[fic] Step by Step; Light and Shade - (7/?)
TITLE: Step by Step; Light and Shade
PAIRINGS: Sakuraiba, Matsumiya, Aimiya, Ohmiya, ShoxMaki, and JunxMao
LENGTH: Multi-chaptered
BANDS: Arashi (with Horikita Maki and Inoue Mao)
GENRE: Romance, drama... etc.
RATING (by chapter): PG-13/14
WARNINGS: AU, language and potentially sexual situations in later chapters.
SUMMARY: "To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak" - Indian Proverb
Sakurai Sho is the Chief Financial Officer for a large corporation, he has a loving girlfriend, a strange (but friendly) co-worker, and a best friend who teaches a ballroom dance class (which Sho has been guilted into attending). At the class, Sho's encounter with another unorthodox dancer -and his partner- will be the spark needed to kindle new relationships and end others.
PREVIOUS: Step01 | Step02 | Step03 | Step04 | Step05 | Step06 |
NOTE: I've tried to do my research but I am neither a dancer or a business person, so please excuse any incorrect information!!
A/N
Sorry for the wait, and for not replying to any comments last time. ): I got a new job, and then life got crazy. After I'd posted chapter 6, I realized that Ohno's reaction to meeting Nino at the dance class might have been a little misleading. Hopefully this chapter will clear up why he thought he was so 'odd'. Thank you for reading!!
Step 7.
Sho walked out of the elevator and onto the seventh floor, a stack of fresh photocopies in his arms. The woman behind the desk seemed slightly calmer than she had when he’d been there on Tuesday -probably because her coworker wasn’t missing in action this time.
“I’m here to see Ohno-san.”
“Go ahead, Sir. He’s in his office.”
When Sho walked into the office beyond the cubicles, he almost lost an eye to a passing dart, and let out a colorful curse in response.
“Oh, hi Sakurai-kun!” Mao and Ohno chimed almost simultaneously while the CMO aimed a second dart at the dartboard they’d recently hung next to the door. “Come on in!” He said, and Sho hurried to get out of the way.
“I can’t stay long.” Sho explained. “I have a meeting in twenty minutes, but I’ve already left some of these on the other floors, and I figured I’d try here too.”
“What is it?” Mao asked, peering curiously at the papers.
“Aiba-san gave one to me last night and I said I’d spread the word for him.”
“Aiba…? Oh, that guy. Ninomiya’s partner.” Ohno clarified, looking proud of himself for remembering. Mao’s expression darkened slightly at the mention of the other woman.
“Right,” Sho continued. “Anyway, I wonder if I could leave these with you? Maybe somebody in your department is interested.”
Ohno hummed thoughtfully and picked up one of the posters while Mao took a turn with the darts. “…Yeah, I’ll ask Mori-san to distribute them.” He leaned over his desk and pressed the intercom button. “Mori-san, come to my office please? I have a job for you.”
“Yes, Sir!” Came the quick reply.
“I could just bring them by the front desk on my way out, if that’s easier.” Sho offered, but Ohno shook his head.
“Naw, Mori’s always eager for a chance to escape the front desk anyway. He won’t mind.”
Sho couldn’t argue with that.
“If I didn’t already have a dog I might be interested myself. Two would be too much to handle though.” Ohno continued, gazing fondly at the picture on the photocopy.
Mao looked on over his shoulder. “Yeah, I travel too much for a pet. And my mother’s allergic.” She looked annoyed, and went back to throwing the darts with added aggression.
“Sorry I can’t be of more help.” Ohno apologized.
“No,” Sho smiled and stood to leave as someone, presumably Mori, knocked on the door. “Thanks a lot, Ohno-kun. You’re a good friend.”
Ohno beamed like he’d never been more pleased, and Mao laughed before throwing another dart. It missed the board, ricocheted off the wall and nearly stabbed Mori in the foot as he entered. “Whoops.” She said, covering her mouth to hide a grin at his startled expression.
+++
“Welcome!” Nino called, approaching the front of the store upon hearing someone come in. “How can I-?“
“Nino-chan.”
“Oh god.” Nino spun around on his heel. “It’s almost midnight! Go home!”
“Don’t run away.” Aiba scowled, running to block Nino’s path down an aisle of horror movies. “We need to talk.”
Nino rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Aiba, I already told you I wasn’t angry.”
“But you’re being weird!” Aiba exclaimed, and then reconsidered when Nino’s eyes narrowed. “Not to be offensive, but you’re acting strangely.”
“Am I?”
“Well…” Aiba tilted his head to the side. “Not right now, but you were Thursday night. And you’ve been kinda avoiding me since.”
“I haven’t been avoiding you, Aiba-chan.” Nino said impatiently. “You worked all day and I worked a night shift. Our schedules just didn’t match up.”
“You didn’t answer my texts either.”
“My phone was in the break room. I forgot to check it.” Nino sighed, leaning against the shelving. “Can you stop worrying?”
Aiba pouted slightly. “Okay, so you probably weren’t avoiding me.”
“’Probably’, he says.” Nino muttered.
“But still, you were definitely strange on Thursday.” Aiba paused in wait for an argument, but Nino didn’t say anything. “You say you weren’t mad, but you left the second the class ended. Seriously, I paused a moment to say bye to everyone and when I turned around you were long gone. Besides, you kept messing up the dance steps all night.”
“Well, I’m not a professional dancer Aiba. You’re never perfect either!”
“No, but you seemed really tense. Like you were nervous, or uncomfortable.”
Nino frowned and paused for a long moment before opening his mouth. “Look, it’s no big deal but-“
The door jangled as someone entered from the night outside.
“Welcome!” Nino turned so that he could see the door and then hurriedly spun back around, eyes wide. “J-Just a minute! Someone will be right with you!” He called, grabbing Aiba’s wrist and tugging him along as he practically sprinted to the back of the store.
Aiba didn’t even know what to say, and he didn’t get a chance to form a protest before Nino was shoving him into the break room.
“Toma!” Nino hissed at the other employee, who was sitting at the cluttered desk in the corner and shoving a sandwich into his mouth. “Customer! Go!”
Toma frowned, swallowed, but did little to protest at the order other than flip Nino off on his way out. Nino shut the door over immediately behind him and crouched next to the narrow opening to spy.
