I'll always come back to you
Pairing: Ohmiya, Matsumiya, hint of Jun/?
Rating: R to be safe, but more like PG-13 mentions of sex though, non-graphic
Genre: Romance, Angst, little fluff
Disclaimer: I don't own them
Summary: A few years ago Ohno broke up with Nino and Nino had no idea why. Three years later, they meet again unexpectedly on a date they had set aside earlier in their relationship and questions arise about the past. Nino is famous now, and Ohno's just ordinary, but will the same feelings they had reawaken?
Nino leaned against the railing of the Tokyo Tower and looked down at his watch. It was 7:49 pm, Ohno wasn’t coming. Not that he wanted him to come, he hadn’t seen the other in three years, but there was something sad about him not coming. It was like a slap in the face to Nino that Ohno didn’t bother to show up, but then again their relationship hadn’t meant a whole lot to Ohno so he was wrong in supposing that Ohno would remember the promise that he had made to Nino five years ago to the day. Besides, maybe his not showing up with by the catalyst that Nino needed to finally get over Ohno, not that he wasn’t over him, it was just that there was no closure.
They found themselves standing on the top of Tokyo Tower shivering in the cool autumn breeze. Ohno wrapped his arms around Nino’s body and pulled him close, he convinced Nino to allow him to hold him close under the guise of keeping warm, but in reality, both of them knew that it was just an excuse to hold Nino close to him.
It was embarrassing, really, that after all the years of living in Tokyo, Ohno had never been up to the top. On the eve of their first anniversary together, Nino finally convinced the other to come up to the top. “This is my favorite place in all of Tokyo.” Nino murmured as he pressed back against Ohno’s broad, chiseled chest. “You can see all of Tokyo up here.” Ohno surveyed the area and was in awe of the illuminated Tokyo that shined at night time.
“Exactly five years from now, I’m going to bring you up here and ask you to spend the rest of your life with me.” Nino was thankful that he was turned the other way as Ohno whispered the words into his ear.
“If you ask me ‘I’ll say yes’.” Nino blushed at his brazen statement, but Ohno’s heart leapt for joy at that promise that Nino made.
That promise was made before Nino became famous. As the chilly breeze made him shiver like that night and he remembered the feeling of Ohno’s body pressed up against his. He hadn’t felt the warmth in over three years, but even before that Ohno had been drifting away from him. He looked down at his watch 8:00 pm. He sighed and turned around to leave. Ohno wasn’t coming.
He shoved his hands into his coat pockets and buried his face into his scarf so that other people wouldn’t recognize him. As he turned the corner he bumped into someone knocking him on the ground. “I’m so sorry.” Nino apologized and stretched out his hand to help the man up. When the man turned his head, Nino gasped and immediately retracted his hand. The man pushed himself up off the floor and stood up next to Nino holding his gaze. “Ninomiya-kun.”
“Ohno-san.” Nino replied stiffly and Ohno visibly flinched at the formality of Nino’s address.
“What are you doing here?” Nino asked bitterly.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d come.” Ohno said evasively.
“What are you doing here?” Nino repeated coldly.
“I wanted to see you, but I wasn’t sure if you’d be here.” Ohno said sadly. Nino was acting coldly, but he wasn’t expecting anything else after what had happened between them.
“What the hell?” Nino hissed lowly so as to not attract attention. “I haven’t heard from you in over three years, and you made it perfectly clear to me that you didn’t want me in your life and you have the audacity to say such shit. Did you forget that day?”
Nino had waited for Ohno for hours. He’d said he’d be home around 6:00 pm and it was already 10:35. Every few minutes he checked his cell phone but there were no missed calls or unopened text messages and Nino was beginning to get worried. A little after 11 pm Ohno returned home and shut the door behind him. “Okaeri!” Nino greeted wondering where Ohno had been, but nevertheless went to embrace him. He figured that things at work had forced him to stay over, he, of course, knew better than anyone. There had been countless days when he had returned home and unthinkable hours because a modeling job ran over or they needed to reshoot a few things. When Nino approached Ohno, he noticed the other looked abnormally stoic. Nino went to wrap his arms around the other but Ohno brushed his hands away and pushed his way past Nino.
He started gathering a few things here and there, books, some clothes, and Nino was utterly confused. “We’re through.” Ohno declared with his back turned away from Nino as he gathered his things.
