Title: Life Isn’t Perfect, But It Sure Is Beautiful
Pairing: Slight Ohmiya, and you kind of have to squint to see the Sakuraiba.
Type: one-shot
Genre: Christmas, Friendship, AU
Story rating: G
Disclaimers: Arashi isn’t mine, and I got the idea from the iCarly iChristmas episode, which is owned by Nick and Dan Schneider.
Summary: Masaki has a pretty good life, but that all changes when his brother Satoshi sets their Christmas tree on fire, so he wishes Satoshi had been born normal. Suddenly life becomes very, very different…
Word count: 3662
Note: This may not follow the iCarly episode exactly because I only saw it once, and also I don’t feel like copying verbatim 8D Oh, and I used first names so the ‘brothers’ thing would work.
Comments and critiques are welcomed and encouraged!! Oh, and I hate formatting...so if it messes up on you, please forgive me.
Masaki's life was not picture perfect, but he did have it pretty good. He lived in an apartment with his older brother by ten years, Satoshi, who was an an artist. His mother had passed away long ago and his father was extremely busy, so it was Masaki's only choice. He was in a band with his best friend, Jun, and his other friend, Sho who kind of had a crush on him. Their band, Yama Kaze, was pretty famous, and they did gigs ever weekend even though they were only sixteen-years-old. They used the empty attic of Masaki and Satoshi's apartment to practice in since they had managed to completely sound-proof it. Aside from the band, they attended the nearby high school together, and were all the ninth grade. Sho was certainly the smartest of the tthree, which made it hard for Masaki to figure out why Sho would like him, but he had no objections. Usually he would just brush off anything Sho said that was mildly romantic, because they were only sixteen. Jun was relatively outgoing and liked to live on the wild-side. He had been nearly arrested a few times if Masaki had not intervened. Jun also lived with his delinquint mother, who basically let him do whatever he wanted. Sho lived across the hall from Masaki and Satoshi with his older brother, Kazunari or Kazu for short. His parents were also extremely busy like Masaki's father. Kazu was an emo musician and occasionally had his own gigs. He mostly let Jun do whatever he wanted, although he was more protective than their parents were.
One day, Satoshi walked into their apartment carrying a box full of metal scraps. “Whatcha got there, Satoshi?” Masaki called as he looked up the couch near the door where he was reading comics.
“Oh, just some scraps I found at the junkyard.” He set the box down and looked at his younger brother with a smile on his face. “What would you think if this year, instead of a real tree, I made a tree?!” Satoshi was surprised by the scowl on Masaki’s face, so his own face fell. “Well, I thought we could just be different this year,” he mumbled, turning back to the box to sort through it.
With a roll of his eyes, Masaki said, “If you want to that’s fine, just so you don’t ask me to help you.” He switched positions on the couch. Just then, Jun walked in with his guitar in hand but stopped when he saw Satoshi with the box of scraps.
“What are you doing, Satoshi?” He asked as set his guitar down on the table and then plopped down next to Masaki.
“He’s going to build a Christmas tree,” Masaki answered for his brother with a sigh. Jun just turned around and watched as Satoshi sorted the pieces by laying them on the landing. He grumbled to himself, and then got up to leave.
“I need to get more pieces. I’ll be back in a bit,” he called as he walked out the door. The moment he left, Sho walked in, holding his drumsticks. As soon as he saw all the pieces of metal on the floor, he turned to Masaki.
“What up with all the metal?” he asked as he pointed at the heaps of metal with his drumsticks. Masaki rolled his eyes again, so Jun answered for him.
“He’s building a metal Christmas tree.” Sho nodded, mouth slightly open, as he looked at the metal. “So, are we going to go practice or just sit here all day?” He asked after a few minutes. Jun and Masaki got up from the couch and headed upstairs. Sho made sure to follow directly behind Masaki, eyeing him from behind. They arranged things, and set out to practice for a few hours. Eventually, Jun got hungry.
“Hey guys, I’m hungry. Masaki, what do you have to eat here?”
“Well, there’re probably some snacks downstairs. Let’s go see.” They set down their instruments and noisily cluttered down the stairs, only to stop when Masaki saw Satoshi. He was adding his final touches to the tree when he noticed the three kids.
“Hey, there you are!” He called out to them. “Come over and look what at my tree!” He beckoned them nearer, and they came, hesitating a bit. The hunk of metal was about six feet tall, and looked somewhat like a tree. Masaki, Jun, and Sho just stared at it wordlessly. “Well, what do you think?” Satoshi finally asked. The younger three just gave mildly high pitched grunts and added positive words to make it believable.
