Work Text:
“You sure you don’t want any, Meru?”
“For the last time, HiMERU didn’t come here to ‘take a hit off your pen’ or whatever mode you two prefer to kill brain cells.”
“Alright damn, no need to get ornery about it. If you change your mind lemme know,” Rinne took back his vape, gnawing on the toothpick he’d snatched from the kitchen.
“HiMERU is not ornery.”
“Uh huh,” Rinne slouched over and went back to work on the combination puzzle he’d been messing with for the past 20 minutes.
They were both lazing around the living room table in Niki’s apartment. HiMERU was alternating between watching Niki’s back as he prepared… something, he wasn’t entirely sure what yet, and Rinne as he fiddled with what looked like the most convoluted Rubik’s cube HiMERU had ever seen. It was less of a cube and more of a dodecahedron. He was so incredibly bad at getting the colored panels to line up that HiMERU was tempted to snatch it away and give it a try, but he resisted the temptation.
“You know, maybe you’d be less ornery if you tried it before knocking it!” Niki chirped unhelpfully over his shoulder from his spot in the kitchen. “You seem tense. Who knows, it might help with that.”
“I said I’m not — ugh,” HiMERU paused, refusing to acknowledge the slight twitch of Rinne’s mouth at his slip-up. “It’s not that. HiMERU is just impatient to get to the budgetary part of this supposed budgetary meeting.”
It had been a few weeks following the premier of the game show that Crazy:B had filmed in Ibara’s weird labyrinth. Well, HiMERU supposed it wasn’t Ibara’s labyrinth per se, she had just gotten lucky in finding a location that was perfect for what she had planned. Although he couldn’t say with certainty that she wouldn’t have constructed a subterranean maze full of Saw traps had the opportunity presented itself.
Either way, the program ended up getting extraordinarily positive reception and in doing so had gotten their unit a hefty bonus sum of money this quarter. Rinne had called an impromptu budgetary meeting that week so they could go over the numbers and figure out where they wanted to go from there.
HiMERU admitted it was rare for Rinne to be so diplomatic regarding their finances. Typically he’d divy it up himself and omit the finer details, but perhaps he was feeling generous for once. However, the longer HiMERU spent loafing about and waiting for this meeting to start, the more suspicious he became of its legitimacy. Especially since Kohaku wasn’t coming.
“Be honest, did you actually call this meeting to discuss finances or are you just wasting our time as usual?” HiMERU eventually asked.
“Dunno. We can talk shop if you want, but honestly I just needed an excuse for you to take a load off and hang with us outside of work for once.” Rinne grinned around his toothpick, eyes not leaving his puzzle as he continued. “Unfortunately, the only thing that piques your interest is work, so forgive me for stretching the truth a little.”
HiMERU gave a weary sigh but didn’t immediately get up and walk out like part of him wanted to. Okay, admittedly he’d been a little reclusive following the release of their game show. Sue him for wanting to keep a somewhat low profile after revealing a bit more underneath the mask than he’d anticipated. He wasn’t one to shy away from attention, but breaking down the boundary between himself and his persona was a problem. He needed to remind people how untouchable HiMERU was. He represented an ideal, and that was exactly what people wanted to see, wasn’t it?
In true Niki fashion, he somehow figured out exactly what was running through HiMERU’s mind. “We won’t keep you here if you don’t wanna stay. This wasn’t my idea, but I’ll never turn down the opportunity to cook for a friend.”
“Hey, do I not count?”
“Rinne you live here, you get free food all the time. Quit acting like you’re starving.”
“But I’m starved for loooove…”
Niki scoffed, returning to whatever he was preparing. “Anyway it’s your choice. Feel free to stay or not, whichever floats your boat.”
HiMERU wasn’t opposed to staying, although so far they’d just been sitting and watching Niki cook. Or at least HiMERU was watching, Rinne had been alternating between taking the occasional drag on his vape and failing to make any significant progress with his puzzle, much to HiMERU’s frustration.
“So,” HiMERU cleared his throat. “Did you two have anything specific planned, or…?”
Niki lit up, turning around. “Ah, so you’re staying? Okay awesome, these are almost ready.”
“What are you making?” HiMERU craned his neck in an attempt to get a look.
“Cookies!”
