Ohno in Wonderland
Title: Ohno in Wonderland
Rating: PG-13ish
Pairing: Ohno/Everyone (specifically Ohno/Jun), Nino/Sho
Genre: AU, fantasy bordering on crack
Chapter: six
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Just like Alice, Ohno falls down the rabbit hole... only there are more familiar people there waiting for him than Alice had. Inspired by the recent Tim Burton Movie, Animated Classic, and the books.
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
He had a dream about tea and hearts and hats and everyone was happy, or at least it seemed that way. Ohno was sitting in Jun’s tea garden again, at the long table just like before, only it was just the two of them. Jun was smiling at him, although everything but his face and hat with the size still in it was fuzzy, and he was pouring some tea and laughing at something Ohno had told him. The hatter dropped his head to examine something on the table while his guest picked at his delicious piece of pie.
Heart as light as ever, the artist raised his tea cup to his lips, but out of nowhere the sunny atmosphere that had been present before started to disappear, leaving the setting dull and gray. Jun raised his head slowly, his face gradually becoming revealed from behind his hat, and Ohno’s chest hurt with the look that was resting on his friend’s face.
“…Jun?” he asked slowly, trying to reach out to touch the younger man’s arm, to reassure him he was there, but Ohno’s body wasn’t moving.
Somehow the hat flew off of his head and Ohno realized that this wasn’t the mad hatter Jun that had made him new clothes; this was the Jun he was in love with, the one that he had abandoned for his fantasy. And his eyes were sad.
“You missed my wedding, Ohno.”
Silent tears starting falling from Jun’s eyes and Ohno tried once more to reach forward, to tell Jun that he hadn’t meant to, that he was just trapped, and that he was sorry, but it seemed like as far as his arms reached they still weren’t able to touch his friend.
The man’s crying led to water rising around their ankles, and Ohno looked down in horror when he realized it.
“Jun, I’m sorry-“ he finally broke out, but the taller man wasn’t listening to him. “I’m sorry!” he repeated, trying to keep his own emotions under control. Now the water was up to his waist and some of the chairs lining the table had fallen over.
“Jun!” Ohno tried to grab the sobbing gentleman as his tears forced the level of the water to rise up towards his chin, but, while the artist had drifted out of his chair, Jun was stuck in place as if held down by chains.
“Jun!!” he yelled again, desperately trying to fight the water that had become a whirlpool around him, knocking him off balance and drawing him farther away from his precious comrade. The water had covered Jun’s nose now and even though he was gurgling and blowing bubbles through his mouth, he didn’t stop crying.
Finally, as Ohno was swept away by the current, Jun’s head was completely covered and the man’s figure disappeared.
There weren’t trees around him like there should have been. Ohno could only see water, an ocean, as far as eyes would focus, nothing dotting the flat scape. He was being carried somewhere and he prayed that it was where he wanted to go.
The waves were strong and Ohno was lost under the current a few times, but at one point when he was gasping for breath, he caught something in the corner of his vision.
“Oh-chan!!” Nino yelled, waving his hand, and Ohno noticed that he was coming towards him on a raft with Sho next to him, a makeshift paddle in his grip.
“Oh-chan! Grab my hand!” the man begged, and it was the magician Nino only he was wearing the tiny heart crown and the heart vest, and beside him was the writer Sho in his trademark bed sheet, only he was struggling with it as if he’d never worn it before.
They were both desperately reaching out to grab him, Nino halfway in the water and Sho trying to keep him on the raft with an arm around his waist.
Ohno tried to reach them to, to swim towards them, but he was being pulled away and soon enough he couldn’t see the other two men any more.
Instead of losing his energy fighting the waves any more, Ohno let his eyes close for a second and he floated as best he could, allowing the water do whatever it wanted with him.
When he opened them again it was dark. The water was black and he could barely distinguish it from the pitch sky above him. After a few more seconds he couldn’t even do that.
Please, he begged to whoever was there, I just want to go home.
“I guess that depends on your definition of home…” Aiba’s voice drifted next to him, but Ohno wasn’t sure if it was actually there or just inside of his head.
Home.
Aiba was right. Home was a place where people who loved you were waiting. But it was also the place where the people you loved were waiting.
There was a dim light off to his left and Ohno had the distinct feeling he was in a tunnel, since the glow was a little muffled.
Suddenly the water forced him against a wall and all the wind was knocked out of him. He struggled for breath as wave after wave came at him, the water draining to either side just in time for more to replace it. His lungs were on fire and just when he was sure he was going to drown, it suddenly stopped and Ohno collapsed, limp.
And then he started falling towards the light.
There were pictures, only all of them were upside down, and chandeliers hanging sideways out of the wall, and tables set for lunch or tea, only this time Ohno didn’t have the appetite to reach out and grab any food.
One of the longer lamps struck his elbow, pulling in into a weird angle as he continued tumbling towards the bottom, which was lit up with white light filtering from the side, and Aiba was standing there with his purple ears and flickering tail, giving Ohno a warm smile as he looked up at the artist.
Ohno was approaching him fast, but at the last second his friend ducked to the side and disappeared, towards where the glow was coming from, and the artist wasn’t slowing down as the bottom of the hole got bigger and sharper.
The desperate man tried to brace himself with his forearms in front of his head, but he still hit the packed dirt hard, his whole body jolted, and suddenly couldn’t feel anything else.
There were no dreams this time. Nothing happy, but nothing sad either, so if Ohno could have held an opinion on the matter he would have said that he was content with nothing at all.
But maybe that was a lie, that he didn’t have any dreams. He could hear someone calling his name, after all.
Oh-chan.
It sounded like Aiba, but the Chesire cat hadn’t been so frantic in all the time Ohno knew him.
God, he’s bleeding.
Was he bleeding? Ohno didn’t know.
Sho, go tell Jun we found him.
Ah, Jun…
Ohno suddenly took a deep breath of air, one that burned through his lungs like fire, and he could feel the hard rocky dirt under him and smell the scent of grass.
Forcing his eyes open past their determination to keep closed, Ohno tried to focus on the blurry figure leaning over him.
“Aiba-chan?” he guessed, since it had been the inventor’s voice so close to him.
“Don’t move!” Aiba pushed him back harshly when Ohno had tried to sit up to rub his head. “God, do you know how worried we were? Disappearing like that?”
