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It’s been a week since the end of the 2nd D.R.B.
Probably, coming here is a mistake.
Dice has no good reason to be in Yokohama. What is a winner of a D.R.B going to an opponent division for? He doesn’t think anybody else would understand. He’s not sure he understands it himself, really, because he’s debated turning around three times already and yet, he’s still here, walking the familiar path to Riou’s place with a feeling of dread.
They’d said “no hard feelings” and everything like that, but really, Dice still feels like he shouldn’t be here. What is he even supposed to say? Sorry for battling you, but I really miss your cooking, can you please feed me even though I literally physically hurt you and prevented you from achieving your current goal in life? No, that’s definitely not right. Hurting your friends is still wrong, even if it wasn’t intentional. Eating Riou’s cooking only a week after that feels wrong, selfish.
So, in the end, he’s just going to see that Riou is alright, and then leave. It’d be way too awkward to stay any longer. Plus, Riou probably has way better things to do than spend time with him. Different divisions, different goals, right? Yeah, leaving is definitely the best option. Just say hi and leave. Say hi and leave. Say hi and-
“Oh, Arisugawa.”
Oh, shit.
“Um, hey,” Dice says, turning around and seeing that Riou is right behind him. This throws every single plan off, because in his head, he would’ve been the one greeting Riou, and then they would have an extremely short but pleasant conversation where Dice is able to announce his leave very quickly, but now he’s so caught off guard that he can’t do any of that. “I, uh, didn’t see you there.”
“You should’ve told me you were coming,” Riou says. For a second, Dice worries that Riou is about to get mad at him, but Riou just smiles. “Are you hungry?”
“No, no,” Dice says, shaking his head. This is going wrong way too fast. “I mean, well, I kinda am, but I-“
Riou grabs his arm, cutting him off. “Great. I made too much tonight. You can eat as much as you’d like.”
Riou starts walking forward, still holding Dice’s arm, and Dice has no choice but to walk with him. Dice stares blankly at Riou’s hand, wondering how the hell he failed everything in his plan so spectacularly.
Dice figures he’ll take his leave after dinner. He has to see the meal through now, after all. Anyways, it’s okay to eat Riou’s food, he thinks, because Riou is always so happy making it that it actually achieves his original purpose in coming here. He’s just making sure he’s okay, is all.
Except…
“Riou-san... Your food is way too good, man,” Dice says, guiltily holding an already empty bowl. It’s not like he hasn’t known this for forever now, but this time feels different. Does going just a week without Riou’s food make him that starved? He’s actually embarrassed over it, for once.
But Riou, of course, is not. “I’m glad,” he says, smiling. “You’re welcome to have more.”
“Of cou-“ Dice starts, then cuts himself off. No, he can’t be greedy now. He just came to make sure Riou was alright, and clearly he is, so at this point he’s just entertaining Dice out of politeness, right? It’s probably awkward for him after the D.R.B. and everything, too. Dice shakes his head. “Actually, um, I’m good. I should probably leave, you know…”
Riou frowns. “You don’t want to eat more?”
Dice, somehow, feels more guilty than he already did, which doesn’t make any sense when leaving is clearly the option that should leave him with less guilt. He forces out a smile anyways, standing up. “Yeah, it’s fine, really, I probably shouldn’t stay too long anyways.”
“Arisugawa,” Riou says, the tone in his voice making Dice freeze. He takes a step towards Dice, his eyes narrowing. “Are you feeling well?”
“What?” Dice says, nearly laughing, although he can’t help but avert his eyes from Riou’s gaze. He waves his hands in front of him. “Of course I’m fine, what are you-“
Suddenly, Riou’s hand lands on his shoulder, and he can’t help but hiss in pain. Riou’s eyes soften. “You’re hurt.”
Shit. Dice can’t explain that one away. Riou hadn’t even pressed hard at all. Dice sighs, hanging his head. “Yeah, but what can you do about it? It’s part of the whole battle thing. I signed up for it.”
