Paint, Film, and Stuffed Animals
Title: Paint, Film, and Stuffed Animals
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Aiba/Ohno, Jun/Sho
Genre: Romance, AU
Chapter: two
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Aiba becomes interested in Ohno, a recently popular artist, but it’s difficult to get a boyfriend when you have a kid…Everyone seems to think you’re straight.
Chapter one
“Oh God, don’t tell me you’re changing again…”
“This shirt has a stain on it-“
“That’s the fifth one you’ve put on. Just go with the purple one like I told you to.”
Aiba sighed and reached for said shirt, glancing in the mirror to see behind him, where Nino was sitting on a pile of pillows practicing his new magic trick on Koharu, who was more than willing to help.
After a few seconds of silence, in which Nino showed Koharu the card that she had picked and the girl opened her mouth in surprise, the gamer turned back to Aiba, who was adjusting the shirt and tucking it into his pants.
He untucked it a second later, not sure which way looked better.
“You’re sure you’re not dating Sakurai?”
“No, I’m not dating Sakurai,” Aiba replied with an edge of annoyance.
“Haru-chan, is Masaki telling the truth?” Nino asked, suddenly turning the girl as he shuffled his deck of cards again.
“Yes,” she replied without hesitation, then faced the man smoothing out his clothes in front of the full length mirror against the wall. “Masaki, what does ‘dating’ mean?”
Nino chuckled and Aiba stiffened at the sudden question.
“I promise I’ll tell you later, honey.”
“I’ll tell her…” Nino offered, but Aiba sent him a moderate glare through the mirror.
“Don’t even think about it. I don’t want you filling her head with perverted-“
Nino threw one of the pillows at his back good-naturedly, then leaned in closer to Koharu. “He’s going out with Sakurai tonight, right?”
“Yes.” She picked a card when Nino offered her one.
“Who else is going to be there?”
Aiba was watching them out of the corner of his eye while he added a little styling cream to his hair. He had been trying to make his outing seem casual, but Nino had come over earlier than they had planned and witnessed the photographer’s nervous breakdown when he realized his favorite shirt had a stain on it from the last time he’d worn it.
Although he wasn’t completely aware of the details planned for tonight, Sakurai had invited him out drinking with a few of his other friends in ‘the business,’ and with the way Jun and him had been standing so close together last week at the art show, there was no doubt he would be there. And that meant there was a slim possibility that Ohno was coming too.
He had absolutely no confidence that anything would work out with the other man, but Ohno was the first person in a long while that Aiba had been attracted to-really attracted to-- and the fact that he had gotten along so well with Koharu had made the photographer even more anxious about messing up the 1% chance he had with the artist.
Ohno probably didn’t even like men. And if he did, he could have just about anyone he wanted, since he was basically famous now (there had been an article on the front page of Aiba’s newspaper the day after the art exhibition). There was no reason to choose Aiba, a mediocre photographer who was struggling his hardest to make it, with the additional burden of a six year old child.
That didn’t mean Aiba couldn’t at least try, though.
His phone rang suddenly and the jumpy father was jolted out of his thoughts. He hadn’t really been paying attention to Koharu’s floundering to remember names, she’d just said there was a nice man with a piece of cake that had made a golden mail box.
“Hello?”
“Aiba! I’m outside. Do you want me to come up?”
“No, I’ll be out in a minute,” Aiba replied nervously, turning around and accidentally knocking his elbow against the mirror, dropping his phone in the process and opening his mouth in a silent cry as a jolt of pain ran up the nerve in his arm.
Nino was snickering and Koharu looked worried as the photographer fumbled to get his phone back to his ear, reaching for his wallet at the same time.
“Are you okay?” came Sho’s voice from the receiver.
“Sorry, Sho-san. I’ll be out in a second.” He hung up and reached for his house keys, even though Nino would be here the whole night, leaving no reason to lock the door.
Just as he was about to dart outside, Aiba turned back to his friend and daughter sitting together next to a low table and offered, “Thanks for your help, Nino.”
“And thank you for pre-ordering Mario Galaxy at HMV!”
It was a small price to pay for a full night of babysitting.
Aiba waved and ducked through the entrance, running down the stairs leading to the front door of the apartment building and all the way out to the car. Even if Ohno wasn’t there, it’d been a while since he’d been out, like not having to worry about what time he would be coming home or how much he would be drinking, and that in itself was worth much more than Aiba ever thought it would be.
Sho sent him a bright smile as he watched Aiba walk around the front of the car and climb inside, and then inquired about Koharu to make sure everything was good to go.
“Nino’s staying over tonight,” Aiba explained as he buckled his seat belt, assuring his coworker that there was no need to worry.
“Ah, the mysterious Nino that I’ve not yet had the pleasure of meeting.”
The photographer almost laughed as Sho pulled out into the street, starting towards the bar they would be drinking at tonight. “He’s a good friend, but I’m not sure he’s really your type…”
Looking surprised at Aiba’s comment, Sho turned to him and then back to the road quickly, forcing a chuckle. “How do you know? Maybe I’m really into men that run video game shops and spend all their free time trying out the products…”
Aiba laughed at the response. He would talk about Nino occasionally (since Nino was sort of the only friend he had other than Sho), although he had never formally introduced him to anyone from work. But Nino didn’t seem very interested anyway, only knowing Sakurai’s name because Aiba had been out with him several times recently.
“Are you serious? Because I was sure that you were digging on Matsumoto-“
Sho looked surprised again and blushed, trying to avoid Aiba’s gaze. Usually the photographer was not very good at sensing stuff like that (especially since Nino was so fickle about who he liked at any point in time), but it was quite obvious that there was something going on between the designer and the manager.
