fic for cutselvage (1/2)
For: cutselvage
From: lover_youshould
Title: Chocolate Disco
Pairing/Focus: Nino/Aiba, Nino/Jun, Kaze
Rating: R
Warnings: N/A
Summary: It starts with a magic lizard, continues with a whole lot of chocolate, and ends with a song. It's a long story. Too bad Nino can't tell it.
Notes: Dear beta, you are a hero. Dear mod, you are a champion. Dear Eito, I'm sorry. Dear cutselvage, I hope you love it!!
It was a peaceful, cool summer morning when Nino opened the doors to Rainbow Music. As far as he knew, there was nothing special about that day, nothing life-altering or even mood-changing. He was expecting to get a few new orders, finish a few old ones, and make enough money to put food on his and his assistant's tables. Then, after work, he would meet up with Jun to pass the rest of the evening with chatting and kisssing, just as they usually did. All pretty standard. It wasn't that Nino was not looking forward to his day -- he just wasn't expecting much to come of it.
Of course, expecting nothing really meant he should have been expecting something. Something ridiculous, exhilarating, and at least a bit ill-advised. Being friends with Aiba Masaki for the better part of thirty-two years should have taught him that.
The morning started off a bit slow. Riisa arrived soon after he did, and their first customer -- an older woman who wanted to purchase a music box for her granddaughter -- arrived not long after that. They'd been open for about an hour when he decided to step into his office at the back of the store, where his piano and worksheets were.
He'd only just sat down when he heard the scream.
He rushed out to find Riisa tugging the customer back from a display of intricately carved music boxes -- the really expensive ones, he noted. "Is everything okay?" he asked, looking around for a sign of something having fallen or broken, but the horrified look on the customer's face told him that it wasn't a broken music box he should be worried about.
"Hey, boss," Riisa said, voice low and mouth quirked up in a frown. "Something tells me Aiba-san is back in town."
Nino realized she was pointing at the space below a tall, narrow display. When he bent down to look, he finally saw what had caused all the commotion: in the shadows beneath the display stand, something hissed at him and swished a long, leathery tail.
Nino sighed, rubbing his eyes. It was too early for this. "All right, why don't you two go up front. I'll take care of this... thing, whatever it is."
"Careful, boss," Riisa said as she gently ushered the customer out of the aisle. "Might be venomous."
Nino waved off her concern. "Aiba doesn't keep dangerous animals."
Riisa shrugged, the look on her face clearly saying Suit yourself, and launched into a long-winded apology as she and the customer made their way to the front of the store.
With a sigh, Nino looked back to the cramped, dark space where the unknown creature was hiding. He truly believed what he said -- after the third time something like this had happened, he'd made Aiba swear that he would never let a dangerous animal loose near Nino's shop -- but he wasn't about to try and catch the thing either. He knew that Aiba would inevitably burst in to chase after it, so he was just keeping an eye on the thing in order to make Aiba's job a little easier.
After all, the sooner Aiba got the creature out of there, the sooner Nino could get back to work -- and the sooner he could get back to work, the sooner he could justify sneaking next door to show Aiba just how much he'd missed him.
Across the aisle from the still-hissing creature, Nino settled into a more comfortable position on the floor. "I wonder if Aiba even knows you're missing yet," he mused. "We might be together for a while, little buddy."
Fortunately, he only had to wait a few minutes before he heard Aiba's familiar, frantic voice. "Tacchon!" Aiba was yelling at the front of the store, where Nino could see Riisa rolling her eyes and the customer frowning deeply at something, undoubtedly Aiba with some sort of gory treat to lure the creature.
"Back here, Aiba-chan!" he called out.
From there, it all happened so quickly.
Around the corner, Aiba came stumbling and waving a slab of raw meat; mere feet from Nino, the creature's claws scratched loudly on the floor as it suddenly scrambled into movement; atop the display that was now wobbling unsteadily, the pricey music box was slowly sliding off the side. Thinking only of his investment, and with trust in his heart that Aiba would have kept his promise, Nino darted forward, arms outstretched to catch the falling music box.
First, he felt the impact of the box as it landed in his hands, the edges digging into his palms with the force of the impact.
Next, he felt a sharp pain that started on his forearm and quickly spread through his whole body before dissipating just as quickly.
And then, he felt -- no -- he tasted... alcohol? It was something like gin, strong and piney, but muddled together with other unidentifiable flavors, like a poorly made cocktail.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought: this is what adrenaline and confusion taste like.
Aiba was at his side in an instant, scooping up the creature -- a lizard, long and lanky with shimmery green scales -- and scolding it with the voice of a father speaking to a disobedient child. "Tacchon, no! I told you, no biting people unless they ask for it first! Nino, are you okay?"
Nino blinked, trying to figure out the answer to that question. His arm felt fine now that the pain had washed away, and he'd managed to save his music box. His heart was still beating a mile a minute, though. He set the box down with shaky hands and looked down at his arm, to the small puncture wounds from the lizard's teeth. It didn't even look that bad, really; blood had risen to the surface but not spilled over, sort of like a cat scratch.
But the taste...
When he looked up, Aiba had a lopsided, giggly smile on his face. "Nino, it's really good to see you."
Nino narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why does your lizard's bite make the inside of my mouth taste like a crappy cocktail?"
Aiba's face lit up the way it did whenever he came upon a mystery. "Oooh, is that what it tastes like? Interesting! What exactly do you mean by crappy, like it wasn't stirred enough or...?"
"Aiba."
Aiba was grinning hugely by then as he fed the chunk of meat to the now-calm lizard. "Tacchon is a very special lizard," he said. "Come to Tensai! with me and I'll tell you all about it."
--
Nino and Aiba had been good friends for most of their lives, and for about a third of that time, they'd been neighbors as well. They lived and worked in Stormy Square, a little shopping district in the middle of Tokyo that was home to various and sundry magical shops and outlets. Nino owned and operated Rainbow Music, where he took orders for custom-composed piano melodies that he charmed into music boxes, greeting cards, gifts, candies, or whatever else his customers could think up, and directly next door was Aiba's Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium.
Aiba had started out as a simple groomer, but he eventually went on to accept any and every task related to magical creatures, from caring for them to harvesting their powers, and along the way he had earned a reputation as one of Tokyo's leading experts. He even got a yearly grant to travel and research creatures in distant locations all around the world. He was usually gone for about four months out of the year, during which his good friend and colleague Becky ran things in the shop. Becky was more than competent, but still, there was a bit of an excited hubbub around the Square whenever Aiba returned from one of his trips. People always seemed excited to see what sort of exotic creatures Aiba had brought back with him.
Nino, on the other hand, usually got a sneak peak -- even though he never really wanted it, and it was almost always by accident.
There was the time Nino had woken up to find that both his shop and his loft on the second floor had been inhabited overnight by tailor spiders, coin-sized arachnids that hung in high-up corners and spun beautiful, albeit inconvenient, scarves and shawls. Then there was the time a colorful cockatrice had built a nest in Nino's office, laid eggs, refused to leave until its chicks were old enough to fend for themselves, and insulted Nino's musical skill every time he tried to get any work done. And then there was the time a flock of disgruntled ducks -- not even magical ducks! Aiba had just thought they were cute and decided to adopt them -- waddled into the shop and started harassing Nino's customers.
Aiba's creatures tended to be irritating, certainly, but never much more than that. Aiba always did a good job of being extra careful with the ones that could cause serious financial or physical damage. And even though Nino had technically been bitten by this Kura Dragon, as he learned was its common name, he suspected it would nevertheless end up in the same category as all the others: obnoxious but ultimately harmless. This remained true even after Aiba explained the odd effects of its venom.
"Researchers hypothesize that it developed the venom as a defense mechanism," he said. "You know, like to disorient its enemy." Nino was sitting by the front desk in Aiba's shop, watching Aiba clear empty cages and boxes to make a space for Tacchon's roomy terrarium. The lizard in question was lying on the counter, a respectable distance away from Nino, snoozing peacefully now that it had eaten and escaped any perceived threats. "But then," Aiba continued, "when people started harvesting the venom for recreational purposes, and then started selectively breeding the lizards for that reason, the magic just got stronger and stronger. What it does is sort of mix up the signals in your brain, so some of your senses start to blend together. There are different species for different senses -- some can make you hear colors, or see sounds, stuff like that. Tacchon here makes you taste emotions."
It was almost too outrageous to accept, but Nino couldn't deny the combined flavors of sharp cheese and lightly smoked meat that were currently running wild in his mouth: apparently the taste of curiosity mixed with slowly fading disbelief.
"It's all temporary," Aiba assured him, "and in the meantime, it'll be a fun experiment! Hey, Nino, what do you think having an orgasm tastes like? I bet we can find out!"
Unfortunately, that particular discovery would have to wait. Nino had to get back to work, and Aiba was still busy putting things away and greeting a near-constant stream of people stopping by to welcome him back. But as they ducked into a side room to make out like horny teenagers for the few minutes they could spare, Nino had to admit: it was good to have Aiba back.
--
"So you taste your emotions?"
That evening, Jun visited the cozy loft above Nino's shop to make dinner and chat. By then the food had already been put away and dishes washed, and they were sitting at the kitchen table and sipping from chilled glasses of celebratory beer. Nino nodded and said, "As ridiculous as it sounds, yes."
Jun looked utterly fascinated, leaning across the table with his chin cupped in his hand. "So what are you tasting right now?"
"Hmm... winter squash."
"Uwaa, so then what emotion is that?"
Without even having to think about it, Nino knew that he was tasting the simple comfort of spending time with Jun and sharing stories after a long day. It was too embarrassing to say that in words, though, so instead he shrugged and said, "Must be the alcohol."
Jun rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as he leaned back. "You're not such a lightweight that you're feeling drunk from half a beer." But he didn't press the matter, asking instead, "So, what do you think a summertime party should taste like?"
Nino laughed because he knew Jun was really just saying Hey, give me some ideas for my big project. That was why Jun had brought the beer: when they first sat down to dinner, he grinned wide and shared with Nino the news that he had received a huge order of chocolates from the famous techno-sorceress trio Perfume for their annual Summer Love Love Glitter Party. This year's theme, though Jun was still trying to decipher exactly what it meant, was "Chocolate Disco."
It was monumental news for Jun. Perfume were practically royalty among the magical community, and their parties were attended by hundreds of people. It would provide an unbelievable amount of publicity for Jun and his shop, Love So Sweet, and for that Nino was elated on his friend's behalf.
Of course, it also meant Jun would be extraordinarily busy for the next few days, since the party was barely a week away. Apparently the order was so last-minute because A-chan had been waiting to find a caterer whose product "just feels right, you know?", which Jun swore to Nino was perfectly reasonable. Nocchi had rubbed her temples and explained that they'd gone through several hundred options in the past few months, so when A-chan tasted one of Jun's chocolates and announced that it did, indeed, feel right, Kashiyuka had nearly sobbed with happiness. (Jun didn't mention whether or not he had sobbed with happiness, but Nino would bet money on it.)
Nino agreed to help Jun brainstorm a bit, so Jun pulled out his sketchbook and began to jot down some initial concepts. Nino threw out whatever ideas he could think of -- nothing complicated or impressive, he knew, but it was at least enough to get Jun's mind going. "Make sure to use lots of different-colored garnishes," he said, "since you don't want it to just be brown, brown, brown -- oh, what about arranging them in a rainbow?"
Once Jun's hand was racing across the page, Nino sat back to watch him work. Before long, Jun had a few pages of delicious-looking sketches, a full spread of colorful designs that sparkled off the page.
When Jun paused long enough that Nino thought he'd run out of ideas, he ventured to say, "I bet Aiba-chan would have some interesting suggestions."
Jun didn't bother, or perhaps wasn't very good at, hiding the way his eyes lit up when Nino mentioned Aiba's name.
