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Ranmaru swirled his glass of whiskey, attempting to drown out the sounds of the party around him by staring into the golden liquid. The deep brown color reminded him of a certain pair of eyes and he couldn’t help but sigh at the thought of their owner.
“You’ve been sighing all night, Ran-chan” Ren sat down on the stool next to him and slapped his shoulder. “Could it be because Bukki couldn’t make it tonight?” Ren leaned on the bar counter and threw him a knowing wink.
“Don’t know what you're talkin’ about.” Ranmaru huffed and looked back down into his whiskey.
“Keep telling yourself that.” Ren chuckled. “Anyway, not like you can’t have a good time just because your man isn’t here. Stop moping around and come have fun with us.” Ren motioned to where Masato, the birthday boy, and the others were gathered. It was Masato’s 20th birthday and the other idols had somehow managed to get him completely wasted. Not that it took too many drinks, but looking at him, arms wrapped around Otoya and Natsuki while he babbled absolute nonsense, he couldn’t hold much more liquor. Ren was right, he could either sit here wishing he had different company or he could get drunk enough to stop thinking about his boyfriend for a moment. Ranmaru downed his glass of whiskey and followed Ren back to the party.
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Reiji kicked off his shoes, set down his bag and immediately flopped onto the couch. Filming had gone on far too long today and he was exhausted . Not that he could complain too much, he was so distracted that he’d added some extra takes onto their already grueling schedule. Reiji knew part of it was guilt over missing Masato’s party. Not to mention his thoughts constantly drifting to a certain someone. Reiji had been so busy with his new movie lately that he’d barely been able to spend any time with his boyfriend. Before Reiji could start cooking up ideas about how he could make it up to Masato and Ranmaru, his phone started ringing. It was past 2AM who on earth would call him this late? Reiji picked up his phone, squinting at the bright light in his dark living room. Ranmaru? Just seeing his name pop up on his screen surrounded by little hearts and kissing emojis was enough to make Reiji’s heart melt. He picked up the call and a close up of his boyfriend’s face popped up on his screen. Was he...face timing him?
“Hello? Ran-Ran?” Reiji answered. The screen shifted and the camera zoomed out so Ranmaru’s face was a more comfortable distance from the screen. Now that Reiji could see his face properly, it seemed to be covered in...sauce? What was going on?
“Hey, Rei. You there?” Ranmaru slurred. Oh dear he was drunk as hell.
“Yeah, I’m here. What’s up, baby?” Reiji was a bit concerned, but Ranmaru seemed to be walking, talking, and...eating mostly fine.
“I got somethin’... I gotta tell you” Ranmaru slurred between bites. Was he eating a pizza? Reiji looked past Ranmaru munching on his pizza and saw street lights. Ranmaru was out on the streets at 2AM eating a pizza? Not the strangest thing he’d done while drunk, but still a little odd.
“Okay, but maybe I should come pick you up and then you can tell me?” Reiji tried to reason with him.
“No, no I gotta tell you right now, Rei! I can’t wait anymore!” Ranmaru yelled into the phone.
“Okay Okay! Lay it on me, but let me pick you up afterwards, alright? I know you can handle yourself, but I’d feel better knowing that you get home safe.” Ranmaru stopped walking and smiled sweetly at him through the screen.
“See this is what I love about you so much. You’re always so fucking nice to me.” Ranmaru stopped walking and softly smiled at Reiji. Reiji opened his mouth to return the compliment, but Ranmaru had more to say. “You’re so sweet to everyone, so patient and considerate. Plus you always smell nice and your hair is soooo silky. I love running my fingers through it when we cuddle And-”
“Ran-Ran! Hold on a minute! I can’t take all this praise at once” He said bashfully. He was used to Ranmaru being a sweet and cuddly drunk, but this was on a whole other level.
“Sorry, Rei. I didn’t mean to make ya embarrassed, I just want you to know how great you are, babe.” Ranmaru’s eyes, although unfocused, were full of love. Reiji was an incredibly lucky man.
