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“Tsukasa?…Tsukasa? Hey, are you listening? Tsukasa!”
The blonde yelped as a hand swatted in front of his face, stumbling a bit backwards. He whipped his head around to see his troupemate, Nene, staring at him with an expression that was a mixture of annoyance and amusement.
“God, Nene…you’re really pushy when you want to be, you know that?” Tsukasa muttered, reaching up to rub his head. Nene crossed her arms, sighing, but with a small smile curling at her lips.
“You’ve been staring off into space for almost five minutes now. I was starting to become concerned.” Nene said, voice almost dead-pan. She tipped her head to the side, green hair spilling over in the direction where Tsukasa’s gaze had found its home: stage right, where Rui was currently working out a particularly tricky scene with Emu. Tsukasa usually practiced his own lines on breaks, but his attention had been elsewhere.
He swallowed.
Tsukasa glanced back over to where he’d been looking before, eyes trailing over the ever-bouncy and ever-eager Emu, before stopping at his director. At a first glance, nothing about Rui seemed too out of the ordinary. He was standing with a script in hand, same terrible posture and clever glint in his eyes. But once Tsukasa looked down to stare at Rui’s hair, he found himself unable to tear his gaze away.
Rui’s hair was a little longer than Tsukasa’s, but that hadn’t ever been a fact he’d spent time thinking about. Until now. Because for this rehearsal, for some odd reason, Rui had decided to tie some of the stray purple hair at the base of his neck into a ponytail.
For some reason, the sight of Rui with his hair pulled back, just a little bit, was… something , for Tsukasa. He frowned, looking back at Nene, who still had a quizzical expression on her face.
“Nene,” he said slowly. “Does Rui…does he, um…put his hair up often? I-I mean…I just…haven’t seen it before…”
And now what was happening because now his words were all stammery and stuttery - and that wasn’t how a future star was meant to speak at all!
Nene paused. “Well…sometimes, I guess? This isn’t a new thing, if that’s what you’re asking, but it has been a while since I’ve seen him do it…why are you so curious?”
Tsukasa felt his eyes gazing back at Rui - Rui , with his hair hanging there, his stupid, stupid hair - it looked soft, now that he thought about it. Hanging there. Had Rui’s hair always looked that soft? He wasn’t sure. He really wanted to touch it. Agh - what kind of a thought was that? What did that even mean?! To want to touch someone else’s hair?!
Tsukasa realized, suddenly, that Nene was still waiting for his reply. He cleared his throat, sure that his cheeks were an unbecoming shade of red. “I-I…”
Then, Nene’s eyes widened, and she laughed, actually laughed at him. “Tsukasa…” she said between giggles. “You’re really obvious. Oh my god.”
Tsukasa bristled. “Obvious? Obvious about what ?! You’re over here acting so smart, like you know everything about my feelings when I don’t even understand why looking at Rui right now is making me feel so…so odd!”
Nene stopped laughing, an odd expression forming on her face. “Ah, Tsukasa…do you not…are you not aware of the conclusion I came to?”
Tsukasa shook his head. “No?”
Nene blinked, then groaned. “Well..I-I’m not spelling it out for you. It’s honestly kind of embarrassing. But I’m sure Rui will be delighted to know that someone finds him attractive.”
The world seemed to stop at Nene’s comment, and Tsukasa barely nodded as she announced that she was going to go practice her lines.
He snuck another look at Rui, and hated how his face immediately turned red upon seeing his catlike grin, his slender hands, his stupid, stupidly pretty hair…tied into a low ponytail at the base of his neck. That was also kind of pretty. Oh my god Tsukasa, you did not just think to yourself that Rui’s neck was attractive. Oh my god. Get it together, future star!
Tsukasa slid to the floor, covering his face with his hands and burying it with his knees. He could feel how hot his skin was. God. How embarrassing.
“Huh?! What’s wrong with Tsukasa-kun?!”
Tsukasa raised his head, not surprised to see his pink-haired troupemate rushing over to check on him. Emu folded her arms behind her back, visibly concerned.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“I -“
“Yes, Tsukasa-kun - is something wrong?”
And, oh no, Rui was here now, and he was giving Tsukasa a soft, golden-eyed look and was about to reach out a hand to him to help him up and Tsukasa had never wanted to die more.
“I! Am fine!” Tsukasa stammered out. “Just…need a moment. Sorry. I don’t think I’m feeling well.”
“Aww, I’m so sorry Tsukasa-kun! I hope you feel super wonderhoy again mega ultra fast!” Emu cheered.
“Ah, thanks, Emu.”
“Yes, I also share her sentiment.” Rui stepped closer to Tsukasa, exchanging a look with the pink-haired girl. Tsukasa wanted nothing more but for Rui to leave, because him getting closer to him was not helping his internal spiral. And, then again, part of him was happier Rui was closer, happier that he could get a better view of his hair and his face and -
Agh. That was enough of that train of thought.
Emu toddled off, but not without a glance back at Tsukasa, full of sympathy. Emu probably just thought he had a fever or something. He was sure that his body heat went up every time he saw Rui, though, so that was something.
This was so embarrassing. And weird. What was wrong with him? Thinking his director and good friend was pretty , and thinking so much about his face and eyes and skin…who did that? What normal person had those kind of thoughts…
“Are you sure you’re alright, Tsukasa-kun?” Rui kneeled down to meet Tsukasa eye-to-eye, genuine worry radiating from his body language. And then it clicked.
Ah.
Nene’s implications earlier…he was attracted to Rui. He had a crush on him. Oh. Oh dear.
It just took him changing his pretty hair for Tsukasa to realize.
“Yeah…” He murmured, shutting his eyes so he wouldn’t have to risk growing redder from just seeing Rui.
Rui sighed. “Well, I won’t prod. I was working with Emu, anyways. You just take it easy for a moment, then. But if you need to go home early, or need anything, I’m here for you, okay?”
“I…ah…that’s…okay.”
And now he couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. Curse you, Rui Kamishiro.
Rui nodded, walking away, but not without a final longing look back at Tsukasa (that he did not notice, due to being busy burying his face in his knees).
“So, you got it now?”
“NENE!!”