"Damn it." Kaito's research on hypothetical dragon anatomy isn't going well, but for the sake of immersion he'd like the wing size to be at least some level of realistic.
(He doubts his readers— minus Mizael— care.)
"What're you cursing about?" Ryouga asks from the bottom of their bunk bed, at his laptop as always.
"Nothing, nothing." Kaito goes back to typing, takes notes for his protagonist's character arc later, as he's 50.000 words in and there's no end in sight.
Usually, that wouldn't be bad, but Kaito has a thesis to write and an unrequited crush to think about.
Speaking of unrequited crushes—
He postpones the responsibilities in favor of opening skype, going to his favourites and selecting the top contact,
[So. How's your WIP going?]
Shark's reply comes fast today. [not well. something came up today and now i have to deal]
[Huh?]
Kaito's known Shark for two years now.
He suddenly appeared in the AO3 part of the fandom, wrote quite a lot of good fic in a relatively short time. A writing challenge that required a fic exchange was what got them to know each other.
And despite their writing styles being nothing alike, they do talk plot ideas occasionally. And by occasionally, Kaito means every day.
[see dumons chapterfic? the one he updates weekly?]
[The original one with the self-insert lead? What about it?] Kaito raises an eyebrow. He's never been a fan of that fic— too much romance, too little everything else— but the writing is good.
[im p sure nasch is based off of me]
Nasch as in, the love interest in said fic.
Kaito suppresses a chuckle. [What.]
Below him, he can hear Ryouga typing, too. Kaito presumes it's the thesis again.
[look ik dumon irl]
[Caught him in the act?]
[yh. i suck at recognizing this shit but even my sis says he has a crush on me. shes good at recognizing this stuff.]
Kaito feels tempted to ask Shark how he would be able to tell. Instead he goes, [So, you don't reciprocate?]
[nah. not gonna happen, either]
[Til: Shark is taken.]
[still working on it]
[Oh. Good luck then.] Kaito smirks. He can't imagine Shark ever getting to date someone, simply because of how difficult he is. On Kaito's birthday, he went through the trouble of posting gift-fic anonymously.
His style is quite outstanding and Kaito found out easily. Shark denies it to this day.
If he sucks that much at normal friendships, he can't imagine Shark being any better at love.
(And maybe Kaito prefers it that way.)
With a bit of delay, Shark replies, [thanks but tbh that guy kinda sucks at picking up clues. one-track-mind and all]
Kaito is about to type a response when he hears Ryouga moving on the bed below.
"I'm ordering pizza. You want one, too?"
"Yeah." Kaito tends to forget about the whole eating thing when he's busy. He goes back to type, [Maybe you're too subtle?] Then. [Wait, never mind, you're the opposite of that.]
[asshole
anyway im writing chapterfic as my form of rejection for dumon
id feel like a dick otherwise]
[You are a dick. Also. What the fuck.]
[thanks
anyway look]
Shark sends him a link. Rated G, one-sided dorunasch and—
[Dude. He's just gonna fall for you even more.]
[what]
[Have you considered not leading him on?] Kaito facepalms.
[what do you know about love anyway
you'd not notice if someone had a crush on you even if they vagued about it on twitter]
Kaito raises an eyebrow because yeah, he sucks at love, but not that much. [And what are you, a romantic?]
[definitely more than you]
[Harsh.] The doorbell rings and Kaito types, [Talk to you later.]
At the same time, [brb]
This has happened before.
Strange coincidences.
Why is he like that?
Ryouga likes to think that Kaito is the best roommate option to have.
They both love dueling, they can share the PS4 game collection and Kaito is pretty hot. He also makes little noise aside from constant typing.
All of this is great.
Minus the part where Ryouga probably has a crush on him.
(Actually, scratch the 'probably', because while Hunter gives him a similar feeling, Ryouga refuses to be a romcom protagonist. Rio likes to say he is one anyway.)
And for the last month, Ryouga has very unambiguously been pushing his agenda to actually kiss Kaito, with Kaito casually... ignoring it.
Not declining it. Just. Ignoring it.
'Have you considered not leading him on?' my ass. Both of you are assholes.
And Kaito's been weird lately, anyway.
"So. How's your thesis going?" Ryouga isn't much for small talk, and it's obvious in the way he stares at his pizza as if it would give him words.
"Quit the small talk and get to the point."
Ryouga sighs. "You first."
"Huh?"
"You're not writing your thesis."
"Why would you care about it?"
