fic for harinezumi_kun
For: harinezumi_kun
From: alphie_damiek
Title: Corteo
Pairing: Ohmiya, other pairings TBA, and general Nino love
Rating: PG-13 for some salty language
Warnings: Other than the rating warning, none
Summary: A destitute cobbler tries to make the most of a dying store when he receives help from an unlikely source.
Notes: It’s an honor to write for you, as I love a lot of what you’ve written. One of your requests was for a re-worked fairy tale, and hopefully this fits the bill and you recognize which fairytale was used. I hope you enjoy this remake. The title “Corteo” is the name of a Cirque du Soleil show and has nothing to do with the story. :P And thanks to my beta, G-Nificent.
A long time ago, a young man named Kazunari Ninomiya lived with his father, who was known as one of the best cobblers in town. He made sturdy, practical shoes for the working class, loafers and bejeweled heels for the rich, as well as boots, sandals, and all types of footwear in between. Kazunari lived a modest life with his family, focusing his attentions on his lyre, going outdoors to play by himself, or watching his father work on another pair of shoes. Young Kazunari knew that he was going to take over the family business some day, so he made sure to take time out of his busy childhood schedule to watch his dad work and run the store. However, he didn’t make a lot of shoes on his own because he figured it would just be a waste of materials. He figured he could just become his father’s apprentice when he was older and learn it all then.
…until his father passed away. It was unexpectedly stormy that day, and his father’s horse had thrown him off when a lightning bolt hit too close to the path. He was bucked off, and tumbled down a hill until he landed into the river, where he drowned. Kazunari and the rest of his family heard the news when some of the villagers found his bloated body two days later, after they had discovered the horse without its rider. Mourning the death of his father was already a burden that Kazunari, at the age of 17, could not stand to bear, but the reality of the situation came soon after, when he realized that he would have to take over the family business. He knew very little about making shoes, his knowledge of the craft limited to just the basics, and even then all of his past attempts had been mediocre at best. But the young Kazunari dutifully took up his father’s place in the workshop and continued where his father had left off.
Three years later and the shop was close to ruin. Kazunari couldn’t produce even half of what his father could, and what he did make would usually be left to gather dust and cobwebs at the windowsill, as they lacked the luster and meticulous attention to detail that had made his father’s shoes so popular. His mother and sister had already left to join their family in the countryside, as per Kazunari’s request. There was no point keeping a family in town where there was not enough money to feed all the mouths.
The only regular visitor (not necessarily customer) he had left was the tailor, Jun Matsumoto. Matsumoto had come from a noble class of scholars and had once studied to become one and follow in his family’s footsteps. Instead, his interests changed and he traded his scrolls for silk. His shop was two stores down from Kazunari’s establishment and the two men had known each other since Matsumoto moved in two years ago. Kazunari was surprised to hear that Jun had seemingly changed his mind overnight about becoming a scholar, but he didn’t question it. It was Jun’s life, not his. Which was currently stuck at an all-time low.
The overhead bell rang and Kazunari shifted at his workbench at the back of the store. He scratched his unshaven scruff and adjusted his sore shoulders as he listened to the footsteps that entered the shop.
“Morning, Nino.”
“At least you left out the ‘good’.” Nino slumped onto the counter and hid his head in his arms.
“Eh? What’s wrong? Today’s just begun; there’s no reason to act like you haven’t had a customer all day.”
“Don’t talk-you have customers.”
“Ninomiya,” Jun started, and without having to look, Nino could see Jun’s hands on his hips, a posture that matched the disdain on his face. But he looked up anyway and faced the other man (who was wearing a bright purple tunic; what was he thinking?).
“Perhaps you could choose a different profession? Something not involving leather.”
“Damn, there goes my idea to open a sex shop.”
“I’m serious.” Jun marched closer to Nino. “Didn’t you have any other interests? Like… oh, music! You said you liked playing music when you were younger. There’s no reason why you can’t switch occupations.”
“And what? Become a traveling bard? Yeah, no. Even if this place is a dump, at least I have a roof over my head.” Nino looked away. He wasn’t going to tell Jun how much this place meant to his family, his father, and the legacy he wasn’t yet willing to throw away. It was too early to be having heart-to-heart discussions.
“Look, I don’t mean to be such a bothersome realist, but it seems about time you we-”
“GOOD MORNING!”
Jun and Nino’s faces snapped towards the door, where their eyes first caught sight of the shoes that were scattered across the floor, then the shelf they were on in pieces underneath a man whose copper hair couldn’t hold a shine to the smile on his face, even if it was more like a grimace as he got up and brushed the splinters off his tunic.
“Nino, Jun! Good, good morning!”
The cobbler shifted his glare back and forth between the man and the mess said man had made in his store.
“Tsk, Aiba, unless you have some spell to fix the things you keep breaking here, I suggest you be a little less scatterbrained about how you enter my humble establishment.”
Masaki Aiba was studying to become a sorcerer. At the moment he was an apprentice under the great sorcerer Nagase, whose eccentricities seemed to match Aiba’s to a T. Although he delved in spells and potions, he also seemed to like working with chemicals and their reactions, something he called “science”. Whatever that was.
“Oh, sorry Nino! Don’t worry, I’ll fix it!” the apprentice assured him. Like a bird, he flapped around the shop as he tried to pick up the splinters left from his assault on Nino’s property.
“Liar, you said that about the last shelf you broke. And the cans of glue you knocked over. And where’s my other pair of shears again?”
Aiba pouted. “Nino, I’m still borrowing them! For science! And besides, Jun won’t let me near his materials.”
Nino scoffed. “I wonder why.” He jumped off his chair, grabbed each man by the arm, and steering them out through the shop’s entrance.
“Anyway, both of you out! I don’t need this many non-paying bodies near me at this hour!”
After being pushed out of the shop, the two men turned towards Nino’s retreating figure. As the door closed, Aiba yelled out:
“Well we don’t need to be manhandled! Right, Jun?”
“Whatever.” The tailor was already halfway to his own shop.
There were only a few customers that day, mostly window shoppers. As daylight fell, Nino stopped himself from trying to work through another restless night. It would be a waste of candle to try and make another failed pair of shoes, he told himself. Too tired to clean up, he left the materials on his workbench and tottered to his room to get some rest.
-+-+-+-+-+-
It was another gloriously sunny day and Nino had already sworn to spend it indoors, probably in bed. There was no reason to open up shop today or any day after. He had decided: he would rot in his bed and leave whatever shoes were left to Jun to try and salvage. He’d leave Aiba his body to do whatever weird experiments he wanted on it.
Wait. If he died and Aiba took his body, what the hell would Aiba do with it? What if the kid put leeches all over his body, just to see if they would react the same way they would on a live body? Never mind, he wasn’t going to die today. Slowly, Nino got up and washed his face before changing into a fresh tunic and pants. At least, he thought, he could look like he was trying.
The only sunlight that filtered into the store was from a small side window to the upper right of his work table, but it was enough sunlight for him to curse before he turned to look at his table. His eyes finally opened, almost shooting out in fact, when he saw what was on it.
There, in perfect display position, sat a pair of beautiful, dark brown suede shoes. With a slight heel made of sturdy and well-cut leather, the shoes were meant to be worn if one wanted to make an entrance. The intricate needlework was present not only in the seams of the shoes, but all over, as if the suede was covered with clear lace. The outer side of each shoe was accentuated with a golden buckle strapped with leather.
“What the hell…?” Nino picked up one of the shoes. He turned it around in his hand and gave it a thorough inspection. The shoe seemed to glow in the sunlight from the side window; it glowed in perfection, a perfection that Nino had never quite achieved. He could find no fault with it.
He glanced around and made a brief inventory. The broken shelf that he hadn’t bothered to fix yet was still there, in pieces, as were the shoes that had been knocked off. All the other shoes and tools were there. In fact, nothing else had been touched other than the items on the bench. All the scraps were in neat piles and all of his tools in their holders or arranged around his table.
Suddenly, he dashed to the edges of his shop and opened all the curtains, coughing as the dust searched for a new place to settle. Nino went to the shelf located at the front of the shop and tossed some of the other shoes aside. After he wiped the dust off the center, he carefully placed the shoes in position. Sunlight hit the shoes at a perfect angle and made them gleam attractively. He ran towards the door, kicked away the broken pieces of wood that made up the miserable shelf, and wrenched the entrance open. As he bent down and picked up the toppled shoes, a cough was heard from the door.
The young cobbler turned. At the doorway stood a man dressed in obvious high-class robes, a highly recognizable crest perched atop his feathered hat.
“I am Sir Nakai, one of the royal attendants to Lord Kimura.”
Nino quickly stood and dropped all the shoes he had previously gathered. He cursed under his breath as he kicked the shoes out of the way and approached the other man.
“And, uh, how may I help you, Sir?”
Sir Nakai turned towards the window and shot a pointed look toward the brown suede shoes.
“Those shoes, in the window. I’ve yet to see a pair as beautiful as those. And I’m sure Lord Kimura would feel the same. What say you to selling those to me?”
“Ehh?” Nino couldn’t believe it. He doubted anyone had ever been as interested as this Nakai was in any of the shoes in the shop, let alone so soon after he had put them on display.
“Understand that I can-well, Lord Kimura can pay a fair amount. And if these are to his liking, he might request additional pairs to be made.”
Sir Nakai reached into his satchel and removed a heavy-looking pouch. He dipped his fingers into the bag and grabbed a large handful of coins. Nino didn’t even realize his hands were outstretched until the coins landed in his hands, which snapped him out of his stupor. A horrified realization rushed over him as his mind wrapped around the fact that he’d have to make a pair of shoes to replace the pair he just sold.
