IDOL AND THE LAWYER (Ohmiya, One Shot)
Obviously busy with crafting a perfect revenge plan and polishing his angelic lawyer image, Naruse Ryo didn’t think twice before rejecting this particular case which had made its way to his table the morning before. Considering it was a minor case gone massive due to a national idol’s involvement, it only made sense not to get himself involved in such a high profile case.
When a call from the after-mentioned idol’s jimusho came, asking him to reconsider taking the case, Naruse had been prepared with his speech to turn the offer down politely.
When the second call came in, Naruse was in the middle of stabbing Naoto’s picture with his fountain pen, thus he didn’t sound so polite anymore. But he figured it’d send the message straight and clear.
When the third call came, Naruse purposely maxed out the volume of his stereo. It apparently wasn’t loud enough because he could still hear the fourth call come. So he sang along.
In the middle of the second verse of Over the Rainbow, Super Mario Bros game over tone joined in.
XXX
IDOL AND THE LAWYER
By: Ami
Not betaed. Yet.
Pairing: Naruse Ryo/Ninomiya Kazunari
Note: because I happen to think that angsty, evil, murder-plotting Oh-chan is cute
Standard disclaimers apply.
XXX
Not only that Ninomiya Kazunari’s manager was bowing so low Naruse rather worried about the middle-aged man’s backbone, they were also coming armed with many gifts and a very generous proposition. After negotiating for more than one hour, Naruse was a lot more inclined to receive the offer than he had been a few hours before. The jimusho’s persuasion skills would have amazed Naruse if he hadn’t been even more amazed at the young idol who was currently settled on his couch playing DS.
Naruse rarely watched his luxurious flat-screen television, but Ninomiya Kazunari was ridiculously popular that he was rather hard to miss. He was on the large billboard Naruse passed by every day after work. He was on the cover of the instant soup Naruse often bought. He was on the cover of the magazine Naruse’s assistant had been caught reading in the middle of work. He could even be found on the promotional poster in the company office of the credit card Naruse used. If Naruse had bothered to read the brochures that were sent to him every month, he would have probably seen even more of Ninomiya Kazunari.
“One million and five hundred thousand yen,” Ninomiya Kazunari-in-the-flesh suddenly spoke up after taking a brief glance at his watch.
Naruse looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s what you have cost our agency by keeping me here for one and a half hour,” The young idol explained impassively, keeping his eyes on his DS the whole time, “Well, I don’t personally mind as long as I get to play. But I’m getting kind of hungry.”
Naruse blinked, as the manager turned his attention to the idol and asked him to be more patient, since the whole incident had been caused by him.
“Well,” Naruse spoke up after clearing his throat to catch their attentions, “I am sorry to have caused you much discomfort. But my decision is final.”
“And that decision would be…?”
For the first time, Nino’s eyes were not on his DS. Naruse tried to keep his composure as the boyish face he had only seen two-dimensionally looked back at him. It felt surreal. And awakened his craving for that particular brand of instant soup.
“You have to find another lawyer,” thanks to his lawyer-prowess, Naruse managed the words out with a straight face, “I’m sorry.” And he kind of did.
“I see,” Nino looked back down at his DS. Naruse thought he was going to play again, but it seemed that he was turning the device off instead. Then he turned to his anxious manager and gestured him to follow.
“Let’s go. I’m hungry.”
Naruse’s eyes followed the thin figure until the door closed behind him. It felt like a small victory to him when he opened his drawer to find one leftover cup of the instant soup.
XXX
Naruse Ryo stepped out of the courtroom confidently. Having won another seemingly impossible case, he had expected the hordes of journalists waiting for him near the exit. Flashing them a polite smile, he had no intention of giving them more attention than usual. He would just walk straight towards the exit after making a flimsy excuse to avoid interviews and photoshoot sessions.
“Naruse-san! Naruse-san!”
Naruse held up a hand to acknowledge their desperate callings. He mildly noted that the number of journalists waiting for him was twice the usual. Maybe thrice. Naruse was just considering several possible reasons when one of the journalists stepped forward and energetically shoved a microphone to his direction.
“Naruse-san! Is it true that you have a special relationship with idol Ninomiya Kazunari?”
“Was you in the same car with Ninomiya-san during the accident?”
“Who was driving actually? Did you not see the woman crossing by?”
“Why did you keep your involvement a secret and come out just now?”
At that very moment, Naruse could suddenly feel the instant soup he had had for breakfast churned in his stomach, along with the dread and shock. Ignoring his sudden pause of movement, the journalists kept speaking together while their cameramen snapped pictures after pictures, immortalizing the fright and trauma in his usually impassive face.
“Ninomiya-san mentioned that----”
XXX
”…We were fooling around… you know, Naruse-san and I… being lovesick idiots we were.” Nino in the tv testified, with embroidered remorseful expression. When the camera closed up on him, his eyes even looked glassy. It looked real. Way too real for Naruse’s misfortune.
”That night we were celebrating our first anniversary…” Nino continued, pausing strategically to make the obviously doctored speech looked natural, ”Naruse-san wanted it to be special, so we went to his favorite restaurant and had our dinner there… I was just finished with my filming, so I didn’t prepare anything for him… but Naruse-san was so considerate. He understood about my tight schedule and didn’t get mad. Although he had prepared this for me.” The camera zoomed in on the silver ring on Nino’s left forefinger.
”He had given me gifts before, but never a ring,” the camera turned to Nino’s face again, capturing the rather cute embarrased smile the young idol was sporting, ”I was like, ‘finally we’re getting serious’, although he didn’t say anything like that to me. But still, giving a ring… to me it’s a rather bold gestu--”
Then the screen suddenly went black.
Holding the remote control in his slightly shaking hand, Naruse made a mental note to remove the ridiculously large tv from his office’s guest room. Why would anyone want to watch TV while facing a lawsuit anyway.
“N---Naruse-san…” one of his assistants stammered, while the others just looked at him with wide, frightful eyes.
After taking one deep breath to regain his composure, Naruse decided that his Maou face should only be reserved for Serizawa Naoto.
When the angel lawyer turned the television on again, his assistants’ shocked gasps filled the room. Naruse ignored them. Normal people might have thrown a bat at the screen after going through the same experience, but Naruse was not one of them. Considering the press conference as a call for war, he needed to fight it the lawyer way. To win, he needed all the information he could gather and that included Ninomiya’s every and exact word. Anything that the idol said could, and would be used against him in the court of justice. Naruse would made sure of that.
As Naruse whipped out his notepad and started scribbling furiously, his assistants fled to different directions.
XXX
“Kumada-san was our legal adviser.”
Naruse could feel his heartbeat quicken. Finally. Finally, a part of his revenge has been exacted. Serizawa Naoto was positively agitated, yearning to catch ‘Amano Makoto’. Exactly as planned. Naruse could hardly hold his smile back. In fact, if possible, he wanted to laugh maniacally, the proper villain way.
“Losing such a capable person is a hard blow for both the company and myself,” Serizawa Eisaku continued, his words flowed as if he had read the scenario in Naruse’s head and learned it by heart, “So by the way Naruse-san. What do you think of becoming the company’s adviser?”
“I am honored for such an undeserved invitation. Thank you very much.” The look in Naoto’s face alone was enough to make Naruse work there for a year without pay. But this was the play he had been waiting to perform all his life. He would take it slowly, carefully, enjoying every minute. “Please give me some time to reconsider it.”
As Naruse stepped in to the house, much to his satisfaction, he could hear Naoto questioning his father’s decision. It would be an added bonus that Naoto realized his father trusted Naruse more. Naruse could hardly hold back his smirk. All according to plan, only better.
“Yo, Naruse-san,”
Naruse immediately took a defensive position, remembering his last encounter with the younger Kumada.
“What?” Nino started to laugh to Naruse’s frightened stance, “I just wanted to talk.”
It didn’t take long for Naruse to notice the DS peeking out of his buldging pocket.
“Oh,”
“Here I am,” Nino looked all too pleased to fit in the funeral atmosphere, “I didn’t expect to see you here. You know Kumada-san too?”
“I see that you don’t actually need me to introduce you to good lawyers.”
“Nah, we still need to talk about it,” Nino shrugged, “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m still pretty much knee-deep in shit.”
“You mean bad publications.”
“Except for the part about our ‘secret romance’, of course.”
“Ninomiya-san,” Naruse growled with his best Maou voice, “Haven’t you heard from your manager about my warning? I believe you don’t need another lawsuit disaster to hurt your crippling reputation.”
“Ah,” Nino blinked and clapped his hands in realization, “So that’s why my phone had been ringing non stop for the last two days.”
“How come you can be not in contact with your manager for two whole days?!”
“Oh please, what makes you think that he is the only manager I have?” Nino snorted haughtily, “I am a very busy idol, mind you.”
Naruse only barely managed not to slam his head to the nearest wall.
“Anyway, you know Serizawa-san too?”
“Too?”
“You know, that stubborn old man you were talking to earlier,” Nino gestured to the Serizawas who were still standing and arguing not far behind them, “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but you seriously want to work for him? And you said no to me?”
“Who I work for is none of your business,” Naruse absentmindedly replied as he warily looked back at Naoto. Considering how the news had spread like wildfire, it would be surprising to find someone who actually hadn’t heard about his involvement with the national idol, but as luck had it, Naoto was one of the 0,00000009% of Japan population who hadn’t heard / didn’t care about the gossip and Naruse would like it keep it that way.
“In case you’re wondering,” Nino continued, pretending to miss the worried glances Naruse had thrown at Naoto’s direction, “Serizawa Eisaku practically begged me to stay in his hotel during one of my concerts for free. Apparently it’ll lead to one of those ‘Ninomiya Kazunari was here’ promotions crap.”
Naruse was only half-listening, as Naoto was currently looking at their direction, looking curious. His sister-in-law was whispering to his ear while occasionally looking up to them.
