Bubbles on the Water - Chapter 6 (Ohmiya)
BUBBLES ON THE WATER
Multi-chaptered
An Ohmiya Fan-fiction (嵐)
By: Ami
Beta-reader: beastlover
Standard disclaimers apply.
(1) Miyako-jofu is hemp cloth made by weaving flax known as choma, and is characterized by a fine weave and elaborate splashed patterns. Quoted from here.
7. Chapter Six
”Something’s bothering you?”
Touya looked back at the shop owner and nodded.
“We have been hearing construction noises for a week, so I went to take a look,” he explained while taking out the boxed bento he had bought in nearby minimart (only because Nozomu insisted that Japanese should have rice as a staple food instead of bread). “I saw this big billboard with a bread sign on it.”
“So?” Nozomu discarded the chopsticks and stretched out to grab the spoon, ignoring Touya’s obvious dirty look.
“So much for being good Japanese.”
“Concentrate on what you’re saying instead of what I’m eating with,” Nozomu opened his warm bento box, “Ahh, I’m starved. Itadakimasu~”
“Well,” Touya sat next to the man and proceeded to prepare his own meal, “If it’s going to be a bread store, it’ll be very large you know.”
“Sfho?”
The slightly older man sighed, “It’s nearby.”
“Yorfh fointh?”
“Our place is a bread store too. Only a lot smaller.”
Nozomu stopped eating, looking thoughtful for a moment, “Well, I guess we’re screwed.”
Touya looked back at him and frowned his agreement.
XXX
“Oh-chan~ please wake up now…”
Ohno stirred awake at the warm breath on his right ear.
“Huh?”
“We’re going to land in several minutes, so we’re going to need you to straighten up your seat and fasten your seatbelt.”
That, Ohno could understand. On the other hand, he wondered why Nino had felt the need to whisper the words in his ear instead of speaking normally.
“Come on, big baby,” Nino put an affectionate hand on his cheek and laughed at Ohno’s confused look, “Don’t trouble the nice stewardess. She has been trying to wake you up.”
“Oh,” Ohno turned to his left to find a thoroughly flustered stewardess, “I’m sorry.”
“Um, no problem, sir.”
“Good,” Nino snorted and reverted back to his usual-self immediately after the pretty young lady scurried off, “That’ll teach her not to lay a hand on a passenger’s personal luggage.”
“What?”
Nino gave him one amused look before shaking his head, “Nevermind, Oh-chan. Nevermind.”
XXX
Miyako-jima was---not unexpectedly---not experiencing the same season as Tokyo at all. The wind was a bit chilly, but the sky was clear of clouds. Compared to Tokyo which was in full-blast winter, the place was practically a perfect and warm getaway. Nino took off his scarf and thick winter coat the moment they landed, while Ohno was not heavily robed in the first place.
After arriving at the hotel, the director called for a short assembly to announce their schedule for the next 4 days. After having lunch together, Nino went back to his room for a nap. However, his nap was cut short, as Ohno came knocking on his door just a moment after he had fallen asleep.
“What?” said Cranky Nino at the doorway.
“Wanna walk to the sea?
Had it been anyone else but Ohno, Nino would have slammed the door in his face.
“Look, Oh-chan,” Nino gestured to the wall next to them and pointed to an imaginary dot somewhere on the right side, “We, are here.”
Ohno blinked.
“The sea… wait, hold on to this dot for me,” Nino made Ohno touch the imaginary point with his forefinger before stepping about two meters away and pointing to a second imaginary dot on the far left, “The sea, is here. Got it?”
“Um,” Ohno nodded hesitantly, “It’s too far? We can take taxi instead of walking then.”
“You know my love for you is as deep as the ocean, but frankly, it’s not nearly deep enough to make me leave this room and take you out on a happy fishing trip.” Nino turned back inside the room and flopped face-first on to his bed, “Either close the door and come in or close the door and leave. Most importantly, close the damn door.”
Ohno entered the room and closed the door, making Nino smile with the visible corner of his mouth.
“What do you plan to do for the day?”
