Good Night, Sleep Tight
Title: Good Night, Sleep Tight
Rating: PG
Member/Pairing: Arashi (slight Sakuraiba and Ohmiya)
Summary: They had a slight problem during their tour in Sendai-there was only one room available in the hotel. And one room means only one spot to sleep. One word: Uh-oh.
Note: Written this so very long ago (read: a year before XD), found it recently so am posting it up :D Enjoy~ ^___^
Good Night, Sleep Tight
8:45pm. Sendai.
The cardkey was swiped against the locking mechanism, making a small beeping sound as the card was passed through. The door swung open and a standard hotel room came into view of the five JE idols. A bed, two sidetables, a TV; the usual.
The usual?
Silence reigned amongst them.
“This is… it?” Jun spoke up. He looked back at Sho who was still opening his shoes. “Sho-san. This is it? One room?”
“Don’t tell me we’re gonna share,” Nino grumbled, his eyebrows furrowed in apparent discontentment. “All five of us??”
“Are you sure there’s only one cardkey, Sho-chan?” Aiba sat on the bed and took off his baseball cap. He ruffled his hair and looked at Sho.
“Yes,” Sakurai exhaled exasperatedly. “I’m sure. This was all they gave us when I checked in.” He threw the casing on the table and dragged his bag inside the room. Clearly he was annoyed with the reiteration of the same question over and over again.
Ohno walked over to the table and rechecked the small cardkey case for any extra hidden cardkeys. Of course, as Sho stated, there were none.
“We’re sharing,” Riida concluded, grinning at Kazu beside him. “One bed, five of us.”
“Eeeehh-?” Jun, Nino and Aiba resounded together in unison.
And thus, all the five members of Arashi were fervently arguing for the first time since the summer concert started. First stop in the tour was in Sendai, and the first stop in Sendai was their hotel, and the first stop in the hotel was, as confirmed before, their room.
Yes, room.
Not rooms.
“Okay, someone, please explain.” Nino held his hand up, thus shutting everyone up. The other four members looked at him from their respective spots (Aiba and Ohno on the bed and the rest on the floor). Nino accentuated his question by slowly pronouncing his words, his tone laced with pure frustration.
“How… did… this… happen?”
Of course, that led to another heated (not to mention noisy) discussion on the source of this predicament.
“Wait!” Aiba sat up on the bed, and instantly everyone turned their eyes on him. “If it’s going to be like this… if we have to share this room…” He wrapped himself under the sheets and grinned. “Then, dibs I get the bed!”
“Oi! Oi! Oi!” Jun stood up, glaring at Aiba. “And how is that fair?”
“It’s fair coz I dibbed.”
“What about us?” Matsujun pointed his index finger back and forth to each of the members. He was obviously not happy with the newly made decision. “Where are we going to sleep?”
Aiba shrugged. He pointed at the floor, the sofa and at the table at the corner of the room. Then he added, with a cheeky grin, “Oh, and the bathtub is empty too.”
“I am not sleeping in a bathtub!” Nino whined.
Sho sighed and dialed their manager’s number on his phone. Hoshida-san wasn’t there with them at that time, (he had a slight problem before the tour started) and said that he’d meet them tomorrow instead.
“Well, that’s the best that you can get,” he said.
Ohno positioned himself as comfortably as possible on the bed (Aiba was still wrapped up like a California roll under the sheets), while the other three sat up straight on the floor, carefully listening to Hoshida-san’s voice from the loudspeaker. “Matsumoto exceeded the budget and the hotel was almost fully booked. It’s just for the weekend, by the time you know it you guys would be out from Sendai.”
“But if we’ve exceeded the budget, doesn’t that mean that in Kyoto we’d be having the same dilemma?” Sho’s eyebrows were knotted in annoyance. No way was he going to face this problem over and over again…
“No. We’ve divided the budget into seven parts, one for each stop. And for this stop, Matsumoto surpassed the budget by…” The members heard a clicking sound from the phone; it was most possibly a calculator. “At least 250 percent.”
Aiba, Sho, Nino and Ohno glanced up at Matsujun, shock registering on their faces. He shot back an apologetic look. “Don’t worry,” Hoshida-san’s voice droned on. “The next stop would be better. Though for this, we had to cancel the moving stage, the fog effect and the fireworks at the last minute.”
Jun voiced out, “Ah! But-!”
“Shut up, Matsumoto,” Nino growled. “We’re here like this because of your excessive concert planning in the first place.”
“Do you want a good concert or not?!”
“Not if I have to sleep in a bathtub!”
“Sleeping in a bathtub is considered a small -”
“Didn’t you at least check with other people before?” Ohno voiced up, trying to avoid a fight between the two DoS pair. No one noticed the phone went dead. Aiba sat up on the bed and looked at Jun, who went quiet for a moment.
