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The problems started when Ren’s opinion of Yusuke got upgraded from super weird to super weird but has a cool Persona.
It was kind of hard not to respect Yusuke and Goemon, not when Ren distinctly remembered being impressed and mildly horrified by Yusuke’s awakening, the way that he’d gripped the concrete hard enough for his fingernails to crack and bleed. Awakenings were always a sight to behold, the full force of a person’s strength and conviction on display to their friends and enemies alike, but Yusuke’s in particular had been pretty metal.
Yusuke was a fast and vicious fighter in the Metaverse, fully at odds with his dorky artist self in the real world. But just like he saw sparks of Carmen’s fire in Ann’s eyes every time some creep made a comment at her and heard the growl of Johanna’s motor in Makoto’s voice when she told off misbehaving students, Goemon’s blade was present in every flash of Yusuke’s temper. Yusuke was tough as hell, even if he was superficially soft-spoken. He fit right into the Phantom Thieves, once he finally dropped the idea of getting Ann to model for him and started bugging Ren about it instead.
How Yusuke fit into the group wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Ren prided himself on being absolutely unflappable. Nothing or no one could shake him. He was always the coolest customer around. But Yusuke absolutely broke him.
Ren could deflect anything and everything given enough sarcasm, and if that somehow didn’t work, acting like the delinquent everyone thought he was usually did the trick. But there was that one fucking time where Ren was a little embarrassed about doing a ridiculous pose for Yusuke in the middle of a public space, and he tried to deflect it by joking about stripping, and then Yusuke had taken it completely seriously and moreover, thought it was a great idea, and suddenly Ren was trying really hard not to think about what it would be like to model nude for Yusuke in the middle of a goddamn Catholic church.
Yusuke was really good at that, casually throwing out comments that Ren could never have predicted or prepared for. He was the only one who could beat him at his own game. It was infuriating.
He’d been so embarrassed that he didn’t even realize until later that he’d actually had a lot of fun otherwise. He’d thought Yusuke to be totally out of touch with everyone else, but then Yusuke posed like an idiot along with Ren after the priest had basically threatened to kick them out. That was the moment that Ren realized that Yusuke actually had a very good, very specific sense of humor. The easiest way to bring that out was to indulge his bizarre modeling requests, which sometimes led to them almost getting kicked out of various locations, but Ren remembered every single occasion fondly.
At some point, his opinion of Yusuke had shifted again, from super weird but has a cool Persona to socially inept but incredibly talented. Then from incredibly talented to changes the way I look at the world, then from I would trust him with my life to I wonder if he’s as good at kissing as he is at painting. That last one…he’d never planned to let anyone know about that. It would be bad for group cohesion. At least that was what he told himself.
He still thought about it more than he cared to admit. Sue him, Yusuke was hot.
But there was the final problem, the real reason he hadn’t said or done anything: he was a coward. And his gaydar had a history of not working all that well. And his presence in Tokyo was temporary. Okay, fine. Three final problems.
So instead, he kept his mouth shut, and did not ask Yusuke if he wanted to have a nice dinner after they visited the galleries in Ueno. He did not grab Yusuke’s hand when security guards chased them out of an Akihabara store following Ren’s disastrous attempt to climb some shelves for Yusuke’s reference. He did not kiss Yusuke when they were at the planetarium and Yusuke turned to look at him at the end, faint echoes of awe and starlight still in his eyes.
Then Yusuke gave him the glow-in-the-dark stars, shy and mildly embarrassed about the gift, and Ren suddenly had a very, very hard time remembering why he’d decided not to make out with Yusuke right then and there.
He was so fucked.
It was the night after the planetarium incident when Ren was halfway dragged out of the very nice sleep he’d been having by his phone buzzing. He cracked his eyes open as little as he could feasibly manage. Still dark. Not worth engaging with the world yet.
Morgana yawned. “Ugh, who’s texting you this late? Or early?”
“Mfgphh,” Ren said. He flailed his limbs into a more comfortable position and shut his eyes again.
The comforting void of dreamless sleep was once again beckoning to him when he was jolted out of sleep entirely by what sounded like a sharp crack at his window. He bolted upright, half expecting the window to be broken and Akechi to brandish a gun at his head with an unhinged grin. In the corner of his eye, he saw Morgana’s fur bristling.
