Arashi fanfic: Makings of A Miracle
.Makings of A Miracle
Aiba/Jun, tiny splatters of Ohmiya
PG-13, ~5700 words
If Jun had known how much a fall from the sky would affect his life, he would never have driven Nino to that fortune-telling place.
Originally written for the je_holiday exchange posted here, in which it was the last fic to be turned in orz (I need to stop failing in making deadlines on time ahaha). Beta'd by g-esquared, thank you so much :)!
Fifteen minutes in, Jun wonders why he’s here right now. “Why am I here right now?”
“Because,” Nino answers nonchalantly, eyes drifting to look out the window, “I don’t own a car and you do.”
“Couldn’t you have taken the train?”
“Or, you could drive me there and I wouldn’t have to waste money on the tickets.”
Jun grunts as he makes a right turn. He’s not even sure where he’s driving to - all Nino gave him was an unfamiliar address currently displayed as a dot on his GPS. “You’re such a cheapskate!”
“Quit your bitching. Not everyone has money to splurge like you do, you know.”
Jun sputters for a moment. It’s true that he might make more money than your average guy, but Nino currently is attending music school and gets money from performances in various clubs everyday. It’s not like Nino wouldn’t have enough money to afford standard train tickets. “Couldn’t Sho have driven you? I’m supposed to get my hair styled today for tomorrow’s shoot. You owe me for this.”
“Yes, your highness.” Rolling his eyes, Nino opens the glove box and takes out a candy bar, munching on it unceremoniously like it’s his own. (It isn’t.) “Oh god, eww, what is this thing? Diet candy bar?”
Jun feels like strangling his passenger right now, if the car wouldn’t crash right afterward. He suddenly wishes he had three arms so he could multi-task. “Nobody told you to eat it! And for your information, it’s called a low-carb candy bar.”
“Right.” Nino makes a face, but continues to eat the bar nevertheless. “Oh, and ‘bout your question - Sho’s in his geek-mode right now for his latest report. Besides, it wouldn’t be any fun taking him there - he’s still in denial.”
“Denial?”
“Yup.”
Jun chooses not to ask Nino for elaboration (he’s not sure if he wants to know). It’s then that his GPS starts to beep and tells him that they’ve apparently reached the place. Jun squints as he reads the huge sign hung on top of a small house. “Love… Reading… Find your true love? Since when are you into fortune-telling?” Jun asks, gaping.
Nino just gives him a shrug. “Someone gave me free coupons. Besides, I’m bored - maybe this will help me find new targets to play with.” His eyes have a certain spark, and Jun starts to feel ill.
By the time they’re settled down and an Arab lady covered in multi-colored thin fabric is currently rubbing a crystal ball, Jun feels more than a little ill.
“So tell me, when am I going to meet him?” Nino asks excitedly and doesn’t even seem to notice that he used a specific gender pronoun; neither did the lady - or maybe she just doesn’t care.
“Soon,” she suddenly gasps out, hands clutching the circular object, “you will meet him…” Jun supposes Nino used the correct pronoun, then. “Ah, by a sidewalk, yes. In a week.”
“Cool!” Nino pumps his fist, and Jun starts to feel sorry for whoever it is that the boy will meet in the future -if the reading’s accurate at all- when he continues, “Alright, now can you read my friend’s here, too?”
“Nino, I don’t-”
“Hey, it’s free. Might as well. And aren’t you kinda desperately single right now?”
“I am not despe-” he starts to protest but the lady is already starting to mumble strange incantations again.
“Hmn, you, boy, will meet him soon, too,” she cuts in. “…Can’t… see the place, but it looks like, yes, you will have quite a painful first meeting with him.”
“…Painful?” Jun asks warily as Nino starts to snort.
“Doesn’t that fit you just fine? You’re a DoS, aren’t you?” Jun punches the other boy’s shoulder when Nino starts to snicker indiscreetly.
The whole incident, however, is shoved into the back of his mind once Jun gets home that night.
--
That is, until four days later, when Nino barges into Jun’s apartment and says, “Duuuuude, it came true!”
Jun ignores him. “Sho, you didn’t lock the door after you came in.”
Sho makes a vaguely embarrassed noise before asking Nino, “What came true?”
“My love! I met him!”
Sho chokes on the soda he’s drinking, “H-him? Your love? What?”
Nino just pats his head in sympathy, “That’s why I said you’re still in denial, Sho-chan. When you’re not anymore, I’ll take you to that place to get your reading, okay? I still have a couple of free coupons left.”
Sho swats his hand away indignantly while Jun, rolling his eyes, asks, “Wait, seriously?”
“Yeah! The scary thing is, I did meet him by a sidewalk! He was selling some of his artworks there, and when we started talking, he told me how he’s currently homeless ‘cause he spent all his time drawing and fishing and ran out of money and got kicked out of his apartment so I took him home!”
There is a pregnant pause before Sho screeches, “DID I JUST HEAR YOU SAY YOU TOOK A COMPLETE STRANGER HOME?”
“He’s not a complete stranger, guys! His name’s Ohno, Ohno Satoshi - isn’t that an awesome name? It means ‘big field of wisdom and intellect’!”
“HE’S NOT VERY ‘INTELLECTUAL’ IF HE RAN OUT OF MONEY BECAUSE ALL HE DID WAS DRAWING AND FISHING AND IS CURRENTLY HOMELESS!” Sho bellows again uncontrollably. Jun places his palm on Sho’s mouth to keep him from making noise any longer.
“Okay, wait, Nino. I know you’ve always been a little strange, but isn’t this… I mean - are you serious?” Jun asks incredulously.
Nino pouts slightly. “Well, I like him. He’s just, I don’t know, I’ve never met anyone quite like him. Just wait until you meet him - maybe you can see then,” he says with a smile.
“Right, if you say so. And Sho, dude, breathe,” Jun pats Sho’s back a few times when it appears like he’s hyperventilating.
“YOUR HAND WAS OVER MY NOSE YOU FREAKING-” and Jun’s hand is immediately clamped over his mouth again.
“Sho-san, calm down already,” Nino says, bored, before turning to Jun, “Hey, you know what this means, right?”
“…What?” Jun says, slowly, because he’s seeing that twinkle in Nino’s eyes again and he knows that’s never good.
“It means that the reading is true. Which means that you’ll meet your love soon, too,” Nino smirks before adding, “in an excruciatingly painful way.”
All Jun can counter with is, “But she didn’t say ‘excruciating’, did she?!” while Sho waggles his arms around in an attempt to get Jun to stop blocking his airway.
Jun wonders when he stopped making decent, sane, and capable friends.
--
Two days later, Jun gets his first day off since forever and decides to go surfing. He checks the weather forecast a day beforehand to make sure that there wouldn’t be anything wrong once he goes out. Admittedly, he’s kind of been cooping himself up inside his apartment save for going to the studios for work lately - blasted Nino and his free but unhelpful coupons.
It’s not like Jun is afraid or anything. It just wouldn’t hurt if he decides to be a little extra careful just in case, so he settles on one of the Sakurai’s private beaches; besides, he’ll get more privacy that way.
As he finally catches a wave, Jun chants silently to himself to look left, look right, look ahead, and look behind. Just in case. Just in case.
Apparently he hasn’t thought to look above.
Before he can register anything save for a sudden scream, there is water splashing in his ears and he can’t quite see anything because there’s some sort of fabric covering his view. Jun gasps as he surfaces and tries to throw the fabric - nylon, and rainbow colored, it looks like - away from his head. It’s only then that Jun sees another person gasping loudly next to him, head also barely out of the water, with the strings connecting the nylon together all leading to his back.