“Thank you, Ran-Ran. I really appreciate it, especially after the absolute disaster that was filming today” Reiji sighed. He really had messed up a lot. The new movie he’s on was a huge production, and it’d be one of the biggest he’d ever been in. Though, because of that the expectations were high and the schedule left very little room for rest, let alone errors. The lack of sleep was starting to get to him and his mind couldn’t focus when it was time for filming. He’d been trying to get it together the past few weeks and put on a better performance, but now his social life was suffering as well.
“Eh? That director giving you shit again? Let me meet him, I’ll give him a piece of my mind” Ranmaru’s first clenched as he spoke and more sauce dripped from the now squished slice of pizza. Reiji couldn’t help but laugh a little bit.
“Honey, you’re gonna crush your pizza” He snickered. Ranmaru looked at the slice in his hand as if he’d only just remembered it was there.
“Just like I’ll crush that director if he doesn’t give you a break soon! Always yelling at you for messing up when you’re so tired you can barely function. It’s bullshit!” Ranmaru tightened his hold on the slice even more.
“Please don’t crush the director, Ran-Ran. He’s right, it’s no one’s fault but mine for messing up. I just gotta do better.” Reiji was really trying to reassure himself of that more than he was Ranmaru. “Unfortunately, that means it’ll be longer before we can go on a proper date again. I’m sorry we haven’t been able to-”
“ You have to do better?! No, this is all on that asshole director! You’re fucking perfect!” Ranmaru shook his fist at the screen and a drop of sauce splattered near the camera. Ranmaru wiped it away and remembered, yet again, that he was holding the slice of pizza. “You wanna know how perfect you are? Look at this pizza!” The camera quickly moved to zoom in on the slice. It was topped with tons of meat, as expected of the rocker.
“Uh, yeah that sure is a pizza. Honey, could you please tell me where you’re at so I can come pick you up? I’m starting to get really worried about you-”
“In a minute! Doesn’t this pizza look so damn delicious?” Ranmaru asked, still zooming in on the slice.
“I-yeah it looks pretty good? Where are you going with this, Ran-Ran?” Reiji really was getting worried about just how drunk his boyfriend was.
“It’s the best fucking pizza I’ve ever had, Rei! But you wanna know how perfect you are? How much I love you? For you, I’ll drop this pizza! It’s gone!” Ranmaru yelled and the camera moved around wildly then rested shakily on a view of the street corner. Ranmaru flung the slice onto the, thankfully empty, street with all his might, and Reiji could hear the wet slap it made against the pavement. Reiji could not believe he actually did it.
“Ranmaru what the hell! That’s littering and you’re practically shouting into the phone. You’re gonna get the cops called on you” Ranmaru’s phone was still set on a view of the street corner and Reiji could see now that the buildings looked familiar. “Wait a minute, are you outside my building?” Reiji scrambled off the couch to the window, and sure enough there he was standing outside.
“Well duh. Where’d you think I was walkin’ to? Come let me in? It’s kinda chilly.”
“Uggggh you idiot. Just a second, I’ll buzz you in.” Reiji ran to the door to let in his dumbass of a boyfriend. Despite being very inebriated, Ranmaru managed to figure out the elevator and get to Reiji’s apartment in a few minutes. Now, here he stood in Reiji’s doorway, hands and face covered in pizza sauce.
“Oh honey, you look like you got into a fight with the pizza boy.” Reiji couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous sight before him. Ranmaru ignored Reiji’s laughter and moved closer to him. Looking into his eyes, he almost looked like he was about to cry. “You okay, Ran-Ran?”
“It’s just this is the first time I’ve seen you in days, Rei. I miss you so much.” Ranmaru spoke with such honesty and it broke Reiji’s heart. He’d known this job was taking a toll on their relationship, but this was the first time Ranmaru had flat out admitted it to him. Ranmaru held out his arms and moved closer to Reiji. “Kiss me, Reiji? Please?” Reiji wanted nothing more than to fall into Ranmaru’s arms and give him a kiss for each day they’d been apart, more even, but before that…
“Ran-Ran, don’t get me wrong, I wanna kiss you too, but we need to get you cleaned up first, you’ve got sauce all over you.” Ranmaru looked down at his hands and shirt, seemingly not realizing the mess he’d made until Reiji pointed it out.
