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ninoexchange2016-06-22 07:45 am
nino-mod.livejournal.com) wrote in ninoexchange2016-06-22 07:45 am
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cupcake4mafia (2/2)
For: cupcake4mafia
From:airairo
Part 1
---
Ohno has his own shop.
Nino finds this out when he goes back to his apartment after going to check out the museum. He slides his key into the lock and the door almost swings open on its own. There is something wrong with his ability. The control he’s worked on for years to maintain unconsciously needs more practice. Right now he doesn’t have time to worry about that so he just lets the objects in the apartment stick to him as he walks by. The heavier furniture doesn’t quite become airborne like the sheets of paper and pencils and pens. But it does try. The sofa moves about an inch as rounds the corner. Then when he gets to his bedroom he feels himself practically pulled inside.
This is how he realizes Ohno has his own shop. When he gets into his bedroom to find Ohno is still there, wrapped in the blankets just like he was when Nino left in the morning. He nudges Ohno who shields his face from the light before opening his eyes.
“It’s one,” Nino says.
“Should I get up then?” Ohno asks, voice scratchy and sleepy.
Nino laughs. “Don’t you have a job you need to go to or anything?”
Ohno shakes his head against the pillow. “It’s my shop so I can open it whenever I want, I guess,” he says.
“Oh?” Nino asks. “What kind of shop?”
“Cameras,” Ohno says. “And other camera stuff.”
“Ah,” Nino says, tilting his head a little and trying to see Ohno as a guy with a camera shop.
He has work today too, but he calls his boss and tells him he has a fever. He leaves Ohno there rolling over onto his side in the bed and opens up his laptop. Something isn’t adding up.
Jun is going to break into a museum with already heavy security reinforced because of a new exhibition. Aiba has been taken and even though Nino knows Aiba would go out of his way not to make Nino worry about him he still didn’t seem as urgent as Nino would expect. He looks over at Ohno suspiciously and makes a note. Figure out what’s going on with him too, he thinks.
He looks around at some of the websites of the museums in Tokyo. Most of them don’t have anything that catches his attention, but after making his way searching through them from the biggest national museum to the smallest gallery he finally finds it.
The tapestry that Jun has been after all these years. He’d know it anywhere. It’s an image of a waterfall. Lush green mountains with silver threads of water flowing over and spilling to the bottom of the fabric. It is nice, but Nino never quite understood Jun’s fascination with it. He hovers over the image of the tapestry with his mouse. Then he reaches for his phone.
“Hello?” Aiba says.
“How’s hostage life?” Nino asks.
Aiba sighs. “You’re going to get me out of this right?” He hears the same sounds as before. The clinking glasses, the sounds of plates and silverware.
“Where are you?” Nino asks.
“I don’t know,” Aiba says. “I told you remember?”
“Why are they letting you use your phone?” he asks.
Silence.
“What is Jun drinking right now?” Nino asks. “Coffee? Or it is tea today?”
“Nino!” Aiba whispers. It sounds like he’s shielding the phone with his hand.
Nino hangs up. That’s all he needs to know.
He turns around, setting down his laptop, and nudges Ohno again. This time he puts all of his weight into it and rolls him all the way over.
Ohno grumbles.
“I just gained about an hour of free time,” Nino says, waggling his eyebrows.
Ohno blinks and moves his arm from where it was shielding his eyes.
“Cameras can wait right?” Nino says.
Ohno nods, reaching out. Nino notes that at least a handful of things fall off of the dresser and the wall when he leans in to kiss Ohno.
---
When Nino was a boy and his ability first surfaced, the first thing his mother told him was not to worry. You’re okay, she’d told him. There isn’t anything wrong with you. But she did take care to let him know that he couldn’t let a lot of people know about what he could do.
It was probably more misunderstood when he was a kid, but now that he’s grown up society knows more about people with abilities. Usually they’re hired to take on certain jobs. Some of the police force have them. He’s heard about one who can control water. She’s usually riding along with the firefighters and helping with the ones they can’t get under control. He’s heard about another one who can communicate with animals working as a veterinarian in high demand. These days, people with abilities are high profile, but Nino’s mother must have known that he’d value his privacy. He still has her to thank for that. Even if he’s not sure how well he thanked her by getting into a life of crime.
Not that it exactly started out that way.
It was more like a game between him and Jun. It was more like a test of their abilities. How far could they go? He gave back most of what he took. The priceless things that he took from the museums anyway. It was just borrowing to him. A few things here and there he kept. Mostly things he didn’t figure would be missed. But it was when they stole those five pink diamonds that Nino gave it up for good. Two of those diamonds are still out there, forever connecting him to a crime that happened a long time before.
At first he thought Sakurai had his hands on them and was waiting for the right opportunity to bring them out. But then a few months passed, a whole year passed, and Nino didn’t figure it could possibly be that. More likely, someone else took the opportunity to grab them once Nino and Jun had done the hard work of getting them out of the gallery.
Even Sakurai wouldn’t have kept them for that long. And if he had, Nino would have been able to read it on him when he saw him earlier. Sakurai is easy for Nino to read. It might be one of his abilities, Nino has thought before, jokingly. He’s also thinking, as of today, that Sakurai’s ability might be to look great in jeans. He’ll be sure to remind Sakurai of that again the next time he sees him.
When those two diamonds went missing Nino promised himself that he’d get an honest job. He didn’t want to cause any trouble for his mother and he didn’t want to expose his ability when she’d done so much to help him conceal it.
But now he’s faced with this. Jun is going to hit the smaller exhibition at the gallery. He’s going to go where the tapestry is. It looks like he was leading Nino into a trap by telling him to go to the museum, but Jun knew he would figure it out. Jun knew he would figure out about Aiba. This was all just to pique his interest and to get him to come around to help him with the tapestry.
He sighs. Because he knows that’s exactly what he’s going to do.
