tell me why, take me faraway
It's a few hours early, but happy birthday, fluttering! ♥ Thank you for always being so sweet and so much fun to talk to. I hope that you have the happiest of happy birthdays! :) This isn't much, but I hope it will do.
Title: The Five Habits of Highly Effective Riidaas
Author: waxrose
Rating: PG
Length: ~2,000 words
Pairing(s): Ohno/Arashi
Author's Notes: Thank to omnipresentdmat for coaching me through my slump and checking this over for me - I ♥ you, Captain! :) This is a birthday gift for the the always lovely and wonderful fluttering. ♥
"Superior leaders get things done with very little motion. They impart instruction not through many words, but through a few deeds. They keep informed about everything but interfere hardly at all. They are catalysts, and though things would not get done as well if they were not there, when they succeed they take no credit. And, because they take no credit, credit never leaves them." - Lao Tzu
"And finally, Leader...Ohno-kun. Even though you never really do anything leader-like, your presence and personality always makes one feel warmth. Thank you - you're very dependable, Leader." - Aiba Masaki, 24Hour TV (August 2004)
i. know when to take charge - and when not to
Ohno feels lost, swamped and somewhat out of place as he begins to realize what Arashi means, what it means when he matched Sho's rock with paper, not quite sure exactly what he had just won. For awhile, he blunders along, wondering what's expected of him now. No one seems to treat him any differently, even though they call him 'Leader' like a pet name, kindly and fondly, but humourously.
He tries to help organize the concert, concentrates on it until his head is swimming with details and the staff are pestering him with questions about things he has no idea about or no opinion on. It's a relief when Jun quietly comes in and mostly takes over, directing and discussing and debating with keen interest and an iron will behind his quiet, dark eyes.
"Sorry," Ohno blurts out awkwardly one night, when Jun stops by his hotel room to drop off the revised set list and a reminder about the morning rehearsal time. He picks at a thread on the bedspread. "I guess I'm kind of a useless leader, huh."
Jun blinks at him, lingering in the doorway of Ohno's room. "You do a lot for us." He sounds embarrassed at his own words, but there's conviction in his voice. "Just by being there."
Ohno feels a warm, happy tightness in his chest, even if he still isn't sure if it's deserved.
ii. communicate
Nino is in a black mood tonight. At the moment he's wedged himself into a corner of the overstuffed break room sofa, baseball cap pulled over his eyes, fingers viciously shuffling a deck of cards repeatedly.
Ohno considers asking what's wrong, but he'll probably just get dismissed and he can't think of anything it might be on his own. It's late and they're all hungry and tired and a little tightly wound after a long day, but Nino's been a little more snide than usual, remarks a little more biting, smiles curving more like smirks.
Ohno watches Nino's deft fingers shuffle and mix the cards, concentrating on it like there's nothing else in the room - and maybe to him there isn't right now, which hurts a little. Normally, Nino would want to be on the same couch as him, would have his legs squished up and entwined with Ohno's as they relaxed, would tell Ohno to pick a card, any card -
And then it clicks in Ohno's head like the simplest thing. Sho would probably shake his head, because Sho paid attention to these things, picked up on them and followed up on them, working quietly to mend hurts and broken hearts whenever there was a need, however silent or subtle. Aiba would laugh and wonder at him, because Aiba just knew these things, felt them instinctively and bound together the problems with sunshine warmth and laughter and love. Even Jun might have noticed before him, he probably did, saw a need to give some space and not to rise to Nino's baiting when his remarks got particularly cutting.
Nino glances up at him as Ohno approaches the couch and shifts his eyes back downwards, mouth twisting into a small frown. Ohno takes that as an invitation to sit down and leans against Nino's shoulder a little, not pulling back even when he feels Nino tense up a little.
"Everyone messes up sometimes." Ohno watches the cards as Nino continues to shuffle restlessly. Hearts, spades. "I bet even pro magicians do."
Nino stops shuffling, leaning forward to set the deck down on the table beside the couch softly. "It was embarrassing." They had to film the segment twice over after Nino had pulled the wrong card - Ohno remembers his red ears and downcast eyes as he fumbled the second time, trying to pay attention. "I hated it."
Ohno doesn't know what to say, so he nuzzles his nose into the juncture of Nino's neck and shoulder. Sympathy didn't really work well on Nino. And words seemed so drawn and pale to Ohno against the weltering spread of emotion he wants to transfer to Nino's eyes, to stamp out the dullness and make him move back into himself again.
