Mannequin Ch. 5: Regrets
Title: Mannequin
Pairings: Matsumoto Jun x Sakurai Sho, Ohno Satoshi x Ninomiya Kazunari (and more as the story progresses)
Rating: NC-17
When Sakurai's father sends him to manage a small costume shop, he doesn't understand why he's being punished. He doesn't belong there-- he belongs in the heart of the city, leading his department and working his way towards being company president. But somehow he finds the queer little shop more intriguing than he anticipated, and he's especially drawn to one of the shop's mannequins. Which is pathetic, he knows, because the thing is an inanimate object...
Or is it?
Regrets
Captain did have his pants on. He had greeted the owner at the backdoor to the store, and it was with him that Nino found the mannequin. An hour or two earlier, the pair had quietly decided to leave Jun and Sho alone to talk. The owner had briefly considered eavesdropping, but Captain didn’t think it was especially necessary… or really, he didn’t want to listen to certain topics he suspected they might discuss.
“What do you think of those two? You think Sho’s the one?” the owner had asked him, not bothering to hide his youth with the glamoured-fedora, bewitched that morning to a burnt orange color. His youthful eyes glimmered.
Captain knew exactly what the owner was referring to, but pretended ignorance, and instead asked what costume in the back room was ready for him to wear. The owner found a pirate ensemble, which was, of course, complete with a plumed hat to mark the mannequin as the bloodthirsty captain, the owner liked to keep this theme going. Despite knowing Captain for nearly twelve years (an entire decade of which was with Captain as a mannequin), he still decided to push the subject Captain never wanted to discuss: love. Did he still remember it? Or had he never been in love in the first place? Was that the problem? That he’d just been on the receiving end?
In turn, it took Captain less than three seconds to cooly change the topic.
An irritated but comfortable silence passed between them as the owner fastened buckles on Captain’s scabbard, but it didn’t last.
“He calls you by your given name,” the owner murmured under his breath. Captain might have been plotting his response when the owner went ahead and said, “I heard him refer to you that way in his thoughts.”
“Stay out of his head, Guardian,” Captain told him, firmly.
“I just thought, maybe now, you might like to use it again. You might like to let Jun at least call you Ohn--”
“No,” Captain cut him off, “I don’t want to hear that name. I’m not that person anymore.”
“You’re more him today than you were yesterday,” the owner countered, “And you’ll be him entirely very soon.”
“For a day,” the mannequin whispered, bitter.
“Perhaps,” the owner whispered telepathically instead of out loud, and he could almost hear the Captain snap to attention. His tension was instantly higher.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” the owner replied, “I’m sorry. You know better than to get your hopes up.”
“That’s right,” Captain’s voice was reedy and far away in the owner’s mind, “I do.”
Matsumoto had told Sho as much as he could about the spell itself. How long he’d been under it, what it felt like, how long he’d slept, how Captain had come into existence… but he didn’t specify the exact nature of the power they were seeking. He’d explained, to some extent, that the owner and his friend had loved Jun very much-- and that Jun had loved them both greatly in return. Even when the owner hadn’t really taken to him, Jun had liked him immediately. The owner had such a strong character; masculine and physical. He was a man with a strong, silent presence and a surprising sense of humor. Jun had instantly understood why his friend, the one who would later turn out to be magical and save his life, was so in love with the owner… But that was a long time ago, and Jun couldn’t be sure that even their love could survive so long with such little contact.
Jun felt sick thinking that he’d ruined their love. It was his fault. He felt like he’d stolen it.
So he always worked hard, desperately, to break the spell. Not just for himself, although regaining his humanity an incredible incentive, but for them. The memories of that late, hazy summer Sho had shown him felt more like a dream than anything, but they had remained vivid for someone else. He could barely remember being there, just like an adult remembers early childhood-- bits and pieces, emotions, misconceptions, and things that may or may not have actually been there. A part of him thinks there might have been a woman there. A woman in a dark….in a dark robe, or it must have been a dress. But that’s crazy because he also remembers the stifling heat, the sweat… and he doesn’t remember the owner or his friend interacting with her. So she must not have been there. Either way, the memory that Sho seemed so excited about was bittersweet and vague to him.
