Summary: The Ragnvindr industry went bankrupt thanks to the scheme of a hacker named "Tartaglia". Diluc, now homeless, has no choice but to leave his mansion behind and rent an apartment with Jean's help. What he wasn't expecting was for him, a homophobe, to become roommates with Kaeya, a flaming homosexual.
AN: This fic will have sporadic updates. If I have a chapter ready, I'll publish it. If I don't, then no updates that week.
Inspired by fanfic "Too Sexy For My Shirt" by xxbeyondxbirthdayxx and webtoon "Welcome to Room #305!" by Wanan
Chapter 1 The First Contract
Diluc remembered their first meeting like it had only happened yesterday no matter how many years had passed. It was a sunny day and he was sweating profusely as he dragged his luggage up what felt like a thousand stairs just to reach the apartment door at the end of the hall. As a former rich kid, he never had to endure manual labor under the blazing heat. On a hot day, he was usually chilling inside his air conditioned mansion. And if he had to go somewhere, he'd have a designated driver drive him there in his air conditioned car. To think one day he'd lose the privilege and become just another poor commoner.
He had been so exhausted he couldn't even think straight. The world seemed to be spinning too as he unlocked the door and dragged his feet inside and that was when he met him. Except he didn't focus on him at the time. No, his eyes immediately found themselves on dick action. In-and-out, in-and-out, in between ass cheeks, as another dick slapped itself against the two bodies leaned against the kitchen counter.
Diluc screwed his eyes shut not wanting to believe what he was seeing but the slapping and guttural grunting made it clear as day that he was not seeing things and he had really just walked in on two fags having sex. "What the fuck!?" He cried when he reopened his eyes to focus on the faces. Yes, the faces, keep your eyes on the faces Diluc, ignore the dicks.
The two fags finally, finally stopped and looked at him, one with shock and the other with a dazed, fucked stupid face.
"Oh shit." The darker skinned guy said. His ginger-haired partner glanced back at him, unfazed from Diluc's disgusted look, and nudged him with his foot.
"C'mon, Kaeya, keep going. I'm a-almost there…"
The ginger fucking moaned as he directed a playful, almost taunting gaze at Diluc, who covered his mouth to keep down the nausea and backtracked so fast his head hit the door before his hand could reach for the handle.
He had never scrambled out of a place so fast. Wait, no. Not scramble. Diluc Ragnvindr wouldn't scramble. It was a sprint—yes, he sprinted out of there as if an angry Lisa was hunting him down and ripped out his phone after sucking in a lung full of fresh air.
"Diluc? What's-"
"Look, Jean, I appreciate your help finding a cheap apartment for me. I know my request was sudden and didn't give you a lot of time to prepare so I'm grateful for your help but I really can't do this. I'm sorry but I don't think I can live here," Diluc said all that in one exhale before inhaling again and waiting impatiently for Jean's response.
"W-What do you mean you can't live there? Diluc, what's going on? This is the cheapest apartment I could find and you already signed the contract. You can't afford breaking it now. Plus, I won't be able to find you another place to stay at such short notice."
She was right. Breaking the contract wouldn't have been a problem for him before, but not now when he barely had enough money to cover the rent. And he wasn't daring enough to ask her to take him in for the night either. No, that'd make him look too desperate. He wasn't ready to make a move on her yet. What if she gets the wrong impression and denies him when he eventually confesses to her? He gotta take it slow. They were already friends so that was a win. He just had to slowly ease her up to the idea of advancing their relationship to the next stage. To suddenly ask her to let him live at her house would make his intention too obvious.
"Diluc, can we talk about this tomorrow at school? I have to go—Lisa's calling me."
At this moment, the door behind him swung open and the ginger walked out with a smug smile, his light skin almost glowing under the sun. Diluc inched away and pressed himself tightly against the railing, afraid that his gayness would somehow be transmitted through air (was that even a thing?). The guy winked at him before walking away with an exaggerated sway in his hip, which Diluc most definitely avoided looking at so he wouldn't accidentally imagine his ass and dick underneath the—ah shit, he just imagined it.
"You can tell me what the issue is on Monday. Send me a text if you need anything else!"
Diluc heard Lisa's sultry voice calling for Jean in the distance before she hung up on him.
He glared at his phone as he forced down the urge to chuck it across the hall. A grimace found itself to his face as the image of the nightmare-inducing scene he just saw made its way to his mind. Fuck. What had he done to deserve this? Hadn't he already gone through enough? He may not like queers but he never outright insulted them or bullied them like some others had done. He just stayed away from them and surrounded himself with normal people. So why must they cross the line and force their way into his life?
Trying not to think about that somehow made him think about it even more. It was almost as if their gayness had wormed its way into his body and corrupted his central nervous system. He felt like being suffocated by a gay atmosphere that was constantly replaying that scene in his mind over and over again, over and over...in and out...in and-
"Fuck!" Diluc slammed his fists onto the railing, the grimace deepening when pain ran up his arms. This wouldn't do. No, if he didn't want to sleep on the streets tonight, he had to make a plan.
His new roommate, apparently named Kaeya, thankfully had his pants back on when Diluc finally garnered enough courage to reenter the apartment. But of course the fag would have on a pair of tight, leather pants that hugged his ass and displayed his obvious bulge like he wanted the world to see and know how gay he was. And that shirt with the boob window, which revealed even more of his chest when he leaned forward slightly. Diluc wasn't opposed to seeing another man's bare chest but the way Kaeya did it was so suggestive it made him feel dirty just glancing at it.
