Kanjani8 - A First Time for Everything - Yoko+Maru
Title: A First Time for Everything
Fandom: Kanjani8
Rating: G
Pairing: Yoko+Maru
Disclaimer: This is a fictional situation.
Notes: Maru birthday fic. :D
It's a Monday morning when Maru gets the call. His manager doesn't usually call him so early in the morning, so Maru's groggy, and a little skeptical, but he perks up the moment he hears the news.
They want him to audition for a starring role in a new Spring drama.
On the way to work Maru has a spring in his step. He usually tries to keep everyone's energy up, so, for the most part, they don't notice anything out of place when he's especially hyper and his smile is especially big. He wants desperately to tell someone, but he's too afraid of jinxing it (knowing his luck), so he keeps to himself.
Subaru looks at him with a raised eyebrow. If anyone would be able to pick up on something different, it'd be Subaru, but Maru's surprised at his perception, as it's only been half a morning.
"So what is it?" Subaru asks. "Did Inagawa Junji invite you over for dinner?"
Maru fails even more at not grinning like a little kid. He's too wound up to lie to Subaru, but too nervous to tell him the truth.
"Did that girl in costuming finally agree to go out with you?!" Ryo says, and Maru didn't even see him come into the room.
"I... It's nothing," Maru says.
"Oh wait I know, she did agree to go out with you... you already went out!" Yoko enters the conversation unannounced, and looking scandalized
"No!" Maru shouts. "It's really nothing!"
"It's something," Yoko says. He looks Maru up and down and Maru starts to feel a little nervous. "But what..."
"Maybe he liked the text message I sent him this morning, It had some good advice in it..." Yasu suggests.
It was a nice message, Maru thinks. "Yes!" He says, loudly. "It was that!"
"No it wasn't!" Hina yells.
"Well, whatever, it's his business, right?" Ryo says.
"But if he's done or is going to do something embarrassing, we have a right to know!" Yoko says.
Then suddenly everyone is in the room, all eyes on Maru, and he wonders if he can create some kind of a diversion and slip out unnoticed...
"He's got a role in a drama," Ohkura blurts out. Everyone stares at Ohkura first, then swings right back to Maru.
"I don't!" Maru says. He waves his arms in front of him, but everyone looks at him hungrily. "Really, it's just... how did you know, anyway!?"
Ohkura shrugs. "Anyone can see your schedule..."
"It's just an audition." Maru hangs his head.
They all look at him a little tentatively for a moment. Then Hina smiles, slaps him on the back, and everyone else follows suit.
---
He reads the script on the train. It doesn't seem like a heavy drama, it's something modern, something cute. The lead role is a boy who goes to college because of family obligations, but his real desire is to be a musician.
It seems fairly simple for a drama plot, but Maru's excited, just that they called him to audition. The character is a singer, a songwriter and a guitarist. Probably a role better suited to Yasu, Subaru or Ryo, but he supposes Ryo is too busy for a role like this, at least. Maru closes his eyes and falls asleep, waking up just two stops before the studio.
He's a little groggy when he arrives at the audition, but in a good way where it overshadows his nerves. He's only got to remember ten lines, and the words buzz through his head as he arrives at the building and makes his way up the steps.
---
Two days later, Maru waits. The audition seems to have gone well, but he doesn't want to get his hopes up. He's worried about the fact that everyone knows, it gives an added pressure to have done well. But, even if he doesn't make it, he thinks, it was nice to feel like an actor if only for just a moment.
Yasu invites him for lunch, and Maru skips it for dessert.
"You shouldn't be so nervous," Yasu says. But, hearing the words and following the advice are two very different things.
"Wouldn't you be?" Maru asks, sounding a bit more desperate than he intends, and Yasu looks at him with a little bit of the Yasu brand of pity.
Maru's cell phone rings, as if on cue, but he doesn't make a move.
"Answer it!" Yasu laughs.
Maru picks up the phone, tosses it from one hand to the other like it's too hot for him to hold. It's his manager.
"Hello?"
The bright, beaming smile he gives to Yasu says it all.
---
On the first day of filming, Maru wakes up extra early. He dresses up nice, wears a nice pair of shoes, only to be changed into an old T-shirt and ripped up jeans once he gets on set. He's worked on TV for years, so he's used to cameras and lights and staging, but he forgot what acting was like. It's so exciting to slip into this other world, to be this character, that maybe he's not very similar to, but he can put his heart into and become.
