Work Text:
Rui was backstage, staying over late to pack up their robots, props, and various other things related to shows. since Emu and Nene planned to head out on a date, practice had ended earlier but Tsukasa decided to stay late to practice his lines because he claimed that "he wasn't giving it his all" in today's practice, and as for Rui, he stayed late just so he could accompany Tsukasa, although he'd never admit that out loud.
He could faintly hear Tsukasa's voice, he was staying over late to practice his lines. Rui sat the last box down as he quickly dusted his hands off.
As he walked out from backstage, he saw Tsukasa sitting at the edge of the stage, his back towards him and legs dangling down, grumbling about something.
Rui quietly approached Tsukasa, careful to not alert him to let him know that he was there. Rui tapped on Tsukasa's shoulder, startling him, it seemed like his plan worked...
"Rui, When did you get here!?" Tsukasa shrieked, dropping his pen onto the stage, the metal clanking against it, he seemed to be reading over the script of their next show.
"Hehe, caught you off guard, didn't I?" Rui said, sitting down beside Tsukasa, mischievously smiling.
The warm breeze blew by, softly ruffling their hair.
"Shouldn't we get going by now...? I mean, it's getting pretty late right?" Tsukasa trailed off, averting his gaze from Rui to the sunset.
"Hm I suppose you're right, but the sun has only just begun to set, it wouldn't hurt to sit for a while and admire the scenery, right?" Rui replied, admiring his sunset.
"...Fair." Tsukasa stated.
For a while, neither of them said anything, just staring at the sunset, occasionally stealing glances at eachother when they thought the other wasn't looking.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable, not at all, it was rather comforting—it was peaceful.
Rui finally dared to lift his head once again.
Tsukasa was staring at him with a soft smile—the one that he rarely sees, the moment Rui's head moved, he immidiately snapped his head back at the sunset in a desperate attempt to hide the blooming pink on his cheeks, but it was too late, the damage had already been done, the atmosphere turned awkward and Rui had already noticed him staring.
Gosh, he was so doomed.
"So uh, how much of the script have you gotten down so far?" Rui asked in an attempt to break the now awkward silence between them.
"Hm... Only some of it unfortunately, If I go home and practice more I'll probably get it done by tomorrow!" Tsukasa exclaimed, loosening up. He was glad that Rui decided to not mention how he was staring at him.
"I see... Well don't forget to take breaks, we wouldn't want our future star to be tired after all." Rui said, returning to his usual playful tone.
"Of course! a future star must—wait, hold on, you can't be saying that to me! If anything it's you that needs to take breaks!" Tsukasa said, his expression morphing to one of annoyance.
"My, my, Tsukasa-kun, can I not care for my dear friend?" Rui teased, feigning innocence.
"Well, care about yourself first and then you can care about other people! Tsukasa huffed out, crossing his arms. Rui had the mercy to not mention how Tsukasa tended to overwork himself, yet still lectured Rui on how he overworked himself.
"Seriously though, you need to take care of yourself, I mean—look at your dark circles..." He mumbled, sighing.
A beat of silence.
"...Did the concealer wear off?" Rui questioned, awkwardly fidgeting with his hands while quickly snapping his head away from Tsukasa as his cheeks burned with a deep pink.
"Hold up! You've been wearing concealer this whole time!? If it it's that bad, even with concealer, imagine how much worse it'd look without it..." Tsukasa said, absolutely horrified at his director's unhealthy sleeping schedule. Really, how could Rui even sleep so little and still be able to come to practice?
"Well, I don't think my dark circles are that bad... Even without makeup." Rui said, trying to defend himself. Were they really that bad or was Tsukasa exaggerating?
"Rui, have you ever looked into a mirror?" Tsukasa internally facepalmed.
"Well... I barely do, so there's that." Rui said, his embarrassment growing deeper by the second, exactly like the deep peach on his cheeks.
"I swear, I'm going to make you sleep early for a whole week starting from today!" Tsukasa exclaimed with full confidence.
"Hm? And how exactly will you do that?" Rui enquired, tilting his head with curiosity.
"It's simple! I'll be calling you everynight till you and I fall asleep on call!" Tsukasa proudly exclaimed.
"And what if I don't answer your call?" Rui playfully interrogated further, his smile widening.
"How dare you! Well I guess there's no other choice, I'd just come over then..." Tsukasa said, his palm cupping one of his cheeks as he stared at Rui.
Tsukasa... He was so beautiful, the way the sunset framed his face was truly breathtaking, his eyes seemed like a sunset of their own, oh how he could get lost in them forever. He-
Rui's thoughts were rudely interrupted by Tsukasa's ringtone, Tsukasa seemed like he got caught off-guard, too. He immediately stuffed his hand into his pocket in order to fish his phone out of his pocket.
"Hmm... it's Saki, hold up for a second, Rui." Tsukasa said as he answered the phone.
"Hello, Saki!" He exclaimed, a wide smile spreading across his face once again.
Rui couldn't exactly make out anything but the way Tsukasa's eyes widened told him that Tsukasa either forgot something or something bad happened, he hoped that it was the first option.
"I'm sorry, I totally lost track of time! Don't worry, Saki, I'm just here at the Wonderstage with Rui! I'll start heading home." He swiftly said.
Saki mumbled something that Rui wasn't able to make out once again.
"Right, okay! Bye!" He said before ending the call.
"Rui, we need to head back, quick!" He hurriedly said as he threw both his and Rui's bag over his shoulder out of habit while he swiftly grabbed Rui's hand as he dragged Rui out, Rui struggled to keep up with Tsukasa's speed but their pace slowed down as they made it to Tsukasa's house.