Nattergal 13/16
Title: Nattergal
Pairing(s): Ohno/Sho
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nope
Word count: 1,632
Summary: AU. Forced to marry against their wills, Sho and Ohno embark on a journey to salvage the rest of their lives and their life together.
Authors' notes: Every Sunday, I think wow, look at what we made together.
The stack of notes that the three of them make from Machida’s documents towers over the original stack of documents.
It tilts on its side precariously, and while Nino is still obliged to be respectful and polite in Ohno’s presence, he jokes that it resembles the Tower of Pisa. Ohno laughs because Nino walked into his life along with Sho and has become his friend. (Even though Sho has surely become something a lot more.)
There are only two days left to the trial. All of them have stepped up their pace, devouring all the documents they can, and producing more and more evidences until all their heads are thick and stuffed with points and more points.
Ohno has moved his seat to share the desk with Sho. The makeshift table stands forlornly in the corner. It watches them and their stolen kisses when Nino leaves the room for water and food.
*
In the early afternoon, Ohno stands up, stretches and leaves the room.
Sho only follows his back until it disappears, then he returns to the lines of words and mumbling under his breath.
Ohno returns shortly with a huge heavy sagging tube in tow. Nino hurries to help him, and Sho watches in wide-eyed, disbelieving surprise as they roll the tube open carefully to reveal a single piece of paper that covers the entire floor of the room. The paper is unblemished and pure in its whiteness.
Ohno steps over to the desk and picks up the thickest darkest marker they have. He uncaps it with an expectant smile in Sho’s direction, before his movements become brisk.
“Sho,” and Sho feels himself stand in the face of Ohno’s determined eyes. Ohno gets on his knees, and in the middle of the paper writes Ito Noboru. He looks over his shoulder and meets Sho’s eyes. “What do we know about him?”
And Sho snaps from his astonishment to a flurry of his limbs organizing themselves. He knows it from memory, has spent nights and days linking new information, all to this first clue.
“He is the highest ranking official in the Military, Chief Minister of Military Staff.” Sho recites without missing a beat. Ohno nods, draws an arrow from the name and writes.
“Sho’s father suggests that the government reduce spending for the army. Ito is not pleased. ‘Our country must be stronger and more powerful, we need to take over the world’ yada yada. He sets Sho’s father up. The end.”
Beat.
“What - Nino -” Sho cannot help shaking from head to toe, reveling in the lightness in his chest. Ohno has collapsed on the paper, laughing. Sho sees that he is trying not to move too much lest the paper tears.
“The way you put it -” Sho gasps out between giggles, and Nino crosses his legs and strikes a pose.
“I know - I am amazing.” Nino flicks his hair appropriately.
And both Ohno and Sho start laughing all over again.
*
They work throughout the night, taking turns and changing coloured markers with each point of intersection.
The house is unmoving. Crickets sing from outside the window.
Nino is already asleep at the desk, small frame hunched around the edge of the table. Ohno tells a passing servant that Sho has asked for Nino to serve him and tells her that Nino will not be returning to the servant’s quarters tonight.
Sho falls asleep halfway through the night, marker falling from his hand. Ohno caps the marker and eases Sho under the covers of their bed. He kisses Sho on his eyelids. Ohno then goes to pry Nino’s fingers around the table’s edge. Nino sighs into his hair as Ohno lifts him up.
Ohno tucks him under the covers next to Sho and rubs baby-dreams from his own eyes.
Ohno uncaps the marker and works alone.
*
Sho wakes up in the late morning. He finds himself in bed and with Nino beside him.
Nino is small when he is curled into fetal position. Sho sits up, trying not to shake the bed too much. He blinks blearily while his bearings return slowly. He cannot remember falling into bed, or Nino climbing in with him.
He scans the room for Ohno and finds him with his knees drawn up to his chest. He is uncomfortably asleep in the chair by the desk. A breeze blows in through the open window, and Ohno shivers in his sleep. His head shifts from leaning on the backrest to rest on his arms. He hums in his sleep and Sho smiles, all of a sudden glad that he can reach over to Ohno and draw a warm hand over his cheek without first asking.