“I… sorta paid everything in advance for this trip, before manager-san caught me.”
Both Sho and Aiba thumped him with the white pillows. Nino slapped him on the head.
“Shouldn’t we deal with our sleeping issues now instead of blaming Matsujun?” Ohno, the oh-so sensible leader pointed out.
“I said I wanted the bed!” Aiba pouted.
“You can’t have all of it!” Jun yelled.
“We can’t all share one bed!” Sho argued.
“The sofa looks lumpy,” Ohno stated.
“I’m NOT sleeping on the floor!” Nino crossed his arms.
“Neither do I!” The others said in unison. At least that now the members had something in common. There was an uneasy silence again in the room before Sho pointed out something in a matter-of-factly tone.
“If you haven’t noticed,” Sho said, “This whole floor has central air-conditioning. It’s freezing and we only have ONE blanket.”
“And how do you propose to solve this problem then?” Nino asked, sarcastically. The prospect of all five of them cramming up into one queen sized bed was not helping his patience.
“Isn’t that the main problem here?”
“Well,” Ohno said, shrugging. The two stopped squabbling for a moment and their attentions were brought to their Riida. “Let’s janken over it. Then we can choose our spots. Since, well, we have to share anyway.”
The remaining four members unwillingly agreed to their Leader’s suggestion. As usual, the best and most effective method of rock-paper-scissors rules over the Arashi members.
“Jan-ken-pon!”
Ohno: Rock
Nino: Scissors
Sho: Scissors
Aiba: Scissors
Jun: Rock
“Yosh!”
“I’m on this side!” Jun sat on the farthest left side of the bed whereas Ohno crawled on the right side, grinning. Sitting on their respective arrangements, they watched as the other three continued with their game.
“Jan-ken-pon!”
Nino: Paper
Sho: Rock
Aiba: Paper
“Eehhh??” Sho stared at the fist he made. He lost?! Why was his luck so bad in jan-ken today? Why today?!
“Tough luck.” Nino patted Sho’s back and subsequently placed his head on Ohno’s lap. Riida stroked his head affectionately like a puppy. Sho’s face showed utter disbelief as he watched the empty spot in the middle of the bed.
“Mou! I don’t wanna be in the middle! It’s gonna be super cramped!” Sho wailed, very much baby-like. “Matsumoto! This is your fault that we got in this mess! Why don’t you sleep in the middle?!”
“Coz I won.”
Jun rolled to his side and covered his head with the blanket. And with that, Sho was dismissed. He sat down grumpily on the middle of the bed, crossing his arms. Nino laughed at him while Aiba pulled him to lie down beside him.
“Just shut up, Sho-chan.”
“Yeah,” Nino said, suddenly cheerful at Sho’s loss. At least he wasn’t going to be squished between the others. “Accept the fact that you lost, Sho-chan.”
Sho pouted at both of them. He was not going to be happy the next day.
**********
1:35am.
Aiba tossed and turned in the bed. Something was missing, he was sure; but he wasn’t sure what was missing. Aiba sat up on the bed; he thumped the pillow and lied back down. No, something was still wrong.
His eyes widened as realization hit him.
His dog plush was gone.
Frantic, Aiba looked under the covers and under his pillow. All he saw in the darkness was the stark white bedcloth. He got up and searched in the closet and on the floor. He rummaged his bag and even went into the toilet, just in case.
He found nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
He felt like he was going to cry. He can’t sleep without the plushie by his side. He shook Sho by the shoulder, slowly at first, then more urgent.
“Sho-chan…! Wake up…! Sho-chan!”
He grunted, stirred, then blinked groggily back at Aiba. “Hu-? What?” Sho sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Aiba? What do you want?”
“Lucky’s missing.”
“Mm… Ii yo…”
“Sho! It’s not good…! Help me…”
Sho stared longingly back at the pillow and glanced over at the sleeping figures of Jun, Nino and Ohno. Nino was sleeping peacefully beside Ohno, his arms wrapped casually around the leader’s neck. Jun, however, was pulling the single blanket over his shoulder and was breathing lightly and evenly.
Sho felt his eyes drop close.
“Sho-chan!” Aiba pulled him to a sitting position on the bed. “Wake up and help me… please…” Sleepily, Sho nodded and looked under the pillow. Of course, nothing was under there.
“Can’t find it,” he muttered.
Sho let himself drop on the bed, his eyes closed before his head reached his pillow. Before the older man fell into a deep sleep, Aiba heard him mutter something that sounded like, “Use Matsujun as a substitute.”
Aiba wailed, “Sho-chan! Wake up!” No way was he going to use Matsujun as a substitute for Lucky. For one, he wasn’t one of those touchy-feely people. For another, he’d kick him, for reasons stated before. And besides, his kicks aren’t those gentle nudge and tap. It was a full blown DoS-Domyouji-style kick. One word to describe it? Ouch.
