fic for littlealex

[nino_mod]

For: littlealex
From: :3.

Title: in the heights.
Pairing/Focus: Nino-center
Rating: G
Warnings: None apply, unless you have a fear of heights?
Summary: Privacy and solitude is important to preserve. Unless something catches your interest (or barges their way into your life?).
Notes: Alex, I hope you enjoy this. J and E are life savers as usual, and as always, many thanks to NinoMod and their generous, understanding nature. <3


Nino ignores the pebbles hitting his window. He’s not really in the mood to deal with people today, preferring his solitude on this bright sunny day.

“Nino. Nino! It’s me!”

Nino groans, irritated that he was pulled away from his game. He opens the window, peering down to the ground of the tower.

“What do you want, Aiba?”

The man on the ground, Aiba, grinned, and holds up a basket.

“I’ve brought something to eat?” Aiba offers, his grin turning sheepish.

“And?” Nino asks, almost dismissive.

“Nino, don’t be like that. Let down that raven hair and we can share these milk buns!”

Nino sighs and looks back at the loops of his hair that take up a lot of space in his room. Is it really worth the effort, he wonders to himself. Then he sighs again and goes to grab the end of his hair, because if he doesn’t want to deal with Aiba’s whining in the future, then he should just go ahead and deal with this.

He tosses the end out and lets gravity do its work. A couple of tugs on his scalp later, Aiba is sitting in the room with him, uncovering the basket’s contents.

“I saw Sho earlier today at the bakery and--” Here, Aiba stuffs a bun into his mouth, muffling the rest of his words, “he wanted me to remind you of your dinner date in two days.”

“Aw, fuck, did I actually promise that to him?”

Chewing thoughtfully on a bun, Nino tries to think back to the last time Sho had come up to visit and couldn’t really recall agreeing to such a thing. He must’ve tuned him out at some point and agreed unknowingly. Sho does have a tendency to keep on talking, even when he got no response.

“That’s what he said anyway.” Aiba takes the latest Jump out of his messenger bag and tosses it to Nino. “In any case, he said let him know what he should bring for dinner.”

Nino grunts and stuffs another bun into his mouth, flipping through the comic book.

Aiba laughs as he settles, leaning back against Nino’s bed and pulling a cushion under himself to sit on. “No getting out of this one now.”

Nino sucks his teeth at him with a short glare. It’s not that Nino doesn’t want to see Sho, not really. It’s just that. Well. Having lived his entire life in this tower, with only Ms. Julie as a (constant and vigilant) visitor, Nino enjoys his alone time. He sometimes imagines himself as Smaug, carefully hoarding all his alone time, rarely allowing others to intrude with their joie de vivre. Ugh. But then these idiots had to go and make him like them, so Nino grants the four of them, Aiba, Sho, Jun, and Ohno, access to him and his tower.

But that doesn’t mean he was always willing to do so.

---

It’s a slow, rainy day when Nino first meets Jun. Though it may be more appropriate to say that Jun meets Nino, by trying to save him.

Nino is putting together a sandwich when he first hears it, the voice calling out just above the sound of the rain.

“Fair maiden, fair maiden, let down your golden hair to me.”

Nino ignores it because a. he is clearly male and b. his hair is the direct opposite of golden. He reaches for the mustard, only to huff in frustration at having left it in the refrigerator. He gathers up some hair and moves it with him to the fridge so that he could continue with his sandwich construction.

Until he hears the voice again.

“Fair maiden, fair maiden, let down your golden hair.”

Nino groans and decides to get rid of the idiot. He stomps up to the window and throws it open, glaring down at the.. Holy hell, is that a proper knight, with iron armor and all? Nino folds his arms under him atop the windowsill and looks down at the rain drenched knight, blinking in confusion.

“What do you want?” Nino asks.

The knight seems thrown for a moment, but clears his throat immediately to repeat his entreaty.

