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Once, Rui jumped out the window of his classroom. Granted, he was younger, didn’t get hurt, and most likely shocked everyone in his class—but he remembers the light and airy feeling he had at the height of his leap, right before he was falling and had to prepare for a landing.
That doesn’t exactly have anything to do with right now, a teacher yelling after them as they duck and weave past students. Kamiyama’s five stories, so as much as he’d like to make his escape in such daring fashion, he has to admit that’s not going to end well. He makes a beeline for the stairs, vaulting himself over the railing and sprinting through the courtyard. He ducks into a small crowd of students and waits.
Tsukasa makes his escape less clean than he had, but that’s alright considering Rui’s absolutely excellent, model citizen record, when it comes to security guards with his performances. He bumps into someone and apologizes profusely, costing him about 20 seconds before the teacher’s shouting sounds again.
Rui can pinpoint the second Tsukasa spots him as his face immediately lights up, a newfound shine in his eyes as his mouth falls open to call his name. Something flutters in his chest, his kid self soaring through the air, and in pure comedic fashion, three things happen at once:
- Their teacher finally reaches them. He yells, and Tsukasa practically jumps two feet in the air.
- Shiraishi, the poor student Tsukasa bumped into, seems to realize exactly what trouble he’s in, and takes a step forward, shouting.
- Tsukasa, ever so graceful, gives an undignified squawk and—
(—he’s at the top of the stage again, watching a bundle of starlight slip through the cracks.)
“Tsukasa-kun!”
Golden eyes blink up at him curiously. Tsukasa’s head is tilted back, staring at him with an expression Rui knows well enough to be surprise. For a moment, he thinks Shiraishi must’ve caught him, but his hands are gripping something soft, Tsukasa’s cardigan, and it takes a few more moments for his mind to catch up to the events.
“Rui?!”
“Tenma-san! Kamishiro-san!” Shiraishi says, and their teacher is right next to her, arms crossed over his chest. Out of the corner of his eye, Nene looks at them from where she’s sitting on a bench playing on her phone, glances at Tsukasa, glances at the teacher, goes back to gaming, getting up and walking the opposite direction from them.
Rui laughs, but it comes out awkwardly seeing as he’s propping Tsukasa up. Ah. Busted.
“Ow!” Tsukasa yells, recoiling and clutching his arm to his chest. Then, another ‘ow’ and he scoots back. “Do you even know how to—ow!”
“Tsukasa-kun,” Rui says, trying (and failing) to sound dry. The first time he’d tried it, he’d laughed and tried soothing him, but now he gives a crooked grin and motions for him to extend it. The tease is on the tip of his tongue. “I’ll ask you then. Do you even know how to stay still?”
All his time with Nene—the sass must be rubbing off on him. Tsukasa rears his head up in offense, but extends his hand back out with a huff.
They’re on the rooftop for lunch now, food aside and a small first aid kit out, courtesy of Tsukasa. After what might as well be a lifetime of lecture, their teacher let them go, or to be more accurate, saved them from a life of bleeding eardrums because there are only so many scoldings about school safety and how such ballistics are prohibited aaaaaand at that point, it was going in one ear and out the next.
(The ballistics is a bit of an exaggeration in the first place. He only made a human cannon. Minus the human, because he was still in the middle of cajoling Tsukasa into getting in to realize the door to the swimming pool opened. He supposes holding matches next to a body of water can seem suspicious. Maybe he should rebuild it to not require that aspect, but then again, it’s much more enjoyable to audiences. The ’boom!’ and ‘wow!’ and the ‘fshhhh-ka-pow!’ as Emu had put it, eyes sparkling while Tsukasa had considerably paled and begged Nene to save him. The flashier, the better, of course. How else is he going to push their star to his limits and beyond?)
“I do!” Tsukasa huffs. He’s lucky they’re not in the nurse’s office because they’d get kicked out the second Tsukasa gives an indignant screech, breaking him out of his spell. “Oi! Stop looking at me like that!”
“Looking at you like what?”
“You—“ His mouth opens and closes several times like a fish gaping in water, before he settles on puffing his cheeks out and averting his gaze. It takes a moment for it to click that he’s pouting. Rui’s hands itch. Whether it be to grab a camera or poke his cheeks, it’s nobody’s business but his own. ”Augh—never mind. Hurry up! We still have to eat lunch.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll make it in time.” He’s got vegetables (bleh) in his lunch today. First, his human cannon test run gets delayed. Then he is caught. Oh, life is truly cruel to youth. This is a travesty. A travesty! “Just don’t move.”
“I’m not! I won’t!”
A beat. Rui finishes dabbing the last of the ointment on his palm, pulling off the disposable glove. According to Tsukasa, he slammed his hand into a door when they were making their escape.
Tsukasa’s hand already moves to pick at it, and Rui pulls it back like he would when fixing his movements during rehearsals, arm up and forward. “Don’t touch it.”
“I wasn’t going to!” He was.