But as much as he tried to shake Sho awake, he wouldn’t budge. Okay, breathe, Aiba thought to himself. You can try to sleep without Lucky tonight… just tonight.
Aiba stared at the ceiling and counted sheep.
Use Matsujun as a substitute…?
Sho-chan?
**********
“Get… off…!”
Sho pushed Aiba away from him. His arms were wrapped around him too tightly, and it was hard to breathe! Slowly, Sho tried to tug his arms away from his torso, but that only made him cuddle closer to him.
“Ai-ba… Ma-sa-ki!”
“Mm… don’t be silly, Lucky…!”
Oh, great, now he’s talking in his sleep. How in the world is he going to sleep now? Sho smacked his hands on his face and spared a glance at the sofa. No matter how lumpy it looked in the full-functioning lights, it was looking very inviting now.
For one, at least he can breathe there!
A decision was finally made as Sho pulled himself as quickly as possible away from Aiba and stepped over the snuggling Ohmiya SK duo. Relief washed over him as he trudged over to the sofa.
But as soon as Sho placed his head on the armrest on the very uncomfortable settee, Aiba sat up abruptly on the bed. “Lucky?” He looked around for his toy dog. Even in the dark, Sho saw his eyes welled up. “Lucky…?” he called out, even more desperately.
Sho got up from the sofa and thrust a white pillow in his arms. Aiba fell back to the bed, with a smile gracing his lips. And he was asleep.
“That… was… close…”
**********
Soft kisses of breaths tickled Jun’s face. He growled in his sleep, rubbing his face. The breaths didn’t cease. He let out a frustrated yell and sat up on his bed. He looked back and saw his co-member, facing his spot, tightly hugging a pillow.
Aiba.
Jun clicked his tongue and laid back down, pushing him away from his territory. He turned away from his co-member and shut his eyes. Aiba grumbled and rolled back towards Matsujun, facing his back. He breathed softly, tickling Jun’s neck. Matsujun squealed at the feeling and sat up again. He pushed Aiba so he faced upwards and forcefully pressed his pillow to Aiba’s face.
Aiba gave a grunt and pulled his face away from the pillow. “Nya… A… Arashi…” he mumbled in his sleep.
And then rolled over to Matsujun’s territory.
Oh, great.
Jun glared as seethingly as he could in the pitch darkness, and then kicked the sleeping figure beside him. He’d been awaked at least three times already this night by Aiba.
Speaking of Aiba, he whined like a little puppy, rolled over and faced Nino, then fell back into his slumber. Thinking that would solve his problem, Jun laid back in the bed, facing away from him.
The DoS Banchou emitted a squeal and sat up straight on the bed. Aiba had, once again, rolled towards Jun. And his breaths tickled him, disrupting Jun’s sleep. He rubbed the back of his neck and tried his best not to kick Masaki off the bed.
He pulled himself groggily out of bed and headed to Ohno’s side. He waited until Aiba rolled over to his spot (that took him five seconds) then Jun pushed Nino closer to Aiba and lastly rolled Ohno towards Nino again.
Smiling for the first time that night, he let himself fall on the soft bed.
**********
“Wha-?”
Ohno was woken up at 3 am by the sound of something slapping on to his face. That ‘something’ was Jun’s hand. He sat up to see Matsujun, calm faced and asleep beside him. (“When did he get here?” Ohno muttered to himself.)
And he was in his territory.
Sleepily, Ohno poked his shoulder. “Jun-kun…” he whispered, not wanting to wake anyone up. “Wake up.” Jun swatted the leader’s hand like a fly. “You’re in my space… I can't sleep.”
He was replied by an incomprehensible murmur.
“Jun-kun…”
Ohno thumped him with a white pillow, trying to wake him. Jun scratched his bed-hair, turned around and continued his rest. Ohno’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to find a way to sleep. Obviously waking him up was not a very conceivable plan. He slept like a log. A kicking log, to be precise.
An idea popped in his head. Ohno stepped over Nino and lied down beside him. Satisfaction washed over him for a moment as he closed his eyes in an attempted slumber. But the contentment didn’t last long. There was a strange, tickling sensation of small puffs of breaths going down his neck.
Aiba.
“Aghh…” Ohno let himself fall on the bed, pushed Aiba away and tried to ignore the feeling. But, too bad, ignorance wasn’t bliss in this case. Aiba turned in his sleep and Riida squealed out loud. He sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. Being beside Masaki felt like someone stroking a cattail over his neck.
Feeling vexed, Ohno once again moved on the other side of Nino and pressed a pillow over his head tightly.
If he lacked oxygen, he’d fall asleep, he hoped.
Jun’s leg kicked his for the umpteenth time that night.
