9 1/2 Weeks - 34 - (Week 9: Saturday)
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Week 9: Saturday
The first thing Jin sees of the scene is a red swipe of light, hitting Kame's face.
There's ambulances. Police. Light next to light before a dark drizzly sky. There's cameras.
Jin's wearing his suit, his best suit, like Kame told him.
"Are you sure I shouldn't get out now?" Jin asks. Kame seems sure of everything. But he might just be sleepwalking, the car slow in approaching, a last reprieve.
"Yes," Kame says, his knuckles white. More red and blue on his face, and maybe it's too late anyway, maybe someone saw already. He looks like a ghost. "Stay silent. Hold your head up."
Even closer, and now there's white light too, camera flashes piercing the tinted glass as they pull up to the yellow police tape and stop.
"Now you can get out," Kame says, pulling up the hand brake. "Stay close to me."
He opens his door so Jin does the same. Then Jin's stuck too far away from him as the reporters descend on Kame, a fusillade of flashlights and a sea of microphones and recorders. Jin had forgotten what it could be like.
Kame waits them out, just looks for Jin to come around the car. It takes a moment until maybe someone remembers, but somehow there's room for him through the throng, murmurs of Akanishi, and flashes again, so many flashes.
"This is a tragic night for all of us," Kame says. He sounds quiet and yet his voice carries perfectly. "We will release more information shortly but I am sure you understand that we need to speak to family and friends first." He nods here and there, and then at Jin. When he turns they actually let him walk, Jin following in his path.
Kame drops the car keys with the door guard, who looks at Kame like Kame rode in on a white horse. Between the cars with swirling lights Jin gets a glimpse of a white sheet on the ground, flat, and he doesn't want to look there, who knows what's still on the pavement, if... shit. Breathe.
The door opens and lets them through. Then everything's silent. Silent and grey, office at night.
"Are you okay?" Kame asks, voice deep like the shadows in the corners are dark.
"Yeah," Jin replies. Still in keeping-his-mouth-shut mode.
They walk through a tall echoing lobby and down the corridor, the shadows closing around them the further away they walk from the glass entrance.
"The elevator for staff is at the back," Kame says. Jin's never been here. He didn't know the company had twenty floors now.
Another door on the way opens, Jin catches stairs. Parking garage. Ohno and another... that's Aiba. Jin hardly recognizes him.
Ohno and Aiba stop dead. Nobody speaks, not them, not Kame, and then Kame takes the elevator with Jin. Fifteenth floor. The lights slip by.
Kame uses the gleaming mirror on the walls to check that his hair is unmussed, his suit is spotless, and then he watches the floor count with a dead expression.
When they step out there's light, but it seems no less grey to Jin, the way it's washing them out. Another corridor, short to one side and long to the other, and Kame heads down the long way. There are offices here, and more people. It's one in the morning, but maybe this drives everyone in.
They're standing in doorways, a couple girls near the bathroom. Jin sees suits and jeans, red eyes and day-old hair. Conversations that are hushed and quiet, and when Kame walks past everything goes silent. Jin guesses they were waiting for him.
Kame is bringing order and authority. But he's also bringing change, and nobody speaks to them. Jin wouldn't speak to him either, as forbidding as he looks. Not if he was just some middle management flunky with a job to lose.
Though they're not all admin, he realizes when he sees Ueda; with a sober hair cut and in a sober suit, dark hair and a darker stare. None of the badass glamor of his latest advertisement. He doesn't try to talk to Kame.
Jin keeps hearing his own name, in whispers, after they pass.
Kame's office is right at the end. It's the only one that has a reception, with desk and big couch and carefully arranged flowers. There's no receptionist now, but there's Koki, saying, "Kame," and stopping to stare at Jin like he's seen a ghost. Jin gives him a smile but says nothing. This is Kame's show, every single part of it.
"Koki," Kame says, then nods to the other three present. "Yuuya, Yuuta, Yuuto. Thank you all for coming here."
Jin only recognizes Tamamori because he's seen him on billboards advertising after shave recently. He's filled out a lot, but in a good, powerful way. By contrast, Nakajima doesn't seem to have changed at all.
"Kame, are you okay?" Koki moves towards Kame as if he wants to hug him, ends up clutching Kame's arms instead.
Kame nods, frees himself gently. "I'm fine," he says, and pats him on the shoulder. There's something sad about it all and Jin doesn't even know why. "Let's get to work, okay?"
"They're waiting for you," Koki says. Jin thinks his eyes may be wet. "The small meeting room. We gave them coffee."
"That was well done," Kame says, but his eyes are faraway. He's standing tall like he's bracing himself for something. "Send someone down to give the press some coffee too." He turns to Jin. "I hope this won't take more than an hour. Koki will show you where things are, in case you want anything." Don't go away, Jin hears and he nods.
"Shouldn't I come with you?" Koki says, but Kame shakes his head.
"If they want to talk to you they can ask for you."
"I don't think you should be alone with them. Yuuta got the lawyers out of bed, they'll be here any minute."
"I'll be fine," Kame says, and it sounds kind and final. "You'll help me by looking after Jin."
"Right," Koki says. "Yes." Jin should have asked Kame what his story's supposed to be, why he's here. Kame doesn't need fuck-ups tonight.
He finds himself scrutinized openly as soon as Kame has left the room. "Cops?" he asks, easy as he can. Harmless.
"Yeah." Koki spares a wistful look at the door Kame just walked through, and then he's focused on Jin again. "Guess that's to be expected. What are you doing here?"
"I was there when he got the call. He asked me along." At least Kame doesn't have to worry about an alibi.
"He never mentioned he's hanging out with you again."
"Guess he plays things close to the chest," Jin shrugs, feeling fake again but everyone's so wound that even his dodgy acting will do. "Besides, who'd advertise they're hanging out with me?"
Koki rolls his eyes away like he can't quite admit the point. He's got a trimmed goatee and a piercing in his eyebrow. His hair is dark brown, and he looks different the way Koki looked different every six months, and so somehow entirely the same. Eventually he gestures Jin through the wide door. "You can wait in here. I'll have someone bring you coffee too."
"Thanks," Jin says. "Coffee would be great."
Kame's office is elegant, spare, and grey. Jin's shocked.
He wants to go to the window but stops in front of Kame's huge empty desk. The dark leather chair behind it could seat them both and still have room for a little lapdog. Kame's not even sitting in it and Jin's preemptively intimidated.
There's nothing personal anywhere. No photograph. No baseball mementoes. Nothing. One corner of the desk holds a small, olive and grey ikebana arrangement which Jin is just sure Kame had absolutely nothing to do with. The secretary probably has it changed once a week, always making sure to avoid actual colors.
The door closes on him. Tamamori and Nakajima, Tegoshi and Koki in Kame's anteroom. They must be close. Or just less distant than the rest. Jin's in here, still not good for meetings, and he's never cared less.
Kame's view of Tokyo is not as great as Jin once pictured. Just more office buildings opposite, a slash of night sky where one of them is lower. Jin's tempted to look into desk drawers and see if there's half-used aspirin packs and chewed pencils, but he knows that if Koki walked in on him he'd die.
He hopes Kame is okay talking to the cops.
He drops himself on the ikebana-colored couch, low and clearly less splendid than Kame's boss chair. Outside there are voices. Being here, like this, is unsettling. He brings out his phone and picks a game, but after a minute he just puts it away. There's blood and brains on the pavement outside, and Kame is talking to cops and Jin's so glad they were together, but he's not glad for what he knows.
Kame knows it too. Who did this, why it happened now. Jin could see it in his eyes, in the way he gripped the steering wheel.
He starts when the door opens, even though it's just a gentle click. Tegoshi, with coffee.
"Hey," Jin says. He doesn't really know what he should say to Tegoshi. "You got a promotion?"
"I volunteered," Tegoshi says with a perfect, happy-to-serve smile. "It's a long night for everyone, nobody should be without coffee." He puts a small tray down on the equally small coffee table.
"Thanks," Jin says.
"I read you were getting evicted," Tego says. "Is that true?"
"I heard you raped some actress on camera," Jin says. He's getting used to being fake. Maybe the ikebana's giving him vibes, or something. "Was that true?"