“What?!” Nino exclaimed shellshocked by what Ohno had said. “No, it’s not true!” Nino protested tears spilling from his eyes. When Ohno packed his fishing gear, Nino knew that it was true.
“Why?” Nino begged, “Is it something I did? If it is I’ll apologize over and over, we can go get help. I’ll cut down my work hours. Please.” Nino reached to hold on to Ohno’s wrist pleading for them to talk about it, but Ohno jerked his arm away with so much strength that Nino fell to the floor.
“I’m sick of you.” Ohno hissed and his words cut into Nino’s heart. “I don’t want to be with you anymore.” And then he said something that he knew was the only thing that would keep Nino from chasing after him. “I hate you. You’re an eyesore.”
Nino didn’t know what to say or do. Ohno had just broken his heart. He didn’t even have the strength to try and stop him anymore and all he could do was watch Ohno leave. As the door slammed shut he ran up and pounded against it, sobbing hysterically. Where did they go wrong?
Ohno blushed and looked down ashamedly as he recalled what he had said that day. “You’re fine now.” Ohno said bitterly and Nino looked at him horrified. He would have said something had two girls not spotted him and approached the two.
“Ninomiya-sama, can we get an autograph and take a picture with you?” Nino sighed, he didn’t want to but he couldn’t risk bad press getting out. He forced a smiled and signed a piece of paper that they had offered towards him and watched as they asked someone nearby to take their picture. From the corner of his eye Nino saw Ohno slinking away as a crowd grew around him.
When he was finally able to break free from the throng of people Ohno was gone and as much as he hated that man, questions began to enter his mind. Why did he show up? What did that me ‘You’re fine now.”
He headed home and walked up the few flights that led to his apartment. The lights were turned off, but when Nino tripped in the hallway over a pair of shoes, he knew that he wasn’t alone. He headed into his bedroom and shut the door and when the door clicked shut, Nino felt a pair of arms wrap around him. He felt warm breaths on the back of his neck and felt the warmth of a bare chest being pressed against his clothed back and for a split second of momentary confusion he thought that it was Ohno. He felt a kiss press onto the nape of his neck as the hands began to work their way undoing the buttons of his shirt and pulling the fabric off of him. “Okaeri.” A voice whispered seductively in his ear. Jun. “Tadaima.” He replied and turned his head so that his lips captured Jun’s.
In a smaller, shabbier apartment in a much darker side of Tokyo Ohno greeted his roommates: Sho and Aiba, and excused himself to his room. The other two shared a glance at Ohno’s gloomy mood and knew that it could only be caused by one thing: Nino.
In the privacy of his own room, he gently held up a picture of him and Nino before he had become famous. They were only kids at the time but already they were together. In the picture, Nino was pressing a kiss to Ohno’s cheek as he looked into the camera lens and grinned. They were both so happy at the time, that was all before Nino had been scouted on the street. “Omedotou, Nino.” Ohno said gingerly as he trailed his fingers across the picture. “You’re finally happy.” Ohno smiled bitterly as he realized that it was the last time that he’d ever see Nino again, up close like that. From now on he’d resign himself to looking at Nino from away.
When he went to bed that evening his dreams were haunted by memories of that day when Nino came home announcing that he’d been scouted.
“Satoshi!!!!” Nino had yelled as he ran into the home that they shared and leapt onto an unsuspecting Ohno tackling him to the floor.
“Nani?” Ohno asked as he looked at Nino’s beaming face on top of him.
“I got the audition.” Nino leaned down and kissed Ohno passionately and Ohno responded. They lay like that on the floor kissing and running their hands down each other’s body expressively until they had lost their breath and needed to separate.
Nino fished out a card from his pocket and explained to Ohno that it was from the photographer that he was going to be working with for his first modeling job. Nobody could be sure who was more ecstatic that day, Ohno or Nino. They had had many conversations about Nino trying to make it as a model and eventually an actor and Ohno was the only one in his life, when after having shared these dreams with him, didn’t laugh. Instead Ohno patiently encouraged him and after failed auditions would always scoop him up and cradle him while he cried, mourning a missed opportunity.
That night after several feverish and passionate sessions of lovemaking, Nino leaned over a picked up a magazine that was lying on the nightstand. He scooted over to Ohno who looked at what Nino was pointing to. “See him. In a few years I’m going to be just like him.” Nino promised Ohno and Ohno took the magazine away from him and folded it up to pull him into an embrace and kissed him. But before the magazine folded Ohno saw the name of the model that Nino had idolize. Matsumoto Jun.
