Jul 07, 2010 23:36
Chapter 22: In which the curtain falls…
Toma run down the corridors but still he could catch up with Sho at the entrance hall.
“Matte, Sho-kun!” he panted and grabbed the older man’s elbow to stop him.
“What do you want?” Sho asked annoyed yet he stopped and turned to Toma. “I won’t sign those! NEVER! Don’t ever dream about it!” he protested furiously when he noticed the marriage papers in Toma’s hand.
He freed himself form Toma’s grip and wanted to leave the building but Toma was quicker. He grabbed his arm again and leant closer to him.
“Don’t make fuss, Sho-kun!” he whispered into his ear while looked around. Almost all the people in the entrance hall were now staring at them thanks to Sho’s shouting. “Come with me!” the younger one said assertively.
Sho blinked dumbfounded but let Toma lead him out the building.
“What do you want?” Sho asked when they were at the street.
But Toma didn’t answer to him till they were a few blocks from the Ikuta-center. Near the train station he stopped at a crowded corner and turned to Sho.
“Listen to me, Sho-kun! I know you’d never betray Aiba-chan and… well… sorry but I don’t really want you to be my husband too…” a small smile appeared on Toma’s lips for a moment then he became serious again. “I know how to escape this but you have to do what I tell you to…” Toma said.
Sho knit his brows and looked at Toma suspiciously.
“How should I know that this isn’t part of your father’s plan?” he asked cautiously.
“I’m not my father’s puppet! I thought I proved enough that I don’t want to trick or use you! Aiba-chan is my friend and I count as one too! What should I do so you’ll trust me at least?...” Toma asked bitterly.
Sho softened hearing this.
“Sorry, it’s just…” he started but Toma stopped him.
“It’s okay, I understand… So will you do as I tell you?”
“Just tell me what to do to end this madness” Sho said.
Toma nodded pleased, this was what he wanted to hear.
“First: take this…” he said and gave Sho the marriage certificate. “My father’s men watching us, they must see you taking it…” he added seeing Sho’s confused face then Sho nodded and put the papers into his bag.
Toma smiled. He looked at the car on the other side of the road then suddenly embraced Sho while turning a bit so those who sat in the car couldn’t see his face.
“I tell you now what you’ll have to do. Listen carefully cause I won’t have a second chance to tell you this! Tomorrow you call…”
Five minutes lates Sho was on his train back to his apartment while Toma headed back to the Ikuta-office’s parking lot where he left his car. On his way he took his mobile from his pocket.
“Jun? Could you talk to them?”
“Yeah. They’re in” the model said immediately.
“Good. Sho’s in too…”
“Toma! Are you sure about not telling it to…?” Jun started.
“Yeah! He’s the easiest target to my father… It will be the safest solution. Don’t worry, Jun, everything will be okay…” Toma said then hang up.
“Okaeri, Sho-chan!” Aiba said happily and jumped on Sho as soon as the older man entered their home.
But Sho didn’t answer just freed himself from Aiba’s arms and went straight to their bedroom. Aiba stood at the same spot for a while confused and a bit hurt by Sho’s acts before he followed him. When he stepped into their room Sho was throwing clothes into the sport bag on the bed. Aiba’s clothes to be exact. The younger guy just became more confused by this.
“Sho-chan?... Are we going somewhere?” he asked carefully when he saw the older man will say nothing in the near future.
“We don’t, just you, Masaki” Sho said shortly and put Aiba’s other stuff into the bag what he found in the room.
“Doushite?” Aiba asked.
“Cause you have to go” Sho said. He hesitated for a moment then grabbed their picture from the nightstand and put it into the bag too before zipped it. “Dress up!” he said and gave Aiba a simple jeans and T-shirt. Aiba obeyed without a word.
Sho stepped to the window and looked through the curtain’s gap.
“Is something wrong, Sho-chan?” Aiba asked silently when he finished getting dressed.
Sho just shook his head but didn’t answer the question.
“Listen to me, Masaki! The next train leaves in half an hour, you still have time to catch it and go home to your parents. DON’T talk to anyone on the train! Call Youko-san to come picking you up at the station till you arrive there and while you’re there, don’t step out of the house, not even one step, okay?” Sho asked taking Aiba’s face in his palm.
“Nani, Sho-chan? I’m not five anymore!” Aiba tried to lighten the mood but none of them laughed.
“Just promise me you’ll do what I told you!” Sho pressed.
“I promise” Aiba said obediently.
“Good boy” Sho nodded then pulled Aiba close to kiss him. “Now go!”
“Why don’t you come with me?” Aiba asked when Sho gave him the sport bag. Suddenly, he didn’t know why, he started to fear. He feared that he might never see Sho again…
“I can’t…” Sho shook his head. “But I’ll go pick you up after all this…”
“When? And what is this?...” Aiba asked more and more confused.
“One week… maybe more… But go now!” Sho said opening the door and almost kicked Aiba out to make him leave before he would ask one more thing.
