Ya-Ya-yah, Called Out

Title: Called Out [Ya-Ya-yah]
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for Shoon being the community bicycle.
Summary: Since his birthday, Shoon’s been going out an awful lot, and the rest of the band have some things to say about that.
AN: for darkeyedwolf because the Gackt poster and ABC are all for her, and she has to read this. Especially the omake.

Called Out

The good thing about spending the weekend filming a television segment at a vacation house just outside of Tokyo was that Shoon didn’t have to face his mother when he was fumbling his key into the lock, squinting against the glare of the early morning sunshine.

The bad thing was that when he finally did stumble inside, all three of his bandmates were waiting for him at the kitchen table to stage their intervention.

Shoon just stared at them for a long moment, head pounding and stomach rolling and wishing very hard that Yamapi-senpai had not accidentally crushed his very cool sunglasses into powder during his impression of Bad*Nice.

“Shoon-kun,” Yabu spoke first, hands folded in front of him in a perfect imitation of a calm person, “we’ve decided that we should all have a little talk.”

“Oh god, can it wait?” Shoon’s eyes were finally adjusting to the dimmer light of the kitchen, enough to see that Hikaru was watching him with folded arms, and Taiyo was slumped in his chair, chewing his lower lip. “I know I said I’d be back last night, but it got really late all of the sudden, and Ueda-senpai said we should just stay because, well, if you’ve ever seen Ueda-senpai’s bed, it’s freaking huge, and then…”

“SIT,” Yabu barked, voice ringing off the linoleum of the floor, and Shoon whined, squeezing his eyes shut. When he cracked one back open, Yabu’s mouth was just starting to open again, and Shoon dropped into a chair in self-defense, wincing when his ass hit the wood.

“It’s just that,” Hikaru spoke up before Yabu could say anything else, “since your birthday, you go out an awful lot.”

“So I’ve been to a few parties.” Shoon shrugged. “That’s the point of being legal, isn’t it?”

“Mm,” Hikaru tapped his fingertips against the table, “and you come back looking kind of…um…”

“What?” Shoon demanded, looking down at his shirt. Which was on inside out. And maybe wasn’t his.

“And, you know, the other day,” Hikaru was staring down at his hands now, cheeks turning pink, “Taiyo and I overheard some of the senpai talking. About you. Ah. And…”

“Shoon-kun is like a birthday cake,” Yabu interrupted, doing a pitch-perfect imitation of Junnosuke-senpai. “Everybody gets a piece!”

“What?” Shoon’s jaw fell open as he glanced from Hikaru to Yabu to Taiyo, the motion making his head throb.

“We’re just worried!” Taiyo exclaimed. “We don’t like it that they pass you around like a chain letter!”

“Not like a chain letter!” Hikaru snapped. “Taiyo, that’s a terrible thing to say!”

“Shoon is like a doorknob,” Yabu added. “Everybody gets a turn.”

“Hey!” Shoon protested. “It’s not like that at all!”

“Like a joint?” Taiyo suggested, and Hikaru reached over to slap the back of his head.

“No! And what do you know about joints anyway?!” Hikaru asked, and Taiyo shrugged. Shoon opened his mouth, then shut it when he saw Yabu’s glare. “Like a…what’s something you’re supposed to give to other people?”

“A venereal disease?”

“Shoon is like the community bicycle. Everybody gets a…”

“SHUT UP ALL OF YOU,” Shoon roared, then clutched his head with a moan of pain.

After a second of silence, Yabu sighed. “Shoon-kun, we just…”

“I get it, okay?” Shoon snapped, standing up. He swayed for a second, swallowing against the nausea from the sudden motion, fingers clutching at the back of the chair. “I’m going out and you’re worried, I get it. Look, all I need is a nap and a shower, and we can talk about this later.”

Shoon turned on his heel and thought about slamming the door on his way out of the kitchen, but even the thought made his headache spike, so he settled for slouching out in a quiet sulk.

He stood in the hallway for a minute, getting his bearings, before he could stumble into the room he’d picked when they first got there. Not bothering to shut the door, Shoon stripped off his jacket and T-shirt, then fumbled for a few seconds with the button fly of his jeans, puzzled both by the operation of it and the fact that he always bought zip flies.

Finally he just gave up and collapsed on the bed, the cool pillow soothing his headache just enough that he could fall into blissful, dark unconsciousness.

*******

A few hours later, Shoon snorted himself awake out of a dream where Ueda-senpai had a trained hoard of flying monkeys and had sicced them on Shoon for wearing Jin-senpai’s ruby hi-tops.

