Work Text:
The morning of the group date started later than usual, with Nino having been given a reprieve on filming until ten am. Sho was relaxing with his cup of coffee at 8:30, feeling like he'd been given a week off and a massage with how nice it felt to sleep past six. Nino hadn't poked his head in yet and Sho smiled, even more pleased to think of Nino getting the rest he so sorely needed.
His serenity stumbled when he heard a notification from his phone and he prayed it wasn't anything work-related. Unless... maybe they'd say Nino doesn't need to be on set until even later, Sho thought giddily.
It was not work. It was Ohno and it was concise and baffling all at once.
"Sho-kun, come quick, vomiting monkey, Oh-chan"
Another mail came right after and clarified without making Sho any less confused.
"in studio"
Sho sighed and set down his cup. He tucked his phone into the pocket of his sweatpants (his favorite pair, the ones that could pass as jeans from a distance) and headed off toward the green house.
He met Ohno rushing out the door as Sho was about to knock politely.
"Sho-kun, Sho-kun, help. Please? Can you take me--I don't know where, just please help."
Sho had never heard Ohno sound at all discomposed and to hear him nearly frantic was frightening. He followed Ohno up the stairs and into the art studio. He stopped short at the sight of--
It really was a vomiting monkey.
The wretched little thing finished its puking, one round of many from the small stains all around the room.
"Satoshi-kun," Sho said cautiously. "Putting aside the presence of a monkey, and that it is vomiting, could you first tell me why its vomit is hot pink?"
Ohno looked disconsolate. "It ate all my pink paint," he said sadly. He grabbed Sho's arm and gave him a pleading expression.
"Sho-kun, please. Aiba-chan already went for an early appointment and I don't have a license, let alone a car, and I can't take a puking monkey on the bus--"
"Right," Sho said decisively. "Send Nino a mail and make my excuses while I go find Mayu-chan's dog carrier. Bring the monkey and meet me at my car, okay?"
Ohno looked pathetically grateful. "Thank you, Sho-kun," he said, looking warily at the monkey and taking a tentative step in its direction. The monkey promptly began puking pink all over one of the finished paintings and Ohno cried out, stricken. He set his shoulders and resolutely motioned Sho away before taking another step toward the sick animal.
Sho ran down the stairs and back toward the blue house. He then stopped, heels skidding on the gravel of the driveway, remembering that the dog carrier was in the one garage on the property, back in the green house where he'd just been.
Two minutes later he had it in hand and met Ohno as they both made their way to Sho's car. He had the monkey in the crook of one arm as he typed on his phone with the other, thumb pushing clumsily at the buttons. He was smirking a tiny bit and Sho thought again that Ohno was so simple 95% of the time that the other five percent always perplexed him utterly. He wondered if that would go away with more than a few days of knowing Ohno but tossed the thought away to focus on getting the monkey in the carrier and the carrier in the car.
The monkey barely resisted, looking listless, and soon it was in and placed between the backseat and driver's side, snugly so it wouldn't slide around as they drove. Ohno was already buckling his seatbelt as Sho got in the car, pausing to get his phone out as he got another notification.
"Sho-chan, explain. Now.
FWD: From: Taka
To: Yuuji
i'll be cheating on you with Sho-kun all day
"
"Satoshi-kun, how was that helpful?" Sho said, exasperated.
"Nino will understand," Ohno said, unconcerned. "Here, give me your phone." Sho gave up and let him have it, starting the car and heading them on their way instead of worrying about crazy people.
As he pulled up to the gate Ohno murmured to himself as he typed on Sho's phone, "'You'll have to drive yourself to work today, young master,'" and then gave a hmm. "Maybe some winky-faces after that, too..."
Sho ignored him and got out to open the gate. He refused to think about the mail being sent from his phone and thought instead that he really needed to talk to Jun about the automatic opener so that he didn't have to keep getting in and out of the car just to leave the property.
Ohno stopped pushing buttons but kept Sho's phone and Sho pushed that thought away as well so that he could focus on more pressing matters.
"Ohno-kun, we are heading for an animal hospital, okay? The vet part of it is where we're taking Mayu-chan for her appointment but the hospital part should help us."
"Sho-kun is so reliable," Ohno said, looking innocently out the window like the crisis was completely solved. The sound of the poor monkey puking yet again reminded Sho that there were questions that needed answering.
"Explain the monkey, Satoshi-kun," he said sternly.
"Her name is Ojou and Aiba-chan rescued her from an abusive owner," Ohno said, still calm.
"And we didn't know about her because?"
"We figured Matsujun-san wouldn't like it, and Aiba-chan's been trying to find her a good home anyway, so we didn't want to disrupt Matsujun-san's happiness unnecessarily. And I've been working from home a lot lately so I can watch her so she doesn't have to be in a cage all the time."
"But the hot pink vomit?"
"I was hungry," Ohno said, ashamed. "I made fried rice and when I got back to the studio my paint was gone and Ojou-chan was vomiting."
"Why did you mail me and not Nino?" Sho asked.
