Chapter Text
Tsukasa was in an eternal battle with himself if you'll believe it. He sat brooding at a random bench in an irrelevantly named park watching the sky pass him by. Dogs being walked by their owners, groups of friends strolling by, people chuckling as they joked about their day, and unfortunately much to Tsukasa's disdain, couples who were out on dates, lovingly embracing each other on a casual walk. Tsukasa scoffed. For you see, the “fight” he was having with himself was about his very close friend, Rui, and his developing feelings for said friend. Usually, Tsukasa had no problem coming to terms with crushes, but now he had really managed to catch feelings? FOR RUI? He was in deep-set denial, his mind going into overdrive. Rui? His best friend? He couldn’t have a crush on him, right? That's impossible… is what he had tried to convince himself countless times.
He sighed as he finally stood up from his spot, stretching his sore muscles from sitting in one place for so long. Tsukasa had just begun to relax again when he could distantly hear someone enthusiastically calling his name. He mentally facepalmed at the sound of the all too familiar voice, closing his eyes to attempt to calm his already thumping headache so as not to make it any worse. He looked to the voice's origins only to see the most exuberant waves coming from Emu who was followed by a very defeated sighing Nene who was in turn followed by a smug-looking Rui. Before Tsukasa could even think about waving back he was immediately tackled full force to the floor by what he could only see as a pink blur and fell with a scream accompanied by Emu's lighthearted giggles.
“Ack!” Tsukasa wailed as he hit the pavement, Emu on top of him. So much for trying to relieve that headache of his. Usually, he would be at least somewhat happy to see the rest of the troupe, but his recent “feelings crisis” consumed his thought process, leaving him unable to comprehend being around people. ”Hi, hi! Tsukasaaaa~!!” she screamed, still waving her arms around maniacally. She suddenly jumped up, still leaving Tsukasa on the dusty pavement, and circled him whilst hopping around. As Emu continued on and on about her newest idea, Rui immediately chimed in with some technical jargon about his inventions so Nene helped Tsukasa up. “Aah... What is it this time?” Tsukasa mumbled, rubbing his back after the fall he’d taken. Emu paid absolutely no mind to the pain she’d caused him and started explaining her newest idea. “We’re going to do an animal forest-themed show!! Nene can be a bunny, and you can be a peacock, and I’m going to be a sugar glider, and Rui’s going to be a cat, waaahhh!!!” Emu squealed.
Normally, Tsukasa would have been excited to start preparing a new show alongside his fellow troupe members, but this time was different. Not only had he been tackled at full speed onto a hard, concrete path by a pink ball of pure adrenaline, but he also had issues with his feelings concerning Rui, obviously making spending time with the troupe harder than it usually was with whatever troubles they got in, whether it be Rui’s exploding equipment or Emu running around wreaking havoc everywhere she could. Tsukasa stared off into the void while Emu had kept enthusiastically explaining her idea, Rui adding remarks about the technological side of the show. After a while, Nene had noticed him clearly not paying attention, so she landed a clean whack on the back of his head, causing Emu to pause her tangent and stop jumping around. “Ack-! H-hey, what was that for?!?” Tsukasa groaned at Nene, who had already retreated behind Rui.
“Heeey, Tsukasa! Were you listening to me at all?” Emu pouted and crossed her arms while glaring down (up?) at him. Tsukasa lowered his head in shame (and in immense pain from receiving now two blows to top off his headache) and let out an exhausted sigh. He wasn’t even halfway through the day and he was already pretty much burnt out! Emu noticed his distress this time and got on her tiptoes to pat Tsukasa on his head to cheer him up. “Ehehe~ Don’t feel down, Tsukasa!! There’s a reason we were looking for you!!!” she shouted, radiating a sparkly aura of pride and pure happiness. To any normal bystander, this would have been blinding, but the troupe was already used to the sparkles emitted by the pink ball of energy.
