JE, Gackt-chan Gets the Chicken Pox

Title: Gackt-chan Gets the Chicken Pox [Jin/Yamapi]
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for what Gackt-chan makes her ponies do.
Summary: Gackt-chan comes down with a childhood ailment, and Jin has to be quarantined.
AN: I want you all to know i am huddled behind a shady motel sitting on the ground to post this D: D: D: and to dl the new DBSK pv too…

Gackt-chan Gets the Chicken Pox

“It’s nice to spend a quiet night together,” Jin commented idly, reaching for another handful of popcorn from the bowl in Yamapi’s lap.

Two seconds passed, and then Jin and Yamapi exchanged a glance.

“Did you lose Gackt-chan again?” Jin asked, wrinkling his brow.

“Of course not!” snapped Yamapi, pursing his lips so they wouldn’t make that guilty frown that got him in a trouble a lot. “She’s right here!”

Jin leaned over to see Gackt-chan on the couch on the other side of Yamapi, sprawled out and fast asleep. She was in her soft pink footies, Jin having already gotten his bath with her before Yamapi came over.

“She’s asleep already?” Jin wrinkled his brow harder. “She napped for like three hours this afternoon, the whole way through my shoot! There’s no way she should be tired yet.”

“Hmm.” Yamapi reached down to smooth down Gackt-chan’s hair, then frowned and felt her cheek with the back of his fingers. “She’s a little warm.”

Yamapi set the bowl of popcorn aside and got his hands under Gackt-chan’s armpits to pull her into his lap. Gackt-chan stirred a little, then a little more when Jin called her name and felt her forehead too.

She scrunched up her face when she woke up for real, eyes a little glassy, then coughed a few times. Jin instinctively stuck his fingers in his ears when Gackt-chan sucked in the telltale breath, but Pi, whose hands were busy holding Gackt-chan, was not so lucky and took the full force of her first shriek.

“It’s okay, sweetheart!” Jin yelled over the noise, and Yamapi rubbed Gackt-chan’s back and gave Jin a black look.

******

“Any better?” Jin asked, hovering behind Yamapi as he was settling Gackt-chan onto her bed. He was still worried about leaving her alone without any rails or anything, but she’d just barely outgrown her toddler bed and Ryo kept telling Yamapi that he couldn’t be such a freak about his daughter growing up already or he’d die by the time Gackt-chan was twelve.

“WHAT?” Yamapi answered, because his hearing hadn’t entirely returned yet, and Jin shushed him and earned himself another glare.

Jin pointed at Gackt-chan and made his worried face more exaggerated. Not that much more, given how worried it was in the first place.

“I think her fever’s gone down a bit,” Yamapi said. They’d given her some of the medicine that Koki’s grandmother or something made, and another bath, and she hadn’t been that hot to start with. He motioned Jin closer and turned on Gackt-chan’s Hello Kitty lamp. “What I’m really worried about is this.”

Yamapi tugged down Gackt-chan’s pajama zipper just far enough to show Jin the sprinkle of little red dots across Gackt-chan’s chest.

Jin paled. “Is that…”

“I’m afraid so,” Yamapi sighed. “Chicken pox. And you’ve never had them.”

******

“This is so unfair,” Jin whined into the phone as he trudged down the hallway to KAT-TUN’s dressing room. “Why do you get to stay with Gackt-chan and I can’t even see her?!”

“Jin, you’ve got an album releasing in a week,” Yamapi pointed out with the thinning patience of a man who has said the same thing fifty times in twenty-four hours. “So you absolutely cannot get the chicken pox.”

“But I spent all yesterday with Gackt-chan!” Jin wheedled. “She would have already been contagious!”

“What’s your temperature?” Yamapi asked skeptically.

Jin put a hand to his forehead and pouted. “Normal.”

“Any spots? Coughing? How do you feel?”

“No, no, and fine.” Jin gave a tragic sigh and reached to open the dressing room door. “But Piiii…”

On the other side of the door, Kame was already standing with his hand outstretched and his own cell phone pressed to his ear.

“Hand it over,” he said, and then into the phone, “Don’t worry, I’m taking it. I’ll keep him busy.”