When the door was finally closed after Aiba Sho collapsed on the floor hall. Shibu-chan might feel that her owner is bothered by something and she snuggled up to him. Sho hugged the puppy close to himself and laid down.
“Gomen, Aiba-chan… Forgive me lieing to you…” he murmured before drifted into sleep…
The next morning Sho woke up more worn-out and with stiff joints which wasn’t a surprising since he slept on the hall’s floor whole night. He gathered all his strength to get up and headed to the bathroom but stopped half way. He cocked his head to the side and listened to the apartment’s noises. Or more likely the lack of noises. He shivered. He didn’t remember that this flat was this silent before Aiba moved in…
When he managed to gather himself he grabbed his phone and dialed.
“Moshi-moshi? Ikuta-san?... I decided. I accept your offer. But I want to start my new job next to you right away when I signed the papers… Sure, but I have to take care a few things at my current workplace… and I have other things too, if you know what I mean… Yes, alright, on Monday then…” Sho said then hang up.
Aiba stared at the mobile in his hand confused then tried again. But the result was the same: ‘The party you were calling is out of order at the moment. Please repeat your call later…’ It was the second day he got no other answer than this whenever he tried calling Sho. Yet Sho never turned his phone off! Not even on his day-offs or at night, never!
He arrived home four days earlier but he had a bad feeling about this whole situation. He was sure that Sho kept something from him but what? Aiba sighed and decided to try calling Nino instead and ask him to check on Sho for him. But he got the same answer this time too: ‘The party you were calling is out of order at the moment. Please, repeat your call later’
“What the…?” he muttered frowning.
He tried calling Ohno, Jun and Toma too but the result was the same as in Sho’s and Nino’s case.
“What the hell is this?” he cried frustrated throwing his phone through the room and crushing on his bed.
“Masaki, sweety, are you okay?” Youko-san asked for the other side of the door but when she got no answer, she opened the door.
Aiba buried his face into the pillow and didn’t look up not even when the woman sat down on the edge of his bed.
“Masaki, honey, is something wrong? You didn’t step out of the house since you came home… Do you want to go shopping with me? You could use some fresh air…” she said softly.
“I can’t…” Aiba mumbled into the pillow. “Sho-chan said I can’t leave the house…”
“Is that so? Then we stay here…” Youko-san said and tried to hide the concern in her voice.
“Sakurai! Wake up!”
Sho groaned and tried to turn on his other side but someone roughly shook his shoulder forcing him to open his eyes.
“Matsumoto?!” he shrieked surprised when he recognized the model in the nightstand lamp’s dim light. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to fetch you, smartass! Toma-chan sent me…” he added but saw that Sho still didn’t catch up the situation. “Meeting, today… you, Toma and his dad… Have any faint memory of the thing?” he asked.
“Oh, you’re right…” Sho mumbled. “What time is it?”
“3.30 am… Now, if you finished the unnecessary questions, dress!” Jun ordered him throwing clothed on his bed…
Half an hour later Sho sat in Jun and Toma’s apartment with a cup of coffee in his hand which was given to him by Tome in the moment he entered the apartment.
“So can you tell me one more time why was it necessary to me coming here at this ungodly hour?” Sho whined yawning.
“Cause we’ll go to my father together. I just didn’t want my father get this information too early… Oh, and we needed one more person to those…” he added and pointed at the six suitcases in the corner.
Sho looked frowning first at the suitcases then at Toma. The younger guy just signaled him to take a look in them. Sho pulled closer one of them and his breath hitched immediately when he saw its content.
“This… how could you…?” he asked stunned.
Toma smiled a bit.
“Luckily, it turned out that I know my father well enough…” he said. “I suspected that he would call of his plan only in exchange a lot of money. Which he was sure you can’t gather so you’ll have no other chance than sign our marriage certificate…”
“Would you, please, don’t call it ‘your marriage certificate’…?” Jun, who sat next to him silently till now, protested.
“Gomen, Jun-chan!” Toma smiled at him sweetly then kissed him quickly before continued with the explanation: “So I know a few people who would pay a lot of money for my share in the Ikuta Group which I got on my twentieth birthday…”
“And you got all this money from them?” Sho asked incredulous.
“Of course not!” Jun snorted. “And you say he’s the smart one here… Baka dayo?...” he muttered.
Sho sulked silently at this.
“As Jun-chan said, it wasn’t enough. It was nearly the half the needed amount. The most part of the rest is my father’s own money. But sadly he noticed too soon that I withdrew big amounts from the family account so he closed my gateway…” Toma pouted a bit.
“So the rest?...”
“The rest is Jun-chan, Nino and Ohno-kun’s donation…” Toma said smiling. “You have friends, Sho-kun…”
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Aiba shouted on his way to the front door yet whoever was outside didn’t stop banging the poor door.