“Indeed!” Rui chimed in. “Emu here has been wanting to pay a visit to the arcade. Would you like to accompany us, Tsukasa?” Now, Tsukasa had to make a tricky choice. He could choose from two options:
1) Avoid his crush and potentially awkward moments
2) Go spend time with his crush
He racked his brain for a moment, rubbing his temples with his eyes squeezed shut. Yes? No. Yes. No? Yes. Tsukasa felt like he was going to shut down completely, and Emu’s eternal hyperactivity did not help the process at all.
Before Tsukasa could actually make any choices though, Emu had apparently decided his thought process was taking too long and grabbed his sleeve, dragging him through the park. “O-oi, where are you dragging me?!?” he shouted, trying to struggle out of Emu’s grasp. Unfortunately for him, she had an iron grip when strength was indeed required and continued dragging him through the park, like a mother dragging a child throwing a temper tantrum.
With a chuckle, Rui started running after them, Nene in tow. It quickly turned into a chase with Nene and Rui chasing after Emu, Tsukasa slowly accepting his fate and trying his best to stay sane and upright whilst listening to the endless stream of “Wahaha!” and “Wonderhoy!!”, desperately wishing he had some aspirin right now. Once Emu was finally approaching the city centre, Rui managed to catch up to her despite now carrying Nene on his back. “Ehehe~ are you challenging me, Rui?” Emu questioned tauntingly. Both Nene and Tsukasa exchanged horrified looks at the thought of the two racing, especially while they were being dragged along like this. Rui flashed Emu a smug grin before laughing “Fufu~ whatever you say!” and speeding up, Nene holding onto Rui for her dear life. It took a moment for the realization of what was happening to hit Tsukasa, but the moment Emu started sprinting even faster he started screaming at Emu to slow down.
Despite Rui having the advantage of longer legs, nothing could ever overpower the pink ball of adrenaline, especially when being fueled by friendly competition. And what shut-in genius who barely sleeps could defeat a girl with a healthy sleep schedule also in several sports clubs? Exactly. Nonetheless, bypassers were all turning to look at the pink blur speeding past, an orange-haired boy screaming in tow. Some wondered whether something actually bad was going on, some were convinced this was one of the bizarre street shows you could spot every once in a while. Sooner or later, Emu caught up to Rui, passing him swiftly. Tsukasa shot Rui a glance of desperation as he passed the other duo, unable to plead for help as he was extremely out of breath from screaming and running with Emu.
“Ah, sorry, Tsukasa! Looks like I can’t help you here!” Rui replied to his glance as if he knew what the other was thinking. Tsukasa gulped as he saw Rui and Nene fall further behind and finally accepted his fate, Emu still screaming “wonderhoy” as they ran. Meanwhile, Rui and Nene ran at a respectable speed towards the arcade, Nene panicking silently. “Rui, I swear, if you drop me, I’ll…” she managed to warn Rui. Before she could finish though, Rui tripped on a small rock, stumbling forwards before swiftly recovering his balance. This caused Nene to let out a squeal and grip onto Rui’s clothing, almost strangling him. Despite having a panicking Nene, now with tears in her eyes on his back and running at full speed in the middle of the city, Rui managed to make it to the arcade without any further issues.
Waiting there was a gleaming Emu, proud of her achievement of winning against Rui, and a mortified Tsukasa desperately clutching the nearest wall in order to keep his balance, panting heavily. The second the duo came to a halt, Nene jumped off Rui and went to hide behind Tsukasa. They both looked like they’d been dragged through hell and back, while Rui started laughing and teasing them both, Emu still on an adrenaline high. Rui approached Nene and Tsukasa to help them get moving again, but Nene immediately scurried back, glaring at Rui as if he were a monster. Though, before Nene could run further, she was caught by the pink-haired demon instead. “Neneeee!!! Let’s go play a dance game!!!” Emu smiled, the sparkles returning as bright as ever. Despite Nene’s disapproval of this, she’d rather be as far away from Rui as possible, accepting her fate of being dragged off by Emu.
