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It wasn’t unusual for Rui and Akito to walk home together from their respective rehearsals. Somehow, the paths they took aligned at one path, and they found themselves walking the rest of the way together until the other reached home. This day was no different until they spotted something new.
Hanging off the side of a building was a brightly-lit sign, signalling a café. Akito takes notice of it almost immediately.
“Hey, Rui,” He points to the sign and taps Rui on the shoulder - the other boy looks tired; he’s practically dragging his feet, “I’ve never seen this café before. Pretty sure it’s new. Wanna take a break and maybe check it out?”
As a silent acceptance, Rui nods - although with less enthusiasm than Akito would like. “Come on! Let’s get you something to eat.” Akito slings his arm around Rui’s shoulder, not noticing how the other boy beside him tenses at the action. Rui can’t even mutter a protest as he’s basically forced into the establishment, trapped around Akito’s friendly yet firm arm.
For a new building, it's pretty well-kept already. The lighting is dim - but not dim enough so that it's difficult to see, and it brings a nice vibe to the place compared to other cafés open at this time. There's one thing that catches Akito's attention almost instantly, though.
"Welcome!" A bright, cheery voice calls from behind the register, and both boys recognise the girl as Tenma Tsukasa's little sister. Rui's face lights up, while Akito's falls into his practised ‘nice guy' smile. He can't help himself from whispering to Rui, "Does she actually work here?", and Rui stifles a laugh in response.
Not wanting to leave Saki waiting, Rui moves closer to view the menu, subconsciously making Akito follow him. “Look! They serve cheesecake here. You like cheesecake, don’t you?” Rui points to the pastry through the glass. It makes Akito’s night a lot better.
“Shit. I’m sold.” Akito immediately decides and points out to Saki that that’s what he’s going to order. “What are you gonna get, though?”
Rui pauses to think and look deeper at all the foods on display, but it’s only for a second before he decides; “Nothing. It’s okay, I’m just not very hungry.”
Akito won’t take that as an answer. “Saki, could you make that two cheesecakes instead? Thank you.”
“Akito-kun, it’s really okay—” There’s a laugh near the end of his sentence as Rui’s being dragged once again but to a table this time. Thanks to the lack of people there, they had gotten their food pretty quickly.
In the end, Akito paid for both of them, as Rui didn’t bring any money. Rui will never say it out loud, but he felt spoiled for it.
Akito takes a bite out of his cheesecake and his face melts. This side of Akito is rare, and Rui wishes Akito could see his own expression. The boy is chewing on his pastry with such fervour that Rui has to double-check what they're doing and how it possibly could make him react like this. But no, Akito is truly enamoured by just having cheesecake. His eyes are so bright that it makes him even more drawn to Akito. Almost like a moth drawn to a flame. Said flame would be similar to the colour of Akito's hair, he realises. He might be thinking too deeply about this.
That thought is quickly proven. "Rui, what are you staring at?"
“Ah! Sorry, Akito-kun. I spaced out for a bit, fufu.” Rui, embarrassed, looks down at his untouched cheesecake. He picks up his fork and mindlessly picks at the piece of cake, effortlessly zoning out again.
The two sit in comfortable silence as Rui’s mind starts to wander even more. He looks outside the window and looks at the darkened sky. If he squints hard enough, he can see a faint, orange glow near the horizon. Almost like Akito’s ha— forget it.
He focuses his eyes on the silhouetted buildings, and stars are spread all around the sky like a beautiful painting. It’s like something straight out of a book. The pale moon gleams in the infinite blanket of stars, making it stand out tenfold. It’s captivating. Rui stares at the dazzling sky and finds himself utterly drawn to it. Almost like—
“Oi, Rui, don’t tell me you haven’t even touched your cake yet. What’s up with you today?”
“I… don’t know. But look outside, don’t you think that’s gorgeous?” Rui gestures his head to look out the window, and Akito takes a good view of what was distracting Rui so much.
After a few seconds, he understands. “Whoa. I never knew a place like this wouldn’t have bad light pollution or whatever, that’s… so cool.”
“Can we go and watch it outside?”
“Shit, sure! But, wait, since you’re so slow,” Akito reaches over the table and grabs Rui’s fork out of his hand, picking a piece out of the cake and bringing it close to his mouth. “Come on, Rui. Open wide.” Akito has a grin on his face that does anything but make Rui want to do that, and yet blood rushes to his cheeks. He knows he doesn’t exactly have a choice here, so fuck it. He’ll just go with what Akito does.
“Akito-kun- I can eat fine on- my own-” Rui speaks with a stuffed mouth, half the words he says coming out muffled.
“It’s rude to talk with your mouth full; you know that, Rui?” Akito smirks again as Rui just freezes, chewing his food even slower. Akito will take that as an acceptance of defeat.
The cheesecake is sweet and melts in his mouth, but it can’t compare to how flustered Rui feels - he might as well melt, too. The feeling makes him blind to time, and he’s already let Akito feed him the entire cheesecake. That was quick.
