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ninoexchange2016-06-26 09:34 pm
nino-mod.livejournal.com) wrote in ninoexchange2016-06-26 09:34 pm
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fic for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
arashikuro (2/2)
For: arashikuro
From:cupcake4mafia
Part 1
Jun calls Nino and asks him to stop by his office when he’s free. Nino puts this off for a respectable amount of time, so when he heads in Aiba is also there, looking like he’s getting scolded.
“Good timing,” Jun says. “Help me talk to Aiba about his hair.”
“It has gotten lighter in the sun, hasn’t it?” Nino comments, as though he’s just now noticed Aiba’s hair is about two shades shy of orange.
Aiba beams back at him. Jun scoffs.
“Fine,” he says, obviously putting this away only for the time being. “Aiba, help me talk to Nino about the outing.”
“Outing?” Nino repeats, grimacing.
“I sent you a calendar invite on Monday for this office outing tonight,” Jun says, flatly.
Nino vaguely remembers deleting something like that.
“Aw, he’s coming,” Aiba insists.
Nino wrinkles his nose. “You know, I’ve read that Americans actually think it’s embarrassing to go drinking with their coworkers.”
“Fascinating. I don’t care. Everyone is going to this outing.”
“Ohhh, Crystal too?” Aiba asks, excited.
“Aiba,” Jun groans, resting his forehead in his hand.
“What? I want to practice my English."
“Hire a tutor!” Jun snaps. “Alright, out. Nino, you stay.”
Nino sits in the chair across from Jun’s desk and folds his hands in his lap. He waits while Jun takes a long sip of coffee. He wonders if he’ll ever get sick of watching Jun hate his HR duties.
“I don’t have to give you The Crystal Talk, do I?” Jun asks.
“What’s that talk about?”
“About how she is the only woman in our office, not the only woman on the island.”
“Of course not,” Nino scoffs. “I am nothing if not professional.”
“Well, I was thinking of the other reason.”
Nino blinks, surprised. It’s been almost a year since that night in Tokyo when Nino and Jun awkwardly waved hello to each other from across a crowded gay bar, and they’ve never once discussed it.
“That’s very bold of you,” Nino teases. “Very American.”
Jun shrugs but his smile seems a little smug.
“And if that’s your reason, then you should probably give me half of the talk,” Nino warns. “I’ll take the first half about how she’s the only woman in the office.”
“Just...be there. Okay? If you come this one time, I’ll give you a free pass for the next work outing.”
It’s a good offer. Too good, really. Nino thinks back to Ohno’s phone call from Judy and lowers his voice a little before asking: “Are we going to get some bad news?”
“No, nothing like that. Honestly? I think the Operations Manager really likes you, so I’m hoping you can get him to loosen up a little.”
Nino keeps his face straight. Jun isn’t saying “like” in the same way Aiba said it; he’s not implying anything. Still, Nino’s not sure how to feel about Jun keeping tabs on his frequent tech support visits, or that he also thinks they mean something other than Ohno barely being able to function in this decade.
“Two free passes,” Nino suggests.
“One free pass and one free drink tonight.”
Nino opens his mouth to make a joke about Jun already having missed his chance to buy him a drink, but he thinks better of it and asks about dress code instead.
---
The outing is “casual dress,” which throws the office pool completely off-balance; the consensus in the admin staff group LINE chat is that no one knows how to interpret Sakurai Sho’s ¾-sleeve shirt (or where such shirts are sold in men's sizes). Nino is much more amused by Ohno’s board shorts and rubber flip-flops. The surf shop hoodie Ohno’s wearing \ooks new, at least, but he still seems less like a supervisor on a night out with his staff and more like a local who’s wandered into a group of Japanese tourists.
