Chapter Text
The Ideal Woman: an idea that plagued Tsukasa’s mind wherever he was. She had to be perfect: kind, a little bit teasing, smart, and funny. She had to have a sense of humor, and appreciate Tsukasa’s antics enough to not be embarrassed of him. She also needed to have a good, kind heart. Tsukasa’s “Ideal Woman” had to be beautiful on the inside and outside.
All of these traits described the current object of Tsukasa’s affections, Nene Kusanagi. She was at the top of their class, and she made everyone around her laugh. She was popular, but not too popular. She was pretty, too, not that Tsukasa cared too much about looks (although he was pretty handsome himself). Tsukasa even dreamed about her, or at least, that’s what he thought the woman of his dreams was. She didn’t really have a face. But he knew it was Nene, because that’s what his heart told him!
There was only one problem: her current best friend was after her too. He was the total package. Tall, good-looking, clever, smart, funny, beautiful eyes, beautiful hair, long fingers, perfect hands… How could Tsukasa compete with such a boy?! His name, of course, was Rui Kamishiro. Often, when Tsukasa would daydream about being in a relationship with Nene, Rui would always pop in his brain unexpectedly and steal her away.
“Emu,” Tsukasa groaned. “He did it again!”
“Who did what again?” Emu replied.
“He popped in my brain to tease me and steal Nene away!! I swear he’s doing this on purpose.”
“Uwah! Rui is a telepath?? That’s so cool!”
“No, Emu, not cool. Not cool at all!” Tsukasa threw his face into his hands in despair. “Every time I try to fantasize he always shows up. It’s like he cursed me or something!”
“Hmm~ I think Tsukasa is just being a silly goose.”
Tsukasa peeked out of his hands and looked up to see Rui talking to Nene outside his classroom window. Rui looked back at him and smirked.
“Gah! I swear he’s doing this on purpose!! He’s trying to steal Nene away, Emu!” Tsukasa said.
“You can do this Tsukasa! Don’t give up!” encouraged Emu. “He can’t compete with you. You’re so… um… well, I guess you’re objectively handsome,” she cocked her head, “but I can’t really say. Hehe!”
“Yes, yes, I know, you’re a lesbian. But I guess it’s pretty flattering to hear that I’m handsome from a lesbian. So, thank you, Emu,” Tsukasa preened.
Slowly, the rest of the period passed him by. He was agonizing for the bell to ring, tapping his fingers to a nonexistent beat in his brain. Tsukasa waited, and waited, and waited, not even bothering to pay attention to the teacher of the class. It was almost painful to wait, like the world was turning slower every second he waited. This period was boring, uneventful, and just plain shit to wait through. He longed for his period with Nene, his last class of the day, even if it was the most boring period. Unfortunately, he did have it with Rui. That much was inevitable, though Nene’s bright, happy face would cheer him up.
When the bell did ring, Tsukasa rushed to history. He didn’t bother looking in front of him, instead he had a one-track mind, speedwalking as fast as he could to get to his class. Inevitably, he tripped and fell right through the doorway. He flushed, as he could hear the people who had already gotten to class laugh at him. Could he be hearing Nene…? No, that was impossible. Someone so kind and thoughtful could never laugh at someone like him. Then he heard Rui’s unmistakable laugh. It sounded too cheerful. Tsukasa walked to his seat and huffed.
For the rest of the period, Tsukasa stared at the back of Nene’s head. While he was daydreaming, he didn’t notice a lot going on through the class. He heard Rui chuckle, so Tsukasa turned to look at him. However, seeing him definitely dampened his mood.
How in the world could someone be so handsome?! It looked like he was wearing eyeliner, with the way his eyes shone so bright. It was almost too much for Tsukasa to bear, so he switched his attention to Nene. She was looking perfect, of course. Not much to say there. Again, he switched his attention to Rui, seething at the way his eye color reflected the light and made his eyes shine like the stars. How in the world could one man be so handsome? He was definitely going to succeed in stealing Nene, that was if Tsukasa didn’t steal her first.
He seethed at the sprinkle of freckles across Rui’s nose. He’d never known freckles to look that good on anyone, himself included.
“Is there something on my face, or are you just admiring the view?” Rui smirked.
In his anger, it seems Tsukasa didn’t notice Rui staring back at him. He flushed and turned to look at the teacher.
There was some invisible force connecting the two. Some sort of gravitational push and pull, a force of nature that would not stop unless the two were together. It must have been fate… Tsukasa was talking about Nene, of course. After all, she was the object of his affections. He decided he had to do something about this crush of his.
When the school bell rang, he walked to the grocery store, thinking about Nene all the way. What sort of things did she like? What candies, what flowers, what games? It was all a mystery to him. Thinking about it now, Tsukasa didn’t know much about Nene other than she was nice and pretty. So what drew him to her?