“Now come on. You wanna see those stars, right?”
“Of course.” Rui begins moving up from the table, Akito following. Saki beams a ‘Bye-bye! Thank you for coming!’ from behind the counter as the boys leave the café, and start looking for a place to sit.
“Akito-kun, the view is even better out here, look!”
Rui points up to the star-clustered sky, completely having stopped walking and almost losing Akito. Without question, Akito looks up, and he sees speckles of white dots peppering the vast, dark sky.
Though, they aren’t as beautiful as the boy next to him. Akito doesn’t have the courage in him to admit it to Rui.
“…They are. Should we stop here?”
As a silent acceptance, Rui takes a seat on the ground. Akito follows, sinking his body weight into the grass and accidentally crushing a dandelion. Rui takes notice of this somehow.
"Akito-kun!" Rui clutches his heart, "That flower was an innocent, precious life, you know! How could you be so cruel?!"
‘Seriously? This is the guy I like?’ Akito thinks, rolling his eyes at the other boy. "Yeah, I murdered it in cold blood. What are you gonna do about it?" he snarkily remarks.
Rui grins, “Well, looks like you'll have to be thrown in jail, and I'll never see my Akito-kun again!"
‘My Akito-kun' catches Akito off-guard. He tries his best to ignore his heart rapidly thumping in his chest. The two boys look at each other momentarily, and it only takes a few seconds for both of them to burst into laughter.
Akito sighs, looking at the stars above. They shimmer across the skyline. Some stars dust the sky with tiny white spots, while others are bigger and shine more beautifully.
They’re mesmerising.
But the starry sky can’t compare to the even more mesmerising boy beside him, as Rui stares at the illuminated sky with the stupidest grin on his face.
Rui scoots nearer to Akito. They’re so close now, as Rui’s fingertips lightly tease the other boy’s. Akito wants to hold his hand; he wants their fingers to intertwine together as Rui’s cold and calloused palm meets his own.
"Something on your mind?" Akito thinks out loud, paying full attention to how Rui seems completely immersed in looking at the sight above them. Rui turns to him and almost immediately begins rambling;
“Hey, Akito-kun, can you see that collection of stars over here?” Akito looks up and tries to find the spot where he was pointing at.
"The whole sky is just a collection of stars, Rui. That's not exactly helpful."
“No, I mean- Look over there!” Rui instinctively grabs Akito’s shoulder and pulls him closer, pressing his face against the other boy's and pointing specifically at what he's on about. Akito tries to compose himself as Rui speaks, "That's the constellation of Leo. You remember Saki, of course. She’s in a band called Leo/need. It’s not exactly named after this constellation, but it’s a nice coincidence, right?” Rui shrugs, “Tsukasa-kun told me about them. I think they'll soar to great heights, someday.” Akito silently listens, trying to ignore how close the two are hunched together.
"Oh, and do you see that star up there? Brighter than all the rest?" Rui points to it, and Akito instantly notices which one he's talking about, "That's Sirius. Its name comes from the Greek word for 'glowing', or 'scorching'. You know, because it glows so brightly.” He pauses to chuckle. Akito grimaces at his bad joke but doesn't interrupt him.
“It reminds me of you, Akito-kun. You shine the brightest out of everyone to me."
"Don't just say things like that out of nowhere," Akito's heart is practically pounding now, “I mean, not even Tsukasa-senpai? Because he always goes on about being a star and stuff–”
Rui smiles at him. It’s so unbearably warm and genuine that Akito feels his heart ache. Butterflies swarm in his stomach, and it takes all his strength not to throw up on the spot. Oblivious to Akito's panic, Rui answers, "Of course! I always think he shines bright. Tsukasa-kun truly is a talented boy. I know he’ll make it big one day,” He nearly says this with a sombre face while Akito frowns, “But when I see you perform with your friends, I always only look at you. You, Akito-kun, you shine the brightest to me— in your own, unique way. Every time I see you, I can’t help myself from being drawn into your performance, and just.. you .”
There's a strained silence between the two that's almost unbearable. Akito's mind is racing, trying to piece together whether or not that was a confession and if he should say that yeah, I feel the same way about you too or if he should shut up and keep looking at the stars and just pretend that Rui hadn't said anything–
"Did I say something wrong?" Rui had been rambling to the sky, and never actually looked at Akito until this moment, where he notices Akito choking up with a face he can't quite discern. Akito sniffles, "That's… probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. Uh—Shit… thank you…?”
A cat-like grin forms on Rui's face. "I think you're a bit lost on what I mean. This should work..”
Before Akito can react, Rui leans in and softly pecks his cheek. His breath lingers on Akito’s cheek, as chapped lips slightly parted from warm skin. The younger boy feels as if he’s going to burst right then and there, face turning redder and redder.
If Akito was nervous then, he must be absolutely flustered now with the way his heart jumps at every sensation that Rui envelops. His face still looms near Akito’s; the synchronising breaths that they take serve as a reminder that all of what is happening is real and not some idealistic scenario Akito made up in his head.
