Work Text:
It was comedic how little protection Shu had for his phone.
He would always leave it out on the table, paying no mind to it while he worked on his sewing projects in Craftmonster meetings. Craftmonster itself was a problem for Shu, mind you, as he disliked the idea of destructing any sort of work that was made, but the craftmonster sessions gave him and excuse to focus on the actual important sewing projects he was required to do after producing any necessary bits to be destroyed and gave him access to as much sewing equipment as he needed - so he bared with attending. Rinne enjoyed playing little games of moving Shu’s phone around the room, just to see Shu’s confused reactions after he finally snapped out of his concentrated streak to wonder why it’s no longer near him. Every single time Rinne would laugh and mess around with him before eventually revealing its new place in the room, much to Shu’s disdain.
However, he never stopped leaving it unattended. It seemed as if Shu had no real care for his phone or its contents. Perhaps he really just didn’t have anything worth noting on his phone, but Rinne still liked to mess with it anyway.
It was in one meeting where Rinne was particularly bored where he started messing around with it further. He had eaten all the designated snacks and all the other Craftmonster members were either preoccupied or absent, so Rinne soon found himself fiddling around with Shu's phone that was placed upon the table. Rinne had never really focused on the actual contents of the phone itself, as he only ever enjoyed the running gag of hiding it around the place, but this time he clicked the on button to attempt to get further insight into Shu’s digital life. He was disappointed to see that the wallpaper was the default one that came with it. He would have assumed that Shu would have wanted to customise it, perfectly crafting his device in the same way everything in his life was, but the practically factory mode phone stared back at him instead.
Rinne decided that he wished to change that. Giving a quick glance over to Shu, checking that the man was still enamoured by his work, he snapped a quick selfie on camera mode. Shu’s phone had no password, which was unsurprising to Rinne at this point, so Rinne headed straight to settings and applied his selfie as the new phone wallpaper. Now upon opening the phone, he was greeted with a photo of himself rather than the boring default one. Rinne gave a pleased grin to himself and then chose to partake in his average activity of hiding the phone - God forbid he lose his streak.
It took a while after that for Shu to come back to reality, pulling his head up from the lace he was applying to his new design and blinking.
“Mornin’, Princess” Rinne greeted, grinning. Shu glanced over at him with a look of disgust before stretching out his cramped limbs.
“I’d prefer for you to not refer to me with that name” Shu finally replied, before scanning the table for his missing phone. After realising it’s was missing once again, he sighed in exasperation.
“How long will you keep up this foolish charade of moving my belongings” he asked.
Rinne cackled and leaned back in his chair, arms above his head.
“Not sure what ya talking about!” The redhead responded, tone feigning innocence. Shu rolled his eyes and stood up, using his hands to brush off any loose threads from his black trousers. Rinne stood up with him.
“Have a lil look. Surely won’t take tooooo much of your precious time” Rinne claimed.
“I will not play along with your immature games, Amagi. Hand me my phone this instant” the pink haired man demanded. Rinne made a clicking noise with his mouth and shook his head.
“No can do. You gotta work for ya prize!” He declared, his grin unwavering. Shu was now looking very visibly irritated, staring Rinne down with an icy glare.
After a few moments of both of them holding eye contact, Shu eventually gave in and started walking around the room. He settled his eyes on all table tops and counters, searching for his missing device. Once this provided fruitless he huffed and took his position next to Rinne again
“I do not have all day, Amagi. Return what is mine back to me” Shu snapped.
That’s exactly what Rinne wanted to see. Some visible anger.
“No worries, doll. I gotcha” Rinne replied, moving to the drawer he had shoved the phone in to return it back to Shu. Shu grabbed it out of his hands and huffed again.
“What about ya manners? No thank you?” Rinne noted, mouth downturned in a fake pout. Shu looked absolutely appalled.
“Why would I thank you for returning something that you had hidden from me?” Shu shot back. It was only then where he turned on his phone to be greeted with his new lockscreen, causing him to immediately frown harder.
“What is this? Remove it this instant” Shu declared, holding his phone between his thumb and forefinger like Rinne himself was about to jump through his phone screen. Rinne laughed.