“I said I’m coming so what’s it?” Aiba asked annoyed as he opened the door. “Nino-chan? Ohno-kun?” he asked surprised when he saw them.
“Congratulation pointing out the obvious, Aibaka!” Nino said sarcastically. “Get your shoes and coat and let’s go!” the game-tester ordered.
“Wait! Where?... And anyway I can’t go… I promised Sho-chan I’ll stay in the house till he come picking me up…” Aiba protested when Nino almost reached his car which park in front of the house.
“That why we’re here, to take you to Sho-kun” Nino said rolling his eyes. “Can we go now? We’ll miss the appointment because of you…”
“But…” Aiba started.
“Just do as Kazu says, Aiba-chan… Everything will be okay…” Ohno said reassuring earning a nod from Aiba.
The younger guy quickly took his sneakers then grabbed his coat and climbed into Nino’s car…
“Sho-chan!”
“Masaki? What are you doing here?” Sho asked stunned when he noticed the younger guy as he got off Toma’s car near the Ikuta Group’s office.
“I asked Nino and Ohno-kun to pick him up” Toma answered on his part as he and Jun got out the car too.
“What’s this, Sho-chan?” Aiba asked holding on the older man’s hand tightly. It was obvious that he’s the only one who didn’t have the faintest idea of what’s happening.
“I’ll tell you later but we don’t have time for this right now…” Sho grabbed a suitcase from the trunk and gave it to Aiba while he still held his other hand. “Just stay silent and do always what Toma-kun says, okay?” he asked and the younger guy nodded obediently.
“Then can we go?” Toma asked and the five men nodded at once.
It was too early in the morning so not much people was in the building yet but those still stared at the small group as they headed straight to the elevators. Yet none of them tried to stop them since they were with Toma…
“What’s the meaning of this parade, Toma?” Ikuta-san asked as the six men entered his office.
“We came to settle your offers…” Toma said.
“I didn’t know that nowadays youngsters need this big company to sign a single marriage certificate… Sakurai-kun?...” Ikuta-san said and looked at Sho with raised eyebrow.
“Aiba gasped at hearing ‘marriage certificate’ and Nino immediately covered his mouth with his hand while Sho squeezed his hand to remind him to his promise. But it was too late, Ikuta-san’s attention was on Aiba already.
“Oh, I guess your boyfriend forgot to tell you that he came here today with Toma to sign their marriage certificate…” Ikuta-san said mockingly.
Jun and Sho both wanted to jump on the man at the same time to beat him for this phrase.
“None will sign any marriage paper here today!” Toma shouted to stop the nearly breaking chaos. “Here’s your money…” Toma put his suitcase on the table and gestured the others to put theirs too.
“Toma! If you have anything to do this with this rebellion then you’re not my son anymore!” Ikuta-san threatened him.
“In this case my pleasure to inform you: it was me who planned this all!” Toma said then simply turned on his heels and left the office.
The others followed him in silence…
“I’ll never be able to pay back this to you…” Sho said when they were out of the building.
“You don’t need to” Toma said smiling. “Just let me work at the shelter when it’s finished…”
“As you wish!” Sho said laughing while he slung an arm over Aiba’s shoulder pulling him closer.
“But if you hurt Ma-chan, I’ll kill you!” Jun threatened him which earned a slap on his head from Toma.
“Oi! What are you saying?”
“Gomen ne, Toma-chan” Jun said and kissed him apologizing.
“Oi! I never said I didn’t want my money back!” Nino protested. “You have no idea how much game I had to test to…”
“As it would be such a torture to you… Testing video games…” Aiba cut in teasing.
But the rest of Nino’s speech remained secret since Ohno simply covered his mouth with his hand to shut him up.
“Kazu just wanted to tell you he’s happy he could help” the oldest architect said smiling.
“Don’t speak on my part!” Nino protested again when he finally could pry Ohno’s hand from his mouth. “I wanted to say that…”
“Kazu! We’ll talk about it at home…” the older man said forcefully.
“Oh, okay!” Nino agreed immediately which made everyone laughing.
“Okay, but can somebody finally tell me what was this all about?” Aiba asked when they finished laughing.
“I’ll tell you when we arrived home…” Sho said smiling and kissed Aiba. “I love you, Masaki and I’ll never ever love anyone else than you…” he added and not caring about their audience, kissed Aiba again…
Owari
A/N: yaaaay!!! I finished it!^^ It's nearly midnight here and I'm dead tired yet I wanted to post is before I go to sleep. I hope I didn't disappoint you with this ending...
Actually I liked to write this whole story a lot so I hope you enjoyed reading it too!^^
I promise some other side chapters to this like an Ohmiya's "we'll talk about this at home" scene from chap5 (NC-17 as you expect ;P) and I guess in that case I should write a smut to JunMa too, right? XD And kireinasora requested some more Sakuraiba memories so there will be some more fluffy-chibi Sakuraiba too! XD
p: sakuraiba,
arashi,
p: ohmiya,
p: junma