Title: The Week Matsumoto Jun Got His First Gray Hairs
Pairing: Jun/Ohno/Sho (in all possible combinations)
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Aiba Masaki, “genius” wizard and “researcher,” has accidentally summoned a strange god from another realm. As the god wreaks havoc throughout magical Japan, Matsumoto Jun, a proud member of the Tokyo Magical Defense Unit, almost gets gray hair trying to catch him; his lover, Sakurai Sho just won’t stay out of danger no matter what Jun says; and his other lover, Ohno Satoshi just has to stay in Kyoto for a week while his two lovers try to restore order. Well, at least Jun is trying.
Warnings: Barebacking.
A/N: Hi leiva21! Your prompts were so open, so I tried to combine them together! I hope you enjoy this crazy (but fluffy?) story with your favorite OT3 (I just couldn’t decide which pair to write about)! I had a lot of fun writing this, despite the pain of having to look over such a long story. This is my first time writing for an exchange in the Arashi fandom, so I hope I don’t disappoint! Thanks to my beta, whom I can’t give enough thanks to. You seriously saved me.


I’ll be gone for a few days for a commission in Kyoto.

Don't get into trouble, both of you.

Love,

Satoshi

Jun sighed as he reread the small note for the third time before putting it back on the dresser. He's always out of town these days. Jun grumbled as he turned his head to look at the sleeping figure beside him.

Sho was still dead to the world, curled up in a thin blanket that only covered the lower half of his body. Jun spent a minute admiring the strong muscles in his arms, and the smooth curve of his lover’s back. Jun grimaced as he thought about having to clean the sheets up later: the three of them had more than a little fun last night and Jun had immediately fallen asleep after they reached round three. Though, I suppose Sho-kun will be the one feeling most of it, he thought with a smirk.

Sighing to himself again, Jun pushed himself up to a sitting position, trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. He stretched his arms, letting out a small whine before dropping his arms to pull the covers aside. He hated mornings. Grumbling under his breath, Jun made his way to the bathroom to get ready for work.

When he was finished, he headed back to the bedroom to pull on his work uniform. Sho was finally awake, resting against the headboard as he rubbed his eyes.

“Satoshi-kun left already?” Sho mumbled, blinking up blearily as Jun made his way to his own closet— separate from Ohno’s and Sho’s shared one— to grab his uniform.

“Yeah, he left a note on the dresser,” Jun replied as he pulled off his t-shirt.

“Hmm…” Sho scooted to the other side of the bed and picked up the blue sticky note. As his partner was reading the note left behind by their other lover, Jun pulled on his slacks and buttoned it up. He checked his bangs in the mirror before taking out his wand and muttered a simple styling spell on his hair.

When he turned around, Sho was looking at him in amusement, still huddling under the covers that he had pulled up to cover the rest of his body.

“What?” Jun scowled, trying to conceal his embarrassment. His boyfriends were always teasing him about his vanity. It wasn’t his fault that he wanted to look good, was it? Sho grinned and shook his head before yawning again. “Get dressed,” Jun ordered as he closed the door of his closet and walked towards the doorway of their bedroom. “I’m going to make breakfast.”

Sho nodded and sent him a soft smile. “Thanks, Jun.”

Jun returned the smile with his own before walking out the room. When he got to the kitchen, Jun immediately headed for the fridge. He pulled out some eggs and a pack of sausages. “This will have to do for today…” Jun said with a frown and shut the fridge with his foot.

When Sho finally made his way downstairs wearing a neatly pressed dress shirt, black slacks, and a red and blue-striped tie that Jun had bought for him on his birthday. Sho’s eyes lit up as he made his way towards the kitchen island. Sho and Ohno both loved to eat, often going out for dinner together if Jun wasn’t able to come home from work early to cook for them on busy evenings.

Jun enjoyed cooking and spinning new recipes in his head when he had the time. The fact that he had two very willing people to try his culinary experiments was always a plus. Jun tried to make them breakfast and dinner as much as he could, loving how they would always shower him with compliments while they were stuffing their faces. Well, one of them is good enough I guess, Jun thought as Sho took a seat at one of the three bar stools they bought for the kitchen island. “It’s just us today,” he commented as Sho opened the rice cooker. He was still grumpy that Ohno was going to be away again for the next three days— Ohno wasn’t home often enough.

Sho felt the same about Ohno’s job, but he didn’t voice it like Jun. While Sho did agree with Jun that it would be nice if Ohno found jobs or accepted commissions closer to home more often (or even change jobs, but that was a can of worms that he didn’t want to open), Sho knew that Ohno’s job was something the man was very passionate about, and so, he kept his thoughts to himself. Besides, if it wasn’t for Ohno’s massive earnings from the magical portraits he did for the families who commissioned them, they definitely wouldn’t be able to live in a nice house like this one.

“It’s probably a small one this time,” Sho said, placing the fresh bowl of white rice in front of Jun’s spot. Jun slipped onto the bar stool beside him and slid the bowl closer to him. “If it’s a few days, it’s probably not a large painting.”

