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“alright then, that concludes our show ideas for the night! we did wonderful,” rui beams, closing his sketchbook. emu’s eyes sparkle with excitement at the idea of performing such a show. “emu, don’t get too much ideas, you won’t be able to sleep tonight,” nene sighs. “it’s getting late, what are the sleeping plans?” rui flashes a rather suspicious smile.
“ah, i’ve prepared a guest room for you and emu to share, whatever you’ll need for sleeping are in the cupboards,” rui replies curtly. tsukasa silently marvels at how he has everything planned. “and tsukasa-kun, you will be sleeping in here with me.” emu’s mind is in another dimension, pink eyes star-struck in the idea of performing a smile-bringing show to all. nene looks up at rui skeptically.
“rui, is this another one of your sch—“
“ah, it’s time to sleep, nene.”
tsukasa’s mind starts to race like a tiny hamster on a wheel.
sleeping? with rui? in the same room? he doesn’t even notice the red taking over his face as he also, spaces out into his own universe.
—
when rui said “sleeping in here with me”, tsukasa didn’t expect to be sleeping on the floor.
“stop exaggerating, there’s a mattress, a pillow and blankets! i’ve been such a good host for my wonderful troupe leader,” rui exclaims dramatically, placing great emphasis on the words ‘good host’. tsukasa was nothing but angry, and was that a frown of disappointment, even?
finally, he accepts the truth. “whatever, it’s cold,” tsukasa grumbles, walking over to sit on the mattress. the mattress looked.. less than inviting. rui hums in response, walks over to his cabinet, and waves a purple sweatshirt embroidered with stars for tsukasa to see. “will a sweatshirt from a lowly director suffice, tsukasa-kun?”
tsukasa’s eyes narrow in reply. rui takes it as a yes, and brings it to him dutifully. still feeling cheated, tsukasa begrudgingly puts the sweatshirt over his head, and gets angrier when he realises it’s a size too big. “rui! why is this so big, i’m not that much shorter!” he hisses, the seven centimetre difference always being a sore spot for him. rui brings up a fist to his mouth and tries his hardest to stifle a laugh. “tsukasa-kun, i’d say you look, ahem, wonderful in my clothes!”
tsukasa sulks. this doesn’t quell tsukasa’s anger at all! before he knows it, rui yawns, and turns off the lights. they’re both in their beds, if you could call that old air mattress a bed. sighing as loudly as he could so that rui could hear, tsukasa then closes his eyes, accepting his fate.
——
tsukasa shifts uncomfortably. how long had it been? it felt like hours to him. he looks around rui’s room, unable to sleep. nene and emu have gone to sleep in a guest room, with a bed, emphasis on a bed, while tsukasa is stuck on a thin air mattress and a blanket. this blanket didn’t even do its job well at protecting tsukasa from rui’s blasting air conditioner! tsukasa wiggled his fingers to make sure they were still intact from how numb they were. he’s tried everything, from adopting a curled up position to even covering his entire body with the blanket. however, all methods proved to be futile. tsukasa also didn’t get why rui didn’t have good blankets. everyone needed good blankets. he thinks the only reason he’s not freezing to death was because he had rui’s clothes on, and raises his arm dramatically onto his head.
oh,
it smelled like rui.
tsukasa practically jumps out of his air mattress in shock and utter embarrassment. right, he was wearing his clothes, and the realisation sunk in. rui even said he looked good in his clothes, which didn’t help how much his face burned. tsukasa takes a deep breath and tries to fan away whatever red was on his face. he’s a calm and collected troupe leader, there’s nothing wrong with wearing his director’s clothes!
but he was still so cold..
tsukasa sits up, still wide awake, and sneaks a glance at rui.
wow.
he looked so.. peaceful, perhaps ethereal too. so delicate, tsukasa fought the urge to run his fingers through his purple hair. he wonders if rui would wake up if he tried. even in his sleep, his hair framed his face nicely, and he looked content, and warm, it made tsukasa want to hold his head softly and..
punch him in the mouth.
how dare he look so happily warm while tsukasa, the world’s future star, had to sleep on the cold, hard floor? it was simply rude! tsukasa shakes his hand again to make sure his fragile fingers didn’t snap off from the cold while he was distracted. not that he could even feel them, both his hands and feet have gone numb from the cold. he was so cold, he was bound to get frostbite from the cold!
well.. rui wouldn’t notice if tsukasa snuck in, right? not for long either! he just wanted to warm himself up, then go right back to his mattress like nothing happened. he would’ve done the same with any other troupe member, he reckons. he doubts his reckoning. yea no, just rui. “ugh.. what am i even thinking..” tsukasa mutters to himself, staring back at his blanket. “a star shouldn’t think of such things about his director!” he looks back up to face a sleeping rui. this was so silly, rui was sleeping anyway! he couldn’t even hear or feel tsukasa even if he got under his blanket! finally, tsukasa succumbs to his mind. ( and the cold )
he slowly crawls in.
it’s so warm! tsukasa feels a burst of happiness from the pure warmth under rui’s blanket. he shuts his eyes peacefully and relaxes into the moment, even nuzzling into something just as warm..
“tsukasa-kun, you’re so cold..”
tsukasa almost pisses himself.
his eyes flutter open to greet rui’s neck. shit, did he just nuzzle himself into rui’s neck? he almost rolls off of rui’s bed for quick escape, but only to be caught by rui himself.
