fic for natsunonamae (2/10)

[nino-mod.livejournal.com]

For: natsunonamae
From: sky_fish7

Part 1


~ * Chapter 2 * ~

When Ninomiya Kazunari wakes up the next morning, he does not feel like laughing.

His head feels like a bomb that is ready to burst, his stomach... he doesn't even know how to describe how his stomach feels but it's beyond horrible. He's not sure if he wants to keep his eyes open or close them again, nothing seems to keep the world from spinning and he decides that it might be for the best if he tries to make his way to the bathroom, just in case his stomach decides to turn upside down. He succeeds, barely.

After throwing up, cursing his ex, Jun, for giving him, a non-drinker, a whiskey bottle for Christmas – what was he even thinking?! - as well as himself for giving in to the stupid urge to drink when he isn’t used to it at all. After sitting in front of the toilet for a few minutes to allow his stomach to calm down, the young man feels slightly better. He gets up to wash his face at the sink and then takes a look at the terrifying image in the mirror. Without glasses, he squints his eyes to recognize his face– his own pale face, his black hair standing on end and... wait, is he naked?!

Forgetting his headaches, Nino quickly reaches his hands down his chest, his belly and... he blinks again, wondering if his bad eyes are mocking him but nope, he really is completely naked.

Nino muffles a scream with his hand and storms out of the bathroom, hurrying back into his bedroom where he finds his glasses on his bedside table. He puts them on and pushes back his blanket, only to discover his baggy trousers and his underwear pushed to a corner of the mattress, without any memory of when and how he took them off. What the hell happened last night?! Nino has to admit that he can't remember a thing. Seriously, does he really have a black out?!

The headaches are back as Nino drops onto his bed, fishing for his clothes to put them on to feel... well, a little less naked. Where the hell did his shirt go, by the way? He ruffles his hair.

Suddenly, his cell phone gives of a muffled ring. He fishes for it, finding it stuffed in his trousers' pockets, rather intending to put it on mute than to take the call, he's definitely not in the mood for a chat at the moment, but when he sees the name one the screen, he changes his mind.

"Nino?" he hears his best friend's voice when he picks up the call.

"Masaki?" he replies, slumping down on the edge of the bed and lifting his hands to massage his temples.

"Finally you're picking up, I called you like 5 times already, where have you been?" his friend, Aiba Masaki, scolds him and Nino pulls away the phone a bit to spare his ears.

"I was sleeping…," he replies, frowning. "Ouch…"

Suddenly, his friend doesn't sounds so scolding any longer. "Hey, what's up? Are you OK?"

"I have a terrible headache…"

"Are you sick?"

"No…," at least he knows that a hangover doesn’t count as being sick – if people are able to drink at night, they have to be able to go to work on the next day too. Luckily, it's holidays.

"Did you drink again?" Aiba sighs.

Well, "again" is a bit exaggerated, it has only been the... third time that Nino drank during the last week? Ok, so yes, by his standards this is quite alarming... "I…"

"For someone who usually doesn't drink you're drinking quite often the last few days. Stop that," Aiba says in a strict voice.

Nino tilts is head, his fingers now rubbing his eyebrows. "The whiskey bottle isn’t empty yet and I thought… However, I'll quit, I swear. Drinking, I mean."

He can almost hear Aiba nodding his head over the phone. "The headaches are horrible, right? Told you not to overdo it! Believe someone with a wild youth."

Nino can't help but chuckle quietly. He pulls himself together and gets up again with the mission of finding his missing shirt. "I witnessed your youth and yes, you have never been a good example."

"See? And I never said you should follow it."

"What, don't tell me you were not trying to act cool back then," Nino asks jokingly, remembering their teenage days.

He arrives in the living room, taking in the mess in its full glory. Ugh... While Aiba continues reminiscing about the good old days (which weren't actually much better than the current ones according to Nino's opinion but he let his friend be), the young man works his way through the chaos, pushing away some plastic wraps and papers that are spread on the floor – he really needs to clean up here -, until he indeed spots his t-shirt somewhere in the mess. He reaches down to fish for it, pressing his phone between his ear and shoulder, he tries to put it on to cover his slightly freezing body. He then goes to the kitchen counter reaching for the drawer in which he keeps his first aid kit and gets out a pain killer that he downs shortly after with a glass of water.

