(no subject)
Title: Hallowmas [1/2]
Pairing: none
Rating: G
Word Count: 2920
Notes: Still AU. Sequel to Hallowe'en Games. Also a note on imps for the curious. Convention says they are small, mischievous, love music, (and you wonder why I chose Nino?) and are often lonely. They're fairly low on the ladder of supernatural beings. While they're not "good" or "evil" they tend towards mischief whether or not it will seriously harm, and can be "made" to do good by humans who befriend them due to their lonliness.
The house was Loud.
Ninomiya woke with a violent start and sat straight up, which was strange considering that the music was so soothing and the futon was still warm. Soothing. Calming. Just as violently, his eyes shut and his brain demanded he go back to sleep. His body continued to demand that he be wary and ready for anything. The imp frowned and yawned, trying to get the mixed signals sorted.
Something was wrong. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.
He yawned again, and paused in the middle of it.
Wait.
He was yawning. He’d woken up. He hadn’t woken up in years.
Ninomiya groaned softly into his pillow. The Loud was noises, but something was making music. He forced his body into correspondence with his brain, getting all his corporeal gears to run together. He looked around the room. It was a living room. Why on earth was he in a living room?
Then he remembered. Those four idiots had interrupted his nap - had yanked on his ankle, even, when he’d irritably resisted the call - only to not know what to do with him once they had him. Finally the vacant one told him to stay corporeal and stay in the house, and set up the futon in the living room and he’d been put in the middle of a pile of warm humans. He’d listened to them talking and telling what he assumed were jokes, because the stories made them laugh, with half an ear. He’d fallen asleep with the excitable one petting him.
Ninomiya snuggled back under the covers and sighed sleepily, searching the house lazily. Those four idiots were still here, two in the bath room. The vacant one and the book smart one were even in the living room with him. Nino supposed at some point he’d remember what their names were, but sleep was better. The imp drew back and closed his eyes.
A paper rustled. Something clunked softly on a surface. Right, there was a kitchen in here, too, and a dining room. The soothing music stopped. Nino felt briefly disappointed.
“Is Ninomiya-kun awake yet?” asked the vacant one.
A pause.
“Not yet ... Think he’ll be hungry?”
“Maybe.”
The door to the living room opened and the sharp one entered. Right behind him was the excitable one. There were soft greetings that Nino didn’t care to try and make out. Then the sharp one made his way carefully towards Nino, and the imp waited warily. The sharp boy - Jun? Was that right? - sat down and a moment of deliberation later reached out to stroke Nino’s hair. The imp sighed mentally. When were they going to get over his hair?
“Soft ...” Jun breathed.
“Isn’t it?” the excitable one giggled.
“Guys, he might not want that,” the book smart one said.
“I think he likes it.”
The rustling of paper came again, this time louder and more directed. Like it was being folded. Newspaper being folded neatly. The vacant human never had done that - he’d only ever spread newspaper out and crumpled it into the trash. This was probably the book smart one again. Nino let his awareness spread just a little. Yep. It was the book smart one. There were footsteps, and then the book smart one was sitting next to the excitable one. Nino drew back again.
“He did tell you to back off.”
Because he hadn’t wanted them all descending upon him, Nino remembered. They were too new and too many after thirty one years, nine months and fifteen days of solitude. But now ... well, they didn’t have to know that he didn’t really mind it. It would keep them on their toes.
“I think it was too sudden,” the vacant one said. “Aiba’s probably right. I think he doesn’t mind.”
Aiba, that was the excitable one. And hadn’t the last name been Sho? Aiba, Jun, Sho and Ohno. That sounded right. Name wise. Now if he could just remember who was who.
Some more clunking noises from the kitchen. Plates being washed? Or prepared? Nino didn’t smell any food. The vacant one - Nino was pretty sure this was Ohno - started singing absent-mindedly to himself, in a surprisingly clear voice. Nino rolled over, interest piqued. Jun’s fingers withdrew from his hair immediately and the music stopped. The imp pouted.
