Work Text:
A knock on the door makes Tenma raise an eyebrow, looking up from his phone. It’s almost 11pm, Yuki is hunched over his sewing machine ignoring the noise, and he deduces none of them are waiting for a visitor. Before he gets the time to rise from his couch, the door opens on…
“Masumi?!” Tenma exclaims as he fully stands up.
The spring troupe’s psychostalker, as Yuki describes him, peeks in the room, hesitates for a few seconds before nodding to himself and makes his way in, holding firmly a pillow against his chest.
“I’m sleeping here tonight.” He says simply, before walking to Tenma’s side of the room. Tenma almost falls back on the couch, his phone long forgotten on the table.
“H-ha?? Yuki, say something!” Help me.
With a groan, Yuki looks up only to ask “Why are you here?” and then looks at his machine again.
Thanks for the help.
“Tsuzuru is writing his script and this time he’s gritting his teeth all the time and even insulting his keyboard. I can’t sleep at all.”
“B-But why our room??” asks Tenma, trying his best to not stutter – and failing at it. Calm down Tenma, this isn’t happening.
Masumi sighs, holding his pillow even closer.
“Sakuya and Citron are always talking, I don’t want to be in the same room as Chikage and Itaru if it’s just them, I don’t want to deal with Banri and Juza, Taichi is loud and clingy enough during the day, old geezer pisses me off and prevented me to go to Director’s room. So I’m trying my chance here.”
Taking the explanation in, Tenma thinks it must be the first time he had seen Masumi talk for so long in one sitting. The other boy’s longing stare seems to confirm his thoughts, as he's eyeing the bunk beds.
“Yeah, I get it…” Tenma looks down.
But is his crush really going to sleep in his room right now, when he isn’t mentally prepared for it?
Masumi nods to himself, and glancing at Tenma, he only adds “I’m taking your bed. I don’t want the brat to kill me in my sleep.”
“I can hear you, psychostalker.”
Ah, it really is happening. And it’s the worst case scenario.
Tenma looks around the whole room, fidgeting with his shirt, trying to find any excuse to make Masumi leave but the other boy is already climbing the ladder.
“H-hey, I didn’t say you could sleep in my bed!”
Masumi gives him an annoyed stare, his head barely visible above the pillow. It could be a very cute sight, to be completely honest, if Tenma isn’t at the moment completely dying inside. He isn’t ready for that.
“It’s more comfortable. And… It feels less lonely than the couch in the main room.”
… Ah.
Well, he can’t refuse him after that, can he?
“But where will I sleep then? I don’t want to sleep on the couch either!”
Masumi stays silent for a minute, deep in thoughts, before speaking up, not looking at Tenma anymore.
“Well… I don’t move in my sleep. I won’t bother you. So you can sleep in your bed too.”
Wait, what-
He hears Yuki snicker behind him. This brat-
“I have a lamp on my desk, so you can turn off the light and go to sleep too, hack. It would be rude to wake up the psychostalker by climbing too late in the bed.”
Tenma makes a mental note to plan Yuki’s assassination tomorrow. He doesn’t dare looking at Yuki to answer him, though. His brain is messed up enough and he isn’t able to try and argue with him now.
Maybe he should just sleep, indeed, and pray that tomorrow when he wakes up, it will all have been just a dream.
He feels both Yuki’s and Masumi’s eyes on him when he walks to the ladder. Glancing up at the latter, he grumbles “What? I’m going to sleep. Aren’t you okay with this?”
Masumi only looks away, and climbs into the bed without answering. When Tenma puts a knee on the bed, he sees Masumi is already under the blankets, holding his pillow and facing away from him. Trying to ignore the disappointed feeling, - why should he feel disappointed about this? Is he a shoujo manga school girl or something? He should spend less time listening to Muku’s rambling- he also shuffles under the blankets, turning his back to the other boy. He should find sleep easily since he feels so exhausted, right?
Well, he thinks after a good hour of fidgeting with the corner of his pillow, he is very wrong about it.
Yuki is still busy with his sewing machine, but he’s used to the noise. What bothers him is Masumi’s calm breathing behind him, even though he can barely hear it above the sound of his own beating heart. He’s not even shifting in his sleep, and Tenma wonders if it’s okay to just peek a bit at his sleeping face, curious. But he really can’t do this while Yuki is still in the room and awake. He still has dignity, right?
Just as he forms those thoughts, Yuki stretches his arms, gets up while complaining a bit, and leaves the room, taking with him the last bits of Tenma’s impulse control.
A couple seconds later, he’s rolling on his back as slowly as he can and props himself on one arm. He takes a look at Masumi’s face, mentally cursing the lack of light. Still, the peaceful expression on the other’s boy face puts him at ease immediately. His gaze lingers, and he thinks back to some of his conversations with Masumi. He remembers reaching a strange conclusion one day, after watching the Spring troupe interacting with each other, and how fondly, yet secretly so, Masumi was looking at his troupemates. Masumi always looks grumpy and difficult to approach, but Tenma can see how much he loves his newfound family, no matter how noisy it can be. He feels the same, after all.
“… What do you want?”
Ah, he’s done for.
Masumi is eyeing him. He’s not looking annoyed, only sleepy, but having been caught puts Tenma’s brain functions on hold.
Of course, Masumi gets annoyed quickly and turns his body towards Tenma, asking again “Tenma?”
“… I’m sorry.”
“… What?”
An awkward silence falls between them, as Tenma is frozen in his position and Masumi keeps looking at him, eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
Finally, it’s Masumi who speaks up, surprising Tenma.
“Why were you looking at me?”
Gulping down nervously, Tenma tries to formulate his answer, hoping his voice doesn’t betray how terribly nervous he feels.
“It’s just that… uh… You always look so grumpy or busy, so it was nice to… see you relaxed I guess?”
Masumi raises an eyebrow.
Congratulations, Tenma. Not only you fucked up, but Yuki is going to laugh at you for months.
Masumi still isn’t saying anything.
Maybe he should try some honesty.
“And uhm… When you said it felt lonely on the couch, I understood it I guess? Once you get used to sleep around another person…, I mean, if I were in your shoes and sleeping on the couch… it makes you feel like you’re in an empty home.”
Masumi’s eyes widen slightly.
Tenma feels like throwing himself off the bunk bed. Instead, he chooses to lay on his back, turning his head away from Masumi, his brain replaying his own words on loop.
A long minute passes, before a whisper disturbs the silence.
“Thank you for letting me stay here.”
Masumi’s voice is so weak Tenma almost doesn’t hear it, but this simple sentence is enough to make his cheeks feel way too warm for a chilly summer night.
“… It’s fine.”
Sleep finds him shortly afterwards.
___
When Tenma opens his eyes again, all he sees is a mess of black hair and he feels someone breathing against his neck. Masumi seems to have shifted towards him during the night, he’s now clinging to Tenma’s pillow, and oh no, they’re way too close and there’s no way his heart can handle it after what happened earlier-
The sound of a shutter interrupts his stormy thoughts. Looking up, he sees Yuki is holding his phone, a mischievous smile adorning his face.
“Kazunari is gonna love this.”