Scale of 1 to 10
TITLE: Scale of 1 to 10
RATING: R
PAIRING: Ryo/Shige
WORD COUNT: 2,799
SUMMARY: Ryo is irritated, and that leads to some trouble.
NOTES: Whore!verse 9.
By 10am, Ryo had decided that the day sucked. He woke up late and didn’t have time to shower. There was no coffee in the apartment, but by the time he found that out, it was too late to stop anywhere to get some. Yamashita, the bastard, took Ryo’s customary parking spot in the corner of the garage. When he got to the Kanjani8 dressing room before rehearsals, every one was else was asleep and unable to listen to his ranting. When he tried to call Shige and complain at him, Shige didn’t pick up. He almost went to KAT-TUN’s dressing room to complain at Akanishi, before remembering that Akanishi’s a drunken ass, leaving Ryo no one to vent his anger at.
Which led him to the conclusion that the day is destined for suck-age. With that mindset, he stomps down the hallways glaring at juniors, cutting in line for lunch and messing with Yasuda’s guitar after he’d spent 20 minutes tuning it to perfection. He feels a little better after those things, but he’s still mad.
When he can finally go home, Ryo figures the day will finally start going his way.
But of course, it doesn’t.
Shige was supposed to come over and they were supposed to make dinner, but apparently, studying for tests is suddenly more important than kinda- significant others, which of course Ryo is to Shige. So Ryo sits in his apartment, sulking for the rest of the night eating Chinese leftovers.
In the morning, Ryo wakes up enraged, which is never a good thing. He’s forced to put on a happy face for the entire day, because he has three interviews to do. That only makes his more pissed at the rest of existence. He gets home, and Shige’s not there (even though Shige had told him the previous day, “I’m going to be MIA for a few days… This is a really important test, so give me some space… okay?”).
Ring. Ring. Ring. Rin-
“I’m stil-“
“You will come over here. Now.”
“I have two-“
“Now.”
“You’re bei-“
“NOW.”
Shige isn’t familiar with such a dangerous tone from Ryo, but he knows it can’t be a good thing. And if Ryo ends up killing some one, he doesn’t want to be the last person on Ryo’s phone’s call list.
“O-okay. I’ll be there soon.”
Ryo doesn’t answer - he hangs up.
Half an hour later, Shige is standing in Ryo’s genkan, debating if he really wants to announce his presence. He can hear Ryo in the living and all he’s saying is a steady stream of curses. Very quietly, Shige walks in and takes a look: Ryo’s on the couch with a video game controller in his hand, playing some violent game (Shige isn’t familiar with them).
“U-um, Ry-“
Ryo whips around in his seat and glares, “It took you long enough. Get over here!” and goes back to his game.
Shige’s still for a moment before joining Ryo on the couch, but doesn’t sit right next to him. Honestly, he’s a little frightened too.
Ryo sighs angrily and pauses the game, “You study all the fucking time but you can’t understand a single fucking sentence?” He grabs Shige arms and pulls him closer, “If I’d wanted some one to sit three goddamn feet away from me, I would have called one of my retarded friends. Seriously, how did you get into school? You always do stupid shit like this.”
Shige frowns, “Did I ride the bus for 40 minutes just so you could yell at some one in person?”
Ryo goes back to the game, “Yes.”
Shige stands up, fuming, “Nishikido!”
Ryo looks up without pausing the game.
“I’m not a toy! I have my own stuff to do! You can’t just call and bother me whenever you want! I have a life! School and work - both of which you couldn’t possibly understand the pressures of! You go to work and sing some songs and girls scream your name and you get paid obscene amounts! And school - you barely graduated from high school! I don’t have time for this!”
Shige starts walking away, but then there’s an arm around his waist and a hand up his shirt. The game is still blaring on in the background.
“You’re pretty hot when you’re angry.” Ryo breathes into his neck, and then licks a line up from his shoulder to his jaw.
Shige panics a little, “Let go of me! I have better things to do!”
Ryo laughs and sits back down, pulling Shige down too, pressing him against the arm of the couch, leaning against him, chest-to-back, “You have nothing more important to do,” painstakingly slowly, Ryo rolls his hips against Shige’s back, “then deal with this.”
Shige squirms and tries to elbow Ryo in the stomach, but it doesn’t work, “Asshole!”