“Sorry about that, Sir. Can I help you?”
“I just wanted to return these.” Said a male voice.
“Due today, huh? You barely made it.”
“Hm?”
“It’ll be Sunday in a couple minutes.”
“Oh, right.” The customer chuckled.
Aiba inched into the space beside Nino and peeked out too. Through the aisles he could see Toma at the register, but the customer was hidden from sight.
“You were right about the second one, by the way.”
Toma looked up from the movies he was checking into the computer, eyebrows raised. “Hm?”
“About the second movie.” The customer laughed again, though Toma looked confused. “It was seriously depressing. I cried like a baby.”
Toma chuckled awkwardly. “Oh, is that so?...”
“Yeah. But it was really good.”
“… Will you be renting anything else tonight, Sir?”
“Ah, no thanks.”
“Then have a nice night, Sir.”
Aiba watched Toma begin bustling around, preparing to put the movies back on their designated shelves, while the customer walked away from the counter and towards the door. For just a split second, Aiba caught a glimpse of his face. It took him a moment to figure out how he knew the man’s sleepy features, but once he did he couldn’t avoid the loud gasp that escaped him.
“Oh! That was-! That was Sakurai-san’s friend! From Thursday!”
Nino swiveled around to face him. “I know.”
“Gee, it’s a good thing he didn’t see you! You think fast, Nino-chan.”
“Actually, he met me a week ago, when he came here to rent those movies he just returned.” Nino explained grimly. “I recognized him while we were at the class on Thursday, which is why I was acting so weird and in such a hurry to get out of there, but luckily it seems like he doesn’t even remember me. Thank god. I was sure I’d given myself away by panicking the way I did when Maki-chan introduced me to him…”
“Are you sure you didn’t? It would be bad if he realized the boy at the video store was the girl at the dance class…”
“Well he obviously just mistook Toma for me, so I’m guessing he doesn’t remember what the guy who rented the videos to him looked like. Right?”
”Oh. Yeah, I guess.” Aiba agreed. He smiled as he considered Nino’s relieved features and posture. He really had been worried by the younger man’s behavior. “… I’m glad you’re not mad at me anymore.”
Nino glanced up and then ducked his head. “I was never mad.” He mumbled. “You’re just frustratingly meddlesome sometimes.”
Aiba chuckled. “I care too much.”
Nino laughed sharply. “You do. Way too much.” His grin told Aiba that he didn’t really mind though, which was a relief.
“Thanks Ninomiya, way to leave me the weirdo.” Toma spoke sarcastically, pushing open the door to the break room before the two crouched behind it could get a chance to scramble away. They both toppled over, and Aiba found himself sprawled half over the younger man, his face in the crook of Nino’s neck.
“Oh.” Toma blinked. “So that’s what you’re up to, huh?” He laughed and covered his eyes. “I didn’t see anything!” He called, and walked away whistling innocently.
Nino’s body was tense as a board beneath him. “Sorry.” Aiba mumbled, lifting himself to his hands and knees, but accidentally dragging his lips against the column of Nino’s throat in the process of moving and speaking. Nino shivered unmistakably, and twisted away to hide the redness of his cheeks the minute Aiba had given him enough room to do so. Aiba gaped, suddenly reminded of what Sakurai had said Thursday evening. “….Kazu…?”
Nino sighed, shoulders still visibly tense, and checked his watch. “It’s late, Aiba. It’s after midnight. You should go.”
Aiba bit his lip, wondering if he’d accidentally made things weird between them again.
Nino seemed to sense his fears, because he turned and smiled gently at him in reassurance. The color of his cheeks was almost back to normal. “I should probably get some work done, and you look like you need sleep. Go home, before the buses stop running.”
Aiba couldn’t help sighing on the way out, but he still paused long enough to smile at the poster of Chubby that Nino had tacked up in the window.
+++
“Sho.” Maki said firmly over the table, tired of watching him push around the pasta on his plate. “Say something.”
Sho’s brow furrowed. “… I don’t know.” Trying to think about her offer was only resulting in his mind going completely blank.
Maki pursed her lips, obviously impatient with him. “Sho, you’re not stupid. I’ve been hinting at this for days now.” No response. “What don’t you know? Whether or not you want to live with me, or where you want to? I know you spent a lot of time remodeling your place, so if you’d rather we could just live there. You don’t have to move if we decide to-…”
Sho sighed and put down his fork. “I just… don’t know if I’m ready to… uh, take that step. In our relationship… yet.”
Maki crossed her arms. “Then when Sho? A year from now? Five?” The people at the next table were glancing at them, so she lowered her voice. “I’m almost thirty. I can’t keep dating you like we’re a couple of carefree high school kids anymore. My parents keep asking me when I’m going to introduce you to them. They keep talking about grandchildren.”
Sho flinched, and stared guiltily down at the table.
“People tell me I should start seriously dating someone instead of fooling around aimlessly, but I am serious Sho. I just need to know if you are too.”
“… Maki, I…” Sho trailed off and sighed. He’d meant to prepare himself for this discussion, but instead he’d spent the last few days avoiding thinking about it. That probably hadn’t been the wisest plan.
“… If you asked me to marry you, right now, I’d say yes.” She said softly, and paused for a long moment. “I’d happily spend the rest of my life with you, as long as you felt the same.”
Sho could feel a headache coming on.
“…Do you, Sho?”
He bit his lip for a long heartbeat. “… I’m sorry… I-… I don’t know.” He really wanted to lie, just to make her happy, but he couldn’t bring himself to. “I’m really sorry, Maki-”
She frowned, obviously hurt, and got to her feet. “Well, when you know, call me.”
“Maki…” He watched, pained, as she put on her coat and shouldered her purse.
She turned to walk away and then paused for a long moment before turning back to him. “I love you, you know.” She wore an angry expression, but there were tears in her eyes.
He had no response.
People were staring at his table and whispering with expressions varying between pitying and amused as she left him alone in the restaurant, and the only words Sho could force from his lips were to ask a passing waiter for the cheque.
+++
Nino dragged himself into his apartment, drained. He’d spent the entire morning of his day off helping Aiba stick little posters up on every telephone pole in the neighborhoods near the pet shop. It was Tuesday, and still no luck. A few people had apparently come by to see the dog, but Aiba said they’d been charmed by the other puppies instead.
