"The Lower Decks", Chapter Three
Title: The Lower Decks
Chapter: 3/??
Fandom: Arashi
Character, Pairing(s): Nagase/the ladies
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, sexual humor
Summary: There's jobs in unfortunate places, jobs with unfortunate people, and jobs that are just plain unfortunate: then there is the Floating Sakura, which seems to be all of the above.
It was nice and sunny, and the ship was docked at Cozumel. They were stopping in Mexico for the first bit, then once they hit the Caribbean they’d be at sea until they hit Grand Cayman and Jamaica. At sea again til the Virgin Islands then back for a day at the Bahamas before back in Miami.
Ohno knew the route pretty well, though he didn’t get to leave the boat much to enjoy their stops. Not like he’d sit and read at the beach or visit the tourist trap shops. They did have a fishing day trip scheduled as an off-boat excursion in Cayman, so maybe if he begged and pleaded with his supervisor he’d get to go too.
But for now, they were in Cozumel and most of the passengers had gone ashore for the day. There were always folks who chose not to spend the money though, so they stayed on board. He was at the Coconut Cabana on the lido deck this afternoon, and he was enjoying getting out and into the fresh air.
Working Coconut Cabana was ideal. The bar was situated in the middle of the adults only Party Pool, so he got to sit in his trunks and pour drinks to the people that swam up to him. He got to enjoy the sunshine and get some color, and he kind of liked the way his skin shriveled. The only problem was that the tip jar stayed empty since, well, who was carrying money in their swimsuits?
He heard some splashing as he served a Sex on the Beach to someone’s grandma. Ohno had liked the way she’d giggled when placing her drink order, so he’d given her a little more alcohol than the recipe called for. Masaki popped his head over the bar countertop.
“Satoshi.”
He smiled. Aiba never went anywhere without his nametag. Even now, even when he was in swim trunks, he had his nametag around his neck on a chain. “Hi Masaki, how are ya? Can I fix you something?”
Aiba shook his head. “Sorry. On the clock.”
Ohno shrugged, grabbing one of the coconut-shaped old fashioned glasses and pouring some pineapple juice in it. He set it down in front of his dripping wet friend. “How’s your roommate?”
Ohno hadn’t heard from Sho since that nasty night where Sho had called himself a slut-hamster or something, and he was worried. Even though they were done (too different), Ohno still liked Sho a lot and thought he was a nice guy. Sho liked to take care of people, and usually when Ohno was working Coconut Cabana, Sho would put some sunscreen in a little remote control boat and send it over to the bar until Ohno agreed to put some on. It had been hard to sit at the bar and watch him destroy his liver for no good reason.
Aiba sipped the juice gratefully. “He’s…kind of grouchy.” Masaki was thumping his foot nervously against the part of the bar structure that was under the water, raising up bubbles on Ohno’s side. Aiba hadn’t come here to talk about Sho, that much was clear.
“Well, how are you?”
He watched Aiba nibble on the end of the straw.
“Masaki?”
He then watched Aiba take a really big breath, hands squeezing the bar top.
“Hey Satoshi, say that you’re given a really important task, I mean real important, no, I mean super mega incredibly important, like you could lose your job if you screw up important? And say that somehow, between being assigned that task and getting to the cafeteria in time for curry night, you lose something that is part of that really important task, like, you had it and then you remember getting somewhere with it but then suddenly you’re all ‘oh wait, it’s curry night, I can’t be here, I have to make sure I get down there because you know that there’s some crazy hungry people who will take it all’ so you go to curry night, and wow, it was so good, so you’re full and you’re happy. Then you go back to make sure that you’ve still got that important something and that it’s where you left it? But all of a sudden, hey, that important thing is gone! And you totally remember it being in this one place, but hey, maybe it got moved, but since you were supposed to still be on duty and most definitely not at curry night, you can’t exactly say ‘Hey Mr. Kusanagi, you know that one thing I left here? Where did it go?’ because Mr. Kusanagi already thinks you’re kind of an idiot, but really, you’re not, you’re just occasionally forgetful at really important, essential times. So you can’t tell your boss and boy, you can’t tell Sho, because he’s just going to flip out and you just hate the way his voice gets all screechy when he’s pissed off and you have to share a tiny room with him already, and you don’t need him to be mad, so who are you supposed to tell? So you go, okay, maybe you should calm down and start looking, so you check every safe in the purser’s office, but you know this thing was wrapped in silk and a t-shirt and stuff and you haven’t found that at all, so then you go ‘oh no, it was wrapped in a t-shirt, maybe the laundry lady came and got it’ but then you realize you don’t have time to go down to the laundry room because it’s all steamy and hot there and you’re supposed to be on duty, so a few hours go by and you’re freaking out, and then your shift is over.”
Masaki took another breath, and Ohno was about to go into brain overload from the sheer amount of information just related.
“So Satoshi, what should I…I mean, what would you do?”
Ohno saw a little kid in an inflatable dragon inner tube come floating by, eyes wide, and he waved him away. “Adults only, little guy!” The kid reluctantly floated away, staring at Aiba like he had three heads. Hopefully he wouldn’t be telling his parents what he’d just overheard.
Ohno pondered Aiba’s dilemma, taking a sip of his own pineapple juice. “So you’re saying you lost something?”
Aiba was looking close to tears. “Oh I’m in so much trouble! I had Sadie, and now I’ve lost her and…”
“Wait, is it a cat? We could look for a cat…”
“No, it’s a…you know what, I should be looking, not swimming.”
Ohno caught Aiba by his wrist before he could float away from the Coconut Cabana. “You lost something that belongs to a passenger?”
Aiba nodded. “Temporarily misplaced, but yes.”
“Aren’t you working with Nino?”
“Well…yes I am but…”
He smiled. “Then you and Nino should go looking for it. You’re supposed to be a team, right?”
“He’s going to think I’m an idiot.”
He poured some more pineapple juice into Aiba’s coconut glass. “So what? The passengers take priority, so just work together. I can help when my shift’s done if you want?”
Aiba looked grateful and downed the pineapple juice before shoving away from the bar and kicking into a clumsy backstroke. “You’re the best.”
Well, he’d finish his shift and then search for the…whatever it was Aiba had misplaced. Ohno heard another splash. It was the kid in the dragon inner tube. He saw that look - he’d worked in Coconut Cabana long enough to know that look.
“No! No, kid, don’t you dare pee in here!”