Nino woke up in a cold sweat gasping for breath. He sat up and pushed the covers off of himself. It had been a while since he had last dreamt about Ohno breaking up with him, but the memory was ever so clear. He pushed the covers off of himself and stood up, walking over to the balcony. In the process, he woke Jun up and after a couple of minutes of gazing up at the sky Jun joined him and kissed his shoulder. “Did you have a nightmare again?” Jun asked. Their relationship had been plagued with Nino waking up in the middle of the night with the same nightmare. Though Nino never told him what it was, Jun was able to guess from the bits and pieces that Nino had called out at the beginning. When they were first starting out about two and a half years ago, Nino woke up paralyzed and sobbing each time he’d have these nightmares, now he no longer woke up in tears, but the nightmares were still strong enough that they made him get out of bed. While Jun was able to fall back to sleep, Nino wasn’t able to. That night was agonizing as he replayed the events that had unfolded at the Tokyo Tower and the night that Ohno broke his heart. He should be over him by now, but things just weren’t adding up.
The next day, he had off but Jun didn’t so he found himself walking towards Aiba’s apartment, or where Aiba used to live, he had no idea if Aiba still lived there, but he knew that was the best way that he could contact Ohno. He needed answers, things had been going so well and then out of the blue Ohno dumped him and after he showed up at Tokyo Tower, Nino was left completely confused by Ohno’s actions. He passed a billboard with his and Jun’s faces plastered on it posing shirtless on a couch, suggestively. By now it was hardly a secret that he and Jun were dating, in fact that was probably one of the reasons why he did get as many jobs as he did now days. Photographers and advertisers always seemed to find ways to exploit their relationship; not that Jun minded, and Nino didn’t mind working with Jun, it was just the fact that their relationship had seemed to become fodder for entertainment.
He reached what he thought was Aiba’ s apartment and knocked on the door. When the door opened, Aiba didn’t answer, but another man who he had never seen before. In obvious recognition the man gaped at him and stuttered after Nino asked if Aiba still lived there. “Y-yes, he’s just inside.” The other man ushered him in and called for Aiba still looking Nino up and down. “I’m Sakurai Sho. It’s nice to meet you.” Sho shook Nino’s hand in awe having heard so much about Nino, but never realizing that the man that Aiba and Ohno had talked about was Ninomiya Kazunari.
“Ninomiya-kun.” Aiba greeted warmly and hugged his friend. He ushered him to take a seat in the chair across from the sofa where Sho and Aiba were sitting.
“I came to ask about Ohno.” Both Sho and Aiba raised their eyebrows in surprise. “Why did he break up with me? You know don’t you?” He asked accusatorily.
“I do, and it wasn’t what he said. He told me the cruel things that he told you and I know how much that must have hurt you. But he didn’t mean it. He didn’t mean any of it.”
“Why, then?” Nino choked out, “Why did he break up with me?”
“I don’t think that I should be the one to tell you that.” Aiba replied sadly, he stood up and Nino followed his movement as he went to the keybowl and fished out a copper key which he held out to Nino. “Here’s this. It’s the key for Ohno’s gallery in Shibuya. You should go there around 9:00 pm tonight. I think a lot of your questions will be answered there.”
Nino stayed around for some idle chatter and after Sho got over the fact that Nino was Ninomiya Kazunari, Nino found his presence pleasant and a nice addition to the Aiba-Ohno clan. Aiba offered to let Nino stay for dinner, but Nino departed early and headed for the address that Aiba had given him.
He bought a hat and sunglasses to conceal his face and entered the well-populated gallery that now belonged to Ohno. He entered a crowd of well-dressed people who glided along the walls of the gallery pointing at some of the paintings. Nino recognized a few that Ohno had painted when they were together, but they were some that dated back that he didn’t recognize.
The woman on his right commented to the other people that she was with, “The artist must have felt inferior to someone. The person that he painted is much higher up on painting and much larger from the perspective.” Nino looked at the painting to see what the woman was describing. He didn’t know much about art, when they had lived together and Ohno had asked his opinions on things. He mostly just replied that he liked or disliked them, more liked than disliked, but hearing the woman’s commentary gave him insight into Ohno’s paintings and perhaps into Ohno himself as they walked around the gallery.