Nino had known Aiba nearly his whole life, but he'd only met Jun a few years ago, when he'd come into Rainbow Music to order a special box for some chocolates he'd made for his sister. They became friends, and from there it didn't take long for that friendship to evolve into something more intimate. But Nino always made sure to be up-front about this sort of thing, so Jun had known right from the start that Nino and Aiba's relationship wasn't purely platonic either. He was simply curious at first, wanting to know more about this other man Nino chose to spend his time with, and when Nino arranged a few outings as a trio, it became clear that they were interested in each other beyond their connection through Nino.
Up to now, they'd both been too busy running their respective businesses to make their schedules match up in a way that allowed for more than casual encounters. Some day, Nino would love to rectify that.
"It's a shame he came back just as I got this order," Jun said. "I'll probably be too busy to see him until it's done."
Nino reached out to pat Jun's hand teasingly. "Don't worry, Jun-kun. I'll send him your regards."
Jun pouted quietly for only a moment longer, then looked up to smile at Nino. "Hey, it works out -- he can keep you company while I'm working."
"Keep me company -- what are you two, my childminders?"
"I know you get lonely when we're not around, you big baby."
Nino reached out to pull Jun by the collar of his shirt until he was leaning across the table, close enough to kiss. "If I get so lonely when you're gone, why don't you give me something to remember you by, hm?"
Jun grinned in response. He'd never been the type to resist a challenge like that.
Nino soon found that kissing Jun like this, with beer in their stomachs and good news on their minds, tasted almost like an apple, refreshingly crisp and mildly sweet. Nino hummed happily into the kiss and pulled away only so that he could rise from his chair and step around the corner of the table, intending to deposit himself right into Jun's lap. He had a feeling that kissing wouldn't be enough for tonight, not if he wasn't going to have Jun to himself like this for a while.
But a sudden tickle in his throat had him pausing. He stepped back and tried to soothe that tickle with a sip of beer, but that just made it grow into a full-on cough.
Jun was looking up at him with narrowed eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just --" He coughed again, holding his hand up against his throat. Where had this come from? "Just a -- frog in my throat --" He broke off with another cough, surprised at the sudden sandpapery feel of his throat and the raspy sound of his voice.
Jun tsked as he stood from his spot. "Hopefully not one of Aiba-san's." He started waving his hands around, summoning over a mug and some water for tea. Nino sat back down and sighed, resigned to not seeing any more action tonight; he knew without having to hear Jun say it that Jun wouldn't be coming near him again if it seemed that he was getting sick.
Nino accepted the steaming cup Jun handed to him, and he even let Jun tug him onto his feet and nudge him along to the bedroom. "Drink that and rest," Jun ordered, maneuvering Nino until he was sitting up on his futon, then tucking the blankets in snugly around his waist and legs. Nino didn't bother complaining about any of it because he really was feeling tired, oddly so. He yawned and tasted his sleepiness like a spoonful of creamy mushroom soup.
Jun must have been truly sad about their missed opportunity, because he actually deigned to lean down and press his lips to the top of Nino's head. "Sleep well, Kazu." By the time Nino opened his eyes again -- when had he closed them? -- Jun was already standing in the doorway, watching him fondly before turning the light off, leaving only Nino's bedside lamp to illuminate the room.
From his futon, Nino listened to the sounds of Jun moving around the loft, turning off all the lights and then locking up as he left. He took another sip of the tea Jun had made for him, but it didn't taste very good -- Jun's medicinal remedies never did -- so he set it on the floor and switched off his light before lying down properly. As he drifted off, he thought to himself that Jun was right about him: he really did get lonely when Jun and Aiba weren't around.
The last thing he thought was how wonderful it would be to lie there with Jun and Aiba sleeping on either side of him.
--
When Nino awoke the next morning, everything seemed normal at first. His throat felt perfectly fine, and he discovered that waking up from a good night's sleep tasted a bit like carrot cake. He showered and went downstairs to open the shop and prepare for the day ahead; he was expecting four pick-ups, and the one slated for the end of the day -- a pretty paper envelope that would hold someone's birthday money -- still needed some finishing touches, so he put that first on his to-do list. The sign in the window flipped from CLOSED to OPEN with a flick of his wrist, and Riisa showed up soon after that. She called a cheery greeting on her way to the back room, where she was working on the custom music box for yesterday's customer, the one she had miraculously been able to keep from storming off. Nino lifted a hand in greeting but said nothing, already focused on going over the musical notes he'd scribbled onto a scrap of parchment. He only needed to add a few bits at the end, and then this order would be perfect.
It wasn't until the first pick-up that he even noticed anything was wrong.
One of his favorite customers, Kiko-chan, came in to pick up a music box she'd ordered a few weeks back for her boyfriend. The box she'd requested opened to reveal a colorful dragon that spun around to the soundtrack of an odd, off-beat tune, one Nino was particularly proud of because all she'd told him was Something a little weird, I think -- he'd like that. When he saw her walking in through the door to pick up her order, he perked up and smiled.
But when he opened his mouth to greet her, no sound came out.
Kiko-chan slowed on her way to the front counter, looking at him quizzically. When he tried again to say something to her, still to no avail, her confused expression changed to one of concern. "Ninomiya-san...?"
Nino opened and closed his mouth uselessly for a few horrifying moments before it finally dawned on him.
His voice -- it was gone.
It wasn't just that he couldn't form words, he quickly discovered; he couldn't hum or cough or even scream, which was especially unfortunate because screaming was exactly what he felt like doing at that moment.
He held up a finger and hoped it conveyed his message of Please wait here as politely as possible, and then he dashed into the back to find Riisa.
After a hastily scrawled explanation (I lost my voice, he wrote onto the first scroll he could find, even though he hadn't lost it, exactly -- he had a pretty good idea about where it went) and a deeply bowed apology to Kiko-chan, Nino was grabbing his jacket from the coat rack and rushing out the front door.
He had to see an airhead about a lizard.
--
Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium was packed with customers, all of them waiting to see Aiba after his long journey and much-publicized return home. Aiba was standing at the front counter, speaking to a woman he kept calling Erika-chan before accepting the lanky, yellow-striped cat she handed him. He held up the cat to look into its face and said, "Yay, time for Dokkun's annual check-up!" Hanging there in Aiba's grasp, the cat grinned wide, showing two rows of big, pearly white teeth.
Aiba grinned back -- and then he caught sight of Nino, and his warm smile went cold at the look on Nino's face. "Nino, are you okay?"
Nino pushed his way past the crowding customers, slammed one fist down onto the counter, pointed with his other hand at his throat, and screamed, What do you think?!
Of course, he didn't actually scream anything. As expected, not even a peep came out of his open mouth. But if the way Aiba's eyes bugged out was any indication, he knew exactly what was going on.
He all but shoved Dokkun back into Erika-chan's arms, yelling out, "I'M SORRY EVERYONE BUT I'M GOING TO NEED YOU TO VACATE THE PREMISES WHILE I TAKE MY LUNCH BREAK."
"But you just opened," someone complained.
Aiba was already coming out from behind the counter to start herding people out. "THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING IN THESE TRYING TIMES. IF I'M STILL ALIVE IN ONE HOUR, YOU'LL ALL GET FREE CATNIP SAMPLES."
--
As it turned out, Kura Dragon venom had a drastic side effect in a very small percentage of the population.
"You see, the magic that mixes up your senses, it's a bit complex, so there's always a chance -- it's really rare, right, but the chances go up for individuals who are a bit -- um -- well, weaker --"
Nino smacked Aiba's arm, perhaps a little harder than usual. Aiba winced and rubbed the spot with his opposite hand, but he kept going.
"-- a small chance that the magic will overwhelm their senses, so to speak, so some things, like your voice, can get, uh... caught in the crossfire."
With a long, careful breath, Nino dragged his hands down his face. There were a dozen questions he wanted to ask -- scream at -- Aiba, and the fact that he couldn't use his voice to do it was only making him more furious. Anger, he noted, tasted a lot like those waxy red chilies Aiba had once brought back from a trip. He took another deep breath, then pointed at the clock on Aiba's wall.
Aiba said, "It's almost nine?"
Nino clenched his fists to keep from punching Aiba again. He pointed, once again, at the clock, then at his throat, and then again at the clock.
"Oh -- you mean, how long will it take?"
Nino nodded.
Aiba took a cautious step backwards. "Well, the thing is -- it's sort of like a cold, you see, so it kind of depends on the person, and you haven't always been super great at getting better, Nino, so for you, maybe... a week? Or two?"
At this point, Nino's fists were clenched so tightly that they'd begun to shake. He tried to ask Aiba if there were anything he could do to make it go by more quickly, but it took a few tries and a series of increasingly obvious gestures, such as holding his hands a foot apart and then shortening the distance to half a foot, miming drinking tea and then flashing a thumbs-up, and pointing with both hands at a first-aid kit for horses that was sitting on one of Aiba's shelves. Aiba finally got it, but Nino was so frustrated by then then the answer finally tipped him over the edge.
"I don't think you can make it go any faster," Aiba said, speaking quietly now. His eyes were starting to water. "You just have to wait it through. Nino, I'm really sorry --"
The mean part of Nino, the part that delighted in pranks and trickery, was viciously glad to see Aiba looking upset for what he'd done, while the kind part of him was thankful he couldn't talk because otherwise he would surely be spitting out insults so scathing that Aiba would be crying for real. He turned around and left without looking back, even as Aiba followed him all the way to the door and begged him not to be angry. Nino had already heard everything he needed to know; there was no point in staying any longer.
--
He went back to his shop, thinking it would do him some good to stay busy, but he realized as soon as he walked in and saw Riisa perkily answering a customer's question that it would be impossible for him to communicate effectively with anyone. Instead, he went to his office and locked the door -- he didn't want to be bothered or have to try and explain just yet what was going on -- and tried to work on some of his back orders. Even that didn't last for long; he was so tense that it was difficult to make his fingers move the way he needed them to, difficult to even think, and he'd never realized before just how much of his time working was spent humming out a melody or sticking his head out the door to ask Riisa what she thought of something.
With as much clarity as he could manage, he grabbed a sheet of parchment and wrote out a note for Riisa. He explained, as best as he could, that he would still be picking up orders to work on from home and that she could come upstairs to fetch him if there were an emergency, but to please consider him as being on vacation for the next two or three days. He read it over, then added, And if Aiba comes by, tell him I moved to the Arctic Circle.
With any luck, Aiba would believe her and go chasing after him.
He handed Riisa the note and the keys to the shop on his way out the door, grateful that she was too busy working with the customer to do anything but accept the note and wave goodbye. He left her and the shop behind, climbing the stairs to his loft and wishing that the spicy taste in his mouth would go away soon.
--
Morning passed into afternoon, afternoon into evening, all without any further incident. As the sun was setting, Nino was still sulking in his living room when he heard a quiet tap on his kitchen window, the one facing Aiba's own loft above Tensai!. He got up to open the curtains, half-expecting to see Aiba clinging to the ledge, but instead he recognized the slinky figure and cute snaggles of Nasu-chan, Aiba's trusty messenger monkey. Nasu-chan was wearing his usual purple aviator helmet and waving a scroll at Nino from the other side of the glass.
With a (silent) sigh, Nino opened the window and accepted the scroll. He was unsurprised to find Aiba's messy handwriting waiting for him when he unraveled it. Can I come over?
Nino took the quill Nasu-chan offered and scribbled out a simple No with such fury that it left a few ink splatters on the parchment. Nasu-chan gave him a gentle thwop on the head for treating his materials so roughly, but he carried the message off nonetheless.
It was only a few minutes before Nasu-chan returned. This time, the message read: Can't we please talk?
Nino rolled his eyes and scrawled out, I can't talk at all thanks to you, remember?
Nasu-chan took the scroll with a huff and turned away once again, his curled tail bobbing behind him.
Nino waited a few minutes for a reply, but this one took longer than the other had. He went back to sitting at his low table in the living room and practicing card tricks. Almost thirty minutes passed before Nasu-chan finally returned. Nino expected some full-page, half-witted apology, but when he took the scroll, it felt oddly light. He unraveled it slowly and found that there was a single, brief line written on it:
I'm sorry.
