#48 Christmas Drabbles 2010 - batch 3
Batch 3
For pebblegosling: A Truman Show-esque Arashi AU
“He’s supposed to fall in love with Becky, not develop a fascination with some extra they called in at the last minute,” said Nino, jabbing viciously at his clipboard. “It says right here in the monthly overview.”
Considering that he was merely a lights and weather programmer, Nino was unusually emotionally invested in the show. Then again, so was the rest of the crew. And the rest of Japan as well, if the ratings were anything to go by.
For twenty-five years, viewers had tuned in daily for an hour of highlights from Aiba Masaki’s life. He was a right ray of sunshine in a similarly cheery town, and it was a combination of Aiba’s personality and some very clever editing that contributed to the show’s immense success.
“They’ll probably edit most of it out,” murmured Ohno.
“Edit out all seventeen visits to the local library?” Nino looked incredulous. “Johnny’s not going to be happy, that’s for sure.”
“Well, it’s not your job to worry about it,” said Ohno, reaching out to touch one of the knobs on the panel.
Nino slapped his hand away. “That controls the sunset timing, don’t mess with it,” he snapped. “And besides, don’t you have some posters to put up?”
“Poster supervision is boring,” said Ohno. “It’s only fun when we’re making them.”
“I thought you liked dressing up as the bossy janitor,” said Nino. Making changes to the set was a production in and of itself, on the show. The art department had become very adept at improvisation over the years.
“Yes,” Ohno replied, “but watching Kazu-chan fiddle with the weather board is much more interesting.”
Nino shrugged, and took another sip of his coffee. “Suit yourself.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be supervising the posters and billboards?” asked Sho, entering the control room. “The team’s already behind schedule.”
Sho was one of the assistant producers on the show. His job mainly involved chasing after recalcitrant art department supervisors who went by the name of Ohno Satoshi, and making sure that Lights & Weather did not decide that it was typhoon season again.
“I was looking for my janitor costume,” said Ohno in a feeble attempt at an excuse.
“And having a bit of tea while you were at it, I see,” Sho replied, glancing pointedly at the box of croissants.
‘We were wondering, actually, about that librarian character,” said Nino.
“Who, Matsumoto?” asked Sho.
“Jun-kun,” said Nino, nodding.
“Well yes, he seems to be a bit of a distraction at this point,” said Sho. “But Inagaki is assured that everything will smoothen out.”
“By smoothen out you mean Matsumoto’s essentially fired,” said Ohno.
“What a pity,” said Nino. “I was starting to get a bit fond of him.”
“Wait,” said Sho, “look at the screens. Wasn’t Aiba supposed to be taking a nap?”
They glanced at the camera feed to his bedroom. The bed was empty.
“We need to alert the camera teams-” Sho began.
“Hang on,” said Nino.
“What do you mean, hang on?” asked Sho. “He’s not where he’s supposed to be!”
“Maybe that’s the point,” said Nino. “Maybe he wants to be somewhere else.”
“There he is,” said Ohno. He pointed at a shot of a parking lot near the perimeter of the town. Aiba was desperately trying to get one of the cars to start, but they all knew very well that these were shell cars that Ohno’s team had put in a couple of weeks ago.
“Perhaps,” said Ohno, “we could give him a hand.”
----
For belyrith: Nino and his cards
Nino starts using his cards around the same time he meets Aiba. He doesn’t need the cards to do his magic, he explains to Aiba, but he likes what they represent. Sleight of hand. A deck of magic, his to deal.
They are drawn together by a mutual fascination. Aiba’s magic is wholly different from Nino’s, or anyone else’s in the town, for that matter. It is borne on crow’s wings; nestled precariously on utility poles and perched on concrete ledges. Nino envies that freedom, envies how easy it is for Aiba to gaze across the roofs of the town and take it in as one sweeping view.
