Arashi: An Ever Expanding Sky (35)
AUTHOR: Marineko/mylittlecthulhu
FANDOM: Arashi
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, Juntoshi
RATING: PG
DATE: May 9th, 2011
WORD COUNT: 3,254
NOTES/DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Arashi. This is an AU fic.
**This was written for the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund. Thank you, pockylover24, for donating!
Chapter Thirty-Three | Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Five
“I’m supposed to deliver this package to room 3104, but my company didn’t tell me I needed a pass...”
“You work with True Wings, you said? They should have special passes for their delivery staff.” The concierge frowned at Aiba, who looked sheepish.
“I’m new at the company,” Aiba told the concierge nervously. “I didn’t know that we needed to get the passes required before leaving.” He bit his lips. “They’re going to be really mad at me if my mistake caused a late delivery.”
“Sorry,” the concierge said, not sounding sorry at all, although his look had lost a little of its hardness. “But you’ll have to go back to your company and get the pass.”
Crestfallen, Aiba asked, “can you just call them and ask them to verify me? I could deliver on time if you do that.”
The concierge thought about it, and shrugged. “I suppose. Hold on for a moment...” he trailed off as he picked up the small transmitter by the counter. Aiba thought of how he had been the first to sell those things at the markets in Song. Several others have started to make their own since, but none of theirs worked quite as well as the larger ones, not the way Aiba’s did. The concierge never did get a chance to demonstrate the usefulness of his transmitter, though, because of the commotion going on at the entrance.
“Look, you were the one who lost him. It’s your fault!” Rin’s voice was loud and shrill and sounded more like Nino than herself. Aiba bit his lips to keep from grinning.
“Who was the one who said that she’d take good care of the puppy?” Nino sounded bored, and calm.
“I asked you to watch him while I talked to Nakamura-kun! It was only for fifteen minutes!”
“Did I actually say that I would? You shouldn’t assume things when people didn’t say anything to you.”
“Yes, you did! I said ‘will you watch him for a bit’ and you said -“
They were talking right at the entrance of the building and passers by were glancing at them in interest, some lingering for a few seconds before moving on. Their argument escalated and didn’t seem like it was going to stop. Aiba looked at the concierge; he seemed terribly irritated. Aiba had watched the place long enough to know that the concierge took pride in keeping the building reasonably secure and out of public attention. It didn’t look like much, but the people who stayed there paid a large price for that sense of privacy. The attention Nino and Rin was bringing to the building could not be good, and the concierge knew that if any of the residents happened to come down and saw, they wouldn’t be pleased.
“Hold on,” he told Aiba. “I have to deal with this.”
“But what about my delivery?” Aiba asked. He put a slight whine in his tone, and lots of worry. “My boss is going to kill me if I don’t have it sent in time.”
The concierge took one more look at Aiba, and the package in his hands. He frowned. “You can go on up and send your package, but remember to check back out with me when you’re done.”
Aiba’s smile was brilliant, and genuine. “Thank you! You saved my life.”
After he had delivered the package, trying not to think about how he was basically handing over illegal weapons to someone who definitely was not going to do any good with them, he walked back down the stairwell. Life certainly was more interesting with Nino, he thought. Only a few weeks before they had a job where they had to steal a windup creature - a sort of hybrid of different animals, but Aiba couldn’t tell which - from an experimental lab, for the daughter of some sort of crime boss in Tirrin. That had been a bizarre experience.
He didn’t always like what they do, but finding ways to get their jobs done had always been fun. Even as he signed back out with the concierge, who looked too distracted to remember who he was, and ran down the street to meet up with Nino and Rin at the place they’ve decided on, he could feel it - the exhilaration from having done the job, from getting away with it, again.
})i({
“Are you nervous?” Aiba asked quietly. The windups they’d met had helped them a lot in getting Nino up to date with things going on within the Milnan Council, and in getting them in the building unnoticed - it was always swarming with Guards during the annual meets. But once they were in, Nino was on his own. Even Aiba wasn’t supposed to be there, but he had insisted in being on hand, just in case.
