Work Text:
The sweltering heat coupled with a broken air conditioner is what has forced Akutagawa to spend his day sitting face-first in front of a fan on high speed, and he really feels as though he could be doing something better with his day. But turning sideways to maybe lean against the couch will just cause one half of his face to be blessed with cool air while the other half is busy feeling like it’s been cut off and thrown into some jungle–drenched in sweat and being set on fire simultaneously. So instead, he opts to just sit there, legs crossed and eyes closed.
High temperatures and terrible humidity never brought anything good.
“Ryuu,” he heard a voice call from his left. He opened his eyes, looking over to where the voice came from, and he suddenly realized that sometimes high temperatures and terrible humidity did indeed bring some wonderful things.
Atsushi wiped his hand across his forehead–the forehead that for once was bare as he had pinned his bangs to the sides with two bobby pins. And he walked over to Akutagawa with legs that were in plain view considering the particularly short shorts he was wearing. Forcing himself to tear his eyes away from the sight, Akutagawa let out a ‘hmm’ in response, prompting Atsushi to continue with whatever it is he needed. Before answering, however, Atsushi plopped himself down right behind Akutagawa. A completely fine act until he then rested his chin on the other’s shoulder, and his arms came to lightly wrap around Akutagawa’s waist.
Akutagawa had a problem with this for two reasons. One being the fact that he now had to take on the task of making his heart not beat so fast that it burst out of his chest. The other reason, however, was because being close to another person really didn’t help at all with the heat. Like at all.
Even so, he still ended up only sighing and leaning back against Atsushi.
“It’s hooot~” Atsushi whined.
“I know.”
He heard Atsushi grumble next to him. “And I’m bored.”
“So am I.”
“Don’t you wanna do something about that?”
Akutagawa turned his head slightly, looking over at Atsushi. As he opened his mouth to speak again, he silently congratulated himself for not just pressing his lips right against the other’s cheek (and also for not ceasing to breathe entirely at seeing Atsushi’s face so close to his). “Well, do you have anything in mind?”
At that, Atsushi was silent for a moment. “Not… really, actually,” he admitted sheepishly.
And more silence.
While he pondered on if there really was anything to do, he suddenly felt hands in his hair, pulling them back. He jolted back, having not even realized that Atsushi’s chin lifted from his shoulder. “What are you doing?” he asked as Atsushi continued to pull all the hair in front of his face back. Not only that, but he was combing his fingers through it as well.
“I’m just… trying to see if i can braid it.” Akutagawa grunted as Atsushi tugged at the two strands that normally framed his face, presumably trying to bring them together.
“Seriously, ” was the only thing he could say.
“I’m bored, okay?”
He could only sigh and let Atsushi continue on.
After a few minutes of hair tugging and frustrated grunts from Atsushi, his hands finally fell from his hair.
Only for them to immediately latch on again, though this time only at the hair at Akutagawa’s right. Atsushi had scooted from his position behind Akutagawa over to his right side. “Can’t braid it all together, so I’ll just do one piece instead,” Atsushi explained. He picked out a chunk of hair, separated it into three individual strands, and began to braid them together. Considering that Akutagawa’s hair wasn’t really long at all, it only took him a few seconds to get it done. “Annnd there!” With no hair tie, Atsushi just let go of the newly formed braid, letting it fall back to Akutagawa’s hair.
He admired his handiwork for a second, taking in how the single braid looked against the rest of the other’s hair. “It looks nice,” he said. Akutagawa hummed in response, looking off to the side. As Atsushi continued to stare, Akutagawa brought his hand up, ready to start undoing the braid. Before he could, however, Atsushi grabbed onto his hand. “Ah, wait, lemme just…” He began to get up. “J-Just leave it like that for a bit.”
Atsushi stood and quickly walked off to somewhere else in the house. Curiously, Akutagawa watched as he went (and totally did not admire Atsushi’s legs, or the way that he seemed to so cutely bounce in his step–not at all). Quickly did Atsushi walk away, and quickly did he come back; although now he happened to have a cell phone in his hand. The pieces of what was about to happen began to fall in place in Akutagawa’s mind, but before he could properly process it all and make an attempt to stop it, Atsushi had already settled himself at his side once again and snapped a photo.
A tiny squee emitted from Atsushi–something that neither of them ever thought would come out of his mouth. Immediately, Akutagawa went to undo the braid, glancing at Atsushi who was looking at his phone.
“Is it really that big of a deal?” he mumbled.
“Mhmm.” Atsushi sat himself more comfortably next to the other, now leaning into his side. He held up the phone so that they could both look at it. “See? Look at it!” Akutagawa could only look at the picture of the side of his face with a braid standing out prominently from the rest of his hair in disinterest. It really didn’t look that different, and he could hardly understand what the fuss was about. “It looks cute, Ryuu,” Atsushi said quietly, and after a moment of pause, added on, “just like the rest of you.”
At that, Akutagawa really didn’t know how to respond, and so he instead instinctively looked away and brought his hand to his face. He could hear Atsushi laugh beside him, and then felt as he also hugged him.
“I’m not… cute,” he finally responded.
“I disagree.”
And then Atsushi gently pried his hand away from his face, and then turned his head, and then pressed his lips right against his–and his hand rested so nicely on Akutagawa’s cheek too, almost as nicely as Atsushi’s soft lips kissing him felt.
And Akutagawa had to guess that high temperatures and terrible humidity really did bring some great things sometimes.