[multi-chapter] Remarkable [Ohmiya / Sakuraiba] [01]
Title: Remarkable - The Same Difference
Pairing: Ohmiya (Sakuraiba in later chapters)
Rating: PG-13 for the first chapters
Genre: alternative, angst, mystery
Summary: Ohno Satoshi - newly hired host in a men's club - was slowly losing his hopes for a better life. Then one day he met a mysterious customer and his whole being suddenly hoped that his life would take a turn for the better. But Ohno couldn't even imagine the consequences this no doubt important meeting would have.
Warning: AU (Alternative Universe), RPS (Real Person Slash)
Translator:
lady_alesha ♥
Beta: nanao253 ♥
A/N: Thank you for all those nice comments on my prologue! I'm soooooo happy that you like my story so far :D And has everyone heard about the new himitsu corners? Arashi!host!! I hope Ohno will be a host as well! I'm so curious watching him doing stuff like that XD
Prologue
Chapter 1
“Don’t you want to sit with me…?” were the words that suddenly tore Ohno Satoshi out of his trance. He had been too lost in his thoughts to notice that he had been standing there, staring at his customer, for quite a while now.
But Ninomiya didn’t seem to mind. He even smiled at him a little and waited for the host to react.
“H-hai,” was all he managed to say and sat down next to his new customer, his nervousness becoming worse. In order to hide the trembling of his hands, he wedged them between his knees. The distance between him and Ninomiya was big, too big, he knew, but his nerves and inner turmoil didn’t let him close it.
Silence stretched between them for a moment, Ohno didn’t even dare to look in the young man’s direction. What if he was still staring at him? What if he had come closer? What if he was about to complain like all his previous customers? Ohno swallowed. He knew that he had to say something, do something, anything. If not the next customer would be lodging a complaint with his boss and Ohno would lose his job; Sho’s efforts to get him the job would have been for nought.
Bolstering his courage with those thoughts, he forced himself to open his mouth: “Erm… Are … are you here often?” he asked quietly, hesitantly, but with a small smile on his lips.
“Hai, now and again, when I feel like it. Or when I don’t want to be alone,” the stranger answered promptly. Ohno was surprised that he sounded honest.
Before he could reply, Ninomiya lifted one of the glasses the host had brought with him and held it out to him. Ohno swallowed again and gave him a questioning look.
“Here you go, this will help with your nerves.” There was softness in his voice, as if he was indulging the host’s nervousness, as if he wanted to really take care of him. A small smile underlining his nice words, they really helped Ohno gain courage.
“Hai.”
He disentangled on of his hands and took the glass nervously. After shooting a quick glance at his customer, he took a small sip. That stuff didn’t taste all that bad.
‘Courage, Satoshi, courage!’ he repeated to himself and gulped down the remainder of his drink, hoping against hope that the alcohol would calm his nerves. But when his gaze wandered to his customer again, his nervousness came back full force.
Ninomiya watched, amused, then took his glass and emptied it in a few big gulps, just like Ohno before him.
Was Ohno making a fool of himself? His customer’s amused expression made him feel uncertain.
And then the silence set back in. Ohno only heard Ninomiya order two more tequilas from the waiter. His gaze no longer fixed on his customer, he racked his brain frantically for something to say. He had to talk about something or he wouldn’t have company anymore in a moment. Much less a job. But finding a suitable topic was hard; he knew that talking about family or private matters was out of the question in this line of work. But what else could he talk about?
“Ne, Satoshi-kun. How long have you been working here?”
And again he noticed that his new customer was different. Most customers would have complained about his silence a long time ago, or they would have hit on him, touched him with their dirty hands. But Ninomiya simply sat there, a polite, even friendly look without any hint of flirtation on his face. He sat in exactly the same place and hadn’t moved towards the host one bit, as if he accepted the distance… as if he respected it, even.
“Erm … not … not long.” His voice came out scratchy, a sign that he had once again been silent for too long. He cleared his throat awkwardly before opening his mouth again: “Only a few weeks.”