“I am not,” Ohno mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Going to sleep well tonight…”
Nino stirred and raised his head just slightly to face his Riida. “Oh-chan?” he whispered, sleepily. “What’s wrong?”
Ohno answered with one word: “Matsujun.”
Nino sat up and looked at his co-member. Matsujun… was definitely taking up too much space. Oh well. One way to fix that. Nino crawled over his leader and placed a hand on Jun’s shoulder.
Ohno heard a dull thud.
Knowing exactly what happened, he debated with himself whether to help him or not.
“Problem solved,” Nino said. He could see a brief disagreement in Ohno’s eyes. That, too, was easily solved with a smile and a peck on the cheek. “Good night, Oh-chan.”
Well.
Good night it is, then.
**********
At 7:30am, Aiba woke up, feeling energized. He sat up on his bed and stretched his arms. “Good morning, Masaki,” he greeted himself, patting his own head. “And good morning, Lucky.” Aiba looked down to his hands.
A white pillow.
No Lucky.
Aiba stood up on the bed, looking around for any sign of his precious toy dog. In a few moments, he found his toy.
Under Nino.
Aiba let out a piercing yell and jumped into action. “Nino! NINO you goof! YOU’RE SLEEPING ON LUCKY!!” He pushed Nino fiercely away from his dog and pulled Lucky out. Aiba sat back on the bed, patting Lucky as though it was a real maimed dog. “There, there, Lucky… daijoubu.”
“Baka,” Nino’s drowsy voice floated towards him. He rubbed his eyes awake and yawned. “It’s not a real dog.”
“But you SAT on it!”
Nino shrugged and dismissed the fact. No plushies were harmed. Well, at least, not according to him. Ignoring Aiba and his pitiful comforts to his dog, he stood up sleepily on the bed. He was dazed for a few moments before settings around him were made out. In an instant, huge bursts of laughter encased him, complete with complete with tearful eyes and stomach-clutching stages. Arashi was such a sight that morning.
Ohno was a breathing lump under the fuzzy brown blanket, looking very much like a sleeping bear cub, a pillow tightly pressed upon his head. Sho’s hair was like a bird’s nest and his facial expression showed total discomfort as he slept on his left arm. His right leg was placed on the coffee-table and a towel (a makeshift blanket?) was hanging on his left foot on the arm rest.
However, Matsujun -the coolest, usually the one with most composure- had the best morning pose ever. He was huddled in an ungraceful heap on the floor, mouth open and still ever-so-slightly snoring, and his right arm was laid on his stomach, his pajama top bunched slightly showing a glance of his stomach. His left arm was placed over his eyes and his legs were all over the floor.
Nino collapsed on the bed, continuing his laugh until his stomach hurt. Sakurai stirred awake from the sofa. He rubbed his eyes and muttered a fatigued, “Ohayou” to both of them. He didn’t question Nino’s hysterical fit that morning. His shoulders ached too much to care.
“Eh,” Aiba said, tilting his head to the side. “Why are you there, Sho-chan?”
Sho frowned at him, thumping his sore shoulders (the sofa was not a good place to rest) and said, “You were choking me to death. I wonder how Lucky stands it every night.” Aiba bowed his head slightly in apology, grinning. Getting up, Sho glanced at the still sleeping Jun on the floor then shrugged his shoulders.
He… didn’t want to know.
“Captain, wakey, wakey,” Nino said, shaking Riida awake. His eyes peeked out cutely from inside the blanket. “Get up.” Ohno shook his head and covered himself with the blanket. Nino slapped his behind as a ‘good morning’ greeting. “Up, Oh-chan. We have a concert today.”
“Mnn…” Ohno sat up dazedly and let his legs dangle to the side of the bed. Sho, who had recently fully waked, spoke up, “Captain! Be careful! Matsu-”
Oh-chan didn’t listen.
He stepped off the bed.
And onto Jun.
“OW! GET OFF! GET OFF!” Ohno hastily pulled his feet back up. Jun glared at everyone in the room. And suddenly realized one very important fact: “Why am I on the floor?”
Ohno glanced at Nino.
Who looked at Aiba.
Who blurted out, “What?!”
Jun decided he did not want to know.
**********
“Have we got everything?” Sho asked. (He was taking the role of their manager since he was gone.) Everyone nodded. “Kay, let’s go.”
They started walking away from their room before Jun yelled out, “Wait! I think I left something! You guys walk off first.”
Jun strode back inside the room. Looking that no one else was around; he took out his phone and dialed a familiar number. “Moshi moshi? Hai, Matsumoto desu. Someone cancelled the fireworks, fog effect and moving stage, right? I want to take back them back. Yes, all of them. For the Kyoto concert-“
Aiba, who was waiting for Jun by the door, heard it. He gave a gasp and yelled out, “Jun is uncancelling the effects!”
“JUN!!!”