Nino really wasn’t interested in going anywhere near Waikiki, but he has to admit the spot that Jun has reserved is nice: a table for ten in an outdoor dining area that looks out on the tiny strip of sand that qualifies as “Waikiki beach.” The shore is littered with people, naturally, but at night it’s a little easier to overlook them. It’s kind of pretty in its own way, Nino thinks, with the city lights reflecting on the ocean, but it could just be that the ukelele music piping through the restaurant’s speakers is getting to him.
Nino orders a hamburger and a beer and relaxes back in his spot between Aiba and Arioka, listening to the newcomers share their Hawaii stories. Everyone makes at least a token attempt to speak some English with Crystal - Aiba most memorably, talking about a “VERY DANGER” experience he had while out surfing with a client. Aiba’s pantomime of his struggle to make it back to shore without stepping on live coral (something they were all warned about before visiting the beach) ends with him very narrowly avoiding smacking their waitress in the face. His horrified “SORRY SORRY SUPER SO SORRY!” sends them all into hysterics.
It’s not that strange, really, that Nino is the only one who notices Ohno slip away. It’s not weird to Nino that he would, either. It’s not proper, but it’s not hard to understand considering the slow fade of Ohno’s smile over an evening of endless “Manager, you first” and “Manager, what do you think?”
Not that Nino’s been watching Ohno throughout dinner or anything.
Okay, he has been.
Nino’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He checks it as Crystal has the group enthralled with the very casual way she’s said “This one time, my friends and I were skinny dipping…”
Where did Ohno go? Jun asks, in a private chat.
Nino sends back a sticker of a confused bear and follows it with a How would I know?
Across the table, Jun rolls his eyes and types harder.
Help me find him.
Well, if Jun wants to give Nino an excuse to wander off, too, then he’ll take it. He mumbles a “pardon me” and leaves the table to casually snoop around the restaurant, checking the bathrooms. No Ohno.
Damn, Nino thinks. That’s bold.
He wonders again about Ohno’s phone call with Judy and if there might be some bad news coming up for them after all. Maybe that’s why Ohno hasn’t connected much with the staff; he’s dreading telling everyone that they have to pack up and go home.
Nino heads out into the crowded Waikiki strip, feeling the buzz of his beers more acutely now that he’s walking. The idea that he might find Ohno in this crowd is silly, especially if Ohno is trying to get lost.
Nino’s not entirely sure if he’s following Jun’s orders or just making his own early exit. It’s not that Nino isn’t having a good time, it’s just not quite his scene. With just a few people it’s easier to read the atmosphere and know the right thing to say; in a crowd Nino finds himself staying silent until he’s not sure if he’s really there anymore.
Well you knew I was a shut-in when you brought me here, Nino imagines telling an angry Jun on Monday.
Then Ohno ruins that plan by letting Nino almost walk right into him outside of an ABC Store. He’s standing stock-still in the middle of the sidewalk, reading intently from a stack of tourism pamphlets in his hand.
“Shooting range or strip club?” Nino asks.
Ohno looks up, bug-eyed. Immediately, his expression softens into a smile.
“Deep-sea fishing,” he says, holding the brochure up so Nino can see.
“Oh, yeah, you have that big one in your office.”
“It’s fake,” Ohno says, his eyes focusing somewhere in the space beyond Nino. “Guess I should head back, huh?”
“You missed a good public nudity story, but...” Nino shrugs. “Do what you want. You’re the manager, right?”
“Right,” Ohno agrees, nodding slowly.
With that he starts walking back without even a look over his shoulder. Nino follows, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He’s not sure why he had to bring up Ohno’s position. Maybe he’s a little annoyed at Ohno’s “woe is me, I’m upper management” attitude, but, still, something is obviously genuinely bothering the guy.
A block away from the restaurant, Ohno turns down an alley and starts walking towards the beach. Nino smiles at the change of course and makes no objection. He follows Ohno away from the strip and out towards the shore. It’s late, sure, but this patch of beach still seems practically abandoned by Waikiki standards. Looking around, Nino can tell they’re in a spot that a hotel is trying to pretend they own.
