http://nino-mod.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
nino-mod.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ninoexchange2016-06-20 07:08 am
nino-mod.livejournal.com) wrote in ninoexchange2016-06-20 07:08 am
Entry tags:
fic for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lover_youshould (1/2)
For: lover_youshould
From:kirasebi
Title: Even if the world ends today, we’ll find each other
Pairing/Focus: Nino/Jun/Ohno
Rating: NC-17 and above
Warnings: mentioned minor character death, bombing, violence, guns, gun kink, d/s dynamic, apocalypse, nuclear weapons, insects, animal harm, radiation illness, mentions of zombies, mentioned fighting,
Summary: Japan gets attacked and Nino and Jun are brought to a special vault to stay till it is safe to leave again. 200 years later they are the only survivors of their vault and learn about what happened to Japan. They set out to hopefully find their friends safe and unharmed.
Notes: Dearlover_youshould, I hope you like your story. I did my best and it may be not exactly what you wished for. I don’t play any video games so I relied heavily on wikipedia, friends and videos to get at least a little feel at this one. That’s now my try at that world and I hope you’ll enjoy. I had at least fun writing it.
A big thank you tonino_mod for allowing me a little more time to finish. That helped me a lot :) I’ll try not to end up in hospital again during an exchange.
I’m especially grateful to my excellent beta and good friend <3 without her help this would never have been finished. And I can’t thank her enough for proofreading it twice with such little time. You are the best
“What are you doing here?” Jun asked Nino when said person entered the dressing room on the set of Jun’s drama.
“Just visiting a fellow bandmate. The director said it’s fine since you are on break and all that,” he answered nonchalantly and proceeded to look around.
Jun watched Nino observing the room and browsing through his things a little amused. He had been expecting the man after all. Satoshi had warned him that their brat seemed to be lonely as Nino had ‘stalked’ him just a few days prior.
“Is there any shirt for me?” Nino asked curiously, and Jun blinked in surprise.
“You want one? I thought you stopped wanting our drama shirts. You said so last time,” Jun answered, feigning shock and Nino looked to the side.
“Of course.”
“I’ll get you one, don’t worry,” Jun promised and smiled at the happy look that crossed Nino’s face. He had already ordered one for him of course, and it was waiting for Nino in their manager’s car. Since Nino didn’t receive it yet, he must have come with his own car just to see him.
“As you are already here: Do you want to join me for lunch? I was just about to get some.”
Nino’s eyes found his for a moment before he agreed, seemingly uncaring. Jun was not fooled since he knew how much Nino hated to eat alone but decided not to comment on it. Nino was lonely with Jun and Ohno shooting dramas at the same time, after all.
“Are you coming, J?” Nino called, and Jun looked up, realising that Nino was already waiting for him with the door slightly open.
“Coming! Satoshi and I thought that we could have dinner at my place on Saturday. Are you coming?”
“Am I invited?”
“Don’t be silly. Of course you are,” Jun scolded and pinched his hip hard.
“That hurt!” Nino complained, but he was laughing at the same time. Jun shook his head, and Nino playfully linked their arms. “I’ll see if I have time to come. But I demand burgers!”
Jun rolled his eyes at him and shrugged. “You are spoilt; you know? I will make pasta with meatballs and don’t you dare to sulk. I won’t eat a burger the first night after a long time if it’s just the three of us.”
“If you say so…” Nino mumbled a little unhappily, and they made their way down the building while continuing their bickering, much to the amusement of everybody around them.
“What the...?” Jun mumbled when a loud screeching alarm was heard throughout the building. Nino pressed his hands against his ears to block the sound out and looked wide-eyed at Jun, who looked just as spooked as he felt. It didn’t take long for them to start running down the stairs. They didn’t know what the alarm was for, but a life long experience told them it was never good to stay in the upper floors of a building when an alarm could be heard. Jun grabbed Nino’s arm to force him to start running a little faster and not to lose him in the mad dash of so many people.
They reached the entrance hall where a police force was already sending people right and left after checking their identifications. They stopped in front of one officer who looked up for a short moment.
“Names and occupation?” he asked.
“Matsumoto Jun and Ninomiya Kazunari of Johnny’s Entertainment,” Jun answered before Nino could say anything and he blinked when the officer wrote something about ‘holding the moral up’ on a clipboard and waved them to one side.
“You will be in a special vault,” he explained, and another man asked them to hurry up.
“What is happening?” Nino asked as he and Jun ran beside the second policeman.
“Bombs are falling. Most probably nuclear so we need to reach shelter as quickly as possible.”
Nino paled considerably and glanced at Jun when the hold on his wrist got tighter for a moment. Nino felt his own heart speeding up when he thought of his friends and bandmates. They should be mostly fine as all but himself had work right now, and stations were mostly excellent with their safety. He could read in Jun’s eyes that the other was glad to have Nino by his side - at least one of them was now with him.
Nino wished Jun would hold his hand instead of his wrist. Then at least he could squeeze his hand just as tightly as Jun was his wrist.
They arrived in an underground vault and were ushered further into it when they heard the first bomb falling. Nino flinched and finally yanked his arm out of Jun’s grip to hold onto him. They had to identify themselves once more, and a man typed their names into a computer.
“Can you check if the others are safe?” Nino asked, scared, and the man looked at them apologetically.
“Not yet. The computers aren’t online yet. But I’m sure they are fine. We’ll tell you as soon as we know but for now, I have to ask you to go into one of those chambers each. We will disinfect you in there. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen.”
Jun and Nino followed another man further into the vault. It was bigger than Nino thought, and he looked around curiously before they were forced apart and told to change clothes. They both got dark boots, tight black pants and a black shirt with a grey vest on top of it. Nino cocked an eyebrow and looked at Jun, a little bit amused.
“It’s like a videogame where you get the task to rescue something,” he joked and winced when Jun’s fist connected with his head - luckily not too strongly.
“Don’t joke about such things, Nino,” he scolded.
“Sorry.”
Nino began to wriggle out of his clothes and into the new ones before looking at Jun, who had changed too. They followed the man again to some kinds of metallic closets and Nino observed them carefully. They were small with a cushioned chair inside and many tubes. Clearly they were designed to hold only one person each.
He shuddered a little while stepping inside and the door closed with a swish. Jun stepped in the chamber across from him and smiled encouragingly at him. His closed too and Nino saw that they typed some dates in the panel before he didn’t feel anything but incredibly cold and then... nothing.
Nino gasped and could hear a sound. It was a low buzz, followed by quiet 'whoosh’. He took a deep breath and immediately began to cough, realising that there was something over his mouth that sent foul smelling air into his lungs. With a little difficulty, he managed to remove the mask and was surprised that the door in front of him opened automatically. He rubbed his cold arms - his whole body was strangely cold - and rushed over to Jun's chamber.
It took a few seconds to find the right buttons to open the door and take off Jun’s mask. Jun coughed and tried to catch his breath without vomiting. He felt off somehow and slightly dizzy.
"Did they turn on the air-con?" Jun asked, and Nino shrugged a little. How should he know?
Jun looked around - probably to ask somebody but he froze as he saw the occupants of the other chambers.
"Nino? Why aren't they moving at all?" he asked carefully and for the first time since he woke up, Nino looked around to watch the other chambers. Slowly they went to the one beside Nino's. A shudder ran through them when they read the information on the little screen beside the door.
Name: Shun Tanaka
Occupation: Engineer
Status: dead
Date: 6/16/2216
"What the hell?!" Nino cursed and marched along the other doors to read what was written on the little screens. The names and occupations varied, as did age, of course. On every screen the writing said 'dead' and the same date as the first one. But how? They went inside the chambers in the year 2016. It couldn't be true.
Jun went to look around to find another source of information and finally was able to locate a computer. Hoping to be able to read more than just a few dates on the inhabitants of the chambers he clicked around. He waved Nino over when he was able to access some report about the bombs and what was happening as well as a few diary-like texts in a file. Nino went over to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder to steady himself while they read the data.
After many threats, China now has initiated their attack on us. They are bombing us - the whole of Japan - with atomic bombs to decimate our population. Luckily, we had been expecting this. Quiet preparation has been underway for years The plan R17 is being put into motion by the government to shelter as many citizens as possible in the vaults to save them from the atomic blast. Time is short but with the high amount of vaults under Japan it should be possible to track down the most influential citizens to rescue and to ensure that Japan can rebuild itself in the future. Scientists predict that the contamination should be manageable once 250 years have passed. As a result, ice chambers were built to put people into cryostasis and ensure that they will survive the many years before Japan can be rebuilt. If we create a serum against the radiation, we will wake them up earlier.