The other three members scrambled back in and struggled with him for the phone.
The End
Rating: PG
Member/Pairing: Arashi (slight Sakuraiba and Ohmiya)
Summary: They had a slight problem during their tour in Sendai-there was only one room available in the hotel. And one room means only one spot to sleep. One word: Uh-oh.
Note: Written this so very long ago (read: a year before XD), found it recently so am posting it up :D Enjoy~ ^___^
Good Night, Sleep Tight
8:45pm. Sendai.
The cardkey was swiped against the locking mechanism, making a small beeping sound as the card was passed through. The door swung open and a standard hotel room came into view of the five JE idols. A bed, two sidetables, a TV; the usual.
The usual?
Silence reigned amongst them.
“This is… it?” Jun spoke up. He looked back at Sho who was still opening his shoes. “Sho-san. This is it? One room?”
“Don’t tell me we’re gonna share,” Nino grumbled, his eyebrows furrowed in apparent discontentment. “All five of us??”
“Are you sure there’s only one cardkey, Sho-chan?” Aiba sat on the bed and took off his baseball cap. He ruffled his hair and looked at Sho.
“Yes,” Sakurai exhaled exasperatedly. “I’m sure. This was all they gave us when I checked in.” He threw the casing on the table and dragged his bag inside the room. Clearly he was annoyed with the reiteration of the same question over and over again.
Ohno walked over to the table and rechecked the small cardkey case for any extra hidden cardkeys. Of course, as Sho stated, there were none.
“We’re sharing,” Riida concluded, grinning at Kazu beside him. “One bed, five of us.”
“Eeeehh-?” Jun, Nino and Aiba resounded together in unison.
And thus, all the five members of Arashi were fervently arguing for the first time since the summer concert started. First stop in the tour was in Sendai, and the first stop in Sendai was their hotel, and the first stop in the hotel was, as confirmed before, their room.
Yes, room.
Not rooms.
“Okay, someone, please explain.” Nino held his hand up, thus shutting everyone up. The other four members looked at him from their respective spots (Aiba and Ohno on the bed and the rest on the floor). Nino accentuated his question by slowly pronouncing his words, his tone laced with pure frustration.
“How… did… this… happen?”
Of course, that led to another heated (not to mention noisy) discussion on the source of this predicament.
“Wait!” Aiba sat up on the bed, and instantly everyone turned their eyes on him. “If it’s going to be like this… if we have to share this room…” He wrapped himself under the sheets and grinned. “Then, dibs I get the bed!”
“Oi! Oi! Oi!” Jun stood up, glaring at Aiba. “And how is that fair?”
“It’s fair coz I dibbed.”
“What about us?” Matsujun pointed his index finger back and forth to each of the members. He was obviously not happy with the newly made decision. “Where are we going to sleep?”
Aiba shrugged. He pointed at the floor, the sofa and at the table at the corner of the room. Then he added, with a cheeky grin, “Oh, and the bathtub is empty too.”
“I am not sleeping in a bathtub!” Nino whined.
Sho sighed and dialed their manager’s number on his phone. Hoshida-san wasn’t there with them at that time, (he had a slight problem before the tour started) and said that he’d meet them tomorrow instead.
“Well, that’s the best that you can get,” he said.
Ohno positioned himself as comfortably as possible on the bed (Aiba was still wrapped up like a California roll under the sheets), while the other three sat up straight on the floor, carefully listening to Hoshida-san’s voice from the loudspeaker. “Matsumoto exceeded the budget and the hotel was almost fully booked. It’s just for the weekend, by the time you know it you guys would be out from Sendai.”
“But if we’ve exceeded the budget, doesn’t that mean that in Kyoto we’d be having the same dilemma?” Sho’s eyebrows were knotted in annoyance. No way was he going to face this problem over and over again…
“No. We’ve divided the budget into seven parts, one for each stop. And for this stop, Matsumoto surpassed the budget by…” The members heard a clicking sound from the phone; it was most possibly a calculator. “At least 250 percent.”
Aiba, Sho, Nino and Ohno glanced up at Matsujun, shock registering on their faces. He shot back an apologetic look. “Don’t worry,” Hoshida-san’s voice droned on. “The next stop would be better. Though for this, we had to cancel the moving stage, the fog effect and the fireworks at the last minute.”
Jun voiced out, “Ah! But-!”
“Shut up, Matsumoto,” Nino growled. “We’re here like this because of your excessive concert planning in the first place.”
“Do you want a good concert or not?!”
“Not if I have to sleep in a bathtub!”
“Sleeping in a bathtub is considered a small -”
“Didn’t you at least check with other people before?” Ohno voiced up, trying to avoid a fight between the two DoS pair. No one noticed the phone went dead. Aiba sat up on the bed and looked at Jun, who went quiet for a moment.
“I… sorta paid everything in advance for this trip, before manager-san caught me.”