There were ones with somber colors and others with more vibrant ones, but upon noting the dates of the more morose paintings, they were all after their break-up. At the very end of the gallery, the woman commentated, “This was obviously somebody who the artist really loved.” But when Nino saw the painting, it took his breath away from him. There was no reason for the woman to say anything, the painting said it all. From the angle that the painting was created, the man’s face was obscured, but from the contours and detailing from the back, Nino knew that the figure was him. In the picture he was glowing, from the angle that it was painted, a part of a broad smile could be seen from the man’s visage, his visage. He was lying in bed, on his stomach, with just the sheet wrapped around his waist to give him some dignity.
His bare back came out from under the sheets and Ohno had captured the way his arms propped him up and the happiness that Nino exuded at that moment. Nino saw himself in that picture and he was beautiful. He had never seen the finished painting before, but he remembered the circumstances that had surrounded it.
“Okaeri,” Nino had perked up at hearing Ohno’s voice call out “Tadaima” and bounded for the door embracing his lover as he hung his coat up on one of the hooks by the doorway. Nino gently turned Ohno’s head and planted a kiss on his lip. “You won’t believe you I get to work with in a week!” Before Ohno could ask, Nino exclaimed, “Matsumoto Jun, the model.”
Ohno beamed and picked Nino up and spun him around. “Hontou ni?” Nino leaned down and kissed his boyfriend and Ohno carried him to their bedroom. Their fingers fumbled at each other’s clothes trying to extract themselves from them as quickly as possible. Their fingers intertwined and Ohno gently pressed into Nino, both beaming as they celebrated the news that Nino had just received. There were no words needed as they came together and Nino rested himself on Ohno’s chest.
“You were the first person that I wanted to tell.” Nino said and Ohno’s heart leapt at his boyfriend’s words.
“I love you so much, Kazu.” Ohno kissed him over and over again until they both fell asleep on each other. When Nino woke up the next morning, he looked over and Ohno was already awake chewing on his lips, as if he was pondering something.
“What?” Nino asked worried.
“Nothing.” Ohno blushed and turned his head away from Nino. He sat up straight and gently turned his head towards Ohno.
“You can tell me anything you know, right?” Ohno turned a bright red and mumbled something under his breath. Nino gently, patiently stroked Ohno’s hair. “What is it?”
“Can I paint you?” Ohno asked embarrassed and not able meet Nino’s gaze.
“Is that it?” Nino chuckled and Ohno ducked his head under the covers. “Of course you can!” Nino grinned and pulled the covers off of Ohno’s face. Ohno got out of bed, not bothering to put on clothes and moved his easel, brushes and paints in the room. By then Nino had propped himself up on his forearms while waiting for Ohno to return and when he heard his lover enter he went to turn around, but Ohno stopped him.
“You’re fine like that.” Ohno said, and Nino froze accustomed for modeling jobs to take on awkward positions, thought this one was hardly the worst.
As he tried to stay as still as possible, and talked to Ohno while he heard brush strokes swipe across the canvas. “So what am I now, your muse?” Nino joked, not being able to see Ohno’s face.
“You always were.” Ohno replied seriously and Nino had to will himself not to look back at Ohno’s expression, though it was probably good since he had turned beet red. Nino turned the conversation onto his upcoming job and the theme that they had set forth for him and Jun and Ohno listened patiently. After a few hours spent like that, Ohno collected his things and moved them to the room they’d shelled out to be his art studio, the one room where Nino was forbidden to go. When Ohno returned to spend the rest of the day as a lazy day in bed, Nino asked when he would be able to see it.
“When it’s finished.” Ohno replied shyly and hugged and kissed Nino over and over and over again. Nino never saw that picture finished because five months later Ohno broke up with him.
Seeing that image of himself and remembering that day made tears spring to Nino’s eyes and he practically ran out of the gallery before the tears overflowed and he was left with more questions than even. Walking through that gallery made him realize how little he knew about the man that he had supposedly loved. Ohno had felt inferior to someone, was it him? Why was that picture up in the gallery if Ohno didn’t love him? Nino walked across the street to the coffee shop when he had calmed down enough and waited until Aiba had told him to go over to Ohno’s gallery. From his vantage point, he soon saw people file out of the gallery and watched as a figure approached the door to turn off the lights. Ohno.
