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“I’m literally almost there,” Riku huffs as he careens down the stairs, nearly a 45 minute sprint from their building, having just left his dance class before Yushi finally snapped and sent Riku a calm— seething on the inside— text for being late and also a terrible friend.
“Careful down the stairs.”
“What stairs?” Riku shoves the door open and the lobby rings to alert the front desk, along with Yushi and everyone else in the country since it’s the entire nation’s business that Riku’s late for movie night, apparently. “I’m turning to our street now.”
Riku panics a bit from Yushi’s silence.
“10 more minutes, I’m really—”
“I’ll just watch it on my own,” Yushi says, flat. “I won’t play it back when you get here.”
“Yuu-chan,” Riku whines, halting when he passes by a bakery, taking a quick glance at their operating hours before lowering his phone. He winces when the door rings too. Waves his free arm in panic for the cashier not to greet him. “It’s because I had to do something important, okay? You can’t get mad if it’s important, right?”
“Didn’t you just lurk in the studio again?”
“I never lurk!” Riku points to the strawberry shortcake and gestures for three slices. “A new teacher was holding a class and I wanted to see their style.”
Yushi doesn’t reply. Riku can feel his unimpressed stare through the call.
He starts, when he’s on his way out, apologetic, “Ok, I know you didn’t go cause of movie night and I did because I’m a bad person—”
“And friend.”
Riku whines again. “But! I’ll make it up to you. Like, really. I will. Please don’t play the episode without me.”
“How you have the nerve to do this when you’re the one who wanted to watch this together is beyond me,” Yushi grumbles, sounding like he’s shifting in bed. “You told me you already finished the show… I could’ve just seen it on my own but you insisted…”
Riku catches faint voices and squeaks out a hurried, “If that’s the first kiss I’m hearing, I swear, Yuu-chan!”
“Last 10 minutes. If you’re not here before 7, I’m not waiting anymore.”
“But—”
“10 minutes,” Yushi repeats firmly, “be here by 7 PM,” then he drops the call.
“I’m here!”
Riku nearly trips as he toes off his shoes and skedaddles to Yushi’s bedroom, ignoring all the dead lights until he finds Yushi curled up on his mattress, napping with the TV still paused.
Riku sets down his set of bribes— the cake, along with the EXO album he’d impulsively bought when he saw it was already 8:05— before sliding next to Yushi and gently bumping him awake. He doesn’t wait for Yushi to stir before he feels for the remote and presses play. Smiles innocently when Yushi slowly sits up and shoots him an accusatory glare.
“I’ve been here for an hour by the way,” Riku beams. “Want me to rewind it for you?”
Yushi opens his mouth to argue. Visibly detours when he spots the cake. “...What’s that?”
“Strawberry shortcake.”
“What’s that other one?”
“EXO.”
Yushi frowns and leans over Riku’s body to grab the cake. “I already have all the albums.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t get Kai, right?” Riku tucks one forearm behind his head. “Maybe you’ll get him this time.”
Yushi busies himself with tearing open the container, struggling but fortunately succeeding in stopping himself from eating the whole slice in two bites and instead scooping up a tiny forkful of what’s left for Riku. Waits quietly until Riku notices and leans in.
“Are they really gonna kiss?” Yushi asks, frowning in distaste when cream smears over Riku’s upper lip. His frown deepens after Riku kisses his thumb when he attempts to wipe it clean. “You’ve been saying that for the last two episodes.”
“That why you wanted me to hurry?” Riku teases. “Were you looking forward to the kiss, Yuu-chan? I thought you didn’t like romance?”
Yushi scrapes the rest of the frosting in the container and shoves it into his mouth.
Riku grins. Scooting closer, he replays the episode. Wriggles so he can lean his head on Yushi’s shoulder. “I’m really sorry I took so long.”
“Mm.”
“Really. Like, really.”
“You could’ve skipped the class like I did,” Yushi replies. “It’s just weird cause you’re never late.”
“It’s the new teacher…” and that comment Riku had gotten on his instagram post that he and Yushi looked like boyfriends, that made him lose sleep for three nights because he realized they kind of do look like boyfriends? And act like boyfriends? But they’re both straight so they’re not? Can you be straight and have a boyfriend?
Yushi reaches for his arm and loops theirs together, adding another bullet to Riku’s rapidly growing we seriously look like we’re dating compilation.
Riku glances at Yushi. He’ll just say it. Whatever. It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine.
“Can you be straight and have a boyfriend?”
Yushi’s arm automatically unlinks with his. “What?”
“I don’t mean me,” Riku laughs, lying, watching Yushi focus on the screen like he’s suddenly riveted by the episode’s filler conversation. “I’m just curious.”
Yushi’s quiet for a minute. “...I don’t think that’s how it works?”
“So you can’t be a straight guy and also have a boyfriend?”
“No…”
“Someone said we looked like boyfriends.”
Yushi pauses the episode. “Us?”
“That photo dump I posted that had a bunch of pictures of us, someone commented asking how long we’ve been together. Cause apparently we seemed like such cute boyfriends.”
Yushi’s eyes are so wide. Probably also dry. “...Us?”