Nino shrugged, unable to answer either way. “I have to convince them that I am who I say I am, and that the people - or person - they’ve worked with and trusted are actually planning to betray them. This is the biggest con in my life, probably.”
Aiba frowned at that. “This isn’t a con,” he said. “You’re just telling the truth.”
“The truth?” Nino laughed. “I may have been Ninomiya once. But you know as well as I do that the person I am now could never be a prince.”
“Nino -“
“Shh. It’s time.” Nino placed a hand on Aiba’s shoulder - right above the windup’s Mark - and squeezed. “Wish me luck.”
Then he let go, and walked towards the large doors, leaving Aiba behind.
})i({
The Council consisted of a representative of each of the eight houses - Abe, Matsumoto, Meisa, Ninomiya, Ogura, Ootomo, Sakurai, and Ueto - and an equal number of seats for members of the Guard. Only three of the Guards were considered “permanent” fixtures - Oguri Tetsuya, the late Yamashita, and Oda. These three had been in the Council for more than five years running, and after the death of the late Yamashita, Oguri and Oda remained in their positions. The other seats would usually rotate as members rose or fell in rank, or gave up their seats if the responsibility proved too much for them. Four of the Guard members present that day had been in the Council for the last two years, at least - Inoue, Oizumi, Takenaka and Utsui. Two were new, and young - Nagase, who had kept rising in the ranks as soon as he was out of the Academy, and Yamashita, the windup specialist who had been “training” in Eero since childhood, instead of going to the Academy. At least, that was the story that Oguri had given - that he had taken Yamashita under his care after his father’s execution, and he’d sent the boy to Eero, where windups originated from.
Sho didn’t know the names of the Guards taking the place of the Ninomiya or Matsumoto households. He had never seen them before. It didn’t matter, he supposed, since they both answered to Oguri. Sho wondered why no one else had questioned that before. Jun would have asked, he thought. Jun always had been better at this than he was. He wished that Jun was there instead of him, but then again, he also knew that Jun wouldn’t have agreed to Oguri’s terms as easily as he had. After refusing to work with his father for so long, all it took to make him into someone else’s puppet was to put Aiba in danger.
Aiba was safe, though, he reminded himself. That was all that mattered. Several days before Shun’s death, his old friend had visited him. Shun hadn’t stayed long, but he had told Sho that he was planning to get Ohno and Aiba out. He had been devastated to hear about what happened to Shun, but he couldn’t help but tell himself, over and over, that Aiba was out, at least. Aiba would be okay.
But he’s a windup, a part of him argued. And Nino had given Aiba to him. That meant that Aiba couldn’t go far without hurting himself. This worried Sho, but he couldn’t do anything but have faith in Aiba’s ability to withstand anything. If Aiba could resist his compulsions when it came to Sho, then he believed that Aiba was strong enough to survive, even separated from him.
“Concentrate,” Shun’s father hissed next to him, and he straightened up immediately. The meeting was starting, and Ogura was already beginning with the introductions, and welcoming Sho and Yamashita back to the fold. Sho found it amusing that he had to be welcomed “back”, when he had never been close to being a part of the Council before. He glanced at Yamashita, who was looking pleased to be there. When Ogura introduced Nagase, praising his accomplishments in the Guard, Sho’s attention shifted to the other newcomer.
Nagase was interesting, he decided. There was something about his manner that seemed almost irreverent and so self-assured, that Sho doubted he’d be swayed by Oguri. Perhaps there was hope after all.
The ruling houses took turns in hosting the meetings. This time, it was Ogura’s turn. The Ogura House handles Milna’s domestic trades among other things, and Sho remembered Ogura as a genial man who would never argue with Sho’s father, but managed to get his own way all the same. With him leading the meeting, Sho knew that the atmosphere would be turning informal soon.
Just as Ogura was smiling and saying, “okay, let’s get down to business, then,” the doors to the room opened.