But anyway, all the research and knowledge of incantations and enchantments wouldn’t bring him the power he needed to break the spell. It was hopeless, unless he found the person from whom his friend had borrowed love from…and there was no telling who or where Jun would find him (or her, Jun didn’t want to write women off completely), or when. It could be another hundred years from now, or maybe he’d missed him yesterday… No. He couldn’t be negative. He had to break the spell over him so he could help Captain, and then his friends would have their lives back. Thinking about it reminded Jun that he’d have to ask the owner what he was trying to achieve by showing Sho what he looked like “in the flesh.” Did he think that Sho would be interested in the pretty face he used to have? A lot of women, and men, had been interested in his pretty face all those years ago… but that wasn’t what he wanted or needed. Superficial lust or infatuation wasn’t enough to save him then, and it wasn’t going to help anyone now.
Jun wasn’t sure what he wanted from Sho, if anything… but he knew he didn’t want that.
Just as Jun was thinking these rather depressing thoughts about him, Sho popped around the corner… with an annoyingly adorable expression on his face. Jun found Sho far too charmingly clueless lately. The man wasn’t a jerk, like he’d initially feared when he learned he didn’t take the time the learn his co-workers’ names. Sho’s head had just been focused elsewhere, he’d been blindsided by the need to prove himself … and okay, Sho was a little bit of a jerk, but not so much as to ruin him for Jun. Jun had the inkling suspicion, as much as he wanted to deny it, that he might like men who were just slightly jerks, as long as their hearts were good. Who wants a perfectly nice person, anyway? Jun didn’t trust people like that anymore.
Not that he liked Sho, he quickly reminded himself.
“What are you thinking about?” Sho’s voice cut through Jun’s thoughts, and the mannequin realized his thinking about the man might have accidentally blocked out anything Sho had been trying to say.
“You,” Jun replied, faking an air of annoyance.
“Me? What did I do? Is this about the pants?”
“No,” Jun snapped.
Sho’s eyes crinkled as his mouth curved into a crooked grin, “Good, because you’re the one who panicked and told me to help you change and it’s not my fault my brain subconsciously went for the pants first.”
“Your brain’s a pervert.”
“Maybe,” Sho agreed, then picked up some costumes to rehang so he looked busy, “Anyway, I was thinking about you too.”
“Oh?” Jun was glad he didn’t have cheeks that could blush.
“Yeah. I was thinking that maybe if I don’t have the power you need now, I could get it. My position with the company grants me benefits and access to a rather unlimited amount of resources. You just tell me what you need, and I’ll find a way to get it for you.”
Jun’s voiced “hmm”ed a little in Sho’s mind, and his confidence in his idea waned a little as Jun took his time to respond.
“Thank you, Sho,” Jun finally said, and Sho was reminded of the smaller smile from his dream, “but I’m not sure the power is something you can get for me, and I’m not sure where to look to find it.”
“Well, could it possibly be sourced from a rock or mineral or something, like Kryptonite? Or maybe an old enchanted relic, like in Lord of the Rings?”
“I like Western movies too,” Jun snorted, “but this isn’t the sort of power you can buy.”
“Well, I didn’t say I was going to buy it,” Sho said aloud, earning a look from Aiba. He worried for a second about how crazy he looked, but then Nino quipped, “Hey, are you on your phone? What kind of service do you get in here? Because mine is terrible.”
Sho awkwardly pretended to finish a phone call, then cleared his throat and told Nino which provider and phone he used, earning a low whistle from Nino about having the latest iphone.
“It gets easier after a while,” Jun’s voice assured in his head.
“What does?” Sho responded in like, pocketing his phone.
“Talking to me without looking crazy.”
“I don’t want it to get easier,” Sho said, shoving a costume back on the rack, “I want it to not be necessary. I want you to be like you were in that dream.”
“Pretty?”
“Happy,” Sho retorted instantly, but didn’t raise his head from the costume rack, “You’re pretty enough now.”
“You said I was creepy,” Jun reminded him.
“Yeah, well, you’re that too,” Sho teased, looking up to smile.