--
Jun didn’t really expect tips for bussing, but they were definitely appreciated. The passengers had already paid for the food, and usually ate more than what their money would have bought on shore, so was it too much to ask for a dollar here and there? With the increasingly incompetent people they hired to bring out food, it was usually Jun the passengers called on to freshen drinks, send something back to the kitchen or get new silverware.
He had an hour before the dinner rush would start, and the coins were jingling in the pocket of his slacks. Jun liked tips - but he preferred them to be in a currency he’d at least heard of before. There were things with a 1 on them that had corn, some with a 5 that had…coconuts? Either way, he’d never seen these things before. Hopefully they’d be able to change it in the purser’s office.
When he came in the door, he saw Sho was behind the counter, and the guy nearly jumped in the air when Jun approached.
“Jun, how are you?” Sho asked him, and Jun had never heard a grown man’s voice get so squeaky before.
It was obvious to everyone, Jun included, that Sho Sakurai in the purser’s office liked him. However, it was obvious to everyone BUT Sho that Jun was aware of it.
Sho was a nice guy, a decent guy. He was good at his job, and since Jun was kind of a perfectionist when it came to his work, he admired that in Sakurai. Jun wasn’t exactly big on workplace romance (it got in the way of work after all) but he wouldn’t be averse to getting to know Sho a bit better. The only thing standing in the way was…well, Sho himself.
For one thing, he had a hard time looking Jun in the eye without breaking into a rather adorable sweat.
He took the coins out of his pockets and set them down on the counter. “Some old lady gave me this as my tip today. Any idea what these are?”
“Let me check,” came the even squeakier reply, and Jun grinned at the way Sho’s hands were positively trembling as he picked up one of the coconut coins. “Says Tonga on here.”
“That mean tongue in Spanish or Portuguese or something?”
Something in Sho’s face changed. He knew something. He knew something that Jun didn’t and now he was going to show off. Sho started typing something in the computer, eyes flicking back and forth madly at the monitor as Jun tapped one of the coins against the counter.
“Tonga’s a country,” Sho informed him. “A group of islands in the South Pacific.”
“How do you know that?”
Sho was still sweating, but his eyes were almost sparkling. “I have a world map on the wall in my cabin. I’m trying to memorize it.”
Jun tried not to let the nerdiness of Sho’s statement deter him from liking the guy. He leaned forward, elbows on the counter, and Sho gulped. It was kind of fun to tease him. It was a welcome break from the old ladies who would drop their silverware on purpose in the dining room just so he’d bend over to pick it up. “So what’s the currency in Tonga called?”
Sho’s fingers were dancing over the keyboard again, and he turned the screen to him. The purser’s database had an entry on every type of currency they changed. “The Tongan pa’anga. But the coinage are in seniti.”
“That’s great.” He put his fingers on the remaining coins and slid them across the counter some more. “Rare?”
“Um, well, rare to find in this part of the world.” Sho was sweating again.
Jun pressed onward, picking up the corn coin and tapping it against Sho’s forearm. “So how much can you give me for these?”
“We…I…let me check.” Sho pulled his arm away and was typing, his eyes moving back and forth to count the coins.
There was an off-boat snorkeling tour in Jamaica - with his employee discount and whatever money he made from these coins he’d be all set and-
“Fourteen cents.”
He dropped the corn coin. He had to have set down at least thirty coins on the counter. “What?”
Sho tapped the monitor with his index finger. “Here’s the current exchange rate from Tongan pa’anga to U.S. dollars. This is worth fourteen cents.”
He scowled. “But you said this was rare.”
“Well, more like rare in that I’ve never seen them in person before.” Sho was even more embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Jun…I can’t change the exchange rate. I…I could maybe give you fifteen cents? Sixteen? I don’t want Mr. Kusanagi to find out though…”
Cheapskate passengers, paying him in useless currency. No snorkeling. No way to get off the boat. No break from tablecloths and silverware. And still no chance at working in the kitchen. He laid his head down on the counter, muffling his voice. “Forget it.”
“Um, sorry,” Sho replied, and Jun felt the guy gingerly patting his head. It was kind of nice, actually.
Well. If he wouldn’t go snorkeling, maybe he could spend his off-time with Sho. Hell, maybe he could use the tiny shared kitchen by employee quarters and have Sho be a guinea pig for his recipes. Nino never wanted to try anything. He looked up, ready to see if Sho would pee himself at the offer of a date, but he didn’t get a chance because Sho had already snatched his hand away and was blushing furiously as the office door opened.
Great.
Nino and Aiba walked in, the two of them nearly colliding with him at the counter. “Oh,” Aiba mumbled. “Sho, forgot you were on duty.”
When Jun wasn’t Sho’s focus, he was a different person. “Masaki, I always work this shift.”
Nino was already heading for the door. Why the hell was he here? Didn’t he have to make sure Nagase wasn’t drowning somewhere? “He always works this shift, Aiba, let’s come back later.”
The two of them were being super suspicious. Were they on some creepy errand from Nagase? Maybe Jun could give the guy all his worthless Tongan money. “If I’m in the way,” he said to Aiba, “you know, don’t let me interrupt purser’s office business.”
“Purser’s office business,” Aiba repeated before throwing the lock on the door and falling to his knees in a fit of rather creepy giggles.
Jun gave Nino an inquisitive look, but Nino wouldn’t meet his eyes. Sho came around the counter, face immediately panicking. “Masaki,” Sho said. “Masaki, this is not a good laugh.”
Nino looked shifty. “Which is why I’ll get him back to his cabin. Come on, get up.”
But Aiba wasn’t moving, rocking back and forth and laughing. Sho prodded him with his shoe. “Did you screw something up? Please say you didn’t screw something up.”
“I didn’t screw something up. Okay, that’s a lie,” Aiba admitted, and suddenly, Jun wanted to be far, far away from the purser’s office. The last thing he needed was to get tied up in some mess that had nothing to do with him. However, Nino was standing in the doorway blocking his exit, fingers drumming against his uniform slacks in his nervousness.
Sho crouched down and gave Aiba a shake. “What did you do?”
Nino interrupted immediately. “He’ll give you the long version, believe me, don’t ask him to…”
Aiba started blabbing anyway. “Well, it all started with curry night last night. I mean, you love curry too, right Sho? Oh man, and they had so many different spices in it. So I thought, hey, I’ll just sneak away for twenty minutes…”
“Wait, you left during your shift last night?” Sho screeched.
“…just twenty minutes, so I could have sworn I left Sadie on the counter here…”
“Sadie?” Jun wondered. Why was Aiba leaving a woman on the purser’s office counter?
