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Sho managed to make it home that night before ten pm, which was miraculous on its own but more so when he considered that he even had Nino with him. They'd called ahead and Jun was making a late dinner for the three of them. As they pulled into the driveway Sho could almost taste the gyoza Jun had promised.
Nino had been quiet during the drive and Sho wished he could ask him what was going on without breaking his promise to worry less. He wondered if he should actually try to worry less rather than just suppressing the symptoms but he'd been friends with Nino for too long to think he was capable of it. He hoped he could at least pretend so that Nino would hold up his side of the deal.
The smell of Jun's cooking had Sho's mouth watering before he even made it out of the entryway and he nearly tripped over his slippers as he made his way to the kitchen. He opened his mouth to ask if it was done, even though he knew Jun would scold him for asking when it clearly wasn't, but Jun cut him off without even turning around.
"Go ask those two if they want some food," he said brusquely.
Sho's mouth opened and closed before he brightened, pulling out his phone. "I can just send a--"
"Go ask those two if they want some food," Jun repeated. "And while you're there, make sure they're taking care of the house. You should ask for a tour. And make sure you go to the bathroom."
"Seriously?" Sho said, wondering if Jun was just screwing with him or if he was really that much of a control freak.
"Yeah, because Jun-kun wanting to keep track of every little detail is so shocking, Sho-chan," Nino said as he rolled his eyes expressively. He was rummaging in the fridge and Jun smacked him lightly on the head.
"Don't spoil your appetite," he said sharply. "You barely have one in the first place."
"But I'm hungry," Nino whined.
"If you're hungry, make Sho-kun go like I asked, because we're not eating until he gets back."
Sho blanched at the look Nino gave him. "I'm going, I'm going," he said, stumbling back toward his shoes. He passed Mayu, curled warmly on a cushion and not having to go anywhere, and felt like she might be laughing at him.
It was unseasonably chilly for late September and Sho pulled his cardigan tight around himself, wishing he had just told Jun to go himself, except Jun was cooking food for all of them. He remembered the upcoming group date and hoped that Jun not mentioning it meant that Aiba had already gotten him to agree and was suddenly glad to be going to see Aiba so that he could ask just that.
He knocked on the door, which Jun had convinced Nino's mother to let him paint a striking raspberry color several months ago, and leaned close to it, hearing strains of what must be very loud music. When Aiba opened the door, looking slightly winded, the music spilled out in tandem with his smile, both overwhelming in their intensity.
Sho closed his eyes and scanned his music memory. "Is that... Morning Musume?"
Aiba's smile didn't dim. "The fact that you recognized it so quickly means I have nothing to be ashamed of," he exclaimed, clapping Sho on the shoulder. "Come in!"
"But why is it so loud?" Sho asked, following Aiba into the house. He found himself in the living room, nearly unrecognizable to him with the changes the new occupants had made. There were fishing magazines tossed everywhere and a tiny tv that was dwarfed by the entertainment center it rested on. The couches looked like they'd been picked up by the side of the road, although they matched, and there was a large assortment of pillows of many sizes and colors, as well as what looked like varying degrees of comfort. (Sho was not sure why anyone would sew sea shells into a throw pillow and he could just picture someone getting sliced by the edges.)
Aiba turned down the music to a more normal level and crossed back to Sho, who was lurking near the doorway. "Hana-chan and I were having a dance party," he said, as if dancing in the living room to deafeningly loud girl group pop was a perfectly normal pastime for a dog and her adult owner. Hana-chan looked up at him from her dog bed without lifting her head, as if she was disclaiming all participation in the activity Aiba described.
Sho let it go, courteously pretending not to notice the way Aiba's hips were still bopping along to the beat. "Where's Ohno-san? Ah, have you guys eaten? Jun-kun wanted me to invite you to dinner."
"Oh-chan's painting. Want to come see?"
Sho trailed Aiba up the stairs to Ohno's studio, peering around as he walked and trying to see if there was anything he should be reporting to Jun.
Aiba didn't bother knocking before entering the room and Sho murmured an apology for the intrusion as they walked in. The room was a visual tangle of colors and canvas and chaos, with what looked like a pile of junk in one corner that was as high as Sho's waist and barely started to what looked like completed paintings strewn everywhere. There were sketches on the wall and streaks of paint directly on them, as well as a scattering of photographs that were mostly of Aiba or animals, although some looked to be of the park at which they'd found Ohno when they'd brought him home that first night.
One picture caught Sho's eye and he walked forward, forgetting that he was in someone else's space, to find that it was a picture of Ohno and Nino at that park. Ohno was making a droll face at the camera and Nino was laughing, cap pushed back so that the camera could see his eyes. Their faces were pressed cheek to cheek and Sho, for the first time, wondered if their much touted love was more than an elaborate and playful lie.
He turned to stare at Ohno, who was painting furiously at a large easel and seemed not to have noticed their entrance.
"What's Matsujun making?" Aiba whispered to Sho.
"Gyoza," Sho whispered back.
"Oh-chan," Aiba caroled, drawing out the syllables. "Time for gyoza!"
Ohno paused in his movements for a second before slashing vehemently at the canvas with his brush, pulling a long diagonal stroke across it in a vivid shade of purple.
He turned and placed his brush in a jar of dirty water and his palette on a small table. He smiled at Aiba and Sho and said, "I like gyoza."
"I know you do, Oh-chan," Aiba said fondly. "Let's go."