“Edibles,” Rinne corrected. “Wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea and eat a bunch in a row. Kohaku did that once.”
HiMERU suddenly understood why Kohaku had opted out of their meeting this afternoon; Rinne must have spoken to him outside the group chat. “When on earth did that happen?” he asked.
“Like a month ago,” Rinne replied. “He saw Niki eating a couple, so he assumed they were just regular cookies and ended up regretting it.”
“You didn’t tell him?” HiMERU asked incredulously.
“I didn’t have the chance!” Niki pulled a tray out of the oven and a delicious smell wafted throughout the apartment. He took off his oven mitts and set a timer, coming back into the living room. “I was gonna tell him as soon as they were cool, but he must’ve been hungry. Well, so was I, but it takes at least three of those for me to feel anything so it’s not really the same.”
“Jesus,” muttered HiMERU.
“Yeah Niki’s tolerance is pretty fucked but I’m sure that doesn’t come as a surprise.”
“You’re one to talk, Rinne,” Niki scoffed. “With how much you and your roommates smoke it’s a wonder anyone comes over.”
Rinne groaned in a way that told HiMERU they’d had this argument many times before. “We only do that cause you don’t let us do it here!”
“Yeah cause this is my house,” Niki said pointedly. “My name’s on the lease, so what I say goes.”
“So’s mine,” Rinne muttered.
“Breadwinner makes the rules,” Niki said matter-of-factly. “If your night job starts paying you more than me we’ll talk about it, but until then no smoking in the apartment.”
HiMERU gestured to Rinne's pen. “What about that?”
“Vaping doesn’t count,” Rinne said, twirling the pen. “You don’t really smell it as much. Plus you can adjust the heat so that it doesn’t make you cough — unless you’re built different like me and don’t cough either way.”
“He’s lying, he coughs as much as anybody.”
“Nobody asked, Niki.”
HiMERU hummed, thinking. He’d cleared out his evening for their meeting that never was, so what was the worst that could happen? It’s not like going home and doing fuck all there would be a better use of his time. Both of his roommates were out for the weekend as far as he knew, so he could either spend the rest of his Friday night watching K-dramas by himself or possibly, maybe, getting stoned with his unitmates. He weighed his options.
Rinne and Niki continued bickering while HiMERU zoned out, used to the noise.
“I’m saying that most people don’t really smell it unless they’re like, shotgunning it or something. It’s not my fault you have the nose of a bloodhound —”
“Could HiMERU see that?” HiMERU interrupted, nodding at Rinne’s pen.
Rinne blinked. “Sure thing.”
Rinne and Niki watched him, argument entirely forgotten as HiMERU inspected the little device in his hand. He turned it around and pointed at the small button near the top. “Does this control the temperature?”
“That turns it on, yeah,” Rinne replied. “You gonna try it?”
“Hm, maybe,” HiMERU mused, weighing it in his hands. “Does it have any kind of flavor?”
Rinne snorted. “Yeah, weed flavor.”
“It’s honestly not bad, you probably won’t taste much of anything,” Niki added.
It didn’t sound too terrible, really. HiMERU had never touched the stuff but he supposed there was a first time for everything. Fuck it, why not, it’s not like he had to be anywhere else tonight. Plus he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t felt a little high-strung lately.
“So, um, how should HiMERU do this?”
Rinne looked like he’d just won the jackpot.
“Okay, first things first lemme turn down the heat before you use it,” he briefly took the pen and tapped the control button a few times in succession before handing it back. “That should make it easier. Just press and hold this and inhale through here, easy peasy.”
HiMERU took the plunge, immediately realizing he wasn’t sure how long to hold it in for. It wasn’t really irritating his lungs or anything so he gave it a good few seconds before exhaling, coughing once or twice but otherwise feeling perfectly fine.
Niki actually had the gall to applaud him. Rinne snorted. “Holding it in doesn’t do anything, Meru,” he grinned. “But hey, good on ya! Congrats on doing your very first weed. I’m proud to be your bad influence for this milestone.”
“Is the effect supposed to be immediate?” HiMERU asked.
“Nah, give it like five minutes or so.”
HiMERU hummed and handed back the vape, not entirely displeased with it. All he could do now was wait.
It was then the kitchen timer chose to go off, ringing loudly. “Oh, they’re done cooling!” Niki noted, getting up to turn it off.
