nilielh | [Fic] I Love You, Stranger

Title : I Love You, Stranger 7
Rating : PG
Pairing : Ohno/Nino
Disclaimer : fiction, yo!
Summary : Losing the love of his life to an accident 2 years prior, Nino decided it was high time he moved on; but things had its major turn around when at the same day he finally found the strength to let go, a man who looked exactly like Ohno appeared out of nowhere.
Note : Needs revision

The silence filling the next few moments was deafening and Nino couldn’t help but be reminded about the past as he let his eyes wander for a few minutes. The questions were obviously written all over his band mate’s faces but no one had the guts to really ask something out loud in fear of actually making the situation all the more awkward than it already was. Ohno’s look-alike, the man who claimed his name was Hiro, just came back from the kitchen to serve each of them a bottle of beer, was now standing in the middle of his living room and staring at them with a confused and sheepish look on his face.

When Hiro’s eyes landed on Nino’s, Nino looked down and forced out a badly needed dramatic sigh, rolling his eyes at the same time he grumbled,

“Yo, ladies!” he started, his high-pitched voice reverberating at every corners of the house and he grinned at the other three’s reactions before he could even stop himself, “Didn’t your mothers taught you that staring is rude? Come on, you’re all being such an embarrassment here and if you’re not careful, Oh~ H-Hiro-san might probably be forced to call Friday and tell them about Arashi being a group of gorgeous but creepy people,” he muttered with a smile, grinning widely when Hiro’s awkward stance softened visibly as he cracked a smile and shook his head back at Nino.

Sho grabbed his bottle then, wiping the moisture around it and brought it to his lips. He took a swig at it, at the same time he nodded at the other two and Jun and Aiba followed the older man’s example by reaching over and taking their bottles as well without saying a word. Nino, on the other hand, rolled his eyes and leaned back with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Please forgive my friends, Hiro-san,” Nino followed, still grinning and immediately ducking when Jun aimed a bottle cap at him, “ – they tend to act like uncivilized bunch of creeps when they’re in the company of new friends,” he added, emphasizing the word ‘friend’ and smiling a bit more when Hiro chuckled, his button nose crinkling adorably and Nino found himself gasping for breath at that one more painful similarity. “ – maybe that’s why they aren’t allowed to go out without me, coz you know, I’m the only one who can~” he paused, just in time to dodge a flying slipper and grinning when his youngest friend huffed out a sound of annoyance.

“It’s fine,” Hiro replied with another wave of his hand, “ – but I would very much appreciate it if any of you could tell me why your reactions are like that when you first saw me,” he said, lowering his voice as if he was afraid he would say something inappropriate, something forbidden, and Nino immediately felt that overwhelming urge to stand up and wrap the man in his arms if only to protect him from himself, from them.

Of course, that was probably the silliest thing he would ever imagined doing since this man didn’t exactly need any of that; he wasn’t Ohno Satoshi and that’s something Nino knew he should just get used to if he didn’t want his face to show up in the next day’s newspaper while the whole of Japan fuzzed over his alleged ‘delusional tendencies’ by actually claiming this stranger as their long-been-dead leader.

“I-It’s actually a very long story,” Jun managed to mumble through all of the messy and somewhat ridiculous events that took place before them, saying the words while staring right into the man’s eyes and silently wishing for them to wake up before these all get so terrifyingly unbearable.

Nino felt rather than heard the tenderness in Jun’s voice and he couldn’t help but wished for everything to just stop being so painful because he could feel that throbbing beat deep inside his chest again; that look on the man’s face told them he didn’t know exactly what was happening along with a look that said he wouldn’t understand unless they tell him what the hell was wrong with them.

“ – it’s still early,” Hiro said with a smile and something inside him literally snapped, seeing that another awfully familiar smile stretching across the man’s face and he choked, biting down on his lips to muffle the sounds. “ – and you still haven’t finished your beers so~” he added convincingly and Nino just wanted everything to stop.

Eyes still focused on Jun, the man tilted his head and smiled knowingly; as if he was aware that Jun, or any of them for that matter wouldn’t find the strength to resist him and fuck it because Nino knew that they couldn’t, not now, and probably not ever.