Tegoshi inclines his head as if he's flirting with Jin, and has a sip of his own coffee. "Fair point."
"Are you supposed to be talking to me? Koki'll think my cooties are going to infect you."
Tegoshi gives him the same smile, edging on creepy. "Julie's gone. No more cooties." Right. "Did you see..." The body, the cops. "...anything?"
"No. I got here late. I don't think anybody but the porter actually saw the body. He says there was a falling black shape and a crunch."
Jin winces despite himself.
"Why are you here?" Tegoshi's always been blunt.
"I'm not sure. Kame brought me along."
"Why are you with him?"
The door's ajar, but all Jin sees is a strip of brighter carpet and the legs of someone leaning against the secretary's desk. "That's what worries Koki, right?"
"We all have an interest in what's going on with Kame-chan."
It says something about Kame that the nickname doesn't sound the least bit mocking.
Tegoshi's still waiting. Right.
"We were catching up," Jin says. Safe enough. No mention of fucking or how this time, they didn't. "We've been in touch."
Tegoshi's perfect round eyes go narrow for a second, but then his face smooths over. He's not a beginner here either. "Great," he says encouragingly. "It's good to see you involved again and maybe come out of retirement." Bouncy and glib, and Jin's not going to hazard a single word on what Kame-chan's plans might be.
"Thanks for the coffee," Jin says. "I'll try not to spill it on anything."
Tegoshi laughs. It sounds sharp in the grey silence, the click of the door as he leaves even sharper.
The voices get busier outside when Jin's cup is half empty. He tenses at once, but before he has time to get really antsy, Kame opens the door and sticks his head in. "I'm back," he says, and leaves the door open. Jin doesn't need more of an invitation.
Koki is staring at Jin, Tegoshi looking openly curious and Nakajima like he still doesn't know what to think about Jin. Jin couldn't care less. "You okay?"
Kame nods curtly. "Sure. I just explained that the police are looking over the security tapes. That should clear things up fast." He glances toward the water heater and Koki turns on his heel, measures coffee into a mug. "They won't let anyone in her office and I don't know if she left a letter. If there's a letter I hope it's not too embarrassing, or that the police won't leak it." He takes the mug from Koki and sips. "Thanks."
There's a knock on the door, and Nakajima takes two quick steps towards it.
"Ah, Hayashi-sensei," Kame says to the round-faced, balding man who is sticking his head around the door. "Come in, we've been waiting."
The next five minutes are hilarious as Kame is told off by his lawyer for speaking to anybody, especially police, without proper representation. Koki and the guys look like they expect a bomb to go off, but Kame takes his scolding with a bowed head, like getting chewed out by lawyers is just one more of his duties.
"You haven't told your boss yet?" Hayashi asks at the end. For a moment everything goes quiet.
"Not yet." Kame swirls the dregs of coffee in his mug, slowly. Jin wishes they could be alone. "She'll still be as dead in the morning. Fujiwara is on night shift, he'll call me when Johnny wakes up. I'll talk to him then."
*~*~*
It goes like this, for hours. Kame comes and goes, between press statements, the cops and fretting employees, jobs for Koki and jobs for Tegoshi, and orders for people at the other end of Kame's phone. Kame is stiff and grey, cutting through tired air wherever he walks, and Jin drifts between the two rooms and tries to just be there. It seems like his job.
At three, Kame tells the guys to go home, sleep and shower, and to tell everybody else to do the same. Jin watches them go. Then he watches Kame let his jacket slide off and drop it carelessly on the secretary's desk. They go inside and Jin closes the door behind them.
It's cool in the office. Jin doesn't know if that makes him sleepier or more awake. Kame sits on the couch, staring off into what's left of the night. It's a small couch, but there's still room in the second corner, so that's where Jin sits. Only one lamp is on, a tiny one. In anybody else's office it would be for softness, coziness. There's nothing soft in here.
"I don't think she left a letter," Kame says. Then they say nothing for a while.
Jin takes his shoes off and pulls his feet up, wrapping his arms around his knees. He's got an eye on Kame, both eyes, really; grey-in-grey Kame in his grey office. He doesn't start when Kame leans forward and drops his face in his hands, heels pressing into his eyes.
"Still okay?" he asks.
Kame nods without raising his face. "It went better than it might have."
That's something. Kame's exhausted but he also seems together, parked here in his office as they wait for the morning.
Kame tilts his head once. There's a crack in his neck. "You're not telling me I should get some sleep."
"No." Kame needs to be awake.
But he can't keep drinking the dark brew they've been plying him with, and Jin makes himself move. He knocks on two offices and finds some low-level minions who have no clue who he is, pulls some unexpected authority out of his ass and gets a stressed-out accountant type to run down to one of the all night coffee places to get a mild soy latte with lots of sugar, the kind that's marketed to seniors and their sensitive stomachs.
"Thank you," Kame says when Jin comes back with it, wrapping his hands around the cup.
Jin pulls his legs in again, curling up in his corner, but Kame's eyes are out towards the night, his body all angles and concentration.
"I want you to come work for me," he says.
Jin's mind was still on coffee and food. "What?" he says when he catches up and his breath stops and he thinks, Make music? before he can be rational.
"You need a job. You need to move to a new apartment. You can have an office here, I'll pay you well enough."
Work for Kame. Work… in Johnny's. An office, here. Jin gets with it as the jolt of music dies.
It sounds decided. A pity job, one Kame can make up for lowlife losers who saw him sleep and felt him kiss like it's the last kiss in the world.
"Why?" he asks. "You're getting my ass cheap anyway."
Kame blinks at some faraway light, his mouth pressing together. "Don't be an idiot. You always had talent. It shouldn't go to waste." He gives Jin a blunt stare, much more awake than the rest of him. "But you always had too much pride too."
It hangs there meaningfully. The last nine weeks established all they needed to know about Jin's pride.
"Sometimes I hate you," Jin says.
Kame's shoulders move as if he's too tired to shrug. "Lots of people hate me. They work for me anyway."
Kame always wanted to be loved.
"I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits.
Kame's mouth quirks up, also tired, just a bit. "Is that a yes? The company could do with you."
"The company doesn't want to know me," Jin points out. "I have no reputation left here. All the things…" The things he did, the things they did and said… "People have memories."
Kame gives him a sideways look. "You remember how they could always just define what really happened?"
Like Jin would forget. The story's what they make it, always. "Yeah."
Kame nods. "That'll be me now." Before the chill of that can really sink in, he adds, "And I could do with you here, too."
That's true. Jin knows it like morning cracking through the night. The other thing they established in the last nine weeks. "Well, when's the last time you didn't get what you want…"
Kame's eyes tighten at the corners as if he remembers all too well, has the score card in his head. But eventually he pulls his feet up too, cradling his coffee like it's more precious than just a half-empty paper cup.
Dawn is stirring outside, more grey and more shadows. When all of this is over, Jin's going to put up some bright red art in here, or a fucking Giants poster.
Jin's tea has gone cold. It can't be that much longer now until the wheels start grinding again. This mad, mad job of Kame's, his now entirely, and what does Jin even know about the enemies. He thinks of Julie, in some grey creepy office of her own, playing the same stakes, and the chill of it crawls under his skin where no hot tea can reach.
"Would you do it?" he asks into the quiet. "If you'd lost... Would you do it?"
Kame played that game too, and he won, and in all those weeks… what does Kame have beside this, the work and the game? Nothing. Jin, stashed away somewhere on the way home. Nothing.
Kame blinks up, with a dozen emotions on his face that seem slowed down from exhaustion. "I hadn't entertained the possibility," he says in a thin voice. Jin's not sure if he means jumping from a building, or losing.
How much did Julie think about it, beforehand?
Kame turns tired eyes on him. They're puffy and scrunched even in this gloom, but quite calm. "I wouldn't give up like that," he says.
Jin runs a hand over his face. There's cold sweat on it. This night is getting to him. "Kame…" This is a whole new life, a whole new… he needs to know.
"Don't worry," Kame says, soft and firm at the same time. He looks like this night mugged him and tossed him around and threw him in a ditch. "It's all right now."
Week 9: Saturday
The first thing Jin sees of the scene is a red swipe of light, hitting Kame's face.
