Fic Dump: Vday Ohmiya
My failed attempt at a Valentines fic for the Ohmiya-a-Day challenge.
Ohno Satoshi was an only child.
The first and last born to an aging Japanese couple on St. Valentine’s Day. That day his mother's first gray hair came in upon her head and his father's, his last.
Satoshi was a quiet boy, given to daydreams and entire worlds of imagination. He was sweet and a little awkward. He had a round, happy face that he never managed to grow out of.
At eighteen, he appeared no older than fourteen, and had never yet managed to leave his parents home. His mother was stooped now, and though she adored her son, had grown wary of his flights of fancy. His father found no merit in the arts Satoshi found so appealing, and would nag at his son to find a place in the world.
One morning, the chill of December air frosting her breath, the boy’s mother entered Satoshi’s room to find him glad in pajamas, staring with what she could only call a pout at his easel. The richly painted landscape of some foreign place known only in Satoshi’s imagination was marred now by a small sunburst beneath the canopy of tropical leaves.
It hadn’t been there the night before.
Her gnarled fingers combed through Satoshi’s hair, “Whatever is that? Why did you add it?”
Satoshi’s frown deepened, “I didn’t. It was Nino-kun who did.”
Her mother’s eyes, wrinkled at the corners, shifted to her son, “Who?”
“Ninomiya-san. He must have come in the night.”
Another flight of fancy, then, she thought.
“Rather cocky of him to add to your painting.”
“Nino is a very cocky person,” Ohno-kun nodded, his eyes narrowed, “Perhaps it’s meant to be…”
Curiosity, and a lifetime of humoring her son, made her ask, “But who is he?”
“You now, Ninomiya Kazunari.” He stood and began tidying his art work.
Chizu scrambled in her thoughts, vaguely recalling some point in her childhood a Ninomiya Kazunari who was said to live with the fairies and appeared to children when they died, traveling with them to the world beyond so they’d not be frightened.
A fairy tale, then. And quite an old one.
“I think I do know, but wouldn’t he be much older now? Grown up?”
The boy shrugged a shoulder, “He’s the same as me.”
She knew that Satoshi meant this Nino was the same size as he, in both body and spirit. How she knew, she could never explain.
Her child’s imagination was truly an amazing thing.
-----------
Several mornings later, Chizu had quite a fright when she came to wake her son. Upon the floor beneath his window were the leaves of plants not known on Japan. She knelt, puzzling over them when Satoshi awoke, “What is that?”
She held a leaf up for him to see, her brow furrowed in confusion, “Wherever did you find this, Satoshi-kun?”
“Oh, must have been Nino again.” Ohno frowned, he was normally a very tidy boy. “How rude of him not to wipe his feet.”
Off her blank look (the one he’d inherited from her), he explained, “He comes through the window at night, you see, and plays his guitar for me while I sleep.”
(“If you’re asleep, how do you know?”
“I just do.”)
She tried to explain how it was impossible with the window three floors up and locked upon nightfall. He must have been dreaming, she said. Satoshi shrugged and took the leaf, “Where else could this have come from, Kaa-san?”
For that, she had no answer.
_____
One night, as the days passed from shorter to longer, Chizu dreamt.
She dreamt as her son must dream, of the boy who never aged. Of the veil between this world and Neverland torn open and a boy peeping through. She recognized his face, the one she’d seen in the eyes of women without children, in her own eyes in the long years before Satoshi. She’d seen him too, in the eyes of some mothers, their corners creased with loss.
He was a lovely boy, smooth skinned and bright, clad in thin material suited less for Japan’s winter and more some wondrously humid place. His mysterious eyes were hidden behind shocks of dark hair and a mischievous smirk. When he saw her, he hid a box behind his back and edged into the shadows.
A bright light danced behind the window of her room, and Chizu sat up slowly, looking between the darting light and the shadows where she’d seen him.
In a moment, the light was gone, and when the shadows deepened the boy stepped forward. He held out in his upturned palm a single chocolate. The perfect bud was like no confection she’d ever seen before, like a flower ready to burst it’s sweetness upon the tongue.
