Arashi: When Pink Elephants Fly
AUTHOR: Marineko/mylittlecthulhu
FANDOM: Arashi
PAIRING: Gen, Junba if you want to see it that way :)
RATING: PG
DATE: December 18th, 2011
WORD COUNT: 1,797
NOTES/DISCLAIMERS: 1. This is a work of fiction, 2. Beta-ed by arashic0804, 3. Based on the rainbowfilling prompt "Finding five minutes of peace." Also posted on AO3, here.
WHEN PINK ELEPHANTS FLY
It all started with the pink elephants, really.
Aiba insisted that he’s seen them before, floating, and of course no one took him seriously, except that Ohno was interested and kept asking questions, which made Jun mad because it only encouraged Aiba’s flights of fancy, but Ohno had smiled and shrugged like he’s saying, What? So he has a big imagination, and continued asking questions. Strangely enough it was Nino who had snapped in the end, telling Aiba to stop making up stuff, which made Aiba stop talking, finally.
For about two seconds.
Then he started asking Sho why everyone was so sure that pink elephants couldn’t exist and thought he was making stuff up, because Sho was smart, wasn’t he, so surely he knows that no one knows everything. “No one knows everything,” Sho agreed gently, “but everyone knows that there’s so such thing as a pink elephant.”
“Why?”
“Because…” Sho faltered. Zoology wasn’t really his forte; it was Aiba’s if it was anyone’s, so why didn’t Aiba know this, he wondered. “If there really are pink elephants, surely they would have been discovered by now,” he ended up saying, weakly.
“But they have, too, been discovered! By me!”
“Uh huh,” Jun interrupted, before Sho begins to humour Aiba. He was massaging his temples, like Aiba’s voice made his head hurt. “Aiba-chan, just - shut the fuck up, okay? Sho-kun’s tired, I’m tired, we’re all tired, so unless you could show us proof of your - elephants - could you please let us have some peace and quiet?”
And Aiba shuts up, and everyone was happy.
Except for Jun, who couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard he tried, on that train ride back to Tokyo.
:
He still had the niggling feeling that something was wrong, when he arrived at work the next day. They were doing interviews with some magazine - he’d have to check with his manager which magazine exactly, he reminded himself, before it was his turn - but they had asked for the members to do the interviews individually, so he didn’t think he would be seeing the rest of Arashi.
But Ohno was there, munching on a curry bun, with Aiba semi-curled against him, chin on their leader’s shoulder. “And then it went -” Aiba was saying, before he noticed Jun walking in. He smiled at Jun in greeting, while Ohno commented that Jun could have a curry bun if he was hungry, but it wasn’t as good as fish.
“Thanks,” Jun replied absently. “Are you guys here for the interview, too?”
Aiba nodded a little too enthusiastically; his chin digs into Ohno’s shoulder, and Ohno pulled away. “I’m not,” Ohno supplied. “Recording some backing tracks for the new single - Yamaguchi-san said that my vocals from the last one was a bit off.”
Jun nodded, and took out the script from his bag to read. He had been offered a new drama, but he had yet to make a decision - at least formally. The fact that he had had the script in his bag for the past week, and had been reading it at every opportunity, meant that he was pretty much interested in taking it on.
He managed to go through only about five pages before one of the staff members called for him.
As he placed the script carefully back into his bag, he realized it - he had read through five whole pages without Aiba distracting him.
In fact, he had spent several minutes in the waiting room, at least, and Aiba hadn’t spoken a single word to him.
“Aiba, do you want the rest of my lunch?” Aiba reached out for the lunch tray in his hands, but he held on to it instead of letting go. “Tell me if you want it, or I’ll give it to Sho.”
Aiba gave him an exasperated look, but didn’t say anything as he shrugged and sat back down. Sho got Jun’s unfinished meal, which he knew Aiba wanted, because Aiba kept glancing at Sho as Sho ate.
Jun wondered how long it would take - and what exactly it would take - to get Aiba talking again.
“Ah, the Aiba Silent Treatment,” Nino had said, when Jun cornered him at the hallway with all the vending machines. (He had to get Nino a drink before Nino would even talk, of course) “Haven’t happened to me since we were about sixteen, I think. He’s pretty good. It could last days. Weeks, maybe, if he really puts his mind to it.”
“It’s annoying,” Jun said, sounding aggravated, but a small part of him felt guilty. Okay, a big part of him felt guilty - Aiba must have been really bothered if he was going that far.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nino said reassuringly. “We’re doing Mannequin 5 unveiling in a couple of days, right? He’ll have to talk to you on camera.”
Jun wasn’t reassured. If Aiba only talked to him on camera, it was still the same as Aiba not talking to him at all. And then, of course, he remembered instances when Aiba didn’t talk to other members - usually Sho or Nino - throughout filming, once or twice, when he was in a bad mood because of them.