“And I thought Ohno slept late,” Jun said quickly.
Ohno merely smiled sheepishly. He looked down at Nino. “Ah, you’re awake.”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?” Sho repeated.
“It always took a while to get me going,” Nino admitted grudgingly as he sat up. He tucked stray hair behind one ear nervously. He didn’t like admitting a potential weakness, especially to people who sort of but didn’t really know what they were doing. But these humans had summoned him - had in fact freed him from his former summons - and until they told him to leave, Nino could at least be honest. “And ... I’m not used to actually sleeping anymore.”
Four heads tilted to the side in question. Nino decided it was vaguely creepy.
“I don’t really sleep while I’m incorporeal,” he explained around a yawn, “I just ... recharge.”
“You can’t do that now?” Sho asked.
Book Smarts, the imp groaned mentally. Have to know everything, don’t they?
Ninomiya shook his head. “This is a body like a human’s, because it was created by the first people who caught me. It functions like a human’s because they couldn’t imagine anything else. So I have to sleep when I’m in it.”
“And eat?” Aiba asked.
“And eat.”
“Good,” Ohno smiled brightly, “Then we can eat lunch together.”
“Sure, eat.” Nino yawned again and looked around the room once more. “When is that?”
“As soon as you’re ready,” Jun said imperiously, “It’s nearly one. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
The imp blushed - his face didn’t change, but the tip of his exposed ear turned bright red. Ohno, Sho, and Aiba grinned in delight. Even Jun didn’t seem to be able to keep a smile off his face; a slightly crooked smile that spoke of real enjoyment.
“How cute!” Aiba declared.
“Eh?”
Sho reached out hesitantly, and when the imp did nothing strange to him, he touched the point of Nino’s ear. Hair as soft as fur tickled the back of his hand - Aiba hadn’t been lying last night, and now Sho could see why the taller boy had hogged petting the imp.
Sho’s finger traced the point in wonder, his lips parting and his eyes glazing. He could do this all day. Nino watched him curiously for five seconds before batting Sho’s hand out of the way with a quick explanation of, “That tickles.”
Sho drew back sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Ninomiya shrugged. “So what do you people do these days?”
“Do?” Ohno echoed.
“You know. Hobbies. Activities. Things to do. What do you do with your time that isn’t playing with clay?”
“Haven’t you been watching?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Nino snorted, “I’ve got better things to do than follow a human around when I can’t even join in.”
“But you know I ‘play with clay’.”
“Because you do that here, and I live here. I mean out there,” Nino said, waving at the windows. “What happens out there these days?”
Sho blinked. “You really haven’t left this building since they moved out?”
The imp shrugged one shoulder and fidgeted with the covers, suddenly very interested in the pattern on it. He hadn’t left, not once in thirty one years, nine months and fifteen days, and he didn’t want to say why. The humans thought he’d been keeping track of the time that passed between his previous humans and Ohno because he was upset that they’d left him, and Nino wanted to keep them thinking that.
“You don’t have to answer,” Ohno said kindly after a moment of silence passed, “How about this? After lunch we’ll get you out and show you the sights. Jun knows all the good places to shop.”
“Shop?”
“Well, you need clothes, don’t you? You can’t keep wearing mine, and, I mean ... you don’t ...” Ohno made a frustrated motion, “poof them do you?”
“No, I don’t,” the imp copied the movement exaggeratedly, “poof clothes. I don’t even make them or conjure them from the firmament - ”
“That’s what I meant,” Ohno said, pouting vaguely.
“ - which would explain why I allowed you to force me into this hideous rag masquerading as a shirt to sleep in, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh. Yeah. Maybe.”
“See, even he knows it’s no good,” Jun said triumphantly.
Nino got the feeling Jun had been trying to get Ohno to see that for a very long time. He giggled.
