A different kind of treasure (part 2)
A/N: My brain won't let me finish detective story ;.; instead here's a pirate update arrrggh~
Band: Arashi
Rating: G (for now :3)
Synopsis: For a competition on saigo_no_lady Junba fic with prompt - 'a super exciting pirate/etc. AU where they fall in love and there are battles and they are both very dashing and maybe the rest of Arashi shows up'
Part 2: Perfect fighting partners
Aiba breathed in deeply, bubbling with excitement. It had been six months since Ohno had agreed to train him and he felt that even if this was a fool hardy proposition then at least he’d made a new good friend out of it. Even if said friend had a habit of zoning out when he was meant to be paying attention to Aiba’s training, which had led to an unsurprising amount of failures on Aiba’s part, such as when Ohno had let him on his ‘secret’ ship for the first time and had turned his back for a second only to find Aiba tangled upside down in the rigging. Or the time Aiba had almost actually hurt him in a sword fight because he’d been too busy thinking about his fishing rod that Aiba was about to step on. But in a way Aiba preferred this, he’d rather have a friend than a captain any day.
“Are you ready to go?”
Aiba turned, nodding at Ohno as he waited for him to follow him on board, about to embark on his first pirate adventure. Sure, it was a bit earlier than planned, Aiba still had to cover more than the basics in pistol handling, though Sho had scolded them both on even attempting that, and he was still far from ready to help in navigation but Ohno had an errand to run and as he had put it ‘he’d like someone he could trust at his back just in case’.
Ohno nudged Aiba when he didn’t seem to be following, for once fully aware of his surroundings and he wanted to make sure Aiba was too. They weren’t going on his ship this time, they were helping out another pirate band for a modest fee and he knew that if he didn’t get Aiba home in one piece then Sho would kill him and it was just about everyone on the ship they had to worry about getting rowdy.
“There you two are! You took your time.”
Ohno frowned, a familiar voice echoing in his ears until Aiba knocked past him in his rush and almost made him fall back off the ship.
“M-Masaki, don’t you think you’re a bit too energetic?”
“Oops, sorry, Satoshi.” Aiba smiled sheepishly, dragging Ohno further on to the ship so there was less chance of him knocking him overboard. “But I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“Neither was I.” Ohno’s eyes narrowed slightly at Sho in suspicion. “What are you doing here?”
Sho shrugged. “I don’t trust you three to look after yourselves?”
“Three?”
“Sho, you spoil everything.” Ohno and Aiba turned to Nino, his arms crossed and a dark look on his face as he glared at Sho. “Can’t you keep anything secret?”
“A lot of things actually. Why do you think people confide in me?” Sho smiled charmingly at him.
“Wait, you two can’t be here. It’s dangerous, right?” Aiba turned to Ohno, ignoring the disbelieving looks the other two gave him.
“Uhh, Masaki, you do realise they can look after themselves, right?” Ohno laughed at Aiba’s expression, feeling more relaxed suddenly. “At least now we have more people on our side.”
“But- seasickness-”
“Oh, that’s true.” Ohno nodded, turning back to Nino. “You’re suddenly fine now?”
“For your information I’ve been disciplining myself.” Nino stuck his tongue out even though he did look slightly green. “I’ve been trying to get my sea legs by working on ships again but that wasn’t working on its own so I’m trying out some medicines too.”
“Which I got for him because he was going to go to one of those shady witch doctors instead of a proper doctor.”
Nino shrugged. “If it gets me to stop feeling so ill on the sea I’ll try anything.”
“Why? I thought you didn’t like the sea?” Aiba tilted his head as Nino flushed.
“Yeah, well it’s boring on shore with no one to tease.” Nino rubbed his nose, trying to hide his face. “And I knew that once you two set off that Sho would follow and then where would I be?”
“So you wouldn’t have come after us if Sho hadn’t come along?” Aiba asked innocently, not understanding the connotations of his words even when Ohno smirked and Nino’s flush deepened.
“What? I don’t know what you mean? I just meant that I’d have nowhere to work if he came here instead of looking after his tavern.” Nino sniffed, ignoring the curious look Sho was giving him. He looked around, trying to distract them. “Anyway, I was given a job so I’ll see you guys later.”
