A Place for Us [Epilogue]
Title: A Place for Us
Pairing: Yama, Ninoai (side-pairing)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Romance
Rating: PG-13
Summary: They were childhood friends, and after 6 years, they finally met again. Sho thought that this time, Ohno's life was finally on the right track, but he was completely wrong. This time, he was determined to protect him; this time, he was determined to never let him go anymore.
Disclaimer: They didn't belong to me, tho the crappy plot is XD
A/N: THE PROMISED EPILOGUE OMG. This has been sooo hard. Maybe because nothing seems to be good enough for me, and I've been so caught up in writing the new stories, or the one-shots or even reading new novels and I didn't have the right mood to keep me going LOL But today, right after finishing a novel, I feel like I've tons of ideas flowing, and voila. It's done. IT'S DONE XD. It feels nice to finally end this, properly. Again, thanks for everyone that've been keeping up with this story for so long! See you in the next stories! (Hopefully) XD
2 years later
It was a gentle night at spring.
The moon hung low in the dark, starless sky; the yellowish light was a good addition to the paper’s lampion that has been hung up on the tree, along with the Christmas lights that was being strung up on their not-so-tall wooden gate. There was a small bonfire in the middle of it all, and their backyard, despite the fact that the sky was pitch black, was glowing in a warmish light. A soft melody was flowing out of his new stereo; he had insisted on having it in fear that the atmosphere would be dead, but he was completely wrong. There, standing before the grill, was Jun and Aiba; Jun was set on grilling and making sure that everyone had enough food, while Aiba was set on stealing as much meat as he could before Jun smacked him in the head and threaten him with a hot spatula. Not too far from them, Nino sat on the wooden swing, quietly munching on his meat while half-listening to Shu’s and Mai’s chattering; once in a while he’d said something, and the Sakurai’s siblings would laugh, and Nino would have this pleased smirk on his face, so he knew that Nino enjoyed this. Sho, his lover, was busy with Satomi; they sat on the grass, next to each other, and Satomi would spoon-feed him sometimes, and Sho the gluttony was far too happy to reject it. Every time, he would make a ridiculous face as he opened his mouth, and every time, Satomi would fill the sky with her sweet, melodious laughter.
He shifted his eyes, and there, standing near the small table they’ve set up for fruit punch and sodas and beers, was his mother. She looked really nervous and restless, eyes shifting around as she bit her lower lips, hands tightening around her fruit punch plastic cup. For a moment, he was worried that her mother would fell into the depth again; years ago, it was like that. He wasn’t really surprised at all to find out that his mother was actually depressed - it came out all of a sudden, the psychiatrist has said, and sometimes there was no reason, you just got so depressed and locked yourself in. His mother appeared as, well, fine, but she was actually struggling to be happy, that she could care less about others as long as she was happy. “That was why I said those mean things to you.” His mother said sadly once. “To be honest, I don’t even really remember what I was saying. I was panicked.”
He had understood; it couldn’t be helped, though that didn’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t hurt. But his mother tried to make everything better; she agreed on going to a psychiatrist, taking medication as much as she needed to, and she tried to pay more attention to him and his sister. It wasn’t an easy road; sometimes her mother would lose it again, but she was trying, and she got better. She became a mother again. A wonderful mother, on top of that, though she still had that nervous breakdown sometimes.
He thought of approaching her, but turned out he didn’t need to. Sho’s mother, as lovely and warm and friendly as ever, approached his mother. They talked softly to each other, and he could see how his mother slowly gotten relaxed enough, that she managed to let out a smile and god blessed these women, really. He loved Sho’s mother, along with his mother, just the same now.
Anyway, his mother wasn’t the only one that went to a psychiatrist; his stepfather did too. It was hard to make him go; he had his ego, and even though he said he wanted everything to get better, he still thought that there was no need at all to go and meet a psychiatrist. “It’s not like I’m crazy!” He had said. “And you can’t force me there, no way!”