“ – y-you sure you wanna hear it?” Nino asked, finally, breathing the words out and wincing. “ – you won’t probably be able to understand most of it and I’m sure~”

“ – I probably won’t but I guess it’s just right, considering the fact that you guys look at me as if you know me and you kissed me as if ~” Hiro said, pausing when Nino hissed a curse and looked away, his face turning scarlet.

“L-Let me,” Sho muttered helpfully and for once, Nino was glad to have his friend’s company to at least take the damn responsibility off his shoulder. “ – but please promise us that everything we’re about to tell you won’t leave this room and that ~”

Hiro nodded repeatedly, looking a little sheepish and immediately stopping Sho half-way. “ – I can keep secrets,” he said. “ – but it’s still up to you, you know…” he added, shrugging. Sho heaved out a sigh and nodded back.

“ – well, actually… you see~”

“Why are you doing this, Leader?” Aiba retorted in his seat, his voice filled with silent accusation. Hiro turned, gaping at the taller man as Aiba stood up, Sho quickly following and wrapping his arms around Aiba’s waist before Aiba was even able to take a step forward. “ – you’re our leader! Why the hell are you doing this, huh? Why?!”

“ – Masaki, that’s enough!”

“ – no!” Aiba shouted, jabbing a shaky finger towards Hiro and the man looked visibly pained and confused. “ – he’s leader, isn’t he? You guys can see it too! I don’t know what’s wrong with him, I don’t know what the fuck he’s up to but this has to stop now or else~”

A slap in the face stopped Aiba from further saying anything and for once, Nino kind of regretted calling his friends out here because this simply wasn’t what he expected. Well, he didn’t know what it was he was expecting exactly but this clearly wasn’t one of those.

“ – Jun, what the hell?!” Sho cursed, putting himself in between Jun and Aiba as the taller man simply stood there, shaking as his hand went up to his face. Eyes filled with silent tears, he looked into Jun in quiet disbelief.

“ – I said that’s enough!” Jun shouted, “ – if you can’t keep your mouth shut, we better go now. This… he’s, fuck, let’s just go.” Jun muttered under his breath, turning to face Hiro, who was then obviously too shocked to even form a coherent reply. “ – I’m really sorry, Matsuda-san, I guess we better go…”

“ – b-but,”

Nino then stood up and gently placed a hand over Aiba’s shoulder. Sho nodded and bowed slightly before firmly wrapping his arms around Aiba’s body and slowly dragged the taller man towards the door. Nino then turned to Hiro and bowed as well, murmuring another apology under his breath.

“ – sorry again for the trouble, Hiro-san… maybe I’ll just come back some other time to personally tell you about all these,” he said.

Hiro nodded, smiling a little. “ – that’s okay, I guess. But you should probably do that after two days,” he said thoughtfully, as if he had just remembered something.

“ – oh,” Nino exclaimed, turning back at the same time to face the man. “ – do you mind if I ask why?”

“ – uh well, I’ll be leaving for Okinawa tomorrow morning,” Hiro explained, motioning his hand towards the door when Jun called after him. Nino nodded and started walking slowly forward, with the man walking quietly beside him.

“ – oh, is that so?” he managed to say, though he was actually trying to stop himself from asking anymore questions, in fear of sounding like an inquiring wife.

“ – yeah. I’m going there to visit my parents,” he said with a smile at exactly the same time they reached the door. “ – and also to pick up my wife and son,” he added in a happy voice that made Nino’s vision blur.

“ – y-you have a wife?” he asked, feeling rather stupid afterwards.

Hiro nodded, beaming. “ – yes, and a son. Why, you don’t?” he added, obviously teasing.

Nino couldn’t exactly find the strength to smile back. He instead lowered his gaze and murmured, “ – no. So, you’ll be gone to… “ he paused, a prick in his heart made everything seemed too hard to dwell upon, “ - w-well, b-but you’ll be here after two days, right?” he managed to stutter despite that throbbing pain in his chest. The man nodded and offered his hand, which Nino half-heartedly received and they shook hands.

“ – I guess so, yeah. Oh, but you guys~”

“ – don’t worry, I’ll definitely be here when you come back,” Nino said, almost choking when he realized what he just said. The man, on the other hand, just smiled and nodded.

