fic for jade_lil (4/5)

[nino-mod.livejournal.com]

For: jade_lil
From: phrenk

Part 3

*

They overslept the next morning. Sho looked moderately more human after almost twelve hours of sleep, but although he kissed Nino more than once as if he couldn't help himself, he didn't pull it together enough to tease Nino the way he should have when Nino, for perhaps the first time in his life, just absolutely couldn't decide what to wear.

If Sho had asked, Nino might have told him why, but Sho was still in some sort of jet-lag post-terrorism haze as Nino tried on all his clothes and spent a good twenty minutes futzing with his hair. Periodically, Sho mentioned that they were going to be late.

They weren't late, but it was a close call. Nino slid into the morning meeting just as Jun was opening his mouth to start it.

And there Ohno was, across the room, all spiky hair and sleepy eyes and cozy sweater with the neck charmingly askew. He didn't meet Nino's eyes, but Nino could practically feel Ohno's awareness of him.

The spell broke rudely as Jun snapped his fingers in front of Nino's face, and thus the work-day began.

It turned out to be busy but strangely uneventful. It seemed most of the agency had worked through the events of the unexpected dual missions while Nino and Ohno were suspended, and Jun had come back from New York with a will for work.

Jun always had a will for work, of course, but he seemed to be sick of the Russia mission after having had to testify about it exhaustively to allies in the US. He was ready to move on to twelve different things, all of which seemed to involve a lot of work for Nino.

Though Nino wanted to loiter around in his shared cubicle with Ohno and see what Ohno's state of mind was, and wanted even more to drag Ohno up to Sho's office so they could finally have it out with all three of them present, he diligently took his work down to Aiba's office and they got started with their initial planning. Nino only hoped the next few missions didn't involve any bombs.

Ohno, the few times Nino did see him, had a kind of furtive look about his expressions that didn't match with the easy way he acted otherwise, making Nino think he was feeling guilty about the kiss. Nino didn't see Sho at all, though he did receive a strange text halfway through the afternoon with an apology for Sho's long silence during the New York trip. Nino didn't quite get the timing, but he easily came up with several different suggestions of ways that Sho could make it up to him. He hoped against hope that Sho would send some sort of dirty picture in response but got the much more likely one of silence.

At last the day ended and it was time for what Aiba had warned Nino about the day before, what Nino had dressed for that morning even if he'd ended up looking much the same as usual. The only real consideration had been that he wore a jacket over his short-sleeve shirt--today was a day when soulmate tattoos and destiny had no say in anything.

It was only as Aiba was driving the two of them to the bar for the party--in celebration of the success of the Russia mission, and the mission that had saved Sho, and also, Nino suspected, for the end of his and Ohno's suspension, since Jun was a secret softy--that he thought to worry that Sho might not even come.

He was on the financial side of things, after all, and it was possible that he wouldn't want to be the only one to attend who wasn't an agent.

Nino had a terrible vision of showing up first to the party and spending the whole time hoping Sho and Ohno would walk in.

"Aiba-chan," he said suddenly, putting a hand on Aiba's wrist where it lay on his armrest. "Let's do something else first."

Aiba kept his eyes on the road but still managed to look both curious and willing. Nino didn't actually have any ideas, but he was used to being saved by Aiba's instinctive genius, so he just waited.

After a couple of minutes, during which time the car passed their destination and kept going without pause, Aiba said with loud inspiration, "I've got it! Leave it to me, Nino-chan."

*

The party for which Nino had spent so much time considering what to wear and how to do his hair and whether he should sit at the bar or a table or a booth got started without him. He showed up forty-five minutes late, a little sweaty, hair mussed, and with his most stylish jacket forgotten in Aiba's car.

But it didn't matter, because Aiba's instinctive genius hadn't let him down. It was just like Aiba not only to have a baseball bat in his trunk but to know exactly where the nearest batting cages were in any neighborhood.

Thirty minutes of physical exertion, reminiscing, and laughter with Aiba later, Nino was ready for anything.

He and Aiba entered the bar together, still giggling over Aiba's story about his father's mishap with a parrot. Everyone else, it seemed like, had already arrived some time ago, and Nino recognized Sho's laugh from across the room before he even saw him.

Aiba paused as Nino did. "Coming?"

"You go ahead," Nino said, giving him a grateful smile. He'd sweated out a lot of his anxiety in the batting cages. His body felt tired and capable; his mind felt clear. It was so good to know that his healing body could handle itself again.

Still, the first sight of Sho and Ohno sitting at a small round table together, just the two of them, did funny things to his stomach. A lot of it was deja vu--he'd watched them so many times before, just like this, without ever joining them.

He'd had solid reasons for not doing so, even if he couldn't always put them into words. And now, what had changed?

