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Rui wakes up and one thing rattles in his mind as his body attempts to wake up as his brain processes the incoming information: I'm at least 90% sure I like Tsukasa.
He sits up on his couch and hums. Well, that's a thing that happened. So, what's next? What exactly do people do when they realize they like someone? He woke up from a revelation and the only thing he feels is exhaustion (looking at the clock, it seems he only slept for 2 hours), hunger (a store-bought onigiri isn't exactly the most filling food), and the inexplicable need to be close to Tsukasa (it'd feel nice).
He drinks his morning tea as he waits for his clothes to dry in the weird machine his father bought from work, which makes a ruckus every time it's turned on. Ok, time to plan out how this is going to work.
So, he likes Tsukasa. Why? Well, why wouldn't he like Tsukasa? His shining, arrogant, self-assured, cocky, a bit pathetic, lovely star. There might be no other person that can put up with him the way Tsukasa does. Perhaps he's lonely enough that anyone could do the job, but he crushes that thought as soon as it arrives. Nene's meanness is getting to him. Is it romantic? Rui's mind shows him a complete slideshow of visions including Tsukasa, sleeping together (clothes on, mind you), eating together late at night, and shopping for groceries. It's not only completely un-platonic but also disgustingly domestic, who knew he had it in him.
He leaves his tea next to the drying machine and looks for one of his mom's whiteboards that she for some reason leaves hanging around at his house. Neither his father nor he care too much about them, especially not when they're convenient for situations like this. There's one next to the door, an erasable marker hanging close to it. Actually, it might be a slight problem.
The lid of the marker makes a pop sound and his brain and hands get to work in sync, tracing every possible path that he could choose to make Tsukasa know how he feels about him, a kind of mind map comes to mind. Nene would call it a visual route path, because of course she would. Flowers might be nice, they're romantic classics, and there's a perfect flower shop he likes to stop by when he passes through the city. He could confess on the rooftop, it fits them since that's where they met officially.
His ideas are coming together nicely until he hits a roadblock. It sounds cute and all, but it also sounds boring as hell, and there's no way of getting to know if this would work, even. His heart does a small flip imagining getting rejected by Tsukasa and he stops writing.
He needs to run more tests before initializing his confession plan from earlier.
Rui sighs and reaches for a cloth to erase his original mind map, preparing himself for another brainstorming session. His eyes widen just in time for the dryer to make his ting noise, signaling his clothes are finally done. It doesn't take too much before the marker gets lifted up from the board as he finishes his work, reaching a perfect plan. There's no way this could end badly.
He leaves his beautiful creation on top of the dryer, resting on the wall. His family will probably ask him later why there's a drawing of a random dude with “Kiss” written on top of him. As he takes out his clothes he guesses he'll cross that bridge when he gets there.
When he sees Tsukasa in front of the school gates, waiting for him to arrive, he puts his plan into action.
“Rui! I know I sent you a good morning text earlier but good morning!” His hands flare around as he greets Rui. He gets reminded that Autumn is finally here when he spots a small leaf that got caught in Tsukasa's hair. Cute. “I’ve got something to show you today that will definitely inspire you for our next shows!”
Rui returns the greeting with a small wave but as he gets closer and plants a small kiss on Tsukasa’s forehead.
“Good morning, Tsukasa-kun.” He says “You had a leaf on your hair.”
He deals with a red-faced Tsukasa all the way to the school lockers, watching with a smug grin how he stumbles in his steps while asking for an explanation. He notes that Tsukasa’s surprise, although not unexpected, it’s a bit mulled out compared to other times Rui’s surprised him by doing weird stuff. The tests will continue later. Rui keeps the small fact that Tsukasa’s shampoo smells like citrus close to his heart.
☆彡
Later that day, the troupe prepared themselves for their next big promotional show as ambassadors. The play is fairly simple (as simple as Rui and Emu can have it). They're on a small break because of creative blocks which seems weird to anyone that has seen how much dedication goes into every show's direction, Shousuke guesses it's because of them burning out by putting 4 shows a day on the weekends and 2 on weekdays, so as their now direct boss, he asks them to take a small break to rest.
