Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 20A
Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…
Author: Mayonaka no Taiyou/Unare Haineko
Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi
Rating: R-ish, but NC-17 for this chapter.
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 20
“Masaki, I love you…”
“I love you too, Sho-chan…You won’t hurt me, will you?”
“I won’t…I promise…”
It was five minutes to nine and a formally dressed woman stood at the door to the Sakuraiba apartment knocking loudly and ringing the doorbell.
“Sho! Sho!”
Aiba was the first to notice they had company.
“Sho-chan,” Aiba yawned, rolling over to shake Sho awake.
“Mmm….?” Sho mumbled, entwining his fingers with Aiba’s.
“Someone’s at the door,” whispered Aiba.
“Sho!!”
“I’m sleepy …can you get it…?” mumbled Sho.
“I think it’s your mom…” Aiba said, sliding his fingers through Sho’s tousled hair.
“My…what….?”
“I think it’s your mom knocking on the door…”
“Huh?”
“Your mom-“
“My…mo…My MOM?!”
Sho sat up as if he had received a bolt of electricity down his spine.
“Shit!” he said, throwing the covers into Aiba and stumbling out of bed.
“Sho-chan?” Aiba said, sitting up scratching the back of his neck.
“Don’t say a word and don’t move,” Sho commanded, as he grabbed his pants off the floor and wiggled in.
“What’s-“
“Just stay in bed until she leaves,” Sho said frantically.
“But-“
“Sho!” shouted the Sakurai matriarch.
“Coming!” yelled Sho.
“Sho-chan-”
“Just trust me, okay?” Sho said, rushing to kiss Aiba on the forehead.
“Okay,” Aiba agreed, snuggling back under the covers placated for the time being with his kiss.
Sho ran out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him and rushing to the front door.
“Kaasan, what are you doing here?” asked Sho.
“Well, it’s about time! What were you doing? It’s late already. And you’re still not dressed?” his mother scolded. “Put a shirt on you’ll catch a cold-better yet, get your suit on-“
“Um….what are you talking about?” asked Sho, chasing after the whirlwind that had just gained entrance to his apartment.
“Ugh! This place is always such a mess,” his mother said, picking up Aiba’s shirt off the ground and folding it. “Sho, don’t you have a stylist? Did you pay money for this shirt? There is no way you’d look nice with this shirt. And look, you still have food on the counter and-“
“Why are you here?”
“Omiai meeting! Hello? Remember?”
“I don’t remember you telling me-“
“Well it doesn’t matter. Get dressed. You’re supposed to meet Iris in an hour-“
“It’s my day off-“
“Then there’s no problem, right?”
“But I have other plans-“
“Not more important than your meeting with your future wife-“
“Could you not refer to her like that?”
“Why not?”
“Because it feels weird to call a stranger your future wife!”
“I’m only thinking about you, Sho. If you didn’t get off your lazy butt, you’d spend the rest of your life an unfulfilled bachelor-“
“Wait, where is this coming from-“
“Don’t tell me you actually plan to spend the rest of your life as an unmarried bachelor in this tiny apartment with Aiba-san-“
“What’s wrong with that? Why do I have to get married anyway?“
“There will come a day when Aiba-san finds someone and he will want to leave this apartment as well. And what will you have? Nothing. You need to face facts that you’re not getting any younger. Now Fujiki Iris comes from a good family and you would be a fool not to feel flattered that she has agreed to see you-“
Masaki wouldn’t ever love anyone other than me, would he? He doesn’t like women,,, But if I marry Fujiki Iris, what will happen to this apartment? I like it here. But I can’t live with Masaki with my wife…though Masaki probably wouldn’t mind sharing his space with someone else as long as I said I loved him more….
“Alright, whatever you say,” Sho said, grabbing Aiba’s shirt from his mother and shoving her out the door.
“Ten o’clock! Akasaka Prince Ho-“
“I got it,” Sho said, exasperatedly. “I’ll be there. Now go!”
Sho breathed a sigh of relief when he finally heard the footsteps go. The whole time she had been there, he had been praying that Aiba did not come out half naked. True to his word, Aiba had stayed in his bedroom and had not made a sound. But as soon as Sho opened the door, Aiba leaped from the bed and started kissing him.
“Masaki,” Sho gasped, trying to pry himself from Aiba’s eager hands.
