Work Text:
jiro: hey are u by chance still awake?
It was 10 PM when Jiro sent the message. A yawn escaped his mouth as his eyes teared up. Usually, he’d be doing something else at this hour, but English homework was tedious today and by no means it was a good idea to clock in without finishing it. He would’ve, though, if it wasn’t due tomorrow.
He hand idly twirled his pen around, awaiting an answer from the receiver of the message, his boyfriend who he cherishes in Nagoya. For now, he set his phone aside and looked back to his work. There were still about ten questions to go. “Alright,” Jiro straightened his back. His hand reached for the drink set at the edge of his table and freshened up.
An attention catching notification sound caused Jiro to turn his head towards his phone (after a while of Jiro drawing soccer balls on a piece of paper instead of his homework). The sound of a bell; usually it was a whistle. He knew what the bell meant, of course, thus swiftly grabbed his phone with enthusiasm.
One notification alone could create a smile on Jiro’s face. It was a simple answer from the other side:
jyushi <3: i am !!!! sorry for the late response
And then another came right after, right before Jiro could open the message.
jyushi <3: do u need help with smthn???
Jiro stood up and rushed to grab his earphones set aside on his bed. He plopped back down to his seat, inhaling a deep breath, and finally opening the message.
jiro: wanna call? english homework struggles
He waited.
jyushi <3: oh !
jyushi<3: give me a sec
Again, he waited. He's quite the patient guy, after all.
jyushi <3: ok ready ^^
Jiro's face immediately beamed up. He plugged his earphones in and hovered his hand over the call button. He pressed it, gleefully, allowing it to ring for a bit before it abruptly stopped.
"Hi Jiro," Jyushi's voice came from the other end. Just a little bit louder for a whisper. Maybe everyone's asleep over in Nagoya.
"Jyushi, hey," Jiro returned the greeting, just a little bit awkward. He hoped his voice could convey the smile he had on his face.
"How's the homework?" was what Jyushi asked before anything else. Then, he offered, "can I help with anything?"
Which was super sweet of him, sure, and Jiro finds himself grinning alone in the vicinity of his room like a total idiot. However, his motive wasn't to ask Jyushi for help with English. Jiro, truthfully, was pretty okay at the subject. Not the best, but he can work around it.
He just wanted to hear his voice so he doesn't drift off while doing homework. That's all. He's just a boyfriend missing his loved one.
"Nah, I'm good," he says with a dashing grin that Jyushi cannot see. "More importantly, I'm not bothering or anything, right?"
"Oh no! No. You're not," Jyushi answered.
"Okay, okay." Jiro returned to his work. "You can do your own thing too, by the way," he added quickly.
It went silent again between them, inevitably, with Jiro focusing on his homework and Jyushi doing whatever he's doing in his home. Despite them being silent, there was a constant rustle of the wind that swept into Jiro's room through the slightly opened window, and then the clock up on his wall ticking continuously; there was barely any noise from Jyushi's side. It felt tranquil, relaxing, yet lacking in some ways.
Jiro put his pen down. He began to randomly flip through his English textbook, trying to find something to talk about. What was a call if they were going to stay quiet the entire time, right? His lips pursed and his hand stopped.
“Jyushi,” Jiro broke the silence first. “Do you think I can finish this homework tomorrow at school?”
Jyushi was quiet. Maybe he’s thinking. “Yes,” he said, “but I think it’d be best if you could finish it tonight, Jiro,” was what he responded with, which left a sour impression on Jiro and his annoyed face.
Honestly he just wanted to spend the night listening to Jyushi’s voice. Screw English. Yes, tomorrow is Thursday, but what comes in Thursday arrives in Thursday. Today is Wednesday, and on Wednesday Jiro wants to listen to Jyushi's charming voice.
That’s right. Jiro closed his notebook and textbook all together and packed his stationery back into its case. He stood up from his chair and moved to his bed.
Jiro sat down, playing with a guitar pick in his hand that he swiftly snatched from the top of his desk. “Say, Jyushi,” he said while twirling the pick around his fingers. “Shall I play you something tonight?”
“That would be lovely of you, Jiro,” Jyushi said and Jiro could see the smile from his voice alone.
“However, I think you should finish that homework first.”