“Break” for Wonderlands x Showtime just means fewer shows but the same amount of energy put into practice to compensate. They can’t slack off, of course.
Nothing much has changed, but a small weight lifts off Rui's shoulder, he doesn't notice it.
So now, he sits on the floor looking up at Tsukasa as he delivers his lines accordingly. The script is lying in front of him but Rui has it memorized already so there isn't much use to it right now. Still, something is missing from this exchange with the prince that he cannot wrap his head around.
Luckily, Emu picks up on it. “Rui-kun? You look more serious than usual.”
“I'm sure I said my part perfectly! Unless there's something else that's wrong?” Nene says something along the lines of “Wow, arrogant enough?” to Tsukasa and he responds, they bicker for a small while but the whole conversation evades Rui. Emu is looking at him expectantly and Rui looks back at her. Emu’s energy is contagious, he finds. Maybe he can make a new organic source of energy out of the energy that emanates from her daily. He won't mind changing NeneRobo’s current battery system for another energy source, it’s already expensive enough.
“Well, taking into account the time set for this play, I think that we should change this up a little by having the characters greet each other by this time’s societal norms.” Nene and Tsukasa stop bickering as soon as he raises his voice, lucky, because NeneRobo was somehow getting dragged along with them.
“Hm? And what are those norms?”
Rui finally sits up, stretching his legs and getting dust out of his stage clothes. He gets closer to Tsukasa, who just watches him with curiosity and brings his hand to his lips, lips curling up as Tsukasa flinches in surprise.
“And for that, I congratulate you, my prince.” He would be lying if he said this wasn't another excuse to kiss him, but his show-loving heart also believes this to be the best choice for the show he has in mind, Nene would execute it perfectly, it's a win-win. “I think that’s more appropriate for this direction.”
“Holy shit.” Nene shout-whispers, loud enough for the rest of the group to hear her even if she didn't mean it.
“Nene, please don’t swear on stage.” Tsukasa manages to blurt out in the middle of his embarrassment, covering his face immediately after.
☆彡
The next day Rui's classmates look with frowns on their faces at him as he walks through the second-year hallway with a big cardboard box secured on his back and his actual school backpack in his hand. It weighs like hell, but this robot has been the most pain in this ass he's ever felt for any of his creations. For some reason, every change he wants this he makes for it always fails and no matter how hard he looks at the blueprints and restarts the servers, nothing seems to make any sense.
He's glad today's hall monitors were busy in a meeting (he wasn't supposed to know that, but his drones do the monitoring work for him), it'd be a pain for Shiraishi to find him carrying this on his back and his patience is already running low today.
“Rui! What are you even bringing in your back?!” Rui doesn't need to turn back to that voice to know who it is, he'd recognize him by his footsteps at this point. He doesn't know if that's a thing people do. “Wait, let me help you with that.”
He feels Tsukasa's hands grabbing the bottom part of the box and he carries over to convince him “There’s no need, Tsukasa-kun. I'm used to carrying heavy stuff on my back, you should know that.”
“Still, that's not a good thing… I don't want to see you with back problems so early in your life.” Determined as ever, Tsukasa looks at him directly when Rui turns around and both of them manage the weight of the boxed robot between them, getting it up the stairs towards the roof. “You know you can ask for my help.”
Another weight gets off his back, this time more noticeable than the last time.
“Hey, Tsukasa-kun.” Rui's tone makes Tsukasa look up instantly from where he was managing his steps. He recognizes that sincerity, Rui sometimes hides behind several layers of jokes and technical talks Tsukasa can barely understand, but Tsukasa thinks he might be getting more honest as they spend time together. “Thanks for caring about me.”
Tsukasa is about to open his mouth to retaliate. Of course, why wouldn't he care for him? Until Rui winks at him and sends him a flying kiss on his way.
“Wh-what was that for?”
Rui laughs and the corners of his eyes crinkle softly. “Well, I can't go there and kiss you so I figured out that was the most reasonable option.”