“Probably,” Jun grumbled as he muttered a small, itadakimasu, before picking up a sausage octopus. “I don’t have any problems with his job, but I hate how he always has to go out of town for them.”

“Well, he is one of the most talented wizard painters around. He may even be one of the best.” Sho popped an entire sausage octopus in his mouth.

Jun frowned as he chewed his food. “I know, but I just wish he was home more often.”

Sho bumped shoulders with Jun. “You’re cheery this morning,” he joked. Jun rolled his eyes at him and shoved a bunch of rice in his mouth.

“Shut it,” Jun replied, without heat in his tone. “It’s not even eight in the morning yet.” He hid a smile behind his bowl of rice when Sho let out a light chuckle beside him.

Once they were finished with breakfast and grabbed their belongings for work, the both of them headed outside to the apparition point. Just as Jun was about to leave, Sho grabbed his elbow and looked up at him with big doe eyes.

“Jun!” he sing songed cheerfully. Jun sent him a bemused look.

“Yes?”

“Can you apparate me to work today, pleaseee?” Sho wrapped an arm around Jun’s waist, squishing himself against the other man as he tried to make himself look adorable.

“Why can’t you do it yourself?” Jun asked in exasperation, but not making any move to push his boyfriend away. He was awfully cute like this. And it wasn’t like this was the first time he had made the request either. In fact, Sho had asked Jun to apparate him to work for the past week already. Jun had no idea what Sho was trying to do, but still, he secretly liked the fact that he was dropping his boyfriend off to work every morning. It made things seem more… domestic, something that Jun craved for after a very long day at work.

“You see,” Sho started, and Jun could already hear the gears grinding in his lover’s head as he tried to come up with an excuse to get Jun to apparate him to work— not that Jun wouldn’t, because he would. “I need to conserve my brain power today, and work is just so busy these days, you know? Gotta save my magical reserves too, to catch that big scoop!” Sho gave him one of those shit-eating grins, one that Jun often wanted to smack off his face.

Jun sighed and wrapped his arm around Sho’s waist. Sho immediately held onto him tightly. “You know,” Jun said while he made a mental list in his head to see if he had everything he needed. “You don’t have to make an excuse.” And with that, he spun on his heel and the two of them disappeared with a loud crack.

The couple appeared again in front of a tall brick building. Sho slowly removed himself from Jun, giving him a sheepish smile. He opened his mouth to say something but Jun was already directing his gaze somewhere else.

“What the hell is that?” Jun asked, staring at something behind him. Sho turned around and saw white smoke coming out of one of the apartment building windows. “Is Masaki up to some stupid shit again?” Jun sighed as he rubbed his temples in frustration.

“It’s probably some weird experiment,” Sho said, brushing the matter aside. Their friend always got like this when he wasn’t out and about doing his top secret wizard stuff for the Ministry.

“I can't believe he's a ministry employee,” Jun said in exasperation as the smoke finally cleared. “He does all these experiments, which I'm sure half aren't even allowed… and he works in a job where he's not permitted to tell us anything about it.”

“I'll figure it out someday!” Sho declared in a serious tone. “He can't hide it from us forever.”

Jun snapped his gaze to him and shook his head. “No,” he said sternly, ignoring the pout Sho was giving him. “I already told you: Masaki can't tell you what his job is. Anyways, you're going to be late.”

Sho cursed as he checked the time on his watch. “Shit! You're right!” He gave Jun a kiss on the cheek, grinning at the man’s flustered expression before running off towards the building. “Thanks Jun! See you at dinner!” He called over his shoulder.

Jun watched his lover go with fond exasperation. He gave Aiba’s apartment one last curious glance before spinning in his heel and disappearing.

When Jun arrived at his office, choruses of greetings were thrown at him. Jun returned them with a nod of his head and briskly made his way towards his office.

Throwing his robe on his chair, Jun took a seat and looked at the pile of paper on his desk. He hated paperwork— it was boring and monotonous and Jun would rather be out in the field with his team. Unfortunately, when he became a lieutenant, Jun was swamped with paperwork that no one told him about, and he spent half of his work days filling out forms and looking at requests from the unit.

As he picked up a request form, there was a knock on his door. Jun looked up and saw that it was the head of the department, Nagase Tomoya.

“Matsumoto,” Nagase greeted as he entered the office. Jun stood up and gave him a bow.

“Head, what can I do for you today?” Jun asked as the man approached him with a stack of papers.

“I need you to go and make an arrest today. None of the other teams can do this. I trust you will get the job done, boy.”

Jun glared at him. “You do know I’m 33 years old, right?”

“Who cares about a number, Matsumoto!” Nagase boomed with a laugh. “Get to it, Lieutenant.” He placed another stack of papers on Jun’s desk before walking out of the office.

Jun rolled his eyes before looking down at the arrest warrant on the desk. “Huh,” he said as he skimmed through the details. “Kitagawa, eh?” Jun pulled out his wand and spelled his robe to fly into his hand. Folding the document up, Jun raised his wand and sent out an alarm that only his team could hear. He apparated on the spot.