Nino was still scared. He was still uncertain. He still had a soulmate mark twining around his left wrist, a mark he believed, despite himself, would spark someday with some stranger's and make it very difficult or even impossible for him to be with anyone else.

But somehow it was different, because this time, out of all the times when it had happened, this time when Sho and Ohno hit a lull in their conversation and looked up to search the room for him, Nino didn't hesitate.

This time Nino was already walking toward them when their eyes found him. He didn't falter, and though he was nervous beyond belief, he was smiling.

Then he was at their table--there was a third chair, like they'd meant it for him--and he said, "Sorry I made you wait."

He sat down with an effort at grace, and while he did so he noticed that Sho and Ohno were holding hands. It wasn't that unusual for them, but Nino had never gotten to see it from so close before, and his heart gave a little skip at seeing their fingers intertwined.

What wasn't usual was the awkward expression that crossed Ohno's face. Nino thought he knew what it meant, figured that he was remembering the kiss and feeling like he needed to back out and give Nino and Sho their space. Before Ohno could tug his hand from Sho's, Nino acted on the feelings he'd been suppressing for so long.

Without speaking, he reached out and laid his hand on top of their comfortably tangled fingers.

The furtive look on Ohno's face was replaced with quiet disbelief, and Nino had never seen Sho's eyes so round before. He was about to laugh, or say something, or maybe just hold on until they understood exactly what he was trying to communicate, but then his eyes went wrong somehow.

The bar disappeared, Ohno and Sho were gone, and there was a glitter of rainbow-colored confetti across his sight instead, like he was about to get one hell of a migraine. The sounds of the room started to dim as well, as if he were moving quickly away from everyone else, except the one sense that wasn't deserting him was touch.

He was still holding tight to Sho and Ohno, their hands linked in the middle of the table, even if Nino couldn't see any of it.

The rainbows seemed to pop in his vision, and like that his hearing returned to normal. It took a little longer for his vision to clear, but when it did, everything and everyone in the bar looked ludicrously the same.

Except for the expressions on Sho's and Ohno's faces. Ohno was staring at Sho, his eyes caught on something around Sho's collar, and Sho was gaping at Nino's arm. Nino looked down, trying to figure out if he'd gotten some sort of awful rash from Aiba's batting cages, but before his eyes made it to his own arm they were caught by Ohno's.

The supple, tanned wrist he'd admired so many times had a winding pattern coiled around it from his palm to the strong muscle of his forearm, all in shimmering ocean blue.

It was beautiful. And incredibly confusing, because Nino could see it.

"Sho-chan," Ohno mumbled, sounding like his heart was in his throat. "Your neck..."

Nino tore his eyes from Ohno's soulmate tattoo--why could he see it?--to try to figure out what Ohno was talking about. He followed Ohno's line of sight and lost his breath all over again.

Sho had undone a few of the buttons of his shirt after work, and his pretty neck was showing all the way down to a glimpse of his collarbones. Around one side, up under his collar, there was something barely visible, something that definitely hadn't been there when Nino had helped Sho wash the night before.

It was a lick of color distinct against Sho's pale skin--dark red like a shining jewel melted coiling down toward Sho's shoulder. Though Sho's mark hadn't held the same fascination for Nino as Nino's had for Sho, Nino had traced those glossy coils with his fingers more than once with Sho's hand to show the way.

Now he'd be able to do it unguided, because Nino knew without a doubt that if Sho removed his shirt right then, his mark would be displayed from the part Nino could see now all the way to its curling ends somewhere around Sho's right bicep.

"You said it was yellow," Sho choked out. "Nino, it's gold."

And finally Nino looked down at his own arm, his own soulmate tattoo, and saw that it had changed as well. The dull yellow from before, the yellow he'd had all his life, had become brightly golden. Where the light caught it his skin looked gilded.

The sight of it, and the sight of his hand still holding on to Ohno's and Sho's together, made him finally understand.

But it was impossible, so his voice went high and panicked as he said, "But I've touched you both tons of times before!"

Ohno, his wide eyes shifting from the peek of Sho's mark down to the full length of Nino's, said softly, "But we never did, all three of us…"

A new look came over Sho's face. He pulled his hand out from the pile as Aiba came tripping happily up to the table with two beers, and just as Aiba held one of the beers out to Nino, Sho made his freed hand into a fist and slammed it down hard on the table.

"You are fucking kidding me!" he yelled, making everyone nearby jump.

Aiba jumped highest of all and slopped beer all over himself. Then, as if drawn by magnets, his eyes found Nino's soulmate tattoo, then Ohno's. His mouth dropped open. Nino, faintly amused, pointed out Sho's as well, and Aiba looked as if something in his brain snapped from the strain.

He put the now half-empty pints down on the table, effectively abandoning them since Sho chose that moment to pound his fist down again, and turned to shout, "They sparked! You guys, all three of them sparked, Nino and Sho-kun and Oh-chan together!"