“Reasonable option he says…” Tsukasa mutters under his breath, Rui delights himself in the blush that adorns Tsukasa's face. “Of course I care about you, you don’t need to thank me for anything.”
Once they get on the roof, Rui explains this particular robot's purpose and its subsequent problems to a bewildered Tsukasa that tries his best to understand the number of specific terms Rui's using, because what on God’s green earth are "Actuators" and "Kinematics"? After the lengthy explanation that both of them were definitely keeping track of, Rui looks at Tsukasa for a second opinion, and Tsukasa, remembering every time he ever held an electronic device in his life, asks Rui to turn it on and off a few times.
For some ungodly reason, the whole thing decides to work without any issues.
Rui resists the urge to kiss him right there and then.
☆彡
In the evening, Nene, Emu, and Tsukasa meet up at the school gates so they can walk to Phoenix Wonderland as a group. Nene briefly wonders how Emu could get here so fast, Miya High isn't exactly the farthest away from Kamikou but they wrap up their classes just a few minutes after Kamikou does.
She thinks Emu would definitely sprint towards the school before it even ends, well, as long as it isn't during their lunch breaks, although they met on the SEKAI during their lunch breaks lately, with or without the other half of their group. Well, seeing how Rui and Tsukasa's relationship is developing she is glad they decide to leave her out of their romantic problems. She has enough of them on her own.
Nene tears her eyes from Emu's back as she talks to Tsukasa. No gay thoughts for now, at least. Anyways, Rui is not here yet. Which is weird since Rui and Tsukasa are the first ones to get to the school gates (unless they're getting scolded by the teachers), benefits of having their classrooms close to each other and to the exits.
Tsukasa is lecturing Emu about something, Nene guesses it's about trespassing school grounds again, she's only half listening to their conversation, a purple shadow appears next to the school gates and Nene prepares himself for whatever Rui's planing to do now.
Tsukasa and Emu don't notice, Tsukasa because he's got his back to the school entrance and Emu because, well, she doesn't really know, maybe she's ignoring it or maybe Tsukasa's obscuring her view, why would Nene think Emu would possess the field vision of an eagle.
“Every time you’re not running, he’s only getting closer.” She says as he locks eyes with Rui and the other puts whatever plan he has in mind into action.
"Huh?" It's the last thing Tsukasa says before he gets ambushed behind his back, Rui holds his arms together in a hug and plants a kiss on his right cheek. It's the loudest smooch she's ever heard in her short life and it makes her skin crawl, mostly from secondhand embarrassment.
Nene is quick enough to cover her ears before Tsukasa screams, but she feels a bit disappointed when it's not as loud as she expected it to be. She wonders if she got used to Tsukasa's loud voice after all these months, it wouldn't be a surprise. But it's still loud enough that some students turn around to look at them. Nene would think that'd make them self-conscious, but that's implying Rui and Tsukasa care about what others think of them when they're like this.
“Can you guys stop doing that in front of us?”
Emu jumps, happy as ever. “I don’t mind, Tsukasa-kun always gives the funniest reactions after that!”
“Don't side with him!” Tsukasa says, getting farther and farther away from them and getting to Nene's side. Maybe Tsukasa thinks Nene would protect him from Rui and Emu, he should know better but Nene will not tell him that.
“But Emu-kun is right.” Rui throws his hands upwards, surrendering. “You do give the cutest reactions.”
Emu and Rui keep talking between themselves as they walk towards their destination, it's noticeable that Rui's long legs help him walk faster than others but Emu doesn't need to work hard to keep up with him, even if she's the shortest between the four of them.
Nene throws a quick look to his side.
Ah, so that's the case.
The truth is, Nene was always kind of worried for Rui. He doesn't get attached to people easily and most struggle to get along with him in class, that's something they both bonded over when they were kids. So when Rui told him over the balcony that he most likely had a crush on Tsukasa an immediate worry settled in her heart, not enough to warn him but enough to make her ponder as she looked at the two of them for long enough
But as Tsukasa keeps his eyes glued to Rui's back and touches his cheek again, not noticing Nene's gaze, she thinks they'll both be fine.
