Work Text:
Gaku woke to the sound of someone moving around outside his room, something that should not be possible.
Even his father didn't have access to this apartment—he'd had the locks changed as soon as he moved in—and his mother had never visited him before…. He needed a weapon. He'd also never been this short before.
Wait, that was a lie. He'd been this short when he was starting junior high, about the time his father had sat him down to have a talk about what skills he would need to "develop" now that his body was changing. Had he shrunk, gone back in time… no, his room was never this tidy even back then.
The drinking, that had to be it; they'd finally reached the end of a relentlessly busy week and had a few to loosen up—plus some non-alcoholic ones to share with Tenn. Craziest hangover he'd ever had though, how could he be so fucked up even his sense of distance was off? Gaku scrubbed his hands over his face, weighing if this was better or worse than the usual headache and started at the sight of pink.
Did he dye his hair? Not that the thought hadn't crossed his mind plenty of times, but why would he match Tenn?
A knock on his door, startling him back to the original horror of a home intruder.
What kind of burglar knocked?
“Tenn, come downstairs. Aya’s made breakfast.”
He was being robbed by a TRIGGER fan. Someone with an accomplice called Aya who thought they'd gotten Tenn's place?
Didn't matter, he needed something to keep whoever it was away. The bookshelf wouldn't work, too far from the door. What about the lamp by the desk? The joint wasn't the most stable, maybe the chair instead?
He stepped past the mirror in the corner and all the thoughts of having to defend himself flew out of his mind. He wouldn't be defending himself at all, apparently. Leaning in, he prodded at the Tenn staring back, pinching his cheeks and grimacing in a way that the original would've never allowed nor tolerated crossing his face, ever the paragon of professionalism that he was.
"A real nightmare," Gaku muttered, pulling at the hair that now at least fit with the face it framed. He yanked, winced, and gave up on the fleeting hope it was all either a dream or just a mask. Who would even pull a prank like this? A group of seven silly faces floated through his mind, their most recent webisode still pulled up in a tab on his phone from a few days ago. Wherever his phone was now, his pajama pockets were empty and—
"Tenn? Are you well?"
The chances that he was being burglarized were shrinking, and he wasn't sure that he was especially happy about that, at least that would've been somewhere within the realm of normal.
This voice… He pulled the door open as his curiosity got the best of him.
He wasn't used to people being taller than him again, looking up was bad enough but the look in the man's eyes would've been unsettling even at the same height. This was Tenn's father?
"No greeting?" The man smiled. "If this is what comes of being allowed to spend a late night with your fellow members, I can see that such activities will not be beneficial to your future."
Gaku barely stopped the scowl that wanted to grow on his face, Tenn's face, and forced it behind a look of what could possibly pass for contrition, but most likely just seemed stony.
"Good morning." The greeting was too forced, he could hear it and hurried to deflect with a question. "How was your rest?"
"You know it escapes me. Tenn, your promise is my only hope for a night's sleep. Can TRIGGER's other members claim to gain the same benefit from your presence?"
What kind of fuckery was this? This man had to be kidding, Tenn had left last night at a perfectly reasonable hour, even claiming his father's recent health as a reason, and this man had the gall to complain about a single evening without his company?
"I'm…" What would Tenn say? How would he sidestep the traps Gaku could feel lying in wait inside that question? Gaku was on a stage and he'd been given a role to play without a choice. But he'd been lucky to have a few seconds of preparation and two years' worth of experience in observing Tenn, he could do this. This man was not used to Tenn's barbed tongue or his prickly ire, so that left the version that fans were allowed to see. Smiles and softness, the professional performer, apparently even in his daily life at home.
"I'm sorry for my lapse," Gaku said, bowing just enough to concede ground. He couldn't address Tenn's father directly, that was unknown territory, but he needed an excuse that wouldn't throw anyone else under the bus. Momo's voice was out, Idolish7's Sakura Haruki controversy... "It's just these rumors about Zero's—"
"No!" Kujo swiped a hand through the air, Gaku stepped back in surprise at the sudden burst of animation from what had been a fairly placid, if needy, man. "He's gone! There is no Zero, cast him from your mind, forget him. Tenn, you are the only one, there is no one else, you will push Zero from the people's memory, they will forget his brief fire. That's what you're doing now, this concert on his stage will be the next step… even with the other members as unworthy baggage, it will be an example of your … just need to get there, you cannot allow obstacles to hinder you in your path to the top…"
Gaku let Tenn's mouth hang open, shocked into silence by the tirade spilling out of Kujo and wishing he could just wake up. Was this what Tenn had to look forward to every morning? No, he'd brought up Zero, he'd stepped on a landmine that Tenn must have learned not to trigger years ago. He knew what his own father's landmines were, he was simply not playing his own life now, and if he was being honest, he'd stopped stepping carefully because he'd rather take the flak and the insults to the face than have them stab him in the back.
