[Multi-chapter] Stepbrother (14/19)
Title: Stepbrother (14/19)
Paring: Ohmiya
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, School AU, Fluff, Romance
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story
Summary: Suddenly, he was there. Nino had never expected him to be there, and apparently, Nino hated him so much that it got annoying.
Beta-ed by
taboo3104, thank you so much dear :)
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Chapter 14
Winter came in the blink of an eye. When Nino noticed, the first snowflake had fallen from the sky.
It had been two months since Ohno left home. Ohno hadn’t come home once, nor did he call or send any mail or letter to Nino. Nino had been waiting since the day Ohno left, but after an announcement that he had come to the dorm and had settled everything, he heard no more news from Ohno since then.
It was frustrating, waiting every day for Ohno without knowing what Ohno was doing, what Ohno was thinking. Why didn’t Ohno call him? Nino didn’t know. He had been waiting for Ohno’s call almost every day, and he usually nodded off with his phone still in his hand - he was scared of missing Ohno’s call in his sleep. Every morning he woke up and immediately checked if he had any text messages or missed call, but it was always nothing. The phone was scarily quiet in his hand.
Slowly, Nino started to wonder what happened. Ohno wouldn’t be so distant from his family like this. What was wrong with him? Was everything okay? Why didn’t he call, or why didn’t he at least send some mails? Or else, why didn’t he send him any text message? Didn’t he want to know how Nino was coping with his life? Didn’t he want to know what Nino was doing?
Didn’t he miss Nino as much as Nino missed him, every day, every minute?
All those thoughts rolled in Nino’s mind, didn’t let him relax even in his sleep. Everything was just like a mess inside his heart, as he found himself so lost in the maze he had built within himself. He started to wonder, did Ohno meet someone? Did Ohno like someone else, and that was why he didn’t call Nino? The thought sent a painful electric through Nino’s body. That isn’t true, right? He had to close his eyes, reminded himself of Ohno’s promises and Ohno’s kisses back in the old days. He tried to find a proof that told him he meant to Ohno a lot more than that - Ohno just couldn’t forget him so easily. The memories calmed him down a little, but then he would get panic again, knowing that if Ohno was still in love with him, he was definitely sure Ohno would’ve called him, at least once.
Therefore when it was New Year day and Nino had a day off, he decided that he wouldn’t wait for Ohno to call him first anymore. He would go to Tokyo and find Ohno. He had to meet the other boy, because now the longing to meet Ohno was too much for him to bear, although he started to be scared. He was scared of what he would see once he got there - that maybe Ohno had changed his mind and Ohno even had someone else, and...
Nino didn’t want to think about that. What would he do if it was true, he seriously didn’t know. So he stopped himself from thinking any further. He just made the decision.
The New Year day, he was going to go to Tokyo, to meet Ohno again.
And to ask Ohno the question he had been asking himself for a thousand times and yet he still hadn’t found the answer.
Why?
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Ohno sat tiredly in front of the canvas. He almost finished his painting. It was hard to focus but he already almost finished it. Painting and drawing were now the only things that had meaning in his life. He tried to bury himself into those colors and pictures, tried to convey his feelings through his paintings, tried to express all his sadness, his hope in every of his work, although he wasn’t sure if anyone could understand it. He wondered if anyone could understand this hollowness inside his heart...
He looked at his painting again. He had to have two more paintings for the exhibition of the school next month.
When he looked up from the canvas in the second time, it was already night. He was too lost in his own world to realize today was New Year’s Eve.
He wasn’t going to go home this New Year though.
Not like he could.
Ohno stared at his work when he asked himself if everything was still fine at home. What was Nino doing? How was he? Was he getting sick due to this kind of weather? Nino would never take care of himself carefully enough, Ohno sighed. But Mom was there... She surely took good care of him.
Ohno still found it annoying that he couldn’t be the one that stayed beside Nino at this kind of time. Because winter always brought lonely to their hearts.
He looked outside the window. The snowflake was falling one by one from the sky, and it made such a beautiful scene that Ohno’s heart ached to show Nino this. He wanted to look at this sky with Nino, he wanted to have Nino by his side at this very moment while New Year was coming but he felt nothing but the loneliness covered his numbing heart.
The most important thing always remained in Ohno’s mind everyday was that important day they made promise each other. Would Nino keep that promise, Ohno wondered. Would he still be waiting for Ohno to come back? Did the cold treatment lately make him angry at Ohno? Did Nino feel disappointed? Did Nino get tired of him already and did Nino decide that he wouldn’t care about Ohno anymore?
Fear rose inside his heart, and he felt like he was surrounded by the dark shadow of their reality and it was suffocating him each minute passed. He didn’t want both of them to go through this, not when they were doing it alone, but still, it was the only thing he could do for Nino now.
It was the only thing he could do for their sakes.
“Tell me,” Ohno said in tears to his Dad when they were finally alone. “Tell me how I can prove to you that I really love him!”