His vision was clearing and the artist smiled when he saw that this Aiba didn’t have cat ears and was wearing the same plain suit from Jun’s wedding.
“…Sorry,” he mumbled, realizing that Aiba-chan was actually quite mad right now.
But the artist’s face suddenly fell into a frown.
“Aiba-chan?” he started slowly, and the man leaning over him was pushing his hair out of his face and examining his head. “Did I miss Jun’s wedding?” Ohno asked in a small voice and Aiba looked startled at the question.
“No…” was the reply and the inventor was suddenly trying to hold back a smile. “We’ve been looking for you for a couple of hours. Jun told us you ran off, but I couldn’t find you in the Matsumoto garden so Nino and Sho started to help. When you didn’t turn up by lunch time, Jun left the party and we started looking for you here, in the forest.”
Ohno glanced up. They were indeed covered by a canopy of tree branches, sitting in the bottom of a ravine. It was familiar, not in the chasing-a-cat sort of way, but in the way that he’d taken strolls with Jun through here many times. The hole that he had gotten lost through was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m not sure how you got out here, though. Jun said you ran into the garden, but you would have had to leave that area to get this far away…” Aiba commented. He had pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and was gently pressing it to Ohno’s temple.
“You found him?” Nino was running towards the pair almost out of breath, coming in through where the ravine emptied out into a lower part of the forest. He reached them before Aiba had time to answer and so instead of confirming his question, the inventor just watched as Nino crashed to the ground a few feet from Ohno’s side.
“Kazu, you’re not wearing your crown.” It was the first thing that Ohno noticed and the words came out before he could properly think about it. His head was pounding, but his heart felt light and free.
“What?” Nino gasped, looking at the artist incredulously. He leaned forward and stared at Aiba’s handkerchief, which had several spots of blood on it. Ohno thought he must have hit his head pretty hard when he fell out of that hole, but that was okay because he was home.
“Don’t worry too much, Kazu. Aiba-chan doesn’t have his cat ears any more either.” He wasn’t sure why he was telling them that; it was almost like he didn’t have full control of himself, like he was drunk and couldn’t keep the thoughts inside of him.
“Oh God, he has brain trauma,” Nino panted with wide eyes and Ohno just giggled at him. He didn’t have brain trauma, he felt fine, wonderful even.
Suddenly Jun came barreling down the side of the small valley, almost falling once, and Sho was right behind him (although the writer slipped and slid most of the way).
“What happened?” Jun spit out between deep breaths, slowing down once he had reached Aiba’s side and could see that Ohno wasn’t dead. He looked sweaty and upset and the sleeves of his white shirt were pushed back and crumpled in a way that wasn’t like Jun at all.
“I think he fell from up there,” Aiba indicated an area by a tree at the top of the steep hill, a little higher up from the way that Jun had come, “and hit his head.”
“He’s loopy,” Nino added as Sho collapsed next to the magician, looking at Ohno with worry just like the rest of them.
Jun’s anxious eyes fell on the artist and a huge smile spread across Ohno’s face. But the groom looked more distraught at the action than relieved.
“Ohno, are you okay?” he asked slowly, finally kneeling down on the ground next to Aiba to examine the wound that was apparently bleeding on the side of the older man’s head.
“Jun…” he sighed happily in response. “I made it in time for your wedding…”
All four pairs of eyes widened and Aiba shared a look with Nino and Sho while Jun just looked confused and surprised.
“Of course he’s not okay. He’s spouting all sorts of nonsense…” Nino answered in a huffy voice and Sho placed his hand lightly on the magician’s shoulder, telling him to calm down and that everything would be alright.
Nino looked over at Sho and swallowed, making a conscious effort to follow the advice and Ohno couldn’t stop himself.
“Sho…” Ohno addressed the writer with a soft grin and Nino turned back to face the artist along with the man next to him. “You’re completely in love with Nino, aren’t you?”
It seemed like any noise that had been in the forest stopped as they stared at Ohno once more.
And then, all at the same time, Sho flushed as red as the roses in the Red Queen’s garden and tried to back up to give himself a little space from the magician, but Nino had already turned to the writer and grabbed his arm with a small smile.
“…You do?” Nino asked slowly, his attention suddenly off of Ohno and focused on the writer who seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilation. He hadn’t answered and didn’t exactly look like he was going to, so Ohno tried to make him feel a little better.
“Don’t worry, Sho-chan. Nino is completely in love with you, too.”
At that statement it was the magician’s turn to blush all the way down to his neck and he retreated himself, then turn to look at Ohno incredulously. At that reaction, Sho suddenly took a deep breath and immediately calmed down, grabbing onto the breast of his shirt as if to still his racing heart.
“How…What…” Nino fumbled, looking at Ohno like the artist was seriously injured but somehow was making sense.
Aiba giggled and Ohno gave the inventor his attention now, noticing that Jun also had an amused but distracted smile on his lips as he watched Sho and then turned back to meet the artist’s eyes.
They stared at each other for a second, and Ohno suddenly felt his heart become light as Jun gave him a tiny grin and shook his head as if to say that the injured man had absolutely no subtlety or timing whatsoever.
“…And I’m completely in love with you too,” he told Jun.
The forest went silent again and Jun’s face became serious in less than a heartbeat, his eyes dilated a little in surprise at the sudden confession. Sho and Aiba were holding their breaths and Nino was looking at the groom for an answer.
But Ohno just smiled at him. He didn’t care what the answer was. He’d said it. He’d said something he’d been waiting for years to say and he’d said it before it was too late.
Finally the tense atmosphere was broken by Nino, who forced a chuckle and mumbled, “Wow, he really hit his head too hard.”
Now that the pressure was lifted, Jun stood and stared down at the ground while Aiba reached forward and finally helped Ohno sit up. The inventor examined the area that was supposedly injured for at least the third time while Nino and Sho watched in worry, and then looked startled when he glanced down at the rest of Ohno to see if he was okay.
“Eh? Oh-chan? Where did you get these clothes?” the surprised man asked, pulling lightly at the white sleeve, which was covering his entire arm instead of being rolled up like it usually was.
“Huh?” Ohno mumbled, looking down at his sleeves. It appeared to be his regular shirt, only much cleaner than he remembered it.
