Disclaimer: nyet.
When Takano Masamune received the call at 3.28 from one Onodera Ritsu, he didn't pick up. Of course he wouldn't, what did you expect? It was 3 in the fucking morning. But when Takano Masamune received three more calls in succession at 3.29, 3.30, and 3.31, he finally pressed the right button to answer after knocking over his glasses and a small wrapper empty of headache medicine. It was a pretty good effort considering his eyes were glued shut and he was more disoriented than an astronomer in a zero gravity environment.
"Talk," he demanded in a tone that was far more awake than he currently felt.
There was some hesitation. "Um, Takano Masamune-san?"
What? Who is this? The feminine voice sounded familiar, but he was still too groggy to figure out who it was He held his phone a few inches away—he was horribly farsighted without his glasses—to check the caller ID. Onodera Ritsu. What the actual fuck?
"Yes?" If this person didn't reveal who she was in the next five seconds, he was seriously going to—
"This is An, Ritsu's fia—Ritsu's childhood friend. There's…been an accident."
There's literally only one reaction that someone has when the person he's loved for two-thirds of his life has been in an "accident." Masamune didn't even listen to the rest of that bit—girl's explanation before he hung up, got dressed, and grabbed his keys, all in the span of 1 minute. And of course, that one reaction is complete and utter panic. Well, in the case of our current main character, it wasn't just panic, it was also terror, despair, and not surprisingly, an insane amount of hope that the love of his life was ok.
While he was zooming through downtown to the nearest hospital—because his gut feeling had told him that Ritsu was there, not that An had texted him the name, no—the other side of our story met an increasingly-frustrated friend who was trying to literally fuss her ex-fiancé to death. To everyone else who might have been watching, it was sweet and thoughtful and very aw, his girlfriend seems to care about him so much. To the male himself, well, he hadn't felt this suffocated since his goodbye hug with his friend back in England.
Those English people really had some strength.
"An-chan…! I keep telling you I'm fine—" Poor guy struggled with trying to push his friend away from him while trying not to seem rude, because, you know, they've known each other since basically diapers and he was brought up as a polite, young man. Good parenting skills right there.
"Ricchan!" She countered back, leaning in to fidget with his pillow and blanket. "I have to make sure you're comfortable."
Ritsu managed a genuinely warm smile—what, he still loved her, even if as a friend—and lifted a hand to pat her shoulder. "I really am ok, An. A little bumped up, but ok. You've done enough for me right now."
Aaaand, here was where our other protagonist burst through the door, out of breath and eyes drowning in fear and horror and all those negative emotions that we connect to a little word called "accident". Three people reacted very differently. One was extremely shocked, one was a bit cautious, and one was swimming in relief.
The shocked one and the cautious one, aka Ritsu and An, quickly separated as if they were doing something terribly scandalous, instead of just sharing platonic comfort like two very old friends should when one friend has been in an accident. The relieved one shifted to suspicious and jealous—which was really stupid considering all they had been through, like are you serious here, Takano?—when he saw that Ritsu's former fiancée was here as well.
Instead of, oh, I don't know, rushing over to see if Ritsu was fine—he was, but Takano didn't know that—Masamune instead froze and plastered on a fake, polite smile. "Oh, hello." He moved almost jerkily towards the bed, like he was a marionette puppet put on for show. "So," he began, and by this time An had moved out of the room because she knew what was going to happen—well, sort of—and she did not want to be in the room for that, "care to tell me how you ended up like this?"
This meaning Ritsu had somehow shattered something in his leg and was now lying like some kind of cripple with said injured leg in a cast hanging from the ceiling, slightly embarrassed, nervous, and indignant. Takano was nothing short of callous and flippant about this, as demonstrated by his casual posture, his crossed arms, and face set in a seemingly-bored expression. (In all actuality, he was trying not to have an emotional meltdown inside, but to express that would be out-of-character for him, so he had to stay firm and stoic.)
Ritsu certainly had something to be indignant about. He scowled as he also crossed his arms, but more in offense than whatever Takano was doing. "Nice to see your concern." That…wasn't what he was going to say. Dammit.
With those few words, the usually-stern man sighed, and all of his worry showed on his face as he carefully sat down on the side of Ritsu's bed, taking ahold of his hand. "Christ, Ritsu. You scared me to death when I heard you'd been in an accident. I felt like a part of me died when I heard it." Gently, Masamune rubbed his thumb over Ritsu's small, thin hand, which looked even paler under these harsh hospital lights.
"…" For a moment, Ritsu couldn't say anything. Would Takano really be that affected if he were injured? Was it real or was it all faked? No…nobody could fake the anxiety that covered the older male in sheets. So…Takano…really loved him that much, then. Even as he thought it, Ritsu already knew the answer. He sighed as well, and shifted his hand so he could hold Masamune's back, tangling their fingers together. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, turning a light pink. "I didn't mean to make you worry so much…"
Takano reached in to press a tender kiss to Ritsu's cheek, then flicked him on the forehead, earning a hiss of surprise and pain from him.
"Ow! Takano…"
"What'd you do anyways that made you end up like this?" Masamune interrupted, back to his "no-nonsense" attitude that he employed when he wanted something.
Here was the really embarrassing part…
"…" Ritsu said in barely a whisper, so quietly that even with Masamune's proximity, he couldn't hear it.
"What? Speak up."
"I said, I…" He flushed a bright red. "…might have tripped over something in my apartment and somehow broken my ankle."
"…"
"…"
"…are you serious?!" Takano yelled out after a minute of both of them just staring at each other. "So this was all actually your fault?"
"W-what do you mean, 'my fault'?" Ritsu spluttered, glaring. "It wasn't my fault that that book just happened to be in the way of where I was walking…!"
"It was your fault that you still haven't managed to clean what you call an apartment yet, causing you to trip and break something that could have been avoided in the first place!"
"What, like I have time to clean it up? What with the crazy work hours we have, I find it hard to believe that I have time for anything at all!"
Masamune actually settled a bit at that. "Well. I'll give you that. But still, that's no excuse."
Ritsu huffed, in a bad mood all over again. And he thought they would actually have a moment of peace for once. "What do you want me to do then?"
"…pick up the trash in your apartment? Clean it up for once?" Takano snapped his fingers as if he'd just come up with a really great idea, which, with his track record so far, didn't seem promising. "I can help you with it. This weekend. It'll be like a date."
"What? No, no, no—"
"One step closer to making you confess your love for me," he continued, not hearing Ritsu at all. "Dates are good way to do that." He nodded importantly, affirming this with himself.
Ritsu could only fall back into his pillow with an exasperated, yet somewhat oddly fond, groan.
A/N: Hint to the synopsis of my "Spring Cleaning" fic, if you haven't read it yet.
Lol, I'm such a troll.
-ChemicallyEnhanced