Sho thought of his mission and stalled, babbling, "Aiba-chan, Jun-kun, today? Did he say yes to the group date? And I have to go to the bathroom. The bathroom!"
Ohno brushed past him, mumbling about shoes, and Aiba stared at Sho. "Sho-kun, your bathroom is maybe thirty seconds away? Probably less?"
"But I have to pee!" Sho insisted, then thought of another room Jun would be sure to want to hear all about. "And your kitchen."
"You want to pee in our kitchen?" Aiba asked, eyes wide.
"Forget it," Sho sighed.
"Gyoza?" Aiba said tentatively, as if hoping Sho had come to his senses.
"Let's go," Sho said, resigned to the censure he'd be getting from Jun.
As the three walked together over the grass Aiba said, "Matsujun agreed to the group date on the condition that we have it at his house. Plus some other stuff like you adding Hana-chan to your poop patrol and me making sure that Oh-chan doesn't paint on the walls of his studio."
Sho, ready to complain about the extra poop, instead said, "Uhhhhh..." and thought of the paint smeared seemingly haphazardly over the walls in question.
Aiba tossed an arm over Ohno's shoulders and pulled him in tight. "Oh-chan can't be limited in his artistic capacity, Sho-kun. Don't tell Matsujun."
"Uhhhh..." Sho said again.
"I'll whitewash over it sometime this week," Ohno said kindly.
"Thank you, Ohno-kun," Sho said gratefully.
Aiba tossed his other arm over Sho's shoulders and pulled him in, too. "Gyoza!" he cheered.
* * * * * * * *
Sitting down at the table, all five of them together for the first time, probably should have been awkward. Nino was a master of smoothing things over, though, and it was hard to imagine anyone not getting along with Aiba or Ohno. The conversation flowed smoothly from Ohno's first bite of gyoza, because after it he had exclaimed, with his eyes squeezed ecstatically closed, "Tasty," and Jun had given him a look that bordered on fondness and promptly loosened up to a degree Sho wouldn't have thought possible for him so early in knowing someone.
Both Jun and Nino seemed to have already fallen into a dynamic with Aiba that Sho couldn't picture himself in, one where they smacked him easily when he said dumb things but also teamed up with him to make fun of the others. Given that Ohno was doing little but concentrating on his food they mostly teamed up against Sho. Ten minutes into the meal they'd decided that Sho was an old man and let him know that they were considering submitting his application to an old man pop group, for which, Nino said, he could rap.
Sho looked at them, betrayed. He just wanted to enjoy his meal and time at home and he got told he was aging! Balding! Gassy!
He felt a hand pat him on the shoulder and found that Ohno had spared a moment from his inhalation of rice to pat him comfortingly on the shoulder.
"I'm even older than you are, Sho-kun," he said.
"'Even,' he says! It's not 'even'! I'm only twenty-eight," Sho groused to himself. Ohno shared an evil grin with Nino and went back to his dinner.
The mocking and snickers continued until Sho banged both palms on the table and shouted, "I'm in my prime, you assholes!"
There was a long pause and Sho wondered if he should take this opportunity to storm out. (He couldn't quite bring himself to abandon his gyoza.)
Then Aiba whispered, "Ah, you didn't tell me Sho-kun has an anger problem."
Sho's eyes bulged. "I do not have an anger problem!"
Jun sighed, "We don't like to talk about it, it makes him upset."
"He's supposed to take medication for it but he just won't admit he has a problem," Nino sighed along.
Sho could feel every vein in his forehead trying to explode.
"Look at him, his face is like a tomato," Nino said, face carefully grave.
"An angry tomato," Aiba breathed.
There was another pause as Sho debated punching off the growing smirks on their faces. It was interrupted by the loud click of a camera taking a picture and Sho turned, incredulous, to see Ohno inspecting the picture on the digital camera in his hand.
"Good expression," he said, making a move as if he was going to offer the camera to Sho so he could look as well.
"You!" Sho said, vastly rude to someone he barely knew, and Ohno blinked up at him innocently.
Sho nearly choked on his sudden laugh, feeling like it was either laugh or cry, and he couldn't help laughing when looking at Ohno's deviously angelic expression.
"You are the worst, Satoshi-kun," he said finally. "Eat your damn gyoza, all of you."
Nino poured Sho another glass of beer, looking unrepentant but at least keeping his mouth shut, and Aiba took the opportunity to turn the conversation another direction, looking a bit guilty in Sho's direction first. He also looked radiantly happy, although Sho wouldn't have thought someone could look that way and guilty at the same time, and Sho laughed again, glad to meet someone who could look that happy just by eating a meal with people and talking a load of crap. Aiba looked back at him, eyes bright, and Sho stilled, having to remind himself that he should probably keep breathing.
Their eye contact was broken as Jun gave an angry "oi!" at Aiba for asking a question and then ignoring Jun's answer, and Aiba turned to Jun to laugh and ask him to repeat it.
"I said," Jun repeated irritably, "That we're having homemade pizza on our group date, with each person getting to choose their own toppings. If you want something weird let me know ahead of time."
He made eye-contact with Sho and looked near defiantly unapologetic, but Sho was still rattled and just smiled back. No evening could be a waste, even if he couldn't talk to their dates, as long as he could eat Jun's cooking, and he especially loved Jun's homemade pizza. Plus, he thought suddenly, Jun's participation in the recent teasing meant Sho felt a lot less guilty about not telling him about Ohno's illicitly decorated studio.
Things were looking up for old man Sakurai.