---
When he leaves his apartment, Ohno is in the kitchen looking at his phone. They’ve just had dinner together. Nothing fancy, they’d just ordered in after they finally got out of bed. Nino gets dressed in dark clothes. Not all black because then he’d just look like someone up to no good. He knows well though that Jun does dress in all black when he breaks and enters. Usually with some layers and different textures of fabric. He wore a long, flowing scarf one time and Nino was impressed with the way he managed to evade the alarm system even with a trail of fabric flowing behind him.
“No cameras today then?” Nino asks.
Ohno shakes his head. “No cameras today.”
“Cameras tomorrow?”
Ohno shrugs.
“Bed tomorrow,” Nino nods.
Ohno considers for a moment. Then agrees.
He kisses Ohno before he leaves, running his fingers through Ohno’s hair just to mess it up.
“Hey,” Ohno says, frowning when Nino pulls back. Nino can’t help but laugh. He looks like a puppy that’s just woken up from a nap.
“Remind me to figure you out later,” Nino says.
“Eh?” Ohno says.
“See you,” Nino says, then blows an exaggerated kiss before he leaves.
---
Nino takes the train to a station a few blocks away from the gallery and walks from there. It’s still somewhat early in the evening but the sun is halfway set. Nino files in with the people coming and going to restaurants and from shops. There is a little traffic and he doesn’t see any police cars or any guards near the gallery. Nino wonders if Jun went as far as to arrange for Sakurai and the police to be at the museum tonight. He grins to himself. It’s possible.
He waits at a bookstore near the gallery but far enough away from it that he could be there by chance. He flips idly through a magazine, not really looking at anything inside but just looking at the glossy pages and running through his plan.
If Jun were here they’d be making the plan together. But he isn’t, so Nino just has to do his part on his own. It feels much less strange than it should. He can predict and anticipate what Jun might do. He also wonders, though, if Jun’s methods have changed in the years since Nino has seen him in action. Even if he has, Nino concludes, he’s asked Nino to join him in such an elaborate invitation. Jun sees Nino as evenly matched. It makes Nino smile into the magazine.
He flips to the last page when a ripple runs through him. It seems to start at his feet and slightly shakes the magazine rack. The pages of the other magazines flutter, but when Nino looks around no one else seems to have felt it.
Two magazines and a comic book later it’s evening. The galleries around this area are all about an hour past closed. Nino turns the pages, slowly to appear as if he’s reading, and when he gets to the end of this one he finally returns it to the shelf and leaves.
He doesn’t walk directly to the gallery, but he stops at a convenience store where he can see the gallery through the windows. He buys some useless things - gum, a stick of lip balm - then goes around the block and to the back of the gallery where he expects some kind of evidence that Jun is somewhere around here. Instead he doesn’t see or feel a thing.
The way they did it before, Jun would slightly move all of the security cameras so that they could slip inside. The angle would change just enough that it would go unnoticed by anyone watching a video feed or recording. Nino had always left this in Jun’s hands but he realizes now that he can pull the cameras towards him gently and almost mimic what Jun would do. He can’t do it as precisely, but he does the best he can, and he slips past the two cameras at the back and stands close to the back door where he plans his next move.
He’s still expecting Jun to come around the corner or to open the door and pull him inside. Nino can always sense when Jun is close. Especially when he’s using his ability and Nino can feel the force of the movement around him. He does feel something, but it doesn’t feel like Jun. Similar to what happened at the bookstore before, he feels an odd thump in his chest and the ground seems to move under him.
Without Jun here to disable the security beams, it’s too risky to go in through the door. Instead he sidles over to a sliding shutter where the deliveries are made. These tended to have less security around them since there are always another set of doors on the inside and it would all be focused there. He tilts one of the cameras again then pulls the gears of the shutter towards him so it rolls up just enough for him to fit underneath.
Inside it’s dark. His sneakers don’t make a sound on the concrete floor, but when he pulls on the gears again to lower the shutter the sound makes a jarring echo through the room. Near the door that leads inside he can see the lights of a keypad lock. For this, he also needs Jun. It’s lonely doing this by himself. If he’s going to come out of retirement shouldn’t this at least be fun and thrilling the way it was back in those days?
He remembers the first time he saw Jun open a door with a keypad lock. They were deep into the national museum and had gone as far as the vault. Jun had never opened a lock like this before, preferring to simply cut off the power source and pick locks the traditional way with help from Nino. This time they were faced with the biggest security system either of them had ever seen. There wasn’t time for anything traditional and Nino had watched Jun let out a sigh before laying his hand on the keypad. The lights flashed oddly before he heard three distinct clicks and the door opened as if the vault was warmly welcoming both of them inside.
The keypad lock here is so much smaller than that one in the vault. It’s just a simple door and the security code is likely known by anyone in the staff. This isn’t an obstacle really. Just a way to weed out the criminals who really didn’t know what they were doing and were easy to catch. The real challenge was on the inside. Even so, standing in front of this lock, with its bright lights the only thing illuminated in the cold, echoing garage, Nino has no idea how to open it.
He lays his hand on the keypad like Jun, knowing he can’t do what Jun can, but he wonders what it is Jun feels. When Nino uses his ability it feels sometimes like his body has become gravity. He suddenly feels the familiar hum of Jun and for one moment he doesn’t understand then in the next he understands completely. Jun opens the door from the inside and pulls him in, holding tight to his arm as Nino grips him.
“You made it,” Jun says.
His expression strikes Nino as more than a little smug. Nino scoffs in response.
“This,” Nino says, “is going to be noted as a big favor.”
“So you’ll come to collect on it then?” Jun says. “Maybe when I least expect it?”
“Count on that,” Nino says.
It is rare for him to be in close proximity with Jun. He can’t help but notice the way Jun’s fingers feel on his arm. The way Jun’s knee feels against his thigh. It isn’t as if they need to hold on to each other so tightly, but Nino is reluctant to break away.
The gallery has a first and second floor. But the way it’s laid out Nino and Jun are on the second floor overlooking a first floor that’s built underground. From where they’re standing, Nino can see it clearly. The tapestry. It’s the second time he’s seen it in person. When he looks back at Jun, though, Jun is looking at him.
“How does this feel?” Jun asks.
