Jidai Fusion Paradise (3/5)
Oct. 14th, 2012 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astrangestormJIDAI FUSION PARADISE 3/5
The wedding the following day was a much calmer affair than the birthday party they'd just completed, but that didn't stop Matsumoto Jun from running the event like a drill sergeant. He'd gotten on Aiba's back about his cocktail making, insisting Aiba switch to bottom shelf liquor once the guests started getting drunk.
Ohno, Nino, Riisa, and Sho were on serving duty, and Jun was exacting about their manners in setting down plates and clearing them away. Jun even used a stopwatch, making sure they brought out the meals with precision. It was clearly weighing on Sho's mind, his tray quivering a bit as he made the rounds with the rest of them.
Despite their seeming truce in the van from yesterday, Riisa had been in a bad mood since they'd arrived at the banquet hall. While she wasn't overtly rude and she smiled sweetly for the guests, whenever she wasn't out on the floor she had a sour look on her face. Which was a shame because now Nino was kind of obsessed with her face. Maybe at this angle they had the same nose. Or maybe this one. He didn't know for sure, but he wished Jun had never said anything. Was this what he looked like when he was in a bad mood too?
They brought out the slices of cake, a chocolate with a strawberry glaze from Chocolate Disco Desserts that had thankfully passed Jun's evaluation. Even now Ohno was walking around on cloud nine, setting down plates with a huge smile. They finished distributing the cake, which gave them a break, and Nino headed for the kitchen, seeing Riisa just disappearing out the rear door.
Sho was busy dumping plates into the sink for the assisting banquet hall staff to attend to, and Nino found himself heading outside onto the fire escape after the newest member of the team. The banquet hall was a block from the beach, the fifth floor accommodations affording a fine view of the bay. The sun was setting behind them, and the deep red of Riisa's hair shone in the light of the pinkening sky.
She was leaning against the railing looking angry at the world, and Nino stood beside her. He pulled his pack of cigarettes from his back pocket, holding them out to her. She shook her head. "I quit."
Nino settled the pack back where it had been. "Alright then."
She squinted out at the water. "It's kind of pretty down here."
"It can be. If you're into the ocean."
"You're not?"
He shook his head. "I can take it or leave it really."
She sighed, turning her neck from side to side and releasing some tension. "So you're an indoor type then?"
"As much as humanly possible."
"Me too," she admitted. "How long until clean-up?"
Nino checked his watch. "In human time, ten minutes. In Matsumoto Jun time, eight minutes, thirty seconds."
She smirked at that. "You catch on fast, Ninomiya-san."
"Call me Nino, if you want." He turned around, leaning his back against the rail. "Not a fan of weddings?"
She bristled a bit at that. "I'm going to help Sho-san," she said quietly, moving past him to go back inside. So much for making any progress with the newbie.
He passed the rest of the reception in a daze. Drunken guests drifted around the room and the dance floor as the DJ finally shut his music down, Ohno and Riisa helping people get to cabs. It was hard not to notice that the spark was back between Sho and Jun, even though Nino hadn't been around to witness it the first time. Every time Jun walked the perimeter of the hall, Sho's eyes seemed to follow him, the sad desperate eyes of someone who hadn't known what he'd had until he'd lost it. In fact, Nino didn't think Sho had been this sad since the person roleplaying Tokugawa Ienobu had left Jidai Fusion.
But Sho was Sho and he had his rules. People like him and Jun, devoted as they were to protocol and the Let's Fiesta employee guidebook, wouldn't give in, would they? And Sho wasn't dumb enough to jeopardize his already precarious position, even if he wasn't fully aware just how precarious it was. Besides, even though Sho obviously had eyes for his new boss, Jun only seemed to have eyes for his job...
Until the evening was over and the banquet hall was nearly empty - and that was when Nino saw it.
Sho was escorting the bride's parents to the door, using his most winning smile. The smile that could probably get him in anyone's pants if he ever ripped himself away from his online roleplaying long enough to use it. And Matsumoto Jun, using his iPad as a pretend means of distraction, was totally checking him out. Even the cyborg party planner wasn't immune to the power of the Sakurai smile...and the Sakurai ass in tight slacks. Sho had said that Jun was the one doing the pursuing back in the day, after all.
Nino grinned. He wondered if Sho was going to end up cutting off his own circulation if he worked enough events with Jun in slacks like that. He was torn about what to do - did he have to keep them apart so Sho's professional demeanor would remain unblemished? Or did he push Sho into his boss' stopwatch-carrying hands? Was Sho's professional or personal happiness more important in the long run?
He smelled a liquor store coming his way, soon finding Aiba's arm around his shoulder. There'd be no more time to dwell on the tricky developments between his favorite boss and his new boss. Aiba was warm, as though he'd been out on the dance floor instead of behind the bar for the last several hours. He was all hands, taking Nino's in his own and dragging him to the empty coat room. It was still summer and none of the guests had needed use of the room.
"You really love weddings, huh?" Nino asked him as soon as Aiba closed the door behind him, thankfully twisting the lock this time to avoid a repeat performance.
"Nino," he said, his scratchy voice the only proof of his existence in the darkness.
"There a light switch in here?"
"Nino," Aiba said with more authority.
"Yes?"
"I really love weddings."
"Idiot," Nino said with a laugh, smacking at him in the darkness. He was really glad Aiba liked weddings. Well, not so much weddings as wedding receptions. To Nino, it was just an overblown celebration of something that was likely to end in a divorce down the road. But to Aiba, weddings were full of dancing and smiles and good feelings. And thus Aiba needed an outlet for his good feelings once things died down or he'd surely burst.
He'd been worried that Aiba had forgotten him, but that was far from the case. They stumbled in the dark, and Nino ended up on his back, pants unzipped and Aiba's mouth back where Nino had needed it for the past several stressful days. It didn't take much for him to come, warning Aiba with a hand to the top of his friend's head.
It was like all the tension in him slipped away and Aiba curled up next to him, chuckling in the dark. "You have no idea how badly I needed that," Nino told him.
Aiba sighed. "Looked like it. It sucks what's going on with Sho-chan. I'm worried about him."
"He's a big boy," Nino said. He didn't need Aiba worrying about what was really going on. "It'll all work out somehow."
He eventually heard the sound of a zipper and some rustling fabric, Aiba taking care of his own needs. Nino would help, but he was too relaxed to be of much use. But Aiba didn't seem to mind, humming some of the bad 80's music the DJ had played to wind down the night.
"Need me to talk you off?" Nino offered.
"You can just talk about anything," Aiba said, his voice low and sexy in a way that definitely didn't match his cheerful face. Aiba was even hotter in the dark, if that was even possible.
"Anything? Like the stock market?"
"Nino, you don't know anything about the stock market." And even still, the sound of Aiba's stroking was growing more aggressive.
Most people would probably be weirded out by a masturbating co-worker lying beside them in a dark cloak room, but Nino would never be most people. He turned onto his side, resting on his elbow and clumsily using the fingers of his left hand to pop open the buttons of Aiba's shirt.
"So when are you going to do something about Becky?" Aiba let out a quiet little grunt at the mention of the restaurant girl's name. "Well? She totally wants you."
"I like her, too..."
"What are you waiting for then?" Nino had the top of Aiba's shirt open, teasing his fingers inside to give one of Aiba's nipples a twist.
"I...I..."
"Masaki," Nino teased him, twisting Aiba's other nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
"She...deserves...better," Aiba said, in between little jolts of surprise at the movements of Nino's fingers along his chest. Oh Aiba, Nino thought. Aiba was damn good at his job, mixing drinks and entertaining guests. And he wasn't exactly hurting for money. When he wasn't on a Let's Fiesta job he pulled bartending shifts at a club in Mishima. Just because he wasn't a lawyer or something...
"She's crazy about you, though. And she doesn't strike me as the type to judge you based on your profession. You both like the same things. Dogs. Music. Being outside..."
"I'll think about it..."
Nino took his hand out of Aiba's shirt, sliding his fingers up his neck, tickling along his jaw. "How badly do you want her, huh?"
"Pretty damn bad..."
"How bad?"
"So bad...oh god, stop...wait, I don't have anything to..." Nino dug around in his pocket for a handkerchief, slapping it down on Aiba's stomach. "Thanks. Okay. Okay. Now you can keep talking."
Nino lowered his voice, leaning closer to whisper in Aiba's ear. "Let's see, what's sexy about Becky?"
"Her eyes..."
"Yeah, she's got some pretty eyes. So shut yours and think of them, Masaki. Think of her eyes, how big and bright they'll be the first time you go down on her..."
"Oh god..."
Nino smiled. Aiba was the absolute worst when it came to talking someone off, but Nino liked to think he knew a few good things to say from time to time. And even if it felt pretty naughty talking this way about Becky, who he did genuinely like and respect as a person, Aiba had only minutes earlier given him a fantastic blowjob and it was only fair to help him out in return.
"She's got that long hair," he continued, ruffling Aiba's hair in reply. "That long hair and those pretty eyes. I wonder what she tastes like..."
"Nino..."
"Shouldn't you be saying 'Becky'?" Aiba was close, Nino could just tell because the murmured "Nino" whispers gradually became "Ni...becky" and then "Becky" and then just incomprehensible babble.
"Oh Masaki, just imagine those big, pretty eyes looking up at you when she's got you between her lips..."
And that was all it took, Nino's voice and Aiba's post-wedding enthusiasm more than enough to send him off, his friend's ragged breathing having gotten Nino half-hard again in response. But surely the staff of the banquet hall would be locking up for the night and they needed to get the hell out of there.
He zipped his pants, listening to Aiba's breathy giggles of joy on the floor as he stumbled to his feet. "Your handkerchief," Aiba said, sighing in contentment, and Nino gave him a little kick where he figured Aiba's ribs were.
"You can keep that one. Buy me another."
They got up, just in time for a staff member of the banquet hall to come walking by. "Oh," the young woman said, "you're still here."
Aiba gave a sheepish smile, and let the woman escort them out.
**
The next few weeks passed in relative peace and quiet, all things considered. Jun seemed to settle in and settle down at the Let's Fiesta Numazu branch. While his perfectionism didn't really decrease, his demeanor did. He softened a bit at the edges, actually complimenting some of the work they did from time to time and ending each party with a "you all did great work today" remark that always managed to turn Sho's face red as a tomato.
Speaking of Sho, it was probably obvious to everyone now just how badly he wanted in Matsumoto's pants. Even during office hours when there was little to do, Sho sat at the computer, working on new designs for fliers, asking Jun to offer input on almost everything. They'd had an hour-long conversation the other day about punctuation alone. The two of them seemed to want each other fairly equally, Nino could tell. Because what else could change a guy's entire attitude as much as love? Well, Nino decided, not quite love because it had only been a few weeks, but lust at least. Maybe since Matsumoto knew his leadership would be the make or break for the fate of Sho's branch office, he wanted to keep everyone happy.
