Chapter Text
“Oh gosh-“
Alone in his room, Rui covers his face, sighing for the millionth time. The files scattered on his table while his microwave beeps again and again for his long forgotten meal.
Two assignments due tomorrow, he also had a meeting with the school council about some welfare issues. But those were not important enough for him to pay mind to at this point.
His chair creaks as he sits up from his slumped posture and hovers his hand above his phone, but decides to not even bat an eye at it.
Glancing at the scattered sheets with his face printed on the top page, a flimsy title with the words “PROJECT 28” hitting the front.
If Tsukasa has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Tsukasa has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Tsukasa has only one fan then that is me. If Tsukasa has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Tsukasa, then I am against the world.
Rui chants to himself. He wouldn’t in a million years want to grow a certain suspicion towards Tsukasa, but the evidence was hard to deny the possibilities.
His hovering hand finally decided to grab his phone. He was about to open Tsukasa’s contact, because what a better way to call him and ask directly, than to snoop and overthink.
But just as he was about to click on the telephone icon, a new message popped up.
“Regard this a welcome gift. Don’t worry, I’ll make him say yes.”
The message came along with two theme park ticket vouchers followed by a heart.
“…I hate you Nene.”
Rui mentally sighed with his head hung low, but a soft smile slowly crept up along with a pink blush he wasn’t able to hide.
He quickly swiped back to Tsukasa’s contact and sent out the two tickets.
[Tsukasa, are you free this Friday?]
“Game on, Nene.”
———
“Tsukasa can you help me with the sweeping duty later?”
“Tsukasa! I need help on the next assignment!”
“Tsukasa! You haven’t sent me the form for the upcoming class!”
Juggling one box on top of another, Tsukasa struggles to even look down at his feet, taking every step with a risk of dropping everything alongside his sanity.
It wasn’t like he could reject anyone. For one if he rejects someone that was critical to triggering the story, it was game over. For second, he could use it as multiple excuses to avoid seeing Rui.
“-wait.”
Tsukasa pauses in his steps.
Game over. Story over.
Wait then- he would be free. Free from that purple bug.
Then he could cut off his most-definitely manipulated feelings and stop this butterfly in his stomach that keeps telling him to just see Rui.
If he said yes to every single task, it was guaranteed that he wouldn’t be seeing Rui for the next decade.
Slumping the boxes at a random desk for a short break, he felt a small notification ring in his back pocket.
[Tsukasa, are you free this Friday?]
Didn’t I already bloc-
And before he could just leave him on read, his keyboard automatically typed in “yes” without consent.
Frantically, he tried to delete and click the backspace key with all his might, but at last, the inevitable message was sent.
Tsukasa immediately tried to hit the unsend button but found himself unable to do so, his app crashing.
And before he could even reach to delete the app whole together, he saw a particular someone from upfront.
“NENE-“
To which the grey haired girl could only sigh with a proud smirk.
“You owe me one, Rui.”
———
“Are you not gonna explain yourself or like- Nene what is on your mind-“
Tsukasa stutters as he barges in the classroom. He doesn’t even bother texting Nene to hop in the portal, if that was how she wanted things to go then he was happy to play along.
“Well look who’s here.”
Finally batting an eye, Nene turned with a soft smile and looked into Tsukasa’s fury eyes. He was panting and shaken, seemingly trying to stop himself from screaming any moment. He clothed his fist til his knuckles were white and was close to biting his lip til it bled.
A small smirk appeared on Nene’s face before she turned back to her desk and handed a file to Tsukasa.
“Your physics test report came back earlier. you’ve gotten tacky~”
Opening the file, the shock comes rushing into Tsukasa’s face as he scans the results. He’s gotten much weaker physically and his fight against stimulated fights were worse than ever.
“SO- this is a test. You go out with Rui while we put different creatures in the park. If we’re gonna start to get you back on track, why not start with your best bet, stealth kill.”
Nene looked away, sighing into the sunset. It’s not like she exactly liked this, if anything she’d rather be lazy on her messy desk and wait for Emu to suddenly appear and keep her company. But she reckoned this was the best chance she’d get to show Tsukasa what he really wanted.
Scanning the documents over and over again, the blonde can’t help but question if this was actually real.
“I- I-“
He lunges a little, reaching, but quickly pauses and retreats his hand. His head slowly dips and looks down to his feet while his arms stump beside him.
“You’ve grown weak.”