Nino frowned, considering. He did feel bad for Aiba, who, Nino knew, took things like this very seriously. But he was still upset -- his mouth still hadn't cooled down, no matter how much milk tea he drank -- and he wasn't ready to be kind just yet. He took the quill one last time and wrote, Goodnight, Aiba-chan. He found a cookie for Nasu-chan and handed it to him along with the scroll, thanking him for his hard work, and then locked his window and shhut the curtains as Nasu-chan leapt away, squeaking happily.
Nino finished the last of the milk tea and headed for his bedroom. It was barely even dark outside, but he was already ready for the day to be over, especially if it meant he'd be one step closer to regaining his voice.
--
The next morning, he was woken up by the sound of knocking on his front door.
He dragged himself out of bed, already cringing at the pickly taste of irritation, and cast a quick scrying spell to see through his front door. It was Aiba, standing there with his eyes big and hopeful, holding a tray laden with pastries and freshly cut flowers. Nino considered pretending not to be home -- Aiba was the last person he would want to talk to right then if he could even talk -- but then again, those pastries looked like they were from Oh-chan's...
Aiba called out, "You're watching me through the door, right? Riisa-chan told me you moved to the Arctic Circle, but I know that just means you're sulking up here like a grumpy polar bear!"
Nino opened the door, accepted the tray, handed the flowers back, and slammed the door in Aiba's face. The pastries, he decided, would make an excellent breakfast in bed.
--
Aiba showed up again the next morning, this time with a new tray, some melon bread, and a cup of brightly colored juice that was shooting out rainbow sparkles.
Unlike the previous morning, Nino didn't waste time considering, nor did Aiba; as soon as the door opened, Aiba began pleading. "Nino, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen, can I please make it up to you, how can I get you to forgive me --"
Once again, Nino took the tray and slammed the door. This time, as he walked to the bedroom, he threw a silencing spell over the door so he wouldn't have to hear Aiba as he ate his breakfast.
--
The day after that, Nino woke up extra early just so he could avoid Aiba's morning delivery. He went downstairs and used his spare keys to open the shop, looking for things to tidy up as he waited for Riisa to arrive, but it turned out she was cleaner than he was; the shop might have been even more organized than usual. He milled around and took inventory until Riisa arrived so that he could thank her, with clasped hands and a deep bow, for taking care of the shop in his absence ("No worries, boss, but I better get a raise after this!"), and then he made his way across the Square to Love So Sweet.
Asami, Kasumi, and Satomi were all at the front of the shop, greeting customers and ringing up orders. Jun must have heard about Nino's predicament and shared it with them, because they all teased him with questions he obviously couldn't answer. He was still a bit sore about the whole thing, of course, but it was hard to be mad when they were all lined up in their aprons and smiling at him. They finally gave in and let him through when he made them laugh by using his fingers to mimic having thick eyebrows -- his way of asking about Jun.
In the very back, past the curtain that separated the main floor from the storeroom and employee changing room, was Jun's workshop. Jun was bent over a table in the corner, grating lemon zest into a little dish, and didn't react when Nino opened the door. Nino walked in, closed the door, swept some recipe books and mixing bowls out of the way, and took a seat on the counter all before Jun even noticed he'd come in. When he finally did, he nearly dropped the grater he was holding. "Ah, Kazu! I didn't hear you."
Nino shrugged and pointed to his throat as if to imply that his silence was the reason he was able to sneak in, but he suspected Jun had been so deep in work mode that he wouldn't have noticed even if Nino had run in and burst into song.
Jun spared him a brief look of sympathy. "Aiba-san told me about what happened." Nino had a moment to wonder when and why Jun and Aiba had spoken, but in the next instant Jun was crossing the room, picking up a spoon along the way and nearly shoving it in Nino's mouth. "Here, taste this."
It was milk chocolate, still a little warm, with some kind of citrusy flavor mixed in. Nino wasn't a big fan of sweets, but he knew that someone who was would love this. He smiled and gave Jun a thumbs-up.
Jun beamed at the praise, then took the spoon back and went to a different table where he started pouring some sort of chocolate mix into silicone molds that were waiting on a freezer tray.
Jun kept busy, and without him striking up any sort of conversation, they were left in silence. Nino didn't mind all that much, because he liked watching Jun work: he appreciated the way Jun's waist looked in his black apron, the concentration on Jun's face as he tempered the chocolate, the way the muscles in his arm and wrist stood out when he reached to sprinkle gold flakes just so on top of a row of bonbons. He especially enjoyed watching Jun's fingers dance as he cast his glimmers and charms into each array of chocolates. There was one set that shimmered in shades of pink and periwinkle as they sat there on the plate, one shaped like ballerinas that pirouetted elegantly, one that crackled ticklishly in Nino's mouth when Jun fed him a bite.
Still, even Jun and his fanciful treats could get a little boring when all Nino was capable of was watching. One of the things he'd always enjoyed about the time he spent with Jun was the conversations they had, the teasing jabs they traded, and he couldn't do any of that now. Even when Jun brought him samples of his creations, Nino felt grateful but useless; he didn't have the distinguished palate -- or the voice -- to give Jun the kind of feedback he was looking for, and besides, after the fourth or fifth candy, his stomach started to protest. Sweets really weren't his thing.
There was a filmy, subtly unpleasant taste in his mouth, like milk that hadn't quite soured yet but was well on its way.
The next time Jun came over, Nino lowered the hand offering him chocolate and kissed Jun's mouth instead. Jun returned the kiss, holding his hand tenderly. Then he pulled away with a smile and went back to work.
Nino waited a few moments, not moving from his out-of-the-way spot on the counter. When he was certain Jun was back in work more, he slipped off the counter and out through the door, as silent as when he'd come in.
--
All the chocolate had made him hungry for real food, so he headed to Oh-chan's Bakery. He'd had enough pastries these last few days, but Ohno was known for occasionally closing up shop to go on fishing expeditions, and he always brought back some of what he'd caught. Maybe he'd have some sashimi to offer.
On the way, Nino passed Nazodi Phials & Philtres, where he peeked through the window and saw Kitagawa and Sakurai standing together over a bubbling cauldron. He watched as Kitagawa sprinkled something into the pot, stirring gently until smoke rose out of it in a pretty, red-and-purple mandala pattern; when Sakurai tried the same thing, the smoke came out dark and shapeless and singed one of his eyebrows. As Kitagawa turned away, laughing, she saw Nino through the window and smiled at him, waving.
Nino always enjoyed stopping in to chat with them, but, of course, now wasn't the time. He wasn't sure which imaginary scenario would have been worse: having to try and explain without words what had happened, or them already knowing and looking at him with amusement or pity as soon as he walked in.
He waved back, polite as ever, and continued walking.
When he got to Oh-chan's, Ohno was slumped over the front counter, snoozing as he usually did between the breakfast and lunch rushes, but the chiming of the bell over the door woke him up. "Ah, Nino-chan," he mumbled around a yawn. Nino waved, walking up to the counter, and Ohno said, "I heard what happened."
Nino sighed, then shrugged and leaned down, pointedly inspecting the pastries on the display, and then the special compartment at the end of the counter that showcased the fish Ohno had recently caught.
Undeterred, Ohno continued sleepily, "Aiba-chan came in today. He asked me to make something for you. He seemed pretty upset, but you know him, he was smiling anyway."
Nino held back a scowl, swallowing the sour taste of it, and pointed at a slab of hamachi.
For the few minutes it took for Ohno to prepare the food, Nino was happy to sit in silence with him, because with Ohno, silence never felt awkward. Nino watched his delicate hands slice the fish, handle the rice, pour the soy sauce. But when he slid the plate in front of Nino and then sat back down in his chair, already starting to slump over the counter as if he were about to fall asleep again, Nino decided that he'd had enough silence for the day. He pointed down at the fish, then to Ohno, and mimed reeling in a fishing pole.
Ohno understood immediately. "Ah, yeah, I caught it yesterday evening," he said. Before Nino could even think of a way to prompt him further, he was launching into a lengthy, absurdly detailed story, along with various meandering footnotes, about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of last night's fishing trip. Nino listened contentedly as he ate, thankful for the distraction and the way the fresh fish covered up the lingering sourness in his mouth.
He stayed with Ohno until the story was finished, long after he'd finished his meal, but when the lunch rush started to trickle in, he bid his farewell. He considered going back home, but he knew there wasn't much there for him to do except work, which he wasn't quite ready for. He wandered the Square aimlessly for a while, until Ohno's story had all but disappeared from his mind and all he could taste was the pallid flavor of loneliness. All he could think about was the way he missed talking to people, missed running his own business, missed joking with Riisa. The way he missed Jun. And maybe, just maybe, underneath all of that, he might have been missing Aiba a bit too, but he wasn't yet ready to forgive. Instead, he turned around and made his way back to Love So Sweet.
In the back room, Jun was still working as busily as he had been that morning, but this time he noticed when Nino walked through the door. "You left earlier," he said, setting down a mixing bowl he'd been carrying from one table to another.
Nino shrugged, gesturing around the workshop.
Jun sighed, looking down at his hands. He was fiddling with a loose thread on his apron. "I know, I've been so distracted. I'm sorry, Kazu."
Nino had always been good at mending. He crossed the floor and worked a quick spell on the thread, watching as it slithered through the gentle grasp of Jun's fingertips and back where it belonged, as good as new. Jun looked down and gave a little tug on the fabric, then looked back up with a smile. When he grasped Nino's hands, Nino leaned up on his tiptoes for a kiss and shivered happily when Jun granted it. Jun's mouth tasted better than any confectionery.
He pulled away to throw a spell over his shoulder, locking the door to the workshop, but when he turned back, Jun was watching him with concern in his eyes. "Kazu..." At the sound of it, Nino's shoulder slumped. He knew what Jun was going to say before the words even came out of his mouth. "I'm sorry, but... I really do have to work..."
Nino heaved a silent sigh. It had been worth an attempt, at least.
He left Jun to finish work and went straight home, not stopping to go anywhere or visit anyone. He passed Kitagawa and Sakurai's potions shop, passed Ohno's bakery, passed Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium. He didn't even spare a glance into his own shop, where Riisa was surely managing just fine without him. He'd left Jun because he hadn't wanted to be a bother, but the farther away he was, the more the bitter taste of guilt warped into the spicy bite of anger. He was going through this alone, and Jun couldn't even spare a few minutes -- couldn't even think to ask how he was doing?
He stormed up the stairway to his loft, not bothering to be quiet. He relished the sound of his stomping feet and the knowledge that Riisa and the customers could probably hear it down in the shop. It was just about the only way he could be heard right now, after all.
When he made it to the top of the stairs, he found a blue bakery box sitting near his front door: the special item Aiba had ordered from Oh-chan's. But when Nino knelt down to lift the lid, there were no pastries, no melon bread. It was a hamburger. Handwritten neatly across the inside of the lid was a message from Aiba:
Nino,
It's unfair of me to ask you to hear me out when I'm the reason you can't even tell me how you feel. Please enjoy this delicious apology! I know you're probably sick of pastries, so I had Oh-chan make up something special for you. (I hope you don't mind that I also told him what happened. I tried to keep it a secret but it just slipped out!!!)
You know where to find me when you're ready to talk.
- Masaki
Nino rolled his eyes as he read the last part. Ready to talk? Aiba-chan, you knucklehead. Even when he was apologizing for putting his foot in his mouth, he was putting his foot in his mouth.
Still, Nino was smiling as he scooped up the box and headed inside. His own mouth didn't taste quite so sour or spicy anymore.
--
He slept in the next morning, but when he did finally get out of bed, he went downstairs to greet Riisa in the shop and pick up the stack of orders that had accumulated in his absence. "Still voiceless, boss?" she asked as he walked in. He responded in the affirmative with a salute, which she returned, and then she said in a very serious voice, "I'll keep holding down the fort! But, seriously, think about that raise."
