Title: Lunch Date
Author: DC/Dave
Rating: K-13
Warnings: Sexual references, adult language, adult topics
Description: Ryuichi eats lunch with Suguru. Bonding and bunny love ensues.
A/N: Thanks to Aja for the beta. Any mistakes are my own. This was written in response to a prompt from HawkCloud for a fic with Suguru/Ryuichi with cherry pie filling and a feather duster involved.
Suguru hummed softly and shook his ass in time to the motions of the feather duster sliding across his baby grand piano. His headphones played one of his favorite versions of 'Sleepless Beauty' and he continued cleaning up the private 'studio' in his apartment. Thoughts of Nittle Grasper and Sakuma Ryuichi, the vocalist of the group, made Suguru blush faintly. His lips parted and he moistened them with his tongue before he went back to fighting rabid dust bunnies.
The keyboardist for Bad Luck had to admit a certain fascination with Ryuichi that he blamed completely on Uesugi Tatsuha. No one who was around Tatsuha for long failed to hear about the monk's undying obsession with Ryuichi. That was it. Suguru had been infected with Tatsuha's sex drive and perversion. It was the only explanation for Suguru calling Sakuma-san out of the blue and inviting him over for lunch. What was more amazing was the fact Ryuichi had agreed to come!
Suguru blinked up owlishly when he heard a loud banging on his front door. He'd missed the sound of the bell and moved quickly to let whom he hoped was Ryuichi into his apartment. After peering through the keyhole and ascertaining it really was the singer, Suguru had to take a calming breath before he could pull the door open. "It's me!" Ryuichi exclaimed as he bounded into the apartment with a familiar pink stuffed rabbit as well as a covered dish. "And Kumagoro! We brought pie. Hope you like cherry?"
Cherry. Ick. Suguru kept his face polite and waited for Ryuichi to toe off his shoes before leading him toward the kitchen. Suguru stashed the pie in the oven at Ryuichi's order and pointed at the stir fry simmering on the stovetop. "Lunch is ready," Suguru said. Ryuichi kept giving him an odd look and Suguru colored as he realized he was still holding onto the feather duster.
"I've never tried making stir fry with a duster. Don't the feathers burn?" Ryuichi asked conversationally as he sat Kumagoro on top of his head. Suguru felt self-conscious for a split second before straightening out his deep green button up shirt. The black slacks he wore showed off his ass and thighs perfectly, not that he'd chosen them for that. Suguru took in the sight of Ryuichi in a pair of torn jeans and a soft t-shirt with Nittle Grasper written across the front in faded sparkly letters. Privately, he thought Ryuichi would look good in anything he put on his body.
"Not if you tickle the chicken with it instead of stirring," Suguru replied with a sniff before moving into the small closet he kept his cleaning supplies in as well as odds and ends. The feather duster went beside the broom and Suguru shut the closet doors firmly. He returned to the kitchen and gaped at Ryuichi. The singer fed Kumagoro bites of stir fry out of a bowl he must have found in the cabinets while Suguru was busy putting away the feather duster. Ryuichi sat on top of the counter with his feet swinging against the cabinet doors and balanced his bowl full of stir fry across his thighs.
"This is good," Ryuichi said around mouthfuls of food and grinned at Suguru. The keyboardist warmed and moved to pull a clean bowl out of the dishwasher. He filled it with stir fry and leaned against the counter to eat since his guest was still in the kitchen. It wasn't the first time he'd eaten a quick bite in his kitchen or even while playing the piano in his studio. Suguru kept odd hours and often arranged music late into the night when he couldn't sleep because of a tune working its way around his head.
Suguru smiled at Ryuichi. "Thank you," he said quietly. "Tohma taught me how to cook."
Ryuichi smiled a little softer at that and studied Suguru closer. "He tried to teach me but I couldn't make it how he liked so he gave up. K-san is the one who finally found enough patience to teach me how to cook for myself," he remarked.
Talking to Ryuichi wasn't as awkward or strange as it probably should have been. Suguru had spent time with the man in private before but usually with Tohma nearby. He'd rarely talked to Ryuichi alone and Suguru found it a bit daunting but doable. "He's always had patience with me. He makes time for me but not as much now as he did when I was little," Suguru said wistfully.
