Bump Set Spike It, That’s The Way We Like It
Title: Bump Set Spike It, That’s The Way We Like It
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Matsumoto Jun/Sakurai Sho
Summary: Every year, the company’s leader hosted a beach volleyball tournament and barbecue for employees and gave away a fabulous prize. This year’s prize was a trip to Hawaii, all expenses paid. And Jun really really really REALLY wanted to win the trip. The problem, of course, was his partner.
Notes/Warnings: Well I wrote this for je_otherworlds but it didn’t run. Oh well, here it is anyhow. It was written for the following prompt that I barely followed LOL: “8. Your characters are working for a company and it's that time of year again for the annual [sport of your choosing] company tournament. Everyone is hoping for a chance to win the big prize.” The title is actually the cheer we used to do when I was on the volleyball team in junior high :)
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’?” Jun complained, digging in the pockets behind each seat and unearthing stuff he wished that day’s group had taken with them. Gum wrappers, empty bottles, used tissues.
Nino was curled up in Jun’s usual seat on the bus, legs stretched across the aisle. “I mean that I will not be participating in the tournament.”
Jun angrily shoved another tissue in his garbage bag, turning around to face his driver. “But the prize is…”
“A free trip to Hawaii, I know,” Nino said, shrugging indifferently. “What would I do there?”
“Go to the beach. Go snorkeling. Go surfing. Go…”
“Those are all outdoor activities,” Nino reminded him. “None of which excite me.”
“Well what if we won and they let you trade in your trip for a cash prize?”
Nino shook his head. “They’d never let me. And I’d still have to participate to get to that point. And I don’t do participation.”
“You are the worst,” Jun grumbled under his breath, finding someone’s sunscreen bottle had literally exploded across the backseat. He’d need the deluxe fabric cleaner and vacuum for this mess.
On most days, Matsumoto Jun was very happy to be partnered with Ninomiya Kazunari. As a driver, he was always very prompt, was polite to the guests, and worked well with the itineraries Jun set for the day. Even if neither of them drifted to the “morning person” end of the spectrum, he could always count on finding Nino waiting for him at the company garage at 5:00 AM with the bus already gassed up and ready to go.
It had been almost a year now that they’d been a team. After many awful months stuck on the Saitama’s Hidden Secrets tour, Jun had been promoted into his current role as guide for the Mt. Fuji and Hakone Double-Up Day Tour. With his rainbow pom pom in hand, Jun led tour groups of mostly elderly folks from Hamamatsucho bus station up to the fifth station of Mt. Fuji, then to a scheduled lunch, and then a pleasant afternoon around Hakone and the Five Lakes area. And on some Saturdays for extra cash he and Nino did the Gotemba Shop Til You Drop tour, bringing more old folks out to the outlet mall.
Their tour company, Rainbow Rain Tours, was one of the best in Japan. Jun had worked for a handful of operators, but Rainbow Rain had the most respect for its employees. Every year, the company’s leader Joshima-san hosted a beach volleyball tournament and barbecue for employees on the Chiba coast and gave away a fabulous prize. This year’s prize for the volleyball tournament was a trip to Hawaii, all expenses paid. And Jun really really really REALLY wanted to win the trip.
The problem, of course, was his partner. The beach volleyball tournament required teams of two, and most of the tour guides and drivers were partnering up. His driver, however, was Nino, and Nino would probably be spending the employee party inside the tent and as far from the beach as he could get. No matter how well they worked together on the job, Nino had zero interest in much athletic activity, especially activity of the beach volleyball type where he could get sand in his pants.
Things were looking quite dire for Jun.
“What if I ride back in coach and you let Joshima-san upgrade you to first?” The plane tickets with the Hawaii trip were business class. Their boss was very generous (and obviously had some friends with the airline).
“Again, Jun-kun, you aren’t getting it,” Nino said, scooting down the aisle with his empty energy drink can and shoving it in Jun’s garbage bag. “I’m not going to do it.”
“But…”
Nino grinned. “You’re only asking me because you’re too scared to ask him.”
Jun froze, a dozen denials unwilling to emerge from his mouth. He instead settled for scowling at Nino.
Nino patted him on the shoulder. “Come on, I can see you two now in Hawaii. Swimming together, eating together…putting leis on each other…”
“Nino…”
“Ask him. It’s the only shot you’ve got.”
Sadly, it was.
-
Jun had gone through guide training for his current tour at Rainbow Rain with Sakurai Sho, and they had been some of the most sexually frustrating days of his life. They’d been under the tutelage of Sakamoto-san, who’d been giving tours for Rainbow Rain since Jun had been in junior high school. Sakamoto was strict and exacting, and it had only been the two of them training.
Sho had just transferred in from Gray Line Tours, and he now led the English language version of Jun’s tour for foreign visitors. So not only did Sho have to memorize the Mt. Fuji and Hakone Double-Up Day Tour itinerary and script, but he had to translate it and make it flow for visitors to the country. Because of the extra steps Sho needed to take, he and Jun had spent hours together memorizing itty bitty details of Mt. Fuji that hardly anyone else knew.
And it hadn’t helped that Sakurai Sho was one of the most unbelievably attractive people Jun had ever worked with. Whenever Sakamoto wasn’t quizzing them, they had stayed in small inns in the Five Lakes area, taking the same boat rides and the same ropeway rides together. His entire training time had been one long date with Sakurai Sho, English Language Tour Guide, and he was still surprised he’d made it through and earned Sakamoto-san’s approval.
Their training camp hadn’t been the end of it either. They saw each other almost every day on the job, seeing as they drove along the same route. While Sho held up his bright yellow stuffed Pikachu on a stick (“The Americans really go nuts for the Pikachu,” Sho always said), Jun and his group would never be far behind.
While their groups hurried through comfort stops and gift shop visits, Jun often found himself making awkward small talk with Sho in the bus parking lots. They both wore matching uniforms for their jobs, but Jun had always thought that Sho filled his out better. Especially in the rear. Jun had spent more minutes than he was willing to admit watching Sho (and his perky butt) merrily hop back up the steps into his own bus, chanting in English “Yeah yeah, we’re going to Mt. Fuji now! Everybody put your hands up, yeah yeah!”
