236. more ohmiya arranged marriage fic!!
(working) title: one and only
rating: E for everyone
pairings: ohmiya, with a cameo by sakumoto!!
notes: more of this ridiculous thing. the more i write in this verse, the more i realize i just want to spend the whole time describing everyone's clothing and hairstyles.
(first part here.)
“Why did you want to meet again?”
Satoshi asks it bluntly, and too suddenly, right in the middle of the polite small talk Ninomiya is making. Ninomiya blinks in surprise.
They’ve been left alone in one of the nice tatami sitting rooms that faces out to the garden in the back. At first, Satoshi’s mother, and his gibo-his mother’s wife-Yasuko, and Ninomiya’s mother had all been there with them, giving Satoshi a good excuse to do very little of the talking again. But it hadn’t taken them long to decide to take a stroll around the garden-despite the fact that there was snow on the ground-and oh, no, you boys just stay here and get to know each other, and then they were gone.
And so Satoshi was left staring at the top of the kotatsu and the spiraling peel of the mikan he’d eaten a few minutes ago. He felt like he didn’t know what to say, didn’t have anything interesting to say anyway, though Ninomiya made a valiant effort to draw him out. Ninomiya is in a suit again today, this time a warm brown color, with a daffodil yellow tie, a combination that is coincidentally a very nice compliment to Satoshi’s outfit: a goldfish-patterned kimono and dark brown-and-gray obi. He wonders if their mothers somehow communicated their clothing choices beforehand.
When Ninomiya doesn’t answer right away, Satoshi finds himself speaking again, blurting out the questions that have been rattling around his head since yesterday.
“Is it because you want to marry me? But, if you do…why? How can you want to, already?”
After another moment, Ninomiya gives a rueful kind of laugh, and leans back on his hands, tilting his head to look at Satoshi.
“Can I ask you a question?” he says. Satoshi nods.
“Do you even want to get married? At all? To anyone?”
Satoshi purses his lips and looks down at his lap. He shouldn’t answer truthfully, since it might be insulting, and his mother would be very upset if she found out they were having this conversation. But, “No,” he says, a little petulantly.
There is another long pause, and Satoshi looks back up to see Ninomiya watching him contemplatively. Ninomiya runs a hand, palm flat, along his jaw and across his mouth. Eventually he sits up and leans his elbows on the table, his hands fiddling with his empty tea cup.
“Ohno-san,” Ninomiya says finally. “If an engagement between us is impossible for you, then I understand. But I think…I think, eventually, it’s an arrangement we could both be happy with. If you’ll give me a chance.”
Ninomiya smiles then, a soft expression that scrunches his eyes up just a little, shows just a hint of teeth and dark gums, and Satoshi feels a little thump in his chest. And suddenly he feels like, maybe, with Ninomiya, this could be okay.
A little while later, when their mothers return from the garden, Ninomiya’s mother takes one sly look between the two of them and says decisively: “A June wedding. It’ll be just in time for Kazu’s birthday.”
*
In truth, Satoshi has very little to do with the actual planning of the wedding. His mother will occasionally ask his opinion on something-if they should hold the ceremony in the morning or afternoon, which fabric would make the best wedding kimono-but often answers her own questions before Satoshi even has a chance to reply. He doesn’t really mind: the less he has to think about the wedding, the better.
“I thought you said you liked him?” Jun asks, worry creasing his brow. He’s trying to look unconcerned, for Satoshi’s sake: he has his chin propped in his hand and a magazine across his knees, stripped down to just shirt-sleeves, slacks, and stocking feet. His suspenders hang loose around his hips. But Satoshi has known Jun practically his entire life, and Jun has made it clear that he has a vested interest in Satoshi’s happiness.
“I do,” Satoshi answers. “I do, but. Well.”
“What was his name again?” Sho asks, without looking up from his papers. He sits in a very proper seiza in front of his low desk, in a cotton house robe belted loosely at the waist.
“Ninomiya. He’s an accountant.”
Sho hums interestedly, and Jun gives a little laugh through his nose. “What on earth could you possibly have in common with an accountant?”
“Mothers who want to marry us off,” Satoshi mutters, and Jun laughs again.
“So, when do we get to meet him?” Sho asks. He’s finished whatever he was doing at the desk, and comes to join them at the low table in the center of the room. Satoshi watches the way Jun watches Sho as he moves towards them. Theirs had been an arranged marriage, too, almost inevitable since they both came from money, and Satoshi remembers how anxious Jun had been at first, how afraid he had been. But now Jun looks at Sho like this, and Sho looks back at Jun with a small, private smile. Anyone could see how much they love each other.
“Satoshi?” Sho asks, jolting him from his preoccupation.
