Arashi: Red Shift (06)
FANDOM: Arashi
PAIRING: Sakuraiba
RATING: PG
WORD COUNT: 2,271
DATE: January 23, 2010
NOTES: I don't own Arashi, nor do I know much about them - this fic is entirely AU and fictional. This is for arashic0804!
Chapter Five | Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SIX
“Yes, I actually would like to just forget about doing the album with Voyager.”
The three of them fell silent after Aiba spoke, thinking about the implications of their decision.
“I guess that’s that, then,” Ohno finally said. “We’ll need to ask Jun what he thinks, of course, but I think he’ll understand.”
“I wasn’t done,” Aiba said, his voice rising slightly. Ohno and Nino turned back to him in surprise. “What I wanted to say was, yes, I would like to just forget about doing the album. But it’s not about me. I’m really glad to be part of Red Shift, because you guys are like family to me. The fact that you’re willing to give up on our debut for me means the world to me. But, it’s not about me.” His voice was shaking. “Red Shift is about all of us, and I won’t have any of you give up on this because of me. And it’s not just our hopes and dreams that we’re talking about; it’s also all of our friends’ and families.”
He paused for a long while, as if waiting for a response. Ohno and Nino were still just looking at him like his words haven’t quite sunk in, so he let out a little laugh. “I guess that was a bit too wordy a speech for me, huh.”
Nino smiled. “Yeah, I haven’t heard you say so much since...” he trailed off, remembering that Aiba had gotten quieter since Sho came back into their lives.
Aiba, too, stopped smiling. “I know,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry to worry you guys so much.”
Ohno nodded and said, “I’m still worried, though. I understand what you mean, about us having to go through with this, but will you be able to handle it?”
“Maybe if I could take a few days off to sort things out,” Aiba said. “We’re going to start recording our instruments separately, anyway, so I could come into the studio and make up for it later.”
“That could work,” Ohno murmured, mulling over the idea. “All right. I’ll talk it over with Yamanaka-san. You don’t have to come in tomorrow.”
“Hey, there you guys are!” The three of them turned to see Jun walking over, a large grin on his face, and a pretty girl by his side. “Why are you guys looking so serious? What did I miss?”
Nino, Aiba and Ohno looked at each other, and turned back to Jun. “Nothing,” they said in unison.
“Sounds suspicious,” Jun said, “but I’ll let it go for now.” He proceeded to introduce the girl, who turned out to be Miyuki, one of Nino and Yukie’s cousins. The cousins - there were five of them, Ohno discovered - had decided to go out drinking together with Yukie and Ryoma, and wanted to know if the rest of them wanted to go. “Your mom said it’s okay,” Jun said to reassure Nino. “She said we were getting too noisy in the living room anyway.”
“I’m not in the mood,” Aiba said. “I’d like to go home, actually.”
“I’ll go with you, then,” Nino told Aiba. “Just let me say goodbye to mom, first.”
“I meant my parents’ place, across the street,” Aiba answered.
“Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that. So you won’t be coming back with us tonight?”
“I don’t think so. I might go back tomorrow or the day after. I just want to be here for awhile.”
“Okay.” Nino then said to Jun, “I don’t really feel like going out, either, though. I’ll probably stay here for awhile before going home.”
“What about you, Oh-chan?”
Ohno was already ready to leave. “Guess I’ll go,” he said. “Somebody has to keep watch over you.”
“I’m not a kid, you know.” Jun rolled his eyes, but Ohno was completely serious.
“You behave like one, especially when you’re drunk.”
“I do not!”
They were still going on like that when they left Nino and Aiba, while Miyuki trailed after them with an amused look on her face. She was the only one who waved goodbye at the two left behind, as Jun and Ohno were too busy arguing about whether or not Jun needed looking after.
Left alone, Nino asked Aiba, “you’re going to be okay?”
“I got over him once,” Aiba replied. “When this is all over, I’ll just have to get over him again.”
})i({
When the guests have all left, Nino told his mother to take a break while he cleaned up. It took him a good part of an hour to get the house to look like it did normally, and that didn’t include the kitchen, which had dishes piled up in the sink. His mother had told him to leave those behind, because she didn’t trust him with the dishes.
“All because I broke a couple of them when I was eleven,” he grumbled, as he finally sunk into the living room sofa. He thought about playing some video games before heading home, when the doorbell rang. Thinking that it was Yukie, he groaned and stretched before getting up to open the door.
It wasn’t his sister.
Nino blinked at the figure in front of him, before finally saying harshly, “I thought I made it clear that I didn’t want you to come.”