"Hey man, sorry you had to see that. I wasn't expecting you so early."
Diluc huffed in relief when his eyes settled on Kaeya's face, which was considerably less uncomfortable to look at than the rest of him.
"You were expecting me?"
"Yeah, Jean told me-"
"She told you?" Yet she didn't tell Diluc that he wasn't going to live alone like she knew he had expected?
"Uhh, yeah she did. She didn't tell you?" Kaeya chuckled when he didn't get a response. "Guess not. I assume you don't know who I am. I'm Kaeya Alberich, sophomore and I major in Psychology."
"...Diluc Ragnvindr, sophomore."
"And your major?"
"...Business Management," Diluc gritted out. He knew having others know about his major wasn't a big deal but he still disliked revealing his personal info to others. Perhaps it was an instinct ingrained in him due to the way he was raised.
"I thought so."
"What do you mean?" Diluc glowered.
Kaeya merely gave him an annoying smirk as he sat on the kitchen counter—couldn't he have sat anywhere else?
"Since you're the only heir to the Ragnvindr industry, you'd obviously pick a major related to business. Though I have no idea how you and your dad plan to recover after its collapse- Hey, don't glare at me like that. It's all over the news!"
It was hard to believe someone like him would willingly keep up with the news, considering how he dressed like he was more concerned with how many dicks he could get every night than anything else.
"So you have been paying attention to me."
"Not exactly." Kaeya sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Look, I can tell you're not fond of gay dudes but you don't have to look like you're about to kill me every time I say something. You're not my type, and even if you are, it's not like I'd rape you just cause I think you're hot. So you can chill out and set down your bags. There're popsicles in the fridge so take some if the heat's too much to bear. The AC's currently broken and I'm working on getting it fixed. Your room's that way, that's the bathroom, and that's my room. We good?"
He gave a pleasant smile and offered a hand, but Diluc walked right past him to put his stuff into his room. He came out with his phone lit up and saw Kaeya in the same spot albeit his hand was down. Good, like hell Diluc would willingly touch him. "We have our differences, and that's exactly why we need to set some ground rules if we want this to work out. What's your email? I'll send the contract to you. Sign it and we're good."
Kaeya gaped at him. "...Are you serious?"
"What?"
"Dude, do you have to go this far? A contract? Seriously!?" He exclaimed, though he still took out his phone to show Diluc his email address.
"The most important rule is don't bring anymore of your…hookup buddies into this apartment during the duration of my stay. Secondly, under no circumstances should you enter my room. Third, do not leave your laundry and trash lying around. Clean after yourself. Fourth, tell me beforehand if you plan on going out drinking for the night. I don't look forward to dealing with whatever shenanigans your drunk self would force onto me. Fifth, don't touch me. Sixth, don't ask where I'm going. Seventh, keep-"
"Okay, okay, I'll read it myself. Sheesh. Never met a guy as crazy as you. How many times have you been fucked over by gay dudes to hate us this much?"
"It's not hate. I don't hate you and I have nothing against you. You just make me uncomfortable, that's all. But if we follow everything on the contract, then we'll be able to coexist just fine in this tiny apartment."
"It's not even tiny," Kaeya whispered but Diluc still heard it. He merely raised a brow as he waited for him to finish reading and signing the document, his foot tapping impatiently against the floor. There wasn't a fan in the room and the heat was making Kaeya's distinctive scent even more conspicuous. It wasn't exactly a bad smell, but having the knowledge that this was what he smelled like after sex made Diluc instinctively stop breathing with his nose.
"I'll wait for you outside."
Kaeya nodded, his eye not leaving the page. He looked exasperated with his chin propped in his palm and his lips pouted, his brows furrowing so hard his lone eye nearly disappeared under them.
On the way to the door, Diluc passed by the fridge and quickly took a popsicle after sneaking a glance at Kaeya to make sure he wasn't watching.
The door closed, he leaned against the railing and tilted his body so the sun didn't shine directly on him, and popped the snack into his mouth.
…Hm, not bad.
AN: This is a...crack project, sort of? Like I'm not really taking this seriously, as you can probably tell from my bland descriptions and lack of detailed prose. If this were idk Digitalization for example, I'd probably spend a whole paragraph describing the heat in the room lol. So keep your expectations low, guys.
ALSO, y'all REALLY should check out my two inspirations for this fic ↓↓↓
"Too Sexy For My Shirt" by xxbeyondxbirthdayxx is absolutely amazing despite having an odd formatting and is told in first person. The story is soooo good and the chemistry, GODS the chemistry between homophobic Matt and gay Mello! The way Matt slowly fell for Mello is so well-done and realistic I could reread it a thousand times without feeling bored! It's also modern AU so you don't need prior knowledge of Death Note to understand the fic.
As for "Welcome to Room #305!" by Wanan, it's a Korean webtoon with the same concept (homophobe and gay being roommates) except they didn't fall for each others. It shows the homophobic protagonist slowly understanding LGBTQ and realizing they're not so different, and willingly befriend them. It's also a lesson to some homophobic readers, since Korea is a very anti-LGBTQ country. It touches upon pretty much everything in LGBTQIA... except Aroace I think. The art is adorable and the story is stunning. The first time I read it I was shocked how deep the story is and how realistic, relatable, and well-written the characters are. And since then I've read it like 3 more times lol.