Chapter Text
Art was supposed to be easy. Something he didn't have to study for, no surprise tests, and the same teacher as the last three years, who praised his eye for color schemes and clean lineart. At the beginning of the school year, he had made a spreadsheet with all the possible electives and then sorted them based on his chances to get a perfect score. So art had won. The perfect subject to not lose any sleep over - until said teacher needed a hip prosthesis, leaving her unable to work for... at least twelve weeks.
It sucked, obviously. She was a kind old lady, easy to get along with. It sucked even more once he learned that her replacement was Mr. Hegel, a guy in his forties with as little hair left on his head as he had patience. He didn't care about Riku's color schemes or lineart; he only cared about his "lack of understanding regarding human anatomy, really, Riku, a stick figurine would look more realistic than your drawing, have you ever even looked into a mirror?"
So his perfect plan went into the trash along with his drawing, the mark written down with a red pen still haunting him days later.
Maybe he sucked at understanding anatomy, yeah. Not like he ever needed to practice that before, it was much easier to draw things that didn't move every few seconds.
Instead, he found himself staring at pictures of random people found online after searching for "anatomy practice". A bunch of shapes, circles, and cubes. He zoomed in, out, looked up thirty more pictures for hands, sketched so many eyes that he probably developed a special kind of hate for eyelashes, but something was off and kept being off.
His sketchbook was filled with drawings of whatever he normally found around him, both in their house and outside, everything between a cup of coffee and the skyline from a rooftop. Taking a three-dimensional view and shrinking it down into two - that's what he was used to. The photos he was using now were all flat in comparison, and even more so in his sketchbook.
So he tried to draw his left hand from every angle he could manage before the cramps would hit or his whole arm would fall asleep after holding it up for too long. It was... doable, but kind of stupid. Not like he could draw his entire body that way.
It would be easier to draw a second person, really. And that stupid thought stuck with him, like a light bulb going on, but one that didn't help him at all. Because really, who could he ask for help?
His mom was too busy. His friends didn't even go to the same school, and it was hard enough to get their schedules to align (it was his own fault more often than not, but he shoved that thought away). Tate would probably agree on the spot, but- fuck, he hated the fact that he considered him for even a second. Was he really that desperate? To reopen the door he'd locked so tightly, after every meeting since their breakup, being reminded again and again why he closed it in the first place? No. Absolutely not. He'd rather ask Cherry if he had to decide on the lesser evil.
But maybe he could ask Charlotte? They were close enough to talk, even if he wouldn't label them friends or anything, but he'd helped her in the past. Maybe she'd help him out now? Then again, maybe that would be creepy. He, a guy, asking a girl to be his model. There was definitely space for misunderstandings and awkwardness, even more so as he remembered that stupid scene from the Titanic movie. He could basically feel his ears getting warm as he sat there hunched over his desk, staring holes into his sketchbook, pondering what to do.
Who could he ask without making it awkward? The list of possible options wasn't long to begin with. He went through it one by one, twirling the pencil between his fingers instead of biting his freshly painted nails.
As he reached the end of said list, not a single name was left. He even scratched out Cherry's name multiple times because, really, that guy couldn't sit still for one minute, and he certainly wouldn't do him any favors, no sacrifice his free time for Riku when he could play his stupid video games instead.
With them being in their final school year, he'd expected the guy to get more serious about studying, but so far that hadn't been the case. He was still hopeless, surviving on luck and probably cheating just to get by. More than once, Rikus' mum had told him that Maureen was looking for a tutor for her son, both women hoping to persuade Riku to help the poor boy, but he hadn't caved. At least he never told them that it would be a waste of time for both of them if Cherry didn't give a shit about his grades, while Riku wanted as much time as possible to study himself. And Cherry would probably rather die than ask Riku for help; that was obvious.
He let out a long sigh, the pencil stilled in his hand as he looked at it like it had offended him. Even though it had nothing to do with the thought that had popped up in his head, the logical, and very much stupid conclusion to fix his problem with a mutual transaction, even though it would probably cost him irreparable damage through all the headaches it would bring.