He felt sticky, his tongue was furry, and when he tried to shake his head to get rid of the last of the dream, it felt like his brain had been in one of Aiba-senpai’s experiments. Also, there was somebody warm pressed up against Shoon’s back, and he was swallowing a wave of déjà vu when he rolled over and found Hikaru out cold, a book flopped open on his chest.

Shoon’s movement jostled Hikaru, and he shifted and opened his eyes and blinked at Shoon. “Shoon? Ah, I must have fallen asleep.”

“What are you doing in my room?” Shoon asked. He felt like he couldn’t get his thoughts together, like they were puzzle pieces but all with the pointy parts in the wrong places. He rubbed at his forehead with the back of his hand, wincing.

“There’s aspirin and a glass of water on the table behind you,” Hikaru hitched himself up to examine Shoon, propping his chin on his hand. “And this is actually not your room. Just like those are not your jeans.”

“Huh?” Shoon blinked some more, and the Justin Timberlake poster on the wall behind Hikaru’s head made marginally more sense. “Oh. This is your room.”

“I don’t mean to be blunt,” Hikaru said, “but you aren’t so smart when you’re drunk, Shoonie.”

Shoon turned to the bedside table to hide his pink cheeks, scooping up the aspirin and the glass of water and downing them both. After he’d drained the glass and set it back down, he went to run his hands through his hair and grimaced at the feel of it. Hikaru was still watching him patiently.

“Sorry.” Shoon cleared his throat. “About your bed, I mean. What time is it?”

“After eleven,” Hikaru answered, dog-earing a page in his book and closing it. “We’re shooting again at two, so you can sleep longer if you want.”

“I…” Shoon looked just about ready to flop back down, but just then his cell phone rang, the muffled chorus of With Me coming from the pocket of his jacket on the floor. Shoon dove for it, but his head was still spinning a little and he ended up spilling himself to the floor with a pained curse. He fumbled the phone loose and flipped it open to find Jin-senpai’s number and also an animated purple star flailing at him, and thumbed the accept key. “Jin-senpai!”

“Shoon-kun.” Jin-senpai’s voice was a sleepy rumble, just this side of hoarse. “You left!”

“I took a taxi home.” Shoon pushed himself up to sit cross-legged, leaning against the side of the bed.

“You missed the part where Maru initiated Gackt as the seventh member of KAT-TUN.” Jin-senpai yawned hugely, and Shoon had to put a hand to his mouth to muffle his own answering yawn. “And we owe Uebo a new poster. Anyway, Sho-kun just called and said that Ohno-kun and Ninomiya-kun are having a little shindig of their own tonight, cause they missed so much of last night’s. You in?”

“Of course I am!” Shoon exclaimed, then scrunched up his nose at the fading throb of his head.

“Ah, good!” There was a muffled voice on Jin-senpai’s send of the phone, and then Jin-senpai laughed. “Pi says you two can finish your conversation tonight then.”

“Sure, senpai,” Shoon mumbled, cheeks growing hot.

“I’ll text you directions to Ohno-kun’s place.” Jin-senpai laughed again, and there were some other noises that made Shoon’s face heat even more. “It starts at seven. See you later, Shoon-kun.”

“Later,” Shoon answered, then folded his phone shut with a click. He just sat for a minute, then he gave a little sigh and went to stand up.

He found Hikaru leaning over the edge of the bed, watching him.

“Ne, Shoonie,” Hikaru said, “you aren’t very smart when you’re drunk, you know?” and then reached over to press his index and middle finger against a spot on Shoon’s shoulder. It ached a little, and Shoon looked down to find Hikaru’s fingers pressing on a bruise, still fresh and pink around the edges.

Shoon didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and Hikaru let his fingers drop.

“I’m going to go shower,” Shoon said, climbing to his feet, scooping up his sneakers, shirt, and jacket on the way. He turned and started towards the door.

“Your room is the third one on the right,” Hikaru told him, and when Shoon looked back over his shoulder, Hikaru already had his book back open and his eyes on the pages.

“Thanks, Hikaru-kun,” Shoon said. Hikaru nodded without looking up.

Shoon shuffled back to his room, which turned out to be the linen closet, and then finally actually did find his room one door to the right. But just to be extra super certain, Shoon looked in his duffel bag to find out whose name was written on his underwear, and was relieved to find his own.

At least on some of them. Shoon sighed, dropped his shoes and shirt on the floor, and went to go get his shower.

In the bathroom, Shoon found Yabu sitting in the bathtub, legs dangling over the side and practicing his new solo with his head thrown back against the tile and his eyes squeezed shut. The creak of the bathroom door made him pick up his head, and Shoon swallowed a sigh when Yabu’s eyes landed on him, slit and predatory.

“Shoon, come join me!” Yabu gave Shoon a smile that was mostly teeth and patted the space in the bathtub beside him.