“And I’m telling you that I should be at the meeting,” Sho could hear Ninomiya’s voice say. He froze, turning to Oguri. The Guard didn’t look as if he knew about it, though - he seemed as shocked as how Sho felt. The Guard that was attempting to restrain him - Kou-chan, Sho remembered hazily, from his school days - looked like he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Sho didn’t blame him - he wasn’t supposed to allow anyone else in, but if Nino was who he said he was, then he couldn’t prevent Nino from walking in, either.
“Kotaro, it’s alright,” Ogura said. “Let him in.”
The Guard let go of Nino, who gave him a haughty, see? I told you so look before straightening his clothes and facing the rest of them heads on. He blinked, and Sho saw unease in Nino’s eyes, but it was very brief - soon enough it was glossed over by determination.
Ogura asked Nino to introduce himself and explain why he was barging in on the meeting. Nino only managed to say, clearly and confidently, “my name is Ninomiya Kazunari -“ before the room erupted with noise, everyone talking at the same time. Shouting with anger that Nino had to be an impostor, that it was a joke in bad taste, or exclaiming that Nino had better explain his long disappearance and didn’t he have an older sister. Sho was silent, staring at Nino, trying to figure out what he wanted. Nino stared back, as if trying to decide whether Sho was to be trusted.
Neither paid attention to Oguri, who watched their every reaction to each other.
})i({
Nino spoke the truth, as much as he was willing to reveal. He mentioned that the identity of his parents’ murderer made him and Rin felt that they couldn’t trust the Guard, causing them to run away. He told them of how they traveled to various countries together, eventually earning enough to buy a ship of their own, but he didn’t say anything about the illegal activities he had participated in. Aiba was mentioned, briefly, as a “friend” that traveled with him and Rin. When asked why he had decided to return to Milna now, of all times, he replied that he had been keeping tabs on what went on in his homeland, and having heard about what happened to the Sakurai House, only a few years after the Matsumoto massacre, he had decided that it was time to return.
He turned to Sho, then, and said neutrally that he was glad the Sakurai House had Sho, at least. Sho nodded in acknowledgement, wondering how much of what Nino said was sincere.
In the end, the subject of Nino took up the whole day. After hearing Nino’s story, the rest of them had a discussion over whether or not they believed in it, and whether he should be given back the responsibility of the Ninomiya household. It took much longer than it should, and they were probably wasting their time - it was a simple enough matter for Sho, but then again, he supposed it was because he actually remembered Nino from when they were younger, which made his story easier to believe. By the time the day was ending, though, they were ready to put things to vote. Sho tensed at this; he was supposed to vote for whatever Oguri decided on. As he voted against Nino joining the council, he saw the closed look Nino wore, and felt something deflating, or hollowing out, inside him. It probably made things easier for Nino, he supposed, now that Nino knew.
He was the enemy, now.
})i({
The Guard member representing the Ninomiya House had to sit out for the voting - out of the fifteen remaining seats, six voted against Nino. Besides Sho, the Abe and Matsumoto houses voted against, with backing from Oguri, Yamashita, and Inoue. Sho studied Inoue-dono during the voting; it didn’t seem like he was swayed by Oguri, although Sho couldn’t be completely sure. Either way, six votes against meant nine votes for, which meant that it was Nino’s victory, and Sho was glad.
He just wished that there was some way for him to tell Nino that, and for Nino to believe him.
Ogura announced the time for the next day’s meeting, and everyone filed out - some eager to leave, the others chatting among themselves. Sho told Oguri that he’d return by himself. Oguri looked suspicious at first, but relented. It’d be strange for Sho to be seen leaving with Oguri, anyway. Everyone knew that Sho wasn’t close to his late father, or anyone that had worked closely with the elder Sakurai.
Sho found Nino just as he was about to climb out a window.
“Nino.”
Nino stopped. “What?” he asked, irritated.
“Why are you climbing out the window? Everyone knows you’re here. You could walk out the front door.” It wasn’t what Sho wanted to say, but it was the first thing that came out of his mouth. It gave Nino a pause, anyway.
“I don’t know,” Nino said. “I guess it had become a habit.” He hopped back in, but didn’t move further from the window. He glanced out, as if he still wanted to climb out, but then turned to face Sho again. “What do you want?”