“I know,” Aiba whispered breathlessly. “I heard ‘Akasaka at ten’…If you take a taxi, it’ll only take you ten minutes from here. Which means you have at least forty five minutes to spare-“
“I have to shower and get dressed-“ protested Sho.
“Just a quickie,” Aiba said, dragging Sho into the bathroom and turning on the shower. “We can shower while you take me…”
“Alright, but we have to be quick,” conceded Sho.
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“Ayumu,” Jun said gently as he shook the sleeping boy awake.
“Yes, Jun-papa?” Ayumu yawned.
“Time to get up-“
“Is it time to go to baachan’s?” he said excitedly.
“Go brush your teeth and wash your face,” Jun said, ruffling his hair.
“Okay!” Ayumu said, springing up from under the covers.
“And pack your clothes in your bag-“ called Jun, making the bed.
“m’kay!”
Ayumu was parading around excitedly as Jun packed his own things.
“Jun-papa! No toothpaste!” called Ayumu, waving the flattened travel sized tube of fruit flavored toothpaste.
“You’re not using it to paint with, are you?” Jun joked, entering the bathroom and opening the cabinet above the mirror.
“No! I’m not Satoshi-papa!” Ayumu said, shaking his head.
“You’re not Satoshi-papa?”
“I don’t do weird things that no one understands-Oh, thank you, Jun-papa,” Ayumu said, opening his new tube of toothpaste happily.
“Weird things no one understands…? Ayumu, your Japanese is getting weird. Maybe we should-“
“No! Jun-papa! I esplain-“
“You’ll explain?” corrected Jun.
“Yes, I eck-splain. Satoshi-papa….he’s different isn’t he, Jun-papa,” Ayumu whispered.
“How so?”
“Jun-papa does things I understand-wake up, make breakfast, clean the house, go to the store to buy food, drive the car,” Ayumu mimicked how Jun would put his sunglasses on, turn up the radio, and turn the steering wheel. “I’m hungry, so Jun-papa cooks food. The house is messy, so we sweep the floor together. We don’t got no apples, so we go in the car and buy them. But Satoshi-papa….he does things I don’t get.”
“Like what?” asked Jun, following the little boy to his room where he proceeded to line up all the things he wanted to take for the weekend (mostly toys, so Jun added the clothes to the lineup).
“There are dishes in the sink, so the kitchen isn’t clean, but Satoshi-papa doesn’t do them. He goes fishing instead. Jun-papa is cleaning the bathroom, but Satoshi-papa is reading his magazine. There are lots of things to do, but Satoshi-papa never says, ‘Jun-papa, I will help you.’ He’s weird because he complains when he thinks nobody hears him.”
“What does he say?” prodded Jun.
“He says, ‘Why isn’t Jun here?’” Ayumu said, mimicking Ohno’s nasal voice and crusty old man speech pattern. “’He’s always so busy!’ ‘I wish he was here so he can pound my-‘“
“Ayumu!” Jun interrupted harshly.
“What? I mean, yes?”
“Where did you learn such vulgar-“
Jun was about to scold the boy when he realized that Ayumu was just repeating what he had heard.
“That’s what he says,” protested Ayumu. “I think Satoshi-papa is weird. If Jun-papa has all these things to do and Satoshi-papa is always complaining that Jun-papa is busy, why doesn’t he help Jun-papa? When Jun-papa folds the clothes by himself, it takes him one whole TV program, but when we do it together, we finish after the second commercial about the shampoo. If Satoshi-papa helped Jun-papa do stuff more faster, maybe Jun-papa could hang out earlier, right, Kazu-chan?”
Ayumu grabbed his precious dinosaur and tucked him into the side pocket of the bag he was bringing to his grandparents’.
“I’m not gonna be a weird grownup,” Ayumu nodded as he placed his clothes into the bag like Jun had instructed him. “And you know what else, Jun-papa? Satoshi-papa, he doesn’t know where nothing is in the house even though he lives here a long time.”
“What do you mean?”
“He said he cut his finger last night and he needed a bandage. So you know what he does, Jun-papa? He says he’s going to buy more!” laughed Ayumu. “But Jun-papa has so many bandages. I saw this morning. You put it next to the other toothpasteses. If he only remembered where the bandages were, he wouldn’t have had to go out at night just to buy bandages.”