Jun slaps his forehead. Some water got into his eyes and it kind of stings. The other person finally notices him and starts to laugh.
--
Jun’s not sure why he’s in this situation right now -again. The stranger is now seated on a beach chair, sipping hot chocolate milk that Jun’s prepared as his eyes dart around. Jun is half-leaning on a nearby counter, arms crossed and scrutinizing the guy.
“Okay, let me get this straight - you went sky diving, and just so happened to fall here?” Jun asks.
“Yup!” A giggle.
“You do know that this is a private property?”
The guy grins sheepishly at him. “Ahaha, well, they said I’ll be landing on a golf court. Who knew the wind would blow me here instead, you know?” He starts to giggle again, and Jun starts rubbing his forehead because he can already feel a migraine coming.
The guy starts to fidget for a few moments while Jun is trying to ease out his headache before saying, “Hi my name is Aiba nice to meet you and I’m sorry about that.”
Jun blinks at the jumbled sentence that the guy -Aiba- has just said before letting out a wary, “…Okay.”
Aiba continues to fidget in his seat. Jun is usually a polite person but he’s kind of a bit more than pissed off right now and he has a migraine and he can’t really be bothered to introduce himself back - and doesn’t anyone not living under a rock know who he is, anyway?
Just as Jun is pondering on what to do next, his phone vibrates from the table. He takes one look at the caller ID and groans aloud. He does not need this right now.
“Hello, Jun-kun.”
“What do you want right now,” Jun grunts in response.
“We’re having a barbeque this evening so you and Sho-chan can finally meet Oh-chan and see for yourselves how cute he is,” Nino states. “Oh, but Oh-chan is mine, got it? If you even think of laying a finger on him, I will make sure your li-”
Jun interrupts him before Nino can say anything further because he’s sure he’ll lose his appetite for the barbeque if Nino continues, “Look, I’m not going to steal him, okay?” Jun says, rolling his eyes, “I swear, you are kind of really creepy, Nino-”
“NINO?!” Aiba squeaks suddenly.
“Nino?” Jun blinks in surprise.
“Yup, the one and only Nino, the greatest friend you shall ever have,” Nino deadpans. “So what do you say ‘bout buying the corn and paper plates? Sho’s already promised to pay for the meat and-”
“Oh god Nino, shut up.” Jun groans and makes a mental note to lecture Sho later on for letting Nino take advantage of him again before turning to a flabbergasted Aiba. “What’s wrong with you?”
Aiba blinks twice before he rushes over, intruding on Jun’s personal space and bellows into the phone, “Hey, hey, is this Nino-chan? Ninomiya Kazunari?”
Jun flinches at the noise before Nino says, “That voice… Aiba-chan? What are you doing here? I thought you were getting eaten by lions down in Africa or something.”
“Nope! On a break! And don’t be so mean, Nino. Some of them are really nice, actually. I mean, okay, there was this one hybrid the kept kicking me but its owner told me that’s how it expressed its affections and-”
“Yeah, yeah, you can tell me all about your adventures later. You’re coming to the party too, right? I mean, I didn’t even know Jun-kun and you are hooking u-”
“Alright that’s enough,” Jun intervenes. “Nino, I’m not going out with, uh, Aiba, and I’m going to hang up on you now.” Then, before Nino can say a word more, Jun presses the disconnect button.
Aiba is grinning at him by the time Jun looks up from his phone. “So, can we stop by your house before going?”
“What.”
“Well, my hotel’s kinda far away, and seeing how my clothes are totally drenched, it’s only natural, right? I mean, since you’re going to take me to Nino’s party.”
Jun’s grip on the phone is shaking slightly. “And who says-”
Aiba simply tilts his head and beams at him, “Please? It’s been so long since I’ve seen Nino, and well, you’re his friend, right? That makes you my friend, too!”
Aiba is looking so earnestly at him that Jun finally nods, not without some uncertainty. He figures, hey, it’s not like he has anything planned this afternoon, so he might as well.
He almost regrets it when, as he turns around and signals for Aiba to follow, Aiba says, “So, your name is Jun, huh? Thanks for the ride, then, Jun-chan!”
“It’s Matsumoto. Call me Matsumoto.” Jun says quickly and whacks Aiba lightly on the head once Aiba catches up with him.
“Too long! How about we shorten it a little? Matsumoto… Jun? MatsuJun?”
“No, what the heck, Matsumoto isn’t that long,” Jun tries to say, but Aiba just laughs and stares off into the distance, not seeming to even hear him. The sounds are too bright for Jun’s comfort, but he doesn’t say a thing.
--
Jun barely clicks the door open before Aiba barges into his apartment (before Jun himself can even get in - Jun scowls).“Wow, this is a pretty huge apartment! It looks so nice, MatsuJun!”
“Don’t wander around!” Jun snaps, grabbing Aiba by the arm and drags him towards the closet. Jun wonders absentmindedly if Aiba really has no clue who he is, but he supposes, the guy has apparently been living in Africa or something - maybe he isn’t up to date with the latest news. “Here, you can pick any outfit. There’s a guest bathroom down the hall to the right if you want to shower. I’m going to take a bath now. We’ll leave in an hour or so.”
Aiba just nods his head vigorously at Jun, apparently in awe over the amount of clothes Jun has. Jun sighs, takes one last wary look at Aiba, and leaves. His head is still aching a little from the migraine - he doesn’t notice the contemplative look on Aiba’s face as he watches Jun leave.
--
Exactly thirty-seven minutes later, the bathroom door clicks open as Jun gets out, hands smoothing down his clothes out of habit. He’s feeling better now that he’s taken a bath. After checking his appearance in the mirror again, satisfied, Jun heads out to find Aiba.
He doesn’t expect to see Aiba standing in the middle of his living room, skinny jeans wrapped around long, lean legs with the zipper unzipped, exposing a hint of skin but not quite nearly enough, and a low v-neck shirt wrinkled around a lithe body.
Aiba could seriously give Jun a run for his money had they been on the same runway, Jun thinks; his breathe hitches slightly
It doesn’t last long, though, once Aiba notices Jun by the hallway, smiles brightly, and walks forward only to trip over his own clothes on the floor. He falls flat on his face.
Jun would have laughed if it wasn’t for the fact that, as Aiba lets out a yelp as he goes down, his flailing arms manage to drag Jun along with him.
This hurts more than earlier because, frankly, wood is hard and water isn’t.
“Urg…” by the time Jun opens his eyes, Aiba is half-leaning on Jun, hands perched beside Jun’s shoulders, and his whole body is trembling from, Jun blinks, laughter, apparently. “Aiba, get off,” he states, groaning as Aiba continues to laugh - or more like giggle - and makes no move whatsoever to get off Jun. “Aiba. Aiba.”
“Heehee, sorry, MatsuJun, it’s just…” Aiba giggles again. Jun can feel tiny splashes of air hitting his face every time he hears Aiba’s breathy laugh, and he’s starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. He tries scowling at the face a mere few centimeters away from him, but Aiba doesn’t seem to notice. “Hey, MatsuJun, you know what?” Suddenly he feels a faint pressure down below as Aiba lowers his head, still shaking the whole time, and rests on Jun’s neck instead. “You know what, the truth is…” Aiba continues, voice breathy, and Jun starts to feel uncomfortable and funny inside.
Then, “You bring tenderness SEXY BOY!”
Aiba’s head almost collides with Jun’s shoulder as Jun jerks in surprise. “What the fuck,” Jun groans, eyes scanning to where the noise is coming from. All he can make out are the words “SEXY SEXY” being sung over and over. That’s when he notices that his cell on the counter is also vibrating. “Fuck,” he repeats.
