fic for silver_crystall
For: silver_crystall
From: lysanderpuck
Title: Vanishing Gravity
Pairing/Focus: Aimiya (also includes background Sakumoto and some Tennen)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Auto-fellatio. Also, Aiba is an alien.
Summary: Aiba comes crashing into Nino’s life from Andromeda.
Notes: For silver_crystall, I am so incredibly sorry this is so weird. I hope you enjoy it, though?
All of my love to R, who was my storyboarder and beta, and without whom this fic would not even begin to exist. You’ll get yours. Special thanks to K, who suggested this only to piss me off and ended up creating a 7k word monster.
Most especially, thanks to Arashi for coming out with a song called Intergalactic after I already started writing Aiba being an alien from Andromeda (it’s mentioned in the song. It’s like they know, you guys.)
Thursday (the first day of the rest of his life):
Nino ran out of his house, tie askew and briefcase loosely shut, still swallowing the instant coffee he managed to gulp down after he noticed the time. He ran on auto-pilot, his feet knowing the way out the door and down the driveway, but then he almost ran face-first into the spaceship.
“What the hell is this?” he narrowed his eyes, ignoring the briefcase that had gone flying when he dodged to save himself a broken nose, scattering papers all over the asphalt. It didn’t look like the typical UFO space Frisbee normally shown at 1000x magnification on TV and in fuzzy pictures in books; it was silver and low to the ground, boxy and balancing on four small wheels. But the sheen to its mirrored walls simply felt alien - it looked greasy, like the apple-scented hair gel Sho liked to wear sometimes.
Speaking of Sho - Nino pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. Sho wasn’t his direct superior, but he was in charge of the marketing team that Nino was currently working with. Sho was rather lenient when it came to Nino, allowing him to play games on his phone during their team meetings, but he definitely did not tolerate tardiness.
From: Nino
Message: gonna be late, there’s an alien at my door
7:00 AM, 5/14/13
He attached a photo and as he pressed send, a small door slid open. Nino froze, his phone still open in his hand. His vague mental picture of an alien involved only three fingers and eyes bigger than his face, but a person stepped out. His hair was brown and frizzy and his limbs seemed too long for his body.
“If you’re going to do some sort of high school science experiment,” Nino growled, “can you do it on your own fucking property? I’m late for work because of you!”
The man glanced around, taking in Nino’s small house and the neighborhood. He looked around long enough that Nino took a step towards him, balling up his fist, but then the man grinned brightly. Nino had to stop himself from stepping backwards at that smile - it was like the full moon lighting up the night sky.
He took out a device that looked rather like a toddler’s toy, flat and square and covered in large, bright buttons that shimmered in the sun. Nino watched him press a few of them, blinking up when the man said, “Ah, Japanese? That’s a weird name for a language. Nice to meet you!”
“You’re joking, right?” Nino said flatly.
“I’m…” the man squinted down at the machine in his hands, then shrugged. “You can call me Aiba! Earth seems pretty great, I like how warm it is.”
“Get off my property and take whatever that thing is with you,” Nino flapped his hands at this Aiba, trying to push him out without actually touching him. “Or I’ll call the police.”
“Well, I can’t really move it right now,” Aiba said, glancing at his spaceship. “It needs to cool down before I can warm it up again. It’s an old model! A classic!”
“I don’t care what it is. How long will it take to cool down? I really don’t want to leave you on my doorstep,” Nino grumbled, finally picking up his briefcase. He stared at the papers scattered all over the asphalt; none of them were particularly important, but he could already hear his landlord Haruka throwing a fit over the mess. He sighed and started picking them up as Aiba pressed a few buttons on his gadget.
Aiba concentrated on his machine, tilting his head as the screen changed colors, then smiled with half-moon eyes at Nino. “I can turn it on in...a week. Is that too long?”
“Yes, it’s too long!” Nino yelped, then started smacking at Aiba with his briefcase. “Go away!”
Aiba pushed against Nino’s briefcase, blocking it with his hands. “Sorry, I can’t. Can I just stay here for the week? I promise I won’t ruin your planet, I’m just here to look around and experience new things! My mother always said it’s a good thing to explore the universe before I go back and settle down and have lots of babies.”
“Alien babies who probably will grow up to invade us,” Nino replied, still trying to hit Aiba all the way off his driveway. “If you don’t leave now, I’ll report you to JAXA and then they’ll do terrible experiments on you to figure out what you are.”
“Oh, well, that’s easy,” Aiba said with a shrug. “I’m from a planet in…I think you call it Andromeda? I guess it’s kinda far. But I’m a carbon-based life form just like you! Now can I stay with you?”
“No,” Nino said firmly, ignoring his ringing phone. “What if you eat drywall? I can’t come back to a house half-eaten. Find somewhere else to stay.”
Aiba looked glumly from his spaceship and back to Nino. Nino stared at him, his phone ringing continuously in his pocket, the vibrations against his thigh reminding him how annoyed Sho must have been. “God, fine. I can’t leave you here, but you’re coming with me where I can keep an eye on you.”
Nino looked away when Aiba smiled at him again, frowning at the way he wanted to smile back. “Great! Where are you going? What’s that you’re carrying? Why do you have something tied around your neck, is it for easy strangling?”
“And no questions,” Nino added, starting to walk down his driveway.
-----
“Just pretend it’s Take Your Children to Work Day, okay?” Nino said to Sho when he walked in, the alien named Aiba in tow.
Sho’s face turned red and he spluttered as he spit out his words. “Nino, what the hell. First you send me a picture of some box as an excuse for being late and then you bring a friend to work? What is going on?”
“I’m Aiba!” he stepped right into Sho’s face, wide smile first. Sho took a few steps back to get away from him, his eyes round and his hands held up in front of his chest.
“I’m not kidding when I say he showed up on my driveway, claimed he’s an alien, and tried to make me leave him in my house alone. I should have called the cops,” Nino grumbled, leading the way into Sho’s office and throwing himself into Sho’s ergonomic spinning chair.
“Why didn’t you?” Sho questioned as Aiba poked around the office, the strange device back in his hands. Sho and Nino watched silently as he held it up to one of the bookshelves before making a noise of understanding and nodding slowly.
“And what is that?” Nino would have preferred that Aiba had never shown up at all, or at least had the decency to park his spaceship outside of Nino’s gates, he had to admit that the vexed look on Sho’s face as he pointed towards Aiba’s gadget was funny enough to make up for it.
“I don’t know. A translator or a dictionary or something. He says he’s from Andromeda. I don’t know why I didn’t call the police,” Nino replied, spinning around in Sho’s chair. “If I just left him there, he might have broken into my house.”
“Do you need me to call the police for you, Nino?” Sho said quietly, frowning as Aiba poked a cushion on the sofa Sho kept in his office for his frequent late nights.
“I’m okay,” Nino rubbed his face. “He’d probably get eaten alive in prison.”
“Nino, he says he’s an alien,” Sho emphasized, “and he’s going around like he’s never seen any of this before. What if he’s escaped from an institution?”
“This is so soft!” Aiba exclaimed, picking up the cushion and rubbing it against his face. “I’ve never felt anything like this!”
“He’s kinda cute, like a dog,” Nino admitted. “Maybe he belongs to someone.”
“He is kind of cute,” Sho mused, then shook his head. “He can’t stay in your house, Nino. What if he’s a serial killer?”
Nino opened his mouth to respond, but Ohno walked in and interrupted his train of thought. Ohno was a photographer with their advertising firm, the one Nino always picked to be on his marketing team. “Jun hasn’t shown up yet,” Ohno reported sleepily, “and I think Toma wants the copies before lunch.”
“The fact that you let Jun come in when he feels like it but I have to be here precisely at eight is discrimination, Sho-chan,” Nino whined, poking Sho in the butt with his foot. “I can report you for fraternization with your employee.”
“I do not let him come in when he feels like it,” Sho replied loudly, wiping Nino’s footprints off his pants. “I leave him in bed if he’s going to make me late because he’s old enough to take care of himself.”
“Oh. Is he the new model?” Ohno calmly pointed to Aiba, who was sniffing his shoulder.
“He is now,” Nino replied, beginning to spin again. “Take him away, Oh-chan.”
-----
“What the hell,” Sho breathed out as he, Nino, and Toma sifted through the copies of the photos Ohno had taken.
“Good to know, aliens are fucking beautiful,” Nino groaned. Aiba was posing on a dark shaggy rug, staring up at the camera with a smoldering look in his eyes, draped in nothing but strings of jewels. The tagline for their cologne was “you don’t need anything else,” and Nino almost believed it.
“Ohno-kun said it took him forever to get him to understand what was going on,” Toma said, “but he’s a natural.”
“Jun-kun’s going to be so mad he’s fired,” Nino laughed, burying his face in his hands.
Aiba was going home with him no matter what, but whenever he closed his eyes, the expression on Aiba’s face in the photos - and his body - was burned into the backs of his eyelids.
“What do you mean I’m fired?” a grumpy voice said from behind them, and Sho spun around to face Jun so fast he almost fell over.
“Look at these! Look! The concept was supposed to be a joke, but now…” Sho handed over the photos to Jun, who looked at them silently.