Pulling his hand up to his shoulder to examine the fabric, he stopped when he noticed the cufflinks holding the dress shirt together at the wrist.
He swallowed as the jewelry shone in the faint sunlight filtering from above them.
“…How did you get those?” Jun was distractedly watching them and now he looked terrified as he stared at his cufflinks, which Ohno was wearing on his sleeves.
After he got over his initial shock, the groom pulled down his own crumpled shirt arms and examined the wrist, where there was a barren hole.
Ohno almost said you gave them to me, but stopped himself in time, the control over his body coming back. He simply stared down at the pair of initials with a curious look, trying to figure out how they had followed him back from Wonderland.
“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Aiba said after a second, trying to clear the air of the strange mood that had set over the group. “They’re safe, right?” he asked with a smile and Ohno nodded.
He began pulling the cufflinks off his sleeve, even though Jun mumbled that he didn’t have to, and gingerly gave them to Aiba to hold. He immediately rolled back the fabric, curious if he would find what he expected to be there.
Yep. On the inside there was a design of a cat in a hat and a tea cup on one sleeve and two chess pieces on the other, done in light grey so that it was almost invisible.
Ohno smiled, touching the stitching with his forefinger, and felt one small tear well up in the corner of his eye.
He stared at it for a second, picturing the curly haired hatter in his head and silently thanking him for the present, but no one else had noticed the faint pattern and so silence overtook them for a few minutes as they waited for the artist to collect himself.
“Well, let’s get back and find someone to look at Oh-chan, then,” Nino said, standing up, and Sho simply stared at him for a moment (and then glanced away when Nino returned the look) before doing the same.
Aiba helped him stand and then turned so that Ohno could ride on his back, and it was only then that the artist noticed that Jun had disappeared.
As he was carried by Aiba back to where the tents were set up, Ohno was babied all the way by Nino and Sho, even though he tried to tell them all he was fine and could walk himself.
A few people stared at them as the group finally pierced the edge of the gathering, and Chinen came running over as he saw his idol being pampered and possibly bleeding.
“Ohno-san, what happened?”
“Oh, Chi-chan. You’re not a door anymore.”
The boy stopped dead in his tracks, but Nino assured him that Ohno would be fine after some rest, even though the magician didn’t seem to quite believe his own words.
Aiba finally set him down under a white pavilion and Nino spread out a clean blanket for the artist to lay on while Sho rushed off to find someone to help them.
The two friends fretted over him for a second, making sure he was comfortable, but once it was obvious that Ohno wasn’t in immediately danger of death, their expressions relaxed a little.
Finally, with the buzz of the party guess whispering around them, Nino smiled kindly down at Ohno, but with an expression that the artist thought was consoling more than anything.
“You did it, Oh-chan. I’m proud.”
Ohno smiled in return.
“Yeah… I guess Jun’s upset? But it felt good to say it.”
Nino patted his shoulder and Aiba grinned at him and then he was being pulled forward in a double hug.
“Don’t worry, Ohno. It’ll be okay…” the inventor whispered and suddenly the artist realized that Aiba was the reason that he had been able to come this far. He had taught him what a home was, he had helped him come to terms with Jun getting married, and it seemed like he was the one that had brought him back from Wonderland too.
“Thank you…” the injured man replied quietly, the words holding a lot more meaning that they appeared to.
But Aiba’s eyes were twinkling, and they scrunched up as the inventor gave him a wide smile. “You’re welcome.”
Once the moment was over, the artist was pushed down again, and Nino looked like he was trying to collect his frazzled self and return to his usual laid back attitude. He pushed his hair back, mumbled something about Sho taking a long time, and then tried to hide a blush as it came to his face. Glancing at Aiba once, Nino turned back to Ohno and then asked under his breath, how did you know?
But Ohno just grinned at him, unsure how to explain the strange situation. He wanted to ask Nino if he secretly had a sewing addiction too, but knew that the magician would just get upset and not answer honestly anyway, so he didn’t bother. That secret would be saved for another day.
Instead, the artist turned to the other wedding guest and asked, “Aiba-chan? Will you get my art supplies from the carriage? Once I get examined or whatever I need to find a place to set up.”
Nino looked at him incredulously and Aiba furrowed his eyebrows.
“You’re going through with drawing the wedding portrait?” the worried inventor asked and Nino broke in before Ohno could reply with an affirmative answer.
“No one would blame you for going home, Ohno. Not in the shape you’re in.”
Although that sounded tempting, the artist frowned slightly and stared past Nino’s shoulder towards a group of partiers that were sipping drinks and stealing glances at the pavilion that the men were covered by.
“No…Jun’ll be sad if I don’t stay, so it’s okay.”
Just then Sho returned with a woman in a white dress who was wearing a pair of stilettos that certainly seemed hard to walk in. Nino stood immediately and looked apprehensively at Sho, but the other man just shook his head and moved back to make room for the woman.
“Becky?” Aiba asked as he spotted her, and then straightened to retreat away from Ohno as well.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t find anyone else and she said she knew some first aid…” Sho explained, a little winded and staring at Nino like he was afraid he was going to be reprimanded for his choice.
“Don’t worry, boys, I’ll take care of him!” Becky’s voice was energetic and she smiled widely at the three friends who were slowly backing up. They smiled politely in return and then as a trio walked a few feet farther away, Nino immediately hitting Sho on the shoulder and saying something that Ohno could no longer catch. Aiba broke in somewhere along the way and it looked like the three of them were having a small argument under their breaths.
Ohno turned his attention back to the woman when she pulled back the skirt of her dress to kneel down next to his torso and took off her white gloves in order to examine his head.
After a second of dead silence, she asked with a grin, “You must be Ohno, right? You’ve certainly caused quite a stir today…”
The artist wasn’t sure whether to laugh or turn away in embarrassment. He was hoping his disappearance hadn’t been that big of a deal, but if Jun had left his own wedding party to look for him, everyone must at least be whispering about what had happened.
“I’m sorry,” he offered weakly, at a lack for anything else. He stared at his feet sheepishly, then stole a glance at her again. She was patting his head with something and pushing his hair out of the way.
“You’re Jun’s fiancé, aren’t you?” he asked in a quiet voice.
