Connected / Rain & Coffee (Chap. 3)
Connected - Chapter 3
Chaptertitle: Rain & Coffee
Pairing: Sakurai Sho & Aiba Masaki
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: I don't own Sakuraiba. Just the plot.
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Rain & Coffee
Chapter 3
The rain was dropping on the small window of Sho's bedroom and the quiet sound woke Aiba up who was covered in several soft blankets. Confused and sleepy he looked around and explored the unfamiliar place - it seemed like he was in someone's bedroom; and that someone didn’t really care about decoration or colours, because the room was probably the plainest he ever saw. The walls were painted white and there was only a closet and one small cupboard standing next to the big double bed Aiba was lying on. Slowly Aiba crawled out of the bed, when suddenly something dropped from his chest to his feet. He looked down and discovered a hot-water bottle that already cooled down. Irritated he took it in his hand and quietly went out of the bedroom - only to see a common figure standing at the kitchen counter.
“Sakurai-san” Aiba said astounded and stopped at the bedroom door, still holding the hot-water bottle. Sho was slowly turning around and looked to Aiba whos eyes were still small and sleepy, one side of his shirt pulled up so that a small part of Aiba's skin could be seen. Sho tried his best not to show any emotion - in contrary to Aiba whose cheeks flushed immediately as Sho discovered the naked skin. His face turned even redder when he looked closer at Sho; the man was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt that had a V-neck, dark-grey sweatpants and his hair was messy. Somehow Aiba enjoyed what he saw, but in embarrassment he looked away and detected the small sofa that was standing in the middle of the room. There were several pillows and a light blanket on it - it seemed like Sho slept on it last night.
“I am sorry… because of me you probably didn’t sleep that well” Aiba apologized and went towards Sho while covering his naked skin with the shirt.
“Just don’t forget to wear a jacket next time, baka. What’s the problem with your lungs anyways? It didn’t even take five minutes for you to break down.” Sho replied coldly and didn’t even care to look at Aiba. The taller man's red cheeks slowly cooled down as he got to know once again Sho's cold side and decided not to answer his question. Instead he took his bag that was lying in the hallway in anger and slowly put on his shoes - he just wanted to leave and be no longer a nuisance to Sho.
“What are you trying to do?” Aiba looked up while he was putting his shoes on and saw Sho standing right in front of him which made his heart suddenly race a bit more. Only a few centimeters where separating their faces from each other, but before turning into a tomato again Aiba shook his head and brushed some of his hair out of his face.
“I have to go to work” he said emotionlessly “I am sorry for causing you any troubles.” He bowed deeply and as he wanted to open the door, he noticed how Sho slipped into his shoes and put one of his jackets over Aiba's shoulders. “I’ll bring you there” he said quickly and took an umbrella with him “I don’t want you to almost die in front of me again. I don’t always have the time to be someones nurse.” Aiba's mood once again reached its low point and he just nodded shortly. How can one person be that cold?
They walked next to each other to the mangakissa that was unexpectedly close to Sho's apartment. Aiba felt like talking to the man next to him, but he knew that he would probably just receive a grumpy answer or a snort back, so he decided to shut up. It felt awkward just walking next to each other, under one umbrella, totally in silence, but somehow Aiba wanted the way to the café to be endlessly long. When they finally arrived at the mangakissa, he sighed quietly and opened the door, inviting Sho in. Surprisingly Sho accepted his invitation and came back to the place where Aiba brought him after he got beaten up. When both of them entered the café, Nino and Ohno immediately came out of the kitchen and looked surprised at Aiba and his companion. Nino rolled his eyes and wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Ohno.
“Sakurai-kun?” he said shocked and walked towards Aiba and Sho.
“Ohno-kun” Sho answered and formed a grin. “Long time no see!” Both of them said at the same time and hugged each other lightly. Nino and Aiba were looking at each other - none of them had a clue what was going on there. Ohno looked at Nino who expected an explanation of why his friend and the crazy stranger-guy knew each other.