“Sweet,” Rinne said, leaning back and taking another drag. “I won’t have any this time around, but be sure to set some aside for later.”
“Well yeah, of course. My tolerance might be screwed up, but even I can’t handle eating all of these in one sitting.”
“It’d be funny if you did though.”
Niki snorted. “Yeah, funny for you, maybe.” He put the majority of the batch in a container and returned to the table with three cookies on a plate. They looked delicious (of course they were, Niki made them) and didn’t smell or appear any different than regular cookies as far as HiMERU could tell.
“They look fairly normal, I can see why Kohaku was none the wiser,” HiMERU remarked, eyeing the treats. “What part of them makes them edibles?”
“The butter,” Niki answered, taking a bite. “I have a friend that runs a dispensary on the other side of town. She infuses it with her own THC oil. Great stuff — doesn’t taste much different than regular butter and I get a friends and family discount,” he said smugly, punctuating his sentence with another bite.
Maybe it was the fact that the high was beginning to register, but HiMERU was suddenly very interested in these cookies. They just looked so good. Well, to be fair anything that Niki had even a slight hand in making looked good, but still. These looked exceptionally good.
Niki noticed the way that HiMERU eyed the cookie in his hand. He cleared his throat with a pinch of concern. “You alright?”
“Yes,” answered HiMERU, unblinking. “They just look really good.”
“Begging for table scraps now?” Rinne teased. “Wouldn’t recommend double dipping though, it can really fuck you up your first time.”
HiMERU squinted, not entirely convinced that the momentary satisfaction of eating one of Niki’s freshly baked cookies wasn’t worth getting a little higher than he originally planned. Or maybe a lot higher, he wasn’t entirely sure how this worked. He hadn’t even really planned on getting high in the first place, so he was sort of operating on a “when in Rome'' mindset.
“A little shouldn’t hurt as long as he’s with us,” Niki mused. “Plus they take a while to work. If you’re lucky you might come down from the vape right when this starts to kick in.”
Words weren’t really coming easily to HiMERU, so he nodded amicably. Rinne rolled his eyes. “Whatever, you’re the weed expert so it’s your call. But don’t complain when he starts seeing spiders or some shit.”
HiMERU blinked slowly. Wait, what? Spiders? Was that a thing that could happen?
“Don’t say that, you’ll scare him!” Niki scolded. “Don’t worry, you won’t see spiders. Probably. If I do my job right, anyway.”
That was… reassuring, he supposed?
HiMERU watched Niki as he eyeballed one of the cookies and pulled off a small but measured chunk. “Okay, each of these cookies is around 50 milligrams, so this should be close to 10. But either way you should be able to handle it.”
“HiMERU isn’t entirely sure what that means, but he’s choosing to trust you.”
Niki laughed, sliding the tiny portion of cookie across to HiMERU. “No worries, Rinne’s first time was really similar and he was totally fine.”
“You slowly corrupting me into a stoner is one of your crowning achievements, I gotta admit.”
“You’re welcome,” Niki preened.
HiMERU ate the morsel that Niki offered, pleased that it tasted just as good as it looked, if not better. He fully expected some kind of weird aftertaste or something, but no. Niki’s edible recipe was as close to perfection as it could get.
It also made HiMERU aware of how weirdly hungry he was getting.
His thoughts were interrupted by a ding from Rinne’s phone; Rinne paused his futile efforts to solve his combination puzzle and checked it. His eyebrows shot up and he immediately dropped what he was doing, getting up from the table.
“What’s up?” Niki asked.
“I totally forgot the WPT tournament was tonight,” he said. “This is the first time they’re holding it in Japan, so this is my only chance to backseat the fuck out of these guys.”
HiMERU looked at Niki, as he only understood about half of whatever Rinne was talking about.
“World Poker Tour,” Niki supplied. “Japan’s gambling laws are getting more lax so they’re holding the championship in Tokyo this year. You have no idea how often Rinne gets high just to watch poker tournaments, it’s kind of insane.”
“It makes me better at it,” Rinne piped up, flipping through the TV guide.
“No it doesn’t, if anything it makes you worse at it,” Niki retorted.
“So we’re just going to sit here and watch poker all night?” HiMERU asked.
