Chapter Text
“And then since this function is logarithmic, you’re supposed to…” Riku’s voice trailed off as Cherry began to zone out. He was at Riku’s place because their moms forced Riku to help Cherry study again. He couldn’t stand it. He already knew he was bad at things like basic algebra. And he already knew he was good at things like volleyball. He could be practicing right now instead of wasting his time on this. He seriously had to talk to his mom about this when he got home. His eyes drifted to Riku’s hands which were pointing at and underlining things Cherry didn’t understand with his mechanical pencil.
“Why do you always paint your nails black?” Cherry asked, cutting Riku off, with a face full of curiosity. Riku took his eyes off of the notebook to look at Cherry. This is the most interested he’s looked the entire study session.
“What? Dude— are you listening to any of this? The final’s in less than a week, if I haven’t made myself clear.”
“Yes— I mean, kind of,” he paused, Riku continuing to glare at him with that death stare he always had on, at least whenever he was with Cherry. “No. I was just wondering, though…” he admitted.
“Oh my god. You’re beyond saving,” Riku said with a sigh. “If you really can’t stand not knowing… Well, I mean, you know the kids at school. I think they judge me enough already,” Cherry thought this was weird. He thought he was considered ‘the kids at school’ to Riku. He spoke as if Cherry and them were separate. And what did he mean by people judging him? He thought everyone looked up to Riku because of his effortless straight As and all that. Riku continued, “If I wore something more vibrant,” he pulled his arm back to scratch his neck. “Who knows what people would think or say.” he said, exhaling through his nose, which made a sort of sigh that sounded like a stifled laugh.
“Why paint them at all then?”
Riku paused at this. He didn’t like that Cherry was asking him so many questions. “Well, I tend to pick at my fingers a lot when I’m anxious or stressed or whatever,” Riku stared at his hands and bent his fingers so his nails and palm faced him simultaneously, “and I think the nail polish subconsciously reminds me not to do it.” As soon as this left Riku’s mouth, he realized how vulnerable he had just made himself to Cherry making fun of him. “I mean, like, I dunno. I also just think it goes with my outfits usually.”
“Oh okay, cool,” Cherry replied. Riku looked up at this, visibly surprised by his response. He was expecting some sort of comment like, ‘yeah, ok, like you have things to be stressed about,’ or, ‘that sounds really stupid but whatever.’ Interrupting his thoughts, Cherry kept going; “From growing up with the ADHD stuff I learned a lot of coping mechanisms to help with stuff like that.”
Riku realized that Cherry was being weirdly open too, and that made him care a bit less about it. They really were both just two high school seniors with lives and shit to deal with. He forgot about that a lot.
“Can you paint mine?”
Riku was stunned. First of all, changing the subject like that was wild. Second of all, he would never imagine Cherry wanting his nails painted. He swore he’d always done anything and everything to seem masculine. That was one of many things he told himself he hated about him. He remembered how, when they were in middle school and Cherry found out Riku was bisexual, he made a whole conversation about how straight he was. Wanting to appear rather ‘flamboyant’ or ‘feminine’ didn’t add up. But the excitement on his face appeared genuine, not a hint of sarcasm to be found. Maybe Riku was wrong about Cherry’s fragile masculinity. Either way, they should be studying right now. Although, after the fight he and Tate had over the phone before Cherry came over, he did not feel up to arguing anymore. And his nails have been chipped from him scratching and peeling at them over the past few weeks. And painting nails was usually relaxing to him. He could only hope that Cherry didn’t manage to ruin that aspect of it. “Yeah, I guess. We have to get to studying right after, though—”
“Wait, really?!” His eyes lit up. He was sure Riku was going to reject that idea and redirect him to algebra.
“Yeah, if you really want to. I’ll go get the stuff,” Riku got up and disappeared to find his nail bag.
Riku came back and sat comfortably on the couch across from Cherry, crossing his legs in his lap and setting the nail polish pouch on the couch between them. He tugged open the zipper and told Cherry, “Okay, these are all the colors. Pick some out.”
Cherry stared intently into the bag, eyes looking back and forth from his hand to the multitude of colors before him. There were pastels, glittery finishes, and vibrant shades he could never imagine Riku using for himself. He never in a million years would’ve guessed that Riku had so many hidden away like this. He wondered what other weird interests Riku had that he had no idea about. Cherry reached in the bag to dig and see more of the colors. Evidently, the one black bottle of nail polish he saw buried in the bag looked almost empty. He seemed to slightly smile at this for whatever reason. Then, one caught his eye.
