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ninoexchange2013-06-20 08:26 pm
nino-mod.livejournal.com) wrote in ninoexchange2013-06-20 08:26 pm
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fic for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
massu_kawaii
For: massu_kawaii
From:tempesteru
Title: Marriage Go Round
Pairing/Focus: Aimiya
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: uh as fluffy as cumulonimbus cloud. also profanity is inevitable.
Summary: Aiba wants to get married, but Nino is not going to marry him.
Notes: I hope this fic is to your likingmassu_kawaii, it's been forever since I wrote something fluffy so I am a bit worried! Anyhow, enjoy the read :)
“I want to get married.”
What the-? Nino blinks.
Ninomiya Kazunari. 29 years old. Editor-in-chief of Gamestation---Japan’s most popular game magazine. A hardcore gamer. Light brown short hair, styled so it looks like that witty singer with hamburger hands from a group of idols under J Kingdom named Storms, because he thinks he is as witty as that man. He is currently single and not looking forward to having a relationship in the near future. He thinks dating is a hassle and prefers to just have one-night stands. Men or women, he embraces all, because despite his nerdy tendencies and young-innocent looks, he has a beastly sexual prowess. Or so the rumors say.
In the moment, he finds himself dumbfounded with the unexpected statement which comes out of nowhere from Aiba Masaki, a clumsy reporter from the news department, who is unfortunately a friend of his that falls under the BFF(AERPNTS) category---it stands for Best Friend Forever (And Ever, Really. Please Note The Sarcasm.)---and that means their friendship has history as deep as the Pacific Ocean AND that Aiba being a pain in the ass is normal for him. Yeah, BFF-shits and so.
Just a minute ago they were talking about Matsumoto Jun---the well-favored editor of the fashion department, also well-known for his stoic countenance (it’s the thick eyebrows and the perpetual scowl of those thin lips, really)---in regard to his latest trendsetting permed hair, and Nino is certain that nothing about their prior conversation is related in any way to the topic of I-want-to-get-married.
“Nino, I want to get married,” the man in front of him repeats in a slightly demanding tone. As if to emphasize his demand for Nino’s attention, the taller man also tugs at his sleeves.
Nino sighs. This is Aiba and it is normal, he chants inwardly. “I heard you the first time, Aiba,” he finally says. “I just am wondering who you’re planning to marry? Did you in any way get hit in the head and somehow forget that you broke up just last month?” Why so random, too, Nino thinks as he reaches for his cup of morning caffeine.
“Ehm, you?”
It is to be expected that Nino would choke on his drink and spray the hot and dark liquid towards Aiba. Nino loves to believe that the whole universe expects him to do so, thus he doesn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. He splutters and coughs as some of the coffee goes down the wrong pipe while Aiba kindly wipes his own face with tissues. Despite the situation, Nino notes in annoyance, the older man has a silly grin pasted on his face.
Nino isn’t going to like this. He knows it.
“Me?” Nino gasps out. “Are you out of your mind? Wait- Don’t answer that,” he holds his hand out as Aiba opens his mouth. “Why me?”
“Because you are perfect for me,” Aiba replies easily as he reaches for another tissue to wipe at Nino’s chin that has a blotch of coffee-stain right next to the mole.
Nino gapes. “You-” He stops, closes his eyes and exhales and inhales, and exhales again before opening his eyes to Aiba’s huge brown eyes staring unblinkingly at him. “What makes you think that I would want to marry you?” His tone is unpleasant and his eyes narrow dangerously, but the grin Aiba has on only widens.
Upon seeing that brighter-than-sunshine grin, Nino thinks that either his best friend for almost two decades is getting stupider or he is getting immune of Nino’s sharp wit. It seems the answer is the latter. Nino’s brow twitches with the unwelcome revelation. It means he has lost his charm. Not a good thing.
“Because you are Nino.” Nino’s supposed-to-be best friend states in a matter-of-fact manner, like it is the ultimate answer to life. Another twitch of an eyebrow ensues.
Unmindful of the lack of enthusiasm for his brilliant idea from the shorter man, Aiba continues, “My very best friend, the person who knows me the best. And in return, who knows you the best?” Aiba raises his brow then, confidently pats himself in the chest. A smug smile adorns his lips. “Me.”
Nino wants to retort to that, but Aiba continues with his speech.
“And who is insane enough to put up with your unhealthy lifestyle and your unstoppable gaming sessions without much complaint? After all these times, there is only me and nobody else.”
Nino cringes inwardly. Well, part of- Okay, to be brutally honest, all of what Aiba has spoken about him are indeed facts. His girl- and boyfriends in the past always had problems with what Aiba has explained out loud nicely: his unstoppable gaming session. But hey, Ohno stuck with him for more than a year (well, that is before the man found fishing to be more of his interest than watching Nino subtly brag his newest card tricks).
“If we get married, we will be happy.” Aiba ends his speech with a squeeze of Nino’s hand, something that he most likely does to assure Nino of his idea.
