Arashi (ninoexchange fic): Proper Etiquette (3/3)
Title: Proper Etiquette for Nurturing Team Cohesion
9. JUN
The night after their fifth training session in Aiba's derelict pro-bending arena, Jun had returned to his family home in the northern districts of Republic City yawning enough to crack his jaw. Two hours of practise a night wasn't unreasonable, considering their desire to make it past tournament preliminaries, but Jun was a man with a full-time day job and appearances to keep up. Already this past week he'd consumed enough coffee that the monthly stock in his office had been practically depleted, and the circles under his eyes were getting harder and harder to cover up with concealer. The bruises also were kind of hard to explain; thank goodness his work attire made high collars and long sleeves mandatory, because otherwise he'd have to field a lot of awkward questions. He was already irritable with the lack of sleep and constant ache in his limbs, as well as being afflicted with dry skin from too much firebending at once, to deal with any of that. Through Jun's exhaustion, though, he couldn't stamp down the growing measure of pride he was feeling: he was doing his job properly and was practising bending on the side, and he was getting away with it. His parents and uncle didn't seem to suspect anything, and neither did his sister. If they held any curiousity about where Jun was spending all of his evenings, they likely just assumed that he was out on the town, doing whatever it was that Jun used to spend his time doing before Nino squirmed his way into Jun's life.
He shouldn't have let his guard down.
His mother had been up late that night, suffering from another fit on insomnia, and had gone outside to the backyard for a stroll; she'd caught Jun red-handed as he hopped out of his Satomobile, stinking of dirt and cat-fish water, hair wet, clothes slightly charred, and, most strikingly, wearing a pair of black leather fire-bending gloves. He had to confess then; he couldn't make himself lie to his mother. She'd been quite shaken, disappointed that he'd been playing them all for fools behind their backs, and Jun hadn't the heart to tell her that he wasn't a hypocrite -- he'd never shared their anti-bender sentimentality in the first place. By the next morning, the entire household had heard the news, and Jun was actually fearful of how much he’d fucked things up. He hadn’t seriously thought he would be kicked out of the family or anything so drastic, but it was still worse than he'd expected. Jun had been immediately banned from returning to his team and, subsequently, from entering the tournament. His bank account was frozen and he was given a curfew (him! At twenty-five years old!) to make sure he couldn't again run out at night. And he'd had to explain himself. As if it wasn't enough punishment to silently suffer the full brunt of disgrace of what he'd done, he had to display it for everyone else to judge as well. The next morning, he'd penned his missive to Aiba with slightly shaking hands, hoping that the little bit of cash he kept for emergencies would be enough of an apology for his sudden quitting.
And the thing was that Jun felt guilty, very guilty - but he wasn't ashamed. He loved bending. He'd always loved it. And he loved that he was good at it. And no amount of lecturing from his uncle or sob stories from his parents could, or would, take that away from him. It wasn't Jun's fault that he was a firebender - that'd been dictated for him by his genetics - but apparently reminding his mother that there were benders in the family hadn't been a sensitive move.
He was actually dreading the usual family dinner at The Soaring Boar. Jun couldn't imagine anything tasting through the awkward tension that would no doubt permeate their table.
They arrived late, because Jun's uncle decided to take the "scenic route" around Republic City, probably to destress himself from the news of Jun's casual bending, and unluckily blew a tire around Kiyoshi and Fifth. They'd had to wait around for the car to be towed, and then have a civilized argument about whether it would be worth it to walk the seven blocks to the restaurant or if it'd be better to just call it a wasted night and find a taxi to take them home. Jun mentioned he preferred going home, and so of course the final decision ended up being The Boar. They showed up, complaining and hungry, over forty minutes after their eight o'clock reservation.
By this time, Jun was feeling like a person who'd been wrung around by a hundred earthbenders in open terrain: his head ached from his family's bickering, his chest ached because he was feeling guilty about skipping out on the team, his feet ached from walking in stiff dress shoes, his stomach was growling but he wasn't feeling up to eating high class cuisine - it made him think of Nino.
When they were together, Nino had never asked Jun treat him to any restaurants, and yet Jun knew he indulged often with Sho or Aiba. What was it about Jun that kept Nino from manhandling him the same way as he did to his other friends? Was it because of Jun's background? Jun's family? Or just Jun in general? Or had he gotten the undeniable impression, no matter how hard Jun tried to hide it, that Jun was ashamed of their relationship?
Because Nino was different from everyone Jun was used to or had ever gone out of his way to interact with. Nino was poor, wore unflattering clothes, would toss at Jun insults so careless that it took a while for Jun to catch on, because he was caught so off-guard by Nino's childlike smile. For all the infuriating characteristics Jun had found in Nino, he'd really enjoyed Nino as a person; he'd added a well-needed injection of change in Jun's otherwise mundane life. And though it wasn't long before Jun was seeking Nino out every single day for not just his company in bed, but just his plain company, Jun never could bring himself to be seen with Nino in very public places, and especially not in the northern districts of Republic City where his family frequented. He'd broken up with Nino because it was inevitable; Jun couldn't let himself think of Nino as a partner, and their relationship as nothing more than a temporary fling. Nino had sensed that too, and maybe he had his own reasons for wanting things to end, because when Jun had left, Nino hadn't stopped him.
He'd probably gotten sick of it all. Jun was still pressed under the thumb of his family and business, which, throughout the course of their time together, no matter how much Nino tried to persuade him otherwise, Jun had adamantly refused to give up.
Nino didn't understand the demands of being the only son to a successful family business, having grown up with an easy-going single mom and not a penny to his name. Jun didn't think Nino was wrong, saying that Jun needed to stand up to his family and stop hiding who he was, but ¬- doing it wasn't nearly as simple as Nino thought it would be. Jun couldn't get him to empathize, and quickly stopped trying; maybe Nino took his "take it or leave it" approach to avoiding mentions of his family to mean that Jun didn't trust him. But Nino trusted in Jun, though. He put Jun on his pro-bending team, and knew Jun would show up for practise - and despite Jun being positive that Nino was just in the whole game to win money from sports bets, he started to realize, the more time he spent with Ohno and Sho in the ring, coached under the strange regime of Aiba, that maybe it was a favour for Jun, too. Jun had always wanted an outlet.
Or maybe just a way out.
He shouldn’t have projected his own issues onto Nino. It had been strange going back to hanging around him because they weren’t in a relationship anymore, and stranger still to see Nino glued by the hip to Ohno, the visiting Water Tribe peasant, but Jun couldn’t begrudge Nino his happiness. He'd felt inklings of jealousy, seeing them together, giggling and talking in quiet voices like lifelong conspirators, but Jun couldn't identify what it was he was more upset about: the fact that Nino had someone else now, or the fact that Jun wasn’t any better off since they'd broken up. But it wasn't like Jun wanted to win Nino back - they had fun together, but Jun wasn't looking for true love. He couldn’t even get his own life balanced yet; he had plenty on his plate without worrying about significant others.