Sho looked determined as he said, “I just wanted to give this to your mom. She was more like a mom to me than my own in high school; it’s not right that I forget that, just because you’re being childish.”
Nino wanted to snap at the childish comment, but in the end he just bit out coldly, “Fine.” He grabbed the gift in Sho’s hands, and placed it at the end table near the door. “She’s gone to bed already. I’ll leave it here for her.”
“I also came here to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.” He paused. “Except maybe to say that it’s really stupid and conspicuous, wearing shades this late in the day.”
“Then listen,” Sho insisted, as he took off his sunglasses and placed them carelessly in his pocket. “Look, we were friends once.”
“Were being the operative word,” Nino interjected.
“I’d like for us to be friends again. Or, if that isn’t possible, I’d like for things to at least be okay between us.”
Sho was still standing in the doorway, knowing that Nino wouldn’t want him to come in. Nino was holding the door, like he was preparing to slam it in Sho’s face at any moment.
“You want us to be friends?” Nino let out a short, humourless laugh.
“If Aiba could forgive me, then why can’t you?”
Nino shook his head in disbelief. “You think that he’s forgiven you? Well, maybe he has. He’s just that sort of person. But if you think that what you’ve done doesn’t kill him a little every day, then you’re really a bigger idiot than I thought. You broke his heart, Sho. I know that it was years ago, but this is Aiba we’re talking about. I don’t know if he’ll ever really get over this, or over you. And then you think you could waltz back into our lives, pat him on the head and say you want to be friends, while parading your fiancée in front of him?” His words came out fast, and vicious. His fingers had curled into a fist. “I thought I knew you, but now I really don’t know.”
Sho frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t fuck with me!” Nino shouted. He started to slam the door, but Sho caught it in time and shoved it back open, and took a step into the house.
“I asked,” Sho said, slowly and with infuriating calmness, “what were you talking about.” He looked at Nino squarely in the eye and said, “Hit me if you want, but don’t think I won’t hit back. You know, getting bloody isn’t going to solve anything.”
“Yeah? Well, I bet it’ll make me feel better,” Nino muttered, and swung.
Sho took the punch, and returned it. For a moment after they stared at each other, one of them sporting a bloody lip (Sho) while the other was going to have to go to work tomorrow with a black eye (Nino). When Nino swung at him a second time, Sho dodged and was about to throw a punch in return, but a voice stopped them.
“Are you guys trying to wake up the entire neighbourhood?” Yukie asked from behind Sho.
The two of them looked at her, and Nino practically growled out his words as he said, “Stay out of this.”
“I wish I could, but I’m in need of sleep and you’re both kind of in the way. Plus, you don’t want to wake mom up, do you?”
Sho stepped away from the doorway and said, “I’m sorry. It’s great to see you again, Yukie-neesan. You’ve grown into a beautiful woman, I see.”
Yukie laughed. “Who are you kidding? We all know that he,” she said, pointing to her brother, “inherited all the beauty in the family. Good thing I’ve got all the brains.” She took Sho’s hands, and squeezed gently. “It’s great to see you again. Come again sometime, when you and my idiot of a brother aren’t trying to kill each other, okay?” Letting go of his hands, Yukie walked in and shoved both Sho and Nino out of the house. “Now, go away. Kazu-chan, you have work tomorrow so you can’t sleep over anyway. Plus the two of you seriously need to talk.” When Nino opened his mouth to protest, she said, “I’m not hearing it, whatever it is. Go. Talk. Scoot.” With a final shove at Nino, she closed the door.
Nino and Sho regarded each other warily. “Are you done now?” Sho asked. “Or are we still going to throw punches at each other, like kids?”
“Damn it! I hate that you’re always so fucking reasonable about things,” Nino groused. He walked out to the front gate, and sat on the sidewalk. When Sho came over and sat next to him, he sighed. “I’m too tired for this conversation,” he muttered. “Whatever this conversation is.”
“Explain to me what you were talking about earlier.”
“Which part? I think we’ve pretty much covered that you’re an asshole.”
“Okay. Fine, I’m an asshole,” Sho retorted in irritation. “But what did you mean, about Aiba? He told me that he’s fine.”
“For someone so smart, you’re really stupid,” Nino told Sho. “Aiba said he’s fine because he didn’t want you to feel bad. You didn’t see him today,” he said, remembering Aiba’s pale, haunted expression. “He looked like he’s going to fall apart at any moment. We almost decided to give up on Voyager, because of you.”