After so many days of sulking and feeling useless, it felt good to sit in his office and be creative again. The flavors of the music changed depending on the project he was working on; the celebratory ones tended to taste summery, like strawberries and watermelon slices, while the somber ones tasted more like dark, hoppy beer. He got so caught up in working that before he even realized it, it was already mid-afternoon, and he'd made it through almost the entire stack, charming each composition into a scroll so that all Riisa would have to do was transfer the magic into the appropriate items.
When all the scrolls had been rolled up and tagged, he deposited them into a box labeled OK!, where Riisa would know what to do with them. His day was nearly half gone, his body was a little stiff from sitting hunched over his piano for hours, but he felt good for having tackled something he'd been putting off for days -- and that hamburger-flavored sense of accomplishment gave him the final push he needed to take on something else he'd been avoiding.
Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium was much less crowded than it had been the other day, but it was no more quiet. There were a few patrons inside, holding forest-green shopping baskets and perusing the aisles, but the noise was all coming from the front counter. From their respective spots on a little stand with three color-coded branch, three songbirds were chirping boisterously as Aiba directed them with a miniature conductor's baton. One bird had powder-blue feathers, another was red, and the taller, slightly more plump bird sitting between them had feathers that were pitch black. As Aiba conducted and offered encouragement, the blue and red birds traded off twittering as background to the black one's mournful wails.
Aiba didn't notice Nino until he'd made it up to the counter, but when he did, he threw his arms into the air and shouted with joy, cutting off the birds' song. "You're not avoiding me anymore!"
Nino gave a nonchalant shrug, but he suspected Aiba could tell that he was trying to suppress a smile. After being friends for so long, Aiba was usually pretty good at that sort of thing.
The black bird squawked indignantly at being interrupted, but Aiba just shushed it and said to Nino, "I'm in the middle of giving these three their vocal lesson. We'll be done in about twenty minutes -- want to hang out then?"
Nino's eyebrows jumped up as surprise sparked across his taste buds like crackly rock candy. He motioned around the store, at the people still browsing the shelves.
Luckily, Aiba seemed to grasp his meaning on the first try. "It's okay, I can close a little early today. Oh, I'll make you dinner!"
Nino couldn't remember the last time Aiba had fed him for so many days in a row, but he wasn't about to complain. He'd let Aiba take care of him if it made Aiba feel better, and besides, he'd never been one to turn down anything free.
Through a series of gestures and guesses, they made plans to meet at Nino's. Forty minutes later, Aiba was standing at Nino's front door with a bag of groceries held in his hand and a small, orange-furred dog panting at his feet.
Nino gave his best quizzical look.
"Oh, he's my oven timer," Aiba explained as Maru-chan puffed up proudly.
Once they were all inside, Aiba immediately got to work in the kitchen, laying out all the ingredients for mapo tofu as Maru-chan curled up on a cushion Nino set out for him. Nino felt a pang of bitterness when he opened his mouth to start chatting and remembered that no sound would come out, but it passed quickly as Aiba started up a conversation all on his own, telling Nino about his trip abroad and all the exciting creatures and people he'd met. He occasionally interrupted himself with interjections such as "Now, Nino, I know what you're thinking, but let me explain" or "I know what you would have said, but I didn't want to be rude, you see!", and it made Nino laugh every time. It made him realize just how much he'd been missing his friend, not only these past few days but for the past four months. The Tacchon incident that had marred Aiba's return didn't change that, and now that the dust had settled, all Nino wanted to do was tell him, I forgive you, it isn't that big of a deal after all, I'm sorry I got so upset -- I'm just glad to have you back.
Even without being able to say it, he thought Aiba probably knew anyway; Aiba was his best friend, after all. Having him back, being able to listen to his dumb stories and laugh with him, even if it was silent laughter, felt like home and tasted like freshly baked milk bread, soft and comforting. He didn't even mind when Aiba launched into the story of how he found Tacchon the lizard snoozing inside a drum in some foreign marketplace. "He was in there with a bunch of apple cores -- apparently he'd stolen them from a vendor down the way and was sleeping off his feast. How cute!"
The conversation stretched on until, just after Aiba announced that the food would be ready soon, there was a knock at the front door.
Nino used his scrying spell to see that it was Jun, looking a little bashful and holding a small, violet-colored box. Nino briefly entertained the thought of giving Jun the same treatment he'd given Aiba the other day, but he was in a good mood, so he decided to excuse himself from the kitchen so that he could greet Jun in the entryway.
"Hey," Jun said, already flushed around the apples of his cheeks. He held out the package with both hands, the polite gesture somewhat incongruous with the words he said next: "Sorry for being a dick yesterday."
Nino took the package with a grin and left the door open as he headed for the kitchen. Jun followed him inside, shutting the door quietly behind them, and then stopped once he got into the kitchen and saw Aiba standing at the stove. "Oh, did I interrupt?"
At the sound of Jun's voice, Aiba turned around from where he was stirring something, and his smile grew even bigger. "Matsujun!"
Jun raised his hand in awkward greeting, and then was nearly bowled over as Aiba rushed forward to envelop him in a hug. When they pulled apart, Jun's blush had grown even darker.
At the table, Nino was already opening the box Jun had given him. Inside was a three-by-three arrangement of bonbons, dark chocolate with chunky sea salt sprinkled on top. "There are roasted almonds inside," Jun told him. "Not too sweet."
Nino picked one up and ate half, delighted to find that the chocolate really wasn't too sweet, just as Jun had said, and that the salt and almonds combined to make the overall effect deliciously savory. He ate the second half and gave Jun a thumbs-up for his efforts.
Aiba was peering into the box, still grinning. "A new recipe for the shop?"
Jun had his hands clasped together behind his back, the barest hint of a smile pulling at his mouth. "These are just for Nino."
Nino couldn't help it: he beamed in response, elated by the thought of Jun spending time on him after making such a fuss about being busy. He might have kissed Jun if Aiba weren't there, so instead he shoved another chocolate into his mouth, the taste of it competing with the flavor of his bashful happiness, luxurious and rich like the meat-filled pasta sauces Jun cooked for him sometimes.
When Maru-chan sniffed the air and started yapping from his cushion, that meant dinner was ready. Aiba invited Jun to stay and have some, but Jun declined politely, stammering a bit before clearing his throat and explaining that he needed a good night of sleep since tomorrow was the big day. Nino walked him to the door and waved enthusiastically to make up for the fact that he couldn't thank Jun or wish him luck, but judging from the way Jun smiled as he descended the stairs, Nino thought he got the message.
He returned to the kitchen to find that Aiba had set the table and started filling their plates. As they ate, Aiba continued to talk about his trip, but after a few minutes, he suddenly asked, "How is Jun-kun doing?"
Nino appreciated that Aiba was still trying to hold a real conversation with him, even if all he could do in return was nod or shake his head or gesture in a way that he hoped would communicate his feelings. For this particular question, he put his palms together and tucked them under his chin, closing his eyes briefly to mimic sleep: Jun was busy and exhausted.
Aiba nodded, seeming to understand. He chewed his food for a while, and then asked, "And what about the two of you together?"
For this, Nino put on a smile and nodded firmly: they were doing great.
Aiba looked genuinely happy about that. He opened his mouth as if he were about to ask another question, but he closed it just as quickly and changed the subject back to his trip. Nino couldn't think of a way to mime No, go back, what were you thinking about?, so he listened as Aiba discussed the pros and cons of switching vampire bats to iron-heavy vegetarian diets.
Like Jun's not-too-sweet chocolates, Aiba's mapo tofu was delicious. Nino tried to convey his gratitude by eating as much as he could, which wasn't much considering he didn't eat a lot anyway and already had so much chocolate in his stomach, but he did his best, and when they were done, he saved the leftovers in a plastic container to show Aiba that he would be happy to finish it later. Aiba took over cleaning, chatting idly as he stacked the dishes in the sink and filled it with water, then summoned some sudsy, animated sponges to do the rest. Nino was feeling sated, from his comfortably full stomach and his happy heart, and from the thoughts that were sneaking once again to the forefront of his consciousness: what would it be like to have Aiba and Jun together -- to be with both of them at once instead of having to switch back and forth like this?
But Jun had chosen to leave them alone for the night, and though Nino didn't harbor any negative feelings about that, he also wasn't going to concern himself with thinking about Jun right then. He had Aiba in front of him, standing there in his kitchen for the first time in months, and he was going to take advantage of it while he could.
The kiss caught Aiba off guard, but he returned it with the sort of passion that had clearly been building up over the nearly half a year he'd been away. They had exchanged a few rushed, giggly kisses that first day he'd been back, but that hadn't been enough, hadn't been the same; now they were alone, and they had all the time in the world.
Aiba pulled back after a long, breathless moment. He reached up to brush his thumb along Nino's jaw and asked huskily, "Does this mean you officially forgive me?"
Nino bopped him over the head, and then went back to kissing him.
It started off slow, but they sped up before long, doing their best to reacquaint themselves with how it felt to be together like this. Aiba whispered between kisses, "Nino, Nino, I missed you so much," and for the briefest moment, Nino's heart ached with the knowledge that he couldn't say in words that he'd missed Aiba too. He realized an instant later that he probably wouldn't even if he could, so he said it instead in the way he worked his fingers into Aiba's hair and his tongue into Aiba's mouth.
After a brief interlude that involved opening the front door so Maru-chan could scurry home ("Don't worry, he knows how to unlock the door"), they retreated to the bedroom. Aiba busied himself with removing Nino's clothes piece by piece and saying as he went, "You know, I'm not sure if you ever realized this, but usually you're pretty noisy when we're together." Nino was ready to smack him over the head again, but Aiba caught his hand and laced their fingers together as he continued, "No, it's a good thing! It lets me know when I'm doing something right."
Nino felt his face grow hot, mirroring the insistent flavor of fresh-from-the-pot ramen, still too scalding to eat but too fragrant to ignore. He was naked by then, Aiba having successfully flung his clothes to various corners of the room, but what made him feel even more exposed than that was the way he couldn't defend himself against Aiba's teasing or his obvious, unashamed affection. He felt vulnerable and oddly shy, but at the same time, he felt completely safe with Aiba there, especially when Aiba pulled him closer and closer until they were pressed together all along their bodies.
Aiba leaned down to nip at the corner of Nino's jaw and whispered, "I guess that means I'll just have to be extra attentive this time."
When he laid Nino down onto the futon, Nino's heart was already hammering a quick rhythm against his ribcage. He gasped soundlessly as Aiba trailed kisses down his chest and stomach, and when Aiba took Nino's hands and placed them on his shoulders, whispering against Nino's skin, "This is how you can tell me what you want," it made Nino shudder. He was happy to oblige, letting his fingers slide into Aiba's hair as Aiba shimmied his way down the mattress to fit perfectly between Nino's spread thighs.
Sex with Aiba wasn't new by any means, but Nino had never experienced it quite like this: without his own voice in his ears, he could hear more clearly the way his movements made Aiba sigh or moan, and with the magic at work, there was an entire new layer of sensation he'd never even dreamed of. Aiba's mouth on him tasted oddly like wasabi, overwhelming his senses and threatening to make his eyes water. Aiba's fingers inside of him tasted like sake, the way the first sip always hit hard and then smoothed out as his whole body relaxed from the warmth of it.
And the orgasm, he would have to remember to tell Aiba later, tasted like biting into a sweet, sun-ripened orange.
--
Aiba spent the night on Nino's futon, wrapped around him like he was trying to make up for all the nights he'd spent somewhere else. As Aiba's deep breaths lulled him to sleep, Nino's mind drifted hazily, once again, to thoughts of Aiba and Jun together. He pondered how incredible it would be to see Aiba's enthusiasm and cheerful attentiveness directed towards Jun's intensity and his penchant for being unfailingly thorough. It had always been so clear to Nino that they were interested in each other, that they had so much more than just him in common, and he thought he was finally up for the challenge of helping them realize it. He was just in time, too; he had a feeling the Summer Love Love Glitter Party, after which he knew Jun would be elated and bubbly, was going to be his perfect chance.
It would be difficult without his voice, but after the past several days, he was becoming accustomed to expressing his desires using unconventional means. This would just be one more opportunity to do so.
