Chapter Text
Ever since the incident at the bar a few weeks ago, Ryouhei has started looking for and realizing patterns in the behavior of people Chishiya calls out. He’s also noted the patterns in the after behaviors and who reacts in what way thinking it’s probably a smart idea to keep his boyfriend from going to jail over breaking a few bones.
Of course, he has to run his findings by someone who knows a good amount about flirting so he can see what’s an actual pattern and what has nothing to do with flirting, so he chose Kuina. She seems like the one to know most about the subject out of the three options he has, and so far she’s been extremely helpful. The other two, well…
Don’t get him wrong he loves both Usagi and Ann. However, Usagi’s version of flirting is to act and stare awkwardly at the person she likes and Ann flirts by saying how she feels and then maybe she’ll flirt if the other person wants to. Granted Ann’s other person is Kuina so she knows her way around flirting, just not as good as her girlfriend.
He also hasn’t told his short stack of a boyfriend (don’t tell Chishiya he mentally calls him short stack, he would like to keep his head, please) because the brunette thinks it would be hilarious to see his boyfriend's reaction when he confronts someone flirting with him instead since, according to the blonde, he’s “more oblivious than a piece of furniture” whatever that means. So for now, it’ll be his and Kuina’s little secret.
Luckily, a similar instance to the birthday party hasn’t happened yet. Unluckily, he hasn’t been able to correlate what behaviors can indicate the other person will react the way the taller man did. He has started to figure out indicators that someone is flirting, however, and has gotten pretty good at hiding the fact that he has any idea as to what’s happening.
Currently, Ryouhei is actually on his way to bring Chishiya some lunch from one of their favorite udon places. It’s one of those semi-rare days where their lunch breaks line up, so the brunette ordered some takeout to surprise his boyfriend with some non-hospital food.
When he finally made it to the pediatric unit he immediately saw his blonde short stack of a boyfriend talking with who he assumes to either be a new nurse or one from a different department, seeing as he hadn’t met her yet.
He takes a step forward smile on his face and excited when he notices the nurse reach out and grab Chishiya’s elbow with a smile that, at first glance, would seem innocent. The taller boy's face twitches, confused.
That’s weird, why would she feel the need to- wait. Oh.
Weird fluttery eye thing, check. Hair twirling, check. Giggling at nothing in particular, check. Physical touch, check. That’s all the boxes.
She’s flirting with Chishiya.
Perfect. Ryouhei laughs internally.
He’s finally caught someone flirting with the short stack and he’s not going to let Chishiya beat him to the punch. So, his face goes back to the excited expression from before, and makes his way over to the two, stopping where his waist almost touches the nurse's arm and faces his boyfriend.
The boyfriend in question has his signature bored expression and looks two seconds from shrugging her arm off in favor of walking away.
“Hey!” At his presence being made known, the doctor’s bored expression slides into his happy smirk, and the nurse’s arm falls to her side, annoyed. Ryouhei paid her no mind, for the time being, and lifted the bag of food he’d been carrying to show his boyfriend. “I got us our favorite udon for lunch! Thought you’d like a change from your usual lunch.”
In response, Chishiya took one of the hands in his pockets and took the bag from him to give his arm a break. “Nice, I was craving some udon today.” That made the taller beam with pride.
“Is this one of your friends, senpai?” A high-pitched voice cuts into their conversation, reminding the gamer nerd of her existence.
Turning towards the nurse, while not-so-subtly putting himself a little in between his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s unknown coworker, he introduces himself, feigning the jealous attitude he and Kuina practiced. Fake kindness, with annoyance and jealousy just underneath.
“Oh, hello! I haven’t met you yet and by the flirting I saw, I’m gonna guess you're new here.” The woman looked shocked at the bluntness and started sputtering like a fish trying to come up with a retort. Meanwhile, he can feel short stacks amused mixed with a bit of shock expression behind him. “My name’s Arisu, I’m Shun’s boyfriend. It’s nice to meet you. Are you joining us for lunch?”
Hearing Ryouhei’s the doctor’s boyfriend causes the woman to freeze, as she realizes she’s basically been caught red-handed trying to steal someone else's partner, whether it was intentional or not.
Chishiya decides to play along at that moment, “No, she won’t be joining us, babe. ”
( Ah… so this is how Ryo feels. I understand why he likes it now. )
Which makes the gamer almost smirk at the nickname. Short stack rarely uses pet names, he prefers to call Ryouhei either by his first name or uses the shortened version- that being Ryo- but the taller loves them. He especially loves being called them, so every once in a while his boyfriend will use babe or, even rarer, sunshine to see the doe-eyed boy's face light up at hearing it.
If pretending to be jealous gets more pet names out of blondie back there, he needs to do this more often.
“Well, I’ll see you later then!” Ryouhei waves and turns back towards Chishiya, “Let’s go, kitten, I’m hungry.” And it takes the other no time at all to start walking to the cafeteria.
Kitten is probably Ryouhei’s favorite pet name, besides short stack, for Shun because not only is his boyfriend the most human embodiment of a cat he’s ever seen, but specifically calling him kitten is just him teasing the other. It’s killing two birds with one stone, and personally, he finds it hilarious.