“Where was I?”
“Jun-papa, you were sleeping. I was at the bathroom. I asked him why he just didn’t ask Jun-papa where the bandages were, but he said he didn’t want to wake Jun-papa. And when he was putting on his shoes, he was going to put on two shoes that didn’t even go together. Ah! I know! Jun-papa!”
“Hmm?”
“He’s like that guy on TV! The anime sensei with the white coat!”
“A doctor?” guessed Jun, carrying the bags to the front, while Ayumu continued to gesture about the television program.
“No! He has a white coat and he works in a room with lots of bottles and funny colored juice. And he always puts the wrong colored socks on…or when he makes coffee, he forgets it on top his car…he uses shaving cream to brush his teeth and he opens a can of cat food when he thinks it’s tuna…he does all these weird things around the house that nobody understands, but when he goes to work, he makes all these cool robots and invisible ink and stuff! He’s like Satoshi-papa and his art room-Ah! Someone’s coming!”
Ayumu ran to the door midsentence and was greeted by his all too happy grandparents.
“Ayumu!”
“Jiichan!” Ayumu squealed excitedly as the elder Ohno handed him a package. “For Ayumu?”
The graying Ohno nodded, his eyes twinkling brightly.
“Can I open it?” Ayumu asked.
“Ask Jun-papa,” the elder Ohno advised.
“Jun-papa?” pleaded Ayumu.
“Go ahead,” Jun nodded.
“Yay!” Ayumu quickly unwrapped the teddy bear printed paper. “Ooh! What’s this?”
“It’s a checker set,” Ohno’s father said. “I thought we could play this weekend…”
“But I don’t know how to play,” Ayumu said, shaking the box.
“Don’t worry, Ayumu,” Ohno’s mother said, patting him on his head. “Jiichan wants to teach you how. That’s why he bought you a new game.”
“Really, jiichan?” Ayumu asked, his eyes widening.
“Yup, are you excited, Ayumu?”
“Yes! I love jiichan!” Ayumu said happily, running into his grandfather’s arms. “Let’s play!”
“Jun,” Ohno’s mother said quietly pulling Jun aside.
“Is something wrong?”
“Tomomi has tickets for the filming of a television show. The guest is Ninomiya Kazunari and we were wondering…” she trailed off.
“When is it?” asked Jun.
“This weekend. She got two tickets from her friend. She wanted to take Ayumu, but I told her I would ask you first…”
“Is the show interactive?”
“Not really. He’s just supposed to answer some questions, maybe play a game or two…”
Jun frowned. He knew that tickets were not easy to get and that his son would be so happy if he could see his idol, but he did not want to risk his son being in front of so many people at least when he was not there to watch him personally. Ayumu was strong-willed like Jun when he wanted to be and given the opportunity, he was inclined to get himself into all sorts of trouble. It was not that Jun did not trust Tomomi, but the boy was mischievous.
“If you don’t want him to go, we understand…” interrupted Ohno’s mother.
“I want him to go, but…”
Jun personally was curious as to what Nino had been up to. Given what Ayumu had told him about his other father’s peculiar habits, Jun knew that Ayumu could tell him all sorts of things about what Nino was doing just by seeing him live. His son’s uncanny powers of observation surprised the former actor and for a moment Jun entertained the idea of allowing the boy to go just for his own selfish reasons.
“Let me talk to Ayumu,” Jun said, excusing himself. “Ayumu!”
“Yes, Jun-papa?” the little boy yelled from on top of Ohno’s father’s shoulders as he waved the checkerboard in the air.
“Satoshi-papa’s sister wants to take you to see the filming of a TV show,” Jun explained.
“Filming of a TV show?!”
“Yes-“
“You mean Tomomi-neechan?”
“Yes.”
“I wanna go!”
“About that,” Jun said calmly. “You get to watch the people live with all the cameras and staff around. You’re gonna be part of the audience. Do you know who the audience is?”
“The people laughing in the background?”
“Very good,” Jun praised. “Now, if Jun-papa says you can go, can you promise you will be a good boy?”
“Yes! Ayumu promises!” Ayumu agreed, patting the balding head of the elder Ohno.