In turn, Aiba cannot take his eyes off Nino’s hands. He sits for hours with his head cocked to one side, watching Nino practice with his cards. He’s fascinated by everything, but his favourite trick of Nino’s is when Nino vanishes a card. Nino will let him search the entire deck, but he will never find that missing Queen of Hearts.
“It’s magic,” Nino tells him. “You won’t be able to find it unless I want you to.”
“If I gave you something else,” Aiba says, eyes wide, “could you hide it away like that, too?”
Nino shrugs. “It depends. I’ve never tried.” He’s only ever used his cards to sequester away magic or to use in a spell. He’s not thought about hiding away other things. A secret has its own magic though, he knows. There are people who have drawn power from them.
He clears his throat. “What are you thinking of giving me?”
Now it is Aiba’s turn to smile. “How would you like it,” he asks, “to be able to fly?”
“And how are you proposing I do that?” asks Nino, although he’s beginning to think he might know the answer. A brothers’ pact; an exchanging of something of value. In Nino’s case this would be the service of a favour, but Aiba’s end of the bargain-
“My name,” says Aiba. “Hide that away so that only you will know it.”
“That is too much,” Nino tells Aiba, but as he glimpses Aiba’s serious expression he cannot help but experience a shiver of anticipation.
“We’ll look out for each other, won’t we?” Aiba asks. “We’ll fly, together.”
The card Nino uses is an Ace of Spades. Aiba scrawls his name onto it and hands it back to Nino, who palms it deftly and makes it disappear.
“Done,” says Nino. He will come to do it hundreds of times more.
They are perched on one arm of the disused communications tower. Nino is drunk on flight, drunk on the fact that in one glance he can see the whole town, drunk on Aiba, who looks at him with eyes dark and glittering.
He slips his hand into Aiba’s.
“Masaki.”
They fly.
----
For nicefinalbeam: Ohno and Sho friendship fic
(“It might have been the bento,” says Jun. “In fact, I’m quite sure it was the bento.”
“The bento?” Ohno repeats.
“It was a day old,” Jun tells him. “But his manager had bought it from that special train station bento shop that only sells a hundred boxes per day. Sho thought it would be a waste not to eat it.”)
When Sho awakens, he finds Ohno peering at him with an uncharacteristic look of concentration on his face.
He doesn’t remember Ohno arriving, or how he ended up back home in bed. He does remember suddenly feeling rather ill during filming for his guest appearance on Aiba’s drama. There might have been fainting involved.
“You’re awake,” says Ohno, frowning slightly. It’s the same worried frown he had worn that time after Nino stumbled on the Cliff Climb and got his belaying line snagged with one of the grips.
Definitely fainting, then.
“What-” Sho begins, but Ohno has picked up a grubby-looking printout of a webpage and begins to read from it.
“Remedies for food poisoning,” he reads. “Plenty of bed rest, hydration and… ah, medication.” He sets the paper down on Sho’s bed and begins rummaging about on the rather cluttered side table.
“Wait,” says Sho, “what time is it?”
“Seven in the evening,” Ohno replies, snatching up a bottle with a triumphant look on his face. “You’ve been asleep for close to six hours. Don’t worry,” he adds, when Sho attempts to sit up, “your manager says you have the rest of the day off. Doctor’s orders.”
“Oh.” Sho sinks back into his pillow. “I thought it was a regular stomach upset.”
“Hmph,” says Ohno, examining the bottle more closely. “I’m not sure if this is correct, after all.”
Ohno proves to be a terrible caregiver. He has to call Sho’s manager (twice) to ask where they had put the actual medication, and Sho ends up having to do an internet search of the drug names to make sure he doesn’t take the wrong ones. He toasts slices of bread, as per the website’s instructions, but thoughtfully butters the whole stack and ends up having to finish them himself. At one point he attempts to read Sho the newspaper, but looks so miserable puzzling through the kanji that Sho tells him to stop.
But when Ohno, after a day of worrying about Sho and attempting to fuss over him, climbs into Sho’s bed and falls asleep from the exhaustion of it all, Sho cannot help but feel much, much better.