“That's not even close to what she said,” Nene says softly, looking ahead once again, the pavement below them sings as Emu skips over and laughs alongside the others. The rest of the day goes on as nothing happened. If Tsukasa's blush remains there for the rest of their practice session then one needs to say anything about it.
She wishes good luck to Rui when they walk back home together. Rui wishes her the same. Nene ignores the implications of that.
☆彡
When Rui comes back home, he instantly goes over to his garage room and finds both of his parents sitting on his makeshift couch that he mended all by himself some years ago. He looks at them and they look at him, he instantly knows he's getting a talk.
"Rui." His father speaks, and the aforementioned leaves his bag on the chair as he waits for the inevitable school talk. It's a bit surprising that the school already sent them a notice about his latest robot accident this early; he expected them to take at least two business days to deliver it. "Don't think you can run away from us so easily, why didn't you tell us that you had a romantic interest?"
Oh , that's an unexpected outcome. He looks back at his parents and finds that her mother's holding his Tsukasa drawing, 'Kiss' still written on top of it. His cheeks warm up a bit, embarrassed.
"I only found out yesterday."
His mother hums. "How's that coming along?"
"I've studied my reactions for the last few days and I've concluded that I do have romantic feelings for him." Rui crosses his arms as he takes a deep breath. "I'm having issues with my other question: 'Does he feel the same way as I do?' I've studied his reactions and it's still not conclusive. He seems to act the same way as he's always done when I'm close to him unless I do something actively romantic, but that might also be a reflex."
After the lengthy explanation, both parents exchange a quick look between themselves and after a second, their lips turn upwards.
"It seems like it... but remember that human feelings are incredibly complex, Rui. You need proper communication for this to work out." His father says, getting up from the couch and coming over to ruffle his hair. "It's still too early, don't give up."
"He's right. You're getting far ahead of time, focus on the present." His mom looks down at his Tsukasa drawing again and smiles before getting up from the couch as well. "Either way, he looks cute, I'm eager to meet him already."
"Good taste runs in the family." His father says.
"Always the charmer, aren't you?" Her mother pushes him gently by the shoulder, embarrassed laughter coming out of her, her tied-up purple hair moves along with her and Rui gets a minute to appreciate the luck he got when he was born into this family. "I've been craving yakisoba ever since I left the lab, we should go out to eat and celebrate!"
The talk alleviates him for a moment, and the veggie-less yakisoba also does its job well. He watches as his parents argue fondly about the time they fell in love in college and how frustrating it had been for them, both of them sharing notes between classes about academic papers and what they should bring from the university's library for completely investigative purposes. Rui gets reminded of the way his brain showed him that slide show. He can easily put himself into his parent's scenario, eating peacefully next to Tsukasa, both of them eager to go back home and fall asleep together after a long day.
He rolls the noodles between his chopsticks and guesses he could implement more flirting into his plans.
☆彡
"We checked the roof, the school grounds, and even the theater club. I wonder where he is, I surely saw him today at the gates…" An wonders out loud as she goes up the stairs with Touya and Akito next to her "Kamishiro-senpai is also nowhere to be found. I've got a bad feeling about this."
Akito sighs once they're done going up "Can't you give him those toys later? I think I'll die of hunger before we find him."
"Akito, you told me you ate in class earlier." Touya adjusts his sizable bag of toys he won the last time he went to the arcade, the bag’s getting big enough that he can no longer hide it under his bed in case his father goes to his room, so his next option is gifting them to Tsukasa so he can give them to his sister. “We only have the second year's corridor left, if we don't find him there, I'll send him a message.”
The three of them walk through the second year's corridor, Touya takes the lead so An and Akito follow him accordingly, they evade the curious looks of students that still linger in these corridors at lunchtime. Akito tsks, he hopes he doesn't become like one of those judgemental second years, at least these seniors just throw them nasty looks and don't engage in conflicts with them as other seniors do. An hits him softly on the back, whether it's comforting or something else is something that Akito will wonder until the end of time.
