Title: bite the bittersweet bullet
Pairing: Ohno/Nino
Rating: Pg
Summary: When Ohno gets shot during a mission, Nino freaks out. Important Revelations take place. AU
A/n: First piece in a long while, hopefully it’s not retarded because I can’t tell the difference anymore.
Oh shit, says Nino, no, no, no, no, Oh-chan can you hear me? Nino can barely hear himself over the sound of his heart thumping. He’s blubbering, and he hasn’t blubbered since elementary school when someone kicked him off his chair for not sharing the rice balls. But he’s blubbering now, because Ohno is lying in a heap in front of him, not moving and blood pooling at his side. Nino finds when Ohno is bleeding and freaks out even more as his fingers go slippery with warm blood and Ohno makes a vaguely pained noise. Dammit, he says, why do you choose to make yourself useful only now? Nino glares at Ohno, who doesn’t notice, you idiot.
You better be ok, he tells Ohno as Ohno is loaded up onto an ambulance. Ohno smiles a blank smile in Nino’s general direction. Nino takes a deep breath to regain his composure. He intercepts a medic to demand water to clean his hands and watches the ambulance drive off till it’s a tiny spot and his hands are clean. It doesn’t take away the panic that wedges itself in his chest though, because Nino has never thought about what he would do without Ohno.
And then, as Nino gets himself home and throws himself on his bed, not bothering to take of his filthy jacket and blood stained boots and the gun in his belt, his life as a cop starts flooding back to him in the most clichéd of ways; banging on the door to his mind and barging their way in, reminding Nino of just what he might be going to lose.
-
They had always been a pair, not counting the early training days with Tackey and Aiba and Sho while Ohno was off training in Kyoto. When they graduated into full fledged officers, it had been Ninomiya and Ohno and, ten years down the road, it still was. They worked well together, unexpectedly. Nino is not an easy person to work with. He takes advantage of any breathing thing whenever he can, doesn’t like doing real work and whines all the time when not within a five metre radius of an air conditioning unit. Ohno isn’t too easy to handle either; he reports late almost every day, falls asleep during mission briefings and doodles all over case reports before handing them in (and this would be okay, since he’s not a bad artist, but when Nino starts whispering to him, the drawings get rather inappropriate)
Together, though, Nino and Ohno fit like pieces of a puzzle; perfectly. Nino, despite being, overall, a huge annoyance, is a good cop. He thinks fast, moves fast (when he wants to) and always manages to stay a step in front. And, of course, the only reason why Ohno is still around is because the station would never fire someone with his talents (give him a gun and tell him where to shoot (this is important), and Ohno never misses) for the fear that he might go over to the wrong side. So they put up with dirty drawings on their case reports and turn a blind eye to the records that show that he checks in two hours before work ends.
They don’t generally have near death encounters, because they don’t often fail and because Ohno never misses and Nino is good at avoiding things. The last time one of them got hurt was when they first started out. Lying on his bed, smelling like crap (and feeling like it too), Nino remembers moving just a fraction too slow. He remembers pain in his wrist, searing and painful as hell before Ohno’s hands where around his shoulders, dragging him out of the way. It was the first time Nino had seen Ohno actually displaying his (rather formidable) skills in everything he’s never really trained properly in. It was also the first time Nino had seen Ohno looking afraid, because Ohno’s facial expressions are generally limited to sleepy and bored (or somewhere in between).
It was fear, pure fear and for Nino. Nino isn’t a sap, but he likes to think of the incident as when they discovered each other. It isn’t easy to find the perfect partner in the force, sometimes it takes years and years of searching and missions gone wrong, but Nino and Ohno found each other, on the first try and Nino knows that they were lucky. Ohno had sat with Nino in the hospital every day. He’d brought cushions for Nino’s wrist, peeled the apples that Aiba kept on bringing Nino and lent Nino a shoulder to cry on when Nino was lonely and afraid that he might never be able to use his hand again.
