Work Text:
The sunset looked beautiful from his seat. The orange that colored the sky looked stunning in Ren’s eyes, but what was more stunning though was the man in front of him.
He averted his gaze from the window and looked at Shota, who was still watching the sunset. His eyes were sparkling thanks to the sunlight, and his smooth skin was literally glowing. Ren noticed that even the lip balm Shota had clearly put on was shining under those bright rays.
“It’s really pretty,” Shota said, mesmerized.
“It is.”
The man glanced at him and furrowed his eyebrows, “You’re not looking though.”
“I meant you.”
Shota looked down embarrassed, trying to not show his flustered smile.
“You could leave these heart-throbbing lines to Sakuma and Koji. No need to do that with me.”
“But you’re the only one I want to flutter.”
At that, Shota threw back his head and closed his eyes, “Please, just stop.”
And Ren wished he could, but how to do that, when Shota looked so cute when blushing? When his lips would become a thin line as if that would help him not to show any emotion? When his ears would become red until their tips? When his arms would wrap around himself to shield his pride? That sight was simply too adorable to resist, and Ren couldn’t get enough of it.
Even if he had witnessed that for quite some time now, Ren would still use any chance he had to get Shota embarrassed. From the first time he saw how cute he would become – when they still were just friends – until now during their first official date.
“You’re too cute, I can’t help it.”
Shota finally opened his eyes and directed his gaze at him. He was probably going to threaten to push him down the Ferris wheel if he continued, judging by his death glare, when the booth came to a sudden halt. The arrest was so abrupt that Shota was going to fall down if it weren’t for Ren who caught him on time.
“Are you okay?”
Shota grabbed Ren’s forearms tightly, “Yeah, thanks.”
After he brought Shota back to his seat, Ren tried to check from the cabin’s window if he could see what was going on outside. He caught a glimpse of the Ferris wheel operators who were having what seemed like an argument.
“Someone may have made some mistake. They look like fighting,” he commented.
He kept on staring at the two for some more minutes during which he narrated to Shota what he could see. However, when he realized that the other hadn’t reacted to anything he said, Ren turned around to check on him just to find a frozen Shota staring at an indefinite point on the booth’s floor.
“Shoppi, what’s wrong?” he asked, but got no reply. He called for him a few other times, until he ended up reaching for his shoulder with his hand. When he did that, Shota jumped on his feet, causing the booth to sway slightly.
Shota let out a scared cry as he clenched his hands around the cabin’s handle on his left.
“We’re going to die, gosh.”
“We’re not, Shoppi, don’t worry. They’ll find a way to fix this.”
“What if they don’t?”
“Shoppi.”
Upon hearing his name being called that seriously, Shoppi forced himself to tear his eyes away from the floor and look at Ren.
“Everything’s going to be fine. Alright?” Ren reassured him.
Eventually, Shota nodded and took a deep breath to calm himself down.
Ren stared at him closely to see how he was doing, when he realized that the man had started to mumble some words under his breath after closing his eyes.
“Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts…” Shota was chanting.
“What?”
The man sighed and opened his eyes once again to look at Ren. “Happy thoughts. So I distract myself and calm down.”
“Ah, I see,” he nodded.
It was very immediate for Ren the ‘happy thought’ that came to his mind, and he chuckled sheepishly. He leaned more toward the other’s direction and took his hands into his.
“Happy thoughts… So how about us?”
Shota’s eyes widened as the man instantly became embarrassed once more. “I told you to stop with these lines.”
“But aren’t we a happy thought for you?”
“W-We?” the man stuttered.
“Yeah,” Ren began, moving closer to Shota. He let one of his hands travel until it reached Shota’s hair, which caressed softly, “We finally broke out of our shells and cut that friendzone line we were restrained into.”
Shota gulped but didn’t flinch when Ren’s hand moved to his cheek. On the contrary, he leaned against it and covered it with his own hand.
“We’re now here together, finally. We’re not just friends anymore, we can finally say that we’re something more.” Ren’s face was now only a few inches away from Shota’s. “We can finally be as close as we want without freaking out that the others might reject us. Don’t—Don’t you think about this? Isn’t this a happy thought?”
Shota licked his lips, swallowing what probably was a knot in his throat caused by Ren’s sudden closeness.
“I pretty much don’t think about anything else.”
“Really?”
“Since the night you confessed, I’ve been laying awake until morning most of the nights because I keep on replaying your words in my mind. Whenever I close my eyes your face pops up…” Shota paused and held his gaze for a long fraction of time, before whispering, “You’re essentially everything I think about.”