Ryo’s face is pressed against the back of Shige’s neck, grinning. He doesn’t say anything. He just starts sucking behind Shige right ear and slips his other hand up Shige’s shirt. Together, they pull Shige’s shirt off, but before it’s all the way off, Ryo ties the shirt into a knot around Shige’s wrists.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
Ryo laughs again, deep and in his chest. He lets go of Shige and stands up, only to push Shige down so he’s lying on his back on the couch. And then Ryo pries his legs apart and plants himself between them.
Shige screams and pushes at Ryo’s chest, “Get off me! I’m not kidding, you freak!”
Ryo’s nibbling at Shige’s collarbone, licking and sucking his way across. His hands are holding Shige’s hips down so the other can’t get much leverage to kick, and every so often, a finger dips inside his pants.
“Agh, idols!” Shige tries to kick again, “Just because some people fall at your feet, you think every one does!”
“I don’t want you at my feet, Shige,” Ryo’s mouth is lower now, and he bites just above a nipple, “You’re not very useful down there, and playing alone is never fun.”
One of Ryo’s hands is on Shige’s crotch, rubbing, and the other is taking off his belt, and pulling the zipper down. Shige can see where this is going, and that they’re both still angry. He pulls his arms back and swings. Ryo ducks, but not fast enough, the Shige clips him on the side of the head. It’s enough though, and Ryo loses his balance, falling off the couch, landing face first on the floor.
Shige’s breathing deeply and wondering if that was really the best idea. He looks over the side of the couch, and Ryo is just starting to get up. He turns to Shige, and he knows hitting Ryo was not what he should have done. It’s only a split second that they’re looking each other in the eye, but the look on Ryo’s face makes Shige feel guilty, like this whole situation is solely his fault. That maybe, he should have let Ryo get away with a little more before finding some other way to get him off. Ryo gets up and goes straight to the bedroom, shutting and locking the door. Shige’s still on the couch with his shirt knotted around his wrists.
-- -- --
It takes Shige 15 minutes of very careful maneuvering to get the shirt off without ripping it. After everything the shirt had been through, he didn’t feel like putting it back on. But seeing as how it was Ryo’s apartment, Shige didn’t have any choice but to sit on the couch, naked from the hips up.
In those 15 minutes, he hadn’t heard a single noise come from the bedroom. When Ryo had shut the door, Shige had expected swearing, and maybe some smashing noises, but the silence startled him more and he worried. He wanted to get up and knock on the door, to call out to Ryo and apologize for hitting him. To be that person that sits by the door, waiting for it to open, so that when Ryo opens it, he’ll know how concerned Shige was. Shige wants to do so many things, but he can’t. He can’t find that little bit of courage that will allow him to do something as embarrassing as knock on the door and apologize, or sit next to it for hours on end.
So instead, he sits on the couch, knees pulled up to his chest, doing nothing. He turned off the TV and the console. Doesn’t listen to the radio, doesn’t open the window for ambient noise. If Ryo is going to sit in absolute quiet, then Shige will too.
-- -- --
At 6pm, Ryo opens the door and Shige perks up and starts to smile a little bit, but when Ryo sees him, he slams the door closed again.
-- -- --
At 9:30pm, Ryo tries the door again. Shige doesn’t smile this time, but Ryo closes the door anyways.
-- -- --
At 12:20am, Shige’s asleep on the couch, but his phone starts buzzing in his pocket and it wakes him up.
SENT 12:19AM
FROM: RYO
Go home.
Shige puts his phone on silent and goes back to sleep.
-- -- --
At 12:45am, the door opens again. Ryo doesn’t come out, but he leaves it open. Shige looks over the arm of the couch and very slowly gets up. He walks to the door and peeks inside. Ryo looks like he’s asleep, but he just got up to open the door, so he’s probably not. Shige takes a careful step inside the room, worried about making any noise for fear of disturbing Ryo. He takes another step and pauses, watching Ryo for a minute. He takes a deep breath and just as he’s about to take another step, Ryo sits straight up in bed, but freezes when he sees Shige.
“What are you doing?”
“U-um,” Shige hasn’t said anything in hours and his voice is hoarse, “You, you opened the door… and I thought-“
“You thought what?”
Even though it’s dark in the room, Shige can see Ryo glaring and he feels intimidated. He can’t think of anything to say.