Jun had rebelled against his family once by consorting with Nino, then had chickened out, rebelled again by joining a bending team, and had gotten caught - maybe his subconscious and the universe was giving him some kind of sign.
God. Who knew.
He was walking to the bathroom of the restaurant, wanting to check if all of this anxiety was giving him forehead wrinkles or something, when he heard a startled gasp from a white-aproned employee, who'd opened the custodial closet to reveal - two girls inside, who'd obviously been up to something hot and heavy.
Then Jun made the mistake of meeting the eyes of one of the girls, over the worker's shoulder.
He felt his blood run cold.
Shit.
---
10. NINO
So that sucked.
Not only had Nino's brilliant "philosophical debate about the necessity of bending devolving into hostile mess and possible food fight lest it be stopped by handsome man from next table over" plan fallen through like a ton of rocks on a wet paper towel as soon as Jun had recognized him, but they'd made a huge scene, getting tossed out of the restaurant in front of everyone dining there, with citations of "inappropriate behaviour" and "shameless lack of tact" by The Soaring Boar's big-nosed manager.
"Tell that to the boner your guy over there is sporting!" Nino shouted, as the waiters ushered them out of the building.
At least they hadn't been called out as men too. That would have been pretty hard to explain. Though the look on the aroused employee's face might have potentially been worth it.
"Well, what are we doing now?" Ohno asked, as Nino led the way to The Boar's back alley.
"Plan B," Nino said, making a beeline for a dumpster. Ohno bent down to give him a boost and Nino climbed onto it, slowly sliding his weight across the top lid until he could peek into the high windows of the restaurant, giving him a view of the entire kitchen. "We're going to flood the place."
When he glanced back, Ohno's face was screwed up in some kind of display of confusion. "What? What's that going to do?"
"If you were a firebender facing a mad rush of water heading straight toward you, what would your reaction be?"
"I'd head for higher ground."
"You're in a restaurant," said Nino patiently.
Ohno thought about it for a second. "I would find a chair to sit on and then lift my feet off the floor."
"You'd bend out a shitload of fire to nullify the threat!" Nino corrected. Maybe not every firebender would react that way, but Jun would. Jun had to, because Jun was full of nothing but fucking hot air. God, to think of all the chances that Nino gave him to come to his senses! All those "You should sort things out with your fealty complex" talks! Agreeing amicably all those times Jun got awkward about insisting they stay in Nino's apartment for the night! Leaving a spot for him on Nino's pro-bending team! And just a few minutes prior, when he'd shouted, "It's a free city!" like a fucking lunatic to his staring audience, which would have been a perfect segue for Jun to jump on, and Jun had just shuttered his eyes away, looking, of all things, offended. Well, fine. Jun could suffer through his life how he wanted, but by ruining Nino's pro-bending team, he was sending a clear message to Nino that Nino could now move on to more drastic measures. What was more drastic than a literal dumping of cold water onto a person? All they had to do was to unplug every single sink in the kitchen and send it all to the eating area in a huge wave-
"Nino," Ohno said. His hand tugged on Nino's skirt. "Nino, come down from there."
"Wait, wait, I'm scoping this out," Nino said, trying to count all the sinks in the room. "I want to know how fast we can fill up-"
"Nino," Ohno said again, more firmly. "Stop."
Nino turned to him. "What?"
"It's not going to work. Get down. Let's go back to your place."
"No, Oh-chan, listen - if we don't get Jun back today, then we can kiss the entire team goodbye! Don't you want to join the tournament? You need to earn the ship fare back home."
"There are other ways. We tried with Jun-kun, okay? We tried and we made a mistake and that's it. It's not your job to force Jun to come clean with his parents. You've got to let it go."
"Oh-chan," Nino said.
"Jun-kun will talk to them on his own time, I promise. I think he just needs to figure out what to say first. He seems like he's that kind of guy - he seems respectful about how he treats others and himself."
"He's really not," said Nino, which was a lie.
"Well, then he's not," Ohno said, sighing. "But my feet hurt in these shoes and I need to go to the bathroom for real and Jun-kun looked really, really upset when we were getting kicked out, so I think we should just... go. Okay?"
He held out his hand for Nino.
Nino took another glance into the kitchen. One of the chefs was preparing something with dried plums on the side. Nino imagined Jun getting that plate, taking his chopsticks and eating in small bites like a polite gentleman, hands maybe wearing skin-coloured bandages to cover the bruising they'd accumulated from fighting water and rock with lashes of fire, and perhaps those wounds hurt him every time he curled his fingers around a spoon or a cup. All the while he'd keep up some dull conversation with his family, no doubt about cloths and textiles, and tried his utmost to put Nino and their team out of his mind, only he wouldn’t be able to, because the pains of his body wouldn’t let him.
Just because Jun gave him - them - up, did Nino have the right to make Jun give up something too?
“Nino,” Ohno repeated, and his fingers beckoned for him. So Nino tucked his hand into Ohno’s, and let Ohno lead him home.
---
This was a bad idea. Ohno got them lost immediately.
---
By the time they made it back to Aiba’s car, they’d walked three circles in the opposite direction of where they’d come from and the moon had already risen high above the city. Aiba was sound asleep in the driver’s seat, a huge tome of comics half-open on his chest, matching the half-open gape of his mouth. Ohno tapped on the glass window and Aiba startled awake, wiping the line of drool from his lip.
“Ah,” he said, looking behind them and immediately realizing they were short a firebender. “No good?”
Nino sighed. “We’ll put up ads for a new member tomorrow morning.”
Aiba looked sad, but said nothing else as he unlocked the side doors to let them in.
---
Back home in Nino’s apartment, Ohno guided Nino around the mess and clutter of Nino's life like he was a helpless toddler, gently pushing Nino onto his unmade bed, then bending down to carefully take off Nino’s heels and massaging his feet. He got Nino a glass of water as Nino shed off his dress, and then did the same as Nino took quiet sips of his drink. Then he sat down beside Nino and leaned his head against Nino’s shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said.
“About what?” Nino asked flatly. “You did nothing wrong.”
“It sucks being disappointed,” said Ohno.
Nino drained the rest of the water and carelessly dropped the empty cup on his nightstand. Then he turned to Ohno, who was still wearing his brown wig with straight hair that ran past his shoulders. His hands reached out to brush the hair back from Ohno’s face, and he bent in to kiss Ohno’s bared shoulder.
“You were very pretty today,” said Nino.
“Thanks,” laughed Ohno, his nose scrunching. “You too.”
“Me? Nooo.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Get your eyes fixed.”
“I saw Aiba-chan checking out your butt when you weren’t looking.”
Nino made a face. “Aiba would check out the butt of a salmon-bird.”
“Those are pretty sexy. But you’re sexier,” Ohno said.
Nino stared at him. “You have to kiss me now. Okay?”
