Chapter Text
As the sun shone through the curtains, Ennoshita gave a lazy yawn as he pulled a white dress shirt over his head. He tied a maroon tie casually, leaving a button undone and the tie loosened, and semi-groggily leaned over and tucked his phone charger neatly in the side pocket of his backpack. The weather was warm, but it was obvious the temperature was cooling, as the leaves outside changed from their seasonal green to that of varying reds and oranges, with yellow streaks peppering them. Slipping his arm in the sleeve of his navy cardigan, he turned to face his full body mirror on his closet drawer, and smiled. A quick brush of his deep brown hair, and he was out the door.
His first class of the day was Life Drawing, taken partially as one of the only electives he felt he was capable of, partially due to the rational he had come up with in regards to his major. Being a director meant he had to focus on the form and position of the body, and Life Drawing would allow him to take in the details and forms of the human body. That, and Ennoshita had always enjoyed drawing, the Arts and English courses being ones he excelled in over Maths. He had managed fine during high school, forming a study group with Kinoshita and Narita to go over some of the more difficult concepts, but it hadn’t really been something he was fond of.
He yawned as he found a seat on the bus, clutching his tea in a ceramic mug for warmth. It was cool for an autumn day, much cooler than yesterday, and Ennoshita wished he had worn a scarf. It was always awkward during the transition from summer weather to autumn. You had people wearing shorts and sweaters, and people wearing heavy jeans and crop tops. Yet lately, things had seemed to settle, and the cold weather was finally seeing to take over. Leaning back, Ennoshita pulled the wire to indicate his stop, and gathered himself before standing up. The outside air was harsh on his comfortably warm face, but it was quickly heated up again by the warmth of the school as he made his way inside. Looking around, he noticed the school had slowly began to be covered in seasonally appropriate artwork and decorations. He was fairly sure the Life Drawing teachers planned the students’ skeleton drawings to coincide with Halloween. and there were beautiful fall landscapes and photography wherever he looked. That’s what Ennoshita liked most about art school, the warming and more personal environment it gave off, at least the one he was in. He headed down the halls, trotting down the stairs until he reached the first room on the left, the model room.
The room wasn’t quite full yet, and Ennoshita was grateful he managed to get a seat closer to the model than before. It would be his for the next two weeks, as this upcoming project would be a much longer study after the initial sketches. He settled down in his spot, laying his drawing pencils on the easel in front of him, and stretched his arms out. Yeah, this was a good spot. His eyes drifted to the clock on the wall as he gently rotated his wrists to warm them up, gradually flexing his fingers as he finished. It was nearly nine, which meant the model would be in shortly for the 9:30 class. Ennoshita hoped he wouldn’t get a boring angle, like just a foot or a side view. Hell, Ennoshita would be content with an interesting back view. As he waited patiently for the model, he glanced at his phone and gave a small, breathy laugh as he checked Snapchat to see Daichi and Suga making ridiculous faces in a selfie together (uploaded on both their stories, of course). As he put the device on silent and got up to stretch, the clock made a loud tick as the time read 9:15. Good, Ennoshita mentally thought. The model would be in any minute now. Although the class itself started at 9:30, the models still needed to stretch and settle in. Ennoshita eyes lit up expectantly as the handle of the door clicked, and several other students in the room glanced towards it as well.
And in walked Tanaka Ryuunosuke.
Ennoshita had never been an expressive person, but in the span of approximately five seconds his face had changed from neutral, to attentive, to delight, and settled on a mix of confusion and horror shortly after. It wasn’t that he was horrified to see Tanaka, per say. It’s the fact that he knew three things were about to happen.
1. He was going to make eye contact with Tanaka Ryuunosuke, with whom he hadn’t really spoken with since high school ended,
2. Tanaka was going to look back, and presumably make a similar facial expression, and
3. The model he was going to have to draw, the very naked model he was going to have to draw for at least a month, was going to be Tanaka.
His predictions for the first two points came true very quickly. Tanaka froze mid-walk into the classroom, and met Ennoshita’s confused look.
“Chika-chan? What are you doing here”
Ennoshita would have responded with a sarcastic “I’m going to school, obviously”, but the same question was running through his head as well.
“I.. I take Life Drawing in this room?” he responded nervously. What else was he supposed to say?
“Oh” Tanaka responded softly. “Well, I got asked to model here about a week ago” he said with a small grin. “They’re offering to pay and all, so I said why not, y’know?”
Ennoshita mustered up every ounce of willpower not to look entranced by Tanaka’s godlike, defined muscles. he had definitely been keeping up volleyball or some sport after he graduated. He looked amazing.
“Well…” Ennoshita continued, trying to continue conversation. “ I’m grateful this time my model doesn’t have any hair” he said with a wry smile. “I can focus more on their body”
Tanaka rolled his eyes and gave Ennoshita an equally bemused grin. “Well then maybe I’ll just start growing it out again, just for you”
The last words caught the taller boy slightly off guard, and he could feel the back of his neck heat slightly. “I’d still draw you bald anyways, you know.”