Ohno continued on his romantic baking journey with his three lady friends, sometimes showing up for work with flour or dried whipped cream in his messy hair. What a life. And Aiba had finally gathered up his courage and asked Becky out - a date was in the works as soon as they both found the same night off.
The maroon hair dye had been washed out, leaving a fairly normal dark brown in its place, but Riisa was still the girl with the same...nose. She still dressed in a bizarre way during office hours, punk rocker lite if Nino had to put a name to it, in sharp contrast to the Let's Fiesta uniform requirements expected during jobs. Nino had to give it to her - she sure could do a complete 180 in appearance from one day to the next, and that took real skills.
But her earlier bark was mellowing out the same as Jun's, although in a different way. Riisa seemed quieter, putting all her energy into being "on" during parties that she almost seemed depressed during office hours or clean-up after events. Nino remembered the way she'd stood on the fire escape at the wedding, looking out at the water, and he wondered what circumstances had brought her to Numazu and how he could make it right.
Because while Nino didn't like to meddle in the lives of people he didn't know, once he did get to know them he found it impossible not to take an interest in them. So for all his overt disdain for humanity, he maintained a soft spot for people who at least inhabited his personal orbit. It was just his way, which explained why Aiba had finally gone ahead and asked out the lady of his dreams. It explained why he sat at dinner with Sho some evenings now and listened to him praise all the changes Matsumoto Jun had brought to the branch office. It explained the personal brownie orders he placed at Chocolate Disco Desserts to keep the girls there busy, and thus keep Ohno happy in his personal life.
But Riisa had only been in Nino's personal orbit for a few weeks, not really long enough to figure her out entirely yet. People like Aiba and Sho were so obvious in their feelings and thoughts - Nino had only spent two nights in the dorm with Sho before realizing the guy was going to be an important part of his life. Some people were just easy. But then there was Riisa, tortoise girl, with her rainbow knee socks and her fire engine red lipstick. She was going to be tough to crack.
Had she been dumped? Was she unfulfilled in her career choice? Bad family life back home? She never talked about herself beyond a few little hints. She obviously was into clothes, carrying fashion magazines around and reading them during breaks at parties. She loved horror movies, since he'd overheard her and Ohno having a conversation about them at the office. She was an animal lover, since she'd recently started wearing a "Numazu City Animal Shelter" t-shirt underneath her zebra hoodie and tried hitting Jun up for donations.
He wished it was as easy to get to know tortoise girl as it was to get to know user:hattori_hanzo2. For all that the days at the office were calmer, the adventures of Hattori Hanzo and Murasaki Shikibu had grown wilder and more exciting. A time machine had crashed in the center of Hiratsuka, and off Hattori and Murasaki had gone, defeating armies of ninjas and ronin alike as they made their way up the Tokaido Road from Kyoto. It would probably take only another day or two of playing back and forth to steal the time machine and head off to parts unknown.
Hattori's player's odd way of typing had not grown old yet, and Nino looked forward to getting home every night and seeing where Hattori's wild imagination would take them next. Murasaki herself had developed some talents as required by Hattori's behavior - a stray arrow that had gotten lodged in Hattori's shoulder had required the woman to gain some skills as a medic. And Hattori wasn't just a silly warrior - though his replies were full of chatspeak and slang, his seeming respect for Murasaki was obvious. That their roleplay had yet to devolve into a sexual encounter was what kept surprising him the most.Their exchanges were silly and fun, not bogged down in drama or the painstaking attention to detail that one of Sho's posts would have required.
It allowed him to forget, if only for a little while each night, that there was still the possibility of Sho losing his job and how that might just ruin Nino's life.
**
It reached a month and a half under Jun's leadership when Sho finally broke down one night, calling Nino up drunk after midnight.
Murasaki and Hattori were a mere ten miles from Hiratsuka and had just been ambushed by a family of bears, and he felt bad shutting his laptop at the most critical moment. But his real life had to take precedence over his virtual life.
Sho was a mess, and in the years Nino had known him, Sho rarely got like this. Something serious had happened. Or, as Nino listened to Sho's story, something serious had not happened.
"You were absolutely right," Sho slurred, speaking far too noisily into his cell phone across town. Nino had to hold his own phone away from his ear. "You were right, Nino."
"I usually am," he said in reply, trying to lighten the mood even if it was unlikely to work.
"I went to dinner with Jun tonight," Sho said, the first time Nino had heard him refer to Jun as anything but Matsumoto-san or Matsumoto-kun.
"Oh? A date? And you didn't tell me?"
"Wasn't a date," Sho protested. "Spent threeeeeeee hours talking about next year's rollout of greener vans for Let's Fiesta. Hybrids for every office. Save the earth, you know."
Normally that was the kind of topic that could keep Sho's attention for twice as many hours. So what had changed? "Sounds like a step in the right direction for the planet," Nino said. "Hey, we could make the parties more green by having them in the dark. What do you say?"
"I was this close to telling Jun I liked him," Sho sobbed. "We had coffee and dessert and then I was going to pick up the check and say 'this one's on me, baby' and I couldn't do it! I just couldn't do it!"
Nino blinked. "That was the line you were going to use? 'This one's on me, baby'?"
"Ninoooooo..." Sho howled in despair.
"Alright, alright, calm down, where are you?"
"Home."
"Alone?"
"I'm always alone! Nino, I'm always alone!"
Nino suspected that Sho did in fact have company, but it was most likely a bottle of liquor that was going to disagree with him before too long. They had a wedding the following day, and he couldn't let anything bad happen to Sho. Not when showing up hungover might mean the end of the Numazu branch office for good.
"Do me a favor, Sho-chan. Can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah."
"Whatever you're drinking? Stop."
"But..."
"Think of what Jun-kun would say if he saw you right now. Is your face red? Are you lying on the floor in your underwear?"
"...I'll stop..."
He hung up with Sho, grabbing his keys and turning off his apartment lights. He slid his sneakers on in the entryway, taking one last look back at his laptop and opened the door to head out into the night.
While Nino's building was one of several in a block of non-descript concrete abominations, Sho wasn't afraid to shell out a little more. He lived in a newer building only a few blocks from where the river met the bay, and the drive was much quicker at night. He parked and headed inside. Sho was luckily still coherent enough to buzz him in, and he took the elevator up to find his friend curled up in a ball in the middle of his living room.
Nino ignored him, heading for the kitchen first where he found a nearly empty bottle of umeshu - thankfully the cap had been twisted back on, and Sho had at least obeyed him on that count.
Sho looked miserable, his hair messy and still dressed in the blazer, dress shirt, and slacks he'd worn to dinner with Jun. The clothes were now rumpled and smelled like cigarettes. He sat down on the floor beside his friend, ruffling Sho's hair with affection. "So you like him, you admit it?"
"I do," Sho moaned, sounding less hysterical than he had on the phone.
"And you wanted to take tonight's dinner, a business dinner, and confess to him like a kid in junior high school."
"You make me sound incompetent," Sho said with a sigh.
"Sho-chan, you aren't incompetent, you're just..." Really incompetent, Nino wanted to say, but didn't dare.
Sho rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling with glassy eyes. "I just have no luck at all. He's my superior, Nino. But how am I supposed to work for him when I want to...you know..."
"Bend him over and show him how to really plan a party?"
Sho was still a little too drunk to smack him for his lame innuendo, shaking his head. "We work so well together, don't you think so? I admire him so much as a colleague. I've been in charge here forever, but now that Jun's here things are so efficient and thorough and...stuff."
"So you think that would change if the two of you started fucking?"
"Ugh, Nino..."
"What? That's the heart of the matter here," he said. "You like him, and if you spent five seconds paying attention, you'd notice that Jun's got the hots for you too. He really does. I'm smart about these things, trust me."
Sho smiled. "When he's working a party and I hear him giving orders...it's like I'd do anything he says..."
"Okay, we're veering off topic," Nino said, not really wanting to go into this much detail about Sho's attraction to their boss.
"And when he gets all short with me and puts his hands on his hips and says 'Sakurai, this cake isn't going to plate itself'..."
Nino gave him a little tap on the cheek. "I get the picture."
Sho sat up, swaying a bit. "So what am I supposed to do? If I leave things the way they are, I'm going to get sloppy in my work. I'll spend party after party thinking about Jun and not about the job. I have a tendency to get preoccupied with things, you know."
Nino saw the stack of Tokugawa-era financial history tomes next to Sho's computer and smirked. "No, really? You don't say."
"But what if I do confess to him? It would be a violation of the rules for us to be together. I'm not a rule breaker. I'm not even a rule bender! And neither is he! He could write me up for that, and I could lose my job. Or what if I confess and he's all for it and management finds out and we both get fired?"
"Sho-chan, who is going to tell management on you? We're all on your side! Aiba-chan, Oh-chan...we want you to be happy, okay? I'm sure even Riisa-chan knows what's going on here."
Sho was quiet for a few moments, putting his hands on the table to steady himself. He looked ready to be sick for a moment, and Nino was just about to back away when Sho took a deep breath instead, looking far more serious.
"I've let seven years go by. People don't get second chances too often. So maybe I should just do something about it."
"Okay, great," Nino said. "Like what?"
"Gather my courage!"
Nino cocked his head. "Huh?"
Sho got to his feet, swaying, and Nino had to get up and put an arm around his waist, steadying him. He helped Sho move out of the living room and towards his bedroom. "Gather my courage. I need to have all the facts. I need to know how to talk to Jun before I can do anything about this. I need to know everything Jun likes. I can't let him down, not like I did in Osaka."
"And how do you propose to do this? You see him pretty much every day, so if you don't know him enough yet, that's saying something..."
Sho flopped down onto his mattress, the look on his face suggesting he wished there was a stack of Matsumoto Jun books he could use as a reference guide. "Nino, will you be Jun?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Sho looked up at him pleadingly. "Be Jun for me. Right now. Talk to me like he does. Be Jun, and then I can work through what I have to say. Like a rehearsal!"
Nino stared at him. "You're being absolutely serious right now, aren't you?"
Sho nodded, patting a spot on the mattress beside him. "Please?"
His best friend rarely asked him for anything. Sho was more likely to do anything Nino asked him to do, whether it was fixing a leaky faucet or driving to the store to get him medicine when he was sick. Sho was selfless where Nino was concerned, and he really did owe him everything. Where would he be without Sakurai Sho to look out for him?