She reached out to take it, trusting and not knowing why.
And as she placed the treat upon her tongue, she never saw the shooting star to pass through the sky.
When she awoke, she would recall it all as only a dream.
-----------
At that very time, unbeknownst to Ohno Chizu or her husband fast asleep at her side, missing all the ensuing excitement as always, that very boy was tumbling through the window of her son’s bedroom.
“Shhhh!” He hissed at his shadow as it continued to tumble about the room without him. It made no sound, but Nino rather thought it should be shushed anyway.
“Graceful, as always.”
The sniping voice followed Nino into the room, but came not from another boy, as it sounded, but from a little ball of light, no bigger than his fist.
“Shhh to you too,” Nino rose to his feet, quite graceful, despite the earlier charge. “Will you help me catch it or just flit around and do nothing?”
“Can’t we just do what you came here to do and be gone?”
"Not without my shadow,” Nino whispered. He crept up to the bed and looked down at the sleeping boy whose name he did not know.
“Oi, Nino!” The light spun around his head at a dizzying speed, “Staring all love-sick and weepy was not part of the plan. Let’s off with the shadow and go.”
“Jun-Bell, be still,” Nino swatted at him, eyes still fixed on the sleeping boy. He was so close now to being a man and Nino did not like to think of that.
In a fit of rage, Jun flew nearly to the ceiling and enacted a perfect dive into the back of Nino’s head. “Stop calling me that!”
Considering his size, it was no surprise that the impact was hardly much of a disturbance to Nino, “Stop being such a whiny girl and I’ll consider it.”
“Sometimes I truly despise you.”
“I love you too.”
And he did. That was why Jun flitted down to Nino’s shoulder and sat there in a huff. Still, it became quite clear that Jun was quite a beautiful man, albeit only a few inches tall with golden wings and skin the glowed like sunshine.
“He is rather nice to look upon,” Jun sighed, resting his chin in his hand. “For a human boy.”
“For any boy,” Nino whispered back.
“Are you going to leave him the chocolates or not?” Jun had stopped arguing the stupidity of engaging in the strange foreign concept of leaving chocolates on Valentine’s Day and only hoped for them to get away without being caught.
“Oh. Yes. Right,” he untucked the handmade box from his rucksack and placed it on the table at the boy’s bed. “There.”
“Come now,” Jun flew off Nino’s shoulder, leaving the glitter of fairydust upon his shoulder. “Let’s catch your shadow and return to Neverland. The others will miss us.”
“They always miss us,” Nino replied, eyes reluctant to leave the sleeping boy.
He began to stalk the room, Jun flying around, casting his light about in an effort to find the uneven fall of shadows that didn’t belong. For a brief second there was an outline of a foot and Nino launched himself from the chest to fly across the room, narrowly missing his shadow.
The ensuing chase ended with Nino crashing into the precariously stacked art supplies near the door. Jun was quite startled when even this didn’t jolt the sleeping boy awake. “Stupid,” he flew around near the ceiling, trying to catch sight of the lost shadow again.
Nino sniffled and drew his knee up to his chest, looking down at the scrapes that now oozed more blood than he’d seen ever in his memory. His eyes welled with tears and he held tight to his leg, knuckles of his small hands going white.
“Boy,” Nino looked up to find the sleeping boy no longer asleep, but rather sitting upright in bed, as wide awake as if it had been daylight for hours. “Why are you crying?”
“I’m not,” Nino sniffed.
Jun darted behind the door, hiding his light.
“Yes, you are,” Ohno slipped out of his bed and walked cautiously across the room.
“What’s your name?” Nino asked, forgetting for a moment about the blood and the pain and the fact that the boy was supposed to stay asleep and he was ruining everything.
“Ohno Satoshi.” He knelt in front of Nino, “And you’re Ninomiya Kazunari. I’ve seen you in dreams. This isn’t one,” he added, just in case Nino couldn’t tell.
“Oh-chan,” Nino smiled and it was like all the stars put together.