“What did you think, Shige?”
“I-I thought… maybe,” his voice sounds weak, “You wanted me to… come…in.”
Ryo doesn’t move, or make a sound. He just keeps sitting in bed, eyes trained on Shige, who for his part, feels like he should just leave. But Ryo surprises him by getting up and walking over to Shige, stopping right in front of him.
“Don’t hit me.”
Shige nods and wants to scream, ‘Don’t be mean to me! Especially when you have no reason to be!’ but he can’t, because he feels like that would just start this argument up again. The nod is enough for Ryo, and he goes back to bed, not bothering to drag Shige back with him. He gets in on his own.
It’s an awkward night. Generally, when they’re sharing Ryo’s bed, they’ll start off on different sides, but still quite close to one another. It’s not strange to wake up with Ryo’s arm over Shige’s chest, or Shige spooning up against Ryo’s back. Resting against, or on, each other while asleep isn’t odd for the two of them, and neither wakes up over it. But that night, any time a foot is kicked or an arm is slung, both feel it, acutely and recoil back to their sides, nearly falling off the side of the bed. They’re both a little cold and don’t sleep well.
In the morning, Ryo thinks he’s the first to wake up. He’s facing away from the middle of the bed, towards the window. It’s only barely light outside. Ryo knows he doesn’t have any kind of work today, but can’t help wondering what time Shige’s classes start. And thinking about that reminds him of yesterday. He tries to look over his shoulder at Shige without moving too much, but it’s impossible. So very carefully, he moves his body, trying not to disturb the bed. Ryo wants to keep the upper hand in this situation, and he thinks being the first one awake is the best way to do that.
But he’s surprised, because when he looks, Shige’s looking back at him, obviously very awake.
“I’ve been up for an hour.”
“And you’ve just been staring at the back of my head?”
Shige blushes, “Sorry… About hitting you yesterday.”
Ryo hasn’t ever hit Shige, and doesn’t ever plan on it, but the tone of Shige’s voice makes him feel like the abusive one in the relationship, “You… you don’t need to apologize for that. Your test is tomorrow, right? I really pulled you off-track, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, it’s tomorrow.” Shige looks worried, “I have a study session tonight.”
Ryo rolls onto his stomach and puts his face in the pillow, “Crap. You- crap. I had two really bad days in a row, and I was selfish, cause I knew you had this test, but I… Dammit, Shige, I’m really… Agh, you know what I want to mean.”
Shige fidgets and Ryo feels it, “You… you won’t say it? … You’ve said it to me before. Before we were… When I was... was still-“
“Shut up, Shige.”
The blankets get moved around, and Ryo looks up. Shige’s pulled them up to his face, covering it. He hears Shige sniffle, quietly, and he immediately sits up.
“Shige-“
“Do you… really like me? Even after everything I’ve done… knowing what I did… are you serious?”
Ryo’s taken aback, “Wha- Shige.” And he reaches forward, trying to pull the blankets down, but Shige won’t let him, “I do, I do. I’m not- Shige, I’m not good at this kind of thing. I’ve had to say those words so many times, Shige. It’s like they don’t have any meaning any more. They’re- Ah, I can’t talk to you like this!”
So Ryo goes down, to the other end of the bed and crawls under the covers, all the way to where Shige is hiding his face and Ryo lies down next to him. Ryo holds Shige’s hands out of the way, so he can’t try to cover his face and looks Shige straight in the eyes.
“I’m completely serious about you. About… this.”
Shige hiccups.
“I’m an idol. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve had to say, ‘I love you’ and fake apologies in songs and dramas and in stupid contests. They’re empty words, Shige. You deserve better than that.”
Ryo lets go of Shige’s hands and holds him around the waist, pulling them together.
Shige fists his hands in Ryo’s shirt and exhales, “Please don’t make me get angry at you again.”
“Why not?” Ryo smiles, “You’re hot when you’re angry.”
Shige blushes, but doesn’t try to hide his face, “But… you locked me out of the room.”
Ryo grimaces, “Okay, I’ll admit, that was a little extreme. I stayed upset about that for way too long.” He tilts his head forward so his nose is almost touching Shige’s, “I’m happy you stayed though. That you didn’t just leave. Every other person I’ve dated…. They always left. And even though I was angry, I was really happy to see you stayed. It was cute. You were cute.”