“I can’t trust you until you go.” He told his stepfather. “Because you still look at me with that kind of eyes sometimes, and it scared me, and I can’t fully trust you.”
His stepfather had insisted that he wouldn’t go, until his mother threatened him that she’d wanted to have a divorce if he didn’t. “He is my son, and you’ve raped him. So you go, or you’ll lose both of us.”
Surprisingly, after that, his stepfather went. He thought it was because he loved his mother too much, but his stepfather said, “Satomi needed a mother, and it was too much of a hassle to go look for a new one.” He didn’t know if he should get angry over that or not, but everything worked out anyway, and as weird as it was, his mother and his stepfather get along well together. Again, he didn’t know if he should be offended with the fact that his mother wasn’t really angry to his stepfather for raping him - she was angry, but not that angry. But again, he decided it was good enough.
The said stepfather now was, surprisingly, talking to his biological father quietly in the corner. They were finally seeing each other again after years today, and the first thing his biological father said to his stepfather was, “You’ve hurt my son.” He was happy when he said that - true, his biological father had his own share of fault, but still, to know that someone would defend him that much made him happy.
His stepfather replied with this though, “You’ve hurt my son either.”
His biological father was stunned for a while, and then he nodded. “Fair enough.”
They talked a bit then, all stiff and awkward, and not so long after Sho’s father joined them; he could pick up bits of their conversation; they were talking about the upcoming national soccer’s match.
Adult, he thought then, was weird.
And in the middle of all the chattering, the happy atmosphere, and the glowing light, Ohno sat quietly on the veranda. He looked around, basking on the warmth the scene in front of him presented to him, and suddenly, he felt the urge on drawing this. Everything was so serene, so peaceful; Ohno needed to make this eternal. So he slowly got up to his feet, and quietly, he went inside the house.
His new house with Sho.
Ohno walked in the foreign hallway; they’ve just moved in for around three days, so he hasn’t really gotten used to this place. A lot of unpacked boxes were scattered all over the house, but both Ohno and Sho wasn’t in any rush at all to unpack them; they’ve got times. Lots of them. Slowly, as if he was savoring his time, Ohno went to his new bedroom with Sho. The room was painted in simple white, but the wall was already packed with Ohno’s drawing, and they were all framed. Ohno went to the desk in the corner, and he pulled the drawer and rummaged through it, before he finally found one of his old sketchbooks. He flipped through the pages; he was taking his time, scanning over his own drawings as if he tried recalling his memories - in the back of his mind, he knew that he should be going back now, or else everyone would notice his absence. But even though his mind urged him to do that, Ohno’s feet were firmly planted on the ground, and his eyes wouldn’t stray from the sketchbook.
The drawings, he noticed, was mostly dark and gloomy. Ohno didn’t necessarily put dates over his sketches, but one look at it and he knew that these were all from his depressed days - the days where everything in his life went wrong. The shades, the hasty lines - it all expressed his own, unstable emotion. It was packed with gloomy drawings until the last page, and so he closed it and put it back to where it belonged, before he pulled out his recent sketchbook. Again, he flipped across the page, and he noticed how his drawings have changed. Everything was light, no lurking shadows, no hasty lines - sometimes he’d even use color and everything got prettier.
Ohno noticed then, that he had changed.
“It’s beautiful.” Sho’s voice suddenly filled his eardrums, pleasantly, of course. A pair of strong arms sneaked around his waist, and soon warm lips were placed on Ohno’s nape, kissing lovingly as Sho pulled him further into his embrace, until Ohno gave half his weight for Sho to bear. “I love your drawing.”
Ohno looked down at his own drawing; he drew it exactly three days ago, and amidst the mess that was his own house, he really had stepped back from the hard work and drew the neighbor’s blossoming sakura tree that could be seen from his kitchen’s window. Nino and Jun has gotten so angry at him for drawing and not helping them unpacking even though supposedly it was his house, but Ohno wanted to - there was something beautiful in the way the sakura tree was blossoming, where some of them was still in nothing but a bud, waiting for their turn to be in spotlight. “I feel like they’re welcoming us.” Ohno mumbled after a while.