A small boy, whose mother Sho had spoken to earlier about doraemon costumes, came bursting out of a circular rack, giggling and shrieking about dragons. Sho started to smile, and knelt to catch the kid, when the boy made a sharp turn and knocked right into Jun. Unable to stop himself, Jun toppled forward and Sho barely had time to turn and catch him. The awkward angle-- or perhaps fate-- made it so their faces made contact as their bodies hit, and Jun’s mouth landed square on Sakurai’s.
It would have been straight out of a television drama, if Sho hadn’t ended up with a fat lip. While Jun’s mannequin lips had looked arguably tempting before, those things were hard. The pain barely registered to Sho, though, as he flusteredly asked Jun (out loud, again) if he was alright.
Luckily, the sound of the fall had Aiba and the boy’s mother running over, and the mother was quick to assure Sho that her boy was fine and that he had saved him.
Sho just nodded, because it hadn’t occurred to him at all to be worried if the boy was alright.
“You okay, Sho-kun?” Aiba asked as the mother led her boy to the register where Nino was waiting.
“Yeah,” Sho replied, pushing himself up.
“You know you’re bleeding, right?”
“What?” Sho’s hand flew to his mouth, and when he brought his fingertips away, they were tipped with blood.
“Caught him with your face, huh?” Aiba smiled, “Do you want a wet paper towel or something?”
“Nah, I’ll get it. Just let me sit him back up first,” Sho answered, “Thanks, though.”
“Mmk,” Aiba said, turning and smiling himself away.
“Ah, your lip,” Jun’s voice was worried and apologetic in Sho’s mind, “I’m so sorry. We have a first aid kit in the washroom. There should be ointment there. Or you can get an icepack from the freezer in back. We have them there for when Aiba tries to build something.”
“It’s okay, Jun,” Sho dabbed at his lip with his sleeve, “I’ll survive. I just need to wash it off and hope I don’t look like a duck… my lips are big enough already.”
“Yeah,” Jun agreed.
“What?” Sho asked, having half-expected Jun to say something witty about him looking like a duck.
“Your lips are big,” Jun said, then hurriedly added, “I mean, they’re fuller than most people’s. I mean, they get a little puffy when you eat curry. I mean--”
“I get it,” Sho cut him off, “My lips are large… and now the bottom is even bigger. Maybe I should put ice on it.”
He was still holding Jun, which made it hard for Jun to get the right words out, and he willed his nerves to calm down before he said anything else that was stupid, but then Sho’s thumb brushed over his cheek and all logical thought escaped him. Sho was so warm.
“Your hair fell forward,” Sho’s voice was soft in his head, mirroring the slight caress.
“Uh,” Jun’s voice stuttered slightly then quieted, and Sho smiled, fat lip and all, as he set Jun up in a standing position.
“I better get myself cleaned up,” Sho told him, backing away, “Then I have to get some real work done… but I’ll be back to check on you later.”
Sho didn’t bother to add that his heart was pounding hard enough, he could feel the beat in his lip, or that his palms were sweating where they’d held Jun… and he didn’t even try to rationalize as to why.
The rest of the morning went more smoothly, and Jun pretended not to notice the way his chest tightened when Sho went to join Nino at the computer and the man’s slim arms continuously brushed against Sho’s as they tried to manipulate the keyboard and mouse simultaneously. Aiba was just getting ready to head over to the restaurant to help with the lunch rush when the door jingled, and a man with bleached hair and noticeably expensive sunglasses walked in. He looked slick and suave, and Nino smirked a little behind the counter. Aiba started to put his backpack down so he could help the man, he still had a few minutes before his shift was up, but Nino stopped him.
“You go ahead,” he told his gangly friend, “I got this one.”
Nino didn’t know it, but his interest in the new customer was what alerted Sho that someone had entered the store. He hadn’t heard the door, but he did hear Captain ask Jun if he thought the guy was good looking.
“Yeah, he’s handsome,” Jun responded, and he and Sho both felt Captain’s presence stiffening, “but he knows it too… His shoes are fantastic, though. Why do you care? Because Nino’s helping him?”
“No.”
“Who are you two talking about?” Sho asked, standing up from where he’d been sitting and crunching numbers on his iPad. He wanted to see who Jun thought was handsome.