"Because you're the asshole who knows my own major better than me. There's no way you'd procrastinate." And that's not a lie. Ryouga's major is English literature while Kaito's is physics, but for some reason, Kaito keeps snatching Ryouga's textbooks that Ryouga never bothers with anyway.
"I just set priorities."
"Sure." Ryouga shrugs. "So?"
Kaito looks at the door for a bit, then back at Ryouga, and he sighs. "No comments."
"Fine."
"I have a crush."
Ouch, that stings. A tiny bit. Ryouga thinks of Hunter. It doesn't help as much as he'd like it to. "You. Have a crush. Wow, don't tell me you're lovesick." Kaito's expression doesn't help either, and Ryouga goes on, "—Is it Chris?"
"Ew." Kaito shakes his head, but for some reason he seems in a better mood now.
"Yuuma?"
"That sounds more like someone you'd crush on."
"Sadly I don't."
"Sadly?"
Ryouga freezes. "—Yeah, sadly."
Kaito refills his glass and looks at him expectantly.
"Yuuma at least knows how to take a hint."
"So that's why you've been sulking? You got a crush?"
"Yeah." Ryouga doesn't mention the whole Dumon issue, because honestly Kaito doesn't need to know. In the end Kaito might suggest he accepts.
His advice can't be much better than Hunter's, anyway.
"Wow. Nice." Kaito seems displeased. He doesn't ask who Ryouga's crush is. Good.
Ryouga smirks. "I can hear Rio and Haruto laughing at us already."
"Haruto isn't that mean."
Well, of course he isn't.
Sometimes Ryouga wonders if Haruto picked up on his crush on Kaito when he came over the last time.
If he did, Haruto didn't tell him.
Lucky.
"Duel?"
"Sure."
[Have you considered confessing?]
Kaito likes to think that Mizael is an asshole, but actually he's just genuinely well-meaning, which is arguably worse. Annoyed, he types back, [He's literally a person from the internet.]
[You used the 'he's my roommate' excuse for Ryouga half a year ago. Aren't you just being insincere with yourself?]
[—Go comfort Dumon or something. Aren't you guys roommates?] At this point, Kaito is pretty sure he's the only one in that group who doesn't know the others irl.
[Bad way to distract from the issue. Anyway. He's just drowning himself in his thesis. It seems to help.]
[How did he feel about Shark's fic?] In a way, Kaito is curious.
[He thinks he's being led on.]
[He needs help.]
[Obviously.]
Kaito doesn't know what else to say, so he sighs and lets it go. It sucks that Mizael is right.
It's frustrating, because it also means he might have been repressing a crush on Ryouga.
Might possibly still be repressing said crush.
(Might have felt safe around Shark since he's not Ryouga, but acts a lot like him.)
Speak of the devil.
[oi hunter]
[What.]
[i'm broke]
That's not news for Kaito. [So?]
[con is coming up. are you going]
[Yeah.]
[do you have a hotel yet]
[I'm not paying for you.]
[thats not what i mean. share a room?]
Wow. Kaito is either really lucky or actually cursed. Or both. [Sure. Assuming you don't snore.]
[can't promise anything.
i'm booking]
Two nights in a hotel room with Shark. Kaito vaguely notices his heart beating, the annoying way he feels breathless, and the way his thoughts run in weird ways and god, aren't teenage hormones supposed to stop at 18?
(Obviously not, but it'd be great if they did.)
"Are you having a fever?" Ryouga is sitting on a chair, looking up from his laptop to look at Kaito's expression.
Ryouga himself doesn't look so pleased. He's also blushing for some reason.
"You, worried?" Kaito raises an eyebrow. "I'm just fine. What about you?"
"I was wondering if we should turn the heating down."
"Yeah, that might be a good idea."
Definitely.
It's another day of cramming with Durbe— because asking Kaito for help is weird when Ryouga basically asked his mysterious internet personality twin on a date— and Ryouga is in high spirits.
Tomorrow is the day.
Of course, Ryouga originally tried to not show it due to not wanting to hurt Durbe, but Durbe is observant and stares all the time, so, "You're happy today. Something happened?"
"Nothing in particular."
"I can tell when you're lying," Durbe rolls his eyes. "But I won't push it."
"Mh."
Silence passes, with Durbe eyeing him intently.
"You totally are pushing it." Ryouga sighs.
"I'm saying nothing."
"You stare."
"Don't I always?"
Forward today, isn't he?
There's a certain anxiety within Ryouga; one that reminds him that Durbe might actually confess. That he might have to actually reject.
"You do," Ryouga says. "But not like this."
"Maybe you're right. Sorry." Durbe keeps doing it.