Jun appeared again at the designated apparition point for his team. Everyone was already there, talking amongst themselves before falling silent at Jun’s appearance.

“Morning everyone,” Jun greeted. Shun, one of his closest friends, patted him on the shoulder.

“Jun! What's up?”

“Seems we finally got Kitagawa,” Jun replied, “old man has been hiding in his attic the whole time.”

“No shit!” Shun chuckled. “Well, that should make it easier.”

Jun snorted. “If it was that easy, do you think they would send us to do this? Don’t let your guard down. That goes for all of you,” he added, turning towards the rest of his team. “Kitagawa Johnny isn’t one of the most notorious dark wizards for nothing.”

“Yes, Lieutenant!~” Toma replied lazily. “We know, we know.”

“Lieutenant, you don’t have to remind us every time,” Eikura Nana, another member of his team, pointed out. Jun sent her a surprised look.

“You got a haircut?”

She grinned and patted her bangs down. “Yeah, what do you think? I got the length chopped off too!” She turned her head so that he could see the short ponytail she was sporting. He raised an eyebrow at her in amusement.

“Cute,” he offered, “but I think I like your bangs a little longer.”

Nana rolled her eyes and waved him off with her hand. “It doesn’t get in my way when we’re in the field.”

“That is pretty important,” Jun said with a chuckle as she smirked back at him.

“So, what’s up, Lieutenant? What’s our mission today?” Eita finally asked as he came to stand beside Shun.

Jun cleared his throat and brushed down his uniform. “Right. We got a little distracted here.” He clapped his hands to get all their attention. “Listen up guys, we have to make an arrest today! We’re going after Kitagawa.”

“About time!” Riisa piped up from behind Toma. Jun sighed as he saw what crazy hair accessory she was wearing today.

“Do you have to wear a tiger print hair clip on the mission?” he asked her in exasperation. Why was his team so difficult sometimes? “That’ll give you away.”

Riisa rolled her eyes at him. “You always complain about it, but nothing has ever gone wrong with me wearing funky hairclips.”

“I think they’re cute!” Toma exclaimed. Riisa sent him a flirtatious smile.

“Thanks, Toma-kun!”

“Where’s Jin?” Nana asked, looking around for their curly haired team member. “He’s usually at debriefings.”

“He has to stay home today. Got a cold,” Jun said as he took out his wand from his pocket. “Okay, we need to do a team apparition. Everyone hold onto each other’s shoulders.”

“Are you apparating all of us?” Shun asked as he placed a hand on Jun’s shoulder. Jun nodded and pushed a stray lock of hair away from his face.

“Yeah, I think it’s better if I did.”

“Don’t splinch us, lieutenant!” Riisa teased as she held onto Nana’s shoulder. Jun turned his head to look behind him. His team was standing in a single line, all holding onto the shoulder of the person in front of them. He nodded when he saw that everyone’s wands were out.

“Good. I’m going now!” he announced before turning on his heel.

The six of them disappeared, leaving a cloud of dust behind.


It was going to be the scoop of the century, Sho could feel it.

This would be even better than when Kitagawa Johnny was revealed to be a dark magician who had been sucking the youth out of his unsuspecting “apprentices” during over two millenniums, all thanks to Sho’s investigation. Sure, he almost got killed during that one— Jun made sure to remind him at least once a week, not that Sho was keeping a count— but he got the exclusive and a pretty nice bonus that paid for Jun’s new pan (and now Jun would never have to find out that he burned the old one).

His current target wasn’t remotely as dangerous as Kitagawa though. Nobody in their right mind would call Aiba Masaki a dangerous man.

Okay, no, maybe his spells were dangerous sometimes. Sho just hoped he would make it out of Aiba’s place in a piece this time. He grimaced thinking about Jun and Satoshi’s reaction when he came back home after “playing” with the result of Aiba’s experiments with interspecies reproduction. Dragon-unicorn babies were cuter in Sho’s imagination than in real life… and they also bit less.

Taking a deep breath, Sho knocked on Aiba’s door. He knew that Aiba was inside; he could hear the noise coming from the living room and Aiba’s loud chatter.

Wait.

Chatter? Sho frowned. Nobody ever visited Aiba except Sho, whenever he was trying to get some information for his next article. Aiba had many friends, but most of them were afraid of his “research”. None of them was sure of what exactly Aiba was researching, not even Sho who had been trying to find out for years. All of them had seen the explosions and the strange creatures chasing Aiba around town though. That killed most people’s curiosity about Aiba’s job.

Sho wasn’t most people. He was the star journalist of the Supernova Post, the boldest reporter in Japan, an intrepid and adventurous man.

And he happened to know that Jun wouldn’t be back to his office until late. Nobody could stop him.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, Sho knocked on the door again. No response. That’s strange! he thought as he tried to listen for any sound of movement at the other side of the door. He continued knocking for a while, until he got impatient with the lack of response and decided to apparate inside. If Aiba was chatting with whoever was visiting him, it wouldn’t be that bad to apparate in his house, would it?