Once the director calls for action, Maru feels more focused than he's ever felt, reciting lines he'd spent the last week memorizing so he could say them like his own words.
Over a couple weeks they film a couple of episodes, and Maru nearly feels on top of the world. He doesn't even really mind being in Tokyo all that much, even though it's a little lonely, and he's a bit nervous the night the first episode airs, but he's gathered in a hotel room with a few of the other actors and some of the staff, so his nerves are somewhat dispersed.
But, the mood changes in the room after the episode begins. It's quieter and thicker and suddenly doesn't seem so comfortable after all. The director calls Maru while he's riding in a cab on the way back to his hotel room.
"Something's... off," he says, and Maru cringes at the words. "You looked stiff. I guess we'll wait and see what the ratings have to say."
It's such a dry and matter-of-fact way to say it. Maru spends the rest of the ride home starting pointlessly at the back of the dark brown taxi seat. Hina texts him and ask how it went and Maru answers with a "great" and a heart that he doesn't mean.
---
After the second episode airs, Maru can't even watch anymore. All he can think of his how he "looks stiff". The ratings are okay, moderately good, and it seems warmly recieved, but it all feels a little disappointing. Maybe this is what life as an actor is like, after all. Maru wonders if he's just being greedy.
Yasu calls him after the third episode.
"Everyone's watching," Yasu says, brightly.
Maru feels like he can at least be assured that Ryo's too busy.
"Even Ryo," Yasu goes on. "He watches on his iPod!"
Maru doesn't ask what Yas u thinks because he doesn't want him to have to skirt the question. Something isn't right and anyone can probably see it!
"It's good," Yasu says. And at the same time Maru says "You really don't have to watch it."
"Of course I'm going to!" Yasu says. "Can't stop me."
"Me, too!" Subaru pipes up in the background.
"It's a little lonely in Tokyo," Maru says quietly, but Yasu doesn't hear.
---
The loneliness is a little more bearable when Yoko and Hina come into town for a TV appearance. They all go out for dinner and Yoko eats close to his weight in beef.
"So there goes the diet?" Hina laughs. Yoko glares at him.
But, more noticeable even than that is Maru's plate that's sitting in front of him nearly untouched.
"Not hungry," he says when Hina asks. Then he slides his plate toward the center of the table.
"Hey, now, isn't this where you wanted to eat?" Hina asks.
Maru slouches pathetically.
"This drama is no good," Maru whines. "I mean, it is, everything about it is fine... except for me."
"Oh, stop it," Hina says.
"Have you watched it?"
"I will when--"
"He hasn't watched it," Yoko says, taking a strip of chicken off of Maru's former plate.
Maru groans. Hina doesn't understand because he's not too concerned with acting, and Yoko doesn't understand because he's good at it.
"Don't you think you're going a little overboard?" Hina asks Yoko, who has nearly finished Maru's plate along with his own.
"You know what?" Yoko starts. "I'm tired of always being so damn worried about what I'm eating. I don't have to be on TV for two weeks, I'm eating whatever I want today. It's a long trip to Tokyo and just for once I--"
Yoko's phone rings.
"--want to... Hello?"
Maru and Hina watch, only because Yoko's staring at both of them. He looks from one to the other slowly.
"Uh huh," Yoko says into the phone. "I understand. Wednesday, then?"
He says a few more cryptic things about scheduling then hangs up.
"Err," Yoko says to Maru. "You have a new costar."
---
Maru doesn't understand exactly why they brought Yoko on as a guest, but he can't complain either. Part of why Maru loved filming the drama specials so much was because he was on set with his bandmates and friends and this drama, while really his dream in many ways, feels so much more lonely than that. He rides the train with Yoko, suddenly feeling a lot more relaxed than he's felt in weeks.
"Would you stop that?" Yoko says.
"Huh?" Maru asks. "Stop what?"
"Spacing out and acting... well, okay you haven't said anything stupid all day."
"...Shouldn't that be a good thing?"
"It's a little weird when I can't even get you to crack a joke!"
Maru smiles sheepishly.
"That bad huh?" Yoko asks.
"Well..."
"It's no use getting yourself worked up like this," Yoko says, leafing through the script.
