I Don't (10/12)
Title: I Don't
Author: thanku4urlove
Pairing: Takaki/Chinen, side Hikaru/Yabu, Inoo/Daiki, Yamada/Yuto, and Keito/Ryutaro (it's not a fic of mine unless everyone is in a relationship I guess jeez)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None that I can think of.
Genre: Romance
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Takaki Yuya could barely believe it. Just twenty-four years old, and he was already tied down to a single bedroom house and a tiny twenty year-old man named Chinen Yuri. He was sure, however, that this situation had to be temporary. There was no way he was going to stay married to some stranger his mother had forced him with.
A/N: If anyone is confused by the I Do/ I Don't/ I Don't Care thing, please check out the Author's Note for chapter one! In which the stuff happens.
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
The week that followed was nothing but awkward for Takaki. It had been easy to be around Chinen with everyone else, but now it was just him, Chinen, and Ryutaro around the house. Coming to terms with the fact that yes, he liked Chinen, he liked Chinen a lot, made it difficult for Takaki to not stare at Chinen across the dinner table, to not cuddle up to Chinen once he had fallen asleep and curl him up in his arms, to not feel like an idiot after saying just about anything. So he tried not to say anything at all.
Luckily, because Ryutaro was around, Chinen didn't seem to notice. It was relieving and disappointing at the same time, and eventually Takaki got so tired of not talking to Chinen that the rest of the band members got tired of him being tired.
"I liked Daiki for what, nearly a year? You can deal with it. You'll be fine." Inoo was saying when Takaki called him the fifth time that week to complain. "Or, I don't know, you could just tell him."
"No." Takaki said. "No. Definitely no way."
"C'mon! I did it. It's really not that bad."
That was a lie, and Takaki knew that Inoo knew the truth.
"Just... Just tell him, alright? If I can do it, you can. I mean, of course, it's really, really terrible and you feel this gross twisting sensation the entire time they're in front of you, like you're going to throw up, or accidentally swallow your tongue, or something equally disastrous."
Takaki pulled a face. Swallow his tongue? Couldn't that kill him, or something? "That doesn't sound like anything I'm interested in doing."
"What else are you going to do? Ryutaro isn't going to be around forever, so sooner or later he's going to realize how weird you're being. Everybody knows you miss talking to him."
"But..."
"You already know he likes you! You have nothing to lose."
"What if he just liked me in the past, and doesn't like me anymore?"
Takaki could almost hear Inoo's unamused expression in the silence that followed.
"There's only one way to find out."
"Ask Ryutaro about it?" Takaki guessed.
"No, you idiot! Confess your feelings! Just go for it. As long as you don't do anything stupid, you should be fine."
In all honesty, Inoo was right, and Takaki knew that.
"...fine."
"Yes! Good." Inoo was much too happy with himself for Takaki's liking. "You'd better call me back soon, with results."
Takaki hung up, not bothering to say goodbye, putting his phone down on the kitchen counter and looking into the living room. Chinen and Ryutaro were in there, the younger friend sitting on the couch and talking while Chinen spun in circles on the rug, up on the ball of his left foot, arms comfortably at his sides. Takaki waited until there was a lull in conversation, then seized his chance.
"Hey, Chinen?" He called. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
Chinen turned as soon as Takaki said his name, seemingly a bit confused but nodding in consent to his request and heading over. As soon as they were alone Chinen gave him an expectant, questioning look, and Takaki felt that stomach-churning, tongue-swallowing sensation that Inoo had been talking about. It completely choked off his words, and after a few more moments of silence Chinen asked,
"So? What is it?"
"I... Well, uh..." Confessing with words, evidently, was hopeless. But he had to do this, deciding on the quickest and easiest way he knew how.
Takaki took a breath, gathered every bit of courage inside him that he could find, and stooped to place a kiss on Chinen's lips.
Takaki had expected Chinen to shy away, or freeze up, or even pull back and hit him but Chinen didn't do any of those things; instead he relaxed, lifting up on his toes to prolong the contact as Takaki pulled away. Then they looked at each other, silence between them, Takaki unsure if he should speak. Internally though, he felt a breath of relief. That seemed to have gone well.