For pebblegosling: A Truman Show-esque Arashi AU
“He’s supposed to fall in love with Becky, not develop a fascination with some extra they called in at the last minute,” said Nino, jabbing viciously at his clipboard. “It says right here in the monthly overview.”
Considering that he was merely a lights and weather programmer, Nino was unusually emotionally invested in the show. Then again, so was the rest of the crew. And the rest of Japan as well, if the ratings were anything to go by.
For twenty-five years, viewers had tuned in daily for an hour of highlights from Aiba Masaki’s life. He was a right ray of sunshine in a similarly cheery town, and it was a combination of Aiba’s personality and some very clever editing that contributed to the show’s immense success.
“They’ll probably edit most of it out,” murmured Ohno.
“Edit out all seventeen visits to the local library?” Nino looked incredulous. “Johnny’s not going to be happy, that’s for sure.”
“Well, it’s not your job to worry about it,” said Ohno, reaching out to touch one of the knobs on the panel.
Nino slapped his hand away. “That controls the sunset timing, don’t mess with it,” he snapped. “And besides, don’t you have some posters to put up?”
“Poster supervision is boring,” said Ohno. “It’s only fun when we’re making them.”
“I thought you liked dressing up as the bossy janitor,” said Nino. Making changes to the set was a production in and of itself, on the show. The art department had become very adept at improvisation over the years.
“Yes,” Ohno replied, “but watching Kazu-chan fiddle with the weather board is much more interesting.”
Nino shrugged, and took another sip of his coffee. “Suit yourself.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be supervising the posters and billboards?” asked Sho, entering the control room. “The team’s already behind schedule.”
Sho was one of the assistant producers on the show. His job mainly involved chasing after recalcitrant art department supervisors who went by the name of Ohno Satoshi, and making sure that Lights & Weather did not decide that it was typhoon season again.
“I was looking for my janitor costume,” said Ohno in a feeble attempt at an excuse.
“And having a bit of tea while you were at it, I see,” Sho replied, glancing pointedly at the box of croissants.
‘We were wondering, actually, about that librarian character,” said Nino.
“Who, Matsumoto?” asked Sho.
“Jun-kun,” said Nino, nodding.
“Well yes, he seems to be a bit of a distraction at this point,” said Sho. “But Inagaki is assured that everything will smoothen out.”
“By smoothen out you mean Matsumoto’s essentially fired,” said Ohno.
“What a pity,” said Nino. “I was starting to get a bit fond of him.”
“Wait,” said Sho, “look at the screens. Wasn’t Aiba supposed to be taking a nap?”
They glanced at the camera feed to his bedroom. The bed was empty.
“We need to alert the camera teams-” Sho began.
“Hang on,” said Nino.
“What do you mean, hang on?” asked Sho. “He’s not where he’s supposed to be!”
“Maybe that’s the point,” said Nino. “Maybe he wants to be somewhere else.”
“There he is,” said Ohno. He pointed at a shot of a parking lot near the perimeter of the town. Aiba was desperately trying to get one of the cars to start, but they all knew very well that these were shell cars that Ohno’s team had put in a couple of weeks ago.
“Perhaps,” said Ohno, “we could give him a hand.”
----
For belyrith: Nino and his cards
Nino starts using his cards around the same time he meets Aiba. He doesn’t need the cards to do his magic, he explains to Aiba, but he likes what they represent. Sleight of hand. A deck of magic, his to deal.
They are drawn together by a mutual fascination. Aiba’s magic is wholly different from Nino’s, or anyone else’s in the town, for that matter. It is borne on crow’s wings; nestled precariously on utility poles and perched on concrete ledges. Nino envies that freedom, envies how easy it is for Aiba to gaze across the roofs of the town and take it in as one sweeping view.
In turn, Aiba cannot take his eyes off Nino’s hands. He sits for hours with his head cocked to one side, watching Nino practice with his cards. He’s fascinated by everything, but his favourite trick of Nino’s is when Nino vanishes a card. Nino will let him search the entire deck, but he will never find that missing Queen of Hearts.
