Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 05A
Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…
Author: Mayonaka no Taiyou/Unare Haineko
Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi
Rating: PG-13-ish overall
Summary: This story follows Ayumu, a more or less normal child born in 2012, three years after the ending of ‘Kodoku kara Umareta Ai’ (which you can read here). His parents, Jun and Ohno, are everything but ‘normal’ in their often unconventional attempts to deal with some of the challenges of parenthood as they try to ‘blend in’ with ‘normal people’.
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Now and Forever…Itsumademo - Chapter 05
April 2015…
“Ayumu! Satoshi-papa! Turn off the TV and come eat your breakfast,” called Jun.
“Kay!” Ayumu said, standing up and running to the table as he smelled the mini sausages that Jun just finished cooking.
“Five minutes!” said Ohno.
“Satoshi-papa if you don’t get your sexy behind over here, you’re not getting any breakfast,” Jun said, pouring milk into two of the glasses.
“Satoshi-papa’s sexy behind is in trouble!” sang Ayumu as he stuffed a sausage into his mouth with his fingers.
“Ayumu, use your chopsticks and be quiet!” scolded Jun.
“Sorry,” Ayumu said, picking up the shorter children’s chopsticks and feeding himself.
“Leader!” Jun said, with his hands on his hips not looking very manly or authoritative with his frilly pink apron and his bangs tied up in a waterspout on the top of his head.
“I’m coming,” grumbled Ohno, rolling off the couch and shuffling into the kitchen.
“Jun-papa?”
“Yes, Ayumu?”
“Why do you sometimes call Satoshi-papa ‘Leader’?”
“Why?”
“Yes, why do you call me ‘Leader’?” joked Ohno as he sat next to Ayumu across of Jun.
“Because he used to be the leader of a group we used to be in when we were younger,” explained Jun.
“Really?” Ayumu said, his eyes widening as he lifted his cup to his lips. “What kind of group?”
“That’s not important,” Ohno cut in, serving Ayumu more sausages in the hopes that it would distract the boy. “It wasn’t anything special. We were just normal people, right, Jun-papa?”
“Right!” Jun nodded.
“But you guys sure know a lot about famous people-“ said Ayumu eating his sausages.
“Well, you know the internet is just such a wonderful thing, right, Leader?”
“Wait a minute,” Ayumu said raising his hand. “But Satoshi-papa always gets in trouble with Jun-papa. Jun-papa is always in charge. Why was Satoshi-papa the leader of the group?”
“Because he was the oldest and he lost at jan ken,” Jun snickered as Ohno did a face fault.
“Oh, I see. Satoshi-papa is bad at jan ken now that you mention it,” said Ayumu, eating a cherry tomato from his salad.
“I let you win-“
“Don’t listen to him, Ayumu. When you win, you really do beat Satoshi-papa. He’s always been bad a jan ken…I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so unskillful at jan ken….sorta like how Sho’s always been athletically challenged…”
Jun sighed as he reminisced. Ohno cleared his throat.
“I mean, time to eat!” Jun said picking up his bowl and pretending as if there were nothing amiss.
“Satoshi-papa’s bad at jan ken,” sang Ayumu seeming not to notice.
“But Satoshi-papa has hidden talents, Ayumu,” said Jun as if whispering a secret to Ayumu.
“Really?! Like what? What’s Satoshi-papa’s secret talents?” Ayumu said with wide eyes.
“Well, if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?” laughed Jun.
“Awwww!!! Jun-papa!!”
“Eat your salad, Ayumu.”
“Well, it’s probably not fishing,” Ayumu commented as he pinched his nose before putting the cucumber in his mouth. “Maybe something like clay or eating or sleeping…”
“Why not?” asked Ohno, opening a mini cup of aloe yogurt. “Hey!”
“Because you never catch nothing,” complained Ayumu. “Every time Satoshi-papa makes excuses about why he can’t catch nothing.”
“They’re not excuses!” protested Ohno.
“You must be a bad fisherman or maybe you’re not fishing in the right places, Satoshi-papa,” Ayumu said.
“Yeah, you’re not ‘one’ with the fish,” said Jun, drinking his coffee.
“Stop laughing, Jun,” pouted Ohno.
“But he’s right, Leader. You don’t catch anything. In fact, I don’t think I even recall you ever bringing any fish home…ever…”
“Well, I’ve caught octopi and other stuff before-“
“But no FISH,” Jun said. “It is called ‘FISHing’ you know-“
“Maybe you’re what’s causing my inability to catch anything.”
