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One thing Ryuji learns pretty quick is that Yusuke’s kind of a high strung guy. No, not kind of. Yusuke’s an extremely high strung guy. And it’s usually not too big a deal, but every time he’s got some fancy gallery whatever to prepare for, he gets the kind of tunnel vision that makes him throw pretty important stuff— eating, sleeping, the works— right out the window.
Obviously someone needs to enforce some mandatory chill-out time. Not to actually get in the way of Yusuke’s work, just, y’know, check in on him if he disappears for a couple of days. Dude’s gotta take a break once in a while. And sometimes that means dragging him out of the studio to do literally anything that isn’t art.
So, Ryuji invites him to hang out.
Well. Less ‘invites’, more ‘insists’, but hey, whatever works.
The second Ryuji lets Yusuke into his room, Yusuke wastes no time making himself comfortable. Which isn’t too much of a surprise. He’s pretty fast and loose about boundaries; of course he’d immediately start messing with stuff that ain’t necessarily his to mess with. In any case, Ryuji lets him examine dusty old trophies, scrutinize the gunpla made ages ago, and rearrange the weights lying around.
“It’s cleaner than I thought it would be,” Yusuke says, pulling open a drawer of the cheapest, tiniest dresser money can buy.
“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” Ryuji asks, halfway between ‘deadpan retort’ and ‘sincere question’; it’s seriously hard to tell, plus he’s more than a little distracted by Yusuke shamelessly rifling through his stuff.
“Not particularly.” Apparently satisfied, Yusuke opens the next drawer down. “Have you thought about rearranging the furniture? There’s an exquisite boutique not too far from here; I’m sure I’d be able to obtain a more durable dresser for you.”
“Don’t bother.” And, since it’s a very real concern that Yusuke might blow off a ton of cash he doesn’t have on some fancy antique dresser, Ryuji makes sure to follow through with, “Seriously, I don’t need anything like that. And where would I put it?”
“At least one of these shelves could be replaced with— my word,” Yusuke cuts himself off, fishing out a necklace from the bottom of the last drawer. “What an inelegant design.”
To be fair, he’s right. Whoever designed the necklace tried way too hard to make it cool. Shark teeth line its entire length, which maybe could’ve worked if the beads weren’t so mismatched; leopard prints, skulls, spikes... it’s just too much. There’s a reason it’s been shoved at the bottom of a drawer, forgotten and unworn for years.
“You spent money on this?” Yusuke asks. Or, accuses, as if he’s a shining beacon of ‘fiscally responsible decisions’.
Ryuji rolls his eyes, not too bothered by the judgement. “Cut me some slack, I got it in middle school.”
“Your taste must have been regrettable.”
“Thanks.”
“This is tawdry garbage,” Yusuke elaborates, and Ryuji can’t help but laugh at such a scathing appraisal.
“Y’know what?” Ryuji takes the necklace, then drops it over Yusuke’s head. It gets stuck around his nose, but falls easily enough with a light tug. Against the professional cut of Kosei’s uniform, the necklace manages to look even more gaudy. The affront on Yusuke’s face honestly makes the whole thing hilarious.
“Why,” he says.
“A gift from me to you, since you like it so much.”
“I have made it explicitly clear that I do not.”
“Yeah, you’re welcome. Anyway, quit stealin’ my stuff—“
“You burdened me with this—”
“—we’re here to chill. Weren’t you interested in checkin’ out some games?”
There’s a second where Yusuke looks ready to keep going on about how cheap and shitty his new cheap, shitty necklace is, but apparently, exploring a new medium of artistic expression is just too enticing. “I... suppose I’m a little curious…”
“Sweet!” That’s all the motivation Ryuji needs to go full-speed ahead. He drags Yusuke over to the TV, sets up the console, and pops in a disk. “Okay this is a pretty old one, but it’s really cool. Like, you’re supposed to fight these giant monsters, but you can also just run around eatin’ lizards.”
“I see.”
“It’s pretty open world, tons of stuff to look at. Like rocks. And trees. And water. Y’know, boring stuff. Basically right up your alley.”
“I certainly do spend much of my time looking at all of those,” Yusuke concedes with a wry kind of lilt. So, nailed it. “You seem rather eager for me to experience this.”