While he spoke those quiet, halting words, he had enough courage to look at the young man next to him for a moment, but it wasn’t long before he was staring at his knees again.
‘He knows that I haven’t been here long or he wouldn’t have asked. I’m too new for his tastes …,’ he suddenly thought. Maybe this was Ninomiya’s way of telling him that he wasn’t interested in him any longer, that he wanted another host.
This time the waiter stopped him from hanging onto his dismal thoughts by bringing the next round of drinks. Ohno chanced another look at his customer and used the time Ninomiya was preoccupied with the waiter to study the young man. As far as Ohno could see in the twilight, he was wearing nice clothes and modest jewellery adorned his skin. He looked really wealthy and acted as if he was already familiar with his surroundings. Ninomiya had to have a lot of money - maybe he was from a wealthy family? Ohno didn’t think he had earned that much money on his own, he looked much too young for that.
“Only a few weeks, yes?” his customer revived the topic, all the while taking the glasses and placing one of them in front of Ohno.
“I hope you like tequila. If not, order something else. Eat and drink as much as you like.” His friendly smile didn’t disappear when he placed the menu next to the glass. He reached for his own glass and emptied it in big gulps again. He seemed to be familiar with alcohol as well.
Ohno knew that he had to say something again. But even the young man’s friendliness wasn’t enough to dispel his nerves, because the host knew neither if it was an act nor what the correct answer was at this point.
“Te-tequila is good,” was the only thing he could think of. And then, in order to hide his lack of conversation skills, he quickly took the glass and swallowed some of the sweet liquid, as if to proof the truth of his words.
But unfortunately, he didn’t miss the way Ninomiya leaned back, sighing, while he did it.
The host shivered; fear that his customer was bored by him set in. He could think of no other explanation for his customer’s behaviour.
‘I’m just not cut out to be a host.’ That one sentence reverberated through his head louder and louder. No matter how nice, how different from the others, his customer was. Ohno Satoshi just wasn’t made for this job. And the young man’s sigh was proof of that.
“Can I ask how old you are?” Ninomiya’s gentle voice ripped him from his thoughts; thoughts that had nearly made him get up and leave the club.
“I’m twenty,” he answered quietly, “And you?”
Unsure if he was even allowed to ask this, he looked at his customer hesitantly. But it was his job to keep the conversation going and to make sure that there were no uncomfortable silences. He watched closely as Ninomiya leaned forward slowly, placed his elbows on the table in one fluid but quick motion and cupped his chin in his hands. The way he sat there was cute, the host thought, even though the thought was more than a little inappropriate at the time.
“Twenty? That’s really young! And then to be doing a job like this…” Ninomiya looked faintly surprised and couldn’t quite keep the surprise from showing in his voice, too. Ohno didn’t know what caused his surprise at this moment, the fact that he was only twenty, or that he had asked a question that might be unacceptable? His customer’s age was really none of his business.
“Hm … how old do you think I am?”
The host swallowed convulsively. He wasn’t good at guessing at all. On top of that, a wrong answer could seriously displease his customer. But he looked young, really young. How wrong could he really be?
‘You can’t hesitate too long,’ he thought urgently while he looked the young man up and down. He took a deep breath, betraying his unease, before he finally dared to reply:
“Twen … Twenty-four?”
Ohno didn’t dare to look away from Ninomiya’s face, for the first time he was really looking at him. Even after he had guessed the amused smile stayed on the young man’s lips. He really had never had a customer who was this patient with him.
“Close enough, yes…”
Silence. Ohno now had no further ideas what he could say, what he could ask. And he didn’t know how much longer Ninomiya’s patience would last. His gaze automatically went past his really young customer to another table, at which host and customer were kissing demandingly.
That’s how it should be.
“But how do you get a job like this at such an age, Satoshi-kun?”