“…and when I came back…Sho, I swear to you, I wasn’t gone for more than twenty minutes…”
Nino crouched down and pushed his hand over Aiba’s mouth, muffling him. “Look, he lost Tomoya Nagase’s most prized possession, and we’re trying to find it.”
Sho looked like he was going to faint, Nino looked irritated, and Aiba…well, Aiba was still trying to talk, little noises still emerging from behind Nino’s hand. This was bad. This was very very VERY bad.
But dinner was starting in half an hour - he had to go. If only he’d just taken the fourteen freaking cents Sho had offered. “Well, I have work to do…”
Nino’s other hand clamped down around Jun’s ankle. “If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you in your sleep.” And from the look in his roommate’s eyes, Jun believed him. “You’re helping us.”
“Why should I have to? It’s his fault!” he cried, pointing to Aiba…but then Aiba’s eyes filled with tears, and Jun’s heart melted just a bit. He wasn’t exactly in the mood to cart messy plates around. He could trade Shun for the breakfast shift the next morning, let the guy sleep in a bit. “Fine. I’ll help. Just let me call my friend.”
He stepped out of the purser’s office and sent a text to Shun, wondering if he could just get off the boat here and now and walk home from Cozumel.
--
"Okay," Sho said, very seriously, back against the door as he finished taping his makeshift sign to it, allowing Ohno to slip through the opening just before flipping the lock over. "Now, start from the beginning. Where did you say you left Sadie?"
"Right here!" Aiba all but wailed. He put his palms flat on the purser's desk and looked down in abject misery at the countertop. "I swear, I swear, I left her right here-"
Nino groaned. His day was already far too long, and he was far too tired to deal with this. Nagase was going to have his head- or maybe he'd chop of Nino's balls first. Either way, one of them was going to lose their job if this news broke to the staff, and Nino was hell-bent on making sure that didn't happen. "First of all, can we stop referring to the guitar strap as 'her'? It's an inanimate object."
Ohno was already poking around at a few files, and Sho swatted his hands a bit.
"Well, she was wrapped in a silk cloth and then in a velvet one, I think," Aiba rambled, "and then in an old Led Zippo t-shirt!"
"Zeppelin," Ohno corrected mildly.
Aiba started. "What's a zeppelin?"
"It's a hot air- you know what, nevermind," Sho said. "It doesn't matter. What we need you to do is retrace your steps and show us exactly what you did and where you put Sadie. I'm sure this is all just a big misunderstanding."
"Okay," Aiba said. He took a deep breath, and started moving his arms in some sort of weird yoga poses that Nino was quite sure the man was completely botching. But Nino felt bad; Nagase was his charge, and Aiba really shouldn't have had to take care of anything for him.
Damned Tegoshi and his whoring ways- it was the worst time ever for the man to come down with a venereal disease.
"Okay," Aiba repeated, making his way to the far side of the purser's desk. "I came in with Sadie, and Sho went to his room because he had a really bad hangover-"
"I did tell you to stop taking those shots," Ohno said, concerned, poking at Sho's cheek.
"Can we please stay on subject here?" Nino exclaimed.
Aiba was still babbling, undeterred. "And then I put Sadie here and thought that I would stick her in the safe later, because I wanted to get down for curry night."
"Okay," Jun stopped him. "So everybody start looking right here."
Nino began pulling open drawers, highlighters flying every which way with the force of his movements. His phone on his hip buzzed once and he ignored it- if it was Nagase, he would have to get to it later, preferably with good news about the safety of his beloved guitar strap. If it was anyone else, he was probably never going to return the text, because he had far more important and demanding things to be doing.
It took about three seconds for the mobile to buzz again. Definitely Nagase.
"Crap," Aiba said, looking crestfallen as Nino pulled his phone out of his belt holster. "That's him, isn't it? Did he mention Sadie at all? Oh god, he knows already, doesn't he?"
"Hey Kangaroo," Nino read, "way any get chocolate syrup bedsheets?"
There was a moment of silence in the small office, and Jun snorted, blowing his bangs up and out of his eyes a bit. "The hell?"
The phone buzzed again in Nino's palm, the small envelope icon alighting once more, and Nino pressed the green key with perhaps more force than was necessary.
"Also," he spat, "pruning sheers cut wire y/n, 10-4, good buddy."
"I don't even want to know what is going on," Sho moaned, hands deep into piles and piles of what looked to be long since past due log reports and unfiled paperwork.
Nino slammed the drawers shut with his hip. "Nothing here."
"Not here, either," Jun announced from the other side of the room. Aiba looked about ready to burst into tears, and Nino didn't particularly like the way that thought made his stomach twist, so he put a hand up.
"It's okay," he said, mostly for Aiba's benefit, and it seemed to work; at least the man only sniffled a little and Nino couldn't see any tears escaping out of the corners of his eyes. "Maybe someone picked it up thinking it was something else- like something a passenger had lost."
Ohno held up the 'Lost & Found' box and promptly dumped it out on the floor. There were six sets of car keys, two pairs of headphones, a sock with a hole in the toe, a hot pink booklight, and a bikini top, but no guitar strap wrapped in a Led Zeppelin t-shirt (though Nino was very curious to know how one lost only a bikini top and not the bottom).
"Okay," Nino said again, struggling to remain calm. "Maybe housekeeping picked it up."
"Housekeeping?" Sho asked. "You mean- oh. Maybe they thought it was laundry?"
Ohno perked a bit. "Maybe they thought it was Mr. Kusanagi's and went to go clean it up for him? Is he a big classic rock fan?"
"He listens almost exclusively to Kenny G," Sho replied.
"No dice," Ohno said, sadly.
Jun picked up the lost bikini top and examined it with an expression of distaste, one lip curling upwards. "Well, maybe they thought it was dirty and took it to laundry anyway."
Nino watched Sho for a few seconds, who was watching Jun handle the bedazzled garment with slightly pink cheeks and a put-out look on his face. It was amusing enough that Nino forgot for a few seconds that he had lost the prized possession of his biggest VIP client. Then reality came crashing down again, and he reached forward to snatch the fabric from Jun's hands. "Can we focus and stop dallying with women's swimwear? No breasts to be fondled here."
"I wasn't-" Jun started, cheeks heating, and Nino just waved him silent once more.
"We need to split up," he said. "Start checking around where it could have been taken- but no one says anything, got it? The last thing we need is for Mr. Kusanagi or Ryo to catch wind of this, because then it'll be all our asses."
"But it was Aiba who lost it," Jun pointed out, "and your client. So why would the three of us get in trouble?"