They waited as Jun flipped through the pictures, Nino fidgeting with the volume buttons on his phone in his pocket. “Fine,” Jun finally said, “this will be good.”
“That was quick of you, Matsumoto,” Nino said, watching Jun’s eyebrow twitch. “Not like you to give up.”
Jun scoffed, handing the photos back to Toma. “I’m not giving up. He’s good and you took the photos already. You were only going to use me as the model because you have no budget for a professional, anyway.” Jun sat on Sho’s couch, crossing his long legs. “This way I can focus on the Fasio account. He’s more suited to the Kenzo look than I am.”
“Both of you are suited to the Kenzo look,” Sho said loyally, and Nino hid his smile behind his hand as he watched the way Jun looked at Sho.
-----
Nino threw himself into bed that night immediately after a shower, not even bothering to put on pajamas over his underwear. He had set Aiba up in a futon in the living room, warning him sternly not to touch anything.
Dinner had been a long, messy affair, with Aiba asking more questions than Nino ever wanted to answer. He actually cooked for once, just a quick stir-fry, unsure if Earth food or Earth chemicals would cause Aiba to messily melt into the floor. He wouldn’t get his security deposit back if that happened.
But now he was lying in bed, alone for the first time all day. His window was left open to let in the spring breeze, and the moonlight created bright stripes on his sheets. Aiba had been naked in those photos, covered up only by strategic posing and artistic jewel draping, and Nino inched his hand into his boxers.
There hadn’t been any weird alien anatomy that Nino had been afraid of, nothing like hidden tentacles or two tongues. He was beautiful, if thinner than Nino usually liked them, but when Nino remembered his pouty expression he had to bite his own lip as he squeezed his cock.
He was already hard, the image of the jewelry catching the light against Aiba’s unexplained discolored left arm driving him to stroke himself slowly. Ohno was a genius photographer and Nino had a mental catalogue of expressions and poses to last him for weeks.
A jewel nestled in Aiba’s navel, emeralds caught between his teeth - Nino’s hand started moving faster, and he grunted as he thought of Aiba’s eyes glittering beneath dark eyeliner.
His hand moved quickly on his cock as images of Aiba on that damned rug flashed through his mind like a slideshow. What would it be like to have sex with an alien? To have him pushing back onto Nino’s fingers, to feel his tongue dancing on Nino’s skin?
Nino thought of the photo of Aiba leaning back on the rug, his legs bent so his feet were under his thighs with jewels shining between his legs, and he came messily over his hand, back arching off the mattress.
He threw his dirty boxers onto the floor and rolled over, falling into a deep sleep almost immediately.
-----
Friday:
“So you don’t need someone else to mate?” was the first thing Nino heard when he stepped into the living room. Aiba was still lying on the futon, his hair all over his face.
“Excuse me,” Nino said flatly, glancing at Aiba before looking away. He was wearing one of Nino’s shirts and it was too tight in the shoulders.
“I heard you last night! You know,” Aiba gestured in the air with his hands, but it definitely wasn’t the Earth signal for masturbation. “So since you did it, I was wondering if on this planet you can do it alone or if that was something else.”
“You need to go home,” Nino growled, then went into the kitchen, his hands gripping the sides of his pajama bottoms tightly. He set coffee to brew, then leaned against the kitchen counter with his face in his hands until the timer went off.
-----
“Someone take him somewhere, anywhere,” Nino muttered to Sho when they finally reached the office. They’d spent the train ride pressed against each other, the swell of people forcing them to be so close that Nino could smell the cologne Ohno had given Aiba. Beneath the cologne Aiba smelled a little musky, but Nino couldn’t place a name to the smell no matter how hard he tried. Maybe it was stardust, bits of shining light and heat that fused together to create him.
“We don’t need any more photos,” Sho said thoughtfully, watching Aiba cheerfully make himself at home by lying down on the sofa. “Maybe Jun needs some help.”
“Whatever, just make him go somewhere away from me.” Nino sat in Sho’s chair and let his head fall onto his arms onto Sho’s desk. It’d only been one day and Aiba had gotten under his skin so deeply Nino wasn’t sure he’d survive the week.
Nino heard rather than watched Sho coax Aiba off the couch and walk him out. It was a few minutes before Sho returned, but even after he heard the door creak open and click shut, he still didn’t lift his head.
“Any reason you’re acting like the world has collapsed?” Sho asked, and only then did Nino look up at him. Sho had his Mom Face on, the one he used when he thought that Nino wasn’t eating enough or sleeping well.
“I’m fine, Sho-chan,” Nino rubbed his face and leaned back in his seat. “It’s just weird having someone around all the time, especially someone who needs everything explained to him. I had to go to the conbini and buy him a toothbrush because he wanted to try it out after he saw me doing it. Apparently it’s something they ‘just don’t do’ in Andromeda or wherever.”
Sho looked pained. “He has such nice teeth, too.”
“Frustrating, isn’t it?” Nino asked, crossing his arms. “I don’t know what he does for hygiene because he didn’t want a shower but he smells fine. He really likes tofu. I’m not entirely convinced he’s not just a person with amnesia.”
“He might be,” Sho shrugged, and sat down on the couch where Aiba had been. “You never know. You said yourself he might belong to someone.”
“But then sometimes - you feel it too, don’t you, Sho-chan? It’s like electricity. He looks at you and you know he’s not from here.” Nino shook his head, uncrossing his arms and picking at his fingernails. “He doesn’t belong to anyone on this planet and you know it.”
“Well,” Sho said reluctantly, “just a few more days and he’ll be gone, right?”
They sat together in silence, wondering how they were supposed to return to normal after being touched by the stars.
-----
They all went to dinner that night after they’d seen the copy that Toma had prepared. He’d chosen one of the more tasteful photos, with Aiba lying on his side and head propped up on one elbow. The jewels caught the light along the length of his side.
“If the sales of this cologne don’t rise at least twenty-five percent this quarter,” Sho said around a mouthful of ramen, “whoever is in charge at Kenzo deserves to be fired.”
“I don’t know what any of that means,” Aiba announced, “but I want more of that gyoza stuff.”
“You already ate all of mine,” Nino slapped his hand away, “just order more. Don’t take any of Oh-chan’s, either.”
“I think we should order shots to celebrate,” Jun said loudly, and Nino shot him a look.
“The last time we had tequila,” Nino replied, trying not to grit his teeth, “you ended up having to shove your fingers down my throat.”
“I’d do it again,” Jun shrugged, “it’s not my fault you can’t hold your liquor. I wonder if aliens drink?”
“Time to find out!” Aiba said cheerfully, one of Ohno’s gyoza already halfway to his mouth.
“This place doesn’t have tequila though,” Sho pointed out, carefully chewing on a bamboo shoot. “We’ll have to go somewhere else.”
“I know just the place,” Jun said, and Nino threw a napkin at him.
Jun’s favorite bar was bar-noir in Roppongi, with its plush leather couches and waitresses dressed like Playboy bunnies, white cuffs around their wrists to accentuate the lines of their arms as they served drinks. Nino knew it well, having been invited to drink there as well as having been called to pick up a blind-drunk Jun multiple times.
They didn’t go there.
Instead they went to a themed bar in Ikebukuro called Intergalactic. The waitresses wore shiny metallic spandex with purple accents around their shoulders, waists, and wrists to mimic the rings around Saturn.
“This is the tackiest place I’ve ever been to,” Sho muttered as they slid into a booth lined in glittery plastic.
“I like it,” Ohno said, looking at the ceiling, which was plastered with glow in the dark stars over a spray-painted mural of a galaxy. “Don’t they have places like this in America?”
“What’s America?” Aiba asked curiously, leaning bodily over Nino towards Ohno to tug on his arm curiously. His side was pressed against Nino’s stomach, his hand on Nino’s thigh, and Nino’s blood rushed south so quickly he felt faint.
“It’s not exactly a cool place or anything,” Jun admitted, “but I thought it might be fun. All the drinks are named after stars and planets, so maybe Aiba could tell us something about them if he’s been there.” Jun ran a finger down the drink menu, all of them overpriced and gimmicky.
Aiba, Jun had said. Nino stared at Jun with narrowed eyes, annoyed at how quickly Jun had grown familiar.
“Yeah, Aiba-chan,” Nino crooned, “tell us about these places.”
Aiba straightened up, letting go of Ohno. “Okay,” Aiba grinned, “what’s the Andromeda drink? Does it sound tasty? Can we start there? There’s a bunch of places I can tell you about there!”
Sho scanned the menu, tilting his head. “You’re in luck, MatsuJun, Andromeda’s a shot. Whiskey based.”
“Good, get five,” Jun said, leaning back in the booth and casually dangling his menu from between his thumb and index finger.
Nino couldn’t tell what exactly the Andromeda had, but there were gold flakes dancing in it, a small galaxy encased in liquid. “This is how you do a shot,” Jun instructed Aiba, tilting his head back as he drained the glass. Nino watched Aiba as he mimicked Jun, his Adam’s apple moving back and forth as he swallowed.
