Work Text:
Originally posted on LiveJournal, 13 Sept 2009
This is for "crys" who asked for anything KAT-TUN with Natsu no Basho lyrics as the prompt. So here is some. There is a little member-愛 [ai/love] and a little member-嫌い [kirai/hate], and a little crackiness. I hope you like it.
Title: Natsu no Basho
Pairing: Junno-centric KAT-TUN gen, a weensy bit of KameDa if you squint really hard
Rating: absolutely not porn
Genre: RPS, fluff, genfic
Disclaimer: Not mine. Written for fun, not profit.
Word Count: ~2500
Summary: Junno gets one day a year. One day when every one of his bandmates does whatever he wants for a whole day.
A/N: じゅんの 一日 can be read "June's First Day", i.e. the first of June, or "Jun's one day". Yes, I know that if one were talking about the month of June, one would write it in katakana and not hiragana. Suspend your disbelief, bitches. All's fair in love, war, and wordplay.
高いビルを抜けて 辿り着いた夏の場所
break out of the building and flee to the summer place
Junno gets one day a year. One day when every one of his bandmates does whatever he wants for a whole day. Everyone gets a day, to be fair. Everyone else's is on their birthday. But they all get their way most of the time, or at least he does whatever everyone else wants most of the time because it's easier when everyone else is bitching and moaning to just go with the flow, what flow there is. One more angry voice never helped anyone. KAT-TUN rarely does what Junno wants to do. Never, actually. They never do what he wants to do except on his one day.
Junno chose the first of June. He thought it was pretty clever, it was a pun; and it used English which, Jin took great pleasure in reminding him, was not his strong suit. Koki kicked him in the ass when he announced that date but that was okay because his pun was pretty clever, even if it only worked if you called him 'Jun' and not 'Junno' which only his mother did anymore, and Koki would have found a reason to kick him in the ass anyway because he liked doing it and Junno didn't mind, at least they were paying attention to him.
The first of June hadn't really worked out all that well for him so far. It was the beginning of summer and that meant concerts and touring and that generally meant every minute was scheduled. This year, there was a miracle. Apparently pigs from across the world were making everyone sick and so they had to rearrange their tour schedule. Junno wasn't really sure what it was all about.
What he did know was that his day was a Monday and they miraculously didn't have a lot going on that day. By sheer dint of will and extremely impressive manipulation of their managers, which actually means no fewer than seventeen bad puns in a row to force capitulation, Junno convinced KAT-TUN's wranglers to arrange their schedules so that every single member had four hours. Four glorious and miraculous hours free from 11:30am to 3:30 pm on a Monday afternoon and he got to spend them however he wanted.
That morning they were shooting shop photos for their tour. Most shop photos were sort of a joke. It was a lot of 'wear these clothes you were wearing when you were actually doing something' and 'stand around on a random floor of the jimusho that has white walls and plenty of tables piled high with copious amounts of props and whatnot' and then they'd goof off for a while while photographers shot 'candids'. Junno didn't mind. Goofing off was easy and it kept the fangirls happy and they always made money so Johnny-san was happy too.
Junno thought it would be best to inform everyone of their obligations to him before they were done shooting so they didn't high-tail it out of there before he could get his plans underway. They were standing around and laughing, Junno couldn't remember at what, when he made his announcement.
“Hey guys, remember, today is my day.”
“Your day for what, Junno?” Kame asked.
“My day. June's one day” Koki kicked him reflexively.
Jin groaned. Kame started shaking his head slightly. Ueda quietly pinched the bridge of his nose before taking a deep breath and putting a smile on.
“You did seem unusually smiley today,” Nakamaru remarked.
“What do you mean unusually?” Jin quipped with less venom than he thought he'd used.
Kame was still shaking his head. “Look, Junno, I know it's your day and all, but we have things to do. Can't we just do it on your birthday this year like everyone else?”
“Nope. It's my day. It's all arranged.”
“What is?” Koki eyed him dubiously. He remembered the time that Junno had insisted for his day that they all play billiards and he got a table brought in to their dressing room. Koki caught a cueball in the face on a jump-shot gone horribly awry. Sure, it helped his bad-boy image, but the make-up girls bitched at him for a solid week and Johnny thought he'd been fighting. If Junno's plan for the day took arranging, Koki probably didn't want to do it.
