Chapter Text
Ryuji really, truly, wholly thought that this year’s Valentine’s Day would be the same as all the ones before. Because, well, there wasn’t anyone who would change it, at least no one he thought would be willing. Honestly, at this point he was fully convinced that he would be alone until he got into college, if even Yusuke (literally the most socially inept guy he knew, and that’s coming from Ryuji) could get chocolates from girls before him.
(Speaking of Yusuke, him and Akira really pissed him off sometimes. I mean, who the hell decided it would be fair to make them so effin’ pretty? It seriously wasn't helping someone like Ryuji, who knew he wasn't bad-looking by any stretch of the imagination, but who definitely wasn't the type of handsome that got random girls coming off the street to ask for his number.)
So, it sufficed to say that the situation he found himself in right now came as a total shock. It was so much of a shock, in fact, that he didn’t even register it as something real, to the point where he was half-tempted to pinch himself to see if he was dreaming, until Morgana let out a shocked yowl.
”You’re kidding! Ryuji actually got chocolates from someone?”
”Hey, shut the eff up, cat!” Ryuji snapped, giving Morgana a bitter glare before smoothing his expression over as he turned to face you, trying his best to smile even though it felt like February had suddenly turned into middle-of-effin'-July. You, unfairly adorable as you turned your face away from him and held out a box of chocolates, yellow ribbon wrapped around a red box that immediately made him think of—God, did you try to make the colors match his Metaverse outfit?
Holy shit, his heart was going to give out.
Yusuke leaned over, staring at the chocolates. For a moment, Ryuji was worried that he’d have to deal with more than one sarcastic comment, but all Yusuke had to say was, “My, the color combination is truly well-done. The shades of red and yellow you picked out are incredibly complementary. You might need to give me the name of the store that you bought these from.”
You let out a shy laugh. “Thanks, Yusuke. And, yeah, I'll make note of that.”
Akira nudged Ryuji with his elbow. There was a twinkle in his eye that made Ryuji wonder if this was something he should've seen coming from a mile away. But there was no way...you were, well, you, and he was Sakamoto Ryuji. A delinquent. Just another broken teenager. Was he really so desirable that you would've been looking his way since before today? "Are you going to let us have some?”
Thankfully, that diverted his train of thought before it could go screaming off a cliff. He got his composure back together and scoffed, shooting Akira a stink-eye that made the latter hold his hands up in playful surrender. “Hell no.” Then, to you: “Uh...can we talk more about this? In private?”
Even from this far away, he could feel your face grow warm. Would it be rude to point out that you were literally steaming? You handed him the chocolates (he tried his best to ignore the little shock that traveled up his arm from more than just static) and hiked your bag over your shoulder.
Oh. Oh. You weren't wearing your school uniform. Oh God, oh fu--
Sojiro chuckled and shook his head. “Well, I’m guessing you’re not coming with us? Unless you want to bring your lovely Valentine’s date with you.”
Date.
If this kept up, Ryuji wouldn’t have to worry about the future. Or the past. Or the present. He was going to melt, for Christ’s sake!
"N-Nah, I don't need you guys gettin' on my case. You'd prolly give me a whole lotta shit for not bein' proper, or whatever," Ryuji replied, trying to play back into the confident, wise-cracking side of him that he always used as a failsafe. "'Sides, ain't this supposed to be a one-on-one sorta thing?"
Morgana snickered. "Of course you'd need to ask that."
Ryuji clenched his jaw. "Oh, you are so goin' to the pound--"
He cut himself off, either instinctively or as a result of biting his tongue from surprise, as you gently looped your arm through his elbow. You looked at him, giving him a little frown. "Hey, play nice. We're not gonna have anywhere to go at this rate."
Yusuke framed you and Ryuji with his fingers. "A marvelous sight. I feel as though inspiration is right on the tip of my tongue. I'll be sure to paint this when I arrive back at the dorms!"
"Play nice," Akira echoed with a little smirk. "I better not see any risque marks on the two of you."
"The restaurants are bound to close in the next hour," Sojiro said, thankfully taking the 'advice' route. "There'll probably be a lot of last-minute Valentine's Day dates happening, so it might be a good idea to go somewhere more lowkey. Unless you rowdy teenagers won't be able to keep it PG if you go somewhere private."
"Boss!"
"Hey, quit it!"
