Chapter Text
Unsurprisingly the film was Ryuji’s shit.
The way he watched it, perching forwards, eyes wide, face oddly serious during the tense parts as the characters danced around each other giving dramatic monologues about baking cakes for the wrong reasons, or about how it was forgivable, given the circumstances. Akira didn't really know the plot of it or like it for that matter, but he didn't care. He was holding Ryuji's hand, feeling every soft or hard squeeze he made in response to the movie. The film was good enough, it had some good moments that caught his attention occasionally but he was entertained by seeing Ryuji's face light up every time something happened, big or small. The quirk of his lips or when his eyes flared at the dramatic reveals or when he gave little gasps or downright shouted at the screen, he memorised it all.
He'd never really thought about seriously confessing until right now. How he was going to do it. There were so many risk factors. The answer, he had convinced himself before, would be a resounding no so he had decided to save himself the grief of being rejected and then having to try and hold up a non-awkward friendship with Ryuji.
But all of that went out the window as he saw Ryuji glance over at him ever so softly, taking his attention off the film. God, he had to do it tonight, get it out of his system. "We can turn it off, if you're not gettin' it. These things aren't your type'a thing so..."
"No, no, I am paying attention, just got distracted. Keep it going, there's this guy fighting with this other guy over baking, right?"
The blonde reached out for the remote and hit the pause button, stopping it just as the main guy was about to get slapped in the face with a victoria sponge, "Dude we can turn it off if you wanna talk. Fuck knows how many times you've helped me out! Come onnnnnn..."
“Ah. No need, just put the movie back on.” Akira insisted but the blonde was having absolutely none of it and shook his head, staring at him right in the eyes, hardly blinking to the point where Akira was actually impressed. “How long’ve we been best friends for? You can tell me anythin’, no judgement.”
Oh how he wished he could believe that. “Ryuji-“
”Akira.”
Now they were going back and forth saying eachother’s names with sterner and progressively serious-sounding tones and everything was getting a little too much. Akira loved Ryuji’s passion, the way he fought to his breaking point to protect people, the way he was always looking out for his friends and the little guy... but it felt like he was trying to probe into Akira’s deepest darkest secret that he was by no means ready to share. He was thoroughly scared to the bone but... but he trusted him.
At its core, he trusted him entirely. No judgement. He just had to trust that.
“Ryuji... I... do you... are you...” He fought to get out, battling against every bone in his body that was telling him not to do this, changing his words about 8 times as he was saying them. He sounded illiterate but Ryuji smiled at him and squeezed his hand reassuringly, letting out a pathetic, blushing laugh.
All that bullshit from before, trying to convince himself that being just friends was enough finally died. He wanted to be his boyfriend, he couldn't do friends whilst feeling his passionately that he wanted to kiss him and love him, offer his heart on a silver platter and put everything on the line. Love was pathetic but all-encompassing and he was head over heels. When the blonde shuffled closer, Akira let a sentence escape his mouth before he even processed it. “You making a move on me?”
“Oh shudapp! Just ask your question already!” Ryuji was blushing. Even in the shitty light from the very early morning, the pinkish tint was visible... and cute.
Here goes.
"Ryuji... I... I'm-" He had no idea where he was going with this but the words kept on fumbling out at the speed of a tidal wave, "Gay."
Shit. Wrong confession.
Ryuji opened his mouth, then closed it, exchanging looks between Akira, their interlocking hands and the floor as if weighing things up in his mind, judging, putting the puzzle pieces together. Eventually, since someone had to say something, he filled that role. "'Dude you know you'll always have me, did you ever think that I wouldn't be ok with that? Shit man, y'know I love ya no matter what. And if anyone gives you any shit, I'll kick their ass!" He stalled, mouth flickering as to say something else but being restrained by another part of his body and he ended up just saying nothing.
Now Akira had a problem, there was no way to smoothly segway this heavy, momentous occasion of him coming out to his best friend into a love confession, it would seem to rash, like he was unloading information onto Ryuji for the sake of tricking into accepting out of obligation. "We should start that movie back up, or else it'll be perpetually stalled on the climax." He tried to hurry things on, reaching over Ryuji's torso to grab the remote from the other side suddenly, only for his arm to be grabbed mid-action, falling a little forward so the two of them were abruptly very close, almost nose to nose.
Then, with a tone Akira had never heard Ryuji use before, wobbly, smoky, sensuous, he averted his eyes, sending them down to the floor and near to whispered, "Dude, shut up... I-I don’t care ‘bout the film."
Without overthinking, he put a finger under Ryuji's chin to lift his head up then kissed him, pulling away after his brain caught up with his heart and launched him into panic mode. "Shit... I didn’t mean to just go for it like that! You just looked so damn... kissable.”
”Dude! Don’t say stuff like that or I’ll do something fucking idiotic.”
