Gift fic for junjun_pon

Title: Ash, Ember, Flames
Pairing(s): Ohno/Nino, Arashi gen
Rating: R
Warnings: Blood, foul language, horror
Summary: AU: Singer and entertainer Ninomiya Kazunari loses a bet on national television and has to spend a night in a haunted house with certified ghost hunters Ohno and Aiba. What can possibly go wrong?
Notes: Dear junjun_pon, I sincerely hope you will enjoy this! I had a blast writing it and enjoyed it very much. You mentioned ghosts and Nino, so my brain ran away with it! Enjoy! Thanks to my best, beloved beta <3

~~~~~~

He's sulking.

He knows he's sulking.

"You're sulking," is what Sho says to him.

"I know," Nino says and turns his head from where he's had his forehead pressed against the car window. Two hours spent in this car already. It felt like ten. "It's ridiculous. You know it's ridiculous. Everyone and their mother know it's ridiculous."

"You lost a bet," Sho shrugs, not looking up at him but firmly at the road, probably mentally in the middle of negotiating something on Nino's behalf. Sometimes it was kind of frightening just how efficient Sho was when he wanted to be. "This was the loser's punishment. Deal with it."

"You wound me, you don't have a compassionate bone in you, do you?" Nino frowns. "And a haunted house? Really? I'm absolute pants at haunted houses."

"They know that," Sho shrugs again, this time looking up from his phone. He offers an apologetic half-smile. "I tried getting you out of it, but apparently a deal's a deal when it's made in front of a live audience, and I have plenty of compassion, you'll see when you actually are deserving of it."

And if even a manager as efficient and tenacious as a terrier as Sakurai Sho couldn't get him out of this god damn punishment... Nino sighs. "I'm a singer, not a ghost hunter. This blows."

Sho hums. "I'm sure."

Everyone knew he spooked easily - apparently losing a bet on national television demanded that he followed through with the repercussions of being a cocky bastard. That didn't mean he was going to deal with this gracefully. No one could ever say about him that he takes defeat with grace. He's a terrible loser, but in all honesty, he's probably an even worse winner. There's a reason none of his friends want to play games with him.

Their loss. He chuckles. Literally.

"You've got your scary face on," Sho comments dryly. "Laughing to yourself at nothing is usually not a good sign and your label may shit themselves if they see it happening."

"I'm their current cash cow, they'll let me get away with a lot more than laughing at my own brain," Nino shrugs.

Sho shakes his head. "So modest, I'm proud of you. But they apparently don't like you enough to let you get out of staying the night in a haunted house."

"Fuck my life," Nino says with feeling.

~~~~~~

"Absolutely not," Sho says. "No."

"It'll be fun, Sho-chan," Nino grins and hoists his bag over his shoulder. "It's a bonding experience."

"I've seen you naked," Sho says flatly. "I spend ninety percent of my life right now with you. I already feel sufficiently bonded to you."

"Tough shit, if I have to do this haunted house thing, you'll have to do it, too."

"I didn't pack a - "

Not even bothering to try and hide his grin, Nino dives back into the trunk of the car, "Oh would you look at that? Wow, that is a conveniently placed bag packed with your clothes, Sho-chan! What a coincidence! Can you believe that?"

"Sadly," Sho says with a scowl, "I can. I quit."

Nino laughs. Sho is a fantastic manager, his best friend and confidant, and there's absolutely no way Nino is going to the haunted house without him. Sho knows this. "No way, it's the both of us or none of us, and oh look, here's our guide, I think."

"Put on your charming personality," Sho says out of the corner of his mouth. "Please."

"What are you talking about, I'm always charming," Nino gripes back and plasters on a smile.

There's a tall man coming towards them, face split by a grin. "Hello! Sakurai-san?"

"Yes, that's me," Sho says and manages a smile even as he elbows Nino. "Aiba-san, I assume? Nice to meet you. This is my charge Ninomiya Kazunari."

"Your charge," Nino mutters, because that makes him sound like he's about twelve and has Sho make all his decisions. "Hello, thank you for having us."

"I'm Aiba Masaki," the man says with a smile and a friendly wave even as his eyes dart curiously behind them. "No filming crew?"

