arashi fiction 67 - collector's edition
Title: Love and Other Items
Pairing: Nino/Karina
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It's the small things that make a relationship come to life. Nino and Karina enjoy collecting them.
A/N: I had a lot of love and support from friends as I wrote this piece, and I owe them all my gratitude. Originally for phrenk @ je_whiteday.
When Nino asked her to lunch, he had no idea she was famous, and he didn't have any reason to suspect it either. Most famous model-slash-actresses didn't wander around the Collectors' Convention in Gachapin attire, and they probably didn't choose to befriend guys in Smurf t-shirts either.
"Everyone in the world thinks they're the biggest One Piece fan," Nino told her, pushing some broccoli around with one chopstick. "I know I am, so why waste time collecting a bunch of stuff to try and prove it?"
The Gachapin girl smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand.
"I don't understand that logic. If I were the biggest fan of something, I'd buy two of everything!"
"That's the fastest way to lose money, and money is my favorite thing to collect of all," Nino argued, laughing brightly before he continued. "I have this coin bank in my apartment that makes the best sound when you put the coins in there."
She didn't seem to care much about how heavy the bank had become in the last few months, or how much Nino liked keeping track of the amount he'd saved. She did, however, respond well to his stories about his mother's antics, his bright colored boxers, the time he'd ordered "French yakisoba" on a dare, and his favorite video game soundtracks of all time.
He'd never rambled on so much before, but she didn't seem to mind. In fact, before she left, she said--
"Let's exchange numbers. Your name is...?"
He should have been suspicious when he gave her his full name and his nickname, but all she said was "Nose" and nothing more. Or maybe he should have figured it out when he wandered around the convention awhile longer and failed to find anyone nearly as interesting or attractive as her - like he must have made her up in a moment of temporary insanity. But it was Aiba that brought it to his attention, all smiles as he held up a signed copy of some drama Nino had never seen before.
"Karina-chan~ She's my third favorite actress now!" Aiba announced.
Nino laughed loudly, eyes widening in surprise. No matter how many times he moved the DVD case away and back again, the image didn't change. It was too bad Aiba had missed lunch. He probably would have enjoyed meeting her.
"Can I borrow this?" Nino asked. "I think a friend of mine is in a few scenes."
It was the start of a brand new collection.
SELECT AN ITEM
Gachapin Cards
Doraemon Keychain
Smurfette Figurine
Hello Kitty Condoms
GariGari-Kun Popsicle
Two Magazine Covers
Read Last
Gachapin Lip Balm
"Craziest thing that's ever happened to you?" Karina asked as she selected a card carefully from the ones splayed out in front of her. She wasn't sure when Nino had gotten so enthralled with this magic hobby, but she liked that he was already skilled enough that he didn't need to use a trick deck. Dozens of sleepy gachapin eyes stared up at her as she slid the seven of hearts back in place.
"What? I can't tell you now, I need to tell you about the cards that are going to help me find--"
She rolled her eyes playfully as she interrupted. "Nino, it worked the first three times. It's going to work again. Just tell me about the craziest thing," she nudged, adding a physical push of her foot against his shin for good measure.
Nino cleared his throat and pushed the cards aside, then leaned back in his chair and stroked his chin. Karina smirked as he immediately began his story with because I am really popular and good looking... and couldn't stop herself from snorting with laughter when he got to I decided to try becoming a host.
"This is really serious, Nocchan," Nino whined.
Karina watched with a raised eyebrow as Nino began draping his entire body over the table in pretend despair. It wasn't that she didn't believe him! It was really easy to picture him as a host, almost disturbingly so. He had no problem with carrying on long conversations with women (he conversed a lot with her, actually), now had some card tricks up his sleeve, and was definitely cute enough to be someone's type. Telling him that so far his story sounded perfectly reasonable and not crazy, however, was admitting to something that would only make him smug for weeks to come. She refused to allow it.
"I was all set up, drinks and cigarette lighter and everything all in place, and my first customer... was a demon."