Jun promptly pushes Aiba off and goes to grab the phone. It’s still blaring the damn song right until Jun presses the talk button. “You ass!” Jun glowers into the phone - he doesn’t need to look at the caller I.D. to know who had just called him.
“Why hello to you, too, Jun-kun,” Nino drawls. “Did you enjoy ‘Sexy Boy’ by Morning Musume? The song reminded me of you ever since I heard it at the CD store.”
“Ninomiya, I swear I’m going to butcher you and stuff you dow-”
“Now now, no need to get violent; I was complimenting you, you know,” Nino interrupts. “Just wanted to check up on you. Make sure you weren’t distracted with, oh, I don’t know, Aiba-chan, and forgot about my party. Did you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jun hisses. He refuses to think back to what happened just a mere minute ago, and says, “We’re about to go now. And Nino, the next time you mess with my phone, I’m going to make sure all your precious Dragon Quest games will be incinerated beyond the point of recognition.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Nino hisses back, suddenly serious. Jun smiles; he knows the threat works because those games are like the battery to Nino’s life.
“Watch me,” Jun counters, and hangs up on him.
Aiba is giggling again by the time Jun turns back to him. Jun scowls and tells him it’s time to leave. In the car Aiba hums along to Jun’s collections of Mozart while Jun drives. Jun is silently thankful for Aiba’s lack of attempt at conversations. This has all been too weird so far and he hasn’t had time to process everything yet.
Aiba’s fingers tap on the armrest lightly in a rhythmic pace throughout the whole ride there. The reverberation reminds him of the tranquility of an ocean, except Jun feels like he’s drowning in its depth.
--
Sho still appears to be a bit wary, but Jun thinks that, for once, Nino seems to have good taste. Or maybe there’s just something about Ohno that makes him hard to be disliked by people. Everything about him seems so bizarre, and yet, maybe because of that, people are drawn to him in this inexplicable way. Jun thinks that maybe it’s just Ohno’s presence in general.
Sho is still asking Ohno various questions (Aiba has exclaimed, “Oh, are we playing twenty questions?” to which Sho just slaps his forehead and proceeds to ignore his old friend.) when Nino sidles up next to Jun, who’s grilling some meat a few meters away, and asks, “Soooo, I told you my story. Tell me yours.”
“There is no story because I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jun grunts as he flips a piece of chicken over.
“Right. You just coincidentally met Aiba today, because people fall onto other people while skydiving everyday. Not to mention, you were surfing? Wow, that makes it even more plausible!”
Jun shoves at Nino’s shoulder as he puts the piece of now well-done meat onto the plate. “But that’s just it. Contrary to whatever your cynical mind might contrive, retarded coincidences like that do happen.”
Nino starts to snigger until he sees the look Jun’s giving him, and straightens up. “Wait, really? Like, you’re not shitting me?”
Jun continues to stare at him.
“Huh,” Nino says, almost like an afterthought. “Well, that’s... interesting, I guess. I mean, I expect it sooner or later, but I didn’t think it’d happen this way, and well. Wow,” he mumbles.
Jun’s stare is now turning into a glare. “What the fuck are you going on about,” he asks.
Nino just gives him one of his trademarked smirks, and says, “Oh, nothing.” His eyes start to drift to where the other three are, so Jun goes back to his grilling and is about to ignore him before he speaks up again, “So, you know, don’t you think - he’s the one?”
Jun blinks. He thinks he might know what Nino is talking about, now that he’s reminded of it. He blinks again as he continues to stare at the spark of fire underneath the bars, and replies, “What?”
“Stop playing dumb,” Nino scoffs, “I know you’ve been keeping those words that lady said in your mind all week. I mean, hello, it got so obvious that yesterday’s headlines were, ‘Matsumoto Jun - is our country’s top model going into depression? Is that PMS finally starting to make sense?’ you know.”
Jun’s glare intensifies, “Shut up, Nino. You know they didn’t write that last part.”
“Right, whatever, that’s besides the point,” Nino says dismissively, and that just irritates Jun more. “The point is, you were hibernating inside your own apartment all week because you’re afraid of that ‘painful encounter’ the lady was talking about, and well, voilà, right?”
Jun gives up trying to skirt around the issue. “Not ‘voilà’,” he mumbles. “Look, it’s probably not true, alright? I mean, really, fortune-telling? In this day and age?”
This time, it’s Nino who’s giving Jun the look.
“I mean, coincidences, right? I did just say that they do happen, however rare. Right?” Jun tries.
All of a sudden Nino’s gaze drops to the ground. “I don’t know about you,” he says, voice soft but clear, “but it came true for me. I’m sure- I know that Ohno is the person I’m looking for, so.” Nino’s looking at him now, and Jun swears, he’s never seen Nino more serious in all these years that he’s known him - it starts to scare Jun a little, because despite all their bickering and jabs at each other, Nino is Nino, and Jun trusts him, more than he’ll ever admit to anyone - even himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jun catches Aiba’s profile. His laughter rings inside Jun’s ears and he thinks, No, what the fuck, I’ve barely known this guy for more than a few hours - what the fuck. Jun’s used to living his life more or less in a logical fashion, and he doesn’t like -doesn’t want- anything to disrupt that.
He thinks that he’s perfectly happy the way he is.
Nino must have sensed Jun’s internal debate, because he claps a hand on Jun’s shoulder and says, “Look, Aiba’s here on his break right now. Why don’t you try to get to know each other?”
Jun forces out a scoff and says, “Whatever.” If Nino doesn’t buy his attempt at nonchalance, he doesn’t comment on it.
The rest of the night starts to blur.
--
Jun wakes up with a slight hangover.
The alarm next to his bed is still blaring as he struggles to sit up. He can’t say he remembers much of what happened last night - he started to down more drinks that he probably should have in order to dismiss Nino’s words, and somewhere along the way, he supposes, he must’ve gotten too drunk to remember anything.
Aiba’s there on his couch flipping through a magazine when Jun walks out the hallway.
“Oh, hi MatsuJun!” Aiba says, smiling. Upon seeing Jun’s raised eyebrow, he chuckles nervously and explains, “Well, you remember last night, right? At Nino’s place? It seems that we both were kinda drunk, haha, so Sho-kun drove us home. But well, my hotel was really far away and it was getting really late and Sho-kun was tired, too - he has a report due today, and since he still lives with his family, well...” Aiba starts to trail off.
Jun closes his eyes for a moment. He guesses that Nino must’ve set this up on purpose, the sly prick. “It’s fine. So you’ve been up for awhile?”
Aiba’s smile brightens. “Yup! Been up since six, actually. There was a call from the intern updating me about the status of Arashi-chan.”
“Umn,” Jun says.
“Arashi-chan - she’s this cute baby panther who was sick before I left, so he just wanted to let me know that she’s alright now!”
“Right,” Jun’s just going to nod and agree. He has heard of animal caretakers before, but panthers? The guy’s job must have something to do with wildlife, he guesses. Jun glances distractedly up at the clock on the wall before he notices the time. “Wait, have you eaten anything yet?”
“Nah,” Aiba shrugs. “I didn’t want to just go through your fridge, and, well, if I go out I have to lock the door, and I don’t have a key to get back in, but it’d be rude to leave without waiting for you to wake up to give you a head’s up, so I thought the best-”
“Aiba,” Jun interrupts, “you talk too much.” He glances at the clock again - the shorter hand’s about to strike at the nine - and decides, “Don’t have anywhere you need to go right at this moment, right? I can cook up something if you’d like.”