“The sakura?”
“Yes. Like, they’re blooming when we came, and don’t you think that they’re welcoming us? I think of it as a good fortune; like it was trying to remind us that we’re just starting anew. Our spring has just begun.” He blushed a bit when he noticed his choice of words, but Sho wasn’t laughing, so he took it as an encouragement and he continued. “And I feel like we’ve been coming a long way. I’m still, what, 23 and I already felt like I have a 50-years life experience. I thought that once we bought a house, it’ll become some kind of a closure, you know? Like, I’m done with my life already, but I’m not. Things are more peaceful now. I’m happy. But it’s not the end yet.” He closed his eyes as he held the sketchbook close to his chest. “I’m a bit afraid that things wouldn’t stay this way; that somehow or another, things would go wrong again, and I’ll have to deal with that kind of pain anymore. When I think about that, I’m scared, and I felt like I need, no, have to draw this - this exact, happy moment that we’re having so when everything did actually go wrong, I’d at least have a remembrance that somehow, everything was okay back then.”
Sho’s chin was rested on his shoulder now, and he has been listening quietly, apparently waiting for his turn to talk. When Ohno got nothing to say anymore, he spoke, with the gentlest, warmest voice that belonged only to him. “Things might go wrong; there’s no guarantee we’ll make it out of the life happy and satisfied, but look at what we have now.” Sho raised his hand up to Ohno’s chin, and he turned his head so Ohno’d face him.
“We have a new house.” He started, with a kind of proud tone in his voice. “A nice, small house with a big enough of a backyard. And in that said backyard, right now, our beloved ones has gathered. We have my friends and your friends; my family, which, sadly, consists of two nosy siblings, and then, there’s your family.”
“Which consists of a depressed mother, a rapist, an ex-prisoner, and an angel.”
“Not the best combination, indeed.” Sho agreed softly. “But you’ve worked it out, haven’t you? All of you. Aren’t you guys functioning like a normal family now?”
Ohno pondered on the question for a while; he turned away from Sho to stare at the fresh, blue painted wall, and after giving it a thought, he answered, “As normal as we could be.”
Sho hummed to his ears. “And we’ve got each other. Isn’t that plenty enough?”
“More than I could ever asked for.” And that much was true.
“I know.” Sho said, almost as if he could hear Ohno’s thoughts. “And all of them are here for us now, and I think, even though someday something did go wrong, they’ll still be here for us. They won’t let us - no, they won’t let you go through it all alone anymore. I won’t let you to go through everything alone anymore. Have some faith in them and in me too, and everything will work out and we’ll be okay.”
Sho kissed him then, a long, deep kiss to remind him how much he loved the older man, and then Sho was gone to fetch the cake that they’d cut to celebrate their new house.
Ohno stood alone in the room, sketchbook still on hands, but frankly, he felt like he didn’t need them anymore. He wanted to believe in them, in Sho, and he knew that if he wanted for it to last, then he should fight for the happiness to stay, not drawing it in the sketchbook and passing it as an old memory he’d reminiscence sometimes later in his old days.
So he put everything back in place, and then slowly, he made his way back to the backyard. He passed the living room, and he passed by a big canvas hanging on the wall; a drawing that he made years ago, a drawing that somehow had led him back to Sho. He stared at it, at Sho’s house, at the gloomy clouds on the sky, and he was determined to fix it later.
I don’t want to go back anymore. I am at the right place now.
Ohno made his way to the veranda, and he was immediately greeted. People have been crowding around the strawberry cheesecake now, and Sho, standing in the middle, was waiting for him with a big smile. “Come on; they can’t wait to taste it!”
Satomi ran after Ohno right when he placed his bare-feet on the ticklish grass. The small girl took his hand, filling Ohno with endless warmth, and she smiled widely at him. “Come on, Sato-nii.”
Ohno stared at her smile; this was what he had fought for.
The smiles. The beloved friends. The beloved family.
His hero.
