Title: Angles and Legwork
Pairing: General Arashi
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Working as camera crew following racers all around the world for The Amazing Race are all sorts fun, tiring, and, most of all, interesting for Ohno and Jun.
A/N: Written for oviparousfor the Ohno-Jun fic exchange. I had wanted to actually put Ohno and Jun in the race as per your request but hopefully this take works as well. (Tasks and locations were taken from The Amazing Race Asia Season 2.)

===

The first time Ohno Satoshi and Matsumoto Jun got assigned to Team Sho & Nino was right at the start of the race, when there were still ten teams and everyone was scrambling for their bags and first clue.

Ninomiya Kazunari, or Nino, was quick with his hands, deftly ripping open the yellow and envelope and knowing better to let Sakurai Sho do the reading out loud. Even Jun had to remind himself that, yes, the rapper of the singer-songwriter pair did read the clue out loud – it was all so fast, and he didn’t even mispronounce anything – as all four of them rushed away from Singapore River to wherever they were supposed to find the taxis bearing the Singaporean national icon on the pair’s postcard.

If Ohno were to say it, he would describe both to be clever. Jun was in agreement with him on that, going as far as to say that Team Sho & Nino was one of the major contenders this season in terms of instinct, at the very least. It was almost eerie how the pair of racers led their cameramen towards the right taxi as if they knew exactly which one was it. Jun was more than thankful that he was following them, especially when he had a fleeting view of Aiba Masaki and Kazama Shunsuke going down and up the street, helplessly following and filming Okada Masaki and Watanabe Dai, who had already started on an argument about which direction was towards what.

“All right, let’s hurry, Mr. Taxi Driver,” Nino excitedly as they were pulling out of the parking lot, their group being the first to leave. He was smirking and winking and doing a peace sign towards the camera Jun was holding from the passenger seat. Ohno couldn’t help but laugh a little along with Sho, who was squished between the two smaller men (plus some of Ohno’s equipment) in the backseat. Jun was grinning as well, even as he threw Ohno a little chiding glance – as much as possible, they weren't supposed to leave traces of their presence in the footages they were taking.

“Eh? What’s that?” Nino then asked, not missing the look Jun gave Ohno. A split second worry flashed across the cameraman’s face before deciding he might as well answer the player even though it defeats the purpose of having warned Ohno in the first place.

“We’re not supposed to capture ourselves during recording,” he answered with an apologetic shrug.

“Not even our voices,” Ohno chimed in.

“Is that so?” Sho asked, taking a break from watching the street they were passing. “What happens with this conversation then?”

“It’ll be edited out,” his teammate guessed. The cameramen nodded.

“Dang, and here I was trying to look as cool as possible in that last ten minutes,” said Sho regretfully, his shoulders slumped in reflection of his sentiment.

It was Jun who couldn’t help but laugh this time. “Just some,” he assured the other.

===

Then again, by the time they got to the Detour of the first leg, any gratitude that Jun felt for the pair was near to completely dissolving.

The group had just descended Tower 3 of the Suntec Towers in Suntec City, and were about to go across to Tower 4 to climb forty-five floors all over again. Everyone was so short of breath that Ohno could barely grip his camera without shaking and Jun felt like he had no strength left to climb another step. That was even with the cameramen alternately taking the elevators every five floors while the other filmed and climbed with the racers.

All because Sho wouldn’t – rather, couldn’t – complete the “Dare” option, which was to cross from Tower 3 to Tower 4 using a rope-and-pulley system suspended 594 feet from the ground.

Nino was seething, because despite knowing Sho’s fear of heights, he let himself be persuaded by the latter to try “Dare”. Ohno thought it was also because Nino himself didn’t want to do “Stair”, although Jun thought he had to give it to the guy for still being able to recognize that they were lucky Sho tried it first instead of him, for they would have taken a longer time if Nino had crossed first and all of it was for nothing.

“Damn it, Sho.” Jun was reviewing his earlier footage of Nino angrily helping remove the harness straps from his partner, who honestly looked like he was going to cry, either from having been suspended almost 600 feet above ground or that he’s already caused a good deal of delay for their team at the first leg of the race.

