Arashi: Green (12)
FANDOM: Arashi
RATING: G
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, aimiya friendship
DATE: March 10th, 2010
NOTES: This is a work of fiction. RedShift AU.
Chapter 11 | Chapter 13
CHAPTER TWELVE
“You guys finally made up.”
Sho looked up from his book to see Michiyo standing by his desk, smiling at him. He just shrugged, a little embarrassed. He supposed that he and Nino did make up, sort of. Nino was talking to him again, but they were still a little awkward - since they last talked, they seem to have an unspoken agreement not to talk about Aiba with each other.
“That’s good,” Michiyo continued, as if Sho had answered her. “I’m glad.”
Sho didn’t know what to say to that, but it was okay, because she was already going back to her seat. He thought it was strange that she should care so much about his friendship (or lack thereof) with Nino, when she wasn’t particularly close to either of them. He glanced at Nino, who was looking at him in inquiry.
“You’ve made a friend?” Nino asked lightly.
“I guess.” Sho’s forehead creased as he pondered on Nino’s question. “We’ve only talked a couple of times, so I’m not sure...”
“You don’t have to so serious in answering that,” Nino said, rolling his eyes. “It was just a simple question. “Akita’s cool,” Nino said. “She’s not an airhead like most of the kids here.” Sho just smiled at Nino’s statement and didn’t say anything in reply. Nino wasn’t expecting one anyway, and forged on. “Aiba and I are going out after school today ‘cause we want to check out the new CD store, plus I kind of need to go to Ishibashi to pick up new strings, and we’re meeting up with Sugimoto, Rika and Ai-chan afterwards. Want to come?”
When Sho hesitated, Nino gave him an exasperated look. “Aiba’s going to be pissed if you didn’t come; he’d think that I told you not to come or something.”
“Are you sure it’s okay?” Despite what he had told Nino, he really didn’t think that Nino would be okay with him and Aiba so quickly.
“I asked, didn’t I?” Nino scowled. “What, do you want a written invitation?”
“Well, now that you’ve mentioned it, it’d be kind of nice,” Sho said, lips lifting in a smirk.
Playing along, Nino pulled out one of the many pieces of papers stuck between his textbook, and was about to flip it over to write on it, when he noticed what was on the paper. “Hey, we’ve confirmed with Tulane that we’re opening for them at the live at the end of this month, right?”
Sho furrowed his brows in a frown, thinking. “I thought that they said that they may want us, and didn’t confirm afterwards. Since nobody mentioned it, I figured that we’re not doing it.”
“No, no,” Nino said, shaking his head. “We’ve definitely confirmed, I think. They told me a couple of weeks ago that they wanted Red Shift, and I told them we’ll play.”
“You didn’t tell me that,” Sho said.
“I guess I must’ve forgotten to mention it, with everything else that’s been going on,” Nino replied.
“Well, I can’t make that date. I thought we didn’t confirm, and my parents have an important dinner at home that night. They want me to be there.”
“Sho, this is the first time we’ve gotten a chance to play at anywhere other than the Warehouse. We’ve got to do the live!” They had been talking quietly the whole time, but with the last sentence, Nino’s voice rose several octaves higher than his usual speaking voice, causing several classmates to turn towards them.
“Ninomiya, Sakurai. I usually don’t care if you want to talk during free period, but please keep it down, if you could,” their homeroom teacher said lazily, not looking up from the magazine he was reading.
Nino and Sho apologised, and went back to their books. We’ll continue this later, Nino mouthed to Sho.
})i({
They didn’t bring up the subject again until they met up with Aiba, and filled him in about the matter. Aiba just listened, looking obviously upset, and turned to Sho to say, “but we’ve got to do the live!”
“Then you could ask someone else to stand in as a guitarist for just that one live. People have done that before, loads of times.” Sho looked unconcerned, and refused to bend on the subject.