“Well-“ Sho mumbled, but nothing else followed it, so Aiba asked.
“Are you two dating?”
Sho swallowed and tried to force a lighthearted grin, but it was apparent that he had been caught off guard by Aiba unabashedly bringing up the subject.
“Not really…”
“But you like him?”
“…Yes…”
“Ah, that’s fine, then,” Aiba said suddenly, leaning back in his chair and watching the cars coming from the opposite direction. “Because he likes you a lot.”
Sho’s eyes darted to the rear-view mirror and then back to the steering wheel. “You think so?”
“If he always hangs off your arm like a baby monkey, then… yeah.”
Sho laughed as he pulled into the middle of the road to make a turn into a parking lot.
“He’s going to be there tonight, right?” Aiba asked in a lower voice. If Jun was coming, Ohno would be too.
“Yeah. He was the one that invited me out. He told me I should bring you, since you were ‘amusing’. Even though I probably would have brought you anyway…” Sho paused as the car turned and began searching for a place to park, then mumbled, “I’m glad you could come.”
“Me too,” Aiba barely tried to hold in his smile. He couldn’t bring himself to ask if Ohno would be there or not, but he was feeling confident that the tiny brown haired man would be seated at the table with an open spot next to him, reserved with a bright orange sign that read for Masaki.
He was wrong about the open spot part, but when Sho and Aiba walked into the bar and were shown to the table, Ohno was indeed sitting there chatting lightly with Jun, albeit between the manager and a wall.
Before Sho could take any action, Aiba climbed into the booth first so that he was opposite of Ohno and the designer happily took the seat next to him so he could look at Jun.
“Ah, Masaki, nice to see you again.”
Aiba flushed bright red at Ohno’s use of his first name, wondering if he was just teasing him by using the same affectionate term that Koharu did.
“Koharu-chan’s not with you? I was looking forward to sharing some cake with her…”
“Sorry, she stayed at home tonight,” Aiba replied with a forced smile, not sure if he should be happy that Ohno had inquired or jealous that he wasn’t getting the same attention from the artist. “But you can share some cake with me,” he added boldly, averting his eyes down to the set of disposable chopsticks placed in front of him, pretending they were more important than Ohno’s response.
“That sounds fine,” the artist said in a slightly lower voice, then turned to Jun. “Do they have any good cake here?”
Jun chuckled in amusement. “Probably not. It’s a bar, Ohno.”
Aiba couldn’t hold in a giggle when Ohno visibly pouted and then as the artist immediately lightened up with his eyes met the photographer’s.
“Well, let’s start with some beer, then.”
Jun rolled his eyes and commented to Sho, “He’s not usually this bossy.”
But the manager ordered the beers, and then came the unpleasantly sweet introduction conversation.
“So you’re a photographer.”
“Y-yeah.”
“And you have a daughter.”
“Y-yeah.”
“She’s really cute.”
“Thanks.”
The exchange died almost immediately and Sho nudged him in the side harder than necessary as he handed Aiba a beer.
“By the way, I saw the article on your opening. It must have been a big success,” the photographer offered, since he couldn’t think of anything else. Are you available to a single gay man who happens to also be a father? might be too abrupt.
“Any credit for my success I give to Jun. I just make the stuff, he’s the one that promotes it.”
Jun looked pleased at the comment and elbowed Ohno lightly with a smile. “I wouldn’t have a job if not for you.”
“Oh please. You’d find someone else…” the artist replied with a teasing grin, and poked Jun lightly in the stomach.
“You know you’re the only one for me,” the manager replied sweetly, and poked Ohno back, although the smaller man jumped at the action, and then began wiggling around as his manger tickled him lightly.
“Okay, stop-“ Ohno pleaded in an airy voice, trying to keep himself from laughing any louder than necessary while he stole a glance at Aiba. The photographer blushed and averted his gaze.
“He’s actually a real hard ass-“ the artist pretended to whisper across the table to the uncomfortable man, getting him to look up again, but Jun ruffled at the comment and began tickling Ohno again with an amused look.
“Stop, stop, stop--!” his friend almost yelled, and this time Aiba couldn’t tear his eyes away from the ecstatic, adorable crinkling of the artist’s face. He had a soft spot for cute things (hence the pink pajamas he’d bought Koharu after she had moved in), but Ohno might be rivaling his daughter on Aiba’s Adorable Meter right now.
“Anyway, we should probably get something to eat,” Jun mumbled as he turned back to the table, leaving Ohno gasping for breath and wiping stray tears from his eyes. Sho grinned at him and nodded, glancing at Aiba who was still staring at the man across from him as he recovered.
+++
Aiba woke up in his futon with Nino on one side of him and Koharu on the other, but neither of these two important people was the one on his mind.
He was completely and totally in love.
After a few beers, Aiba had finally relaxed enough to have a normal conversation with Ohno, who was happy the entire night. They had talked about art, baseball, the latest music artists, Sho and Jun, and he’d even told Ohno a little bit about Koharu, at least about her mature personality and the fact that she was so responsible.
They’d left much less sober than when they had arrived, and although he had been tempted to corner Ohno and at least give him a kiss, Jun had called a taxi for them too early and Aiba was on his way home before he even realized what was going on.
When he’s clumsily (but silently) opened the front door and discarded his shoes, Nino had been sprawled out in Aiba’s futon in the corner and Koharu in her tiny pink one next to him. There was a set of sliding doors that separated the small bedroom space from the rest of the apartment, but Aiba hardly ever closed them. He only did so when Koharu was already asleep and the photographer was forced to stay up late for work and he didn’t want to disturb her. But tonight they had been left open as usual and Aiba managed to cross the messy expanse of toys and made it through the doorway silently enough that neither of them woke.