It just so happened that Sho’s driver and friend, Aiba-san, had won last year’s beach volleyball tournament. He’d been paired up with someone other than Sho back then, a tall, massive driver for the Nikko and Nature Tour named Nagase, and they’d dominated the competition. Joshima didn’t prefer repeat winners, so Aiba would not be participating in this year’s match-up. That meant that Sho was unlikely to have a partner.
That meant that Jun had to get to Sho before anyone else could, and Nino had known it.
The tournament was that Sunday, and on the Wednesday Double-Up Day Tour, he found himself asking to speak with Sho privately once they got to their lunch stop and their tourists both foreign and domestic were chowing down on fried chicken and salad in the massive restaurant near Fuji-Q. Usually Sho preferred to be within reach of his group in case they had any questions, like “what the hell is miso anyway?” But Jun had used his Tour Guide voice, the “this bus will leave with or without you” voice, and Sho had obediently followed him into the restaurant lobby.
He was in top guide form that day, his uniform jacket and slacks well-pressed and his tie perfect. As soon as they were alone, Jun was also the recipient of Sho’s all-star smile. “Ah, Matsumoto-kun, something wrong?”
Jun spent most of his days talking, smiling, explaining. He was otherwise an extremely competent and pleasant human being. Around Sho things got weird. They had trouble with eye contact, the both of them, and Jun could usually hide behind the sunglasses he wore outside the bus at comfort stops. “No, no, nothing’s wrong,” Jun said, fidgeting with his clipboard. “This is just an odd question, I don’t mean to trouble you.”
Sho’s rather round, endearing face turned a bit pink at the attention. “Oh? You couldn’t possibly trouble me…”
“Aiba-san,” Jun spluttered out, feeling rather warm in his uniform, even though they’d just come down from the fifth station and it had been windy and cold.
“Aiba-san?”
“He, ah, he can’t play in the volleyball tournament this weekend, can he?”
Sho nodded, eyes widening in realization. “Ah, right. You’re right. He got to go to Thailand last year, seems he had a fantastic time. But Hawaii though, he’s a little sad he can’t participate.”
“Right, right.”
“You and Ninomiya then?” Sho asked, his Pikachu stick wiggling nervously in his left hand. “You’ll be going for it?”
“Ah, actually no,” Jun stammered. “He’s not really interested.”
“Even with a free trip on the line?” Sho asked, shaking his head. “Where’s his company spirit?”
His spirit was usually quite content with driving the bus and then going home to sleep, but Jun didn’t figure Sho cared about Nino’s home life one way or the other.
“I was hoping, Sho-kun…” Jun immediately panicked for being more familiar with Sho than Sho was with him, but Sho didn’t seem to react to the casual use of his name. Then again, he was probably used to foreigners going “Hey Sho!” at him all day. “I was hoping that you might want to partner up for the tournament. Since Nino won’t play and Aiba-san can’t.”
Sho’s face lit up in a way Jun hadn’t expected. “You and me? A team?”
Jun tried to act cool, nonchalant. He was probably failing. “Yeah, if you want to. I really want that trip.”
Sho nodded. “I’d love to go to Hawaii. But are you any good at volleyball? I’m not…”
“We could practice,” Jun immediately said, overwhelmed with Sho’s agreeable reply. He was so keyed up from their conversation that he almost missed Nino leaving the cafeteria with a bottle of juice, making a kissy face at them. He turned away from Nino’s departing figure, clutching his clipboard. “I mean, if you had time to practice. I play to win, but competition’s always fierce. Then again, Nagase-san and Aiba-san won’t be playing. We might have a chance.”
“Hawaii…” Sho said, his eyes almost misting over. If there was one thing he’d learned about Sho during training, it was that he loved to travel. He’d already been to 28 countries, so it wasn’t too surprising that he’d ended up working in the travel industry. “Let’s do it.”
Sho held out his hand, and Jun shook it, hoping Sho wouldn’t notice how clammy his was. Then again, Sho’s seemed to be a little clammy too. Their hands broke apart almost as soon as they’d touched, and Jun busied himself by checking his watch.
“Ah, I’d better call ahead for the boat ride tickets. I’ll…I’ll see you at the next stop.”
“Right,” Sho said, wiggling his Pikachu. “I have to, ah, I have to make my calls too!”
“Right?”
“Yeah.”
They stood there, gazing at each other for a moment too long before the enthusiastic Aiba-san came bounding out of the cafeteria, jangling the bus keys in his hand. He wrapped an arm around Sho’s shoulder. “Heeeeey, I’ll be outside if you need me!” He looked between Sho and Jun. “Did something happen?”
“No!” they both shouted in unison before walking in opposite directions.
Upon reaching Nino in the parking lot, he saw his driver’s wide, glowing smile. He pulled out his phone, looking the other way as Nino launched into a series of celebratory kiss noises.
-
He was rather exhausted on Friday after the Double-Up Day Tour, but he and Sho both had Saturday off since the Double-Up tour was not offered on Saturdays. So Friday night, after leaving an extremely obnoxious and oddly supportive Nino at the company garage, Jun hurried home to change. Another hour later, and he was running a hand through his hair, breathing into the palm of his hand to check his breath. He arrived at Sakurai Sho’s apartment building in Shinagawa, and he was almost as nervous as he’d been the first day he’d stood up on the bus to look at the blank faces of 50 tourists at 6:35 AM.
There was a sports gym just down the street, and Sho came out his front door within seconds of Jun’s arrival, toting a gym bag. It had only been a few hours since they’d seen each other, but he wasn’t used to seeing Sho outside his Rainbow Rain uniform. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, and once they got to the gym, he changed into some baggy basketball shorts and a tank top. Jun had used every ounce of willpower in the locker room not to watch Sho while he was changing. The shorts had the potential to reveal more than Jun could handle, especially with Hawaii on the line.