Nene scoffs from aside. She knows she was being very mean and knows the possible consequences, but she knew that Tsukasa needed it. Whether to get his feelings right, and to improve his skills back to where it used to be.
“I’m being very generous lately.”
Nene walks past Tsukasa nonchalantly before throwing a new dagger, merely missing Tsukasa by millimetres, plunging right into the walls.
The sharp wind from the blade and the slight cut on his cheek was enough tot wake him up from his daze before he reached for the knife, watching as the walls recovered itself from the system.
“It’s a new dagger, from me.”
Nene said before leaving the classroom and closing the door behind her, leaving Tsukasa with the gentle breezes and the quiet voice of the sunset.
He grips the dagger before shoving it into his equipment bag, checking if there were any leaks and possible damages.
“Oh fuck, I hate this-“
———
“Tsukasa ! “
Honestly if Tsukasa let him, Rui would personally wait for Tsukasa in front of his house, accompany him on the car, then the train, then the bus before going to the park altogether.
But Tsukasa knew the purple haired would be more than happy to cling to him, therefore rejecting the idea almost immediately through text.
Of course the idea of just ‘doing it anyways’ have breezed through Rui’s head more times than normal, but it all just results in Tsukasa maybe getting mad all again.
It was still bothering Rui about Tsukasa avoiding him, and he was careful on every step he’s made. If this was a week or two ago, he’d probably say ‘fuck it’ and even slept with him before night, but he doesn’t know anymore.
While the blonde stared from a distance, barely holding on to his sanity, his fingers grip onto the straps of his backpack, his knuckle turning white.
He watched as the brightly smiled Rui waved in the distance as he wobbled around in excitement.
As to Tsukasa could only let a sigh and dip his hand to double check his dagger in his back pocket.
“Game on, Nene.”
———
Even walking in the park was a difficult task for Tsukusa.
One in front of the park counter, one behind the entrance of the welcome merchandise store, two wrapped together near the register of the ticket booth, few lurking around the corner of the parking entrance.
His knife was barely sticking out his back pocket due to how often he needed to get to work. Excuses like ‘Sorry, some sticker is behind you’ ‘There’s a fly!’ or even ‘My shoelace went loose’ have all been used and Tsukasa finds it hard to continue this without being suspicious.
For context, Tsukasa’s shoes don’t have shoelace.
Rui has just found out after Tsukasa bent down to quickly swipe his knife against two small creatures sticking out the corner. Of course, it wouldn’t bother Rui since he knows more than he should, but it still surprises Rui to see his loved one with a knife.
Finally dragging Tsukasa into the theme park, Rui finds himself back to a kid. Big merchandise shops, balloons and small parades in the main street with kids happily dancing along to the joyful music.
“Tsukasa I-“
And as he turned to Tsukasa, he could see the knife peeking out of Tsukasa’s back and the blonde trying to force a smile while waving in reassurance.
Sighing, Rui decided to act dumb, smiling to reciprocate and also take Tsukasa’s hand in his, intertwining their fingers and gently caressing his knuckles with his thumb.
“It’s a date right? Eyes on me.”
Rui flashed his long prepared smile and started looking around and pointing around the park with a cheerful tone. He knew what he was doing was sneaky and would irritate Tsukasa even more, but Tsukasa wasn’t looking at him, that was a bigger problem.
“Work life balance, more like Work-Rui balance ,Tsukasa.”
(Please play that weird drum meme)
———
“Tsukasa do you want to get an ice cream I’ve got us a coup-“
“Let’s go on that rollercoas-“
“Hey, I wanna go try that cotton can-“
God, can Tsukasa take a break? The theme park was full of smaller mini sized creatures, it wasn’t a big threat individually, but it had the risk of them forming together to a bigger creature and then they all die.
Well that’s the desired outcome for Tsukasa.
So he wouldn’t have to see that sly smirk when Rui unknowingly steps into enemy territory, or when he wouldn’t see that huge grin when Rui walks to take pictures with mascots filled with suspicious aura, or how he would chuckle while running into risky dark places and-
No, he had to stop. Please form a large creature and bomb the world already.
Tsukasa shakes his head out of embarrassment. He was being selfish. But in this instance….
Does it mean that Tsukasa would bomb the world for Rui?
A light tint of pink slowly arises to his cheek before he meets eyes with Rui holding out a churro for him, waiting for him to take a bite under the warm sunlight. A warm breeze of wind blows by and Tsukasa swears the world stopped for a moment.
His breath hitches and a soft gasp leaves his mouth before his hand instinctively reaches out, locking eyes with Rui. To which Rui grabs his whole hand, hugging him against his chest.
