fic for yumenosete (1/2)

[nino-mod.livejournal.com]

For: yumenosete
From: phrenk

Title: We Are Go (Go Go Go)
Pairing/Focus: Nino/Aiba, with Jun/Sho and Ohno/Aragaki Yui
Rating: PG
Warnings: not especially, though there is a plan that involves fooling people (which is resolved)
Summary: Nino has been in love with Aiba forever. He knows he should decline when Aiba asks him to pretend to be his boyfriend for a trip with friends, but when has Nino ever been able to resist Aiba?
Notes: Thank you to my beta for being helpful and wonderful and the best, and thank you to nino_mod for her endless patience and encouragement. I hope you enjoy this, yumenosete. ♥

===

Nino wasn't a dramatic person, even when it came to embarrassingly long-term, embarrassingly life-altering unrequited love, but it was becoming clear that each visit to Aiba's place was a step toward another goodbye.

He'd fought against the realization, shoving his feelings down with the ruthlessness of experience, but he knew now that he'd come back too soon. It wasn't the sort of self-indulgence he usually allowed himself, but he couldn't help thinking it was unfair: he had only been back for a couple of months, had barely gotten his place the way he liked it, and his job's new incarnation was only starting to make sense.

This soon, and his defenses were already crumbling.

He stopped in the convenience store nearest Aiba's place to buy beer, then changed his mind and left empty-handed. He'd waited years to come back, had convinced himself he had it under complete control, but for as self-aware a person as Nino was, he'd managed to lie to himself this time. He'd come back because he couldn't stay away from Aiba any longer, that was all.

And nothing changed, not in five years, ten, not now as they were nearing twenty. The teenage Aiba's gangly form might have gained muscle and grace, and the reckless behavior of Aiba's college years might have settled into a steady if greatly enthusiastic mode of life... even the brightly-burning Aiba of five years ago, right before Nino had left their apartment and his old life, had been at times painfully uncertain of himself. The present Aiba, the man he was walking to meet, had grown into someone more self-assured than Nino had been at all prepared for.

These differences didn't change anything when it came to the incontrovertible fact that Aiba was the love of Nino's life, the partner in just about every relationship fantasy he'd had since he was thirteen. He was also, always and most importantly, Nino's best friend.

Nino changed his mind and went back and bought the beer. It would make him feel exposed, overly intimate, to show up at Aiba's place without anything to offer, even though he had no intention of drinking.

Having walked as slowly as his traitor of a heart would allow, and stopping halfway to send a few texts to stall further, he let himself into Aiba's building with his spare key. Aiba had given it to him the first time they'd seen each other back in Tokyo, one sign of many that Aiba had been waiting for Nino to come back. Opening the door to Aiba's apartment, Nino steeled himself for the indescribable jolt that seeing his best friend always was.

He made it to the kitchen without being apprehended and set the beer on the counter just in time to be lifted into the air by a hug.

"A little warning might be nice," he crabbed, heart soaring irresponsibly at the affectionate grip of Aiba's strong arms, but Aiba only laughed and twirled him one more time before setting him carefully on a stool.

"Good call bringing drinks, Nino!" Aiba said, looking at him with that same blindingly beloved face as always. "Today we're going to make a plan that will improve the lives of two people forever. Makes sense to toast after, right?"

Nino stared at that tanned, hopeful face, then sighed with defeated amusement. "Speak on, Aiba-san, since there's clearly no stopping you."

Aiba grinned at him and charged right into it.

===

"I'm sorry, after your endless torrent of words, I fear my ears must be malfunctioning. If you had to sum your no doubt foolproof plan all up in three words, I think that's all the room I have left."

Aiba, still recovering, had to ponder for a few seconds. He held up his hand. "Can we make it five?"

Nino looked away from those long fingers and heaved a breath. "To do so, I'd have to delete that whole sidebar about the way you researched by watching animals at the zoo, and I have to say, that might not be any kind of loss. You did seem to feel it merited a few thousand words--"

"Fine, you awful jerk, delete it and listen up," Aiba laughed, slapping Nino's shoulder to show his offended feelings.

Nino nodded and made a face more suited to hearing about the fate of the universe than Aiba's summing up of an obviously harebrained scheme.

Aiba said with cheerful grandeur, "Please be my fake boyfriend, Nino!"

Sighing, Nino put his head in his hands. "Six. All you had to do was leave off the name, which you didn't need, and instead--that is, of course, leaving aside the whole thing of why would we ever pretend to be boyfriends, and no, before you try again, I'm not accepting your observations on elephant behavior as a reason."

He had, of course, actually been listening, and it wasn't really that complicated despite the way Aiba's excited mind sprinted off in all directions. It was utterly ridiculous, however, and unnecessary and unhelpful to every single person involved, especially himself.

Aiba wanted them to pretend to be a couple while on a trip with another couple, two men who had been together for a while but were hugely awkward and apparently incapable of even basic physical intimacy. He'd gone on another long tangent when it came to how he knew them, which had included casual, heartrending references to how lonely he'd been when Nino had left, and it seemed that they'd really helped him out in the past.

He felt indebted. He cared deeply about them in that openhearted Aiba way of his. And he thought that if he could just show them an example of a gay couple who had easy intimacy and an obviously close relationship, it might help them to open up to each other.

Nino let Aiba re-hash the idea in a nervous babble a while longer before he interrupted, "And what does this all have to do with me?"

Aiba looked startled. "You're my best friend? And we have good skinship already, plus you're gay, so--"

"So being pawed by some random guy is my idea of fun?" Nino said, trying to look affronted.

"Some random guy!?" Aiba protested, then read Nino's expression correctly and whined, "Quit teasing me and just say yes already, okay?"

Wishing he had the self-control to decline this ludicrous scheme and knowing he was going to let himself be persuaded, Nino said calmly, "Tell me three reasons why I should."

So promptly that Nino knew he'd been saving them up for just this moment, Aiba said, "One, you love me. Two, you don't have any plans this weekend. Three, food and lodging and entertainment will be provided... free of charge."

The very fact that he was going to agree to pretend to be in love with the person he'd secretly loved for well over a decade was a giant, flashing neon sign that he was going to have to separate himself from this situation. He had to do it, and soon, before he lost all control and risked his place in Aiba's life. Again.

He made grumbling noises that had Aiba gesticulating wildly as he described the good this experiment would do for Nino's soul, the intangible benefit of helping out two people who desperately needed it, who loved each other but couldn't show it.

Easy intimacy. An obviously close relationship.

It'd be torture, the worst kind and the best. It'd show him, definitively, that he had to leave, while giving him something to remember while he was gone.

"--and all we'll need to do is be ourselves, just with some extra touching, a lot of hand-holding, and one really good kiss!" Aiba concluded, then hastily grabbed Nino's shoulders and said, "Did I mention the free food?"