Honestly, Riku sort of agrees with the commenter. After deliberation, and by that Riku means those couple of nights he wasted going over every conversation he’s ever had with Yushi instead of getting some desperately needed quality sleep— he found that the comment… wasn’t completely baseless.
Half of Yushi’s instagram feed are shots of Riku he’s taken when Riku isn’t looking. Riku’s story archive is just the dinners they’ve had since they started being building-mates— or two people with two shared apartments, really, because they walk into each other’s place like they own either and both. Like, there’s a sprinkle of their other friends there, other activities, posts of them playing volleyball, soccer, highlights of Yushi crushing other players in his favorite video games, but a quick scan through both their profiles gives an identical conclusion.
They’re with each other way too often. There are way too many pictures of them together. Yushi comments ‘I love you’ on all of Riku’s selfies. It makes total sense people think they’ve got something going on.
“But why?”
Riku shrugs and says, “I don’t know,” even though he does.
“Wait, is that why you were late?” Fuck. That’s Riku’s least favorite tone. Riku averts his gaze but still sees Yushi’s face fall in his peripheral vision. “You didn’t actually want to come over?”
“Yuu-chan,” Riku replies. “Come on.”
Yushi stays quiet.
“I was still thinking about it and I didn’t know how to bring it up. It’s not because it made me not want to hang out with you.” Riku meets Yushi’s eyes again, Yushi’s gaze firm and argumentative until it flickers into something resembling hurt. The expression has Riku’s arms unconsciously gravitating towards Yushi to wind around him. “Oh my god, but see. They’re really onto something. Don’t we totally look like boyfriends right now? Isn’t this what a boyfriend would do?”
Yushi doesn’t respond, just slides down the bed allowing Riku more comfortable room to snuggle against him.
“Should we start considering it?” Riku asks, his temple returning to Yushi’s shoulder as he gazes off into space. “Am I straight or do I have a boyfriend…”
Yushi stiffens against him. Riku takes that as his cue to back away except Yushi makes one of those defiant noises he makes that only other felines could hear.
Thankfully, Riku catches it. “Does it bother you?” Riku leans up to see Yushi’s response. Tightens that arm around Yushi’s waist before Yushi’s silence devolve into sulking. History has proven it’s a slippery slope. “I thought I didn’t like it at first but then I was like— it didn’t actually bother me? What bothered me was the possibility that they might be seeing something I couldn’t? Like what if this was an eyebrow blindness situation?”
Yushi sideeyes him.
“You know!” Riku himself barely knows but there was one time his sister tagged him and his other sister on a TikTok and Riku sort of, somewhat, understood. “When someone posts online and they ask what they should change about their make up— and their eyebrows look like a kid colored them in and completely ignored all the lines. Like it looks sharpied on. Like it’s just two solid wonky colors instead of their eyebrows. But they can’t tell cause they’re so used to seeing it on their face so someone on the internet has to tell them, sister, let’s put down the pencil…”
Yushi’s looking at him like he’s speaking a different language.
“It’s a thing! Anyway, that’s not the point—”
“Oh, there’s a point?” Yushi finally replies.
“The point is,” Riku says, “what if I was like, gay for you and I don’t even know?” Riku ignores Yushi’s worsening state of confusion. “Like what if I like you like that, and that’s why people think we’re boyfriends, but I’m not aware I like you like that and I should thank that commenter for bringing it to my attention?”
Yushi stares, takes a deep breath, then wriggles in Riku’s arms until they loosen so he can shift and tell Riku, face to face, “Do you think you could be gay?”
“I don’t know. I’ve had a crush on a guy but I always figured it was an envy thing.”
“You mean Jaehee?”
The fact that Yushi instantly knows who it is is making Riku blush but— “Yeah.”
“So… if you were gay, Jaehee would be your type.”
“I guess?” Riku lies on his back and counts the tiny cracks on Yushi’s ceiling. “He’s tall and always does things for me. He also looks like he’d take someone seriously. Like he’d actually plan dates and special occasions, plus one time he played the theme song of Your Name on the piano cause he knew I liked it and it was really romantic.”
“...Ah.”
Riku sideeyes Yushi back, recognizes the dark shadow, then moves again to cuddle with him. “But obviously, Yuu-chan would be my top pick.”
Yushi scoffs. “And as your top pick, of course you’d choose to mention me after Jaehee.”
“I didn’t even know you wanted to be included!” Riku exclaims, so impossibly close Yushi’s clothes might merge with his skin. “Now that I do, Yuu-chan is still the prettiest, and clearly the perfect choice.”
“Right…”
“Yuu-chan is still the most amazing, and could probably win piano competitions even though he doesn’t play.” Riku nuzzles his face against Yushi’s neck after Yushi rolls his eyes and mutters, “Maybe you should ask Jaehee to watch these shows with you instead of settling for your alternative…”
“Why would I want anyone but my Yuu-chan?” Riku adds, trying to speak over him. “My angel Yuu-chan. My passive aggressive Yuu-chan—”
“And there’s Sion too so I’m not even second—”
“My Yuu-chan,” Riku says more firmly. “Who I don’t have to wonder with if he’ll take our dates seriously, and me seriously, because he already does.” Wow, Riku’s not even really exaggerating. That commenter was spot on. “My Yuu-chan, who’s already mine,” he continues, surprised with himself he believes it. And that he’d believe it too, if Yushi had said it vice versa. “Why would I choose anyone else over that?”
yuu-chan
are you still outside
sorry
the professor’s rambling and won’t end the lecture…
me
its okayy
sions waiting with me
yuu-chan
ok
me
as a friend
waiting with me /as my friend/
yuu-chan
👍
me
omg
wait.
are you jealous??
are we really boyfriends now??
boyfriends get jealous right??