“stay put please,” he whispers. this was the most delicate tsukasa’s ever heard of rui’s voice.
tsukasa almost pisses himself a second time. he wants to scream for saki to perhaps hear and collect him back to the tenma residence, where he would be sleeping with warm, emphasis on warm, blankets and not snuggle with his best friend for warmth! he wasn’t a penguin! maybe, just maybe, if rui had turned down his stupid air conditioner, he wouldn’t even be in this predicament!
but.. he secretly didn’t hate the idea of sleeping with rui..
admitting defeat, he silently shifts back into rui’s bed, careful not to get too close, or to face him, but only because rui asked so nicely. he’s only here for warmth after all! and no way in hell could he let rui see the state he was in right now. his face was radiating so much heat, he swore he could become a heater for himself. rui, still as sleepy as ever, didn’t like the idea of tsukasa being so far away, so with his hands still on tsukasa, he pulls him closer.
tsukasa almost pisses himself a third time! he’s now forced to face rui, and he immediately ducks his face low in hopes of rui not seeing anything. sleepy rui takes advantage of this and hugs the boy, bringing him closer to him. tsukasa, blushing furiously, is now pressed against rui’s neck again, this time not accidentally. how many shocks did his poor heart have to go through in one night? tsukasa fumbles with his now warmer hands awkwardly, unsure of where to place them. he shakily brings one out of the blanket to wrap around rui too, but only because rui has his hands on him, no other agenda. rui doesn’t flinch, he doesn’t even move! tsukasa swears he was asleep the whole time, even. tsukasa opens his mouth to protest, but stops when he sees rui smile in his sleep. he looked so content.
forget it, he’ll give rui a piece of his mind tomorrow.
——
nene pulls open the door softly, she found it strange that tsukasa hadn’t woken up to cause a racket yet, much like he would during their other sleepovers. emu isn’t too far behind, prancing about behind her. nene shudders a little. it was.. unusually cold in rui’s room, as if he had turned up the air conditioning unnecessarily.
there they are, fast asleep on rui’s bed, so pressed together, she couldn’t tell which limb was whose. rui’s arms wrap around tsukasa’s waist, and tsukasa’s face is pressed against his chest in turn. tsukasa’s holding rui with one hand as close as humanly possible, like he was trying to protect him from an unknown threat. last time she checked, the only threat in rui’s home were the robot parts he left about on the ground for unsuspecting guests to step on. she even met one this morning, but was smart enough to avoid it from experience. emu unfortunately, wasn’t so lucky. she winces at the image of emu getting hurt, but shifts her mind back to the scene in front of her. the air mattress had been completely abandoned, blanket scrunched up on the ground to cover nothing but the hardwood floor. emu’s eyes finally reach the scene before nene, but she’s not as quiet.
“wAAAAAH? TSUKASA-KUN!!!”
tsukasa’s the first to get up, confused as to why emu was yelling at him so suddenly, and the realisation hits. red flooding his face once again, tsukasa tries to squirm out of rui’s embrace to explain himself, but fails miserably. he makes another mistake by sitting up, revealing the shirt we was wearing. nene’s eyes fly open.
“isn’t that rui’s? you didn’t—“
tsukasa doesn’t respond, turning away in bruised pride. his lips part to protest, but nene’s completely, utterly wrong, she just came in at the wrong time! he didn’t mean for her to see him in his best friend’s clothes, or in the same bed as him! this is all a big, huge, misunderstanding, and if he could just explain himself if rui could let go of him—
emu’s arms flail around wildly. “tsukasa-kun!! does this mean you two are-“ she makes a kissing motion with her hands, careful not wake rui up. tsukasa erupts into a darker shade of red. “emu, stop! i was just cold, and he trapped me here, and nothing happened!” he protests, using the blanket to cover the purple sweatshirt. nene rolls her eyes.
“i don’t know tsukasa, rui’s never let us wear any of his clothes before,” nene scoffs, jabbing at his sad excuse of an explanation. tsukasa’s embarrassment fades into indigence. “well— it’s just a one time thing!” he whisper-yells, folding his arms. rui, still sleeping through all the commotion, is forced to shift at his big action, and still in his stupor, hugs tsukasa closer in response. emu giggles loudly at the sight, finally waking rui up from his slumber.
“good morning, tsukasa-kun,” he mumbles sleepily, removing a hand to rub his golden eyes. tsukasa is thoroughly angry and embarrassed. “rui! explain yourself!“ rui chuckles one of his evilier chuckles. “oh? weren’t you the one who crawled into my bed?”
absolutely brain-fried, tsukasa buries his face into the blanket, unmoving. nene gives rui the same skeptical look from the might before. she finally brings her eyes back to the blanket, and realises it was one of his thinner blankets that he used for the summertime draped on the floor. she puts two and two together, and her eyes narrow in suspicion. “rui.. you didn’t turn the air conditioning up for this to work, did you?” rui puts a finger to his lips as a warning. “oh nene, how could you suspect such a thing from me? how cold, oh woe is me..” he proclaims at such an accusation, smiling madly the whole time. nene grumbles, grabs emu by the stomach, and shuts the door behind her.
rui chuckles to himself softly. he did plan this out, but he hadn’t even expected this to work! it would be mean to frame him as the bad guy here! turning back to face tsukasa, who was embarrassed beyond words, he rests his head on tsukasa’s, using his vacant arm to pat his back for more amusement. might as well milk the situation for all its worth.
“so tsukasa-kun, want to explain yourself?”