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DO I LIKE TSUKASA-KUN?? Rui’s whiteboard read. It was 7AM and he probably needed to start getting ready for school, but he was staring at the title and all of the notes he had put below it as he sat on his pull out couch. He covered his face with his hands and groaned, falling back onto the mattress. Why was this so confusing??
He was aro/ace, he knew that. But what the hell was going on with him?!? Rui had been thinking about this for weeks. He had taken dozens of “Do i like them?” quizzes for almost all of them to say “You like them as a friend 😊” and he was sick of it. He knew he was feeling something that wasn’t platonic for the star, but he was sure it wasn’t romantic, was it? So this morning at 4AM he decided to write everything down on his whiteboard and process.
He still hadn’t figured it out.
He decided to give it up and flipped the board over to the other side and rolled it back to where it sat next to the wall. He started getting ready and soon was headed off to school for the day.
☆☆
“rui…”
.
.
“Rui…”
.
.
“RUI!”
Rui jolted awake to see Tsukasa looking at him with a slightly exasperated look on his face. “What did I tell you about going to sleep at a normal hour??” He huffed.
“Mmm.. Sorry Tsukasa-kun~” Rui chuckled sleepily.
“Whatever, get up. School’s over.” Tsukasa said, grabbing Rui’s arms to hoist him up. “I’m coming over today, remember? To come up with show ideas? I can’t hang out with you if you are here sleeping!!”
Rui rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Yes, yes, I remember now,” He said, grabbing his bag, “Sorry for the inconvenience. Let’s go!” He suddenly perked up and grabbed Tsukasa’s hand to start running to the shoe lockers. The blonde trailed after him, trying to sustain his grip on Rui’s hand in order to keep up.
“Rui!!” Tsukasa said, out of breath once Rui finally stopped running, “Don’t run in the halls!!”
“But I thought you wanted to come to my house?” Rui said, faking innocence with that stupid catlike smile of his threatening to spread across his face.
“Well- yes- i- You!” Tsukasa grumbled, turning to his locker to avoid Rui’s teasing, “Just don’t run next time, okay? I don’t want to get stuck in detention again!!”
“Is that so?” Rui hummed, “Or is it just Tsukasa-kun isn’t able to keep up with me?” He teased, leaning on Tsukasa’s shoulder.
Tsukasa didn’t respond as placed his school shoes in his locker and started putting his yellow converse with embroidered orange stars on.
Rui chuckled lightly at Tsukasa’s frustrated expression as he grabbed his own converse. Rui smiled at the memory of Tsukasa proudly giving the whole troupe their own themed converse that he bought and embroidered fun designs on for them. Rui’s pair was light purple with balloons embroidered on one and a wrench on the other.
When Rui finished putting on his shoes, he looked up to see Tsukasa standing next to him.
“Are you ready to go?” He asked. Rui nodded and Tsukasa offered his hand to help him up. Rui took it and stood up. They stood there for a few moments before Tsukasa reluctantly pulled his hand away and headed for the door. When he got there, he turned around with a determined smile on his face. “Come on Rui! We have some shows to plan!”
☆☆☆
The walk to Rui’s house was anything but silent. The conversation ranged from what happened at school, to tests, to Rui’s latest invention, to anything they could think of.
Rui had the mischievous idea to mess with Tsukasa. He lightly bumped Tsukasa and watched as he stopped mid-sentence, stopping in his tracks, and whipping his head around to look at Rui.
“Rui! Why did you do that!!”
“Do what?” Rui said, trying to keep a serious expression.
“I- The thing you just did!!” Tsukasa shouted.
“I don't know what you’re talking about, Tsukasa-kun.'' The catlike smile was threatening to slip.
“Yes you do!!! You just pushed me!!”
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn't.”
Then Tsukasa pushed him back and that started a full on war. Rui tried his best to not push Tsukasa into the street while also trying not to fall over. Rui noticed they weren't that far from his house so he made a run for it with Tsukasa chasing after him.
“You're not getting away that easily!!”
Rui chuckled and skidded to a stop at his front gate, turning around to face Tsukasa, who was running towards him. He held open his arms as Tsukasa ran into his chest, wrapping his arms around his torso.
“Ha Ha! Caught you!” Tsukasa boasted, removing his arms from Rui and standing up to face him.
“Fufu, Indeed you did.” Rui chuckled, a smile growing on his face, “Shall we go inside now?”
“Yeah!” Tsukasa responded, grabbing Rui's hand and leading him to the door while Rui fumbled to get his keys out of his pocket. Rui unlocked the door and let Tsukasa inside, who quickly took off his shoes and ran into Rui’s room (the garage).