And it takes a second for Ryuji to realize, but he is. It’s nice, introducing Yusuke to stuff he missed out on. It’s nice in a way that’s maybe a little weird and hard to figure out.
“I guess?” Ryuji offers, after what’s been a pretty long pause. He shrugs. “Just thought you’d like it.”
Yusuke stares at him for a moment in a way that’s also maybe a little weird and hard to figure out, thinking who knows what. Then asks, “Is there an instruction manual I should read?”
“What? Nah, I’ll talk you through it.”
The next time Ryuji sees Yusuke, it’s at the fancy gallery whatever. Ryuji’s wearing his school uniform, but buttoned up for once; anything else would probably come off a little too casual, since all he really has are hoodies and t-shirts. And usually he wouldn’t care, but he’s at something important to Yusuke. So. Yeah.
Yusuke’s wearing the stuff he usually wears, because everything in his closet is button-ups and art gallery clothes. It suits him. What doesn’t suit him is the extremely garish necklace that completely clashes with his outfit and also everything about him.
Ryuji skirts the periphery for a bit while Yusuke chats up a potential patron (?) who just can’t take her eyes off his extremely eye-catching necklace. But, the second Yusuke sees Ryuji, he excuses himself and heads right on over.
“Ryuji,” he greets, “I’m glad you could make it.”
“Yeah, sure,” Ryuji says, a little distracted. “Are you seriously wearing that?”
Yusuke brings a hand to the necklace he’s seriously wearing. “Yes,” he says, offering no further explanation.
“Okay, second question: should you be wearing that?” In any other situation, it’d be pretty funny if Yusuke’s revenge for a terrible gift was wearing that terrible gift. But here? Surrounded by rich assholes he’s supposed to impress so they’ll throw money at his art? “People are gonna think you’re a no-good punk.”
“On the contrary, I do believe I can convince them to be impressed by such an avant-garde design.”
“Alright dude.” Honestly, with Yusuke’s confidence, he could probably spin that angle considering 90% of art is relentless bullshitting. “But also, why? I thought you hated it!”
“It certainly lacks elegance…"
“Yeah?” Ryuji prompts, because it’s objectively a terrible necklace.
Yusuke’s quiet for a good solid while. “Self-indulgence,” he says, finally.
“Huh?”
“While its design leaves much to be desired, I was glad to receive it,” Yusuke explains. But he’s also looking a little embarrassed, which is a little… weird… since he’s usually the kind of guy who does whatever he wants without really caring about what anyone thinks.
Right now, he looks like he cares a lot about what Ryuji thinks.
On a hunch, Ryuji reaches out and takes Yusuke’s hand. “Are you,” he starts. “Do I,” he tries. “Is this a thing?” is what ends up coming out.
“Is what?” Yusuke asks, but he can’t be clueless, not with how he’s blushing.
“Is this…”
Ryuji stalls; every attempt to say what exactly might be possibly going on just circles in on itself into a hopeless collision that nets no actual words, just a mental cacophony of sirens and alarms which! Isn’t! Very! Helpful!
“Look, I’m no good at this! I’m not gonna get it unless you actually say it,” he says, and it’s probably a low blow to dodge the feelings talk then turn it right around on the other person, but desperation does things to a guy, alright?
“I…” Yusuke takes a moment, and before Ryuji can say never mind, forget it, he clears his throat. “I’d like… a little more time to collect my thoughts.” Then, “I’d also like some privacy,” and, that’s right, they’re still at Yusuke’s gallery thing. There’s not a lot of people around their corner, but Ryuji hasn’t exactly been discreet with the whole. Anything. But before he can back off, Yusuke squeezes his hand, tugs him a little closer. “Would you like to have dinner together?” Yusuke asks. “My treat.”
“Yeah, alright,” Ryuji says, a little distant. It’s kind of a tepid response, but he’s more than a little distracted by his heart suddenly going into overdrive. “Wait, are you sure? I can—”
“My treat,” Yusuke repeats in a firm tone. “I’ve already gotten an offer for one of my pieces, after all.”
“For real?” Ryuji grins, and yeah, obviously people would want to buy Yusuke’s stuff, but it’s always exciting when they do. “Hey, you gotta show it to me before it gets stuck in some guy’s office.”
“Of course,” Yusuke says. He leads Ryuji by the hand, not letting go. So Ryuji doesn’t, either.