Jiro stopped his tracks. And he was just a little bit farther from his guitar too. He groaned, quite annoyed but, oh well. He’s gotten no other choice. Three questions and then he’ll play his guitar for Jyushi.
“Does my voice come out late over there?” Jiro asked.
“No, it’s fine. Why are you asking?” Jyushi pondered.
“No reason.” Jiro began working on his homework once again. Really, he just wanted to listen to Jyushi speak up, so he tried all sorts of ways to catch his attention.
Once again silence befell them. Great . Jiro, back to his unamusement, began to hurry with his work. He hopes his quick scratching of his pen tip against the paper isn’t audible to Jyushi or he’ll realize that Jiro was, in fact, rushing to laze around on his bed.
What surprised Jiro was how it was him who heard aggressive scratching against paper. Jiro stopped his hand, paying close attention to Jyushi’s side of the call. He thinks, for a second or two, with full concentration as he tries to decipher what on earth is Jyushi doing in Nagoya right now.
“What are you doing?” Jiro gave up and asked. Jyushi sounded really frustrated with something, mumbling and murmuring words Jiro could barely make out.
“Writing,” Jyushi admitted rather quickly. “The band wants to release a new song and I’m on lyrics duty… But nothing’s been sounding good enough…” There was a bit of a sob to his words.
“Do you need my help?” Jiro returned the words Jyushi had used earlier with a little smirk on his face. “Send me a picture of what you’ve written so far.”
Jyushi scrambled in place. Lots of clinking noises from his side. Jiro giggled just a little and began moving his books to his bed instead. He hopped on and made sure he was positioned as comfortably as possible before lying down on his stomach and letting his face fall on his bed. It was a nice feeling as he waited for Jyushi’s response.
“Um… well…” Jyushi's voice quivered. “I haven’t really figured out anything… I was doodling earlier… sorry I lied.”
“I want to see—” you, “—your drawing, Jyushi.”
By the sound, Jiro could guess Jyushi was trying to clean his table up. “Alright,” he could hear him say. A few seconds later, he received the notification.
It was a doodle of Amanda. It was really cute . It was so cute that Jiro chuckled, shifting his lying position to his back as a smile formed on his face. Beside the doodle of Amanda was—is that Jiro ?
As Jiro proceeded to prevent himself from throwing his phone across the room, he jumped up from his position, holding back his voice from escaping because ‘a mess’ is the only word that could describe the current him. Not only does Jyushi draw really adorably, he also drew Jiro.
Jiro doesn't introspect himself often. He only does it when someone tells him to, or when he feels a little down. Yet right now, he was dashing to find a nearby mirror and raised the picture of the drawn out Yamada Jiro right beside him. The drawing was really cute and apparently doesn’t really look much like him.
Ichiro once told him that you see things—people, especially—differently when you love them.
He thinks he looks like a total idiot at the moment, grinning and smiling like a happy child who was given candy after working hard at their schoolwork. It felt like he’s experiencing his first love all over again. Jiro absolutely loathes (not. He’s thankful) Ichiro for telling him that, because now he looks so helpless on his bedroom floor, trying not to make any weird sounds. He looked at the caller on his phone and smiled to himself.
“It’s really cute, Jyushi,” he said simply. “I love how you drew Amanda.”
“What about the little drawing of you?” Jyushi asked, a little bit bashful as a small laugh escaped his mouth.
With a gentle chuckle in an attempt to subdue any sort of odd way of responding, Jiro replied, “it’s super nice. I like my hair here.”
Jiro hears Jyushi’s happy little laugh and thinks, God , he really should return to his English homework. Unfortunately, all the will to do it pretty much got thrown out the window along with his last remaining sense of sanity because all he wishes to do right now is run—maybe bike. It’s easier than walking for sure—all the way to Nagoya to give Jyushi a kiss and throw himself all over him in the warmest hug he can muster.
Call him cheesy but he really loves this guy, and he’ll love him till the end of the world. To the moon and back. All of him.
Jiro jumped back to his bed, still grinning like someone Saburo would call a ‘hopeless fool’ (not that he really cares at the moment) while twirling his pen in his hand. It'll make him feel cool, and hopefully that'll make him return to the ground.
A small giggle can be heard from the other end, followed by a short, "I'm glad." And Jiro thought he might be growing closer to being crazy because there is absolutely no way he just saw Jyushi's smile. The clock showed that it was only a little past the half past ten mark, which was strange because Jiro swore it should be half past eleven by now.
