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It had been nearly an hour since the last dying embers of the fire that Shou had made had gone out, but the cold winds and critters hiding in the grass under their backs didn’t stop them from staring up at the night sky together. Shou could feel his heartbeat, and thanks to their close proximity (although pointedly not close enough), he could hear Ritsu’s, too. It soothed his soul, allowing him to be able to sit still long enough to watch the stars with his best friend. Ritsu’s aura always had that sort of calming effect on him, it dulled his hyperactivity to a point where he could think clearly about certain things. Things other than how he felt about him, of course. Not that he had any qualms with leaving that stone unturned - not now, at least. As of right now, he was perfectly content with lying in the grass with his soulmate of an unspecified kind.
“Hey, Shou?” Ritsu’s voice was about a million times softer than usual, and Shou more than enjoyed being able to see and experience that side of him. It made him feel special, it made him feel important.
“Yeah, Kageyama-kun?” came Shou’s response. While Shou was quick to allow Ritsu to use his given name without any formalities, Ritsu hadn’t even brought up what Shou should call him other than the few times he had glared in response to dumb nicknames.
“Do you remember when we first hung out?” The question not only surprised Shou, but also confused him. You see, that was an awfully loaded question considering their exciting history.
“Uh… do you mean the time I quite literally hand you your own ass, or the time that I burned your house and all your belongings down to ash?” Shou knew what he had meant, but that didn’t stop him from joking about events that probably should not be joked about. He glanced over at Ritsu with a teasing look and a small smirk.
“Neither, dumbass,” Ritsu said with a short laugh (which was Shou’s exact reason for teasing him in the first place), “I mean after that. After everything with uh… him happened.”
He could feel his heart drop at the indirect mention of his father. He was used to the feeling by now - it was akin to the way your body reacted on a roller coaster ride - but at the same time he wasn’t. Either way, it was a not-so-subtle sign that Ritsu wanted to get personal.
“Yeah, I remember. Why?”
“Do you remember how I reacted?”
“Reacted to what?” Ritsu shot him a hard glare that screamed just how dumb are you Shou Suzuki, I swear to God, to which Shou gingerly replied, “I’m being serious, believe it or not I cannot read minds.” And especially not yours.
“How I reacted,” Ritsu let out a small sigh of annoyance, and Shou bet that he was rolling his eyes as well, “to you asking me to hang out.”
“Yeah…?” Shou turned his head this time to look at Ritsu, arching a singular eyebrow. Why was Ritsu thinking about that? They had shared many memories and had hung out countless times since then, what about that specific moment was so important to Ritsu? As much as Shou could read people, Ritsu Kageyama remained entirely unreadable to him. He wondered why that is. “...Why?”
“Tell me about it.” Even though Shou had turned his head to look at him, Ritsu’s eyes remained locked on the glittering stars above them, expression almost blank except for the hint of softness in his eyes. He seemed unreachable to the young Suzuki, he always had.
“What? Why?"
“Because I said so, Suzuki. Now tell me about it,” his reply was impatient. Shou immediately complied - he knew that tone. It meant that whatever he had said wasn’t up for discussion, and he knew better than to press him. Not only that, but Ritsu had used his last name, which only further proved he meant business.
“Fine, fine. Gees.” Shou turned his head once more to look at the sky. He sort of got why Ritsu didn’t turn to look at him now. The stars were absolutely stunning this far from the city. They visited this spot frequently, it had become something of a regular Friday night thing for them. To come out here and watch the stars like this. Tonight, however, Ritsu seemed to be in an extremely pensive mood, which was odd to say the least.
“Well, let’s see…” Shou continued, “I came to your window the Thursday after shit hit the fan and asked you for your number,” he recounted the next part with a small smile, “you refused to even let me in.”
“God, you should have seen your face,” Ritsu let out an earnest laugh, moving his arm from his side to rest over his stomach. He cast a glance over at Shou, letting their eyes meet, before moving them back up to the sky, “and the next time?”
“The next time? What are you doing, writing a novel?” the redhead snickered at his own funny comment, but it didn’t earn so much as a smile from Ritsu.
“Just do what I say for once in your life, Shou Suzuki.” Ritsu let out another annoyed sigh, rolling his eyes dramatically. Shou wanted to point out how he was false, and that he had actually done what he said multiple times, actually, for his information, but he decided to bite his tongue.
“Well, I got your number from Serizawa-san, who got it from your brother,” he blushed a small bit thinking back on that - wow, he really was desperate for connection, wasn’t he? “And when I texted you, you blocked me.”
“Yeah, and then I unblocked you five minutes later because I wanted to know how the hell you were able to contact me.”
“And then I told you Serizawa-san had given it to me-”
“And then I blocked you again,” Ritsu was smiling again. God, something about that smile made his stomach do small, affectionate flip flops.
“Why are we talking about this again?” Shou was definitely persistent, that was his one redeeming (?) quality.
“Did I say you could stop?”
“Well, no -”
“Then tell me what happened next.”
“Alright, okay, cool,” Shou was being extremely passive about all this, but only because he could tell that Ritsu was going somewhere with it. He wanted to let him get there, even if it meant sucking up his pride a little. “When you unblocked me, you texted me first. You said you would hang out with me.”
Shou could see a smile spread across Ritsu’s features, and he noticed something for the very first time - something he was too excited to notice when it actually had happened.
“Wait - why did you unblock me?"
“I was waiting for you to ask that,” Ritsu finally, finally, turned his head to look at Shou. Actually, he turned his whole body so that he was propping his head up with his hand. Oh, so they were getting intense. “I talked to Serizawa-san.”
“You what?” if Shou had been drinking water, he would have done a spit take.
“He said to try and hang out with you,” Ritsu broke eye contact, looking down at the grass as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Was his cheeks turning red, or was that just Shou’s wishful thinking? “He said that you were actually a really good kid, and that I should give you a chance. And I did.”
All Shou could muster was a small “...oh.” He thought about what Ritsu had just said for a few seconds, processing the new information. Ritsu hadn’t asked him to hang out because he wanted to, he had done it because Serizawa had asked him to. After a moment of silence, Shou spoke up again, “...and what happened next?”
“We hung out.”
“Well no fucking shit! I mean why? Why did you hang out me?” He was getting a little frustrated now, and even though his voice was starting to rise both in volume and in his throat, Ritsu remained calm. “Why did you keep hanging out with me?”
“Because I was curious at first,” Ritsu played with the long strands of grass between his fingers, “and then I got comfortable. Even though you’re way too hyperactive and a bit of a dumbass, you grew on me. And now here we are,” Ritsu paused, soaking in the moment, “Best friends.”
Shou could have sworn he stopped breathing just then. He had never heard Ritsu give him validation of their relationship, and he had assumed that he never would. He had come to terms with it, even.
“You can use my given name, Shou.”
Shou responded calmly, in contradiction to how excited and giddy he was feeling.
“With or without formalities?”
“With.”
“Ritsu-chan?” the side of Shou’s mouth turned up in a small smirk.
“I take it back,” Ritsu immediately deadpanned.
“Wait- no!” Shou was laughing, which was music to Ritsu’s ears just as much as his laughter was to Shou’s. “Ritsu-kun it is.”
They fell silent for a few more moments.
“Hey Shou?”
“Yes, Ritsu-kun?”
“I’m glad we met.”
“Me too.”