----

"Nino knows a guy," Aiba says. "It's totally legit."

"Nino," Sho repeats, disbelievingly. "Nino knows a guy."

"Yeah, he's supposed to be really awesome."

"Nino?"

"The guy is supposed to be really, really awesome."

"Nino knows this guy? Our Nino? Short, mean streak a mile wide, snarky and bitchy and with a disturbing penchant for making butt grooves in other people's couches?"

"Shut up, Sho-chan," Aiba laughs. "Be nice. It's true though. About the butt grooves."

Sometimes, Sho really doubts the state of the world.

----

Ohno Satoshi waltzes Kuroki Meisa easily around the room with a firm, teaching hand, then waltzes Akanishi Jin around first as a woman, then as the leading man, and in what appears to be a complete and utter miracle, no toes are broken, all limbs are intact, no one kills each other and the happy couple manages the dance with no mishaps whatsoever.

They are glowing.

"He's a marvel," Sho says in wonder, trying to pick up his jaw from the floor. The guy that dropped Ohno off, a tall, sort of reserved guy called Matsumoto nods as if of course. He's watching the proceedings with a sort of fond, exasperated look that Sho thinks he recognizes from his own face when watching Aiba and Nino go off on a tangent, like the time they melted a flan on a pan for no other reason than because it rhymed. "Where on earth did Nino find this guy? He said they met while reaching for the same book in the library, except Nino doesn't go to the library. Ever."

Matsumoto arches an elegant eyebrow. "I'm not sure Ohno-kun has set foot in a library since he absolutely had to in school, and even then, it was probably more likely that he took a wrong turn somewhere."

Sho laughs. "Well? Nino is sort of a compulsive liar when he's embarrassed, so I'm sort of expecting anything by now."

Matsumoto snorts. "They met at a convention a few months ago. Nino was in a Klingon cosplay."

Sho chokes. "A... cling on?"

"Star Trek," Matsumoto shrugs. "Klingon. There aren't any pictures, Nino burnt them."

Ohno Satoshi is teaching Akanishi how to dip Kuroki, and Ohno dips him first and has a surprisingly good grip on him while Akanishi leers right back. Kuroki stomps on his foot. Then she seems to want in and Ohno starts gesturing at them how to go about it.

"He's actually really good," Sho admits. "And really, a convention?"

"They apparently bonded over the shitty food," Matsumoto shrugs. "I was there to make sure he didn't follow a stranger home. And of course he's really good, he used to do this for a living, you know?"

Sho is stuck on the first part of the conversation. "...follow a stranger home?"

Matsumoto rolls his eyes. "I'm kidding, god. Nino stalked him online because Ohno-kun made fanart of one of Nino's favorite games."

"You know, knowing Nino, none of this is particularly surprising to me," Sho says slowly. "But this seems to be a new low, even for him."

Matsumoto's lips quirk and then he valiantly tries to smother a grin when it seems Kuroki has decided she wants to be the dipper rather than the dippée, and she drops Akanishi unceremoniously on the floor. And laughs. Matsumoto smiles when Ohno raises his hands in a shrug, and then he looks at his watch. "Ah damn it, we need to go, I have somewhere to be."

"But they haven't finished yet," Sho says, not entirely fond of the panic that grips him. It's just a dance, damn it, and it's already so much better than what he had feared when Kame walked out of rehearsal without so much as a by-your-leave. "Can you stay for a bit longer?"

Now that Akanishi actually seems to be cooperating and not raving about techno or, god forbid it, buffets, Sho would really like to keep this moment going a bit longer. "Does he have anywhere to be? Can I just drop him off later?"

Matsumoto narrows his eyes. "That could work. Hold on."

And Matsumoto strides over and politely cuts in and confers discreetly with Ohno while Akanishi and Kuroki are dancing again. Ohno looks over briefly at Sho and nods, smiles and Matsumoto squeezes Ohno's arm. Matsumoto returns and nods. "Sure thing, he doesn't have anything else on for today, so just take care of him, okay?"

