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je, question?

JE: Teacher, question (1/1)
Title: Teacher, question (1/1)
Fandom: QUESTION?
Author: blahchiharu
Rating: PG
wordcount: 4202





“This is possibly the worst set of outfits in shokura history,” Fujiie declares upon receiving the pieces of his stage costume. He frowns when Yodogawa snatches the plaid fabric on top and unfolds it.

“Maybe it’s a poncho,” Yodogawa offers with a sluggish grin as he whirls the fabric around. “It looks like a table cloth.”

“More like a picnic cloth, Yody,” Ishigaki snorts from his seat. He picks up another piece from Fujiie’s stash and stops, “Is this supposed to be a dress?” Akun is by their side now, oo-ing and ahh-ing as Yodogawa ties the plaid fabric over his head, succeeding somewhat in mimicking a nun.

“And what is this supposed to be?” Fujiie goes on, picking up a gray piece of wool-like cloth. “Why is there only one sock?”

“You wear the fabric over your pants,” Yonemura cuts in at last, “And that’s not a sock. It’s a glove.”

“Are you sure?” Ishigaki eyes the glove suspiciously. “It looks like a sock to me.”

“Johnny must hate me,” Fujiie decides at last, sinking into his seat as his gaze travels from the poncho to the picnic cloth and then to the sock. He attempts to convince Yodogawa to switch outfits with him, mumbling something about how “they won’t even see it behind your drum set!”

“It’s okay; I have a suspicious piece of clothing too.” Ishigaki grins as he picks up a plaid choker-like thing. “I don’t know where to put it. It’s too thick for my neck.”

“Maybe it’s a garter,” Akun snickers. “They probably mixed up your outfit with Yori’s. That garter goes with his dress.” He shuts up when Fujiie sends him a dark look.

After a couple minutes of throwing the garter around the room, Yodogawa and Ishigaki are forced to stop their imaginary picnic on top of Fujiie’s outfit when Julie comes into the room, eyeing them slowly. “I’m not even going to ask,” she says, turning her attention away from the drummer and the pianist. “Just get dressed.” She leaves before any of the boys can reply.

“I can’t get dressed if I don’t know how to wear it!” Fujiie complains in the middle of tying the picnic cloth over his waist. “I’d like to meet the person who designed this and bash him over the head with my bass.”

It takes ten minutes for everyone to stop throwing matching plaid pieces at each other and get dressed, and then another ten minutes for Fujiie to stop stuffing pieces of his outfit down his shirt. He grudgingly follows his band mates out the room, swearing that he’ll push the next junior who makes fun of his outfit off the stage.

“Took you girls long enough,” Julie mumbles as she looks up from her cliff board. She eyes Fujiie for a moment before speaking up slowly, “why do you have a sock on your right hand?”

Yodogawa laughs on Ishigaki’s shoulder until he cries.

Akun likes to collect magazine cut-outs. He starts to place random QUESTION? pages in a shoe box in his locker upon entering the band, and ever since then the other members have brought in spare cut-outs for his shoebox. “This deserves celebration,” he declares one day when the box is finally full.

“You can treat us to that new restaurant?” Fujiie suggests.

“I can take you guys to Okinawa,” Akun says instead, succeeding in getting the other men’s attention. “My sister is getting married next week and there are a couple of extra rooms at the resort. Want to come?” He grins, eyeing the other band members expectedly.

“Aren’t four dates a little too much?” Yodogawa smiles.

“Well, she’s always telling me to introduce her to my ‘attractive co-workers’.” Akun laughs, pulling out a folded wedding invitation from his pocket. “Her fiancé’s family owns the resort, so it’s not a big deal. He’s always calling me a loner, so I need you guys there to redeem my honor.”

The fact that no one can resist a free vacation is evident as the five of them board the train that following Friday. Yori eats his own bento and then proceeds to eye Yody’s before the drummer forfeits his food. Yone spends most of the trip gazing out at the country side while music from Gaki’s mp3 plays in the background.

Akun’s cousin, Haruka, greets them at the station. “Here’s the address of the hotel,” she tells them, shoving a piece of paper into Akun’s hand as she calls for a cab. “I need to head off to the bridal shop,” she adds, “gown emergency, you know? Girl stuff.” She runs off afterwards, but not before winking at Ishigaki’s direction.

Gaki drones on about Haruka during the cab ride, asking questions and making comments about the possibility of cute tourist girls before Akun shuts him up with a brisk, “she’s too young for you.”