“I wonder,” Nino purposely raised his voice, successfully catching Naruse’s attention, “If I should greet Mr. Serizawa now. You know, just to be polite.”
“What? Wait!” Naruse instinctively put a hand on Nino’s shoulder. He only belatedly realized how much of a wrong move it was, when flashes of lights and hordes of journalists were suddenly surrounding them.
"Naruse-san! How long exactly has you and Ninomiya-san---"
"Is it true that you practically live together?!"
"Ninomiya-san, where's the ring he gave you that night before the accident?!"
"Here it is~" Naruse paled when Nino raised his hand to show an engraved silver band encircling his index finger. Now that he looked at it closely, Nino had such short fingers for a pianist. It's kind of cute, though.
"Anyway, we are here to attend Kumada-san's solemn funeral, not for a press conference, so if you'll excuse us," said the man with the cute fingers as he smiled his idol smile and dragged the immobile lawyer away from the scene while people were still swooning over him.
XXX
"Milk bun and hot milk, please," Nino requested after frowning at the menu for a few minutes, "And for this guy..."
"I don't want anything."
"Strawberry milkshake and cream puff. That will be all, thank you."
The waiter quietly scurried away after writing down their orders.
"That picture they just took," Naruse looked down angstily, pretending that the box of tissue in front of them was his music box and the jingle of Nino's new single playing in the cafe was just another version of Over The Rainbow. "Would probably make the front cover tomorrow." Which Naoto would surely read, after witnessing him running away, hand in hand with an idol he was supposed to be involved with. Naruse had never been this close to crying ever since he had lost his family many years before.
"Hmmm," Nino hummed his agreement easily, leaning back against the sofa comfortably while nodding approvingly at the song, "This song is really good. Fits the drama I'm starring too. But I guess that's the point."
The food and drink had taken about ten minutes to arrive, during which Naruse was furiously considering how to fit his ‘ruin Ninomiya’ plan in his already jam-packed ‘ruin Serizawa’ schedule. And even if he managed to find the time, it would be kind of hard to convince Keita to help, as the former bullied guy apparently bought the rumor of his ‘secret romance’ and had briskly brushed off all Naruse’s complains about Nino as domestic squabbles not worthy of their grand revenge plan.
“Just talk it over with Ninomiya-san, I’m sure the two of you will work it out.” Keita had adviced sagely, ”Or you can always see a counselor. You know, I have a friend of a friend who has been married for six years then…”
“That fucker!” Naruse slammed his half-emptied milkshake on the table, which successfully stopped his train of thoughts about Keita and his pathetic attempt at marriage counseling which he doesn’t need.
“Sheesh, chill dear,” Nino hissed at him disapprovingly, with one cheek buldging from one large bite of his milk bun, “I don’t want people to think that my boyfriend is such a bad-mannered man.”
Naruse proceeded to press both palms on his face desperately, “If I give you the list of all the great lawyers you can use and pay for them, will you leave me alone for the rest of my life?”
Nino made a thinking face before shaking his head cheerfully.
“But,” the idol continued, smiling his sugar-coated smile fit for the spawn of devil, “There is one way that I might, though.”
By the end of the day, Naruse felt like he was Eve, who had received the forbidden apple from the snake.
XXX
“…And then suddenly that woman stood up again, all bloody, and slammed herself on to my car, repeatedly! I was so freaked I almost pissed in my pants so I threw my car to the side, from which---“
“Ninomiya-san,” Naruse said with his most melodious, solemn voice, “You know I don’t normally say this but if you don’t cut the crap right now, I’ll strangle you.”
Nino crossed his arms and pouted, “You are old. And boring.”
“As thrilled as I am that you’re willing to share the spoiler for your next drama SP, we are here to talk about the details of the accident.”
“But I told you that the first ten minutes.”
Naruse picked up his notepad, “’I was driving. She suddenly appeared in front of my car. She fell. I don’t know.’ Wouldn’t do you much good of a defense in front of the judges.”
“Which is why I hire you. Because you can turn any crimes in to charities and every curse in to God’s word.” Nino smiled happily, obviously still ecstactic over this particular turn of events, “Isn’t that why they call you the Angelic Lawyer?”
“You just made that up. They call me that because I side with poor people who can’t afford to hire someone good enough to win their cases,” Naruse didn’t look impressed.
Nino sighed and pouted again, “Definitely old. And boring.”
“Nino…”
Both Naruse and Nino stood up when the door cracked open, revealing another pretty face Naruse recognized as one of Nino’s bandmates. Aside from his solo career as an actor and many other things, Nino’s music was and had always been Arashi.
“Excuse me…” The man, Naruse took a peek at his trusty laptop, turned out to be Aiba Masaki, second older in Arashi, cheerful, creative, loved animals, seemed like quite a decent guy (compared to his scheming younger bandmate).
“Aiba-chan! What are you doing here?” Nino looked very surprised and displeased.
“I heard from your manager that you’re here discussing the case with your lawyer… so…” Aiba looked up at Naruse, looking apprehensive, “I’m sorry for interrupting…”
“I told you, you didn’t have to come!” Nino glared at the older man, “Aiba-chan, please leave right now.”
Naruse didn’t get why Nino, who had always been laid-back so far, looked very nervous about him meeting with this man. Until Aiba suddenly approached him and grabbed his hand before getting all teary-eyed and starting to sob.
“Naruse-san! I have a confession, actually---“
“Aiba-chan!”
“Actually---“ Aiba took another deep breath before resuming, “I was the one who caused the accident!”
Naruse nodded and calmly gestured the man to sit on the couch. Nino cursed loudly.
“What the hell, Aiba-chan,” the younger idol sat down next to Aiba, frowning disapprovingly, “I told you---“
“I’m sorry but my conscience can’t rest,” Aiba grabbed a sheet of tissue from the low coffee table in front of them, “I can’t let you take all the responsibility while the truth is I was the one who---“
“-offered me Pocky.”
“-which led you to taking your eyes away from the road.”
“A god damn Pocky.”
“Which caused this whole incident to blow over.”
“A GOD-DAMN POCKY FOR GOD’S SAKE AIBA-CHAN.”
“WHICH COULD HAVE COSTED YOU YOUR ENTIRE REPUTATION AND CAREER, NINO-CHAN.”
Naruse sat and watched quietly as the two obviously very close friends started arguing. All he could pick up was that at the night of the accident, Nino wasn’t actually driving alone. He was with his three bandmates from Arashi. To make the long story short, Nino had been driving, the four guys had been fooling around and had gotten hungry, so Aiba had taken the initiative to bring out The Snack Bag, which had eventually led to a pocky, and one injured woman.
“Anyway,” Nino suddenly turned to Naruse and said with a serious face, “This mustn’t leak to the media. I was the one was driving at the night, and I got careless. I don’t want to risk their career for my stupid mistake. And a god damn Pocky. It wasn’t even the flavor I liked.”
“If that’s what you want.” Naruse agreed that he wouldn’t bring it up. At least until it felt necessary.
“Looking at the bright side,” the young lawyer smiled in relief, “At least now I have three more reliable sources to ask about the details of the accident.”
XXX
Two weeks, several interview sessions and three Arashi members later, Naruse could very much imagine Nino in Arashi. The idol group was very, very, very popular and apparently consisted of four very, very, very unique if not rather disturbed individuals.
Sakurai Sho for instance, a brainy idol with insuppressible mother-hen qualities. When the air conditioner broke during one of their interview sessions and the lawyer had had to remove his coat, Sakurai Sho had looked at his bony structure with great horror. He had brought sandwiches in his next interview assembly, and cream puffs in the next. And after his turn had been done, he had bullied the next-in-line Matsumoto Jun in to bringing pasta.
‘Would have been a perfectly fine man,’ Naruse pondered as he looked at a basket of sweets which had been sent anonymously to his office earlier, ‘Oh well.’
Matsumoto Jun had looked normal enough at the first glance. His eyebrows had been rather thick and so had his rings been, but otherwise, he had seemed like a nice guy who had loved his job and his group very much. But then one of his clients had had to show up with her pet kitten, that had quickly gotten attached to the young idol. To be exact, the kitten’s claws, to the fringes on Matsumoto Jun’s blouse.
‘Would have been a perfectly fine man,’ Naruse pondered as he looked outside his window to see Matsumoto Jun trying his luck with a pet dog owned by an elder in the neighborhood. The normally docile dog had apparently mistaken the word ‘shake hand’ for ‘shake fangs’. Fortunately, Matsumoto Jun managed to get away unscathed. One of his designer shoes wasn’t so lucky, though. ‘Oh well.’
Naruse didn’t even want to remember how the decent-looking-guy Aiba Masaki had almost burned down his office when he had only left the younger man alone to handle an emergency case for thirty minutes. At least he had learned to not leave the idol unattended and bored for more than five minutes, especially when he happened to wear anything similar to a white lab coat.
XXX
“I can see why you fit in Arashi. You definitely belong to the group.” Naruse said offhandedly as they exited the courtroom together after the first trial.
“Well thanks, wherever it came from,” Nino smiled, “You looked really cool too. Defending me and all.”
“Just doing my job.”
“You have such a nice voice. Your singing voice is fantastic too.”
“How would you kn---ah,” Naruse almost blushed when he remembered the very first time he met Nino.
“I was this close to defeating the fifth stage boss,” Nino sighed, pulling his DS out of his pocket (he seemed to bring DS everywhere he went instead of his wallet), “But my manager just had to drag me to your voice, make me stand in front of your door and listen to you sing. I just had to listen. And before I knew it, BAM! Game over.”
Naruse gave him a soft smile for his kind compliment, “I can’t be that good.”
“Well I am kind of jealous,” Nino absently brushed the side of his DS, “You know, at Harold Arlen.”
“You mean, the composer of Over the Rainbow?”