Jun looked at Nino, who read on silently, just moving his lips slowly and getting paler which each second that went by.
"It sounds so unreal," Jun finally said when Nino was finished with the report. Nino had to agree.
"Just like the plot of a violent video game and I don't like that we seem to be the main characters," he added, and Jun smiled slightly.
"True. Let's read the rest, shall we?"
"Yes."
Jun opened the other file with the diary-like reports and reached around to pull Nino on his lap. "Can you read to me? My eyes hurt," he asked and Nino consented easily. If all that was true and not a big prank by some production stuff who thought it would be funny to put two idols in a vault pretending all people were dead just to watch them panic and look for an exit, then Jun had been wearing his contacts for more than a few years and that had to hurt like hell. He was kinda hoping it was just a big prank. Jun carefully took them out and closed his eyes. He was glad that he could see without them even if it wasn’t perfect and he wouldn’t be able to read comfortably for a while. Hopefully they would get lenses or glasses somewhere later.
Date 05/02/2016
Time 05:58 pm
We were able to secure this vault. A list of the people we put in here is attached at the end of this entry. The entry into cryostasis went without a hitch, and luckily everybody survived. We were able to communicate with the other vaults just before the bombs reached the surface and contacted the people in charge there. Every evacuation proceeded well and was successfully completed. Currently, the lists are sorted alphabetically. We will arrange names by occupation and future use shortly and hopefully compare them to those of the other vaults.
Date 05/03/2016
Time 08:46 am
Finally, the list is complete. We attached it to this entry.
Date 10/312016
Time 09:52 am
Some people here show first signs of radiation. The chambers are still intact.
Date 06/08/2017
Time 03:00 pm
It seems like we found a treatment for radiation. At least it slows the effects down. We hope to be able to create a perfect cure within the next few months.
Date 03/09/2027
Time 08:06 pm
Some of us ventured above - of course in protective clothing. The surface is not only contaminated but also massively destroyed. I hope other countries will be able to help our future efforts to rebuilt. It might be nearly impossible to do so alone. Some animals survived the blast, though. We didn't see any humans.
Date 06/15/2027
Time 09:03 pm
The team that ventured above got attacked by humans - or what is left of them. They looked more like zombies. Also, there seemed to be giant insects. Most likely a mutation from their normal form after the radiation they suffered through.
Date 8/30/2028
Time 03:30 pm
We met children. They were a little group alone above and malnourished apart from that they seem to be healthy. They are so young that they have to be born after the blast. We didn’t want them to die and as there weren’t any adults around anymore we took them in after some consideration.
Date 02/01/2036
Time 10:09 am
The children - now young adults - don't want to live underground any longer. We can't stop them from leaving. They want to rebuild their home alone. If they succeed, I don't know if we will need the people in the chambers. However, killing them would be inhuman.
Date 09/08/2036
Time 11:25 pm
By now I am the last one left. The radiation was too great for us to survive even with the treatment. It's not perfect yet, but one would be able to survive longer above now.
Date 12/25/2036
Time 04:50 pm
I can feel my life running out. To live above ground is not safe for us still. So I will set the machines to open automatically after 230 years. I hope everything will be well and that all of them will make Japan great again with the children above the ground.
"That's the last one," Nino explained, and Jun hummed a little.
"It seems real then?" Nino felt Jun kissing his shoulder slightly. "We should try to find our friends then. Aiba-chan, Sakurai-san..."
"Satoshi," Nino added in a whisper.
"Of course. He will be devastated if he can’t congratulate you on your 233rd birthday. You look good for your age, by the way."
"Idiot!" Nino mumbled, a little choked up, and Jun held him a little tighter. Nino clicked on the links to the lists and opened the one for their vault, searching for their friends' names. Nothing. Then he looked at the lists for the other vaults and nearly wept in relief when the search function revealed hits for each of their names.
"Do you think whatever happened here also happened to them?" he asked slowly, and Jun shook his head.
"They are probably fine. Can you see where their vaults are?"
Nino agreed and looked around for paper or a printer to secure the addresses of the vaults while Jun went to see if he could find something to protect themselves.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for those serums and weapons."
"Weapons?"
"Yes... They talked about giant insects and other animals that survived, as well as people who are zombie-like. I won't leave without making sure we can protect ourselves."
"And you know how to use them?"
"Yes... No... But we used fake ones in our dramas, didn't we? I used them in that CM and since we had a little time they showed us how real ones worked to make it more real."
Nino looked at Jun, and finally answered: "Okay... You are right. It is safer this way," he mumbled and helped him looking and picked up one minicomputer. "It's like a wristband that’s handy. And look there is a map in there too. Looks a little like a navigation system. We can use it to find the other vaults," he mumbled, happy when the screen powered up at his touch and he was able to browse through it. He decided to take it along too. It seemed to have all the information they needed. He only hoped that it was updated.
They left the room to look for the exit and were lucky for once: Jun roughly remembered the way they had come down and luckily nothing seemed to be amiss down here. If you don’t count the lack of people, of course. It was eerily silent, and Nino found himself touching the gun stuck safely at his side more than once. He ignored Jun’s amused looks, following him through the different rooms till they came to stand before the last one. Their way to freedom. Nino checked the computer on his wrist.
“Should be safe. At least it’s listed as the exit, and there is a little code showing,” he mumbled and looked around till he saw a small pad and started typing in the numbers. With a swishing sound the door opened, and Nino’s mouth fell open when he saw the outside for the first time. Jun froze beside him, too.
Carefully, they stepped outside, one or two steps at a time before stopping again.
Everywhere Nino looked was a wasteland. The reports hadn’t lied about that. Everything was destroyed, and there seemed to be even less greenery than there was before. And Nino had thought without people, nature would take slowly back what was hers to begin with. Wasn’t that what all the movies, books and games told you? But this black, grey and brown wasteland they could see before them was more than a little depressing. Everywhere around them were destroyed buildings, and debris littered the floor.
“Not a big joke then,” Jun said weakly.
Nino agreed, stumped. He hadn’t believed for one second that it was a joke, but he would have preferred that and seeing how it looked now cruelly crushed all hopes they may have secretly held.
Nino took a deep breath before looking at Jun. “We should go to the first vault? Perhaps we’ll find someone along the way. The writers of the entry said that there were people. Maybe they have already built themselves new homes - just not here,” he added.
“If you say so,” Jun said still a little doubtful.
They walked for the rest of the day without seeing anybody. They found a few gigantic cockroaches near a big crater. Nino tugged Jun away quickly. He had already been hating such things in the past - when they were tiny. Now he felt like throwing up just looking at them. Jun luckily held the same resentment and followed him just as quickly. It wouldn’t do them any good trying to kill them after all. Cockroaches survived everything. Those most probably even more than the old ones, if you considered them surviving a nuclear bombing. Nino shuddered violently and was glad when they were able to get away without the cockroaches noticing them.
“They were scary,” Nino mumbled, and Jun watched him, a little amused. “They could have eaten us!” Nino continued, “J, what the hell happened?”
“I think I don’t have to tell you since you read the files already.”
Nino sulked and hit his shoulder. “Not funny.”
“No, you are right about that… We should keep going.”
Nino followed him silently, looking around and trying to find anything that would show them that other humans still existed here.
They came across a few houses that seemed to have withstood the blast, and Jun sighed tiredly. “Let’s take a break, Nino. We’ve been on the road for a few hours now,” he mumbled.
“Okay…” Nino said reluctantly and followed Jun into one of the houses. At least it seemed to be empty. They were as quiet as they could be just in case. But they were lucky and finally able to sat down on the floor in one of the empty rooms.
“We can’t continue like this,” Nino mumbled and typed on the little computer, which luckily still had power. He hoped that the battery wouldn’t run out. Maybe it ran on solar energy or even body warmth.
“You are right,” Jun answered and leaned against the wall behind them. “We need water and food, and we are way too slow to reach the other side of the city. Mostly because we don’t know what’s waiting for us.”
Nino nodded and looked at the tiny screen on his wrist.