“Why me?” asked Jun.
“Because I used to catch fish from time to time before we started going out…and then we became a couple and it was like BAM, no more fish. I think the last time I caught something that remotely resembled a fish was sometime in January 2009-“
“Satoshi-papa always says the weather is bad or that the fish aren’t biting,” Ayumu added. “Jun-papa says ‘NO EXCUSES!’”
“That’s right, Ayumu-“
“Satoshi-papa, doesn’t that make you sad when you go fishing and you don’t catch nothing?” asked Ayumu.
“Well-“
“Thanks for breakfast!” Ayumu said, taking his dishes to the sink and placing them on the counter. “Shoes! Shoes!”
Ayumu ran back into his bedroom to get his socks.
“You better get ready too,” Jun said, cleaning up the dishes.
“Are you sure?” Ohno asked, helping him with some of the plates and cups.
“Yeah,” Jun said, looking away. “Go change your shirt already…”
Ohno nodded and Ayumu ran back past the kitchen and to the genkan.
Jun knew why he could not accompany the pair to the day care, but it did not stop him from feeling lonely and left out. Every time they saw Ohno and Ayumu, someone would comment on the resemblance. This was not far from the truth as half the genes were from Tomomi. But when they saw Jun, they always did a double take. The second comment that would always follow would be, ‘Oh, but Ayumu-kun looks like ‘that guy’ even more…It’s those eyebrows…Wait, but these are two guys, right…? And the father is the smaller guy with the spiky hair, right?’ Jun did not want them thinking too hard as it might cause problems for Ayumu later, so he decided not to come by the school. It pained him that he had to be invisible to the world, but if it was for Ayumu’s happiness, Jun would subject himself to anything, no matter how taxing it might be on himself.
“Ayumu, don’t bring Kazu-chan to the day care,” scolded Jun, taking the long necked dinosaur and placing it on the table.
“Why? I wanna share Kazu-chan with everyone!” balked Ayumu.
“You don’t want someone to take him home by mistake or for Kazu-chan to get dirty, right?” Jun asked, helping Ayumu with his shoes.
“But, Jun-papa-“
“No ‘buts’, Ayumu. I will keep Kazu-chan safe and sound while you go to day care-“
Ohno ran out while he fixed his hair in the reflection of the television.
“Your fly is down,” said Jun, zipping him up from behind.
Ohno was about to see if Jun was feeling frisky when Ayumu started jumping up and down.
“Satoshi-papa, let’s go already!” Ayumu said, excitedly.
“Thanks,” Ohno said, kissing Jun on the cheek. “I’m coming-“
Jun stood at the doorway watching Ohno and Ayumu joking around as Ohno fumbled with his shoelaces.
“Will you be okay, Ayumu?” asked Jun.
“Yes, Jun-papa! I’ll be a good boy! No worries!” Ayumu saluted.
“Shall we go, Ayumu?” Ohno said, standing up and dusting the back of his pants off.
“Jun-papa! We’re going!” Ayumu waved.
“Bye. See you later,” Ohno said, kissing Jun one last time before Ayumu pulled him away impatiently.
“Be safe and watch for cars,” Jun waved back. “Especially Satoshi-papa!”
Jun sighed and walked back into the kitchen to clean up the breakfast dishes. Mornings had been busy for Jun. Ohno usually liked to do his art in the morning since he liked the natural light that poured into his studio, which meant that Ayumu usually spent the morning with Jun. Most days he had Ayumu be his helper with the daily cleaning. While Jun washed the dishes, he had Ayumu bring all the clothes to the laundry room. If Ayumu’s room was messy, Jun had him straighten out the shelves and pick up his toys. When he was done, Jun usually let Ayumu play quietly or watch television. In the afternoon, after lunch, Ohno sometimes played with Ayumu or invited him into his studio to play with clay or paint pictures. On occasion they would go to the park or take a trip to the supermarket. However, all errands that involved unspecified amounts of time waiting in an unfamiliar place were done without the presence of Ayumu. Now, Jun only had himself and the kinds of things he thought about when he was alone were rather frightening.
