I GOT BORED AND WROTE A DRABBLE

I've been busy with other stuff and yeah it's been like a year since I've updated Butterfly Effect but loOK I'M SORRY OKAY I FORGOT MY P A SSWORD

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?"

Ritsu had been silently watching Sho for a while now, with an empty bottle in his hands and staring down intently at a beetle.

"It looks like you're having a staring contest with a creature that's too small to even make eye contact with."

Sho let out rhetorical 'tch' at the comment. "I'm catching bugs, smartass."

Sho, obviously the most amazing at keeping his attention focused on one thing, completely forgot about the beetle he had been staring down at when a firefly landed on his finger.

"Woah, neat!"

Sho turned around immediately to show Ritsu the lightning bug. "It just landed on me!"

Ritsu, by all accounts, should be intrigued or fascinated by the firefly. However, he couldn't help but follow the unease stuck in the back of his mind and jump back as the bug was placed right in front of him.

Sho tilted his head to the side. "What's up? Don't like him?" Sho gave the bug a pitying look.

Ritsu was just as confused as his red-headed companion was. Why had he just jumped back for no reason? He used to be deeply fascinated with bugs when he was little. Him and Shige would catch them all the time.

His thoughts were stopped as the firefly spread it's tiny wings and flew off from Sho's knuckles. It was flying in a random direction, and Ritsu knew that, but it just felt like it was flying straight toward him. Right at his face.

Ritsu immediately ducked down and jumped away from the bug's path with a pathetic, high pitched squeak coming from his vocal cords.

Sho bursted into laughter. "Dude, are you scared of bugs?"

The thought had seemed so ridiculous to Ritsu that he immediately responded with a definite "No." No further questions asked. He knew the answer. He had played with bugs all the time with Shige and was never bothered by them.

But why had he been so on edge?

"Alright, Mr. Badass. If you're sooooo confident in your bug-loving nature, help me catch some." Sho held out his jar to Ritsu. "Unless you're too chicken."

Ritsu just wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to prove Sho wrong, so he snatched the glass jar from his hands and bent down to the nearest rock he could find.

He reached out to look under it but stopped halfway. He wasn't entirely sure why. There was this voice in the back of his mind, like some kind of sixth sense, telling him to stop.

Telling him to stay away.

Sho, always up for teasing his friend, gently placed another lightning bug by Ritsu's hand. He simply sat back and waited for said friend to realize it.

He hadn't noticed the bug until it had crawled onto his hand.

Immediately on edge after noticing the tingling sensation on his hand, he whipped his head to find the firefly crawling onto his hand. His reaction was priceless.

First, Ritsu screamed. So loud you'd think someone had been murdered.

Second, Ritsu immediately jumped up and began to frantically swat his hand everywhere in a desperate attempt to get the bug off of him. Eventually, it did fly away, and that did cause more panic to swell up within Ritsu.

He ducked from the lightning bug's path and crawled over to his friend as fast as humanly possible. He wrapped his arms around the redhead and his behind him for shelter.

Sho immediately burst into laughter. Ritsu simply looked up at him with a disapproving glare.

"S- Shut up!"

Sho placed a hand on his mouth in an attempt to control his fits of laughter. "Sorry, dude! You really are scared of bugs, huh?"

Ritsu would've retorted with something smart or rhetoric, but found himself at a loss for words. Because yes, Sho was right. There really was no other explanation for his reactions up to this point.

Ritsu was scared of bugs.

I have entomophobia so whoops looks like my edgy son does too

Once I get my account verified on AO3 I'll cross post dis shit