“I’m a composer too you know, other than singing and playing instruments,” Nino was rather surprised when Naruse simply nodded, as if he had known about it all along, “I don’t know about him but if I have just one fan like you, who doesn’t get fed up with my music after hearing it continually for like… one hundred thousands times…”
Naruse raised an eyebrow. “Actually I don’t listen to the music that frequently.”
“That includes your ring tone. And your doorbell.”
“…Oh.”
“And your ‘please wait while we redirect your call’ tone.”
“That, my secretary set it up.”
“Anyway, now that the first trial is over and I happen to be free for the rest of the day…” Nino grinned widely as he took hold of Naruse’s free hand and pressed the beautiful long fingers affectionately, “Let’s go celebrate together. Just the two of us.”
XXX
“ONE TWO THREE I’MMA SET YOU FREEEE ITSUDEMO KOKO E COME BACK TO MEEEE”
“AIBA I SWEAR IF YOU DON’T SWITCH THE SONG NOW---“
“O-RAI SA! OH RIGHT NOW TOWN TO MATOMETE SHAKE---“
“You’re asking for this!” Jun said as he got off his seat to throttle Aiba. Sho, who was more than a little bit drunk at that point, laughed it off as if his bandmate’s life wasn’t in grave danger.
“God,” Nino pressed his palms on his face, “Tell me again why we’re not alone right now?”
“Because your friends actually care for you and picked you up to give you support after your supposedly hard first trial,” Naruse calmly drank his draft beer, “You’re lucky to have them.”
Nino lowered his head, “That, I can’t argue, but…”
“Ninooooo oh noooooooooo you are thinnerrrrrrrrrrrr poor boy must be having a hard timeeee noworriesheresfriesforyou---“
“Sho-chan, not now. Seriously.” Nino tried glaring, but apparently Sho’s sight had become too blurred to notice. So the older guy continued to shove a plate of fries to Nino’s face until Nino took one small piece and fed it to Naruse.
“Naruse-san, won’t you try to sing? Nino said you had an amazing voice,” Jun, who had apparently succeeded wrestling the microphone out of Aiba’s hand, handed it over to the bewildered lawyer, “Come on, I’m really curious. The brat doesn’t usually praise people unless they’re really, really good.”
“I’m not that good… and actually I’ve never sang in front of other people before, so…”
“Excuses, excuses,” Aiba cheerfully pulled the older man off the couch and manhandle him to the front, “Come sing Arashi’s song! We heard you liked ‘Over the Rainbow’ but Arashi also has many rainbows you know! Like LOVE RAINBOW!”
“And MY Rainbow (Niji),” Nino added quickly.
“And LOVE RAINBOW is the theme song for MY summer drama!” Jun announced proudly, “Sing LOVE RAINBOW, Naruse-san!”
“You know what,” said an intoxicated Sho with his caster voice, “if you manage to sing it better than the four of us, I’ll even let you be the leader of Arashi!”
“YEAHHH!! Naruse-san should be our Riida!”
At that point, Naruse figured that singing for four drunkards who would probably not remember anything other than the painful knots in their heads in the morning couldn’t hurt.
XXX
“Riida!”
“Riida!!!”
“Rii---“
Naruse took one deep breath before turning around to face the widely grinning idol, “I can’t be your leader, I’m not even in Arashi.”
“Oh, with that voice, it can be arranged easily.”
“If I become an idol, I won’t have time to handle your case, remember? The one in which you knocked a woman on a bicycle down?”
Nino pouted and finally fell silent, “You are still no fun. And old.”
“Well if everyone on earth is blessed with unfaltering youth, then you wouldn’t be so special, would you?”
“I’ll still be special,” Nino crossed his arms and smirked haughtily, “Because I’ll still be the most good-looking.”
“Look, Ninomiya-san---“
“We’re way past the -san, aren’t we?”
“Ninomiya---“
“Just Nino, please.”
“Nino---“ Naruse paused for a moment, as if waiting for another interruption from the idol, “I know you’re just being yourself but I can’t handle it today.”
“Why? Something wrong with my case?” Nino frowned at him.
“Your case is ridiculously easy and could have been settled with Arashi’s half-an-hour television appearance rate,” Naruse curtly replied, “I think I’ll be able to conclude it in the next trial.”
Naruse was too distraught to notice the obvious disappointment in Nino’s face at the supposedly good news.
“Then, what’s bothering you?”
“Other… cases,” Naruse grimly reasoned before turning around and walking away. “Excuse me, I have an appointment.”
“Well you do!” Nino snapped, “I am your next appointment!”
“Then we have to reschedule, I’ll contact you again later.” Naruse said without looking back. For now, he had one Ikehata Takahiro to finish off. Quick.
XXX
Naruse walked out of Makiko’s room, trembling. He was so close. Too close. He had come this far with his plan. So far he had been able to get rid of obstructions, but the problem Ikehata had caused had almost cost him his whole revenge mission. And his sister’s love.
“Sis…” Naruse stopped for a while, facing the wall to avoid people’s odd looks, “I’m sorry… so sorry…”
XXX
“Do you know why Ikehata sent this to your sister?”
Naruse tightened his jaw. Serizawa Naoto just had to seize the moment of Naruse’s weakest state of mind to confront him.
“What if… something else was sent instead of this?”
“What do you mean?”
“In order to hide something, your sister might have switched it.” Naoto continued with an annoyingly calm expression.
“Are you saying that my sister is lying?”
“It’s not like that, but… no matter how you look at it…”
“My sister would never lie to me,” Naruse exclaimed, with suppressed bubbling rage boiling inside his chest. He was the culprit. He did all the things. And he wouldn’t accept anyone insulting his gentle sister.
“I would like to ask your sister once more…”
“From now on,” Naruse was so mad he didn’t care anymore if his calm façade was gone, “You come to me when something come up.”
“But---“
“Don’t get near my sister ever again!”
Naoto looked stunned at his raised voice. And Naruse took the chance to step away.
XXX
“You look terrible,” said Ninomiya Kazunari, as if he hadn’t been waiting in front of Naruse’s apartment for more than one hour at 2 in the morning.
Looking at the idol, in his common clothes, crouched in front of his door, playing his DS, Naruse couldn’t help feeling like he ought to be more surprised rather than depressed.
“Nino? What are you doing here?”
“Rescheduling our appointment,” Nino stood up and put down his DS, “Your secretary told me to come at 1 in the afternoon today, but since you weren’t present, I thought I had misheard. Maybe she meant 1 in the morning… so… here I am.”
Feeling too tired for words, Naruse opened the door and let the idol inside. Another wrong move which would have made the next day newspaper’s headline. He just didn’t know it yet.
XXX
“I can’t believe this!” Nino complained loudly as he dove on to Naruse’s pristine couch, “No Wii? No PlayStation? You gotta at least have some alcohol. You know, for fun.”
“I rarely drink except when I go out with people,” Naruse, who had taken off both his suit and his tie, ignored Nino’s dramatic sigh as he opened his fridge and brought his cold tea pitcher out. He still didn’t get the logic of drinking for fun when he could yield the same amount of gratification from mauling Naoto’s pictures.
“I knew you’re an old man but still…” Nino accepted the cold tea eagerly even with all his complaining, downing one glass in a few gulps.
“So you go home quite late, huh.”
“I just happen to be busy today.” Naruse poured himself a glass of tea before joining Nino on the couch. It was almost ridiculous how Nino’s side immediately pressed against him even if there was more than enough space for another pair of Nino and Naruse.
“Wait until I tell Sho-san that you dinner consists of cold tea.”
“I ate, I just don’t cook.” Naruse pouted, leaning back against the couch. He was so damn exhausted and stressed he didn’t care anymore if he showed Nino a bit of his weak side. The idol-slash-gamer didn’t seem to mind, and Naruse was secretly grateful for it.
“I am kinda starved though,” Nino gave him a dirty look, “I was hoping you’d feed me so I went straight here after the filming. Instead I was left to wait outside your door for more than one hour, and now after I’m finally inside, there’s no food?”
“There is food,” Naruse closed his eyes drowsily, “Your instant soup.”
Nino blinked, “Pardon?”
“The soup with your picture on the wrapper, whatever,” Naruse replied without bothering to open his eyes. He was so tired and sleepy and the couch was rather comfortable.
“Well, you shouldn’t believe everything you see on the TV you know,” Nino deadpanned, “I just happened to like that crap because I am a brilliant actor.”
“Drawer… in the kitchen… two from the left… help yourself…” Naruse murmured softly.
“Fine,” Nino huffed in resignation as he stood up and made his way to the kitchen. Before he could reach the place, he noticed a slightly ajar door in front of him. It might be the bedroom, which Nino would be more than interested to see. The idol threw another wary glance at Naruse’s direction to make sure that the lawyer was still fast asleep before carefully opening the door and peered inside.
XXX
Naruse was jolted awake when his body almost dropped to the side. It took him a while to remember the time, why he had fallen asleep on his couch instead of his bed, why there were two glasses on the coffee table and where the hell his nosy houseguest was.
His heart almost stopped when he realized that he had forgotten to lock the dark room. Immediately launching himself from the couch, he dashed towards the room to find the door wide open, with the red lights on.
“Nino…”
The sight was almost surreal, like it came out straight from a movie. Especially because the person standing in the center of the red room, among the hundreds pictures of Naoto taped to the wall, scattered on the floor, was the one and only Ninomiya Kazunari.
Naruse felt his legs tremble. This was the end. Nino had found the forbidden room and who knew what else he had seen. This had to be a dream, a nightmare. The only thing Naruse regretted was that the person had had to be Nino. Now there would not be more witty comebacks, gentle teasing and cheeky smiles. Everything that had been shared between them would turn to ash. So would all of his revenge plans he had spent his lifetime plotting.
Nino widened his eyes in shock at the sight of him and instinctively took a step back. The younger man was scared of him, Naruse thought bitterly.
“Get out,” was all Naruse could say.
Naruse looked away from the absolute disgust in Nino’s face as the idol stomped out of his apartment.