“Okay,” said Ohno, and did.
---
Nino didn’t know which spirit was gracious enough to grant a useless person like him the endless gift that was Ohno Satoshi, but to say Nino was fucking thankful was an understatement. It wasn’t that he’d been heartbroken by Jun, but Jun had just been the most recent (although richest, and one of the best) name on a long list of people Nino had been in a relationship with, but with whom he never quite fit. Maybe he and Jun could have been better together if Jun weren’t so scared of other people’s opinions, but then again, maybe it was a million-to-one chance that they had met and stayed together at all for any length of time. Regardless, the space in Nino’s heart that Jun had usurped had shifted in recent weeks - it had shrunk to an abysmal size after Jun had declared them over and done, but had regrown almost to its old proportions during their team training sessions, and now it was again changing shape like a bubbling pot of water, oscillating between shattering apart entirely or imploding into a hardened ball, never to be reopened, but never to be rid of, either. Nino didn't want Jun back with him, but he wanted Jun back.
But now there was Ohno, and Ohno fit with him so well that Nino could barely believe he existed. Ohno was gentle, and slow-going, and easy, and he did the things that Nino told him to do no matter how stupid they were, and he thought Nino’s half-assed cooking was the best delicacy on the planet, and he joined Nino’s pro-bending team when they didn’t even know each other, and he kissed like his mouth was possessed by an ancient dragon, the world's first firebenders. He kissed like he wanted to slowly burn Nino up from the inside out. And maybe it was working. Yes, it was working.
Ohno kept his wig on for some reason; Nino couldn’t stop running his fingers through it, tugging slightly as Ohno kissed his way down Nino’s bare chest, gripping handfuls of its cool, smooth strands as Ohno breathed heat against the dampening top of Nino’s panties. His long fingers tugged playfully at the elastic, pulling them down in increments, revealing the leaking, red tip of Nino’s cock, which he sucked slowly into his mouth. By the time the panties were all the way down, hanging from one of Nino’s ankles, Nino was a shaking, shivering wreck, made into nothing but a bundle of nerves played like an instrument by Ohno’s tongue and fingers, touching him everywhere.
Maybe he should be thankful that the bending team was in disarray. Now that Ohno had to go about earning money a different way, he could stay here longer, with Nino.
“Don’t you leave me too,” said Nino, when Ohno finally pushed himself inside, not stopping until his thighs met the backs of Nino’s, until there wasn’t even a sliver of space between them.
Ohno bent down to swipe his mouth over the sweat pooling in the dip of Nino’s collarbone. The hair of his wig tickled Nino’s oversensitive skin. There was lipstick smeared all over Ohno’s face in red streaks; they twisted into oblong shapes when Ohno’s cheeks bunched up in a smile.
“Where else could I go?” he asked, and started to thrust.
“Do you even like bending?” Nino laughed, hands skittering for a grip on Ohno’s shoulders, sliding down Ohno’s arms and grabbing his wrists, laid like cage bars on either side of Nino’s ears.
“I like it okay,” said Ohno hastily, groaning as his hips slid in, out.
Nino linked his ankles around Ohno’s back and half-wished that he was still wearing his heels. He reached higher and yanked off Ohno’s wig, so he could run his hands through Ohno’s sweat-drenched hair, and drag him close enough to kiss.
“I’m sorry too,” he whispered against Ohno’s lips. Ohno would know what he meant.
---
What Nino loved about Ohno is that he didn’t push. Clearly there was some weird, unfinished shit going on between Nino and King of Making Nino Miserable, Jun, but Nino hadn’t bothered yet to explain much about it and Ohno just - accepted that. Didn’t ask. And maybe this was why Nino had gravitated towards Ohno from the start; with the kind of personality that Nino had, which he often visualized as a large, occasionally rippling pond containing, at its sunken bottom, an explosive device wrapped under a paper thin metal casing (which didn’t even make sense, because hello, rust), he needed someone who wouldn’t touch when Nino was feeling prickly, but didn’t back away when Nino was lashing out. With Jun, there had been clashes of personality. Sho had remarked once, when he’d finally relaxed enough around Jun to stop with the embarrassingly high honorifics, that Nino and Jun were kind of similar. Nino remembered being duly affronted, but looking back at it, Sho was kind of right. There was this proud quality in both Nino and Jun that could be self-destructive, if improperly controlled, and in Ohno there was none of that. It’s why when he was being modest about his waterbending skill, Nino believed it, because Ohno honestly didn’t seem to care how good he was. When someone of Ohno’s indestructible serenity met with Nino’s unwieldy and often contradictory personality, the result wasn’t a clash, it was a match.
The day that Jun had walked out of Nino’s life, the only explanation he’d been given was that they were better off as friends. It took a while for Nino to square with that, because he and Jun hadn’t really fit the traditional definition of friends at any point of their acquaintance, but now that he’d interacted with Jun without the expectation of getting into his pants sometime that night, he could see Jun’s point. They weren’t good, doing everything together. Both of them were too bull-headed; they could be lovers or friends, but not both, because Jun needed someone who could accept his high-pressure life, and Nino couldn’t, and Nino needed someone he didn’t have to explain his motivations around, and Jun wasn’t that person.
Having a pro-bending team was good and all, but the whole thing was partly a heavily convoluted ruse to pull Jun back into Nino’s life, and regardless of how transparent Nino was about this, in the end, Jun hadn’t figured it out, and Nino couldn’t find the courage to ask for what he wanted.
So it’d all fallen through in the end. Well - was it such a big deal? Jun wasn’t that far away; it wasn’t like he was lost forever. They still lived in the same city, used the same streets, and Nino was willing to bet that in a week’s time, they would both be hopelessly trained to the play-by-play of the same dumb sports competition.
And Nino could take some comfort in that.
---
There was a dream he was having: he was the Avatar and decided to fuck the whole world over by doing shit-all. Jun was the figurehead of a war while wearing dark purple satin robes, and he flew around Nino’s head squawking about burnt omelette rice. And then there was Sho’s despairing voice drifting in Nino’s ear, saying, “Oh my god, what on earth happened last night. What are these dresses? Don’t tell me you two hired some - ladies of the night?”
“Um. Those were ours,” said Ohno’s voice, and Nino’s eyes snapped open just in time to register Sho’s appalled expression.
“I thought you went on some mission to get Jun back onto the team! Where on earth did cross-dressing fit into this plan?”
“Uh, I guess… at the start of it, until the end.”
Sho pulled the most uncomfortable face.
“Morning,” Nino muttered.
“Get up,” Sho said, starting to reach out for Nino’s arms and then thinking better of it. “Okay, get dressed, then get up. We’ve got to go.”
“What time is it?” Nino asked, blearily looking at the clock on his wall. It was near midnight.
“Time for practise!”
“Practise starts at eleven,” Nino said automatically, then sat up. “There is no practise. Wait, what?”