"I didn't want to make Nino choose," Ohno said simply.
It made sense to Sho. Nino would loathe inconveniencing work colleagues for personal reasons but he would have a hard time saying no to a favor from a friend in need.
He mused on it a moment longer before concluding, "He would have chosen you, Satoshi-kun."
"I know," Ohno said softly. "That's why I didn't ask."
He reached his hand over and rested it on Sho's sleeve, letting the warmth sink into Sho like a thank you. Sho covered it with his other hand, letting his knee steer for a perilous second, before putting both hands firmly back on the wheel. He heard Ohno laugh but he was sure the feeling got through anyway.
* * * * * * * *
They sneaked the monkey back onto the property around lunchtime, having been reassured that she would be fine even if she stained the house pink. Ojou was sleeping fitfully in Mayu-chan's dog carrier, and Sho looked around furtively before waving Ohno into the green house and away from the potentially wrathful eyes of Jun.
When Sho finally got to the set he didn't last five minutes under Nino's interrogation. He'd been resigned to that, glad at least to be able to share the weirdness with someone else. Nino didn't ask why Ohno had asked Sho for help and didn't seem interested in the vomiting monkey, although his lips did quirk at the thought of Jun finding said monkey and the reaction that would follow. Still, he said he wouldn't tell Jun even though Sho didn't ask, and Sho figured that Nino knew the repercussions from an illicit monkey would be more serious than picking up some poop.
Nino crammed bites of his lunch into his mouth and pored over his script as Sho settled back onto the couch with another client's commercial offer in hand. Years ago Nino and Sho had huddled together in a tiny apartment and talked of Nino becoming so famous that Sho wouldn't have any other clients, and Sho thought that maybe when work was uninspiring Nino remembered that promise. He also thought that if Nino asked the higher ups he'd have his wish granted, and Sho wasn't quite sure why Nino hadn't. Nino wasn't one to throw his weight around but it seemed like a reasonable request to Sho, considering how much time he spent with this one, most important client.
One of the staff members came over and started touching up Nino's makeup, and Sho looked up to find it was the one with dibs on him. She was purposeful and quick in her movements and soon moved back out of the room, not quite meeting Sho's eyes even though she could have easily. Sho wondered if she was shy or just focused on work and decided he liked it either way. She was nothing like the girls he'd dated before, at least from what he could tell: her short hair and practical clothing made that clear right away.
Sho put the group date out of his mind and looked back down at the proposal for Yoko, wondering why in the world anyone would ask Yoko to shill for something as cheery and domestic as cherry blossom-scented air fresheners.
"And this is how we all die," Sho thought to himself and snickered, leaning over to share the joke with Nino.
* * * * * * * *
Sho got home with barely enough time to wash up and dress nicely for the date, not caring where Nino disappeared to so quickly. (Although he had a guess and it involved Ohno and/or video games, probably with cuddling.)
Freshly scrubbed and tie in hand he made his way over to Jun's, wondering if Aiba was already there or running late. The door was open and Sho headed straight for the kitchen, following his nose.
Jun had made several kinds of toppings for the pizza, from seafood to chicken, plus tiny balls of rice for appetizers that Sho could only assume were filled with something delicious. He reached out to snag one, unable to resist, but Jun smacked his hand with a spatula and Sho pulled his hand back, dejected.
"You are late," Jun said. "But you're the first one here so I'll give you a pass. Get the wine out, would you?"
Jun directed Sho in a number of menial tasks in the next ten minutes, none more complicated than "move this from here to there," which suited Sho just fine. Finally there was a loud knock at the door and an echoing greeting from Aiba, and half of the group date members were present.
Aiba strolled into the kitchen and Sho's brain stopped working.
The low-slung pants were loose but cropped to show thin calves and colorful socks. His layers of shirts seemed to conspire to bare choice bits of Aiba: a flash of smooth hip here, the silhouette of an upper arm there, a low v-neck's worth of skin that was just as tan as the rest of him, giving Sho's already overloaded brain another image he couldn't quite dismiss. The whole outfit was brightly colored, a little crazy, and ultimately more flattering than Sho knew how to handle. He would never have expected Aiba to dress this way but now could only think of this style as exactly Aiba, Aiba all over, practical and alluring and fun.
Jun snorted.
"Did it take you the fifteen minutes you are late to put on all your shirts?" he said.
"No, I--" Aiba cut his answer off and met Sho's eyes, mouthing "MONKEY" while Jun couldn't see. "I mean yes! So many shirts."
Jun turned, looking suspicious, but Aiba merely blinked back innocently. Then the doorbell rang and they all startled, heads swiveling toward their impending dates.
"Aiba-san, get the door," Jun said. "I think Sho-san needs another minute to remember just who it is he's here to date."
Sho could only be grateful that Aiba had bounded away as soon as Jun said the word "door". Jun reached out and started fixing Sho's tie wordlessly, looking smug. He finished as cheerful voices neared the kitchen.
Sho whispered, "Please don't tell Nino," before turning and pasting a smile on his face.