Gift fic for jade_lil 4/4
A piece of rainbow for jade_lil Part 4
"Here?" Ohno asked as he carried over the wooden pods with Nino into the plains that they found a few days ago in the moonlight.
"Yep! Thanks for finding us the spot, Ohno-san!" Aiba thanked as he set up the newly-build machine that was fashioned out of a good mix of wood and metal. Solar panels he salvaged from the old machine powered up the new one. This machine that stood before Aiba could never be compared to the more advanced one that he had built before, but Aiba guaranteed with lengthy explanations that it would still do the job of bringing them back.
"Now, we just need a stormy weather to get this machine going!" Aiba said excitedly with a fist pump in the air.
Silence.
"Yo genius," Nino said, "the sun is roasting us right now. It will take a while, you know. And we have absolutely no way of telling the weather."
"I guess it will be a while before you can go back," Ohno said, giving Nino a knowing wink.
"Ohno-san! Nino-san! Aiba-san!" a distant voice called out from afar. The trio turned to see Sho running forward towards them, with Matsumoto following behind.
"Jun and I have decided to leave this place," Sho said, "at least until we know that things with the Shogunate are settled for good."
"... Jun?" Nino asked. Beside him, Aiba giggled.
"Oh my.. are you two that close?" he teased, and Sho pouted in response. Matsumoto grinned and patted Sho on the back.
"There there, Sho.." he said comfortingly, "we have another couple here to tease about as well."
"Do you know, Ohno-san," Nino said, "that I once heard Matsumoto-san say that the moon was beautiful even though there really was no moon in the sky?"
"Wow..." Ohno gave the pair a teasing smile as he linked arms with Nino, "do you know that saying that the moon is beautiful is another way of saying 'I love you'?"
“I guess I did...” Nino said while giving Sho a teasing wink, “and someone was all uncertain about it and pissed the other off..”
"Urgh, stop it, you two! Come, Sho! We are moving away from all this nonsense!" Jun barked as he hurried off. Sho laughed as he chased after him, grabbing him by the arm. He then turned to give Ohno, Aiba and Nino a final wave as he left, a small metal band gleaming in the sunlight from around his neck.
###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*
That night, Ohno and Nino cuddled together in bed.
"Ne, Satoshi," Nino began, and then decided to forget about it and shook his head.
"Kazu, you piqued my curiosity now. Tell me. Please."
"Or what?" Nino teased.
"Or..." Ohno pondered and then pinned Nino's hands down on the bed as he loomed over with a seductive smile, "I will have to force it out of you."
Nino laughed as he poked at Ohno's chubby cheeks.
"You do realise I might actually be too busy enjoying myself to tell you a thing, right?"
"Hrmm. It was worth a try," Ohno said as he flopped down top of Nino's chest, letting his ear listen to Nino's beating heart.
"...well.. I'm just going to say this as a warning," Nino said as he caressed Ohno's hair in deep thought, "...there will be forces coming at you and the shogunate from afar."
Ohno looked at Nino.
"From afar?"
"Mmm. You know how archers can shoot at small animals from afar, right?"
Ohno nodded.
"Forces opposing the shogunate will soon no longer use arrows," Nino said, but really, reaaaally small arrow-tips of burning metal that does a whole lot more damage. Your swords will not work against them all."
Ohno's brows furrowed cutely in confusion and Nino smiled as he ruffled his hair.
"I believe you will see what I mean soon enough," Nino said as he closed his eyes. Ohno looked down at his sleeping Nino in quiet contemplation. He then gazed up at the moon that shone really brightly with a cloudy ring surrounding it like a halo.
Suddenly, the winds blew mightily as cries from outside erupted. Ohno and Nino woke up to the smell of smoke and burning wood.
"Fire?! Now?!" Nino exclaimed as he rushed out of the house with Ohno to see that several houses in their town were set ablaze. Ohno cursed under his breath as he wielded his sword, ready to slay any enemies. Just then, a blinding flash in the sky followed by a crack of thunder.
Nino looked up at the sky.
".…Lightning..."
"Quick!" Ohno commanded, taking Nino's hand, "I'm bringing you to the plains!"
"But.. one more night.." Nino said hurriedly, "I want to stay here longer with you!"
"You can't! It's dangerous here!" Ohno protested.
"It is dangerous for you too!" Nino returned, "I have seen so many horrible things that will happen and I-"
"I'm not afraid of what will happen in the future," Ohno said calmly, "I know that whatever you said just now about flying tips of burning metal is real. I know it. But I don't care about what happens to me. I'm afraid of losing you for good!"
"You will lose me for good if you let me go back!" Nino said.
"No I won't!" Ohno said, "if you go back, you give me the assurance that you will be safe somewhere where flying arrows, fires and swords will not harm you. You set my heart at rest this way."