Nino's eyes shot to Ohno's face, because he could feel from the surprised twitch under his hand that Ohno hadn't understood up until that moment what was happening. Sho slammed both his hands on the table at Aiba's words, but Nino could only stare at Ohno, whose face went from shock to confusion to dawning hope, then…

"Oh-chan," Nino said, holding in a giddy laugh. "Oh-chan, don't do it--"

But it was too late. As if in slow motion, Ohno's face crumpled. There was cheering all around them, and Nino heard the crash of Sho shoving one of the glasses to the floor, but for that moment, as Ohno irrevocably realized he wasn't alone, Nino just watched him and tried to keep from crying himself.

"Sho-chan," he whispered, and fumbled to the side for his boyfriend. He could hear Sho muttering wildly to himself, and he sympathized utterly, but the sweet, overwhelmed expressions of Ohno right then were something Sho shouldn't miss. He lifted his voice about the hubbub to shout, "Sho-chan, sit your ass down!"

There was an audible thump as Sho sat down, but only so he could hiss at Nino, "I have loved you for years while knowing I'd have to give you up someday, and then I tried to share you and you wouldn't let me, would you, and then I had to go and fall in love with someone else I didn't spark with on top of all our futile struggling, except it wasn't futile, was it, and all of this was for nothing. I was just about to have a meltdown because I wasn't sure I could leave Satoshi alone anymore, and if we had only touched--"

Nino looked away from the masterpiece that was Ohno's happily crying face just long enough to take Sho's jaw in his free hand and push it around so that his bulging eyes were aimed at Ohno.

"Oh," Sho breathed at once, and he reached out unconsciously to add his hand back into the warm tangle in the middle of the table.

There were streaked tears down Ohno's bewildered, overjoyed face. His eyes were full again already, and more tears threatened to spill over with every little sniff he gave like he couldn't believe what was happening.

"Satoshi-kun," Sho said, and Nino could tell he was in the same state of fondness, amusement, and unbearable tenderness Nino was in himself. "Satoshi-kun, I've been meaning to tell you that I love you."

Ohno sobbed adorably, and Nino had to cover his face as he laughed. It felt so right--was so right--to be touching both Sho and Ohno at once, even just one of each of their hands.

"Come live with us, Oh-chan," Nino said after a bit, feeling enough in control that he could move his arm away and smirk at Ohno. "Did I mention I love you as well?"

Ohno's damp face, which had just barely schooled itself back from open weeping, crumpled anew, and Nino had to leave his chair to come around the table and take Ohno in his arms. Ohno laid his cheek on Nino's shoulder just as Sho came around the other side and wrapped his arms around both of them.

Nino stayed there twined with Ohno and Sho far past the time when his back began protesting at the awkward positioning. The initial shock and joy started to wear off enough that he could hear their colleagues around them catcalling and congratulating them. The first person he saw when he opened his eyes again was Jun, whose face was nearly as wet from tears as Ohno's was, and next he saw Aiba hovering nearby like he wanted to hug him but wasn't sure of his welcome. After a second, Aiba reached out tentatively, and Jun pulled him into a tight hug without hesitation.

Eikura's voice behind him yelled, "Speech! Speech!" and others took up the call.

After one last squeeze of Ohno's shoulders, Nino extricated himself from Ohno and Sho and sat back down in his chair with a cool smile and one ankle resting lightly on his other knee, just for style. Sho caught sight of it and grinned suddenly, and after he kissed Ohno's forehead he did the same. Ohno looked exhausted from intense emotions but blurrily content with his hand still held by the two people he loved.

Nino cleared his throat loudly, and the yelling petered out on cue. Then he gave a jaunty little wave with one hand--making sure it was the one with his soulmate mark.

"Friends, colleagues, Aiba-san," he started suavely. "We apologize for the surprise, and we thank you for your well-wishes. I would like to take this opportunity to say: I told you so."

Sho snickered audibly, then reined it in to a completely deadpan expression.

"I told you so," Nino said again, voice throbbing with the grandeur of the moment. "When I first met Sho-chan, before we touched, I knew he was my soulmate. Two years ago when I met Oh-chan, I had the same stunning intuition--and then after that, seeing these two touch for the first time--"

Sho whispered, "Not the first time," and Nino corrected himself smoothly.

"--For what I believed was the first time and basically was, since their lives without me in them are dreary and incomplete, I knew, just as you know now, that they were soulmates as well."

He paused, trying not to grin, and he heard Ohno give that open little laugh that broke down all of Nino's defenses.

"Basically," he said, summing up sooner than he'd meant to but refusing to surrender his hard-earned glory, "I'm right, I've always been right, and the proof of my rightness is on our skin for all to see."