Aiba looked on the verge of a breakdown once again, and it was making Nino's chest clench. He stood up and stuck his finger in Jun's face, trying to draw up all of his height (and maybe going up on his toes, just a bit- totally not cheating).
"You tattle on us to anyone to save your own hide and I'll make sure you go down with us with all the power I have in me," Nino hissed. "I know where you sleep."
When he turned around, Aiba was beaming. "My hero!"
"Two of us go to laundry," he continued. "And the rest of us start looking around in some other random locations like the lobby or the bar, whatever is close by. Start near and then spread out."
No one said anything for a long moment, and then Sho kicked at the overturned lost and found box with his toe.
"Today sucks," he sighed.
--
"Ugh," Jun commented, as he pulled out something that might have resembled a shirt at one point from a pile of dirty laundry in the porter's laundry area. "Why can't people do this themselves?"
"They are on vacation?" Ohno pointed out. Jun just rolled his eyes and continued digging. Ohno was up to his elbows in garments but kept one eye on the door just in case- he knew the guy assigned to laundry duty, and he didn't particularly want to run into him when they were obviously going through the guests' clothing without permission.
So far, he hadn't seen anything resembling a Led Zeppelin t-shirt.
He had found some underwear that might have once belonged to a member of Led Zeppelin, though.
They worked in silence for several moments, sorting through boxer-briefs and children's nightgowns and old ladies' sundresses. To Ohno's right, Jun was looking slightly shifty; he kept glancing back at Ohno like he had something he sort of wanted to say, and then kept thinking better of it and focusing back on the dirty laundry he was wading through again.
"Do you-" Jun said, at the same moment that Ohno started with, "So you know-"
They both stopped and looked at each other. Ohno just raised his eyebrows, and Jun coughed awkwardly.
"You first," Jun said.
"Oh," Ohno said. He pulled up a pair of swim trunks with several holes in very inappropriate places. "It was nothing, really."
He was fairly certain he shouldn't actually say anything to Jun about Sho. But Sho's weird drunk rodent analogy had seemed to upset him quite badly, and Ohno didn't know how to make that one better. He didn't care if Sho asked Jun out- he liked Sho, but not really in that way anymore. More like he liked his friends and his second-favorite cousin Vinny.
Jun didn't look convinced. "I mean, if you have something to say, you can say it."
"Well," Ohno thought for a moment. "It's just that-"
"Hey!" came an annoyed voice from the hallway, and Ohno's heart dropped down to his stomach. The porter stormed inside, snatching a pair of lacy (and quite large) women's underpants from Ohno's hands. "What the hell are you two doing in here?!"
"Erm," Jun sputtered out, and Nakai, whom Ohno didn't particularly care for, because he was always getting up in people's faces and making silly accusations like he was trying to pick fights, leveled them both with a glare.
"Are you guys some kind of perverts or something?" Nakai asked, stomping one foot against the ground. "Get out of here before I rub my butt on your pillow cases before I give them back to you!"
He rather violently pushed Jun and Ohno out of the laundry room and slammed the door shut behind them. Ohno looked helplessly at Jun and shrugged a bit. "Well, I didn't see the guitar strap."
"No," Jun said, disgusted, "but I've seen enough jock straps to last me a lifetime. I am never doing that again."
It was probably for the best. Besides, now Ohno was going to have to dispel rumors that he was hoarding granny panties for his own nefarious purposes, and he figured he was going to have his hands full.
--
Aiba was beginning to think that this was a Very Bad Idea.
Not that he hadn't thought that earlier, but there was no sign of Sadie in the lobby or behind the bar (though there were some nice stores that the bartenders were hoarding from them that he very much wanted to get his hands on again), and they'd moved onto the small sitting lounge next to the Shakespeare Library.
"Why would it even be here?" Sho was complaining, looking beneath stacks of newspapers that guests hadn't bothered to fold back up again.
"Because it could be anywhere," Nino shot back, "and we have to check everything before we begin panicking."
Aiba sniffed despondently. "I'm already panicking!"
Neither responded, probably because they knew it was true, and Aiba began rummaging through some magazine racks hoping to see a splash of silk or velvet or the gaudy colors of the Led Zeppelin shirt between Outdoor Life and RV Living.
Nino's phone vibrated loudly, and he grabbled for it with a muttered curse.
"What up," he read aloud, "need hot in sauna, 10 mins naked."
Sho just stared at him. Aiba had never really noticed that Nino had a nervous tick in his left eye before, but it was visible across the lounge. "What?"
"I don't even know what this means," Nino moaned, shoving his mobile back in the holder with more force than he needed to use.
"Do you think Nagase could kill me with his bare hands?" Aiba asked sadly. He gazed down at the old issue of InTouch in his hands.
"Yes," both Nino and Sho said at the same time. It didn't make Aiba feel any better. He was just about to say something else when he heard a familiar voice carrying across the second floor hall: Mr. Kusanagi. If he found them there, he'd ask what they were doing, and Aiba didn't think he could come up with anything other than the truth, and then he was going to get fired for sure, and-
Nino grabbed his arm with tight fingers and pulled him back behind one of the curtains, a hand over Aiba's mouth to keep him quiet. Aiba stared wildly at him, but Nino just put a finger over his mouth and listened to the footsteps stalling just outside the lounge doors.
"Now, where was that..." Kusanagi muttered to himself. He came dangerously close to the curtains Nino and Aiba were huddled behind, shoelaces visible under the bottom of the draping folds. Aiba was suddenly overcome with the intense and burning need to sneeze.
Nino shook his head furiously at him, and Aiba tried to swallow it back.
"Did I leave it here?" Kusanagi continued, and his feet moved away from the window though they paused again in the middle of the room, and Aiba could still hear the man clicking his tongue against his teeth in thought. "Or did I put it over there...?"
He was going to sneeze. He was going to sneeze. It was prickling his eyes, he was going to sneeze-
"Aha!" Kusanagi announced. "Vie au Soleil, there you are!"
He left the lounge and they tumbled out from behind the curtain as soon as he was gone, Aiba sneezing violently into his hands.
"Jesus," Sho whimpered, falling out from behind one of the large floral-print chairs in the corner. "I thought for sure we were done for."
"Come on," Nino said, hauling Aiba back to his feet again and ignoring the tears streaming down Aiba's face (the sneeze had been a very powerful one). "It's not here, and we're wasting time. We've got to figure something out. Maybe Ohno and Jun found something in the laundry room."
Aiba very much wanted to either drink heavily, hide under his covers, or play a vigorous round of Big Buck Hunter to dispel all the nervous tension in his form, but he followed the other two with a sigh of acceptance- this was of his making, after all, and now he was paying for it.
