Arashi fic: My Big Fat Arashi Omiai (or How to be the Marriage Mascot of Tomorrow) (rated R)
Title: My Big Fat Arashi Omiai (or How to be the Marriage Mascot of Tomorrow)
Pairing: MatsuJun/ Inoue Mao, Sakurai Sho/Horikita Maki, Aiba Masaki/Becky, Ohno Satoshi/Ishihara Satomi, Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko
Rating: R, for implied sexual situations
Summary: Desperate to see more happy marriages and babies born in their country, the Japanese government turns to beloved national super idols Arashi to lead the charge.
A/N: Originally written for nillahoney for the 2011 je_whiteday. So much fun to write, for serious. Please enjoy!
Since this story contains a number of heroines with whom readers may not be familiar, I've created this very basic
graphic to identify who is matched with who. If you don't recognize the names, you may know the faces!
Birth rate isn't the first thing that springs to mind when most people think of pop culture. Fashion trends, sure. Music fads, absolutely. But the number of babies born in a year? Not so much. Of course, it could be argued that certain pop cultural figures - Barry White and Marvin Gaye, for example - have a demonstrable effect on birth rates. The 1982 album sales of "Sexual Healing," for example, can be directly correlated to the birth dates of 30% of American babies born in 1983 (or so a little birdy told us).
But when it comes to a low birth rate, such as that afflicting the Japanese population in the early 21st century, pop culture may be the answer to the question that's frustrated so many in that country in recent years:
"How do we get the Japanese people to start having more BABIES?"
And then, because it's Japan,
"Preferably without involving Pokemon, because we've got plenty of those already."
---------
The place is a richly-furnished sitting room in a spacious but cozy B&B-style inn, nestled in the greenery of Chichibu Tama National Park. Normally the inn would be bustling with guests at this time on a Friday, but today it is almost empty save for ten very special customers. Ten very special customers who have connections to very deep pockets. It's not cheap to reserve an entire hotel for a weekend in the height of spring, even a relatively small one. These ten very special customers must be very special indeed.
They stand in equal lines of five, facing each other two by two. One line is comprised of five attractive young men; the other is five equally lovely young women. They stand silently for several minutes, just watching one another, until one of the men finally speaks...
~~~~~~~~~~
"Well, this is awkward," Nino said.
The statement was accompanied by a collective sigh of relief from the other nine people in the room. "I was beginning to think no one was going to talk at all," Becky noted. "Awkward is an understatement."
"We could have dinner?" Jun suggested. "The agency reserved this place, so the least we can do is enjoy ourselves."
"It's like a big group date, ne?" Aiba bounced a little on the balls of his feet, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. "We can hang out and try to woo each other."
Becky planted a hand on her hip and arched an eyebrow at him. "What's this 'each other' business? You're supposed to woo me, ne?"
"I don't mind a little mutual wooing." Mao smiled shyly as all eyes focused on her. "What?"
"But you've got Matsumoto Jun to woo you," Satomi pointed out. Jun blushed.
"I don't see why he should have all the fun." Mao grinned at Jun and batted her lashes. He laughed and held out his hand to her.
"Okay. Dinner, then wooing." He laced his fingers with Mao's. "Perhaps a little wooing over dinner. Let's be daring."
Sho stepped forward and held out his hand to the young woman across from him. "Maki-chan? Are you hungry?" He smiled.
Maki bypassed his hand and hugged his arm. "Not really," she murmured, smiling up into his eyes.
Nino made a face. "Guys? Can you wait until the rest of us have left the room before partaking of the eye sex please?" He turned his attention back to the woman across from him. "Yuriko-chan, want to eat?"
"Mm, hai." She hooked her arm through his and looked around with interest as they followed Jun and Mao. "This is a pretty place. Good for falling in love."
"I think that's the idea, ne?" He patted her hand. "But I'm so charming I could sweep you off your feet if we were shacked up in a cardboard box. Just saying."
"Carry me," Becky demanded, hands on her hips as she stared down Aiba.
"Eh? Nande?" he asked.
"Don't ask why, just do it."
"But what if you're heavy?"
She gaped at him. "Are you saying I'm fat?"
"What? No!" Aiba held up his hands to placate her. "But you're not as tiny as the people I usually carry."
"Who else have you been carrying?"
"Well, Nino mostly. He likes piggyback rides."
Becky sighed. "Fine. Then give me a piggyback ride. And if you dare tell me that I'm heavier than Nino, I'll kick you in the shin."
Aiba giggled and crouched down so she could climb onto his back. "You go pink in the cheeks when you're angry," he said as he hoisted her up and started to walk. "It's cute."
"Hmph." She rested her cheek against his hair. "Stop being sweet. It makes it hard to stay angry with you."
Ohno was avidly staring at Satomi, who was blushing bright red under the scrutiny. "Eh, Ohno-san?" she asked. "Is something wrong?" Her hand fluttered over her hair and then down to smooth her dress.
"I was just wondering why you agreed to come," he said simply. "We've never acted together, and we've only met a few times."
"But I've always thought Ohno-san was very kind," she said softly. "And very talented."
"Mm." He squinted at her a moment longer, then smiled and reached out to cup her elbow. "Let's go before Aiba eats all the food. He's like a vacuum."
She blushed redder but smiled and nodded. "Hai. That would be nice."
With everyone else gone, Maki and Sho had the room to themselves. "This is kind of weird," Sho murmured, smoothing her hair back from her eyes. "I'm sorry."
Maki shook her head. "We have a whole weekend together in a beautiful place, surrounded by friends and away from all the noise and troubles of the city." A luminous smile lit her face. "I think it's wonderful, Sho-kun."
The guilty weight on his shoulders eased a little bit, and Sho felt his smile widen. "Are you sure you're not hungry?" he asked conscientiously. "The agency kept on most of the hotel staff for the weekend, and they're supposed to make a really delicious strawberry shortcake."
Maki kissed his chin. "Can we get room service?" she asked coyly.
Sho swallowed as he gazed down into her innocent eyes. "Absolutely."
She kissed him again, this time at the corner of his mouth.
"Yay," she whispered.
------
"So, sex mascots," Yuriko mused as Nino passed her a platter of crudités.
"Marriage mascots," Nino corrected.
"But you're inspiring people to get married and have babies, ne? So sex mascots."
"No argument here. But 'marriage mascots' sounds nicer."
Yuriko helped herself to a celery stick. "Whose idea was it?"
Nino slung himself down on the porch swing beside her and bit into a baby carrot. "Some very stern looking gentlemen in boxy suits."
He raised his arm to settle around her shoulders as Yuriko stretched out beside him. She rested her head on his shoulder and propped her feet on the arm of the swing as they watched the sun set. "That sounds kind of strange," she mused, toying with her celery stick. "Creepy old men contemplating your sex life in some government office somewhere."
"That's what we said," Nino agreed. "But it's kind of understandable. We've shilled so many things for Japan already - tourism, Nintendo, smelly yet supposedly delicious food - that we've become the go-to guys for this stuff. So these government men in bad suits went to Johnny-san and said, 'We need Arashi to stop making textbooks about Japan and start making babies for Japan.'" He shrugged and stole another carrot from the platter on Yuriko's lap. "It's a little weird, but we all figured there aren't many other chances for us to find a nice girl and settle down, ne? Might as well try an omiai."
She looked up at him, celery stick tucked into the hollow of her cheek like a toothbrush. "What if we don't agree to marry any of you?" she asked, snapping off a bite of the celery.
Nino gave her a bright smile. "Eh? You don't want to marry Kurono-kun?"
She gazed at him, then reached up and pinched his nose.
"Oi!" He batted her hand away and cradled his abused nose.
"Conceited," she said, snuggling back into his shoulder so he couldn't see the pleased smile on her face.
------
"Red or white?"
"Red please." Mao smiled as Jun poured them both a glass of wine before taking the seat across from her at the small table. The intimate dining room was empty except for them, lit by a crackling fire in a rugged stone hearth and a plethora of taper candles.
"I'm a little surprised you agreed to go along with this," she said as Jun passed her a skewer to turn the meat on the grill between them.
"The marriage mascot thing?" he asked, and she nodded. "To be honest, I'm kind of surprised, too. A government-sanctioned omiai. It's not particularly romantic, ne?"
"Not really, no."
"Yet you accepted the invitation."
Mao blushed and helped herself to some meat. "I was intrigued. That doesn't mean I'm going to agree to marry you."
Jun grinned and bobbed his head. "Fair enough. Let's see how the weekend goes, ne?" He raised his glass.
"Deal." She raised her own wine and clinked the glasses together. "Kampai."
-----
"Operation Arashi Family Storm of Love and Marriage Go Go Go!!" Becky made a face as she surveyed the contents of the manila file folder Aiba had given her to peruse as they ate. "Let me guess. That name was your idea." She opened her mouth.
Aiba obediently popped a grape between her lips. "Everyone contributed," he clarified, taking a large bite of pear and leaning back on his elbow on the picnic blanket. The grassy hillside was spread out beneath them, hemmed by a dark fringe of trees beyond, all turned to shades of orange and scarlet by the last light of the sun. The picnic basket between them was flung open, revealing fruits and finger foods of every description (and probably pricey enough to give Nino a heart attack).
"I find it hard to believe that Matsujun would have contributed anything to a name that uses more than one exclamation point." Becky opened her mouth again, and this time Aiba fed her a fig. She bit it in half and chewed happily.
"He's the one who suggested the word 'Family,'" Aiba pointed out, eating the other half of the fig.
"Hmph." She rolled onto her stomach and leafed through the folder. "So what, you guys just sent out invitations to all the actresses you wanted to sleep with and waited to see which ones would bite?"
"No, the jimusho sent the invitations to female tarentos around our age," Aiba explained, peeling a banana. "Then they told us who expressed interest."
"That's totally weird."
"But we got to choose from all the people who responded; the ones we wanted to try to woo."
"That makes me feel like a lobster you picked out of a restaurant's fish tank." Becky frowned at him, then shrugged. "But you picked me, which proves you've got good taste."
"Nope."
"What do you mean, 'nope'?"
Aiba smiled up at the sky, which was already shading towards indigo above them. "You weren't my first choice."
"OI!" She scrambled across the blanket and straddled him, staring down into his face. "What do you MEAN I wasn't your first choice?" she demanded, arms crossed.
Aiba batted his lashes at her. "I asked Meisa Kuroki-san first, ne? But she was busy this weekend."
Becky gaped at him. "You... you...! How could...!?"
"Banana!"
"Eh- UMF!" Becky glared at him as he stuffed the banana into her mouth.
"Eat up, eat up!" Aiba trilled, grinning.
Becky's eyes bespoke imminent violence, then sparkled through "wicked" before melting into "seductive." Slowly and deliberately she bit through the soft fruit, watching Aiba's eyes glaze over and dilate as he watched. She made sure to take a little more of the banana into her mouth, moaning softly.
"Ooh," Aiba murmured, awe-struck. "You look really hot when you eat a banana, Becky-chan."
She smiled sweetly...
...then punched him in the shoulder. HARD.
"OW!"
"Mmf!" She swallowed and proceeded to pummel him with her fists. "Pervert! Sex-obsessed idiot! How dare you pick Meisa-chan before me! OOH! And quit LAUGHING! BAKA!"
---
"Are those two really going to be okay?" Satomi wondered anxiously as she peered down from her perch on the parlor's balcony railing. Aiba and Becky were wrestling on the grassy hillside below, and every now and then she could make out a little of what they were saying; it didn't sound very nice. "They don't seem to like each other very much."
"Aiba-chan and Becky have a weird relationship," Ohno admitted as he took a seat on the other end of the railing, leaning his back against the post rail and smiling fondly. "Daijoubu. They'll work it out."
Satomi blushed and shyly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. The diminutive leader of Arashi smelled spicy and sweet; kind of like cinnamon. The soft spring breeze was just strong enough to waft his scent towards her, and she had to fight the urge to lean forward and tuck her nose into the crook of his neck. Instead she settled for staring into her mango juice, imagining patterns in the ripples as they bounced off the sides of the glass.
Something soft brushed her cheek, accompanied by that spicy smell of cinnamon. She gasped and looked up, wide-eyed, to find Ohno leaning toward her, an arm extended. "What are you doing?" she asked, her heart racing.
"Is it okay?" he murmured, moving his hand downward. The soft, ticklish sensation moved along her cheek, and when she glanced out of the corner of her eye she discovered that he was drifting a dry paintbrush over her skin.