Maru stares out the window. "I guess I just thought everything would fall into place easily, you know? I'm not terrible at acting... or inexperienced... or..."
"We have got to get you to relax," Yoko says. "I think this is the longest conversation I've ever had with you where I haven't had the urge to smack you. It's a little weird, to be honest."
Maru laughs. "It's all a little pathetic, isn't it? Be careful what you wish fo--"
"...have you actually read this thing?" Yoko asks, staring at the script with wide eyes.
"Not yet... why?"
---
"Okay, I want you here," the director motions for Yoko to sit at the table, then motions Maru into the other chair. "And you there, okay, that's it. Want to do a run through?"
Yoko nods, but doesn't say anything.
Ohkura taught Maru a little trick - not reading the script until sitting down for the first read through. Maru suspects it's probably partly out of laziness, but Ohkura does so well in his drama roles that who is Maru to argue? He pulls his script out and the director calls for the scene to begin.
Maru settles into his character again - Haruka, a talented young guitarist who just wants someone to give him a break. He watches Yoko carefully as he reads his line.
"I've been watching you," Yoko (Daiki, the rich entrepreneur) says.
"I didn't know someone like you would be so into music," Haruka says, playing with his wine glass.
"Maybe it's not the music I'm into," Daiki says.
Maru, at first, wonders at Yoko's commitment when he's willing to make jokes like that right in front of the director on the first day of filming... But, when he looks down at the words on the script, it's exactly how Yoko said.
They both look at each other, nervously.
For actual filming, Yoko wears a tailored suit, his hair slicked back, and Maru can't stop thinking about just how handsome he looks like that. Maru's sitting across from him in the same ratty jeans that Haruka is always destined to wear. The fact that they're in a posh restaurant doesn't matter in the slightest.
Maybe it's just nerves, but Maru slips even more into character than usual, thinking about what it would be like if a guy like Yoko tried to pick up a guy like him. He can't stop that warm feeling from filling his cheeks, and just speaks naturally, not even looking at the script again after the initial run through. And he's not Maru again until the director calls "Cut!"
"That's it?" Maru says. "Two takes?"
"... I think I'm going to need a real drink after that," Yoko says, holding up his shot glass of watered down cola.
---
Maru and Yoko go back to Osaka rather than watching the episode air in Tokyo.
Yoko's episode has the highest rating in the series so far. At first it's widely assumed that it's because of Yoko's popularity as an actor, but several magazines do a write up specifically about Maru's performance. Despite what they might expect critics to respond to, it's more the emotionally charged scene as a whole. Daiki doesn't just want to buy Haruka, but no one can be sure if it's the undertones of the script or the way Yoko plays it and the way Maru reacts. The struggling musician has to make an important decision about his future while at a crossroads and faced with the possibility of having to give up his dream.
Of course, the only thing their bandmates focus on is the inherent humor of Yoko, the rich entrepreneur who propositions young men.
"So that's all it took?" Hina says, he's laughing so hard that Yoko smacks him and Hina's too doubled over to even retaliate.
Maru's as bright red as anyone has ever seen him and Yoko looks like a perfect mix of pride and embarrassment.
"Well I knew you could do it," Yasu says. Subaru gives Maru a congratulatory smack on the ass. He gets a couple of warm "well done"s from Ohkura and Ryo, but he keeps directing everyone over to Yoko, because he's the one who made the scene what it was. He's the one who made the rest of the drama worth acting in, worth watching.
It's probably a little silly to celebrate a only-half-finished drama, but they buy a cake to celebrate and shove Maru's face in it because they're just sort of used to doing that with cakes.
---
Yoko goes back to Tokyo for the final cast party after the drama is finished. Haruka makes it big after his band breaks up, and Haruka's left alone to play his heart out at dinky open mic nights. But someone finds him, gives him a chance, and that's how the story ends - with hope.
Maru and Yoko walk through Shibuya together, well and buzzed from the party, and Maru stops when they pass a love hotel.
"Aah~" he says.
"Don't you think Daiki could do a little better than that?!" Yoko says, mock offended. "He's a rich man, you know!"
"Still..." Maru says. "Some of these places can be pretty upscale..."
Yoko hits him like he's been wanting to do it for weeks, and they spend the rest of the night wandering aimlessly through Tokyo, not paying much attention to the fact that they might be walking a little closer than usual.
