Archive of Our Own

momo
ryo-san, is it okay if i come over this afternoon?
i have a favor to ask you

Tsukumo Ryo
definitely!

momo
thanks so much!!!!

Momo took a deep breath before knocking on the door to Ryo’s apartment. He shouldn’t have felt so nervous; Ryo was his best friend, and anyway he’d already said that Momo could ask a favor. That was the first hurdle cleared, really—as long as they’d known each other, Ryo had had a bit of a hang-up regarding his relationship to his family’s status and the things people wanted from him because of it. The favor Momo needed to ask of him today had nothing to do with that, of course—the thing he most wanted from Tsukumo Productions was for it to stop bothering them—but Ryo had accepted the request, no questions asked, regardless. It was heartwarming.

Ryo answered the door moments after Momo knocked, a huge knife in his hand. As he led Momo into his apartment, he chattered about how wonderful this new knife of his was, how sharp and how strong, how it took barely a touch for it to cut human skin—did Momo want to test it?

“Sure!” Momo said. He didn’t really want to cut himself, but it was only polite to be engaged with Ryo’s newest toy. He reached out his hand, and Ryo ran the blade along his palm, quick and sharp and almost painless. It itched before it stung; as the red blood bubbled up, Momo’s only thought was of how much of a pain it would be to hide this from Yuki. “Woooow, that is sharp!”

“It is!” said Ryo, grinning. “I got it specially sharpened right after I got your text!”

Oh. Whoops?

“So what is this favor?”

Well, there was no other path but forward. It would be best not to lie about this, anyway. Momo widened his eyes, and looked up at Ryo hopefully.

“Ryo-san, can I kiss you?” he asked.

Ryo’s bloodied knife clattered as it dropped through his numb fingers to the bare floor of his apartment. 

“What?” 

“Ah—you don’t have to say yes, of course!” said Momo quickly, feeling the blood seep warm through his fingers. “That was just the favor I wanted to ask of you. Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you or anything!”

Ryo was still staring at Momo, a strange mania in his eyes. Momo had never seen him looking like this before; against his will, his heartbeat sped up, beating his blood through his veins like a prisoner hammering on a locked door.

“…s…”

Momo cocked his head; for once, Ryo had spoken too softly for him to hear. “Sorry?” he said. 

“Yes.”

Momo lit up. “Thank you!” he said. He moved forward; Ryo kicked the knife away to the wall. Their kiss was awkward and wet, but when it was over the mania in Ryo’s eyes was even stronger.

Momo took a deep breath. “Any notes?” he said.

“What?” said Ryo.

“On the kiss. Was there anything that I could do better?”

Ryo’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, yes, definitely!” he said. “Here, let’s try again. I’ll make sure to teach you as thoroughly as I can!”

The next few hours were spent in this manner, leaving bloody handprints all over Ryo’s apartment, until Momo’s kissing ability was deemed satisfactory by Ryo’s standards. Then, the immensely pleased Ryo licked Momo’s blood away from their skin before finally allowing Momo to break into his medicine cabinet for Neoporin and a bandage for his cut hand. Momo cheerily cleaned the wound and applied the medicine and bandage before saying his goodbyes and heading to the door.

momo
thanks so much for your help today, ryo-san!!!
my date with yuki went great <3 <3 <3 he thought i was a good kisser!!!!
couldn’t have done it without you!!! practice really does make perfect!!!!!!!!!

There was no response to Momo’s texts this time, because upon reading them, he threw his phone directly through his window and into the storm gutter outside, leaving a jagged broken hole in the glass and drowning the phone quite beyond Ryo’s desire to have it repaired, thus leaving Momo on read yet again as Ryo screamed into a pillow and imagined Orikasa Yukito’s painful and humiliating death.