Ohno stares out at the ocean and Nino tries not to stare at Ohno. He listens to the muffled tourism sounds behind them - little bursts of laughter and still more ukelele music fading in and out.
“Does this seem like a good place to say something dramatic?” Ohno asks, as if he’s asking for a good place to eat lunch.
“If it’s about your phone call with Judy I already kind of guessed that.”
“No?”
Nino looks back at Ohno, but Ohno’s focused on the ocean; gazing out with the same confused but resigned expression that Nino’s seen him give to his computer screen many times.
“It’s about my job,” Ohno says. “About the CEO, he-” Ohno shakes his head and sits down in the sand, cross-legged. Nino joins him, too buzzed to feel silly about it. “I wasn’t supposed to be a manager at all,” he continues. “Sho was the one.”
“Sakurai? That kind of-”
“Makes sense. I know. I fucked it up, though. We were both seated at Johnny’s table at the New Year party. I don’t even know why I was there I just...was. Johnny was talking about the Hawaii office and who should go and I’d been drinking too much and I said that I should go.”
Nino can’t help but snort at that. Ohno flashes a strained, embarrassed smile.
“I don’t remember much of it but apparently I was really making a case for myself. All of a sudden, Johnny says that I should janken with Sho.”
“Janken?”
“Yeah. I didn’t- I mean, he’s the CEO, right? I guess I wasn’t drunk enough to say no, so I janken with Sho and I win and then Johnny says I’m going to Hawaii.”
“Oh shit,” Nino breathes, his face going hot with second-hand embarrassment.
“I thought it was a joke. It had to be, right? Then I came back to work and there were all these gifts on my desk. Like, really nice fountain pens and shit… I didn’t want to be in charge of anything. I really didn’t.”
The two of them sit in silence after Ohno’s confession, staring out at the ocean. Nino feels like he should say some kind of encouraging words, but he can’t think of any. Saying nothing at all feels uncomfortable, though.
“What about Hawaii?” he asks, allowing himself a sideways glance at Ohno.
Ohno straightens a little from his hunched-over defeat. “Huh?”
“You didn’t want to be in charge - did you really want to come to Hawaii?”
“Of course,” Ohno says, brow furrowed like Nino’s asked him a strange question.
“Why?”
“Why?” Ohno repeats.
Ohno chuckles and it’s the first time Nino’s heard him direct a laugh at someone other than himself.
“Is it the fishing thing?” Nino guesses.
“It’s Hawaii!” Ohno says, gesturing out towards the ocean.
Nino looks out, thoughtful.
“It is kind of nice, at night, I guess.”
“You guess.”
“What?” Nino snaps. “I don’t get out here much.”
“I get out here every day. I mean, not this spot, but somewhere I can put my feet in the ocean.”
“Wow. Okay. I’ve been to the beach I think three times…”
Ohno grabs Nino’s arm way harder than he needs to. Well, really, Nino thinks, there’s no reason for Ohno to grab him at all.
“You’re joking,” Ohno says, voice low and serious, searching Nino’s face like he’s really concerned about something.
“What, I have to go to the beach all the time because I live in Hawaii?”
“YES!” Ohno says, earnestly. “That’s the whole- I mean- It’s Hawaii!”
Nino looks back over his shoulder at a couple sharing a towel not too far from them, but they don’t seem to be paying any attention to the small Japanese man yelling about Hawaii.
“I don’t do great in the sun,” Nino explains, annoyed with himself for giving any explanation at all. “Even when I played baseball in school I never tanned, I just burned up. It’s not my thing.”
“You should at least come at night, then,” Ohno insists.
“And do what?” Nino humors him.
“Barbecue, drink, just sit out here, even.”
Ohno lists these things more like he’s brainstorming than giving advice.
He also still has his hand locked around Nino’s arm.
