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Out of all of his friends, Ryuji finds himself going to Ann the most often for advice. Sure, there are situations when one of the others might make more sense to ask for help, but as the one who he’s known for the longest, she’s the friend who generally gets him the best. She could tell him what she thought in the way he needed to hear it. The thought of coming to her for advice related to his relationship still felt odd considering how long it had taken her to even realize she was in love with her own best friend, but since he and Ren were already happily dating, they could skip that particular hurdle.
“So what you’re saying is, you want to ask Ren to move in with you but you have no idea how to approach things?” Ann says without looking away from her vanity mirror.
“I mean yeah, that’s pretty much it.” He nervously rubs the back of his neck as he watches Ann do her makeup in fascination from his seat on her bed. “Whenever I think about bringing it up, my thoughts just get all mixed around.”
“So like any other day?” She teased as she capped her mascara. Ryuji scooped up one of the many pillows on the bed and chucked it in her direction. “Hey! Not while I’m doing my face!” She gestured for him to continue now that she’d gotten a jab in.
“Askin’ to find a place together feels like a huge thing and I don’t wanna get it wrong, ya know? I don’t want him to feel pressured or something if he wants to stay livin’ at Leblanc. I mean, literally being on top of the place that you work makes for a pretty solid commute.”
“That’s sweet of you, but I don’t think he’d feel pressured. If that’s what you’re worried about, then say that! In fact, I think a good solution to all your worrying is to just practice everything you wanna say before you bring it up. That way you can make sure everything sounds right before you actually have the big talk with him. I’ll even be your sounding board!”
“Okay, practicing, I can do that. So here’s what I’m thinkin’…”
Two days after a long conversation with Ann, no less than five mirror rehearsals, and decidedly less sleep than he should’ve gotten, Ryuji finds himself staring down the barrel of the question he’s been dying to ask his boyfriend. He and Ann had worked out the best way to say what he was feeling, what he wanted, and he’d run things through in practice tons of times now. He’d totally got this.
“Do you wanna move in together?!” Ryuji blurts out nervously as soon he tries to bring up all his painstakingly practiced thoughts. So much for all the rehearsing of what he was gonna say. To his surprise and continued embarrassment, Ren starts laughing. Uncontrollable giggling that gets looks from the other diners and makes Ryuji’s cheeks flush red. “If you’re gonna turn the idea down, you could at least not laugh at me! Come on, forget I said anything.”
It takes Ren a moment to calm himself down enough to respond. “I’m not, it’s not you I’m laughing at.” He tries to explain through intermittent giggles. He ends up burying his face in his hands. “Futaba is gonna make fun of me so bad for this.”
“I’m lost, dude. Why is Futaba gonna make fun of you, exactly?”
“Her and Morgana both.” And that didn’t clear it up at all. Ren reached across the table to take Ryuji’s hand in his. “They’re gonna make fun of me because I have been agonizing over how to ask you about living together, or if I even should, for weeks now. The two of them have had to listen to me go back and forth this whole time convincing myself it was too soon or that you wouldn’t want to, and then you just blurt it out over dinner. You’re incredible.”
Now Ryuji could feel himself blushing for an entirely different reason. “So you’re saying I was nervous about asking for nothing?”
“We both were, apparently.” His boyfriend confirmed.
“Shit, now what?” His plan had only covered the conversation about moving in together. He and Ann really should’ve prepared for the after.
Ren laughed again as he reached across the table to take Ryuji’s hand in his. “Now we start figuring out what we want from a place and start looking. What, you didn’t think past the asking?”
“Heh, yeah, I guess not. Well, you’ve obviously been thinkin’ about this stuff too, so whaddya looking for in a place?”
“Well, we should definitely try to get something that doesn’t have too many stairs, for starters.” Ren says decisively.
“I got no problem with that. How come, though?”
“I know you don’t like making a big deal out of it, but I also know your knee still bothers you sometimes. Especially on rainy days, even with the therapy.” It was simultaneously embarrassing and incredibly touching to be noticed in such a way.
Shifting the attention off himself, Ryuji brings up one of his most thought of needs for their future apartment. “Well I’m thinking it’s gotta be pet friendly.”
He hadn’t expected the surprised look on his boyfriend’s face at that request. “Are you saying you’re okay with Morgana living with us, too?”
“I didn’t think it was even a question, man. He’s your family, right? Where you go, he goes and all that. That is what you want, right?”
“Yeah, it is. Thank you.” Ren squeezes his hand again, smiling at his so full of love that he almost melts into the table.
“Come on, you don’t gotta thank me for that.”
“Morgana friendly housing shouldn’t be an issue, anyway. He’s registered as my emotional support animal, so we can’t be denied based on that.”
“Oh, cool! That’s one thing we don’t gotta worry about. Shoot, should we be getting his opinion on this, too? But it’s not like he can even pay rent or anything, right?”
“Yeah, he doesn’t have much in the way of money anymore now that our Phantom Thieving days are over.” Ren confirms.
“Anymore? Did he used to? I guess I never paid much attention to how we were splittin’ the loot back then. I just took what I was given, I trusted you and Makoto to keep all that straight ‘n fair ‘n shit.”
“Oh yeah, he had his own money. He had to lend me train fare one time.”
“For real? Where did he even keep it, he ain’t got pockets in the real world!”
“Thief’s secret.” Ren informed him, and he wasn’t sure if he considered it his secret or Morgana’s. Either way he was not getting an answer to that any time soon.
“Whatever, dude. Tell me what else you wanna look for in our apartment, then.” The phrase ‘our apartment’ made him excited in a way he couldn’t express. The two of them spent the rest of their date together figuring out what they wanted from a place and looking at listings. It was clear that wherever they ended up, the next chapter of their lives together was bound to be amazing, and Ryuji couldn’t wait.