“No, Rinne’s going to sit here and watch poker all night. We can do whatever we want.”
“Hm, alright.” HiMERU took this opportunity to snatch up Rinne’s abandoned puzzle, eager to finally take a crack at it.
After finishing his cookies, Niki headed back into the kitchen to raid his snack stash. “You guys are free to have anything in here, by the way,” Niki said, pointing to one of the lower cupboards. HiMERU grunted; Rinne did a thumbs up, still focused on the tournament.
About an hour later HiMERU was definitely feeling the effects. He’d asked Niki earlier and apparently it took about two hours to peak, so he wasn’t even as high as he was going to get quite yet. Part of that scared him, but at the same time it kind of excited him. As weird as it was, he was beginning to understand why people did this. Everything felt kind of floaty and pleasant, like nothing in the world could bother him. Sensations felt more… sensation-y? Intense? He wasn’t sure how else to describe it. He was taking in everything that was happening yet retained none of it, and for some reason that didn’t bother him in the slightest.
Niki and HiMERU moved to the sofa after getting a little too engrossed in Rinne’s color commentary about the tournament. For someone who seemed to have a selective memory, Rinne’s brain was an encyclopedia for this sort of thing. He had all sorts of facts and tidbits about the game and the players at the ready, just enough to keep them interested in what was happening.
HiMERU had a decent knowledge of poker, or of the basics at least. Niki only knew how to play Texas hold 'em and claimed he was very bad at it. He said he’d never won a match against Rinne, but to be fair the only people HiMERU knew who could kick Rinne’s ass in poker were the Aoi twins, so he wasn’t sure how accurate of a metric that was.
“Wait, so are we actually supposed to be rooting for anyone here?” asked Niki, watching as one of the players went all in.
“Oh hell no, dude. Half of these people are hedge fund managers or something similar. Finance bros, whatever you wanna call ‘em,” Rinne said. “They’re all uber rich and have nothing better to do with their time than buy into these tournaments and fly around to the most ritzy casinos in the world just to bet other people’s money.”
“In that case, why even watch?” HiMERU wondered. He’d solved his combination puzzle over half an hour ago and was now sitting on the floor, using Niki’s sofa as a backrest.
“Cause knowing that, it feels even better to watch them lose.” Rinne’s teeth showed through his grin, reflecting the glare of the TV in a way that was kind of unnerving. “Every time I see some poor elitist sucker fumble 40 million yen on a single game it brings a tear to my eye.”
“Careful Rinne, your anti-capitalism is showing,” Niki said through a mouthful of popcorn.
“Good. If I was there I’d wipe the floor with them, luck be damned. "Poker isn’t a game of skill," my ass.”
Niki swallowed and hummed thoughtfully. “If I was there I’d eat one of the poker chips every round and see how long it took for people to start noticing.”
HiMERU gave what might have been the stupidest, most embarrassing laugh ever. Niki grinned down at him from his spot on the sofa. “Hey, I actually got HiMERU with that one! I would eat them though. They look yummy.”
“They’re plastic,” HiMERU tried and failed to regain his composure, not entirely sure why he was still laughing.
“Yeah and? I’ve probably eaten so many microplastics in my life. I’m the king of microplastics. Poker chips are nothing, they’re like cereal to me.”
“Fun fact,” Rinne butted in, “Higher quality poker chips are ceramic. So you’d actually be eating really fancy dirt.”
“Cool…” Niki said wistfully.
As HiMERU’s laughter settled down he became aware of how uncomfortable the floor actually was. His butt was starting to go numb. How long had he been sitting there anyway? He tried readjusting his position, but he ended up just fully laying on the floor which meant he was unable to see the TV properly. Niki noticed his shuffling and leaned down to look at him. “You okay down there?”
“Back hurts,” HiMERU grunted, now laying on his stomach. Not much better, now his neck hurt.
“You can come up here y’know.”
“But you’re sitting there.”
“So?” Niki asked. “I don’t bite. What’s a little cuddling between friends?”
HiMERU’s immediate answer to this question was something along the lines of, well, I barely experienced any kind of physical intimacy growing up, so cuddling is actually a pretty big damn deal, but that sounded extraordinarily pathetic so he settled for making a prolonged grumbling noise.