After Sir Nakai had left the shop, Nino hurried back to his workbench and began the production of a new pair of shoes. He had concluded that it would do him no good if he just stopped everything and relied wholly on whoever seemed to be helping him out of the goodness of his or her heart. However, even after an entire day’s worth of work on different shoes (he had forgotten to properly opened his shop today, but he didn’t have customers anyway), he deemed his creations still less than satisfactory, especially compared to the pair he had sold that morning. The cobbler sighed as he closed up shop and went to bed.
Even though he hadn’t expected a second miracle, Nino was relieved to find that his half-finished shoes from the night before had been transformed into a pair of flashy, suede loafers that would surely catch the eye of anyone. And thankfully they did; Sir Nakai came back and claimed that Lord Kimura had been ecstatic with the last pair of shoes and insisted that Ninomiya sell him another pair. Nino presented the newly made loafers to Sir Nakai, who paid for them and left, but not before he took a moment and admired the handiwork.
“Yes,” he said as he parted, “if you keep making such excellent shoes I’m afraid you’ll be seeing me here every morning.”
Nino knew he couldn’t rely completely on his mysterious helper, but it seemed like he had no choice. He tried to show his appreciation as best as he could; at night, he would leave a portion of the earnings for the shoes (it was only fair) and some leftover food (in case the person got hungry). In spite of all his efforts, when the sun rose, everything would be left untouched except for a brand new pair of shoes, which would be picked up first thing in the morning by Sir Nakai for Lord Kimura.
News spread quickly about Lord Kimura’s obsession with the cobbler Ninomiya, and people started to file into his shop on a regular basis. They didn’t seem to mind purchasing the ones in stock-the ones Nino had made that hadn’t been touched in months-and Nino supposed that the customers just wanted to feel like they owned a pair of shoes that were from the same shop Lord Kimura’s came from. Jun and Aiba were also impressed with how things seemed to have turned around for their friend and wondered who had come to Nino’s aid.
“Not telling,” Nino would sing-song. Well, he wouldn’t tell because he didn’t know.
Finally, after the sixth night, Nino decided to figure out whom or what was making these shoes. He left his half-finished materials on the workbench, blew his candle out, and headed to bed. But instead of falling asleep, he huddled against the other side of the cracked door to his bedroom and waited for, well, he didn’t know.
It had been a few hours and Nino’s limbs ached. He was still crouched behind his bedroom door, almost too tired to keep his eyes open, but before he could let out a yawn, he saw movement. From the small window at the side of the shop, two figures appeared. They opened the window, crawled through the narrow space, and landed onto the workbench.
The creatures looked human, but were too small to even be considered children. Nino’s eyes widened.
They were elves. Two elves, each dressed in tattered rags, were going around the workbench, where they carefully avoided the gold and silver coins and the plates of bread and cured ham. He watched as one of them started putting pieces of leather together, while the other one grabbed the supplies and more raw materials. It seemed to be quite a handful, as the elf who handled the supplies didn’t seem to know which color to use and instead just picked every color to bring into consideration. The other elf laughed softly at the selection.
“… Sho, you’re not very creative.”
“I know, Satoshi. I’m sorry,” responded the one named Sho as he picked up the colored fabrics.
“It’s ok, that’s why I have you cut and measure everything-because you’re very good at the technical stuff.”
After getting organized, Sho faced the other elf. Even with the dim lighting, Nino could see that Sho was a bit distressed.
“Why are we here again, Ohno?”
“I want to help him.”
“Ohno, you’re wasting your time. He can manage on his own. I bet he’s not even trying!”
Nino glared at the elf through the gap. How dare he make that assumption!
“He’s trying, Sho. There are completed shoes. Who else would have made them?”
“I don’t think he needs our help.”
“No, Sho. I can tell; he is trying. There is love in these shoes, I can feel it.”
Nino smiled. Seemed like someone had faith in him, even if that someone was an elf who was half his size but ten times more talented at his craft. With that thought in mind, Nino slowly fell asleep as he watched the two elves work.
When morning broke, Nino awoke to a sore back and a pair of dainty-heeled shoes that faced him from their position in the center of his work table. He groaned as he tried to get up and, instead of greeting the new shoes, he hobbled out of his shop and towards a store that was painted in light purple hues with floral accents around the windows. Without a thought about whether he should knock or not, Nino opened the door and barged in.
“Jun!”
Said man jumped from his position, crouched beside a wooden mannequin that wore a half-finished tunic. “Nino? What are you doing awake this early?”
The cobbler took a minute and looked at him. Jun was already properly dressed, with his hair combed around his face in such a way that his locks seemed to fall from his scalp like dark waves. “What are you doing looking so well-kept this early? How long have you been awake?”
“Well, obviously I have to take a morning inventory and get all of the mannequins ready, not to mention set up the fabric spools. Did you really just come here this early to ask me how I run my business?”
“No, Jun. Listen to me. I figured out who’s been making the shoes.”
“Ahh, your personal good Samaritan. Let me guess, a team of rogue seamsters who wear masks as they help out young entrepreneurs in peril.”
Nino ignored Jun’s sarcasm. “I’ll have you know it’s not just some average do-gooder. They’re elves, Jun.” He paused for effect. “Two male elves that come every night to help me in my hours of need.”
Jun got up and strode toward Nino, who had to back away, not just from the proximity, but from how intense Jun’s eyes had become.
“Elves, Nino? What do they look like? Have you tried talking to them? Do you know their names?”
Nino groaned while he massaged his temple in an effort to coax out more details from last night. “I can’t really tell, maybe ten inches, a foot tall. Both male, their names were Sho and Ohno, but sometimes the latter goes by Satoshi.”
Jun nodded. “And they only come in at night?”
“They come in through the small window and they’re dressed in nothing but these tawdry rags.” Nino’s eyes lit up and he grabbed Jun by the shoulders.
“Jun, gimme a few days, and then I’ll come back with better estimates. I need your help.”
-+-+-+-+-+-+-
“Sho, what are those…?”
The elves walked towards the center of the table, where two metal stands shone under the moonlight, each displaying a full elf-sized outfit. Ohno walked up to the blue velvet coat with finely stitched hems, the matching blue pants, and pale cream blouse. A thin strip of leather was included among the pieces, which Ohno figured out to be a makeshift belt. When he looked down, he smiled as he saw a pair of slightly imperfect shoes. Next to him, Sho inspected the matching outfit, but done in rich burgundy with gold stitching. The two looked at one another before they removed their dirty rags and put out their new outfits. Ohno quickly admired how well the clothes fit him and all of the fine details: golden buttons for cufflinks, small pieces of lace carefully stitched into a cummerbund, and the soft inner lining of the jacket made him feel so warm.
Sho slowly ran his hand along the fabric of his new coat before looking up at Ohno. His eyes were watery, but resolute.
“Ohno, let’s go.”
“What?” Ohno turned, too confused by Sho’s statement to appreciate the way the lapels of his jacket swished and fluttered around him. He gripped the hem of his shirt, as if he tried to seek comfort from the softness of it. “Why do we need to leave?”
“Because he knows about us!”
“Sho, of course he does. How else could he know to make boy clothes?”
The other elf sighed. “Satoshi, the clothes don’t matter. What matters is that he knows about us and who knows what he’ll do? He could capture us and make us his slaves, making shoes until we die! Or worse…”
Ohno stubbornly shook his head. “But Sho, I don’t think Nino’s like that. He hasn’t bothered us once, and look at these! He even tried to make us shoes!” He held up his pair of tiny, uneven loafers. “That means he likes us.”
“That means nothing! Satoshi, the fact that he knows about us is a bad thing. A VERY bad thing.”
It was beginning to be too much for Ohno to comprehend. Why would Nino give them clothes? Was it because he wanted to get rid of them? Were these clothes gifts, or a final form of payment? Because they had never taken anything from the shop, not the shoes they made, not the money, not even the food that Ohno thought looked so delicious but Sho would stop him from touching with a quick, “That’s not ours, Satoshi.”
“Trust me, please. We need to leave.”
Ohno looked at the shop, the dust-covered shoes, and the materials scattered on the table. In their haste to put on their new clothes, they had forgotten to make shoes. He looked at the unfinished pair of what could have been boots forlornly before he followed Sho out the window and out of the shop.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-
The sun slowly made its way through the streets. It crept through windows and cracks in the walls. When it found the Ninomiya shoe shop it slithered up through the break in the bedroom curtains. The glare woke Nino, who hopped out of bed, took off his nightgown, which he quickly switched for a tattered wool tunic. His own shoes forgotten, he opened the door between his room and the shop. The clothes were gone, just as he had hoped; even the mini shoes were gone! But when he took a good look at the workbench, he noticed that nothing else had been touched. The clothes Jun had made had been taken, but the half-finished boots were still in an awkward pile in his workspace.
He sighed. Maybe the elves were just waiting for such an opportunity-to have an excuse to leave and not come back. Nino didn’t dwell on his thoughts for long, however, as the ringing of the shop bell interrupted his thoughts and alerted him to the front of the store, where Sir Nakai stood.
“Ah, Ninomiya! Good morning. I take it you have finished the commission Lord Kimura requested?”
“Uh…” Nino shifted as he tried to hide the mess on the counter.
“Is there a problem, Ninomiya?”
“No, sir. Something, um…”
“What? Do you lack the materials? I thought we had properly compensated you those other times.”
“It’s not that! I just, just…” Nino stopped himself. No lie would make the situation better. He took a deep breath.
“The people who made them aren’t here anymore. I’m sorry.”
Nakai pursed his lips as he took in the information. “I see. Sad to hear. Well, good day.” He didn’t spare Nino another glance as he walked out of the shop. Aiba and Jun watched from the doorway as the attendant left. They saw the disappointed look on Nakai’s face and darted into Nino’s shop.
“Nino, what happened? Did Sir Nakai not like them?”
