In the Palm of His Hands
Title: In the Palm of His Hands
Author: Speckles
Pairing: TaNaka
Rating: PG-15
Disclaimer: I made no money from this so you can't sue me.
Summary: Written for
aoi_tenshi05's TaNaka-thon. Prompt - 5 timesKoki attempted to hold Maru's hand + 1 time he finally did.
1.
Koki walked onto the set of their latest music video and smiled at the cameras that were filming the ‘making of’ PV. The manager had a quiet word with them earlier, instructing Koki to make sure there was some decent fan service for the cameras. He had deliberately been instructed to do something obvious enough to make the rumours go crazy and cause fan girls to squeal out loud while watching.
Koki walked past the cameras. He automatically went straight up to Maru, as he did every time he entered a room that contained him, and started chatting about the new set they got to play in. From the corner of his eye Koki could see the cameras following their conversation. Koki took a determined breath and moved a little closer to Maru, reaching his hand over to hold onto the beat boxer’s hand, his eyes sending a silent request for help with the fan service.
Maru took a slight step back, pretending to fix something on his costume and shook his head slightly at Koki. Koki kicked himself mentally. Of course Maru wouldn’t do it. Mild fan service had never bothered the beat boxer but anything overt was always delegated to someone with more confidence. Maru was not the type to do anything so deliberate purely to make the fangirls squeal. If Maru did something to make the fans scream it would have something to do with his talents, not his willingness to play into their fantasies.
Koki shrugged off his disappointment that he wasn’t able to say no to the instructions as easily as Maru always managed to. In the end he was filmed picking Kame up to twirl him around and, in a moment of slight confusion, allowing the skinny superstar to kiss him on the cheek.
2.
Koki cringed slightly as the host of the newest hit show explained the rules of the game. Apparently the members of KAT-TUN were expected to line up on a wobbly plank and try to keep their balance. The first three that lost their balance or let go of the hands of the members next to them would have to face a penalty. Not to mention losing their balance meant falling into a trough of cold water.
Koki had terrible balance. Sure he could break dance on his hands, but when it came to his feet, he just wasn’t that stable. Something about this game screamed ‘your little brothers are going to laugh their asses off at you’. Koki didn’t want to do it.
But, of course, what he wanted was irrelevant. It was in the contract that he would do as he was told so Koki stepped up to the plank and moved to hold onto Junno and Maru’s hands. Except when he reached out a completely different hand than he was expecting was placed into his. Koki looked over to see that Maru had switched places with Kame. Maru smirked at him and Koki scowled. The little baka knew that Koki’s balance was bad and he wasn’t even going to try to help keep him upright.
Sure enough, Koki lost the game. He fell off in seconds taking Junno and Kame down with him and now they had to face a penalty. Apparently this game was going for a retro theme because Koki was sure that dumping slime over people had gotten old in the eighties. Damn it, if this ruined his watch the show was paying for it. And Maru could pay for replacement shoes!
3.
Maru giggled as he stumbled out of the restaurant. They’d made the mistake of trying a new restaurant and ended up with horrible, over salted food. Neither of them had eaten much but they’d drunk plenty of alcohol while the waited a polite amount of time until they could ditch their meals.
“That place was terrible.” Maru whispered as the wandered down the street.
Koki nodded and pointed to a ramen stand. Nowhere with an actual door was going to serve them while they were drunk. Maru didn’t seem to notice so he went to grab the elder boy’s hand. Koki had only planned to pull him along to the ramen stand but it didn’t happen.
The moment Koki had reached out, Maru had snatched his hand away. Koki stared at the hands that were hiding against Maru’s far shoulder. He wasn’t sure if he was offended or upset but he knew he wasn’t happy.
“Why do you always do that?”
“Why do you want to hold my hand so often?”
“I was just trying to take you to the ramen stand. We need food.” Koki tried to explain but at the same time he noticed the horrible feeling he always got in his gut when he lied to someone.
“We can get to the ramen without holding hands.” Maru reasoned.
“Okay, so let’s go.” Koki answered, “But I still don’t know why you’re so touchy about your hands.”
“I just don’t think you need to be grabbing at them all the time. If you had a good reason it wouldn’t bother me, but you never do.” Maru huffed and walked ahead to place his order first.