Aiba couldn’t be that angry, though, he rationalized, because besides the not talking thing, Aiba was completely normal with him. He mentioned this to Nino, who nodded thoughtfully.
“I guess… maybe this is a new thing. Don’t think I can help you, then.” Despite the pessimistic words, Nino had spoken cheerfully enough, and even gave Jun one of his famous two-finger salutes before leaving.
If Aiba was determined to hang on to his silent treatment, he was lucky, because he and Jun didn’t see each other until the Mannequin 5 SP unveiling. However, if there had been any part of him that had thought to let go of his grudge, it was forgotten as the SP threw him into another unhappy loop.
It really wasn’t fair, Jun thought, as he changed back into his regular clothes. If anyone was supposed to be unhappy that day, it should be him. After all, Aiba still wasn’t talking, and he had just got last place for the third time, and he was only saved the other time because Sho had been an idiot. It wasn’t that he wanted to be depressed about it, but still. He had more right to a pity party than Aiba did, and yet there Aiba was, in the greenroom, acting like he’s got a cloud over his head.
“Poor Aiba-chan,” Ohno commented, brushing past Jun, but not before patting his shoulder consolingly, acknowledging Jun’s own upset. “I liked your outfit the best,” he told Aiba.
Aiba turned to him appealingly, and was about to speak, when he saw Jun, and clamped up.
“I don’t get what his problem is,” Jun groused, when Aiba had left.
“Give him a break,” Sho said. He had been in the corner of the room, reading his papers, and Jun hadn’t noticed until then.
“He’s the only one who never cheats, you know?” Ohno added.
“He’s also the only one who’s always saved just because he’s him,” Jun complains, but his heart wasn’t in it, and anyway, he would have voted for Aiba, too, if only because he wanted to see Aiba laughing and talking to him again.
(And even if Aiba wouldn’t, because, well… because.)
It had been a week, and Jun felt like banging his head against the wall.
All that he had wanted was a little peace and quiet. Just five minutes for him to rest his head, without anyone chattering to him about things that didn’t exist. That was all he wanted. Somehow it had all blown out of proportion and Aiba still wasn’t talking, and it was making him more tired and headachy than ever, because he couldn’t seem to rest no matter how quiet things got.
That day had been one of the worst, because they had two live recordings back to back before he had to attend a long, tiresome meeting on his scheduling once he starts on the new drama, and rehearsals for his stage play. By the time he finished filling in questionnaires for a few magazines and went to bed, he only had a precious few hours before he had to meet with the rest of Arashi for a group photo shoot.
He stuck through it, but immediately went up to the rooftop once a break was announced.
He was just taking out the pack of cigarettes when he heard Aiba’s voice.
“Jun?”
“Oh, so now you’re talking to me,” he said, putting away the cigarettes. He tried not to smoke around Aiba ever since Aiba had to quit.
“Well, you said not to talk to you…”
He turned towards Aiba, with an entire speech ready to be launched. Of course he hadn’t meant what he had said, he was just tired and had snapped, Aiba should have known better, and anyway - but the words died before any of it got out, because before him was a floating pink elephant.
“It took me a lot longer to track them down that I thought it would,” Aiba said apologetically. “But I found them! The pink elephants! I brought one back especially for MatsuJun.”
Jun blinked at it, and even closed his eyes for a few seconds, before opening them again. But it was still there - the large, neon-pink monstrosity of a helium balloon floating above them, tied to a string that Aiba was clutching.
“…you were talking about this. A balloon.”
Aiba’s round eyes was just a fraction larger than usual as he asked in a puzzled tone, “Why, did you think I was talking about a live elephant?” Jun was silent, but his thoughts were clear enough that Aiba laughed. “MatsuJun’s so silly.”
He was still staring at the pink thing, which was sort of ugly now that he looked at it long enough, as Aiba tried to hand the string over to him. Aiba ended up tying it to the railing, and leaned against it.
“You’re going to fall over,” Jun warned, and Aiba rolled his eyes.
“Don’t be such a… Sho,” Aiba said, but straightened up, and came closer to lean against Jun, instead. “Sorry. I really didn’t think it’d take that long to find the elephants again.”
Jun didn’t even know what to say to that, so he said nothing.
Aiba soon made up for a week of not talking, telling Jun all sorts of minute detail that made no sense since they were all spoken out of context, but Jun leaned back, closed his eyes, and listened.
He was so very tired, and finally, since the first mention of the pink elephants, he was beginning to feel at ease.