“You can’t yell or scream. You need to be quiet. No running-“
“No eating or drinking. No crying. Keep your hands, feet, and objects to yourself. Go to the bathroom before we leave the house. No talking to strangers,” Ayumu recited dutifully.
“You know the rules,” Jun warned.
“I promise I’ll be good. Don’t worry, Jun-papa. Let me go with Tomomi-neechan, please? Pretty please?” Ayumu begged.
“Okay…” Jun agreed slowly.
“Yay!! Banzai!!” Ayumu squealed, reaching for Jun, who gladly indulged his son. “That’s why Jun-papa is the best papa!”
“Alright, now be good this weekend,” Jun instructed, kissing Ayumu on the cheek and smoothing out his hair. “Listen to Baachan and Jiichan-oh and Tomomi-neechan when she takes you to the TV station.”
“I will, Jun-papa,” the boy nodded. “I love you, Jun-papa.”
“I love you too, son. Have you got your pen?”
“Oh, I almost forgot!”
Ayumu jumped down and ran into the kitchen. He opened the cabinet and took out three adrenalin injectors before running back to show Jun that he understood the severity of his allergy and that he knew what to do in an emergency.
“Good boy. Put them in your bag so you don’t forget them,” Jun nodded approvingly.
“Okay!” called Ayumu, running to the elder Ohno who had since picked up the baggage for the weekend. “Jiichan, Jiichan! I got the pens just in case!”
“Oh, good thing you remembered,” laughed Ohno’s father jollily, unzipping the side pouch.
Jun walked Ayumu and his grandparents down to the parking structure where he reminded Ayumu of some last minute instructions before they departed. Just as Jun got off the elevator on his private floor, he saw Ohno open the door of his studio and stumble out into the hallway.
“Leader,” he said, running up to Ohno who was holding a crumpled shirt. “Have you been in there all this time?”
“Yeah, why?” Ohno lied and let himself into the main unit.
“Oh, I see…What’s that?” Jun inquired, pointing to the wrinkled fabric.
“I spilled paint on my shirt-“
“Oh, do you want me to wash it for you?” Jun offered.
“Um, yeah…sure…if you don’t mind, I guess…” Ohno replied and handed Jun the shirt.
“Listen…about last night…” began Jun. “I don’t know what came over me, but I was thinking we could have a romantic weekend together, just the two of us…”
“Romantic…weekend?” Ohno repeated, scratching the back of his head. “What about Ayumu?”
“I sent him to your parents’…He seemed pretty excited,” Jun answered, deliberately omitting the highlight of the boy’s weekend with Ohno’s sister. “So…how about it? Just you and me...”
“Are we staying here?”
“No, I’ve booked a cottage for us-“
“A cottage?”
“Sure, Leader…You like outdoors, right? It’s near a river, lots of forest…I read there was some sort of flower blooming and since it’s pretty secluded, I figured that we could spend some time making up…and making out…”
Jun trailed off hoping Ohno would catch the subtle hint. His hint was not wasted for Ohno immediately displayed interest in the latter, but Jun interpreted it to mean that Ohno was excited about the former.
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“Oh, Mikeila, you’re here early…” commented the foreign doctor.
“Good morning, Tony-sensei,” Mikeila bowed, shuffling her cards.
“Is today my lucky day?” Tony laughed, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Nope,” Mikeila said, laying out the cards in front of her.
“Nope? But you always said I’m the lucky man…”
“Not today,” Mikeila replied.
“Really? And why is that?” Tony asked with a bemused smile on his face.
Mikeila spun her manicured finger in the air before picking a seemingly random card from the spread.
“Knight of Wands, reversed,” Mikeila said, flipping the card over. “I saw this card in my dream this morning.”
“For me?”
“Yes. Normally, it’s a pretty positive card and I would say it suits you, but reversed, it indicates a setback or an interruption in work.”
“Ha ha, always so serious,” laughed Tony, patting his assistant on the shoulder. “What happened to your flower deck?”
“I have it, but this card was calling out to you…Tony-sensei?”
Mikeila looked up and saw that the professor had already exited. She sighed.
“Am I losing it…?” she muttered, shrugging as she moved to collect her cards.
While she was bringing the cards together, her hands slipped and two cards fell on the floor face up.
“Reversed King of Cups and a reversed Knight of Cups…? Is this supposed to mean something…?” she wondered aloud.
>> Chapter 20B