“It’s not the same if it’s not you!” Aiba insisted, and turned to Nino for back up. “Nino, say something!”
“It’s not the same if it’s not you,” Nino intoned obediently.
“Nino!” Aiba’s expression changed from upset to annoyed. “You have to mean it, you know.”
“I dunno,” Nino said slowly. “Sho kind of made sense, there. He does need to go to his parents’ dinner or whatever, and it was my fault for not informing you guys earlier, and it’s true that we could get someone to stand in for him for just one live.”
“You’re not helping at all,” Aiba said, not really listening to Nino. “Sho needs to go to this live, because it’s an important one, plus what if he starts to think that it’s okay to skip lives whenever he wants after this? We’ll need to get replacement Shos all the time and in the end we’ll have to kick Sho out of the band and then...” he paused, before concluding dramatically, “one day when Red Shift is really popular Sho would be all alone thinking sadly, ‘I used to be one of them.’ You don’t want that to happen, do you?”
Nino and Sho were both staring at Aiba. Nino was already chalking up another conversation to his collection of weird Aiba-isms, while Sho was trying not to laugh as he asked, “In this alternative future of yours, are we still together?”
“Of course not,” Aiba said seriously, eyes shooting daggers at Nino and Sho. “The replacement Sho would be so much cooler than you and I’ll probably end up falling for them instead since you’re too busy having dinner with your parents.”
Sho couldn’t take it any longer. He laughed loudly, clutching at Nino’s shoulders, while Nino just shook his head and sighed.
“It’s just my luck to be friends with two crazy idiots,” he commented to no one in particular.
“You guys are really not taking me seriously!” Aiba was still glaring at them, and Sho stopped laughing. Aiba was really upset, he realised.
“Aiba, it really isn’t a big deal,” he said. “It’s just one live.”
“No, it’s not. It’s our first time opening for a bigger band instead of just playing on Warehouse’s normal roster with five or six other bands in the same night. It means something, and the fact that you don’t want to do it means something else entirely.”
Sho sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to do it -”
“Forget it,” Aiba snapped at him. “I’m not going to force you if you don’t want to.”
“Aiba,” Nino intervened, “if you just think about it for a minute -”
“You’re supposed to be on my side!” Aiba said to Nino, and threw his hands up in exasperation. “Why don’t you just hang out with him since you guys are getting along so well now?” He stomped away, leaving Sho and Nino to look at each other in bafflement.
“I didn’t think he’d be this mad,” Nino said. “I mean, I was pretty mad when you first told me, even though I’m the one who didn’t inform everyone earlier, but after thinking about it I realise that it’s really not that much of a big deal.”
“Maybe he’ll cool down later, too,” Sho said hopefully.
Nino shook his head. “Aiba doesn’t get angry all that often, but when he does it would only upset him more afterwards and he’d end up feeling downcast for sometime. The last time he was mad at me, he got depressed for a couple of days afterwards. I’m not sure why, but he’s the only person I know who gets upset over getting upset.”
Sho thought about what Nino had told him, and said, “it’s really bad timing, because White Day is coming up and I want to get him something nice, but if he’s like this...”
“Why are you getting him a White Day gift?” Nino asked curiously, before thinking better of it. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know.”
“Well, he gave me chocolates on Valentines -”
“La la la la la,” Nino sang loudly, putting his hands over his ears in an exaggerated fashion. “I don’t want to know.”
Sho smiled, and turned his attention back to the bowstring set he and Nino were looking at when they first told Aiba the news. He would call Aiba later to apologise, he decided, and try to reason with him again.
“You know what,” Nino suddenly said. “I think I know what would be a pretty cool White Day present.” He grinned. “It’ll be kind of pricey, but you’ll be able to afford it.”
~ to be continued ~
Chapter 11 | Chapter 13
Marineko's Notes:
Well, next chapter will probably be the last. (Shida, sorry for the lack of angst, but at least I've given you lots of that in the last two one-shots I've done, right?)