When he appeared inside, however, he started worrying about his friend.

Aiba had never been very tidy. Back when they were in school, the room they shared was the messiest one in their dorm. The current state of Aiba’s living room was bad, even for Sho’s standards. His books were thrown all over the floor, and there were some suspicious dark spots on the floor. An explosion? It would make sense. They did see some white smoke coming out of Aiba’s building earlier that morning. Aiba, what the hell did you do now? Sho grumbled and made his way towards Aiba’s study. The corridor was even worse than the living room. All of Aiba’s precious portraits were no longer hanging on the wall. The frames were broken, and there was broken glass all over the floor.

“Masaki? MASAKI!” Sho hollered, hoping that his friend would reply. “Masaki!”

Something crashed on the floor inside Aiba’s study. Then Aiba started cursing while someone laughed. “You are so clumsy,” the other person said. Sho didn’t recognize the voice, but it seemed to be a young man. A new friend? An assistant? Whoever it was, he was having a mighty great time making fun of Aiba instead of helping him with whatever kept falling on the floor.

The door opened a moment later. Sho almost couldn’t see Aiba’s figure through the thick smoke coming out of the study. Aiba’s hair was pointing in all directions, and it was… green? His clothes were dirty and ragged, and he smelled like he had poured a jug of wine over himself.

“The hell happened here?” Sho asked, swatting at the smoke and coughing.

“Nothing!” Aiba replied. The corners of his lips were twitching, and he was fidgeting. He’s lying! “I swear it’s nothing, Sho-chan!”

“Really?” Sho narrowed his eyes at Aiba, arms folded across his chest. “Then I suppose you don’t mind if I take a look inside your study?”

“NO!” Aiba slammed the door, blocking the access to it with his body. “It’s… it’s really untidy in there.”

Sho snorted. “Have you seen my study? It can’t be that bad!”

“Sho-chan,” Aiba stared at him with a serious expression. “I really cannot let you in, I’m sorry.”

In all their years of friendship, Sho had never heard Aiba speak with such firmness. He almost sounded angry. “Okay,” Sho said, accepting his defeat for now.

“Thank you,” Aiba let out a sigh of relief. He fished his wand out of his pocket, waved it a couple of times and muttered a quick spell. In one second, everything including his hair was back to normal. “See? It was no big deal! Nothing that the almighty Masaki.com can’t solve!” He patted the pocket where he kept his wand proudly. It always amused Sho how Masaki attributed his abilities to his wand rather than to himself most of the time, as though he wasn’t the one controlling it.

“Want to get some lunch together now?” Aiba asked. “There’s this new soba place that I think you will love!”

“Is that okay? I thought you had a visitor...”

“Visitor? What are you talking about?” Aiba laughed nervously. “You know very well that nobody aside from you dares to step inside my apartment. Not even my mom visits me these days!”

“Yes, but I heard-”

“Hey! I just remembered… didn’t MatsuJun forbid you to come here after what happened with my dragonicorns?” Aiba arched an eyebrow at Sho. “Won’t he get mad at you if he finds out that you were here?”

“Maybe, but— ”

“Ah! Then we definitely have to get going! Wouldn’t want you to have any problems with MatsuJun! Now let’s go to that soba place! We can even send him a big bowl of soba to his office! Wouldn’t that be nice? Of course it would be nice! Let’s do it!”

Sho knew better than trying to talk to Aiba once he started rambling. He reluctantly followed his friend outside, doing his best to contain the urge to apparate inside Aiba’s studio and seeing for himself what exactly his friend was hiding this time.

As he made his way to the front door, he heard quick footsteps behind him. He whipped out his wand and turned to face the…

Nothing? Sho blinked. There wasn’t anyone or anything in the living room. But I’m sure that I heard footsteps! Did I imagine it?

“Sho-chan?” Sho snapped his head in direction to the door, where Aiba was waiting for him. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Sho replied, “it was just… no, nothing. Shall we get going?”

The restaurant was a few blocks away from Aiba’s place. Aiba suggested that they should walk there, since the weather was really nice and he didn’t think that apparating for such short distances was really justified. “It’s a waste of mental energy and magic, Sho-chan!” he exclaimed. “Besides, our bodies need the exercise! Have you seen those guys at the Ministry? They’re so fat and out of shape because they apparate everywhere! Even to the bathroom!”

“That’s true!” Sho laughed. “The other day my mother sent me a hologram complaining about my father’s weight gain.”

“Oh! Your parents are finally talking to you?” Aiba asked in surprise.

“Yeah. It seems they’ve accepted that their eldest son is dating not one, but two men at the same time. It only took them two years,” Sho said sarcastically.

“Well, that’s less than when that teacher outed you in high school,” Aiba commented.

It was true. Back when Sho was in his second year of high school, his homeroom teacher caught him making out with a sempai in an empty classroom. Two days later, Sho got an angry hologram from his father and was informed that he would be staying in the dorms for the remainder of his schooling. Things were difficult between them during the following five years.