The three of them laughed and bade you and Ryuji a good night as they turned to walk the opposite direction. It left you and Ryuji standing in front of Leblanc's closed door, the February cold beginning to settle in the longer you idled. Still, Ryuji somehow couldn't bring himself to move all too soon, finding the sight of you here and now far too enrapturing to bother. It felt like, if he moved, he might shatter something delicate that was slowly starting to form.
Thankfully, you were the first to speak. "Um...well, I never got a proper answer from you."
He looked down as you held the chocolates out to him once more. Now that the others were gone, you had gotten a little more of your typical bravado, your smile turning braver rather than the sheepish--and admittedly very cute--one you had flashed at him before.
His tongue felt too tied to even begin to answer. It would not help his chances of making this something permanent if he stumbled over his words like some...fool. Like a lovesick fool. Because he'd never understood why people said "love makes you stupid" until he found his mind going blank at the mere thought of you.
Huh, love. If he were more confident, he might try it out loud. Still, he found that he quite liked the feel of the word in his head, especially when it was associated with you
So instead, he stepped a little closer and cupped your hands in between his, maneuvering so he took the chocolates with one hand and held yours with the other.
"Sheesh, no gloves?" he teased.
"I left them at my apartment," you admitted. "I was so excited, thinking about giving these to you. Akira texted me and said that I needed to move fast, before you guys left Leblanc, so it slipped my head."
It took a second. "Wait, Akira texted you?"
You laughed. Steam floated from your open mouth, filling Ryuji's vision with a momentary haze. He impatiently swatted at it, not wanting the real view to be clouded for very long. "Yeah. I guess I was a little more obvious with everything than I thought. Akira figured it out, and he's sorta been my wingman for the past week. He even gave me the shop name for the chocolates."
Ryuji groaned. "And he didn't even think to talk to me? Man, I would've loved some help with this whole thing."
"For starters, White Day is a month away, so it's not like you needed a lot of time to prepare." You shrugged and gave him a cheeky grin. "And he probably thought you were a helpless case in romance. I don't really blame him."
"Wh--Hey!"
God, he didn't think he would ever get tired of your laugh.
After finding out that every restaurant within a mile radius was either packed or had an insane wait time, you decided to ditch the formalities and just head to your apartment. Easy enough, right? Now Ryuji didn't have to worry about ordering, or where to put his hands, or what to say.
Well, yes, but also no.
Obviously, Ryuji had been over a few times in the past, either for homework help or for a way to keep those really bad thoughts from taking root for too long, but this time was...different. Ryuji found himself panicking, wondering if he was put together enough for something like this. Had he brushed his teeth in the past few hours? Was his hair a mess? Did he have any embarrassing stains on his face, or on his clothes for that matter? He tried his best to check himself discreetly, but it felt like literal seconds passed between boarding the train and watching you fish your keys from your bag.
"Sorry for the mess," you apologized, stepping aside so Ryuji could see the not-at-all-messy living room. "I honestly didn't think I'd get this far."
Ryuji shrugged his jacket off and placed it on the coat hanger. "'S no biggie. Your place looks a lot better than mine. I'm glad the datin' obligation didn't fall on my shoulders."
"Ooh, you're using big words," you teased as you dropped your things off at the front and collapsed onto your couch. Standing like this, in the process of taking his shoes off, the scene felt absurdly domestic. "Did all the time studying with Makoto finally pay off?"
"Hell no," Ryuji replied, earning another laugh. "I think I remember...maybe one or two things, and then a landfill o' vocabulary."
"You remember what the chemical symbols for copper and tellurium are?"
Ryuji completely blanked. He could barely remember what chemical symbols even were. "Uh..."
"CuTe."
Now, he could definitely get behind something like that. "Haha, how funny. But, well, it was cute. I s'pose."
"Like copper and tellurium!"
You squealed as Ryuji ran at the couch and leaped over the back, almost crushing you under his body. His hands found their place almost instinctively on the space above your shoulders, holding himself up so you could breathe. Your knees were pulled up, trapped under his torso and your feet pressed against his thighs. Both of your hands sat against his chest, and he wondered if you could feel his heart racing. He could definitely see your shirt slightly moving with every beat of your pounding heart.
"L-Like what you see?" he asked, trying desperately to recover some semblance of his perceived coolness.