Ohno hadn’t noticed, that Ninomiya’s gaze had followed his own, only when he looked at him again in surprise did he notice what his customer was looking at. There was something strange hidden in the young man’s eyes, something the host couldn’t explain. But before he could get lost in trying to explain what he had seen, he hurried to answer the question.
“I got the job through a friend of mine. It’s a good job!” he answered firmly. He had to answer every question about his job like that, he had had to learn that on his very first day. That was rule number one - you had to be sure about what you did. That also meant his position as a host.
Ninomiya’s bemused grin vanished, leaving behind a gentle look.
“Yes, it really is a good job. But the first few weeks are never the easiest, are they? But it’ll be ok … once you lose your nervousness,” he said the words, that Sho had said to him on his first day already, in a calm tone of voice.
But Ohno suddenly forced himself to remember: This wasn’t Sho! This was a customer! His customer! One of the men who were here to amuse themselves with the hosts, to satisfy their needs, most often because their wifes weren’t enough for them anymore, or because they just wanted to forget a stressful day. But customers didn’t encourage their hosts, they didn’t act this way around them! Why was Ninomiya here in the first place?
‘Maybe he really just doesn’t want to be alone,’ Ohno thought while he took his eyes off the young man again and stared at his own hands, lost in thought.
“Do you want something to eat?” Ohno hadn’t even noticed that Ninomiya had taken the menu, but he had apparently been studying it for a few minutes now - had Ohno forgotten the time again while he had been lost in his thoughts?
“What…? Do I want something to eat?” He could only repeat what his customer had said, surprised. That was wrong! A customer didn’t ask something like that, a customer simply ordered and, if he was feeling generous, ordered the host to eat with him! Ohno could only swallow when Ninomiya held the menu out to him. Was he really meant to choose something now?
“Maybe … this,” he said after a moment of hesitation and pointed to the smallest and cheapest meal he could see without taking a closer look. It might have been his job to exploit the man, but he hadn’t wanted to go that far from the beginning. Especially not with this customer, who had been nothing but nice to him so far.
“Hmm… not hungry?” Ninomiya asked with curiosity colouring his voice and the look he send Ohno was as astonished as his voice. But what had he been expecting? Did Ohno look that thin and hungry? He sure hoped he didn’t!
The host shook his head quickly and forced himself to smile.
“I already had something to eat.” It was the truth, but he meant only his small, or rather tiny, breakfast. He couldn’t understand his reasons for not taking the chance to order an extra large portion of good food right now.
Maybe it really was because the young man was so different from the others; maybe it was because he was nice, patient and calm. Ohno couldn’t be sure.
The tension lessened slowly when the food was served. At least now Ohno didn’t have the feeling that he had to keep the conversation going. But a new kind of tension took hold of him when he realised that Ninomiya had ordered a bottle of wine with their food. It was, of course, part of a host’s job to pour the wine!
So he quickly stood up and reached for the bottle, a nervous smile on his face. Last time he hadn’t been able to open the bottle and thus angered his customer considerably, who had then left in a bad mood. He hadn’t received his wages that night.
Ohno swallowed convulsively and looked to Ninomiya quickly, his agitation getting worse by the second.
But the bottle was opened easily. He exhaled noisily and relaxed a little, but his hands were still shaking when he tilted the heavy bottle in order to pour the wine. And then it happened, faster than he could see.
The bottle slipped off the rim of the wine glass, the quiet sound of a falling glass could be heard and the red liquid splashed onto his customer’s coat.
The young host’s face froze in a horrified mask.
“Damn!” was the only thing he could get out in his panic. He quickly put down the bottle and reached for a napkin.
“I … I’m so sorry!”
Quickly he started dabbing at the red wine stains, but they only got bigger. Cold sweat ran down his back when he saw that he was only making things worse. He had ruined his customer’s clothes! It was all over now! Now he would definitely lose his job!
“I d-didn’t mean to …!”
Silence reined between the two young men for a second, Ohno looking at his customer desperately, while he looked back at him startled.