But what did Tenn do in these moments? He's in fan mode, the fan just blew up. Therefore it's time to take on the responsibility, to single-handedly promise the world with a comforting smile, pull an angel.
"You're right. Of course, the rumors are nothing, our concert will be the best out of the three, the best that ever took place in the Arena." Is it too obvious that he left out the first part of the name? Better not to mention it, keep the focus on their concert, not Zero.
"You'll surpass him," Kujo said, the light in his eyes turning feverish and Gaku floundered for a second before picking up the waver at the end of the sentence, halfway to turning into a question.
"Yes. No one else." Repeat their words back, use their own phrases, it was advice he remembered from the acting classes as a child, but it was applicable in multiple levels here. Tell them what they wanted to hear, he knew how to do that, he was just out of practice.
It seemed to be enough; Kujo absorbed his response like water to a man dying in a desert and straightened, face still slightly hollow. "Good. I'll be watching."
Great, not exactly what Gaku wanted to hear but he'd take it over the ranting. Starting off the day like this was already—
What time was it? He glanced back into Tenn's room, the clock on the nightstand barely peeking into view. What was today, what were they supposed to be doing today? They'd been drinking because they had a late start but was Tenn scheduled for the same today?
Fuck it, his father can't know everything Tenn does. Despite evidence to the apparent contrary.
"The shoot today's been moved earlier," he started, reminding himself to not look at Kujo's face too intently as he continued his lie, "I'll have to have breakfast there, unfortunately."
"Has it?" Kujo mused, the glassiness in his eyes an uncertain variable in Gaku's gamble. Was he more likely to believe it or more informed than Gaku had bet on?
"Anesagi-san messaged—" The sound of his phone buzzing on the nightstand, thank god Tenn didn't leave his on silent like Gaku did, and the doubt in Kujo's gaze faded. "That's likely her already."
"I see, don't let me keep you. I look forward to seeing you on that stage." Kujo retreated back towards the stairs but Gaku only waited until he'd turned his back before ducking back into Tenn's room to grab his phone. Ryuu! Just who he needed in all this craziness, Ryuu wouldn't be…
"Gaku."
He couldn't handle Ryuu saying his name like that, his heart twisted before he realized the dry delivery reminded him of someone else entirely.
"Tenn."
"Good to know you're following the situation. If you do anything to my body, I know where yours is and Ryuu won't be able to stop me." The threat in Ryuu's warm timbre was a novelty that really shouldn't have left Gaku so conflicted but they had more immediate problems.
"One of us has a degree of separation less to cross and cause problems, and it's not me," Gaku muttered, the surrealness of sniping back like this with Tenn's voice at Ryuu's adding a flavor he was not finding too satisfying.
"Does the sound of my voice being right annoy you?" In contrast, the smirk in Tenn's was plain to hear.
"I can't escape it." A thought pinged in his mind. "So you admit I'm right?"
"I'm not one to argue against facts, unlike some."
"You… If this is about the cooking show again—"
"That's precisely the kind of behavior to refrain from while in my body—"
"I met your father."
Silence took over, until Gaku thought perhaps he should follow that up with a clearer report of what happened, when Tenn finally spoke. "First, leave. Then I'll consider how much damage control is necessary, and restitution. I trust you are capable of dressing my body without any handholding, and that you can recognize my work bag. Talk as little as possible, Ryuu is on his way to pick you up."
Ryuu was coming. But in Gaku's own body, likely with his car as well, which he couldn't drive like this or else he ran the risk of getting Tenn arrested and himself killed in revenge. So no driving. Which was a shame, he needed something to clear his mind.
"Tenn—"
"Save it for when you're out of there."
The line went dead, no room for anything else that Gaku might have tried to squeeze into the conversation. To say that he understood, that he knew what it was like to have a father with impossible expectations and a stake in his career choices. Despite the fact that they'd taken different approaches to surviving, he could see across the gap and recognize a mirror when it was held up in front of him.
The thought of it plagued him through the process of dressing Tenn's body and gathering his things—a relatively easy task considering the intense neatness and order of Tenn's room—and thankfully by the time he emerged from the room, breakfast was under way and he could duck out with a quick farewell and apology. If it was less smiles and sweetness than Tenn might have done, then he just had to hope they would chalk it up to the rush of a changed schedule.
He'd never been so relieved to see his car before. Once he was close enough to see the driver however, the skew of the world hit him again: there he was, sitting in the driver's seat of his own car. An out-of-body experience if there ever was one.
His body—Ryuu looked up as Gaku opened the passenger door and slid into the seat in a rush, but the thought of leaving as fast as possible slid out of his mind as soon as he was faced with himself.
"This is so weird."