"How do you know she was a demon?" Karina questioned him, lips perched at the edge of her beer glass. She was too afraid to sip. If he made her laugh, it would go right up her nose.
"Because, obviously, things were going really well and she was getting close to me," Nino continued, playing with his fingers and cracking his knuckles as he spoke. "And she said... Oh, Nino, my hearts are beating so fast!"
"That doesn't mean anything! She was probably drunk," Karina told him, but shifted in her seat nervously. She'd always had this nagging feeling that all those old urban legends were true. Everyone she knew had a paranormal encounter at one point or another! A woman with more than one heart didn't seem so impossible compared to some of the other things she'd heard about from friends.
"That's what I thought. Yeah. So I leaned down close and pressed my ear right against her chest and then I heard them."
"Heard them?"
"The hearts of other men," Nino whispered, "the ones she'd eaten!"
Karina took a large sip of her beer, closing her eyes and mentally scolding herself to get it together. Nino was just trying to scare her, tease her. It wouldn't be the first time.
"How many?" she spoke in a low voice, leaning in a little. She couldn't help but be curious. What if he wasn't lying? What if this was the craziest thing?
"SEVEN!" he shouted, slamming his hand down on the table between them. Karina screamed, until he moved his hand out of the way, revealing one of the gachapin playing cards.
Seven of Hearts
"I hate you," she muttered, hiding her face behind her hands. "You are the absolute worst."
select another item
Tadaiiiiiiimaaaaaaaa.
Nino grunted and stretched out his limbs, but wasn't quite awake enough to open his eyes. He'd probably forgotten to turn off the television when he crashed on top of his futon for the night. Every so often the video game's menu music jumped into a high-pitched trill that could be mistaken for a human voice shouting. Ah, and it was cold, and he was still on top of all his covers. He could tell by the way his jean-covered leg brushed against another jean-covered leg as he shifted, but no other fabric.
Click click.
That was the thing about having a nearly empty apartment, Nino remembered: furniture supposedly helped with dampening noise. But aside from his futon, what else did he really need in his bedroom? He just shoved all his clothes in the closet, or pulled them from laundry baskets. A less-than-energetic angry slap to his pillow was enough for him to fully vent his annoyance at being stirred from sleep.
Click click click click.
Oh. It was probably his upstairs neighbor coming back from a late night out. Last time Nino had let Aiba come over, they'd made a few inappropriate comments about her squeaky western-style bed (the kind of things they'd never say in front of other people).
Nino?
"Aiba-chan?" Nino grunted questioningly, annoyance bubbling once more as he squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as possible.
"Aiba-chan? Does he come over in the middle of the night too?" Karina asked, muffling her laughter behind her hand. "So that's how it is then. I see."
Nino groaned as he began to really wake up, then exhaled heavily through his nose. Although he wasn't as shocked as he maybe ought to have been to know she was in his bedroom at an odd hour of the night, there were at least thirty different things that ran through his mind instantly (both inquisitive and demanding). Once he'd pulled together the strength to speak, the first thing to leave his mouth was--
"You wear high heels with your pajamas?"
When he finally opened his eyes, she had that smirk on her face, the one that was both cute and disconcerting. She also seemed sleepy, more sleepy than her usual appearance. There was something about the heaviness of her eyes that Nino recognized as sincere exhaustion. He missed most of what she was saying, but caught the final in a rush.
"What's wrong?" he asked, planting his hands on either side of his body and pushing himself up into a seated position. "Did something happen?"
Karina launched into a story about heating and air conditioning that was far too complicated and whiny for him to really grasp in his sleep-haze, but he assumed that something was broken and she was cold and that was about all the information that really mattered. She hadn't asked him to borrow money or to buy anything, so he didn't have to internally struggle about whether he'd dip into savings. She hadn't asked if he'd take a look at anything, so he didn't have to move or pretend to be handy with tools.
She just wanted a spot under his blankets. He'd needed to readjust those anyway.
"You gave me the key for emergencies, right? I know you meant your emergencies, but I guess I had one first," Karina said.