Eventually they scooted off to the kitchen to find food. Jun opened the fridge, and then closed it when he found nothing. Masaki grabbed the bags of chips and other snacks from the counter, placing them on the table for the others to investigate. Jun took the edamame crisps, Sho the yakiniku flavored chips, and Masaki stole from both sides. After they had their fill, they snuck past Satoshi, who was mumbling at his tree, to practice some more. A few more hours had passed before they smelled delicious smells wafting up from downstairs. When he went to adjust his amp, Jun lifted his nose in the air and sniffed.
“Do you think your brother is making chaahan for dinner?” he asked as he cast a glance at Masaki.
“I wouldn’t doubt it. Probably ankake chaahan…” he let his voice drift off as he put his nose in the air. “Yep, it’s ankake.” Just then, Satoshi called them from downstairs. They hurriedly put down their instruments and tumbled downstairs once again.
“I knew it! It looks delicious, Satoshi!” Sho said when they reached the kitchen. The man at the stove turned around and smirked at the younger three, who all looked starved.
“It’s almost ready! Go ahead and sit down!!” They needed no invitation and immediately did as Satoshi said. Within a minute, he placed a platter of chaahan in the center of the table and handed them each a bowl of miso soup. “It’s the instant kind, so don’t get too excited.” Instant or not, it was still good. He also opened a package of pickled cucumbers and got out a pitcher of mugi cha.
“Wow, going all out for us tonight, huh Satoshi?” Jun questioned. The older man just grinned and shrugged. Ankake was his specialty, but he knew it was not a meal without the other side dishes, whether they were from a package or not. In fact, ankake was the only food he was able to make that was eatable in Masaki’s opinion.
As soon as he sat down, everyone grabbed their chopsticks and said, “Itadakima~su!” and immediately dug in.
“This is so good, Satoshi!” Sho said after a bite as he slapped the cook on the back, who was sitting next to him. Jun and Masaki were too busy stuffing their faces to say anything. Satoshi just chuckled and continued feeding himself. Ten minutes later, everyone was full and patting their stomachs.
“Oh, I’m not going to have to eat until morning!” said Jun, and the rest nodded in agreement. Next he looked at his watch and said, “Well, I should get going. School in the morning and there’s a Spanish test. Right?” he asked, looking at the other two, who nodded. Jun was not the best student, but he loved Spanish more than any other class, so the others were not surprised when he said he had to study for the test. “Thanks for dinner, Satoshi! See ya tomorrow, Masaki!” He called as he picked up his coat and ran out with a wave.
Sho got up a little reluctantly, looked at Masaki, and said, “Good luck on the test tomorrow. I’ll see you in the morning.” He grabbed his hat, saluted Masaki and walked out. Masaki sighed and got up to start on the dishes, since that was his job. Satoshi went to inspect his tree some more, and decided to hang some lights on it. When Masaki was done, his brother asked how it was, and Masaki just gave the thumbs up sign. The older brother looked at it for another minute before turning to Masaki.
“Do you have any presents?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, what’s a tree without presents under it? Go get them!” Masaki did as Satoshi instructed. He came back and placed them under the tree. “Now it’s complete!” Satoshi said.
“If you say so. I’m going to study for Spanish, then going to bed.” Satoshi waved and Masaki waved back before heading upstairs.
At about 3 am, Masaki’s eyes flew open to the sound of the fire alarm. It took his brain a moment to register the loud, piercing sound, but when he did, he jumped out of bed and flew down the stairs. At the bottom, his eyes immediately saw Satoshi’s metal tree in flames. He began to yell his brother’s name, who appeared and grabbed the fire extinguisher when he saw the flames. It was only then that Masaki realized his presents were charred to a crisp. He gasped and sat on his knees as he put his hands above the ash. He turned to Satoshi to cast him a piercing glare.
“Why couldn’t you have been born normal!?” Masaki shouted as he stood up. “Your tree totally burnt all of my presents! I spent so much money on them, and now there’s only a few days left until Christmas! All I wanted was a normal tree and a normal Christmas! I hate you!” He bounded up the stairs, leaving Satoshi in a confused stupor. He ran into the practice room and sat down on the floor, arms crossed and nostrils flaring. Just then, a voice came out of the speakers.
“Is it really that bad?” it said. Masaki jumped at the sound, and started to look around for the source. “It could be worse.” A small man was standing behind him. He jumped, and whirled around angrily.
“Who the heck are you?!” He screamed in half in surprise, half in anger.
“You said you wished your brother had been born normal. I’m here to grant that wish so I can get my wings. You see, I’m an angel in training. Hiroki’s the name.” The angel stuck out his hand, which Masaki cautiously took. “Things will be different tomorrow, so you’d better get some sleep.” Suddenly, Masaki felt dizzy, and everything went dark as he collapsed on the carpet and started snoring.
