writetomyheart | [team two] untitled

This idea came to me a little too late to get the whole fic done in time, sadly, so have the first bit of the first installment of the Night Style People segment of idolverse!

This is mostly based on Yuto's performance in the video that played in the background during Oh! Idol. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. XD; While most of the guys, when being the "idol fans," acted happy and excited, Yuto took it to a whole different level, acting dazed and obsessive. I can't remember if it got on the DVD, but at one point he started kissing an uchiwa of Daiki. It was beautifully weird, and I couldn't resist writing it into this AU. XD;

Even from across the room, he can see the delirious gleam in his partner’s eyes, a look that Chinen knows, from Yuto, means trouble. It's the beginning of the evening and he and Kota have been setting up for over an hour now, organizing the bar and putting tablecloths and candles on the tables and queuing up the music, but Yuto had told them that morning (or really, that afternoon; after working until two or three am, all three of them rarely wake up before noon) that he needed to run a few errands on the opposite side of Tokyo that day, and would probably be a bit late. Chinen hadn't really thought it would be a problem; seeing as it was Thursday and they opened late on Thursdays (there was really no point in being open earlier than 8 or 9 pm on weekdays, anyway), but he also hadn't expected 'a bit late' to mean 'ten minutes before opening time.' That fact, combined with the manic expression on his face and the large plastic bag with a cutesy logo in his hand leads Chinen to believe that perhaps errands weren't the only thing he was doing on the other side of town.

Kota, blissfully unobservant as he is, looks like he's he's about the chastise Yuto for being late; while opening an idol-themed novelty bar (some mix between a butler cafe and a host club, it was ingenious, really) near Otome Road in Ikebukuro aimed at female anime and idol fans had been Chinen and Yuto's brainchild, Kota was their senpai (or at least, he had been in high school), and sometimes he forgot that he wasn't their big brother, as well. However, Yuto has never really taken being told what to do well, and opens his mouth to cut in first when Yuto stops them both by dropping everything he's holding, looking from Chinen to Kota to Chinen again, clasping his hands together against his chest and practically shouting, "I'm in love!!"

Kota's jaw drops, his eyes practically bulging out of his head as Yuto twirls around before throwing himself to the ground as well, staring up at the ceiling as if he's just won a drinking contest, and Chinen thinks, with a glance at the clock that tells him it's only a half hour to opening time, it's going to be a long night.

…

Yuto has been Chinen's best friend for practically as long as he can remember. They'd met in junior high school, when Chinen's family had moved to Tokyo from Shizuoka. Yuto had been the most popular kid in school; tall, athletic, wealthy, and (for a twelve year old) good looking, he had a clique of friends and a gaggle of admirers that followed him over from their private school's elementary school, and he clearly expected everyone, students and teachers alike, to worship him. Which most of them did… but Chinen, conversely tiny, cute, and equal parts childlike and precocious, had never really been the worshipping sort. Yuto had been frustrated at first, but quickly realized Chinen was a better ally than enemy (since Chinen didn't really do enemies, either, and had an infinite ability to completely ignore Yuto's baiting), and after that, they'd become fast friends. Chinen liked to think that his reserved genius complimented Yuto's wildness and energy well, and they'd even dated once, for about three months in tenth grade, before deciding they worked better as friends. In high school, they'd started a new club together (the 'musical performance' club, because their teachers wouldn't sign off on an 'idol' club despite their best pitching efforts), they'd planned their class' culture festival projects together, they'd even run for student council together once, and by now, more than seven years after they'd first met, Chinen likes to think he knows Yuto better than pretty much anyone. After all, it was their joint idea to open their bar, Night Style People, after graduating, and everything about the operation, from the decorations to the costumes they wore to the names of the overpriced drinks that came along with various "fan services," had been dreamed up between the two of them. Yuto is his best friend in the whole world… and so Chinen is understandably baffled when Yuto suddenly starts acting in a way Chinen could never have predicted.

"Look!" Yuto says insistently, waving his phone in front of Chinen's face the next morning after that fateful evening when Yuto had come in late declaring he was in love. "Isn't he cute?? Isn't he perfect?? Isn't he pure??"

Pure? Chinen thinks incredulously as he squints at the large-eyed, baby-faced idol boy in a sparkly costume on Yuto's phone screen, but he nods obligingly. "So… how did you end up falling in love with an idol, again?" he asks after a moment's pause, because no matter how many times Yuto has already explained, even a genius like Chinen is having trouble wrapping his mind around the situation.

"Well," Yuto starts, falling back onto his back on Chinen's bed and staring at the ceiling with stars in his eyes, "I went to Akihabara to buy a new external hard drive, but then at the train station I got a flier for this idol group called Aioi-tai… and I figured I'd check it out… and then I saw the love of my life!!"

"…This… 'Dai-chan'…?" Chinen asks, flicking through to the next photo on Yuto's phone and raising his eyebrows at the image that appears, the same boy as in the previous photo, this time wearing a fluffy sweatshirt, cuddling a teddy bear. He's no expert in idols, but the production quality of the photos, which Yuto has apparently downloaded from the group's fanclub site, looks low enough that Chinen has to imagine it's a pretty small operation. He doesn't want to think about how exploitative it probably is, but Yuto's response draws him away from the train of thought, anyway.

"Yes~~~ Dai-chan~~~ He's so perfect~~~" he sighs, putting his palms to his cheeks and smiling up at nothing. "He's so small, and so cute, and I love him, and I joined his fanclub, and I'm going to go to his show next Monday when we have our day off, and I bought all his goods, and… and… Dai-chan~~~"

His gushing is totally bizarre to Chinen, who isn't used to Chinen worshipping anyone more than himself, but, he thinks, Yuto often develops short-lived obsessions. Still, as he watches Yuto take back his phone, gazing lovingly at the screen, he can't help but worry that this is something different altogether.

…

"I don't get it," Kota admits to Chinen two weeks, several Aioi-tai shows, and about one hundred rants about Dai-chan's perfection later. "Does he realize he's not really in love? He doesn't even know Dai-chan."

"I… really can't tell you," Chinen replies with a sigh, slouching at their little kitchen table and fiddling with his phone as Kota puts the finishing touches on dinner. Kota might be a little slow on the uptake, but he's willing to cook much more often than Yuto (rarely) or Chinen (never), and that alone is enough to make Chinen extremely grateful.

"His room is creepy now," Kota observes, nodding down the hall to what they both know now lies beyond Yuto's door; his walls are now plastered with ten or so posters of his idol, staring from every angle.

"Yeah, I… really don't get it," Chinen agrees; he doesn't like to be judgmental, but when Yuto's obsession hadn't worn off over the course of the last two weeks, he'd been left sort of at a loss. "To each their own, though… right?"

Kota looks at him skeptically, and though he says nothing, Chinen has a feeling that he's thinking that Yuto is crazy… and Chinen can't exactly blame him.

Your turn,

damagea!