But roleplaying was something Nino preferred to keep in writing on an Internet forum. And besides, the last person he'd ever want to be was Matsumoto Jun. He could never take himself seriously enough to pull it off. But then Sho's eyes were begging him, and he remembered his friend's sad voice on the phone, and he had to do something.
Nino was fairly certain that if Sho walked up to him and thrust his hands in his pants, Jun would be all for it. Jun just didn't know it because it was very unlikely to happen. Nobody was going to tell on them, and if anything, the two of them were so stiff and awkward that the obvious solution was to just get it on already. Maybe they'd both relax, and it was unlikely to hurt their work ethic. If they just got over the "will they or won't they" hurdle, things would even out. And if they ended up sucking each other off in a client's bathroom during a party, it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary at the Numazu branch office.
Come what may, Sho's personal happiness was easily more important than his professional happiness, and Nino had been a fool to think otherwise.
Nino shut his eyes, sitting down at Sho's side on the bed. Be Jun. Be Jun. Be Jun. Do this for Sho-chan, he told himself. For Sho-chan, who'd do anything for you.
"Sakurai-san," he said, his voice ringing out loud and clear in Sho's empty bedroom.
He felt Sho shift uncomfortably beside him in his still rumpled clothes. "Matsumoto-san..."
What would Jun talk to Sho about? "I found an error on the website. You used the incorrect kanji. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Sho closed his eyes, fingers fisting in his bedsheets as he tried to listen as best he could to "Jun" speaking in Nino's own voice. "I apologize, Matsumoto-san, for neglecting to have another set of eyes proofread the page. I'll go about the corrections immediately."
Nino tried not to laugh. This was already too accurate. "Don't bother. Have Ninomiya do it. Learn to delegate, Sakurai-san."
"Yes, of course." Sho licked his lips. "Matsumoto-san, could I have a word with you in private?"
Nino crossed his arms, trying to contort his face into a look of Matsumoto-esque irritation. "We have a wedding tomorrow. There's more important things to attend to."
"But Matsumoto-san..."
"I don't have time for this, Sakurai. Have you triple-checked the appetizer order yet?"
Sho's eyes opened wide, and he sat up. Nino smelled the alcohol on his breath. "Matsumoto-san, this is more important than triple-checking the appetizer order."
It sent goosebumps up Nino's arms. It was probably the lateness of the hour, not the way Sho's voice could sound when he got serious. Not that at all. He cleared his throat, rolling his eyes. "Fine. You have five minutes, Sakurai. And make it quick. Petty personal troubles are not what Let's Fiesta Japan is all about."
Nino was just picturing a scene like this happening in the office. It would be impossible, of course. There was no way the two of them could have a conversation like this without Aiba jumping in with a joke or Ohno sneezing and breaking the tension, but Nino could already see a change in Sho. Maybe he really was gathering courage from a strange exercise like this.
And he found that unlike himself, speaking in an approximation of Matsumoto Jun's voice made him feel more confident, more sure of himself than he'd ever been. For so long all of his roleplaying had been Murasaki Shikibu reacting to her environment - but maybe Nino had been born to play someone active like Hattori Hanzo all along...
"Matsumoto-san, I respect you as a colleague, and I hope as a friend..."
Sho was looking at Nino now, with longing in his eyes that was adding to the goosebumps raising the hairs on his arms. Sho had never looked at him like this before. Sho had rules. Sho was his friend. And now this was starting to get weird.
"Sure," he said in a flippant Matsumoto tone. "We're friends, if you want."
"And it's out of my friendship and respect for you that I've come to..." Sho's hands were on either side of Nino's thighs. "That I've come to..."
He narrowed his eyes at Sho even as his body was screaming for him to end this. Even as he was staring at Sho's lips, at his dark eyes. Nino would be lying if he said he didn't have some attraction to his friend, but since Sho had drawn the line so long ago, Nino had too.
But Sho wasn't looking at Nino. Sho was looking at Matsumoto Jun right now. And Matsumoto Jun was a man who knew what he wanted. "Well," Nino said. "Come out with it then."
"I like you, Matsumoto-san. A lot."
"That wasn't what you said back in Osaka."
Sho shook his head. "I was wrong. Jun, I was wrong."
Nino knew the logical conclusion to this. He'd been able to observe Matsumoto Jun for enough weeks to know what he'd do. Man, Sho was going to owe him for life for this.
He pushed Sho onto his back, straddling him. "You like me, huh?" he said, linking his hands with Sho's against the sheets. Ugh, this was weird. But Sho's eyes were squeezed shut, and he was probably hearing Jun's voice for real in his head, the poor guy. "You like me?"
"I like you, Jun."
He bent forward, kissing Sho for the first time in his entire life. He'd always wondered what it would be like. He tasted pretty much like anyone who'd downed most of a bottle of umeshu would taste like, a kind of sickening sweetness, but where he expected Sho to freeze beneath him, expected Sho to shove him off and say something like "Ew, Nino, stop..." he didn't.
Sho kissed back, parting those plump lips of his so Nino could slip his tongue inside. It wasn't like making out with Aiba, who kissed because he liked kissing. This was Sho, who had to consult at least ten books before typing out a sentence on the roleplay board. Sho who had worked his ass off in school only to get rejected from every branch of the government and sent to Numazu to cater parties for the rest of his twenties.
Sho was kissing him, kissing Matsumoto Jun, with seven years of built-up regret and dissatisfaction with his life. Sho was kissing him like nothing in his life mattered more than finally saying what he was feeling, truthfully and from the heart and with zero preparation.
It was in that moment that Nino realized how happy he was for his friend to be this passionate about something that wasn't fiscal reform. Was it weird that Sho had thoroughly convinced himself that the person on top of him was a stand-in for Jun? Probably. But Sho had repressed himself for far too long, and Nino didn't dare stop. Sho needed this.
Nino did his best to fully shut the Nino part of himself off, slipping into the Matsumoto Jun skin as best he could. He moved away from Sho's mouth, pushing his blazer aside and undoing the buttons of his dress shirt.
"Jun...Jun, I've wanted to tell you for so long."
"Yeah, I bet you have," he replied, sliding his fingers down Sho's abdomen, down the perfect abs that spoke of hours in the gym every week with little physical return on his investment. Well, Nino figured, if this incident really got Sho to come on to Jun, it would finally be worth all of Sho's time and effort. And Jun would definitely appreciate the view of Sho from the front as well as the back.
He undid Sho's belt buckle, hearing him sigh. "In Osaka...I wanted you so bad, you know. So bad..."
"Well you rejected me. I've held a grudge for seven years," he said, deftly making short work of the belt and unzipping Sho's slacks. He was beyond hard, and Nino reached for him, remembering only at the last second that Jun was right-handed, not left-handed like Nino himself. If the sensation was off in Sho's imagination, he didn't seem to notice.
"Touch me," Sho begged him, two words Nino never thought he'd hear from his best friend's lips.
He jerked Sho hard and fast. Matsumoto Jun was the efficient type, after all, and it wasn't long before Sho was panting, his frothy, saccharine-sweet love for Jun bubbling from his lips in sighs and moans. Nino hadn't heard Sho make noises like this since they were in the dorm, and Sho quietly jerked off in the early morning when he thought Nino had finally gone to bed. It was extremely adorable, but he didn't dare say anything that might break the moment for Sho.
"You're going to tell me for real," Nino said to Sho. "After the wedding tomorrow. Confess to me for real."
"I will, Jun, I will...don't stop..."
But because he was supposed to be Jun, he did stop. Sho moaned at the sudden loss of friction, arching his hips to try and rub himself against Nino's stilled hand. "Promise that you'll confess, Sakurai. I'm sick of you looking at me with those puppy dog eyes. Either shit or get off the pot."
"Jun..." Sho groaned, and Nino was utterly amazed at his friend's complete immersion in his fantasy. "Jun, why did you stop?"
Matsumoto kind of leaned toward the sadistic side, so Nino went back to the pace he'd set, watching Sho come close to the edge once more before stopping abruptly and hearing his friend whine again.
"Jun..."
"Promise me," he insisted. "You haven't promised yet."
"I promise. I'll be truthful with you tomorrow," Sho said weakly. "Just please...don't stop this time?"
"But you'll make a mess all over your clothes."
"Don't care..." Sho was desperate, trying to bring his own hand to Nino's to help him along, but someone like Jun wouldn't tolerate that for long.
"Okay, you asked for it." He ran his thumb along the underside of Sho's cock, stroking and teasing before taking hold of the bottom of Sho's shirt and using the fabric for an abrupt change in friction, hearing Sho gasp as he came moments later, the mess contained inside the shirt instead of ruining Sho's bedsheets and the rest of his clothes. Jun would be considerate enough for that at least.
Sho was exhausted, sobering up a bit as Nino clambered off of him.
"I'm going to sleep on the couch," he said in his own voice again. "You have to provide breakfast in the morning."
He was almost to the door when he heard Sho speak again. "Nino..."
He turned, trying not to laugh at the sight of Sho sprawled out on his bed, satisfied in a way Nino had never seen him before. "Get your shirt off and sleep, idiot. You have a lot to do tomorrow."
Nino shut the door and curled up on Sho's couch, a million thoughts running through his mind. This had been one of the strangest experiences of his life, but he supposed if it was really the push Sho needed, then Nino was the only one who could have helped.
Things were starting to work out for all of his friends. Ohno had his arrangement, and Aiba and Becky were starting their own journey together. At long last, Sho had someone in his sights, and Nino imagined he now had the confidence to go after what he wanted. After all, if you could be as repressed as Sho and still sit back and let your best friend jerk you off, a simple confession couldn't be that difficult afterwards.
But where did that leave him, he thought with a sigh as he huddled under one of Sho's blankets. It smelled like him, smelled like their dorm room had, and for the first time in ages, he felt rather lonely. He didn't have girls to fling flour at him. Didn't have a sweetheart at the restaurant with technicolor fingernails. He didn't have a movie star party planning crush who'd been waiting seven years to take that first step.
If the Numazu branch office shut down, each of them would probably land on their feet, right? Nino had spent so much time ensuring that his friends were pursuing what they wanted that he'd seemingly neglected to have any dreams of his own. Because what did he have? A job that he didn't like that had the potential to disappear. An online relationship that revolved around ninjas and bear fights. And the only people he'd been with recently, Aiba and Sho, had mostly needed him as a substitute for the person they really wanted. Hell, the only other person in his immediate circle of humanity was tortoise girl.
Tortoise girl, the only one he hadn't quite figured out yet. He remembered how she'd looked that day on the fire escape, sad and alone. They seemed to have the same nose, Nino thought. Maybe it would be worth finding out if they shared anything else.
