Chapter Text
“—tsukasa-kun, i’m melting.”
rui’s voice echoed through the room, his hair plastered onto his forehead from the heat. heat felt like they spurned from his very own palms, intensifying the air around his hands to scalding temperatures and just barely dancing along the lines of being reduced to water on the floor.
tsukasa peers at him from above, unamused at his antics. “all the fans in the house are turned on, rui!”
rui rolls over, the fans having done nothing to minimise the effects of the sudden heatwave taking over in recent weeks, with its humid air stifling every last nook and cranny of tsukasa’s room.
another fan is switched on to its highest setting, and regardless of any fan tsukasa had turned on in the past hour to aid with any sort of feverish temperature, rui was just as susceptible to the house that was practically bathed in warmth. tsukasa’s smile looked especially radiant as rui tilted his head to get a better look at him, as if he thrived in the extra sun.
rui was also vaguely aware of his feelings for tsukasa. vaguely aware as in he couldn’t go more than a few moments without thinking of him, vaguely aware as in he had countless nights where he couldn’t create, or sleep, or talk without bringing up tsukasa into it, always seeming to gravitate back towards the star, and vaguely aware that he was nothing short of guilty of these feelings.
another button click, and a cold towel handed to him. “that’s all the fans on their highest settings,” tsukasa mused whilst looking around. “i seriously hope you don’t get heat stroke, especially not when we have a school trip together tomorrow!”
“oh tsukasa-kun, is that really all i am to you? a trip companion?” he was guilty in the way that he had basked in the warmth of tsukasa’s affections without so much as sparing a thought to the weight of it all. somehow, in some sort of incomprehensible manner, rui’s built-up walls had been slowly chipped away by virtue of tsukasa’s gentle hands.
afternoons spent in their rooms together, sunsets spent on practice, mornings passed tossing notes at one another during class. every moment so gingerly shared between the two had sent rui’s heart right into the palms of his best friend. and it was comical that tsukasa had done it with such ease, taken his heart right out of his chest without warning or permission,
“don’t be ridiculous and use the towel!” true notions of unspoken care that kept rui’s heart thumping in someone else’s palms, the weight of it all tugging at the pool in his stomach. shaking his head from above, tsukasa grabs the towel instead and dabs at his neck, his harsh grumbling contrasting his gentle motions.
rui was smitten, he realises, most likely beyond repair. but it’s too hot in his room to do anything but nuzzle into the cold cloth, yet tsukasa has gotten up to stand at the stove, frying up something vaguely pleasant-smelling.
the heat radiating off the countertop leaves the sticky kind of sweat clinging to his forehead, leaving him to dab at his forehead to avert it from eventually slipping over his eyelids. he’s left alone for a quiet moment, mild sizzling overlaid atop his steady inhales, his movements slowing in the interlude. he exhales, rolling the other way to face tsukasa.
“hey, speaking of that, are you excited for the school trip?” tsukasa throws his head over his shoulder carelessly.
rui’s breath stills in his throat, too dry to say anything for a split-second, as he lays captivated by a mere glimpse of him. he couldn’t ever explain the honey-like type of affection that glazes over his skin in those seconds, taking hold of him with such fervent adoration that it’s a wonder he could ever manage to snap out of the assiduous grasp.
tsukasa is simply standing there, holding the pan and waiting for an answer, his eyes filled with mirth as a product of consequence from his heartachingly natural tendency to light up with no actual intention. lips tilted up gently, as if he himself isn’t even aware of the fact that he’s smiling.
all of that, all at once, has rui searching for more air than the flimsy fans could ever provide. in a flash, a single burst of summer heat, his being has been reduced into being a melted puddle — the product of yearning for this boy.
he rolls over, unable to withstand the warmth. “i’m looking forward to it.”
right about now, rui knows how he’d react at a reaction such as that — tsukasa will shake his head while laughing to himself, a chuckle so soft one might miss it if they weren’t paying attention, and then he’ll turn his gaze back to the stove and continue frying whatever meal he was working on previously.
tsukasa laughs, just as predicted, a laugh with a sort of breeziness in his movements that makes rui almost jealous, the hot weather seeming to roll off his skin without affecting him in the slightest. like he was immune.
“well, that’s great! it’ll be good to deepen your relationship with your classmates on the trip!”
rui hums, tsukasa’s words melting together as the sizzle of what smells like luncheon meat accompanies his voice. it’s no longer quiet, as his chatter bounces off the humidity in the air and makes itself known above his cooking. “—and it’s convenient that we can explore freely on day two, since i’d really like to visit some spots there..”
his smile never falters as he begins to ramble about each site he’d like to visit with rui with a fierce enthusiasm, while rui suddenly realises he’s unknowingly turned back around to face him instead of the floor tiles. tsukasa turns off the stove, now plating the freshly-cooked food onto plates of rice and vegetables. in a stark parallel, it’s a rather chaotic mesh of sound, all his surroundings overtaken by tsukasa alone.
his own lips tilt upwards too. “you always say i’m too enthusiastic about shows, yet you’re talking about it so intensely now.”
“ha, that makes the both of us then!” tsukasa retorts, his voice warm, but not in like the heat sticking to his skin.
rui swallows, finds his throat echoing with the taste of something that reminded him of want. it had him holding onto his towel with more force than he remembered exerting. “but it sounds interesting,” he offers, feeling like he might sink into the ground beneath his body.
tsukasa’s presence is already warm enough, but as he crouches over with a plate of food in his hands, too close to bear beside rui’s own flushed being — rui burns where he lies.
“i’m done with lunch, rui. and don’t you dare remove the vegetables! i’ve given you as little as i already can.”
rui peers at the plate with the tilt of his head, as if tsukasa’s not slowly lighting him aflame with each second. there are too many greens sitting on the plate for his liking. “oh, tsukasa-kun giving me vegetables while i’m suffering in the heat? you’re far too cruel..”
“as if!” tsukasa scoffs, not bothering to entertain the question with a proper reply. they both know what he’d say if he did. “come, get up and have your lunch.”
rui rolls over in defeat, but he doesn’t get up. he doesn’t put any much needed distance between them. he stays, right there, warmer and warmer by tsukasa’s side.
tsukasa eyes his limp body. “i’m placing your food on the table,” he says, but it’s in no form of a signal that he’s getting up. if anything, it’s a plainhearted acknowledgment of his effort spent into making a hot meal for rui. rui almost doesn’t want to ever leave to stay like this.
“thank you,” he hopes to anyone above, that his foolish heartbeat thumps quieter.
tsukasa softens, his eyebrows relaxing from their usual furrow to something more at ease. “well then! let’s go.” the warmth expelled is no match for the unbearable weather outside. rui’s breath hitches. however, when tsukasa extends an arm to pull him up, he accepts with little trace of a second thought.
in retrospect, perhaps rui had a little bit of a crush on tsukasa.
but here, rui sits, akin to a compliant child, settled in tsukasa’s dining room with a familiarity that makes him feel like he belongs, wheee base of his feet can rest comfortably on the warm wood floor, and he digs into his meal.