Without thinking about it (they’d been friends forever after all) Aiba had climbed in right next to Nino and somehow he had ended up sharing a blanket with Koharu too by the time the next morning came. The photographer was conscious before either of the other two, even though he had been the one out drinking last night.
In his regular sleeping gear, boxers and an oversized shirt, Aiba forced himself up to brush his teeth and start on some breakfast. He wasn’t a great cook, but if he didn’t do it Nino certainly wouldn’t, and he had become a little better since he’d taken Koharu in.
When Aiba had just started cracking the eggs in a frying pan to make an omelet, Koharu stumbled into the kitchen area, rubbing her eyes and still dressed in her favorite pink pajamas, and immediately staggered over to Aiba, hugging his leg and resting her head against his hip.
“’Morning, Haru.”
“Good morning, Masaki.”
“Did you have fun last night?” he asked cheerfully; Aiba really wanted to hug her, but both of his hands were occupied by a skillet and a spatula.
“We played Mario Kart for a long time.”
“You must be getting good at it then. Do you think you can beat me?” Aiba asked with a grin and Koharu snickered. Aiba liked to play, but he didn’t have much time to, so he usually lost to Koharu and he’d never won against Nino. Yet.
Suddenly there was a knock on the front door and they both turned their heads in curiosity.
“It must be the mail or something…” Aiba said distractedly, and Koharu immediately released him to answer it while her father turned the heat down (he’d learned not to try to do something else while he was cooking) and found a towel to clean his hands on.
“Koharu-chan, good morning!” came a peppy voice and the photographer froze abruptly.
He wasn’t presentable.
“Is Masaki home?”
And there was no way he could dash into his bedroom without walking straight in front of the doorway.
“Masaki, the mailbox man is here!” Koharu said happily as she bounced back into the kitchen, grabbing her father’s hand to bring him to the door. Aiba tried halfheartedly to stop her, but he could already tell there was nothing else he could do, and it would be rude to leave Ohno standing in his entranceway in any case.
“Ohno-san. Good morning!” Aiba said formally, bowing a little as the artist gave him a once over in his boxer shorts and large shirt.
But blushing, flustered Masaki was quite alluring to Ohno, and so he grinned happily even though he was probably making the photographer uncomfortable.
“What’re you doing here?” Aiba asked as politely as he could in a lowered voice.
The artist gave him a pleasant look and pulled out Masaki’s cell phone from his pocket. “You left this at the bar last night.”
“Oh… thank you…” Aiba took the item back, obviously not noticing until now that it was missing, and looked quite surprised at the revelation.
And Ohno thought he probably should be, since he had ‘accidentally’ kept it after Masaki had showed him a few pictures from Koharu’s school entrance ceremony, leaving the artist with a reason to meet up with him again today.
“You didn’t have to…” the photographer started slowly, looking down at the mobile, and Ohno shrugged.
“It’s inconvenient to not have it, right?” (Especially if it didn’t have Ohno’s number in it as it did now.)
An awkward silence fell over them, Koharu looking at him happily from behind Aiba (the three feet of hallway was only big enough to allow one of them to stand in it), and eventually the father jumped and darted back into the kitchen completely before backtracking to invite Ohno inside.
The artist looked around the small apartment happily. The main goal of his plan had been to find out where Aiba lived, so he could accidentally bump into him when he needed to, but seeing what Aiba’s house looked like was a nice bonus. It was precisely decorated, but it a way that made Ohno think that the man had simply taken a floor display that he’d liked from a department store and replicated it himself.
Since Aiba was leaning over the stove, making sure whatever he was cooking was still salvageable, Ohno decided it was a good time to stare at his ass and exposed calves, even though Koharu had wandered over to the guest and was trying to get his attention.
“Oh, that’s right. I brought something to give to Koharu-chan, if you don’t mind,” Ohno explained, pulling forward the shoulder bag that was resting on his hip and unbuckling it distractedly.
“Hmm?” Aiba halfheartedly turned around, but he was trying to flip over the eggs in the pan at the same time, so he didn’t even really glance at them.
“It’s a little stuffed bear that was just lying around,” the artist explained, handing it over to the girl, who suddenly had a bright smile on her lips as she held the animal tenderly against her chest. “One of the many of them that I got from the opening you attended.”
“Ohno-san, you didn’t have to-“ Aiba started, but Ohno stopped him, having heard that phrase out of him too much in the little time they had known each other.
“I’m sure she’ll put it to better use than me.”
“Thank you,” was the soft reply as the photographer turned around, the eggs successfully rescued. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” he offered right afterward and Ohno beamed. He would never turn down a cup of coffee.
“Why don’t you sit down?” The artist glanced to where Aiba pointed to a low couch, but it seemed far away from the taller man, so he shrugged and mumbled that this was fine. Especially the view.
Turning around with an expression that said Aiba had been caught off guard with the last comment, Ohno smiled innocently and leaned against the counter next to the sink so he could properly talk with the cook. Koharu had casually made her way to the other end of the room to play with her new toy, much to Ohno’s relief.
“By the way, how did you know where I live?” the photographer asked, filling up a kettle with water to make the coffee.
After a short paused Ohno explained, “Sakurai.”
Ohno had asked Jun to call Sho and find out where Aiba lived to return the stolen phone, and even though the designer had insisted that he would take care of it the next day, he was still drunk at that point and Jun didn’t run into any problems getting the address from him.
Aiba nodded in understanding, smiling briefly at Ohno, which caused a grin to promptly cross the artist’s face too, before he broke open the bag of coffee, the scent of it immediately drifting through the air.