Fandom: Kanjani8
Rating: G
Pairing: Yoko+Maru
Disclaimer: This is a fictional situation.
Notes: Maru birthday fic. :D
It's a Monday morning when Maru gets the call. His manager doesn't usually call him so early in the morning, so Maru's groggy, and a little skeptical, but he perks up the moment he hears the news.
They want him to audition for a starring role in a new Spring drama.
On the way to work Maru has a spring in his step. He usually tries to keep everyone's energy up, so, for the most part, they don't notice anything out of place when he's especially hyper and his smile is especially big. He wants desperately to tell someone, but he's too afraid of jinxing it (knowing his luck), so he keeps to himself.
Subaru looks at him with a raised eyebrow. If anyone would be able to pick up on something different, it'd be Subaru, but Maru's surprised at his perception, as it's only been half a morning.
"So what is it?" Subaru asks. "Did Inagawa Junji invite you over for dinner?"
Maru fails even more at not grinning like a little kid. He's too wound up to lie to Subaru, but too nervous to tell him the truth.
"Did that girl in costuming finally agree to go out with you?!" Ryo says, and Maru didn't even see him come into the room.
"I... It's nothing," Maru says.
"Oh wait I know, she did agree to go out with you... you already went out!" Yoko enters the conversation unannounced, and looking scandalized
"No!" Maru shouts. "It's really nothing!"
"It's something," Yoko says. He looks Maru up and down and Maru starts to feel a little nervous. "But what..."
"Maybe he liked the text message I sent him this morning, It had some good advice in it..." Yasu suggests.
It was a nice message, Maru thinks. "Yes!" He says, loudly. "It was that!"
"No it wasn't!" Hina yells.
"Well, whatever, it's his business, right?" Ryo says.
"But if he's done or is going to do something embarrassing, we have a right to know!" Yoko says.
Then suddenly everyone is in the room, all eyes on Maru, and he wonders if he can create some kind of a diversion and slip out unnoticed...
"He's got a role in a drama," Ohkura blurts out. Everyone stares at Ohkura first, then swings right back to Maru.
"I don't!" Maru says. He waves his arms in front of him, but everyone looks at him hungrily. "Really, it's just... how did you know, anyway!?"
Ohkura shrugs. "Anyone can see your schedule..."
"It's just an audition." Maru hangs his head.
They all look at him a little tentatively for a moment. Then Hina smiles, slaps him on the back, and everyone else follows suit.
---
He reads the script on the train. It doesn't seem like a heavy drama, it's something modern, something cute. The lead role is a boy who goes to college because of family obligations, but his real desire is to be a musician.
It seems fairly simple for a drama plot, but Maru's excited, just that they called him to audition. The character is a singer, a songwriter and a guitarist. Probably a role better suited to Yasu, Subaru or Ryo, but he supposes Ryo is too busy for a role like this, at least. Maru closes his eyes and falls asleep, waking up just two stops before the studio.
He's a little groggy when he arrives at the audition, but in a good way where it overshadows his nerves. He's only got to remember ten lines, and the words buzz through his head as he arrives at the building and makes his way up the steps.
---
Two days later, Maru waits. The audition seems to have gone well, but he doesn't want to get his hopes up. He's worried about the fact that everyone knows, it gives an added pressure to have done well. But, even if he doesn't make it, he thinks, it was nice to feel like an actor if only for just a moment.
Yasu invites him for lunch, and Maru skips it for dessert.
"You shouldn't be so nervous," Yasu says. But, hearing the words and following the advice are two very different things.
"Wouldn't you be?" Maru asks, sounding a bit more desperate than he intends, and Yasu looks at him with a little bit of the Yasu brand of pity.
Maru's cell phone rings, as if on cue, but he doesn't make a move.
"Answer it!" Yasu laughs.
Maru picks up the phone, tosses it from one hand to the other like it's too hot for him to hold. It's his manager.
"Hello?"
The bright, beaming smile he gives to Yasu says it all.
---
On the first day of filming, Maru wakes up extra early. He dresses up nice, wears a nice pair of shoes, only to be changed into an old T-shirt and ripped up jeans once he gets on set. He's worked on TV for years, so he's used to cameras and lights and staging, but he forgot what acting was like. It's so exciting to slip into this other world, to be this character, that maybe he's not very similar to, but he can put his heart into and become.
