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The stairs to the attic creaked, at once foreign and familiar.
Ren slowed his ascent a moment, foot hovering over a specific step that looked as unassuming as the last. It had been the one that always gave him away to Sojiro in the mornings, right? Just a few short months ago when he’d been on self imposed house arrest after his faked death but so bored of it that he regularly tried to sneak out of the cafe anyway. He had finally started remembering to hop it only for the soft thud of his landing to get him shooed right back up into his attic prison to mope until the school day ended.
Now he was back in LeBlanc fresh from a more literal one and just in time for a Valentine’s Day spent working the cafe and being snubbed by all the girls he knew. What a weird few days.
He took the step up, foot landing silently.
Ah. Maybe he had forgotten already.
It was only the muffled and comfortingly dumb complaints about his lack of speed from Ryuji booming from further up that shook Ren from his momentary stupor. At least his misery had company today.
“Give me a second, I was having a moment!” Ren called up. His next step squealed as he continued the short climb.
“Yeah yeaaaah, much longer moment an’ I get squatters rights up here,” Ryuji’s smug face came into view, perfectly at home sprawled out all comfy on the tiny crappy couch near the tiny crappy TV like he hadn’t just spent the back half of the afternoon pouting about being anywhere else with any one else.
Ren rolled his eyes and sat on Ryuji’s calves as punishment for not immediately making room, “Yeah? Was that your big plan tonight? Invite yourself over with a ‘ohhh Renren I’m so single’ sob story then kick me out of my own home?”
“Naw!” Ryuji swatted at Ren’s thigh, trying to wriggle free.“That’s just a bonus--and ugh,” Ren hunkered down with a grin. “--Get your boney ass offa me!”
“Then stop hogging the couch,” Ren’s huff was ruined by a badly suppressed snicker, and Ryuji sat up on his elbows whining maturely “Aw, come on! You got other chairs up here!”
“Yeah, but this is my room, I should get the couch,” Ren reasoned. He had suffered enough today, this month, this last year… and after everything his ass deserved only the best. Though for now he’d settle with lumpy ‘vintage’ cafe seating.
“And I’m the guest, so you should be a good host and lemme have it,” Ryuji shot back, spreading his arms and wiggling spitefully back into full sprawl once Ren finally stood up. Not even his own right hand was giving him pity. Maybe he’d be demoted to left.
If Ryuji was going to keep being a dick about it then Ren couldn’t help himself. He tapped his chin in mock thoughtfulness, “Well, if you could get it then we wouldn’t be here having this argument, would we?.”
Ryuji shot up and scoffed loudly. “ Oh look who’s fuckin’ talking! You struck out too!” He defended, letting Ren steal the seat next to him at long last.
“That’s…” Ren sat back, floundering for a moment on an excuse. He didn’t care about it nearly as much as Ryuji, but he had to admit with so many girls on the team it would have been nice to get even a text of some chocolate? Fat load of good his whole charming gentleman thief reputation did. “...They’re obviously intimidated by me.”
Ryuji just flopped back next to him, sounding like a deflating balloon and rolling his eyes so hard Ren imagined them popping out to roll along the floor.
Ryuji’s petulance and utter desperation over girls aside, it was kind of surprising to Ren that he too had been completely passed up for Valentines. From a purely objective standpoint he wasn’t a bad looking guy. He was athletic and his face was that kind of boyishly handsome Ren thought that girls liked. Maybe he had a loud style, but it should’ve been a bonus that he was at least confident in it, right? Plus he was funny and easy to talk to (or would just fill the space himself without complaint when you didn’t feel like saying anything yourself).
But then again, Ren was very careful about his appearance and everyone at school still parted like the Red Sea when he was around. So. Shujin wasn’t the best measuring stick. Maybe in a different school they’d both be back here swimming in chocolate and bragging at each other.
“Auughh, anyway who cares about that shit!” Ryuji scruffed through his hair in frustration, as nothing seemed worse at that moment than spending a whole night zeroing in on their combined failures. Small favors that Morgana wasn’t around otherwise there would be no avoiding the mocking. His eyes scanned the room for a distraction before landing on the old dusty TV and turning to Ren with renewed enthusiasm, “Okay listen, we can still turn this around! Where’d you hide those bad shows you always watch?”
“They’re awesome , but I don’t think I have any right now.”
“Oh bullshit, you’ve always got a bunch.” Ryuji pushed off the couch to hunker down at the TV stand and start digging around like he owned the place.
“I told you there’s nothing here,” Ren squeezed in alongside Ryuji to rummage through the stack of junk under the TV stand himself, sweeping aside old wrappers and crossword puzzles just to prove a point.