Sho grinned. “I got a call from Aiba, who apparently got a call from Matsumoto Jun himself. He’s back on the team.”
---
Aiba and Jun were already waiting at their arena, their bodies lit only by the two dim light bulbs hanging above the building’s door, when Sho’s Satomobile pulled up to the edge of the deserted street. Nino practically threw himself out of the car.
“Nino! Look who’s back!” Aiba called, flinging an arm around Jun.
“What the hell happened?” Nino demanded, striding up to Jun. “What did you do?”
“More like, what did you do,” Jun shot back. “Dressing up as women, getting a table near mine, and then hiding in a cleaning supply closet to make out? What the hell were you thinking?”
“What?” Sho gaped. “Nino! What the hell!”
“I was thinking that I would help you pull your head out of your ass,” Nino said. Then he added, “You should probably be glad we got kicked out when we did.”
Jun sighed and said, “That doesn't make me feel better about it.”
“It should. Spill, what happened? Don’t tell me you’re not longer a legal Matsumoto?”
“No worries about that,” Jun said drily. “Apparently seeing two young women debasing themselves so spectacularly put in perspective how good a job I’d done, keeping my own secrets under wraps for so long. My uncle looked at me under a whole new light for the rest of the meal. It wasn't exactly flattering, but it wasn't exactly degrading either."
“Wow, way for them to make you out to be some sort of criminal.”
“Come off it. They don’t think I’ve betrayed them as a son or anything. They just have these convictions and don’t understand why I didn’t follow them. They were raising me to be this person and I wasn’t that - it’s a disappointment to them. They’re big on reputation.”
Nino sucked in his lips. It always came down to this. “You shouldn’t have to be a disappointment.”
Jun glanced away. “Well. That’s not up for you to decide. If it helps, I agree with you, and I don't feel like a disappointment. I'm just... frustrated that they don't feel the same."
"Well," said Nino. "Obviously."
"In any case, they sort of realized that I’d done such a good job hiding my firebending for a reason, and then I explained to them that I didn’t want to go against the family and - well, they were happy to hear that. I guess they were relieved that I didn’t think of them as subordinate or weak or anything for being non-benders. But it’s not like I oppose everything they stand for. Non-benders have been oppressed for generations and they're right about that. But it's got nothing to do with me. And I told them that I couldn’t help being a bender, but I apologized for hurting the family. We talked it out, and they agreed that I shouldn’t be punished for being a bender, but for bending without letting them know about it.”
“Wait,” Nino interrupted, “so you’re telling me that after all that, they didn’t change their minds about their anti-bender views?”
“I don’t know, honestly,” said Jun. “But apparently the night I was caught returning from bending practise, my mother saw me smiling more widely than I have for a long time.” He looked vaguely discomfited. “I didn’t have any idea, but it apparently struck her, somehow. Who knows. She decided that until they straighten out the situation better, I could go back to practising with you guys. On one condition.”
“Name it.”
Jun hissed a long breath through his teeth. “Can’t participate in the tournament. Sorry.”
“What?” shouted Nino, which was echoed immediately by Aiba and Sho.
“Then what was the point of joining the team again, Jun-kun?!” Aiba said, eyes huge.
Jun tilted his head sheepishly. “Well. I thought you might need a firebender trainer.”
---
While they celebrated Jun’s return with bottles of cheap beer that Aiba had rummaged together, none of them the same brand, Nino took advantage of his decreasing sobriety and Ohno’s unsubtle elbow-jabbing in Jun’s direction to apologize for trying to stage an intervention for Jun’s parents.
“You should be,” said Jun, “what could you have possibly accomplished by dressing in drag?”
“I was going to make you out to be a hero, I swear.”
“You could have been arrested.”
“Well, the closet escapade wasn’t part of the original plan. But did you get a good look at Oh-chan as a girl? I’m blameless.”
“Just-” Jun said, rubbing his temples, “tell me about it another day. I’m tired about thinking about my family.”
“Hey,” Nino said. “If I... made it seem like I was bullying you to join the team, I didn’t mean to make it like an ultimatum or anything. I kind of just wanted - I don't know, it was nice to see you again.”
“Ah,” replied Jun, and a moment of comprehension flickered across his face. “I’d wondered if it was about that.”
“It wasn’t,” Nino said automatically. “Wait, about what?”
"Miss me much?" Jun lifted an eyebrow.
"Don't get cocky!"
Jun laughed. “How about you forgive me for - being so flighty and leaving the team high and dry, and I’ll forgive you for being unable to admit that you missed me.”
“That seems grossly disproportionate,” scowling Nino.
“I know,” Jun said. “But remember - uniform money.”
Nino raised his beer bottle. “Cheers, then. It would have been a shitty team without you on it, anyway.”
Jun blinked; he looked touched. “Oh. Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I spent all your uniform money on those girl disguises.”
---
They ended up recruiting another firebender named Shun, who was actually one of Nino’s old friends from school and coincidentally was interviewing for a position in Jun’s company. He wasn’t half bad, but they didn’t find him until a day before the actual tournament; there wasn't much they could do. Aiba’s reserved seats gave him and Nino a perfect view of their team’s first match, and subsequent elimination. The Ultra-cool Incredible Storm Crows (Aiba’s executive decision as the team’s financer) fought a brave fight against the Armoured Armadillo-bears, but lost in round two, with Shun toppling over the sidelines first, followed by Ohno. Sho actually stood his ground the longest, bearing against the onslaught of regulation stone disks and blasts of water with his own propelled disks, but slowly got pushed back further and further, until, ducking from a shot of fire, he lost his balance and fell over into the pool below.
The crowd gave them a hearty cheer regardless.
Nino ended up making twenty-four yuan, which meant-
“You bet against us?!” Sho yelled, when Nino revealed his winnings.
“I would have bet on you guys if Jun-kun had been on the team,” said Nino pragmatically.
“Damn,” laughed Shun. “That’s harsh.”
Nino counted the bills, then split a third to Shun, a third to Ohno, and kept the remaining third for himself.
“But what about the rest of us?” Aiba complained, as Nino tucked his meager eight yuan back in his worn leather wallet. “I paid the registration fee, Nino!”
“You guys didn’t sign a contract with me, so you’re out of luck,” said Nino bluntly.
“Oh my god, it was a complete waste of time then,” said Sho, throwing up his hands.
“Hey, come on. It was kind of fun, isn't it?" smiled Nino. He was a bit surprised himself, admitting that, but it was true.
“It was great!” Aiba shouted. “It was so much fun watching you guys! I felt like I was having a heart attack the entire time!”
Nino bumped shoulders with Ohno. “You were great, waterbending master Ohno-san.”
“Thanks,” Ohno said. “Do we have practise again tomorrow?”
“Practise?” Jun said. “But your tournament chances are over.”
“Oh,” Ohno said, eyebrows quirking. “But I thought - next year?” He looked at Nino for confirmation.