“This?” Nino asks, pointing from himself to Jun and back again.
“Yeah,” Jun says. “Me and you together.”
Nino shrugs. But what he means by that is that it feels good. Great, even. That low humming feeling he has when Jun is nearby is vibrating in his chest and he had already known precisely how much he missed it but he hadn’t wanted to think about it until right now.
“Can I ask you something?” Jun says.
“Shoot,” Nino says.
“Do you think we could have... you know,” Jun asks.
“Could have what?” Nino laughs. He wants to hear Jun say it clearly so that he’s making no mistake.
In a move that Jun seems like he’s practiced, he takes Nino’s chin in his fingers and tilts his head up.
“If you don’t want me to do it you can tell me to stop,” Jun says.
Nino almost says no just because otherwise he’s going to say something much more embarrassing than that. Instead he says nothing and lets his eyes flutter shut and lets Jun press their lips together, opening them slightly. It’s a warm kiss. A gentle kiss. It’s a kiss between two old friends and maybe a kiss that he could only have with Jun.
He likes it this way. Kissing Jun here in the dark gallery where it feels like a secret. He feels Jun’s arms wrapping around him and he loves the way it feels even if he makes no move to hold him back. Then he feels Jun’s arms come back around to his shoulders, down his arms and up again so that he’s holding Nino’s face in his hands. Then he pulls back.
“Yeah we could have,” Nino says, trying to sound sharp but his voice comes out a little thinner than he expected.
Jun laughs and rubs his nose against Nino’s before he finally pulls away.
“Um,” a voice comes from down on the lower floor. It’s a small voice that seems to get bigger as the echo carries it up to where Jun and Nino are on the upper walkway. Nino tenses up, ready to turn around and see a guard or, worse, a police officer. Instead he sees Jun smile and stretch out his hand to wave.
Nino turns around and, with the ceiling lights almost comically illuminating him, it’s Ohno. He’s holding up the tapestry.
“I got it,” he says.
Nino jerks back and almost loves the sly expression he finds on Jun’s face. He’d never want Jun to know just how much that expression suits him. If it was Aiba he’d shove him. But it’s Jun so he just shakes his head.
“So you did that huh,” Nino says.
Jun shrugs. “It seems like it’s worked out.” He grins.
It’s the sound of an alarm that cuts through the air and makes Nino nearly leap out of his skin. This never happened with the two of them and he’s not sure they ever really had a plan for if it did. He’s sure he and Jun were being careless and he’s not sure how much experience Ohno has at something like this. Nino has seen the way he moves gracefully even when he’s not meaning to. The way he glides even when he’s just rounding the corner where the sofa is a little too close to the wall or just the way he turns over on the bed and curls his body against Nino’s.
He sees that now in the way he weaves through the pieces of artwork. Jun moves back and pulls Nino so they’re flat against the wall just next to the elevator and he puts his hand on the elevator door, a surge of electricity running through him, and the sound dulls then quiets then is gone.
“The police are on the way,” Nino says. He’s pressed between the wall and Jun’s shoulder. The cameras are surveying the room and Nino peeks beneath Jun’s arm to see Ohno standing with his back against a decorative pillar. He looks adorable like that, Nino thinks, hoping that all of them get out of here without the accompaniment of the police.
“So,” Jun says. He’s got a wild grin on his face now. Nino notices that the cameras have started surveying the room again and Jun reaches for the elevator door again.
“They already know we’re here,” Nino says. Then, just for show, he raises his hand and turns the cameras away from them.
“Ah,” Jun says, impressed. “You don’t really need me anymore.”
“You kidnaped Aiba just to get me here,” Nino says.
“He came willingly.” Jun grins.
“So,” Nino says. “We need to run.”
“Probably a good idea right?” Jun says.
“Hey Oh-chan!” Nino calls out, not sure why he calls him that, but it seems fitting for him. He looks like an Oh-chan.
Then Ohno does the very last thing Nino ever expected him to do. First he looks up and meets eyes with Nino. That isn’t unexpected. But then Nino feels a pulling unlike anything he’s felt before and Ohno’s feet lift from the ground. He’s in the air, hanging like one of the modern sculptures he nearly grazes with his shoe. It doesn’t look like he’s in complete control, but he still looks graceful in that way only he can probably manage.
When he’s lifted himself up to the second floor he comes crashing into the two of them with a force Nino isn’t expecting and the three of them reel a little before collecting themselves. The sirens approach and Jun disables the automatic locks so they can run right out the front door. They turn the corner and Jun points one way so Nino understands to go the opposite direction. Through the alley behind the building, Nino runs along a small ditch with Ohno close at his heels.
Ohno has the tapestry rolled up and stuffed into his jacket. After a few blocks they stop running as that’s only going to draw more attention. By instinct Nino moves in the direction of the taxi stand near the station.
“You have your wallet?” he asks Ohno, only belatedly realizing that Ohno is holding on to his hand.
“Yeah,” Ohno says.
Then he leads Ohno into the first taxi that opens its door for them and they fall into the seat, a tangle of the two of them, and go to where Nino knows Jun will be waiting.
---
Aiba is eating pancakes when Nino comes into the Blue Cafe with Ohno. The sound of silverware clinking against plates fills the air just as Nino had heard it over the phone.
In the corner is the usual booth where Nino had his reunion with Jun the night before. The room is thick with nostalgia and when Nino pulls Ohno along to the booth he sees that Jun is opposite Aiba.
“He fed me pancakes in exchange for my cooperation,” Aiba says.
Nino smacks him on the side of the head. “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he says.
Aiba, unaffected, soaks up the rest of the syrup with the last of his pancakes. Nino starts rummaging through Ohno’s jacket for the tapestry. He takes it out and gives it to Jun. It’s a little wrinkled.
Now that he has what he’s wanted for so long will he be retiring too? It seems a shame for someone as good as him to quit. Nino watches him unroll it out onto the table after he’s cleared a clean space.
“There it is,” Nino says.
Jun starts to touch it. From the top to the bottom and all four of the corners.