Once the director calls for action, Maru feels more focused than he's ever felt, reciting lines he'd spent the last week memorizing so he could say them like his own words.
Over a couple weeks they film a couple of episodes, and Maru nearly feels on top of the world. He doesn't even really mind being in Tokyo all that much, even though it's a little lonely, and he's a bit nervous the night the first episode airs, but he's gathered in a hotel room with a few of the other actors and some of the staff, so his nerves are somewhat dispersed.
But, the mood changes in the room after the episode begins. It's quieter and thicker and suddenly doesn't seem so comfortable after all. The director calls Maru while he's riding in a cab on the way back to his hotel room.
"Something's... off," he says, and Maru cringes at the words. "You looked stiff. I guess we'll wait and see what the ratings have to say."
It's such a dry and matter-of-fact way to say it. Maru spends the rest of the ride home starting pointlessly at the back of the dark brown taxi seat. Hina texts him and ask how it went and Maru answers with a "great" and a heart that he doesn't mean.
---
After the second episode airs, Maru can't even watch anymore. All he can think of his how he "looks stiff". The ratings are okay, moderately good, and it seems warmly recieved, but it all feels a little disappointing. Maybe this is what life as an actor is like, after all. Maru wonders if he's just being greedy.
Yasu calls him after the third episode.
"Everyone's watching," Yasu says, brightly.
Maru feels like he can at least be assured that Ryo's too busy.
"Even Ryo," Yasu goes on. "He watches on his iPod!"
Maru doesn't ask what Yas u thinks because he doesn't want him to have to skirt the question. Something isn't right and anyone can probably see it!
"It's good," Yasu says. And at the same time Maru says "You really don't have to watch it."
"Of course I'm going to!" Yasu says. "Can't stop me."
"Me, too!" Subaru pipes up in the background.
"It's a little lonely in Tokyo," Maru says quietly, but Yasu doesn't hear.
---
The loneliness is a little more bearable when Yoko and Hina come into town for a TV appearance. They all go out for dinner and Yoko eats close to his weight in beef.
"So there goes the diet?" Hina laughs. Yoko glares at him.
But, more noticeable even than that is Maru's plate that's sitting in front of him nearly untouched.
"Not hungry," he says when Hina asks. Then he slides his plate toward the center of the table.
"Hey, now, isn't this where you wanted to eat?" Hina asks.
Maru slouches pathetically.
"This drama is no good," Maru whines. "I mean, it is, everything about it is fine... except for me."
"Oh, stop it," Hina says.
"Have you watched it?"
"I will when--"
"He hasn't watched it," Yoko says, taking a strip of chicken off of Maru's former plate.
Maru groans. Hina doesn't understand because he's not too concerned with acting, and Yoko doesn't understand because he's good at it.
"Don't you think you're going a little overboard?" Hina asks Yoko, who has nearly finished Maru's plate along with his own.
"You know what?" Yoko starts. "I'm tired of always being so damn worried about what I'm eating. I don't have to be on TV for two weeks, I'm eating whatever I want today. It's a long trip to Tokyo and just for once I--"
Yoko's phone rings.
"--want to... Hello?"
Maru and Hina watch, only because Yoko's staring at both of them. He looks from one to the other slowly.
"Uh huh," Yoko says into the phone. "I understand. Wednesday, then?"
He says a few more cryptic things about scheduling then hangs up.
"Err," Yoko says to Maru. "You have a new costar."
---
Maru doesn't understand exactly why they brought Yoko on as a guest, but he can't complain either. Part of why Maru loved filming the drama specials so much was because he was on set with his bandmates and friends and this drama, while really his dream in many ways, feels so much more lonely than that. He rides the train with Yoko, suddenly feeling a lot more relaxed than he's felt in weeks.
"Would you stop that?" Yoko says.
"Huh?" Maru asks. "Stop what?"
"Spacing out and acting... well, okay you haven't said anything stupid all day."
"...Shouldn't that be a good thing?"
"It's a little weird when I can't even get you to crack a joke!"
Maru smiles sheepishly.
"That bad huh?" Yoko asks.
"Well..."
"It's no use getting yourself worked up like this," Yoko says, leafing through the script.