Nino quickly pulls his hand off of Aiba’s and sighs again as he resists the urge to bang his head on the table. Aiba and his simple logic are two things he should be well acquainted of after their many years of friendship, but even so, Aiba manages to surprise him from time to time. Always. Without fail.
“Aiba,” he starts and feels the beginning of a long-lasting headache coming his way.
Nino knows that whatever he is going to say now will just be a futile attempt to stop Aiba from executing this I-want-to-get-married experiment, as once Aiba wants to do something, it will be actually a smarter move to just let Aiba do it to prevent an even greater disaster. However, Nino fervently hopes he can talk Aiba out of this experiment, or at the very least get his name out of the main plan.
This is about marriage, and even for someone as skeptical of commitment between two people as Nino, it is still a big thing.
“Those are not enough reasons for a couple to get married. For god’s sake, Aiba, we are not even a couple, we are just childhood friends. I don’t even love you. Not in that way.” Nino straightforwardly points out the obvious reason, in case his friend is being his airheaded self and is too dense to understand subtlety.
Aiba shakes his head to disagree. “Love is not the only good reason for people to get married. You still can get divorced.” Aiba explains his logic as though he is speaking to a five-year-old kid. Nino’s eyebrow twitches again as the older man fishes out his latest hi-tech android au smartphone and voice-googles it. “Divorce rates.” He waits for the data to load and smartly shows it to Nino. “See? “
Nino barely looks at the colorful charts as his obnoxious friend continues to babble.
“Love may be the common reason for people to get married, but Nino, I think having a compatible partner is the secret recipe for successful and long-lasting marriage. I think you are the most compatible one for me.”
There is a vague butterfly-flutter in Nino’s stomach at the heartfelt confession but the devil in Nino’s head, which is much stronger than the butterfly, wants to strangle his best friend.
Nino admits that, for the first time ever, Aiba makes sense with his reasoning. He has a point there; even though that is another reason why they shouldn’t get married in the first place, because in the end, Nino is sure that they are going to get divorced, too. He says all that to Aiba.
“Well, Nino-chan, we won’t know if we don’t try, will we?”
Nino decides to ignore his friend from that second. “Whatever, you idiot.”
--
Aiba’s plan to marry him after that conversation doesn’t make any significant progress as Nino avoids his best friend like the man is the plague. He doesn’t pick up his numerous calls, he ignores the text messages from Aiba asking about various things from the marriage plan to the weather in Chiba and if Nino can visit his family’s restaurant when Nino went there on a field trip; Nino even stops going to the night clubs he usually frequents to decrease the prospect of meeting his best friend accidentally.
Aiba is like the plague. No. Aiba is the plague, Nino thinks as his brow twitches in reaction to that name. This eyebrow-twitching phenomenon has become a normal occurrence whenever Aiba comes to his mind, especially when the taller man has these crazy ideas involving Nino as the victim and not the usual partner in crime.
“Nino? What are you doing here?”
Nino looks up and sees Ohno Satoshi looming over his crouching posture. He is taking a smoke break on the rooftop. “Oh-chan? What are you doing here?”
The older man, who looks darker than usual---probably because he just spent his time fishing tuna and bonito somewhere in the ocean---sits down next to him. “I asked you first.”
Nino unconsciously moves closer and leans onto the older man’s body, overstepping Ohno’s personal bubble like he always did in the past. It is always so easy to fall back into the habit with his ex-boyfriend. “Oh-chan, what do you think about marriage?”
Ohno doesn’t answer it immediately as he chooses to take Nino’s hand and interweaves it with his own. Nino hums in approval of the affectionate gesture. Really, old habits die hard. Why are they broken up again, anyway? Oh right, fishing and the sea, two things Ohno loves but Nino can’t tolerate due to his seasickness.
“Are you marrying someone?” Ohno finally responds.
Nino, distracted with the circular motion Ohno does on his hand, only nods, not particularly aware of his own response.
As Ohno doesn’t continue, Nino bumps his shoulder against the older man. “You are not answering my question.”
“I will be happy for you.”
“Oh-chan,” Nino makes a face. “That is beside the point. You being happy for my happiness is a given. You love me,” he reminds his ex-boyfriend.
Ohno nods in agreement. “I do.”
“But what do you think of marriage?” Nino pushes himself to sit a little straighter and faces the sleepy-looking man.
Ohno looks at him, a pout on his full lips. “Why are you talking about marriage? Are we going to get married?”
The younger of the two rolls his eyes. “No, Oh-chan. It’s Aiba. He wants to marry me.” He squeezes Ohno’s hand in his. “And pay attention to my question. What do you think of marriage?”
Ohno blinks sleepily. “You will be happy with him.”
Nino thinks that that doesn’t answer his question and Ohno is sleepy. Nino bets it’s because of the long hours working on his stage play publications (or maybe he ditches the work and instead goes fishing only God knows where---yep that must be it), so keeping the older man from his much needed sleep is not an option. In contrast to what many people make of him as a bratty, rather cold and careless man, Nino does have a heart; so he lets Ohno sleep on his lap for a while.