Her heels came off, though they probably would have come off sooner (like, oh, at the door) if she wasn't a zombie, followed by her puffy winter jacket. But the key was still in her hand, being held up as if he'd forgotten that she had one.
"I don't like this," he complained, snatching it from her and sitting up fully. She immediately dropped down to his level, touching his shoulder apologetically and offering to leave. Nino shook his head frantically, then pushed her away gently as he tried to stand.
"Not you, Nocchan," he assured her as he stumbled toward his bedroom door. "Your key! Who just carries a key around like this? Go to sleep!"
When he returned to find her curled up on the side of the futon he'd meant to take himself, he laughed helplessly and dropped the key (now complete with keychain) onto her chest. He tried not to look at it for long, since it managed to fall right into that narrow space between her breasts.
It was a good thing her expression was just as enticing an image, a bright smile and a gleam in her eye.
"Doreamon. Nice," she murmured.
"Go to sleep," he repeated softly.
select another item
No.
"I just want to send Nocchan a picture of them. I think she'd find them funny," Nino promised, but Jun leaned against the shelves, blocking every box with his body.
"And the picture will stay there in her messages, and then she'll drop her phone, and then somehow, some way, she'll end up losing her job."
"If that's what you think," Nino agreed, placing his cellphone back in his pocket. As frustrating as Karina's schedule could be sometimes, he had no desire to sabotage her career. Complaining he hardly got to see her when she couldn't help it was one thing, humiliating her for all of Japan to see was in a whole different playing field.
"Then I guess I'll just have to buy them."
No one could trace them back to her if he kept them in his own apartment. He wasn't going to use them, because he doubted that would even be safe, but having them was hilarious. He couldn't resist.
"What are you doing?" he asked as Jun grabbed a second box and added it to Nino's shopping cart.
"I'll pay you back," he promised, grinning widely. "Those are for Shun."
select another item
Nino knew Karina was always watching her weight, it was part of her job, and that she had a sweet tooth that got her into trouble occasionally. She told him that the best way to take care of the cravings without going overboard was to have a GariGari-Kun ice candy after dinner. He'd purchased a box for her once, forgot it was there, and then got another when she mentioned stopping by for a meal again.
He wasn't sitting around hoping she'd go through dozens and dozens of popsicles in his presence. What would that accomplish, other than making him intensely uncomfortable?
He wasn't that perverted.
"It's weird, but... I guess it came in handy," Ohno spoke, leaning back against Nino's kitchen counter.
Ohno's two small boys crunched on their popsicles in delight, the loud shrieking temporarily quieted. Ohno scratched the side of his nose and grinned.
"Your wife is going to be angry about this," Nino warned, shaking his head. "Sugar isn't going to calm them down for long."
"No. It will probably make it worse. But by then I'll be out fishing."
Nino didn't know the first thing about parenting, so he really wasn't one to judge. Some small part of him thought it was a sort of genius coping mechanism. Another part of him thought he'd never want kids.
"Let me know if GariGari-Kun works his wonders," Ohno requested. "I'd like to see Nino in love."
"Who knows, he might be magic," Nino agreed, pulling a popsicle out of the freezer for himself. "I'll keep you posted."
select another item
"Why does he bother coming if he doesn't want to run?" Karina asked, watching as Nino once again appeared in her line of sight. It was her third lap around the park and Nino remained curled up on a bench, observing them both but with headphones in his ears.
She'd found a good running partner in Sho, and she couldn't thank Nino enough for recommending him. Though she sometimes wished Nino would join them, instead of offering to give the winner a piggyback ride when they were done.
There was never a winner. They weren't racing.
"The same reason he'll listen to me complain about the New York stock market, or he'll help Ohno change diapers, or he accepts all of Aiba's weird souvenirs, or he stays out until five in the morning to make sure Jun gets home after drinking," Sho answered.
It all made Nino sound charming, and he was, but Karina figured he was lazy too. At least about exercise. It explained why he said he'd work out with her that one day and had just sat on her back when she tried to do push-ups.