Normally, Nino would tuck this away as a Thing to Consider Later, but after the potentially damning office gossip Ohno has just dumped on him he feels too confident not to ask: “Is that a suggestion or an invitation?”
“Yes,” Ohno answers immediately.
“That’s not-” Nino laughs, unable to finish.
“I mean the second one. The- oh, wow.” Ohno lets go of Nino’s arm. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m considering your invitation.”
“Yeah?” Ohno asks, his face all earnest again.
Nino thinks that this may be what’s been bothering him about Ohno all along: watching such a painfully honest person try to cover something up.
Nino glances over to the nearby couple again; they’re looking at something on a phone together. He knows he hasn’t had enough to drink to excuse this, but he leans forward towards Ohno anyway.
Surprised, Ohno leans back, then grabs Nino to keep from falling - or something like that, Nino thinks. It’s all a little fuzzy except for the part where Nino’s hands are in the sand and Ohno’s hands are on Nino’s waist.
“Aiba was right,” Nino says, laughing to himself. “No one is that fucking clueless about Windows.”
“Windows?”
Nino rolls and closes the space between their lips.
Of all the ways he thought this night might have ended, “sprawled out on the beach and making out with a guy who is only technically not his boss” was pretty far down the list.
“Nino!?”
Nino opens his eyes and sees Ohno’s are wide, round, and pointed just past his shoulder. Slowly, casually, Nino rolls off of him and rests an elbow in the sand.
Jun is standing a few steps away, hands on his hips, looking a little too unsurprised for Nino’s comfort. Nino smiles innocently up at him anyway.
“We’re thinking about karaoke,” Jun says, answering a question neither of them has asked.
“Great, awesome, good,” Ohno replies, rushing to his feet.
Nino follows, slowly, and enjoys Ohno’s nervous enthusiasm as they walk with Jun back to the strip. Jun, for his part, gives no indication that anything is out of the ordinary until right before they step onto the sidewalk.
“Manager, excuse me,” he says, not quietly enough for Nino to miss. “But you have sand in your hair.”
---
Nino waits all weekend for the angry text messages to come, but Jun stays quiet. Nothing comes on Monday, either, but Nino plans on staying in his bunker just to be safe.
Ohno calls early that morning to tell Nino his computer is “broken.”
“Cute, but try me a little later, okay? I’m trying to avoid Jun.”
“Okay…” Ohno answers.
He sounds so disappointed that Nino relents and thankfully makes it through the office without incident. He’s careful to close the door behind him before starting in on teasing Ohno for not being sick of him after spending most of the weekend finding more secluded beach spots to roll around in.
“My computer really is broken, though,” Ohno tells him.
Nino watches and frowns as Ohno shakes his mouse to demonstrate.
“Is it on?” Nino asks as he walks around the desk.
“Yeah, see? That lights on. I heard that noise, too.”
“The startup noise.”
“Yeah, but the screen’s just black.”
“Alright, let me see.”
Ohno moves so that Nino can take his seat. Nino hits Ctrl-Alt-Delete and waits. Nothing happens.
“Has it been like this all morning?” Nino asks, tapping the spacebar.
“Yeah. I didn’t notice at first because I was on a phone call…”
Slowly, horribly, the realization dawns on Nino: “It’s not on.”
“What? It is on. This light...that means it’s on.”
“The monitor, Ohno.”
“Monitor?”
Nino turns on the monitor and looks up at Ohno, watching his reaction.
He looks confused.
Genuinely confused.
“So how is the ‘monitor’ different from the ‘computer’?”
Nino lays his head down on the desk.
arashikuroFrom:
cupcake4mafiaPart 1
Jun calls Nino and asks him to stop by his office when he’s free. Nino puts this off for a respectable amount of time, so when he heads in Aiba is also there, looking like he’s getting scolded.
“Good timing,” Jun says. “Help me talk to Aiba about his hair.”