“But it’s comfortable for sleeping!” Ohno protested.
The imp looked around the room for his clothes, and found them in a pile near the futon. He pointed at them. “I don’t need clothes, anyway. What’s wrong with those?”
Jun turned vaguely horrified eyes to Nino. “You can’t wear the same thing everyday!” Nino started to protest, but the boy cut him off sharply with a wave. “Absolutely not. We’re getting you clothes after lunch.”
“Um, yes. That’s nice, but um, hi, imp?” the imp asked, waving at himself, “You know. No money? No ... what’s that thing ... job! No job. How do you expect me to buy anything?”
“Think of this as a present!” Aiba said happily, “For ... for ... for not turning us into animals last night!”
Nino gave him a look.
“You humans are weird.”
------
Sho didn’t think he’d seen anything half as fascinating as an imp - unless it was an imp on a shopping trip in Ginza.
Ninomiya looked like a small child almost, wearing one of Ohno’s hats jammed over his ears and wrapped up in Sho’s scarf, and he had the same energy. He bounced four steps ahead of Sho and Jun at all times, only to stop suddenly when a new window display caught his eye, or he saw a teen wearing something he found particularly remarkable. He’d pressed his face to the train window all the way from Ohno’s stop to Ginza Station, and had so far forced a detour through an entire store that sold nothing but crates. Sho and Jun had followed Nino through the entire store lest they lose him. (They had also been asked to leave said store by a man with a strained smile, but not before Sho managed to get a picture of the imp curled up in one of the bigger storage boxes.)
Jun sighed as Ninomiya stopped in front of yet another window, hands pressed to the glass as he watched a moving display.
“We’re never going to get him clothes at this rate.”
Sho smiled and shrugged indulgently. “Let him look. It must have changed since he was here last.”
In fact, Nino hadn’t seemed to know what Matsuzakaya was, and that more than anything made Sho wonder exactly how long the imp had stayed incorporeal - and by that token, how old he was. He couldn’t bring himself to ask, though. Part of him was a little afraid of the answer.
Suddenly Jun lunged forward and grabbed Ninomiya’s hand. “Get down!”
Sho blinked.
Nino blinked.
Sho looked from Jun to Nino, and realized belatedly that the two were standing at eye-level, which shouldn’t have been. He looked down. Nino was floating off the ground. Sho rushed over and tried to block the small being from view.
“People will stare,” Jun hissed, “You can’t just float here.”
“People shouldn’t be looking so closely,” Nino said, a pout forming on his mouth.
“It’s hard not to notice someone floating,” Sho said kindly. He put his hand on Nino’s shoulder and pushed gently down until the imp was on the ground once more. In a move he thought of as being quite bold, he took the imp’s other hand in his. “Come on. We’ll finish shopping and meet Ohno and Aiba for dinner. ... You can still eat, right?”
“Sure. My favorite food is the souls of unsuspecting children.”
“S - souls?!”
Ninomiya kept a straight face for all of three seconds. Sho and Jun grimaced at the same time, watching the imp double over laughing - nearly taking Jun with him. The taller boy whacked Nino over the head.
“Idiot! Don’t say something like that so seriously!” he hissed, but a smile was twitching up his lips, “Somebody will hear.”
Nino gasped his breath back into his lungs. “Right ... and ... and they’d ... believe me?”
“Probably not. But then people won’t want to get to know you,” Sho offered.
The imp shrugged. “I don’t need them.”
Sho tugged on Nino’s hand and began pulling him towards Matsuzakaya, where Jun did most of his shopping. Jun allowed himself to be pulled along behind them - Nino didn’t seem inclined to let go of him.
Once they were in sight of Matsuzakaya Jun found himself nearly toppling over the small being - Nino had stopped dead in his tracks. A yelp from Sho confirmed the unexpectedness of the pause. He started to say something unkind. Then he saw the imp’s face and realized it had only been half-intended - Nino really was astonished by the store despite his lips twitching with amusement. It was like there were two parts to his awareness that focuses on different parts of the world at once. Jun decided that he’d have to look up imps when he got the chance. Or ask Ohno. Ohno probably knew something more.