Sho finds a clean robe from Ohno’s closet and drapes it tenderly around Ohno. He picks an abandoned marker up and continues from where Ohno left off.
*
Ohno can see that Nino wants to make a snarky remark about it being his own fault that his neck is hurting, but Nino stays silent, because he is the reason Ohno didn’t sleep in his own bed, after all.
Ohno grins and Nino looks murderous (but sweet, Ohno thinks and grins a little more.)
He watches as Sho crawls on the floor, a marker between his teeth, and Ohno can’t help but chuckle.
For a split second, Sho looks like he is going to take offence, but then he sighs in exasperation, smiling as well as he can with a marker in his mouth, and then he crawls again. Ohno just watches.
“If you are going to be gross again, I’m leaving,” Nino says and frowns, crossing his arms.
Sho’s sigh is even more exasperated this time, and he sits upright, grabbing hold of the marker with his hand before talking. “I’m all the way over here,” he says and rolls his eyes.
Nino grumbles and sends Ohno a look he can’t quite decipher. “Behave,” Nino threatens.
But later, it is difficult not to reach for Sho, because Sho’s mind has evidently and inevitably caught up with the fact that the trial is tomorrow. And Sho still doesn’t have substantial evidence that his father was set up.
Sho is methodical in his research, but there is an air to him now that Ohno doesn’t like. It seems that the more desperate he becomes, the harder he pushes himself, regardless of whether or not he has more to offer.
So Ohno resolutely steps away from the desk and over to Sho, gripping at his shoulders. Sho makes a noise of surprise before he looks up, and Ohno is dimly aware of Nino making gagging noises, but he doesn’t care. Sho stands up, if a bit confused, but realizations shows in his eyes just before Ohno tugs him down.
Ohno doesn’t know if he’d be attracted to Sho if they hadn’t married, but they are married and Ohno is attracted to the Sho he has come to know through these weeks of extreme emotions. Besides, Sho kisses him now as if he means it.
Nino is spitting out impressive expletives somewhere behind them, but Ohno doesn’t care.
*
It has been easy to forget and get lost in the whirlwind of tangled webs, and only now does Sho feel more than inadequate. There has to be more they can do, more texts and documents, towers of information that they haven’t studied yet.
Ohno seems to have other plans, though, because he is attacking his mouth like a man on a mission, and while Sho just wants to keep reading, he can’t deny that his shoulders un-tense under Ohno’s touch.
The door to Ohno’s quarters open and close behind them, and Ohno pushes at his chest, at his side and Sho winces a bit when his back collides sharply with a wall. He pushes back, and he steers them around the paper on the floor, falling when the backs of Ohno’s knees hit the bed.
They tumble together, their limbs tangling and Ohno holds him so tightly around the waist.
“What if we fail?” Sho breathes. “It seems impossible.”
The adrenaline he has been working on for days is fading in the light of the coming of tomorrow.
“Forget tomorrow,” Ohno says and kisses him again. “Just for a moment.”
“But what if we fail?” Sho repeats and shudders as if he is cold, lowers his head and rests beneath Ohno’s chin. “My father will go to jail.”
“Even if we fail,” Ohno says, impossibly tightening his hold. “Even if we can’t do anything, your father will be proud of you.”
Sho feels all fight leave him. Just for a moment.
Ohno lies beneath him, shifts a bit so they lie more comfortably, and Sho breathes. In and out. In and out. He forces his eyes shut, forces his heartbeat to slow. Ohno’s fingers dip in and presses at the taut muscles and he sighs.
If they can’t prove his father’s innocence, the Sakurai name is tainted and will go down in history as the name that threatened the Emperor. If they can’t prove his innocence, Sho has no family left.
But that isn’t quite true, he realizes, folding into the man beneath him. Ohno will protect him. It doesn’t feel so wrong anymore to depend on someone else. Ohno, who is still recovering but insisting on being Sho’s foundation anyway.
Sho shivers again, but not with fright.
And then he goes rigid, and he almost knees Ohno in his haste to get to his feet. Ohno scrambles to his feet behind him, comes to stand beside him as he stares down on the paper.