"You want me to do... What again?"
"I already told you. Twice. You can't be deaf already."
"Well, I guess I am, because it sounded a lot like you just asked me to be your model."
"See? Your ears are working just fine."
"You gotta be shitting me."
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
"You look like you're in physical pain, mostly."
"Exactly. So do we have a deal?"
"Wait- hold up, where's the catch? You just offer to tutor me for your modeling thing out of the blue?"
Riku let out a deep sigh, gave him a look like cherry was wasting his time with every single word coming out of his mouth. Like he wasn't asking some very relevant questions here, trying to figure out what his deal was. It made absolutely no sense for Riku to approach him, of all people.
"It's about my art grade, obviously. I need someone to practice with me, and I don't wanna bother other people."
"Then why ask me?"
"Because it's mutually beneficial for us, and I don't gotta pay you money."
Cherry furrowed his brow. "You'd pay people to be your model? What, are you planning something sketchy?"
"It's fair compensation for people's time, you idiot. People don't sit around like statues for free."
"Yet you don't want to pay me, huh?"
"Ugh, like you of all people would need money. Tutoring you counts as physical labor, too."
"Why not ask Charlotte then? I thought you two were besties now."
"Because-" He swallowed the words before he could tell him that it would be weird, asking a girl. Didn't want to tell him that he didn't want to be misunderstood, because surely, Cherry would just make fun of him for 'not knowing how to talk to girls'.
Instead, Cherry looked at him, clearly waiting for an answer, the way he raised one brow.
"Because she doesn't do sports."
"Huh? What's that got to do with anything?"
"Obviously you train a lot for your volleyball thing, so your muscles are more clearly defined. Thus, it's easier to draw them," he stated matter-of-factly, like predicting the weather. As though it made total sense.
To Cherry, it was more like the words slapped him in the face with a wet dishrag. His face did something comical.
"You want to draw my- huh? Why!? You're not gonna draw me naked!" He raised his voice, looking utterly scandalized, and Riku wished he'd picked a more remote spot for this conversation instead of the school hallway. But he took it gracefully and ignored the looks they'd earned, deciding to punch Cherry's arm instead to make him shut up.
"Don't put words in my mouth, weirdo! I'm talking about your arms, obviously."
Cherry's expression morphed fast, the shock settling into a shit-eating grin instead.
"Thanks for the compliment, good to know your eyes are working."
"You make me wanna roll them so hard, they're gonna stop soon."
"Yeah, yeah. So how do you want to do this?"
"We trade an hour for an hour each to make it fair. Quiet places. Whoever cancels at the last minute owes the other person one hour for free."
"Er...okay? I'm gonna pretend like you're not attacking me, otherwise it sounds reasonable enough."
"Good. So are you free this afternoon?"
It wasn't a question that Cherry had ever expected to hear from him.
"After training, yeah."
"Fine, then I'll just study till you're done. Meet me in A205 later, it should be quiet enough."
Cherry nodded, his mind not yet caught up with the situation he'd suddenly found himself in, agreeing to a deal with Riku of all people. With their track record, it probably wouldn't even take a whole hour for one of them to quit.
If he were being honest, he'd completely forgotten about their deal for the rest of the day. His normal schedule was ingrained in his mind, just making it through math and chemistry while praying for time to pass faster and release him from his suffering. Volleyball was the light at the end of the tunnel, the one thing he was looking forward to.
After hours of sitting quietly and frequently zoning out while copying his teacher's writing, he could finally stretch out his muscles and move. It was like his whole body woke up after hibernation, and not even the warm-up jogging bothered him as the sound of squeaky shoes echoed through the gymnasium with that distinctive smell in his nose. Racing each other felt like coming home, making him forget everything else about the day.
