By the time they finish eating, Juri's pleasantly full, warm from skewers and sake and the satisfaction of being among friends. The cameras were shut off about an hour ago, and in that time they've gone through… how many bottles has it been? Juri's lost count. All he knows is that Taiga's face is pink and Jesse's laughing at everything even louder than usual. Hokuto has melted into a puddle next to him, too tipsy to protest anymore when Juri paws at his neck or tilts his head into his shoulder. Shintaro and Kochi are playing a terrifyingly aggressive game of footsie beneath the table. Juri has to dive to save too many wandering cups from rolling off the edge, but even so — he feels good.
When the bill has come and gone and their staffers have bid them goodbye, Kochi, onsen sommelier that he is, suggests staying overnight at a luxury ryokan a few streets down from the restaurant. "Consider it my final act as leader of the group," he says, grinning, and squawks when Jesse tips forward and kisses the crown of his head again.
"Don't try to weasel out of responsibility for the last month," Hokuto says, shuffling off the seat and swaying to his feet. "It's not even December yet."
"Yeah, what if you win janken again?" Jesse offers. He cackles when Kochi makes a face.
"Either way, you're still our leader till the end of the year," Juri adds, enjoying the pile-on, but he welcomes the overarching plan. His toes are pretty stiff after walking around all day, and he could use a nice long soak. It was probably a mistake to wear slides with no socks at the end of November, but he's never going to say that out loud.
After one more bathroom break, they spill out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk, coats and hats tucked against the wind, crisp evening air filling their lungs. Shimokita is bright and bustling at this time every Saturday night, live music pouring out of each bar they pass; there's so much going on that no one pays them much attention. "Ahh," Shintaro says, stretching his arms out wide as they weave through the crowds. "Onsen time. I'm excited. It's been so long since we last saw each other naked."
Jesse cackles again. "We change and shower in front of each other all the time," Hokuto points out, at the same time that Kochi asks, "What about the tent sauna when we went camping over the summer?"
"We had shorts on during the tent sauna," Taiga says, "but Hokuto's right."
"Okay," Shintaro amends, rolling his eyes, "it's been so long since we chose to see each other naked on purpose," which sounds even worse.
Juri wraps Shintaro in a headlock and pushes his crotch against Shintaro's thigh. "If you want to see my dick so bad, all you have to do is ask," he says, voice as suggestive as he can make it.
Jesse crows; Hokuto giggles behind them. Kochi sighs, "Not in public, please," and then, "Oh, thank goodness we're here."
The ryokan is situated at a slightly quieter edge of the neighborhood, nestled between older houses and several groves of trees. Lanterns have been hung up along the awning outside, and the dark wood reminds Juri a little bit of the family house in Chiba. Kochi leads them inside through the screen doors and toward a check-in counter, murmuring with the lady at the front about getting two rooms for the six of them.
Taiga circles around to where Juri's hanging back, leaned up against Shintaro, elbow digging into his neck. "There's definitely going to be a hidden camera prank at some point tonight, right?" Taiga says under his breath, squinting suspiciously. "No way this place just happened to have two open rooms for us on a weekend."
"If anyone has planned a dokkiri, I'm certainly not in on it," Juri replies, though he can tell Taiga doesn't believe him. It's not the worst instinct in the world; Juri's used to being the instigator of most pranks for the YouTube channel, and they've been due one for a while. Still — even if some ridiculous surprise is on the docket, there's no point in worrying about it right now. As Kochi hands out yukata and slippers, Juri pushes off Shintaro and pats Taiga's shoulder. "Relax, Kyomo. Let's just enjoy ourselves while we can."
"That isn't ominous at all," Taiga mutters, reproachful, but he's brightened considerably by the time they get to their comfortable accommodations. After a chaotic janken game to decide who's sleeping where, Taiga disappears inside the room he'll be sharing with Juri and Hokuto, no doubt combing the premises for any conspicuous recording devices. Hokuto bundles himself into his yukata after stripping, but Juri steps out of his clothes and forgoes any pretense of modesty. They're going to have to shower before taking advantage of the rest of the amenities anyway. Might as well forge ahead with a hand towel instead of having to keep track of a bathrobe too.
"Let's go to the sauna first," Shintaro suggests outside, hands on his bare hips. Kochi has shrugged his yukata on too, but Juri can see Jesse ambling ahead of them, the intrepid explorer butt-naked.
"Sure," Juri says, following everyone else down the hall and toward the indoor onsen facilities.
