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Akira's hair was not cooperative with the beach in any sense. Any time he dared to tug it back into place, the breeze whipped his bangs behind him again, forcing them into a windswept mess. With so much sand on his hands he risked worse by touching it so often, so windswept it would remain.
A snicker, and then, "You look all fuzzed up! I can't believe I thought you were scary such a short time ago." Futaba brought her hands together to fidget with her nails.
Akira glanced down at his newest teammate. They stood with their ankles in the foam, gazing out into the not-so-distant waves where Makoto and Ann tested out the water's temperature. It was still early in the day, the sun in the east casting their shadows behind them in the damp sand.
He pushed up his glasses. "I'd rather not have to deal with it on a day like this. Out with everyone." Out with someone.
She smirked. "Huh, what, you trying to look good for someone?"
No, he wanted to deny it, but somehow his voice refused to come out. Her reading was impeccable, though he was sure his generalization was believable-- something along the lines of "My looks aren't always for the sake of romance, you know" showed up like an option in his mind to say, but before he could make a decision, two sets of footsteps hitting the sand made them turn their heads.
Alright, the other boys were back from their ice cream run so-
-Uh...
"Man, it sucks that they only had vanilla left, I'm totally a chocolate guy." Ryuji frowned at the white cream, glistening in the heat, dripping in trails around his hands, chin, cheeks and somehow onto his chest. He held up the melting bar in an attempt to escape it, face in a pout. The sun was merciless; it pulled sweat onto his skin like he'd run a marathon, and it was making him red too, flush against the blue sky. He lifted his fingers to his lips and tried to frantically save the drops that had fallen by licking them off of his hands.
Good lord.
"Here's yours." Yusuke, having arrived with Ryuji, handed Akira the chocolate ice cream bar he had asked for. It wasn't in incredible shape either, but seemed for the most part intact, and-
Wait, chocolate? So... the last one. Ryuji gave him a somewhat shy look, which entailed flashing him a bit of a smile.
Maybe Akira was going to melt too.
Another carbon-copy mischievous snicker chirped out from next to him.
Annnd, the one person who he was hoping would hold off on figuring out due to being new and unknowing had now caught on within... five whole days of hanging out with them.
Great.
As if he was bad at hiding his crush- he knew he wasn't- it was just always some unlucky series of events that occurred to mess with him. A notification on his phone teasing him about it on the screen right in front of another friend here, a "questionairre" (interrogation) about his type there. It was a miracle all but Ryuji had caught him dead in his tracks about it, but he guessed that was all just part of his endearing character around Akira: loyal and rarely skeptical, yet often curious to a fault.
"Hey, bozo," Futaba elbowed him with a grin. "The girls are coming in." Stop staring remained unsaid, and in his heart he thanked her for keeping that purely mental.
"I've something to do," Yusuke spoke up once they were all gathered together on the shore. "My eyes caught something while Ryuji and I were at the shops that was simply unmissable! I must go back."
Ann grabbed Futaba's wrist gently. "Great! Makoto and I are just gonna steal Futaba for a banana boat. Come on!"
"Whaaa-!" She squeaked and a look of shock plastered itself on her face, but it was curious rather than scared.
Soon she was whisked away, and Yusuke disappeared within seconds. Morgana still sat back guarding their stuff at camp, so that left...
Ryuji eyed him and suddenly broke out into a grin. "Alriiiiight, bro time!" He slung an arm over Akira's bare shoulders and finished off his ice cream bar with the other hand, leaving the stick in his mouth.
Akira couldn't help but smile. Not that he didn't love spending time with his other friends, but sometimes even one more was a bit much. He'd always have to stand by, help, and even mediate, but with Ryuji he could be silly, stupid, free-- it plunged all worries from his mind. It was no wonder he loved him, really.
"Hey, Akira, I've gotta say. I was gonna complain about it to the group but they ran off and man, I think you're the only one who'll get it anyway." There was strained thought behind Ryuji's words, like they were planned.
