Work Text:
Ratio is the kind of guy who has the time to turn doubts into certainty, make you wet your pants and be glad at the end of the same day.
You’d meet no such guy twice, that that is just your luck. In a way as like: ‘thank aeon there’s only one of this guy’ or if it’s more like: ‘too bad there’s only one of this guy’, you don’t know. Probably both.
In all the friends you’ve ever made, he was the toughest shell to crack, most likely the weirdest too. Your friends get second hand embarrassment seeing you next to such an arrogant person and they make sure you know that they have no idea how you even get along. If you even.
But one friend did once say you two give off such intense aura together that it’s hard to tell you aren’t one person. In other words; you compliment each other like two peas in a pot. You fit together like gloves.
And honestly, when you first heard her say it, it sounded ridiculous. Ratio? The Ratio who throws chalk at his students and asks you such intellectual level questions that fry your brain on a Sunday morning, fits with you like a glove? Don’t be absurd.
I mean, this friendship, if you even call it one, started so randomly. You met Veritas when he was teaching. You’re not a teacher, no, but you did have some business at his workplace. You were a part of an organization planning an upcoming event at the university, constantly running from one place to the other.
It took a few bumps and awkward ’hello’s’ until your first conversation started. You didn’t really think of Ratio as an arrogant guy, just little strange. Sure, his remarks cut deep for sensitive people, but all kinds of people exist these days. He has the same rights to live as someone totally different than him.
(His takes can be sometimes too harsh for you too, but don’t tell him that)
After spending a few weeks between drinking coffee together and constant sighing, you finally reaches first name basis. How great! You’re one step closer to inviting him to hangouts.
After that, your little project ended and you started seeing each other outside work, was it coincidence or through connections. This is where you first made him smile a few times, even if he tried to hide it with his plaster head.
Spending time with Veritas felt so natural, before you knew it, weeks turned into months and somewhere in that timeframe, kinds of love languages were introduced. You’d pat him on the shoulder when things didn’t go his way while teasing him, ask the barista’s to draw his face on his coffee you so generously decided to gift him, then watch his dumbfounded face.
He’d put his hand on the small of your back when places got a bit crowded, would stop putting on his sculpted head while chatting with you. At some point, he’d bring you a spare umbrella when it would rain hard as he knew you always forgot. Would listen to you complain about a weirdo hitting on you and making you uncomfortable at work, only for you to come in next day to said weirdo acting avoidant like you imprisoned his whole family.
Somewhere between the lines of acquaintances and friends, you both stopped caring about social etiquette between each other. You’d pick a leaf out of his hair while chatting and he’d do no more than give it a quick glance, he’d fix your collar when you were running late.
Your thighs touched whenever you sat down, your preferred color became his preferred color.
Being friends with Veritas felt so natural you didn’t think to consider it could be signs to something more.
It was only when someone brought it up to your attention what special treatment you get from ratio, did you dare consider that this isn’t how friends act.
What friend always pays for your drink at a coffee shop, gives, not lends, you their books because you showed little interest, makes you dinner on your sick days and brushes hair out of your face so tenderly it leaves you questioning if it happened at all.
What friend ever gave your their jacket on a freezing day without having to say anything, sided with you in every argument against strangers, let you stay at their place for as long as you’d like.
Only when one day Ratio lifted your ass onto his biceps, his other hand supporting your thighs, just so you could see over the crowd that was making a ruckus about something far away and held you for minutes like you weighed nothing, did you realize there was something deeper rooting inside, something fragile.
This is when you first considered Veritas to be more than a friend and it felt embarrassing. He doesn’t think of you as more than a friend, right? That must be his weird way of showing affection. Like a friend would.
But then the more aware you became, the worse it got. He’d sit with you in the library till midnight, helping you study and understand stuff. After noticing you’re starting to nod off, he’d carry your bag and walk you to your doorstep, chanting a quiet ‘good night’.
Other times he’d let you try sculpting, even if you were shit at it, and the next time you came over your ugly creating would be sitting by the windowsill, between his perfect ones. This would happen multiple times by the way.
The breaking point came when you were out of the city on some dangerous business and got stranded in the middle of nowhere. Weaponry has been involved at the time, and you received a nasty bullet in your left shoulder.
Ratio somehow pulled out the bullet, cleaned your would and used his clothes as bandages. You crashed in a motel inside a single room, where he was able to give you proper treatment. You ended up taking the bed and slept soundly. Only in the morning did you find out Ratio hasn’t slept at all, sitting by your side. When you asked him about it, you got a dry ‘someone has to keep watch now that they are after our lives.’
Veritas spent the next few days tending to you and taking care of the situation, together moving between motels and meetings with some important people. In two weeks, your business was complete and the people who shot you got taken care of.
You returned home, deep wound still healing, only for ratio to insist staying over at the time being. You’d spent the days playing chess and laughing at his professional way of speech. He’d cook you your favorite meals and change your bandages daily, running your baths neither hot nor cold.
It hurt from time to time when he flustered you too hard, a melancholic state ruining your day. You’d blame it on the wound, saying it was just the pain getting to you. Yet the more time you spent together the more guilt you felt.
Days with Veritas stopped being fun and you’d only zoom out. He noticed after a while, of course he did. The house became radio silent, a thick atmosphere between you two. It was spent like this for a few days until neither one of you could hold it anymore.
You were sitting on the couch when ratio came over, asking what’s the matter. You started playing with your hand, only for him to grab it from you, planting a peck on your knuckles. You could only bring yourself to stare at it in shock, a hot feeling flashing through you.
You stared until you suddenly broke, tears falling before you knew it. Ratio put his hand on your shoulder to calm you but it only made you sob more, and you came clear with everything.
From the confusion where friendship molded into more to the burn of unrequited love. You sobbed for a while, until Veritas hummed in acknowledgment. He leaned closer and wiped your tears with a calm face, before saying:
“I wasn’t aware that you weren’t of my romantic pursuit. Perhaps social cues aren’t your strong side.”