[Sakumoto Fic]: Thunderstorms and Tempest Cloud 4.2: Raindrops Are Falling On Everyone's Heads
[ Prologue] | [ Chapter 1] | [ Chapter 2.1] | [ Chapter 2.2] | [ Chapter 3]
Previously from Cloud 4.1:
Glancing discretely at his watch so as not to draw Sho’s attention, he calculated that he had given Aiba more than enough time to get back to him. He could only hope that he would receive a reply soon.
---
It was a reply that had taken three days in coming.
A reply that seemed likely to be further dragged out if he really gave in to his conscience to let the other man catch forty winks before he started his ‘interrogation’. Deciding that the man could catch up on all the sleep in the sanctuary of his very own home with no disturbance, Nino prodded the gently lolling foot with his own.
“Come on. I’ll let you sleep over here later. No one will disturb you here since I’m going to be at filming later,” Nino tugged at Aiba’s differently-coloured socks to pull him into wakefulness when the toe nudge failed to elicit the desired response.
“Up-up. I’m up,” as drowsy eyes forced themselves awake, hands and arms reaching for the sky as the body stretched into more solid consciousness.
After Nino shared on the developments at the bar, he sank back into the throw cushions behind him. “So what did you manage to find out today?”
“That higher primates rule. Saikkou!” An arm was raised in triumph as a wide grin broke across Aiba’s face. His tiredness was forgotten, overtaken by delight as he completely missed Nino’s aggrieved expression at the unhelpful piece of information.
“Regarding Sho and Jun, I mean,” Nino heaved with a deep sigh, determined not to lose his calm and only ally so far in the endeavour.
“Oh.” The spunk all but disappeared in a flash as the man absolutely deflated like a rapidly cooling hot-air balloon.
“Wait a minute. Primates? You mean today was your filming with Jun for Tensai Doubutsuen?”
“Yeah.”
“So that meant you had ample opportunity to find out more right?”
“Ye... ah...” This was accompanied by a nervous scratch to his nape as Aiba continued with some reluctance, “but... he was all smiles and... all during the filming, though you could REALLY see his eyebags like he hadn’t gotten enough rest.”
“Which was precisely why you were supposed to be a good friend and try to get him to talk about it, Aiba-chan.”
“But he was only really interested in the monkeys we were filming today.”
Nino felt like digging his eyeballs out as he wondered if he really had to do everything by himself.
“Although...”
Nino’s ears perked a little at the somewhat hopeful tone in Aiba’s voice. “Although?”
“He DID seem a little less distracted by the time we finished up the shoot.”
“Why? Did you say something? Did he?”
“Monkeys.”
“Again?” Nino was beginning to wonder if Ohno would have been more helpful to rope in.
“He really wanted to know more about the monkeys.”
Nino took a moment to consider Aiba’s words.
“What EXACTLY did you guys talk about?” Nino was beginning to suspect that there was more than met the eye, and Aiba rose to the occasion, enthusiastic that Nino wanted to hear more about his work with his much-loved animals.
“Well, this wasn’t the first time that I was working to make some improvements for feeding monkeys after my first failure. Jun was supposed to come in to help me with this attempt. And you won’t believe how funny it was when they tried to run away from him. And even the wild boar that Jun was initially so nervous about ended up-“
Nino put up a hand to stop the increasingly excited man’s rambles. “Aiba, can we get to the main point please?”
“But Kazu, even the monkeys were giving him a wide berth! As a higher-ordered primate, I figured that if even THEY knew to do that, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to test his patience, right?”
Nino didn’t know whether to laugh at or bemoan Aiba’s simple-mindedness, but it took every ounce of restraint in Nino to let Aiba share his recount of the two members’ collaboration without further interruption. But as he listened, his initial annoyance turned into amazement. By the time Aiba had gotten to how Jun had politely turned down his invitation to a meal together after filming citing tiredness, Nino could not hold in a wry smile, sitting back to regard Aiba in a new light.
“So after your initial failed attempts, the two of you were trying to come up with fresh ideas when Jun asked why you still didn’t give up on the monkeys despite the setbacks?” Nino clarified.
