Arashi - AU - Thank You for the Rain - 12/?
Title: Thank You for the Rain
Chapter: 12/?
Fandom: Arashi
Pairing: several
Word count: 1426
Notes: AHAHAH. KHRM. There is no relation to real people named Sakamoto and Morita. (I just needed names and those were the first ones I could think of...)
chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5
chapter 6 | chapter 7 | chapter 8 | chapter 9 | chapter 10
chapter 11
12. Sho: Secrets.
Sakurai Sho had a secret.
He hated soccer.
Actually, he hated most sports. Maybe basketball was sometimes nice, with friends and without any competitiveness, but most of the time sports sucked. The only reason why he was in the team was because his father had insisted that he took up some sport. He was good enough when he actually tried, but he didn’t really enjoy any of it.
Their coach probably knew about this. He had been hinting about it to Sho for some time now. He kept telling Sho that he didn’t have to do it if he didn’t want to, that it was okay to quit. But their coach didn’t know all of it.
It wasn’t okay.
His father always talked about it with so much pride. His son that did well in school and in sports and in this and that and... He couldn’t just quit. To his father that would mean a complete failure. He had such a clear image of what his son should be like that failing even one aspect of it would tear it all down.
Sho didn’t really enjoy the prospect of being a failure in his father’s eyes. He had enough secrets that even a little slip would probably reveal more and more of them to his father. More and more reasons why he wasn’t such a good son.
One of the secrets was that he maybe... a bit... perhaps... liked someone he shouldn’t have liked. Not like this anyway.
Definitely not like this.
If quitting soccer would make his father mad, how would he take it if he ever learned that his son was crushing on a boy? Admitting it to himself had been hard enough, he had no desire to let his family know. Or his friends. Or anyone.
So Sho secretly rejoiced every time the soccer practice was cancelled. Now it had been because their coach had caught the flu. For once, Sho was thankful for all the rain lately.
He had acted quickly. He had left Yuichi and Tsubasa yelling after him and had run all the way to the train station so that he could catch the same train as Nino and Aiba.
He had been a little disappointed when he had seen only Aiba on the platform. But it turned out that Aiba was actually pretty fun company. Sho was able to have conversations with him, even if they were mostly about completely random things that didn’t really make much sense at all. Aiba was genuinely nice and also very funny. He liked Aiba and he could see why Nino had wanted to make friends with the tall boy.
There he was again. He spent way too much time thinking about Nino, linking everything to him. But there really was no use denying it. That would only make him feel even more pathetic than he already did.
Forget the part where he was crushing on a boy. He was crushing on a boy that definitely didn’t answer his feelings. At all. A boy that actually felt the exact opposite towards him. It was all pretty crazy and Sho briefly wondered if he was just having a nervous breakdown from all the stress of the final year.
He couldn’t explain it either, it had just happened. He just had suddenly noticed how he wanted to get close to Nino, to make him smile, to make him look at him and only him. It felt so different from everything else, like from the way he liked Ohno. Ohno was nice and they got along well and he even sometimes felt nervous around him when he couldn’t think of anything to say. Only, it was from completely different reasons than with Nino. Nino didn’t like him much and he was far from polite and nice and he could be extremely annoying. Most of the short time Sho had known him, Nino had spent glaring at him. And still... every time Nino smiled, it made his heart jump.
He wondered if Nino and Aiba would hang with him tomorrow if he brought Ohno with him.
Pathetic.
-----------
Sho had convinced himself that Nino wouldn’t want anything to do with him, so it was a bit of a surprise when Nino came to him at lunch, walked straight to the table where he was sitting with some of his friends, and said:
"Sho. I need to talk to you. In private. Now." Nino was looking stern, almost angry, and it scared Sho a little. What had he done? What did Nino know?
"What? Why?" Sho asked, but he was already getting up from his seat. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like what Nino had to say, but it was Nino and Nino wanted to talk to him. So...
"Aw. Does Sho-chan have an admirer?" Yuichi cooed. Sho desperately fought the blush that was creeping up his neck. Damn Yuichi and his stupid jokes. What a time to start joking about something like that.
"Jealous?" Nino shot back. "Anyway, I wasn’t talking to you. Mind your own business. Sho, come on."
Sho glanced at Yuichi, trying to keep him quiet with his glare. But Yuichi just shrugged his shoulders and went back to his lunch. Sho followed Nino out of the cafeteria, feeling the curious looks from his friends on his back.
Nino led him to an empty science class and closed the door behind him.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Sho asked, feeling a bit apprehensive. Nino’s expression was grim.
"Sho..." Nino said and stepped one step closer to him. Sho resisted the urge to take one step back. It was ridiculous, to be this scared of this boy. "Does someone bully Ohno?"
