Starlight
Summary: Behind the scenes of a variety show with rapper and leader of male group rEVOLUTIONary road Taichi Yagami and front woman of girlband butter-FLY Mimi Tachikawa.
Superstars AU.
Warnings: This is going to be a series of non-linear drabbles based on the superstars AU series of edit I've come up with a while back on Tumblr. If you go on my blog (I'm user dianaagron there) you'll find all the edits and headcanons here: (dianaagron |.| tumblr |.| com /tagged/ds*), remove all the spaces and vertical lines.
If you want you can check that out to have more background story, or just a better idea of what's going on.
Author's Note: As it seems, I'm back. I wrote this today really randomly, and I hope it won't disappoint too much. I know it's not long and it's not even /that/ shippy, but I enjoyed writing it and I hope my portrayal of the two baes isn't too bad.
Be clement, and thanks for staying :)
rEVOLUTIONary road (debuted in 2008)
Taichi Yagami (leader and rapper)
Yamato Ishida (lead vocalist)
Jyou Kido (vocalist)
Koushiro Izumi (vocalist)
butter-FLY (debuted in 2009)
Sora Takenouchi (drums)
Mimi Tachikawa (vocals)
Miyako Inoue (guitar)
Hikari Yagami (keyboard)
Owl Zone (debuted in 2012)
Takeru Takaishi (vocals)
Daisuke Motomiya (drums)
Iori Hida (bass)
Ken Ichijouji (soloist, debuted in 2014)
May 2013
.
He peeks through the curtain that shields her from the area filled with people walking fast one way or another, moving cameras and hangers full of clothes and talking to phones and themselves, but most importantly not paying attention to him.
"Get out." Is her response.
She doesn't even bother wasting a single second to look at his face, she just shoves him away with her hand.
"That's not nice." He mutters, more to himself than to her (she's not going to care), and turns his back to the curtain, arms crossed over his puffed up chest.
He notices two girls whispering to each other while staring at him - they must be with the fashion team, according to the peculiar way they're wearing their blouses - and he sends a wink their way; they giggle, one covers her mouth with a hand while the other hides her face behind the folder of papers she's holding and they quickly storm off.
"When you're done flirting with the interns —" he hears her voice coming from behind him, "will you move?"
He smiles (or, actually, he grins) and decides to move a bit to the right to purposively block her from the way out of the changing room, if you can call the small area behind the washed out grey curtain that.
"You forgot the magic word." He chants as he turns his head, sneaking a look to see her still behind him, glaring before she flashes him with one of her best fake smiles and tells him:
"Taichi, sweet, talented, handsome Taichi, will you please move?"
That pleases him - she knew it would - and with a grand gesture (exaggerated arm swing included) he takes a step back.
Mimi's smile disappears as soon as she walks out, and she makes sure to side-eye him as she surpasses him.
"So annoying." She mutters, and she's glad that all the crew of the variety show they're about to shoot is too busy to even notice their exchange - she has an image to keep intact, if you must know, and Taichi Yagami, rapper and leader of well known boyband rEVOLUNTIONary road, the number one male idols of Japan, five years in the industry, countless awards' nominees and winners, Taichi Yagami, is probably the worst person to have around if she wants to show the world just how charming and pleasing she truly is.
"Did you purposively choose a shirt one size too small to show off?" She asks him as she runs her eyes from the top of his head to his feet. "I doubt the fashion team gave you that."
As Taichi opens his mouth to reply, she walks past him to head to the buffet table, visibly uninterested in his answer. He follows her nonetheless, diving through the obstacles made of people between him and her, already a couple of feet away.
"Actually," he starts as he dives left to avoid a VJ running to the other end of the area, "I had no say." He finishes, landing next to her. He's quick to scan what the staff has provided them for lunch: he spots the tower of rice rolls, grabs one and offers it to Mimi. She looks at it, then at him, then opens her mouth.
He feeds her nonchalantly, just as she chews the food and nods to herself.
"Try the other one." She instructs him with her mouth still half full, pointing at the plate next to the one he took the first rice roll from, and he knows she means he lets her try the ones on the other plate, and not to get one for himself.
And the thing is, that's exactly what he does. He gets the other kind of roll and gives it to her, who's waiting with her mouth open again for him to feed her. If he snickers, it's because of the funny face she makes every time she eats something she thoroughly enjoys. Alas, she lets out what he imagines would be the sound she makes as - well, you know.
"So good." She asserts, grabbing his forearm and shaking it. Taichi is about to reply with one of his favorite innuendos, but one of the producers denies him the opportunity as she approaches the pair, one headphone over one ear and the other pushed back, talking fast to the microphone attached.
"Everyone, attention." The producer talks quietly, but everyone is silent as she holds up her arm to gather eyes on her. Mimi gulps and looks at Taichi startled, and he places his hands on her shoulders to turn her around so that she faces the producer.
"We'll start shooting shortly. The guests will enter one by one as they're called… You'll be waiting over there — I'm sure all of you read the script, you know who you'll be paired up with -"
There's a general nodding as the producer goes over some points she wants to clarify, but Taichi is not listening to her, and a glance shot towards Mimi lets him know she isn't either, based on how her eyes, though they seem to be following the producer's gestures, are lost in a world of her own.