Nino slammed his glass back in order to tear his eyes away, the liquid burning a road down his throat into his stomach that tasted of peppermint and cheap whiskey. His eyes met Aiba’s as he put his glass down and he felt as if he were holding the cosmos inside of him. “Another,” Nino said hoarsely, desperate to push away his growing obsession with Aiba, his need to explore all of him.
“It’s tasty,” Ohno said quietly, licking gold off his lips.
“It doesn’t taste like home,” Aiba shrugged, rolling the glass between his hands. Nino couldn’t stop staring at them, at how well-defined the knuckles were. “But I like it!” Aiba finished with a huge grin, setting the glass back on the table. “Let’s get more.”
“Five more, please,” Sho requested from a nearby waitress, and Nino really didn’t know how he was going to survive the week.
-----
Saturday:
Luckily, Nino had some help; Ohno had taken such a shining to Aiba he had invited him fishing for the day. Nino had already gotten so used to having someone else in the apartment that the hamburger bento he had bought, the one he always bought from the conbini on the way home from the train station, tasted more like loneliness.
He was working on his replay of Dragon Quest IX when his phone rang the theme song to Doraemon - Jun.
“Open the door,” Jun said tersely without a hello. “I brought beer.”
Nino hung up the phone without another word and pressed the intercom button that allowed Jun to let himself in. He returned to his game, listening for Jun’s footsteps. They’d been college roommates, and afterwards Jun used to be a more frequent visitor in the time Before Sho, popping over with takeout and wine and a rented movie. Seeing Jun shuffle into the living room, wearing his soft purple slippers, forced Nino to hide his smile behind the top screen of his 3DS.
“What brings you crawling back to my humble abode?” Nino asked, his mouth still hidden behind his console. Jun grabbed the drink coasters from the kitchen, setting them on the table before popping open two cans of beer.
“I bought you these coasters so you can use them, Nino,” Jun said exasperatedly, rubbing the wood where faint circles from previous glasses could still be seen. “You’re going to ruin this table.”
“All the more reason for you to come over and check up on it more,” Nino said cheekily, sliding off the couch bonelessly to sit on the floor. He shut his DS and set it aside. “Did you come to make sure I haven’t been ravished by a mysterious alien creature?”
“No, I’m pretty sure by now Ohno-kun’s ravished him,” Jun said, checking his watch. Nino felt cold at the idea of Aiba being touched by someone else, jealousy pooling in the pit of his stomach. He grabbed his beer and clinked it perfunctorily against Jun’s before downing half of it.
“I’m the one who needs to be getting drunk here,” Jun tapped Nino’s elbow. “I’m having relationship problems.”
“You mean trouble in paradise?” Nino asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Whatever could the world’s most perfect man do?”
“He broke my stand mixer.” Jun sipped at his beer as Nino stared at him, the silence in the room enveloping them.
“He broke your stand mixer,” Nino repeated slowly, his nostrils flaring as he watched Jun shrug in response.
“That stand mixer cost me almost eighty thousand yen,” Jun said, scratching his thumbnail in the condensation frosting his beer. “It was the first thing I bought just because I wanted it after I started working. He didn’t even get why I was so upset about it. It was an antique, Nino.”
“I don’t know why you’re spending that much money on fucking kitchen appliances, Jun,” Nino said, running a hand over his face in exasperation. “But the fact of the matter is that he broke something that expensive and for that you should never forgive him. Maybe ask him to commit seppuku to show his repentance.”
“I’ll get over it eventually,” Jun said, taking a long gulp from his beer. “But for now I just needed to leave the house.”
“My house used to be your house,” Nino said, regaining his cheer, “so here’s as good a place to hide out as any. Good choice on the beer, by the way.”
“I didn’t think this was really a conversation for wine,” Jun replied, smiling. Nino liked that smile of Jun’s; it almost never came out in public, soft and small and genuine. Nino had known Jun for so long he had a catalogue of his smiles, and most of the ones he showed at work were different from the ones that graced his face when he was with his friends. It was one of Nino’s life missions to have Jun laugh his real laugh in public, the one where his eyes hurt afterwards because he was screwing them shut so tightly, his mouth wide open as if he were having a dental exam. Nino thought that was when Jun was most beautiful.
“The wines you like are always too expensive anyway,” Nino murmured, and they drank in comfortable silence. They were put together as roommates as college freshmen and quickly fell into a friends-with-benefits relationship; at first, it had just been easy stress relief as they adjusted to the trials of college life, but later it had become more than that. They had never talked about what they were, whether it be boyfriends or fuck buddies, but they lived together (usually sleeping in the same bed) all four years without dating anyone else, and then amicably got their own apartments separate from each other upon graduation. Nino met Sho at work and introduced them, and any romantic feelings Jun may have still held for Nino were killed by his fierce, almost immediate love for Sho.
Nino didn’t mind. He loved Jun in his own way, but it wasn’t a possessive, needy love. He honestly enjoyed seeing Jun happy with Sho.
“Stop staring at me,” Jun finally said, shifting uncomfortably.
“You’re just so shiny,” Nino said, propping his head on his hand as he leaned against the table. “It’s fascinating.”
Jun grumbled, patting his pockets before pulling out a small packet of oil blotting sheets and heading for the bathroom.
Nino grinned as he watched Jun leave the room, but his attention was quickly captured by the sounds of commotion coming from the foyer. It sounded like Aiba, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t until the door opened that Nino also caught the sound of Ohno’s soft chuffs of laughter.
It took them too long to get from there to the living room, but Nino had an angled view of them from where he sat, and he could see that they were so drunk they were having trouble with their shoes. “Nino-chan!” Aiba exclaimed when they reached the living room, one of his hands hooked firmly onto Ohno’s waistband. Ohno himself was leaning his whole weight on Aiba, and the two of them collapsed on the couch together, still in their jackets.
Nino watched silently, his stomach churning with beer and jealousy, as Ohno pressed his face into Aiba’s neck, still giggling. He felt like a voyeur in his own home, unable to tear his eyes away from the way Aiba was running his hands up and down Ohno’s back over his jacket. They looked too familiar together, too comfortable, and Nino wanted to get up and tear them apart.
Jun came back then, wiping his hands with a paper towel. “The drunkards are back,” he said dryly, and Aiba turned bright eyes towards him. “Jun-chan,” he said, hugging Ohno to him. “Jun-chan, I really like rum. Do you like rum? It’s really good. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.”
“Sho-kun doesn’t do so well with rum,” Jun replied, rolling his eyes as he sat back down. Nino turned away to face the other side of the room, his DS back in his hands. Jun knew Nino better than anyone in the world, though, and not even a minute later Jun was sitting directly next to Nino.
“You’ll tell me later why you’re jealous,” Jun murmured, his voice masked by the continuing giggles from the drunken pair on the couch. “I don’t know over who or why, but you’ll tell me.”
Nino stayed quiet.
He was rescued less than ten minutes later by the chiming of the doorbell. Nino looked at Sho’s face in the little screen and buzzed him in without even waiting for him to say anything - even Jun and Sho yelling at each other would be better than the whispering coming from Aiba and Ohno. Ohno seemed to be in the process of falling asleep, held in the delicious cradle of alcohol and Aiba’s warmth.
“Jun’s here, right?” Sho asked when Nino opened the door.
“It’s great to see you, too, Sho,” Nino said sardonically, digging his nails into his own palms to avoid thinking about whether or not Aiba and Ohno had done anything in whatever dive bar they’d been in.
“Hi, Nino,” Sho said, but Nino could tell he was distracted by the way his jacket buttons were done up incorrectly, the hem uneven around his waist. He dutifully trailed behind Sho as Sho stepped into the living room, then watched him follow Jun into Nino’s bedroom. He stayed in the doorway as Aiba pulled himself out of Ohno’s sleeping grasp, the tell-tale tent in Aiba’s loose pants sending a shock through Nino’s body. Aiba headed for Nino’s shower room without even acknowledging Nino’s return, and Nino padded behind on auto-pilot.
Nino watched Aiba walk into the shower room, leaving the door ajar. He couldn’t help himself; he pressed his face to the small gap in the door, watching Aiba strip down.
Even the high quality pictures Toma had taken couldn’t compare to the real thing.
Aiba was on the skinny side, but he was toned, and Nino gripped the door as he watched Aiba’s muscles flex as he pulled off the last of his clothing and set them aside. Nino could only watch as Aiba straddled the side of the bathtub, his cock jutting up from the junction between his legs like a mast.
Nino had always thought it had been weird that Aiba’s physiology was so close to humans. He learned a very valuable lesson as he spied on Aiba: aliens, at least those from Andromeda, were twice as flexible as any human ever could be.
Nino could only gape, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the wood of the door, as Aiba bent down further than Nino thought possible to take his own dick in his mouth. He moved fast, his head bobbing up and down on himself, and Nino felt weak in the knees as he watched Aiba’s saliva drip down his own cock. Nino’s own erection was painful, and without pulling his gaze away from Aiba’s gracefully arched form, he rubbed himself against the door. The wood was too unforgiving to feel good, but it was enough friction to allow Nino to focus on the show Aiba was inadvertently giving him.
Nino whimpered quietly as Aiba finally fit his whole cock in his mouth, bent completely in half on the edge of Nino’s bathtub. Nino’s hips pistoned faster against the door as Aiba let go of himself, a string of saliva still connecting Aiba’s lips to the head of his cock, and closed his eyes as he came all over his own face.
