Setting Sail(Oneshot)
Title: Setting Sail
Author ace3851
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ohmiya
Length: One-shot
Genre: Fluff, mystery..?
Disclaimer: i don't smoke
Summary: When Ohno Satoshi and his crew are met with the issues that come with not seeing land for two years, especially with one easily seasick sailor on board, Ohno is forced to re-think the journey.
The ocean always looks the same. It surrounds the small boat, and then stretches out endlessly.
Early in the morning, two men lean out a side of the boat, quietly fishing.
“I’m hungry,” the taller of the two, known to all as Aiba Masaki, whines. “What do you think breakfast will be?”
“It’s Jun’s turn - something good,” the other man responds. His name is Ohno Satoshi; the captain of the boat, also the smallest, and surprisingly the oldest.
“Fried rice?” Aiba tries, tone hopeful.
Ohno frowns. “We’re out of rice,” he explains sadly.
A peaceful silence follows, and the only thing that kept Ohno from dozing off is the heavy dip of his fishing pole.
He fights. It’s heavy, and Aiba has to help at some point until, finally, a big, fat salmon emerges from the waters.
So for breakfast that morning is salmon soup. It’s Jun’s big solution to serving salmon without rice.
“I don’t know what to do with the rest of that fish,” Jun grumbles, staring at his breakfast miserably. “Either we have salmon soup every meal from now on or we just have to throw it out, before it goes bad.”
“I can eat more. It’s pretty good,” Sho comments.
At the farthest side of the cramped dining table, Ohno sleepily counts the numbers of sailors at the table and then frowns; no wonder why it’s so quiet. “Where’s Nino?”
“Seasick again,” Aiba responds with a small sigh.
Nino was more times than not ill from the rocking of the boat since the beginning of the sail. The first few weeks was the peak - he vomited in amounts that didn’t logically add up to how much he consumed, and he stayed bedridden in his room almost entirely. In appearance, he had become dangerously thin and pale, and the boat almost turned around in its journey to save the poor sailor. However, Nino begged for them to keep sailing, and promised that he was getting better. To some extent, he was right; after the first few weeks, he starts spending more and more time outside of his small room, looking increasingly lively and eating more.
But recently, the progress proves itself to not be permanent. Though not as bad as how things were in the beginning, Nino’s starting to get sick a lot again.
“Let’s fish more after eating, captain,” Aiba chimes, and it strangely lightens up the mood.
“Don’t - we have more than enough right now,” Jun says flatly, taking a bite of salmon.
Aiba pouts. His head tilts downward, and Sho reaches out, about to cheerfully tap his shoulder, but stops short as soon as Aiba snaps back up with an invincible smile.
“Catch and release,” he says in broken English, proudly. Jun raises a brow while Sho laughs his signature hero-like laugh. Ohno smiles and nods.
The sun is strong. At least three hours is spent unsuccessfully fishing up small fish in small numbers, and then Aiba is already completely sunburnt.
In the basement of the boat, which is used as a living room, Sho carefully rubs some kind of lotion on Aiba’s reddened and aching shoulders.
Ohno’s only slightly red, as he was already pretty dark to begin with. He sits at the edge of the room, trying to get a string through a needle as he needed to sew up the hole in his shorts caused by fishing needles.
“Why’s your face not burnt?” Sho asks.
“I wore a hat,” Aiba responds shakily.
Jun laughs - “You remembered to wear a hat but forgot the rest?”
“You’re mean,” Aiba says with a pout.
“I’m joking, you know,” Jun tries, softer this time around. Aiba smiles an I know.
After a few minutes of nonsense chatting, Sho abruptly hushes the guys. Ohno, who still hadn’t been able to get the string through, looks up curiously, stretching his tired neck in the process.
And then, they all hear it. Thunder.
“A storm’s coming,” Sho speaks seriously.
According to Sho, the boat could maybe avoid the storm if it sailed quickly east. So the captain tries to get the engine running, but then realizes that the engine had stopped working.
Ohno climbs into the back of the boat to examine the engine there. Sho and Jun follow, while Aiba stayed in the basement to rest.
“It’s finally out of fuel,” Ohno sighs, scratching his head in stress.
“There’s barely any wind… we should prepare for the storm then,” Jun suggests, arms crossed over his chest.
And so the three work to prepare the boat for the storm: clear the platforms, and make sure to fasten all the openings of the boat closed. It had started to drizzle by the time they’re finished.
“I’ll go stay with Nino,” Ohno says to Sho, who stands at the entrance to the basement, eyes squinting as raindrops fall onto his face.
“Sure? He might throw something at you if he’s that sick. And he’ll get moody when the storm comes; it’ll get pretty wobbly here.”
“Yeah. He’s been in bed all day today; I’m worried.”
“Okay,” Sho sighs. “Make sure to close all doors tightly, okay, captain?”
Ohno nods, and waves the taller goodbye.
Nino’s room is small. The room itself was designed to be a storage; it only became Nino’s room because, one, he liked to be alone when sick and, two, he was the type of person who needed a room to himself anyway. Because it wasn’t designed to be a room for an individual, the window is small, letting in only the slightest of sunlight; that’s one of many reasons why Nino was so pale.
Ohno knocks twice, and waits for a minute before he steps in. “You awake?” he calls out carefully into the darkness of the younger’s room.
“No,” comes the response.
Ohno sighs. “I’m coming in.”
When there’s no protesting sound, Ohno steps in, shutting the door behind him before any more rain got in.
“Are you okay?” Ohno asks first thing, sitting on the floor next to Nino’s futon.
