Chapter 11

Noriko had been realised from the hospital after 2 weeks, however, she was too nervous to leave her apartment, she was even more scared to turn up to work as that was where the incident happened, and even though she enjoyed working there, she had to quit.

Hanako was sad when Noriko told her about her decision, however she understood her reasons. Both Hanako and Usagi visited frequently, trying to slowly urge Noriko to come out of the apartment. Noriko relented a little when she realised that she couldn’t do all of her school work at home and had to go to Uni. Nino and Jun however, refused to let her go alone, or go home by herself. Not that Noriko was complaining, she didn’t really want to go anywhere at the moment by herself anyway.

A few more weeks past and before she knew it, it was November, meaning Ohno’s & Aiba’s birthdays were just around the corner, not to mention Christmas too. She had been looking for a job for a while now, this time she wanted something more related to her studies, so she was looking for part time jobs in Fashion companies and jobs in clothes retailers.

Luckily, She was getting better with the walking outside alone, although she was still nervous, she could now walk around outside by herself during the day but as soon as it is starts getting even a little dark, she was on some form of transport home. Jun still preferred it if she went out with someone if she was going out for the whole day, and it took some major convincing from both herself and the rest of Arashi (even though Nino was leaning more on Jun’s side of the argument) to let her start going out by herself in the first place.

She had decided to venture out into the wonder world that was Shibuya, to both look for a job and to look for Ohno’s and Aiba’s birthday present. She knew that Nino was off work today, as Aiba wouldn’t shut up about how unfair it was yesterday evening, and decided that she would surprise him later by turning up on his doorstep. She wasn’t worried that he wouldn’t be in, as she knew Nino would more than likely either be sleeping or playing one of his consoles.

Noriko giggled to herself when the thought of Nino sleeping whilst playing a game came into her head, making her get odd looks from the other passengers on the train. She got off at Shibuya and Walked out of the station, and across the road to Shibuya 109. It was more for looking for Jobs and browsing for herself then for shopping for Aiba and Ohno.

Sighing when she didn’t see anything around the shops, either Job related or something she liked, she moved on over to 109Men’s for the birthday presents. She immediately found something for Ohno, Fish related of course, but decided it wasn’t enough, and no matter how much she tried she couldn’t find something for Aiba that she would want to give him. “All right… I’m a freakin seamstress for a reason… or at least I will be a fully qualified one when I get my degree, I’m almost certain that I can make something that ill like enough to give to them both!” She muttered to herself, half because she actually wanted to make something (she hadn’t been on her sewing machine in a while) and half because she was bored of wandering through endless clothes shops.

She Went back to the station and made her way to her favourite Fabric shop, which was at the bottom of Nakano Broadway, Picked up some suitable fabrics for what she was thinking of making and left to go to Ohno’s and Nino’s apartment. After a relatively non eventful trip, (minus the random drunk who decided to randomly chat to strangers about Rabbits.)She arrived at the apartment. She knocked on the door and waited for Nino to answer. When there was still no reply for a while she knocked again and had the same result. Sighing she took her phone out from her pocket and dialled his number. The phone was picked up within the first few moments of it ringing, with a tired voice coming through the speaker

“Noriko-chan, Daijoubu desu ka?” Noriko giggled, Nino’s voice was extremely cute when tired “Hai I’m okay, did I wake you up?” she asked with a small grin still on her face. “No some baka  was ringing my doorbell, I was just getting up to answer the door.” Noriko’s grin widened even further, and she pressed the doorbell again “Ah sounds like they’re getting impatient, I’ll call you back in a little while.” She said trying to stop herself from giggling down the phone “’Kay. Speak to you in a bit.” He said hanging up the phone.

Noriko quickly popped her phone back into her pocket, ducked underneath the peephole and waited for Nino to open the door with a grin on her face. Although she felt slightly bad for waking Nino up, hearing Nino’s grumpy & cute sleepy voice was totally worth it. The door opened to reveal Nino, Topless with just a pair of jogging bottoms on staring at her with startled surprise. “Noriko-chan?!” Blushing Noriko diverted her gaze and nodded “Yup~ I went out shopping today and thought I would give you a surprise visit….Sorry about waking you up…” She said stifling her laughter with her hand.