His homework was nowhere close to finished, too. But there really isn't a time where he can slip in some English words that came across his head into his notebook when all he can think of is Aimono "14th Moon" Jyushi and all there is to him. Jiro sighs out, sinking into his bed as his eyelids close peacefully. There are approximately three things running through his head, two being more prominent in taking over his thoughts and the other one being his set aside English homework. He thought next about which of his friends would have it done by tomorrow so he could quickly copy before the class starts.
Jiro's leg kicked the air, he himself not understanding whatever on Earth is up with him. Jyushi would probably laugh at him if he saw how dumb he looks right now. Personally, that wouldn’t be much of a problem to Jiro, because seeing the sight of Jyushi’s smiling face is worth the embarrassment, but for now he’ll settle with other things.
Jiro flipped his body so that once again he rested on his stomach. “Jyushi, can you draw yourself right next to Amanda,” he requested.
“Huh?” Jyushi paused. “Sure, but, what for?”
“It’ll look cuter, I promise.”
Jyushi agreed easily after that. Silence befell upon them; only small murmuring from Jyushi’s end could be heard as each focused on their own things. Jiro was back to his homework (miraculously), waiting for Jyushi to finish his doodle. He doesn’t remember when Jyushi began to enjoy drawing. His drawings weren’t even the serious illustrations type; they’re just small, cute doodles anyone could do during classes to pass time. Sure, Jiro thinks they’re cute. He appreciates it whenever Jyushi snaps a picture and sends a drawing of Amanda, or a cat he saw while walking, or a cake he ate that day.
He appreciates Jyushi for being able to smile now. All on his own, for himself first and foremost.
“Okay,” Jyushi’s voice suddenly stopped Jiro’s train of thoughts and hand from writing. “Let me send a pic.”
A notification appeared and Jiro tapped on it quickly. Jyushi certainly drew himself right on the other empty side beside Amanda.
“Do you think I can go to Nagoya right now and ask you for this drawing? I kind of want it on my wall now,” Jiro’s words surprisingly rolled off his tongue quite easily (it shocked him, really).
“Please do not do that! It’s late, Jiro…” Jyushi paused. “Maybe… during the weekends… if you’re not busy with your part-time job. I’ll hold onto this for you.”
Jiro’s jaw dropped. He blinked rapidly. This boy is going to be the death of him.
“Jiro?” a worried Jyushi called out, which snapped Jiro back into place. He cleared his throat in a rather boisterous way.
“Yes, my moon ?”
“W-wha—huh?!”
Well, it’s not like Jiro understood what he said just now either. It was the night to be blamed, not him. After all, this is a regular, common occurrence to most people. As far as he knows. Pet names are definitely a common thing. He's heard his brother say it once to the monk from the same group as Jyushi, and that damned cop from Yokohama as well—unwillingly—towards that guy with the military get-up. He’s a bit embarrassed to realize that he also used a pet name now, but it'll be fine. Yeah.
Then, why has Jyushi gone silent?
Jiro promptly shut his mouth. He waited for a reply of any sort from Jyushi. Unfortunately, Jyushi had gone completely silent and showed no signs of replying. The worried Jiro fumbled around his phone before clearing his throat right onto the microphone to break the silence.
"S-sorry…!" Jyushi chirped out with a squeaky voice. He cried, just a bit, something akin to a little whining. "It just… scared me that's all."
Jiro frowned. Not that Jyushi could see. "Was it bad… do you not like it…" he asked and crossed his arm.
"N-n-no…! It's… it's fine, Jiro," Jyushi reassured with a tint of flustered in his voice. "It just caught me a bit off guard, that's all."
Jiro didn't know that Jyushi nearly threw his pen and phone out to the other end of his room when he jumped up onto his bed. Even Amanda, who was enjoying herself on the bed, got flown up (thankfully she fell right back on the bed unharmed). Jiro could barely hear Jyushi’s mumbling.
“Are you sure? Do you feel under the weather or something?” Jiro asked.
“I’m fine!” Jyushi's response was a yelp. At least something akin to it, albeit the obvious awkward tint to it.
“Tell me if you’re not feeling well, ‘kay? I’ll run over to your place,” Jiro declared in a sing-song voice.
