[Sakumoto Fic] Thunderstorms and Tempest Cloud 2.1: Puddles...
Rating: G
Word Count: 3,375 words
Genre: Romance, angst
Disclaimer: Purely a figment of my imagination; the fic, that is. Not them, of course. :)
Summary: DoS is gonna turn himself into DoM soon if he keeps fretting about "What if...". Seems like the sudden rain thunderstorms aren't the only ones he'll have to contend with.
A/N: Rest of the boys finally show up! I took the liberty of playing around with some bits of reality, so any ‘inconsistencies’ with timelines and what you know to be fact need to be excused okay? WARNING: Angst-fest, you have been warned. J Comments are love.
Edit: LJ hates me and is forcing me to split up for the big post. Argh!
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[Cloud 0: The Calm Before The Storm] | [Cloud 1: Electric Sparks In The Clouds]
[Mid-March 2010]
It had been less than a week since that early-morning conversation and Jun did not understand the situation that was facing him.
A particularly sleepless night had resulted from the phonecall, and twenty-four hours after that, he had mentally psyched himself out over a newscaster who had not bothered to call him back.
He reminded himself that they were all busy with their own schedules.
Forty-eight hours later, and Jun had finally met up with the rest of the group after his free day, and the exuberant rapper had been chipper to all as he happily shared the news that his final shoot for Tokujou had been completed. After hearty congratulations all round, interviews and photoshoots had gotten underway. By the time they were done, Sho had rushed off for work related to Zero with a harried ‘Later, guys’.
That left no chance for the youngest to approach what he had begun to consider as his increasingly elusive quarry.
It’d been seventy-nine hours, twenty-five minutes and counting, and he did not know how he was feeling, was meant to feel. He did not need the others to see his restlessness; lounged as he was on the sofa in the green room, his fingers clenched a little tighter around the papers in his hands, even as he grit his teeth, slamming the brakes on his scattered thoughts. He mentally chided himself for over-thinking matters: It wasn’t like Sho was intentionally avoiding him… right?
The others were seated around their break-room as they awaited filming for the final Shukudai recording. While he browsed through his own schedule to note the coming promotions he would be involved in for the History of Our Family Special Drama, the other members were also caught up in their own activities.
Nino was not surprisingly occupied with Mario, this time with Ohno, as if they were still filming for the CM that had taken the fandom by storm. Jun’s perfectly shaped brows arched somewhat amusedly as he recalled, with some amusement, all the animated Ohmiya fangirling that had been generated in LiveJournal when he had logged on into his “MarvellouslyMe" account. He distractedly wondered when he would receive the details of his own pending filming with Nino for the next series of Mario advertisements, but he had to admit he was looking forward to squaring off with the group’s most prolific gamer. Aiba had yet to show, but he figured Arashi's middle child was probably settling matters for Shimura Ken-san's variety show before the group's filming. And much as he tried not to, his eyes again drifted over to Sho.
The man in question was occupied on his laptop, tapping away at the keyboard as he searched the Internet for information he was probably going to use for News Zero. With Sho finally done with Tokujou, and the final promotions for the show locked in, the relief of a slower schedule that allowed more breathing space was only too apparent on his face. It also signalled to Jun that the man had in most probability found a solution to coping, even as Arashi’s schedule gave no sign of letting up. Whether the solution stemmed from their phonecall still left questions in Jun’s mind, but he definitely thought that things would have turned out differently since that fateful day.
Afterall, he had only just confessed to the rapper that the thought-to-be-dormant feelings of ‘member-ai’ extended to be beyond just that.
Afterall, the newly rejuvenated man had pointed it out - albeit in roundabout fashion - that the seemingly impossible relationship was not as unattainable as he had thought.
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“I mean, afterall… if there were ever feelings between us… It’s impossible, you know. We’re both-”
“Why?”
“I mean, we don’t… the group… it’s… Look, I know it’s… not… possible.”
“Why not?”
Casting his eyes up towards the monotone-coloured ceiling in a pathetic attempt to allow the blankness similarly fill his mind, Jun found himself dragging in a much-needed breath of air before he could force the next words past his lips.
“What… are you saying? That it’s… it’s okay with you?” Jun’s voice was guarded, wary of the roller-coaster of emotions he’d been on from the conversation they were having. He had no idea how this would continue and didn’t want to build up any further false hopes.
“Why… not?” Sho repeated, his words punctuated this time by an all-too-drawn-out yawn.
As much as Jun wanted to reach through the line and shake the obviously sleepy man awake to know what exactly the older singer had meant with his words, his conscience would not let him forget that Sho had probably just come off Tokujou shooting.
“Look,” Jun swallowed a half-hearted sigh. “Why don’t you get home to get some proper sleep before we discuss… things later? Where are you anyway?”
“Mm… ‘K. The driver’s about-”
The sudden dial-tone that rang in his ears caused Jun's eyebrows to knit together. Staring down at his own handphone, he realised that it was probably Sho’s handphone that had run out of battery. Sighing to himself, he realized he should have known the company car would have been Sho’s transport, so there really was nothing to worry about the man getting home safely. With another soft exhalation, he figured that whatever was between them was fated to wait for the next time they met.