And one really good kiss.

Nino closed his eyes as he felt his love for Aiba with all his heart, then opened them with it hidden away again.

"Fine."

"But don't you see, they need us to--huh? For real? Oh yay, yay, Nino, thank you--"

Nino knocked Aiba's arms away when they seemed about to pick him up or hug him or twirl him again. "But I'm not helping with anything."

"You're going to have to help with the touching, you know," Aiba said, frowning as he settled back on his stool. "And the backstory, but I figure it'll be more fun if we make that up as we go along, knowing you? Like a prank and a game," he finished triumphantly. "I should've said that earlier!"

"Now my every last qualm is defeated," Nino said dryly. "I understand all of that, but I'm not helping otherwise."

Aiba moved a little closer. "But you did hear what I said about one really good kiss?"

"I'm not talking about kissing," Nino snapped, hoping his cheeks didn't look as red as they felt. "I'm saying the planning, the preparation, all that stuff. That's on you."

"I will plan everything," Aiba said, eyes shining in a way that wasn't to be trusted.

"Oh, that reminds me," Nino said pleasantly. "Listen carefully, Aiba-chan. If your plan is something I know you know I would have rejected, I'm out."

"But--"

"You have known me long enough to know what I like," Nino said with finality.

Aiba nodded, looking thoughtful, then visibly remembered to sulk at Nino's strict rules. Nino, as unwillingly fascinated by that face as ever, noted the excited amusement still lurking in the deep crinkles around his eyes. He had to turn a fond smile into a put-upon scowl, but it came almost as naturally.

"I'll be good," Aiba promised.

Nino had to shut his eyes against his gut twinging in appalling happiness at the idea of this person, so dear, so off-limits, being good to him that way. It's not like he didn't know this whole idea was awful, but it was rude of it to be so clearly a disaster before they even started. He opened his eyes to find Aiba watching him intently.

Before he could read that expression, Nino was receiving the full force of Aiba's beaming smile. "In fact, I'll be the best boyfriend you ever had!"

Nino distracted himself from those smile lines and warm eyes by beginning a list of his regrets.

===

Despite knowing those initial regrets would only grow as time passed, Nino hadn't expected them to multiply exponentially quite so quickly.

One look at their mode of transportation brought the full force of his agreement home to him. The risk to his heart, sure, it was terrible, but it was a known quantity. He'd risked his heart every day since meeting Aiba by refusing to stop being his friend, even if the last five years had been long-distance.

He should have been worried about more tangible things, because it seemed that when he trusted Aiba to plan a weekend for them as fake boyfriends, Aiba thought that meant it should involve a camper van.

"No, no, no, it's an RV!" Aiba said, flinging his arms out to show just how huge the difference was. Nino barely dodged an elbow to the face, which didn't improve his mood.

"Do you even know what RV means?" Nino asked. After walking up from the station, they were standing across the parking lot from the meeting place. It was supposed to be a last confirmation of their plan, but Nino couldn't tear his eyes away from the tiny beige death-trap he was to be stuck in for who knew how long. Even worse was what it implied. They were heading into the wilderness. He nervously patted the pocket that held his Nintendo 3DS, then the pocket with the car charger.

Aiba, meanwhile, was clearly puzzling over English words that started with R. Then he snapped his fingers and said happily, "Roomy."

Nino sighed, "Oh good, the lying starts early. While we're at it, what's the V?"

Question marks practically popped into being all around Aiba's flatteringly mussed hair, but after more seconds than Nino would have allowed him without mockery if it weren't for the constant distraction of their impending fake relationship, he said gleefully, "Vroom!"

"I'm sorry?" Nino asked, pretending not to have heard.

"Roomy vroooooom!" Aiba cried and fist-pumped to himself like he was about to receive a championship trophy for his intellectual skills.

"I feel like our fake breakup is drawing near," Nino muttered, but he couldn't quite keep the laugh out of his voice.

"We are going to be together forever," Aiba retorted cheerfully, seemingly not at all concerned with Nino's cardiovascular health. He dropped an arm around Nino's hunched shoulders and gestured expansively at the RV. "They bought it years ago, but this is the first time I've been invited to come too. It's going to be the best, right?"

"So who are these RV-buying, intimacy-stunted individuals?" Nino said, shrugging away from Aiba mostly because in a few minutes, he'd have to lean closer instead. Since he had to have this experience, he pulled out his phone and took a picture of his temporary home to use as evidence of his mistreatment

"Nah, Captain's with Gakky," Aiba said cheerfully. "He bought the Super Soul with Sho-chan before he met her."

Nino blinked, then said, "I can see your mouth is moving and I hear sounds, so I assume you're trying to communicate."

"The RV belongs to Captain and Sho-chan." Aiba spoke slowly, as if speed were the problem. "They've been friends for years, and camping buddies, practically an old married couple except they're platonic, you see? Captain's straight, I think, and he's with Gakky, has been for almost six years, I think? And Sho-chan's bi, like me, and he's with--"

"Stop," Nino choked. His vision got blurry as he tried desperately to process Aiba's matter-of-fact coming out. "Aiba-chan, you--"

"Ah, I was so excited that you were home that I forgot to tell you!" Aiba said brightly. "I finally figured out I was bisexual while you were gone, isn't that great? Sho-chan really helped me work it all out, and, um, his boyfriend, too..."

"You. You just--Aiba-chan, you didn't--" Nino had pined for his straight best friend for well over a decade. He hoped it didn't take that long for his tongue and brain to start working together again.

Aiba blinked once, then grinned, and through his haze of aghast perplexity, Nino realized his best friend was anxious.

"Does it change anything?" Aiba asked. Despite the grin on his face, his posture was stiff.

For a moment, Nino couldn't breathe. Then it all clicked back into place, at least enough for him to suppress his immediate response, because the fact was: it really didn't. Aiba could be bisexual or straight or gay or whatever, and it didn't change the fact that he wasn't in love with Nino.

What he was, as ever, was Nino's best friend.

Instead of freaking out any further, Nino mustered up some compassion. "Of course not, Aiba-chan," he said as calmly as he could, and he bumped his shoulder against Aiba's still figure in attempt to bring them both back to normality.

Aiba recovered suspiciously quickly. "Oh good! Because this weekend is full of lovey-dovey things for us, so it'd be weird if it was weird."

"You are weird," Nino groaned, heart thumping unsteadily as he remembered Aiba being into dudes wasn't the most jarring thing he'd deal with even within the hour. "Hold up, this Captain person and Sho-san person, they go on long camping trips together in their own camper van? I'm sure that eccentric and expensive and time-consuming relationship doesn't at all put a damper on their romantic endeavors."

"Nah, it's all good," Aiba said blithely. "You'll see. You've never seen a more secure friendship." After a beat, he wrapped his elbow around Nino's neck and craned even closer to give him a failure of a wink. "Other than ours, I mean, Nino-chan!"

