Chapter Text
“Excuse me, you look familiar...”
Nino just smiled at the girl who stopped him. Sometimes it annoyed him to be recognised more than he used to be, but he was in a good mood that day. Red Shift’s first single was a hit, and things were going well in his life.
“Are you Ryuta-kun?” he girl continued, wiping his smile away.
“No, I’m not,” he said as politely as he could. “I get that a lot, though.”
As she apologised and left, Nino felt annoyance simmering in him. The first time a fan had mistaken him for the lead singer of Cloud Chorus, Nino was amused and a little flattered. After all, he liked the band, and there were worst people to be mistaken for. But after awhile, he was beginning to resent it. He was also beginning to resent Cloud Chorus, that consisted of members younger than him, but debuted two years before Red Shift from the same company.
I guess Red Shift still has a long way to go, huh...
He continued to walk to the studio feeling a little dissatisfied.
})i({
“Morning, Nino!” Aiba beamed at Nino in greeting as he walked in. Sho had a taping for some variety tv programme that morning, and was going to arrive late, but Aiba, Jun and Ohno were already gathered in the studio. “Isn’t today just the best morning ever?”
Nino’s eyes met Jun’s, and they both gave each other knowing smirks. “I’m guessing that you had a good time, staying over at Sho’s place last night.”
Aiba didn’t even blush as he nodded vigorously. “Guess what, I-” he stopped when Nino held up a hand.
“I don’t really want to hear it,” Nino said loudly. “I’m in a bad enough mood as it is. Some girl stopped me and thought I was Yamamura Ryuta.”
Jun laughed. “Again?”
Nino scowled. “It’s not funny.”
“It kind of is, actually,” Aiba said, still grinning at him. He was about to say more, but Nino interrupted him.
“Aiba, I swear, I’ll tell them all your darkest and most embarrassing secrets if you continue talking.”
Aiba looked untroubled, and said, “you have nothing on me.”
“Oh, yeah?” Nino was annoyed enough, and went over his memories to find something good. “What about how you didn’t how blow-jobs even worked?”
Aiba’s face changed colors instantly, and Jun looked at Nino with interest. Ohno was slowly inching out of the studio, unsure if he really wanted to be in the conversation. “This is a story I haven’t heard,” Jun said, grinning.
“Nino, don’t tell him,” Aiba hissed. Nino just smiled at him wickedly, pleased. His earlier annoyance was disappearing fast, and he was growing steadily amused with Aiba’s reaction.
“You mean, he hasn’t told you?” Nino asked Jun innocently, arching an eyebrow at Aiba. Aiba just scowled at him.
“I was a kid!” Aiba said defensively. “I was pure and innocent, not a perverted old man like you.” It only made Nino laugh.
“You see, when Aiba had decided that he was ready to go down on his first boyfriend,” Nino said, making a face at the unwanted image that came into his head, “he realised that he didn’t know what he was supposed to do, and asked me. I had to get him some porn videos but he didn’t want to watch them, so in the end I - ” the rest of Nino’s words were muffled and unintelligible as Aiba had clamped his hands over Nino’s mouth.
“This first boyfriend you were talking about... it was Sho, wasn’t it?” Aiba and Nino both turned to Jun just fast enough to catch the serious look he was wearing, before he broke into a grin. “I guess now I have more ammunition against him. Wait until he tries to criticize my singing again...”
“He said you’re good,” Aiba stated.
“Yeah, when I do exactly what he says,” Jun replied in a light tone. It was around then when Ohno walked back in, and pointed to the glass pane through which they could see Manabe-san, one of the staff members, grinning at them.
“Guess what, Yoshiaki was testing some of the new sound equipment, and ended up recording your conversation,” Ohno said matter-of-factly. Aiba looked at him in horror, while Nino and Jun burst into laughter.
“Manabe-san... please get rid of that tape,” Aiba moaned, looking appealingly in Manabe’s direction. “Sho-chan would be so pissed if he found out about it.”
“Found out about what?” Sho asked, walking in behind Ohno. Jun and Nino immediately stopped laughing. Nino was gazing at Sho and Aiba, tense, while Jun looked at him in confusion.
“Uh...” Aiba turned to look at Nino. His best friend looked a little fatalistic as he stepped forwards, putting himself between Sho and Aiba, and explained. However, Sho didn’t explode, the way he and Aiba expected him to. Sho just nodded calmly, which freaked him out even more than if Sho had been mad, although he wouldn’t admit it.
“I’ll take care of it,” Sho said in a neutral voice, and left to speak to Manabe-san. Nino and Aiba breathed sighs of relief.
Jun looked at the two of them. “Is that guy that scary, for the two of you to be so worked up?”