YOU WERE LOWKEY JEALOUS DURING MOVIE NIGHT TOO
OMFG!!!!!!!
WE’RE GAY
me
oh my god just realized we’re really gay
idk anything about being gay
just looked it up and now i know too much about anal
bottoming scares me
dibs on being the top………
me
yuuchan you have to do so much work just to bottom
ill look up how to be a good top 😇
ill just help u deal with all the other stuff 😇
me
YUUCHAN THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF AN ERA
WE HAVE TO GO TO NICHOME
FIND OUR PEOPLE
ALSO I THINK I MAY BE BISEXUAL
me
feeling weirdly excited over kissing u……
thats kinda crazy
is that a straight thing 2 say
yk this isnt the first time ive imagined that
i may have been bisexual for u all this time.
me
just realized uve never said u liked guys
do i really have to date jaehee cause youre not into me like that?
yuu-chan
?
me
i knew mentioning jaehee would make u reply
jealous /and/ gay AF 🤣🤣🤣
“But are you, really?” Riku asks, careful as he dabs on shiny gloss over Yushi’s bottom lip. “Think about it. Are you attracted to me or are you just going along with this cause I’m so excited?” He leans back to examine his work. Layers on more product on Yushi. “Cause it could also be friend jealousy, I read something like that, when you’re jealous cause you’re friends, but not because you want to date the person.”
Yushi’s staring at the faded graphic print of Riku’s old tshirt.
“It’s okay if you’re not, by the way,” Riku says, just in case. “But you’ve barely said anything, so I don’t know if you’re feeling something like peer pressure or—”
“No.”
“...No?”
Yushi shakes his head. Parts his mouth more open so Riku can get his inner lip.
“No, it’s not friend jealousy?” Riku can’t help himself. “No, you’re not feeling pressured?”
“It’s neither of those.”
“What you’re telling me is you do want me as your boyfriend,” Riku murmurs, smearing more gloss on Yushi before setting the tube aside so he can clean the edges with his finger. “That’s so cute.”
The room’s silent for a second, then Yushi says, off-beat, “...I’ve always known. That it wasn’t friend jealousy.”
“Hm?”
“I know. I’ve always known.”
Riku blinks, the confession saturating in his head before he inches away to look at Yushi properly.
Oh. Ohhhh.
He’s always known.
“You weren’t ready to tell me?”
He finds the answer on Yushi’s face, stony and resistant. Yushi was never going to tell Riku. It wasn’t even on the back up options of his plans.
“Ah, was it scary?” Riku asks softly, a tiny smile forming on his lips when Yushi nods. This gloss looks so pretty on him. Maybe he can put some on Yushi’s eyelids. “Don’t have to be scared anymore cause we’re literally boyfriends now.”
“...I keep thinking you’re joking.”
Riku makes a hurt sound. “How could I be joking? I told my sisters and everything.”
“You told your sisters?”
“Yes? They advised me what make up to get,” Riku replies, remembering that godawful sermon he’d gotten after proudly telling them he’s at the self-service check out because he saw cute gloss on a display and thought it would look cuter on Yushi. It was apparently ‘not for Yushi’s undertone’ and they went on about it for eternity like Riku actually cared what undertone Yushi has. Riku just wanted to be praised for his effort?! “They sent me tutorial videos, too. Oh, and they told me you were really pretty.”
The tips of Yushi’s ears turn pinker than the gloss. He fidgets with the rest of the make up seemingly in an attempt to distract from it.
“Do you agree with them?” Riku prods, biting back a grin. “Are you really pretty?”
Yushi wordlessly pops open the eyeshadow. He reaches for the free brush as well.
“I’m very fortunate to be dating Yuu-chan, I know that.”
“But you’d feel better with Jaehee and Sion.”
Riku lets out a long whiny noise of complaint that Yushi finally softens at.
“Should we tell them?” Yushi asks, Riku guiding his hand up when he starts applying brown shadow on Riku’s cheek bone.
“Tell who what?”
“Our friends. That we’re…”
Riku steers Yushi’s hand again because the brush keeps shifting towards his middle face. Riku almost wants to show Yushi the print that says eyeshadow. “They all think we’ve been going out. I was talking to Sion hyung about dating spots and I remember him saying something like, ‘But haven’t you already gone there with Yushi?’ And I was like… yeah? So what?” Riku clicks his tongue. “I’m pretty sure he took that as me saying it didn’t matter we’d go on a date there again. As opposed to, it didn’t matter because that wasn’t a date and we’re just friends.”
“So we’re not gonna tell them.”
Riku takes the brush because Riku may be a novice at applying make up but he’s lightyears ahead of whatever Yushi’s trying to do to his face. “There’s nothing new to tell.”
“They’ve been thinking it but we never confirmed it,” Yushi grumbles.