Nino shook his head. “They’re gone, Aiba. Sho and Ohno. They took the clothes and left.” He sighed at the same time Jun did. Puzzled by the reaction, both he and Aiba looked at the tailor, who looked back at them just as puzzled. Nino shrugged.
“Sorry, Jun. Looks like you’ll never know if they appreciated it or not.”
“But what are you going to do now?” Aiba asked warily.
Nino just shook his head again.
It had been two weeks since the elves had left, and Nino’s shop was back to a state of cold dust and stale business. For days Nino wouldn’t even bother to open the drapes or answer whoever knocked on the door (restrained, polite knocks from Jun and incessant banging from Aiba). It was night; Nino retrieved a candle and lit it as he sat at his now dusty workbench. He stared hollowly at the flame, as if the act would give him answers to all his questions and problems. His mind wandered as it tried desperately to grasp the situation, but failed miserably. He’d never be able to see the elves again; he wanted to thank them in person. The shop had been dead for so long and those two had brought it back to life literally overnight, and part of him wished the elves had stayed to see the way people reacted to their creations. Without the elves, no one would buy his mediocre shoes. Nino knew that at this rate, he’d just have to close up shop and move to the countryside with his family. There was no other choice.
He walked over to his bedroom and came back with his lyre. Slowly, he ran his fingers across the strings and reveled in the soft sounds the act produced. He had been so focused on the shoes he hardly took the time to play anymore. The well-worn strings welcomed Nino’s touch as he plucked one string, then two. If things had been different, where would he be? Would he really have taken his father’s place? Or would he have pursued other interests like music, as Jun had hinted at weeks before? Would he have been happier then? A melody began to form around the shop, a song that flowed from his frustration, longing, family, and everything he had felt up to this point.
“Nino?”
Nino jolted out of his reverie and stopped playing when he heard the small voice from the window. There Ohno stood, small but dazzling in his outfit, complete with the mismatched shoes Nino had toiled over. He squinted and tried to focus on the elf through his weary eyes.
“Ohno… what are you doing here?”
The elf took a few slow steps forward, his eyes darting towards the window in case he needed to make a quick exit. “I saw the candlelight and thought you might still be awake.” He jumped from the windowsill onto the workbench and carefully made his way towards Nino. “I also heard you play.” They both looked at the lyre in Nino’s hands. “I liked it. It was sad, but… I liked it.” Nino coughed and set the instrument down, then faced the elf.
“Thanks. And where’s the other one, Sho?”
“Oh.” Ohno looked around, as if he just realized he was alone. “Sometimes he goes off on his own. I don’t ask.”
Nino nodded. This meant that they were alone, and hopefully that meant he could get some answers from the little elf. He opened his mouth and Ohno looked up at him. He closed his mouth, sighed, and massaged his head before he continued.
“So… where have you been?”
Ohno looked away and stepped back. “Are you mad at me?”
Nino lowered his head onto his arms and gave the elf a contemplative look. Yes, he was mad, but it looked like that wasn’t the best way to respond given the situation and how utterly pitiful Ohno looked.
“Do you like your outfit? Jun made it for you.”
“Jun did? I thought you…”
Nino scoffed and rested his cheek on his hand. “Me? Please, I can barely make shoes, what makes you think I’d know how to make a whole outfit? And come on, those patterns scream Jun Matsumoto.”
“Oh. So Jun made everything?” Ohno looked down and wriggled his toes in the small shoes that encased them. Nino followed Ohno’s gaze and smiled.
“Ah, those. Like ‘em? I made them. Sorry they don’t match the outfit.”
Ohno looked up and smiled at the cobbler. “No, I like them. They’re my favorite pair.”
Nino scoffed. “I’m pretty sure they’re your only pair,” he responded, but Ohno didn’t seem to be offended; rather, it seemed like he understood that the man had appreciated the compliment. He looked at his shoes, then back to Nino. He watched as Nino pillowed his head upon his arms once more, the human’s eyes glazed as they slowly lost focus. He yawned, and the force of it made the lapels of Ohno’s coat flutter.
“Thank you, though, for coming to see me.”
The elf blinked. “Huh?”
“Because I never got to thank you, for everything you did. You and Sho did what I couldn’t do, no matter how much I tried.”
Ohno shook his head at that statement. “No. I know Nino tries. Whether it’s making shoes or playing music-whatever you do, you put a lot of love into it.”
Nino chuckled. “That’s the kind of compliment I really needed. I just wish I had a reason for you to stay here. Maybe if you were human, right?”
Ohno’s eyes shifted back and forth before he spoke. “If I was human, would you still want me here?”
But Nino had already fallen asleep. Carefully, Ohno tip-toed towards the candle and blew it out, then gingerly made his way to the window and crawled through, but not before he turned to gaze fondly upon the sleeping figure.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-
“You want to WHAT?”
“Shh! Shut up, Aiba, I don’t need the whole town to hear you.” Nino currently stood in front of Nagase’s hut, where Aiba lived and studied as Nagase’s apprentice. Aiba had yet to let the other man into his abode, but Nino figured it was for the best.
“Look, all I’m asking is if it’s possible to turn an elf into a human.”
“But Nino, do you realize how stupid you sound right now?”
“Pot calls kettle what?”
“What?”
“Just, never mind. Can it be done or not?”
“I don’t know, Nino. Turning a magical species into a non-magical species seems impossible.” To Nino’s surprise, Aiba smiled at his own doubt-filled statement. “But who’s to say it can’t be done? Sounds like an experiment waiting to be solved! Just give me some time to gather the right materials and see if it’s possible. I’m so excited!”
Nino didn’t voice it aloud, but he agreed.
Four days later, Aiba stopped by Nino’s store to let him know that yes, it was possible (“And you can turn unicorns into horses, Nino! We just need a unicorn, Nino, and then we’ll have our very own horse!”), and that he would have all the ingredients ready by the following day. It was just a matter of the elves being brought to Aiba’s place (and getting Sorcerer Nagase to leave for the day, which he assured Nino would be no problem).
“It’s just that… Nino, they’ll lose their powers.”
Nino hadn’t thought about that. True, he hadn’t seen the elves do much more than work with their hands every time they made shoes, but that didn’t mean that they had no powers. They were magical creatures, after all. What benefit would they have as humans?
That night, he kept a candle on, and sure enough Ohno came.
“Hi, Nino.”
“Hello, Ohno. Sho ditched you again?”
Ohno nodded.
It was probably for the best, as it seemed easier to convince Ohno of his plan than the other elf. “Well, guess what? I have a friend who says he can turn you and Sho into humans.”
“Really, Nino?” he gasped.
“Yeah. Wait, how do you know my name?”
The little elf hid his face as he looked away. “Sometimes during the day I check to see how you’re doing. Your friends call you ‘Nino’. Is it OK if I call you Nino?”
“Sure, that’s fine,” Nino replied, and then hesitated. Ohno should be warned about the after-effects of the transformation, but he knew it would be hard to keep Ohno convinced about the idea after information like that was out in the open. Nino shook his head.
“Hey, Ohno. About turning human…” Ohno nodded for him to carry on. “You know,” he paused and plucked a few strings on the lyre. He took a deep breath and continued.
“You’ll lose your powers. I mean, I don’t know what kinds of powers elves have, but you won’t be magical anymore.” He looked at Ohno with a matter-of-fact expression. He waited so Ohno could process it all. Ohno’s faced seemed blank as he blinked once, then twice, before he met Nino’s gaze.
“But I’ll be human?” He sounded hopeful.
Nino smiled at the elf. “Yeah.” Ohno smiled back.
“Then that’s OK.”
Ohno probably couldn’t tell how relieved Nino was, but the latter was perfectly fine with that. “Well that’s settled. Can you go out during the day?”
Ohno looked confused. “Are we not supposed to?” Nino suddenly appreciated Sho being Ohno’s companion.
“Well then tomorrow, bring Sho and come to the shop. I’ll make sure it’s closed and when you get here, and we’ll go to Aiba’s together, ok?”
-+-+-+-+-+-+-
The next morning, Nino left all the curtains closed and purposely opened the small side window, just in case Ohno showed up dragging Sho along kicking and screaming.
Which he did. Nino was alerted to their presence when the elves crashed headlong onto the heap of unused tools beneath the window. He ran towards them. Ohno pulled himself and Sho out of the pile but didn’t loosen his grip on Sho’s wrist.
“Satoshi, what are you doing!”
“Nino! We want to be human!”
“What’s this ‘we’ business? Hey, unhand me!”
Nino grabbed Sho by the collar of his jacket and dropped him none-too-gently in his pouch before the elf could protest further. Ohno grabbed onto the opening and lowered himself in, but not before he locked eyes with Nino.
“I’m excited, Nino.”
Nino made haste and hoped no one would notice that his bag fidgeted at his side. When he got to Nagase’s hut he ran across to the back yard, where Aiba was occupied with stirring a huge boiling kettle. He turned and bounded toward Nino, who showed him the pouch and the way it twitched to and fro.
“Oh. My. Word.”
“Aiba, wait-”
“Please! Let me see what I can do with them before I turn them into human!”
Nino attempted to change the subject. He looked around and asked, “Where’s Jun?”
“Finishing some commission for some rich lord’s niece or something. Said he’d be here as soon as he finished,” Aiba replied as he brought over a small table for Nino to put the bag upon. They both watched intently as the two elves made their way out of the burlap sack. Sho tried to run off but was tangled with the bag’s drawstrings.
“Ohno, run! We need to run!”
Ohno and Aiba helped Sho get untangled. “Sho, listen to me!” Ohno’s voice stopped Sho’s attempted escape.
“You said you wanted to be human the first day we met, remember? Right? You said you had regrets and that if you could have anything, you’d want to be human. Here’s our chance.”