“Really? Oh yay, thanks!” Aiba cheers.
Jun tells himself that the smile on his face right now is due to the fact that, as drunk as he was yesterday, the hangover doesn’t appear to be that bad this time.
It’s not because he feels sort of glad for this turn of events or anything, really.
--
“...So then Jack-kun noticed us and came running at us, and it was dark out, you know. All we could see was his eyes -gleaming yellow, it scared me pretty bad- so we had to sprint back to our tree house. I barely made it, I mean, I know leopards are really quick, but you had to see it in motion. And then he started growling, and just...” Aiba trails off, making exaggerated shivering gestures.
Jun snorts, “Right, of course, Aiba.”
“Hey! It was really scary, you know,” Aiba protests. “But oh, guess what, we’re friends now! Jack-kun took some time to subdue, but I’m his favorite now!”
Jun grins at Aiba’s proud declaration, and reaches over to punch Aiba’s shoulder jokingly, “Right, because humans befriend leopards everyday.”
“Ow,” Aiba complains, “but it’s true!” He then suddenly blinks as he stares at Jun. “Hey, now that I think about it, you’re like Midget!”
“Excuse me?” So Aiba seems to be a bit taller than Jun, but what, him, a midget?
It seems that Aiba can tell what Jun’s thinking, because he quickly amends, “No no, not like a midget! You’re like Midget - this white tiger I raised.”
“Oh.” Jun’s not sure if he likes being compared to a tiger, but something else crosses his mind, “Wait, white? The tiger is white?” Jun has never seen a white tiger before.
“Yup, and it’s beautiful!” Aiba’s eyes are gleaming through the morning light as he stares at Jun, and it almost feels like there’s something else that Aiba is insinuating.
Jun’s not sure if he wants to know what it is yet, so he coughs slightly and finishes his omelet. “That’s, umn, cool,” he chokes out, getting up to rinse the dishes. “Well, I have work scheduled at eleven,” he tells Aiba.
“Okay, I’ll go back to my hotel. Need to get a change of clothes anyway,” Aiba laughs. He’s still wearing Jun’s clothes from yesterday (much to Jun’s chagrin, but better he dirtied one pair of clothes than two), and they’re even more crinkled, but Jun thinks that he’s never seen crinkled clothes looked so appealing. “Well, thanks for everything, MatsuJun.”
Aiba’s now next to him, washing his own plate. “You’re welcome,” he replies. Jun is concentrating hard at the sink to make sure that their hands don’t accidentally brush or anything - it would be the most clichéd thing ever. He pauses, and adds, “So how long are you here for?”
“Actually, my plane leaves tomorrow,” Aiba answers, and Jun jerks his head up in surprise. Aiba just gives him a small smile, “Three day break. They need my pictures to publish, you know. A wildlife photographer’s life is fun, but insanely busy and chaotic.” Aiba laughs a little, but Jun’s mind has already drifted off by that point.
He vaguely thinks, Oh, so that’s what his job is, before biting his lips slightly and saying, “Oh, I see, tomorrow.” Jun’s not sure what to think about this - everything is happening so fast and - tomorrow? That’s it? After which Jun will never see him again?
“Hey, MatsuJun,” Aiba calls out all of a sudden, disrupting his thoughts, “you know, you shouldn’t frown so much.” He laughs lightly before reaching up and touching Jun’s forehead, smoothing out the creases there - Jun hasn’t even realized he’s been frowning.
Jun catches himself in time and snaps, “Oy, your hand’s still full of soap, idiot!” He tries to swat Aiba’s hand away, but is suddenly caught in Aiba’s grip as the other man watches him, vaguely amused.
The water is still running but Jun can’t hear anything except the sound of Jun’s own heartbeat thumping loudly against his chest.
“Hey, MatsuJun,” Aiba murmurs, voice barely heard above all the noise reverberating inside Jun’s ears. “Hey, Jun, I think I’m going to kiss you now, okay?”
Before Jun can react -say anything, push Aiba away, or maybe even lean in- there are lips covering his own and he gasps in surprise. His hands come up to clench at Aiba’s shirt as Aiba pushes his tongue in and deepens the kiss.
He’s probably ruining his own clothes with the dishwashing soap all over, but Jun thinks he could care less right now.
As they break the kiss, Aiba rests his forehead on Jun’s (effectively dousing his own forehead with bubbles in the process) and just stays there, eyes closed.
“What the fuck was that,” Jun gasps out once he regains his breath a little.
Aiba just gives him a breathy laugh as he opens his eyes slowly. Their breaths are mingling and it feels way more comfortable than Jun would like to admit. “Hey, Jun, it’s not like we’ll never see each other again, you know that, right?”
Jun blinks at Aiba’s question.
“Like, we’ll have breaks, right?” Aiba elaborates, “I can come visit you - and Sho-kun and Nino and even Ohno-kun, or you can come visit me and meet Jack-kun and Midget and Arashi-chan.”
“Idiot,” Jun says, but he’s smiling and Aiba’s smiling and they’re about to lean in again for a round two-
Before Jun feels water splashing at his side and turns to see that the sink is overflowing from the constant flow of water. He hastily turns off the faucet and glares at Aiba.
The guy just grins sheepishly at him and says, “Oops?”
Aiba, unsurprisingly, gets a whack from the head as the two hastily cleans up the mess before Jun has to get to his next photoshoot.
--
“You loser,” Nino says to him on the phone that night, “Aiba’s been in love with you since forever.”
Jun stares blankly at the wall in front of him.” What.”
“Dude, remember when your company held a charity show down in Bolivia? Aiba was there at the time and he saw you. Love at first sight or something, he told me. Was surprised to know that you’re friends with Sho and me, too. Been kind of watching your every move half a world away ever since. Kind of creepy, now that I think about it.”
“Wait, why didn’t you tell me any of this?!”
“He didn’t want me to,” Jun can almost see Nino shrugging as he says it. “He doesn’t want set ups. Says he believes in miracles or something.”
Jun’s lips start to curve upward because, yeah, he can imagine that; Aiba seems like the type.
“What do you know, he was right for once,” Nino scoffs, but his tone holds no malice.
“Hmn… maybe so,” Jun mumbles, leaning back onto his pillow as he flips the channel.
“Now we just have to make one for Sho-kun, too,” Nino adds. “He’s been looking too uptight lately. Gotta loosen him up.”
Jun thinks that that is the last thing Sho wants -meddling, from Nino, no less- but what the hell, he’s in a good mood right now, and what could go wrong? “Alright, tell me what you have planned.”
“Okay, so there’s this one person I saw at my show last week, and I thought…” Nino begins.
--
At the airport Aiba tries to kiss him before he goes into the departure hall. Jun just shoves him away and glares at him. (Although Aiba can’t really see due to the fedora and huge sunglasses covering half of Jun’s face - Nino had laughed at his appearance, but he prefers this not to be splattered all over the front page tomorrow, thank you very much.)
Aiba pecks him on the cheek instead and runs away before Jun can react. Nino rolls his eyes, Ohno blinks, and Sho squeaks. (“I can’t wait until the plan is set in motion,” Nino mumbles to Jun, gesturing to Sho a few meters away.)
As he approaches the door on the other side, Aiba turns around and waves his arm widely at them. “Keep in touch,” he yells.
Jun smiles and says quietly to himself, “You too.”
--
(The following week, Jun receives a postcard of Aiba bloated up like a beach ball from one too many clothes with a penguin next to him while flashing a victory sign, the words ‘Distance is but as thin as a sheet of ice (but not from this place)!’ scribbled loosely next to some iceberg at the bottom of the picture.