The first time Ryouhei called him kitten, it was in a joking manner, and although short stack put up a fuss about it, the gamer could see the way his ears turned red and how the corner of his mouth quirked upward. Even if it was just for a millisecond, Ryouhei knows, he liked it, albeit a little embarrassed.
Once they finally sat down in one of the corner tables, the doctor finally asked the question he’s been wondering since Ryouhei started the (onesided) conversation with the nurse, “Since when did you start to understand flirting?”
The taller looked up from where he was sliding the blonde his food and chopsticks, “Oh, I still don’t understand it. Flirting doesn’t really make any sense to me still, but I’ve been figuring out the patterns in behavior and conversation people do have when they flirt and have been running them by Kuina to see what I’m right about.”
The doctor chuckled in response. “Of course you have. Why Kuina though?” The why not me goes unsaid.
The question makes the brunette blush in embarrassment, now finding his answer stupid, as he rubs the back of his neck, stalling for a bit.
“Heh. Well, I thought it would be fun to act jealous like you’ve been doing for me, but I wanted it to be sort of a surprise so I figured Kuina would be the best option.”
Chishiya’s amused face morphs into one of mock offense, “So, you’ve been faking your ignorance for a while? Wow, you big liar. I mean you think you know someone.”
This makes Ryouhei freeze. He knows that his boyfriend is joking just on the tone of voice but.. he just can’t help but think..
He’s actually disappointed in him, isn’t he? He technically was lying to him, he wasn’t doing it for a malicious reason but still. What can he say to make this better? He’s gonna leave him now, isn’t he? He’s not family, he has no obligation to keep him around like his father did. What if-
The doe-eyed boy's thoughts ran a mile a minute going worst-case scenario, before he even realized it he started flapping his hands in a subconscious attempt to self-soothe.
Ryouhei used to be like this almost every day, thinking about the worst-case scenarios and trying to not only prevent them but also be ready just in case, but it was exhausting. Thinking he couldn’t leave or put anything of his anywhere because Chishiya will think he’s a slob or he’s childish and kick him out the first chance he gets.
Eventually, they did talk it out and he finally has some of his things scattered around the house, and he’ll even leave his dirty clothes from the day on the bathroom floors on rare extra lazy days. He’s gotten so much better at over-analyzing every little thing and boy is it a weight off his shoulders.
But on some days that insistent little bitch of a worm will just take the forefront, whether it be for just a second or the whole day, and it’s the only thing he’d be absolutely ecstatic to kill.
It seems it’s made itself known today but before he can go too far down the rabbit hole of my boyfriend fucking hates me now, said boyfriend lays a hand on his thigh and interrupts that damn worm with worry on his face.
“Hey, I know what’s going on in that brain of yours and it’s not true. Whatever it’s saying this time, which I’m betting I can guess, is an absolute lie. I’m not disappointed in you and I’m not going anywhere, and I never will be. I was only teasing.”
That hand alone snapped him out of his brain spiral, especially considering the fact he doesn’t like to do any sort of PDA at work wanting to stay professional, and the brunette respects that, but his words had put the worm to sleep if only for a little.
Yeah, that’s right fucker, stay down.
Ryouhei’s hands stop flapping as he puts one over the blonde’s while the other starts tapping on his free thigh. “Right, y-yeah. Sorry, I guess it’s just one of those days, I’m sorry.”
Ryouhei, looking at his lap, hears his boyfriend's response, “It’s okay, it’s not your fault, never is, what did I say about apologizing for things that are out of your control?”
“Not to?” It’s said more like a question even if he knows it’s the truth, face red out of embarrassment.
“Good. Now let’s eat, our noodles are getting cold.”
This finally gets Ryouhei to look up with a small smile and nod as they dig in.
It’s a few minutes of only the sound of slurping noodles before the silence is broken by Chishiya.
“Now I understand what you meant when you said it was hot.” He smirked at the sound of the gamer's choked coughs he got in return.
And one of these days he’s gonna die if short stack keeps saying stuff like that so casually .
I mean how is he even supposed to react to that?
The taller lightly hits the blonde’s arm with the back of his hand with a “babe!” and it makes the latter chuckle. “Don’t call me that, we’re at your workplace!”
“Yeah, I know, which is why we’re only talking right now.”
Ryouhei’s flustered expression turned to one of confusion.
Okay, what was that supposed to mean? It could mean any number of things. Think context, wha-
His thoughts were cut off by the doctor with a raised eyebrow, “You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”
“No what did you mean?”
The blonde leans back in his seat, thoroughly amused, “Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, now I wanna know even more! Tell me!” The other shakes his head.
“You’ll figure it out later. Ya, when do you get home?”
Ryouhei grumbles a little but he gives up for the moment, knowing he’s not going to get anywhere with his boyfriend. ”Nine.”
Chishiya nods, “Nice. I’ll be home at ten.”
How dare this short, short man. He says something that is so open-ended and won’t explain what he means. One day I’m gonna smack him up the back of his head so hard it’ll spin.
The rest of the lunch is smooth sailing.
Well as smooth sailing as you can get with these two.