The butterfly fluttering in his stomach is once again forgotten as Nino contemplates how to disrupt Aiba’s plan of marrying him.
--
Nino, I miss you. Marry me?
Nino rolls his eyes at his phone screen. He quickly types a reply.
Will you stop already? I am not marrying you.
His phone beeps again seconds after his reply.
You are mean. :(
Before Nino can type his reply, he receives another message.
But don’t worry, I still love you.
“That idiot.”
Nino flips closed his phone and throws it onto his bed. He believes the tightening in his stomach is due to hunger and not Aiba’s message. He goes to the kitchen and rummages through his cupboards for something to eat. To his bad luck, he has nothing edible in his apartment, only two cans of Kirin. If the growling his stomach make is any indication, it will not be happy with only liquid alcohol.
He goes back to his bedroom and makes a quick decision to send a message to check whether Jun is home or not. He is going to impose on the younger man’s house for dinner.
You are lucky I don’t have any plans for tonight. Bring the ingredients you want me to cook.
You are the best, J! He sends the text along with several grateful-looking kaomoji.
And beers.
Nino grins and quickly puts the Kirin into his bag.
Jun’s apartment is only a few blocks away from his own, and there is a supermarket on the way, so he ditches the idea of driving and instead opts to walk to Jun’s place.
Thirty minutes later, with an additional plastic bag in his right hand full of beers and ingredients for simple shabu-shabu, he continues his walk while whistling the Super Mario Bros tune. However, as he turns right on the block to Jun’s apartment, the whistling stops abruptly as he accidentally sees someone who looks like Aiba in the street across from him. With a man. Nino isn’t sure who yet because the man’s face is shadowed by a baseball cap; Aiba’s baseball cap. Then he notices that his best friend is standing next to that man in such close proximity that it makes Nino grit his teeth in annoyance.
It’s not fair that Aiba can still have fun when Nino is not present. Well, that’s probably because he is too busy avoiding his best friend, but it is still not fair.
Nino keeps his eyes on the pairing as Aiba whispers something into his companion’s ear which is probably funny since that man looks up with a foolish grin on his face. Nino stills as he recognizes that face.
Sakurai Sho from the news department.
Nino watches as both men get into the taxi with friendly gestures. He doesn’t look away even as the taxi moves into the opposite direction from Jun’s apartment.
Aiba Masaki’s ex-boyfriend.
Nino is not amused. At all.
Only when his stomach growls does he remember that he is going to Jun’s apartment. So he bites down the urge to call his best friend and gives him a piece of his mind, and proceeds to Jun’s place with a bad mood.
“Spill.”
“Hm?” Nino looks up from his can of beer to find Jun raising a questioning brow at him.
Jun reaches for a can of beer, plucks it open and gulps down a mouthful. “You have been ignoring me ever since you stepped into my house.”
“Sorry,” Nino grumbles out. “It’s nothing, really. And thank you for dinner.”
“Well,” Jun shrugs. “If you are not going to spill whatever it is, I am not going to dig. Anyway, since you are close with Aiba-san-” Nino tenses in his seat- “do you know if something is going on with him and that Sakurai from News? I thought they broke up last month, but rumor has it they are patching things up.”
Nino schools his face into indifference. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I haven’t met Aiba since last week.”
“Really? I thought you would know,” Jun continues, not aware of Nino’s growing dark mood. “Some even exaggerate and say that Sakurai has proposed and they are going to marry this end of year.”
“Is that so?” Nino asks, his voice a tone lower than usual. Nino thinks if he were holding a knife at the moment and Aiba were standing right in front of him, he would find himself in the news headlines the next morning, being labeled as mutilation criminal. Oh, and the reporter would not be Sakurai Sho, because that man would be in the news, too, as another mutilated victim. No, really, it’s only sarcasm. Nino is not evil like that.
“Yeah, but since you don’t know about it, maybe it’s just a baseless rumor.”
Nino wants to scoff at that statement. Instead, as he reaches for another can of beer, he responds with a light, “Yeah, maybe.”
Maybe.
Maybe it’s not a baseless rumor.
--
The door to the meeting room opens and closes with a loud blam that makes Nino look up in surprise. He finds the intruder breathing fire at him.
“You are avoiding me,” Aiba grits out, his eyes accusing, his long body so taut Nino muses that if he so much as touched the taller man, the man would crumble like gingerbread men.
“I am not sure that I understand what you are talking about, Aiba-san.” He nonchalantly looks away and tries to focus back on the final layouts of this month’s magazine.
