Title:
Tea Ritual (one-shot)
Author:
Kyoko_godaikun
Pairing:
Ohkura/Maruyama
Summary:
Kanjani 8 had been touring
*************
"Don’t'
be sad about not getting to come with us." Ohkura Tadayoshi had told
Maruyama Ryuhei before the group had left for their Asian tour. "Think of
it as a break from us."
"You
can practice your tea ritual." Yokoyama had teased.
Everyone
thought Maru was strange. He had a tea ritual. It wasn't the normal tea
ceremony that is sometimes performed. It was his own. It was his way of
meditating when everything was hectic. The rest of Kanjani 8 didn't understand.
They usually laughed at his ritual.
Now a
month later, Maru was in
The bass
player turned on his computer. Then he checked for messages. There wasn't any.
He went to live journal. He didn't understand most of it, but sometimes there
were photos from the
When the
dating tree came out in the tabloid everyone in Kanjani 8 had at least one girl
attached to his name. Well Yoko didn't. But Yoko was good at being careful.
Maru wasn't being careful. He didn't date girls. He didn't care that no one
else was gay. He didn't feel right in lying about himself.
The rest
of Kanjani 8 was so different from the bass player. At one time Maru thought the rest of the
group was like him. At one time or the other most of the group had been with
him. But it was just experimenting. All of them had eventually had gotten girl
friends. With time, Maru became the only openly gay member of the group. The
only one he had never experimented with Maru was Ohkura. The drummer who seemed
to be the other half of Maru's soul.
Then the
bass player found a site dedicated to the side projects of Kanjani 8. The New Year had been very hectic for the
group. The members of Kanjani 8 seemed to have some kind of big side project.
Everyone had some kind of play or movie they stared in. Everyone except for Maru. He was the one that
that agency always forgot.
Now the
group was touring
The
agency had rules when one of their groups toured
Maru
received a post card from his friend:
How
are you feeling? It's a pity you can't be here in
Maru
pulled out his ketai.
"I
feel horrible. My throat hurts. I wish I could be in
A few
minutes passed. His ketai beeped. "Not my fault. You're the one who
forgot to have his passport renewed."
He
answered. "That's not my fault, it's the agencies! They told me that
they would file my renewal papers for me."
Maru
hated not getting to go on Kanjani 8's first Asian tour. It wasn't really his
fault that the agency hadn't renewed his passport. Besides, anyone could take
his place. It wasn't like he was Ohkura with music in his soul. All the members
of Kanjani 8 had fans. He knew it wasn't fair to his fans not to be able to see
him.
It hurt
Maru that no one in the agency seemed to even care if his passport was renewed.
They forgot, so he stayed home.
The
agency had called it a vacation. Maru didnt' feel like it was a vacation. It
was more of a punishment. He had caught a bad cold right before the group left.
So not only was he home, he was sick.
The
doorbell rang. He went and got it. It was a box that had been overnighted from
There was
an envelope on the top of the package. He opened it.
"I'm
sorry you're not feeling good. I'm sending you some tea. It should be good for
your throat. I always drink it when I am sick.
A
group isn't a group without its bass player. Please get well. Perhaps when we
get home, you could teach me how to make tea.
Yours
in rhythm. Tadayoshi."
Maru
opened the package. It was six boxes of something called wellness tea. There
was a drawing of a cute koala wrapped in a quilt drinking a cup of tea. It was
so much like him. His friend, the one that Maru wished could be his lover. But
Maru knew the truth. Ohkura was straight.
********************
Kanjani 8
returned to
There
were things expected of being an idol. One was to be straight, to have girl
friends. Almost everyone pretended to be straight. They went out with the girls
that they were ordered to. They kept their true selves secret, even to their
fellow group members. There was only one member who ignored the rule. Maru was
gay, and he didn't care who knew.
Ohkura
envied him.
The group
decided to take taxi's to their apartments. Everyone pretended that Shota was
going with Subaru to save money. That Yoko was using the same cab as Hina
because they lived in the same apartment building. No one dared breathed the
truth. That they were lovers and they
where going home together.
Ohkura gave the driver directions to Maru's
apartment. He had to see him, to talk to him. To tell him that he was missed.
The
drummer pressed the intercom button, his fingers trembling. He was so nervous.
He was terrified that Maru would send him away. Instead, he could hear the
smile in his friend's voice as he told him to come on up.
"How
was
"Boring.
They had a junior playing bass, but it wasn't the same." Ohkura set his
things down in the entry way.
"So
why come here?"
"I
want you to teach me your tea ritual." Ohkura confessed.
"My
tea ritual?" Maru raised an eyebrow.
Silence
fell between them. It was broken when Ohkura whispered. "Please,
Ryuhei."
Maru
thought for a moment, and then he nodded. "For you, yes."