Jun books a flight for Antarctica on his next break.)
Aiba/Jun, tiny splatters of Ohmiya
PG-13, ~5700 words
If Jun had known how much a fall from the sky would affect his life, he would never have driven Nino to that fortune-telling place.
Originally written for the je_holiday exchange posted here, in which it was the last fic to be turned in orz (I need to stop failing in making deadlines on time ahaha). Beta'd by g-esquared, thank you so much :)!
Fifteen minutes in, Jun wonders why he’s here right now. “Why am I here right now?”
“Because,” Nino answers nonchalantly, eyes drifting to look out the window, “I don’t own a car and you do.”
“Couldn’t you have taken the train?”
“Or, you could drive me there and I wouldn’t have to waste money on the tickets.”
Jun grunts as he makes a right turn. He’s not even sure where he’s driving to - all Nino gave him was an unfamiliar address currently displayed as a dot on his GPS. “You’re such a cheapskate!”
“Quit your bitching. Not everyone has money to splurge like you do, you know.”
Jun sputters for a moment. It’s true that he might make more money than your average guy, but Nino currently is attending music school and gets money from performances in various clubs everyday. It’s not like Nino wouldn’t have enough money to afford standard train tickets. “Couldn’t Sho have driven you? I’m supposed to get my hair styled today for tomorrow’s shoot. You owe me for this.”
“Yes, your highness.” Rolling his eyes, Nino opens the glove box and takes out a candy bar, munching on it unceremoniously like it’s his own. (It isn’t.) “Oh god, eww, what is this thing? Diet candy bar?”
Jun feels like strangling his passenger right now, if the car wouldn’t crash right afterward. He suddenly wishes he had three arms so he could multi-task. “Nobody told you to eat it! And for your information, it’s called a low-carb candy bar.”
“Right.” Nino makes a face, but continues to eat the bar nevertheless. “Oh, and ‘bout your question - Sho’s in his geek-mode right now for his latest report. Besides, it wouldn’t be any fun taking him there - he’s still in denial.”
“Denial?”
“Yup.”
Jun chooses not to ask Nino for elaboration (he’s not sure if he wants to know). It’s then that his GPS starts to beep and tells him that they’ve apparently reached the place. Jun squints as he reads the huge sign hung on top of a small house. “Love… Reading… Find your true love? Since when are you into fortune-telling?” Jun asks, gaping.
Nino just gives him a shrug. “Someone gave me free coupons. Besides, I’m bored - maybe this will help me find new targets to play with.” His eyes have a certain spark, and Jun starts to feel ill.
By the time they’re settled down and an Arab lady covered in multi-colored thin fabric is currently rubbing a crystal ball, Jun feels more than a little ill.
“So tell me, when am I going to meet him?” Nino asks excitedly and doesn’t even seem to notice that he used a specific gender pronoun; neither did the lady - or maybe she just doesn’t care.
“Soon,” she suddenly gasps out, hands clutching the circular object, “you will meet him…” Jun supposes Nino used the correct pronoun, then. “Ah, by a sidewalk, yes. In a week.”
“Cool!” Nino pumps his fist, and Jun starts to feel sorry for whoever it is that the boy will meet in the future -if the reading’s accurate at all- when he continues, “Alright, now can you read my friend’s here, too?”
“Nino, I don’t-”
“Hey, it’s free. Might as well. And aren’t you kinda desperately single right now?”
“I am not despe-” he starts to protest but the lady is already starting to mumble strange incantations again.
“Hmn, you, boy, will meet him soon, too,” she cuts in. “…Can’t… see the place, but it looks like, yes, you will have quite a painful first meeting with him.”
“…Painful?” Jun asks warily as Nino starts to snort.
“Doesn’t that fit you just fine? You’re a DoS, aren’t you?” Jun punches the other boy’s shoulder when Nino starts to snicker indiscreetly.
The whole incident, however, is shoved into the back of his mind once Jun gets home that night.
--
That is, until four days later, when Nino barges into Jun’s apartment and says, “Duuuuude, it came true!”
Jun ignores him. “Sho, you didn’t lock the door after you came in.”
Sho makes a vaguely embarrassed noise before asking Nino, “What came true?”
“My love! I met him!”
Sho chokes on the soda he’s drinking, “H-him? Your love? What?”
Nino just pats his head in sympathy, “That’s why I said you’re still in denial, Sho-chan. When you’re not anymore, I’ll take you to that place to get your reading, okay? I still have a couple of free coupons left.”
Sho swats his hand away indignantly while Jun, rolling his eyes, asks, “Wait, seriously?”
“Yeah! The scary thing is, I did meet him by a sidewalk! He was selling some of his artworks there, and when we started talking, he told me how he’s currently homeless ‘cause he spent all his time drawing and fishing and ran out of money and got kicked out of his apartment so I took him home!”
There is a pregnant pause before Sho screeches, “DID I JUST HEAR YOU SAY YOU TOOK A COMPLETE STRANGER HOME?”
“He’s not a complete stranger, guys! His name’s Ohno, Ohno Satoshi - isn’t that an awesome name? It means ‘big field of wisdom and intellect’!”
“HE’S NOT VERY ‘INTELLECTUAL’ IF HE RAN OUT OF MONEY BECAUSE ALL HE DID WAS DRAWING AND FISHING AND IS CURRENTLY HOMELESS!” Sho bellows again uncontrollably. Jun places his palm on Sho’s mouth to keep him from making noise any longer.
“Okay, wait, Nino. I know you’ve always been a little strange, but isn’t this… I mean - are you serious?” Jun asks incredulously.
Nino pouts slightly. “Well, I like him. He’s just, I don’t know, I’ve never met anyone quite like him. Just wait until you meet him - maybe you can see then,” he says with a smile.
“Right, if you say so. And Sho, dude, breathe,” Jun pats Sho’s back a few times when it appears like he’s hyperventilating.
“YOUR HAND WAS OVER MY NOSE YOU FREAKING-” and Jun’s hand is immediately clamped over his mouth again.
“Sho-san, calm down already,” Nino says, bored, before turning to Jun, “Hey, you know what this means, right?”
“…What?” Jun says, slowly, because he’s seeing that twinkle in Nino’s eyes again and he knows that’s never good.
“It means that the reading is true. Which means that you’ll meet your love soon, too,” Nino smirks before adding, “in an excruciatingly painful way.”
All Jun can counter with is, “But she didn’t say ‘excruciating’, did she?!” while Sho waggles his arms around in an attempt to get Jun to stop blocking his airway.
Jun wonders when he stopped making decent, sane, and capable friends.
--
Two days later, Jun gets his first day off since forever and decides to go surfing. He checks the weather forecast a day beforehand to make sure that there wouldn’t be anything wrong once he goes out. Admittedly, he’s kind of been cooping himself up inside his apartment save for going to the studios for work lately - blasted Nino and his free but unhelpful coupons.
It’s not like Jun is afraid or anything. It just wouldn’t hurt if he decides to be a little extra careful just in case, so he settles on one of the Sakurai’s private beaches; besides, he’ll get more privacy that way.
As he finally catches a wave, Jun chants silently to himself to look left, look right, look ahead, and look behind. Just in case. Just in case.
Apparently he hasn’t thought to look above.
Before he can register anything save for a sudden scream, there is water splashing in his ears and he can’t quite see anything because there’s some sort of fabric covering his view. Jun gasps as he surfaces and tries to throw the fabric - nylon, and rainbow colored, it looks like - away from his head. It’s only then that Jun sees another person gasping loudly next to him, head also barely out of the water, with the strings connecting the nylon together all leading to his back.