Silence fell as his audience digested this.

Then Toma called, "Shots for the soulmates!" and there was a cheer that shook the room.

*

Much later that night, Nino sat on the chair in his living room, staring at Sho and Ohno sitting on the couch.

It was already surreal that Ohno was in their apartment. For all his friendship with Sho, he'd never been invited into the space Sho shared with Nino, and his friendship with Nino had never been the kind that could withstand such domestic proximity.

On top of that, he was there to stay. Romantically. Forever.

Nino supposed that even forever didn't sound final enough when it wasn't just that they'd be together from then on, but also in the next life, and the next life. It gave forever a new meaning to think about that, though Nino supposed eventually the human race would go extinct.

Despite the best efforts of their colleagues, the three of them hadn't gotten very drunk at all, and a long taxi ride punctuated by a convenience store run had been more than enough time to get sober. The conversation they'd had no trouble enjoying in the taxi hadn't lasted more than a few minutes after Ohno had stepped through the apartment doorway and into this relationship for good.

Nino didn't know how long they'd been sitting there in silence, processing the turn their lives had taken. It wasn't uncomfortable, exactly. It was just a lot.

Finally he said, "Supposing that our soulmate destiny bond lasts even if humanity dies out, what do you think we'll be after that?"

Ohno said immediately, "I want to be a shark."

"What?" Sho asked, turning to look at him with those fond eyes. "I thought you were terrified of sharks."

"Anything that can eat me," Ohno agreed, then put on a smug expression. "But if I'm the shark, no one's gonna eat me."

"I've heard some sharks eat other sharks," Nino said absently, thinking about something else. Ohno made a wounded sort of noise.

"Nino," Sho admonished, "why must you crush Satoshi-kun's dream?"

Startled out of his own thoughts, Nino said, "Sorry, I was just--I was trying to figure out what I would have said to you tonight, if we hadn't sparked."

"You mean, if we hadn't touched, or if we weren't soulmates at all?" Sho asked, curious, and added his newest favorite curse word in a growled aside. "Destiny."

"Either way?" Nino said slowly. "Since I wouldn't know any different." This line of thought solidified an idea that had been forming in the back of his mind ever since they'd all sat down, looked at each other, and gone silent with the weight of their sudden destiny.

He grinned, the weight lifting. "And more interestingly, what would you two have said? Do you know, I think that maybe we would've ended up here just the same?"

Ohno looked blankly at Nino, then turned to Sho and gave him a look with a jerk of his jaw that clearly demanded action.

Sho said to Nino at once, "So what were you going to say?"

Nino felt free, and needy, and also a little like it was past his bedtime. He was thinking he could maybe hold out another few minutes before he had to touch his boyfriends--plural. It was ridiculous that he should still feel a little anxious about using his words.

He didn't let it stop him. Without bothering to try to be smooth, he took a deep breath and let it all go.

"Sho. You already know that I love you. A long time ago, you told me that you could share, and since then I've been thinking about it. I guess my answer is, 'So can I, and let's do it.' As long as we're talking about Oh-chan because otherwise you can shove it."

Sho nodded, his eyes warm as he waited for Nino's next confession.

Nino moved his eyes to Ohno's waiting face. "Satoshi… I'm sorry I made you wait so long. Pending Sho-kun's answer, I apologize for him as well, except in reality Sho-chan already confessed so just have it anyway You've saved my life more than once already, but it's being around you every day that makes me even more grateful. Just sitting in the same cubicle as you and hearing you mutter to yourself about fish makes me happy. It's a cliche to make big life changes after nearly dying, but fuck it, life really is short, so please, um, again pending Sho-kun's approval… would you give up your waiting and come home with us?"

"Psst," Sho whispered. "You never actually said--"

Nino hastily cut in with the missing, "I love you." He meant it as a splendid conclusion, but he found that words kept coming.

"And, I wouldn't have said this earlier but now I'm several hours smarter than I was then, so here it is: I choose you. Um, you both. I think there is something worthwhile about choosing to love instead of going along with destiny, and even if I wouldn't have put it into words like that before we sparked, I had already chosen, so feel free to be touched and moved and altogether enchanted."

Cutting his eyes at Sho, Nino could tell his longtime boyfriend was about to say something lovingly glib, but Ohno hadn't been confessed to, or chosen, or loved enough that he could take Nino's words as a given yet.

Before Sho could speak, Ohno said sturdily, "I would've said yes. Pending Sho-kun's approval--"

"Dear lord, I am full of approval," Sho complained, irked by their pretense of uncertainty.

"--I would've come home with you. And chosen you. Both," Ohno concluded, looking very sure in a way that made Nino's heart glow.

"And I would've said yes," Sho sighed, maybe a little embarrassed that he had to say it out loud after all. He reached out his hand to Nino, inviting him over to the couch. "To everything, okay?"

