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There was one person at ES who Shu could not stand no matter how hard he tried to. Even with all of the eccentric personalities his coworkers possessed, this one was particularly blood-boiling.
Yet he had found himself standing dead center in the middle of this person’s apartment.
That person was none other than Rinne Amagi, leader of Crazy:B, the infamous unit of rejects as Shu liked to call them.
Despite his unit belonging to the same agency as Valkyrie, Shu desperately wished he would never have the unfortunate opportunity of meeting any of its members. And he was not usually one to act desperately.
Nonetheless, it did not change the fact that he’d run into their leader. Quite literally as well.
Just a mere half hour before, Shu had just come out of a meeting with some of the higher ups. Though he never really enjoyed any of the meetings he was forced to attend, this one in particular left him in quite the foul mood. There were several important events in the upcoming weeks and Shu, being the man of art he was, had been appointed as one of the main costume directors for a few of the events.
Shu loved sewing. He loved it more than anything else. But there comes a point when the hobby he so selfishly enjoyed became a central part of his job. It did not take away from the fact that he still loved to create clothing, but it definitely did not help with his already busy schedule.
Before he returned to the dorms he was temporarily staying at during his time back in Japan, he swung by the cafeteria first. Large meetings such as the one he had just barely survived through gave him intense headaches. Unfortunately for him, he’d forgotten to bring water that day, so the cafeteria was the next best thing.
As soon as he walked in, he felt an immediate splash of piping hot liquid cover his entire front side, his clothes now completely soaked. Stunned, Shu glanced up to meet eyes with the perpetrator.
Of course it was Rinne Amagi, who else would be stupid enough? That is what he believed anyway.
After that unfortunate incident, Rinne insisted they bring Shu’s clothes back to his place to wash them. At first, he obviously refused. The dorms were not that far from the main ES building and he would rather walk there soaking wet than go anywhere near Rinne’s apartment. He imagined it to be full of clutter and the thought irked him.
But the man continued to persist. He would not let it go until Shu had accepted. So like any other person who was simply annoyed to the brim, he caved in order for him to shut up. It seemed to work though, because on the entire way to Rinne’s place, he was dead silent. Shu hadn’t known him too long to say this with confidence, but he’d never seen this man so quiet in his life. It honestly agitated him.
That was how he ended up in this predicament.
At the time of accepting, Shu was so full of irritation that it hadn’t quite hit him yet that he stood in the middle of Rinne’s apartment, nearly half-naked.
That much was obvious though, after all his clothes were stained with piping hot tea. He sighed at the thought of him having to make new clothes to undo the damages done. He was grateful that the undershirt he was wearing that day hadn’t been too affected, but the fact remained that he stood there with nothing but a t-shirt and his underwear. Though they were both guys so he chose not to worry too much.
He had to say, he found himself thoroughly surprised at how clean the place was. Sure there were a few pieces of clutter here and there, but overall it was fairly spotless. Shu found himself impressed even. He had to wonder if it was his unit mate’s doing. Niki Shiina, was it? He just seemed like the type who would clean his friends’ homes for them.
Shu must’ve become too distracted, because he didn’t notice Rinne standing right in front of him. He couldn’t help but flinch at the sudden jump scare of a messy red mop in his face.
“Sorry Shu-kun~ ya looked so focused! What were you thinkin’ about? Hm?” Rinne said, that usual stupid grin on his face.
“Nothing that is of concern to you.” Shu coldly replied.
Rinne started to pout, “Ouch! That one really hurt~ and here I thought we were bonding.”
He rolled his eyes, expanding the distance between them even further, “What part of this makes you believe we are ‘bonding’? If you do not recall, you so ungracefully drenched me in hot tea. I do not take too kindly to that.”
“I already apologized, didn't I? C’mon man, you gotta lighten up a little,” Rinne responded in a playful tone that sent shivers down Shu’s spine.
Shu did not want to respond, in fact, he wished to wait this out in complete silence if possible. And far from the nuisance that was Rinne Amagi. Thus he began to make his way over to the couch before he was stopped by Rinne, who now held his wrist.