Sho hadn’t expected this. He didn’t know what he had expected, but Ohno wasn’t it.
"Why... why do you ask?" he frowned and sat on the edge of one of the tables behind him.
Nino shrugged. "Just something that happened yesterday. So why haven’t you done anything about it? Why is Ohno scared to death? We saw two guys from our school yesterday while we were out and Ohno was shaking, Sho. I want to know what is going on and why anyone hasn’t done anything about it. And I want to know what I can do for him."
"S-shaking?" Sho stuttered, surprised. "I mean... I’ve stopped Sakamoto and Morita from teasing him a few times, but that’s... I thought..." Sho didn’t know how to continue. He had known that those two liked to pick on people, but that they would do something to Ohno that made him so afraid of them... And still... there was no one else he could think of who could be bullying Ohno. He hadn’t known.
Nino clearly wasn’t joking. The look in his eyes was worried. He looked steadily at Sho, demanding answers. Sho suddenly realized that it hadn’t been anger or annoyance he had sensed from Nino at all. Nino was deeply, seriously worried over Ohno.
Sho frowned and told Nino about the few times he had caught the two boys teasing Ohno. "It always looked so harmless, just some words or little things. A bit of rough play, maybe. Nothing really serious. And I never knew they did more than that, I thought they had stopped bothering him. It always was enough for me to show up and tell them to stop. They would just shrug and walk away." Sho leaned back, his palms pressing against the cool tabletop. He was now as worried as Nino. "What if... What if they’ve done something serious? What if Ohno hasn’t told me? Nino," he said, looking up at the other boy, "why didn’t I notice anything?"
Nino’s expression softened when he looked at Sho. Despite the situation, Sho felt his heart speed up a little. "Well, we are going to stop them now, aren’t we? For good. I’m not going to let them do anything more to Ohno. I’m going to help him. You too, right? You will keep an eye on him?"
"Definitely," Sho nodded. He felt angry.
Definitely.
Nino nodded and turned to leave the room. Sho followed him. "Sho..." Nino said when they were getting back to the cafeteria. "You’re all right. I’m sorry about the things I said about you."
Sho felt both embarrassed and pleased. "It’s okay," he smiled, slapping Nino on the back. "I knew you’d come around."
"Shut up," Nino said, but gave him a small, lopsided grin that made Sho’s heart skip a beat.
Chapter: 12/?
Fandom: Arashi
Pairing: several
Word count: 1426
Notes: AHAHAH. KHRM. There is no relation to real people named Sakamoto and Morita. (I just needed names and those were the first ones I could think of...)
chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5
chapter 6 | chapter 7 | chapter 8 | chapter 9 | chapter 10
chapter 11
12. Sho: Secrets.
Sakurai Sho had a secret.
He hated soccer.
Actually, he hated most sports. Maybe basketball was sometimes nice, with friends and without any competitiveness, but most of the time sports sucked. The only reason why he was in the team was because his father had insisted that he took up some sport. He was good enough when he actually tried, but he didn’t really enjoy any of it.
Their coach probably knew about this. He had been hinting about it to Sho for some time now. He kept telling Sho that he didn’t have to do it if he didn’t want to, that it was okay to quit. But their coach didn’t know all of it.
It wasn’t okay.
His father always talked about it with so much pride. His son that did well in school and in sports and in this and that and... He couldn’t just quit. To his father that would mean a complete failure. He had such a clear image of what his son should be like that failing even one aspect of it would tear it all down.
Sho didn’t really enjoy the prospect of being a failure in his father’s eyes. He had enough secrets that even a little slip would probably reveal more and more of them to his father. More and more reasons why he wasn’t such a good son.
One of the secrets was that he maybe... a bit... perhaps... liked someone he shouldn’t have liked. Not like this anyway.
Definitely not like this.
If quitting soccer would make his father mad, how would he take it if he ever learned that his son was crushing on a boy? Admitting it to himself had been hard enough, he had no desire to let his family know. Or his friends. Or anyone.
So Sho secretly rejoiced every time the soccer practice was cancelled. Now it had been because their coach had caught the flu. For once, Sho was thankful for all the rain lately.
He had acted quickly. He had left Yuichi and Tsubasa yelling after him and had run all the way to the train station so that he could catch the same train as Nino and Aiba.
He had been a little disappointed when he had seen only Aiba on the platform. But it turned out that Aiba was actually pretty fun company. Sho was able to have conversations with him, even if they were mostly about completely random things that didn’t really make much sense at all. Aiba was genuinely nice and also very funny. He liked Aiba and he could see why Nino had wanted to make friends with the tall boy.