“It has gotten lighter in the sun, hasn’t it?” Nino comments, as though he’s just now noticed Aiba’s hair is about two shades shy of orange.
Aiba beams back at him. Jun scoffs.
“Fine,” he says, obviously putting this away only for the time being. “Aiba, help me talk to Nino about the outing.”
“Outing?” Nino repeats, grimacing.
“I sent you a calendar invite on Monday for this office outing tonight,” Jun says, flatly.
Nino vaguely remembers deleting something like that.
“Aw, he’s coming,” Aiba insists.
Nino wrinkles his nose. “You know, I’ve read that Americans actually think it’s embarrassing to go drinking with their coworkers.”
“Fascinating. I don’t care. Everyone is going to this outing.”
“Ohhh, Crystal too?” Aiba asks, excited.
“Aiba,” Jun groans, resting his forehead in his hand.
“What? I want to practice my English."
“Hire a tutor!” Jun snaps. “Alright, out. Nino, you stay.”
Nino sits in the chair across from Jun’s desk and folds his hands in his lap. He waits while Jun takes a long sip of coffee. He wonders if he’ll ever get sick of watching Jun hate his HR duties.
“I don’t have to give you The Crystal Talk, do I?” Jun asks.
“What’s that talk about?”
“About how she is the only woman in our office, not the only woman on the island.”
“Of course not,” Nino scoffs. “I am nothing if not professional.”
“Well, I was thinking of the other reason.”
Nino blinks, surprised. It’s been almost a year since that night in Tokyo when Nino and Jun awkwardly waved hello to each other from across a crowded gay bar, and they’ve never once discussed it.
“That’s very bold of you,” Nino teases. “Very American.”
Jun shrugs but his smile seems a little smug.
“And if that’s your reason, then you should probably give me half of the talk,” Nino warns. “I’ll take the first half about how she’s the only woman in the office.”
“Just...be there. Okay? If you come this one time, I’ll give you a free pass for the next work outing.”
It’s a good offer. Too good, really. Nino thinks back to Ohno’s phone call from Judy and lowers his voice a little before asking: “Are we going to get some bad news?”
“No, nothing like that. Honestly? I think the Operations Manager really likes you, so I’m hoping you can get him to loosen up a little.”
Nino keeps his face straight. Jun isn’t saying “like” in the same way Aiba said it; he’s not implying anything. Still, Nino’s not sure how to feel about Jun keeping tabs on his frequent tech support visits, or that he also thinks they mean something other than Ohno barely being able to function in this decade.
“Two free passes,” Nino suggests.
“One free pass and one free drink tonight.”
Nino opens his mouth to make a joke about Jun already having missed his chance to buy him a drink, but he thinks better of it and asks about dress code instead.
---
The outing is “casual dress,” which throws the office pool completely off-balance; the consensus in the admin staff group LINE chat is that no one knows how to interpret Sakurai Sho’s ¾-sleeve shirt (or where such shirts are sold in men's sizes). Nino is much more amused by Ohno’s board shorts and rubber flip-flops. The surf shop hoodie Ohno’s wearing \ooks new, at least, but he still seems less like a supervisor on a night out with his staff and more like a local who’s wandered into a group of Japanese tourists.
Nino really wasn’t interested in going anywhere near Waikiki, but he has to admit the spot that Jun has reserved is nice: a table for ten in an outdoor dining area that looks out on the tiny strip of sand that qualifies as “Waikiki beach.” The shore is littered with people, naturally, but at night it’s a little easier to overlook them. It’s kind of pretty in its own way, Nino thinks, with the city lights reflecting on the ocean, but it could just be that the ukelele music piping through the restaurant’s speakers is getting to him.