Shota wasn’t someone who usually put into words his feelings. He wasn’t that good with speeches either, and he didn’t like them in the first place. So, for him to say such emotional things, for him to put his heart on his sleeve… Well, it meant that Ren was indeed special to him and that moved him an awful lot.
Ren stood up and sat next to Shota as carefully as possible, as so not make the booth sway too much and have the other panic again.
“What are you doing?” Shota asked.
“I want to kiss you so badly right now.”
“W-What?”
Ren rested his forehead on Shota’s, letting their noses brush against each other.
“I want to finally claim you as mine, and for you to claim me as yours.”
“I—I—I mean, what if someone can see us?”
Breaking their contact, Ren proceeded to check their position compared to the other booths. He smirked when he realized that no one could have possibly seen them. “We’re the ones at the top. Everyone else is below us.”
“Still.”
Ren held Shota’s face with his hands and slowly inched closer to his face, “Happy thoughts, right?”
Shota didn’t move away and eventually gave in, before placing his hands on Ren’s biceps and welcoming his kiss.
That was their first kiss, the first time they tasted each other, and Ren felt already addicted to Shota. Just a few seconds and he already found himself inserting his tongue into Shota’s mouth. The man let a surprised moan escape his throat which only fueled Ren into pushing forward. He had dreamed of making out with Shota for so long that now he couldn’t stop himself anymore.
Gradually, Ren was pressing himself against Shota whose back was now against the booth’s window. He seemed pretty eager to return Ren’s kisses if his hastiness was anything to go by. Shota even started to run his hands over Ren’s back, almost slipping inside his T-shirt by mistake.
Being summer, the weather was hot, but Ren felt the temperature rising to an unbearable level only when Shota bit his lower lip, sucked on it, and then broke the kiss. With his disheveled fringe, flushed cheeks and swollen lips, Shota looked even more handsome than before.
Ren still couldn’t believe that the man in his arms was now his. He had imagined many times how this moment could have felt, but not a single vision was close to what he was feeling right now. His heart was beating so fast that he could hear it even in his ears and he felt that he had to let it all out before he could burst.
“I love you.”
Shota stared at him for a while, which had Ren break out in a cold sweat. The fear of everything being just an incredibly lucid dream he created for himself after being rejected by Shota appeared. But no, it wasn’t, because the man grinned and repeated his same words.
“I love you too.”
Without wasting time, Ren threw himself again at Shota, kissing him deeply to express his happiness, because it was either that or screaming at the top of his lungs for the whole world to hear that, yes, Watanabe Shota loved him too.
He withdrew only to ask Shota what could be now a futile question but that he still wanted to say, because Ren liked to do things properly. Especially if the one involved was the man he loved.
“Shoppi, be my boyfriend.”
At that moment, the Ferris wheel began moving again, and Shota composed himself in a hurry, combing his hair with his hands and looking in front of him. He gave some pats on his cheeks and took a deep breath.
Ren’s question was left hanging in the air and he had no choice but to return to his seat and go along with Shota’s ‘we totally didn’t make out’ facade.
Their ride came to an end finally, and they exited the booth under the regretful gazes of the two staff members in charge of the machine. They apologized for the trouble and Ren was close to actually blessing them for having given them the time for their first kiss.
“So, where should we go next?” Ren asked, looking around to see if anything would attract his attention.
Shota was walking ahead of him when he suddenly turned around and stretched a fist bump in his direction. His eyes were fixed on Ren and his expression was serious.
Ren glanced at Shota’s hand with a puzzled look.
“What is it?” he said, pointing at it.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“It means ‘yes’.”
Ren was still confused and upon seeing that Shota groaned frustrated, before taking Ren’s hand, closing it into a fist bump, and touching it with his own.
“Yes, I’ll be your boyfriend.”
Shota gave him a last look and a quick explanation before resuming walking. “There are many people around so I can’t hug you or anything of the sort. So, I had to find something else.”
Ren was left looking at Shota’s back as the man was moving away.
“He’s… He’s too cute for this world,” he could only say to himself, before catching up with him and sneaking a glance at his face which was, obviously, blushing. It was Ren’s time to raise his fist bump and Shota gave him a furrowed eyebrow.
“It means ‘I love you’.”
Shota’s head snapped in the opposite direction, but properly returned Ren’s first bump.
There must have been a limit on how someone could adore their partner, right? And yet, Ren felt like falling a little bit more every day.