Nino let his head fall against the door as he came too, making a face of disgust as the relief left him and his boxers began to stick to him. He stepped away from the door as Aiba began washing his face, returning to the living room and staring in the direction of his bedroom door, wishing for Jun and Sho to finish their discussion.
It was over an hour later before they finally stepped out of Nino’s bedroom. It had been agonizing, Aiba trying to make small talk with Nino, who couldn’t find any words to say to him. It had been a godsend when his door opened, Jun and Sho holding hands as they walked out.
“If I find traces of any activity in there that was more than just talking,” Nino threatened, standing up with a strategically but casually held cushion, “both of you will be murdered in your sleep.”
“Thanks, Nino,” Jun said, and Nino flushed a little at the obvious affection in his voice. “We’re going home now. We’ll take Oh-chan with us.”
“Go away, all of you,” Nino called, already shutting his door as Sho went over to poke awake the snoring Ohno. He stripped off his pants and boxers in record time and threw himself on his bed, curling into a ball.
The more he tried to forget the image of Aiba, his expression blissed out as he aimed for his own face, the more it burned into his memory. He didn’t know whether he wanted the alien to just finally fuck him or go back to where he came from, but whichever decision he made, he needed to make it soon, before Nino became a raving madman wearing a tin foil hat.
Maybe all the people he’d dismissed as being crazy had just been drunk on starlight.
-----
Sunday:
Nino woke up to his phone, once again ringing Jun’s designated theme song (Moonlight Densetsu now - he changed it while he avoided talking to Aiba last night). “What the hell do you want, Matsumoto?” Nino grumbled as he pressed the cell phone to his face, not even bothering to open his eyes.
“I told you we were going to talk about who you’re jealous of,” Jun said primly, and Nino really hated the perkier tone of voice that Jun invariably had after a long night of what Sho delicately called ‘bedroom activities’.
“And it had to be before the sun rises?” Nino grumbled.
“It is noon,” Jun replied flatly, and Nino can hear him chopping something. “I’m making lunch.”
“You better bring some over as penance,” Nino groaned, rolling over onto his stomach.
“You wouldn’t like it,” Jun said, the sounds of him working in the kitchen strangely soothing to Nino. It reminded him of coming home late from his part-time job in college to homemade hamburger steak fresh off the stove. “This rice is really expensive.”
“Damn you and your tastes,” Nino muttered, then sighed. “What do you want to know? Get this over with so I can go back to sleep.”
“Ohno-kun and Aiba-chan came in together and you got that look on your face whenever that guy from IT starts talking about having beaten a new game before you did,” Jun murmured, the sounds of stir-frying getting louder. “You’ve never really shown any feelings for Ohno-kun, outside of your obsession with his butt, so I can only assume it’s Aiba-chan.”
“Oh-chan has a wonderful butt,” Nino said defensively, finally opening his eyes. It’s dark in his room, the curtains shut tight but the sunlight shines around the edges, fighting its way through even against the barriers he’s put up.
“You have a few days before Aiba leaves, right? So either kiss him and get over it or wait until he leaves and get over it. There isn’t much else for you to do.” Nino had always admired the way Jun cooked; he didn’t even sound distracted.
“Thanks for the advice,” Nino groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind as I stare at my temporary alien roommate, wondering how I can convince him to make out with me so I can get over a silly crush.”
“Like I said, you could just let him leave and get over it,” Jun laughed, “but you’ve clearly made your choice.”
“Don’t forget to bring me leftovers,” Nino said before hanging up. He spent a little longer in bed, enjoying the way his sheets felt against his skin. He had fallen asleep with the imagery of Aiba seared into his eyelids; all Nino had wanted to do was burst into the bathroom and trace around the fjords of the mark on his arm with his tongue.
But he didn’t, and he had the laundry to prove it.
It wasn’t long before hunger roused him from bed, and he pulled on an oversized long-sleeved shirt as though it would protect himself from his own emotions. His pajama pants were too big and pooled over his feet.
Aiba was sitting on his futon in the living room, humming something Nino didn’t recognize. It sounded off-key, jarring coming from someone who was able to turn Nino’s world upside down in less than four days.
“So you don’t need someone else to mate?” Nino echoed Aiba’s previous words, feeling his shirt slide off his shoulder as he crossed his arms. Aiba merely made a questioning sound, his eyebrows rising in question. “I saw you yesterday in the bathroom,” Nino clarified, gesturing to his crotch.
“Oh, that!” Aiba said, and Nino wondered if aliens could blush or if Aiba was just shameless. “Nah, you know.” Aiba repeated the gesture he had made after he had heard Nino, and Nino put two and two together.
“If that’s how you masturbate, I can’t wait to see how you have sex,” Nino said, staring at Aiba. Aiba held his gaze, then pushed the blanket off his legs.
Nino knew an invitation when he saw one.
He was already so aroused by the idea of Aiba that he went straight to suck on Aiba’s neck, wanting to taste him all over. Aiba wasn’t wearing a shirt, and Nino let his hands roam everywhere - down Aiba’s flat stomach, over his discolored arm, pressing his ribs as if they were piano keys.
Aiba wasn’t shy, either; his hands were under Nino’s shirt immediately, and Nino moaned against Aiba’s neck as his nipples were pinched.
“You like that,” Aiba said, pleased, and Nino let go of Aiba, a deep purple bruise already blooming against the side of his neck. He drew a line with his tongue down to his collarbone, pressing kisses across the bone.
Aiba let Nino rest his weight on him as Nino explored his body with his tongue, leaning backwards until he was lying back down on the futon. Nino straddled him, pulling off his shirt, before returning his mouth to Aiba’s body.
Aiba didn’t taste as strange as Nino expected, though he couldn’t describe any of the flavors layered over Aiba’s skin. He made his way down Aiba’s thin chest and flat stomach, his hands pushing down Aiba’s pajama pants to reveal his hard cock, already pearled.
“You’re so easy,” Nino rolled his eyes, kissing the cradles of Aiba’s hips.
“I like having fun,” Aiba said cheerfully, his hands in Nino’s hair. He ran his fingers through it - and Nino refused to think about how gentle he was being - as Nino nosed at the coarse hair at the junction between Aiba’s legs before running his tongue up the side of Aiba’s curved cock resting prettily on his stomach.
It tasted sweet, almost cloyingly so, and the smell of it was like a shot of lightning to Nino’s dick. He moved off of Aiba, ignoring Aiba’s whine of “hey!”
“On your stomach,” Nino said, getting up quickly to retrieve a condom and lube from his room, kicking off his own pants as he walked. He wasn’t going to go in bare; he never did except with Jun after it had become clear that they were each other’s only partners. It was risky enough fucking someone from another planet.
He was only gone for a few seconds, but he had to stop in the threshold of his door when he saw Aiba again.
Aiba was on his stomach, legs spread open, and his chest arched high off of the futon in a way that was impossible for humans. His right hand was working on stretching himself for Nino, two fingers already scissoring inside himself. He had his head thrown back, and even from where Nino was standing he could see the pleasure glossing over Aiba’s face.
Nino kept staring at the graceful curve of Aiba’s back as he added a third finger. Nino tore open the condom, rolling it over himself as he watched. He was so hard it almost hurt, but he was mesmerized by the sight of Aiba rolling his hips up in time with his hand.
Nino spread some lube on himself anyway, just in case, then finally went over to Aiba, using his hand to still Aiba’s. Aiba tilted his head over his shoulder to grin at Nino, his eyes dark and glittering as he slowly removed his hand.
Nino positioned himself behind Aiba, roughly grabbing Aiba’s right hip to pull his ass flush against Nino’s dick. He entered Aiba slowly, Aiba pushing back against him until he bottomed out. Nino had to close his eyes, overwhelmed by how tight Aiba was around him.
“Come on, Nino,” Aiba said, his head resting on his arms on the futon. His words sounded slurred and heavy, as though there was something in his mouth, but Nino was concentrating on the heat surrounding him.
He finally began to thrust, Aiba eagerly keeping up with him, and Nino knew he wasn’t going to last long. He leaned over, pressing his chest to Aiba’s back and wrapping a hand around Aiba’s cock.
Nino released first, gasping his moans into Aiba’s spine, their mingling sweat making them stick to each other. He sped his hand up, using Aiba’s own precome as lube, before Aiba came all over his hand and the futon.
Aiba reached one hand back and rested it on Nino’s hip as Nino began to pull out. “Where are you going?” he said, genuinely curious. His voice was back to normal. “You don’t stay for a while?”
“This kind of hurts,” Nino mumbled, and Aiba let go with a sigh, allowing Nino to pull out.
Aiba rolled over onto his back to watch Nino remove the condom and toss it into the nearest trash can. “We stay for a while,” Aiba shrugged. “It feels nice.”
Nino lay down next to him on the tiny futon, not caring that they were both filthy and naked. Nino could smell sex in the air but it was a sweet smell, almost sugary. “Will you stay here for a while?” Nino breathed against Aiba’s discolored arm.
Aiba laughed, high and joyful, and Nino breathed in the stars.