“Better than I was this morning,” Nino grumbles, sitting up and stretching. “What’d I miss?”
“Well…” Ohno starts, then pauses thoughtfully. He swallows a breath of air before continuing: “Aibachan and I caught salmon, but there’s not much we can do with it cause we’re out of rice. Jun made soup out of it, though, and it’s pretty good. And, Aibachan got bad sunburn from fishing too much with me in the afternoon… and we found out that our engine finally ran out of fuel, when we were preparing for the storm that’s coming soon.”
“A storm?” Nino frowns. Ohno nods softly, and Nino lets out a small curse.
“Sorry.”
The younger looks up at Ohno, and then smiles softly. “C’mere,” he murmurs, pulling at Ohno’s arm. The older gets the hint, and crawls under the sheets to join Nino.
It’s been a while since the two did this. Nino buries his face in Ohno’s chest, while Ohno wraps his arms around the other’s small waist, drawing the two close.
“You’re warm.”
Ohno tightens his hold on Nino, heaving a sigh. “Sorry, Nino.”
“What, the storm? Since when did you have the ability to make storms?” Nino teases.
Ohno frowns. “That’s not it.”
“What is it, captain,” the younger softly asks, joke fading away.
“I dragged you into this.”
Nino lets out a light laugh in response, snuggling into Ohno’s embrace a little more. “It was my choice, to come with you. I could’ve stayed, but I chose not to. You know me, Satoshi - I’d never do anything I don’t want to.”
“Kazu…” Ohno murmurs thoughtfully.
And when Ohno can’t say anything, Nino answers the unsaid question: “Talk to me, Satoshi.”
So Ohno does.
“I’m starting to regret this journey,” Ohno states, resting his chin on top of Nino’s head and closing his eyes. The boat’s slowly starting to shake more.
“Why?”
“I’m starting to feel that,” Ohno starts, then pauses to breathe. Nino waits. “Maybe this is pointless. Maybe what we’re looking for doesn’t even exist; then, this isn’t going anywhere.
And if it doesn’t exist, if I had been wrong… That means I’ve betrayed you guys. Sho, Jun, Aibachan and you; all of you, who trusted me.
Two years have passed, Kazu. We’re running out of food. Fuel’s out, too; our engine doesn’t work anymore. You’re not getting any healthier, we’re not finding anything and… everything’s going wrong.
I feel guilty, Nino… I don’t know what to do.”
“Whether or not we find what we’re looking for: that’s not important to us, captain,” Nino says softly, breathing becoming harsh from the suffering caused by the rocking boat. “We came because the five of us being together is very important to us. And in it, your dream is why we decided to follow. So if you wish to go back now, then we’ll happily embrace it; whether or not we accomplish the old goal doesn’t matter. So please… don’t feel guilty.”
“… you don’t hate me, then?”
Nino scoffs. “Yeah, I hate you. That’s why I not only let you in my room while I’m sick, but also dragged you into my futon to cuddle.”
When Ohno doesn’t get the joke, Nino moves up to kiss him on the nose.
“That means I love you, idiot.”
“Oh,” Ohno mumbles stupidly. A grin finds itself on his tanned face, and he can’t help but squeeze the younger man harder in his arms.
Two hours into the storm, which brought vicious shakes to the boat, Nino’s eyes are squeezed shut in suffering from his seasickness. Ohno, whose shirt is crumpled up and squeezed tightly by Nino’s small hands at the front, rubs the younger’s back gently.
Wordlessly, they wait for the rocking to end. And by the time it did finally end, they’re asleep, glued together and breathing in one.
Ohno wakes up in front of Nino’s face. He stares sleepily for a moment until the younger’s eyes open, and equally sleepy eyes stare back.
Nino mumbles something before ducking his face into the pillow. Ohno thinks it’s good morning, but he’s not completely sure.
“Do you feel better?” Ohno asks softly.
“You know... I actually feel a lot better,” Nino answers, face happily surprised looking when it emerged from the hiding of his pillow.
“Good.”
Of course, they lie around for a bit after that, silent and sleepy. The morning’s cold, and so they huddle together tightly.
“I think I’m calling off this journey,” Ohno announces, out of the blue and completely ruining the flowing peacefulness.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Pretty sure now.”
“Your call, captain,” Nino gently says. “No matter what, I’ll never leave your side…”
Ohno tilts his head to a side in thought. “There’s also something else I decided.”
“What is it,” The younger jumbles out between sleepy yawns.
“I think I want to marry you.”
Nino freezes up for a full second or two. He then hides an embarrassed smile with his hand.
“What do you think?” Ohno asks softly.
“You know what I think,” Nino grumbles, looking down and away shyly but otherwise finding one of Ohno’s hands with both of his own.
---
“I can’t walk straight,” grumbles Nino from someplace inside the boat.
The day the boat hits land is a hot, mid-summer day. Aiba darts across the beach for no particular reason, Jun observes a crab stalking along the shoreline, and Sho sits comfortably on the warm, sandy beach. Ohno stands close to where the boat lies connected with the land, silently looking over everything. He slowly breathes in, then out. Finally setting foot on land again; how does he feel?
Nino, finally having climbed out of the halted boat, heavily leans onto Ohno. He heaves a tired sigh, but smiles when the older’s arms find itself around his shoulders.
It’s a fine day. A warmth fills Ohno’s heart, overflowing a tiny bit when Nino leans in for a kiss.
A good future waits with open arms.
~~~~~~~
Needs sleep…
Note: I purposely didn't reveal their ultimate goal/purpose for the journey and a lot of other things because I'm a bitch it "adds to the mystery"..