~ the end ~
Marineko's Notes:
^^; -> is all I can say. Hmm. Oh, this weird fic was born because (1) the rainbowfilling prompt, of course, and (2) my sudden desire to add pink elephants to a fanfic, and (3) Shi-chan wanting a mention of Aiba/Mannequin 5 SP, and a Junba. Also I've been doing a lot of Juntoshi, and I want to do something with Aiba for his birthday :D
FANDOM: Arashi
PAIRING: Gen, Junba if you want to see it that way :)
RATING: PG
DATE: December 18th, 2011
WORD COUNT: 1,797
NOTES/DISCLAIMERS: 1. This is a work of fiction, 2. Beta-ed by arashic0804, 3. Based on the rainbowfilling prompt "Finding five minutes of peace." Also posted on AO3, here.
WHEN PINK ELEPHANTS FLY
It all started with the pink elephants, really.
Aiba insisted that he’s seen them before, floating, and of course no one took him seriously, except that Ohno was interested and kept asking questions, which made Jun mad because it only encouraged Aiba’s flights of fancy, but Ohno had smiled and shrugged like he’s saying, What? So he has a big imagination, and continued asking questions. Strangely enough it was Nino who had snapped in the end, telling Aiba to stop making up stuff, which made Aiba stop talking, finally.
For about two seconds.
Then he started asking Sho why everyone was so sure that pink elephants couldn’t exist and thought he was making stuff up, because Sho was smart, wasn’t he, so surely he knows that no one knows everything. “No one knows everything,” Sho agreed gently, “but everyone knows that there’s so such thing as a pink elephant.”
“Why?”
“Because…” Sho faltered. Zoology wasn’t really his forte; it was Aiba’s if it was anyone’s, so why didn’t Aiba know this, he wondered. “If there really are pink elephants, surely they would have been discovered by now,” he ended up saying, weakly.
“But they have, too, been discovered! By me!”
“Uh huh,” Jun interrupted, before Sho begins to humour Aiba. He was massaging his temples, like Aiba’s voice made his head hurt. “Aiba-chan, just - shut the fuck up, okay? Sho-kun’s tired, I’m tired, we’re all tired, so unless you could show us proof of your - elephants - could you please let us have some peace and quiet?”
And Aiba shuts up, and everyone was happy.
Except for Jun, who couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard he tried, on that train ride back to Tokyo.
:
He still had the niggling feeling that something was wrong, when he arrived at work the next day. They were doing interviews with some magazine - he’d have to check with his manager which magazine exactly, he reminded himself, before it was his turn - but they had asked for the members to do the interviews individually, so he didn’t think he would be seeing the rest of Arashi.
But Ohno was there, munching on a curry bun, with Aiba semi-curled against him, chin on their leader’s shoulder. “And then it went -” Aiba was saying, before he noticed Jun walking in. He smiled at Jun in greeting, while Ohno commented that Jun could have a curry bun if he was hungry, but it wasn’t as good as fish.
“Thanks,” Jun replied absently. “Are you guys here for the interview, too?”
Aiba nodded a little too enthusiastically; his chin digs into Ohno’s shoulder, and Ohno pulled away. “I’m not,” Ohno supplied. “Recording some backing tracks for the new single - Yamaguchi-san said that my vocals from the last one was a bit off.”
Jun nodded, and took out the script from his bag to read. He had been offered a new drama, but he had yet to make a decision - at least formally. The fact that he had had the script in his bag for the past week, and had been reading it at every opportunity, meant that he was pretty much interested in taking it on.
He managed to go through only about five pages before one of the staff members called for him.
As he placed the script carefully back into his bag, he realized it - he had read through five whole pages without Aiba distracting him.
In fact, he had spent several minutes in the waiting room, at least, and Aiba hadn’t spoken a single word to him.
“Aiba, do you want the rest of my lunch?” Aiba reached out for the lunch tray in his hands, but he held on to it instead of letting go. “Tell me if you want it, or I’ll give it to Sho.”
Aiba gave him an exasperated look, but didn’t say anything as he shrugged and sat back down. Sho got Jun’s unfinished meal, which he knew Aiba wanted, because Aiba kept glancing at Sho as Sho ate.
Jun wondered how long it would take - and what exactly it would take - to get Aiba talking again.
“Ah, the Aiba Silent Treatment,” Nino had said, when Jun cornered him at the hallway with all the vending machines. (He had to get Nino a drink before Nino would even talk, of course) “Haven’t happened to me since we were about sixteen, I think. He’s pretty good. It could last days. Weeks, maybe, if he really puts his mind to it.”
“It’s annoying,” Jun said, sounding aggravated, but a small part of him felt guilty. Okay, a big part of him felt guilty - Aiba must have been really bothered if he was going that far.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nino said reassuringly. “We’re doing Mannequin 5 unveiling in a couple of days, right? He’ll have to talk to you on camera.”
Jun wasn’t reassured. If Aiba only talked to him on camera, it was still the same as Aiba not talking to him at all. And then, of course, he remembered instances when Aiba didn’t talk to other members - usually Sho or Nino - throughout filming, once or twice, when he was in a bad mood because of them.