They found Aiba-san already on the court, launching a volleyball straight at them. When the both of them ducked out of the way, Aiba laughed at them.
“You’re never ever going to get to Hawaii if you play like that!”
With the cheerful Aiba-san as their instructor, Jun was happy for the third person in their corner of the gym. Aiba could have been a tour guide himself, he was so good at carrying a conversation and asking good questions, but he always seemed content to do the driving and let Sho do all the heavy lifting on the job. But here in the gym, in his athletic element, he whipped Sho and Jun into shape in a matter of hours, and Jun felt surprisingly comfortable. The spirit of competition was overwhelming the spirit of awkward sexual tension.
With Aiba playing on one side and Sho and Jun on the other side of the net, they practiced their serves, their spikes, their passing. Where Jun thought his nervousness would keep them from gathering any sort of momentum, he discovered that he and Sho actually made quite a decent team. With their tour guide voices, they were able to signal each other, call out moves ahead of time.
By the end of the night, they were nearly falling against each other chasing after a relentless Aiba’s spikes, but they caught each other’s gazes, their faces dripping with sweat, and knew that they were much closer to Hawaii than they’d been only hours before.
When they were changing afterward, Aiba managed to get behind them, sandwiching himself between them with a sweaty arm around each of them. “Now remember, you two, you’re going to be playing on sand. It’s going to slow your reaction times.”
“We could practice at the beach tomorrow,” Sho said quickly before looking hesitantly in Jun’s direction. “If…if you’re not busy, Matsumoto-kun…”
Even Aiba was trying (and mostly failing) to hide a grin. Maybe he and Sho were a laughingstock among the Rainbow Rain drivers now. Jun knew Nino couldn’t resist spilling all his secrets. “Well, Jun-kun?” Aiba asked, elbowing him. “More training tomorrow?”
“Sure, that’s fine by me,” Jun said, trying to be casual about it. Even though he’d already emptied his day-off schedule, bumping a dinner with some of his friends to the following week instead. Not that he’d say as much to Sho…
“Great,” Sho said, checking his phone. “Excuse my presumption, but I already looked for a few places with sand courts before we came here tonight. I have a car and can come pick you both up.”
“Oh,” Jun said, hiding a smile. “If it’s not too much trouble.”
At that Jun nearly took Aiba’s head off when he tickled him in the side teasingly. “Ah, I’m afraid you’ll have to train without me,” he said, not sounding all that apologetic. “Sorry about that, Sho-chan…”
Sho looked up from his phone, looking like a deer in the headlights. “Wait…what?”
Aiba slinked his way back from standing between them, roughly shoving the two of them together until their shoulders bumped. “That’s why I gave you the Aiba Masaki volleyball special! You know all the basics and you definitely won’t need me tomorrow! Together, you’ll figure things out. You’re both smart. You make for a good pair. I mean, ah, a good team. A good team.”
Sho met Jun’s eyes, looking a little bit hesitant, but Jun decided that potential discomfort around Sho was worth it if the reward was Hawaii. He stepped aside, already missing the feeling of being pressed along Sho’s side. “It’ll be fun, some extra training.”
They made plans to meet in the morning, to get to the beach before the midday heat exhausted them. They’d need all their strength for Sunday. And Jun hoped he could get through everything without making a complete fool of himself.
-
Sho picked him up promptly at 8:15, and had even been kind enough to pick up coffee and onigiri for them. The fact that Sho had remembered from training camp exactly how Jun liked his coffee sent butterflies rumbling around in his stomach.
Though Sho had called ahead and reserved a place at the beach, they found that their assigned “court” was in bad shape. The net was ruined, and a strange man had camped out on one side of the court, sleeping happily even in the morning sun on a mound of beach towels.
Jun went up and nudged the guy with his foot. He was a small guy with skin dark from what might have been years outside. He opened his eyes, staring up at Sho and Jun and the volleyball Aiba was lending them for the day. “I’m sorry,” Sho said, “but we’ve rented this sand court for the morning. Could you please move?”
“Oh, my bad.”
The guy shifted his towels, moving onto the grass nearby. Jun was a little annoyed that he didn’t leave entirely, instead continuing to relax while he and Sho practiced passing for several minutes. Without Aiba’s guidance, it was too easy to get caught up in Sho. In his tank top showing off his muscles. With his hair falling across his brow. The stupid shorts that drew his eye…
“Watch out!”
The volleyball smacked Jun square in the nose, and he staggered back, losing his footing in the shifting sand. He ended up on his back, and in seconds sand had managed to slip its way into everything. He shut his eyes, swearing under his breath. And to make it worse, Sho was crouching down beside him moments later, patting him on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
To avoid meeting Sho’s embarrassed expression, he looked over and saw sleepy guy was madly tapping away on his phone, not even bothering to see if Jun was alright. Nice guy. He waved Sho off.
“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” Except for the sand now wedged in his butt crack of course…
Sho kept babbling apologies anyhow, and finally he got to his feet, holding out his hand expectantly. Jun took it, nearly falling against him. Sho was all red in the face, and Jun doubted it was from sun exposure. Jun fidgeted, trying his best to dislodge sand from his clothes without looking like a fool.
“Do you…do you want to take a break?”
Jun rubbed his nose. “Ah…sure.”
They moved to the grass, Sho hugging the volleyball simply to have something to do with his hands it seemed. They stayed a little further down from the sleepy guy, who kept looking at them oddly every few moments.
“Maybe we should…”
“…do you want to…”
He and Sho started talking at the same time, and Jun’s face was probably red now to match his. “Ah, go ahead,” Sho said, squeezing the volleyball.
“No, you can…”
“Oh, Matsumoto-kun, if it’s important…”
“Honestly, I was only going to ask your opinion on the new guy working the ticket counter at the ropeway.”
Sho’s face was blank for a moment, but then his eyes lit up, and he let out one of the noisy laughs Jun had somehow fallen for. “Nakamaru-san? With the beat boxing on the phone?”
“So weird!” they both said at the same time, bursting into noisier chuckles.