“Any plans for today?” Ohno asked quietly, wondering if he was being too forward.
He was unsure of himself and his actions from last night and this morning for a few seconds as Aiba turned away from him shyly. Maybe he should try to go about this in a more traditional way instead of rushing so much… But it was quite possibly the first time that Ohno had every been in love-really in love-and he wasn’t used to the impatient feeling that he had been carrying around with him since he had set eyes on Aiba for the first time.
“I was going to take Haru to-“
“Is that coffee?”
Ohno jumped at the new voice directly behind him and spun around to find a man about as tall as himself shuffling towards them, half asleep. He looked disheveled and was blinking groggily as he came out from a side room, where a futon was obviously in recent use.
Suddenly swallowing, but trying to remain calm in this new situation (he’d been sure that Masaki was single, but if that were the case, what was this guy doing here?), Ohno greeted the new man as casually as possible with a, “Yep.”
Although he really wanted that coffee (and maybe some Masaki to go with it), the artist thought it was probably better to make a vague excuse and head out. He was very insecure of this situation and he wanted to consult Jun (who would probably consult Sho) before he made his next move. Jun knew better than him how the ins and outs of relationships worked and how to interpret the situation properly. Ohno didn’t want to make a mistake that might mess everything up, so it might better to take the patient way out, even though the artist was feeling anything but that.
“Ah, Nino, I forgot you were here!” Aiba blinked, looking quite genuinely surprised and the lethargic man looked annoyed in return.
“I watched Koharu for you all last night and you forgot me?”
Ohno had just been opening his mouth to make his excuse to leave, but stopped at those words. He was sort of confused now… was this a boyfriend or not?
Nino took a step closer to Aiba, trying to look intimidating, which would have scared Ohno a little if it had been him, but the photographer casually shrugged and turned back to the coffee.
“We shared a bed last night and you forgot me?” he continued to whine, trying to get Aiba’s attention, and Ohno was just about to apologize and make that excuse again, especially after Koharu’s father looked embarrassed and made an effort to silence the other man.
But if the guy named Nino had to mention that they had shared a bed last night, it probably meant it didn’t occur very often.
“Shut up,” Aiba whispered with a glance at Ohno, and the artist ruffled when Nino turned his gaze to him too. Suddenly the photographer looked like he’d made a mistake and hit his palm against his forehead gently, averting his eyes from either of the kitchen’s other occupants.
“Hi, I’m Nino,” the new man offered, holding his hand for a shake, and even though Ohno had already heard his name, he complied anyway and revealed his own.
Nino’s eyes narrowed suddenly and he gave the artist a once over while Aiba turned away shyly.
“Did Aiba invite you for breakfast or something?”
Ohno wanted to get offended at the tone of voice the other man used, but he let it roll off his shoulders instead and explained, “I brought over his cell phone. He forgot it last night.”
A smirk slid across Nino’s face and he slowly returned his gaze to Aiba, who had stepped away from the pair and was pretending to look in the fridge even though he wasn’t getting anything out of it.
“Haru-chan, is this the mailbox man?” he called to the girl instead, who had lined up her sparse collection of stuffed animals and dolls on top of the couch, the new bear in the middle of the rest, and she didn’t even bother to turn to Nino before confirming his suspicion.
“Yes. We shared some cake at the party Masaki took me to.”
The artist couldn’t decipher the implications that went along with that question, so instead he readjusted his shoulder bag and cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your breakfast. I guess I’d better get going-“ he started to say politely, but before Aiba could turn around and give him a horrified look (which he did), Nino was already stopping him.
“No need. We’d be thrilled to have you for breakfast. Especially Aiba, he loves a nice, tender piece of-“
“Nino!” A bag of bread hit him in the back of the head and he stopped in mid-sentence, even though the dirty smirk never left his lips. ”Go play with Haru!”
After sending a light glare towards Aiba, the smaller man’s expression lightened and he said under his breath, “Seriously, if you have the time you should stay,” with a twinkle in his eye before he slunk into the living area to examine Koharu’s new bear. Besides, I already have a boyfriend, why would I need that useless, forgetful, gangly… Ohno heard Nino mumble before he’d reached the girl, as if he was telling her that instead of the artist.
“Sorry,” Aiba said quickly as his friend left, his face as red as a beet, and Ohno smiled at him weakly. “I wouldn’t mind if you stayed, though,” the photographer added in a whisper, looking back at the stove, where the water had been boiling for several minutes, and the artist felt himself blush too.
It didn’t matter if Nino was Aiba’s boyfriend. Damn, it didn’t matter if Aiba was straight and had a wife somewhere. After those soft words, it was official.
Ohno was caught. Hook, line, and sinker.
+++
A/N: I've been meaning to post the drabbles, so I've sorry that I haven't yet. m(__)m But, on the plus side, I decided to update this story every weekend that I can, so maybe that'll somehow make up for it...?
Fun Fact #2: In my first draft of this chapter, Ohno was a lot weirder than he is now. Since he's an artist I was trying to go a quirky rout, but yarukizero didn't like the OOCness much and after I re-read it, I decided to tone it down a little, leaving Ohno's character as it is now, still weird but more Ohno-like than before. His personality is supposed to be very naive about relationships and whatnot, but instead I think he turned out perverted/creepy in this part. I hope that's not really the case... What do you think? I hope that the next chapters will make that a little clearer. Also, I think Ohno talked more in this chapter than anything I've written before. =A=
By the way Ohno sneakily putting his number into Aiba's phone reminded me of Arashi ni Shiyagare last night even though I wrote this months ago. >.<
Sorry for the long A/N. Comments and criticism are always welcome. :)
Chapter three
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Aiba/Ohno, Jun/Sho
Genre: Romance, AU
Chapter: two
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Aiba becomes interested in Ohno, a recently popular artist, but it’s difficult to get a boyfriend when you have a kid…Everyone seems to think you’re straight.
