ciircee | Re-post from ShoneenClub's contest

I really loved the contest over at

shoneenclub. Reveals are up (and still awesome) and so I'm reposting my entries here.

The Only Love We Keep

Sho looked handsome in the tuxedo, a mature young man strong and steady. Nino swung his feet, watching him do up his shirt studs. "This is an improvement over the montsuki," he announced to the room at large.

Jun gave him a withering look as he handed Sho another stud. "I don't know what you're going to say, but don't," he suggested.

Ohno smiled beatifically at him. "Sho looked nice in the formal kimono but it made you think of okama, right?"

"Hey! What's with that kind of thing!" Sho cried as Ohno and Aiba high-fived each other. He was laughing, though, his head tipped back and his whole face alight. Jun was smiling, patiently holding a set of silver cufflinks.

Nino stood up. "Not those, Jun," he said. He felt around in his pocket and came up with the little jewelry store box he'd picked up that morning. "I got him a present."

Jun's eyes narrowed.

"They're genuine Tahitian black pearl," Nino assured him, "set in pure silver. I know how to buy things that actually cost money."

"You bought me a present?" Sho asked with a smile.

"Mm," Nino nodded, going to Sho's side and handing him the box. "They cost a lot of money so you'd better like them," he said as Sho opened it.

The cufflinks gleamed against a bed of white cotton, the pearls dark and lustrous. "They're beautiful," said Sho.

Nino took the first one out and focused on slipping it into place. He could smell silk and sunshine, church incense and wood polish, roses and honeysuckle—the scents of a summer wedding drifting on the late afternoon air. "Don't get married today," he said whimsically. "Let's run away together instead."

"Nino," Aiba complained, "you're supposed to wait until the wedding starts to say that. When the minister asks if anybody wants to run away with the groom."

"If we run away together," Sho asked, letting Jun do up his other cuff, "will we go to a deserted island?"

"Am I coming with?" Ohno wanted to know.

"No," Nino told him, "just me and Sho. I don't want him to get married. You can marry his girlfriend."

"Technically she's his wife," Jun said, laughing under his breath. "You should have run away with him before his first wedding."

Nino kept his eyes on Sho's cuff as he finished fastening it. "I knew I was forgetting something during that boss battle this morning."

"Hey!" Sho laughed again, the way he had earlier, everything in him shining with joy.

Nino turned away and picked up the tuxedo jacket. "It was one of the final bosses."

The door opened slightly and a pretty, dark head poked into the room. Nino only knew her as one of the bridesmaids, probably the one that Ohno would be walking with. "We're ready," she said, smiling at all of them before opening the door wider.

Obediently they began to shuffle out after her. Nino stopped at the door, feeling Sho stop behind him. "We'll be there in a minute," he said. At the girl's slightly confused look he said, simply, "It's a best-man thing." He closed the door and took a short breath before turning to face Sho again.

In the hall they could hear Jun start up again on the line up of groomsmen and how Nino was a terrible choice for best-man based on sheer height and aesthetics. They could also hear Aiba laugh, calling him jealous before their voices faded and Nino was left alone with Sho for the first time in days.

"I don't know if I'm scared or excited," Sho told him.

"You're dumb," Nino told him. It made Sho smile and Nino stepped into the arms that Sho held open for him. "You're happy."

Sho's arms tightened around him. "I am so happy," he said.

Nino closed his eyes.

He had always known that his love for Sho was different, special. In many ways it was no different than his love for the other members of Arashi—inexplicable and deep—and he expressed it in that same way. Nobody had ever seen the difference because Nino was just 'that way' with all of them. He'd never tried to make it known. His love for Sho was, and had always been, a hopeless thing; Sho just wasn't put together in a way that would let him want what Nino wanted.

It didn't matter, though. It never had. Sho loved him as much as he could, maybe even more than he should, and that was all that Nino had ever wanted.

"You should be," he said into the warmth of Sho's shoulder. "Your wife—" he drew back and looked at Sho. "Your wife," he repeated, watching the way the words made Sho positively glow, "is amazing. We all love her and the two of you are going to have the smartest fail-babies ever."

"Hey!"

Nino ignored him, turning suddenly serious. Some things were too important, some moments too meaningful. "Congratulations," he said "on your wedding day." Sho swept him close again, holding him hard and Nino knew that Sho was hiding all the emotions that were spilling out. Nino hid his own face. "I really love you," he said.

"I really love you, too," Sho said into his hair.

Because he meant it, because they both did, Nino pushed Sho away. "Last chance to run away with me," he said, opening the door and stepping out into the narrow hall. "No? Then let's get you to the front of the church. I hear you're having an open bar at the reception and I want to get Aiba drunk enough to cry on you."

"Since when does Aiba need to be drunk?" Sho muttered as he went one way and Nino went the other.

"See you in a bit," Nino called back, making his way to the line up. Smiling, he offered the bride's sister, her maid of honor, his arm. Her hand was warm and light at the crook of his arm. He counted the beats mindlessly as the music started and the others began the walk up the aisle, separating from their partners at the altar. Their turn came and he moved easily, a lifetime in the public eye having inured him to the staring and the whispers. At the altar he put his hand over hers and squeezed before letting go and taking his place next to Sho. Sho's hand found his, linking their fingers as the music changed and his bride stepped to the door on the arm of her father.

Nino swung their joined hands, half-wondering if Ohno would take his free hand, if they would all link together the way that they did in concert. They didn't and, a few feet from Sho, the bride's father dropped her hand and stepped away. Nino felt that was his cue to drop Sho's hand but when he tried Sho refused to let go. Even as he turned to take his wife's hand.

It had always been Nino's job to be quick with the joke, to set the mood. He stepped forward with Sho, quickly shaking their hands loose before he held Sho's up, offering it to his wife. "He's your problem now," he said as she took Sho's hand in hers.

"Hey!"

Sho's wife beamed at him, leaning around Sho to kiss Nino softly at the corner of his mouth. "I'll do my best," she promised.

"Hey!"

Nino stepped back, grinning so hard it hurt his face, so happy that his heart was all but breaking with it.

Will post the other one tomorrow when I'm not supposed to be spending time with Edward. AND I will finally get to commenting around like I want to.

(Also:

je_fqfest is done posting entries. This link will take you to anything tagged with Arashi.)