He quirked up an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
Ryuji turned Akira toward the crowds on the beach and continued, extending his free arm out to the people. "We're Phantom Thieves, ain't we? Where's our attention? There are ladies drooling all over us on the Phan-site, we're totally famous! Shouldn't we put some of that Phantom charm and heroism to use?"
Akira stopped himself from frowning. "Really?"
"Comeaaawwnn, we deserve it don't we? Shouldn't we live the life of popular men with chicks surrounding us?!"
The way he asked it was both strained yet overexcited, but Akira didn't question how a suggestion attempted to be boisterous came out so cracked-- perhaps it was nervousness, from doing something so bold. Instead he wondered, Is this really what you want? Because it wasn't what Akira wanted, what Akira wanted was Ryuji, and the truth behind the fact that he couldn't excite him like the curvy tourists and city locals, merely eye candy masterpieces on approach, made his heart plummet; it was honestly pathetic.
Something fueled by the frustration of it made a switch in him flick. It was common for anyone to get that random boost of confidence at times, where it seemed the impossible could become the possible through arrogance and blind trust in oneself's charm; Akira was no different, simply a skilled bisexual among men.
Today I'm going to change that.
"Sure," he said nonchalantly, beautifully masking the mischief in his voice. It was a sudden crank of a knob from careful to dangerous, and it felt great.
He felt with deep, overconfident certainty that Ryuji would be doing nothing but wasting time.
Ryuji quickly led him to their first victims, two older ladies in swimsuits standing near the grass that broke the sand. He separated from him and stepped in front to make the first move. The forcefulness of his confident stance was easily visible.
"H... Hey, girls," he said with an attempted sexy drawl that Akira found to be an adorable failure before quickly remembering that this was not the situation for being lovestruck.
Pull yourself together! Ryuji's heart is banking on it!
"You been having a nice time today?" Akira lowered his voice and made it appear genuinely innocent and harmless.
The two girls gave them wary stares. "I guess so, yeah," the one in front of Akira sighed boredly.
"How 'bout havin' some more fun with us?" Ryuji tilted his head and grinned. He stretched it past its natural state. Stunning, Akira thought half with sarcasm, half with the honest thought that it was a bit cute.
The other girl shook her head. "Tempting, but I think we'll pass," she deadpanned.
Akira gave his friend a couple of pats on the shoulder as they traveled to their next target. "Look up, bud. That was only our first try." Secretly he was all but discouraged, grateful things were going his way so far. As they should.
The next lady they approached was by a tent on the beach, looking about as if waiting for something before snapping her attention towards the two boys. "Oh."
"Hey, girl," Ryuji masterfully used the same exact technique that had failed him last time. "Do you happen to be from one of the American states?"
She quirked an eyebrow up. "Huh? No-"
"'Cuz you're the only Ten I See. Heehh?"
Horrible. That was horrible.
And to Akira's surprise, she started to break down laughing, doubled over with her arms clutching her torso. Both of the boys stood back with their arms slightly raised, unsure if it was out of genuine enjoyment of the jokey pick-up line or out of pitying them like two entertaining clowns, until her whoops died down. "That was actually a good one!" She complimented to Akira's continued horror. Well... this was kind of breaking down already. Were the two boys really that irresistable?
Ryuji's mouth turned into a shocked line. "For real?!" He cleared his throat. "I mean, yeah, thanks. You know, we're actually kind of fam-"
"HEY!" A shout came from the grass. "What do you think you're doing?"
All three turned to confront the commotion and saw a man about the girl's age running towards them with two ice cream cones in his hands.
"Oh hey babe, sorry, these funny guys just kind of came up to me. I kinda enjoy their vibe." The girl shrugged innocently.
"Ugh, babe, you've gotta learn to turn things away! You're too nice all the time." He gave them a terrible glare. "Come on, scram!"
The two turned heel without a second glance and bolted towards the shore.
Their last one was even more underwhelming than Akira had expected, simply waving them off the moment they showed up. Either their pursuit had become infamous throughout the beach, or they were so tired that their intentions were written plainly on their faces.
