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ciirceeSo this weekend was not nearly so free and easy as I'd thought it would be. I really hate Skyla's mom right about now.
On the plus side, we did have a bunch of teenaged girls over watching all three Death Note movies and they all thought L was adorable (he SO is) and one of them was all 'omg, Light looks like Ohno!' and Ed--ED--identifies him as 'Sunrise Nippon Ohno'. Because seriously, Light spends a lot of time looking like a younger Ohno Satoshi and that just might be the right era (I was going for a little bit of 'Kotoba Yori' Ohno myself). Sadly, I had two moments of 'I know that actor/actress!' during the movies and was totally right. It's sort of sad. But NOT as sad as recognizing the kid from the Love So Sweet video as being the American kid in YamaTaro.
ANYHOW, rambling aside, I owe comments yet. I will get to them asap. For now, have my other entry in to the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
shoneenclub contest.
Lost Boys
Sho had come to the depth of the jungle (a full two days by motored boat from the nearest human settlement) on the simple mission of keeping Ohno Satoshi from getting lost on his own. As an anthropologist, Sho had been chosen for the trip by the ecology department of the university simply because he didn't have any plans for the summer and didn't mind looking after their prized synecologist.
Discovering jungle boys had been an unexpected windfall.
He spent the first week of their expedition helping to catalog bugs, chasing Ohno away from the river after a full day of fishing, and trying to convince himself that he wasn't hearing footsteps or seeing faces in the shadows. He was harassing Ohno about sun block (again) when three boys stepped out of the jungle and into their campsite. Naked, nut-brown, and rail thin the boys looked at them for a long moment before fading back into the trees.
They'd gone, but they hadn't gone very far, Sho discovered.
For a week Sho caught only glimpses of their watchers. He discovered that if he ignored them they would come closer. He didn't mind; he learned a lot by watching them surreptitiously as they watched him. It was obvious that they were not used to strangers and it slowly became clear that the three were very much on their own and had been for a very, very long time.
Sho began to leave food at the edge of their campsite on the supposition that it worked with taming stray cats and there was no reason it shouldn't work with wild boys. By the end of his second week in the deep, tropical jungle, Sho had three mostly-tame jungle boys: Aiba, Nino, and Jun.
~*~
"This," said Nino, pointing at the salt.
Sho shook his head. "It doesn't need salt."
"This," Nino said insistently, throwing his hand out, fingers spread.
"It doesn't need salt, Nino," Sho repeated. "No salt," he simplified just in case. The boys had a strange language-a mishmash of Japanese, English, several local dialects, and even more made-up words. For all that, however, their sentence structure and vocabulary was, in Sho's studied opinion, rooted in early-childhood, not much beyond a kindergarten level. They were extremely intelligent, however, and were picking up Japanese quickly enough that Sho was now nearly certain that it was their native language and hearing it spoken between him and Satoshi was jumpstarting their memories and buried skills. But it was possible that, for all Nino's cleverness, Sho was being too complex and too quick with the words.
Nino huffed and dropped to the ground, glaring at Sho from beneath his lashes. "Oh-chan," he called sullenly, "this. Do."
'This' was a favorite word of all three of the boys and it proved very versatile. Aiba often used it to request information, using it for both 'what' and 'why'. Jun used it as verification—asking if something was all right to use or if it was all right to intrude. Nino used it for almost everything despite the fact that his understanding of language was beginning to outstrip the others'. Adding a verb like 'do' anywhere in the sentence wasn't clarification so much as it was a command.
The ecologist looked up from where he was transcribing his notes and then set aside both notebook and recorder to wander over to where Sho was cooking. "Do what?" he asked.
Nino pointed at the pot. "This. Do this."
"Taste," Ohno nodded. "Sho-chan?" With a defeated sigh and a glare at Nino, Sho offered Ohno a spoonful of the stew he was cooking. "It's good," Ohno said after a moment, "but Nino is right; it needs salt."
Sho looked down at Nino, who was beaming angelically up at Ohno. "He's a jungle boy. He was raised by Aiba. There's no way he cooks better than I do. Jun," he called as the other boy and Aiba walked into the campsite. "Taste?"
Jun looked surprised and pleased as he trotted over to where Sho was, taking the spoon eagerly. His eyes closed as he sipped at it. A faint frown wrinkled his forehead. His eyes opened. "This," he said, pointing to the salt. "This…salt?"
"Salt," Nino said in obvious confirmation. He sounded smug.
"You're a brat," Sho informed him.
Aiba looked at Sho and laughed. "Nino, Nino," he said spreading both hands in a gesture that clearly said 'what can you do'.
Sho looked back at Nino. "He should have spanked you more as a child," he told him.
~*~
"Sho-chan," Nino tugged on his shirttail. "Sho-chan, this."
Sho looked up from the beetle mound he was recording. "What?"
He knew very well what Nino wanted—Nino used a lot of touch-communication—but he wanted Nino to verbalize. Judging from Nino's scowl, Nino knew what he was up to. "Come," Nino said at last, obviously finding his need to make Sho move more important than his stubborn standoff against words. Sho found it as amusing as Aiba's war against pants and Jun's constant attempts to wheedle him into switching sides.
"Okay," Sho gave in, standing. "I'll come with you."
Nino smiled. "Come this," he said, taking Sho's hand in his own. When Sho stopped he scowled again. "This place," he said. "Come this place. This here."