Nino being lazy was much less complicated than him caring about her that much.
"Ah! And the same reason he buys two magazines every time you're on the cover," Sho remembered.
"He does?" she responded, suddenly out of breath, her pace slowing dramatically. Sho suggested they take a short break, veering off toward Nino's usual bench and waving his arms over his head.
Nino beamed as he pulled his headphones out of his ears.
"Sho-chan, did you win?" Karina heard him speaking. "If you did, I'm definitely giving the loser the ride today."
select another item
"It's not like it bothers me all that much, that it's a gift from someone I don't even really know anymore. Sometimes I look at it and I'm reminded, but it's not as upsetting as it used to be," Nino explained.
"Why did you keep it?" Karina asked.
Nino laughed sadly and rubbed at his face a moment, eventually shrugging his shoulders. "I guess when he left, I didn't really have any say in it at all. I couldn't blame myself for that if I didn't do anything wrong, right? Throwing her away, though, that would be like making the choice to get rid of him too. If I chose for it to be that way, maybe he wouldn't come back. I haven't told anyone that before, so maybe it's not true, but I think that's it."
Karina poked Smurfette's tiny, plastic, pointed hat and nodded her head. Funny how such a small thing could mean so much. She could understand it, being a collector herself.
Nino looked like he was truly at peace with the object now, but when you held on to something so long? It was hard to tell.
Maybe they could do something drastic just in case.
"Let's hide her," Karina suggested with a soft smile. "Not get rid of her, just put her away. If she makes her way back to the collection, then that's okay. If not, then that's her problem. She'll have to survive without any smurf friends."
She could see that Nino needed a minute to think about it, but once the idea struck him as a decent plan, he removed Smurfette from her place in his collection and carried her toward the bathroom. Karina was momentarily worried that he might regret this later, and really dislike her for making him ruin something so precious.
But she never said anything about sticking her someplace as weird as an empty soap dispenser. Nino was just creative like that.
select another item
"We've never talked about love," Nino spoke in sudden realization, pausing his game and glancing back to where Karina lounged on his sofa.
She hummed in agreement, but continued flipping the pages of one of Nino's magazines. Nozomi was trying out some new poses lately, and unfortunately all of them were cute. It would have been depressing if Karina didn't appreciate the skill that went into it.
She was just about to read the article about unique nail designs when Nino's hand reached down and blocked the page.
"We don't really need to talk about it, do we?" she asked him, taking his hand in her own and tugging him down to rest on top of her.
It wasn't that she didn't like being sent lovey-dovey emoji in her text messages, or that she was afraid to say what she felt. If Nino wanted to start ending their phone calls to each other with declarations of love, she wouldn't object to that either.
She just assumed that everything up until now had been natural between them. They never had to say it because they already knew it. She could be cities away and she'd still feel him loving her.
"I watched you on television the other day," Nino said. He pressed his lips lightly to her cheek, then her nose, then a spot under her eye before he spoke again. "You said your type of guy was quiet."
Karina knew Nino wasn't someone who would easily get jealous, and he definitely didn't care if she had romantic roles in dramas, but he was always just a little unsure of how he measured up to Karina's standards. The only person Nino ever battled for her love was himself, and he was amazingly competitive.
Karina smiled and reached up to touch his hair, not saying anything for a moment, wanting to keep his eyes dancing nervously across her face. He was breathtaking when he gave her his full attention. She could see every fine detail in his features.
"You talk a lot when I ask you to," she told him softly. "But you also spent three hours playing that game already and this is the first time I remembered you were in the room."
Nino might have been insulted, if he were anyone else, but instead he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her full on the lips. She laughed through her nose when his tongue poked out, not demanding anything, just sneaking a taste.
"Gachapin lip balm," he spoke into her mouth, "Cherry."
She nodded her head, brushing their noses together.
"So now you know, right? You know that I--"
Nino interrupted her in favor of capturing her lips once more. He kissed her sweetly, slowly, his body carefully maneuvering until they were perfectly squished together. Karina wrapped her arms around him to help the process along, trying hard not to laugh as the magazine crinkled between them.