Chapter: 3/??
Fandom: Arashi
Character, Pairing(s): Nagase/the ladies
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, sexual humor
Summary: There's jobs in unfortunate places, jobs with unfortunate people, and jobs that are just plain unfortunate: then there is the Floating Sakura, which seems to be all of the above.
It was nice and sunny, and the ship was docked at Cozumel. They were stopping in Mexico for the first bit, then once they hit the Caribbean they’d be at sea until they hit Grand Cayman and Jamaica. At sea again til the Virgin Islands then back for a day at the Bahamas before back in Miami.
Ohno knew the route pretty well, though he didn’t get to leave the boat much to enjoy their stops. Not like he’d sit and read at the beach or visit the tourist trap shops. They did have a fishing day trip scheduled as an off-boat excursion in Cayman, so maybe if he begged and pleaded with his supervisor he’d get to go too.
But for now, they were in Cozumel and most of the passengers had gone ashore for the day. There were always folks who chose not to spend the money though, so they stayed on board. He was at the Coconut Cabana on the lido deck this afternoon, and he was enjoying getting out and into the fresh air.
Working Coconut Cabana was ideal. The bar was situated in the middle of the adults only Party Pool, so he got to sit in his trunks and pour drinks to the people that swam up to him. He got to enjoy the sunshine and get some color, and he kind of liked the way his skin shriveled. The only problem was that the tip jar stayed empty since, well, who was carrying money in their swimsuits?
He heard some splashing as he served a Sex on the Beach to someone’s grandma. Ohno had liked the way she’d giggled when placing her drink order, so he’d given her a little more alcohol than the recipe called for. Masaki popped his head over the bar countertop.
“Satoshi.”
He smiled. Aiba never went anywhere without his nametag. Even now, even when he was in swim trunks, he had his nametag around his neck on a chain. “Hi Masaki, how are ya? Can I fix you something?”
Aiba shook his head. “Sorry. On the clock.”
Ohno shrugged, grabbing one of the coconut-shaped old fashioned glasses and pouring some pineapple juice in it. He set it down in front of his dripping wet friend. “How’s your roommate?”
Ohno hadn’t heard from Sho since that nasty night where Sho had called himself a slut-hamster or something, and he was worried. Even though they were done (too different), Ohno still liked Sho a lot and thought he was a nice guy. Sho liked to take care of people, and usually when Ohno was working Coconut Cabana, Sho would put some sunscreen in a little remote control boat and send it over to the bar until Ohno agreed to put some on. It had been hard to sit at the bar and watch him destroy his liver for no good reason.
Aiba sipped the juice gratefully. “He’s…kind of grouchy.” Masaki was thumping his foot nervously against the part of the bar structure that was under the water, raising up bubbles on Ohno’s side. Aiba hadn’t come here to talk about Sho, that much was clear.
“Well, how are you?”
He watched Aiba nibble on the end of the straw.
“Masaki?”
He then watched Aiba take a really big breath, hands squeezing the bar top.
“Hey Satoshi, say that you’re given a really important task, I mean real important, no, I mean super mega incredibly important, like you could lose your job if you screw up important? And say that somehow, between being assigned that task and getting to the cafeteria in time for curry night, you lose something that is part of that really important task, like, you had it and then you remember getting somewhere with it but then suddenly you’re all ‘oh wait, it’s curry night, I can’t be here, I have to make sure I get down there because you know that there’s some crazy hungry people who will take it all’ so you go to curry night, and wow, it was so good, so you’re full and you’re happy. Then you go back to make sure that you’ve still got that important something and that it’s where you left it? But all of a sudden, hey, that important thing is gone! And you totally remember it being in this one place, but hey, maybe it got moved, but since you were supposed to still be on duty and most definitely not at curry night, you can’t exactly say ‘Hey Mr. Kusanagi, you know that one thing I left here? Where did it go?’ because Mr. Kusanagi already thinks you’re kind of an idiot, but really, you’re not, you’re just occasionally forgetful at really important, essential times. So you can’t tell your boss and boy, you can’t tell Sho, because he’s just going to flip out and you just hate the way his voice gets all screechy when he’s pissed off and you have to share a tiny room with him already, and you don’t need him to be mad, so who are you supposed to tell? So you go, okay, maybe you should calm down and start looking, so you check every safe in the purser’s office, but you know this thing was wrapped in silk and a t-shirt and stuff and you haven’t found that at all, so then you go ‘oh no, it was wrapped in a t-shirt, maybe the laundry lady came and got it’ but then you realize you don’t have time to go down to the laundry room because it’s all steamy and hot there and you’re supposed to be on duty, so a few hours go by and you’re freaking out, and then your shift is over.”
Masaki took another breath, and Ohno was about to go into brain overload from the sheer amount of information just related.
“So Satoshi, what should I…I mean, what would you do?”
Ohno saw a little kid in an inflatable dragon inner tube come floating by, eyes wide, and he waved him away. “Adults only, little guy!” The kid reluctantly floated away, staring at Aiba like he had three heads. Hopefully he wouldn’t be telling his parents what he’d just overheard.
Ohno pondered Aiba’s dilemma, taking a sip of his own pineapple juice. “So you’re saying you lost something?”
Aiba was looking close to tears. “Oh I’m in so much trouble! I had Sadie, and now I’ve lost her and…”
“Wait, is it a cat? We could look for a cat…”
“No, it’s a…you know what, I should be looking, not swimming.”
Ohno caught Aiba by his wrist before he could float away from the Coconut Cabana. “You lost something that belongs to a passenger?”
Aiba nodded. “Temporarily misplaced, but yes.”
“Aren’t you working with Nino?”
“Well…yes I am but…”
He smiled. “Then you and Nino should go looking for it. You’re supposed to be a team, right?”
“He’s going to think I’m an idiot.”
He poured some more pineapple juice into Aiba’s coconut glass. “So what? The passengers take priority, so just work together. I can help when my shift’s done if you want?”
Aiba looked grateful and downed the pineapple juice before shoving away from the bar and kicking into a clumsy backstroke. “You’re the best.”
Well, he’d finish his shift and then search for the…whatever it was Aiba had misplaced. Ohno heard another splash. It was the kid in the dragon inner tube. He saw that look - he’d worked in Coconut Cabana long enough to know that look.
“No! No, kid, don’t you dare pee in here!”
--
Jun didn’t really expect tips for bussing, but they were definitely appreciated. The passengers had already paid for the food, and usually ate more than what their money would have bought on shore, so was it too much to ask for a dollar here and there? With the increasingly incompetent people they hired to bring out food, it was usually Jun the passengers called on to freshen drinks, send something back to the kitchen or get new silverware.