Jun looked at the pale man beside him. He was worried about his lover who most of the time looked tougher than he was. Jun put an arm around his shoulder and tucked him into his side so that they could share his warmth even if it weren't necessary at this time of the year. He knew that Nino liked to cuddle if he was troubled but wouldn’t ask for it because he didn’t want to be seen nervous.
“What are you hoping to achieve hitting on it? Finding a game to play?” he asked a little jokingly, and Nino glared at him for a moment before he shrugged.
“Just curious what is stored in here. It seems to be connected to the internet? How would that be possible, though? You can get information about all the vaults around. The location is written there and some codes, I don’t really understand. I wish I could break the codes to see if they are fine, Jun,” he said a little frustrated.
Jun held his hand up to stop him. “Don’t… Just don’t do that. We will go there and check for ourselves. At our vault all people were dead, but we are alive. You can’t know if they are fine without checking for yourself.”
Nino looked up, and Jun smiled encouragingly when he realized that Nino’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
“They are fine. Don’t stress too much about it,” he said. Nino just hoped that what Jun said was true. He closed his eyes exhausted.
“We should check if there is something safe to eat and drink. Not checking on the other vaults. Do you find information about that in there?” he asked, and Nino shrugged.
“Not much. But there are more entries to look through.”
Jun kept hugging him close while Nino read silently through a few more entries. They needed to rest a bit more.
Still, not nearly enough time passed before Nino sighed and shook Jun off to stand up. “Come on, we should keep going. It’s not dark yet, and we can rest and sleep then. I won’t stumble through all this debris while I can’t see anything.”
Jun mumbled an agreement, and together they left the little house to look for water and food outside.
Instead of something edible they found humans.
They heard the voices first before they could see a ring of hut like tents in front of them and stopped short in their steps. Nino and Jun were unsure as to how to proceed. Should they ask for help or try to go around the camp? Before they were able to decide shouts could be heard and some people came towards them. They could try to outrun them but Jun was tired and he was sure that Nino felt the same. So they stepped forward nervously and hoped for the best.
Jun just hoped that this were some of the nicer humans that the files spoke of. At least they didn’t seem zombie-like, so they probably were safe. If there wasn’t a war or something like that still. Jun prayed that wasn’t the case. There seemed to be so few survivors that it seemed silly to kill each other off.
A woman stepped forward and stopped in front of them. Her expression was harsh and guarded as she looked them up and down, and Jun felt Nino gulping beside him. He hated being scrutinised like that, Jun knew, and always had problems keeping silent whenever that happened. He just hoped today was the day that Nino’s bratty mouth wouldn’t bring them problems. To his relief, Nino stayed silent, and the woman finally seemed to relax a little. Whatever test it was, they passed it.
“You aren’t from here,” she finally said, and Jun shrugged. Technically they were from here, but the ‘here’ he remembered was entirely different from the ‘here’ now.
Nino looked at Jun and the woman, waiting. Finally, he explained: “Sort of. Do you know about what happened in the past?” he asked slowly, unmistakably trying to come up with a way to phrase what happened to them. Jun stayed silent beside him. Nino’s wit would be probably more helpful right at this moment than his own.
“You have to be a little more specific,” she answered and waved them to follow her further into the camp. They followed silently, and Jun looked questioningly at Nino, who seemed to be totally calm right now. A sentiment Jun couldn’t share.
They reached a little hut made of wood and leaves after a short walk and the woman ushered them in where they sat down around a little fire that was in the middle of it. There was a hole in the ceiling to allow the smoke to get out and other people - men and women of different ages - sat around it. They observed Nino and un with utmost interest and Jun felt safe to do the same with them. They wore rough clothing made of furs, leather and now and then scraps of clothing.
There was a whispered exchange neither Jun nor Nino could decipher and a man left their circle to go out. Minutes later he came back with water and fruits, a little fish and rice. Jun eyed the meal a bit nervously, and Nino looked curiously at the woman who pointed at the food.
“You should eat.”
“Is it safe?”
“As safe as anything here can be.” Jun and Nino thanked them before both gingerly taking their share of food and drink.
“Where are you from?” the woman asked finally, and Nino looked at her before he nibbled at his bread. He felt Jun’s disapproving stares at his neck because he ate too slowly but Nino didn’t feel like upsetting his stomach any more than he already did.
“Kinda from here. Or what it used to be. It’s a little complicated, I think. But two hundred years ago there was the atomic blast, like you most probably know?”
“Yes.”
Nino coughed a little and took a sip of the strange tasting water to think about how he should continue. “Yeah… Some people were rescued and, uh, kind of stored in vaults. We are two of them. Our vault seems to have malfunctioned? I don’t know what happened, only that we woke up and the others didn’t. We found a few reports about what happened shortly after the bombs fell onto earth. But we know nothing else.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment till a smile found its way on her face, making her instantly more attractive than Nino gave her credit for the first time he saw her.
“Survivors then. That’s good to hear. They told us there would be people that could help us build a new city when they wake up. It’s bad that only you two survived but maybe you could help?” she asked hopefully, and Nino blushed. They were in no way experts. So rebuilding a city or helping them in any way seemed to be impossible.
She stood up and stood in front of them. Nino and Jun stood up as quickly as they could too. The woman held out her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m called Mami.”
“I’m Matsumoto Jun and he is Ninomiya Kazunari. We are sorry… I don’t think we’ll be much help. We weren’t put into cryo because of our knowledge or technical skills,” he mumbled, averting his eyes. “We will try to help, but you’ll probably have to teach us just about everything.”
“And we can’t stay. Not right now,” Nino added at her confused stare. “I’m sorry. I am. And I am very thankful for the food and your welcome. But as Jun mentioned: We aren’t specialists like you’re hoping for. We are – or more likely were - artists. And I would love to stay and help you. But our friends... They are still lost. They weren’t with us and we have to find out if they are still alive.” He bowed deeply and just hoped that Mami wasn’t too mad at them. But all there was was confused silence.
“Artists as in?”
“We sing and dance,” Jun mumbled, a little uncomfortable.
Mami hummed in understanding. “I see. Not that helpful but if you are willing to help we can show you. As for your friends... We don’t know the location of the vaults.”
“We do. I have a map,” Nino said and showed her the little computer he had taken with him. “We just have to get there and check on them. Then we could come back. I’m sure I can somehow mark this location on the computer to remember where you are.”
Mami looked at his computer a little curious for a moment. “Seems to be helpful, yes. Would you lend it to Kairi for a moment? She is knowledgeable in such things and could help you to understand it a bit better.”
Nino looked at the girl – she seemed to be only in her teens, but it was hard to tell – a bit reluctant to let go of the computer that was his only way of locating his friends. But after a moment, he gave his consent and opened the wristband to hand the device over.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful. You’ll get it back,” she promised.
“Okay, thank you.”
Mami watched her leave, then looked back at Nino and Jun. “I understand that you want to find them right now. But it’s late, and it isn’t safe out there when it’s dark. It was lucky that you didn’t get attacked by anything.”
“We saw some cockroaches earlier. They were huge. But they didn’t seem to realise we were there,” Jun said thoughtfully, and Nino agreed with a shudder. Stumbling across them or other insects at night was nothing he wanted to spend time thinking about.
“They are mostly harmless. Well, not precisely, they can kill you on sight, but there are more dangerous things out there. You don’t know anything, do you?”
Nino shrugged helplessly and looked at Jun. “We read about humans that seemed to be dangerous to others? But I think they are already dead? And we took guns with us to protect ourselves.”
She nodded, seemingly a little impressed that they had guns, but then she sighed and leaned against a post beside her.
“Ghouls still exist. We call the ones you described earlier ‘ghouls’. They are a mutation of humankind. Most people think it happened to people who survived the atomic bombs. They survived but their bodies were exposed to too much radiation and somehow instead of killing them it healed them? They are deformed and stuck in different stages of deterioration. Some are feral, and they are out mostly at night since they aren’t good with sunlight. They kill everyone and everything in sight. Others may look awful but are harmless. They basically have the minds of children. And the last group is very smart. And almost normal - if you ignore their physical appearance, that is.”
Nino squeezed Jun’s hand. He was glad that they had decided to turn up here, even if it was only by accident. It would have been lame to die right now because they weren’t careful enough and got killed by zombies.
“So we have to be careful when we look for our friends.”