Riku’s gaze stays on Yushi for a few seconds, then he’s quickly fishing his phone out from his pocket, pointing the back camera at Yushi for his instagram story. Takes a quick shot of him using those grumpy kitten eyes then slaps on that pink filter for some romantic atmosphere. “Couldn’t… have asked… for a better… boyfriend. Heart. Heart. Arrow heart. My Yuu-chan. Star, star.” Riku presses post. Forwards the story to their group chat as soon as it goes live. Yushi’s cellphone vibrates in notification on the nightstand. “Done!”
Yushi pauses, reaches for his own device, brows furrowed in concentration as he unlocks the screen. Then he’s pointing his back camera at Riku too, his shutter going off just in time for Riku to hurry up and pose a wink for him. Riku scoots next to Yushi so he can see what he’s doing.
“You need to add more hearts,” Riku suggests, after Yushi’s typed out a simple and soulless Riku that’s nowhere near as sappy and couple-like as Riku’s caption was. And Yushi was the one who’s been harboring a crush! This is misleading! “Add one for every week you secretly liked me.”
Riku giggles and lets himself fall as Yushi pushes him sideways with a fist to his bicep. Then he yanks Yushi down onto him, laugh combining with Yushi’s groan as Yushi topples into his arms.
Riku takes the phone from Yushi, extending his elbow to catch the full view of Yushi molded against him. “Say, Riku I forgive you for everything you’ve ever done because you’re the best and I love you!”
“Riku, you’re the best and I love you,” Yushi says, eyes twinkling on the screen as the camera captures him leaning his head closer to Riku. He takes the device back, redoes the same angle and retorts, “Say, Yushi I won’t be annoying anymore so I wouldn’t have anything to apologize for in the first place.”
“Yuu-chan, let’s keep our wishes realistic,” Riku replies in sing-song, raising a peace sign next to his eyes. “Cheeeese!”
“Cheeeese,” Yushi responds, taking the fourth of this night’s more than a hundred pictures. (Only a grand total of two of them make it out of Yushi’s camera roll, but as hard as he may try, Riku still sees him discreetly making them a separate locked album.)
yuu-chan
riku
me
my baby angel robot kitty cat HELLOoo
why are u still up
yuu-chan
what’s my name on your phone
me
???
yuu-chan
yuu-chan
ok
me
???
why
whats my name on urs
yuu-chan
.
me
what
thats my default
you didnt even change it?!?!?!!!!
yuu-chan
why should i
my name’s just yuu-chan
me
omfg
at least its ur name!!!!!
are you really not changing it
ARW U RLY NOT
yuu-chan
.
me
OMFG!!!!!
btw bring a jacket tmrw they cleaned the ac
you might get cold in the studio
yuu-chan
i love you .
yuu-chan unsent a message.
me
do u really if u wont change my name🤔🧐💭
yuu-chan
how will i do that
am i the government?
yuu-chan
[screenshot.png]
yuu-chan unsent a message.
yuu-chan
👁️❤️👉🐈⬛
🐈👈🙈😖☠️😵🪦
yuu-chan
riku i love you
are you mad at me
yuu-chan
i love you
you were typing
you stopped
i love you
are you mad at me
yuu-chan
i love you
i love you
yuu-chan
[image.jpeg]
[image.jpeg]
[image.jpeg]
i love you
me
cutie
i was looking for emojis and then i was asleep?!??
not mad<3 was just exhausted!!
yuu-chan
can ipleasedelete.
iwant to doe
me
👍✅🥺🐈⬛🫶🐈
i love you too :)<3
“Um, yeah,” Riku says, or hopes he says, because all his blood rushing down south is making it a challenge to form anything comprehensible.
Yushi turns his head from where he’s been lying on the studio floor, flushed from the last class and sweat making his hair stick to his forehead. None of it on its own is giving anything— erotic. Riku’s seen this exact image countless times before. Truth be told, all of them under this teacher see Yushi lounging like that on the regular. It’s just that today, specifically, Yushi’s so…
Like with the panting and the flushed skin and this sphinx-like position… when for the past few days Riku’s been riddled with ways to facilitate that first kiss, he’s so…
“Ramen, then? Or chicken. Can we grab famichiki on the way?”
Riku blinks rapidly. “...What?”
Yushi rises to crawl towards him, and then everything he says starts sounding like stray cats howling to Riku.
He’s… hot? Oh dear god? He’s never thought that about his Yuu-chan ever. Pretty, is a given. Adorable, all the time. But sexy?! Seductive?! Fuckab—
Riku’s so confused by this new emotion he says, “Sure,” even though he hates famichiki— he likes nanachiki, a staunch loyalist of the number one chiki and a firm believer than famichiki’s way too greasy to be considered the best— and continues with, “You’re right, it is better,” when Yushi begins comparing the two to get a rise out of him, even though he believes that famichiki’s only advantage is being the first and nanachiki has undoubtedly overtaken and reigned superior.
“Are you okay?”
Riku is fine. He thinks he’s kind of horny? But not like he wants to have sex horny? He just wants to touch Yushi everywhere while his tongue’s in Yushi’s mouth and also grab his ass a little, that kind of horny? Does that type of horny exist? Fuck, maybe it is wants to have sex horny.
