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The dinner is a failure.Yamapi thought this would be the sensible, professional thing to do, to sort out their problems beforehand, but they've only been here for five minutes and Kame has already sucked all of the happiness out of the room. Kame comments that his curry tastes overdone, complains that his water is lukewarm, and generally seems determined to be miserable."So," Kame says, when Pi has finally started to enjoy his meal. His curry tastes delicious. "I guess we should talk about what we think we should each work on."This had been Yamapi's idea, but suddenly it sounds like the bitchiest thing in the world, coming from Kame's little know-it-all mouth. Yamapi shrugs and shovels some more curry in his mouth, hoping he can leave as soon as he's finished. Maybe if they try this again on some other day, it will go better. Maybe Kame will stop being annoying some other day.Kame pauses awkwardly, his fingers tracing shapes in the condensation on his glass. "Well," he says after a moment. "You can be really irresponsible sometimes."Yamapi chews angrily and says nothing, his gaze intent on the plate in front of him. Kame continues in a rush, his voice sounding tighter and more nervous with each word."And silly. I think you don't take enough seriously, and when you do take things seriously, it's things you shouldn't take seriously, and you always act like you can do whatever you want and it seems so…"He trails off, taking a huge sip from his water glass and setting it down noisily. "Your turn.""You're a jerk," Yamapi says simply, setting his chopsticks down beside his empty plate. "You don't know everything. You don't know anything."He pushes his chair back and stands, forcing himself to look everywhere but at the horrified, shocked expression on Kame's face as he makes his way to the door. Kame looks stupid when he's surprised, Yamapi decides. Kame always looks stupid.
*
"Hey," Kame says the first time they meet for a costume fitting. "NewS seems to be doing well."Kame is talking about NewS like he understands what it's like, like this is just one popstar to another, like he knows a single fucking thing about what it's like to be ripped out of a group you like and shoved into one with a bunch of strangers and Ryo. The tailor steps out from between them, and Yamapi decides that it would be awkward to not answer."What?" he asks grumpily, wishing he could just ignore Kame talking importantly at him about his group."You know," Kame prods. "NewS...."Yamapi doesn't know why this is necessary. He's obviously in NewS now, and this is almost as stupid as Yamapi asking him how KAT-TUN is doing, how he likes it. "Hm?" he says, hoping Kame will just give it up already. The tailor scribbles down a measurement for his inseam and starts stretching the tape across Yamapi's chest."The group you're in with.... with um Shige and Massu and Koyama and-"He still feels awkward about this, incredibly awkward, and the last thing he wants is to have a chat with Kame about it. "Who?""-and Ryo," Kame finishes meekly.The tailor finishes and shuffles out of the room with his measurements, leaving the pair of them with an awkward silence. Yamapi decides to humor him."Ohhhhhhh," he says with a nod. "Right, NewS." He frowns. This is going to be one of the longest filmings ever. "What about it?""It.... seems to be doing well," Kame says again.Yamapi still feels a little sick about it, even though really, no one's that bad. Tegoshi kind of creeps him out sometimes, though, and Shigeaki sort of reminds him of Kame, and Ryo is usually too busy chatting up Uchi to pay much attention to Pi, but overall he thinks it could be worse. He could have been forced into a group with Kame. And that's when he realizes he has.He stares at Kame angrily, wishing he would give it up already. They weren't friends, and they'd never be friends, and the attempts at conversation were getting steadily more pathetic and annoying. "Right," he says finally.Kame doesn't bring up NewS again.
*
"Mmmmm," Kame exclaims on the first day of filming. "This is the best lunch I've ever had!"Yamapi diligently ignores him, studying his lines word by word, trying his best not to hear Kame moaning about the food that he had, up to this point, been enjoying."Absolutely delicious!" Kame exclaims again, and Yamapi sighs, standing and carrying his tray off to a more secluded area of the break room, his nose still buried in his lines. The food sucks, he decides. Kame must not have any taste buds.He spends all of his lunch trying to focus on his lines, but he feels sort of sick. He keeps catching glimpses of Kame sadly pushing the supposedly delicious food around on his tray, and Yamapi leaves the break room feeling like a jerk, and feeling angry about feeling like a jerk.He's still angry when he decides to make a jweb entry about it. He spends what feels like hours typing and erasing and retyping, deleting long rants about Kame being a jerk in spite of wild fantasies he has about creating some huge scandal over it. Finally he settles on something simple—one line that he's sure Kame will understand, one line that can appropriately convey his current unhappiness—"The food today was mediocre."
