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As the season transitioned to winter and the morning air began to bite at any exposed skin with its dry, cold breeze, Ritsu couldn’t help but notice a certain problem every time Takano kissed him. Unfortunately, he found the whole thing too embarrassing to bring up to his lover of four months, as he was certain it would be written off by Takano as a non-issue, and instead be taken as a side effect of their very frequent and enthusiastic skinship that he didn’t intend on lessening in the slightest.
There was certainly nothing to complain about concerning the state of their relationship as they were in a good place right now, and Ritsu’s inexperience with taking care of such a thing wasn’t Takano’s fault…but his persistence in kissing so constantly might be partly to blame.
His lips were chapped. So, so chapped. While he had his own Takano-approved skin care routine, his lips were unfortunately not so easily taken care of.
The breaking point had been when he picked at his bottom lip just a bit and he felt the taste of blood in his mouth upon running his tongue along it. He couldn’t exactly expect Takano to look past the taste of blood in his mouth and still enjoy kissing him if this happened again during their next encounter (which was likely within the next day or so, knowing the routine that they’d fallen into)…so he called upon the one person he felt would be able to help him without judgment.
“So let me get this straight…” Kohinata An sat across from Ritsu, arms crossed. “Your lips are all dried out because you and Mr. Neighbor can’t stop kissing each other at every chance you get?”
“I-I mean, that’s kind of a crude way to put it, but…” Ritsu trailed off, looking down at his lap. An had known about his relationship with Takano and had voiced her support of it, but it was still somewhat awkward to discuss such things with her considering their history. “The weather is partly to blame too. It’s starting to get all dry, you know? Even today, it’s…”
“A simple yes or no would have sufficed, Ricchan.” She huffed before a small smile graced her own lips that seemed to be in a much better state than Ritsu’s. “I’m glad to hear that things are going well between you two though. I was really worried about how things would go since most of the time you were always dancing around the topic.”
“Yeah, things are going great, so I don’t want to worry him with something so trivial.” He traced a couple fingers over the dry, pink skin. “I thought you might know better. Asking women at work would only give them the wrong idea and probably make Takano-san upset. I don’t really have much in the way of female friends, and if I talked to Mother…well, you know how she is.”
“Women aren’t the only ones that take care of themselves, Ricchan! I’m sure another man would’ve been just as helpful.” At Ritsu’s dry laugh, she paused. “...Although from the sound of it, Takano-san probably wouldn’t want you talking to another man about this either, huh?”
“That’d probably be much worse than asking a woman…we don’t have to get into the details of that, though.” He waved dismissively, not all that worried about his lover’s possessiveness as he was just as bad in that respect. “Seriously though, you look like you’re taking better care of your lips than I am of mine, so can you please give me some pointers?”
“It’s nothing much.” An shrugged, reaching beside herself and taking a small bag out of her purse, shaking part of its contents into her free hand to show them off. “I use lip balm and exfoliate as needed. And I definitely avoid biting and licking my lips. I can’t exactly say I know the extent to which Mr. Neighbor has been doing either of those things to yours, but if I were to make a guess…”
“An-chan!” Ritsu’s face broke out in the brightest red An had seen since she’d confronted him about his relationship with Takano at the hospital earlier that year.
“Oh come on, I’m sure you never get to talk about this with anyone.” She set her things aside, leaning forward and resting her chin in her hands, a grin on her face. “Tell me, is he a good kisser?”
“...I-it’s not as if I have that much in the way of experience when it comes to things like that to compare him to.” He grumbled, doing his best to be wary of their surroundings despite the private room that An had insisted on dining in.
“From the faces you keep making, I doubt any of your ex-girlfriends could hold a candle to him.” Her grin only grew at the way Ritsu held his head in his hands as if he could hide the red making its way down his neck.
“Enough about me!” He couldn’t take it anymore, attempting to change the focus from himself. “How have things been with you since the last time we talked?”
“Nope, you’re not worming your way out of this that easily, Ricchan!” She turned it right back onto him, unwilling to move on. “We saw each other at your Dad’s party recently enough, nothing has changed on my end. Your life is the one that seems far more interesting!”
“I-I don’t know how much I should be divulging without asking Takano-san…” A final try at getting her to back off.
“Heh.” She scoffed at him. “Like he wouldn’t be flaunting how lovey-dovey the two of you are if he were here. Don’t hold back! Tell me all the juicy details of how you finally got together since you couldn’t when we were around the others at the party!”
“Well…”
It felt weirdly relieving to finally be able to talk about all the recent events that went down in his life with someone who knew about his relationship with Takano. There weren’t all that many people who fell into that category that he felt comfortable talking to, so as mortifying some of the details were, when they went their separate ways after he hailed her a taxi she walked away with an up-to-date report on how good things were between him and Takano now that everything had settled down.