“Jiro, I live in Nagoya.”
“Well then how about you start living in Ikebukuro! The Yamada household has room for one more Yamada!”
Jyushi chuckled. “I’m Aimono,” he said, which made Jiro frown.
“Not when I—”
“Okay! I think I’ve got an idea on what to write!”
Jiro hears scrambling once again from Jyushi’s side, this time just a bit more rough, like someone frantic. He’s probably searching for his notebook. Jiro began to think of what exactly did Jyushi manage to think of because he sounded really eager to write it down.
He can hear pen scratching following right after, but Jiro noticed how it sounded really anxious and rushed. He sat there, bemusing to himself before suddenly jolting up and rushing to his laptop. It flicked on with a press of a button, and once everything loaded in Jiro moved towards the browser. He searched up something on the web and beamed when it appeared on his screen. He clicked on it, fast, and sat in front of his laptop endearingly close.
"Jyushi, can you hear the song?!" he yelled, clearly out of his mind because the clock was currently showing that it was just five minutes past eleven.
It was Jyushi's favorite song from a band he once introduced to Jiro. a nice, old visual kei band song rather than a brand-new single. Jyushi said that the reason he loved this song was because it was the one that got him into the world of visual kei in the first place. It meant a lot to him, and Jiro was aware of this.
"Y-yeah," Jyushi answered.
"I can't sing it, so can you do it instead…?" This time Jiro's voice was sweet—a gentle whisper that entered Jyushi's ear politely. On the other side, Jyushi smiled meekly, hiding his face in his hands and leaning back into his bed.
"It's late at night, Jiro," Jyushi said.
"Oh, are you tired? We can cut the call—"
Jyushi began to sing, at first in a rush to prevent Jiro from cutting the call off, making Jiro stand on his bed still and silent. He smiled to himself, with a smile of an idiot, his face melting into a stupid puddle.
As he immersed himself in his boyfriend’s amazing voice, Jiro ended up slipping on one of his steps, thus completely missing his own bed, and with a thud followed by a loud “fuck!” that slipped out rather easily, Jiro found himself on the floor of his room.
“A-are you okay?!” Jyushi, who heard and had stopped his singing, rushed to ask for Jiro’s condition. “That was really loud…”
Jiro groaned. He was lucky he fell on his back and spared most of the pain from rushing towards his head, but that didn’t completely dissolve the throbbing pain in his head. His vision spun in a slower motion, and for whatever reason he thought he was riding on a merry-go-round horse.
His bedroom door opened and from it was Ichiro, peering in just a bit to see what his brother was up to. “Jiro?” he called with worry in his voice, “did you fall?”
“Ah, yeah,” Jiro said, rubbing the back of his head as he sat back up. “The hell…”
“Well, it’s getting late. Finish up your homework and go to bed—” Ichiro stared intensely at Jiro’s phone screen, “—are you calling someone right now?”
Jiro rushed to grab his phone. “Uh, yeah,” he said. “With Jyushi.”
“Oh,” Ichiro smiled, “right. Sorry to bother. Just don’t stay up too late, okay? Tell Jyushi I said hi.” Kindly, Ichiro shut the door and left without a sound. With only cicadas crying out through the night, silence slid itself between the two.
“Nii-chan says hi,” Jiro said, and he smiled to himself.
“Hello Ichiro-san,” is what Jyushi replied with, adding a small giggle of his own.
“He’s back to his room, I think.”
“Oh!” Jyushi coughed. “Um, is it cold over there?”
Jiro stood up and walked to the window in his room. He opened it, allowing a cool breeze to hit his face. The parted bangs he has flowed, landing right onto his eye, in which he instinctively grunted at.
“Nah, it’s not cold. It’s the cool summer night air instead,” he said, picking up the strand of hair away from his face. “And also annoying. It seems to hate my bangs?”
Jyushi broke into a repressed, muffled laughter (which Jiro found ridiculously cute) and let out a short sigh. “Stay warm, okay? You might get sick if you leave your window open,” Jyushi said.
“Gotcha.” Jiro shuffled back into his bed, plopping right onto it and allowed his face to be buried in his pillow. His legs kicked off the notebook and stationery off the bed as he flipped over. “It’ll be warmer if we’re cuddling though.”
“J-Jiro?!”