“It’s magic,” Nino tells him. “You won’t be able to find it unless I want you to.”
“If I gave you something else,” Aiba says, eyes wide, “could you hide it away like that, too?”
Nino shrugs. “It depends. I’ve never tried.” He’s only ever used his cards to sequester away magic or to use in a spell. He’s not thought about hiding away other things. A secret has its own magic though, he knows. There are people who have drawn power from them.
He clears his throat. “What are you thinking of giving me?”
Now it is Aiba’s turn to smile. “How would you like it,” he asks, “to be able to fly?”
“And how are you proposing I do that?” asks Nino, although he’s beginning to think he might know the answer. A brothers’ pact; an exchanging of something of value. In Nino’s case this would be the service of a favour, but Aiba’s end of the bargain-
“My name,” says Aiba. “Hide that away so that only you will know it.”
“That is too much,” Nino tells Aiba, but as he glimpses Aiba’s serious expression he cannot help but experience a shiver of anticipation.
“We’ll look out for each other, won’t we?” Aiba asks. “We’ll fly, together.”
The card Nino uses is an Ace of Spades. Aiba scrawls his name onto it and hands it back to Nino, who palms it deftly and makes it disappear.
“Done,” says Nino. He will come to do it hundreds of times more.
They are perched on one arm of the disused communications tower. Nino is drunk on flight, drunk on the fact that in one glance he can see the whole town, drunk on Aiba, who looks at him with eyes dark and glittering.
He slips his hand into Aiba’s.
“Masaki.”
They fly.
----
For nicefinalbeam: Ohno and Sho friendship fic
(“It might have been the bento,” says Jun. “In fact, I’m quite sure it was the bento.”
“The bento?” Ohno repeats.
“It was a day old,” Jun tells him. “But his manager had bought it from that special train station bento shop that only sells a hundred boxes per day. Sho thought it would be a waste not to eat it.”)
When Sho awakens, he finds Ohno peering at him with an uncharacteristic look of concentration on his face.
He doesn’t remember Ohno arriving, or how he ended up back home in bed. He does remember suddenly feeling rather ill during filming for his guest appearance on Aiba’s drama. There might have been fainting involved.
“You’re awake,” says Ohno, frowning slightly. It’s the same worried frown he had worn that time after Nino stumbled on the Cliff Climb and got his belaying line snagged with one of the grips.
Definitely fainting, then.
“What-” Sho begins, but Ohno has picked up a grubby-looking printout of a webpage and begins to read from it.
“Remedies for food poisoning,” he reads. “Plenty of bed rest, hydration and… ah, medication.” He sets the paper down on Sho’s bed and begins rummaging about on the rather cluttered side table.
“Wait,” says Sho, “what time is it?”
“Seven in the evening,” Ohno replies, snatching up a bottle with a triumphant look on his face. “You’ve been asleep for close to six hours. Don’t worry,” he adds, when Sho attempts to sit up, “your manager says you have the rest of the day off. Doctor’s orders.”
“Oh.” Sho sinks back into his pillow. “I thought it was a regular stomach upset.”
“Hmph,” says Ohno, examining the bottle more closely. “I’m not sure if this is correct, after all.”
Ohno proves to be a terrible caregiver. He has to call Sho’s manager (twice) to ask where they had put the actual medication, and Sho ends up having to do an internet search of the drug names to make sure he doesn’t take the wrong ones. He toasts slices of bread, as per the website’s instructions, but thoughtfully butters the whole stack and ends up having to finish them himself. At one point he attempts to read Sho the newspaper, but looks so miserable puzzling through the kanji that Sho tells him to stop.
But when Ohno, after a day of worrying about Sho and attempting to fuss over him, climbs into Sho’s bed and falls asleep from the exhaustion of it all, Sho cannot help but feel much, much better.