Chapter Text
Everything ached. That was the first though Ritsu had upon waking up. Blinking tiredly, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness of his room, he searched for who or whatever had woken him. It wasn’t Mao at the very least, this wasn’t Mao’s style of rude and bothersome wake up calls. That felt kind of lonely though, he always felt kind of lonely whenever Mao had more important things to do than pay attention to him. Coming across nothing, he reached for approximately where he’d left his phone on charge when he’d gone to sleep this morning. Ah, 5:42pm, that would explain things, he hadn’t been woken up by a cruel ghost sneaking into his room or anything, it was just late enough for him to wake up naturally. It would be nice to go back to sleep though, maybe until his body no longer hurt from overexerting himself so much the night before. Looking at his phone screen once more, about to put it down, roll over and go back to sleep, he noticed a message notification on the screen from Mao. Trust Mao to be the one to stop him from getting back to sleep. It was probably nothing, just a ‘I can’t see you this weekend cause I’m busy with blahblahblah things that aren’t you’ but curiosity already had him squinting at his screen as the rudely bright green of Line’s start up screen flashed up. The message preview cut off after ‘I hope you got a good sleep and the uniform you’ which wasn’t helpful and it was mean because it meant if he wanted to read the whole thing, Mao would know he’d read it. Though if Mao was busy with other things he wasn’t going to be checking that Ritsu had read his messages or not.
‘I hope you had a good sleep and the uniform you wore home made it in to the wash. Can you let me know when you’re awake? I wanted to let you sleep today because you probably needed it after last night but I want to come over.’
Ritsu hesitated in responding, he could potentially get a couple more hours of sleep if he didn’t and Mao didn’t check for a read receipt, and why would he really, Mao probably wasn’t the type. Admittedly Ritsu did that when Mao took a while to respond but Mao wasn’t clingy and jealous with a crush on him like Ritsu was. On the one hand, if Mao came over, he could sleep on his lap and that was always preferable to being alone but, it was more effort and his bed was also quite seductively comfortable. Phone left back where he’d picked it up from, Ritsu rolled over to get back to sleep.
Bright light accosted his closed eyes and an exasperated voice shouting something cruelly awoke Ritsu what felt like only ten minutes later. That was Mao’s voice. It couldn’t be though; Mao wouldn’t have seen the read receipt so fast, it must be Sunday morning. Although his body still ached in the exact same way it had when he’d last awoken.
“Ritsu I know you’ve been awake today, come on, it’s pretty much night already!” Opening his eyes he confirmed it was Mao, a very distressed Mao who must have been checking if Ritsu had read his message or not. Acting on almost instinct, Ritsu did the only thing he could think of to try and get him to be quiet, reached out and tried to pull Mao into bed with him.
“Ma~kun, come cuddle, I’m still tired and I hurt.” He saw Mao’s expression soften, good, he might win this, not only more sleep, but more sleep being able to cuddle Mao without even having to get out of bed.
“You’re always tired.” Mao wasn’t wrong about that, “Come on, Ritsu, we’re both busy with different things lately so I hardly get to see you. You’re the one who usually complains about not getting to spend time with me aren’t you?”
Staring down at him from just outside of grabbing distance, Mao had his hands on his hips and was attempting to look stern. Ritsu could see through the stern look but he could also now tell that yeah, he probably wasn’t going to get his best case scenario of cuddling in bed as he slept. It wasn’t until Ritsu gave in and sat up, his back complaining as he did (maybe he wasn’t all that off the mark when he jokingly called himself an old man), that Mao moved. Moved to go find casual clothes in Ritsu’s draws for him to put on, rather than moving in any desirable way.
Struggling around the kitchen despite every muscle in his body complaining against it had been worth it in the end, now that he was curled up against Mao with tea and a plate of repulsive looking cupcakes that he’d made a few nights ago on a plate in front of them. The cupcakes weren't quite his best work taste wise but Ritsu was very proud of the job he'd done decorating them, unfortunately, this made almost no one except himself game to eat them even with their eyes closed. Mao wasn't an exception to that, turning Ritsu down every time he tried to offer him one. While the situation was comfortable it was slightly odd, Mao hadn’t brought over school or unit work and he didn’t have manga with him as far as Ritsu could tell. Usually when Mao came around he always had something with him because of his masochistic keep busy all the time habits. Occasionally he’d bring his guitar over and tell Ritsu he could jump on the piano if he wanted to but Ritsu couldn’t remember the last time he’d even heard Mao speak of his guitar. Which was sad, Mao might not be good, but he looked good playing it. Maybe Mao was exhausted too and just wanted to lie about lazily. There was something too tense about him for that though, as if something was bothering Mao. Student council things maybe, he might have gotten in a fight with his unit or perhaps his sister had finally completely taken over his room leaving Mao with nowhere to sleep and he’d have to ask Ritsu to share his bed.
“Ma~kun, you’re stressed.” After taking one last sip of his tea, Ritsu set the cup down and shuffled about so he could see Mao’s face better.
“I guess I am a bit, though when aren’t I?” Mao laughed, “I seem to search out stress.”
“You should stop that ma~kun, you’ll go grey and your hair will fall out and nobody will want you as an idol then,” Ritsu teased, “If it’s the Student Council I’ll kill whoever’s making you like this.”