Shoon eyed the hard white expanse of the bathtub and thought about plunking his sore ass down on it. “No way.”

“Now,” Yabu ordered, and Shoon compromised by sitting on the edge of the tub.

“Look, Yabu,” Shoon started, trying to pre-empt Yabu’s speech so he could just get his shower, assuming he could even peel the jeans off his ass at this point. “I really just think that…”

Yabu just eyed Shoon evenly until he closed his mouth. “I think you should be Ya-Ya-yah’s big brother,” he said.

“What?” Shoon stared at Yabu. “But I’m…”

“I also don’t think it’s good for Ya-Ya-yah that you’ve been seen by yourself more times in the three weeks since your birthday than in the four years before that,” Yabu continued, ignoring Shoon. “And I don’t think it’s good for Taiyo that the senpai talk about you like a party favor. But mostly, I think you should be Ya-Ya-yah’s big brother.”

“Ah,” Shoon answered, because there didn’t seem to be much else he could say to that. Yabu didn’t say anything else, but held Shoon’s gaze for several very long seconds before he nodded once and climbed up out of the bathtub.

On the way by, he put a hand on top of Shoon’s hair as if he were going to ruffle it, but then dug his fingers in and gave a pull instead. “Don’t forget that you’re a senpai too, Shoon-niisan.”

Yabu flipped the knob on the shower right before he left, so that the spray was soaking Shoon’s back and soaking the floor over the edge of the tub, but Shoon still sat like that for at least five minutes after Yabu had gone, pulling the door shut behind him.

******

Shoon was quiet all through the shoot, forcing a smile when the camera turned his way and pleading a headache when the director asked him if anything was wrong. The others gave Shoon as wide a berth as it was possible for one boyband member to give another during a TV segment, except for Hikaru putting a hand on Shoon’s shoulder to steady him when he tripped on a rock during the yoga segment, and Taiyo grabbing Shoon’s hand to keep Yabu from picking Shoon for his team during the Ultimate Question Sudden Death Challenge!!

By the time the light was fading and everyone’s cheeks were pink with cold, the director finally let them go back inside with promises of a snowball fight tomorrow, and Shoon realized that he should probably start getting ready if he was really going to get back into Tokyo for Ohno-senpai and Ninomiya-senpai’s party.

He was standing shirtless in front of his duffel bag, hair damp from another shower and trying to decide if he had anything to wear, when arms wrapped tight around Shoon’s chest and a chin set itself down on the top of Shoon’s head.

Shoon gave a little sigh. It had been a lot easier to be the senpai when Taiyo wasn’t 10 cm taller than him.

“Shooooooon,” Taiyo said, voice carrying the barest hint of whine. “Don’t go out?”

“Taiyo…” Shoon tried to wriggle free of Taiyo’s grip, but Taiyo only let him get as far as twisting his head around to look up at Taiyo’s pout. Taiyo’s hands were still on Shoon’s shoulders, warm against Shoon’s shower-chilled skin.

“Please?” Taiyo’s shoulders were slumped and Shoon had a twinge of regret about those early adorable kouhai lessons. “Hikaru and Yabu are making dinner, and I just happened to have a brand new DVD entitled Kimi wa Petto…”

“Taiyo-kun,” Shoon started, “that’s very tempting, but,” and just then Taiyo’s eyes flickered down to Shoon’s chest, and a second later he pressed a thumb against Shoon’s collarbone, into a spot that ached a little.

“It’s just,” Taiyo’s eyes were still glued to Shoon’s shoulder, his thumb worrying the skin, “tomorrow’s our last day filming here, and we haven’t got to hang out at all.”

Shoon felt like an ass. Worse than an ass. He felt like his ass after last night.

“Ne, Taiyo-kun,” Shoon made a long-suffering face, ducking his head so that Taiyo had no choice but to look at him, “seems like I don’t have anything to wear. And I’m already kind of late. So I guess I’ll have to stay in after all.”

Taiyo’s whole face lit up. “Really?”

“Just let me call Jin-senpai,” Shoon said, letting his smile curl his mouth at last, and he reached for the pocket that held his phone. He planted a hand in the center of Taiyo’s chest and gently pushed him back a step while he used his other hand to flip his phone open and thumb the button until he reached Jin-senpai’s number.

He’d just pressed the button and was putting the phone to his ear when Taiyo’s hand shot out and snatched the phone away.

“Hey!” Shoon made a grab for his phone, but Taiyo laughed and used his ridiculously long arms to keep Shoon out of reach. He stopped laughing, however, the moment Jin-senpai’s lazy “Hello?” escaped the phone.