“It’s like a lil’ memento of me! A reminder of what a lovely person I am in ya life” Rinne teased.
If looks could kill, Rinne would probably be 6 feet under by the strength of the look of absolute resentment Shu was giving him at that moment.
“I don’t have time to deal with this issue at this moment, but I shall make sure to use my phone as little as possible today - forbid I am required to look at your face for longer than is necessary” Shu insisted. Rinne shrugged and waved as the pink haired man briskly walked past him and out of the club room.
God, thought Rinne.
Shu was so fun to tease.
—-
The next meeting, Rinne was set on changing the wallpaper yet again.
To his glee, the same selfie from last time was still set as the background. Either Shu really was unaware how to set a lockscreen, or he didn’t really care as much as he was letting on.
Rinne liked to assume it was the latter, especially since Shu’s own unit partner was certainly more than versed in how to use a phone. If Shu was really that bothered, he could have easily asked the boy to change the lockscreen back for him.
Shu, predictably, left his phone exactly where he always placed it. Rinne didn’t even check if Shu was concentrated on his work before grabbing the device and snapping more selfies on it. He took a few, but eventually settled on one where he was winking at the screen, tongue poking over his lips. It was the typical sort of image that Shu would absolutely hate, which is why Rinne took so much pride in it.
It took barely a moment till the new lockscreen was in place. Rinne decided to keep his hiding place simpler by just placing the phone on the empty seat next to him. It saved him the effort of standing up and would still suitably annoy the other man.
Yet again, at the discovery of the missing phone, Shu gave a harsh sigh and placed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.
“Amagi. I will never understand your glee when it comes to being immature” Shu insisted. Nevertheless, he stood up and began to search for his phone. Rinne gave a pleased grin at this, noticing how he did not even have to ask the man to do so on this occasion.
After around a minute of searching, Shu had given up and was obviously frustrated again. Rinne chose to produce the phone out from the seat beside him, placing it in Shu’s hand with a little overexaggerated bow. Shu snatched it up once again while muttering complaints, unable to be heard by Rinne but likely scathing comments on his juvenile behaviour.
“Gave ya a little present along with the phone. Give it a lil’ look” Rinne stated. Shu wasted no time turning on his phone screen, sighing deeply at the sight.
“That is the most abhorred photograph I have been given the displeasure of setting my eyes on. I truly hope you do not consider this attractive, Amagi” Shu remarked, giving an unimpressed glance at the redhead in front of him. Rinne shrugged, grin still plastered onto his face. With no response given, Shu just huffed and placed his phone into his pocket in indignation.
Shu chose to leave the room at that moment, not even bidding Rinne goodbye. Rinne couldn't find it in himself to mind, though, as Shu’s reactions in themself was a present he could deliberate on for hours.
——
The pattern repeated again for the next few sessions. The phone wallpaper would be untouched from previously, and Rinne would bring it upon himself to replace it with an updated selfie of himself. He had cycled through various poses, ranging from his attempts at actually looking attractive to blurry shots of him in the middle of moving the camera.
Shu had started to become less and less disgusted each time he was greeted with a new image, instead choosing to critique its composition and angles. The way a small smile sometimes wormed its way onto Shu’s face after a particularly badly taken photo was on his screen was not missed by Rinne, who basked in the fact that he had the ability to produce these smiles out of the other.
It had become rather strange to him that after a while he stopped changing lock screens and moving the phone around with the intent to annoy Shu, but rather to play around with him and give the usually concentrated man something to look forward to at the end of each session.
This time Rinne decided to take it a step further and found himself tapping onto the ‘contacts’ option. Rinne quickly added a new contact to Shu’s phone, this being his number, and brought out his own phone to quickly add Shu’s number onto his. He figured it was alright to do so, at this point.
Rinne had recently concluded to himself that he did infact want to actively talk to the pink haired man, and while Shu would refuse to admit it outright, Rinne's escapades had turned the pair somewhat into friends.
