Chapter Text
“K-Kamishiro-san!” Reki replied with a small anxious smile before suddenly remembering something and accordingly took out a small, black medical mask out of his pocket and put it on. “Sorry, I caught a cold yesterday and forgot to put it back on after the show…” He said, his face already starting to feel hot from the awkwardness of the situation.
Rui immediately shook his head. “No, it's fine, I get how uncomfortable they are, let's just hope I don't catch whatever you have.” He reassured with a soft smile on his face. And after the egregious cough from Reki interrupted the small pause of silence that hung in the air, he went on. “However, it is quite strange for a guest to be out so late, especially only minutes after closing. You must've been waiting for me for a while…”
“Right, right, yes, of course.” The older man said as he recalled his initial intentions for his visit. “I was going to talk to you about something, but it's also probably time we leave before the park officially closes for the night.” Reki walked to the side of his junior and began walking towards the entrance of the park as said person followed beside him.
“So, the thing I wanted to talk about is that Shunmei Theater is recruiting younger, more beginner to intermediate level actors, for a show that is set for a date around… about early May.” Reki continued on as the two men walked. “I was wondering if any members of your troupe were interested and thought it'd be best to ask you before anyone else.”
“Really? Well, when are auditions? Most people tend to talk about auditions before anything concerning the actual show…” Rui asked, Reki looked rather enthusiastic and slightly salesman-ish with the way he went on about the offer.
“Ah, I seemed to have forgotten about that while talking!” Reki replied, rather humored with the way that he got so ahead of himself. “Yes, but auditions are next Friday, I was so sure of you and Tsukasa getting the leading roles that I sort of forgot about that…”
“So what even is-”
“AUDITIONS!???” A rather loud and familiar yet not too familiar voice interrupted over to the two showmen as the owner of said voice ran up to them.
“Seiryuin-kun?” Rui said as he turned around and stopped.
“WHAT SHOW WERE YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT AND WHAT IS IT ABOU- …Bakuno Reki?” Sakurako froze as she finally recognized who Rui was walking with. “I am SO sorry for interrupting, that was extremely rude of me and I never meant any of that! I'm a huge fan of your acting technique and your first movie role?! I have no words!” She continued, practically at his beck and call with her forehead almost greeting the concrete with a hug as she kept bending forward in very low bows.
“There’s no need to apologize for anything, really, you speaking up was rather helpful, I was actually trying to find you earlier to see if you could make it to auditions, but your castmates were telling me that you were on vocal rest in between shows so I'm guessing that recruiting you right now is rather inconvenient?” Reki replied, his tone of voice still rather gentle as he was rather unused to so much attention. Especially at such an unexpected time and place.
“No, I don't really, it's nothing big and those people don't really even know anything about me anyway…” As if any show that was on Phoenix Stage in which she got the leading role (which was almost every day for her) wasn't important to the girl.
“Ah, so then I assume you can make it to the auditions then, that is, if you're not busy next Friday?” Reki asked with a small knowing smile, would any great actor ever really reject an offer from Shunmei Theater willingly?
“I'll… Check my schedule…” Sakurako said, knowing that she'll have to give up her next leading role for a supporting one due her senior’s offer. Shaking her head, she raises her head again to speak. “But, why do you think that those two should get the-”
The usually quite timid actor immediately walked in closer to her and explained something in words that were too quiet for Rui to hear, yet way too loud for someone as naive as Sakurako to understand as she only stood there, her silence and stare at the purple haired director speaking volumes as the poor man beside her only stood there. The expression on his face would make you think that a comically large sweat drop slid down his face with how he felt with Sakurako beside him and now all squeamish.
“I-I think those roles would work better with those two then.” Sakurako murmured, still horrified before starting to walk away. “Um, I think we should part ways then…Bye!” She said with a small wave before she started shuffling away even faster, her world view almost completely shattered as she thought about Rui and Tsukasa doing whatever Reki told her about yet so desperately wanting to get as far away from her thoughts as fast as possible. I mean… they couldn't possibly be… Ran through her head in circles like a dog chasing its own tail.
And with a small look at his phone, Reki Bakuno nodded. “She's right, we probably should get going, my ride's here already so I guess we'll just have to continue our discussion some other time in person, stay safe!” He said, his smile showing through his dark eyes before starting to sprint off to his taxi, very much not wanting to inconvenience anyone else at that moment.
