A piece of cheesecake for rollingday_s (1/4)

[futurepm_mod]

Title: Yours is the only vote that counts
Pairing: SakurAiba
Rating: NC-17
Summary: With Sho falling behind in the election campaign for becoming Tokyo's mayor, Jun, his assistant, has to think of a way to make him more popular with the voters. How about having him announce that he has a boyfriend?
Warnings: none, except for slightly slow Sho and always perfect Aiba XD
Notes: Dear rollingday_s, as you can see the whole set-up for this exchange inspired me as well as your “faked dating” prompt. I tried to incorporate some things you mentioned that you like and I seriously hope you will enjoy this story! <3
Also, a big thanks to my dear beta who didn't just find all the stupid mistakes I am always making but also helped me a lot during the process of writing.
Last but not least, a huge shower of thanks to the mods who took pity upon our poor Sho-chan and finally gave him the exchange he deserved^^


Sho opened the window of his office to let some fresh air inside. It was still early in the morning and some birds were singing in the tree in front of his window. The sun rays were still weak but Sho knew that in a few hours his office would turn quite warm due to their power.

He took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air, enjoying the sounds of nature. He used to do so every morning regardless which weather it was. It was his way to start the day that would become another busy one for sure.

Ever since he had stood for the mayor of Tokyo, there has been no breather at all. He was actually lucky to have gotten some sleep this night.

However, it had been Sho's dream ever since to work in the political field, so he had worked hard at school and university. After graduation, he had been invited to join the Jimintou and has steadily worked his way upwards.

When the mayor of Tokyo had announced his upcoming resignation, the Jimintou voted for Sakurai Sho to enter the election campaign as their prime candidate. Truly happy about the trust that he was given, Sho accepted and found himself in a tough fight with Koumeito's top candidate Ikuta Toma.

It was true that the Jimintou was currently the most accepted party in Japan, it was the prime minister's party after all. Still, recently, more and more electors were favouring the Koumeito, which was mostly the achievement of their charismatic leader.

Sho wasn't angry at his opponent nor did he wish him any harm. He was amazed by how easy Ikuta was able to interact with people. He was smart and gentle and, Sho had to admit, good looking. It was hard to stand against someone like this, but Sho was well liked by the people as well.

The last projections showed that this election was going to be a neck-on-neck campaign. However, today, another projection was due and Sho could only hope that he didn't loose some ground against Ikuta because it would be rather hard to catch up again.

Being in his thoughts, Sho didn't realize that the door to his office had opened. He yelped in surprise when he heard a way too cheerful shout.

“Good morning, my dear little brother!”

His sister Nana quickly closed the gap and stopped next to her brother. She craned her neck and looked out of the window as well.

“What's up there? Something happened?”

“Nothing,” Sho replied and closed the window. The silent part of his day was over. “Why are you here, Nana?”

“I was simply nearby,” his sister answered. “And Ren wanted to see his uncle, right, Ren?”

With this, she handed Sho the bundle that she had carried until now. Left with no other choice, Sho took his nephew who squealed happily when he was in his arms. For some reason Nana's son was overly in love with Sho and she would take advantage of this and leave Ren with his uncle when she was in the mood for some shopping without a baby stroller.

“Nana, I really don't have time for him today. The new projections will come out today and we will have to react accordingly,” Sho began to explain but his sister cut him off.

“I do not intend to leave Ren with you today. I was simply curious about the projections as well,” she calmed his worries.

Sho threw his sister a thankful look that she only acknowledged with a shrug. However, Sho suddenly felt all warm around his heart and it wasn't because Ren had snuggled into his arms and was slowly but surely falling asleep again. Nana might sometimes act as if the candidacy of her brother was nothing important compared to her shopping days but in the end, she was on his side, rooting for him no matter what.

Sho watched the little boy sucking on his thumb while his eyes fluttered. Suddenly, the door to his office was smashed open again, causing Ren to turn his head into the direction of the noise, ready to start crying if it was needed. Sho followed him and his good mood dropped in an instant when he saw his assistant's facial expression.