Nino hesitated, feeling a mischievous smile form on his face as he considered whether to hold out for Sho saying even mushier words.

But it seemed Sho had been keeping them back with an effort, because suddenly he came out with it. "And I choose you. Okay? God, I choose you both now. Fuck destiny, that fucking heartless motherfucker."

"Um," Nino said, caught off-guard, but Ohno cheered, "Yeah!" with a little fist-pump that made Sho turn to him and grin.

And Sho was still grinning when he leaned in, and Ohno met his eyes and smiled like a sunrise, and then they were kissing.

Nino nearly swallowed his tongue. His hands gripped the chair, then tucked under his legs on the seat, trying not to say anything that might distract them.

At first Sho was gentle, and Ohno was hesitant. But the instant electricity in the room wasn't anything to do with their soulmate marks this time, just the chemistry of two people who matched. Soon Ohno was pushing forward, demanding more, and Sho was cupping Ohno's jaw in his hands as he deepened the kiss roughly.

Jealousy… was nonexistent. Nino could've watched them kiss forever. Or, if not forever, more than long enough than it took Sho and Ohno, than it had always taken Sho and Ohno to pause what they were doing and search for him.

"I'm here," Nino said helplessly. His knees almost gave out at the way they were looking at him, at the way Sho was still holding Ohno's face, and Ohno had his hand on Sho's thigh, but then he was to them.

He pressed up against Sho's side and leaned across so he could see Ohno's expression from up close. Ohno took it as an invitation, but Nino didn't mind at all, and Sho wrapped an arm around Nino's shoulders and let them kiss right in front of him with a sound that was all pained approval.

Ohno didn't bother starting slow this time, just slid his hands behind Nino's neck and pulled him in to devastate him thoroughly.

It could've been minutes or an hour later when Nino broke away, panting with his mouth slick and puffy from Ohno's lips and teeth and tongue, and gasped, "Shit, Oh-chan, where did you learn to kiss like that?"

Ohno's eyes were hot on Nino's mouth, but after a second his whole face gave a little surprised twitch and he refocused upward. "Uh, Macchan and I, the summer before high school, and then after my promotion, Maru and I used to practice on each other when there weren't customers, just for fun?"

It had been rhetorical, of course, but Nino was nonetheless intrigued. "At work? Weren't there cameras?"

"Riisa-chan would watch the counter for us and--" Ohno explained, leaning to the side a little like he was going to rest his head on Sho's shoulder.

"Not now," Sho interrupted. "I would really like to hear about this later, but there are some more kisses that need to happen before I pass out, all right?"

And he gripped Nino's chin and tilted it up so he could press their lips together sweetly.

Compared to either of the kisses with Ohno, this kiss was light, but then they'd kissed so many times before that they didn't need to linger in it right then. Not that they couldn't or didn't want to--Nino could linger with Sho's mouth until the sun came up, and after--but this particular kiss was something else for them.

It was the same as before, and reassuring because of it. It was different from before, because Ohno was there, and they'd finally, finally sparked. It was like coming home and finding everything had changed, only to realize home was more home because of it.

With that done, Sho pulled away to settle back against the cushions with an overly serious look. Nino met Ohno's eyes, adjusting to the new atmosphere, and after a moment they both turned to Sho with expectant expressions.

Sho laughed. "First of all, that's creepy. Second, as your … um, your plural boyfriend… can I say boyfriend, Satoshi-kun?"

Ohno said with blank-faced intensity, "You mean soulmate."

Sho lifted his eyebrows at him and went with it, "As your soulmate, I request to see the kisses of yours that I missed. You've kissed, what, twice already?"

"Three times now," Nino said, working to make his eyes big and uncanny to keep up Ohno's good start at strangeness.

This didn't faze Sho either. "Right. And the ones before sound like they were pretty great, is what I'm saying, and I was busy being all patient and all…" He trailed off, looking extremely virtuous.

Nino said icily, "Though during the first one, of course, what you were busy being was broken up with me, even so--"

And Ohno picked up without a gap, "--We will gladly comply for you, Sakurai Sho-san."

"You guys are the weirdest," Sho groaned, but Nino could see that beneath those face-shielding hands there was a smile.

That was how Nino found himself at two in the morning on his back on the living room floor. He had his butt wedged almost under the couch and his feet were sticking up in the air, while Ohno's legs were up and over the end table. They'd already demonstrated their second kiss, as Nino had deemed it far less dramatic and thus good buildup to the first, and it had consisted of Ohno whisper-shouting, "No! We will save our lover, Sakurai Sho-san!" and Nino grabbing his face to plant a loud kiss on his lips. Now they were to the grand finale: the kiss in the wrecked Porsche on the first day they'd met.

