Chapter Text
when they finally leave the detention classroom, the rain looked to have softened down, pelting to the ground in small, thin droplets instead of the harsher drops of rain from before. not that it mattered, when rui was holding an umbrella out in front of him.
tsukasa freezes, unsure of what rui expected of him, with him and his painfully bright umbrella catching the attention of multiple students passing by. rui nudges tsukasa with the umbrella handle.
“come on tsukasa-kun, be my guest!”
“..”
..this umbrella was definitely designed for one person. even though it spanned over rui’s shoulders, it did not look like it could cover two people from the rain without any excess. rui must’ve noticed the frown on tsukasa’s face, because he was quick to reassure.
“my apologies, my umbrella isn’t the best,” he spins his umbrella around, showing tsukasa an array of neon colours to make up for it. then, his voice drops an octave.
it just means you have stick closer to me, then.”
tsukasa’s heart stops.
closer, to rui? sharing an umbrella, in the rain?
he’s too preoccupied in freaking out over being so close to rui he doesn’t notice his own legs growing a mind of their own, stepping under rui’s umbrella casually like it meant nothing to him. it painfully contrasted to how red his own face was.
“well then, shall we?” rui asks calmly, gesturing towards their school gate with a smile. nodding meekly, tsukasa doesn’t dare to face him just yet.
him and rui have always synced up, tsukasa notices. whether it was coincidentally or on purpose, the both of them would always find a way back to each other. even if tsukasa happened to be unable to have lunch with rui, busy with schoolwork, he would somehow end up next to him, doing the same work together. even if they went out without synchronising outfits, the both of them would end up complimenting each other with their colour schemes and outfit choice.
they even end up walking first with the same foot, going through the same motions, with tsukasa taking largers strides to catch up. not that he’d like to admit it, but their height difference made rui walk slightly faster than him. the two exit the school, and rui walks on the outer part of the street while tsukasa ends up walking within the inner section.
they walk so closely to each other, close enough for tsukasa to feel rui’s breath on his cardigan, close enough for tsukasa to hear rui’s soft movements whenever he adjusted his clothes or hair, close enough for tsukasa to be drove mad. especially when tsukasa could notice how rui had tilted the umbrella towards him in the slightest, making sure he got more coverage from the rain.
tsukasa exhales, taking the time to gather his thoughts. he liked to take these moments of familiar tranquility to think. sometimes, when the entire troupe was here, he would take the time to think about upcoming projects that he could improve on, be it better stage outfit designs or new effects that they could add to their performances to enhance the audience's experience.
but today, it was just him and rui.
rui, who had his own umbrella covering tsukasa more than himself.
..why was he thinking about rui again? this was all his fault in the first place!
being in such close proximity for an extended time was driving him up the wall.
even though the umbrella was doing a good job at covering sheltering them from the rain, the water droplets that collect on the umbrella’s end tip over, wetting tsukasa’s cardigan and leaving him cold. tsukasa shrugs it off, rather focusing on how rui’s shoes had little star charms on them. when had he even gotten those—?
his thoughts halt momentarily when he feels a hand brush against his own. rui is watching him with that cat-like stare.
“..rui?”
rui hums. “hmm, your cardigan is wet. that’s a problem.”
tsukasa shrugs again, trying to ignore the roaring in his ears that was telling him sweetly observant rui was. rui hands tsukasa the umbrella handle.
“give me a moment.”
he turns around to take off his own cardigan, placing it delicately over tsukasa as if he would break if he was too rough. the cardigan practically floats onto him, although a little bigger, it made him feel warmer.
“that’s better,” rui sings, marvelling at the boy before him. and just like that, tsukasa’s heart is sent into overdrive and the various emotions rushing through his body are getting steadily harder to control. the cardigan, rui’s cardigan, was on his shoulders, to warm him up, and it even carried the faint smell of mint and lavender.
rui’s excited smile when he sees him with his cardigan on is more than a little contagious to tsukasa. “thank you,” he mumbles the best he can with a face that felt like it was on fire. rui smiles wider, and they continue to walk ahead.
when he makes sure rui wasn’t watching, he pulls the cardigan closer to his face, taking in the comforting scent. he felt painfully giddy, light, that this entire experience was strangely surreal. he turns his attention to the streets in front of them instead, trying to control his breathing.
tsukasa notices something else.
rui was always looking out for him.
even now, he's sheltering him fully rather than sheltering himself, a dark patch growing on his clothes from the rain that had hit his school uniform. and he's always been like that, treating him as though he’s worth the world, truly worthy of being the world’s star, even at the person he is now.
every time he would give him such delicate praises with that fond look in his eyes, rambling to him how he could execute his ideas and plans so well, and it made tsukasa glow with a pride bigger than himself.
all rui had to do is smile that silly grin of his towards his way specifically, and he feels especially light, light in a good way.
“you suit my cardigan,” rui whispers so softly it might as well not have been heard at all. tsukass turns to him with widened eyes, and there it was, his signature cat-like smile he wore, that made him giddy and weak in the knees.
tsukasa can't really form a proper response, instead letting some sort of awkward choked-out noise. what was he supposed to say to that? he inhales deeply, but it only goes downhill when he is reminded of how it still smelled like rui. he feels unnaturally light, doing his best not to pass out, or float away into the sky above them. he never understood why he felt that way, maybe it was because of how rui brightened up his life, or how rui might be sending him to space one day,
but one thing he did know, was that with rui, everything felt lighter.
the pathway they walk through daily looks somewhat different when there's nobody's around. it was too early for people who worked to go home, but it was too late for students to be walking home either. when there wasn’t the afternoon sun glaring down at any student, the usually crowded walkway was reduced to the pitter-patter sound of the rain, and their footsteps.
at this very moment, it feels as though he and rui were the only people in the world. and he finds himself enjoying that.
eventually, they’re outside tsukasa’s home, just before his gates.
