Chapter Text
Tsukasa shook off his doubts and began to rehearse the start of the play with the others. There were more important things to take care of, a star must perfect his acting above all else. (Which included feelings such as these.)
“HAHAHA! Do you really think you have what it takes to defeat me? I am a mighty prince!”
Tsukasa the noble prince yelled out with a smirk, and a confident stance.
“I have a mighty blade!”
Emu the knight retaliated with a fast wave of her sword, making a whooshing noise as it sliced through the air.
“I have magic, you surely can’t best me
in a battle!”
Nene the fairy exclaimed, flicking her fake wand gracefully, with reflections of light from it making the area around her glitter.
“And what do you have?” Tsukasa sneered, looking at the mysterious man in a ragged, dirty robe who stood before him.
“Why would I tell you? That wouldn’t be too smart.” Rui the traveler responded with a mischievous grin, taking a step closer to the prince.
—
After a few goes, Rui signaled to restart the scene from the top once again. The group was doing great, but the director needed better than that if they were to fully impress the audience. Even the smallest stutter or stumble could disappoint, so the show had to be perfect.
The troupe practiced the beginning again and again until finally all the mistakes had been corrected, and everyone had the scene fully memorized.
Rui quickly clapped and praised his actors for their phenomenal acting (especially his star). He took his directing very seriously and the troupe’s progress was fast because of that.
“Great job, everyone. I’m quite tired, shall we take a quick break?” Rui asked.
“Uwaaaaa…. Thank you Rui.. I almost died~~~~!” Emu complained playfully with a dramatic faked stumble. She then plopped down next to Nene and took a huge chug from her water bottle, spilling a little on herself.
Rui sat down a foot away from the other boy and caught his breath on the edge of the wooden stage.
Tsukasa didn’t know this, but Rui was feeling quite flustered inside. Luckily he wasn’t one to blush easily, and he was quite skilled at hiding his feelings.
‘I get to kiss Tsukasa’ Rui thought to himself, staring off into the sky, distracted. He felt quite lucky indeed to play the part of the traveler.
He was interrupted from his daydreaming by a certain someone’s hand waving obnoxiously in front of his eyes.
“Earth to Rui! Helloooo?”
“Ah? What was it, Tsukasa-kun?”
“I was just saying you did a good job today. But never mind that, are you okay? You look kind of..” Tsukasa questioned, before being cut off mid-sentence
“It’s nothing, really. Just thinking about my ideas for the play.” Rui responded, which wasn’t a lie, to be fair.
“Ah, ok. Well it’s been a long day, I wouldn’t blame you for spacing out.” Tsuaksa said in a quieter tone than his usual shouting, and a soft smile.
Rui just nodded slightly and smiled to himself. Tsukasa scooted a little closer to him to see his face.
“What are you smiling about?” Tsukasa questioned, turning his head toward him.
‘You’ Rui thought.
“Hm? Just happy our practice is going well.” Rui replied, staring off into the puffy clouds instead of looking at Tsukasa. He just might die if he saw the boy’s pretty face.
Tsukasa noticed the staring, and looked up at the clouds with him, checking if there was anything in particular the other boy was watching so intensely.
There were just a few fluffy clouds in the sky, and the weather had cleared up quickly since the rain yesterday, revealing a beautiful blue. Nothing really out of the ordinary.
“Do you see anything?” Tsukasa then asked Rui after a minute.
“What do you mean?” Rui questioned.
“Sorry, that was kind of stupid. Um, I used to stare at the clouds with Saki and we’d point out what they were shaped like.”
Tsukasa said with red dusting his cheeks, hoping he didn’t sound too childish.
‘That’s cute.’ Rui thought, and laughed.
“That’s nice, Tsukasa-kun, I did that as a kid a few times myself.”
Rui pointed at the sky. There was a big gray cloud with what looked to be fins.
“Hm, that one looks sort of like a shark. Do you see it?” Rui asked.
Tsukasa removed his phone from his pocket and smiled, taking a picture.
“You’re right! It looks just like a shark!” Tsukasa responded enthusiastically.
It was taking Rui’s full strength not to grab Tsukasa and kiss him right now. It was so sweet, sitting together looking at the sky. It was nice doing silly childish things and not being judged. It just made him feel warm inside. He finally belonged somewhere, and that place was with Tsukasa and the others.
He appreciated it, he really did.
Before Rui knew it, the blissful moment was over, and it had been ten minutes already. He gently sighed and stood up to go alert the girls on the other side of the stage. Emu was watching a mobile game over Nene’s shoulder intently, which distracted Nene, but she didn’t really mind.
“Alright wonderful actors! Break time is over, let’s rehearse the next act, shall we~?” Rui exclaimed.
He was sad to stop watching the sky with the future star, but quickly became immersed in his directing again, giving pointers and perfecting everyone’s routine within barely any time at all.
As the troupe practiced for another hour, the sky began turning pink, and the clouds drifted away. Once they finished their last run through, the group began to put away their props back into the boxes backstage, and get ready to go home.
“Great work everyone!” Rui exclaimed. It was another satisfactory day of practice, and he was fully confident the show was going to go greatly.
But really, he was just counting down the days until the real thing. He just couldn’t get his mind off Tsukasa, I guess.
God, Rui was stupidly in love with that boy.
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