In exchange for giving her as many details as he had deemed appropriate enough for discussion, she walked him to the nearest shopping district and helped him pick out some products to help with his lips. It wasn’t anything too crazy, and she had even sent him a few videos with routines she’d followed that helped her maintain her shiny, smooth skin.
Of course, the last hurdle had yet to come, as Ritsu knew all too well that from the text he’d received as his train approached home that Takano was starting to wonder just what he’d left the office first today to do. He wasn’t uncomfortable telling him that he’d gone out for dinner with An as it wasn’t the first time--it was the other far more embarrassing half to the story.
He shoved his new moisturizer into his bag and lip balm into his pocket, praying that Takano wouldn’t notice. If anything, he could just say the lip balm was a free sample and that he’d run out of his normal skincare…Takano had seen him applying similar products before, so it wasn’t as if that was a secret…his acne always came back during the worst of the editing cycle after all.
<I met up with An-chan. Please don’t wait for me to eat.> Ritsu shot the text to Takano the moment he stepped off the train, hoping that would be enough.
<Okay, sounds good.> The reply came right away, but the three little dots showing he was typing remained present. <Was it spur of the moment though? You didn’t mention it before.>
<She just happened to be in the area for work today, so she reached out.> It wasn’t completely untrue. The only reason she’d been able to meet on such short notice was that she had an appointment with a client near the same restaurant they’d met up at earlier that day.
His texts seemed to die out after that. Ritsu was almost surprised that he didn’t pry about just what it was they’d talked about, but he just took it as a blessing.
One short walk later, he had made it back to their apartment building and the elevator got him up to the twelfth floor in no time. There was only one small issue, a sight that he hadn’t seen since before they got together back in August: Takano was crouched on the floor outside his front door, seemingly waiting for him.
“There you are.” He stood up, leaning against Apartment 1202’s front door. “I was starting to get lonely.”
“What has it been, two hours since we last saw each other?” Ritsu rolled his eyes, closing the distance between them with a few steps, fully prepared for the hug that he was enveloped in the moment he got close enough for it. He wrapped his arms around the wide back in front of him, squeezing until he felt a smile curling against the side of his hair. “I feel like I’m spoiling you too much lately.”
“No, far from it.” Takano pressed a kiss against his hair, just above his ear, before taking a deep breath in. “...Did you two hug or something? You have some kind of fruity scent sticking to you. Smells like a rich girl.”
“Oh, um…” It had probably been from when they were walking around the store to pick up the products he wanted. An had insisted on stopping in the fragrance section and had done a few sample sprays before picking out something for herself…but how was he supposed to explain that? “Yes, but she’s very aware that we’re together now and asked way too many questions, it was purely platonic!”
“...” Takano pulled back, hands now resting on Ritsu’s lower back. While he didn’t exactly look angry, he had that intense look to him that always shot straight through Ritsu’s ability to lie. “...We should go take a bath together so I can make you smell right again.”
“Smell ‘right?’” Ritsu repeated, not sure exactly what that was supposed to mean.
“Yeah, like me.” He took hold of one of Ritsu’s hands and tugged him along towards his place, looking a bit surprised when he felt a bit of resistance.
“C-can I just drop my things off at my place first?” Ritsu weakly pointed at the door they had been walking away from, desperate to get the purchases he’d just made out of sight.
“Fine, but if you take more than a few minutes I’m using my key.”
It had been a couple weeks since that odd exchange with Ritsu, and Takano had been growing more suspicious of him by the day.
First, there was the sudden meetup he’d had with his former fiancée that there’d been no warning about until the day of combined with the obviously girlish scent clinging to him when he got back home. Since then, he’d been jumpy every day at home whenever he’d try to join him at the sink in his bathroom to brush his teeth while Ritsu did other things. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen Ritsu applying skincare at his sink before, so he wasn’t sure what exactly he was getting so nervous about.
But besides all those things, there’d been something else going on. Something the thought of made his stomach churn and that sense of doubt that he hadn’t felt since before the two of them made things official creep in.
It was something Takano had only noticed whenever the two of them were kissing after the supposed dinner he had with An, but Ritsu’s lips were different now. They had a taste and feeling to them that he’d never felt until now.
Until now he had been confident that Ritsu wasn’t the type to cheat on him, but the timing was what he had trouble accepting as nothing but a coincidence. The events were related, of that he was certain, but what on earth could be going on that he kept tasting something…or god forbid someone else on his boyfriend’s lips?
Hell, even Kisa had commented on how shiny Ritsu’s lips were today. That meant it wasn’t all in his head. There was something going on, and he hated not knowing what.