“This is not good, Sho, not good!” Jun said and pointed at some papers he was holding in his hands. He came towards Sho to show him the documents when he finally realised that Sho had some visitors.

“Good morning, Nana,” he greeted her and let himself being hugged by her. They both knew each other as long as Sho and Jun knew each other, which was a considerably long time taking in account that they went to the same kindergarten.

“Oh, and you brought little Ren along. Good morning, Baby Boy,” Jun began to coo and tousled Ren's hair who immediately started crying.

Sho threw Jun an apologetic look and began to rock Ren in his arms while he told him that Jun was a really nice guy but he just had some really distinctive eyebrows that made him look scary at first glance.

Ren inspected Jun suspiciously but decided to stop crying. Sighing deeply, Jun let himself fall into the armchair, figuring it might be better to bring some distance between himself and the sceptic baby.

“Ikuta is quite ahead of you as shown in the new projection,” he then announced dryly and handed Sho the papers.

Sho's fears, that had risen upon seeing Jun's face when he came in, were realized when he looked at the numbers. Ikuta had indeed quite a few votes more than Sho. However, it didn't seem as if he'd stolen some votes from Sho. It rather seemed as if he simply gained more voters.

Sho raised his head and threw a questioning look at Jun.

“You're right,” Jun answered Sho's unspoken question – he knew what his friend was thinking after all. “Ikuta managed to engage people that usually don't vote or are simply not interested in politics to take part in the election this time,” he went on explaining. “It was a clever move he made there.”

Nana, who had been listening silently until now, jumped in. “Who are these people that are usually not interested in politics but were engaged by him?”

Sho turned to his little sister. “Women.”

Upon seeing Nana already getting ready to tell Sho that he is an idiot, he quickly went on explaining this further.

“Don't get me wrong, Nana-chan. I know that you ARE interested in politics although you pretend no to be. However, for many women the newest skin care from Bioré is way more interesting than their new mayor.”

Nana sighed. “You're right. Most of my friends don't care about politics either.” She seemed kind of frustrated which Sho thought was really cute in a way.

“However,” she suddenly started again. “If this Ikuta guy can win the votes of the women, YOU can do that easily as well. I mean, just look at you handling Ren, he fell asleep in your arms. Seeing men with babies or small children and being actually good in interacting with them makes women go crazy.” Sho's sister had stood up during her talk and was now standing in front of her brother, pointing at him with her index finger, her face beaming upon her new idea. However, Jun crushed her high immediately.

“That's exactly what Ikuta did, so there is no way Sho can do this as well,” he told her and Nana fell onto the sofa, leaving a dissatisfied grunt. “We have to think about something else, something that also interests women and, if possible, other groups of political uninterested or disappointed people,” Jun thought aloud.

“Sho could strip for the AnAn. As far as I know he's no that bad,” Nana offered and while Sho turned deep red, Jun simply waved his hand.

“That's not helping, Nana,” he grumbled and Sho was relieved. Sometimes, Jun had really weird ideas about how to let Sho shine even more in the public eye.

Suddenly, there was a glistening in Jun's eyes and Sho knew that he had an idea. He simply hoped that it wasn't as crazy as his sisters'.

“Nana-chan, lately, women are really fond of male homosexuals, right?” Jun began and all of Sho's hoped vanished into thin air. Instead, he started to feel really anxious, which transferred over to Ren whose sleep became lighter.

Nana nodded. “Yes, many girls are reading Shounen Ai mangas. Also, fanservice in male boygroups is really popular right now,” she said thoughtfully.

“Perfect!” Jun cheered. Then, he turned around to his friend. “Sho-chan, I know how you will gain lots of votes – you'll get yourself a boyfriend!”

…

“No!”

Sho couldn't believe that Jun had just proposed that. It was just… impossible.

“Sho, listen to me,” Jun started, but Sho interrupted him.

“NO!!!”

However, the only thing that happened upon Sho's shout was Ren starting to cry after having been woken up from his sweet dreams. Nana stood up and scooped her son into her arms. Then, she reached for the stroller and made her way to the door.

“Personally, I think it's a great idea,” she said before she waved at the two men and left.