Then, his gaze falls on a piece of paper lying on the kitchen counter. Aiba's voice still in his ears, even if Nino can't really follow him any longer, he takes the small piece of paper in his hands, reading the message written on it.

"Thank you very much for last night! Your pizza is in the fridge, just heat the oven and warm it for a few minutes and it will be like freshly baked. XXX, your delivery boy S. S."

Nino frowns. Then, he blanks. His chin drops. "Oh my Gosh…"

"Nino?" Aiba asks, confused. "Nino?!"

"Uhm… Masaki?" Panic!!!

"Nino?"

"I… I…," no, he can't say it out loud, not even to his best friend.

"Huh? What's going on?" Aiba starts to panic too.

Nino gulps. He can't believe it. He just can't believe it! Some small pieces of flashbacks of last night start popping up and he tries to connect... it's hard to fit them together properly but considering the state he awakened to this morning and seeing the "XXX" on the message, Nino can't help but fear the worst case scenario.

"Masaki, I… I think, I had a one-night stand."

Silence.

"What?" the voice in Nino's ear finally asks, carefully.

"I – I think I had...," Nino stammers, dropping the message back onto the kitchen counter and grabbing the work table for support.

"Wait, what do you mean with you THINK you had a one-night stand?" Aiba wants to clarify.

Nino buries his face in his free hand, his heart hammering like crazy in his chest. "I'm pretty sure, I had a one-night stand."

"With whom, Jun?! Oh Nino, sex with the ex is -"

"What?! No! Are you crazy?! It was the delivery guy -"

"The delivery guy...," Aiba repeats, stunned. "And I am the crazy one?"

Nino blushes deeply. "But… but I was dead drunk! I have a complete blackout from the moment I kissed the guy."

"You kissed the delivery guy," Aiba repeats.

"Yes," Nino replies.

"And then you have a blackout," his friend continues.

"Yes...," Nino replies. "You don't have to repeat everything after me, Masaki, I know what I said."

"But if you blacked out, what makes you think you slept with him?"

"I woke up in my bed, naked. And... he left a message...," it is pretty obvious to Nino.

"OK, OK… and he's gone?"

"Of course, he's gone," Nino answers annoyed. "He left a message on the kitchen counter and he's gone, that's how one-night stands are supposed to work, no?!" his voice cracks, no, he will not freak out now...

His friend laughs. "As if you are so experienced with them."

"Don't mock me," Nino blushes.

"I'd like to ask you how it was but if you have a blackout…"

"I said, don't mock me."

"Well, the good thing then is even if it was horrible, you'll not remember it."

"Very comforting, Masaki, really!"

"What? Isn't it?" Aiba asks innocently and Nino swears if his friend was here at the very moment, he would try to strangle him.

"I… I had a fucking one-night stand! I slept with a complete stranger and I don't even remember it!" he yells into the phone. "Is that everything you have to say about that?"

"Don't freak out, man!" Too late. "You're an adult, Nino, such things happen."

"They do not happen to me!"

"Well, they did. Now calm down and forget about it. Oh wait, you already did."

"Very funny, really," squinting his eyes, Nino sighs deeply, trying to calm down. Seriously, this is a nightmare. A one-night stand. Drunk. With a stranger. This is everything that Nino isn't. And now, even his best friend is making fun of him. Great.

"Sorry for that. Now sit down and relax," Aiba suggests and that is what Nino does exactly, well, at least he finds himself sitting on the kitchen floor, his knees hugged with one arm and his body swaying slightly forth and back while his friend's voice continues to intrude his thoughts. "So…do you at least remember the guy? Was he handsome?"

Nino stops swaying. He tilts his head. "Uhm… well…"

"Nino?"