Part 2
Rating: R to be safe, but more like PG-13 mentions of sex though, non-graphic
Genre: Romance, Angst, little fluff
Disclaimer: I don't own them
Summary: A few years ago Ohno broke up with Nino and Nino had no idea why. Three years later, they meet again unexpectedly on a date they had set aside earlier in their relationship and questions arise about the past. Nino is famous now, and Ohno's just ordinary, but will the same feelings they had reawaken?
Nino leaned against the railing of the Tokyo Tower and looked down at his watch. It was 7:49 pm, Ohno wasn’t coming. Not that he wanted him to come, he hadn’t seen the other in three years, but there was something sad about him not coming. It was like a slap in the face to Nino that Ohno didn’t bother to show up, but then again their relationship hadn’t meant a whole lot to Ohno so he was wrong in supposing that Ohno would remember the promise that he had made to Nino five years ago to the day. Besides, maybe his not showing up with by the catalyst that Nino needed to finally get over Ohno, not that he wasn’t over him, it was just that there was no closure.
They found themselves standing on the top of Tokyo Tower shivering in the cool autumn breeze. Ohno wrapped his arms around Nino’s body and pulled him close, he convinced Nino to allow him to hold him close under the guise of keeping warm, but in reality, both of them knew that it was just an excuse to hold Nino close to him.
It was embarrassing, really, that after all the years of living in Tokyo, Ohno had never been up to the top. On the eve of their first anniversary together, Nino finally convinced the other to come up to the top. “This is my favorite place in all of Tokyo.” Nino murmured as he pressed back against Ohno’s broad, chiseled chest. “You can see all of Tokyo up here.” Ohno surveyed the area and was in awe of the illuminated Tokyo that shined at night time.
“Exactly five years from now, I’m going to bring you up here and ask you to spend the rest of your life with me.” Nino was thankful that he was turned the other way as Ohno whispered the words into his ear.
“If you ask me ‘I’ll say yes’.” Nino blushed at his brazen statement, but Ohno’s heart leapt for joy at that promise that Nino made.
That promise was made before Nino became famous. As the chilly breeze made him shiver like that night and he remembered the feeling of Ohno’s body pressed up against his. He hadn’t felt the warmth in over three years, but even before that Ohno had been drifting away from him. He looked down at his watch 8:00 pm. He sighed and turned around to leave. Ohno wasn’t coming.
He shoved his hands into his coat pockets and buried his face into his scarf so that other people wouldn’t recognize him. As he turned the corner he bumped into someone knocking him on the ground. “I’m so sorry.” Nino apologized and stretched out his hand to help the man up. When the man turned his head, Nino gasped and immediately retracted his hand. The man pushed himself up off the floor and stood up next to Nino holding his gaze. “Ninomiya-kun.”
“Ohno-san.” Nino replied stiffly and Ohno visibly flinched at the formality of Nino’s address.
“What are you doing here?” Nino asked bitterly.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d come.” Ohno said evasively.
“What are you doing here?” Nino repeated coldly.
“I wanted to see you, but I wasn’t sure if you’d be here.” Ohno said sadly. Nino was acting coldly, but he wasn’t expecting anything else after what had happened between them.
“What the hell?” Nino hissed lowly so as to not attract attention. “I haven’t heard from you in over three years, and you made it perfectly clear to me that you didn’t want me in your life and you have the audacity to say such shit. Did you forget that day?”
Nino had waited for Ohno for hours. He’d said he’d be home around 6:00 pm and it was already 10:35. Every few minutes he checked his cell phone but there were no missed calls or unopened text messages and Nino was beginning to get worried. A little after 11 pm Ohno returned home and shut the door behind him. “Okaeri!” Nino greeted wondering where Ohno had been, but nevertheless went to embrace him. He figured that things at work had forced him to stay over, he, of course, knew better than anyone. There had been countless days when he had returned home and unthinkable hours because a modeling job ran over or they needed to reshoot a few things. When Nino approached Ohno, he noticed the other looked abnormally stoic. Nino went to wrap his arms around the other but Ohno brushed his hands away and pushed his way past Nino.
He started gathering a few things here and there, books, some clothes, and Nino was utterly confused. “We’re through.” Ohno declared with his back turned away from Nino as he gathered his things.
