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As one of his best friends, Aiba couldn’t really keep the wedding a secret from Kazama-pon (besides the fact that he was already DYING to tell someone about it, and to talk about all the little details he and Sho-chan were preparing). Not that Kazama wanted to know all the details… It had been exciting and interesting at first, but when Kazama started to receive messages at 3 AM asking about what kind of font and color would go better in the invitation cards, he seriously thought about ending their friendship.
But at last, the day before the announcement arrived, and Kazama couldn’t feel more relieved. He even felt generous enough to hear another of Aiba’s excited ramblings.
“And these are the chocolates we and Sho-chan are going to send to all TV stations and main newspapers. Pretty, right? Sho-chan has a good eye for this kind of stuff”.
Kazama took a look at the photo on his phone. Yeah, very elegant, as expected from one of the top idol groups in Japan, a.k.a., Arashi. However…
“Don’t you think it’s a bit… I don’t know, misleading?”
“Oh, you can be assured the chocolates taste as delicious as they look! I’m sure everyone will love it!”
“No, it wasn’t what I meant… Well, I know you guys decided to announce it together, but wouldn’t it be better to, maybe, give two presents instead of only one box?”
“We thought about it, but I think it gives more the idea that Arashi is a family, and that even the hiatus can’t break the bonds between us… Or something like that, Nino said it in a better manner, but I can’t recall the exact words.”
“Oh, it was NINO who suggested it?”
“Exactly”.
“...I see”.
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Nino, of course, knew about the whole situation - the Arashi members had been informed one month earlier about the engagement, and they were there for both festivities.
As the first Arashi member to get married, he was very happy with the event. He could attest that marriage wasn’t an easy thing, but the joy of finally being with the person you loved surpassed any hardships that could arise in the process… He knew that Aiba-shi and Sho-san deserved to feel the same happiness he felt when he finally tied the knots with Ayako-san.
It had been very funny, however, when Sho and Aiba reunited the members and communicated their intentions. Ohno, as always, kept a serene face, but smiled a bit wider when hearing the news. But Nino had to use all his strength to contain the laughter when seeing how Jun’s expressions slowly changed from surprise, to confusion, to shock, to awkwardness, to acceptance, and finally, rejoice.
“Congratulations, guys! When is the wedding going to be?”
“In a month. Our fiancées wanted to be here as well, but they both had things about the wedding to solve…”
“Your fiancées? Your female fiancées?” was Jun’s question, and Nino had the opportunity to once again witness the myriad of feelings going through Jun’s face in an instant. Nino had to hide his face in Ohno’s shoulder, struggling to contain his giggles.
Sho and Aiba didn’t notice, probably too absorbed in their own emotions.
“For a moment, I thought… To each other... Well, of course not… No, never mind”, Jun whispered in a low voice.
“And we want to make an official announcement some days later”, Sho continued. “We talked about it, and decided to do it on the same day. It’s going to be easier for you guys as well, since the journalists are probably going to ask for your statements, so you won’t need to go through all the questions twice”.
An idea occurred to Nino in the depths of his own villainous mind. Ah, how funny it would be if…
“As the most experienced member here - at least, when it comes to marriage -, may I give some suggestions?"
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NEWS ZERO had just ended, and Sho called AIba for the nth time that week.
“Are you a pile of nerves too? I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight. It’s nervousness, but it’s a happy type of tension… Like that 30 seconds before a Live, if you know what I mean”.
“I know! Man, I wonder how people are gonna react”, exclaimed Aiba, who sounded even more like a child high on sugar than he already sounded normally.
“My manager said he already sent the box of chocolates to the main vehicles of communication. And the official statement is gonna be delivered in a few hours.”
“Oh, everything is gonna work alright! And I know we already talked about this, but those chocolates are amazing, I was even thinking about ordering a box just for myself. Kazama-pon looked impressed too, although he said it could be ‘a bit misleading’. Do you know what he could mean about that?”
“No idea”, replied a tired, but satisfied Sho, relieved that they were finally leaking the news tomorrow.
It was just in the middle of the morning, when he saw that #samesexmarriage was trending on Twitter just after #sakuraiba, that he understood the meaning behind Kazama’s words.
“Oh. Yes. I guess it IS a bit misleading”.
(“Why didn’t you tell me anything?” asked Sho to his wife.
