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"That was just too sad!" Aira wailed, not even bothering to take off his makeup or even clean himself of the grime and dirt of his outfit for the day as he slumped onto the dressing room couch. Hiiro followed from behind, closing the door behind them.
They had just finished filming a small acting project - neither of them were actors, but they thought any kind of job offers were good job offers as Alkaloid barely had any; they had just applied to every listings available and was flabbergasted when the two youngest were called back for for a short stint on a local romance TV show.
It was a pretty simple script too, the two of them set to play against each other as a subplot for the main storyline, then have their characters killed off at the end after several episodes of playing romance.
That was the sad part, according to Aira. "It's just so devastating to have it end like that!" He continued again, frowning as Hiiro took his time wiping his face with a damp cloth and being surprised that it barely took off any of his makeup. Exasperated at both the other's cluelessness with something as simple as cleaning oneself, and being ignored, Aira stomped towards him and took a makeup wipe from the table, carefully removing all the dirt makeup covering Hiiro's handsome face.
"Thanks!" The other was just as bright as ever despite the browns and purples of eyeshadow bruising his face for their final death scene, and Aira felt a little fleeting feeling pass over him as he wiped away the shadows and creams carefully, as if the other was actually hurt and bruised and fragile.
Having to act out very romantic scenes with Hiiro was hard, Aira had found. Not because he was a bad actor (he kind of was, but let's skip that), but because of two reasons.
One, Hiiro was overly convincing with his acting. He took Aira's hand easily, spoke words only thought of by princes from story books (or script writers, apparently), touched him naturally. His gaze was intense when it needed to be, soft and tender and loving whenever Aira noticed him look. The way the passion in his voice changed with each line spoken, delivering romance, tenderness, confusion, anger, sadness. All performed so convincingly that it led to Aira's second reason.
Two, he was having a hard time remembering that it was just acting. Perhaps it was because Hiiro was naturally a touchy person with him too, but whenever their hands touch, he felt Hiiro. Whenever Hiiro declared words of love, Aira's heart fluttered so badly, only coming down to earth when Hiiro said the name of the character Aira was playing. Whenever they had to act out a tender scene, a hug, a kiss, sometimes he forgot there were cameras recording - and sometimes, when he did remember, he wished they weren't there at all.
It really was not helping him that Hiiro was practically the same after filming wrapped every day. Holding his hand as they walked back to the bus stop together, casually being close to him, sharing earbuds in the bus as they crammed learning their new song when they had the time; Hiiro's head was resting on Aira's, oblivious to the beating of the younger's heart rushing louder than the music and how he wasn't paying attention to the tunes anymore, instead focusing on all the places where Hiiro's warm body was in contact with his own.
The scenes they acted out and the everyday things they did became blurred to Aira, instead choosing to take every single touch of Hiiro's to be intended for him; and when he repeated his lines, acted out his scenes, all his actions were genuine, loving words meant. The flutter of his heart, the butterfly on his stomach, he drank it all up and returned in tenfold as he stood in front of the cameras, kissing Hiiro so lovingly, wailed tearfully during their final scenes together, culminating in their death scenes with the two of them whispering words of love to each other so tenderly that the directors even said it felt like the acting was so real.
Because to him, it was starting to be.
But all of that would be over now, Aira thought, coming back to the present as he felt his eyes welling up with tears upon realizing that this experience was ending - and that they ended it with the devastating final death scene - and suddenly he was wishing he was back to his imagination as he came face to face with Hiiro's brilliant blue eyes staring at him, a little confused like a puppy when his master stopped patting him. He averted his eyes, looking anywhere but those beautiful blue.
"I'm done removing your makeup, you should probably change," he still wasn't looking at Hiiro, trying so hard to blink the tears away, but he could feel the other's gaze on him. It felt awkward, even as he removed his own makeup the other was still there just looking at him, probably thinking of how much of a bleeding heart the blond was for crying over their fictional characters' death. Aira was looking for more words to say, maybe complain again about their characters' ending, when Hiiro let out a laugh.
His famously loud, but endearing, laugh.
"What?" Aira's face flushed immediately.
"It's true! It was sad, our characters being so in love and yet unable to be together, but if their souls can be together in the afterlife, then they're happy."
Aira looked at him, a little startled still from the laugh. The disconnect between his words and his still smiling expression reminded him that this was Hiiro, his stupid Hiiro and none of the romantic guy he might have fabricated in his head these past few weeks. He sighed. "Well, it's just a show. The ending is sad because that's the official ending we get, so even if you say they're happy in the afterlife, it's not official, isn't it? It's not written by the script writers! That's why it's sad!"
That wasn't really why Aira was sad about it. But he didn't say so.
"That's true, it's just acting," Hiiro let out another chuckle before disappearing behind some curtains to change out his clothes, and if he said anything more, Aira didn't hear it.
That night, instead of coming straight to the dorms, the two lingered at a garden nearby. Holding hands, like they did all throughout their acting gig, and the times before. But unlike those times where Aira would try to shake him off, this time he didn't want there to be any gap between their fingers. Instead of his hand in Hiiro's, this time their fingers were intertwined and laced ever so tightly.
Aira didn't know what to say, what to do, he was just glad they took the long way back home - tomorrow, it would be back to normal, and whatever magic Hiiro had that entranced him these past few weeks would be drowned by their usual idol work, probably never to return again. He didn't want to let go just yet.
He only stopped walking when bumping to Hiiro's back forced him to. He stepped aside to watch the redhead's face, concentrated as if thinking - he couldn't read it. Those brilliant blues locked with his eyes again, a little uncertainty reflected in it, and suddenly the magic he thought Hiiro had was gone.
In front of him wasn't the romantic, passionate man he had been in front of the cameras, with all the complicated love declarations and confident actions. The boy in front of him was less polished, innocent like a puppy, baring his feelings with simple words awkwardly tumbling out of his mouth. But he was earnest, every words spoken from the heart instead of a script, spoken with self-assurance. This was the Hiiro that he knew and loved from day one. Not the character made for the TV show, but his Hiiro.
When Aira stood on his tiptoes and met Hiiro's lips, it wasn't like how they did it in front of the cameras. There were no dramatics, nothing complicated, just two boys realizing they were in love, but the butterflies in his stomach didn't stop and the flutter of his heart didn't leave when they parted.
Because when they did part, Hiiro gave him a bright smile of his and whispered, just between the two of them,
"It's all real to me."