“Let’s not talk about that.” Sho cringed, remembering how awkward the family dinners were during the summers. On his first day back home, his father had barely spoken to him. His mother had tried to intervene, but she had never been good at opposing what her husband said. As for Sho’s siblings, the two poor things were so scared that they barely lifted their eyes from their plates — not that Sho could blame them for it. It eventually got better, and it required a lot of effort from all of them to even hold a pleasant conversation without awkward silences or arguments between the two men. Still, Sho preferred not to think of that time at all.

Thankfully, they arrived at their destination in that moment. The restaurant was small, as Sho had expected. It had a quaint atmosphere, one that Aiba always preferred when he dined out. Sho liked the intimacy of it all— it was great for holding private conversations with other people without being disturbed by the other diners.

“So how’s work?” Sho asked when they were seated in a table in the corner. He eyed the handwritten menus on the walls. He was actually going to take on Aiba’s suggestion of sending Jun some food for lunch. He’ll probably be hungry after a mission.

“Work is good…” Aiba replied absentmindedly as he scanned the menus as well. “I still can’t tell you what I do though.”

Sho pouted. “Why not?” he whined.

“Because if I did, I would have to kill you,” Aiba said with a smirk. “And I would rather not do that since you’re one of my best friends, not to mention that your lovers would murder me afterwards. I value my life too much to mess with those two.”

“Aww, are you afraid of Jun?” Sho teased.

“I’m more afraid of Oh-chan, to be honest. Have you seen what he does with those paintings? Who knows what he could do to me!” Aiba’s eyes were so wide that Sho couldn’t contain his laughter. “He went to a school for gifted wizards after all. He probably knows a thousand spells to make someone die a very painful death!”

“Please.” Sho snorted. “Satoshi-kun isn’t interested in that kind of magic, and you know that very well.”

“Oh, really? Then why did he have that book on ancient battle spells in his library?”

“He had a book about that?” Sho asked in confusion. “Since when?”

Aiba’s eyebrows shot up. “You didn’t know? He let me borrow it for my research on—” he paused right before revealing too much and cleared his throat. “Anyway, he had it.”

“I thought that out of the three of us, only Jun was interested in battle spells,” Sho mumbled.

“Well, you were wrong!” Masaki exclaimed with a shake of his head. “Oh-chan seems to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to defense and offense spells. I remember that he even gave us instructions to do that simulation in Okinawa two months ago. General Nakai was very impressed with his abilities. He even offered Oh-chan a position as his advisor in case the peace treaty between Japan and South Korea didn't go well. It’s still under negotiation, but the army is already devising strategies for an eventual war between—”

“A war?!” Sho yelped.

Four people turned their way at the loud outburst. Sho merely gave them a weak nod and a smile in apology. “What do you mean a war?” Sho hissed as he leaned in closer to Aiba. “Is it really that bad? I thought that they had reached an agreement at last! So were they lying to us? Are the rumors that South Korea’s government is divided into two factions true then?”

Aiba groaned and buried his head in between his arms while Sho continued bombarding him with questions, as well as his hypothesis about said questions— funnily enough, he didn’t pause to let Aiba attempt to give him any answers. Eventually, when Sho’s face turned red because he spoke without even pausing, Aiba decided to stop him.

“Sho-kun, breathe! The food is here. Could you shut up for a moment?” Aiba asked, not unkindly.

“But the United Wizard Nations—!”

Aiba slammed his hands on the table. “Either you pick up those chopsticks and start eating, or I will call your dear boyfriend and let him know that you’re sticking your nose into classified affairs again!” Aiba said with a huff and crossed his arms “You don’t want him to arrest you, do you?”

“But the war…” Sho said sadly.

“May I remind you what happened last year?”

Sho pouted at him. “That wasn’t my fault!” he denied loudly, catching the attention of the other diners again. Sho paid no heed. “How was I supposed to know that those papers on your desk were classified?! Besides, no one really got killed, so I don’t see why I had to be in jail for a week!”

“Everything inside my apartment is classified, Sho-chan. MatsuJun was only following orders,” Aiba reminded him. He sounded so unlike himself whenever he talked about work matters, Sho thought as he looked at his friend’s serious gaze. It was scary, yet Sho’s curiosity about his friend’s job grew every time he heard him speak like that. Sho needed to know what his friend did.

The topic was dropped after that. Sho still didn't give up though. I'll find out eventually. By now, his undivided attention went to the steaming bowl of kake soba in front of him. It was so delicious that Sho didn’t hesitate to order another bowl right immediately after he devoured the first one). He had to send Jun a bowl of the soba, he thought as he dug into his food. Yeah, Jun would definitely appreciate it.

“More soba?” Aiba’s eyes widened when the waitress handed Sho a paper bag after they paid. “Sho-chan, isn’t that a bit excessive?”

