Work Text:
“If I had a girlfriend, it’s probably better that I only see her once a week! I want more of my own private time!”
Meguro Ren’s mind wanders back to when a particular somebody made such a bold statement during an interview. Then stares back down at his phone where an open text message conversation is glaring up at him on the screen.
“For the love of all things good, PLEASE find some time and take this obnoxiously clingy human back. I’ve seen him five times in two weeks. At this point, I might as well be his boyfriend instead.”
He hardly ever talks to Senga-senpai. Hell, he wasn’t even sure Senga had his number. But if senpai was willing to raid someone’s phone, take down his contact and summon him to retrieve his boyfriend, he’s pretty sure he’s in for hell if he doesn’t oblige.
Meguro quickly taps out a response before he hears the assistant director call for him to stand by and rushes back onto set.
“Thank you for watching out for him. Sorry to have him bother you, senpai. I’ll talk to Shoppi after work.”
- - -
When Meguro finally gets home, it’s 2am in the morning and he’s just spent what feels like half his life span shaking, sobbing and hand-signing his way through the last 14 hours of filming. He’s barely able to extricate himself from Sakura Sou before tripping over a pair of haphazardly abandoned sandals in the genkan and remembering his commitment to Senga earlier.
In fact, it wasn’t just Senga. Directly or indirectly, he’s already heard from Fuma-kun, Juri-kun and Koji that Shota has been calling them up for hangouts. He hasn’t exactly expressed loneliness to Meguro directly. Watanabe Shota is also an idol after all. Acting, interviews, press conferences and promotional tours are all part of the job. But Meguro knows him well enough to know that extended time apart bothers Shota, despite what he may proclaim otherwise, and if he has to hold it all in, sooner or later, Shota will project that energy onto his close friends. And judging by his own schedule the last four months, Meguro is willing to bet that Shota’s depressed, negative energy has already started seeping out.
Meguro sighs and makes his way through the apartment, ruffling a sleeping Moko-chan on the way. Moko-chan wakes briefly and as any loyal pup would do, nudges Meguro’s foot and points her nose towards the bedroom door that’s shut, makes a soft growl and lies back down.
Ren, he’s in the room and doing that emo thing again. Enter at your own risk.
Clearly, Moko-chan has decided sleeping on the couch was a safer bet than in the room. With a deep breath, he turns the door knob and pads into the room. The lights are dim, but Shota is still awake, a bit expressionless, in bed and scrolling TikTok as always.
“I’m home.”
“Welcome back. How was filming?”
Shota’s eyes never leave the phone. His voice doesn’t betray the idle loneliness that seems to be plaguing him (or so was relayed to Meguro by various third parties). His thumb continues to brush the screen and obnoxious sounds continue to blare from the device.
“Alright. Just more crying scenes. I’m sure by the end of this, my tear ducts might never function as normal ever again.”
Watanbe nods absently, but pays no further attention. Knowing that hearing about the projects that keep them apart is probably the last thing Shota wants to do, Meguro makes no further remarks and instead climbs into bed. As expected, Watanabe finally reacts with vitality, wrinkling his nose and flapping his arms in a shoo-ing motion.
“You haven’t showered! The sheets are clean!”
But despite the protests, when Meguro snuggles up against his side, Watanabe doesn’t resist and just settles gently against his chest. The phone is finally abandoned in the folds of the blanket.
“Shoppi’s hugs are the best.” Meguro whispers. He knows he’ll always have to be the first to say something between the two.
“Quit being a sap.” but Meguro can feel someone’s mouth contort into a smile against his chest. Some progress has been made in warming up the cinnamonroll in his arms.
“Filming wraps up soon…” he starts, toying with the soft hair that brushes against his chin.
“Yeah, but then you have promotions for your movies…”
“But after that. After the movie premieres, after kouhaku, after countdown…” he pulls back a little and nudges Shota to look at him.
“How about we take a trip?”
“What?”
“Yeah! We’ll eat delicious food and go on a road trip. Get away from the hubbub of the city.”
“You’re kidding…”
“I know I haven’t been around much and you've always said that you wanted to go see Mount Fuji…”
“You’ll really have time?”
“Three whole days after new years. No work. Just you and me. MemeNabe time.”
“That’s too much time just with you. I have friends to see and new years greetings to go give. And SixTONES’ concert. I have to go!” Still playing hard to get, Watanabe starts rattling off all these other things that he planned on doing. In reality, these were all things he was lining up to do if Meme wasn’t able to spend the new year with him, but if Meme were free, he’d drop them all in a heartbeat.
“You’ve seen them enough, right? Plus, don’t you miss me?” Meme mischievously bumps his nose against Shoppi’s cheek. “I’ve been told you have.”
Shota splutters indignantly. He’s Watanabe Shota afterall. He doesn’t need attention. If anyone needs attention, it’s Meguro. The man hasn’t been sleeping much. He’s clearly lost weight. AND! His eyebags! Oh, his eyebags are really catching up on him. Meguro clearly needs the attention. And by a beauty professional. It just so happens that Shota is a pro at these things. He’ll graciously sacrifice some time to help him. Meguro just needs to ask. No need to push the narrative onto him!
Shota sits upright, ready to defend his pride exactly as it played out in his head, but Meguro doesn’t give him a chance as he pulls him back into his arms. Eyes crinkled in mirth, he hugs Shota gently and says “I’ve missed you too.”
They stay in silence for a few minutes as Meme rocks Shoppi gently in a hug. In a quiet voice, Shoppi finally asks: “What time do you have to be at work tomorrow?”
“Our manager will come get me around 7…”
A small whine escapes Shoppi’s mouth as he tries to wriggle out of Meme’s arms.
“Your alarm is going to wake me again! Ahhh, you go sleep on the couch!”
“But then I’ll be cold and won’t sleep well. Don’t you want me to be well rested? I need Shoppi to recharge!” Meme knows the weapons at his disposal and wasn’t afraid to leverage them. He grasps onto Shoppi more tightly, staring at him with watery, puppy-dog eyes. He knew better than to look, but almost unconsciously, Shoppi glances upwards and immediately groans in defeat.
Turning them over, Meme looks down at the exasperated, blushing Shoppi tucked between the pillows and his arms and smiles. He knows he's won. His Shoppi, ever the tsun-tsun, has finally melted under his attack. He leans down and gently presses a kiss onto the thin lips beneath him.
Shoppi may need his presence more than he lets on, but Meme too also needs Shoppi to have motivation to do his best the next day. He wasn’t lying when he said he needed Shota in order to recharge.
“So 7 you said…?”
“Yep, almost five whole hours.” and with a deft turn of his wrist, Meguro switches off the lamp in the room. The last thing Shoppi sees before the lights flicker off is the view of Meme’s playful smile closing in on him, just as he closes his eyes.