“I see,” Sho murmured quietly. “I didn’t know. I really didn’t know. If I did, I would’ve - well, you don’t have to pull out of the project. I will, if it would make him feel better. Yamanaka-san could get another collaborator to work with you, easy.”
Nino shook his head. “Not necessary, now. Aiba’s going to take a few days off work. I guess we’ll see how things go when he’s back.”
“And what was thing about my fiancée?” Sho asked, suddenly remembering the rest of Nino’s outburst. “Because as far as I know, I haven’t got one.”
“What?” Nino looked at Sho in surprise. “You’re not engaged to Michiyo?”
“Michiyo?” Sho remembered his lunch with Michiyo the day before, and Aiba walking in on them. “Is that what this is about?” He laughed. “She’ll love to hear about this.”
“It’s not funny from Aiba’s point of view,” Nino said, annoyed.
“I guess not,” Sho agreed, sobering up. “Look, we haven’t seen each other in ages, so when she called out of the blue and said she was in town, I decided to meet her for lunch. She’s newly engaged, but not to me. Do you remember the guy she dated before me, way back in high school?”
“He was from another school, right?” Nino frowned, and tried to remember. “Did they get back together or something?”
“No. They liked each other, but were both in love with someone else. She thought it was me for awhile, but it actually turned out to be her other ex’s elder brother.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Wow,” Nino mused. “So you got dumped by Michiyo.”
“So it would seem.”
“My condolences.”
“Well, it was in college, and there really weren’t any hard feelings between us.”
“So do you regret dumping Aiba for her?”
Sho gave Nino a look. “We both know that Michiyo wasn’t why Aiba and I broke up.”
“No, we don’t, actually,” Nino said coolly. “I don’t know what you know, and I certainly don’t know what Aiba knew, since he pretty much clammed up on the subject of you after the break-up. All I know was it was my fault that my best friend got his heart broken, because if I didn’t introduce the two of you, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Did you think that it was easy for me? I didn’t just lose him, you know. I lost you, too. He may be your best friend, Nino, but you were mine.” Sho stood up, and brushed dirt off his pants. He didn’t turn to look at Nino as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his sunglasses. “Here,” he said. “You’re going to need this tomorrow, if you don’t want too many questions about your eye from the staff.” He dropped the shades onto Nino’s lap, and left.
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Five | Chapter Seven
NOTES:
Yay, another update so soon! *on a roll*
PAIRING: Sakuraiba
RATING: PG
WORD COUNT: 2,271
DATE: January 23, 2010
NOTES: I don't own Arashi, nor do I know much about them - this fic is entirely AU and fictional. This is for arashic0804!
Chapter Five | Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SIX
“Yes, I actually would like to just forget about doing the album with Voyager.”
The three of them fell silent after Aiba spoke, thinking about the implications of their decision.
“I guess that’s that, then,” Ohno finally said. “We’ll need to ask Jun what he thinks, of course, but I think he’ll understand.”
“I wasn’t done,” Aiba said, his voice rising slightly. Ohno and Nino turned back to him in surprise. “What I wanted to say was, yes, I would like to just forget about doing the album. But it’s not about me. I’m really glad to be part of Red Shift, because you guys are like family to me. The fact that you’re willing to give up on our debut for me means the world to me. But, it’s not about me.” His voice was shaking. “Red Shift is about all of us, and I won’t have any of you give up on this because of me. And it’s not just our hopes and dreams that we’re talking about; it’s also all of our friends’ and families.”
He paused for a long while, as if waiting for a response. Ohno and Nino were still just looking at him like his words haven’t quite sunk in, so he let out a little laugh. “I guess that was a bit too wordy a speech for me, huh.”
Nino smiled. “Yeah, I haven’t heard you say so much since...” he trailed off, remembering that Aiba had gotten quieter since Sho came back into their lives.
Aiba, too, stopped smiling. “I know,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry to worry you guys so much.”
Ohno nodded and said, “I’m still worried, though. I understand what you mean, about us having to go through with this, but will you be able to handle it?”
“Maybe if I could take a few days off to sort things out,” Aiba said. “We’re going to start recording our instruments separately, anyway, so I could come into the studio and make up for it later.”
“That could work,” Ohno murmured, mulling over the idea. “All right. I’ll talk it over with Yamanaka-san. You don’t have to come in tomorrow.”
“Hey, there you guys are!” The three of them turned to see Jun walking over, a large grin on his face, and a pretty girl by his side. “Why are you guys looking so serious? What did I miss?”
Nino, Aiba and Ohno looked at each other, and turned back to Jun. “Nothing,” they said in unison.
