Pillow Talk
Their bags stood stacked by the door, two moderately sized carry-ons all they were taking. Sho's wardrobe would be handled by the road team, and Koga had brought just barely enough to make it through a long weekend. He would buy some more clothes in L.A. Maybe a bigger suitcase.
He looked up at Sho. The singer had his earbuds in, humming under his breath to a popular American song; his favorite way of practicing English comprehension. He wanted to reach up and lay his fingers on Sho's adam's apple to feel the vibrations from his voice. Instead, he reached up and tugged one of the earbuds out, taking it for himself. Sho looked down at him, his blonde hair falling over his face.
"What is this trash you're listening to?" Koga teased, more to keep his mind off of the decreased distance between their lips than any actual distaste for the genre.
"Hey, you wanna keep this lap pillow you better respect Ozzy," Sho said, tugging on the cord to reclaim the earbud.
Koga snatched it back. "I don't see how listening to someone slurring their words helps you with proper English at all."
"Who said I want to learn proper English? I'm here to be a rock star, not a teacher."
He was running his fingers through Koga's hair as they talked, his eyes back on the notepad he was using for composition. It felt so good. All of it. The slender lines of his leg beneath his neck, the gentle scrape of his nails over his scalp. Even the tug on his hair when Sho's fingers caught in a tangled curl. They'd become hermits since Koga arrived, only leaving the room to grab better tasting coffee across the street or restock the small fridge. One last morning here in the peace, and then Sho was leaving for his tour. Koga could manage to make it to some of them-- the benefits of not having a manager was no one to heckle you when you turned down jobs you just didn't feel like taking-- and he sure as hell wasn't going to miss the first one.
"You need to fire your manager," he said, pulling up his phone to flip idly through social media.
"Nah. She's just clueless, not hateful."
"Same thing."
Sho bonked his pencil on Koga's chin. "Who would replace her? She's already got the tour all worked out."
"I'll do it."
He rolled his eyes, setting down the notepad. "Shoko's fine. She can be an idiot-- but I was too. I didn't tell her anything. Tried to fix it myself." He snatched Koga's phone, typing in the search bar on his social app.
"Give it," Koga said, tugging on Sho's arm.
"I want to see what the dick posted after you punched him."
"Use your own phone."
Sho gestured at the other side of the bed where his phone lay nestled among rumpled white sheets. The room was a total disaster, comforter and pillows and pizza boxes and beer cans on the floor from last night when Sho had demanded a floor movie party.
"Hah!" Sho exclaimed, shoving the phone in Koga's face. Reino actually had posted something. Koga sat up to look, his chin resting on Sho's shoulder. God, it felt so good. That was quickly becoming his new mantra. Maybe he should become Sho's manager and not just tease about it.
Reino was posing on the Manhattan Bridge wearing sunglasses and a viral mask clearly stolen from a hospital. The caption read "corona chic."
"You must've really messed up his face," Sho said, his voice filled with childish glee. "God, that stupid manbun. I want to just chop it off."
"You'd look good in one," Koga muttered, nuzzling Sho's neck. The singer blushed, his eyes closing for a moment before he replied.
"Damn straight. I look good in everything." The words were sassy but Sho's voice was breathless. Koga smiled and thought about nipping his ear and seeing where it went, but Sho threw out a question, stopping him. "Hey… I've been wondering. How-- how did you find me?"
Koga didn't reply for a moment. He felt like he was about to lose some important man points with this next revelation. He took his phone from Sho and double-clicked, switching apps. A quick flick and he had pulled up Sho's vblog account. He handed it back to the singer.
"You watched me?" Sho's eyes were wide. His thumb hovered over the play button like he wanted to rewatch and double check everything he'd said.
"Mmm." Koga hesitated, but decided he might as well just go all in. "In one of them… you can see out your window. There's a sign for the coffee shop across the street."
Sho blinked. He turned and looked at Koga, his eyes still overly wide. Slowly a triumphant smile dawned across his face. "You totally stalked me."
"Did not."
"Stalker!"