Aiba couldn’t be that angry, though, he rationalized, because besides the not talking thing, Aiba was completely normal with him. He mentioned this to Nino, who nodded thoughtfully.
“I guess… maybe this is a new thing. Don’t think I can help you, then.” Despite the pessimistic words, Nino had spoken cheerfully enough, and even gave Jun one of his famous two-finger salutes before leaving.
If Aiba was determined to hang on to his silent treatment, he was lucky, because he and Jun didn’t see each other until the Mannequin 5 SP unveiling. However, if there had been any part of him that had thought to let go of his grudge, it was forgotten as the SP threw him into another unhappy loop.
It really wasn’t fair, Jun thought, as he changed back into his regular clothes. If anyone was supposed to be unhappy that day, it should be him. After all, Aiba still wasn’t talking, and he had just got last place for the third time, and he was only saved the other time because Sho had been an idiot. It wasn’t that he wanted to be depressed about it, but still. He had more right to a pity party than Aiba did, and yet there Aiba was, in the greenroom, acting like he’s got a cloud over his head.
“Poor Aiba-chan,” Ohno commented, brushing past Jun, but not before patting his shoulder consolingly, acknowledging Jun’s own upset. “I liked your outfit the best,” he told Aiba.
Aiba turned to him appealingly, and was about to speak, when he saw Jun, and clamped up.
“I don’t get what his problem is,” Jun groused, when Aiba had left.
“Give him a break,” Sho said. He had been in the corner of the room, reading his papers, and Jun hadn’t noticed until then.
“He’s the only one who never cheats, you know?” Ohno added.
“He’s also the only one who’s always saved just because he’s him,” Jun complains, but his heart wasn’t in it, and anyway, he would have voted for Aiba, too, if only because he wanted to see Aiba laughing and talking to him again.
(And even if Aiba wouldn’t, because, well… because.)
It had been a week, and Jun felt like banging his head against the wall.
All that he had wanted was a little peace and quiet. Just five minutes for him to rest his head, without anyone chattering to him about things that didn’t exist. That was all he wanted. Somehow it had all blown out of proportion and Aiba still wasn’t talking, and it was making him more tired and headachy than ever, because he couldn’t seem to rest no matter how quiet things got.
That day had been one of the worst, because they had two live recordings back to back before he had to attend a long, tiresome meeting on his scheduling once he starts on the new drama, and rehearsals for his stage play. By the time he finished filling in questionnaires for a few magazines and went to bed, he only had a precious few hours before he had to meet with the rest of Arashi for a group photo shoot.
He stuck through it, but immediately went up to the rooftop once a break was announced.
He was just taking out the pack of cigarettes when he heard Aiba’s voice.
“Jun?”
“Oh, so now you’re talking to me,” he said, putting away the cigarettes. He tried not to smoke around Aiba ever since Aiba had to quit.
“Well, you said not to talk to you…”
He turned towards Aiba, with an entire speech ready to be launched. Of course he hadn’t meant what he had said, he was just tired and had snapped, Aiba should have known better, and anyway - but the words died before any of it got out, because before him was a floating pink elephant.
“It took me a lot longer to track them down that I thought it would,” Aiba said apologetically. “But I found them! The pink elephants! I brought one back especially for MatsuJun.”
Jun blinked at it, and even closed his eyes for a few seconds, before opening them again. But it was still there - the large, neon-pink monstrosity of a helium balloon floating above them, tied to a string that Aiba was clutching.
“…you were talking about this. A balloon.”
Aiba’s round eyes was just a fraction larger than usual as he asked in a puzzled tone, “Why, did you think I was talking about a live elephant?” Jun was silent, but his thoughts were clear enough that Aiba laughed. “MatsuJun’s so silly.”
He was still staring at the pink thing, which was sort of ugly now that he looked at it long enough, as Aiba tried to hand the string over to him. Aiba ended up tying it to the railing, and leaned against it.
“You’re going to fall over,” Jun warned, and Aiba rolled his eyes.
“Don’t be such a… Sho,” Aiba said, but straightened up, and came closer to lean against Jun, instead. “Sorry. I really didn’t think it’d take that long to find the elephants again.”
Jun didn’t even know what to say to that, so he said nothing.
Aiba soon made up for a week of not talking, telling Jun all sorts of minute detail that made no sense since they were all spoken out of context, but Jun leaned back, closed his eyes, and listened.
He was so very tired, and finally, since the first mention of the pink elephants, he was beginning to feel at ease.
~ the end ~
Marineko's Notes:
^^; -> is all I can say. Hmm. Oh, this weird fic was born because (1) the rainbowfilling prompt, of course, and (2) my sudden desire to add pink elephants to a fanfic, and (3) Shi-chan wanting a mention of Aiba/Mannequin 5 SP, and a Junba. Also I've been doing a lot of Juntoshi, and I want to do something with Aiba for his birthday :D