And Ryo leans forward enough to give Shige a little kiss on the lips, and when he pulls away, Shige’s smiling.
-- -- --
Shige has a test to study for, and they both know it, but some how, Shige ends up staying until around noon when he had to leave for an afternoon class. They made breakfast together - Ryo used too much miso in the soup and Shige complained about it, but drank some anyways to make Ryo feel better. Shige put too much sugar in the eggs, but Ryo didn’t say anything, he ate all of his, and Shige’s leftovers as well. Then they played video games for a little bit, but mostly Ryo ran around killing things, and Shige hid behind a rock, randomly throwing grenades over his shoulder. When it was time for lunch, Ryo wanted to go out, but Shige vetoed the idea and ended up making pasta.
While Shige was putting on his shoes, Ryo sat next to him on the step into the genkan. He didn’t say anything when Shige leaned down to get his bag or when the door closed. Ryo kept sitting there for a minute, until he stood up and opened his front door. Shige was standing in the hall, waiting for the elevator.
“Shige.”
He turned and waved at Ryo, “Um, I’ll-“
“I’m sorry.”
The elevator beeped and opened.
“I’m sorry I was angry at you for no reason. And locked you out.”
Shige smiled, “I’ll be back later, okay?”
And then he stepped into the elevator.
-- -- --
It was some ungodly hour of the night when Ryo heard his door open and close and some one come stumbling down the hall. There was shuffling of clothes on the far side of the bed, and then the mattress dipped with some one’s added weight.
Ryo groaned, “You woke me up.”
“Sorry.”
He reached out and felt around for Shige, “Where the hell are you?”
“Um… over here?”
Ryo grumbled for a minute before crawling to the other side, splaying himself face-down next to Shige with an arm over the other’s stomach.
“Good luck on your test tomorrow.”
Shige laughed quietly, and rolled over, so he was lying on his stomach next to Ryo, “Good night, Ryo-chan.” And then Shige leaned over and kissed Ryo on the cheek.
That night, Ryo dreamt of Shige’s graduation. After it, Shige got rid of his shitty apartment and moved in with Ryo.
The following day, every one comments on Ryo’s exponentially better mood.
RATING: R
PAIRING: Ryo/Shige
WORD COUNT: 2,799
SUMMARY: Ryo is irritated, and that leads to some trouble.
NOTES: Whore!verse 9.
By 10am, Ryo had decided that the day sucked. He woke up late and didn’t have time to shower. There was no coffee in the apartment, but by the time he found that out, it was too late to stop anywhere to get some. Yamashita, the bastard, took Ryo’s customary parking spot in the corner of the garage. When he got to the Kanjani8 dressing room before rehearsals, every one was else was asleep and unable to listen to his ranting. When he tried to call Shige and complain at him, Shige didn’t pick up. He almost went to KAT-TUN’s dressing room to complain at Akanishi, before remembering that Akanishi’s a drunken ass, leaving Ryo no one to vent his anger at.
Which led him to the conclusion that the day is destined for suck-age. With that mindset, he stomps down the hallways glaring at juniors, cutting in line for lunch and messing with Yasuda’s guitar after he’d spent 20 minutes tuning it to perfection. He feels a little better after those things, but he’s still mad.
When he can finally go home, Ryo figures the day will finally start going his way.
But of course, it doesn’t.
Shige was supposed to come over and they were supposed to make dinner, but apparently, studying for tests is suddenly more important than kinda- significant others, which of course Ryo is to Shige. So Ryo sits in his apartment, sulking for the rest of the night eating Chinese leftovers.
In the morning, Ryo wakes up enraged, which is never a good thing. He’s forced to put on a happy face for the entire day, because he has three interviews to do. That only makes his more pissed at the rest of existence. He gets home, and Shige’s not there (even though Shige had told him the previous day, “I’m going to be MIA for a few days… This is a really important test, so give me some space… okay?”).
Ring. Ring. Ring. Rin-
“I’m stil-“
“You will come over here. Now.”
“I have two-“
“Now.”
“You’re bei-“
“NOW.”
Shige isn’t familiar with such a dangerous tone from Ryo, but he knows it can’t be a good thing. And if Ryo ends up killing some one, he doesn’t want to be the last person on Ryo’s phone’s call list.