"I know how that is," Ryuichi said and swallowed down a bite of food. "Tohma is busy busy and doesn't take care of himself like he should, na no da?"
"No, he doesn't," Suguru agreed and finished off his own food much faster than he realized. Cleaning always did give him an appetite and he'd been working on his apartment most of the morning. He put his bowl in the sink after rinsing it off. "All you can do is check in on him from time to time to see how he's doing. His secretary makes him eat at least," Suguru said with a shake of his head.
"Ryuichi and Kumagoro make sure he takes breaks and vacations," the singer said with a firm nod of his head. He hopped off the counter and rinsed his own bowl out before pulling the pie out of the oven. Ryuichi helped himself to a large slice after Suguru handed him a plate plus butter knife to cut the dessert. Ryuichi hummed and danced a little in place as he eyed Suguru. "Have a piece of pie! It was made with love and brought to share," he insisted.
Suguru swallowed hard and looked up from loading the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. "I don't like cherry," he said apologetically. "But, I'll try a bite since you brought it over."
Suguru shut the door to the dishwasher and straightened before walking over to his house guest. Ryuichi promptly stuffed a forkful of pie in Suguru's mouth from his own piece. "Chew. Swallow," he coaxed as Suguru nearly choked around the large bite of cherry pie. The keyboardist made the weirdest face as he swallowed and coughed.
"Urgh. Sorry, Sakuma-san," Suguru apologized. "I just don't like cherry at all."
"It's okay. You swallowed it anyway, even though you didn't like the taste," Ryuichi exclaimed and continued enjoying his own piece of pie.
Suguru wrapped up the pie and put it in the refrigerator once it was pretty clear Ryuichi didn't want any more. He moved into the living room when Ryuichi started dancing in that general direction and turned the stereo on so they could listen to music. Soft classical filled the room and Suguru took a seat on his sofa. Ryuichi flopped down beside of him and completely invaded his space bubble.
Suguru shifted uncomfortably but wasn't quite as disturbed as he would have been before being in a band with Shuichi and Hiroshi. The dynamic duo of fuzziness as Suguru thought of his band mates shocked him at first with how casual they were about hanging all over each other. Eventually, they'd included him in the glomp-hug-touch-close-contact-fest. Over time, Shuichi and Hiroshi slowly whittled away Suguru's reservations against multiple invasions of his personal space.
Ryuichi idly twisted a lock of Suguru's hair with a curious look in his eyes while the keyboardist squirmed on the sofa. "So, why green?" Ryuichi asked. "Kumagoro says it's because Seguchis love the color of money."
Suguru laughed and shook his head. "Green is my favorite color and—" he answered and hesitated before touching on a subject he didn't like speaking about in the least. "—it pissed off my father the first time I dyed it. Mother defended me and then they were fighting each other about me but it really didn't involve me any longer at the point."
"Were you always their excuse to fight?" Ryuichi asked with a hard look in his eyes.
"Not all the time," Suguru answered and stared at the beige carpet under his socked feet. "Just enough times that I felt more like a stranger in my own home than their son."
"The worst is when they forget you're even there and start throwing things," Ryuichi said very softly.
Suguru tilted his head to the side and looked over at the singer with growing sympathy and curiosity. "Yours, too?" he asked.
Ryuichi nodded and plucked Kumagoro off the floor. He clutched the stuffed rabbit against his chest and slowly rubbed the soft ears with his fingers. "Yeah," the singer answered after a pregnant pause. "My father was very unshiny and a mid-level businessman with no music inside him. Mother was shiny and spread her shiny everywhere she went. I didn't hate my father until the day the music died in mother."
"He…killed her?" Suguru asked in a shocked whisper. He'd never heard any story of Ryuichi's past that involved murder. Once he thought about it, he really hadn't heard much about Ryuichi prior to Nittle Grasper's rise to fame.
"No!" Ryuichi exclaimed quickly. "But he might as well have. She played the guitar and sang nearly all the time. It annoyed father and they fought over what he called flakey nonsense. She taught me how to play the guitar when I was eight and barely big enough even to balance the instrument. Father came home mad one day and took that mad out on my guitar. He hit mother in the head with it and …she never sang or played again. Ever."