Mami smiled for a second. “Yes and no. We will lend you a van so that you can go there quickly and more safely. We don’t need it at the moment since we will stay here for a few days, and we have more than one.” Her expression turned sad for a second, but she didn’t say anything more about the subject. “It will get you safely wherever you want to go, and it is armoured and armed. Do you know how to use them?”
“Not really,” Jun mumbled. He didn’t mention that they had only used weapons in different dramas. They showed her their weapons after being asked and then went with a young man who told them his name was Daisuke. Daisuke promised them to show them how their guns worked and what they have to do with them to avoid accidentally killing themselves.
He brought them to an open field a few meters behind the last hut of their camp. “Can you show me your weapons again?”
Nino gave him the gun Jun had chosen for him and looked at Daisuke who studied it for a moment. It was different from the ones they had but it was just a work of minutes to open the magazine and check it over. He was the one in charge of all weapons they acquired and they were similar to the ones the used.
“Do you have enough ammunition for them?”
“We found some spare magazines with them,” Jun explained and tugged the little bag he found at their vault to show him. Daisuke looked them over, too, and set on to explaining how to change the magazines and how to put the safety on and lose it again. He let them try it for themselves a few times before he took out two other guns.
Nino took one of them and watched him curiously.
“They are for training purpose only and are not filled with real bullets. We found a ton of them in an abandoned facility a few years prior and use it to train. You never shot at something, did you?”
“Of course not,” Nino answered and Daisuke gave a short nod before showing them how to stand firmly on the ground and how to use the guns effectively.
Jun tried his best to keep up. But after just a few minutes of training it was obvious that Nino was more suited for this than he was. It didn't help that his eyes wandered more often than not to Nino and he watched his stance, his serious, focused eyes and that concentrated tilt to his mouth. Nino was so sexy like that. Jun loved it whenever the other was earnest or intense. Because of that he enjoyed watching Nino during rehearsals or those times Jun had the chance to sneak up on Nino when he was reading or studying his scripts for dramas.
He watched as Nino’s eyes got smaller while they focused on their target and how his whole body seemed to stiffen when he curled his finger around the trigger and pulled it. The sound the guns made were not as loud as he expected them to be.
The rebound shook Nino’s arm, but the man stood still and lowered his hand slowly. He put the safety back on while listening to their teacher when he corrected his stance a little. Jun suddenly realized that his pants had become uncomfortable tight. Luckily, both men were ignoring him for the moment, though, and Jun tried to concentrate on his weapon once more. To be honest, even after more than an hour of training he was far worse with this thing than Nino was. Nino looked far more at home with the gun than Jun felt. Jun’s eyes wandered to Nino once again. He really was hot!
Just when Jun thought he couldn’t take watching Nino anymore the other lowered the weapon for the last time and put it away. Nino rubbed his eyes gingerly and massaged his hand and the little bit on his lower back that Jun knew hurt more often than not whenever Nino put some strain on it. That sight worked better than any ice ever could to cool him down and he hurriedly went over to put his hand on Nino’s back, massaging the little knot he could feel begin to form there.
“Is everything alright?” he asked worried.
“Yes,” he replied before picking the gun out of his hand. Jun heard a click and looked confused at him for a moment while Nino put the gun back into his waistband.
“Better now that I know your safety is on. It’s not a toy, Jun,” he reprimanded, and Jun fought the urge to blush. He had totally forgotten that he still had the gun as he had been watching Nino gain while fighting his slight hard on.
“Sorry. Seems like you are better suited to them.”
Nino just shook his head and grinned happily when he felt that Jun’s hands finally chasing the tension in his back away.
“I think you should rest for the night. You probably want to leave early tomorrow,” their trainer said.
They were given a little corner in the hut to sleep in with a blanket, and Nino cuddled close to Jun, hoping fiercely that they would meet Satoshi tomorrow so he could be with both of his lovers once again. He almost didn’t feel Jun’s kiss to his forehead as he drifted to sleep, clutching Jun’s shirt tightly.
They were awakened by the sounds of the camp early next morning. Mami and Kairi were sitting near them conversing quietly. Mami looked over when Jun groaned a little and moved to hug Nino a little bit closer to him.
“Good morning,” Kairi, who had also looked up, greeted them, and Nino carefully wriggled out of the embrace. He was too out of it to be humiliated at their display, instead rubbing his face tiredly.
“Good morning. What time is it?” he asked sleepily.
Mami shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“Your computer says something about 6 o’clock,” Kairi added, and Nino’s eyes widened. He had totally forgotten about the computer.
Kairi smiled when she handed it over. “It’s helpful. It has a lot of information. Much of it is of course outdated, but there seemed to some knowledge that was lost in recent years, too.”
Nino thanked her and put it on again. “You can have it once I found my friends,” he promised and was regarded with a happy grin from the girl.
He felt Jun’s searching hand on his back and blushed a bit when he felt it wander under his shirt and into his shorts. Jun was clearly still half asleep, Nino decided when he looked at him. Nino tried to ignore the Mami’s amused grin as he successfully – though sadly not stealthily – dislodged Jun’s wandering hand and turned around to wake the other up fully.
Jun grumbled a little but thankfully he seemed to remember what happened and opened his eyes. He clearly wasn’t fully awake yet but at least enough so that he could sit up and greet the two women in front of them.
“You wouldn’t have something like coffee?” he asked hopefully and sighed sadly at the incomprehension in their faces. No luck then.
They were given water and food again, though, and Nino decided that was more than enough at the moment.
After the small breakfast, they were brought to the van that looked more like a tank than the kind of van Nino had expected. Jun followed one of the others to find how he had to drive this thing.
Nino looked at Mami and Kairi. He bowed deeply and smiled in thanks. “We will come back. Thank you so much, honestly,” he whispered and was shocked when Mami hugged him warmly.
“It’s okay. Somehow it’s nice to talk to the both of you. Comforting. If the others are like you I can understand that they decided to save you. Calmness is something we dearly need.”
Kairi at her side agreed, and Nino remembered the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, when they tried to give people hope and happiness during that difficult time. Perhaps that was a way they could help now, too. But only if the five of them were together again.
“Perhaps we’ll find other camps, too. They could help us to rebuild,” he said, and both of them nodded even if there was sadness in their eyes. Nino had the feeling that the different groups working together was more complicated that you’d expect.
“Nino, are you ready?” he heard Jun call and looked up. As ready as one could be in such an alien world at least.
Jun waved at the others and thanked them as well while Nino climbed into the van. And then they were on their way, following the path the computer showed them as well as they could.
It was late afternoon when a sound from the computer signaled them that they finally reached their destination and Nino was more than glad for it. He left the van as quickly as he could, almost falling flat on the ground if not for Jun’s rescuing hand interfering before he could tumble from his seat. He dry-heaved on the side of the van and lend his head against the hot metal of it. The streets – or what was left of them – were horrible and Nino’s motion sickness had played up more than once while they drove through the wilderness.
He felt a hand on his back rubbing his shoulders in slow circles and felt like the cramps in his stomach lessened till he could breathe regularly. He felt a flask filled with the strange tasting water against his lips and took a few small sips, being careful not to upset his stomach again. To his relief, nothing happened for the next few minutes, and he could open his eyes and blink against the glaring sun.
“We finally arrived.”
“Yup. We would have been faster if we didn’t have to stop like 25 times,” Jun mock grumbled, but Nino could hear the worried tinge in his voice and squeezed Jun’s knee once.
“I’m feeling better now. Sorry to have worried you. But this was worse than being on a ship.” Just thinking about it let him turn a little green and he shook his head before he stood up. “Let’s find the old man, have a nice meal and then look for somewhere to sleep for the night.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Part 2
lover_youshouldFrom:
kirasebiTitle: Even if the world ends today, we’ll find each other
Pairing/Focus: Nino/Jun/Ohno
Rating: NC-17 and above
Warnings: mentioned minor character death, bombing, violence, guns, gun kink, d/s dynamic, apocalypse, nuclear weapons, insects, animal harm, radiation illness, mentions of zombies, mentioned fighting,
Summary: Japan gets attacked and Nino and Jun are brought to a special vault to stay till it is safe to leave again. 200 years later they are the only survivors of their vault and learn about what happened to Japan. They set out to hopefully find their friends safe and unharmed.