And Ohno smiled.
Chapter 15
Pairing: Yama, Ninoai (side-pairing)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Romance
Rating: PG-13
Summary: They were childhood friends, and after 6 years, they finally met again. Sho thought that this time, Ohno's life was finally on the right track, but he was completely wrong. This time, he was determined to protect him; this time, he was determined to never let him go anymore.
Disclaimer: They didn't belong to me, tho the crappy plot is XD
A/N: THE PROMISED EPILOGUE OMG. This has been sooo hard. Maybe because nothing seems to be good enough for me, and I've been so caught up in writing the new stories, or the one-shots or even reading new novels and I didn't have the right mood to keep me going LOL But today, right after finishing a novel, I feel like I've tons of ideas flowing, and voila. It's done. IT'S DONE XD. It feels nice to finally end this, properly. Again, thanks for everyone that've been keeping up with this story for so long! See you in the next stories! (Hopefully) XD
2 years later
It was a gentle night at spring.
The moon hung low in the dark, starless sky; the yellowish light was a good addition to the paper’s lampion that has been hung up on the tree, along with the Christmas lights that was being strung up on their not-so-tall wooden gate. There was a small bonfire in the middle of it all, and their backyard, despite the fact that the sky was pitch black, was glowing in a warmish light. A soft melody was flowing out of his new stereo; he had insisted on having it in fear that the atmosphere would be dead, but he was completely wrong. There, standing before the grill, was Jun and Aiba; Jun was set on grilling and making sure that everyone had enough food, while Aiba was set on stealing as much meat as he could before Jun smacked him in the head and threaten him with a hot spatula. Not too far from them, Nino sat on the wooden swing, quietly munching on his meat while half-listening to Shu’s and Mai’s chattering; once in a while he’d said something, and the Sakurai’s siblings would laugh, and Nino would have this pleased smirk on his face, so he knew that Nino enjoyed this. Sho, his lover, was busy with Satomi; they sat on the grass, next to each other, and Satomi would spoon-feed him sometimes, and Sho the gluttony was far too happy to reject it. Every time, he would make a ridiculous face as he opened his mouth, and every time, Satomi would fill the sky with her sweet, melodious laughter.
He shifted his eyes, and there, standing near the small table they’ve set up for fruit punch and sodas and beers, was his mother. She looked really nervous and restless, eyes shifting around as she bit her lower lips, hands tightening around her fruit punch plastic cup. For a moment, he was worried that her mother would fell into the depth again; years ago, it was like that. He wasn’t really surprised at all to find out that his mother was actually depressed - it came out all of a sudden, the psychiatrist has said, and sometimes there was no reason, you just got so depressed and locked yourself in. His mother appeared as, well, fine, but she was actually struggling to be happy, that she could care less about others as long as she was happy. “That was why I said those mean things to you.” His mother said sadly once. “To be honest, I don’t even really remember what I was saying. I was panicked.”
He had understood; it couldn’t be helped, though that didn’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t hurt. But his mother tried to make everything better; she agreed on going to a psychiatrist, taking medication as much as she needed to, and she tried to pay more attention to him and his sister. It wasn’t an easy road; sometimes her mother would lose it again, but she was trying, and she got better. She became a mother again. A wonderful mother, on top of that, though she still had that nervous breakdown sometimes.
He thought of approaching her, but turned out he didn’t need to. Sho’s mother, as lovely and warm and friendly as ever, approached his mother. They talked softly to each other, and he could see how his mother slowly gotten relaxed enough, that she managed to let out a smile and god blessed these women, really. He loved Sho’s mother, along with his mother, just the same now.
Anyway, his mother wasn’t the only one that went to a psychiatrist; his stepfather did too. It was hard to make him go; he had his ego, and even though he said he wanted everything to get better, he still thought that there was no need at all to go and meet a psychiatrist. “It’s not like I’m crazy!” He had said. “And you can’t force me there, no way!”
“I can’t trust you until you go.” He told his stepfather. “Because you still look at me with that kind of eyes sometimes, and it scared me, and I can’t fully trust you.”