“Nap.” Came Nino’s muffled reply, as he was still lying with his face pressed among the pillows, “I didn’t get enough sleep because a certain someone fell asleep before packing his things yesterday and made me pack for him.”
“I’m sorry.” Ohno looked at the landscape beyond the glass window, “Umm… shouldn’t we be buying some gifts for the others?”
Nino raised an eyebrow, “Do you want to go out so bad? And when did you start to care about common courtesy among friends anyway.”
“Um,” Ohno looked unnaturally anxious, “You know, I said ‘the others’, but actually there’s only one person I’m hoping to buy something for.”
“Your mom?” Nino sat up on the bed lazily.
“No.”
“My mom, then?” Nino stopped laughing when Ohno didn’t laugh along with him, “What? Seriously?”
“You think it’s a bad idea?” Ohno looked genuinely confused, “I mean, you’ve approached my parents… I’ll feel bad if I don’t do the same.”
“It’s okay, my family is okay,” Nino waved a hand dismissively, “They won’t stop me from marrying you.”
Ohno blinked at him and nodded slowly, “Do you think she likes Miyako Jofu(1)?”
“You’re not listening to me at all, huh.” Nino rolled his eyes, “She’ll be fine. You don’t have to impress her or anything.”
Ohno watched hopefully as Nino suddenly moved to get dressed, despite his words.
“Anyway, I’ve been wondering…”
“Huh?”
“Your… omiai partner…” Nino difficultly came up with the phrase, “Is she pretty?”
“You want to see her?” Ohno looked thoughtful, “I think I have her picture in my cellphone.”
Nino just had to assume that it was Ohno’s mother who had put the picture there. Otherwise, he might have had to slap the other man. Hard.
“Mom put a lot of women’s pictures in here… I deleted the rest, but she absolutely forbid me to get rid of this one…” Ohno mumbled under his breath as he clumsily navigated the menu to display the picture. “Ah, here it is.”
Nino warily accepted the phone from Ohno and mentally scolded himself for being so nervous. He didn’t know what to think when he finally came face to face with the picture. She looked… just normal. Not too pretty or too sexy or anything. Completely normal. Nino didn’t even think that he would be able to remember the face after.
“Hmm… I see…” Nino bit his lower lip in contemplation, “What do you think about her? Why do you think your mother favors her so much?”
“I’m not sure about that either… she looks pretty normal to me…” Ohno’s answer brought a little relief to Nino. “Mom keeps saying that she’s a wonderful cook. But I think you’re better.”
Nino chuckled, “You know, if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that you only hooked up with me for food.”
Ohno grinned affectionately in return.
“Ninomiya-san,”
Both men looked up at the knocking sound from the door.
“Ninomiya-san, it’s your AD, Kikukawa from Himitsu no Arashi-chan,”
Ohno looked at Nino questioningly, “I didn’t know they came along with us.”
“Neither did I,” Nino handed Ohno’s phone back and lazily walked towards the door. When the younger man came back from talking privately with the AD ten minutes later, he was all rainbows and smiles. Ohno thought that Nino’s smile was warmer than the sun, and got gently smacked on the head for verbalizing it later.
“My smile doesn’t cause sunburns, silly.”
XXX
A few hours later, Ohno found himself sitting in a car, with Nino driving. They had intended to get a taxi, but then AD Kikukawa had offered to lend them his car. Ohno thought that it was very fortunate, because they weren’t very sure where they were heading, and with their own car, they would be able to look around more thoroughly without worrying about skyrocketing taxi fare.
“It’s so nice of him to lend us his car,” Ohno pretended to examine the map, only because Nino insisted he do something useful since he didn’t drive.
“Uh-huh,” Nino idly replied while keeping his eyes on the street.
“What is the Himitsu-chan staff doing here anyway?”
“Oh, they want to do a behind-the-scene report,” Nino replied. “Kiku-chan just asked me if we could spare some time for an interview tomorrow. I told him we didn’t mind.”
“I see…”
Ohno watched in fascination as the small amulet that was hung on the front mirror suddenly fell off.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, just…” Ohno bent down to pick up the red amulet; it was an amulet for driving safety, “this fell off…”
“Eeee…” Nino moaned, “Isn’t that a bad omen?”