And then Ninomiya started chuckling.
to be continued
next chapter
Pairing: Ohmiya (Sakuraiba in later chapters)
Rating: PG-13 for the first chapters
Genre: alternative, angst, mystery
Summary: Ohno Satoshi - newly hired host in a men's club - was slowly losing his hopes for a better life. Then one day he met a mysterious customer and his whole being suddenly hoped that his life would take a turn for the better. But Ohno couldn't even imagine the consequences this no doubt important meeting would have.
Warning: AU (Alternative Universe), RPS (Real Person Slash)
Translator:
lady_alesha ♥
Beta: nanao253 ♥
A/N: Thank you for all those nice comments on my prologue! I'm soooooo happy that you like my story so far :D And has everyone heard about the new himitsu corners? Arashi!host!! I hope Ohno will be a host as well! I'm so curious watching him doing stuff like that XD
Prologue
Chapter 1
“Don’t you want to sit with me…?” were the words that suddenly tore Ohno Satoshi out of his trance. He had been too lost in his thoughts to notice that he had been standing there, staring at his customer, for quite a while now.
But Ninomiya didn’t seem to mind. He even smiled at him a little and waited for the host to react.
“H-hai,” was all he managed to say and sat down next to his new customer, his nervousness becoming worse. In order to hide the trembling of his hands, he wedged them between his knees. The distance between him and Ninomiya was big, too big, he knew, but his nerves and inner turmoil didn’t let him close it.
Silence stretched between them for a moment, Ohno didn’t even dare to look in the young man’s direction. What if he was still staring at him? What if he had come closer? What if he was about to complain like all his previous customers? Ohno swallowed. He knew that he had to say something, do something, anything. If not the next customer would be lodging a complaint with his boss and Ohno would lose his job; Sho’s efforts to get him the job would have been for nought.
Bolstering his courage with those thoughts, he forced himself to open his mouth: “Erm… Are … are you here often?” he asked quietly, hesitantly, but with a small smile on his lips.
“Hai, now and again, when I feel like it. Or when I don’t want to be alone,” the stranger answered promptly. Ohno was surprised that he sounded honest.
Before he could reply, Ninomiya lifted one of the glasses the host had brought with him and held it out to him. Ohno swallowed again and gave him a questioning look.
“Here you go, this will help with your nerves.” There was softness in his voice, as if he was indulging the host’s nervousness, as if he wanted to really take care of him. A small smile underlining his nice words, they really helped Ohno gain courage.
“Hai.”
He disentangled on of his hands and took the glass nervously. After shooting a quick glance at his customer, he took a small sip. That stuff didn’t taste all that bad.
‘Courage, Satoshi, courage!’ he repeated to himself and gulped down the remainder of his drink, hoping against hope that the alcohol would calm his nerves. But when his gaze wandered to his customer again, his nervousness came back full force.
Ninomiya watched, amused, then took his glass and emptied it in a few big gulps, just like Ohno before him.
Was Ohno making a fool of himself? His customer’s amused expression made him feel uncertain.
And then the silence set back in. Ohno only heard Ninomiya order two more tequilas from the waiter. His gaze no longer fixed on his customer, he racked his brain frantically for something to say. He had to talk about something or he wouldn’t have company anymore in a moment. Much less a job. But finding a suitable topic was hard; he knew that talking about family or private matters was out of the question in this line of work. But what else could he talk about?
“Ne, Satoshi-kun. How long have you been working here?”
And again he noticed that his new customer was different. Most customers would have complained about his silence a long time ago, or they would have hit on him, touched him with their dirty hands. But Ninomiya simply sat there, a polite, even friendly look without any hint of flirtation on his face. He sat in exactly the same place and hadn’t moved towards the host one bit, as if he accepted the distance… as if he respected it, even.
“Erm … not … not long.” His voice came out scratchy, a sign that he had once again been silent for too long. He cleared his throat awkwardly before opening his mouth again: “Only a few weeks.”
