Baka6, Coelliptic Orbit

Title: Coelliptic Orbit [Shintarou, Jesse, Taiga, Hokuto]
Rating/Warnings:
Summary: What if the right moment comes and it’s one of the times they aren’t right there next to him?
AN: Written for Shiritori. Here, let me teach you a new word: Coelliptic Orbit is when two spacecraft, usually satellites, orbit in the same plane around a central body.

Coelliptic Orbit

“Most of what a vampire needs to know involves sex,” Shintarou says, like he’s the most long-suffering person on the whole earth, and Hokuto and Taiga exchange an amused look which goes totally over Shintarou’s head. “Why did they have to cast Yasui-kun in this stupid thing? Even Yuma-kun is laughing at me!”

“Complain harder about your lead romantic role in a spring drama,” Jesse says from the couch. He doesn’t look up from his magazine, but Hokuto can tell just by the way he’s letting his hair hang in his eyes that he isn’t seeing anything on the glossy pages.

“But vampires, though!” Shintarou whines. “Not even cool murderous vampires! Girly ones! Sparkly ones! It’s four times worse than when they spray me with the regular water! The glitter gets in my eyes and it hurts like a bitch and it never washes off—”

“Ooookay,” Taiga interrupts when Jesse starts crinkling the pages between his fingers. Taiga slings an arm around Shintarou’s shoulders and starts to urge him towards the door without a whole lot of subtlety. “Let’s go practice your lines or something, huh? So you won’t be nervous.”

“I barely even have lines in the first episode!” Shintarou says. “My stage directions say things like ‘look brooding and sensitive!'”

“Let’s practice that then,” Taiga says, not letting up. He catches Hokuto’s eye on the way by and jerks his chin towards Jesse, and then he and Shintarou are out the door. Shintarou’s stupidly deep voice still echoes down the hallway for another twenty seconds even through the closed door.

Jesse still hasn’t looked up from the magazine, and Hokuto tries to figure out whether going to sit next to him will help or just make him a target of physical abuse.

“I know it’s dumb to be jealous,” Jesse says before Hokuto works out what to do. “I don’t want to be a glittery vampire either. I’m run down and tired of doing back to back filmings all the time and Yasui creeps even me out sometimes and I think Matchy-san might be the mid-season guest star. I don’t want a spring drama even a little bit!”

“It’s okay to be jealous,” Hokuto says, approaching cautiously. When Jesse doesn’t make any sudden moves, Hokuto even sits next to him, although he leaves enough space between them that he could probably make it to the door before he got strangled the whole way.

“I’m not though,” Jesse protests, tossing the magazine to the floor in a heap of bent pages. “I’m definitely not jealous. I just feel…”

Jesse trails off, folding his arms and staring at his sneakers, leaving Hokuto to try and guess.

“Frustrated?” Hokuto suggests. “Angry? Ignored?”

“I don’t know!” Jesse lets his head fall back against the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling instead. “I feel like that idiot stole my microphone and gets to stand two rows in front of me and sing a solo and I want to take it back just so I can beat him to death with it.”

“Juri tries to do that twice a day,” Hokuto soothes, reaching over to squeeze Jesse’s shoulder. “He makes me feel stupid sometimes too. I know I’m older and practice and way cooler, but sometimes that doesn’t help me either.”

Jesse glances over, lips quirking. “Exactly in what universe are you cooler than anybody?”

“The universe where it’s worth anything to get mad about whatever Shin’s doing this season,” Hokuto fires back. Jesse kicks him hard, and Hokuto deserves it.

“I guess…” Jesse pauses, but this time Hokuto waits him out. “It’s that we kind of just orbit him, you know? Sometimes we do stuff together and sometimes we don’t, and I can’t help but think, what if the right moment comes and it’s one of the times we aren’t right there next to him?”

Hokuto looks down at his own sneakers. He wants to argue and say Shintarou’s not any better or more popular than them or has any better chance of debuting, right now or ever, but he’d be lying if he didn’t say he feels the same way sometimes. There’s something about Shintarou that draws people and luck to him, and if they all press a little too closely to him sometimes, Shintarou doesn’t seem to exactly mind the attention either.

There’s no helping it, really. You can’t even get mad at Shintarou about it, because that’s just the way things are.

“Fuck him,” Hokuto says, cheerfully fake, and at least it makes Jesse snicker softly. “Let’s start a fan campaign and debut as a duo and make him wait until he’s been here as long as Fujigaya-senpai.”

“Cute,” Jesse says. “Your naiveté is refreshing, at least. I think I’ll just bring in a bottle of superglue tomorrow and challenge him to arm wrestle so that we’re glued together until debut. That way he can’t shake me off at the last second.”

The mental image of that makes Hokuto burst out laughing, and then he glances over guiltily because he’s supposed to be making Jesse feel better instead of the other way around. Jesse just shrugs at him.

“I think it could work,” he says. “Or Velcro. I could try Velcro.”

“You could try being an effortlessly hot, popular idol who gets sprayed down with glitter water next season.”

“You could try not being an unapologetic asshole this season.”

Jesse punches Hokuto’s arm and Hokuto slaps the back of his head and they end up scuffling until they fall off the couch with a crash. Jesse has a rising bruise on his cheek by the time they straighten themselves, but he doesn’t look that put out about the scolding he’ll get from the makeup staff again.

“Did you punch him in the face?!” Shintarou demands, grabbing Jesse’s chin and tilting it this way and that. “Are you a moron? How am I supposed to keep you in my group when you idiots go around giving each other black eyes?!”

Jesse gives Shintarou a slow blink, and then shifts his eyes to look over Shintarou’s shoulder at Hokuto.

“Duct tape,” Jesse says.

Shintarou frowns. “What?”

“Hm, that could work,” Hokuto answers thoughtfully. “Hurt like a bitch to pull it off, though.”

“Kinky,” Taiga comments.

“What?!” Shintarou demands.

“No,” Jesse clarifies. “I’m not gonna stick myself to him with it, I’m going to stick him to the bar in front of the mirror and then we’re gonna leave him here while we debut without him.”

Hokuto, Taiga, and Jesse and look at Shintarou thoughtfully.

“That might actually work,” Taiga says, and Hokuto gives Jesse a thumbs up.

“You can’t duct tape me to anything!” Shintarou shouts. “I’m not legal!”