“Oh actually that reminds me, I need to talk to someone. They’ve put me on cooking duty it seems.” Sho winced as Nino cackled while walking away.
“Please do, I’d rather not have food poisoning the first time I can go on a ship without being seasick.”
“Your food’s not that bad.” Ohno shrugged, getting a shocked look from the two left behind. “What?”
“You’re the only person who’s ever said that. Ever.” Aiba prodded Ohno’s mouth as if he was trying to get it open. “Do you actually have taste buds in there?” He blinked as he felt Sho skulk off behind them. “Too far?”
“You know he understands. He wouldn’t have stopped trying if he didn’t.” Ohno shrugged. “Can you imagine if he still had a food menu at the tavern?”
“He’d feel guilty every time he made someone sick.” Aiba giggled, pulling away. “You seem happier now that they’re here.”
“Of course. They’re good fighters.” Ohno smiled as Aiba looked perplexed. “What? You think Sho can run his own rowdy tavern on his own and not have to throw a few people out now and then?” He shrugged as if this was obvious. “And I’m sure you know Nino can hold his own.”
“Yeah, he’s gotten into a few fights himself before.” Aiba nodded, thoughtfully. “I remember he went for someone at the tavern once when they lunged for Sho with a broken bottle.”
“Oh, really?” Ohno hummed to himself, ignoring Aiba’s confused look. “But anyway, I’m no good at looking after other people in a fight. You’ve seen how I zone in and out right?” He rolled his eyes as Aiba smirked at him and nodded. “Well, I tend not to notice anything around me in a real fight, and I mean a real life-or-death fight here, not like our little sparring match.” He looked over at what appeared to be Sho having an argument. “Now, Sho, Sho’s good at looking after everyone else. Sure he’s not the best fighter and he can be clumsy at the best of times but he watches everyone’s backs. To the point where he sometimes doesn’t watch his front. But…” He looked around again, smiling when he found Nino showing off an old magic trick to appease people. “Nino on the other hand is a sneaky fighter, he thinks more about showing off than actually keeping himself safe but it means that he keeps his eye on multiple opponents at a time, because it’s more fun to show off by fighting more than one person, isn’t it?”
“Aren’t they both hindrances though? Sho doesn’t look after himself and Nino doesn’t look out for anyone else?” Aiba felt like they were back in training again, when Ohno would tell him something good about his sword work but also what to improve on.
“No, that’s the beauty of it.” Ohno chuckled. “Nino fights, Sho watches his back and makes sure he doesn’t get himself hurt from his blind spot. Then when Sho gets himself in trouble, Nino can show off in front of him all the more. A perfect little team even though they don’t notice it themselves yet. And it’s better to be a perfect team than a perfect person.”
“Really? Are you criticising yourself?” Aiba shrugged at Ohno’s perplexed look. “What? You don’t need help in a bad situation.”
“Oh, I see. No, I need help in other aspects. The more…intellectual parts of piracy are beyond me.” Ohno breathed in deeply, staring out to sea. “But that’s why I need a good crew to help me through.”
“Oh I get it.” A look of dawning crossed Aiba’s face to then be replaced by a thoughtful frown. “So, what about me?”
“I don’t know how you fight in a real situation yet. But when we do see your skills we’ll be able to find out what exactly you need in a fighting partner.”
~~~~
Ohno gasped, dodging a sword thrust only to lunge into the opening given to him. He used the moment of calm to turn around, pulling his sword out as he did so, scanning the ship’s deck for his friends. When he’d said to Aiba about finding a fighting partner he hadn’t thought they’d have to find out his weaknesses so early on in his training. He relaxed when he saw Sho keeping an eye on Nino and Aiba even if Aiba didn’t seem to be paying much attention to his words and instead recklessly charged into the fray. He tutted at Aiba’s distinct lack of landing definite blows before deciding he’d have to learn that he couldn’t be honourable in this kind of fight on his own and going back to his own fight.
“Masaki! Will you listen to me?!” Sho growled, ducking a swipe as he went.
“What?” Aiba turned back to him, knocking over an enemy accidentally as he did so. “Oops, sorry.”