That evening, Rinne chose to text Shu, deciding it would be a great occasion to let the other know he actually had his number. Shu had surprisingly responded rather fast for a man who never properly used his phone, and didn't seem all too startled that Rinne had forcibly added himself into his contacts. The two settled on an easy conversation instead, which then became more drawn out as they continued messaging later into the night. They both seemed to have a penchant for staying up late, to Rinne’s delight, meaning the two of them could converse until the early hours of the morning.
This yet again became another routine between the two of them. Rinne would message Shu as he was bored at night, and Shu would respond in habit to his whining - allowing them to talk until they eventually slept.
Rinne did not consider this arrangement of theirs anything out of an ordinary friendship practice, however, until he eventually spoke to the timid unit partner of Shu’s.
Mika had been loitering around the ES building, acting very out of place with his surroundings. Rinne observed the anxious boy, choosing to eventually address him so that he didn't get even more concerned by the way the redhead was staring at him.
“Hey hey! Miitan! Whatcha doin’ standin’ around here like this?” Rinne remarked, raising his hand greeting. Mika startled and looked up at Rinne, attempting to straighten out.
“Nnah.. I can move if yer want” Mika replied, already moving away and glancing around as if attempting his escape.
“Hey! Not sayin’ ya should leave! Was just wonderin’ what ya were up to” Rinne assured. He wasn’t used to toning down his boisterous personality, but he figured he should not scare Mika off right away.
“I was jus’ waitin’ fer Oshi-san.. I told ‘im I’d meet him here. He’s been at a meetin’ since mornin’” Mika explained. He was still unable to make eye contact with Rinne, but no longer looked as if he was in the process of darting away , which was an improvement.
“Ya seein’ Shu-kun? Makes sense that he’s in a meetin’ though, he didn’t reply to my text today” Rinne pondered. Mika nodded.
“Oshi-san is bad with texts ‘n stuff. You gotta just find ‘im” The timid boy mentioned, making a small shrug-like movement that looked more like a nervous tic than anything else.
Rinne furrowed his brow. That sounded nothing like the usual fast replying Shu he knew.
“Ya sure? We text every day” Rinne replied, tilting his head to the side slightly.
Mika finally looked up at Rinne, expression confused.
“Yer sure…? I’ve never known Oshi-san to reply to someone. Even with work stuff he prefers me to do it fer ‘im” Mika responded. Mika then started to look panicked, as if deliberating something in his head.
“Don't trouble ya head about it, Miitan. Now that I think about it, I pester Shu more than he even replies to me, I probably just don't notice with how much I message him” Rinne attempted to reassure, grinning at the other. Mika just accepted this with a nod. The conversation lulled into an awkward silence, and as much as Rinne wanted to wait with Mika to see Shu, he did not want to place himself in a situation with strange tension longer than he had to. He bid Mika goodbye and went on his way.
One thing played in his mind, however. Rinne was lying when he was saying that he pestered to the point where he didnt notice replies. Shu made sure to always reply to whatever Rinne said, no matter how late at night. Rinne didn't want to make any bold assumptions, but if Rinne was really the only person that Shu replied to…
Could it be .. ?
Rinne bit his lip as he slipped into his thoughts. It wasn't often he dwelled on things, but this information with Mika had given him more to think about than he thought.
Despite everything, Rinne couldn't help the smile that reached his face.
—-
Rinne never brought up his conversation with Mika to Shu. He saw no reason to do so, and it was likely that Shu would just become agitated by knowing they spoke about him behind his back. Instead, he kept up the same charade as always - swapping lock screens, moving Shu’s phone, texting him till he fell asleep.
Shu had become less prickly to Rinne in person too at that point. Sure, he still constantly berated Rinne and got irritated at every little loud thing he did, but it would be weird for him not to.
Shu did, though, speak to him properly during craftmonster sessions. He would openly let out his frustrations when a project was going wrong, and always insisted that he ‘didn’t need meaningless words’ from Rinne everytime he complimented the sewing work Shu was doing - but it was clear from the way that the tips of his ears went pink that Shu appreciated the sentiment anyway.