Nino collapsed on the floor of his living room and stared up at the ceiling. Aiba was wearing himself thin with worry about the puppy. He was trying so hard to sell the dog that Nino felt people were bound to be scared off by his overwhelming enthusiasm, not to mention his persistence. When they’d parted ways at the beginning of Aiba’s shift an hour earlier, Aiba told him that he planned to spend Wednesday, his day off, papering the whole city with copies of the Chubby poster.
Nino sighed. It was probably costing a small fortune to make as many copies as he already had, let alone the number he planned to make.
“Aiba…” He muttered, and then rolled onto his side. Frowning, he began picking at the carpet. While his concerned thoughts wandered, so did his gaze. Eventually it landed on the mess piled around his television stand. There were boxes upon boxes of games, stacked in haphazard towers. He’d been collecting videos games since his teens, so there were a lot of them. Many of the cases were covered in dust, as were some of the gaming platforms and controllers that he probably hadn’t used in years. A thought struck him then, and while he didn’t like idea of losing his few prized possessions (aside from his beloved guitar, and keyboard), he absolutely hated the idea of Aiba running himself broke for a cause that might turn out to be hopeless at the rate things were going.
Nino got up and searched his apartment for the biggest duffle bag he owned. Then, with a sigh and a determined mindset, he knelt in front of the television and started packing.
+++
“You need to get out.”
“I’m busy, Jun.”
“You’re working yourself to death.”
Sho looked up, and raised an eyebrow over the frame of his reading glasses. “No, actually. You’re successfully keeping me from getting any work done at all.”
Jun rolled his eyes and leaned against the desk his friend was attempting to work at. “You’ve been working everyday this week, you were working all weekend. How much work can you possibly have left?” He didn’t wait for Sho’s response. “If you’re upset about what happened with Maki, then shouldn’t you be thinking about that instead of studying these flowcharts over and over again?”
Sho frowned. “I always regret confiding in you about my problems. You have a habit of turning into my mother.”
Jun ignored the comment. “I’m not going to make you sit down and talk about your feelings, but if you’re going to distract yourself with something it’s not going to be with something boring.”
“You may find this boring Jun, but I’m attempting to be productive here.”
“Be productive when I don’t have the evening off, okay?” Jun countered, pulling his friend to his feet and snatching the glasses off of his face. “Now put on something nice. We’re going out.”
“Why do you want to hang out with me on your night off?” Sho complained half an hour later, sitting in the passenger seat of Jun’s car as they crawled through traffic. He tugged at his collar, dressed much more stylishly than he would have been had he been allowed to dress himself. “Surely there are better people you could go out to dinner with. Girls, for example.”
“Kazuko-chan said she was busy.”
“You called her?” Sho raised his eyebrows.
“I sent her a text earlier, but she said she was working.” He glanced at Sho’s disbelieving expression from the corner of his eye and then shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll see her at the class tomorrow anyway, and it’s not like I hate hanging out with you instead.” He chuckled.
Sho frowned. “What about Mao?”
“Oh. Yeah, I might see her tomorrow too, I guess. She said she might come back again.”
“No, did you see if she wanted to go to dinner with you?”
Jun glanced at him, frowning. “Mao-chan?”
“Yeah. She gave you her contact info, didn’t she?”
“Well… yeah, she did.” Jun looked thoughtful. “I didn’t think of inviting her, actually. I guess it would have been nice to catch up…”
“…Maybe you should ask her out some time.”
“Yeah-… Wait, ‘out’? As in on a date?”
“Sure, she’s nice. And you two seem to get along well.”
“First of all, she’s with your friend Ohno, isn’t she?”
“She may be with him a lot, but she’s not with him. It’s complicated as hell, but they aren’t dating.”
“Even if they’re not, Mao-chan and I were friends for about a year and a half in high school. That was years ago Sho. She may be nice, but it’s not like I know her that well anymore. And anyway, you can’t have a relationship based only on how nice your partner is. There has to be some sort of attraction there, you know?”
“But, she is pretty…”
Jun rolled his eyes and changed lanes. “I don’t just mean physical attractiveness, I’m talking about being attracted to someone.” He paused to execute a turn and sighed when they were met with another red light. “There’s nothing wrong with Mao, I’m just-“
“More interested in Ninomiya.” Sho finished, not particularly pleased. Jun was his best friend after all, and Aiba had said Ninomiya was probably only flirting around.
Jun smiled crookedly. “She’s cute, isn’t she?”
“Cute?” Sho echoed, disgruntled.
“Yeah, have you seen her hands?”
“No, I have not.” Sho grumbled.
Jun continued like he hadn’t even heard Sho answer. “When I danced with her last Thursday, I noticed how cute and little they were. Almost like a kid’s.”
“… You don’t really like her, do you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jun’s smile flipped into a frown. “Why can’t I?”
“It’s just… how do you know she really likes you?” Sho questioned tentatively. “She doesn’t seem like she’s very serious, does she? It would be bad if you got serious about her and she was just playing around.”
“Sho.” Jun sounded annoyed.
“I’m just worried for you, that’s all.” Sho said quietly, knowing that when Jun used That Tone, it was always best not to press the subject.
“I’m not trying to be mean, Sho, but if I honestly wanted relationship advice from someone… it wouldn’t be from you.”
Sho turned away and stared out the window. “Well, I suppose that’s understandable.”
Jun let out a mildly amused huff of air, but the last few minutes of the drive were still spent in silence.
“Here.” Jun put the car in park and took the keys from the ignition. Sho followed his lead and got out of the vehicle, staring up at the dingy pub they were parked in front of. “Sorry,” Jun apologized. “It’s not exactly a classy establishment, but the food is pretty decent.” He chuckled. “And I’m buying anyway.”
“No, no, no. You don’t have to.” Sho hurried to catch up with him.
“It’s no problem, Sho.” Jun grinned, holding the door open and letting the gritty rock music playing inside reach their ears. “It’s my treat, as long as you buy the drinks.”
“Smooth.” Sho laughed, glad the awkward tension from the car seemed to be behind them. “But sure, I don’t mind.”