RATING: G
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, aimiya friendship
DATE: March 10th, 2010
NOTES: This is a work of fiction. RedShift AU.
Chapter 11 | Chapter 13
CHAPTER TWELVE
“You guys finally made up.”
Sho looked up from his book to see Michiyo standing by his desk, smiling at him. He just shrugged, a little embarrassed. He supposed that he and Nino did make up, sort of. Nino was talking to him again, but they were still a little awkward - since they last talked, they seem to have an unspoken agreement not to talk about Aiba with each other.
“That’s good,” Michiyo continued, as if Sho had answered her. “I’m glad.”
Sho didn’t know what to say to that, but it was okay, because she was already going back to her seat. He thought it was strange that she should care so much about his friendship (or lack thereof) with Nino, when she wasn’t particularly close to either of them. He glanced at Nino, who was looking at him in inquiry.
“You’ve made a friend?” Nino asked lightly.
“I guess.” Sho’s forehead creased as he pondered on Nino’s question. “We’ve only talked a couple of times, so I’m not sure...”
“You don’t have to so serious in answering that,” Nino said, rolling his eyes. “It was just a simple question. “Akita’s cool,” Nino said. “She’s not an airhead like most of the kids here.” Sho just smiled at Nino’s statement and didn’t say anything in reply. Nino wasn’t expecting one anyway, and forged on. “Aiba and I are going out after school today ‘cause we want to check out the new CD store, plus I kind of need to go to Ishibashi to pick up new strings, and we’re meeting up with Sugimoto, Rika and Ai-chan afterwards. Want to come?”
When Sho hesitated, Nino gave him an exasperated look. “Aiba’s going to be pissed if you didn’t come; he’d think that I told you not to come or something.”
“Are you sure it’s okay?” Despite what he had told Nino, he really didn’t think that Nino would be okay with him and Aiba so quickly.
“I asked, didn’t I?” Nino scowled. “What, do you want a written invitation?”
“Well, now that you’ve mentioned it, it’d be kind of nice,” Sho said, lips lifting in a smirk.
Playing along, Nino pulled out one of the many pieces of papers stuck between his textbook, and was about to flip it over to write on it, when he noticed what was on the paper. “Hey, we’ve confirmed with Tulane that we’re opening for them at the live at the end of this month, right?”
Sho furrowed his brows in a frown, thinking. “I thought that they said that they may want us, and didn’t confirm afterwards. Since nobody mentioned it, I figured that we’re not doing it.”
“No, no,” Nino said, shaking his head. “We’ve definitely confirmed, I think. They told me a couple of weeks ago that they wanted Red Shift, and I told them we’ll play.”
“You didn’t tell me that,” Sho said.
“I guess I must’ve forgotten to mention it, with everything else that’s been going on,” Nino replied.
“Well, I can’t make that date. I thought we didn’t confirm, and my parents have an important dinner at home that night. They want me to be there.”
“Sho, this is the first time we’ve gotten a chance to play at anywhere other than the Warehouse. We’ve got to do the live!” They had been talking quietly the whole time, but with the last sentence, Nino’s voice rose several octaves higher than his usual speaking voice, causing several classmates to turn towards them.
“Ninomiya, Sakurai. I usually don’t care if you want to talk during free period, but please keep it down, if you could,” their homeroom teacher said lazily, not looking up from the magazine he was reading.
Nino and Sho apologised, and went back to their books. We’ll continue this later, Nino mouthed to Sho.
})i({
They didn’t bring up the subject again until they met up with Aiba, and filled him in about the matter. Aiba just listened, looking obviously upset, and turned to Sho to say, “but we’ve got to do the live!”
“Then you could ask someone else to stand in as a guitarist for just that one live. People have done that before, loads of times.” Sho looked unconcerned, and refused to bend on the subject.
“It’s not the same if it’s not you!” Aiba insisted, and turned to Nino for back up. “Nino, say something!”