The sharp noise sounded again, and this time Ren could see something small hit the window, causing the noise. This begged a far more important question, namely: who the fuck was throwing rocks at his window at – he glanced at his phone – 3:07 in the goddamn morning?
He stalked over to the window and wrenched it open, absolutely intending to go full Joker on whoever did it, and instead blinked in surprise at the figure he saw in front of Leblanc.
“Ah, there you are,” Yusuke said, sounding very calm and normal for 3 in the morning, despite the fact that he was very obviously wearing pajamas. “Apologies for the rocks, but it seems that my texts did not wake you.”
“Yusuke, what the hell?” Ren asked. He was halfway to amusement at this point, but he wanted to cling onto his earlier irritation in order to prove a point.
Morgana poked his head out from under Ren’s arm and added, “You’re insane. Do you ever sleep?”
Yusuke’s mildly affronted expression was recognizable even from a story up. “Normally. But I was hit with a sudden bout of inspiration for a new piece, and I’m afraid it couldn’t wait until morning. Ren, will you join me?”
Ren didn’t have to think very hard about it. “Yeah, okay,” he decided.
“What?” Morgana yowled. “You need your sleep –”
“You’re being so loud,” Ren informed Morgana as he pushed his kitty head out of the way. He threw over his shoulder to Yusuke, “I’ll be down in a few minutes,” and shut the window.
Morgana leaped away from Ren’s hand and onto the bed, fixing him with an irritated glare. “Don’t tell me you’re seriously considering going out now.”
Ren dug through his closet for some acceptable socks. Given Yusuke’s state of dress, he felt fine not getting changed. Ren said, “Whatever Yusuke has planned for 3AM, it’s gonna be absolutely ridiculous.”
“And?” Morgana asked with disdain.
The cat just didn’t get it, he supposed. He turned around to fix Morgana with his most serious look. “It’s going to be so funny,” he said. “There’s no way I’m missing out on this.” He pulled out his nice jacket, just to complete the look. He and Yusuke would be two insane peas in a pod together.
Morgana lashed his tail before settling back into his usual spot on the bed. “Well, don’t come crying to me if you feel awful tomorrow morning.”
“You’re not coming?” Ren asked as he pulled his shoes on.
“Ugh, no, I don’t want to be around you two when you’re like this,” Morgana grumbled.
Ren shot him an affronted look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re seventeen. I’m not giving you the birds and the bees talk,” he said primly. Ren tried to splutter out a protest – did Morgana really think that was what they were getting up to? Him and Yusuke? – but Morgana cut him off with a frustrated, “Just get out of here before I change my mind and make you go back to sleep!”
“Thanks, mom,” Ren threw out to cover for how his cheeks were still burning. He scooped up his phone and went down the stairs as quickly as possible, before Morgana could imply anything else. It’s not like he was thinking about that kind of stuff. He was trying really hard not to. Just because Yusuke’s hair looked really soft –
God. Okay. No. He was not thinking about that right now. This was the worst possible time to think about making out with Yusuke or whatever – fuck!
He took his sweet time locking Leblanc’s front door behind him to buy time for his face to get a little less red. At least it was nighttime.
“I was worried that Morgana might have forcibly barred you from leaving Leblanc,” Yusuke said as Ren turned to face him.
Despite his earlier embarrassment, Ren couldn’t fully suppress a grin at the sight of him. His hair was much more disheveled than Ren had ever seen it look, like he’d literally rolled out of bed and sprinted straight here with nothing in between. His pajama pants had little lobsters printed on them, which was – okay, there was no other way to say it. It was cute. Probably a gift Ann had gotten him or something. “He almost mauled me,” Ren said dryly. “I barely escaped with my life.”
Yusuke’s warm, low chuckle did funny things to Ren’s heart. “What a serendipitous turn of events,” he replied. He wasn’t sarcastic by nature, but he’d spent enough time around Ren, who was terminally incapable of speaking without it, to adopt a thin veneer of irony. “Since you’ve been freed from your prison, would you care to serve as my muse tonight?” His tone of voice was as calm and level as always, but his eyes were determined and bright as they met Ren’s, which really sucked for him right now, actually. His little crush was getting very out of hand, and it was all Morgana’s fault for bringing it up.
“Of course,” said Ren, pretending nonchalance that he wasn’t sure he’d have in Yusuke’s presence ever again. “Lead the way, maestro.”