Ice broken (and with Jun’s nose thankfully not broken), they were able to chatter away with growing comfort. It had been a while since they’d had a prolonged talk. And even if they were mostly talking about work, Jun had kind of missed this. During their training days, he’d been on edge, trying to cram information into his brain while simultaneously harboring a crush on the guy he had to spend every waking hour with. And now at work he only spoke to Sho in small bursts.
As the morning grew warmer and the court they’d rented went unused, Jun found himself opening up to Sakurai Sho. They each had dozens of stories about bad tourists, people using the bus emergency bathroom for definite non-emergencies, people returning late from a gift shop stop, people getting sick and throwing up on the Hakone boat tour. The people who dozed continuously from the start of the tour until the end.
“What are they even paying for?” Sho complained, kicking at the sand with his sandal, sending Jun into another bout of laughter. “I get so many reviews that say my voice is soothing and puts them to sleep. They think that’s a good thing!”
Before they realized it, the sleepy guy had packed up his towels and left, the sun was shining straight overhead, and a group of college-aged young people were approaching the court dressed in matching volleyball team shirts. The leader of the little group came up, confused.
“Are you guys even using this court?”
They looked up sheepishly. “Ah, no, go right ahead,” Jun said, not waiting for Sho’s reply.
They went back to Sho’s car, shaking more sand out of their clothes. Sho looked a little nervous. “I didn’t realize the time had gone so quickly…maybe we could go back to that gym, practice longer?”
“We don’t…we don’t have to do that, do we?” Jun made an annoyed face. “I need to shower. There’s sand in places sand has no business being.”
“You could do that at my place…” Sho immediately stepped back, bumping into his car’s door. “What I meant was, ah…damn it…I just…I thought after our practice we’d be hungry, and there’s this great soba place near mine so…”
“So it’s easier if I just go with you instead of going home and coming back, that’s all, right?” Jun asked encouragingly, trying to keep his hormones at bay even though Sakurai Sho had just asked him to use his shower. And had technically just asked him to have dinner with him.
Sho was looking at his feet, the easy rapport of their earlier chat quickly evaporating. “Right, exactly. But I’ll just take you home and…”
“I’ll go,” Jun blurted out, knowing it was now or never. He’d never get to spend this kind of quality time with Sho again. “I’ll go, if you don’t mind. I love soba.”
Sho’s face relaxed a bit, and he fumbled with his car keys. “Well…well, good. Good, I’m very glad. You’re going to really like it, if you like soba.”
-
Jun realized a little too late that he’d only brought clean towels and his sandy clothes into Sho’s bathroom with him. He’d been nervous as hell, following Sho into his elevator and then into his slightly messy apartment. He’d fled to the bathroom as soon as possible, but without securing the simplest of things - clean clothes.
He stood in the middle of the bathroom in his towel, his hair dripping wet and his body happy to once again be clean. Examining himself in the mirror, he was suddenly appalled to see the bright purple welt sitting proudly between his eyes on the bridge of his nose. Sho really had gotten him pretty good. He’d have to put on some sort of concealer or wear his glasses for Monday’s tour.
He moved to the door, opening it the slightest bit. “Sho-kun?”
“Yeah?”
“I…don’t have any clothes. Clean clothes. I don’t have clean clothes.”
“Oh…oh. Well. Ah, just a minute.”
He stood there in his towel, trying to breathe. He’d used Sho’s shower. Hell, he’d just used Sho’s girly smelling bath soap (Strawberry shortcake!) and shampoo! He could only imagine Nino and even Aiba’s laughter about this strange situation they’d landed themselves in. So much for volleyball training! So much for Hawaii!
But when Sho knocked on the bathroom door, and Jun pulled it open, he was confused by Sho’s empty hands. And then when he looked up, moving up Sho’s hands, his bare arms, across his shoulder and to his face, he was astonished to see the almost possessive look in Sho’s eyes.
“Matsumoto-kun, I…” He licked his lips, smiling in nervousness. “I was coming to ask what size shirt you wear…”
“Okay…”
Sho scratched at the back of his neck, chuckling. “Maybe being around foreigners all day, almost every day has given me this strange confidence…I’m finding that I don’t want to ask about your shirt at all.” He looked up at Jun again, expectantly. “I was wondering if you…liked me?”
“Liked?” Jun sputtered out. “Past tense?”
Sho took a dangerous step forward. “Well…if you like me now, I’d like to know that too.”
Jun leaned against the door, hoping he looked attractive instead of nervous. If Sho could be forward after so many months of dodging each other skillfully, maybe Jun could too. “What if I said yes? What would you do?”
“I’d be…I’d be happy to hear it.”
“Oh?”
Sho nodded. “Very happy.”
Jun stepped forward, nervously tracing the line of Sho’s jaw with his damp fingers. “That soba place. Do they deliver?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” Jun said, grinning. “Because it may be a while before I want it.”
-
He woke the next day to at least a dozen texts from Nino, each of them counting down to the beach volleyball championship and the coveted Hawaii prize. He replied simply: “Maybe next year.”
Nino replied with another half-dozen messages, most of the lewd variety. The last in the batch of texts was more informative than filthy.
My inside source at the court said things were going well. Who knew a volleyball to the nose could be the start of a beautiful relationship?
Nino sent along a photo of his roommate, Ohno-san, and Jun was rather unsurprised to discover that this Ohno-san was none other than the creepy sleepy texting guy at the beach sand courts. Nino and Aiba had had a spy reporting back to them. Well, Jun didn’t much mind.
While the other Rainbow Rain employees sweated and fought for the extravagant trip, Jun simply shut his phone off and turned back over in bed. Hawaii…sure, it would have been nice, but he was already in the midst of a much better vacation.
Had it only been 24 hours ago that they’d been bumbling and stumbling and blushing? There was no hesitation now, and he suspected that any future small talk in bus parking lots and gift shops would be a lot more fun.
“Good morning,” Sho said, stroking Jun’s face before leaning in for a kiss. “Aloha, I mean.”