“What is it?” Sho asked as soon as he’d picked himself up.
“It’s ... it’s so big!” Nino managed. He craned his head back and from side to side, trying to see the whole store at once.
“It’s ten floors total.”
“People need ten floors of clothes?”
“It’s not just clothes, and people like a lot of choice,” Jun said, only a little impatiently, “Especially tourists. They’ll be out in droves soon; it’s almost dinner.”
Sho laughed. “Yes, yes, Your Highness, we’re coming.”
Nino nodded dumbly. Jun felt much better about nearly toppling over him. They walked - guided Nino firmly, really - through the maze of people towards the escalators. But then the imp caught sight of something and broke free of Sho’s grip to point.
“I want to go there!”
Jun and Sho looked over. Jun’s eyebrow raised. The imp was pointing at the Gucci store.
“There may be hope for him yet,” he muttered.
Sho laughed and nudged the younger boy. “Won’t your father notice?”
“Probably. But he’s always telling me to do something for someone else.” Jun gave the imp a push forward. “Okay, we’re going.”
He and Sho steered Nino in between them, allowing the imp to look around and take everything in without crashing into unsuspecting shoppers. A few girls giggled to each other as they passed, not all of them pleasantly. Nino didn’t seem to notice them. Then one tripped over her friend’s loose shoelace and went tumbling to the floor. Sho thwapped Nino’s head.
“Not my fault she’s clumsy!” the imp said petulantly.
Then they were in the Gucci store. Jun disappeared into the racks, leaving Sho and Nino to follow him as he flipped through racks upon racks of things. T-shirts, long sleeved shirts, button up shirts, vests, jackets, pants ... Nino stopped watching and instead began poking through the rack nearest to him. A little tag caught his eye and he grabbed it, turning it over.
“Te - ten thousand!?” he yelped.
Sho chuckled. “You and Jun have expensive taste.”
“But I can’t pay for these! Remember? No money?”
“My dad’s rich,” said Jun, returning with a pile of clothes in his arms, “He won’t notice.” The taller boy shoved the clothes into Nino’s arms. “Try these on.”
The imp looked at the pile in his arms. He shrugged, passed it to Sho. He shrugged out of the jacket Aiba had loaned him, and started to pull off his yellow shirt. Sho made a noise and Jun, who had been eyeing some shirts on the racks next to him, pounced.
“Not here! In the fitting room!”
Nino looked around. Sho shifted the clothes to one arm, and took hold of the small being’s shoulder. He guided him to the fitting rooms, allowing Jun to continue searching the store.
“I’ll wait outside the door, if you like,” he offered, “Try everything on. Hold on to what you want and leave the rest inside.”
The imp nodded. He took the clothes from Sho and disappeared inside the small room, closing the heavy curtain behind him. Sho heard him make a noise of astonishment - probably at the relative luxury considering it was a fitting room. He leaned against the wall, smiling at the thought. Jun came towards them shortly after, yet more clothes piled in his arms. Sho barely stopped himself from laughing. Jun was really enjoying being a shopper - probably more so because the imp didn’t really have a way of saying no.
Jun thrust the pile through the curtain. “Try these on, too.” A second’s pause. Jun frowned. “Nino, take them.”
And clearly Nino didn’t, because Jun pulled his arms back out of the curtain. He shifted everything into the crook of one arms and pulled the curtain back a bit. “Ninomiya?” Jun asked softly.
Sho frowned in concern.
“Jun?”
The younger boy’s eyes went wide. He dropped the clothes and yanked the curtain back. “Nino?”
Sho looked into the fitting room. His breath caught.
Crumpled in the corner was an unmoving imp, eyes closed and hands still positioned where they had been working the buttons of a new shirt.
