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Nino wakes up on the couch with a blanket carefully draped over him. It’s a soft fabric, worn but warm, and when he rubs his nose into it there’s a faint scent of fabric softener. He sighs softly, stretching his legs only to realise that his laptop has been removed from his lap and safely put away on the low table.
“Sho-chan,” he calls sleepily.
There’s noise coming from the kitchen, the shy clinking of silverware against porcelain. Nino keeps his eyes closed and wishes for coffee.
“Sho-chan,” he calls again, a little louder this time.
“Ah, are you awake?” Sho responds.
“Did you bring me a blanket from home?” Nino asks, and he cracks an eye open just in time to see Sho appear with two cups of coffee.
“I came prepared,” Sho says solemnly, and Nino throws an uncoordinated arm over his face before laughing into the crook of his elbow.
When he resurfaces, Sho looks amused and maybe a little proud of himself.
“This is all bribery because you want my new draft, right?” Nino says.
Sho perks up. “Is it ready?” he asks, and Nino grins.
“Give me the coffee and I’ll let you take a peek.”
*
“So when is your new book coming out?” Jun asks over a cup of coffee.
They’re in one of those trendy coffee shops that makes personalised designs in your milk foam. Nino can’t quite help calculating the average number of yen spent per sip, but Jun obviously seems completely in his element. His posture is completely relaxed, leaning back into his seat and watching people come in and out of the shop. To some, he would appear disinterested, but Nino knows better. Knows the way Jun has taken each of his dedications to heart.
“Next month, I think,” Nino says. He doesn’t get too involved with those details, happy to leave all publishing and marketing decisions entirely to Sho.
Jun nods. “Ah, I hear rumours that they want to make Vestiges into a movie?”
“Eh? Really?” responds Nino, feigning surprise.
Jun rolls his eyes, trying to hold back a smile and failing. “You’re an idiot,” he says, and Nino laughs.
“I don’t even know much about it yet. How do you even know?” Nino asks.
“Aiba-kun told me,” Jun says. Then, probably reading the confusion on Nino’s face, he adds, “He heard it from Sakurai-kun.”
“Ahh! I should have known it’d be a bad idea to introduce those two,” Nino lets out.
Jun grins, the look of childish glee on his face betraying his otherwise mature image, a contrast that should feel dissonant but in fact only adds another layer to the exquisite complexity of his character. Nino covers his pained expression with his hands, peeking at Jun from between his fingers.
When Jun speaks, there’s laughter tinting his words, and Nino is reminded once again of all the reasons why any writer first begins to write.
“I bet even grandma knows by now.”
*
The text message comes both too early and too late in the morning to be the result of a drunken night. Nino stares at it for a moment, then decides that he needs to finish his second coffee of the day before giving Aiba a call.
“You’re going to be a grandfather?” he says when Aiba picks up.
“Nino!” Aiba exclaims happily. They haven’t talked in a little while and the sound of his voice is enough to make Nino smile.
“Mochi is pregnant! We’re going to have pups!” Aiba says, and Nino can hear the excitement in his voice.
“A whole litter of mini Mochis? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen,” Nino grins.
“Oi!” Aiba protests. “It’s great news, okay?”
Nino reigns in his laughter. “Alright. Congratulations, grandpa!”
They chat naturally for a little while, Aiba about his future puppies, about the restaurant and about his little brother’s new girlfriend and Nino about hanging out with Jun and finishing his new book.
“I saw Ohno-kun the other day,” Aiba says. “He was at the market so we went out for lunch together.”
Nino smiles. Ohno left about a month ago for another one of his fishing trips. It’s a normal occurrence. Every few months, Ohno packs his bags and leaves the city to go spend some time on the island. He’s usually gone for a few days or weeks. This trip came right after Ohno wrapped up his latest exhibition, so Nino isn’t really surprised to see time stretch a little longer than usual. Sometimes, when Nino catches himself feeling a little lonely, he imagines Ohno’s little dark face, his stupid little smile and his fishy fingers.
“He says your new book is going to be really really good,” Aiba says. “Especially the ending.”
“He hasn’t even seen the ending!” Nino says, and Aiba giggles.
“Yeah, he said you won’t read to him over the phone,” Aiba says. “But we both agreed that Nino’s endings are always the best.”
Nino rubs a hand over his face, feeling warm to the tips of his ears. “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he says.
“Hey, Aiba-chan,” Nino says before they hang up.
“Yeah?”
“If you’re looking for a home for one of them… let me know, okay?”
*
Ohno comes back a few days later, showing up at Nino’s door with his duffle bag and his toothy smile. His hair is sticking out at all angles and Nino can imagine the wind that tangled it so vividly that he can almost feel the sea blowing its salt across the deck of the small ferry boat again.
“I’m back,” Ohno says.
“Aah, right now is not really a good time. Can you come back in a month?” Nino says, faking a grimace.
When Ohno doesn’t move, Nino gives in, smiling even as he leans in to press a kiss against Ohno’s lips. It starts slow. A touch, soft pressure, lips sliding together in tentative rediscovery. Then Ohno pushes and Nino pulls, lips parting, exchanging a breath as they tumble into Nino’s apartment.
The couch catches Nino’s back, Ohno on top of him in a tangle of limbs that is more messy than sexy. They laugh, readjust, moving with a practiced ease that Nino doesn’t quite understand. With Ohno, from the very beginning and up to now, it feels like everything always falls into place naturally even when nothing makes sense. Nino, in all his articulate and logical ways, just can’t quite find the words to explain or even comprehend what he feels when he’s with Ohno.
“Ah. I think you missed me,” Ohno whispers.
“You taste like coffee,” Nino replies, sliding his hands down Ohno’s back.
“I had it on the boat and thought of you,” Ohno says, angling his head to kiss Nino’s chin.
“You must really like me,” Nino says, but then Ohno pushes against him and he figures he really doesn’t need a response to that. He wraps his legs around Ohno’s hips, pulling him closer as their lips meet again.
He tugs at Ohno’s shirt, bunching it up as far as he can while Ohno won’t cooperate, won’t stop kissing him long enough to take it off. Ohno’s hand is on his hip, the other one holding his weight on the armrest above Nino’s head.
“Read me the ending,” Ohno says.
“What now?” Nino asks, a little affronted.
“I want to know how it ends,” Ohno says, pulling back as Nino pushes against his chest. He takes off his shirt and smiles down at Nino. “We could do both, you could read it to me while I…”
“No way,” Nino says, catching Ohno’s hands on his belt buckle.
The corner of Ohno’s mouth quirks up, amused. “After?” he asks.
It’s easy to tell that this is what Ohno wanted all along, but Nino doesn’t really mind by now. Any protests are token, resistance that creates momentum. He may never admit it out loud, but those moments with Ohno, whispering his stories late into the night, sharing chapters like secrets… Those are his favourites. It’s an intimacy built on the little horrors he writes and with each of Ohno’s kisses in between.
“After,” he promises, and he leans in to kiss a new chapter onto Ohno’s lips.