He snickered. But Jiro really meant what he said. He hopped off his bed one last time to turn the lights off before slipping under his blanket. Getting comfortable, he pulled his blanket over himself. He grunted, feeling something hitting his feet.
“The hell,” he mumbled when he found his eraser on his bed before kicking it to meet the rest of his stationery.
“What’s wrong?” Jyushi asked.
“Nothing, nothing.”
Silence. Again. And this was a warm silence, with only the breeze between them and the ticking of a clock’s hand.
Jiro’s glad he could spend a night like this with Jyushi, even if he was separated by distance.
“Jyushi,” Jiro called, slightly muffled and croaky. “I love you.”
Jyushi did not reply immediately. “What’s this about…” His voice was soft, like the wind.
“I just wanted to tell you that. I love you.”
Jiro could hear Jyushi’s breath. Ah, maybe he went a bit too far by saying it out of the blue, but there was no way he could contain his feelings any longer. Any more than this he’d might as well explode.
“You know, Jyushi,” he continued. “With each passing second I’m not with you, it makes me go crazy. I feel delirious. I just want to hold your hand, hug you, kiss you. I want to go on dates and make you smile—”
Jiro caught wind of sniffles. “Jyu…?”
“You’re not fair…” Jyushi meekly said. “You can’t just say those and not think about how I feel!”
Jiro did not reply.
“I love you too. I love you so so much. I w-want to bring you to my concert and have you watch from the crowd with Amanda so I can look at both of you and impress you—” Jyushi sobbed, “—and I want to run backstage to see you after the show a-and… k-kiss you too… You’re unfair, Jiro.”
“I love you more,” Jiro huffed. “Definitely.”
“Are we seriously going to have a childish debate over call…” Jyushi’s laugh passed through his words.
“It’s an important essence in dating, okay,” Jiro retorted. “When I get to meet you I’m going to hug you so much you’re going to get so sick of it.”
Jyushi cleared his throat. “I don’t think I’ll get sick of your hugs that easily.” And those words were the ones that melted Jiro all over again. He felt like his problems were lifted, and once again he felt like he had just fallen in love again. He felt as if his stomach had flipped and how the butterflies were roughly bumping around each other in their flight.
“I miss you,” he manages to whisper it out. Barely.
“Me too,” Jyushi replied. Sadder. “I miss you too.”
“Can you come to Nagoya soon?” Jyushi continued, and it made Jiro sit up in his bed out of shock. His jaw dropped in pure disbelief.
“If you’re inviting me this way then there’s absolutely no way I could wait any longer…” Jiro groaned. “Screw it, I’m coming over right now!”
Jyushi fumbled. “Y-you can’t?! Please come over some other date, okay,” Jyushi breathed out. “I can wait. For you, I’ll wait.”
Like the sun and the moon, they barely met. They barely touch. Jiro acknowledges this, and so does Jyushi. It hurts not being able to have fun together, spend idyllic days of their youth together doing all sorts of things, hand in hand. He doesn’t like it, and he’s sure Jyushi doesn’t either. He doesn’t like the sharp pain that hits him when he tries to envision Jyushi’s smile in his head and doesn’t get all of his features correctly because he barely sees him.
But somewhere deep in him, he thinks of this like a trial, like ones from fantasy games, and one day he’ll receive his reward—his moon, his happiness, and all the glory that comes with him.
Jiro closed his eyes. “Okay,” he gave in. In a quiet whisper he continued, “I’ll see you when the summer holiday hits, how about it?”
“Sounds like a date,” Jyushi affirmed. “Can’t wait. Should you go to sleep?”
“...don’t want to.”
He’s being selfish.
“You have school tomorrow, Jiro,” Jyushi reminded.
Please let me be selfish.
“Close your eyes and go to sleep, Jiro,” Jyushi whispered. “I’ll stay on the call until you doze off.”
Jiro bit his pillow in disappointment, but let go rather quickly with a short sigh of acceptance. Jyushi hummed him a tune, and gradually, Jiro could feel his muscles relax and his eyes heavier to open. He notes how much of a wonderful singer his boyfriend is and began to get lost in his thoughts. One day he’ll have the chance to hear this all day long. Some day.
“Goodnight, Jyushi…” Jiro said on the verge of sleep. “I love you.”
Jyushi huffed a chuckle. “I love you too.”