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Sleep did not come easy for Tsukasa due to a variety of reasons, whether it be the seemingly endless amount of energy he couldn’t seem to shake off or a nightmare that had woken him up with a sweaty forehead and breathless lungs. Even after finding an outlet- Wonderlands x Showtime, that is- to help him release his energy, it seemed as though the problem wouldn’t solve itself. The fact that Rui was able to sleep so soundly next to him on the nights he spent at Tsukasa’s house didn’t exactly help. It’d become so common that the blonde eventually got used to simply staying awake and only getting enough sleep to last the day.
So, late nights led him to choose an activity in order to tire himself out- stress baking.
Eggs are dutifully cracked into a bowl, and Tsukasa wonders if he’s short a few yolks as he holds the two parts of the shell into his hands. He’s humming quietly along to one of Leo/need’s songs playing on his phone, smiling whenever he recognizes Saki’s ever passionate voice, and his ingredients lay messily on top of the counter. Fortunately, it’s been a few nights since the star’s sleep circumstances had led him to start baking at roughly one in the morning, but today had been particularly stressful. Tsukasa knew too well that Wonderlands x Showtime’s show earlier had gone great. Malfunctions were natural and coincidentally had to make an appearance.
Was it three lemons or two lemons? he thinks, focusing back on the matters in front of him. Lemon bars were, in fact, one of his favorite things to make, and they were greatly appreciated during lunch at school. The bars usually had a sunny color that wasn’t unlike the boy’s hair and they were dusted with powdered sugar. With a small amount of ingredients, the recipe yielded enough for his troupe and his friends outside of that; just the thought of being able to share his desserts with people brought a smile to Tsukasa’s face. He decidedly goes with two and a half lemons, squeezing the juice into the bowl and trying not to get excess into his eye.
It’s in the middle of measuring out the sugar and flour that he hears the sound of slipper-clad footsteps going down the stairs, and it can only belong to the only other person in the house. As if reading his mind, a pair of arms wrap around his waist, and the weight of Rui’s chin rests on his shoulder. The blonde’s face goes red. How could it be possible that anyone could get used to this feeling? Even the slightest bit of affection from Rui had Tsukasa’s heart skipping a few beats, at least. Rui was so sweet, so kind, so annoyingly romantic that it made him sick to his stomach and made his heart ache with pure love for his boyfriend so, so bad.
“Tsukasa,” Rui mumbles, and Tsukasa is still a little dazed (it’s way too late for any of this, really) at how he leisurely leaves the honorific behind, “your room is cold when you aren’t there. Can you go back to sleep with me?”
Oh, how badly he wants to, but god knows how long it’d take for him to fall asleep, especially while knowing that he hadn’t gotten anything accomplished. “I’ll be there in, say…” Tsukasa turns his head to squint at the clock hanging in the kitchen, “... half an hour, perhaps? It depends on if I can finish this in time! Otherwise, I’ll most likely just redo the entire batch, since the crust should be done in a few minutes-”
“ Or, ” Rui interjects, tightening his hold around Tsukasa’s waist, pushing away the bowl of lemon juice and eggs as he slowly starts dragging his lover away from the kitchen, “you can finish this tomorrow and we can sleep now. Quite the good deal, isn’t it?”
“Rui, I want to finish this batch.”
“Yeah, and I’d like to sleep, Tsukasa, and you’re aware that I can’t sleep while knowing that you’re staying up at unworldly hours baking lemon bars of all things.”
Tsukasa’s eyebrow raises, and he cracks a smile. “Really? That’s amusing to hear you say, Rui ‘I skipped studying for my math test so I can build a robot’ Kamishiro.”
He can feel Rui’s face burying into his shoulder with a defeated groan and can’t help the small laugh he lets out at the motion. Tsukasa stops measuring the flour out to raise a hand and place it on Rui’s head, running his hands through his boyfriend’s hair, and continues whisking in the remaining ingredients. The smallest things like these- spending time together after school, running through pages of script alone, going out to eat with friends- made Tsukasa endlessly happy to be able to call Rui his. Of course they were always the teasing type of duo, what with Rui’s constant nagging and Tsukasa’s usual retorts, but the relationship was different. It was… weird, seeing Rui hand him a bouquet of flowers when they went on dates. It was weird going on dates in general. But, all in all, it was a type of weirdness that Tsukasa welcomed with open arms and endless adoration for the boy holding him close.
Rui’s arms loosen the slightest bit. “If you aren’t going to sleep, let me help you?” Opting for a position where they’d both be able to move freely, he moves to Tsukasa’s side and leans his head on the blonde’s shoulder, eyes trained on the whisk moving around the bowl. “Then you’d be able to finish and I can finally go to sleep.”
“I thought you’d never ask!” Tsukasa exclaims a little too loudly for the time of day and turns his head to kiss the corner of Rui’s lips excitedly. “Alright, would you take the crust out of the oven, please? I’m almost done with the filling so I can pour it in and it’ll bake.” Shuffling against the floor ensues and Tsukasa looks over once more to glare at the other, who had just opened the oven door and was eagerly reaching in to grab the pan. “And please, please use oven mitts, Rui.”
The director pouts and begrudgingly puts on a pair of mitts before pulling out the crust and placing it on the counter. “Aw, you caught me.”