XXX
Naruse wasn’t all that surprised when Nino’s manager called him in the morning, informing him that Nino wanted switch lawyers and didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore. The idol even went out to hold a press conference to announce their ‘unfortunate’ breakup in the afternoon. Rumors had it that Nino caught the lawyer having an affair with a psychic girl from the library/coffee shop.
The press conference, all the incriminating rumors against him, that, Naruse could handle. What he couldn’t handle was the way people tiptoed around him as if he would just snap at any smallest mishap. As if his heart was so broken and his spirit was so crushed he wouldn’t be able to take anything rough.
It was bad enough that his lawyer opponent had canceled on the trial after taking one look at his face outside the courtroom, but the final straw was when Naoto suddenly showed up in front of his office, offering to take him out to ‘drink his sorrows away’.
XXX
“I kind of understand you know, your pain,” Naoto exclaimed in his drunken stupor, “With my friends and my family’s sudden death and all. You know what I mean. What am I saying, you’re the lawyer for all the killers! And you got all of ‘em out to the street! XD Nyahahahaha!”
Naruse had tried to keep his drinking moderate, but for some reasons ended up drunk too. At least he was a silent drunk.
“Anyway, you must have it tougher than me,” Naoto grabbed his shoulders and gave him an awkward hug, “What’s the serial deaths of relatives compared to Ninomiya Kazunari dumping you?! You must feel like it’s the end of the world!”
“You’re wrong,” Naruse snorted as he slapped Naoto’s arm away, “I am not depressed and I couldn’t care less about that selfish brat of an idol.”
“That’s the spirit!” Naoto nodded approvingly as he blindly reached for his glass and took a big gulp, “They’re saying that you cheated on him with Shiori, but I know they’re wrong! They don’t know what they’re saying!”
Naruse blearily looked up at the younger man, “What are you saying?”
“Shiori couldn’t have been in your apartment that night, she was with me! All night long, dude!” Naoto raised his glass high and cheered with the rest of the drunken population of the bar, “Cheers for cute psychic hotties!”
“But of course I wasn’t cheating with that girl,” Naruse snorted, with all the dignity a dead drunk could muster, “Nino dumped me because he found out about my revenge plan against you and your entire family and now he thinks I am a psycho killer.”
Naoto was rendered silent for a moment, before breaking down in a high-pitched laughter once more.
“You sure can pull a joke, Ryo-chan! That lawyer joke is sooooooooooooo funny I’m telling ya.”
Just as Naoto expressed his hilarity by performing a literal ROFL and Naruse was about to raise his glass to his lips, everything went black.
XXX
First of all, Naruse’s head hurt.
“This is it! This is the end of Arashi!” said a scandalized voice Naruse found somewhat familiar.
“But Sho-chan---“
“Of all people, you just had to kidnap a lawyer! An excellent one at that!”
“……”
“And Jun-kun! I told you to go with him because I wanted to prevent something like this to happen! How could you let him do this?!”
“Well he didn’t exactly consult me before he went and knocked someone unconscious, you know,” said an irate voice, “Before I knew it, he was carrying Naruse-san on his back while screaming at me to run for my life! And given our current situation at the time, I couldn’t exactly disagree!”
“Sho-chan! Look! We can fix this ok? Naruse-san is a nice man, I’m sure he won’t sue! Especially if we bring him and Nino together again!”
“And how are you going to accomplish that?! Don’t tell me you’ve called Nino to come here!”
“Why of course I did---“
“And you think he’ll thank you for hitting his boyfriend with a beer bottle?”
“Well I didn’t exactly plan to reveal that part…”
“I am not…” Naruse opened his eyes and sat up slowly, “Not… Nino’s boyfriend…”
The three members of Arashi turned their heads at him, two looked nervous while one was absolutely overjoyed.
“Riida! You’re awake!” Aiba cheerfully skipped to his direction. At that point Naruse realized that he was lying on the couch in someone’s living room. It was either Matsumoto Jun’s, or Matsumoto Jun’s die-hard fan, judging from the pictures hung on the wall.
“I knew it! You like Nino, don’t you? You’re not seeing anyone else?”
“What… are you saying…” Naruse rubbed the aching swell on his head.
“We heard you speaking with the police! At the bar!” Aiba continued briskly.
“He went to the bar with which police?”
Sho looked like he wanted to go hide somewhere under the table with a positively furious Ninomiya Kazunari entered the room, arms crossed, eyes glared, brows furrowed.
“Good timing!” Aiba turned to his best friend, “Come on, Riida! Tell him the truth!”
“I think he knows all the truth.” Naruse looked back at the idol evenly, trying to ignore how happy he was to be able to see Nino again.
“No, look, Nino thinks that you are a maniacal stalker who wants to get in to Serizawa Naoto’s pants!”
Disgust immediately reappeared in Nino’s face as the mere thought of it.
“Well Nino you’re wrong! In fact Naruse-san hates Serizawa Naoto so much he created a plan to murder his friends and family without using his own hands!” Naruse widened his eyes in shock, as he looked at the supposedly ‘naturally airhead’ idol, who turned out to be very sharp instead, but then Nino suddenly stepped towards him before leaning down to cup his chin, still wearing a serious expression.
“Is that true? You are the mastermind behind the serial murders of Serizawa Naoto’s relatives?”
Naruse could feel his heart beating fast. He had never been so close to someone else’s face before and now suddenly he was face-to-face with a national idol who looked pretty damn handsome. “Yes, but I thought---“
“THANK GOD!”
He was still kind of dizzy and the voice was so high-pitched Naruse didn’t know if it came from Aiba or Nino or both of them at the same time. Before he knew it, Nino was happily hugging him. It felt warm and nice.
“So… you didn’t know that I…”
“When I found a room full of his pictures, naturally I thought you had hots for him!” Nino explained indignantly, “How could you not tell me about this?! You almost lost me forever, you bastard!”
“So now all of you know that I’m a murderer,” Naruse commented blandly, “Are you going to hand me to the police?”
“And get ourselves killed by Nino afterwards? No thanks,” Sho quickly replied.
“Well as long as you don’t cheat on him, Nino won’t make your life miserable,” Jun shrugged, “That’s one of his good traits I suppose.”
“But still…” Nino released him before taking his hand gently, “You do know that you’re doing the wrong thing, don’t you? Revenge won’t make you feel better.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for my deceased mother and brother.”
“They’re not here anymore…” Nino surprised everyone with his gentleness as he brought Naruse’s hand up and pressed his lips on the back of the cold hand, “But I am still here. You can be happy with me. So please give it up… you have killed enough people already.”
Naruse’s will gradually weakened as the rest of Arashi members surrounded him and urged him to tell them his story, promising not to be judgmental, which they loyally kept. Afterwards, they gave him many reasons not to continue with his revenge. Most of the reasons actually gave him back the spirit he had lost many years ago, giving him the courage to stand up and try to live his life again.
“I…” Naruse could feel his tears building up, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I have hurt so many people… The real Naruse Ryo… his sister… I know this is wrong, but for so many years, revenge has become the only reason I can survive… I am nothing without it.”
“You know, I think I know what you need,” Nino smiled, “But I need time to prepare. Would you meet me again in a week?”
Feeling so overwhelmed that a teardrop had fallen from one beautiful eye, Naruse could only nod. Then he cried and everyone let him, because they knew it was the tears of happiness, the best kind of tears of all.
XXX
Nino almost screamed when Naruse showed up at the restaurant a week later with blood staining the stomach area of his front shirt.
“Keita stabbed me.” The lawyer explained with a shrug, “I told him I wanted to stop.”
Nino cursed under his breath and swore to trample the Keita guy to death, whoever he was before stumbling for his cell phone to call ambulance, “You need to go to the hospital for that---“
“No, it’s okay,” Naruse calmly opened his shirt to reveal a small bloody pillow, “I anticipated him getting all berserk on me. So I prepared this. For all I know, he must have thought that I would be dead by now.”
“…Oh,” Nino unceremoniously dropped his phone, “That’s sneaky.”
“I’m more interested in your propositions,” Naruse leaned forward to hold Nino’s hand and smiled sweetly, “What do you have for me?”
“You mean other than my hot body and handsome face?” Nino flushed slightly at the extra attention, “Well you already have those two so I guess it goes unsaid. Here’s what you don’t have. Yet.”
It took Naruse 30 minutes to study all the documents Nino had prepared for him. He didn’t think he’d literally have the ‘new life’ in his hands.
“All these forms…” Naruse trembled slightly in anticipation, “Are you killing me?”
“No,” Nino replied sweetly, “I am killing Naruse Ryo. Whom technically isn’t you at the first place anyway.”
“I…” Naruse stared at the papers in disbelief, “Ohno Satoshi… birthday November 26th 1980… hobbies: fishing, painting, art-making… profession: Johnny’s Junior… This isn’t like me at all.”
“Your job won’t be Johnny’s Junior for long,” Nino smiled mysteriously, “I have arranged for you to join Arashi. As our leader.”
It was like Nino to drop the bomb right when Naruse didn’t think he couldn’t be more surprised with the younger man’s idea for his new life. A death certificate with his name on his was bad enough, and now he was told that he’d join the most famous men-band in Japan.
“But the fans---“
“Won’t complain after they see me groping your fantastic ass on TV frequent enough,” The younger idol grinned mischievously, “We can even make a skit duo. I’m thinking ‘Ohmiya SK’ would be the perfect name. You can be Taka and I can be Yuuji. We can wear shiny skimpy costumes and jump around the stage, hand in hand.”
Naruse could feel his heart throb again, in a decidedly nice way.
“Doesn’t it sound great? We can even kiss. Or get ‘accidentally’ caught sleeping together in each other’s arms. Or plan our marriage on stage during MC talk. The fans would go wild and beg for Ohmiya to pop them some cute babies. And we can live happily ever after.” Nino continued with dreamy eyes, “Naruse-san, I love you.”