But just when he felt like he was about to die of dust inhalation something caught his eye, glinting in the low light along the wall. He wiggled further under the table to grab at it and slowly came to a mystified stop before pulling back with a dust covered DVD. "Shit...."
"What?"
"I rented this before Christmas."
"What!? What is it?" Ryuji crowded over him, trying to see the object of Ren’s despair.
Ren ignored his peanut gallery, blowing a layer of dust off and inspecting the disc for scratches. Even from behind Ryuji could read his friends full body grimace. “...The late fee’s going to be insane."
“You got the case?”
He watched Ren crawl back under the stand to rummage for a second, “...No case.”
Ryuji sucked his teeth, "Damn, they're gonna hafta send you back to jail for that."
Ren couldn’t help his startled laugh, "Too soon."
Ryuji at least had the sense to look sheepish for a moment before bulldozing through their increasingly awkward night. “Well. Whatever! It’s fine!” The disc was plucked out of Ren’s hand. He sulked at the empty space for a moment before sluggishly following Ryuji’s movement to the DVD player. “We got some entertainment, so now this night can really get started!”
The hum and whir of old electronics soon filled the air to join with the rattling of the gas heater somewhere off behind them.
As the movie menu came to life both boys groaned in unison. Of course it was some bad romcom.
“...You know what? ’S better than nothing.” Ryuji sighed, grabbing the couch arm to start swinging it around to face the TV better with Ren still on it.
“Is it, though?” Ren said, swiveling around to keep facing Ryuji as they spun. As an all too familiar musical cue hit, Ren changed his mind and grinned, he could throw Ryuji a bone. “Actually wait...Morgana likes this one a lot.” The cat had a penchant for them, always rooting for the charming underdog main men and projecting way too hard. Ren personally thought it was cute how much Morgana idolized the idea of being the perfect gentleman but...
Ryuji took the bait instantly, jumping the back of the couch and almost bouncing Ren off in his enthusiasm, “So we’re gonna drag it, right?”
“Obviously. Just wait until you see what the love interest is like…”
----------------------
The movie was predictably kind of terrible, so Ren didn’t feel that guilty making fun of it in Morgana’s absence.
It was about a charming but humble doorman in the big city who was holding a torch (and a door) for the stunning supermodel (they got a
lot
of mileage out of that) who lived in one of the building’s condos. The characters were fairly one note and the plot was built entirely on elaborate coincidences but there were some legitimately cute moments that Ren would never admit to liking out loud, and the cast had good chemistry. The doorman’s steadfast dedication to his craft in the face of adjusting to automated doors was kind of admirable despite Ryuji hollering in Ren’s ear about what a nerd the character was every three minutes. Morgana wasn't the only one prone to projecting, it seemed.
At some point as the night wore heavy on them, they continued to slump further and further onto the couch and into each other. Ren welcomed all the contact he could get after lacking for so long, admittedly being a little greedy in sapping his friends body heat in the guise of being sleepy. He also kind of didn’t want to give up his couch quest, but that was purely for the principle of things.
The movie had started dragging and so their chatter had died down for the moment. Ryuji yawned loudly, stretching from under Ren, “How much you wanna bet this girl gets stood up on Valentines by her asshole boyfriend and the main guy swoops right in?”
“You should know by now that I don’t make losing bets.”
“Hah! Figures even some dumb bellhop has more game than me.”
“He’s a commissionaire, Ryuji.”
“Well this ‘commissoner’,” Ryuji began with heavy air quotes, “Is about to kiss some model in Italy or some shit. I coulda been doing that!”
“I seriously doubt it,” Unless Ryuji had a contest win and a hand modeling contract at the ready somewhere.
“You don’t know!” Ryuji insisted, straining under Ren’s weight for a moment before going slack again.
“Knowing the only model we know, I feel like I kind of do,” Ren craned his head up at Ryuji, putting on his best mock offense, “ Besides, ” He started dramatically, ”Will you never be satisfied? You gave someone chocolate and you’re cuddling to a movie. What else is there?”
“Who did I--Man, this isn’t even a cuddle! You’re just laying on me.” Ryuji groused, ineffectually slapping at Ren’s side. “And friend chocolate doesn’t count, ya dead fish!”
“Maybe that’s why you’re single Ryuji, you’re way too picky.”
“Whaaat? I am not. ”
“You are! All you’ve been doing is complaining. You’re a terrible Valentine.”
“I’m not your Valentine at all, dude,” Ryuji flicked his forehead, but he had a hint of that crooked grin so he must not have actually been bothered.
Ren was a little though, but couldn’t pinpoint why. Ryuji missed picking up and running with his jokes all the time.