“I got the managers to change our schedules. We have from 11:30 to 3:30.”
“They didn't tell us.” Kame was incredulous.
“It was a surprise.”
“But I had no idea.”
Ueda patted Kame's shoulder, “Yes, Kame. That's a surprise.” Then he turned to Junno. “Okay, it's your day. What is going on?”
“This better not suck, Taguchi.” Jin griped.
“I got a van. I am taking us someplace. It's a surprise.” Five pairs of wary eyes stared back him. “It'll be fun. I promise.”
Their shoot finished and they changed into their own clothes before going down to the parking garage and piling into a van with darkly tinted windows. Junno turned to face the van full of his bandmates, unable to suppress his grin. “It'll take about a half-hour to get there and another half-hour to get back, so we'll only actually have three hours.
Koki and Maru were in the backseat tapping out rhythms on the seat in front of them, and annoying Kame who already had his nose in some script because if he was just going to be sitting he may as well be getting some work done. Jin put his headphones on, leaned against the window and zoned out. Ueda was fiddling with the radio looking for something he deemed acceptable listening material.
Ueda was the only one to acknowledge this information. “Okay, Junno. We'd better get this show on the road, then.” Ueda made a little 'move-it-along' gesture and looked at Junno expectantly.
“Oh, right.” Junno finally started the van and set off. Thirty minutes went by in what passed for silence when Koki and Maru were given free time and nothing to occupy their mouths. Koki was challenging Maru to new sounds and Maru was doing his best to reproduce them. He'd managed to perfectly recreate the sound of a lighter flicking, an engine turning over, and something very much like a rodent scrabbling for purchase on a metal fire escape but Koki said it wasn't close enough and Maru had challenged his judgement. “When have you ever heard exactly that sound, anyway?”
Ueda rolled his eyes and turned up the radio. Everyone in the van perked up as they got slightly outside the city, everyone except Junno who was about as perky as could be.
“Where are we going?” Kame finally asked.
Jin pulled his headphones off, “Where are we going, anyway?”
“I just asked that.”
“Well excuse the hell out of me. Seriously, Taguchi, where?”
“Nowhere.”
Ueda looked alarmed. “What?”
Junno grinned, if possible, even harder. “Nowhere.”
Five bodies shifted uncomfortably.
“Ah, Junno-” Maru started as they rounded the top of a hill in a suburb of Tokyo and drove up next to a park.
“Ah! We're here.” He had the van parked and turned off and was climbing out while his bandmates just gaped. Junno walked around to the back of the van and opened the door to grab a bag and a small cooler that was stashed there out of sight. “Come on, guys!” he called over the seats and KA-TUN recovered themselves enough to get out of the van and follow Junno into the grassy area of the park.
They milled about while he set the cooler and bag down and took a seat on the grassy downslope overlooking the city. At noon on a Monday, the park was nearly deserted. There were a few moms with their kids over by the playground and a boy with a dog playing a ways off in the grass.
“Have a seat, guys.”
“Dude, what are we doing here?” Koki asked.
Junno smiled at each of them in turn. “Absolutely nothing.”
Maru eyed him suspiciously, “Wait, really?”
“Yep.”
“Sweet!” Koki shouted and fell to the ground spreading out in his best impression of a starfish.
“Nice,” Maru added and sat next to Koki, leaning back on his hands and breathing in the fresh air.
For lack of direction, the other three sat between Junno and Maru forming a rough semicircle on the soft green grass.
“Okay, let me get this straight,” Kame sighed, “you rearranged our schedules, which must have been extremely inconvenient for our management, and you didn't make any plans?”
Jin cocked his head, “How did you do that anyway?”
“How did I do what? Get the managers to rearrange our schedules? I have my methods.” Junno's grin turned, what he thought was mysterious, but actually better resembled maniacal.
Ueda, who was sitting nearest to him, pulled back a little. “And the van and the cooler?”
“Oh, I just asked. The production assistants like me.”
“They don't like me,” Jin pouted.
“I don't give them any trouble,” Junno explained.
“I don't give them-” but Jin didn't finish his statement when faced with five sets of raised eyebrows.
“Anyway, I did make plans. I planned to come here.”
“And do nothing?!” Kame just wasn't getting it.