As Naruse took hold of Nino’s hand once more, he sappily thought that as long as Nino was in his life, nothing would and could go wrong.
He had been saved.
XXX
When a call from the after-mentioned idol’s jimusho came, asking him to reconsider taking the case, Naruse had been prepared with his speech to turn the offer down politely.
When the second call came in, Naruse was in the middle of stabbing Naoto’s picture with his fountain pen, thus he didn’t sound so polite anymore. But he figured it’d send the message straight and clear.
When the third call came, Naruse purposely maxed out the volume of his stereo. It apparently wasn’t loud enough because he could still hear the fourth call come. So he sang along.
In the middle of the second verse of Over the Rainbow, Super Mario Bros game over tone joined in.
XXX
IDOL AND THE LAWYER
By: Ami
Not betaed. Yet.
Pairing: Naruse Ryo/Ninomiya Kazunari
Note: because I happen to think that angsty, evil, murder-plotting Oh-chan is cute
Standard disclaimers apply.
XXX
Not only that Ninomiya Kazunari’s manager was bowing so low Naruse rather worried about the middle-aged man’s backbone, they were also coming armed with many gifts and a very generous proposition. After negotiating for more than one hour, Naruse was a lot more inclined to receive the offer than he had been a few hours before. The jimusho’s persuasion skills would have amazed Naruse if he hadn’t been even more amazed at the young idol who was currently settled on his couch playing DS.
Naruse rarely watched his luxurious flat-screen television, but Ninomiya Kazunari was ridiculously popular that he was rather hard to miss. He was on the large billboard Naruse passed by every day after work. He was on the cover of the instant soup Naruse often bought. He was on the cover of the magazine Naruse’s assistant had been caught reading in the middle of work. He could even be found on the promotional poster in the company office of the credit card Naruse used. If Naruse had bothered to read the brochures that were sent to him every month, he would have probably seen even more of Ninomiya Kazunari.
“One million and five hundred thousand yen,” Ninomiya Kazunari-in-the-flesh suddenly spoke up after taking a brief glance at his watch.
Naruse looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s what you have cost our agency by keeping me here for one and a half hour,” The young idol explained impassively, keeping his eyes on his DS the whole time, “Well, I don’t personally mind as long as I get to play. But I’m getting kind of hungry.”
Naruse blinked, as the manager turned his attention to the idol and asked him to be more patient, since the whole incident had been caused by him.
“Well,” Naruse spoke up after clearing his throat to catch their attentions, “I am sorry to have caused you much discomfort. But my decision is final.”
“And that decision would be…?”
For the first time, Nino’s eyes were not on his DS. Naruse tried to keep his composure as the boyish face he had only seen two-dimensionally looked back at him. It felt surreal. And awakened his craving for that particular brand of instant soup.
“You have to find another lawyer,” thanks to his lawyer-prowess, Naruse managed the words out with a straight face, “I’m sorry.” And he kind of did.
“I see,” Nino looked back down at his DS. Naruse thought he was going to play again, but it seemed that he was turning the device off instead. Then he turned to his anxious manager and gestured him to follow.
“Let’s go. I’m hungry.”
Naruse’s eyes followed the thin figure until the door closed behind him. It felt like a small victory to him when he opened his drawer to find one leftover cup of the instant soup.
XXX
Naruse Ryo stepped out of the courtroom confidently. Having won another seemingly impossible case, he had expected the hordes of journalists waiting for him near the exit. Flashing them a polite smile, he had no intention of giving them more attention than usual. He would just walk straight towards the exit after making a flimsy excuse to avoid interviews and photoshoot sessions.
“Naruse-san! Naruse-san!”
Naruse held up a hand to acknowledge their desperate callings. He mildly noted that the number of journalists waiting for him was twice the usual. Maybe thrice. Naruse was just considering several possible reasons when one of the journalists stepped forward and energetically shoved a microphone to his direction.
“Naruse-san! Is it true that you have a special relationship with idol Ninomiya Kazunari?”
“Was you in the same car with Ninomiya-san during the accident?”
“Who was driving actually? Did you not see the woman crossing by?”
“Why did you keep your involvement a secret and come out just now?”
At that very moment, Naruse could suddenly feel the instant soup he had had for breakfast churned in his stomach, along with the dread and shock. Ignoring his sudden pause of movement, the journalists kept speaking together while their cameramen snapped pictures after pictures, immortalizing the fright and trauma in his usually impassive face.
“Ninomiya-san mentioned that----”
XXX
”…We were fooling around… you know, Naruse-san and I… being lovesick idiots we were.” Nino in the tv testified, with embroidered remorseful expression. When the camera closed up on him, his eyes even looked glassy. It looked real. Way too real for Naruse’s misfortune.
”That night we were celebrating our first anniversary…” Nino continued, pausing strategically to make the obviously doctored speech looked natural, ”Naruse-san wanted it to be special, so we went to his favorite restaurant and had our dinner there… I was just finished with my filming, so I didn’t prepare anything for him… but Naruse-san was so considerate. He understood about my tight schedule and didn’t get mad. Although he had prepared this for me.” The camera zoomed in on the silver ring on Nino’s left forefinger.
”He had given me gifts before, but never a ring,” the camera turned to Nino’s face again, capturing the rather cute embarrased smile the young idol was sporting, ”I was like, ‘finally we’re getting serious’, although he didn’t say anything like that to me. But still, giving a ring… to me it’s a rather bold gestu--”
Then the screen suddenly went black.
Holding the remote control in his slightly shaking hand, Naruse made a mental note to remove the ridiculously large tv from his office’s guest room. Why would anyone want to watch TV while facing a lawsuit anyway.
“N---Naruse-san…” one of his assistants stammered, while the others just looked at him with wide, frightful eyes.
After taking one deep breath to regain his composure, Naruse decided that his Maou face should only be reserved for Serizawa Naoto.
When the angel lawyer turned the television on again, his assistants’ shocked gasps filled the room. Naruse ignored them. Normal people might have thrown a bat at the screen after going through the same experience, but Naruse was not one of them. Considering the press conference as a call for war, he needed to fight it the lawyer way. To win, he needed all the information he could gather and that included Ninomiya’s every and exact word. Anything that the idol said could, and would be used against him in the court of justice. Naruse would made sure of that.
As Naruse whipped out his notepad and started scribbling furiously, his assistants fled to different directions.
XXX
“Kumada-san was our legal adviser.”
Naruse could feel his heartbeat quicken. Finally. Finally, a part of his revenge has been exacted. Serizawa Naoto was positively agitated, yearning to catch ‘Amano Makoto’. Exactly as planned. Naruse could hardly hold his smile back. In fact, if possible, he wanted to laugh maniacally, the proper villain way.
“Losing such a capable person is a hard blow for both the company and myself,” Serizawa Eisaku continued, his words flowed as if he had read the scenario in Naruse’s head and learned it by heart, “So by the way Naruse-san. What do you think of becoming the company’s adviser?”
“I am honored for such an undeserved invitation. Thank you very much.” The look in Naoto’s face alone was enough to make Naruse work there for a year without pay. But this was the play he had been waiting to perform all his life. He would take it slowly, carefully, enjoying every minute. “Please give me some time to reconsider it.”
As Naruse stepped in to the house, much to his satisfaction, he could hear Naoto questioning his father’s decision. It would be an added bonus that Naoto realized his father trusted Naruse more. Naruse could hardly hold back his smirk. All according to plan, only better.
“Yo, Naruse-san,”
Naruse immediately took a defensive position, remembering his last encounter with the younger Kumada.
“What?” Nino started to laugh to Naruse’s frightened stance, “I just wanted to talk.”
It didn’t take long for Naruse to notice the DS peeking out of his buldging pocket.
“Oh,”
“Here I am,” Nino looked all too pleased to fit in the funeral atmosphere, “I didn’t expect to see you here. You know Kumada-san too?”
“I see that you don’t actually need me to introduce you to good lawyers.”
“Nah, we still need to talk about it,” Nino shrugged, “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m still pretty much knee-deep in shit.”
“You mean bad publications.”
“Except for the part about our ‘secret romance’, of course.”
“Ninomiya-san,” Naruse growled with his best Maou voice, “Haven’t you heard from your manager about my warning? I believe you don’t need another lawsuit disaster to hurt your crippling reputation.”
“Ah,” Nino blinked and clapped his hands in realization, “So that’s why my phone had been ringing non stop for the last two days.”
“How come you can be not in contact with your manager for two whole days?!”
“Oh please, what makes you think that he is the only manager I have?” Nino snorted haughtily, “I am a very busy idol, mind you.”
Naruse only barely managed not to slam his head to the nearest wall.
“Anyway, you know Serizawa-san too?”
“Too?”
“You know, that stubborn old man you were talking to earlier,” Nino gestured to the Serizawas who were still standing and arguing not far behind them, “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but you seriously want to work for him? And you said no to me?”
“Who I work for is none of your business,” Naruse absentmindedly replied as he warily looked back at Naoto. Considering how the news had spread like wildfire, it would be surprising to find someone who actually hadn’t heard about his involvement with the national idol, but as luck had it, Naoto was one of the 0,00000009% of Japan population who hadn’t heard / didn’t care about the gossip and Naruse would like it keep it that way.
“In case you’re wondering,” Nino continued, pretending to miss the worried glances Naruse had thrown at Naoto’s direction, “Serizawa Eisaku practically begged me to stay in his hotel during one of my concerts for free. Apparently it’ll lead to one of those ‘Ninomiya Kazunari was here’ promotions crap.”
Naruse was only half-listening, as Naoto was currently looking at their direction, looking curious. His sister-in-law was whispering to his ear while occasionally looking up to them.
“I wonder,” Nino purposely raised his voice, successfully catching Naruse’s attention, “If I should greet Mr. Serizawa now. You know, just to be polite.”