"I.." Nino tried to protest further but he could not, for tears have started pouring out of his eyes, the impending separation too hard to bear.
"Listen," Ohno said as he took Nino's face in his hands, "my heart burns for you now. And it will always keep burning for you, no matter how far apart we will be."
"Will.. will we meet again someday?" Nino asked. Ohno smiled.
"Somewhere, someday, I know I will. And when I do, I will hold on to you and I will never let go."
"Promise me! Promise me right now!" Nino demanded, tears now flowing freely from his eyes. Ohno gave a knowing smile and pulled Nino close, giving him a long, passionate kiss. Nino responded with an equally fierce kiss, ignoring for a moment how their world was crumbling around them. Finally, they parted as they heard Aiba's desperate calls.
"NINO! PLEASE COME! TELL ME YOU ARE SAFE!"
Nino leaned close, letting their foreheads touch for one last time as he let his mind remember the feel of his skin on his, the gentle, soothing scent that wafted from his clothes, the sight of a tear falling from Ohno's right eye and the taste of his own salty tears as he turned tail and ran for his life towards the time machine, where Aiba was waiting.
"Hurry!" Aiba ordered, "jump into the pod! I'm cranking this machine hard so that when the next lightning strikes, we go!"
Nino nodded and jumped into the wooden pod, while Aiba kept turning the crank. Just then lightning struck the outstretched metal rod in the sky, and Aiba leapt for cover under the other wooden pod. The electrical energy flowed fast into the machine, and Nino closed his eyes as he felt the machine suck him back into a wormhole all over again.
###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*
Nino sat up in his pod, his head hitting hard on the lid.
"OW!" He yelped in pain as the lid lifted, and he looked down at himself.
He was wearing the exact same clothes as he did just before he was time-jumped over to the Edo period. He scrambled around for a date.
It was the very date they had first left.
Months had passed in that parallel world, but back in his world, the day had not passed.
Aiba soon stepped out of his own pod and looked around. He then looked at Nino and hugged him.
"Thank God... Thank God you are alive..."
Nino said nothing, because his mind was completely occupied.
He remembered Ohno's sharp eyes of an experienced artist when he first drew him.
He remembered the graceful movements of his sword that protected him and Aiba from bandits.
He remembered warmth of Ohno's hands when they first touched his.
He remembered how the night sky looked when they learned of their feelings and kissed.
He remembered the undying, searing heat of their lovemaking from that night on.
He remembered the tears he saw in Ohno's eyes and the tears he tasted on his own tongue when they parted in the midst of a stormy chaos.
And that was when tears fell afresh from Nino's eyes at a devastating, crushing thought.
Ohno Satoshi, the one and only man he ever loved, had faded away with the Edo era.
In a parallel dimension, an ukiyo-e painting of a young man in a yellow T-shirt was blown to the ground by strong winds, and a picture of two figures in blue and yellow was caught on fire, the green reflection of the waters below burned slowly but surely into a void of nothingness.
“逢いたくて逢いたくて
夢じゃない本モノの君に
せつなくて せつなくて
あの淡いブルーが滲んでく
I want to see you I want to see you
Not you from a dream, but the real you
It's so painful It's so painful
That pale blue is blurring”
Across time (Epilogue)
*a few months later*
“逢いたくて逢いたくて
夢じゃない本モノの君に
せつなくて せつなくて
あの淡いブルーが滲んでく
I want to see you I want to see you
Not you from a dream, but the real you
It's so painful It's so painful
That pale blue is blurring”
The piano melody ended as the pianist finished his song, and the hall erupted into a loud round of applause.
Ninomiya Kazunari stood up from the piano and took a deep bow. He looked over at the handwritten score on the piano, a nostalgic smile on his face. He carried the score and walked down the stage to where his best friend was sitting- the front row.
"I was in tears halfway through the chorus," Aiba said, "you really do write the best songs that make me cry."
"It's just you, baka," Nino joked as he looked up at the emcee on stage.
"Thank you, Ninomiya Kazunari for that splendid performance. And now, we will commence the charity auction organised by the college to help raise money for orphaned children. First up, we have a painting from our very own promising art scholar.
A painting was displayed on the screen, and Nino's eyes widened in shock.
A blue figure standing beside a yellow figure on top of a bridge.
The green reflection in the pale blue waters.
He had seen that somewhere.
"We shall now get the artist to talk about his work. Please join me and welcome Ohno Satoshi to the stage!"
That name.
That one name that was burned in his memories for as long as he would lived.
He looked to the stage to see a student his age and his build walk out from behind the stage curtains.
Those plump lips.
Those soulful eyes.
Those chubby cheeks.
That forehead that he had leaned against when flames of the distant past licked at the world around them.
The artist looked around at the audience from where he stood, and caught sight of his own searching eyes.
For a moment, their eyes met.