Sho was jealous. Nana knew when it was time to leave and she was free to do so. He, however, had to sit through this with Jun now, making sure to dissuade him from his idea.

“Just think about it,” Jun started again, cupping Sho's face with his hands to make him listen to him. “You won't only get the women's votes but also of those people that lead a non-conservative relationship and, believe me, these are quite a few.”

“But I am not gay!” Sho gave back.

Jun clicked his tongue. “It's not about you being gay or not. It's an act. You only have to endure it during the election campaign. Once you've won you can always tell the public that due to the huge amount of your work as mayor of Tokyo your relationship didn't last.”

As always, Jun had the good arguments.

“Sho, do you remember our vow when we started this campaign? We promised each other we will do everything to win this no matter how much we will have to sacrifice,” Jun reminded him. “Now is the time to make it.”

Sho could feel Jun's words bewitching him – as they would always do. Suddenly, Jun's idea didn't sound that stupid anymore. Sho really wanted to become the mayor, no matter what. He was still determined to fight and would not let himself down just because his shining opponent gained a few more votes than him. Still, there was some doubt left.

“I don't think there is anyone willing to act as my boyfriend,” he voiced then.

“I might know someone...,” Jun grinned.

* ~ * ~ *

Aiba was in the middle of cooking dinner when the doorbell rang. Today it was chicken curry and he had just begun to fry the chicken.

“You go!” he screamed into the direction of the living-room where his flat mate was sitting doing who knows what. Aiba heard some grumbling and shuffling but Nino seemed to make his way towards the door.

A few minutes later, Jun's head appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, grinning at Aiba.

“You're cooking again?”

Aiba sighed. “I got sick of cup noodles which seems to be the only thing Nino can manage,” he explained while adding the vegetables to the meat.

“It's rather the only thing Nino WANTS to do,” Jun set it right and earned himself a kick against his leg from the man who was currently the topic of the conversation.

Aiba grinned and finally added water and the spices before he put the lid on the pan to let it cook. Then, he pointed towards the pan.

“Do you want to stay for dinner, Jun? I made too much anyway,” he asked.

“That's my lunch for tomorrow!” Nino began to complain.

“You can make yourself some cup noodles,” Aiba gave back, not the slightest hint of pity in his voice. Nino threw him an angry glance and vanished, his lower lip sticking out.

“How can I decline such a nice invitation,” Jun laughed. Then, he helped Aiba to prepare some salad as side dish and was immediately reminded at their days as flat mates.

University had been the only time he and Sho had done something separately. The reason was their slightly different interest. Sho had always been interested in economics so he had chosen a university who was specialized in this field. Jun on the other hand loved to organize things so he had decided to study management at a different university.

During this time, Jun had lived in a shared house with two other guys – Nino and Aiba. These two had been childhood friends as well but they had never given Jun the feeling of being left out. Obviously, the two were still living together, although it was a different flat.

“Dinner is ready,” Aiba shouted towards the living room where Nino was still sulking. However, his hunger seemed to be bigger than his self-pity because he appeared in the kitchen just a few minutes later.

They sat down and chatted about old times for a while until Nino looked at Jun.

“Now, tell us why you're here,” he demanded and Jun smiled apologetically. He had been living with Nino and Aiba for three years only but they already knew him too well.

“Actually, I have a favour to ask,” he began.

“After you just ate my lunch I don't feel like doing you a favour,” Nino remarked and pointed at Jun's empty plate. Aiba's dinner had been as tasty as always.

“Lucky me, I only want to ask Aiba if he could help me out,” Jun gave back and Nino raised an eyebrow. Jun knew that in this case he had not only to convince Aiba but Nino as well. Nino could become a little bit overprotective when it came to his best friend.

“Sure, Jun, what is it?” Aiba asked, ready to help his friend out.

“Are you still part of that drama club in that little theatre?” Jun asked and Aiba nodded.

“Yes, our next play will be “My Fair Lady”,” Aiba answered. “I'll be the “Lady”,” he added then and Jun saw Nino trying to hide his amusement.

“It must be quite hard to pretend to be a woman,” Jun said but Aiba waved it off.

“It's quite fun and pretending to be someone else is a big part of acting, which I am considered to be great at,” Aiba explained proudly.

