[Fic] All's well that ends well

[nilielh]

 

Title : [Fic] All’s well that ends well
Author : Jadey
Rating : PG 
Pairing : Ohno/Aiba (friendship), (Aiba/Nino, Jun/Ohno, past Ohno/Nino)
Prompt : Tea ceremony (rainbowfilling)
Summary: “No need for apologies, Leader,” he tells Ohno’s hair as Ohno squeezes him back, both of them ignoring the creepy stares that the attendees are throwing their way. “But tell Jun-chan it has been accepted with grace, just like a true gentleman would,”
Word count : 1,380 words
Disclaimer : fiction, yo!
Note : and I just can’t leave this universe alone. Sort of continuation of Simple Things, Where you are is where I’ve ever wanted to be and I’ll have you know, you are my life and my future.

“I guess we’re here, Leader,” Aiba announces once he’s done parking the car, reaching over to gently nudge Ohno by the shoulder. Ohno stirs and makes a soft, whiny noise and Aiba finds himself chuckling watching his Leader’s face as Ohno’s eyes opens and closes in his attempt to blink the sleepiness away.

“We’re here?”

Aiba nods, unbuckling his and Ohno’s respective seatbelts. “We’re here,” he repeats. “Though I’m not really sure where ‘here’ is,” he says, frowning. “Are we attending some kind of ceremony?” he says, wondering, because there’s obviously some ceremony going on somewhere even though he’s not sure what it is.

There are people passing by, all of them wearing kimono and heading towards the same direction – the third building from the right where Jun took them once, few years ago – the Chashitsu.

He glances to his left and finds Ohno rummaging through his duffel bag (which is actually Jun’s duffel bag), and taking out two sets of kimono; Aiba finds himself frowning again.

“Leader?”

Ohno raises his head and gives him a tiny smile at the same time Ohno hands him the other kimono.

“Help me put this on?” Ohno asks him and whatever Aiba wants to ask gets lost in between them as he helps Ohno out from his car and into the kimono.

++

They were ushered inside the Chashitsu by someone Aiba didn’t recognize. But judging with the way Ohno regarded the middle-aged man, it’s not that hard to notice that they knew each other.

Ohno’s still limping, though not much, but Aiba keeps an arm around Ohno’s waist as they were being ushered inside a larger, more traditional-looking room. The room is about 2.5 tatami in floor area, large enough to accommodate about fifty or more people. 

The host is already on position, a very young lady who is wearing a light-green kimono with red fukusa and her assistant wearing the same kimono ensemble, only with bright yellow fukusa standing nearby. Aiba takes note at the fact that there are red-felt cloths covering the whole tatami area where the guests are to be seated.

“There aren’t going to be chairs in here, Leader,” Aiba comments, worried, “will you be okay?” 

Ohno turns to him and gives him another of those goofy smiles of his that goes straight to his heart every single time he sees it.
“Don’t worry, I’ll just sit on my ass if I can’t do it seiza-style,”

Aiba grins. “For whole four hours?” 

Ohno looks a little disturbed at that. “This will take four freaking hours? I think Jun-chan forgot to mention that part,” 

Oh. “Awesome,” he says, leading Ohno towards the very last row and grins at the miserable face Ohno has on. 

“Stop sulking, Leader, it’s about to start,” he tells Ohno.

Ohno’s shoulders sag.

++

Meals are served half an hour after the ceremony started and Aiba could tell Ohno is already halfway to falling asleep.

He gently nudges Ohno and giggles when the older man jerks in surprise. “You’re going to fall asleep on your face, and if that happens, I swear to God I’m going to leave you here,” 

That seemed to wake Ohno a little. But just a little. Aiba contemplates taking his phone out and snapping a picture of his Leader while Ohno tries his hardest to keep his eyes open. He wonders what he should do to keep Ohno awake, at least until the ceremony is finished, which quite honestly, they wouldn’t end up attending if not for Ohno insisting they attend it.