Notes: Dear
lover_youshould, I hope you like your story. I did my best and it may be not exactly what you wished for. I don’t play any video games so I relied heavily on wikipedia, friends and videos to get at least a little feel at this one. That’s now my try at that world and I hope you’ll enjoy. I had at least fun writing it.A big thank you to
nino_mod for allowing me a little more time to finish. That helped me a lot :) I’ll try not to end up in hospital again during an exchange.I’m especially grateful to my excellent beta and good friend <3 without her help this would never have been finished. And I can’t thank her enough for proofreading it twice with such little time. You are the best
“What are you doing here?” Jun asked Nino when said person entered the dressing room on the set of Jun’s drama.
“Just visiting a fellow bandmate. The director said it’s fine since you are on break and all that,” he answered nonchalantly and proceeded to look around.
Jun watched Nino observing the room and browsing through his things a little amused. He had been expecting the man after all. Satoshi had warned him that their brat seemed to be lonely as Nino had ‘stalked’ him just a few days prior.
“Is there any shirt for me?” Nino asked curiously, and Jun blinked in surprise.
“You want one? I thought you stopped wanting our drama shirts. You said so last time,” Jun answered, feigning shock and Nino looked to the side.
“Of course.”
“I’ll get you one, don’t worry,” Jun promised and smiled at the happy look that crossed Nino’s face. He had already ordered one for him of course, and it was waiting for Nino in their manager’s car. Since Nino didn’t receive it yet, he must have come with his own car just to see him.
“As you are already here: Do you want to join me for lunch? I was just about to get some.”
Nino’s eyes found his for a moment before he agreed, seemingly uncaring. Jun was not fooled since he knew how much Nino hated to eat alone but decided not to comment on it. Nino was lonely with Jun and Ohno shooting dramas at the same time, after all.
“Are you coming, J?” Nino called, and Jun looked up, realising that Nino was already waiting for him with the door slightly open.
“Coming! Satoshi and I thought that we could have dinner at my place on Saturday. Are you coming?”
“Am I invited?”
“Don’t be silly. Of course you are,” Jun scolded and pinched his hip hard.
“That hurt!” Nino complained, but he was laughing at the same time. Jun shook his head, and Nino playfully linked their arms. “I’ll see if I have time to come. But I demand burgers!”
Jun rolled his eyes at him and shrugged. “You are spoilt; you know? I will make pasta with meatballs and don’t you dare to sulk. I won’t eat a burger the first night after a long time if it’s just the three of us.”
“If you say so…” Nino mumbled a little unhappily, and they made their way down the building while continuing their bickering, much to the amusement of everybody around them.
“What the...?” Jun mumbled when a loud screeching alarm was heard throughout the building. Nino pressed his hands against his ears to block the sound out and looked wide-eyed at Jun, who looked just as spooked as he felt. It didn’t take long for them to start running down the stairs. They didn’t know what the alarm was for, but a life long experience told them it was never good to stay in the upper floors of a building when an alarm could be heard. Jun grabbed Nino’s arm to force him to start running a little faster and not to lose him in the mad dash of so many people.
They reached the entrance hall where a police force was already sending people right and left after checking their identifications. They stopped in front of one officer who looked up for a short moment.
“Names and occupation?” he asked.
“Matsumoto Jun and Ninomiya Kazunari of Johnny’s Entertainment,” Jun answered before Nino could say anything and he blinked when the officer wrote something about ‘holding the moral up’ on a clipboard and waved them to one side.
“You will be in a special vault,” he explained, and another man asked them to hurry up.
“What is happening?” Nino asked as he and Jun ran beside the second policeman.
“Bombs are falling. Most probably nuclear so we need to reach shelter as quickly as possible.”
Nino paled considerably and glanced at Jun when the hold on his wrist got tighter for a moment. Nino felt his own heart speeding up when he thought of his friends and bandmates. They should be mostly fine as all but himself had work right now, and stations were mostly excellent with their safety. He could read in Jun’s eyes that the other was glad to have Nino by his side - at least one of them was now with him.
Nino wished Jun would hold his hand instead of his wrist. Then at least he could squeeze his hand just as tightly as Jun was his wrist.
They arrived in an underground vault and were ushered further into it when they heard the first bomb falling. Nino flinched and finally yanked his arm out of Jun’s grip to hold onto him. They had to identify themselves once more, and a man typed their names into a computer.
“Can you check if the others are safe?” Nino asked, scared, and the man looked at them apologetically.
“Not yet. The computers aren’t online yet. But I’m sure they are fine. We’ll tell you as soon as we know but for now, I have to ask you to go into one of those chambers each. We will disinfect you in there. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen.”
Jun and Nino followed another man further into the vault. It was bigger than Nino thought, and he looked around curiously before they were forced apart and told to change clothes. They both got dark boots, tight black pants and a black shirt with a grey vest on top of it. Nino cocked an eyebrow and looked at Jun, a little bit amused.
“It’s like a videogame where you get the task to rescue something,” he joked and winced when Jun’s fist connected with his head - luckily not too strongly.
“Don’t joke about such things, Nino,” he scolded.
“Sorry.”
Nino began to wriggle out of his clothes and into the new ones before looking at Jun, who had changed too. They followed the man again to some kinds of metallic closets and Nino observed them carefully. They were small with a cushioned chair inside and many tubes. Clearly they were designed to hold only one person each.
He shuddered a little while stepping inside and the door closed with a swish. Jun stepped in the chamber across from him and smiled encouragingly at him. His closed too and Nino saw that they typed some dates in the panel before he didn’t feel anything but incredibly cold and then... nothing.
Nino gasped and could hear a sound. It was a low buzz, followed by quiet 'whoosh’. He took a deep breath and immediately began to cough, realising that there was something over his mouth that sent foul smelling air into his lungs. With a little difficulty, he managed to remove the mask and was surprised that the door in front of him opened automatically. He rubbed his cold arms - his whole body was strangely cold - and rushed over to Jun's chamber.
It took a few seconds to find the right buttons to open the door and take off Jun’s mask. Jun coughed and tried to catch his breath without vomiting. He felt off somehow and slightly dizzy.
"Did they turn on the air-con?" Jun asked, and Nino shrugged a little. How should he know?
Jun looked around - probably to ask somebody but he froze as he saw the occupants of the other chambers.
"Nino? Why aren't they moving at all?" he asked carefully and for the first time since he woke up, Nino looked around to watch the other chambers. Slowly they went to the one beside Nino's. A shudder ran through them when they read the information on the little screen beside the door.
Name: Shun Tanaka
Occupation: Engineer
Status: dead
Date: 6/16/2216
"What the hell?!" Nino cursed and marched along the other doors to read what was written on the little screens. The names and occupations varied, as did age, of course. On every screen the writing said 'dead' and the same date as the first one. But how? They went inside the chambers in the year 2016. It couldn't be true.
Jun went to look around to find another source of information and finally was able to locate a computer. Hoping to be able to read more than just a few dates on the inhabitants of the chambers he clicked around. He waved Nino over when he was able to access some report about the bombs and what was happening as well as a few diary-like texts in a file. Nino went over to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder to steady himself while they read the data.
After many threats, China now has initiated their attack on us. They are bombing us - the whole of Japan - with atomic bombs to decimate our population. Luckily, we had been expecting this. Quiet preparation has been underway for years The plan R17 is being put into motion by the government to shelter as many citizens as possible in the vaults to save them from the atomic blast. Time is short but with the high amount of vaults under Japan it should be possible to track down the most influential citizens to rescue and to ensure that Japan can rebuild itself in the future. Scientists predict that the contamination should be manageable once 250 years have passed. As a result, ice chambers were built to put people into cryostasis and ensure that they will survive the many years before Japan can be rebuilt. If we create a serum against the radiation, we will wake them up earlier.
Jun looked at Nino, who read on silently, just moving his lips slowly and getting paler which each second that went by.
"It sounds so unreal," Jun finally said when Nino was finished with the report. Nino had to agree.
"Just like the plot of a violent video game and I don't like that we seem to be the main characters," he added, and Jun smiled slightly.
"True. Let's read the rest, shall we?"
"Yes."
