"You look good in that dress."

"You know what would also look good? My fist in your face." Ryouga sighs and gets to putting on his high heels. "Why did I even agree to this."

"Because you lost a bet with Rio." IV shrugs, and he has that smirk that Ryouga hates the most.

"No shit, sherlock. You're the one who told her to have that bet with me."

"I told you, no. She came up to me and told me about it, was just a really nice coincidence."

"Yeah, sure." Ryouga attempts to stand, takes a step forward and—

—trips, just to get caught by IV.

Their faces are close.

(Too close for Ryouga's taste.)

"You're really asking for this, aren't you?" IV leans in, just to feel Ryouga's knee in his stomach region.

"I'm asking for this to be over soon." Ryouga sighs and gets rid of the high heels again. "You know what? I'm not wearing those. They aren't visible below the dress anyway."

And back to sneakers.

"First you're wearing shorts under a long dress, then you wear sneakers to a masquerade ball. What's next?"

"Next is you shutting up." Ryouga quickly gets to working on his makeup.

The dress isn't... bad, in fact, it's one of Rio's, but Ryouga feels like if he's gonna crossdress, he might as well do it properly. (Even though it's a masquerade ball and the odds of him taking off his mask are close to 0.)

"You look like Rio." IV remarks as he puts on his boots. "With shorter hair. And a different eye color."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up, I need to concentrate," Ryouga hisses. He's messed up again. He quickly fixes it. "This'll have to do."

(He hopes that not having any hair gel in his hair will get some of the attention away from him.)

Advantages of a masquerade ball: Ditching your partner thirty minutes after the start.

Disadvantages of a masquerade ball: Running into your arch enemy who recognizes you immediately.

"Oh, Merag~ I didn't expect you here." Vector smirks; it's painfully obvious that it's Vector because of the orange hair, the obnoxious sarcastic tone, everything. "Except you're not Merag. Didn't know you were into crossdressing, Nasch."

Ryouga pretends he didn't hear Vector and heads right through the crowd in an attempt to lose him.

Surprisingly, it works. Until he bumps into Kaito.

Ryouga starts, "Watch out where you're—"

"...Ryouga?"

"Shh."

"So you lost a bet with Rio and now you're on a date with IV but somehow you ended up running into Vector who recognized you and now you're here?" Kaito raises an eyebrow. They're on the balcony, it's the only quiet place in Mr. Heartland's mansion.

Ryouga realizes how pointless this entire masquerade thing is because everyone except for him is easily recognisable by their stupid hair. (Good thing he has a twin sister. He doesn't think it helps much.)

"Yeah, pretty much." Ryouga scowls. "IV is too pushy."

"I'm telling you, he's bad influence for Chris." Kaito crosses his arms.

"What did Chris do?"

"I'm on a date with Chris because I lost a bet with Haruto. A bet that Chris told Haruto to have with me in the first place."

"...What."

There's a moment in which Kaito and Ryouga just stare at each other. Then.

"Haruto said he wanted to visit Rio today."

"When did they even team up?" Ryouga considers taking off the mask, but people he knows might still be around.

"I don't know, but we should assume that they are watching us from a safe distance."

"You think they'd do that?"

"They are our siblings. Think about what we would do."

"We'd watch from a safe distance."

"Exactly."

Suddenly, Ryouga smirks. "Alright, let's turn this around."

"What?"

"If they're trying to do matchmaking for us, we just have to ruin it."

Kaito smirks as well now. "May I have this dance then, Miss Kamishiro?"

"Screw you," Ryouga says and takes Kaito's hand. "But yeah. And after this, we leave."

"Those shoes are sneakers, aren't they." Kaito speaks in a quiet voice.

"What did you expect?" Ryouga scowls as Kaito keeps guiding the dance.

They aren't bad at dancing, and the dancing is even fun. For Ryouga, it's just that—

"Kaito. Just because you're 3cm taller, it doesn't mean you have to be the lead."