“It’s not the same if it’s not you,” Nino intoned obediently.
“Nino!” Aiba’s expression changed from upset to annoyed. “You have to mean it, you know.”
“I dunno,” Nino said slowly. “Sho kind of made sense, there. He does need to go to his parents’ dinner or whatever, and it was my fault for not informing you guys earlier, and it’s true that we could get someone to stand in for him for just one live.”
“You’re not helping at all,” Aiba said, not really listening to Nino. “Sho needs to go to this live, because it’s an important one, plus what if he starts to think that it’s okay to skip lives whenever he wants after this? We’ll need to get replacement Shos all the time and in the end we’ll have to kick Sho out of the band and then...” he paused, before concluding dramatically, “one day when Red Shift is really popular Sho would be all alone thinking sadly, ‘I used to be one of them.’ You don’t want that to happen, do you?”
Nino and Sho were both staring at Aiba. Nino was already chalking up another conversation to his collection of weird Aiba-isms, while Sho was trying not to laugh as he asked, “In this alternative future of yours, are we still together?”
“Of course not,” Aiba said seriously, eyes shooting daggers at Nino and Sho. “The replacement Sho would be so much cooler than you and I’ll probably end up falling for them instead since you’re too busy having dinner with your parents.”
Sho couldn’t take it any longer. He laughed loudly, clutching at Nino’s shoulders, while Nino just shook his head and sighed.
“It’s just my luck to be friends with two crazy idiots,” he commented to no one in particular.
“You guys are really not taking me seriously!” Aiba was still glaring at them, and Sho stopped laughing. Aiba was really upset, he realised.
“Aiba, it really isn’t a big deal,” he said. “It’s just one live.”
“No, it’s not. It’s our first time opening for a bigger band instead of just playing on Warehouse’s normal roster with five or six other bands in the same night. It means something, and the fact that you don’t want to do it means something else entirely.”
Sho sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to do it -”
“Forget it,” Aiba snapped at him. “I’m not going to force you if you don’t want to.”
“Aiba,” Nino intervened, “if you just think about it for a minute -”
“You’re supposed to be on my side!” Aiba said to Nino, and threw his hands up in exasperation. “Why don’t you just hang out with him since you guys are getting along so well now?” He stomped away, leaving Sho and Nino to look at each other in bafflement.
“I didn’t think he’d be this mad,” Nino said. “I mean, I was pretty mad when you first told me, even though I’m the one who didn’t inform everyone earlier, but after thinking about it I realise that it’s really not that much of a big deal.”
“Maybe he’ll cool down later, too,” Sho said hopefully.
Nino shook his head. “Aiba doesn’t get angry all that often, but when he does it would only upset him more afterwards and he’d end up feeling downcast for sometime. The last time he was mad at me, he got depressed for a couple of days afterwards. I’m not sure why, but he’s the only person I know who gets upset over getting upset.”
Sho thought about what Nino had told him, and said, “it’s really bad timing, because White Day is coming up and I want to get him something nice, but if he’s like this...”
“Why are you getting him a White Day gift?” Nino asked curiously, before thinking better of it. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know.”
“Well, he gave me chocolates on Valentines -”
“La la la la la,” Nino sang loudly, putting his hands over his ears in an exaggerated fashion. “I don’t want to know.”
Sho smiled, and turned his attention back to the bowstring set he and Nino were looking at when they first told Aiba the news. He would call Aiba later to apologise, he decided, and try to reason with him again.
“You know what,” Nino suddenly said. “I think I know what would be a pretty cool White Day present.” He grinned. “It’ll be kind of pricey, but you’ll be able to afford it.”
~ to be continued ~
Chapter 11 | Chapter 13
Marineko's Notes:
Well, next chapter will probably be the last. (Shida, sorry for the lack of angst, but at least I've given you lots of that in the last two one-shots I've done, right?)