Work Text:
After a long day of classes, practising with his unit and then working for the student council, the only thing Mao wants to do is to lie down in bed, close his eyes and rest through the whole weekend.
That’s why the first thing he does when he gets in his room, without even bothering to change his clothes is to throw himself in the bed, his feet dragging him all the way there and just letting his body fall, a smile on his face as he’s finally free from all his responsibilities for the day.
“Ouch.” The bed speaks to him when his body hits it, except that Mao knows that it’s impossible for a bed to talk, that his body has landed on something certainly more hard than the comfort of his mattress and that he can recognize that voice in any place of the world anytime.
“Ritsu.” Mao calls almost instinctively, not even surprised at the fact that his childhood friend is inside his bed wearing his pajamas as if he were the one who actually lives in the house. He sighs, finally deciding to get off from on top of Ritsu as he sits in bed, his body feeling even heavier than it already did. “So? What are you doing here?” He asks, his voice coming out more tired than he intended as he stretches his body in an attempt to keep himself awake.
“Maa-kun feels lonely when we don’t sleep together, right? That’s why I have decided to be nice and sleep here tonight~ You should be grateful~” The older boy replies in a childish way with a smile on his face, but unlike Mao he has decided to stay lying down in bed, covering himself with the blanket and staying comfortable.
Mao can’t help but smile for a second at the image. There are many times in which seeing Ritsu smile has brought a smile into his face as well and apparently this is one of those times.
“You are the one who gets lonely” Mao scolds him, taking the pillow away from Ritsu and hitting him with it in an attempt to both wake him up and hide his own embarrassment, because even if he doesn’t show it as much as Ritsu and he can live with it, he does get lonely.
“Ouch.” Ritsu complains once again, sitting on the bed as well, the smile disappearing from his face as it gets replaced with a frown. “Maa-kun is being mean… Even if I came here out of the kindness of my heart…” He complains, in an attempt to guilt trip Mao to apologize, lie down with him and cuddle until morning arrives.
A perfect plan, really, at least in his mind.
“Yes, yes, Ritsu-sama sure is kind using his precious free time to come and sleep in my bed while wearing my clothes.” After so many years of knowing each other, Mao already knows all of Ritsu’s tricks to get away with everything he wants, which sometimes allows him to actually manage to counter him.
Only sometimes though, because Ritsu is too good at his own game and Mao is easy to win over.
“I bet that you didn’t even try to do the homework that the teacher gave us for the weekend.” Mao sighs as he takes Ritsu’s briefcase, lying down on the floor and showing that Ritsu came straight to his home, not even bothering to pick anything from his own place. “There isn’t much, so you should… Oh?” Mao expected to find only their usual schoolbooks and notebooks, but instead he finds a notebook that he doesn’t recognize. A script. “You are going to be in a drama?” Mao guesses when he reads the cover.
“Mhm…?” Ritsu was already getting ready to fall asleep again, ignoring Mao’s complains about having to do homework, but now that he has started a conversation he has to be polite and reply. “Ah that… Anzu accepted without asking me first.” He explain, sounding slightly annoyed at it.
“She did?” Mao asks, opening the script to check what kind of drama it is. “I’m surprised she gave the job to you, there are others in your unit who seem more proper for this job.” He says, not stopping to think even for a second that he might have been rude with that kind of comment.
“I also thought that Secchan or Nacchan would do a better job…” He says as he slowly gets out from bed, realizing that if Mao isn’t going to stop the conversation any time soon he will take advantage of it and sits next to him, his head resting on Mao’s shoulder as he looks at the script, just looking though as he doesn’t feel like reading. “But apparently the producer of the drama wanted me specifically.” He adds, sounding annoyed by it.
“Because you look similar to the main character in the manga this drama is based in.” Mao explains, shifting his weight to his free shoulder so Ritsu is more comfortable resting his head in the other one. “It’s a shoujo manga that I- my sister, owns a few volumes of.” He corrects himself quickly, pointing at the shelve in which he keeps all his manga and Ritsu can’t help but smile, noticing the slip when Mao was talking.
“Maa-kun, if it’s your sister’s manga, why are you keeping it here?” He asks, looking at him now with a mischievous smile.
“Beats me, you already know she keeps throwing her stuff into my room.” Mao answers, still flipping through the script, the soft blush that appears in his face showing Ritsu that the manga is really his and he can’t help but smile at how cute he looks when he tries to appear manly in front of him, not even wanting to admit that he sometimes enjoy reading some shojo manga.
“Mhm… So? What kind of character am I?” Ritsu asks, deciding to not tease him too much, since he’s comfortable in this position and making Maa-kun flustered might end up in him leaving saying he wants to take a shower when in reality he just wants to hide his embarrassment.
"Mhm... You are the rival character..." Mao says as he reads through the pages of the script, Ritsu's character being someone who teases the heroine constantly, hitting on all her friends and classmates but shows a sweet side whenever she really needs it. "Too bad for you that these kinda of characters never get the girl in the end..." He adds in a softer voice, almost a whisper, not really thinking that it's something to be sad about.
At least, he doesn't feel even one bit sad about it.
"I thought that these kind of... Tsundere? Were popular..." Ritsu says, not very sure if the word he has used is the correct one, but he feels he remembers Mao mentioning that kind of word before while talking about manga characters, those manga that he has more than once been forced to read.