"I know! Every time I see you—I mean your face—I keep forgetting that it's not you."
"I don't understand how you're making my face do that," Gaku said, staring at Ryuu and the chagrin so clear on his own features. He knew his face pretty well, that came with the trade of both having it plastered onto so many things and having to control it to such a fine level for their work. And yet, he could never have ever acted as Ryuu like this, it was unmistakeable who was inside him. Inside his body.
"Am I doing it right?" Concern writ so large it could have been read from across the country.
"Doing what right? Being me?" Gaku laughed, but the sound of Tenn laughing threw him off so much he had to stop. "Can you do me?"
Ryuu straightened in his seat, the hesitation gone and replaced with… something that was nevertheless kinder than anything Gaku had ever seen in the mirror or on a poster. His eyes were so warm, a quality that could only be Ryuu.
"Never mind, I doubt I can pull a convincing Tenn either." Only time would tell if he'd managed back in the house. "We should go see how Tenn looks. I already got a taste on the phone, let's hope we can fix this fast."
"He's in me…" Ryuu started off down the street, double-checking the mirrors and hands tight on the wheel.
"I think he'll just enjoy the new sky-high perspective, you don't need to worry about your body. Mine on the other hand…" Sitting next to each other, he could feel the height difference, and he wasn't even as tall as Ryuu, normally. He'd be seeing Ryuu from a new perspective too, in more ways than one.
"I trust Tenn, I just don't know if I can take as good care of you and your car as he will of me!" Ryuu said, slowing down over a hundred meters before an intersection.
"I—my body might not be as athletic as yours but my reflexes should be fine for driving!" He hadn't had much of an opportunity to analyze how moving Tenn's body was different than his own, frankly it was a bit freaky to think too hard about it, but he'd dressed and walked out just fine. Aside from the height, but he and Ryuu weren't that far apart either. Watching Ryuu's white-knuckle grip, he lapsed into silence to allow Ryuu to concentrate, there were other things to consider after all.
~*~
"It was that—
"—fruity drink from yesterday." Tenn finished Gaku's sentence as he pulled the door to Ryuu's apartment wider.
Gaku froze for a second, looking up at Ryuu's face and the serious expression that lacked any hint of a smile. At least, not until Tenn noticed his stuttered entrance and a sly one slid onto Ryuu's lips.
"Wish you'd gotten Ryuu's?" Tenn asked, stepping back as they entered as if to scrutinize his own body.
"Enjoying the view while you've got it?" Did switching bodies also swap their brains or did they have the same capacities in there? It had to be the same hardware or else there would be some squishing going on where things didn't quite fit, right? Nevertheless that felt like more of a Tenn response than he'd expected, was just being in the body enough to make them take on the other's characteristics, or had he spent too much effort on embodying Tenn earlier so that now it was taking longer to shed when it fit the body better?
"If you make my face look any angrier, I'll get wrinkles. Don't let your bad habits ruin anything other than your own life."
"Ruin—!?"
"Now, now, how about I make some tea?" Ryuu stepped between them with a smile, toeing into his slippers on instinct even though his feet were slipping around in the space that was a few sizes too big.
Tenn's face cracked, a snort escaping him as he looked at Ryuu; Gaku wasn't immune to the weirdness either.
"Gaku, I never thought you had it in you."
"Ha ha, you're the one that can't stop arguing even with himself."
Ryuu seemed satisfied with their milder continuation, though Gaku couldn't shake the moment when he'd been interrupted by his own voice. With Ryuu's cadence it just sounded so much softer, was he responsible for all the hard edges that reminded him of his father? He turned back to Tenn, anything to stop that line of thought.
"I met your father."
"You've said. And you said as little to him as possible." The question was there, with the slightest thread of worry underneath. If Gaku hadn't grown so used to reading the worry in Ryuu's voice, he wasn't sure he would've caught it. Certainly in Tenn's own, he likely would've missed it.
"That was my plan. But he accused us, me and Ryuu, of being a bad influence. Seemed angry you were with us last night."
"He must not have slept well." Concern and a forced nonchalance, Gaku hadn't expected it to be so much easier to decode Tenn in someone else's body. A lifetime in your own and you knew how to play the game, but switch out your cards and your rules and it wasn't as easy to employ the same strategy.
"Also had a lot to say about what you'd be doing in the future." He laid the information on the table as tactfully as he could, it wasn't something he should have and while he couldn't return it he could at least try to show his hand as much as he could.
"You…." A sudden weariness settled on Ryuu's features, something that would've made Tenn look ancient, much less Ryuu. "He's—"
"Reminds me of my old man. Lots of plans, won't take no for an answer, and thinks his way of doing things is the only way." He didn't need to go into it, Tenn had to deal with the man every week too. "But I'll agree with my father on one thing."