It has been two weeks after that night and during these two weeks Nino has tried to disappear from the world. “Try” being the keyword. He comes early in the morning when the office is still empty except for the security guards and office boys and gets home last, he keeps social interaction outside of his office to a minimum, and of course he is still avoiding his best friend like the plague; working with the deadline is his ultimate excuse. If any of his colleagues find it weird, they don’t say anything, and that’s fine with Nino.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
Nino pauses what he is trying to do, which is ignore Aiba, but he can hear the hurt lacing his friend’s tone, and to be honest, Nino detests himself for hurting Aiba.
“Why do you think I am avoiding you?” Nino asks carefully.
For once in their friendship history, Aiba gives him an unreadable look.
“You never answer my calls, you ignore my texts, you tell your colleagues to lie about your whereabouts if I ask, you-”
“Aiba-san, what is it to you if I am indeed avoiding you?”
Although he is trying not to look at his best friend, Nino still can see his friend trembling hard, probably from holding in his anger.
“You know how I feel about you,” Aiba says. The hurt is more apparent this time and Nino almost flinches from it but he himself feels the same.
It hurt two weeks ago when he found out that his best friend might be lying about wanting to marry him. He doesn’t want to marry Aiba, but to find out that he is at the end of Aiba’s marriage joke, damn that hurt. A lot.
“No. I don’t,” he denies. “What I know is that you are spouting bullshit about marriage.” Nino drops his indifference mask and stands up, his body language defensive.
“I am not. I want to marry you!” Aiba shouts, finally at his limit.
But Nino doesn’t take that attitude lying down. He lashes out. “And you also want to marry that Sakurai Sho!”
Aiba freezes. “What?” he asks. Anger quickly drains from his face, replaced by confusion. “What are you talking about, Nino-chan? Who says so?”
“It doesn’t matter.” A confused Aiba looks like a cute confused puppy and Nino is restraining himself from pulling his best friend into a bear hug. He is tired and he misses his best friend.
“But it does!” Aiba insists as he moves closer to Nino’s desk. “I want to marry you, not Sho-chan.”
Nino frowns. “But-”
Then Aiba’s face changes, like there is a bulb switching on inside his mind. “Are you kidding me? You are jealous, aren’t you?!”
“I- what?”
Slowly it dawns on Nino, and for the love of Holy Mother, he can’t stop the spread of warmth on his cheeks or stop the cat from getting his tongue.
Aiba giggles. “You are blushing, Nino-chan. Does this mean you will marry me?”
Nino hitting Aiba on the head is a common occurrence in their friendship, although he knows his best friend will never ever get angry at him because of it. He knows it because he knows Aiba the best, and not only because Aiba’s laughter after the hit sounds happy.
He never gets the airheadedness of his best friend, no, nix that, his boyfriend. Really.
“But I am still not going to marry you.”
“Nino~” Aiba’s whine of his name also sounds happy.
Well, marriage or no marriage, if Aiba is happy, then Nino is happy, too.
He hits Aiba’s head again just because he can.
-end-
Extras: Next Level.
“And tell me, why are you in my room again?” Nino’s eyebrow is twitching as he watches the two men sitting in his office couch, a little bit too close for Nino’s liking. One of the men is his boyfriend, and the other is his boyfriend’s ex-boyfriend, the culprit who spread the rumor of Aiba getting back with him.
“Because I like Aiba-chan, and I don’t want him to celebrate your birthday.”
“Sho-chan, I like you, too.”
A twitch of an eyebrow.
“But you love me.”
“Yes, I love you, Kazu-chan. And happy birthday to you, I have a present wit-”
Sakurai cuts Aiba from his excited rambling. “But Kazu-chan is not going to marry you.”
Another twitch.
Aiba tsks. “Bad Sho-chan. We are married already. Look at this Super Mario Bros Coin ring, isn’t it beautiful?” He shows his ring finger to Sakurai, which is adorned with a cartoonish Super Mario Bros 8-bit coin ring.
Sakurai looks at Nino, and a joking smile is in full bloom on that chipmunk face. “Really? A Super Mario Bros Coin ring? Really, Ninomiya-san?”
“Shut up.”
“Hush, Sho-chan. You are not making my bride blushing like that.”
“I am not your bride, Aiba-san.” Nino gives his best-friend-turned-boyfriend a look.
Aiba grins and pulls out his hand. “First is rock, jan-ken-pon!”
A stone and a paper.
Nino smirks while Aiba pouts.
“Okay, you can be the groom then.” Aiba, who for the life of him can’t wink, tries his best to wink at Nino.
“Okay,” Nino winks back, complete with his two-finger salute. “Now that we have established our role in our blissful married life, which I am not aware already happened, can we go to the next level?”
Aiba grins at the promising idea. “Of course we can go to the next level!” He turns to Sakurai and pushes the man to get up then shoos him toward the door. “Now be a good boy, Sho-chan, and close the door on your way out.”
Sakurai makes a disgusted face and Nino only rolls his eyes in return. Some ex-boyfriends just never learn to move on.
With Sakurai Sho out of his office and Aiba Masaki’s focus back on him, Nino is all this wide shit-eating grin, all teeth and gums. Yeah, gross like that.