“Shit this is my favorite shirt”
“Come here, baby” Reiji chuckled and grabbed Ranmaru by an elbow “Let’s get you cleaned up” Reiji pulled his swaying boyfriend over to the bathroom, cleaned him up and helped him get into some comfier, sauce free clothes.
“Go lay down, Ran-Ran. I’ll take care of your shirt and come back with some water for you.” Reiji started to walk back towards the bathroom, but Ranmaru wrapped his arms around the brunette’s waist and fell backwards onto the bed with him.
“The shirt can wait, I just wanna be with you, Reiji” Ranmaru whispered into his ear. If it weren’t for the fact that his boyfriend smelled like a bar, Reiji would find this incredibly romantic.
“It won’t take me long to clean it up for you. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Reiji reasoned as he tried to get up, but Ranmaru’s grip on him tightened and he couldn’t move.
“Noooooo, stay with me. Please?” Ranmaru pleaded. Reiji gave up and let Ranmaru roll them over into a proper position on the bed.
“Okay, okay. Just don’t come crying to me when your shirt is stained tomorrow.”
“A shirt’s just a shirt. If it gets ruined, I could just get a new one. But every moment with you is precious, Reiji. Even if it’s just a few minutes, I wanna have as much time with you as possible.” Ranmaru said softly. His face was so close to Reiji’s, the brunette could feel his breath on his skin as their noses slightly bumped together. Bar breath or not, Reiji couldn’t hold back anymore. He wrapped his arms around Ranmaru’s neck and pulled his boyfriend into a deep kiss. Ranmaru returned the kiss just as passionately, moving his hands up from Reiji’s waist to cup his cheeks. They laid there like that for what could have been minutes or hours peppering each other with soft kisses and muffled words of affection or breaking into a full passionate kiss. Eventually, their lips broke apart and Reiji placed his forehead against Ranmaru’s.
“I love you, Ranmaru.” Reiji said earnestly, looking his boyfriend in the eyes. Ranmaru seemed to have regained some of his sobriety as his previously unfocused eyes were staring back into Reiji’s with the same intensity. “I’m so, so sorry that I’ve been putting work before us lately. I’m just not sure what to do. We’re too far into filming for me to just drop out now, not to mention what that would do to my career. But I can’t just not see you until filming is over.”
“It’s okay, Reiji. We’ll figure something out. This job is temporary, we’ll get through it.” Ranmaru reassured him while gently stroking his hair. Reiji nodded in agreement, the feeling of Ranmaru’s fingers in his hair felt incredible, he could feel the day’s stress slipping away and sleep setting in. “We can talk more tomorrow, Rei?” Ranmaru asked. Reiji hummed in agreement and fell asleep in his boyfriend’s arms.
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Ranmaru begrudgingly woke up to the sun in his eyes. His head felt like someone was pounding on the inside of his skull and he desperately needed some water. But before dealing with any of that, where the hell was he? The lack of posters on the wall tipped him off that this wasn’t his studio apartment. As he looked around he realized this place was just as familiar to him. Reiji’s bedroom? Did he end up picking Ranmaru up last night? He looked to his side and found the man in question curled up into his side. Reiji looked like an angel in the morning light with his hair splayed out over Ranmaru’s chest. Fulfilling a sudden urge, Ranmaru reached over to push Reiji’s bangs away from his forehead and leaned down to place a soft kiss there. Reiji stirred, his nose scrunching up at the sudden contact and his eyes fluttered open slowly.
“Good morning, Ran-Ran” Reiji yawned. God he was so damn cute.
“Mornin’” Ranmaru replied, his voice cracking a little.