It's not that he can't remember the stranger from last night, in fact, now that he remembers the embarrassing situation, surprisingly he can remember details of that man's face, those dark eyes, the plum lips, the gorgeous smile... Nino blushes. "I guess?"

Aiba giggles. "Didn’t you forget?"

"Oh, shut up, Masaki!" Nino snaps and really, he's so close to smash his phone on the kitchen floor, alternatively to turn into a creature from a horror movie and creep through the phone to Aiba's end to really strangle his friend.

"Next time you want to get drunk, call me," Aiba says. "I'll watch over you so that nothing will happen to you."

"This isn't fun, Masaki, really...," Nino whines.

"It's not the end of the world either, Nino," his friend tries to cheer him up.

"I feel horrible!"

"Eat some ice cream!" Aiba suggests.

Nino cringes. "Do you want me to puke again?"

"Oh, sorry, didn't consider that," his friend replies. "I hope your stomach is going to be fit again tonight, don't forget we are meeting for sushi."

"I marked it in my calendar, there is no way I will forget it."

"Just in case you drink your memory away again," Aiba chuckles and Nino rolls his eyes. "However, I wanted to tell you that I had to move the reservation to an hour later, hope that's OK."

"Fine with me, I'll just wait there and drink ahead until you guys show up! See you later!" Nino spits in the phone sarcastically and ends the call.

Of course he doesn't plan to drink anything alcoholic, but he has enough of Aiba's teasing, best friend or not. Feeling frustrated, Nino gets up from the floor again, glad that the painkiller is starting to kick in. He grabs a paper and plastic bag and reaches for the handwritten note by his one-night stand. He reads it again, blushes again, and furiously crumbles the paper only to trash it into the paper bag before he stomps into the living room to face his mess.

He may not be able to erase whatever happened last night, but he is at least able to erase the chaos he has created in his living room for the last few days and to finally get back at least some control over his miserable life.

~ * ~

By the end of the holiday, Nino's apartment has returned to its usual clean and neat appearance like it used to– when he isn't drunk and mourning the loss of his relationship. He feels better. At least, a little bit. But, even though the chaos in his rooms is erased for now, Nino can't say the same about the chaos in his life. He stopped drinking, which really has been a very bad idea from the beginning and he knows it very well, but he is still thinking about his break-up with Jun, is still hurting and he still fears going back to work.

But since a high school teacher can't afford to miss a day of work, especially not at the beginning of a new school year, Nino has no choice but to return to work, preferably in a presentable condition. He has brushed his hair, well, as much as possible, it's always stubborn and looks a bit messy, cleaned his glasses and put on some not too strict, not too comfortable looking teacher clothes and is now ready to pass the school's gate and to enter the lion's den... or not.

Nino quickly turns around and hides behind one of the blooming cherry trees that line the road leading to the school, when he sees his colleague and ex-lover Matsumoto Jun standing at the gates, greeting new and old faces with his broad gorgeous smile. A smile as if nothing had happened, as if he did not break up with the one who has been his boyfriend for the last two years just about a week ago, as if it doesn't get to him at all. Well, since Jun is the one who initiated the separation, maybe it's really not getting to him at all, Nino thinks, feeling frustrated. His damned heart instead is beating faster, he's nervous, he's definitely nervous and not ready for this. He cannot pretend that nothing has happened and smile at Jun as usual. He wants to cry.

Of course, Nino doesn't, he's an adult after all, more than that, he's a teacher and he has to act like a good example in front of the students. Telling himself that and practising some breathing techniques to calm down his nerves, he tries to get ready and turns around again, his eyes focusing on his goal – the entrance of the school building beyond the gates – and then he runs.

"Oi, Nino~!"

He runs as fast as he can, his bag clenched between his fingers and he completely ignores Jun, who parts his lips to greet him, and the students who recognize him, and just focuses on running to the entrance, enters the building, runs up the stairs and only stops when he arrives at his desk in the teacher's room. Panting, he lets his bag drop and slouches on his chair to recover from his sprint.