Nino, tired from his recent injuries, his exertion in the batting cages, his current emotions, and way too much time since he'd last slept, was giving this moment his all in the knowledge that he would straight-up pass out on his boyfriends if they didn't go to bed soon.

"We have escaped," Nino intoned, "through my transcendent driving abilities. All that is left is a touch, for lo, you are my soulmate, Satoshi!"

Ohno said fervently, "For lo!" and they reached their hands out to touch in a dramatic clasp. Though their soulmate marks were clear to see, Nino gave a wail of disappointment as they supposedly failed to spark, and Ohno managed to hang his head even when horizontal with his ankles wrapped around a lamp.

"What a terrible turn of events," Sho said with enthusiasm. "Then what happened?"

Ohno and Nino pretended not to hear him, but it was with an extra throb in his voice that Ohno said next, "Go find him… your Sakurai Sho-san."

"But Sato-kun, how could I ever leave you," Nino said, making his expression all vulnerable and heartbroken so that Ohno's kiss, when it came, was even more delightful in its swooping command.

It was actually a pretty good kiss, too. Nino found himself forgetting he was acting, because despite the odd angle, Ohno was being extremely convincing in his portrayal of lusty desperation.

Eventually he realized Sho was clapping.

"Bravo!" Sho called magnanimously, volume low out of respect for the late hour and their neighbors.

"That's it," Nino said, flopping his limbs in all directions on the floor. "If I don't get into bed now I may never make it there again."

Ohno sat up, wiping his mouth in an unconscious gesture that made Nino's tired body wish it could perform miracles. He said hesitatingly, "I'd really like to shower…"

Sho smiled at him and held out a hand to help him up to his feet. "I'll show you where the towels are."

"But," Ohno started, and his face got a stubborn look that induced in Nino a pang of fondness. "But you guys have kissed tons, and I didn't get any demonstrations."

"You got one--" Sho pointed out, sounding concerned, but Nino interrupted, "Oh-chan, after I get some sleep, you only have to ask. Sho-chan and I will thoroughly demonstrate all sorts of things for you."

"Don't be crass," Sho said irritably, but Ohno looked genuinely reassured and asked hopefully, "Sex things?"

Nino closed his eyes and smiled in exhausted complacency. "God, so many sex things, I promise."

"The towels are this way, let's go," Sho said, all suppressed agitation. Nino could tell he was embarrassed and aroused--Sho was a curious mixture of prude and wanton that made Nino ever more smitten.

As Nino struggled up from the floor he heard Ohno ask blandly, "Don't you want to do sex things with me?" and Sho's answering groan.

The groan turned into a laugh halfway, and Nino laughed softly along to himself.

Ohno might be inexperienced in relationships, but when it came to teasing Sho he could certainly hold his own.

*

Nino didn't plan it, but he cried while Ohno was in the shower. It came on him suddenly, all the gratitude and spent anxiety and exhaustion, so Sho held him and said the soothing things he knew from infrequent experience would help.

It was necessary, intense, and brief. Afterward, they lay there, close to sleep, and pretended not to be imagining Ohno naked.

"Sorry I got mad earlier," Sho said at last. No matter how belated, it was just like Sho to apologize for his completely warranted outburst even if he'd paid for the minor damage already.

Nino said, "No, it's all right. It makes sense, since you've been the patient one for so long, and we both know you actually have an anger problem."

"You little shit," Sho snapped, and they laughed together.

"Can I come in?" Ohno said from the doorway, hesitation back in his voice after their brief separation. He was wearing a pair of Nino's sweatpants and one of Sho's shirts. Nino caught his breath, and Sho looked like he'd taken a punch to the stomach.

Nino asked casually, "What side of the bed do you sleep on, Oh-chan? Or, um, what third of the bed--do you want an edge or the middle?"

Ohno shrugged. His eyes were dark and very watchful.

Nino remembered once again that while Ohno was now inextricably a part of this relationship between the three of them, he was still a person with very little romantic and sexual experience. He'd been holding back his feelings for as long as he'd had them, with no practice in having them returned.

It was possible that in all Ohno's adult years, he'd never even slept in the same bed as someone else.

"We'll take it as slowly as you want," Nino said sincerely. "With everything--I know you haven't done this before."

Sho sat up to give Ohno one of those caring looks that made Nino melt. "I didn't think, I'm sorry, Satoshi-kun. Would you be more comfortable sleeping on the couch?"

Ohno twisted his hands together, looking uncertain. "Do you mind if I sleep in here? Um... I'm sorry if I snore."

"Sho-chan steals the covers," Nino said promptly, and Sho countered, "Nino sticks his cold feet on me in the middle of the night."

One corner of Ohno's mouth lifted up. "But aren't his feet only cold because you've stolen the covers?"

Nino hid his grin in the crook of his elbow as Sho huffed like an indignant steam engine.