“What? Wait!” Naruse instinctively put a hand on Nino’s shoulder. He only belatedly realized how much of a wrong move it was, when flashes of lights and hordes of journalists were suddenly surrounding them.
"Naruse-san! How long exactly has you and Ninomiya-san---"
"Is it true that you practically live together?!"
"Ninomiya-san, where's the ring he gave you that night before the accident?!"
"Here it is~" Naruse paled when Nino raised his hand to show an engraved silver band encircling his index finger. Now that he looked at it closely, Nino had such short fingers for a pianist. It's kind of cute, though.
"Anyway, we are here to attend Kumada-san's solemn funeral, not for a press conference, so if you'll excuse us," said the man with the cute fingers as he smiled his idol smile and dragged the immobile lawyer away from the scene while people were still swooning over him.
XXX
"Milk bun and hot milk, please," Nino requested after frowning at the menu for a few minutes, "And for this guy..."
"I don't want anything."
"Strawberry milkshake and cream puff. That will be all, thank you."
The waiter quietly scurried away after writing down their orders.
"That picture they just took," Naruse looked down angstily, pretending that the box of tissue in front of them was his music box and the jingle of Nino's new single playing in the cafe was just another version of Over The Rainbow. "Would probably make the front cover tomorrow." Which Naoto would surely read, after witnessing him running away, hand in hand with an idol he was supposed to be involved with. Naruse had never been this close to crying ever since he had lost his family many years before.
"Hmmm," Nino hummed his agreement easily, leaning back against the sofa comfortably while nodding approvingly at the song, "This song is really good. Fits the drama I'm starring too. But I guess that's the point."
The food and drink had taken about ten minutes to arrive, during which Naruse was furiously considering how to fit his ‘ruin Ninomiya’ plan in his already jam-packed ‘ruin Serizawa’ schedule. And even if he managed to find the time, it would be kind of hard to convince Keita to help, as the former bullied guy apparently bought the rumor of his ‘secret romance’ and had briskly brushed off all Naruse’s complains about Nino as domestic squabbles not worthy of their grand revenge plan.
“Just talk it over with Ninomiya-san, I’m sure the two of you will work it out.” Keita had adviced sagely, ”Or you can always see a counselor. You know, I have a friend of a friend who has been married for six years then…”
“That fucker!” Naruse slammed his half-emptied milkshake on the table, which successfully stopped his train of thoughts about Keita and his pathetic attempt at marriage counseling which he doesn’t need.
“Sheesh, chill dear,” Nino hissed at him disapprovingly, with one cheek buldging from one large bite of his milk bun, “I don’t want people to think that my boyfriend is such a bad-mannered man.”
Naruse proceeded to press both palms on his face desperately, “If I give you the list of all the great lawyers you can use and pay for them, will you leave me alone for the rest of my life?”
Nino made a thinking face before shaking his head cheerfully.
“But,” the idol continued, smiling his sugar-coated smile fit for the spawn of devil, “There is one way that I might, though.”
By the end of the day, Naruse felt like he was Eve, who had received the forbidden apple from the snake.
XXX
“…And then suddenly that woman stood up again, all bloody, and slammed herself on to my car, repeatedly! I was so freaked I almost pissed in my pants so I threw my car to the side, from which---“
“Ninomiya-san,” Naruse said with his most melodious, solemn voice, “You know I don’t normally say this but if you don’t cut the crap right now, I’ll strangle you.”
Nino crossed his arms and pouted, “You are old. And boring.”
“As thrilled as I am that you’re willing to share the spoiler for your next drama SP, we are here to talk about the details of the accident.”
“But I told you that the first ten minutes.”
Naruse picked up his notepad, “’I was driving. She suddenly appeared in front of my car. She fell. I don’t know.’ Wouldn’t do you much good of a defense in front of the judges.”
“Which is why I hire you. Because you can turn any crimes in to charities and every curse in to God’s word.” Nino smiled happily, obviously still ecstactic over this particular turn of events, “Isn’t that why they call you the Angelic Lawyer?”
“You just made that up. They call me that because I side with poor people who can’t afford to hire someone good enough to win their cases,” Naruse didn’t look impressed.
Nino sighed and pouted again, “Definitely old. And boring.”
“Nino…”
Both Naruse and Nino stood up when the door cracked open, revealing another pretty face Naruse recognized as one of Nino’s bandmates. Aside from his solo career as an actor and many other things, Nino’s music was and had always been Arashi.
“Excuse me…” The man, Naruse took a peek at his trusty laptop, turned out to be Aiba Masaki, second older in Arashi, cheerful, creative, loved animals, seemed like quite a decent guy (compared to his scheming younger bandmate).
“Aiba-chan! What are you doing here?” Nino looked very surprised and displeased.
“I heard from your manager that you’re here discussing the case with your lawyer… so…” Aiba looked up at Naruse, looking apprehensive, “I’m sorry for interrupting…”
“I told you, you didn’t have to come!” Nino glared at the older man, “Aiba-chan, please leave right now.”
Naruse didn’t get why Nino, who had always been laid-back so far, looked very nervous about him meeting with this man. Until Aiba suddenly approached him and grabbed his hand before getting all teary-eyed and starting to sob.
“Naruse-san! I have a confession, actually---“
“Aiba-chan!”
“Actually---“ Aiba took another deep breath before resuming, “I was the one who caused the accident!”
Naruse nodded and calmly gestured the man to sit on the couch. Nino cursed loudly.
“What the hell, Aiba-chan,” the younger idol sat down next to Aiba, frowning disapprovingly, “I told you---“
“I’m sorry but my conscience can’t rest,” Aiba grabbed a sheet of tissue from the low coffee table in front of them, “I can’t let you take all the responsibility while the truth is I was the one who---“
“-offered me Pocky.”
“-which led you to taking your eyes away from the road.”
“A god damn Pocky.”
“Which caused this whole incident to blow over.”
“A GOD-DAMN POCKY FOR GOD’S SAKE AIBA-CHAN.”
“WHICH COULD HAVE COSTED YOU YOUR ENTIRE REPUTATION AND CAREER, NINO-CHAN.”
Naruse sat and watched quietly as the two obviously very close friends started arguing. All he could pick up was that at the night of the accident, Nino wasn’t actually driving alone. He was with his three bandmates from Arashi. To make the long story short, Nino had been driving, the four guys had been fooling around and had gotten hungry, so Aiba had taken the initiative to bring out The Snack Bag, which had eventually led to a pocky, and one injured woman.
“Anyway,” Nino suddenly turned to Naruse and said with a serious face, “This mustn’t leak to the media. I was the one was driving at the night, and I got careless. I don’t want to risk their career for my stupid mistake. And a god damn Pocky. It wasn’t even the flavor I liked.”
“If that’s what you want.” Naruse agreed that he wouldn’t bring it up. At least until it felt necessary.
“Looking at the bright side,” the young lawyer smiled in relief, “At least now I have three more reliable sources to ask about the details of the accident.”
XXX
Two weeks, several interview sessions and three Arashi members later, Naruse could very much imagine Nino in Arashi. The idol group was very, very, very popular and apparently consisted of four very, very, very unique if not rather disturbed individuals.
Sakurai Sho for instance, a brainy idol with insuppressible mother-hen qualities. When the air conditioner broke during one of their interview sessions and the lawyer had had to remove his coat, Sakurai Sho had looked at his bony structure with great horror. He had brought sandwiches in his next interview assembly, and cream puffs in the next. And after his turn had been done, he had bullied the next-in-line Matsumoto Jun in to bringing pasta.
‘Would have been a perfectly fine man,’ Naruse pondered as he looked at a basket of sweets which had been sent anonymously to his office earlier, ‘Oh well.’
Matsumoto Jun had looked normal enough at the first glance. His eyebrows had been rather thick and so had his rings been, but otherwise, he had seemed like a nice guy who had loved his job and his group very much. But then one of his clients had had to show up with her pet kitten, that had quickly gotten attached to the young idol. To be exact, the kitten’s claws, to the fringes on Matsumoto Jun’s blouse.
‘Would have been a perfectly fine man,’ Naruse pondered as he looked outside his window to see Matsumoto Jun trying his luck with a pet dog owned by an elder in the neighborhood. The normally docile dog had apparently mistaken the word ‘shake hand’ for ‘shake fangs’. Fortunately, Matsumoto Jun managed to get away unscathed. One of his designer shoes wasn’t so lucky, though. ‘Oh well.’
Naruse didn’t even want to remember how the decent-looking-guy Aiba Masaki had almost burned down his office when he had only left the younger man alone to handle an emergency case for thirty minutes. At least he had learned to not leave the idol unattended and bored for more than five minutes, especially when he happened to wear anything similar to a white lab coat.
XXX
“I can see why you fit in Arashi. You definitely belong to the group.” Naruse said offhandedly as they exited the courtroom together after the first trial.
“Well thanks, wherever it came from,” Nino smiled, “You looked really cool too. Defending me and all.”
“Just doing my job.”
“You have such a nice voice. Your singing voice is fantastic too.”
“How would you kn---ah,” Naruse almost blushed when he remembered the very first time he met Nino.
“I was this close to defeating the fifth stage boss,” Nino sighed, pulling his DS out of his pocket (he seemed to bring DS everywhere he went instead of his wallet), “But my manager just had to drag me to your voice, make me stand in front of your door and listen to you sing. I just had to listen. And before I knew it, BAM! Game over.”
Naruse gave him a soft smile for his kind compliment, “I can’t be that good.”
“Well I am kind of jealous,” Nino absently brushed the side of his DS, “You know, at Harold Arlen.”
“You mean, the composer of Over the Rainbow?”
“I’m a composer too you know, other than singing and playing instruments,” Nino was rather surprised when Naruse simply nodded, as if he had known about it all along, “I don’t know about him but if I have just one fan like you, who doesn’t get fed up with my music after hearing it continually for like… one hundred thousands times…”
Naruse raised an eyebrow. “Actually I don’t listen to the music that frequently.”