Maru stares out the window. "I guess I just thought everything would fall into place easily, you know? I'm not terrible at acting... or inexperienced... or..."
"We have got to get you to relax," Yoko says. "I think this is the longest conversation I've ever had with you where I haven't had the urge to smack you. It's a little weird, to be honest."
Maru laughs. "It's all a little pathetic, isn't it? Be careful what you wish fo--"
"...have you actually read this thing?" Yoko asks, staring at the script with wide eyes.
"Not yet... why?"
---
"Okay, I want you here," the director motions for Yoko to sit at the table, then motions Maru into the other chair. "And you there, okay, that's it. Want to do a run through?"
Yoko nods, but doesn't say anything.
Ohkura taught Maru a little trick - not reading the script until sitting down for the first read through. Maru suspects it's probably partly out of laziness, but Ohkura does so well in his drama roles that who is Maru to argue? He pulls his script out and the director calls for the scene to begin.
Maru settles into his character again - Haruka, a talented young guitarist who just wants someone to give him a break. He watches Yoko carefully as he reads his line.
"I've been watching you," Yoko (Daiki, the rich entrepreneur) says.
"I didn't know someone like you would be so into music," Haruka says, playing with his wine glass.
"Maybe it's not the music I'm into," Daiki says.
Maru, at first, wonders at Yoko's commitment when he's willing to make jokes like that right in front of the director on the first day of filming... But, when he looks down at the words on the script, it's exactly how Yoko said.
They both look at each other, nervously.
For actual filming, Yoko wears a tailored suit, his hair slicked back, and Maru can't stop thinking about just how handsome he looks like that. Maru's sitting across from him in the same ratty jeans that Haruka is always destined to wear. The fact that they're in a posh restaurant doesn't matter in the slightest.
Maybe it's just nerves, but Maru slips even more into character than usual, thinking about what it would be like if a guy like Yoko tried to pick up a guy like him. He can't stop that warm feeling from filling his cheeks, and just speaks naturally, not even looking at the script again after the initial run through. And he's not Maru again until the director calls "Cut!"
"That's it?" Maru says. "Two takes?"
"... I think I'm going to need a real drink after that," Yoko says, holding up his shot glass of watered down cola.
---
Maru and Yoko go back to Osaka rather than watching the episode air in Tokyo.
Yoko's episode has the highest rating in the series so far. At first it's widely assumed that it's because of Yoko's popularity as an actor, but several magazines do a write up specifically about Maru's performance. Despite what they might expect critics to respond to, it's more the emotionally charged scene as a whole. Daiki doesn't just want to buy Haruka, but no one can be sure if it's the undertones of the script or the way Yoko plays it and the way Maru reacts. The struggling musician has to make an important decision about his future while at a crossroads and faced with the possibility of having to give up his dream.
Of course, the only thing their bandmates focus on is the inherent humor of Yoko, the rich entrepreneur who propositions young men.
"So that's all it took?" Hina says, he's laughing so hard that Yoko smacks him and Hina's too doubled over to even retaliate.
Maru's as bright red as anyone has ever seen him and Yoko looks like a perfect mix of pride and embarrassment.
"Well I knew you could do it," Yasu says. Subaru gives Maru a congratulatory smack on the ass. He gets a couple of warm "well done"s from Ohkura and Ryo, but he keeps directing everyone over to Yoko, because he's the one who made the scene what it was. He's the one who made the rest of the drama worth acting in, worth watching.
It's probably a little silly to celebrate a only-half-finished drama, but they buy a cake to celebrate and shove Maru's face in it because they're just sort of used to doing that with cakes.
---
Yoko goes back to Tokyo for the final cast party after the drama is finished. Haruka makes it big after his band breaks up, and Haruka's left alone to play his heart out at dinky open mic nights. But someone finds him, gives him a chance, and that's how the story ends - with hope.
Maru and Yoko walk through Shibuya together, well and buzzed from the party, and Maru stops when they pass a love hotel.
"Aah~" he says.
"Don't you think Daiki could do a little better than that?!" Yoko says, mock offended. "He's a rich man, you know!"
"Still..." Maru says. "Some of these places can be pretty upscale..."
Yoko hits him like he's been wanting to do it for weeks, and they spend the rest of the night wandering aimlessly through Tokyo, not paying much attention to the fact that they might be walking a little closer than usual.