He turned around to see the redhead giving him a creepy smirk. If he didn’t know any better, that expression alone could have counted as sexual harassment.
“I have a better idea. It’ll be fun, I promise~” the man said, pulling Shu towards the room to the right.
If Rinne’s grip wasn’t surprisingly stronger than his own, he would have instantly yanked his wrist away. Yet he found himself unable to escape his grasp. He hadn’t realized where he was until finally he was set free in the doorway to a room. As it appeared, it was indeed Rinne’s bedroom.
The redhead plopped himself onto the bed, motioning for Shu to join him.
Immediately Shu declined, “Non! What kind of sick and perverted joke is this? Absolutely not!”
“Aw c’mon~ it’ll be a while ‘til your clothes are done. I won’t do anything to ya, I promise!” Rinne patted the spot next to him, once again signaling for him to sit.
Shu let out a sigh as he reluctantly made his way over to the bed. He sat down on the edge of it awkwardly, making quick glances over at the man next to him, watching and waiting for him to make some kind of move.
Eventually, he realized he’d fallen right into his trap. Rinne pulled Shu down so that now the two were laying side by side next to each other.
Just as Shu opted to sit up to leave once and for all, Rinne threw his hand in front of Shu’s body so he couldn’t leave, “Ease up, princess. I said I wouldn’t do anything, so just lay here with me will ya?”
He hated trusting people, but at that moment he had a strange feeling that he was telling the truth. Despite Rinne’s history, he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to force people into things, especially not the things that Shu was so reluctantly thinking of. Of course he was technically forced into this situation, but it wasn’t too unbearable. Interesting enough, Rinne had been quieter than usual, perhaps that gave him peace of mind.
Not wanting to act as if he was simply obeying Rinne’s request, Shu slapped Rinne’s arm away from him and slowly lowered himself back down. If he was going to stay, he wished to do so on his own terms.
His one condition was that they would not be touching, in fact, he moved over entirely to the other side of the bed so that there was a significantly large gap in between them.
Rinne perhaps noticed how this would be the only thing keeping Shu from walking through that door, so he left it alone.
“If I remember correctly, you still owe me that talk about your studies in France.” Rinne grinned, once again causing Shu’s skin to crawl. Why on earth was this man so smiley all the time? Shu never trusted people who had a permanent smile on their face, even Kagehira. There had to be something hiding behind that thoughtless grin of his.
Shu scoffed, “It would be far too boring for someone like you. You wouldn’t understand even half of what I say.”
Rinne just shrugged his shoulders without a care in the world, “I never said I’d actually listen, you just got a nice voice so I thought it would put me to sleep easily~”
As if this man could not have gotten any more bothersome, there he was.
“Very well then. You best not come complaining to me when you become disinterested in my words.” Shu finally gave in, turning to the side to give the redhead a glare.
“Yeah yeah-“ Rinne laughed that usual laugh he always did. Shu used to find it annoying until he realized that his own laugh was fairly similar, just more refined. It would be hypocritical of him to judge Rinne’s laugh like that.
Shu began to talk about his adventures in Paris. He hated to admit it, but he was trying his best to make it genuinely sound interesting. If he had to be completely honest, his life in France wasn’t at all what the films would suggest. It wasn’t full of sunshine and rainbows, there was no heart-pounding romance, at least not for him anyway. He barely had that many friends back in France, but if he told Rinne that, he’d be sure to laugh in his face surly.
To his surprise, Rinne’s words contradicted what he’d told him earlier about not listening. The redhead beside him was quite engaged in the conversation. On occasion, he’d ask questions about certain things or what specific words meant for clarification. Sure, it might’ve been troublesome the way he asked him so smug-like, but Shu found himself in awe that Rinne was genuinely interested in what he was saying.
Not only that, but Shu even began to think how nice this was.