“Aloha to you too,” Jun said, discovering the merits of the paradise you could create underneath the sheets.
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Matsumoto Jun/Sakurai Sho
Summary: Every year, the company’s leader hosted a beach volleyball tournament and barbecue for employees and gave away a fabulous prize. This year’s prize was a trip to Hawaii, all expenses paid. And Jun really really really REALLY wanted to win the trip. The problem, of course, was his partner.
Notes/Warnings: Well I wrote this for je_otherworlds but it didn’t run. Oh well, here it is anyhow. It was written for the following prompt that I barely followed LOL: “8. Your characters are working for a company and it's that time of year again for the annual [sport of your choosing] company tournament. Everyone is hoping for a chance to win the big prize.” The title is actually the cheer we used to do when I was on the volleyball team in junior high :)
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’?” Jun complained, digging in the pockets behind each seat and unearthing stuff he wished that day’s group had taken with them. Gum wrappers, empty bottles, used tissues.
Nino was curled up in Jun’s usual seat on the bus, legs stretched across the aisle. “I mean that I will not be participating in the tournament.”
Jun angrily shoved another tissue in his garbage bag, turning around to face his driver. “But the prize is…”
“A free trip to Hawaii, I know,” Nino said, shrugging indifferently. “What would I do there?”
“Go to the beach. Go snorkeling. Go surfing. Go…”
“Those are all outdoor activities,” Nino reminded him. “None of which excite me.”
“Well what if we won and they let you trade in your trip for a cash prize?”
Nino shook his head. “They’d never let me. And I’d still have to participate to get to that point. And I don’t do participation.”
“You are the worst,” Jun grumbled under his breath, finding someone’s sunscreen bottle had literally exploded across the backseat. He’d need the deluxe fabric cleaner and vacuum for this mess.
On most days, Matsumoto Jun was very happy to be partnered with Ninomiya Kazunari. As a driver, he was always very prompt, was polite to the guests, and worked well with the itineraries Jun set for the day. Even if neither of them drifted to the “morning person” end of the spectrum, he could always count on finding Nino waiting for him at the company garage at 5:00 AM with the bus already gassed up and ready to go.
It had been almost a year now that they’d been a team. After many awful months stuck on the Saitama’s Hidden Secrets tour, Jun had been promoted into his current role as guide for the Mt. Fuji and Hakone Double-Up Day Tour. With his rainbow pom pom in hand, Jun led tour groups of mostly elderly folks from Hamamatsucho bus station up to the fifth station of Mt. Fuji, then to a scheduled lunch, and then a pleasant afternoon around Hakone and the Five Lakes area. And on some Saturdays for extra cash he and Nino did the Gotemba Shop Til You Drop tour, bringing more old folks out to the outlet mall.
Their tour company, Rainbow Rain Tours, was one of the best in Japan. Jun had worked for a handful of operators, but Rainbow Rain had the most respect for its employees. Every year, the company’s leader Joshima-san hosted a beach volleyball tournament and barbecue for employees on the Chiba coast and gave away a fabulous prize. This year’s prize for the volleyball tournament was a trip to Hawaii, all expenses paid. And Jun really really really REALLY wanted to win the trip.
The problem, of course, was his partner. The beach volleyball tournament required teams of two, and most of the tour guides and drivers were partnering up. His driver, however, was Nino, and Nino would probably be spending the employee party inside the tent and as far from the beach as he could get. No matter how well they worked together on the job, Nino had zero interest in much athletic activity, especially activity of the beach volleyball type where he could get sand in his pants.
Things were looking quite dire for Jun.
“What if I ride back in coach and you let Joshima-san upgrade you to first?” The plane tickets with the Hawaii trip were business class. Their boss was very generous (and obviously had some friends with the airline).
“Again, Jun-kun, you aren’t getting it,” Nino said, scooting down the aisle with his empty energy drink can and shoving it in Jun’s garbage bag. “I’m not going to do it.”
“But…”
Nino grinned. “You’re only asking me because you’re too scared to ask him.”
Jun froze, a dozen denials unwilling to emerge from his mouth. He instead settled for scowling at Nino.
Nino patted him on the shoulder. “Come on, I can see you two now in Hawaii. Swimming together, eating together…putting leis on each other…”
“Nino…”
“Ask him. It’s the only shot you’ve got.”
Sadly, it was.
-
Jun had gone through guide training for his current tour at Rainbow Rain with Sakurai Sho, and they had been some of the most sexually frustrating days of his life. They’d been under the tutelage of Sakamoto-san, who’d been giving tours for Rainbow Rain since Jun had been in junior high school. Sakamoto was strict and exacting, and it had only been the two of them training.
Sho had just transferred in from Gray Line Tours, and he now led the English language version of Jun’s tour for foreign visitors. So not only did Sho have to memorize the Mt. Fuji and Hakone Double-Up Day Tour itinerary and script, but he had to translate it and make it flow for visitors to the country. Because of the extra steps Sho needed to take, he and Jun had spent hours together memorizing itty bitty details of Mt. Fuji that hardly anyone else knew.
And it hadn’t helped that Sakurai Sho was one of the most unbelievably attractive people Jun had ever worked with. Whenever Sakamoto wasn’t quizzing them, they had stayed in small inns in the Five Lakes area, taking the same boat rides and the same ropeway rides together. His entire training time had been one long date with Sakurai Sho, English Language Tour Guide, and he was still surprised he’d made it through and earned Sakamoto-san’s approval.
Their training camp hadn’t been the end of it either. They saw each other almost every day on the job, seeing as they drove along the same route. While Sho held up his bright yellow stuffed Pikachu on a stick (“The Americans really go nuts for the Pikachu,” Sho always said), Jun and his group would never be far behind.
While their groups hurried through comfort stops and gift shop visits, Jun often found himself making awkward small talk with Sho in the bus parking lots. They both wore matching uniforms for their jobs, but Jun had always thought that Sho filled his out better. Especially in the rear. Jun had spent more minutes than he was willing to admit watching Sho (and his perky butt) merrily hop back up the steps into his own bus, chanting in English “Yeah yeah, we’re going to Mt. Fuji now! Everybody put your hands up, yeah yeah!”