“We went to cram school together when we were in school. Sakurai-kun was attending another high school, so we just met every weekend at cram school.” The four of them sat down on a comfortable sofa that was standing in the corner of the café after Ohno offered Sho something to drink. At first Sho hesitated but eventually agreed and tried to show him his friendliest face which wasn’t easy for him.
Ohno went back into the kitchen to prepare some tea; Aiba followed him to help his friend. They were standing next to each other in silence, boiling the nice smelling tea and preparing some snacks.
“Oh-chan... can I ask you something?” Aiba started and stopped caring about the tea, but looking with a serious expression at Ohno. The older man slowly looked in Aibas worried face and nodded, waiting for his friends concern. “Can… can you maybe tell me which… or what… just… how was Sakurai… in the past?” Ohno's tired looking face turned into a surprised one and he smiled lightly.
“Pretty introverted, I’d say. He didn’t really talk to anyone in school, he was always a loner. It seemed like he didn’t really trust anyone.”
“But it seems like you two got along.” Aiba added and Ohno nodded again.
“I wasn’t really the most talkative person in cram school” Ohno started and poured some tea into the cups “I just focused on learning, drawing and stuff like that… I got picked on pretty often, one time some boys gathered around me and took away my sketch book and all of my school stuff, it was pretty bad. But you know, Sakurai-kun helped me that time… he chased them away; it was really scaring, I remember how his eyes got pitch-black and he growled at them… he didn’t even have to say a word to scare them.” Ohno stopped for a short time and smirked “Even I was scared of him, but after he chased them away, he handed me over my stuff and smiled at me. From that moment on I knew that he wasn’t scary or anything like that, he was a good person.” Aiba lightly smiled at Ohno who seemed to be really grateful to his old colleague.
“But why is he like that? Just… cold and not trusting anyone?” Ohno sighed when Aiba was pouting slightly, offended by the fact that Sho was pushing him away when he wanted to approach him.
“He just… grew up in a very bad place. He never had a real family… you know when he was still a baby he-“
“What are you two chatting about in the kitchen? I have to entertain this creep outside who does not say a single word and you are holding a girly talk in here or what?” Slightly upset Nino preached at both of them and dragged Ohno and Aiba with him before Ohno could explain everything to his younger friend.
***
Silently Aiba sat next to Sho and took a sip of his tea while thinking about what Ohno told him earlier. What happened to Sho? He really wanted to know why he was hiding behind this thick wall of ignorance.
“Do you work somewhere? I remember that you were one of the smartest kids there in cram school. Even though everybody underestimated you.” Ohno made Aiba snap out of his thoughts when he was asking Sho about his current occupation. Sho slowly put his cup of tea back on the table and shook his head.
“No, no job at the moment” he answered a bit ashamed and lowered his head. Aiba looked at Sho and saw the sad expression in his eyes that he remembered from the time when he took care of his wounds. He really seemed to be ashamed, because of the fact that he didn’t have any employment. “Don’t worry” Ohno suddenly said and smirked at Sho who was raising his head again when he heard the excitement in Ohno's voice. “We are searching for a barista at the moment. I know it is probably not the most awesome job on earth, but it’s a start and we really need one.” As Ohno was smiling at Sho, he couldn’t say anything other than yes. He didn’t want to disappoint his old friend.
And…
Sho slowly turned his head to Aiba who was shyly looking back at him - maybe he would see him more often. As much as Sho wanted to deny it, somehow it felt good sitting next to the taller man. He didn’t really know Aiba, but there was definitely something that made Sho think that he is more than just a normal person like any other to him.
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Comment: Chapter 3 - done! I had to do a bit of story-build-up.. and a introduction of why Sho is so cold towards everyone. I didn't reveal that much.. but a bit at least!
Watch out for the next ones, there is going to be lots of Sakuraiba fluff.. and more! :P