From: lysanderpuck
Title: Vanishing Gravity
Pairing/Focus: Aimiya (also includes background Sakumoto and some Tennen)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Auto-fellatio. Also, Aiba is an alien.
Summary: Aiba comes crashing into Nino’s life from Andromeda.
Notes: For silver_crystall, I am so incredibly sorry this is so weird. I hope you enjoy it, though?
All of my love to R, who was my storyboarder and beta, and without whom this fic would not even begin to exist. You’ll get yours. Special thanks to K, who suggested this only to piss me off and ended up creating a 7k word monster.
Most especially, thanks to Arashi for coming out with a song called Intergalactic after I already started writing Aiba being an alien from Andromeda (it’s mentioned in the song. It’s like they know, you guys.)
Thursday (the first day of the rest of his life):
Nino ran out of his house, tie askew and briefcase loosely shut, still swallowing the instant coffee he managed to gulp down after he noticed the time. He ran on auto-pilot, his feet knowing the way out the door and down the driveway, but then he almost ran face-first into the spaceship.
“What the hell is this?” he narrowed his eyes, ignoring the briefcase that had gone flying when he dodged to save himself a broken nose, scattering papers all over the asphalt. It didn’t look like the typical UFO space Frisbee normally shown at 1000x magnification on TV and in fuzzy pictures in books; it was silver and low to the ground, boxy and balancing on four small wheels. But the sheen to its mirrored walls simply felt alien - it looked greasy, like the apple-scented hair gel Sho liked to wear sometimes.
Speaking of Sho - Nino pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. Sho wasn’t his direct superior, but he was in charge of the marketing team that Nino was currently working with. Sho was rather lenient when it came to Nino, allowing him to play games on his phone during their team meetings, but he definitely did not tolerate tardiness.
From: Nino
Message: gonna be late, there’s an alien at my door
7:00 AM, 5/14/13
He attached a photo and as he pressed send, a small door slid open. Nino froze, his phone still open in his hand. His vague mental picture of an alien involved only three fingers and eyes bigger than his face, but a person stepped out. His hair was brown and frizzy and his limbs seemed too long for his body.
“If you’re going to do some sort of high school science experiment,” Nino growled, “can you do it on your own fucking property? I’m late for work because of you!”
The man glanced around, taking in Nino’s small house and the neighborhood. He looked around long enough that Nino took a step towards him, balling up his fist, but then the man grinned brightly. Nino had to stop himself from stepping backwards at that smile - it was like the full moon lighting up the night sky.
He took out a device that looked rather like a toddler’s toy, flat and square and covered in large, bright buttons that shimmered in the sun. Nino watched him press a few of them, blinking up when the man said, “Ah, Japanese? That’s a weird name for a language. Nice to meet you!”
“You’re joking, right?” Nino said flatly.
“I’m…” the man squinted down at the machine in his hands, then shrugged. “You can call me Aiba! Earth seems pretty great, I like how warm it is.”
“Get off my property and take whatever that thing is with you,” Nino flapped his hands at this Aiba, trying to push him out without actually touching him. “Or I’ll call the police.”
“Well, I can’t really move it right now,” Aiba said, glancing at his spaceship. “It needs to cool down before I can warm it up again. It’s an old model! A classic!”
“I don’t care what it is. How long will it take to cool down? I really don’t want to leave you on my doorstep,” Nino grumbled, finally picking up his briefcase. He stared at the papers scattered all over the asphalt; none of them were particularly important, but he could already hear his landlord Haruka throwing a fit over the mess. He sighed and started picking them up as Aiba pressed a few buttons on his gadget.
Aiba concentrated on his machine, tilting his head as the screen changed colors, then smiled with half-moon eyes at Nino. “I can turn it on in...a week. Is that too long?”
“Yes, it’s too long!” Nino yelped, then started smacking at Aiba with his briefcase. “Go away!”
Aiba pushed against Nino’s briefcase, blocking it with his hands. “Sorry, I can’t. Can I just stay here for the week? I promise I won’t ruin your planet, I’m just here to look around and experience new things! My mother always said it’s a good thing to explore the universe before I go back and settle down and have lots of babies.”
“Alien babies who probably will grow up to invade us,” Nino replied, still trying to hit Aiba all the way off his driveway. “If you don’t leave now, I’ll report you to JAXA and then they’ll do terrible experiments on you to figure out what you are.”
“Oh, well, that’s easy,” Aiba said with a shrug. “I’m from a planet in…I think you call it Andromeda? I guess it’s kinda far. But I’m a carbon-based life form just like you! Now can I stay with you?”
“No,” Nino said firmly, ignoring his ringing phone. “What if you eat drywall? I can’t come back to a house half-eaten. Find somewhere else to stay.”
Aiba looked glumly from his spaceship and back to Nino. Nino stared at him, his phone ringing continuously in his pocket, the vibrations against his thigh reminding him how annoyed Sho must have been. “God, fine. I can’t leave you here, but you’re coming with me where I can keep an eye on you.”
Nino looked away when Aiba smiled at him again, frowning at the way he wanted to smile back. “Great! Where are you going? What’s that you’re carrying? Why do you have something tied around your neck, is it for easy strangling?”
“And no questions,” Nino added, starting to walk down his driveway.
-----
“Just pretend it’s Take Your Children to Work Day, okay?” Nino said to Sho when he walked in, the alien named Aiba in tow.
Sho’s face turned red and he spluttered as he spit out his words. “Nino, what the hell. First you send me a picture of some box as an excuse for being late and then you bring a friend to work? What is going on?”
“I’m Aiba!” he stepped right into Sho’s face, wide smile first. Sho took a few steps back to get away from him, his eyes round and his hands held up in front of his chest.
“I’m not kidding when I say he showed up on my driveway, claimed he’s an alien, and tried to make me leave him in my house alone. I should have called the cops,” Nino grumbled, leading the way into Sho’s office and throwing himself into Sho’s ergonomic spinning chair.
“Why didn’t you?” Sho questioned as Aiba poked around the office, the strange device back in his hands. Sho and Nino watched silently as he held it up to one of the bookshelves before making a noise of understanding and nodding slowly.
“And what is that?” Nino would have preferred that Aiba had never shown up at all, or at least had the decency to park his spaceship outside of Nino’s gates, he had to admit that the vexed look on Sho’s face as he pointed towards Aiba’s gadget was funny enough to make up for it.
“I don’t know. A translator or a dictionary or something. He says he’s from Andromeda. I don’t know why I didn’t call the police,” Nino replied, spinning around in Sho’s chair. “If I just left him there, he might have broken into my house.”
“Do you need me to call the police for you, Nino?” Sho said quietly, frowning as Aiba poked a cushion on the sofa Sho kept in his office for his frequent late nights.
“I’m okay,” Nino rubbed his face. “He’d probably get eaten alive in prison.”
“Nino, he says he’s an alien,” Sho emphasized, “and he’s going around like he’s never seen any of this before. What if he’s escaped from an institution?”
“This is so soft!” Aiba exclaimed, picking up the cushion and rubbing it against his face. “I’ve never felt anything like this!”
“He’s kinda cute, like a dog,” Nino admitted. “Maybe he belongs to someone.”
“He is kind of cute,” Sho mused, then shook his head. “He can’t stay in your house, Nino. What if he’s a serial killer?”
Nino opened his mouth to respond, but Ohno walked in and interrupted his train of thought. Ohno was a photographer with their advertising firm, the one Nino always picked to be on his marketing team. “Jun hasn’t shown up yet,” Ohno reported sleepily, “and I think Toma wants the copies before lunch.”
“The fact that you let Jun come in when he feels like it but I have to be here precisely at eight is discrimination, Sho-chan,” Nino whined, poking Sho in the butt with his foot. “I can report you for fraternization with your employee.”
“I do not let him come in when he feels like it,” Sho replied loudly, wiping Nino’s footprints off his pants. “I leave him in bed if he’s going to make me late because he’s old enough to take care of himself.”
“Oh. Is he the new model?” Ohno calmly pointed to Aiba, who was sniffing his shoulder.
“He is now,” Nino replied, beginning to spin again. “Take him away, Oh-chan.”
-----
“What the hell,” Sho breathed out as he, Nino, and Toma sifted through the copies of the photos Ohno had taken.
“Good to know, aliens are fucking beautiful,” Nino groaned. Aiba was posing on a dark shaggy rug, staring up at the camera with a smoldering look in his eyes, draped in nothing but strings of jewels. The tagline for their cologne was “you don’t need anything else,” and Nino almost believed it.
“Ohno-kun said it took him forever to get him to understand what was going on,” Toma said, “but he’s a natural.”
“Jun-kun’s going to be so mad he’s fired,” Nino laughed, burying his face in his hands.
Aiba was going home with him no matter what, but whenever he closed his eyes, the expression on Aiba’s face in the photos - and his body - was burned into the backs of his eyelids.
“What do you mean I’m fired?” a grumpy voice said from behind them, and Sho spun around to face Jun so fast he almost fell over.
“Look at these! Look! The concept was supposed to be a joke, but now…” Sho handed over the photos to Jun, who looked at them silently.
