Chapter Text
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
A long arm stretched out from under a white duvet to smack the top of the alarm clock. 7am. Way too early for Tsukasa to comprehend. He flipped the blanket off of himself and was immediately struck by the coldest wind he had ever felt. Why does he always forget to close his window before he goes to bed? He quickly waddled over to his window and proceeded to shut it. Much better, now he doesn't have to face the freezing winds of the arctic.
Tsukasa grabbed a towel and headed for the shower. His favourite time of day was when he gets to stand under the piping hot stream of water and clear his mind. He often sang showtunes or practiced his monologues from the school play he always took part in. Memorising an entire soliloquy in 2 weeks was his only redeeming quality. After sufficient scrubbing and lathering, the strawberry blonde boy left the bathroom and walked back to his bedroom.
A quick glance at the phone on his bedside table revealed a text from his best friend since diapers. Rui Kamishiro. The purple haired boy was everything Tsukasa wanted in a best friend, despite their near enough opposite personalities, the two had always been by each other's side. Rui was, in short, a nerd: often seen with his head deep in a novel or a maths textbook, round glasses always perched on his straight nose bridge. During last exam week, Tsukasa had to force Rui to meet him somewhere, anywhere , that wasn't the school library.
'Morning sunshine.' The text read, perfect capitalisation and punctuation; Tsukasa expected nothing less from his grammar obsessed companion.
'mornin 4 eyes' He tapped in response and discarded the phone onto his bed, moving to grab his hairdryer to tame the mess that was apparently what people considered hair.
Tsukasa's phone dinged again, screen lighting up with another message from the purple haired boy.
'Are you picking me up or do you want me to meet you halfway?'
'ill come get you, can we stop @ 7/11 before we go? i wanna grab a drink'
'No problem. See you soon.'
Tsukasa finished brushing his hair and paced his way to the chair with his uniform lazily thrown on it. Pulling the white button-up over his arms, he mouthed the lyrics to a song from the upcoming production of Grease his school was putting on. Once he was fully dressed, He grabbed his keys from the hook by his door, slid his phone into his back pocket and made his way downstairs to the kitchen, where he was sure his mother was cooking breakfast.
His younger sister, Saki, was already seated at the dining table. He'd been over-protective of her for as long as he could remember, but that didn't mean he couldn't tease her, just a little.
'What's up, loser?' Tsukasa voiced as he sat opposite Saki, no malice behind his words and a shit-eating grin on his face as he grabbed the pair of chopsticks placed on a small rest and began eating the white rice in front of him. Saki smiled at her brother and stuck her tongue out, her eyes lifting up from her phone for a short moment, only to return as she continued scrolling through the website of a music store somewhere in Tokyo.
'Tenma Tsukasa put the chopsticks down' Their mother said as she walked towards the table, two plates of food in hand.
Tsukasa whined but obediently placed the chopsticks back on the table, muttering something about it being unfair that his mother didn't quite catch.
'We eat together or we don't eat at all. How many times have I told you?' His mother said authoritatively as she placed the plates in the center of the table.
Tsukasa rolled his eyes and nodded, knowing the question was rhetorical. Once the three of them were sat comfortably, each with a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup and a pair of chopsticks as well as the various dishes in the middle of the table, they put their hands together and simultaneously declared a quick 'itadakimasu' and started eating, Tsukasa almost inhaling his food once he looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. He needs to leave within the next 15 minutes or he'd be late to Rui's house, which would significantly reduce their time together. After gulping the last of his soup and washing it all down with a few mouthfuls of water, Tsukasa stood up swiftly and grabbed his jacket and schoolbag from the coat hooks by the door. He slid his shoes on and waved a quick 'goodbye' to his mother and sister, telling them he'll see them tonight.
Jogging over to his bike , Tsukasa pulled his keys from his front pocket and unlocked the chain around the frame and swung one of his legs over, making a mental note to make the seat higher before he got to Rui's house in order to accommodate his longer legs. He began riding in the direction of his best friend's house, appreciating the spring morning around him; cherry blossom petals falling as the branches of trees swayed in the gentle wind. It was the perfect weather, not too cold but not too warm, and Tsukasa wished it was the weekend so he and Rui could go on a picnic under the beautifully wilting flowers, appreciating each others' company as they ate onigiri that Tsukasa's mother had made and drinking tea that Rui's father had made.
Tsukasa had to physically shake the thought of Rui's gentle smile as he listened to Tsukasa ramble about the latest musical he watched, framed beautifully by the falling shades of pink behind him. Tsukasa had to not think about reaching up to pick petals out of the younger boy's hair and his palm 'accidentally' brushing up against Rui's soft cheeks, making him blush and break the eye contact they had been maintaining. Tsukasa absolutely had to stop thinking about holding his hand as they walked, their feet in time with one another and their linked hands swaying slightly as they made conversation about everything and anything. Tsukasa had to stop thinking .
Before he realised it, he pedaled up to Rui's house and rang the doorbell on the gate three times, sort of like a secret code between the two to signify that the unknown visitor was not so unknown. Tsukasa dismounted his bike and fiddled with the seat, making it slightly higher so Rui could be 'driving' and Tsukasa would be on the small back seat he had installed on his bicycle. This definitely wasn't done as an excuse for Tsukasa to wrap his arms around Rui. Absolutely not! Why would you think of such a thing?
As Tsukasa was lost in thought, Rui opened the gate. It creaked slightly and the sound of it caused the older of the two to be pulled from his thoughts and look up from the leaf on the ground he was staring at with far too much concentration. As he glanced up, Tsukasa noticed that Rui's tie was done loosely, causing him to suspect that Rui had fallen back asleep after their text exchange earlier this morning. He chuckled to himself and walked over to him and proceeded to fix it as Rui smiled slightly. No words exchanged between them yet.
Tsukasa finally broke the silence as he took a step back and finally made eye contact with Rui.
'Who would have expected the highest ranking pupil in class 2-B to not be a morning person?' He teased, the previous shit-eating grin returning to his face as he saw Rui roll his eyes and sling his bag over his shoulder, smacking the shorter boy on the shoulder lightly and smiling.
'No good morning ? No how did you sleep ? Hmm... I expected better from the class representative especially after he called me four eyes as soon as he woke up...' Rui replied, returning a similar taunting tone.
Tsukasa chuckled at Rui's words and grabbed his wrist, leading him over to the bike and gently shoving him towards it, silently telling him that they needed to go, Tsukasa still had that 7/11 visit to get to after all. Rui understood and swung one of his long legs over the frame of the bike and patted the small seat on the back, ushering Tsukasa to hop on. The peach haired boy followed in getting on, grabbing Rui's bag from his shoulder so he could ride comfortably and placing it on his lap. He slithered his arms around his best friend's waist and held on tight. Rui gave a short 'here we go' and they took off, the two of them riding in a comfortable silence.