“It’s not for me.” Sho rolled his eyes at Aiba. He took out his wand and sent the take-out to Jun’s office, placing a warming spell on it just in case Jun didn't return to his desk until late. “He hates it when he has to reheat food, and gets really cranky when he postpones his meals for too long. I’m doing all of us a favor here.”

Aiba chuckled and crossed his arms behind his head. “That’s clever, Sho-chan! If only you had known that when we were in high school! That would have saved us so much time!”

“I don’t think Jun’s attitude back then had anything to do with food!”

“You sure? He was cranky during most of the day, and he was so thin! You even said he looked like a bug because he wasn’t that tall, and his eyes looked huge!” Aiba let out a laugh at the memory.

“Yeah, I think that comment was one of the reasons why he hated me during high school,” Sho smirked. “That, and the fact that I always got better grades than him, even though I spent way less time studying.”

They continued reminiscing about their times as students as they made their way back to Aiba’s apartment. There were so many good memories— like the time they tried to make a paper boat big enough for the two of them, and they ended up catching a cold when it sunk in the cold waters of Tokyo Bay. Whether there was magic involved or not, Aiba’s experiments had always been weird, now that Sho thought about it.

Sho’s first non-hostile interaction with Jun was actually thanks to Aiba’s experiments. The last thing they had been expecting after their first two consecutive fails was that someone would offer to join them. But that was exactly what Jun did. He even contributed with ideas to rebuild the boat. Their rivalry didn’t end with that, but at least Jun didn’t consider Sho his mortal enemy anymore by the time they graduated.

“You never told me how you guys met again,” Aiba said, fumbling with his keys. Despite his earlier statements about “classified affairs,” he still let Sho tag along back to his apartment. Perhaps he would realize it later. Sho grinned to himself as Aiba told him to wait in the living room while he made some tea for the both of them.

“Didn’t Jun tell you about that?” Sho asked loudly, over the loud noises Aiba was making in the kitchen. His plan was to keep Aiba entertained while he took a look around. There had to be some useful information in the pile of papers stacked on top of Aiba’s coffee table. Sho eyed the papers curiously.

“He did, but I wanted to hear your version,” Aiba replied, “Jun tends to exaggerate some details…”

“Ugh, tell me about it!” Sho laughed. Bingo. He smirked when he skimmed through a document that had the Ministry’s crest on it. The Honorable Members of the blah, blah, blah… ugh, this looks like the kind of papers my father keeps in his office! Let’s see… there must be a section about Aiba’s specific field of research around here...

Sho felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He knew that Aiba was still in the kitchen. He could hear his friend’s voice. He had stopped paying attention to his surroundings since he started reading that document, so he couldn’t understand what Aiba was talking about. In any case, Aiba wasn’t in the living room.

“It must be my imagination,” Sho mumbled to himself. He picked up the paper that he had dropped to continue reading.

Another tap, this time on the opposite side. Sho jumped out of his seat and fell down on the floor with a small thud. He let out a tiny hiss of pain.

“Easy there,” a voice said silkily into his ear. A shiver went down Sho’s spine when he felt someone’s warm breath tickling his skin. He turned immediately at the direction of the voice but found himself still alone.

“What—” Sho continued looking around, but he didn’t see anything. Or anyone.

“You’re slow.”

The voice started laughing. It was then that Sho recognized the sound. He had heard the same laughter when he arrived to Aiba’s apartment earlier. Who the heck is it? Why can’t I see them?! Sho groaned in frustration as he continued looking around the room frantically but to no avail.

“Boo!”

A face appeared merely centimeters apart from his. It was a young man with black hair and pale skin. His eyes were looking straight into Sho’s. It would have been almost normal… if only the face wasn’t floating in the room without a body.

“So you’re the famous Sho-chan,” the young man said in amusement. The head circled Sho, floating up and down. There was a wide smile on the guy’s face.

Sho wanted to scream. “Wh-Wh-W… W-Who…?” His voice came out as a pathetic little squeak. The head burst out laughing.

“You may call me Nino,” he replied. Then his facial features started changing. His hair became longer and changed into a bright yellow color before going back to its previous state. Two large horns protruded from his head, and his eyes changed from light brown to a fiery red. “Nice to meet you,” Nino said with a voice that made Sho’s blood run cold, revealing a set of large fangs as he smiled again.

Sho had never apparated as fast as he did in that very moment.


“I’ll get the report to you as soon as possible, sir.”

Jun bowed at his Head Captain before turning around and walking out of the office. He sighed as he stared at the large stack of papers in his hand. “Why is there always so much paperwork?” Jun grumbled to himself as he made his way back to his office.

The arrest had been a complete success. Jun had been worried that they would face some problems locating the man, as he was very good at illusions and tricks, but Riisa had been able to sniff him out thanks to her skill and mastery in location spells. They had been able to apprehend Kitagawa within three hours of their mission, and Jun sent the rest of his team to lunch for the day. I might not even get to eat lunch until after two… Jun sighed again as he entered his department floor.