They waited as Jun flipped through the pictures, Nino fidgeting with the volume buttons on his phone in his pocket. “Fine,” Jun finally said, “this will be good.”
“That was quick of you, Matsumoto,” Nino said, watching Jun’s eyebrow twitch. “Not like you to give up.”
Jun scoffed, handing the photos back to Toma. “I’m not giving up. He’s good and you took the photos already. You were only going to use me as the model because you have no budget for a professional, anyway.” Jun sat on Sho’s couch, crossing his long legs. “This way I can focus on the Fasio account. He’s more suited to the Kenzo look than I am.”
“Both of you are suited to the Kenzo look,” Sho said loyally, and Nino hid his smile behind his hand as he watched the way Jun looked at Sho.
-----
Nino threw himself into bed that night immediately after a shower, not even bothering to put on pajamas over his underwear. He had set Aiba up in a futon in the living room, warning him sternly not to touch anything.
Dinner had been a long, messy affair, with Aiba asking more questions than Nino ever wanted to answer. He actually cooked for once, just a quick stir-fry, unsure if Earth food or Earth chemicals would cause Aiba to messily melt into the floor. He wouldn’t get his security deposit back if that happened.
But now he was lying in bed, alone for the first time all day. His window was left open to let in the spring breeze, and the moonlight created bright stripes on his sheets. Aiba had been naked in those photos, covered up only by strategic posing and artistic jewel draping, and Nino inched his hand into his boxers.
There hadn’t been any weird alien anatomy that Nino had been afraid of, nothing like hidden tentacles or two tongues. He was beautiful, if thinner than Nino usually liked them, but when Nino remembered his pouty expression he had to bite his own lip as he squeezed his cock.
He was already hard, the image of the jewelry catching the light against Aiba’s unexplained discolored left arm driving him to stroke himself slowly. Ohno was a genius photographer and Nino had a mental catalogue of expressions and poses to last him for weeks.
A jewel nestled in Aiba’s navel, emeralds caught between his teeth - Nino’s hand started moving faster, and he grunted as he thought of Aiba’s eyes glittering beneath dark eyeliner.
His hand moved quickly on his cock as images of Aiba on that damned rug flashed through his mind like a slideshow. What would it be like to have sex with an alien? To have him pushing back onto Nino’s fingers, to feel his tongue dancing on Nino’s skin?
Nino thought of the photo of Aiba leaning back on the rug, his legs bent so his feet were under his thighs with jewels shining between his legs, and he came messily over his hand, back arching off the mattress.
He threw his dirty boxers onto the floor and rolled over, falling into a deep sleep almost immediately.
-----
Friday:
“So you don’t need someone else to mate?” was the first thing Nino heard when he stepped into the living room. Aiba was still lying on the futon, his hair all over his face.
“Excuse me,” Nino said flatly, glancing at Aiba before looking away. He was wearing one of Nino’s shirts and it was too tight in the shoulders.
“I heard you last night! You know,” Aiba gestured in the air with his hands, but it definitely wasn’t the Earth signal for masturbation. “So since you did it, I was wondering if on this planet you can do it alone or if that was something else.”
“You need to go home,” Nino growled, then went into the kitchen, his hands gripping the sides of his pajama bottoms tightly. He set coffee to brew, then leaned against the kitchen counter with his face in his hands until the timer went off.
-----
“Someone take him somewhere, anywhere,” Nino muttered to Sho when they finally reached the office. They’d spent the train ride pressed against each other, the swell of people forcing them to be so close that Nino could smell the cologne Ohno had given Aiba. Beneath the cologne Aiba smelled a little musky, but Nino couldn’t place a name to the smell no matter how hard he tried. Maybe it was stardust, bits of shining light and heat that fused together to create him.
“We don’t need any more photos,” Sho said thoughtfully, watching Aiba cheerfully make himself at home by lying down on the sofa. “Maybe Jun needs some help.”
“Whatever, just make him go somewhere away from me.” Nino sat in Sho’s chair and let his head fall onto his arms onto Sho’s desk. It’d only been one day and Aiba had gotten under his skin so deeply Nino wasn’t sure he’d survive the week.
Nino heard rather than watched Sho coax Aiba off the couch and walk him out. It was a few minutes before Sho returned, but even after he heard the door creak open and click shut, he still didn’t lift his head.
“Any reason you’re acting like the world has collapsed?” Sho asked, and only then did Nino look up at him. Sho had his Mom Face on, the one he used when he thought that Nino wasn’t eating enough or sleeping well.
“I’m fine, Sho-chan,” Nino rubbed his face and leaned back in his seat. “It’s just weird having someone around all the time, especially someone who needs everything explained to him. I had to go to the conbini and buy him a toothbrush because he wanted to try it out after he saw me doing it. Apparently it’s something they ‘just don’t do’ in Andromeda or wherever.”
Sho looked pained. “He has such nice teeth, too.”
“Frustrating, isn’t it?” Nino asked, crossing his arms. “I don’t know what he does for hygiene because he didn’t want a shower but he smells fine. He really likes tofu. I’m not entirely convinced he’s not just a person with amnesia.”
“He might be,” Sho shrugged, and sat down on the couch where Aiba had been. “You never know. You said yourself he might belong to someone.”
“But then sometimes - you feel it too, don’t you, Sho-chan? It’s like electricity. He looks at you and you know he’s not from here.” Nino shook his head, uncrossing his arms and picking at his fingernails. “He doesn’t belong to anyone on this planet and you know it.”
“Well,” Sho said reluctantly, “just a few more days and he’ll be gone, right?”
They sat together in silence, wondering how they were supposed to return to normal after being touched by the stars.
-----
They all went to dinner that night after they’d seen the copy that Toma had prepared. He’d chosen one of the more tasteful photos, with Aiba lying on his side and head propped up on one elbow. The jewels caught the light along the length of his side.
“If the sales of this cologne don’t rise at least twenty-five percent this quarter,” Sho said around a mouthful of ramen, “whoever is in charge at Kenzo deserves to be fired.”
“I don’t know what any of that means,” Aiba announced, “but I want more of that gyoza stuff.”
“You already ate all of mine,” Nino slapped his hand away, “just order more. Don’t take any of Oh-chan’s, either.”
“I think we should order shots to celebrate,” Jun said loudly, and Nino shot him a look.
“The last time we had tequila,” Nino replied, trying not to grit his teeth, “you ended up having to shove your fingers down my throat.”
“I’d do it again,” Jun shrugged, “it’s not my fault you can’t hold your liquor. I wonder if aliens drink?”
“Time to find out!” Aiba said cheerfully, one of Ohno’s gyoza already halfway to his mouth.
“This place doesn’t have tequila though,” Sho pointed out, carefully chewing on a bamboo shoot. “We’ll have to go somewhere else.”
“I know just the place,” Jun said, and Nino threw a napkin at him.
Jun’s favorite bar was bar-noir in Roppongi, with its plush leather couches and waitresses dressed like Playboy bunnies, white cuffs around their wrists to accentuate the lines of their arms as they served drinks. Nino knew it well, having been invited to drink there as well as having been called to pick up a blind-drunk Jun multiple times.
They didn’t go there.
Instead they went to a themed bar in Ikebukuro called Intergalactic. The waitresses wore shiny metallic spandex with purple accents around their shoulders, waists, and wrists to mimic the rings around Saturn.
“This is the tackiest place I’ve ever been to,” Sho muttered as they slid into a booth lined in glittery plastic.
“I like it,” Ohno said, looking at the ceiling, which was plastered with glow in the dark stars over a spray-painted mural of a galaxy. “Don’t they have places like this in America?”
“What’s America?” Aiba asked curiously, leaning bodily over Nino towards Ohno to tug on his arm curiously. His side was pressed against Nino’s stomach, his hand on Nino’s thigh, and Nino’s blood rushed south so quickly he felt faint.
“It’s not exactly a cool place or anything,” Jun admitted, “but I thought it might be fun. All the drinks are named after stars and planets, so maybe Aiba could tell us something about them if he’s been there.” Jun ran a finger down the drink menu, all of them overpriced and gimmicky.
Aiba, Jun had said. Nino stared at Jun with narrowed eyes, annoyed at how quickly Jun had grown familiar.
“Yeah, Aiba-chan,” Nino crooned, “tell us about these places.”
Aiba straightened up, letting go of Ohno. “Okay,” Aiba grinned, “what’s the Andromeda drink? Does it sound tasty? Can we start there? There’s a bunch of places I can tell you about there!”
Sho scanned the menu, tilting his head. “You’re in luck, MatsuJun, Andromeda’s a shot. Whiskey based.”
“Good, get five,” Jun said, leaning back in the booth and casually dangling his menu from between his thumb and index finger.
Nino couldn’t tell what exactly the Andromeda had, but there were gold flakes dancing in it, a small galaxy encased in liquid. “This is how you do a shot,” Jun instructed Aiba, tilting his head back as he drained the glass. Nino watched Aiba as he mimicked Jun, his Adam’s apple moving back and forth as he swallowed.