Ohno didn’t give up on Nino, those three months of training and recovery. And that’s saying something, since Nino wasn’t exactly being the most cooperative partner ever because everyone thought Aiba and Nino would be a team after training but Aiba got paired with Sho instead and Nino was stuck with Ohno and Nino wasn’t too pleased about it. He’d been offered a chance to switch partners to maximise his potential, but Ohno had refused. (Nino only found this out after a drunken outing with a certain TOKIO unit member). It was the first and last time one of them got hurt in a mission, and Nino finds that perhaps it’s been a little too long since they were last reminded about the importance of them. (or perhaps it’s just him, just Nino who was blind and stupid and never saw that Ohno is the most important person in his life)
-
It isn’t unusual for Nino to come into work to find Ohno drooling on all the important paper work that they’re supposed to be filling out and handing in. In fact, it isn’t entirely unusual to find for Nino to come into work to not find Ohno at all. But when Nino walks into their office the next morning, it’s an entirely different feeling altogether. It’s empty, void in a way that scares Nino more than he can say. Ohno isn’t there, neither is the comfortable familiarity that usually hangs around the room even when Ohno is still asleep at home or out fishing somewhere. Nino sits down at his desk and stares at the post it note that tells him to write out a report detailing what happened.
Nino frowns, because he doesn’t remember. All he remembers is Ohno, Ohno pushing him out of the way, Ohno falling, and Ohno’s face as it scrunched up in pain and shock as he was hit. Nino shuts his eyes and wills the images to go away, but they don’t. The float around mocking him, almost, refusing to go away. Nino crumples the post it up, grabs his coat and runs out. He needs to see Ohno, needs to make sure he’s alive.
-
Ohno’s mother is waiting outside Ohno’s ward when Nino arrives. Satoshi hasn’t woken up yet, she tells Nino, voice trembling. Nino’s heart sinks, even further down than it already is. And Nino has never been one for hugs, but he finds himself holding onto Ohno’s mother and squeezing tight as they sit outside Ohno’s room and hope beyond hope that Ohno will make it.
Their hoping doesn’t seem to work. For four days, Nino arrives at the hospital in the morning to find Ohno’s mother staring at her coffee. Sometimes, he’s in time to see the doctor too, who tells them that Ohno isn’t in any danger. Nino frowns, because he shouldn’t be just lying there like that if he isn’t in danger. Nino gulps his coffee down, ignoring the way it burns his tongue and creates unpleasant tingles that dance across his mouth.
On the fifth day, the doctor has just finished telling them not to worry (and indeed, Nino thinks bitterly to himself, he wouldn’t be too worried if it was the doctor’s partner in a coma) when machines start beeping, slow at first, and then faster and faster. The doctor rushes back into the room, one hand out to prevent them from following. The doors swing shut and the curtains are drawn. Nino reaches out for Ohno’s mother and gently steers her to a chair.
It’s not something he would do; that’s Ohno’s job. It’s Ohno who knows how to make people feel better during times like these. Nino shuts his eyes and tries to think of what happened when his sister broke her leg and he was worried sick during a mission and Ohno made him feel all better. He remembers warm hands on shoulders, and quiet reassurances. He remembers hope, hope that gave him strength to finish the damn mission and rush back home.
Kaachan, he says, Kaachan, It’s going to be fine. Oh-chan’s strong, he’ll pull through. For you.
Nino’s words lack the certainty that he needs to be convincing. But, sitting outside Ohno’s room with nothing to look to, nothing to be sure of, they have nothing else left but hope. So they grab onto the shards that Nino tries to produce because they both can’t do without Ohno and they’ve never felt it as keenly as now.
-
And it’s hope that takes them through twelve hours of nervous waiting, dreading, till the doctor comes out and tells them that Ohno is conscious, but sleeping and still very weak because his gun wound reopened. At least, thats what Nino thinks he’s saying, medical bullshit aside. But Ohno is conscious, he’s not dead or gone, he’s awake and he’s Ohno, and hope gives way to joy, insurmountable joy that brings a smile (completely real; one he hasn’t smiled in years and years) to Nino’s face.
Nino peeks into the room, since only his mother is allowed in, and watches as Ohno’s face, smooth and peaceful twitches slight in his sleep. It’s all so familiar and comfortable that Nino’s heart skips a little. It’s real now, something that sticks in his side, reminding him that Ohno is here, right here and now, and he needs to do something before he forgets all over again just how much they’re supposed to be together.
There isn’t much he can do now though. Nino shuts the door softly and grabs his bag. Back home, his bloody clothes are still on the kitchen floor next to his laundry basket and his television is still running from when he’d left home last. On the shoe cabinet, propped up against the wall (because he’s just never gotten around to fixing something to hang it from), there is the certificate of commendation he and Ohno got last year. There was only one, but Ohno let him keep it. I have you anyway, Ohno had said with a grin, it’s enough.