"Come here," Sho said, clearly, confirming. He ignored Nino's rolled eyes and followed him through the undergrowth into a small clearing. An old tree had obviously fallen because there was sunlight pouring down into the clearing. At the center was a large flower that resembled a rose. Even from a distance Sho could smell a clear odor of rotting meat. "This is—"
"This Oh-chan's book in," Nino said proudly. He spread his hand in the direction of the flower. "I find." He made a face. "Smells bad. Sho's cooking, smells like."
"Oi!" Sho aimed a slap at the back of Nino's head, laughing when Nino laughed and ran away.
~*~
"NINO," Nino bellowed, pointing to a patch of floor in the middle of the tent. "Oh-chan, Sho-chan," he went on, pointing to one side and then the other. He flicked his hands to the sides. "You."
"No," Jun screeched back. "JUN." He pointed to the first place Nino had indicated.
Ohno looked at Sho. "Are they going to do this all night?" he asked.
Aiba yawned and tucked himself closer to where Ohno was sitting. "Yeah," he said. "Home, same."
"They do this every night?" Sho asked incredulously.
Aiba blinked at him. "Nino, Jun, like middle," he said as though this should have been perfectly clear. "Nino, Jun, like Oh-chan, Sho-chan. Nino, Jun loud fight," he ended with a shrug.
Sho put his head in his hands. "Now I wish we'd left them to sleep in the rain."
It rained every day in the jungle, usually at midday. Tonight, however, was a howling storm. Sho had been startled by the ferocity of it and had insisted on keeping the boys at the camp when they normally would have gone 'home' since 'home' was half a cave and half a dense stand of small trees. He was beginning to regret it, though, since Jun and Nino were currently drowning out the storm.
"What do you usually do?" Ohno asked Aiba. "To make them stop."
Aiba puzzled out the words until Ohno hit 'stop'. Then he brightened. He picked at the edge of the blanket Ohno was holding, teasing it out of his grip. Then he flopped down on the floor in the space Jun and Nino were fighting over, pulling the blanket over his face.
Jun and Nino sent up twin howls of protest but otherwise subsided, muttering darkly. Nino looked between Ohno and Sho, a cagey, calculating look on his face as he glanced back at the floor. Sho sensed another fight brewing as Jun caught sight of those looks as well. "Nino," Sho said, holding out a hand to him. "Sleep with me?"
Surprise flashed over Nino's face even as he reached out and put his hand in Sho's own. "I sleep Sho," he announced to Jun.
Jun gave him a lofty look. "I sleep Oh-chan."
Nino's face went as thunderous as the sky overhead. He slapped a hand on Ohno's butt. Ohno squeaked. "MY NOISE," Nino informed Jun dangerously.
"I really wish he wouldn't do that," Ohno sighed, pushing Nino's hand away and going to get another blanket.
Sho tugged on Nino's hand and brought him over to Aiba's other side, spreading his blanket out. "Stop pinching Satoshi's butt," Sho told him.
Nino gave Sho a sweet smile as he settled down on the blanket. "Noise, yes?" he asked.
Sho shot a quick glance over at Ohno, settling in at the far side of the tent, Jun beside Aiba. "Yes," he whispered to Nino as he lay down, "it IS a cute noise. But stop doing that so much or else he'll stop making that noise."
Pouting, Nino nodded. Sho closed his eyes. He could feel Nino watching him. After a few moments, Nino inched closer. When Sho didn't protest, he moved closer still. Without opening his eyes, Sho lifted his arm. Nino plastered himself against Sho, half on top of him. Sho sighed and curled his arm around Nino's shoulders. It was surprisingly comfortable to have him there.
A second later he felt a hand drop to his crotch. He shrieked.
"My noise," Nino crooned.
~*~
Time passed slowly in the jungle, each day hot and humid and endless in the way of the lazy summer days of childhood. Sho felt strangely at home in the tent with Aiba and Jun and Nino in and out and helping himself and Satoshi to observe and catalog. It was only as he noticed how low they were getting on their salt that he realized they would be leaving soon. He left Nino in charge of dinner and went to find Ohno.
"Satoshi?" he asked, sitting down beside him, looking out at his bobber on the river.
"They might not want to come with, Sho," Ohno said, as calm as the surface of the water.
Sho took the fishing pole that Ohno handed him, casting the way Ohno had taught him. "They used to belong to somebody, Satoshi. Aiba Masaki. They might have family out there." It was something he was going to look into the minute he got off the plane somewhere with an internet connection anyhow. He hadn't realized that any of them knew their full names until he'd heard Nino and Aiba comforting an injured Jun by calling him 'Mattsun' and 'Matsujun'. They'd looked at him like it was strange but had given him their full names. It was entirely possible that they…. "They might—" he sighed. "What if we leave them behind and they don't understand? What if something happens to them? They're like children. We've got to take them with."
Ohno looked at him, solemn in the sunset. "No," he said. He went on before Sho could speak. "They're not like kids. Maybe they've only got a grade school education but they survived out here on their own since they were little—you said that yourself. I don't want to leave them behind because they're my friends. So…I'll ask them to come with."
Sho didn't understand but it didn't matter because the agreement to go was almost immediate and almost immediately deafening. The only hold out was Nino, who looked at Ohno for a long moment before turning his eyes to Sho and watching him with unreadable eyes. "Do you not want to come with?" he asked.
"With Sho-chan?" Nino asked.
"Yes, with me and Satoshi," Sho told him.
Nino looked at Ohno again. "Mine?"
"You can try," Ohno told him.