He had an hour before the dinner rush would start, and the coins were jingling in the pocket of his slacks. Jun liked tips - but he preferred them to be in a currency he’d at least heard of before. There were things with a 1 on them that had corn, some with a 5 that had…coconuts? Either way, he’d never seen these things before. Hopefully they’d be able to change it in the purser’s office.
When he came in the door, he saw Sho was behind the counter, and the guy nearly jumped in the air when Jun approached.
“Jun, how are you?” Sho asked him, and Jun had never heard a grown man’s voice get so squeaky before.
It was obvious to everyone, Jun included, that Sho Sakurai in the purser’s office liked him. However, it was obvious to everyone BUT Sho that Jun was aware of it.
Sho was a nice guy, a decent guy. He was good at his job, and since Jun was kind of a perfectionist when it came to his work, he admired that in Sakurai. Jun wasn’t exactly big on workplace romance (it got in the way of work after all) but he wouldn’t be averse to getting to know Sho a bit better. The only thing standing in the way was…well, Sho himself.
For one thing, he had a hard time looking Jun in the eye without breaking into a rather adorable sweat.
He took the coins out of his pockets and set them down on the counter. “Some old lady gave me this as my tip today. Any idea what these are?”
“Let me check,” came the even squeakier reply, and Jun grinned at the way Sho’s hands were positively trembling as he picked up one of the coconut coins. “Says Tonga on here.”
“That mean tongue in Spanish or Portuguese or something?”
Something in Sho’s face changed. He knew something. He knew something that Jun didn’t and now he was going to show off. Sho started typing something in the computer, eyes flicking back and forth madly at the monitor as Jun tapped one of the coins against the counter.
“Tonga’s a country,” Sho informed him. “A group of islands in the South Pacific.”
“How do you know that?”
Sho was still sweating, but his eyes were almost sparkling. “I have a world map on the wall in my cabin. I’m trying to memorize it.”
Jun tried not to let the nerdiness of Sho’s statement deter him from liking the guy. He leaned forward, elbows on the counter, and Sho gulped. It was kind of fun to tease him. It was a welcome break from the old ladies who would drop their silverware on purpose in the dining room just so he’d bend over to pick it up. “So what’s the currency in Tonga called?”
Sho’s fingers were dancing over the keyboard again, and he turned the screen to him. The purser’s database had an entry on every type of currency they changed. “The Tongan pa’anga. But the coinage are in seniti.”
“That’s great.” He put his fingers on the remaining coins and slid them across the counter some more. “Rare?”
“Um, well, rare to find in this part of the world.” Sho was sweating again.
Jun pressed onward, picking up the corn coin and tapping it against Sho’s forearm. “So how much can you give me for these?”
“We…I…let me check.” Sho pulled his arm away and was typing, his eyes moving back and forth to count the coins.
There was an off-boat snorkeling tour in Jamaica - with his employee discount and whatever money he made from these coins he’d be all set and-
“Fourteen cents.”
He dropped the corn coin. He had to have set down at least thirty coins on the counter. “What?”
Sho tapped the monitor with his index finger. “Here’s the current exchange rate from Tongan pa’anga to U.S. dollars. This is worth fourteen cents.”
He scowled. “But you said this was rare.”
“Well, more like rare in that I’ve never seen them in person before.” Sho was even more embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Jun…I can’t change the exchange rate. I…I could maybe give you fifteen cents? Sixteen? I don’t want Mr. Kusanagi to find out though…”
Cheapskate passengers, paying him in useless currency. No snorkeling. No way to get off the boat. No break from tablecloths and silverware. And still no chance at working in the kitchen. He laid his head down on the counter, muffling his voice. “Forget it.”
“Um, sorry,” Sho replied, and Jun felt the guy gingerly patting his head. It was kind of nice, actually.
Well. If he wouldn’t go snorkeling, maybe he could spend his off-time with Sho. Hell, maybe he could use the tiny shared kitchen by employee quarters and have Sho be a guinea pig for his recipes. Nino never wanted to try anything. He looked up, ready to see if Sho would pee himself at the offer of a date, but he didn’t get a chance because Sho had already snatched his hand away and was blushing furiously as the office door opened.
Great.
Nino and Aiba walked in, the two of them nearly colliding with him at the counter. “Oh,” Aiba mumbled. “Sho, forgot you were on duty.”
When Jun wasn’t Sho’s focus, he was a different person. “Masaki, I always work this shift.”
Nino was already heading for the door. Why the hell was he here? Didn’t he have to make sure Nagase wasn’t drowning somewhere? “He always works this shift, Aiba, let’s come back later.”
The two of them were being super suspicious. Were they on some creepy errand from Nagase? Maybe Jun could give the guy all his worthless Tongan money. “If I’m in the way,” he said to Aiba, “you know, don’t let me interrupt purser’s office business.”
“Purser’s office business,” Aiba repeated before throwing the lock on the door and falling to his knees in a fit of rather creepy giggles.
Jun gave Nino an inquisitive look, but Nino wouldn’t meet his eyes. Sho came around the counter, face immediately panicking. “Masaki,” Sho said. “Masaki, this is not a good laugh.”
Nino looked shifty. “Which is why I’ll get him back to his cabin. Come on, get up.”
But Aiba wasn’t moving, rocking back and forth and laughing. Sho prodded him with his shoe. “Did you screw something up? Please say you didn’t screw something up.”
“I didn’t screw something up. Okay, that’s a lie,” Aiba admitted, and suddenly, Jun wanted to be far, far away from the purser’s office. The last thing he needed was to get tied up in some mess that had nothing to do with him. However, Nino was standing in the doorway blocking his exit, fingers drumming against his uniform slacks in his nervousness.
Sho crouched down and gave Aiba a shake. “What did you do?”
Nino interrupted immediately. “He’ll give you the long version, believe me, don’t ask him to…”
Aiba started blabbing anyway. “Well, it all started with curry night last night. I mean, you love curry too, right Sho? Oh man, and they had so many different spices in it. So I thought, hey, I’ll just sneak away for twenty minutes…”
“Wait, you left during your shift last night?” Sho screeched.
“…just twenty minutes, so I could have sworn I left Sadie on the counter here…”
“Sadie?” Jun wondered. Why was Aiba leaving a woman on the purser’s office counter?