“PI, YOU TRAITOR!” Jin shouted into the phone before Kame snatched it away from his hand. “Hey, if I was talking to Pi, how can you be talking to him too?”

“I have a better question,” Kame said, turning his own phone to show Gackt-chan’s name scrolling across the LCD in glittery pink. “Why does your four-year-old need a cell phone?”

“In case she gets lost!” Jin protested. “She gets lost a lot!”

“She says you get lost a lot,” Kame replied, tucking both phones safely into his pockets.

“That isn’t true at all.” Jin pouted. “Give me my phone back, I forgot to tell Pi something.”

“No, you forgot that your pathetic wiles won’t work on me.” Kame took Jin by the shoulders and plunked him down hard in a makeup chair. “Now, you are going to film an episode of Cartoon KAT-TUN, and Yamapi is going to get some sleep. Then after that, we are going to go over to your apartment and clean the whole thing, because you absolutely cannot get the chicken pox.”

“My wiles fool you all the time,” Jin grumbled, and Kame slapped away the hand that was creeping up his thigh.

******

“There’s really not much to clean,” Ueda commented as he tossed the last stray T-shirt in the laundry basket and looked around, hands on his hips.

“That’s because I’m not here much,” Jin said, voice quiet. He was supposed to be helping, but instead had just wandered from room to room with a rag in his hand, looking mournful despite the very cute bandana covering his hair, until Nakamaru had suggested maybe that he should just sit in the living room, out of the way.

“Oh, Jin.” Ueda sighed and sat down on the couch next to him to hug him. They sat that way for about a minute, then Ueda gave Jin a last squeeze and got up to sit the laundry basket next to the bundle of sheets Junno had tied into a neat bundle and sat near the door.

Jin stayed where he was, pulling his knees up to his chest and letting himself sink deeper into the couch. Maybe he would look like a cushion and they would forget all about him.

“Here.”

Jin looked up to find Kame standing in front of him, one hand on his hip and the other holding out Jin’s cell phone. Kame was still giving in a stern look, though, as Jin snatched the phone out of his hand.

“But just one call, and just for a couple minutes!” Kame said, crossing his arms.

Jin bobbed his head, number speed-dialed in about a tenth of a second and phone already pressed to his ear. “PI!”

“Wow, you went a whole eight hours,” Yamapi said on the other end, voice scratchy from sleep. “I think that’s a personal record for you.”

“There was that once I didn’t talk to you for three whole days because you stepped on my new Tackey and Tsubasa cd.” Jin tried to frown, but the sound of Yamapi’s voice kept making a relieved grin sneak back on. “And why are you still sleeping? Are you both okay?!”

“Text messages count as speaking to me, idiot.” Yamapi yawned. “And we’re fine. I put Gackt-chan down for a nap about an hour ago and must’ve fallen asleep too. Why is her bed more comfortable than mine?”

“Um,” said Jin, because Yamapi didn’t exactly know about the broken springs yet. “How’s her fever?”

“Almost gone. But the itching’s started, so it’s definitely chicken pox.”

“Don’t let her scratch them open!” Jin scratched his own chest just thinking about it. “And make sure her fever doesn’t go over 102, and get her to drink fluids, and…”

“Jin, what did I tell you about looking up medical websites?” Yamapi interrupted. “And anyway, I spent like two hours on the phone with your mother this morning, and now I know so much about the chicken pox I want to climb in the bathtub with my hairdryer. Why does she know so much about the chicken pox if you’ve never had them, by the way?”

“Because she wants me to be aware at all times that she’s a better parent than me,” Jin grumbled, just as Kame tapped his watch with a pointed look.

“She does not,” Yamapi chuckled, warm and sleepy, and Jin wanted to go home so badly that his chest ached like when Yamapi caught him with a lucky elbow in a ninja fight. “And she isn’t. Idiot.”

I miss you, Jin wanted to say, but swallowed hard and said, “I have to go,” instead, and because he was a glorious actor, his voice barely trembled at all.

Yamapi couldn’t see his lower lip over the phone anyway.