“I had a feeling you’d do that.” Tsukasa heaves a sigh, giving the mixture of ingredients a final whisk, taking the bowl in his hands and carefully pouring it over the crust. It evened itself out relatively quickly and the blonde gives himself a mental pat on the back for improvement. Even if baking were his stress hobby, that wasn’t to say that he couldn’t improve in his skills along the way, right? “Put this back in the oven for me, darling?”
Rui’s eyes visibly brighten up at the name and his mouth breaks into a smile, cheesy and bashful and romantic all the same. “If that’s what you’d want me to do, my love,” he says back, laughing a little while respectively taking the pan and sliding it into the oven. He closes the oven door as Tsukasa reaches over his shoulder to turn the timer on for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes to themselves, at last.
The blonde pushes himself up to sit on the counter without a care for the ingredients still lying on the surface around him, and Rui almost immediately lies his head in the other’s lap, arms finding their way back around Tsukasa’s waist as they were prior. It’s too natural to be able to run fingers through Rui’s hair, to keep his arms around his waist, to feel warmth through body heat against body heat. And, yet, Tsukasa still finds himself embarrassed over the smallest things Rui did for him, whether it be a kiss or a hug during school or anything of that sort. Almost a whole year of being together never really seemed to change how easily Rui was able to make his heart melt.
The director tilts his head up the slightest bit and Tsukasa holds his face in his hands, rubbing his cheek with his thumb. Maybe, maybe the way Rui leans into his touch is enough to stop his breathing for a hair of a second, and when Rui places his own hand over Tsukasa’s, it’s enough to affirm that yes, Tsukasa would fall in love with this boy lifetimes and lifetimes over. And, if he wasn’t able to, he’d spend lifetimes searching him out, finding the one he’d decided that he wanted to be with for a while.
It’s silent for a few minutes, Tsukasa occasionally glancing away to check the timer, but still almost never taking his eyes off of his boyfriend. Love did certain things to a person, love made people do things without realizing and Tsukasa was, in all of his entirety, certain proof of that. “You’re looking at me so strangely,” Rui hums quietly, his eyelids fluttering closed, “It’s embarrassing, you know?”
Tsukasa smiles fondly, lifting Rui’s hand to kiss his knuckles, pressing lips against his fingertips and the heat in his skin. “Why wouldn’t I look at you? You’re beautiful, Rui.” A hotness burns over his cheeks and bashfully, Tsukasa averts his eyes to the side. “I didn’t… even realize that I was staring at you. I guess it just happens, you know? Because you’re so…” a pause, just to regain his thoughts, recollect his mind in hopes that he wouldn’t fall victim to Rui’s eyes once more, “... you’re everything to me. I can’t help staring at you when I’m so lucky to have you here in the first place.”
Pink is a nice color on him, Tsukasa decides when Rui’s cheeks light up in response, and Rui holds back a smile by biting his bottom lip though it does ultimately fail. He props himself up with both arms planted on the counter on either side of Tsukasa’s legs. Tsukasa feels the sudden urge to melt into a small puddle simply due to the lack of distance they had between their faces. “You really do find ways to embarrass people so lovingly, Tsukasa-kun. So much that it’s surprising how I’m seemingly the only one who wants to kiss you whenever you’re like this.”
“Well, you know, I only ever want to kiss you, Rui,” Tsukasa replies with a knowing smile, his hands back to cup Rui’s cheeks, eyes half-lidded and heart swelling with pure joy.
“Is that so?” Rui leans in a little more, gracing Tsukasa with the feeling of their noses brushing just a little, feeling the heat of Rui’s soft breathing against his lips. “Then that I’ll do.”
The pounding in Tsukasa’s heart only pangs louder when Rui draws closer, his hands on Rui’s cheeks grounding themselves to move to Rui’s hair, combing fingers through purple hair, and it’s all too much, it’s too overwhelming waiting for Rui to simply reach him and meet him halfway-
The oven timer goes off.
Tsukasa falls off of the counter with a yelp.
Rui doesn’t spare him a second glance. “Oh! I was wondering why that took so long,” Rui chirps cheerfully, as if what just happened hadn’t fazed him the slightest bit, and he pulls on the pair of oven mitts to open the oven door and place the freshly-baked lemon bars onto the counter. It’s only then that he realizes Tsukasa was lying on the floor, giving him a glare reminiscent of how he acted during troupe practices. “Hmmm. Tsukasa-kun, why are you there?”
“You’re the worst, we were about to kiss and you care more about the lemon bars.” Though it takes a minimal amount of effort to get up again, Tsukasa still finds himself staring at his boyfriend exasperatedly as he stretches out his limbs and examines the desserts.
“Well, I want to go to sleep, Tsukasa. Wouldn’t it be better to lie down than to sit on the counter?” He smiles and sheepishly leans down to kiss the other’s jaw, taking out the plastic wrap nearby and placing some over the pan of lemon bars. “I’d much rather kiss you there. My back hurts.”
Tiredly, Tsukasa pinches the bridge of his nose and smiles at Rui, taking his hand and pulling him away from the kitchen. “Alright, well… you’re right. But I’m still pretty miffed at you for not helping me up, dear director.” Though, who could say that it was the truth? It was a bit of a stretch- to be honest, Tsukasa couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt that way towards his lover.
Really, all moments with Rui were ones that only made him fall harder, and wish to be with him for the rest of his life.