Arashi: Green (08)
FANDOM: Arashi
RATING: G
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, Aimiya (friendship).
DATE: February 26th, 2010
NOTES: This is a work of fiction. RedShift AU.
Chapter Seven | Chapter Nine
CHAPTER EIGHT
Yusuke leaned against the brick wall of the grocery store next to the train station, frowning. He was thinking about the moment he walked into his brother’s room, and saw his brother and that Sakurai guy holding hands. It was just a brief moment, and he had seen Aiba and Nino hold hands dozens of times, but somehow it seemed different, that moment of unguarded intimacy he had seen.
“Yuu-chan, what are you doing there? Did you even go to school today?”
He looked up to see Nino walking towards him, on his way back from school. He straightened up. “Of course I went to school,” he said, defensive. “I was just thinking.”
“Staring off into space, more like,” Nino corrected, as he got closer. He linked his arm with Yusuke’s. “Come on, let’s go back. Aiba will be mad at me if I let his little brother loiter around without purpose.”
“No, he won’t,” Yusuke said sourly, but he let Nino pull him along. “And I’m not little.”
They continued their walk home mostly in silence, and Yusuke studied Nino. That Sakurai guy was from Nino’s school, he realised, remembering the uniform. He had wondered why some guy from a different school was visiting his brother, but he supposed they must have known each other through Nino. Now he wondered if Nino knew anything about them. “Nino-nii...” he started.
“What is it?” Nino turned to him. “You have problems at school or something? Is that why you’re loitering around looking like the world’s out to get you?”
“No,” Yusuke replied emphatically. “It’s... nothing, I guess.”
Nino nodded. “Okay.” Then he grinned and asked, “is Aiba feeling better? I’m thinking of going over to your place today, I haven’t seen him in awhile.”
“He’s better,” Yusuke informed him. “He went to school today, but I think he said that he’s going out after? He just wanted to do something outdoorsy after being cooped up at home, or something.”
“I guess I’ll see him later then,” Nino said easily. “Sugimoto had been saying something about going over to Suzuki’s since he’s moving this week, so maybe Aiba went with him.”
Yusuke didn’t reply, and extracted his arm from Nino’s as he continued walking. Nino stopped for a moment, and watched Aiba’s brother walk in front of him, wondering what was wrong.
})i({
Aiba was on a high the whole week. He had met up with Sho after school on “dates” a few times, although it was mostly stuff that he did together with Nino anyway, like karaoke and movies and raiding grocery stores for the weirdest food items they could find, and trying them out while hanging out in the park. Well, the last one was something he had never done with Nino, because Aiba would never be able to get Nino to empty his wallet for ox-tongue flavoured ice-cream, or any of the things that Aiba persuaded Sho to get. To all outward appearances, they probably seemed like two normal friends, he knew, but for some reason spending time with Sho felt very different to him than when he’s with Nino. Of course, he usually didn’t hold Nino’s hands in the movie theatre and he never interrupted Nino mid-song in the karaoke room to kiss him, but that wasn’t it, not really. It was that Sho’s presence was enough to make him feel like there is a giddiness bubbling up in him, and without any warning he was up in the clouds and there was no one who could bring him down.
On Friday evening, though, Aiba was fidgeting as he and Sugimoto sat at their usual booth in Saizeriya. “What’s wrong with you?” Sugimoto asked, not looking up from his homework. “You’ve been more hyper than usual at school and now you seem really anxious.”
Aiba shook his head, and tried to sit still. “It’s nothing,” he said. “Just feeling a bit restless.”
When Nino and Sho arrived, Nino announced that they weren’t going to get anything, and that they were heading straight to the studio to talk to the guy who took over, since Suzuki’s brother was no longer running it. “Let’s see if we could get a similar discount for being regulars, or something,” Nino said. He quickly turned to leave after that, expecting the rest of them to follow, and Sugimoto scrambled to get his things ready, as he had papers and books spread out on the table. Aiba looked up at Sho, who was smiling at him. He smiled back, obviously glad to see Sho, but feeling a little strange, because it was the first time that they were out with the rest of the band since they got together.
It occurred to Aiba that keeping this from Nino was going to be harder than he thought.
})i({
“Damn it, Aiba, what’s wrong with you today?” Nino burst out. Sho and Sugimoto had already winded down to a stop by then, and were looking back and forth between Aiba and Nino. Aiba just blinked at Nino in confusion.