Nino didn't bother to shrug him off this time, just said darkly, "A lot less secure than before I knew you'd signed us up to spend time in that rickety little box with two strangers."

"Not strangers to me! Besides, there'll be six of us."

Nino pulled away a few steps and stared at him, thoughts of yelling, backing out, and moderate violence in his eyes. Aiba, oblivious, looked cheerily into the distance toward the RV, hands on his hips in a jaunty fashion.

Indeed, after a moment he added, "It's a full expedition, you see! Captain and Gakky, you and me, and the recipients of our help--just wait until you see them in action, Nino, they're so awkward it's like they're doing it on purpose."

"That thing is about the size of your closet. Where the fuck will we sleep?"

Aiba grinned at him. "Right next to each other, don't worry! Ready to go?" He held out his hand, eyes alight with excited mischief.

"If only I'd brought my own car," Nino sighed, but he took Aiba's hand and tried to ignore the alarmed clamor of his unprotected heart.

Still smiling, Aiba laced their fingers together and took a step, but Nino didn't move. Ahead, someone had come out of the RV, and they were just far away enough that he couldn't be sure, but--

The figure turned and waved briskly.

Nino gripped Aiba's hand tightly in sheer astonishment. "Is that Jun-kun?!"

===

Forty minutes later, they were on the road. Nino, having scraped through the reunion with Jun, introductions to the rest, and first half hour of his fake relationship with Aiba, was pretending to sleep from a desperate sense of self-preservation.

It might have felt like more of a respite if he weren't lying cuddled close to Aiba.

Captain, real name Ohno Satoshi, and Sho-chan, full name Sakurai Sho, had bought a motor home and named it Super Soul, which seemed to round out most of Aiba's explanation earlier which had needed so very many footnotes, except for the part where Ohno was in a romantic relationship with Gakky, also known as Aragaki Yui, and Sho was dating Jun-kun, the Matsumoto Jun who'd been friends with Nino and Aiba in high school... who'd actually known Nino longer than Aiba, though with a gap of many years, and who, even if it hadn't ever been romantic, had been Nino's first partner in experimentation. More bluntly, he'd been the first boy Nino ever kissed.

It wasn't part of the plan at all, and it wasn't like Aiba hadn't known about it. This boyfriend of Sho's wasn't some stranger in need of a random lesson in skinship. This was someone who'd been an extremely close friend to them both, someone who could read Nino from years of practice.

Nino squeezed his eyes shut tighter in protest of just how realistically in love with Aiba he was going to have to show himself to be in the next few days.

On the other hand... it was good to see his old friend again. The fumbling teenager had become a composed and striking man, but there was no doubt this was still the kind, earnest Jun-kun Nino had known. It made Nino wish he weren't leaving again: if he stayed, he could see this old-new friend all the time.

Aiba shifted under Nino's arm, talking to Jun in a quiet voice in deference to Nino's supposed exhaustion from work. Nino had used his last shred of self-control to apologize self-deprecatingly for needing to sleep so badly. Since then he'd feigned sleep while listening to the easy conversation with as much of his brain as he could, since he certainly needed the distraction from the multitude of emotional pressures of the day. Practically, the more he knew about these people, the easier it would be to convince them he and Aiba were really dating.

Sho had moved up to take the first turn driving after a spirited game of rock-paper-scissors, and Nino hadn't heard a single word from Ohno since their ritual yelling of Super Soul we are go go go go! on departure, but Gakky contributed to the conversation of Aiba and Jun at times, her voice quiet but self-assured.

His impression of Ohno and Gakky was that they were a comfortable, slightly out of it couple. When the polite greetings had been finished, they'd both looked at Nino and pointed lazily at each other as if to get something straight from the start.

"He's Oh-chan," she'd said, smiling a little.

"She's Gakky," he'd said, face deadpan.

In return, Nino had pointed at himself and said with gentle mockery, "He's Nino," but they'd only nodded like everything was now settled.

Sho, who stayed proper throughout, looked helplessly fond, which made Nino like him already, and Jun had only snorted.

Aiba, still clutching Nino's hand, had looked around the small circle of people and smiled like he couldn't possibly be happier. Nino suspected part of the reasoning behind this crackbrained plan was to make some new friends for Nino himself, who unapologetically preferred to be ensconced in his home.

Nino also suspected part of Aiba wanting him to have more friends was to try to keep him in Tokyo, though neither of them had acknowledged that he might leave again. He didn't intend to ask.

Super Soul, which had been introduced as if it had a personality of its own, had one little room wedged in the rear next to a tiny, tiny bathroom with a stunted toilet and what Nino assumed was supposed to be a shower, and another bed in front up over the cab like a cramped but surprisingly snug little loft. In between was the wee kitchen across from the somewhat less wee dinette, which supposedly folded into one more bed even if Nino couldn't see how.

As the guest of Aiba, who was a guest to begin with, Nino had been given the choice of where he--and his boyfriend--would sleep. Everyone had looked sincere in their offer of any of the three (tiny) locations, but Nino didn't have the heart to steal away the only bed with the slightest semblance of privacy. He couldn't bring himself to take the dinette, though, so he chose the bunk over the cab, which would at least be his and Aiba's own space the whole time, even it had no wall or even a curtain over the opening to the rest of the RV.

Ohno and Gakky had promptly taken the bed in the back, which seemed to be their usual spot, and Jun and Sho were relegated to the dinette. Interestingly, they hadn't seemed at all disappointed. They'd stowed their belongings in the overhead cabinets and sat down, discussing Sho's proposed plan of exploration for the weekend while the other four got settled in. Aiba followed suit with his and Nino's luggage, somehow graceful in the limited space. Nino hovered awkwardly in the doorway with one foot on the step and one foot inside the RV. At the first opening he scooted for the small ladder and up into his nook of a temporary bedroom.

After far too short an interval, Aiba was up there with him, and there ensued a conversation conducted entirely in gestures in which they argued about how to show their intimate couplehood when they barely fit in the small space at all. It was more difficult than it should have been since they were higher up than everyone else, which decreased what they could show, and they could neither sit up nor lie with both their heads toward the opening, because there simply wasn't room. All they could do was lie side by side with one person visible from the outside and one visible only when the other occupants were standing up and looking at them directly. After many emphatic movements to try and communicate his idea, Aiba had simply turned on his back and pulled Nino's arm around his body. Whether the next idea originated with Nino or Aiba was a blur, but Nino's head ended up snuggled on Aiba's shoulder.

In this way, they fit better in the space, Nino reasoned with guilty giddiness, and the people in the rest of the RV could see Nino's arm was lying across Aiba, which was very intimate, surely, and if they stood, they'd see him sleeping there on his fake boyfriend...