Maru decided it was best to ignore him. “What's in the cooler?”
“Ice cream and beers! I, um, I hope the ice cream's not too melty. It's been packed in ice, though.” Junno dug into the cooler and pulled out individual cups of ice cream, walking around and handing each person a cup and a spoon and a beer.
“It's been a while since we all had ice cream together. I hope the flavors are okay. Vanilla for Koki and Jin. Maru, they didn't have mango I asked for papaya, is that okay?”
“Sure” Maru accepted his cup with a pleasantly surprised smile.
“Chocolate for Tat-chan.” Ueda grinned widely. He almost never ordered chocolate things, but he secretly loved them.
Junno continued, “And Kame, I'm sorry. I know the ice cream you like is green and citrusy, but the only citrus one they could find was lemon, is that okay?”
“That's fine. Thank you.” He accepted his ice cream and beer. “I really don't think we should be drinking, though. We have to go back to work.”
“Oh shut up.” Jin scoffed and cracked Kame's beer open for him.
“Kiss my ass.”
Jin smiled sweetly and sipped his beer before retorting, “Which part do you want me to kiss? All of you is an ass.”
Kame only sneered back and quietly ate his ice cream and drank his beer.
A few minutes passed with them enjoying the sounds of the park and the warm sunshine and surprisingly not giving each other a hard time, but that was possibly only because they were all busy eating and drinking and not talking.
Junno sipped his coke, he was driving after all, surveyed their group, and congratulated himself. “Maa, this is nice, isn't it?”
Jin nodded, “It doesn't suck.”
“Are you kidding? This is great. Thanks, Junno.”
Junno thought about how Koki could be a really nice guy when the cameras weren't on him and he was being himself.
Maru interrupted his reverie. “This is nice, Junno but I don't think we really want to sit around here and do nothing for two and a half hours.”
“I brought a frisbee.” Junno fished it out of his bag and tossed it to Koki who caught it with aplomb and dragged Maru out into the grass to toss it back and forth until one of Maru's tosses banked wide and hit Jin square in the chest.
“Oof You guys clearly need me to show you how it's done.” Jin hopped up to join them.
That left Ueda sitting on the grass between beatifically smiling Junno and irritated, finger-tapping Kame. “Okay, Junno. What's going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why'd you do all of this?”
“That's it?” Kame butt in.
“Yep. We've been cooped up inside all day, everyday since we started the Dome run. It started to get nice out and we were missing it. Now we've scheduled a bunch of shows in the next couple of weeks. I just wanted us to get out and have a little bit of summer before we missed it completely.” Junno shrugged.
Just then Jin called over complaining that two-on-one wasn't fair and declared that since it was Junno's day it was his responsibility to save Jin from Tanakamaru's questionable frisbee skills. Junno wasn't one to turn down an invitation for a game, so he jumped up leaving Ueda to deal with grumbling Kame.
“We really should be working. I have about fifteen things I could be doing right now.” Kame looked over at Ueda hoping to get some sort of affirmation from him but Ueda was busy laughing at the four others acting like idiots. “What are you so happy about?”
“This is nice. I'm having a good time.” Ueda positively sparkled with his toothy grin.
“Seriously, you're enjoying group-bonding time that much? I think you're taking this 'being more like NewS' thing a little too seriously.”
Ueda reached over and smoothed his fingers through Kame's hair. “Kazuya,” Ueda said in his rare, but effective, I'm-your-leader-and-now-you're-going-to-listen-to-me voice, “You have completely missed the point. Two things. One: Junno gave us a gift of four hours in which we don't have to do anything. How long has it been since you had that? Weeks? Don't be so ungrateful. Two: It's his day. He wants you to do nothing. You may not want to, but you must. Get the fuck over it already. You need to learn to relax, Kame.” He kept threading his fingers through Kame's hair until he stopped his incessant finger tapping.
Their reprieve didn't last very long at all. Eventually they had to pack back into their van and go back to work, but on the way back, Junno looked over his bandmates in the rear-view mirror. Koki and Maru were napping in the backseat. Jin was back in his own world with his headphones on. Ueda was fiddling with the radio again.
You might not have known they'd even been out except that Kame, again with his face buried in a script, was absently humming Natsu no Basho. Junno didn't think he even realized he was doing it, but he thought that was the mark of a successful trip.