Sho holds up a bag with his hand. "Handheld camera. I suspect everyone thinks it'll be more believable that way? Documentary style, Blair Witch Project and all that."

Nino suspects that this is what Sho could negotiate Nino's punishment to be - just them and not thirty crewmembers laughing themselves silly at him basically pissing his pants in fright. Nino really does love Sho most of the time.

"Thank goodness," Aiba says, still grinning. "Less hassle, then. Shall we go?"

"Go where?" Nino says even as he adjusts his backpack.

"The other side of the house," Aiba explains and points, "we'll debrief there and then we'll go in later around nightfall."

The house, as Aiba put it, is more of a mansion than an actual house, Nino thinks, because he hadn't actually paid any attention to it before now, but now that he is, he feels the first prickles of unease tightening at the back of his neck. He really isn't good with scary stuff - he loathes scary movies; thrillers makes him want to look around corners with a mirror.

He exchanges a look with Sho; he's pretty sure Sho knows his exact feeling right now if the way Sho is looking somewhat queasy is to go by.

Sho is a scaredy-cat as well.

This has the potential for a disaster.

"Oh-chan," Aiba suddenly calls out, and Nino looks up to where a man is putting together logs for what looks like the beginning of a bonfire. The man, who Aiba calls Oh-chan, puts down the wood and wipes his forehead with his arm and smiles at Nino. Something swoops in Nino's stomach.

Oh.

Happy eyes, lovely smile, slender build. Shit.

"Ninomiya-san, Sakurai-san, this is Ohno Satoshi, my friend and partner in all things ghost hunting. He's also my boss," Aiba adds with a grin.

"Shut up," Ohno says with a playful scowl. "Hello."

Nino stares at him some more until Sho elbows him again. "Good to meet you."

"Yes," Nino blinks. "Good. To meet you. Yes. Call me Nino."

Aiba and Ohno glance briefly at each other while Nino winces. Sometimes, it's difficult for him to actually believe that part of his job is to be a charming motherfucker and get people to buy his music and attend his concerts. Perhaps Sho was on to something when he asked Nino to bring out his more charming personality.

"Sure," Ohno smiles and then gestures at the bonfire. "We'll just stay here until it's time to go in later. We'll light the fire soon and then we'll eat, and when it gets darker we'll go in and spend the night at the house. I hope you brought flashlights."

"Okay," Nino manages and sways out of reach of Sho's third elbow move. "We did. Didn't we?"

Sho rolls his eyes. "Yes, dear."

~~~~~~

"Call me Nino," Sho says, fluttering his eyelashes. "Call me Nino."

"Shut up," Nino hisses. "Seriously, shut up."

"Yes. Okay. Me eloquent. So- ow, what the fuck?" Sho laughs.

Nino hits his shoulder again, "Haha, so funny."

"It is," Sho snickers and starts digging around in his backpack. "You should have seen your face, I think they could see it from space that he's totally your type. I wish I'd actually thought of turning the camera on from when we arrived."

"My sides are splitting, Sho-chan," Nino says flatly, fishing out a sweater. "You're so funny. And not a word about it when the camera does get turned on or we will have words."

"Ooooh," Sho says with an impressive eye roll. "You realize that I'm not actually afraid of being fired, yes?"

"We're not having this conversation," Nino decides and finds his flashlight at the bottom of his bag. "Aha. On a scale from one to ten, how scared are we going to be?"

"Twenty eight and a half," Sho says and finds his own flashlight. He turns it on and holds it under his chin, the light throwing his face into sharp shadows. "Call me... Nino."

Nino flings the sweater at him.

~~~~~~

"Hey," Nino says and sits down on one of the logs around the bonfire. Ohno is poking at the fire and looking generally way too much like someone Nino would like to get horizontal with soon. "I'm sorry I was a bumbling fool earlier."

Nino is used to showbiz people - all of them used to singers, artists, dancers, athletes, whatever, all of them not really being that impressed with Nino as a celebrity. Being recognized on the street is still all kinds of weird, but he's used to the hush and the pointing and the giggling. Ohno just quirks his lips and throws one more stick onto the fire and sits down on the log next to Nino's. Nino might be watching Ohno's arms too much. There's a black bracelet dangling around his right wrist.