His gaze naturally drifts downward as they walk, sliding over the firm swell of Shintaro's ass and the solid girth of his thighs, the flash of Kochi's pale chest through the plunging neckline of his yukata, Jesse's washboard abs. Taiga's skin was already pink from the sake earlier, and it turns even pinker after they shower, flushed from the heat of the water and the humidity. Hokuto hauls the door to the sauna open for them, and Juri's eyes linger on the flex of his biceps, the way sweat immediately starts beading along the line of his collarbone. There's no harm in looking; what's the point, otherwise, of a job where he's around beautiful people all the time? Juri has always appreciated the human form, and besides, it's nothing he hasn't touched in the past. Even before debut, working through sexual frustration with each other and the rest of the juniors was safer than trying to find relief outside the jimusho. He's never been picky about whose hand is on his dick.
It's late enough that the day visitors have all gone, but there are still other strangers milling around the onsen area. Juri plops down in an empty spot on the cedar, tips his head back and closes his eyes. Every breath feels like it's slowly roasting him from the inside, but in a good way, hot air joining the low-grade arousal turning in his stomach. The two types of heat twist together until he can't tell where one ends and the other begins, and the tightness in his back fades away in slow increments. Sometimes Juri thinks this is his ideal state: turned on just enough that he's aware of the uptick in his heart rate and the warmth in his gut, but not so much that he feels a pressing need to do anything about it yet. Desire could fizzle away at any moment or completely overtake him the next, but for now, it's just him and his breath and the pleasant tingle up his spine. No expectations, perfect equilibrium.
Juri doesn't doze off, but he does lose a bit of time in the middle there, drifting through sound: the dull murmur of conversation around him, the squeak of the door periodically opening and closing, the hiss of steam any time someone pours more water over the coals. When he opens his eyes again, Kochi's the only one left in the sauna, sitting neatly cross-legged, hair slicked back to expose his forehead.
"This was a good idea," Juri croaks. "Did I tell you that already?" Kochi laughs, eyes crinkling. "Where did everyone else go?"
"Mm, I recommended the ice bath for Shintaro since he said he's been feeling muscle soreness lately. I think Jesse and Taiga went to the outdoor onsen."
"What about me?" Juri says, head lolling to the side. "What would you suggest?"
Kochi gives Juri a critical once-over as he stretches. "Mineral baths are good for dry skin."
"Cool," Juri says, levering himself upright. They find Hokuto soaking in one of the hot pools inside, and Juri grins as he slides down to join him, dropping another drive-by kiss on the top of his head. Hokuto makes a half-hearted noise of complaint when Juri swats his ass beneath the surface of the bubbling water, but he doesn't move away.
Juri submerges himself, eyes squeezed shut against the rush. Most of the woody smell from the sauna dissipates after three dunks, and the bath's herbal concoction eases in to fill his nose. Then he rests his arms along the edge of the pool, chin tucked over his wrists, and marinates until his fingers have turned pruny and Kochi and Hokuto have swapped places with Shintaro and Jesse. There's no one else in the bath by then, so the hot pool quickly devolves into a splash fight until one of the onsen staff happens by and gives them the dirtiest look known to man. "Sorry," Juri gasps, standing up to bow, but it's hard to stop laughing when they're alone again and Shintaro drags him back under.
By the time they call a truce, Juri's ears are ringing and his nose feels permanently water-logged. Even so, his body feels loose and refreshed as he drags himself out of the bath. They dry off with their little towels. Jesse thwacks his against Shintaro's skin and Shintaro yelps directly into Juri's ear, which sets off another round of uncontrollable giggling.
Outside the changing room, they pass by a large bowl of wrapped wagashi, and Juri takes a couple for later. It's well past midnight when he gets back to the room and dives into one of the low double beds pushed together in the corner. Hokuto and Taiga aren't back yet, but that's not a huge deal. The buzz beneath Juri's skin is starting to settle down, and they have Sunday off anyway. There'll be plenty of time to mess around in the morning.
Juri isn't sure exactly when he passed out, but a part of him is very certain it isn't morning yet when movement rouses him from deep sleep. There's no natural light coming in from the patio, first of all, and the rest of the ryokan is calm and quiet, save for—
That's definitely Hokuto gasping two feet away from him; Juri would recognize the sound anywhere, high and delicate. For a disorienting moment, Juri wonders if he's having an asthma attack or something, but as he turns his head, gummy eyes adjusting to the dim light, it's clear that someone else is crouched over him beneath the covers.