“I had to do it. If I didn’t -“
“Save it,” Nino interrupted. “I don’t really give a damn about what you had to do. I’m here for my own reasons.”
“Aiba got away.”
“I heard.” Nino took another quick look out the window. “I still need to come back. Some of us are still trying to do the right thing.”
Sho couldn’t answer to that. He couldn’t defend himself against something that was true, after all. “Why do you keep looking out the window?”
“Habit,” Nino said again, as casually as he could. Sho ignored him, and went to stand next to Nino. He looked out, then down. He felt something in him stop.
“Is that - Aiba?”
“Stay away from him. He’s gone through enough.” Nino’s voice was sharp enough for Sho to turn from the window.
“Nino -“
“I took back his papers,” Nino continued, ignoring Sho. “He almost died, Sho. I’m not risking that again.”
He studied Sho’s expression as his words sink in. Sho had turned away from him, back towards the window, but he didn’t look like he was about to run after Aiba. If anything, Nino thought that Sho looked… absent. Absent of hope, perhaps. He had always known how Aiba felt about Sho, but it was the first time he was confronted with Sho’s feelings.
He suppressed a sigh as he walked away, leaving Sho to stare out at Aiba. It wouldn’t do to care too much, he reminded himself. He was there for a reason. And he wasn’t going to let Aiba get hurt again.
})i({
“So, so, so?” Aiba asked, when Nino finally came down to where he was waiting. “How’d it go?”
“It was fine,” Nino said. “I’m going again tomorrow, as a representative for my House.” He wanted to laugh, then, because it had been years since he last thought of the Ninomiya House as ‘his.’
“That’s good.” Aiba was going to get up, but Nino sat down next to him, so he stayed. “Right?”
“I guess.” Nino told Aiba about the version of their story that he told the Council, and the arguments that rose when they were debating on whether or not he was the real thing. He didn’t mention Sho. When he was done, Aiba was still looking at him intently.
“Did you see Sho?” he asked.
Nino let out a long breath, and soft laughter. “You didn’t hear anything else I said, did you?” Aiba protested, but Nino waved it away. “Yes, I saw Sho. He was one of the people who voted against me.” Seeing Aiba’s dismay, he continued, “for what it’s worth, he seems to miss you, too.”
Aiba smiled weakly. “He did it for me, you know. He got Oguri to promise to leave me alone. They got him in exchange.”
“…that explains a lot.”
“Yeah.”
“This sucks.”
“Yeah.”
Nino looked at Aiba. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” Then, realizing that he’d been saying the same thing over and over, Aiba shook his head. “I don’t know. But probably. What’s important is that you’re in the Council now, right?”
“They said that I could move back in the Ninomiya House in a couple of days. You and Rin, too, of course. I guess Oguri really is keeping to his bargain with Sho, because he didn’t say anything about you being a windup or a disposable when I mentioned you at the meeting. I’ll get Toma and Jin to go through the staff, see which ones I could trust. We’d really need to make sure the place is secure if we want to allow access to Takizawa or Tsubasa or any of their people.”
“What about Guards? All of the Houses have Guards that work with them, right?”
“Toma and Jin would have to vet through them, too, I guess.”
“Did they ask about your parents’ murder?”
“Yeah. They weren’t pleased when I told them it was a member of the Guard. I think most of them didn’t want to believe me on that one.”
“They’re going to investigate that, though?”
“Maybe. Eventually. The Council doesn’t really handle that kind of thing, though - the Guard has a department that handles these investigations. Of course, you get idiots like Yokoyama in that department, so I’m not entirely sure if an investigation is a good thing. But it might be connected to what happened with Jun’s and Sho’s families, which is why I’m here to start with, isn’t it.”
“There’s a whole week of meetings. You’ll make them see.”
Aiba sounded so confident and hopeful that Nino found himself nodding along, even as he thought that things wouldn’t be that easy.
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Thirty-Three | Chapter Thirty-Six
Marineko's Notes:
Am sleepy. pockylover24, hope you liked this!