Ohno shrugged and put the amulet on the dashboard, “It’s nothing, I’m sure.”
“Not superstitious at all, aren’t you. How cool.” Nino smiled mysteriously, “Let’s just hope that nothing bad happens.”
“Of course nothing will happen.” Ohno stated, as-a-matter-of-fact-ly, before turning back to the map, “You sure you need me to read the map? You seem to be able to navigate your way just fine.”
“Well, I need you to make sure that I don’t go to the wrong way,” Nino chuckled, “But I guess you lost your way already, right?”
The older man nodded sheepishly.
“It’s okay, I think we’re doing just…”
Nino made a turn and completely surprised Ohno when the sparkling blue sea abruptly came in to view,
“…fine.”
Ohno looked at his lover disbelievingly, to which Nino pulled his infamous mock playboy pose (complete with raised eyebrow and slanted smirk).
“Feel like fishing today, baby?”
XXX
A TV show plan which included the sea and a boat wasn’t supposed to make Nino feel well, but this had to be one fantastic exception, as the other two elements of the plan; namely a prank and Ohno Satoshi, were two of Nino's favorite things. Nino could hardly hold back a devilish snigger at the mere thought of it.
“Kazu,” Ohno looked at him from the other side of the deck, while preparing his lure “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“More or less,” Nino replied from where he was curled up, “Don’t worry about me. Just… catch something, so we can go back soon.”
It had all started right from when AD Kikukawa (who Nino remembered had been in charge of 'The Haunting' episodes in 2008) had called him to discuss the plan. It was supposed to be a special feature for the next Himitsu-chan episode. Since the ghost stories and scary buildings from earlier episodes hadn’t scared Ohno at all, the staff intended to prepare a special stage which was meant to make fearless Ohno Satoshi scream in front of the camera.
The first phase of the plan had worked well so far. The car had several mini-cams installed to film them, and the amulet had automatically been dropped by some secret mechanism to give off a bad aura from the start. Too bad it hadn’t seemed to scare Ohno at all, but Nino was sure that the next plan would definitely make the older man at least feel wary.
“YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!”
Nino silently giggled when Ohno jumped at the loud voice of the fake captain. They had recruited a local actor to act as the abusive, violent and somewhat ex-con-ish fisherman. There hadn’t been enough time for Nino to learn about the details of the plan, so he was just going to follow instructions for the time being.
“I TOLD YOU TO PREPARE THE MOTHERFUCKING FISHNET! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT YOU USELESS BASTARD!”
More loud noises were heard, which included smacking sounds, dull objects falling on the floor and pained groans. Ohno paused and made a face like he wanted to go home already. Nino had to bow his head so Ohno wouldn’t see his big smile. The plan was to stop only when they ran out of schemes or after Ohno had screamed. Nino furtively wished that Ohno would only scream at the very last, so they would be able to go through all the strategies. When this episode was aired, Nino was so going to record it and watch it over and over.
“Nino-chan,”
Nino could hear Matsushima’s voice from the wireless headset he had secretly put on when Ohno was preparing his fishing gear.
“Nino-chan, if you can hear me, nod once.”
Nino looked at one of the installed mini-cams and nodded.
“Now we’re going to launch our second plan,” Nino could faintly hear Nakajima speaking in the background. The two evil women must be just as ecstatic as he was.
Nino bowed his head, trying to fill his role for the time being by looking as seasick as he could.
XXX
Ohno had a bad feeling about this. He had indeed been wanting to have Nino around when he was fishing, except that the situation had turned out to be one of the worst scenarios. He had hoped that his lover could have stayed healthy for a catch or two with the help of the medicine the younger man had taken before boarding, but Nino had turned into an invalid the moment he stepped on the wobbly floor of the boat. Feeling bad for suffering Nino, Ohno had suggested going back to their hotel, but the severely seasick man had reasoned that he had gotten too sick to drive, and as they had gone that far, at least one of them should try to enjoy it.
Ohno threw another concerned look at his lover, who was crouched on the side. The younger actor had gone all this way to take him out for fishing, he’d feel bad not to enjoy this. With a sigh, he casted his lure.