Sho can do that. At least this wedding will have a kickass first dance and hopefully, fingers crossed, no broken limbs, broken toes or other dance disasters.

----

"I really, really appreciate it," Sho says for what is probably the hundredth time since they left the dance rehearsals, and Ohno sits quietly in the passenger seat as Sho puts on his headset. "Seriously."

"No problem," Ohno says with a slight smile. "I'm glad to be of help."

"You can just email me with your fees and I'll make a transaction for you," Sho says and pulls the car on the road. "So where to?"

"You don't need to pay me," Ohno says. "It was no trouble."

Sho frowns. "But I can't not pay you, that goes against all my principles." Well, not really, but the thought doesn't sit right with Sho, especially given that Ohno had no reason at all to show up with a day's warning and had taken both Kuroki and Akanishi by storm and had managed to coach them so well.  That and Nino might actually kill him if he finds out that Sho let Ohno work for free – Nino occasionally turns a little bit single-minded, not to mention homicidal, when money is involved.

"Okay," Ohno shrugs. "You can pay for dinner." His eyes when Sho looks over are deep and dark and interested, and Sho thinks oh no, bad idea. Then again, he still really wants to pay Ohno for his services.

"Sure," Sho says hoarsely and forces himself to look at the road. "What do you want to eat?"

Ohno shrugs again; out of the corner of his eye, Sho notices Ohno slouch even further down in the seat, an easy droop, relaxed and comfortable. "You choose, I'm not picky. I'm easy."

Sho really needs to keep his eyes on the road. God.

"Okay, we'll figure something out, but I have an appointment before we can go eat, is that okay with you? I have a band I need to whip into shape," he says honestly and very pointedly doesn't think of the relaxed, easy line of Ohno's body curving against the seat.

"If there's food somewhere along the line, I'm fine with it," Ohno says and his slight smile grows into a grin.

Look forward, Sho thinks. Don't acknowledge the god damn butterflies.

----

Rehearsal is hell on earth. Seriously, it’s not pretty. It starts with one of them asking if it would be okay for them to wear color coordinated helmets. The only thing that stops Sho from committing raging homicide is Ohno standing beside him and looking far too calm. Sho hopes Ohno's calm will have a contagious effect on him by proxy so he can get through rehearsal without getting arrested.

It's just so frustrating - Eighters are good. The problem is that they're unfocused and clearly playing because they find it entertaining, and Sho counts to ten and hopes his blood pressure won't suffer, and Ohno very gently presses his hand to Sho's elbow. Sho endures thirty minutes of the vehement, loud arguments, the snark, the pitching, the half-assed playing, and then, suddenly, like lightning from a clear blue sky, everyone starts playing with each other instead of against each other. It turns from nuclear warfare to straight up peace time.

If Sho had any soul left, he would weep from joy.

"They're good," Ohno remarks quietly during a guitar interlude, Nishikido gently strumming, and Sho nods. They are. That's why it's so frustrating when it takes so much time to get to this point.

It's at this time that Sho's phone starts vibrating with incoming texts, and he checks it while Nishikido croons in the background.

Are you two going on a date???

As is usually the wisest course of action in dealing with Nino when he’s in this mood, Sho ignores the text. His phone buzzes again.

Tell me. All the details. Jun-pon says that you’re taking him out for dinner = date.

Sho ignores that one, too.

Oh-chan is totally awesome, stop ignoring me

Truly, sometimes it’s best to ignore Nino. At this point, however, it might be prudent to shut him up before he really gets going.

It’s not a date, he thumbs and glances over at Ohno, who is now leaning against a table, legs outstretched and crossed by the ankles, arms relaxed. It’s been years since Sho has even thought about having a date. Ohno looks good. But it’s not a date.

Bullshit, Nino fires back, and then, If you’re not nice to him I know where you live.

Sho glares at his phone. IT’S NOT A DATE

Have a nice date :) <3

Sometimes Sho wants to strangle him, and if not for the fact that his phone is pretty much his entire life, he’d have switched it off to avoid any further texts from Nino. The embarrassment. The end of the furious texting also coincides with Eighters trailing off and they look expectantly at Sho, who stonily looks back.