Nino sighed. "This try," he agreed.
~*~
Sho was worried when Nino was the last one to show up for the boat. "We have to wait," he repeated.
Jun patted him. "Nino coming," he said soothingly. "Nino get his special thing."
"It's not like the boat has anywhere else to be," Ohno added. "It's not a problem."
Aiba came out of the trees and clambered back up the ramp, dropping on to the deck next to Jun's feet. "Nino come now," he said.
Like Aiba and Jun, Nino was carrying a spear with him—Sho wasn't sure how they were going to get those past airport security but he didn't care. Their lives in the jungle had left them with few possessions and Sho wasn't about to let anybody take away the few things they did have.
Unlike Aiba and Jun, Nino was clutching something to his chest. His hands were dirty and he refused to let Sho and Ohno see what he held. "Mine," he said simply, his hand going tighter around whatever it was.
~*~
Their story broke hearts.
With first and last names and approximate ages, Sho found out who his jungle boys had once been. They'd been grade-schoolers whose school had once won an overseas trip. They'd been grade-schoolers whose plane had crashed leaving three young survivors to the jungle. They had been Aiba Masaki, whose parents owned a Chinese restaurant and who had never given up hope for their sweet son. They had been Matsumoto Jun whose older sister cried when she saw him for the first time. They had been Ninomiya Kazunari, whose mother had been a chaperone for the school trip. Their pictures were innocent and beautiful in their tragedy. Their last class photo in particular showed up under almost every headline, all those happy faces, three of them circled in red under the bold, black text.
When the story came to light, the nation celebrated the return of its lost children and Aiba, Jun, and Nino were instant celebrities. Jun, with his strong, pretty features, was offered a modeling contract and Aiba accidentally fell into filming segments for a children's program about animals and zoos. Nino fell in love with video games. The public fell in love with the little boys from the school photos and again with the young men with their bright smiles and occasionally-jumbled language.
Sho was proud of how they handled themselves in front of the cameras, how they smiled and thanked people in soft voices, how they took learning Tokyo to heart. Jun and Aiba went home to their families, Nino—whose father had lost interest in his son before he'd disappeared and whose older half-sister still lived with HER father—came home with Sho. Sho liked having a roommate, loved having Nino--so quick and clever and unexpectedly sweet—to come home to at night.
It was the only reason Sho felt no triumph whatsoever in bringing the three of them home from the jungle. He had a front row seat to how terrible things were for the three of them. The city baffled them to a certain extent. They had vague memories of it but the sheer size and volume and bustle was overwhelming. So, too, was the sudden presence of families, of parents. Suddenly they had schedules to keep, people to answer to. They had relationships to figure out, manners to adhere to, and things to think about other than the day itself and perhaps the one just beyond it. He didn't know how to make it better for any of them. He missed the jungle himself, some days.
"I'm moving back home with my momma," Ohno declared one day over lunch in the university canteen.
Sho didn't even blink. "I'm surprised you lasted this long," he admitted.
"Jun and Aiba are going to sublet my place," he said.
Sho choked on his drink and spent several minutes with Ohno helpfully pounding on his back. "What?" he coughed.
"Aiba and Jun," Ohno said. "They're moving into my place."
"Are you insane?" Sho demanded.
Ohno took a bite of his rice ball. "They're grown men," he said simply, taking another bite and chewing. "They need their own space."
"They—!" said Sho.
"They're used to it. I think they need it," Ohno said. "It's hard enough to bring a girl home when you're not famous and have a family that doesn't want to let you out of their sight."
"…girl?" Sho said weakly.
"Yeah, girls. Or boys. I think Jun might like that guy he works with. The one who teases him all the time? They're not kids, Sho," Ohno said firmly, repeating his words from months ago, thousands of miles away. "Not even Nino. They have things they want aside from chashumen and hair cuts and the new Dragon Quest game."
Sho shut his mouth with a snap.
~*~
"Home, Sho-chan!" Nino caroled when Sho got home that night.
Nino was, for once, not curled up on the couch with the ice-blue DS that his sister had given him. Nino was making dinner. Grilled fish, Sho noted with a pang, cooked over the open burner flame because Nino was stubborn like that.
"Do you want to go home, Nino?" Sho asked, getting out plates and setting the table.
Nino looked at him quizzically. "Home?"
"Back," Sho said. "The jungle. Or maybe…Aiba and Jun are going to get their own home. Do you want that?"
"Back," Nino repeated slowly. "Sho-chan…Nino go?" he asked.
Sho knew that Nino understood and that he was perfectly capable of phrasing his answer correctly. He'd thought that Nino didn't do it at home, with him, because Nino got tired having to use a 'foreign' language. Now…now he wondered about it. Wondered if Nino did it for him, living up—or down—to what he thought Sho wanted from him. "You can do what you want, Nino," he told him at last. "You can go anywhere. I can't keep you."
"Keep?" Nino asked.
"Nino." Sho scrubbed his hands through his hair. "You're a man. A grown man. A…a capable man. You can do anything you want with your life. You don't have to stay with me just because I want to keep you with me. You're free to get out of here and have a relationship, get married, have kids. You should have what you want. I'm…I don't want to hold you back. That's not fair. Quit caring about what I want. Even though I found you, life isn't 'finders keepers'. Go get what you want."
Nino squinted at him. "Sho-chan," he said.
"What?" Sho sighed passing a hand over his eyes. He let Nino tug his hand away. "What is it?"