“What?!” Nino exclaimed shellshocked by what Ohno had said. “No, it’s not true!” Nino protested tears spilling from his eyes. When Ohno packed his fishing gear, Nino knew that it was true.
“Why?” Nino begged, “Is it something I did? If it is I’ll apologize over and over, we can go get help. I’ll cut down my work hours. Please.” Nino reached to hold on to Ohno’s wrist pleading for them to talk about it, but Ohno jerked his arm away with so much strength that Nino fell to the floor.
“I’m sick of you.” Ohno hissed and his words cut into Nino’s heart. “I don’t want to be with you anymore.” And then he said something that he knew was the only thing that would keep Nino from chasing after him. “I hate you. You’re an eyesore.”
Nino didn’t know what to say or do. Ohno had just broken his heart. He didn’t even have the strength to try and stop him anymore and all he could do was watch Ohno leave. As the door slammed shut he ran up and pounded against it, sobbing hysterically. Where did they go wrong?
Ohno blushed and looked down ashamedly as he recalled what he had said that day. “You’re fine now.” Ohno said bitterly and Nino looked at him horrified. He would have said something had two girls not spotted him and approached the two.
“Ninomiya-sama, can we get an autograph and take a picture with you?” Nino sighed, he didn’t want to but he couldn’t risk bad press getting out. He forced a smiled and signed a piece of paper that they had offered towards him and watched as they asked someone nearby to take their picture. From the corner of his eye Nino saw Ohno slinking away as a crowd grew around him.
When he was finally able to break free from the throng of people Ohno was gone and as much as he hated that man, questions began to enter his mind. Why did he show up? What did that me ‘You’re fine now.”
He headed home and walked up the few flights that led to his apartment. The lights were turned off, but when Nino tripped in the hallway over a pair of shoes, he knew that he wasn’t alone. He headed into his bedroom and shut the door and when the door clicked shut, Nino felt a pair of arms wrap around him. He felt warm breaths on the back of his neck and felt the warmth of a bare chest being pressed against his clothed back and for a split second of momentary confusion he thought that it was Ohno. He felt a kiss press onto the nape of his neck as the hands began to work their way undoing the buttons of his shirt and pulling the fabric off of him. “Okaeri.” A voice whispered seductively in his ear. Jun. “Tadaima.” He replied and turned his head so that his lips captured Jun’s.
In a smaller, shabbier apartment in a much darker side of Tokyo Ohno greeted his roommates: Sho and Aiba, and excused himself to his room. The other two shared a glance at Ohno’s gloomy mood and knew that it could only be caused by one thing: Nino.
In the privacy of his own room, he gently held up a picture of him and Nino before he had become famous. They were only kids at the time but already they were together. In the picture, Nino was pressing a kiss to Ohno’s cheek as he looked into the camera lens and grinned. They were both so happy at the time, that was all before Nino had been scouted on the street. “Omedotou, Nino.” Ohno said gingerly as he trailed his fingers across the picture. “You’re finally happy.” Ohno smiled bitterly as he realized that it was the last time that he’d ever see Nino again, up close like that. From now on he’d resign himself to looking at Nino from away.
When he went to bed that evening his dreams were haunted by memories of that day when Nino came home announcing that he’d been scouted.
“Satoshi!!!!” Nino had yelled as he ran into the home that they shared and leapt onto an unsuspecting Ohno tackling him to the floor.
“Nani?” Ohno asked as he looked at Nino’s beaming face on top of him.
“I got the audition.” Nino leaned down and kissed Ohno passionately and Ohno responded. They lay like that on the floor kissing and running their hands down each other’s body expressively until they had lost their breath and needed to separate.
Nino fished out a card from his pocket and explained to Ohno that it was from the photographer that he was going to be working with for his first modeling job. Nobody could be sure who was more ecstatic that day, Ohno or Nino. They had had many conversations about Nino trying to make it as a model and eventually an actor and Ohno was the only one in his life, when after having shared these dreams with him, didn’t laugh. Instead Ohno patiently encouraged him and after failed auditions would always scoop him up and cradle him while he cried, mourning a missed opportunity.
That night after several feverish and passionate sessions of lovemaking, Nino leaned over a picked up a magazine that was lying on the nightstand. He scooted over to Ohno who looked at what Nino was pointing to. “See him. In a few years I’m going to be just like him.” Nino promised Ohno and Ohno took the magazine away from him and folded it up to pull him into an embrace and kissed him. But before the magazine folded Ohno saw the name of the model that Nino had idolize. Matsumoto Jun.