"H-hai," she stammered, and took a quick sip of her juice. "Um..."
"Satomi-chan has a lovely face," Ohno murmured, tracing the soft brush down the side of her neck.
"A...rigatou," she managed, grateful for the early evening darkness that masked her blush.
Ohno smiled. He really did have a wonderful smile. It crinkled his eyes and lit up his face. "May I draw you, Satomi-chan?" he asked.
"Eh?"
"We don't really know each other very well," he continued, as the sable hair brush ghosted over her collarbone and dipped into the hollow of her throat. "But if I draw you, I can show you what I see when I see you."
Satomi realized she was staring at him and forced herself to blink. "That... that sounds a little scary, actually," she murmured, looking out across the darkened landscape again. Becky and Aiba had packed up at some point, and now the grassy hillside was empty except for the sound of spring crickets.
"Why?"
"What if what you see isn't good?"
She was aware again of his warm smile, made even brighter against his tanned face. "You can draw me, too," he offered. "We can both draw what we see and compare. Will that make it a little less scary?"
"I've... never really drawn before, Ohno-san."
"That doesn't mean you can't start now." He stood up and held out his hand. "Ne?"
Satomi bit her lip, then nervously settled her hand in his. "Hai, okay," she murmured, smiling shyly as he helped her to her feet.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "I only see nice things when I look at you."
She blushed darker and bobbed her head, and barely noticed that he didn't let go of her hand as they walked side by side into the parlor.
-----
"Is it as good as advertised?" Sho murmured, kissing the corner of Maki's mouth and tasting sweet cream and tart berries. The sheets were slippery soft against his bare skin, but nothing was more alluring than the silky slide of Maki's legs. The air between the lovers was warm and humid, and Sho welcomed the slick rub of her belly against his.
"The shortcake or the company?" Maki teased, tilting her head to find his lips with her own.
"Both," he clarified, and kissed the tip of her nose.
"Sweet and wonderful." Her doe-like eyes twinkled. "And the cake is delicious, too."
Sho laughed softly. "Cheesy girl."
"You're the one who wants to marry me, goofy guy."
His expression softened as he stroked his fingers through her hair. "I do," he murmured. "I want you to marry me, Marina-chan."
Maki - Marina, Maki, his Ma'i-chan - leaned into his touch, pressing a soft kiss to his inner wrist. "Then ask me," she murmured.
Sho shook his head. "I want it to be perfect," he protested. "I want to get down on one knee on a street in Yokohama, with the Bay Bridge lit up in the background and everyone watching, and I want to say, 'Ma'i-chan, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?' And then you'll either tell me yes and kiss me, or nod your head and kiss me, or hug me tight and kiss me, and everyone will cheer and wish us well." He sighed and hugged her close, burying his face in the curve of her neck and breathing deeply.
"You seem pretty sure that I'm going to say yes," Maki observed, amused.
"You mean you might not?" He looked up anxiously.
Maki laughed softly, stroking the nape of his neck. "Baka." Her lips traced a gentle curve around the shell of his ear. "The only thing I need is you to ask me. That's all. That's perfection."
Sho closed his eyes and rested his head on her shoulder. "Is it all right to do it like this?" he asked. "Marriage, a family, children... Can we really do all of that just because some guy in a government office thinks it's a good idea?"
The cool sheets touched his shoulder blades as Maki eased him onto his back. "I think those government guys picked Arashi for this plan because they know Arashi are good men," she soothed, stretching out on top of him and crossing her arms on his chest. "Even if this is part of some special government mascot program, Arashi won't treat it like that. Arashi won't marry women they don't love. Arashi won't have children unless they know their children will be happy. Arashi will be good husbands and fathers." She brushed his hair back from his eyes and kissed his forehead.
"They wanted Arashi to be their marriage mascots because they wanted their mascots to be genuine," she murmured. "They knew Arashi could never be anything but genuine. This isn't a game to you; any of you." She smiled. "That's why all of us agreed to come. We trust you. I trust you, my Sho-tan."
Sho framed her face between his hands and kissed her tenderly. "It's not just Arashi, ne?" he reminded her. "You, Mao-chan, Becky-san... You're mascots, too, if you do this. Our children, too. Do you really want that?"
"You worry too much, my Sho-tan. I want you. Mascot or no mascot, we'd never get away from the paparazzi, ne? At least this way we can set a good example for others." She nuzzled his palm. "I can't wait to talk about my Sho-tan's cute snoring and snuggle fetish the next time I'm on Ousama no Brunch."
He squinted at her, his lips twitching in a sly smile. "You wouldn't dare."
"Wouldn't I?"
"Then I'll tell the Hey, Hey, Hey audience about how you like to watch Anpanman in your underwear on Saturday mornings."
"No you won't."
"Why not?"
"You'd get jealous of all those people thinking about me in my underwear."
He poked her in the cheek. "And you wouldn't be jealous of all those people thinking about me and my snuggle fetish? And it's not a fetish, by the way. It's a full-blown addiction."
"I stand corrected." Maki hummed thoughtfully. "Would I have a reason to be jealous? Do you snuggle random women when I'm not around?"
"Of course not!"
"Then let them have their little fantasies. I get the real thing." She squeezed his bicep appreciatively. "It's a lot better than anything my imagination could come up with."
Sho laughed. "Can you at least not talk about the snoring? It's embarrassing enough when the other members bring that up."
"You'll have to convince me it's in my best interest to leave that bit out of the story," Maki teased, walking her fingers up his chest to tickle under his chin.
"I will, huh?" Maki shrieked with laughter as he flipped them over until she was tucked beneath him on the bed. "Well, if you talk about the snoring, when you come home that night maybe I'll catch you in the genkan and tickle you right... HERE." His fingers wiggled under her arms.
"Sho!" she squealed, squirming beneath him. "I give! I give!"
"Do you really? Because I could also tickle... HERE!"
"SHO!"
"And maybe.... here..."
She gasped and arched her back as his hand eased between her legs. "Ohhh," she moaned. "I'm not ticklish there..."
"Oops." Sho kissed her. "Should I stop?"
"Don't you dare." She wrapped a leg around his waist and raised her hips. "Don't you dare ever stop."
----
"What do you think the others are doing?" Mao asked as she walked hand in hand with Jun through the sweetly perfumed tea garden that lay adjacent to the dining room. Deftly disguised lighting gave the garden a warm, romantic glow.
"Well, Nino and Yuriko-chan are probably hatching some nefarious plot to take over the world," Jun mused. "That's a dangerous combination, those two. And Aiba and Becky-chan are probably killing each other, but in a flirty way."
"That's possible?"
"I wouldn't put it past them."
"What about Ohno-san and Ishihara-san?"
Jun tilted his head to think about that. "I don't know," he admitted after a minute. "That's a pairing I wasn't expecting at all."
She leaned her head on his shoulder. "Ohno-san is a little odd sometimes," she commented. "But he's always been nice when I've seen him."
"He's nice," Jun agreed. "But he's a lot like a clam. He opens up sometimes, but only when he wants to. I don't know how that's going to work with Satomi, ne? She's very.... not shy. She's coy. They're going to be a tough combination."
Mao closed her eyes as his arm wrapped around her shoulders. "And Sakurai-san? What about him and Horikita-san?"
Jun chuckled. "I don't think we're going to see much of them before the weekend's over. Not so long as they can get room service."
She blushed. "Oh."
He sat down on a stone bench , one of several that lined the garden path, and gestured for her to join him.
She took a seat. "And what about us?"
Jun raised his eyebrows. "What about us?"
"What are we doing?"
"Is this a trick question?"
Mao leaned back, resting her palms on the edge of the bench and gazing up at the sky. Stars were just beginning to appear in the dark swath of evening blue above them.
"Do you remember what we said to each other after Hanadan Final?" she asked, her eyes tracing the starry outline of Cassiopeia on her throne.
Jun looked down at the toes of his fine leather shoes. "We said we were over," he murmured.
"Mmm. Do you remember why?"
"Why don't you remind me?" He scuffed his foot across the cobbled path, sending a loose pebble scuttling into the underbrush.
"Jun..."
A growl of frustration bubbled up his throat and he stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets and staring into the shadows. "No. Go ahead. Tell me."
Mao sighed and turned her gaze to him. "I was eighteen when we started Hanadan, Jun-kun," she murmured. "You were only twenty-two. We both agreed that we were too young to be forever, ne?"
"So we broke up," Jun snapped. "I know. I get it. And you've had boyfriends. I've had girlfriends. We tried other people, and you know what I realized? I don't want someone else." He glanced over his shoulder at her. "What about you?"
"Jun, it's not that easy."
"You accepted the invitation to come here this weekend. Why?"
"So we can talk."
He threw his hands in the air. "Jesus."
She frowned and stood up, hands planted on her hips. "See? This is what I'm talking about. Growing up isn't just about getting older, Jun. It's about acting like an adult, not a little boy throwing a tantrum."
He rounded on her. "A tantrum?"
She pushed up on her tiptoes until they were nose to nose. "Yes," she snapped. "A tantrum. You're upset because you can't just have what you want."
"I'm not a little boy, Mao."
"And I'm not a little girl who's going to be cowed by a looming man with bushy eyebrows, Jun."
"My eyebrows are not bushy!"
"Yes they are!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
"Are NOT!"
" ARE TOO!"
"Why are we FIGHTING!?"
"I can't remember, but I'm sure it's YOUR FAULT!"
They glared at each other for a few moments more, until Jun's harsh frown dissolved into an exasperated smile. "We're always going to be like this, aren't we?"
Mao sighed and slumped against his chest. "Yeah, probably," she mumbled.
"Fighting and making up and fighting some more."
"Yep."
"Ne." He touched her under the chin until she looked up at him. "Marry me," he murmured.
Mao stepped back and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I told you, it's not that easy."
"Yes it is."
"You think this is some kind of fairytale? Makino and Domyouji aren't real people, Jun-kun. We can't just pretend that we're going to live happily ever after like they did."
"I know that." He brushed a thumb across her cheek. "Married people fight. Married people have bad days. Married people get sick of each other. That's why I know I want to marry you."
She pouted at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Jun chuckled, pushing at the corners of her mouth to make her smile. "We fight, but we always make up," he explained. "We have bad days, but they're always followed by good ones. We get sick of each other, but we always end up together again, for better or worse. We're virtually married already. All we have to do is make it official."
Mao arched an eyebrow at him. "You get sick of me?"
"Absolutely."
"Why? I'm adorable."
"Well for one you're clearly vain if you openly admit you're adorable."
"Hmph." She shuffled closer to him, relaxing into his embrace as she rested her cheek on his chest. "You know the fansites would go crazy, right?"
"Yep."
"You're very calm about this."
Jun shrugged and looked up at the stars. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"What if I say no?"
"Are you going to?"
"....I hate you."
He snorted. "Right."
"I do."
"I'm rubber, you're glue. Words bounce off me and stick to you."
"God, you are so immature."
"Then marry me and make me grow up. Be my naggy, shrewish wife."
"OOH. I am not naggy! Or shrewish for that matter."
"So prove me wrong."
She leaned back and glared at him. "Are you seriously betting me into marrying you?"
He smirked. "Is it working?"
She squinted at him appraisingly for a long minute. Eventually the corners of her mouth tilted up. "Keep talking," she offered. "Let's find out."
-----
"Um, Yuriko-chan?" Nino peered over her shoulder. "Why are you reading a porn magazine?"
She was seated cross-legged on "their" bed, though it was actually just the bed that came with the room they'd been assigned for the weekend. Nino was prepared to spend most of the weekend in a futon on the floor. He and Yuriko weren't Maki and Sho, who were doubtless bumping uglies like bunnies in heat.
Not that Nino didn't want to knock boots with his lovely cohort. Especially now that he'd caught her perusing a copy of Bejean.
She glanced up at him. "Because I found it in your suitcase."
It took a lot to make Nino blush. Finding porn in his suitcase officially counted as "a lot" in his book of definitions. "Why were you in my suitcase?" he asked, uncomfortably aware of how hot his ears felt.
"I wanted to see if you brought condoms."
"...Okay..."
"Then I saw this magazine and wondered what kind of girl you liked." Yuriko pointed at the woman on the current page; a particularly busty AV actress with pouty lips. "This page was turned down on the corner, so I figured you must like women with big breasts and a bee-stung mouth." She frowned at him. "You know I don't have big breasts or big lips, Nino-kun. I'm never going to. Get used to it if you really want to be with me."
He blinked at her. "Uh... what?"