For the next few hours Sho did his best not to say anything more about Ninomiya Kazuko (which was difficult when the more Jun drank, the more he rambled about her), but Sho still couldn’t get what Aiba had said about the girl from his mind. He did his best to talk a lot about Mao, and what good qualities he’d observed her having. Jun, unfortunately, didn’t seem to take much notice. He was too busy texting back and forth with Ninomiya the whole time.
At the same time, of course, Sho couldn’t help feeling like the world’s biggest hypocrite. He was worried about Ninomiya’s seriousness with regards to Jun, but hadn’t that been Maki’s problem with him? She’d said he wasn’t taking what they had seriously, that he wasn’t seriously pursuing a future with her…
Honestly, when he thought about it, she was completely right. The few girlfriends he’d had (and been dumped by) in the past had been right about him too. He’d never treated them much differently than he treated his good friends, and he’d never been with someone that made him want to spend every second of every day for the rest of his life with them.
He felt a bit like the world’s biggest (and possibly loneliest) asshole the more he thought about it.
“There’s something wrong with me.” He moaned, slouching dramatically in his seat.
Jun laughed. “You’re just figuring that out now?”
“Seriously. I’m going to be alone forever.”
Jun sighed, reaching across the table to ruffle his hair and then stealing a cold fry from his plate. “Want another beer?” He asked, and then quickly became distracted by an incoming text.
Sho hesitated and then shook his head. The drinks he’d already finished had each only made him feel more depressed about his life. “I think I’m just going to get some air, if you don’t mind.”
Jun nodded, busy typing out his reply. “Yeah, go ahead. Just don’t get lost, ‘k?”
“I won’t go far.” Sho replied, pulling on his coat and getting to his feet.
The night air outside hit him with a blast of cold wind, and he felt refreshed almost immediately. The loud music of the pub was quickly replaced by the sounds of passing traffic on the busy road ahead. He pulled his jacket closer to himself and walked across the parking lot to lean against the back of Jun’s car. They’d probably have to leave it until the morning, considering the alcohol they’d consumed. Not that they were drunk, just pretty buzzed.
A sigh escaped his lips, and he watched it turn to white fog and dissipate into the sky. Across the street from him was another small parking lot, but it was filled with considerably fewer cars than the one in front of the pub. At this time of the evening, he imagined it would only be an hour or two at the most before the shops across from him were closed, their neon signs blinking off and leaving the lot of cars lit only by the streetlamps and headlights of passing traffic.
Well, he corrected his thoughts upon looking closer at the buildings; that wasn’t entirely true. The convenience store would actually be open all night. And the video store would likely be open until close to midnight on a weeknight. The pet shop, however, would probably close pretty soon. After all, how many people go buy pets late at night?
His thoughts suddenly stuttered to a halt and backtracked.
The pet store…
He wished he was wearing his contacts, from his distance he could hardly make out the name of the store that was written on the blue, bone-shaped, neon sign. Well, it was definitely a sign shaped like a blue bone.
“Blue-Bone… Pet Depo, maybe?” Sho murmured to himself curiously.
Despite having told Jun he wasn’t going to go far, Sho began making his way to the crosswalk. By the time he reached the store, he realized that he’d been right. It was the right pet store. Also, as he predicted, it appeared as though the workers inside were cleaning up and preparing to close for the night.
The door opened with a cheery jangle.
“Welcome, Sir.” Said a girl in a red apron as she set aside her mop. “How can I help you?”
“Oh, I was just wondering if someone named Aiba Masaki worked here…?” Sho asked tentatively, feeling a little stupid now that he was inside. Who knew how many locations the store had? It could be a popular chain, for all he knew. He didn’t exactly frequent pet stores. Even as a child, he’d never owned any pets.
“Aiba? Yeah, he’s an employee here.” She answered, and Sho was instantly both surprised and relieved. “Today’s his day off though.”
“Oh.”
“…Want me to take a message? So I can tell him who came to see him?”
Sho was instantly embarrassed again. Why had he come to see Aiba? It was really only by chance that he’d seen the pet store, and that he’d recognized the name from the poster Aiba had given him. Though he was probably being paranoid, he found himself believing that Aiba would think he was stalking him should he find out Sho had come looking for him.
“Uh… no, that’s okay.” He said hurriedly. The girl looked confused. “I was just passing by. It’s nothing important.”
“… Okay then.” She said just as Sho’s phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Jun, asking him where the hell he’d disappeared to. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, that’s alright.” He bowed and turned, making a beeline for the door. Just before he could reach the pull handle, a messy, handwritten sign to his left caught his attention and he stopped in his tracks to read it.
‘Looking for a happy home! Please adopt me! 8D’, it read. Followed by a big yellow ‘CLEARANCE’ sticker.
Curious, he let his feet carry him over to the pen. In the display cases around him, cute puppies with floppy ears were climbing all over each other to catch his attention, but in the pen on the floor a shaggy, plump little dog was curled in a ball on a pile of newspaper and snoring loudly. Sho crouched down, watching the clearance dog’s paws twitch as though he were chasing something in his dreams. Sho smiled, and was startled when the girl employee appeared behind him.
“I’m sorry, Sir, but we’re closing soon, so if you’re just browsing-”
“This dog…” Sho began. He was sure this furry face was the same one that had been practically grinning out of the photo on Aiba’s posters. “Is his name Chubby?”
The girl looked surprised. “Um, well that’s what some of us have begun calling him around here.”
Sho turned back to the puppy, watching as he rolled onto his back. The tip of his pink tongue poked out of his mouth, and his paws were practically crossed on his chest as he continued to snore. Sho found himself smiling fondly. He never had owned a pet…
…
Jun was standing next to his car, on the phone with a taxi company, when Sho made it back to the pub’s parking lot. He gaped at the sleepy ball of fur poking out of Sho’s jacket.
“Did you call us a cab?” Sho asked, cradling the shivering puppy a little closer to his chest in hopes of shielding him from the wind. “Sorry, I guess I left you to pay for the drinks. I’ll pay you back.”
Jun’s thick eyebrows were nearing his hairline as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, ignoring everything Sho was saying in favor of eyeing up the animal in his coat. “… Should I even ask, Sho?”
Sho laughed and shook his head. Even he didn’t really know what had come over him. “I think I’m a lot more drunk than I thought I was...”
“No kidding.” Jun laughed, and reached out to scratch Chubby between the ears.