"Mhm, they are." Mao confirms, "though this one seems to be more of the casanova type... It doesn't suit you at all." He adds, snorting when he reads a specially cheesy line in the script, directed to one of Ritsu's character's
lost sheeps
as that's how he apparently calls the girls he tries to hit on. "But you are the rival." He reminds him, closing the script before it starts feeling more like a comedy than a drama to him and tapping the cover with his finger. "Not only that, but the main character is the heroine's childhood friend. That's something you just can't win on." He explains shaking his head, as if telling him to give up.
"What's the deal with the main character and the heroine being childhood friends?" Ritsu asks as unlike Mao('s sister, he will correct) he doesn't really read anything similar at the manga this drama is based on, Maa-kun has ever recommended him shonen manga in which the characters do nothing but fight.
"Childhood friends are the ultimate endgame." Mao explains, bluntly. "It's like as soon as two characters get labelled as childhood friends they are destined to be together no matter-" even before he can finish the sentence, he realizes (mostly because of the grin that has appeared in Ritsu's face) that what he's saying is incredibly embarrassing considering their relationship.
"Destined to be together you say~" Ritsu teases, repeating his words as he sounds incredibly pleased.
“I didn’t mean, that wasn't about…” Mao's face turns as red as his hair as he speaks, stumbling on his words as he doesn't know how to get out from this mess.
“Maa-kun, was that a confession?” Ritsu asks teasingly, his arms tightening around Mao's waist not only to hug him but also to make sure he won't leave.
“It wasn't…” Mao complains, not daring to look at Ritsu. “You don't need one, do you?” He continues, voice coming out shily.
“Mhm… I don't.” Ritsu agrees as he rest his lips on Mao's neck, smiling as he knows that even if they never confessed their feelings, they simply know how the other feels, they know what their relationship really is. “Once in a while it's nice to hear though…” He adds softly, Mao's reply being just a hum and Ritsu can still see how red his ears are, making him smile even more.
“In any case.” Mao says, his voice coming out in a weird, almost high pitched way thanks to the embarrassment he feels, pointing at the script. “You should read this and practice some lines.” He tells Ritsu, almost ordering him, changing the topic.
“I don't wanna… I wanna cuddle with Maa-kun for a little longer~” Ritsu complains childishly, placing kisses on Mao's neck while trying to push him back so they both lie down on the floor, but Mao holds onto the table to avoid it.
“We can cuddle after you work!” Mao promises while attempting to get rid of Ritsu's grip, failing as Ritsu continues to kiss him, already reaching his ear.
“You promise?” Ritsu asks, whispering directly into his ear.
“I promise.”
“You will help me practise?”
“I will.”
“You will let me choose the scene?”
Mao is sure that he's digging his own grave like this, that if he accepts all Ritsu's conditions, the only one who wins something is Ritsu. But being hugged so close while being spoken directly into his ear, feeling Ritsu's breath tickling on his ear, his whispers making his body shiver, is making him unable to think properly.
“I will.” He finally says, a sigh, knowing that he's dancing on Ritsu's hand, but he can't do anything against it.
Or rather, he doesn't want to do anything against it.
“In that case…” Ritsu finally let's go of Mao, grabbing the script and reading through it, looking as if he were trying to find a very specific scene.
Mao stands up as well, his gut feeling making him feel that everything is happening just like Ritsu had planned, just like always.
“Maa-kun, let's practise this one~” The older boy says as he shows the script to Mao, and he doesn't even need to read it to know what scene Ritsu has decided on.
“The kiss scene?” Mao asks, already regretting that he accepted practising with Ritsu.
Then again, he definitely prefers to be the one practising this than letting someone else kiss Ritsu.
“You should practise something else first…” Mao says in an attempt to hide that he's the one who needs to practise something else first, as jumping directly to the kiss scene seems too much for his heart.
“But these kind of scenes are the charm point of dramas though, aren't they~? A good scene will keep the viewers hooked, that's my responsibility~”
Mao can't say anything against that, deciding that the sooner they practise the scene the sooner they will be done, so he grabs the script to read the lines.
“Let's see… So I…?” Mao can't even finish the question, feeling Ritsu's lips on his, his tongue sliding inside his mouth as his arms lock around Mao's waist once again, hugging him and pressing him close.
It last a moment, a short moment for Mao to go from the surprise to the realization and enjoyment to finally break apart.
“You can't jump directly to the kiss!” Mao scolds him, backing off when he sees that Ritsu is about to kiss him again, making his childhood friend pout displeased.
“But you agreed to let me choose the scene and practise with me!” Ritsu complains childishly, still pouting and not letting Mao go.
“But you didn't even give me time to read the lines!” Mao complains back, almost in the same childish way.
“I never said we would practise lines though…” Ritsu says, getting closer to Maa-kun even when he's trying to back off, their lips almost touching again. “Just a scene~”
“You…” Mao really feels that he has been played with, that even if he expected something like this, Ritsu really ended getting away with what he wanted. “Ah, whatever! But if that's the case then I won't let you rest until you do it perfectly!” As he hears that, Ritsu's smile widens, clearly showing that this was his plan all along.
“I will be in your care~”