Pairing: none
Rating: G
Word Count: 2920
Notes: Still AU. Sequel to Hallowe'en Games. Also a note on imps for the curious. Convention says they are small, mischievous, love music, (and you wonder why I chose Nino?) and are often lonely. They're fairly low on the ladder of supernatural beings. While they're not "good" or "evil" they tend towards mischief whether or not it will seriously harm, and can be "made" to do good by humans who befriend them due to their lonliness.
The house was Loud.
Ninomiya woke with a violent start and sat straight up, which was strange considering that the music was so soothing and the futon was still warm. Soothing. Calming. Just as violently, his eyes shut and his brain demanded he go back to sleep. His body continued to demand that he be wary and ready for anything. The imp frowned and yawned, trying to get the mixed signals sorted.
Something was wrong. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.
He yawned again, and paused in the middle of it.
Wait.
He was yawning. He’d woken up. He hadn’t woken up in years.
Ninomiya groaned softly into his pillow. The Loud was noises, but something was making music. He forced his body into correspondence with his brain, getting all his corporeal gears to run together. He looked around the room. It was a living room. Why on earth was he in a living room?
Then he remembered. Those four idiots had interrupted his nap - had yanked on his ankle, even, when he’d irritably resisted the call - only to not know what to do with him once they had him. Finally the vacant one told him to stay corporeal and stay in the house, and set up the futon in the living room and he’d been put in the middle of a pile of warm humans. He’d listened to them talking and telling what he assumed were jokes, because the stories made them laugh, with half an ear. He’d fallen asleep with the excitable one petting him.
Ninomiya snuggled back under the covers and sighed sleepily, searching the house lazily. Those four idiots were still here, two in the bath room. The vacant one and the book smart one were even in the living room with him. Nino supposed at some point he’d remember what their names were, but sleep was better. The imp drew back and closed his eyes.
A paper rustled. Something clunked softly on a surface. Right, there was a kitchen in here, too, and a dining room. The soothing music stopped. Nino felt briefly disappointed.
“Is Ninomiya-kun awake yet?” asked the vacant one.
A pause.
“Not yet ... Think he’ll be hungry?”
“Maybe.”
The door to the living room opened and the sharp one entered. Right behind him was the excitable one. There were soft greetings that Nino didn’t care to try and make out. Then the sharp one made his way carefully towards Nino, and the imp waited warily. The sharp boy - Jun? Was that right? - sat down and a moment of deliberation later reached out to stroke Nino’s hair. The imp sighed mentally. When were they going to get over his hair?
“Soft ...” Jun breathed.
“Isn’t it?” the excitable one giggled.
“Guys, he might not want that,” the book smart one said.
“I think he likes it.”
The rustling of paper came again, this time louder and more directed. Like it was being folded. Newspaper being folded neatly. The vacant human never had done that - he’d only ever spread newspaper out and crumpled it into the trash. This was probably the book smart one again. Nino let his awareness spread just a little. Yep. It was the book smart one. There were footsteps, and then the book smart one was sitting next to the excitable one. Nino drew back again.
“He did tell you to back off.”
Because he hadn’t wanted them all descending upon him, Nino remembered. They were too new and too many after thirty one years, nine months and fifteen days of solitude. But now ... well, they didn’t have to know that he didn’t really mind it. It would keep them on their toes.
“I think it was too sudden,” the vacant one said. “Aiba’s probably right. I think he doesn’t mind.”
Aiba, that was the excitable one. And hadn’t the last name been Sho? Aiba, Jun, Sho and Ohno. That sounded right. Name wise. Now if he could just remember who was who.
Some more clunking noises from the kitchen. Plates being washed? Or prepared? Nino didn’t smell any food. The vacant one - Nino was pretty sure this was Ohno - started singing absent-mindedly to himself, in a surprisingly clear voice. Nino rolled over, interest piqued. Jun’s fingers withdrew from his hair immediately and the music stopped. The imp pouted.