“You don’t have to, but you look uncomfy down there. I’m actually a decent pillow, just ask Rinne.”
HiMERU directed his gaze towards Rinne. It took a couple seconds for him to realize his name had been called, but he eventually turned. “Huh?”
“Am I comfy to lay on?”
Rinne gave it some genuine thought. “Yeah, except you said I squish you too much when I do that.”
“Cuz you’re heavy and your body is made of knives.”
“Uh, no,” Rinne shot back. “I’m lanky and like 68 kilos of pure muscle, of course I make a terrible blanket.”
“Same difference. Okay HiMERU, you know who the obvious choice is.”
“It’s not a contest, and HiMERU wasn’t suggesting using Amagi as a pillow in the first place,” HiMERU muttered.
At this point he’d take just about anything over the hardwood floor, so he conceded. Gathering himself unsteadily to his feet, HiMERU hauled his uncooperative body onto the sofa. The sudden movement made his vision sway and he leaned a bit harder into Niki than he’d intended.
Niki just laughed at his uncharacteristic blunder. “Easy. I’ll readjust us, hold on.”
HiMERU let Niki take the lead in getting them to both fit on the small sofa, hauling HiMERU up the rest of the way and draping him over Niki’s torso like a weighted blanket. HiMERU wasn’t fully processing any of this, so he just let it happen.
“There, better?” Niki asked.
Niki’s warmth slowly leeched its way into HiMERU’s body through his thick hoodie. It wasn’t an unwelcome sensation, quite the opposite in fact. Is this what… cuddling felt like? He kind of got it now.
Part of HiMERU wanted to get up out of sheer mortification over his shameless behavior, but his thoughts were a sluggishly flowing river, briefly passing him by before being swept under the neverending current. It was getting more difficult to string coherent trains of thought together. That, and his body wasn’t entirely listening to him right now. HiMERU couldn’t stand up if he tried, sinking further and further into Niki’s stable presence.
“This is weird,” HiMERU mumbled into Niki’s sternum.
“It’s not weird unless you make it weird,” responded Niki, unconcerned with the internal crisis that was currently plaguing HiMERU.
HiMERU struggled to find a comeback, so he called for assistance. “Amagi… do something…”
Rinne tore his gaze away from the TV to look at them, blinking as his eyes readjusted. He was pleasantly stoned but not nearly as far gone as HiMERU, although it was clear the gears in his head were spinning a little harder than usual to get words out. “What do you want me to do, come over there and lay on top of both of you?”
“Noooooo you’ll squish both of us to death,” whined Niki.
“Calling me fat, I see how it is.”
Niki gasped in offense. “You literally just said how heavy you are! Also you’re not fat, you’re ripped and it pisses me off!”
Rinne squinted. “Do you want me to be fat?”
“I think you’re hot no matter what, I just wish you were less annoying.”
“You would deny me my inalienable rights? You, the love of my life?” Rinne said in a mock-tearful voice, placing his hand on his chest.
HiMERU finally found the strength to speak up, his face still pressed into Niki’s chest. “The constitution doesn’t say anything about being annoying. Annoying people are an unprotected class.”
“Says you,” Rinne replied, redirecting his gaze back to the screen. “For all you know I've got the prime minister on speed dial. Better watch your back.”
“That’s very cryptic,” HiMERU responded. “What are you planning to do?”
“Nothing, yet.”
“Don’t let Ibara hear you say that,” Niki muttered, finishing his popcorn and setting the bag to the side. “I just realized how fucked we’d be if she bugged this room. I wouldn’t put it past her, she’s freaky like that. I heard she bugged the cafeteria.”
HiMERU thought about it; would Ibara really go to the trouble of bugging someone’s house just for intel? She had access to the ES security feeds, but she was also the type to hide things from people. He couldn’t rule it out.
“HiMERU should check. Just to be safe,” he said into Niki’s chest, realizing belatedly that he was probably too muffled for them to hear.
“What?” Niki asked.
HiMERU lifted his face up. “I said I’ll check.”
“You slipped up again,” Rinne pointed out this time.
“Fuck.”
“I think it’s cute,” Niki remarked, making it infinitely more embarrassing. “But it’s fine, I was mostly kidding. I don’t think she’d go that far.”
“She shot a guy once,” Rinne supplied unhelpfully.