“We’re doing ‘Stair’,” Nino had officially said to the camera, patting Sho’s shoulder grimly.

“Stair it is,” Ohno’s off-cam mumble was barely audible.

===

At the airport while waiting for their flight to Manila, Ohno was setting up for a quick interview while Jun and Nino fetched some food. Sho was idly chatting with the newlyweds Daigo and Keiko, who were waiting for the same flight as they were. At the corner of his eye, Ohno saw a harassed-looking Aiba and Kazama take a much needed break – Okada and Watanabe had just managed to book the remaining tickets to Manila.

“Done?” Jun asked his colleague, placing a bottle of iced tea and a sandwich on top of their bags. He sat down beside the older man, watching through the camera screen the sweeping shot he was taking of the airport, before stopping the recording and replacing the camera back on the pod, facing it towards where Nino had taken a seat next to Sho.

“You should eat that before it gets cold… uh, Ohno-san, right?” Nino said before taking a big bite out of his sandwich. He raised his palm to Sho as peace offering from earlier which the other accepted in a high-five before helping himself to some food.

The cameramen waited until they were all finished eating. Jun launched the interview by asking the pair about the Detour they just did and Sho’s apparent fear of heights. Nino admitted to having lost his temper despite knowing that they were both at fault for even attempting the task. In the middle of an entertaining tirade about heights by Sho, Jun was thinking of how Nino’s profound observations about their team made for a good interview clip when Ohno interrupted.

“Oh. Ah… I forgot to press ‘Record’. Could you repeat everything you just said?”

Aiba’s shrill laughter was echoing from the other side of the benches while Nino looked daggers at their useless camera crew.

===

The pair was sharing a room with Aiba and Kazama for the remainder of the 12-hour interval after the second Pit Stop in Manila. The filming crews had convened earlier over dinner and afterwards in a meeting to get their new assignments before they were freed to spend the night however they wished. No cameraman, however, had any plans other than to get as much rest as they can, thus Ohno, Jun, Aiba and Kazama were holed up in their hotel room in various states of relaxation. That is, if one will consider equipment cleaning a state of relaxation.

“So glad we’re not stuck with the same team for the whole of the race,” Aiba sighed as he plopped onto his bed and grabbed the nearest camera accessory. His partner had been cleaning their equipment just like what Jun and Ohno had busied themselves with after showering. Kazama then stood up from his own bed to claim the bathroom, tossing Aiba the lens cloth as he did so.

“You didn’t like your first team?” Ohno asked. Jun chuckled in response, having an idea of what Aiba was referring to.

“Well, not to be mean or anything but I’m not sure why they let in a pair of airheads on the show, you know?”

Ohno and Jun shared a chuckle – both were certain that their team leader Ogura’s sense of humor was responsible for getting the airhead cameraman assigned to the airhead team. Poor Kazama.

“What about you, Riida, Jun-pon, how did you find your first team? They’re currently placed fourth, aren’t they?”

“They're pretty good,” Jun answered carefully, the horror of stairs and elevators still fresh on his mind. Ohno had a knowing grin on his face as he repacked the camera in its case; Jun otherwise would have been singing praises to Sho and Nino’s performance in the last two legs if it weren't for, one, the lingering bodily aches caused by their stint back in Singapore; and two, the slightly condescending look Nino had given them both when Ohno failed to properly record their interview back at the airport. And Jun, well... he had taken offense at that.

“Cool. Kaza-pon and I will be filming them ‪beginning tomorrow‬.”

“Enjoy it, Aiba-kun. They’re quite the interesting pair.”

===

And enjoy Aiba did, for after the third leg of the race, he and Kazama had been reassigned at least two more times to the singer-songwriter pair and were the ones who filmed their first Pit Stop victory too.