Kaito shakes his head. "Do you want to stand out even more?"

"Does it matter?" In a swift movement, Ryouga takes the lead, and he's surprised when Kaito follows through with it, not stopping to dance in step. "...You've got experience, don't you?"

"Let me remind you of who my father is and what that means regarding business meetings."

"This is the first time I pity you."

"Don't." Kaito scowls when the song changes and they have to readjust. "So, where's your experience coming from?"

"Before my parents died," Ryouga says as he leads Kaito closer to the center in their movements. "Rio and I were at balls like these a lot."

Kaito nods, for he knows more words would be do no good. He lets a minute pass. Then. "...They are following us, aren't they?"

"IV and Chris? Yeah." Ryouga blinks and fixes his mask. "Rio and Haruto are at the buffet. Vector is somewhere near the entrance with Yuuma."

"Trying to prevent us from escaping, huh."

"We'll leave."

"I hope you have a plan."

It turns out that indeed, Ryouga does have a plan.

(No one said it had to be a good plan.)

When one of the faster songs starts playing, he drags Kaito into the center of the room completely. There's a lot of space there because most people can't keep up with the beat at this point.

(So much about this being a ball where everyone does boring ballroom dance.)

"Is this what you call a plan?!" Kaito protests, but Ryouga urges him on to dance to the beat, and he does, if only to not have Ryouga step on his feet.

"Wait for the right moment," Ryouga hisses. "Or I will make you."

"Make me, then."

Ryouga attempts to pull Kaito into a kiss— which would have worked if not for Kaito lifting him off his feet for a second, taking the lead and kissing him instead.

(Needless to say, it ends up being more teeth than lips, but it looks good to the audience.)

"Was that necessary?!"

"You're just bad. And now everyone is looking at us, so where is your great plan?" Kaito doesn't stop dancing though, because that'd mean losing.

Ryouga vaguely registers Yuuma asking Vector 'Is that Shark's sister?' and the answer, 'No, that's Nasch trying to steal our show.' and then Yuuma and Vector are on the dance floor; clumsily, but they are there.

(And the crowd starts coming back again, because dancing off-beat isn't half as embarrassing if you aren't alone.)

"The right moment is now!" Ryouga shouts, and he and Kaito simultaneously stop dancing so they can run.

A few seconds later, Ryouga hears 'How the hell did you let those two get away?!' from Rio and Vector's 'I got carried away'.

He got carried away while dancing with Yuuma, huh? (Ryouga makes a mental note to tell Yuuma something about who to not dance with.)

Once Kaito and Ryouga make it through the door, they turn back to smirk and wave at the older two Arclight brothers who have followed them so far.

"Bye!" Ryouga shouts, rips off the mask and keeps running.

(And doesn't notice he's still holding Kaito's hand until much later.)

They end up at Kaito's house because it's closer and because Ryouga hates dresses.

"And why didn't you just take it off?" Kaito sighs and pulls out his phone.

"No time to get changed," Ryouga pulls out some clothes out of his bag and gets changed.

"Uhm." Kaito says. "Haruto tweeted that we're in a relationship. Like, you and me."

"What the hell?! Since when does he even have Twitter?"

"I thought he doesn't use it, but he does. He talks to Rio. And Michael."

"They should never have become friends."

Ryouga sits down next to Kaito so he can read the tweets, too.

'Operation: KaiRyo— success.'

'Nii-san finally has a boyfriend.'

' ragna-infinity, that plan was great!'

"Are they seri—" Ryouga gets interrupted by the ringing of his phone. Knowing who it is, he takes the call without even looking at it. "Rio? No, wearen't making out right now. What? You didn't tell IV and Chris about your stupid plan and they thought you were genuinely trying to help them? Does that mean you tried to set me up with Kai— What the fuck."

Kaito tries to keep a straight face as he listens, but he fails and feels Ryouga's elbow in his side (and immediately counters by elbowing Ryouga back).