Sho looked up at Ohno, then at the two humans. Slowly, he nodded. Aiba whooped in excitement and the two elves jumped.
“I’m so excited! I’m Aiba!”
Sho shied away. “I don’t know who this is, but I’m scared.”
“A friend of Nino’s is a friend of ours,” Ohno reassured him.
“Well since introductions are done,” Nino started, “Let’s get this thing over with. You ready, Aiba?”
“Of course!” Aiba ran to the boiling pot and poured two cups full of the bright pink concoction from within it. He then placed the cups on a patch of ground that was surrounded by small, brightly-colored stones. Nino watched as the sorcerer’s apprentice returned and held out his palms to the two elves.
“I’ll need to take you over there. I had to place those stones in a specific arrangement, so I can’t have anyone screwing them up, ok?”
Ohno and Sho nodded as they crawled onto Aiba’s hands. It was a miracle that Aiba didn’t drop them along the way, as Nino saw that Aiba’s eyes were more occupied with the beings in front of him than with where he was going. But the other man managed somehow, and carefully placed the elves in the center of the magical ring before he walked back and grabbed his spell book.
“OK,” he said. “I’ll need you two to start drinking the potion. Then I’ll start the incantation and hopefully things will go the way they’re supposed to?”
“And if they don’t?” Sho asked. They all watched as Aiba’s eyes shifted back and forth. He coughed.
“Well, worst case scenario… you’ll just explode.”
“WHAT?” both Nino and Sho exclaimed.
“Now, now, you two! Have some faith in me!” Aiba reassured them. He nodded to Nino, then the two elves. Sho and Ohno looked at each other before each took the cup in front of him and began to drink. Nino watched as Aiba read aloud from his book-to him it resembled what a snake would sound like if it spoke Latin, but it wasn’t as if he knew what was going on. He turned and watched as the stones and crystals around the two elves began to glow. They flickered, then shone with a light that could rival the strongest flame. Nino had to look away from the brightness, but not before he saw how Ohno and Sho’s bodies glowed a bright pink hue. All of a sudden the ground around them shook, and Nino stumbled back, but Aiba stood his ground and continued to read out loud. From the center of the light came a BANG! and plumes of heavy smoke blew from it. Nino coughed and flapped his arms around him as he attempted to wipe away the smoke. As the smolder began to dissipate, he held his breath as he saw two human-sized figures step out from the epicenter. Had it worked?
Before he could check, he heard footsteps behind him. Nino turned and saw Jun as he walked towards them. He heard a voice as it called out from the smoke.
“… Jun?”
Jun’s eyes widened. “It’s you!”
“AIBA!! WHAT IS GOING ON OVER THERE?”
“Shit, it’s Nagase! Everyone, go!” Aiba led the men around the side of the workshop and onto the street, where he pushed them all away from the hut before opening the door and stepping inside in a rush.
“I’ll distract him! Just go!” With that, Aiba slammed the door on them. The rest of them stood there blankly until they heard yelling and what sounded like pans knock against cauldrons. The four men made a mad dash to Jun’s shop, which was closest to where they were. Once they entered the tailor’s shop, they each took a seat on one of the many plush chairs that resided in the store. They spent a moment to catch their breaths, and when his panting subsided, Nino finally looked up to study the two new men in front of them.
Ohno’s pale face seemed to be lit up by the sunlight against his short brown hair and the bolts of reflective fabrics in the shop. His eyes looked lost, but not scared. Instead, Ohno stared off and seemed to absorb his surroundings readily. He slouched comfortably on the plush couch, while the long fingers of his hands swept across the fabric of it appreciatively.
Sho seemed to be the opposite of Ohno. His sloping shoulders looked tense as he anxiously tried to assess the situation. His rich red outfit complimented the brown of his hair and eyes, his features still elf-like because of his pointed face and ears. Sho seemed wound up and wouldn’t look anyone in the face.
Everyone heard Aiba as the man coughed and stumbled his way into Jun’s shop. Nino glanced at him; the taller man was a little dirty, and part of his hair was singed, but nothing was too badly out of place. Aiba smiled.
“Nagase just thinks I blew up something again. He’s gone to get more ingredients to replace the ones that were lost. And it looks like it was worth it! See, I knew thi-”
“Sho.”
Nino looked at Jun. How did this man know who Sho was?
Ohno also gazed curiously back and forth between the two.
“Oh,” he said. “So that’s where you go.”
Aiba tried to fill in the gaps. “Wait, Jun, how do you two know each other?”
Jun didn’t respond, but instead sat down on the other couch and took a deep breath. Slowly, he began to speak.
“Growing up I was told that I needed to be a scholar like the rest of my family. I didn’t know if that was what I really wanted to do, but I went with it anyway, for my family’s sake.”
Nino knew the feeling all too well and nodded as he met Jun’s gaze.
“But it was difficult. I just didn’t understand or couldn’t absorb many of the subjects, and it hurt to see how disappointed my father was with me. I spent countless nights wasting candle wax, trying to figure it all out, and it was frustrating to say the least. Then one day, I woke up and saw that my books had been organized, with pages marked and sentences underlined. I didn’t know who did it, but when I went over what had been outlined, I started to get better at absorbing the information. I was beginning to understand what the textbooks said. My dad was so proud of me.” Jun laughed, but there was no mirth in it.
“Obviously I didn’t question who my benefactor was. I figured it was my father or an uncle trying to give me some extra help without letting me know. So one night, I decided to stay up to watch, just so I could surprise my helper. Well, it turned out that I was the surprised one that night.” He looked at Sho.
“I had been getting help from an elf the whole time. When I saw him, I was startled and made a sound. The elf looked at me, and for a second I thought he would run away because he knew I was awake and watching him. But he didn’t. He said his name was Sho and that he wanted to help me. The next morning I told my father about the encounter. And after that night, I never saw the elf again. In the end I gave up studying and took on a new occupation.”
Nino alternated glances between the two. “But why didn’t he come back?” An uneasy and awkward silence rippled through the tense air. Suddenly, Aiba clapped his hands in realization.
“I know what it was!” Aiba ran out before the others could question him. A few beats later and the man came back, arms full of books and scrolls.
“My teacher was going over this a few weeks ago; why didn’t I pay attention?” Nino and Jun exchanged looks, but didn’t interrupt him. Aiba grinned as he took the books from under his arm and slammed them across the table. He occupied himself with the pages while Nino and Jun tried to salvage what had spilled onto the floor in wake of Aiba’s movements.
“Look, look here!” The man began to hop up and down in his excitement, and Nino abandoned trying to pick up the scattered items and instead, moved to try to stop Aiba from knocking over anything else. He looked over Aiba’s shoulder at the chapter titled “Magical Wards”.
“It was a charm. Your family must’ve put a charm around you and your house. THAT’S why you never saw Sho again! Because he couldn’t go near you!”
Jun rose and pat his body uncertainly, as if looking for something. “A charm…. But what does that mean now? Do I still have it on me?”
Aiba looked him over once before he consulted the tome in front of him. He skimmed the pages with pursed lips, and then shook his head.
“No. Looks like it should’ve worn off after a few months. Not to mention you’ve been away from your family since you moved here, so your dad couldn’t have kept refreshing its power.”
Everyone looked at Sho.
“When your father put that ward up, it was because he didn’t trust something like me. After learning that, I made sure I wasn’t going to let myself be seen by any humans again. I was even going to give up helping people. But then I met Satoshi, who was so interested in helping Nino out that I guess I couldn’t say no.”
“But that means you knew that the spell had worn off. Yet you didn’t come back. Why?”
“I saw the life you had now, and I noticed how much happier you were. I saw that you had moved on and entered a trade that you enjoyed very much. So I decided…to leave you be. It was apparent that I had done no good in helping you with your studies.”
Jun sighed. “I was happiest knowing that there was someone there who wanted me to succeed and was actually helping me, instead of just yelling at me to study and ignoring my struggles. When you left, all of my motivation to continue studying to become a scholar left as well. I… if you had stayed, I would have been happy continuing along that route. As long as I had you…r support.” Jun tried to hide the way he stuttered.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Nino. “Well, maybe we should leave you two to catch up. Right, Ohno?” He turned and faced the other elf-turned-human. Without waiting for anyone present to respond, he quickly grabbed Ohno’s hand and pulled him out of Jun’s shop and into his own. He watched as Ohno looked around in wonder, as if seeing the shop for the first time. Slowly, he ran his hands along the dust-covered surfaces and seemed to marvel at how the particles clung to his fingers. He picked up random shoes and watched them catch rays of sunlight when they hit the right angles. It made Nino just a little nervous. Was Ohno going to leave, now that he was human?
“Well, what am I gonna do now? It’s not like you can use magic any more, right?”
Ohno raised his hands and stared at them like they were something new and amazing. “Oh, no. I made them all by hand, you see.” He smiled at Nino.
“Well,” Nino started, as he reached over to Ohno and grabbed the latter’s hand. Gently, he squeezed it. He liked the way it felt in his.
“I think I can figure out what we’re going to do.”
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Nino now has a few more customers to deal with. But he deals with them, because their business means he and Ohno can live comfortably in their humble shop. When he’s not helping Ohno make shoes (under Ohno’s supervision, and even though they’re still not as good as Ohno’s, Ohno thinks they’re good enough to sell), he’s playing his lyre in front of the store, attracting customers who first fall in love with his music, then fall in love with the shoes he and Ohno make. Even Lord Kimura stops by every once in a while with Sir Nakai in tow.
Sho is now Jun’s assistant. His duties include keeping the financial books up to date, as well getting the fabrics cut and ready for Jun to use. Though he isn’t good at sewing (Jun won’t let him near any of his needles after Sho managed to prick every part of his hand in one sitting), has no sense of color or style, his words of encouragement and appreciation for Jun’s creations have made the tailor the happiest anyone’s ever seen him.