Nino orders a hamburger and a beer and relaxes back in his spot between Aiba and Arioka, listening to the newcomers share their Hawaii stories. Everyone makes at least a token attempt to speak some English with Crystal - Aiba most memorably, talking about a “VERY DANGER” experience he had while out surfing with a client. Aiba’s pantomime of his struggle to make it back to shore without stepping on live coral (something they were all warned about before visiting the beach) ends with him very narrowly avoiding smacking their waitress in the face. His horrified “SORRY SORRY SUPER SO SORRY!” sends them all into hysterics.
It’s not that strange, really, that Nino is the only one who notices Ohno slip away. It’s not weird to Nino that he would, either. It’s not proper, but it’s not hard to understand considering the slow fade of Ohno’s smile over an evening of endless “Manager, you first” and “Manager, what do you think?”
Not that Nino’s been watching Ohno throughout dinner or anything.
Okay, he has been.
Nino’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He checks it as Crystal has the group enthralled with the very casual way she’s said “This one time, my friends and I were skinny dipping…”
Where did Ohno go? Jun asks, in a private chat.
Nino sends back a sticker of a confused bear and follows it with a How would I know?
Across the table, Jun rolls his eyes and types harder.
Help me find him.
Well, if Jun wants to give Nino an excuse to wander off, too, then he’ll take it. He mumbles a “pardon me” and leaves the table to casually snoop around the restaurant, checking the bathrooms. No Ohno.
Damn, Nino thinks. That’s bold.
He wonders again about Ohno’s phone call with Judy and if there might be some bad news coming up for them after all. Maybe that’s why Ohno hasn’t connected much with the staff; he’s dreading telling everyone that they have to pack up and go home.
Nino heads out into the crowded Waikiki strip, feeling the buzz of his beers more acutely now that he’s walking. The idea that he might find Ohno in this crowd is silly, especially if Ohno is trying to get lost.
Nino’s not entirely sure if he’s following Jun’s orders or just making his own early exit. It’s not that Nino isn’t having a good time, it’s just not quite his scene. With just a few people it’s easier to read the atmosphere and know the right thing to say; in a crowd Nino finds himself staying silent until he’s not sure if he’s really there anymore.
Well you knew I was a shut-in when you brought me here, Nino imagines telling an angry Jun on Monday.
Then Ohno ruins that plan by letting Nino almost walk right into him outside of an ABC Store. He’s standing stock-still in the middle of the sidewalk, reading intently from a stack of tourism pamphlets in his hand.
“Shooting range or strip club?” Nino asks.
Ohno looks up, bug-eyed. Immediately, his expression softens into a smile.
“Deep-sea fishing,” he says, holding the brochure up so Nino can see.
“Oh, yeah, you have that big one in your office.”
“It’s fake,” Ohno says, his eyes focusing somewhere in the space beyond Nino. “Guess I should head back, huh?”
“You missed a good public nudity story, but...” Nino shrugs. “Do what you want. You’re the manager, right?”
“Right,” Ohno agrees, nodding slowly.
With that he starts walking back without even a look over his shoulder. Nino follows, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He’s not sure why he had to bring up Ohno’s position. Maybe he’s a little annoyed at Ohno’s “woe is me, I’m upper management” attitude, but, still, something is obviously genuinely bothering the guy.
A block away from the restaurant, Ohno turns down an alley and starts walking towards the beach. Nino smiles at the change of course and makes no objection. He follows Ohno away from the strip and out towards the shore. It’s late, sure, but this patch of beach still seems practically abandoned by Waikiki standards. Looking around, Nino can tell they’re in a spot that a hotel is trying to pretend they own.
Ohno stares out at the ocean and Nino tries not to stare at Ohno. He listens to the muffled tourism sounds behind them - little bursts of laughter and still more ukelele music fading in and out.
“Does this seem like a good place to say something dramatic?” Ohno asks, as if he’s asking for a good place to eat lunch.
“If it’s about your phone call with Judy I already kind of guessed that.”
“No?”
Nino looks back at Ohno, but Ohno’s focused on the ocean; gazing out with the same confused but resigned expression that Nino’s seen him give to his computer screen many times.