“You too!” Rui shouted loud enough for Reki to hear him before he started to feel a small cough in the back of his throat.
A rather bad omen, wasn't it?
–--------------–
It had been three and a half days since Tsukasa had last seen Rui, and even if he didn't want to admit it, he missed him dearly.
Of course, Tsukasa was rather cautious when it came to spreading around illnesses—having it coming in the package of being the older brother of a chronically ill sister—but even if it was a particularly nasty fever from what Rui had described to him over text during the weekend, he couldn't just not see him for any longer, it wouldn't be worth it nor a good message to send out into the world for a star such as himself if he did something like that.
Or so he thought…
Right as the blonde arrived at his friend's front yard, carrying around a brown paper bag with him, Nene was just beginning to leave as she exited her neighbor's house with an expression on her face that was just barely in the range of the word ‘exhausted’ and bled into all sorts of exasperated and ABSOLUTELY incensed.
As her eyes met Tsukasa's after shutting the door behind her, she immediately dashed towards the blonde and forcefully grabbed onto his shoulder without a car in the world for anything other than what she had to say. “I don't care if you get tired of it, DON'T. AND I MEAN DON'T, let Rui leave his bed or to even simply touch a screwdriver! I don't care if he begs, cries, or anything of the sort, make him and I mean make him get his rest because that man will do absolutely anything in his power to be able to get his hands on any project of his if he simply sets his mind to it. If you know what's good for you, listen to me.” She threatened before suddenly letting go of Tsukasa's shoulders and going back walking to her house.
It almost took everything in him to not scream or yell or just freak out in any sort of way right then and there. Why did he always choose the option that made him have to deal with the living embodiment of chaos and trouble?
—------------–
It was quite a boring three days for Rui Kamishiro, being banned from even laying a finger on a piece of scrap metal while Nene was around and not having seen Tsukasa nor Kamiyama’s rooftop for so long felt like complete torture. It only made him wonder how his life changed so suddenly from being relieved when he didn't have to attend school, to now desperately wanting to go when he couldn’t.
So it was a rather welcome surprise when Rui was sat in front of his desk, right in the middle of rewiring a robot, and heard a knock on the door followed by a beyond familiar voice. “Rui?” Tsukasa's firm voice called, knocking twice more before Rui replied.
“Come in!”
“Ah, so you're awake!” Tsukasa cheered as he opened up the door with his free hand before facing Rui's messy undone bed in the corner of the room. For a one that's practically just a big, glorified garage, Tsukasa had always wondered how his room always stayed so warm in colder months and cool in hotter- “WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME ARE YOU DOING OUT OF BED!????” Tsukasa yelled as his mind bounced back to what Nene told him before he started scanning the room for his best friend, immediately stopping once spotting the bird's nest that was Rui's hair at the moment.
“So Nene told you, huh?” Rui said with a small sigh, slumping down in his chair before setting down the chicken robot and screwdriver that were in his hands. Later straightening himself back up, facing the direction of Tsukasa's loud voice, and spotting the thing in his right hand. “Hm? Can I ask about what's in the bag you're holding?” He asked with a slight curiosity yet genuine smirk on his face.
“Oh, I brought some candied orange peels and-” Tsukasa saw Rui's hand inch over to the screwdriver on his desk. “DON'T DISTRACT ME FROM THE FACT THAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN BED RIGHT NOW!” The loud blonde reprimanded.
Rui tilted his head to the back of his chair as he covered his face with his hands dramatically and whined. “Tsukasa-kun's so cruel, he only wants me to lay in bed, depressed and with nothing to do all day. He's so mean… He only came here to yell at me when I've already been soooo lonely all day~” He wept phonily before feeling a small tug at his scalp, slightly jerking his back body at the unexpected contact.
Tsukasa began to comb through Rui's hair, as for him, it was rather unusual to see it this messy as even with the chaos that was the man's more than choppy hairstyle, it was in a type of orderly disorder that gave away his chaotic nature. Something that constantly made Tsukasa’s perfectionism constantly feel as if there was something to fix about it when all his ideas of any other hairstyles gave him something that resulted in something that wasn't as ‘Rui’ as the original when he really thought about it.
“Your hair will get all matted if you don't brush it, Rui. If you've been out of bed during these past three days, what on Earth have you been doing…?” Tsukasa scolded in a sort of way that only a loved one would.