“Jin-senpai!” Taiyo’s face was adoring for a second, before he got a hold of himself. “Shoon won’t be coming out tonight. He’s got a terrible fever! He says his head might explode! And also—”

Shoon snatched the phone out of Taiyo’s hands and pressed it to his ear, saying, “Sorry, Jin-senpai.”

“Shoon-kun?” Jin-senpai’s end of the line gave a wet little pop that Shoon knew was Jin sucking on his lower lip and then releasing it. “I’m already at Ohno-kun’s place, and things are really heating up! Is everything okay?”

“Ah, it’s fine,” Shoon answered, giving Taiyo a dirty look when Taiyo stretched his fingers in the direction of the phone again. “It’s nothing like that. But I don’t think I’m going to make it. Tonight I’m kind of busy as Ya-Ya-yah’s big brother.”

“Ah, that’s a shame, because Jun’s doing something pretty interesting with a Ramune bottle,” Jin-senpai said. “But sometimes the band comes first, ne, Shoon-kun?”

“Yeah,” Shoon agreed, eyes caught by the huge smile that had lit up Taiyo’s whole face, big enough to crinkle up his eyes. “That’s so.”

There was suddenly a lot of shouting on Jin’s end of the phone. “Eh?! I have to go, Shoon-kun, Kawai’s doing an impression of Gackt and Ueda’s got a lit cigarette in his hand! Bye!”

Shoon pulled the phone away from his ear and blinked at it, then laughed.

“What’s funny?” Taiyo asked, cocking his head.

“I was just thinking,” Shoon laughed some more, scratching the back of his head, “that the senpai are pretty silly sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah, they are,” Taiyo agreed solemnly, giving Shoon a pointed look. Then he grinned and wrapped arms around Shoon’s chest, squeezing him tight until Shoon was kicking at the air and yelling that Taiyo was the worst kouhai ever.

“I guess he deserves a senpai like you then, ne, Shoon-kun?” Yabu asked from the doorway, and when Shoon and Taiyo turned, they found him leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.

“Shoon’s staying in tonight!” Taiyo exclaimed, squishing Shoon even tighter for a second before finally letting him go. Shoon staggered a step, rubbing his chest.

“Change in plans?” Yabu asked, raising an eyebrow. Shoon blushed a little, but he didn’t have any trouble meeting Yabu’s eyes this time.

“I wanted to be Ya-Ya-yah’s big brother tonight,” he said, offering Yabu an apologetic smile.

Yabu eyed him for a second, then nodded, apparently satisfied. “Good.”

“Dinner’s ready!” Hikaru called from the kitchen, and Shoon grinned and enjoyed being the one who got to sling his arms around his kouhai and drag them along for the ride for once.

******

“Hey,” Yabu said a while later, all of them sprawled on the couch with bowls of fried rice in their hands and Jun-senpai on the television, “are those my pajama pants?”

“Yup.” Shoon leaned his head his head back against the couch and grinned at Yabu. “Now guess whose underwear I’m wearing.”

At some point during the night before…

Omake: (First Impressions [Shoon/Kawai])

Shoon hovered in the doorway to Ueda-senpai’s living room, catching his breath. He had been hanging out with Jin-senpai and Yamapi-senpai until a few minutes ago, but Jin-senpai had drifted off with some others, telling Yamapi-senpai to take care of Shoon, and then Yamapi had whispered a few things to Shoon that made his skin prickle with want and nerves.

He’d excused himself to the bathroom and made his escape, but now was lingering in the hallway, unsure whether to look for Jin-senpai or to brave Yamapi-senpai alone again.

Suddenly a hand pressed against the wall next to Shoon’s head, and he turned to find himself nose-to-nose with Kawai Fumito.

Shoon swallowed, eyeing Kawai’s lazy smirk. “Kawai-kun?”

“Hi there, Shoon-kun,” Kawai said, shifting closer so that Shoon could feel the heat of Kawai’s body all along his own. “You came with Jin-senpai, didn’t you?”

“He invited me,” Shoon explained. Kawai chuckled and Shoon shot a glance to the side, but no one nearby seemed to be paying any attention to them. “He’s been doing that since my birthday…”

“Mmhmm.” Kawai’s smirk curled in familiar fashion and he lowered his lashes to regard Shoon. “You know, Shoon-kun, I do a pretty good Jin-senpai impression.”

Shoon almost laughed when he caught on, but then had a better idea.

“Actually,” Shoon flicked his head so that his bangs fell in his eyes and touched his tongue to the corner of his mouth. Then he rolled his hips up into Kawai’s. “I do a pretty mean Jin-senpai myself.”

Kawai grinned, his posture shifting slightly, and Shoon’s skin prickled in a familiar wave of want and nerves. “In that case, just call me Yamapi-senpai.”