“And that's why I need YOU,” Jun began and Aiba looked at him excitedly. He loved acting and he was willing to do pretty much anything that involved it.

“I need someone acting as the boyfriend of Sakurai Sho,” Jun said, deciding that it was no use to beat around the bush any longer.

Aiba and Nino stared at Jun, not sure if they heard correctly.

“You're talking about THAT Sakurai Sho, the one standing for the position as the mayor of Tokyo, your best friend?” Nino made sure.

Jun nodded and then he began to explain everything about his plan to his two friends.

As expected, Aiba stayed silent but Nino immediately called Jun crazy.

“Aiba is not going to do this. Can you imagine the impact this will have on his life? People will start to blab behind his back. Just because Aiba is open to every gender it doesn't mean that you can simply make him do something like this. What have you been thinking?”, Nino shouted at Jun but Aiba stopped him by laying his hand on Nino's arm.

“Thank you, Kazu,” he said and smiled warmly at his friend. “However, I think this is interesting. It will require all my acting skills but I think I can pull this off,” he grinned.

Nino stared at his friend, his mouth hanging slightly open while Jun hugged Aiba tightly.

“Thank you so much, Aiba-chan. I knew you wouldn't let me down,” he cheered, feeling terribly relieved.

Nino, who had recovered from his shock, suddenly joined the conversation again.

“He won't do this for free,” he told Jun, his face determined. “After all, this will interfere with his job and he will need to pay the half of the rent,” he went on and Jun knew that there was no use to go against Nino. He had already considered this.

“Of course we will pay him for this,” Jun gave back and Aiba cheered excitedly. He had always dreamed to make money with his acting. However, until now he only earned himself some pocket money when playing in the little theatre, while he had taken another job in the bakery around the corner.

“Aiba, this will also include some kissing, you know,” Jun said, making sure Aiba had understood his job correctly.

“I don't mind that. Your Sakurai Sho friend is pretty hot,” Aiba gave back and Nino huffed while Jun laughed. He was pretty confident that he had just saved Sho's election campaign.

* ~ * ~ *

“Let's start the meeting, shall we?” Jun continued and everyone present looked up to him. Bathing in the attention, Jun began to speak.

“We're here to talk about how to let the public know that our Sho-chan here has a boyfriend.”

He hit Sho's shoulder playfully who fidgeted on his seat. Sho's eyes wandered to Aiba who was sitting next to him. Aiba didn't seem to have any problem with “showing the public that he was Sho-chan's boyfriend”. He didn't even seem to mind acting as that.

When they had met for the first time a few days ago, Aiba had hugged him, asking Sho to take care of him for this “job”. That's what it seemed to be for Aiba – a simple job.

Of course, Sho did remember Aiba Masaki. Jun had told him several stories about him when they had been separated due to their studies. He had even seen some pictures of Aiba (and Jun's other flatmate, Nino). Sho had been jealous that Jun had such friendly flatmates. Sho had been living alone but he would have loved to spend the evenings as cheerful as Jun, especially when he had such a beautiful flatmate.

Right, Sho thought that Aiba was beautiful, in his simple, natural way. People would remember his dazzling smile for sure but Aiba wasn't just that. He was caring, a good listener and attentive of his surroundings – at least that's what Sho had heard from Jun.

If Sho would have gotten to know Aiba in his natural environment, he would have come to like this man for sure, maybe they would even have become friends. However, imagining him as his boyfriend made Sho feel dizzy about the thought. He might be able to hold hands or hug Aiba, but kissing – no way. Men did not kiss other men, that was what Sho thought since he was a boy and he simply didn't want to change his mind. They could go through this without kissing, right?!

“SAKURAI SHO! Would you please stop spacing out in the middle of our meeting,” he suddenly heard Jun scolding him. According to the sharpness in his voice he had been trying to gain Sho's attention for a while already.

“I'm sorry,” Sho mumbled and lowered his head, hearing Jun sigh.

“To help us carrying out our plan, Nana brought a good friend of her,” Jun went on. “Sho, I am sure you remember Keiko.”

