[One-shot] Disarm me (part 2)
Part 1
The following day, he got ready to go to work as always but somehow his mind wasn’t still focused so he opted to pass by the pet shop before going to job, to ask about the job offer. In Sho’s mind, the sooner he’d help the other, the sooner he’d been out of his mind.
As he walked towards the pet shop, he started to wonder if the shop would be opened that early in the morning or if he would have to wait. Anyway, he wanted to do it as soon as possible, he needed some peace of mind. As he was thinking, the shop wouldn’t open until half past nine, which meant he would have to wait for an hour and a half. But this couldn’t wait any longer to get this issue solved. So he called the office to let his secretary know he’d be arriving late that morning. He has decided to wait until they’d open the shop and ask about the offer and let the other know about it. If the job wasn’t available, that wouldn’t be his problem, he’d have done all he could.
He sat in a coffee in front of the shop to wait until the opening time, during the waiting time he started to wonder if he should call Aiba to come too, so it’d be easier to solve it faster and he wouldn’t have to see him any other time again.
He grabbed his phone, but as he dialed, he wondered if he’d be sleeping. After all it was pretty early and the other didn’t have to wake up early since he had no job… well, he’d wait four beeps and if he didn’t answer by then, he’d hang up. But just as he was going to hang up the phone, he heard the other’s voice through the phone.
“Sakurai-kun!!”
Ah, annoying.
“Aiba-san, I was going to check the pet shop to ask about the job offer, would you want to come by?”
“Really? Sure! I’ll go now, just tell me where!”
After explaining him where to go and hung up, he kept waiting for him in the cafe. It didn’t take much until a bouncy Aiba appeared at the cafe.
“Good morning Sakurai-kun! And thanks again!”
“Good morning and no need. The shop may be opening now so, shall we go?”
“Ah! Sure but don’t you have work or something? I can go by myself if you need to go, I don’t want to trouble you anymore.”
Somehow, the honest look in Aiba’s eyes made Sho want to stay and go with him.
“It’s okay, I… I’ll go with you.”
They started to walk towards the pet shop, Sho lost in his mind. Didn’t he say he doesn’t want to see the other again? He could have gone to work and leave the other alone instead of going with him. Soon they arrived to the now open shop and came inside. It was Sho who started talking first.
“Excuse me, I saw the other day a job offer in this shop, would it still be available?”
“Ah, sure! We are looking for a helper. Are you interested?”
Sho stayed apart while Aiba talked to the shop manager about his experience and all. Anxiously, he observed Aiba and the way he’d naturally behave that… happy. He seemed to have no problem talking to anybody and after some minutes he was talking with the shop manager as if they were friends. Maybe that was what Jun meant about something in Aiba that attracted people. And maybe, just maybe, he was starting to see it too… when he wasn’t annoyed because of the other.
In the end Aiba got the job, he was told he could start the following day and Sho found himself treating the other for lunch even if there were still some hours until lunch time. Somehow, Sho wasn’t getting himself or what he was doing. He was even wondering if being besides the airheaded boy was contagious but the smile the other gave him when he offered to treat him was enough to make him forget about that.
They started wandering around while making time and Sho found himself laughing sincerely at the other’s stories. He still didn’t understand how he could take his life like that, enjoying what he had to the max. Sho was envious, envious of the other, knowing he couldn’t be like that, that even thought he had every material thing he could wish for, he was empty, and everything in his life has stopped making sense. He followed his parents’ plans, he was wandering along his life emptily… Why? Why couldn’t he be happy like Aiba? What was he doing wrong? He wanted that, he wanted to be like the other but he didn’t know how.
“How do you do it?”
Aiba looked at him confused and Sho almost chuckled at the dumbfounded expression the other had.
“How I do what?”
“That, being like this!”
“Like… eh? Sho-kun, I’m not getting you…”
Sho tried to laugh about the whole thing, what was he thinking about when he asked that?
“Never mind, it was just pretty random. So, shall we go to have lunch now?”
Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. What was that? “How do you do it?” Sure, as if the other would give him the formula of happiness! His airheaded behavior was contagious? Or it was another thing that made him become stupid besides the other guy? Somehow, Sho couldn't find the reason of why he was feeling like that anytime he was with Aiba, that guy was nerve wrecking...
Soon, they arrived to a fast food restaurant since Aiba said he wanted fried chicken and that this fast food was really delicious. Truth to be told, it was the first time Sho had come to a fast food restaurant and he found himself lost in front of the counter when the girl asked him what did he want.
"I...."
He had no clue what he wanted, why would nobody come to him with the menu and suggest him what he could take? Right there he noticed Aiba getting closer to him and making the order for both.
"We'll take a big bucket, with sauce please, and uhmmm coke goes fine?"
"Eh? Ah... yes."
"A bottle of coke and two cups."
While they waited for their order Aiba was looking at Sho with a smirk in his face.
"What?"
"Nothing... just... what kind of child or teenager were you? It really looks as if it was the first time you come to a place like this."
Aiba's laughed as Sho replied the question. "Well, it is the first time I come to a place like this."
He didn't intend to sound hard but he didn't see why being the first time in a fast food restaurant would be funny.
"Ah... sorry then but... are you serious? You've never come to any?"
"No I... normally I go to eat to quite different places."
For some reason, it was hard to imagine the people with whom he'd usually go to have lunch in a place like this.
"Well, then here goes a new experience... I didn't expect the perfect Sakurai Sho to get that pitiful when she asked you what you wanted." Aiba kept laughing and at some point Sho started to laugh too, even if they were laughing about him being helpless.
Once they got their order and sat on one of the tables Sho looked around, the place was noisy, full of children and people were talking too loud (including Aiba, obviously) but he found himself not caring, it was fun and it felt nice eating there, able to laugh and try to make (lame) jokes while that.
But sadly, he had to go back to reality. He had skipped the whole morning from work because of no reason, or at least nothing that would be considered a reason by his father. So he’d just have to go back to the office and work until late to recover the last time, it was the right thing to do.
From that day on, Sho found himself looking for Aiba more and more and he couldn’t really get why. Everyday he’d go home to have lunch, just to pass along the shop and being able to great him and some days even have lunch with him. But if you asked Sho, Aiba was still really annoying and way too cheerful. In Sho’s mind, it was just to prove himself that he had chosen the right path in life, being an important person, having a good job, and living a safe life… even when he himself knew that was such a big lie.
The truth was, sharing time with Aiba was helping him to be at ease, to realize that he could also do what he wanted and not what was expected from him. He had learnt in those days with Aiba more than he had in his whole life. He could lie freely, he could make mistakes, he could act stupid in front of him and he wouldn’t be judged. He wouldn’t be told that was wrong and that he should focus on being the best in all, in reaching the top not caring about anyone.
He had started to act more friendly at work, he would relax and start enjoying what he did. He was finally doing it because of himself and not because it was what his parents were expecting from him.
All his life, he’d been following a chosen path, not stopping to think if that was what he wanted, just doing what was expected from him. But with Aiba, it was all different, and the emptiness that had been in his life always, was fading away. But that wasn’t something he’d allow himself to say aloud, no matter how often Ohno would tell him to stop lying to himself.
That day again, he was having lunch with Aiba in a little bar close to Aiba’s work place that had became their usual place. But Sho was definitely not in the best mood to be able to deal with Aiba’s careless ways. The day at work had been hectic and he was again under the pressure of doing what he was supposed to do.
“Sho-chan.” Somehow around the way, he had became ‘Sho-chan’ for the other and normally he would just let it pass but his current fickle mood was not the best to deal with that much friendliness, after all, they had just know each other for a short period of time. “I think you should relax some more and try to enjoy life, you’re way too---“
That was it, what did the other know about it? He was just a careless idiot that did nothing with his life and even needed his help to find a job so he wouldn’t end up living in the street. What would he know of what Sho should do?