“…and when I came back…Sho, I swear to you, I wasn’t gone for more than twenty minutes…”
Nino crouched down and pushed his hand over Aiba’s mouth, muffling him. “Look, he lost Tomoya Nagase’s most prized possession, and we’re trying to find it.”
Sho looked like he was going to faint, Nino looked irritated, and Aiba…well, Aiba was still trying to talk, little noises still emerging from behind Nino’s hand. This was bad. This was very very VERY bad.
But dinner was starting in half an hour - he had to go. If only he’d just taken the fourteen freaking cents Sho had offered. “Well, I have work to do…”
Nino’s other hand clamped down around Jun’s ankle. “If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you in your sleep.” And from the look in his roommate’s eyes, Jun believed him. “You’re helping us.”
“Why should I have to? It’s his fault!” he cried, pointing to Aiba…but then Aiba’s eyes filled with tears, and Jun’s heart melted just a bit. He wasn’t exactly in the mood to cart messy plates around. He could trade Shun for the breakfast shift the next morning, let the guy sleep in a bit. “Fine. I’ll help. Just let me call my friend.”
He stepped out of the purser’s office and sent a text to Shun, wondering if he could just get off the boat here and now and walk home from Cozumel.
--
"Okay," Sho said, very seriously, back against the door as he finished taping his makeshift sign to it, allowing Ohno to slip through the opening just before flipping the lock over. "Now, start from the beginning. Where did you say you left Sadie?"
"Right here!" Aiba all but wailed. He put his palms flat on the purser's desk and looked down in abject misery at the countertop. "I swear, I swear, I left her right here-"
Nino groaned. His day was already far too long, and he was far too tired to deal with this. Nagase was going to have his head- or maybe he'd chop of Nino's balls first. Either way, one of them was going to lose their job if this news broke to the staff, and Nino was hell-bent on making sure that didn't happen. "First of all, can we stop referring to the guitar strap as 'her'? It's an inanimate object."
Ohno was already poking around at a few files, and Sho swatted his hands a bit.
"Well, she was wrapped in a silk cloth and then in a velvet one, I think," Aiba rambled, "and then in an old Led Zippo t-shirt!"
"Zeppelin," Ohno corrected mildly.
Aiba started. "What's a zeppelin?"
"It's a hot air- you know what, nevermind," Sho said. "It doesn't matter. What we need you to do is retrace your steps and show us exactly what you did and where you put Sadie. I'm sure this is all just a big misunderstanding."
"Okay," Aiba said. He took a deep breath, and started moving his arms in some sort of weird yoga poses that Nino was quite sure the man was completely botching. But Nino felt bad; Nagase was his charge, and Aiba really shouldn't have had to take care of anything for him.
Damned Tegoshi and his whoring ways- it was the worst time ever for the man to come down with a venereal disease.
"Okay," Aiba repeated, making his way to the far side of the purser's desk. "I came in with Sadie, and Sho went to his room because he had a really bad hangover-"
"I did tell you to stop taking those shots," Ohno said, concerned, poking at Sho's cheek.
"Can we please stay on subject here?" Nino exclaimed.
Aiba was still babbling, undeterred. "And then I put Sadie here and thought that I would stick her in the safe later, because I wanted to get down for curry night."
"Okay," Jun stopped him. "So everybody start looking right here."
Nino began pulling open drawers, highlighters flying every which way with the force of his movements. His phone on his hip buzzed once and he ignored it- if it was Nagase, he would have to get to it later, preferably with good news about the safety of his beloved guitar strap. If it was anyone else, he was probably never going to return the text, because he had far more important and demanding things to be doing.
It took about three seconds for the mobile to buzz again. Definitely Nagase.
"Crap," Aiba said, looking crestfallen as Nino pulled his phone out of his belt holster. "That's him, isn't it? Did he mention Sadie at all? Oh god, he knows already, doesn't he?"
"Hey Kangaroo," Nino read, "way any get chocolate syrup bedsheets?"
There was a moment of silence in the small office, and Jun snorted, blowing his bangs up and out of his eyes a bit. "The hell?"
The phone buzzed again in Nino's palm, the small envelope icon alighting once more, and Nino pressed the green key with perhaps more force than was necessary.
"Also," he spat, "pruning sheers cut wire y/n, 10-4, good buddy."
"I don't even want to know what is going on," Sho moaned, hands deep into piles and piles of what looked to be long since past due log reports and unfiled paperwork.
Nino slammed the drawers shut with his hip. "Nothing here."
"Not here, either," Jun announced from the other side of the room. Aiba looked about ready to burst into tears, and Nino didn't particularly like the way that thought made his stomach twist, so he put a hand up.
"It's okay," he said, mostly for Aiba's benefit, and it seemed to work; at least the man only sniffled a little and Nino couldn't see any tears escaping out of the corners of his eyes. "Maybe someone picked it up thinking it was something else- like something a passenger had lost."
Ohno held up the 'Lost & Found' box and promptly dumped it out on the floor. There were six sets of car keys, two pairs of headphones, a sock with a hole in the toe, a hot pink booklight, and a bikini top, but no guitar strap wrapped in a Led Zeppelin t-shirt (though Nino was very curious to know how one lost only a bikini top and not the bottom).
"Okay," Nino said again, struggling to remain calm. "Maybe housekeeping picked it up."
"Housekeeping?" Sho asked. "You mean- oh. Maybe they thought it was laundry?"
Ohno perked a bit. "Maybe they thought it was Mr. Kusanagi's and went to go clean it up for him? Is he a big classic rock fan?"
"He listens almost exclusively to Kenny G," Sho replied.
"No dice," Ohno said, sadly.
Jun picked up the lost bikini top and examined it with an expression of distaste, one lip curling upwards. "Well, maybe they thought it was dirty and took it to laundry anyway."
Nino watched Sho for a few seconds, who was watching Jun handle the bedazzled garment with slightly pink cheeks and a put-out look on his face. It was amusing enough that Nino forgot for a few seconds that he had lost the prized possession of his biggest VIP client. Then reality came crashing down again, and he reached forward to snatch the fabric from Jun's hands. "Can we focus and stop dallying with women's swimwear? No breasts to be fondled here."
"I wasn't-" Jun started, cheeks heating, and Nino just waved him silent once more.
"We need to split up," he said. "Start checking around where it could have been taken- but no one says anything, got it? The last thing we need is for Mr. Kusanagi or Ryo to catch wind of this, because then it'll be all our asses."
"But it was Aiba who lost it," Jun pointed out, "and your client. So why would the three of us get in trouble?"
Aiba looked on the verge of a breakdown once again, and it was making Nino's chest clench. He stood up and stuck his finger in Jun's face, trying to draw up all of his height (and maybe going up on his toes, just a bit- totally not cheating).