She shuffled around to face him as she knelt in the middle of the mattress. "I like you," she said simply. "You're sharp and sexy and funny and smart. Those are all important things that I want my husband to have. You're also dedicated - I want that, too. You brought a porn magazine to an omiai, which means you like sex." She shuffled closer to him. "I like sex, too."
Nino swallowed. "You... do, huh?" She didn't have large breasts or full lips, but Yuriko's eyes were hypnotic. He could disappear into those eyes.
"Mm-hmm." Her lips turned up in a kittenish smile and she laid her hands on his chest., hooking her fingers in the collar of his shirt and tugging him down to sit on the bed with her. "I think I might want to marry you, Nino-kun."
Nino's head was spinning. He'd started the weekend planning to court Yuriko, and maybe get a promise of an intimate dinner date by the time all was done. Now he was looking at potential marriage. He hadn't expected anything resembling sex this weekend, and now Yuriko was actually wiggling closer and sitting in his lap holyshitholyshitholy-
"You didn't bring any condoms, Nino-kun," Yuriko chastised.
"Eh?" Her round bottom was settled comfortably in his lap, just a hand's breadth from his crotch. That made it difficult to focus on things like words. "O-oh. Hai. I mean, no. No I didn't." Nino gave her an embarrassed smile, then realized what he was doing and covered with a smirk instead. "Should I have?"
"I'm not ready to have babies just yet," she explained. "So we need condoms if we're going to have sex."
"Oh…"
No condoms, no sex. All his nascent visions of steamy, slippery, potentially kinky sex began to crumble around his ears. But he was not going to cry. His life didn't revolve around sex, dammit. He wasn't Aiba.
He shook himself out of his thoughts when Yuriko's warm weight left his lap. "Eh, Yuriko-chan?" he called after her as she disappeared into the master bathroom. "Daijoubu?"
He was just about to go after her when she re-emerged. "I brought my own," she explained, dropping a handful of multicolored condoms on the bed beside him before straddling his lap and draping her arms over his shoulders.
Nino's heart swelled. "You brought condoms?" he choked. "I think I love you."
Yuriko grinned. "Sex now?"
"Yes please."
"You're so cute when you're horny." She puckered her lips curiously. "Does that mean you're horny all the time? Because you're cute all the time."
"You brought condoms and now you're stroking my ego? Spring for taxi fare to get back to the city and you're officially my soulmate."
She laughed. "You're a cheap date, Ninomiya."
Nino grinned. "Yes. Yes I am. It's part of my overwhelming charm."
Yuriko nipped his nose. "Conceited," she purred, catching his lips in a leisurely kiss before he could quip something else.
----
"Itai, itai, itai!"
"Oh quit whining, you big baby." Becky finished dabbing medicine onto Aiba's elbow and reached for an adhesive bandage. "This is what you get for trying to wrestle with me."
"You rolled me into a rock," Aiba pouted, hissing as she pressed a bandage over the angry red abrasion on his elbow. "That wasn't fair!"
"First, I didn't 'roll you into a rock.' The rock happened to be in the way in the direction we were rolling. Second, I don't know what you're whining about when I'm the one with a legitimate complaint here." She tossed the bandage wrapper in the waste basket and tucked the first aid kit back into the nightstand, then flopped onto her side on the bed and hugged a pillow.
"What are you talking about?" Aiba asked, poking at the bandage on his elbow. "Ow. Ow!"
"Don't poke it, idiot." She kicked him on the thigh and went back to sulking.
Aiba curled up on his side on the bed next to her. "Beeecky-chan. BEEEECKY-chaaaan." He poked her in the cheek and twirled a lock of her hair around his index finger. "What's wrong, Becky-chan?"
"Baka. Doesn't even know what's wrong…" She batted his hand away and hit him with her pillow.
"Hey!" He fended off the pillow attack. "What was that for?"
"You know, boys are stupid," Becky complained, rolling onto her back and hugging the pillow across her stomach as she stared at the ceiling. "I should have been a lesbian."
Aiba raised his eyebrows with interest. "Ne?"
"Pervert," she grumbled. She hit him a few more times with her pillow, but her heart clearly wasn't in it.
Aiba sat up and peered down at her. "What's wrong, Becky-chan?" he asked, genuinely concerned.
She turned her attention from an indiscriminate point on the ceiling and focused on his face. "How could you pick someone else before me?" she mumbled. "I feel completely stupid now."
"Why would that make you feel stupid?"
"Are you really that dumb? Do you think any girl likes knowing she wasn't the first choice?"
"I wasn't your first choice, was I?"
Becky frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Aiba tilted his head. "You wanted Matsujun, ne? Domyouji."
Becky blushed. "Don't be an idiot."
"It's what I'm best at." He shrugged. "But I'm right, ne?"
She slugged him in the stomach. "Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about."
"But I'm right."
Becky rolled into a sitting position and glared at him. "There's a difference between having a crush on a fictional character and wanting to marry the actor."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"So you don't mind that Matsujun is with Mao-chan?"
"Are you kidding? Makino and Tsukasa! It's a fangirl's dream!"
Aiba giggled. "That's what Jun-kun kept saying."
"Ne? So shut up with your stupid face, okay? I didn't want to come here this weekend with Matsujun. No, I'm here with you, God knows why. Sex-crazed idiot."
Aiba kissed her.
Becky gaped at him as he sat back and smiled. "What was that for?"
"I told you, you're cute when you get angry. You go all pink."
She tugged his hair in retaliation. "That's no reason to kiss someone out of the blue," she protested. "I don't appreciate being flustered."
"I like flustering you."
"Obviously."
"I didn't really choose Meisa-chan first."
"Because you're a sex mania- what?"
Aiba giggled, his familiar breathy laugh. "I said I didn't pick Meisa-chan. I lied about that."
"You... what? Why would you do that? And don't say it's because you like flustering me or I'll punch you in the nose."
"So violent."
"AIBA."
Fu, fu, fu! "I wanted to see your reaction. If you'd care."
"Of course I'd care!"
"You've never really shown any interest in me before, ne?"
She blushed. "So you were testing me?"
"Well, this is really special, ne? I just wanted to make sure you actually liked me. I like you, Becky-chan."
Her blush darkened. "Baka. What are you saying?"
Aiba grinned, then he jumped off the bed and darted to the French doors that led to the balcony.
"Where are you going!"
Aiba threw open the doors. "I LIKE BECKY-CHAN!" he bellowed into the night air, hands cupped around his mouth.
"AIBA!" Becky squealed, hiding under her pillow again. "Bakayaro!"
He grinned over his shoulder at her. "Isn't this what you wanted? You wanted to secretly date a celebrity, and then in the middle of the city you wanted him to stop and yell to the world that he's dating Becky-chan. Ne?"
"This isn't the city!"
"Well if you're embarrassed while I'm yelling this out to a big empty field and a deep forest, miles from the city, how would you handle it in the middle of Shibuya?"
This time she threw her pillow at him, and he caught it deftly out of the air and threw it back. "We're not even dating," she whined.
"Do you want to?"
"Date?"
"Hai."
"I... uh..."
Aiba grinned. "You're cute when you're speechless, too."
Becky glared at him. "Fine. I'll date you. There. Happy?"
"Yay! Becky, yay!" He bounded across the room and bounced onto the bed.
"ACK!" She scrambled to keep her seat. "Idiot, you almost bounced me right off- what are you doing?" This last was said in response to the way Aiba was stalking up the bed towards her, on his hands and knees, hair in his eyes like a lion's mane. "W...What...?"
He crawled over her and gazed down into her wide eyes. "Riida was right," he murmured. "You do have sunflowers in your eyes."
Her hand darted self-consciously towards her face. "Aiba-kun?"
He smiled, his honey-colored eyes sparkling behind the silky tumble of his hair. "Becky-chan was always my first choice," he whispered, as if imparting a secret.
"Honto desu ka?" Becky found that she was whispering in return.
"Mm-hmm." He bent his head until they were nose to nose and he could gaze into her eyes.
"Am I Becky-chan's first choice?" he murmured.
For a moment, pride warred with the butterflies in her stomach as she debated how to respond. In the end, the butterflies won. "Hai," she squeaked.
For years Becky had listened to other women on Tensai! rave on and on about Aiba's smile. How it was like a sunrise. Like a summer day in the mountains. Like scudding clouds across a windswept blue sky. Becky could appreciate a simile, but she'd always thought her colleagues were erring towards hyperbole with some of their descriptions of Aiba in general, and his smile in particular.
She definitely owed them an apology. His smile was a wonder of the modern world, especially when it was hovering so close to her face and - most importantly - he was smiling because of her. It made her toes curl in self-conscious glee.
"May I kiss you, Becky?"
The absence of the "-chan" was a blip on her radar screen. Aiba exuded heat like a blast furnace, and every inch of her that was within a few inches of him was steadily getting warmer. That included her lips, and her belly, and a choice few other places of an extremely intimate nature.
She shivered.
"Brush your teeth first," she managed to say. "Your breath smells like figs and mayonnaise."
"Yours smells like banana," Aiba crooned. "Mmm, Becky and banana. Sexy."
She blushed and poked him, but couldn't stop herself from grinning. "Pervert," she teased, then squealed when he kissed her back down to the pillow. She couldn't really argue with that.
---
"Oh... Oh …!" Maki cried out and planted her hands on Sho's chest as her orgasm crested. Her back arched. For a moment she was frozen in place before melting forward in a warm, sated puddle on Sho's chest.
His arms wrapped around her as his full lips brushed across her forehead. "That... will never get boring," he panted.
"Mmm..." She giggled dreamily and pressed soft, open mouth kisses to any of his skin she could reach. Her lips left butterfly-shaped prints on his sweat-damp skin, which set her off on a fresh flurry of giggles.
Sho squeezed her waist. "What are you laughing at?" he asked with a grin.
"Mmm, I don't know. I just feel like laughing, ne?" She managed to prop herself up on his chest, a lock of hair falling across her eyes. "You make me happy. That makes me smile, and smiling makes me laugh."
Sho reached up and tucked the errant tresses behind her ear, brushing his thumb across her cheek. "Then I guess I can't be offended, ne?" He grinned and raised his head to kiss her chin.
Maki nuzzled him lovingly. "So are you going to stop being a stick-in-the-mud and propose to me?" she asked, drawing a heart on his cheek with a delicate fingertip.
"Ma'i-chan," Sho whined. "We just had amazing sex. Do we have to have the engagement talk right now?"
"I'm just curious," she defended, innocence radiating from every pore.
"That is not your curious face," Sho argued, peering at her through narrowed eyes. "That's your devious face. You're planning something."
"What could I be planning?"
"I have no idea. That's what scares me."
"Pff. You're no fun."
"I am TONS of fun. I'm a veritable barrel of monkeys. I just get nervous when my lover starts plotting things that involve me." He nipped her lips. "Spill it."
Maki pouted for a few seconds, but it quickly morphed into a playful grin. She kissed him soundly, then crawled off his chest and leaned over the side of the bed to fish through her purse, which lay abandoned and upended on the floor under the nightstand. After a few moments of rifling through the contents, she let out a little whoop of victory and sat up, hiding whatever she'd found behind her back.
Sho frowned at her. "What's that?" he asked, hoisting himself into a sitting position and trying to peer over her shoulder.
"Uh, uh, uh." Maki clucked her tongue and planted her hand on his chest to hold him at bay. "It's a surprise."
"A surprise for what? My birthday isn't until January."
"You have to answer a question for me first. Then I'll show it to you."
Sho rolled his eyes good-naturedly and leaned back against the headboard. "Okay, okay. What's your question?"
Maki wiggled around to face him, holding the blankets up to cover her chest with one arm. "Are you going to ask me to marry you?"
"Ma'i-chan, I explained that already, ne? I want to propose to you properly."
"In Yokohama. On the street. Surrounded by strangers."
He frowned. "You make it sound like that's wrong."
She touched his cheek. "Gomen. I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just don't really understand how proposing like that is anymore proper than proposing here and now."
"Well there's more to it than that, ne? First and foremost I need to ask your parents' permission. And then there's the matter of a ring. I want to find you the perfect ring. I've got a few ideas, and I intend to enlist the help of some of my sempai to find a really dynamite jeweler-" He stopped speaking and blinked in confusion when she pressed a hand over his mouth.
"Sho-chan, you always plan three steps ahead," she said with a fond smile. "It's one of the things I love about you. But sometimes you need to be spontaneous, ne?" Her eyes sparkled as she brought her surprise out from around her back and held it up for him to see.