Ohno grinned back at him, “I shall call you Nino, then.”
He looked away from Nino’s strange eyes and down to his knee, “Does it hurt much?”
“Like I’ve never known,” He sniffed again, for effect.
Beyond them, Ohno thought he heard a tingling like bells and Nino made a face, “Shut up.”
“Eh?”
“Sorry,” Nino’s cheeks flushed. “I was talking to Jun-bell.”
“What’s a Jun-bell?”
“He’s a fairy,” Nino watched, fascinated as Ohno cupped both hands around Nino’s wound and blew gently across the raw skin.
“I’ve never seen a fairy before.”
“You have,” Nino replied. “I put him into your painting.”
“Oh,” Ohno smiled with some secret amusement. “Is that what that was meant to be?”
“Jun-bell, come out.”
There was the sound of bells and nothing else.
“I think he’s being shy,” Nino replied.
The bells sounded indignant, even to Ohno’s unpracticed ears.
Ohno rose to his feet, “May I clean your scrape? I wouldn’t want it to become infected.”
“…in-fected?”
“And then maybe Jun-bell will like to come out? I would like to meet a fairy, I think.” Without waiting on a response Ohno slipped past Jun and through the door on his mission.
“Nino, let’s go.” Jun flew down in flurry of fairy dust and sparks of glittering light. “Now. He’ll be back any moment!”
“I don’t want to.” Nino said stubbornly.
“But-“
“No. Go without me if you must. I’m staying.”
“…forever…?” There was genuine fear in Jun’s lilting voice. Nino had never wanted to leave the spaces between dreams before.
“No, of course not. Just a little longer, please? He’s so very nice. He wanted to meet you.”
Jun moved fretfully over Nino’s head, “Are you truly hurt?”
“Just a bit. It does hurt,” he emphasized with another sniff.
“Fine,” the fairy relented, “but quit telling him my name is Jun-bell.”
Nino’s eyes lit with happiness and he nodded emphatically.
Jun landed on Nino’s shoulder and crossed one leg over the other, nervously awaiting his proper introduction to the boy-to Ohno.
He returned with a damp cloth in hand and a small bag of ice. “I don’t wish to hurt you, but there’s every chance this will sting some.”
It was a delayed moment before Ohno focused upon the small fairy now upon Nino’s shoulder. “Oh. Hello.”
Jun couldn’t help but answer with a smile, “Hello.”
“I’m Ohno Satoshi,” he bowed politely.
"I’m Matsumoto Jun.” He bowed too, fairy dust glittering down Nino’s shoulder.
“You’re quite small,” Ohno knelt before Nino and Jun, tilting his head as he gazed at the fairy. “You have beautiful wings.”
“Thank you.”
Nino thought he’d never heard Jun-bell quite so charmed before.
“Excuse me,” Ohno focused on Nino’s knee as he dabbed at the blood.
“Owwww!”
“Baby,” Jun and Ohno said at the same time.
Nino pouted and small teeth bit into his lower lip. “It hurts.”
Ohno gentled his touch and opted to distract the other boy just as his mother always had when bandaging the many wounds he’d acquired as a child. “What were you doing, flying about my room?”
“I was trying to catch my shadow. He got away when we came to bring you-“
Ohno’s eyes flickered in surprise, “You brought me something?”
“Um… chocolate. It’s your tradition, isn’t it? To bring chocolate to friends on this day?”
"We give them to lovers,” Ohno explained, two dark spots of color lighting his cheeks.
“Oh,” Nino blinked, “Then perhaps I should take back the one I gave to your mother.”
Ohno laughed and shook his head, amusement making his head feel light, “She wont mind. No one has given her chocolate in such a long time. She’ll be happy.”
Nino ducked his head, and watched the play of Ohno’s hands around the scrape. He was quite gentle. Such tenderness was enthralling to a boy who hadn’t known such a touch in all his memory. “We didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I am glad you did.” Satisfied the trickle of blood had come to a stop, he lightly held the ice over the scrape and looked about the room. “How do you catch a shadow…?” He wondered idly.
"You chase it.”