Chapter one
“Oh God, don’t tell me you’re changing again…”
“This shirt has a stain on it-“
“That’s the fifth one you’ve put on. Just go with the purple one like I told you to.”
Aiba sighed and reached for said shirt, glancing in the mirror to see behind him, where Nino was sitting on a pile of pillows practicing his new magic trick on Koharu, who was more than willing to help.
After a few seconds of silence, in which Nino showed Koharu the card that she had picked and the girl opened her mouth in surprise, the gamer turned back to Aiba, who was adjusting the shirt and tucking it into his pants.
He untucked it a second later, not sure which way looked better.
“You’re sure you’re not dating Sakurai?”
“No, I’m not dating Sakurai,” Aiba replied with an edge of annoyance.
“Haru-chan, is Masaki telling the truth?” Nino asked, suddenly turning the girl as he shuffled his deck of cards again.
“Yes,” she replied without hesitation, then faced the man smoothing out his clothes in front of the full length mirror against the wall. “Masaki, what does ‘dating’ mean?”
Nino chuckled and Aiba stiffened at the sudden question.
“I promise I’ll tell you later, honey.”
“I’ll tell her…” Nino offered, but Aiba sent him a moderate glare through the mirror.
“Don’t even think about it. I don’t want you filling her head with perverted-“
Nino threw one of the pillows at his back good-naturedly, then leaned in closer to Koharu. “He’s going out with Sakurai tonight, right?”
“Yes.” She picked a card when Nino offered her one.
“Who else is going to be there?”
Aiba was watching them out of the corner of his eye while he added a little styling cream to his hair. He had been trying to make his outing seem casual, but Nino had come over earlier than they had planned and witnessed the photographer’s nervous breakdown when he realized his favorite shirt had a stain on it from the last time he’d worn it.
Although he wasn’t completely aware of the details planned for tonight, Sakurai had invited him out drinking with a few of his other friends in ‘the business,’ and with the way Jun and him had been standing so close together last week at the art show, there was no doubt he would be there. And that meant there was a slim possibility that Ohno was coming too.
He had absolutely no confidence that anything would work out with the other man, but Ohno was the first person in a long while that Aiba had been attracted to-really attracted to-- and the fact that he had gotten along so well with Koharu had made the photographer even more anxious about messing up the 1% chance he had with the artist.
Ohno probably didn’t even like men. And if he did, he could have just about anyone he wanted, since he was basically famous now (there had been an article on the front page of Aiba’s newspaper the day after the art exhibition). There was no reason to choose Aiba, a mediocre photographer who was struggling his hardest to make it, with the additional burden of a six year old child.
That didn’t mean Aiba couldn’t at least try, though.
His phone rang suddenly and the jumpy father was jolted out of his thoughts. He hadn’t really been paying attention to Koharu’s floundering to remember names, she’d just said there was a nice man with a piece of cake that had made a golden mail box.
“Hello?”
“Aiba! I’m outside. Do you want me to come up?”
“No, I’ll be out in a minute,” Aiba replied nervously, turning around and accidentally knocking his elbow against the mirror, dropping his phone in the process and opening his mouth in a silent cry as a jolt of pain ran up the nerve in his arm.
Nino was snickering and Koharu looked worried as the photographer fumbled to get his phone back to his ear, reaching for his wallet at the same time.
“Are you okay?” came Sho’s voice from the receiver.
“Sorry, Sho-san. I’ll be out in a second.” He hung up and reached for his house keys, even though Nino would be here the whole night, leaving no reason to lock the door.
Just as he was about to dart outside, Aiba turned back to his friend and daughter sitting together next to a low table and offered, “Thanks for your help, Nino.”
“And thank you for pre-ordering Mario Galaxy at HMV!”
It was a small price to pay for a full night of babysitting.
Aiba waved and ducked through the entrance, running down the stairs leading to the front door of the apartment building and all the way out to the car. Even if Ohno wasn’t there, it’d been a while since he’d been out, like not having to worry about what time he would be coming home or how much he would be drinking, and that in itself was worth much more than Aiba ever thought it would be.
Sho sent him a bright smile as he watched Aiba walk around the front of the car and climb inside, and then inquired about Koharu to make sure everything was good to go.
“Nino’s staying over tonight,” Aiba explained as he buckled his seat belt, assuring his coworker that there was no need to worry.
“Ah, the mysterious Nino that I’ve not yet had the pleasure of meeting.”
The photographer almost laughed as Sho pulled out into the street, starting towards the bar they would be drinking at tonight. “He’s a good friend, but I’m not sure he’s really your type…”
Looking surprised at Aiba’s comment, Sho turned to him and then back to the road quickly, forcing a chuckle. “How do you know? Maybe I’m really into men that run video game shops and spend all their free time trying out the products…”
Aiba laughed at the response. He would talk about Nino occasionally (since Nino was sort of the only friend he had other than Sho), although he had never formally introduced him to anyone from work. But Nino didn’t seem very interested anyway, only knowing Sakurai’s name because Aiba had been out with him several times recently.
“Are you serious? Because I was sure that you were digging on Matsumoto-“
Sho looked surprised again and blushed, trying to avoid Aiba’s gaze. Usually the photographer was not very good at sensing stuff like that (especially since Nino was so fickle about who he liked at any point in time), but it was quite obvious that there was something going on between the designer and the manager.