“What?”
“What song are we doing now?” Nino asked impatiently.
“Um,” Aiba thought of the song he was playing, “Tanpopo?”
Nino glared at him. “Well, the rest of us were playing Hibari no Kokoro. Maybe you’d like to join us?”
Realising his mistake, Aiba looked sheepish. “I’m sorry,” he said to Nino. “I guess I’m just really spaced out right now.” He wasn’t really even listening to what the rest of them were playing; he was too busy looking at Sho. He blushed at the thought, and sneaked another glance at the person in question. Sho just raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, and for the strangest reason all he wanted to do at the moment was announce to Nino and Sugimoto that Sho was his boyfriend.
Boyfriend.
It was the first time he allowed himself to even put that word and Sho in the same sentence, even if it was only in his head. He felt giddy, just thinking about it. Is Sho my boyfriend? I guess he must be, since we’ve been dating, but we haven’t really talked about it that much, but we’re definitely romantic, right, because he kissed me that other day, and…
“-might as well quit. Are you even listening to me?” Nino asked the last question in a raised voice. He was used to seeing that expression on Aiba’s face, and knew what it meant - that Aiba was having an internal monologue with himself. It was just slightly worse than when Aiba talked non-stop out loud.
“What?” Aiba asked. He tried to gage how mad Nino was. Not that mad, he decided. Just severely irritated, and maybe a little worried. He supposed that he hadn’t seen much of his best friend of late, he thought guiltily. Sugimoto looked amused at their exchange, having been used to Nino and Aiba since junior high, while Sho was starting to look concerned. Aiba realised that it was probably the first time he witnessed Nino going off on Aiba like that. “You’re scaring Sho-chan, Nino.”
Nino looked at Sho, startled. “Don’t change the subject,” he said, still talking to Aiba. “We’re like this all the time, Sho, don’t worry about it.” Stepping closer to Aiba, Nino asked, “Are you sure you still don’t have a fever?”
“That was a week ago!” Aiba exclaimed. “I have stuff on my mind, that’s it. I’m sorry, okay?”
Nino reached out to check Aiba’s temperature anyway. “Okay,” he said, satisfied. “I guess we’ll just do this one more time, from the top. It’s Hibari no Kokoro this time,” he said pointedly to Aiba.
“Yeah, yeah...” Aiba said, nodding vigorously as Sugimoto started to count in, and concentrated on his playing this time.
})i({
The rest of practise went on smoothly, and Aiba didn’t make any more mistakes. In fact, he was concentrating so hard, that he played better than he usually did, which spurred on the rest of the band to play their best as well. Nino reflected that it would be great if they would be able to play that well in their next live, since it would be the first time they would play with Sho as an official member of the band.
When the song was over, Nino said, “let’s take a break. Since our next live we’ll be introducing Sho as a new band member, I think we should make sure that we kick ass. Are you guys okay with extending today’s practise a couple of hours?”
“My parents won’t be back until then anyway, so it won’t be a problem,” Sugimoto said, while Sho commented that since he still had a lot to learn anyway, he thought it was a good idea.
Aiba just nodded in agreement, and said, “I’ll go get drinks for everyone. My treat today - sorry for spacing out earlier.” He left, shooting a pointed look at Sho as he walked out. They usually took a ten-minute break in the middle of practise, but since they were extending their studio hours, this time they would take about fifteen to twenty minutes. Nino had already walked out to the small reception area to talk to Murakami-san, the guy who took over the studio after Suzuki’s brother, while Sugimoto had unzipped his backpack to take out a revision book. Nino wondered why Sugimoto studied so much sometimes, but never really asked.
Sho looked at both Sugimoto and Nino for awhile, and finally said something about helping Aiba to bring back the drinks before walking out after their bassist.
})i({
“Aiba?” Sho called out, as he saw Aiba waiting for him outside the studio.
“You certainly took your time,” Aiba muttered, but he was smiling. “Come on, let’s go get drinks. You’re paying,” he said, holding out a hand towards Sho. Sho hesitated, and looked out into the street, wondering if it was a good idea to hold hands in public. His thoughts must be written on his face, because Aiba lowered his hand immediately.
The two of them walked to the vending machine at the corner of the building, and Sho asked, “Why am I paying when you were the one who spaced out?”