His stepfather had insisted that he wouldn’t go, until his mother threatened him that she’d wanted to have a divorce if he didn’t. “He is my son, and you’ve raped him. So you go, or you’ll lose both of us.”
Surprisingly, after that, his stepfather went. He thought it was because he loved his mother too much, but his stepfather said, “Satomi needed a mother, and it was too much of a hassle to go look for a new one.” He didn’t know if he should get angry over that or not, but everything worked out anyway, and as weird as it was, his mother and his stepfather get along well together. Again, he didn’t know if he should be offended with the fact that his mother wasn’t really angry to his stepfather for raping him - she was angry, but not that angry. But again, he decided it was good enough.
The said stepfather now was, surprisingly, talking to his biological father quietly in the corner. They were finally seeing each other again after years today, and the first thing his biological father said to his stepfather was, “You’ve hurt my son.” He was happy when he said that - true, his biological father had his own share of fault, but still, to know that someone would defend him that much made him happy.
His stepfather replied with this though, “You’ve hurt my son either.”
His biological father was stunned for a while, and then he nodded. “Fair enough.”
They talked a bit then, all stiff and awkward, and not so long after Sho’s father joined them; he could pick up bits of their conversation; they were talking about the upcoming national soccer’s match.
Adult, he thought then, was weird.
And in the middle of all the chattering, the happy atmosphere, and the glowing light, Ohno sat quietly on the veranda. He looked around, basking on the warmth the scene in front of him presented to him, and suddenly, he felt the urge on drawing this. Everything was so serene, so peaceful; Ohno needed to make this eternal. So he slowly got up to his feet, and quietly, he went inside the house.
His new house with Sho.
Ohno walked in the foreign hallway; they’ve just moved in for around three days, so he hasn’t really gotten used to this place. A lot of unpacked boxes were scattered all over the house, but both Ohno and Sho wasn’t in any rush at all to unpack them; they’ve got times. Lots of them. Slowly, as if he was savoring his time, Ohno went to his new bedroom with Sho. The room was painted in simple white, but the wall was already packed with Ohno’s drawing, and they were all framed. Ohno went to the desk in the corner, and he pulled the drawer and rummaged through it, before he finally found one of his old sketchbooks. He flipped through the pages; he was taking his time, scanning over his own drawings as if he tried recalling his memories - in the back of his mind, he knew that he should be going back now, or else everyone would notice his absence. But even though his mind urged him to do that, Ohno’s feet were firmly planted on the ground, and his eyes wouldn’t stray from the sketchbook.
The drawings, he noticed, was mostly dark and gloomy. Ohno didn’t necessarily put dates over his sketches, but one look at it and he knew that these were all from his depressed days - the days where everything in his life went wrong. The shades, the hasty lines - it all expressed his own, unstable emotion. It was packed with gloomy drawings until the last page, and so he closed it and put it back to where it belonged, before he pulled out his recent sketchbook. Again, he flipped across the page, and he noticed how his drawings have changed. Everything was light, no lurking shadows, no hasty lines - sometimes he’d even use color and everything got prettier.
Ohno noticed then, that he had changed.
“It’s beautiful.” Sho’s voice suddenly filled his eardrums, pleasantly, of course. A pair of strong arms sneaked around his waist, and soon warm lips were placed on Ohno’s nape, kissing lovingly as Sho pulled him further into his embrace, until Ohno gave half his weight for Sho to bear. “I love your drawing.”
Ohno looked down at his own drawing; he drew it exactly three days ago, and amidst the mess that was his own house, he really had stepped back from the hard work and drew the neighbor’s blossoming sakura tree that could be seen from his kitchen’s window. Nino and Jun has gotten so angry at him for drawing and not helping them unpacking even though supposedly it was his house, but Ohno wanted to - there was something beautiful in the way the sakura tree was blossoming, where some of them was still in nothing but a bud, waiting for their turn to be in spotlight. “I feel like they’re welcoming us.” Ohno mumbled after a while.