Of course Sho remembered Keiko. He had a crush on her at high school. Since she had been his sister's best friend back in these days (and was still holding that position nowadays, Sho assumed), she had been at their house several times. Naturally, since he was Sho's best friend, Jun knew that Sho had had a thing for her and Sho really held it against Jun that he had chosen Keiko for this today.

Keiko had always loved to write and she belonged to those women who, like Sho's sister, were interested in politics. It was only natural that she chose the path of a journalist, which was exactly what Sho and Jun needed right now.

“Are you really sure that you want to do this?” Keiko asked, looking directly at Sho. “I agree with you that you will gain votes from many people, but you're also risking to lose your conservative voters that might not really like the idea of a gay mayor. Once we get this thing rolling, there will be now way out anymore.”

Sho nodded. Of course he and Jun had talked about the risk of loosing votes. It was going to happen for sure. However, they were expecting the number of new votes to be comparatively higher which would bring the anticipated growth of votes. Also, once in a while, you have to take a risk was what he and Jun had decided.

“Okay,” Keiko acknowledged Sho's decision. “I thought it might be the best to make it look like some paparazzi had caught you two being all lovey-dovey. This way, you don't have to announce your relationship openly, but rather can react to what will be brought to the surface,” Keiko suggested.

Sho liked the idea and that's what he told her. He had already worried about having to think of a speech in which he told the public that he was in a relationship with a man.

“Perfect!” Keiko nodded. “It will be me taking those pictures. We will have to think where and when we're shooting them, but regardless of time and place I really need you two to look overly in love,” she demanded and looked back and forth between Sho and Aiba.

“That's easy. We can do this!”, Aiba assured her and threw a failed wink at Sho who had the impression that Aiba was way more prepared to act out his role than he was.

* ~ * ~ *

Sho was looking out of the window of his car. Aiba was sitting on the backseat next to him but didn't say a word. Sho was happy, he wasn't in the mood of talking.

They had gone through today's act several times and Sho was more than scared. The plan was that Sho was bringing Aiba back to his shared flat with Nino. They would have a sweet good-night-scene during which Keiko was going to take some pictures.

Especially the “sweet good-night-scene” was worrying Sho. Keiko had assured him that he didn't have to kiss Aiba. She would make it look like one though. Still, he had to act as if he was in love with Aiba, a man he barely knew.

Of course, Sho had been in relationships before – only with women, though. However, he had no idea how he looked like when he was in love. Was he smiling? Was he always looking at his partner? Was he making excessive body contact?

“It's going to be alright,” he suddenly heard Aiba saying. Sho turned to the man next to him. How did Aiba know that he was worrying about the upcoming event?

Aiba reached for Sho's hand and squeezed it. It took all of Sho's willpower not to pull his hand back. Aiba was trying to calm him down. Sho appreciated the thought, but holding hands already?!

Aiba was smiling at Sho and didn't let go of him while their car drove through Tokyo's streets. Somehow, a few minutes later, Sho felt indeed a bit calmer. He didn't have to do this alone afterall. Aiba was there with him too and he seemed to be quite a good actor. They would pull this off somehow. He only had to hold Aiba's hands like they were doing now, not much more...

“We'll arrive in the next minute,” Ohno, his driver, let them know.

Taking a deep breath, Sho looked at Aiba once more and met that bright smile again. As if he was hit by a ray of sunshine, Sho felt a cosy warmth wrapping around his heart, making him believe that everything would be alright.

A few seconds later, Ohno stopped the car. Without turning around, he said, “Good luck, you two!”

Sho knew that Oho was a man of few words, so he was really thankful for his encouragement.

“Let's do this,” he whispered and Aiba nodded and opened the door. Sho got out of the car behind him. There wasn't much to it, right? He only had to walk Aiba to the door, bring them in a position that made it look like they were kissing and walk back to the car.

Determined, Sho closed the car's door behind him and reached for Aiba's waist. Why holding hands if you can be closer? It would look even more in love.

Luckily, Aiba didn't seem to mind the little change of plans and threw Sho a shy look while a soft smile played around the corners of his mouth.

“You're doing great!” Aiba praised Sho, charming a little smile from Sho.