Koga frowned at him. "You were in trouble. I was trying to help."
"And you knew that how?"
Ah shit. He needed to stop talking. He leaned over like he was going to whisper the answer in Sho's ear, then bit it instead.
"Koga!" Sho yelped, standing up out of his reach. "Fine, don't tell me how deep your stalkerdom reaches. It's easy to be obsessed with me, I know." Koga grabbed a pillow and chucked it at Sho with a growl.
Sho caught the pillow, his face thoughtful as he relaunched it back. "Do you wanna be on my blog?"
"As a guest?"
"No, ass, as a table. Of course as a guest."
"Don't people watch it?" He flung the pillow at Sho's head, grunting in disappointment when it was caught just before impact.
Sho blew air into his cheeks comically, smushing the pillow between his hands. "You did. Hah!" He chucked the pillow again; it whacked Koga in the chest. "Lots of people watch it."
"Won't they… wonder why I'm on it?"
"So?"
Koga ran his hand through his hair, trying to find words. Sho made it to comprehension first.
"You ditched work and dropped off the face of the world to camp out with me for a week, and now you're coming to the start of my tour. I want them to see you. I want to own this, so when I sing your song everyone knows who it's for."
"I'll know, isn't that enough?" His song. Koga could feel his face burning. Is that what Sho had been writing?
"No one but me knew about Kyoko. No one but me knew about Reino. I'm tired of hiding the good and the bad parts of my personal life. I want to f'n throw a parade about this thing we have!"
"You have no idea how people will react—"
"Worst case I retire. I'm already rich."
"It's not that simple-"
Sho threw his hands in the air. "Fine. Don't be on the blog. It's not a big deal."
An idea struck Koga. "Can I watch?"
"You already did. Apparently they suck too much to bother being in."
"No, I mean— can I watch you film?"
"Oh," Sho said, biting his lip. The request hung strangely intimate in the air between them, like he'd asked to see Sho naked or something. Sho looked over at him, considering. "...yes."
"Now?"
"Now? Film one now?"
"Why not. Wait too long and we'll get caught up in the tour." Sho fidgeted with his phone, then nodded, his decision made.
"Ok. You stay over there." Sho said, pointing to the chair in the corner of the room. He opened the curtains to flood the room with natural light, grabbed his guitar and laid it on the bed, sorting the sheets to be neater but not perfect. Then he sat on the edge of the bed, finger-combing his hair into a trendily mussed side part. A tap and a smile—
"Hey, world, it's Sho!" Koga bit off a laugh. This was so much better than on the screen. Sho eyed him, still smiling but with a glint of threat in his glance. "Leaving on tour today and wanted to catch up with you all. My last live from this hotel room." He paused, his eyes flicking over the screen as he read comments.
"Yeah I can't wait too! This tour is going to be amazing. The design for the lights goes perfectly with my music. I can't wait for you to see." He was adorable this bubbly. Something inside him snapped into entertainer mode when he went Live and Koga wanted to mess with him. He stood, crossing the room. Sho looked at him for a fraction of a second. "First stop, L.A.! Throw a thumbs up if you're going to see me there! Ah—" he said, inhaling sharply as Koga reached him and trailed his fingers along the top of Sho's leg, staying behind the view of the camera.
"Ah, yeah, that's a ton of you! I want to see everyone. Let's see, next stop is God, stop—" Koga had shifted his hands down to the inside of Sho's thighs, kneeling in front of him. The singer was blushing red hot. "—stop is Portland," he continued, his voice slightly shaky. He scooted back on the bed away from Koga.
"I've got some new songs that we will release exclusively on this tour and no where else until we're done , so if you can make it—" His voice hitched on the last words. Koga was climbing onto the bed, following him, his eyes full of predatory delight. This was fantastic. They should do Lives every day.
"If you can make it—" Sho tried again, but he couldn't keep his eyes on the screen. "Sorry, I need to run— please come!" He hit end and threw the phone, reaching out to snag Koga by the collar and pull him into his hungry arms.