FANDOM: Arashi
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, Juntoshi
RATING: PG
DATE: May 9th, 2011
WORD COUNT: 3,254
NOTES/DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Arashi. This is an AU fic.
**This was written for the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund. Thank you, pockylover24, for donating!
Chapter Thirty-Three | Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Five
“I’m supposed to deliver this package to room 3104, but my company didn’t tell me I needed a pass...”
“You work with True Wings, you said? They should have special passes for their delivery staff.” The concierge frowned at Aiba, who looked sheepish.
“I’m new at the company,” Aiba told the concierge nervously. “I didn’t know that we needed to get the passes required before leaving.” He bit his lips. “They’re going to be really mad at me if my mistake caused a late delivery.”
“Sorry,” the concierge said, not sounding sorry at all, although his look had lost a little of its hardness. “But you’ll have to go back to your company and get the pass.”
Crestfallen, Aiba asked, “can you just call them and ask them to verify me? I could deliver on time if you do that.”
The concierge thought about it, and shrugged. “I suppose. Hold on for a moment...” he trailed off as he picked up the small transmitter by the counter. Aiba thought of how he had been the first to sell those things at the markets in Song. Several others have started to make their own since, but none of theirs worked quite as well as the larger ones, not the way Aiba’s did. The concierge never did get a chance to demonstrate the usefulness of his transmitter, though, because of the commotion going on at the entrance.
“Look, you were the one who lost him. It’s your fault!” Rin’s voice was loud and shrill and sounded more like Nino than herself. Aiba bit his lips to keep from grinning.
“Who was the one who said that she’d take good care of the puppy?” Nino sounded bored, and calm.
“I asked you to watch him while I talked to Nakamura-kun! It was only for fifteen minutes!”
“Did I actually say that I would? You shouldn’t assume things when people didn’t say anything to you.”
“Yes, you did! I said ‘will you watch him for a bit’ and you said -“
They were talking right at the entrance of the building and passers by were glancing at them in interest, some lingering for a few seconds before moving on. Their argument escalated and didn’t seem like it was going to stop. Aiba looked at the concierge; he seemed terribly irritated. Aiba had watched the place long enough to know that the concierge took pride in keeping the building reasonably secure and out of public attention. It didn’t look like much, but the people who stayed there paid a large price for that sense of privacy. The attention Nino and Rin was bringing to the building could not be good, and the concierge knew that if any of the residents happened to come down and saw, they wouldn’t be pleased.
“Hold on,” he told Aiba. “I have to deal with this.”
“But what about my delivery?” Aiba asked. He put a slight whine in his tone, and lots of worry. “My boss is going to kill me if I don’t have it sent in time.”
The concierge took one more look at Aiba, and the package in his hands. He frowned. “You can go on up and send your package, but remember to check back out with me when you’re done.”
Aiba’s smile was brilliant, and genuine. “Thank you! You saved my life.”
After he had delivered the package, trying not to think about how he was basically handing over illegal weapons to someone who definitely was not going to do any good with them, he walked back down the stairwell. Life certainly was more interesting with Nino, he thought. Only a few weeks before they had a job where they had to steal a windup creature - a sort of hybrid of different animals, but Aiba couldn’t tell which - from an experimental lab, for the daughter of some sort of crime boss in Tirrin. That had been a bizarre experience.
He didn’t always like what they do, but finding ways to get their jobs done had always been fun. Even as he signed back out with the concierge, who looked too distracted to remember who he was, and ran down the street to meet up with Nino and Rin at the place they’ve decided on, he could feel it - the exhilaration from having done the job, from getting away with it, again.
})i({
“Are you nervous?” Aiba asked quietly. The windups they’d met had helped them a lot in getting Nino up to date with things going on within the Milnan Council, and in getting them in the building unnoticed - it was always swarming with Guards during the annual meets. But once they were in, Nino was on his own. Even Aiba wasn’t supposed to be there, but he had insisted in being on hand, just in case.