He always gave it his all during training, and he knew that some people thought he wanted to constantly prove himself as the captain, like it was all about a fragile ego, but that couldn't be further from the truth. They didn't know how it felt to be good at this, to surpass people's expectations of him and constantly challenge himself in order to grow even further, his eyes set on winning whatever match they'd play next. He was good at this, and there was no damn reason why he should hide it.
Afterwards, he'd take a long shower to relax his aching muscles, even though the water smelled too much like chlorine and was terrible for his hair. He could have taken a nap right there, standing under the cold water that drowned out the noise in the locker room, just not the off-key singing from the shower cabin next to him. He didn't know what caused the memory to pop up in his brain like a forgotten phone alarm at 4am, but his head snapped up, eyes open as he remembered Riku's words, telling him to meet him after training.
Fuck. Why the hell had he agreed to that instead of going home? He wrapped himself in a towel, shivering as soon as he stepped out of the cabin. What if he just didn't show up? He could drive home and text Riku later, claiming that he'd forgotten all about it. It wasn't like Riku had high expectations of him; that much he'd made clear enough in the past, so he probably would believe his lie.
He was almost fully dressed, pulling his undershirt over his head as he rummaged for his phone, when he noticed three new notifications.
"A205"
"Don't forget"
"Text me if you get lost"
Ugh. Did he really think he was stupid enough to not find the right room? Maybe going home was the right option, just to spite him for being an ass. Then again, he wouldn't grant him the joy of winning, whatever it was that winning meant. So he shoved his training clothes back into the sports bag and made his way back to the main building, enthusiasm nowhere to be found as he dragged a hand through his damp hair and fiddled with his shirt buttons with the other one, not even bothering to put the tie back on.
The school was almost empty, with a few lights still illuminating classrooms as the sun had already set. The second floor was even quieter, and for a moment, he considered knocking on the door where Riku was supposed to be in case there was still a class inside. He'd already raised his hand in a fist before it froze in the air, rethinking it, then lowering it to open the door quietly, poking his head through the gap. The light was on, bright and cold, with just a single person sitting there to waste electricity, the guy hunched over a table covered in textbooks.
Cherry could have sworn that he hadn't made a sound as he entered, but that head snapped up regardless. Riku looked at him with a frown, even though Cherry hadn't done anything yet aside from awkwardly standing near the door like he was waiting for something.
"You're sort of late." That was the accusation Riku settled on, no venom in his voice. He actually sounded a lot like his teachers, like he'd just aged twenty years to dismiss him with a single disappointed remark because, clearly, him being late was no surprise.
If it had been his teacher, he wouldn't have cared. Would've just passed by, head to a free table, and sit down with a "sorry" he didn't mean. But coming from Riku, it bothered him like hell. The guy had always been good at finding his weak spots and jabbing a finger right into them without even trying. Sitting on his high horse and looking down on him was probably as easy as breathing for him, which was so damn ironic considering the fact that Cherry was the taller one between them. Yet even when Riku had to look up at him, he always did so with a slight squint in his eyes and a tension in his jaw. And then, just as quickly, he'd look away to ignore him. Like Cherry wasn't even worth his highness attention, merely wasting his precious time.
What a prick.
Once again, he considered leaving. After all, he didn't owe Riku shit, and the chance to remind him of that was definitely tempting. One hand gripped the strap of his sports bag, still slung over his shoulder, the other rested on the door handle. Riku didn't even pay him any attention, too busy to pack up his books as he replaced them with his sketchbook and rummaged around in his backpack, looking for his drawing utensils.
There was a reason why he'd agreed to the deal in the first place - aside from his curiosity, of course. Riku basically lived to study; everyone knew as much. There was nobody with cleaner notes, nobody willing to go the extra mile when it came to understanding a topic. He was probably crazy enough to give himself homework if the teachers didn't bother. There was an obvious reason why it had never worked out when they tried to study together in the past - mostly because their mothers forced them into it - and Cherry preferred to drown him out whenever Rikus's so-called explanations were just a bunch of fancy words taped together to annoy Cherry, to rub it in how smart Riku was in comparison. He probably regarded Faust as a bedtime story and solved crossword puzzles while drinking his morning coffee, no milk or sugar, just dark and bitter.