For a while they stood in the foam that lapped at their feet, having mostly given up (Akira hoped; this was probably enough of a big red "THIS IS NOT ROMANCE" sign for Ryuji to stop). While Ryuji was staring out into the horizon, likely brooding over their failures, Akira thought about what to do next.
There had still been something... biting at Akira when they were out hitting on strangers. The fear that clutched him with that one girl that actually laughed at Ryuji's line laid it all out plain enough. He started to feel kind of... jealous, following Ryuji's gaze to their bodies, sensing hints of the idea that Ryuji may have not been wasting his time on the beach girls. And he grew worried, because he so badly wanted to be the subject of that affection, even though he knew he planned this and had accepted this test, and in order to what? Swoop in to give Ryuji that attention he clearly craved from only unknown women?
No no, he could do it! He had to go through with this; Akira wouldn't let that fear creep up to him again.
-
The way Ryuji was trudging along the sand, he was acting like someone had died.
Akira was sure it would have been kind to feel sympathetic about it, and if so he was the meanest kid within the mile. Not only did it fill him with a metallic taste of vigor, of smugness that things were going this well, but Ryuji looked cute as all hell sagging his body and face like an abandoned puppy.
He felt a twinge of rash excitement in his chest as he sidled up to Ryuji's side, shaking his head in faux disappointment. "There, there," he reached out in comfort to give Ryuji's shoulder a slow, teasing rub. "I know failure tastes bitter but this is honestly not that serious."
He groaned, like a dog sighing. "You're probably right man, but you don't get it. I bet everything would be just fine if I wasn't there, like seriously, there's no way a girl could turn you down..."
The sudden sentiment sent powerful heartbeats through Akira's chest. Does he even know what he's saying? "Come on, don't get cold feet. After all, we're just getting started." Just not in the way you think.
Ryuji gave him a questioning look, but quickly pressed on. "Man, just go on your own. Girls'll love you." He turned to look slightly upwards and faced Akira, faking an encouraging grin.
Akira hummed curiously. What a selfless gesture, and yet so totally the opposite of what Akira actually wanted. "Why are you so sure?"
Ryuji scratched the back of his neck and did his best to avoid eye contact, eyes darting around the sky and the ocean horizon and the sand at their feet. The way his neck flexed with the motions as his nerves grew, visible on his anxious expression, was a tempting sight to behold. "Because you're... good-lookin'? And ya always know what to say to make someone feel happier n' more confident. You got just the right amount of humor to be fun, but not annoying like me." He dared to meet his eyes for a second. "Plus you're super generous and acceptin'. It's a wonder you haven't got ladies handing ya confession letters every day."
There was a pause where Akira tried to take in everything he was saying, sweating with the effort to not let himself fidget from nervousness or let blush creep to his cheeks. He opted to push up his glasses. They slid up easily, the bridge of his nose moist from oil and sweat. "If you talked like that to any of those girls, they'd be falling at your feet in a second."
The warm blush that grew in Ryuji's face from that was a more than pleasant sight. "Y-yeah, fat chance," he choked out. "What, am I supposed to think of you while hitting on them?! That's kinda-"
Akira locked onto his eyes like someone drowning to a lifeboat. "Maybe you should be with me instead."
...
"Huh?"
...Please let that have not been too far.
"O-oh, you mean like... sorry, I think I'm hearin' things. Y-yeah man, I appreciate that you wanna spend time with me 'stead of continuing your pursuit of beach ladies." The corner of his mouth twitched up in a genuine grin, making something in Akira melt. "Whaddya wanna do?"
Absolutely, blessedly dense as usual. (Or maybe cursedly; he wanted to get his feelings across, but if he did, would Ryuji even...) "I have some ideas, but first, I need to talk to you about how you can't talk about yourself like that."
The plan could wait just one second. And if this messed it up, who cared anyway? It felt so much more important.
"Wh- hey, what do ya mean?" He quirked up an eyebrow and couldn't hide the embarrassment that reddened his face, or maybe he didn't try to.
"You're not messing things up. You're not annoying. And you being out there with me isn't based on how much you can help or contribute to our collective charm, it's because we're a pair." He put a genuine hand on Ryuji's shoulder, inwardly begging him to just see the dang point. "You just being around is enough and that's something you have to know."