“That includes your ring tone. And your doorbell.”
“…Oh.”
“And your ‘please wait while we redirect your call’ tone.”
“That, my secretary set it up.”
“Anyway, now that the first trial is over and I happen to be free for the rest of the day…” Nino grinned widely as he took hold of Naruse’s free hand and pressed the beautiful long fingers affectionately, “Let’s go celebrate together. Just the two of us.”
XXX
“ONE TWO THREE I’MMA SET YOU FREEEE ITSUDEMO KOKO E COME BACK TO MEEEE”
“AIBA I SWEAR IF YOU DON’T SWITCH THE SONG NOW---“
“O-RAI SA! OH RIGHT NOW TOWN TO MATOMETE SHAKE---“
“You’re asking for this!” Jun said as he got off his seat to throttle Aiba. Sho, who was more than a little bit drunk at that point, laughed it off as if his bandmate’s life wasn’t in grave danger.
“God,” Nino pressed his palms on his face, “Tell me again why we’re not alone right now?”
“Because your friends actually care for you and picked you up to give you support after your supposedly hard first trial,” Naruse calmly drank his draft beer, “You’re lucky to have them.”
Nino lowered his head, “That, I can’t argue, but…”
“Ninooooo oh noooooooooo you are thinnerrrrrrrrrrrr poor boy must be having a hard timeeee noworriesheresfriesforyou---“
“Sho-chan, not now. Seriously.” Nino tried glaring, but apparently Sho’s sight had become too blurred to notice. So the older guy continued to shove a plate of fries to Nino’s face until Nino took one small piece and fed it to Naruse.
“Naruse-san, won’t you try to sing? Nino said you had an amazing voice,” Jun, who had apparently succeeded wrestling the microphone out of Aiba’s hand, handed it over to the bewildered lawyer, “Come on, I’m really curious. The brat doesn’t usually praise people unless they’re really, really good.”
“I’m not that good… and actually I’ve never sang in front of other people before, so…”
“Excuses, excuses,” Aiba cheerfully pulled the older man off the couch and manhandle him to the front, “Come sing Arashi’s song! We heard you liked ‘Over the Rainbow’ but Arashi also has many rainbows you know! Like LOVE RAINBOW!”
“And MY Rainbow (Niji),” Nino added quickly.
“And LOVE RAINBOW is the theme song for MY summer drama!” Jun announced proudly, “Sing LOVE RAINBOW, Naruse-san!”
“You know what,” said an intoxicated Sho with his caster voice, “if you manage to sing it better than the four of us, I’ll even let you be the leader of Arashi!”
“YEAHHH!! Naruse-san should be our Riida!”
At that point, Naruse figured that singing for four drunkards who would probably not remember anything other than the painful knots in their heads in the morning couldn’t hurt.
XXX
“Riida!”
“Riida!!!”
“Rii---“
Naruse took one deep breath before turning around to face the widely grinning idol, “I can’t be your leader, I’m not even in Arashi.”
“Oh, with that voice, it can be arranged easily.”
“If I become an idol, I won’t have time to handle your case, remember? The one in which you knocked a woman on a bicycle down?”
Nino pouted and finally fell silent, “You are still no fun. And old.”
“Well if everyone on earth is blessed with unfaltering youth, then you wouldn’t be so special, would you?”
“I’ll still be special,” Nino crossed his arms and smirked haughtily, “Because I’ll still be the most good-looking.”
“Look, Ninomiya-san---“
“We’re way past the -san, aren’t we?”
“Ninomiya---“
“Just Nino, please.”
“Nino---“ Naruse paused for a moment, as if waiting for another interruption from the idol, “I know you’re just being yourself but I can’t handle it today.”
“Why? Something wrong with my case?” Nino frowned at him.
“Your case is ridiculously easy and could have been settled with Arashi’s half-an-hour television appearance rate,” Naruse curtly replied, “I think I’ll be able to conclude it in the next trial.”
Naruse was too distraught to notice the obvious disappointment in Nino’s face at the supposedly good news.
“Then, what’s bothering you?”
“Other… cases,” Naruse grimly reasoned before turning around and walking away. “Excuse me, I have an appointment.”
“Well you do!” Nino snapped, “I am your next appointment!”
“Then we have to reschedule, I’ll contact you again later.” Naruse said without looking back. For now, he had one Ikehata Takahiro to finish off. Quick.
XXX
Naruse walked out of Makiko’s room, trembling. He was so close. Too close. He had come this far with his plan. So far he had been able to get rid of obstructions, but the problem Ikehata had caused had almost cost him his whole revenge mission. And his sister’s love.
“Sis…” Naruse stopped for a while, facing the wall to avoid people’s odd looks, “I’m sorry… so sorry…”
XXX
“Do you know why Ikehata sent this to your sister?”
Naruse tightened his jaw. Serizawa Naoto just had to seize the moment of Naruse’s weakest state of mind to confront him.
“What if… something else was sent instead of this?”
“What do you mean?”
“In order to hide something, your sister might have switched it.” Naoto continued with an annoyingly calm expression.
“Are you saying that my sister is lying?”
“It’s not like that, but… no matter how you look at it…”
“My sister would never lie to me,” Naruse exclaimed, with suppressed bubbling rage boiling inside his chest. He was the culprit. He did all the things. And he wouldn’t accept anyone insulting his gentle sister.
“I would like to ask your sister once more…”
“From now on,” Naruse was so mad he didn’t care anymore if his calm façade was gone, “You come to me when something come up.”
“But---“
“Don’t get near my sister ever again!”
Naoto looked stunned at his raised voice. And Naruse took the chance to step away.
XXX
“You look terrible,” said Ninomiya Kazunari, as if he hadn’t been waiting in front of Naruse’s apartment for more than one hour at 2 in the morning.
Looking at the idol, in his common clothes, crouched in front of his door, playing his DS, Naruse couldn’t help feeling like he ought to be more surprised rather than depressed.
“Nino? What are you doing here?”
“Rescheduling our appointment,” Nino stood up and put down his DS, “Your secretary told me to come at 1 in the afternoon today, but since you weren’t present, I thought I had misheard. Maybe she meant 1 in the morning… so… here I am.”
Feeling too tired for words, Naruse opened the door and let the idol inside. Another wrong move which would have made the next day newspaper’s headline. He just didn’t know it yet.
XXX
“I can’t believe this!” Nino complained loudly as he dove on to Naruse’s pristine couch, “No Wii? No PlayStation? You gotta at least have some alcohol. You know, for fun.”
“I rarely drink except when I go out with people,” Naruse, who had taken off both his suit and his tie, ignored Nino’s dramatic sigh as he opened his fridge and brought his cold tea pitcher out. He still didn’t get the logic of drinking for fun when he could yield the same amount of gratification from mauling Naoto’s pictures.
“I knew you’re an old man but still…” Nino accepted the cold tea eagerly even with all his complaining, downing one glass in a few gulps.
“So you go home quite late, huh.”
“I just happen to be busy today.” Naruse poured himself a glass of tea before joining Nino on the couch. It was almost ridiculous how Nino’s side immediately pressed against him even if there was more than enough space for another pair of Nino and Naruse.
“Wait until I tell Sho-san that you dinner consists of cold tea.”
“I ate, I just don’t cook.” Naruse pouted, leaning back against the couch. He was so damn exhausted and stressed he didn’t care anymore if he showed Nino a bit of his weak side. The idol-slash-gamer didn’t seem to mind, and Naruse was secretly grateful for it.
“I am kinda starved though,” Nino gave him a dirty look, “I was hoping you’d feed me so I went straight here after the filming. Instead I was left to wait outside your door for more than one hour, and now after I’m finally inside, there’s no food?”
“There is food,” Naruse closed his eyes drowsily, “Your instant soup.”
Nino blinked, “Pardon?”
“The soup with your picture on the wrapper, whatever,” Naruse replied without bothering to open his eyes. He was so tired and sleepy and the couch was rather comfortable.
“Well, you shouldn’t believe everything you see on the TV you know,” Nino deadpanned, “I just happened to like that crap because I am a brilliant actor.”
“Drawer… in the kitchen… two from the left… help yourself…” Naruse murmured softly.
“Fine,” Nino huffed in resignation as he stood up and made his way to the kitchen. Before he could reach the place, he noticed a slightly ajar door in front of him. It might be the bedroom, which Nino would be more than interested to see. The idol threw another wary glance at Naruse’s direction to make sure that the lawyer was still fast asleep before carefully opening the door and peered inside.
XXX
Naruse was jolted awake when his body almost dropped to the side. It took him a while to remember the time, why he had fallen asleep on his couch instead of his bed, why there were two glasses on the coffee table and where the hell his nosy houseguest was.
His heart almost stopped when he realized that he had forgotten to lock the dark room. Immediately launching himself from the couch, he dashed towards the room to find the door wide open, with the red lights on.
“Nino…”
The sight was almost surreal, like it came out straight from a movie. Especially because the person standing in the center of the red room, among the hundreds pictures of Naoto taped to the wall, scattered on the floor, was the one and only Ninomiya Kazunari.
Naruse felt his legs tremble. This was the end. Nino had found the forbidden room and who knew what else he had seen. This had to be a dream, a nightmare. The only thing Naruse regretted was that the person had had to be Nino. Now there would not be more witty comebacks, gentle teasing and cheeky smiles. Everything that had been shared between them would turn to ash. So would all of his revenge plans he had spent his lifetime plotting.
Nino widened his eyes in shock at the sight of him and instinctively took a step back. The younger man was scared of him, Naruse thought bitterly.
“Get out,” was all Naruse could say.
Naruse looked away from the absolute disgust in Nino’s face as the idol stomped out of his apartment.