**
If Nino had been worried that getting Sho off would have a negative effect on their friendship, there was nothing to fear. He woke, limbs twisted up in Sho's blanket, to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee and a plate of buttered toast on the table.
"Thanks," Sho said, sitting and watching as he woke up, sipping his own coffee. "Thanks for last night, Nino, really. I know that had to be odd for you. I'm really sorry if it was odd...I won't ask you to do that again."
Sho had clearly slept like a log, and even though his eyes were a little puffy, it seemed as though he'd avoided the dreaded hangover. Nino sat up, accepting the toast with a nod. "Consider it a special service. Now if you'd asked me to get on my hands and knees so you could fuck me from behind or vice versa, I'd have probably stopped you there."
Sho turned red. "Do you always have to say things like that?"
"Because of the things your face does when I say them, yes," he said, taking a big bite of his toast. Sho had managed not to burn it, something worthy of commendation.
"Well," Sho continued, setting down his mug, "Talking to me like him, that really helped, although I...don't think Jun would want to go straight to a hand job within five minutes of me confessing. Your characterization could use some work."
Nino laughed at that. "Yeah, sorry. I've always been quick to get to the point."
Sho laughed too. "We should probably get going soon. Shower's free if you need it. We can stop back at your place to get your uniform."
Well, if anything, Nino had gotten to satisfy his curiosity about what it would be like to make out with Sho. And now they were at least even as far as favors went.
They got ready, piling into Nino's car and making a quick stop for his clothes. The wedding was up in Oyama, just south of the Fuji Speedway, and Jun himself drove the van to the venue with all the haste of a Formula One driver. Riisa was sitting beside Jun up in the front, and Nino sat behind her. She spent most of the trip looking out the window, her now characteristic glum face visible to him in the side mirror.
It was a small wedding, just family, and the venue was a very relaxed room at a local inn. Jun still carried on with his usual exacting finesse, but Sho was visibly less nervous. His easygoing smile had returned, and he brought out the meal trays with a gentleness that drew Jun's eye like no other event had in weeks. It was enough to make someone barf, but Nino was fully invested in the tale of the stick up the ass party planner and his devoted subordinate.
Dinner wrapped up quickly, and they helped clear the tables to reveal a small dance floor. The couple had hired the Numazu team to handle everything, and DJ Ohno was in charge of the music, flipping through CDs at a large stereo they'd had to borrow from one of Jun's friends back in the Kanagawa-Shizuoka office. Once the music was going, Nino slipped away, finding the kitchen empty.
Sho was scrubbing dishes all by himself, and Nino looked around in confusion. "Where's Riisa-chan?"
His friend pointed to the back exit, and a feeling of deja vu swept over him. "She said she'd be back in five, but that was ten minutes ago." Sho held up his soapy hands. "I'd go after her but I have to get this done. We should tell Jun..."
Nino felt suddenly protective, seeing as how Tortoise Girl was the only one whose life Nino hadn't seemed to help improve yet. "You've got more important things to tell Jun. I'll try and talk to her."
The exit led to the parking lot, and he found Riisa sitting down on the pavement on the other side of the Let's Fiesta van, obviously crying. He knocked on the side of the van to alert her to his presence. She moved to get up, and he waved her off. "Sit down, it's alright," he told her.
She seemed embarrassed, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, Nino...I'm sorry."
He found himself sitting right down beside her, leaning his back against the van. "Are you okay?"
"No," she said honestly. Her hair was tied into two braids, one lying on each shoulder, and Nino had the urge to tug on them to try and get a rise out of her. If she was annoyed with him, she had little time to be sad.
"Was it that awful speech the bride's brother gave? About being surprised his sister had found someone desperate enough to marry her?"
She chuckled a bit at that, sniffling. "No, it's not that."
They stared off at their surroundings. The back of the inn faced a road and beyond that were a bunch of rice fields. Nothing as pretty as the ocean view at that other wedding. "We don't know each other too well," he said to her. "But you're part of our team. You, me, Jun-kun, Aiba-chan, Sho, Oh-chan...as cheesy as it sounds, we're a team. So you can tell us anything. Anything, honest."
"It's none of..."
"My business," Nino finished for her, "I know. But we have to work together, and you know as well as I do that we're in trouble. So if you're sitting out here while there's a job in there, that reflects on all of us. If you need a break, take a break, but if it might help you to talk to me, then talk to me. I don't want to go looking for you at every wedding we do."
He took a breath, deciding on his phrasing.
"We're worried about you, okay?"
She wiped her eyes again, waving her hands at her face as if it might stop the flow of tears. She was trying to be tough, but Nino didn't think she had to be. Everyone had their rough patches.
"It's weddings," she said. "Half our business is weddings. And I...it was just before I came here. I was supposed to get married."
Nino's eyes widened. It was almost impossible to imagine her in a wedding dress, unless of course it had zebra stripes or it was a mess of colors. But there was more to Riisa-chan than what she wore, and if he kept spending his time thinking of her by the costume she'd been wearing when they'd met or the stuff she wore every day, then he was doing her a disservice.
"We had been together about six months, so it was all kind of fast. But it was all so perfect. I had the dress, my family was coming up from Nagasaki, and we'd already registered with the ward office. You know, everything was coming together," she said. "Then it's the night before the wedding, and this woman shows up at the rehearsal with two little kids, I mean little ones, maybe four and two or something, whatever..."
He wanted to wrap his arm around her as the tears kept coming, but she didn't need him for that. Her sadness made so much more sense now, as did her standoffish behavior. The asshole who'd done this to her - Nino tended toward the non-confrontational side, but the desire to punch this guy in the face was a strong one.
"He was already married," she said with a bitter laugh. "Everything from the start had been a lie. His job, the things he'd promised when we started our lives together. I've never been so embarrassed in my entire life. He said he didn't care that I was weird, he'd told me everything I'd wanted to hear. And none of it was true. My parents spent so much money to travel, they'd been so happy for me. But I'd just been so damn stupid..."
"You weren't..."
"I was," she insisted. "We're in this business and we go to all these weddings, and we spend time with people on what's supposed to be the happiest day of their lives. And then apparently I'm not entitled to it in my own life...I just serve them cake with a smile and tell them congratulations. But I'll never get there myself."
"Riisa-chan..."
She shook her head, braids shaking with the movement. "It's irrational, believe me, I'm well aware of it. Jun-kun knows what happened, and he let me stay on, and he didn't tell management or anything, so when word came down about Numazu, he asked me to come with him, get a fresh start somewhere else, away from the bad memories. He's a good person if you believe me or not."
Suddenly, the Matsumoto Jun Nino thought he knew needed some revisions. He was good at his job, exacting and all about perfection. But then he also stayed loyal to his feelings for Sho after all these years. He wanted to save the Numazu branch office and had come here himself to help. And then he'd been there for Riisa in her darkest time.
Sho really needed to lock that guy down.
"I should go back inside and help Sho-san," she said, getting to her feet and brushing off her slacks. She turned to try and squint at herself in the van's side mirror.
"You look fine," he said honestly, getting up himself.
She looked down. "I've been telling myself to just be angry, be mad at the world. But it's too exhausting, and it's not the person I want to be. I'm not mad at the world. I'm just mad at him for what he did to me."
"But then weddings," Nino said. "Weddings just drudge it up over and over again."
"So far," she admitted. "And I've told Jun-kun, and he tells me to just take my time and work through everything."
"Did it help though? Talking about it now?" Nino was almost pleading with her for confirmation that yes, he'd helped. Yes, he'd been there for her. After things with Aiba and things with Sho, he found that his need to be needed was starting to take over.
She met his eyes, and for the first time, genuinely seemed to smile at him, even as tinges of pink darkened her cheeks. "Actually...yes, creepy boy, it did. Thank you."
"You still think I'm a creep?"
She punched him in the shoulder. "Oh definitely."
They headed back inside with grins on their faces, cleaning up as Sho looked on with a nervous smile. His time to shine was still on the evening's agenda, and Nino had already informed the rest of the group that Sho and Jun needed a little "private time" once they got back to Numazu.
They made it back in seemingly record time, Nino giving Sho a nudge as they got out of the van. "Matsumoto-san?" Sho squeaked in almost too high a register.
"What?"
"There's some files in the office I had a question about. Could you spare a moment?"
Ohno was standing right behind Jun, giving an enthusiastic thumbs up. Aiba was far less subtle, pretending to hump Ohno's leg.
Jun, thankfully, didn't notice the idiocy taking place behind him. "We'll get things taken care of," Nino assured them. "Have a good night."
Aiba got to Riisa first, offering her a ride home, which left Nino to offer one to Ohno. He happily accepted, and they buckled themselves into Nino's car as they watched the light turn on in the office upstairs.
"He's finally going to say something then?" Ohno asked, beaming from ear to ear. "Sho-kun's so cute sometimes."
"He's kind of like a drama heroine. Innocent, patient, ridiculously pretty," Nino said fondly. He didn't need to tell Ohno just what had given Sho the courage to confess, and he turned the car on, pulling out of the parking lot.
Ohno, true to form, kept most of his thoughts to himself as they drove along until they were just pulling up to his door. He leaned back into the car through the window, giving Nino a smile.
"Kashiyuka has a friend in Atami, a surfer girl friend," Ohno said. Kashiyuka being one of his three baking beauties. "I know you hate the beach, but she's single..."
A few months ago, nothing would have stopped Nino from saying yes. Surfer girls, fashion model hopefuls...Ohno always seemed to find someone who could keep Nino entertained for a few weeks at a time. But for some reason, his mouth felt dry, and he didn't have an answer to give Ohno.
He found himself thinking of Riisa, a less guarded, more cheerful version of her standing in a wedding dress being confronted by that jerk's wife, all of her happiness turning to self-loathing in a split second.
"I think I'll pass this time, Oh-chan," he heard himself saying, barely recognizing the sound of his own voice.
"Oh?" his friend replied, just as surprised. "Well, maybe next time then. Have a good night, Nino."
"You too."
As he drove away, all his thoughts that night should have been about Sho and the big life-altering step he was taking. But instead he could only think of Riisa crying in the parking lot, convinced that she didn't deserve the same happiness as others, determined never to trust anyone again.
He thought about all the things that made her weird and found himself realizing that she wasn't weird at all. She was just like him, and not just because they seemed to share the same nose. Nino coasted by without ambition, reliant on Sho's major life choices to dictate his own. Riisa couldn't trust others, and Nino couldn't seem to trust himself. Maybe they were two halves of the same whole with the nose to tie them together.