"But dude, I-"
"Shushushushhh," Akira moved his hand from his shoulder to his lips, causing Ryuji's eyes to blast wide. He couldn't deny that he savored the moment. "What happened to the honorable position of 'right hand man'? Or a thief deserving of a reward for his righteous deeds? You are both but you don't need to prove it, you know? Just let go."
A moment passed where Ryuji took in each word as Akira's fingers fell back from his lips, the sag in his shoulders flowing away with each second.
"Huh... I'm startin' to feel like I don't really need the whole girl thing," he laughed, and Akira smiled in response; he really had just been desperate for that validation. It probably wasn't going to go away forever, though, not yet. Ryuji's poor self esteem was a hurdle, but not incurable. He would love himself someday, damn it. "You know, spendin' time with you always somehow helps out. I can kinda just be myself and not worry about what I'm allowed to do. With other people I feel kinda trapped. I get told to stop doin' things that I just can't stop doin."
"So you try to find that acceptance elsewhere." Akira shifted his stance, watching Ryuji's eyes sparkle in reflection of the sea, his pupils locked with wonder in Akira's own.
God, duh, I love you so much the way you are, I can't imagine not.
"And also, that's nice of you to say, Ryuji."
You're the kindest soul I know.
Ryuji turned his head down, laughing nervously. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now can we hang for real or are we just gonna be all cheesy n' shit all day?"
Akira cleared his throat and continued. Right, the plan. It must go on. "I know we just had some, but it's still so hot, why don't we grab some ice cream bars again and eat them at camp? Bit of a morale boost?"
Ryuji wiped his sweaty forehead, as if to affirm him. It definitely did nothing abnormal to Akira. "Duude, I was totally just thinking the same thing!"
"Never too much sugar."
"You're kinda startin' to sound like Ann, but you ain't wrong."
-
"Seriously? Where did Morgana go?! I thought he was supposed to be watching our stuff!"
Akira shrugged at Ryuji's comment, secretly excited for the privacy. "I think everything's still here. It's not like a cat is going to do too much anyway, he just offered."
"It bvetter bve!" The ice cream bar hung out of Ryuji's mouth as he rummaged through his things. Once again vanilla, since the place seemed to be completely out of chocolate for the day. "Mkay, I fink no one toutsed our shtuff."
They found a comfortable place beside each other under the group's umbrella. After such a tiring hunt the shade was refreshing, and Akira felt his spirits finally lift in a genuine rather than arrogant manner. If he could really be anywhere, it would just be doing nothing too crazy, just vibing, by Ryuji's side. It was relaxing and elating. The place where he felt he fit best.
Even in the shade the heat was merciless to Ryuji's ice cream, which once again led to a mess being made. If Ryuji could just learn to eat a little more smartly, Akira wouldn't have had to sit there and witness his frantic moves to lick and down the thing while white droplets cascaded onto his shoulders.
"Um... you're gonna get sticky," Akira commented with a chuckle from in front of his whirling mind, leaving Ryuji to frown around what was left on the stick. He shuffled closer and only then realized just how deafening his heartbeat was becoming in his ears. Ryuji reached up to try to wipe some of it off with his hand, but the other boy turned and quickly stopped his arm with a feathery, gentle touch. It made his chest further ache with anxiousness, made his breath hesitate even more unevenly in his throat.
Whatever came over him, be it the devil or a part of himself deep within, made his eyes lock on to the slightly tanned skin between Ryuji's shoulder and neck, where he'd have been most expected to dab with a napkin; instead, Akira craned his own neck forward and licked the spot clean in one reckless move, trailing from the point a droplet had slid to up to where it had fallen, all a little more slowly than was necessary.
He hesitated before leaning back, eyeing a stone silent Ryuji curiously behind his glasses.
"Whoops, my bad. Didn't want to waste it. Let's clean the rest normally."