There he was again. He spent way too much time thinking about Nino, linking everything to him. But there really was no use denying it. That would only make him feel even more pathetic than he already did.
Forget the part where he was crushing on a boy. He was crushing on a boy that definitely didn’t answer his feelings. At all. A boy that actually felt the exact opposite towards him. It was all pretty crazy and Sho briefly wondered if he was just having a nervous breakdown from all the stress of the final year.
He couldn’t explain it either, it had just happened. He just had suddenly noticed how he wanted to get close to Nino, to make him smile, to make him look at him and only him. It felt so different from everything else, like from the way he liked Ohno. Ohno was nice and they got along well and he even sometimes felt nervous around him when he couldn’t think of anything to say. Only, it was from completely different reasons than with Nino. Nino didn’t like him much and he was far from polite and nice and he could be extremely annoying. Most of the short time Sho had known him, Nino had spent glaring at him. And still... every time Nino smiled, it made his heart jump.
He wondered if Nino and Aiba would hang with him tomorrow if he brought Ohno with him.
Pathetic.
-----------
Sho had convinced himself that Nino wouldn’t want anything to do with him, so it was a bit of a surprise when Nino came to him at lunch, walked straight to the table where he was sitting with some of his friends, and said:
"Sho. I need to talk to you. In private. Now." Nino was looking stern, almost angry, and it scared Sho a little. What had he done? What did Nino know?
"What? Why?" Sho asked, but he was already getting up from his seat. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like what Nino had to say, but it was Nino and Nino wanted to talk to him. So...
"Aw. Does Sho-chan have an admirer?" Yuichi cooed. Sho desperately fought the blush that was creeping up his neck. Damn Yuichi and his stupid jokes. What a time to start joking about something like that.
"Jealous?" Nino shot back. "Anyway, I wasn’t talking to you. Mind your own business. Sho, come on."
Sho glanced at Yuichi, trying to keep him quiet with his glare. But Yuichi just shrugged his shoulders and went back to his lunch. Sho followed Nino out of the cafeteria, feeling the curious looks from his friends on his back.
Nino led him to an empty science class and closed the door behind him.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Sho asked, feeling a bit apprehensive. Nino’s expression was grim.
"Sho..." Nino said and stepped one step closer to him. Sho resisted the urge to take one step back. It was ridiculous, to be this scared of this boy. "Does someone bully Ohno?"
Sho hadn’t expected this. He didn’t know what he had expected, but Ohno wasn’t it.
"Why... why do you ask?" he frowned and sat on the edge of one of the tables behind him.
Nino shrugged. "Just something that happened yesterday. So why haven’t you done anything about it? Why is Ohno scared to death? We saw two guys from our school yesterday while we were out and Ohno was shaking, Sho. I want to know what is going on and why anyone hasn’t done anything about it. And I want to know what I can do for him."
"S-shaking?" Sho stuttered, surprised. "I mean... I’ve stopped Sakamoto and Morita from teasing him a few times, but that’s... I thought..." Sho didn’t know how to continue. He had known that those two liked to pick on people, but that they would do something to Ohno that made him so afraid of them... And still... there was no one else he could think of who could be bullying Ohno. He hadn’t known.
Nino clearly wasn’t joking. The look in his eyes was worried. He looked steadily at Sho, demanding answers. Sho suddenly realized that it hadn’t been anger or annoyance he had sensed from Nino at all. Nino was deeply, seriously worried over Ohno.
Sho frowned and told Nino about the few times he had caught the two boys teasing Ohno. "It always looked so harmless, just some words or little things. A bit of rough play, maybe. Nothing really serious. And I never knew they did more than that, I thought they had stopped bothering him. It always was enough for me to show up and tell them to stop. They would just shrug and walk away." Sho leaned back, his palms pressing against the cool tabletop. He was now as worried as Nino. "What if... What if they’ve done something serious? What if Ohno hasn’t told me? Nino," he said, looking up at the other boy, "why didn’t I notice anything?"
Nino’s expression softened when he looked at Sho. Despite the situation, Sho felt his heart speed up a little. "Well, we are going to stop them now, aren’t we? For good. I’m not going to let them do anything more to Ohno. I’m going to help him. You too, right? You will keep an eye on him?"
"Definitely," Sho nodded. He felt angry.
Definitely.
Nino nodded and turned to leave the room. Sho followed him. "Sho..." Nino said when they were getting back to the cafeteria. "You’re all right. I’m sorry about the things I said about you."
Sho felt both embarrassed and pleased. "It’s okay," he smiled, slapping Nino on the back. "I knew you’d come around."
"Shut up," Nino said, but gave him a small, lopsided grin that made Sho’s heart skip a beat.