“It’s about my job,” Ohno says. “About the CEO, he-” Ohno shakes his head and sits down in the sand, cross-legged. Nino joins him, too buzzed to feel silly about it. “I wasn’t supposed to be a manager at all,” he continues. “Sho was the one.”
“Sakurai? That kind of-”
“Makes sense. I know. I fucked it up, though. We were both seated at Johnny’s table at the New Year party. I don’t even know why I was there I just...was. Johnny was talking about the Hawaii office and who should go and I’d been drinking too much and I said that I should go.”
Nino can’t help but snort at that. Ohno flashes a strained, embarrassed smile.
“I don’t remember much of it but apparently I was really making a case for myself. All of a sudden, Johnny says that I should janken with Sho.”
“Janken?”
“Yeah. I didn’t- I mean, he’s the CEO, right? I guess I wasn’t drunk enough to say no, so I janken with Sho and I win and then Johnny says I’m going to Hawaii.”
“Oh shit,” Nino breathes, his face going hot with second-hand embarrassment.
“I thought it was a joke. It had to be, right? Then I came back to work and there were all these gifts on my desk. Like, really nice fountain pens and shit… I didn’t want to be in charge of anything. I really didn’t.”
The two of them sit in silence after Ohno’s confession, staring out at the ocean. Nino feels like he should say some kind of encouraging words, but he can’t think of any. Saying nothing at all feels uncomfortable, though.
“What about Hawaii?” he asks, allowing himself a sideways glance at Ohno.
Ohno straightens a little from his hunched-over defeat. “Huh?”
“You didn’t want to be in charge - did you really want to come to Hawaii?”
“Of course,” Ohno says, brow furrowed like Nino’s asked him a strange question.
“Why?”
“Why?” Ohno repeats.
Ohno chuckles and it’s the first time Nino’s heard him direct a laugh at someone other than himself.
“Is it the fishing thing?” Nino guesses.
“It’s Hawaii!” Ohno says, gesturing out towards the ocean.
Nino looks out, thoughtful.
“It is kind of nice, at night, I guess.”
“You guess.”
“What?” Nino snaps. “I don’t get out here much.”
“I get out here every day. I mean, not this spot, but somewhere I can put my feet in the ocean.”
“Wow. Okay. I’ve been to the beach I think three times…”
Ohno grabs Nino’s arm way harder than he needs to. Well, really, Nino thinks, there’s no reason for Ohno to grab him at all.
“You’re joking,” Ohno says, voice low and serious, searching Nino’s face like he’s really concerned about something.
“What, I have to go to the beach all the time because I live in Hawaii?”
“YES!” Ohno says, earnestly. “That’s the whole- I mean- It’s Hawaii!”
Nino looks back over his shoulder at a couple sharing a towel not too far from them, but they don’t seem to be paying any attention to the small Japanese man yelling about Hawaii.
“I don’t do great in the sun,” Nino explains, annoyed with himself for giving any explanation at all. “Even when I played baseball in school I never tanned, I just burned up. It’s not my thing.”
“You should at least come at night, then,” Ohno insists.
“And do what?” Nino humors him.
“Barbecue, drink, just sit out here, even.”
Ohno lists these things more like he’s brainstorming than giving advice.
He also still has his hand locked around Nino’s arm.
Normally, Nino would tuck this away as a Thing to Consider Later, but after the potentially damning office gossip Ohno has just dumped on him he feels too confident not to ask: “Is that a suggestion or an invitation?”
“Yes,” Ohno answers immediately.
“That’s not-” Nino laughs, unable to finish.
“I mean the second one. The- oh, wow.” Ohno lets go of Nino’s arm. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m considering your invitation.”
“Yeah?” Ohno asks, his face all earnest again.
Nino thinks that this may be what’s been bothering him about Ohno all along: watching such a painfully honest person try to cover something up.