“He seemed amazed that given the uncontrollable nature of animal instincts, I still tried again and again. Hey Nino, do I really come across as someone who gives up so easily?”
Ignoring the man’s last question, the younger man mused aloud, tapping his index finger against his lower lip while trying to reorganize his thoughts. “And you told him that you really didn’t want to give up so easily, and that you’d made some initial assumptions that were wrong. That once you threw those aside, the situation turned out all for the best.”
“Yup!” Aiba looked gleeful at the reminder that his record had returned to a spotless 100%. “So, I’m not one who waves the white flag easily right? Right?”
Aiba practically glowed with pride as Nino nodded his head in affirmation, but the more tenacious of the two soon returned to the issue of Sho and Jun, determined to confirm if he had gotten a correct grasp of the situation.
“Aiba, you said that Jun suggested why you were so dogged was that it was work, that you needed to be a proper professional-“
“Well, there IS that, but more importantly, if I’d just left it be, that it’d...”
“...just be leaving a loose end...” Nino’s face increasingly animated as his guesses seemed to be corroborated.
“... that I didn’t want to regret in future.” Aiba concluded, his tone softening a little as he stared at Nino, all sleepiness gone from his demeanour. “Ever since my hospitalization, you know how I don’t believe in living with regrets and what-if’s.”
“Aiba-chan...” Nino whispered as he started to crawl over to the other man.
“What?” Nervousness was creeping into Aiba’s voice, apprehension written on his face, his hands rising up in front of him with the uncertainty of what Nino was going to do next.
Nino could only give short snorts of laughter as he shook the animal expert by the shoulders, “You. Are. A. Genius!”
“Huh? I am? Uh... Of course I am!” Aiba smiled uncertainly before continuing. “How was I a genius again?” His words were directed to a retreating back as Nino scrambled off the couch to grab his handphone lying on the nearby coffee table.
Grinning like a Cheshire cat at the still-befuddled man seated on his couch, Nino punched some numbers on the keypad. Now that he was clear on the Jun situation, he wanted to get hold of a certain newscaster. If his earlier nudge was insufficient incentive for Sho to do something, then hopefully, he could raise his own game a notch... even if it required a swift kick in the butt.
His grin only grew bigger when the line connected.
“Sho-chan!”
“Nino? You’re still awake? It’s almost one past midnight. I thought you have filming with... you have CM filming in a few hours’ time?”
Nino ignored Sho’s obvious slip of the tongue, certain that the light at the end of the tunnel for his two bandmates was near at hand.
“Sho, why haven’t you spoken to Jun yet?”
“Jun?” Nino did not miss the sudden rise in pitch, though the voice at the other end of the line was neutral again by the time he heard the next words. “Why would I have done that?”
“Remember? You push back? Make him listen?”
“Push? Nino, we are talking the DoS here. Why would I want to do that?” Sho’s voice sounded confused.
A confusion that seemed to be infectious across the line as Nino replied haltingly, “Be... cause... we TALKED about this?”
“Huh?”
Nino’s stomach began to churn with the starting strands of disquiet at the incomprehension he heard in Sho’s voice.
“Nino? You there?”
“Sho,” Nino tried to clamp down on the growing alarm that threatened to scream through his veins, “What do you remember from our post-Shukudai chill-out session?”
“I paid. You enjoyed. I woke up to a splitting headache.” Giving a somewhat bitter laugh, Sho continued with little malice, “Remind me never to go drinking with you again.”
Nino’s reply was morose. “O.K.”
...
“Kazu? You still there?”
“I... I’ve gotta go.”
“Wait Nino. What did you mean about calling J-” Nino hung up hurriedly before Sho could finish.
“Sho... doesn’t remember... what we talked about.” It was more a statement than a question, as Nino stared at a similarly perplexed Aiba who was now seated beside him, having listened to the one-sided conversation.
It was moments again before either could give voice to the new understanding that the situation seemed to be pointing at.
“Nino-chan...” Any fatigue that Aiba had arrived with all but disappeared as two pairs of eyes clashed in concern, “I think I know the problem between Sho and Jun.”
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Cloud 5.1 here.