It’s a little strange at first. Nino didn’t think Jun would be quite that enamored with finally seeing the tapestry up close. But he realizes soon that Jun isn’t feeling it in celebration. Instead he’s looking for something, moving his hand flat along the surface until finally he feels what it is he’s looking for. He turns the tapestry over so the back is facing up. Then he takes a small sewing kit out of his bag and pulls on a thread that, now that Nino gets a closer look, is out of place.
“I swear he has everything in that bag...” Aiba says. “He even had a blindfold when he kidnaped me.”
“I call it attention to detail,” Jun says.
Nino has the urge to make an obvious joke, but instead he holds his breath and Ohno’s hand closes around his, tight.
“Here you are,” Jun says. First he pulls on the out of place thread then he works it out gently with a needle. A small pocket is sewn in and out of the pocket Jun produces two small, pink diamonds. They shine brighter than anything else in the small cafe, two tiny prisms catching and bending all of the light in the room.
Nino looks from the diamonds to Jun.
“You can keep them,” Jun says.
“How did you pull that off?” Nino says, in disbelief.
“I’m telling you,” Aiba says. “He has everything in that bag.”
“I had a little help,” Jun says.
Nino looks to Ohno, but Ohno just shrugs.
“Sakurai-san says he knows you’ll bring them back,” Jun says. “So he doesn’t mind if you hold on to them for now.”
Nino hides his face in the crook of his elbow and laughs.
---
Even half a year later, Aiba loves telling the story of how he was kidnaped.
“Kidnaped and forced to be pampered by Jun and have all of your meals bought for you?” Nino teases whenever he brings it up.
They meet sometimes at the Blue Cafe now. Four of them filling the booth when in the past it would have been three.
Ohno always sits with Nino with their knees touching under the table. Sometimes their hands and sometimes just the tips of their fingers. They haven’t been away from each other for long since the night that Ohno first stayed over at Nino’s place. In the weeks that followed, Ohno’s things started moving slowly, bit by bit into Nino’s apartment until all of their things and the two of them were in the same space every day.
“So can you make other things fly?” Aiba asks Ohno, curiously. “Or are you the only one who can fly?” He’s been full of questions about Ohno’s ability ever since they met for the first time. It reminds Nino of Aiba throwing paper airplanes and waiting for Nino to bring them back.
“He can’t really fly.” Jun laughs. Then he points to Nino. “You had such a great look on your face the first time you saw it.”
Nino just pulls Ohno closer to him and hooks their ankles together under the table.
“You can fly?” Nino had asked when they got into the taxi together that night.
“Not exactly...” Ohno had said.
He told Nino about how he’d met Jun when he came into the camera shop. When he got to know about Jun’s ability, and about his particular specialty with cameras, he’d become a contact for Jun.
“So he comes in your shop and pokes around at the new stuff,” Nino had said.
“The old stuff too,” Ohno said. “He fixes things and makes improvements.”
Nino thought it was funny even then. Here he was in a paradise of cameras getting to know the camera shop guy even before he’d come knocking at Nino’s door the first time.
Jun hadn’t exactly set them up, but he had known that it was inevitable.
Aiba sits across from Nino in the booth. Ohno has left the table for now and Nino feels his hand sliding on the seat waiting for his return.
“So you’re one magnet,” Aiba says, pointing to Nino. “And he’s the other.” Aiba points to the space next to Nino where Ohno was sitting before.
That time in the gallery he’d made himself stick to Nino with such force that it had lifted him into the air. Then Nino had naturally pulled him until the three of them crashed together just before they all made a run for it. Nino can’t help but grin to himself when he thinks about that night, but he’s careful to hold his cup in front of his face so that Aiba won’t start teasing him about it.
Ohno comes back to the table now and sticks to Nino immediately.
“See!” Aiba points to the two of them. Jun lays a hand on Aiba’s shoulder and Aiba’s laughter is infectious and spreads to everyone at the table.
Is that his ability? Nino wonders.
“Sho-chan was out there,” Ohno says, gesturing to the door.
Ohno is the one who had started calling him Sho-chan. He’s still a police officer, but now on his days off, every once in a while, he comes by to join them in the booth. After the three of them took the tapestry, Nino and Jun retired officially.
“What was he wearing?” Nino asks. “Uniform?”
“No,” Ohno says.
So Nino lifts his hand and pulls the front door open. Sho steps in, looking a little embarrassed. “You don’t have to do that,” he says.
“Should I get up and open the door for you then?” Nino grins.
Sho sits down so that he’s next to Aiba with Jun on the other side. They stay there until the table is full of empty cups and plates. Until the air is filled with the stories only the five of them can tell.
Then when they finally leave and they’re all walking leisurely to the station in a kind of loose formation Aiba grabs Nino by the arm.
“Look,” he says, whispering close to Nino’s ear. There is a couple walking on a bridge a little ways behind them. The woman’s shawl has snagged on a tree branch and it’s dangling over the side of the bridge. The man is reaching for it, but he can’t quite get it without leaning dangerously over the railing.
Nino nods at Aiba then he lifts up his hand and pulls the scarf back from the branches and lets it fall gently into both of their hands.
“We could be a hero team again,” Aiba says, looking excited like he might just jump.
“Yeah alright,” Nino says. He smiles, watching the woman wrap the shawl around her shoulders again and the the two of them join hands.
When Nino returns home with Ohno he’s a little tired. But he’s less tired than Ohno who he has to almost pull inside.
“I’m not going to work tomorrow, boss,” Nino says, rubbing his head as if he’s in pain.
“Okay,” Ohno says. “Then neither will I.”
The camera shop, that now the two of them own, will spend a quiet day tomorrow with the Sorry, we’re closed sign hanging in the window.
Tomorrow he’ll sleep late until morning nearly becomes afternoon. He’ll wake up with Ohno there wrapped up tight in the blankets and they’ll be wrapped up tight around each other.
“So I guess we have tomorrow off,” Nino says.
“Yeah,” Ohno says.
They leave their shoes at the entrance and Nino takes Ohno with him into the bedroom where they stick together with a force that surprises even Nino.
