September [Nino one-shot]

So I wrote this out of a whim while listening to an old Earth, Wind and Fire song, which I kinda got obsessed with after hearing my mom playing it out loud of the stereo XD This one-shot is inspired by my obsession with the song (the ficcie title shares the song title!), and based on how my parents met (which is kinda kawaii XDDDDDDD). Also, it’s about time I wrote a Nino ficcie! Gomen for the delay, my beloved DS-lovin’ Ohno-hubby <3

“…Do you remember the twenty-first night of September?”

- ~ -

September

Nino tapped his foot in synced rhythm to the song blaring from the speakers. Leaning against the bar and fingering his drink, he lightly bopped his head along and found himself humming to the infectious tune, a serene smile unknowingly forming across his brightened face.

His mood was incredibly good tonight, judging by the ease he carried by his relaxed shoulders. He wondered inaudibly if it had anything to do with Arashi finally finishing their nationwide concert tour, or with Jun inviting all of them to celebrate the night away at an exclusive Shibuya club. After all, it wasn’t like him to be hanging by the bar alone, while all his buddies danced among the gyrating bodies on the dance floor.

No, he just felt like something was in for him tonight. Have you ever have this unexplainable but joyous feeling, that somehow tells you that something great and absolutely amazing is out there waiting for you to stumble upon it? Nino felt just that tonight. The sensation oozed in his very guts the moment he woke up that day, with the sunlight pouring on his face and blessing him with the delight of anticipating something that would change his life forever.

Would it, on a chilly September night, in an unsuspicious night club, change his life?

Sipping his drink, Nino scanned the crowd in semi-darkness for his friends. There was Jun, squeezed so seductively close between two women’s bodies and thoroughly enjoying the attention. Not far away, he found Aiba dancing with Ikuta Toma and grinning broadly, clapping his hands in rhythm while trying to get his awkward Riida to dance along. At the other side, Sho was chatting animatedly with Yokoyama Yuu and Koyama Keiichiro, probably about the country’s economics, judging by the vigorous gestures he was making with his hands.

Do you remember the twenty-first night of September?
Love was changing the minds of pretenders…
While chasing the clouds away…

Nino pushed himself off the bar and walked over to the edge of the balcony, so he could get a perfect view of the entire club. Leaning casually against the glimmering gold-painted railing, he cast his eyes around from the DJ to the cluster of occupied high tables, as though searching for something. The song continued to fill his ears and echo in his mind, its tune giving him nothing but a glimpse of hope. Hope that there was indeed something there for him.

It was then, Nino laughed aloud when he caught Aiba’s hysterical attempt at Egyptian dancing to amuse Ohno, then he had looked a little to the left and in a stretching of eternity, someone caught his eyes. At the far end of the dance floor, a lone figure was standing with her back pressed defensively to the wall. She was dressed rather unimpressive for attending a night club – in jeans and a simple black jacket over a flowing purple shirt. Her head was slightly bowed and her hands were held together on her lap; her very body language told Nino she didn’t seem quite willing to join the gyrating crowd.

However, there was this indescribable air of unrepressed happiness around her that Nino was so mesmerised with. She was slightly bopping her head to the song and her body briefly moved in sync to the song; at times she appeared hesitant to dance, and when she couldn’t help herself she’d dance very indistinctly, as though she was restraining herself from enjoying too much. But it was the small smile playing on her soft lips that betrayed her immense control. The smile lit up her flawless face, and it made her radiate with such a beautiful glow.

In that stilled moment, there was only Nino and that mysterious woman in that room, and that song of September weaving a song to the beginning of their story.

Nino had found that great and absolutely amazing person that was waiting out there for him.

Dumping his drink unceremoniously on the bar – and earning a curious look from the bartender – he strode to the spiral staircase and descended with purpose, his eyes never leaving the woman. He felt drawn to her; he felt that if he didn’t follow the string of destiny that would lead him to her, life would lose this new vibrant burst of colour.

“Excuse me,” he said loudly as he made his way through the dancing crowd.

“Hey!” Jun yelled in exuberant greeting, when Nino passed by, “why aren’t you dancing?”