The other boy sat frozen as Akira twisted slightly to pull a towel from their pile of beach equipment. Once he turned back, he leaned forward to wrap the towel over Ryuji's shoulders, making their faces merely inches apart for one small but electrifying moment. Somehow, Ryuji's eyes weren't pulling away, and neither were Akira's, locked on with some otherworldly force that made it feel like they were inching even closer by the second.
Akira let his gaze dart away for one second, but they traveled from Ryuji's eyes to his upper body as he lightly pulled on each end of the towel to softly clear the boy's skin. With each small shuffle of the cloth, each wipe where Akira's knuckles lightly skimmed Ryuji's ribs, his head turned a bit more upward until he was staring into his eyes again, his breath utterly and definitively trapped in his lungs.
Until he shakily grabbed each end of the towel with deeper force; until he tugged mercilessly on both ends at once; until he exhaled dramatically while his eyelids shut closed, meeting Ryuji's lips in the middle of his fall with one singular, slow, heartfelt movement that pressed on forever.
After resting just a second with his eyes still shut, Akira pulled back with his brain in utopia. There was the kind of adrenaline where his mind was filled with joy and arrogance to filter out the absolute fear of fighting in the Metaverse, and then there was this, which mixed it all together even without his life on the line to form something not quite describable, yet understandable nonetheless.
And it was at its peak when he opened his eyes again.
Ryuji looked... well, the best he could describe it was positively horrified, eyes wide and circled with shocked wrinkles. His mouth was parted ever so slightly, not making a movement or a sound, and his face became densely red with what Akira assumed was utter embarrassment. That's when it hit him.
What am I doing?
Ryuji was his best friend, he was someone for whom he'd rather die than lose. To think he could seduce him or make him like Akira back in that way was purely fantasy, and riding the high that it was possible had made Akira completely drunken on pride. Now he had gone too far, and changed things forever for the absolute worst. He knew Ryuji would try to be kind about it, but he could already see the touches fizzling out, the hangouts growing more sparse, and Ryuji closing himself off bit by bit. God, Akira was so selfish. "Wait, Ryuji, listen, I-"
He was interrupted by something physical, his apology instantly turning into a muffled "-mFH!" Hands grabbed at the sides of his face, and lips crashed right back down onto his with gleeful vigor.
Oh.
In one swift movement, Ryuji pulled him down on top of him, and he followed with ease, leaning forward into the deeper kiss. Instantly, his head emptied itself of everything but Ryuji, what he was doing to Ryuji, and what he wanted to do to Ryuji. Though soft, his mouth was temperate, trying to reach out to Akira's in inexperienced desperate moves. It was the moment he'd dreamed of, and it was already going so fast. It was crashing like rolling waves, flashing like the sun over the sparkling seawater, incredible, blissful... dangerous.
When Akira went in even further, a needy sound came from Ryuji, elating him. He echoed his own back, let his hands grip Ryuji's shoulders, felt as Ryuji's slid down to Akira's waist as he lowered his body, making a reckless move to sit on his hips-
That specific moment was when the rest of the group chose to return to find them making out in nothing but swim trunks and the towel still wrapped around Ryuji's neck.
"M-my goodness!" Makoto, leading the bunch, was what made them known. They broke apart instantly and looked up from their compromising position to regard them. Ann squealed and quickly grabbed the closest thing she could find, that being Yusuke's sketchbook, and held it over Futaba's face, who had no trouble peeking out of it to smirk at them. Morgana puffed up and groaned at the sight, twisting his eyes shut. Yusuke trailed behind with a surprised expression, two extremely wiggly, gigantic lobsters in his hands, their exoskeletons clicking with their struggles.
What a way to kill the mood.
Ryuji tried to bounce up to salvage the situation, but trapped under Akira he had low chances.
Akira suddenly became all too aware of their surroundings; it was hot as all hell inside and out, and their camp wasn't as private as it had felt in the moment... if he thought about it, they had definitely been subjected to more than a few strangers' judgmental looks. If there were any children... I am sorry.
Makoto cleared her throat. "H-hey you two, this beach is public," she snapped in an attempt to sound responsible, but came off as completely flustered instead.