“ – I’ll take your word for that, Ninomiya-san…”

#

“You hired someone to snoop around the man’s personal life?!” Nino bit out angrily, ignoring the fact that they were actually seated in a not-so-empty restaurant just a few meters away from their rented cottage and finally finding the time to sit around and discussed the earlier event that left the four of them badly shaken, even without any of them admitting the fact out loud.

“I hired someone to snoop around the man’s personal life, yes, you heard that one right,” Jun replied, repeating Nino’s words and Nino scowled despite himself, aiming another glare towards the balding, short man opposite him, seated in between Jun and Sho. The man swallowed but didn’t even balked despite Nino’s obvious distaste of having him there and instead made a chuckling sound from the back of his throat at the same time he moved to open the file folder he placed in front of him and smiled inwardly.

Nino bit back a snort, still glaring. Honestly, he didn’t approve this idea of doing a background check about Hiro Matsuda, simply because he thought it was rude. Though a part of him was actually rejoicing quietly about it, he couldn’t find the courage to fully accept it just because he knew he was afraid of finding out things about the man that would surely cement the possibility of him being the person they wanted to believe that he was.

And also because as much as he loved Jun’s capability in coming up with such brilliant ideas, he couldn’t deny the fact that Jun’s fondness for the dramatics was something worth mentioning about.

Huffing out an annoyed sort of snort, he mumbled, “ – as much as I love the general idea of finding the truth, if there’s actually any, about that man, could you ladies please enlighten me with the benefits we could get by involving an outsider to solve our little problem?” Nino mocked, with the barest hint of gratefulness that made Jun roll his eyes in obvious amusement.

Sho tried biting back a snort at the same time Jun reached over to flick at Nino’s ears and Nino grimaced, feeling entirely betrayed but wasn’t able to do much besides scowl a little bit more before finding himself being wrapped tightly around by Aiba’s long arms.

“ – for once Nino, could you please just shut your mouth up and allow us the simple pleasure of doing this our way? You’re not helping at all, with all of your whining and general bitchery so please, just shut the hell up? Yes, okay? Good.” Jun muttered beautifully before facing the man beside him, completely ignoring the fact that Aiba had just slapped one hand over Nino’s mouth and the younger man was pretty much trying to decapitate him by gaze alone. “ – tell me if he’s biting, Masaki and we’ll drag his ass back to the cottage and we’ll tie him there,” Jun cautioned, immediately rendering Nino quiet.

“Quit being a brat, Kazu,” Aiba whispered through Nino’ hair, his voice was soft and teasing. “ – you know it’s that time of the month again. We all know he’s like that everytime, especially when I forgot to buy him his feminine napkins…” Aiba added in a conspiratorial voice.

Mentally noting never to piss Jun when he have his period, Nino grinned stupidly to himself and leaned heavily against Aiba’s chest, preparing himself to just listen quietly. After a while, Aiba removed his hand and moved to accommodate Nino comfortably, shifting to rest his chin on top of Nino’s head.

“ – so, about those documents you were telling us about,” Jun started, eyeing the file folder which the balding man opened, “ – care to elaborate, Gori-san?”

The man nodded, a silly smile hanging at the corners of his mouth that made Nino shiver despite his obvious distaste about the whole affair. Aiba felt it even though he tried to be subtle about it and moved to tug him closer, patting Nino’s stomach as if telling him that everything’s okay. Nino sighed deeply and resigned himself to simply listening.

“ – these are the copies of the reports my people had gathered about Matsuda Hiro,” the man started, pulling out the pages one by one and handing each, first to Jun then Jun passing it to Sho and so on. “ – his birth certificate, his records in school…”

“ – are those even necessary?” Nino managed to ask before anyone was able to stop him.

“ – Ninomiya, will you please~”

“ – fine, fine…” Nino grinned, shutting his mouth closed and receiving a light smack at the back of his head for it. Jun threw him the middle finger and Nino stuck his tongue out at him just to annoy him.

“ – sorry, what was it again?” Jun asked, giving Nino one last warning glance.