Another sigh, and a hiss and a groan from the other person, and awareness hits Juri like a lightning bolt. He's suddenly wide awake. Hokuto has always been into some freaky shit — maybe he and Taiga have expanded to somnophilia since they made up earlier this year. He listens for a long moment, dick twitching against his thigh, and then pushes up on one elbow. "Man," he mumbles, sliding a hand through his hair, "if you wanted a room to yourselves, I could've just crashed in the other one."
The lump of bandmate on the other bed freezes. Then Hokuto lets out a low whine, and Taiga's head pokes out from underneath the comforter, eyes wide with concern. "Juri," he says, and he sounds so relieved that Juri sits up properly.
"What is it?" Juri says, brow wrinkling. That isn't — Taiga and Hokuto fucking isn't anything new, but Taiga's tone of voice doesn't make sense. Maybe Juri's still too fresh from sleep to understand what's going on.
"Juri, you have to help, I can't—" One of Hokuto's arms flings the blanket away. The other reaches up to loop around Taiga's neck and tug him back down.
Without the sheets in the way, Juri can make out the jizz already streaked across Hokuto's stomach, and the way Taiga's slick fingers are spreading Hokuto open, pressing deeper inside with every thrust of Taiga's hand. Taiga's cock is glistening but soft, and even as Juri watches, Hokuto makes a frustrated noise into Taiga's mouth and squirms down against Taiga's fingers, clearly searching for more. It's not the lewdest thing Juri has ever seen, but it's close.
Taiga manages to pull himself out of Hokuto's grip with some effort. "Juri," he says. He sounds desperate now too, and more than a little panicked. "Get the fuck over here. I know you're hard, so I could really use the assist."
Juri scoots toward them. "Is this the prank?" he asks uncertainly. "Because if so, the footage is definitely unusable." This close, he can feel the heat radiating off Hokuto. One press of his palm against Hokuto's shoulder, and his skin comes away drenched with sweat.
Taiga shakes his head, damp bangs swishing. "I thought it might be at first, but — just look at him." Hokuto's eyes are open but they don't seem to really see Juri, and he's so hard that his cock is flushed a dark red, almost purple. The lightest brush from Taiga's hand makes his whole body shudder. "He's been like this since we got back to the room, and I don't, I can't, I've already—"
"I understand," Juri says. He swallows around the lump in his throat, fingers clenching into fists. He can feel himself shifting into crisis mitigation mode, which is kind of strange when coupled with the insistent hard-on swinging between his legs. "Okay, try to — move over, if you can."
Taiga manages to disentangle himself long enough to shift aside. When Juri takes his place, Hokuto's arms and legs wrap around him immediately, branding his skin and pulling him in. "He can't stop coming," Taiga mutters over Juri's shoulder. "And he stays hard no matter what. It's astonishing, really. I don't know how he's doing it."
"Lucky man," Juri huffs, and Taiga laughs too, slightly less hysterical. It's good that he can see the inherent humor in the situation. Juri shifts his attention to Hokuto, who's making urgent, keening noises in the back of his throat now, rocking up against Juri's stomach, searching for friction. Hokuto's already been fucked and fingered open, so it requires no work at all for Juri to line himself up and push inside him. He hisses as he bottoms out in one smooth motion. Hokuto clenches around Juri's cock, impossibly tight. His nails dig into Juri's neck, stinging pinpricks keeping him grounded.
"Ahhh," Hokuto says, tossing his head back, expression clearing for a moment. "Juri. Hi."
"Hey," Juri replies, snapping his hips experimentally just to see how Hokuto will react. All things considered, Hokuto should be incredibly sensitive right now, but he's like a bottomless pit of want, meeting Juri thrust for thrust. Juri reflexively presses his mouth to Hokuto's damp hairline, the high ridge of his cheek, and then they're kissing, Hokuto's lips opening just as easily for Juri's tongue. He tastes sticky-sweet, the inside of his mouth coated with something, a little like—"Wagashi," Juri says, breaking away momentarily to meet Taiga's narrowed eyes. "Was it the wagashi?"
Taiga blinks. "Uh, I didn't take any," he says, "but Hokuto inhaled like, five of them after we left the onsen."
"I took two but didn't eat them," Juri says, exhaling through Hokuto's distracting wiggling. "Maybe it's like… an allergic reaction to something in the sweets, or—"
"Who cares," Hokuto groans, spine arching, nails scratching across Juri's shoulders. "Just need this. Need you."
"Alright, alright," Juri says, letting himself get dragged back down. It's not a hardship to focus on the task at hand, not when Hokuto's frantic hunger feels contagious, spreading like a wildfire everywhere they're touching. Juri curls his arms around Hokuto for better leverage and fucks into him hard and fast, mouth slanting over his sweet lips, his chin, the pale column of his throat.