"Ah, Tsukasa-senpai, here you are." An and Akito look up when they hear Touya’s voice, both of them just realizing that they were in front of Tsukasa's class, the 2-A sign board looking down at them. Akito looks ahead of Touya's shoulder and An needs to move her head a bit to the left to see. Why was Touya so tall? What does he need the extra cm. for? Whatever they see in front of them paralyzes them both.
Tsukasa and Rui were both standing next to the window, Tsukasa's eyes are closed tightly but besides that, he offers no resistance to Rui's kisses, which seem to land absolutely everywhere except his mouth. Rui places a small kiss on the top of his nose that makes Tsukasa laugh slightly until he finally realizes that they were both being watched by three curious pairs of eyes coming from the door.
"W–wait for a second, Rui. Touya!" Tsukasa only stops Rui once he hears Touya’s voice, pushing him away softly with one hand, Rui makes a sound akin to a wounded puppy. Akito cringes and wonders why these things always seem to happen to him. "Akito and Shiraishi too, what brings you all the way here?"
Touya and Rui are the only ones that are unfazed by this whole ordeal. Tsukasa too, in some regards, since he doesn't mind when Rui gets close to him again, placing his chin on the other's shoulder and wrapping his hands around his waist. An and Akito share a bewildered look at the display of intimacy in front of them.
"Tsukasa-senpai, I got new plushies for Saki, hopefully you don't mind giving them to her?"
"Of course, I don’t mind! You know Saki's always happy to receive more plushies from you!" Rui clings to Tsukasa like a koala as the latter speaks, seemingly uninterested in their conversation. "Thank you, Touya! We'll go eat now but we won't mind if you join us!"
"I'd lo–"
But before Touya can voice his complete agreement, because why wouldn't he, Akito jumps in. "No thanks, Touya and I need to discuss our next duo performance."
"Ah, me too! These two asked for my help so I'll be going with them!" An jumps in as well, desperate not to be left alone with her two seniors.
Tsukasa and Rui raise their eyebrows, almost perfectly synchronized and Tsukasa laments that they can't join before they leave the classroom, most likely going to the rooftop. The three of them watch the Weirdo Combo leave Tsukasa's classroom side to side. The sly fox that is Rui even throws them a peace sign as he leaves. An makes a mental note not to check on them for the rest of the day, just to be safe.
Touya returns his gaze to his friends and crosses his arms, An and Akito immediately gulp. "Why did you both interrupt me?"
"You'd rather be their third wheel? I'm just saving you from embarrassment." Akito says to save himself, hoping Touya won't get too mad. He can get scary, especially if it's Tsukasa they're talking about.
Touya doesn't answer, Akito can read his expression, though, and those eyes are filled with disappointment.
"Well, I'm glad they aren't blowing stuff up." An lets her shoulders slump, gaze falling to the ground as she sighs. "Hah… I miss Kohane."
"I hate this place. Is it too late for me to transfer schools?"
"You can barely pass your tests, you want to get into another school with those sorry grades?" An hits Akito lightly on the shoulder, just to rile him up.
"Look who's talking!" Akito retaliates, they both start arguing about their latest math exams and Touya allows himself to think more about his pseudo-older brother.
He remembers spending time with Tsukasa in his house, searching for the man with the striped shirt along with Saki, he remembers how he almost fell every time the three of them cramped together in the piano chair, playing whatever came to their minds and his personal favorite moment: watching Tsukasa's shows, both the ones he spent days planning and the ones he improvised at the moment. It was always magical to wonder what he would come up with his limited resources but endless imagination.
But time marches on and on and Touya started to notice how Tsukasa's eyes did not retain that same excitement he had as a child, maybe time caught up with him as well and it made Touya worry, maybe his sister's condition got worse, maybe the plushies he had needed too much mending to last longer, maybe he got lost with his goal and that killed his motivation to move forward with time.
Akiyama mentioned to him one time how Kamishiro changed after he got scouted for Phoenix Wonderland, but something that stuck with him is how they mentioned how he changed after meeting Tsukasa.
Touya smiles, he'll remember later to tell them that Kamishiro-senpai wasn't the only one that changed when they met.