+++
to be continued...
NEXT>>
PAIRINGS: Sakuraiba, Matsumiya, Aimiya, Ohmiya, ShoxMaki, and JunxMao
LENGTH: Multi-chaptered
BANDS: Arashi (with Horikita Maki and Inoue Mao)
GENRE: Romance, drama... etc.
RATING (by chapter): PG-13/14
WARNINGS: AU, language and potentially sexual situations in later chapters.
SUMMARY: "To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak" - Indian Proverb
Sakurai Sho is the Chief Financial Officer for a large corporation, he has a loving girlfriend, a strange (but friendly) co-worker, and a best friend who teaches a ballroom dance class (which Sho has been guilted into attending). At the class, Sho's encounter with another unorthodox dancer -and his partner- will be the spark needed to kindle new relationships and end others.
PREVIOUS: Step01 | Step02 | Step03 | Step04 | Step05 | Step06 |
NOTE: I've tried to do my research but I am neither a dancer or a business person, so please excuse any incorrect information!!
A/N
Sorry for the wait, and for not replying to any comments last time. ): I got a new job, and then life got crazy. After I'd posted chapter 6, I realized that Ohno's reaction to meeting Nino at the dance class might have been a little misleading. Hopefully this chapter will clear up why he thought he was so 'odd'. Thank you for reading!!
Step 7.
Sho walked out of the elevator and onto the seventh floor, a stack of fresh photocopies in his arms. The woman behind the desk seemed slightly calmer than she had when he’d been there on Tuesday -probably because her coworker wasn’t missing in action this time.
“I’m here to see Ohno-san.”
“Go ahead, Sir. He’s in his office.”
When Sho walked into the office beyond the cubicles, he almost lost an eye to a passing dart, and let out a colorful curse in response.
“Oh, hi Sakurai-kun!” Mao and Ohno chimed almost simultaneously while the CMO aimed a second dart at the dartboard they’d recently hung next to the door. “Come on in!” He said, and Sho hurried to get out of the way.
“I can’t stay long.” Sho explained. “I have a meeting in twenty minutes, but I’ve already left some of these on the other floors, and I figured I’d try here too.”
“What is it?” Mao asked, peering curiously at the papers.
“Aiba-san gave one to me last night and I said I’d spread the word for him.”
“Aiba…? Oh, that guy. Ninomiya’s partner.” Ohno clarified, looking proud of himself for remembering. Mao’s expression darkened slightly at the mention of the other woman.
“Right,” Sho continued. “Anyway, I wonder if I could leave these with you? Maybe somebody in your department is interested.”
Ohno hummed thoughtfully and picked up one of the posters while Mao took a turn with the darts. “…Yeah, I’ll ask Mori-san to distribute them.” He leaned over his desk and pressed the intercom button. “Mori-san, come to my office please? I have a job for you.”
“Yes, Sir!” Came the quick reply.
“I could just bring them by the front desk on my way out, if that’s easier.” Sho offered, but Ohno shook his head.
“Naw, Mori’s always eager for a chance to escape the front desk anyway. He won’t mind.”
Sho couldn’t argue with that.
“If I didn’t already have a dog I might be interested myself. Two would be too much to handle though.” Ohno continued, gazing fondly at the picture on the photocopy.
Mao looked on over his shoulder. “Yeah, I travel too much for a pet. And my mother’s allergic.” She looked annoyed, and went back to throwing the darts with added aggression.
“Sorry I can’t be of more help.” Ohno apologized.
“No,” Sho smiled and stood to leave as someone, presumably Mori, knocked on the door. “Thanks a lot, Ohno-kun. You’re a good friend.”
Ohno beamed like he’d never been more pleased, and Mao laughed before throwing another dart. It missed the board, ricocheted off the wall and nearly stabbed Mori in the foot as he entered. “Whoops.” She said, covering her mouth to hide a grin at his startled expression.
+++
“Welcome!” Nino called, approaching the front of the store upon hearing someone come in. “How can I-?“
“Nino-chan.”
“Oh god.” Nino spun around on his heel. “It’s almost midnight! Go home!”
“Don’t run away.” Aiba scowled, running to block Nino’s path down an aisle of horror movies. “We need to talk.”
Nino rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Aiba, I already told you I wasn’t angry.”
“But you’re being weird!” Aiba exclaimed, and then reconsidered when Nino’s eyes narrowed. “Not to be offensive, but you’re acting strangely.”
“Am I?”
“Well…” Aiba tilted his head to the side. “Not right now, but you were Thursday night. And you’ve been kinda avoiding me since.”
“I haven’t been avoiding you, Aiba-chan.” Nino said impatiently. “You worked all day and I worked a night shift. Our schedules just didn’t match up.”
“You didn’t answer my texts either.”
“My phone was in the break room. I forgot to check it.” Nino sighed, leaning against the shelving. “Can you stop worrying?”
Aiba pouted slightly. “Okay, so you probably weren’t avoiding me.”
“’Probably’, he says.” Nino muttered.
“But still, you were definitely strange on Thursday.” Aiba paused in wait for an argument, but Nino didn’t say anything. “You say you weren’t mad, but you left the second the class ended. Seriously, I paused a moment to say bye to everyone and when I turned around you were long gone. Besides, you kept messing up the dance steps all night.”
“Well, I’m not a professional dancer Aiba. You’re never perfect either!”
“No, but you seemed really tense. Like you were nervous, or uncomfortable.”
Nino frowned and paused for a long moment before opening his mouth. “Look, it’s no big deal but-“
The door jangled as someone entered from the night outside.
“Welcome!” Nino turned so that he could see the door and then hurriedly spun back around, eyes wide. “J-Just a minute! Someone will be right with you!” He called, grabbing Aiba’s wrist and tugging him along as he practically sprinted to the back of the store.
Aiba didn’t even know what to say, and he didn’t get a chance to form a protest before Nino was shoving him into the break room.
“Toma!” Nino hissed at the other employee, who was sitting at the cluttered desk in the corner and shoving a sandwich into his mouth. “Customer! Go!”
Toma frowned, swallowed, but did little to protest at the order other than flip Nino off on his way out. Nino shut the door over immediately behind him and crouched next to the narrow opening to spy.
“Sorry about that, Sir. Can I help you?”