His fake boyfriend who was real and warm and horribly touchable with their bodies pressed together like this, as if touching this much only made Nino want to touch Aiba more. He was tempted either to kiss him or shove him off the bunk to relieve his feelings, and he wasn't sure which impulse was stronger.

"No, no, we've only been together for a couple months," Aiba said, a little less quietly than before.

Nino recognized his cue and responded to it despite his turmoil, which was unsurprising even to him. Aiba hadn't been off-base when he said Nino liked pranks and games, and Nino had once had dreams of being an actor. What the situation called for was a bit of a sleepy grope of Aiba's torso, and Nino followed through with glee.

As if Nino had written the script, Gakky said with a quiet chuckle, "Really? You seem like you've been together forever, Aiba-chan."

"We've known each other forever, but we only realized our couple potential when he came back from the wilds of Hokkaido," Aiba said soulfully. Nino gave him a little pinch for the overacting. Aiba cleared his throat and said less soulfully, "Um, so maybe we've kind of skipped ahead in the relationship timeline."

"It's not like Nino to be so hasty," Jun said, but he sounded pleased. "He had such a crush on you all through high school, so I guess it makes sense."

Nino's whole body went cold at the thought that this was it, now Aiba was finally going to get it, but Aiba only stage-whispered back down to Jun like it was all part of the game, "He told me that when I confessed to him and it was the cutest thing I've seen in my life. Have you ever seen Nino blush?"

Jun's low laugh mingled with a voice saying, "Nino is cute, after all." After a beat, Nino realized it must have been Ohno.

"Oh-chan," Gakky said, "You barely just met him. You'll put him off saying weird things like that so soon."

"It's not weird," Ohno said stubbornly. "He's cute. You think so too, and so does Matsujun, and I bet Sho-chan, too, so there."

Nino wasn't at all sure how to feel, especially when Ohno added, "Aiba-chan most of all, right?"

"Of course!" Aiba said loudly, grabbing Nino's hand. "I won't lose to you in finding Nino cute, Oh-chan, so don't get any ideas!" Despite his volume and the strong grip of his hand, the only thing Nino could focus on was the way Aiba was brushing a thumb gently back and forth over the inside of Nino's wrist. It wouldn't be obvious to those below, so it must be for another reason... comfort? Pacification? Nino did feel like he was leaning more and more toward shoving Aiba off the bunk rather than kissing him, and Aiba usually had good instincts about that sort of thing.

Though not always, Nino thought in the next moment, because that was when Aiba said, "Oooh, and did I tell you the sweetest thing: the first time I kissed him, he cried."

There was a chorus of disapproval from below at Aiba's fake oversharing, but Nino cut through all of it with a sharpness that was decidedly not fake. "Tonight I'll be murdering you in your sleep, Aiba-san."

"But--" Aiba said sulkily, trying to sit up. He promptly bonked his head on the ceiling and was still cursing when Ohno said slowly, "Can you do it without any blood? We only have one set of spare sheets."

Nino pushed Aiba back down so he could lean over him and say grandly, "For you, Oh-chan, anything."

Gakky laughed from her place in the narrow aisle and gave Ohno's cheek a poke. "You got lucky he's weird, too," she said down to him. Ohno, his head in her lap, nodded gravely at Nino before laughing helplessly up at her. Nino, after his deadpan moment of weirdo bonding with Ohno, looked over at Jun to share his amusement in turn.

His friend from middle school was looking at him curiously. Nino kept a smile on his face as he cursed internally. Jun had always been in tune with other people's emotions, mostly because he put so much effort into noticing them.

"My head hurts," Aiba said sulkily, and Nino promptly took the excuse to escape Jun's sharp gaze by saying dotingly, "Here, I'll make it better."

He leaned down and pressed his lips against Aiba's forehead, enjoying Aiba's startled face. As soon as he made to move away, a little shaken by just how real it felt, Aiba grabbed him tight in a hug.

"I knew you were kidding about being mad," he said, laughing. "You'd miss me too much to murder me, right? Right?"

Struggling to breathe, Nino had half a second to decide if his next course of action was believable when he was supposed to be Aiba's adoring boyfriend, but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion. After peeking over the side as he extricated himself to make sure there wasn't anything Aiba could hit his head on, he gave Aiba's hips one hard shove.

Aiba yelped, limbs flailing as he tried to balance himself, but, as Nino had calculated, his lower body was already falling off their bunk. Nino was laughing before Aiba's feet touched the floor, and when Aiba landed in a heap at Jun's feet only to have Jun nonchalantly use him as a footrest, Nino thought there was hope for this godforsaken trip being fun after all.

===

They arrived--somewhere. Nino wasn't sure where they were and he didn't especially care. They were parked in a clearing just off a well-maintained dirt road, but the campsite (if that's what it was) looped around slightly to give the impression that they were entirely surrounded by trees. Something in the air let Nino know they were near water, and they were definitely in a mountainous area, given the sickening ups and downs Super Soul had traversed in the last hour of their trip.

Wilderness. And no way to escape the stupid clean air and scenic splendor of it all, either.

Nino fiddled with his phone as he stretched his wobbly legs a few feet from the RV, which had become a beacon of civilization to him in comparison to everything else. He wasn't quite sure what the protocol for being in the wilderness on purpose was, but if anyone forced him to hike up a mountain, he planned to tell Aiba that only one of the two of them was coming back down.

He'd shamelessly escaped the RV first without asking if Aiba needed help with anything, but now he looked over to smile awkwardly at the disembarking Gakky, who smiled awkwardly back. She paused outside the motor home's door, then took three steps to her left and dropped both bags she'd brought out.

Nino watched with awe as she proceeded to find the nearest shady patch of grass and lie down, limbs sprawled comfortably, and close her eyes like she'd finished her activities for the day.

He briefly considered following suit, awkward stranger interaction be damned, but Ohno came out next and promptly whined, "Gakky, you said you'd help this time." He put the toolbox and bag he carried down next to her bags and walked over to poke at her with his foot.

"Mmhmm," Gakky said. Her eyes didn't open. "Don't forget to pack the cooler, Oh-chan."

Ohno huffed and crossed back to their stuff. "The fish'll know. They'll know you didn't help and you won't get bites at all!"

Nino, still hunched awkwardly in the crisp air and warm sunshine, suppressed a wince. Fishing, while admirably lazy the majority of the time, tended to involve boats. He wondered if Aiba would find it romantic to nurse Nino in his seasickness, then decided with a sigh that he probably would.

"Don't worry," Ohno said to him, obviously sulking even as he started with practiced ease on whatever was required to set up their campsite. "You don't have to help... you're a guest."

Nino turned his head to find Ohno paused in the act of picking out tools. He was looking up at Nino expectantly, as if he thought Nino would surely offer to help when Ohno had been so gracious about it. Pasting on a toothy smile, Nino said, "You are very kind, Oh-chan!" and walked briskly over to flop down on the soft grass a short distance from Gakky.