Ohno and Jun were far from begrudging their colleagues, of course, but while neither of them spoke about it out loud, they knew that they had been looking forward to getting the pair again. They had been doing a really great job filming whichever team got assigned to them in every leg, and despite losing three teams to elimination, the duo were simply assigned to another team while the other pairs of cameramen had to be, so to speak, eliminated as well. Jun thought that at least his and Ohno’s technical and artistic talents in filming deserved to be used to capture potential winners, if not to singlehandedly pull the show’s ratings up and through the roof.

It was during the eighth leg that Ohno and Jun finally got Sho and Nino once more. While they were in fact looking forward to it, they had instinctively made no show of how satisfied they were to be following the pair of racers again.

Oddly enough the racers seemed distant despite recognizing them, but Jun was willing to peg it down to being quite tired as well as stressed. Just in the last leg before this one, Sho and Nino hadn’t been doing as well as they did before; the pair had been marked for elimination and was required to come in first, otherwise they will incur a 30-minute penalty by the next pit stop check in and,

“...might put them in last place. The last team to check in... may be eliminated,” Nino was reciting host Nakai’s usual lines with remarkable accuracy, but less gusto. Ohno filmed him anyway.

They were in the train approaching Prague, and amidst the rush to find the next clue box, Jun had an inexplicable feeling of trepidation.

“You all right?” Ohno inquired, catching with quick eyes and gut feeling the minute hesitation in Jun's step.

“I think so,” Jun managed, though he shook his head in confusion.

===

Ohno could fairly guess why Sho and Jun let out matching shrill laughs as the four of them looked up at the Petrin Hill Observation Tower, the location of their next task.

“Damn it,” Nino found himself muttering for hopefully the last time as he took the last of the winding steps up the tower. Silently taking the chalk and board, he scrawled ‘299’.

The four of them sighed as Sho received the clue, then they trooped back down to the tower base before ripping open the envelope. As soon as the clue was read for the official footage, Jun switched to off-record and everyone laughed until they cried.

===

It seemed to have released whatever tension the racers were carrying, at least. They were headed towards Prague Castle, having been clued in on the Intersection coming up ahead. Sho was fervently hoping there’d be a pair already waiting for them, not wishing to delay another minute and risk getting eliminated.

“It’s the Sato-Kamiki duo,” Nino observed, catching sight of the pair waiting by the clue box in the middle of the court.

“They’re pretty good,” Sho conceded.

“We ought to be better.”

“You are better.” Jun found himself blurting out.

They hopped out as soon as the taxi came to a stop, Jun already angling for a view of the short sprint towards the clue box, leaving Ohno to capture the two getting their bags from the trunk. Both Nino and Sho were grinning from ear to ear.

===

“I don’t know why he’s the one up there, really,” Nino said, looking up at the 10-meter high diving board where Sho was currently gearing himself up for a quick dive. It was clear to Jun that Nino was worried, and it was not because Sho might not be able to accomplish the Roadblock and get them eliminated.

“I don’t know why we keep on having to go through heights-related challenges… It’s like someone’s out to get Sho-chan,” the player kept on mumbling as if to complain, while Jun continued filming and knowing that if it were up to Nino, he’d be the one up there instead.

“You can do it!”

Jun and Nino’s heads whirled towards Ohno, who had broken his silence to voice out his support of the team the way his colleague did earlier. Nino grinned a child’s grin before echoing Ohno’s encouraging words to his teammate.

Sho yelled with all his might before jumping into the water.

===

Heading to where both The Amazing Race teams and filming crew were to be housed for the night Prague, Ohno and Jun were walking in silence. They’ve filmed Sho and Nino’s Pit Stop scene, the team beating Sato Takeru and Kamiki Ryuunosuke for fifth place and ensuring them another leg to race. The racers were so happy they went so far as to hug their cameramen out of sheer gratitude as soon as they stepped off the mat.

“I like them,” Ohno finally said when they were left to themselves.

Jun laughed. “Yeah, I like them, too,” he admitted.

“I hope they win this season.”

“‘You can do it’?” Jun bumped his shoulder against his partner, playfully quoting Ohno’s cheer.

“‘You’re better.’” Ohno threw right back at him.

END