“Shit,” Nino breathed, grinning. “Why not.”
end
9. JUN
The night after their fifth training session in Aiba's derelict pro-bending arena, Jun had returned to his family home in the northern districts of Republic City yawning enough to crack his jaw. Two hours of practise a night wasn't unreasonable, considering their desire to make it past tournament preliminaries, but Jun was a man with a full-time day job and appearances to keep up. Already this past week he'd consumed enough coffee that the monthly stock in his office had been practically depleted, and the circles under his eyes were getting harder and harder to cover up with concealer. The bruises also were kind of hard to explain; thank goodness his work attire made high collars and long sleeves mandatory, because otherwise he'd have to field a lot of awkward questions. He was already irritable with the lack of sleep and constant ache in his limbs, as well as being afflicted with dry skin from too much firebending at once, to deal with any of that. Through Jun's exhaustion, though, he couldn't stamp down the growing measure of pride he was feeling: he was doing his job properly and was practising bending on the side, and he was getting away with it. His parents and uncle didn't seem to suspect anything, and neither did his sister. If they held any curiousity about where Jun was spending all of his evenings, they likely just assumed that he was out on the town, doing whatever it was that Jun used to spend his time doing before Nino squirmed his way into Jun's life.
He shouldn't have let his guard down.
His mother had been up late that night, suffering from another fit on insomnia, and had gone outside to the backyard for a stroll; she'd caught Jun red-handed as he hopped out of his Satomobile, stinking of dirt and cat-fish water, hair wet, clothes slightly charred, and, most strikingly, wearing a pair of black leather fire-bending gloves. He had to confess then; he couldn't make himself lie to his mother. She'd been quite shaken, disappointed that he'd been playing them all for fools behind their backs, and Jun hadn't the heart to tell her that he wasn't a hypocrite -- he'd never shared their anti-bender sentimentality in the first place. By the next morning, the entire household had heard the news, and Jun was actually fearful of how much he’d fucked things up. He hadn’t seriously thought he would be kicked out of the family or anything so drastic, but it was still worse than he'd expected. Jun had been immediately banned from returning to his team and, subsequently, from entering the tournament. His bank account was frozen and he was given a curfew (him! At twenty-five years old!) to make sure he couldn't again run out at night. And he'd had to explain himself. As if it wasn't enough punishment to silently suffer the full brunt of disgrace of what he'd done, he had to display it for everyone else to judge as well. The next morning, he'd penned his missive to Aiba with slightly shaking hands, hoping that the little bit of cash he kept for emergencies would be enough of an apology for his sudden quitting.
And the thing was that Jun felt guilty, very guilty - but he wasn't ashamed. He loved bending. He'd always loved it. And he loved that he was good at it. And no amount of lecturing from his uncle or sob stories from his parents could, or would, take that away from him. It wasn't Jun's fault that he was a firebender - that'd been dictated for him by his genetics - but apparently reminding his mother that there were benders in the family hadn't been a sensitive move.
He was actually dreading the usual family dinner at The Soaring Boar. Jun couldn't imagine anything tasting through the awkward tension that would no doubt permeate their table.
They arrived late, because Jun's uncle decided to take the "scenic route" around Republic City, probably to destress himself from the news of Jun's casual bending, and unluckily blew a tire around Kiyoshi and Fifth. They'd had to wait around for the car to be towed, and then have a civilized argument about whether it would be worth it to walk the seven blocks to the restaurant or if it'd be better to just call it a wasted night and find a taxi to take them home. Jun mentioned he preferred going home, and so of course the final decision ended up being The Boar. They showed up, complaining and hungry, over forty minutes after their eight o'clock reservation.
By this time, Jun was feeling like a person who'd been wrung around by a hundred earthbenders in open terrain: his head ached from his family's bickering, his chest ached because he was feeling guilty about skipping out on the team, his feet ached from walking in stiff dress shoes, his stomach was growling but he wasn't feeling up to eating high class cuisine - it made him think of Nino.
When they were together, Nino had never asked Jun treat him to any restaurants, and yet Jun knew he indulged often with Sho or Aiba. What was it about Jun that kept Nino from manhandling him the same way as he did to his other friends? Was it because of Jun's background? Jun's family? Or just Jun in general? Or had he gotten the undeniable impression, no matter how hard Jun tried to hide it, that Jun was ashamed of their relationship?
Because Nino was different from everyone Jun was used to or had ever gone out of his way to interact with. Nino was poor, wore unflattering clothes, would toss at Jun insults so careless that it took a while for Jun to catch on, because he was caught so off-guard by Nino's childlike smile. For all the infuriating characteristics Jun had found in Nino, he'd really enjoyed Nino as a person; he'd added a well-needed injection of change in Jun's otherwise mundane life. And though it wasn't long before Jun was seeking Nino out every single day for not just his company in bed, but just his plain company, Jun never could bring himself to be seen with Nino in very public places, and especially not in the northern districts of Republic City where his family frequented. He'd broken up with Nino because it was inevitable; Jun couldn't let himself think of Nino as a partner, and their relationship as nothing more than a temporary fling. Nino had sensed that too, and maybe he had his own reasons for wanting things to end, because when Jun had left, Nino hadn't stopped him.
He'd probably gotten sick of it all. Jun was still pressed under the thumb of his family and business, which, throughout the course of their time together, no matter how much Nino tried to persuade him otherwise, Jun had adamantly refused to give up.
Nino didn't understand the demands of being the only son to a successful family business, having grown up with an easy-going single mom and not a penny to his name. Jun didn't think Nino was wrong, saying that Jun needed to stand up to his family and stop hiding who he was, but ¬- doing it wasn't nearly as simple as Nino thought it would be. Jun couldn't get him to empathize, and quickly stopped trying; maybe Nino took his "take it or leave it" approach to avoiding mentions of his family to mean that Jun didn't trust him. But Nino trusted in Jun, though. He put Jun on his pro-bending team, and knew Jun would show up for practise - and despite Jun being positive that Nino was just in the whole game to win money from sports bets, he started to realize, the more time he spent with Ohno and Sho in the ring, coached under the strange regime of Aiba, that maybe it was a favour for Jun, too. Jun had always wanted an outlet.
Or maybe just a way out.
He shouldn’t have projected his own issues onto Nino. It had been strange going back to hanging around him because they weren’t in a relationship anymore, and stranger still to see Nino glued by the hip to Ohno, the visiting Water Tribe peasant, but Jun couldn’t begrudge Nino his happiness. He'd felt inklings of jealousy, seeing them together, giggling and talking in quiet voices like lifelong conspirators, but Jun couldn't identify what it was he was more upset about: the fact that Nino had someone else now, or the fact that Jun wasn’t any better off since they'd broken up. But it wasn't like Jun wanted to win Nino back - they had fun together, but Jun wasn't looking for true love. He couldn’t even get his own life balanced yet; he had plenty on his plate without worrying about significant others.
