Work Text:
this cat was huge.
it was huge both vertically and horizontally, reaching past tsukasa’s knee, an abnormal size for a cat! and that wasn’t even the strangest of this entire situation. this huge cat was an unmistakable shade of bright purple, paired along with a few messy clumps of cyan that stuck out on one side, as well as on the top of its head. all topped off with an all too familiar smile that was the kicker : this cat was definitely some form of rui.
it was all too strange!
tsukasa nudges the cat slowly, sticking out his palm to offer the obnoxiously huge cat a whiff. it stalks towards him slowly, but eventually points its nose and takes in his scent.
as if every single box in its head of ‘friendly’ checked out, the cat purrs and rubs its head against tsukasa’s knee, another reminder of how ginormous it truly was. only to find out all that mass was fur! its head sunk into tsukasa’s knee with ease, fur tickling his skin with every rub it made.
this cat was definitely not normal. it even rolls over to reveal its belly, a paler shade of purple compared to the rest of its fur. tsukasa felt drawn to the strange cat, reaching out to rub its belly without much thought..
until..
..it felt cold?
wrong, shouldn’t cats be warm?
puzzled, tsukasa pulls his hand away, thoughts overshadowing the soft mewls from the cat vying for its belly rubs.
he’s cold too, tsukasa realises, the revelation coming from somewhere deep in his sleeping mind, yet it's prominent enough that it races through his mind, drawing attention to itself. reluctantly giving up the sweet purrs of the cat on his knee, he forced himself to wake up before both him at the purple cat froze to death.
his eyes fly open to find no cat, but to see his room enveloped in the dark moonlight. he sits up, to feel the soft material of his mattress tell him it was a dream. he recognises the soft texture of his bedsheets, and the familiar sink of the pillow under his head. there is a slight rustle that he knows is the night breeze from the window as it sways the curtains with its strength.
the mystery still remains : how cold both him and the cat felt. he turns his head sleepily, bits and pieces of his dream still engulfing his rational thoughts like a fog. to find rui curled up, snug and warm, hogging the entire blanket they were supposed to share! specifically, his blanket, from his bedroom!
all before a particular harsh gust of wind shakes the curtains in a wild manner, and attacks the room with nothing but cold air. tsukasa is unable to control the goosebumps that crawl around his skin.
the anger pulling him up from his haze, tsukasa swats rui’s back as well as he could in the dark. if rui hadn’t stolen the entire blanket, maybe he’d have continued his peaceful dream moments ago! to make matters worse, he realises that a chill is starting to cling to his skin, even though he's doing his best to warm himself up by placing his icy hands on his neck. he even feels the tickling of his own hair to his neck, proving how merciless the wind was tonight.
at a loss, his gaze falls onto rui, who's curled up on his side, snuggled up in his blanket as if it was his. he sleeps peacefully, expression calm from the tranquility for sleeping. his partner’s eyes move every few moments, his lashes fluttering as if nothing was wrong. as tsukasa’s eyes trail further down, he notices the rui’s mouth that was hidden from the harsh winds, only his nose and above were out in the open while the rest hides underneath the blanket that is pushed up against his features.
his hand gets a mind of its own, trailing up to rui’s head, his fingers weaving through the purple hair. he smiles to himself imagining the soft purr he would've let out if he was awake.
no, pause! who was he to steal his entire blanket?
back to being angry, tsukasa yanks the blanket hard, at long last feeling the softness of the covers warm up his cold skin. mission successful!
but it doesn’t go unnoticed. a low hum pulls his attention to the side, where rui is still bundled up, asleep and warm. tsukasa can't do much except become entranced in the way rui’s lashes flit, as his chest rises and falls, as he murmurs deep in his throat, as his mouth is parted just slightly.
he had always been enticing, even when he was asleep.
“secret passage..”
stunned silence.
what a way to kill the mood.
“..a delinquent even in his sleep,” tsukasa mutters softly with a deadpan expression on his face. his eyes finally flutter open, looking around the room, confused between sleep and dream from moments before. tsukasa holds his breath, hoping that if he doesn't move, rui will close his eyes and not notice he’s been staring. it doesn't work though, with rui facing him with a dazed smile.
“kasa-kun,” he trails off happily. tsukasa can tell the exact millisecond rui zones in on him. the pupils in his half-lidded eyes dilate, and he wears a sort of look so fond he could turn into goo. dazed but beaming, rui croons something close to being incomprehensible.
“why are you awake?” he slurs, grabbing tsukasa by his torso without giving him a chance to answer. “not in my arms..” the sadness that drips from rui both warms and shatters tsukasa’s heart. as childish as it sounded, he couldn’t even get angry the fact that rui was the one who stole his blanket in the first place. “..cold,” rui mumbles, using the heat of his palms to warm up tsukasa’s colder forearms.
tsukasa shakes his head while giggling, winding his arms around his lover. “i love you,” he whispers as he combs his fingers through the other’s hair. “it’s okay, go back to sleep.” reassured, rui settles down almost immediately, tucking his head under tsukasa’s jaw and letting out a low vibration from his throat. a strange sound coming from him, yet tsukasa welcomes it. anything from rui was precious to him.
when tsukasa’s hand pulls away, he already knows that rui will stop mid purr, sound turning into a choked whine that would make him return to stroking his head almost immediately after. just like the same, purple cat in his dream. it was the beauty of their usual sleepovers together, where rui is able to let down his guard fully. the beauty that is rui himself, in all his softness he is alright with showing tsukasa, his partner.
“sleep, now,” rui manages to mash the words together poorly. tsukasa has the ability to understand him either way, he’s always had. “i’ll make tsukasa-kun warm..” he holds the star closer to him. his arm then snakes down between tsukasa’s back and the blanket, until it’s resting against his waist snugly.
“i love you too,” rui’s voice is down to a rasp, but it held the same devotion it always had to tsukasa. tearing his eyes away from his resting lover, tsukasa knows he can't fight against his words for much longer. his eyes reluctantly close too, with his last thought marvelling at how rui warmed him up both inside and out.