She huffed a laugh as Ohno started to grumble, and for a moment all was right in Nino's topsy-turvy world, but then, inevitably, came Aiba's voice.

"Ah, there you are, Nino-chan! Want me to princess-carry you over here so Jun-kun can give us our chores?"

Nino knew a threat when he heard one. He slitted his eyes open enough to glare in a hopefully friendly fashion at Gakky. "How come it doesn't work on you?"

She smiled and opened her eyes, and he was pleased to see some of her reserve had dropped away. "I'd just let him carry me, then not help anyway. It makes him itch to have chores undone, and he wants to get fishing... it wouldn't take long to wait him out."

Aiba yelled with unnecessary volume and cheer, "Nino, I'm coming! I can hardly wait to have you in my arms again--"

Nino got light-headed from standing up so fast, but it was worth it for both the disappointed look on Aiba's face and the way it made Gakky laugh with an endearing inelegance.

"I was obviously already getting up," Nino lied, giving an offended sniff as he walked back over to Super Soul.

Jun and Sho had emerged with bags in hand, and the four of them made an impromptu camp of operations in front of the door with Jun the clear leader. Ohno, it seemed, had his own priorities and worked through them steadily despite the muttering under his breath which was clearly aimed at Gakky.

"All right, Nino, Aiba-chan: you're in charge of finding wood for the fire. Ah," he said firmly, holding up a staying hand, "I don't want to hear whatever double entendre you have about wood, Aiba-chan, so stuff it."

Aiba managed to pout for half a second before he was laughing about stuffing wood.

Jun ignored this with ease, and Nino remembered that he and Aiba had been friends again for years now while Nino had been gone. He wondered why Aiba hadn't mentioned it when he'd seemed to report all the other minutiae of his life during their weekly video calls and near-daily texts, but then he was distracted by watching Jun and Sho.

While they'd huddled up to discuss the game plan, Jun had thrown an arm companionably around Aiba's shoulders, but Nino realized he hadn't done the same to Sho, even though they were standing quite close enough for it to be easy. It was kind of weird, actually... they were standing close from their shoulders down to their feet, but no part of them touched. Every time one moved a millimeter closer, the other seemed to move just enough that no part of them brushed. They did it without looking, without even seeming to do it on purpose, and Nino found himself fascinated by how they could be so in sync when it came to something like that.

Still surreptitiously looking at the way Sho tilted his body back when Jun's arm gestured to the side, Nino experimentally took Aiba's hand and gave him a little tug. Aiba, confused but willing, stepped toward him while nodding eagerly along to Jun's detailed instructions on just the kind of wood they'd need.

Jun's arm slipped away comfortably, leaving him standing alone--but incredibly close to Sho. Nino, pretending not to watch the couple, lifted Aiba's hand and stepped even more into his space, and by the time he was done, Aiba had his arm around Nino's shoulders with Nino's hand still caught warmly in his.

It felt so good, being all casually entwined with Aiba, but Nino focused on how Sho and Jun would react. It was too awkward to stand there so close without touching while another couple were all wrapped up in each other, surely, but it was exactly what they did. Nino's eyes widened at the stiff synchronicity of it all.

"Got that, Nino?" Jun asked, eyebrows drawn together in obvious skepticism.

Nino grinned and jerked his free hand at Aiba still pressed against him. "He's got it, I'm just here to look pretty."

"And who could fault him when he's so very good at--oof!" Fresh from an elbow to the stomach, Aiba laughed loudly and a little painfully, but he didn't let go. "And I do have it, Jun-kun! And... what will you and Sho-chan be doing?"

"I'll be setting up for the barbecue later," Jun said. He looked distant for a moment, clearly perusing a mental checklist.

Aiba said with tentative hope, "With Sho-chan?"

"Hm?" Jun asked, then flicked his eyes at Sho, who straightened like a soldier awaiting orders. "No, it'll be faster without him. Sho-kun's job is to find the place where our cell phones get the best reception. Without getting lost or otherwise damaged," Jun added sharply.

"Break one bone and you're on the incompetent list forever," Sho grumbled, but he got his phone out and trudged off into the woods.

Jun nodded peremptorily at Nino and Aiba before heading off in the exact opposite direction as his boyfriend.

Aiba's shoulders slumped. Mindful of Ohno around the back of the RV doing something intricate with tubes and nozzles, plus Gakky by the edge of the clearing, though she was convincingly asleep by then, he hissed, "See? It's heartbreaking; we have to help them."

He was still pressed against Nino, still wrapped around him so sweetly, and he smelled weirdly good for someone who'd been cooped up in a small space for the past few hours.

"First we have to get the firewood," Nino said, pulling away. It took a few seconds for Aiba to let go, and when he finally did, it was only long enough to unloop his arm so he could grab Nino's hand again.

"I bet there's some good kindling over there," he said and pointed off in a seemingly random direction.

"Really," Nino said, eyebrows raised. He was going to mock further, but Aiba was already trotting off into the trees and towing Nino along with him.

When they'd put a fair amount of distance between them and their camp, Nino got out at last, "You can let go of my hand now." He tried to sound long-suffering without betraying his sudden panic. He'd just had an awful premonition he was going to forget this thing with Aiba wasn't real.

Aiba looked down at their linked hands like he'd forgotten they were touching, then held on tighter. "No way, we need to practice!"

Nino tugged halfheartedly at his hand. He was afraid he already knew the answer to his next question. "Practice what?"

"Don't you remember? We owe them a really good kiss, Nino, and now you know just how much they need it."

Trying to keep up with Aiba's pace without tripping over anything and breaking something when they were who knew how many miles from a hospital, Nino said caustically, "What I remember is that you never explained why one kiss, really good or not, would break the spell those two are under, if they even are--" At Aiba's sound of indignation, Nino said hurriedly, "And I admit they are, okay, they are intriguingly weird with each other, but how is the sight of us, uhhhhh..."

"Kissing," Aiba said helpfully. "It's all part of the plan." He looked at Nino suspiciously, pausing in his stride, and asked, "You did listen to the plan, right, Nino?"

Nino waved his free hand in front of his face frantically. "Oh yes! God, please, don't say it all again."

Aiba resumed walking, thankfully at a slower pace, and started swinging their linked hands merrily between them. "Then you can see why we need to practice kissing, Nino! It'll hardly be the eye-opening, life-changing kiss we need it to be if it's our first one."

Nino conceded his hand to Aiba's continued care in order not to call attention to his inability to get the kiss over and done already. He said with as much nonchalance as he could muster, "But it isn't, so we'll be fine."