"It's been a while since I saw that gleam in Tsukasa-senpai, he seemed really happy." An and Akito stop their bickering to look back at Touya, feeling like they got lost in the conversation. "I'm glad. Shall we eat?"
☆彡
After their underclassmen interrupted their moment, they went to the rooftop together as they always do. Nene and Emu surprisingly didn't come today and they were both left wondering where they could've gone, soft wind blowing towards them, whispering that fall is slowly but surely approaching. A weird surprise of today is that Tsukasa is surprisingly quiet, feet fidgeting in place and avoiding his gaze when Rui throws a quick glance at him, maybe he got too far with his teasing today. Tsukasa didn't seem to mind it too much, though.
Now that Rui thinks about it, Tsukasa never minds anything that he throws at him, even if he upwardly protests against being his test subject for the gadgets he's made or he falls into being victim to their group banter.
Maybe this just means that Tsukasa has grown used to his antics, or that he feels so friendly towards him that even these romantic gestures just go over his head. And if either of them is true that means he's surely getting rejected after confessing. Ah, that would complicate things a little... I surely dug up an even bigger hole for myself with this...
"Rui?" He hears his name and looks to his side, finding a small frown on Tsukasa's face that alleviates after they make eye contact. Man, he really can't stop putting frowns on Tsukasa's face today, can he? "Sorry, you looked worried there for a second, is something wrong?"
"Don't apologize. Just thought of something unpleasant, nothing more." Tsukasa tilts his head, an obvious 'I know there's more to it' showing in his eyes. "Yeah, you're right. Tsukasa-kun, does it bother you when I kiss you so suddenly?"
"I'd mind it if someone else did it..." Tsukasa brings his legs closer to his chest and rests his head on them, golden eyes casting downwards. "But it feels different when you do it."
His voice carries over with the wind, accentuating every syllable like a soft melody, he always gets surprised by the range of Tsukasa's voice, who's so loud he forgets it can get so mellow like that. Rui is left wondering for a brief second. He threads his fingers on Tsukasa's head and the blonde turns around, surprised by the sudden closeness of Rui's face to his own, their lips only a breath away. Rui's eyes are looking directly at him and Tsukasa's heart skips, eager with anticipation. So he closes his eyes and waits .
But it never comes, instead, he feels the warm closeness leave his side and he opens his eyes, finding that Rui's more interested in looking down at the hand that left his hair. "A dandelion's puffball, you had one caught in your hair."
"Ah, thanks..." Tsukasa's hands tremble a little when he brings them up to fix his hair and regain his composure. Rui doesn't notice. "We should get going, shouldn't we?! Lunchtime is almost over!"
"Is it? I swear it started just a few minutes ago..." Tsukasa hurries his steps and Rui follows, he even voices concern with how fast Tsukasa's running down the halls, even in break time. At least Tsukasa can hide from the fact that he, once again, escaped from their teacher's grasp, so he won't have to explain why his face is so damn red.
Rui gets himself a small notice for running in the hallways that he'd probably have to explain to his parents later but it's only after English class ends that he notices what exactly happened on the roof. He kicks his desk so hard that he gets sent into the infirmary and earns himself his second notice of the day. A record , he thinks.
☆彡
The Wonder Troupe members pride themselves in the extensive care, preparation and, most importantly, energy their shows irradiate. Always moving forward with their motto “To make everyone smile!” and showing the audience how much they improve over time, both as a group and as individual actors. The latter part mostly focused on Nene and Tsukasa's personal goals but Emu and Rui won't get themselves get left behind.
Their spirits are high today as well, but there's something in the air that they can all feel. A moment where everything goes so smooth and perfect there's no way. Their steps move gracefully above the wooden stage floor. Rui's machines, as always, make for an entertaining visual performance. Tsukasa lands a line so filled with hope that makes Emus' hair stand up from the goosebumps. Nene’s tragic monologue before the final confrontation almost sends all of them to tears as everyone holds their breath for a second as the Pegasus Prince lands his final blow on the enemy, bringing peace to the town and vanishing the darkness around them forever.