Nino woke up in a cold sweat gasping for breath. He sat up and pushed the covers off of himself. It had been a while since he had last dreamt about Ohno breaking up with him, but the memory was ever so clear. He pushed the covers off of himself and stood up, walking over to the balcony. In the process, he woke Jun up and after a couple of minutes of gazing up at the sky Jun joined him and kissed his shoulder. “Did you have a nightmare again?” Jun asked. Their relationship had been plagued with Nino waking up in the middle of the night with the same nightmare. Though Nino never told him what it was, Jun was able to guess from the bits and pieces that Nino had called out at the beginning. When they were first starting out about two and a half years ago, Nino woke up paralyzed and sobbing each time he’d have these nightmares, now he no longer woke up in tears, but the nightmares were still strong enough that they made him get out of bed. While Jun was able to fall back to sleep, Nino wasn’t able to. That night was agonizing as he replayed the events that had unfolded at the Tokyo Tower and the night that Ohno broke his heart. He should be over him by now, but things just weren’t adding up.
The next day, he had off but Jun didn’t so he found himself walking towards Aiba’s apartment, or where Aiba used to live, he had no idea if Aiba still lived there, but he knew that was the best way that he could contact Ohno. He needed answers, things had been going so well and then out of the blue Ohno dumped him and after he showed up at Tokyo Tower, Nino was left completely confused by Ohno’s actions. He passed a billboard with his and Jun’s faces plastered on it posing shirtless on a couch, suggestively. By now it was hardly a secret that he and Jun were dating, in fact that was probably one of the reasons why he did get as many jobs as he did now days. Photographers and advertisers always seemed to find ways to exploit their relationship; not that Jun minded, and Nino didn’t mind working with Jun, it was just the fact that their relationship had seemed to become fodder for entertainment.
He reached what he thought was Aiba’ s apartment and knocked on the door. When the door opened, Aiba didn’t answer, but another man who he had never seen before. In obvious recognition the man gaped at him and stuttered after Nino asked if Aiba still lived there. “Y-yes, he’s just inside.” The other man ushered him in and called for Aiba still looking Nino up and down. “I’m Sakurai Sho. It’s nice to meet you.” Sho shook Nino’s hand in awe having heard so much about Nino, but never realizing that the man that Aiba and Ohno had talked about was Ninomiya Kazunari.
“Ninomiya-kun.” Aiba greeted warmly and hugged his friend. He ushered him to take a seat in the chair across from the sofa where Sho and Aiba were sitting.
“I came to ask about Ohno.” Both Sho and Aiba raised their eyebrows in surprise. “Why did he break up with me? You know don’t you?” He asked accusatorily.
“I do, and it wasn’t what he said. He told me the cruel things that he told you and I know how much that must have hurt you. But he didn’t mean it. He didn’t mean any of it.”
“Why, then?” Nino choked out, “Why did he break up with me?”
“I don’t think that I should be the one to tell you that.” Aiba replied sadly, he stood up and Nino followed his movement as he went to the keybowl and fished out a copper key which he held out to Nino. “Here’s this. It’s the key for Ohno’s gallery in Shibuya. You should go there around 9:00 pm tonight. I think a lot of your questions will be answered there.”
Nino stayed around for some idle chatter and after Sho got over the fact that Nino was Ninomiya Kazunari, Nino found his presence pleasant and a nice addition to the Aiba-Ohno clan. Aiba offered to let Nino stay for dinner, but Nino departed early and headed for the address that Aiba had given him.
He bought a hat and sunglasses to conceal his face and entered the well-populated gallery that now belonged to Ohno. He entered a crowd of well-dressed people who glided along the walls of the gallery pointing at some of the paintings. Nino recognized a few that Ohno had painted when they were together, but they were some that dated back that he didn’t recognize.
The woman on his right commented to the other people that she was with, “The artist must have felt inferior to someone. The person that he painted is much higher up on painting and much larger from the perspective.” Nino looked at the painting to see what the woman was describing. He didn’t know much about art, when they had lived together and Ohno had asked his opinions on things. He mostly just replied that he liked or disliked them, more liked than disliked, but hearing the woman’s commentary gave him insight into Ohno’s paintings and perhaps into Ohno himself as they walked around the gallery.