“Well, I was going to say something, but Nino messaged me and said ‘trust me, it’s funnier this way’. And he is right, I’m going through my Twitter feed and all the memes are HILARIOUS”).
It took a bit longer for Aiba to realize the repercussions of their announcement - and not in the way he expected.
It was around lunch time when he finally had time to stop and go through the messages on his phone. Most of them were the traditional congratulatory votes, but what first caught his attention was Ueda-kun’s message.
“Aiba-sempai, you better make Aniki happy. Congratulations to you both. As the partner of my beloved aniki, you can count on me for anything from now on. If you two decide to adopt a child, you can always come for me to help; I will make sure to ask Nakamaru and Kame to help take care of the baby.”
At first, he thought it was a joke - Ueda’s sense of humor was as unique as his personality, it seemed.
However, when Aiba read Kishi-kun, Hirano Sho, Massu, Yasuda and Maruyama Ryuhei messages - which contained sentences like “it’s surprising, but also very brave of you both to assume your relationship”, or “I’ll be the first in line to support your marriage, no matter what anyone says. LOVE WINS”, or “I NEVER suspected, I didn’t think relationships inside Arashi were allowed, but I’m glad you decided to assume it!” -, he started suspecting that MAYBE, just maybe, some people were thinking that Sho and him were marrying each other…
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When the day ended, both Aiba and Sho were laughing at the situation, seeing the confused tweets, the memes, the jokes and all the headlines that practically screamed: “Sakurai Sho and Aiba Masaki announce their marriage TO THEIR RESPECTIVE PARTNERS” (“and not to each other”, was the implied text). But most importantly, it was nice to see that the majority of the comments on the Internet were very much positive and almost endearing. They knew it could be shocking for some fans, but few hateful things were being said.
“I guess we can say it was a success,” said Aiba over the phone.
“Well, not entirely a success, since some people believed we were marrying each other, but even so, it was less chaotic than I thought.”
“Hahaha, true.. wait, I’m gonna hang out, I think my wife is calling my name…”. My wife. Two simple words he was so glad to finally be able to say out loud...
“Bye, Aiba-kun… Congratulations, once again”.
“Bye, Sho-chan! Congratulations to you too!”
Aiba rushed to the entrance of the house, where his wife was standing holding a box; for a moment, he thought she was crying, but in fact she was laughing very hard.
“What’s the matter?”
“Masaki… For heaven’s sake, what am I supposed to do with those things?!” She then pushed the box towards Aiba, who peeked at its content, very confused.
“What… Oh, it must be Nino’s work, that brat…”
Inside the box, there were at least a dozen plates with a photo of Sakurai and Aiba printed on them… And not a simple photo, it was a very cheesy and colorful edited photo of Sakurai and Aiba together, hugging each other, surrounded by flowers, hearts and sparkles. The words “congratulations to the newlyweds”, in a bright pink color, framed the image.
Aiba hold one of the plates, took a photo and sent it to Arashi LINE group.
AIBA: “Niiiiino I know it was you! Don’t you have other things to do? My wife is going to pass out sooner or later from laughing too much.”
SHO: “OH MY GOSH, does this mean I’m gonna receive one of those plates as well?”
NINO: “Not one, Sho-chan, a dozen. Yes, it was me, and yes, I have better things to do, but since I made Nakamaru edit the picture, I didn't have to expend much energy on this.”
JUN: “Nino, you are a brat. And stop making Nakamaru do these side works for you”
OHNO: “Oh, this is hilarious.” He then followed his text with lots of clover emojis.
Aiba smiled.
Some things change for the better. But other things, thankfully, never change.
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BONUS:
“I bet 2000 yen that all members of Sexy Zone are going to believe that Aiba-shi and Sho-chan are marrying each other.”
“I bet 3000 yen Shori won’t believe it, but all the rest will”.
“Shouldn’t we be filming for Jyanino Channel today?”.
“This is work too, Yamada”, “no, it’s not”.
“Okay, I finished the collage you asked me, Nino. What do you think?”.
“Hmmmmm. I don’t know… I think it has to be more flashy. Put more hearts here, maybe some birds over here, and highlight the blush on their faces, please, Nakamaru”.
“And what are you gonna do with this picture, Nino-san?”
“Oh, I know someone who can print this on dishware in a very short period of time, and for a modic price… I had initially thought about doing some teacups, but plates are nicer, I can print it in a better resolution…”
“You are terrible, Ninomiya-kun”.
“I know”.