Juri sighs when he feels Taiga's hand land on one of his shoulder blades, brushing down his spine to grab a handful of his ass. He's about to shift them down and redouble his efforts when the screen door across the room slides open.
"Shit," he murmurs into Hokuto's neck, hips jerking helplessly.
"Surprise prank!" comes Kochi's voice, and then, after an extended pause, "Oh my god. Turn off the camera, Jess — what the hell is going on here?"
"Kyomo," Juri says, and Taiga replies, "Yeah," squeezing Juri's ass one more time before drifting away to explain the situation.
Juri shuts out the rest of the world and keeps his eyes on Hokuto's face. Hokuto's jaw has gone slack, and his bangs are plastered against his forehead. His eyes flutter shut as Juri drives him up the bed, pace choppy and erratic. He tries to hold on as long as he can, grits his teeth against the wave of pleasure threatening to overtake him, but there's nothing that can stave off the inevitable. Hokuto stiffens and comes first, adding to the mess on his stomach, and Juri follows after, burying his face in Hokuto's neck and rolling his hips through the rush of his orgasm.
Hokuto clutches Juri closer even as his cock starts going soft inside him, and he makes a strangled noise of protest when Juri tries to pull out. On a good day Hokuto's already incredibly needy, but Juri has never seen him quite like this. Taiga was right about everything; Hokuto's dick is still stubbornly hard against his wet stomach, and his breath is coming out in short pants now. "It's okay," Juri murmurs, trying to keep his voice soothing. "Hokuto, hey, you're alright, just wait one second and—"
"No," Hokuto moans, and Juri's stomach drops as Hokuto's eyes go shiny with tears. "No, I can't, you have to stay—"
"I got it," comes a new voice, and Juri looks up to see Shintaro staring back at him, a determined set in his jaw. "I got him." Juri nods and leans in to press another searing kiss to Hokuto's mouth. That distracts him enough that his grip relaxes a little, and Juri rolls away to let Shintaro take his place.
It's kind of trippy watching someone else get dragged into the yawning tempest of Hokuto's desire. Shintaro cups Hokuto's face and tips forward to swallow his breath, drawing a deep, rumbling groan out of Hokuto's chest. Juri definitely can't get hard again this soon, but his cock twitches valiantly all the same. After a moment, he scoots off the edge of the mattress and stands up, pushing past the post-coital haze his brain would very much like to remain shrouded in. At the door, he grabs one of the yukata and haphazardly yanks it on. Then he rummages through his pile of clothes to find his wallet. "Where are you going?" Kochi asks, worried gaze bouncing back and forth between Juri and the bed, where Jesse has somehow managed to coax Hokuto onto all fours.
"Water," Juri rasps. "I'm going to go find some." Surely there's a vending machine somewhere on the premises, and from the way Hokuto's burning up… "I don't want anyone to pass out."
"Right," Kochi says, "that's smart." He waves Juri out the door. The last thing Juri sees before the screen slides shut again is Shintaro pushing into Hokuto from behind while Jesse feeds his dick into Hokuto's willing mouth. He's not going to forget that image for a very long time.
When Juri gets back to the room, laden down with six bottles of chilled water and six more of Pocari Sweat, the rest of his band is tangled together across two beds, a moving mass of sweaty limbs and panting breath, grasping hands and undulating bodies. It's certainly a picture: utterly chaotic, just like them, but pretty gorgeous too.
Juri sets his bounty on the low table at the center of the tatami mats, next to the forgotten camera, and lets the yukata slide off his shoulders. He briefly considers plopping down and just watching for a while, pulling lazily at his cock whenever he needs to take the edge off, but then Hokuto lifts his head and sees him. "What are you standing all the way over there for?" he gasps, sounding imperious even under the circumstances. "Come here." Ah, fuck it, Juri thinks, an indescribable fondness spreading through his chest. So much for the prank. This is a better alternative, anyway, even if the content is completely unairable.
It's impossible to keep track of all their moving parts; Juri gets an elbow to the gut, catches some stray heels, but he also gets to slide his mouth across Taiga's sensitive nipples and lick the grooves between Jesse's abs. Somewhere in there, Shintaro's mouth wrings another intense orgasm out of him, warmth swallowing him down, so he can't be too fussed about the details.
The fever, allergic reaction, whatever it is — seems to break as the early morning sun creeps up into the sky, light fading in through the paper screens along the patio. Hokuto goes limp against the sweat-soaked sheets, cock soft between his legs after Kochi jerks him off one more time. "Is that it?" Shintaro croaks, lifting his head off Juri's stomach. "It's over?"