Yusuke led him down Yongen-Jaya’s narrow streets and twisting alleyways until even Ren wasn’t fully sure where they were. But Yusuke seemed to know exactly where he was going, which Ren guessed was good enough for him. Each time they passed under a streetlight, he noticed Yusuke stealing glances at him. They were difficult to decipher, but they looked…almost confused? After about the twelfth streetlight, Ren finally scrounged up the courage to ask, “What, is there something up with my face?”
Yusuke turned around and fixed Ren with a stare like something about him was a mystery. Ren only raised an eyebrow in response, knowing full well that Yusuke was just sometimes like that. The Art Thoughts followed no rhyme or reason.
“You’re not wearing your glasses,” he eventually observed.
Ren shrugged. “Didn’t feel like it.” In truth, he’d just forgotten to put them on. But Yusuke knew what he looked like without glasses anyway, so it wasn’t like it mattered.
Yusuke smiled. “Well, I’m honored that you trust me enough to drop all pretenses around me.” Then he turned around and kept walking like he hadn’t just 100 percent thrown Ren for a loop.
That was…surprisingly astute of Yusuke. It wasn’t like he thought that Yusuke was completely oblivious, but Yusuke definitely only bothered to pay attention to the emotional states of other people if he felt like they were worth it. Ren had never so much as told any of the Phantom Thieves exactly why he wore glasses he didn’t need, yet Yusuke had figured it out. And it was stupid, he’d known for a long time that Yusuke was a true friend, but the reminder that Yusuke cared enough to see straight through all his artifice made him feel some kind of way. Ren scratched the back of his neck, suddenly grateful that Yusuke was walking ahead of him and not looking at whatever dumb, sappy face he was making right now.
Yusuke continued his earlier thought, almost speaking to himself more than to Ren. “Perhaps one day you’ll feel comfortable wearing your glasses less. Your eyes look quite nice without them.”
“Oh my god,” Ren said, almost involuntarily.
Yusuke turned back to him, and oh wow, Ren just realized that his face was on fire, and there was absolutely no way Yusuke wouldn’t notice him being as red as a tomato. “What makes you say that?”
Ren shook his head. He was really ruining his reputation as the most unflappable of the Phantom Thieves. “You can’t mean that. Everyone’s so used to seeing me with glasses now.”
“Don’t presume to tell me what I mean and what I don’t mean,” Yusuke said sharply.
Ren knew him well enough to not take it personally. “Alright, sorry,” he laughed. “You’re Mr. Art Man, you would know how my eyes look.”
Yusuke sniffed, but his eyes glinted with amusement to show he was in on the joke. “That’s right, I’m the expert.”
Yep, the expert on Ren’s eyes – what? There was no way Yusuke meant anything but being an expert on art. This was not worth short-circuiting over. If only his brain would get the memo.
Ren only snapped out of his little gay crisis when Yusuke stopped at the end of a wide alleyway. “This is it,” he said.
There was a huge pile of wooden crates reaching nearly fifteen feet tall propped against the wall of a building, right next to a large dumpster. “Um,” Ren said. “The crates?”
“I saw them while I was on my way to Leblanc earlier.” Excitement sparked in Yusuke’s eyes. “They’re perfect.”
Ren eyed the crates. They were…nice, he guessed? They didn’t look old or rotten or anything. Maybe they were supposed to be a metaphor for the excesses of consumerism, or something? That seemed pretty cryptic, even for Yusuke. “Cool,” Ren hedged.
“When we’re in the Metaverse, I never have time to stop and sketch. Which is perfectly understandable, given the conditions we operate under, however…” Wait, what? What did the Metaverse have to do with wooden crates? Yusuke picked his sentence back up once he’d pulled his sketchbook out of his bag. “I’ve drawn plenty of models before, of course, but rarely have I gotten the opportunity to study them in motion. The Metaverse would provide the perfect opportunity to do so, if it weren’t for the Shadows.”
The pieces were starting to click together in Ren’s head. “So…you want me to climb the pile of crates.”
“Precisely.” He turned to Ren, eyes bright, now that he knew they were on the same page. “With some of that Joker flair you do so well.”