“I like this color,” he said, picking up a pastel yellow nail polish with his index finger and thumb. Holding it up and looking at Riku, he realized it was practically the same exact color as the gold flecks in his eyes. That was kinda weird. There’s no way Riku would notice though. And that wasn’t his intent. It’s just a color he happened to find pretty and stood out to him.
“No others? I could do, like, a pattern or something.”
Why was he offering that? He felt like Riku should’ve been saying ‘No, you can only do one. I’m not wasting extra nail polish on you. You’re lucky I’m doing this at all.’ Regardless, he didn’t think any other color looked that good with this one. “Nope, I like just the solid color.”
“Kay, cool,” Riku ripped a few paper towels from a roll in the bag and set it on the couch between them in case anything spilled or dripped. “I have to start with the prep,” He searched in the bag and took out a nail file. “Give me your hand.” Cherry rolled up the oversized long sleeve of his pink hoodie so it didn’t get in the way and held his arm out, his hand limp like a zombie. Riku took it with his left hand and pulled it towards him, examining it and beginning to vigorously scrub each nail one by one with the file. The sight almost made Cherry laugh. He was like a real nail tech. The way he moved the nail file so swiftly and blew away the resulting dust with the cold air from his mouth every so often made him seem so professional. And he was so focused as always. His hands were really cold, which surprised Cherry at first before he became acclimated. After just a minute or two, he was done and simply said, “Other hand.” Cherry held out his left hand and the process repeated.
“Okay, now this might feel a little weird at first ‘cause you’ve never done it and the nail polish feels kinda cold. And you won’t be able to use your hands for a while because of how long it takes to dry.” Cherry nodded and Riku shook the nail polish back and forth between his middle and index finger and thumb, making a subtle swishing sound. He twisted open the top quickly and set the bottle on the coffee table, on top of his now abandoned notes.
“Hand.” He took Cherry’s left hand again and held it up, leaning in to be close enough to ensure his precision. His eyes were maybe four inches away from Cherry’s hand, and Cherry thought about how he could probably see every single callus and every scrape and every small bruise he’s gotten over the past few weeks from volleyball. Once Riku adjusted his hand to the perfect angle, he started painting and the shade of yellow filled Cherry’s previously flesh pink nails. He still couldn’t help but think about how they matched exactly to Riku’s eyes. The similarity was uncanny now that he was able to see them closer.
Cherry found the silence through the house unsettling. He wondered if it was always like this without having siblings. Maybe he was overthinking, but he thought this whole situation was kinda awkward, Riku so concentrated painting and Cherry just staring at him.
“Could we put music on or something?”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Riku replied, finishing up a nail. “What music do you even listen to?”
“I mean, I’m not big on it. I like pop and hip hop stuff I guess though. Whatever’s good.”
“That’s vague,” Riku scoffed with a smile. “I’ll find something.” He put the nail polish back in the bottle and reached for his phone on the coffee table. He swiped open Spotify and clicked play on his ‘background music’ playlist. Sometimes he listened to it while studying if he needed motivation, but usually he just listened to classical music cause he found online that it helped retain information. The first song that started playing was “Birds Don’t Sing” by TV Girl, and through it, Riku just barely lip-synced and bobbed his head to the beat. Cherry didn’t know if Riku cared whether he noticed or not, but he did notice, and he thought it would have almost been kind of cute, if it hadn’t been Riku.
What?
Cherry, what?
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, his eyes involuntarily widened and his posture straightened the slightest bit, which would’ve gone unnoticed, if it hadn’t caused his hand to shake a little and make the nail polish brush against his fingertip.
Riku let out a frustrated sigh. “Ugh, I messed up, hold on,” He was glad Riku thought it was his fault. A faint layer of red cast over Cherry’s cheeks, though, and he could feel it as it rose to the surface. Riku pulled a plastic bottle of 100% acetone nail polish remover and a cotton ball from the bag. “This stuff smells super strong, so, brace yourself I guess,” He shrugged while pouring it onto the cotton ball and began to wipe the whole finger’s nail polish off. It reminded Cherry a bit of when his nose was bleeding at volleyball and Riku had to help. When the nail polish was gone, he returned to painting Cherry’s nails. Cherry had to admit, Riku’s music taste was pretty good. He kept finding himself bobbing his head and Riku telling him to stop moving. He always wondered what played through his headphones when he had them on.
After like 5 minutes, Riku let go of Cherry’s hand and announced, “Done. Now I’m gonna do mine. Don’t move your hands an inch. I don’t trust you to not accidentally ruin them, and I’m not doing that all over again.”
“Jeez, okay. Can you put the TV on or something?”
“Fine,” Riku picked up the remote and turned on the TV, switching it to some true crime channel. He knew Cherry liked that stuff. Riku himself hated it, but he wouldn’t be watching it anyway so he didn’t care.