*
Jin rescues him from the set one night, barely pausing to look for Kame before Yamapi talks him into going to a little sushi place down the street. They take a scenic route through an area that's used for filming, and Yamapi excitedly points out all of the familiar landmarks—where Shuji's tree was originally, where the alley with the bookstore is, where Akira's apartment is… Jin doesn't say much during the brief tour, and is quiet as they settle into a booth at the restaurant.Yamapi should have expected this—he shouldn't be rubbing this in Jin's face, but he's spent so much time faking friendship lately that it's hard to remember how to deal with real friendship."How is it?" Jin finally asks, his mouth full of sushi. He asks in a tone that's meant to sound disinterested, but somehow he doesn't quite pull it off. He won't meet Yamapi's gaze and when Pi tells him that Kame is an annoying prick, he seems much more relieved than he should be.After a moment though, the relief melts into anger, and he starts shouting through a mouthful of rice. "He's not! He's my friend!"Yamapi shakes his head and picks a squid nigiri, popping it in his mouth and tossing his hair out of his face. "Delicious," he says, and Jin slumps a little in his chair, his features relaxing into a smile."You always think everything is delicious," he laughs.Pi shrugs. "I think it is important to appreciate good food."
*
Yamapi overhears Kame on the phone a few days later, as he's passing the dressing room. He's not sure who he's talking to—Yamapi's never really seen Kame hanging out with anyone, and he has sort of assumed that he doesn't have many friends."I don't know what else to do," Kame says in hushed tones. There's a pause—apparently his friend has a few ideas of what else he can do—and Yamapi takes a step inside, as quietly as he can."He really hates me," Kame says. "I don't think it'll matter if—"Yamapi steps on a piece of bubble wrap, and his presence is announced with a series of embarrassing crackles and pops. Kame whirls around at the sound. His phone flies out of his hand and skitters across the tile floor.For a moment, they both just stare at each other."How much did you hear?" Kame asks, regaining some of the color that has drained out of his face.Yamapi shrugs. "You think someone hates you?"Kame's face goes from sort of pale to deep reddish pink in a matter of seconds and he focuses all of his attention on rescuing his phone from the floor. "It's nothing," he says, hurriedly fishing it out from under a cabinet as Yamapi watches, bemused."Who hates you?" Yamapi asks, feeling like his stomach is flipping over and upside down. He suddenly really wants to tell Kame he doesn't hate him, even if he kind of does sometimes."Nothing," Kame says, straightening and standing. "I mean… nobody. It's nobody."Yamapi waits for another, honest explanation, but Kame is already bustling from the room, his street clothes bunched up in a pile against his chest.
*
It's night time, and it's cold, and production is taking ages to get started. They're sitting side by side on the rooftop, shivering and huddling together around a radiator and trying not to freeze. Yamapi watches as Kame wraps himself up in his jacket, and Yamapi is sort of relieved. Kame's too skinny for this kind of cold."Kame," Kame says suddenly, and Yamapi stares at him as if he's lost his mind, and maybe he has. After a moment, though, he catches the joke as he watches Kame bob his head, looking like some poor skeleton of a turtle.He feels strangely giddy and anxious now—he always cringes when Kame tries to make jokes, because he hates to see anyone try to be funny and fail, but this is surprisingly funny for him. Yamapi bobs his head in response, hunching up and trying to look more like a turtle. "Kame, kame," he says, and then suddenly they're laughing, and Yamapi feels more relaxed than he can ever remember being around Kame. He's laughing so hard that he snorts; an embarrassing, obvious snort—the kind that Jin always teases him endlessly over."Oh!" he says, anticipating teasing that never comes. "Nobuta!" and then they're laughing again, and Yamapi snorts like he has never snorted before.Several minutes later, well after the laughter has died down and they've been shuffled away from the radiator to stand in the cold street, Yamapi still feels warm.