There was no mistaking it. Not only her apparel, but he remembered her voice from what was probably that morning, and she looked gorgeous, flowers in her hair and all. She was exactly the sort of woman that deserved Jun and so Ohno felt content now that he’d met her. Maybe they could become friends.
She smiled and that was answer enough.
Ohno nodded and grinned at her, trying to replace the disappointment in his chest with satisfaction that Jun would indeed be happy with his new wife.
The artist already knew what colors he would be using for Jun in the portrait, so he took this chance to think of what colors to use for Becky. He wanted a background that had a lot of flowers, especially red ones. Maybe the Matsumoto garden was really the best place despite his mishap there this morning.
She was silent as Ohno slowly examined her features, but when their eyes met, Ohno suddenly realized that they were sad, even though the rest of her face seemed happy. Swallowing once, Becky turned away, back to the handkerchief that had a few small spots of red on it, and then spoke in a shaky voice.
“Jun’s just called off the wedding.”
Ohno stopped breathing and stared at her.
“He’s talking with my parents right now. Apologizing to them, most likely.”
Laughing at Ohno’s expression, the woman wiped one of her eyes with the back of her hand, and then gave the wounded man another smile.
“Wh-what?” he asked, a little confused by her reaction. If that was the case, why was she here taking care of him? And shouldn’t she be more upset than this?
“I’m not sure why,” she started to explain, “but it must have something to do with you.”
“I’ve barely seen him all day. When you ran away this morning, he spent an hour talking with Nino and Sho and then only after they left could I get him to join me in talking with some guests. But even then he wasn’t there, not mentally. He made light conversation, but there were several times where he was so gone that I had to tug on his shirt.”
Ohno stared down at his feet, overtaken with guilt. It was obvious why Jun had called off the wedding, but he couldn’t believe it and he certainly couldn’t tell Jun’s fiancé the reason either.
“I finally told him to go and look for you himself, and when he came back, it was to tell me he couldn’t marry me anymore.”
Becky’s speech was fast and nervous, and it was obvious that she was upset but trying not to be. She turned, met Ohno’s gaze, and sighed heavily.
“But it’s okay. I’m disappointed, of course, but it was only a strategic marriage after all. Jun’s mother probably had to threaten him or something to get him to agree,” Becky said with another grin, and although the image of Jun’s mother not letting him use any of her hair products until he conceded was amusing, Ohno couldn’t bring himself to return the display of emotion.
When she finally didn’t say anything else, the artist offered a soft, “I’m sorry.”
Becky shook her head avidly at him and then hit him lightly on the shoulder. “You shouldn’t be. I can’t help but feel that everything will turn out for the better this way.”
She wiped her eyes again and sniffed once, and then her gaze was suddenly determined. “Besides, I have my sights set on someone else…” Becky admitted with a wink, then turned to where Aiba, Sho, and Nino were still having a heated conversation to give him a hint.
Ohno blinked and tilted his head.
“Well, then, let’s get you taken care of!” she started again with more energy than before. “You have a cut here on the side of your head, but I think the bleeding stopped. Does it hurt anywhere else?”
Although he was distracted with thoughts of what he would say to Jun the next time they met, Ohno did a once over of his body, and then admitted no slowly and honestly.
His arm was fine. He didn’t have any scratches that should have been there from the rose bushes earlier. His head wasn’t hurting, even though it was apparently injured.
But most importantly of all, his chest didn’t hurt any more either.
“Oh good!” Becky smiled and then turned as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, and Ohno automatically followed her gaze.
Jun was walking towards them with a hurried pace, coming from the opposite direction that the other three friends were standing. They had noticed him too, but couldn’t make it over before Jun was also under the pavilion and looking at Becky with apprehension and expectation.
“He’s fine, just a scratch on the head,” she explained, standing up. The woman gave Ohno a small wave and another grin, and then slowly walked out of the pavilion, leaving the two men alone together.
Jun distracted looked around him and then approached Ohno’s side, kneeling down in the same spot that Becky had been a moment ago. He was staring at one of the poles holding the roof up and when Ohno calmly looked, he found that the younger man was shaking.
Forcing his eyes to return to his friend, the groom met Ohno’s gaze, averted his own, and then looked at Ohno again.
“Are you okay?” he asked, as if he didn’t believe what Becky had told him.
“I’m fine,” Ohno replied immediately, giving Jun a tiny smile and wondering what he should be saying right now. Maybe something like why don’t you kiss me?
“I…I called off the wedding,” Jun explained, looking down at his hands in his lap.
“Becky told me.”
Jun looked started, turning to Ohno with wide eyes, but nodded and glanced back at his hands.
After a moment, the younger man let out in a shaking voice, “You’d better be serious, Ohno.”
He smiled and that was answer enough.
“You idiot!” Jun grinned and smacked him lightly on the head, then pulled him up off the ground and into a hug. Ohno giggled and hugged him back, noticing that Aiba, Sho, and Nino were watching with wide grins. Everyone else was watching too, but Ohno thought they probably had no idea what was going on.
Jun released his grip a little and the artist fell back a few inches so he could look at the other man in the face. His hands grabbed onto the back of the groom’s shirt and Ohno never wanted to let go.
“I guess this is the part that I say I love you too?” he asked with a chuckle, one of his arms moving so that Jun could run his hand through Ohno’s hair slowly, trying to put it back in place after his examination.
“…You could have said that earlier,” Ohno pouted, but he was incapable of repressing the smile that was taking over his face.
Jun’s hand slipped to the back of his head and the younger man’s expression turned serious. He was pulling the artist forward for what could only be a kiss and as much as Ohno wanted that--more than anything in the world--he put up a little resistance.
“Jun, everyone’s watching,” he mumbled, his eyes darting down to look at Jun’s lips, which were dry from the heat of the day and a little chapped and exactly the right size.
“I just called off my wedding,” Jun replied in a haughty tone, forcing Ohno closer. “There’s going to be rumors anyway…”
Against Ohno’s lips he finished, “Might as well give them the truth.”
+++
A/N: This is the last chapter, as you can tell, but there's going to be an epilogue hopefully posted in a timely manner. How did you like it? I'm a sucker for happy endings, but maybe I made you impatient? XD And of course Sakumiya. <3
This was a pretty fun universe so I might come back to it later when I feel like writing something peppy again. In the mean time, I'll be posting a few shorter things next. :)
As always, comments and/or criticism is welcome.