Ren blinked, vaguely embarrassed, and went to push his glasses up his nose on reflex, forgetting that he wasn’t wearing them. He disguised the aborted motion by turning back to look at the crates. Would they even hold his weight, or would the pile collapse as soon as he began to climb?
“If we were in the Metaverse, this would be easy for you, but…” Yusuke hesitated, uncharacteristically. “Can you do it in real life? Have you done…what do they call it, parkour before? Or is this closer to rock climbing?”
Ren considered the obstacle before him for a while. “Yeah,” he lied. He was probably going to hurt himself, but honestly, the best way to learn how to do anything was to lie and say you could. Fear was an excellent motivator. Could he smuggle guns for an ex-yakuza guy? Yeah, okay. Could he fight terrifying monsters that represented everything wrong with humanity? Sure, why not?
“If you’re sure…” Yusuke seemed unconvinced.
Ren turned to him and fixed him with the most serious stare he could muster. “Yusuke, listen to me.”
Yusuke blinked owlishly at him. “What is it?”
“If I die, I need you to know,” said Ren, “that I am okay with you eating the snacks I stashed under my bed. Only you, though. Futaba can’t have any.”
“Why not?” Yusuke asked, now more amused than concerned. Mission accomplished.
“She was mean to me about my flavor choices,” he said. He shuddered to remember the grave insults to his family’s honor that she’d shouted dramatically. “I need you to protect those snacks with your life.”
Yusuke placed a hand over his heart and bowed solemnly. “You have my word that I shall never allow Futaba to dishonor your wasabi mayo Pringles.”
That surprised a laugh out of Ren. “I’m proud of you,” he said without thinking.
Yusuke dropped his hand to his side, really genuinely startled. “What could you possibly – ?”
Ren grinned. “You’ve been making a lot of jokes tonight without my guidance at all. You’ve really changed, Yusuke.” He clapped Yusuke on the shoulder and stepped forward, both to take a closer look at the crates and to disguise the sheer embarrassment he felt at having said something like that. He was acutely aware of Yusuke’s silence, almost felt it like he felt the presence of a Shadow behind his back. He kicked at the closest crate a bit, hoping that Yusuke hadn’t been put off.
Eventually, Yusuke said, “I suppose that’s a good thing,” although it almost sounded more like he was asking Ren a question.
“It is,” Ren replied. He reached up to a crate at eye level and tried to shake it, but found it to be pretty securely wedged in the pile. “Not like you were bad before, but you seem more comfortable around people now.”
“You’re right. Being a part of the Phantom Thieves really has been good for me in more ways than one,” Yusuke mused.
Ren smiled and said, “I’m glad.” He reached up, gripped the edge of a crate, and tried to haul himself up. He was surprisingly successful and he managed to turn himself around so he was sitting at the edge of a crate higher up in the pile, looking down at Yusuke. He was so glad that getting jacked in the Metaverse also translated to real life.
Unexpectedly, Yusuke frowned. “That’s not it. You can do much better than that.”
Ren let out an offended noise that was halfway between a scoff and a laugh. “What, you think that was me trying?” He hopped down from his perch and stepped back, sizing up the pile of crates and trying to work out the best approach. “You insult me.”
“You’re putting words in my mouth,” Yusuke replied smugly. “I merely think that you’re insulting yourself with that poor performance.”
Ren shot a glare at him, before realizing that oh, goddammit, Yusuke knew exactly what he was doing by appealing to Joker’s competitive spirit. He’d give Yusuke a show, alright. “Well, you’d better be fast at drawing,” he said, smirking, “because I’ll be at the top of that pile of shitty boxes before you can draw a single line.”
“Now who’s insulting who?” Yusuke was very much getting into the spirit of what was going on here. Ren would be lying if he said he wasn’t kind of into it. Yusuke flipped open his sketchbook and said, “I’m ready whenever you are.”
Ren took a deep breath. He could do this. He could be light on his feet. Ren was a quiet dork, but Joker was cool and sexy and very, very good at climbing things with pizzazz. It wasn’t hard to channel Joker’s energy in the real world; Joker was just him, after all. Hey, maybe Yusuke would be into that. Ren grinned. It was worth a shot.
He exploded into motion, running forward and taking a graceful leap onto the pile. He caught the edge of one of the boxes with his hand, pushed off a lower crate with his foot, and let the momentum carry him up to a larger ledge, where he took another flying leap up. He thought of nothing but the rushing of air in his ears, the burning of his muscles, and where his next handholds and footholds would be.