Part 2
From: lover_youshould
Title: Chocolate Disco
Pairing/Focus: Nino/Aiba, Nino/Jun, Kaze
Rating: R
Warnings: N/A
Summary: It starts with a magic lizard, continues with a whole lot of chocolate, and ends with a song. It's a long story. Too bad Nino can't tell it.
Notes: Dear beta, you are a hero. Dear mod, you are a champion. Dear Eito, I'm sorry. Dear cutselvage, I hope you love it!!
It was a peaceful, cool summer morning when Nino opened the doors to Rainbow Music. As far as he knew, there was nothing special about that day, nothing life-altering or even mood-changing. He was expecting to get a few new orders, finish a few old ones, and make enough money to put food on his and his assistant's tables. Then, after work, he would meet up with Jun to pass the rest of the evening with chatting and kisssing, just as they usually did. All pretty standard. It wasn't that Nino was not looking forward to his day -- he just wasn't expecting much to come of it.
Of course, expecting nothing really meant he should have been expecting something. Something ridiculous, exhilarating, and at least a bit ill-advised. Being friends with Aiba Masaki for the better part of thirty-two years should have taught him that.
The morning started off a bit slow. Riisa arrived soon after he did, and their first customer -- an older woman who wanted to purchase a music box for her granddaughter -- arrived not long after that. They'd been open for about an hour when he decided to step into his office at the back of the store, where his piano and worksheets were.
He'd only just sat down when he heard the scream.
He rushed out to find Riisa tugging the customer back from a display of intricately carved music boxes -- the really expensive ones, he noted. "Is everything okay?" he asked, looking around for a sign of something having fallen or broken, but the horrified look on the customer's face told him that it wasn't a broken music box he should be worried about.
"Hey, boss," Riisa said, voice low and mouth quirked up in a frown. "Something tells me Aiba-san is back in town."
Nino realized she was pointing at the space below a tall, narrow display. When he bent down to look, he finally saw what had caused all the commotion: in the shadows beneath the display stand, something hissed at him and swished a long, leathery tail.
Nino sighed, rubbing his eyes. It was too early for this. "All right, why don't you two go up front. I'll take care of this... thing, whatever it is."
"Careful, boss," Riisa said as she gently ushered the customer out of the aisle. "Might be venomous."
Nino waved off her concern. "Aiba doesn't keep dangerous animals."
Riisa shrugged, the look on her face clearly saying Suit yourself, and launched into a long-winded apology as she and the customer made their way to the front of the store.
With a sigh, Nino looked back to the cramped, dark space where the unknown creature was hiding. He truly believed what he said -- after the third time something like this had happened, he'd made Aiba swear that he would never let a dangerous animal loose near Nino's shop -- but he wasn't about to try and catch the thing either. He knew that Aiba would inevitably burst in to chase after it, so he was just keeping an eye on the thing in order to make Aiba's job a little easier.
After all, the sooner Aiba got the creature out of there, the sooner Nino could get back to work -- and the sooner he could get back to work, the sooner he could justify sneaking next door to show Aiba just how much he'd missed him.
Across the aisle from the still-hissing creature, Nino settled into a more comfortable position on the floor. "I wonder if Aiba even knows you're missing yet," he mused. "We might be together for a while, little buddy."
Fortunately, he only had to wait a few minutes before he heard Aiba's familiar, frantic voice. "Tacchon!" Aiba was yelling at the front of the store, where Nino could see Riisa rolling her eyes and the customer frowning deeply at something, undoubtedly Aiba with some sort of gory treat to lure the creature.
"Back here, Aiba-chan!" he called out.
From there, it all happened so quickly.
Around the corner, Aiba came stumbling and waving a slab of raw meat; mere feet from Nino, the creature's claws scratched loudly on the floor as it suddenly scrambled into movement; atop the display that was now wobbling unsteadily, the pricey music box was slowly sliding off the side. Thinking only of his investment, and with trust in his heart that Aiba would have kept his promise, Nino darted forward, arms outstretched to catch the falling music box.
First, he felt the impact of the box as it landed in his hands, the edges digging into his palms with the force of the impact.
Next, he felt a sharp pain that started on his forearm and quickly spread through his whole body before dissipating just as quickly.
And then, he felt -- no -- he tasted... alcohol? It was something like gin, strong and piney, but muddled together with other unidentifiable flavors, like a poorly made cocktail.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought: this is what adrenaline and confusion taste like.
Aiba was at his side in an instant, scooping up the creature -- a lizard, long and lanky with shimmery green scales -- and scolding it with the voice of a father speaking to a disobedient child. "Tacchon, no! I told you, no biting people unless they ask for it first! Nino, are you okay?"
Nino blinked, trying to figure out the answer to that question. His arm felt fine now that the pain had washed away, and he'd managed to save his music box. His heart was still beating a mile a minute, though. He set the box down with shaky hands and looked down at his arm, to the small puncture wounds from the lizard's teeth. It didn't even look that bad, really; blood had risen to the surface but not spilled over, sort of like a cat scratch.
But the taste...
When he looked up, Aiba had a lopsided, giggly smile on his face. "Nino, it's really good to see you."
Nino narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why does your lizard's bite make the inside of my mouth taste like a crappy cocktail?"
Aiba's face lit up the way it did whenever he came upon a mystery. "Oooh, is that what it tastes like? Interesting! What exactly do you mean by crappy, like it wasn't stirred enough or...?"
"Aiba."
Aiba was grinning hugely by then as he fed the chunk of meat to the now-calm lizard. "Tacchon is a very special lizard," he said. "Come to Tensai! with me and I'll tell you all about it."
--
Nino and Aiba had been good friends for most of their lives, and for about a third of that time, they'd been neighbors as well. They lived and worked in Stormy Square, a little shopping district in the middle of Tokyo that was home to various and sundry magical shops and outlets. Nino owned and operated Rainbow Music, where he took orders for custom-composed piano melodies that he charmed into music boxes, greeting cards, gifts, candies, or whatever else his customers could think up, and directly next door was Aiba's Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium.
Aiba had started out as a simple groomer, but he eventually went on to accept any and every task related to magical creatures, from caring for them to harvesting their powers, and along the way he had earned a reputation as one of Tokyo's leading experts. He even got a yearly grant to travel and research creatures in distant locations all around the world. He was usually gone for about four months out of the year, during which his good friend and colleague Becky ran things in the shop. Becky was more than competent, but still, there was a bit of an excited hubbub around the Square whenever Aiba returned from one of his trips. People always seemed excited to see what sort of exotic creatures Aiba had brought back with him.
Nino, on the other hand, usually got a sneak peak -- even though he never really wanted it, and it was almost always by accident.
There was the time Nino had woken up to find that both his shop and his loft on the second floor had been inhabited overnight by tailor spiders, coin-sized arachnids that hung in high-up corners and spun beautiful, albeit inconvenient, scarves and shawls. Then there was the time a colorful cockatrice had built a nest in Nino's office, laid eggs, refused to leave until its chicks were old enough to fend for themselves, and insulted Nino's musical skill every time he tried to get any work done. And then there was the time a flock of disgruntled ducks -- not even magical ducks! Aiba had just thought they were cute and decided to adopt them -- waddled into the shop and started harassing Nino's customers.
Aiba's creatures tended to be irritating, certainly, but never much more than that. Aiba always did a good job of being extra careful with the ones that could cause serious financial or physical damage. And even though Nino had technically been bitten by this Kura Dragon, as he learned was its common name, he suspected it would nevertheless end up in the same category as all the others: obnoxious but ultimately harmless. This remained true even after Aiba explained the odd effects of its venom.
"Researchers hypothesize that it developed the venom as a defense mechanism," he said. "You know, like to disorient its enemy." Nino was sitting by the front desk in Aiba's shop, watching Aiba clear empty cages and boxes to make a space for Tacchon's roomy terrarium. The lizard in question was lying on the counter, a respectable distance away from Nino, snoozing peacefully now that it had eaten and escaped any perceived threats. "But then," Aiba continued, "when people started harvesting the venom for recreational purposes, and then started selectively breeding the lizards for that reason, the magic just got stronger and stronger. What it does is sort of mix up the signals in your brain, so some of your senses start to blend together. There are different species for different senses -- some can make you hear colors, or see sounds, stuff like that. Tacchon here makes you taste emotions."
It was almost too outrageous to accept, but Nino couldn't deny the combined flavors of sharp cheese and lightly smoked meat that were currently running wild in his mouth: apparently the taste of curiosity mixed with slowly fading disbelief.
"It's all temporary," Aiba assured him, "and in the meantime, it'll be a fun experiment! Hey, Nino, what do you think having an orgasm tastes like? I bet we can find out!"
Unfortunately, that particular discovery would have to wait. Nino had to get back to work, and Aiba was still busy putting things away and greeting a near-constant stream of people stopping by to welcome him back. But as they ducked into a side room to make out like horny teenagers for the few minutes they could spare, Nino had to admit: it was good to have Aiba back.
--
"So you taste your emotions?"
That evening, Jun visited the cozy loft above Nino's shop to make dinner and chat. By then the food had already been put away and dishes washed, and they were sitting at the kitchen table and sipping from chilled glasses of celebratory beer. Nino nodded and said, "As ridiculous as it sounds, yes."
Jun looked utterly fascinated, leaning across the table with his chin cupped in his hand. "So what are you tasting right now?"
"Hmm... winter squash."
"Uwaa, so then what emotion is that?"
Without even having to think about it, Nino knew that he was tasting the simple comfort of spending time with Jun and sharing stories after a long day. It was too embarrassing to say that in words, though, so instead he shrugged and said, "Must be the alcohol."
Jun rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as he leaned back. "You're not such a lightweight that you're feeling drunk from half a beer." But he didn't press the matter, asking instead, "So, what do you think a summertime party should taste like?"
Nino laughed because he knew Jun was really just saying Hey, give me some ideas for my big project. That was why Jun had brought the beer: when they first sat down to dinner, he grinned wide and shared with Nino the news that he had received a huge order of chocolates from the famous techno-sorceress trio Perfume for their annual Summer Love Love Glitter Party. This year's theme, though Jun was still trying to decipher exactly what it meant, was "Chocolate Disco."
It was monumental news for Jun. Perfume were practically royalty among the magical community, and their parties were attended by hundreds of people. It would provide an unbelievable amount of publicity for Jun and his shop, Love So Sweet, and for that Nino was elated on his friend's behalf.
Of course, it also meant Jun would be extraordinarily busy for the next few days, since the party was barely a week away. Apparently the order was so last-minute because A-chan had been waiting to find a caterer whose product "just feels right, you know?", which Jun swore to Nino was perfectly reasonable. Nocchi had rubbed her temples and explained that they'd gone through several hundred options in the past few months, so when A-chan tasted one of Jun's chocolates and announced that it did, indeed, feel right, Kashiyuka had nearly sobbed with happiness. (Jun didn't mention whether or not he had sobbed with happiness, but Nino would bet money on it.)
Nino agreed to help Jun brainstorm a bit, so Jun pulled out his sketchbook and began to jot down some initial concepts. Nino threw out whatever ideas he could think of -- nothing complicated or impressive, he knew, but it was at least enough to get Jun's mind going. "Make sure to use lots of different-colored garnishes," he said, "since you don't want it to just be brown, brown, brown -- oh, what about arranging them in a rainbow?"
Once Jun's hand was racing across the page, Nino sat back to watch him work. Before long, Jun had a few pages of delicious-looking sketches, a full spread of colorful designs that sparkled off the page.
When Jun paused long enough that Nino thought he'd run out of ideas, he ventured to say, "I bet Aiba-chan would have some interesting suggestions."
Jun didn't bother, or perhaps wasn't very good at, hiding the way his eyes lit up when Nino mentioned Aiba's name.