Nino shrugged, unable to answer either way. “I have to convince them that I am who I say I am, and that the people - or person - they’ve worked with and trusted are actually planning to betray them. This is the biggest con in my life, probably.”
Aiba frowned at that. “This isn’t a con,” he said. “You’re just telling the truth.”
“The truth?” Nino laughed. “I may have been Ninomiya once. But you know as well as I do that the person I am now could never be a prince.”
“Nino -“
“Shh. It’s time.” Nino placed a hand on Aiba’s shoulder - right above the windup’s Mark - and squeezed. “Wish me luck.”
Then he let go, and walked towards the large doors, leaving Aiba behind.
})i({
The Council consisted of a representative of each of the eight houses - Abe, Matsumoto, Meisa, Ninomiya, Ogura, Ootomo, Sakurai, and Ueto - and an equal number of seats for members of the Guard. Only three of the Guards were considered “permanent” fixtures - Oguri Tetsuya, the late Yamashita, and Oda. These three had been in the Council for more than five years running, and after the death of the late Yamashita, Oguri and Oda remained in their positions. The other seats would usually rotate as members rose or fell in rank, or gave up their seats if the responsibility proved too much for them. Four of the Guard members present that day had been in the Council for the last two years, at least - Inoue, Oizumi, Takenaka and Utsui. Two were new, and young - Nagase, who had kept rising in the ranks as soon as he was out of the Academy, and Yamashita, the windup specialist who had been “training” in Eero since childhood, instead of going to the Academy. At least, that was the story that Oguri had given - that he had taken Yamashita under his care after his father’s execution, and he’d sent the boy to Eero, where windups originated from.
Sho didn’t know the names of the Guards taking the place of the Ninomiya or Matsumoto households. He had never seen them before. It didn’t matter, he supposed, since they both answered to Oguri. Sho wondered why no one else had questioned that before. Jun would have asked, he thought. Jun always had been better at this than he was. He wished that Jun was there instead of him, but then again, he also knew that Jun wouldn’t have agreed to Oguri’s terms as easily as he had. After refusing to work with his father for so long, all it took to make him into someone else’s puppet was to put Aiba in danger.
Aiba was safe, though, he reminded himself. That was all that mattered. Several days before Shun’s death, his old friend had visited him. Shun hadn’t stayed long, but he had told Sho that he was planning to get Ohno and Aiba out. He had been devastated to hear about what happened to Shun, but he couldn’t help but tell himself, over and over, that Aiba was out, at least. Aiba would be okay.
But he’s a windup, a part of him argued. And Nino had given Aiba to him. That meant that Aiba couldn’t go far without hurting himself. This worried Sho, but he couldn’t do anything but have faith in Aiba’s ability to withstand anything. If Aiba could resist his compulsions when it came to Sho, then he believed that Aiba was strong enough to survive, even separated from him.
“Concentrate,” Shun’s father hissed next to him, and he straightened up immediately. The meeting was starting, and Ogura was already beginning with the introductions, and welcoming Sho and Yamashita back to the fold. Sho found it amusing that he had to be welcomed “back”, when he had never been close to being a part of the Council before. He glanced at Yamashita, who was looking pleased to be there. When Ogura introduced Nagase, praising his accomplishments in the Guard, Sho’s attention shifted to the other newcomer.
Nagase was interesting, he decided. There was something about his manner that seemed almost irreverent and so self-assured, that Sho doubted he’d be swayed by Oguri. Perhaps there was hope after all.
The ruling houses took turns in hosting the meetings. This time, it was Ogura’s turn. The Ogura House handles Milna’s domestic trades among other things, and Sho remembered Ogura as a genial man who would never argue with Sho’s father, but managed to get his own way all the same. With him leading the meeting, Sho knew that the atmosphere would be turning informal soon.
Just as Ogura was smiling and saying, “okay, let’s get down to business, then,” the doors to the room opened.