Despite having no real hobbies like art or fishing, the first few weeks, Jun had been more or less okay with the idea of being at home without Ayumu. He had caught up on his reading, reorganized his bookshelves, and cleaned the house from top to bottom-several times now. However, Jun found that there was only so much laundry, cooking, and cleaning that needed to be done and Jun did not want to disturb Ohno for no reason while he was in his art room. In the beginning, Jun had gone to the day care center to watch Ayumu from the outside of the gate several times during the day, but since he had his sunglasses and hat on all the time to avoid being recognized, people thought he was a stalker and had reported him to the police. To avoid detection, he had climbed the tree across the day care and spied on Ayumu from there, but after a while, Jun gave up as the day care took the kids on field trips.
He tried watching television, but daytime television had gone downhill and many of the stations showed reruns of old hit drama series. One day, he had seen himself as Doumyouji Tsukasa of ‘Hana yori Dango’ and had become extremely depressed when he thought about people like Oguri Shun, whom he had lost contact with since his sudden exit from the entertainment industry and how he missed being in front of the camera. Watching himself as a ‘has been’ of Japanese entertainment had been extremely painful.
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After Ohno had dropped Ayumu off, he stopped by the art supply store nearby to pick up some new paintbrushes and another canister of white paint. For him, he saw Ayumu’s entry into day care as a good sign. Ayumu seemed to be ready and open to the experience. While his contact with other children had been rather limited, he was a friendly boy and enjoyed the company of others regardless of age or sex. Ohno was not worried about Ayumu fitting in or making friends, the only thing that truly bothered him (which was a feat in itself because he was generally not bothered at all by anything-that was Jun’s job to worry) was how Ayumu seemed to be at the age of asking ‘why’ to everything. The book he had bought on parenting said that most children who were three to four were curious and inquisitive. However, Ayumu seemed to be hitting many of his childhood milestones earlier than most children, as he had started asking the ‘why’ questions when he barely hit two and a half years. Ohno knew that it was only a matter of time before Ayumu would start asking why he was ‘different’ than the other children.
At the age of three, it was clear that Ayumu had a sharp mind, a good memory, strong will, and the curse of curiosity. He often plagued Ohno with questions that Ohno himself had never thought about and was in no position to answer. Questions such as ‘I like strawberry jello. And I like tonkatsu. Can you fry strawberry jello if you cover it with bread crumbs?’, ‘Why are Ritz crackers round, but the sliced cheese square?’, ‘Why is one plus one equal two, but when we cut two of Jun-papa’s cigarettes in half, we get four?’, ‘Why write the kanji for someone’s name when it’s less strokes to write it in hiragana?’ and of course, Ohno’s favorite, ‘Why does my pee come out yellow even though I drank grape juice?’ Ohno feared it would only be a matter of time before Ayumu started asking, ‘Why don’t I have a mama?’ and ‘Why didn’t my mama stay?’
“Did you need a separate package for the paint, sir?” repeated the clerk to Ohno as he passed the paint over the scanner and into a plastic bag.
“Huh?”
“Separate bag?” the clerk pointed to two bags.
“Oh, no. Together is fine.”
Ohno handed him a 5000 yen note.
“2100 yen, out of 5000…that’s 900 yen, and one, two, three thousand back. Thank you very much. Please come again,” bowed the clerk, handing Ohno his bag after he counted back the change.
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Ohno arrived back at the apartment with his paint. Under normal circumstances, he would have gone straight to his studio to work, but something told him to go back into the main unit.
“Jun, I’m back,” he called, letting himself in and taking off his shoes.
Ohno wandered into the kitchen and then into the living room.
“Jun?”
The house was clean, the laundry was done, and Jun’s keys and wallet were still on the table. Ohno wandered into the bedroom and found Jun snoring softly as he lay on top of the futon with his music making a slight metallic buzz through the earphones.
That’s weird…It’s not even noon and he’s already taking a nap…hmm, but then again he wakes up pretty early to make breakfast…
Ohno thought nothing of it and decided to work on his latest sculpture. However morning rolled into mid-morning and usually Jun brought him a snack or at least something to drink, not that he expected to be served or anything. It was just nice to have a bit of company every so often. Eleven o’clock became twelve and twelve turned into one-thirty. He was hungry and usually Jun would at least call him if he was making lunch.
Worried that Jun might be ill, he ran back to the main unit where Jun was sitting on the couch calmly reading a book.
“Jun, are you alrig-“
“Oh, Leader,” Jun said looking up. “What’s wrong?”
“Um, nothing…I guess…” Ohno cocked his head to the left and before shaking it with his eyes closed wondering if he had really seen Jun sleeping several hours prior.
