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The first thing Dice learns about Amemura Ramuda after moving in to his place is that he is impossible to ignore. He’s loud even when he doesn’t say anything, demanding attention at all times, bugging Dice until his head is spinning. Dice knows what he’s getting himself into when he agrees on playing roommates with Ramuda, their very first meeting pretty much goes like how Dice expects to deal with him on a daily basis: getting swept into Ramuda’s pace whether he likes it or not.
Living with him is not any different: Ramuda is everywhere, ordering him around, roping him into becoming his living dummy, making him wear clothes Dice would never be caught dead in. Sometimes it gets on his nerves, but at least he’s never bored.
Dice soon learns the difference between the ways Ramuda says his name: the ‘I’m bored’ “Dice”, the ‘pay attention to me’ “Dice”, the ‘let’s go have some fun’ “Dice”, the ‘this is the only warning you get before you’re squeezed to death’ “Dice”, the ‘drop everything and help me’ “Dice”, the “Dice” he says as a warning, and the absence of it when Ramuda wants him gone. The latter doesn’t happen much but Dice just fucks off without asking anything, it’s none of his business.
* * *
The second thing Dice learns about Amemura Ramuda is that he’s messy. His workplace is an organized chaos, sketchbooks and piles of fabric haphazardly thrown on top of each other, hundreds of tiny boxes filled with god-knows-what, but always in an order he can recall with an accuracy it creeps Dice out. The first time Ramuda orders him to fetch a sketchbook it’s in the exact place Ramuda’s told him it would be. Dice just blinks down at the plain purple notebook: there is nothing that sets it apart from the four other purple notebooks in another pile, but for the sake of his sanity Dice has stopped questioning anything Ramuda says or does a while ago. When he brings it with him back to the living room Ramuda narrows his eyes and points an unwrapped lollipop at Dice.
“You didn’t look inside, did you, Dice?” Ramuda singsongs, but his voice has an edge to it that sends shivers down Dice’s spine.
He tosses the notebook in Ramuda’s lap. “No? Why the hell would I?”
Ramuda smiles, all sharpness gone as if it was never there. He tugs Dice next to him on the sofa, and shoves a lump of bright pink whatever in Dice’s face. “Now be still and hold this for me.”
* * *
The third thing Dice learns about Amemura Ramuda is that for someone who’s annoyingly touchy-feely he doesn’t like it when others touch him first. Despite what Gentarou and Ramuda say Dice is not stupid, he can see the way Ramuda slips out of the hold of a woman he’s flirting with, he catches that split second Ramuda freezes when a stranger touches him out of the blue. Dice is careful not to touch him accidentally, but it’s impossible when Ramuda is always in his space, clinging to him, or flopping down on the couch next to him, snuggling up to him during an evening TV drama loudly criticizing the costume department.
Dice is getting so used to Ramuda being all over him he doesn’t even bat an eye the first time Ramuda plops down on Dice’s lap. He just rests his chin on Ramuda’s shoulder and continues watching his variety show without saying a word. Ramuda wiggles around a little bit in his own very Ramuda-like way but before Dice tells him to cut it he leans back against Dice’s chest and hums. Ramuda reaches up and tangles his fingers in Dice’s hair. Dice leans into the touch and loops an arm around Ramuda’s waist. Ramuda doesn’t acknowledge it, just lets out the tiniest of content sighs. They stay like that until the next guest in the show is someone Ramuda personally knows, and he launches into telling Dice embarrassing stories about them.
Without takeout and konbini bento they’d both starve to death, but occasionally Dice still tries cooking. Times like this Ramuda always sits on the counter, swinging his legs, and makes fun of Dice when he inevitably fucks up. It’s revenge at first, Dice ruffling Ramuda’s hair without washing his hands, careful to keep out of kicking range. Ramuda pouts and complains about the mess but he is not pulling away, so Dice steps closer. He brushes back Ramuda’s bangs and drops a small kiss on his forehead. Ramuda blinks, and it’s the first time Dice sees him so unguarded.
“The omurice is almost done,” he says as he flicks Ramuda in the forehead, but he’s not fast enough to dodge Ramuda’s kick in the shin. It hurts but Dice doesn’t mind it that much because Ramuda is smiling and it doesn’t look fake.
Ramuda has subtle “touch me” tells, and Dice is on his way to discover all of them.
* * *
The fourth thing Dice learns about Amemura Ramuda is that there are times when he gets quiet, and it’s not the “you’re thoroughly fucked” kind of scary-quiet. It’s always at night, and he always has a sketchbook with him, the sketchbook he never lets Dice touch. Dice knows it’s not design sketches or work sketches, he once caught a glimpse of one page filled with figure drawings. What’s the secret in that Dice doesn’t know, but he doesn’t give a shit.
Ramuda sometimes shuts himself out to the balcony—Dice has caught him staring at his phone without doing anything else. He’s learned to leave Ramuda alone whenever he gets like this, after he almost threw Dice out once.
Ramuda’s bad mood is usually gone the next day, but sometimes it lingers for a while.
* * *
The fifth thing Dice learns about Amemura Ramuda is that it’s impossible to catch him sleeping. Sometimes Dice wonders if Ramuda even sleeps at all, or is he just a bundle of seemingly everlasting energy fueled by sugar and spite. Sometimes Ramuda leaves dead in the night, claiming he’s visiting one of the women he’s seeing but when he sneaks back into the apartment at the crack of dawn—Dice is a light sleeper, it always wakes him up—Ramuda doesn’t smell like the place he spent the night at was a woman’s apartment. Dice doesn’t care so he never asks, as long as Ramuda doesn’t come home all fucked up.
Dice soon learns deadline crunching Ramuda is a terrifying Ramuda, and he could swear Ramuda has spent at least 90 hours awake the last time. When Dice threatens to pick him up and tuck him to bed himself, he doesn’t expect Ramuda to lean into him and singsong, “Then go do that, Dice”.
Dice just shrugs and lifts him up without saying a word. Ramuda wraps his legs around his waist and sleepily nuzzles his neck. He is so light Dice doesn’t need more than one hand to hold him up so he pets Ramuda’s head a few times. Ramuda would deny it to anyone’s face but Dice knows he likes it.
When he drops Ramuda on his bed he fully intends to leave him like that, but Ramuda stops him with a hand gripping his wrist and a soft but sharp, “Stay”. Is it an order or a request Dice doesn’t know, but he kicks off his sweatpants and climbs under the covers without any complaints.
Ramuda’s bed is big enough to fit both of them comfortably.
* * *
The night following the division battle Dice hears Ramuda leave, but he doesn’t think anything of it until Ramuda comes home at 5 in the morning with splatters of blood on his hoodie and streaks of dried blood on his face and neck.
Dice never got truly angry at Ramuda up until this day.
He doesn’t yell at him, just grabs him by the wrist and drags him to the bathroom, pushing him down on the bathroom stool with more force than necessary.
“Sit still,” Dice grits out. Ramuda doesn’t react to the manhandling at all—it gives Dice the creeps.
He grabs the first-aid box from the bathroom cabinet and sets it down on the sink. He pries Ramuda’s hoodie off him without much of a hassle, the only reaction he gets is a soft “Dice?”. It doesn’t take much time to clean Ramuda up, the blood looked worse than the damage he took.
Once he patches him up he wrestles Ramuda into his pajamas, tucks him to bed, and slips under the covers. He brushes Ramuda’s bangs out of his face and presses a chaste kiss on his forehead.
“Get your shit together, Leader,” he whispers as Ramuda snuggles up to him.
The last thing Dice learns about Amemura Ramuda is that he is human.