Tsukasa also sighed in relief of Emu running off, since he felt like he’d gotten enough wonderhoy to last at least a few days. Though his peace of mind lasted a total of 10 seconds as the second Rui reached out his hand to help him up, Tsukasa found himself flustered. He just stared into Rui’s eyes without even noticing he had his hand reached out, a light blush dusting his cheeks for a moment before the realization hit him. Rui just kept absentmindedly smiling as Tsukasa panicked and stood up in a rush, brushing off the road dust gathered on his clothes. Tsukasa immediately avoided any eye contact with the now extremely confused Rui, trying to gather his composure.
“Tsukasa, shall we go play something as well?” Rui suggested.
“A-ah, yes! I shall defeat you in any game of your choice!!!” Tsukasa declared as a response, quickly regaining his usual prideful nature.
“Hmm… How about Q*bert, then?”
Of course, not being that interested in video games (let alone ones from four decades ago) meant Tsukasa had absolutely no idea what on earth Rui was talking about. But he couldn’t just admit he was clueless on this subject, no no, he was going to take on the game like a champ and come out victorious. To anyone else, this may have seemed absolutely impossible, but Tsukasa was determined and wouldn’t back down from a challenge, especially one presented by Rui.
“Alright!! Let’s go, you’ll be defeated this time!!” he grinned, hiding the fact he was indeed panicking at the moment. Rui responded by flashing a smug look at Tsukasa and reaching to grab his arm, only for Tsukasa to completely tense up. He quickly turned his head away and blushed, of course, but Rui was completely oblivious and thought Tsukasa’s panicked response was caused by Emu’s earlier shenanigans. Without thinking about it any longer, he started dragging Tsukasa through the arcade with his hand. This of course caused him to go into an internal panic.
He was now in full panic mode as he walked through the arcade, hand in hand with the person he had feelings for. Of course, Rui was utterly clueless as to what was going on with the fidgety and tense boy while Tsukasa was completely overthinking every movement he made, his face overheating. After what Tsukasa thought felt like an eternity of traveling through crowds, they arrived at a mostly empty corner of retro arcade cabinets, Rui excitedly walking over to the Q*bert cabinet after finally letting go of Tsukasa’s hand.
“Would you like to go first, Tsukasa?” Rui asked with a polite tone, yet slight hints of smugness were present.
Tsukasa had devised a strategy for this in the entire minute or so Rui had been over at the cabinet examining it. He’d planned to let Rui go first in order to find out whatever the game was about and then hopefully defeat him in a fierce battle. Granted, it wasn’t the smartest strategy, but he was trying. Tsukasa looked a bit panicked at first (yet again), but regained his composure and flashed Rui a taunting look. “No need to! You can go first, as a display of my mercy!!” Tsukasa grinned stupidly, Rui clearly finding this a bit hilarious. He nodded and turned around to face the cabinet in order to insert a few coins, the game starting.
Rui’s eyes were fixated on the screen of the arcade cabinet, his hand-eye coordination perfected from years of tinkering with technology. Tsukasa had expected him to be good at games like these, but he was still taken aback by Rui’s seamless movements. He was almost mesmerized by the orange little creature hopping around the Escheresque blocks.. or just Rui himself. Tsukasa found himself staring at Rui’s face through his violet bangs, focused on the golden eyes darting around. This continued for a bit until he finally realized that he was paying attention to the wrong thing, and instead of fawning over his crush he was supposed to be observing how the game was actually played. Mentally cursing himself, Tsukasa forcefully took his eyes away from the violet-haired boy and started staring mindlessly at the cabinet screen.
Though, observing the actual game didn’t help much, as he was still completely clueless as to what was going on. There was a purple snake, some weird rolling eggs, an orange guy jumping around… what on earth? Tsukasa was completely overwhelmed, even with such a simple game. After a while of following Rui’s gameplay, his focus started slowly shifting back towards Rui himself. Tsukasa stared and stared for a solid while until he was snapped out of his trance by Rui announcing his loss.