Nino had known Aiba nearly his whole life, but he'd only met Jun a few years ago, when he'd come into Rainbow Music to order a special box for some chocolates he'd made for his sister. They became friends, and from there it didn't take long for that friendship to evolve into something more intimate. But Nino always made sure to be up-front about this sort of thing, so Jun had known right from the start that Nino and Aiba's relationship wasn't purely platonic either. He was simply curious at first, wanting to know more about this other man Nino chose to spend his time with, and when Nino arranged a few outings as a trio, it became clear that they were interested in each other beyond their connection through Nino.
Up to now, they'd both been too busy running their respective businesses to make their schedules match up in a way that allowed for more than casual encounters. Some day, Nino would love to rectify that.
"It's a shame he came back just as I got this order," Jun said. "I'll probably be too busy to see him until it's done."
Nino reached out to pat Jun's hand teasingly. "Don't worry, Jun-kun. I'll send him your regards."
Jun pouted quietly for only a moment longer, then looked up to smile at Nino. "Hey, it works out -- he can keep you company while I'm working."
"Keep me company -- what are you two, my childminders?"
"I know you get lonely when we're not around, you big baby."
Nino reached out to pull Jun by the collar of his shirt until he was leaning across the table, close enough to kiss. "If I get so lonely when you're gone, why don't you give me something to remember you by, hm?"
Jun grinned in response. He'd never been the type to resist a challenge like that.
Nino soon found that kissing Jun like this, with beer in their stomachs and good news on their minds, tasted almost like an apple, refreshingly crisp and mildly sweet. Nino hummed happily into the kiss and pulled away only so that he could rise from his chair and step around the corner of the table, intending to deposit himself right into Jun's lap. He had a feeling that kissing wouldn't be enough for tonight, not if he wasn't going to have Jun to himself like this for a while.
But a sudden tickle in his throat had him pausing. He stepped back and tried to soothe that tickle with a sip of beer, but that just made it grow into a full-on cough.
Jun was looking up at him with narrowed eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just --" He coughed again, holding his hand up against his throat. Where had this come from? "Just a -- frog in my throat --" He broke off with another cough, surprised at the sudden sandpapery feel of his throat and the raspy sound of his voice.
Jun tsked as he stood from his spot. "Hopefully not one of Aiba-san's." He started waving his hands around, summoning over a mug and some water for tea. Nino sat back down and sighed, resigned to not seeing any more action tonight; he knew without having to hear Jun say it that Jun wouldn't be coming near him again if it seemed that he was getting sick.
Nino accepted the steaming cup Jun handed to him, and he even let Jun tug him onto his feet and nudge him along to the bedroom. "Drink that and rest," Jun ordered, maneuvering Nino until he was sitting up on his futon, then tucking the blankets in snugly around his waist and legs. Nino didn't bother complaining about any of it because he really was feeling tired, oddly so. He yawned and tasted his sleepiness like a spoonful of creamy mushroom soup.
Jun must have been truly sad about their missed opportunity, because he actually deigned to lean down and press his lips to the top of Nino's head. "Sleep well, Kazu." By the time Nino opened his eyes again -- when had he closed them? -- Jun was already standing in the doorway, watching him fondly before turning the light off, leaving only Nino's bedside lamp to illuminate the room.
From his futon, Nino listened to the sounds of Jun moving around the loft, turning off all the lights and then locking up as he left. He took another sip of the tea Jun had made for him, but it didn't taste very good -- Jun's medicinal remedies never did -- so he set it on the floor and switched off his light before lying down properly. As he drifted off, he thought to himself that Jun was right about him: he really did get lonely when Jun and Aiba weren't around.
The last thing he thought was how wonderful it would be to lie there with Jun and Aiba sleeping on either side of him.
--
When Nino awoke the next morning, everything seemed normal at first. His throat felt perfectly fine, and he discovered that waking up from a good night's sleep tasted a bit like carrot cake. He showered and went downstairs to open the shop and prepare for the day ahead; he was expecting four pick-ups, and the one slated for the end of the day -- a pretty paper envelope that would hold someone's birthday money -- still needed some finishing touches, so he put that first on his to-do list. The sign in the window flipped from CLOSED to OPEN with a flick of his wrist, and Riisa showed up soon after that. She called a cheery greeting on her way to the back room, where she was working on the custom music box for yesterday's customer, the one she had miraculously been able to keep from storming off. Nino lifted a hand in greeting but said nothing, already focused on going over the musical notes he'd scribbled onto a scrap of parchment. He only needed to add a few bits at the end, and then this order would be perfect.
It wasn't until the first pick-up that he even noticed anything was wrong.
One of his favorite customers, Kiko-chan, came in to pick up a music box she'd ordered a few weeks back for her boyfriend. The box she'd requested opened to reveal a colorful dragon that spun around to the soundtrack of an odd, off-beat tune, one Nino was particularly proud of because all she'd told him was Something a little weird, I think -- he'd like that. When he saw her walking in through the door to pick up her order, he perked up and smiled.
But when he opened his mouth to greet her, no sound came out.
Kiko-chan slowed on her way to the front counter, looking at him quizzically. When he tried again to say something to her, still to no avail, her confused expression changed to one of concern. "Ninomiya-san...?"
Nino opened and closed his mouth uselessly for a few horrifying moments before it finally dawned on him.
His voice -- it was gone.
It wasn't just that he couldn't form words, he quickly discovered; he couldn't hum or cough or even scream, which was especially unfortunate because screaming was exactly what he felt like doing at that moment.
He held up a finger and hoped it conveyed his message of Please wait here as politely as possible, and then he dashed into the back to find Riisa.
After a hastily scrawled explanation (I lost my voice, he wrote onto the first scroll he could find, even though he hadn't lost it, exactly -- he had a pretty good idea about where it went) and a deeply bowed apology to Kiko-chan, Nino was grabbing his jacket from the coat rack and rushing out the front door.
He had to see an airhead about a lizard.
--
Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium was packed with customers, all of them waiting to see Aiba after his long journey and much-publicized return home. Aiba was standing at the front counter, speaking to a woman he kept calling Erika-chan before accepting the lanky, yellow-striped cat she handed him. He held up the cat to look into its face and said, "Yay, time for Dokkun's annual check-up!" Hanging there in Aiba's grasp, the cat grinned wide, showing two rows of big, pearly white teeth.
Aiba grinned back -- and then he caught sight of Nino, and his warm smile went cold at the look on Nino's face. "Nino, are you okay?"
Nino pushed his way past the crowding customers, slammed one fist down onto the counter, pointed with his other hand at his throat, and screamed, What do you think?!
Of course, he didn't actually scream anything. As expected, not even a peep came out of his open mouth. But if the way Aiba's eyes bugged out was any indication, he knew exactly what was going on.
He all but shoved Dokkun back into Erika-chan's arms, yelling out, "I'M SORRY EVERYONE BUT I'M GOING TO NEED YOU TO VACATE THE PREMISES WHILE I TAKE MY LUNCH BREAK."
"But you just opened," someone complained.
Aiba was already coming out from behind the counter to start herding people out. "THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING IN THESE TRYING TIMES. IF I'M STILL ALIVE IN ONE HOUR, YOU'LL ALL GET FREE CATNIP SAMPLES."
--
As it turned out, Kura Dragon venom had a drastic side effect in a very small percentage of the population.
"You see, the magic that mixes up your senses, it's a bit complex, so there's always a chance -- it's really rare, right, but the chances go up for individuals who are a bit -- um -- well, weaker --"
Nino smacked Aiba's arm, perhaps a little harder than usual. Aiba winced and rubbed the spot with his opposite hand, but he kept going.
"-- a small chance that the magic will overwhelm their senses, so to speak, so some things, like your voice, can get, uh... caught in the crossfire."
With a long, careful breath, Nino dragged his hands down his face. There were a dozen questions he wanted to ask -- scream at -- Aiba, and the fact that he couldn't use his voice to do it was only making him more furious. Anger, he noted, tasted a lot like those waxy red chilies Aiba had once brought back from a trip. He took another deep breath, then pointed at the clock on Aiba's wall.
Aiba said, "It's almost nine?"
Nino clenched his fists to keep from punching Aiba again. He pointed, once again, at the clock, then at his throat, and then again at the clock.
"Oh -- you mean, how long will it take?"
Nino nodded.
Aiba took a cautious step backwards. "Well, the thing is -- it's sort of like a cold, you see, so it kind of depends on the person, and you haven't always been super great at getting better, Nino, so for you, maybe... a week? Or two?"
At this point, Nino's fists were clenched so tightly that they'd begun to shake. He tried to ask Aiba if there were anything he could do to make it go by more quickly, but it took a few tries and a series of increasingly obvious gestures, such as holding his hands a foot apart and then shortening the distance to half a foot, miming drinking tea and then flashing a thumbs-up, and pointing with both hands at a first-aid kit for horses that was sitting on one of Aiba's shelves. Aiba finally got it, but Nino was so frustrated by then then the answer finally tipped him over the edge.
"I don't think you can make it go any faster," Aiba said, speaking quietly now. His eyes were starting to water. "You just have to wait it through. Nino, I'm really sorry --"
The mean part of Nino, the part that delighted in pranks and trickery, was viciously glad to see Aiba looking upset for what he'd done, while the kind part of him was thankful he couldn't talk because otherwise he would surely be spitting out insults so scathing that Aiba would be crying for real. He turned around and left without looking back, even as Aiba followed him all the way to the door and begged him not to be angry. Nino had already heard everything he needed to know; there was no point in staying any longer.
--
He went back to his shop, thinking it would do him some good to stay busy, but he realized as soon as he walked in and saw Riisa perkily answering a customer's question that it would be impossible for him to communicate effectively with anyone. Instead, he went to his office and locked the door -- he didn't want to be bothered or have to try and explain just yet what was going on -- and tried to work on some of his back orders. Even that didn't last for long; he was so tense that it was difficult to make his fingers move the way he needed them to, difficult to even think, and he'd never realized before just how much of his time working was spent humming out a melody or sticking his head out the door to ask Riisa what she thought of something.
With as much clarity as he could manage, he grabbed a sheet of parchment and wrote out a note for Riisa. He explained, as best as he could, that he would still be picking up orders to work on from home and that she could come upstairs to fetch him if there were an emergency, but to please consider him as being on vacation for the next two or three days. He read it over, then added, And if Aiba comes by, tell him I moved to the Arctic Circle.
With any luck, Aiba would believe her and go chasing after him.
He handed Riisa the note and the keys to the shop on his way out the door, grateful that she was too busy working with the customer to do anything but accept the note and wave goodbye. He left her and the shop behind, climbing the stairs to his loft and wishing that the spicy taste in his mouth would go away soon.
--
Morning passed into afternoon, afternoon into evening, all without any further incident. As the sun was setting, Nino was still sulking in his living room when he heard a quiet tap on his kitchen window, the one facing Aiba's own loft above Tensai!. He got up to open the curtains, half-expecting to see Aiba clinging to the ledge, but instead he recognized the slinky figure and cute snaggles of Nasu-chan, Aiba's trusty messenger monkey. Nasu-chan was wearing his usual purple aviator helmet and waving a scroll at Nino from the other side of the glass.
With a (silent) sigh, Nino opened the window and accepted the scroll. He was unsurprised to find Aiba's messy handwriting waiting for him when he unraveled it. Can I come over?
Nino took the quill Nasu-chan offered and scribbled out a simple No with such fury that it left a few ink splatters on the parchment. Nasu-chan gave him a gentle thwop on the head for treating his materials so roughly, but he carried the message off nonetheless.
It was only a few minutes before Nasu-chan returned. This time, the message read: Can't we please talk?
Nino rolled his eyes and scrawled out, I can't talk at all thanks to you, remember?
Nasu-chan took the scroll with a huff and turned away once again, his curled tail bobbing behind him.
Nino waited a few minutes for a reply, but this one took longer than the other had. He went back to sitting at his low table in the living room and practicing card tricks. Almost thirty minutes passed before Nasu-chan finally returned. Nino expected some full-page, half-witted apology, but when he took the scroll, it felt oddly light. He unraveled it slowly and found that there was a single, brief line written on it:
I'm sorry.