Tanaka’s smile widened. He wanted to argue that he wasn’t really ‘bald’, and that something like ‘peach fuzz’ would be a better word to use, but his eyes drifted to the clock and the realization hit he’d only have five minutes to stretch.
“It’s been nice, Chika-chan, but I gotta go stretch.” he said giving a small salute as he turned and made his way to the centre of the room, which had a small stand with pillows and props. Ennoshita watched him leave and arranged his drawing tools again, mostly out of nervousness.
Tanaka stretched his arms across his body, supporting his elbow with his other arm. He moved down his body, rotating his torso, bringing his knees to his chest, and balancing his weight on the edge of the platform to stretch his calves. At the instructor’s nod, Tanaka stepped up on the platform, and the teacher quietly walked to the door and locked it. Once the door had been locked, and there was no way for someone to enter the room, Tanaka took off his robe and was revealed.
The brunet’s face heated. Tanaka had started with his back to him, but soon he was standing at a side profile, his immaculate body on display as he began the quick gesture warm-up drawings. With his heart beating, Ennoshita quickly drew, capturing the lines and forms that composed his former classmate. It was strange, the sort of intimacy here, because while he had seen Tanaka shirtless countless times in the three years they had played volleyball together (nearly the whole team had at some point), seeing his entire body, closely, felt… different. There was of course the layer of friendship, the coincidence that both he and Tanaka ended up in this situation knowing each other, but despite this, Ennoshita didn’t feel awkward at all about seeing him fully nude. Perhaps, he thought, it was the nature of his setting, a life drawing class at a well-respected university, complete with mature and quiet students; not the loud and sweaty atmosphere of on the court.
Tanaka turned to Ennoshita for the final gesture, and Ennoshita’s attention was drawn to his forearms, which he held bent behind his head. His eyes drifted down, to his abdominal muscles, his muscular thighs, down to his calves. His heart beat quicker, as he let his graphite capture it all on paper. When the buzzer went off, Ennoshita leaned back, and admired his work. He hadn’t been this impressed by his own work in a long time.
✨ ✨ ✨ ✨
After class, Ennoshita dwindled outside the room, after looking as class ended to see a few vague hand gestures and facial expressions from Tanaka telling him to wait. He clutched the handle of his bag, and shifted his toes in his boots. This almost reminded him of a shy high school girl waiting for her date, and the thought of that made him giggle a bit to himself. When his eyes darted as the door opened and the classical music softly poured out, they were met by Tanaka’s deep hazel ones.
“Hey, Chika” he said softly, a warm expression on his face. “Whatcha laughing about?”
Ennoshita’s eyes darted left, as he racked his brains for something witty to respond with.
“Oh, not much. Just how you must have annoyed the class with all those dumb faces you were making” he said wryly.
“They weren’t dumb! And I wouldn’t have had to make them if you paid attention to my face more”
Ennoshita rolled his eyes. “It’s a life drawing class. We draw bodies. Not portraits. I was focusing on your body, Ryuu.
“Oh, were you now?” Tanaka grinned.
Ennoshita flushed. “It’s not like I picked the model, baldy. How did you end up with this job anyways? Isn’t there some privacy breach being broken here?”
“Well, actually” Tanaka said matter-of-factly, “a majority of my classes are on the other campus, so we concluded there wouldn’t really be any awkwardness. And besides, I don’t really mind.” he smiled.
Ennoshita nodded. That seemed like a reasonable answer.
“Anyways…” Tanaka trailed off. “When’s your next class?”
Bringing his forefinger and thumb up to his lips in thought, Ennoshita’s eyes darted to the right as his still-somewhat-asleep brain tried to remember.
Ah, yes.
“Five, Film Studies. Why do you ask?” he responded curiously.
Tanaka gave Ennoshita a slight side grin, eyes wide with a pinch of excitement. “You wanna grab a coffee? We have a bit to catch up on.” he paused. “Y’know, if you want” he added sheepishly.
Ennoshita beamed. “I’d love to! I do need a pick me up, after all”
“Starbucks? Or somewhere else?”
“Actually”, Ennoshita chimed in. “There’s this really quiet cafe about three blocks down I’ve been going to recently, wanna try there?”
Tanaka gave a quick nod. “Yeah! I’d love to! I have my next class at 6:30 back at my campus, so it should be fine.”
With that settled, the pair made their way to the cafe Ennoshita had mentioned. In the back of his mind, Ennoshita was buzzing with excitement - something his sleepy eyes didn’t quite carry over. But it had been awhile since he had spoken to anyone from his old team, save Kinoshita and Narita. Talking to Tanaka face-to-face would be nice. Really nice.