Everyone is speechless upon exiting the cab. Yone stares, eyes wide as they walk up the pavilion surrounding the mansion-like hotel. There’s a limo parked in the front gate, and Yody spends a minute staring at his reflection in the dark windshield before Akun finally pulls him along.

“Exactly who is your sister marrying?” Gaki asks as he continuously rings the bell at the front desk. He pauses for a minute to glance around the ridiculously grand lounge filled with European furniture. “And does this person have a sister?”

“Honda-san will be with you soon,” the attendant cuts in from behind the check-in counter, slowly pulling the bell away from Ishigaki. He greets Akun and hands him a batch of room keys. “Your luggage will be taken into your rooms shortly.”

“There are too many keys,” Akun says after he hands them out in pairs of two. “We only need two; I can bunk with someone.”

The attendant looks horrified at the mere concept, “Igo-san, please don’t argue with me. I want to keep my job, and that’s what the boss ordered.”

Honda turns out to be a short business man and everything Fujiie expects from a hotel heir. He laughs and attempts to pat Akun on the back, although the height difference renders the act rather awkward. “Your rooms are on the third floor, away from the bridal suit, just in case you boys get some ideas about the bachelorettes.”

Yody exchanges looks with Yone, not sure whether he should be insulted or not. Regardless, they follow Honda into their rooms before the man is called away to tend to the caterer.

“It’s better than the rooms we slept in on tour,” Gaki decides after glancing around his shared room with Yone.

They spend the rest of Friday exploring the hotel pool. Fujiie thinks that it’s a little moot, since the resort is within walking distance of the beach. A huge dinner ensues later in the evening where Akun spends thirty minutes introducing his band mates to everyone.

“So where’s the bride?” Yone asks when everyone is seated at their table of five. He glances around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of someone with a strong resemblance to Akun.

“Cecilia got called away for something,” Akun answers briskly before turning his attention to the golden retriever that has just ran into the room. The dog circles around a couple of people before running up to Honda and lying down on the floor next to the man.

“This is Miki,” Honda explains loud enough for everyone to hear. “He’s my father’s dog.”

Saturday is spent visiting the tourist shops and sight viewing. They return to the hotel in time to be dragged into Honda’s bachelor party filled with drunken young men and ridiculously loud music in the background.

“I want to make a toast,” the best man says later in the night. “Because this is Honda’s last night as an unmarried man, we’re going to get drunk until we forget that there’s a wedding tomorrow!” He raises his beer along with half of the room, but stops when he receives a glare from Akun.

“His friends seem lively,” Yody comments when they’re walking back to the rooms. It’s already past midnight before they finally escape from the party, and the drummer is already yawning by the time they get out of the elevator.

“His friends are drunk,” Akun corrects, reaching for his doorknob. “Set your cell phones to nine tomorrow. The wedding is at noon, but most likely it’ll get delayed.”

It’s already past two by the time Fujiie finishes in the shower. He spends three hours staring at the ceiling of the room, attempting to fall asleep as Yody slept soundlessly from the bed next to his. He ends up waking at six when the sun is barely above the horizon. Fujiie sighs, pulls on a pair of jeans, and walks out of the room with a white t-shirt. He realizes that the kitchen isn’t open by the time he gets to the first floor, and ends up wandering out of the hotel’s side door.

Fujiie finds a small path leading into a patch of woods west of the resort. “This is where the murderer jumps out and attacks you,” Yori says to himself as he follows the path through the forest. He ends up at a small enclosed beach with dazzling white sand. The only other occupant is a young woman playing with a familiar dog.

The woman stops upon spotting Fujiie, throwing the Frisbee into the shallow water behind her as Miki chases after it. “Hello,” she says, a small smile gracing her lips. The rising sun behind her causes her skin to seemingly glow. She pulls her already folded sweat-pants up further as she walks out of the water, Miki following after her with the Frisbee in his mouth. “Out for a jog?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Fujiie replies, taking a seat on the sand. “There was too much excitement from the bachelor party.” It doesn’t occur to him that the girl may not be part of the wedding.

“There’s always a party going on,” the stranger says, sitting down next to Fujiie while petting Miki. “Are you a guest of the groom? I haven’t seen you around before.”

“I’m a guest of the bride’s brother?” Fujiie laughs a little, pushing a strand of hair away from his eye.

“Ah,” the woman nods knowingly. “You’re from the band.”