“Now, what level are we on?”
Nino laughs as Aiba pounces.
-the real end-
massu_kawaiiFrom:
tempesteruTitle: Marriage Go Round
Pairing/Focus: Aimiya
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: uh as fluffy as cumulonimbus cloud. also profanity is inevitable.
Summary: Aiba wants to get married, but Nino is not going to marry him.
Notes: I hope this fic is to your liking
massu_kawaii, it's been forever since I wrote something fluffy so I am a bit worried! Anyhow, enjoy the read :)“I want to get married.”
What the-? Nino blinks.
Ninomiya Kazunari. 29 years old. Editor-in-chief of Gamestation---Japan’s most popular game magazine. A hardcore gamer. Light brown short hair, styled so it looks like that witty singer with hamburger hands from a group of idols under J Kingdom named Storms, because he thinks he is as witty as that man. He is currently single and not looking forward to having a relationship in the near future. He thinks dating is a hassle and prefers to just have one-night stands. Men or women, he embraces all, because despite his nerdy tendencies and young-innocent looks, he has a beastly sexual prowess. Or so the rumors say.
In the moment, he finds himself dumbfounded with the unexpected statement which comes out of nowhere from Aiba Masaki, a clumsy reporter from the news department, who is unfortunately a friend of his that falls under the BFF(AERPNTS) category---it stands for Best Friend Forever (And Ever, Really. Please Note The Sarcasm.)---and that means their friendship has history as deep as the Pacific Ocean AND that Aiba being a pain in the ass is normal for him. Yeah, BFF-shits and so.
Just a minute ago they were talking about Matsumoto Jun---the well-favored editor of the fashion department, also well-known for his stoic countenance (it’s the thick eyebrows and the perpetual scowl of those thin lips, really)---in regard to his latest trendsetting permed hair, and Nino is certain that nothing about their prior conversation is related in any way to the topic of I-want-to-get-married.
“Nino, I want to get married,” the man in front of him repeats in a slightly demanding tone. As if to emphasize his demand for Nino’s attention, the taller man also tugs at his sleeves.
Nino sighs. This is Aiba and it is normal, he chants inwardly. “I heard you the first time, Aiba,” he finally says. “I just am wondering who you’re planning to marry? Did you in any way get hit in the head and somehow forget that you broke up just last month?” Why so random, too, Nino thinks as he reaches for his cup of morning caffeine.
“Ehm, you?”
It is to be expected that Nino would choke on his drink and spray the hot and dark liquid towards Aiba. Nino loves to believe that the whole universe expects him to do so, thus he doesn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. He splutters and coughs as some of the coffee goes down the wrong pipe while Aiba kindly wipes his own face with tissues. Despite the situation, Nino notes in annoyance, the older man has a silly grin pasted on his face.
Nino isn’t going to like this. He knows it.
“Me?” Nino gasps out. “Are you out of your mind? Wait- Don’t answer that,” he holds his hand out as Aiba opens his mouth. “Why me?”
“Because you are perfect for me,” Aiba replies easily as he reaches for another tissue to wipe at Nino’s chin that has a blotch of coffee-stain right next to the mole.
Nino gapes. “You-” He stops, closes his eyes and exhales and inhales, and exhales again before opening his eyes to Aiba’s huge brown eyes staring unblinkingly at him. “What makes you think that I would want to marry you?” His tone is unpleasant and his eyes narrow dangerously, but the grin Aiba has on only widens.
Upon seeing that brighter-than-sunshine grin, Nino thinks that either his best friend for almost two decades is getting stupider or he is getting immune of Nino’s sharp wit. It seems the answer is the latter. Nino’s brow twitches with the unwelcome revelation. It means he has lost his charm. Not a good thing.
“Because you are Nino.” Nino’s supposed-to-be best friend states in a matter-of-fact manner, like it is the ultimate answer to life. Another twitch of an eyebrow ensues.
Unmindful of the lack of enthusiasm for his brilliant idea from the shorter man, Aiba continues, “My very best friend, the person who knows me the best. And in return, who knows you the best?” Aiba raises his brow then, confidently pats himself in the chest. A smug smile adorns his lips. “Me.”
Nino wants to retort to that, but Aiba continues with his speech.
“And who is insane enough to put up with your unhealthy lifestyle and your unstoppable gaming sessions without much complaint? After all these times, there is only me and nobody else.”
Nino cringes inwardly. Well, part of- Okay, to be brutally honest, all of what Aiba has spoken about him are indeed facts. His girl- and boyfriends in the past always had problems with what Aiba has explained out loud nicely: his unstoppable gaming session. But hey, Ohno stuck with him for more than a year (well, that is before the man found fishing to be more of his interest than watching Nino subtly brag his newest card tricks).
“If we get married, we will be happy.” Aiba ends his speech with a squeeze of Nino’s hand, something that he most likely does to assure Nino of his idea.