It just so happened that Sho’s driver and friend, Aiba-san, had won last year’s beach volleyball tournament. He’d been paired up with someone other than Sho back then, a tall, massive driver for the Nikko and Nature Tour named Nagase, and they’d dominated the competition. Joshima didn’t prefer repeat winners, so Aiba would not be participating in this year’s match-up. That meant that Sho was unlikely to have a partner.
That meant that Jun had to get to Sho before anyone else could, and Nino had known it.
The tournament was that Sunday, and on the Wednesday Double-Up Day Tour, he found himself asking to speak with Sho privately once they got to their lunch stop and their tourists both foreign and domestic were chowing down on fried chicken and salad in the massive restaurant near Fuji-Q. Usually Sho preferred to be within reach of his group in case they had any questions, like “what the hell is miso anyway?” But Jun had used his Tour Guide voice, the “this bus will leave with or without you” voice, and Sho had obediently followed him into the restaurant lobby.
He was in top guide form that day, his uniform jacket and slacks well-pressed and his tie perfect. As soon as they were alone, Jun was also the recipient of Sho’s all-star smile. “Ah, Matsumoto-kun, something wrong?”
Jun spent most of his days talking, smiling, explaining. He was otherwise an extremely competent and pleasant human being. Around Sho things got weird. They had trouble with eye contact, the both of them, and Jun could usually hide behind the sunglasses he wore outside the bus at comfort stops. “No, no, nothing’s wrong,” Jun said, fidgeting with his clipboard. “This is just an odd question, I don’t mean to trouble you.”
Sho’s rather round, endearing face turned a bit pink at the attention. “Oh? You couldn’t possibly trouble me…”
“Aiba-san,” Jun spluttered out, feeling rather warm in his uniform, even though they’d just come down from the fifth station and it had been windy and cold.
“Aiba-san?”
“He, ah, he can’t play in the volleyball tournament this weekend, can he?”
Sho nodded, eyes widening in realization. “Ah, right. You’re right. He got to go to Thailand last year, seems he had a fantastic time. But Hawaii though, he’s a little sad he can’t participate.”
“Right, right.”
“You and Ninomiya then?” Sho asked, his Pikachu stick wiggling nervously in his left hand. “You’ll be going for it?”
“Ah, actually no,” Jun stammered. “He’s not really interested.”
“Even with a free trip on the line?” Sho asked, shaking his head. “Where’s his company spirit?”
His spirit was usually quite content with driving the bus and then going home to sleep, but Jun didn’t figure Sho cared about Nino’s home life one way or the other.
“I was hoping, Sho-kun…” Jun immediately panicked for being more familiar with Sho than Sho was with him, but Sho didn’t seem to react to the casual use of his name. Then again, he was probably used to foreigners going “Hey Sho!” at him all day. “I was hoping that you might want to partner up for the tournament. Since Nino won’t play and Aiba-san can’t.”
Sho’s face lit up in a way Jun hadn’t expected. “You and me? A team?”
Jun tried to act cool, nonchalant. He was probably failing. “Yeah, if you want to. I really want that trip.”
Sho nodded. “I’d love to go to Hawaii. But are you any good at volleyball? I’m not…”
“We could practice,” Jun immediately said, overwhelmed with Sho’s agreeable reply. He was so keyed up from their conversation that he almost missed Nino leaving the cafeteria with a bottle of juice, making a kissy face at them. He turned away from Nino’s departing figure, clutching his clipboard. “I mean, if you had time to practice. I play to win, but competition’s always fierce. Then again, Nagase-san and Aiba-san won’t be playing. We might have a chance.”
“Hawaii…” Sho said, his eyes almost misting over. If there was one thing he’d learned about Sho during training, it was that he loved to travel. He’d already been to 28 countries, so it wasn’t too surprising that he’d ended up working in the travel industry. “Let’s do it.”
Sho held out his hand, and Jun shook it, hoping Sho wouldn’t notice how clammy his was. Then again, Sho’s seemed to be a little clammy too. Their hands broke apart almost as soon as they’d touched, and Jun busied himself by checking his watch.
“Ah, I’d better call ahead for the boat ride tickets. I’ll…I’ll see you at the next stop.”
“Right,” Sho said, wiggling his Pikachu. “I have to, ah, I have to make my calls too!”
“Right?”
“Yeah.”
They stood there, gazing at each other for a moment too long before the enthusiastic Aiba-san came bounding out of the cafeteria, jangling the bus keys in his hand. He wrapped an arm around Sho’s shoulder. “Heeeeey, I’ll be outside if you need me!” He looked between Sho and Jun. “Did something happen?”
“No!” they both shouted in unison before walking in opposite directions.
Upon reaching Nino in the parking lot, he saw his driver’s wide, glowing smile. He pulled out his phone, looking the other way as Nino launched into a series of celebratory kiss noises.
-
He was rather exhausted on Friday after the Double-Up Day Tour, but he and Sho both had Saturday off since the Double-Up tour was not offered on Saturdays. So Friday night, after leaving an extremely obnoxious and oddly supportive Nino at the company garage, Jun hurried home to change. Another hour later, and he was running a hand through his hair, breathing into the palm of his hand to check his breath. He arrived at Sakurai Sho’s apartment building in Shinagawa, and he was almost as nervous as he’d been the first day he’d stood up on the bus to look at the blank faces of 50 tourists at 6:35 AM.
There was a sports gym just down the street, and Sho came out his front door within seconds of Jun’s arrival, toting a gym bag. It had only been a few hours since they’d seen each other, but he wasn’t used to seeing Sho outside his Rainbow Rain uniform. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, and once they got to the gym, he changed into some baggy basketball shorts and a tank top. Jun had used every ounce of willpower in the locker room not to watch Sho while he was changing. The shorts had the potential to reveal more than Jun could handle, especially with Hawaii on the line.
They found Aiba-san already on the court, launching a volleyball straight at them. When the both of them ducked out of the way, Aiba laughed at them.