She still called him a creep, but, Nino decided, at least that was a start.
PART FOUR
The wedding the following day was a much calmer affair than the birthday party they'd just completed, but that didn't stop Matsumoto Jun from running the event like a drill sergeant. He'd gotten on Aiba's back about his cocktail making, insisting Aiba switch to bottom shelf liquor once the guests started getting drunk.
Ohno, Nino, Riisa, and Sho were on serving duty, and Jun was exacting about their manners in setting down plates and clearing them away. Jun even used a stopwatch, making sure they brought out the meals with precision. It was clearly weighing on Sho's mind, his tray quivering a bit as he made the rounds with the rest of them.
Despite their seeming truce in the van from yesterday, Riisa had been in a bad mood since they'd arrived at the banquet hall. While she wasn't overtly rude and she smiled sweetly for the guests, whenever she wasn't out on the floor she had a sour look on her face. Which was a shame because now Nino was kind of obsessed with her face. Maybe at this angle they had the same nose. Or maybe this one. He didn't know for sure, but he wished Jun had never said anything. Was this what he looked like when he was in a bad mood too?
They brought out the slices of cake, a chocolate with a strawberry glaze from Chocolate Disco Desserts that had thankfully passed Jun's evaluation. Even now Ohno was walking around on cloud nine, setting down plates with a huge smile. They finished distributing the cake, which gave them a break, and Nino headed for the kitchen, seeing Riisa just disappearing out the rear door.
Sho was busy dumping plates into the sink for the assisting banquet hall staff to attend to, and Nino found himself heading outside onto the fire escape after the newest member of the team. The banquet hall was a block from the beach, the fifth floor accommodations affording a fine view of the bay. The sun was setting behind them, and the deep red of Riisa's hair shone in the light of the pinkening sky.
She was leaning against the railing looking angry at the world, and Nino stood beside her. He pulled his pack of cigarettes from his back pocket, holding them out to her. She shook her head. "I quit."
Nino settled the pack back where it had been. "Alright then."
She squinted out at the water. "It's kind of pretty down here."
"It can be. If you're into the ocean."
"You're not?"
He shook his head. "I can take it or leave it really."
She sighed, turning her neck from side to side and releasing some tension. "So you're an indoor type then?"
"As much as humanly possible."
"Me too," she admitted. "How long until clean-up?"
Nino checked his watch. "In human time, ten minutes. In Matsumoto Jun time, eight minutes, thirty seconds."
She smirked at that. "You catch on fast, Ninomiya-san."
"Call me Nino, if you want." He turned around, leaning his back against the rail. "Not a fan of weddings?"
She bristled a bit at that. "I'm going to help Sho-san," she said quietly, moving past him to go back inside. So much for making any progress with the newbie.
He passed the rest of the reception in a daze. Drunken guests drifted around the room and the dance floor as the DJ finally shut his music down, Ohno and Riisa helping people get to cabs. It was hard not to notice that the spark was back between Sho and Jun, even though Nino hadn't been around to witness it the first time. Every time Jun walked the perimeter of the hall, Sho's eyes seemed to follow him, the sad desperate eyes of someone who hadn't known what he'd had until he'd lost it. In fact, Nino didn't think Sho had been this sad since the person roleplaying Tokugawa Ienobu had left Jidai Fusion.
But Sho was Sho and he had his rules. People like him and Jun, devoted as they were to protocol and the Let's Fiesta employee guidebook, wouldn't give in, would they? And Sho wasn't dumb enough to jeopardize his already precarious position, even if he wasn't fully aware just how precarious it was. Besides, even though Sho obviously had eyes for his new boss, Jun only seemed to have eyes for his job...
Until the evening was over and the banquet hall was nearly empty - and that was when Nino saw it.
Sho was escorting the bride's parents to the door, using his most winning smile. The smile that could probably get him in anyone's pants if he ever ripped himself away from his online roleplaying long enough to use it. And Matsumoto Jun, using his iPad as a pretend means of distraction, was totally checking him out. Even the cyborg party planner wasn't immune to the power of the Sakurai smile...and the Sakurai ass in tight slacks. Sho had said that Jun was the one doing the pursuing back in the day, after all.
Nino grinned. He wondered if Sho was going to end up cutting off his own circulation if he worked enough events with Jun in slacks like that. He was torn about what to do - did he have to keep them apart so Sho's professional demeanor would remain unblemished? Or did he push Sho into his boss' stopwatch-carrying hands? Was Sho's professional or personal happiness more important in the long run?
He smelled a liquor store coming his way, soon finding Aiba's arm around his shoulder. There'd be no more time to dwell on the tricky developments between his favorite boss and his new boss. Aiba was warm, as though he'd been out on the dance floor instead of behind the bar for the last several hours. He was all hands, taking Nino's in his own and dragging him to the empty coat room. It was still summer and none of the guests had needed use of the room.
"You really love weddings, huh?" Nino asked him as soon as Aiba closed the door behind him, thankfully twisting the lock this time to avoid a repeat performance.
"Nino," he said, his scratchy voice the only proof of his existence in the darkness.
"There a light switch in here?"
"Nino," Aiba said with more authority.
"Yes?"
"I really love weddings."
"Idiot," Nino said with a laugh, smacking at him in the darkness. He was really glad Aiba liked weddings. Well, not so much weddings as wedding receptions. To Nino, it was just an overblown celebration of something that was likely to end in a divorce down the road. But to Aiba, weddings were full of dancing and smiles and good feelings. And thus Aiba needed an outlet for his good feelings once things died down or he'd surely burst.
He'd been worried that Aiba had forgotten him, but that was far from the case. They stumbled in the dark, and Nino ended up on his back, pants unzipped and Aiba's mouth back where Nino had needed it for the past several stressful days. It didn't take much for him to come, warning Aiba with a hand to the top of his friend's head.
It was like all the tension in him slipped away and Aiba curled up next to him, chuckling in the dark. "You have no idea how badly I needed that," Nino told him.
Aiba sighed. "Looked like it. It sucks what's going on with Sho-chan. I'm worried about him."
"He's a big boy," Nino said. He didn't need Aiba worrying about what was really going on. "It'll all work out somehow."
He eventually heard the sound of a zipper and some rustling fabric, Aiba taking care of his own needs. Nino would help, but he was too relaxed to be of much use. But Aiba didn't seem to mind, humming some of the bad 80's music the DJ had played to wind down the night.
"Need me to talk you off?" Nino offered.
"You can just talk about anything," Aiba said, his voice low and sexy in a way that definitely didn't match his cheerful face. Aiba was even hotter in the dark, if that was even possible.
"Anything? Like the stock market?"
"Nino, you don't know anything about the stock market." And even still, the sound of Aiba's stroking was growing more aggressive.
Most people would probably be weirded out by a masturbating co-worker lying beside them in a dark cloak room, but Nino would never be most people. He turned onto his side, resting on his elbow and clumsily using the fingers of his left hand to pop open the buttons of Aiba's shirt.
"So when are you going to do something about Becky?" Aiba let out a quiet little grunt at the mention of the restaurant girl's name. "Well? She totally wants you."
"I like her, too..."
"What are you waiting for then?" Nino had the top of Aiba's shirt open, teasing his fingers inside to give one of Aiba's nipples a twist.
"I...I..."
"Masaki," Nino teased him, twisting Aiba's other nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
"She...deserves...better," Aiba said, in between little jolts of surprise at the movements of Nino's fingers along his chest. Oh Aiba, Nino thought. Aiba was damn good at his job, mixing drinks and entertaining guests. And he wasn't exactly hurting for money. When he wasn't on a Let's Fiesta job he pulled bartending shifts at a club in Mishima. Just because he wasn't a lawyer or something...
"She's crazy about you, though. And she doesn't strike me as the type to judge you based on your profession. You both like the same things. Dogs. Music. Being outside..."
"I'll think about it..."
Nino took his hand out of Aiba's shirt, sliding his fingers up his neck, tickling along his jaw. "How badly do you want her, huh?"
"Pretty damn bad..."
"How bad?"
"So bad...oh god, stop...wait, I don't have anything to..." Nino dug around in his pocket for a handkerchief, slapping it down on Aiba's stomach. "Thanks. Okay. Okay. Now you can keep talking."
Nino lowered his voice, leaning closer to whisper in Aiba's ear. "Let's see, what's sexy about Becky?"
"Her eyes..."
"Yeah, she's got some pretty eyes. So shut yours and think of them, Masaki. Think of her eyes, how big and bright they'll be the first time you go down on her..."
"Oh god..."
Nino smiled. Aiba was the absolute worst when it came to talking someone off, but Nino liked to think he knew a few good things to say from time to time. And even if it felt pretty naughty talking this way about Becky, who he did genuinely like and respect as a person, Aiba had only minutes earlier given him a fantastic blowjob and it was only fair to help him out in return.
"She's got that long hair," he continued, ruffling Aiba's hair in reply. "That long hair and those pretty eyes. I wonder what she tastes like..."
"Nino..."
"Shouldn't you be saying 'Becky'?" Aiba was close, Nino could just tell because the murmured "Nino" whispers gradually became "Ni...becky" and then "Becky" and then just incomprehensible babble.
"Oh Masaki, just imagine those big, pretty eyes looking up at you when she's got you between her lips..."
And that was all it took, Nino's voice and Aiba's post-wedding enthusiasm more than enough to send him off, his friend's ragged breathing having gotten Nino half-hard again in response. But surely the staff of the banquet hall would be locking up for the night and they needed to get the hell out of there.
He zipped his pants, listening to Aiba's breathy giggles of joy on the floor as he stumbled to his feet. "Your handkerchief," Aiba said, sighing in contentment, and Nino gave him a little kick where he figured Aiba's ribs were.
"You can keep that one. Buy me another."
They got up, just in time for a staff member of the banquet hall to come walking by. "Oh," the young woman said, "you're still here."
Aiba gave a sheepish smile, and let the woman escort them out.
**
The next few weeks passed in relative peace and quiet, all things considered. Jun seemed to settle in and settle down at the Let's Fiesta Numazu branch. While his perfectionism didn't really decrease, his demeanor did. He softened a bit at the edges, actually complimenting some of the work they did from time to time and ending each party with a "you all did great work today" remark that always managed to turn Sho's face red as a tomato.
Speaking of Sho, it was probably obvious to everyone now just how badly he wanted in Matsumoto's pants. Even during office hours when there was little to do, Sho sat at the computer, working on new designs for fliers, asking Jun to offer input on almost everything. They'd had an hour-long conversation the other day about punctuation alone. The two of them seemed to want each other fairly equally, Nino could tell. Because what else could change a guy's entire attitude as much as love? Well, Nino decided, not quite love because it had only been a few weeks, but lust at least. Maybe since Matsumoto knew his leadership would be the make or break for the fate of Sho's branch office, he wanted to keep everyone happy.