But then again, the two of them rarely need words. Nino leans into Ohno after a moment, kissing Ohno's temple, his eyes a little softer.
"Want to see a trick?" Nino asks, sounding more like himself again.
iii. make the hard decisions
Things never really end for them, not in the way that Ohno had expected. It's more like a slow drift, a sense that things are splintering. They aren't quite as young anymore. They have surpassed everything they had already ever dreamed that they could. They each have different responsibilities now, different goals.
Most importantly, they have all reached a point in their lives during which it has become necessary to determine what to do for the rest of it.
So it was that - Sho's quiet worries about what a long summer tour might mean for his fiancee's wishes for a July wedding, Aiba literally collapsing from exhaustion while covering his regular work and the extra variety shows he had been working on as his popularity steadily exploded, between Jun juggling marriage and work with the strain all too often pressing on the marriage part of that equation and Nino looking desperate and furtive when his manager mentioned foreign directors and calls from America, offers he hesitated to turn down - Ohno observed this all and knew it was only a matter of time. They still all loved Arashi more than anything. They still continued to sacrifice everything else to stay together.
"A hiatus," he suggests quietly, when they are all gathered, without any staff and managers, when things begin to reach a breaking point. "We can't keep doing this. We need - " He takes a deep breath, feeling guilty. He is Arashi's leader. He's supposed to be the one to bind them together. "It's time that we all tried new things on our own. It doesn't have to be forever."
He looks around at the other members. There is confusion and hurt in their eyes, just as Ohno had thought - but there is also a measured silence, a shared sense that this was right, that what Ohno was saying was merely speaking to the stretching tension between the new demands on them and their desire to stay together, no matter what.
"No." Jun's arms are folded tightly across his chest, even as Sho reaches a careful hand over to rest lightly on his elbow, reassuringly, almost automatically. "I can't believe you're even saying that. I thought you cared about Arashi more than that."
"Matsujun -" Sho says warningly, as Ohno feels something inside him break, just a little, but Jun's eyes are dark and unrelenting. Nino, next to him, wraps an arm around Ohno's shoulders and gave Jun a look that is pointed, but gentle.
"Leader didn't say that he wanted Arashi to end." Nino's fingers are tight against Ohno's shoulder. "And maybe he has a point, if you stop being a stubborn ass and listen. Your wife is pregnant, for God's sake, and you're running between filming sets and arena rehearsals every night when you should be with her."
Jun sits up straight in his chair, expression dark, eyebrows snapping together.
"And Aiba-chan," Nino continues, not letting Jun utter a single word. "Do you want him to end up in the hospital again?"
Jun opens his mouth, but frowns and shuts it again. Ohno catches his eye and he remembers Jun running down the corridor of the hospital, unbuttoned jacket flapping ridiculously and eyes wild with fear. Jun barely left Aiba's bedside during those three days, even when Aiba complained that he was just tired and Jun should go home, should get some rest himself on a real bed instead of a creaky hospital chair.
"I'm just fine." Aiba says quietly, sitting on Sho's other side. "Captain, if this is because you're worried, we're all handling it."
Ohno shakes off Nino's protective arm, leaning forward in his chair. "This isn't about whether Arashi is important to us or not," He holds Jun's gaze steadily. "That goes without saying. This is about doing what we need to do so that we can come back together at full strength. We're barely staying afloat right now. We can't be at our best like that."
There is a long silence. Ohno watches Jun's downcast eyes, the way his fingers tighten around Sho's on the table. Aiba isn't looking at anyone, biting his lip and looking a bit watery-eyed. Nino has dropped his arm from around Ohno, but he stays close, their elbows bumping together comfortingly.
"For how long?" Jun finally asks, voice uneven and unnaturally loud in the empty silence of the room.
iv. set an example
After three hours of wandering through the increasingly thick and tangled forest, Jun's constant, dark muttering about what he's going to do to the program staff who thought that this would be a great idea for the special is starting to get old. Ohno can hear Aiba's teeth chattering from five feet away, even though Sho already wrapped his own jacket around Aiba's shoulders ten minutes ago.
They're kind of lost and Ohno's starting to think that this wasn't in the script. Their cell phones aren't getting any signals, which means that they're definitely a worrying distance from anywhere and definitely from the lodge that they were going to meet up at to start the canoeing segment.