To the epilogue!!
Rating: PG-13ish
Pairing: Ohno/Everyone (specifically Ohno/Jun), Nino/Sho
Genre: AU, fantasy bordering on crack
Chapter: six
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Just like Alice, Ohno falls down the rabbit hole... only there are more familiar people there waiting for him than Alice had. Inspired by the recent Tim Burton Movie, Animated Classic, and the books.
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
He had a dream about tea and hearts and hats and everyone was happy, or at least it seemed that way. Ohno was sitting in Jun’s tea garden again, at the long table just like before, only it was just the two of them. Jun was smiling at him, although everything but his face and hat with the size still in it was fuzzy, and he was pouring some tea and laughing at something Ohno had told him. The hatter dropped his head to examine something on the table while his guest picked at his delicious piece of pie.
Heart as light as ever, the artist raised his tea cup to his lips, but out of nowhere the sunny atmosphere that had been present before started to disappear, leaving the setting dull and gray. Jun raised his head slowly, his face gradually becoming revealed from behind his hat, and Ohno’s chest hurt with the look that was resting on his friend’s face.
“…Jun?” he asked slowly, trying to reach out to touch the younger man’s arm, to reassure him he was there, but Ohno’s body wasn’t moving.
Somehow the hat flew off of his head and Ohno realized that this wasn’t the mad hatter Jun that had made him new clothes; this was the Jun he was in love with, the one that he had abandoned for his fantasy. And his eyes were sad.
“You missed my wedding, Ohno.”
Silent tears starting falling from Jun’s eyes and Ohno tried once more to reach forward, to tell Jun that he hadn’t meant to, that he was just trapped, and that he was sorry, but it seemed like as far as his arms reached they still weren’t able to touch his friend.
The man’s crying led to water rising around their ankles, and Ohno looked down in horror when he realized it.
“Jun, I’m sorry-“ he finally broke out, but the taller man wasn’t listening to him. “I’m sorry!” he repeated, trying to keep his own emotions under control. Now the water was up to his waist and some of the chairs lining the table had fallen over.
“Jun!” Ohno tried to grab the sobbing gentleman as his tears forced the level of the water to rise up towards his chin, but, while the artist had drifted out of his chair, Jun was stuck in place as if held down by chains.
“Jun!!” he yelled again, desperately trying to fight the water that had become a whirlpool around him, knocking him off balance and drawing him farther away from his precious comrade. The water had covered Jun’s nose now and even though he was gurgling and blowing bubbles through his mouth, he didn’t stop crying.
Finally, as Ohno was swept away by the current, Jun’s head was completely covered and the man’s figure disappeared.
There weren’t trees around him like there should have been. Ohno could only see water, an ocean, as far as eyes would focus, nothing dotting the flat scape. He was being carried somewhere and he prayed that it was where he wanted to go.
The waves were strong and Ohno was lost under the current a few times, but at one point when he was gasping for breath, he caught something in the corner of his vision.
“Oh-chan!!” Nino yelled, waving his hand, and Ohno noticed that he was coming towards him on a raft with Sho next to him, a makeshift paddle in his grip.
“Oh-chan! Grab my hand!” the man begged, and it was the magician Nino only he was wearing the tiny heart crown and the heart vest, and beside him was the writer Sho in his trademark bed sheet, only he was struggling with it as if he’d never worn it before.
They were both desperately reaching out to grab him, Nino halfway in the water and Sho trying to keep him on the raft with an arm around his waist.
Ohno tried to reach them to, to swim towards them, but he was being pulled away and soon enough he couldn’t see the other two men any more.
Instead of losing his energy fighting the waves any more, Ohno let his eyes close for a second and he floated as best he could, allowing the water do whatever it wanted with him.
When he opened them again it was dark. The water was black and he could barely distinguish it from the pitch sky above him. After a few more seconds he couldn’t even do that.
Please, he begged to whoever was there, I just want to go home.
“I guess that depends on your definition of home…” Aiba’s voice drifted next to him, but Ohno wasn’t sure if it was actually there or just inside of his head.
Home.
Aiba was right. Home was a place where people who loved you were waiting. But it was also the place where the people you loved were waiting.
There was a dim light off to his left and Ohno had the distinct feeling he was in a tunnel, since the glow was a little muffled.
Suddenly the water forced him against a wall and all the wind was knocked out of him. He struggled for breath as wave after wave came at him, the water draining to either side just in time for more to replace it. His lungs were on fire and just when he was sure he was going to drown, it suddenly stopped and Ohno collapsed, limp.
And then he started falling towards the light.
There were pictures, only all of them were upside down, and chandeliers hanging sideways out of the wall, and tables set for lunch or tea, only this time Ohno didn’t have the appetite to reach out and grab any food.
One of the longer lamps struck his elbow, pulling in into a weird angle as he continued tumbling towards the bottom, which was lit up with white light filtering from the side, and Aiba was standing there with his purple ears and flickering tail, giving Ohno a warm smile as he looked up at the artist.
Ohno was approaching him fast, but at the last second his friend ducked to the side and disappeared, towards where the glow was coming from, and the artist wasn’t slowing down as the bottom of the hole got bigger and sharper.
The desperate man tried to brace himself with his forearms in front of his head, but he still hit the packed dirt hard, his whole body jolted, and suddenly couldn’t feel anything else.
There were no dreams this time. Nothing happy, but nothing sad either, so if Ohno could have held an opinion on the matter he would have said that he was content with nothing at all.
But maybe that was a lie, that he didn’t have any dreams. He could hear someone calling his name, after all.
Oh-chan.
It sounded like Aiba, but the Chesire cat hadn’t been so frantic in all the time Ohno knew him.
God, he’s bleeding.
Was he bleeding? Ohno didn’t know.
Sho, go tell Jun we found him.
Ah, Jun…
Ohno suddenly took a deep breath of air, one that burned through his lungs like fire, and he could feel the hard rocky dirt under him and smell the scent of grass.
Forcing his eyes open past their determination to keep closed, Ohno tried to focus on the blurry figure leaning over him.
“Aiba-chan?” he guessed, since it had been the inventor’s voice so close to him.
“Don’t move!” Aiba pushed him back harshly when Ohno had tried to sit up to rub his head. “God, do you know how worried we were? Disappearing like that?”