Ohno continued on his romantic baking journey with his three lady friends, sometimes showing up for work with flour or dried whipped cream in his messy hair. What a life. And Aiba had finally gathered up his courage and asked Becky out - a date was in the works as soon as they both found the same night off.
The maroon hair dye had been washed out, leaving a fairly normal dark brown in its place, but Riisa was still the girl with the same...nose. She still dressed in a bizarre way during office hours, punk rocker lite if Nino had to put a name to it, in sharp contrast to the Let's Fiesta uniform requirements expected during jobs. Nino had to give it to her - she sure could do a complete 180 in appearance from one day to the next, and that took real skills.
But her earlier bark was mellowing out the same as Jun's, although in a different way. Riisa seemed quieter, putting all her energy into being "on" during parties that she almost seemed depressed during office hours or clean-up after events. Nino remembered the way she'd stood on the fire escape at the wedding, looking out at the water, and he wondered what circumstances had brought her to Numazu and how he could make it right.
Because while Nino didn't like to meddle in the lives of people he didn't know, once he did get to know them he found it impossible not to take an interest in them. So for all his overt disdain for humanity, he maintained a soft spot for people who at least inhabited his personal orbit. It was just his way, which explained why Aiba had finally gone ahead and asked out the lady of his dreams. It explained why he sat at dinner with Sho some evenings now and listened to him praise all the changes Matsumoto Jun had brought to the branch office. It explained the personal brownie orders he placed at Chocolate Disco Desserts to keep the girls there busy, and thus keep Ohno happy in his personal life.
But Riisa had only been in Nino's personal orbit for a few weeks, not really long enough to figure her out entirely yet. People like Aiba and Sho were so obvious in their feelings and thoughts - Nino had only spent two nights in the dorm with Sho before realizing the guy was going to be an important part of his life. Some people were just easy. But then there was Riisa, tortoise girl, with her rainbow knee socks and her fire engine red lipstick. She was going to be tough to crack.
Had she been dumped? Was she unfulfilled in her career choice? Bad family life back home? She never talked about herself beyond a few little hints. She obviously was into clothes, carrying fashion magazines around and reading them during breaks at parties. She loved horror movies, since he'd overheard her and Ohno having a conversation about them at the office. She was an animal lover, since she'd recently started wearing a "Numazu City Animal Shelter" t-shirt underneath her zebra hoodie and tried hitting Jun up for donations.
He wished it was as easy to get to know tortoise girl as it was to get to know user:hattori_hanzo2. For all that the days at the office were calmer, the adventures of Hattori Hanzo and Murasaki Shikibu had grown wilder and more exciting. A time machine had crashed in the center of Hiratsuka, and off Hattori and Murasaki had gone, defeating armies of ninjas and ronin alike as they made their way up the Tokaido Road from Kyoto. It would probably take only another day or two of playing back and forth to steal the time machine and head off to parts unknown.
Hattori's player's odd way of typing had not grown old yet, and Nino looked forward to getting home every night and seeing where Hattori's wild imagination would take them next. Murasaki herself had developed some talents as required by Hattori's behavior - a stray arrow that had gotten lodged in Hattori's shoulder had required the woman to gain some skills as a medic. And Hattori wasn't just a silly warrior - though his replies were full of chatspeak and slang, his seeming respect for Murasaki was obvious. That their roleplay had yet to devolve into a sexual encounter was what kept surprising him the most.Their exchanges were silly and fun, not bogged down in drama or the painstaking attention to detail that one of Sho's posts would have required.
It allowed him to forget, if only for a little while each night, that there was still the possibility of Sho losing his job and how that might just ruin Nino's life.
**
It reached a month and a half under Jun's leadership when Sho finally broke down one night, calling Nino up drunk after midnight.
Murasaki and Hattori were a mere ten miles from Hiratsuka and had just been ambushed by a family of bears, and he felt bad shutting his laptop at the most critical moment. But his real life had to take precedence over his virtual life.
Sho was a mess, and in the years Nino had known him, Sho rarely got like this. Something serious had happened. Or, as Nino listened to Sho's story, something serious had not happened.
"You were absolutely right," Sho slurred, speaking far too noisily into his cell phone across town. Nino had to hold his own phone away from his ear. "You were right, Nino."
"I usually am," he said in reply, trying to lighten the mood even if it was unlikely to work.
"I went to dinner with Jun tonight," Sho said, the first time Nino had heard him refer to Jun as anything but Matsumoto-san or Matsumoto-kun.
"Oh? A date? And you didn't tell me?"
"Wasn't a date," Sho protested. "Spent threeeeeeee hours talking about next year's rollout of greener vans for Let's Fiesta. Hybrids for every office. Save the earth, you know."
Normally that was the kind of topic that could keep Sho's attention for twice as many hours. So what had changed? "Sounds like a step in the right direction for the planet," Nino said. "Hey, we could make the parties more green by having them in the dark. What do you say?"
"I was this close to telling Jun I liked him," Sho sobbed. "We had coffee and dessert and then I was going to pick up the check and say 'this one's on me, baby' and I couldn't do it! I just couldn't do it!"
Nino blinked. "That was the line you were going to use? 'This one's on me, baby'?"
"Ninoooooo..." Sho howled in despair.
"Alright, alright, calm down, where are you?"
"Home."
"Alone?"
"I'm always alone! Nino, I'm always alone!"
Nino suspected that Sho did in fact have company, but it was most likely a bottle of liquor that was going to disagree with him before too long. They had a wedding the following day, and he couldn't let anything bad happen to Sho. Not when showing up hungover might mean the end of the Numazu branch office for good.
"Do me a favor, Sho-chan. Can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah."
"Whatever you're drinking? Stop."
"But..."
"Think of what Jun-kun would say if he saw you right now. Is your face red? Are you lying on the floor in your underwear?"
"...I'll stop..."
He hung up with Sho, grabbing his keys and turning off his apartment lights. He slid his sneakers on in the entryway, taking one last look back at his laptop and opened the door to head out into the night.
While Nino's building was one of several in a block of non-descript concrete abominations, Sho wasn't afraid to shell out a little more. He lived in a newer building only a few blocks from where the river met the bay, and the drive was much quicker at night. He parked and headed inside. Sho was luckily still coherent enough to buzz him in, and he took the elevator up to find his friend curled up in a ball in the middle of his living room.
Nino ignored him, heading for the kitchen first where he found a nearly empty bottle of umeshu - thankfully the cap had been twisted back on, and Sho had at least obeyed him on that count.
Sho looked miserable, his hair messy and still dressed in the blazer, dress shirt, and slacks he'd worn to dinner with Jun. The clothes were now rumpled and smelled like cigarettes. He sat down on the floor beside his friend, ruffling Sho's hair with affection. "So you like him, you admit it?"
"I do," Sho moaned, sounding less hysterical than he had on the phone.
"And you wanted to take tonight's dinner, a business dinner, and confess to him like a kid in junior high school."
"You make me sound incompetent," Sho said with a sigh.
"Sho-chan, you aren't incompetent, you're just..." Really incompetent, Nino wanted to say, but didn't dare.
Sho rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling with glassy eyes. "I just have no luck at all. He's my superior, Nino. But how am I supposed to work for him when I want to...you know..."
"Bend him over and show him how to really plan a party?"
Sho was still a little too drunk to smack him for his lame innuendo, shaking his head. "We work so well together, don't you think so? I admire him so much as a colleague. I've been in charge here forever, but now that Jun's here things are so efficient and thorough and...stuff."
"So you think that would change if the two of you started fucking?"
"Ugh, Nino..."
"What? That's the heart of the matter here," he said. "You like him, and if you spent five seconds paying attention, you'd notice that Jun's got the hots for you too. He really does. I'm smart about these things, trust me."
Sho smiled. "When he's working a party and I hear him giving orders...it's like I'd do anything he says..."
"Okay, we're veering off topic," Nino said, not really wanting to go into this much detail about Sho's attraction to their boss.
"And when he gets all short with me and puts his hands on his hips and says 'Sakurai, this cake isn't going to plate itself'..."
Nino gave him a little tap on the cheek. "I get the picture."
Sho sat up, swaying a bit. "So what am I supposed to do? If I leave things the way they are, I'm going to get sloppy in my work. I'll spend party after party thinking about Jun and not about the job. I have a tendency to get preoccupied with things, you know."
Nino saw the stack of Tokugawa-era financial history tomes next to Sho's computer and smirked. "No, really? You don't say."
"But what if I do confess to him? It would be a violation of the rules for us to be together. I'm not a rule breaker. I'm not even a rule bender! And neither is he! He could write me up for that, and I could lose my job. Or what if I confess and he's all for it and management finds out and we both get fired?"
"Sho-chan, who is going to tell management on you? We're all on your side! Aiba-chan, Oh-chan...we want you to be happy, okay? I'm sure even Riisa-chan knows what's going on here."
Sho was quiet for a few moments, putting his hands on the table to steady himself. He looked ready to be sick for a moment, and Nino was just about to back away when Sho took a deep breath instead, looking far more serious.
"I've let seven years go by. People don't get second chances too often. So maybe I should just do something about it."
"Okay, great," Nino said. "Like what?"
"Gather my courage!"
Nino cocked his head. "Huh?"
Sho got to his feet, swaying, and Nino had to get up and put an arm around his waist, steadying him. He helped Sho move out of the living room and towards his bedroom. "Gather my courage. I need to have all the facts. I need to know how to talk to Jun before I can do anything about this. I need to know everything Jun likes. I can't let him down, not like I did in Osaka."
"And how do you propose to do this? You see him pretty much every day, so if you don't know him enough yet, that's saying something..."
Sho flopped down onto his mattress, the look on his face suggesting he wished there was a stack of Matsumoto Jun books he could use as a reference guide. "Nino, will you be Jun?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Sho looked up at him pleadingly. "Be Jun for me. Right now. Talk to me like he does. Be Jun, and then I can work through what I have to say. Like a rehearsal!"
Nino stared at him. "You're being absolutely serious right now, aren't you?"
Sho nodded, patting a spot on the mattress beside him. "Please?"
His best friend rarely asked him for anything. Sho was more likely to do anything Nino asked him to do, whether it was fixing a leaky faucet or driving to the store to get him medicine when he was sick. Sho was selfless where Nino was concerned, and he really did owe him everything. Where would he be without Sakurai Sho to look out for him?