Just when he thought he would finally be able to enjoy his fishing, another loud noise from nearby jolted Ohno out of his exuberance. He instinctively casted a worried glance at Nino, who remained unmoving from his previous spot.
“You’re pretty skilled, huh.”
Ohno blinked and noticed a man lying on the floor next to him. He looked beat up, with nasty-looking cuts and bruises. Ohno cringed.
“What happened to you?”
“It’s okay,” said the strange man, “I’m used to this.”
Ohno cringed even more as the man rubbed his spit all over his wounds.
“Do you need me to get the first aid kit?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay, you won’t find one on this boat, anyway,” the man kept slapping his bruises with his damp hand carelessly, “The box is in the cabinet, but I bet all of the medicine is expired already. The boss hasn’t cared enough to restock it for years.”
“I see,” Ohno nodded absently, before turning back to his lure.
“You know,” the wounded man suddenly started to speak again after a moment of silence, “The Boss wasn’t like this before. My father worked for him before me. He always said good things about him. But you know, ever since he started doing that…”
“That?”
“Drugs.”
Ohno looked mildly surprised.
“Drugs can really change someone’s personality, huh,” the man started to laugh bitterly, “Anyway, he is especially cranky today because today he’ll have his first deal with the buyer.”
XXX
“Nino, Nino, can you hear me?”
Nino raised an eyebrow at the familiar cheery voice coming from his headset.
“What the hell, you’re here too?!”
“We’re all here, you know,” Jun’s voice replaced Aiba’s.
“Uwaa~ you sure look like you’re really seasick from here. Are you sure you’re okay, Nino?”
“For once, I’m not seasick, Sho-chan,” Nino whispered carefully, “What is the actor saying? Samii looks like he has just been told that tuna has become extinct.”
“He’s talking about a drug deal that is going to be held here in a moment,” Jun sounded very amused, “Well, this sure is going well. I’ve never seen that disturbed look in Riida’s face before. He must be thinking something along the lines of, ‘what’s this rambling old man getting at’.”
“This is so going to raise our ratings, how exciting!” Aiba cheered in the background, “Can I act as one of the drug-dealers?! Please? Please, Sho-chan?”
“What are you saying, Aiba-chan! He is going to recognize you right away!” Sho replied with a giggle.
“Riida is a true man, really. I think we has successfully freaked him out, but it’ll definitely be more difficult to make him scream. He doesn’t even scream when he’s surprised,” Jun commented.
“But you know, somehow I think our plan this time will work,” Aiba exclaimed confidently, “After all, we thought this up together! This will definitely work!”
“I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me about this earlier,” Nino stole a peek at Ohno, who was looking more and more scandalized.
“Well, you were rather busy when we gathered around to talk about this.” Nino didn’t miss Jun’s teasing tone, indicating another implication of the word ‘busy’, “Anyway, Nino, Kiku-chan will take over in a minute. He’ll explain what you’re supposed to do after this.”
XXX
The more he listened to the injured man talking, the more Ohno was convinced that he should be getting Nino and himself off of this dangerous boat right away. From what he had heard, it seemed that a rather big and potentially fatal drug deal was going to occur in a moment. Wondering how he was supposed to react to this, Ohno went to inform Nino about their situation, but the younger man seemed too sick to care.
“It’s definitely a joke, Oh-chan,” groaned Nino while massaging his head idly, “A bad one, too. Why would they take us on if they were going to perform an illegal deal?”
“He said that we’re supposed to be a cover in case the patrol ship stopped by,” Ohno explained, “Do you think we should head back?”
“And why would he share such important information with an outsider like us?” Nino reasoned again, “I think he just wants to scare you, that’s all.”
“He sure has a morbid sense of humor… I wonder if I should just ignore him…” Ohno scratched the back of his neck before giving the injured man a brief glance. “Anyway Kazu, let’s head back after an hour. We can’t have you sick before the shooting.”
Nino smiled and nodded, “Okay.”
”Oi, oi… he keeps calling you ‘Kazu, Kazu’, you sure it’s okay to go on air?”