Nino frowned, considering. He did feel bad for Aiba, who, Nino knew, took things like this very seriously. But he was still upset -- his mouth still hadn't cooled down, no matter how much milk tea he drank -- and he wasn't ready to be kind just yet. He took the quill one last time and wrote, Goodnight, Aiba-chan. He found a cookie for Nasu-chan and handed it to him along with the scroll, thanking him for his hard work, and then locked his window and shhut the curtains as Nasu-chan leapt away, squeaking happily.
Nino finished the last of the milk tea and headed for his bedroom. It was barely even dark outside, but he was already ready for the day to be over, especially if it meant he'd be one step closer to regaining his voice.
--
The next morning, he was woken up by the sound of knocking on his front door.
He dragged himself out of bed, already cringing at the pickly taste of irritation, and cast a quick scrying spell to see through his front door. It was Aiba, standing there with his eyes big and hopeful, holding a tray laden with pastries and freshly cut flowers. Nino considered pretending not to be home -- Aiba was the last person he would want to talk to right then if he could even talk -- but then again, those pastries looked like they were from Oh-chan's...
Aiba called out, "You're watching me through the door, right? Riisa-chan told me you moved to the Arctic Circle, but I know that just means you're sulking up here like a grumpy polar bear!"
Nino opened the door, accepted the tray, handed the flowers back, and slammed the door in Aiba's face. The pastries, he decided, would make an excellent breakfast in bed.
--
Aiba showed up again the next morning, this time with a new tray, some melon bread, and a cup of brightly colored juice that was shooting out rainbow sparkles.
Unlike the previous morning, Nino didn't waste time considering, nor did Aiba; as soon as the door opened, Aiba began pleading. "Nino, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen, can I please make it up to you, how can I get you to forgive me --"
Once again, Nino took the tray and slammed the door. This time, as he walked to the bedroom, he threw a silencing spell over the door so he wouldn't have to hear Aiba as he ate his breakfast.
--
The day after that, Nino woke up extra early just so he could avoid Aiba's morning delivery. He went downstairs and used his spare keys to open the shop, looking for things to tidy up as he waited for Riisa to arrive, but it turned out she was cleaner than he was; the shop might have been even more organized than usual. He milled around and took inventory until Riisa arrived so that he could thank her, with clasped hands and a deep bow, for taking care of the shop in his absence ("No worries, boss, but I better get a raise after this!"), and then he made his way across the Square to Love So Sweet.
Asami, Kasumi, and Satomi were all at the front of the shop, greeting customers and ringing up orders. Jun must have heard about Nino's predicament and shared it with them, because they all teased him with questions he obviously couldn't answer. He was still a bit sore about the whole thing, of course, but it was hard to be mad when they were all lined up in their aprons and smiling at him. They finally gave in and let him through when he made them laugh by using his fingers to mimic having thick eyebrows -- his way of asking about Jun.
In the very back, past the curtain that separated the main floor from the storeroom and employee changing room, was Jun's workshop. Jun was bent over a table in the corner, grating lemon zest into a little dish, and didn't react when Nino opened the door. Nino walked in, closed the door, swept some recipe books and mixing bowls out of the way, and took a seat on the counter all before Jun even noticed he'd come in. When he finally did, he nearly dropped the grater he was holding. "Ah, Kazu! I didn't hear you."
Nino shrugged and pointed to his throat as if to imply that his silence was the reason he was able to sneak in, but he suspected Jun had been so deep in work mode that he wouldn't have noticed even if Nino had run in and burst into song.
Jun spared him a brief look of sympathy. "Aiba-san told me about what happened." Nino had a moment to wonder when and why Jun and Aiba had spoken, but in the next instant Jun was crossing the room, picking up a spoon along the way and nearly shoving it in Nino's mouth. "Here, taste this."
It was milk chocolate, still a little warm, with some kind of citrusy flavor mixed in. Nino wasn't a big fan of sweets, but he knew that someone who was would love this. He smiled and gave Jun a thumbs-up.
Jun beamed at the praise, then took the spoon back and went to a different table where he started pouring some sort of chocolate mix into silicone molds that were waiting on a freezer tray.
Jun kept busy, and without him striking up any sort of conversation, they were left in silence. Nino didn't mind all that much, because he liked watching Jun work: he appreciated the way Jun's waist looked in his black apron, the concentration on Jun's face as he tempered the chocolate, the way the muscles in his arm and wrist stood out when he reached to sprinkle gold flakes just so on top of a row of bonbons. He especially enjoyed watching Jun's fingers dance as he cast his glimmers and charms into each array of chocolates. There was one set that shimmered in shades of pink and periwinkle as they sat there on the plate, one shaped like ballerinas that pirouetted elegantly, one that crackled ticklishly in Nino's mouth when Jun fed him a bite.
Still, even Jun and his fanciful treats could get a little boring when all Nino was capable of was watching. One of the things he'd always enjoyed about the time he spent with Jun was the conversations they had, the teasing jabs they traded, and he couldn't do any of that now. Even when Jun brought him samples of his creations, Nino felt grateful but useless; he didn't have the distinguished palate -- or the voice -- to give Jun the kind of feedback he was looking for, and besides, after the fourth or fifth candy, his stomach started to protest. Sweets really weren't his thing.
There was a filmy, subtly unpleasant taste in his mouth, like milk that hadn't quite soured yet but was well on its way.
The next time Jun came over, Nino lowered the hand offering him chocolate and kissed Jun's mouth instead. Jun returned the kiss, holding his hand tenderly. Then he pulled away with a smile and went back to work.
Nino waited a few moments, not moving from his out-of-the-way spot on the counter. When he was certain Jun was back in work more, he slipped off the counter and out through the door, as silent as when he'd come in.
--
All the chocolate had made him hungry for real food, so he headed to Oh-chan's Bakery. He'd had enough pastries these last few days, but Ohno was known for occasionally closing up shop to go on fishing expeditions, and he always brought back some of what he'd caught. Maybe he'd have some sashimi to offer.
On the way, Nino passed Nazodi Phials & Philtres, where he peeked through the window and saw Kitagawa and Sakurai standing together over a bubbling cauldron. He watched as Kitagawa sprinkled something into the pot, stirring gently until smoke rose out of it in a pretty, red-and-purple mandala pattern; when Sakurai tried the same thing, the smoke came out dark and shapeless and singed one of his eyebrows. As Kitagawa turned away, laughing, she saw Nino through the window and smiled at him, waving.
Nino always enjoyed stopping in to chat with them, but, of course, now wasn't the time. He wasn't sure which imaginary scenario would have been worse: having to try and explain without words what had happened, or them already knowing and looking at him with amusement or pity as soon as he walked in.
He waved back, polite as ever, and continued walking.
When he got to Oh-chan's, Ohno was slumped over the front counter, snoozing as he usually did between the breakfast and lunch rushes, but the chiming of the bell over the door woke him up. "Ah, Nino-chan," he mumbled around a yawn. Nino waved, walking up to the counter, and Ohno said, "I heard what happened."
Nino sighed, then shrugged and leaned down, pointedly inspecting the pastries on the display, and then the special compartment at the end of the counter that showcased the fish Ohno had recently caught.
Undeterred, Ohno continued sleepily, "Aiba-chan came in today. He asked me to make something for you. He seemed pretty upset, but you know him, he was smiling anyway."
Nino held back a scowl, swallowing the sour taste of it, and pointed at a slab of hamachi.
For the few minutes it took for Ohno to prepare the food, Nino was happy to sit in silence with him, because with Ohno, silence never felt awkward. Nino watched his delicate hands slice the fish, handle the rice, pour the soy sauce. But when he slid the plate in front of Nino and then sat back down in his chair, already starting to slump over the counter as if he were about to fall asleep again, Nino decided that he'd had enough silence for the day. He pointed down at the fish, then to Ohno, and mimed reeling in a fishing pole.
Ohno understood immediately. "Ah, yeah, I caught it yesterday evening," he said. Before Nino could even think of a way to prompt him further, he was launching into a lengthy, absurdly detailed story, along with various meandering footnotes, about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of last night's fishing trip. Nino listened contentedly as he ate, thankful for the distraction and the way the fresh fish covered up the lingering sourness in his mouth.
He stayed with Ohno until the story was finished, long after he'd finished his meal, but when the lunch rush started to trickle in, he bid his farewell. He considered going back home, but he knew there wasn't much there for him to do except work, which he wasn't quite ready for. He wandered the Square aimlessly for a while, until Ohno's story had all but disappeared from his mind and all he could taste was the pallid flavor of loneliness. All he could think about was the way he missed talking to people, missed running his own business, missed joking with Riisa. The way he missed Jun. And maybe, just maybe, underneath all of that, he might have been missing Aiba a bit too, but he wasn't yet ready to forgive. Instead, he turned around and made his way back to Love So Sweet.
In the back room, Jun was still working as busily as he had been that morning, but this time he noticed when Nino walked through the door. "You left earlier," he said, setting down a mixing bowl he'd been carrying from one table to another.
Nino shrugged, gesturing around the workshop.
Jun sighed, looking down at his hands. He was fiddling with a loose thread on his apron. "I know, I've been so distracted. I'm sorry, Kazu."
Nino had always been good at mending. He crossed the floor and worked a quick spell on the thread, watching as it slithered through the gentle grasp of Jun's fingertips and back where it belonged, as good as new. Jun looked down and gave a little tug on the fabric, then looked back up with a smile. When he grasped Nino's hands, Nino leaned up on his tiptoes for a kiss and shivered happily when Jun granted it. Jun's mouth tasted better than any confectionery.
He pulled away to throw a spell over his shoulder, locking the door to the workshop, but when he turned back, Jun was watching him with concern in his eyes. "Kazu..." At the sound of it, Nino's shoulder slumped. He knew what Jun was going to say before the words even came out of his mouth. "I'm sorry, but... I really do have to work..."
Nino heaved a silent sigh. It had been worth an attempt, at least.
He left Jun to finish work and went straight home, not stopping to go anywhere or visit anyone. He passed Kitagawa and Sakurai's potions shop, passed Ohno's bakery, passed Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium. He didn't even spare a glance into his own shop, where Riisa was surely managing just fine without him. He'd left Jun because he hadn't wanted to be a bother, but the farther away he was, the more the bitter taste of guilt warped into the spicy bite of anger. He was going through this alone, and Jun couldn't even spare a few minutes -- couldn't even think to ask how he was doing?
He stormed up the stairway to his loft, not bothering to be quiet. He relished the sound of his stomping feet and the knowledge that Riisa and the customers could probably hear it down in the shop. It was just about the only way he could be heard right now, after all.
When he made it to the top of the stairs, he found a blue bakery box sitting near his front door: the special item Aiba had ordered from Oh-chan's. But when Nino knelt down to lift the lid, there were no pastries, no melon bread. It was a hamburger. Handwritten neatly across the inside of the lid was a message from Aiba:
Nino,
It's unfair of me to ask you to hear me out when I'm the reason you can't even tell me how you feel. Please enjoy this delicious apology! I know you're probably sick of pastries, so I had Oh-chan make up something special for you. (I hope you don't mind that I also told him what happened. I tried to keep it a secret but it just slipped out!!!)
You know where to find me when you're ready to talk.
- Masaki
Nino rolled his eyes as he read the last part. Ready to talk? Aiba-chan, you knucklehead. Even when he was apologizing for putting his foot in his mouth, he was putting his foot in his mouth.
Still, Nino was smiling as he scooped up the box and headed inside. His own mouth didn't taste quite so sour or spicy anymore.
--
He slept in the next morning, but when he did finally get out of bed, he went downstairs to greet Riisa in the shop and pick up the stack of orders that had accumulated in his absence. "Still voiceless, boss?" she asked as he walked in. He responded in the affirmative with a salute, which she returned, and then she said in a very serious voice, "I'll keep holding down the fort! But, seriously, think about that raise."
After so many days of sulking and feeling useless, it felt good to sit in his office and be creative again. The flavors of the music changed depending on the project he was working on; the celebratory ones tended to taste summery, like strawberries and watermelon slices, while the somber ones tasted more like dark, hoppy beer. He got so caught up in working that before he even realized it, it was already mid-afternoon, and he'd made it through almost the entire stack, charming each composition into a scroll so that all Riisa would have to do was transfer the magic into the appropriate items.