“And I thought Ohno slept late,” Jun said quickly.
Ohno merely smiled sheepishly. He looked down at Nino. “Ah, you’re awake.”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?” Sho repeated.
“It always took a while to get me going,” Nino admitted grudgingly as he sat up. He tucked stray hair behind one ear nervously. He didn’t like admitting a potential weakness, especially to people who sort of but didn’t really know what they were doing. But these humans had summoned him - had in fact freed him from his former summons - and until they told him to leave, Nino could at least be honest. “And ... I’m not used to actually sleeping anymore.”
Four heads tilted to the side in question. Nino decided it was vaguely creepy.
“I don’t really sleep while I’m incorporeal,” he explained around a yawn, “I just ... recharge.”
“You can’t do that now?” Sho asked.
Book Smarts, the imp groaned mentally. Have to know everything, don’t they?
Ninomiya shook his head. “This is a body like a human’s, because it was created by the first people who caught me. It functions like a human’s because they couldn’t imagine anything else. So I have to sleep when I’m in it.”
“And eat?” Aiba asked.
“And eat.”
“Good,” Ohno smiled brightly, “Then we can eat lunch together.”
“Sure, eat.” Nino yawned again and looked around the room once more. “When is that?”
“As soon as you’re ready,” Jun said imperiously, “It’s nearly one. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
The imp blushed - his face didn’t change, but the tip of his exposed ear turned bright red. Ohno, Sho, and Aiba grinned in delight. Even Jun didn’t seem to be able to keep a smile off his face; a slightly crooked smile that spoke of real enjoyment.
“How cute!” Aiba declared.
“Eh?”
Sho reached out hesitantly, and when the imp did nothing strange to him, he touched the point of Nino’s ear. Hair as soft as fur tickled the back of his hand - Aiba hadn’t been lying last night, and now Sho could see why the taller boy had hogged petting the imp.
Sho’s finger traced the point in wonder, his lips parting and his eyes glazing. He could do this all day. Nino watched him curiously for five seconds before batting Sho’s hand out of the way with a quick explanation of, “That tickles.”
Sho drew back sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Ninomiya shrugged. “So what do you people do these days?”
“Do?” Ohno echoed.
“You know. Hobbies. Activities. Things to do. What do you do with your time that isn’t playing with clay?”
“Haven’t you been watching?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Nino snorted, “I’ve got better things to do than follow a human around when I can’t even join in.”
“But you know I ‘play with clay’.”
“Because you do that here, and I live here. I mean out there,” Nino said, waving at the windows. “What happens out there these days?”
Sho blinked. “You really haven’t left this building since they moved out?”
The imp shrugged one shoulder and fidgeted with the covers, suddenly very interested in the pattern on it. He hadn’t left, not once in thirty one years, nine months and fifteen days, and he didn’t want to say why. The humans thought he’d been keeping track of the time that passed between his previous humans and Ohno because he was upset that they’d left him, and Nino wanted to keep them thinking that.
“You don’t have to answer,” Ohno said kindly after a moment of silence passed, “How about this? After lunch we’ll get you out and show you the sights. Jun knows all the good places to shop.”
“Shop?”
“Well, you need clothes, don’t you? You can’t keep wearing mine, and, I mean ... you don’t ...” Ohno made a frustrated motion, “poof them do you?”
“No, I don’t,” the imp copied the movement exaggeratedly, “poof clothes. I don’t even make them or conjure them from the firmament - ”
“That’s what I meant,” Ohno said, pouting vaguely.
“ - which would explain why I allowed you to force me into this hideous rag masquerading as a shirt to sleep in, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh. Yeah. Maybe.”
“See, even he knows it’s no good,” Jun said triumphantly.
Nino got the feeling Jun had been trying to get Ohno to see that for a very long time. He giggled.
“But it’s comfortable for sleeping!” Ohno protested.