Nino bowed his head again and smiled into his folded arms.
XXX
つづく
Multi-chaptered
An Ohmiya Fan-fiction (嵐)
By: Ami
Beta-reader: beastlover
Standard disclaimers apply.
(1) Miyako-jofu is hemp cloth made by weaving flax known as choma, and is characterized by a fine weave and elaborate splashed patterns. Quoted from here.
7. Chapter Six
”Something’s bothering you?”
Touya looked back at the shop owner and nodded.
“We have been hearing construction noises for a week, so I went to take a look,” he explained while taking out the boxed bento he had bought in nearby minimart (only because Nozomu insisted that Japanese should have rice as a staple food instead of bread). “I saw this big billboard with a bread sign on it.”
“So?” Nozomu discarded the chopsticks and stretched out to grab the spoon, ignoring Touya’s obvious dirty look.
“So much for being good Japanese.”
“Concentrate on what you’re saying instead of what I’m eating with,” Nozomu opened his warm bento box, “Ahh, I’m starved. Itadakimasu~”
“Well,” Touya sat next to the man and proceeded to prepare his own meal, “If it’s going to be a bread store, it’ll be very large you know.”
“Sfho?”
The slightly older man sighed, “It’s nearby.”
“Yorfh fointh?”
“Our place is a bread store too. Only a lot smaller.”
Nozomu stopped eating, looking thoughtful for a moment, “Well, I guess we’re screwed.”
Touya looked back at him and frowned his agreement.
XXX
“Oh-chan~ please wake up now…”
Ohno stirred awake at the warm breath on his right ear.
“Huh?”
“We’re going to land in several minutes, so we’re going to need you to straighten up your seat and fasten your seatbelt.”
That, Ohno could understand. On the other hand, he wondered why Nino had felt the need to whisper the words in his ear instead of speaking normally.
“Come on, big baby,” Nino put an affectionate hand on his cheek and laughed at Ohno’s confused look, “Don’t trouble the nice stewardess. She has been trying to wake you up.”
“Oh,” Ohno turned to his left to find a thoroughly flustered stewardess, “I’m sorry.”
“Um, no problem, sir.”
“Good,” Nino snorted and reverted back to his usual-self immediately after the pretty young lady scurried off, “That’ll teach her not to lay a hand on a passenger’s personal luggage.”
“What?”
Nino gave him one amused look before shaking his head, “Nevermind, Oh-chan. Nevermind.”
XXX
Miyako-jima was---not unexpectedly---not experiencing the same season as Tokyo at all. The wind was a bit chilly, but the sky was clear of clouds. Compared to Tokyo which was in full-blast winter, the place was practically a perfect and warm getaway. Nino took off his scarf and thick winter coat the moment they landed, while Ohno was not heavily robed in the first place.
After arriving at the hotel, the director called for a short assembly to announce their schedule for the next 4 days. After having lunch together, Nino went back to his room for a nap. However, his nap was cut short, as Ohno came knocking on his door just a moment after he had fallen asleep.
“What?” said Cranky Nino at the doorway.
“Wanna walk to the sea?
Had it been anyone else but Ohno, Nino would have slammed the door in his face.
“Look, Oh-chan,” Nino gestured to the wall next to them and pointed to an imaginary dot somewhere on the right side, “We, are here.”
Ohno blinked.
“The sea… wait, hold on to this dot for me,” Nino made Ohno touch the imaginary point with his forefinger before stepping about two meters away and pointing to a second imaginary dot on the far left, “The sea, is here. Got it?”
“Um,” Ohno nodded hesitantly, “It’s too far? We can take taxi instead of walking then.”
“You know my love for you is as deep as the ocean, but frankly, it’s not nearly deep enough to make me leave this room and take you out on a happy fishing trip.” Nino turned back inside the room and flopped face-first on to his bed, “Either close the door and come in or close the door and leave. Most importantly, close the damn door.”
Ohno entered the room and closed the door, making Nino smile with the visible corner of his mouth.
“What do you plan to do for the day?”
“Nap.” Came Nino’s muffled reply, as he was still lying with his face pressed among the pillows, “I didn’t get enough sleep because a certain someone fell asleep before packing his things yesterday and made me pack for him.”
