SHIN X HACHI
based on episode twenty

It’s not true love, it’s the twisted kind of
‘opposites attract’ crap with a side order of half-hearted maybes..

y’know, the kind of stuff that gets two people absolutely
nowhere

- - -

I’m tired, and I know that I’m not drunk. Maybe a little bit delusional, but most definitely not drunk. I’m just itching to collapse onto the apartment floor. That’s all.

“I’m not drunk like you are,” I try to tease Nobu, but even I can hear my speech slur, each and every syllable lilting slightly upwards.

“I’m sober.” I say this with a straight face on, but it sounds more like a question than a statement. Repeating the same fact two times also doesn’t help.

I make a face.

Yeah, I might be underage, and yeah, I’m one of those kids that ran away from their home to try their luck on the ‘music thing’, and yes, it is technically illegal for me to drink. But if there’s one thing that I know, it’s that I can handle my booze.

Not getting drunk is a talent of mine aside from wooing older women and playing the bass guitar.

Yasu is watching the two of us while leaning against the sink; he’s dressed in a smart black suit with a bemused expression painted on his face. His eyes are ambiguous underneath those damn sunglasses, and a cigarette is poking out of his mouth. He’s frowning and smirking at the same time at Nobu, who’s hiccupping like an idiot. The funny sounds erupting from Nobu’s mouth ring throughout the apartment like a dingy silver triangle, and I wonder if Ren and Nana can hear Nobu from her bedroom. One hiccup comes after another, and I begin to wonder if he’s okay. Maybe we should call an ambulance for him, but that’d be too fussy, too loud, and too dramatic for my taste.

Nobu is okay though and stops hiccupping after chugging down another can of beer which is fairly ironic.

“Oh yeah?” Nobu’s finally shooting a comeback, thirty seconds after his ten minute hiccup attack. “Well…your face is all red. So ha.” Nobu utters a slew of incoherent curses and words at me, and inside the mixture of profanities I hear a ‘brat’ and ‘drunk’.

My eye lids feel heavy, like I’m a dead body submerging into the ocean, and I lower my eyesight so that my eyelashes tickle my cheeks, just a little bit. The smell of Black Stone cigarette smoke is pungent thanks to Yasu, and I feel like I’m choking on it. It’s musky and swirls around the kitchen with some kind of newspaper-y cherry smell. I feel like dropping dead on the kitchen floor, and never waking up again. I want to sleep. And I want Nobu to be quiet for once.

It’s like that smoke is some sort of strange drug.

My hands clutch onto the lighter dangling off of the chain around my neck. Deep breaths. I need to breathe more.

“I’m going to bed.” I mutter half-heartedly and stumble to find my way to a door, and not just any door, but Hachi’s door. My bracelets and knickknacks jingle whimsical notes as I fumble with Hachi’s bedroom doorknob.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Nobu’s voice is loud, and he’s a whole tone away from yelling. “Hachi is already asleep in there. I’ll walk you back to my place.”

He’s waving his arms around the air in vivid motion while he speaks, falling to the floor like the drunken bastard that he is, halfway through his sentence. Typical drunkard behavior on his part. When Nobu’s drunk, he has no control over himself. He uses extreme language and spills his guts out. I think he needs to stay away from alcohol.

“I’m just going to take a short nap.” I yawn, and crack the door about one inch wide. It’s invitingly dark and quiet inside there; making me wonder how Hachi can sleep through all of Nobu’s antics.

“Fuck.”

A strong monosyllable word.

Nobu’s puking on the floor now, and I almost want to ask him if he’s alright. But at the same time, I want to laugh because I think Nobu likes Hachi in a more than friendly way. It’s obvious from the way he looks at her, and how worked up he is over me going to sleep in her room. But I also think that I don’t care. I don’t feel anything special for Hachi, and if he and she get together, they have my blessing.

All I care about right now is getting to bed and away from the stench of beer barf which is sour and stings my nostrils. I feel my lower lip curl in disgust and my shiny lip ring press onto my upper lip. I can leave Yasu to clean it up.

“Do you mind if I…?” I feel a bit sorry for leaving Yasu to do the dirty work, but I turn the doorknob when I see him shake his head.

“Go get some sleep, Shin. You’re still a kid.”

Nodding my head, I try to ignore the kid comment. I swing the door wide open and shut it with a soft click once I step inside.

Hachi’s left her window unclosed, and pale moonlight illuminates her girly looking room with its bluish sheen. I see a lot of pink. I rock on my heels drowsily for a moment before focusing my gaze on the small twin sized bed with Hachi in it. Her small sleeping figure is motionless and tiny, and I wonder for the twentieth if she really is twenty years old. Looming above her is a Trapnest poster, and I stare at it for a second before letting out a yawn. Ah, right. I’m sleepy.

Trudging up to the bed, I take my shoes off and peel off my crusty checkered socks. Hachi’s bed is soft, and the cotton sheets feel nice on my skin as I crawl in, and I try my best to keep the mattress still. I don’t want to wake Hachi up and hear her squawk over me climbing into her bed. Not yet, at least. My head hits the pillow at once, and I blink at the dark ceiling above of me.

The bed smells like strawberry milk and hazelnut cream. She smells like strawberry milk and hazelnut cream from the supermarket down a few streets. And for a second, I can’t help but think that’s how I’d like my home to smell like, strawberry milk and hazelnut cream. Turning to my left side to face Hachi, the proximity of our faces almost shocks me.

Her face is still, and for once there are no exaggerated expressions. There’s a small smile on her face and I squint to see a thin line of drool coming from her mouth. I suppress the laughter coming from inside of me. Hachi’s cute, even in her sleep. I inch a bit closer to Hachi and close my eyes. I can imagine her waking up tomorrow, seeing me beside her and completely freaking out. She’d say ridiculous things, and wonder if we’d had sex or something. I know it, and I like knowing these kinds of things.

Lying in the dark, sniffing Hachi’s pillow, I feel good. But then, my heart hammers inside of my chest. It throbs while the rest of my body lies rigidly, immobile. It’s the feeling of home. Lying beside Hachi. And I’m not sure what home really is, but for me it might be Hachi.

My mouth forms the word ‘mother’ silently, but I know that it’s wrong. Tonight, there’s a different feeling about Hachi. Something more intimate.

I hear the front door slam shut. Nobu and Yasu have left.

And then realization hits. My eyes flutter open, and I stare at Hachi as if she’s an optical illusion that I can’t get enough of. And somehow, none of the crap that’s going in my head seems real. My mind whirs with mashed up pieces of conversations I’ve shared with Hachi and distorted memories of a mother that I’d never really had.

And maybe, maybe it’s because I’m drunk.

--

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

I’m back! But with new genres of fiction I’d like to write. But still, yaaaay. Anyway, this one goes without being dedicated to anyone. I enjoyed writing it! I was really inspired to write a ShinHachi one-shot after I watched Episode 20 of NANA (it’s the one where Shin sleeps in Nana Komatsu’s bed). Yeah, I just kind of saw them together, and I was like: “ZOMG! THAT WOULD BE A CUTE PAIRING!” In this one-shot, I wasn’t really going for the whole mother!Hachi kind of thing, but I just couldn’t completely butcher Shin-chan’s character and I WAS trying to make this story seem realistic, so in the end…the mother thing just kind of wedged itself in. I wish I made it a bit more romantic.

Reviews are appreciated.