Jun slaps his forehead. Some water got into his eyes and it kind of stings. The other person finally notices him and starts to laugh.
--
Jun’s not sure why he’s in this situation right now -again. The stranger is now seated on a beach chair, sipping hot chocolate milk that Jun’s prepared as his eyes dart around. Jun is half-leaning on a nearby counter, arms crossed and scrutinizing the guy.
“Okay, let me get this straight - you went sky diving, and just so happened to fall here?” Jun asks.
“Yup!” A giggle.
“You do know that this is a private property?”
The guy grins sheepishly at him. “Ahaha, well, they said I’ll be landing on a golf court. Who knew the wind would blow me here instead, you know?” He starts to giggle again, and Jun starts rubbing his forehead because he can already feel a migraine coming.
The guy starts to fidget for a few moments while Jun is trying to ease out his headache before saying, “Hi my name is Aiba nice to meet you and I’m sorry about that.”
Jun blinks at the jumbled sentence that the guy -Aiba- has just said before letting out a wary, “…Okay.”
Aiba continues to fidget in his seat. Jun is usually a polite person but he’s kind of a bit more than pissed off right now and he has a migraine and he can’t really be bothered to introduce himself back - and doesn’t anyone not living under a rock know who he is, anyway?
Just as Jun is pondering on what to do next, his phone vibrates from the table. He takes one look at the caller ID and groans aloud. He does not need this right now.
“Hello, Jun-kun.”
“What do you want right now,” Jun grunts in response.
“We’re having a barbeque this evening so you and Sho-chan can finally meet Oh-chan and see for yourselves how cute he is,” Nino states. “Oh, but Oh-chan is mine, got it? If you even think of laying a finger on him, I will make sure your li-”
Jun interrupts him before Nino can say anything further because he’s sure he’ll lose his appetite for the barbeque if Nino continues, “Look, I’m not going to steal him, okay?” Jun says, rolling his eyes, “I swear, you are kind of really creepy, Nino-”
“NINO?!” Aiba squeaks suddenly.
“Nino?” Jun blinks in surprise.
“Yup, the one and only Nino, the greatest friend you shall ever have,” Nino deadpans. “So what do you say ‘bout buying the corn and paper plates? Sho’s already promised to pay for the meat and-”
“Oh god Nino, shut up.” Jun groans and makes a mental note to lecture Sho later on for letting Nino take advantage of him again before turning to a flabbergasted Aiba. “What’s wrong with you?”
Aiba blinks twice before he rushes over, intruding on Jun’s personal space and bellows into the phone, “Hey, hey, is this Nino-chan? Ninomiya Kazunari?”
Jun flinches at the noise before Nino says, “That voice… Aiba-chan? What are you doing here? I thought you were getting eaten by lions down in Africa or something.”
“Nope! On a break! And don’t be so mean, Nino. Some of them are really nice, actually. I mean, okay, there was this one hybrid the kept kicking me but its owner told me that’s how it expressed its affections and-”
“Yeah, yeah, you can tell me all about your adventures later. You’re coming to the party too, right? I mean, I didn’t even know Jun-kun and you are hooking u-”
“Alright that’s enough,” Jun intervenes. “Nino, I’m not going out with, uh, Aiba, and I’m going to hang up on you now.” Then, before Nino can say a word more, Jun presses the disconnect button.
Aiba is grinning at him by the time Jun looks up from his phone. “So, can we stop by your house before going?”
“What.”
“Well, my hotel’s kinda far away, and seeing how my clothes are totally drenched, it’s only natural, right? I mean, since you’re going to take me to Nino’s party.”
Jun’s grip on the phone is shaking slightly. “And who says-”
Aiba simply tilts his head and beams at him, “Please? It’s been so long since I’ve seen Nino, and well, you’re his friend, right? That makes you my friend, too!”
Aiba is looking so earnestly at him that Jun finally nods, not without some uncertainty. He figures, hey, it’s not like he has anything planned this afternoon, so he might as well.
He almost regrets it when, as he turns around and signals for Aiba to follow, Aiba says, “So, your name is Jun, huh? Thanks for the ride, then, Jun-chan!”
“It’s Matsumoto. Call me Matsumoto.” Jun says quickly and whacks Aiba lightly on the head once Aiba catches up with him.
“Too long! How about we shorten it a little? Matsumoto… Jun? MatsuJun?”
“No, what the heck, Matsumoto isn’t that long,” Jun tries to say, but Aiba just laughs and stares off into the distance, not seeming to even hear him. The sounds are too bright for Jun’s comfort, but he doesn’t say a thing.
--
Jun barely clicks the door open before Aiba barges into his apartment (before Jun himself can even get in - Jun scowls).“Wow, this is a pretty huge apartment! It looks so nice, MatsuJun!”
“Don’t wander around!” Jun snaps, grabbing Aiba by the arm and drags him towards the closet. Jun wonders absentmindedly if Aiba really has no clue who he is, but he supposes, the guy has apparently been living in Africa or something - maybe he isn’t up to date with the latest news. “Here, you can pick any outfit. There’s a guest bathroom down the hall to the right if you want to shower. I’m going to take a bath now. We’ll leave in an hour or so.”
Aiba just nods his head vigorously at Jun, apparently in awe over the amount of clothes Jun has. Jun sighs, takes one last wary look at Aiba, and leaves. His head is still aching a little from the migraine - he doesn’t notice the contemplative look on Aiba’s face as he watches Jun leave.
--
Exactly thirty-seven minutes later, the bathroom door clicks open as Jun gets out, hands smoothing down his clothes out of habit. He’s feeling better now that he’s taken a bath. After checking his appearance in the mirror again, satisfied, Jun heads out to find Aiba.
He doesn’t expect to see Aiba standing in the middle of his living room, skinny jeans wrapped around long, lean legs with the zipper unzipped, exposing a hint of skin but not quite nearly enough, and a low v-neck shirt wrinkled around a lithe body.
Aiba could seriously give Jun a run for his money had they been on the same runway, Jun thinks; his breathe hitches slightly
It doesn’t last long, though, once Aiba notices Jun by the hallway, smiles brightly, and walks forward only to trip over his own clothes on the floor. He falls flat on his face.
Jun would have laughed if it wasn’t for the fact that, as Aiba lets out a yelp as he goes down, his flailing arms manage to drag Jun along with him.
This hurts more than earlier because, frankly, wood is hard and water isn’t.
“Urg…” by the time Jun opens his eyes, Aiba is half-leaning on Jun, hands perched beside Jun’s shoulders, and his whole body is trembling from, Jun blinks, laughter, apparently. “Aiba, get off,” he states, groaning as Aiba continues to laugh - or more like giggle - and makes no move whatsoever to get off Jun. “Aiba. Aiba.”
“Heehee, sorry, MatsuJun, it’s just…” Aiba giggles again. Jun can feel tiny splashes of air hitting his face every time he hears Aiba’s breathy laugh, and he’s starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. He tries scowling at the face a mere few centimeters away from him, but Aiba doesn’t seem to notice. “Hey, MatsuJun, you know what?” Suddenly he feels a faint pressure down below as Aiba lowers his head, still shaking the whole time, and rests on Jun’s neck instead. “You know what, the truth is…” Aiba continues, voice breathy, and Jun starts to feel uncomfortable and funny inside.
Then, “You bring tenderness SEXY BOY!”
Aiba’s head almost collides with Jun’s shoulder as Jun jerks in surprise. “What the fuck,” Jun groans, eyes scanning to where the noise is coming from. All he can make out are the words “SEXY SEXY” being sung over and over. That’s when he notices that his cell on the counter is also vibrating. “Fuck,” he repeats.