“I’m sorry.” Ohno looked at the landscape beyond the glass window, “Umm… shouldn’t we be buying some gifts for the others?”
Nino raised an eyebrow, “Do you want to go out so bad? And when did you start to care about common courtesy among friends anyway.”
“Um,” Ohno looked unnaturally anxious, “You know, I said ‘the others’, but actually there’s only one person I’m hoping to buy something for.”
“Your mom?” Nino sat up on the bed lazily.
“No.”
“My mom, then?” Nino stopped laughing when Ohno didn’t laugh along with him, “What? Seriously?”
“You think it’s a bad idea?” Ohno looked genuinely confused, “I mean, you’ve approached my parents… I’ll feel bad if I don’t do the same.”
“It’s okay, my family is okay,” Nino waved a hand dismissively, “They won’t stop me from marrying you.”
Ohno blinked at him and nodded slowly, “Do you think she likes Miyako Jofu(1)?”
“You’re not listening to me at all, huh.” Nino rolled his eyes, “She’ll be fine. You don’t have to impress her or anything.”
Ohno watched hopefully as Nino suddenly moved to get dressed, despite his words.
“Anyway, I’ve been wondering…”
“Huh?”
“Your… omiai partner…” Nino difficultly came up with the phrase, “Is she pretty?”
“You want to see her?” Ohno looked thoughtful, “I think I have her picture in my cellphone.”
Nino just had to assume that it was Ohno’s mother who had put the picture there. Otherwise, he might have had to slap the other man. Hard.
“Mom put a lot of women’s pictures in here… I deleted the rest, but she absolutely forbid me to get rid of this one…” Ohno mumbled under his breath as he clumsily navigated the menu to display the picture. “Ah, here it is.”
Nino warily accepted the phone from Ohno and mentally scolded himself for being so nervous. He didn’t know what to think when he finally came face to face with the picture. She looked… just normal. Not too pretty or too sexy or anything. Completely normal. Nino didn’t even think that he would be able to remember the face after.
“Hmm… I see…” Nino bit his lower lip in contemplation, “What do you think about her? Why do you think your mother favors her so much?”
“I’m not sure about that either… she looks pretty normal to me…” Ohno’s answer brought a little relief to Nino. “Mom keeps saying that she’s a wonderful cook. But I think you’re better.”
Nino chuckled, “You know, if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that you only hooked up with me for food.”
Ohno grinned affectionately in return.
“Ninomiya-san,”
Both men looked up at the knocking sound from the door.
“Ninomiya-san, it’s your AD, Kikukawa from Himitsu no Arashi-chan,”
Ohno looked at Nino questioningly, “I didn’t know they came along with us.”
“Neither did I,” Nino handed Ohno’s phone back and lazily walked towards the door. When the younger man came back from talking privately with the AD ten minutes later, he was all rainbows and smiles. Ohno thought that Nino’s smile was warmer than the sun, and got gently smacked on the head for verbalizing it later.
“My smile doesn’t cause sunburns, silly.”
XXX
A few hours later, Ohno found himself sitting in a car, with Nino driving. They had intended to get a taxi, but then AD Kikukawa had offered to lend them his car. Ohno thought that it was very fortunate, because they weren’t very sure where they were heading, and with their own car, they would be able to look around more thoroughly without worrying about skyrocketing taxi fare.
“It’s so nice of him to lend us his car,” Ohno pretended to examine the map, only because Nino insisted he do something useful since he didn’t drive.
“Uh-huh,” Nino idly replied while keeping his eyes on the street.
“What is the Himitsu-chan staff doing here anyway?”
“Oh, they want to do a behind-the-scene report,” Nino replied. “Kiku-chan just asked me if we could spare some time for an interview tomorrow. I told him we didn’t mind.”
“I see…”
Ohno watched in fascination as the small amulet that was hung on the front mirror suddenly fell off.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, just…” Ohno bent down to pick up the red amulet; it was an amulet for driving safety, “this fell off…”
“Eeee…” Nino moaned, “Isn’t that a bad omen?”