“Because,” Aiba said patiently, as he reached into Sho’s pocket to get Sho’s wallet, and took out some money, “you were the reason I couldn’t think straight during practise.” He was punching in his choice of drinks, and didn’t see Sho’s reaction to his words.
“Oh,” Sho said, and gave a small cough, but there was still a lump in his throat. Aiba passed two cans to Sho, and was about to turn back to the machine, when he noticed Sho’s embarrassment.
“Sho-chan, you’re so cute,” he said, and moved forward to brush his lips against Sho’s on impulse. It was a very light kiss, and it was over almost immediately, but Sho froze, torn between wanting to kiss Aiba again and wanting to berate Aiba for doing something like that when they’re outside where anyone could’ve seen them, while Aiba was grinning at him, knowing exactly what was going on in his head.
“It’s funny how you’re so awkward in public when you certainly didn’t mind kissing me when we’re...” Aiba trailed off as he saw the figure coming up to them from their right. “Hi, Nino,” he said weakly, paling.
Nino stopped about a foot away from them, and gave them an expressionless stare. To Aiba, it seemed like an eternity had passed before his best friend bit out, “what the hell is going on?”
Aiba opened his mouth, but no words came out. He was panicking; he had seen Nino in all variants of mad, it’s true, but he had never seen such cool indifference in his best friend’s eyes when looking at him.
“We’re buying drinks,” Sho said, his voice as cool as the look in Nino’s eyes.
“Well, forget about it,” Nino said, just as coolly. “Murakami-san said that the studio is already booked for the next hour, so we’re not extending our hours after all. Now, since the two of you seem to have other things in mind anyway, I’m going home.”
“Nino -” Aiba managed to choke out.
“I’m not talking to you right now,” Nino said sharply, eyes still locked in a stare match with Sho. He didn’t think he could rein in his temper long enough to deal with Aiba at the moment, so he broke the eye contact with Sho, and strode away.
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Seven | Chapter Nine
Marineko's Notes:
It's been a whole week since this fic was updated, sorry!
The song titles mentioned are actually Spitz songs - since I imagine Red Shift to sound a little like Spitz, I think I'll use their song titles as Red Shift songs from now on. :)
RATING: G
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, Aimiya (friendship).
DATE: February 26th, 2010
NOTES: This is a work of fiction. RedShift AU.
Chapter Seven | Chapter Nine
CHAPTER EIGHT
Yusuke leaned against the brick wall of the grocery store next to the train station, frowning. He was thinking about the moment he walked into his brother’s room, and saw his brother and that Sakurai guy holding hands. It was just a brief moment, and he had seen Aiba and Nino hold hands dozens of times, but somehow it seemed different, that moment of unguarded intimacy he had seen.
“Yuu-chan, what are you doing there? Did you even go to school today?”
He looked up to see Nino walking towards him, on his way back from school. He straightened up. “Of course I went to school,” he said, defensive. “I was just thinking.”
“Staring off into space, more like,” Nino corrected, as he got closer. He linked his arm with Yusuke’s. “Come on, let’s go back. Aiba will be mad at me if I let his little brother loiter around without purpose.”
“No, he won’t,” Yusuke said sourly, but he let Nino pull him along. “And I’m not little.”
They continued their walk home mostly in silence, and Yusuke studied Nino. That Sakurai guy was from Nino’s school, he realised, remembering the uniform. He had wondered why some guy from a different school was visiting his brother, but he supposed they must have known each other through Nino. Now he wondered if Nino knew anything about them. “Nino-nii...” he started.
“What is it?” Nino turned to him. “You have problems at school or something? Is that why you’re loitering around looking like the world’s out to get you?”
“No,” Yusuke replied emphatically. “It’s... nothing, I guess.”
Nino nodded. “Okay.” Then he grinned and asked, “is Aiba feeling better? I’m thinking of going over to your place today, I haven’t seen him in awhile.”
“He’s better,” Yusuke informed him. “He went to school today, but I think he said that he’s going out after? He just wanted to do something outdoorsy after being cooped up at home, or something.”
“I guess I’ll see him later then,” Nino said easily. “Sugimoto had been saying something about going over to Suzuki’s since he’s moving this week, so maybe Aiba went with him.”
Yusuke didn’t reply, and extracted his arm from Nino’s as he continued walking. Nino stopped for a moment, and watched Aiba’s brother walk in front of him, wondering what was wrong.