"Sho-chan," Nino said again. Sho suddenly found himself with a lapful of Nino. "I want Sho-chan. For mine."
"For—" said Sho.
Nino nodded.
Sho had theories about incest taboo and Jun and Nino and Aiba's ages. Sho had questions about sexual awakenings when the only humans around for miles were your own 'brothers'. Sho had the feeling that he should get Nino out of his lap and remind Nino about girls and breasts—which Nino seemed interested in whenever he was exposed to them.
Sho didn't move beyond breathing and watching the way Nino leaned closer and closer to him. He closed his eyes and sighed as Nino's mouth touched his in a light kiss. "For yours, huh?" Sho asked when Nino pulled away again.
"Mine," said Nino.
He got up suddenly and walked into the bedroom that they shared. The bed that they shared. Sho stayed where he was, his mind racing, half wondering if he should explain about showering before sex. The other half of him wondered, somewhat hysterically, if he was ready to even think about sex and showering and Nino all at the same time. He felt like he was peeling out of his skin when Nino came back in, holding something over his heart. "This," he said, holding out his hand.
Automatically Sho held out his own hand, his fingers closing instinctively around the thing Nino put into it. He straightened them out again and looked. In his hand was a grubby, broken pearl necklace. It was missing several pearls and had been tied together with what looked like a bit of old wire. Sho knew that necklace. Nino's mother had been wearing it in the class picture that all the newspapers ran. "Nino," he said, nearly speechless as he looked back up at him
Nino took it back and undid the knot in the string, tugging until it gave up. He draped it around Sho's neck, leaning forward and peering at the back of his neck as he tied the string again. From the corner of his eye, Sho could see his tongue caught between his teeth in concentration. When it was tied, he settled himself in Sho's lap again. "Sho-chan's," he said. "Mine."
Sho touched it. "I love you, too."
And now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I will catch up on comments (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
honooko, waxrose, primroseshows, tangiblewhimsy, blood_opal and the fest--I'm looking at you for starters).
On the plus side, we did have a bunch of teenaged girls over watching all three Death Note movies and they all thought L was adorable (he SO is) and one of them was all 'omg, Light looks like Ohno!' and Ed--ED--identifies him as 'Sunrise Nippon Ohno'. Because seriously, Light spends a lot of time looking like a younger Ohno Satoshi and that just might be the right era (I was going for a little bit of 'Kotoba Yori' Ohno myself). Sadly, I had two moments of 'I know that actor/actress!' during the movies and was totally right. It's sort of sad. But NOT as sad as recognizing the kid from the Love So Sweet video as being the American kid in YamaTaro.
ANYHOW, rambling aside, I owe comments yet. I will get to them asap. For now, have my other entry in to the
shoneenclub contest. Lost Boys
Sho had come to the depth of the jungle (a full two days by motored boat from the nearest human settlement) on the simple mission of keeping Ohno Satoshi from getting lost on his own. As an anthropologist, Sho had been chosen for the trip by the ecology department of the university simply because he didn't have any plans for the summer and didn't mind looking after their prized synecologist.
Discovering jungle boys had been an unexpected windfall.
He spent the first week of their expedition helping to catalog bugs, chasing Ohno away from the river after a full day of fishing, and trying to convince himself that he wasn't hearing footsteps or seeing faces in the shadows. He was harassing Ohno about sun block (again) when three boys stepped out of the jungle and into their campsite. Naked, nut-brown, and rail thin the boys looked at them for a long moment before fading back into the trees.
They'd gone, but they hadn't gone very far, Sho discovered.
For a week Sho caught only glimpses of their watchers. He discovered that if he ignored them they would come closer. He didn't mind; he learned a lot by watching them surreptitiously as they watched him. It was obvious that they were not used to strangers and it slowly became clear that the three were very much on their own and had been for a very, very long time.
Sho began to leave food at the edge of their campsite on the supposition that it worked with taming stray cats and there was no reason it shouldn't work with wild boys. By the end of his second week in the deep, tropical jungle, Sho had three mostly-tame jungle boys: Aiba, Nino, and Jun.
"This," said Nino, pointing at the salt.
Sho shook his head. "It doesn't need salt."
"This," Nino said insistently, throwing his hand out, fingers spread.
"It doesn't need salt, Nino," Sho repeated. "No salt," he simplified just in case. The boys had a strange language-a mishmash of Japanese, English, several local dialects, and even more made-up words. For all that, however, their sentence structure and vocabulary was, in Sho's studied opinion, rooted in early-childhood, not much beyond a kindergarten level. They were extremely intelligent, however, and were picking up Japanese quickly enough that Sho was now nearly certain that it was their native language and hearing it spoken between him and Satoshi was jumpstarting their memories and buried skills. But it was possible that, for all Nino's cleverness, Sho was being too complex and too quick with the words.
Nino huffed and dropped to the ground, glaring at Sho from beneath his lashes. "Oh-chan," he called sullenly, "this. Do."
'This' was a favorite word of all three of the boys and it proved very versatile. Aiba often used it to request information, using it for both 'what' and 'why'. Jun used it as verification—asking if something was all right to use or if it was all right to intrude. Nino used it for almost everything despite the fact that his understanding of language was beginning to outstrip the others'. Adding a verb like 'do' anywhere in the sentence wasn't clarification so much as it was a command.
The ecologist looked up from where he was transcribing his notes and then set aside both notebook and recorder to wander over to where Sho was cooking. "Do what?" he asked.
Nino pointed at the pot. "This. Do this."