But Riku was a top student, and able to explain concepts differently than his teachers - yes, sometimes Cherry actually paid attention - in multiple ways, even, until it clicked for other students too. He was arrogant and a grumpy little garden gnome missing a pointy hat, but he was probably Cherry's best hope when it came to passing his final exams. The ones he preferred not to think about since he still had a few months, even if that meant digging a deeper hole that may or may not come back to bite him in the ass later.
So he took a deep, calming breath, told himself that said breath really did calm him down, reminded himself that he was a very patient, very chill, and very easygoing guy, and removed his hand from the door handle before walking toward Riku instead. The desks were arranged to form a giant U-shape opposite the teacher's desk, so he came to stand next to him on the outside before dropping his sports bag on the next table and his backpack on the ground.
Riku gave him another one of his pointed looks, and Cherry returned it with a casual shrug like it didn't annoy him at all. "So what am I supposed to do?"
"Something that might be rather difficult for you - sit over there and be quiet." He pointed his chin towards the other side of the desk and the empty space over there. "As I already told you, I want to draw your arms, so you gotta take off that coat and roll up your sleeves."
God, would it kill him to ask nicely? To say please and thank you, pretend his mom had taught him some manners instead of ordering him around like a dog?
Cherry took another deep and calming breath, swallowed down his complaints and did as he was told instead, dragging a chair all the way over to the other side before putting his coat over the back of it and sitting down, facing Riku as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
"Wouldn't it be easier if I just took it off? I can't roll them up to my shoulders, you know."
"You're the one who reacted like a blushing maiden earlier, so no, I'm not asking you to strip. I just need to look at your underarms. Or at least one of them. You can rest your arm here on the desk so I can see it better, and I'm gonna show you how to hold it."
More orders. Cherry already felt like a puppet with Riku just pulling his strings, however he wanted. He'd basically told him to shut up and look pretty - not like he'd ever use that word though. He suppressed the chuckle that threatened to bubble up, pushed the chair forward until he sat right in front of the desk so he could rest his arm on top of it.
"You only need one, right?"
As soon as Riku nodded, Cherry pulled out his phone with a clear plan to kill the next hour without falling asleep - all the Candy Crush clones he'd installed for boring classes came to his rescue.
"Okay, so first, keep your elbow on the table but raise your lower arm with the back of your hand facing me."
The explanation was easy enough; Riku really didn't have to show him the movement with his own arm. He must have thought him completely stupid, huh. With the way he had to hold his arm, it would have been so easy to change his fist into flipping him off.
"I wanna see your brachioradialis, not just your extensors, so move your hand more towards yourself."
"My…what?"
Brachio-something sounded more like some sort of dinosaur, the angry cousin of a T. rex or something. Because, of course, Riku had to hit him with his fancy words after just two minutes, he couldn't stand not acting like he was the smartest person in an empty room for even that long.
"Your muscles, duh. There's your extensors, like the extensor digitorum," he actually reached over to poke his arm slightly with one finger, and Cherry had to force himself to hold still, to not jump at the unexpected contact. Riku wasn't even the type to shake hands with anybody. "And that one twisting around your arm when you turn it is the brachioradialis. Bra-chio-ra-di-alis."
Once again, it would be so easy to flip him off. He basically asked for it, didn't he? Instead, he was trying to process the fact that Rikus' index finger moved over Cherry's skin, drawing a line to show him where the muscle was supposed to be. He could feel a shiver running down his back - had he always been this ticklish?
"I see," he muttered, his other hand still resting in his lap, gripping his phone tightly, which he only noticed once his eyes wandered back to the screen and he noticed that he'd misclicked and quit the game by accident, mid-round. For fucks sake. He decided to keep his eyes firmly glued to his screen, focusing on beating his highscore to drown out Rikus's presence. It wasn't comfortable to keep his arm in that position, bending it in such a way that his fingers would eventually start to tingle before falling asleep.