There was a small delay with Rui's response. “Would it be safe to say that I really haven’t really done anything aside from working on a few robots I've had lying around…? Most of it was repairs for some damaged equipment I found backstage yesterday so…it wasn't really so unproductive!” Rui replied with a wide grin on his face that almost shouted out the fact that he knew he was beyond screwed if fate decided that it wasn't okay with Tsukasa.
Tsukasa only sighed defeatedly as he worked on a rather difficult tangle in Rui's hair. “How could I expect anything other than that from you…?” He heaved, his face an active showcase of his resignation to the inventor's non-existent organizational skills.
“Fufu, why is it that every time I tell you something that has to do with how “messy” I am, you start acting like an old nagging wife?” Rui replied with a smaller yet more genuine smirk on his face, his words earning him a quick, playful jab in the back of the head from the comb in Tsukasa's now balled up hand. The small, rather harmless hit that, for some still ‘unknown’ reason, made Rui's cheeks set ablaze.
“You really should learn when to quiet down sometimes!” Tsukasa shouted, completely and utterly embarrassed. God, how Rui's words ran straight through the border between gentle teasing and flirting at times. It felt as if he didn't even know how his words would sound when he spoke at times. If Rui even bothered to look into the mirror beside the both of them at any moment besides looking down at his own lap, he would've seen Tsukasa's ears completely dampened with a brilliant red.
Something that he would as sure as hell find cute, or in something resembling Rui's words, ‘endearing.’ Even if Tsukasa didn't know it.
“So then, is it bad that Mizuki’s been telling me...
that we act like an old married couple…?” Rui haphazardly murmured, something that was more like a subconscious thought read aloud rather than an actually planned out statement. But even if it started out as something like that, his mind still began to overflow again. Just like it did a couple of days ago when talking to Nene and Emu, like when he had teased Tsukasa that time… His confusion over his own feelings was now forming a small knot in his chest.
“They've… What?” Tsukasa asked with a small shakiness in his voice, only then finishing on untangling Rui's hair. Having just barely been able to hear Rui's last few words as the comb’s bristles ran through his thick strands of hair.
“It's nothing, I was just talking to myself.” The knot tightened as he became increasingly aware of the feelings that were just behind him.
“I see.” He accepted, deciding not to push further as he knew his friend all too well, watching as his gaze looked towards the small brown paper bag sitting on his undone bed with a sort of curiosity.
—---------------—
It was all rather eventful after that conversation that he tried his hardest to shake off. As although Tsukasa failed at getting Rui to get any rest, they did manage to clean up most of the clutter that had accumulated in-between Tsukasa's last visit and the present.
…Even if he did let out a comically loud scream at the sight of a dead cockroach inside a cardboard box, having felt more than unsafe until Rui convinced him that it was most likely a South American variety that must've come from where the package had been shipped from—Although, he did force Rui to retrieve his normal shoes from the entrance of his house to keep any chance of getting bug guts onto his skin as close to zero as possible.
Compared to the chaos before though, the walk back was rather dull. Scramble Crossing was as bright and busy as ever, of course, and his eyes kept traveling to any new advertisements posted for any semblance of entertainment from his walk back home, but—BAKUNO-SAN?!?!!!
Tsukasa's eyes immediately flickered to a man with his uniquely forest gray hair facing a poster outside of a rather famous cafe. Not as busy during 8pm, of all times, so why would he be standing so long… Maybe he's considering buying a new menu item without any of the fuss? He pondered about Reki’s motivation for standing outside the entrance for a few moments. Eventually growing weak under his social instincts and then finally running towards him, waving his hands with a smile on his face along with a small, “Good evening!”
“Tenma-san, Good evening!” Bakuno replied, almost relieved it didn't come out as much of a stutter as his casual words normally do. “What a nice coincidence, seeing each other again. What brings you here?”
“I was just walking home from Rui’s place and spotted you out of the corner of my eye so I had to say hello. How about you?” Tsukasa asked, somewhat hoping the conversation would get somewhere related to acting.
“Kamishiro? What a coincidence, I spoke to him a while after your last performance on Friday so I was hoping that I'd be able to speak with you too sometime since I didn't get very far with him before getting interrupted…” He chuckled and reminisced about that night for half a second. “Also, to answer your question, I was just going to try something out from the cafe and head back home, but we could talk about what I have to tell you in there if you have no other plans.” Reki softly smiled, knowingly. “I simply have a feeling that you might be interested in what I have to tell you.”