Before he knew it he’d reached the top of the crates. Without thinking, he jumped up and grabbed the gutter of the building the pile was leaning against and pulled himself over onto the roof. He dimly registered Yusuke shouting something, but was more concerned with trying to make himself look cool. He didn’t have the momentum to front flip into a cool pose, but he at least pulled himself over the edge and landed in a crouch gracefully. He stood up slowly, trying to keep his balance as he caught his breath. Damn, he’d really done it! Ren grinned. He was full of a very specific kind of euphoria, close to what he felt after completing a particularly difficult stretch of a Palace. This was the closest he’d ever felt to Joker in the real world.
“That was phenomenal!” Yusuke cried. The excitement sparking through his voice only made Ren grin wider. “I’ve never beheld such grace with my own two eyes before.”
Adrenaline still burned through his veins and his lungs as he caught his breath, just like after he dealt a killing blow to a Shadow. “I get why people do this for fun now,” he said.
Yusuke had stopped paying attention to him, instead scribbling furiously while what he’d seen was fresh in his mind. Ren watched him draw, watched how the pale glow of the streetlights cast half of his silhouette in silver. It was way harder to be embarrassed about it when he still felt like he could take on the world.
When Yusuke shut the sketchbook decisively several minutes later, the feeling had ebbed, but he still felt good, better than he’d felt since before stealing Okumura’s treasure. He was so free of worries at the moment that when Yusuke asked, “Ren, how are you going to get down?” he hadn’t even thought about it.
Ren stared down at the pile of crates below him. “Um. Good question.”
“The crates seemed to hold your weight fairly well on the way up. Perhaps you can just carefully climb down the same way.”
That probably was the best way, Ren decided. He eased himself down from the roof and onto the top crate, and from there it was smooth sailing, until one of the boxes at the edge shifted alarmingly and Ren let go, dropping further than he’d expected and stumbling backwards into something solid.
“Are you alright?” Yusuke gasped out, voice strained by the impact.
Oh shit, he’d almost knocked Yusuke over. Ren turned around and stabilized himself, and pretty soon he was standing on his own two feet rather than leaning on Yusuke. Maybe it was the fact that all the wind had been knocked out of him by the impact, but it took him much longer than usual to realize that he was still standing very close to Yusuke. And that he was grabbing onto Yusuke’s shoulders, and that Yusuke’s hands were braced on his hips. Okay. He – was not moving. Why was he not moving away?
“Ren?” Yusuke prompted quietly. Oh god. Oh no. He felt Yusuke say his name – the vibration of his chest and his breath fanning out across Ren’s face.
“I’m fine,” Ren said, fully on autopilot at this point. His voice came out much breathier than he’d ever wanted it to be. RED ALERT RED ALERT YOU’RE EMBARRASSING YOURSELF, screamed the corner of his mind where cool and collected Joker lived.
Yusuke minutely adjusted his grip on Ren’s hip, which – that was ridiculous, right? Not letting go? He wasn’t letting go. And neither was Ren, apparently. He was in hell.
Then Yusuke huffed out half a laugh, and said archly, “I’d certainly hope so. I dropped my sketchbook for you.”
Something about the absurdity of that statement, or maybe Yusuke’s extreme dedication to art, or maybe the way that Yusuke’s eyes were sparkling – holy shit, Yusuke was blushing. And if Ren shifted his hand so his thumb brushed against Yusuke’s neck, and felt how his pulse was pounding just as fast as his –
It was at this point that Ren decided, actually, fuck it, and leaned forward to kiss him.
Yusuke was warm and his lips were soft and he smelled faintly of acrylic paint, and that was all the sensation Ren let himself indulge in before pulling back slightly to make sure it was welcome. He...seemed to have broken Yusuke? He hadn’t moved at all, and he was uncharacteristically silent.
YES. He’d finally done it. He’d been the one to make Yusuke speechless. The universe was balanced once again.