A new thing in general that Rinne learnt was that Shu was so easy to fluster. The man would splutter at any small positive affirmation directed at him, choosing to reply with disdain rather than accept any kind words. However, his pale complexion would easily redden, giving away his feelings completely. Rinne tried to not overthink this, but considering Mika’s words and the way Shu never really acted this way with anyone else (that he knew of, that is) he couldn’t help but instinctively draw conclusions.
It was completely possible that Shu liked Rinne.
Rinne was absolutely not unhappy about that if it was the outcome. Rinne could open heartedly admit that if Shu ever asked him out, he would agree right away. The boy was just his type : pretty, easy to wind up and strangely caring despite his harsh exterior. He doesn’t even remember when his relationship with Shu went from ‘man to pester’ to ‘man he finds himself genuinely caring for’, but the switch was not an unwelcome one when it came to the fact that Shu seemed to feel the same way to him in that aspect.
Shu had begun to bring some extra snacks to the Craftmonster sessions with him, with the only motivation being to hand them to Rinne after all the snacks provided by the club had been eaten. The first time he did this, Rinne was so surprised that he just stared at Shu. Shu just muttered something unintelligible and turned away from the redhead, and Rinne immediately began to laugh.
“You’d be a great wife, ya know that Princess?” Rinne had remarked, helping himself to the new food he was given. Shu didn’t even bring himself to respond, but made sure to continuously bring food after that.
Some sessions, Shu had a short deadline for the project he was working on, meaning he was fully concentrated and blocking out all outside noise. This was alright for Rinne as he enjoyed just watching the focused man, seeing how the sewing needle from the machine darted over the fabric and how Shu’s expert hands angled the materials just where they needed to be.
In this particularly occasion, after watching for a little while, Rinne got back into his habit of fiddling with Shu’s phone. The current lockscreen was him placing his thumbs in the stereotypical cutesy idol heart, doing a silly pout as he winked at the screen. Rinne chuckled to himself, and then began to wonder if Shu ever deleted the pictures he took. Hell, it had been a while since he had started taking pictures and he had forgotten all the poses he had done over the course of the time. He quickly opened Shu’s gallery to refresh his memory, not really worried about stumbling on something unsightly as he knew full well he was the only one that used the camera function on Shu’s phone.
What he wasn’t expecting to see, was a single created album titled ‘Rinne’.
The sight of his first name was a shock enough to the redhead, but as he clicked on it and scrolled, he realised it was an album of every picture he had ever taken - all the way up to the first one.
Meaning Shu actively stored the pictures he took in a folder.
Did he ever look at them?
It’s not as if Shu had too much in his camera roll in the first place, as all it had was some moodboards and outfit inspirations saved sporadically throughout, so it’s not like Shu would lose Rinne’s photos in his camera roll. He decided to actively make a folder just to see them all out of his own whims, and Rinne couldn’t help but smile to himself, looking up to make sure Shu was still enamoured with his work.
This time, instead of focusing the camera solely on him, Rinne swivelled around so that the shot had Shu in frame too. Rinne recreated the idol heart with his fingers again, positioning his hand next to where Shu lay in the camera’s line of sight, before pouting his lips in a kiss again and taking the photo. It was hard to miss what the photo was implying, as silly as it may be, and Rinne was satisfied with setting it as the new lockscreen.
Rinne just waited impatiently for Shu to eventually snap out of his work-related trance, fidgeting with the phone and other objects around his line of sight until he did. If it was perhaps anyone else, Rinne may have jumped up behind them to scare them and to get them to concentrate on him, but Rinne couldn’t find it in himself to upset Shu or distract him.
He would just be patient.
It made him wonder what Shu had done to Rinne to make him act so unlike himself around him.
Eventually Shu yawned, quickly covering his mouth and glancing around the room. His body seemed to signal to him to stop working on his project, so the pink haired man stretched lightly and immediately fixed his sights on Rinne. Rinne waved.
“Ya got a lot done today! Good on ya!” Rinne praised, gesturing at the fabric splayed out on the table. Shu looked down and nodded, pleased.