Nino gave a bright smile at him, and Ohno returned it.
"Here?" Ohno asked as he carried over the wooden pods with Nino into the plains that they found a few days ago in the moonlight.
"Yep! Thanks for finding us the spot, Ohno-san!" Aiba thanked as he set up the newly-build machine that was fashioned out of a good mix of wood and metal. Solar panels he salvaged from the old machine powered up the new one. This machine that stood before Aiba could never be compared to the more advanced one that he had built before, but Aiba guaranteed with lengthy explanations that it would still do the job of bringing them back.
"Now, we just need a stormy weather to get this machine going!" Aiba said excitedly with a fist pump in the air.
Silence.
"Yo genius," Nino said, "the sun is roasting us right now. It will take a while, you know. And we have absolutely no way of telling the weather."
"I guess it will be a while before you can go back," Ohno said, giving Nino a knowing wink.
"Ohno-san! Nino-san! Aiba-san!" a distant voice called out from afar. The trio turned to see Sho running forward towards them, with Matsumoto following behind.
"Jun and I have decided to leave this place," Sho said, "at least until we know that things with the Shogunate are settled for good."
"... Jun?" Nino asked. Beside him, Aiba giggled.
"Oh my.. are you two that close?" he teased, and Sho pouted in response. Matsumoto grinned and patted Sho on the back.
"There there, Sho.." he said comfortingly, "we have another couple here to tease about as well."
"Do you know, Ohno-san," Nino said, "that I once heard Matsumoto-san say that the moon was beautiful even though there really was no moon in the sky?"
"Wow..." Ohno gave the pair a teasing smile as he linked arms with Nino, "do you know that saying that the moon is beautiful is another way of saying 'I love you'?"
“I guess I did...” Nino said while giving Sho a teasing wink, “and someone was all uncertain about it and pissed the other off..”
"Urgh, stop it, you two! Come, Sho! We are moving away from all this nonsense!" Jun barked as he hurried off. Sho laughed as he chased after him, grabbing him by the arm. He then turned to give Ohno, Aiba and Nino a final wave as he left, a small metal band gleaming in the sunlight from around his neck.
###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*
That night, Ohno and Nino cuddled together in bed.
"Ne, Satoshi," Nino began, and then decided to forget about it and shook his head.
"Kazu, you piqued my curiosity now. Tell me. Please."
"Or what?" Nino teased.
"Or..." Ohno pondered and then pinned Nino's hands down on the bed as he loomed over with a seductive smile, "I will have to force it out of you."
Nino laughed as he poked at Ohno's chubby cheeks.
"You do realise I might actually be too busy enjoying myself to tell you a thing, right?"
"Hrmm. It was worth a try," Ohno said as he flopped down top of Nino's chest, letting his ear listen to Nino's beating heart.
"...well.. I'm just going to say this as a warning," Nino said as he caressed Ohno's hair in deep thought, "...there will be forces coming at you and the shogunate from afar."
Ohno looked at Nino.
"From afar?"
"Mmm. You know how archers can shoot at small animals from afar, right?"
Ohno nodded.
"Forces opposing the shogunate will soon no longer use arrows," Nino said, but really, reaaaally small arrow-tips of burning metal that does a whole lot more damage. Your swords will not work against them all."
Ohno's brows furrowed cutely in confusion and Nino smiled as he ruffled his hair.
"I believe you will see what I mean soon enough," Nino said as he closed his eyes. Ohno looked down at his sleeping Nino in quiet contemplation. He then gazed up at the moon that shone really brightly with a cloudy ring surrounding it like a halo.
Suddenly, the winds blew mightily as cries from outside erupted. Ohno and Nino woke up to the smell of smoke and burning wood.
"Fire?! Now?!" Nino exclaimed as he rushed out of the house with Ohno to see that several houses in their town were set ablaze. Ohno cursed under his breath as he wielded his sword, ready to slay any enemies. Just then, a blinding flash in the sky followed by a crack of thunder.
Nino looked up at the sky.
".…Lightning..."
"Quick!" Ohno commanded, taking Nino's hand, "I'm bringing you to the plains!"
"But.. one more night.." Nino said hurriedly, "I want to stay here longer with you!"
"You can't! It's dangerous here!" Ohno protested.
"It is dangerous for you too!" Nino returned, "I have seen so many horrible things that will happen and I-"
"I'm not afraid of what will happen in the future," Ohno said calmly, "I know that whatever you said just now about flying tips of burning metal is real. I know it. But I don't care about what happens to me. I'm afraid of losing you for good!"
"You will lose me for good if you let me go back!" Nino said.
"No I won't!" Ohno said, "if you go back, you give me the assurance that you will be safe somewhere where flying arrows, fires and swords will not harm you. You set my heart at rest this way."
"I.." Nino tried to protest further but he could not, for tears have started pouring out of his eyes, the impending separation too hard to bear.