Yushi tilts his head at him. “You’re blushing.”
“Am not,” Riku petulantly defends, too busy attempting to rearrange his thoughts to come up with a better reply. He flinches when Yushi reaches up to— wipe his sweat, Yushi’s surprise showing for a beat before it disappears.
Riku grabs his hand in a panic and returns it to his forehead.
“Terrible save,” Yushi notes, making a face, but doesn’t pull his arm back. Uses the side of his hand to dab against Riku’s skin. “Quit looking at me like that.”
Riku didn’t mean to be looking at Yushi like anything. “How was I looking at you?”
“I don’t know,” Yushi mumbles.
“You don’t know?”
“Just—” Yushi’s voice has lowered, along with his hand. “What were you thinking about?”
At least oral, would be option A. Sliding my— Neither sound like appropriate choices. “...Nothing.”
“You’re being weird.”
“How am I being weird?” Riku retorts, glancing outside the glass walls when the light automatically turns off. No classes scheduled after them. They should probably get going. “It’s not like I’m trying—”
“You were looking at—” Yushi’s glowering at Riku accusingly like he’s done some despicable crime. He’s also so red Riku’s getting a bit worried.
“At what?”
“Nowhere.”
“Nowhere?”
“...My mouth,” Yushi finishes, resentful but quiet, before he hurriedly pushes himself up and makes his way out of the studio.
“Wait— Yushi!”
Riku groans as he scrambles after him. Yushi’s so quick he’s skittered down to the ground floor by the time Riku catches up to him.
“Stop running, oh my god, I’m already so tired from class—” Riku makes an mph sound on the sidewalk, eyes squeezing shut as he bumps into Yushi’s back. Steps away instinctively as Yushi swivels to face him.
“You— why were you doing that?” Yushi asks, aggrieved with a bone to pick, faithful to delivering this offended tone as if Riku actually did anything.
Why is it a big deal even? So what if Riku was looking at his mouth— it’s a nice mouth. Has nice lips, a nice shape. Looks pink and like it’ll be soft to kiss—
“You’re doing it again!” Yushi’s voice has reached inconceivable heights in his outrage, and then he’s zooming off presumably to make sure Riku exhausts all the energy he has left just to chase after him.
“Yuu-chan, I’m a patient person,” Riku begins, panting and sweating as he slows down next to Yushi, “but if you run off a third time, I swear I’m getting in a cab.”
“You wouldn’t,” Yushi replies.
“I would—” Riku falters at Yushi’s side glance. “Alright, fine, I wouldn’t, but still,” he whines, defeated. “Feel bad for me! My legs are about to fall off!”
“You can’t look at me like that in public,” Yushi mutters, then seems to realize the multiple layers of meaning that request implies and almost starts sprinting into the distance again if not for Riku’s hand grabbing his arm.
Riku’s slowly losing more grasp of the reason behind Yushi’s tantrum. “No one was even around?”
Since physically running away is no longer an option, Yushi seems to have resorted to spiritually deserting Riku.
“Yuu-chan.”
Riku squints, then pokes Yushi’s waist as they turn to a corner. Laughs in triumph when Yushi bends sideways before swatting his hand.
“Why are you so embarrassed?”
And because Yushi has found a secret third method to vanish, which is, speedwalking like he’s late for an important appointment so he can make Riku heave so much he won’t be able to get a word out, Riku yanks him into an alley next to the same bakery he once bought Yushi’s bribery cakes from.
“Now,” Riku says measuredly, hands on Yushi’s shoulders, “talk.”
Yushi gawps, but appears to recognize there’s no way out of the current situation and says, reluctant, “...Maybe we shouldn’t have tried this.”
“You mean dating? Why? Cause I wanted to make out? You are aware that people in relationships—”
“I know boyfriends make out!” Yushi hisses. Then flusters again. Then looks around as if to check if there’s anyone else who’d seen or heard. “I just… I don’t think…”
“We don’t have to make out.” Riku says it to be soothing, but then Yushi doesn’t react and keeps staring at the wall like those real estate posters personally attacked him and— “...You know it’ll be good even if you haven’t done it before, right?”
Yushi’s jaw drops. “I’ve done it before!”
“Are you sure—”
“Riku!”
“I’m just saying! If you haven’t, I don’t really care. And if you have but don’t want to anymore, that’s fine, too.” They can hold hands and snuggle or whatever. Maybe if Riku reads enough instagram comments from Yushi he’ll get an orgasm. “We can just stay how we are but call each other boyfriends. It’s our relationship. We can do whatever we want.”
He genuinely thought he was making an excellent case, but Yushi doesn’t seem comforted at all and even looks like Riku just said the worst possible thing he could’ve said at that moment, so Riku recants, “...I’m getting the feeling I’m way off so please just tell me before I start guessing again.”
Yushi opens his perfect, tender-looking, shouldn’t be stared at but still very kissable mouth. Closes it again. Open, close, open—
“What if you don’t like it?” he finally says, hushed.
“It’ll be good anyway.” Riku’s kissed a bunch of people and he couldn’t tell who was great and who wasn’t. Some of them were actually guys, mostly on drinking games— wasn’t really that different. He bets if all of them looked like Yushi however, he would’ve had a generally better experience. “Even if it’s bad, it’s with you, so like.”