“I’m eager to get all my works done in these meetings. It would be preferable to not have to do the whole destruction aspect and create a separate piece for that every time, but it allows me to have the space to create whatever I wish” Shu remarked, glancing up at Rinne. Rinne just gave a nod back and leaned his face in the palms of hands, elbows propped up on the table. He glanced over at Shu while in this position, a soft smile on his face, and Shu visibly reddened yet again and turned away. Shu focused instead on packing away his fabrics, taking immense care to not crease the materials more than necessary.
“Ya need any help there?” Rinne offered. Shu shook his head no. Rinne still decided to get up and sidle up next to Shu anyway, grabbing the different laces that had been spread around as carefully as he possibly could as he returned them to Shu.
As they were doing this, Rinne looked down at Shu’s hands everytime he handed something to him. His fingers were slender, nails perfectly manicured with no damages to the skin around it. His hands were so pretty in a way Rinne knew he could never accomplish. Rinne’s hands were broad and coarse, and with his skin broken and scratched all across his fingers and palms. Without even thinking, Rinne grabbed one of Shu’s hands in his to look at it closer, causing Shu to freeze up instinctively.
“Ya hands are so nice. Soft ‘n shit” Rinne blurted out. Shu was so stunned that he couldn’t even bite out his usual ‘language’ comment, standing completely rigid as Rinne inspected his hand. It took Shu a few moments before he eventually pulled his arm away, huffing in faux disgust.
“Moisturiser and a proper routine” was Shu’s curt response. It was clear the Victorian dressed man was bashful over the compliment, but he attempted to make it as non evident as possible. He suddenly scanned his surroundings, making eye contact with Rinne again.
“May I also have my phone back, Amagi?” Shu demanded, crossing his arms. Rinne clicked his tongue and removed the phone from his trouser pockets (which was today's hidding place), dropping the phone into Shu’s hand. Shu swivelled the phone to face him, being greeted with the newest wallpaper. He stood wordlessly, face tinted with yet another shade of pink and he nodded and pocketed the device.
“I have a meeting I must attend, have a good day Amagi” Shu suddenly declared, clearing his throat. Rinne grinned at him the entirety of his way out of the room, blowing a little kiss at the man - who refused to turn back even once.
—
At this point, Shu had become the funnest part of Rinne’s day. The only reason he actually dragged himself to official Cospro meetings was because he knew Shu would be there, as the leader of Valkyrie.
Rinne always struggled to sit still in said meetings, fidgeting around and messing around with scraps of paper that had been left on the table. At one point, Shu made a point of bringing in one of his kneadable artist erasers in and ‘accidently’ leaving it with Rinne so that he would have something to play around with in his hands. Rinne appreciated this gesture greatly, even giving Shu a genuine smile at the action.
Today was yet another day Rinne was forced along to a unit leader meeting. He wasn’t focusing much on the actual content of the meeting itself, instead choosing to stare into space and press his thumb as deep as possible into the kneadable eraser.
Shu always gave him recaps afterwards anyway. Rinne’s presence was more of an act of decency rather than a requirement.
The meeting ended disruption free (much to Rinne’s dismay, he loved it when all the idols began arguing) and soon enough everyone began to make their way out of the room. Rinne waited up for Shu, who was in the process of sorting out some papers he had on his desk. Rinne could spot various different outfit sketches on each sheet and he looked across them all in interest. Nobody could deny that Shu had an extreme eye for design.
“Amagi, may you pass those pieces over?” Shu requested, gesturing to the particular papers Rinne was staring at. Rinne nodded and did so, earning a little hum from Shu in thanks.
The two of them didn’t even need to speak much anymore. Rinne had never had a friendship in his life where he could comfortably enjoy silence without wanting to butt in and say something, but Shu brought out a different side to him that he wasn’t even aware he had. Rinne noticed that Shu had yet again left his phone on the table, almost forgetting it alltogether as the man moved to leave the room.
“Ya phone is still there” Rinne pointed out. Shu stared down at the device and quickly scooped it up.
“Keeping it on me constantly is such a bother. If it wasn’t for hold-hands, I would’ve decided to never carry it on me in the first place” Shu sighed.
“How else would ya message me then, Shu-kun! Cmon, that’s atleast one reason you should keep ya phone” Rinne declared. Shu gave an amused smile.