Ohno applauds.

“So?” Nishikido asks and Sho notes that all of them look brittle, fierce, apparently expecting rejection; the way Nishikido’s jaw is clenched, his fingers tight on his guitar, the others looking like unhappiness is just beneath their loud exterior.

“Okay,” Sho says finally. “You need suits. I need your confirmation on all of you having suits the day after tomorrow at the latest. You will not argue for thirty minutes before you play. You will show up on time and behave. Okay?”

The lead singer with the hair escaping from an entirely different decade smiles tentatively. “Yeah?”

Sho nods, sees Ohno look at him from the corner of his eye. “Just, seriously, you guys. It’s a job. Behave yourselves.”

They all nod back at him, some of them are fist bumping and he suspects that something like a riot might break out the moment he’s out the door. He walks over to Ohno, who smiles a little, a nice curve of his lips, somehow wry. “You ready?”

Sho nods and tilts his head for Ohno in invitation, and he was totally right – the moment the door clicks shut behind them, there’s a cacophony of shouts.

“That was nice,” Ohno says after they’ve gotten back to the car.

Sho shrugs. “It’s my job. I’m not doing them a favor. Or well, technically I am, but they’re good.”

Ohno nods slowly. “You seemed like you wanted to kill them, for a moment.”

Sho glances at Ohno, but Ohno is looking forward, keeping his eyes on the road, something Sho should probably also be doing. “It’s just frustrating sometimes, is all.” He’s waiting for the question he always gets – why the wedding planning? His father almost disowned him, his grandparents still sort of look like they’re three inches away from either being elated that he’s successful or hysterical that he’s not going for a career in politics. It’s sort of difficult to tell the difference until the crying starts.

But Ohno doesn’t say it, what he says is, “I could eat meat right now.”

Sho is startled into a laugh. It’s... nice.

Dinner is also weirdly nice, and Sho is beginning to realize that his expectations of other people might be a little skewed by now, because Ohno never goes for the inevitable question that all his other dates have always asked, and Ohno seems genuinely interested in Sho’s work, if a little bit absentminded at times. And he doesn’t seem like a sleaze ball, or weird, just genuinely nice and kind. And really gorgeous now that Sho has actually allowed himself to look and not just regard him as someone who was working for him.

Ohno is almost thirty, illustrates books and is a graphics designer, who, even in Ohno’s modest, few words, is pretty good. He’ll take Nino’s word for it, because Nino has kept texting him random facts about Ohno all through dinner until Sho just ignored it completely.

And he smiles so kindly at Sho when Sho drops him off, and says thank you, and waves, and Sho is just sort of stunned.

“I think my faith in humanity is restored,” Sho says when he calls Nino. He knows that this particular move is inviting several kinds of trouble, but damn it.

“When did you lose it?” Nino asks readily, seemingly not surprised at all.

“A Wednesday in March, I think. I’m unsure which year,” Sho fires back, then hesitantly: “He’s – ”

“Totally awesome, I told you so,” Nino says, smug like the proverbial cat and Sho doesn’t even mind. That’s probably the moment where he should know that he’s in trouble.

----

After pulling Eighters into something he could reasonably present and not fear losing his job, getting Kuroki-san on his side for the food not being a buffet, getting the wine tasting and the flower arrangements done, everything sort of just picks up the pace. Turns out that Kuroki-san was not fond of Akanishi’s MySpace photographer and had talked in capital letters until she had calmed down enough to talk with consonants.

Turns out, Ohno knows a guy. Kato-san is competent, discreet and available.

Sho feels a little bit like hyperventilating.

The biggest wedding of his career so far is so near that he can almost taste it (or maybe that’s the taste of the bile that’s threatening to rise at the back of his throat), and maybe he’s nearing a complete meltdown, because he realizes a week before the day of the wedding that he has sort of forgotten how to operate his microwave.

He tells this to Nino, who tells him to chill.