The grocery store was cold, as always, with humming fluorescent lights and too many crowds. Hopefully, luck would come his way and Tsukasa could get in and out without much hassle. He picked up a box of peanut M&M’s. It was a perfectly average candy, everyone liked it. It should be perfect to give to Nene. He didn’t want to go too hard too fast, Tsukasa thought, so candy as a gift for a few days should be perfect as a way to get Nene to like him.
He saw a purple-haired figure up ahead, but he was too distracted to realize who it was. So he kept walking to the registers. Without thinking, he ran straight into Rui.
“Ah, Tsukasa, what a pleasure to see you.” Rui smirked.
“I’d say likewise, but I’d be lying,” Tsukasa mumbled. “Rui! Hello,” he said louder. “What are you doing here?”
“Why, I’m buying groceries! What else could I be doing?” In his hands, he held bags and bags of craft supplies.
“Those don’t look like groceries. What are you planning?” Tsukasa narrowed his eyes.
“And why would I tell you?”
“Nevermind. I can’t be bothered to ask,” Tsukasa rolled his eyes. He stepped closer to the other boy. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but don’t you dare steal the object of my affections away from me! She’s way out of your league.”
Rui’s lips quirked into an annoying little smirk that Tsukasa wanted to wipe right off that face. “The object of your affections? Don’t tell me, are you talking about Nene, perchance?”
Perchance. What a stupid word to use. What is this, the 19th century? Tsukasa narrowed his eyes and straightened his posture.
“Yes. And what are you going to do about it?”
“Hmm… maybe tell her you called her an object?”
Tsukasa gasped. “That’s not- no, don’t- you know what I meant! Don’t tell her that!! She’ll get the wrong idea!”
“On one condition.” Rui leaned in towards Tsukasa. Tsukasa looked away. “Be my partner on the history project.”
“What project?” Tsukasa gulped.
“My, Tsukasa! Weren’t you paying attention? We have a history project due next week.”
Tsukasa scrambled to check his school app, just to see if Rui was correct. Unfortunately, he was. There was a new notification on his phone from Emu, asking who his partner was on the history project.
“What do I get out of this?” he had to ask. Because what kind of fool did Rui take him for?!
“Well, for one,” Rui brushed Tsukasa’s hair behind his ear. “I won’t tell Nene about you calling her an object.”
Tsukasa scoffed, barely managing to keep his blush down. “Once I explain that to her, she’ll understand. What’s your other points?”
“Hmm… well, you might find this one interesting. Nene hates peanuts.”
Tsukasa gasped and hid the peanut m&m’s behind his back. “That’s not- how do you know?”
“You were mumbling to yourself in the candy aisle and I couldn’t help but overhear. Anyways, if you partner with me for this history project, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about Nene.”
Considering this, Tsukasa pressed his lips into a thin line. He tapped his foot a couple times, then groaned. “Augh! Fine! Why do you want to be my partner so bad anyways?”
“That’s a secret. Fufufu~”
Fufufu? What kind of psycho was this guy?
When Tsukasa got home, he gave the peanut m&m’s to his sister. Saki smiled and attacked him in a hug. After getting her off and going to his room, he pulled out his phone and texted Rui about the project reluctantly.
[7:32 PM] TSUKASA!!: so what’s the project about
Rui didn’t respond immediately. That was annoying. In fact, he didn’t respond for the next hour, or the hour after that. It gave Tsukasa time to write a few drafts for love letters towards Nene. All of them seemed too dull, or lifeless. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he put down his feelings on paper? Every time he tried to visualize her and think of what he liked about her, his mind came up blank. He threw every draft of his love poetry and letters in the trash. That’s where they belonged.
Sighing, Tsukasa opened his laptop. He didn’t need Rui to find out personal information about Nene, not as long as he had social media! He scoured the internet for any traces of Nene Kusanagi’s profiles on any social media, but he couldn’t find any apart from one Instagram page that hadn’t been updated in several years. Before he knew it, it was 10 o’clock, and his phone dinged with a text notification.
[10:03] rui kamishiro: #$*(kdkscm mcxdl
[10:03] rui kamishiro: My bad. That was my cat.
[10:03] rui kamishiro: Anyways~ we have to do a project on a famous musician. Tell their life story in any format we want. I was thinking we do a play.
[10:04] TSUKASA!!: a play? really?
[10:04] rui kamishiro: Yes. You can write it and I’ll make the props and costumes.
[10:04] TSUKASA!!: ok
[10:04] TSUKASA!!: but fair warning. i’m not very good at writing
[10:05] rui kamishiro: Oh, I don’t doubt that for a second. However, the grade is for completion, not for quality. All we have to do is make sure the play explains all the most significant points in the musician’s life. I’ve already talked to the teacher about it :)
[10:05] TSUKASA!!: sounds good to me. i’ll write it just don’t be too critical. what musician did you want to do?
[10:07] rui kamishiro: Tchaikovsky. He’s always been my favorite.
