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Ritsu had been pacing back and forth within the confines of his room for roughly twenty minutes now. He had his hands clasped behind his back, watching his feet as they moved one in front of the other. He muttered under his breath as he went back and forth between his bed and the door, occasionally casting nervous glances at the window. Eventually the boy stopped pacing and collapsed backwards onto his bed, letting his right forearm fall over his closed eyes as his mind raced about where that dumb redhead could possibly be.
Ritsu Kageyama was, in a word, worried.
Although he cursed Shou out under his breath, calling him things such as dumbass or that stupid pyrofanatic , the younger Kageyama brother couldn’t stop thinking about him. Where he was, what he was doing, and why he hadn’t knocked on his window in more than four whole painful days. Ritsu understood that the responsibility to clean up after his father’s messes had fallen to Shou, and he also understood that those things took time and effort. But four days without so much as a call or a text was far too long.
Shou Suzuki had always been sort of an enigma to Ritsu. They would text each other periodically throughout the day — silly things such as a “fresh new meme” Shou had found or a particularly hard homework problem that Ritsu was having trouble with (who knew that the boy was so good at math?) — and then Shou would show up at his window unannounced every week or so with new stories to tell or a new trinket that had reminded the redhead of him. To be completely honest, the entire thing caused Ritsu an enormous amount of anxiety. But he knew that Shou’s schedule was hectic and unpredictable, and he found that the worrying was nothing compared to the feeling he got when he heard the knocks at his window and saw Shou’s familiar blue eyes through the glass.
Ritsu felt his leg start to bounce up and down — a habit he had picked up from Shou himself. The last couple nights had been a lot like this, sitting in his room, unable to sleep as his thoughts raced around in his head. He had thought of every single situation in which Shou would have had to go quiet like this. None of them, he found, were good. For all he knew, Shou was dead in a ditch somewhere, sniped by an assassin sent after him by a former claw member. Or, he could have a gun against his head, being held hostage for ransom money from the Super 5. He let out a shaky breath — those were only two of the twenty-three scenarios he had come up with in the past 96 hours.
He ran his hands down his tired face, taking a deep breath in hopes that it would calm the tight feeling in his chest, and pulled himself up into a sitting position. He surveyed his surroundings as though that’s not all he had been doing since he got home, noting the unfinished homework spread out on his desk (he had been too anxious to even start thinking about schoolwork) and the small pile of books next to his bookcase that he had thumbed through in a failed attempt to distract himself. Finally, his eyes landed on his phone, laying next to his pillow. It hadn’t lit up once since he had gotten home — he didn’t have any true friends besides Shou, or his brother if you counted him — but he still grabbed it with one hand and flipped it open with the other, scrolling through recent notifications in search of Shou’s contact name.
Shou Suzuki, where are you?
As if on cue, there came a sudden knock at the window and Ritsu’s heart practically leapt out of his chest. Whirling around, he climbed over his bed and stumbled across his carpet, nearly tripping a few times despite his floor being clean. He couldn’t contain his excitement, fumbling with the metal lock on his window for a few (incredibly slow) seconds longer than usual. He kept throwing glances up at Shou’s face through his own excited reflection. Blue eyes that he could get lost in and hair that reminded him not of fire but of warm embraces and the fireworks that they set off in the Suzuki’s backyard — this was, without a doubt, Shou.
Throwing the window open, he didn’t wait for the other boy to let himself in before throwing his arms around his neck. He practically jumped out the window himself in the process, but he didn’t care — he trusted Shou enough to catch him if he fell, anyway.
“Woah woah woah! —” the Suzuki said between laughs. Ritsu could feel Shou’s arms wrap around his waist in return, “Miss me, much?”
The light-hearted laugh was music to his ears. But even better than that was his aura’s heartfelt and genuine reaction to Shou’s as they embraced. An indescribable warmth came over him, starting in his chest and making its way to the tips of his toes. It reminded him of several things: laying under the stars and discussing everything and anything, sitting under a fort of blankets at 3AM and laughing until Mob ever-so-politely asked them to stop, reading a book in front of a fireplace and feeling the warmth from the embers on his skin. But most of all, it reminded him of Shou. Of comforting words and soft touches and the way neither of them minded how their hands brushed up against each other when they walked.
Thinking of this made Ritsu tighten his hold on Shou even more — if that was even possible.
“Okay, alright, loosen up before you either suffocate me or fall out the window, or both!” Shou’s laughing started to subside as he tried his best to peel Ritsu off of him. He was insanely tired after the day he had, and he wanted nothing more than to put his feet on something solid. But no matter how much Shou pried, Ritsu wouldn’t let up on his grip. “Dude, is everything alright?”
This made Ritsu let go, but he didn’t move out of the way to let Shou in. Instead, he placed both hands on the windowsill and furrowed his brow, “Is everything alright? Why don't you tell me if everything is alright, Mr. No-texts-or-calls-for-four- freaking -days.”
“Oh…” Shou raised an arm to rub the back of his neck with his hand. It was a nervous habit that Ritsu noticed he had, “Yeah… Sorry about that…”
“Before you start groveling, at least tell me why. ” He crossed his arms across his chest, arching a single eyebrow as he waited for the response.
“Uh… well, you see… ” Shou grimaced, backing up a few inches (notably out of range of Ritsu’s punches), “I may or may not have dropped my phone off of my balcony.”
Ritsu’s mouth dropped open. He mentally took back every single worried thought he had had over the past few days. He absolutely despised this boy.
“Okay,” he said through clenched teeth before reaching up and sliding the window shut in Shou’s face.
He reopened it a few minutes later, but it was definitely nice to watch Shou beg for forgiveness as he gave the little deviant a large, satisfied smirk.