Koki tried to figure out what the hell Maru had been talking about but he just couldn’t figure it out. He wasn’t ‘grabbing at them all the time’ was he? Maybe he did do it too often, but he couldn’t think of more than two other times that he’d deliberately tried to grab Maru’s hand and the only reason he remembered them was because he’d failed.
Koki scowled at himself and went to order his food. Maybe this would make more sense once the alcohol wore off a bit.
4.
Koki had spent the entire weekend thinking about what Maru had said the other night. He couldn’t remember deliberately grabbing his friend’s hands but he knew, beyond any doubt, that his hands were amazingly, if not disturbingly, soft.
After thinking about it almost too much and with the eye opening help of a rather sweaty dream about sucking his friend’s fingers, Koki realised that he liked Maru’s hands. Or rather, that he was attracted to them.
Maru’s hands were his fetish.
Koki had tried to ignore the realisation from the moment it had popped up in his head. Maru was his best friend. Being attracted to him was hardly going to help their friendship. But no matter how hard he tried, he still had those thoughts.
With the start of a new work day Koki found himself sitting next to Maru on sofa of their dressing room. Everyone was just hanging out, waiting for their manager to arrive with the schedules for the week.
Koki wasn’t really in a hanging out mood. Maru was chatting away with Ueda, completely unaware that his hand was resting on the sofa in the most tempting way. It was resting on the leather cushion next to Koki’s thigh and it would take almost no effort at all for Koki to let his hand slip down to meet it.
Koki could see it in his mind’s eye already; his fingers brushing against the palm then wrapping around the hand as a whole; fingers resting against Maru’s pinky and his thumb pad resting against a knuckle. It was altogether a more interesting thought than it ought to be.
He allowed his own hand to slip down onto the couch between them, his thumb brushing against Maru’s just slightly. Maru glanced back at him. It was a casual look but somehow there was a challenge in his eye. Koki realised it was probably a test, if he did try to hold Maru’s hand it would prove that he did it too often, that Maru had been right to complain the other night.
Koki clasped his hands in his lap and looked around the room, avoiding his friend’s gaze. It sucked that Maru had figured out his fetish before he had. It just made everything even more awkward.
5.
Koki reached across the bed and took a hold of Maru’s hand. Maru had a ridiculously sappy smile on his face as they climbed onto the bed from opposing sides of the mattress and met in the middle.
The kiss was deep and passionate. It was Maru who ended the kiss by bringing his free hand up to caress Koki’s face, his thumb smoothing over Koki’s lower lip. Koki grazed his teeth along the pad of the thumb before kissing it gently.
Maru smiled at him and opened his mouth to say something but instead of words a loud beeping noise came out. Koki screwed up his face. He hated that noise.
Koki opened his eyes and hit the button on his alarm. That dream was going to kill him one of these days. He untangled the hand that was supposed to be holding Maru’s and was instead, grasping at blankets.
It had been weeks since Koki had realised that he was attracted to his best friend. Since then the obsession with Maru’s hands had grown to include his smile, the way the light hit his eyes, the way his hair floated in the air when they were outside, the set of his shoulders, the lilt in his voice and countless other things that made Maru Maru.
It was slowly draining the happiness out of Koki to keep it bottled up inside himself. He wanted to confess to desperately, and there were times when he thought Maru wanted him to as well. But Koki hadn’t been able to do it. What if he was wrong? What if Maru thought he was an idiot and it ruined their friendship? It would be damned weird to lose your best friend by hitting on him and then having to continue working with them everyday. It was just too big a risk for Koki to take, no matter how much he wanted to.
+1
Koki lay on his back desperately sucking air back into his lungs. He couldn’t believe it. Maru, his Maru; nervous, awkward, sweating like the world was about to implode Maru, had confessed to him. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever thought that his Maru would make the first move.
Koki looked down at Maru’s hair, resting against his bare chest and grinned like a maniac. This was real. There was no alarm clock and there was no way that this was him getting confused with a tangle of bed sheets. This was real.
Maru looked up and smiled at him, afterglow flushing his skin. Koki reached down and wiggled his fingers, silently asking. Maru slipped his hand into Koki’s and smiled at the way their fingers intertwined.
Koki smiled too as he rubbed his pinky finger back and forth along his boyfriend’s.
~~~Owari~~~
Comments are love :)