There's ambulances. Police. Light next to light before a dark drizzly sky. There's cameras.
Jin's wearing his suit, his best suit, like Kame told him.
"Are you sure I shouldn't get out now?" Jin asks. Kame seems sure of everything. But he might just be sleepwalking, the car slow in approaching, a last reprieve.
"Yes," Kame says, his knuckles white. More red and blue on his face, and maybe it's too late anyway, maybe someone saw already. He looks like a ghost. "Stay silent. Hold your head up."
Even closer, and now there's white light too, camera flashes piercing the tinted glass as they pull up to the yellow police tape and stop.
"Now you can get out," Kame says, pulling up the hand brake. "Stay close to me."
He opens his door so Jin does the same. Then Jin's stuck too far away from him as the reporters descend on Kame, a fusillade of flashlights and a sea of microphones and recorders. Jin had forgotten what it could be like.
Kame waits them out, just looks for Jin to come around the car. It takes a moment until maybe someone remembers, but somehow there's room for him through the throng, murmurs of Akanishi, and flashes again, so many flashes.
"This is a tragic night for all of us," Kame says. He sounds quiet and yet his voice carries perfectly. "We will release more information shortly but I am sure you understand that we need to speak to family and friends first." He nods here and there, and then at Jin. When he turns they actually let him walk, Jin following in his path.
Kame drops the car keys with the door guard, who looks at Kame like Kame rode in on a white horse. Between the cars with swirling lights Jin gets a glimpse of a white sheet on the ground, flat, and he doesn't want to look there, who knows what's still on the pavement, if... shit. Breathe.
The door opens and lets them through. Then everything's silent. Silent and grey, office at night.
"Are you okay?" Kame asks, voice deep like the shadows in the corners are dark.
"Yeah," Jin replies. Still in keeping-his-mouth-shut mode.
They walk through a tall echoing lobby and down the corridor, the shadows closing around them the further away they walk from the glass entrance.
"The elevator for staff is at the back," Kame says. Jin's never been here. He didn't know the company had twenty floors now.
Another door on the way opens, Jin catches stairs. Parking garage. Ohno and another... that's Aiba. Jin hardly recognizes him.
Ohno and Aiba stop dead. Nobody speaks, not them, not Kame, and then Kame takes the elevator with Jin. Fifteenth floor. The lights slip by.
Kame uses the gleaming mirror on the walls to check that his hair is unmussed, his suit is spotless, and then he watches the floor count with a dead expression.
When they step out there's light, but it seems no less grey to Jin, the way it's washing them out. Another corridor, short to one side and long to the other, and Kame heads down the long way. There are offices here, and more people. It's one in the morning, but maybe this drives everyone in.
They're standing in doorways, a couple girls near the bathroom. Jin sees suits and jeans, red eyes and day-old hair. Conversations that are hushed and quiet, and when Kame walks past everything goes silent. Jin guesses they were waiting for him.
Kame is bringing order and authority. But he's also bringing change, and nobody speaks to them. Jin wouldn't speak to him either, as forbidding as he looks. Not if he was just some middle management flunky with a job to lose.
Though they're not all admin, he realizes when he sees Ueda; with a sober hair cut and in a sober suit, dark hair and a darker stare. None of the badass glamor of his latest advertisement. He doesn't try to talk to Kame.
Jin keeps hearing his own name, in whispers, after they pass.
Kame's office is right at the end. It's the only one that has a reception, with desk and big couch and carefully arranged flowers. There's no receptionist now, but there's Koki, saying, "Kame," and stopping to stare at Jin like he's seen a ghost. Jin gives him a smile but says nothing. This is Kame's show, every single part of it.
"Koki," Kame says, then nods to the other three present. "Yuuya, Yuuta, Yuuto. Thank you all for coming here."
Jin only recognizes Tamamori because he's seen him on billboards advertising after shave recently. He's filled out a lot, but in a good, powerful way. By contrast, Nakajima doesn't seem to have changed at all.
"Kame, are you okay?" Koki moves towards Kame as if he wants to hug him, ends up clutching Kame's arms instead.
Kame nods, frees himself gently. "I'm fine," he says, and pats him on the shoulder. There's something sad about it all and Jin doesn't even know why. "Let's get to work, okay?"
"They're waiting for you," Koki says. Jin thinks his eyes may be wet. "The small meeting room. We gave them coffee."
"That was well done," Kame says, but his eyes are faraway. He's standing tall like he's bracing himself for something. "Send someone down to give the press some coffee too." He turns to Jin. "I hope this won't take more than an hour. Koki will show you where things are, in case you want anything." Don't go away, Jin hears and he nods.
"Shouldn't I come with you?" Koki says, but Kame shakes his head.
"If they want to talk to you they can ask for you."
"I don't think you should be alone with them. Yuuta got the lawyers out of bed, they'll be here any minute."
"I'll be fine," Kame says, and it sounds kind and final. "You'll help me by looking after Jin."
"Right," Koki says. "Yes." Jin should have asked Kame what his story's supposed to be, why he's here. Kame doesn't need fuck-ups tonight.
He finds himself scrutinized openly as soon as Kame has left the room. "Cops?" he asks, easy as he can. Harmless.
"Yeah." Koki spares a wistful look at the door Kame just walked through, and then he's focused on Jin again. "Guess that's to be expected. What are you doing here?"
"I was there when he got the call. He asked me along." At least Kame doesn't have to worry about an alibi.
"He never mentioned he's hanging out with you again."
"Guess he plays things close to the chest," Jin shrugs, feeling fake again but everyone's so wound that even his dodgy acting will do. "Besides, who'd advertise they're hanging out with me?"
Koki rolls his eyes away like he can't quite admit the point. He's got a trimmed goatee and a piercing in his eyebrow. His hair is dark brown, and he looks different the way Koki looked different every six months, and so somehow entirely the same. Eventually he gestures Jin through the wide door. "You can wait in here. I'll have someone bring you coffee too."
"Thanks," Jin says. "Coffee would be great."
Kame's office is elegant, spare, and grey. Jin's shocked.
He wants to go to the window but stops in front of Kame's huge empty desk. The dark leather chair behind it could seat them both and still have room for a little lapdog. Kame's not even sitting in it and Jin's preemptively intimidated.
There's nothing personal anywhere. No photograph. No baseball mementoes. Nothing. One corner of the desk holds a small, olive and grey ikebana arrangement which Jin is just sure Kame had absolutely nothing to do with. The secretary probably has it changed once a week, always making sure to avoid actual colors.
The door closes on him. Tamamori and Nakajima, Tegoshi and Koki in Kame's anteroom. They must be close. Or just less distant than the rest. Jin's in here, still not good for meetings, and he's never cared less.
Kame's view of Tokyo is not as great as Jin once pictured. Just more office buildings opposite, a slash of night sky where one of them is lower. Jin's tempted to look into desk drawers and see if there's half-used aspirin packs and chewed pencils, but he knows that if Koki walked in on him he'd die.
He hopes Kame is okay talking to the cops.
He drops himself on the ikebana-colored couch, low and clearly less splendid than Kame's boss chair. Outside there are voices. Being here, like this, is unsettling. He brings out his phone and picks a game, but after a minute he just puts it away. There's blood and brains on the pavement outside, and Kame is talking to cops and Jin's so glad they were together, but he's not glad for what he knows.
Kame knows it too. Who did this, why it happened now. Jin could see it in his eyes, in the way he gripped the steering wheel.
He starts when the door opens, even though it's just a gentle click. Tegoshi, with coffee.
"Hey," Jin says. He doesn't really know what he should say to Tegoshi. "You got a promotion?"
"I volunteered," Tegoshi says with a perfect, happy-to-serve smile. "It's a long night for everyone, nobody should be without coffee." He puts a small tray down on the equally small coffee table.
"Thanks," Jin says.
"I read you were getting evicted," Tego says. "Is that true?"
"I heard you raped some actress on camera," Jin says. He's getting used to being fake. Maybe the ikebana's giving him vibes, or something. "Was that true?"
Tegoshi inclines his head as if he's flirting with Jin, and has a sip of his own coffee. "Fair point."