Yushi meets Riku’s gaze with a softness in his eyes that only comes out when he’s around Riku. Or in front of the dessert menu.
“Even if you use too much tongue—” Riku smiles at Yushi’s whine, “—or not enough tongue, and you start darting it at me in the middle like a reptile—”
“I’m not gonna do that,” Yushi counters, insulted.
“But even if you do, is what I’m saying,” Riku adds, rubbing his hands up and down Yushi’s arms before cradling Yushi’s jaw, trying to mentally convince himself it would be an absurdly bad idea to bite his cheeks. “Even if you do. Even if you do worse. Even if you’re the worst kisser to have ever kissed anybody on the planet,” Riku answers Yushi’s weary stare with a cheeky grin, “As long as it’s you, I’ll still like it.”
Okay, Riku knows what he said and he stands by it 100%, but also—
“Yuu-chan,” Riku groans, struggling not to get his avatar shot while Yushi’s sitting on his lap and doing everything he can to make him lose this game. Turns out all Yushi needed was the loving nudge of reassurance. Now he likes kissing so much half the time they’ve been spending together has been devoted solely to that. “They’re gonna get mad if I die again.”
Yushi responds by holding his face and planting a fat smooch against his mouth. Riku screeches when he sees the screen change behind Yushi’s head, peeking over his shoulder to find that— yeah. His character’s dead.
He mutes his headphones before he can get the chance to hear his teammates yelling at him.
“Is it over?” Yushi asks happily.
“You’re in a mood today,” Riku says, leveling Yushi with a scolding look, that Yushi completely ignores so he can restart putting his lips on Riku. Truthfully, Riku was a little annoyed largely because he kept getting cussed out by random strangers, but he also kind of loves when Yushi’s affectionate— platonic or otherwise— so he switches his mic back on, mumbles a quick apology then maneuvers Yushi so he can shut down the console.
“I win.” Yushi slides off him to lie on the seat of the couch, legs still on Riku’s lap, peering back at Riku with what Riku can only describe as a shameless come hither expression.
“Am I being seduced right now?” Riku asks, shifting so he can crawl on top of Yushi.
“Mn.”
Riku squints playfully as Yushi’s arms loop around his neck. He lets Yushi tug him down for another kiss, grinning as Yushi’s legs spread so he can slot himself in between. “Hey, Yuu-chan.”
“Yeah?”
“Have you learned how to bottom yet?”
Yushi grunts and whacks Riku on the back.
“I’m really asking!”
“...Yes.”
“What do you think? Would you be okay with that?” Yushi’s pain tolerance isn’t the best though. Frankly, it’s pretty abysmal. He winces and whines from the small shock of that lie detector device— Riku can’t even feel that thing.
Maybe Riku should do it first? At least while they figure out how to not accidentally hurt each other? Does Yushi know how they can not accidentally hurt each other? He said he’s always known.
Riku tamps down the unreasonable irritation he feels from the high likelihood of Yushi having done this before too.
“I’d…” Yushi clears his throat. Stares at the TV like he’s telepathically commanding it to switch back on. “Be okay with it.”
After over a year of being friends, Yushi’s about as difficult to read as three-minute yakisoba instructions. “Oh, you want to do it.”
“I never said that.”
“Doesn’t make me wrong.”
Yushi groans, then starts mumbling things that sound like he’s wishing for a railcar to magically spawn in the living room and run him over.
“Yuu-chan, have you slept with a guy before?”
Yushi’s head whips towards him. He’s staring. Observing.
Riku pouts, abruptly tired. He drops his weight on Yushi. He feels so heavy. “Damn, I knew it was a long shot but I was still kind of hoping.” His irrational anger towards these unnamed men joins his earlier irritation. Riku’s a little surprised with how he’s feeling. He’s so much more jealous than he thought.
“With you, it’ll be better.”
“Well, obviously it’ll be better?” Riku says, genuinely bewildered. Like that was ever in question? Riku will absolutely be better. Who was thinking any different? “It would’ve just been vastly more romantic if things went my way.”
“Your way was straight up until two months ago,” Yushi points out.
Riku groans loudly. “Yeah, ok, that’s on me.”
“It’s most certainly on you.”
“Don’t be mean,” Riku whines, leaning up to see literally all of Yushi’s teeth. “Why are you happy?!”
“I’ll be your first,” Yushi says, proud and annoying. Riku was worrying for nothing. That wide grin on Yushi— he could be doing acrobatic routines in bed for all Riku knows. “Poetic justice for thinking of Jaehee and Sion before me.”
“Ugh.”
“I’ll never let it go.” Yushi has made that abundantly clear.
“I mean, we’re not really exclusive, so technically I could still—” Riku stops when he sees Yushi’s expression. He’s reminded swiftly that he does have a first too. And then he had phoned his extra quiet best friend the next day who he thought just liked saying I love you to him often. His best friend who seemed so downcast that morning listening to him babble about how amazing his first time was and how he was pretty sure he was in love with his girlfriend at the time, and pouted and avoided him for the rest of the week for no apparent reason. The reason is showing itself now, in bright neon colors.