Pairing: Nino/Karina
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It's the small things that make a relationship come to life. Nino and Karina enjoy collecting them.
A/N: I had a lot of love and support from friends as I wrote this piece, and I owe them all my gratitude. Originally for phrenk @ je_whiteday.
When Nino asked her to lunch, he had no idea she was famous, and he didn't have any reason to suspect it either. Most famous model-slash-actresses didn't wander around the Collectors' Convention in Gachapin attire, and they probably didn't choose to befriend guys in Smurf t-shirts either.
"Everyone in the world thinks they're the biggest One Piece fan," Nino told her, pushing some broccoli around with one chopstick. "I know I am, so why waste time collecting a bunch of stuff to try and prove it?"
The Gachapin girl smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand.
"I don't understand that logic. If I were the biggest fan of something, I'd buy two of everything!"
"That's the fastest way to lose money, and money is my favorite thing to collect of all," Nino argued, laughing brightly before he continued. "I have this coin bank in my apartment that makes the best sound when you put the coins in there."
She didn't seem to care much about how heavy the bank had become in the last few months, or how much Nino liked keeping track of the amount he'd saved. She did, however, respond well to his stories about his mother's antics, his bright colored boxers, the time he'd ordered "French yakisoba" on a dare, and his favorite video game soundtracks of all time.
He'd never rambled on so much before, but she didn't seem to mind. In fact, before she left, she said--
"Let's exchange numbers. Your name is...?"
He should have been suspicious when he gave her his full name and his nickname, but all she said was "Nose" and nothing more. Or maybe he should have figured it out when he wandered around the convention awhile longer and failed to find anyone nearly as interesting or attractive as her - like he must have made her up in a moment of temporary insanity. But it was Aiba that brought it to his attention, all smiles as he held up a signed copy of some drama Nino had never seen before.
"Karina-chan~ She's my third favorite actress now!" Aiba announced.
Nino laughed loudly, eyes widening in surprise. No matter how many times he moved the DVD case away and back again, the image didn't change. It was too bad Aiba had missed lunch. He probably would have enjoyed meeting her.
"Can I borrow this?" Nino asked. "I think a friend of mine is in a few scenes."
It was the start of a brand new collection.
SELECT AN ITEM
Gachapin Cards
Doraemon Keychain
Smurfette Figurine
Hello Kitty Condoms
GariGari-Kun Popsicle
Two Magazine Covers
Read Last
Gachapin Lip Balm
"Craziest thing that's ever happened to you?" Karina asked as she selected a card carefully from the ones splayed out in front of her. She wasn't sure when Nino had gotten so enthralled with this magic hobby, but she liked that he was already skilled enough that he didn't need to use a trick deck. Dozens of sleepy gachapin eyes stared up at her as she slid the seven of hearts back in place.
"What? I can't tell you now, I need to tell you about the cards that are going to help me find--"
She rolled her eyes playfully as she interrupted. "Nino, it worked the first three times. It's going to work again. Just tell me about the craziest thing," she nudged, adding a physical push of her foot against his shin for good measure.
Nino cleared his throat and pushed the cards aside, then leaned back in his chair and stroked his chin. Karina smirked as he immediately began his story with because I am really popular and good looking... and couldn't stop herself from snorting with laughter when he got to I decided to try becoming a host.
"This is really serious, Nocchan," Nino whined.
Karina watched with a raised eyebrow as Nino began draping his entire body over the table in pretend despair. It wasn't that she didn't believe him! It was really easy to picture him as a host, almost disturbingly so. He had no problem with carrying on long conversations with women (he conversed a lot with her, actually), now had some card tricks up his sleeve, and was definitely cute enough to be someone's type. Telling him that so far his story sounded perfectly reasonable and not crazy, however, was admitting to something that would only make him smug for weeks to come. She refused to allow it.
"I was all set up, drinks and cigarette lighter and everything all in place, and my first customer... was a demon."