Ann gave her shoulder a pat and stepped in front. "Why am I not surprised?" She commented rhetorically with a roll of her eyes. "Well, you're banned from camp for at least ten minutes to... deal with yourselves. Unless anyone has any objections, buuuut I think we all want some peace for a little."
Akira leaned back to finally let Ryuji sit up a little, feeling his skin burn from something that wasn't the sun. He shrugged with a smile. "Okay."
"S-seriously?! This is so-" Ryuji scrambled to cover his face, using the towel around his shoulders to do so. His voice preceding came out muffled. "I didn't mean for-"
Ann shooed them out into the sand without waiting for his retorts, looking increasingly fed up. "There's bathrooms that like hardly anyone is using right now, if you're that desperate." She turned to the rest of the group and skipped excitedly towards them, shedding any disinterest she had just feigned. They huddled together and glanced back towards the pair whenever they thought it would go unnoticed.
Akira huffed lightly. "Might as well leave them to it..."
"Bro, I'm not doing anything in the bathrooms here, they're actual shit."
He turned his attention back to Ryuji, whose face was tensed into a cute, exasperated expression. "Then... maybe we can just talk?"
His look softened; it became less frantic, more tamed. Akira stopped himself from reaching out to touch it out of adoration. "Yeah, actually. We should," Ryuji responded.
They ended up on a stone bench by where the grass broke the sand. Ryuji kicked his feet out with all the energy likely generated from the recent scene.
"'Kira... uh... I like you." He spoke out first as the sky grew orange.
"Wow, really?" Akira smirked, and got elbowed gently in response to his sarcasm.
"C'mon, dude." Ryuji tried to sound combative, but quickly fell back into a soft, lovestruck voice. "Yeah, really. You really fuckin' surprised me, though. After all that? I can't believe ya did, like, the opposite of what I'd ever expected you to."
Akira put his hands flat on the bench and rested back. "Well, your tries to distance me had the opposite effect, sorry. Probably because you weren't really doing that in the first place. Not well, anyway."
Ryuji swallowed. "I was tryin' to distract myself, if you were wonderin'. Got caught up in attention for popularity. Was way easier than facing that I was fallin' for one of my friends no less a guy friend no less the coolest and most popular and amazing one out of the bunch- I mean come on, how could I even dare to imagine I was in your league at all- anyway, minus the teeny tiny fact that it makes me crazy nervous to talk to women I dunno like that." He paused for a second, like he felt he had spoken too much, but Akira's patient gaze rested on him, waiting. "But with you there, I thought, maybe things would go... okay? And that way I'd be secure in it all, hammering it in right in front of ya that I'm a normal guy with no life altering best friend crushes, or whatever."
"Ryuji." Akira shook his head and laughed, making the other boy tilt his head curiously. "I... I mean, I know how you feel. I got confident today, though, for some reason. I think the idea that you could end up picking up one of those girls successfully made me stop being scared of all that out of jealousy. If for a second."
He scoffed lightheartedly. "Yeah, like I could ever do that, dude."
"Um, hello?" Akira turned on the bench to face him, crossing his legs and draping an arm over them. Ryuji looked at him questioningly. "Did I not just... nevermind."
And instead of going on with the teasing, he leaned forward to give Ryuji's cheek a kiss, heart still racing like it had before.
The other boy's face bloomed into an instant blush, which speckled so nicely on his cheeks under the dark orange light of the sky. "Akira..."
"Mhm?"
"W-well, you're just..." his expression broke out into a huge, beautiful grin, wrinkling his red cheeks cutely. "Man, whatever."
And he grabbed the sides of Akira's face and kissed him again.
This time, though, it was sweet and chaste, and through a kind smile. It was over more quickly, and when they pulled back they were both grinning with relief.
"It's still crazy that you're into me too, but uh..." Ryuji cleared his throat. "I'll get used to it, if ya wanna keep goin forward, as more n' friends."
Akira leaned his head comfortably on his shoulder and faced the horizon, watching the sun make contact with the water far in the distance. "I'd like that a lot."
Mission success.