Being able to just simply go on and on about trivial things, like how harsh the professors are in France, how extravagant the fashion was, to even how beautiful the language was, he quite enjoyed it. Even if the person listening to all of this was one that he’d usually despise.
At least for today, Rinne Amagi didn’t seem all that bad.
Rinne held true to his promise. He hadn’t tried anything on Shu. All he did was listen, but that was enough for him. He didn’t realize how much he simply wanted somebody to listen to him rant about random things he had come across while overseas, much less having that person be Rinne of all people.
During Shu’s fairly passionate speech about how delightful the pastries were back in France and how they put all other countries’ pastries to shame, he’d been too busy talking to notice the redhead next to him slowly drifting off to sleep.
Shu couldn’t help but to form a half-smile on his face. Rinne’s sleeping face was so peaceful and innocent looking, something he never would have expected.
Now that Rinne was asleep, he thought it would be best if he retrieved his clothes and left, after all, now he didn’t have a reason to stay here. He had to admit though, he began to feel a strange feeling of disappointment now that he had to leave. It was very odd indeed.
As Shu started to get up, he felt an arm gently wrap around him. Startled, he quickly glanced over at Rinne who, in his sleep, had embraced Shu.
He knew Rinne was asleep, but he couldn’t help but to get a bit flustered at the sudden movement. As much as he found the man disagreeable, he’d hate to wake him after he finally fell asleep. Shu had no choice other than to lay back down and simply let it happen. As much as he wished he could hate everything about this situation, he just couldn’t muster up the energy to. In fact, it was.. comforting. Far more endearing than he imagined it would be.
Surely Rinne wouldn’t know if Shu reciprocated as well. After all, he seemed to be sleeping soundly anyway.
Shu decided to hesitantly wrap his arms around Rinne, pulling himself closer to him. Now that his face was practically mere centimeters away from Rinne’s chest, his heart rate picked up. He’d never done anything like this before, at least not with such intentions. But that got him thinking, what exactly were his intentions? And why would he ever get flustered at the thought of Rinne holding him like this?
Thinking too hard about the matter only made him more embarrassed. Out of pure habit, he rested his head against the redhead’s chest to hide any redness on his face, despite the fact that Rinne was asleep and therefore couldn’t actually see Shu’s face.
If only it were that simple.
Shu felt a warm hand reach up to touch his now slightly messy pink hair. Ah, so that’s how it is. Had Rinne been awake that entire time?
Usually whenever Shu got embarrassed, he’d retaliate with anger, but this time he was too shocked to even move, hoping if he didn’t shift his position that Rinne would pretend he wasn’t there. That was of course wishful thinking.
As Shu braced for some kind of dumb or taunting comment from the other, that moment never came.
Rinne was definitely awake, after all, he was currently running his fingers through Shu’s hair. So why? Why hadn’t he said anything? It wasn’t like him at all.
Or perhaps, the Rinne he thought he knew so briefly was only half of what he was truly like. Maybe this was a hidden side that he preferred not to show other people. If that was the case, Shu definitely understood what that felt like. He too had a secret side he wished to keep to himself. In fact, he hadn’t realized that side of him was showing through now. Was that the reason for Rinne being so strangely comforting? It’s possible that Rinne noticed how out of his element Shu was, and decided not to comment about it.
Had he really been that considerate? Sure, Rinne Amagi wasn’t a mean guy, Shu’s never even seen him truly angry before, but he’s never seen him genuinely polite without all of the unnecessary teasing either. It was different but at the same time, it was quite pleasant.
After that, neither of the two spoke. It wasn’t awkward nor was it uncomfortable. Shu didn’t quite understand why he was feeling the way he was, especially when the culprit was the one and only Rinne Amagi, but he didn’t feel entirely disgusted which shocked him.
They stayed like that until both of them drifted off to sleep, and for real this time.
Perhaps the embarrassment would be a problem for when Shu woke up. Then he would deal with the strange feelings he felt for the man in front of him. But for now, he wanted to enjoy how surprisingly comforting Rinne’s embrace was.