})i({
Aiba was on a high the whole week. He had met up with Sho after school on “dates” a few times, although it was mostly stuff that he did together with Nino anyway, like karaoke and movies and raiding grocery stores for the weirdest food items they could find, and trying them out while hanging out in the park. Well, the last one was something he had never done with Nino, because Aiba would never be able to get Nino to empty his wallet for ox-tongue flavoured ice-cream, or any of the things that Aiba persuaded Sho to get. To all outward appearances, they probably seemed like two normal friends, he knew, but for some reason spending time with Sho felt very different to him than when he’s with Nino. Of course, he usually didn’t hold Nino’s hands in the movie theatre and he never interrupted Nino mid-song in the karaoke room to kiss him, but that wasn’t it, not really. It was that Sho’s presence was enough to make him feel like there is a giddiness bubbling up in him, and without any warning he was up in the clouds and there was no one who could bring him down.
On Friday evening, though, Aiba was fidgeting as he and Sugimoto sat at their usual booth in Saizeriya. “What’s wrong with you?” Sugimoto asked, not looking up from his homework. “You’ve been more hyper than usual at school and now you seem really anxious.”
Aiba shook his head, and tried to sit still. “It’s nothing,” he said. “Just feeling a bit restless.”
When Nino and Sho arrived, Nino announced that they weren’t going to get anything, and that they were heading straight to the studio to talk to the guy who took over, since Suzuki’s brother was no longer running it. “Let’s see if we could get a similar discount for being regulars, or something,” Nino said. He quickly turned to leave after that, expecting the rest of them to follow, and Sugimoto scrambled to get his things ready, as he had papers and books spread out on the table. Aiba looked up at Sho, who was smiling at him. He smiled back, obviously glad to see Sho, but feeling a little strange, because it was the first time that they were out with the rest of the band since they got together.
It occurred to Aiba that keeping this from Nino was going to be harder than he thought.
})i({
“Damn it, Aiba, what’s wrong with you today?” Nino burst out. Sho and Sugimoto had already winded down to a stop by then, and were looking back and forth between Aiba and Nino. Aiba just blinked at Nino in confusion.
“What?”
“What song are we doing now?” Nino asked impatiently.
“Um,” Aiba thought of the song he was playing, “Tanpopo?”
Nino glared at him. “Well, the rest of us were playing Hibari no Kokoro. Maybe you’d like to join us?”
Realising his mistake, Aiba looked sheepish. “I’m sorry,” he said to Nino. “I guess I’m just really spaced out right now.” He wasn’t really even listening to what the rest of them were playing; he was too busy looking at Sho. He blushed at the thought, and sneaked another glance at the person in question. Sho just raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, and for the strangest reason all he wanted to do at the moment was announce to Nino and Sugimoto that Sho was his boyfriend.
Boyfriend.
It was the first time he allowed himself to even put that word and Sho in the same sentence, even if it was only in his head. He felt giddy, just thinking about it. Is Sho my boyfriend? I guess he must be, since we’ve been dating, but we haven’t really talked about it that much, but we’re definitely romantic, right, because he kissed me that other day, and…
“-might as well quit. Are you even listening to me?” Nino asked the last question in a raised voice. He was used to seeing that expression on Aiba’s face, and knew what it meant - that Aiba was having an internal monologue with himself. It was just slightly worse than when Aiba talked non-stop out loud.
“What?” Aiba asked. He tried to gage how mad Nino was. Not that mad, he decided. Just severely irritated, and maybe a little worried. He supposed that he hadn’t seen much of his best friend of late, he thought guiltily. Sugimoto looked amused at their exchange, having been used to Nino and Aiba since junior high, while Sho was starting to look concerned. Aiba realised that it was probably the first time he witnessed Nino going off on Aiba like that. “You’re scaring Sho-chan, Nino.”
Nino looked at Sho, startled. “Don’t change the subject,” he said, still talking to Aiba. “We’re like this all the time, Sho, don’t worry about it.” Stepping closer to Aiba, Nino asked, “Are you sure you still don’t have a fever?”
“That was a week ago!” Aiba exclaimed. “I have stuff on my mind, that’s it. I’m sorry, okay?”