Both Sho and Aiba thumped him with the white pillows. Nino slapped him on the head.
“Shouldn’t we deal with our sleeping issues now instead of blaming Matsujun?” Ohno, the oh-so sensible leader pointed out.
“I said I wanted the bed!” Aiba pouted.
“You can’t have all of it!” Jun yelled.
“We can’t all share one bed!” Sho argued.
“The sofa looks lumpy,” Ohno stated.
“I’m NOT sleeping on the floor!” Nino crossed his arms.
“Neither do I!” The others said in unison. At least that now the members had something in common. There was an uneasy silence again in the room before Sho pointed out something in a matter-of-factly tone.
“If you haven’t noticed,” Sho said, “This whole floor has central air-conditioning. It’s freezing and we only have ONE blanket.”
“And how do you propose to solve this problem then?” Nino asked, sarcastically. The prospect of all five of them cramming up into one queen sized bed was not helping his patience.
“Isn’t that the main problem here?”
“Well,” Ohno said, shrugging. The two stopped squabbling for a moment and their attentions were brought to their Riida. “Let’s janken over it. Then we can choose our spots. Since, well, we have to share anyway.”
The remaining four members unwillingly agreed to their Leader’s suggestion. As usual, the best and most effective method of rock-paper-scissors rules over the Arashi members.
“Jan-ken-pon!”
Ohno: Rock
Nino: Scissors
Sho: Scissors
Aiba: Scissors
Jun: Rock
“Yosh!”
“I’m on this side!” Jun sat on the farthest left side of the bed whereas Ohno crawled on the right side, grinning. Sitting on their respective arrangements, they watched as the other three continued with their game.
“Jan-ken-pon!”
Nino: Paper
Sho: Rock
Aiba: Paper
“Eehhh??” Sho stared at the fist he made. He lost?! Why was his luck so bad in jan-ken today? Why today?!
“Tough luck.” Nino patted Sho’s back and subsequently placed his head on Ohno’s lap. Riida stroked his head affectionately like a puppy. Sho’s face showed utter disbelief as he watched the empty spot in the middle of the bed.
“Mou! I don’t wanna be in the middle! It’s gonna be super cramped!” Sho wailed, very much baby-like. “Matsumoto! This is your fault that we got in this mess! Why don’t you sleep in the middle?!”
“Coz I won.”
Jun rolled to his side and covered his head with the blanket. And with that, Sho was dismissed. He sat down grumpily on the middle of the bed, crossing his arms. Nino laughed at him while Aiba pulled him to lie down beside him.
“Just shut up, Sho-chan.”
“Yeah,” Nino said, suddenly cheerful at Sho’s loss. At least he wasn’t going to be squished between the others. “Accept the fact that you lost, Sho-chan.”
Sho pouted at both of them. He was not going to be happy the next day.
**********
1:35am.
Aiba tossed and turned in the bed. Something was missing, he was sure; but he wasn’t sure what was missing. Aiba sat up on the bed; he thumped the pillow and lied back down. No, something was still wrong.
His eyes widened as realization hit him.
His dog plush was gone.
Frantic, Aiba looked under the covers and under his pillow. All he saw in the darkness was the stark white bedcloth. He got up and searched in the closet and on the floor. He rummaged his bag and even went into the toilet, just in case.
He found nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
He felt like he was going to cry. He can’t sleep without the plushie by his side. He shook Sho by the shoulder, slowly at first, then more urgent.
“Sho-chan…! Wake up…! Sho-chan!”
He grunted, stirred, then blinked groggily back at Aiba. “Hu-? What?” Sho sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Aiba? What do you want?”
“Lucky’s missing.”
“Mm… Ii yo…”
“Sho! It’s not good…! Help me…”
Sho stared longingly back at the pillow and glanced over at the sleeping figures of Jun, Nino and Ohno. Nino was sleeping peacefully beside Ohno, his arms wrapped casually around the leader’s neck. Jun, however, was pulling the single blanket over his shoulder and was breathing lightly and evenly.
Sho felt his eyes drop close.
“Sho-chan!” Aiba pulled him to a sitting position on the bed. “Wake up and help me… please…” Sleepily, Sho nodded and looked under the pillow. Of course, nothing was under there.
“Can’t find it,” he muttered.
Sho let himself drop on the bed, his eyes closed before his head reached his pillow. Before the older man fell into a deep sleep, Aiba heard him mutter something that sounded like, “Use Matsujun as a substitute.”
Aiba wailed, “Sho-chan! Wake up!” No way was he going to use Matsujun as a substitute for Lucky. For one, he wasn’t one of those touchy-feely people. For another, he’d kick him, for reasons stated before. And besides, his kicks aren’t those gentle nudge and tap. It was a full blown DoS-Domyouji-style kick. One word to describe it? Ouch.