“You’re never ever going to get to Hawaii if you play like that!”
With the cheerful Aiba-san as their instructor, Jun was happy for the third person in their corner of the gym. Aiba could have been a tour guide himself, he was so good at carrying a conversation and asking good questions, but he always seemed content to do the driving and let Sho do all the heavy lifting on the job. But here in the gym, in his athletic element, he whipped Sho and Jun into shape in a matter of hours, and Jun felt surprisingly comfortable. The spirit of competition was overwhelming the spirit of awkward sexual tension.
With Aiba playing on one side and Sho and Jun on the other side of the net, they practiced their serves, their spikes, their passing. Where Jun thought his nervousness would keep them from gathering any sort of momentum, he discovered that he and Sho actually made quite a decent team. With their tour guide voices, they were able to signal each other, call out moves ahead of time.
By the end of the night, they were nearly falling against each other chasing after a relentless Aiba’s spikes, but they caught each other’s gazes, their faces dripping with sweat, and knew that they were much closer to Hawaii than they’d been only hours before.
When they were changing afterward, Aiba managed to get behind them, sandwiching himself between them with a sweaty arm around each of them. “Now remember, you two, you’re going to be playing on sand. It’s going to slow your reaction times.”
“We could practice at the beach tomorrow,” Sho said quickly before looking hesitantly in Jun’s direction. “If…if you’re not busy, Matsumoto-kun…”
Even Aiba was trying (and mostly failing) to hide a grin. Maybe he and Sho were a laughingstock among the Rainbow Rain drivers now. Jun knew Nino couldn’t resist spilling all his secrets. “Well, Jun-kun?” Aiba asked, elbowing him. “More training tomorrow?”
“Sure, that’s fine by me,” Jun said, trying to be casual about it. Even though he’d already emptied his day-off schedule, bumping a dinner with some of his friends to the following week instead. Not that he’d say as much to Sho…
“Great,” Sho said, checking his phone. “Excuse my presumption, but I already looked for a few places with sand courts before we came here tonight. I have a car and can come pick you both up.”
“Oh,” Jun said, hiding a smile. “If it’s not too much trouble.”
At that Jun nearly took Aiba’s head off when he tickled him in the side teasingly. “Ah, I’m afraid you’ll have to train without me,” he said, not sounding all that apologetic. “Sorry about that, Sho-chan…”
Sho looked up from his phone, looking like a deer in the headlights. “Wait…what?”
Aiba slinked his way back from standing between them, roughly shoving the two of them together until their shoulders bumped. “That’s why I gave you the Aiba Masaki volleyball special! You know all the basics and you definitely won’t need me tomorrow! Together, you’ll figure things out. You’re both smart. You make for a good pair. I mean, ah, a good team. A good team.”
Sho met Jun’s eyes, looking a little bit hesitant, but Jun decided that potential discomfort around Sho was worth it if the reward was Hawaii. He stepped aside, already missing the feeling of being pressed along Sho’s side. “It’ll be fun, some extra training.”
They made plans to meet in the morning, to get to the beach before the midday heat exhausted them. They’d need all their strength for Sunday. And Jun hoped he could get through everything without making a complete fool of himself.
-
Sho picked him up promptly at 8:15, and had even been kind enough to pick up coffee and onigiri for them. The fact that Sho had remembered from training camp exactly how Jun liked his coffee sent butterflies rumbling around in his stomach.
Though Sho had called ahead and reserved a place at the beach, they found that their assigned “court” was in bad shape. The net was ruined, and a strange man had camped out on one side of the court, sleeping happily even in the morning sun on a mound of beach towels.
Jun went up and nudged the guy with his foot. He was a small guy with skin dark from what might have been years outside. He opened his eyes, staring up at Sho and Jun and the volleyball Aiba was lending them for the day. “I’m sorry,” Sho said, “but we’ve rented this sand court for the morning. Could you please move?”
“Oh, my bad.”
The guy shifted his towels, moving onto the grass nearby. Jun was a little annoyed that he didn’t leave entirely, instead continuing to relax while he and Sho practiced passing for several minutes. Without Aiba’s guidance, it was too easy to get caught up in Sho. In his tank top showing off his muscles. With his hair falling across his brow. The stupid shorts that drew his eye…
“Watch out!”
The volleyball smacked Jun square in the nose, and he staggered back, losing his footing in the shifting sand. He ended up on his back, and in seconds sand had managed to slip its way into everything. He shut his eyes, swearing under his breath. And to make it worse, Sho was crouching down beside him moments later, patting him on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
To avoid meeting Sho’s embarrassed expression, he looked over and saw sleepy guy was madly tapping away on his phone, not even bothering to see if Jun was alright. Nice guy. He waved Sho off.
“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” Except for the sand now wedged in his butt crack of course…
Sho kept babbling apologies anyhow, and finally he got to his feet, holding out his hand expectantly. Jun took it, nearly falling against him. Sho was all red in the face, and Jun doubted it was from sun exposure. Jun fidgeted, trying his best to dislodge sand from his clothes without looking like a fool.
“Do you…do you want to take a break?”
Jun rubbed his nose. “Ah…sure.”
They moved to the grass, Sho hugging the volleyball simply to have something to do with his hands it seemed. They stayed a little further down from the sleepy guy, who kept looking at them oddly every few moments.
“Maybe we should…”
“…do you want to…”
He and Sho started talking at the same time, and Jun’s face was probably red now to match his. “Ah, go ahead,” Sho said, squeezing the volleyball.
“No, you can…”
“Oh, Matsumoto-kun, if it’s important…”
“Honestly, I was only going to ask your opinion on the new guy working the ticket counter at the ropeway.”
Sho’s face was blank for a moment, but then his eyes lit up, and he let out one of the noisy laughs Jun had somehow fallen for. “Nakamaru-san? With the beat boxing on the phone?”
“So weird!” they both said at the same time, bursting into noisier chuckles.