Which was why he was so surprised when Chinen's eyes began narrowing, sounding almost angry when he spoke.
"What the hell was that?" He asked.
"...what?" Takaki asked back. The gross feeling of nervousness had returned, ropes snaking their way through Takaki's chest and constricting.
"You just kissed me." Chinen said. Takaki nodded.
"Why?"
Why? Wasn't it obvious? Chinen was wide eyed and confused, Inoo's advice drifting back to him. As long as you don't do anything stupid, you should be fine.
Did this qualify as stupid?
"I... Well, I like you."
Chinen paused for a moment, as if considering the statement.
"You like me?"
Takaki nodded.
"So you decide to just kiss me out of nowhere?" Even after getting a confession, Chinen still sounded frustrated, making Takaki feel quite defensive.
"Is there something wrong with that?" He asked. "A kiss means someone really likes you, right?"
"Not if you don't know that's what it's supposed to mean! Were you planning on even asking me on a date, or anything?" Chinen had raised his voice, the two practically shouting at each other in the kitchen.
A date. Oh. Takaki hadn't even thought of that.
"I... Maybe I will!"
"Good!" They were both definitely worked up now, Chinen's hands on his hips, eyebrows raised.
"Would you like to go see a movie, or something, with me next weekend?" Takaki asked, loud and frustrated.
"Fine!"
The meaning of the words and the tone with which they were said were so contrasting that after staring at each other for a few seconds, they both broke into smiles, then giggles.
"We're stupid." Chinen said, looking up at Takaki and smiling.
"No, I'm stupid." Takaki countered. "Even Inoo said so. Really though, a movie this weekend?"
"Yeah." Chinen nodded, and after another shared smile, the younger left the kitchen. Takaki couldn't keep the grin off his face.
"So." Inoo began excitedly, closing the clasps on his keyboard case. Rehearsal had ended and pack up was coming to a close. "Guess what Takaki did."
"Do we care?" Hikaru asked playfully.
"Fine." Takaki said, giving the bassist an extremely exaggerated pout. "I won't tell you guys."
Inoo, apparently, did not share Takaki's sentiment, his words coming out in an excited rush.
"Takaki confessed to Chinen."
"...what?!" Daiki nearly shouted the exclamation. Yuto looked as though he was going into shock.
"We thought it would take at least a month for you to do something." Yabu said. "But a week?"
Takaki just shrugged, smiling proudly.
"So?" Yuto finally prompted. "How did it go?"
"I haven't heard this part either." Inoo said, looking at Takaki excitedly.
"Well..." Takaki rubbed the back of his neck, thinking back to the event and wondering how to summarize it. "I kind of... I kissed him and he yelled at me."
"Takaki!" Inoo's reaction wasn't immediate--he had to let the shock of the statement settle in. "All you had to do was not do anything stupid, and what do you do? Something stupid!"
"I don't know how stupid it was, because I have a date tomorrow."
It took another second for that statement to sink in as well.
"Don't scare us like that." Yuto whined.
"So?" Hikaru asked with a smile. "Are you nervous?"
"Not really." Takaki answered after a moment of consideration. "It's just Chinen."
"Just Chinen?" Inoo echoed. "Do you have any idea how nervous I was when I had my first date with Daiki?"
"I've lived with Chinen for a while, that's all. Plus, I've been thinking. Crazy, I know," he said, acknowledging Daiki's look of mock surprise. "I've come up with a few things to do. So I'm a little prepared."
"Like what?"
Takaki was surprised that his friends were actually interested.
"Well, the first problem is that we live in the same house. I didn't want us awkwardly getting ready next to each other and then waiting around until we decided it was time to leave, so I'm going to bring some clothes and go over to Daiki's and change there, and then go pick him up."
"Hey, wait." Daiki narrowed his eyebrows. "You never asked me about this. Were you just going to show up tomorrow, without telling me?"
Takaki nodded. "Is that a problem?"