“Yeah,” Fujiie mumbles in return.

“My cousin watches Shokura all the time,” she goes on, knocking lightly at Fujiie’s arm. “She says it’s because Akun is an awesome guitarist, but I think she fancies the drummer.” She pulls her knees towards her chest, hair framing her face as she turns to Fujiie. “What instrument do you play? Bass?”

Yori nods, a little surprised.

“I recognized you from the poster,” the woman says, not bothering to elaborate more. “Maybe I can get Akun to give me a free pass to the show?”

“You’ll have to ask him for that,” Fujiie grins.

“Nah,” she grins. “He’s afraid that I’ll leap off one of those bars and onto stage, or something equally ridiculous. The reason no one has done it already is probably because they don’t want to break a leg.”

“Yody’s drum set will cushion the fall,” Fujiie smirks, setting his face down on his knees as he turns to laugh.

“Really?” The stranger grins. “I’ll definitely test that out sometime.”s

“I’m Fujiie,” the bassist says as extends his hand out, smiling somewhat.

“Cecilia,” the woman says at last, brushing locks of her hair behind her neck before shaking Fujiie’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”











Yonemura has nothing against children, but like everyone else in the jimusho, he’s not particular fond of babysitting after a pack of preteens. This is why he is currently rubbing his temple as a pack of chibi juniors chases each other around the hallway, his cup of coffee on the floor as his shirt suffers from possibly irreversible damage. “I could crush their neck with my fist,” he says slowly, hoping that the kids will hear him and get the message. They don’t.

“I’ll buy you a new one, kay?” Yodogawa says as he pats the taller boy on the back, although Yone is not sure whether the drummer is referring to the coffee or the shirt.

“The next junior that runs into me is going to suffer severe trauma,” Yonemura decides, turning around just in time for Morimoto Ryutaro to collide into his side.

Ryutaro picks himself up quickly, hand still grasping onto his Santa hat as another junior comes chasing after him with reindeer antlers. He starts to dash away, but stops when Yonemura tugs at his collar, causing him to stumble back.

“Nice hat. Are you waiting for Santa this year?” Yonemura asks.

Kyomoto catches up to Ryutaro, pausing a little as they nod at Yone.

“You want to know something interesting? Santa is not real-" Yonemura begins, but is pushed aside by Yodogawa as the older boy continues with a quick shout of “-not really Japanese!”

“Really?” Kyomoto blinks as he peers up at the drummer. “Is that why he’s so fat? American people are fat.”

“Santa is not fat,” Yodogawa made a face as he patted Kyomoto on the head. “He’s jolly. Don’t insult Santa or you’ll end up on the naughty list.” He then shooed the chibis away, warning them to keep their voices down. He turned to Yone, face serious, “you could have destroyed their dreams! What if they wanted to be the next Santa Clause?”

“No one wants to be Santa Clause,” Yone snorts, shoving the shorter boy a littler. “They either want to be the next Kimutaku or Kamenashi.”

“I just wanted to be Yody,” Yodogawa frowns. “It’d be nice if someone idolized over me.”

“Nah, that’s kind of creepy. Doesn’t Chinen practically stalk Onho?” Yone decides, making his way back into the rehearsal room.







Yodogawa knew exactly why he joined the jimusho; he saw it as reinventing himself.

“You’re a free spirit,” his mother tells him. “But they’ll try to change you and mold you into everyone else. Before long you’ll forget your favorite color, your favorite food, and the quirky details that makes you, you. When you act like someone, soon enough you’ll become that person.”

“I don’t know who I am right now,” he says. “If the jimusho will turn me into someone, anyone, then I’ll take that offer.”

At age seventeen, Yodogawa had few aspirations to follow and no real dream to chase. He never harbored any delusions of mass grandeur; the pay was decent and his schedule was flexible enough to put him through university. He didn’t expect QUESTION? to last at first. “Juniors come and go, bands come and go, and fame comes and goes.” Mary had warned them at the introduction meeting.

“I’m tired of this crap,” Yonemura says when they’re playing some sweet, teensy pop song for the tenth time. “I want to play something good.” It’s the first time Yodogawa hears the guitarist say anything more than two syllables long.

“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Noda tells Yonemura. “Let’s take it from the beginning.”

Yodogawa knew that everyone had their own reasons for joining; Fujiie wanted to try something different before sealing his fate and following his father’s career, Yonemura wanted to play his guitar, and Yodogawa just wanted to be someone. He never knew Noda’s reason, and Noda never told them.