The imp looked around the room for his clothes, and found them in a pile near the futon. He pointed at them. “I don’t need clothes, anyway. What’s wrong with those?”
Jun turned vaguely horrified eyes to Nino. “You can’t wear the same thing everyday!” Nino started to protest, but the boy cut him off sharply with a wave. “Absolutely not. We’re getting you clothes after lunch.”
“Um, yes. That’s nice, but um, hi, imp?” the imp asked, waving at himself, “You know. No money? No ... what’s that thing ... job! No job. How do you expect me to buy anything?”
“Think of this as a present!” Aiba said happily, “For ... for ... for not turning us into animals last night!”
Nino gave him a look.
“You humans are weird.”
------
Sho didn’t think he’d seen anything half as fascinating as an imp - unless it was an imp on a shopping trip in Ginza.
Ninomiya looked like a small child almost, wearing one of Ohno’s hats jammed over his ears and wrapped up in Sho’s scarf, and he had the same energy. He bounced four steps ahead of Sho and Jun at all times, only to stop suddenly when a new window display caught his eye, or he saw a teen wearing something he found particularly remarkable. He’d pressed his face to the train window all the way from Ohno’s stop to Ginza Station, and had so far forced a detour through an entire store that sold nothing but crates. Sho and Jun had followed Nino through the entire store lest they lose him. (They had also been asked to leave said store by a man with a strained smile, but not before Sho managed to get a picture of the imp curled up in one of the bigger storage boxes.)
Jun sighed as Ninomiya stopped in front of yet another window, hands pressed to the glass as he watched a moving display.
“We’re never going to get him clothes at this rate.”
Sho smiled and shrugged indulgently. “Let him look. It must have changed since he was here last.”
In fact, Nino hadn’t seemed to know what Matsuzakaya was, and that more than anything made Sho wonder exactly how long the imp had stayed incorporeal - and by that token, how old he was. He couldn’t bring himself to ask, though. Part of him was a little afraid of the answer.
Suddenly Jun lunged forward and grabbed Ninomiya’s hand. “Get down!”
Sho blinked.
Nino blinked.
Sho looked from Jun to Nino, and realized belatedly that the two were standing at eye-level, which shouldn’t have been. He looked down. Nino was floating off the ground. Sho rushed over and tried to block the small being from view.
“People will stare,” Jun hissed, “You can’t just float here.”
“People shouldn’t be looking so closely,” Nino said, a pout forming on his mouth.
“It’s hard not to notice someone floating,” Sho said kindly. He put his hand on Nino’s shoulder and pushed gently down until the imp was on the ground once more. In a move he thought of as being quite bold, he took the imp’s other hand in his. “Come on. We’ll finish shopping and meet Ohno and Aiba for dinner. ... You can still eat, right?”
“Sure. My favorite food is the souls of unsuspecting children.”
“S - souls?!”
Ninomiya kept a straight face for all of three seconds. Sho and Jun grimaced at the same time, watching the imp double over laughing - nearly taking Jun with him. The taller boy whacked Nino over the head.
“Idiot! Don’t say something like that so seriously!” he hissed, but a smile was twitching up his lips, “Somebody will hear.”
Nino gasped his breath back into his lungs. “Right ... and ... and they’d ... believe me?”
“Probably not. But then people won’t want to get to know you,” Sho offered.
The imp shrugged. “I don’t need them.”
Sho tugged on Nino’s hand and began pulling him towards Matsuzakaya, where Jun did most of his shopping. Jun allowed himself to be pulled along behind them - Nino didn’t seem inclined to let go of him.
Once they were in sight of Matsuzakaya Jun found himself nearly toppling over the small being - Nino had stopped dead in his tracks. A yelp from Sho confirmed the unexpectedness of the pause. He started to say something unkind. Then he saw the imp’s face and realized it had only been half-intended - Nino really was astonished by the store despite his lips twitching with amusement. It was like there were two parts to his awareness that focuses on different parts of the world at once. Jun decided that he’d have to look up imps when he got the chance. Or ask Ohno. Ohno probably knew something more.