When all the scrolls had been rolled up and tagged, he deposited them into a box labeled OK!, where Riisa would know what to do with them. His day was nearly half gone, his body was a little stiff from sitting hunched over his piano for hours, but he felt good for having tackled something he'd been putting off for days -- and that hamburger-flavored sense of accomplishment gave him the final push he needed to take on something else he'd been avoiding.
Tensai! Magical Animal Emporium was much less crowded than it had been the other day, but it was no more quiet. There were a few patrons inside, holding forest-green shopping baskets and perusing the aisles, but the noise was all coming from the front counter. From their respective spots on a little stand with three color-coded branch, three songbirds were chirping boisterously as Aiba directed them with a miniature conductor's baton. One bird had powder-blue feathers, another was red, and the taller, slightly more plump bird sitting between them had feathers that were pitch black. As Aiba conducted and offered encouragement, the blue and red birds traded off twittering as background to the black one's mournful wails.
Aiba didn't notice Nino until he'd made it up to the counter, but when he did, he threw his arms into the air and shouted with joy, cutting off the birds' song. "You're not avoiding me anymore!"
Nino gave a nonchalant shrug, but he suspected Aiba could tell that he was trying to suppress a smile. After being friends for so long, Aiba was usually pretty good at that sort of thing.
The black bird squawked indignantly at being interrupted, but Aiba just shushed it and said to Nino, "I'm in the middle of giving these three their vocal lesson. We'll be done in about twenty minutes -- want to hang out then?"
Nino's eyebrows jumped up as surprise sparked across his taste buds like crackly rock candy. He motioned around the store, at the people still browsing the shelves.
Luckily, Aiba seemed to grasp his meaning on the first try. "It's okay, I can close a little early today. Oh, I'll make you dinner!"
Nino couldn't remember the last time Aiba had fed him for so many days in a row, but he wasn't about to complain. He'd let Aiba take care of him if it made Aiba feel better, and besides, he'd never been one to turn down anything free.
Through a series of gestures and guesses, they made plans to meet at Nino's. Forty minutes later, Aiba was standing at Nino's front door with a bag of groceries held in his hand and a small, orange-furred dog panting at his feet.
Nino gave his best quizzical look.
"Oh, he's my oven timer," Aiba explained as Maru-chan puffed up proudly.
Once they were all inside, Aiba immediately got to work in the kitchen, laying out all the ingredients for mapo tofu as Maru-chan curled up on a cushion Nino set out for him. Nino felt a pang of bitterness when he opened his mouth to start chatting and remembered that no sound would come out, but it passed quickly as Aiba started up a conversation all on his own, telling Nino about his trip abroad and all the exciting creatures and people he'd met. He occasionally interrupted himself with interjections such as "Now, Nino, I know what you're thinking, but let me explain" or "I know what you would have said, but I didn't want to be rude, you see!", and it made Nino laugh every time. It made him realize just how much he'd been missing his friend, not only these past few days but for the past four months. The Tacchon incident that had marred Aiba's return didn't change that, and now that the dust had settled, all Nino wanted to do was tell him, I forgive you, it isn't that big of a deal after all, I'm sorry I got so upset -- I'm just glad to have you back.
Even without being able to say it, he thought Aiba probably knew anyway; Aiba was his best friend, after all. Having him back, being able to listen to his dumb stories and laugh with him, even if it was silent laughter, felt like home and tasted like freshly baked milk bread, soft and comforting. He didn't even mind when Aiba launched into the story of how he found Tacchon the lizard snoozing inside a drum in some foreign marketplace. "He was in there with a bunch of apple cores -- apparently he'd stolen them from a vendor down the way and was sleeping off his feast. How cute!"
The conversation stretched on until, just after Aiba announced that the food would be ready soon, there was a knock at the front door.
Nino used his scrying spell to see that it was Jun, looking a little bashful and holding a small, violet-colored box. Nino briefly entertained the thought of giving Jun the same treatment he'd given Aiba the other day, but he was in a good mood, so he decided to excuse himself from the kitchen so that he could greet Jun in the entryway.
"Hey," Jun said, already flushed around the apples of his cheeks. He held out the package with both hands, the polite gesture somewhat incongruous with the words he said next: "Sorry for being a dick yesterday."
Nino took the package with a grin and left the door open as he headed for the kitchen. Jun followed him inside, shutting the door quietly behind them, and then stopped once he got into the kitchen and saw Aiba standing at the stove. "Oh, did I interrupt?"
At the sound of Jun's voice, Aiba turned around from where he was stirring something, and his smile grew even bigger. "Matsujun!"
Jun raised his hand in awkward greeting, and then was nearly bowled over as Aiba rushed forward to envelop him in a hug. When they pulled apart, Jun's blush had grown even darker.
At the table, Nino was already opening the box Jun had given him. Inside was a three-by-three arrangement of bonbons, dark chocolate with chunky sea salt sprinkled on top. "There are roasted almonds inside," Jun told him. "Not too sweet."
Nino picked one up and ate half, delighted to find that the chocolate really wasn't too sweet, just as Jun had said, and that the salt and almonds combined to make the overall effect deliciously savory. He ate the second half and gave Jun a thumbs-up for his efforts.
Aiba was peering into the box, still grinning. "A new recipe for the shop?"
Jun had his hands clasped together behind his back, the barest hint of a smile pulling at his mouth. "These are just for Nino."
Nino couldn't help it: he beamed in response, elated by the thought of Jun spending time on him after making such a fuss about being busy. He might have kissed Jun if Aiba weren't there, so instead he shoved another chocolate into his mouth, the taste of it competing with the flavor of his bashful happiness, luxurious and rich like the meat-filled pasta sauces Jun cooked for him sometimes.
When Maru-chan sniffed the air and started yapping from his cushion, that meant dinner was ready. Aiba invited Jun to stay and have some, but Jun declined politely, stammering a bit before clearing his throat and explaining that he needed a good night of sleep since tomorrow was the big day. Nino walked him to the door and waved enthusiastically to make up for the fact that he couldn't thank Jun or wish him luck, but judging from the way Jun smiled as he descended the stairs, Nino thought he got the message.
He returned to the kitchen to find that Aiba had set the table and started filling their plates. As they ate, Aiba continued to talk about his trip, but after a few minutes, he suddenly asked, "How is Jun-kun doing?"
Nino appreciated that Aiba was still trying to hold a real conversation with him, even if all he could do in return was nod or shake his head or gesture in a way that he hoped would communicate his feelings. For this particular question, he put his palms together and tucked them under his chin, closing his eyes briefly to mimic sleep: Jun was busy and exhausted.
Aiba nodded, seeming to understand. He chewed his food for a while, and then asked, "And what about the two of you together?"
For this, Nino put on a smile and nodded firmly: they were doing great.
Aiba looked genuinely happy about that. He opened his mouth as if he were about to ask another question, but he closed it just as quickly and changed the subject back to his trip. Nino couldn't think of a way to mime No, go back, what were you thinking about?, so he listened as Aiba discussed the pros and cons of switching vampire bats to iron-heavy vegetarian diets.
Like Jun's not-too-sweet chocolates, Aiba's mapo tofu was delicious. Nino tried to convey his gratitude by eating as much as he could, which wasn't much considering he didn't eat a lot anyway and already had so much chocolate in his stomach, but he did his best, and when they were done, he saved the leftovers in a plastic container to show Aiba that he would be happy to finish it later. Aiba took over cleaning, chatting idly as he stacked the dishes in the sink and filled it with water, then summoned some sudsy, animated sponges to do the rest. Nino was feeling sated, from his comfortably full stomach and his happy heart, and from the thoughts that were sneaking once again to the forefront of his consciousness: what would it be like to have Aiba and Jun together -- to be with both of them at once instead of having to switch back and forth like this?
But Jun had chosen to leave them alone for the night, and though Nino didn't harbor any negative feelings about that, he also wasn't going to concern himself with thinking about Jun right then. He had Aiba in front of him, standing there in his kitchen for the first time in months, and he was going to take advantage of it while he could.
The kiss caught Aiba off guard, but he returned it with the sort of passion that had clearly been building up over the nearly half a year he'd been away. They had exchanged a few rushed, giggly kisses that first day he'd been back, but that hadn't been enough, hadn't been the same; now they were alone, and they had all the time in the world.
Aiba pulled back after a long, breathless moment. He reached up to brush his thumb along Nino's jaw and asked huskily, "Does this mean you officially forgive me?"
Nino bopped him over the head, and then went back to kissing him.
It started off slow, but they sped up before long, doing their best to reacquaint themselves with how it felt to be together like this. Aiba whispered between kisses, "Nino, Nino, I missed you so much," and for the briefest moment, Nino's heart ached with the knowledge that he couldn't say in words that he'd missed Aiba too. He realized an instant later that he probably wouldn't even if he could, so he said it instead in the way he worked his fingers into Aiba's hair and his tongue into Aiba's mouth.
After a brief interlude that involved opening the front door so Maru-chan could scurry home ("Don't worry, he knows how to unlock the door"), they retreated to the bedroom. Aiba busied himself with removing Nino's clothes piece by piece and saying as he went, "You know, I'm not sure if you ever realized this, but usually you're pretty noisy when we're together." Nino was ready to smack him over the head again, but Aiba caught his hand and laced their fingers together as he continued, "No, it's a good thing! It lets me know when I'm doing something right."
Nino felt his face grow hot, mirroring the insistent flavor of fresh-from-the-pot ramen, still too scalding to eat but too fragrant to ignore. He was naked by then, Aiba having successfully flung his clothes to various corners of the room, but what made him feel even more exposed than that was the way he couldn't defend himself against Aiba's teasing or his obvious, unashamed affection. He felt vulnerable and oddly shy, but at the same time, he felt completely safe with Aiba there, especially when Aiba pulled him closer and closer until they were pressed together all along their bodies.
Aiba leaned down to nip at the corner of Nino's jaw and whispered, "I guess that means I'll just have to be extra attentive this time."
When he laid Nino down onto the futon, Nino's heart was already hammering a quick rhythm against his ribcage. He gasped soundlessly as Aiba trailed kisses down his chest and stomach, and when Aiba took Nino's hands and placed them on his shoulders, whispering against Nino's skin, "This is how you can tell me what you want," it made Nino shudder. He was happy to oblige, letting his fingers slide into Aiba's hair as Aiba shimmied his way down the mattress to fit perfectly between Nino's spread thighs.
Sex with Aiba wasn't new by any means, but Nino had never experienced it quite like this: without his own voice in his ears, he could hear more clearly the way his movements made Aiba sigh or moan, and with the magic at work, there was an entire new layer of sensation he'd never even dreamed of. Aiba's mouth on him tasted oddly like wasabi, overwhelming his senses and threatening to make his eyes water. Aiba's fingers inside of him tasted like sake, the way the first sip always hit hard and then smoothed out as his whole body relaxed from the warmth of it.
And the orgasm, he would have to remember to tell Aiba later, tasted like biting into a sweet, sun-ripened orange.
--
Aiba spent the night on Nino's futon, wrapped around him like he was trying to make up for all the nights he'd spent somewhere else. As Aiba's deep breaths lulled him to sleep, Nino's mind drifted hazily, once again, to thoughts of Aiba and Jun together. He pondered how incredible it would be to see Aiba's enthusiasm and cheerful attentiveness directed towards Jun's intensity and his penchant for being unfailingly thorough. It had always been so clear to Nino that they were interested in each other, that they had so much more than just him in common, and he thought he was finally up for the challenge of helping them realize it. He was just in time, too; he had a feeling the Summer Love Love Glitter Party, after which he knew Jun would be elated and bubbly, was going to be his perfect chance.
It would be difficult without his voice, but after the past several days, he was becoming accustomed to expressing his desires using unconventional means. This would just be one more opportunity to do so.
Part 2