An hour later, there’s a knock on the door and Sho kind of doesn’t want visitors right now and wants a symbiotic relationship with his couch, so he ignores it.

The door opens, and Sho maybe muffles a scream into his couch. It’s Nino, it has to be, because he doesn’t trust Aiba with the key to his apartment, so it really has to be Nino out of process of elimination.

It’s not Nino.

“Hey,” Ohno says and Sho whips his head up so fast he thinks he might have gotten whiplash. He’s aware he looks sort of crazy. “Nino gave me the key. He said you were having a meltdown.”

Ohno, who looks sleepy and fond and kind of like the best thing in the world, and who seemingly doesn’t mind that Sho sometimes displays something like frighteningly bipolar tendencies by inviting Ohno over and then ignoring him in favor of paperwork. Nino was right – Ohno is totally awesome. Two months of this push-pull, he’s still here, looking genuinely interested in Sho.

Sho swallows, his throat is dry like crazy. “I might,” he admits.

Ohno just nods and then holds up a bag. “I brought take-out.”

Ohno is not just totally awesome – he’s a freaking lifesaver. When Sho reaches for it, Ohno holds it out of reach. “One condition.”

Sho blinks.

“No work tonight. You need to switch that enormous brain off from wedding planning.”

Ohno, with his casual body language, easy line of his hips, looks expectant and unrelenting.

Sho knows he’s having a meltdown. “Okay. I’ll try.”

Ohno’s face blooms into a lovely, sleepy smile.

A few days ago, Nino had told Sho to man the fuck up and do something about the Ohno situation, which Sho sort of expected but found so annoying that he had lacked words at the time to describe just how annoying it was. Nino was of the opinion that if Sho didn’t jump Ohno at the first available opportunity, Nino would do something to Sho that involved spicy food, an all-out war and Nino’s cranky neighbor. Sho really didn’t want to know.

There are Chinese take-out cartons on the floor in front of them, a really horrible movie Ohno actually seems to be pretty invested in, and Sho is trying his very best to not spontaneously combust from despair at the bad acting, so he instead focuses on the heat of Ohno’s body just next to him.

Ohno smiles wryly at him and seems to consider flicking rice at him but doesn’t in the end. He sets his carton down and lazily rolls to his back, slow and considering and if Sho had thought his mouth was dry before, it’s nothing to the absolute desert it is now. Ohno is just watching him, dark eyes glimmering, bad movie seemingly forgotten.

Sho’s sex-life has been non-existent for a while – it doesn’t mean he’s a monk. He licks his lips.

Ohno grins.

That’s just about as much invitation as Sho can handle (to be honest, he thinks Ohno has been throwing invitations at him for a while, but Sho apparently needed a gold-engraved one, whacked over the face).

Ohno’s mouth is soft and pliant, apparently completely fine with letting Sho drive. Sho is awkwardly leaning over him from where he’d been sitting cross-legged next to Ohno before, but Sho is actually okay with that. Ohno’s eyes are closed and he’s a really good kisser, and Sho can’t remember the last time he kissed someone without intent to move it to the bedroom. It’s nice and explorative, and Ohno’s fingers gripping the back of his neck, stroking the short hairs there, is oddly relaxing.

Rather than a psychotic meltdown, Sho just feels like melting.

Which is probably why his arm gives out and he falls down and clacks his chin into Ohno’s jaw and drops his weight on Ohno. Ohno laughs. His arms wind around Sho even as Sho feels like apologizing because he essentially just knocked the breath out of Ohno, but Ohno apparently doesn’t care at all.

He squeezes Sho a bit, then uses his grip on Sho’s neck to pull him back down and Sho can deal with that. Ohno kisses him sweetly, their mouths bumping, then breaks away, breathless and checks, “Alright?”

“Uh huh,” Sho manages because Ohno managed very effectively to get his brain to switch off. He’s more than okay.

Ohno’s smile is brilliant and Sho kind of wants to touch it. So he does. With his mouth.

Ohno never stops grinning.

That’s okay.

Neither does Sho.