“Well-“ Sho mumbled, but nothing else followed it, so Aiba asked.
“Are you two dating?”
Sho swallowed and tried to force a lighthearted grin, but it was apparent that he had been caught off guard by Aiba unabashedly bringing up the subject.
“Not really…”
“But you like him?”
“…Yes…”
“Ah, that’s fine, then,” Aiba said suddenly, leaning back in his chair and watching the cars coming from the opposite direction. “Because he likes you a lot.”
Sho’s eyes darted to the rear-view mirror and then back to the steering wheel. “You think so?”
“If he always hangs off your arm like a baby monkey, then… yeah.”
Sho laughed as he pulled into the middle of the road to make a turn into a parking lot.
“He’s going to be there tonight, right?” Aiba asked in a lower voice. If Jun was coming, Ohno would be too.
“Yeah. He was the one that invited me out. He told me I should bring you, since you were ‘amusing’. Even though I probably would have brought you anyway…” Sho paused as the car turned and began searching for a place to park, then mumbled, “I’m glad you could come.”
“Me too,” Aiba barely tried to hold in his smile. He couldn’t bring himself to ask if Ohno would be there or not, but he was feeling confident that the tiny brown haired man would be seated at the table with an open spot next to him, reserved with a bright orange sign that read for Masaki.
He was wrong about the open spot part, but when Sho and Aiba walked into the bar and were shown to the table, Ohno was indeed sitting there chatting lightly with Jun, albeit between the manager and a wall.
Before Sho could take any action, Aiba climbed into the booth first so that he was opposite of Ohno and the designer happily took the seat next to him so he could look at Jun.
“Ah, Masaki, nice to see you again.”
Aiba flushed bright red at Ohno’s use of his first name, wondering if he was just teasing him by using the same affectionate term that Koharu did.
“Koharu-chan’s not with you? I was looking forward to sharing some cake with her…”
“Sorry, she stayed at home tonight,” Aiba replied with a forced smile, not sure if he should be happy that Ohno had inquired or jealous that he wasn’t getting the same attention from the artist. “But you can share some cake with me,” he added boldly, averting his eyes down to the set of disposable chopsticks placed in front of him, pretending they were more important than Ohno’s response.
“That sounds fine,” the artist said in a slightly lower voice, then turned to Jun. “Do they have any good cake here?”
Jun chuckled in amusement. “Probably not. It’s a bar, Ohno.”
Aiba couldn’t hold in a giggle when Ohno visibly pouted and then as the artist immediately lightened up with his eyes met the photographer’s.
“Well, let’s start with some beer, then.”
Jun rolled his eyes and commented to Sho, “He’s not usually this bossy.”
But the manager ordered the beers, and then came the unpleasantly sweet introduction conversation.
“So you’re a photographer.”
“Y-yeah.”
“And you have a daughter.”
“Y-yeah.”
“She’s really cute.”
“Thanks.”
The exchange died almost immediately and Sho nudged him in the side harder than necessary as he handed Aiba a beer.
“By the way, I saw the article on your opening. It must have been a big success,” the photographer offered, since he couldn’t think of anything else. Are you available to a single gay man who happens to also be a father? might be too abrupt.
“Any credit for my success I give to Jun. I just make the stuff, he’s the one that promotes it.”
Jun looked pleased at the comment and elbowed Ohno lightly with a smile. “I wouldn’t have a job if not for you.”
“Oh please. You’d find someone else…” the artist replied with a teasing grin, and poked Jun lightly in the stomach.
“You know you’re the only one for me,” the manager replied sweetly, and poked Ohno back, although the smaller man jumped at the action, and then began wiggling around as his manger tickled him lightly.
“Okay, stop-“ Ohno pleaded in an airy voice, trying to keep himself from laughing any louder than necessary while he stole a glance at Aiba. The photographer blushed and averted his gaze.
“He’s actually a real hard ass-“ the artist pretended to whisper across the table to the uncomfortable man, getting him to look up again, but Jun ruffled at the comment and began tickling Ohno again with an amused look.
“Stop, stop, stop--!” his friend almost yelled, and this time Aiba couldn’t tear his eyes away from the ecstatic, adorable crinkling of the artist’s face. He had a soft spot for cute things (hence the pink pajamas he’d bought Koharu after she had moved in), but Ohno might be rivaling his daughter on Aiba’s Adorable Meter right now.
“Anyway, we should probably get something to eat,” Jun mumbled as he turned back to the table, leaving Ohno gasping for breath and wiping stray tears from his eyes. Sho grinned at him and nodded, glancing at Aiba who was still staring at the man across from him as he recovered.
+++
Aiba woke up in his futon with Nino on one side of him and Koharu on the other, but neither of these two important people was the one on his mind.
He was completely and totally in love.
After a few beers, Aiba had finally relaxed enough to have a normal conversation with Ohno, who was happy the entire night. They had talked about art, baseball, the latest music artists, Sho and Jun, and he’d even told Ohno a little bit about Koharu, at least about her mature personality and the fact that she was so responsible.
They’d left much less sober than when they had arrived, and although he had been tempted to corner Ohno and at least give him a kiss, Jun had called a taxi for them too early and Aiba was on his way home before he even realized what was going on.
When he’s clumsily (but silently) opened the front door and discarded his shoes, Nino had been sprawled out in Aiba’s futon in the corner and Koharu in her tiny pink one next to him. There was a set of sliding doors that separated the small bedroom space from the rest of the apartment, but Aiba hardly ever closed them. He only did so when Koharu was already asleep and the photographer was forced to stay up late for work and he didn’t want to disturb her. But tonight they had been left open as usual and Aiba managed to cross the messy expanse of toys and made it through the doorway silently enough that neither of them woke.