“And I’m telling you that I should be at the meeting,” Sho could hear Ninomiya’s voice say. He froze, turning to Oguri. The Guard didn’t look as if he knew about it, though - he seemed as shocked as how Sho felt. The Guard that was attempting to restrain him - Kou-chan, Sho remembered hazily, from his school days - looked like he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Sho didn’t blame him - he wasn’t supposed to allow anyone else in, but if Nino was who he said he was, then he couldn’t prevent Nino from walking in, either.
“Kotaro, it’s alright,” Ogura said. “Let him in.”
The Guard let go of Nino, who gave him a haughty, see? I told you so look before straightening his clothes and facing the rest of them heads on. He blinked, and Sho saw unease in Nino’s eyes, but it was very brief - soon enough it was glossed over by determination.
Ogura asked Nino to introduce himself and explain why he was barging in on the meeting. Nino only managed to say, clearly and confidently, “my name is Ninomiya Kazunari -“ before the room erupted with noise, everyone talking at the same time. Shouting with anger that Nino had to be an impostor, that it was a joke in bad taste, or exclaiming that Nino had better explain his long disappearance and didn’t he have an older sister. Sho was silent, staring at Nino, trying to figure out what he wanted. Nino stared back, as if trying to decide whether Sho was to be trusted.
Neither paid attention to Oguri, who watched their every reaction to each other.
})i({
Nino spoke the truth, as much as he was willing to reveal. He mentioned that the identity of his parents’ murderer made him and Rin felt that they couldn’t trust the Guard, causing them to run away. He told them of how they traveled to various countries together, eventually earning enough to buy a ship of their own, but he didn’t say anything about the illegal activities he had participated in. Aiba was mentioned, briefly, as a “friend” that traveled with him and Rin. When asked why he had decided to return to Milna now, of all times, he replied that he had been keeping tabs on what went on in his homeland, and having heard about what happened to the Sakurai House, only a few years after the Matsumoto massacre, he had decided that it was time to return.
He turned to Sho, then, and said neutrally that he was glad the Sakurai House had Sho, at least. Sho nodded in acknowledgement, wondering how much of what Nino said was sincere.
In the end, the subject of Nino took up the whole day. After hearing Nino’s story, the rest of them had a discussion over whether or not they believed in it, and whether he should be given back the responsibility of the Ninomiya household. It took much longer than it should, and they were probably wasting their time - it was a simple enough matter for Sho, but then again, he supposed it was because he actually remembered Nino from when they were younger, which made his story easier to believe. By the time the day was ending, though, they were ready to put things to vote. Sho tensed at this; he was supposed to vote for whatever Oguri decided on. As he voted against Nino joining the council, he saw the closed look Nino wore, and felt something deflating, or hollowing out, inside him. It probably made things easier for Nino, he supposed, now that Nino knew.
He was the enemy, now.
})i({
The Guard member representing the Ninomiya House had to sit out for the voting - out of the fifteen remaining seats, six voted against Nino. Besides Sho, the Abe and Matsumoto houses voted against, with backing from Oguri, Yamashita, and Inoue. Sho studied Inoue-dono during the voting; it didn’t seem like he was swayed by Oguri, although Sho couldn’t be completely sure. Either way, six votes against meant nine votes for, which meant that it was Nino’s victory, and Sho was glad.
He just wished that there was some way for him to tell Nino that, and for Nino to believe him.
Ogura announced the time for the next day’s meeting, and everyone filed out - some eager to leave, the others chatting among themselves. Sho told Oguri that he’d return by himself. Oguri looked suspicious at first, but relented. It’d be strange for Sho to be seen leaving with Oguri, anyway. Everyone knew that Sho wasn’t close to his late father, or anyone that had worked closely with the elder Sakurai.
Sho found Nino just as he was about to climb out a window.
“Nino.”
Nino stopped. “What?” he asked, irritated.
“Why are you climbing out the window? Everyone knows you’re here. You could walk out the front door.” It wasn’t what Sho wanted to say, but it was the first thing that came out of his mouth. It gave Nino a pause, anyway.
“I don’t know,” Nino said. “I guess it had become a habit.” He hopped back in, but didn’t move further from the window. He glanced out, as if he still wanted to climb out, but then turned to face Sho again. “What do you want?”