Nino slammed his glass back in order to tear his eyes away, the liquid burning a road down his throat into his stomach that tasted of peppermint and cheap whiskey. His eyes met Aiba’s as he put his glass down and he felt as if he were holding the cosmos inside of him. “Another,” Nino said hoarsely, desperate to push away his growing obsession with Aiba, his need to explore all of him.
“It’s tasty,” Ohno said quietly, licking gold off his lips.
“It doesn’t taste like home,” Aiba shrugged, rolling the glass between his hands. Nino couldn’t stop staring at them, at how well-defined the knuckles were. “But I like it!” Aiba finished with a huge grin, setting the glass back on the table. “Let’s get more.”
“Five more, please,” Sho requested from a nearby waitress, and Nino really didn’t know how he was going to survive the week.
-----
Saturday:
Luckily, Nino had some help; Ohno had taken such a shining to Aiba he had invited him fishing for the day. Nino had already gotten so used to having someone else in the apartment that the hamburger bento he had bought, the one he always bought from the conbini on the way home from the train station, tasted more like loneliness.
He was working on his replay of Dragon Quest IX when his phone rang the theme song to Doraemon - Jun.
“Open the door,” Jun said tersely without a hello. “I brought beer.”
Nino hung up the phone without another word and pressed the intercom button that allowed Jun to let himself in. He returned to his game, listening for Jun’s footsteps. They’d been college roommates, and afterwards Jun used to be a more frequent visitor in the time Before Sho, popping over with takeout and wine and a rented movie. Seeing Jun shuffle into the living room, wearing his soft purple slippers, forced Nino to hide his smile behind the top screen of his 3DS.
“What brings you crawling back to my humble abode?” Nino asked, his mouth still hidden behind his console. Jun grabbed the drink coasters from the kitchen, setting them on the table before popping open two cans of beer.
“I bought you these coasters so you can use them, Nino,” Jun said exasperatedly, rubbing the wood where faint circles from previous glasses could still be seen. “You’re going to ruin this table.”
“All the more reason for you to come over and check up on it more,” Nino said cheekily, sliding off the couch bonelessly to sit on the floor. He shut his DS and set it aside. “Did you come to make sure I haven’t been ravished by a mysterious alien creature?”
“No, I’m pretty sure by now Ohno-kun’s ravished him,” Jun said, checking his watch. Nino felt cold at the idea of Aiba being touched by someone else, jealousy pooling in the pit of his stomach. He grabbed his beer and clinked it perfunctorily against Jun’s before downing half of it.
“I’m the one who needs to be getting drunk here,” Jun tapped Nino’s elbow. “I’m having relationship problems.”
“You mean trouble in paradise?” Nino asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Whatever could the world’s most perfect man do?”
“He broke my stand mixer.” Jun sipped at his beer as Nino stared at him, the silence in the room enveloping them.
“He broke your stand mixer,” Nino repeated slowly, his nostrils flaring as he watched Jun shrug in response.
“That stand mixer cost me almost eighty thousand yen,” Jun said, scratching his thumbnail in the condensation frosting his beer. “It was the first thing I bought just because I wanted it after I started working. He didn’t even get why I was so upset about it. It was an antique, Nino.”
“I don’t know why you’re spending that much money on fucking kitchen appliances, Jun,” Nino said, running a hand over his face in exasperation. “But the fact of the matter is that he broke something that expensive and for that you should never forgive him. Maybe ask him to commit seppuku to show his repentance.”
“I’ll get over it eventually,” Jun said, taking a long gulp from his beer. “But for now I just needed to leave the house.”
“My house used to be your house,” Nino said, regaining his cheer, “so here’s as good a place to hide out as any. Good choice on the beer, by the way.”
“I didn’t think this was really a conversation for wine,” Jun replied, smiling. Nino liked that smile of Jun’s; it almost never came out in public, soft and small and genuine. Nino had known Jun for so long he had a catalogue of his smiles, and most of the ones he showed at work were different from the ones that graced his face when he was with his friends. It was one of Nino’s life missions to have Jun laugh his real laugh in public, the one where his eyes hurt afterwards because he was screwing them shut so tightly, his mouth wide open as if he were having a dental exam. Nino thought that was when Jun was most beautiful.
“The wines you like are always too expensive anyway,” Nino murmured, and they drank in comfortable silence. They were put together as roommates as college freshmen and quickly fell into a friends-with-benefits relationship; at first, it had just been easy stress relief as they adjusted to the trials of college life, but later it had become more than that. They had never talked about what they were, whether it be boyfriends or fuck buddies, but they lived together (usually sleeping in the same bed) all four years without dating anyone else, and then amicably got their own apartments separate from each other upon graduation. Nino met Sho at work and introduced them, and any romantic feelings Jun may have still held for Nino were killed by his fierce, almost immediate love for Sho.
Nino didn’t mind. He loved Jun in his own way, but it wasn’t a possessive, needy love. He honestly enjoyed seeing Jun happy with Sho.
“Stop staring at me,” Jun finally said, shifting uncomfortably.
“You’re just so shiny,” Nino said, propping his head on his hand as he leaned against the table. “It’s fascinating.”
Jun grumbled, patting his pockets before pulling out a small packet of oil blotting sheets and heading for the bathroom.
Nino grinned as he watched Jun leave the room, but his attention was quickly captured by the sounds of commotion coming from the foyer. It sounded like Aiba, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t until the door opened that Nino also caught the sound of Ohno’s soft chuffs of laughter.
It took them too long to get from there to the living room, but Nino had an angled view of them from where he sat, and he could see that they were so drunk they were having trouble with their shoes. “Nino-chan!” Aiba exclaimed when they reached the living room, one of his hands hooked firmly onto Ohno’s waistband. Ohno himself was leaning his whole weight on Aiba, and the two of them collapsed on the couch together, still in their jackets.
Nino watched silently, his stomach churning with beer and jealousy, as Ohno pressed his face into Aiba’s neck, still giggling. He felt like a voyeur in his own home, unable to tear his eyes away from the way Aiba was running his hands up and down Ohno’s back over his jacket. They looked too familiar together, too comfortable, and Nino wanted to get up and tear them apart.
Jun came back then, wiping his hands with a paper towel. “The drunkards are back,” he said dryly, and Aiba turned bright eyes towards him. “Jun-chan,” he said, hugging Ohno to him. “Jun-chan, I really like rum. Do you like rum? It’s really good. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.”
“Sho-kun doesn’t do so well with rum,” Jun replied, rolling his eyes as he sat back down. Nino turned away to face the other side of the room, his DS back in his hands. Jun knew Nino better than anyone in the world, though, and not even a minute later Jun was sitting directly next to Nino.
“You’ll tell me later why you’re jealous,” Jun murmured, his voice masked by the continuing giggles from the drunken pair on the couch. “I don’t know over who or why, but you’ll tell me.”
Nino stayed quiet.
He was rescued less than ten minutes later by the chiming of the doorbell. Nino looked at Sho’s face in the little screen and buzzed him in without even waiting for him to say anything - even Jun and Sho yelling at each other would be better than the whispering coming from Aiba and Ohno. Ohno seemed to be in the process of falling asleep, held in the delicious cradle of alcohol and Aiba’s warmth.
“Jun’s here, right?” Sho asked when Nino opened the door.
“It’s great to see you, too, Sho,” Nino said sardonically, digging his nails into his own palms to avoid thinking about whether or not Aiba and Ohno had done anything in whatever dive bar they’d been in.
“Hi, Nino,” Sho said, but Nino could tell he was distracted by the way his jacket buttons were done up incorrectly, the hem uneven around his waist. He dutifully trailed behind Sho as Sho stepped into the living room, then watched him follow Jun into Nino’s bedroom. He stayed in the doorway as Aiba pulled himself out of Ohno’s sleeping grasp, the tell-tale tent in Aiba’s loose pants sending a shock through Nino’s body. Aiba headed for Nino’s shower room without even acknowledging Nino’s return, and Nino padded behind on auto-pilot.
Nino watched Aiba walk into the shower room, leaving the door ajar. He couldn’t help himself; he pressed his face to the small gap in the door, watching Aiba strip down.
Even the high quality pictures Toma had taken couldn’t compare to the real thing.
Aiba was on the skinny side, but he was toned, and Nino gripped the door as he watched Aiba’s muscles flex as he pulled off the last of his clothing and set them aside. Nino could only watch as Aiba straddled the side of the bathtub, his cock jutting up from the junction between his legs like a mast.
Nino had always thought it had been weird that Aiba’s physiology was so close to humans. He learned a very valuable lesson as he spied on Aiba: aliens, at least those from Andromeda, were twice as flexible as any human ever could be.
Nino could only gape, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the wood of the door, as Aiba bent down further than Nino thought possible to take his own dick in his mouth. He moved fast, his head bobbing up and down on himself, and Nino felt weak in the knees as he watched Aiba’s saliva drip down his own cock. Nino’s own erection was painful, and without pulling his gaze away from Aiba’s gracefully arched form, he rubbed himself against the door. The wood was too unforgiving to feel good, but it was enough friction to allow Nino to focus on the show Aiba was inadvertently giving him.
Nino whimpered quietly as Aiba finally fit his whole cock in his mouth, bent completely in half on the edge of Nino’s bathtub. Nino’s hips pistoned faster against the door as Aiba let go of himself, a string of saliva still connecting Aiba’s lips to the head of his cock, and closed his eyes as he came all over his own face.