Ryouga doesn't take long to give in, because inevitably it has to happen and it's not like him to be considerate anyway. He steels himself for the reply and, "—Fine. I'm meeting a person I crush on this weekend. For the first time."
Durbe's eyes widen and Ryouga refuses to make any more eye contact, and there's a few seconds of silence before, "Meeting?"
"We met online."
"Oh." Durbe reaches below his glasses to rub his eyes a bit and god, Ryouga feels bad. "Is that so."
"...Yeah."
"Good luck." Durbe adjusts his glasses again. "One piece of advice though."
"Huh?" Ryouga fidgets on his chair a little, suddenly uncomfortable because this is gonna be a subtle jab, isn't it?
"Be forward."
"Eh?"
"You can't rely on that person noticing. If you don't make a move on them, you'll regret it."
It was a jab. Ryouga speaks before thinking, "Got experience?"
"Yeah. With you."
Kaito regrets taking the early train, because of course Shark is late, just like he's always late with fic exchange deadlines, and so Kaito gets to sit at the big fountain until he arrives.
Except who sits down next to him after half an hour is Ryouga. "So that's why you were up so early. You're going to the con, too?"
"Yeah. I gotta check in first, though, and I'm waiting for someone."
"Same."
Ryouga takes out his phone, and Kaito figures that yeah, he should do that, too, so he texts to Shark via Skype, [Where are you.]
Shark's response comes fast. [already there]
[Are you sure you're at the fountain]
[yeah wbu]
[Me, too.]
[what are you wearing then]
[I'm wearing white, but it's probably easier to spot my friend. He wears purple.]
Ryouga lets out a tiny yelp next to him. "Oh god."
"What."
Ryouga hands him his phone. The messages are identical.
Kaito takes a deep breath. "You."
"Yeah."
"You have a crush on me."
"Why is that the thing you bring up first?"
Kaito doesn't have a smart answer because the actual answer is 'because my unrequited crush is not so unrequited after all'. He opens his mouth and closes it again.
On one hand, both of them are fucking stupid for not realizing the other's identity given the unambiguous personality similarities and the birth dates but on the other hand,
How high is the probability of finding your roommate online by accident?
Ryouga speaks again, and his face is bright red, "The room has a bunk bed so we'll be fine—"
"You say that like you would've preferred something else."
"I wouldn't." Ryouga's expression tells him otherwise.
"Well, I would." Kaito smirks. "You didn't pick up on it."
"What?"
Kaito lifts Ryouga's chin and the confused reaction is worth it, and Kaito feels tempted to just stare and smirk because hey, I crushed twice on the same person, what the fuck does being embarrassing or not matter now?
—but instead, he presses his lips onto Ryouga's, and he can still feel Ryouga scowling into the kiss, his arms loosely wrapped around Kaito's neck.
Can't dislike it that much if you're going along with it.
Ryouga breaks the kiss to go, "You're inexperienced.", his lips brushing against Kaito's as he does.
"At least I have the guts to do something—"
Kaito's words are muffled by Ryouga returning to where they'd left off, scooting closer to Kaito.
It's a satisfying feeling; Kaito puts his arms around Ryouga's waist and Ryouga leans forward, pushing his tongue in and maybe Ryouga leans forward too much and Kaito slips and—
Splash.
Kaito's head makes brief, unpleasant contact with the water surface before his body is pushed underwater, with Ryouga's quickly following after. The water is shallow, but not shallow enough, so Kaito awkwardly pushes Ryouga off of him so he can breathe.
A bit of coughing later, Ryouga scowls, drenched in the water with his hair gel somehow surviving it.
Kaito mirrors his expression. "You suck."
"Says the right one."
Kaito scowls and steps out of the fountain, dripping with water. "Alright, we're going to the hotel. Any objections?"
"You being a giant dick."
An embarrassing check-in later, Ryouga and Kaito simultaneously reach for the handle of the bathroom door in their hotel room.
"I'm showering first, you're the one who fucked up." Kaito pisses Ryouga off, but when does he not?
"A kiss involves two people." Ryouga smirks.
Kaito scowls.
Good.
Ryouga is about to direct his attention back at the shower issue when Kaito pushes him up against the wall, grabs his wrist and kisses him.
And maybe Ryouga is lame because he leans into it anyway; because damn, this took forever to work; he's allowed to enjoy it now—
Kaito breaks away from him quickly, rushing into the bathroom and locking the door behind him.
Fucking—
"Asshole."
And from inside the shower, "Sucks to be you."