“The trick is to only smile when the camera zooms in on you,” Fujiie tells Yodogawa. “It makes you look mysterious but friendly, you know?”

“How can someone know you’re friendly if you’re mysterious?” Yonemura questions behind his guitar as he played around with random chords. “Who told you that in the first place?”

“Kitayama,” Fujiie pauses. “But I guess it’s easier to play the role of a tortured artist when we have instruments,” Fujiie says, adjust the strap to his electric bass.

“The only people who are truly tortured are the ones who have to listen to this song excessively.” Yone mumbles.

“You mean us?” Yodogawa grins, causing everyone else to start laughing. He turns around and finds Noda in the corner with an unreadable expression on his face. Yone dislikes the songs they play, but he’ll never refuse the jimusho because he loves playing the guitar. Noda, on the other hand, doesn’t.

No one is surprised when Noda leaves the band. In the course of a few months, they manage to gain a keyboardist but lose a guitarist. The jimusho is too busy dealing with NEWS’ scandal to care. “We’ll shoot a couple of Shounen Club Premiere episodes to fill in the time slot until we find a replacement for Noda,” Julie tells them.

Yodogawa takes a weekend off to help a pair of friends move into their new apartment. Miharu and Nakao have been dating as long as Yodogawa has known them, so he gladly takes chance to meet with a couple of old friends from high school.

“Yoshi-kun, are you still in that band?” Miharu asks when everyone finishes shifting the furniture around. She passes Keigo and Sora a six pack of beer.

“Yeah,” Yodogawa accepts the beer, but ends up staring at the frosted bottle in his hand. “We just lost a guitarist, though. The jimusho is trying to find a replacement, but I don’t know where they’ll find one.”

“Really?” Sora blinks, turning to face the boy. “I have a friend who plays the guitar. He’s fresh out of high school and is taking a break before starting college.” She pulls out her cell phone, “do you want his number?”

“Um, sure.” Yodogawa shrugs. He thinks that there’s no harm in trying, and accepts the number from Sora.

“Bring him in to meet me,” Mary says when Yodogawa brings the topic up. Yori and Yone give him unsure looks as Yodogawa wanders off to call Sora.

Igo Akun is only one-fourth Japanese. He’s tall and unlike anyone Yodogawa has ever met before. Gaki makes a joke about how Akun should join the NBA instead of the jimusho, but stops when Mary shushes him.

“You don’t fit into the band’s image,” Mary says, eyeing the boy. “Then again, Question? is supposed to a deviation from our other talents. It just might work.”












Akun is summoned home one weekend, and the other members decide that there’s no use in going to a gambling pool without the guitarist. Akun was the only one good at cards, anyways. They end up in a club instead; Ishigaki flirts with a random girl while Fujiie whips down an array of shots at the bar. Yone declines the free drink from a cute bartender and ends up reading messages from Akun on his cell phone, although his last few e-mails all revolve around the lines of “women are scary when in labor.”

Yodogawa spends the beginning of the night dancing. He comes back to the bar in time to see another shot passed down to Fujiie. “How many have you had?” Yody frowns, eyeing the younger boy with disapproval.

“I’m fine,” Yori mumbles, reaching for the shot glass. He pulls back when Yody swats his hand away. “What? This one is already on my tab.” His reply comes out slurred.

“Fine, then.” Yodogawa snatches the shot glass and drinks it instead, making a face afterwards as he complains about the after taste. “Give me something that’ll wash the taste down,” he tells the bartender.

Yori is too intoxicated to warn the drummer, and by the time Yone looks up from his cell-phone, Yody is already finishing the glass of suspiciously colored beverage.

Ishigaki returns with Mariko-Chan’s number in time to find Yodogawa resting on Yone’s shoulder while Fujiie babbles on incoherently about something or another. “Dude, I told you Yody will pass out after a few drinks.”

“I thought you said Yori could handle his liquor,” Yone says instead, pulling Yodogawa back up when the drummer slumps down his chest. He nods towards the bassist, who is currently arguing about SMAP with the wall next to him. “I don’t even know how many drinks he had,” Yone says.

“Fifteen,” the bartender offers from behind the bar. “You’re paying for his tab, right?”

“I have a feeling that Yori is dangerously intoxicated,” Yone says when he’s pulling Yodogawa into the backseat of the cab. There’s some kind of drool on his shirt while his wallet suffers from a heavy blow. “Fifteen shots are not good for him.”