"Guys, we need to find some shelter," Sho says finally, when it's dark enough that they all have to hold hands while walking so that they don't lose or trip over each other. "I don't know where we are, but we're not getting anywhere by wandering in the dark. We can try again in the morning."
"They're probably looking for us, so we'd better stay in one place." Nino sounds calm, but Ohno can feel his hand shaking in his and he's not sure that it's just from the cold.
The cave is tiny, barely an overhanging shelf carved into the side of the mountain rock, but they all squeeze in tightly, passing around Matsujun's water bottle, taking turns dozing and keeping watch.
"Leader," Sho whispers, after a few hours have passed. Ohno is studying the stars. They look clearer out here. There are constellations he's never seen before. Sho's is shivering, pressed against his side and Ohno suddenly wishes that he hadn't taken the spare blanket out of his backpack so that it would be lighter on the climb. "Are you scared?"
Ohno listened to the creaking, chirping night sounds of the forest. "A little," he admits, wriggling closer against Sho, trying to transfer some heat from skin to skin. "But as long as we stick together, we'll be all right."
Sho seems to relax against him. "You're right, Captain."
He's asleep in minutes.
v. set goals
"Leader, does Arashi have any goals for the new year?" The host inquired.
Ohno puffed out his chest importantly, thinking carefully. "Yes, this year -" He thinks about it a little more, than beams at the audience. "We're all going to take up yoga."
Everyone laughs and Matsujun squeezes Ohno's hand fondly (if a little harder than necessary) and smiles at the host. "What Leader means," he says smoothly, "Is that he wants Arashi to become more flexible next year. So we can all work together to try new things."
"Aah!" The host latches onto the shred of logic like a drowning man. "I see, I see. That's very important. An excellent resolution, Ohno-kun. Right, then - Arashi, get ready for stand-by, please!"
A lanky arms winds its way around Ohno's waist as they head for the side stage and he returns Aiba's grin. "Yoga, huh?" He tugs Ohno closer so they're walking with their sides pressed together, his words barely audible over the screams of the audience.
Ohno shrugs, leaning comfortably into Aiba. "I don't see why we need to take this whole resolution business seriously. We're always working to become better."
"That's just like you, Leader." Aiba kisses his cheek covertly before they break apart to get into position.
This, Ohno thinks as they wait, heart pounding in rhythm with the music, a perfect unbroken line of five, As long as we have this, we don't need any other promises.
FIN
cross-posted to jent_fanfics
Title: The Five Habits of Highly Effective Riidaas
Author: waxrose
Rating: PG
Length: ~2,000 words
Pairing(s): Ohno/Arashi
Author's Notes: Thank to omnipresentdmat for coaching me through my slump and checking this over for me - I ♥ you, Captain! :) This is a birthday gift for the the always lovely and wonderful fluttering. ♥
"Superior leaders get things done with very little motion. They impart instruction not through many words, but through a few deeds. They keep informed about everything but interfere hardly at all. They are catalysts, and though things would not get done as well if they were not there, when they succeed they take no credit. And, because they take no credit, credit never leaves them." - Lao Tzu
"And finally, Leader...Ohno-kun. Even though you never really do anything leader-like, your presence and personality always makes one feel warmth. Thank you - you're very dependable, Leader." - Aiba Masaki, 24Hour TV (August 2004)
i. know when to take charge - and when not to
Ohno feels lost, swamped and somewhat out of place as he begins to realize what Arashi means, what it means when he matched Sho's rock with paper, not quite sure exactly what he had just won. For awhile, he blunders along, wondering what's expected of him now. No one seems to treat him any differently, even though they call him 'Leader' like a pet name, kindly and fondly, but humourously.
He tries to help organize the concert, concentrates on it until his head is swimming with details and the staff are pestering him with questions about things he has no idea about or no opinion on. It's a relief when Jun quietly comes in and mostly takes over, directing and discussing and debating with keen interest and an iron will behind his quiet, dark eyes.
"Sorry," Ohno blurts out awkwardly one night, when Jun stops by his hotel room to drop off the revised set list and a reminder about the morning rehearsal time. He picks at a thread on the bedspread. "I guess I'm kind of a useless leader, huh."
Jun blinks at him, lingering in the doorway of Ohno's room. "You do a lot for us." He sounds embarrassed at his own words, but there's conviction in his voice. "Just by being there."
Ohno feels a warm, happy tightness in his chest, even if he still isn't sure if it's deserved.
ii. communicate
Nino is in a black mood tonight. At the moment he's wedged himself into a corner of the overstuffed break room sofa, baseball cap pulled over his eyes, fingers viciously shuffling a deck of cards repeatedly.