It was a little velvet box.
"Sakurai Sho," Maki intoned as she opened the box to reveal a simple band of white gold set with one large ruby, "will you marry me?"
Sho stared at the ring.
Then he stared at Maki.
Then back at the ring.
Then back at Maki.
"Are you... proposing to me?" he asked when he found his voice.
"Mm-hmm." She bobbed her head in the affirmative.
"But..."
"This way you can propose to me however and whenever you want," she explained gently. "But it also means that I get to leave her after this weekend and, when my mother asks me, I can say, 'I'm going to marry Sakurai Sho-san.'" She offered him the ring again. "So? Will you marry me, my Sho-tan?"
Sho stared at the ring.
He stared at Maki.
Then back at the ring.
Then back at Maki.
Then he smiled and said, "Yes."
---
The next morning, Satomi was the first in the dining room for breakfast. She absently sipped her tea as her hands traced over the portrait Ohno had given her the night before.
"Is this me?" she breathed as he laid the sheet of paper across her lap.
"Mmm, hai." Ohno crouched beside her as they both gazed at the picture. "This is what I see when I look at you, Satomi-chan."
An effusion of colors in every hue imaginable formed the background, whirling around the slender, pale figure seated in the center of the page. Long, flowing hair was dusted the faintest shade of lilac. Lips and cheeks were kissed with the palest rose pink. The eyes were downcast, focusing on one hand that cupped a palmful of liquid rainbow. It poured through slender white fingers, painting them rich, dark shades of primary red, blue and yellow.
"What does it mean?" Satomi murmured, brushing her fingers over the outline of the willowy figure that was meant to be her.
"When I look at you, I see a beautiful woman who wants to be someone for everyone, but doesn't know how," Ohno explained, his voice soft and warm. "I see a woman who worries that she's not really anyone's ideal. You're afraid of being hurt, but you want very badly for someone to see you. You're afraid you're invisible."
He touched her wrist. "You're not invisible, Satomi-chan," Ohno murmured. "The world wraps around you and makes you stand out." He smiled and chucked her gently under the chin. "Satomi-chan doesn't need to be everyone's perfect girl. Satomi-chan just needs to be her own perfect girl."
The memory was still fresh enough that she could smell the warm cinnamon scent of his cologne. It made her shiver and blush and giggle.
"Did Ohno-san draw that?" Satomi looked up sharply to see Becky leaning over the table to see the portrait.
"O..Oh. Hai." She quickly gathered up the artwork and held it close to her chest. She couldn't help feeling protective of the pale girl in the colorful picture.
Becky seemed to understand because she didn't press the issue. "Mind if I join you?" she asked.
"Oh! Yes, of course. Please. Please do."
Becky happily plunked herself down in the seat across from Satomi, gave her order to the waitress who seemed to appear out of thin air, then turned to the other young woman and said, "So? How'd it go?"
Satomi blinked at her. "Eh?"
"With Ohno-san. Did you have a nice time together?"
Satomi blushed. "Oh. Hai. He taught me a little about how to draw."
"Ehhh? Lucky! What did you draw?"
A small smile tickled her lips. "We drew each other," she answered. "Or... how we see each other." Saying it out loud was embarrassing, but she pressed on. "Ohno-san drew this for me."
"So that's how Riida sees you?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Uwaaa, that's so romantic!" Becky gushed.
Satomi felt a rush of gratitude for the other woman. She didn't feel so silly now, knowing that someone else was as taken by the gesture as she had been. "It is, isn't it?" she giggled. "Ohno-san is very sweet."
"So what did you draw? For Ohno's portrait."
"Oh." Her blush returned full force. "Um..."
Becky leaned conspiratorially across the table. "Was it something... dirty?" she whispered, eyes twinkling.
Satomi's eyes widened. "Eh!? No! No no no, nothing like that!"
"Then what did you draw?"
There was nothing for it. She sighed. "Cinnamon sticks."
Becky's confused expression was worth the blow to Satomi's pride. "Eh, cinnamon sticks? Why?"
"Because Ohno-san smells like cinnamon, ne?" Satomi and Becky both looked up as the new voice joined their chat.
"Good morning, Yoshitaka-san," Satomi said with a polite bob of her head.
Yuriko smiled and nodded in return. "Ohayo gozaimasu," she greeted them both. "Mind if I join you?"
"Ohno-san smells like cinnamon?" Becky asked as Yuriko sat down, nursing a cup of tea. "I hadn't noticed."
"Oh hai," Satomi said.
"It makes me hungry for waffles," Yuriko agreed.
"Waffles? Did someone mention waffles?" Mao appeared a moment later, eyebrows raised with interest. "Because I could go for waffles."
"I'm sure the staff can make some for you, ne?" Becky opined as Mao grabbed a chair from another table and joined them.
"If they're anything like their strawberry shortcake, I'll take that," Mao said with feeling.
A few minutes later, over a full breakfast of waffles, pancakes, fruit and yogurt, Becky asked, "So, how did we all do, ladies?"
"What do you mean?" Mao asked around a mouthful of waffle with whipped cream.
"Don't be coy with me, Mao-chan," Becky teased. "You and Matsujun. What happened?"
Mao blushed. "Oh. Um..."
"Sex," Yuriko said with a smile.
"Absolutely," Becky agreed. "You two had gorgeous sex, didn't you? Oh, LUCKY."
"We did not have sex last night," Mao protested, her ears burning a bright scarlet.
"You didn't?" Becky was scandalized. "Why not!"
"Because we were talking," Mao explained, focusing intently on her waffle. "We talked, and then we slept."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"You talked, then you slept?"
"In a nutshell."
"You must have done SOMETHING else, or you wouldn't be blushing like a fire hydrant."
Satomi smiled. "He proposed, ne?"
Mao hid her face in her hands and nodded.
"EH!? Makino and Domyouji, for real?" Becky clasped her hands over her heart. "A dream come true!"
"Oh God, this is so embarrassing," Mao groaned, slumping in her seat. "Every interview is going to go like that, you know? 'Makino and Domyouji, Together Again!'" She stuffed a strawberry in her mouth.
"Well if it makes any difference, the pair of you are adorable together," Becky soothed.
Mao smiled bashfully. "Arigatou."
"Nino and I had a lot of sex, but we're not getting married yet," Yuriko said, toying with a yogurt.
After a moment to recover from the blunt delivery, Satomi asked, "Yet?"
Yuriko smiled. "We decided we should probably date a bit first. Otherwise we just look desperate."
"Oh. Well, that's nice." Satomi smiled. "Omedetou, both of you."
Becky cleared her throat.
"Hmm?" Mao glanced at her. "Becky-chan?"
The tarento whistled a jaunty little tune, glancing around as if admiring the décor, and nonchalantly held up her right hand.
Satomi gasped as she ogled the bright diamond ring that flashed on Becky's hand. "EH? Aiba-san proposed?"
"And you said yes?" Mao exclaimed.
Becky frowned at them. "You don't have to make it sound like I suffered a traumatic brain injury."
"Oh, no, that's not-"
"We didn't mean-"
"It's not my fault he's an incorrigible idiot who just happens to be the sweetest human being alive," Becky grumbled.
"We never-
"I'm sure he-"
"I'd like to see any of you say no to him when he uses the Puppy Dog Pout," Becky went on. "It's physically impossible. Go ahead, ask the other Arashi guys. They'll back me up. When Aiba pulls out the Puppy Pout, it's not a matter of if you'll give in, it's just a matter of how long before you cave."
They waited to see if she was going to continue. When she didn't, Satomi spoke up. "I think you'll be super cute together, Becky-san," she said. "And you'll double Tensai's ratings!"
A pleased smile spread across Becky's lips. "Well, at least until Aiba gets himself eaten by a whale," she said. "It's just a matter of time really."
They all shared a laugh, and then the conversation turned to other things. The weather, the quality of the food, the thread count of the sheets in their rooms. Eventually Yuriko asked, "Where's Maki-san?"
Mao grinned. "Jun-kun said we probably won't see her OR Sho-san much all weekend. They're... indisposed."
"They are SO getting married," Becky said.
"SO getting married," Mao agreed.
"They'll probably be the first of all of us to have a baby, don't you think?"
"I know Sho-san didn't bring any condoms," Yuriko mused, nibbling an English muffin. When her statement was met with silence she looked up to find the other three women staring at her. "What?"
"How do you know that?" Satomi asked.
"I looked in his luggage."
"Um... why?"
"I thought it was Nino's."
"O...kay." Satomi debated if she wanted to know more, but then decided she probably didn't.
"Well, if Sho-chan didn't bring condoms and he and Maki-chan spend the whole weekend in bed, I think we can expect a little Sakurai in about nine months," Mao observed.
"Operation Arashi Family Storm of Love and Marriage Go Go Go!!, mission accomplished," Becky agreed.
"Operation what now?"
"Operation Arashi Family- You know, never mind."
"Becky-chan?" The quartet at the table turned en masse to look at the dining room entrance. A sleepy Aiba was standing there in his boxers, scrubbing a hand through his hair and scratching his stomach. "You comin' back to bed?"
Becky pinched the bridge of her nose. "Idiot. Put some PANTS on." She paused, then added, "I'll be right up."
"Mmm-kay." He waved sleepily to the other women. "Ohayo, minna-san." Then he shuffled away.
Becky blushed bright red as three sets of eyes focused on her. "You'll be right up, hmm?" Mao hummed.
"Back to bed, eh?" Yuriko added.
"Maybe there will be a little Becky-chan running around in nine months, ne?" Satomi giggled.
Becky groaned and stood up. "How many times do I have to say it? PUPPY. POUT. It's not my fault his wibble face is sexy as hell." She grabbed a plate of waffles, piled on some fruit, and picked up her glass of orange juice. "I'll see you ladies later." Moving with the gait of a woman who doesn't want to look too eager, she strutted out of the dining room.
"I should go wake Jun," Mao sighed. "He'll hate to waste the day, ne? But he's about as good at waking up as Aiba is at remembering to wear pants."
"Bring him waffles," Yuriko suggested. "Waffles make everything better."
"Excellent suggestion." Mao gathered a choice assortment of fruit, made sure the waffles on her plate were heaped with whipped cream, grabbed a couple of yogurts and one of the portable coffee pots, and bowed out.
"Are you going back to join Nino-san?" Satomi asked shyly.
Yuriko nodded. "Are you going back to Ohno?"
Satomi giggled. "We didn't sleep together. He slept on the couch."
"Ne?"
"But... he said he wants to take me fishing." She blushed, pleased. "Like a date."
Yuriko smiled. "Sato and Sato, ne? Satoshi and Satomi."
"Is that too cutesy?" Satomi worried.
"Do you think it is?"
Satomi was quiet for a moment as she turned the question over in her mind. "Noooo," she said eventually, drawing out the O-sound. "No, I don't think it is."
"Then it's not." Yuriko patted her hand and stood up. "Ohayo, Sato-chan."
Satomi smiled and waved. "Ohayo, Yuriko-chan."
She watched Yuriko stroll nonchalantly from the room, munching on an apple and twirling a banana in her other hand. When the other woman had gone, Satomi carefully cleared the area in front of herself, checked to make sure the place setting was clean, and set the portrait on the table again. Arashi's leader had signed it in the corner like a real piece of art.
She felt a surge of emotion and laid her hand over the pale figure in the center of the paper. She wondered what she would look like to Ohno after he'd taken her fishing. After they'd had their first dinner date. After she'd spent her first night at his apartment. She wondered if the pale girl in the picture would flesh out over time and take on colors of her own, or if she'd stay a pale ingenue.
Satomi smiled. Maybe by the time she found out that answer she'd be able to draw something more than two cinnamon sticks and title it "Ohno-san" to express what she saw when she saw him. Maybe by then she'd have enough of a handle on the whirl of emotions he inspired to be able to put them down on paper.
She sighed and stood up, tucking the portrait carefully into her shoulder bag. The couch had been deserted by the time she woke up that morning. Ohno had left a note to say he'd meet her down by the pond with a fishing pole and a pair of waders, and that she should wear the oldest clothes she could find. She hadn't brought any old clothes with her, so she'd settled for a pair of jeans, a sturdy cotton blouse and a wide-brimmed sunhat, and hoped they'd suffice. She'd never gone fishing before, but she was sure it was going to be messy.
Messy, but... fun.
As first dates went, a girl could do a lot worse than messy and fun.
Laughing softly she stepped out into the early morning sun that lit up the spring flowers like a rainbow.