“Too much?” Ohno asks.
Nino shakes his head and pulls Ohno in closer than he ever has.
cupcake4mafiaFrom:
airairoPart 1
---
Ohno has his own shop.
Nino finds this out when he goes back to his apartment after going to check out the museum. He slides his key into the lock and the door almost swings open on its own. There is something wrong with his ability. The control he’s worked on for years to maintain unconsciously needs more practice. Right now he doesn’t have time to worry about that so he just lets the objects in the apartment stick to him as he walks by. The heavier furniture doesn’t quite become airborne like the sheets of paper and pencils and pens. But it does try. The sofa moves about an inch as rounds the corner. Then when he gets to his bedroom he feels himself practically pulled inside.
This is how he realizes Ohno has his own shop. When he gets into his bedroom to find Ohno is still there, wrapped in the blankets just like he was when Nino left in the morning. He nudges Ohno who shields his face from the light before opening his eyes.
“It’s one,” Nino says.
“Should I get up then?” Ohno asks, voice scratchy and sleepy.
Nino laughs. “Don’t you have a job you need to go to or anything?”
Ohno shakes his head against the pillow. “It’s my shop so I can open it whenever I want, I guess,” he says.
“Oh?” Nino asks. “What kind of shop?”
“Cameras,” Ohno says. “And other camera stuff.”
“Ah,” Nino says, tilting his head a little and trying to see Ohno as a guy with a camera shop.
He has work today too, but he calls his boss and tells him he has a fever. He leaves Ohno there rolling over onto his side in the bed and opens up his laptop. Something isn’t adding up.
Jun is going to break into a museum with already heavy security reinforced because of a new exhibition. Aiba has been taken and even though Nino knows Aiba would go out of his way not to make Nino worry about him he still didn’t seem as urgent as Nino would expect. He looks over at Ohno suspiciously and makes a note. Figure out what’s going on with him too, he thinks.
He looks around at some of the websites of the museums in Tokyo. Most of them don’t have anything that catches his attention, but after making his way searching through them from the biggest national museum to the smallest gallery he finally finds it.
The tapestry that Jun has been after all these years. He’d know it anywhere. It’s an image of a waterfall. Lush green mountains with silver threads of water flowing over and spilling to the bottom of the fabric. It is nice, but Nino never quite understood Jun’s fascination with it. He hovers over the image of the tapestry with his mouse. Then he reaches for his phone.
“Hello?” Aiba says.
“How’s hostage life?” Nino asks.
Aiba sighs. “You’re going to get me out of this right?” He hears the same sounds as before. The clinking glasses, the sounds of plates and silverware.
“Where are you?” Nino asks.
“I don’t know,” Aiba says. “I told you remember?”
“Why are they letting you use your phone?” he asks.
Silence.
“What is Jun drinking right now?” Nino asks. “Coffee? Or it is tea today?”
“Nino!” Aiba whispers. It sounds like he’s shielding the phone with his hand.
Nino hangs up. That’s all he needs to know.
He turns around, setting down his laptop, and nudges Ohno again. This time he puts all of his weight into it and rolls him all the way over.
Ohno grumbles.
“I just gained about an hour of free time,” Nino says, waggling his eyebrows.
Ohno blinks and moves his arm from where it was shielding his eyes.
“Cameras can wait right?” Nino says.
Ohno nods, reaching out. Nino notes that at least a handful of things fall off of the dresser and the wall when he leans in to kiss Ohno.
---
When Nino was a boy and his ability first surfaced, the first thing his mother told him was not to worry. You’re okay, she’d told him. There isn’t anything wrong with you. But she did take care to let him know that he couldn’t let a lot of people know about what he could do.
It was probably more misunderstood when he was a kid, but now that he’s grown up society knows more about people with abilities. Usually they’re hired to take on certain jobs. Some of the police force have them. He’s heard about one who can control water. She’s usually riding along with the firefighters and helping with the ones they can’t get under control. He’s heard about another one who can communicate with animals working as a veterinarian in high demand. These days, people with abilities are high profile, but Nino’s mother must have known that he’d value his privacy. He still has her to thank for that. Even if he’s not sure how well he thanked her by getting into a life of crime.
Not that it exactly started out that way.
It was more like a game between him and Jun. It was more like a test of their abilities. How far could they go? He gave back most of what he took. The priceless things that he took from the museums anyway. It was just borrowing to him. A few things here and there he kept. Mostly things he didn’t figure would be missed. But it was when they stole those five pink diamonds that Nino gave it up for good. Two of those diamonds are still out there, forever connecting him to a crime that happened a long time before.
At first he thought Sakurai had his hands on them and was waiting for the right opportunity to bring them out. But then a few months passed, a whole year passed, and Nino didn’t figure it could possibly be that. More likely, someone else took the opportunity to grab them once Nino and Jun had done the hard work of getting them out of the gallery.
Even Sakurai wouldn’t have kept them for that long. And if he had, Nino would have been able to read it on him when he saw him earlier. Sakurai is easy for Nino to read. It might be one of his abilities, Nino has thought before, jokingly. He’s also thinking, as of today, that Sakurai’s ability might be to look great in jeans. He’ll be sure to remind Sakurai of that again the next time he sees him.
When those two diamonds went missing Nino promised himself that he’d get an honest job. He didn’t want to cause any trouble for his mother and he didn’t want to expose his ability when she’d done so much to help him conceal it.
But now he’s faced with this. Jun is going to hit the smaller exhibition at the gallery. He’s going to go where the tapestry is. It looks like he was leading Nino into a trap by telling him to go to the museum, but Jun knew he would figure it out. Jun knew he would figure out about Aiba. This was all just to pique his interest and to get him to come around to help him with the tapestry.
He sighs. Because he knows that’s exactly what he’s going to do.
---
When he leaves his apartment, Ohno is in the kitchen looking at his phone. They’ve just had dinner together. Nothing fancy, they’d just ordered in after they finally got out of bed. Nino gets dressed in dark clothes. Not all black because then he’d just look like someone up to no good. He knows well though that Jun does dress in all black when he breaks and enters. Usually with some layers and different textures of fabric. He wore a long, flowing scarf one time and Nino was impressed with the way he managed to evade the alarm system even with a trail of fabric flowing behind him.