That night, Masaki had a strange dream that Satoshi was a lawyer and he was dating Sho’s brother. He knew this could not be true, so he tried to shake the dream off and ended up waking himself up. There really was no time to think about why he was in a room filled with boxes because it was almost time to get ready for school, so just got up and did so. When he went downstairs, things seemed somehow different, but he barely thought about it and just grabbed an apple before walking to the bus stop.
When he got to school, he immediately went to his locker. He did a double take as he saw Sho, dressed nicely with hair combed back, with a pretty girl on his arm walk by. That’s strange. Masaki thought. I didn’t know Sho had a girlfriend. “Good morning Sho-chan,” he called in a singsong voice. Sho barely acknowledged him as he passed by. He twisted his neck to whisper in the girl’s ear and must have said something funny, because she laughed. And since when is Sho a lady’s man? He’s always been really awkward with girls… It was then that Hiroki appeared again, surprising Masaki with a puff of smoke.
“Hey angel dude, what’s up with Sho today?” He asked forcefully, crossing his arms.
“Well, I did what you asked. Your brother was born normal.” The almost angel said proudly.
“How does that have anything to do with Sho? I thought he liked me?” Masaki half whined.
“He did, and he kept pursuing you until you got a girlfriend. Then he gave up.” Masaki started to object until he heard a shrill voice call his name, which gave him goose bumps.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” said a pretty girl with black hair and huge eyes. Once in front of him, she stretched up plaster a kiss on his lips which made his eyes bug at the touch and a furl start upon his brow. He looked at her and realized she was his mortal enemy, Ayumi. After telling her to get lost, he turned to Hiroki.
“Ayumi is my girlfriend?! I hate her! She always tries to crash our shows!” Masaki was extremely upset now. Hiroki just shrugged.
“That’s what you get for wishing what you did.” Just then, the bell rang, and Masaki had to go to class.
“I’ll deal with you later,” he said, glaring at Hiroki as he slammed his locker shut and hurried to class.
Before he knew it, school was over, and Masaki was on the bus home. He walked up the stairs to their apartment and opened the door. It was then that he realized that the furniture was completely different. He cautiously made his way in, only to find Satoshi talking on his cell about what sounded like a business deal, hair combed neatly and dressed in a suit. Masaki’s mouth nearly dropped open in confusion, but he just ran upstairs to the practice room. He opened the door, only to find the room filled with boxes. Anger rose up within him, as he called the name of the almost-angel.
“What?” said the small man as he appeared in a cloud of smoke.
“Why was my brother in a suit and talking about business matters?! And what happened to our studio? And why wasn’t Jun in school today?” Masaki fired questions at the man, who shrunk back just a bit.
“Look,” he said, dusting off his shirt. “It’s all because of the wish you made. I made Satoshi normal, and everything changed. Your brother is a lawyer. You never had a band. And Jun is in Juvy,” said the small man, who was now shining his nails on his jacket. Masaki began shaking with rage when he heard that Jun was in Juvy.
Trying to control his voice, he asked, “And how do I get him back? How do I get everything back?!”
“You just have to realize that your life before was better. It’s as simple as that,” Hiroki said, giving him a knowing look.
“What if I already know that it was better before?!” he screamed since he was now beyond angry.
“Maybe you actually haven’t fully realized it. Just a little more and you should be good. See ya later.” The little man disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving Masaki screaming his name. He eventually gave up and stomped down the stairs and grabbed his coat so that he could leave to visit Jun. His brother yelled after him, reminding him about the Christmas party, but of course he did not hear.
Masaki quickly made his way to the Juvenile Prison, knowing where it was only because Jun had pointed it out before saying, “I could be in there ya know.” Once he got inside, he asked to speak with Jun, and the cop behind the window grumbled about people not calling ahead. Finally, Jun appeared on the other side of the window led by a guard, saying something about never getting visitors. His long hair was very greasy, looking like it had not been washed in weeks. This looked nothing like the Jun Masaki knew, except for the perfectly proportioned face and thin frame. He finally sat down and glared at Masaki, who just picked up the phone on the wall. Jun did the same.
“Who are you and why are you here?” he growled into the phone.
“Who am I? I’m your best friend, Masaki!”
“Masaki? I never hearda the name,” Jun said with a glare.
“C’mon, we’ve been best friends forever! I know that your birthday is August 30th, 1983.” Jun cocked his head slightly at hearing this.
“That was just a lucky guess. Who’s my favorite singer?”
“Michael Jackson.”
“Favorite food?”
“Sushi.”
“Least favorite food?’