“tsukasa-kun,” rui stops abruptly. tsukasa hums as acknowledgement, stopping in his tracks too.
rui pulls tsukasa in a gentle hug, to the best of his abilities, with one hand.
his head lowers into the shorter one's neck. rui speaks softly, “before you go, i’m sorry i got you into detention.” tsukasa blinks, stroking his back like an oversized cat as comfort.
“i only wanted to spend some time with you. i haven’t had enough time with you lately,” rui confesses.
with that tone, he had completely forgot why he was even mad in the first place. but when he does remember, he couldn’t bring himself to be angry, because he secretly enjoyed it too. alone time with rui was scarce, with only their lunch times being the said alone time. tsukasa looks away as he gives rui a reply.
“well, i forgive you!” he declares. “not that i mind getting detention..” he trails off, but rui catches his words anyway, getting up from tsukasa’s shoulder incredulously.
“oh my, tsukasa-kun! you like receiving detention? oh, the delinquent you truly are!”
“gh—! you know that’s not what i meant! i was saying i like to spend time with you too!” tsukasa yells defensively, now looking at rui in the eye. rui’s face morphs into one of surprise, a soft red dusting his face, until tsukasa suddenly realises how much he had slipped up from one sentence. he looks away in horror, quick to defend himself again. “wait, no, i meant—“
rui exhales shakily. “i like spending time with you too,” he sighs, embrace on tsukasa tightening.
something in tsukasa snaps, and he couldn’t take it any longer.
he pulls rui closer to him, as close as they were in that classroom, so close that their noses were touching this time. as rui yelps in shock, the umbrella he was holding seconds before falls to the ground, letting the rain from above hit the both of them now.
however, that was the last thing that mattered to the both of them.
the air feels like it has changed. something tsukasa can't put his finger on but zips through him like electricity when his eyes meet with rui’s shocked ones.
then, tsukasa leans just a little closer, in rui’s direction and his heart thunders in his chest with anticipation. he didn’t want to let go of the chance this time, not to anybody.
being so close to him, that alone,
it feels so intimate.
tsukasa doesn't know what to do with the adrenaline rushing through his body, or these swirl of feelings, or the rain dampening his hair he spent so long on this morning, but he knew what he wanted.
pulling rui in by his tie, the distance between their lips close.
rui’s lips were softer than he’d subconsciously expected, and his palms were a little clammy as he tip-toed to hold rui’s head with his fingers, but none of them minded. the hold rui had on tsukasa’s waist tightens in the slightest, grip so gentle it was like he was worried he might shatter him if he held on too tight. everything felt warm, and soft, and very, painfully new, and tsukasa wasn’t sure what else to do other than to keep kissing rui, tasting the rainwater on his lips and reaching up to slide his own hands around rui’s neck, tip-toeing as far as he could go.
there was some sort of slow-motion explosion happening in tsukasa’s mind, revealing realisation upon realisation that it was truly humanely possible to feel the flurry of emotions within him without bursting, but he had always figured that this would be what it would be like to kiss rui, kiss the boy he loved.
he didn’t know how to describe it, any of it, so he just let the feeling of ecstasy overtake every coherent thought until the only thing that was still keeping him grounded was the warmth of their lips pressed together. tsukasa took his time as he deepened the kiss, feeling his heart lighten as they lingered on each other.
when rui pulls away first, his face was flushed beyond words, unable to make sense of anything. what a state he was in, hair and clothes wet from the rain, yet the dilated pupils and fond smile told tsukasa that the rain was the last of his concerns.
he did it, he finally kissed him.
“i love you, tsukasa-kun,” rui sighs, voice trembling. he doesn’t say anything else, but rest his head on tsukasa’s shoulder.
feeling something close to relief, tsukasa lets go of the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. “rui, i love you too.”
they hug in silence, tsukasa taking the time to pat rui’s wet hair like he’d always wanted. neither of them had kissed anybody, totally unsure of what to do, but the both of them knew this was something they would never let go of.
however, tsukasa knew better than to let the both of them stand out in the rain to get sick!
neon umbrella in hand, though it served no use now, he ushers his soggy boyfriend-friend-director into his home not long after, praying he wouldn’t be seen by a certain somebody—
“big brother! i told you to bring an umbrella!”
tsukasa removes a drenched hand from rui’s shoulder, practically jumping out of his skin. “s-saki! you see, it was merely just an accident on my part, and your big brother is fine! just—“
“no! you were fine, i saw you walk onto our front gate!” saki protests, giving rui an unreadable look before speaking again. “until you were.. doing whatever you were doing outside!”
the tips of tsukasa’s ears go red. “..that was an accident too,” he mumbles, a stark contrast to the brash yelling from before. rui makes a guttural noise of betrayal and protest.
saki does not buy any of his excuses. “go take shower right now! ..and is that kamishiro-san’s cardigan?”
before saki could make any more remarks, tsukasa awkwardly dashes out of the room with rui in hand, tail between his legs as he goes up the stairs. all whilst trying to ignore saki’s cries of “what have you two done?” and “i’m telling everybody!”
this was all rui’s fault!