Jun promptly pushes Aiba off and goes to grab the phone. It’s still blaring the damn song right until Jun presses the talk button. “You ass!” Jun glowers into the phone - he doesn’t need to look at the caller I.D. to know who had just called him.
“Why hello to you, too, Jun-kun,” Nino drawls. “Did you enjoy ‘Sexy Boy’ by Morning Musume? The song reminded me of you ever since I heard it at the CD store.”
“Ninomiya, I swear I’m going to butcher you and stuff you dow-”
“Now now, no need to get violent; I was complimenting you, you know,” Nino interrupts. “Just wanted to check up on you. Make sure you weren’t distracted with, oh, I don’t know, Aiba-chan, and forgot about my party. Did you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jun hisses. He refuses to think back to what happened just a mere minute ago, and says, “We’re about to go now. And Nino, the next time you mess with my phone, I’m going to make sure all your precious Dragon Quest games will be incinerated beyond the point of recognition.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Nino hisses back, suddenly serious. Jun smiles; he knows the threat works because those games are like the battery to Nino’s life.
“Watch me,” Jun counters, and hangs up on him.
Aiba is giggling again by the time Jun turns back to him. Jun scowls and tells him it’s time to leave. In the car Aiba hums along to Jun’s collections of Mozart while Jun drives. Jun is silently thankful for Aiba’s lack of attempt at conversations. This has all been too weird so far and he hasn’t had time to process everything yet.
Aiba’s fingers tap on the armrest lightly in a rhythmic pace throughout the whole ride there. The reverberation reminds him of the tranquility of an ocean, except Jun feels like he’s drowning in its depth.
--
Sho still appears to be a bit wary, but Jun thinks that, for once, Nino seems to have good taste. Or maybe there’s just something about Ohno that makes him hard to be disliked by people. Everything about him seems so bizarre, and yet, maybe because of that, people are drawn to him in this inexplicable way. Jun thinks that maybe it’s just Ohno’s presence in general.
Sho is still asking Ohno various questions (Aiba has exclaimed, “Oh, are we playing twenty questions?” to which Sho just slaps his forehead and proceeds to ignore his old friend.) when Nino sidles up next to Jun, who’s grilling some meat a few meters away, and asks, “Soooo, I told you my story. Tell me yours.”
“There is no story because I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jun grunts as he flips a piece of chicken over.
“Right. You just coincidentally met Aiba today, because people fall onto other people while skydiving everyday. Not to mention, you were surfing? Wow, that makes it even more plausible!”
Jun shoves at Nino’s shoulder as he puts the piece of now well-done meat onto the plate. “But that’s just it. Contrary to whatever your cynical mind might contrive, retarded coincidences like that do happen.”
Nino starts to snigger until he sees the look Jun’s giving him, and straightens up. “Wait, really? Like, you’re not shitting me?”
Jun continues to stare at him.
“Huh,” Nino says, almost like an afterthought. “Well, that’s... interesting, I guess. I mean, I expect it sooner or later, but I didn’t think it’d happen this way, and well. Wow,” he mumbles.
Jun’s stare is now turning into a glare. “What the fuck are you going on about,” he asks.
Nino just gives him one of his trademarked smirks, and says, “Oh, nothing.” His eyes start to drift to where the other three are, so Jun goes back to his grilling and is about to ignore him before he speaks up again, “So, you know, don’t you think - he’s the one?”
Jun blinks. He thinks he might know what Nino is talking about, now that he’s reminded of it. He blinks again as he continues to stare at the spark of fire underneath the bars, and replies, “What?”
“Stop playing dumb,” Nino scoffs, “I know you’ve been keeping those words that lady said in your mind all week. I mean, hello, it got so obvious that yesterday’s headlines were, ‘Matsumoto Jun - is our country’s top model going into depression? Is that PMS finally starting to make sense?’ you know.”
Jun’s glare intensifies, “Shut up, Nino. You know they didn’t write that last part.”
“Right, whatever, that’s besides the point,” Nino says dismissively, and that just irritates Jun more. “The point is, you were hibernating inside your own apartment all week because you’re afraid of that ‘painful encounter’ the lady was talking about, and well, voilà, right?”
Jun gives up trying to skirt around the issue. “Not ‘voilà’,” he mumbles. “Look, it’s probably not true, alright? I mean, really, fortune-telling? In this day and age?”
This time, it’s Nino who’s giving Jun the look.
“I mean, coincidences, right? I did just say that they do happen, however rare. Right?” Jun tries.
All of a sudden Nino’s gaze drops to the ground. “I don’t know about you,” he says, voice soft but clear, “but it came true for me. I’m sure- I know that Ohno is the person I’m looking for, so.” Nino’s looking at him now, and Jun swears, he’s never seen Nino more serious in all these years that he’s known him - it starts to scare Jun a little, because despite all their bickering and jabs at each other, Nino is Nino, and Jun trusts him, more than he’ll ever admit to anyone - even himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jun catches Aiba’s profile. His laughter rings inside Jun’s ears and he thinks, No, what the fuck, I’ve barely known this guy for more than a few hours - what the fuck. Jun’s used to living his life more or less in a logical fashion, and he doesn’t like -doesn’t want- anything to disrupt that.
He thinks that he’s perfectly happy the way he is.
Nino must have sensed Jun’s internal debate, because he claps a hand on Jun’s shoulder and says, “Look, Aiba’s here on his break right now. Why don’t you try to get to know each other?”
Jun forces out a scoff and says, “Whatever.” If Nino doesn’t buy his attempt at nonchalance, he doesn’t comment on it.
The rest of the night starts to blur.
--
Jun wakes up with a slight hangover.
The alarm next to his bed is still blaring as he struggles to sit up. He can’t say he remembers much of what happened last night - he started to down more drinks that he probably should have in order to dismiss Nino’s words, and somewhere along the way, he supposes, he must’ve gotten too drunk to remember anything.
Aiba’s there on his couch flipping through a magazine when Jun walks out the hallway.
“Oh, hi MatsuJun!” Aiba says, smiling. Upon seeing Jun’s raised eyebrow, he chuckles nervously and explains, “Well, you remember last night, right? At Nino’s place? It seems that we both were kinda drunk, haha, so Sho-kun drove us home. But well, my hotel was really far away and it was getting really late and Sho-kun was tired, too - he has a report due today, and since he still lives with his family, well...” Aiba starts to trail off.
Jun closes his eyes for a moment. He guesses that Nino must’ve set this up on purpose, the sly prick. “It’s fine. So you’ve been up for awhile?”
Aiba’s smile brightens. “Yup! Been up since six, actually. There was a call from the intern updating me about the status of Arashi-chan.”
“Umn,” Jun says.
“Arashi-chan - she’s this cute baby panther who was sick before I left, so he just wanted to let me know that she’s alright now!”
“Right,” Jun’s just going to nod and agree. He has heard of animal caretakers before, but panthers? The guy’s job must have something to do with wildlife, he guesses. Jun glances distractedly up at the clock on the wall before he notices the time. “Wait, have you eaten anything yet?”
“Nah,” Aiba shrugs. “I didn’t want to just go through your fridge, and, well, if I go out I have to lock the door, and I don’t have a key to get back in, but it’d be rude to leave without waiting for you to wake up to give you a head’s up, so I thought the best-”
“Aiba,” Jun interrupts, “you talk too much.” He glances at the clock again - the shorter hand’s about to strike at the nine - and decides, “Don’t have anywhere you need to go right at this moment, right? I can cook up something if you’d like.”
“Really? Oh yay, thanks!” Aiba cheers.