"Are you supposed to be talking to me? Koki'll think my cooties are going to infect you."
Tegoshi gives him the same smile, edging on creepy. "Julie's gone. No more cooties." Right. "Did you see..." The body, the cops. "...anything?"
"No. I got here late. I don't think anybody but the porter actually saw the body. He says there was a falling black shape and a crunch."
Jin winces despite himself.
"Why are you here?" Tegoshi's always been blunt.
"I'm not sure. Kame brought me along."
"Why are you with him?"
The door's ajar, but all Jin sees is a strip of brighter carpet and the legs of someone leaning against the secretary's desk. "That's what worries Koki, right?"
"We all have an interest in what's going on with Kame-chan."
It says something about Kame that the nickname doesn't sound the least bit mocking.
Tegoshi's still waiting. Right.
"We were catching up," Jin says. Safe enough. No mention of fucking or how this time, they didn't. "We've been in touch."
Tegoshi's perfect round eyes go narrow for a second, but then his face smooths over. He's not a beginner here either. "Great," he says encouragingly. "It's good to see you involved again and maybe come out of retirement." Bouncy and glib, and Jin's not going to hazard a single word on what Kame-chan's plans might be.
"Thanks for the coffee," Jin says. "I'll try not to spill it on anything."
Tegoshi laughs. It sounds sharp in the grey silence, the click of the door as he leaves even sharper.
The voices get busier outside when Jin's cup is half empty. He tenses at once, but before he has time to get really antsy, Kame opens the door and sticks his head in. "I'm back," he says, and leaves the door open. Jin doesn't need more of an invitation.
Koki is staring at Jin, Tegoshi looking openly curious and Nakajima like he still doesn't know what to think about Jin. Jin couldn't care less. "You okay?"
Kame nods curtly. "Sure. I just explained that the police are looking over the security tapes. That should clear things up fast." He glances toward the water heater and Koki turns on his heel, measures coffee into a mug. "They won't let anyone in her office and I don't know if she left a letter. If there's a letter I hope it's not too embarrassing, or that the police won't leak it." He takes the mug from Koki and sips. "Thanks."
There's a knock on the door, and Nakajima takes two quick steps towards it.
"Ah, Hayashi-sensei," Kame says to the round-faced, balding man who is sticking his head around the door. "Come in, we've been waiting."
The next five minutes are hilarious as Kame is told off by his lawyer for speaking to anybody, especially police, without proper representation. Koki and the guys look like they expect a bomb to go off, but Kame takes his scolding with a bowed head, like getting chewed out by lawyers is just one more of his duties.
"You haven't told your boss yet?" Hayashi asks at the end. For a moment everything goes quiet.
"Not yet." Kame swirls the dregs of coffee in his mug, slowly. Jin wishes they could be alone. "She'll still be as dead in the morning. Fujiwara is on night shift, he'll call me when Johnny wakes up. I'll talk to him then."
*~*~*
It goes like this, for hours. Kame comes and goes, between press statements, the cops and fretting employees, jobs for Koki and jobs for Tegoshi, and orders for people at the other end of Kame's phone. Kame is stiff and grey, cutting through tired air wherever he walks, and Jin drifts between the two rooms and tries to just be there. It seems like his job.
At three, Kame tells the guys to go home, sleep and shower, and to tell everybody else to do the same. Jin watches them go. Then he watches Kame let his jacket slide off and drop it carelessly on the secretary's desk. They go inside and Jin closes the door behind them.
It's cool in the office. Jin doesn't know if that makes him sleepier or more awake. Kame sits on the couch, staring off into what's left of the night. It's a small couch, but there's still room in the second corner, so that's where Jin sits. Only one lamp is on, a tiny one. In anybody else's office it would be for softness, coziness. There's nothing soft in here.
"I don't think she left a letter," Kame says. Then they say nothing for a while.
Jin takes his shoes off and pulls his feet up, wrapping his arms around his knees. He's got an eye on Kame, both eyes, really; grey-in-grey Kame in his grey office. He doesn't start when Kame leans forward and drops his face in his hands, heels pressing into his eyes.
"Still okay?" he asks.
Kame nods without raising his face. "It went better than it might have."
That's something. Kame's exhausted but he also seems together, parked here in his office as they wait for the morning.
Kame tilts his head once. There's a crack in his neck. "You're not telling me I should get some sleep."
"No." Kame needs to be awake.
But he can't keep drinking the dark brew they've been plying him with, and Jin makes himself move. He knocks on two offices and finds some low-level minions who have no clue who he is, pulls some unexpected authority out of his ass and gets a stressed-out accountant type to run down to one of the all night coffee places to get a mild soy latte with lots of sugar, the kind that's marketed to seniors and their sensitive stomachs.
"Thank you," Kame says when Jin comes back with it, wrapping his hands around the cup.
Jin pulls his legs in again, curling up in his corner, but Kame's eyes are out towards the night, his body all angles and concentration.
"I want you to come work for me," he says.
Jin's mind was still on coffee and food. "What?" he says when he catches up and his breath stops and he thinks, Make music? before he can be rational.
"You need a job. You need to move to a new apartment. You can have an office here, I'll pay you well enough."
Work for Kame. Work… in Johnny's. An office, here. Jin gets with it as the jolt of music dies.
It sounds decided. A pity job, one Kame can make up for lowlife losers who saw him sleep and felt him kiss like it's the last kiss in the world.
"Why?" he asks. "You're getting my ass cheap anyway."
Kame blinks at some faraway light, his mouth pressing together. "Don't be an idiot. You always had talent. It shouldn't go to waste." He gives Jin a blunt stare, much more awake than the rest of him. "But you always had too much pride too."
It hangs there meaningfully. The last nine weeks established all they needed to know about Jin's pride.
"Sometimes I hate you," Jin says.
Kame's shoulders move as if he's too tired to shrug. "Lots of people hate me. They work for me anyway."
Kame always wanted to be loved.
"I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits.
Kame's mouth quirks up, also tired, just a bit. "Is that a yes? The company could do with you."
"The company doesn't want to know me," Jin points out. "I have no reputation left here. All the things…" The things he did, the things they did and said… "People have memories."
Kame gives him a sideways look. "You remember how they could always just define what really happened?"
Like Jin would forget. The story's what they make it, always. "Yeah."
Kame nods. "That'll be me now." Before the chill of that can really sink in, he adds, "And I could do with you here, too."
That's true. Jin knows it like morning cracking through the night. The other thing they established in the last nine weeks. "Well, when's the last time you didn't get what you want…"
Kame's eyes tighten at the corners as if he remembers all too well, has the score card in his head. But eventually he pulls his feet up too, cradling his coffee like it's more precious than just a half-empty paper cup.
Dawn is stirring outside, more grey and more shadows. When all of this is over, Jin's going to put up some bright red art in here, or a fucking Giants poster.
Jin's tea has gone cold. It can't be that much longer now until the wheels start grinding again. This mad, mad job of Kame's, his now entirely, and what does Jin even know about the enemies. He thinks of Julie, in some grey creepy office of her own, playing the same stakes, and the chill of it crawls under his skin where no hot tea can reach.
"Would you do it?" he asks into the quiet. "If you'd lost... Would you do it?"
Kame played that game too, and he won, and in all those weeks… what does Kame have beside this, the work and the game? Nothing. Jin, stashed away somewhere on the way home. Nothing.
Kame blinks up, with a dozen emotions on his face that seem slowed down from exhaustion. "I hadn't entertained the possibility," he says in a thin voice. Jin's not sure if he means jumping from a building, or losing.
How much did Julie think about it, beforehand?
Kame turns tired eyes on him. They're puffy and scrunched even in this gloom, but quite calm. "I wouldn't give up like that," he says.
Jin runs a hand over his face. There's cold sweat on it. This night is getting to him. "Kame…" This is a whole new life, a whole new… he needs to know.
"Don't worry," Kame says, soft and firm at the same time. He looks like this night mugged him and tossed him around and threw him in a ditch. "It's all right now."
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 11:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 11:27 pm (UTC)Anyhow.