“RUI!!! CAN I START WRITING ON THE WHITEBOARD??” Tsukasa shouted from the room while Rui was still taking off his shoes.
“YEAH!!!” Rui yelled back, finally getting off his shoes and heading to his room, reaching the door to see Tsukasa had pulled the board away from the wall and was scribbling ideas onto it excitedly. He plopped onto the couch, pulled out his notebook, and started discussing ideas with the blonde.
☆
After an hour or so, the whiteboard was running out of space, completely filled with show ideas. Tsukasa had moved to a stool while Rui was laying on the couch, legs hanging over the armrest.
“Hey, Rui?” Tsukasa asked, “Can I flip the whiteboard to the other side? I'm running out of space and I still have a bunch of ideas.”
“Sure,” Rui responded, not looking up from his notebook, “If there's something on the other side you can erase it.”
“Are you sure?” Tsukasa asked, hesitating to flip it over, "I wouldn't want to erase anything important.”
“No, don't worry about it,” Rui said as he glanced up at the blonde, “I think it's just something school related.”
“Okay then!” Tsukasa said as he flipped it over, scanning what was written on the other side. He froze once he registered what he was reading.
Rui noticed this unusual silence and asked, “Tsukasa-kun? What’s your next idea? I would like to hear it.”
No response.
“That lost in thought, hm?”
“...”
“Tsukasa-kun...?” Rui asked as he glanced back up at the blonde, who in question was gaping at the whiteboard. Rui looked at the whiteboard, did a double take, and scrambled off the couch.
“Uh.. Rui..” Tsukasa said, face bright red.
“Oh Tsukasa-kun don't worry about that,” Rui said as he fumbled to flip the board back to the other side.
“Rui.. what was that.” Tsukasa said, trying to meet Rui’s eyes while stopping him from flipping it.
“Oh it's nothing,” Rui responded, not making eye contact with the other boy, still trying to flip it back.
“That didn't look like nothi-” Tsukasa started to say, then was cut off.
“Ohitsnothingyoudon’tneedtoworryaboutit.” Rui repeated, growing more anxious by the second, still trying to stop Tsukasa from looking at it.
Tsukasa then grabbed Rui’s wrists and forced him to make eye contact. “Rui.. can you please tell me what that meant? I promise I'm not mad, and I won’t judge you. Promise. With a capital P.”
Rui let out a big sigh. “Well- I- Ive been confused,” He began as he reached into his pocket to grab his kandi lizard and started to roll it between his hands, “and so i finally decided to write it all down to figure it out and… it hasn't seemed to work…”
Tsukasa tilted his head to the side, letting go of Rui’s wrists, “Confused about what?”
“My..” Rui swallowed, “My feelings for you,” He mumbled, burying his face in his hands, “I'm just so confused and all the websites and quizzes say its platonic but i know it’s not and-”
“Rui.”
“And i know its not romantic but we’re both aroace and that would be weird and i also wouldn't want anything to change between us because what we have right now is fine-”
“Rui.”
“and it’s okay if you hate me now but-”
“RUI!!” Tsukasa yelled, causing Rui to snap his mouth shut, “I don't hate you!! You were honest with your feelings and I know that's difficult for you and so I'm not mad I'm actually really proud!!”
“R-really?”
“Yeah! And I think.. I think I've been feeling the same way. AND BEFORE YOU CAN INTERRUPT ME!!! You shouldn’t let any websites or quizzes or anyone tell you what you're feeling and what youre not!!”
Rui felt his eyes prickling and attacked him in a hug.
“And- and we don't even have to label it!! We can just be ‘super amazing best friends’ or… whatever!! if you want!!”
“I would like that…” Rui mumbled into Tsukasa’s shoulder, a smile appearing on his previously distraught face.
“Mhm!” Tsukasa said as he pulled away from Rui to look at him, “We can talk about boundaries right now, or later if you need time to think!! I also think what we have right now is fine but boundaries are still good, no? But we don't need to figure it out right now!! All I know is that you are my best friend and I like you a lot!!”
Rui smiled, kissed Tsukasa on the forehead, and pulled him in for a hug. “Thank you my star.. I like you a lot too!!” Then he hesitated, “wait was that okay?”
“Yes, Rui!! It was fine!!” Tsukasa said, squeezing Rui in the hug, then turning his head to kiss Rui on the cheek. Rui hugged him tighter in response.
They stood there for a minute, then the silence was interrupted by Rui.
“This may not be the best time to tell you but I may have lost my glitter bomb.”
“You- I- What- RUI!!!!!!!!!”