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One day of true rest. One would think one of the men with the highest statuses in the cosmos could achieve such a feat.
One would be wrong.
For Aventurine, this meant that he had to spend his day attempting to wrangle the paparazzi into not generating suggestive footage of him, getting the footage taken down, apprehending the paparazzi into question, the works. All while nursing over not exactly the worst hangover of his life, but certainly not a light one either.
When the final furbobo finally relented and deleted their draft for more gossip, he thought that would be the end. That he could spend the rest of the day lounging at the beach, and then have a lazy night in. That would be nice.
Now of course, no disrespect to Stelle, but the image of him doing the “nya” pose (her words, not his) was his final straw. With a certain level of honesty, Aventurine turned around to dramatically mope. Once he was sure Stelle had her fun, he quickly ran off, booking it back to the hotel.
Ratio and he had separate rooms mostly for appearances sake, but their things seemed to be spread evenly across both rooms. Such facts led to Aventurine needing to keep track of not one, but two different room keys. And of those two room keys, of course, he could find neither.
Feeling almost ready to cry out of frustration, Aventurine let his head flop into the door, creating a thud to precede proper knocking on Ratio’s door. Thanks to the mercy of some power somewhere in the universe, Ratio opened the door swiftly.
Aventurine quickly stood up straight, only to speedwalk into Ratio’s room and safely fall face first into the couch, tossing (read: throwing) his glasses into some corner he’ll forget about later when he actually needs to find them again. Ratio sputtered for a moment, but closed the door before doing anything else, locking it just in case. Ratio quietly asked, “Gambler, did you need something from me?” Aventurine looked up from the couch enough to see Ratio crouching down to meet him at eye level.
Aventurine rolled onto his back, head plopping onto the armrest of the couch. “I have had… a day,” Aventurine spat out, staring at the ceiling. Ratio nodded, leaving Aventurine to cool down for a moment. Unfortunately, the action seemed to have the opposite effect. Aventurine sat up, crossing his arms as his leg bounced like a sewing machine needle. “What, my own partner can’t even bear to be in the same room as me now too? Oh, how this day has gotten better even still,” he snarked, making sure to be loud enough for Ratio to hear him from whatever room he was in.
Ratio loudly spoke back from presumably the kitchen, “I am getting you some water. Please, just breathe for a moment.” Feeling petulant, Aventurine stewed in his irritation a bit longer.
When Ratio returned with the water, he set it on the end tables next to the couch before sitting down with a respectful distance between him and Aventurine. “…Am I that insufferable?” Aventurine frowned.
Ratio immediately retorted, “I merely wanted to give you proper space to process your feelings. If talking out loud is what will help, then by all means, please do.” Aventurine nodded, and Ratio could see the events of the day flooding behind Aventurine’s eyes, winding him up like a toy ready to move around and be clamorous.
Aventurine stood up, beginning to pace in front of the couch, hands clasped together. “Talk. Yeah, I’d just reaaaally love to talk. I love talking. Talking is my job. Same job that makes me one of the most recognizable men in the cosmos! The one that guarantees that li’l ol’ me does not get a single night to himself! Oh, ain’t that something! And then, of course, should I try to do so, god forbid I have fun like any other person! God forbid I drink a bit and dance stupidly. Oooohh, what a scandal. This simply must be the front page of every news network in the star system!” As Aventurine ranted, Ratio listened intently, sipping on his own glass of water. With a natural enough break, Ratio attempted to get a word in, but failed.
Aventurine continued, “And of COURSE! How could we forget?! We must simply make this even more scandalous than the concept of someone having fun could ever be stretched to be! Because why would we let anybody be entitled to privacy?!” All of Aventurines questions seemed to be rhetorical, despite Ratio’s best attempts to come up with answers. Aventurine went on, still pacing furiously, “Ah, but of course! We should just fucking generate sultry footage not just for gossip purposes, but for advertising as well! Advertisement for a product I’ve never even heard of until today!”
“The Furbobo soda or whatever it was, right?” Ratio finally got a word in, cutting off Aventurine’s furious monologue. At Ratio’s question, Aventurine seemed to freeze in place, hands dropping to his sides. “…Aventurine?” Ratio asked softly.
“You saw it.” The words clawed themselves out of Aventurine’s throat.
Ratio stood up, slowly moving in front of Aventurine, reassuringly, “I reported it as soon as I saw it. You’ve made your boundaries abundantly clear to the public, especially to me, and I knew that such a video could not have been real if it were published.”
Aventurine’s posture loosened as he sighed away the panic building within him. “…Glad to know somebody is on my side,” he commented, casually smiling like people were watching.
Ratio held a hand out for Aventurine to take. Once Aventurine accepted the hand——placing his own in Ratio’s——Ratio lowered his head to kiss Aventurine’s knuckles. “I am always on your side. That might even make it an our side, hm?” Aventurine used his free hand to attempt (and fail) to cover the blush rapidly making its home on his face. “No need to hide. Nobody is here but the two of us,” he teased lightly, taking Aventurine’s other hand as well, holding them tightly between the two of them.
Aventurine looked up to finally meet Ratio’s gaze, both of their expressions softening. Gently, Aventurine leaned his head forward, resting on Ratio’s shoulder as their hands remained intertwined. Softly, Aventurine spoke, “Thank you, Veritas. Mind if I make a request?”
Ratio nodded, (not that Aventurine could see it, anyway) “You may make your request. Whether it’s possible or not is a different matter.”
Aventurine softly chuckled. “I do not believe a good nap would be entirely off limits, would it?”
“It wouldn’t be. Shall we, then?” Ratio pulled back, locking eyes with Aventurine.
Aventurine smiled possibly the brightest he had all day as he confirmed, “We shall.”