"Taste," Ohno nodded. "Sho-chan?" With a defeated sigh and a glare at Nino, Sho offered Ohno a spoonful of the stew he was cooking. "It's good," Ohno said after a moment, "but Nino is right; it needs salt."
Sho looked down at Nino, who was beaming angelically up at Ohno. "He's a jungle boy. He was raised by Aiba. There's no way he cooks better than I do. Jun," he called as the other boy and Aiba walked into the campsite. "Taste?"
Jun looked surprised and pleased as he trotted over to where Sho was, taking the spoon eagerly. His eyes closed as he sipped at it. A faint frown wrinkled his forehead. His eyes opened. "This," he said, pointing to the salt. "This…salt?"
"Salt," Nino said in obvious confirmation. He sounded smug.
"You're a brat," Sho informed him.
Aiba looked at Sho and laughed. "Nino, Nino," he said spreading both hands in a gesture that clearly said 'what can you do'.
Sho looked back at Nino. "He should have spanked you more as a child," he told him.
"Sho-chan," Nino tugged on his shirttail. "Sho-chan, this."
Sho looked up from the beetle mound he was recording. "What?"
He knew very well what Nino wanted—Nino used a lot of touch-communication—but he wanted Nino to verbalize. Judging from Nino's scowl, Nino knew what he was up to. "Come," Nino said at last, obviously finding his need to make Sho move more important than his stubborn standoff against words. Sho found it as amusing as Aiba's war against pants and Jun's constant attempts to wheedle him into switching sides.
"Okay," Sho gave in, standing. "I'll come with you."
Nino smiled. "Come this," he said, taking Sho's hand in his own. When Sho stopped he scowled again. "This place," he said. "Come this place. This here."
"Come here," Sho said, clearly, confirming. He ignored Nino's rolled eyes and followed him through the undergrowth into a small clearing. An old tree had obviously fallen because there was sunlight pouring down into the clearing. At the center was a large flower that resembled a rose. Even from a distance Sho could smell a clear odor of rotting meat. "This is—"
"This Oh-chan's book in," Nino said proudly. He spread his hand in the direction of the flower. "I find." He made a face. "Smells bad. Sho's cooking, smells like."
"Oi!" Sho aimed a slap at the back of Nino's head, laughing when Nino laughed and ran away.
"NINO," Nino bellowed, pointing to a patch of floor in the middle of the tent. "Oh-chan, Sho-chan," he went on, pointing to one side and then the other. He flicked his hands to the sides. "You."
"No," Jun screeched back. "JUN." He pointed to the first place Nino had indicated.
Ohno looked at Sho. "Are they going to do this all night?" he asked.
Aiba yawned and tucked himself closer to where Ohno was sitting. "Yeah," he said. "Home, same."
"They do this every night?" Sho asked incredulously.
Aiba blinked at him. "Nino, Jun, like middle," he said as though this should have been perfectly clear. "Nino, Jun, like Oh-chan, Sho-chan. Nino, Jun loud fight," he ended with a shrug.
Sho put his head in his hands. "Now I wish we'd left them to sleep in the rain."
It rained every day in the jungle, usually at midday. Tonight, however, was a howling storm. Sho had been startled by the ferocity of it and had insisted on keeping the boys at the camp when they normally would have gone 'home' since 'home' was half a cave and half a dense stand of small trees. He was beginning to regret it, though, since Jun and Nino were currently drowning out the storm.
"What do you usually do?" Ohno asked Aiba. "To make them stop."
Aiba puzzled out the words until Ohno hit 'stop'. Then he brightened. He picked at the edge of the blanket Ohno was holding, teasing it out of his grip. Then he flopped down on the floor in the space Jun and Nino were fighting over, pulling the blanket over his face.
Jun and Nino sent up twin howls of protest but otherwise subsided, muttering darkly. Nino looked between Ohno and Sho, a cagey, calculating look on his face as he glanced back at the floor. Sho sensed another fight brewing as Jun caught sight of those looks as well. "Nino," Sho said, holding out a hand to him. "Sleep with me?"
Surprise flashed over Nino's face even as he reached out and put his hand in Sho's own. "I sleep Sho," he announced to Jun.
Jun gave him a lofty look. "I sleep Oh-chan."
Nino's face went as thunderous as the sky overhead. He slapped a hand on Ohno's butt. Ohno squeaked. "MY NOISE," Nino informed Jun dangerously.
"I really wish he wouldn't do that," Ohno sighed, pushing Nino's hand away and going to get another blanket.
Sho tugged on Nino's hand and brought him over to Aiba's other side, spreading his blanket out. "Stop pinching Satoshi's butt," Sho told him.
Nino gave Sho a sweet smile as he settled down on the blanket. "Noise, yes?" he asked.
Sho shot a quick glance over at Ohno, settling in at the far side of the tent, Jun beside Aiba. "Yes," he whispered to Nino as he lay down, "it IS a cute noise. But stop doing that so much or else he'll stop making that noise."
Pouting, Nino nodded. Sho closed his eyes. He could feel Nino watching him. After a few moments, Nino inched closer. When Sho didn't protest, he moved closer still. Without opening his eyes, Sho lifted his arm. Nino plastered himself against Sho, half on top of him. Sho sighed and curled his arm around Nino's shoulders. It was surprisingly comfortable to have him there.
A second later he felt a hand drop to his crotch. He shrieked.
"My noise," Nino crooned.