“I don’t know,” Satoshi says vaguely. “He’s kind of busy, I guess.”
“Doing what?” Jun scoffs. “Accounting?”
Satoshi just shrugs. It’s been about a month since that second meeting, when the engagement was made official. He’s only seen Ninomiya a handful of times since then, on the carefully scheduled and often chaperoned outings that are arranged for them, since they’re supposed to be ‘courting’. Which has been fine, really: they’ve been to a couple different restaurants, and to see the big new department store downtown, and even took a ride in Ninomiya’s car. Ninomiya is perfectly charming, and he can make Satoshi laugh, and is very good at filling the silences that Satoshi is prone to leave in a conversation.
But Satoshi gets the feeling that this is just the surface. It’s like…Ninomiya is acting the part of a pleasant, charming, polite young man who is engaged because he knows that’s what people want to see. He’s very good at it. But Satoshi just has the feeling that there’s something else. That there’s more.
He doesn’t say any of this to Jun and Sho, however. For one thing, he would probably do a bad job trying to explain it, and anyway it would just make them worry.
“Why don’t you come out with us this weekend?” Jun says suddenly. “We’re going into town, to one of the new jazz clubs. Come with us. It’ll take your mind off of…everything.”
“Oh,” Satoshi brightens. He hasn’t been out with Jun and Sho in a long time: Sho is always busy with his government job, and Jun has so many friends in town he always seems to be attending (or hosting) some party or event or another.
“You can wear that suit I got you for your birthday,” Jun adds, glancing at the frayed and stained work clothes Satoshi is wearing-he came straight here from the workshop today.
“This would be fine, wouldn’t it?” Satoshi says, keeping a straight face and indicating his current outfit. He is rewarded with a horrified look from Jun, and can’t help but laughing aloud at his distress. Jun give him a friendly slap to the head.
“Very funny,” Jun huffs. “Wear the suit.”
“Okay,” Satoshi agrees easily.
“You’re going to be fine, you know,” Sho says. “You and Ninomiya, I mean. Even if it’s strange, at first.” He shares a quick glance with Jun-warm, secretive. “I think you’ll be just fine.”
Satoshi’s still a little unsure, still doesn’t want to think about it too hard, but “Thanks,” he says, smiling back at Sho.
NEXT TIME: JAZZ :D
This entry was originally posted at http://harinezumi-kun.dreamwidth.org/60641.html with
comments. Reply at original post.
rating: E for everyone
pairings: ohmiya, with a cameo by sakumoto!!
notes: more of this ridiculous thing. the more i write in this verse, the more i realize i just want to spend the whole time describing everyone's clothing and hairstyles.
(first part here.)
“Why did you want to meet again?”
Satoshi asks it bluntly, and too suddenly, right in the middle of the polite small talk Ninomiya is making. Ninomiya blinks in surprise.
They’ve been left alone in one of the nice tatami sitting rooms that faces out to the garden in the back. At first, Satoshi’s mother, and his gibo-his mother’s wife-Yasuko, and Ninomiya’s mother had all been there with them, giving Satoshi a good excuse to do very little of the talking again. But it hadn’t taken them long to decide to take a stroll around the garden-despite the fact that there was snow on the ground-and oh, no, you boys just stay here and get to know each other, and then they were gone.
And so Satoshi was left staring at the top of the kotatsu and the spiraling peel of the mikan he’d eaten a few minutes ago. He felt like he didn’t know what to say, didn’t have anything interesting to say anyway, though Ninomiya made a valiant effort to draw him out. Ninomiya is in a suit again today, this time a warm brown color, with a daffodil yellow tie, a combination that is coincidentally a very nice compliment to Satoshi’s outfit: a goldfish-patterned kimono and dark brown-and-gray obi. He wonders if their mothers somehow communicated their clothing choices beforehand.
When Ninomiya doesn’t answer right away, Satoshi finds himself speaking again, blurting out the questions that have been rattling around his head since yesterday.
“Is it because you want to marry me? But, if you do…why? How can you want to, already?”
After another moment, Ninomiya gives a rueful kind of laugh, and leans back on his hands, tilting his head to look at Satoshi.
“Can I ask you a question?” he says. Satoshi nods.
“Do you even want to get married? At all? To anyone?”
Satoshi purses his lips and looks down at his lap. He shouldn’t answer truthfully, since it might be insulting, and his mother would be very upset if she found out they were having this conversation. But, “No,” he says, a little petulantly.
There is another long pause, and Satoshi looks back up to see Ninomiya watching him contemplatively. Ninomiya runs a hand, palm flat, along his jaw and across his mouth. Eventually he sits up and leans his elbows on the table, his hands fiddling with his empty tea cup.