"Just because you know that I keep my spare apartment key under the welcome mat doesn't mean you can stroll in whenever you want." Daiki said, arms crossed, looking disgruntled.
"Actually..." Yuto said after a moment of thought. "Yeah, it kind of does."
"Anyway, I'm going to do that, and then I'm going to pay for his movie ticket. Not because I have more money than he does, but because he's Chinen and he likes being doted on. Which is why after the date, I'm going to buy him ice cream, too. We'll probably go home after that. So I'll drop him of, go back to Daiki's and put on the pajamas that I'll leave there, and pick up dinner on the way home."
Daiki heaved a sigh.
"We'll have the Sailor Moon marathon another night." Inoo said, patting Daiki's arm. "It's okay."
"That's why you're upset?" Takaki asked. At Daiki's reluctant nod, he burst out laughing.
Takaki ended up letting time get away from him, and when he was finally ready to pick up Chinen there was only thirty minutes until the movie was supposed to start. Considering how long it would take to get there, especially when driving as slow as he tried to do when Chinen was riding along, he realized that they were probably going to be late.
Chinen almost seemed surprised to see him when he answered the door.
"You ready to go?"
"Are we on our date now?" Chinen whispered the question, and Takaki smiled. He was adorable.
"Of course. I'm here to pick you up."
"Let's go."
As Takaki suspected, they were late, but the lady selling tickets at the movie theater let them in anyway. Chinen wasn't angry about their tardiness; he seemed quite amused by the situation instead, Takaki laughing with him as the hurried down the hallway and into the movie.
"You don't mind missing the previews, right?" Takaki had to ask. Thankfully, Chinen shook his head, and they settled in.
No matter how much Takaki wanted to, he knew better than to awkwardly place his arm around Chinen's shoulders. Instead, he cheered internally every time Chinen laughed when something funny happened, showing that he enjoyed what he was watching. It had been Takaki's responsibility to pick the movie, and though he was afraid that an action comedy might be too dumb for Chinen's tastes, it seemed like he enjoyed it.
"That was fun." Takaki declared, stretching as they exited the theater. Takaki had actually enjoyed the movie himself, and Chinen seemed to agree, if the younger man's nod was anything to go by.
"What do you want to do now?" Chinen asked.
It took Takaki a few moments of nearly frantic thinking--what would Chinen want to do?--before he remembered. Ice cream.
His proposition of going to get some wasn't so readily accepted, Chinen's logic standing in the way.
"But we haven't had dinner yet. You'll ruin your appetite."
"So?" Logic wasn't important when it came to ice cream. As least, not in Takaki's mind.
"You'll ruin my appetite." Chinen tried again.
"So?" Takaki took a breath and reached down, taking hold of Chinen's hand, disguising the action as an insistent tug down the street. "C'mon. My treat."
Chinen didn't object further after that, trying to act annoyed, but Takaki could tell he wasn't really upset by the notion of ice cream, especially by how excitedly he ordered what he wanted.
"Wait. Let me get this straight." Ice cream now in their free hands, they were making their way back to the parking lot. Takaki was trying to explain a complicated idea about the movie he had managed to formulate. Chinen was having a hard time following. "You think that the protagonist is actually the antagonist, that half of it was a dream, and that all of the supporting characters didn't actually exist?"
Takaki nodded proudly. Chinen could barely finish his ice cream, he was laughing so hard. But he did finish it, and they got on the motorcycle and went home. Takaki was eager for the date to end, not because he wasn't enjoying himself, but because he wanted to hear, honestly, what Chinen had thought of the whole thing. So, after walking Chinen to his front door and saying a few words, Takaki sped off to Daiki's.
"How did it go?" Daiki asked. He and Inoo were curled up together on the couch. Judging by the television screen, they were going to have their Sailor Moon marathon anyway, despite Takaki's interruptions.
"Well, I think." Takaki answered. "He enjoyed the movie, nothing terrible happened..."
"Did you kiss him?" Inoo asked. "Hold his hand? Details!"