While he spoke those quiet, halting words, he had enough courage to look at the young man next to him for a moment, but it wasn’t long before he was staring at his knees again.
‘He knows that I haven’t been here long or he wouldn’t have asked. I’m too new for his tastes …,’ he suddenly thought. Maybe this was Ninomiya’s way of telling him that he wasn’t interested in him any longer, that he wanted another host.
This time the waiter stopped him from hanging onto his dismal thoughts by bringing the next round of drinks. Ohno chanced another look at his customer and used the time Ninomiya was preoccupied with the waiter to study the young man. As far as Ohno could see in the twilight, he was wearing nice clothes and modest jewellery adorned his skin. He looked really wealthy and acted as if he was already familiar with his surroundings. Ninomiya had to have a lot of money - maybe he was from a wealthy family? Ohno didn’t think he had earned that much money on his own, he looked much too young for that.
“Only a few weeks, yes?” his customer revived the topic, all the while taking the glasses and placing one of them in front of Ohno.
“I hope you like tequila. If not, order something else. Eat and drink as much as you like.” His friendly smile didn’t disappear when he placed the menu next to the glass. He reached for his own glass and emptied it in big gulps again. He seemed to be familiar with alcohol as well.
Ohno knew that he had to say something again. But even the young man’s friendliness wasn’t enough to dispel his nerves, because the host knew neither if it was an act nor what the correct answer was at this point.
“Te-tequila is good,” was the only thing he could think of. And then, in order to hide his lack of conversation skills, he quickly took the glass and swallowed some of the sweet liquid, as if to proof the truth of his words.
But unfortunately, he didn’t miss the way Ninomiya leaned back, sighing, while he did it.
The host shivered; fear that his customer was bored by him set in. He could think of no other explanation for his customer’s behaviour.
‘I’m just not cut out to be a host.’ That one sentence reverberated through his head louder and louder. No matter how nice, how different from the others, his customer was. Ohno Satoshi just wasn’t made for this job. And the young man’s sigh was proof of that.
“Can I ask how old you are?” Ninomiya’s gentle voice ripped him from his thoughts; thoughts that had nearly made him get up and leave the club.
“I’m twenty,” he answered quietly, “And you?”
Unsure if he was even allowed to ask this, he looked at his customer hesitantly. But it was his job to keep the conversation going and to make sure that there were no uncomfortable silences. He watched closely as Ninomiya leaned forward slowly, placed his elbows on the table in one fluid but quick motion and cupped his chin in his hands. The way he sat there was cute, the host thought, even though the thought was more than a little inappropriate at the time.
“Twenty? That’s really young! And then to be doing a job like this…” Ninomiya looked faintly surprised and couldn’t quite keep the surprise from showing in his voice, too. Ohno didn’t know what caused his surprise at this moment, the fact that he was only twenty, or that he had asked a question that might be unacceptable? His customer’s age was really none of his business.
“Hm … how old do you think I am?”
The host swallowed convulsively. He wasn’t good at guessing at all. On top of that, a wrong answer could seriously displease his customer. But he looked young, really young. How wrong could he really be?
‘You can’t hesitate too long,’ he thought urgently while he looked the young man up and down. He took a deep breath, betraying his unease, before he finally dared to reply:
“Twen … Twenty-four?”
Ohno didn’t dare to look away from Ninomiya’s face, for the first time he was really looking at him. Even after he had guessed the amused smile stayed on the young man’s lips. He really had never had a customer who was this patient with him.
“Close enough, yes…”
Silence. Ohno now had no further ideas what he could say, what he could ask. And he didn’t know how much longer Ninomiya’s patience would last. His gaze automatically went past his really young customer to another table, at which host and customer were kissing demandingly.
That’s how it should be.
“But how do you get a job like this at such an age, Satoshi-kun?”