Nino quickly pulls his hand off of Aiba’s and sighs again as he resists the urge to bang his head on the table. Aiba and his simple logic are two things he should be well acquainted of after their many years of friendship, but even so, Aiba manages to surprise him from time to time. Always. Without fail.
“Aiba,” he starts and feels the beginning of a long-lasting headache coming his way.
Nino knows that whatever he is going to say now will just be a futile attempt to stop Aiba from executing this I-want-to-get-married experiment, as once Aiba wants to do something, it will be actually a smarter move to just let Aiba do it to prevent an even greater disaster. However, Nino fervently hopes he can talk Aiba out of this experiment, or at the very least get his name out of the main plan.
This is about marriage, and even for someone as skeptical of commitment between two people as Nino, it is still a big thing.
“Those are not enough reasons for a couple to get married. For god’s sake, Aiba, we are not even a couple, we are just childhood friends. I don’t even love you. Not in that way.” Nino straightforwardly points out the obvious reason, in case his friend is being his airheaded self and is too dense to understand subtlety.
Aiba shakes his head to disagree. “Love is not the only good reason for people to get married. You still can get divorced.” Aiba explains his logic as though he is speaking to a five-year-old kid. Nino’s eyebrow twitches again as the older man fishes out his latest hi-tech android au smartphone and voice-googles it. “Divorce rates.” He waits for the data to load and smartly shows it to Nino. “See? “
Nino barely looks at the colorful charts as his obnoxious friend continues to babble.
“Love may be the common reason for people to get married, but Nino, I think having a compatible partner is the secret recipe for successful and long-lasting marriage. I think you are the most compatible one for me.”
There is a vague butterfly-flutter in Nino’s stomach at the heartfelt confession but the devil in Nino’s head, which is much stronger than the butterfly, wants to strangle his best friend.
Nino admits that, for the first time ever, Aiba makes sense with his reasoning. He has a point there; even though that is another reason why they shouldn’t get married in the first place, because in the end, Nino is sure that they are going to get divorced, too. He says all that to Aiba.
“Well, Nino-chan, we won’t know if we don’t try, will we?”
Nino decides to ignore his friend from that second. “Whatever, you idiot.”
--
Aiba’s plan to marry him after that conversation doesn’t make any significant progress as Nino avoids his best friend like the man is the plague. He doesn’t pick up his numerous calls, he ignores the text messages from Aiba asking about various things from the marriage plan to the weather in Chiba and if Nino can visit his family’s restaurant when Nino went there on a field trip; Nino even stops going to the night clubs he usually frequents to decrease the prospect of meeting his best friend accidentally.
Aiba is like the plague. No. Aiba is the plague, Nino thinks as his brow twitches in reaction to that name. This eyebrow-twitching phenomenon has become a normal occurrence whenever Aiba comes to his mind, especially when the taller man has these crazy ideas involving Nino as the victim and not the usual partner in crime.
“Nino? What are you doing here?”
Nino looks up and sees Ohno Satoshi looming over his crouching posture. He is taking a smoke break on the rooftop. “Oh-chan? What are you doing here?”
The older man, who looks darker than usual---probably because he just spent his time fishing tuna and bonito somewhere in the ocean---sits down next to him. “I asked you first.”
Nino unconsciously moves closer and leans onto the older man’s body, overstepping Ohno’s personal bubble like he always did in the past. It is always so easy to fall back into the habit with his ex-boyfriend. “Oh-chan, what do you think about marriage?”
Ohno doesn’t answer it immediately as he chooses to take Nino’s hand and interweaves it with his own. Nino hums in approval of the affectionate gesture. Really, old habits die hard. Why are they broken up again, anyway? Oh right, fishing and the sea, two things Ohno loves but Nino can’t tolerate due to his seasickness.
“Are you marrying someone?” Ohno finally responds.
Nino, distracted with the circular motion Ohno does on his hand, only nods, not particularly aware of his own response.
As Ohno doesn’t continue, Nino bumps his shoulder against the older man. “You are not answering my question.”
“I will be happy for you.”
“Oh-chan,” Nino makes a face. “That is beside the point. You being happy for my happiness is a given. You love me,” he reminds his ex-boyfriend.
Ohno nods in agreement. “I do.”
“But what do you think of marriage?” Nino pushes himself to sit a little straighter and faces the sleepy-looking man.
Ohno looks at him, a pout on his full lips. “Why are you talking about marriage? Are we going to get married?”
The younger of the two rolls his eyes. “No, Oh-chan. It’s Aiba. He wants to marry me.” He squeezes Ohno’s hand in his. “And pay attention to my question. What do you think of marriage?”
Ohno blinks sleepily. “You will be happy with him.”
Nino thinks that that doesn’t answer his question and Ohno is sleepy. Nino bets it’s because of the long hours working on his stage play publications (or maybe he ditches the work and instead goes fishing only God knows where---yep that must be it), so keeping the older man from his much needed sleep is not an option. In contrast to what many people make of him as a bratty, rather cold and careless man, Nino does have a heart; so he lets Ohno sleep on his lap for a while.