Ohno considers asking what's wrong, but he'll probably just get dismissed and he can't think of anything it might be on his own. It's late and they're all hungry and tired and a little tightly wound after a long day, but Nino's been a little more snide than usual, remarks a little more biting, smiles curving more like smirks.
Ohno watches Nino's deft fingers shuffle and mix the cards, concentrating on it like there's nothing else in the room - and maybe to him there isn't right now, which hurts a little. Normally, Nino would want to be on the same couch as him, would have his legs squished up and entwined with Ohno's as they relaxed, would tell Ohno to pick a card, any card -
And then it clicks in Ohno's head like the simplest thing. Sho would probably shake his head, because Sho paid attention to these things, picked up on them and followed up on them, working quietly to mend hurts and broken hearts whenever there was a need, however silent or subtle. Aiba would laugh and wonder at him, because Aiba just knew these things, felt them instinctively and bound together the problems with sunshine warmth and laughter and love. Even Jun might have noticed before him, he probably did, saw a need to give some space and not to rise to Nino's baiting when his remarks got particularly cutting.
Nino glances up at him as Ohno approaches the couch and shifts his eyes back downwards, mouth twisting into a small frown. Ohno takes that as an invitation to sit down and leans against Nino's shoulder a little, not pulling back even when he feels Nino tense up a little.
"Everyone messes up sometimes." Ohno watches the cards as Nino continues to shuffle restlessly. Hearts, spades. "I bet even pro magicians do."
Nino stops shuffling, leaning forward to set the deck down on the table beside the couch softly. "It was embarrassing." They had to film the segment twice over after Nino had pulled the wrong card - Ohno remembers his red ears and downcast eyes as he fumbled the second time, trying to pay attention. "I hated it."
Ohno doesn't know what to say, so he nuzzles his nose into the juncture of Nino's neck and shoulder. Sympathy didn't really work well on Nino. And words seemed so drawn and pale to Ohno against the weltering spread of emotion he wants to transfer to Nino's eyes, to stamp out the dullness and make him move back into himself again.
But then again, the two of them rarely need words. Nino leans into Ohno after a moment, kissing Ohno's temple, his eyes a little softer.
"Want to see a trick?" Nino asks, sounding more like himself again.
iii. make the hard decisions
Things never really end for them, not in the way that Ohno had expected. It's more like a slow drift, a sense that things are splintering. They aren't quite as young anymore. They have surpassed everything they had already ever dreamed that they could. They each have different responsibilities now, different goals.
Most importantly, they have all reached a point in their lives during which it has become necessary to determine what to do for the rest of it.
So it was that - Sho's quiet worries about what a long summer tour might mean for his fiancee's wishes for a July wedding, Aiba literally collapsing from exhaustion while covering his regular work and the extra variety shows he had been working on as his popularity steadily exploded, between Jun juggling marriage and work with the strain all too often pressing on the marriage part of that equation and Nino looking desperate and furtive when his manager mentioned foreign directors and calls from America, offers he hesitated to turn down - Ohno observed this all and knew it was only a matter of time. They still all loved Arashi more than anything. They still continued to sacrifice everything else to stay together.
"A hiatus," he suggests quietly, when they are all gathered, without any staff and managers, when things begin to reach a breaking point. "We can't keep doing this. We need - " He takes a deep breath, feeling guilty. He is Arashi's leader. He's supposed to be the one to bind them together. "It's time that we all tried new things on our own. It doesn't have to be forever."
He looks around at the other members. There is confusion and hurt in their eyes, just as Ohno had thought - but there is also a measured silence, a shared sense that this was right, that what Ohno was saying was merely speaking to the stretching tension between the new demands on them and their desire to stay together, no matter what.
"No." Jun's arms are folded tightly across his chest, even as Sho reaches a careful hand over to rest lightly on his elbow, reassuringly, almost automatically. "I can't believe you're even saying that. I thought you cared about Arashi more than that."
"Matsujun -" Sho says warningly, as Ohno feels something inside him break, just a little, but Jun's eyes are dark and unrelenting. Nino, next to him, wraps an arm around Ohno's shoulders and gave Jun a look that is pointed, but gentle.
"Leader didn't say that he wanted Arashi to end." Nino's fingers are tight against Ohno's shoulder. "And maybe he has a point, if you stop being a stubborn ass and listen. Your wife is pregnant, for God's sake, and you're running between filming sets and arena rehearsals every night when you should be with her."