[10:07] TSUKASA!!: 👍
Tsukasa cracked his knuckles and started to work. He didn’t know much about Tchaikovsky, only that he was Russian and he liked piano. What was it that drew Rui to Tchaikovsky? All the research Tsukasa came up with didn’t give any reasons why, although he admitted, he didn’t know enough about Rui to know why.
Rui intrigued him, in an infuriating way. He was a mystery that Tsukasa didn’t want to solve, but ended up unraveling itself every second he spent around Rui. It’s like there were threads in his mind connecting different moments in time, like some crazy detective’s corkboard. For some reason, there was something that drew them together, and Tsukasa did not want to find out what that thing was.
He spent the whole night writing and rewriting the play. He wanted to make it perfect. Even though this was a completion grade and not a grade for perfectionism, he still wanted to impress Nene. After all, she was in the class, so what better to impress her than an outstanding play?
The next morning, Tsukasa woke up at his desk, with the letter Z spammed all across his document. What in the world…? He must have fallen asleep.
Unsurprisingly, school was awful. Not only was he tired, but he swore Rui was taunting him. He kept seeing him around school, in the hallways, during class, and even on lunch break. Was Rui stalking him or did he just notice him more often? It was probably the former. Rui was probably really creepy. That day, he only saw Nene once, and that was during his history class. History class was a nightmare. He couldn’t focus, as per usual, but today it was especially bad. Since it was his last class of the day, he waited anxiously until he could go home and take a nap. Unfortunately, the universe was not going his way that day.
“Tsukasa~ can you come over to my house today to work on the project? There’s a few things I want to hammer out.” Rui leaned on Tsukasa’s desk
“No. I’m going home and taking a nap, and then I’m going to have dinner, and work on the project at home.”
“Fine… I guess you don’t want to know what Nene’s favorite candy is,” Rui pouted.
“Gah! Fine. I’ll come over. But you better promise to tell me,” said Tsukasa.
“Of course, Tsukasa, why wouldn’t I?”
So, Tsukasa went to Rui’s house.
Rui’s house fit him perfectly. Rui always came to school with messy hair, stains on his clothes, and a generally bad attitude. There was no bed in his so-called bedroom, because it was literally just a garage. How did this man sleep at night? There was scraps of metal and random tools scattered across the floor haphazardly. Tsukasa took great care to not step on them, lest he get tetanus.
“Don’t you ever bother cleaning in here?” Tsukasa asked.
“Mmm, well, I do, but then it gets messy again. So I don’t bother most of the time.”
They sat down on Rui’s dilapidated couch. It looked like there were oil stains all over it, and it was not very comfortable at all. Was this where Rui slept? Tsukasa worried for his sleep schedule. Except he didn’t, because he didn’t care. Gah! Rui was messing with his head. This was all an act to make Tsukasa feel bad for Rui. He probably didn’t seriously sleep in the garage. That would be ridiculous and quite frankly abuse.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Tsukasa leaned back onto the uncomfortable couch.
“Show me what you have so far for the play.” Rui leaned into Tsukasa’s personal space.
“I don’t have it printed.” Tsukasa leaned further back.
“But you do have your laptop, right?” Rui leaned further into Tsukasa’s personal space.
Tsukasa rolled his eyes and rustled through his bag for his laptop. He rifled through his files on his computer until he eventually found the play. This was… quite personal. After discovering Tchaikovsky was gay, he felt empathy for the composer. He felt quite connected, for reasons he couldn’t explain. So, reluctantly, he handed Rui the computer, not bothering to explain the context to why it was so emotionally charged.
Awkward silence filled the room as Rui read his play. Tsukasa fiddled with his fingers, he tapped his toes, he did anything to pass the time and to move around so he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. He watched Rui’s tentative expressions, though he couldn’t tell what they meant. Eventually, Rui took a deep breath and handed Tsukasa his computer.
“Tsukasa, this… are you sure you want to perform this to the class?”
Of course. Rui thought it was terrible. Tsukasa’s eyes filled with tears as he shut the laptop.
“As if you could write better. Listen, I tried my best. That was my job. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Tsukasa got up, but Rui pulled him down.
“No, no, I don’t think it’s bad at all. I just think… well… it’s very emotional. I never knew you could write like this.”
Their faces were very close. Tsukasa couldn’t focus on what Rui was saying, something about the emotions and connections to his personal life? The only thing Tsukasa was focusing on was how Rui’s hand was still holding his wrist from when he pulled him back on to the couch.
“A-ah, well, you know, all in a day’s work for someone like me,” Tsukasa tried to cover up his flustering.
“Okay… well, I do think I can make some good costumes for this. It’ll take me the rest of the week though, so do you think you can come over tomorrow for measurements?”
“Sure, yeah.”
When Tsukasa went home that night, all he could think about was how Rui kept holding his wrist. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
[6:41] rui kamishiro: psst
[6:41] rui kamishiro: by the way
[6:41] rui kamishiro: nene likes skittles
Tsukasa smiled.