Main
Journey to the Stars
(or the Idiotic Love Story of Tegoshi and his Boyband) 5/12 by Tha Wrecka
See part 0 for details.
5.
Tegoshi was worrying about the dance moves. His head knew he was better but his heart was still panicking that he wouldn't be sexy enough, wouldn't be good enough and nothing would have changed from before.
"But what if I forget a bit?"
"You know it off by heart, Tegoshi. You could dance this in your sleep," Massu insisted.
"But what if I--"
"You can do it," Yamapi said. "We all know you can do it. I'm sure you know you can do it, too."
Tegoshi could be honest with himself and say that Yamapi, awesome as he was, didn't usually do anything particularly leaderish. At that moment, however, he was as inspiring as anyone could want.
"We'll all do it together!"
"Okay!" Tegoshi chirped and smiled brightly. And then- "...Wait, but what if we all suck?"
"It's not the end of the world if we suck sometimes," Shige said.
Koyama smacked Shige on the arm.
He felt like he'd lost count of how many times they were on Music Station. It was kind of fun that they'd gotten to go on so often. The seats were surprisingly comfortable and there was something about it that just made it fun to perform there. Somehow, it felt like there was less pressure.
It didn't hurt that this time their costumes were really cool. Everyone looked so sexy. Yamapi's hair looked really sexy like that and Nishikido-kun's scarf was really stylish.
There was something really momentous about it this time, although, of course, they did not get things perfect. It was okay, though, because they did their best and had a lot of fun.
Sometimes Nishikido-kun and he could just look at each other and laugh in the middle of a performance, maybe after someone had stuffed something up or Tegoshi had been concentrating too hard on something, and it would just make everything okay. They didn't always have the words down but their non-verbal communication was just fine.
Yamapi, too, could say a lot without words and while Tegoshi decided not to over analyse what Pi's arm around him said it still meant a lot to him.
Tegoshi was a very respectful boy. He was always polite to his elders, not just when he passed them in the hallways or worked with them but even in the things he said about them when they weren't around. He was kind to his parents and grandparents. He didn't like imposing on people.
He liked the person he was when he treated others with respect and found that others liked it, too. Sometimes, however, he had to use more nefarious methods to get his way.
Yamapi was, of course, always very hardworking but he seemed tired a lot and it seemed to be slowly taking its toll on his mood.
Nishikido-kun seemed happy to ignore his mood. Tegoshi figured he just knew Yamapi long enough to know how to deal with it.
It seemed to Pi as if they were all being a bit more delicate with him than he really needed. He couldn't remember them being like this before. He knew he didn't change so why did they?
Their leader seemed grumpy a lot, lately. Tegoshi guessed that he was really just tired from the workload now that NEWS was back together but it was difficult to deal with when he was growling and snapping at people. It's not like he wasn't trying! Tegoshi was sure he was trying. It just seemed like Pi was putting so much energy towards doing everything that he was too tired to put any energy into himself and that was leaving him in a bad mood.
The sky was bright but Yamapi's face looked overcast. He wouldn't talk to anyone but Ryo and even that seemed a struggle. It was almost like going back in time.
It was when he growled at Koyama that Tegoshi knew that something was really wrong.
Koyama dealt with it by nodding, bowing and leaving the room to make tea. Tegoshi felt it would be prudent to take a different course of action.
"Are you going to finish that?" Masuda asked, through a mouthful of food, pointing to Tegoshi's sandwich.
"No, you can have it," Tegoshi said and gave him the other half. Tegoshi was too busy planning to eat.
Tegoshi walked up to their leader after lunch.
"Yamashita-san, I want to talk to you about something," he said.
"Why?"
"I feel that it's important that we discuss something."
"Some other time, Tegoshi," Yamapi replied, his voice gruff.
Tegoshi turned soft, round, wet eyes on him.
"Yamashita-san," he said. "Please."
Sometimes Yamapi thought Tegoshi was a little charming, someone he couldn't help indulging from time to time. This was not one of those times.
"I said not now!" Yamapi burst out and walked away.
Tegoshi wasn't someone who got told no particularly often. This usually meant that he didn't believe he had to take it for an answer.
He tried again later that afternoon, grabbing Yamapi's arm and taking him aside as soon as he sensed he had an opportunity.
"I want to show you something, Yamashita-san," Tegoshi said clearly. "Can you spare some time?"
Pi didn't really want to go but he could see that Tegoshi was not really willing to take no for an answer. He didn't want to deal with Tegoshi constantly badgering him until he relented so he sighed and said that he'd make time later that week.