THE END
xposted to arashirabu, mukae_ni_ikuyo, jent_fanfics, and heat_up_je
Pairing: MatsuJun/ Inoue Mao, Sakurai Sho/Horikita Maki, Aiba Masaki/Becky, Ohno Satoshi/Ishihara Satomi, Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko
Rating: R, for implied sexual situations
Summary: Desperate to see more happy marriages and babies born in their country, the Japanese government turns to beloved national super idols Arashi to lead the charge.
A/N: Originally written for nillahoney for the 2011 je_whiteday. So much fun to write, for serious. Please enjoy!
Since this story contains a number of heroines with whom readers may not be familiar, I've created this very basic
graphic to identify who is matched with who. If you don't recognize the names, you may know the faces!
Birth rate isn't the first thing that springs to mind when most people think of pop culture. Fashion trends, sure. Music fads, absolutely. But the number of babies born in a year? Not so much. Of course, it could be argued that certain pop cultural figures - Barry White and Marvin Gaye, for example - have a demonstrable effect on birth rates. The 1982 album sales of "Sexual Healing," for example, can be directly correlated to the birth dates of 30% of American babies born in 1983 (or so a little birdy told us).
But when it comes to a low birth rate, such as that afflicting the Japanese population in the early 21st century, pop culture may be the answer to the question that's frustrated so many in that country in recent years:
"How do we get the Japanese people to start having more BABIES?"
And then, because it's Japan,
"Preferably without involving Pokemon, because we've got plenty of those already."
---------
The place is a richly-furnished sitting room in a spacious but cozy B&B-style inn, nestled in the greenery of Chichibu Tama National Park. Normally the inn would be bustling with guests at this time on a Friday, but today it is almost empty save for ten very special customers. Ten very special customers who have connections to very deep pockets. It's not cheap to reserve an entire hotel for a weekend in the height of spring, even a relatively small one. These ten very special customers must be very special indeed.
They stand in equal lines of five, facing each other two by two. One line is comprised of five attractive young men; the other is five equally lovely young women. They stand silently for several minutes, just watching one another, until one of the men finally speaks...
~~~~~~~~~~
"Well, this is awkward," Nino said.
The statement was accompanied by a collective sigh of relief from the other nine people in the room. "I was beginning to think no one was going to talk at all," Becky noted. "Awkward is an understatement."
"We could have dinner?" Jun suggested. "The agency reserved this place, so the least we can do is enjoy ourselves."
"It's like a big group date, ne?" Aiba bounced a little on the balls of his feet, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. "We can hang out and try to woo each other."
Becky planted a hand on her hip and arched an eyebrow at him. "What's this 'each other' business? You're supposed to woo me, ne?"
"I don't mind a little mutual wooing." Mao smiled shyly as all eyes focused on her. "What?"
"But you've got Matsumoto Jun to woo you," Satomi pointed out. Jun blushed.
"I don't see why he should have all the fun." Mao grinned at Jun and batted her lashes. He laughed and held out his hand to her.
"Okay. Dinner, then wooing." He laced his fingers with Mao's. "Perhaps a little wooing over dinner. Let's be daring."
Sho stepped forward and held out his hand to the young woman across from him. "Maki-chan? Are you hungry?" He smiled.
Maki bypassed his hand and hugged his arm. "Not really," she murmured, smiling up into his eyes.
Nino made a face. "Guys? Can you wait until the rest of us have left the room before partaking of the eye sex please?" He turned his attention back to the woman across from him. "Yuriko-chan, want to eat?"
"Mm, hai." She hooked her arm through his and looked around with interest as they followed Jun and Mao. "This is a pretty place. Good for falling in love."
"I think that's the idea, ne?" He patted her hand. "But I'm so charming I could sweep you off your feet if we were shacked up in a cardboard box. Just saying."
"Carry me," Becky demanded, hands on her hips as she stared down Aiba.
"Eh? Nande?" he asked.
"Don't ask why, just do it."
"But what if you're heavy?"
She gaped at him. "Are you saying I'm fat?"
"What? No!" Aiba held up his hands to placate her. "But you're not as tiny as the people I usually carry."
"Who else have you been carrying?"
"Well, Nino mostly. He likes piggyback rides."
Becky sighed. "Fine. Then give me a piggyback ride. And if you dare tell me that I'm heavier than Nino, I'll kick you in the shin."
Aiba giggled and crouched down so she could climb onto his back. "You go pink in the cheeks when you're angry," he said as he hoisted her up and started to walk. "It's cute."
"Hmph." She rested her cheek against his hair. "Stop being sweet. It makes it hard to stay angry with you."
Ohno was avidly staring at Satomi, who was blushing bright red under the scrutiny. "Eh, Ohno-san?" she asked. "Is something wrong?" Her hand fluttered over her hair and then down to smooth her dress.
"I was just wondering why you agreed to come," he said simply. "We've never acted together, and we've only met a few times."
"But I've always thought Ohno-san was very kind," she said softly. "And very talented."
"Mm." He squinted at her a moment longer, then smiled and reached out to cup her elbow. "Let's go before Aiba eats all the food. He's like a vacuum."
She blushed redder but smiled and nodded. "Hai. That would be nice."
With everyone else gone, Maki and Sho had the room to themselves. "This is kind of weird," Sho murmured, smoothing her hair back from her eyes. "I'm sorry."
Maki shook her head. "We have a whole weekend together in a beautiful place, surrounded by friends and away from all the noise and troubles of the city." A luminous smile lit her face. "I think it's wonderful, Sho-kun."
The guilty weight on his shoulders eased a little bit, and Sho felt his smile widen. "Are you sure you're not hungry?" he asked conscientiously. "The agency kept on most of the hotel staff for the weekend, and they're supposed to make a really delicious strawberry shortcake."
Maki kissed his chin. "Can we get room service?" she asked coyly.
Sho swallowed as he gazed down into her innocent eyes. "Absolutely."
She kissed him again, this time at the corner of his mouth.
"Yay," she whispered.
------
"So, sex mascots," Yuriko mused as Nino passed her a platter of crudités.
"Marriage mascots," Nino corrected.
"But you're inspiring people to get married and have babies, ne? So sex mascots."
"No argument here. But 'marriage mascots' sounds nicer."
Yuriko helped herself to a celery stick. "Whose idea was it?"
Nino slung himself down on the porch swing beside her and bit into a baby carrot. "Some very stern looking gentlemen in boxy suits."
He raised his arm to settle around her shoulders as Yuriko stretched out beside him. She rested her head on his shoulder and propped her feet on the arm of the swing as they watched the sun set. "That sounds kind of strange," she mused, toying with her celery stick. "Creepy old men contemplating your sex life in some government office somewhere."
"That's what we said," Nino agreed. "But it's kind of understandable. We've shilled so many things for Japan already - tourism, Nintendo, smelly yet supposedly delicious food - that we've become the go-to guys for this stuff. So these government men in bad suits went to Johnny-san and said, 'We need Arashi to stop making textbooks about Japan and start making babies for Japan.'" He shrugged and stole another carrot from the platter on Yuriko's lap. "It's a little weird, but we all figured there aren't many other chances for us to find a nice girl and settle down, ne? Might as well try an omiai."
She looked up at him, celery stick tucked into the hollow of her cheek like a toothbrush. "What if we don't agree to marry any of you?" she asked, snapping off a bite of the celery.
Nino gave her a bright smile. "Eh? You don't want to marry Kurono-kun?"
She gazed at him, then reached up and pinched his nose.
"Oi!" He batted her hand away and cradled his abused nose.
"Conceited," she said, snuggling back into his shoulder so he couldn't see the pleased smile on her face.
------
"Red or white?"
"Red please." Mao smiled as Jun poured them both a glass of wine before taking the seat across from her at the small table. The intimate dining room was empty except for them, lit by a crackling fire in a rugged stone hearth and a plethora of taper candles.
"I'm a little surprised you agreed to go along with this," she said as Jun passed her a skewer to turn the meat on the grill between them.
"The marriage mascot thing?" he asked, and she nodded. "To be honest, I'm kind of surprised, too. A government-sanctioned omiai. It's not particularly romantic, ne?"
"Not really, no."
"Yet you accepted the invitation."
Mao blushed and helped herself to some meat. "I was intrigued. That doesn't mean I'm going to agree to marry you."
Jun grinned and bobbed his head. "Fair enough. Let's see how the weekend goes, ne?" He raised his glass.
"Deal." She raised her own wine and clinked the glasses together. "Kampai."
-----
"Operation Arashi Family Storm of Love and Marriage Go Go Go!!" Becky made a face as she surveyed the contents of the manila file folder Aiba had given her to peruse as they ate. "Let me guess. That name was your idea." She opened her mouth.
Aiba obediently popped a grape between her lips. "Everyone contributed," he clarified, taking a large bite of pear and leaning back on his elbow on the picnic blanket. The grassy hillside was spread out beneath them, hemmed by a dark fringe of trees beyond, all turned to shades of orange and scarlet by the last light of the sun. The picnic basket between them was flung open, revealing fruits and finger foods of every description (and probably pricey enough to give Nino a heart attack).
"I find it hard to believe that Matsujun would have contributed anything to a name that uses more than one exclamation point." Becky opened her mouth again, and this time Aiba fed her a fig. She bit it in half and chewed happily.
"He's the one who suggested the word 'Family,'" Aiba pointed out, eating the other half of the fig.
"Hmph." She rolled onto her stomach and leafed through the folder. "So what, you guys just sent out invitations to all the actresses you wanted to sleep with and waited to see which ones would bite?"
"No, the jimusho sent the invitations to female tarentos around our age," Aiba explained, peeling a banana. "Then they told us who expressed interest."
"That's totally weird."
"But we got to choose from all the people who responded; the ones we wanted to try to woo."
"That makes me feel like a lobster you picked out of a restaurant's fish tank." Becky frowned at him, then shrugged. "But you picked me, which proves you've got good taste."
"Nope."
"What do you mean, 'nope'?"
Aiba smiled up at the sky, which was already shading towards indigo above them. "You weren't my first choice."
"OI!" She scrambled across the blanket and straddled him, staring down into his face. "What do you MEAN I wasn't your first choice?" she demanded, arms crossed.
Aiba batted his lashes at her. "I asked Meisa Kuroki-san first, ne? But she was busy this weekend."
Becky gaped at him. "You... you...! How could...!?"
"Banana!"
"Eh- UMF!" Becky glared at him as he stuffed the banana into her mouth.
"Eat up, eat up!" Aiba trilled, grinning.
Becky's eyes bespoke imminent violence, then sparkled through "wicked" before melting into "seductive." Slowly and deliberately she bit through the soft fruit, watching Aiba's eyes glaze over and dilate as he watched. She made sure to take a little more of the banana into her mouth, moaning softly.
"Ooh," Aiba murmured, awe-struck. "You look really hot when you eat a banana, Becky-chan."
She smiled sweetly...
...then punched him in the shoulder. HARD.
"OW!"
"Mmf!" She swallowed and proceeded to pummel him with her fists. "Pervert! Sex-obsessed idiot! How dare you pick Meisa-chan before me! OOH! And quit LAUGHING! BAKA!"
---
"Are those two really going to be okay?" Satomi wondered anxiously as she peered down from her perch on the parlor's balcony railing. Aiba and Becky were wrestling on the grassy hillside below, and every now and then she could make out a little of what they were saying; it didn't sound very nice. "They don't seem to like each other very much."
"Aiba-chan and Becky have a weird relationship," Ohno admitted as he took a seat on the other end of the railing, leaning his back against the post rail and smiling fondly. "Daijoubu. They'll work it out."
Satomi blushed and shyly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. The diminutive leader of Arashi smelled spicy and sweet; kind of like cinnamon. The soft spring breeze was just strong enough to waft his scent towards her, and she had to fight the urge to lean forward and tuck her nose into the crook of his neck. Instead she settled for staring into her mango juice, imagining patterns in the ripples as they bounced off the sides of the glass.
Something soft brushed her cheek, accompanied by that spicy smell of cinnamon. She gasped and looked up, wide-eyed, to find Ohno leaning toward her, an arm extended. "What are you doing?" she asked, her heart racing.
"Is it okay?" he murmured, moving his hand downward. The soft, ticklish sensation moved along her cheek, and when she glanced out of the corner of her eye she discovered that he was drifting a dry paintbrush over her skin.
"H-hai," she stammered, and took a quick sip of her juice. "Um..."
"Satomi-chan has a lovely face," Ohno murmured, tracing the soft brush down the side of her neck.