"Listen," Ohno said as he took Nino's face in his hands, "my heart burns for you now. And it will always keep burning for you, no matter how far apart we will be."
"Will.. will we meet again someday?" Nino asked. Ohno smiled.
"Somewhere, someday, I know I will. And when I do, I will hold on to you and I will never let go."
"Promise me! Promise me right now!" Nino demanded, tears now flowing freely from his eyes. Ohno gave a knowing smile and pulled Nino close, giving him a long, passionate kiss. Nino responded with an equally fierce kiss, ignoring for a moment how their world was crumbling around them. Finally, they parted as they heard Aiba's desperate calls.
"NINO! PLEASE COME! TELL ME YOU ARE SAFE!"
Nino leaned close, letting their foreheads touch for one last time as he let his mind remember the feel of his skin on his, the gentle, soothing scent that wafted from his clothes, the sight of a tear falling from Ohno's right eye and the taste of his own salty tears as he turned tail and ran for his life towards the time machine, where Aiba was waiting.
"Hurry!" Aiba ordered, "jump into the pod! I'm cranking this machine hard so that when the next lightning strikes, we go!"
Nino nodded and jumped into the wooden pod, while Aiba kept turning the crank. Just then lightning struck the outstretched metal rod in the sky, and Aiba leapt for cover under the other wooden pod. The electrical energy flowed fast into the machine, and Nino closed his eyes as he felt the machine suck him back into a wormhole all over again.
###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*###*
Nino sat up in his pod, his head hitting hard on the lid.
"OW!" He yelped in pain as the lid lifted, and he looked down at himself.
He was wearing the exact same clothes as he did just before he was time-jumped over to the Edo period. He scrambled around for a date.
It was the very date they had first left.
Months had passed in that parallel world, but back in his world, the day had not passed.
Aiba soon stepped out of his own pod and looked around. He then looked at Nino and hugged him.
"Thank God... Thank God you are alive..."
Nino said nothing, because his mind was completely occupied.
He remembered Ohno's sharp eyes of an experienced artist when he first drew him.
He remembered the graceful movements of his sword that protected him and Aiba from bandits.
He remembered warmth of Ohno's hands when they first touched his.
He remembered how the night sky looked when they learned of their feelings and kissed.
He remembered the undying, searing heat of their lovemaking from that night on.
He remembered the tears he saw in Ohno's eyes and the tears he tasted on his own tongue when they parted in the midst of a stormy chaos.
And that was when tears fell afresh from Nino's eyes at a devastating, crushing thought.
Ohno Satoshi, the one and only man he ever loved, had faded away with the Edo era.
In a parallel dimension, an ukiyo-e painting of a young man in a yellow T-shirt was blown to the ground by strong winds, and a picture of two figures in blue and yellow was caught on fire, the green reflection of the waters below burned slowly but surely into a void of nothingness.
“逢いたくて逢いたくて
夢じゃない本モノの君に
せつなくて せつなくて
あの淡いブルーが滲んでく
I want to see you I want to see you
Not you from a dream, but the real you
It's so painful It's so painful
That pale blue is blurring”
Across time (Epilogue)
*a few months later*
“逢いたくて逢いたくて
夢じゃない本モノの君に
せつなくて せつなくて
あの淡いブルーが滲んでく
I want to see you I want to see you
Not you from a dream, but the real you
It's so painful It's so painful
That pale blue is blurring”
The piano melody ended as the pianist finished his song, and the hall erupted into a loud round of applause.
Ninomiya Kazunari stood up from the piano and took a deep bow. He looked over at the handwritten score on the piano, a nostalgic smile on his face. He carried the score and walked down the stage to where his best friend was sitting- the front row.
"I was in tears halfway through the chorus," Aiba said, "you really do write the best songs that make me cry."
"It's just you, baka," Nino joked as he looked up at the emcee on stage.
"Thank you, Ninomiya Kazunari for that splendid performance. And now, we will commence the charity auction organised by the college to help raise money for orphaned children. First up, we have a painting from our very own promising art scholar.
A painting was displayed on the screen, and Nino's eyes widened in shock.
A blue figure standing beside a yellow figure on top of a bridge.
The green reflection in the pale blue waters.
He had seen that somewhere.
"We shall now get the artist to talk about his work. Please join me and welcome Ohno Satoshi to the stage!"
That name.
That one name that was burned in his memories for as long as he would lived.
He looked to the stage to see a student his age and his build walk out from behind the stage curtains.
Those plump lips.
Those soulful eyes.
Those chubby cheeks.
That forehead that he had leaned against when flames of the distant past licked at the world around them.
The artist looked around at the audience from where he stood, and caught sight of his own searching eyes.
For a moment, their eyes met.
Nino gave a bright smile at him, and Ohno returned it.