“I miss you too,” Yamapi answered, and Jin scowled. “I’ll call you when Gackt-chan wakes up,” and then they both hung up the phone.

“How come being a daddy made Pi smarter,” Jin demanded as he handed back the phone to Kame’s waiting hand, “and being a mommy just made me cry a lot and get chubby?”

“Yamashita didn’t get smarter, he just speaks Bakanishi fluently,” Kame assured, tucking the phone away in his jeans. “And you were only chubby, if that’s what you want to call two kilos, because you think baby food is tasty.”

“What about the crying?” Jin sniffled a little.

“Oh, Jin,” Kame assured, “you were always like that.”

Unlike Yamapi, Kame was not constantly prepared for a ninja fight to break out, and thus went down like Ogata Ryuichi in Hong Kong when Jin sprang off the couch at him.

******

By day three, Jin had settled into an uneasy rhythm of getting up, working until he couldn’t see straight, and then passing out, only to get up and do it all over again. Yamapi would call a couple times a day with updates, or sometimes just email Jin pictures. That morning he had sent one of him and Gackt-chan connecting her chicken pox with markers.

Gackt-chan had been beaming proudly because of her whatever it was that four-year-olds thought they were drawing. Yamapi had made three stars and written “YOU ARE ANGEL,” one word in each star. They were both giving Jin a V.

“I want this host to die a horrible death,” Koki murmured behind his bright stage smile as they waved their goodbyes to the audience during the longest end credits in the history of mankind.

Jin nodded, in total agreement with his usually squishy-centered bandmate. On Jin’s other side, Nakamaru just grunted since he’d been unexpectedly and hopefully temporarily damaged by a surprise request for lengthy beatboxing.

“Hurry up, hurry up!” Ueda hissed, shoving the others in front of him as soon as they could gracefully exit the stage. When they were in the wings, dodging around stagehands, Ueda sighed with relief and explained, “I think she was going to suggest we go out for drinks or something.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Junno agreed, still swiping at the smudge of pink lipstick the woman had left on his cheek. “Where’d Kame get to?”

“All set?” Kame asked as he sauntered up, grin victorious and sharp. “As a thank-you gift to our beautiful host, I offered to set up Matsumoto-kun as a guest for her next week.”

Over the noise of six idols cackling in schadenfraude, Jin’s phone went off, playing BEST FRIEND and making Ueda scrunch up his face in artistic pain.

“It’s Pi!” Jin shouted gleefully, just in case there was anybody left on the island that couldn’t have figured that out, then he thumbed the accept button and shouted, “PI!” into it.

“OKAASANISHI!”

“Gackt-chan?” Jin clamped down hard on the lurch his heart gave in his chest, because he was trying not to cry in public any more than usual this week. “How are you, sweetie?”

“Are you lost?” Gackt-chan demanded. “Pi-tousan says I can’t see you FOREVER.”

In the background, Jin heard Yamapi protest, “I said four days!”

“That’s FOREVER,” Gackt-chan insisted, and Jin agreed fervently. “Aren’t you coming home YET?”

“I want to!” Jin said, giving Ueda a pleading look because he was probably going to lose it at any second, and Ueda and Kame started herding everyone back to the dressing room, keeping Jin in the middle of the group. “But I can’t until you stop itching, you know that.”

“I won’t itch at all, promise!” Gackt-chan whined, and Jin winced and wondered what moron had taught her that. “Please, Okaasanishi? Pi-tousan can’t sing ‘Devil or Angel’ right.”

“You’ve been singing her WHAT as a lullaby?!” Jin heard Yamapi shout in the background. “I’ll show you who sings what right! Gimme that phone!”

“NO, Pi-tousan!” Gackt-chan shrieked, and then there was unmistakable noises of tickling. “Okaasanishi, make him quit!”

Jin snickered in spite of himself until the noise cut off and Yamapi got on the line. “Say ‘bai-bai’ to your Okaasanishi, he’s at work.”

Jin echoed Gackt-chan’s “BAI-BAI” somewhat less enthusiastically, then sniffled as much as he wanted because they were finally back in the dressing room. They were supposed to be changing and then rushing to some photo thing, but Jin just stood in the middle of the room with one hand hanging at his side and watched the others bustle about.