He can’t believe he didn’t see it before.
*
Pairing(s): Ohno/Sho
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nope
Word count: 1,632
Summary: AU. Forced to marry against their wills, Sho and Ohno embark on a journey to salvage the rest of their lives and their life together.
Authors' notes: Every Sunday, I think wow, look at what we made together.
The stack of notes that the three of them make from Machida’s documents towers over the original stack of documents.
It tilts on its side precariously, and while Nino is still obliged to be respectful and polite in Ohno’s presence, he jokes that it resembles the Tower of Pisa. Ohno laughs because Nino walked into his life along with Sho and has become his friend. (Even though Sho has surely become something a lot more.)
There are only two days left to the trial. All of them have stepped up their pace, devouring all the documents they can, and producing more and more evidences until all their heads are thick and stuffed with points and more points.
Ohno has moved his seat to share the desk with Sho. The makeshift table stands forlornly in the corner. It watches them and their stolen kisses when Nino leaves the room for water and food.
*
In the early afternoon, Ohno stands up, stretches and leaves the room.
Sho only follows his back until it disappears, then he returns to the lines of words and mumbling under his breath.
Ohno returns shortly with a huge heavy sagging tube in tow. Nino hurries to help him, and Sho watches in wide-eyed, disbelieving surprise as they roll the tube open carefully to reveal a single piece of paper that covers the entire floor of the room. The paper is unblemished and pure in its whiteness.
Ohno steps over to the desk and picks up the thickest darkest marker they have. He uncaps it with an expectant smile in Sho’s direction, before his movements become brisk.
“Sho,” and Sho feels himself stand in the face of Ohno’s determined eyes. Ohno gets on his knees, and in the middle of the paper writes Ito Noboru. He looks over his shoulder and meets Sho’s eyes. “What do we know about him?”
And Sho snaps from his astonishment to a flurry of his limbs organizing themselves. He knows it from memory, has spent nights and days linking new information, all to this first clue.
“He is the highest ranking official in the Military, Chief Minister of Military Staff.” Sho recites without missing a beat. Ohno nods, draws an arrow from the name and writes.
“Sho’s father suggests that the government reduce spending for the army. Ito is not pleased. ‘Our country must be stronger and more powerful, we need to take over the world’ yada yada. He sets Sho’s father up. The end.”
Beat.
“What - Nino -” Sho cannot help shaking from head to toe, reveling in the lightness in his chest. Ohno has collapsed on the paper, laughing. Sho sees that he is trying not to move too much lest the paper tears.
“The way you put it -” Sho gasps out between giggles, and Nino crosses his legs and strikes a pose.
“I know - I am amazing.” Nino flicks his hair appropriately.
And both Ohno and Sho start laughing all over again.
*
They work throughout the night, taking turns and changing coloured markers with each point of intersection.
The house is unmoving. Crickets sing from outside the window.
Nino is already asleep at the desk, small frame hunched around the edge of the table. Ohno tells a passing servant that Sho has asked for Nino to serve him and tells her that Nino will not be returning to the servant’s quarters tonight.
Sho falls asleep halfway through the night, marker falling from his hand. Ohno caps the marker and eases Sho under the covers of their bed. He kisses Sho on his eyelids. Ohno then goes to pry Nino’s fingers around the table’s edge. Nino sighs into his hair as Ohno lifts him up.
Ohno tucks him under the covers next to Sho and rubs baby-dreams from his own eyes.
Ohno uncaps the marker and works alone.
*
Sho wakes up in the late morning. He finds himself in bed and with Nino beside him.
Nino is small when he is curled into fetal position. Sho sits up, trying not to shake the bed too much. He blinks blearily while his bearings return slowly. He cannot remember falling into bed, or Nino climbing in with him.
He scans the room for Ohno and finds him with his knees drawn up to his chest. He is uncomfortably asleep in the chair by the desk. A breeze blows in through the open window, and Ohno shivers in his sleep. His head shifts from leaning on the backrest to rest on his arms. He hums in his sleep and Sho smiles, all of a sudden glad that he can reach over to Ohno and draw a warm hand over his cheek without first asking.