I have to say I love the atmosphere here! I think the fact that Jin spends most of this chapter watching from the sidelines and kind of describing what he's seeing rather than thinking thinking thinking inside his head makes it feel like there is all this crazy stuff happening everywhere OMG!! It's kind of funny, actually, how frantic this chapter feels, considering it's not like Jin is actually telling much about what's going on most of the time - because what does he even know, right? Doesn't remember much of this place, doesn't really know these people anymore, he's just following Kame around an office building like some sort of infamous lapdog, the poor thing ^^;; Sorry, I just, the way everyone behaves around him, oh god, don't mind me...
Speaking of which... what is Jin doing there again?! The Kamenashi works in mysterious ways.
Since I first read this, I've gone through a number of reasons why it'd make sense to keep Jin close at this time - the fact that he definitely knows too much by now, that he's a supportive presence for Kame, etc. - but for every one of those cases I've found a way to obtain the same benefits without actually having to face the very obvious downsides of bringing your Jin to work - presence will raise questions, no real safe answer for them yet, no known contingency plan, besides this is Jin: reactions often unreliable. So that's lead me to conclude Jin is there because... Kame wants him there. And that's that. =___= #fail
Kame's not even sitting in it and Jin's preemptively intimidated.
HAHA! Sometimes he really is Jinius! xD
"I heard you raped some actress on camera," Jin says. He's getting used to being fake. Maybe the ikebana's giving him vibes, or something. "Was that true?"
HAHAHA OH DEAR, no seriously, look at that, and so timely too x'DD #dying
...as if he's flirting with Jin...as if he's flirting with Jin...as if he's flirting with Jin...
No. No. He's taken. Move along, you >.<
...grey-in-grey Kame in his grey office...
Funnily enough, that's how I've been picturing this Kame since the beginning of the story O.o Always like this. Grey, with Jin in more of a beige/brownish shade... Curious.
A job. In JE. I'm not entirely sure why Jin is that disappointed? Sure, he's not going to be an idol again, but when Kame talked about wasted talent I kind of assumed he meant music? O.o Unless pushing papers is Jin's secret forte. Or Kame's planning to run an escort service on the side. Oh, that'd be fun! Except I can't see this Kame handling the sharing quite as well as the last one who had to...
Pride, huh? Yeah, I guess that's something they no longer have to worry about TT____TT Jiiiin... Speaking of which, I'm still quite curious about how Kame came to the conclusion that dropping by Jin's place for Blowjobs&Breakfast would be a good idea in the first place...
Kame always wanted to be loved.
Did he? Does he still? How does Jin know this? What on Earth is he talking about? No really, that statement requires more of an explanation. What is Jin referring to? DO. TELL. TT____TT
When all of this is over, Jin's going to put up some bright red art in here, or a fucking Giants poster.
Thinking about moving in already, are you? ^^;; I'm kind of amazed by how he keeps making Kame-related plans even though he never ultimately does anything... And now he's taking over the decorations department! Good little housewife Jin! ^^;; Ahaha. Taking over indeed. Don't mind me. Or the hysterical giggling. Don't mind either.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 11:27 pm (UTC)Never in the history of answers has there been one as epic as this one *____* Oh hell he's so... Kamenashi. Failure just isn't part of his vocabulary, is it? I kind of love that Jin actually stopped to think about this, because it's relevant, okay? I've been thinking about it ever since you unloaded #massiveshock on me last night. Jin's post-subway tracks almost-breakdown might have had something to do with that, I don't usually fixate on death this much >.>
Hm. I wouldn't say Kame has nothing. I think Kame knows it, too. I think that's what he was actually doing at Jin's place yesterday. Acknowledging the fact that he does have something. Somehow. #mytheories
Okay, that was long >.>
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:16 pm (UTC):D Yay! That's perfect, then.
he's just following Kame around an office building like some sort of infamous lapdog, the poor thing
LOL. Yes, that's not a bad description. Poor Jin.
As for what he's doing there... hey! Kame wants him there. That should be reason enough.
So that's lead me to conclude Jin is there because... Kame wants him there. And that's that. =___=
See? You even concluded it yourself. -- Anyway, short answer: Kame is freaked out, and really feels the need for a fluffy safety blanket, and Jin fulfils that function. :)
Tego can't help flirting with people. Tego flirts with anything that moves. It doesn't mean anything! >_>
Speaking of which, I'm still quite curious about how Kame came to the conclusion that dropping by Jin's place for Blowjobs&Breakfast would be a good idea in the first place...
He never planned on the blow jobs. He was just curious. And lonely.
What is Jin referring to? DO. TELL. TT____TT
Only everything he ever observed about Kame between 1998 and 2010. :p
Sorry,the decorations department has already been put under Sara's command. But maybe Jin can hand in special requests. :)
Oh hell he's so... Kamenashi. Failure just isn't part of his vocabulary, is it?
Absolutely not. You just keep on fighting. Somehow.
#yourtheories are pretty correct, but until Jin, he did have pretty much nothing; and he still wouldn't have jumped, we think. :)
Thank you for this fun, long comment! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 11:45 am (UTC)Poor Kame.... Handling more than he can carry.... And Jin in office doing actual work...Can't imagine that though.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:10 pm (UTC)Thank you for commenting! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 12:30 pm (UTC)Well, it sorta is. It felt like Kame needed Jin to be there as an anchor amidst the craziness, to keep Kame sane almost.
"Would you do it?" he asks into the quiet. "If you'd lost... Would you do it?"
Jin must be feeling a bit scared that Kame will also have the tendency to commit suicide. They've really wormed themselves into each other's life. And Kame offering Jin a job, an actualjob, at the Jimusho.. Well, I'm looking forward to that.
"It's all right now."
I really hope so. They both deserve some sort of happiness after all these.
Thanks so much for the update! (^____^)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:10 pm (UTC)Jin should know Kame would never commit suicide, he just... well. It's so immediate. He worries.
Jin's not at all sure he's looking forward to a job at the jimusho, but it beats minimum-wage box-sitting, no way around that.
Thank you for commenting!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 12:48 pm (UTC)T_______________T I haven"t even thought about this possibility :| Jin is so thoughtful and he cared and I really love this part and how he just wants to be near, to be alone with Kame, understanding how hard some moments are for him <3 <3
Also Ueda T________________________T what is with this guy and his dark glare this mysterious guy that doesn't look mysterious anymore, but still is mysterious. And Koki with his pupy love, that I love so much <3 <3 <3 <3 when he is grabing Kame's arm and is so supportive and so great :D I love when people support Kame and care about Kame <3 <3 <3 <3
Tegoshi is a nice bitchy touch xD
Kame's lifeless office. so cold and so closed, because the owner doesn't want to share with anything that can be used against him!
I love the level of understanding between Akame in this story, this kind of intimacy, when the whole world is at one part and they both are here and can feel each other even after all the years, life wasn't nice to them, I guess and maybe taught them how to value what is really important, like trust.
Jin is so in love and I can see it in every line, his every thought, just everywhere <3 <3
This Jin is amazing <3
"Sometimes I hate you," Jin says.
Kame's shoulders move as if he's too tired to shrug. "Lots of people hate me. They work for me anyway."
Kame always wanted to be loved.
"I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits.
I can read and reread it again and again. this amazing little strong and bossy sicking for love Kame <3 <3 <3
I love this update, love how Jin is freaking our because of what happend there, how Kame is on charge and even how Kame get scolded by the lawyer.
I can't wait to have the whole story at AO3, after DL it and read again like a novel from beginning to the end <3 <3
Love it <3
Thank you for sharing <3
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:11 pm (UTC)so cold and so closed, because the owner doesn't want to share with anything that can be used against him!
Yes, exactly. But now he doesn't have to worry about that any more.
I love the level of understanding between Akame in this story, this kind of intimacy, when the whole world is at one part and they both are here and can feel each other even after all the years, life wasn't nice to them, I guess and maybe taught them how to value what is really important, like trust.
:DDD This makes us very happy. Yes, they're a real team now (again...)
I love this update, love how Jin is freaking our because of what happend there, how Kame is on charge and even how Kame get scolded by the lawyer.
Maybe the lawyer is a unicorn... :)
Thank you for this sweet comment! ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 09:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 01:45 pm (UTC)a bit sad that aside from KAT-TUN, there is only a few johnny's that's seems really close to kame..i guess its lonely when you're on the top..