Without thinking about it (they’d been friends forever after all) Aiba had climbed in right next to Nino and somehow he had ended up sharing a blanket with Koharu too by the time the next morning came. The photographer was conscious before either of the other two, even though he had been the one out drinking last night.
In his regular sleeping gear, boxers and an oversized shirt, Aiba forced himself up to brush his teeth and start on some breakfast. He wasn’t a great cook, but if he didn’t do it Nino certainly wouldn’t, and he had become a little better since he’d taken Koharu in.
When Aiba had just started cracking the eggs in a frying pan to make an omelet, Koharu stumbled into the kitchen area, rubbing her eyes and still dressed in her favorite pink pajamas, and immediately staggered over to Aiba, hugging his leg and resting her head against his hip.
“’Morning, Haru.”
“Good morning, Masaki.”
“Did you have fun last night?” he asked cheerfully; Aiba really wanted to hug her, but both of his hands were occupied by a skillet and a spatula.
“We played Mario Kart for a long time.”
“You must be getting good at it then. Do you think you can beat me?” Aiba asked with a grin and Koharu snickered. Aiba liked to play, but he didn’t have much time to, so he usually lost to Koharu and he’d never won against Nino. Yet.
Suddenly there was a knock on the front door and they both turned their heads in curiosity.
“It must be the mail or something…” Aiba said distractedly, and Koharu immediately released him to answer it while her father turned the heat down (he’d learned not to try to do something else while he was cooking) and found a towel to clean his hands on.
“Koharu-chan, good morning!” came a peppy voice and the photographer froze abruptly.
He wasn’t presentable.
“Is Masaki home?”
And there was no way he could dash into his bedroom without walking straight in front of the doorway.
“Masaki, the mailbox man is here!” Koharu said happily as she bounced back into the kitchen, grabbing her father’s hand to bring him to the door. Aiba tried halfheartedly to stop her, but he could already tell there was nothing else he could do, and it would be rude to leave Ohno standing in his entranceway in any case.
“Ohno-san. Good morning!” Aiba said formally, bowing a little as the artist gave him a once over in his boxer shorts and large shirt.
But blushing, flustered Masaki was quite alluring to Ohno, and so he grinned happily even though he was probably making the photographer uncomfortable.
“What’re you doing here?” Aiba asked as politely as he could in a lowered voice.
The artist gave him a pleasant look and pulled out Masaki’s cell phone from his pocket. “You left this at the bar last night.”
“Oh… thank you…” Aiba took the item back, obviously not noticing until now that it was missing, and looked quite surprised at the revelation.
And Ohno thought he probably should be, since he had ‘accidentally’ kept it after Masaki had showed him a few pictures from Koharu’s school entrance ceremony, leaving the artist with a reason to meet up with him again today.
“You didn’t have to…” the photographer started slowly, looking down at the mobile, and Ohno shrugged.
“It’s inconvenient to not have it, right?” (Especially if it didn’t have Ohno’s number in it as it did now.)
An awkward silence fell over them, Koharu looking at him happily from behind Aiba (the three feet of hallway was only big enough to allow one of them to stand in it), and eventually the father jumped and darted back into the kitchen completely before backtracking to invite Ohno inside.
The artist looked around the small apartment happily. The main goal of his plan had been to find out where Aiba lived, so he could accidentally bump into him when he needed to, but seeing what Aiba’s house looked like was a nice bonus. It was precisely decorated, but it a way that made Ohno think that the man had simply taken a floor display that he’d liked from a department store and replicated it himself.
Since Aiba was leaning over the stove, making sure whatever he was cooking was still salvageable, Ohno decided it was a good time to stare at his ass and exposed calves, even though Koharu had wandered over to the guest and was trying to get his attention.
“Oh, that’s right. I brought something to give to Koharu-chan, if you don’t mind,” Ohno explained, pulling forward the shoulder bag that was resting on his hip and unbuckling it distractedly.
“Hmm?” Aiba halfheartedly turned around, but he was trying to flip over the eggs in the pan at the same time, so he didn’t even really glance at them.
“It’s a little stuffed bear that was just lying around,” the artist explained, handing it over to the girl, who suddenly had a bright smile on her lips as she held the animal tenderly against her chest. “One of the many of them that I got from the opening you attended.”
“Ohno-san, you didn’t have to-“ Aiba started, but Ohno stopped him, having heard that phrase out of him too much in the little time they had known each other.
“I’m sure she’ll put it to better use than me.”
“Thank you,” was the soft reply as the photographer turned around, the eggs successfully rescued. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” he offered right afterward and Ohno beamed. He would never turn down a cup of coffee.
“Why don’t you sit down?” The artist glanced to where Aiba pointed to a low couch, but it seemed far away from the taller man, so he shrugged and mumbled that this was fine. Especially the view.
Turning around with an expression that said Aiba had been caught off guard with the last comment, Ohno smiled innocently and leaned against the counter next to the sink so he could properly talk with the cook. Koharu had casually made her way to the other end of the room to play with her new toy, much to Ohno’s relief.
“By the way, how did you know where I live?” the photographer asked, filling up a kettle with water to make the coffee.
After a short paused Ohno explained, “Sakurai.”
Ohno had asked Jun to call Sho and find out where Aiba lived to return the stolen phone, and even though the designer had insisted that he would take care of it the next day, he was still drunk at that point and Jun didn’t run into any problems getting the address from him.
Aiba nodded in understanding, smiling briefly at Ohno, which caused a grin to promptly cross the artist’s face too, before he broke open the bag of coffee, the scent of it immediately drifting through the air.