“Sounds suspicious,” Jun said, “but I’ll let it go for now.” He proceeded to introduce the girl, who turned out to be Miyuki, one of Nino and Yukie’s cousins. The cousins - there were five of them, Ohno discovered - had decided to go out drinking together with Yukie and Ryoma, and wanted to know if the rest of them wanted to go. “Your mom said it’s okay,” Jun said to reassure Nino. “She said we were getting too noisy in the living room anyway.”
“I’m not in the mood,” Aiba said. “I’d like to go home, actually.”
“I’ll go with you, then,” Nino told Aiba. “Just let me say goodbye to mom, first.”
“I meant my parents’ place, across the street,” Aiba answered.
“Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that. So you won’t be coming back with us tonight?”
“I don’t think so. I might go back tomorrow or the day after. I just want to be here for awhile.”
“Okay.” Nino then said to Jun, “I don’t really feel like going out, either, though. I’ll probably stay here for awhile before going home.”
“What about you, Oh-chan?”
Ohno was already ready to leave. “Guess I’ll go,” he said. “Somebody has to keep watch over you.”
“I’m not a kid, you know.” Jun rolled his eyes, but Ohno was completely serious.
“You behave like one, especially when you’re drunk.”
“I do not!”
They were still going on like that when they left Nino and Aiba, while Miyuki trailed after them with an amused look on her face. She was the only one who waved goodbye at the two left behind, as Jun and Ohno were too busy arguing about whether or not Jun needed looking after.
Left alone, Nino asked Aiba, “you’re going to be okay?”
“I got over him once,” Aiba replied. “When this is all over, I’ll just have to get over him again.”
})i({
When the guests have all left, Nino told his mother to take a break while he cleaned up. It took him a good part of an hour to get the house to look like it did normally, and that didn’t include the kitchen, which had dishes piled up in the sink. His mother had told him to leave those behind, because she didn’t trust him with the dishes.
“All because I broke a couple of them when I was eleven,” he grumbled, as he finally sunk into the living room sofa. He thought about playing some video games before heading home, when the doorbell rang. Thinking that it was Yukie, he groaned and stretched before getting up to open the door.
It wasn’t his sister.
Nino blinked at the figure in front of him, before finally saying harshly, “I thought I made it clear that I didn’t want you to come.”
Sho looked determined as he said, “I just wanted to give this to your mom. She was more like a mom to me than my own in high school; it’s not right that I forget that, just because you’re being childish.”
Nino wanted to snap at the childish comment, but in the end he just bit out coldly, “Fine.” He grabbed the gift in Sho’s hands, and placed it at the end table near the door. “She’s gone to bed already. I’ll leave it here for her.”
“I also came here to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.” He paused. “Except maybe to say that it’s really stupid and conspicuous, wearing shades this late in the day.”
“Then listen,” Sho insisted, as he took off his sunglasses and placed them carelessly in his pocket. “Look, we were friends once.”
“Were being the operative word,” Nino interjected.
“I’d like for us to be friends again. Or, if that isn’t possible, I’d like for things to at least be okay between us.”
Sho was still standing in the doorway, knowing that Nino wouldn’t want him to come in. Nino was holding the door, like he was preparing to slam it in Sho’s face at any moment.
“You want us to be friends?” Nino let out a short, humourless laugh.
“If Aiba could forgive me, then why can’t you?”
Nino shook his head in disbelief. “You think that he’s forgiven you? Well, maybe he has. He’s just that sort of person. But if you think that what you’ve done doesn’t kill him a little every day, then you’re really a bigger idiot than I thought. You broke his heart, Sho. I know that it was years ago, but this is Aiba we’re talking about. I don’t know if he’ll ever really get over this, or over you. And then you think you could waltz back into our lives, pat him on the head and say you want to be friends, while parading your fiancée in front of him?” His words came out fast, and vicious. His fingers had curled into a fist. “I thought I knew you, but now I really don’t know.”
Sho frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t fuck with me!” Nino shouted. He started to slam the door, but Sho caught it in time and shoved it back open, and took a step into the house.
“I asked,” Sho said, slowly and with infuriating calmness, “what were you talking about.” He looked at Nino squarely in the eye and said, “Hit me if you want, but don’t think I won’t hit back. You know, getting bloody isn’t going to solve anything.”
“Yeah? Well, I bet it’ll make me feel better,” Nino muttered, and swung.
Sho took the punch, and returned it. For a moment after they stared at each other, one of them sporting a bloody lip (Sho) while the other was going to have to go to work tomorrow with a black eye (Nino). When Nino swung at him a second time, Sho dodged and was about to throw a punch in return, but a voice stopped them.