"G-good morning, Ninomiya-sensei...," a female teacher who is already present stares at him in shock.

"Mornin'...," out of breath, Nino isn't even able to respond properly and tries waving at her friendlily instead, earning another sceptical look from his colleague.

Admittedly, this may not have been the most elegant or brave way to address the situation, but at least, Nino is not bursting into tears in front of a bunch of high school students, thus, he considers it as a win. For now. He knows, he will have to face Jun later on, and he knows he has to get ready for it. He'll try to face the situation better at that point.

Somehow, Nino manages to avoid his ex-boyfriend until they are standing next to each other in the school's gym, lining up at the side while all the pupils are standing in rows facing the stage and listening to the headmaster's welcome speech. Nino pretends to be listening properly to his boss too, but his concentration actually is everywhere other than the welcome ceremony, not least of all thanks to Jun who tries to communicate with him from the side, in a tone as low as possible but still audible for Nino, much to his displeasure.

"Are you ignoring me?" Jun whispers. Nino ignores him. "You are ignoring me. Fine. Then just listen to what I have to say. I told you I'm sorry and I don't want bad feelings between us. We can go back to being friends, no? It will be the best for everyone, including the students," the young man continues and Nino would give everything at this very moment for the ground to swallow him or Jun, whoever, just to separate him from his ex. This is a pain in the ass!

"Stop that nonsense, Jun, the students have nothing to do with this at all," Nino hisses between his teeth.

"They are staring at us," Jun gets a bit closer, whispering into Nino's ear.

Enough is enough for the young teacher and he backs off, flashing an angry stare at Jun and spits at him, "That's because you're annoying me all these time and distracting the students!"

The gym falls silent and yeah, now at the latest, everyone is staring at Jun and Nino, the latter blushing deep red in embarrassment.

"Is anything troubling you, Ninomiya-sensei? Matsumoto-sensei?" the headmaster asks into the microphone.

Jun doesn't react and Nino can just bow apologetically and shake his head before making a gesture that his boss should continue his speech. At least, Jun is silent for the rest of the ceremony and afterwards, Nino uses his running-away tactics again to quickly get in his class.

He considers himself lucky to be assigned to a new class this year, first year students are easier to handle, at least at the beginning. They are still shy and most of the time silent, since they don't know each other or the teachers yet. Also, it always feels like a fresh start to begin the school year with a group of complete new faces. For Nino, each time is like a new chance for him to get a step closer to becoming the cool teacher he aims to be. It's not that he's not popular with the students, most of them like him or at least don't cause any trouble for him. But compared to other teachers – read Matsumoto Jun – who is super popular and not only with the girls, Nino's existence feels kind of insignificant most of the time, which... well... is far from the ideal he has set up for himself as a teacher.

Facing his new class now, about half an hour after the welcome ceremony and the embarrassing incident that drew everyone's attention to him – he hopes it didn't create a negative image of him – Nino wants to give it his best. Jun is forgotten for the time being. At least during classes Nino can relax.

It doesn't take long before Nino finishes his own little speech in his first home room class for class 1-3, a speech he has refined over the last few years, something that sounds motivating but doesn't resemble too much those sappy speeches from those trashy school doramas. He wants his students to know what awaits them, to encourage them to give their best, and to make them think about school and studying seriously from the first day without hating it – hopefully.

As expected, a couple of students listen to him with big eyes, some of them though don't pay attention to him at all. Well, it's an acceptable result, Nino thinks, remembering with terror his very first homeroom lesson years ago which ended in perfect chaos with a group of gyarus aping him while some male students snowballed him with paper balls made from pages ripped out text books. Yes, that day he cried in the teacher's room afterwards, and if it wasn't for his enthusiastic fellow newcomer teacher Jun, who cheered him up, Nino might have considered quitting his job on the spot at that very moment.

Damned. Isn't he not supposed to think about that person for now? Nino scolds himself internally and forces himself to continue classes. He reaches for the class book and adjusts his glasses before reading all the students' names for the first daily roll call. His look gets stuck on the paper after a few calls, reading a name that sounds strangely familiar, even if Nino cannot connect it right away. After a small pause and adjusting his glasses again, reading the name another time, just to make sure, he finally calls out.