“No cameras today then?” Nino asks.
Ohno shakes his head. “No cameras today.”
“Cameras tomorrow?”
Ohno shrugs.
“Bed tomorrow,” Nino nods.
Ohno considers for a moment. Then agrees.
He kisses Ohno before he leaves, running his fingers through Ohno’s hair just to mess it up.
“Hey,” Ohno says, frowning when Nino pulls back. Nino can’t help but laugh. He looks like a puppy that’s just woken up from a nap.
“Remind me to figure you out later,” Nino says.
“Eh?” Ohno says.
“See you,” Nino says, then blows an exaggerated kiss before he leaves.
---
Nino takes the train to a station a few blocks away from the gallery and walks from there. It’s still somewhat early in the evening but the sun is halfway set. Nino files in with the people coming and going to restaurants and from shops. There is a little traffic and he doesn’t see any police cars or any guards near the gallery. Nino wonders if Jun went as far as to arrange for Sakurai and the police to be at the museum tonight. He grins to himself. It’s possible.
He waits at a bookstore near the gallery but far enough away from it that he could be there by chance. He flips idly through a magazine, not really looking at anything inside but just looking at the glossy pages and running through his plan.
If Jun were here they’d be making the plan together. But he isn’t, so Nino just has to do his part on his own. It feels much less strange than it should. He can predict and anticipate what Jun might do. He also wonders, though, if Jun’s methods have changed in the years since Nino has seen him in action. Even if he has, Nino concludes, he’s asked Nino to join him in such an elaborate invitation. Jun sees Nino as evenly matched. It makes Nino smile into the magazine.
He flips to the last page when a ripple runs through him. It seems to start at his feet and slightly shakes the magazine rack. The pages of the other magazines flutter, but when Nino looks around no one else seems to have felt it.
Two magazines and a comic book later it’s evening. The galleries around this area are all about an hour past closed. Nino turns the pages, slowly to appear as if he’s reading, and when he gets to the end of this one he finally returns it to the shelf and leaves.
He doesn’t walk directly to the gallery, but he stops at a convenience store where he can see the gallery through the windows. He buys some useless things - gum, a stick of lip balm - then goes around the block and to the back of the gallery where he expects some kind of evidence that Jun is somewhere around here. Instead he doesn’t see or feel a thing.
The way they did it before, Jun would slightly move all of the security cameras so that they could slip inside. The angle would change just enough that it would go unnoticed by anyone watching a video feed or recording. Nino had always left this in Jun’s hands but he realizes now that he can pull the cameras towards him gently and almost mimic what Jun would do. He can’t do it as precisely, but he does the best he can, and he slips past the two cameras at the back and stands close to the back door where he plans his next move.
He’s still expecting Jun to come around the corner or to open the door and pull him inside. Nino can always sense when Jun is close. Especially when he’s using his ability and Nino can feel the force of the movement around him. He does feel something, but it doesn’t feel like Jun. Similar to what happened at the bookstore before, he feels an odd thump in his chest and the ground seems to move under him.
Without Jun here to disable the security beams, it’s too risky to go in through the door. Instead he sidles over to a sliding shutter where the deliveries are made. These tended to have less security around them since there are always another set of doors on the inside and it would all be focused there. He tilts one of the cameras again then pulls the gears of the shutter towards him so it rolls up just enough for him to fit underneath.
Inside it’s dark. His sneakers don’t make a sound on the concrete floor, but when he pulls on the gears again to lower the shutter the sound makes a jarring echo through the room. Near the door that leads inside he can see the lights of a keypad lock. For this, he also needs Jun. It’s lonely doing this by himself. If he’s going to come out of retirement shouldn’t this at least be fun and thrilling the way it was back in those days?
He remembers the first time he saw Jun open a door with a keypad lock. They were deep into the national museum and had gone as far as the vault. Jun had never opened a lock like this before, preferring to simply cut off the power source and pick locks the traditional way with help from Nino. This time they were faced with the biggest security system either of them had ever seen. There wasn’t time for anything traditional and Nino had watched Jun let out a sigh before laying his hand on the keypad. The lights flashed oddly before he heard three distinct clicks and the door opened as if the vault was warmly welcoming both of them inside.
The keypad lock here is so much smaller than that one in the vault. It’s just a simple door and the security code is likely known by anyone in the staff. This isn’t an obstacle really. Just a way to weed out the criminals who really didn’t know what they were doing and were easy to catch. The real challenge was on the inside. Even so, standing in front of this lock, with its bright lights the only thing illuminated in the cold, echoing garage, Nino has no idea how to open it.
He lays his hand on the keypad like Jun, knowing he can’t do what Jun can, but he wonders what it is Jun feels. When Nino uses his ability it feels sometimes like his body has become gravity. He suddenly feels the familiar hum of Jun and for one moment he doesn’t understand then in the next he understands completely. Jun opens the door from the inside and pulls him in, holding tight to his arm as Nino grips him.
“You made it,” Jun says.
His expression strikes Nino as more than a little smug. Nino scoffs in response.
“This,” Nino says, “is going to be noted as a big favor.”
“So you’ll come to collect on it then?” Jun says. “Maybe when I least expect it?”
“Count on that,” Nino says.
It is rare for him to be in close proximity with Jun. He can’t help but notice the way Jun’s fingers feel on his arm. The way Jun’s knee feels against his thigh. It isn’t as if they need to hold on to each other so tightly, but Nino is reluctant to break away.
The gallery has a first and second floor. But the way it’s laid out Nino and Jun are on the second floor overlooking a first floor that’s built underground. From where they’re standing, Nino can see it clearly. The tapestry. It’s the second time he’s seen it in person. When he looks back at Jun, though, Jun is looking at him.
“How does this feel?” Jun asks.
“This?” Nino asks, pointing from himself to Jun and back again.
“Yeah,” Jun says. “Me and you together.”