Ohno shrugged and put the amulet on the dashboard, “It’s nothing, I’m sure.”
“Not superstitious at all, aren’t you. How cool.” Nino smiled mysteriously, “Let’s just hope that nothing bad happens.”
“Of course nothing will happen.” Ohno stated, as-a-matter-of-fact-ly, before turning back to the map, “You sure you need me to read the map? You seem to be able to navigate your way just fine.”
“Well, I need you to make sure that I don’t go to the wrong way,” Nino chuckled, “But I guess you lost your way already, right?”
The older man nodded sheepishly.
“It’s okay, I think we’re doing just…”
Nino made a turn and completely surprised Ohno when the sparkling blue sea abruptly came in to view,
“…fine.”
Ohno looked at his lover disbelievingly, to which Nino pulled his infamous mock playboy pose (complete with raised eyebrow and slanted smirk).
“Feel like fishing today, baby?”
XXX
A TV show plan which included the sea and a boat wasn’t supposed to make Nino feel well, but this had to be one fantastic exception, as the other two elements of the plan; namely a prank and Ohno Satoshi, were two of Nino's favorite things. Nino could hardly hold back a devilish snigger at the mere thought of it.
“Kazu,” Ohno looked at him from the other side of the deck, while preparing his lure “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“More or less,” Nino replied from where he was curled up, “Don’t worry about me. Just… catch something, so we can go back soon.”
It had all started right from when AD Kikukawa (who Nino remembered had been in charge of 'The Haunting' episodes in 2008) had called him to discuss the plan. It was supposed to be a special feature for the next Himitsu-chan episode. Since the ghost stories and scary buildings from earlier episodes hadn’t scared Ohno at all, the staff intended to prepare a special stage which was meant to make fearless Ohno Satoshi scream in front of the camera.
The first phase of the plan had worked well so far. The car had several mini-cams installed to film them, and the amulet had automatically been dropped by some secret mechanism to give off a bad aura from the start. Too bad it hadn’t seemed to scare Ohno at all, but Nino was sure that the next plan would definitely make the older man at least feel wary.
“YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!”
Nino silently giggled when Ohno jumped at the loud voice of the fake captain. They had recruited a local actor to act as the abusive, violent and somewhat ex-con-ish fisherman. There hadn’t been enough time for Nino to learn about the details of the plan, so he was just going to follow instructions for the time being.
“I TOLD YOU TO PREPARE THE MOTHERFUCKING FISHNET! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT YOU USELESS BASTARD!”
More loud noises were heard, which included smacking sounds, dull objects falling on the floor and pained groans. Ohno paused and made a face like he wanted to go home already. Nino had to bow his head so Ohno wouldn’t see his big smile. The plan was to stop only when they ran out of schemes or after Ohno had screamed. Nino furtively wished that Ohno would only scream at the very last, so they would be able to go through all the strategies. When this episode was aired, Nino was so going to record it and watch it over and over.
“Nino-chan,”
Nino could hear Matsushima’s voice from the wireless headset he had secretly put on when Ohno was preparing his fishing gear.
“Nino-chan, if you can hear me, nod once.”
Nino looked at one of the installed mini-cams and nodded.
“Now we’re going to launch our second plan,” Nino could faintly hear Nakajima speaking in the background. The two evil women must be just as ecstatic as he was.
Nino bowed his head, trying to fill his role for the time being by looking as seasick as he could.
XXX
Ohno had a bad feeling about this. He had indeed been wanting to have Nino around when he was fishing, except that the situation had turned out to be one of the worst scenarios. He had hoped that his lover could have stayed healthy for a catch or two with the help of the medicine the younger man had taken before boarding, but Nino had turned into an invalid the moment he stepped on the wobbly floor of the boat. Feeling bad for suffering Nino, Ohno had suggested going back to their hotel, but the severely seasick man had reasoned that he had gotten too sick to drive, and as they had gone that far, at least one of them should try to enjoy it.
Ohno threw another concerned look at his lover, who was crouched on the side. The younger actor had gone all this way to take him out for fishing, he’d feel bad not to enjoy this. With a sigh, he casted his lure.