"Sakurai?"

"Here," a girl with long brown hair from the middle left side of the room replies, lifting her hand and Nino looks at her, nods at her, like he did to all the students to greet them and returns to his list.

Sakurai. Where the hell does he know that name from, he wonders frowning, while continuing to read out the names of his new students before he suddenly stops.

"Ah!"

Nino's eyes widen. He remembers. So that girl shares her surname with that guy, that's why it sounded so familiar! What a coincidence... or is fate mocking him? This must be his punishment for what happened the other night, Nino thinks desperately. He acted against all of his own morals, and this is how his karma is thanking him. Awesome.

"Sensei?" a female student with short black hair and glasses from the front row asks carefully, when the teacher doesn't continue.

"Ah... ," he repeats, looking at the student a bit confused before gluing his eyes back to the name list.

"We're at "Ta", not at "A"," the girl dares to point out.

"Indeed, my mistake, I'm sorry," Nino clears his throat and tries to focus on his task again.

However, he cannot really concentrate, his thoughts are occupied with that criminally handsome Sakurai guy he met just recently, in his capacity as delivery boy, smartass and Nino's one-night stand. Damned.

The young teacher lifts the class book a little more, to hide his involuntary blush.

~ * ~

Some days pass, the last cherry blossoms fall from the trees lining the way to school and things start to settle into a daily routine. Slowly but surely, Nino gets used to seeing Jun again every day, which still hurts, but not so much anymore since the other gradually stopped approaching him forcefully and is now waiting patiently until Nino is ready to go back to being friends with him. Nino is still not sure if he can or wants that, he currently enters his phase of I-don't-give-a-shit-about-my-ex, which is at least much more bearable than the I-think-I-can't-live-without-him phase that made him fall into alcohol abuse just some time ago. And who knows, maybe, one day, Nino will be ready to sit next to Jun and share his lunch with him again, like they used to when they got to know each other.

Classes are going smoothly and Nino is soon back to being busy with teaching Mathematics and Music, like the past few years, glad to have found a routine over the years that makes it easy for him to communicate the subject matters to his students. And of course, Music classes are always a pleasure and Nino is excited to find a handful of students interested in music as passionately as himself, this year too.

Among those students is the girl named Sakurai, which still reminds Nino on his fateful (?) encounter with the delivery man from his holidays. It makes him feel uncomfortable at first, whenever he read her name in the roll call. However, he knows he's being childish and unprofessional and it's not her fault that she's sharing her name with probably one of the biggest mistakes in Nino's life, so he decides to ignore this little fact as much as he can.

One day though, it becomes impossible to ignore it any longer, due to a simple but shocking event that Nino definitely does not see it coming.

It's raining that day, and so, the young teacher decides to ride the bus instead of walking the short distance to the subway station. Though he isn’t expecting for the bus to be stuffed and since he has just ran through the rain, covering his head with his bag, he almost can’t fit into the vehicle anymore. The man happens to get pushed further inside by some students, until he finds a bar to hold onto, which he is clinging onto now, desperately, in order not to get pushed any further. Nino doesn't have any issues with not being the tallest guy at school, but sometimes it can be annoying if half of the students are bigger than him and don't pay proper attention to their teacher.

Exhaling, Nino is about to put on his headphones as a familiar voice just right behind him catches his attention.

"Really, Dad, you don’t need to pick me up, I'm old enough already to go home by myself..."

Nino doesn't have to turn around to recognize the voice of his student, Sakurai Satsuki, and so he doesn't bother.

"I know, but it's my day off and I promised you to go out for dinner, right? And don’t you want to buy a new CD? I still owe you a first day at school gift."

At least that is, until the voice replying to the girl's concerns suddenly sounds familiar too, somehow. Nino turns around, slowly, his hands still holding the headphones, ready to get put over his ears, and then, he freezes.

