Chapter Text
1.
‘Let’s all go get ice cream!’ Emu announced right after school. She came directly from Miyamasuzaka Academy just to see Nene, Rui and Tsukasa, and she refused to take no for an answer. With a few grumbles and some excitement, they went to scramble crossing to go to her favorite ice cream store.
Tsukasa was excited to do something with the whole group. They had been working tirelessly on the new show, with Rui building new drones, Nene had been working on the new song, he had been working on the props, and Emu was working on everything else.
They walked in(ran, more like it), the refreshing air conditioner cooling them and the sound of the bells on the door ringing. The ice cream shop was a tiny but beautiful shop on a road in scrambled crossing. It had several tiny booths that had little stuffed plushies on each of them, with a vase of flowers. They changed weekly, which made it a fun surprise to guess. They had sometimes even placed bets on which flowers they thought were going to be there. Emu raced to grab a seat, Tsukasa doing the same. Nene just slowly walked in, with Rui following beside.
‘Why were you guys running?’ Emu grumbled, sweeping a lock of hair behind her ears.
‘Because we have to get the best seat, of course!’ Emu exclaimed. Her eyes sparkled and she bounced up and down on her heels. 'I loveeeeeee this ice cream store so much!' She declared, spinning in circles.
'There's no one here, so we didn't have to run.' Nene insisted
'There might've been a person hiding right behind us!'
Nene sighed. ‘There’s no one here.’
‘But there could be!’
‘There’s no one here.’
You never know!’
‘There’s no one here.’
While Emu and Nene were having their friendly fight, Tsukasa decided to get his ice cream. Rui trailed along, not wanting to be caught between the dispute.
‘What flavor are you going to get?’
Tsukasa pressed his face against the glass. There was strawberry, mango, vanilla, chocolate, blueberry, mint chocolate… The tiny labels looked a bit worn for wear. The shop had been here for several years, after all. He couldn’t decide which one to pick. Rui could sympathize with Tsukasa. Picking ice cream flavors was a hard, hard thing to do.
Tsukasa furrowed his eyebrows, still thinking carefully. He normally got chocolate caramel with extra chocolate sprinkles. It was his usual order. But maybe today he could try something different. Saki had said strawberry sorbet was especially good. Especially with the syrup on top. He had come once with her friends as well, and they all had different favorite flavors. Maybe he could try strawberry sorbet? But what if he didn’t like it? What if it was too sweet? Or maybe it wouldn’t be sweet enough? Was sorbet different from regular ice cream? Maybe it’d have a different texture?
Rui could see how much effort Tsukasa was putting into choosing his ice cream flavor, stifling a laugh. He went ahead to order, not bothering to ask Tsukasa what he wanted.
The shop assistant tilted her head. ‘Is there anything you’d like to get?’
Rui already knew what Tsukasa was going to order from the start. He sometimes was surprised that he even bothered to think about it. After all, he always picked the same thing. He opened his mouth to speak.
‘Can I have chocolate caramel with extra chocolate sprinkles and the strawberry sorbet with syrup? Oh, and-’He turned to Emu and Nene, who were now chatting, their fight forgotten.
‘Emu, Nene, what do you guys want?’ Rui inquired.
‘Strawberry for me and Vanilla for Nene! Can I have mine in a cone? Nene wants it in a cup, though.’ Nene was about to argue, but then closed her mouth and sighed.
The shop assistant nodded. ‘Certainly. That’ll be..’ They pressed some numbers into the keypad.
‘1,346 yen.’
Rui quickly paid for the ice cream, and they all took their respective cones(Or cups, for Nene) and sat down.
Emu grabbed a piece of paper and spread it out. ‘This is the next set for our performance!’ She pointed at the stage she drew out. There were decorations all around the page, and she even wrote specific stage directions and timed intervals at the side. There were even a few sketches of the costumes.
Tsukasa widened his eyes. Emu had certainly put a lot of effort into doing this. Everything was done to detail, nothing left untouched. She had even coloured in the costumes and the set design.
‘Me and Nene worked on it together!’ She burst out proudly. Nene spared her a quick look, then went back to her video game. And eating her vanilla ice cream.
'Miku and Kaito helped on it too.' She added.
Tsukasa started eating his ice cream, but he had the feeling he had forgotten something important.
‘Wait!’ He yelped.
Rui quickly turned his head towards Tsukasa. ‘What happened?’
‘How did you know what I was going to order?’ Tsukasa asked suspiciously.
Emu and Nene raised their eyebrows. ‘You didn’t ask him what he wanted? And you ordered something for him anyway?’ They both said simultaneously to Rui. The look on Emu’s face was of pure admiration, and the one on Nene’s was just exasperated.
‘You can read minds, Rui?’ She squealed, flinging her arms into the air. ‘That’s so cool! You have to read my mind as well!’
Rui chuckled. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, but I can’t read minds.’
‘What Rui’s saying is that you’re really predictable, Tsukasa.’ Nene said irritably.
Tsukasa gasped. ‘Am I really that predictable? Do you know what I’m going to do next?’
A look of pure amusement crossed Rui’s face. ‘You’re going to believe that I can predict your every move?’
Tsukasa gasped even louder. ‘He can actually read my mind!’ He hissed to Emu.
He failed to notice Rui and Nene sharing a glance.
‘So why did you get me the chocolate caramel with extra chocolate sprinkles?’
‘...Because that’s what you always get.’
‘That’s not true!’
‘It is.’
‘No it’s not!’
‘Then tell me what other ice cream flavors you’ve tried.’