XXX
Naruse wasn’t all that surprised when Nino’s manager called him in the morning, informing him that Nino wanted switch lawyers and didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore. The idol even went out to hold a press conference to announce their ‘unfortunate’ breakup in the afternoon. Rumors had it that Nino caught the lawyer having an affair with a psychic girl from the library/coffee shop.
The press conference, all the incriminating rumors against him, that, Naruse could handle. What he couldn’t handle was the way people tiptoed around him as if he would just snap at any smallest mishap. As if his heart was so broken and his spirit was so crushed he wouldn’t be able to take anything rough.
It was bad enough that his lawyer opponent had canceled on the trial after taking one look at his face outside the courtroom, but the final straw was when Naoto suddenly showed up in front of his office, offering to take him out to ‘drink his sorrows away’.
XXX
“I kind of understand you know, your pain,” Naoto exclaimed in his drunken stupor, “With my friends and my family’s sudden death and all. You know what I mean. What am I saying, you’re the lawyer for all the killers! And you got all of ‘em out to the street! XD Nyahahahaha!”
Naruse had tried to keep his drinking moderate, but for some reasons ended up drunk too. At least he was a silent drunk.
“Anyway, you must have it tougher than me,” Naoto grabbed his shoulders and gave him an awkward hug, “What’s the serial deaths of relatives compared to Ninomiya Kazunari dumping you?! You must feel like it’s the end of the world!”
“You’re wrong,” Naruse snorted as he slapped Naoto’s arm away, “I am not depressed and I couldn’t care less about that selfish brat of an idol.”
“That’s the spirit!” Naoto nodded approvingly as he blindly reached for his glass and took a big gulp, “They’re saying that you cheated on him with Shiori, but I know they’re wrong! They don’t know what they’re saying!”
Naruse blearily looked up at the younger man, “What are you saying?”
“Shiori couldn’t have been in your apartment that night, she was with me! All night long, dude!” Naoto raised his glass high and cheered with the rest of the drunken population of the bar, “Cheers for cute psychic hotties!”
“But of course I wasn’t cheating with that girl,” Naruse snorted, with all the dignity a dead drunk could muster, “Nino dumped me because he found out about my revenge plan against you and your entire family and now he thinks I am a psycho killer.”
Naoto was rendered silent for a moment, before breaking down in a high-pitched laughter once more.
“You sure can pull a joke, Ryo-chan! That lawyer joke is sooooooooooooo funny I’m telling ya.”
Just as Naoto expressed his hilarity by performing a literal ROFL and Naruse was about to raise his glass to his lips, everything went black.
XXX
First of all, Naruse’s head hurt.
“This is it! This is the end of Arashi!” said a scandalized voice Naruse found somewhat familiar.
“But Sho-chan---“
“Of all people, you just had to kidnap a lawyer! An excellent one at that!”
“……”
“And Jun-kun! I told you to go with him because I wanted to prevent something like this to happen! How could you let him do this?!”
“Well he didn’t exactly consult me before he went and knocked someone unconscious, you know,” said an irate voice, “Before I knew it, he was carrying Naruse-san on his back while screaming at me to run for my life! And given our current situation at the time, I couldn’t exactly disagree!”
“Sho-chan! Look! We can fix this ok? Naruse-san is a nice man, I’m sure he won’t sue! Especially if we bring him and Nino together again!”
“And how are you going to accomplish that?! Don’t tell me you’ve called Nino to come here!”
“Why of course I did---“
“And you think he’ll thank you for hitting his boyfriend with a beer bottle?”
“Well I didn’t exactly plan to reveal that part…”
“I am not…” Naruse opened his eyes and sat up slowly, “Not… Nino’s boyfriend…”
The three members of Arashi turned their heads at him, two looked nervous while one was absolutely overjoyed.
“Riida! You’re awake!” Aiba cheerfully skipped to his direction. At that point Naruse realized that he was lying on the couch in someone’s living room. It was either Matsumoto Jun’s, or Matsumoto Jun’s die-hard fan, judging from the pictures hung on the wall.
“I knew it! You like Nino, don’t you? You’re not seeing anyone else?”
“What… are you saying…” Naruse rubbed the aching swell on his head.
“We heard you speaking with the police! At the bar!” Aiba continued briskly.
“He went to the bar with which police?”
Sho looked like he wanted to go hide somewhere under the table with a positively furious Ninomiya Kazunari entered the room, arms crossed, eyes glared, brows furrowed.
“Good timing!” Aiba turned to his best friend, “Come on, Riida! Tell him the truth!”
“I think he knows all the truth.” Naruse looked back at the idol evenly, trying to ignore how happy he was to be able to see Nino again.
“No, look, Nino thinks that you are a maniacal stalker who wants to get in to Serizawa Naoto’s pants!”
Disgust immediately reappeared in Nino’s face as the mere thought of it.
“Well Nino you’re wrong! In fact Naruse-san hates Serizawa Naoto so much he created a plan to murder his friends and family without using his own hands!” Naruse widened his eyes in shock, as he looked at the supposedly ‘naturally airhead’ idol, who turned out to be very sharp instead, but then Nino suddenly stepped towards him before leaning down to cup his chin, still wearing a serious expression.
“Is that true? You are the mastermind behind the serial murders of Serizawa Naoto’s relatives?”
Naruse could feel his heart beating fast. He had never been so close to someone else’s face before and now suddenly he was face-to-face with a national idol who looked pretty damn handsome. “Yes, but I thought---“
“THANK GOD!”
He was still kind of dizzy and the voice was so high-pitched Naruse didn’t know if it came from Aiba or Nino or both of them at the same time. Before he knew it, Nino was happily hugging him. It felt warm and nice.
“So… you didn’t know that I…”
“When I found a room full of his pictures, naturally I thought you had hots for him!” Nino explained indignantly, “How could you not tell me about this?! You almost lost me forever, you bastard!”
“So now all of you know that I’m a murderer,” Naruse commented blandly, “Are you going to hand me to the police?”
“And get ourselves killed by Nino afterwards? No thanks,” Sho quickly replied.
“Well as long as you don’t cheat on him, Nino won’t make your life miserable,” Jun shrugged, “That’s one of his good traits I suppose.”
“But still…” Nino released him before taking his hand gently, “You do know that you’re doing the wrong thing, don’t you? Revenge won’t make you feel better.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for my deceased mother and brother.”
“They’re not here anymore…” Nino surprised everyone with his gentleness as he brought Naruse’s hand up and pressed his lips on the back of the cold hand, “But I am still here. You can be happy with me. So please give it up… you have killed enough people already.”
Naruse’s will gradually weakened as the rest of Arashi members surrounded him and urged him to tell them his story, promising not to be judgmental, which they loyally kept. Afterwards, they gave him many reasons not to continue with his revenge. Most of the reasons actually gave him back the spirit he had lost many years ago, giving him the courage to stand up and try to live his life again.
“I…” Naruse could feel his tears building up, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I have hurt so many people… The real Naruse Ryo… his sister… I know this is wrong, but for so many years, revenge has become the only reason I can survive… I am nothing without it.”
“You know, I think I know what you need,” Nino smiled, “But I need time to prepare. Would you meet me again in a week?”
Feeling so overwhelmed that a teardrop had fallen from one beautiful eye, Naruse could only nod. Then he cried and everyone let him, because they knew it was the tears of happiness, the best kind of tears of all.
XXX
Nino almost screamed when Naruse showed up at the restaurant a week later with blood staining the stomach area of his front shirt.
“Keita stabbed me.” The lawyer explained with a shrug, “I told him I wanted to stop.”
Nino cursed under his breath and swore to trample the Keita guy to death, whoever he was before stumbling for his cell phone to call ambulance, “You need to go to the hospital for that---“
“No, it’s okay,” Naruse calmly opened his shirt to reveal a small bloody pillow, “I anticipated him getting all berserk on me. So I prepared this. For all I know, he must have thought that I would be dead by now.”
“…Oh,” Nino unceremoniously dropped his phone, “That’s sneaky.”
“I’m more interested in your propositions,” Naruse leaned forward to hold Nino’s hand and smiled sweetly, “What do you have for me?”
“You mean other than my hot body and handsome face?” Nino flushed slightly at the extra attention, “Well you already have those two so I guess it goes unsaid. Here’s what you don’t have. Yet.”
It took Naruse 30 minutes to study all the documents Nino had prepared for him. He didn’t think he’d literally have the ‘new life’ in his hands.
“All these forms…” Naruse trembled slightly in anticipation, “Are you killing me?”
“No,” Nino replied sweetly, “I am killing Naruse Ryo. Whom technically isn’t you at the first place anyway.”
“I…” Naruse stared at the papers in disbelief, “Ohno Satoshi… birthday November 26th 1980… hobbies: fishing, painting, art-making… profession: Johnny’s Junior… This isn’t like me at all.”
“Your job won’t be Johnny’s Junior for long,” Nino smiled mysteriously, “I have arranged for you to join Arashi. As our leader.”
It was like Nino to drop the bomb right when Naruse didn’t think he couldn’t be more surprised with the younger man’s idea for his new life. A death certificate with his name on his was bad enough, and now he was told that he’d join the most famous men-band in Japan.
“But the fans---“
“Won’t complain after they see me groping your fantastic ass on TV frequent enough,” The younger idol grinned mischievously, “We can even make a skit duo. I’m thinking ‘Ohmiya SK’ would be the perfect name. You can be Taka and I can be Yuuji. We can wear shiny skimpy costumes and jump around the stage, hand in hand.”
Naruse could feel his heart throb again, in a decidedly nice way.
“Doesn’t it sound great? We can even kiss. Or get ‘accidentally’ caught sleeping together in each other’s arms. Or plan our marriage on stage during MC talk. The fans would go wild and beg for Ohmiya to pop them some cute babies. And we can live happily ever after.” Nino continued with dreamy eyes, “Naruse-san, I love you.”
As Naruse took hold of Nino’s hand once more, he sappily thought that as long as Nino was in his life, nothing would and could go wrong.
He had been saved.
XXX