Ryuichi fell silent and let his eyes fall shut. His fingers gripped Kumagoro tightly and he stroked the rabbit's stomach like Aladdin rubbing the genie's lamp. No magical wishes or instant answers came out of the bunny. Suguru reached over to lay a hand on Ryuichi's shoulder and blinked in surprise when the singer sprawled half-way across his lap. Deft fingers curled in his hair and Suguru felt hair that smelled strongly of strawberries tickling his chin. Slender arms came around Suguru and held onto him tightly. "He did more than that, didn't he?" Suguru asked as his brain realized how bare Ryuichi's explanation was.
"I'm not talking about that. Kumagoro knows and he already told Tohma who told Noriko. That's enough people knowing," Ryuichi said and shifted until he rested more comfortably against Suguru. "You won't say anything because you're Tohma sparkly without all the devious shark teeth attached."
"Hey! I bite and I can be just as devious!" Suguru protested.
Ryuichi laughed in spite of his mood. "I just bet you can be," he purred and shifted just a bit closer to Suguru. "I can stay here a while and nap?"
"Nap? Yes. But you-" Suguru started to protest before Ryuichi interrupted him mid-but.
"Talking about the past makes me a very tired Ryuichi," the singer mumbled into Suguru's neck. "People lie when they say the past can't hurt you. It reaches out of the pits of your mind and wraps inky black fingers around you so hard you can't breathe. The claws of yesterday gouge out your self-worth and confidence until you are a shell of the man you are supposed to be. Until…" Ryuichi trailed off and the beating of his heart slowed.
"Until?" Suguru prompted and let his own fingers slowly run through Ryuichi's hair.
A soft noise came from Ryuichi and he finally finished his thought aloud for Suguru's benefit. Kumagoro already knew all this so he didn't need to tell the rabbit again. "The past keeps at you until you can't tell up from down or all your yesterdays from your todays and tomorrows. Then, someone comes along and gives you a superhero bunny that is soft and fights away all the bad things hiding under your bed. That same someone loves you for who you are and pulls you out of the pits of despair so you can shine again," Ryuichi said breathlessly.
Suguru stilled and then resumed stroking Ryuichi's hair. Deft fingers also ran along Ryuichi's back in slow circles that calmed Suguru as much as it did the singer. "That same someone also handed out a keyboard to a lonely kid who had worlds of music bursting inside of him needing to get out. It wasn't his fault he was born to two parents who didn't care about that sort of talent. And when that someone played the keyboard for the kid, he looked just like—" Suguru continued and paused to find the right description.
"An angel," Ryuichi said firmly.
Suguru nodded slowly. "I've spent my whole life trying to play half as well as he does. I wanted to be just like Tohma for a very long time but I realized that wasn't enough for me," he stated.
"So what do you want to be?" Ryuichi asked absently as his fingers ran along Suguru's shirt.
"Fujisaki Suguru," he answered with a proud smile. "The best keyboardist I can be and the only one Bad Luck will ever have. "
"That's enough?" Ryuichi inquired with a yawn.
Suguru rubbed his chin against the top of Ryuichi's head. It was strange to feel this comfortable being close to anyone other than Tohma but Ryuichi was like a force of nature. If he didn't embrace the tornado, Suguru knew he'd end up splattered to the floor. "It's enough for me. I always do my best and that has always been enough for Tohma. If it isn't, then he isn't the man I know he is," Suguru remarked defensively.
"You're a lot wiser than I gave you credit for," Ryuichi mumbled.
Suguru snorted and slumped on the sofa. A full belly combined with Ryuichi's warmth made Suguru drowsy. A nap was sounding like a very good idea. "You aren't as stupid as you act," Suguru replied.
"Touché," Ryuichi said. "Nap time! Later, we can visit Tohma, na no da?"
"I think I'd like that, but you get to be the one to tell him he's buying us dinner," Suguru murmured.
"Deal! Sleep well. Kumagoro will make sure we don't have nightmares. He knows Dream Fu," Ryuichi said. Suguru didn't bother questioning Ryuichi about Kumagoro's martial art skills and opted to fall asleep instead. True to his word, Kumagoro watched over the two sleeping men and kept the nightmares at bay. Suguru would later decide that maybe – just maybe – the bunny really was a superhero disguised as a plushy.