“How’re you feeling? Want me to get you some water?” Reiji asked. Based on how his boyfriend was doting on him, Ranmaru probably had a rough night.
“I’m good, babe. But could you tell me...how I got here?” Ranmaru asked. Reiji burst into a fit of laughter and Ranmaru winced a little at the loud sound.
“Sorry, sorry. I was wondering how much you would remember from last night.” Reiji tried to stifle his laughter.
“That bad, huh?”
“You were pretty wasted. To be honest, I’m not sure exactly how you got here, but you walked to my apartment from somewhere, threw a slice of pizza into the road, and then asked me to let you in.” Reiji recounted the major events of last night with an amused expression on his face.
“Threw up pizza in the street or threw a pizza in the street?” Ranmaru asked, a little afraid of the answer.
“Well I only saw you throw the slice of pizza but who knows what you did before you called me.” Reiji laughed. “Oh wait! I took a screenshot of it!” Reiji grabbed his phone off the nightstand and showed Ranmaru the image on his phone. It was a single slice of pizza, laying face down on the ground in what looked to be the street in front of Reiji’s apartment. “I made it my wallpaper since it’s a “symbol of our love” and all.” Reiji chuckled.
“A what?” Ranmaru was so confused. How much did he drink last night?
“You were drunkenly singing my praises and said, and I quote “You wanna know how perfect you are? Look at the pizza. For you, I’ll drop this pizza”” Reiji was struggling not to laugh as he recited the quote. Ranmaru sighed and crawled back under the covers. He had no intention of ever coming out again. He’d die of embarrassment.
“Ran-Ran come back! It was kinda weird, I won’t lie, but it was so cute!” Reiji fell on top of him over the covers, deft hands slipping under the blankets and coming up to tickle his sides. Ranmaru burst into uncontrollable laughter.
“Okay, Okay I’ll come out!” Ranmaru managed to choke out while laughing. Once the offending fingers stopped their assault on his sides, Ranmaru poked his head out the blankets. Reiji kissed his cheek then climbed under the covers with him again, grabbing Ranmaru’s hand and threading their fingers together.
“It really was cute, Ranmaru” Reiji said seriously. “I was having a...rough time last night and your call, you coming to see me, it made me feel a lot better” Reiji paused and shifted his gaze downward to their interlocked hands. “I’m not sure how much you remember from last night, but I meant what I said. About you, us, coming first. I want to make more time for us to be together, but it’s getting hard to manage with this movie.” Reiji squeezed his hand even tighter. “What should I do? I don’t want to put you on the back burner, but I barely even have time to take care of myself right now.” Reiji looked back up at Ranmaru, tears forming in his eyes. Ranmaru squeezed his boyfriend’s hand.
“It’s okay, Rei. We’re both really busy right now and it’ll be that way in the future sometimes too. What’s important is that you take care of yourself, if anything were to happen to you I-I don’t know what I’d do.” Ranmaru paused to wipe the tears that’d started spilling from Reiji’s eyes. “You’ve got today off, right? I’m sure one cancelled interview won’t end my career, so I’ll just tell them I can’t make it. We can sit down n’ schedule stuff together? Figure out when we can have time to be together?” Reiji was still crying, but nodded at Ranmaru’s proposal. He wiped away his tears and took a moment to calm down before responding.
“Sounds like a plan, but first, can we lay around for a bit longer?” Reiji asked, looking at Ranmaru with the most adorable puppy dog eyes. “I need to recharge with my Ran-Ran.”
“You even have to ask? The only thing I love more than relaxing is you.” Ranmaru pulled his boyfriend closer and Reiji snuggled into his chest. Ranmaru knew when he first asked Reiji out that this wasn’t going to be easy. The schedule of an idol didn’t leave a lot of time for things like romance, but Ranmaru knew it was worth it then and he felt just as strongly now. Even more so after all they’d been through together.
“And maybe later, we can go get pizza?” Reiji asked, feigning innocence.
“God I don’t wanna think about pizza”