“O-okay. I’ll be there soon.”
Ryo doesn’t answer - he hangs up.
Half an hour later, Shige is standing in Ryo’s genkan, debating if he really wants to announce his presence. He can hear Ryo in the living and all he’s saying is a steady stream of curses. Very quietly, Shige walks in and takes a look: Ryo’s on the couch with a video game controller in his hand, playing some violent game (Shige isn’t familiar with them).
“U-um, Ry-“
Ryo whips around in his seat and glares, “It took you long enough. Get over here!” and goes back to his game.
Shige’s still for a moment before joining Ryo on the couch, but doesn’t sit right next to him. Honestly, he’s a little frightened too.
Ryo sighs angrily and pauses the game, “You study all the fucking time but you can’t understand a single fucking sentence?” He grabs Shige arms and pulls him closer, “If I’d wanted some one to sit three goddamn feet away from me, I would have called one of my retarded friends. Seriously, how did you get into school? You always do stupid shit like this.”
Shige frowns, “Did I ride the bus for 40 minutes just so you could yell at some one in person?”
Ryo goes back to the game, “Yes.”
Shige stands up, fuming, “Nishikido!”
Ryo looks up without pausing the game.
“I’m not a toy! I have my own stuff to do! You can’t just call and bother me whenever you want! I have a life! School and work - both of which you couldn’t possibly understand the pressures of! You go to work and sing some songs and girls scream your name and you get paid obscene amounts! And school - you barely graduated from high school! I don’t have time for this!”
Shige starts walking away, but then there’s an arm around his waist and a hand up his shirt. The game is still blaring on in the background.
“You’re pretty hot when you’re angry.” Ryo breathes into his neck, and then licks a line up from his shoulder to his jaw.
Shige panics a little, “Let go of me! I have better things to do!”
Ryo laughs and sits back down, pulling Shige down too, pressing him against the arm of the couch, leaning against him, chest-to-back, “You have nothing more important to do,” painstakingly slowly, Ryo rolls his hips against Shige’s back, “then deal with this.”
Shige squirms and tries to elbow Ryo in the stomach, but it doesn’t work, “Asshole!”
Ryo’s face is pressed against the back of Shige’s neck, grinning. He doesn’t say anything. He just starts sucking behind Shige right ear and slips his other hand up Shige’s shirt. Together, they pull Shige’s shirt off, but before it’s all the way off, Ryo ties the shirt into a knot around Shige’s wrists.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
Ryo laughs again, deep and in his chest. He lets go of Shige and stands up, only to push Shige down so he’s lying on his back on the couch. And then Ryo pries his legs apart and plants himself between them.
Shige screams and pushes at Ryo’s chest, “Get off me! I’m not kidding, you freak!”
Ryo’s nibbling at Shige’s collarbone, licking and sucking his way across. His hands are holding Shige’s hips down so the other can’t get much leverage to kick, and every so often, a finger dips inside his pants.
“Agh, idols!” Shige tries to kick again, “Just because some people fall at your feet, you think every one does!”
“I don’t want you at my feet, Shige,” Ryo’s mouth is lower now, and he bites just above a nipple, “You’re not very useful down there, and playing alone is never fun.”
One of Ryo’s hands is on Shige’s crotch, rubbing, and the other is taking off his belt, and pulling the zipper down. Shige can see where this is going, and that they’re both still angry. He pulls his arms back and swings. Ryo ducks, but not fast enough, the Shige clips him on the side of the head. It’s enough though, and Ryo loses his balance, falling off the couch, landing face first on the floor.
Shige’s breathing deeply and wondering if that was really the best idea. He looks over the side of the couch, and Ryo is just starting to get up. He turns to Shige, and he knows hitting Ryo was not what he should have done. It’s only a split second that they’re looking each other in the eye, but the look on Ryo’s face makes Shige feel guilty, like this whole situation is solely his fault. That maybe, he should have let Ryo get away with a little more before finding some other way to get him off. Ryo gets up and goes straight to the bedroom, shutting and locking the door. Shige’s still on the couch with his shirt knotted around his wrists.
-- -- --
It takes Shige 15 minutes of very careful maneuvering to get the shirt off without ripping it. After everything the shirt had been through, he didn’t feel like putting it back on. But seeing as how it was Ryo’s apartment, Shige didn’t have any choice but to sit on the couch, naked from the hips up.