"You tattle on us to anyone to save your own hide and I'll make sure you go down with us with all the power I have in me," Nino hissed. "I know where you sleep."
When he turned around, Aiba was beaming. "My hero!"
"Two of us go to laundry," he continued. "And the rest of us start looking around in some other random locations like the lobby or the bar, whatever is close by. Start near and then spread out."
No one said anything for a long moment, and then Sho kicked at the overturned lost and found box with his toe.
"Today sucks," he sighed.
--
"Ugh," Jun commented, as he pulled out something that might have resembled a shirt at one point from a pile of dirty laundry in the porter's laundry area. "Why can't people do this themselves?"
"They are on vacation?" Ohno pointed out. Jun just rolled his eyes and continued digging. Ohno was up to his elbows in garments but kept one eye on the door just in case- he knew the guy assigned to laundry duty, and he didn't particularly want to run into him when they were obviously going through the guests' clothing without permission.
So far, he hadn't seen anything resembling a Led Zeppelin t-shirt.
He had found some underwear that might have once belonged to a member of Led Zeppelin, though.
They worked in silence for several moments, sorting through boxer-briefs and children's nightgowns and old ladies' sundresses. To Ohno's right, Jun was looking slightly shifty; he kept glancing back at Ohno like he had something he sort of wanted to say, and then kept thinking better of it and focusing back on the dirty laundry he was wading through again.
"Do you-" Jun said, at the same moment that Ohno started with, "So you know-"
They both stopped and looked at each other. Ohno just raised his eyebrows, and Jun coughed awkwardly.
"You first," Jun said.
"Oh," Ohno said. He pulled up a pair of swim trunks with several holes in very inappropriate places. "It was nothing, really."
He was fairly certain he shouldn't actually say anything to Jun about Sho. But Sho's weird drunk rodent analogy had seemed to upset him quite badly, and Ohno didn't know how to make that one better. He didn't care if Sho asked Jun out- he liked Sho, but not really in that way anymore. More like he liked his friends and his second-favorite cousin Vinny.
Jun didn't look convinced. "I mean, if you have something to say, you can say it."
"Well," Ohno thought for a moment. "It's just that-"
"Hey!" came an annoyed voice from the hallway, and Ohno's heart dropped down to his stomach. The porter stormed inside, snatching a pair of lacy (and quite large) women's underpants from Ohno's hands. "What the hell are you two doing in here?!"
"Erm," Jun sputtered out, and Nakai, whom Ohno didn't particularly care for, because he was always getting up in people's faces and making silly accusations like he was trying to pick fights, leveled them both with a glare.
"Are you guys some kind of perverts or something?" Nakai asked, stomping one foot against the ground. "Get out of here before I rub my butt on your pillow cases before I give them back to you!"
He rather violently pushed Jun and Ohno out of the laundry room and slammed the door shut behind them. Ohno looked helplessly at Jun and shrugged a bit. "Well, I didn't see the guitar strap."
"No," Jun said, disgusted, "but I've seen enough jock straps to last me a lifetime. I am never doing that again."
It was probably for the best. Besides, now Ohno was going to have to dispel rumors that he was hoarding granny panties for his own nefarious purposes, and he figured he was going to have his hands full.
--
Aiba was beginning to think that this was a Very Bad Idea.
Not that he hadn't thought that earlier, but there was no sign of Sadie in the lobby or behind the bar (though there were some nice stores that the bartenders were hoarding from them that he very much wanted to get his hands on again), and they'd moved onto the small sitting lounge next to the Shakespeare Library.
"Why would it even be here?" Sho was complaining, looking beneath stacks of newspapers that guests hadn't bothered to fold back up again.
"Because it could be anywhere," Nino shot back, "and we have to check everything before we begin panicking."
Aiba sniffed despondently. "I'm already panicking!"
Neither responded, probably because they knew it was true, and Aiba began rummaging through some magazine racks hoping to see a splash of silk or velvet or the gaudy colors of the Led Zeppelin shirt between Outdoor Life and RV Living.
Nino's phone vibrated loudly, and he grabbled for it with a muttered curse.
"What up," he read aloud, "need hot in sauna, 10 mins naked."
Sho just stared at him. Aiba had never really noticed that Nino had a nervous tick in his left eye before, but it was visible across the lounge. "What?"
"I don't even know what this means," Nino moaned, shoving his mobile back in the holder with more force than he needed to use.
"Do you think Nagase could kill me with his bare hands?" Aiba asked sadly. He gazed down at the old issue of InTouch in his hands.
"Yes," both Nino and Sho said at the same time. It didn't make Aiba feel any better. He was just about to say something else when he heard a familiar voice carrying across the second floor hall: Mr. Kusanagi. If he found them there, he'd ask what they were doing, and Aiba didn't think he could come up with anything other than the truth, and then he was going to get fired for sure, and-
Nino grabbed his arm with tight fingers and pulled him back behind one of the curtains, a hand over Aiba's mouth to keep him quiet. Aiba stared wildly at him, but Nino just put a finger over his mouth and listened to the footsteps stalling just outside the lounge doors.
"Now, where was that..." Kusanagi muttered to himself. He came dangerously close to the curtains Nino and Aiba were huddled behind, shoelaces visible under the bottom of the draping folds. Aiba was suddenly overcome with the intense and burning need to sneeze.
Nino shook his head furiously at him, and Aiba tried to swallow it back.
"Did I leave it here?" Kusanagi continued, and his feet moved away from the window though they paused again in the middle of the room, and Aiba could still hear the man clicking his tongue against his teeth in thought. "Or did I put it over there...?"
He was going to sneeze. He was going to sneeze. It was prickling his eyes, he was going to sneeze-
"Aha!" Kusanagi announced. "Vie au Soleil, there you are!"
He left the lounge and they tumbled out from behind the curtain as soon as he was gone, Aiba sneezing violently into his hands.
"Jesus," Sho whimpered, falling out from behind one of the large floral-print chairs in the corner. "I thought for sure we were done for."
"Come on," Nino said, hauling Aiba back to his feet again and ignoring the tears streaming down Aiba's face (the sneeze had been a very powerful one). "It's not here, and we're wasting time. We've got to figure something out. Maybe Ohno and Jun found something in the laundry room."
Aiba very much wanted to either drink heavily, hide under his covers, or play a vigorous round of Big Buck Hunter to dispel all the nervous tension in his form, but he followed the other two with a sigh of acceptance- this was of his making, after all, and now he was paying for it.