Nino stares at the certificate, wondering if Ohno had meant anything more, and if he should have realised it then. Things are hazy though, because Nino hadn’t put too much importance on Ohno and Ohno’s presence. It had become routine, normal, something he’d seen as a given because they were partners, and it had always been like that.
That night, Nino hauls out his tools and fixes the certificate on the wall, hanging above the picture of him and Aiba from when they’d first joined, and the picture of his family. Settling down on his couch and flicking on the tv, Nino watches the certificate and thinks back, of things from far away, remembering and understanding till he falls asleep, lulled into slumber by the sound of the cheesy drama that’s on and sweet noise of familiarity that’s echoing in his mind.
-
When Nino arrives at the hospital in the morning, he sees Ohno sitting up against his pillow and peeling an apple. Nino can see the bandages around his wound and the tubes leading from his hands to a machine next to the bed. He sees them, but the only thing he registers is Ohno, Ohno smiling at him like nothing bad ever happened and they’re just sitting around at work slacking off and driving Sho crazy with paper balls and dirty jokes.
Hey Nino-chan, says Ohno with a grin, I missed you.
And Nino hurls himself at Ohno and hugs him so tight that Ohno has the pry Nino away so he can breathe. He’s real, Nino tells himself, warm and solid and Nino feels a lump lodge itself in his throat and refuse to move.
You asshole, he chokes out, how dare you get hurt, Nino reaches out to smack Ohno like usual but remembers just in time and pulls his hand back, leaving it in his lap instead, pulling at the loose string on his shirt hem. Nino stares at his fingers. I was so scared, he admits softly, I thought you might never come back.
Ohno’s eyes are gentle with understanding as he pulls Nino closer and pokes at his hand. Silly Nino, he says, though not in an unkind way, but in a way that makes Nino feel all tingly and special inside, I wouldn’t never leave you if I could help it.
It’s ridiculous, because Ohno sounds almost loving when he says that. Nino continues studying his fingers, feeling like a naughty child who doesn’t understand a thing. It’s not usually this way; Ohno doesn’t mind letting Nino be the smart one, but Nino is starting to realise that there are many things he doesn’t yet get.
He’s snapped out of his thoughts by a kiss on his cheek, just below his eye because Ohno has to lean around to get to Nino’s face. Silly Nino, Ohno says again and grins when Nino pinches his arm. Idiot, says Nino, idiot, idiot, idiot, mphf-
Nino is ordinarily very good with insults, and he would totally have come up with a ton of creative ones, had Ohno not grabbed his face and kissed him soundly. Nino has never really imagined what kissing Ohno would be like. But even if he had, Nino realises, it would be nothing like the real thing. Kissing Ohno is like dancing with fire; dangerous but enticing, drawing Nino in and convincing him that he never wants to stop. It lasts only till Nino remembers that Ohno is hurt and should be resting and pulls away.
I’ll come back tomorrow, he tells Ohno, Kaachan is here.
Ohno looks at him, does this mean we’re married? He asks, dodging the cushion Nino throws at him.
No, says Nino, turning red (and he hopes this isn’t going to be a permanent thing, because Nino never blushes), but Ohno doesn’t hear. Nino watches as Ohno arranges the apple peel into a fish on his lap, pausing only to hug his mother.It's Ohno, and Nino couldn't be happier.
And in the end, when Nino slips out, he’s not even surprised much that nothing has changed, because they’ve had it all along. It just took ten years and a bullet for Nino to find it out.
fin
Random extra that fit no where, but was written anyway because this author enjoys torturing Sho;
Ninomiya, says Sho, Ninomiya, i will kill you.
Nino grins at Sho, but Oh-chan drew it, don’t be mad at me
Satoshi-kun is still recovering, and you’re taking advantage of his weakened state, Sho says, and plops down the twenty-six page report of the mission. You aren’t allowed to use any font size bigger than twelve and I’m pretty sure the higher ups aren’t interested in the two of you doing indecent things on the hospital beds.
How about the illustrated version? Nino asks innocently, Oh-chan drew it in colour too.
Sho hates his life, really.
-
Please excuse the retarded ending, I was a little too stuck on how to end the thing 8D
Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue more pieces in the verse, because THE THOUGHT OF NINO!POLICEMAN IS ASDFGHJKL cute little plot bunnies are popping up in my head and bouncing around. Feel free to point out any typos etc, because they are there, I just can’t see them.
Also,
calerine , I finished nodame.phone is still retarded.msn.