In those 15 minutes, he hadn’t heard a single noise come from the bedroom. When Ryo had shut the door, Shige had expected swearing, and maybe some smashing noises, but the silence startled him more and he worried. He wanted to get up and knock on the door, to call out to Ryo and apologize for hitting him. To be that person that sits by the door, waiting for it to open, so that when Ryo opens it, he’ll know how concerned Shige was. Shige wants to do so many things, but he can’t. He can’t find that little bit of courage that will allow him to do something as embarrassing as knock on the door and apologize, or sit next to it for hours on end.
So instead, he sits on the couch, knees pulled up to his chest, doing nothing. He turned off the TV and the console. Doesn’t listen to the radio, doesn’t open the window for ambient noise. If Ryo is going to sit in absolute quiet, then Shige will too.
-- -- --
At 6pm, Ryo opens the door and Shige perks up and starts to smile a little bit, but when Ryo sees him, he slams the door closed again.
-- -- --
At 9:30pm, Ryo tries the door again. Shige doesn’t smile this time, but Ryo closes the door anyways.
-- -- --
At 12:20am, Shige’s asleep on the couch, but his phone starts buzzing in his pocket and it wakes him up.
SENT 12:19AM
FROM: RYO
Go home.
Shige puts his phone on silent and goes back to sleep.
-- -- --
At 12:45am, the door opens again. Ryo doesn’t come out, but he leaves it open. Shige looks over the arm of the couch and very slowly gets up. He walks to the door and peeks inside. Ryo looks like he’s asleep, but he just got up to open the door, so he’s probably not. Shige takes a careful step inside the room, worried about making any noise for fear of disturbing Ryo. He takes another step and pauses, watching Ryo for a minute. He takes a deep breath and just as he’s about to take another step, Ryo sits straight up in bed, but freezes when he sees Shige.
“What are you doing?”
“U-um,” Shige hasn’t said anything in hours and his voice is hoarse, “You, you opened the door… and I thought-“
“You thought what?”
Even though it’s dark in the room, Shige can see Ryo glaring and he feels intimidated. He can’t think of anything to say.
“What did you think, Shige?”
“I-I thought… maybe,” his voice sounds weak, “You wanted me to… come…in.”
Ryo doesn’t move, or make a sound. He just keeps sitting in bed, eyes trained on Shige, who for his part, feels like he should just leave. But Ryo surprises him by getting up and walking over to Shige, stopping right in front of him.
“Don’t hit me.”
Shige nods and wants to scream, ‘Don’t be mean to me! Especially when you have no reason to be!’ but he can’t, because he feels like that would just start this argument up again. The nod is enough for Ryo, and he goes back to bed, not bothering to drag Shige back with him. He gets in on his own.
It’s an awkward night. Generally, when they’re sharing Ryo’s bed, they’ll start off on different sides, but still quite close to one another. It’s not strange to wake up with Ryo’s arm over Shige’s chest, or Shige spooning up against Ryo’s back. Resting against, or on, each other while asleep isn’t odd for the two of them, and neither wakes up over it. But that night, any time a foot is kicked or an arm is slung, both feel it, acutely and recoil back to their sides, nearly falling off the side of the bed. They’re both a little cold and don’t sleep well.
In the morning, Ryo thinks he’s the first to wake up. He’s facing away from the middle of the bed, towards the window. It’s only barely light outside. Ryo knows he doesn’t have any kind of work today, but can’t help wondering what time Shige’s classes start. And thinking about that reminds him of yesterday. He tries to look over his shoulder at Shige without moving too much, but it’s impossible. So very carefully, he moves his body, trying not to disturb the bed. Ryo wants to keep the upper hand in this situation, and he thinks being the first one awake is the best way to do that.
But he’s surprised, because when he looks, Shige’s looking back at him, obviously very awake.
“I’ve been up for an hour.”
“And you’ve just been staring at the back of my head?”
Shige blushes, “Sorry… About hitting you yesterday.”
Ryo hasn’t ever hit Shige, and doesn’t ever plan on it, but the tone of Shige’s voice makes him feel like the abusive one in the relationship, “You… you don’t need to apologize for that. Your test is tomorrow, right? I really pulled you off-track, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, it’s tomorrow.” Shige looks worried, “I have a study session tonight.”