But as much as he tried to shake Sho awake, he wouldn’t budge. Okay, breathe, Aiba thought to himself. You can try to sleep without Lucky tonight… just tonight.
Aiba stared at the ceiling and counted sheep.
Use Matsujun as a substitute…?
Sho-chan?
**********
“Get… off…!”
Sho pushed Aiba away from him. His arms were wrapped around him too tightly, and it was hard to breathe! Slowly, Sho tried to tug his arms away from his torso, but that only made him cuddle closer to him.
“Ai-ba… Ma-sa-ki!”
“Mm… don’t be silly, Lucky…!”
Oh, great, now he’s talking in his sleep. How in the world is he going to sleep now? Sho smacked his hands on his face and spared a glance at the sofa. No matter how lumpy it looked in the full-functioning lights, it was looking very inviting now.
For one, at least he can breathe there!
A decision was finally made as Sho pulled himself as quickly as possible away from Aiba and stepped over the snuggling Ohmiya SK duo. Relief washed over him as he trudged over to the sofa.
But as soon as Sho placed his head on the armrest on the very uncomfortable settee, Aiba sat up abruptly on the bed. “Lucky?” He looked around for his toy dog. Even in the dark, Sho saw his eyes welled up. “Lucky…?” he called out, even more desperately.
Sho got up from the sofa and thrust a white pillow in his arms. Aiba fell back to the bed, with a smile gracing his lips. And he was asleep.
“That… was… close…”
**********
Soft kisses of breaths tickled Jun’s face. He growled in his sleep, rubbing his face. The breaths didn’t cease. He let out a frustrated yell and sat up on his bed. He looked back and saw his co-member, facing his spot, tightly hugging a pillow.
Aiba.
Jun clicked his tongue and laid back down, pushing him away from his territory. He turned away from his co-member and shut his eyes. Aiba grumbled and rolled back towards Matsujun, facing his back. He breathed softly, tickling Jun’s neck. Matsujun squealed at the feeling and sat up again. He pushed Aiba so he faced upwards and forcefully pressed his pillow to Aiba’s face.
Aiba gave a grunt and pulled his face away from the pillow. “Nya… A… Arashi…” he mumbled in his sleep.
And then rolled over to Matsujun’s territory.
Oh, great.
Jun glared as seethingly as he could in the pitch darkness, and then kicked the sleeping figure beside him. He’d been awaked at least three times already this night by Aiba.
Speaking of Aiba, he whined like a little puppy, rolled over and faced Nino, then fell back into his slumber. Thinking that would solve his problem, Jun laid back in the bed, facing away from him.
The DoS Banchou emitted a squeal and sat up straight on the bed. Aiba had, once again, rolled towards Jun. And his breaths tickled him, disrupting Jun’s sleep. He rubbed the back of his neck and tried his best not to kick Masaki off the bed.
He pulled himself groggily out of bed and headed to Ohno’s side. He waited until Aiba rolled over to his spot (that took him five seconds) then Jun pushed Nino closer to Aiba and lastly rolled Ohno towards Nino again.
Smiling for the first time that night, he let himself fall on the soft bed.
**********
“Wha-?”
Ohno was woken up at 3 am by the sound of something slapping on to his face. That ‘something’ was Jun’s hand. He sat up to see Matsujun, calm faced and asleep beside him. (“When did he get here?” Ohno muttered to himself.)
And he was in his territory.
Sleepily, Ohno poked his shoulder. “Jun-kun…” he whispered, not wanting to wake anyone up. “Wake up.” Jun swatted the leader’s hand like a fly. “You’re in my space… I can't sleep.”
He was replied by an incomprehensible murmur.
“Jun-kun…”
Ohno thumped him with a white pillow, trying to wake him. Jun scratched his bed-hair, turned around and continued his rest. Ohno’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to find a way to sleep. Obviously waking him up was not a very conceivable plan. He slept like a log. A kicking log, to be precise.
An idea popped in his head. Ohno stepped over Nino and lied down beside him. Satisfaction washed over him for a moment as he closed his eyes in an attempted slumber. But the contentment didn’t last long. There was a strange, tickling sensation of small puffs of breaths going down his neck.
Aiba.
“Aghh…” Ohno let himself fall on the bed, pushed Aiba away and tried to ignore the feeling. But, too bad, ignorance wasn’t bliss in this case. Aiba turned in his sleep and Riida squealed out loud. He sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. Being beside Masaki felt like someone stroking a cattail over his neck.
Feeling vexed, Ohno once again moved on the other side of Nino and pressed a pillow over his head tightly.
If he lacked oxygen, he’d fall asleep, he hoped.
Jun’s leg kicked his for the umpteenth time that night.
“I am not,” Ohno mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Going to sleep well tonight…”
Nino stirred and raised his head just slightly to face his Riida. “Oh-chan?” he whispered, sleepily. “What’s wrong?”