They reached the door and Sho let go of Aiba who pulled his keys out. Now, the essential part of their plan was due. Sho was supposed to grab Aiba, turn him around and press him against the door. While he was blocking the view with his back, they were supposed to let it look like a good-night-kiss.

However, from that moment, everything went wrong. Sho took Aiba by his waist, but when he turned him around, they fell over each other's feet and crashed against the door. Aiba even bumped his head on the glass.

While Sho struggled to retrieve his balance, he turned deep red. He knew he could be clumsy but he usually hide it quite well. Why did it have to show today?

Aiba was rubbing his head, his face slightly twisted in pain.

“Are you okay?” Sho asked him worried, checking Aiba's head for blood.

“I'm fine,” Aiba gave back and then, he did something unexpected. He started to laugh – loud and high, sounding like an hyena.

Sho looked at him, first shocked, then surprised, but in the end, he joined Aiba in his laughter. He took a step back because Sho had realised that he was still trapping Aiba between the glass and his body.

“Good night, Sho,” Aiba smiled and gave him a kiss, a short one – on his lips. Then, leaving Sho who was frozen in shock, Aiba entered the house and vanished up the stairs.

It took Sho about a minute to move again. His mind was still blank, only the thought that he had just been kissed by a man was circling though it. How did it came to that? They had had a plan without a kiss. Why did it end up like this?

He reached the car and was glad that Ohno had gotten out of it and was opening the door for him. Sho let himself fall onto the backseat, letting Ohno take care of the doors. He was glad that his driver was not making comments about his failure just now. That was exactly why he valued Ohno that much – he was only speaking when it was necessary.

Sho reached for his lips. He could still feel the warmth of Aiba's lips there. They had been soft – of course, why should men's lips not be soft, Sho scolded himself. Still, it had been Aiba – a man.

However, before Sho could think about this further, his cell phone rang. He saw that it was Keiko, so he took a deep breath before he picked up the call.

“That was not what we had planned, Sho,” he heard Keiko on the other end.

“I am sorry,” Sho apologized.

“Seriously, it wasn't even complicated. You only had to walk him to the door,” she went on.

“I am really sorry,” Sho murmured. He felt like a child that was being scolded. It was an effect older women always had on him. He blamed his sister for it who had always scolded him when he was being clumsy.

“But Aiba sure covered up nicely for you,” Keiko praised. “That kiss in the end was perfect.”

Sho was arguing with himself if he should tell her that he had a slightly different opinion, but she didn't leave him time for a response.

“I have enough material to write something nice now, so you should brace yourself for what will come tomorrow,” she said before she cut the call.

Sho leaned back. Keiko was right. Tomorrow was going to get interesting – he simply hoped in a good way.

* ~ * ~ *

Aiba rushed up the stairs to his apartment. He quickly opened the door and entered their shared flat. After closing the door behind him, he leaned against it, trying to catch his breath.

He had kissed Sakurai Sho and his lips had been incredibly soft. Aiba didn't mind kissing other men, he had done so many times before, but Jun's advise was popping up in his head. He had told Aiba that Sho was still a bit reluctant acting all cute with another man, so Jun had asked Aiba to take things slow.

Kissing Sho's lips would probably not count as slow. Aiba hoped that he didn't shock Sho too much. Starting from tomorrow they had to do things like that more often though. Maybe, in Sho's case, it was the best to be really forward and confront him openly with his fears. Aiba nodded. He would make sure that Sho would loose his aversion of skinship between men.

“Aiba-shi, what are you doing there?”

Nino had appeared in the hallway and was looking at Aiba with a questioning look.

“Nothing,” Aiba shrugged and finally got out of his shoes.

“There is no way you can hide something from me, so, tell me, what happened?” Nino went on probing.

Aiba sighed. Nino was right. He always saw right through him.

“I kissed Sho,” he therefore answered truthfully.

“You did – what? But didn't Jun ask you to act slow on this?” Nino asked, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“It wasn't planned that way,” Aiba began and told Nino what had just happened in front of their door. When he was done, he realised, that they had moved towards the living room. He sat down on the sofa and Nino followed.