To be fair, that's a pretty common occurrence between them idols (or celebrities in general) even more so when they're idols who've been in the industry for a long time and familiar with variety shows and TV appearances, to not pay attention to the usual run down of the script before shooting starts. He associates it to the security measures explanations they give you when you're on a plane about to take off: when you travel by air too often, you've listened to the stewards explain those rules so many times you don't really need to hear every single word again. Besides, it's his seventh appearance on the show, and he's pretty sure she's also been a guest at least five or six times already.
They love Mimi - he can see it in the way the camera workers who are veterans on the show greet her and how the head fashion assistant is always laughing when it's time to get Mimi ready, and the same also applies to the other familiar faces of the crew.
He can see why that's the way it is: besides the fact that she's the front woman of the most popular four members girlband in Japan nowadays, butter-FLY, he's known her for long enough to notice things. Like how whenever she's around, she smiles so much you start to wonder if she doesn't have some disease that doesn't allow her lips to purse, or how she remembers the name of each staff member, and she's so thoughtful to them that she brings treats whenever she knows they're gonna have a long shooting day. And she likes to joke. And flirt, a lot.
Like right now, for example, Taichi spots one of the cast members catching her sight and smiling brightly at her, waving his hand in a jokingly way; Taichi turns his head a little to look at Mimi's response, who's now smiling and waving back trying not to get caught by the producer.
Taichi coughs, the producer turns their way, and Mimi has to freeze and go back to looking interested in the head's explanation. A glance at them must remind the producer of something, because next she dives on recommendations directed to Mimi in particular.
"Mimi, our viewers really loved you the last time you came on the show, and they also quite liked the love line, so maybe we can hint at that again today?" The producer turns back, looking at the cast member who had been waving at Mimi only moments earlier, "we've paired you up together for this episode, so as long as you're comfortable, don't hold back." Mimi smiles, confirming with a "no prob", while the guy shows a thumbs up. "Alright then, we're set. Good luck everybody!"
Mimi waits for the crew who had gathered around the producer during the talk to scatter around before turning to Taichi and pinching him on his forearm, causing him to jump back.
"So." She mutters after the first pinch, "annoying." She finishes after a second one, gritting her teeth and glaring at him. He flashes her a mischievous smile, towering over her and placing both hands on her shoulder to stop her from moving an inch and damaging his perfectly tanned skin with bruises.
"Mimi, stop. They'll think you like me if you keep on picking on me." He says with the most compliant tone she's ever heard. She brings a hand to her chest, making an offended face.
"Me? You?"
Taichi closes his eyes, nodding quietly.
"I know, I know, it's hard to resist my appeal. There's a reason if they call me Japan's most wanted man." Taichi reasons aloud, but Mimi is quick to retort.
"That's Yamato."
When he opens his eyes, he finds her wearing the sneakiest grin on her face, and he knows she knows she's just scored a point.
"That was low." He sounds defeated, and also a little disappointed. She looks at him and what she sees is the frown a child would have if you'd told him he wasn't going to get ice cream for dessert.
Which makes her soften her tone.
"Don't worry, the fangirls will still watch this once it airs." She reassures him. "Just make sure to accidentally rip your shirt with a pole or something."
As Mimi pats his chest - and makes a mental note to ask Hikari once she's back home just how much her brother works out - Taichi is quick to swing his arm and place it around her shoulders, squeezing her small body against his side.
"Wouldn't you like that?" He leans down to whisper in her ear.
And you'd think after four years she knows him he wouldn't be surprising in any way, yet she ends up frozen for an instant when she turns his way to deny everything and finds that he's closer to her face then how she thought he would be (though, to be fair, she really acted on impulse and never thought about how near he could be).
Taichi raises his brows and doesn't hesitate to lower his gaze on her lips, and if she was to choose to answer him she'd have to lie, but lying really doesn't suit her, so the only option for her is to keep staring at him while inching back with her face so that he's not so close and her brain can start working properly as it should.
"Everyone ready?"
The shout of the PD assistant shakes Mimi more than Taichi, but at least it makes her come to her senses and get a hold of herself, showing him a dangerous smile.
"You wish."
When she pushes him back, before turning she shoots one last glance at him. He's shaking his head and giggling to himself, wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes telling her he's genuine — and, despite everything, making her smile fondly as well.
It's the thing with Taichi, she's just glad when he's around.
Not that she'll ever admit it, oh no. It's just the way it is. She doesn't know if it's because after four years he still hasn't changed who he is - he's still the fun, spontaneous guy who threw drumsticks to her head the first time they met - or if it's because there's something about him that makes her trust him - and that's not something common in the industry - but she's just glad when it turns out they have the same schedule.
"So annoying." She sputters, shooting her eyes up and waving her hand as to shush him, as if her movements were to make him believe she really means what she says. He keeps grinning though, because that's the thing: he knows it too.
He knows she's glad when he's around.