Most of his injuries at this point aren’t from Riou anyways, but it feels pretty useless to mention it now, so he keeps his mouth shut. He’s sure all the injuries Riou still has are from him. He helped end their advancement, after all…
He really shouldn’t be here.
But as he opens his mouth to leave, Riou, once again, beats him to it.
“Let me treat your injuries,” Riou says. As Dice looks up, his expression, for the first time today, is unreadable. “It’s the least I can do.”
Dice tries to refuse, but in the end, he can’t. He can’t refuse Riou this. “Sure. It can’t hurt, can it?”
Riou smiles, but for some reason, Dice doesn’t think it’s a very happy one. He weakly smiles back anyways. It’s the least he can do.
It’s less than ten minutes before Dice is basically herded into one of Riou’s tents, and by that point, Dice gives up on any hope of leaving anytime soon. Riou has a deathly seriousness about him now, practically ordering Dice to remove his jacket and shirt the second they get in there. Protesting is a lost cause, so Dice complies, watching as Riou gathers various medical items that Dice never even knew he had. If he knew he was going to end up worrying Riou so much, maybe he wouldn’t have come… but that’s a useless thought now.
“Sit,” Riou says the second he turns to face Dice, still sounding like an order. Dice does. Riou takes off his jacket and gloves, setting them where Dice threw his jacket and shirt haphazardly, and Dice notices a few bandages where his shirt doesn’t cover. “You’re injured worse than I thought.”
“Yeah, well,” Dice hedges, reflexively smiling, “I didn’t really think it was all that bad, you know?”
Riou doesn’t smile back. He crouches in front of Dice, pressing on the same spot he did earlier, and Dice winces. “Your wound is quite inflamed. You need to take proper care of injuries like this.”
It’s true. There’s cuts and bruises all over his body that he hadn’t paid any particular attention to, probably enough that it would eventually get him in real danger. But Dice can’t get himself to care all that much. “Yeah. I’ll be more careful next time.”
“If you take care of yourself properly, there shouldn’t be a next time,” Riou says, almost chastising him. Dice opens his mouth to respond, but a sudden pressure and coldness and stinging from whatever medicine Riou is putting on him makes him hiss in pain instead. Riou holds him still. “If you need help, you can always come to me.”
Dice doesn’t respond, staring blankly at Riou while he rubs ointment onto Dice’s shoulder. He sees the bandages again, a few wrapping across Riou’s chest, and he frowns to himself. He caused that, probably. In a fight everybody agreed to, but he still hurt him. Again. It doesn’t feel right. And now yet again, Riou is helping him, despite… everything. Dice sighs.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” Dice says. Riou looks up, meeting his eyes as if asking him to continue, and now Dice feels kind of embarrassed about it. “I mean, with the battles and everything… I don’t have any hard feelings, I meant that for sure. But I can’t help but feel like I caused you a lot of trouble, so…”
“Is that why you haven’t visited lately?” Riou asks, frowning slightly. Dice looks away. Of course Riou would notice that he had hadn’t visited in a week.
“Yeah, kinda stupid of me, wasn’t it?”
“No. I understand.” Riou places his hand on Dice’s cheek, turning his head back to meet his eyes. Dice can’t help but pout slightly. “I have no hard feelings towards you either, Arisugawa. Never feel that you can’t come to me for help. There’s nothing that could change my mind on that.”
Dice huffs, shaking his head. His face burns, and it’s not from any injury. “I get it, I get it. But there’s no need to flatter me, you know?”
“I’m not trying to, though,” Riou says. He returns to bandaging Dice’s shoulder, which Dice is grateful for, because it means he won’t notice how hot Dice’s face feels. And how much worse it’s about to get.
“By the way,” Dice says, looking everywhere but at Riou, “back then, you called me Dice, didn’t you?”
For a split second, Dice swears Riou freezes, but it’s so brief he can’t tell. Riou’s hands do, however, slow their work on him. “I did. I apologize if that was too forward of me.”