----

“Do you want to get married? If you could.”

Sho blinks into the dark, then rolls slightly to look at Ohno, who is looking back at him. In the dark, his face is just shadows from the lights outside, and Sho sort of just wants to touch his face. He does, feels Ohno’s smile, his breath against his fingertips.

“No one ever asked me that,” Sho says, wondering. He thinks he shouldn’t be surprised that Ohno keeps swerving left when Sho expects him to go right. He feels spent, languid, relaxed as he hasn’t been in a long, long time, maybe ever. He doesn’t actually know if he wants to get married. He loves making people happy with creating the most magical day of their lives, but he’s not sure he wants it for himself. “I don’t know.”

Ohno nods slowly – Sho can feel the movement with his hand. He lets his fingers skate over Ohno’s cheek down to his jaw, past his ear and to his neck. Ohno lets him, easy and trusting.

“Do you?”

He can feel Ohno’s grin. “You’re forward.”

Sho blinks, then huffs a laugh, tightening his hand on Ohno’s neck and he shuffles closer even though it shouldn’t be possible. It’s warm with so much skin between them, but it’s nice and just what Sho needed. “Get married. Do you want to get married?”

Ohno shrugs. “Probably not. Even if I could, I’m not sure.” And then, because Ohno seems to be perpetually amused, and he’s grinning. “A bit early to have this conversation, don’t you think?”

It’s becoming something he does a lot – grinning and laughing and being in a good mood: all by-products of Ohno’s proximity. He’ll have to send Nino a gift basket, because Ohno is totally awesome. And a lot of other things that Sho will have to tell him at some point that isn’t right now.

God help him, he’s basking. In Ohno’s company and easy laugh and infectious calm.  Ohno’s hand is sure on his skin, warm and confident and Sho breathes deeply. He really can’t remember the last time he was this relaxed with someone.

“Sleep,” Ohno entreats, moving so his face is almost touching Sho’s throat. “I kick.”

Sho smiles. “That’s okay. I snore.”

Ohno shrugs under Sho’s arm. And snores really obnoxiously.

Sho laughs. He can’t help it.

----

The wedding goes off without a hitch.

Sho can’t actually believe it. The way everything has sort of just worked out – Sho is basically waiting for the other shoe to drop. No one runs out before signing the marriage license, no one shouts “I OBJECT” which is a recurring nightmare Sho has, Akanishi (who showed up looking like the victim of a kamikaze bar crawl, because apparently his groomsmen were vicious bastards) doesn’t suddenly drop the bass and gets low, Kuroki doesn’t have to stomp his foot more than once and they actually look happy.

The food is good, the wine amazing, the cake looks stunning.

Eighters behave. They’re all sharply dressed, they start playing with minimal fuss (to be entirely honest, Sho had expected more fuss, so this is a win in his book) and they banter nicely, toast appropriately and Sho watches the glowing bride and groom waltz around, making everyone sigh appreciatively.

The other shoe doesn’t drop. Somehow, miraculously, the metaphorical other shoe doesn’t drop.

Sho thinks he might have entered an alternate dimension.

When everything is over and a tipsy Akanishi yells “And none of you bastards will ever ever ever ever ever have a nicer wedding than mine!” and gets whacked over the face with the bouquet by his smiling bride for his trouble, Sho breathes. The party dissolves into full enjoyment of the free bar, and Sho knows that that is his cue to leave.

When he gets home, there’s light in the kitchen, food ready for him to warm up in his microwave (with drawn instructions in how to work the microwave in case Sho needs it, Ohno can be a devious ass when he wants to be, an Sho sort of likes it a lot more than he wants to admit to Ohno’s face) and Ohno asleep in his bed. Sho is pretty sure this is as close to the disgustingly sappy, happy end he’s ever going to get and he’s not sure what he did to deserve it, but he sure as hell isn’t going to complain.

He eats his food, turns off the light and slides into bed next to Ohno.

Screw the perfect wedding, this is perfect enough for him.

----

(And they lived happily ever after.

The end.)


Part 1