Nino shook his head. “He’s really touchy about keeping private things private.”
})i({
They were recording the B-side to their second single, which was a song from Sho’s first album. Yamanaka-san decided that they should cover one of Sho’s songs, but in Red Shift’s style of music, and record it together in one go, as if they were performing live, instead of doing it over and over individually. “It’s more about capturing the chemistry of the band playing together, than about it being perfect,” Yamanaka-san had told them.
Since only Aiba claimed to be familiar with the song, they spent most of the earlier part of the day learning the song. It wasn’t difficult, but they also had to work on rearranging it to Red Shift’s style.
Both Sho and Aiba were pensive during the recording, belying the fact that they were supposed to be happy to be back together in the studio again, after the hiatus they were on when Sho was away on various jobs and lives. As Jun and Nino learned the song, which suited their twin guitars very well, they, too, began to get serious, realising what it meant to the other two. Ohno was the only one who acted like he usually did, but then again, he was always like that in the studio.
})i({
As soon as they were finished recording, Nino’s earlier bad mood started to hit him again. Sho had left the studio almost immediately, and after a moment of hesitation, Aiba grabbed his guitar and went after him. Jun was telling Ohno that they had to stop by the supermarket on the way home to get ingredients for that night’s dinner, and Nino didn’t want to bother them, so he said goodbye and stepped out of the studio by himself.
Alone again, huh, he thought, but he wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Ever since Aiba and Sho had gotten back together he had been finding himself alone in their apartment more and more. He could probably hang out with Jun and Ohno if he wanted, but he preferred to stay home and play games.
He thought about how the dynamics of their group had slowly changed since Jun and Ohno joined the band. Before, it was mostly his and Aiba’s band, and when Sho joined Red Shift, everyone tended to listen to Sho more often than not. After Sho had left, Nino took over everything and tried to keep the band together for Aiba’s sake. Then Jun had joined, and things changed again, as Jun started to take over some of the songwriting and did all the lyrics, which altered Red Shift’s sound a lot. Ohno’s insertion in the band had been quiet and uneventful, but after awhile Nino had realised that Ohno was more or less becoming more of a leader than Nino was, and that the four of them were more balanced together than they had been in any of their previous formations.
With Sho back in Red Shift, even temporarily, their dynamic was shifting yet again. Sho was more demanding than Ohno and expected everyone to meet his standards, which Nino had to admit was good since Sho was pushing everyone to do better. He had thought that including Sho in the band again would be difficult, and it was at first, but in the end it was as if everyone had just adjusted immediately to welcome Sho into their circle. With Sho around again, Red Shift felt complete.
When he bumped into someone, causing them to drop a stack of papers to the floor, Nino mumbled an apology and automatically bent down to pick up the papers, cursing himself in his head for not paying attention to his surroundings. At least he was still in the Voyager building, although he had no idea where his feet had brought him to.
“Thanks,” the person he bumped into said as he handed over the papers. “Although now I have to rearrange them again since they’re messed up.”
“Sorry, I’ll help you out...” Nino started to say and was surprised as he looked up. “Yamamura-kun,” he blurted out.
“Really? That’d be really great!” the other man said with a wide smile. “I’m kind of behind on a lot of things right now and can’t spare the time... come on.” With one hand holding on to the papers, his free hand grabbed Nino’s wrist and pulled Nino along with him into the next studio, where the other members of Cloud Chorus looked at them inquisitively.
“You can sit there and help me out with the papers, right?” Yamamura asked Nino, pointing to the three chairs in a corner. “I think I’ve numbered them so it shouldn’t be too difficult. We’re really behind on our schedule right now and our producer is getting mad, and I don’t know why I’m stuck doing this clerical stuff when we’re supposed to have staff to handle it, but Haru-chan is on sick leave today and I can’t force her to come here when she has a cold, right? Anyway...” he paused, out of breath. His bassist took the chance to ask him a question.
“Ryuta, who’s that guy?”
“Um, this is...” Yamamura looked at Nino again. “What’s your name again?”
“I’m Ninomiya Kazunari. Uh, you can call me Nino, I guess...” Nino said, still looking at Yamamura. For some reason, the lead singer reminded him of someone.
“Great! What department are you from? Any chance of stealing you into working for us instead?” Without waiting for Nino to answer, Yamamura turned to the rest of the band. “Guys, this is Nino. Nino, these are Genki, Seiji, and, uh, The Other Guy.”
“I’m Kazuki,” the ‘other guy’ said, rolling his eyes. “He calls me that to annoy me.”
“I’m Ryuta,” Yamamura said, ignoring the guitarist.
“I know,” Nino said, and cleared his throat. “I mean, I’ve been listening to you guys since before your debut.”