Ohkura
followed Maru into the kitchen. He rinsed out his kettle. Then he poured some
water in.
"When
you're making tea, you must use fresh water every time." he instructed.
"Flat
water makes bad tea?" Ohkura guessed.
"Yes,
it does." Maru put the kettle on the stove and turned the burner on. He
then busied himself getting out a tea pot and tea cups.
When the
water began to boil he poured some in the tea pot, then showed Ohkura that he
had to dump out that water. Then he took out the package of tea. It was the
wellness tea that Ohkura had sent him from
"Since
this is bagged tea, you put three bags in, and then you pour in the
water." Maru showed him how to do it. "Now we sit at the table, and
we wait until the tea is ready."
"How
long will that be?" Ohkura asked as he sat down.
"Seven
minutes exactly." Maru set the tea pot on the table between them. Then he
sat down across from Ohkura. "In that time, you can calm your mind."
Maru closed his eyes.
Ohkura
did as he did, closing his eyes. Trying to calm his mind. To try and not think
of the man who sat just a few feet away from him. He could smell Maru's woodsy
cologne. Could almost feel Maru’s presence as they sat so close to each other.
He wanted to reach out, to touch Maru. But he didn't want to ruin the ritual.
"Time's
up." Maru finally said. Ohkura opened his eyes. Maru smiled sadly at him.
"I thought perhaps you came to laugh at me."
"I
really want to learn about you."
"All
right," Maru poured Ohkura a cup of tea. Then he poured one for himself.
"Now you must drink."
Ohkura
picked up his cup and took a sip. The tea reminded him so much of Maru. It
tasted better then any other tea he had. They drank the tea together in
silence. This too was part of the ritual.
When they were finished, Maru took the cups away, putting them in the sink.
"Tell
me about your girl friend."' Maru said.
"I
don't have a girl friend." Ohkura denied.
"But
you date. You go out with girls." Maru pointed out.
"I
only go out with girls because I'm ordered to." Ohkura confessed. "In
a way, I envy you. You don't pretend to be something your not."
"Pretend?"
"We
all pretend. We hide it so that the agency wont' find out." The drummer
admitted. "We tell tales about why we spend time together. Yoko because he
lives in Hina's building. Subaru travels with Shota to save money, and
me?"
"You
suddenly become fascinated with a tea ritual." Maru sounded hurt. "It
was a lie."
"But
the tea ritual is a part of you." Ohkura told him. "We're the rhythm
section. We're a part of each other in a way no one else could understand.
Without your Bass playing my drumming isn't worth anything."
"It's
been that way since you joined VVest." The bass player pointed out.
'When we
toured with the junior playing bass, I realized how my life would be empty
without you." Ohkura could feel his heart thumping as he confessed.
"I realized that I couldn’t lie to you. Not about something that I've
hidden for so long."
"What
have you hidden?"
"I'm
gay," he looked down to his hands. "And that I can't live without
you."
"This
isn't a cruel joke?"
"No
Ryuhei, it isn't a joke." he looked back up to Maru. "It's just that
I've been so afraid...."
"There's
nothing to be afraid of." Maru went to Ohkura's side. "You have
me." Then Maru kissed Ohkura's lips.
The
drummer sighed and gave into the kiss. He reached up, putting his arm around
the bass player’s broad shoulders. His new lover's breath smelled like the mint
in the tea.
*****************
Maru
woke; he could feel someone pressed up against him. He opened his eyes. Ohkura
was sleeping, curled up against Maru as if he was a child. He lay there, simply watching his new lover
sleep.
Maru
hoped that this wasn't just some experimenting. He hoped that perhaps, just
perhaps Ohkura loved him.
Ohkura's
eyes finally flickered open. "Morning."
"How
was your sleep?"
"Wonderful."
Ohkura stretched so much like a cat, and then he kissed Maru's lips very
gently. "Can I stay here today?"
"You
can stay as long as you want." Maru said impulsively.
"Good,"
The drummer put his head on Maru's shoulder. "Perhaps, if I stay with you,
the agency will forget about me too."
"You
don't want that,” Maru told him. "I know you'll start to do what the
agency orders. They'll order you to date again."
"I'll
tell them to go to hell." Ohkura decided. "I have a lover. I'm not
the type to cheat."
"You
have a lover...." The bass players mind raced. "You mean me?"
"Who
else would it be?" Ohkura smiled and kissed him again. "There's
nothing to be afraid of."
"You're
right there isn't."
"Love
you,” Ohkura kissed him before Maru could tell him he loved him too. This time
pulling Maru on top of him, begging him to make love to him. Then he got so
carried away that he forgot about the fears he had felt.
Maru knew
that Ohkura was right. There was nothing to be afraid of, because now they had
each other. Maru might be forgotten by the agency, but he wasn't forgotten by
the man who loved him. He was Ohkura's star, and that was all that mattered.