“No, he’s fine.” Gaki assures the other boy, albeit unconvincingly, as he gives the cab driver directions.

“Why are we going back to my apartment?” Yone asks when they’re half way out of the district and when his eyes adjust to the darkness outside of the cab. Yodogawa is currently napping on his lap while Fujiie trash-talks the cab door.

“I don’t want Yori in my bathroom when he wakes up with a hangover,” Gaki says flatly from the passenger seat.

Fujiie is passed out on Yonemura’s couch by the time the pianist and guitarist manage to drag Yodogawa’s body into the second floor apartment. Ishigaki invites himself into the kitchen and heats up two bowels of ramen. They spend the rest of the night watching a ninja warrior marathon on Yone’s television while Fujiie snores lightly in the background. Yody doesn’t make a sound at all as he sleeps on Yone’s bed in the other room.

Yonemura wakes up the next morning to the sound of Yori throwing up in his bathroom. He rubs his eyes a few times and makes out the image of Yody hovering over Yori as the younger boy made use of the toilet. Yody comes out of the bathroom a few minutes later with water running in the background, his damp hair drizzling water onto one of Yone’s old shirts. “He came in while I was taking a shower.”

“Locks are designed to keep perverts at bay, you know.” Ishigaki says as he pulls himself up from the floor, stretching a bit.

“I don’t know how you can find your sense of humor this early in the morning,” Yody replies, yawning a little. “Yori reeked so badly afterwards that I let him use the shower instead. I’m just going to go find some more clothes from your closet,” he says to Yone before wandering off, barefoot making pattering sounds on the floor.

“Eh, it’s definitely past eleven,” Ishigaki corrects, although Yody probably doesn’t hear it.

“Shoot,” Yone mumbles as he picks his cell phone up from the floor. He flips the phone open to read the last of Akun’s messages from early this morning, smiling at the last line. “Akun is now an uncle to twins,” he declares to no one in particular.

“Maybe he’ll teach them how to play the guitar,” Gaki laughs as he raids through Yone’s fridge.

“I need to stop babying you guys,” the guitarist decides when Yori comes out of the bathroom wrapped in Yone’s towel, flipping through the cabinets without permission while demanding painkillers for his head.









“MATCHY with QUESTION?,” Mary says triumphantly, looking at the members of QUESTION? as if she expects some sort of applause.

“I don’t speak English” is Akun’s first reaction.

Mary ignores the comment and explains, “Kondo Masahiko has requested a collaboration with the band. He carries some weight around the industry, as you may already know. Recordings will start next week in time for it to be used for Naruto Shippuden.”

“Naruto Shippuden?” Yone pauses. “My younger brother watches that.”

“Are you sure you don’t?” Fujiie grins, shoving the guitarist a little.

“Shut up, you’re the one with Naruto hair.”

“Moving on,” Mary cuts in. “This collaboration will work in your favor; both Kondo’s fame and the anime’s popularity will bring more attention onto QUESTION?. Consider this a charity from Kondo.”

“Then who the hell is MATCHY?” Akun asks when Mary temporarily leaves the room.

“MATCHY, Kondo Masahiko,” Yody recites, drumming in the air as he looks around. “He was Johnny’s golden boy from the 1980s. He also owns a race car team and used to date Akina Nakamori.”

“Someone has a Chinen-Ohno complex,” Yone says after awhile.

“I do not!” Yody waves his drumsticks in a threatening way. “My mother used to listen to his records when I was young. You don’t know how many times Midnight Shuffle has played in my house! I hid his records from her one time, and she threw a spatula at me and made me apologize to her MATCHY poster.”

“Your poor mother suffered a lot to bring you into this world, the least you can do is to respect her idol,” someone says from the doorway.

Yody turns around and nearly drops his drumsticks. Mary is now back, followed by an unfamiliar man. There is something about his stance that commands respect. “This is Kondo Masahiko,” Mary explains, although the introduction is unnecessarily.

“I think Yodogawa wants an autograph,” Mary says after a few minutes of silence.

Gaki suddenly raises his hand in the air.

“You don’t need to raise your hand to speak; I’m not your teacher.” MATCHY smiles.




.end.
Preview of upcoming attractions
- Background Static 3, yes, it's coming D:
-Ambitious Boys 2

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AND UM, is it safe for me to claim the first QUESTION? fic spot? :D?