Jun opened the other file with the diary-like reports and reached around to pull Nino on his lap. "Can you read to me? My eyes hurt," he asked and Nino consented easily. If all that was true and not a big prank by some production stuff who thought it would be funny to put two idols in a vault pretending all people were dead just to watch them panic and look for an exit, then Jun had been wearing his contacts for more than a few years and that had to hurt like hell. He was kinda hoping it was just a big prank. Jun carefully took them out and closed his eyes. He was glad that he could see without them even if it wasn’t perfect and he wouldn’t be able to read comfortably for a while. Hopefully they would get lenses or glasses somewhere later.
Date 05/02/2016
Time 05:58 pm
We were able to secure this vault. A list of the people we put in here is attached at the end of this entry. The entry into cryostasis went without a hitch, and luckily everybody survived. We were able to communicate with the other vaults just before the bombs reached the surface and contacted the people in charge there. Every evacuation proceeded well and was successfully completed. Currently, the lists are sorted alphabetically. We will arrange names by occupation and future use shortly and hopefully compare them to those of the other vaults.
Date 05/03/2016
Time 08:46 am
Finally, the list is complete. We attached it to this entry.
Date 10/312016
Time 09:52 am
Some people here show first signs of radiation. The chambers are still intact.
Date 06/08/2017
Time 03:00 pm
It seems like we found a treatment for radiation. At least it slows the effects down. We hope to be able to create a perfect cure within the next few months.
Date 03/09/2027
Time 08:06 pm
Some of us ventured above - of course in protective clothing. The surface is not only contaminated but also massively destroyed. I hope other countries will be able to help our future efforts to rebuilt. It might be nearly impossible to do so alone. Some animals survived the blast, though. We didn't see any humans.
Date 06/15/2027
Time 09:03 pm
The team that ventured above got attacked by humans - or what is left of them. They looked more like zombies. Also, there seemed to be giant insects. Most likely a mutation from their normal form after the radiation they suffered through.
Date 8/30/2028
Time 03:30 pm
We met children. They were a little group alone above and malnourished apart from that they seem to be healthy. They are so young that they have to be born after the blast. We didn’t want them to die and as there weren’t any adults around anymore we took them in after some consideration.
Date 02/01/2036
Time 10:09 am
The children - now young adults - don't want to live underground any longer. We can't stop them from leaving. They want to rebuild their home alone. If they succeed, I don't know if we will need the people in the chambers. However, killing them would be inhuman.
Date 09/08/2036
Time 11:25 pm
By now I am the last one left. The radiation was too great for us to survive even with the treatment. It's not perfect yet, but one would be able to survive longer above now.
Date 12/25/2036
Time 04:50 pm
I can feel my life running out. To live above ground is not safe for us still. So I will set the machines to open automatically after 230 years. I hope everything will be well and that all of them will make Japan great again with the children above the ground.
"That's the last one," Nino explained, and Jun hummed a little.
"It seems real then?" Nino felt Jun kissing his shoulder slightly. "We should try to find our friends then. Aiba-chan, Sakurai-san..."
"Satoshi," Nino added in a whisper.
"Of course. He will be devastated if he can’t congratulate you on your 233rd birthday. You look good for your age, by the way."
"Idiot!" Nino mumbled, a little choked up, and Jun held him a little tighter. Nino clicked on the links to the lists and opened the one for their vault, searching for their friends' names. Nothing. Then he looked at the lists for the other vaults and nearly wept in relief when the search function revealed hits for each of their names.
"Do you think whatever happened here also happened to them?" he asked slowly, and Jun shook his head.
"They are probably fine. Can you see where their vaults are?"
Nino agreed and looked around for paper or a printer to secure the addresses of the vaults while Jun went to see if he could find something to protect themselves.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for those serums and weapons."
"Weapons?"
"Yes... They talked about giant insects and other animals that survived, as well as people who are zombie-like. I won't leave without making sure we can protect ourselves."
"And you know how to use them?"
"Yes... No... But we used fake ones in our dramas, didn't we? I used them in that CM and since we had a little time they showed us how real ones worked to make it more real."
Nino looked at Jun, and finally answered: "Okay... You are right. It is safer this way," he mumbled and helped him looking and picked up one minicomputer. "It's like a wristband that’s handy. And look there is a map in there too. Looks a little like a navigation system. We can use it to find the other vaults," he mumbled, happy when the screen powered up at his touch and he was able to browse through it. He decided to take it along too. It seemed to have all the information they needed. He only hoped that it was updated.
They left the room to look for the exit and were lucky for once: Jun roughly remembered the way they had come down and luckily nothing seemed to be amiss down here. If you don’t count the lack of people, of course. It was eerily silent, and Nino found himself touching the gun stuck safely at his side more than once. He ignored Jun’s amused looks, following him through the different rooms till they came to stand before the last one. Their way to freedom. Nino checked the computer on his wrist.
“Should be safe. At least it’s listed as the exit, and there is a little code showing,” he mumbled and looked around till he saw a small pad and started typing in the numbers. With a swishing sound the door opened, and Nino’s mouth fell open when he saw the outside for the first time. Jun froze beside him, too.
Carefully, they stepped outside, one or two steps at a time before stopping again.
Everywhere Nino looked was a wasteland. The reports hadn’t lied about that. Everything was destroyed, and there seemed to be even less greenery than there was before. And Nino had thought without people, nature would take slowly back what was hers to begin with. Wasn’t that what all the movies, books and games told you? But this black, grey and brown wasteland they could see before them was more than a little depressing. Everywhere around them were destroyed buildings, and debris littered the floor.
“Not a big joke then,” Jun said weakly.
Nino agreed, stumped. He hadn’t believed for one second that it was a joke, but he would have preferred that and seeing how it looked now cruelly crushed all hopes they may have secretly held.
Nino took a deep breath before looking at Jun. “We should go to the first vault? Perhaps we’ll find someone along the way. The writers of the entry said that there were people. Maybe they have already built themselves new homes - just not here,” he added.
“If you say so,” Jun said still a little doubtful.
They walked for the rest of the day without seeing anybody. They found a few gigantic cockroaches near a big crater. Nino tugged Jun away quickly. He had already been hating such things in the past - when they were tiny. Now he felt like throwing up just looking at them. Jun luckily held the same resentment and followed him just as quickly. It wouldn’t do them any good trying to kill them after all. Cockroaches survived everything. Those most probably even more than the old ones, if you considered them surviving a nuclear bombing. Nino shuddered violently and was glad when they were able to get away without the cockroaches noticing them.
“They were scary,” Nino mumbled, and Jun watched him, a little amused. “They could have eaten us!” Nino continued, “J, what the hell happened?”
“I think I don’t have to tell you since you read the files already.”
Nino sulked and hit his shoulder. “Not funny.”
“No, you are right about that… We should keep going.”
Nino followed him silently, looking around and trying to find anything that would show them that other humans still existed here.
They came across a few houses that seemed to have withstood the blast, and Jun sighed tiredly. “Let’s take a break, Nino. We’ve been on the road for a few hours now,” he mumbled.
“Okay…” Nino said reluctantly and followed Jun into one of the houses. At least it seemed to be empty. They were as quiet as they could be just in case. But they were lucky and finally able to sat down on the floor in one of the empty rooms.
“We can’t continue like this,” Nino mumbled and typed on the little computer, which luckily still had power. He hoped that the battery wouldn’t run out. Maybe it ran on solar energy or even body warmth.
“You are right,” Jun answered and leaned against the wall behind them. “We need water and food, and we are way too slow to reach the other side of the city. Mostly because we don’t know what’s waiting for us.”
Nino nodded and looked at the tiny screen on his wrist.
Jun looked at the pale man beside him. He was worried about his lover who most of the time looked tougher than he was. Jun put an arm around his shoulder and tucked him into his side so that they could share his warmth even if it weren't necessary at this time of the year. He knew that Nino liked to cuddle if he was troubled but wouldn’t ask for it because he didn’t want to be seen nervous.
“What are you hoping to achieve hitting on it? Finding a game to play?” he asked a little jokingly, and Nino glared at him for a moment before he shrugged.
“Just curious what is stored in here. It seems to be connected to the internet? How would that be possible, though? You can get information about all the vaults around. The location is written there and some codes, I don’t really understand. I wish I could break the codes to see if they are fine, Jun,” he said a little frustrated.
Jun held his hand up to stop him. “Don’t… Just don’t do that. We will go there and check for ourselves. At our vault all people were dead, but we are alive. You can’t know if they are fine without checking for yourself.”