“Sorry but your lips look-“
But he wasn't given enough time to teasingly apologise as Ryuji took the glasses from his face and tossed them to the ground, going in to start up a newer, fiercer kiss, tilting his head a little to the side so there could be a little more creative freedom than the last time. Akira unsurprisingly melted to the touch, kissing back equally as hard, getting progressively more passionate as he took hold of the back of Ryuji's neck, pushing them even closer together.
They moved in a natural rhythm with the vanilla makeout session, which was progressively swelling with tension and need. Akira, using the gymnastic skills he’d learnt to assist with the palace infiltrations, manoeuvred over, swinging then wrapping his legs around Ryuji’s waist, straddling him all without breaking the kiss.
Ryuji pulled away after feeling Akira's extra weight on his thighs, bright pink and panting, catching his breath back. “Too far?” Akira smirked, voice smooth as silver. Ryuji shook his head, looking a mixture of very-sure-of-himself and completely dazed, looking awkward as he noticed his hands were frozen in mid-air in a really awkward position, struggling to decide where to put them. Where would be too forward? Where would be just right?
Bluntly, Akira prompted him, "You can put your hands on my ass, Ryuji."
"D-DUDE. I-I... fucking jeez... I..."
Akira stifled a chuckle, collapsing in to laugh into the blonde's shoulder, listening to him struggle and stutter to find words. Was this love? This feeling, ever so specific in nature yet indescribable, impossible to put into words. It was heavy like a bowling ball but also light and euphoric. Two souls finding peace together, a little clumsily yet completely, with a rush of undeniable bliss. It was more than happiness, 10, 100, 1000 times more. It was an all-encompassing force, like sober drunkenness, completely out of control but grounded by that other person, who was also spinning and out of control but being calmed by you diametrically.
"...Hey. I wasn't joking, you can totally put your hand, both your hands on my-"
"-Oh my fucking god Akira... man should we like, talk 'bout this?" Ryuji shut him up acting sensibly for once but blushing frantically, which only made Akira's cocky smirk widen. He replied sarcastically, of course, "What, right now? While I'm basically riding you?"
Ryuji exploded with embarrassment, "Y-You don't have to word it like that!"
Simply, Akira gestured as their position with a distinct look that simply said, 'But I'm not wrong.' Ryuji couldn't disagree there, but it was a weird thought, being ridden by his best friend, one he never thought he'd be thinking about. "Does this make us... is this gonna be a thing? Like a for real, proper thing or you just fooling around? Because dude... I don't know what you're thinkin'."
Okay, Akira thought, we're having this conversation now. It was a idea brilliant to act like rational adults and to express their feelings to one another in a calm and open way but he just wanted to keep kissing him. After being Ryuji-kiss-starved for months and finally getting it, he wanted to make the most of it because inevitably doing something to mess it up. But Ryuji wanted this conversation- so he sucked it up and made the right choice.
He cleared his throat and looked at Ryuji, his confidence beginning to slip away as he slowly divulged his insecurities slowly, one at a time, to him, averting his eyes every so often as to finish his sentences. "I... Ryuji, I don't want to just hook up with you. This, you and me... you know what you said before about me making you feel free?" Ryuji nodded, letting his continue, "It's like that. I don't think people can be completely complete, but you make me feel as close to completeness as I ever could be. You make me feel right. Like wearing a mask doesn't matter. I could just be talking nonsense to you but I hope you're getting this or else I look really insane right now."
Ryuji was nearly crying, he was in that near-crying state of trying to keep his eyes open and fan away the tear with the palm of his head, not looking at Akira otherwise he would break down in tears. Nothing had prepared him for that sort of confession. It was honest and perfectly Akira's style, ambushing him with the sweetest confession so that his heart couldn't take it and he'd resort to crying. It was devilish. "D-Ditto..."
"Say, totally random question here but do you want to by my boyfriend? Lock me down before someone else does, I've got a lot of interest you see..." In typical snarky Akira manner, he asked in a smooth way, moving a hand through his hair to seem extra attractive and to possibly increase his charm.
The blonde raised an eyebrow, "Shit, didn't know I'd be dating a celebrity."
Akira 'mhm'ed, trying to keep as much as a straight face as he could. For a trickster, sometimes he had the worst poker face. "Yeah, it's a blessing and a curse. So?"
"Yeah. L-Let's fuckin' do it! I'll be your boyfriend."
Finally breaking the act, Akira leapt forward into his arms and hugged him, giving him the softest, tenderest kiss on the lips, looking into those same enchanting hazelnut eyes, only a little differently this time. As a boyfriend. Lovingly. Now it was happening, he realised that falling in love with his best friend was the best thing that he'd ever done. All the heartache, the guessing, the praying had been worth it.
Worth it for this, what felt like the good ending.