"Dad, I appreciate your thoughts, but I'm not an elementary student any longer," Satsuki continues in a slightly annoyed voice, trying to convince the man sitting next to her – her father apparently – that he's taking his father duties a bit too far for a teenager's taste. However, her father, right now, is busy with other things, namely staring right into Nino's eyes.

Nino gulps and considers turning around and pretending not to see that person, who he recognizes immediately, of course, hoping, that the man behind him will not do the same. But it would have been just too easy, right? Instead, Satsuki's father clears his throat before he asks the inevitable.

"Ninomiya-san? Is it you?"

Nino curses, feeling his cheeks turning red – thankfully he can blame it on the warmth inside the bus caused by too many people being stuffed into a too narrow space – before he forces himself to put on a fake smile, nodding in the direction of the man, while letting his headphones rest around his neck. It's too late to run away now and yeah, where could he run to in a freaking bus stuffed with too many people into a too narrow space anyway? It's hopeless.

"Hello...," Nino murmurs as a greeting, not sure if it can even be heard.

"Eh?" the female student suddenly speaks up again in surprise. "Do you know Sensei, Dad?"

"What? Sensei?" her father repeats surprised, looking at her before his eyes find their way back to Nino's, who immediately averts them, feeling embarrassed as hell.

Suddenly, meeting Jun at school feels like nothing, compared to this shit.

"That is Ninomiya-sensei, my homeroom teacher," the student chimes in, gesturing at Nino. "He's doing Maths and Music. Ninomiya-sensei, this is my dad."

THANKS, I KNOW THAT NOW! PLEASE LET ME DIE, Nino wants to scream and run away but of course, it can't be helped and instead he just nods his head again, stupidly, murmuring a "Nice to meet you."

"Oh wow, what a coincidence," Sakurai chuckles, feeling amused, hiding a big smirk behind his hand. Rather than coincidence, it's fate. Bad fate. "I didn't expect to meet you again so quickly."

"Where do you know each other from, Dad?" Satsuki asks curiously, on which her father responds that Nino was one of his customers.

"So you're a high school teacher," Sakurai adds, addressing to Nino.

"Uhm…," the other replies. Does that man really plan to hold a casual conversation now with his one-night stand in the middle of a stuffed bus in front of his daughter's eyes?!

"Why so shy, Ninomiya-sensei?"

Yes, that man obviously does plan to hold a casual conversation – probably filled with innuendos – in front of his daughter, and damned, he doesn't give a shit to how embarrassing the situation must be for Nino. Not only because the young teacher cannot think about anything more embarrassing at the moment than accidentally meeting his one-night stand who he cannot even properly remember, again, but also because this whole situation turns out as even more shitty than it could be otherwise. That man, his one-night stand, has turned out to be a parent of one of his students, this is the worst case scenario for the worst scenario ever. If Nino doesn't pay attention and this incident leaks out one or the other way, it may even cost him his job! Crap. He has to get out of here...

And that is, what Nino literally tries to do when the bus approaches the next stop. Not caring if this isn't exactly the station he needs to catch the subway home or the fact that he will have to run a few more blocks in the rain, he presses the "stop" button closest to his reach and turns to the Sakurais again.

"Uhm… I… I have to get off here…," he flashes them another fake smile, avoiding the father on purpose while looking into the daughter's eyes. "We'll see each other tomorrow in class, Sakurai-san. And it … nice to meet you uhm… again… Sakurai-san," he adds, nodding to her father quickly too.

"It is really nice to meet you again, Sensei, indeed," the man replies, the smirk on his face completely visible now and when Nino can't help but look into the man's eyes, he sees a dangerous flicker in them that makes his heart stop for a moment.

A few seconds later, the bus comes to a halt and Nino stumbles outside, right into the pouring rain. He doesn't dare to look at the bus as it drives away, afraid that he may catch sight of one of the Sakurai's again. He's just too embarrassed by the whole situation. He doesn't even care about protecting his hair from the heavy rain, letting the water cool his head. Maybe that's exactly what he needs at the moment.

TBC


Part 3