“Fair maiden-”

“Let me stop you right there.” Nino interrupts, an eyebrow quirked up in challenge. “Maiden?”

The knight nods immediately.

“I, Jun Matsumoto of the Matsumoto Kingdom, have heard of a fair maiden who has been kept against her will in this tower for the entirety of her life and needs saving from her evil stepmother.” Jun unsheathes and brandishes his sword, ready to fight the evils of the world for this so called ‘fair maiden’.

Nino bursts out laughing immediately, both hands rising to cover his face, as if his amusement was too much to show the rest of the world.

“I mean, Ms. Julie could be considered evil by some, but…” Here, Nino snorts. “But I’m the only one who lives in this tower and let me be the first one to confirm that I am definitely not a maiden.”

“But… I’ve seen her… From the distance, when I first spotted the tower.” Jun says earnestly, confident in his knowledge.

“And how long ago was that?” Nino asks. “I tried to bleach my hair one day, to success for sure, but when one has magically long hair that can heal any ailment, do you really think a simple dye job would stick in any manner? Like, seriously keep it from returning to its original state?” Nino can’t keep the bite out of his words, but sometimes people can just be too much.

“Ah… a couple of years ago, I think?” Jun answers, somewhat embarrassed.

“Years?!” Nino is genuinely surprised. “It took you years to work up the courage to come up to this tower and attempt to rescue your ‘fair maiden’?” Nino snorts, lips tilting up into a smirk. “Coward.”

“I am not, thank you very much,” Jun snipes right back. “As I had intended to save you, plans need to be made and refined, based on observations. So there.”

“Yeah, okay. Whatever you say.” Nino salutes Jun and shuts the window quickly, ignoring the squawk Jun lets out in response.

Jun sighs and sheathes his sword. He didn’t even get his name. With that thought in mind, Jun returns home with a plan to return the next day.

Jun did end up coming back the next day, and the next, and the next, and Nino let it happen. Jun asked the same question everyday and Nino gave him the same answer. At first Nino was amused, but then Jun had the audacity to interrupt in the middle of a game. So Nino, exasperated with Jun, threw open the window and let him have it.

“Jun. Stop. I thought you would’ve gotten the message by now, but I don’t WANT to be saved. I like it up here. No one bothers me. I can do what I want when I want. I have no responsibilities nor societal obligations to fulfill. I’m good! So just leave me alone. Got it? Great.”

Nino leaves the window open, forgetting to close it in his rush to return to his game, when he hears Jun call out again.

“Hey? Can I at least have your name?”

Nino reluctantly returns to the window and looks down, seeing Jun there. It wouldn’t hurt to at least give his name, right?

“Uhm. You can call me Nino, I guess.”

---

Today’s bright clear sky leaves Nino reluctant to be anywhere near the window, but even he realizes that he needs exposure to the sun sometimes if he’s to remain living, or some such nonsense like that.

And so it is with extreme effort that he rubs some sunscreen on his face and arms and sits at the windowsill and watches as nature passes him by. Nino dozes off.

Until a small thwacking sound catches his attention and lures him from his doze. A few later, his eyes open to see a small man sitting at the edge of the lake by his tower. Small might not be the best word, compact seems to fit better. His hair is cut short and glints a soft brown in the sunlight.

He’s fishing in Nino’s lake.

Nino doesn’t think he’s ever seen someone at his lake. This little man is so quiet. So persistent. He just keeps trying, his fishing line hitting the water every couple of minutes. Nino would think it would become annoying, but it somehow only lends to the peace surrounding them. But Nino wants to talk to him.

“Hey you with the fishing rod.”

The man’s shoulder twitches. Nino grins, knowing he’s been heard, so he calls out again.

“You know, if you stay out there any longer, you’ll burn to a crisp.”

The man turns his head, line still cast into the lake. He meets Nino’s gaze, gives him a small grin, and turns back to the water.

“Wanna come up?” Nino invites.

The man shakes his head.

“You sure?”

The man nods.