Time passed slowly in the jungle, each day hot and humid and endless in the way of the lazy summer days of childhood. Sho felt strangely at home in the tent with Aiba and Jun and Nino in and out and helping himself and Satoshi to observe and catalog. It was only as he noticed how low they were getting on their salt that he realized they would be leaving soon. He left Nino in charge of dinner and went to find Ohno.
"Satoshi?" he asked, sitting down beside him, looking out at his bobber on the river.
"They might not want to come with, Sho," Ohno said, as calm as the surface of the water.
Sho took the fishing pole that Ohno handed him, casting the way Ohno had taught him. "They used to belong to somebody, Satoshi. Aiba Masaki. They might have family out there." It was something he was going to look into the minute he got off the plane somewhere with an internet connection anyhow. He hadn't realized that any of them knew their full names until he'd heard Nino and Aiba comforting an injured Jun by calling him 'Mattsun' and 'Matsujun'. They'd looked at him like it was strange but had given him their full names. It was entirely possible that they…. "They might—" he sighed. "What if we leave them behind and they don't understand? What if something happens to them? They're like children. We've got to take them with."
Ohno looked at him, solemn in the sunset. "No," he said. He went on before Sho could speak. "They're not like kids. Maybe they've only got a grade school education but they survived out here on their own since they were little—you said that yourself. I don't want to leave them behind because they're my friends. So…I'll ask them to come with."
Sho didn't understand but it didn't matter because the agreement to go was almost immediate and almost immediately deafening. The only hold out was Nino, who looked at Ohno for a long moment before turning his eyes to Sho and watching him with unreadable eyes. "Do you not want to come with?" he asked.
"With Sho-chan?" Nino asked.
"Yes, with me and Satoshi," Sho told him.
Nino looked at Ohno again. "Mine?"
"You can try," Ohno told him.
Nino sighed. "This try," he agreed.
Sho was worried when Nino was the last one to show up for the boat. "We have to wait," he repeated.
Jun patted him. "Nino coming," he said soothingly. "Nino get his special thing."
"It's not like the boat has anywhere else to be," Ohno added. "It's not a problem."
Aiba came out of the trees and clambered back up the ramp, dropping on to the deck next to Jun's feet. "Nino come now," he said.
Like Aiba and Jun, Nino was carrying a spear with him—Sho wasn't sure how they were going to get those past airport security but he didn't care. Their lives in the jungle had left them with few possessions and Sho wasn't about to let anybody take away the few things they did have.
Unlike Aiba and Jun, Nino was clutching something to his chest. His hands were dirty and he refused to let Sho and Ohno see what he held. "Mine," he said simply, his hand going tighter around whatever it was.
Their story broke hearts.
With first and last names and approximate ages, Sho found out who his jungle boys had once been. They'd been grade-schoolers whose school had once won an overseas trip. They'd been grade-schoolers whose plane had crashed leaving three young survivors to the jungle. They had been Aiba Masaki, whose parents owned a Chinese restaurant and who had never given up hope for their sweet son. They had been Matsumoto Jun whose older sister cried when she saw him for the first time. They had been Ninomiya Kazunari, whose mother had been a chaperone for the school trip. Their pictures were innocent and beautiful in their tragedy. Their last class photo in particular showed up under almost every headline, all those happy faces, three of them circled in red under the bold, black text.
When the story came to light, the nation celebrated the return of its lost children and Aiba, Jun, and Nino were instant celebrities. Jun, with his strong, pretty features, was offered a modeling contract and Aiba accidentally fell into filming segments for a children's program about animals and zoos. Nino fell in love with video games. The public fell in love with the little boys from the school photos and again with the young men with their bright smiles and occasionally-jumbled language.
Sho was proud of how they handled themselves in front of the cameras, how they smiled and thanked people in soft voices, how they took learning Tokyo to heart. Jun and Aiba went home to their families, Nino—whose father had lost interest in his son before he'd disappeared and whose older half-sister still lived with HER father—came home with Sho. Sho liked having a roommate, loved having Nino--so quick and clever and unexpectedly sweet—to come home to at night.
It was the only reason Sho felt no triumph whatsoever in bringing the three of them home from the jungle. He had a front row seat to how terrible things were for the three of them. The city baffled them to a certain extent. They had vague memories of it but the sheer size and volume and bustle was overwhelming. So, too, was the sudden presence of families, of parents. Suddenly they had schedules to keep, people to answer to. They had relationships to figure out, manners to adhere to, and things to think about other than the day itself and perhaps the one just beyond it. He didn't know how to make it better for any of them. He missed the jungle himself, some days.
"I'm moving back home with my momma," Ohno declared one day over lunch in the university canteen.
Sho didn't even blink. "I'm surprised you lasted this long," he admitted.
"Jun and Aiba are going to sublet my place," he said.
Sho choked on his drink and spent several minutes with Ohno helpfully pounding on his back. "What?" he coughed.
"Aiba and Jun," Ohno said. "They're moving into my place."
"Are you insane?" Sho demanded.
Ohno took a bite of his rice ball. "They're grown men," he said simply, taking another bite and chewing. "They need their own space."
"They—!" said Sho.
"They're used to it. I think they need it," Ohno said. "It's hard enough to bring a girl home when you're not famous and have a family that doesn't want to let you out of their sight."
"…girl?" Sho said weakly.
"Yeah, girls. Or boys. I think Jun might like that guy he works with. The one who teases him all the time? They're not kids, Sho," Ohno said firmly, repeating his words from months ago, thousands of miles away. "Not even Nino. They have things they want aside from chashumen and hair cuts and the new Dragon Quest game."
