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“Are you sure you’ll be ok walking home in this weather?” Emu exclaimed.
Tsukasa, Emu, Rui, and Nene all agreed that they should end practice early, as temperatures had dropped drastically from the start of practice, and it had started snowing a few minutes earlier.
“Yes, we’ll be fine!” Tsukasa exclaimed. “I swear, don’t worry about us.”
Rui and Tsukasa always walk home after practice with the troupe, and the bad weather wasn’t going to stop them from going together.
After about 20 minutes into the walk, the two had stopped talking and focused on trying not to slip on the ice. By now, the snow was coming down so heavy, it was on the borderline of becoming a blizzard.
Tsukasa, in an attempt to lighten the mood, exclaimed “What bites, but doesn’t have teeth?” Rui braced himself for what terrible joke was going to come next. “Frost!!”
Tsukasa laughed maniacally about his unfunny joke, but as he was busy cackling, Rui had, unbeknownst to Tsukasa, sped up past him.
Once Tsukasa had finally broken from his trance of his unfunny dad joke, he noticed that Rui was about 15 feet in front of him.
“Wait!! Hold on!” Tsukasa shouted towards Rui, while charging towards him.
What Tsukasa hadn’t thought about, before running at Rui, was that it was extremely icy out. Right as he was about to reach Rui, he tripped, and fell right on top of him.
Tsukasa toppled right over him, causing Rui to trip. Tsukasa had his fall cushioned by Rui. Rui, however, was not so fortunate.
He quickly got up and checked on Rui. “Are you okay??!!” Tsukasa shouted. “I’ve been better,” he replied. Tsukasa quickly noticed that Rui’s ankle had twisted as he made his descent.
After a few moments on the ground, Rui got up, but quickly fell over onto Tsukasa once again. “Oww..”
Tsukasa’s face flushed as he held Rui in his arms. I mean, his cheeks were already red before, but now they were like two tomatoes hanging off the sides of his face.
“Can you carry me home, Tsukasa-kun?” Rui pleaded, while flashing puppy eyes at Tsukasa.
This was his trap. He knew Tsukasa couldn’t decline his offer, he was always looking for excuses to show off his strength.
“Fine..” Tsukasa begrudgingly replied. He was trying to act as if he wasn’t ecstatic about Rui’s offer. Tsukasa knew rui could likely walk himself home, but would give him a hard time about it if he didn’t do it.
Rui got on Tsukasa’s back, as they started their walk home.
When the two finally reached Rui’s house, Tsukasa brought him inside and helped bandage up his ankle.
“Tsukasa-kun, you aren’t seriously planning to go out again in this weather?” Rui asked, “You’ll catch a cold if you go out there!”
“Yes, but it’s okay, I’ll be fine, I swear.” He responded reassuringly. Rui looked disappointed. “I insist that you spend the night here! I’ll pull out a futon for you.”
“Really, it’s–” Rui cut him off. “Tsukasa-kun, I insist you stay here.”
Tsukasa’s cheeks flushed, almost to the same color they were before when he and Rui were out in the cold.
“If it makes you happy, I guess..” Tsukasa trailed off. “Fufu, I’ll meet you upstairs. I’ll make us hot chocolate!” Rui had that sly look on his face like always.
Tsukasa went up to Rui’s room, and just…stood in the middle of it. He had been in this room so many times, yet he still felt a little awkward at that moment. Maybe it was because Rui was making him stay the night, or because he was alone in someone else’s room.
Rui finally limped upstairs, and Tsukasa breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure why he felt so out of place when alone in Rui’s room.
Rui gave him his drink, and Tsukasa felt the warmth of the hot chocolate in his throat. It felt great drinking something warm after being in the cold for so long.
As a few hours passed, Rui’s eyes grew more tired by the second. He fell into his bed, and started shutting his eyes.
“Wait! You still need to get out the futon for me!” Tsukasa exclaimed, but it was too late. Rui had already fallen asleep, and he knew that once he had gone to bed, there was no waking him up.
(ok i just need yall to pretend rui has a bed in his room for this next part, just bear with me please 😭)
Tsukasa considered sleeping on the floor, but realized Rui would get mad if he found out he slept on the ground. He begrudgingly climbed into bed alongside Rui.
As Tsukasa pulled another blanket over himself, he felt Rui’s soft breath on the back of his neck. He turned around to see Rui, and carefully tucked the hair covering his face behind his ear.
Tsukasa fell asleep quickly afterwards, and woke up to see Rui’s arms wrapped around him, as if he were a teddy bear. He silently panicked at the sight of this, but didn’t want to wake up Rui.
After a few minutes, Tsukasa started to sink into Rui’s arms, relishing this moment. Unfortunately for him, the moment quickly ended after Rui woke up, and realized what he was doing.
Rui slyly smirked as he realized Tsukasa was in fact, not asleep, and never bothered to wake him up, despite his cuddle.
“Tsukasa-kun?” Tsukasa’s heart dropped. His moment of glory was over, and Rui would soon be up, and out of bed. “Are you…awake?”
“Yeah,” Tsukasa replied, sadly. “I am.” Rui started to get up, but Tsukasa quickly stopped him. “Fufu, are you ok?” Rui was confused, he didn’t mean to cuddle him, and didn’t understand why Tsukasa would stop him from getting up, unless…
Tsukasa realized what he had done. What would this seem like to Rui? I mean, he wanted to stay like this as long as possible, but that would be embarrassing to admit.
Tsukasa put aside his worries, and responded, “Could we stay?” Tsukasa’s face flushed. “What do you mean?” Rui replied. He was still embracing Tsukasa, almost exactly the same as when he woke up.
“I mean…Like this? Like how we are now?” Tsukasa was extremely worried about how Rui would perceive him, but decided that this moment mattered more than any that would occur in the future.
Rui was secretly hoping he would say that. “Fufu, if you want to,” There was a long pause. “Yeah, I do.”
Rui and Tsukasa stayed like that for a while, embracing each other in Rui’s tiny bed. Eventually, Tsukasa realized he had to go, or Saki would be worried about him.
Tsukasa quickly got ready and gathered his stuff to head home, and as he left the door to go, Rui mumbled “Goodbye, my star.” “What was that?” Tsukasa quickly replied, Rui smiled. “Nothing, I’ll see you later.”