It wasn’t as if there was much time in the day for Ritsu to do anything he wasn’t aware of considering how much time they spent around one another, be it at work or in each other's apartments or on dates, so he hoped it was all in his head.
As he found himself staring at his lover’s supple lips for what must have been the dozenth time that day as they walked home together, he decided that he’d get to the bottom of this before going to bed tonight.
“You good with leftovers today?” Takano broke the silence they’d built up around them, looking for an excuse to bring his lover home with him.
“Ah.” Somehow, even the small interjection making his mouth form a small ‘O’ shape was enough to make his heart skip a beat. “Yes, I’m fine with that if you’ll have me.”
“Of course I will, making sure you’re eating properly is one of my jobs as your boyfriend after all.” Takano gave the hand he was holding a squeeze, and Ritsu turned away in a huff as usual at the casual flirting. “I was wondering something, though…”
“Yes?” Ritsu turned to look at him again, blush still dusting his cheeks. “What is it?”
“What’s been going on with these lately?” He used his free hand to tap Ritsu’s lower lip, causing the latter to recoil back in surprise.
“D-did you overhear Kisa today or something? It’s nothing, so please don’t worry about it!” He tried to pull his hand away, but Takano’s grip on him only tightened.
“Your lips taste different when we kiss these days. Don’t tell me that you thought I wouldn’t notice.” Amber eyes narrowed at him, catching the way his Adam's apple bobbed with his nervous gulp. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on and get it over with?”
“...I-it’s your fault to begin with, Takano-san.” The grumble made him grip Ritsu’s hand even tighter.
“My fault? What could I possibly have done that made you want to kiss someone else? Or is it something that I haven’t been doing?”
“What the-? Me? Kissing someone else?!” It had been awhile since he found himself being yelled at by Ritsu like this. “How on earth is that the conclusion that you came to?! That’s not what’s going on at all, idiot!”
“What is it then?” Takano pressed, brow furrowing.
“Ugh, fine, but it’s stupid.” Ritsu pulled back his hand to rummage around in his bag, dropping whatever it was he was looking for into his lover’s waiting hand. “Unless you count using that as cheating on you, I find it incredibly insulting that you’d think I would ever do that…”
“...Lip balm?” At the sight of the stick in his palm, the tightly wound knot in his stomach came undone so quickly that he questioned if it had even been there to begin with. “That’s why you’ve been so nervous lately? That’s all?”
“W-well, we kiss so much, and the weather is dry now, so my lips were all chapped…An-chan recommended I exfoliate and buy some lip balm to help. Then we went shopping for it after we had dinner. That’s seriously all there is to it.”
“...So in other words, you were so worried that I wouldn’t want to kiss your messed up lips that you had to go behind my back to make them all silky smooth?”
“That’s not-!” Ritsu grit his teeth, doing his utmost to remind himself that they were still very much outside and the neighbors probably wouldn’t appreciate being invited into their conversation. “That’s…maybe that has a little to do with it, but is that such a bad thing…?”
“Of course it isn’t.” Takano reached out, brushing the back of his hand against Ritsu’s cheek lovingly. “I haven’t been able to stop staring at them lately. The problem is, I’m not the only one who’s been noticing.”
“I can’t help that people have eyes, Takano-san.” Ritsu pouted, mood still soured. “Unless I go around wearing a mask, people are going to see my mouth.”
“That’s not too bad of an idea…” Takano’s tone made it sound like he was legitimately considering it, making his boyfriend groan. “I’m honored you would do something like that for me though. Thank you.”
“...” Ritsu made a point to keep his eyes trained to the pavement below, wanting no part in inflating the wild ego of the man beside him any further as he allowed his hand to be taken again.
“Ritsu.” Takano called out.
“...” He still didn’t look up.
“Ritsu.” He tugged his lover closer to him this time, smiling at the way his head remained trained down even against his shoulder. “Look at me.”
“I don’t want to.” Ritsu grumbled against his gray coat. “I’m mad at you.”
Takano reached between them and coaxed Ritsu’s head back, tipping him by the chin until he was looking at him with shaky green eyes.
“I’m sorry I thought the worst, but you do have to admit you were acting pretty damn suspicious.” He nuzzled against the side of Ritsu’s head, pressing a kiss against his soft hair just as he had a few weeks ago. “You shouldn’t be worried about this kind of thing. I’ll happily kiss you until we’re old crusty men on our death beds no matter how dry your lips are.”
“Gross.” Ritsu managed a laugh despite the absurdity of the situation.
“Now that I know this was all for me though…” He gave a quick peck to his lover’s lips, only holding back due to where they were. “Let’s hurry home. I want to kiss those shiny lips of yours.”
“Fine…just please don’t overdo it.”
"I make no promises.”