Just when he thought he would finally be able to enjoy his fishing, another loud noise from nearby jolted Ohno out of his exuberance. He instinctively casted a worried glance at Nino, who remained unmoving from his previous spot.
“You’re pretty skilled, huh.”
Ohno blinked and noticed a man lying on the floor next to him. He looked beat up, with nasty-looking cuts and bruises. Ohno cringed.
“What happened to you?”
“It’s okay,” said the strange man, “I’m used to this.”
Ohno cringed even more as the man rubbed his spit all over his wounds.
“Do you need me to get the first aid kit?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay, you won’t find one on this boat, anyway,” the man kept slapping his bruises with his damp hand carelessly, “The box is in the cabinet, but I bet all of the medicine is expired already. The boss hasn’t cared enough to restock it for years.”
“I see,” Ohno nodded absently, before turning back to his lure.
“You know,” the wounded man suddenly started to speak again after a moment of silence, “The Boss wasn’t like this before. My father worked for him before me. He always said good things about him. But you know, ever since he started doing that…”
“That?”
“Drugs.”
Ohno looked mildly surprised.
“Drugs can really change someone’s personality, huh,” the man started to laugh bitterly, “Anyway, he is especially cranky today because today he’ll have his first deal with the buyer.”
XXX
“Nino, Nino, can you hear me?”
Nino raised an eyebrow at the familiar cheery voice coming from his headset.
“What the hell, you’re here too?!”
“We’re all here, you know,” Jun’s voice replaced Aiba’s.
“Uwaa~ you sure look like you’re really seasick from here. Are you sure you’re okay, Nino?”
“For once, I’m not seasick, Sho-chan,” Nino whispered carefully, “What is the actor saying? Samii looks like he has just been told that tuna has become extinct.”
“He’s talking about a drug deal that is going to be held here in a moment,” Jun sounded very amused, “Well, this sure is going well. I’ve never seen that disturbed look in Riida’s face before. He must be thinking something along the lines of, ‘what’s this rambling old man getting at’.”
“This is so going to raise our ratings, how exciting!” Aiba cheered in the background, “Can I act as one of the drug-dealers?! Please? Please, Sho-chan?”
“What are you saying, Aiba-chan! He is going to recognize you right away!” Sho replied with a giggle.
“Riida is a true man, really. I think we has successfully freaked him out, but it’ll definitely be more difficult to make him scream. He doesn’t even scream when he’s surprised,” Jun commented.
“But you know, somehow I think our plan this time will work,” Aiba exclaimed confidently, “After all, we thought this up together! This will definitely work!”
“I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me about this earlier,” Nino stole a peek at Ohno, who was looking more and more scandalized.
“Well, you were rather busy when we gathered around to talk about this.” Nino didn’t miss Jun’s teasing tone, indicating another implication of the word ‘busy’, “Anyway, Nino, Kiku-chan will take over in a minute. He’ll explain what you’re supposed to do after this.”
XXX
The more he listened to the injured man talking, the more Ohno was convinced that he should be getting Nino and himself off of this dangerous boat right away. From what he had heard, it seemed that a rather big and potentially fatal drug deal was going to occur in a moment. Wondering how he was supposed to react to this, Ohno went to inform Nino about their situation, but the younger man seemed too sick to care.
“It’s definitely a joke, Oh-chan,” groaned Nino while massaging his head idly, “A bad one, too. Why would they take us on if they were going to perform an illegal deal?”
“He said that we’re supposed to be a cover in case the patrol ship stopped by,” Ohno explained, “Do you think we should head back?”
“And why would he share such important information with an outsider like us?” Nino reasoned again, “I think he just wants to scare you, that’s all.”
“He sure has a morbid sense of humor… I wonder if I should just ignore him…” Ohno scratched the back of his neck before giving the injured man a brief glance. “Anyway Kazu, let’s head back after an hour. We can’t have you sick before the shooting.”
Nino smiled and nodded, “Okay.”
”Oi, oi… he keeps calling you ‘Kazu, Kazu’, you sure it’s okay to go on air?”
Nino bowed his head again and smiled into his folded arms.
XXX
つづく