“I’m sure you would have still found a way to keep in contact with me, even despite me not having a number to be contacted on” Shu remarked. Rinne could only laugh in reply, knowing Shu was probably right.
Rinne suddenly had a thought. With all the photos Rinne liked taking on Shu’s phone, they didn’t ever really have any photos together. The one Rinne took last time didn’t count, as Shu was unaware and blurry in the photo.
“Wait, can ya hand me ya phone?” Rinne requested. Shu obliged, shooting Rinne a confused look.
Rinne angled the phone camera to face both him and Shu, swapping it into selfie mode. He gestured for Shu to pose, and after a few moments of spluttering Shu laid down the papers in his arms and turned to face the camera. Rinne shot the camera a peace sign and begrudgingly Shu tried to reciprocate with his own - giving an awkward smile in attempts to match Rinne’s blinding grin.
Rinne quickly snapped some pictures, forcing Shu to change around a few poses to match with him. Shu was trying his best to seem uninterested but begrudgingly played along with every pose, grumbling slightly at the stupider ones. It was probably a once in a lifetime experience to get Shu to do something like partaking in posting for selfies, and Rinne cherished the moment. After they were done, he handed Shu back his phone happily.
Shu didn’t hang around long after that, taking his stack of papers back into his arms, but he made sure to bid Rinne goodbye - promising he would message him later that night.
—
It took a few more days till Rinne properly saw Shu again. They said seen eachother briefly in different hallways, but Shu always seemed so busy so Rinne chose to not disturb him. So Rinne was pleasantly surprised as Shu entered cafe cinnamon one morning, finally having a bit of free time in his schedule.
“Shu-kun!” Rinne immediately hollered, gesturing to the free space on his table. Shu grimaced at the loud greeting but made his way over to Rinne nonetheless, sitting himself opposite the man on the two person table.
“Honestly, must you always cause such a fuss?” Was Shu’s greeting, shaking off his coat and hanging it onto the back of the chair.
“It’s what I do best!” Rinne cackled, sliding the menu that was on the table over to Shu. Shu thanked him.
“I’ve been abysmally busy. It feels good to be able to sit myself down for a moment” Shu complained, idly viewing the menu. Rinne hummed in agreement at his statement.
“I’ve noticed. Ya always seem to be held up by somebody, Stressful shit” Rinne acknowledged.
The two continued to partake in their conversation, finally placing their orders to Niki - who had come over to give his own greeting to the pair. Just as Shu began to seem relaxed, his phone chirped in his pocket.
“The hold-hands notification noise has become rather grating to the ears” Shu sighed, fishing out his phone.
“Ya can change that y’know. I can help if you’d like?” Rinne offered. Shu nodded and passed over his phone immediately.
As the homescreen blinked on, Rinne noticed that the lockscreen had changed without his interference. This time, one of the photos the two of them had taken together the last time stared back at him. In particular, one that was slightly unplanned, Rinne giving a genuine candid laugh at the camera as Shu was giving a smile of his own. It made Rinne’s heart clench.
“Ya changed the lockscreen?” Rinne tried to subtly mention. Shu began to fluster and Rinne revelled in the reaction, grinning.
“It’s cute! I like this one. Send it to me, yeah?” Rinne requested.
“I shall. I had to get Kagehira to help me, mind you, as I am still unaware with how everything on here works” Shu explained, tapping his fingers onto the table lightly.
The idea that Shu has put as much effort into changing his lockscreen to the two of them to the point that he had to ask Mika for assistance just made Rinne’s heart swell even more, unable to stop the softness from entering his gaze. His eyes glanced over at Shu, to his soft pink hair all the way to his nearly ironed blouse. Shu was pretty by all means, but also a caring figure once he opened up and an important friend that Rinne would refuse to let go of.
Who was he kidding, Rinne definitely had some kinda crush on the guy.
But he already had his suspicions that Shu felt the same way about him, which is why he had no qualms in finally asking his next question.
“Shu-kun, will ya go on a date with me?”
Shu’s head snapped up, eyes wide, before his expression softened and he gave a light laugh.
“I have been waiting for you to ask.”