“What do you know?! You know nothing so just shut up, will you? You’re annoying.”
Sho was mad enough to not even regret his words at that same moment but at the same time he knew he would regret them later. After all, the other had been nothing but nice to him without any interest, despite how coldly he had treated him at first.
“That’s right, sorry. Think I should go back to work. Have a nice day Sakurai-san.”
Sho was left like that in the bar, telling himself he didn’t care about the other leaving. He didn’t need him around, as he didn’t need anybody. He was good enough on his own, people were not important for his life… Aiba was not important. Even when he really was.
It had been a week since that afternoon when Aiba had left Sho in the bar and no matter how much Sho tried to convince himself he didn’t regret snapping at Aiba, the truth was he did… a lot. His days seemed longer and that feeling of emptiness was back with full force. He had gotten moodier and would boss around more than normally at work, not caring about anything, he was there to be on the top and for that, nobody but him was needed.
But no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t keep Aiba out of his mind for too long and the guilty feeling remembering his face as he snapped at him would hurt him like nothing had had in his whole life. He tried calling Ohno and talking about it, after all, it was just that he needed to let it go and move on. That was it.
“Sho-kun, you should stop hurting you both…”
Somehow, Ohno’s words got him even more confused and frustrated. He wasn’t anybody with that, that was how things were supposed to be. He didn’t need people and he so didn’t need Aiba in his life… and Aiba didn’t need him either. He could be the perfectly cheerful guy without having to stand his blue presence around him. But then why couldn’t he stop thinking about him and that stupid smile.
He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t work, he didn’t want to eat… but he would still admit to himself that it wasn’t because of not having Aiba close, because that couldn’t be… right?
It took him a week to reach his limit. A week to stop running from his own mind and face the fact that he missed Aiba… and he missed him so badly. He missed him until the point it was annoying but there was still a problem: his pride that wouldn’t allow him to call Aiba and apologize.
“What’s wrong with you Sakurai?” Sho was frustrated, like he’d never been before in his whole life. Not even when he heard the usual comments of ‘he’s just here because he’s the boss’s son’. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Aiba. Sunday arrived again, a week and four days after the last day, and he had spent the whole night thinking about him, unable to sleep. Thinking about how he missed his presence and his smile and how much he wanted to be the reason for his smiles and take care of him and hug him and… wait? What?
Sho grabbed his keys and started walking to the park, not caring he was wearing his worst sweatpants or that he hadn’t even washed his face. He just walked there, knowing exactly what he was looking for. And he found it as soon as he arrived, sitting in the usual bench and feeding the pigeons. He took a deep breath, got closer and started to talk without waiting for the other to even notice his presence.
“I was an idiot. And… I’m sorry. I miss you and it’s stupid because why could I miss you, right? But then suddenly my life went back to be empty and I can’t work, I can’t sleep, I can’t eat and it’s your fault! Why did you have to appear and mess up with me? I was fine all by myself without needing you at every moment and---“
His speech was suddenly stopped with a pair of lips over his and his mind went blank. It took him some seconds to react to the fact that the person who’s been missing in his life for the last days was kissing him, that it was exactly what he needed and started kissing him back.
As they broke the kiss, it was all clear, this was what he had needed all his life, this was what he wanted. He wanted him and he was willing to do anything to keep him by his side. And he couldn’t believe the next words that came out of his mouth. “I think I like you.”
“Took you long enough to realize, I’ve been waiting for you all this time.”
Six months ago, if you'd ask Sakurai Sho about Aiba Masaki, he'd tell you he's the most annoying, childish and irrational person he's ever met…
But now, things had changed. Aiba Masaki was sunshine, was joy... was the person that saved him from the darkness, from the emptiness his life was. He was the only thing he wouldn't risk to lose, the thing he'd fight to keep. The person for who he was going to fight… no matter what.
A/N: It was longer than I remembered it...