“You don’t apologize to an enemy, idiot.” Nino knocked him on the head with his free hand before darting away from him with a smirk on his face.
“Oh, yeah, right.” Aiba nodded, licking his lips as he turned back to the enemy. He was just finding it hard to come up with an argument as to why these people deserved to be hurt, weren’t they all in the same position? He gulped as he narrowly missed a stab wound, his jacket sleeve now ripped halfway down. Obviously it wasn’t the time to be chivalrous or think things through. It was kill or be killed, even if that was hard to master. He shook his head, looking up as a man swooped down on him, sword raised. He brought up his own sword to meet the enemies, not really paying attention to the man until their swords were locked. His eyes widened as they met a familiar pair of eyes. “You-”
“Huh?” The man frowned at him, a spark of recognition in his own eyes though he tried to hide it behind an indifferent mask.
“It really is you again.” Aiba smiled at him as if they weren’t having a sword fight, even when the other man changed tactics and tried to pull away, to which Aiba just followed him parrying his blows when needed which was making the other man frown in annoyance.
“Just fight already.” He growled, taking another swing.
“No.” Aiba’s eyes trailed to the other ship, wondering why he hadn’t taken notice of the name of it before and that it was the ship he’d been looking for since he’d joined Ohno. “I’d much rather find out your name than hurt you.”
“What are you talking about?” The man rolled his eyes before something changed in his demeanour. “Wait, I remember now.” His eyes widened in shock as he stood up straight. “Masa?”
Aiba almost dropped his sword. This, he was definitely not expecting. “H-How do you know my name?” He tilted his head, taking a step closer to the other man. “That’s not fair, what’s yours?”
“You don’t remember me.”
The look of sadness that passed over his face made Aiba want to hug him and apologise and most of all remember, anything to get that arrogant little smirk back on his face. “I’m sor-”
A war cry distracted both of them, a crew member from the arrogant pirate’s ship obviously suspecting he needed help against Aiba and was now charging towards them.
“No!”
Aiba felt himself get knocked to the ground; feeling winded for a second before he rolled out of the way and jumped up to find his arrogant pirate protecting him. He didn’t really know what to make of the situation, his heart thumping quite wildly with adrenaline. He flinched as the sword was pulled out of his adversary and his pirate looked down at him almost as shocked at what he’d done as Aiba was. “Why did you just-?”
“I had too.” He shrugged, a soft glare on his face before he shrugged and smirked, running the blood stained sword over the dead man’s shirt to clean it. “Doesn’t matter anyway.” He jumped up on to the railing of the ship, clinging to the rigging with his back to Aiba. “I’ll be seeing you I guess; I’m bored of this fight.”
“Wait!”
The man looked at him, a soft sad smile on his face. “When you remember me, come find me, OK?” His face went back to indifferent as he jumped over into the other ship, many of the others following suit.
Aiba jumped up, ready to follow him, before feeling hands pulling him back. “Let go!”
“No, Masaki, now is not the time to go chasing them.”
Aiba almost laughed at his friends for getting it wrong. He didn’t want to follow the enemy and hurt them more. He just wanted to follow one person, the person he’d been searching for. He pulled himself out of Sho’s arms, glaring at Nino for his words. “I wasn’t thinking of it that way.”
“Yeah, well one thing’s for sure.” Ohno stretched next to them, looking at Aiba with a calculating look. “I guess we found your fighting partner.”
“What?”
Aiba blinked, smiling at the shock evident on his other friends faces. “Oh, you saw that?”
“Yeah, I also heard him call you by name. So, how do you know him?”
A/N: Hello people~ Thanks for the good lucks ^.^ fingers crossed the exam went ok, now it's just coursework to deal with (and I've just completed 9/10 essays for one unit at least @.@) but it's all coming together slowly ^.^ I guess if it gets really bad I may have to have a mini hiatus just until the end of March but that's really really emergency and only because all my deadlines are this month. If so though I will put a post up to say about it and I will finish the detective story and hopefully this one because I do that. Sorry if it comes to that guys, really ♥ your comments keep me going sometimes ♥ Mich x