Tsukasa tried to rack his brain, but nothing came through.
‘Fine.’ He huffed.
Rui laughed, and it was a sweet, melodious sound. Tsukasa felt himself burning up. He had just made Rui laugh. Rui had looked really beautiful at that moment. And then he blushed. He had to stop thinking about his friend like that. He started eating his chocolate ice cream before it’d melt.
At that moment, Akito and Toya burst into the ice cream store.
‘You owe me an ice cream.’ Akito drawled.
‘I’m pretty sure I won the game.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. I beat you by 30 points.’
‘I never said I wouldn’t get you an ice cream.’
They finally took notice of Rui, Tsukasa, Emu and Nene and stopped fighting abruptly.
‘Hey. Didn’t think I’d see you guys here.’
After Toya and Akito settled down and bought their ice cream they all sat down together in a booth.
‘What brought you guys here?’ Emu asked. She had polished off her strawberry ice-cream at an ungodly speed, and was now even zooming in on Nene’s.
‘We were just playing at the arcade nearby. You know, the one down the street. We made a deal about who’d get the most points.’ Akito said casually. He laid back on the chair and cracked his fingers.
‘Don’t do that.’ Toya said sharply.
‘Why not?’ Akito frowned.
‘If you always crack your knuckles, the cartilage in your joints eventually wears thin and it may result in damaging it.’
Akito scoffed. ‘That stuff isn’t real.’
‘Tsukasa.’ Tsukasa turned around to see Rui face to face with him.
‘W-What is it?’ He asked, flustered from earlier. He couldn’t look at Rui without thinking about how beautiful he had looked when he laughed, the way his eyes sparkled, the way he stared at Tsukasa as if he was the only thing in the world, the way his hair glistened, the way he smiled. Wait. That was too much.
‘You have some ice-cream right here.’ Rui pointed to a spot on his cheek.
‘O-Oh.’ He scrambled around for a tissue, but there weren’t any on the table.
‘Stay still for a second.’ Tsukasa obeyed, thinking Rui would wipe it off.
Rui leaned in slightly, making Tsukasa stiffen. You didn't need to close in to wipe ice cream off, right? He was not prepared for Rui licking the ice cream off his cheek. Rui gave a smile and Tsukasa gave one back in return.
Rui sat back down with a tiny smirk on his face, barely noticeable. No one took note of it except for Nene, who sighed once again. Leave it to her to figure out what her childhood friend was doing.
They failed to notice the flabbergasted look on everyone else’s face.
Wait. The gears in Tsukasa’s head turned. Rui had licked him. Licked. Licked it off. The ice cream. The chocolate caramel with extra chocolate sprinkles. Rui licked the ice cream off his cheek. His cheek. The ice cream. Rui. The realization of what had happened slapped him in the face. His cheeks turned aflame. Blush danced across his face, spreading down to his neck and the tips of his ears.
There was a brief moment of silence. Tsukasa turned redder, and he was still redder by the second. Rui’s expression was innocent.
‘You wanted to try a bit of strawberry sorbet with syrup, right?’ Rui interrupted.
‘How’d you know?’ Tsukasa looked at Rui incredulously, the previous moments forgotten.
‘You told me about it last week.’ Rui reminded him. ‘Here.’
Rui dug out a spoonful of strawberry syrup and fed it to Tsukasa.
‘It’s..’ Tsukasa wrinkled his nose. ‘Chocolate is better.’
‘I know, right?’ Rui nodded in agreement. Tsukasa scooped the last spoonful for himself, but Rui quickly ate it from Tsukasa’s spoon.
‘Hey!’ Tsukasa shrieked shrilly.
‘If I gave some to you, it’s only right you gave some to me.’ Rui stuck out his tongue, the chocolate ice cream still coating it.
Tsukasa pouted. Rui had just taken the last scoop of his ice cream. That was unforgivable! He reached out to lick Rui on the tongue so that he could have the last taste of the chocolate ice cream.
Everyone else just watched as the whole thing went down. And everyone was silent.
Akito coughed, interrupting the awkward moment of silence. ‘You don’t have to rub it in our faces that you guys are dating.’
Tsukasa felt even warmer. ‘Um.’ He mumbled unintelligently.
‘We aren’t dating.’ He croaked out. Was the tongue licking a bit too much?
‘You can tell us the truth. We aren’t going to judge you.’ Toya said quietly, his worried eyes looking right into Tsukasa.
‘Nene, Emu, please tell them we aren’t dating.’ Tsukasa begged. Rui stood by idly, a blank look on his face. No one noticed it except for Nene, who sighed once again. Leave it to her to figure out what her childhood friend was doing.
‘Well, shouldn’t you ask your boyfriend?’ Nene murmured. She normally wouldn’t interfere with something like this, but she obviously had to just to see the reaction on Tsukasa’s face.
‘He-he..’ Tsukasa spluttered. ‘He’s not my boyfriend. Right, Rui?’ He stared desperately into Rui’s eyes, begging for a way out of this.
‘I-I..’ Rui’s bangs fell in front of his forehead, covering his face. ‘I forgot that I had something important to do. Sorry.’ He rushed out, leaving a half eaten cup of ice cream. Were the tips of his ears red? Tsukasa couldn’t tell.
'You can't leave me here like this!' He shrieked, but Rui was already far, far away.
He glanced back at everyone else helplessly. ‘Um.’
Everyone else just looked sheepishly away, save for Emu, who quickly gobbled up the rest of Rui’s ice cream.
‘We are not dating.’ Tsukasa clarified.