Takaki relayed the date quickly as he changed from jeans to pajama bottoms, and as soon as he was finished speaking a loud text tone punctuated the end of his last sentence.
"Chinen texted me." Inoo said, reading the message out loud. "Date was very nice but short. He went somewhere and I already miss him."
Takaki couldn't help but smile at that news. Daiki smiled too, nodding towards the door.
"Go home, Takaki."
Takaki nodded and said farewell to his friends, grabbing the fastest thing he could think of for dinner---pizza--and going home as quickly as he could, nearly breaking the speed limit in the process.
"Hey." Takaki said as he entered. Chinen was sitting cross-legged on the couch, phone in hand. "I'm home, and I brought dinner. Hungry?"
"I just had some ice cream." Chinen answered, shaking his head.
"Ice cream?" Takaki put the pizza box down and sat on the couch, raising an eyebrow in Chinen's direction. "You shouldn't eat ice cream before dinner, or you'll ruin your appetite."
Takaki thought he was being quite hilarious, but at the glance he received, he wasn't sure Chinen agreed. The younger man caught on to what he was doing, however, saying,
"That's exactly what I said, but my date was rather insistent."
"A date? How was that?"
"Better than I expected." A mix of elation and triumph rose in Takaki's chest at the answer. He had not only met Chinen's expectations, but raised above them as well.
"Though I shouldn't have been surprised." Chinen continued. "I've really liked this guy for a while and he's good at making me happy, so of course I had fun."
Takaki decided to look away from Chinen, staring at his lap instead in an attempt to hide the fact that he was smiling like an idiot. Because really, he had the dumbest grin on his face, and there was nothing at all he could do about it.
Finally though, he managed to get his expression under control, speaking up.
"I had a date today too. And this guy..." How to describe Chinen to himself? Takaki decided to stay simple. "He's the cutest guy I've ever seen. He's even cuter than you, I bet."
Chinen stuck his tongue out in defiance to Takaki's statement, making him chuckle a bit before continuing.
"At first I wasn't sure about him because we were put into this weird situation, and even after he confessed to me I--"
Takaki's monologue of how he had felt about Chinen over the last few months was cut short by a confused exclamation.
"I-- I mean, he did what? When?"
So Takaki had been right. Chinen had never noticed, the night that they played video games, all of what he ended up blurting out.
"This one night when he was really upset about school. He had exams and a dance recital coming up, and he just ranted at me a little bit."
Recollection of the conversation Takaki was talking about began dawning on Chinen's face, mixed with a very obvious embarrassment, making Takaki smile into his next words.
"But apparently, he didn't notice what he said."
Chinen was blushing down into his lap, Takaki still rather amused as he finished speaking.
"Anyways, I didn't really start having feelings until I saw him dancing. It's something he's really spectacular at."
That made Chinen smile but it wasn't why Takaki said it; he said it because it was completely true. Though he had realized his feelings for Chinen the week previously, after a bit of self reflection he noticed that really, the crush had budded back at the dance recital, watching the way Chinen danced and enjoying his reaction to the compliment Takaki gave him.
"Was your date good too?" Chinen asked after a few moments. Takaki couldn't nod fast enough.
"I managed to find a way to hold his hand without being awkward, so I'm pretty proud of myself."
"Congratulations." Chinen said with a laugh. "I do have one complaint about my date though."
Oh no. Oh no. Takaki began wracking his brain for something that he did wrong, when and where he'd messed up.
"It wasn't my date's fault. It was mine."
The relief that Takaki felt when Chinen said that was stronger than he thought it would be, asking,
"What was it?"
"I never got the chance to kiss him. I wanted to, but it never felt like the right time. I don't know. I just really would have liked that."
A strange, good, nervous feeling filled Takaki's chest at those words. He had put kissing Chinen completely out of his mind for their date simply because of what had happened the first time, not too keen on getting yelled at in the middle of a movie theater. But if Chinen wanted to be kissed, then...
"Well, I'm sure he would have really liked that too."
Then Chinen ended their game of talking about each other to each other by leaning over and kissing him.
Other Chapters:
I Do | I Don't Care