“Oh, my... seems I’ve lost this one. It’s your turn, Tsukasa!” he smirked, right as Tsukasa realized what he now had to do. Play the spooky, scary Q*bert game. With a slight gulp, he took Rui’s place in front of the cabinet and prepared to start the game. “Good luck!” Rui wished him, though Tsukasa promptly ignored him to get his head in the game. It started out well, with Tsukasa inserting a few coins and the game beginning. Only from that point, he had absolutely no idea what to do. He tried moving the joystick, and to his surprise, the orange little guy moved! Tsukasa deducted from that information that he was indeed controlling the orange character plastered all over the cabinet’s casing. Smart fellow. After that, Rui had a blast following Tsukasa desperately trying to play the game, failing miserably at most of his attempts.
Each time Tsukasa got caught by one of the enemies, Rui immediately began taunting him. “Ahaha, looks like the #1 star isn’t so good at games after all…!” he chimed, only to be met with a death glare and some quiet cursing by Tsukasa. This continued for quite a bit, Tsukasa being an extremely sore loser and all, but eventually, the victory was obviously claimed by Rui. Tsukasa was obviously quite bitter about this, so Rui politely decided not to gloat too much about his victory. Their evening continued in the bright colors and loud noises of the arcade, whether it be more attempts at retro arcade games, the troupe watching Nene full combo some rhythm games, or Emu dominating everyone at DDR.
At some point late in the evening, Tsukasa had decided to try his hand at a crane game in order to (in true romantic fashion) win his little crush a prize. He’d picked out a machine with tons of small little animal plushies to attempt to win, and inserted some change into the machine. Emu was constantly cheering him on in true obnoxious but adorable fashion with Nene staring at the moving claw intently. Rui on the other hand had his eyes fixated on the sky visible from a nearby doorway, focusing on something completely different. “Ah… apologies, it seems I may need to leave soon.” he tried noting to the troupe, but was met with Emu grabbing his arm in order to stop him from leaving. “Waaahhh, you can’t leave yet, Rui!!! Tsukasa’s about to win a prizee!!” she complained, Rui letting out a sigh and giving in to the pink-haired girl. It’s not like he could struggle out of her grasp, anyway.
Right after Emu had said so, Tsukasa let out a cheer as he’d managed to win a small cat plushie that could be used as a keychain. Emu, of course, cheered for him and practically tackled him again, though this time Tsukasa managed to keep his balance. In turn, Nene let out a hum of approval and smiled slightly, happy that the others were enjoying their time, too. Tsukasa shook Emu off of him, which meant she now stuck to Nene like a leech, shouting “wonderhoy” and whatnot. While the two girls were busy cheering, now for no apparent reason, Tsukasa took this as a chance to give the small plush to Rui.
“R-Rui, this is for you!!” he managed to shout out, immediately cursing himself for stuttering yet again. He reached out his hands, cupping the small plush, although he’d turned his face away from Rui in order to not let him see his blush. Rui found this display extremely adorable and accepted the gift with a smile. “Why, thank you, Tsukasa. What a wonderful gift!” he beamed, making Tsukasa’s chest bubble up with happiness. Despite the gift he’d received, Rui was still clearly uneasy, making Tsukasa slightly suspicious.
“Rui, is everything okay? You seem a bit off.” Tsukasa questioned, clearly startling Rui a bit.
“Ahaha~ no reason to worry, Tsukasa! I’m perfectly fine.” Rui affirmed. He was thrown off by the question but laughed it off quickly. Almost too quickly…
Tsukasa was still extremely suspicious of Rui and his wellbeing. He noted that he had seemed slightly sick for the past few hours or so, but hadn’t decided to say anything until now. With a frown, Tsukasa continued pressing Rui on the subject. “Are you sure about that? If you need to I’d be happy to take you home. You haven’t seemed that “perfectly fine” for a bit now…” he persisted. Of course, Tsukasa wasn’t keen on pressing the person he had feelings for on a subject like this, but he was worried for him and didn’t want him to go through any sort of suffering.
“No, no, I’ll be fine! But if you won’t mind, I should really be going home now. I’ve had a wonderful evening, thank you!!” Rui yelled and waved as he was already halfway out onto the streets where he’d immediately start speeding off, almost as fast as when racing with Emu. Right as Rui had disappeared from the sight, leaving Tsukasa bewildered, Emu and Nene returned from their short trip to apparently go buy some snacks from a vending machine nearby. “Huuuh? Where’d Rui go?” Emu questioned immediately. Tsukasa took a bit to process what had just happened and then responded with “Ah, apparently he felt a bit sick so he suddenly went home.”