“Celery.” Jun was speechless. Masaki had answered every question right.
“We’re best friends, can’t you see?”
“I can’t see anything! You’re just lucky, that’s all.” He glared at the boy sitting on the other side of the window.
“I know you don’t believe me, but I’m going to make things right! I’m going to get you out of there any way I can! I’ll be back later!” Masaki grabbed his coat and ran off, leaving Jun dumbfounded and the phone lying on the table. He ran all the way home, and opened the door to find Sho with the pretty girl, Ayumi, Satoshi, and Kazu all there, looking surprised when he burst through the door. The apartment was decorated for Christmas, and there were delicious smells coming from the kitchen.
“Masaki, we’ve been waiting for you!” said Satoshi without a moment’s loss. Masaki quickly realized that his brother and Kazu were holding hands, and his mouth fell open. “Kazu and I are getting married!”
“That can’t be possible!” Masaki yelled in surprise.
“Oh, but it is. We’ve been waiting a long time for this, so we finally decided to make the big leap.” Satoshi and Kazu looked deeply into each other’s eyes before Masaki pulled them apart.
Pointing at his brother, he said, “You must be crazy in the head! Since when do you like Kazu, and since when do you like business stuff anyway?” He turned to Kazu. “And you…should go back to being your emo self and leave my brother alone!” Next was Ayumi. “You should just go away, because nobody likes you!” After that was the pretty girl. “I don’t even know who you are, so you should just get out of my house!” And last was Sho. “I thought you liked me, so what on earth are you doing with her?! You’re crazy, too!” At last, he stomped upstairs, leaving everyone in an awkward silence. Once he reached the hall, he sat down and rested on arm over his knees which he sank his head into, and started pounding the wall with the other. A sudden voice scared him, and he looked up.
“Wow, what’s this all about?” Hiroki said.
“I just want everything to go back to the way it was! I don’t care if Satoshi isn’t normal, I just want my life back! This one sucks more than I could have imagined,” Masaki said as he returned his head to his knees and tears gathered in his eyes. In the next moment, Sho came out of their practice room.
“Hey, aren’t you going to come to practice?” he asked. Masaki had both arms over his knees by now, tears rolling down his face. “Are you okay?” Sho bent down to touch him on the shoulder, which made Masaki look up into his face. His eyes widened when he realized that Sho was dressed normally, and his hair was in its regular style. He wasted no time in reaching up to throw his arms around Sho and hold him tight. “Um, are you feeling alright?” Sho asked, returning the hug.
“You’re back! I’ve missed you!!” Masaki shouted excitedly.
“I’ve been here for a while. So are you going to come to practice now?” Sho helped Masaki up, and was surprised when he bolted down the stairs, yelling for his brother.
When he got there, he saw Satoshi getting ready to take apart the tree, wrench in hand. He quickly ran over and grabbed his brother in a bear hug. The older brother was very much surprised, but patted his back and said, “Hey, what’s up there, Masaki?”
“I’ve missed you! You’re back to normal!!” He yelled happily, looking at Satoshi with a smile on his face. Jun appeared on the landing just then, asking what the racket was all about. Masaki gasped and ran to give Jun what he had given all the others, which made Jun ask if he was feeling okay.
“You’re not in Juvy anymore! Oh I’m so glad you’re out!” Masaki held Jun tighter, making Jun slightly uncomfortable.
Satoshi managed to finally ask what was on everyone’s mind: what was going on? “Well you see, I had this strange dream that Satoshi was born normal, and it changed my whole life! You were a lawyer and were going to get married to Kazu-” this made Satoshi balk, “and Sho, you were nerdier than you are now, and were dating some pretty girl, and Jun, you were in Juvy, and I was dating Ayumi….but never mind, it was just a weird dream!!! Let’s decorate the tree! It’s looking a little lonely!” Masaki called as he grabbed a box of decorations.
It took Satoshi a moment, but he finally said, “So you like the tree? But I thought you hated it…”
“I love it! It’s the best tree ever!” He said as he kept decorating. The others shrugged and joined in, enjoying making the tree beautiful.
In the midst of it all, Masaki saw Hiroki on his computer, which was sitting on the kitchen table. He snuck off to the kitchen so that he could talk to him, saying with a big grin, “Thanks Hiroki. I know it was you who did all this.”
“No problem, kid. And thanks to you, I earned my wings.” The screen panned out to reveal a bucket of chicken wings at Hiroki’s feet. Masaki laughed, and waved to the angel, only to walk away and join everyone else. Sho handed him the star, which he easily placed on top, being the tallest of them.
At last, everyone sat down to sang Christmas carols and played board game, making it a relatively enjoyable night.
THE END