His vision was clearing and the artist smiled when he saw that this Aiba didn’t have cat ears and was wearing the same plain suit from Jun’s wedding.
“…Sorry,” he mumbled, realizing that Aiba-chan was actually quite mad right now.
But the artist’s face suddenly fell into a frown.
“Aiba-chan?” he started slowly, and the man leaning over him was pushing his hair out of his face and examining his head. “Did I miss Jun’s wedding?” Ohno asked in a small voice and Aiba looked startled at the question.
“No…” was the reply and the inventor was suddenly trying to hold back a smile. “We’ve been looking for you for a couple of hours. Jun told us you ran off, but I couldn’t find you in the Matsumoto garden so Nino and Sho started to help. When you didn’t turn up by lunch time, Jun left the party and we started looking for you here, in the forest.”
Ohno glanced up. They were indeed covered by a canopy of tree branches, sitting in the bottom of a ravine. It was familiar, not in the chasing-a-cat sort of way, but in the way that he’d taken strolls with Jun through here many times. The hole that he had gotten lost through was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m not sure how you got out here, though. Jun said you ran into the garden, but you would have had to leave that area to get this far away…” Aiba commented. He had pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and was gently pressing it to Ohno’s temple.
“You found him?” Nino was running towards the pair almost out of breath, coming in through where the ravine emptied out into a lower part of the forest. He reached them before Aiba had time to answer and so instead of confirming his question, the inventor just watched as Nino crashed to the ground a few feet from Ohno’s side.
“Kazu, you’re not wearing your crown.” It was the first thing that Ohno noticed and the words came out before he could properly think about it. His head was pounding, but his heart felt light and free.
“What?” Nino gasped, looking at the artist incredulously. He leaned forward and stared at Aiba’s handkerchief, which had several spots of blood on it. Ohno thought he must have hit his head pretty hard when he fell out of that hole, but that was okay because he was home.
“Don’t worry too much, Kazu. Aiba-chan doesn’t have his cat ears any more either.” He wasn’t sure why he was telling them that; it was almost like he didn’t have full control of himself, like he was drunk and couldn’t keep the thoughts inside of him.
“Oh God, he has brain trauma,” Nino panted with wide eyes and Ohno just giggled at him. He didn’t have brain trauma, he felt fine, wonderful even.
Suddenly Jun came barreling down the side of the small valley, almost falling once, and Sho was right behind him (although the writer slipped and slid most of the way).
“What happened?” Jun spit out between deep breaths, slowing down once he had reached Aiba’s side and could see that Ohno wasn’t dead. He looked sweaty and upset and the sleeves of his white shirt were pushed back and crumpled in a way that wasn’t like Jun at all.
“I think he fell from up there,” Aiba indicated an area by a tree at the top of the steep hill, a little higher up from the way that Jun had come, “and hit his head.”
“He’s loopy,” Nino added as Sho collapsed next to the magician, looking at Ohno with worry just like the rest of them.
Jun’s anxious eyes fell on the artist and a huge smile spread across Ohno’s face. But the groom looked more distraught at the action than relieved.
“Ohno, are you okay?” he asked slowly, finally kneeling down on the ground next to Aiba to examine the wound that was apparently bleeding on the side of the older man’s head.
“Jun…” he sighed happily in response. “I made it in time for your wedding…”
All four pairs of eyes widened and Aiba shared a look with Nino and Sho while Jun just looked confused and surprised.
“Of course he’s not okay. He’s spouting all sorts of nonsense…” Nino answered in a huffy voice and Sho placed his hand lightly on the magician’s shoulder, telling him to calm down and that everything would be alright.
Nino looked over at Sho and swallowed, making a conscious effort to follow the advice and Ohno couldn’t stop himself.
“Sho…” Ohno addressed the writer with a soft grin and Nino turned back to face the artist along with the man next to him. “You’re completely in love with Nino, aren’t you?”
It seemed like any noise that had been in the forest stopped as they stared at Ohno once more.
And then, all at the same time, Sho flushed as red as the roses in the Red Queen’s garden and tried to back up to give himself a little space from the magician, but Nino had already turned to the writer and grabbed his arm with a small smile.
“…You do?” Nino asked slowly, his attention suddenly off of Ohno and focused on the writer who seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilation. He hadn’t answered and didn’t exactly look like he was going to, so Ohno tried to make him feel a little better.
“Don’t worry, Sho-chan. Nino is completely in love with you, too.”
At that statement it was the magician’s turn to blush all the way down to his neck and he retreated himself, then turn to look at Ohno incredulously. At that reaction, Sho suddenly took a deep breath and immediately calmed down, grabbing onto the breast of his shirt as if to still his racing heart.
“How…What…” Nino fumbled, looking at Ohno like the artist was seriously injured but somehow was making sense.
Aiba giggled and Ohno gave the inventor his attention now, noticing that Jun also had an amused but distracted smile on his lips as he watched Sho and then turned back to meet the artist’s eyes.
They stared at each other for a second, and Ohno suddenly felt his heart become light as Jun gave him a tiny grin and shook his head as if to say that the injured man had absolutely no subtlety or timing whatsoever.
“…And I’m completely in love with you too,” he told Jun.
The forest went silent again and Jun’s face became serious in less than a heartbeat, his eyes dilated a little in surprise at the sudden confession. Sho and Aiba were holding their breaths and Nino was looking at the groom for an answer.
But Ohno just smiled at him. He didn’t care what the answer was. He’d said it. He’d said something he’d been waiting for years to say and he’d said it before it was too late.
Finally the tense atmosphere was broken by Nino, who forced a chuckle and mumbled, “Wow, he really hit his head too hard.”
Now that the pressure was lifted, Jun stood and stared down at the ground while Aiba reached forward and finally helped Ohno sit up. The inventor examined the area that was supposedly injured for at least the third time while Nino and Sho watched in worry, and then looked startled when he glanced down at the rest of Ohno to see if he was okay.
“Eh? Oh-chan? Where did you get these clothes?” the surprised man asked, pulling lightly at the white sleeve, which was covering his entire arm instead of being rolled up like it usually was.
“Huh?” Ohno mumbled, looking down at his sleeves. It appeared to be his regular shirt, only much cleaner than he remembered it.