"How do you know she was a demon?" Karina questioned him, lips perched at the edge of her beer glass. She was too afraid to sip. If he made her laugh, it would go right up her nose.
"Because, obviously, things were going really well and she was getting close to me," Nino continued, playing with his fingers and cracking his knuckles as he spoke. "And she said... Oh, Nino, my hearts are beating so fast!"
"That doesn't mean anything! She was probably drunk," Karina told him, but shifted in her seat nervously. She'd always had this nagging feeling that all those old urban legends were true. Everyone she knew had a paranormal encounter at one point or another! A woman with more than one heart didn't seem so impossible compared to some of the other things she'd heard about from friends.
"That's what I thought. Yeah. So I leaned down close and pressed my ear right against her chest and then I heard them."
"Heard them?"
"The hearts of other men," Nino whispered, "the ones she'd eaten!"
Karina took a large sip of her beer, closing her eyes and mentally scolding herself to get it together. Nino was just trying to scare her, tease her. It wouldn't be the first time.
"How many?" she spoke in a low voice, leaning in a little. She couldn't help but be curious. What if he wasn't lying? What if this was the craziest thing?
"SEVEN!" he shouted, slamming his hand down on the table between them. Karina screamed, until he moved his hand out of the way, revealing one of the gachapin playing cards.
Seven of Hearts
"I hate you," she muttered, hiding her face behind her hands. "You are the absolute worst."
select another item
Tadaiiiiiiimaaaaaaaa.
Nino grunted and stretched out his limbs, but wasn't quite awake enough to open his eyes. He'd probably forgotten to turn off the television when he crashed on top of his futon for the night. Every so often the video game's menu music jumped into a high-pitched trill that could be mistaken for a human voice shouting. Ah, and it was cold, and he was still on top of all his covers. He could tell by the way his jean-covered leg brushed against another jean-covered leg as he shifted, but no other fabric.
Click click.
That was the thing about having a nearly empty apartment, Nino remembered: furniture supposedly helped with dampening noise. But aside from his futon, what else did he really need in his bedroom? He just shoved all his clothes in the closet, or pulled them from laundry baskets. A less-than-energetic angry slap to his pillow was enough for him to fully vent his annoyance at being stirred from sleep.
Click click click click.
Oh. It was probably his upstairs neighbor coming back from a late night out. Last time Nino had let Aiba come over, they'd made a few inappropriate comments about her squeaky western-style bed (the kind of things they'd never say in front of other people).
Nino?
"Aiba-chan?" Nino grunted questioningly, annoyance bubbling once more as he squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as possible.
"Aiba-chan? Does he come over in the middle of the night too?" Karina asked, muffling her laughter behind her hand. "So that's how it is then. I see."
Nino groaned as he began to really wake up, then exhaled heavily through his nose. Although he wasn't as shocked as he maybe ought to have been to know she was in his bedroom at an odd hour of the night, there were at least thirty different things that ran through his mind instantly (both inquisitive and demanding). Once he'd pulled together the strength to speak, the first thing to leave his mouth was--
"You wear high heels with your pajamas?"
When he finally opened his eyes, she had that smirk on her face, the one that was both cute and disconcerting. She also seemed sleepy, more sleepy than her usual appearance. There was something about the heaviness of her eyes that Nino recognized as sincere exhaustion. He missed most of what she was saying, but caught the final in a rush.
"What's wrong?" he asked, planting his hands on either side of his body and pushing himself up into a seated position. "Did something happen?"
Karina launched into a story about heating and air conditioning that was far too complicated and whiny for him to really grasp in his sleep-haze, but he assumed that something was broken and she was cold and that was about all the information that really mattered. She hadn't asked him to borrow money or to buy anything, so he didn't have to internally struggle about whether he'd dip into savings. She hadn't asked if he'd take a look at anything, so he didn't have to move or pretend to be handy with tools.
She just wanted a spot under his blankets. He'd needed to readjust those anyway.
"You gave me the key for emergencies, right? I know you meant your emergencies, but I guess I had one first," Karina said.