“What am I saying? We’re so exclusive we’re practically married.”
Yushi replies, “That’s right.”
Riku laughs, then deflects further, because he hates when Yushi’s upset, “Should we take turns to see which one we like doing?”
“What if we like doing the same thing?” Yushi asks, and it’s in the same worried tone he used when they had that making out conversation so Riku already has a bit more experience how to handle it. This tone with Yushi’s virtually nonexistent endurance for getting hurt— it’s fear. It’s a preemptive squeal of pain. “Some people break up over that.”
“We’ll just take turns forever?” Riku says, Yushi predictably flashing his dessert soft-eyes at the use of the word forever. “I really don’t know how it’s a problem. Like we both have the same parts.”
Yushi stills, and then he’s shaking under Riku from how hard he’s giggling. Riku feels like he’s missing something, but he prefers whatever makes Yushi happy so Riku just joins him.
“Even if we didn’t, you know one time I went out with this girl who had a strap,” She’d asked Riku if he wanted to try it but he’d been too freaked out because it was almost the size of her forearm. It just seemed logistically insane. Unfortunately they broke up before she could get a smaller one. “So like, toys. That’s always an option.”
“Everything’s so simple for you, huh,” Yushi says when his laughter dies down. He pokes Riku’s cheek. “Handing out solutions for all problems.”
“My only concern is I have to be great at whatever position I’m in.”
Yushi smiles and pokes again, “Because Riku’s the best.”
“Undeniably the best,” Riku agrees. Especially for Yushi. He turns his head to peck Yushi’s fingertip. “Have to live up to your probably very extreme fantasies of me—”
Yushi wipes all emotion from his face. “There are no fantasies.”
“Don’t lie—”
“No fantasies,” Yushi repeats, overly defensive. Riku pushes himself up again to squint. Yushi holds it for a second then groans and hauls Riku back onto him. “...Fine—”
“Called it.”
“There’s some,” Yushi continues more quietly, “but they’re not extreme…”
“Tell me,” Riku says, rubbing his face against Yushi’s neck before planting a soft kiss against his jaw. Starts nipping it. Yushi shudders. “Maybe we can do them.”
Riku initially thought he’d be a bit uncomfortable, what with there being two sets of dicks and balls in his bed and one of those sets being Yushi’s, but he comes to find he actually likes that. Maybe a little too much, honestly. Probably also because it’s Yushi’s.
The problem is—
“Like this?”
Riku can feel everything. Hot and tight, drastically more intense with Yushi all spread out for him. He slides in a third finger, wetting his lips as lube smears against the sole of his palm.
“You’re sweating so much,” Yushi notes faintly, sounding more of an observation than a complaint.
Riku runs like a furnace. In the summer he can soak through his tshirts. But in this particular instance, “I think I’m just really nervous.”
Riku doesn’t know why— this is Yushi he’s talking about. Yushi once walked in on him jerking off then still proceeded to take the hoodie he liked stealing from Riku. Walked out to go about his day then had dinner with Riku that night like nothing happened.
He’s also been oriented, literally, just 15 minutes ago. Watching Yushi’s shyly horny demo on how to finger someone was undoubtedly a gigantic leap in where they stand. But Riku’s ears didn’t ring until now, louder when Yushi shifts his attention to the wall like Riku can’t feel his eyes on him when he’s not looking. Riku’s so nervous. And so turned on he’s seeing white. He can’t decide which one he’d prefer feeling.
“Yuu-chan.” Riku swears Yushi’s releasing those soft breaths to torment him. It’s so quiet in the room. That and the slick sound of his fingers are all Riku can hear. “I don’t know why I didn’t say you.” A distant thought coming to the surface. “It should’ve been you.”
Yushi meets his stare. The corners of his lips tilt upward. “...You can’t find it, can you?”
Riku pretends he can’t hear him.
“It still feels good,” Yushi reassures, because the yakisoba instructions go both ways, and he can also read Riku.
“Can you at least tell me if I’m getting warmer?”
“Try asking Jaehee and Sion.”
Riku finally breaks and whines, “Don’t be like this.” His free hand squeezes the back of Yushi’s thigh. He already learned the typical signs, like that startled moan that came out of Yushi earlier that’s going to stay in his solo sessions for the rest of his living days. But how to achieve those signs— “Don’t you want to enjoy yourself?”
“I am enjoying myself,” Yushi replies, and then he gives Riku a brief glance as if to say, because you’re struggling, and for a second Riku’s floored by how funny Yushi is he consciously has to stop himself from cooing while his fingers are still inside Yushi. Another tiny degree added to the tilt of Yushi’s lips. “Maybe you can pray and the god of prostates will reveal it to you in a dream.”
“Yuu-chan.”
Riku kind of wants to request to listen to a song of some sort— maybe that loud one Yushi was obsessed with during exams week where they chant about wolves— as an encapsulation of how he’s feeling. He also kind of wants to interrogate Yushi, prod on why he’s so relaxed and so okay with displaying himself for Riku to see.
He seems so at ease in this very revealing legs up eagle-wide position, albeit a little red in the neck and ears. Acting like he doesn’t scurry out the door so he wouldn’t have to interact with anyone in class two seconds after dismissal, or like he isn’t so easily embarrassed he legitimately tried looking for universities in a different country that one time Riku joked he went into the wrong hall.