Tegoshi looked pleased and that only made Pi's mood darker.
The thing that Tegoshi found it so important to show him turned out to be only reachable by car. Yamapi wasn't sure he wanted to get in a car with Tegoshi because Koyama had told him a horror story about Tegoshi's driving. It turned out that the horror story was nearly as terrifying as the real thing.
Yamapi groaned.
"What's wrong, Yamashita-kun?" Tegoshi asked, briefly glancing at him as he turned the corner.
"Look at the road! Look at the road!" Yamapi chanted.
"I am looking at the road," Tegoshi protested.
Yamapi let his head fall over his outstretched arms and breathed deeply. He was in his prime! This was not a time to be dying in a horrible car accident.
"Now I see why you barely passed your driving test," Yamapi muttered under his breath.
"I heard that!" Tegoshi yelled.
Yamapi's stomach had travelled all the way up to lodge in his throat, which was making it hard to stop himself from arguing with Tegoshi. "You should hear it. Because your driving sucks!"
"Shut up. I'm usually better than this. I'm just very upset right now," Tegoshi responded.
His voice sounded a little teary, which Yamapi found deeply terrifying. Even more than the tiny fear that Tegoshi's eyes would fill with tears and make him unable to see the road, Yamapi considered the idea of carelessly upsetting the baby of their group completely horrible. If someone else did it he'd be first in line to punch their lights out.
...Well, maybe not first. He suspected Masuda would be first and probably packing a better punch.
"It's alright," Yamapi said, as gently as he could considering the dangerous curves of the road underneath them, and put his hand on the first part of Tegoshi he could reach. Which happened to be his upper thigh. It was a nice enough thigh as thighs went but probably not the best place for Yamapi to put his hand.
Tegoshi choked and stepped on the brake.
They sat on the front of the car and looked up at the blanket of stars that covered the sky. It was pretty in a quiet way but it was cold, too, and Yamapi's hands felt like they were freezing.
"Isn't it amazing?" Tegoshi asked, breaking the cool night's silence. "All those millions of stars up there shining just for this."
"They shine for everyone."
"Just like you," Tegoshi said and turned toward him, trying to look cute.
Yamapi made a non-committal noise and, eventually, Tegoshi returned to staring at the sky instead of him.
"You know, some of those stars are already gone. Even after they die stars can shine for hundreds of years and reach people so far away it's hard to think of them," Tegoshi continued.
"Get to the point," Yamapi mumbled, frustrated.
"I've noticed you've been grumpy lately and..."
"I'm just tired, Tegoshi," Yamapi insisted.
"Then sleep!" Tegoshi exclaimed, clearly frustrated.
"I don't have time to rest," Yamapi replied.
"Don't be stupid, Yamashita-san," Tegoshi said. "You have to make time. You have to set an example! You need to take more naps!"
"More naps, huh?" Yamapi started to smile at Tegoshi's outbursts. "Can I sleep while you drive me back home?"
"Okay. That would be acceptable," Tegoshi granted.
"Can that be now? We have a shoot for Myojo in the morning."
"Well, it's getting really cold, anyway," Tegoshi said.
Yamapi looked a fair bit more well-rested the next day and his expression was quite a lot more pleasant. He strode up to Tegoshi and gave him a thumbs up.
Tegoshi smiled a particularly winsome smile.
"It's very important to me that Yamashita-san is happy and healthy," he said.
For some reason this made Yamapi decide to pull Tegoshi into a hug.
Yamapi liked to bury himself in hugs, arms solid around the other person's waist and head tilted in, in a way that looked really good on camera. Tegoshi had a momentary worry, the thought that Yamapi was only doing this because he knew he looked good like this. It passed as quickly as it came. After all, why did it matter why Yamapi was holding him close when the really important thing was that Yamapi was touching him.
Touching him, rubbing a hand up and down his back and smelling his hair, even.
Over the following days Tegoshi could only think that he may have caused only a slight improvement in Yamapi's mood but that was good enough for him.
The jacket shoot for the Hoshi wo Mezashite single was so fun. Tegoshi laughed so much all day that the sides of his face started to hurt. It was almost like having a laughter hangover.
Koyama had so many jingly things attached to his pants that Tegoshi could hear him coming from far away. It was like he was a cat with a bell. Tegoshi filed that thought away so he could tease Kei-chan with it at a later date.
Sometimes, Yamapi had the strange tendency to talk like he was in a commercial even when there were no cameras around. Tegoshi suspected he wasn't supposed to think that was really cool. As Yamapi talked up the benefits of taking buses home Tegoshi just couldn't help but admire it.
He smiled all the way home.