“I just wanted to return these.” Said a male voice.
“Due today, huh? You barely made it.”
“Hm?”
“It’ll be Sunday in a couple minutes.”
“Oh, right.” The customer chuckled.
Aiba inched into the space beside Nino and peeked out too. Through the aisles he could see Toma at the register, but the customer was hidden from sight.
“You were right about the second one, by the way.”
Toma looked up from the movies he was checking into the computer, eyebrows raised. “Hm?”
“About the second movie.” The customer laughed again, though Toma looked confused. “It was seriously depressing. I cried like a baby.”
Toma chuckled awkwardly. “Oh, is that so?...”
“Yeah. But it was really good.”
“… Will you be renting anything else tonight, Sir?”
“Ah, no thanks.”
“Then have a nice night, Sir.”
Aiba watched Toma begin bustling around, preparing to put the movies back on their designated shelves, while the customer walked away from the counter and towards the door. For just a split second, Aiba caught a glimpse of his face. It took him a moment to figure out how he knew the man’s sleepy features, but once he did he couldn’t avoid the loud gasp that escaped him.
“Oh! That was-! That was Sakurai-san’s friend! From Thursday!”
Nino swiveled around to face him. “I know.”
“Gee, it’s a good thing he didn’t see you! You think fast, Nino-chan.”
“Actually, he met me a week ago, when he came here to rent those movies he just returned.” Nino explained grimly. “I recognized him while we were at the class on Thursday, which is why I was acting so weird and in such a hurry to get out of there, but luckily it seems like he doesn’t even remember me. Thank god. I was sure I’d given myself away by panicking the way I did when Maki-chan introduced me to him…”
“Are you sure you didn’t? It would be bad if he realized the boy at the video store was the girl at the dance class…”
“Well he obviously just mistook Toma for me, so I’m guessing he doesn’t remember what the guy who rented the videos to him looked like. Right?”
”Oh. Yeah, I guess.” Aiba agreed. He smiled as he considered Nino’s relieved features and posture. He really had been worried by the younger man’s behavior. “… I’m glad you’re not mad at me anymore.”
Nino glanced up and then ducked his head. “I was never mad.” He mumbled. “You’re just frustratingly meddlesome sometimes.”
Aiba chuckled. “I care too much.”
Nino laughed sharply. “You do. Way too much.” His grin told Aiba that he didn’t really mind though, which was a relief.
“Thanks Ninomiya, way to leave me the weirdo.” Toma spoke sarcastically, pushing open the door to the break room before the two crouched behind it could get a chance to scramble away. They both toppled over, and Aiba found himself sprawled half over the younger man, his face in the crook of Nino’s neck.
“Oh.” Toma blinked. “So that’s what you’re up to, huh?” He laughed and covered his eyes. “I didn’t see anything!” He called, and walked away whistling innocently.
Nino’s body was tense as a board beneath him. “Sorry.” Aiba mumbled, lifting himself to his hands and knees, but accidentally dragging his lips against the column of Nino’s throat in the process of moving and speaking. Nino shivered unmistakably, and twisted away to hide the redness of his cheeks the minute Aiba had given him enough room to do so. Aiba gaped, suddenly reminded of what Sakurai had said Thursday evening. “….Kazu…?”
Nino sighed, shoulders still visibly tense, and checked his watch. “It’s late, Aiba. It’s after midnight. You should go.”
Aiba bit his lip, wondering if he’d accidentally made things weird between them again.
Nino seemed to sense his fears, because he turned and smiled gently at him in reassurance. The color of his cheeks was almost back to normal. “I should probably get some work done, and you look like you need sleep. Go home, before the buses stop running.”
Aiba couldn’t help sighing on the way out, but he still paused long enough to smile at the poster of Chubby that Nino had tacked up in the window.
+++
“Sho.” Maki said firmly over the table, tired of watching him push around the pasta on his plate. “Say something.”
Sho’s brow furrowed. “… I don’t know.” Trying to think about her offer was only resulting in his mind going completely blank.
Maki pursed her lips, obviously impatient with him. “Sho, you’re not stupid. I’ve been hinting at this for days now.” No response. “What don’t you know? Whether or not you want to live with me, or where you want to? I know you spent a lot of time remodeling your place, so if you’d rather we could just live there. You don’t have to move if we decide to-…”
Sho sighed and put down his fork. “I just… don’t know if I’m ready to… uh, take that step. In our relationship… yet.”
Maki crossed her arms. “Then when Sho? A year from now? Five?” The people at the next table were glancing at them, so she lowered her voice. “I’m almost thirty. I can’t keep dating you like we’re a couple of carefree high school kids anymore. My parents keep asking me when I’m going to introduce you to them. They keep talking about grandchildren.”
Sho flinched, and stared guiltily down at the table.
“People tell me I should start seriously dating someone instead of fooling around aimlessly, but I am serious Sho. I just need to know if you are too.”
“… Maki, I…” Sho trailed off and sighed. He’d meant to prepare himself for this discussion, but instead he’d spent the last few days avoiding thinking about it. That probably hadn’t been the wisest plan.
“… If you asked me to marry you, right now, I’d say yes.” She said softly, and paused for a long moment. “I’d happily spend the rest of my life with you, as long as you felt the same.”
Sho could feel a headache coming on.
“…Do you, Sho?”
He bit his lip for a long heartbeat. “… I’m sorry… I-… I don’t know.” He really wanted to lie, just to make her happy, but he couldn’t bring himself to. “I’m really sorry, Maki-”
She frowned, obviously hurt, and got to her feet. “Well, when you know, call me.”
“Maki…” He watched, pained, as she put on her coat and shouldered her purse.
She turned to walk away and then paused for a long moment before turning back to him. “I love you, you know.” She wore an angry expression, but there were tears in her eyes.
He had no response.
People were staring at his table and whispering with expressions varying between pitying and amused as she left him alone in the restaurant, and the only words Sho could force from his lips were to ask a passing waiter for the cheque.
+++
Nino dragged himself into his apartment, drained. He’d spent the entire morning of his day off helping Aiba stick little posters up on every telephone pole in the neighborhoods near the pet shop. It was Tuesday, and still no luck. A few people had apparently come by to see the dog, but Aiba said they’d been charmed by the other puppies instead.