Rui simply shrugs. Tsukasa pelts him (using his free hand) with a spare bandaid. He catches it.
“Would you like a bandaid?”
The skin is peeled up a bit from how he must’ve slammed it into the frame. The bleeding’s all stopped, but it’s not exactly the most pleasing thing to look at either. (Though, everything that comes with Tsukasa always is—)
“No, there’s no—actually I should probably have something to cover it, huh?” A brief pause. Tsukasa extends a hand toward him. “Yes, thank you!”
“Allow me.” Tsukasa makes a sound of protest but it’s cut off as Rui’s already moving, ripping it open.
He’s rarely had the chance to do this to someone else, seeing as it was usually him on the other end when he was a kid. He grabbed Tsukasa’s hand without thinking earlier–well, he also caught him without thinking earlier–but now this whole situation is…funny. Not entirely in a humorous way–though it is quite hilarious to see their star acting like this–but the image of Tsukasa disappearing through the cracks is something he never wants to relive again, yet he’s here putting him through stunts ten times the risk it was.
Here’s the thing: somehow, it feels like that happened both yesterday and years ago. Tsukasa is their leader. He’s strong. He’s determined. Rui didn’t know it then but Tsukasa is never one to back down. He won’t give up easily. The only person that’ll go through with anything he says. If anything like that were to happen again, Tsukasa will be okay.
Or, maybe he wants Tsukasa to be okay. For all that he is—bold, loud, charming—Tenma Tsukasa is a mystery. An enigma. He could search all corners of the globe and universe and there wouldn’t be anyone quite like him. The itch that compels him to take things apart and learn how they operate always seems to be in full swing around him. At least, that would explain what’s causing him to linger, to triple-check harnesses, to never let his gaze leave him more nowadays. It—
“—is weird,” Tsukasa suddenly says, and Rui freezes. By some miracle, the bandage is on and Tsukasa’s picking up his lunch. “I’m usually the one doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“Patching Saki and her friends up when they got hurt.” He pauses. “Just patching up then! Remember how many times Emu’s scraped her knees jumping from the stage?”
“She was jumping from the benches yesterday,” Rui recalls, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Hopped from one to the other…poor Mr. Mascot looked like he was going to faint. It was a good activity though, as now Rui knew he had to reinforce them from how wobbly they’d been. But— “Patching them up?” He repeats, staring at Tsukasa.
Tsukasa takes a bite of his lunch and swallows. “Yes. They’d fall on the playground all the time when we were kids. Sometimes I’d give them piggyback rides if their legs hurt so bad.”
Consistent with everything he’s said as a big brother. Rui nods and waits as he takes another bite. “Would you like to ride on me then?”
Tsukasa chokes. Rui pats his back a few times, an innocent smile being all that greets him when he can breathe normally again and meets his eyes.
“Rui!” He screeches, scandalized.
“Oh? I don’t hear a no.”
“What—that’s—first of all, you need to check your wording—hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Rui bends down, back and arms ready to support him. “Tsukasa-kun, quick! Get on! Class is starting!”
“Stop that!”
Laughing, Rui lays back down to catch Tsukasa’s eyebrows scrunched up and lips pressed together to keep himself from smiling.
“I wouldn’t mind if you did carry me when we’re running away,” Tsukasa says after the laughter dies down. “It would certainly save me the hassle of finding you!”
Rui pouts, leaning in closer for the full effect. Normally, where others would squawk and push him away, Tsukasa leans in as well. “But where’s the fun in that?”
“The fun is that we’re both safe and can actually enjoy our breaks between classes! And not get yelled at!” The afternoon sun reflects off the gold in his eyes, twinkling mischief he’s picked up from the chases they have. “Speaking of, why’d you come back?”
Rui sneaks a bite out of his lunch. Delicious, and the side that’s free of greens. “Hm?” He says, chewing.
“You came back for me,” Tsukasa accuses, folding his arms across his chest. “You always run off and I have to chase after you, but today you came back.”
“Well, things that run are meant to be chased, after all.”
“Stop dodging the question!” Tsukasa says, and it’s more shouting now. Rui nearly loses his balance sitting. Tsukasa’s always loud, but it’s not so often that it turns into actual yelling that Rui puts a stop to any other teases he might’ve slipped. Then, Tsukasa realizes the tone and winces, sliding back into their usual banter, but with concern written all over his face. “Is it—is it because I fell?!”
Rui blinks. So he’s not a mind reader, as if he’s asking this, he didn’t catch the conclusion Rui came to mere minutes ago. “I—“
“No, of course you’d catch me if I fell!” Tsukasa blurts, smacking himself. “Nevermind! It’s nothing!” He says hastily.
He’s gone silent, digging into his lunch with such vigor to avoid speaking. He was quiet when Rui was putting the ointment on his hand, save for the protests at the end, but it’d been increasingly awkward to dab it on while Tsukasa had been staring holes into the side of his head. If it’d been him when they first started out, Rui would’ve let it be, adding another remark that’d steer the conversation away and forgotten.