*
Pi doesn't remember when he started hating Kame. He feels like he always has, but then he stumbles across old pictures of them, arm-in-arm like close friends. They're loosely piled in a box he finds in his closet one night, when he's looking for an old pair of sneakers. He spends the rest of the night pawing through the box, the contents spilling out across his bed as he reads through old journal entries about his friends; he finds mentions of Ryo and Jin and… Kame.There's a series of badly-shot, blurry photographs of them as juniors during their trip to Vegas, and Yamapi spends an embarrassingly long time pouring over them, analyzing each one of them as if it is part of a drama, and their body language starts to become purposeful and meaningful. Kame looks terrified in almost every picture, probably because of Jin convincing him that Junno had been possessed, but Yamapi imagines it is because of him.He spends most of the night lying awake in his bed, scenarios running through his mind of young, nerdy Kame trying to be his friend and too-cool Yamapi cruelly pushing him away.When he finally falls asleep, he dreams that their lives have become the drama, and wakes up believing that they are best friends.
*
The day that Shuji brings them pigs, Yamapi asks if he can keep his. Kame smiles uncomfortably between takes, as Pi invents voices and personalities for all of the little three-legged figures."So this means we'll be friends forever," Akira says. "Happy!""Well, maybe not forever…" Shuji says, with carefully practiced enunciation and pause."This means our bodies can't be separated," Akira continues, and Yamapi slings his arms around Kame, holding him tight and feeling him tense with his hurried, nervous denial. The scene ends, the cameras stop rolling, and Yamapi still won't let him go.At the end of the day, he holds up his pig, and asks Maki and Kame in his pig's voice if they will keep in touch. Maki smiles—a real, albeit uncomfortable, indulgent smile—and swears she will. Kame laughs awkwardly as Maki waves her goodbye, and Yamapi juts out his lips in a fish-like pout."Promise, Shuji-kun~?" he asks, his grip slipping slightly on the small wooden pig.Kame smiles awkwardly. "I'll see you tomorrow," he says, shifting slightly on the balls of his feet and waving his hand dismissively. Yamapi watches Kame tuck his pig into his jeans pocket and he smiles."And after that…" Yamapi says slowly, losing his easy smile as he pockets his own friendship charm.Kame's face lights up in obvious delight, but his voice is still uneasy, his words still careful. "Yes," he says, smiling, and then he fishes his pig out of his pocket. "Yes, Akira," he promises, using his best imitation of his pig's voice.Yamapi laughs.
*
Kame's sort of cute when he's not being extremely uptight and awkward. He still seems nervous, like he expects Yamapi to insult him or make fun of him, but Yamapi keeps the camera steady and encourages him to pose. When Kame seems to have run out of flourishes and smiles and peace signs and finger horns, Yamapi starts suggesting silly things."Do the turtle thing," he says with a laugh, and Kame obeys as Yamapi circles him, bobbing his head awkwardly as his eyes follow Yamapi and the camera. Kame surprises him mid-circle with a loud snort, and Yamapi laughs, slapping his hand lightly against the camera in impressed surprise."Do a kon-kon," he suggests, and Kame does. Yamapi swells with pride as he watches him, and he tries his best to hide his smile behind the camera. "Good, Shuji," he says quietly. "Good."Kame blushes and rubs his hands together, looking down and away from the camera."Pick your nose," Yamapi orders casually, as he hears someone approaching from behind. He laughs in delight as Kame obeys, pretending to jam a finger in his nostril as Yamapi circles him again with the camera."Yes, Shuji, yes!" he says encouragingly, as if this is a fashion shoot and not just messing around with some poor Staff-san's personal video camera. "You're so sexy, perfect."He doesn't notice how Kame blushes—he has stopped short behind him at the sight of Jin approaching them. He waves, lowering the camera as Kame drops his hands, hooking his thumbs awkwardly in his uniform and looking embarrassed."Hey," Jin says slowly, looking sort of like he did when Yamapi first told him about Nobuta. He glances at Kame and then stares at Yamapi."Kame's going to come with us to dinner!" Yamapi tells him excitedly. Deep down, he sort of knows that Jin won't be happy about this, that somehow this new friendship with Kame is something he should be ashamed of, but he doesn't want it to be. He wants it to be okay, and he has decided he will make it okay.Jin doesn't reply, just stands there gawking, and Yamapi can see Kame tensing up into the same nervous ball of anguish he spent the last few months hating. He grabs Kame's hand without much of a thought, and Jin's keys jangle as they slip off of his fingers. He catches them before he drops them totally, and Yamapi pretends not to notice."Let's take him to that sushi place," Pi suggests. No one reacts at first. Kame is too busy staring down at their hands, and Jin is too busy looking horrified."He's picky about his curry," Yamapi adds as an afterthought, as if going for curry is the only possible alternative. Kame starts to laugh.