"That your attitude could use some work?" It wasn't Tenn's sharpest barb but Gaku let it land without comment. From Tenn's soft tsk at Gaku's silence, he knew the pretend pity had been more irritating than anything he could have said anyway.
"You are TRIGGER's center."
"Just because you have my body now don't think you can pull off being the center all of a sudden." Crossing Ryuu's arms, Tenn loomed over him.
Gaku poked him in the chest, the annoyance flaring even faced with Ryuu's usually calming presence. "See, and you wouldn't give it up without a fight. So don't pretend you want to follow your father's plans just because he's your No. 1 fan. What do you want?"
"I want someone to stop applying his own logic to everyone else."
"That's exactly what you're letting your father do to you!" Gaku ran his hand down his face, well, Tenn's hand and looking up at Ryuu's body, he'd somehow forgotten yet again just how young Tenn was. Four years ago, could he claim to have been able to step free of his father? Had he even done that now, with his body still under his father's yoke and only his voice saying otherwise, however faintly? But where he'd failed to do better, he would always hope that others still could. "If you wanted to leave, you could live with—"
"With you? And that would be better why? More importantly, I don't want to leave."
"Why!?"
"Kujo-san gave me something I wanted, and I want to do the same for him."
"So then you want to leave TRIGGER?"
"Unlike you, I've never threatened to leave."
Gaku scowled at the smug smirk on Tenn's face at seeing the reminder hit home. Grabbing him by the shirt wasn't the same, not when he was so much shorter and not when it was Ryuu's shirt scrunched between his fingers. He refused to let the ridiculousness overwhelm his need to bite back.
"Because I refuse to let TRIGGER be debased! I don't treat it like 'unworthy baggage'."
Tenn stayed still, Gaku assumed because his original body didn't exactly have the leverage to make a mountain move. "That's what he said?"
"You've heard it before then?"
"Yes." Gaku was used to Ryuu lapsing into silence, had learned what it meant in the beginning and thought he knew how to handle it now, but not with Tenn. Not when Tenn always had the right parry, the right riposte to get past his guard—if he could count on anything with Tenn it was being matched for every prickly word. Short resigned answers were not his standard fare when it came to arguing with Gaku.
"And? Do you agree?"
"No."
It felt like pulling teeth, but Gaku wanted to know. "Then if we're not unworthy baggage, how would you put it?"
Ryuu peeked around the corner, tray of tea in hand. Gaku was sure he'd been listening for longer, but perhaps seeing Gaku's face wouldn't be the best for coaxing an honest answer out of Tenn. Having his own body confront about it must have contributed to just how much he'd been willing to share, like his conscience given shape or as if he were talking to himself in the mirror.
Seeing Ryuu shrink into himself wasn't such a new sight, it had been an unfortunately common one in the beginning though it had become less frequent in the past year, something Gaku had noted with pride. And seeing Tenn do it now in Ryuu's body was doubly hard.
"What about you, Gaku, how would you put it?" Ryuu spoke after a few seconds of silence.
"We're more than we were before, starting from discordant harmonies to three fused diamonds set in the same crown. I'm proud to be in TRIGGER with you."
"And do you agree, Tenn?" prompting gently, Ryuu stayed by the doorway to the kitchen.
"In less florid words," Tenn cracked a smile at Gaku's indignant frown, "I would say the same. I know no one as well as I know you two."
"We're glad to hear that."
"It's good to know," Gaku said, stepping back, finally seeing the plastic bottle in his own hands beneath the tray of tea. "Is that—?"
"Oh! Yeah, I found it while you two were talking."
"You can say arguing," Tenn muttered, following Ryuu into the kitchen.
"That's just how you two talk." Ryuu placed the empty bottle on the kitchen table like a centerpiece, which it could certainly be considering its role in the current events. "I knew I put it in the recycling after we were done last night, I just didn't see the label."
"What does this even say?" The label was half-peeled, the sticker feathering into nothing halfway through the foreign text. "Look what happens when we try to include non-alcoholic drinks."
"Next time don't invite me," Tenn said, squinting as he pieced together the text. "Says we should—"
"Not a chance, we just had a whole fight about this! Hurry up and turn 20 faster."
"You're so eager to jump 2 years into the future?"
Gaku shook his head, letting Ryuu get past as he went to gather his keys. "No, why miss the best part of our rise to the top? Where are we going?"
"We've got a vending machine to hunt down. I'm not letting you keep my body." Tenn nudged him after Ryuu, bottle in hand and tea abandoned.
"Don't tell me you're not having fun in there."
"…Maybe."
Slapping Tenn on the back, Gaku stepped quickly into his shoes and out the door. "Want to try some beer before we switch back?"
"I've learned my lesson about weird drinks you two want me to try. It can wait. We've got time."
Sharing a look with Ryuu, Gaku nodded. "That we do."