Ohno answered with one word: “Matsujun.”
Nino sat up and looked at his co-member. Matsujun… was definitely taking up too much space. Oh well. One way to fix that. Nino crawled over his leader and placed a hand on Jun’s shoulder.
Ohno heard a dull thud.
Knowing exactly what happened, he debated with himself whether to help him or not.
“Problem solved,” Nino said. He could see a brief disagreement in Ohno’s eyes. That, too, was easily solved with a smile and a peck on the cheek. “Good night, Oh-chan.”
Well.
Good night it is, then.
**********
At 7:30am, Aiba woke up, feeling energized. He sat up on his bed and stretched his arms. “Good morning, Masaki,” he greeted himself, patting his own head. “And good morning, Lucky.” Aiba looked down to his hands.
A white pillow.
No Lucky.
Aiba stood up on the bed, looking around for any sign of his precious toy dog. In a few moments, he found his toy.
Under Nino.
Aiba let out a piercing yell and jumped into action. “Nino! NINO you goof! YOU’RE SLEEPING ON LUCKY!!” He pushed Nino fiercely away from his dog and pulled Lucky out. Aiba sat back on the bed, patting Lucky as though it was a real maimed dog. “There, there, Lucky… daijoubu.”
“Baka,” Nino’s drowsy voice floated towards him. He rubbed his eyes awake and yawned. “It’s not a real dog.”
“But you SAT on it!”
Nino shrugged and dismissed the fact. No plushies were harmed. Well, at least, not according to him. Ignoring Aiba and his pitiful comforts to his dog, he stood up sleepily on the bed. He was dazed for a few moments before settings around him were made out. In an instant, huge bursts of laughter encased him, complete with complete with tearful eyes and stomach-clutching stages. Arashi was such a sight that morning.
Ohno was a breathing lump under the fuzzy brown blanket, looking very much like a sleeping bear cub, a pillow tightly pressed upon his head. Sho’s hair was like a bird’s nest and his facial expression showed total discomfort as he slept on his left arm. His right leg was placed on the coffee-table and a towel (a makeshift blanket?) was hanging on his left foot on the arm rest.
However, Matsujun -the coolest, usually the one with most composure- had the best morning pose ever. He was huddled in an ungraceful heap on the floor, mouth open and still ever-so-slightly snoring, and his right arm was laid on his stomach, his pajama top bunched slightly showing a glance of his stomach. His left arm was placed over his eyes and his legs were all over the floor.
Nino collapsed on the bed, continuing his laugh until his stomach hurt. Sakurai stirred awake from the sofa. He rubbed his eyes and muttered a fatigued, “Ohayou” to both of them. He didn’t question Nino’s hysterical fit that morning. His shoulders ached too much to care.
“Eh,” Aiba said, tilting his head to the side. “Why are you there, Sho-chan?”
Sho frowned at him, thumping his sore shoulders (the sofa was not a good place to rest) and said, “You were choking me to death. I wonder how Lucky stands it every night.” Aiba bowed his head slightly in apology, grinning. Getting up, Sho glanced at the still sleeping Jun on the floor then shrugged his shoulders.
He… didn’t want to know.
“Captain, wakey, wakey,” Nino said, shaking Riida awake. His eyes peeked out cutely from inside the blanket. “Get up.” Ohno shook his head and covered himself with the blanket. Nino slapped his behind as a ‘good morning’ greeting. “Up, Oh-chan. We have a concert today.”
“Mnn…” Ohno sat up dazedly and let his legs dangle to the side of the bed. Sho, who had recently fully waked, spoke up, “Captain! Be careful! Matsu-”
Oh-chan didn’t listen.
He stepped off the bed.
And onto Jun.
“OW! GET OFF! GET OFF!” Ohno hastily pulled his feet back up. Jun glared at everyone in the room. And suddenly realized one very important fact: “Why am I on the floor?”
Ohno glanced at Nino.
Who looked at Aiba.
Who blurted out, “What?!”
Jun decided he did not want to know.
**********
“Have we got everything?” Sho asked. (He was taking the role of their manager since he was gone.) Everyone nodded. “Kay, let’s go.”
They started walking away from their room before Jun yelled out, “Wait! I think I left something! You guys walk off first.”
Jun strode back inside the room. Looking that no one else was around; he took out his phone and dialed a familiar number. “Moshi moshi? Hai, Matsumoto desu. Someone cancelled the fireworks, fog effect and moving stage, right? I want to take back them back. Yes, all of them. For the Kyoto concert-“
Aiba, who was waiting for Jun by the door, heard it. He gave a gasp and yelled out, “Jun is uncancelling the effects!”
“JUN!!!”
The other three members scrambled back in and struggled with him for the phone.
The End