Riku was quiet as always, and as Cherry kept his eyes firmly on his phone, unable to see him, he only noticed the guy's presence in the way that he'd sometimes put his pencil down to erase something with a tiny, frustrated sigh. Once he was satisfied with his work, he'd ask Cherry to shift his arm in another way, then start the whole process again.
"Keep your arm like that and just move your hand so your palm is facing me. Yeah, like that. Good."
Cherry bit his tongue instead of pointing out the small praise he'd given him for something stupid like turning his hand around. He felt kinda stupid in that position, hand opened as if he was waiting for Riku to give him a high five that never came. So he balled it into a fist again, though it didn't really make too much of a difference…
"Now hold your arm up like you're blocking something. No, more to the center, in front of your face. I can't see shit like that. Not like- god, just- let me," Riku complained before simply grabbing his wrist with one hand and his elbow with the other one, adjusting Cherry's position by mere millimeters, he could have sworn. What the hell?
"I told you, it's about your muscles. They shift with every tiny movement, so you need to hold it exactly like this for a bit. Don't move."
And yeah, he tried. It wasn't his fault that it was uncomfortable as hell to hold it like that for what felt like half an eternity, and while he focused back on his game, Riku kept complaining that he'd lowered his arm, even though Cherry claimed it was bullshit. They were both annoyed, ready to bicker, but Riku decided to make it even worse by touching his wrist again, propping it up with his own arm as he held it awkwardly between his thumb and index finger.
Cherry's eyes landed on the space where their skin touched automatically, ready to argue because Rikus' fingers were cold as hell, and did he really have to squeeze like that? Was he trying to cut off his bloodflow? But Riku had already gone back to drawing, ignoring him. So Cherry awkwardly shut his mouth, the retort dying on his tongue as he looked back down as well, or rather, at the black ring on his finger. Since when did he wear jewelry at school?
Eventually, he lost track of how many different ways he'd twisted his arm; his muscles, already tired after the training, felt even worse now. But not as sore as his neck, from the way he kept his head down to look at his phone. They'd only taken one short break, five minutes to head to the restroom and stretch their legs without speaking - because of course they didn't leave the classroom together, that would've been weird. And once the time that Riku had decided for the break was over, they went right back to it without speaking another word.
It was easier to just not look at the time, because then it felt even more like the clock didn't move at all. Cherry was ready to fall asleep sitting up, but he tried his best to keep his arm still to avoid Riku grabbing him again. The first time had been awkward enough, thank you very much. So he was startled as an alarm rang, a quiet but shrill one stemming from Rikus' phone buried somewhere in his jacket.
"Okay, that's all for today. We made good progress."
He actually looked satisfied, while Cherry was only confused by his word choice - we? He hadn't done shit, and at the same time, felt more exhausted than he had after training, as if he had actually put in heavy work. Spending a whole hour in Rikus' proximity without fighting wasn't easy; that much was clear. But he'd done it. He deserved a gold star, honestly. And a nice long nap once he got home.
"I gotta run to catch the subway, so let's schedule the study session later. See you tomorrow."
Riku packed his things as he spoke, not wasting a single moment yet still handling everything carefully. Barely even looked at Cherry's face as he said goodbye, much less waiting for his reply before marching out of the classroom. Cherry flexed his hand a few times, hoping to get blood back into his arm as he pushed the sleeve back down, staring at the door where Riku had just disappeared. He really shouldn't be surprised by his behavior anymore. This whole thing had been his idea, yet he treated their... 'appointment' as if he got paid by the minute. And yeah, in a way he did, since they'd decided on the rules earlier (or more like Riku doing his thing while Cherry had to agree to his terms).
But Riku was indebted to him, something that hadn't happened too often in the past, and Cherry was definitely going to have him repay the favor, every single minute of it.