And Aiba now has a horse.
THE END.
From: alphie_damiek
Title: Corteo
Pairing: Ohmiya, other pairings TBA, and general Nino love
Rating: PG-13 for some salty language
Warnings: Other than the rating warning, none
Summary: A destitute cobbler tries to make the most of a dying store when he receives help from an unlikely source.
Notes: It’s an honor to write for you, as I love a lot of what you’ve written. One of your requests was for a re-worked fairy tale, and hopefully this fits the bill and you recognize which fairytale was used. I hope you enjoy this remake. The title “Corteo” is the name of a Cirque du Soleil show and has nothing to do with the story. :P And thanks to my beta, G-Nificent.
A long time ago, a young man named Kazunari Ninomiya lived with his father, who was known as one of the best cobblers in town. He made sturdy, practical shoes for the working class, loafers and bejeweled heels for the rich, as well as boots, sandals, and all types of footwear in between. Kazunari lived a modest life with his family, focusing his attentions on his lyre, going outdoors to play by himself, or watching his father work on another pair of shoes. Young Kazunari knew that he was going to take over the family business some day, so he made sure to take time out of his busy childhood schedule to watch his dad work and run the store. However, he didn’t make a lot of shoes on his own because he figured it would just be a waste of materials. He figured he could just become his father’s apprentice when he was older and learn it all then.
…until his father passed away. It was unexpectedly stormy that day, and his father’s horse had thrown him off when a lightning bolt hit too close to the path. He was bucked off, and tumbled down a hill until he landed into the river, where he drowned. Kazunari and the rest of his family heard the news when some of the villagers found his bloated body two days later, after they had discovered the horse without its rider. Mourning the death of his father was already a burden that Kazunari, at the age of 17, could not stand to bear, but the reality of the situation came soon after, when he realized that he would have to take over the family business. He knew very little about making shoes, his knowledge of the craft limited to just the basics, and even then all of his past attempts had been mediocre at best. But the young Kazunari dutifully took up his father’s place in the workshop and continued where his father had left off.
Three years later and the shop was close to ruin. Kazunari couldn’t produce even half of what his father could, and what he did make would usually be left to gather dust and cobwebs at the windowsill, as they lacked the luster and meticulous attention to detail that had made his father’s shoes so popular. His mother and sister had already left to join their family in the countryside, as per Kazunari’s request. There was no point keeping a family in town where there was not enough money to feed all the mouths.
The only regular visitor (not necessarily customer) he had left was the tailor, Jun Matsumoto. Matsumoto had come from a noble class of scholars and had once studied to become one and follow in his family’s footsteps. Instead, his interests changed and he traded his scrolls for silk. His shop was two stores down from Kazunari’s establishment and the two men had known each other since Matsumoto moved in two years ago. Kazunari was surprised to hear that Jun had seemingly changed his mind overnight about becoming a scholar, but he didn’t question it. It was Jun’s life, not his. Which was currently stuck at an all-time low.
The overhead bell rang and Kazunari shifted at his workbench at the back of the store. He scratched his unshaven scruff and adjusted his sore shoulders as he listened to the footsteps that entered the shop.
“Morning, Nino.”
“At least you left out the ‘good’.” Nino slumped onto the counter and hid his head in his arms.
“Eh? What’s wrong? Today’s just begun; there’s no reason to act like you haven’t had a customer all day.”
“Don’t talk-you have customers.”
“Ninomiya,” Jun started, and without having to look, Nino could see Jun’s hands on his hips, a posture that matched the disdain on his face. But he looked up anyway and faced the other man (who was wearing a bright purple tunic; what was he thinking?).
“Perhaps you could choose a different profession? Something not involving leather.”
“Damn, there goes my idea to open a sex shop.”
“I’m serious.” Jun marched closer to Nino. “Didn’t you have any other interests? Like… oh, music! You said you liked playing music when you were younger. There’s no reason why you can’t switch occupations.”
“And what? Become a traveling bard? Yeah, no. Even if this place is a dump, at least I have a roof over my head.” Nino looked away. He wasn’t going to tell Jun how much this place meant to his family, his father, and the legacy he wasn’t yet willing to throw away. It was too early to be having heart-to-heart discussions.
“Look, I don’t mean to be such a bothersome realist, but it seems about time you we-”
“GOOD MORNING!”
Jun and Nino’s faces snapped towards the door, where their eyes first caught sight of the shoes that were scattered across the floor, then the shelf they were on in pieces underneath a man whose copper hair couldn’t hold a shine to the smile on his face, even if it was more like a grimace as he got up and brushed the splinters off his tunic.
“Nino, Jun! Good, good morning!”
The cobbler shifted his glare back and forth between the man and the mess said man had made in his store.
“Tsk, Aiba, unless you have some spell to fix the things you keep breaking here, I suggest you be a little less scatterbrained about how you enter my humble establishment.”
Masaki Aiba was studying to become a sorcerer. At the moment he was an apprentice under the great sorcerer Nagase, whose eccentricities seemed to match Aiba’s to a T. Although he delved in spells and potions, he also seemed to like working with chemicals and their reactions, something he called “science”. Whatever that was.
“Oh, sorry Nino! Don’t worry, I’ll fix it!” the apprentice assured him. Like a bird, he flapped around the shop as he tried to pick up the splinters left from his assault on Nino’s property.
“Liar, you said that about the last shelf you broke. And the cans of glue you knocked over. And where’s my other pair of shears again?”
Aiba pouted. “Nino, I’m still borrowing them! For science! And besides, Jun won’t let me near his materials.”
Nino scoffed. “I wonder why.” He jumped off his chair, grabbed each man by the arm, and steering them out through the shop’s entrance.
“Anyway, both of you out! I don’t need this many non-paying bodies near me at this hour!”
After being pushed out of the shop, the two men turned towards Nino’s retreating figure. As the door closed, Aiba yelled out:
“Well we don’t need to be manhandled! Right, Jun?”
“Whatever.” The tailor was already halfway to his own shop.
There were only a few customers that day, mostly window shoppers. As daylight fell, Nino stopped himself from trying to work through another restless night. It would be a waste of candle to try and make another failed pair of shoes, he told himself. Too tired to clean up, he left the materials on his workbench and tottered to his room to get some rest.
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It was another gloriously sunny day and Nino had already sworn to spend it indoors, probably in bed. There was no reason to open up shop today or any day after. He had decided: he would rot in his bed and leave whatever shoes were left to Jun to try and salvage. He’d leave Aiba his body to do whatever weird experiments he wanted on it.
Wait. If he died and Aiba took his body, what the hell would Aiba do with it? What if the kid put leeches all over his body, just to see if they would react the same way they would on a live body? Never mind, he wasn’t going to die today. Slowly, Nino got up and washed his face before changing into a fresh tunic and pants. At least, he thought, he could look like he was trying.
The only sunlight that filtered into the store was from a small side window to the upper right of his work table, but it was enough sunlight for him to curse before he turned to look at his table. His eyes finally opened, almost shooting out in fact, when he saw what was on it.
There, in perfect display position, sat a pair of beautiful, dark brown suede shoes. With a slight heel made of sturdy and well-cut leather, the shoes were meant to be worn if one wanted to make an entrance. The intricate needlework was present not only in the seams of the shoes, but all over, as if the suede was covered with clear lace. The outer side of each shoe was accentuated with a golden buckle strapped with leather.
“What the hell…?” Nino picked up one of the shoes. He turned it around in his hand and gave it a thorough inspection. The shoe seemed to glow in the sunlight from the side window; it glowed in perfection, a perfection that Nino had never quite achieved. He could find no fault with it.
He glanced around and made a brief inventory. The broken shelf that he hadn’t bothered to fix yet was still there, in pieces, as were the shoes that had been knocked off. All the other shoes and tools were there. In fact, nothing else had been touched other than the items on the bench. All the scraps were in neat piles and all of his tools in their holders or arranged around his table.
Suddenly, he dashed to the edges of his shop and opened all the curtains, coughing as the dust searched for a new place to settle. Nino went to the shelf located at the front of the shop and tossed some of the other shoes aside. After he wiped the dust off the center, he carefully placed the shoes in position. Sunlight hit the shoes at a perfect angle and made them gleam attractively. He ran towards the door, kicked away the broken pieces of wood that made up the miserable shelf, and wrenched the entrance open. As he bent down and picked up the toppled shoes, a cough was heard from the door.
The young cobbler turned. At the doorway stood a man dressed in obvious high-class robes, a highly recognizable crest perched atop his feathered hat.
“I am Sir Nakai, one of the royal attendants to Lord Kimura.”
Nino quickly stood and dropped all the shoes he had previously gathered. He cursed under his breath as he kicked the shoes out of the way and approached the other man.
“And, uh, how may I help you, Sir?”
Sir Nakai turned towards the window and shot a pointed look toward the brown suede shoes.
“Those shoes, in the window. I’ve yet to see a pair as beautiful as those. And I’m sure Lord Kimura would feel the same. What say you to selling those to me?”
“Ehh?” Nino couldn’t believe it. He doubted anyone had ever been as interested as this Nakai was in any of the shoes in the shop, let alone so soon after he had put them on display.
“Understand that I can-well, Lord Kimura can pay a fair amount. And if these are to his liking, he might request additional pairs to be made.”
Sir Nakai reached into his satchel and removed a heavy-looking pouch. He dipped his fingers into the bag and grabbed a large handful of coins. Nino didn’t even realize his hands were outstretched until the coins landed in his hands, which snapped him out of his stupor. A horrified realization rushed over him as his mind wrapped around the fact that he’d have to make a pair of shoes to replace the pair he just sold.