“Okay, my terrible not-Valentine, then.” He batted Ryuji’s hand away and shuffled to try to find a more comfortable position, but didn’t quite know where to put his hands or head or entire body. He could flip over to lie on his stomach, but the idea of staring Ryuji in the face while they were chest to chest seemed awkward and laying his head there to avoid eye contact seemed even more so. It’d probably be easiest to give up his personal game of chicken and just sit on the floor at this point, but he was warm and stubborn.
But his left hand man was right that just lying stiffly on top of him like they were sharing a double coffin was far from ideal.
His sulking was interrupted by a vacuum of sudden silence as the movie paused. Ryuji let out an exaggerated sigh that rumbled through his back, catching his attention even more.
“You know what, Ren?” Ryuji sat up, tumbling Ren off in the process. “Fine, I’ll be a better not-Valentine. What’ll it take? Some fake flowers? A fake apology card?”
“Start by not catapulting me off my couch,” Ren laughed despite himself, but then thought for a moment, “...And one of those little teddy bears wouldn’t hurt.”
He heard the groan of the cushions and watched Ryuji step over him to wander off further into the attic, “What, those kinds huggin’ the hearts? I knew you were tacky.”
Ren flipped the bird at the general direction of Ryuji from his spot the floor, content to lay back and stare at the stars on the ceiling for a while and listen to the building settling and Ryuji’s rummaging around. “You’re just digging your hole here.”
“Okay, okay! Sorry.” Something soft hit Ren’s face. “This close enough?”
It was the Jack Frost plush toy from his desk, grinning cheekily as ever. There was a piece of scrap paper hurriedly crammed into the side of its hat for Ren to fish out and unfold.
You’re my favorite hee-ho!
Ren stared across the room at Ryuji.
Ryuji challenged him back.
They both broke into ugly laughter.
“Oh Sakamoto-senpai, you’re the most romantic guy I’ve ever met. This fixes everything.” Ren crooned in his most obnoxious falsetto, imitating some hypothetical kohai girl from school.
Ryuji puffed his chest out, “An’ d--” He let out a wheeze, breaking character for a moment, “ An’ don’t forget it!”
“Come over here, I’ve got a gift for you too!”
“Oh yeah?” Ryuji crossed the room and squatted back into view. Ren got up to his elbows and gestured him closer still, batting his too-long eyelashes all pretty. “Yeeeah…?” Ryuji repeated.
Ren smashed the plush snowman into the side of his head. “Mwah.”
Ryuji flailed back, landing hard on his tailbone and letting out a short yelp in surprise before surging back up to grab the toy himself. “The hell was that?”
“A kiss, duh.” Ren grinned, fighting off Ryuji’s attempt to shove the toy back into his face and failing. Jack Frost cheerfully knocked his glasses half off his face and didn’t even have the decency to look sorry about it as Ren scrambled to recover them to Ryuji's crowing laughter.
“Some weakass kiss! Your aim sucks,” Ryuji used the opening to push the plush toy’s face right into Ren’s, making an even more exaggerated smooching sound and putting on an awful cartoon voice “ come hee-here, ho !”
Ren made an affronted scoff and lifted onto his palms to push back, then stuttered his rise as a realized his glasses would be safer if he slid them off to place somewhere less chaotic. A cackling Ryuji however hadn’t paid attention to Ren’s change in momentum and shoved the plush more forcefully into his friends face, only for his own momentum to make the toy slip off of the turning head and stumble him off balance.
His chest hit Ren’s with a dull thud, sending them both back on to the ground.
Ryuji’s palms hit the floor.
Their faces collided to complete comedy of errors that was their night.
“Shit! Sorry sorry...fuck.” Ryuji launched back, face held in his hands and shoulders shaking as he laughed awkwardly, “Guess my aim’s worse, yeah? Fuuuck…”
“...it’s fine! It’s fine. Probably.” Ren began, eyes wide like he couldn’t decide if this was funny or mortifying. Probably both. He wiped his own mouth, distantly glad he didn’t taste blood.
“ Probably? But we ju—?”
“—I know! I know." Ren cut him off. "One stupid way to knock out first kisses, huh?” He felt like a total idiot and his mouth was a little sore from how hard they had collided but he wouldn’t deny he was still having more fun than he had in forever.
Ryuji barked a laugh right back in his face, his worry visibly sliding off his shoulders. "Hah! Speak for yourself."
“So that was everything you wanted and more? Senpai, I’m honored.” Ren teased, shaking his head at the both of them.
“ What? No-- dude stoppit with the senpai thi --I mean--it wasn’t mine.” Once he gathered himself Ryuji thumped Ren’s back like he was being especially slow on the uptake for once. “I know you wanna make fun of me so bad for not being on your level all the time but come on ,” His smile turned easy. “Cut me some slack!”