Nino looked up, and Jun smiled encouragingly when he realized that Nino’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
“They are fine. Don’t stress too much about it,” he said. Nino just hoped that what Jun said was true. He closed his eyes exhausted.
“We should check if there is something safe to eat and drink. Not checking on the other vaults. Do you find information about that in there?” he asked, and Nino shrugged.
“Not much. But there are more entries to look through.”
Jun kept hugging him close while Nino read silently through a few more entries. They needed to rest a bit more.
Still, not nearly enough time passed before Nino sighed and shook Jun off to stand up. “Come on, we should keep going. It’s not dark yet, and we can rest and sleep then. I won’t stumble through all this debris while I can’t see anything.”
Jun mumbled an agreement, and together they left the little house to look for water and food outside.
Instead of something edible they found humans.
They heard the voices first before they could see a ring of hut like tents in front of them and stopped short in their steps. Nino and Jun were unsure as to how to proceed. Should they ask for help or try to go around the camp? Before they were able to decide shouts could be heard and some people came towards them. They could try to outrun them but Jun was tired and he was sure that Nino felt the same. So they stepped forward nervously and hoped for the best.
Jun just hoped that this were some of the nicer humans that the files spoke of. At least they didn’t seem zombie-like, so they probably were safe. If there wasn’t a war or something like that still. Jun prayed that wasn’t the case. There seemed to be so few survivors that it seemed silly to kill each other off.
A woman stepped forward and stopped in front of them. Her expression was harsh and guarded as she looked them up and down, and Jun felt Nino gulping beside him. He hated being scrutinised like that, Jun knew, and always had problems keeping silent whenever that happened. He just hoped today was the day that Nino’s bratty mouth wouldn’t bring them problems. To his relief, Nino stayed silent, and the woman finally seemed to relax a little. Whatever test it was, they passed it.
“You aren’t from here,” she finally said, and Jun shrugged. Technically they were from here, but the ‘here’ he remembered was entirely different from the ‘here’ now.
Nino looked at Jun and the woman, waiting. Finally, he explained: “Sort of. Do you know about what happened in the past?” he asked slowly, unmistakably trying to come up with a way to phrase what happened to them. Jun stayed silent beside him. Nino’s wit would be probably more helpful right at this moment than his own.
“You have to be a little more specific,” she answered and waved them to follow her further into the camp. They followed silently, and Jun looked questioningly at Nino, who seemed to be totally calm right now. A sentiment Jun couldn’t share.
They reached a little hut made of wood and leaves after a short walk and the woman ushered them in where they sat down around a little fire that was in the middle of it. There was a hole in the ceiling to allow the smoke to get out and other people - men and women of different ages - sat around it. They observed Nino and un with utmost interest and Jun felt safe to do the same with them. They wore rough clothing made of furs, leather and now and then scraps of clothing.
There was a whispered exchange neither Jun nor Nino could decipher and a man left their circle to go out. Minutes later he came back with water and fruits, a little fish and rice. Jun eyed the meal a bit nervously, and Nino looked curiously at the woman who pointed at the food.
“You should eat.”
“Is it safe?”
“As safe as anything here can be.” Jun and Nino thanked them before both gingerly taking their share of food and drink.
“Where are you from?” the woman asked finally, and Nino looked at her before he nibbled at his bread. He felt Jun’s disapproving stares at his neck because he ate too slowly but Nino didn’t feel like upsetting his stomach any more than he already did.
“Kinda from here. Or what it used to be. It’s a little complicated, I think. But two hundred years ago there was the atomic blast, like you most probably know?”
“Yes.”
Nino coughed a little and took a sip of the strange tasting water to think about how he should continue. “Yeah… Some people were rescued and, uh, kind of stored in vaults. We are two of them. Our vault seems to have malfunctioned? I don’t know what happened, only that we woke up and the others didn’t. We found a few reports about what happened shortly after the bombs fell onto earth. But we know nothing else.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment till a smile found its way on her face, making her instantly more attractive than Nino gave her credit for the first time he saw her.
“Survivors then. That’s good to hear. They told us there would be people that could help us build a new city when they wake up. It’s bad that only you two survived but maybe you could help?” she asked hopefully, and Nino blushed. They were in no way experts. So rebuilding a city or helping them in any way seemed to be impossible.
She stood up and stood in front of them. Nino and Jun stood up as quickly as they could too. The woman held out her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m called Mami.”
“I’m Matsumoto Jun and he is Ninomiya Kazunari. We are sorry… I don’t think we’ll be much help. We weren’t put into cryo because of our knowledge or technical skills,” he mumbled, averting his eyes. “We will try to help, but you’ll probably have to teach us just about everything.”
“And we can’t stay. Not right now,” Nino added at her confused stare. “I’m sorry. I am. And I am very thankful for the food and your welcome. But as Jun mentioned: We aren’t specialists like you’re hoping for. We are – or more likely were - artists. And I would love to stay and help you. But our friends... They are still lost. They weren’t with us and we have to find out if they are still alive.” He bowed deeply and just hoped that Mami wasn’t too mad at them. But all there was was confused silence.
“Artists as in?”
“We sing and dance,” Jun mumbled, a little uncomfortable.
Mami hummed in understanding. “I see. Not that helpful but if you are willing to help we can show you. As for your friends... We don’t know the location of the vaults.”
“We do. I have a map,” Nino said and showed her the little computer he had taken with him. “We just have to get there and check on them. Then we could come back. I’m sure I can somehow mark this location on the computer to remember where you are.”
Mami looked at his computer a little curious for a moment. “Seems to be helpful, yes. Would you lend it to Kairi for a moment? She is knowledgeable in such things and could help you to understand it a bit better.”
Nino looked at the girl – she seemed to be only in her teens, but it was hard to tell – a bit reluctant to let go of the computer that was his only way of locating his friends. But after a moment, he gave his consent and opened the wristband to hand the device over.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful. You’ll get it back,” she promised.
“Okay, thank you.”
Mami watched her leave, then looked back at Nino and Jun. “I understand that you want to find them right now. But it’s late, and it isn’t safe out there when it’s dark. It was lucky that you didn’t get attacked by anything.”
“We saw some cockroaches earlier. They were huge. But they didn’t seem to realise we were there,” Jun said thoughtfully, and Nino agreed with a shudder. Stumbling across them or other insects at night was nothing he wanted to spend time thinking about.
“They are mostly harmless. Well, not precisely, they can kill you on sight, but there are more dangerous things out there. You don’t know anything, do you?”
Nino shrugged helplessly and looked at Jun. “We read about humans that seemed to be dangerous to others? But I think they are already dead? And we took guns with us to protect ourselves.”
She nodded, seemingly a little impressed that they had guns, but then she sighed and leaned against a post beside her.
“Ghouls still exist. We call the ones you described earlier ‘ghouls’. They are a mutation of humankind. Most people think it happened to people who survived the atomic bombs. They survived but their bodies were exposed to too much radiation and somehow instead of killing them it healed them? They are deformed and stuck in different stages of deterioration. Some are feral, and they are out mostly at night since they aren’t good with sunlight. They kill everyone and everything in sight. Others may look awful but are harmless. They basically have the minds of children. And the last group is very smart. And almost normal - if you ignore their physical appearance, that is.”
Nino squeezed Jun’s hand. He was glad that they had decided to turn up here, even if it was only by accident. It would have been lame to die right now because they weren’t careful enough and got killed by zombies.
“So we have to be careful when we look for our friends.”
Mami smiled for a second. “Yes and no. We will lend you a van so that you can go there quickly and more safely. We don’t need it at the moment since we will stay here for a few days, and we have more than one.” Her expression turned sad for a second, but she didn’t say anything more about the subject. “It will get you safely wherever you want to go, and it is armoured and armed. Do you know how to use them?”
“Not really,” Jun mumbled. He didn’t mention that they had only used weapons in different dramas. They showed her their weapons after being asked and then went with a young man who told them his name was Daisuke. Daisuke promised them to show them how their guns worked and what they have to do with them to avoid accidentally killing themselves.
He brought them to an open field a few meters behind the last hut of their camp. “Can you show me your weapons again?”
Nino gave him the gun Jun had chosen for him and looked at Daisuke who studied it for a moment. It was different from the ones they had but it was just a work of minutes to open the magazine and check it over. He was the one in charge of all weapons they acquired and they were similar to the ones the used.