Nino shrugs. But what he means by that is that it feels good. Great, even. That low humming feeling he has when Jun is nearby is vibrating in his chest and he had already known precisely how much he missed it but he hadn’t wanted to think about it until right now.
“Can I ask you something?” Jun says.
“Shoot,” Nino says.
“Do you think we could have... you know,” Jun asks.
“Could have what?” Nino laughs. He wants to hear Jun say it clearly so that he’s making no mistake.
In a move that Jun seems like he’s practiced, he takes Nino’s chin in his fingers and tilts his head up.
“If you don’t want me to do it you can tell me to stop,” Jun says.
Nino almost says no just because otherwise he’s going to say something much more embarrassing than that. Instead he says nothing and lets his eyes flutter shut and lets Jun press their lips together, opening them slightly. It’s a warm kiss. A gentle kiss. It’s a kiss between two old friends and maybe a kiss that he could only have with Jun.
He likes it this way. Kissing Jun here in the dark gallery where it feels like a secret. He feels Jun’s arms wrapping around him and he loves the way it feels even if he makes no move to hold him back. Then he feels Jun’s arms come back around to his shoulders, down his arms and up again so that he’s holding Nino’s face in his hands. Then he pulls back.
“Yeah we could have,” Nino says, trying to sound sharp but his voice comes out a little thinner than he expected.
Jun laughs and rubs his nose against Nino’s before he finally pulls away.
“Um,” a voice comes from down on the lower floor. It’s a small voice that seems to get bigger as the echo carries it up to where Jun and Nino are on the upper walkway. Nino tenses up, ready to turn around and see a guard or, worse, a police officer. Instead he sees Jun smile and stretch out his hand to wave.
Nino turns around and, with the ceiling lights almost comically illuminating him, it’s Ohno. He’s holding up the tapestry.
“I got it,” he says.
Nino jerks back and almost loves the sly expression he finds on Jun’s face. He’d never want Jun to know just how much that expression suits him. If it was Aiba he’d shove him. But it’s Jun so he just shakes his head.
“So you did that huh,” Nino says.
Jun shrugs. “It seems like it’s worked out.” He grins.
It’s the sound of an alarm that cuts through the air and makes Nino nearly leap out of his skin. This never happened with the two of them and he’s not sure they ever really had a plan for if it did. He’s sure he and Jun were being careless and he’s not sure how much experience Ohno has at something like this. Nino has seen the way he moves gracefully even when he’s not meaning to. The way he glides even when he’s just rounding the corner where the sofa is a little too close to the wall or just the way he turns over on the bed and curls his body against Nino’s.
He sees that now in the way he weaves through the pieces of artwork. Jun moves back and pulls Nino so they’re flat against the wall just next to the elevator and he puts his hand on the elevator door, a surge of electricity running through him, and the sound dulls then quiets then is gone.
“The police are on the way,” Nino says. He’s pressed between the wall and Jun’s shoulder. The cameras are surveying the room and Nino peeks beneath Jun’s arm to see Ohno standing with his back against a decorative pillar. He looks adorable like that, Nino thinks, hoping that all of them get out of here without the accompaniment of the police.
“So,” Jun says. He’s got a wild grin on his face now. Nino notices that the cameras have started surveying the room again and Jun reaches for the elevator door again.
“They already know we’re here,” Nino says. Then, just for show, he raises his hand and turns the cameras away from them.
“Ah,” Jun says, impressed. “You don’t really need me anymore.”
“You kidnaped Aiba just to get me here,” Nino says.
“He came willingly.” Jun grins.
“So,” Nino says. “We need to run.”
“Probably a good idea right?” Jun says.
“Hey Oh-chan!” Nino calls out, not sure why he calls him that, but it seems fitting for him. He looks like an Oh-chan.
Then Ohno does the very last thing Nino ever expected him to do. First he looks up and meets eyes with Nino. That isn’t unexpected. But then Nino feels a pulling unlike anything he’s felt before and Ohno’s feet lift from the ground. He’s in the air, hanging like one of the modern sculptures he nearly grazes with his shoe. It doesn’t look like he’s in complete control, but he still looks graceful in that way only he can probably manage.
When he’s lifted himself up to the second floor he comes crashing into the two of them with a force Nino isn’t expecting and the three of them reel a little before collecting themselves. The sirens approach and Jun disables the automatic locks so they can run right out the front door. They turn the corner and Jun points one way so Nino understands to go the opposite direction. Through the alley behind the building, Nino runs along a small ditch with Ohno close at his heels.
Ohno has the tapestry rolled up and stuffed into his jacket. After a few blocks they stop running as that’s only going to draw more attention. By instinct Nino moves in the direction of the taxi stand near the station.
“You have your wallet?” he asks Ohno, only belatedly realizing that Ohno is holding on to his hand.
“Yeah,” Ohno says.
Then he leads Ohno into the first taxi that opens its door for them and they fall into the seat, a tangle of the two of them, and go to where Nino knows Jun will be waiting.
---
Aiba is eating pancakes when Nino comes into the Blue Cafe with Ohno. The sound of silverware clinking against plates fills the air just as Nino had heard it over the phone.
In the corner is the usual booth where Nino had his reunion with Jun the night before. The room is thick with nostalgia and when Nino pulls Ohno along to the booth he sees that Jun is opposite Aiba.
“He fed me pancakes in exchange for my cooperation,” Aiba says.
Nino smacks him on the side of the head. “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he says.
Aiba, unaffected, soaks up the rest of the syrup with the last of his pancakes. Nino starts rummaging through Ohno’s jacket for the tapestry. He takes it out and gives it to Jun. It’s a little wrinkled.
Now that he has what he’s wanted for so long will he be retiring too? It seems a shame for someone as good as him to quit. Nino watches him unroll it out onto the table after he’s cleared a clean space.
“There it is,” Nino says.
Jun starts to touch it. From the top to the bottom and all four of the corners.