It comes as second nature to Akito, the way his head automatically tilts to properly kiss Rui. Thank everything that Rui reciprocated, because Akito doesn’t know what he’d do if he wasn’t able to kiss him at this moment. It sounds so unusual for the reputation he’s built up, but when he’s in love, he’s absolutely smitten. Having this happen almost feels unreal.
Rui (hesitantly) pulls himself away from Akito. It’s a pretty damning action and brings both of them back to reality; one had accidentally confessed through his sweet words, the other misunderstood them, and this is how the two ended up together.
"Wow, you’re confident even though I just confessed to you."
"Shut up," Akito says with a smile, “Can we continue?"
“Who am I to refuse?” Rui envelops his hands around the back of Akito’s neck, reaching his leg over him to straddle his lap. Sitting like this gives Rui complete control of Akito as he leans down to kiss him again, practically clinging onto him as he does it. Rui’s hands travel up to Akito’s hair, slightly tugging as he clasps the orange strands between his fingers.
The two share a clumsy kiss, trying to get used to this new feeling. Rui’s chapped lips faintly graze Akito’s own. Akito places a kiss on his lower lip, as Rui tries to not instinctively chew on it.
Akito deepens the kiss, slowly moving his hands towards Rui’s hips. He leans more into Rui, lightly sucking on his lower lip. Rui gasps, parting his mouth open a bit.
“Akito-kun, what are you trying to d—“ Rui is effectively cut off as Akito kisses him again. He shuts his eyes, solely focusing on the kiss. The two gasp through open mouths as Akito’s tongue glides across the grooves of Rui’s teeth. It sends a shiver down his spine, but he gets used to it pretty quickly. He does pull away, putting his palm against Akito's lips; much more flustered than he’d like to admit.
"I-I am enjoying this, but don't you think you have something to say to me, Akito-kun?" Rui's expression is almost flat, almost frustrated as pink dusts his cheeks. The glare he gives is enough to make Akito forget what he was supposed to say.
“Uhh– no, but I could show you how I feel,” Akito closes in on Rui again, but the latter quickly covers the other boy's mouth with his hand. "You've always been good with words, Akito-kun. Why are you hesitating now?"
‘Because I literally just made out with you?! Thinking properly is pretty hard right now!’ Akito thinks to say, but he quickly ignores that thought. Instead, he opts for a "Um– you’re so pretty it’s distracting me…? I can’t even think straight, honestly. I didn't expect, well, any of what we just did to happen.
“When you say all those things about me, how much I shine, well– I'm not nearly as good at speaking as you are, but, uh, I think of you the same way. I really…”
The boy sitting on his lap seems to have a much more fond expression now that he’s hearing this. Despite how comfortable they had just gotten with each other just moments before, it was still comforting to hear this could happen again. In true Rui fashion though, he feels like being witty again, “You really what, Akito-kun?”
Akito sighs, but it’s not one of frustration or sadness. There’s a laugh laced in it as he says, “You’re really gonna push me to say it? Okay, if it wasn’t obvious from, uh, that , I really like you. Genuinely. Not just as a friend, but something more. I can’t remember for how long, but it’s been a pretty damn long time.”
Rui smiles, a bigger one than any other one he could’ve made just then. “I do too. It might’ve been from when I first saw Vivid BAD SQUAD perform, or whenever I spotted you in the hallways, but you’ve always caught my attention.” The happiness in his voice was prevalent. It makes Akito’s heart throb - practically anything about Rui does that to him now, huh?
“But, there’s still something I want to say. Can we go back home? I don’t think sitting on the grass is very comfortable. You also have the corpse of a poor dandelion below you… how it pains me to think about…!” Rui fakes a tear, wiping nothing off his cheek and chuckling to himself.
“No regrets,” Akito chuckles, lightly punching Rui’s arm. He brings his hand up and glances at his watch. “Oh, shit. It’s like 10 PM right now. I have to go home… But fucking– my sister’s going to be all up in my shit, asking me where I went or who I was with, like I’m still in middle school or whatever.”
“Well, why don’t you come over to my place, Akito?” Akito is surprised by the lack of an honorific, but doesn’t say anything, “ There’s nobody at home to bother you, other than me, of course.” Rui chuckles, “You can spend the night, too, only if you’d like.”
“Sounds good— sounds great, actually.” Akito gets up and holds his hand out to his (technically new) boyfriend. Rui stands up, and Akito notices patches of green on his pants. Must’ve been freshly mowed grass they were sitting on… He doesn’t want to think about the possibility of his own clothing being stained. Honestly, he doesn’t want to point it out - he might, but not now. Akito doesn’t want to ruin this– no, their moment.
Akito pulls Rui up, seemingly not minding that he’s holding the other boy’s hand. Akito intertwines his fingers with Rui’s own as he fondly smiles.
“Let's go, then.”