Nino blushed and shook his head “no it’s fine, eh… the apartment’s kinda messy but come in.” Noriko nodded following the man into the apartment, bags in tow. Taking off her shoes and leaving her bags by the door, she followed Nino into the apartment, telling the man to sit down and she make some coffee and tea. Nino didn’t complain and did what he was told, mainly because he was still half asleep. When Noriko came back over to the sofa area she saw Nino had fallen asleep sitting up. Noriko giggled, placing the drinks on the coffee table, she the TV, lowering the volume so that it wouldn’t waken up the man, then sat down next to him.

Sipping her tea, Noriko looked at Nino’s sleeping face and frowned at the dark circles under his eyes. The group had just finished promoting their Time concert DVD Release and one of their variety shows had just ended and they had just announced they were about to start another. Throw in their regular TV appearances and Magazine Shoots and the incident with Yukio, it’s no wonder Nino was so tired. Noriko brought her free hand down to Nino’s hair it gently making sure not to wake him “Overworked yourself again, ne Kazu-kun? Baka…” she whispered softly with a fond smile on her face.

Over the past month she had begun to get closer to Nino, she was slightly scared of the fact too, She knew she was falling back in love with him, although she doubted she ever fell out of love with him to begin with, but she didn’t want things to turn out the way they did the first time they dated, so she kept up the close friend act. She had spoken to Usagi about the matter, half because she was her best friend, And Half because she was dating her other best friend who also happened to be part of Arashi.

“Noriko-chan, the past is in the past. He’s already apologised for his auctioned, and explained them. Not only that he’s more mature than he was back then, and above all else, Satoshi-kun says he talks about you a lot, too much for him not to like you too.” Was the answer Usagi had given her but even though she knew she really had nothing to worry about, she couldn’t help but worry.

She knew it was mainly based on the fact that it hurt so much last time he broke up with her, and she really didn’t want to go through that again, but she also knew what Usagi had said was right, Nino had grown up since then, he was much more Mature now, and she knew he would never do that to her again.

Sighing she looked down at Nino’s sleeping face again “Sukiyo Kazu-kun…” she whispered softly to the man leaning down to gently kiss his forehead. She sat there for a while just watching TV Dramas and the occasional Variety show, all the whilst Nino’s hair gently with her fingers. She didn’t know when it was she fell asleep too, but she was woken up by the front door opening.  First thing she noticed was that she was no longer sitting up and there was now a blanket placed over her, the second thing she noticed was that her head papered to be in someone’s lap.

Turning her head to look at the person she was using as a pillow, she blushed a little when she saw Nino looking down at her with a mischievous grin. “Here’s me thinking I was the tired one.” He said with a small chuckle. Noriko blushed and pouted “You probably sent me tiredness waves mentally or something.” Nino raised an eyebrow “Mental waves eh? No if I had a mental link with Noriko-chan I would be sending much more inappropriate things instead…” he said with a smirk.

Noriko blushed further, ‘is it me or is Nino flirting with me?’ Noriko thought to herself. Brushing it off as still being sleepy she noticed that it was starting to get dark out, making Noriko let out a sigh. Knowing there was no way in hell she was walking home now, not only because she didn’t want to but Nino wouldn’t let her. “Ne Nino? Is it okay if I stay here this evening? It’s just that… it’s getting rather dark out and…” Nino stopped her by placing a hand in her head like she had done to him earlier on during the day and ruffling it a bit. “Of course its fine Noriko-chan, Oh-chan will be home later, he said something about going to dinner with Kuroshino-san, so you can use my bedroom and I’ll take the sofa.” He said simply.

Noriko frowned, “The sofa? Demo you stayed with Toshi-kun last time I stayed round didn’t you?” Nino nodded and then smirked slightly, “Yup, however, whenever Oh-chan and Kuroshino-san go out to dinner, they usually come home together…and I’d rather not be the third wheel if you know what I mean.” Noriko couldn’t help but laugh at that statement, she probably should have been embarrassed at what Nino was insinuating but the mental image of Nino sitting by the edge of the bed pouting and whining like a dog whilst Ohno and Usagi cuddled in bed was too funny.  

Nino was confused as to why she was laughing, and as he was about to ask her she stopped and spoke “The why don’t you share with me? Your beds a double bed, it’s big enough for the both of us to fit ne?” Nino’s eyes widened, of all the things he was expecting Noriko to say, that wasn’t one of them. “Demo...” “Demo nothing Nino. I trust you, plus wouldn’t you rather be sleeping on a comfy bed than on this sofa, I can assure you it’s not all that comfortable…” Noriko said with a small grimace as she sat up, trying to get a kink out of her back.  Nino gave her a small look of sympathy,   he had that same kink when he woke up earlier on. He sighed mutely and nodded in agreement, knowing there was no way he was gonna win this, and he didn’t really particularly want to sleep on the sofa anyway.