“Any plans for today?” Ohno asked quietly, wondering if he was being too forward.
He was unsure of himself and his actions from last night and this morning for a few seconds as Aiba turned away from him shyly. Maybe he should try to go about this in a more traditional way instead of rushing so much… But it was quite possibly the first time that Ohno had every been in love-really in love-and he wasn’t used to the impatient feeling that he had been carrying around with him since he had set eyes on Aiba for the first time.
“I was going to take Haru to-“
“Is that coffee?”
Ohno jumped at the new voice directly behind him and spun around to find a man about as tall as himself shuffling towards them, half asleep. He looked disheveled and was blinking groggily as he came out from a side room, where a futon was obviously in recent use.
Suddenly swallowing, but trying to remain calm in this new situation (he’d been sure that Masaki was single, but if that were the case, what was this guy doing here?), Ohno greeted the new man as casually as possible with a, “Yep.”
Although he really wanted that coffee (and maybe some Masaki to go with it), the artist thought it was probably better to make a vague excuse and head out. He was very insecure of this situation and he wanted to consult Jun (who would probably consult Sho) before he made his next move. Jun knew better than him how the ins and outs of relationships worked and how to interpret the situation properly. Ohno didn’t want to make a mistake that might mess everything up, so it might better to take the patient way out, even though the artist was feeling anything but that.
“Ah, Nino, I forgot you were here!” Aiba blinked, looking quite genuinely surprised and the lethargic man looked annoyed in return.
“I watched Koharu for you all last night and you forgot me?”
Ohno had just been opening his mouth to make his excuse to leave, but stopped at those words. He was sort of confused now… was this a boyfriend or not?
Nino took a step closer to Aiba, trying to look intimidating, which would have scared Ohno a little if it had been him, but the photographer casually shrugged and turned back to the coffee.
“We shared a bed last night and you forgot me?” he continued to whine, trying to get Aiba’s attention, and Ohno was just about to apologize and make that excuse again, especially after Koharu’s father looked embarrassed and made an effort to silence the other man.
But if the guy named Nino had to mention that they had shared a bed last night, it probably meant it didn’t occur very often.
“Shut up,” Aiba whispered with a glance at Ohno, and the artist ruffled when Nino turned his gaze to him too. Suddenly the photographer looked like he’d made a mistake and hit his palm against his forehead gently, averting his eyes from either of the kitchen’s other occupants.
“Hi, I’m Nino,” the new man offered, holding his hand for a shake, and even though Ohno had already heard his name, he complied anyway and revealed his own.
Nino’s eyes narrowed suddenly and he gave the artist a once over while Aiba turned away shyly.
“Did Aiba invite you for breakfast or something?”
Ohno wanted to get offended at the tone of voice the other man used, but he let it roll off his shoulders instead and explained, “I brought over his cell phone. He forgot it last night.”
A smirk slid across Nino’s face and he slowly returned his gaze to Aiba, who had stepped away from the pair and was pretending to look in the fridge even though he wasn’t getting anything out of it.
“Haru-chan, is this the mailbox man?” he called to the girl instead, who had lined up her sparse collection of stuffed animals and dolls on top of the couch, the new bear in the middle of the rest, and she didn’t even bother to turn to Nino before confirming his suspicion.
“Yes. We shared some cake at the party Masaki took me to.”
The artist couldn’t decipher the implications that went along with that question, so instead he readjusted his shoulder bag and cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your breakfast. I guess I’d better get going-“ he started to say politely, but before Aiba could turn around and give him a horrified look (which he did), Nino was already stopping him.
“No need. We’d be thrilled to have you for breakfast. Especially Aiba, he loves a nice, tender piece of-“
“Nino!” A bag of bread hit him in the back of the head and he stopped in mid-sentence, even though the dirty smirk never left his lips. ”Go play with Haru!”
After sending a light glare towards Aiba, the smaller man’s expression lightened and he said under his breath, “Seriously, if you have the time you should stay,” with a twinkle in his eye before he slunk into the living area to examine Koharu’s new bear. Besides, I already have a boyfriend, why would I need that useless, forgetful, gangly… Ohno heard Nino mumble before he’d reached the girl, as if he was telling her that instead of the artist.
“Sorry,” Aiba said quickly as his friend left, his face as red as a beet, and Ohno smiled at him weakly. “I wouldn’t mind if you stayed, though,” the photographer added in a whisper, looking back at the stove, where the water had been boiling for several minutes, and the artist felt himself blush too.
It didn’t matter if Nino was Aiba’s boyfriend. Damn, it didn’t matter if Aiba was straight and had a wife somewhere. After those soft words, it was official.
Ohno was caught. Hook, line, and sinker.
+++
A/N: I've been meaning to post the drabbles, so I've sorry that I haven't yet. m(__)m But, on the plus side, I decided to update this story every weekend that I can, so maybe that'll somehow make up for it...?
Fun Fact #2: In my first draft of this chapter, Ohno was a lot weirder than he is now. Since he's an artist I was trying to go a quirky rout, but yarukizero didn't like the OOCness much and after I re-read it, I decided to tone it down a little, leaving Ohno's character as it is now, still weird but more Ohno-like than before. His personality is supposed to be very naive about relationships and whatnot, but instead I think he turned out perverted/creepy in this part. I hope that's not really the case... What do you think? I hope that the next chapters will make that a little clearer. Also, I think Ohno talked more in this chapter than anything I've written before. =A=
By the way Ohno sneakily putting his number into Aiba's phone reminded me of Arashi ni Shiyagare last night even though I wrote this months ago. >.<
Sorry for the long A/N. Comments and criticism are always welcome. :)
Chapter three