After Sir Nakai had left the shop, Nino hurried back to his workbench and began the production of a new pair of shoes. He had concluded that it would do him no good if he just stopped everything and relied wholly on whoever seemed to be helping him out of the goodness of his or her heart. However, even after an entire day’s worth of work on different shoes (he had forgotten to properly opened his shop today, but he didn’t have customers anyway), he deemed his creations still less than satisfactory, especially compared to the pair he had sold that morning. The cobbler sighed as he closed up shop and went to bed.
Even though he hadn’t expected a second miracle, Nino was relieved to find that his half-finished shoes from the night before had been transformed into a pair of flashy, suede loafers that would surely catch the eye of anyone. And thankfully they did; Sir Nakai came back and claimed that Lord Kimura had been ecstatic with the last pair of shoes and insisted that Ninomiya sell him another pair. Nino presented the newly made loafers to Sir Nakai, who paid for them and left, but not before he took a moment and admired the handiwork.
“Yes,” he said as he parted, “if you keep making such excellent shoes I’m afraid you’ll be seeing me here every morning.”
Nino knew he couldn’t rely completely on his mysterious helper, but it seemed like he had no choice. He tried to show his appreciation as best as he could; at night, he would leave a portion of the earnings for the shoes (it was only fair) and some leftover food (in case the person got hungry). In spite of all his efforts, when the sun rose, everything would be left untouched except for a brand new pair of shoes, which would be picked up first thing in the morning by Sir Nakai for Lord Kimura.
News spread quickly about Lord Kimura’s obsession with the cobbler Ninomiya, and people started to file into his shop on a regular basis. They didn’t seem to mind purchasing the ones in stock-the ones Nino had made that hadn’t been touched in months-and Nino supposed that the customers just wanted to feel like they owned a pair of shoes that were from the same shop Lord Kimura’s came from. Jun and Aiba were also impressed with how things seemed to have turned around for their friend and wondered who had come to Nino’s aid.
“Not telling,” Nino would sing-song. Well, he wouldn’t tell because he didn’t know.
Finally, after the sixth night, Nino decided to figure out whom or what was making these shoes. He left his half-finished materials on the workbench, blew his candle out, and headed to bed. But instead of falling asleep, he huddled against the other side of the cracked door to his bedroom and waited for, well, he didn’t know.
It had been a few hours and Nino’s limbs ached. He was still crouched behind his bedroom door, almost too tired to keep his eyes open, but before he could let out a yawn, he saw movement. From the small window at the side of the shop, two figures appeared. They opened the window, crawled through the narrow space, and landed onto the workbench.
The creatures looked human, but were too small to even be considered children. Nino’s eyes widened.
They were elves. Two elves, each dressed in tattered rags, were going around the workbench, where they carefully avoided the gold and silver coins and the plates of bread and cured ham. He watched as one of them started putting pieces of leather together, while the other one grabbed the supplies and more raw materials. It seemed to be quite a handful, as the elf who handled the supplies didn’t seem to know which color to use and instead just picked every color to bring into consideration. The other elf laughed softly at the selection.
“… Sho, you’re not very creative.”
“I know, Satoshi. I’m sorry,” responded the one named Sho as he picked up the colored fabrics.
“It’s ok, that’s why I have you cut and measure everything-because you’re very good at the technical stuff.”
After getting organized, Sho faced the other elf. Even with the dim lighting, Nino could see that Sho was a bit distressed.
“Why are we here again, Ohno?”
“I want to help him.”
“Ohno, you’re wasting your time. He can manage on his own. I bet he’s not even trying!”
Nino glared at the elf through the gap. How dare he make that assumption!
“He’s trying, Sho. There are completed shoes. Who else would have made them?”
“I don’t think he needs our help.”
“No, Sho. I can tell; he is trying. There is love in these shoes, I can feel it.”
Nino smiled. Seemed like someone had faith in him, even if that someone was an elf who was half his size but ten times more talented at his craft. With that thought in mind, Nino slowly fell asleep as he watched the two elves work.
When morning broke, Nino awoke to a sore back and a pair of dainty-heeled shoes that faced him from their position in the center of his work table. He groaned as he tried to get up and, instead of greeting the new shoes, he hobbled out of his shop and towards a store that was painted in light purple hues with floral accents around the windows. Without a thought about whether he should knock or not, Nino opened the door and barged in.
“Jun!”
Said man jumped from his position, crouched beside a wooden mannequin that wore a half-finished tunic. “Nino? What are you doing awake this early?”
The cobbler took a minute and looked at him. Jun was already properly dressed, with his hair combed around his face in such a way that his locks seemed to fall from his scalp like dark waves. “What are you doing looking so well-kept this early? How long have you been awake?”
“Well, obviously I have to take a morning inventory and get all of the mannequins ready, not to mention set up the fabric spools. Did you really just come here this early to ask me how I run my business?”
“No, Jun. Listen to me. I figured out who’s been making the shoes.”
“Ahh, your personal good Samaritan. Let me guess, a team of rogue seamsters who wear masks as they help out young entrepreneurs in peril.”
Nino ignored Jun’s sarcasm. “I’ll have you know it’s not just some average do-gooder. They’re elves, Jun.” He paused for effect. “Two male elves that come every night to help me in my hours of need.”
Jun got up and strode toward Nino, who had to back away, not just from the proximity, but from how intense Jun’s eyes had become.
“Elves, Nino? What do they look like? Have you tried talking to them? Do you know their names?”
Nino groaned while he massaged his temple in an effort to coax out more details from last night. “I can’t really tell, maybe ten inches, a foot tall. Both male, their names were Sho and Ohno, but sometimes the latter goes by Satoshi.”
Jun nodded. “And they only come in at night?”
“They come in through the small window and they’re dressed in nothing but these tawdry rags.” Nino’s eyes lit up and he grabbed Jun by the shoulders.
“Jun, gimme a few days, and then I’ll come back with better estimates. I need your help.”
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“Sho, what are those…?”
The elves walked towards the center of the table, where two metal stands shone under the moonlight, each displaying a full elf-sized outfit. Ohno walked up to the blue velvet coat with finely stitched hems, the matching blue pants, and pale cream blouse. A thin strip of leather was included among the pieces, which Ohno figured out to be a makeshift belt. When he looked down, he smiled as he saw a pair of slightly imperfect shoes. Next to him, Sho inspected the matching outfit, but done in rich burgundy with gold stitching. The two looked at one another before they removed their dirty rags and put out their new outfits. Ohno quickly admired how well the clothes fit him and all of the fine details: golden buttons for cufflinks, small pieces of lace carefully stitched into a cummerbund, and the soft inner lining of the jacket made him feel so warm.
Sho slowly ran his hand along the fabric of his new coat before looking up at Ohno. His eyes were watery, but resolute.
“Ohno, let’s go.”
“What?” Ohno turned, too confused by Sho’s statement to appreciate the way the lapels of his jacket swished and fluttered around him. He gripped the hem of his shirt, as if he tried to seek comfort from the softness of it. “Why do we need to leave?”
“Because he knows about us!”
“Sho, of course he does. How else could he know to make boy clothes?”
The other elf sighed. “Satoshi, the clothes don’t matter. What matters is that he knows about us and who knows what he’ll do? He could capture us and make us his slaves, making shoes until we die! Or worse…”
Ohno stubbornly shook his head. “But Sho, I don’t think Nino’s like that. He hasn’t bothered us once, and look at these! He even tried to make us shoes!” He held up his pair of tiny, uneven loafers. “That means he likes us.”
“That means nothing! Satoshi, the fact that he knows about us is a bad thing. A VERY bad thing.”
It was beginning to be too much for Ohno to comprehend. Why would Nino give them clothes? Was it because he wanted to get rid of them? Were these clothes gifts, or a final form of payment? Because they had never taken anything from the shop, not the shoes they made, not the money, not even the food that Ohno thought looked so delicious but Sho would stop him from touching with a quick, “That’s not ours, Satoshi.”
“Trust me, please. We need to leave.”
Ohno looked at the shop, the dust-covered shoes, and the materials scattered on the table. In their haste to put on their new clothes, they had forgotten to make shoes. He looked at the unfinished pair of what could have been boots forlornly before he followed Sho out the window and out of the shop.
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The sun slowly made its way through the streets. It crept through windows and cracks in the walls. When it found the Ninomiya shoe shop it slithered up through the break in the bedroom curtains. The glare woke Nino, who hopped out of bed, took off his nightgown, which he quickly switched for a tattered wool tunic. His own shoes forgotten, he opened the door between his room and the shop. The clothes were gone, just as he had hoped; even the mini shoes were gone! But when he took a good look at the workbench, he noticed that nothing else had been touched. The clothes Jun had made had been taken, but the half-finished boots were still in an awkward pile in his workspace.
He sighed. Maybe the elves were just waiting for such an opportunity-to have an excuse to leave and not come back. Nino didn’t dwell on his thoughts for long, however, as the ringing of the shop bell interrupted his thoughts and alerted him to the front of the store, where Sir Nakai stood.
“Ah, Ninomiya! Good morning. I take it you have finished the commission Lord Kimura requested?”
“Uh…” Nino shifted as he tried to hide the mess on the counter.
“Is there a problem, Ninomiya?”
“No, sir. Something, um…”
“What? Do you lack the materials? I thought we had properly compensated you those other times.”
“It’s not that! I just, just…” Nino stopped himself. No lie would make the situation better. He took a deep breath.
“The people who made them aren’t here anymore. I’m sorry.”
Nakai pursed his lips as he took in the information. “I see. Sad to hear. Well, good day.” He didn’t spare Nino another glance as he walked out of the shop. Aiba and Jun watched from the doorway as the attendant left. They saw the disappointed look on Nakai’s face and darted into Nino’s shop.
“Nino, what happened? Did Sir Nakai not like them?”