How much did Mary think about it, beforehand? --should this be julie? seeing what had happened to julie, i'm not surprised that jin's worried for kame, asking him that question..but kame's strong..if he failed, which i can't see happening, i know he'll find another way..
is it office work with music included that kame's offering to jin? if it is, please accept it jin..
and do this: --Dawn is stirring outside, more grey and more shadows. When all of this is over, Jin's going to put up some bright red art in here, or a fucking Giants poster.--
-"Don't worry," Kame says, soft and firm at the same time. He looks like this night mugged him and tossed him around and threw him in a ditch. "It's all right now."
-- i really hope so..
thank you for the update!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:11 pm (UTC)a bit sad that aside from KAT-TUN, there is only a few johnny's that's seems really close to kame..i guess its lonely when you're on the top..
It's lonely when you are close to the top and have a very powerful enemy. Now doubt other people would like to be close to him or friendly with him, but he's been very cautious about letting people close.
We fixed the Mary thing, sorry, that was a typo. Thank you for the alert! >_>
Giants poster. You bet!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-25 09:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 04:57 pm (UTC)hope everything will get better for Kame now! and Jin! wonder what kind of job he'll have for Jin XD wonder what might happen to their relationship ?? looking forward to the next part! ^____^
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:11 pm (UTC)Random, bizarre, incomprehensible. *g* OMG AKAME LIVES WHUT! (And all the 10-year-old juniors: huh, who is this guy?)
Thank you for commenting! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 04:59 pm (UTC)Ohno and Aiba...I suppose they must know all the bad things Julie was doing to everyone else even if they didn't agree/couldn't do anything to stop her. It would be interesting to see how they'll interact with the rest of the company now, under Kame. Like you said, business is business for Kame, but what about other people in the company, people Julie had targeted in her quest to put Arashi at the top?
I used to think that the JE offices must be really stylish and maybe a bit chaotic (what with 101 groups + juniors and their respective entourages, and considering some of their costumes...),...a building in multiple shades of grey (never quite managing white or black) fits really well with this all-abt-business-and-no-emotions-involved Kame. And ikebana in grey and olive...somehow, I imagine it probably costs 10 times the price of a normal, cheery flower arrangement.
Ueda - why is he there? Arashi - because it's Julie, and Koki & Co. because they're here to help Kame, but if there wasn't a general call for all artists to assemble, what was Ueda doing there?
Yuuya, Yuuta, Yuuto. Thank you all for coming here...I want to say something about Kame having a type when selecting subordinates but I realised I don't actually know if Kame picked them or if they volunteered to be on his side. And I thought that was Takaki Yuuya at first, I find it hard to think of Tegoshi as Yuuya...even in SDW, it took me age before I realised Jin's quite little kouhai was Tegoshi Yuuya...I think he's a good choice to have on your side if you're planning world dominion though...
he looks different the way Koki looked different every six months, and so somehow entirely the same Koki will always be a gangsta on the outside but a motherhen on the inside, and his bark will always be worse than his bite. Just like how we all knew the cat scandal wasn't true before you even told us!
You need a job. You need to move to a new apartment. You can have an office here, I'll pay you well enough."
It sounds decided. A pity job, one Kame can make up for lowlife losers who saw him sleep and felt him kiss like it's the last kiss in the world well, this wasn't unexpected but the stress of the evening is clearly getting to Kame. No matter how direct they are with each other, you'd have thought Kame's newfound consideration would let him know making it sound as thought giving Jin a job was a solution to Jin's problems and giving Jin a job because Jin has skills the company needs are 2 completely different things. I'm glad Jin's thinking clearly enough for both of them.
I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits...is that a confession?
When all of this is over, Jin's going to put up some bright red art in here, or a fucking Giants poster. - because Jin's already decided he's staying and even if Kame gives him his own office, we all know where Jin's going to be sending most of his time.
Oh, and Jin can bring his kids to his new office and Sara can help him decorate the entire building
in different shades of purple and sparklesand bring some life back into JE.I hope with no Julie around anymore to play the media against Kame, the press will just listen to whatever story Kame orders the PR people to feed them.
Re: British trains - it wouldn't be as bad if I was anywhere near Scotland! Unfortunately, I'm in south-east London (voted 3rd worst rail company in the country), where 2cm of snow will cripple our entire rail system. The snow didn't even settle yesterday and all the trains were late and 1 in 4 cancelled...
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:12 pm (UTC)Hm, 'letting' might not be quite the word here. Dragging along helplessly, maybe? >_>
Arashi probably weren't informed about most of what Julie got up to, though they'd have known a bit and maybe suspected more. It's not their fault, no. And, well, thankfully lots of people in the company weren't even aware of what was going on (if there's something in a gossip mag about burning cats, your ordinary JE guy doesn't assume that it is because one of the managers tried to sell you out), so it shouldn't be too hard. Only the people very close to Kame (or Julie) really knew what was up.
No doubt there are stylish rooms in that JE building, only Kame's isn't it; he reinvented himself as a serious manager type here. :(
We figured that people just... went to see what was going on. And some were also working late, midnight shoots and stuff, it's not like the idols ever keep normal hours.
Yuuya, Yuuta, Yuuto. Thank you all for coming here...I want to say something about Kame having a type when selecting subordinates...
LOL, the type whose name starts with 'Yuu'? *g*
Actually, we just went through the people who he's worked with and apparently gets on with well. People he'll have known for a long time by then.
Tegoshi Yuuya...I think he's a good choice to have on your side if you're planning world dominion though...
We think so too -- IF you can trust him. We just figured that Kame knows he can, and that's that. #handwave
this wasn't unexpected but the stress of the evening is clearly getting to Kame.
LOL, yes. Too tired to really think about the emotional impact of his words. In robot mode. *g*
I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits...is that a confession?
What do you think? :DDDD
Oh, and Jin can bring his kids to his new office and Sara can help him decorate the entire building in different shades of purple and sparkles and bring some life back into JE.
Oh god yes, Sara as artistic subcontractor. *g* And Akira is safety officer and makes sure that the building is always earthquake and volcano proof, and everybody has the requisite training.
I hope with no Julie around anymore to play the media against Kame, the press will just listen to whatever story Kame orders the PR people to feed them.
Yes. Basically. Just like they do with JE now. *g*
London... so far away... :/ (But always good for train amusement. From said far away.)
Thank you for this great comment! ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 06:21 pm (UTC)I was quite surprised Kame brought Jin along considering the media everywhere and the other Johnnies, but it really makes me happy too that Kame doesn't want to hide his acquaintance with Jin anymore. :DD And also that he realizes that's it's okay to have someone to be there for him and support him, instead of dealing with it all on his own. :') Even though he was understandably shaken up and tense, I know he would have been so much worse without Jin there. Annnd wow, Koki doesn't seem to have changed at all! Having Tego included was nice too!
A pity job, one Kame can make up for lowlife losers who saw him sleep and felt him kiss like it's the last kiss in the world.
AWWWWW. :'D
Kame always wanted to be loved.
"I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits.
I THINK I FOUND MY TWO FAVORITE LINES OF THIS FIC. ;_; /CRYING. They're so simple but they mean so, soooo much after everything. <3 And wow, Kame hiring Jin, what an interesting development! :O Jin would be like his secretary or something? I don't know why I feel so weird about it, I guess because of their relationship lol, working for your almost-boyfriend sounds quite awkward. XD But, if it means that from now on Kame will only pay him for actual work, because yes, he does give a fuck after all about Jin's living arrangements, and not paying for sex, I'm alll for it! :D KAME YOU AND ALL YOUR SUDDEN KINDNESS AND SAVING JIN AT LAST! SO PROUD OF YOU BB. THOUGH, it still hasn't been exactly explained why Kame even sought him out nine weeks ago in the first place. Was it just pity too? :O
"Would you do it?" he asks into the quiet. "If you'd lost... Would you do it?"
Kame played that game too, and he won, and in all those weeks… what does Kame have beside this, the work and the game? Nothing. Jin, stashed away somewhere on the way home. Nothing.
"I wouldn't give up like that," he says.