Nino takes the end of his hair and feeds it out of the window, lowering it to the ground.

“I’ll make it easy for you.”

The man turns and watches, entranced at the length and thickness of the hair that slinks down to the ground.

“Wow.”

“You respond to that?” Nino laughs, watching the man. “Come on up.”

The man drops his pole and walks to the tower. When he reaches Nino’s hair, he strokes it. “That’s soft.”

“You can climb up it if you want.” Nino grins when he begins to feel the minor tugs on his scalp. He steps back from the window and waits for the man. Soon, a flip flop clad foot reaches over the windowsill as the man climbs into the room.

Almost immediately, Nino pushes into his space, their faces inches from each other.

“Hi.” He says.

“Hello.”

“I’m Nino.”

“Ohno.”

Nino’s grin widens.

---

Nino meets Aiba and Sho as a pair. Sho’s the nearby town’s inspector and general keeper of records. Aiba does part-time as his assistant and as a mailman.

It is the middle of summer when Sho brings Aiba to Nino’s tower, unaware of the presence of the tower. Sho is examining the tower and dictating his findings to Aiba, who is writing them down for future record keeping.

“It looks to be about the circumference of… A height of… The material is red brick, inlaid with mortar and covered with vines of…” Sho mutters unknowingly, expecting Aiba to have caught all the information.

“Sho-chan, can you say that again? You kept trailing off.”

“Hm? Oh, okay.” Sho rattles off the information once more, a bit louder, speaking over the creak of the opening window. He looks to the top of the tower, eyebrows quirking in question when he takes in the sight of the open window. “Was that always there?”

“What?” Aiba’s gaze follows Sho’s pointing finger and his eyes widen in response. “Oh wow. Do you think--?”

Aiba is cut off when a letter comes sailing out of the open window, attached to a long, black string. Which, Sho notices upon closer examination, is actually hair. He screeches, jumping back away from it.

Aiba laughs, moving closer to the letter. He unwraps the hair and unfurls the letter, reading it off.

This tower contains one resident, Ninomiya Kazunari, of fair skin, moderate height, and extremely long black hair.
This resident asks that you keep this tower out of city records, as he would like to preserve his privacy.
If you choose to ignore this request, just know that he has friends in high places who owe him favors that he is not afraid to call in.

Aiba clears his throat. “I think he wants us to leave him alone, Sho-chan.”

They watch the strand of hair retreat into the tower, a pale hand shutting the window once the hair disappears.

“I think you’re right, Aiba. Shall we?” Sho asks, eager to get away from the place.

“Nope.” Aiba says cheerfully. “I wanna meet this Ninomiya.” Aiba cups his hands around his mouth, yelling out, “Hey, Ninomiya!”

The windows bang open in response, an irritated young man staring out. “What?!”

Aiba waves in delight, clearly enjoying this much more than his partner. “You’re talking about Sir Jun-kun, right? In your letter? He’s told me about you! Let down that gorgeous hair and let us up.”

“I gave you that letter for a reason, idiot. Respect it!”

“Pfft, whatever. Jun-kun says you’re his friend, so now you’re my friend, and by extension, Sho-chan’s friend.” Aiba grins widely.

“What in the hell kind of logic is that? And who says I’m talking about Jun? What if I’m talking about the King or the- or the Prime Minister?” Nino is leaning on the windowsill, enjoyment clear on his face.

“As I said,” Aiba singsongs, “Jun-kun’s told me about you.”

Nino laughs and throws down his hair. “Fine, but you only have a minute before I take my hair back. You’d better hurry up!”

---

“Fine. If he insists on dinner, then he has to bring you, J, and Ohno,” Nino gives in, starting to tidy his room, “Plus, I demand hamburg steaks, and he knows that only J knows how to make them the way I like.”

“Yes!” Aiba cheers and whips out his notepad to copy down the info for later to give to Sho.

While Aiba is distracted, Nino gives a soft smile.

“Now I’m looking forward to it.”