“We’re going to watch Shounen Club tonight,” Yamapi was telling him. “I hear somebody got a solo with a couple of his favorite kouhai even after all the whining.”

“Only because their very important guest MC is ‘home with the flu’ all week,” Jin retorted, as light as he could make it. “Good thing you taught me that dance.”

“Hey, wait,” Yamapi’s frown was audible, “you thought that was a striptease…”

“I still have most of my clothes at the end,” Jin assured. “But I didn’t bother to disillusion Yamashita-kun and Yabu-kun…” Jin paused to let Yamapi snort in disbelief, grinning because Yamapi would see all right. “You shouldn’t let her stay up like that, she’s sick.”

“She feels okay, just itchy,” Yamapi said. “And she misses her Okaasanishi.”

“Oh god, you’re useless,” Kame said, finally taking note of Jin’s lack of being changed, and began stripping off Jin’s designer jeans in an efficient and practiced manner. Jin let him do what he wanted so long as the phone could stay glued to his ear.

“Kame’s taking your clothes off, isn’t he?” Yamapi asked, sounded disgruntled but resigned.

“Yes, but don’t worry,” Jin answered, “there isn’t any emotion involved, it’s just a tedious, loveless farce.”

“Stop reading Ueda’s books,” Kame and Yamapi said simultaneously. And then Kame added, “Okay, that’s it, I need your arm.”

“I have to go,” Jin said, and then, because he was a really poor example of Japanese social decorum anyway, “Pi, I really miss you.”

“Me too,” Yamapi said. “Four more days.”

“Forever,” Jin repeated gloomily, then Koki pried the phone out of his hand and Kame yanked his shirt the rest of the way off.

*****

On day five, Jin was poking listlessly at a salad the size of a 500 Yen coin and trying to talk Nakamaru and Junno into going off their approved food lists when his phone rang.

“So let me tell you about oatmeal baths,” Yamapi began without preamble.

“Okay?” Jin said.

“They smell really good, you know, like oatmeal. But have you ever actually been in one?”

“No,” Jin rolled his eyes, “I think we’ve established that I have not.”

“They’re disgusting,” Yamapi made a gagging noise. “You only put enough in to make the water sort of chunky, and then you get little oatmeal flakes in your hair and in your armpits and up your…”

Jin hung up on Yamapi for the first time all week.

*****

The TV wasn’t even on while Jin was sitting on the couch staring at it, but the phone was already sitting his hand when it rang.

“If this is about oatmeal baths…” Jin started.

“I have good news,” Yamapi said, “and I have bad news.”

“All Gackt-chan’s chicken pox are dried out a day ahead of schedule?” Jin asked, crossing his fingers and toes and eyes.

“Yes,” Yamapi added quickly, “but Jin…”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes!” Jin shoved the phone in his pocket without bothering to turn it off, then ran outside without a jacket or a hat or even sunglasses, barely managing to throw on sandals, and flagged down the first taxi he saw with wild, sweeping hand motions.

He all but shouted the address at the driver, who looked up at his mirror, then turned around.

“Hey,” he said, “aren’t you…”

“I’ll sign anything you want if you get me there in under ten minutes,” Jin interrupted.

Nine and a half minutes later, Jin was bolting up the stairs to Yamapi’s apartment, leaving a sandal on the second floor landing and practically collapsing against Yamapi’s door in lieu of knocking.

The door opened and a pink blur attacked Jin’s legs, shrieking his name happily. Jin shrieked right back as he bent to scoop Gackt-chan up, letting her yank on his hair and twirling her around in a circle.

“She’s going to puke on you,” Yamapi commented from the doorway, where he was leaning with his arms crossed. “And why are you only wearing one sandal?”

“Cause you don’t have me naked in your bed yet?” Jin suggested, reaching out to yank Yamapi into the hug.

Jin frowned when Yamapi held up a hand to push him away. “Sorry, Bakanishi, but you didn’t let me tell you the bad news…”

Yamapi grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and lifted it; his chest was covered in little red spots. Jin’s jaw dropped.