Sitting up on his bed, he swung his legs to the ground. Stretching his arms overhead as he stood, he took the few steps that carried him to the window. Feeling his shoulder muscles lose none of the tension, he wearily rubbed at the sore joints. The erratic storm that had hit in the early hours had left puddles, big and small on the watery ground. As a pebble was kicked by a passer-by into one of the bigger puddles, the ripples momentarily distorted the reflected image and Jun was left wondering what undulating effects the recently-ended conversation would have on the dynamics between the two of them. Whatever questions he had had the previous night now paled in light of new developments.
Groaning and sending himself back into the sanctuary of his pillows, Jun feebly punched his pillow a few times even as his frustrations took the form of muffled grunts.
Heck, he still had at least twenty-four hours before he had to come face-to-face with the man.
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Twenty-four hours that had given him hope anew.
Hope that was yet again being turned on its head.
Because it was looking more and more like the rapper was behaving as if the conversation that night never existed.
Clearing his throat unnecessarily loudly, whatever Jun was about to say was lost to the wind. Or rather, the tornado that was Aiba.
“Sho! You dog!” The human hurricane practically tore through the door, and his all-too-hyper squeal caused the rapper's fingers to freeze over the keyboard, and the youngest to snap his eyes back to the papers in his hands. Only Nino and Ohno remained unfazed, though the oldest member did throw a perfunctory gaze at the mini-storm making its way to Sho, who by now had a decidedly wary expression upon his face.
Keeping tabs on what was happening at the periphery of his vision, Jun maintained his indifferent exterior while registering nothing of the words printed on the paper before his eyes.
Aiba's hyena-like giggles punctuated the air once again before the excitable man took up position on the armrest of the couch beside his wide-eyed senior.
"Chan Saku! Why didn't you tell us ahead of time it was going to be your first time? You’d have benefitted so much from our.. er-hmm... expertise!" Aiba mock-glared as Sho stared up at him, puzzlement written all over his mug.
"What first time?" Sho squeaked gracelessly, his mirth only growing as the animal-lover continued to tease him, jibbing him in the ribs. "Stop! Hey, that- Baka! I’m not kidding!" he cried out even as he broke into his own giggles and tried to defend his sides from the relentless attacks.
As the quibbling continued, Jun’s gaze dropped to the notes in his hands even as he felt his stomach plummet to the ground. First time? Expertise? What WAS Aiba talking about?
“You horn-dog! Your first on-screen kiss! And with Maki-chan too!”
“She was NOT- my first! Let *cough* go! Kiza- first!” Sho protested chokingly, even as he tried to squirm out from the head-lock that Aiba had now effectively trapped him in. “Knock it off! You’re gonna make me *gasp* have to get my hair reset again for the taping!”
“Thought Jun had dibs on the preening department,” Nino’s underlying snigger was unmistakable, even as his eyes remain fixed on the screen in front of him, his fingers flying across the buttons.
“Jun! Jun-kun! Get this idiot off me… please?” Much as Jun could imagine the wide eyes that must be turned towards him, he kept his eyes steadfastly hidden behind the white sheets. “Jun?”
Tongue-tied, Jun could not bring himself to react to the situation that he could well visualize, even if he chose not to see it with his own eyes. It was the screen kiss in the last episode of Tokujou Kabachi with Horikita Maki that Aiba was referring to, but that did not stop the gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of his stomach. Not when he had seen and heard for himself on the History set how Maki-san had been full of praise for the bright-eyed lead actor that she had worked with for the past few months.
The normal him would smack Aiba upside of the head for creating suck a ruckus.
The normal him would take offence at Nino’s suggestions that he took unnecessary effort with his appearance.
The normal him would exercise his DoS personality to get the two to settle down.
But things weren’t normal. HE wasn’t feeling normal.
“Guys.” A quiet whisper from the normally reticent oldest member, and Aiba finally decided to relinquish his playful grip on the by-now flushed rapper.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop with the teasing,” Aiba sounded no less excited, “but only if I get treated to lunch later on.”
“If that was what you were aiming for this whole time, you could have just asked Masaki,” Sho’s voice was filled with exasperation.
“But it wouldn’t have been as much fun! Anyway, how was crank-up?”
“We had it three days ago,” Sho-chan answered casually as he shut off his laptop, and Jun could not decipher any changes in the timbre of the man’s voice to betray his feelings on whatever else had occurred that night. “Just drinks. Was too tired, so I headed straight home after and hit the sack. That’s all.”
That’s all.
Two words again. Only this time, the words caused Jun’s throat to constrict for all the wrong reasons. The print on the page was beginning to white out in front of his eyes, and he strained to keep his hands and the pages from shaking and betraying his inner thoughts.
“Jun, got a minute?”
It took the emotionally-strewn man a moment to realise Sho was talking to him, and another to realise that the pages were no longer a barrier between the older man and himself. The eyes that stared back at him displayed no anger, nor any emotion for that matter and that confused Jun.
On-screen, Mario lost a life as he collided into a poisonous mushroom. It could have been Jun’s imagination, but the death tune that followed sounded like a warning as he got to his feet to follow Sho out of the room.
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Cloud 2.2: ... and Ripples here.