"A...rigatou," she managed, grateful for the early evening darkness that masked her blush.
Ohno smiled. He really did have a wonderful smile. It crinkled his eyes and lit up his face. "May I draw you, Satomi-chan?" he asked.
"Eh?"
"We don't really know each other very well," he continued, as the sable hair brush ghosted over her collarbone and dipped into the hollow of her throat. "But if I draw you, I can show you what I see when I see you."
Satomi realized she was staring at him and forced herself to blink. "That... that sounds a little scary, actually," she murmured, looking out across the darkened landscape again. Becky and Aiba had packed up at some point, and now the grassy hillside was empty except for the sound of spring crickets.
"Why?"
"What if what you see isn't good?"
She was aware again of his warm smile, made even brighter against his tanned face. "You can draw me, too," he offered. "We can both draw what we see and compare. Will that make it a little less scary?"
"I've... never really drawn before, Ohno-san."
"That doesn't mean you can't start now." He stood up and held out his hand. "Ne?"
Satomi bit her lip, then nervously settled her hand in his. "Hai, okay," she murmured, smiling shyly as he helped her to her feet.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "I only see nice things when I look at you."
She blushed darker and bobbed her head, and barely noticed that he didn't let go of her hand as they walked side by side into the parlor.
-----
"Is it as good as advertised?" Sho murmured, kissing the corner of Maki's mouth and tasting sweet cream and tart berries. The sheets were slippery soft against his bare skin, but nothing was more alluring than the silky slide of Maki's legs. The air between the lovers was warm and humid, and Sho welcomed the slick rub of her belly against his.
"The shortcake or the company?" Maki teased, tilting her head to find his lips with her own.
"Both," he clarified, and kissed the tip of her nose.
"Sweet and wonderful." Her doe-like eyes twinkled. "And the cake is delicious, too."
Sho laughed softly. "Cheesy girl."
"You're the one who wants to marry me, goofy guy."
His expression softened as he stroked his fingers through her hair. "I do," he murmured. "I want you to marry me, Marina-chan."
Maki - Marina, Maki, his Ma'i-chan - leaned into his touch, pressing a soft kiss to his inner wrist. "Then ask me," she murmured.
Sho shook his head. "I want it to be perfect," he protested. "I want to get down on one knee on a street in Yokohama, with the Bay Bridge lit up in the background and everyone watching, and I want to say, 'Ma'i-chan, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?' And then you'll either tell me yes and kiss me, or nod your head and kiss me, or hug me tight and kiss me, and everyone will cheer and wish us well." He sighed and hugged her close, burying his face in the curve of her neck and breathing deeply.
"You seem pretty sure that I'm going to say yes," Maki observed, amused.
"You mean you might not?" He looked up anxiously.
Maki laughed softly, stroking the nape of his neck. "Baka." Her lips traced a gentle curve around the shell of his ear. "The only thing I need is you to ask me. That's all. That's perfection."
Sho closed his eyes and rested his head on her shoulder. "Is it all right to do it like this?" he asked. "Marriage, a family, children... Can we really do all of that just because some guy in a government office thinks it's a good idea?"
The cool sheets touched his shoulder blades as Maki eased him onto his back. "I think those government guys picked Arashi for this plan because they know Arashi are good men," she soothed, stretching out on top of him and crossing her arms on his chest. "Even if this is part of some special government mascot program, Arashi won't treat it like that. Arashi won't marry women they don't love. Arashi won't have children unless they know their children will be happy. Arashi will be good husbands and fathers." She brushed his hair back from his eyes and kissed his forehead.
"They wanted Arashi to be their marriage mascots because they wanted their mascots to be genuine," she murmured. "They knew Arashi could never be anything but genuine. This isn't a game to you; any of you." She smiled. "That's why all of us agreed to come. We trust you. I trust you, my Sho-tan."
Sho framed her face between his hands and kissed her tenderly. "It's not just Arashi, ne?" he reminded her. "You, Mao-chan, Becky-san... You're mascots, too, if you do this. Our children, too. Do you really want that?"
"You worry too much, my Sho-tan. I want you. Mascot or no mascot, we'd never get away from the paparazzi, ne? At least this way we can set a good example for others." She nuzzled his palm. "I can't wait to talk about my Sho-tan's cute snoring and snuggle fetish the next time I'm on Ousama no Brunch."
He squinted at her, his lips twitching in a sly smile. "You wouldn't dare."
"Wouldn't I?"
"Then I'll tell the Hey, Hey, Hey audience about how you like to watch Anpanman in your underwear on Saturday mornings."
"No you won't."
"Why not?"
"You'd get jealous of all those people thinking about me in my underwear."
He poked her in the cheek. "And you wouldn't be jealous of all those people thinking about me and my snuggle fetish? And it's not a fetish, by the way. It's a full-blown addiction."
"I stand corrected." Maki hummed thoughtfully. "Would I have a reason to be jealous? Do you snuggle random women when I'm not around?"
"Of course not!"
"Then let them have their little fantasies. I get the real thing." She squeezed his bicep appreciatively. "It's a lot better than anything my imagination could come up with."
Sho laughed. "Can you at least not talk about the snoring? It's embarrassing enough when the other members bring that up."
"You'll have to convince me it's in my best interest to leave that bit out of the story," Maki teased, walking her fingers up his chest to tickle under his chin.
"I will, huh?" Maki shrieked with laughter as he flipped them over until she was tucked beneath him on the bed. "Well, if you talk about the snoring, when you come home that night maybe I'll catch you in the genkan and tickle you right... HERE." His fingers wiggled under her arms.
"Sho!" she squealed, squirming beneath him. "I give! I give!"
"Do you really? Because I could also tickle... HERE!"
"SHO!"
"And maybe.... here..."
She gasped and arched her back as his hand eased between her legs. "Ohhh," she moaned. "I'm not ticklish there..."
"Oops." Sho kissed her. "Should I stop?"
"Don't you dare." She wrapped a leg around his waist and raised her hips. "Don't you dare ever stop."
----
"What do you think the others are doing?" Mao asked as she walked hand in hand with Jun through the sweetly perfumed tea garden that lay adjacent to the dining room. Deftly disguised lighting gave the garden a warm, romantic glow.
"Well, Nino and Yuriko-chan are probably hatching some nefarious plot to take over the world," Jun mused. "That's a dangerous combination, those two. And Aiba and Becky-chan are probably killing each other, but in a flirty way."
"That's possible?"
"I wouldn't put it past them."
"What about Ohno-san and Ishihara-san?"
Jun tilted his head to think about that. "I don't know," he admitted after a minute. "That's a pairing I wasn't expecting at all."
She leaned her head on his shoulder. "Ohno-san is a little odd sometimes," she commented. "But he's always been nice when I've seen him."
"He's nice," Jun agreed. "But he's a lot like a clam. He opens up sometimes, but only when he wants to. I don't know how that's going to work with Satomi, ne? She's very.... not shy. She's coy. They're going to be a tough combination."
Mao closed her eyes as his arm wrapped around her shoulders. "And Sakurai-san? What about him and Horikita-san?"
Jun chuckled. "I don't think we're going to see much of them before the weekend's over. Not so long as they can get room service."
She blushed. "Oh."
He sat down on a stone bench , one of several that lined the garden path, and gestured for her to join him.
She took a seat. "And what about us?"
Jun raised his eyebrows. "What about us?"
"What are we doing?"
"Is this a trick question?"
Mao leaned back, resting her palms on the edge of the bench and gazing up at the sky. Stars were just beginning to appear in the dark swath of evening blue above them.
"Do you remember what we said to each other after Hanadan Final?" she asked, her eyes tracing the starry outline of Cassiopeia on her throne.
Jun looked down at the toes of his fine leather shoes. "We said we were over," he murmured.
"Mmm. Do you remember why?"
"Why don't you remind me?" He scuffed his foot across the cobbled path, sending a loose pebble scuttling into the underbrush.
"Jun..."
A growl of frustration bubbled up his throat and he stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets and staring into the shadows. "No. Go ahead. Tell me."
Mao sighed and turned her gaze to him. "I was eighteen when we started Hanadan, Jun-kun," she murmured. "You were only twenty-two. We both agreed that we were too young to be forever, ne?"
"So we broke up," Jun snapped. "I know. I get it. And you've had boyfriends. I've had girlfriends. We tried other people, and you know what I realized? I don't want someone else." He glanced over his shoulder at her. "What about you?"
"Jun, it's not that easy."
"You accepted the invitation to come here this weekend. Why?"
"So we can talk."
He threw his hands in the air. "Jesus."
She frowned and stood up, hands planted on her hips. "See? This is what I'm talking about. Growing up isn't just about getting older, Jun. It's about acting like an adult, not a little boy throwing a tantrum."
He rounded on her. "A tantrum?"
She pushed up on her tiptoes until they were nose to nose. "Yes," she snapped. "A tantrum. You're upset because you can't just have what you want."
"I'm not a little boy, Mao."
"And I'm not a little girl who's going to be cowed by a looming man with bushy eyebrows, Jun."
"My eyebrows are not bushy!"
"Yes they are!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
"Are NOT!"
" ARE TOO!"
"Why are we FIGHTING!?"
"I can't remember, but I'm sure it's YOUR FAULT!"
They glared at each other for a few moments more, until Jun's harsh frown dissolved into an exasperated smile. "We're always going to be like this, aren't we?"
Mao sighed and slumped against his chest. "Yeah, probably," she mumbled.
"Fighting and making up and fighting some more."
"Yep."
"Ne." He touched her under the chin until she looked up at him. "Marry me," he murmured.
Mao stepped back and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I told you, it's not that easy."
"Yes it is."
"You think this is some kind of fairytale? Makino and Domyouji aren't real people, Jun-kun. We can't just pretend that we're going to live happily ever after like they did."
"I know that." He brushed a thumb across her cheek. "Married people fight. Married people have bad days. Married people get sick of each other. That's why I know I want to marry you."
She pouted at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Jun chuckled, pushing at the corners of her mouth to make her smile. "We fight, but we always make up," he explained. "We have bad days, but they're always followed by good ones. We get sick of each other, but we always end up together again, for better or worse. We're virtually married already. All we have to do is make it official."
Mao arched an eyebrow at him. "You get sick of me?"
"Absolutely."
"Why? I'm adorable."
"Well for one you're clearly vain if you openly admit you're adorable."
"Hmph." She shuffled closer to him, relaxing into his embrace as she rested her cheek on his chest. "You know the fansites would go crazy, right?"
"Yep."
"You're very calm about this."
Jun shrugged and looked up at the stars. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"What if I say no?"
"Are you going to?"
"....I hate you."
He snorted. "Right."
"I do."
"I'm rubber, you're glue. Words bounce off me and stick to you."
"God, you are so immature."
"Then marry me and make me grow up. Be my naggy, shrewish wife."
"OOH. I am not naggy! Or shrewish for that matter."
"So prove me wrong."
She leaned back and glared at him. "Are you seriously betting me into marrying you?"
He smirked. "Is it working?"
She squinted at him appraisingly for a long minute. Eventually the corners of her mouth tilted up. "Keep talking," she offered. "Let's find out."
-----
"Um, Yuriko-chan?" Nino peered over her shoulder. "Why are you reading a porn magazine?"
She was seated cross-legged on "their" bed, though it was actually just the bed that came with the room they'd been assigned for the weekend. Nino was prepared to spend most of the weekend in a futon on the floor. He and Yuriko weren't Maki and Sho, who were doubtless bumping uglies like bunnies in heat.
Not that Nino didn't want to knock boots with his lovely cohort. Especially now that he'd caught her perusing a copy of Bejean.
She glanced up at him. "Because I found it in your suitcase."
It took a lot to make Nino blush. Finding porn in his suitcase officially counted as "a lot" in his book of definitions. "Why were you in my suitcase?" he asked, uncomfortably aware of how hot his ears felt.
"I wanted to see if you brought condoms."
"...Okay..."
"Then I saw this magazine and wondered what kind of girl you liked." Yuriko pointed at the woman on the current page; a particularly busty AV actress with pouty lips. "This page was turned down on the corner, so I figured you must like women with big breasts and a bee-stung mouth." She frowned at him. "You know I don't have big breasts or big lips, Nino-kun. I'm never going to. Get used to it if you really want to be with me."
He blinked at her. "Uh... what?"