Then Ohno squeezed into the middle between them, clearly trying not to tip over on the mattress and fall to either side. After a beat Sho offered, "I'll get you a pillow," and as he got up Nino took Ohno's hand.

"I don't know how to do this," Ohno whispered, and it was obvious that right then sex was the least of his worries. "I haven't even lived with anyone since my family…"

Nino squeezed his hand. "You're allowed to make mistakes," he whispered back. "And besides, we've never done this before either."

A pillow landed on Ohno's chest. "That's right," Sho said, carefully getting back under the covers without jostling Ohno. They were going to have to get a bigger bed. "You're not joining our relationship, you know. We're going to have to make a new one, all three of us together."

"You won't… be impatient?" Ohno asked, and this time Nino was pretty sure he was worried about the physical side of things. The kissing before might have eased his mind some on that front, and Nino certainly hoped he wasn't still worried that he wouldn't enjoy sex with them, but Ohno had a ton of new experiences coming.

It didn't matter--the answer was as inevitable as Sho stealing the covers.

"With you?" Nino said fondly.

And Sho finished, "Never."

*

After the traditional day off for just-sparked soulmates, Nino and Sho and Ohno went back to work, and it wasn't long before their relationship was old news around the agency. Nino went on his first mission since Sho's kidnapping about two weeks later, and Ohno a few days after that. Sho had a breakdown before and after both of them, and Nino's nightmares reappeared, but the real surprise was Ohno, who was cool as a cucumber on his own missions and shut down during Nino's.

The disconcerting thing about Ohno was that he'd been alone so long he'd learned to deal with his emotional breakdowns on his own. Nino came home from his first mission back and found Ohno at the kitchen table, hunched over a paper and moving his index finger along it like he was playing a very intense game.

That was how Nino found out why Ohno had known the layout of the bombed-out bank by heart--the original map had survived, crumpled and forgotten, in Ohno's pocket, and he'd taken to tracing all the escape paths over and over whenever he felt anxious. Nino didn't really understand, especially when Ohno said, "But what if I didn't know the way out?" It was Sho who realized Ohno had nightmares, too--nightmares where Nino was stuck in a room with a bomb and no way out, and Ohno couldn't find him. Sometimes it was Nino and Sho both, and Ohno had a gun in his hand. Ohno was very still in his sleep, even when having awful dreams, but from the ones with the gun in his hand he woke up crying. It helped, of course, that Nino and Sho were always there, and breathing, and loving him.

There were small things to deal with, too, like Ohno's distaste for the admittedly rather lax apartment-cleaning regimen, or the time Ohno made fun of Sho's aroma diffusers more pointedly than he'd meant to, or how Nino and Ohno took turns cooking sometimes but Sho still tended to burn the toast.

Physical intimacy was a delightful, ongoing challenge, and other kinds of closeness both a blessing and a curse.

As a sparking gift, Jun bought them a truly enormous bed, and Ohno wanted to christen it by trying something new. He asked Sho if he could give him a blowjob, and Sho was hilariously polite in his words of acceptance, though there was nothing funny about the heat in his eyes or the way he kissed away Ohno's nerves.

Nino frequently wished for a camera to capture some of these first moments forever, like the wide-eyed wonder of Ohno watching Sho get hard from up close, or the way Sho carefully combed his fingers through Ohno's hair as he murmured heartfelt encouragement. He was far too busy for something as foolish as standing back and filming, though, because he was right there with them, giving advice on how to make Sho feel good in between kissing one or the other of them breathless.

The three of them were also literally close--they spent a large amount of their time in a one-bedroom apartment, together, then went to work together as well.

It was hardest on Ohno, of course, who was used to having his own time and his own space. After the first week or two of blissful togetherness, in which they hardly ever spent any time apart, something deep inside Ohno seemed to snap. He walked out of the living room, out of the apartment, and he called them later from his own apartment only to say he needed to stay there a while.

Sho was inclined to be panicky, but Nino told Ohno to take all the time he needed, and within a day Ohno was back. Still, Ohno kept his own apartment for several months, and periodically he retreated there to recharge and have a space entirely his own. Nino, meanwhile, began plotting to get a larger apartment. Ohno needed his own room, if only to paint in, or dance in, or even read fishing magazines in. Not to mention the bed Jun had bought them pretty much took up the only bedroom they had, so it made sense. They also started spending more time out with friends, or out on their own just being themselves outside their soulmate relationship, so the tension eased some over time, though it didn't disappear.

And every day held discoveries big and small and in-between.

They went on their first real date--a trip to the ocean that revealed a lot about Sho's planning skills, Nino's distaste for sand, and Ohno's pining for his own fishing boat. Sho bought Ohno flowers on the boardwalk, and Ohno cried. Nino ate bites of their food when they stopped on the way home and pretended to be surprised that he didn't have his wallet.