Their mother was resting in her room, Nino was out of home for practicing at the music club. His father had taken Ohno outside to ‘talk about your problem’ . After a big fight, his father almost lost his temper and hit Ohno again, but this time he stopped himself before he could hurt his son.
Ohno could feel his eyes burning with tears of anger and frustration.
“I don’t want you to prove that!” His father nearly shouted, but then he realized they were outside and people could hear them, he lowered his voice a little bit. “I just want you to stop... this!”
“Why?” Ohno couldn’t help, his voice was shaking. He stared at his father’s eyes in disbelief “Dad, why?”
“Just because,” His father said, he looked angry, but more than that he looked hurt. Disappointed. Frustrated. “It’s your brother!”
“He has never been my real brother,” Ohno stubbornly said “We can love each other as long as it doesn’t affect others!”
“It does affect us!!!” His father sounded despair “Satoshi, you have always been a good boy... What is wrong with you???”
“I have always been a good boy,” Ohno swallowed hard and shook his head. Words slipped out of his mouth, leaving bitter taste than he thought “So can’t I live for myself just once, Dad?”
His father kept silence. He looked at anywhere but Ohno. He refused to look at his son’s eyes because if he did, he would see the determination of Ohno. Ohno wasn’t going to give up so easily.
“Please, Dad.” Ohno pleaded, he sounded so heartbroken that it hurt his Dad just hearing the tremble in his voice “Please give us a chance. Just one.”
When he heard no reply from his Dad and he saw the waver inside his Dad’s eyes, Ohno added quietly.
“You love his mom,” Ohno bit his lips “and I have always respected your feelings. I always accept what you want in your live. Please give me a chance... Can you, Dad?”
His father exhaled deeply. Actually, he had been thinking a lot about this. Seeing his son with a broken heart wasn’t what he really wanted in his life, but shock was what he and his wife had been experienced through last month. Everything was just like a mess in their family since the day he found out about the two boys. They had been acting selfish, he knew clearly, and though they were successful in driving their boys apart, he couldn’t stand the loneliness inside his boys’ eyes. They looked both so lonely that it hurt the parents deeply inside. They both looked so heart-broken, so tired that he and his wife couldn’t stand it. He wanted a happy family, not a broken one, after all. And he didn’t want a family in which the parents were happy but the boys weren’t either...
After debating within himself for a while, he opened his eyes in determination.
“Fine.” He said, and Ohno couldn’t be more relieved when he heard that. “Then I will give you two a challenge.”
“And if we both pass the challenge,” Ohno asked hurriedly “We can be together, right?”
“Yes.”
Ohno stopped painting altogether when that part of memory played in his mind. He closed his eyes, tried to suppress the pain tingling there. He always knew this would be extremely hard for both of them. And he had known it since he heard it for the first time. But because he believed in Nino, he believed in their love, he had accepted it. Because this was also their only choice if they wanted their parents to accept their relationship.
However, after two months of isolating himself from Nino, now he wasn’t so confident anymore.
Nino could hate him now already. He didn’t contact Nino at all after he came here. He didn’t even call him, didn’t send mails or letters, didn’t reply Nino’s mails and messages, didn’t go home for holidays. He had to separate himself completely from Nino since the day he stepped out of that house.
It was their challenge. If he could stay away from Nino for three years straight and they were still in love, they could be together.
Three years were a long period of time. Ohno didn’t think he could live without Nino even for three months. But their father had already decided, and there was no way Ohno could fight against that - not when finally he got a chance to be together with his Nino. So he had to graduate from University before he could meet Nino again. And during that time, he couldn’t talk to Nino, couldn’t contact him in any way. To make it worse, Nino couldn’t know all of these. Nino couldn’t know that he was in this challenge too. Nino had to spend three years wondering if Ohno had betrayed him, or Nino would choose to simply forget Ohno first. Ohno didn’t know what Nino would do, he could only guess, and only pray for the best to come. He just hoped that Nino wasn’t hurt too much... He just hoped that Aiba, or anyone else, could make Nino happy because he couldn’t. Not anymore.
He couldn’t stand see Nino being hurt every day, just like him.
Three years were so long that it felt so desperate for both of them. .
The fear suddenly was so vivid in his mind that it was hard to continue doing anything. He knew that if Nino got tired of him and leave, he had no way to defense himself. He knew that if Nino chose to forget him, all he could do would have been accepting it.
Though he knew he could never forget Nino. Never.
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A/N: Actually, because the story was moving forward like, 2 - 3 months after Ohno left, so I slowed down in the update just to make the feeling of "a period of time". Hope it works. Thank you so much for your patience dear :D I know it gets really depressed till now - of they being separated and such... But knowing that there is a way is also a good thing, right...? :)
Hope you enjoy the story <3 I know I'm slow at replying your comments, but I definitely will reply them all! I read every comment and each of them made me really happy. Thank you guys :D
P.S: Now the song Sayonara no ato de is playing in my head.