“Do you have enough ammunition for them?”
“We found some spare magazines with them,” Jun explained and tugged the little bag he found at their vault to show him. Daisuke looked them over, too, and set on to explaining how to change the magazines and how to put the safety on and lose it again. He let them try it for themselves a few times before he took out two other guns.
Nino took one of them and watched him curiously.
“They are for training purpose only and are not filled with real bullets. We found a ton of them in an abandoned facility a few years prior and use it to train. You never shot at something, did you?”
“Of course not,” Nino answered and Daisuke gave a short nod before showing them how to stand firmly on the ground and how to use the guns effectively.
Jun tried his best to keep up. But after just a few minutes of training it was obvious that Nino was more suited for this than he was. It didn't help that his eyes wandered more often than not to Nino and he watched his stance, his serious, focused eyes and that concentrated tilt to his mouth. Nino was so sexy like that. Jun loved it whenever the other was earnest or intense. Because of that he enjoyed watching Nino during rehearsals or those times Jun had the chance to sneak up on Nino when he was reading or studying his scripts for dramas.
He watched as Nino’s eyes got smaller while they focused on their target and how his whole body seemed to stiffen when he curled his finger around the trigger and pulled it. The sound the guns made were not as loud as he expected them to be.
The rebound shook Nino’s arm, but the man stood still and lowered his hand slowly. He put the safety back on while listening to their teacher when he corrected his stance a little. Jun suddenly realized that his pants had become uncomfortable tight. Luckily, both men were ignoring him for the moment, though, and Jun tried to concentrate on his weapon once more. To be honest, even after more than an hour of training he was far worse with this thing than Nino was. Nino looked far more at home with the gun than Jun felt. Jun’s eyes wandered to Nino once again. He really was hot!
Just when Jun thought he couldn’t take watching Nino anymore the other lowered the weapon for the last time and put it away. Nino rubbed his eyes gingerly and massaged his hand and the little bit on his lower back that Jun knew hurt more often than not whenever Nino put some strain on it. That sight worked better than any ice ever could to cool him down and he hurriedly went over to put his hand on Nino’s back, massaging the little knot he could feel begin to form there.
“Is everything alright?” he asked worried.
“Yes,” he replied before picking the gun out of his hand. Jun heard a click and looked confused at him for a moment while Nino put the gun back into his waistband.
“Better now that I know your safety is on. It’s not a toy, Jun,” he reprimanded, and Jun fought the urge to blush. He had totally forgotten that he still had the gun as he had been watching Nino gain while fighting his slight hard on.
“Sorry. Seems like you are better suited to them.”
Nino just shook his head and grinned happily when he felt that Jun’s hands finally chasing the tension in his back away.
“I think you should rest for the night. You probably want to leave early tomorrow,” their trainer said.
They were given a little corner in the hut to sleep in with a blanket, and Nino cuddled close to Jun, hoping fiercely that they would meet Satoshi tomorrow so he could be with both of his lovers once again. He almost didn’t feel Jun’s kiss to his forehead as he drifted to sleep, clutching Jun’s shirt tightly.
They were awakened by the sounds of the camp early next morning. Mami and Kairi were sitting near them conversing quietly. Mami looked over when Jun groaned a little and moved to hug Nino a little bit closer to him.
“Good morning,” Kairi, who had also looked up, greeted them, and Nino carefully wriggled out of the embrace. He was too out of it to be humiliated at their display, instead rubbing his face tiredly.
“Good morning. What time is it?” he asked sleepily.
Mami shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“Your computer says something about 6 o’clock,” Kairi added, and Nino’s eyes widened. He had totally forgotten about the computer.
Kairi smiled when she handed it over. “It’s helpful. It has a lot of information. Much of it is of course outdated, but there seemed to some knowledge that was lost in recent years, too.”
Nino thanked her and put it on again. “You can have it once I found my friends,” he promised and was regarded with a happy grin from the girl.
He felt Jun’s searching hand on his back and blushed a bit when he felt it wander under his shirt and into his shorts. Jun was clearly still half asleep, Nino decided when he looked at him. Nino tried to ignore the Mami’s amused grin as he successfully – though sadly not stealthily – dislodged Jun’s wandering hand and turned around to wake the other up fully.
Jun grumbled a little but thankfully he seemed to remember what happened and opened his eyes. He clearly wasn’t fully awake yet but at least enough so that he could sit up and greet the two women in front of them.
“You wouldn’t have something like coffee?” he asked hopefully and sighed sadly at the incomprehension in their faces. No luck then.
They were given water and food again, though, and Nino decided that was more than enough at the moment.
After the small breakfast, they were brought to the van that looked more like a tank than the kind of van Nino had expected. Jun followed one of the others to find how he had to drive this thing.
Nino looked at Mami and Kairi. He bowed deeply and smiled in thanks. “We will come back. Thank you so much, honestly,” he whispered and was shocked when Mami hugged him warmly.
“It’s okay. Somehow it’s nice to talk to the both of you. Comforting. If the others are like you I can understand that they decided to save you. Calmness is something we dearly need.”
Kairi at her side agreed, and Nino remembered the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, when they tried to give people hope and happiness during that difficult time. Perhaps that was a way they could help now, too. But only if the five of them were together again.
“Perhaps we’ll find other camps, too. They could help us to rebuild,” he said, and both of them nodded even if there was sadness in their eyes. Nino had the feeling that the different groups working together was more complicated that you’d expect.
“Nino, are you ready?” he heard Jun call and looked up. As ready as one could be in such an alien world at least.
Jun waved at the others and thanked them as well while Nino climbed into the van. And then they were on their way, following the path the computer showed them as well as they could.
It was late afternoon when a sound from the computer signaled them that they finally reached their destination and Nino was more than glad for it. He left the van as quickly as he could, almost falling flat on the ground if not for Jun’s rescuing hand interfering before he could tumble from his seat. He dry-heaved on the side of the van and lend his head against the hot metal of it. The streets – or what was left of them – were horrible and Nino’s motion sickness had played up more than once while they drove through the wilderness.
He felt a hand on his back rubbing his shoulders in slow circles and felt like the cramps in his stomach lessened till he could breathe regularly. He felt a flask filled with the strange tasting water against his lips and took a few small sips, being careful not to upset his stomach again. To his relief, nothing happened for the next few minutes, and he could open his eyes and blink against the glaring sun.
“We finally arrived.”
“Yup. We would have been faster if we didn’t have to stop like 25 times,” Jun mock grumbled, but Nino could hear the worried tinge in his voice and squeezed Jun’s knee once.
“I’m feeling better now. Sorry to have worried you. But this was worse than being on a ship.” Just thinking about it let him turn a little green and he shook his head before he stood up. “Let’s find the old man, have a nice meal and then look for somewhere to sleep for the night.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Part 2
no subject
no subject
First of all, I love that this starts with established Ohmatsumiya, aahhh my heart! And poor Nino being lonely while his boyfriends are filming. ♥ I would miss them too, Nino!!
I also like the suddenness of being rushed to the Vault, ushered into the "contamination chamber," waking up 200 years later -- for someone who's never played it, you've done an amazing job of capturing that frantic, confused feeling!
Nino comparing it to a video game lol HE WOULD. <3
I love the small details you've included throughout this, like Jun's contacts! Poor guy. D:
J, making sure to find weapons to protect them, aahh!! Is he secretly just super excited at the chance to use a real gun? :D
Avoiding a run-in with the radroaches, good job guys!!!
I love that Nino takes to his Pip Boy so easily. Makes sense, of course! He totally would find games to play on it. :>
I love love LOVE that they run into a little settlement and that the people there are gracious enough to help them out. Honestly finding little towns and bands of survivors is one of my favorite parts of playing Fallout. :'D
And holy shit, I love how INSTANTLY Jun falls in love with gun-wielding Nino. :> Nothing like the post-apocalypse to discover kinks you never knew you had, right?
Awww, Nino offering to give Kairi the Pip Boy. It says a lot about him -- that he's generous and thankful for their help, and also that he knows he won't need anything else once he's reunited with the other three. :'D
And JUN'S WANDERING HANDS lololol pull it together Matsumoto!
Aww, Nino's motion sickness. I'm glad Jun is there to take care of him. ♥
Onto the next part!!