"It's okay."

Nino doesn't know what to say. Normally, this is what Nino does. He's a smooth talker, he can talk your ear off, he can be eloquent, he can be sarcastic, charming, acerbic, whatever he needs to be, but Ohno really isn't giving him much to work with. "This ghost hunting thing..." He starts and looks up to see if Ohno takes the bait.

He looks up at Nino. Good. Always nice to have the attention of an attractive guy.

He continues, "Is it like a serious business? I mean, it's not often you get to hear about ghost hunters as work. Like, professionally."

"I guess," Ohno says and leans back on his hands. He grins a little. "It's not like I don't know that no one really takes this seriously, but... it's nice. I like it."

"Being your own boss?" Nino can relate. He's not his own boss, not really, but close enough, he supposes.

"This is not ghost hunting, you know," Ohno says with another grin and looks to a point behind Nino as footsteps come closer. "You're going into a haunted house, those are two different things."

Sho sits down next to him, and Aiba takes a seat next to Ohno, handing him a walkie-talkie. Aiba gives a curt nod and Ohno clips the walkie-talkie to his belt. Ohno turns back to Nino. "Any questions?"

"You've set up this house to scare the living crap out of me," Nino says, a fact. Ohno nods. "But nothing in there will actually hurt me?"

Ohno's smile is kind and his eyes kinder. "Ninomiya-san," he promises, "I will make sure the haunted house won't traumatize you too badly."

Beside him, Sho laughs. Probably because Ohno still hasn't called him Nino. Sho is a bastard.

He's an even bigger bastard when night falls and they're about to go into the house, and he turns on the camera only to point it directly at Nino's face.

Nino grimaces to the camera. "Hey," he says. "This is Ninomiya getting ready to make a fool of myself on national television. As you all know, I lost the bet I had with Taichi-san, so now I'm here, in backwater Japan, with two outstanding gentlemen as my guides and my manager being the cameraman. I hope you'll enjoy it thoroughly when I scream like a little girl in the name of entertainment. I really do aim to please."

By the door, Ohno and Aiba snicker and wave at the camera.

"This is Ohno-san and Aiba-san," Nino introduces them and takes hold of the lens to keep it in their direction. Ohno offers another weird wave and says, "Are you ready? None of us are going back out of this door until morning comes around."

That sounds ominous.

The cold, prickling feeling of unease at the nape of his neck is back in full force. It's not like it's much of a choice now but to go through with it though, is it? "It should be said," Nino explains to the camera even as he gives the go ahead to Ohno, who opens the door, "that we're going to be spending the night in this creepy house, mansion, whatever, thing, and Ohno-san assures me that it's only a little bit haunted, so there's that, I suppose. We have our backpacks and our sleeping ba- holy shit!"

The piece of linen that just flew down from above dangles innocently in front of Nino's face, and he grabs it and scowls at the camera. "This is what I'm being subjected to."

Sho laughs silently behind the camera.

Nino scowls harder and tries his hardest not to look like his heart is already trying to beat its way out of his chest. "As I was trying to say, we have our sleeping bags with us and we're going to set camp somewhere. Hopefully."

"I hope we can sleep," Sho says quietly.

"I kind of hope not," Nino returns, walking slowly, feeling hyperaware and on edge.

In front, Ohno waves at Aiba. "You take the back, I'll stay up here."

"Dibs on Ohno-san," Nino says and inches closer to Ohno, who stands still and waits for him. "This is Ohno-san."

"You already said that," Ohno mumbles but doesn't protest the close proximity. "You're a scaredy-cat, aren't you?"

"Don't ruin my reputation," Nino chides with a glance at the camera.

"It's okay," Sho chimes in just as Aiba passes him to walk behind him. "You don't have much of a good reputation as it is. This is nothing."

"Boo," Ohno breathes into Nino's ear and Nino jumps.

Ohno chuckles quietly and Sho doesn't even try stopping his loud laugh.

"I take it back," Nino says but doesn't actually move away, "Not-dibs on Ohno-san."