The butterfly fluttering in his stomach is once again forgotten as Nino contemplates how to disrupt Aiba’s plan of marrying him.
--
Nino, I miss you. Marry me?
Nino rolls his eyes at his phone screen. He quickly types a reply.
Will you stop already? I am not marrying you.
His phone beeps again seconds after his reply.
You are mean. :(
Before Nino can type his reply, he receives another message.
But don’t worry, I still love you.
“That idiot.”
Nino flips closed his phone and throws it onto his bed. He believes the tightening in his stomach is due to hunger and not Aiba’s message. He goes to the kitchen and rummages through his cupboards for something to eat. To his bad luck, he has nothing edible in his apartment, only two cans of Kirin. If the growling his stomach make is any indication, it will not be happy with only liquid alcohol.
He goes back to his bedroom and makes a quick decision to send a message to check whether Jun is home or not. He is going to impose on the younger man’s house for dinner.
You are lucky I don’t have any plans for tonight. Bring the ingredients you want me to cook.
You are the best, J! He sends the text along with several grateful-looking kaomoji.
And beers.
Nino grins and quickly puts the Kirin into his bag.
Jun’s apartment is only a few blocks away from his own, and there is a supermarket on the way, so he ditches the idea of driving and instead opts to walk to Jun’s place.
Thirty minutes later, with an additional plastic bag in his right hand full of beers and ingredients for simple shabu-shabu, he continues his walk while whistling the Super Mario Bros tune. However, as he turns right on the block to Jun’s apartment, the whistling stops abruptly as he accidentally sees someone who looks like Aiba in the street across from him. With a man. Nino isn’t sure who yet because the man’s face is shadowed by a baseball cap; Aiba’s baseball cap. Then he notices that his best friend is standing next to that man in such close proximity that it makes Nino grit his teeth in annoyance.
It’s not fair that Aiba can still have fun when Nino is not present. Well, that’s probably because he is too busy avoiding his best friend, but it is still not fair.
Nino keeps his eyes on the pairing as Aiba whispers something into his companion’s ear which is probably funny since that man looks up with a foolish grin on his face. Nino stills as he recognizes that face.
Sakurai Sho from the news department.
Nino watches as both men get into the taxi with friendly gestures. He doesn’t look away even as the taxi moves into the opposite direction from Jun’s apartment.
Aiba Masaki’s ex-boyfriend.
Nino is not amused. At all.
Only when his stomach growls does he remember that he is going to Jun’s apartment. So he bites down the urge to call his best friend and gives him a piece of his mind, and proceeds to Jun’s place with a bad mood.
“Spill.”
“Hm?” Nino looks up from his can of beer to find Jun raising a questioning brow at him.
Jun reaches for a can of beer, plucks it open and gulps down a mouthful. “You have been ignoring me ever since you stepped into my house.”
“Sorry,” Nino grumbles out. “It’s nothing, really. And thank you for dinner.”
“Well,” Jun shrugs. “If you are not going to spill whatever it is, I am not going to dig. Anyway, since you are close with Aiba-san-” Nino tenses in his seat- “do you know if something is going on with him and that Sakurai from News? I thought they broke up last month, but rumor has it they are patching things up.”
Nino schools his face into indifference. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I haven’t met Aiba since last week.”
“Really? I thought you would know,” Jun continues, not aware of Nino’s growing dark mood. “Some even exaggerate and say that Sakurai has proposed and they are going to marry this end of year.”
“Is that so?” Nino asks, his voice a tone lower than usual. Nino thinks if he were holding a knife at the moment and Aiba were standing right in front of him, he would find himself in the news headlines the next morning, being labeled as mutilation criminal. Oh, and the reporter would not be Sakurai Sho, because that man would be in the news, too, as another mutilated victim. No, really, it’s only sarcasm. Nino is not evil like that.
“Yeah, but since you don’t know about it, maybe it’s just a baseless rumor.”
Nino wants to scoff at that statement. Instead, as he reaches for another can of beer, he responds with a light, “Yeah, maybe.”
Maybe.
Maybe it’s not a baseless rumor.
--
The door to the meeting room opens and closes with a loud blam that makes Nino look up in surprise. He finds the intruder breathing fire at him.
“You are avoiding me,” Aiba grits out, his eyes accusing, his long body so taut Nino muses that if he so much as touched the taller man, the man would crumble like gingerbread men.
“I am not sure that I understand what you are talking about, Aiba-san.” He nonchalantly looks away and tries to focus back on the final layouts of this month’s magazine.
It has been two weeks after that night and during these two weeks Nino has tried to disappear from the world. “Try” being the keyword. He comes early in the morning when the office is still empty except for the security guards and office boys and gets home last, he keeps social interaction outside of his office to a minimum, and of course he is still avoiding his best friend like the plague; working with the deadline is his ultimate excuse. If any of his colleagues find it weird, they don’t say anything, and that’s fine with Nino.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
Nino pauses what he is trying to do, which is ignore Aiba, but he can hear the hurt lacing his friend’s tone, and to be honest, Nino detests himself for hurting Aiba.