Noriko stood up and stretched, and Nino watched as her t-shirt hiked up a little and showed off her milky skin on her stomach. Holding back a groan, He averted his gaze back to his paused game on the TV. Noriko walked around the Sofa and into the kitchen, knowing Nino and Ohno rarely cooked for themselves, and when they did, it was usually simple things like Onigiri or already made things.  She opened the fridge and was surprised to see it actually stocked up with food and not ready meals. “Eh…? You guys actually have food in here? Since when did you start cooking?” Noriko said in a teasing voice towards Nino, who had started playing his game again.

Nino let out a small chuckle “I Didn’t, But Kuroshino-san brought shopping with her last time she came, saying that she was fed up of the ready meals every time she came round so next time she’s cooking.” Noriko let a laugh from the kitchen “Sounds like Usa-chan~ hehe Soooo… seeing as Usa-chan’s not going to be here anytime soon, shall I make dinner?” She asked with a small blush on her face. Nino paused his game and looked over the back of the sofa to look at Noriko who was looking shyly in his direction. The last time Noriko had cooked for him was when they were dating and she had made him Bento’s when she could. HE could remember the effort she had put into the Bento’s for him and how good they tasted “Sure Noriko-chan, you want me to help?” he said back more calmly than he was feeling inside (if his heartbeat was any indication). Noriko’s face lit up with a cute smile as she nodded.

Nino turned back to his game and found a save point (always gotta save~ xD) before turning off the system and heading for the kitchen. Once he arrived, Noriko had already got out all the ingredients to make dinner, from the looks of things she was making hamburgers, which made Nino grin in anticipation. Noriko gave Nino some instructions, whilst she rushed around doing everything else. Currently she was trying to reach a sauce in one of the shelves in the kitchen but couldn’t quite reach. Nino turned around when he heard her struggling and chuckled lightly and walked up behind her and grabbed the bottle, placing it down in front of her. Noriko Gasped in surprise and turned around coming face to face with Nino.

She couldn’t help the blush that crept up onto her face “A-Arigatou Ni-Nino.” Nino smiled at her… then frowned, placing his arms either side of her, trapping her in front of him he looked at the woman “Nande? Why don’t you call me Kazu-kun anymore?” Noriko’s eyes widened in surprise at the question “Eh?” Nino’s frown didn’t move “You heard me.” She did hear, she was just shocked that he was asking. Her eyes dipped from his face slowly to the ground, “Because we’re not dating anymore Nino.” She said as calmly as she could. Nino thought about that for a second and then before he could stop himself the question flew right out of his mouth “Why aren’t we dating?” Noriko’s eyes diverted immediately from the ground to meet with Nino’s own shocked eyes.

Noriko took in a silent deep breath before speaking “You want us to date again?” she questioned. Nino blushed and looked to the side but still answered, “Noriko-chan, Ever since we broke up the first time, I’ve never stopped loving you, even while I was dating Nagasawa, it was just to try to get my mind off of you, which turned out to be the second biggest mistake in my life, The first being breaking up with you the first time.” He announced to the girl in front of him. Leaning forward a bit, he whispered in her ear “Omae ga suki da Riko-chan.” 

Noriko was sure he could hear her rapid heartbeat. He wanted them to date again. He never stopped loving her. These two thoughts were flying around her head like a wildfire. As soon as she calmed down enough to focus on the man standing in front of her, she noticed him staring at her waiting for an answer. She knew damn well if she tried to articulate anything at this particular moment, she would have failed big time. Instead she reached up to place her hands on the sides of his face and brought him down for a long awaited kiss.

When she kissed him,  Nino’s arms moved from the worktop to around her waist, bringing her closer to him. After a while they pulled away from the kiss and rested there foreheads together. “Were going to make it work this time Riko-chan. I promise.”

Noriko replied with a smile and a small “Hai….Kazu-kun.”

End Chapter 11

Short Sweet and Niji totally came on just when I got the spark to write that last part Twas totally meant to be <3~ xD Next up is the epilogue :D then onto the Sequal~

Oh and Kudo’s to those who know what drama I got the way Nino confessed to Noriko from~

[Ikemen Desu ne xD]