There were ones with somber colors and others with more vibrant ones, but upon noting the dates of the more morose paintings, they were all after their break-up. At the very end of the gallery, the woman commentated, “This was obviously somebody who the artist really loved.” But when Nino saw the painting, it took his breath away from him. There was no reason for the woman to say anything, the painting said it all. From the angle that the painting was created, the man’s face was obscured, but from the contours and detailing from the back, Nino knew that the figure was him. In the picture he was glowing, from the angle that it was painted, a part of a broad smile could be seen from the man’s visage, his visage. He was lying in bed, on his stomach, with just the sheet wrapped around his waist to give him some dignity.
His bare back came out from under the sheets and Ohno had captured the way his arms propped him up and the happiness that Nino exuded at that moment. Nino saw himself in that picture and he was beautiful. He had never seen the finished painting before, but he remembered the circumstances that had surrounded it.
“Okaeri,” Nino had perked up at hearing Ohno’s voice call out “Tadaima” and bounded for the door embracing his lover as he hung his coat up on one of the hooks by the doorway. Nino gently turned Ohno’s head and planted a kiss on his lip. “You won’t believe you I get to work with in a week!” Before Ohno could ask, Nino exclaimed, “Matsumoto Jun, the model.”
Ohno beamed and picked Nino up and spun him around. “Hontou ni?” Nino leaned down and kissed his boyfriend and Ohno carried him to their bedroom. Their fingers fumbled at each other’s clothes trying to extract themselves from them as quickly as possible. Their fingers intertwined and Ohno gently pressed into Nino, both beaming as they celebrated the news that Nino had just received. There were no words needed as they came together and Nino rested himself on Ohno’s chest.
“You were the first person that I wanted to tell.” Nino said and Ohno’s heart leapt at his boyfriend’s words.
“I love you so much, Kazu.” Ohno kissed him over and over again until they both fell asleep on each other. When Nino woke up the next morning, he looked over and Ohno was already awake chewing on his lips, as if he was pondering something.
“What?” Nino asked worried.
“Nothing.” Ohno blushed and turned his head away from Nino. He sat up straight and gently turned his head towards Ohno.
“You can tell me anything you know, right?” Ohno turned a bright red and mumbled something under his breath. Nino gently, patiently stroked Ohno’s hair. “What is it?”
“Can I paint you?” Ohno asked embarrassed and not able meet Nino’s gaze.
“Is that it?” Nino chuckled and Ohno ducked his head under the covers. “Of course you can!” Nino grinned and pulled the covers off of Ohno’s face. Ohno got out of bed, not bothering to put on clothes and moved his easel, brushes and paints in the room. By then Nino had propped himself up on his forearms while waiting for Ohno to return and when he heard his lover enter he went to turn around, but Ohno stopped him.
“You’re fine like that.” Ohno said, and Nino froze accustomed for modeling jobs to take on awkward positions, thought this one was hardly the worst.
As he tried to stay as still as possible, and talked to Ohno while he heard brush strokes swipe across the canvas. “So what am I now, your muse?” Nino joked, not being able to see Ohno’s face.
“You always were.” Ohno replied seriously and Nino had to will himself not to look back at Ohno’s expression, though it was probably good since he had turned beet red. Nino turned the conversation onto his upcoming job and the theme that they had set forth for him and Jun and Ohno listened patiently. After a few hours spent like that, Ohno collected his things and moved them to the room they’d shelled out to be his art studio, the one room where Nino was forbidden to go. When Ohno returned to spend the rest of the day as a lazy day in bed, Nino asked when he would be able to see it.
“When it’s finished.” Ohno replied shyly and hugged and kissed Nino over and over and over again. Nino never saw that picture finished because five months later Ohno broke up with him.
Seeing that image of himself and remembering that day made tears spring to Nino’s eyes and he practically ran out of the gallery before the tears overflowed and he was left with more questions than even. Walking through that gallery made him realize how little he knew about the man that he had supposedly loved. Ohno had felt inferior to someone, was it him? Why was that picture up in the gallery if Ohno didn’t love him? Nino walked across the street to the coffee shop when he had calmed down enough and waited until Aiba had told him to go over to Ohno’s gallery. From his vantage point, he soon saw people file out of the gallery and watched as a figure approached the door to turn off the lights. Ohno.
Part 2