Sho finds a clean robe from Ohno’s closet and drapes it tenderly around Ohno. He picks an abandoned marker up and continues from where Ohno left off.
*
Ohno can see that Nino wants to make a snarky remark about it being his own fault that his neck is hurting, but Nino stays silent, because he is the reason Ohno didn’t sleep in his own bed, after all.
Ohno grins and Nino looks murderous (but sweet, Ohno thinks and grins a little more.)
He watches as Sho crawls on the floor, a marker between his teeth, and Ohno can’t help but chuckle.
For a split second, Sho looks like he is going to take offence, but then he sighs in exasperation, smiling as well as he can with a marker in his mouth, and then he crawls again. Ohno just watches.
“If you are going to be gross again, I’m leaving,” Nino says and frowns, crossing his arms.
Sho’s sigh is even more exasperated this time, and he sits upright, grabbing hold of the marker with his hand before talking. “I’m all the way over here,” he says and rolls his eyes.
Nino grumbles and sends Ohno a look he can’t quite decipher. “Behave,” Nino threatens.
But later, it is difficult not to reach for Sho, because Sho’s mind has evidently and inevitably caught up with the fact that the trial is tomorrow. And Sho still doesn’t have substantial evidence that his father was set up.
Sho is methodical in his research, but there is an air to him now that Ohno doesn’t like. It seems that the more desperate he becomes, the harder he pushes himself, regardless of whether or not he has more to offer.
So Ohno resolutely steps away from the desk and over to Sho, gripping at his shoulders. Sho makes a noise of surprise before he looks up, and Ohno is dimly aware of Nino making gagging noises, but he doesn’t care. Sho stands up, if a bit confused, but realizations shows in his eyes just before Ohno tugs him down.
Ohno doesn’t know if he’d be attracted to Sho if they hadn’t married, but they are married and Ohno is attracted to the Sho he has come to know through these weeks of extreme emotions. Besides, Sho kisses him now as if he means it.
Nino is spitting out impressive expletives somewhere behind them, but Ohno doesn’t care.
*
It has been easy to forget and get lost in the whirlwind of tangled webs, and only now does Sho feel more than inadequate. There has to be more they can do, more texts and documents, towers of information that they haven’t studied yet.
Ohno seems to have other plans, though, because he is attacking his mouth like a man on a mission, and while Sho just wants to keep reading, he can’t deny that his shoulders un-tense under Ohno’s touch.
The door to Ohno’s quarters open and close behind them, and Ohno pushes at his chest, at his side and Sho winces a bit when his back collides sharply with a wall. He pushes back, and he steers them around the paper on the floor, falling when the backs of Ohno’s knees hit the bed.
They tumble together, their limbs tangling and Ohno holds him so tightly around the waist.
“What if we fail?” Sho breathes. “It seems impossible.”
The adrenaline he has been working on for days is fading in the light of the coming of tomorrow.
“Forget tomorrow,” Ohno says and kisses him again. “Just for a moment.”
“But what if we fail?” Sho repeats and shudders as if he is cold, lowers his head and rests beneath Ohno’s chin. “My father will go to jail.”
“Even if we fail,” Ohno says, impossibly tightening his hold. “Even if we can’t do anything, your father will be proud of you.”
Sho feels all fight leave him. Just for a moment.
Ohno lies beneath him, shifts a bit so they lie more comfortably, and Sho breathes. In and out. In and out. He forces his eyes shut, forces his heartbeat to slow. Ohno’s fingers dip in and presses at the taut muscles and he sighs.
If they can’t prove his father’s innocence, the Sakurai name is tainted and will go down in history as the name that threatened the Emperor. If they can’t prove his innocence, Sho has no family left.
But that isn’t quite true, he realizes, folding into the man beneath him. Ohno will protect him. It doesn’t feel so wrong anymore to depend on someone else. Ohno, who is still recovering but insisting on being Sho’s foundation anyway.
Sho shivers again, but not with fright.
And then he goes rigid, and he almost knees Ohno in his haste to get to his feet. Ohno scrambles to his feet behind him, comes to stand beside him as he stares down on the paper.
He can’t believe he didn’t see it before.
*