Toma and Shun were eating bento boxes at the far end of the office together while Nana and Riisa were busy giggling to each other at something on Riisa’s phone. Eita was nowhere to be seen. Jun smiled at his team before heading to his office. Crazy as they were, and no matter how much they drove him crazy, they really were the best bunch. He couldn’t have asked for a better team.

When he entered his office, he saw a takeout container sitting on top of his desk. He looked at it in surprise and quickly walked over to inspect it. There was a little sticky note stuck on top of the carton.

Hi Jun,

I know how you get at work. Don’t forget to eat lunch!

Do your best today! :)

Love,

Sho

Jun grinned as he read the note again before opening the container. This was a pleasant (but regular) surprise. Sho had always been the “mother hen” in their relationship.

Just as Jun was about to dig in, his cellphone rang. It was Sho’s ringtone: the man had programmed one of his favourite rap songs in his phone when Jun wasn’t looking. He took out his phone from his pocket and pressed Talk. He hoped it wasn’t anything serious. Sho didn’t usually call him when they were at work— he was usually too busy to make personal phone calls.

Sho’s face appeared in front of him.

“Jun!” Sho hissed, looking around frantically before leaning in closer to the hologram.

“Is everything okay?” Jun asked in concern. It wasn’t unusual to see Sho in a frantic state. The man was always acting like the world was going to end because of his deadlines. But this… this was different. Sho looked extremely unsettled and scared. And Sho was hardly ever both— it was either one or the other.

“No!” Sho exclaimed in a whisper as he nervously bit his lips. “Jun, did you know there’s a stranger in Masaki’s apartment?!”

Jun frowned and sat back against his chair and crossed his arms. “A stranger? Are you sure it isn’t one of his friends?”

Sho sent him a bemused look. “We’re his friends,” he deadpanned before biting his lips. “I’m worried. I’ve never met this guy before and when he appeared in front of me after whispering in my ear—”

“What?!” Jun yelped as he sat up.

Sho continued on, ignoring Jun’s outburst as he spoke quickly and hysterically. Jun was actually worried he was going to run out of air. He frowned as Sho continued telling his tale. “And he appeared, but I only saw his head and it was floating in midair, and I thought maybe he was a prankster or something but no!” Sho looked pained. “And then the guy changed his hair into blond and started sprouting fucking horns out of his head! Horns! Jun, horns! Is he the devil? Because what person—”

“I’m coming to you,” Jun said as he ended the call and apparated out of his office immediately.

Jun reappeared in front of Sho’s workplace. He sent a quick glance at Aiba’s apartment, narrowing his eyes in suspicion before running inside the building.

When Jun finally made it to Sho’s floor, he sprinted to Sho’s office, ignoring the calls from the other staff as he weaved his way through the cubicles and over-caffeinated workers. When he finally reached Sho’s tiny office, he quickly barged in and shut the door behind him.

Sho was gaping at him as he entered, not expecting Jun to appear that fast. “Jun!” he exclaimed in surprise as he got up from his chair.

Jun shot him a stern look. “Sit,” he ordered before making his way up to the man. Sho pouted as Jun came to stand in front of him. Jun leaned against the desk and crossed his arms. “Tell me again. Who did you see?”

Sho looked up at him and took a deep breath before speaking. “I told you, I saw a floating head of a man in Masaki’s house. Then his hair turned into a really weird shade of yellow— can you even call that blond— and he sprouted horns!” Sho exclaimed in concern at the end.

Jun stared in disbelief at Sho, who was still shaken up from the events earlier. Just what the hell was Aiba doing in that house of his? He growled and stood up straight. He had to go check out the situation. Jun wasn’t too worried at first, but now, seeing that Sho was deeply unsettled about it in person did make him a little concerned.

“We’re going to go see Masaki,” Jun said as he reached down to pull Sho up to a stand. “I need to see what the hell is going on in that house of his. Again.” Jun sighed as he felt a headache forming. How bad could it be?


After Jun apparated them to Aiba’s front doorstep, he knocked loudly on the door. “Masaki!” he called as Sho stood quietly beside him, sending him worried looks. “Masaki, open this door right now!”

“What if something happened to him?” Sho asked worriedly as Jun continued knocking on the door. Jun shook his head.

“I doubt it’s anything too concerning… though…” Jun grimaced as he remembered the numerous experiments Aiba had conducted in the past. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he did something strange again.”

“Summon people without heads?!” Sho hissed in mortification.

“What—”

Sho immediately shut his mouth when the door opened. Aiba hadn’t opened the door completely, only showing half of his body in the doorway.

“Jun! Sho! What are you guys doing here?” Aiba greeted with a nervous chuckle. Jun narrowed his eyes at him. “Sho-chan, why did you leave earlier?”

Sho gaped at him. Jun ignored him for now and sent Aiba a stern look. “What are you hiding, Masaki?” Jun asked.

Aiba let out a panicked laugh and pushed the door more to cover his body. He’s hiding something Jun thought as Aiba shook his head in denial.

“I’m not hiding anything! I’m just doing a top secret experiment right now and—”

“Open the door, Masaki,” Jun ordered, sending his friend the most serious face he could muster. It generally worked on calming his team down.