Jun had rebelled against his family once by consorting with Nino, then had chickened out, rebelled again by joining a bending team, and had gotten caught - maybe his subconscious and the universe was giving him some kind of sign.
God. Who knew.
He was walking to the bathroom of the restaurant, wanting to check if all of this anxiety was giving him forehead wrinkles or something, when he heard a startled gasp from a white-aproned employee, who'd opened the custodial closet to reveal - two girls inside, who'd obviously been up to something hot and heavy.
Then Jun made the mistake of meeting the eyes of one of the girls, over the worker's shoulder.
He felt his blood run cold.
Shit.
---
10. NINO
So that sucked.
Not only had Nino's brilliant "philosophical debate about the necessity of bending devolving into hostile mess and possible food fight lest it be stopped by handsome man from next table over" plan fallen through like a ton of rocks on a wet paper towel as soon as Jun had recognized him, but they'd made a huge scene, getting tossed out of the restaurant in front of everyone dining there, with citations of "inappropriate behaviour" and "shameless lack of tact" by The Soaring Boar's big-nosed manager.
"Tell that to the boner your guy over there is sporting!" Nino shouted, as the waiters ushered them out of the building.
At least they hadn't been called out as men too. That would have been pretty hard to explain. Though the look on the aroused employee's face might have potentially been worth it.
"Well, what are we doing now?" Ohno asked, as Nino led the way to The Boar's back alley.
"Plan B," Nino said, making a beeline for a dumpster. Ohno bent down to give him a boost and Nino climbed onto it, slowly sliding his weight across the top lid until he could peek into the high windows of the restaurant, giving him a view of the entire kitchen. "We're going to flood the place."
When he glanced back, Ohno's face was screwed up in some kind of display of confusion. "What? What's that going to do?"
"If you were a firebender facing a mad rush of water heading straight toward you, what would your reaction be?"
"I'd head for higher ground."
"You're in a restaurant," said Nino patiently.
Ohno thought about it for a second. "I would find a chair to sit on and then lift my feet off the floor."
"You'd bend out a shitload of fire to nullify the threat!" Nino corrected. Maybe not every firebender would react that way, but Jun would. Jun had to, because Jun was full of nothing but fucking hot air. God, to think of all the chances that Nino gave him to come to his senses! All those "You should sort things out with your fealty complex" talks! Agreeing amicably all those times Jun got awkward about insisting they stay in Nino's apartment for the night! Leaving a spot for him on Nino's pro-bending team! And just a few minutes prior, when he'd shouted, "It's a free city!" like a fucking lunatic to his staring audience, which would have been a perfect segue for Jun to jump on, and Jun had just shuttered his eyes away, looking, of all things, offended. Well, fine. Jun could suffer through his life how he wanted, but by ruining Nino's pro-bending team, he was sending a clear message to Nino that Nino could now move on to more drastic measures. What was more drastic than a literal dumping of cold water onto a person? All they had to do was to unplug every single sink in the kitchen and send it all to the eating area in a huge wave-
"Nino," Ohno said. His hand tugged on Nino's skirt. "Nino, come down from there."
"Wait, wait, I'm scoping this out," Nino said, trying to count all the sinks in the room. "I want to know how fast we can fill up-"
"Nino," Ohno said again, more firmly. "Stop."
Nino turned to him. "What?"
"It's not going to work. Get down. Let's go back to your place."
"No, Oh-chan, listen - if we don't get Jun back today, then we can kiss the entire team goodbye! Don't you want to join the tournament? You need to earn the ship fare back home."
"There are other ways. We tried with Jun-kun, okay? We tried and we made a mistake and that's it. It's not your job to force Jun to come clean with his parents. You've got to let it go."
"Oh-chan," Nino said.
"Jun-kun will talk to them on his own time, I promise. I think he just needs to figure out what to say first. He seems like he's that kind of guy - he seems respectful about how he treats others and himself."
"He's really not," said Nino, which was a lie.
"Well, then he's not," Ohno said, sighing. "But my feet hurt in these shoes and I need to go to the bathroom for real and Jun-kun looked really, really upset when we were getting kicked out, so I think we should just... go. Okay?"
He held out his hand for Nino.
Nino took another glance into the kitchen. One of the chefs was preparing something with dried plums on the side. Nino imagined Jun getting that plate, taking his chopsticks and eating in small bites like a polite gentleman, hands maybe wearing skin-coloured bandages to cover the bruising they'd accumulated from fighting water and rock with lashes of fire, and perhaps those wounds hurt him every time he curled his fingers around a spoon or a cup. All the while he'd keep up some dull conversation with his family, no doubt about cloths and textiles, and tried his utmost to put Nino and their team out of his mind, only he wouldn’t be able to, because the pains of his body wouldn’t let him.
Just because Jun gave him - them - up, did Nino have the right to make Jun give up something too?
“Nino,” Ohno repeated, and his fingers beckoned for him. So Nino tucked his hand into Ohno’s, and let Ohno lead him home.
---
This was a bad idea. Ohno got them lost immediately.
---
By the time they made it back to Aiba’s car, they’d walked three circles in the opposite direction of where they’d come from and the moon had already risen high above the city. Aiba was sound asleep in the driver’s seat, a huge tome of comics half-open on his chest, matching the half-open gape of his mouth. Ohno tapped on the glass window and Aiba startled awake, wiping the line of drool from his lip.
“Ah,” he said, looking behind them and immediately realizing they were short a firebender. “No good?”
Nino sighed. “We’ll put up ads for a new member tomorrow morning.”
Aiba looked sad, but said nothing else as he unlocked the side doors to let them in.
---
Back home in Nino’s apartment, Ohno guided Nino around the mess and clutter of Nino's life like he was a helpless toddler, gently pushing Nino onto his unmade bed, then bending down to carefully take off Nino’s heels and massaging his feet. He got Nino a glass of water as Nino shed off his dress, and then did the same as Nino took quiet sips of his drink. Then he sat down beside Nino and leaned his head against Nino’s shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said.
“About what?” Nino asked flatly. “You did nothing wrong.”
“It sucks being disappointed,” said Ohno.
Nino drained the rest of the water and carelessly dropped the empty cup on his nightstand. Then he turned to Ohno, who was still wearing his brown wig with straight hair that ran past his shoulders. His hands reached out to brush the hair back from Ohno’s face, and he bent in to kiss Ohno’s bared shoulder.
“You were very pretty today,” said Nino.
“Thanks,” laughed Ohno, his nose scrunching. “You too.”
“Me? Nooo.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Get your eyes fixed.”
“I saw Aiba-chan checking out your butt when you weren’t looking.”
Nino made a face. “Aiba would check out the butt of a salmon-bird.”
“Those are pretty sexy. But you’re sexier,” Ohno said.
Nino stared at him. “You have to kiss me now. Okay?”
“Okay,” said Ohno, and did.