Ryo rolls onto his stomach and puts his face in the pillow, “Crap. You- crap. I had two really bad days in a row, and I was selfish, cause I knew you had this test, but I… Dammit, Shige, I’m really… Agh, you know what I want to mean.”
Shige fidgets and Ryo feels it, “You… you won’t say it? … You’ve said it to me before. Before we were… When I was... was still-“
“Shut up, Shige.”
The blankets get moved around, and Ryo looks up. Shige’s pulled them up to his face, covering it. He hears Shige sniffle, quietly, and he immediately sits up.
“Shige-“
“Do you… really like me? Even after everything I’ve done… knowing what I did… are you serious?”
Ryo’s taken aback, “Wha- Shige.” And he reaches forward, trying to pull the blankets down, but Shige won’t let him, “I do, I do. I’m not- Shige, I’m not good at this kind of thing. I’ve had to say those words so many times, Shige. It’s like they don’t have any meaning any more. They’re- Ah, I can’t talk to you like this!”
So Ryo goes down, to the other end of the bed and crawls under the covers, all the way to where Shige is hiding his face and Ryo lies down next to him. Ryo holds Shige’s hands out of the way, so he can’t try to cover his face and looks Shige straight in the eyes.
“I’m completely serious about you. About… this.”
Shige hiccups.
“I’m an idol. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve had to say, ‘I love you’ and fake apologies in songs and dramas and in stupid contests. They’re empty words, Shige. You deserve better than that.”
Ryo lets go of Shige’s hands and holds him around the waist, pulling them together.
Shige fists his hands in Ryo’s shirt and exhales, “Please don’t make me get angry at you again.”
“Why not?” Ryo smiles, “You’re hot when you’re angry.”
Shige blushes, but doesn’t try to hide his face, “But… you locked me out of the room.”
Ryo grimaces, “Okay, I’ll admit, that was a little extreme. I stayed upset about that for way too long.” He tilts his head forward so his nose is almost touching Shige’s, “I’m happy you stayed though. That you didn’t just leave. Every other person I’ve dated…. They always left. And even though I was angry, I was really happy to see you stayed. It was cute. You were cute.”
And Ryo leans forward enough to give Shige a little kiss on the lips, and when he pulls away, Shige’s smiling.
-- -- --
Shige has a test to study for, and they both know it, but some how, Shige ends up staying until around noon when he had to leave for an afternoon class. They made breakfast together - Ryo used too much miso in the soup and Shige complained about it, but drank some anyways to make Ryo feel better. Shige put too much sugar in the eggs, but Ryo didn’t say anything, he ate all of his, and Shige’s leftovers as well. Then they played video games for a little bit, but mostly Ryo ran around killing things, and Shige hid behind a rock, randomly throwing grenades over his shoulder. When it was time for lunch, Ryo wanted to go out, but Shige vetoed the idea and ended up making pasta.
While Shige was putting on his shoes, Ryo sat next to him on the step into the genkan. He didn’t say anything when Shige leaned down to get his bag or when the door closed. Ryo kept sitting there for a minute, until he stood up and opened his front door. Shige was standing in the hall, waiting for the elevator.
“Shige.”
He turned and waved at Ryo, “Um, I’ll-“
“I’m sorry.”
The elevator beeped and opened.
“I’m sorry I was angry at you for no reason. And locked you out.”
Shige smiled, “I’ll be back later, okay?”
And then he stepped into the elevator.
-- -- --
It was some ungodly hour of the night when Ryo heard his door open and close and some one come stumbling down the hall. There was shuffling of clothes on the far side of the bed, and then the mattress dipped with some one’s added weight.
Ryo groaned, “You woke me up.”
“Sorry.”
He reached out and felt around for Shige, “Where the hell are you?”
“Um… over here?”
Ryo grumbled for a minute before crawling to the other side, splaying himself face-down next to Shige with an arm over the other’s stomach.
“Good luck on your test tomorrow.”
Shige laughed quietly, and rolled over, so he was lying on his stomach next to Ryo, “Good night, Ryo-chan.” And then Shige leaned over and kissed Ryo on the cheek.
That night, Ryo dreamt of Shige’s graduation. After it, Shige got rid of his shitty apartment and moved in with Ryo.
The following day, every one comments on Ryo’s exponentially better mood.