Pulling his hand up to his shoulder to examine the fabric, he stopped when he noticed the cufflinks holding the dress shirt together at the wrist.
He swallowed as the jewelry shone in the faint sunlight filtering from above them.
“…How did you get those?” Jun was distractedly watching them and now he looked terrified as he stared at his cufflinks, which Ohno was wearing on his sleeves.
After he got over his initial shock, the groom pulled down his own crumpled shirt arms and examined the wrist, where there was a barren hole.
Ohno almost said you gave them to me, but stopped himself in time, the control over his body coming back. He simply stared down at the pair of initials with a curious look, trying to figure out how they had followed him back from Wonderland.
“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Aiba said after a second, trying to clear the air of the strange mood that had set over the group. “They’re safe, right?” he asked with a smile and Ohno nodded.
He began pulling the cufflinks off his sleeve, even though Jun mumbled that he didn’t have to, and gingerly gave them to Aiba to hold. He immediately rolled back the fabric, curious if he would find what he expected to be there.
Yep. On the inside there was a design of a cat in a hat and a tea cup on one sleeve and two chess pieces on the other, done in light grey so that it was almost invisible.
Ohno smiled, touching the stitching with his forefinger, and felt one small tear well up in the corner of his eye.
He stared at it for a second, picturing the curly haired hatter in his head and silently thanking him for the present, but no one else had noticed the faint pattern and so silence overtook them for a few minutes as they waited for the artist to collect himself.
“Well, let’s get back and find someone to look at Oh-chan, then,” Nino said, standing up, and Sho simply stared at him for a moment (and then glanced away when Nino returned the look) before doing the same.
Aiba helped him stand and then turned so that Ohno could ride on his back, and it was only then that the artist noticed that Jun had disappeared.
As he was carried by Aiba back to where the tents were set up, Ohno was babied all the way by Nino and Sho, even though he tried to tell them all he was fine and could walk himself.
A few people stared at them as the group finally pierced the edge of the gathering, and Chinen came running over as he saw his idol being pampered and possibly bleeding.
“Ohno-san, what happened?”
“Oh, Chi-chan. You’re not a door anymore.”
The boy stopped dead in his tracks, but Nino assured him that Ohno would be fine after some rest, even though the magician didn’t seem to quite believe his own words.
Aiba finally set him down under a white pavilion and Nino spread out a clean blanket for the artist to lay on while Sho rushed off to find someone to help them.
The two friends fretted over him for a second, making sure he was comfortable, but once it was obvious that Ohno wasn’t in immediately danger of death, their expressions relaxed a little.
Finally, with the buzz of the party guess whispering around them, Nino smiled kindly down at Ohno, but with an expression that the artist thought was consoling more than anything.
“You did it, Oh-chan. I’m proud.”
Ohno smiled in return.
“Yeah… I guess Jun’s upset? But it felt good to say it.”
Nino patted his shoulder and Aiba grinned at him and then he was being pulled forward in a double hug.
“Don’t worry, Ohno. It’ll be okay…” the inventor whispered and suddenly the artist realized that Aiba was the reason that he had been able to come this far. He had taught him what a home was, he had helped him come to terms with Jun getting married, and it seemed like he was the one that had brought him back from Wonderland too.
“Thank you…” the injured man replied quietly, the words holding a lot more meaning that they appeared to.
But Aiba’s eyes were twinkling, and they scrunched up as the inventor gave him a wide smile. “You’re welcome.”
Once the moment was over, the artist was pushed down again, and Nino looked like he was trying to collect his frazzled self and return to his usual laid back attitude. He pushed his hair back, mumbled something about Sho taking a long time, and then tried to hide a blush as it came to his face. Glancing at Aiba once, Nino turned back to Ohno and then asked under his breath, how did you know?
But Ohno just grinned at him, unsure how to explain the strange situation. He wanted to ask Nino if he secretly had a sewing addiction too, but knew that the magician would just get upset and not answer honestly anyway, so he didn’t bother. That secret would be saved for another day.
Instead, the artist turned to the other wedding guest and asked, “Aiba-chan? Will you get my art supplies from the carriage? Once I get examined or whatever I need to find a place to set up.”
Nino looked at him incredulously and Aiba furrowed his eyebrows.
“You’re going through with drawing the wedding portrait?” the worried inventor asked and Nino broke in before Ohno could reply with an affirmative answer.
“No one would blame you for going home, Ohno. Not in the shape you’re in.”
Although that sounded tempting, the artist frowned slightly and stared past Nino’s shoulder towards a group of partiers that were sipping drinks and stealing glances at the pavilion that the men were covered by.
“No…Jun’ll be sad if I don’t stay, so it’s okay.”
Just then Sho returned with a woman in a white dress who was wearing a pair of stilettos that certainly seemed hard to walk in. Nino stood immediately and looked apprehensively at Sho, but the other man just shook his head and moved back to make room for the woman.
“Becky?” Aiba asked as he spotted her, and then straightened to retreat away from Ohno as well.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t find anyone else and she said she knew some first aid…” Sho explained, a little winded and staring at Nino like he was afraid he was going to be reprimanded for his choice.
“Don’t worry, boys, I’ll take care of him!” Becky’s voice was energetic and she smiled widely at the three friends who were slowly backing up. They smiled politely in return and then as a trio walked a few feet farther away, Nino immediately hitting Sho on the shoulder and saying something that Ohno could no longer catch. Aiba broke in somewhere along the way and it looked like the three of them were having a small argument under their breaths.
Ohno turned his attention back to the woman when she pulled back the skirt of her dress to kneel down next to his torso and took off her white gloves in order to examine his head.
After a second of dead silence, she asked with a grin, “You must be Ohno, right? You’ve certainly caused quite a stir today…”
The artist wasn’t sure whether to laugh or turn away in embarrassment. He was hoping his disappearance hadn’t been that big of a deal, but if Jun had left his own wedding party to look for him, everyone must at least be whispering about what had happened.
“I’m sorry,” he offered weakly, at a lack for anything else. He stared at his feet sheepishly, then stole a glance at her again. She was patting his head with something and pushing his hair out of the way.
“You’re Jun’s fiancé, aren’t you?” he asked in a quiet voice.
There was no mistaking it. Not only her apparel, but he remembered her voice from what was probably that morning, and she looked gorgeous, flowers in her hair and all. She was exactly the sort of woman that deserved Jun and so Ohno felt content now that he’d met her. Maybe they could become friends.
