rikke_leonhart | Fic: The Five Senses

Title: Smell
Series: The Five Senses 4/5
Pairing(s): Ohmiya
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Do. Not. Own. Unfortunately.
Summary: Using his senses, Nino tries to figure out what Ohno is made of. Un-beta'd.

*

Whenever Nino enters the apartment, he can instantly tell if Ohno is home or not, or what he has been doing until then.

If Ohno isn’t home, the apartment has the air of being stuffy. As if no windows have been opened for a long time. Nino hates coming home to that kind of apartment; it feels deserted and empty. If Ohno is home, Nino can smell what he has been doing. Mostly likely, he has been painting.

The kind of paint Ohno usually uses should, by all means, be practically odorless, but alas, Ohno has singlehandedly managed to find the smelliest watercolors in Japan. Nino thinks it’s some kind of talent Ohno has.
Nino can also smell if Ohno has created figurines. After lots of experimenting with a bunch of materials (that made the curtains, the carpets, the sheets and their clothes smell awfully and synthetic) Ohno finally took liking to some green gooey mass that turns white.

Nino always wrinkles his nose in distaste. It smells.

Even though clay is mostly harmless, Nino can smell if Ohno has been baking whatever it is he’s doing at the moment. The smell of warmth carries easily in their home. The worst part about clay is, that it gets stuck under Ohno’s impressively long nails (it shouldn’t be possible having so long nails with the amount of work Ohno does with his hands) and Nino has kind of made himself believe that it smells. A lot.

But even if he complains, he doesn’t really mean it. It’s charming. On some level.

Ohno has a special scent without him needing to apply any cologne. It’s barely perceptible, hiding underneath the blanket of fragrances that wraps Ohno up during the day. Nino knows that if he searches long enough, he’ll find it.

But he has to time it correctly. It’s gone if Ohno showers or if he exerts himself too much.

It’s easiest for Nino to catch the scent if Ohno has showered before going to bed. A few hours later, Ohno’s skin will somehow hold a unique fragrance. Nino isn’t sure how the man does it. Nino has tried practically inhaling the sheets and the bed, but it just isn’t the same. Something very Ohno.

Nino doesn’t mind Ohno using cologne. He just prefers that they wear the same, because it gives Nino an excuse to go and rub his wrist against Ohno’s, and because Nino likes being reminded of Ohno. It’s not that bad anyway; for one as unaware of fashion as Ohno, the man does know what smells good. Besides, as long as it’s the same as Ohno, Nino doesn’t care. Ohno can pull it off.

And when Nino falls asleep with his head in Ohno’s lap, he pretends that Ohno’s fingers running through his hair leave the scent on him, too. He pretends that if Ohno embraces him for just a second longer than normal, Ohno’s natural and comfortable scent will wrap him up and leave him with a pleasurable reminder of what he’ll find the next morning they wake up together.

Because Ohno’s hands have their very special scent of their own when they’re not covered in paint or clay or hairspray or anything else. Ohno has beautiful, slender fingers and for some reason, they carry the scent of knowing what they’re doing.

Nino has chided himself for thinking that, but it’s true.

They carry the characteristic scent of fish when he has been fishing. They often smell like the rain – chilly, fresh and then the coming warmth from his skin.

When it rains, Nino likes wrapping himself up in Ohno, burying his nose in whatever is near, usually Ohno’s hair or his collarbones. It’s remarkable how content Ohno smells. And one of Nino’s guilty pleasures is, when Ohno is asleep, taking Ohno’s hand and uncurling the bend arm, then quietly brush his nose against the spot where Ohno’s elbow bends.

Nino sometimes thinks he’s a bit of a freak. When he was a child, his mother told him that animals can smell fear and other emotions. Nino doesn’t feel good about that since he can smell if Ohno is uncomfortable.

Ohno may be able to fool a lot of people with his quiet and wondering, absent demeanor, but not Nino. If (when) Nino gets close enough, he can instantly tell the fragrances in the room apart. Sometimes there’s too many different smells mixed in the room, sometimes they’re sweaty and that’s really a penetrating stench, but Ohno’s personal scent will always stand out clearly to Nino.

It will stand out clearly, even though he can tell the others apart; Jun mostly smells of his expensive perfume and whatever healthy shampoo he’s trying out at the moment, Sho smells clean and masculine, if a bit more refined than some, and Aiba smells like something Nino can’t really define, just as he can’t really define Aiba.

In their early days, Nino had one day been completely overwhelmed when he entered their backstage dressing room after a concert. Up to this day, he can’t explain it, but he instantly zoomed in on Ohno, who despite sitting so close to Jun that their scents mixed, smelt as if he just wasn’t there.

Nino can’t remember why Ohno had felt like that, but he remembers Ohno burying his face in Nino’s shoulder when offered, and he remembers thinking that he didn’t ever want to smell Ohno feel like that ever again.

Now, Nino muses, he’s probably so accustomed to having Ohno near him always, that he has learned to pick up on every single scent and subtle change. It’s not a bad thing, he thinks, even though he realizes that he really has no choice. Ohno’s fragrance is like a drug. Nino smirks; perhaps it’s a good thing that Ohno’s scent can’t be sold in bottles.

Nino likes to think that their shared scent is so much more. That Nino has his own unique scent that compliments Ohno’s, that when they’re together, Ohno’s unique scent will mix with Nino’s, and that it’s much more intimate than anything else he can think of. It’s private on a much higher level than he’s imagined was possible with another human being.

He knows he’s unable to pick up on that scent, knows that he’ll never know for sure, but when Ohno smiles sleepily, snuggles closer and whispers that Nino smells nice, Nino is content.

*

/THE END IS NEAR.

AN: One piece left! Oh my, already? I'm going to miss this series ;;__;; But oh well, crackfics are always fun :D
I'm surprisingly short of words tonight, for some reason ~~that might be because I'm writing the Christmas cards~~.

So, I hope all of you are doing fine, and that December is treating you alright :) Take care of yourself, sweethearts <3