Jun tells himself that the smile on his face right now is due to the fact that, as drunk as he was yesterday, the hangover doesn’t appear to be that bad this time.
It’s not because he feels sort of glad for this turn of events or anything, really.
--
“...So then Jack-kun noticed us and came running at us, and it was dark out, you know. All we could see was his eyes -gleaming yellow, it scared me pretty bad- so we had to sprint back to our tree house. I barely made it, I mean, I know leopards are really quick, but you had to see it in motion. And then he started growling, and just...” Aiba trails off, making exaggerated shivering gestures.
Jun snorts, “Right, of course, Aiba.”
“Hey! It was really scary, you know,” Aiba protests. “But oh, guess what, we’re friends now! Jack-kun took some time to subdue, but I’m his favorite now!”
Jun grins at Aiba’s proud declaration, and reaches over to punch Aiba’s shoulder jokingly, “Right, because humans befriend leopards everyday.”
“Ow,” Aiba complains, “but it’s true!” He then suddenly blinks as he stares at Jun. “Hey, now that I think about it, you’re like Midget!”
“Excuse me?” So Aiba seems to be a bit taller than Jun, but what, him, a midget?
It seems that Aiba can tell what Jun’s thinking, because he quickly amends, “No no, not like a midget! You’re like Midget - this white tiger I raised.”
“Oh.” Jun’s not sure if he likes being compared to a tiger, but something else crosses his mind, “Wait, white? The tiger is white?” Jun has never seen a white tiger before.
“Yup, and it’s beautiful!” Aiba’s eyes are gleaming through the morning light as he stares at Jun, and it almost feels like there’s something else that Aiba is insinuating.
Jun’s not sure if he wants to know what it is yet, so he coughs slightly and finishes his omelet. “That’s, umn, cool,” he chokes out, getting up to rinse the dishes. “Well, I have work scheduled at eleven,” he tells Aiba.
“Okay, I’ll go back to my hotel. Need to get a change of clothes anyway,” Aiba laughs. He’s still wearing Jun’s clothes from yesterday (much to Jun’s chagrin, but better he dirtied one pair of clothes than two), and they’re even more crinkled, but Jun thinks that he’s never seen crinkled clothes looked so appealing. “Well, thanks for everything, MatsuJun.”
Aiba’s now next to him, washing his own plate. “You’re welcome,” he replies. Jun is concentrating hard at the sink to make sure that their hands don’t accidentally brush or anything - it would be the most clichéd thing ever. He pauses, and adds, “So how long are you here for?”
“Actually, my plane leaves tomorrow,” Aiba answers, and Jun jerks his head up in surprise. Aiba just gives him a small smile, “Three day break. They need my pictures to publish, you know. A wildlife photographer’s life is fun, but insanely busy and chaotic.” Aiba laughs a little, but Jun’s mind has already drifted off by that point.
He vaguely thinks, Oh, so that’s what his job is, before biting his lips slightly and saying, “Oh, I see, tomorrow.” Jun’s not sure what to think about this - everything is happening so fast and - tomorrow? That’s it? After which Jun will never see him again?
“Hey, MatsuJun,” Aiba calls out all of a sudden, disrupting his thoughts, “you know, you shouldn’t frown so much.” He laughs lightly before reaching up and touching Jun’s forehead, smoothing out the creases there - Jun hasn’t even realized he’s been frowning.
Jun catches himself in time and snaps, “Oy, your hand’s still full of soap, idiot!” He tries to swat Aiba’s hand away, but is suddenly caught in Aiba’s grip as the other man watches him, vaguely amused.
The water is still running but Jun can’t hear anything except the sound of Jun’s own heartbeat thumping loudly against his chest.
“Hey, MatsuJun,” Aiba murmurs, voice barely heard above all the noise reverberating inside Jun’s ears. “Hey, Jun, I think I’m going to kiss you now, okay?”
Before Jun can react -say anything, push Aiba away, or maybe even lean in- there are lips covering his own and he gasps in surprise. His hands come up to clench at Aiba’s shirt as Aiba pushes his tongue in and deepens the kiss.
He’s probably ruining his own clothes with the dishwashing soap all over, but Jun thinks he could care less right now.
As they break the kiss, Aiba rests his forehead on Jun’s (effectively dousing his own forehead with bubbles in the process) and just stays there, eyes closed.
“What the fuck was that,” Jun gasps out once he regains his breath a little.
Aiba just gives him a breathy laugh as he opens his eyes slowly. Their breaths are mingling and it feels way more comfortable than Jun would like to admit. “Hey, Jun, it’s not like we’ll never see each other again, you know that, right?”
Jun blinks at Aiba’s question.
“Like, we’ll have breaks, right?” Aiba elaborates, “I can come visit you - and Sho-kun and Nino and even Ohno-kun, or you can come visit me and meet Jack-kun and Midget and Arashi-chan.”
“Idiot,” Jun says, but he’s smiling and Aiba’s smiling and they’re about to lean in again for a round two-
Before Jun feels water splashing at his side and turns to see that the sink is overflowing from the constant flow of water. He hastily turns off the faucet and glares at Aiba.
The guy just grins sheepishly at him and says, “Oops?”
Aiba, unsurprisingly, gets a whack from the head as the two hastily cleans up the mess before Jun has to get to his next photoshoot.
--
“You loser,” Nino says to him on the phone that night, “Aiba’s been in love with you since forever.”
Jun stares blankly at the wall in front of him.” What.”
“Dude, remember when your company held a charity show down in Bolivia? Aiba was there at the time and he saw you. Love at first sight or something, he told me. Was surprised to know that you’re friends with Sho and me, too. Been kind of watching your every move half a world away ever since. Kind of creepy, now that I think about it.”
“Wait, why didn’t you tell me any of this?!”
“He didn’t want me to,” Jun can almost see Nino shrugging as he says it. “He doesn’t want set ups. Says he believes in miracles or something.”
Jun’s lips start to curve upward because, yeah, he can imagine that; Aiba seems like the type.
“What do you know, he was right for once,” Nino scoffs, but his tone holds no malice.
“Hmn… maybe so,” Jun mumbles, leaning back onto his pillow as he flips the channel.
“Now we just have to make one for Sho-kun, too,” Nino adds. “He’s been looking too uptight lately. Gotta loosen him up.”
Jun thinks that that is the last thing Sho wants -meddling, from Nino, no less- but what the hell, he’s in a good mood right now, and what could go wrong? “Alright, tell me what you have planned.”
“Okay, so there’s this one person I saw at my show last week, and I thought…” Nino begins.
--
At the airport Aiba tries to kiss him before he goes into the departure hall. Jun just shoves him away and glares at him. (Although Aiba can’t really see due to the fedora and huge sunglasses covering half of Jun’s face - Nino had laughed at his appearance, but he prefers this not to be splattered all over the front page tomorrow, thank you very much.)
Aiba pecks him on the cheek instead and runs away before Jun can react. Nino rolls his eyes, Ohno blinks, and Sho squeaks. (“I can’t wait until the plan is set in motion,” Nino mumbles to Jun, gesturing to Sho a few meters away.)
As he approaches the door on the other side, Aiba turns around and waves his arm widely at them. “Keep in touch,” he yells.
Jun smiles and says quietly to himself, “You too.”
--
(The following week, Jun receives a postcard of Aiba bloated up like a beach ball from one too many clothes with a penguin next to him while flashing a victory sign, the words ‘Distance is but as thin as a sheet of ice (but not from this place)!’ scribbled loosely next to some iceberg at the bottom of the picture.
Jun books a flight for Antarctica on his next break.)