"Too late," Ohno returns and walks slowly, flashlight darting down the hallway. "I haven't been in here, so."

Nino blinks, then swallows. "Oh. So you only know what awaits but not where it is?"

Ohno shrugs. "I don't scare easily."

Just then, a door slams somewhere in the house. Nino startles, but clamps a hand over his mouth. Sho yelps.

"Fuck," Sho whispers harshly.

Nino still feels too aware, too prickly, too much like he can't be contained in his skin. The foreboding feeling - knowing that he'll be subjected to probably too many scares in too little time - is making him antsy. His grip on the flashlight tightens.

His breathing sounds too loud. "Oh-chan," he whispers, and Ohno raises an eyebrow at him but doesn't comment. "Why, why, why?"

"Why are you whispering?" Ohno whispers back, then says in his usual low voice, "ghosts don't care if you whisper or talk normally."

"You said it was a haunted house, not ghost hunting!"

Ohno quirks his lips and behind them, Sho groans. "They're making me sick." Aiba says something back that Nino can't decipher, but it's not like he cares because Ohno is still smiling at him and didn't protest the name.

Something creaks right in the wall next to him. He drops the flashlight.

He shivers.

"Easy," Ohno says and crouches to pick up the flashlight.

Nino scowls at the camera. "Fuck my life, seriously."

"Language," Sho says but doesn't sound like he means it. They both know this film is going to be edited to hell anyway.

Ohno holds the flashlight out for Nino and then helps closing Nino's hand around it. "Easy," he repeats. "Okay?"

"I really hate scares," Nino says like it's a grand surprise at this point.

"If you didn't, it wouldn't be punishment, would it?"

Something drops from the ceiling. Nino screams. Something is on him, it's cold and wet and he claws at it. "Get it away from me!"

"Easy, easy," Ohno soothes and clamps his hands down on Nino's arms. "Breathe. Aiba-chan, please."

Whatever is on him is removed, and Nino didn't even realize he'd closed his eyes until he has to open them again. To the side, Aiba is holding up something that looks like a poor imitation of a spider's web. Nino trembles. If he weren't so shaken, he'd probably be really, really angry. Ohno squeezes his arms - oh right, contact. It's nice. And grounding.

"Ninomiya-san," Ohno says calmly. "I need you to remember that nothing in here will hurt you. Okay?"

When he glances behind him, Sho has lowered the camera, turned it off, and Nino takes a deep breath.

It's not that he doesn't trust Ohno, because for some reason, he does but... "I really, really don't like being scared."

Ohno squeezes his arms. "It won't hurt you, okay?"

He takes another deep breath. Nods.

Ohno nods back and then takes the walkie-talkie from his hip. "J," he says and waits until the walkie-talkie crackles to life.

"Here."

"Plan B."

"Understood."

Ohno turns back to Nino as he clips the walkie-talkie back on his belt. "Okay, a little less scary for you after this, hopefully."

Nino supposes he should be embarrassed, but right now, he's just so very grateful. He nods and when Ohno continues down the hallway, Nino falls back to walk next to Sho, who says, "Okay, I get it. He's cute."