“Why are we even here?” Ohno whines around a yawn and Aiba really has to bite his tongue this time to keep himself from snickering. 

“You tell me,” is what he tells Ohno, poking at the beans left on his plate while the other attendees are attentively paying attention to what the host is doing. “I don’t even know what crawl up your ass enough to want to attend this kind of thing, this is so not like you,” he comments, but oh, he thinks he’s got some idea what, or who, forced Ohno to invite him out to attend this.

Ohno snorts and Aiba is glad because at least, he looks marginally awake than he was minutes before.

“If you want someone to blame, blame Jun-chan,” Ohno says, “He told me, ‘you need to apologize properly to Aiba-chan for that stupid stunt you did with Nino and you’re going to do it the proper way!’, so you know, this is the proper way according to Jun-chan’s book,”

Aiba couldn’t help the grin from spouting in his face. “I preferred it better if you’d invited me out to get royally trashed,” he says, knows that he’s beaming from ear to ear. “Beer and tequilas are way better than these disgusting teas and tiny meals,” he says, remembers to lower his voice before anyone other than Ohno was able to hear him.

Ohno is nodding quite readily. “I told Jun-chan that, but I guess he just wanted to punish me,” Ohno says, grimacing, “you know how that guy is when I did something he didn’t like but he didn’t want to admit it,”

“Scary,” 

“Tell me about it,” Ohno says, then, “so, while we’re still here – let me apologize already,” Ohno says, turning to face him, “I’m really, really fucking sorry, Aiba-chan,” Ohno tells him, bowing his head a little, “I’m sure Nino already told you what the real story behind that accident and I’m not really up to humiliating myself further than I already have so just forgive me already and let’s get out of here before I really end up falling asleep on my face,”

Nino didn’t, but that doesn’t matter now, does it? Apologies aren’t needed when there’s nothing to apologize for. He gets that Nino and Ohno once loved each other to a fault because they are all witness to that, but as Nino told him, that’s all in the past. 

Jun and Ohno are together now, and so are he and Nino; and he trusts Nino enough to get the doubts out of his system knowing that there’s nothing to doubt about at all.

He trusts Ohno, too, of course; because Leader never lies to them, to him, never.

He reaches over and tugs Ohno into a familiar one-armed hug.

“No need for apologies, Leader,” he tells Ohno’s hair as Ohno squeezes him back, both of them ignoring the creepy stares that the attendees are throwing their way. “But tell Jun-chan it has been accepted with grace, just like a true gentleman would,”

“Thanks, Aiba-chan,”

He lets Ohno go and winks. “Now, shall we head straight to that bar you and I went to the last time so we can grab a drink or two?”
Ohno winks back, already holding onto his arms for support as they stand up.

“Make it three and you’re on,”

++

They ended up drinking past their limit, stumbling together into Jun and Ohno’s shared apartment with their arms thrown over each other’s shoulders and singing ‘One Love’ in a very loud voice.

Jun, thankfully, is still awake. 

“Oh,” Ohno slurs, grinning like a crazy, drunken person and Aiba giggles into his Leader’s hair as Jun walks the rest of the way to pluck Ohno out from Aiba’s hold, glaring at them both.

“Who the hell gets drunk  with tea –“ Jun says or at least starts to, and pauses when Ohno leans up to nuzzle his cheek, Aiba following after to nuzzle Jun’s other cheek, wrinkling his nose at their combined foul smell.

“Seriously, why did I even bother?” Jun mutters but he’s sure sounded fond more than anything else. Gathering Ohno in his arms and turning to face Aiba, he says, “You’re staying here, Masaki, and no, don’t even think of arguing with me. I’m calling Nino now and I’m going to let him verbally box your ears,tomorrow, because now it’s only going to be useless.” 

He finds a grin for Jun and reaches over to gently touch his already sleeping Leader’s hair.

“Thanks, Jun-chan,” he says, and heads on to the direction of the couch. “Goodnight,”

Jun might have said something but it sounded faintly like a distant memory. He’s out like a light the minute his back hits the couch.