Jun sits up straight in his chair, expression dark, eyebrows snapping together.
"And Aiba-chan," Nino continues, not letting Jun utter a single word. "Do you want him to end up in the hospital again?"
Jun opens his mouth, but frowns and shuts it again. Ohno catches his eye and he remembers Jun running down the corridor of the hospital, unbuttoned jacket flapping ridiculously and eyes wild with fear. Jun barely left Aiba's bedside during those three days, even when Aiba complained that he was just tired and Jun should go home, should get some rest himself on a real bed instead of a creaky hospital chair.
"I'm just fine." Aiba says quietly, sitting on Sho's other side. "Captain, if this is because you're worried, we're all handling it."
Ohno shakes off Nino's protective arm, leaning forward in his chair. "This isn't about whether Arashi is important to us or not," He holds Jun's gaze steadily. "That goes without saying. This is about doing what we need to do so that we can come back together at full strength. We're barely staying afloat right now. We can't be at our best like that."
There is a long silence. Ohno watches Jun's downcast eyes, the way his fingers tighten around Sho's on the table. Aiba isn't looking at anyone, biting his lip and looking a bit watery-eyed. Nino has dropped his arm from around Ohno, but he stays close, their elbows bumping together comfortingly.
"For how long?" Jun finally asks, voice uneven and unnaturally loud in the empty silence of the room.
iv. set an example
After three hours of wandering through the increasingly thick and tangled forest, Jun's constant, dark muttering about what he's going to do to the program staff who thought that this would be a great idea for the special is starting to get old. Ohno can hear Aiba's teeth chattering from five feet away, even though Sho already wrapped his own jacket around Aiba's shoulders ten minutes ago.
They're kind of lost and Ohno's starting to think that this wasn't in the script. Their cell phones aren't getting any signals, which means that they're definitely a worrying distance from anywhere and definitely from the lodge that they were going to meet up at to start the canoeing segment.
"Guys, we need to find some shelter," Sho says finally, when it's dark enough that they all have to hold hands while walking so that they don't lose or trip over each other. "I don't know where we are, but we're not getting anywhere by wandering in the dark. We can try again in the morning."
"They're probably looking for us, so we'd better stay in one place." Nino sounds calm, but Ohno can feel his hand shaking in his and he's not sure that it's just from the cold.
The cave is tiny, barely an overhanging shelf carved into the side of the mountain rock, but they all squeeze in tightly, passing around Matsujun's water bottle, taking turns dozing and keeping watch.
"Leader," Sho whispers, after a few hours have passed. Ohno is studying the stars. They look clearer out here. There are constellations he's never seen before. Sho's is shivering, pressed against his side and Ohno suddenly wishes that he hadn't taken the spare blanket out of his backpack so that it would be lighter on the climb. "Are you scared?"
Ohno listened to the creaking, chirping night sounds of the forest. "A little," he admits, wriggling closer against Sho, trying to transfer some heat from skin to skin. "But as long as we stick together, we'll be all right."
Sho seems to relax against him. "You're right, Captain."
He's asleep in minutes.
v. set goals
"Leader, does Arashi have any goals for the new year?" The host inquired.
Ohno puffed out his chest importantly, thinking carefully. "Yes, this year -" He thinks about it a little more, than beams at the audience. "We're all going to take up yoga."
Everyone laughs and Matsujun squeezes Ohno's hand fondly (if a little harder than necessary) and smiles at the host. "What Leader means," he says smoothly, "Is that he wants Arashi to become more flexible next year. So we can all work together to try new things."
"Aah!" The host latches onto the shred of logic like a drowning man. "I see, I see. That's very important. An excellent resolution, Ohno-kun. Right, then - Arashi, get ready for stand-by, please!"
A lanky arms winds its way around Ohno's waist as they head for the side stage and he returns Aiba's grin. "Yoga, huh?" He tugs Ohno closer so they're walking with their sides pressed together, his words barely audible over the screams of the audience.
Ohno shrugs, leaning comfortably into Aiba. "I don't see why we need to take this whole resolution business seriously. We're always working to become better."
"That's just like you, Leader." Aiba kisses his cheek covertly before they break apart to get into position.
This, Ohno thinks as they wait, heart pounding in rhythm with the music, a perfect unbroken line of five, As long as we have this, we don't need any other promises.
FIN
cross-posted to jent_fanfics