Niki pondered this for a moment. “Only once? That doesn’t seem like her.”
HiMERU squirmed. “Enough of this. Let HiMERU up.”
“You can get up whenever you want,” Niki said, folding his arms behind his head and looking back at the TV.
Alright, fine then. He would.
…
…..
He couldn’t get up.
“HiMERU’s brain might be broken.”
Niki wheezed a laugh at that. HiMERU could feel his friend’s diaphragm twitch underneath him which was a strange sensation. “It’s not broken, you're just not used to being this stoned. Or stoned at all, really.”
“Exactly. It’s not working properly.”
“Here, I’ll give you something to focus on,” said Niki. “This tends to calm Rinne down when he’s too high, so maybe it’ll work for you too. Lemme know if you want me to stop.”
Before HiMERU could say anything, he felt a shivering sensation move down his spine and shoot through his limbs. Realizing that Niki’s blunt nails were dragging up and down the center of his back, he froze. Goosebumps rose on his forearms. It was… a lot, but it was kind of nice. It definitely took his mind off of the amiless spiral of thoughts and sensations that he was drowning in before.
“Good?” Niki checked.
HiMERU found that words were completely out of the question, so he made a muffled noise.
Niki snorted. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
As it turned out, being extraordinarily stoned and cuddling with your friend while they rubbed your back was a surefire way to pass out almost immediately. HiMERU made it maybe 10 minutes longer before hitting the hay and sleeping hard. Niki thought he almost looked dead if he didn’t know any better. The downside came when Niki eventually had to get up, attempting to nudge HiMERU awake only to be met with low, ticked-off noises.
“I know it’s comfortable, but I need to stretch my legs. C’mon.”
Another low noise.
“Did you just growl at me?”
“He’s gonna bite you or something if you keep trying to wake him up, just flip him over,” Rinne said.
Niki scoffed. “Whatever. Move your butt.” And with that he rolled HiMERU onto his side and got up, leaving him the entire couch.
HiMERU took the opportunity to stretch the full length of his body and take up the remaining space in Niki’s absence. He settled back into a dreamless sleep, his body feeling like heavy cotton.
_____
The first thing HiMERU noticed upon waking was how dry his mouth was. The second thing he noticed was that this wasn’t his room.
HiMERU jolted a bit, looking around only to remember bits and pieces of the previous night. He knew where he was now, the mortification of his clingy behavior coming to hit him full-force. Now that he was conscious (and more importantly sober), he noticed the woven blanket draped over him. After he’d passed out Niki and Rinne must’ve let him stay the night in order to sleep off his high, which was very kind of them. The only issue now was that he felt kind of gross. On the bright side however, he felt extraordinarily well-rested. He’d take this over a hangover any day.
“Finally awake?” a familiar voice chirped. “Rinne left for a work-related thing earlier this morning, but I didn’t wanna leave you here by yourself.”
Niki walked from the bathroom to the kitchen, grabbing a plate and putting it on the coffee table in front of HiMERU. “Made a veggie omelet for breakfast, eat up.”
HiMERU rubbed his eyes, sitting upright and cracking every joint that needed cracking. “You could have woken HiMERU up last night.”
“We could’ve, but I think you needed the rest.”
HiMERU made a noncommittal noise as he dug into his breakfast, not realizing how hungry he actually was until it hit his tongue. “HiMERU appreciates it very much.”
“Of course! Don’t mention it.”
This was the first time HiMERU had done anything like this in his life, ever. He wasn’t notorious for keeping friends close, preferring to distance himself for reasons other than his position as an idol, although the whole idol thing certainly didn’t help. He didn’t want to let himself get too used to this and yet… it was so difficult not to. As much as he loved to complain about his friends to whoever would hear it, HiMERU knew he didn’t deserve them. Pains in the ass as they were, they were just about all he had. He swallowed the last bite of his omelet.
“HiMERU should get going, he’s taken up enough of your time.”
“It was nice having you over. If you ever wanna do this again just let us know,” Niki said, washing the last of the dishes. HiMERU nodded, feeling the sudden need to get the hell out of there as fast as possible before things could get more vulnerable.
“Oh, and Shiina? Thank you,” he noted before stepping out the door. He didn’t need to look behind him to sense Niki’s smile.