“The sakura?”
“Yes. Like, they’re blooming when we came, and don’t you think that they’re welcoming us? I think of it as a good fortune; like it was trying to remind us that we’re just starting anew. Our spring has just begun.” He blushed a bit when he noticed his choice of words, but Sho wasn’t laughing, so he took it as an encouragement and he continued. “And I feel like we’ve been coming a long way. I’m still, what, 23 and I already felt like I have a 50-years life experience. I thought that once we bought a house, it’ll become some kind of a closure, you know? Like, I’m done with my life already, but I’m not. Things are more peaceful now. I’m happy. But it’s not the end yet.” He closed his eyes as he held the sketchbook close to his chest. “I’m a bit afraid that things wouldn’t stay this way; that somehow or another, things would go wrong again, and I’ll have to deal with that kind of pain anymore. When I think about that, I’m scared, and I felt like I need, no, have to draw this - this exact, happy moment that we’re having so when everything did actually go wrong, I’d at least have a remembrance that somehow, everything was okay back then.”
Sho’s chin was rested on his shoulder now, and he has been listening quietly, apparently waiting for his turn to talk. When Ohno got nothing to say anymore, he spoke, with the gentlest, warmest voice that belonged only to him. “Things might go wrong; there’s no guarantee we’ll make it out of the life happy and satisfied, but look at what we have now.” Sho raised his hand up to Ohno’s chin, and he turned his head so Ohno’d face him.
“We have a new house.” He started, with a kind of proud tone in his voice. “A nice, small house with a big enough of a backyard. And in that said backyard, right now, our beloved ones has gathered. We have my friends and your friends; my family, which, sadly, consists of two nosy siblings, and then, there’s your family.”
“Which consists of a depressed mother, a rapist, an ex-prisoner, and an angel.”
“Not the best combination, indeed.” Sho agreed softly. “But you’ve worked it out, haven’t you? All of you. Aren’t you guys functioning like a normal family now?”
Ohno pondered on the question for a while; he turned away from Sho to stare at the fresh, blue painted wall, and after giving it a thought, he answered, “As normal as we could be.”
Sho hummed to his ears. “And we’ve got each other. Isn’t that plenty enough?”
“More than I could ever asked for.” And that much was true.
“I know.” Sho said, almost as if he could hear Ohno’s thoughts. “And all of them are here for us now, and I think, even though someday something did go wrong, they’ll still be here for us. They won’t let us - no, they won’t let you go through it all alone anymore. I won’t let you to go through everything alone anymore. Have some faith in them and in me too, and everything will work out and we’ll be okay.”
Sho kissed him then, a long, deep kiss to remind him how much he loved the older man, and then Sho was gone to fetch the cake that they’d cut to celebrate their new house.
Ohno stood alone in the room, sketchbook still on hands, but frankly, he felt like he didn’t need them anymore. He wanted to believe in them, in Sho, and he knew that if he wanted for it to last, then he should fight for the happiness to stay, not drawing it in the sketchbook and passing it as an old memory he’d reminiscence sometimes later in his old days.
So he put everything back in place, and then slowly, he made his way back to the backyard. He passed the living room, and he passed by a big canvas hanging on the wall; a drawing that he made years ago, a drawing that somehow had led him back to Sho. He stared at it, at Sho’s house, at the gloomy clouds on the sky, and he was determined to fix it later.
I don’t want to go back anymore. I am at the right place now.
Ohno made his way to the veranda, and he was immediately greeted. People have been crowding around the strawberry cheesecake now, and Sho, standing in the middle, was waiting for him with a big smile. “Come on; they can’t wait to taste it!”
Satomi ran after Ohno right when he placed his bare-feet on the ticklish grass. The small girl took his hand, filling Ohno with endless warmth, and she smiled widely at him. “Come on, Sato-nii.”
Ohno stared at her smile; this was what he had fought for.
The smiles. The beloved friends. The beloved family.
His hero.
And Ohno smiled.
Chapter 15