Ohno hadn’t noticed, that Ninomiya’s gaze had followed his own, only when he looked at him again in surprise did he notice what his customer was looking at. There was something strange hidden in the young man’s eyes, something the host couldn’t explain. But before he could get lost in trying to explain what he had seen, he hurried to answer the question.
“I got the job through a friend of mine. It’s a good job!” he answered firmly. He had to answer every question about his job like that, he had had to learn that on his very first day. That was rule number one - you had to be sure about what you did. That also meant his position as a host.
Ninomiya’s bemused grin vanished, leaving behind a gentle look.
“Yes, it really is a good job. But the first few weeks are never the easiest, are they? But it’ll be ok … once you lose your nervousness,” he said the words, that Sho had said to him on his first day already, in a calm tone of voice.
But Ohno suddenly forced himself to remember: This wasn’t Sho! This was a customer! His customer! One of the men who were here to amuse themselves with the hosts, to satisfy their needs, most often because their wifes weren’t enough for them anymore, or because they just wanted to forget a stressful day. But customers didn’t encourage their hosts, they didn’t act this way around them! Why was Ninomiya here in the first place?
‘Maybe he really just doesn’t want to be alone,’ Ohno thought while he took his eyes off the young man again and stared at his own hands, lost in thought.
“Do you want something to eat?” Ohno hadn’t even noticed that Ninomiya had taken the menu, but he had apparently been studying it for a few minutes now - had Ohno forgotten the time again while he had been lost in his thoughts?
“What…? Do I want something to eat?” He could only repeat what his customer had said, surprised. That was wrong! A customer didn’t ask something like that, a customer simply ordered and, if he was feeling generous, ordered the host to eat with him! Ohno could only swallow when Ninomiya held the menu out to him. Was he really meant to choose something now?
“Maybe … this,” he said after a moment of hesitation and pointed to the smallest and cheapest meal he could see without taking a closer look. It might have been his job to exploit the man, but he hadn’t wanted to go that far from the beginning. Especially not with this customer, who had been nothing but nice to him so far.
“Hmm… not hungry?” Ninomiya asked with curiosity colouring his voice and the look he send Ohno was as astonished as his voice. But what had he been expecting? Did Ohno look that thin and hungry? He sure hoped he didn’t!
The host shook his head quickly and forced himself to smile.
“I already had something to eat.” It was the truth, but he meant only his small, or rather tiny, breakfast. He couldn’t understand his reasons for not taking the chance to order an extra large portion of good food right now.
Maybe it really was because the young man was so different from the others; maybe it was because he was nice, patient and calm. Ohno couldn’t be sure.
The tension lessened slowly when the food was served. At least now Ohno didn’t have the feeling that he had to keep the conversation going. But a new kind of tension took hold of him when he realised that Ninomiya had ordered a bottle of wine with their food. It was, of course, part of a host’s job to pour the wine!
So he quickly stood up and reached for the bottle, a nervous smile on his face. Last time he hadn’t been able to open the bottle and thus angered his customer considerably, who had then left in a bad mood. He hadn’t received his wages that night.
Ohno swallowed convulsively and looked to Ninomiya quickly, his agitation getting worse by the second.
But the bottle was opened easily. He exhaled noisily and relaxed a little, but his hands were still shaking when he tilted the heavy bottle in order to pour the wine. And then it happened, faster than he could see.
The bottle slipped off the rim of the wine glass, the quiet sound of a falling glass could be heard and the red liquid splashed onto his customer’s coat.
The young host’s face froze in a horrified mask.
“Damn!” was the only thing he could get out in his panic. He quickly put down the bottle and reached for a napkin.
“I … I’m so sorry!”
Quickly he started dabbing at the red wine stains, but they only got bigger. Cold sweat ran down his back when he saw that he was only making things worse. He had ruined his customer’s clothes! It was all over now! Now he would definitely lose his job!
“I d-didn’t mean to …!”
Silence reined between the two young men for a second, Ohno looking at his customer desperately, while he looked back at him startled.
And then Ninomiya started chuckling.
to be continued
next chapter