“What is it?” Sho asked as soon as he’d picked himself up.
“It’s ... it’s so big!” Nino managed. He craned his head back and from side to side, trying to see the whole store at once.
“It’s ten floors total.”
“People need ten floors of clothes?”
“It’s not just clothes, and people like a lot of choice,” Jun said, only a little impatiently, “Especially tourists. They’ll be out in droves soon; it’s almost dinner.”
Sho laughed. “Yes, yes, Your Highness, we’re coming.”
Nino nodded dumbly. Jun felt much better about nearly toppling over him. They walked - guided Nino firmly, really - through the maze of people towards the escalators. But then the imp caught sight of something and broke free of Sho’s grip to point.
“I want to go there!”
Jun and Sho looked over. Jun’s eyebrow raised. The imp was pointing at the Gucci store.
“There may be hope for him yet,” he muttered.
Sho laughed and nudged the younger boy. “Won’t your father notice?”
“Probably. But he’s always telling me to do something for someone else.” Jun gave the imp a push forward. “Okay, we’re going.”
He and Sho steered Nino in between them, allowing the imp to look around and take everything in without crashing into unsuspecting shoppers. A few girls giggled to each other as they passed, not all of them pleasantly. Nino didn’t seem to notice them. Then one tripped over her friend’s loose shoelace and went tumbling to the floor. Sho thwapped Nino’s head.
“Not my fault she’s clumsy!” the imp said petulantly.
Then they were in the Gucci store. Jun disappeared into the racks, leaving Sho and Nino to follow him as he flipped through racks upon racks of things. T-shirts, long sleeved shirts, button up shirts, vests, jackets, pants ... Nino stopped watching and instead began poking through the rack nearest to him. A little tag caught his eye and he grabbed it, turning it over.
“Te - ten thousand!?” he yelped.
Sho chuckled. “You and Jun have expensive taste.”
“But I can’t pay for these! Remember? No money?”
“My dad’s rich,” said Jun, returning with a pile of clothes in his arms, “He won’t notice.” The taller boy shoved the clothes into Nino’s arms. “Try these on.”
The imp looked at the pile in his arms. He shrugged, passed it to Sho. He shrugged out of the jacket Aiba had loaned him, and started to pull off his yellow shirt. Sho made a noise and Jun, who had been eyeing some shirts on the racks next to him, pounced.
“Not here! In the fitting room!”
Nino looked around. Sho shifted the clothes to one arm, and took hold of the small being’s shoulder. He guided him to the fitting rooms, allowing Jun to continue searching the store.
“I’ll wait outside the door, if you like,” he offered, “Try everything on. Hold on to what you want and leave the rest inside.”
The imp nodded. He took the clothes from Sho and disappeared inside the small room, closing the heavy curtain behind him. Sho heard him make a noise of astonishment - probably at the relative luxury considering it was a fitting room. He leaned against the wall, smiling at the thought. Jun came towards them shortly after, yet more clothes piled in his arms. Sho barely stopped himself from laughing. Jun was really enjoying being a shopper - probably more so because the imp didn’t really have a way of saying no.
Jun thrust the pile through the curtain. “Try these on, too.” A second’s pause. Jun frowned. “Nino, take them.”
And clearly Nino didn’t, because Jun pulled his arms back out of the curtain. He shifted everything into the crook of one arms and pulled the curtain back a bit. “Ninomiya?” Jun asked softly.
Sho frowned in concern.
“Jun?”
The younger boy’s eyes went wide. He dropped the clothes and yanked the curtain back. “Nino?”
Sho looked into the fitting room. His breath caught.
Crumpled in the corner was an unmoving imp, eyes closed and hands still positioned where they had been working the buttons of a new shirt.