Maybe he just loves Riku so much. Maybe. If that’s it, then that’s good. Riku loves him so much too.
Riku feels for that lump he’s been searching for again. He’s almost certain he locates it when he twists his hand palm up, but Yushi’s not reacting in any special way because he’s cruel and is still bitter about not being Riku’s top pick. “Is it here?”
Yushi’s resolute in being unhelpful, closing his eyes like he can’t even be bothered to watch Riku as he plays mind games with him.
Riku gives a gentle stroke, carefully scrutinizing Yushi’s face. He squints, then applies more pressure, because everything in here’s smooth and soft except for this particular spot, and he refuses to be tricked into losing it after taking forever to feel it. Yushi’s so goddamn stubborn even when his dick is copiously leaking he still tries to keep his poker face.
Several more intentional attempts later and Riku earns a stifled moan and a satisfying whole body twitch. Riku grins in victory as Yushi huffs, “It was never that hard to find,” before he lets out another high noise because Riku’s resumed rubbing into his prostate.
“That’s hot,” Riku breathes, because Yushi is, both visually and to the touch. He’s so naked. Squirmy and whiny and naked. Riku’s seen him naked before but not like this— not in a completely innocent trip to the onsen, not in the shower rooms after practice. Nothing to shadow the simple fact that this is just… Riku and Yushi, together in Riku’s bed, while Riku still has his boxers on and Yushi’s vulnerable and naked.
Riku pulls his wrist back before aiming in the same direction. Yushi’s raised leg jerks.
It all feels a little surreal, like Riku shouldn’t be here because it’s unimaginable to him he’s being allowed to see this. Unimaginable how this moment is just for him.
“A picture lasts longer,” Yushi gasps, and Riku takes it literally— dumbass— before he realizes Yushi’s making fun of him.
“I was seriously about to get my phone,” Riku replies, then gets a muted I wouldn’t mind from Yushi that has the ringing in his ears rocketing to a deafening pitch. What? “Yuu-chan,” he warns, “you don’t want to be saying that to me.”
Riku massages his middle finger up, Yushi curling his fists into the sheets before he whimpers in defeat and grinds into Riku’s hand.
“Riku—”
“What if I wanted to film it?” Riku asks, because now the thought is there and determined to stay. The fact that Yushi even said it— Yushi? He would never. Not faceless nudes, not dick pics, he wouldn’t even consider. But for Riku. “Would you let me?”
“This angle’s crazy,” Riku whispers, while Yushi twists and turns next to him trying to figure out the best way to cuddle. Riku raises his phone when Yushi crawls on top of him, lying down on him lifelessly before Riku uses his head as a stand for the screen. Yushi’s so loved up he doesn’t even complain. Riku won’t be surprised if he starts purring a little.
“Seriously, this is crazy.” Riku resists a scandalized gasp. His first load is foaming around Yushi’s asshole. Yushi’s caterwauling in the video like he’s losing his whole mind. “Oh my god. Why is this kind of changing my life right now?”
“I’ll never watch that,” Yushi declares, apparently unsatisfied with which side of his head he’s resting on Riku’s chest. He settles on faceplanting.
“Oh, wait, you’re holding the camera.”
Yushi immediately slides off Riku so he can see Riku on the screen. Riku smacks him weakly on the thigh, giggling.
100th day with my yuu-chan, Riku types, then changes the color of the text so it won’t blend into the background of Yushi’s picture. An influx of messages instantly comes as soon as he posts it.
100 days??? lol
you guys weren’t dating??
YOU JUST STARTED DATING 100 DAYS AGO?????
Riku shows all of them to Yushi while Yushi licks dedicatedly over his ice cream cone. “What did I tell you! It’s weird to announce it cause everyone thought we were together!”
Yushi offers him his ice cream instead of a response. Then he leads Riku to the back of a line of another snack booth— one of the few left he still hasn’t tried in the theme park.
“I should’ve written 10 years strong, that would’ve been so much funnier,” Riku mumbles, genuinely debating whether he should delete the story and post a new one. “Should we start counting from when you knew you liked me?” he asks. “Cause honestly I probably already liked you then too.”
“No.”
“No?” Riku wraps an arm around Yushi’s waist as they move up the line. “To which one?”
“It was when we met,” Yushi says, offhanded. Riku stares at the side of his face. “I remember seeing your blue shoes and thinking, I’m gonna get this guy even if it kills me.” Damn?! “And then practice ended, and I found out you were straight. So obviously I’m dead now.”
Riku gives Yushi a reproving squeeze, smiling.
“We start counting from the actual day we started dating,” Yushi adds, more solemn. Because we were friends before that, goes unsaid. I don’t want to write that off stays in the privacy of Yushi’s head too, but is communicated to Riku via their shared cats only connection.
“Do you want to forget when we were friends?” Yushi asks, peering up at him with a more guilt-inducing version of his dessert soft-eyes.
“No, I want to remember everything I did with you.”
“Exactly how it happened?”
“Exactly how it happened.”
Yushi smiles one of his sweeter smiles. “Okay,” he says, just loud enough for Riku to hear. “Me, too.”