About a month in, Nino brought Sho and Ohno home to meet his mom, who was predictably delighted. She'd met Sho before, of course, but it felt different to bring him home now, with Ohno, with all of their soulmate tattoos showing brilliantly in the afternoon sun. After that he got a steady stream of congratulation messages from near and far family members as his mom got started bragging about her son and his two soulmates.

Sho was obsessed with their soulmate tattoos. Nino thought they were nice enough and certainly set off his boyfriends' various attractions, and Ohno admired them aesthetically, but Sho took it to another level. Nino thought it had to do with Sho's long fight against destiny, so he didn't tease. Or at least... not much. He didn't tease at all about the way Sho and Ohno both lingered sometimes over the scars on his back and thigh, because he did the same thing with the one on Sho's hip.

Those months were filled with chaos and confusion and deep satisfaction in one another. They made it through more than a few missions, both solo and together, and when the stress of them didn't diminish back down to normal levels Nino started to consider that someday he might like to be more of a desk agent. He didn't bring it up, though, because despite the struggles he wasn't ready to give up the field quite yet. Ohno made it through a lot of his relationship claustrophobia, though that was an ongoing struggle as well. It helped that Nino and Sho both worked hard to be understanding, even if they couldn't really relate, and one night Ohno managed to stumble over not only Nino's internet searches for bigger apartments but Sho's thoroughly organized binder on the same subject. They weren't quite ready to get a new place, but for Ohno, just knowing he wasn't the only one thinking about it helped--he was so grateful he asked to sleep in the middle that night even though he'd admitted after a month or so that waking up being spooned from both sides made him feel smothered.

Despite their jokes about Sho's anger problem, Nino wasn't surprised by how patient Sho was with Ohno, with him, and with the situation. He was more surprised by the reserves of patience he found in himself, and by the times when he would've thought he'd have to be patient only to find he was enjoying himself fine as-is. It was so much easier than he'd expected to go at Ohno's pace on the physical side of things--sure, there were the moments when Nino just needed Sho to fuck him, and if Ohno didn't want to be there for it then so be it--but they were few and far between, and he resisted them. It was delightful to make out like teenagers, to blush while scrubbing each other's backs, and even to find out that Ohno's endurance was amazingly short-lived.

Nino and Sho didn't talk about it out loud, but Nino knew Sho was surprised as well--Ohno was generally so easygoing that the way he'd cried out and come down Nino's throat in about a minute and a half was unexpected, to say the least. And it turned out Ohno was like that even after the first time; he lasted a little longer under their hands, but if they put their mouths on him it was nearly over before it started.

Nino knew he was far gone because he found it adorable. And gratifying, and maybe a little less work than it sometimes was to get Sho to come already when Sho was feeling like putting up a challenge. No matter what, Nino enjoyed their time exploring each other, easy in the trust that all he had to do was say a word, or even just shift uncomfortably, and they'd switch directions to one he found more of a turn-on. He made sure to pay attention so that he could do the same for them, though it was a constantly renewing joy that most of the time the way they instinctively came together was good for all of them.

Nino and Sho were patient in other ways, as well, from Ohno's necessary breaks from the apartment to his rare need to sit without being spoken to at all. Ohno was patient in turn, and Nino was sure he didn't know the half of what Ohno struggled with, considering everything.

After a while, the person who was least patient with Ohno when it came to sex was Ohno himself. He started getting frustrated when they were in bed together, started moving in for areas they hadn't explored fully, things they hadn't tried, but then he'd move away to something more familiar that he already knew he loved. Nino met Sho's eyes often during those times, wondering what they should do, but Ohno was shifty whenever they tried to bring it up casually.

The day they finally talked about it was memorable in more ways than one.

That morning Nino woke up in the middle, which he always secretly found soothing, and Ohno sucked him off in the shower with such enthusiasm that Nino lasted barely longer than Ohno usually did. What was additionally wonderful was when Sho came in right after they were done and absently kissed Ohno, made an appalled face, then shrugged and went in for another. This made Nino want to pay the sexual favor forward to Sho, but Sho peeled him off with a stern look and the reminder that he was going in to work early that morning.

Nino might have noticed that Sho was up to something if Ohno hadn't started touching himself unhurriedly just then, there on the little stool under the spray like it was a part of his normal morning routine. Nino had the thought that maybe it had been part of Ohno's routine back before, when he'd been waiting on his own, and maybe he'd thought about them while he did it… so he let Sho go without examining him in order to get his hands on Ohno and ask him all sorts of new questions.

Therefore Nino was unprepared when he showed up to the morning meeting that day with Ohno behind him and found a sign on the door telling them the meeting had been canceled and all personnel were to report to Room 412 instead.

*


Part 5