Prompt: Takaritsu Day/Confession (2021)

Ritsu was starting to become convinced that the universe was trying to tell him that he and Masamune shouldn't be together. Every time Ritsu attempted to confess something went wrong and prevented him from doing so.

First it was the dinner disaster (the first of many dinner disasters, in fact). Ritsu had attempted to prepare a nice dinner for he and Masamune to share, but when Masamune came over what he found was Ritsu in a complete mess of a kitchen. The two of them spent their time cleaning everything up instead of eating as Ritsu apologized profusely for the trouble. It had taken so much courage for Ritsu to even ask Masamune over and then Ritsu had gone and ruined it all. It took everything in Ritsu not to cry, but Masamune managed to distract him with the suggestion of ordering in and watching a few movies. Somehow it ended up being at least a little bit fun, but Ritsu still felt bad for messing everything up.

Then there was the flower failure. Ritsu had thought that maybe a different romantic gesture would be good. When he had left his home to go get a bouquet the sky had been an ominous gray, but he hadn't brought an umbrella. He had only just managed to avoid the rain as he rushed into the shop. After purchasing his flowers he had hung around the shop to wait for the rain to pass. Luckily it was a short, though intense burst and Ritsu didn't have to wait for too terribly long. He left hurriedly after the rain stopped, but he wasn't able to stay dry for long as a car sped past him and totally soaked him with dirty street water. And had soaked the bouquet as well. Ritsu locked himself in his apartment for the rest of the day to sulk and Masamune had never learned of Ritsu's plan to surprise him.

The list went on and on: the chocolate calamity, the botched beach day, the festival fiasco, and not to mention the repeating ringtone. The repeating ringtone, as the name suggested, was a repeat offender. Masamune and Ritsu seemed to just not know how to turn their stupid phones off and every time Ritsu is about to open his mouth and say those three little words, one of their phones ring to interrupt him.

Ritsu was at his wits end. He couldn't even think about confessing at this point without getting extremely frustrated or just wanting to cry. At this rate he would never be able to confess. Maybe it really is the world trying to tell me it's not a good idea, Ritsu lamented. How many times could his confession go wrong before Ritsu finally took it as a sign?

Ritsu's pessimism was growing with every failed confession and eventually it started to become noticeable to Masamune. It was difficult for Ritsu to look Masamune in the eye and spend time with him outside of work when it was just a reminder that he was never going to be able to properly communicate his feelings because for some reason fate had a vendetta against him.

Masamune didn't understand why Ritsu was suddenly starting to avoid him after the two of them seemed to be making progress. Why was Ritsu suddenly only speaking to him at work? Why wouldn't Ritsu maintain eye contact with him for long? Why couldn't Masamune make Ritsu blush as easily as he used to? He was becoming seriously concerned and if he had to corner Ritsu to get answers then he would.

That's why Masamune was currently standing in front of Ritsu's apartment, knocking on his door insistently. When his knocks didn't get a response he then started to call Ritsu over and over again. Masamune knew how to be annoying and damn it he would annoy the hell out of Ritsu until he couldn't possibly ignore him anymore.

It took a while, but eventually Ritsu's door slowly creaked open. Ritsu narrowed his eyes at Masamune as he rejected what must have been Masamune's twentieth call. "What do you want Takano-san?" He asked. Well, Masamune had definitely succeeded in annoying Ritsu.

"I'm coming in." Masamune said instead of answering, managing to push past Ritsu and into the apartment.

"Takano-san!" Ritsu exclaimed in protest, but Masamune ignored him as he took off his shoes. "You can't just come in here whenever you want!"

"It's cleaner than usual. Is that why you've been avoiding me? You've been spending your time cleaning instead?"

"What? A-avoiding you? I haven't been avoiding you." Ritsu said as he averted his eyes, not able to look at Masamune as he lied.

"Are you angry with me?" Masamune asked. "Did I do something?" He stepped closer to Ritsu, invading his space as he so often did.

"No-I'm not-" Ritsu backed up, pressing himself against the door as he shook his head. "You didn't do anything, but I'm a little busy, so if you could please show yourself out." He huffed, managing to get past Masamune and walk deeper into his apartment. He should've known that Masamune would follow.

"How am I supposed to apologize if you won't talk to me?" Masamune pressed.

"I already told you, you didn't do anything." Ritsu repeated. "Other than letting yourself into my apartment!" He added. "So, please, just go-"

"Ritsu, whatever I did, I'm sorr-"

"It's not you!" Ritsu insisted, his frustrations beginning to build up inside him rapidly from every push from Masamune.