“It… wasn’t,” Dice says. He takes a deep breath. “You should call me that. Dice. I want you to.”
Dice clenches his hands at his side. He’s not sure what he’s afraid of, but he can feel his heartbeat in his throat, his limbs lighter than the rest of his body. He thinks he might drop dead on the spot — the cause, he’s not sure, but this might be the end for him.
But Riou just nods, smiling. “Okay. I will.”
All tension leaves him, and Dice sighs in relief, grinning. “Awesome."
Riou makes him stay the night, saying something about how leaving the bandages uncovered is best for healing. It’s not the first time Dice has slept here, so he just shrugs and accepts it. It’s more comfortable, anyways.
Usually, he sleeps through the entire night, even through Riou somehow always getting up at five in the morning. This time, Dice wakes up after what can’t be more than two hours of sleep, judging by how pitch black it is, and for some reason, he doesn’t feel tired at all. Even Riou is still asleep. Great.
Dice gives up on going back to sleep and exits the tent. There’s still embers in the campfire, so he sits in front of it, staring as the tiny sparks die out. He could leave right now, if he wanted, but now it doesn’t feel right. Most things about today didn’t feel right, but…
Dice sighs, leaning back onto the ground and staring up at the night sky. As long as Riou is happy, right? In the end, that’s all he really wants. He knows there’s a much bigger reason for that than simple friendship, why he was so worried today over things he’s never cared about before, but he’s not planning on ever telling Riou anyways — he probably wouldn’t understand — so he has to be content with this. And he is, really.
So… it’s all good. Everything’s just… good.
Then a figure appears above him.
“Dice,” Riou says, and Dice jolts upwards. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
Dice quickly shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. I woke you up, didn’t I?”
“It’s fine.” Riou sits next to him and, surprisingly, hands Dice a jacket. “Take this. It can get quite cold at night out here.”
“Thanks,” Dice says, not that he was cold at all. It takes him a few seconds to realize that Riou gave him his own jacket, and not Dice’s, and he flushes. Weren’t their jackets right next to each other? He puts it on anyways, just to have something to do. “Why’re you out here, anyways? Besides that I woke you.”
“I wanted to make sure you were alright,” Riou says, straightforward as always. Dice pulls the jacket closer to himself, sighing.
“Riou-san… you’re too nice to me all the time, really. I’m fine, you don’t have to worry.”
“Is it not natural to worry about those who are close to you?”
“Yeah, but…” Dice trails off. He really meant that making someone food all the time, treating their injuries when they’re hurt, and regularly offering them a place to stay while expecting nothing in return is a lot… but Riou never understands when he says that, so he shakes his head. “Nah, never mind. You’re right.”
Riou hums. For a few seconds, a comfortable silence falls between them. “Dice.”
Dice looks over. “Yeah?”
“You don’t have to use an honorific to refer to me. Call me Riou.”
“Um.” Dice flushes, instantly looking away. “Well. That feels kinda wrong, you know?”
“Why? We’re close enough now, aren’t we?”
“What- I mean, yes, but.” Dice stops himself. There’s no good way to put this into words. “I really, really respect you! I can’t just do that!”
Riou hums. “I see.”
Dice frowns. He glances over at Riou, and to his surprise, Riou is smiling. “Hey, you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?!”
Riou smiles wider. “A bit.”
Dice huffs and looks away. Today has not been a good day for his heart. “Don’t tease me like that.”
“My apologies. You are quite endearing at times, however.”
“Riou-san…”
“I know.” Riou stands up next to him. “Come on. You need proper rest to heal your injuries.”
Riou extends his hand towards him. Dice accepts it, letting Riou pull him up. He hopes Riou can’t tell just how hot his skin feels. “Yeah. Thanks for… everything, I guess.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. I would help you every time.”
Dice lets himself be dragged along to the tent, Riou’s words echoing in his mind. Somehow, still, he doesn’t think he’s going to fall back asleep tonight.