their jobs, right? And if that happened, nothing would get done at all and hostages and stuff would never get saved.”
The younger agent sits back happily then, triumphant in his logic. “So that’s why I don’t mind.”
Nakamaru swallows. “Because your secret title is…”
“Team Protector!”
“Team…Protector.”
“Yup!” Massu’s smile is luminescent at that moment, singularly undefeatable.
And Nakamaru can’t help it; when he hears his friend’s logic he laughs for the first time all day.
He thinks that Massu is a really, really amazing guy.
Even more, he’s glad that Massu’s team already knows it too.
~~~~~
The next day at work, Nakamaru goes to Junno’s desk and invites him to come have lunch with him for the first time since the formation of their unit.
“There’s this really good dumpling place down the street I like to go to sometimes,” he says.
And when Junno smiles at him, Nakamaru is startled to discover how much it reminds him of Massu.
END
EDITS PLZ.