---
Nino didn’t know which spirit was gracious enough to grant a useless person like him the endless gift that was Ohno Satoshi, but to say Nino was fucking thankful was an understatement. It wasn’t that he’d been heartbroken by Jun, but Jun had just been the most recent (although richest, and one of the best) name on a long list of people Nino had been in a relationship with, but with whom he never quite fit. Maybe he and Jun could have been better together if Jun weren’t so scared of other people’s opinions, but then again, maybe it was a million-to-one chance that they had met and stayed together at all for any length of time. Regardless, the space in Nino’s heart that Jun had usurped had shifted in recent weeks - it had shrunk to an abysmal size after Jun had declared them over and done, but had regrown almost to its old proportions during their team training sessions, and now it was again changing shape like a bubbling pot of water, oscillating between shattering apart entirely or imploding into a hardened ball, never to be reopened, but never to be rid of, either. Nino didn't want Jun back with him, but he wanted Jun back.
But now there was Ohno, and Ohno fit with him so well that Nino could barely believe he existed. Ohno was gentle, and slow-going, and easy, and he did the things that Nino told him to do no matter how stupid they were, and he thought Nino’s half-assed cooking was the best delicacy on the planet, and he joined Nino’s pro-bending team when they didn’t even know each other, and he kissed like his mouth was possessed by an ancient dragon, the world's first firebenders. He kissed like he wanted to slowly burn Nino up from the inside out. And maybe it was working. Yes, it was working.
Ohno kept his wig on for some reason; Nino couldn’t stop running his fingers through it, tugging slightly as Ohno kissed his way down Nino’s bare chest, gripping handfuls of its cool, smooth strands as Ohno breathed heat against the dampening top of Nino’s panties. His long fingers tugged playfully at the elastic, pulling them down in increments, revealing the leaking, red tip of Nino’s cock, which he sucked slowly into his mouth. By the time the panties were all the way down, hanging from one of Nino’s ankles, Nino was a shaking, shivering wreck, made into nothing but a bundle of nerves played like an instrument by Ohno’s tongue and fingers, touching him everywhere.
Maybe he should be thankful that the bending team was in disarray. Now that Ohno had to go about earning money a different way, he could stay here longer, with Nino.
“Don’t you leave me too,” said Nino, when Ohno finally pushed himself inside, not stopping until his thighs met the backs of Nino’s, until there wasn’t even a sliver of space between them.
Ohno bent down to swipe his mouth over the sweat pooling in the dip of Nino’s collarbone. The hair of his wig tickled Nino’s oversensitive skin. There was lipstick smeared all over Ohno’s face in red streaks; they twisted into oblong shapes when Ohno’s cheeks bunched up in a smile.
“Where else could I go?” he asked, and started to thrust.
“Do you even like bending?” Nino laughed, hands skittering for a grip on Ohno’s shoulders, sliding down Ohno’s arms and grabbing his wrists, laid like cage bars on either side of Nino’s ears.
“I like it okay,” said Ohno hastily, groaning as his hips slid in, out.
Nino linked his ankles around Ohno’s back and half-wished that he was still wearing his heels. He reached higher and yanked off Ohno’s wig, so he could run his hands through Ohno’s sweat-drenched hair, and drag him close enough to kiss.
“I’m sorry too,” he whispered against Ohno’s lips. Ohno would know what he meant.
---
What Nino loved about Ohno is that he didn’t push. Clearly there was some weird, unfinished shit going on between Nino and King of Making Nino Miserable, Jun, but Nino hadn’t bothered yet to explain much about it and Ohno just - accepted that. Didn’t ask. And maybe this was why Nino had gravitated towards Ohno from the start; with the kind of personality that Nino had, which he often visualized as a large, occasionally rippling pond containing, at its sunken bottom, an explosive device wrapped under a paper thin metal casing (which didn’t even make sense, because hello, rust), he needed someone who wouldn’t touch when Nino was feeling prickly, but didn’t back away when Nino was lashing out. With Jun, there had been clashes of personality. Sho had remarked once, when he’d finally relaxed enough around Jun to stop with the embarrassingly high honorifics, that Nino and Jun were kind of similar. Nino remembered being duly affronted, but looking back at it, Sho was kind of right. There was this proud quality in both Nino and Jun that could be self-destructive, if improperly controlled, and in Ohno there was none of that. It’s why when he was being modest about his waterbending skill, Nino believed it, because Ohno honestly didn’t seem to care how good he was. When someone of Ohno’s indestructible serenity met with Nino’s unwieldy and often contradictory personality, the result wasn’t a clash, it was a match.
The day that Jun had walked out of Nino’s life, the only explanation he’d been given was that they were better off as friends. It took a while for Nino to square with that, because he and Jun hadn’t really fit the traditional definition of friends at any point of their acquaintance, but now that he’d interacted with Jun without the expectation of getting into his pants sometime that night, he could see Jun’s point. They weren’t good, doing everything together. Both of them were too bull-headed; they could be lovers or friends, but not both, because Jun needed someone who could accept his high-pressure life, and Nino couldn’t, and Nino needed someone he didn’t have to explain his motivations around, and Jun wasn’t that person.
Having a pro-bending team was good and all, but the whole thing was partly a heavily convoluted ruse to pull Jun back into Nino’s life, and regardless of how transparent Nino was about this, in the end, Jun hadn’t figured it out, and Nino couldn’t find the courage to ask for what he wanted.
So it’d all fallen through in the end. Well - was it such a big deal? Jun wasn’t that far away; it wasn’t like he was lost forever. They still lived in the same city, used the same streets, and Nino was willing to bet that in a week’s time, they would both be hopelessly trained to the play-by-play of the same dumb sports competition.
And Nino could take some comfort in that.
---
There was a dream he was having: he was the Avatar and decided to fuck the whole world over by doing shit-all. Jun was the figurehead of a war while wearing dark purple satin robes, and he flew around Nino’s head squawking about burnt omelette rice. And then there was Sho’s despairing voice drifting in Nino’s ear, saying, “Oh my god, what on earth happened last night. What are these dresses? Don’t tell me you two hired some - ladies of the night?”
“Um. Those were ours,” said Ohno’s voice, and Nino’s eyes snapped open just in time to register Sho’s appalled expression.
“I thought you went on some mission to get Jun back onto the team! Where on earth did cross-dressing fit into this plan?”
“Uh, I guess… at the start of it, until the end.”
Sho pulled the most uncomfortable face.
“Morning,” Nino muttered.
“Get up,” Sho said, starting to reach out for Nino’s arms and then thinking better of it. “Okay, get dressed, then get up. We’ve got to go.”
“What time is it?” Nino asked, blearily looking at the clock on his wall. It was near midnight.
“Time for practise!”
“Practise starts at eleven,” Nino said automatically, then sat up. “There is no practise. Wait, what?”
Sho grinned. “I got a call from Aiba, who apparently got a call from Matsumoto Jun himself. He’s back on the team.”