The fact that he was voluntarily bringing up the drunken time he kissed Aiba was probably a sign of the apocalypse, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He only realized he'd automatically closed his eyes at the wrench of saying it out loud when he stumbled and was saved from falling on his face by Aiba's unrelenting grip on his hand.

Aiba had stopped walking. After a moment, Nino opened his eyes.

"Do you remember that night?" Aiba asked, eyes dark and fixed on Nino's expression.

Nino forced a smile but couldn't get any words out, so he shook his head.

Aiba smiled back at him. It looked different than usual, different from the hundreds of kinds of smiles Nino had received over the years, but there was no chance to analyze it. Aiba was barreling on with his plan already.

"I thought so. Then we still need to practice!"

Nino gave a disdainful little shrug. It was the best he could do, because Aiba hadn't started walking again. He was just standing there, holding Nino's hand, looking into Nino's eyes, talking about kissing...

If Nino didn't know that Aiba could always beat him in a foot-race, he'd be tempted to sprint off into the trees, wilderness or not.

Aiba, with continued unfairness, touched his fingertips to his own lips. "What kind of kiss do you think would be most effective, Nino-chan?"

Under the guise of a considering gesture of his own, Nino extracted his hand. He said, "How about an Eskimo kiss?"

Aiba's eyes went round, processing this, and then they narrowed in outrage, but his snatching motion caught only air. Nino had bolted away with a stifled laugh, saying loudly, "Or we could show them the emotional glory of mime!"

"You get back here!" Aiba yelled, giving enthusiastic chase.

As so often happened in Aiba's company, Nino forgot himself. He darted around a tree and peeked out at Aiba, who was charging at him like a provoked bull.

"A butterfly kiss?" he wondered innocently, then sprinted for another hiding place as Aiba made a grab for him. He called breathlessly over his shoulder, "Or a kiss on the hand? There are so many kinds of kisses, Aiba-shi, and I think we should be creative!"

"I'll show you creative," Aiba promised as he stalked purposefully around a mossy log. "Just wait until I catch you--"

"I've got it," Nino caroled, dashing around a large rock. "You can blow me a kiss! I feel that would be most instructive, and Jun-kun would..." He broke off into helpless laughter as Aiba caught his wrist and advanced on him threateningly.

Aiba was laughing, too, and Nino was so happy in that moment that he forgot to be afraid.

"They were only suggestions," he complained, eyes sparkling up at Aiba. "You don't have to take it so personally."

"I'll show you my suggestion, then," Aiba returned. His voice was a little raspy from all the chasing, but he sounded almost serious. Nino squinted suspiciously, wondering if Aiba meant to do something awful to him, but then he saw Aiba's gaze drop to his mouth. It jerked back up at once, but Nino's whole body went hot at the sight of it.

He meant to take a step back, but somehow when he moved, it was toward Aiba.

"It looks to me like I'm the only one with any ideas," he said, just to fill the silence, but then Aiba was stepping closer, too, and he still had hold of Nino's wrist. His capable hand wrapped around it completely, so warm that it felt like a promise.

"You make it hard to think," Aiba complained back, quietly enough that Nino was abruptly aware of how alone they were, how there was no one to pretend for but the surrounding trees. Aiba was still moving closer.

Nino lifted his chin, having to look up a lot more now that Aiba was so near, and Aiba's gaze dropped back down to Nino's mouth.

It was a good thing, too, because Nino could sense that if Aiba got a good look at his eyes right then, there wouldn't be any doubt as to whether Nino was faking his feelings.

Just to be safe, Nino closed them. Holding his breath, he also tipped his head slightly to the right, heart racing as he waited for just what sort of suggestion Aiba was planning on demonstrating.

He couldn't remember their first kiss, but he was determined to remember every instant of this one.

He heard Aiba take a breath, a short, nervous intake of air, and Nino's lips parted involuntarily because Aiba was so close, so close...

"Ah, you're here! Matsujun wants--oops."

At the first sound of Ohno's voice, Nino's head jerked back, but it seemed Aiba's jerked forward at the same time. Before Ohno got to his third word, Aiba's lips bumped awkwardly against Nino's and immediately away again.

Nino's eyes flew open. It had happened so fast that he hadn't felt much of anything.

It was unbelievable. He'd now kissed Aiba twice, but he still didn't know what it felt like, which was enough to make him want to boot Ohno into the nearest lake before wrapping his arms around Aiba's neck and kissing him for as long as oxygen held out.

He might have done the latter part, too, if Aiba hadn't still been holding onto his wrist, and then Aiba said, "That doesn't count."

Nino, eyes clearing from his kissing haze, saw Aiba looked strangely stubborn.

"That doesn't count," Aiba repeated, full mouth tilting in a frown. "That was barely anything!"

"Um," came Ohno's apologetic voice. "Matsujun said I wasn't to come back without you. And something about firewood but that's not my job and I'm not carrying any because the fish are waiting and I need all my muscles for them."

As one, Nino and Aiba turned their heads to the side to stare at Ohno. Aiba whispered, "I've never heard him say so many words all in a row."

"Gakky was right about him and the fish, then," Nino said, smiling despite himself.

Ohno's embarrassed sulk deepened. He snapped halfheartedly, "What doesn't count?"

Aiba's hand clenched on Nino's wrist, startled, but Nino said smoothly, "I told Aiba-san he only got one kiss out of me in the woods and that was it."

Ohno nodded like that made total sense. "There are probably bears out here, you know."

"But Nino," Aiba started, face flushed.

Nino interrupted, "He's wrong about most things, Oh-chan, if we're being honest, but for once he was right and that didn't count."

He couldn't think of a reason he'd ever concede that, other than the truth, so he pulled away with a flourish and strolled over to link arms with Ohno.

"Lead the way, Oh-chan!"

Ohno frowned. "The firewood? Obviously I don't care, but Matsujun--"

Nino gestured back at Aiba, seemingly shocked into stillness behind them. "Don't I have the best boyfriend ever? He said he'd carry all of it."

Ohno huffed and started off, his sleepy face amused, and Nino followed. He clung a little more than he might have otherwise because he was still dazed, still helplessly wanting, and more than a little confused. It had been a long time since he'd been confused about his feelings for Aiba, and somehow it made it all feel new again.

He waited as long as he could before looking back, but Aiba was still in the area where they'd left him. In fact, he was gathering firewood with great purpose, and it sounded like he was whistling a Morning Musume song.

Despite the thwarted kiss and how close he'd come to getting caught, Nino found he was smiling.

===

Nino and Ohno got back to the campsite to find Gakky had cracked open a beer and Jun was finishing dragging logs around the fire pit, presumably for seating.

The fire pit was noticeably empty of wood, and Jun turned on them at once.

"Where is it, Nino?"

"Don't worry, Jun-kun," Nino said kindly. "Aiba-chan's getting it. I rushed back here, you see, to catch up with my dearest old friend." He paused as if waiting for Jun's gratitude, then said delicately, "That would be you, of course."