“Ohno-san,” Ninomiya says finally. “If an engagement between us is impossible for you, then I understand. But I think…I think, eventually, it’s an arrangement we could both be happy with. If you’ll give me a chance.”
Ninomiya smiles then, a soft expression that scrunches his eyes up just a little, shows just a hint of teeth and dark gums, and Satoshi feels a little thump in his chest. And suddenly he feels like, maybe, with Ninomiya, this could be okay.
A little while later, when their mothers return from the garden, Ninomiya’s mother takes one sly look between the two of them and says decisively: “A June wedding. It’ll be just in time for Kazu’s birthday.”
*
In truth, Satoshi has very little to do with the actual planning of the wedding. His mother will occasionally ask his opinion on something-if they should hold the ceremony in the morning or afternoon, which fabric would make the best wedding kimono-but often answers her own questions before Satoshi even has a chance to reply. He doesn’t really mind: the less he has to think about the wedding, the better.
“I thought you said you liked him?” Jun asks, worry creasing his brow. He’s trying to look unconcerned, for Satoshi’s sake: he has his chin propped in his hand and a magazine across his knees, stripped down to just shirt-sleeves, slacks, and stocking feet. His suspenders hang loose around his hips. But Satoshi has known Jun practically his entire life, and Jun has made it clear that he has a vested interest in Satoshi’s happiness.
“I do,” Satoshi answers. “I do, but. Well.”
“What was his name again?” Sho asks, without looking up from his papers. He sits in a very proper seiza in front of his low desk, in a cotton house robe belted loosely at the waist.
“Ninomiya. He’s an accountant.”
Sho hums interestedly, and Jun gives a little laugh through his nose. “What on earth could you possibly have in common with an accountant?”
“Mothers who want to marry us off,” Satoshi mutters, and Jun laughs again.
“So, when do we get to meet him?” Sho asks. He’s finished whatever he was doing at the desk, and comes to join them at the low table in the center of the room. Satoshi watches the way Jun watches Sho as he moves towards them. Theirs had been an arranged marriage, too, almost inevitable since they both came from money, and Satoshi remembers how anxious Jun had been at first, how afraid he had been. But now Jun looks at Sho like this, and Sho looks back at Jun with a small, private smile. Anyone could see how much they love each other.
“Satoshi?” Sho asks, jolting him from his preoccupation.
“I don’t know,” Satoshi says vaguely. “He’s kind of busy, I guess.”
“Doing what?” Jun scoffs. “Accounting?”
Satoshi just shrugs. It’s been about a month since that second meeting, when the engagement was made official. He’s only seen Ninomiya a handful of times since then, on the carefully scheduled and often chaperoned outings that are arranged for them, since they’re supposed to be ‘courting’. Which has been fine, really: they’ve been to a couple different restaurants, and to see the big new department store downtown, and even took a ride in Ninomiya’s car. Ninomiya is perfectly charming, and he can make Satoshi laugh, and is very good at filling the silences that Satoshi is prone to leave in a conversation.
But Satoshi gets the feeling that this is just the surface. It’s like…Ninomiya is acting the part of a pleasant, charming, polite young man who is engaged because he knows that’s what people want to see. He’s very good at it. But Satoshi just has the feeling that there’s something else. That there’s more.
He doesn’t say any of this to Jun and Sho, however. For one thing, he would probably do a bad job trying to explain it, and anyway it would just make them worry.
“Why don’t you come out with us this weekend?” Jun says suddenly. “We’re going into town, to one of the new jazz clubs. Come with us. It’ll take your mind off of…everything.”
“Oh,” Satoshi brightens. He hasn’t been out with Jun and Sho in a long time: Sho is always busy with his government job, and Jun has so many friends in town he always seems to be attending (or hosting) some party or event or another.
“You can wear that suit I got you for your birthday,” Jun adds, glancing at the frayed and stained work clothes Satoshi is wearing-he came straight here from the workshop today.
“This would be fine, wouldn’t it?” Satoshi says, keeping a straight face and indicating his current outfit. He is rewarded with a horrified look from Jun, and can’t help but laughing aloud at his distress. Jun give him a friendly slap to the head.
“Very funny,” Jun huffs. “Wear the suit.”
“Okay,” Satoshi agrees easily.
“You’re going to be fine, you know,” Sho says. “You and Ninomiya, I mean. Even if it’s strange, at first.” He shares a quick glance with Jun-warm, secretive. “I think you’ll be just fine.”
Satoshi’s still a little unsure, still doesn’t want to think about it too hard, but “Thanks,” he says, smiling back at Sho.
NEXT TIME: JAZZ :D
This entry was originally posted at http://harinezumi-kun.dreamwidth.org/60641.html with
comments. Reply at original post.