Nino reached out to check Aiba’s temperature anyway. “Okay,” he said, satisfied. “I guess we’ll just do this one more time, from the top. It’s Hibari no Kokoro this time,” he said pointedly to Aiba.
“Yeah, yeah...” Aiba said, nodding vigorously as Sugimoto started to count in, and concentrated on his playing this time.
})i({
The rest of practise went on smoothly, and Aiba didn’t make any more mistakes. In fact, he was concentrating so hard, that he played better than he usually did, which spurred on the rest of the band to play their best as well. Nino reflected that it would be great if they would be able to play that well in their next live, since it would be the first time they would play with Sho as an official member of the band.
When the song was over, Nino said, “let’s take a break. Since our next live we’ll be introducing Sho as a new band member, I think we should make sure that we kick ass. Are you guys okay with extending today’s practise a couple of hours?”
“My parents won’t be back until then anyway, so it won’t be a problem,” Sugimoto said, while Sho commented that since he still had a lot to learn anyway, he thought it was a good idea.
Aiba just nodded in agreement, and said, “I’ll go get drinks for everyone. My treat today - sorry for spacing out earlier.” He left, shooting a pointed look at Sho as he walked out. They usually took a ten-minute break in the middle of practise, but since they were extending their studio hours, this time they would take about fifteen to twenty minutes. Nino had already walked out to the small reception area to talk to Murakami-san, the guy who took over the studio after Suzuki’s brother, while Sugimoto had unzipped his backpack to take out a revision book. Nino wondered why Sugimoto studied so much sometimes, but never really asked.
Sho looked at both Sugimoto and Nino for awhile, and finally said something about helping Aiba to bring back the drinks before walking out after their bassist.
})i({
“Aiba?” Sho called out, as he saw Aiba waiting for him outside the studio.
“You certainly took your time,” Aiba muttered, but he was smiling. “Come on, let’s go get drinks. You’re paying,” he said, holding out a hand towards Sho. Sho hesitated, and looked out into the street, wondering if it was a good idea to hold hands in public. His thoughts must be written on his face, because Aiba lowered his hand immediately.
The two of them walked to the vending machine at the corner of the building, and Sho asked, “Why am I paying when you were the one who spaced out?”
“Because,” Aiba said patiently, as he reached into Sho’s pocket to get Sho’s wallet, and took out some money, “you were the reason I couldn’t think straight during practise.” He was punching in his choice of drinks, and didn’t see Sho’s reaction to his words.
“Oh,” Sho said, and gave a small cough, but there was still a lump in his throat. Aiba passed two cans to Sho, and was about to turn back to the machine, when he noticed Sho’s embarrassment.
“Sho-chan, you’re so cute,” he said, and moved forward to brush his lips against Sho’s on impulse. It was a very light kiss, and it was over almost immediately, but Sho froze, torn between wanting to kiss Aiba again and wanting to berate Aiba for doing something like that when they’re outside where anyone could’ve seen them, while Aiba was grinning at him, knowing exactly what was going on in his head.
“It’s funny how you’re so awkward in public when you certainly didn’t mind kissing me when we’re...” Aiba trailed off as he saw the figure coming up to them from their right. “Hi, Nino,” he said weakly, paling.
Nino stopped about a foot away from them, and gave them an expressionless stare. To Aiba, it seemed like an eternity had passed before his best friend bit out, “what the hell is going on?”
Aiba opened his mouth, but no words came out. He was panicking; he had seen Nino in all variants of mad, it’s true, but he had never seen such cool indifference in his best friend’s eyes when looking at him.
“We’re buying drinks,” Sho said, his voice as cool as the look in Nino’s eyes.
“Well, forget about it,” Nino said, just as coolly. “Murakami-san said that the studio is already booked for the next hour, so we’re not extending our hours after all. Now, since the two of you seem to have other things in mind anyway, I’m going home.”
“Nino -” Aiba managed to choke out.
“I’m not talking to you right now,” Nino said sharply, eyes still locked in a stare match with Sho. He didn’t think he could rein in his temper long enough to deal with Aiba at the moment, so he broke the eye contact with Sho, and strode away.
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Seven | Chapter Nine
Marineko's Notes:
It's been a whole week since this fic was updated, sorry!
The song titles mentioned are actually Spitz songs - since I imagine Red Shift to sound a little like Spitz, I think I'll use their song titles as Red Shift songs from now on. :)