Nino can't help it. He laughs.

~~~~~~

After a room that had a creepy, talking doll, a door handle that was sticky, drawers that popped out of place, doors banging open and closed, Nino thinks that perhaps he can do this. Maybe he can get through this with even a shred of dignity intact, even if he had felt like pissing his pants on more than one occasion. In all honesty, maybe he's getting sort of desensitized, because his heart isn't hammering away in overtime anymore. Now it's maybe just a little bit quicker than usual.

Maybe Ohno and Aiba were thinking the same thing, because suddenly, as they sit down for a break in a room that started out with a weird heavy breathing resounding between its walls and there'd been a moment where it felt like something icy had touched his nape, Aiba starts speaking.

"Leader," he says and Nino frowns, hoping for an explanation for that nickname, but neither man elaborate on it. "Can I tell them about the time outside Kyoto?"

Ohno takes a swig of his water bottle and shrugs. "Which one of the times?"

"The first one," Aiba says with a grin.

Sho, who'd been taking a break from the camera starts filming again, turning the focus on Aiba. Nino thinks; there are a million moments to be captured in Ohno's and Aiba's shared history, of ghosts and laughter and bonding with fear. He suddenly itches very badly for his guitar.

Aiba leans forward to balance his elbows on his knees. "One of the first times I went out with Ohno-kun, it was to an old lady, who said that her house was possessed. She said she couldn't enter some of the rooms and that it felt like being physically repelled from the surrounding area, too. So when we arrive, she starts crying hysterically. Like, waterworks, hysteria, shaking, the whole production."

Nino blinks and turns to Ohno, who does a weird mix between a nod and a shrug.

"She says that she's so happy we're there, because she's not sure she'd survive another night, because last night it'd felt like someone or something, was sitting on her chest, not letting her breathe. This was only the... was it the third time I went out with you and Jun-kun?"

Ohno nods. "First time was the school and second time was that bridge in Tokyo."

"So I was a little bit weirded out at that point. When we got into the house, it felt like being hit with a sledgehammer in the face," Aiba says frankly. "Whatever was in that house really didn't want us to be there. I kind of had a black out, but when I became aware again, Ohno-kun had a massive nosebleed. Like, totally massive." Aiba flails a bit as if to illustrate just how big the nosebleed was.

"It was very inconvenient," Ohno agrees. "But it stopped pretty soon. The problem was more the fact that it felt like an earthquake had started."

Sho frowns behind the camera and Nino really agrees. He is, to be entirely honest, not a hundred percent sure that Ohno and Aiba aren't pulling his leg about this, but then again, they are self-proclaimed ghost hunters, so maybe it's true? Or at least true enough that they believe it happened?

"So we grab walls and banisters and whatever we can hold on to, and suddenly everything stops, and Leader says, "that was the first warning," which I didn't understand until we walk further in and the door in front of us closes and locks. Right in front of our faces. And Leader turns to me and says:"

"That was the second warning," Ohno supplies. Nino kind of wants to put on another sweater with how he's shivering now. He scoots closer to Sho.

"Right," Aiba nods. "And when I tried the door handle, it was scorching."

Nino scoots even closer to Sho, knocking their shoulders, "And then what?"

Aiba and Ohno exchange glances. "We couldn't get in, the door remained shut. And Jun-kun was feeling really sick at that point, even though he said it was from my nosebleed."

"Blood does make him queasy," Aiba supplies.

Nino nods. "I suppose this is the mysterious J?"

"Yeah," Ohno agrees. "Matsumoto Jun. He's in here somewhere, playing the puppeteer. And then we left the house and it locked behind us, almost pushing us out."

"And was that it?"

"That was when the house completely collapsed in on itself."

Nino's jaw drops without his permission and he shivers. "Shut up. That didn't happen."

"It did," Ohno says quietly. "Completely. And someone was screaming in there."

Behind the camera, Sho obviously can't help himself, "That didn't happen, right? You're kidding?"

Ohno looks at them, certain and looking like it doesn't matter much to him what judgment they decide to pass on the story. "I say it happened, but I can't make any of you believe it, that is entirely up to you."

Aiba settles a hand on Ohno's shoulder. "It's almost midnight, we need to move to the next room."

Ohno nods and gets to his feet, offering Nino a hand up. "Are you ready?"

He wants to say no - he's not sure what to believe right now. He's never really believed in ghosts or possessions; he hates scary movies, thrillers, anything that will shock him, and he honestly finds the subject ridiculous, but... who's to say it's not true just because he hasn't experienced it? When looking at Ohno and seeing him so sincere, it is obviously Ohno's and Aiba's truth. Whether or not Nino and Sho believe it too is very much not their problem.

It must be so freeing.

He wants to say no, because even when he's not entirely convinced that it could be true, that something is strong enough to make houses collapse into a hole in the ground, he's still spooked. That creeping feeling of paranoia that creeps up on you when you're home alone and have watched a few minutes of a creepy movie - the way you don't want to turn off the lights, the way you don't want to look out the windows in case someone is looking back.

"Yeah," he says and takes Ohno's hand. It might not be his truth, but it's Ohno's.