She shuffled around to face him as she knelt in the middle of the mattress. "I like you," she said simply. "You're sharp and sexy and funny and smart. Those are all important things that I want my husband to have. You're also dedicated - I want that, too. You brought a porn magazine to an omiai, which means you like sex." She shuffled closer to him. "I like sex, too."
Nino swallowed. "You... do, huh?" She didn't have large breasts or full lips, but Yuriko's eyes were hypnotic. He could disappear into those eyes.
"Mm-hmm." Her lips turned up in a kittenish smile and she laid her hands on his chest., hooking her fingers in the collar of his shirt and tugging him down to sit on the bed with her. "I think I might want to marry you, Nino-kun."
Nino's head was spinning. He'd started the weekend planning to court Yuriko, and maybe get a promise of an intimate dinner date by the time all was done. Now he was looking at potential marriage. He hadn't expected anything resembling sex this weekend, and now Yuriko was actually wiggling closer and sitting in his lap holyshitholyshitholy-
"You didn't bring any condoms, Nino-kun," Yuriko chastised.
"Eh?" Her round bottom was settled comfortably in his lap, just a hand's breadth from his crotch. That made it difficult to focus on things like words. "O-oh. Hai. I mean, no. No I didn't." Nino gave her an embarrassed smile, then realized what he was doing and covered with a smirk instead. "Should I have?"
"I'm not ready to have babies just yet," she explained. "So we need condoms if we're going to have sex."
"Oh…"
No condoms, no sex. All his nascent visions of steamy, slippery, potentially kinky sex began to crumble around his ears. But he was not going to cry. His life didn't revolve around sex, dammit. He wasn't Aiba.
He shook himself out of his thoughts when Yuriko's warm weight left his lap. "Eh, Yuriko-chan?" he called after her as she disappeared into the master bathroom. "Daijoubu?"
He was just about to go after her when she re-emerged. "I brought my own," she explained, dropping a handful of multicolored condoms on the bed beside him before straddling his lap and draping her arms over his shoulders.
Nino's heart swelled. "You brought condoms?" he choked. "I think I love you."
Yuriko grinned. "Sex now?"
"Yes please."
"You're so cute when you're horny." She puckered her lips curiously. "Does that mean you're horny all the time? Because you're cute all the time."
"You brought condoms and now you're stroking my ego? Spring for taxi fare to get back to the city and you're officially my soulmate."
She laughed. "You're a cheap date, Ninomiya."
Nino grinned. "Yes. Yes I am. It's part of my overwhelming charm."
Yuriko nipped his nose. "Conceited," she purred, catching his lips in a leisurely kiss before he could quip something else.
----
"Itai, itai, itai!"
"Oh quit whining, you big baby." Becky finished dabbing medicine onto Aiba's elbow and reached for an adhesive bandage. "This is what you get for trying to wrestle with me."
"You rolled me into a rock," Aiba pouted, hissing as she pressed a bandage over the angry red abrasion on his elbow. "That wasn't fair!"
"First, I didn't 'roll you into a rock.' The rock happened to be in the way in the direction we were rolling. Second, I don't know what you're whining about when I'm the one with a legitimate complaint here." She tossed the bandage wrapper in the waste basket and tucked the first aid kit back into the nightstand, then flopped onto her side on the bed and hugged a pillow.
"What are you talking about?" Aiba asked, poking at the bandage on his elbow. "Ow. Ow!"
"Don't poke it, idiot." She kicked him on the thigh and went back to sulking.
Aiba curled up on his side on the bed next to her. "Beeecky-chan. BEEEECKY-chaaaan." He poked her in the cheek and twirled a lock of her hair around his index finger. "What's wrong, Becky-chan?"
"Baka. Doesn't even know what's wrong…" She batted his hand away and hit him with her pillow.
"Hey!" He fended off the pillow attack. "What was that for?"
"You know, boys are stupid," Becky complained, rolling onto her back and hugging the pillow across her stomach as she stared at the ceiling. "I should have been a lesbian."
Aiba raised his eyebrows with interest. "Ne?"
"Pervert," she grumbled. She hit him a few more times with her pillow, but her heart clearly wasn't in it.
Aiba sat up and peered down at her. "What's wrong, Becky-chan?" he asked, genuinely concerned.
She turned her attention from an indiscriminate point on the ceiling and focused on his face. "How could you pick someone else before me?" she mumbled. "I feel completely stupid now."
"Why would that make you feel stupid?"
"Are you really that dumb? Do you think any girl likes knowing she wasn't the first choice?"
"I wasn't your first choice, was I?"
Becky frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Aiba tilted his head. "You wanted Matsujun, ne? Domyouji."
Becky blushed. "Don't be an idiot."
"It's what I'm best at." He shrugged. "But I'm right, ne?"
She slugged him in the stomach. "Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about."
"But I'm right."
Becky rolled into a sitting position and glared at him. "There's a difference between having a crush on a fictional character and wanting to marry the actor."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"So you don't mind that Matsujun is with Mao-chan?"
"Are you kidding? Makino and Tsukasa! It's a fangirl's dream!"
Aiba giggled. "That's what Jun-kun kept saying."
"Ne? So shut up with your stupid face, okay? I didn't want to come here this weekend with Matsujun. No, I'm here with you, God knows why. Sex-crazed idiot."
Aiba kissed her.
Becky gaped at him as he sat back and smiled. "What was that for?"
"I told you, you're cute when you get angry. You go all pink."
She tugged his hair in retaliation. "That's no reason to kiss someone out of the blue," she protested. "I don't appreciate being flustered."
"I like flustering you."
"Obviously."
"I didn't really choose Meisa-chan first."
"Because you're a sex mania- what?"
Aiba giggled, his familiar breathy laugh. "I said I didn't pick Meisa-chan. I lied about that."
"You... what? Why would you do that? And don't say it's because you like flustering me or I'll punch you in the nose."
"So violent."
"AIBA."
Fu, fu, fu! "I wanted to see your reaction. If you'd care."
"Of course I'd care!"
"You've never really shown any interest in me before, ne?"
She blushed. "So you were testing me?"
"Well, this is really special, ne? I just wanted to make sure you actually liked me. I like you, Becky-chan."
Her blush darkened. "Baka. What are you saying?"
Aiba grinned, then he jumped off the bed and darted to the French doors that led to the balcony.
"Where are you going!"
Aiba threw open the doors. "I LIKE BECKY-CHAN!" he bellowed into the night air, hands cupped around his mouth.
"AIBA!" Becky squealed, hiding under her pillow again. "Bakayaro!"
He grinned over his shoulder at her. "Isn't this what you wanted? You wanted to secretly date a celebrity, and then in the middle of the city you wanted him to stop and yell to the world that he's dating Becky-chan. Ne?"
"This isn't the city!"
"Well if you're embarrassed while I'm yelling this out to a big empty field and a deep forest, miles from the city, how would you handle it in the middle of Shibuya?"
This time she threw her pillow at him, and he caught it deftly out of the air and threw it back. "We're not even dating," she whined.
"Do you want to?"
"Date?"
"Hai."
"I... uh..."
Aiba grinned. "You're cute when you're speechless, too."
Becky glared at him. "Fine. I'll date you. There. Happy?"
"Yay! Becky, yay!" He bounded across the room and bounced onto the bed.
"ACK!" She scrambled to keep her seat. "Idiot, you almost bounced me right off- what are you doing?" This last was said in response to the way Aiba was stalking up the bed towards her, on his hands and knees, hair in his eyes like a lion's mane. "W...What...?"
He crawled over her and gazed down into her wide eyes. "Riida was right," he murmured. "You do have sunflowers in your eyes."
Her hand darted self-consciously towards her face. "Aiba-kun?"
He smiled, his honey-colored eyes sparkling behind the silky tumble of his hair. "Becky-chan was always my first choice," he whispered, as if imparting a secret.
"Honto desu ka?" Becky found that she was whispering in return.
"Mm-hmm." He bent his head until they were nose to nose and he could gaze into her eyes.
"Am I Becky-chan's first choice?" he murmured.
For a moment, pride warred with the butterflies in her stomach as she debated how to respond. In the end, the butterflies won. "Hai," she squeaked.
For years Becky had listened to other women on Tensai! rave on and on about Aiba's smile. How it was like a sunrise. Like a summer day in the mountains. Like scudding clouds across a windswept blue sky. Becky could appreciate a simile, but she'd always thought her colleagues were erring towards hyperbole with some of their descriptions of Aiba in general, and his smile in particular.
She definitely owed them an apology. His smile was a wonder of the modern world, especially when it was hovering so close to her face and - most importantly - he was smiling because of her. It made her toes curl in self-conscious glee.
"May I kiss you, Becky?"
The absence of the "-chan" was a blip on her radar screen. Aiba exuded heat like a blast furnace, and every inch of her that was within a few inches of him was steadily getting warmer. That included her lips, and her belly, and a choice few other places of an extremely intimate nature.
She shivered.
"Brush your teeth first," she managed to say. "Your breath smells like figs and mayonnaise."
"Yours smells like banana," Aiba crooned. "Mmm, Becky and banana. Sexy."
She blushed and poked him, but couldn't stop herself from grinning. "Pervert," she teased, then squealed when he kissed her back down to the pillow. She couldn't really argue with that.
---
"Oh... Oh …!" Maki cried out and planted her hands on Sho's chest as her orgasm crested. Her back arched. For a moment she was frozen in place before melting forward in a warm, sated puddle on Sho's chest.
His arms wrapped around her as his full lips brushed across her forehead. "That... will never get boring," he panted.
"Mmm..." She giggled dreamily and pressed soft, open mouth kisses to any of his skin she could reach. Her lips left butterfly-shaped prints on his sweat-damp skin, which set her off on a fresh flurry of giggles.
Sho squeezed her waist. "What are you laughing at?" he asked with a grin.
"Mmm, I don't know. I just feel like laughing, ne?" She managed to prop herself up on his chest, a lock of hair falling across her eyes. "You make me happy. That makes me smile, and smiling makes me laugh."
Sho reached up and tucked the errant tresses behind her ear, brushing his thumb across her cheek. "Then I guess I can't be offended, ne?" He grinned and raised his head to kiss her chin.
Maki nuzzled him lovingly. "So are you going to stop being a stick-in-the-mud and propose to me?" she asked, drawing a heart on his cheek with a delicate fingertip.
"Ma'i-chan," Sho whined. "We just had amazing sex. Do we have to have the engagement talk right now?"
"I'm just curious," she defended, innocence radiating from every pore.
"That is not your curious face," Sho argued, peering at her through narrowed eyes. "That's your devious face. You're planning something."
"What could I be planning?"
"I have no idea. That's what scares me."
"Pff. You're no fun."
"I am TONS of fun. I'm a veritable barrel of monkeys. I just get nervous when my lover starts plotting things that involve me." He nipped her lips. "Spill it."
Maki pouted for a few seconds, but it quickly morphed into a playful grin. She kissed him soundly, then crawled off his chest and leaned over the side of the bed to fish through her purse, which lay abandoned and upended on the floor under the nightstand. After a few moments of rifling through the contents, she let out a little whoop of victory and sat up, hiding whatever she'd found behind her back.
Sho frowned at her. "What's that?" he asked, hoisting himself into a sitting position and trying to peer over her shoulder.
"Uh, uh, uh." Maki clucked her tongue and planted her hand on his chest to hold him at bay. "It's a surprise."
"A surprise for what? My birthday isn't until January."
"You have to answer a question for me first. Then I'll show it to you."
Sho rolled his eyes good-naturedly and leaned back against the headboard. "Okay, okay. What's your question?"
Maki wiggled around to face him, holding the blankets up to cover her chest with one arm. "Are you going to ask me to marry you?"
"Ma'i-chan, I explained that already, ne? I want to propose to you properly."
"In Yokohama. On the street. Surrounded by strangers."
He frowned. "You make it sound like that's wrong."
She touched his cheek. "Gomen. I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just don't really understand how proposing like that is anymore proper than proposing here and now."
"Well there's more to it than that, ne? First and foremost I need to ask your parents' permission. And then there's the matter of a ring. I want to find you the perfect ring. I've got a few ideas, and I intend to enlist the help of some of my sempai to find a really dynamite jeweler-" He stopped speaking and blinked in confusion when she pressed a hand over his mouth.
"Sho-chan, you always plan three steps ahead," she said with a fond smile. "It's one of the things I love about you. But sometimes you need to be spontaneous, ne?" Her eyes sparkled as she brought her surprise out from around her back and held it up for him to see.
It was a little velvet box.