But roleplaying was something Nino preferred to keep in writing on an Internet forum. And besides, the last person he'd ever want to be was Matsumoto Jun. He could never take himself seriously enough to pull it off. But then Sho's eyes were begging him, and he remembered his friend's sad voice on the phone, and he had to do something.
Nino was fairly certain that if Sho walked up to him and thrust his hands in his pants, Jun would be all for it. Jun just didn't know it because it was very unlikely to happen. Nobody was going to tell on them, and if anything, the two of them were so stiff and awkward that the obvious solution was to just get it on already. Maybe they'd both relax, and it was unlikely to hurt their work ethic. If they just got over the "will they or won't they" hurdle, things would even out. And if they ended up sucking each other off in a client's bathroom during a party, it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary at the Numazu branch office.
Come what may, Sho's personal happiness was easily more important than his professional happiness, and Nino had been a fool to think otherwise.
Nino shut his eyes, sitting down at Sho's side on the bed. Be Jun. Be Jun. Be Jun. Do this for Sho-chan, he told himself. For Sho-chan, who'd do anything for you.
"Sakurai-san," he said, his voice ringing out loud and clear in Sho's empty bedroom.
He felt Sho shift uncomfortably beside him in his still rumpled clothes. "Matsumoto-san..."
What would Jun talk to Sho about? "I found an error on the website. You used the incorrect kanji. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Sho closed his eyes, fingers fisting in his bedsheets as he tried to listen as best he could to "Jun" speaking in Nino's own voice. "I apologize, Matsumoto-san, for neglecting to have another set of eyes proofread the page. I'll go about the corrections immediately."
Nino tried not to laugh. This was already too accurate. "Don't bother. Have Ninomiya do it. Learn to delegate, Sakurai-san."
"Yes, of course." Sho licked his lips. "Matsumoto-san, could I have a word with you in private?"
Nino crossed his arms, trying to contort his face into a look of Matsumoto-esque irritation. "We have a wedding tomorrow. There's more important things to attend to."
"But Matsumoto-san..."
"I don't have time for this, Sakurai. Have you triple-checked the appetizer order yet?"
Sho's eyes opened wide, and he sat up. Nino smelled the alcohol on his breath. "Matsumoto-san, this is more important than triple-checking the appetizer order."
It sent goosebumps up Nino's arms. It was probably the lateness of the hour, not the way Sho's voice could sound when he got serious. Not that at all. He cleared his throat, rolling his eyes. "Fine. You have five minutes, Sakurai. And make it quick. Petty personal troubles are not what Let's Fiesta Japan is all about."
Nino was just picturing a scene like this happening in the office. It would be impossible, of course. There was no way the two of them could have a conversation like this without Aiba jumping in with a joke or Ohno sneezing and breaking the tension, but Nino could already see a change in Sho. Maybe he really was gathering courage from a strange exercise like this.
And he found that unlike himself, speaking in an approximation of Matsumoto Jun's voice made him feel more confident, more sure of himself than he'd ever been. For so long all of his roleplaying had been Murasaki Shikibu reacting to her environment - but maybe Nino had been born to play someone active like Hattori Hanzo all along...
"Matsumoto-san, I respect you as a colleague, and I hope as a friend..."
Sho was looking at Nino now, with longing in his eyes that was adding to the goosebumps raising the hairs on his arms. Sho had never looked at him like this before. Sho had rules. Sho was his friend. And now this was starting to get weird.
"Sure," he said in a flippant Matsumoto tone. "We're friends, if you want."
"And it's out of my friendship and respect for you that I've come to..." Sho's hands were on either side of Nino's thighs. "That I've come to..."
He narrowed his eyes at Sho even as his body was screaming for him to end this. Even as he was staring at Sho's lips, at his dark eyes. Nino would be lying if he said he didn't have some attraction to his friend, but since Sho had drawn the line so long ago, Nino had too.
But Sho wasn't looking at Nino. Sho was looking at Matsumoto Jun right now. And Matsumoto Jun was a man who knew what he wanted. "Well," Nino said. "Come out with it then."
"I like you, Matsumoto-san. A lot."
"That wasn't what you said back in Osaka."
Sho shook his head. "I was wrong. Jun, I was wrong."
Nino knew the logical conclusion to this. He'd been able to observe Matsumoto Jun for enough weeks to know what he'd do. Man, Sho was going to owe him for life for this.
He pushed Sho onto his back, straddling him. "You like me, huh?" he said, linking his hands with Sho's against the sheets. Ugh, this was weird. But Sho's eyes were squeezed shut, and he was probably hearing Jun's voice for real in his head, the poor guy. "You like me?"
"I like you, Jun."
He bent forward, kissing Sho for the first time in his entire life. He'd always wondered what it would be like. He tasted pretty much like anyone who'd downed most of a bottle of umeshu would taste like, a kind of sickening sweetness, but where he expected Sho to freeze beneath him, expected Sho to shove him off and say something like "Ew, Nino, stop..." he didn't.
Sho kissed back, parting those plump lips of his so Nino could slip his tongue inside. It wasn't like making out with Aiba, who kissed because he liked kissing. This was Sho, who had to consult at least ten books before typing out a sentence on the roleplay board. Sho who had worked his ass off in school only to get rejected from every branch of the government and sent to Numazu to cater parties for the rest of his twenties.
Sho was kissing him, kissing Matsumoto Jun, with seven years of built-up regret and dissatisfaction with his life. Sho was kissing him like nothing in his life mattered more than finally saying what he was feeling, truthfully and from the heart and with zero preparation.
It was in that moment that Nino realized how happy he was for his friend to be this passionate about something that wasn't fiscal reform. Was it weird that Sho had thoroughly convinced himself that the person on top of him was a stand-in for Jun? Probably. But Sho had repressed himself for far too long, and Nino didn't dare stop. Sho needed this.
Nino did his best to fully shut the Nino part of himself off, slipping into the Matsumoto Jun skin as best he could. He moved away from Sho's mouth, pushing his blazer aside and undoing the buttons of his dress shirt.
"Jun...Jun, I've wanted to tell you for so long."
"Yeah, I bet you have," he replied, sliding his fingers down Sho's abdomen, down the perfect abs that spoke of hours in the gym every week with little physical return on his investment. Well, Nino figured, if this incident really got Sho to come on to Jun, it would finally be worth all of Sho's time and effort. And Jun would definitely appreciate the view of Sho from the front as well as the back.
He undid Sho's belt buckle, hearing him sigh. "In Osaka...I wanted you so bad, you know. So bad..."
"Well you rejected me. I've held a grudge for seven years," he said, deftly making short work of the belt and unzipping Sho's slacks. He was beyond hard, and Nino reached for him, remembering only at the last second that Jun was right-handed, not left-handed like Nino himself. If the sensation was off in Sho's imagination, he didn't seem to notice.
"Touch me," Sho begged him, two words Nino never thought he'd hear from his best friend's lips.
He jerked Sho hard and fast. Matsumoto Jun was the efficient type, after all, and it wasn't long before Sho was panting, his frothy, saccharine-sweet love for Jun bubbling from his lips in sighs and moans. Nino hadn't heard Sho make noises like this since they were in the dorm, and Sho quietly jerked off in the early morning when he thought Nino had finally gone to bed. It was extremely adorable, but he didn't dare say anything that might break the moment for Sho.
"You're going to tell me for real," Nino said to Sho. "After the wedding tomorrow. Confess to me for real."
"I will, Jun, I will...don't stop..."
But because he was supposed to be Jun, he did stop. Sho moaned at the sudden loss of friction, arching his hips to try and rub himself against Nino's stilled hand. "Promise that you'll confess, Sakurai. I'm sick of you looking at me with those puppy dog eyes. Either shit or get off the pot."
"Jun..." Sho groaned, and Nino was utterly amazed at his friend's complete immersion in his fantasy. "Jun, why did you stop?"
Matsumoto kind of leaned toward the sadistic side, so Nino went back to the pace he'd set, watching Sho come close to the edge once more before stopping abruptly and hearing his friend whine again.
"Jun..."
"Promise me," he insisted. "You haven't promised yet."
"I promise. I'll be truthful with you tomorrow," Sho said weakly. "Just please...don't stop this time?"
"But you'll make a mess all over your clothes."
"Don't care..." Sho was desperate, trying to bring his own hand to Nino's to help him along, but someone like Jun wouldn't tolerate that for long.
"Okay, you asked for it." He ran his thumb along the underside of Sho's cock, stroking and teasing before taking hold of the bottom of Sho's shirt and using the fabric for an abrupt change in friction, hearing Sho gasp as he came moments later, the mess contained inside the shirt instead of ruining Sho's bedsheets and the rest of his clothes. Jun would be considerate enough for that at least.
Sho was exhausted, sobering up a bit as Nino clambered off of him.
"I'm going to sleep on the couch," he said in his own voice again. "You have to provide breakfast in the morning."
He was almost to the door when he heard Sho speak again. "Nino..."
He turned, trying not to laugh at the sight of Sho sprawled out on his bed, satisfied in a way Nino had never seen him before. "Get your shirt off and sleep, idiot. You have a lot to do tomorrow."
Nino shut the door and curled up on Sho's couch, a million thoughts running through his mind. This had been one of the strangest experiences of his life, but he supposed if it was really the push Sho needed, then Nino was the only one who could have helped.
Things were starting to work out for all of his friends. Ohno had his arrangement, and Aiba and Becky were starting their own journey together. At long last, Sho had someone in his sights, and Nino imagined he now had the confidence to go after what he wanted. After all, if you could be as repressed as Sho and still sit back and let your best friend jerk you off, a simple confession couldn't be that difficult afterwards.
But where did that leave him, he thought with a sigh as he huddled under one of Sho's blankets. It smelled like him, smelled like their dorm room had, and for the first time in ages, he felt rather lonely. He didn't have girls to fling flour at him. Didn't have a sweetheart at the restaurant with technicolor fingernails. He didn't have a movie star party planning crush who'd been waiting seven years to take that first step.
If the Numazu branch office shut down, each of them would probably land on their feet, right? Nino had spent so much time ensuring that his friends were pursuing what they wanted that he'd seemingly neglected to have any dreams of his own. Because what did he have? A job that he didn't like that had the potential to disappear. An online relationship that revolved around ninjas and bear fights. And the only people he'd been with recently, Aiba and Sho, had mostly needed him as a substitute for the person they really wanted. Hell, the only other person in his immediate circle of humanity was tortoise girl.
Tortoise girl, the only one he hadn't quite figured out yet. He remembered how she'd looked that day on the fire escape, sad and alone. They seemed to have the same nose, Nino thought. Maybe it would be worth finding out if they shared anything else.