Jun rolled his eyes and turned to nudge his last log an inch to the side as if it needed to be in the perfect position.

"I'm going fishing now," Ohno announced.

Gakky got up from her lolling and handed him her beer. "I'm ahead of you, so finish this off for me, all right?" As he complied, obviously doing it in one long swig so he could finally get to his fish, she pulled off her t-shirt and shorts.

Ohno wiped his mouth and looked at her with abstracted eyes. Nino didn't need to be attracted to women to appreciate that Gakky was especially suited to standing easy in the sunny forest with nothing on but a pink and yellow striped bikini.

She stood with oblivious composure as Jun gave a fond little sigh and picked up her strewn clothing, no doubt to be folded and stowed somewhere. Whether to herself or someone else, she mumbled, "I put the sunscreen in, and my book, and--"

"Don't forget the umbrella," Jun said, returning from Super Soul. "There's no shade out there, you know."

"And a towel," Gakky finished, smiling at Jun before turning back to her boyfriend. "We'll have to share, though, because only one'll fit in the cooler."

Nino whispered to Jun, "Why would a towel go in the cooler...?" but it was Ohno who replied happily, "It floats."

This didn't clarify anything to Nino, but he just shrugged and made for the RV. He needed a break from the wilderness, and he had some feelings that needed working through, alone, with no requirement for pretense.

Before he reached the open door, through which he could already see Gakky's shirt and shorts in a neat stack waiting for her return, Nino was stopped by Jun's arm around his shoulders.

"I've changed my mind," Jun said, giving him a firm squeeze. "Let's catch up."

"Inside?" Nino said hopefully, but he didn't put up a fight when Jun steered them off after the retreating forms of Ohno and Gakky.

They were walking down a hill, a pleasant breeze making Nino hate the wilderness a little less than the moment before, when Jun asked, "So what's going on with you and Aiba-chan?"

"I'm in love with the idiot," Nino said glibly. He immediately wished he hadn't, because it sounded--it was--too much the truth. Fooling everyone was supposed to be a game, a prank, not a way to bare his fucking soul. "Should we be worried about your boyfriend not being back?"

Jun snorted, not fooled by Nino's attempt to distract him, but answered readily enough, "He's fine. I wouldn't say he's naturally good at hiking or finding his way, but he prepares so much that to get lost he'd have to fall into a cave or some such, and even then he'd probably have mapped a way out of it two weeks before."

"Sounds like you're in love with that idiot, too," Nino said, careful to use a gentle tone so Jun didn't get mad about him calling Sho an idiot. It was only a quote, after all: Sho seemed great, the type of impressive but also kind person Nino would have picked for his friend. He wondered if he could get away with asking Jun about the way he and Sho never seemed to touch.

But this time, Jun didn't follow his lead. "When did you tell Aiba-chan you loved him?" he asked, hooking an arm through Nino's to help him keep his footing on the increasingly uneven path.

"What, he didn't tell you all about it?" Nino stalled.

As Jun answered in the negative, they arrived within sight of the lake, giving Nino an excuse to stop talking. Jun nearly tripped over Ohno's discarded shirt, but he bent to pick it up despite his cursing, leaving Nino to stare at Ohno and Gakky standing on the little rocky beach ahead.

"Where's the boat?" he asked, looking left and right, but this seemed to be the only approach to the water that didn't involve rappelling down through steep tumbles of undergrowth.

Jun pointed, but not at the shore. "They'll just swim out to the float, as usual."

Nino squinted and saw that part of the glare in the middle of the lake gave a different, darker gleam: wood rather than water.

"Later, we'll all swim there together," Jun said. He knew Nino well enough not to make it a question, but Nino didn't mind swimming every once in a while, especially when the alternative he'd pictured was having to get on a boat.

Nino watched Gakky and Ohno strike out into the water, their sizable red cooler bobbing behind them. By the time they reached the float, Jun was back to lead Nino to a lawn chair he seemed to have produced from thin air. It was a nice one, too, with a footrest and everything. Nino sank into it with a sigh of thanks to Jun, who went to get another one from a little lean-to by the beach.

When Jun had settled down in his chair next to Nino, he picked up right where he'd left off.

"Aiba-chan's been cagey about it, which isn't like him. I assume you're the one who confessed?"

Nino wriggled into a more comfortable position as he thought. Given how much he trusted Jun, even after so many years, he decided to go with the truth as much as possible. "I've loved him forever, you know that."

He had to stop there to breathe for a second. It was the first time he'd told anyone and meant it, ever; Jun had known in high school, just from observation, but Nino hadn't ever said it out loud as a way to communicate his honest feelings.

Jun, perceptive and caring as Nino remembered, was quiet, waiting for Nino to be ready to go on.

Nino cleared his throat. "Well, he was straight--" He broke off, realizing that he didn't have to lie here either. Aiba had come out as bi, for real, not in this farce they were enacting. "But it turns out he's not," he said more softly than he meant to. He cleared his throat again.

"I met him again in a gay bar, you know," Jun said reminiscently, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to Nino until he finished, "I think he was trying to be as visibly queer as he possibly could, because he was just figuring it out? There was a lot of fishnet involved, Nino. A lot."

Nino laughed, pressing his hands over his mouth to keep it in, but it was too good of an image to pass up. "I hope you took pictures?"

"No, but I bet you could get him to dress up in them again," Jun said mischievously.

"Right," Nino choked, "I bet I could..." He groped for the next logical thing to say to move on. "Um, so I--I was gone for five years, you know, and--"

"Why did you leave?" Jun asked.

Nino hesitated. "... I got drunk and kissed him," he blurted out, only because it was Jun listening, and Jun understood him and wouldn't hurt him for anything.

"So you ran."

"It wasn't just that," Nino said, sighing at Jun's careful neutrality. "Look, when I'm around him, when I'm seeing him all the time, I can't be with anyone else, and I can't--I can't be alone all the time, I just can't, no matter how much I love him. I need to have someone, I need the touching and the sex and the letting go with someone who's letting go with you--when I lived here, I couldn't do it. Everyone I was with, I was picturing Aiba-chan, and then I lost control even with him, so I was risking everything with him on top of having nothing with anyone else, not unless I wanted to treat someone as only a substitute..."

The unexpected torrent of words should have mortified him, but it was Jun... it was Jun, the first person he'd told he was gay, the first boy he'd kissed, the first person, along with Aiba, he'd ever gotten drunk with, and Nino desperately needed to talk to someone. Even so, he rested his arm over his head and hid his face in his elbow, trying to keep his breathing steady.

Jun made a patient, considering noise, then asked, "And while you were gone?"

Though Jun couldn't see, Nino nodded. "It was easier. God, I missed him, but he didn't have to be the only one... it was like from a distance I could forget him just enough to be with someone else, even for a little while."