Well that's certainly great to know! :'D /phew. And well, Kame won't just have work and a game anymore. :DDD THANK GOODNESS. I really, really love the nice slow progress their relationship has made. It's kinda funny how at first, it was all just about the sex and money and now it's that plus a whole bunch of other nicer things. XD Now they're both finally acknowledging that they care about each other. They're not in love exactly but I don't feel like they need to be, right now, whatever feelings they have, is enough. More than enough, because weeks ago, they didn't have nice feelings for each other at all. They've got plenty of time to develop stronger feelings. :3 There really isn't enough, if any, fic like this, where their love/romance is NOT the main plot of the story. This fic/novel was more about them as individuals and their lives and the people in their lives and how they are a bit alike and find solace in each other. And it's really, really beautiful. And realistic too! I should have saved typing this for the last chappie, but I just had to get it out now. :) Because feeeeeels. XDD
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:15 pm (UTC)Tego seems to sneak into our fic a lot. He's such a useful little bitch. :) (Also he's cute.)
I THINK I FOUND MY TWO FAVORITE LINES OF THIS FIC. ;_; /CRYING.
:) Romance isn't dead, right?
THOUGH, it still hasn't been exactly explained why Kame even sought him out nine weeks ago in the first place. Was it just pity too?
Curiosity. And maybe some instinctive sense that he (Kame) needed somebody to rescue him.
There really isn't enough, if any, fic like this, where their love/romance is NOT the main plot of the story.
It was quite a new departure for us, actually. While you could argue that SDW has plot, too, the plot is really secondary to the relationship development. Here we feel we got them much more tightly intertwined. It was fun to write and plot! :)
Thank you for your lovely praise and ~feeels~, we're really happy that the story worked! :) ♥♥♥
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 06:02 pm (UTC)LOL, oh definitely. <33
Tego seems to sneak into our fic a lot. He's such a useful little bitch. :) (Also he's cute.)
HAHA, SNEAK HIM IN MOAR ~ I love him soo much! :DD
And maybe some instinctive sense that he (Kame) needed somebody to rescue him.
OH KAME BB ;_; /HOLDSTIGHTLY
Here we feel we got them much more tightly intertwined.
YES YES. <3 I was thinking of SDW, but there the main plot is like you said, their relationship developing from whore-customer to boyfriend-boyfriend and then other plots revolved around that. While for me here, the main plot was trying to figure out how exactly they fit into each others' very hectic lives and because they were never a couple beforehand, the reason wasn't as simple as they suddenly miss each other or something cliche like that. XD I'm glad you had fun with it, it's always good to try new things every so often. :D
YOU'RE VERY WELCOME. 8DD
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 07:05 pm (UTC)And Jin really should put up a Giants poster.
"Would you do it?" he asks into the quiet. "If you'd lost... Would you do it?"
I honestly can't see Kame doing that. I can't see Kame ever giving up, and now, well, I'm hoping he does have something else he considers worth living for.
I really want to see Jin doing music again by the end. And with Kame around I think it's much more likely and Jin will get what Jin wants. XD
"You remember how they could always just define what really happened?"
Like Jin would forget. The story's what they make it, always. "Yeah."
Kame nods. "That'll be me now." Heee. XD.
Really looking forward to what will happen next.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:14 pm (UTC)I really want to see Jin doing music again by the end.
Well, you work for a big music producer, there's probably going to be opportunity to make a bit of music, too. ;)
We hope you like the further developments. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 07:37 pm (UTC)Damn, that's what I call a powerful plot twist. You two are just too good, you're so amazing.
I'm so glad Kame wanted Jin with him. Well, not with him, obviously Kame's got work to do that Jin has no real business with, but he still wanted Jin to stay in the office and be there at the end of everything and that's... that's a big giveaway. And Jin stayed.
Oh, dude, by the way, the Ueda description kinda surprised me. All his coolness gone, but I suppose that's just for the sake of the press outside and what not. Um, I hope so. Koki's piercing surprised me too but I like it anyway, and I like how Jin still remembers that Koki often changed looks and that Jin still 'knows' him even if he looks different. I feel those two always had a bit more of a special bond, they just seemed to get along so well.
The part where Tegoshi asks about Jin's gossip and Jin returns the favor... Oh God, I loved it. Jin was so right to shoot it right back at him, and I like that it wasn't really meant to be like, a jab or something. Lots of stories have this 'Jin hates Tegoshi' thing and I didn't see that at all here (might just be me, though), and I liked that. I also like that Tegoshi is somehow close to Kame, I didn't see that coming. And then I guess the three juniors (I have no idea who they are) are close to Kame too, in some way.
Now. Where is Taguchi? Is he in the office too but did Jin just not see him? Or isn't he important enough to be present or something? Idk, I'm just asking!
Kame's office... Yeah, it's much like the way Kame dresses for work now, isn't it? Except for the last time he visited Jin and he looked a bit more like himself with the earring and other stuff. But it is sad indeed, that his office is so... bland. So I'm really hoping Jin will do something about it, and maybe, now with Julie gone (even though that sounds awful 'cause I feel like a bitch putting it that way), things will be better. Kame will change again, for the better, and be able to loosen up a bit. All Johnny's, I'm sure.
Oh fuck, wait, does this mean that Arashi are back to be under Johnny's (A.K.A. Kame's) command? 'Cause that'd be awesome.
I didn't see Kame offering Jin a job coming. Should I have? I don't know, I think maybe I thought it would be too much of a happy ending, but I'm still not entirely sure what exactly Kame offered. An office job at Johnny's or being a singer again? Either way it is somewhat of a crazy suggestion, but Kame's kind of in charge now and he pretty much always knows what he's doing so... It could definitely work.
So, this chapter was really, really good. It wasn't as long as I thought it would be but somehow I managed this long comment anyway. I like that, too! You two, you're seriously incredibly talented, you have great plot, great narration, characterisation... You two are the best!
Ha, I didn't have to leave that much out after all! Sorry for my stupidity!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:15 pm (UTC)We don't think Jin hates Tegoshi, no. But he does hate stupid personal questions. :D
And then I guess the three juniors (I have no idea who they are) are close to Kame too, in some way.
They're actually from Kisumai and HSJ. Kame's worked with them and as far as we know he's got a good relationship with them.
Taguchi is sleeping over at his girlfriend's and missing out on the entire thing. (Or maybe just not bothered enough to come in in the middle of the night.)
Kame will change again, for the better, and be able to loosen up a bit.
He will. He'll just have to get used to it. No doubt Jin will help. *g*
Yes, all of JE is now back under one command. Sweet, isn't it?
No, you shouldn't have seen the job thing coming, though we're pleasantly surprised that not everybody simply assumed it would work out like that anyway. Yeah, Kame knows what he's doing, and nobody can touch him now, really.
Oh, thank you for all the lovely praise. We are blushing now. :) We hope we can keep going in style until the end. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-23 08:25 pm (UTC)...Kame has a terrifying office :| Woah. He's clearly paranoid and stressed out. That's just strange.
"I read you were getting evicted," Tego says. "Is that true?"
"I heard you raped some actress on camera," Jin says. He's getting used to being fake. Maybe the ikebana's giving him vibes, or something. "Was that true?"
Oh media... Well, good that these guys can twist it into some sort of humour.
"Would you do it?" he asks into the quiet. "If you'd lost... Would you do it?"
;;____________; ...It feels like my poor little heart would be shattering.
"Don't worry," Kame says, soft and firm at the same time. He looks like this night mugged him and tossed him around and threw him in a ditch. "It's all right now."
*sniff* So soft. How can he be such a mess yet still... Ahhh. Kame. Stop it.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:15 pm (UTC)We thought maybe not so strange the way he's been living and working the last few years in that story. Paranoia was entirely justified. But don't worry, that's all going to change now. Jin will see to it. Kame will just have to like it. :)
How can he be such a mess yet still...
One word: Cho-Kamenashi! *__*
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 08:52 am (UTC)hmm. as much as my mind is reeling rather [but, oh, so nicely - still that pace driving], this is the part where had the same 'end of' SDW feels. that the rest of the plot will play out, but this is where things are settled between them. watershed moment.. and pretty much in public too #skillz. lets leave 'puppeteers'. am back with 'maestras'. XDD
Jin gets with it as the jolt of music dies.