"Sakurai Sho," Maki intoned as she opened the box to reveal a simple band of white gold set with one large ruby, "will you marry me?"
Sho stared at the ring.
Then he stared at Maki.
Then back at the ring.
Then back at Maki.
"Are you... proposing to me?" he asked when he found his voice.
"Mm-hmm." She bobbed her head in the affirmative.
"But..."
"This way you can propose to me however and whenever you want," she explained gently. "But it also means that I get to leave her after this weekend and, when my mother asks me, I can say, 'I'm going to marry Sakurai Sho-san.'" She offered him the ring again. "So? Will you marry me, my Sho-tan?"
Sho stared at the ring.
He stared at Maki.
Then back at the ring.
Then back at Maki.
Then he smiled and said, "Yes."
---
The next morning, Satomi was the first in the dining room for breakfast. She absently sipped her tea as her hands traced over the portrait Ohno had given her the night before.
"Is this me?" she breathed as he laid the sheet of paper across her lap.
"Mmm, hai." Ohno crouched beside her as they both gazed at the picture. "This is what I see when I look at you, Satomi-chan."
An effusion of colors in every hue imaginable formed the background, whirling around the slender, pale figure seated in the center of the page. Long, flowing hair was dusted the faintest shade of lilac. Lips and cheeks were kissed with the palest rose pink. The eyes were downcast, focusing on one hand that cupped a palmful of liquid rainbow. It poured through slender white fingers, painting them rich, dark shades of primary red, blue and yellow.
"What does it mean?" Satomi murmured, brushing her fingers over the outline of the willowy figure that was meant to be her.
"When I look at you, I see a beautiful woman who wants to be someone for everyone, but doesn't know how," Ohno explained, his voice soft and warm. "I see a woman who worries that she's not really anyone's ideal. You're afraid of being hurt, but you want very badly for someone to see you. You're afraid you're invisible."
He touched her wrist. "You're not invisible, Satomi-chan," Ohno murmured. "The world wraps around you and makes you stand out." He smiled and chucked her gently under the chin. "Satomi-chan doesn't need to be everyone's perfect girl. Satomi-chan just needs to be her own perfect girl."
The memory was still fresh enough that she could smell the warm cinnamon scent of his cologne. It made her shiver and blush and giggle.
"Did Ohno-san draw that?" Satomi looked up sharply to see Becky leaning over the table to see the portrait.
"O..Oh. Hai." She quickly gathered up the artwork and held it close to her chest. She couldn't help feeling protective of the pale girl in the colorful picture.
Becky seemed to understand because she didn't press the issue. "Mind if I join you?" she asked.
"Oh! Yes, of course. Please. Please do."
Becky happily plunked herself down in the seat across from Satomi, gave her order to the waitress who seemed to appear out of thin air, then turned to the other young woman and said, "So? How'd it go?"
Satomi blinked at her. "Eh?"
"With Ohno-san. Did you have a nice time together?"
Satomi blushed. "Oh. Hai. He taught me a little about how to draw."
"Ehhh? Lucky! What did you draw?"
A small smile tickled her lips. "We drew each other," she answered. "Or... how we see each other." Saying it out loud was embarrassing, but she pressed on. "Ohno-san drew this for me."
"So that's how Riida sees you?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Uwaaa, that's so romantic!" Becky gushed.
Satomi felt a rush of gratitude for the other woman. She didn't feel so silly now, knowing that someone else was as taken by the gesture as she had been. "It is, isn't it?" she giggled. "Ohno-san is very sweet."
"So what did you draw? For Ohno's portrait."
"Oh." Her blush returned full force. "Um..."
Becky leaned conspiratorially across the table. "Was it something... dirty?" she whispered, eyes twinkling.
Satomi's eyes widened. "Eh!? No! No no no, nothing like that!"
"Then what did you draw?"
There was nothing for it. She sighed. "Cinnamon sticks."
Becky's confused expression was worth the blow to Satomi's pride. "Eh, cinnamon sticks? Why?"
"Because Ohno-san smells like cinnamon, ne?" Satomi and Becky both looked up as the new voice joined their chat.
"Good morning, Yoshitaka-san," Satomi said with a polite bob of her head.
Yuriko smiled and nodded in return. "Ohayo gozaimasu," she greeted them both. "Mind if I join you?"
"Ohno-san smells like cinnamon?" Becky asked as Yuriko sat down, nursing a cup of tea. "I hadn't noticed."
"Oh hai," Satomi said.
"It makes me hungry for waffles," Yuriko agreed.
"Waffles? Did someone mention waffles?" Mao appeared a moment later, eyebrows raised with interest. "Because I could go for waffles."
"I'm sure the staff can make some for you, ne?" Becky opined as Mao grabbed a chair from another table and joined them.
"If they're anything like their strawberry shortcake, I'll take that," Mao said with feeling.
A few minutes later, over a full breakfast of waffles, pancakes, fruit and yogurt, Becky asked, "So, how did we all do, ladies?"
"What do you mean?" Mao asked around a mouthful of waffle with whipped cream.
"Don't be coy with me, Mao-chan," Becky teased. "You and Matsujun. What happened?"
Mao blushed. "Oh. Um..."
"Sex," Yuriko said with a smile.
"Absolutely," Becky agreed. "You two had gorgeous sex, didn't you? Oh, LUCKY."
"We did not have sex last night," Mao protested, her ears burning a bright scarlet.
"You didn't?" Becky was scandalized. "Why not!"
"Because we were talking," Mao explained, focusing intently on her waffle. "We talked, and then we slept."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"You talked, then you slept?"
"In a nutshell."
"You must have done SOMETHING else, or you wouldn't be blushing like a fire hydrant."
Satomi smiled. "He proposed, ne?"
Mao hid her face in her hands and nodded.
"EH!? Makino and Domyouji, for real?" Becky clasped her hands over her heart. "A dream come true!"
"Oh God, this is so embarrassing," Mao groaned, slumping in her seat. "Every interview is going to go like that, you know? 'Makino and Domyouji, Together Again!'" She stuffed a strawberry in her mouth.
"Well if it makes any difference, the pair of you are adorable together," Becky soothed.
Mao smiled bashfully. "Arigatou."
"Nino and I had a lot of sex, but we're not getting married yet," Yuriko said, toying with a yogurt.
After a moment to recover from the blunt delivery, Satomi asked, "Yet?"
Yuriko smiled. "We decided we should probably date a bit first. Otherwise we just look desperate."
"Oh. Well, that's nice." Satomi smiled. "Omedetou, both of you."
Becky cleared her throat.
"Hmm?" Mao glanced at her. "Becky-chan?"
The tarento whistled a jaunty little tune, glancing around as if admiring the décor, and nonchalantly held up her right hand.
Satomi gasped as she ogled the bright diamond ring that flashed on Becky's hand. "EH? Aiba-san proposed?"
"And you said yes?" Mao exclaimed.
Becky frowned at them. "You don't have to make it sound like I suffered a traumatic brain injury."
"Oh, no, that's not-"
"We didn't mean-"
"It's not my fault he's an incorrigible idiot who just happens to be the sweetest human being alive," Becky grumbled.
"We never-
"I'm sure he-"
"I'd like to see any of you say no to him when he uses the Puppy Dog Pout," Becky went on. "It's physically impossible. Go ahead, ask the other Arashi guys. They'll back me up. When Aiba pulls out the Puppy Pout, it's not a matter of if you'll give in, it's just a matter of how long before you cave."
They waited to see if she was going to continue. When she didn't, Satomi spoke up. "I think you'll be super cute together, Becky-san," she said. "And you'll double Tensai's ratings!"
A pleased smile spread across Becky's lips. "Well, at least until Aiba gets himself eaten by a whale," she said. "It's just a matter of time really."
They all shared a laugh, and then the conversation turned to other things. The weather, the quality of the food, the thread count of the sheets in their rooms. Eventually Yuriko asked, "Where's Maki-san?"
Mao grinned. "Jun-kun said we probably won't see her OR Sho-san much all weekend. They're... indisposed."
"They are SO getting married," Becky said.
"SO getting married," Mao agreed.
"They'll probably be the first of all of us to have a baby, don't you think?"
"I know Sho-san didn't bring any condoms," Yuriko mused, nibbling an English muffin. When her statement was met with silence she looked up to find the other three women staring at her. "What?"
"How do you know that?" Satomi asked.
"I looked in his luggage."
"Um... why?"
"I thought it was Nino's."
"O...kay." Satomi debated if she wanted to know more, but then decided she probably didn't.
"Well, if Sho-chan didn't bring condoms and he and Maki-chan spend the whole weekend in bed, I think we can expect a little Sakurai in about nine months," Mao observed.
"Operation Arashi Family Storm of Love and Marriage Go Go Go!!, mission accomplished," Becky agreed.
"Operation what now?"
"Operation Arashi Family- You know, never mind."
"Becky-chan?" The quartet at the table turned en masse to look at the dining room entrance. A sleepy Aiba was standing there in his boxers, scrubbing a hand through his hair and scratching his stomach. "You comin' back to bed?"
Becky pinched the bridge of her nose. "Idiot. Put some PANTS on." She paused, then added, "I'll be right up."
"Mmm-kay." He waved sleepily to the other women. "Ohayo, minna-san." Then he shuffled away.
Becky blushed bright red as three sets of eyes focused on her. "You'll be right up, hmm?" Mao hummed.
"Back to bed, eh?" Yuriko added.
"Maybe there will be a little Becky-chan running around in nine months, ne?" Satomi giggled.
Becky groaned and stood up. "How many times do I have to say it? PUPPY. POUT. It's not my fault his wibble face is sexy as hell." She grabbed a plate of waffles, piled on some fruit, and picked up her glass of orange juice. "I'll see you ladies later." Moving with the gait of a woman who doesn't want to look too eager, she strutted out of the dining room.
"I should go wake Jun," Mao sighed. "He'll hate to waste the day, ne? But he's about as good at waking up as Aiba is at remembering to wear pants."
"Bring him waffles," Yuriko suggested. "Waffles make everything better."
"Excellent suggestion." Mao gathered a choice assortment of fruit, made sure the waffles on her plate were heaped with whipped cream, grabbed a couple of yogurts and one of the portable coffee pots, and bowed out.
"Are you going back to join Nino-san?" Satomi asked shyly.
Yuriko nodded. "Are you going back to Ohno?"
Satomi giggled. "We didn't sleep together. He slept on the couch."
"Ne?"
"But... he said he wants to take me fishing." She blushed, pleased. "Like a date."
Yuriko smiled. "Sato and Sato, ne? Satoshi and Satomi."
"Is that too cutesy?" Satomi worried.
"Do you think it is?"
Satomi was quiet for a moment as she turned the question over in her mind. "Noooo," she said eventually, drawing out the O-sound. "No, I don't think it is."
"Then it's not." Yuriko patted her hand and stood up. "Ohayo, Sato-chan."
Satomi smiled and waved. "Ohayo, Yuriko-chan."
She watched Yuriko stroll nonchalantly from the room, munching on an apple and twirling a banana in her other hand. When the other woman had gone, Satomi carefully cleared the area in front of herself, checked to make sure the place setting was clean, and set the portrait on the table again. Arashi's leader had signed it in the corner like a real piece of art.
She felt a surge of emotion and laid her hand over the pale figure in the center of the paper. She wondered what she would look like to Ohno after he'd taken her fishing. After they'd had their first dinner date. After she'd spent her first night at his apartment. She wondered if the pale girl in the picture would flesh out over time and take on colors of her own, or if she'd stay a pale ingenue.
Satomi smiled. Maybe by the time she found out that answer she'd be able to draw something more than two cinnamon sticks and title it "Ohno-san" to express what she saw when she saw him. Maybe by then she'd have enough of a handle on the whirl of emotions he inspired to be able to put them down on paper.
She sighed and stood up, tucking the portrait carefully into her shoulder bag. The couch had been deserted by the time she woke up that morning. Ohno had left a note to say he'd meet her down by the pond with a fishing pole and a pair of waders, and that she should wear the oldest clothes she could find. She hadn't brought any old clothes with her, so she'd settled for a pair of jeans, a sturdy cotton blouse and a wide-brimmed sunhat, and hoped they'd suffice. She'd never gone fishing before, but she was sure it was going to be messy.
Messy, but... fun.
As first dates went, a girl could do a lot worse than messy and fun.
Laughing softly she stepped out into the early morning sun that lit up the spring flowers like a rainbow.
THE END
xposted to arashirabu, mukae_ni_ikuyo, jent_fanfics, and heat_up_je