Nino collapsed on the floor of his living room and stared up at the ceiling. Aiba was wearing himself thin with worry about the puppy. He was trying so hard to sell the dog that Nino felt people were bound to be scared off by his overwhelming enthusiasm, not to mention his persistence. When they’d parted ways at the beginning of Aiba’s shift an hour earlier, Aiba told him that he planned to spend Wednesday, his day off, papering the whole city with copies of the Chubby poster.
Nino sighed. It was probably costing a small fortune to make as many copies as he already had, let alone the number he planned to make.
“Aiba…” He muttered, and then rolled onto his side. Frowning, he began picking at the carpet. While his concerned thoughts wandered, so did his gaze. Eventually it landed on the mess piled around his television stand. There were boxes upon boxes of games, stacked in haphazard towers. He’d been collecting videos games since his teens, so there were a lot of them. Many of the cases were covered in dust, as were some of the gaming platforms and controllers that he probably hadn’t used in years. A thought struck him then, and while he didn’t like idea of losing his few prized possessions (aside from his beloved guitar, and keyboard), he absolutely hated the idea of Aiba running himself broke for a cause that might turn out to be hopeless at the rate things were going.
Nino got up and searched his apartment for the biggest duffle bag he owned. Then, with a sigh and a determined mindset, he knelt in front of the television and started packing.
+++
“You need to get out.”
“I’m busy, Jun.”
“You’re working yourself to death.”
Sho looked up, and raised an eyebrow over the frame of his reading glasses. “No, actually. You’re successfully keeping me from getting any work done at all.”
Jun rolled his eyes and leaned against the desk his friend was attempting to work at. “You’ve been working everyday this week, you were working all weekend. How much work can you possibly have left?” He didn’t wait for Sho’s response. “If you’re upset about what happened with Maki, then shouldn’t you be thinking about that instead of studying these flowcharts over and over again?”
Sho frowned. “I always regret confiding in you about my problems. You have a habit of turning into my mother.”
Jun ignored the comment. “I’m not going to make you sit down and talk about your feelings, but if you’re going to distract yourself with something it’s not going to be with something boring.”
“You may find this boring Jun, but I’m attempting to be productive here.”
“Be productive when I don’t have the evening off, okay?” Jun countered, pulling his friend to his feet and snatching the glasses off of his face. “Now put on something nice. We’re going out.”
“Why do you want to hang out with me on your night off?” Sho complained half an hour later, sitting in the passenger seat of Jun’s car as they crawled through traffic. He tugged at his collar, dressed much more stylishly than he would have been had he been allowed to dress himself. “Surely there are better people you could go out to dinner with. Girls, for example.”
“Kazuko-chan said she was busy.”
“You called her?” Sho raised his eyebrows.
“I sent her a text earlier, but she said she was working.” He glanced at Sho’s disbelieving expression from the corner of his eye and then shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll see her at the class tomorrow anyway, and it’s not like I hate hanging out with you instead.” He chuckled.
Sho frowned. “What about Mao?”
“Oh. Yeah, I might see her tomorrow too, I guess. She said she might come back again.”
“No, did you see if she wanted to go to dinner with you?”
Jun glanced at him, frowning. “Mao-chan?”
“Yeah. She gave you her contact info, didn’t she?”
“Well… yeah, she did.” Jun looked thoughtful. “I didn’t think of inviting her, actually. I guess it would have been nice to catch up…”
“…Maybe you should ask her out some time.”
“Yeah-… Wait, ‘out’? As in on a date?”
“Sure, she’s nice. And you two seem to get along well.”
“First of all, she’s with your friend Ohno, isn’t she?”
“She may be with him a lot, but she’s not with him. It’s complicated as hell, but they aren’t dating.”
“Even if they’re not, Mao-chan and I were friends for about a year and a half in high school. That was years ago Sho. She may be nice, but it’s not like I know her that well anymore. And anyway, you can’t have a relationship based only on how nice your partner is. There has to be some sort of attraction there, you know?”
“But, she is pretty…”
Jun rolled his eyes and changed lanes. “I don’t just mean physical attractiveness, I’m talking about being attracted to someone.” He paused to execute a turn and sighed when they were met with another red light. “There’s nothing wrong with Mao, I’m just-“
“More interested in Ninomiya.” Sho finished, not particularly pleased. Jun was his best friend after all, and Aiba had said Ninomiya was probably only flirting around.
Jun smiled crookedly. “She’s cute, isn’t she?”
“Cute?” Sho echoed, disgruntled.
“Yeah, have you seen her hands?”
“No, I have not.” Sho grumbled.
Jun continued like he hadn’t even heard Sho answer. “When I danced with her last Thursday, I noticed how cute and little they were. Almost like a kid’s.”
“… You don’t really like her, do you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jun’s smile flipped into a frown. “Why can’t I?”
“It’s just… how do you know she really likes you?” Sho questioned tentatively. “She doesn’t seem like she’s very serious, does she? It would be bad if you got serious about her and she was just playing around.”
“Sho.” Jun sounded annoyed.
“I’m just worried for you, that’s all.” Sho said quietly, knowing that when Jun used That Tone, it was always best not to press the subject.
“I’m not trying to be mean, Sho, but if I honestly wanted relationship advice from someone… it wouldn’t be from you.”
Sho turned away and stared out the window. “Well, I suppose that’s understandable.”
Jun let out a mildly amused huff of air, but the last few minutes of the drive were still spent in silence.
“Here.” Jun put the car in park and took the keys from the ignition. Sho followed his lead and got out of the vehicle, staring up at the dingy pub they were parked in front of. “Sorry,” Jun apologized. “It’s not exactly a classy establishment, but the food is pretty decent.” He chuckled. “And I’m buying anyway.”
“No, no, no. You don’t have to.” Sho hurried to catch up with him.
“It’s no problem, Sho.” Jun grinned, holding the door open and letting the gritty rock music playing inside reach their ears. “It’s my treat, as long as you buy the drinks.”
“Smooth.” Sho laughed, glad the awkward tension from the car seemed to be behind them. “But sure, I don’t mind.”