Sho shut his mouth with a snap.
"Home, Sho-chan!" Nino caroled when Sho got home that night.
Nino was, for once, not curled up on the couch with the ice-blue DS that his sister had given him. Nino was making dinner. Grilled fish, Sho noted with a pang, cooked over the open burner flame because Nino was stubborn like that.
"Do you want to go home, Nino?" Sho asked, getting out plates and setting the table.
Nino looked at him quizzically. "Home?"
"Back," Sho said. "The jungle. Or maybe…Aiba and Jun are going to get their own home. Do you want that?"
"Back," Nino repeated slowly. "Sho-chan…Nino go?" he asked.
Sho knew that Nino understood and that he was perfectly capable of phrasing his answer correctly. He'd thought that Nino didn't do it at home, with him, because Nino got tired having to use a 'foreign' language. Now…now he wondered about it. Wondered if Nino did it for him, living up—or down—to what he thought Sho wanted from him. "You can do what you want, Nino," he told him at last. "You can go anywhere. I can't keep you."
"Keep?" Nino asked.
"Nino." Sho scrubbed his hands through his hair. "You're a man. A grown man. A…a capable man. You can do anything you want with your life. You don't have to stay with me just because I want to keep you with me. You're free to get out of here and have a relationship, get married, have kids. You should have what you want. I'm…I don't want to hold you back. That's not fair. Quit caring about what I want. Even though I found you, life isn't 'finders keepers'. Go get what you want."
Nino squinted at him. "Sho-chan," he said.
"What?" Sho sighed passing a hand over his eyes. He let Nino tug his hand away. "What is it?"
"Sho-chan," Nino said again. Sho suddenly found himself with a lapful of Nino. "I want Sho-chan. For mine."
"For—" said Sho.
Nino nodded.
Sho had theories about incest taboo and Jun and Nino and Aiba's ages. Sho had questions about sexual awakenings when the only humans around for miles were your own 'brothers'. Sho had the feeling that he should get Nino out of his lap and remind Nino about girls and breasts—which Nino seemed interested in whenever he was exposed to them.
Sho didn't move beyond breathing and watching the way Nino leaned closer and closer to him. He closed his eyes and sighed as Nino's mouth touched his in a light kiss. "For yours, huh?" Sho asked when Nino pulled away again.
"Mine," said Nino.
He got up suddenly and walked into the bedroom that they shared. The bed that they shared. Sho stayed where he was, his mind racing, half wondering if he should explain about showering before sex. The other half of him wondered, somewhat hysterically, if he was ready to even think about sex and showering and Nino all at the same time. He felt like he was peeling out of his skin when Nino came back in, holding something over his heart. "This," he said, holding out his hand.
Automatically Sho held out his own hand, his fingers closing instinctively around the thing Nino put into it. He straightened them out again and looked. In his hand was a grubby, broken pearl necklace. It was missing several pearls and had been tied together with what looked like a bit of old wire. Sho knew that necklace. Nino's mother had been wearing it in the class picture that all the newspapers ran. "Nino," he said, nearly speechless as he looked back up at him
Nino took it back and undid the knot in the string, tugging until it gave up. He draped it around Sho's neck, leaning forward and peering at the back of his neck as he tied the string again. From the corner of his eye, Sho could see his tongue caught between his teeth in concentration. When it was tied, he settled himself in Sho's lap again. "Sho-chan's," he said. "Mine."
Sho touched it. "I love you, too."
And now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I will catch up on comments (
honooko, waxrose, primroseshows, tangiblewhimsy, blood_opal and the fest--I'm looking at you for starters).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 05:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 06:05 am (UTC)You're my favorite for writing Nino and I ♥ Aiba in this AU. SO much.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 05:18 pm (UTC)(Aiba makes such an awsesome jungle boy! It's in his nature.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 01:35 pm (UTC)I just wanted to tell you that this makes me inordinately happy. It's given me this goofy grin I can't seem to shake.
Also, these two sentences&hearts
"Come," Nino said at last, obviously finding his need to make Sho move more important than his stubborn standoff against words. Sho found it as amusing as Aiba's war against pants and Jun's constant attempts to wheedle him into switching sides.
(Have you seen some of the pants they put Aiba in? I'd engage in a war against them, too.
I also wanted to tell you that you created a mini-epiphany for me . . . I was trying to remember where the blond kid was from ^^"
My mission to bait my mom is going well-I got her to watch 3 episodes of Yamada Taro over Christmas, and now that I ham here, she asked for more--we may bave stayed up late last night (several rounds of her looking at me saying "JUST ONE MORE; I HAVE WORK TOMOTTOW >_<;;" and now there's only one episode left. I think I will get her to watch one, maybe two episodes of HYD before I leave and start the process anew. She started caliing them "The cute boy and the poor boy," but has progressed by figuring out their names.
By christmas, she should know at least 3 names \o/
You know, because I have nothing better to do than bait my mother *___*
I'll stop cluttering your comments now. ^^"
*waves*
PS--the Boy laughed when "The Warrior" came over the radio&eharts
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 06:01 pm (UTC)I'm so very happy that you liked it. Especially the 'my noise' bit. He does it just for us, I swear.
But regarding Aiba's war on pants: You know what I'd really love to see? Arashi rebel against the wardrobe department. Aiba could shuck his pants on air! Nino could strip Ohno! Wait...that already happened. And Sho helped him!