“Rui-“
A scooter dashes just past Tsukasa’s back, just centimetres away from making him trip.
Unable to wrap his head around the series of events happening in such a short time, Tsukasa looks at Rui with widening eyes and his blush getting pinker every second. Rui eyes melt at the hug, tightening his arms around Tsukasa’s body and moves one of his hands to Tsukasa’s hand on his chest.
“You’ve finally let down your guard.”
Stuffing the churro into Tsukasa’s agape mouth, Rui turns around and shrugs, like he was about to brush off whatever moment was going on. And this means, he leaves a blonde boy behind, holding his chest and scrunching his jacket. He looks around, trying to calm his pink cheeks and uncontrollably bites hard onto the churro. His eyes narrows, trying to calm his light pants and fumble his gun in his back pocket.
Finally, he looks at Rui in front of him and holds onto the churro, slowly taking another bite before mumbling,
“This is bad for my heart.”
———
How do you capture a young girl’s heart in a theme park? Shoujo manga tells you that matching headbands, ice cream and fireworks work like magic.
And of course, you couldn’t miss, the ferris wheel.
Tsukasa gets practically dragged into the ferris wheel. But he needs to know. If his feelings get weird and start forming before he even begins to see the clouds.
Rui’s hand is really warm.
That thought has spun around Tsukasa’s brain for the millionth time. It shouldn’t. It really shouldn’t. But why was it that once Rui’s hand even brushed against his, the flowers flutter around them and the atmosphere turns pink?
Wait- no.
He has too much creativity.
Tsukasa slowly sits on one of the sits in the wheel with Rui following suite. It wasn’t before long that Rui scoots closer and closer to Tsukasa, brushing his fingers on top of the blondes palm, rubbing it with his thumb softly.
And with that, Tsukasa could no longer think.
He quickly turns his head to the side, hiding his blushing face as fast as he could. Well, of course it fails, because Tsukasa never gets lucky in this story anyways. The orange sunset reflects on the glass, showing the pink face to Rui without difficulty. Rui stares into the reflection before trying his best to hide his smirk.
Oh, how much I want to turn his face around and just kiss him on top of the ferris wheel.
Thoughts begin to fill Rui’s thoughts, and with his pink wonder-like setting, it was clear that this was his cue, that this was what Nene set them up for.
It was as if time stopped, and the only thing heard was the small creaking from the wheel. They were both close to holding their breath at the silence, but Rui decided to lean closer, to make his step.
And with the sunset and the stuffy air, with Tsukasa’s shaky breath and fluttering hands, with Rui’s courage and determination-
“Tsukasa I-“
*BOMB*
“Huh?—“
A loud thundering sound from the park underneath breaks open the two immediately, leading to the wheel shaking from the impact. Alongside, Tsukasa was met with his worse nightmares.
Due to being on the slow ferris wheel, Tsukasa wasn’t able to take care of the creatures for a questionable amount of time, leading to the thousands forming in one blob shortly.
Tsukasa reaches for his gun in his pocket while he tries to stable himself from the shaking wheel. He raises his fist and positions himself to break the glass open.
But then he stops.
The screaming and yelling fall behind his ears.
He slowly turns to peek at Rui.
In the midst of fires, buildings falling, attractions attacked, his priority was no longer if any person was alive, but if he could hold up the risk of Rui finding out his identity.
If he knew, he’d feel betrayed, and I’ll be back to what I was, like usual. But if he didn’t know, maybe I can… I can feel his hands brush against mine once more… be stuck in a pink bubble again…. stare into the orange sunset again with this misty feeling…
Tsukasa looks down as he grits his teeth, his fist frozen in air. When he punches the glass broken, when he shoots his gun in front of Rui for the first time, he prays that he wouldn’t see the face on Rui, or ever again.
“Rui I-“
To which Rui passes by Tsukasa, jumping straight down and breaking the glass with the sheer force. And before Tsukasa could even recollect himself, his hands unconsciously reach out.
Rui smiles but turns to the creature beneath his feet, landing right into its head. He reaches into his bag and takes out a special grade grenade he took from Nene. The grenade does what it needs to do, blowing up the creature in one blow and killing its core once and for all.
The remains of the creature slowly start raining down, drenching Rui in blood and gore. But Rui could only look up at Tsukasa, alone and looking down from the wheel. He looks down and wipes away most of the blood covering his face before softly smiling to his beloved.
“Who…are you?”