For the next few hours Sho did his best not to say anything more about Ninomiya Kazuko (which was difficult when the more Jun drank, the more he rambled about her), but Sho still couldn’t get what Aiba had said about the girl from his mind. He did his best to talk a lot about Mao, and what good qualities he’d observed her having. Jun, unfortunately, didn’t seem to take much notice. He was too busy texting back and forth with Ninomiya the whole time.
At the same time, of course, Sho couldn’t help feeling like the world’s biggest hypocrite. He was worried about Ninomiya’s seriousness with regards to Jun, but hadn’t that been Maki’s problem with him? She’d said he wasn’t taking what they had seriously, that he wasn’t seriously pursuing a future with her…
Honestly, when he thought about it, she was completely right. The few girlfriends he’d had (and been dumped by) in the past had been right about him too. He’d never treated them much differently than he treated his good friends, and he’d never been with someone that made him want to spend every second of every day for the rest of his life with them.
He felt a bit like the world’s biggest (and possibly loneliest) asshole the more he thought about it.
“There’s something wrong with me.” He moaned, slouching dramatically in his seat.
Jun laughed. “You’re just figuring that out now?”
“Seriously. I’m going to be alone forever.”
Jun sighed, reaching across the table to ruffle his hair and then stealing a cold fry from his plate. “Want another beer?” He asked, and then quickly became distracted by an incoming text.
Sho hesitated and then shook his head. The drinks he’d already finished had each only made him feel more depressed about his life. “I think I’m just going to get some air, if you don’t mind.”
Jun nodded, busy typing out his reply. “Yeah, go ahead. Just don’t get lost, ‘k?”
“I won’t go far.” Sho replied, pulling on his coat and getting to his feet.
The night air outside hit him with a blast of cold wind, and he felt refreshed almost immediately. The loud music of the pub was quickly replaced by the sounds of passing traffic on the busy road ahead. He pulled his jacket closer to himself and walked across the parking lot to lean against the back of Jun’s car. They’d probably have to leave it until the morning, considering the alcohol they’d consumed. Not that they were drunk, just pretty buzzed.
A sigh escaped his lips, and he watched it turn to white fog and dissipate into the sky. Across the street from him was another small parking lot, but it was filled with considerably fewer cars than the one in front of the pub. At this time of the evening, he imagined it would only be an hour or two at the most before the shops across from him were closed, their neon signs blinking off and leaving the lot of cars lit only by the streetlamps and headlights of passing traffic.
Well, he corrected his thoughts upon looking closer at the buildings; that wasn’t entirely true. The convenience store would actually be open all night. And the video store would likely be open until close to midnight on a weeknight. The pet shop, however, would probably close pretty soon. After all, how many people go buy pets late at night?
His thoughts suddenly stuttered to a halt and backtracked.
The pet store…
He wished he was wearing his contacts, from his distance he could hardly make out the name of the store that was written on the blue, bone-shaped, neon sign. Well, it was definitely a sign shaped like a blue bone.
“Blue-Bone… Pet Depo, maybe?” Sho murmured to himself curiously.
Despite having told Jun he wasn’t going to go far, Sho began making his way to the crosswalk. By the time he reached the store, he realized that he’d been right. It was the right pet store. Also, as he predicted, it appeared as though the workers inside were cleaning up and preparing to close for the night.
The door opened with a cheery jangle.
“Welcome, Sir.” Said a girl in a red apron as she set aside her mop. “How can I help you?”
“Oh, I was just wondering if someone named Aiba Masaki worked here…?” Sho asked tentatively, feeling a little stupid now that he was inside. Who knew how many locations the store had? It could be a popular chain, for all he knew. He didn’t exactly frequent pet stores. Even as a child, he’d never owned any pets.
“Aiba? Yeah, he’s an employee here.” She answered, and Sho was instantly both surprised and relieved. “Today’s his day off though.”
“Oh.”
“…Want me to take a message? So I can tell him who came to see him?”
Sho was instantly embarrassed again. Why had he come to see Aiba? It was really only by chance that he’d seen the pet store, and that he’d recognized the name from the poster Aiba had given him. Though he was probably being paranoid, he found himself believing that Aiba would think he was stalking him should he find out Sho had come looking for him.
“Uh… no, that’s okay.” He said hurriedly. The girl looked confused. “I was just passing by. It’s nothing important.”
“… Okay then.” She said just as Sho’s phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Jun, asking him where the hell he’d disappeared to. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, that’s alright.” He bowed and turned, making a beeline for the door. Just before he could reach the pull handle, a messy, handwritten sign to his left caught his attention and he stopped in his tracks to read it.
‘Looking for a happy home! Please adopt me! 8D’, it read. Followed by a big yellow ‘CLEARANCE’ sticker.
Curious, he let his feet carry him over to the pen. In the display cases around him, cute puppies with floppy ears were climbing all over each other to catch his attention, but in the pen on the floor a shaggy, plump little dog was curled in a ball on a pile of newspaper and snoring loudly. Sho crouched down, watching the clearance dog’s paws twitch as though he were chasing something in his dreams. Sho smiled, and was startled when the girl employee appeared behind him.
“I’m sorry, Sir, but we’re closing soon, so if you’re just browsing-”
“This dog…” Sho began. He was sure this furry face was the same one that had been practically grinning out of the photo on Aiba’s posters. “Is his name Chubby?”
The girl looked surprised. “Um, well that’s what some of us have begun calling him around here.”
Sho turned back to the puppy, watching as he rolled onto his back. The tip of his pink tongue poked out of his mouth, and his paws were practically crossed on his chest as he continued to snore. Sho found himself smiling fondly. He never had owned a pet…
…
Jun was standing next to his car, on the phone with a taxi company, when Sho made it back to the pub’s parking lot. He gaped at the sleepy ball of fur poking out of Sho’s jacket.
“Did you call us a cab?” Sho asked, cradling the shivering puppy a little closer to his chest in hopes of shielding him from the wind. “Sorry, I guess I left you to pay for the drinks. I’ll pay you back.”
Jun’s thick eyebrows were nearing his hairline as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, ignoring everything Sho was saying in favor of eyeing up the animal in his coat. “… Should I even ask, Sho?”
Sho laughed and shook his head. Even he didn’t really know what had come over him. “I think I’m a lot more drunk than I thought I was...”
“No kidding.” Jun laughed, and reached out to scratch Chubby between the ears.
+++
to be continued...
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