Work Text:
Tsukasa was doing something ambitious, even for him. He was trying to fix Rui’s god-awful sleep schedule. He didn’t know how it could get that bad. Even Nene stayed up late most nights, but even she still went to bed hours before Rui thought of going to sleep. He knew the importance of getting work done, but at the expense of one's own health? Perish the thought.
The only issue with trying to fix Rui’s sleep schedule is that nothing seemed to work. No matter how hard he tried, his efforts were in vain. Tsukasa didn’t make a dent in Rui’s sleeping habits, in fact, he only managed to make his own worse. He wanted to give up after weeks of trying, but he knew he couldn’t give up until he exhausted all of his options.
He was currently at Rui’s house to discuss and brainstorm ideas for their upcoming show. They had stopped an hour or so ago because they had been at it for hours and it was getting late. He had a final ditch effort to maybe get Rui to sleep on time; he was going to spend the night at Rui’s. Tsukasa had already let his parents and Saki know about it the day prior, but he had to get the go-ahead from Rui before he could formulate a proper plan.
“Hey, Rui?” He inquired from his place on the couch.
“Hmm? What is it?” Rui didn’t even look up from the small gadget in his hands as he answered Tsukasa.
“Would you mind if I stayed the night? It’s already dark and there’s no way a star like me should be walking home alone in the dark.”
This got Rui to turn and look at him. “I could have walked you home if you asked Tsukasa-kun, but if you insist then who am I to refuse?” He ended the sentence with his usual cat-like grin before turning back around and continuing tinkering.
With that out of the way, Tsukasa could finally put his plan into action. If he had one that is… He scanned Rui’s cluttered room for any ideas.
Unplug the lights? No, Rui would just continue to work in the dark like an idiot.
Steal his tools? Also no. Rui was stronger and taller than him, he’d be at a disadvantage. It also was too unsightly for a start like him to stoop so low as stealing to get a friend to sleep.
There wasn’t much else he could think of and he was about to give it up for this attempt when it hit him. Books. Rui had a bookshelf that took up nearly a whole wall. It was full of books as well. He stood and began to skim the books for something he thought Rui would read. He had to like some of these books right? Why else would he have a bookshelf this large in his room?
He grabbed a random book and looked at the cover. An advanced robotics book. He chuckled in amusement. This is definitely something Rui would have. How else would he be so good at building robots and other mechanical things? Other than being a genius, of course.
When Tsukasa thought about the kinds of books Rui would read, he thought of primarily non-fiction books. He was surprised to see that that was not the case. There were a few non-fiction books, but they were primarily fiction and fantasy books. Which should have made sense now that Tsukasa was thinking about it. Rui was great at writing scripts that were chock-full of fantasy elements included in them.
He put the robotics book back on the shelf in favour of browsing through the other bookcase on his right. This one didn’t have as many books as it was about half the size of the previous one. He was still a bit surprised by the sheer amount of fiction books Rui had. He stood in awe for a few seconds before a particular book caught his attention. The cover had beautiful art of a forest that wrapped around the whole outer cover. Tsukasa knew the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but how else were the authors supposed to attract readers? He flipped the book to its back and read through the synopsis and decided that this is the one.
Tsukasa finally had a plan.
*^*
Rui knew that Tsukasa had been trying to fix his sleep schedule for weeks. He found it admirable and a bit adorable. However, he was trying to fix the unfixable. His sleep schedule has been this way since middle school. There’s no “fixing” it. It also didn’t help that Rui was stubborn and wanted to see just how long Tsukasa could hold out.
At that moment, Rui was at his desk. He was working on the calibration of a small robot he planned to use in one of their future shows. He wanted it to be a little assistant of sorts. The task at hand was to get it to walk properly. It could take a few steps, but it inevitably topples over in a heap of metal limbs. He wasn’t used to working on getting something this small to walk. Now, little robots with no articulation and a chunky base certainly helped keep the robot on its feet, but this robot was lithe. It was fully articulated (excluding individual fingers) and had a lot thinner legs than the other robots he had worked on.
It could do everything but walk. The balance of the robot itself was good, as it could stand, so at least that wasn’t an issue. He had taken the motherboard and double-checked the wires to make sure they were all connected. With a small flashlight that he’d grabbed that was near him, he weaved through all the different wires and managed to find a few wires that had come unconnected during the installation process.
With those wires in place, the robot should be able to walk just fine now. Before he could test it, he felt a tap on his shoulder, startling him. He turned to see Tsukasa holding a book.
He gave Tsukasa a questioning look, “What’s the book for Tsukasa-kun?”
“To read it, obviously. Now come on. It’s time to take a break from tinkering and rest. Everyone needs their beauty sleep to function properly.” He grabbed Rui by the arm and all but dragged him to his couch.
“Wh- Don’t I get a say in this?”
“Absolutely not. Sit.”
“But I’m not don-” Rui cut himself off at the stern look Tsukasa gave him. This was no arguing matter and Tsukasa made sure Rui knew that.
Rui gave up on trying to get back to his project, which he was so close to being done with, and fully sat back on the couch. This seemed to please Tsukasa greatly as he gave him a triumphant smile and proceeded to sit down on his left, opening the book and beginning to read it aloud.
Before Rui could even comprehend it, his eyelids were beginning to droop. Had he really been that tired? He barely felt it just a moment ago. Rui brought a hand to his eyes and tried to rub the tiredness out of them, but that happened to make him even more tired. The more Tsukasa read, the more he couldn’t fight the wave of fatigue off.
Rui knew he wasn’t going to be able to stay awake for much longer, so he made the best of it by cuddling up to Tsukasa’s side. He brought his legs towards him and wrapped his arms around them so he could put his feet on the couch, effectively curling himself up into a ball. He also put his head on Tsukasa’s shoulder to get a view of what exactly he was reading. It was one of the old fantasy books he got when he was a child. It made Rui smile at the memory.
As Rui grew more tired, he leaned nearly all his weight onto Tsukasa. He didn’t seem to mind though, nor did it even deter him from reading. Rui tried one last ditch effort to try and stay awake by reading along with Tsukasa, but that proved to be fruitless as his eyes couldn’t even make out the words on the page. He resigned to just closing his eyes and letting the sound of Tsukasa’s voice lull him to sleep.
Tsukasa could tell Rui had fallen asleep when he fully relaxed against him and his breaths began to even out. Tsukasa smiled and stopped reading for a moment to kiss the top of Rui’s head and brush some of his hair out of his face. He picked the book up from his lap and continued to read it aloud, even though there was no one to hear it.
*^*
Neither of them noticed when the door to Rui’s room opened. Nene had come by to give Rui back one of his screwdrivers he left at her house for Robo-Nene’s routine maintenance. She figured he was still awake, so she decided to head over at that moment so she wouldn’t forget about it the following morning.