“Looking for someone,” Nino yelled back absent-mindedly, but Jun probably didn’t hear because of the deafening music shaking their bones. Not like Nino cared…

Our hearts were ringing…
In the key that our souls were singing…

Just then, Nino saw an unrecognisable guy, dressed in every way a fashion-conscious youth, approach her. He pressed a hand onto the wall and towered over her, thus trapping her in an intimidating force, and Nino despised the scheming grin he plastered on his fake face.

The smile on the woman’s face momentarily disappeared, replaced by a hint of fear and indifference as the guy leaned closer and offered a drink. The guy was going to trick her to the bed. That kicked Nino in full testosterone-infusion, and he felt a strong desire to kick that man’s undeserving bum away from her. That strong desire also included a need to protect her.

“Want a drink? No one can resist a Bloody Mary…” Nino heard the guy say in a slick voice. He leaned closer and painfully closer and…

“There you are!” Nino called out, and almost ran over in the last few steps to the duo. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” he breathed out, loud enough for the guy to hear.

The woman blinked in confusion, and wordlessly Nino winked. Then, he turned around and placed himself protectively between the woman and the a-hole. Nino was almost a good 20cm shorter than the guy, but his dark and insinuating expression was enough to make the guy shudder.

“Trying to steal my girl?” Nino inquired in his deathly tone.

Frightened, the guy shook his head vigorously and stepped backwards before turning around and running off with his tail between his legs. As soon as the guy was gone, Nino threw his head back in laughter.

“That guy really needs to get some balls, if he’s scared of puny little me,” he exclaimed. Gone was the don’t-mess-with-me air, and Nino was now smiling brightly. His heart also remembered to thump harder and faster against his ribcage, sending warm jolts around his body.

“Arigatou, for saving me…” the woman murmured, bowing her head to show her gratitude.

Nino waved his hand airily. “I never hesitate to save a damsel in terrible distress,” he grinned, although inwardly he was figuratively sucking in his breath. She was so much more beautiful up close, and now he could clearly see that an innocent sparkle glittered in her soft eyes. God, she was so beautiful.

“I’m really sorry to trouble you,” she apologised quickly, “just that… it’s my first time here. My friend brought me on a girls’ night out but I don’t know where she is now…”

“Probably trying to get her hands on Jun somewhere…” Nino muttered, unable to suppress a wicked grin.

“Sorry, you were saying?”

“Ah! Nothing!” he quickly refuted. “Anyways, where’s the fun when there’s no one to show you how to enjoy yourself here? Your friend should be ashamed of herself, abandoning you on your own. By the way, I’m Nino. You’re…?”

“Kiyo,” she introduced herself, and she bowed again.

Sharp tingles ran under Nino’s skin as he softly repeated her name on his lips, to which Kiyo blushed furiously. It was a pretty name, Kiyo… and he smiled.

“Ano ne, can I ask why you’re not dancing, when you’re right beside the dance floor?” he asked amiably, his lips curled in mischief.

Kiyo blushed deeper under Nino’s watchful gaze, and anxiously she replied, “I guess I was too caught up in the song. I really love it, even though it’s an old song…”

My thoughts are with you…
Holding hands with your heart to see you…
Only blue talk and love,
Remember how we knew, love was here to stay…

“Say… do you want to dance with me?”

It was a sudden request. Nino wasn’t even aware that he had blurted out those words out of instinct, until he realised the registered shock in her face. Slowly, she turned her chin up and peered directly into his caramel eyes, trying to find a hidden message behind them.

“…I’d love to,” Kiyo finally replied, and grinned.

Nino’s heart could’ve stopped its workings with the pouring love overflowing his heart. Without another word, he had already led her through the crowd to the middle of the dance floor, and their bodies fell into a calm, rhythmic gyration to the song. He had his arms around her waist to hold her close; to him, it was a feeling of such warmth as though he had done this for a long time.

They continued to dance and laugh in delight in their own world, where there was only the two of them gazing at each other and singing to that song of September, which wove the beginning of an entwined destiny.

Say, do you remember,
Dancing in September?
Golden dreams were shiny days…

~