After he was done with prepping his nails, he dug for the black nail polish in the pouch. He took it out and shook it just like he did before. Cherry’s eyes flicked to him hearing the swish sound and said, “Really? You’re doing black again?”
“Uh, yeah. I told you already, I don’t want to be judged for something stupid like my nails.”
“Dude, if I’m doing this you have to too!” Cherry exclaimed, holding his nails up like it helped prove something.
“You asked me to! The hell?”
“Please?! I can’t be the only guy randomly showing up with colorful nails at school. We’ll say it’s for the project.” Cherry pleaded.
“How the fuck would it be for the proje—“
“I don’t know— I just— look, no one cares! No one’s going to look at your nails and go ‘oh-em-gee he’s so weird.’ You need to learn to not care so much about what other people think.”
“Jeez, okay, fine! I’ll do another color!” Riku scoffed. Who is he to tell me what not and what to worry about? It’s not like he has a 4.0 GPA on the line before he graduates high school. Riku went back looking into the bag and he ended up picking a pastel pink polish. He shook it up and glanced at Cherry for a split second, invested in the show. In that split second, Riku noticed that the color he held in his hand looked kind of like Cherry’s eye color. That made him rethink choosing it, but he realized it’s probably the best one for him anyway because it looks sort of like natural nails (if you squint, and if you are running 10 miles per hour…) He went on to paint his nails and zoned out. This was one of few things he did that let him not think about anything. No studying. No ‘trying to be the best.’ Just swiping a tiny brush against his nail beds. It was kind of like painting in art class, which he already enjoyed, but even better because there wasn’t a due date.
After he finished, he turned to Cherry and said, “Let me check if yours are dry.” Cherry held out his hand, keeping his gaze on the TV. Riku took a finger and pressed it against his bottom lip. Cherry whipped his head towards him.
“The fuck?” Cherry exclaimed, face frozen in a state of disgust.
Riku just sat there, still holding Cherry’s hand by its middle finger, no sign of expression on his face. “…What?”
“Why’d you just, like, kiss my hand??”
“Oh, sorry. My mom always taught me to check using your lip because if you use your finger it leaves fingerprints. It’s dry, though. Let me check the other hand.”
“Oh. Oh, Okay,” Cherry took his hand back and gave him the other one. That was embarrassing.. What did he think Riku was doing? Sure, his soft, warm lips felt way different than his cold, dry fingers and it made sense that it startled him, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling that he’d gotten from turning his head and seeing Riku do that. He forced his eyes back to the true crime channel, but he couldn’t really follow what was going on with the investigation anymore.
After 10 minutes or so, Riku checked his own nails again and they were dry. “Okay, done. We should get back to studying.”
“Whattt? Do we have tooo?” Cherry whined, stretching out every word. He looked back at his nails. “Hey, wait! We can take a photo of this and count it as us hanging out with the egg! Go get it!”
“Oh, yeah. Good idea,” Riku pulled his backpack from the floor and retrieved the egg from its cute little bear pouch. He took out his phone, getting ready to take a picture.
“You’re not going to paint its nails?”
Riku deadpanned. “Are you serious right now?”
“Come on, it might not count if we don’t show we actually did the activity with it.”
“Dude— okay, fine.” Riku quickly and carelessly took the yellow and pink nail polishes and dabbed 10 dots of the alternating colors on the egg to resemble its nails. Finishing it, Riku just eyed it and its dumb face and began to laugh. It was so stupid looking. He loved it.
“Let me see!”
Riku turned the egg around, covering his mouth to muffle the laughing.
At the sight, Cherry burst into laughter as well, filling the room with sounds unfamiliar to each of them. For a moment, Riku almost felt like he was hanging out with his friends.
“Okay, okay,” Cherry said, wiping nonexistent tears for dramatic effect. “Take the photo.”
Riku held up his phone with his right arm, holding the egg with his left, and Cherry leaned in making a peace sign. They both were smiling as if they actually wanted to be there. Riku took his phone down and turned it off, a grin still lingering on his face.
“You should really be a nail tech, by the way. I’m sure when I come home my sister will want hers done and you’ll have another client.”
“Yeah, ok. You’re still trying to stall studying”
“No, I mean it! The way you worked was so precise but still you somehow did it so quick.”
Riku laughed again. “Well, thanks, my mom taught me all of it when I was really little so I’ve been doing it for a while.”
Both of them paused with smiles remaining spread across their faces, concurrently in disbelief that they were getting along.
Cherry broke the silence with a simple question.
“Why do we hate each other again?”