“Sho has really soft lips,” Aiba stated and received a glare from Nino. “And he smells very good,” he went on and Nino raised his hand to stop Aiba's flow of words.

“Aiba, please don't tell me you like Sakurai Sho,” his flatmate asked and looked directly into Aiba's eyes.

“I like him the way I like you – as a normal friend. It's just that for this job I have to add a bit more skinship and such,” Aiba explained and tried to escape Nino's piercing look.

“Exactly, this is a JOB. You get money for it and you are not allowed to let any of your feelings get involved,” Nino warned him and Aiba rolled his eyes. Of course, he knew that but it should be allowed to have fun at work, right?!

* ~ * ~ *

Sho was looking at the screen of his laptop. Jun had just mailed him a link where Sho could check the public reactions. The subject of Jun's e-mail was entitled “I am such a genius”.

Sho had to notice that the majority of people was okay with what had been published in today's newspaper. They were either shrugging this off with the comment that everyone was allowed to chose their own happiness, whatever this was, or were praising him that he was brave enough to have such a relationship in his position. Most of the tweets or facebook status updates were showing support towards him. Some of his followers had already drawn fanarts with him and Aiba – some in quite explicit positions that caused Sho to quickly close the window of his browser. He read the word “cute” so often in the last minutes, that he couldn't count it any more.

However, another word popped up as well.

“DISGUSTING!”

Sho's stomach turned around upon reading this. He looked at the picture above the word. Aiba was kissing him. Nothing was wrong about the kiss. It really looked like a simple good-night-kiss between two people that liked each other. Although Sho had been raised in a household were the idea of men kissing was not fitting into the concept of how society works, Sho though that the word “disgusting” was a bit too harsh.

“Did you take a look at the e-mail I sent you?” Jun asked when he entered Sho's office without even knocking.

“The one where you claim to be a genius?” Sho gave back, grinning.

“But I am,” Jun defended himself. “Just look at all the positive responses you're getting. People love you for “being brave” and “following your heart”. Lots of women suddenly took interest in you and are even following you on facebook and twitter now. If you continue with this, they will be on your side, for sure.”

“There were some critical remarks as well,” Sho threw in but Jun waved it off.

“You'll always have people that have to complain and some simply don't like the idea of men being gay and so open about it. You cannot blame them, it's their decision to think that way,” Jun brushed off Sho's worries. “The most important part is that you gained lots of attention and that suddenly people that weren't interested in you at all are now following your actions,” he went on.

As always, what Jun said made sense. The number of people bashing Sho was low compared to the ones that accepted the news or were even delighted about it. Taking this risk had been worth it and Sho was indeed relieved. Still, there were some things on his mind.

“What are we going to do from now?” he asked Jun, knowing that his assistant and friend already had planned things out.

“You keep on with your normal work, holding speeches, showing your face to the public and appearing in newspapers and on TV. You only have to add “acting all lovey-dovey” with your boyfriend to your to-do list. We have to make sure people will not lose interest in you. However, for now, they are fired up about the pictures and this will keep them busy for the next two days, I think, so you don't have to worry about Aiba-chan for now,” Jun said and Sho felt relieved.

After the kiss from yesterday he wasn't too keen on meeting Aiba. He didn't know how he should behave. Was Aiba expecting another kiss?

Jun's phone rang and with a glance at Sho, who gestured him to pick up, Jun took the call. It seemed that someone pretty angry was talking to him but all Sho could hear was a loud voice.

When Jun cut the call again, he threw an apologetic look at Sho.

“Aiba seems to have some trouble at his flat. The reporters are waiting outside to get some comments from him and apparently he cannot leave,” Jun explained and Sho rubbed his forehead.

He had been so focussed on himself that he forgot that the news would not only affect his life, but Aiba's as well. He felt responsible for Aiba in a way, so he decided that he had to act quickly now.

“I think it's the best to bring him here. The security of this building will make sure he won't get cornered by the reporters. We can think of a solution when he's here,” Sho decided and Jun nodded in agreement.

“I will send someone to fetch him,” Jun declared and took out his phone again, dialing a well-known-number.

(2/4)