“Ah, I don’t think that’s a good idea—”

“Open the door. Or else I will have to ask you to let us in under the request of a lieutenant from the Tokyo Magical Defense Unit.”

Aiba squawked. “You can’t do that!”

Jun sent him a annoyed look and crossed his arms. “I can, and I will if you don’t let us in. Open the door, Masaki.”

Aiba sighed in frustration before grumbling to himself. “This is unfair,” he mumbled as he took a step back and opened the door slowly. Jun heard Sho take a deep breath beside him. Aiba stood in the middle of the doorway awkwardly as he began to fidget under their gazes. “Um, did you guys want to come in?”

“We would like to, yes.” At least Aiba was cooperating with them now. Jun actually thought he had to pull rank and force his way in (he hated doing that).

Aiba pursed his lips before sighing tiredly and moved to the side to let them in. Jun nodded to him in thanks and walked inside, Sho following closely behind him, holding onto his elbow tightly. He did a quick sweep of the area but found nothing amiss.

“Did you guys want something to drink? Aiba asked as he moved past them and looked at them both. The three friends began walking towards Aiba’s living room. As they made their way, Jun was looking left and right for any signs of a floating head with blond hair and horns. When Jun and Sho took a seat on the couch, Aiba took out his wand and called for a bottle of water from his fridge. The items came sailing in the room and landed gently in Aiba’s hand. He raised his wand again and called for two water glasses.

“So what’s going on?” Jun asked as he watched Aiba pour water in the glass. “Sho told me you had someone in the apartment. And apparently they had a floating head.”

Aiba paused and looked up at Jun. He let out a chuckle, and Jun would’ve been convinced that Aiba thought he was joking around with him, but Jun knew Aiba. Aiba was definitely hiding something.

“What are you talking about? There wasn’t anyone in my apartment but Sho and I. Also, Sho-chan, you left without saying bye!” Aiba made a sad face at Sho. “You could’ve told me you were busy.”

Sho let out a choking sound beside him. “What are you talking about?! You were there! You saw everything! I know you did!” he exclaimed loudly.

Aiba laughed and shook his head. “No, there really wasn’t. You’re probably very tired, Sho-chan. You have your deadline coming up tomorrow right? It was probably your imagination.” Aiba frowned at him. “Did you sleep well last night?”

Jun snorted and placed his cup back down on the table. “He sure did,” he said with a smirk. Aiba laughed and wiggled his eyebrows at him.

“Oh! So I see!”

Sho turned his head to glare at Jun, and Jun sent an innocent grin back. It was so fun to tease Sho.

“So it was just Sho’s delusions?” Jun asked, trying to get back to the matter at hand. Aiba nodded.

“Yup, absolutely. I haven’t been doing any experiments lately. Work, you know? Super busy. Super secret stuff.” Aiba ignored Sho’s gaze on him, knowing that Sho probably wanted to bombard him with questions about his job… again.

“Oh, okay then.” Jun sighed. So it was nothing really. What Aiba said did make some sense: Sho could be quite… eccentric when he had a major piece coming up.

“Do you actually believe him?!” Sho hissed at Jun. Jun was starving. His stomach grumbled as he downed the rest of his water. He hadn’t had lunch yet. “Jun!”

“I don’t see anything amiss in his apartment, Sho. I think the stress is getting to you. Remember last time?” Jun quirked an eyebrow at him. Sho spluttered at him in disbelief.

“Are you kidding me?!” he exclaimed, his tone going up an octave. Jun snorted.

“I already checked everything and—”

“He’s not lying.”

Jun snapped his gaze up at the sudden appearance of a new voice. Sho shrieked and pointed frantically at Aiba, who had a look of resignation on his face. Behind him, a face was looking at them over Aiba’s shoulder.

The newcomer laughed in childish glee. He had blond hair, pale skin, and he was much smaller than all of them in size. The person looked over at Sho and sent him a bone-chilling grin. “Hello again, you didn’t say bye! And I thought that humans were polite.” The man shook his head and gave a small pout. “I’m hurt.”

“You! You! Nino!” Sho sputtered as he pointed at him. Jun watched the proceedings in confusion. What was going on?

“Nino” grinned and gave them a two finger salute. “That’s my name! I’m so glad that you remembered it.” He turned to Jun and gave him a wink. Jun looked at him in bewilderment. “Who are you?”

Jun narrowed his eyes at him. Aiba was looking at the both of them, panic appearing on his face. “I’m Matsumoto Jun. Who are you?” he replied, his tone dripping with suspicion.

Nino beamed at him and gave a small bow. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Matsumoto Jun.” Jun watched in disbelief as tiny black horns began to sprout from his head, his teeth began to elongate, his nails turned into claws (Sho whimpered at that), and a long black pointy tail appeared from behind.

Aiba let out a pained noise and Nino sent him a smirk before turning back to Jun and Sho, his eyes turning crimson red.

“I’m Nino, the God of Mischief.”

Part Two