“You JERK!” Jin howled. “You’ve never had the chicken pox either!”

“Looks that way, huh?” Yamapi rubbed the back of his neck while Jin’s mouth worked in silent fury. “So listen, Gackt-chan’s are all dried out so she’s safe, but mine haven’t quite…”

Yamapi cut off with a yelp as Jin planted a hand in the middle of his chest and shoved him back into his apartment, making him stumble backwards onto his butt.

“You’ve got twenty-four hours,” Jin said, shifting Gackt-chan to one side to point menacingly. “And then I am coming back here, stripping off all your clothes, and you are gonna pay.”

Jin stomped off to get his sandal, Gackt-chan waving over his shoulder and chirping, “Bai-bai, Pi-tousan!”

*****

“So he’s a moron,” Ryo shrugged, spreading his hands palm up from his slump in the director-style chair. “What’s news about that?”

“Nothing,” Jin grumbled, kicking at one of the tiny pillows that his photoshoot seemed to involve eight thousand of. “But I’m still not speaking to him.”

The pillow landed next to Gackt-chan, knocking over two of the plastic ponies she was playing with, and she threw it back at Jin with a frown. “Texting counts, Okaasanishi.”

“It sure does, baby,” Ryo agreed, and Jin threw up his hands at the constant betrayal he was surrounded by. “We had stuff to do this week, too, you know. Yamapi got himself a lot of unpleasant corporation attention to do this for you, and he’s not going to have another day off for a long time, no matter how crappy he feels.”

Jin said nothing and kicked pillow #7,999.

“What are you playing?” Ryo asked Gackt-chan, leaning forward to get a better look at the ponies. The two on the floor that she was re-positioning meticulously had braids that stuck out at funny angles.

“Photoshoot,” Gackt-chan informed him, barely looking up. She held up the pony in her hand. “This one is the photographer,” she pointed to the two on the ground, “and those two are the slaves.”

“What disturbs me most,” Ryo said, leaning back, “is how well she understands the industry.”

“BREAK TIME IS OVER!” bellowed the photographer, making Jin and Ryo nearly fall out of their chairs.

“BREAK OVER!” Gackt-chan made the photographer pony yell, then knocked the other two over with a sweep of her hand.

*****

“I’m speaking to you again,” Jin informed Yamapi as soon as he opened the door.

“Jin, you texted me forty-seven times today,” Yamapi said, waving them into the apartment. Gackt-chan bounced in with an air of ownership, a plastic pony stable bouncing against her leg. “Also, have you seen what she does with those things? Do you think we should take them away?”

“I gave her ponies because of the things she was doing with dolls,” Jin sighed. He handed Yamapi a plastic container. “Ryo says it’s all totally normal. I bring you the famous Akanishi soup.”

“You can’t cook worth a damn.” Yamapi opened the lid of the container cautiously.

“I didn’t say I made it,” Jin retorted testily, “I said I was bringing it! And my mother says she told you so. Did everybody know but me?”

“Yup.” Yamapi offered Jin a lopsided smile. “Even Gackt-chan. Sorry, sweetheart. But I hear KAT-TUN is Oricon’s number one album.”

“I hear you might never get another day off ever again.” Jin took Yamapi’s chin between his thumb and forefinger to hold his face still and give him a serious look. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

“You can start by coming out of the hallway where respectable people might see us,” Yamapi answered, kissing Jin’s thumb and then twisting out of his grip to go inside. “And then maybe inspecting me to see if every single chicken pox is dried up.”

“That’s really gross,” Jin wrinkled his nose, then realization set in. “You mean…”

“I need to be examined very closely,” Yamapi called over his shoulder, giving his butt just a tiny extra wiggle, and Jin slammed the door faster than you could say “TegoMassu’s first single.”

*****

“It’s nice to spend a quiet evening together like this,” Jin commented, curled up with Yamapi on the couch and rubbing his foot against Yamapi’s bare calf.

“Don’t you start that again,” Yamapi ordered sternly, and on the floor Gackt-chan sent one of the ponies to the dungeon.