Her heels came off, though they probably would have come off sooner (like, oh, at the door) if she wasn't a zombie, followed by her puffy winter jacket. But the key was still in her hand, being held up as if he'd forgotten that she had one.
"I don't like this," he complained, snatching it from her and sitting up fully. She immediately dropped down to his level, touching his shoulder apologetically and offering to leave. Nino shook his head frantically, then pushed her away gently as he tried to stand.
"Not you, Nocchan," he assured her as he stumbled toward his bedroom door. "Your key! Who just carries a key around like this? Go to sleep!"
When he returned to find her curled up on the side of the futon he'd meant to take himself, he laughed helplessly and dropped the key (now complete with keychain) onto her chest. He tried not to look at it for long, since it managed to fall right into that narrow space between her breasts.
It was a good thing her expression was just as enticing an image, a bright smile and a gleam in her eye.
"Doreamon. Nice," she murmured.
"Go to sleep," he repeated softly.
select another item
No.
"I just want to send Nocchan a picture of them. I think she'd find them funny," Nino promised, but Jun leaned against the shelves, blocking every box with his body.
"And the picture will stay there in her messages, and then she'll drop her phone, and then somehow, some way, she'll end up losing her job."
"If that's what you think," Nino agreed, placing his cellphone back in his pocket. As frustrating as Karina's schedule could be sometimes, he had no desire to sabotage her career. Complaining he hardly got to see her when she couldn't help it was one thing, humiliating her for all of Japan to see was in a whole different playing field.
"Then I guess I'll just have to buy them."
No one could trace them back to her if he kept them in his own apartment. He wasn't going to use them, because he doubted that would even be safe, but having them was hilarious. He couldn't resist.
"What are you doing?" he asked as Jun grabbed a second box and added it to Nino's shopping cart.
"I'll pay you back," he promised, grinning widely. "Those are for Shun."
select another item
Nino knew Karina was always watching her weight, it was part of her job, and that she had a sweet tooth that got her into trouble occasionally. She told him that the best way to take care of the cravings without going overboard was to have a GariGari-Kun ice candy after dinner. He'd purchased a box for her once, forgot it was there, and then got another when she mentioned stopping by for a meal again.
He wasn't sitting around hoping she'd go through dozens and dozens of popsicles in his presence. What would that accomplish, other than making him intensely uncomfortable?
He wasn't that perverted.
"It's weird, but... I guess it came in handy," Ohno spoke, leaning back against Nino's kitchen counter.
Ohno's two small boys crunched on their popsicles in delight, the loud shrieking temporarily quieted. Ohno scratched the side of his nose and grinned.
"Your wife is going to be angry about this," Nino warned, shaking his head. "Sugar isn't going to calm them down for long."
"No. It will probably make it worse. But by then I'll be out fishing."
Nino didn't know the first thing about parenting, so he really wasn't one to judge. Some small part of him thought it was a sort of genius coping mechanism. Another part of him thought he'd never want kids.
"Let me know if GariGari-Kun works his wonders," Ohno requested. "I'd like to see Nino in love."
"Who knows, he might be magic," Nino agreed, pulling a popsicle out of the freezer for himself. "I'll keep you posted."
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"Why does he bother coming if he doesn't want to run?" Karina asked, watching as Nino once again appeared in her line of sight. It was her third lap around the park and Nino remained curled up on a bench, observing them both but with headphones in his ears.
She'd found a good running partner in Sho, and she couldn't thank Nino enough for recommending him. Though she sometimes wished Nino would join them, instead of offering to give the winner a piggyback ride when they were done.
There was never a winner. They weren't racing.
"The same reason he'll listen to me complain about the New York stock market, or he'll help Ohno change diapers, or he accepts all of Aiba's weird souvenirs, or he stays out until five in the morning to make sure Jun gets home after drinking," Sho answered.
It all made Nino sound charming, and he was, but Karina figured he was lazy too. At least about exercise. It explained why he said he'd work out with her that one day and had just sat on her back when she tried to do push-ups.
Nino being lazy was much less complicated than him caring about her that much.