Nino shook his head. “They’re gone, Aiba. Sho and Ohno. They took the clothes and left.” He sighed at the same time Jun did. Puzzled by the reaction, both he and Aiba looked at the tailor, who looked back at them just as puzzled. Nino shrugged.
“Sorry, Jun. Looks like you’ll never know if they appreciated it or not.”
“But what are you going to do now?” Aiba asked warily.
Nino just shook his head again.
It had been two weeks since the elves had left, and Nino’s shop was back to a state of cold dust and stale business. For days Nino wouldn’t even bother to open the drapes or answer whoever knocked on the door (restrained, polite knocks from Jun and incessant banging from Aiba). It was night; Nino retrieved a candle and lit it as he sat at his now dusty workbench. He stared hollowly at the flame, as if the act would give him answers to all his questions and problems. His mind wandered as it tried desperately to grasp the situation, but failed miserably. He’d never be able to see the elves again; he wanted to thank them in person. The shop had been dead for so long and those two had brought it back to life literally overnight, and part of him wished the elves had stayed to see the way people reacted to their creations. Without the elves, no one would buy his mediocre shoes. Nino knew that at this rate, he’d just have to close up shop and move to the countryside with his family. There was no other choice.
He walked over to his bedroom and came back with his lyre. Slowly, he ran his fingers across the strings and reveled in the soft sounds the act produced. He had been so focused on the shoes he hardly took the time to play anymore. The well-worn strings welcomed Nino’s touch as he plucked one string, then two. If things had been different, where would he be? Would he really have taken his father’s place? Or would he have pursued other interests like music, as Jun had hinted at weeks before? Would he have been happier then? A melody began to form around the shop, a song that flowed from his frustration, longing, family, and everything he had felt up to this point.
“Nino?”
Nino jolted out of his reverie and stopped playing when he heard the small voice from the window. There Ohno stood, small but dazzling in his outfit, complete with the mismatched shoes Nino had toiled over. He squinted and tried to focus on the elf through his weary eyes.
“Ohno… what are you doing here?”
The elf took a few slow steps forward, his eyes darting towards the window in case he needed to make a quick exit. “I saw the candlelight and thought you might still be awake.” He jumped from the windowsill onto the workbench and carefully made his way towards Nino. “I also heard you play.” They both looked at the lyre in Nino’s hands. “I liked it. It was sad, but… I liked it.” Nino coughed and set the instrument down, then faced the elf.
“Thanks. And where’s the other one, Sho?”
“Oh.” Ohno looked around, as if he just realized he was alone. “Sometimes he goes off on his own. I don’t ask.”
Nino nodded. This meant that they were alone, and hopefully that meant he could get some answers from the little elf. He opened his mouth and Ohno looked up at him. He closed his mouth, sighed, and massaged his head before he continued.
“So… where have you been?”
Ohno looked away and stepped back. “Are you mad at me?”
Nino lowered his head onto his arms and gave the elf a contemplative look. Yes, he was mad, but it looked like that wasn’t the best way to respond given the situation and how utterly pitiful Ohno looked.
“Do you like your outfit? Jun made it for you.”
“Jun did? I thought you…”
Nino scoffed and rested his cheek on his hand. “Me? Please, I can barely make shoes, what makes you think I’d know how to make a whole outfit? And come on, those patterns scream Jun Matsumoto.”
“Oh. So Jun made everything?” Ohno looked down and wriggled his toes in the small shoes that encased them. Nino followed Ohno’s gaze and smiled.
“Ah, those. Like ‘em? I made them. Sorry they don’t match the outfit.”
Ohno looked up and smiled at the cobbler. “No, I like them. They’re my favorite pair.”
Nino scoffed. “I’m pretty sure they’re your only pair,” he responded, but Ohno didn’t seem to be offended; rather, it seemed like he understood that the man had appreciated the compliment. He looked at his shoes, then back to Nino. He watched as Nino pillowed his head upon his arms once more, the human’s eyes glazed as they slowly lost focus. He yawned, and the force of it made the lapels of Ohno’s coat flutter.
“Thank you, though, for coming to see me.”
The elf blinked. “Huh?”
“Because I never got to thank you, for everything you did. You and Sho did what I couldn’t do, no matter how much I tried.”
Ohno shook his head at that statement. “No. I know Nino tries. Whether it’s making shoes or playing music-whatever you do, you put a lot of love into it.”
Nino chuckled. “That’s the kind of compliment I really needed. I just wish I had a reason for you to stay here. Maybe if you were human, right?”
Ohno’s eyes shifted back and forth before he spoke. “If I was human, would you still want me here?”
But Nino had already fallen asleep. Carefully, Ohno tip-toed towards the candle and blew it out, then gingerly made his way to the window and crawled through, but not before he turned to gaze fondly upon the sleeping figure.
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“You want to WHAT?”
“Shh! Shut up, Aiba, I don’t need the whole town to hear you.” Nino currently stood in front of Nagase’s hut, where Aiba lived and studied as Nagase’s apprentice. Aiba had yet to let the other man into his abode, but Nino figured it was for the best.
“Look, all I’m asking is if it’s possible to turn an elf into a human.”
“But Nino, do you realize how stupid you sound right now?”
“Pot calls kettle what?”
“What?”
“Just, never mind. Can it be done or not?”
“I don’t know, Nino. Turning a magical species into a non-magical species seems impossible.” To Nino’s surprise, Aiba smiled at his own doubt-filled statement. “But who’s to say it can’t be done? Sounds like an experiment waiting to be solved! Just give me some time to gather the right materials and see if it’s possible. I’m so excited!”
Nino didn’t voice it aloud, but he agreed.
Four days later, Aiba stopped by Nino’s store to let him know that yes, it was possible (“And you can turn unicorns into horses, Nino! We just need a unicorn, Nino, and then we’ll have our very own horse!”), and that he would have all the ingredients ready by the following day. It was just a matter of the elves being brought to Aiba’s place (and getting Sorcerer Nagase to leave for the day, which he assured Nino would be no problem).
“It’s just that… Nino, they’ll lose their powers.”
Nino hadn’t thought about that. True, he hadn’t seen the elves do much more than work with their hands every time they made shoes, but that didn’t mean that they had no powers. They were magical creatures, after all. What benefit would they have as humans?
That night, he kept a candle on, and sure enough Ohno came.
“Hi, Nino.”
“Hello, Ohno. Sho ditched you again?”
Ohno nodded.
It was probably for the best, as it seemed easier to convince Ohno of his plan than the other elf. “Well, guess what? I have a friend who says he can turn you and Sho into humans.”
“Really, Nino?” he gasped.
“Yeah. Wait, how do you know my name?”
The little elf hid his face as he looked away. “Sometimes during the day I check to see how you’re doing. Your friends call you ‘Nino’. Is it OK if I call you Nino?”
“Sure, that’s fine,” Nino replied, and then hesitated. Ohno should be warned about the after-effects of the transformation, but he knew it would be hard to keep Ohno convinced about the idea after information like that was out in the open. Nino shook his head.
“Hey, Ohno. About turning human…” Ohno nodded for him to carry on. “You know,” he paused and plucked a few strings on the lyre. He took a deep breath and continued.
“You’ll lose your powers. I mean, I don’t know what kinds of powers elves have, but you won’t be magical anymore.” He looked at Ohno with a matter-of-fact expression. He waited so Ohno could process it all. Ohno’s faced seemed blank as he blinked once, then twice, before he met Nino’s gaze.
“But I’ll be human?” He sounded hopeful.
Nino smiled at the elf. “Yeah.” Ohno smiled back.
“Then that’s OK.”
Ohno probably couldn’t tell how relieved Nino was, but the latter was perfectly fine with that. “Well that’s settled. Can you go out during the day?”
Ohno looked confused. “Are we not supposed to?” Nino suddenly appreciated Sho being Ohno’s companion.
“Well then tomorrow, bring Sho and come to the shop. I’ll make sure it’s closed and when you get here, and we’ll go to Aiba’s together, ok?”
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The next morning, Nino left all the curtains closed and purposely opened the small side window, just in case Ohno showed up dragging Sho along kicking and screaming.
Which he did. Nino was alerted to their presence when the elves crashed headlong onto the heap of unused tools beneath the window. He ran towards them. Ohno pulled himself and Sho out of the pile but didn’t loosen his grip on Sho’s wrist.
“Satoshi, what are you doing!”
“Nino! We want to be human!”
“What’s this ‘we’ business? Hey, unhand me!”
Nino grabbed Sho by the collar of his jacket and dropped him none-too-gently in his pouch before the elf could protest further. Ohno grabbed onto the opening and lowered himself in, but not before he locked eyes with Nino.
“I’m excited, Nino.”
Nino made haste and hoped no one would notice that his bag fidgeted at his side. When he got to Nagase’s hut he ran across to the back yard, where Aiba was occupied with stirring a huge boiling kettle. He turned and bounded toward Nino, who showed him the pouch and the way it twitched to and fro.
“Oh. My. Word.”
“Aiba, wait-”
“Please! Let me see what I can do with them before I turn them into human!”
Nino attempted to change the subject. He looked around and asked, “Where’s Jun?”
“Finishing some commission for some rich lord’s niece or something. Said he’d be here as soon as he finished,” Aiba replied as he brought over a small table for Nino to put the bag upon. They both watched intently as the two elves made their way out of the burlap sack. Sho tried to run off but was tangled with the bag’s drawstrings.
“Ohno, run! We need to run!”
Ohno and Aiba helped Sho get untangled. “Sho, listen to me!” Ohno’s voice stopped Sho’s attempted escape.
“You said you wanted to be human the first day we met, remember? Right? You said you had regrets and that if you could have anything, you’d want to be human. Here’s our chance.”
Sho looked up at Ohno, then at the two humans. Slowly, he nodded. Aiba whooped in excitement and the two elves jumped.