Ice broken (and with Jun’s nose thankfully not broken), they were able to chatter away with growing comfort. It had been a while since they’d had a prolonged talk. And even if they were mostly talking about work, Jun had kind of missed this. During their training days, he’d been on edge, trying to cram information into his brain while simultaneously harboring a crush on the guy he had to spend every waking hour with. And now at work he only spoke to Sho in small bursts.
As the morning grew warmer and the court they’d rented went unused, Jun found himself opening up to Sakurai Sho. They each had dozens of stories about bad tourists, people using the bus emergency bathroom for definite non-emergencies, people returning late from a gift shop stop, people getting sick and throwing up on the Hakone boat tour. The people who dozed continuously from the start of the tour until the end.
“What are they even paying for?” Sho complained, kicking at the sand with his sandal, sending Jun into another bout of laughter. “I get so many reviews that say my voice is soothing and puts them to sleep. They think that’s a good thing!”
Before they realized it, the sleepy guy had packed up his towels and left, the sun was shining straight overhead, and a group of college-aged young people were approaching the court dressed in matching volleyball team shirts. The leader of the little group came up, confused.
“Are you guys even using this court?”
They looked up sheepishly. “Ah, no, go right ahead,” Jun said, not waiting for Sho’s reply.
They went back to Sho’s car, shaking more sand out of their clothes. Sho looked a little nervous. “I didn’t realize the time had gone so quickly…maybe we could go back to that gym, practice longer?”
“We don’t…we don’t have to do that, do we?” Jun made an annoyed face. “I need to shower. There’s sand in places sand has no business being.”
“You could do that at my place…” Sho immediately stepped back, bumping into his car’s door. “What I meant was, ah…damn it…I just…I thought after our practice we’d be hungry, and there’s this great soba place near mine so…”
“So it’s easier if I just go with you instead of going home and coming back, that’s all, right?” Jun asked encouragingly, trying to keep his hormones at bay even though Sakurai Sho had just asked him to use his shower. And had technically just asked him to have dinner with him.
Sho was looking at his feet, the easy rapport of their earlier chat quickly evaporating. “Right, exactly. But I’ll just take you home and…”
“I’ll go,” Jun blurted out, knowing it was now or never. He’d never get to spend this kind of quality time with Sho again. “I’ll go, if you don’t mind. I love soba.”
Sho’s face relaxed a bit, and he fumbled with his car keys. “Well…well, good. Good, I’m very glad. You’re going to really like it, if you like soba.”
-
Jun realized a little too late that he’d only brought clean towels and his sandy clothes into Sho’s bathroom with him. He’d been nervous as hell, following Sho into his elevator and then into his slightly messy apartment. He’d fled to the bathroom as soon as possible, but without securing the simplest of things - clean clothes.
He stood in the middle of the bathroom in his towel, his hair dripping wet and his body happy to once again be clean. Examining himself in the mirror, he was suddenly appalled to see the bright purple welt sitting proudly between his eyes on the bridge of his nose. Sho really had gotten him pretty good. He’d have to put on some sort of concealer or wear his glasses for Monday’s tour.
He moved to the door, opening it the slightest bit. “Sho-kun?”
“Yeah?”
“I…don’t have any clothes. Clean clothes. I don’t have clean clothes.”
“Oh…oh. Well. Ah, just a minute.”
He stood there in his towel, trying to breathe. He’d used Sho’s shower. Hell, he’d just used Sho’s girly smelling bath soap (Strawberry shortcake!) and shampoo! He could only imagine Nino and even Aiba’s laughter about this strange situation they’d landed themselves in. So much for volleyball training! So much for Hawaii!
But when Sho knocked on the bathroom door, and Jun pulled it open, he was confused by Sho’s empty hands. And then when he looked up, moving up Sho’s hands, his bare arms, across his shoulder and to his face, he was astonished to see the almost possessive look in Sho’s eyes.
“Matsumoto-kun, I…” He licked his lips, smiling in nervousness. “I was coming to ask what size shirt you wear…”
“Okay…”
Sho scratched at the back of his neck, chuckling. “Maybe being around foreigners all day, almost every day has given me this strange confidence…I’m finding that I don’t want to ask about your shirt at all.” He looked up at Jun again, expectantly. “I was wondering if you…liked me?”
“Liked?” Jun sputtered out. “Past tense?”
Sho took a dangerous step forward. “Well…if you like me now, I’d like to know that too.”
Jun leaned against the door, hoping he looked attractive instead of nervous. If Sho could be forward after so many months of dodging each other skillfully, maybe Jun could too. “What if I said yes? What would you do?”
“I’d be…I’d be happy to hear it.”
“Oh?”
Sho nodded. “Very happy.”
Jun stepped forward, nervously tracing the line of Sho’s jaw with his damp fingers. “That soba place. Do they deliver?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” Jun said, grinning. “Because it may be a while before I want it.”
-
He woke the next day to at least a dozen texts from Nino, each of them counting down to the beach volleyball championship and the coveted Hawaii prize. He replied simply: “Maybe next year.”
Nino replied with another half-dozen messages, most of the lewd variety. The last in the batch of texts was more informative than filthy.
My inside source at the court said things were going well. Who knew a volleyball to the nose could be the start of a beautiful relationship?
Nino sent along a photo of his roommate, Ohno-san, and Jun was rather unsurprised to discover that this Ohno-san was none other than the creepy sleepy texting guy at the beach sand courts. Nino and Aiba had had a spy reporting back to them. Well, Jun didn’t much mind.
While the other Rainbow Rain employees sweated and fought for the extravagant trip, Jun simply shut his phone off and turned back over in bed. Hawaii…sure, it would have been nice, but he was already in the midst of a much better vacation.
Had it only been 24 hours ago that they’d been bumbling and stumbling and blushing? There was no hesitation now, and he suspected that any future small talk in bus parking lots and gift shops would be a lot more fun.
“Good morning,” Sho said, stroking Jun’s face before leaning in for a kiss. “Aloha, I mean.”
“Aloha to you too,” Jun said, discovering the merits of the paradise you could create underneath the sheets.