They only realize the show is truly over when NeneRobo announces "The end", a mechanic voice bringing them back to earth. All of them get in their respective positions as a reflex and proceed to bow to the make-believe audience in front of them, hearts still pumping fast with adrenaline.
“I think that might've been the best practice session we've had yet,” Rui concludes, clapping his hands a few times. "Good work, everyone."
“My heart is still going crazy!” Emu holds her hand over her heart, reeling in the rapid heartbeats that come from adrenaline.
Nene stops a second and looks over to her side, where Tsukasa is still catching his breath in silence. “Tsukasa? You should be screaming about your perfect performance of whatever now. Is there something wrong?”
That appears to wake him up a bit and he nods. His firm steps carry him over to where Rui is standing, looking back at him with curiosity. Tsukasa holds Rui's face with both hands and Rui remembers their height difference, the way he's able to see the top of Tsukasa's head and teases him over it sometimes. Tsukasa gets closer to him and Rui remembers the bittersweet aftertaste of the time their practice ended earlier when Tsukasa passed out, how Rui held him close to check if he was still breathing, forgetting to check if he was breathing as well. It's been so long since that, they've been through so much together that it doesn't bother him like before.
Tsukasa doesn't say much, in fact, he doesn't say anything when his lashes fall over his cheeks and he closes the gap between them, uniting their lips.
It's not what either of them expected their first kiss to be like, but there's no time to care about the details of those lingering thoughts. Tsukasa's lips are on his, his head tilts a bit to the side and the softness is all he thinks about. Everything else can come later.
Their lips separate after a while and although Rui is terrified, he still dares to open his eyes and sees that Tsukasa is staring right back at him, holding the entire weight of the entire galaxy in his eyes and Rui beams, realizing he wants to kiss him again, and again, and again just so the stars will continue to shine in his eyes forever.
“I’ll forever be glad that you decided to trust me.” Tsukasa almost whispers a promise for them and only for them.
“Holy shit.”
“Nene for the last time don’t swear–” Tsukasa cuts himself off, tearing off his hands that still cupped Rui's face, eyes widening as he processes what happened. “on stage…”
Tsukasa's expression shifts immediately into shock as he looks at his hands and then back at Rui, who can barely remember what breathing feels like without Tsukasa close to him. He rearranges his next options at the speed of sound in his mind and he settles for the best intrusive decision yet: Run away and handle this tomorrow. This is not really ideal in this situation but he feels as if his heart will actually give out if he stands too close to Rui again. He might make the situation even worse for both of them.
As Tsukasa runs away from the scene, he wonders how he'll inevitably explain all of this to Kaito in the SEKAI.
“Rui-kun! Want me to chase him for you?!” Emu screams, eyes glimmering with excitement, Rui doesn't know why she's so excited about this but Emu is really the only one that can outrun an embarrassed Tsukasa. Emu can outrun a high-speed train if she feels like it and Rui admires her for that.
Rui, still thinking about stars and galaxies, manages to respond to her. “Please do.”
Emu lights up and gets on her way as quickly as her body allows her. “Tsukasa-kun! Come back!”
Nene looks at NeneRobo and guesses Emu might be enough to bring Tsukasa back, a part of her wonders how her self-learning AI will interpret romantic gestures and another part of her wonders how Rui's handling this whole situation. Ah, man, what a mess. Nene thinks, approaching a shell-shocked Rui and putting a hand on his shoulder, to wake him up a bit.
“This kind of stuff only happens to us, huh.” She says, feeling merciful.
Rui lowers to the floor, his knees supporting his weight as he covers his blushing face with both hands. He wishes the floor would swallow him whole, but he also wishes Tsukasa would come and kiss him again before that happens. “Nene, I think I’m dying.”
Nene doesn't come down to help him, she uses her hand to ruffle his hair, her own way of reassurance.
“You’re not dying until you confess or that idiot explains himself, whatever happens first. I'll try and stop Emu from watching you guys over the bushes or something.” A loud bang comes from the distance and a particular screaming voice gets closer to them “C'mon, director. What you sow is what you reap.”