“Don’t kill anyone.” Mao said sternly, then sighed, sounding like he would resign himself to opening up. “Ritsu, you know that really intrusive question I asked you a couple of weeks ago?”
Ritsu wishes said question hadn’t jumped right to the front of his brain. Dread fills him and he wishes he hadn’t put down his tea cup so he had something to grip out of his own now building stress.
“Mhmmm,” he hummed, not really wanting to speak in case something in the tone of his voice gave off how nervous this subject made him.
“I realised that I shouldn’t have asked you that,” Mao bit his lip, his eyes darting around the room as if not knowing where to look. Ritsu wished he’d hurry up and get this over with so he could go back to pretending it had never happened, “Not without letting you know how I felt first at least.”
“What do you mean, Ma~kun?” Ritsu did pick up his teacup again, even though his nails were blunt, digging them into the palms of his hands as he had been still hurt.
“I….” Mao had never looked so nervous in his life and if Ritsu wasn’t just seeing things, the hand furthest away from him was trembling. Ritsu’s heart felt like it was about to jump out of his throat, the way Mao kept pausing was killing him, “I really like you, Ritchan.”
Ritsu was pretty sure he was still asleep, that he’d dreamed Mao coming over to drag him out of bed. He froze, expecting a sign proving this was a dream to happen or for Mao to start laughing and telling him it was a joke. Mao wasn’t cruel like that though. Mao wouldn’t intentionally play with his feelings. It had to be a dream then.
“Ritchan?” Mao asked hesitantly, when his face came back into focus for Ritsu he looked scared and vulnerable.
“Ma~kun, pinch me.” He demanded, ‘prove to me that this is all real and not just my wildest dreams coming true’.
“Pinch you?” Confusion was added into the mix of vulnerable and scared on his face.
“Yeah, so I know I’m not dreaming.” It was Ritsu’s turn to look scared, he knew his face was betraying how worried he felt.
Mao broke into laughter, disbelieving but kind and genuine. It was confusing at first until Ritsu realised this probably wasn’t how Mao had expected him to respond to his confession. Could this mean that his confession was real no dreaming, no cruel jokes, Mao did like him?
“Ma~kun, if you do like me,” Ritsu paused not only to set down his tea cup again but also to arrange the words he was about to say in his head, “Then, I’ll answer your question from back then, I like you too.”
Ritsu couldn’t even process irritation at being touched when Mao wrapped his arms around him, instinctively responding by hugging Mao back. Everything was so overwhelming as he came to terms with the past five minutes. Mao was laughing again, it was such a pretty laugh.
“This means you’re stuck with me forever, you know?” Ritsu found Mao’s laughing infectious, it made it hard for him to finish where he was trying to go with his sentence, “You have to say you’ll be my boyfriend.”
It sounded like Mao was attempting to stop laughing, taking deep breaths in order to calm himself down. Finally, completely red faced and still smiling wider than Ritsu had thought previously possible, he looked up at Ritsu.
“I’ll be your boyfriend, I-” Mao’s words were cut off by Ritsu pressing his lips to his in a chaste kiss. Ritsu couldn’t remember a time where he’d been happier than he was in this moment.
“You know Ma~kun, I’ve been wishing this would happen for a very long time.” Ritsu leaned his forehead against Mao’s as he spoke, their lips almost touching still.
“I’m sorry that I was so dense, I’m a real idiot when it comes to things like this,” Mao pulled his face back, which Ritsu was about to take offense at before Mao continued, “Sorry, your breath tickles.”
“You might be an idiot but you’re my idiot.” If he couldn’t have their faces together then pushing Mao pack into the couch and laying half on top of him was a good substitute. “My idiot boyfriend Ma~kun.”
“Oh, uh, don’t get mad Ritsu but we probably shouldn’t tell people at school, in case someone who wants to hurt our careers once we’ve debuted uses it against us,” Mao sounds really hesitant, Ritsu understands where he’s coming from though, the idol world is cruel and harsh and Ritsu is too happy about this in the first place to be upset by Mao being logical, “Narukami will probably be able to figure it out though. And I really ought to tell the rest of Trickstar.”
“Yeah Nacchan just knows things like that, that’s okay though, he’s the last person who’ll use it against us. I guess you should tell them too, probably. Being an idol sucks.” He tilts his head up at Mao, “Did I say I was going to debut?”
“No but you’ve said stuff before about why you wanted to be an idol that led me to think that you would.” Mao pauses, sounding thoughtful, “It’d be a waste if you didn’t though, you’re so talented and last night only cemented that in my mind, you were born to be on stage.”
Ritsu’s pretty sure he’s blushing darker than Mao was before. Mao’s right at least, he does intend to debut. No other job has seemed remotely as appealing since he got caught up in the dream of becoming an idol, not that, Ritsu supposes, he’s really cut out for any job outside of something to do with music.
“Ma~kun you’re embarrassing me. I will debut though, I’ll follow you into the idol world.” Ritsu smiles cheekily, “I’ll become an idol who sings gross love songs and sing them all for you”
“Ritsu!” Mao laughs in disbelief, his laughter cut off by Ritsu once again claiming his lips. It will suck having to sneak around and hide their relationship for the next however many years they both last in the industry but Ritsu doesn’t care. As long as Mao is doing that sneaking around and hiding with him, it’s more than he could ever have dreamed of.