"Then why won't you even look at me?" Masamune frowned, stepping closer to take Ritsu's hand, but the brunette quickly snatched it away.

"Because...because looking at you makes me think of how much I'm screwing this all up!" Ritsu covered his face with a hand, humiliated.

"What? Ritsu, what are you talking about?" Masamune asked, reaching out to put his hands on Ritsu's shoulders.

Ritsu refused to look Masamune in the face, even with Masamune attempting to coax him to do so. "Every time I try to plan something nice, it all goes wrong! How you're not sick of all this nonsense yet I'll never understand."

"Ritsu, I still don't know what you're talking about." Masamune frowned. Just what the hell was Ritsu going on about?

"I just want things to be perfect and they never go the way I plan: I either almost explode my kitchen or forget to bring sunscreen to the beach or get sick after too many festival foods or have a stupid author emergency that interrupts everything! You don't even know how many plans I've had that never even got off the ground! Everything just gets messed up every single time!" Ritsu was getting more and more worked up as his eyes started to water.

"Ritsu..." Masamune stared, feeling a little useless in this situation.

"I'm sorry." Ritsu apologized. "I'm a pretty crummy boyfriend, huh?" He laughed humorlessly.

Boyfriend? Boyfriend? Had Ritsu just willingly referred to himself as Masamune's boyfriend?!

"Are you an idiot?" Masamune squeezed his shoulders.

"H-Huh?"

"So what that things go wrong sometimes? Do you think that's what I remember?" Masamune asked. "I remember having fun at the beach because you had fun. Yeah, we got a little sunburnt, but having a red back was worth spending time together. I loved watching you get all excited at the festival, even if your excitement went a little overboard, and I always want to be there to feel that kind of excitement with you. And yes, you've probably destroyed your kitchen more times than either of us can count, but I like having an excuse to just sit on the couch and cuddle while waiting for takeout. Ritsu, I don't care what we do or what happens, what I care about is that we're doing it together." Masamune hoped he was at least helping a little bit, but it seemed his words only made Ritsu's tears spill over.

"T-Takano-san..." Ritsu managed in a wobbly voice.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Masamune and Ritsu both stared at each other for a good while as Ritsu's words sunk in.

"Wait!" Ritsu shouted, throwing his hands up and waving them frantically. "No, no! I wasn't supposed to say that! This wasn't how it was supposed to go! It was supposed to be special! Please ignore-!"

Masamune crushed Ritsu to his body, kissing him so hard that his lips would probably bruise, but he didn't care.

Ritsu tensed at first, his face flushing red at the sudden kiss. Slowly, he relaxed in Masamune's hold, wrapping his arms around his neck as he shyly started to return the affection.

"Your room, now." Masamune started to pull a stunned Ritsu in the direction of his bedroom.

"H-h-huh?"

"You didn't think you could say something like that without consequences, did you?"

"But..." Ritsu blinked a few times, slowly getting his thoughts back in order. "I told you it would be perfect." He frowned.

Masamune stared for a moment before sighing, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?" He asked, making Ritsu frown. "It was always going to be perfect. Because it's coming from you."

Ritsu tried to stop himself from tearing up again. How can he be such an asshole but also so heartfelt? It was Ritsu's turn to kiss Masamune entirely too hard and the brunette didn't resist when Masamune led him to the bedroom.

How could he possibly think he isn't perfect? Masamune wondered as he kissed Ritsu passionately on his bed, the brunette laying on his back and clinging on to Masamune tightly.

Masamune was just about to run his hands up Ritsu's shirt when a familiar ringtone buzzed from Ritsu's pants pocket.

"Pft." Masamune was attempting (and failing) to hold back a laugh.

"Its not funny." Ritsu scowled as he fished his phone out and promptly turned it off, not even bothering to check who was calling.

Masamune smiled at the sight of Ritsu's haughty expression as he shoved his phone into his nightstand's drawer.

"Yours too." Ritsu said, holding his hand out. Masamune didn't argue, forking his phone over and letting Ritsu put it away before pouncing on him again.

"I love you." Masamune said between pressing kisses to Ritsu's neck.

Ritsu flushed, the red reaching the tips of his ears as he tightly screwed his fingers into the back of Masamune's shirt. He hoped Masamune couldn't feel his frantic pulse against his lips (Masamune definitely could as he gave that spot extra attention).

"I love you too."