**
If Nino had been worried that getting Sho off would have a negative effect on their friendship, there was nothing to fear. He woke, limbs twisted up in Sho's blanket, to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee and a plate of buttered toast on the table.
"Thanks," Sho said, sitting and watching as he woke up, sipping his own coffee. "Thanks for last night, Nino, really. I know that had to be odd for you. I'm really sorry if it was odd...I won't ask you to do that again."
Sho had clearly slept like a log, and even though his eyes were a little puffy, it seemed as though he'd avoided the dreaded hangover. Nino sat up, accepting the toast with a nod. "Consider it a special service. Now if you'd asked me to get on my hands and knees so you could fuck me from behind or vice versa, I'd have probably stopped you there."
Sho turned red. "Do you always have to say things like that?"
"Because of the things your face does when I say them, yes," he said, taking a big bite of his toast. Sho had managed not to burn it, something worthy of commendation.
"Well," Sho continued, setting down his mug, "Talking to me like him, that really helped, although I...don't think Jun would want to go straight to a hand job within five minutes of me confessing. Your characterization could use some work."
Nino laughed at that. "Yeah, sorry. I've always been quick to get to the point."
Sho laughed too. "We should probably get going soon. Shower's free if you need it. We can stop back at your place to get your uniform."
Well, if anything, Nino had gotten to satisfy his curiosity about what it would be like to make out with Sho. And now they were at least even as far as favors went.
They got ready, piling into Nino's car and making a quick stop for his clothes. The wedding was up in Oyama, just south of the Fuji Speedway, and Jun himself drove the van to the venue with all the haste of a Formula One driver. Riisa was sitting beside Jun up in the front, and Nino sat behind her. She spent most of the trip looking out the window, her now characteristic glum face visible to him in the side mirror.
It was a small wedding, just family, and the venue was a very relaxed room at a local inn. Jun still carried on with his usual exacting finesse, but Sho was visibly less nervous. His easygoing smile had returned, and he brought out the meal trays with a gentleness that drew Jun's eye like no other event had in weeks. It was enough to make someone barf, but Nino was fully invested in the tale of the stick up the ass party planner and his devoted subordinate.
Dinner wrapped up quickly, and they helped clear the tables to reveal a small dance floor. The couple had hired the Numazu team to handle everything, and DJ Ohno was in charge of the music, flipping through CDs at a large stereo they'd had to borrow from one of Jun's friends back in the Kanagawa-Shizuoka office. Once the music was going, Nino slipped away, finding the kitchen empty.
Sho was scrubbing dishes all by himself, and Nino looked around in confusion. "Where's Riisa-chan?"
His friend pointed to the back exit, and a feeling of deja vu swept over him. "She said she'd be back in five, but that was ten minutes ago." Sho held up his soapy hands. "I'd go after her but I have to get this done. We should tell Jun..."
Nino felt suddenly protective, seeing as how Tortoise Girl was the only one whose life Nino hadn't seemed to help improve yet. "You've got more important things to tell Jun. I'll try and talk to her."
The exit led to the parking lot, and he found Riisa sitting down on the pavement on the other side of the Let's Fiesta van, obviously crying. He knocked on the side of the van to alert her to his presence. She moved to get up, and he waved her off. "Sit down, it's alright," he told her.
She seemed embarrassed, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, Nino...I'm sorry."
He found himself sitting right down beside her, leaning his back against the van. "Are you okay?"
"No," she said honestly. Her hair was tied into two braids, one lying on each shoulder, and Nino had the urge to tug on them to try and get a rise out of her. If she was annoyed with him, she had little time to be sad.
"Was it that awful speech the bride's brother gave? About being surprised his sister had found someone desperate enough to marry her?"
She chuckled a bit at that, sniffling. "No, it's not that."
They stared off at their surroundings. The back of the inn faced a road and beyond that were a bunch of rice fields. Nothing as pretty as the ocean view at that other wedding. "We don't know each other too well," he said to her. "But you're part of our team. You, me, Jun-kun, Aiba-chan, Sho, Oh-chan...as cheesy as it sounds, we're a team. So you can tell us anything. Anything, honest."
"It's none of..."
"My business," Nino finished for her, "I know. But we have to work together, and you know as well as I do that we're in trouble. So if you're sitting out here while there's a job in there, that reflects on all of us. If you need a break, take a break, but if it might help you to talk to me, then talk to me. I don't want to go looking for you at every wedding we do."
He took a breath, deciding on his phrasing.
"We're worried about you, okay?"
She wiped her eyes again, waving her hands at her face as if it might stop the flow of tears. She was trying to be tough, but Nino didn't think she had to be. Everyone had their rough patches.
"It's weddings," she said. "Half our business is weddings. And I...it was just before I came here. I was supposed to get married."
Nino's eyes widened. It was almost impossible to imagine her in a wedding dress, unless of course it had zebra stripes or it was a mess of colors. But there was more to Riisa-chan than what she wore, and if he kept spending his time thinking of her by the costume she'd been wearing when they'd met or the stuff she wore every day, then he was doing her a disservice.
"We had been together about six months, so it was all kind of fast. But it was all so perfect. I had the dress, my family was coming up from Nagasaki, and we'd already registered with the ward office. You know, everything was coming together," she said. "Then it's the night before the wedding, and this woman shows up at the rehearsal with two little kids, I mean little ones, maybe four and two or something, whatever..."
He wanted to wrap his arm around her as the tears kept coming, but she didn't need him for that. Her sadness made so much more sense now, as did her standoffish behavior. The asshole who'd done this to her - Nino tended toward the non-confrontational side, but the desire to punch this guy in the face was a strong one.
"He was already married," she said with a bitter laugh. "Everything from the start had been a lie. His job, the things he'd promised when we started our lives together. I've never been so embarrassed in my entire life. He said he didn't care that I was weird, he'd told me everything I'd wanted to hear. And none of it was true. My parents spent so much money to travel, they'd been so happy for me. But I'd just been so damn stupid..."
"You weren't..."
"I was," she insisted. "We're in this business and we go to all these weddings, and we spend time with people on what's supposed to be the happiest day of their lives. And then apparently I'm not entitled to it in my own life...I just serve them cake with a smile and tell them congratulations. But I'll never get there myself."
"Riisa-chan..."
She shook her head, braids shaking with the movement. "It's irrational, believe me, I'm well aware of it. Jun-kun knows what happened, and he let me stay on, and he didn't tell management or anything, so when word came down about Numazu, he asked me to come with him, get a fresh start somewhere else, away from the bad memories. He's a good person if you believe me or not."
Suddenly, the Matsumoto Jun Nino thought he knew needed some revisions. He was good at his job, exacting and all about perfection. But then he also stayed loyal to his feelings for Sho after all these years. He wanted to save the Numazu branch office and had come here himself to help. And then he'd been there for Riisa in her darkest time.
Sho really needed to lock that guy down.
"I should go back inside and help Sho-san," she said, getting to her feet and brushing off her slacks. She turned to try and squint at herself in the van's side mirror.
"You look fine," he said honestly, getting up himself.
She looked down. "I've been telling myself to just be angry, be mad at the world. But it's too exhausting, and it's not the person I want to be. I'm not mad at the world. I'm just mad at him for what he did to me."
"But then weddings," Nino said. "Weddings just drudge it up over and over again."
"So far," she admitted. "And I've told Jun-kun, and he tells me to just take my time and work through everything."
"Did it help though? Talking about it now?" Nino was almost pleading with her for confirmation that yes, he'd helped. Yes, he'd been there for her. After things with Aiba and things with Sho, he found that his need to be needed was starting to take over.
She met his eyes, and for the first time, genuinely seemed to smile at him, even as tinges of pink darkened her cheeks. "Actually...yes, creepy boy, it did. Thank you."
"You still think I'm a creep?"
She punched him in the shoulder. "Oh definitely."
They headed back inside with grins on their faces, cleaning up as Sho looked on with a nervous smile. His time to shine was still on the evening's agenda, and Nino had already informed the rest of the group that Sho and Jun needed a little "private time" once they got back to Numazu.
They made it back in seemingly record time, Nino giving Sho a nudge as they got out of the van. "Matsumoto-san?" Sho squeaked in almost too high a register.
"What?"
"There's some files in the office I had a question about. Could you spare a moment?"
Ohno was standing right behind Jun, giving an enthusiastic thumbs up. Aiba was far less subtle, pretending to hump Ohno's leg.
Jun, thankfully, didn't notice the idiocy taking place behind him. "We'll get things taken care of," Nino assured them. "Have a good night."
Aiba got to Riisa first, offering her a ride home, which left Nino to offer one to Ohno. He happily accepted, and they buckled themselves into Nino's car as they watched the light turn on in the office upstairs.
"He's finally going to say something then?" Ohno asked, beaming from ear to ear. "Sho-kun's so cute sometimes."
"He's kind of like a drama heroine. Innocent, patient, ridiculously pretty," Nino said fondly. He didn't need to tell Ohno just what had given Sho the courage to confess, and he turned the car on, pulling out of the parking lot.
Ohno, true to form, kept most of his thoughts to himself as they drove along until they were just pulling up to his door. He leaned back into the car through the window, giving Nino a smile.
"Kashiyuka has a friend in Atami, a surfer girl friend," Ohno said. Kashiyuka being one of his three baking beauties. "I know you hate the beach, but she's single..."
A few months ago, nothing would have stopped Nino from saying yes. Surfer girls, fashion model hopefuls...Ohno always seemed to find someone who could keep Nino entertained for a few weeks at a time. But for some reason, his mouth felt dry, and he didn't have an answer to give Ohno.
He found himself thinking of Riisa, a less guarded, more cheerful version of her standing in a wedding dress being confronted by that jerk's wife, all of her happiness turning to self-loathing in a split second.
"I think I'll pass this time, Oh-chan," he heard himself saying, barely recognizing the sound of his own voice.
"Oh?" his friend replied, just as surprised. "Well, maybe next time then. Have a good night, Nino."
"You too."
As he drove away, all his thoughts that night should have been about Sho and the big life-altering step he was taking. But instead he could only think of Riisa crying in the parking lot, convinced that she didn't deserve the same happiness as others, determined never to trust anyone again.
He thought about all the things that made her weird and found himself realizing that she wasn't weird at all. She was just like him, and not just because they seemed to share the same nose. Nino coasted by without ambition, reliant on Sho's major life choices to dictate his own. Riisa couldn't trust others, and Nino couldn't seem to trust himself. Maybe they were two halves of the same whole with the nose to tie them together.
She still called him a creep, but, Nino decided, at least that was a start.
PART FOUR