"Ah! And the same reason he buys two magazines every time you're on the cover," Sho remembered.
"He does?" she responded, suddenly out of breath, her pace slowing dramatically. Sho suggested they take a short break, veering off toward Nino's usual bench and waving his arms over his head.
Nino beamed as he pulled his headphones out of his ears.
"Sho-chan, did you win?" Karina heard him speaking. "If you did, I'm definitely giving the loser the ride today."
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"It's not like it bothers me all that much, that it's a gift from someone I don't even really know anymore. Sometimes I look at it and I'm reminded, but it's not as upsetting as it used to be," Nino explained.
"Why did you keep it?" Karina asked.
Nino laughed sadly and rubbed at his face a moment, eventually shrugging his shoulders. "I guess when he left, I didn't really have any say in it at all. I couldn't blame myself for that if I didn't do anything wrong, right? Throwing her away, though, that would be like making the choice to get rid of him too. If I chose for it to be that way, maybe he wouldn't come back. I haven't told anyone that before, so maybe it's not true, but I think that's it."
Karina poked Smurfette's tiny, plastic, pointed hat and nodded her head. Funny how such a small thing could mean so much. She could understand it, being a collector herself.
Nino looked like he was truly at peace with the object now, but when you held on to something so long? It was hard to tell.
Maybe they could do something drastic just in case.
"Let's hide her," Karina suggested with a soft smile. "Not get rid of her, just put her away. If she makes her way back to the collection, then that's okay. If not, then that's her problem. She'll have to survive without any smurf friends."
She could see that Nino needed a minute to think about it, but once the idea struck him as a decent plan, he removed Smurfette from her place in his collection and carried her toward the bathroom. Karina was momentarily worried that he might regret this later, and really dislike her for making him ruin something so precious.
But she never said anything about sticking her someplace as weird as an empty soap dispenser. Nino was just creative like that.
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"We've never talked about love," Nino spoke in sudden realization, pausing his game and glancing back to where Karina lounged on his sofa.
She hummed in agreement, but continued flipping the pages of one of Nino's magazines. Nozomi was trying out some new poses lately, and unfortunately all of them were cute. It would have been depressing if Karina didn't appreciate the skill that went into it.
She was just about to read the article about unique nail designs when Nino's hand reached down and blocked the page.
"We don't really need to talk about it, do we?" she asked him, taking his hand in her own and tugging him down to rest on top of her.
It wasn't that she didn't like being sent lovey-dovey emoji in her text messages, or that she was afraid to say what she felt. If Nino wanted to start ending their phone calls to each other with declarations of love, she wouldn't object to that either.
She just assumed that everything up until now had been natural between them. They never had to say it because they already knew it. She could be cities away and she'd still feel him loving her.
"I watched you on television the other day," Nino said. He pressed his lips lightly to her cheek, then her nose, then a spot under her eye before he spoke again. "You said your type of guy was quiet."
Karina knew Nino wasn't someone who would easily get jealous, and he definitely didn't care if she had romantic roles in dramas, but he was always just a little unsure of how he measured up to Karina's standards. The only person Nino ever battled for her love was himself, and he was amazingly competitive.
Karina smiled and reached up to touch his hair, not saying anything for a moment, wanting to keep his eyes dancing nervously across her face. He was breathtaking when he gave her his full attention. She could see every fine detail in his features.
"You talk a lot when I ask you to," she told him softly. "But you also spent three hours playing that game already and this is the first time I remembered you were in the room."
Nino might have been insulted, if he were anyone else, but instead he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her full on the lips. She laughed through her nose when his tongue poked out, not demanding anything, just sneaking a taste.
"Gachapin lip balm," he spoke into her mouth, "Cherry."
She nodded her head, brushing their noses together.
"So now you know, right? You know that I--"
Nino interrupted her in favor of capturing her lips once more. He kissed her sweetly, slowly, his body carefully maneuvering until they were perfectly squished together. Karina wrapped her arms around him to help the process along, trying hard not to laugh as the magazine crinkled between them.