learashi

Pairing:Matsumiya
Genre: Romance
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Arashi only their merchandise

Summary: Jun couldn't exactly pinpoint when it was that he began to look at Nino in a different way.

Jun couldn't exactly pinpoint when it was that he began to look at Nino in a different way. He was still the same annoying, smart mouthed brat that he had always been, but to Jun's embarrassment he found himself thinking that Nino could be, at certain times, quite cute. He had shaken these thoughts off, putting them down to overwork and vowed to try and get more sleep in future.

It seemed that Nino had picked up on these cringe worthy thoughts and was determined to make him pay. It was Jun's own fault after all, caught staring at Nino's hands in an idle moment in the green room and thinking to himself that they did indeed look like adorable little stumpy fingered hamburgers. Hearing a snicker,he looked up only to catch Nino's smirking gaze. Feeling what felt like his entire body turning red with embarrassment Jun turned and fled to the bathroom where he stayed trying to return his heart to a normal rhythm and lose the tell tale blush. It was even more humiliating when Aiba banged on the door asking if he needed any help because he had been in there an awful long time and was his stomach ok.

It's not like Jun even liked guys (apart from the crush that he'd had on Sho when he was younger, and that was more hero worship rather than sexual feelings he told himself now). He had really only dated girls, because going out to dinner and movies with Toma regularly didn't really count did it? The night that they were both quite drunk and Toma had kissed him extensively; an experience he'd found to be quite pleasurable, surely didn't count either due to the involvement of alcohol.

Since Nino had caught him looking, Jun had been feeling completely tortured. There seemed to always be a Nino near him being extra Nino like. He was even beginning to wonder if someone had ordered in extra Nino's just to make him more uncomfortable. When Jun was sitting on the sofa was it really necessary for Nino to bend over right in front of his face to pick up his bag while wearing the almost obscenely tight jeans he had been favouring all week? Did he have to lick the broth from every slurp of ramen off his bottom lip with the tip of his little pink tongue? It was all too much for Jun's frayed nerves.

The way he saw it, he had two choices. He could own up to these feelings and confess to Nino or he could just pretend that it wasn't happening. The manly thing to do would be to take up the first option, but the thought of Nino laughing in his face was too much to contemplate, so he went for option B. Every time that Nino walked into a room Jun found a reason to walk out. He had spent so much time hiding in the bathroom that even Sho, who spent most of his time in the green room with his nose buried in a newspaper, had noticed and had asked him in a worried voice if he would be alright to complete filming?

In the end it was Ohno who followed him out of the room after he bolted when Nino emerged from the bathroom with only a small towel wrapped around his waist mumbling that he'd forgotten to take his clean clothes in with him. Looking at the slender milky white body which still had droplets of water running down it and was wafting the smell of citrus scented shower gel and Nino at him was more than Jun could take.

Ohno caught up to him in the corridor, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him up the stairs to the roof, his iron grip giving Jun no chance of escape. Riida was not a large man but he was surprisingly strong and Jun couldn't break free no matter how hard he tried. Jun felt himself shrinking smaller with every word coming out of the older man's mouth. He had no idea that Ohno had seen so much of his new found desire for Nino. Jun thought that he had been asleep two days previously, laying on the couch when the younger had picked up Nino's shirt which had fallen on the floor and held it to his face breathing in the indefinable smell of Nino. If there hadn't been quite a high railing around the rooftop the prospect of taking a running jump off the roof at that moment would have been quite appealing. Going splat many floors below couldn't have been worse than the embarrassment burning through his body in that moment.

Under the surprisingly sharp glare of Arashi's leader Jun soon cracked and confessed that Nino was making him crazy with desire and he couldn't figure out what to do about it and that if he finally plucked up the courage to tell him that and Nino just laughed in his face he would throw himself off the roof for real. He then abruptly collapsed down into a crouching ball of despair, hiding his face against his knees, waiting to be told that he was crazy and to get a grip on himself before he ruined Arashi by making it too uncomfortable for everyone to be in the same room together.

Instead Ohno crouched down next to him and told him softly that he had been watching Nino closely as well and he believed that he felt the same way about Jun in return. Why did he think that Nino had been doing everything he could to get Jun to notice him? He figured that Nino being Nino would never openly show his feelings for someone. Nino although tough and bratty on the outside, lived in fear of rejection and was too scared that if he opened up to Jun he would be left with crushed hopes and a broken heart. So instead of being open about his feelings he tried to get Jun to make the first move, doing his best to ignore the goosebumps that formed on their arms if their hands accidentally brushed against each other or the electricity that sparked between them whenever their eyes met.

Jun sighed as Ohno took him in his arms and softly stroked his hair, telling him that everything would be alright.

++++

Knowing that if it was left up to the two main players nothing would ever happen and they would dance around each other for ever, Ohno came up with a not too subtle, kill or cure way to settle this whole thing. A couple of weeks later when everyone was thoroughly sick of the two idiots dancing around each other he put his plan into action. That is if you can count locking two people in a small room together until they talked things through. It wasn't easy to do since Jun was still running away at every opportunity and Nino was pretending to be indifferent, but the other three finally corralled them together. They then went to get dinner, yelling through the locked door that they would bring the other two some takeaway in about three hours time.

Jun spent the first five minutes rattling the door and Nino spent the same amount of time yelling threats at the other three even though he knew they were long gone. When that was done they retreated to separate corners of the disused rehearsal room and glared wordlessly at each for the five minutes after that.

The room was empty except for a small, battered single armchair and an endless supply of dust. Nino plopped down on the floor and began to send threatening text messages to the other members. After a while Jun sighed heavily and sat down in the dusty chair. It was bad enough that all the others now knew about his feelings for Nino, but now being trapped in here with him with no escape route it was all just too much.

So remembering what Ohno had said about Nino thinking the same way about him but being just as scared to admit it; without even looking in Nino's direction Jun hesitantly began to talk.

It was beyond embarrassing to talk about such intimate feelings with someone who may just laugh hysterically as a response, but it was also liberating at the same time. Jun had been holding things in for so long that it was like popping a cork out of a bottle and once he started it was impossible to stop.

As he spoke he could hear Nino stand up and shuffle closer to him. As he got to the part where he said that he thought that he might actually love Nino, Jun’s voice hitched and he could barely get the words out due to the pressure in his chest. There was no response from the other man and Jun felt like he was about to cry, when two thin arms snaked around his neck from behind and a soft face was pressed against the side of his neck. Jun held his breath, wondering what came next when Nino whispered in a tiny voice “I think I love you too”.

++++

When the others returned a few hours later, nobody wanted to be the one to open the door. A flying vengeful Nino and a potentially murderous Jun were not things that anyone would willingly put themselves in line for.

After a silent and desperate game of janken Aiba cautiously undid the lock and cracked open the door ready to leap behind Sho if there was any potential danger. Instead of being greeted by two angry band mates they were relieved and happy to see that their lives were in no danger.

Jun was curled up in the armchair with Nino in his lap, head nestled into Jun’s chest, both of them fast asleep. Their mussed hair and dishevelled clothes the only clues to what may have happened while the others were gone.