“I’m so excited! I’m Aiba!”
Sho shied away. “I don’t know who this is, but I’m scared.”
“A friend of Nino’s is a friend of ours,” Ohno reassured him.
“Well since introductions are done,” Nino started, “Let’s get this thing over with. You ready, Aiba?”
“Of course!” Aiba ran to the boiling pot and poured two cups full of the bright pink concoction from within it. He then placed the cups on a patch of ground that was surrounded by small, brightly-colored stones. Nino watched as the sorcerer’s apprentice returned and held out his palms to the two elves.
“I’ll need to take you over there. I had to place those stones in a specific arrangement, so I can’t have anyone screwing them up, ok?”
Ohno and Sho nodded as they crawled onto Aiba’s hands. It was a miracle that Aiba didn’t drop them along the way, as Nino saw that Aiba’s eyes were more occupied with the beings in front of him than with where he was going. But the other man managed somehow, and carefully placed the elves in the center of the magical ring before he walked back and grabbed his spell book.
“OK,” he said. “I’ll need you two to start drinking the potion. Then I’ll start the incantation and hopefully things will go the way they’re supposed to?”
“And if they don’t?” Sho asked. They all watched as Aiba’s eyes shifted back and forth. He coughed.
“Well, worst case scenario… you’ll just explode.”
“WHAT?” both Nino and Sho exclaimed.
“Now, now, you two! Have some faith in me!” Aiba reassured them. He nodded to Nino, then the two elves. Sho and Ohno looked at each other before each took the cup in front of him and began to drink. Nino watched as Aiba read aloud from his book-to him it resembled what a snake would sound like if it spoke Latin, but it wasn’t as if he knew what was going on. He turned and watched as the stones and crystals around the two elves began to glow. They flickered, then shone with a light that could rival the strongest flame. Nino had to look away from the brightness, but not before he saw how Ohno and Sho’s bodies glowed a bright pink hue. All of a sudden the ground around them shook, and Nino stumbled back, but Aiba stood his ground and continued to read out loud. From the center of the light came a BANG! and plumes of heavy smoke blew from it. Nino coughed and flapped his arms around him as he attempted to wipe away the smoke. As the smolder began to dissipate, he held his breath as he saw two human-sized figures step out from the epicenter. Had it worked?
Before he could check, he heard footsteps behind him. Nino turned and saw Jun as he walked towards them. He heard a voice as it called out from the smoke.
“… Jun?”
Jun’s eyes widened. “It’s you!”
“AIBA!! WHAT IS GOING ON OVER THERE?”
“Shit, it’s Nagase! Everyone, go!” Aiba led the men around the side of the workshop and onto the street, where he pushed them all away from the hut before opening the door and stepping inside in a rush.
“I’ll distract him! Just go!” With that, Aiba slammed the door on them. The rest of them stood there blankly until they heard yelling and what sounded like pans knock against cauldrons. The four men made a mad dash to Jun’s shop, which was closest to where they were. Once they entered the tailor’s shop, they each took a seat on one of the many plush chairs that resided in the store. They spent a moment to catch their breaths, and when his panting subsided, Nino finally looked up to study the two new men in front of them.
Ohno’s pale face seemed to be lit up by the sunlight against his short brown hair and the bolts of reflective fabrics in the shop. His eyes looked lost, but not scared. Instead, Ohno stared off and seemed to absorb his surroundings readily. He slouched comfortably on the plush couch, while the long fingers of his hands swept across the fabric of it appreciatively.
Sho seemed to be the opposite of Ohno. His sloping shoulders looked tense as he anxiously tried to assess the situation. His rich red outfit complimented the brown of his hair and eyes, his features still elf-like because of his pointed face and ears. Sho seemed wound up and wouldn’t look anyone in the face.
Everyone heard Aiba as the man coughed and stumbled his way into Jun’s shop. Nino glanced at him; the taller man was a little dirty, and part of his hair was singed, but nothing was too badly out of place. Aiba smiled.
“Nagase just thinks I blew up something again. He’s gone to get more ingredients to replace the ones that were lost. And it looks like it was worth it! See, I knew thi-”
“Sho.”
Nino looked at Jun. How did this man know who Sho was?
Ohno also gazed curiously back and forth between the two.
“Oh,” he said. “So that’s where you go.”
Aiba tried to fill in the gaps. “Wait, Jun, how do you two know each other?”
Jun didn’t respond, but instead sat down on the other couch and took a deep breath. Slowly, he began to speak.
“Growing up I was told that I needed to be a scholar like the rest of my family. I didn’t know if that was what I really wanted to do, but I went with it anyway, for my family’s sake.”
Nino knew the feeling all too well and nodded as he met Jun’s gaze.
“But it was difficult. I just didn’t understand or couldn’t absorb many of the subjects, and it hurt to see how disappointed my father was with me. I spent countless nights wasting candle wax, trying to figure it all out, and it was frustrating to say the least. Then one day, I woke up and saw that my books had been organized, with pages marked and sentences underlined. I didn’t know who did it, but when I went over what had been outlined, I started to get better at absorbing the information. I was beginning to understand what the textbooks said. My dad was so proud of me.” Jun laughed, but there was no mirth in it.
“Obviously I didn’t question who my benefactor was. I figured it was my father or an uncle trying to give me some extra help without letting me know. So one night, I decided to stay up to watch, just so I could surprise my helper. Well, it turned out that I was the surprised one that night.” He looked at Sho.
“I had been getting help from an elf the whole time. When I saw him, I was startled and made a sound. The elf looked at me, and for a second I thought he would run away because he knew I was awake and watching him. But he didn’t. He said his name was Sho and that he wanted to help me. The next morning I told my father about the encounter. And after that night, I never saw the elf again. In the end I gave up studying and took on a new occupation.”
Nino alternated glances between the two. “But why didn’t he come back?” An uneasy and awkward silence rippled through the tense air. Suddenly, Aiba clapped his hands in realization.
“I know what it was!” Aiba ran out before the others could question him. A few beats later and the man came back, arms full of books and scrolls.
“My teacher was going over this a few weeks ago; why didn’t I pay attention?” Nino and Jun exchanged looks, but didn’t interrupt him. Aiba grinned as he took the books from under his arm and slammed them across the table. He occupied himself with the pages while Nino and Jun tried to salvage what had spilled onto the floor in wake of Aiba’s movements.
“Look, look here!” The man began to hop up and down in his excitement, and Nino abandoned trying to pick up the scattered items and instead, moved to try to stop Aiba from knocking over anything else. He looked over Aiba’s shoulder at the chapter titled “Magical Wards”.
“It was a charm. Your family must’ve put a charm around you and your house. THAT’S why you never saw Sho again! Because he couldn’t go near you!”
Jun rose and pat his body uncertainly, as if looking for something. “A charm…. But what does that mean now? Do I still have it on me?”
Aiba looked him over once before he consulted the tome in front of him. He skimmed the pages with pursed lips, and then shook his head.
“No. Looks like it should’ve worn off after a few months. Not to mention you’ve been away from your family since you moved here, so your dad couldn’t have kept refreshing its power.”
Everyone looked at Sho.
“When your father put that ward up, it was because he didn’t trust something like me. After learning that, I made sure I wasn’t going to let myself be seen by any humans again. I was even going to give up helping people. But then I met Satoshi, who was so interested in helping Nino out that I guess I couldn’t say no.”
“But that means you knew that the spell had worn off. Yet you didn’t come back. Why?”
“I saw the life you had now, and I noticed how much happier you were. I saw that you had moved on and entered a trade that you enjoyed very much. So I decided…to leave you be. It was apparent that I had done no good in helping you with your studies.”
Jun sighed. “I was happiest knowing that there was someone there who wanted me to succeed and was actually helping me, instead of just yelling at me to study and ignoring my struggles. When you left, all of my motivation to continue studying to become a scholar left as well. I… if you had stayed, I would have been happy continuing along that route. As long as I had you…r support.” Jun tried to hide the way he stuttered.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Nino. “Well, maybe we should leave you two to catch up. Right, Ohno?” He turned and faced the other elf-turned-human. Without waiting for anyone present to respond, he quickly grabbed Ohno’s hand and pulled him out of Jun’s shop and into his own. He watched as Ohno looked around in wonder, as if seeing the shop for the first time. Slowly, he ran his hands along the dust-covered surfaces and seemed to marvel at how the particles clung to his fingers. He picked up random shoes and watched them catch rays of sunlight when they hit the right angles. It made Nino just a little nervous. Was Ohno going to leave, now that he was human?
“Well, what am I gonna do now? It’s not like you can use magic any more, right?”
Ohno raised his hands and stared at them like they were something new and amazing. “Oh, no. I made them all by hand, you see.” He smiled at Nino.
“Well,” Nino started, as he reached over to Ohno and grabbed the latter’s hand. Gently, he squeezed it. He liked the way it felt in his.
“I think I can figure out what we’re going to do.”
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Nino now has a few more customers to deal with. But he deals with them, because their business means he and Ohno can live comfortably in their humble shop. When he’s not helping Ohno make shoes (under Ohno’s supervision, and even though they’re still not as good as Ohno’s, Ohno thinks they’re good enough to sell), he’s playing his lyre in front of the store, attracting customers who first fall in love with his music, then fall in love with the shoes he and Ohno make. Even Lord Kimura stops by every once in a while with Sir Nakai in tow.
Sho is now Jun’s assistant. His duties include keeping the financial books up to date, as well getting the fabrics cut and ready for Jun to use. Though he isn’t good at sewing (Jun won’t let him near any of his needles after Sho managed to prick every part of his hand in one sitting), has no sense of color or style, his words of encouragement and appreciation for Jun’s creations have made the tailor the happiest anyone’s ever seen him.
And Aiba now has a horse.
THE END.