Seriously, though, it would be epic. Wardrobe would fire back with hideous shoes and short pants with boots.
...suddenly the Dream A Live tour makes sense to me. And now I have to cry because we'll NEVER have it. There was technical difficulties during filming. *sobs* But
Aside from loving clutter in my comments I have to say that I love the fact that you are baiting your mom. She can bait her friends (let's all look at the silly, funny, nice boys!) and I can keep Pied Piper'ing the neighborhood and slowly the world will fall at Arashi's feet. They will rule us with love and sparkles and nipple-revealing t-shirts and the world will be a wonderful place. Full of crack. And weed.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-02 10:42 pm (UTC)Nino's bandmates' various squawks, screeches, and squeaks are Nino's special gift to us . . . actually, they're just for us, but seeing as we get to enjoy them too, I like to think of them as the gift Nino inadvertently gives us without begrudging. ^^"
Arashi rebel against the wardrobe department. Aiba could shuck his pants on air! Nino could strip Ohno! Wait...that already happened. And Sho helped him!
*glees*
Yet again canon outdoes us \o/
But this doesn't mean that a) they can't do it more, and b) they can't outdo themselves ^_^
Wardrobe would fire back with hideous shoes and short pants with boots.
Oh, wait . . . it's Aiba's costuming for the last two years *__* What did he do to Wardrobe? I want to know . . .
And thank you for that link&hearts Though it made me curse yet again that I missed the forgyoza boat since I can't find the 6/16/08 Zoom in or Mezamashi videos anywhere T__T
Aaaaaugh :P
there is now way that this looks 'cool'.
Did Sho actually compliment Jun's look in this outfit? Really?? *shakes head* I guess to believe that might make their jobs seem easier>
BWAHAHA! on the subject of baiting my mother--I got her addicted to HYD-- we stayed up until 1am to finish season 1 and she kind of wants me to burn her season 2 to watch, but then I left for NJ and MA, so she'll have to wait to watch it with me until I get back. And we watched the first 3 episodes of Gokusen, which she liked, but wasn't as invested in, probably because of the more episodic nature. I think I'll get her on HYD2 and Maou next time ^_^
They will rule us with love and sparkles and nipple-revealing t-shirts and the world will be a wonderful place. Full of crack. And weed.
*weeps*
I want this world now. It will be a much better place, really.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 03:03 pm (UTC)lsdfjaw I have read this so many times now, and I still think it's awesome. Nino and Jun as jungle boys raised by Aiba. asdfka I love Aiba.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 05:20 pm (UTC)I have to say: Aiba makes a great jungle boy. You'd know he'd run around naked if they let him! Thankfully, Aiba is a good jungle-boy parent--he basically let THEM raise HIM.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 09:39 pm (UTC)*giggles* I can imagine! Hahahaha! Oh, I love Aiba a lot.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 03:29 pm (UTC)I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE I VOTED FOR YOU TWICE.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 05:22 pm (UTC)I don't want to jinx myself but I am giving serious mental-attention to writing more of this.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 08:40 pm (UTC)And also, aww, it's both sweet AND crack, which admittedly sums up the Shoneen pair anyway, but mostly I'm not sitting here giggling to myself over Nino giving Sho a pearl necklace. Because *snickersnort* I'm a grown woman *snrfl* and not *kkkk* twelve.
♥
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 05:26 pm (UTC)The pearl necklace! I laughed so hard writing it. Especially because Sho wears it around and shows Ohno and Ohno cracks up and that's when Sho understands that telling people 'and then Nino gave me a pearl necklace' is probably NOT how he should bring up the fact that they're now dating.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-01 04:12 pm (UTC)And then at some point the convo devolved to discovering the remote and interesting Arashi tribe and by that time I really, really wanted fic so....\:D/
...*snickersnort* Sho WOULD go around showing it off proudly to everyone.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-21 05:03 am (UTC)Nino's noise, yessssssssss, we all know that's why Nino does stuff like that.
one of them was all 'omg, Light looks like Ohno!'
MY FRIEND SAID THE EXACT SAME THING.
... well, no, not exact, she said Ohno looked like Tatsuya Fujiwara. >.> She's never seen Death Note. And on that note... there are THREE Death Note movies??? I only have two DDDDDDDD:
And YamaTaro/Love So Sweet kid - So I wasn't imagining things? It really was him? I mean, considering how few young blonde boys of that age range there must be in Japan, and how many of THOSE are acting, and it's not that strange that he'd be a repeat but...
Also, concerning a later post of yours (you know, the JE kinkmeme one)? Don't feel bad. I've been wasting time at the P4 one lately D:
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-23 02:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-23 02:42 am (UTC)(and even then, I read almost two volumes more, convinced it was all a scam. why, why so weak???)
*waits patiently for your return* ...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 05:54 pm (UTC)It's definitely the same kid. His face is really distinct and the timing is right. As you said: There aren't many blond kids of that age acting in Japan and at that time, too. Plus, Arashi really tends to cast/get cast with people they've worked with before. It's amazing how many peopel show up in dramas with one and then another.
*waits patiently for your return*
LOL. Don't bother. One, I'm always late and two, I rarely have anything to say that's worth listening to!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-31 12:48 am (UTC)Or, Loved. D:
He makes the same sort of unpleasant face at the window too, it's not too hard to recognize him.
lol, doesn't matter, I don't have too much else to do with my time anyway XD And I've been meaning to friend you for awhile now, so I'm just gonna go ahead and be presumptuous and do so now.