“I had to do it. If I didn’t -“
“Save it,” Nino interrupted. “I don’t really give a damn about what you had to do. I’m here for my own reasons.”
“Aiba got away.”
“I heard.” Nino took another quick look out the window. “I still need to come back. Some of us are still trying to do the right thing.”
Sho couldn’t answer to that. He couldn’t defend himself against something that was true, after all. “Why do you keep looking out the window?”
“Habit,” Nino said again, as casually as he could. Sho ignored him, and went to stand next to Nino. He looked out, then down. He felt something in him stop.
“Is that - Aiba?”
“Stay away from him. He’s gone through enough.” Nino’s voice was sharp enough for Sho to turn from the window.
“Nino -“
“I took back his papers,” Nino continued, ignoring Sho. “He almost died, Sho. I’m not risking that again.”
He studied Sho’s expression as his words sink in. Sho had turned away from him, back towards the window, but he didn’t look like he was about to run after Aiba. If anything, Nino thought that Sho looked… absent. Absent of hope, perhaps. He had always known how Aiba felt about Sho, but it was the first time he was confronted with Sho’s feelings.
He suppressed a sigh as he walked away, leaving Sho to stare out at Aiba. It wouldn’t do to care too much, he reminded himself. He was there for a reason. And he wasn’t going to let Aiba get hurt again.
})i({
“So, so, so?” Aiba asked, when Nino finally came down to where he was waiting. “How’d it go?”
“It was fine,” Nino said. “I’m going again tomorrow, as a representative for my House.” He wanted to laugh, then, because it had been years since he last thought of the Ninomiya House as ‘his.’
“That’s good.” Aiba was going to get up, but Nino sat down next to him, so he stayed. “Right?”
“I guess.” Nino told Aiba about the version of their story that he told the Council, and the arguments that rose when they were debating on whether or not he was the real thing. He didn’t mention Sho. When he was done, Aiba was still looking at him intently.
“Did you see Sho?” he asked.
Nino let out a long breath, and soft laughter. “You didn’t hear anything else I said, did you?” Aiba protested, but Nino waved it away. “Yes, I saw Sho. He was one of the people who voted against me.” Seeing Aiba’s dismay, he continued, “for what it’s worth, he seems to miss you, too.”
Aiba smiled weakly. “He did it for me, you know. He got Oguri to promise to leave me alone. They got him in exchange.”
“…that explains a lot.”
“Yeah.”
“This sucks.”
“Yeah.”
Nino looked at Aiba. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” Then, realizing that he’d been saying the same thing over and over, Aiba shook his head. “I don’t know. But probably. What’s important is that you’re in the Council now, right?”
“They said that I could move back in the Ninomiya House in a couple of days. You and Rin, too, of course. I guess Oguri really is keeping to his bargain with Sho, because he didn’t say anything about you being a windup or a disposable when I mentioned you at the meeting. I’ll get Toma and Jin to go through the staff, see which ones I could trust. We’d really need to make sure the place is secure if we want to allow access to Takizawa or Tsubasa or any of their people.”
“What about Guards? All of the Houses have Guards that work with them, right?”
“Toma and Jin would have to vet through them, too, I guess.”
“Did they ask about your parents’ murder?”
“Yeah. They weren’t pleased when I told them it was a member of the Guard. I think most of them didn’t want to believe me on that one.”
“They’re going to investigate that, though?”
“Maybe. Eventually. The Council doesn’t really handle that kind of thing, though - the Guard has a department that handles these investigations. Of course, you get idiots like Yokoyama in that department, so I’m not entirely sure if an investigation is a good thing. But it might be connected to what happened with Jun’s and Sho’s families, which is why I’m here to start with, isn’t it.”
“There’s a whole week of meetings. You’ll make them see.”
Aiba sounded so confident and hopeful that Nino found himself nodding along, even as he thought that things wouldn’t be that easy.
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Thirty-Three | Chapter Thirty-Six
Marineko's Notes:
Am sleepy. pockylover24, hope you liked this!