Emu shrugged at this, but apparently, such a sudden disappearance had also raised Nene’s suspicions as well. “..It’s not like Rui to run off like that. Are you sure he was fine..?” she asked, only to be met with a confused shrug from Tsukasa. Nene thought for a bit, Emu completely distracted by the bright lights and loud noises of the arcade, before adding. “Maybe you should go after him..? To check on him. I’m not sure if he’s okay…” Tsukasa was a bit taken aback by the suggestion. Go check on Rui? Follow around his crush to his house in the dark? It seemed a bit stalker-y, but he shook off the thought and pinned it on just making sure Rui was okay. “Fine, I’ll do it! Are you going to be okay with Emu alone?” Tsukasa asked. Nene looked over to Emu currently staring at a bunch of bright swirly lights on a wall before replying “We’ll be fine. She’s like a toddler with a rattle right now…”
Tsukasa let out a light chuckle before saying goodbye to the two and leaving Nene to be dragged around by Emu for a bit longer. Sure, he felt a bit bad for Nene, but it had to be done. He walked out onto the streets which were now getting more and more empty as the night was swiftly approaching, the street lamps soon being the only source of light along with the light glow of the full moon present. As Tsukasa walked along the roads slowly getting closer to Rui’s place, he glanced up at the beautifully lit sky filled with stars and a glowing moon. It seemed peaceful and distracted him from the worry that Rui’s sudden disappearance had caused.
Soon Tsukasa noticed he was getting closer to where Rui lived. He started overthinking his reasoning for the visit and stopped walking for a bit. Why was he so concerned? Was he really this head over heels for the boy? Tsukasa immediately facepalmed. Why was he struggling so much with this? The #1 star would not be this cowardly. After staring at the sky and pacing back and forth, he’d decided. It was such a beautiful night and he’d suffered with his feelings enough! He was going to confess like a man and a star would!! Tsukasa Tenma was not a coward!!
He took a deep breath and put a confident look on his face and started marching over to Rui’s house. Tsukasa started going over how he’d confess in his mind, going over the possible conversations dozens of times, hyping himself up. Soon enough he found himself in front of his house. Staring at the building in front of him, he took a deep breath and set his foot on the plot. Tsukasa knew to head to their backyard as that was where Rui’s garage was located and where he also spent most of his time. A bit scared of the overgrown backyard late at night, he carefully walked through the backyard and reached the garage, where a faint light was visible through the cracked garage door. Tsukasa took a deep breath before finally walking over to the door after so much useless hesitation.
“Hey… Rui?” Tsukasa called out, entering the garage. It was mainly dark, except for a faint light emitted by the lit lamp on Rui’s cluttered desk. Before Tsukasa could set another foot into the garage, he heard a loud crash followed by a faint “fuck” coming from a dark corner of the garage, startling Tsukasa. “Rui, are you okay? You left really abruptly and Nene was worried, too…” he spoke, trying to scan the garage for any traces of the violet-haired boy. Soon he noticed some movement in a dark corner and immediately approached it, calling out to Rui. “..listen, I had something else I wanted to talk to you about…” Tsukasa continued as he reached for a light switch, flipping it on.
Once the lights slowly flickered on, what saw wasn’t the Rui he knew. Instead, he was met with a feline creature eerily similar to him. It had fluffy cat ears and a tail with whiskers to boot, and it was covered in violet fur similar to Rui’s hair color. Its facial features looked identical to Rui’s though, along with the same hairstyle, and it was still humanoid, wearing Rui’s clothing.
Could this be Rui?
Tsukasa was absolutely too overwhelmed to cope with this revelation at the moment. He was too confused to handle anything. “You- I- Rui?? What on- EH?!?” he managed to mutter, before simply falling on the cold floor of Rui’s garage, passing out from shock.