You nodded, your eyes wide. Was he imagining things, or were you tracing every part of his face with your gaze? "Yeah. Yeah, I like it a lot."
If he were a braver guy, he might have asked you for a kiss and leaned down, like the male lead in those romantic K-dramas. Instead, he chickened out, both because he wasn't sure if he was ready to move that fast, and he didn't know if you wanted to move that fast (the latter point was way more important than the former.) Despite what Morgana said, Ryuji wasn't a guy who only had his mind on sex and hot people, although he wasn't 100% opposed to either of them. Ryuji wanted a partner who would be themself around him, and who would let him be himself around them; he wanted someone that gave him life and took away his breath all in the same second; and he was way above doing stupid shit like nonconsensual kissing to achieve it.
With all that in mind, he boosted himself off you and helped you sit up. "I like what I see, too."
You smiled, one of your knee-weakening-heart-stopping genuine smiles that made the world seem just a tad bit brighter, and turned to face the TV. As if struck by a sudden thought, you gasped and rose to your feet. "Oh, how could we have a proper date without blankets, pillows, and some hot chocolate? I'll whip everything up. You just sit tight--and don't you dare move. You're my date and a guest, after all!"
He held his hands up in surrender and watched as you left. His phone buzzed the moment you were out of sight, like the sender had been waiting this entire time, and he pulled it out to see that Akira had texted him.
How goes it?
Ryuji hummed. He was tempted to mentally go through everything that had happened in the past hour or so, tallying up the points and weighing the good versus the bad, but really all he had to do was remember just how often you had smiled in that time. How excited you'd been when he accepted the chocolates, how there was definitely a bright light in your eyes as you'd traced every feature on his face with them. And now, how much he felt at home in your apartment, like you two were already together and he was just waiting for something that had been happening for months.
Really, all he had to think about was the fact that he felt so at home with you. And he really, really, really hoped you felt the same way about him.
It's going well. Like, mega effin' well.
They told me how you were sorta their wingman. Thanks for watchin out for me, dude.
Hey, we're all best friends. You and me especially. I'll always have your back.
Plus, you two were kind of obvious, and I was going to go crazy if I had to see you pining after each other for another day.
God, he didn't even know he'd been obvious, let alone knew that you reciprocated those feelings. Did that add or take away points in his column? Whenever the hell that column got there.
Now, get back to whatever the hell you crazy teens get up to on Valentine's ;)
He didn't even bother answering to that last text, hoping the silence would speak volumes about how much he wish Akira were here, just so he could grab him by the shoulders and shake him. He put his phone down and entertained himself by looking around the living room, seeing all the different decorations and wondering if he'd ever get the chance to hear you talk to him about them in that tone of voice you always reached when you were really passionate about something.
Over the past hour, he'd realized something else. He was absolutely whipped for you--and, quite frankly, he didn't really mind the feeling.
You came back into the living room, dual-wielding hot chocolate and blankets. "There are pillows on the couch, silly me," you said, seemingly more to yourself than to him. Ryuji took the blankets from you and began arranging them on the couch as you set the hot chocolate down on the coffee table and grabbed the remote.
"Oh, shit, these are super soft."
"I got them from my bedroom."
No wonder they smelled so much like you. It was making Ryuji a little light-headed, smelling traces of you all around him. It felt like you were making yourself home in his chest, right next to his heart...not like you hadn't been doing it already.
"Now! What are we feeling up to tonight?"
You ended up putting on some random Netflix movie when neither of you could decide. Ryuji draped his arm across the back of the couch and practically felt his heart melt when you sank into his side like you were meant to be there, hands wrapped around your mug and eyes completely focused on the screen. He experimented with settling his arm fully across your shoulders and scooting a little closer, barely leaving any space between you and him; in answer, you rested your head on his shoulder and closed the gap, not an inch of space left between you.
Ryuji never thought he'd get this kind of intimacy before. He never thought anyone would look at him like this, that he would be worth it to anyone in this way. He'd seen glimpses of it from you, hints of a reality where Sakamoto Ryuji wasn't just some delinquent but a whole-ass person with feelings and wants that deserved to be acknowledged; but he'd never let himself believe it. For what reason, he didn't know--maybe reminders of his father, or Kamoshida, or all the times when he thought someone would see him for him but chose to focus on the bad instead.
Now, though, with you here and in front of him, he felt like this was right. Nah, not even that--he knew this was right.