~~~~~~

Sho goes to sleep first - Nino claiming that he's too wired up is not technically a lie, not even remotely, but even knowing that every single second of the video will be edited is not good enough for Nino right now. Aiba and Ohno did rock-paper-scissors for the first watch, whatever that meant, and Aiba had lain down around the same time as Sho had, and they had, miraculously, managed to fall asleep if the way their breathing had evened out is anything to go by.

Nino still pokes Sho to test it - nothing. Good.

He gets up, slowly, wraps his sweater around him and looks to where Ohno is sitting in the doorway, effectively blocking it.

"What is it you do, exactly? " And even his lowered voice sounds too loud for this silence. He doesn't know what to make of Ohno, because attraction just isn't everything.

Ohno looks up from where his head had fallen slightly forward. Nino is spooked from the hours in this house and he might be hypersensitive and too aware; but he's not blind. Ohno is stunning in a kind of unconventional way - classically beautiful, perhaps not. Nino has objectively seen more handsome men in his life, taking into consideration that his occupation is more often than not socializing with young, beautiful people. However, there is something about Ohno that Nino can't put his finger on. He's very, very pretty.

"I don't suppose ghost hunting is what you're asking," Ohno says, voice even lower than Nino had gotten used to over the past few hours.

"No," Nino says, feeling somewhat small in his huge sweater. He sits down by the wall, perpendicular to Ohno. "I suppose not."

"You want to know if it's real, any of it."

When he tilts his head to look at Ohno, his face in the light of the window is chilling and devastating, cool and almost grey. His mouth goes dry. "Is it?"

"There's no Slimer, if that's what you're asking," Ohno says with a grin.

"Haha, smartface," Nino returns and hums the first bar of the Ghostbusters theme for effect, and then, "Who're you gonna call?"

Ohno grins.

Then, Nino prompts, patiently, "Is it real?"

For a long moment, he thinks Ohno won't answer, but then Ohno pulls his legs up, arms resting over his knees, wrist with his bracelet dangling, and he turns his head to meet Nino's eyes. "I can only say that it's real to me. I can't, and I won't, try to convince you otherwise. That's not my job."

Okay, so that isn't what Nino had hoped he'd say. What had he hoped he'd say? If he tries to identify the feeling somewhere in his ribcage right now, there's disappointment although he's not sure he can rationally explain that one at the time being. He files it away for later examination. "Okay. So you... hunt ghosts?"

"More like, finding out what they want and help them move on to eternity."

"Eternity?"

Ohno's lips quirk. "Heaven is... probably not my concept of salvation, and since there clearly is some kind of activity after death, Aiba-chan and Jun-kun decided that eternity sounded less hocus pocus."

To Nino, all of this sounds pretty hocus pocus to be honest, but ghosts are obviously not just figures running around clad in white linen anymore. That's not a ghost. "I think, my problem with believing is that I haven't experienced it."

"When I was a kid, I wandered off a lot," Ohno says, "and I also got lost a lot. One day, a woman comes up to me and asks if I'm lost and if I need help getting home. And she takes my hand and walks me home and when my mom sees it, she goes pale, but thanks the woman, and the moment my mom touched her hand, she disappeared."

"That's- wow. So your mom, too?"

Ohno nods. "It kind of runs in the family, you could say."

"That's pretty cool, actually," Nino admits. So what if it isn't Nino's truth? Does it really matter when Ohno states it quietly like this and believes it with a solemn, quiet trust? There's a moment where Nino just looks at him and Ohno looks back, and Nino has to know if it's just him - this magnetism is unreal, it can't just be him, can it? "Ohno-san -"

Ohno's smile is hesitant and sad, and he cuts Nino off as he lowers his eyes: "You should try and get some sleep."

Nino recognizes a dismissal when he hears it, even one as gentle as this one. "Okay," he says. It's not time. There'll be time later; he'll make sure of it. "Okay. I'll have you know I'm positively dying to get woken up by a scream in my ear or a door slamming."

"We're more original than that," Ohno says and his smile turns a touch more genuine. "Sleep well."

"Goodnight," he says in return, and then pauses. "Oh-chan."

He hopes he's not just wishing so hard for Ohno's smile to be real that it looked that way.

~~~~~~

Part 2 // Part 3