It sounds decided. A pity job, one Kame can make up for lowlife losers who saw him sleep and felt him kiss like it's the last kiss in the world.
"Why?" he asks. "You're getting my ass cheap anyway."
Kame blinks at some faraway light, his mouth pressing together. "Don't be an idiot. You always had talent. It shouldn't go to waste." He gives Jin a blunt stare, much more awake than the rest of him. "But you always had too much pride too."
It hangs there meaningfully. The last nine weeks established all they needed to know about Jin's pride.
"Sometimes I hate you," Jin says.
Kame's shoulders move as if he's too tired to shrug. "Lots of people hate me. They work for me anyway."
Kame always wanted to be loved.
"I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits.
sdfghjkl;'/.,mnbvcxzsawertyuiop[;lkjhgfdxzvbnm,./
and the last line. comforting jin. confession. i need to express my fluff feels somehow, so if the cold prickly allows .. <3<3<3<3
thank you! i will re-read this once finished [still not managed SDW], but this may just pip that on the faves. concentrate is good sometimes.. XD
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:17 pm (UTC)comforting jin. confession. i need to express my fluff feels somehow, so if the cold prickly allows .. <3<3<3<3
LOL. The cold prickly would say 'yeah, that didn't entirely suck.'
concentrate is good sometimes.. XD
We agree, actually. Part of what this story was about was trying to work with a faster, more condensed pace. The fact that it wasn't AU helped with that, of course; not so much world building required.
Thank you for commenting. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 01:01 pm (UTC)and the story goes on.....
jin and kame are really meant together. at least here.
<3
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-24 05:17 pm (UTC)Thank you for commenting! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-25 05:09 pm (UTC)It’s a clever strategic movement of Kame actually. Also I think he knew Jin would be a great support for him and calm him down and take care of him. Must be way nicer for Kame when he has someone he cares about and knows about stuff with him.
"Koki," Kame says, then nods to the other three present. "Yuuya, Yuuta, Yuuto. Thank you all for coming here."
So this is #TeamKame? *g*
There's something sad about it all and Jin doesn't even know why.
I find this sad, too. Because this is not the Kokame friendship we know. T___T
I also find the description of Kame’s office sad. The way it looks and all. I never thought Kame would be the type who doesn’t have personal things at all in his office. Or has a totally colour-less office even. It makes sense, though. Because an office like that gives you an aura of authority, it intimidates people and that was probably Kame’s intention. Also it helps that there is no indication on what Kame likes or who is important to him. The less his enemies know about him the better it is for him.
Nevertheless I wonder if his office also looks like that, because it kind of resembles how Kame feels right now. Maybe having baseball mementoes there would just hurt him, because he had to give up on that again. Having KAT-TUN related stuff there would just feel strange, because they’re not who they were years ago and maybe having to stare at their recent pictures whenever he’s alone would hurt, too. As sad as it is, but his office pretty much reflects that Kame doesn’t really have anything or anyone anymore at the moment. Well okay, before Jin. God, this is heartbreaking. T__T
I wonder if he sometimes wishes his office could look a bit more like Kimura’s. If he wishes, he could feel happy and comfortable in an office that’s more like Kimura’s. With that hint of authority, but still so friendly and all.
Jin's tempted to look into desk drawers and see if there's half-used aspirin packs and chewed pencils…
Are there? ;__; This office needs some signs of life. >__>
…but he's not glad for what he knows.
Kame knows it too. Who did this, why it happened now. Jin could see it in his eyes, in the way he gripped the steering wheel.
WAAAAAIT! Does that mean there is more to the whole suicide thing? Wasn’t it a suicide maybe? O__o Don’t tell me that there’ll be even more trouble.
It’s pretty interesting to hear this all from Jin’s perspective. The way he observes everything and the way he feels a little lost and clueless, but knows so much as well at the same time. And I love how Kame always comes back to him and Jin makes sure Kame is okay. Like when he gets him that coffee. I don’t really want to imagine how Kame must’ve felt if Jin wasn’t there. All of this is hard enough for him and he really seems to need the support. <3 And hey, he isn’t even annoyed when Jin is asking how he is over and over again.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-25 05:10 pm (UTC)HA!!!!!
Well this was the only thing that made sense. And now that the problem with Julie is out of the way…..
I’m glad Jin accepts right away. Okay, but I wouldn’t have thought Jin would deny that offer anyway. Because I’m sure he knows he won’t get that kind of opportunity again and it would solve so many of his problems. And he isn’t really known for being able to resist Kame. *g*
I just hope that the atmosphere around him will become better and that the others will get used to him being there again and not be so strange around him. Once everything has settled and Kame can explain why Jin of all people and such. I really hope they all accept him again. >___<
"I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits.
What a sweet kind-of-confession. :3
And it’s great how Kame reassures him that he really wants him there and things will be all right at the company for Jin.
Kame's eyes tighten at the corners as if he remembers all too well, has the score card in his head.
Now I’m curious and wonder what it was and when. >___>;;
When all of this is over, Jin's going to put up some bright red art in here, or a fucking Giants poster.
Oh yes, please! >___> A painting of a red turtle would be nice. But I’d never say no to a Giants poster as well. *g* Just get some colour into that office…
I don’t think Kame would’ve jumped even if he had lost the game. He would’ve lain low for a while maybe and then he would’ve struck again when Julie would’ve least expected it. As long as he still had some evidence or just a tiny trace, he wouldn’t have given up. Especially not within the last 9 weeks, because even if he might not have had anything or almost nothing before that, he has someone now.
"Kame…" This is a whole new life, a whole new… he needs to know.
Needs to know whether there is hope for them? Whether they can end up together? :3
Or is this rather about whether the worst really is over now? Just simply about whether everything really really will be all right in the end? Or already is? Mh…
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-05 05:28 pm (UTC)#TeamKame, LOL. Yes. :)
Because an office like that gives you an aura of authority, it intimidates people and that was probably Kame’s intention. Also it helps that there is no indication on what Kame likes or who is important to him. The less his enemies know about him the better it is for him.
All of that, precisely. Particularly the last thought.
As sad as it is, but his office pretty much reflects that Kame doesn’t really have anything or anyone anymore at the moment. Well okay, before Jin. God, this is heartbreaking. T__T
Kame's office is really not much better than Jin's box, except with posher furniture. But maybe now Julie is gone, he'll turn in into more of a Kimura!office again.
There might be aspirin, yes. And notepads and stuff. But nothing too personal.
Wasn’t it a suicide maybe? O__o Don’t tell me that there’ll be even more trouble.
It was a suicide, don't worry!
It’s pretty interesting to hear this all from Jin’s perspective. The way he observes everything and the way he feels a little lost and clueless, but knows so much as well at the same time.
♥ He doesn't know the circumstances, but he knows Kame. :)
What a sweet kind-of-confession. :3
We thought it was fitting for this story. *g*
Maybe Jin can work on that bright red turtle painting. That would go very nicely. Maybe Sara can make one! ^^
Thank you for this lovely comment!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-02 11:25 am (UTC)"I mostly don't hate you," Jin admits.
Kame's mouth quirks up, also tired, just a bit. "Is that a yes? The company could do with you."
I love this so much so so much T____T ♥♥♥
Why did he take Jin with him? Just so that he'd have an alibi right away? No, he's really leaning onto Jin, isn't he ;www; It helps. That's Jin's there. I can't imagine how Kame would've felt if he had been in his empty grey office all alone. D:
This fic is. Stabbing my heart. And I like it T___T ♥♥
And Jin asking Kame if he'd do it... ;;---; Kame wouldn't he'd never and the job isn't all he has he has Jin alright ♥♥
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-05 05:28 pm (UTC)Alibi. Always important. Is what he can tell himself. *g*
Stabbity-stab! We hope it is stabbing you in a good way. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-06 03:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-19 09:03 pm (UTC)and with that, goodnight, and a good pfingstmontag to the both of you. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-26 01:52 pm (UTC)We couldn't have said it better! ;)
Seems like all the things we intended worked out perfectly for you. This sort of situation is one of Solo's most precious little buttons. Glad you like it! ♥