“Oh shit,” Sho muttered in his head, so only Captain and Jun could hear. The mannequins were about to ask what the problem was when the blonde man noticed him, and the cocky features split into a smile that was just a little too wide, in Jun’s opinion.
“Sho-kun,” the man purred as he approached, and both Nino’s and Aiba’s jaws dropped as the stranger immediately wrapped his arms around Sho’s waist, “I’ve missed you, babe. It’s so hard, now that you’re working all the way out here. I just had to come visit you.”
The man’s lips pouted and his arms slung low on Sho’s waist. Jun’s face was positioned to look directly at them. He couldn’t turn away.
“Hey,” Sho greeted and tried to create a little bit of distance between himself and the guy, but it was impossible. The arms only tightened, with one hand falling dangerously low on his ass.
“I’m sorry I didn’t make it out to the party,” Sho tried, “But you know this is going to keep me busy for a while… Maybe next time?”
“The hotel was fantastic,” the blonde spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, “You should have seen how they redesigned the bar, Sho-kun.”
The man’s voice quickly took on a whining tone, and Sho wondered why he’d ever thought this guy was worth his time. Lesson learned: just because it’s good in bed doesn’t mean it’ll be good anywhere else… This man was annoying.
“Hey, hey, hun,” Sho tried the pet name to catch his former-lover’s attention, and it worked. Because Sho didn’t like to garner attention with personal conversations, he lowered his voice so that only the man pressed against him could hear, “I know it’s tough, but remember how I told you I might need some space while I get this all sorted out?”
“You didn’t mean that,” Blondie hissed quietly, his eyes hardened; he hadn’t expected rejection.
“Well,” Sho tried not to roll his eyes, “I kind of did, and I’m working right now.”
The man fish-mouthed a little bit, but when he found his voice, it was biting and went from whiny to bitchy until Sho relented, apologized, and offered to take the guy across the street for lunch. The man, ready to take this as a victory, denied Sho’s offer and exited dramatically, adding, “Don’t bother calling, Sho. I’ll call you.”
When the man’s car had exited the parking lot, Sho slumped against the counter and sighed. “What the hell was that? Your boyfriend?” Nino asked, sounding both amused and horrified. Aiba just looked horrified.
“Ex-boyfriend,” Sho muttered, not lifting his chin from the counter, “As you can see, he’s a charming individual.”
“He’s not super pleased with you right now,” Aiba commented, and his face clearly read that he wasn’t super pleased with Sho’s taste in men.
“He’ll get over it,” Sho murmured and wondered if Aiba thought less of him now.
But it turned out that it wasn’t Aiba’s good opinion that he should have been worried about. When Sakurai finally made his way back to Jun, gingerly fingering his bruised mouth because he still couldn’t forget how he’d caught Jun while he’d already forgotten all about his ex, Sho was greeted with silence. Even though he tried twice to start up a conversation with the beautiful mannequin, Jun didn’t say anything for a long while.
“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Captain’s voice rang in Sho’s head instead, and Sakurai almost flinched.
“I don’t,” he told them both, annoyed by the thought.
“Yeah, you didn’t mention him that night you took Jun upst--”
“Shut up, Captain,” Jun snapped, and Sho’s eyes shot to him.
“I haven’t dated that guy for a while now,” Sho stressed, “And we were never serious.”
“You two looked pretty close,” Jun muttered before he could help himself.
“Well we weren’t,” Sho replied, “The only thing he was ever serious about was my name and my money.”
“Ah,” Captain sounded pleased, as if this was what he’d been waiting to hear. Jun was quiet.
Sho waited another moment for Jun to say something before adding, "He's just another regret now. Don't you have any of those?"
"What?" Jun asked, hesitant.
"Regrets. Someone you wish you never dated, or someone you wish you'd given a chance."
"Not really," Jun's voice was quiet.
"Well how about you, Captain?" Sho asked, hoping for an ally, "Don't you have any regrets?"
"Regrets?" Captain's voice was quiet too, and Sho was taken aback by how hollow it sounded, "Yeah. I've got one."
Across the store, they could hear Nino singing to himself about dirty hands and ruination as he sorted baubles into containers.