Nino glances over to the nearby couple again; they’re looking at something on a phone together. He knows he hasn’t had enough to drink to excuse this, but he leans forward towards Ohno anyway.
Surprised, Ohno leans back, then grabs Nino to keep from falling - or something like that, Nino thinks. It’s all a little fuzzy except for the part where Nino’s hands are in the sand and Ohno’s hands are on Nino’s waist.
“Aiba was right,” Nino says, laughing to himself. “No one is that fucking clueless about Windows.”
“Windows?”
Nino rolls and closes the space between their lips.
Of all the ways he thought this night might have ended, “sprawled out on the beach and making out with a guy who is only technically not his boss” was pretty far down the list.
“Nino!?”
Nino opens his eyes and sees Ohno’s are wide, round, and pointed just past his shoulder. Slowly, casually, Nino rolls off of him and rests an elbow in the sand.
Jun is standing a few steps away, hands on his hips, looking a little too unsurprised for Nino’s comfort. Nino smiles innocently up at him anyway.
“We’re thinking about karaoke,” Jun says, answering a question neither of them has asked.
“Great, awesome, good,” Ohno replies, rushing to his feet.
Nino follows, slowly, and enjoys Ohno’s nervous enthusiasm as they walk with Jun back to the strip. Jun, for his part, gives no indication that anything is out of the ordinary until right before they step onto the sidewalk.
“Manager, excuse me,” he says, not quietly enough for Nino to miss. “But you have sand in your hair.”
---
Nino waits all weekend for the angry text messages to come, but Jun stays quiet. Nothing comes on Monday, either, but Nino plans on staying in his bunker just to be safe.
Ohno calls early that morning to tell Nino his computer is “broken.”
“Cute, but try me a little later, okay? I’m trying to avoid Jun.”
“Okay…” Ohno answers.
He sounds so disappointed that Nino relents and thankfully makes it through the office without incident. He’s careful to close the door behind him before starting in on teasing Ohno for not being sick of him after spending most of the weekend finding more secluded beach spots to roll around in.
“My computer really is broken, though,” Ohno tells him.
Nino watches and frowns as Ohno shakes his mouse to demonstrate.
“Is it on?” Nino asks as he walks around the desk.
“Yeah, see? That lights on. I heard that noise, too.”
“The startup noise.”
“Yeah, but the screen’s just black.”
“Alright, let me see.”
Ohno moves so that Nino can take his seat. Nino hits Ctrl-Alt-Delete and waits. Nothing happens.
“Has it been like this all morning?” Nino asks, tapping the spacebar.
“Yeah. I didn’t notice at first because I was on a phone call…”
Slowly, horribly, the realization dawns on Nino: “It’s not on.”
“What? It is on. This light...that means it’s on.”
“The monitor, Ohno.”
“Monitor?”
Nino turns on the monitor and looks up at Ohno, watching his reaction.
He looks confused.
Genuinely confused.
“So how is the ‘monitor’ different from the ‘computer’?”
Nino lays his head down on the desk.
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Yes.
♥
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Finally, this was posted and it was worth the wait! Ohno being completely clueless about technology is totally believable and so is Nino spending his days playing Overwatch... wait, I mean Underwitness XD Also the group chat about when Sho would roll up his sleeves killed me. X'D
This was so cute! Thank you so much, writer!
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Thanks again for such a fun prompt!
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Thank you for writing :)
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And I would have been the same. I would never believe that Ohno is so clueless about that stuff. Even if he is just in that position because he won Janken (I loved that bit btw) he still was in that company XD
Jun being the know-it-all and finally bringing them together. He is prould of himself for sure XD
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This is soooo cute and funny... i could totally imagine ohno being hopeless at computer and nino as someone who just one to be left alone...
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JUST, THIS IS REALLY CUTE!!!! You are awesomeness ♥
PS: Jun and Nino low-key eyeing each other in a gay bar WHAT UP
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