“ – the documents we gathered,” Gori-san continued, “ – about Matsuda-san are properly stamped and valid so I can assure you that all of those are clear copies from the originals. But first, I would like to confirm the reason why you asked me to do a background check about this man, because you know, I cannot actually give out the rest of the information if I don’t know why exactly you need them,”

Nino raised an eyebrow and shifted his gaze over at Jun. Jun shrugged and exchanged glances with Sho, with which the older man answered with a nod of his head.

“ – wait, wait… you mean,” Nino interrupted, pointing his fingers at Jun, “ – you asked this old man to check on Hiro-san without telling him exactly why? Man, you’re really good at surprising me…” he mocked. Jun rolled his eyes again and crossed his arms tightly over his chest.

“ – shut up, Ninomiya…” Jun grumbled, then he turned to face the older man properly. “ – why not? I don’t see anything wrong with not providing my reason, besides, I’m going to pay you for every piece of information you could give me so I don’t see any reason for me to tell you why I want those…”

“ – as much as I want to help you, I’m sorry, but I cannot give you more than what I already have if you insist on not telling me why. And I don’t care about the money, Matsumoto-san; I’m sure you know that you’re not the only client I have…” Gori-san replied defiantly, a hint of smugness on that quiet voice.

“ – we just want to confirm if that man is really who he claimed he is and not the friend whom we thought died in a boat accident two years ago…” Sho answered this time, ignoring Jun’s dramatic sigh and Nino’s muffled cursing. “ – please, if you could help us uncover the truth, you’ll be compensated enough to ~

Gori-san pulled out the remaining pages on his folder, immediately cutting Sho’s words off. “ – very well,” he said, smiling softly at them. “ – you’re talking about Ohno Satoshi, right?” he asked in a gentle tone that made Nino gasped out loud. “ – I know, you don’t have to tell me. I’ve been working on his case for two years now; his father is a good friend of mine and he asked me to stop looking for his son exactly two months ago… and now, you boys gave me this…” he added, a genuine smile appearing on his face for the first time since the five of them sat down together that night.

“ – p-please tell us what you know… if this man is Satoshi, if he’s not, if…” Nino said, voice trailing at the last syllable as bubbles of hope made its way up his throat and making it harder for him to form any sensible thoughts besides the ones he deemed necessary.

“ – according to the records we’ve gathered, he is who he claimed he is…” Gori-san stated and Nino’s hopes suddenly went downhill, gasping as he struggled to keep himself from sobbing out loud. “ – but, as I told Matsumoto-san earlier, something strange came up that also made me want to check the man out myself, just to make sure I was heading into the right direction…”

“ – what do you mean by strange, exactly?” Sho asked tightly.

The older man took out three pages of what seemed like copies of medical records, handing them over to Sho, while the others waited for their turn to take a glimpse of it. “ – my people went as far as checking Matsuda-san’s medical records and those came up,” he said, a little touch of smugness was clearly evident on his voice.

Sho, who finished checking the first two pages, then passed them to Jun wordlessly. “ – what the hell does these mean?” Jun asked, confused.

There, in their hands, are copies of what Gori-san was talking about, crystal clear and yet, because they didn’t know what to make of it, was actually a little confusing. Jun raised his face, throwing the older man a questioning gaze.

“ – this is dated a few months before Leader’s accident,” Jun said, brows furrowing.

The older man nodded. “ – according to those records, Matsuda-san was admitted to Tokyo General Hospital, three months before he and his family claimed to have moved to settle permanently here. He was treated for second degree burns, suffering mostly the upper part of his body including his face.”

“ – b-but, t-that’s…”

“ – that doesn’t make any sense!”

The older man nodded in agreement, pulling another sheet of paper and placing it down the center of the table and pointing.

“ – one more thing,” he said, ignoring the fact that the four was actually staring at the paper he was pointing at, their mouths gaping open. “ – Matsuda Hiro is supposed to be dead…”

Current Mood: awake

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From:

racanai.livejournal.com

ooh, I expected something like this since Jun said they have to meet this Gori-san! Now I'm curious how Ohno ended up being Hiro! XD
And the entire time I feel with Nino, he's on a rollercoaster of emotions...

From:

Words from a rainbow-colored heart

[Fic] I Love You, Stranger

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