Hokuto lets out a loud snore, face thoroughly relaxed. Typical Hokuto. Jesse chuckles, the most quiet he's been all day, and turns his head into a semi-clean pillow. Kochi sags back into the far bed, scrubbing his clean hand over his eyes. "Fucking finally," Taiga says, shaking his head, but his mouth twitches upward into a smirk. "He's so high maintenance."
"I'm just glad we didn't have to call a manager," Kochi says, a sentiment Juri wholeheartedly supports.
With the most pressing matter addressed, exhaustion seems to sweep through them all at once. No one has the energy left to do much beyond arrange themselves in a vaguely horizontal position. Juri dozes off tucked alongside Hokuto and drowsily lifts his head a few hours later to find Kochi gently wiping everyone down with several wet towels. Shintaro has somehow migrated to the floor, starfished next to Taiga, who's curled up beneath a comforter. Juri extends his arm up; it feels like he's pushing it through syrup, the clean ache already spreading through the rest of his body. Kochi obligingly tosses a towel over. Juri deals with the worst of the stickiness, turns back into Hokuto's shoulder, and lets himself slide back into sleep's warm embrace.
Juri wakes up for real a bit before noon, the last one by a mile, which is reassuringly familiar. Taiga and Kochi are murmuring to each other at the table, sipping Pocari Sweat, yukata shrugged over their shoulders; Jesse's wriggling beneath a mound of pillows at the far edge of the bed, and Hokuto's poking idly at the exposed curve of one calf. Juri should probably check that there isn't anything weird drawn on his face before they leave. It's a miracle they haven't been kicked out of the room yet. Considering the handheld camera still sitting on the tatami in between empty water bottles and crumbled clothing, maybe that was part of the original plan, too.
Hokuto notices he's awake first. He turns away from Jesse's leg, propping himself up on his elbows, and smiles. He could use a good shower, and vivid red marks cover his pale skin, but his eyes are clear.
"Feeling better, huh?" Juri rasps. Hokuto nods, obviously pleased. That's just like him; in all the ways that matter, he got exactly what he wanted. Juri pushes himself upright against the wall, shaking the cobwebs out of his head. "I'd say that would teach you to be more careful about what you put in your mouth, but that might be too much to hope for."
Hokuto laughs. "Kyomo said you thought it was the sweets," he says, pouting a little. "They were so good, though."
As Juri yawns, jaw cracking, Shintaro complains, "I'm sore again," fingers reaching toward his toes. He's still incredibly naked. It's not a bad view.
"Me too," Hokuto says, wincing as he rolls over onto stomach. "I think there's a day spa here. We can get massages, or we can go back to the ice bath together later."
Kochi leans in to peer at Hokuto's mottled back, prodding a dark bruise along his ribcage with a look of concern on his face. "Whatever that was last night," he sighs, "let's never do it again."
Juri thinks about the glittering lust in Hokuto's eyes, the shape of Jesse's mouth and the snap of Shintaro's hips, Taiga's melodic moaning and Kochi's careful, dexterous fingers. "Well," he murmurs, cupping his chin and raising his eyebrows. "I wouldn't say never."
A brief pause as everyone considers this. "I thought you weren't the leader anymore, Kochi," Hokuto chimes in after a moment.
"It was tiring, and a little scary at the beginning, but also fun," Shintaro adds, at the same time Taiga asks drily, "What, you didn't like the blowjob I gave you, riidaddy?"
"Are we talking about fucking again?" Jesse says, unearthing his face from the pillows, hair a wild halo around his head.
"Yes, we are," Juri says, reaching over to flick his ear. "Keep up, Jess."
Jesse sticks his tongue out at him. "Okay, fine," Kochi says, shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. He drains the rest of his Pocari Sweat. "Let's never do that again without enough advance notice to prepare adequate hydration ahead of time. Happy?"
"Very," says Hokuto, stretching across the bed so violently that he nearly kicks Jesse off.
"Better," Juri agrees, flopping back into the crusty bedding, head pillowed comfortably on Hokuto's ass. He still has a few wagashi from the bowl tucked away in his jacket pocket, though they seem to be increasingly unnecessary given the prevailing opinion. They should probably wash up in a minute, rinse the musk of sex out of their hair before someone comes looking for them, but no one seems to be in much of a hurry to get up. That's just fine with him. On his list of favorite pastimes, morning onsen is rivaled only by continuing to sleep in. He's sure they'll get to the baths eventually.