Then Ren realized that that was very much not the priority when you’d just kissed your good friend out of nowhere. The emotional whiplash he got from shifting from triumph to anxiety in half a second flat nearly had him let go and step back. Instead, he tilted his gaze up to look Yusuke in the eyes, dreading what he would find there. Maybe Yusuke was about to shove him away in disgust or make awkward apologies –
Or maybe not. Yusuke’s eyes were wide and startled, but every line of his face radiated faint wonder and impossible fondness, like he couldn’t quite believe what was happening. Distantly, Ren realized that it was a close cousin of the look that Yusuke had worn in the planetarium, when Ren had found it nearly impossible not to kiss him.
It was so easy, now that Ren knew they were on a level playing field. It was so easy to take Yusuke’s face in his hands and smirk before bringing their lips together again.
Yusuke had gotten the point this time. His arm slid around Ren’s back and pulled him closer with a small, gentle hum that made a shiver run down his spine. Ren decided to test his earlier theory and slid his hand into Yusuke’s hair – yep, it was very soft. He could have this moment, he decided. He could let himself have a moment where nothing was wrong in the world and where Yusuke liked him enough to kiss him back. The insistence of Yusuke’s mouth against his and the tight grip Yusuke still had on his waist served as undeniable proof that Ren could, in fact, have nice things sometimes.
They eventually parted, but only barely. Ren could still feel Yusuke’s bangs brush against his cheek, and he could still pick out every shade of blue and gray in his eyes, even in the dim lighting.
“Am I dreaming?” Yusuke murmured, eyes bright.
Ren smiled, both at the corny question and at the vulnerability it contained. “Does it feel like a dream?” he asked in the suavest voice he could manage, and then immediately ruined it by letting a laugh slip out at the end. He pressed a kiss to the corner of Yusuke’s mouth to make up for it.
Yusuke’s eyes widened. “That’s it – that’s what I was missing!” He yanked himself free of Ren’s embrace and picked up his sketchbook from the ground, making some small adjustment to a drawing with furious scribbling.
“Huh?” Ren asked, partly confused, maybe a little annoyed at the interruption to their moment, but mostly amused.
“Hold on,” Yusuke muttered without looking up or ceasing his work. “Almost done.” His pencil scratched across the page for a few more seconds before he said, “There,” and handed it to Ren.
Ren’s mouth went dry. In the sketch, he was reaching up for a new handhold while pushing himself off one of the crates, barely in contact with the pile at all. Yusuke may have been more of a fan of abstract works, but he had a real gift for capturing the dynamics of movement. The Ren that was on the page exuded power and grace, even under his jacket and baggy pajamas. He almost looked like he was flying. There was no way he was actually like that in real life. Joker, maybe, but Ren would never look like…
Instead of finishing that thought, Ren asked, “What were you changing?”
Yusuke stepped forward into his space and gently rested the tip of his pencil against the corner of sketch Ren’s smirk. “Your expression,” he replied quietly. “This one suits you better.”
It took Ren a while to find words to speak. “Does it?”
“No matter how many masks you wear, you can never entirely hide your strength or confidence,” Yusuke said, thoughtful. He tapped his pencil against the page, a beat of hesitation before he spoke again. “It’s one of the things that I like the most about you.”
Startled, Ren looked up from the sketch, just in time for Yusuke to tilt his chin up with his fingers and kiss him gently. Ren’s eyes had just fluttered shut when Yusuke pulled back. When Ren opened his eyes again, Yusuke looked strangely apprehensive. “I haven’t – misjudged your intentions, have I?”
Ren blinked at him, still trying to pull his braincells back from where they’d been scattered by the lightning bolt feeling of Yusuke’s lips on his. “Do you mean if I, like, meant to kiss you? Because I one hundred percent did.”
Yusuke visibly relaxed and gave Ren a helpless smile. “Good, because I meant it as well. I only wish I’d done it sooner.”
“Oh, great,” Ren said, also feeling very relieved. “Me too. It’s embarrassing how many times I asked Morgana if he thought you were into guys at all.”
Yusuke frowned. “Morgana is a cat, why would he know something like that?”
“Funny you should say that, because Morgana said pretty much exactly the same thing. I guess I was annoying enough that he decided that pretending not to be human was the better option.” Ren laughed at the memory.
Yusuke’s warm chuckle joined in, and feeling a swell of fondness, Ren closed the sketchbook and wrapped his arms around Yusuke, burying his face in the crook of his neck. Yusuke returned the embrace with only the slightest bit of hesitation. Despite that, he sounded a little nervous when he said, “I never thought I would attract the attentions of the fearless leader of the Phantom Thieves.”