It was only then, after all of his words, that he remembered that Jun thought there was a happy ending to this story, that Nino was sitting there having confessed--and having been accepted.

He couldn't bring himself to say anything else. He wasn't ready to tell the truth and upset Aiba, who was so intent on this ridiculous plan, and he didn't want to lie to Jun right then, not after telling the truth for the first time.

He and Jun sat there in silence for what felt like a long time. Nino stared out at the water, trying to calm down, and after a while he became aware that Jun wasn't waiting for him to speak. He was genuinely letting Nino be done talking, even though he hadn't finished the story, even though what he'd said didn't make sense with what Jun knew--with what Jun thought he knew about Nino and Aiba.

Nino opened his mouth to say thank you, then closed it again. When he finally spoke, it was to say something entirely different.

"I'm sorry, are Oh-chan and Gakky out there making out?"

"Oh yeah, they do that," Jun said comfortably. He yelled at the top of his voice, "Use the umbrella, you two!"

The hazy, entwined figures out on the float broke apart, and one of them made a rude gesture. "You don't have to look!" came Gakky's embarrassed voice back over the water, but the other figure was putting the umbrella up in a hurry.

Jun chuckled, settling back in his chair. "The umbrella's for Ohno-kun... he gets self-conscious later when he thinks about people seeing."

Nino watched as Ohno finished opening the umbrella and set it on its side, giving a small space on the float which couldn't be seen from shore. Gakky had turned away to get another beer from the floating cooler, but when he put his hands on her shoulders, turning her back toward him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him. After a second, without stopping, she made another rude gesture toward Jun, but then Ohno was pulling her down carefully behind the umbrella so their upper bodies, at least, were shielded from view.

"Let's go," Jun said.

It only half-distracted Nino from contemplating the pretty picture of Ohno's tan, well-muscled legs under Gakky's, which were long and pale and absently kicking once in a while, like she was settled in to kiss Ohno until the fish bit or the sun went down, whichever came first.

"Aiba-chan should be back by now." This got Jun Nino's attention, and their recent conversation came back to punch him in the heart.

It hurt, but almost in a good way, like it was a hurt he'd needed to have.

After a moment staring into Jun's kind eyes, Nino decided cynically that that was crap. It hurt, so it was bad, and he wasn't going to do it again when it just let him wallow in useless feelings.

Jun said, "I'm glad it finally worked out for you two, Nino. You deserve to be happy, you know."

Nino said with brittle cheer, "I don't see where deserving comes into it, Jun-kun, but thank you! I am, you know--I am deliriously happy."

He turned away from Jun's sharp eyes, but the next moment, Jun was slinging an arm around his shoulders like nothing had happened.

"Good, because he's planned a surprise for you. Let's get back so you can enjoy it."

Nino sighed internally. After a moment, though, he relaxed into Jun's touch and let it comfort him.

He'd lie to Jun for now because Aiba wanted it--and because he couldn't give this fake relationship up quite yet--but later he'd apologize, and they'd be friends again, despite the distance he was going to put between them. Jun was worth the effort, after all. Just like Aiba.

He felt a strange pang at leaving Tokyo when Aiba got to stay and be friends with Sho, Gakky, Ohno, and especially Jun, but he didn't know the others enough for it to hurt yet, surely, so it was better that he was leaving soon.

"I can tell you're listening closely," Jun was saying.

Nino shook himself mentally and turned to smile at Jun. "A surprise, you said?"

Jun pointed across the clearing to where Aiba was standing by the RV. He was holding a baseball mitt and smiling so brightly Nino felt all his troubles disappear in the flash of it.

"Nino-chan!" Aiba called. "Let's play catch!"

Nino just stared, though he should've seen this coming since Aiba loved baseball as much as he did. Jun gave him a shove, and then Nino was walking quickly toward his fake boyfriend, only because he was worried that Aiba hadn't remembered to get him a lefty glove.

"Hey, I found the best spot," Sho said, walking from between the trees while still looking down at his phone. "It's pretty close, but it's tricky because it's between--oh, are you going to play baseball?"

It took Aiba a moment to shift his eyes away from Nino, but then he perked up even further in excited hope. "Do you want to play with us? Matsujun's playing too, you know!"

"Sho-kun's no good at baseball," Jun said. "And he has things to do, a whole list... Isn't that right, Sho-kun?"

Instead of looking rejected, Sho grinned. "A whole list is right; I found all the coolest places and I'm going to see all of them. You're gonna be jealous, you guys!"

Jun brushed past him and picked up a glove from Super Soul's open door. "Be back before dark. None of this rushing at the end to see a few more landmarks and coming back when all the food's been eaten and then being in a bad mood the rest of the night."

Nino lifted his eyebrows at Aiba. That sounded like something Jun spoke of from experience.

Aiba said quickly, "But wouldn't you rather stay here with us? With Matsujun? Um, Matsujun, wouldn't you rather keep him here where it's safe and--"

"He's as safe out there as here," Jun said brusquely, then looked up at Sho with a twinkle in his eyes. "After all, I've seen him play baseball."

"Oi," Sho said without heat. "It's not that I can't play, it's that I don't play, all right?"

"Sure," Jun agreed, grinning at him. "I'm sure that's true."

"But--" Aiba started again, his matchmaking plans going up in smoke.

Nino picked up the remaining glove and found it was indeed for his non-throwing right hand. Aiba could be an airhead, but it was like him to remember something like that.

"They're camping beginners, Sho-kun, so maybe it makes them anxious for you to be such an adventurer," Jun said lightly. "I know how you like to take commemorative pictures, so why don't you send them to us as you go along?"

Sho saluted, phone in hand. "See you soon."

Aiba let him go without further dispute, though he looked disappointed. Then he saw Nino had his mitt on and beamed at him. "Are you happy, Nino? I bought you that..." He looked furtively at Jun, who was staring coolly off after Sho, then finished, "For our two month anniversary."

Nino looked the glove over before smiling at Aiba with extra sweetness. "It's perfect," he said, barely keeping himself from a pet name just to fluster his fake boyfriend.

Aiba looked suddenly concerned. "Did you get a sunburn by the lake?" Then he was in Nino's space, running gentle fingers over his forehead, around his jaw, and up to tap his nose as if to test how the color came back after. Nino held his breath, torn between making a mocking comment (perhaps gratitude for Aiba putting his hands all over Nino's face) and giving Aiba's fingertips a kiss. He could do it because Jun was watching now, but he wasn't sure he could bear it if Aiba looked grossed out by the cheesy affection, even if he hid it for Jun's sake.

Actually, Jun was being strangely patient with them. Nino looked away from Aiba's too-close face and found Jun looking back at him. His serious expression turned inquiring, but Nino only smirked.

"Are we going to play baseball or what?"

===


Part 2