---
Aiba and Jun were already waiting at their arena, their bodies lit only by the two dim light bulbs hanging above the building’s door, when Sho’s Satomobile pulled up to the edge of the deserted street. Nino practically threw himself out of the car.
“Nino! Look who’s back!” Aiba called, flinging an arm around Jun.
“What the hell happened?” Nino demanded, striding up to Jun. “What did you do?”
“More like, what did you do,” Jun shot back. “Dressing up as women, getting a table near mine, and then hiding in a cleaning supply closet to make out? What the hell were you thinking?”
“What?” Sho gaped. “Nino! What the hell!”
“I was thinking that I would help you pull your head out of your ass,” Nino said. Then he added, “You should probably be glad we got kicked out when we did.”
Jun sighed and said, “That doesn't make me feel better about it.”
“It should. Spill, what happened? Don’t tell me you’re not longer a legal Matsumoto?”
“No worries about that,” Jun said drily. “Apparently seeing two young women debasing themselves so spectacularly put in perspective how good a job I’d done, keeping my own secrets under wraps for so long. My uncle looked at me under a whole new light for the rest of the meal. It wasn't exactly flattering, but it wasn't exactly degrading either."
“Wow, way for them to make you out to be some sort of criminal.”
“Come off it. They don’t think I’ve betrayed them as a son or anything. They just have these convictions and don’t understand why I didn’t follow them. They were raising me to be this person and I wasn’t that - it’s a disappointment to them. They’re big on reputation.”
Nino sucked in his lips. It always came down to this. “You shouldn’t have to be a disappointment.”
Jun glanced away. “Well. That’s not up for you to decide. If it helps, I agree with you, and I don't feel like a disappointment. I'm just... frustrated that they don't feel the same."
"Well," said Nino. "Obviously."
"In any case, they sort of realized that I’d done such a good job hiding my firebending for a reason, and then I explained to them that I didn’t want to go against the family and - well, they were happy to hear that. I guess they were relieved that I didn’t think of them as subordinate or weak or anything for being non-benders. But it’s not like I oppose everything they stand for. Non-benders have been oppressed for generations and they're right about that. But it's got nothing to do with me. And I told them that I couldn’t help being a bender, but I apologized for hurting the family. We talked it out, and they agreed that I shouldn’t be punished for being a bender, but for bending without letting them know about it.”
“Wait,” Nino interrupted, “so you’re telling me that after all that, they didn’t change their minds about their anti-bender views?”
“I don’t know, honestly,” said Jun. “But apparently the night I was caught returning from bending practise, my mother saw me smiling more widely than I have for a long time.” He looked vaguely discomfited. “I didn’t have any idea, but it apparently struck her, somehow. Who knows. She decided that until they straighten out the situation better, I could go back to practising with you guys. On one condition.”
“Name it.”
Jun hissed a long breath through his teeth. “Can’t participate in the tournament. Sorry.”
“What?” shouted Nino, which was echoed immediately by Aiba and Sho.
“Then what was the point of joining the team again, Jun-kun?!” Aiba said, eyes huge.
Jun tilted his head sheepishly. “Well. I thought you might need a firebender trainer.”
---
While they celebrated Jun’s return with bottles of cheap beer that Aiba had rummaged together, none of them the same brand, Nino took advantage of his decreasing sobriety and Ohno’s unsubtle elbow-jabbing in Jun’s direction to apologize for trying to stage an intervention for Jun’s parents.
“You should be,” said Jun, “what could you have possibly accomplished by dressing in drag?”
“I was going to make you out to be a hero, I swear.”
“You could have been arrested.”
“Well, the closet escapade wasn’t part of the original plan. But did you get a good look at Oh-chan as a girl? I’m blameless.”
“Just-” Jun said, rubbing his temples, “tell me about it another day. I’m tired about thinking about my family.”
“Hey,” Nino said. “If I... made it seem like I was bullying you to join the team, I didn’t mean to make it like an ultimatum or anything. I kind of just wanted - I don't know, it was nice to see you again.”
“Ah,” replied Jun, and a moment of comprehension flickered across his face. “I’d wondered if it was about that.”
“It wasn’t,” Nino said automatically. “Wait, about what?”
"Miss me much?" Jun lifted an eyebrow.
"Don't get cocky!"
Jun laughed. “How about you forgive me for - being so flighty and leaving the team high and dry, and I’ll forgive you for being unable to admit that you missed me.”
“That seems grossly disproportionate,” scowling Nino.
“I know,” Jun said. “But remember - uniform money.”
Nino raised his beer bottle. “Cheers, then. It would have been a shitty team without you on it, anyway.”
Jun blinked; he looked touched. “Oh. Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I spent all your uniform money on those girl disguises.”
---
They ended up recruiting another firebender named Shun, who was actually one of Nino’s old friends from school and coincidentally was interviewing for a position in Jun’s company. He wasn’t half bad, but they didn’t find him until a day before the actual tournament; there wasn't much they could do. Aiba’s reserved seats gave him and Nino a perfect view of their team’s first match, and subsequent elimination. The Ultra-cool Incredible Storm Crows (Aiba’s executive decision as the team’s financer) fought a brave fight against the Armoured Armadillo-bears, but lost in round two, with Shun toppling over the sidelines first, followed by Ohno. Sho actually stood his ground the longest, bearing against the onslaught of regulation stone disks and blasts of water with his own propelled disks, but slowly got pushed back further and further, until, ducking from a shot of fire, he lost his balance and fell over into the pool below.
The crowd gave them a hearty cheer regardless.
Nino ended up making twenty-four yuan, which meant-
“You bet against us?!” Sho yelled, when Nino revealed his winnings.
“I would have bet on you guys if Jun-kun had been on the team,” said Nino pragmatically.
“Damn,” laughed Shun. “That’s harsh.”
Nino counted the bills, then split a third to Shun, a third to Ohno, and kept the remaining third for himself.
“But what about the rest of us?” Aiba complained, as Nino tucked his meager eight yuan back in his worn leather wallet. “I paid the registration fee, Nino!”
“You guys didn’t sign a contract with me, so you’re out of luck,” said Nino bluntly.
“Oh my god, it was a complete waste of time then,” said Sho, throwing up his hands.
“Hey, come on. It was kind of fun, isn't it?" smiled Nino. He was a bit surprised himself, admitting that, but it was true.
“It was great!” Aiba shouted. “It was so much fun watching you guys! I felt like I was having a heart attack the entire time!”
Nino bumped shoulders with Ohno. “You were great, waterbending master Ohno-san.”
“Thanks,” Ohno said. “Do we have practise again tomorrow?”
“Practise?” Jun said. “But your tournament chances are over.”
“Oh,” Ohno said, eyebrows quirking. “But I thought - next year?” He looked at Nino for confirmation.
“Shit,” Nino breathed, grinning. “Why not.”
end