“Why do you think I am avoiding you?” Nino asks carefully.
For once in their friendship history, Aiba gives him an unreadable look.
“You never answer my calls, you ignore my texts, you tell your colleagues to lie about your whereabouts if I ask, you-”
“Aiba-san, what is it to you if I am indeed avoiding you?”
Although he is trying not to look at his best friend, Nino still can see his friend trembling hard, probably from holding in his anger.
“You know how I feel about you,” Aiba says. The hurt is more apparent this time and Nino almost flinches from it but he himself feels the same.
It hurt two weeks ago when he found out that his best friend might be lying about wanting to marry him. He doesn’t want to marry Aiba, but to find out that he is at the end of Aiba’s marriage joke, damn that hurt. A lot.
“No. I don’t,” he denies. “What I know is that you are spouting bullshit about marriage.” Nino drops his indifference mask and stands up, his body language defensive.
“I am not. I want to marry you!” Aiba shouts, finally at his limit.
But Nino doesn’t take that attitude lying down. He lashes out. “And you also want to marry that Sakurai Sho!”
Aiba freezes. “What?” he asks. Anger quickly drains from his face, replaced by confusion. “What are you talking about, Nino-chan? Who says so?”
“It doesn’t matter.” A confused Aiba looks like a cute confused puppy and Nino is restraining himself from pulling his best friend into a bear hug. He is tired and he misses his best friend.
“But it does!” Aiba insists as he moves closer to Nino’s desk. “I want to marry you, not Sho-chan.”
Nino frowns. “But-”
Then Aiba’s face changes, like there is a bulb switching on inside his mind. “Are you kidding me? You are jealous, aren’t you?!”
“I- what?”
Slowly it dawns on Nino, and for the love of Holy Mother, he can’t stop the spread of warmth on his cheeks or stop the cat from getting his tongue.
Aiba giggles. “You are blushing, Nino-chan. Does this mean you will marry me?”
Nino hitting Aiba on the head is a common occurrence in their friendship, although he knows his best friend will never ever get angry at him because of it. He knows it because he knows Aiba the best, and not only because Aiba’s laughter after the hit sounds happy.
He never gets the airheadedness of his best friend, no, nix that, his boyfriend. Really.
“But I am still not going to marry you.”
“Nino~” Aiba’s whine of his name also sounds happy.
Well, marriage or no marriage, if Aiba is happy, then Nino is happy, too.
He hits Aiba’s head again just because he can.
-end-
Extras: Next Level.
“And tell me, why are you in my room again?” Nino’s eyebrow is twitching as he watches the two men sitting in his office couch, a little bit too close for Nino’s liking. One of the men is his boyfriend, and the other is his boyfriend’s ex-boyfriend, the culprit who spread the rumor of Aiba getting back with him.
“Because I like Aiba-chan, and I don’t want him to celebrate your birthday.”
“Sho-chan, I like you, too.”
A twitch of an eyebrow.
“But you love me.”
“Yes, I love you, Kazu-chan. And happy birthday to you, I have a present wit-”
Sakurai cuts Aiba from his excited rambling. “But Kazu-chan is not going to marry you.”
Another twitch.
Aiba tsks. “Bad Sho-chan. We are married already. Look at this Super Mario Bros Coin ring, isn’t it beautiful?” He shows his ring finger to Sakurai, which is adorned with a cartoonish Super Mario Bros 8-bit coin ring.
Sakurai looks at Nino, and a joking smile is in full bloom on that chipmunk face. “Really? A Super Mario Bros Coin ring? Really, Ninomiya-san?”
“Shut up.”
“Hush, Sho-chan. You are not making my bride blushing like that.”
“I am not your bride, Aiba-san.” Nino gives his best-friend-turned-boyfriend a look.
Aiba grins and pulls out his hand. “First is rock, jan-ken-pon!”
A stone and a paper.
Nino smirks while Aiba pouts.
“Okay, you can be the groom then.” Aiba, who for the life of him can’t wink, tries his best to wink at Nino.
“Okay,” Nino winks back, complete with his two-finger salute. “Now that we have established our role in our blissful married life, which I am not aware already happened, can we go to the next level?”
Aiba grins at the promising idea. “Of course we can go to the next level!” He turns to Sakurai and pushes the man to get up then shoos him toward the door. “Now be a good boy, Sho-chan, and close the door on your way out.”
Sakurai makes a disgusted face and Nino only rolls his eyes in return. Some ex-boyfriends just never learn to move on.
With Sakurai Sho out of his office and Aiba Masaki’s focus back on him, Nino is all this wide shit-eating grin, all teeth and gums. Yeah, gross like that.
“Now, what level are we on?”
Nino laughs as Aiba pounces.
-the real end-