Nino let his head fall against the door as he came too, making a face of disgust as the relief left him and his boxers began to stick to him. He stepped away from the door as Aiba began washing his face, returning to the living room and staring in the direction of his bedroom door, wishing for Jun and Sho to finish their discussion.
It was over an hour later before they finally stepped out of Nino’s bedroom. It had been agonizing, Aiba trying to make small talk with Nino, who couldn’t find any words to say to him. It had been a godsend when his door opened, Jun and Sho holding hands as they walked out.
“If I find traces of any activity in there that was more than just talking,” Nino threatened, standing up with a strategically but casually held cushion, “both of you will be murdered in your sleep.”
“Thanks, Nino,” Jun said, and Nino flushed a little at the obvious affection in his voice. “We’re going home now. We’ll take Oh-chan with us.”
“Go away, all of you,” Nino called, already shutting his door as Sho went over to poke awake the snoring Ohno. He stripped off his pants and boxers in record time and threw himself on his bed, curling into a ball.
The more he tried to forget the image of Aiba, his expression blissed out as he aimed for his own face, the more it burned into his memory. He didn’t know whether he wanted the alien to just finally fuck him or go back to where he came from, but whichever decision he made, he needed to make it soon, before Nino became a raving madman wearing a tin foil hat.
Maybe all the people he’d dismissed as being crazy had just been drunk on starlight.
-----
Sunday:
Nino woke up to his phone, once again ringing Jun’s designated theme song (Moonlight Densetsu now - he changed it while he avoided talking to Aiba last night). “What the hell do you want, Matsumoto?” Nino grumbled as he pressed the cell phone to his face, not even bothering to open his eyes.
“I told you we were going to talk about who you’re jealous of,” Jun said primly, and Nino really hated the perkier tone of voice that Jun invariably had after a long night of what Sho delicately called ‘bedroom activities’.
“And it had to be before the sun rises?” Nino grumbled.
“It is noon,” Jun replied flatly, and Nino can hear him chopping something. “I’m making lunch.”
“You better bring some over as penance,” Nino groaned, rolling over onto his stomach.
“You wouldn’t like it,” Jun said, the sounds of him working in the kitchen strangely soothing to Nino. It reminded him of coming home late from his part-time job in college to homemade hamburger steak fresh off the stove. “This rice is really expensive.”
“Damn you and your tastes,” Nino muttered, then sighed. “What do you want to know? Get this over with so I can go back to sleep.”
“Ohno-kun and Aiba-chan came in together and you got that look on your face whenever that guy from IT starts talking about having beaten a new game before you did,” Jun murmured, the sounds of stir-frying getting louder. “You’ve never really shown any feelings for Ohno-kun, outside of your obsession with his butt, so I can only assume it’s Aiba-chan.”
“Oh-chan has a wonderful butt,” Nino said defensively, finally opening his eyes. It’s dark in his room, the curtains shut tight but the sunlight shines around the edges, fighting its way through even against the barriers he’s put up.
“You have a few days before Aiba leaves, right? So either kiss him and get over it or wait until he leaves and get over it. There isn’t much else for you to do.” Nino had always admired the way Jun cooked; he didn’t even sound distracted.
“Thanks for the advice,” Nino groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind as I stare at my temporary alien roommate, wondering how I can convince him to make out with me so I can get over a silly crush.”
“Like I said, you could just let him leave and get over it,” Jun laughed, “but you’ve clearly made your choice.”
“Don’t forget to bring me leftovers,” Nino said before hanging up. He spent a little longer in bed, enjoying the way his sheets felt against his skin. He had fallen asleep with the imagery of Aiba seared into his eyelids; all Nino had wanted to do was burst into the bathroom and trace around the fjords of the mark on his arm with his tongue.
But he didn’t, and he had the laundry to prove it.
It wasn’t long before hunger roused him from bed, and he pulled on an oversized long-sleeved shirt as though it would protect himself from his own emotions. His pajama pants were too big and pooled over his feet.
Aiba was sitting on his futon in the living room, humming something Nino didn’t recognize. It sounded off-key, jarring coming from someone who was able to turn Nino’s world upside down in less than four days.
“So you don’t need someone else to mate?” Nino echoed Aiba’s previous words, feeling his shirt slide off his shoulder as he crossed his arms. Aiba merely made a questioning sound, his eyebrows rising in question. “I saw you yesterday in the bathroom,” Nino clarified, gesturing to his crotch.
“Oh, that!” Aiba said, and Nino wondered if aliens could blush or if Aiba was just shameless. “Nah, you know.” Aiba repeated the gesture he had made after he had heard Nino, and Nino put two and two together.
“If that’s how you masturbate, I can’t wait to see how you have sex,” Nino said, staring at Aiba. Aiba held his gaze, then pushed the blanket off his legs.
Nino knew an invitation when he saw one.
He was already so aroused by the idea of Aiba that he went straight to suck on Aiba’s neck, wanting to taste him all over. Aiba wasn’t wearing a shirt, and Nino let his hands roam everywhere - down Aiba’s flat stomach, over his discolored arm, pressing his ribs as if they were piano keys.
Aiba wasn’t shy, either; his hands were under Nino’s shirt immediately, and Nino moaned against Aiba’s neck as his nipples were pinched.
“You like that,” Aiba said, pleased, and Nino let go of Aiba, a deep purple bruise already blooming against the side of his neck. He drew a line with his tongue down to his collarbone, pressing kisses across the bone.
Aiba let Nino rest his weight on him as Nino explored his body with his tongue, leaning backwards until he was lying back down on the futon. Nino straddled him, pulling off his shirt, before returning his mouth to Aiba’s body.
Aiba didn’t taste as strange as Nino expected, though he couldn’t describe any of the flavors layered over Aiba’s skin. He made his way down Aiba’s thin chest and flat stomach, his hands pushing down Aiba’s pajama pants to reveal his hard cock, already pearled.
“You’re so easy,” Nino rolled his eyes, kissing the cradles of Aiba’s hips.
“I like having fun,” Aiba said cheerfully, his hands in Nino’s hair. He ran his fingers through it - and Nino refused to think about how gentle he was being - as Nino nosed at the coarse hair at the junction between Aiba’s legs before running his tongue up the side of Aiba’s curved cock resting prettily on his stomach.
It tasted sweet, almost cloyingly so, and the smell of it was like a shot of lightning to Nino’s dick. He moved off of Aiba, ignoring Aiba’s whine of “hey!”
“On your stomach,” Nino said, getting up quickly to retrieve a condom and lube from his room, kicking off his own pants as he walked. He wasn’t going to go in bare; he never did except with Jun after it had become clear that they were each other’s only partners. It was risky enough fucking someone from another planet.
He was only gone for a few seconds, but he had to stop in the threshold of his door when he saw Aiba again.
Aiba was on his stomach, legs spread open, and his chest arched high off of the futon in a way that was impossible for humans. His right hand was working on stretching himself for Nino, two fingers already scissoring inside himself. He had his head thrown back, and even from where Nino was standing he could see the pleasure glossing over Aiba’s face.
Nino kept staring at the graceful curve of Aiba’s back as he added a third finger. Nino tore open the condom, rolling it over himself as he watched. He was so hard it almost hurt, but he was mesmerized by the sight of Aiba rolling his hips up in time with his hand.
Nino spread some lube on himself anyway, just in case, then finally went over to Aiba, using his hand to still Aiba’s. Aiba tilted his head over his shoulder to grin at Nino, his eyes dark and glittering as he slowly removed his hand.
Nino positioned himself behind Aiba, roughly grabbing Aiba’s right hip to pull his ass flush against Nino’s dick. He entered Aiba slowly, Aiba pushing back against him until he bottomed out. Nino had to close his eyes, overwhelmed by how tight Aiba was around him.
“Come on, Nino,” Aiba said, his head resting on his arms on the futon. His words sounded slurred and heavy, as though there was something in his mouth, but Nino was concentrating on the heat surrounding him.
He finally began to thrust, Aiba eagerly keeping up with him, and Nino knew he wasn’t going to last long. He leaned over, pressing his chest to Aiba’s back and wrapping a hand around Aiba’s cock.
Nino released first, gasping his moans into Aiba’s spine, their mingling sweat making them stick to each other. He sped his hand up, using Aiba’s own precome as lube, before Aiba came all over his hand and the futon.
Aiba reached one hand back and rested it on Nino’s hip as Nino began to pull out. “Where are you going?” he said, genuinely curious. His voice was back to normal. “You don’t stay for a while?”
“This kind of hurts,” Nino mumbled, and Aiba let go with a sigh, allowing Nino to pull out.
Aiba rolled over onto his back to watch Nino remove the condom and toss it into the nearest trash can. “We stay for a while,” Aiba shrugged. “It feels nice.”
Nino lay down next to him on the tiny futon, not caring that they were both filthy and naked. Nino could smell sex in the air but it was a sweet smell, almost sugary. “Will you stay here for a while?” Nino breathed against Aiba’s discolored arm.
Aiba laughed, high and joyful, and Nino breathed in the stars.