She smiled and that was answer enough.
Ohno nodded and grinned at her, trying to replace the disappointment in his chest with satisfaction that Jun would indeed be happy with his new wife.
The artist already knew what colors he would be using for Jun in the portrait, so he took this chance to think of what colors to use for Becky. He wanted a background that had a lot of flowers, especially red ones. Maybe the Matsumoto garden was really the best place despite his mishap there this morning.
She was silent as Ohno slowly examined her features, but when their eyes met, Ohno suddenly realized that they were sad, even though the rest of her face seemed happy. Swallowing once, Becky turned away, back to the handkerchief that had a few small spots of red on it, and then spoke in a shaky voice.
“Jun’s just called off the wedding.”
Ohno stopped breathing and stared at her.
“He’s talking with my parents right now. Apologizing to them, most likely.”
Laughing at Ohno’s expression, the woman wiped one of her eyes with the back of her hand, and then gave the wounded man another smile.
“Wh-what?” he asked, a little confused by her reaction. If that was the case, why was she here taking care of him? And shouldn’t she be more upset than this?
“I’m not sure why,” she started to explain, “but it must have something to do with you.”
“I’ve barely seen him all day. When you ran away this morning, he spent an hour talking with Nino and Sho and then only after they left could I get him to join me in talking with some guests. But even then he wasn’t there, not mentally. He made light conversation, but there were several times where he was so gone that I had to tug on his shirt.”
Ohno stared down at his feet, overtaken with guilt. It was obvious why Jun had called off the wedding, but he couldn’t believe it and he certainly couldn’t tell Jun’s fiancé the reason either.
“I finally told him to go and look for you himself, and when he came back, it was to tell me he couldn’t marry me anymore.”
Becky’s speech was fast and nervous, and it was obvious that she was upset but trying not to be. She turned, met Ohno’s gaze, and sighed heavily.
“But it’s okay. I’m disappointed, of course, but it was only a strategic marriage after all. Jun’s mother probably had to threaten him or something to get him to agree,” Becky said with another grin, and although the image of Jun’s mother not letting him use any of her hair products until he conceded was amusing, Ohno couldn’t bring himself to return the display of emotion.
When she finally didn’t say anything else, the artist offered a soft, “I’m sorry.”
Becky shook her head avidly at him and then hit him lightly on the shoulder. “You shouldn’t be. I can’t help but feel that everything will turn out for the better this way.”
She wiped her eyes again and sniffed once, and then her gaze was suddenly determined. “Besides, I have my sights set on someone else…” Becky admitted with a wink, then turned to where Aiba, Sho, and Nino were still having a heated conversation to give him a hint.
Ohno blinked and tilted his head.
“Well, then, let’s get you taken care of!” she started again with more energy than before. “You have a cut here on the side of your head, but I think the bleeding stopped. Does it hurt anywhere else?”
Although he was distracted with thoughts of what he would say to Jun the next time they met, Ohno did a once over of his body, and then admitted no slowly and honestly.
His arm was fine. He didn’t have any scratches that should have been there from the rose bushes earlier. His head wasn’t hurting, even though it was apparently injured.
But most importantly of all, his chest didn’t hurt any more either.
“Oh good!” Becky smiled and then turned as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, and Ohno automatically followed her gaze.
Jun was walking towards them with a hurried pace, coming from the opposite direction that the other three friends were standing. They had noticed him too, but couldn’t make it over before Jun was also under the pavilion and looking at Becky with apprehension and expectation.
“He’s fine, just a scratch on the head,” she explained, standing up. The woman gave Ohno a small wave and another grin, and then slowly walked out of the pavilion, leaving the two men alone together.
Jun distracted looked around him and then approached Ohno’s side, kneeling down in the same spot that Becky had been a moment ago. He was staring at one of the poles holding the roof up and when Ohno calmly looked, he found that the younger man was shaking.
Forcing his eyes to return to his friend, the groom met Ohno’s gaze, averted his own, and then looked at Ohno again.
“Are you okay?” he asked, as if he didn’t believe what Becky had told him.
“I’m fine,” Ohno replied immediately, giving Jun a tiny smile and wondering what he should be saying right now. Maybe something like why don’t you kiss me?
“I…I called off the wedding,” Jun explained, looking down at his hands in his lap.
“Becky told me.”
Jun looked started, turning to Ohno with wide eyes, but nodded and glanced back at his hands.
After a moment, the younger man let out in a shaking voice, “You’d better be serious, Ohno.”
He smiled and that was answer enough.
“You idiot!” Jun grinned and smacked him lightly on the head, then pulled him up off the ground and into a hug. Ohno giggled and hugged him back, noticing that Aiba, Sho, and Nino were watching with wide grins. Everyone else was watching too, but Ohno thought they probably had no idea what was going on.
Jun released his grip a little and the artist fell back a few inches so he could look at the other man in the face. His hands grabbed onto the back of the groom’s shirt and Ohno never wanted to let go.
“I guess this is the part that I say I love you too?” he asked with a chuckle, one of his arms moving so that Jun could run his hand through Ohno’s hair slowly, trying to put it back in place after his examination.
“…You could have said that earlier,” Ohno pouted, but he was incapable of repressing the smile that was taking over his face.
Jun’s hand slipped to the back of his head and the younger man’s expression turned serious. He was pulling the artist forward for what could only be a kiss and as much as Ohno wanted that--more than anything in the world--he put up a little resistance.
“Jun, everyone’s watching,” he mumbled, his eyes darting down to look at Jun’s lips, which were dry from the heat of the day and a little chapped and exactly the right size.
“I just called off my wedding,” Jun replied in a haughty tone, forcing Ohno closer. “There’s going to be rumors anyway…”
Against Ohno’s lips he finished, “Might as well give them the truth.”
+++
A/N: This is the last chapter, as you can tell, but there's going to be an epilogue hopefully posted in a timely manner. How did you like it? I'm a sucker for happy endings, but maybe I made you impatient? XD And of course Sakumiya. <3
This was a pretty fun universe so I might come back to it later when I feel like writing something peppy again. In the mean time, I'll be posting a few shorter things next. :)
As always, comments and/or criticism is welcome.
To the epilogue!!