"Stop that, asshole," Ryouga hisses and returns his attention to his phone. "No, not you, Rio. Actually, yes, you, too. What the hell were you thinking?! That kind of convoluted plan sounds like something Vector would— oh, part of that was his idea? No wonder. You should really not talk to that bastard. ...What? Throwing me out of my own apartment for a night? Wow. Yeah, see you tomorrow, bye." He hangs up.

"So you're sleeping over?" Kaito raises an eyebrow.

"Apparently so, Rio said—"

The notification sound of a text message coming from Kaito's phone interrupts Ryouga. Kaito quickly reads, then. "Haruto says that he's sleeping over at Rio's place, together with Michael."

"And this is why younger siblings are a pest."

"We should go to your place."

"It wouldn't change a thing. If they're friends, they probably meet up without you knowing quite a lot. So stop babying your bother."

"What do you know—" Kaito interrupts himself, realizing who he is talking to. "...Fine."

Ryouga gets up from the couch. "You don't have makeup remover, I assume?"

"Use water and soap."

"That'd hurt, wouldn't it."

"Do it yourself or I will."

"Why?"

"If we want to share the good news on Twitter with IV and Chris, you need to look presentable." Kaito smirks.

"That's true," Ryouga agrees, because if that stupid rumour is around anyway, why not piss off IV with it? He deserves it for trying to team up with Rio, Ryouga figures. "But why do I need to get rid of the makeup for that?"

"Because it's ruined."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Yours, for not using waterproof makeup when you're dancing." Kaito gets up as well. "And now come."

Ryouga decides he'll never touch makeup again. "God damn it, how does Rio even stand this? It stings."

"Stop complaining and get over here. Why did you even agree to a bet about whether you'll crossdress or not?"

"I thought I'd win." Ryouga sits down on the couch next to kaito.

"Idiot." Kaito hands Ryouga his phone. "Log in on Twitter, I don't have enough followers for this."

"On my private Twitter, then." Ryouga sighs, logs in and presses the camera function. "I don't have to smile, do I."

As an answer, Kaito snatches the phone from Ryouga's hands, presses his lips on Ryouga's and hits the 'take photo' button.

Again, more teeth than lips.

"Asshole. We're not a couple, you don't have to get so serious about it. Also, whatever you're doing, it's far from good kissing." Ryouga complains as he takes the phone back, tags IV and Chris on the image and writes a 'nice' message for them. He hits send.

"Can you do it better?"

This time, it's not teeth and more lips and. Tongues. And then teeth after all. But less painful and actually good.

(Also it's Ryouga on top of Kaito.)

"I can," Ryouga confirms as he breaks the kiss.

"'We're not a couple, you don't have to get so serious about it'," Kaito mockingly quotes.

"Shut up."

Kaito doesn't get to use his mouth all that much for talking that evening, anymore.

It's 11 PM when Haruto, Michael and Rio get home.

"So, let's check Twitter," Rio decides. After calling Ryouga to make sure Kaito knows Haruto is okay (Michael insisted she should do that), she didn't bother checking Twitter again, so now it's about time.

"This is a lot better than expected," she exclaims, just for Michael and Haruto to immediately look over her shoulder to see Ryouga's tweet.

'Me and galaxy-kaito. fanservice-master, here's some fanservice for you. dyson-sphere, looks like your student doesn't need your teaching x)'

They stare at the attached photo for a moment.

Then.

"Your brother can be really mean, Rio," Michael tries to not smile, but he fails. "Was that such a good idea, though?"

"I bet they are making out right now anyway." Rio shrugs. "I'd ask Vector, but he's god knows where with Yuuma."

"It'll be okay, Kaito is responsible," Haruto says cheerily. "Alright, we got rid of all older brothers."

"That means..."

"We can finally watch Duel Monsters in peace now!"

It's 1 AM when IV has blocked and unblocked Ryouga for the fourth time already.

Chris doesn't even open Twitter anymore.