“Are you guys trying to wake up the entire neighbourhood?” Yukie asked from behind Sho.
The two of them looked at her, and Nino practically growled out his words as he said, “Stay out of this.”
“I wish I could, but I’m in need of sleep and you’re both kind of in the way. Plus, you don’t want to wake mom up, do you?”
Sho stepped away from the doorway and said, “I’m sorry. It’s great to see you again, Yukie-neesan. You’ve grown into a beautiful woman, I see.”
Yukie laughed. “Who are you kidding? We all know that he,” she said, pointing to her brother, “inherited all the beauty in the family. Good thing I’ve got all the brains.” She took Sho’s hands, and squeezed gently. “It’s great to see you again. Come again sometime, when you and my idiot of a brother aren’t trying to kill each other, okay?” Letting go of his hands, Yukie walked in and shoved both Sho and Nino out of the house. “Now, go away. Kazu-chan, you have work tomorrow so you can’t sleep over anyway. Plus the two of you seriously need to talk.” When Nino opened his mouth to protest, she said, “I’m not hearing it, whatever it is. Go. Talk. Scoot.” With a final shove at Nino, she closed the door.
Nino and Sho regarded each other warily. “Are you done now?” Sho asked. “Or are we still going to throw punches at each other, like kids?”
“Damn it! I hate that you’re always so fucking reasonable about things,” Nino groused. He walked out to the front gate, and sat on the sidewalk. When Sho came over and sat next to him, he sighed. “I’m too tired for this conversation,” he muttered. “Whatever this conversation is.”
“Explain to me what you were talking about earlier.”
“Which part? I think we’ve pretty much covered that you’re an asshole.”
“Okay. Fine, I’m an asshole,” Sho retorted in irritation. “But what did you mean, about Aiba? He told me that he’s fine.”
“For someone so smart, you’re really stupid,” Nino told Sho. “Aiba said he’s fine because he didn’t want you to feel bad. You didn’t see him today,” he said, remembering Aiba’s pale, haunted expression. “He looked like he’s going to fall apart at any moment. We almost decided to give up on Voyager, because of you.”
“I see,” Sho murmured quietly. “I didn’t know. I really didn’t know. If I did, I would’ve - well, you don’t have to pull out of the project. I will, if it would make him feel better. Yamanaka-san could get another collaborator to work with you, easy.”
Nino shook his head. “Not necessary, now. Aiba’s going to take a few days off work. I guess we’ll see how things go when he’s back.”
“And what was thing about my fiancée?” Sho asked, suddenly remembering the rest of Nino’s outburst. “Because as far as I know, I haven’t got one.”
“What?” Nino looked at Sho in surprise. “You’re not engaged to Michiyo?”
“Michiyo?” Sho remembered his lunch with Michiyo the day before, and Aiba walking in on them. “Is that what this is about?” He laughed. “She’ll love to hear about this.”
“It’s not funny from Aiba’s point of view,” Nino said, annoyed.
“I guess not,” Sho agreed, sobering up. “Look, we haven’t seen each other in ages, so when she called out of the blue and said she was in town, I decided to meet her for lunch. She’s newly engaged, but not to me. Do you remember the guy she dated before me, way back in high school?”
“He was from another school, right?” Nino frowned, and tried to remember. “Did they get back together or something?”
“No. They liked each other, but were both in love with someone else. She thought it was me for awhile, but it actually turned out to be her other ex’s elder brother.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Wow,” Nino mused. “So you got dumped by Michiyo.”
“So it would seem.”
“My condolences.”
“Well, it was in college, and there really weren’t any hard feelings between us.”
“So do you regret dumping Aiba for her?”
Sho gave Nino a look. “We both know that Michiyo wasn’t why Aiba and I broke up.”
“No, we don’t, actually,” Nino said coolly. “I don’t know what you know, and I certainly don’t know what Aiba knew, since he pretty much clammed up on the subject of you after the break-up. All I know was it was my fault that my best friend got his heart broken, because if I didn’t introduce the two of you, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Did you think that it was easy for me? I didn’t just lose him, you know. I lost you, too. He may be your best friend, Nino, but you were mine.” Sho stood up, and brushed dirt off his pants. He didn’t turn to look at Nino as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his sunglasses. “Here,” he said. “You’re going to need this tomorrow, if you don’t want too many questions about your eye from the staff.” He dropped the shades onto Nino’s lap, and left.
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Five | Chapter Seven
NOTES:
Yay, another update so soon! *on a roll*