Mousapelli’s Fanfiction » 26 JE Birthday Kisses, All The Songs That Make You Shake

26 JE Birthday Kisses, All The Songs That Make You Shake

Title: Kiss Fifteen: All The Songs That Make You Shake [Jin/Ueda]
Rating/Warnings: PG for bandmates like little old ladies.
Summary: While Jin is in Los Angeles, Ueda sends him letters.
AN: For 26 Birthday Kisses, Kiss Fifteen: Sealed With A Kiss. One of you guys asked for Ueda, so enjoy.

Kiss Fifteen: All The Songs That Make You Shake

While Jin is in Los Angeles, Ueda sends him letters. Mails them, like a little old lady, and Jin always teases him by texting or emailing him back, threatening to drag Ueda into the twenty-first century no matter what it takes.

Secretly, though, he likes the letters. He likes the anticipation of not knowing when they will appear in his mail, he likes the weight of them in his hand, the feel of heavy Japanese stationary against his fingers, even the way the air carries a whiff of home for a second after he opens the envelope. His American friends laugh at him and tell him it’s just air, but Jin knows what he smells.

Ueda’s letters carry a minimum of newsâ€”that’s what Yamapi or Ryo’s letters are forâ€”and instead sends detailed descriptions of what he is personally doing at the particular moment he happens to be writing. His prose is winding and oddly punctuated, curls of description as only someone who writes Jpop lyrics would scrawl.

The first letter Jin gets he thinks is a poem, and spends ten minutes on Google trying to dig up the author’s name before he realizes that it’s just Ueda.

When Jin returns, neither Ueda nor anybody else meets him at the airport. That’s not how KAT-TUN is, and anyway, it’s a firestorm of press and screaming that Jin is glad nobody else had to witness. It’s a few days before they get a chance to talk, both of them sneaking out late to meet at a coffee shop.

Jin is already feeling exhausted and limp, thinking longingly of beaches and college parties and going to class in pajama bottoms. He curls his hands around the hot cup to keep them from shaking without drinking, jittery from too much caffeine during the course of the day.

“It’s decaf tea,” Ueda says, reading Jin’s mind in that way that he has. “So drink it, it’ll relax you.”

“I kept all your letters,” Jin says after they’ve been chatting a bit. He isn’t sure what made him think of it, or made him want to tell Ueda. “I have a clearfile of them. It’s a One Piece clearfile.”

“Of course it is,” Ueda murmurs, but he seems pleased, hiding the curl of his mouth behind his cup.

“They made me want to write lyrics again,” Jin continues after a beat, and this time Ueda sits down his cup and is definitely pleased.

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me in a long time, Jin-chan,” he says, and he leans over to kiss Jin’s cheek, careless and quick in the nearly-deserted coffee shop. “Shall we do it?”

So they do, writing in bursts during photoshoots and appearances, in the downtimes whenever Jin can spare a few seconds. It gives Jin a moment to breathe in between running from one thing to the next to the next. It makes Jin feel wanted and useful and a part of something, but when he tries to tell Ueda how grateful he is, Ueda usually just punches his shoulder and tells him to save it for the fangirls.

The weeks blur together, the song is finished, and somehow Jin finds himself as a special Shounen club guest alongside Ueda, sitting in between Nakamaru and Koyama on the bench. .

The theme of the show is “Love Letter.”

“So, Akanishi-kun,” Koyama chirps, leaning forward, “tell us what your song is about, please!”

“Well,” Jin touches his tongue to the corner of his mouth, gathering his thoughts, “it’s about waiting. And being away from home. And feeling connected with the people who care about you. And being able to hold something in your hands that feels and smells like home. And about how you say things without really saying them. Oh,” Jin adds as an afterthought, “and about getting mail, too.”

“Wo~w,” Nakamaru teases. “It’s about all that? How long is this song?” Nakamaru waits for the audience’s laughter to die down before turning to Ueda. “And do you agree, Ueda-kun?”

“Yes,” Ueda says, a half-smile that reminds Jin of everything he was missing from half a world away, beaches and pajama pants notwithstanding. “It’s just as Jin-chan says.”

“Well, then!” Koyama straightens up, ready to move the program along. “Tell us the name of your song, then, please!”

Jin glances at Ueda, who gives an expressive shrug of one shoulder. Jin thinks about the One Piece clearfile of letters on his desk, the feel of the heavy paper and the smell of home faint in the air, and gives the camera a smile that he feels the whole way to his toes.

“It’s called,” Jin takes a moment to get his mouth into the right shape for the foreign angles of the English words, ‘Sealed With A Kiss.'”