“Are you okay?” Jun said, setting his book down and walking up to Ohno.
Was I just imagining things?
“It’s one-thirty and you usually call me for lunch…” said Ohno helplessly.
“So it is…I’m sorry. You’re right. Let me make you something,” said Jun absently.
“No, it’s okay. Have you already eaten?”
“No, but I’m not that hungry. I’ll make you something right now…”
Ohno watched as Jun walked off, seemingly lost in his own world. It was a sight that Ohno was not accustomed to seeing as Jun was not a daydreamer like himself (walking into walls, tripping over things because he was not paying attention). Ohno followed Jun into the kitchen, where Jun took out some of the leftover food from dinner and proceeded to create something else with it. It was not like he was in a daze, or cloud nine, or even like he was on drugs, but for some reason he looked…preoccupied.
A few minutes later, Jun placed a steaming plate of kim chee pork over rice in front of Ohno and brought him a pair of chopsticks, a napkin, and a glass of tea. Usually when Jun made food, even if it was just recycled leftovers, he wanted to watch the other person eat it, enjoy it, and for the other person to tell him how wonderful it was. But today, Jun just walked past Ohno and went back into the living room. Ohno was stunned and had no idea how to respond to the situation.
So far, Ohno had become quite skillful at apologizing when Jun was upset at him. He knew how to deal with angry Jun, bitchy Jun, Jun giving him the cold shoulder, the controlling tsundere Jun, and even when Jun was scared or sad, but when Jun seemed ‘out of it’, Ohno felt helpless. Due to his lack of better ideas, Ohno picked up his plate and relocated himself to where Jun was sitting.
“Eat,” Ohno said, straddling Jun’s lap and forcing Jun to put his book down while he held out his chopsticks.
“I’m not hungry-“
“Eat,” Ohno insisted and picked up a piece of pork, holding it in front of Jun’s mouth expectantly.
“You eat,” said Jun turning away.
Ohno took a bite and then held out another piece to Jun.
“Now you eat,” Ohno urged.
Jun begrudgingly took a bite and Ohno seemed satisfied. After Ohno wolfed down about half of the plate, he noticed that Jun seemed to be staring out the window. Ohno set his plate down on the table and waved his hand in front of Jun’s face.
“Helllloooo? Earth to Jun. This is your captain speaking…Jun?”
“Huh? Sorry, did you say something?” asked Jun.
“Hey, what’s up with you…you seem distracted. Is something bothering you?”
“No…”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“What’s with the one word answers? You don’t wanna talk to me?”
“….”
“...Hello, Jun?”
“Oh, sorry…”
“Are you sick?” asked Ohno, touching Jun’s forehead and comparing it with the temperature of his own. “I know! You must be bored! Do you wanna have sex?”
“Sex? Sure…”
Jun scooted further into the cushions so he had some room to undo Ohno’s belt.
“Stop,” Ohno said, placing his hand over Jun’s.
“What’s the matter?”
“Something really must be wrong. You just said ‘sure’ when I asked you if you wanted to have sex.”
“You don’t wanna have sex?”
“I do! But not when you’re like this… I was joking but I was serious at the same time…If you were more in the mood, I wouldn’t be complaining…but normally you’d be saying something like, ‘Leader, do you honestly expect me to be in the mood after you suggest sex for my boredom?!’ And then you’d smack me and pretend to be all miffed…But all you said was, ‘Sure’…That…That isn’t right!”
Jun looked at Ohno who appeared to be having issues with sex given ‘too freely’.
“And furthermore-“
The clock chimed three times and Jun suddenly perked up.
“You have to go pick up Ayumu!”
“Huh?”
“It’s three o’clock. You better go pick him up! We don’t want to leave him there too long-“
“It’s fine. He’ll be fine. They’re open until late-“
“No, you go pick him up,” insisted Jun, sliding out from under Ohno and walking to the kitchen, taking Ohno’s half eaten lunch with him.
“Hey! I was still eating that-“
“It’ll be dinner soon. Don’t ruin your appetite-“
“But I don’t wanna waste it-“
“Go pick up Ayumu,” ordered Jun.
“But-“
“Go.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“I’m going grocery shopping.”
“But-“
Jun grabbed his jacket and wallet and ran to the door.
“Stop dawdling and get going!” called Jun as he closed the door behind him.
>>> Chapter 05B
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