Ren lifted his head to give him a Look. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ren had never thought a dorky teenage delinquent would attract the attentions of one of the most talented young artists in Japan, yet here they were.
Yusuke’s eyes widened in surprise, then dropped to the ground morosely when he realized he’d been caught out in his insecurity. “I don’t feel that I’m interesting enough for Joker, much less you,” he admitted quietly.
Ren scoffed and flicked him on the cheek, which got a startled and annoyed noise out of him. “Don’t talk shit about my boyfriend,” Ren said. “He’s very handsome and interesting and much funnier than people give him credit for.”
Yusuke closed his eyes and smiled. “Then I am a fool.”
“It’s okay, we all have our moments,” Ren replied. Yusuke tried to say something indignant before Ren interrupted him with a kiss, but given how he reacted, Ren guessed that he didn’t mind so much.
Ren had to pull back abruptly to let out a jaw-popping yawn, as his body decided to remind him that it was stupidly early in the morning and he needed sleep to survive. “As much as I’m having fun, I should probably go to bed so I don’t die in school tomorrow.”
“Right,” Yusuke muttered. Ren felt bad for laughing at the look of alarm on his face. “It is technically Monday, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is Monday,” said Ren indulgently, trying not to laugh even more. Yusuke gave him an annoyed look in response. Then something occurred to him, and he asked, “Wait, did you really walk here all by yourself?”
“Yes. It took under an hour. A small price to pay for your company.”
Ren was very nearly distracted by the flattery, but with a lot of effort he instead asked, “By under an hour do you mean 45 minutes? Because that’s still insane.”
“More like 50,” Yusuke corrected, apparently not understanding what was wrong with this situation.
Ren let out an incredulous laugh. “Are you fucking serious? I’m walking you back, at least.”
“Absolutely not,” Yusuke retorted. “You need your sleep more than I do.”
“I literally do not, that is so stupid. Just let me walk you back to your dorm.”
“Then you will have been walking for an hour and 40 minutes, and you will have next to no time to sleep before you have to get ready for school.”
Ren had to admit that he was no match for Yusuke’s stubborn glare right now, not when he kept letting out huge yawns. “Fine,” he relented, very reluctantly. “Will you at least text me when you get back?”
“Of course. Obviously, I will walk you back to Leblanc before I leave.”
Ren elbowed him in the side playfully. “Cheater.”
Yusuke walked him back to Leblanc, holding his hand the entire time and very charitably not saying anything about Ren blushing like a lame middle schooler on their first date. In front of Leblanc’s door, Ren kissed Yusuke goodnight, which turned into a whole series of very enthusiastic kisses against the door that probably should not have happened on a public street, even if it was 3 in the morning. They parted with a promise to meet the next day after school and continue what they’d started – (“Ren, can you take this seriously and stop wiggling your eyebrows at me – “ “I’m being very serious, I can get Futaba to turn off the bugs she put in my room and everything – “ “Ren, please.”)
Well, okay, they hadn’t actually decided what they were going to do tomorrow, but they at least decided that they would spend the evening together.
When Ren climbed the stairs to the attic, he noticed that Morgana was pretending to be asleep and thought he was being sneaky by cracking one of his eyes open just a sliver. Just to annoy him, Ren flopped on his back on the bed.
“What’s got you in such a good mood?” asked Morgana sourly, like he already knew the answer and didn’t like it.
Hmm, he was still smiling, wasn’t he? “Nothing,” he lied on reflex. Then he thought better of it and quickly said, “Okay, fine, I made out with Yusuke.”
“UGHHHH,” Morgana groaned. “Please tell me you two aren’t going to be disgusting in the attic while I’m here.”
“We’ll be disgusting only when you’re here,” Ren told him fondly.
Morgana stood up from his spot on the bed, and for a moment, Ren was worried that he’d actually driven him away, but then he padded over and curled up right next to Ren and propped his head on his paws to look at him. “So he likes you? You’re happy?” He’d mellowed his tone considerably. The rare appearance of Morgana’s vulnerability and care made Ren pause, only for a moment.
He smiled and scratched Morgana behind the ears. “Yeah.”
Ren lay there for a while, thinking about Yusuke’s laugh and his sketches, until he was finally lulled to sleep by Morgana’s purring.