Ren took a deep breath before sending the text he had been staring at for minutes.

Ren: Can you come over tonight? There's something I wanted to talk to you about.

Ryuji: Sure, man! Can I stay over? We could play some video games and relax.

Ren: Of course. Sounds great.

He spent the rest of the school day feeling incredibly nervous, but he knew it was time. He had to finally tell Ryuji how he felt. He'd been keeping it to himself for what felt like forever. Had it been months? Or only weeks? It wasn't fair to either of them. Besides, it couldn't go that badly, right? He'd been flirting with Ryuji like crazy and he always flirted back. That had to mean something.

When the final bell rang, he stepped into the hall and was greeted by his own personal sunshine. Ryuji Sakamoto had a smile that could light up the whole world.

"Ready to go, man? I thought of a new technique that should help us get passed that boss in Power Intuition."

Ren nodded and they began to head down the stairs, making their way outside and towards the station. He was vaguely aware that Ryuji had continued to chatter about the game, but his thoughts were screaming at him so loudly that he hadn't actually heard much.

"Hey, are you ok, dude? You haven't said a word since you came out of class."

"Oh. I'm sorry, Ryuji. I'm just feeling a little… distracted, I guess."

Morgana snorted from inside his bag. He knew what the little conversation planned for this afternoon was about. He wasn't too happy about witnessing it. He and Ryuji bickered alot, but he supposed he was alright. If he made Ren happy, Morgana could be ok with it. Ren shot a dirty look over his shoulder in response to the snort.

"Are you worried? We only just finished the palace. I'm sure Madarame will have the change of heart soon," Ryuji said soothingly.

Ren smiled softly. "I'm sure you're right."

When they arrived at LeBlanc, Ren was relieved to see that Sojiro had closed up early. He didn't even need him to overhear, let alone a cafe full of customers. He headed up to the attic with Ryuji following closely behind him. He set his bag on the table by the door so Morgana could hop out. The cat stepped out of the bag, and froze in place when Ren turned towards Ryuji. Awkward.

No one said anything for a minute. Ryuji looked at him curiously, then finally asked. "So what did you want to talk about, man?"

Ren took a huge gulp of air before he began. "Listen, Ryuji… I wanted to tell you that… You're a really important part of my life, and I'm so grateful for it."

Ryuji grinned. "I'm glad we found each other, too. You're my best friend! Never had that before, really."

"Right… me either. That's not all of it, though. I mean. I like you. A lot. As more than a friend. Lots more."

Morgana tried not to laugh as Ren spilled more words out uncontrollably. Once he got started, he couldn't stop it all from flowing out.

"Wait, what?" Ryuji said, a frown forming on his face. "Like… like you wanna date me or something?"

Ren swallowed. "Yes. God, Ryuji, yes. I'm crazy about you! I can't even imagine my life without you." The words just wouldn't stop, even though it was clear from Ryuji's expression that this wasn't going the way he'd hoped.

"W-What the hell, man?! I mean, yeah we're friends and everything, and I don't know what I'd do without you either, but - "

"I'm sorry," Ren said quietly, looking at the floor. "I shouldn't have said anything. I just… I flirt with you all the time, and you always flirt back, so I thought maybe…"

"Wait, I do what?! I don't flirt with you! And I've never seen you do that, either!"

"Oh, come on!" Ren said, his voice raising in outrage. "You can't even be serious right now! We flirt with each other every single day!"

"No, we don't! Aughhh! You know what, I can't deal with this right now! I have to go!"

Ryuji grabbed his bag and stormed out the door, letting it slam behind him.

Ren turned to face the window. His eyes were stinging. He had no interest in letting the tears spill out. He wouldn't. He would not spend his whole night (and maybe the rest of his life) crying over Ryuji Sakamoto. He was the leader of the Phantom Thieves, for Christ sake, he ought to be able to control some freaking tears. He knew the cat would comfort him, if he let him. But he was pretty sure if he let himself break, he would never be able to put himself back together again.

Ryuji slammed the door to the cafe behind him, and leaned up against it. What the hell was up with Ren? He just wanted to have a nice, relaxing evening with his best friend. But then he had to bring up all this weird shit about liking him and wanting to date him, and how they flirt with each other all the time. Where the eff did that even come from? Ryuji couldn't even think of one one single example of Ren flirting with him, let alone him flirting back...

Until he did. He thought about everything. Every single smile and touch that had passed between them over the past couple of months. How Ren would wink at him when he paid for their popcorn at the movies. When their knees knocked together at the planetarium and neither of them moved away. When Ryuji licked the dripping ice cream off of Ren's cone just to see how he'd react. When Ryuji had teasingly asked Ren about whether or not he planned to ask Ann out, and he replied that he'd rather spend time with his favorite blonde instead. When Joker (let's face it, Joker was practically a whole different dude even if it was still Ren underneath) would put his arm around him after a long day in the metaverse.

Ryuji raised his hand to his mouth in shock. "Oh, holy crap!"

Morgana stood up. Ren hadn't moved an inch. Maybe he never would. It was like time had completely frozen in the attic. "Ren?" he asked tentatively. "Are you alright?"

Before Ren could say anything, the door to the cafe burst back open. Footsteps raced up the stairs, and he heard Ryuji drop his bag in the middle of the floor.

"Ren," he said forcefully.

Ren turned just in time to be pulled in. Ryuji's hands were on either side of his face, his lips pressed hard against Ren's. As curious as he was, he wasn't about to be the one to break it. Ryuji finally pulled back, gasping for air and trying to get all of his thoughts out.

"Ren. I'm so sorry. I hadn't ever thought about any of it like that -"

Before he could finish, Ren had captured his lips again, throwing his arms around Ryuji's neck. When they broke apart again, he tried to finish.

"I do like you. I like you so much it hurts. I guess I had to get all the way downstairs and out the door to see it. I'm sorry!"

Ren laughed and kissed him again. "You don't need to be sorry. You can stay, right?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Couldn't get rid of me now if you wanted to," Ryuji said with his sunshine smile.

Morgana sighed loudly. "I think I'm going to sleep downstairs tonight."

Notes:

Just another confession that's been running around my head for a couple of weeks now. Alternate title is Untitled #45677223236326323820-329. I am SO bad at naming things! I usually use Akira, but this whole RenRen thing has me giving it a chance. Soft anime Ren is nice to think about. Back to grad school writing now that I got this out!