But over the last few months, they've been putting on shows Rui would’ve only seen in his dreams. Last month, he watched Tsukasa fall and get up, and do that, over and over again, shouldering the responsibility that would’ve been his own. And today, Rui’s watched him vault over stair railings and trip and laugh and smile and get hurt in order to simply get to him, so he taps on Tsukasa’s hand, making sure it’s around the bandaid.
“But it’s not.” Tsukasa blinks at him. “Tsukasa-kun?”
Tsukasa still doesn’t reply, staring. For a fleeting moment, Rui thinks he’s stepped too far, that of course, Tsukasa wouldn’t share those same feelings, but then Tsukasa laughs.
“Tsukasa-kun?” Rui says, and since he’s repeated his name for the umpteenth time today, “What’s so funny?”
“Something just hit me.” Setting his lunch down, he turns to give him his full attention. There’s warmth and a fond look in his gaze. “Usually, I’m the one doing it. You did all the steps I do, but you forgot one.”
Rui’s definitely not a medical expert, but he’s sure his knowledge of tending to scrapes isn’t missing anything. Nor is it something to be laughing about. Tsukasa must catch whatever look he just gave him as he backtracks.
“I mean! It’s just something I do and Saki’s always on me on how nobody does what I do for anyone and—you know what?! Give me your hand!”
“Wha—“
Tsukasa’s already taking it, and before Rui can even protest he’s getting down on one knee in front of him. It’s like they’re in a show (and like the true show idiot he is, he makes a mental note on how effective a scene like this would be), the main character about to propose to the love of his dreams. Or, Tsukasa’s the prince about to swear his loyalty to his highness, who in this case would be—
“Rui.”
Maybe he’s the one who fell. He’s imagining this. The faintest press of lips to his knuckles, a smile like no other on Tsukasa’s face.
“See! Didn’t your parents do that when you got hurt?” What. Tsukasa hasn’t let go of his hand. He’s pouting, and Rui has full view of it, which is truly a shame because he can’t appreciate it properly, trying to keep his face to stay as neutral as possible.
“I—well, usually people would do it on the injury itself. Isn’t it supposed to be the other person who does it?”
“Yes! But, since you’ve done everything else, consider it as my ‘thank you’.” Something flickers in Tsukasa’s gaze, a spark. “As troupe leader, it’s my responsibility to make sure our director can always do things to the best of my ability! Falling was my own fault and thanks to you, my hand will heal soon! So don’t you dare hold back!”
The bell rings, finishing his declaration.
Rui smiles, or at least, he hopes he is, because between the loud hammering of his heart, his face nearly on fire, and Tsukasa’s hand and gaze still on him, it’s hard for him to know what he’s even doing. Half of him is ready to laugh it off and the other half is ready to flee, to rethink and catalog every detail to understand just what’s running through his mind.
But instead, he clears his throat, willing his heartbeat to be still, and places a hand on top of his. Here he is, thinking about running away, when there’s Tsukasa, chasing and pulling him back.
(Of course, a voice in his mind says, sounding suspiciously like Kaito. He told you he’d show his true feelings, didn’t he?)
“Heh. Of course.” A beat. “So, is that yes to testing the cannon now?”
“That’s still a no!”
On his way back to class, he stops by Nene’s classroom. She’s still engrossed in her game from earlier. Usually, she’d be worried and anxious about what her classmates would think of her and one of the Weirdo Wombo Combo talking to her, but now she doesn’t even look up when he stands in front of her desk, even when he clears his throat and calls her name three times.
“I heard you, wait a minute,” she mutters, before the words ‘LEVEL CLEAR!’ flash across her phone. Satisfied, she turns it off and looks up. “Is Tsukasa okay?”
“Not even a hello? Ouch, Nene.”
Taking that as a yes, Nene sighs and rolls her eyes, though Rui knows she’s secretly relieved. “Aren’t you supposed to be heading to class?” She asks instead.
“In a minute,” he says. “I need your opinion on something.”
“I think you should give Tsukasa more advance warning next time. Or wait till we’re at Wonder Stage to launch people. You know Emu would love that.”
“Ah yes, about that.” Rui pauses. “I don’t think I’ll be able to head there today.”
“Wha–huh?”
Placing a hand over his heart, he fake swoons and holds the back of his other against his forehead. “Tsukasa-kun,” he says, and Nene nods in understanding. Then— “Say, is there any rule discouraging the director from falling for their lead actor?”
Something falls to the floor. Nene’s dropped her phone and her eyes have grown wide as NeneRobo’s lenses. “Huh?!”
“Don’t tell Emu-kun, I’ll do that myself.” He chuckles. “Do you think the Otori family would fund Tsukasa-kun and I’s wedding?”
The shriek Nene lets out sounds more like Emu’s and Tsukasa’s shrill screeches than herself. “Huh?!”
“Kusanagi-san! Lower your voice! Kamishiro-san! Head to class!”