Looking over at Ren’s face revealed a sudden and careful mask of neutrality. Which was a little surprising considering Ryuji had been expecting that put upon little pout he’d have when his fun had been ruined by Ryuji not playing along. But instead he was avoiding meeting Ryuji’s eye contact even as he shamelessly leaned back into his friend’s space only to repel him like a magnet, brows worrying together.
“...You good?”
Ren’s ears were turning pink at a rapid pace, his shoulders tensed like he was about to bolt. The sudden clamming up made basically no sense.
Then something clicked. Ren might have been fine if he felt like they were both on even terms, a shared moment of equal stupidity they could lord over each other forever, but...
“...Ohhohooo my god, for real? ” Ryuji’s eyes went wide as his mental image of Joker the ladies man crumbled to dust. He sniffed and wiped a fake tear for effect. “My boy Renren’s an innocent little flower.” God, he couldn’t make this shit up. Ryuji grin turns wolfish as he elbows at Ren until their eyes meet for a moment before Ren bats away his arm annoyed and defensive like a cat tired of being prodded at. If it wasn’t so hysterical it’d be kind of cute.
“I’ve told you before,” Ren mumbles, glaring through his shaggy bangs, making him look ridiculously more pouty. “There's no one back home I was ever interested in and we’ve already spent half the night going over how single we are here.” As something occurs to him Ren jumps back into animation, jabbing his finger accusingly at Ryuji. “And you’re bluffing! You were so desperate all night-- all year-- about not having a girlfriend so since when? Who’d you go out with?”
“Me an’ Ann were a thing for a second! I wasn’t kidding about the model thing, y’know.”
“What??” Ren’s eyes bug for a moment, like every interaction between his friends is flashing before his eyes in a new light.
"Daaamn, I feel pretty bad now, not gonna lie. But like." Ryuji gains steam. "But first kisses ain't everything! Mine was pretty stupid."
"I'm going to tell her you said that."
"D-
don’t you dare
--I'm just sayin...it's cool! It's whatever. After the second an’ third an’ forth they're just kisses. It's not even special" He was kind of lying, but if it helped things smooth over he was willing to play casual. It was just Ren anyway.
But Ren was still looking at anywhere besides Ryuji, though despite the faint embarrassment dusting his cheeks he was smirking. Giving Joker an easy target to regain his footing had been the right idea. His voice was quiet but had a teasing edge. "Sounds like you just want to kiss me more."
"S-shaddup! I'm trying to save
your
ego here."
“Uh huh…” Ren can’t help but finally laugh at the stupid fucking situation they're in and Ryuji joins him again before being interrupted by a hand up and an "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay--say your--say your hypothesis is right then. We can test it."
"Alright man," Ryuji can tell Ren’s trying to start up a chicken thing again, but they’ve already proved that Ryuji has the advantage so he’s not quite sure what the angle is. He squares his shoulders and grins, tapping his chin and leaning in like he’s inviting a punch from a kindergartener, "Lay that hypotenuse on me."
Ren splutters a laugh, tension fully seeping away and laying a peck on the corner of Ryuji's big stupid muppet mouth. That's two. Then he pulls back a little, eyes flitting up to meet Ryuji’s for a moment, looking for...something. The sign that he’s the butt of a bigger joke, maybe? One more mean than he’d expect from any of his friends. But Ryuji’s just waiting for him, easy as you please like he kisses friends every day. Which is stupid to think about and not something he really wants to fixate on, but it spurs Ren on to lay more quick little pecks on Ryuji’s face anyway. Three. Four. Five...but who's counting?
"Dude--hey, wait wait." Ryuji finally grabs at Ren's shoulders, stilling him. "What're you trying to be a bird? Relax a second."
“I am relaxed!” Ren momentarily blusters before taking a calming breath only to almost lose it the second Ryuji scoots back into his space.
Ryuji’s hands are warm and firm but the eye contact feels too intense. They’re close enough again that while he’s focusing in on the ring of gold in Ryuji’s brown eyes that he can feel himself going a little cross eyed. He doesn’t know why he didn’t just leave things where they were at the first kiss, like he’d somehow save more face and prove he wasn’t bothered by it if he went in for more but--
Ryuji taps at him, tiny eyebrows furrowed, “I said relax!”
A slightly rough hand slides up from Ren’s shoulder to his jaw, and his eyes cut down to try to watch that too before warm breath puffs over him in a short laugh, “dude, it’s super creepy if you keep your eyes open the whole time.”
Ren only manages to pout at that, the comeback he was ready to throw interrupted before he could get the words out.
And..it wasn't sparks in the air, nothing went into soft focus or felt really like anything else besides skin on skin again contrasting occasionally with the slight sticking from chapped lips but...it was nice, and the proximity made him feel warm even as the old gas heater in the corner was having trouble rattling away the February chill.
So he wouldn't mind doing it some more.