It’s a little strange at first. Nino didn’t think Jun would be quite that enamored with finally seeing the tapestry up close. But he realizes soon that Jun isn’t feeling it in celebration. Instead he’s looking for something, moving his hand flat along the surface until finally he feels what it is he’s looking for. He turns the tapestry over so the back is facing up. Then he takes a small sewing kit out of his bag and pulls on a thread that, now that Nino gets a closer look, is out of place.
“I swear he has everything in that bag...” Aiba says. “He even had a blindfold when he kidnaped me.”
“I call it attention to detail,” Jun says.
Nino has the urge to make an obvious joke, but instead he holds his breath and Ohno’s hand closes around his, tight.
“Here you are,” Jun says. First he pulls on the out of place thread then he works it out gently with a needle. A small pocket is sewn in and out of the pocket Jun produces two small, pink diamonds. They shine brighter than anything else in the small cafe, two tiny prisms catching and bending all of the light in the room.
Nino looks from the diamonds to Jun.
“You can keep them,” Jun says.
“How did you pull that off?” Nino says, in disbelief.
“I’m telling you,” Aiba says. “He has everything in that bag.”
“I had a little help,” Jun says.
Nino looks to Ohno, but Ohno just shrugs.
“Sakurai-san says he knows you’ll bring them back,” Jun says. “So he doesn’t mind if you hold on to them for now.”
Nino hides his face in the crook of his elbow and laughs.
---
Even half a year later, Aiba loves telling the story of how he was kidnaped.
“Kidnaped and forced to be pampered by Jun and have all of your meals bought for you?” Nino teases whenever he brings it up.
They meet sometimes at the Blue Cafe now. Four of them filling the booth when in the past it would have been three.
Ohno always sits with Nino with their knees touching under the table. Sometimes their hands and sometimes just the tips of their fingers. They haven’t been away from each other for long since the night that Ohno first stayed over at Nino’s place. In the weeks that followed, Ohno’s things started moving slowly, bit by bit into Nino’s apartment until all of their things and the two of them were in the same space every day.
“So can you make other things fly?” Aiba asks Ohno, curiously. “Or are you the only one who can fly?” He’s been full of questions about Ohno’s ability ever since they met for the first time. It reminds Nino of Aiba throwing paper airplanes and waiting for Nino to bring them back.
“He can’t really fly.” Jun laughs. Then he points to Nino. “You had such a great look on your face the first time you saw it.”
Nino just pulls Ohno closer to him and hooks their ankles together under the table.
“You can fly?” Nino had asked when they got into the taxi together that night.
“Not exactly...” Ohno had said.
He told Nino about how he’d met Jun when he came into the camera shop. When he got to know about Jun’s ability, and about his particular specialty with cameras, he’d become a contact for Jun.
“So he comes in your shop and pokes around at the new stuff,” Nino had said.
“The old stuff too,” Ohno said. “He fixes things and makes improvements.”
Nino thought it was funny even then. Here he was in a paradise of cameras getting to know the camera shop guy even before he’d come knocking at Nino’s door the first time.
Jun hadn’t exactly set them up, but he had known that it was inevitable.
Aiba sits across from Nino in the booth. Ohno has left the table for now and Nino feels his hand sliding on the seat waiting for his return.
“So you’re one magnet,” Aiba says, pointing to Nino. “And he’s the other.” Aiba points to the space next to Nino where Ohno was sitting before.
That time in the gallery he’d made himself stick to Nino with such force that it had lifted him into the air. Then Nino had naturally pulled him until the three of them crashed together just before they all made a run for it. Nino can’t help but grin to himself when he thinks about that night, but he’s careful to hold his cup in front of his face so that Aiba won’t start teasing him about it.
Ohno comes back to the table now and sticks to Nino immediately.
“See!” Aiba points to the two of them. Jun lays a hand on Aiba’s shoulder and Aiba’s laughter is infectious and spreads to everyone at the table.
Is that his ability? Nino wonders.
“Sho-chan was out there,” Ohno says, gesturing to the door.
Ohno is the one who had started calling him Sho-chan. He’s still a police officer, but now on his days off, every once in a while, he comes by to join them in the booth. After the three of them took the tapestry, Nino and Jun retired officially.
“What was he wearing?” Nino asks. “Uniform?”
“No,” Ohno says.
So Nino lifts his hand and pulls the front door open. Sho steps in, looking a little embarrassed. “You don’t have to do that,” he says.
“Should I get up and open the door for you then?” Nino grins.
Sho sits down so that he’s next to Aiba with Jun on the other side. They stay there until the table is full of empty cups and plates. Until the air is filled with the stories only the five of them can tell.
Then when they finally leave and they’re all walking leisurely to the station in a kind of loose formation Aiba grabs Nino by the arm.
“Look,” he says, whispering close to Nino’s ear. There is a couple walking on a bridge a little ways behind them. The woman’s shawl has snagged on a tree branch and it’s dangling over the side of the bridge. The man is reaching for it, but he can’t quite get it without leaning dangerously over the railing.
Nino nods at Aiba then he lifts up his hand and pulls the scarf back from the branches and lets it fall gently into both of their hands.
“We could be a hero team again,” Aiba says, looking excited like he might just jump.
“Yeah alright,” Nino says. He smiles, watching the woman wrap the shawl around her shoulders again and the the two of them join hands.
When Nino returns home with Ohno he’s a little tired. But he’s less tired than Ohno who he has to almost pull inside.
“I’m not going to work tomorrow, boss,” Nino says, rubbing his head as if he’s in pain.
“Okay,” Ohno says. “Then neither will I.”
The camera shop, that now the two of them own, will spend a quiet day tomorrow with the Sorry, we’re closed sign hanging in the window.
Tomorrow he’ll sleep late until morning nearly becomes afternoon. He’ll wake up with Ohno there wrapped up tight in the blankets and they’ll be wrapped up tight around each other.
“So I guess we have tomorrow off,” Nino says.
“Yeah,” Ohno says.
They leave their shoes at the entrance and Nino takes Ohno with him into the bedroom where they stick together with a force that surprises even Nino.
“Too much?” Ohno asks.
Nino shakes his head and pulls Ohno in closer than he ever has.
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