This is dedicated to Ephy (^3^) who finally said to me 'fucker, write some fucking good stuff i miss that stuff' (Well not like that but you get the point) and made me realise how much I miss writing. By the way if you don't know who Ephy is (Vaincreux, vervent, fauxame, munspeak, palito-de-pan, prevously ephemeral-death) than go away. I don't want you here.
On Monday through Sunday, Riku was pretty sure he hated Vanitas' guts; his snarky attitude, his ability to never worry about anything, his constant teasing (sexual or otherwise). But on Friday through Thursday, Riku was pretty he sure he'd never be able to live without the jerk-faced, raven-head; his golden orbs always filled with mischief, his ability to make Riku feel incredibly loved, his overall flamboyancy that always tipped him on his ass. Those were always the good points he looked forward to on a day with his boyfriend.
Yet on this particular day, Riku didn't think there was ever a time he hated Vanitas more. The argument that was taking place was loud, the neighbours had sent angry knocks through the wall or stomps through the ceiling continuously but to no avail. Both boys continued to shout and spit, causing the usual mood of the holiday to crumble into something that resembled burnt cheesecake crust.
"You're stubborn, pigheaded and a jack-ass! It's not going to kill you to come out with me! If anything it would be for two hours; and you get sex afterwards!" Riku spat, feeling behind him on the kitchen table to see if there was anything he could throw at his boyfriend out of pure resentment.
"Ya never know, Riku!" Vanitas was hissing back, his shoulders hunched and fists clenched, his hair standing on end because of how many times he had run his fingers through it throughout the course of the argument. Riku mildly thought Vanitas always looked like an alley cat when he was angry. "We could get run over by a bus, I could crash my motorcycle, the food in the restaurant could be poisoned!"
"You're changing the subject as well as being over dramatic! Kairi was wrong; apparently men can multi-task!" Riku's hand finally felt the book he had been reading earlier (a cheap, two dollar paper back he had picked up at the newsagency for something to read on the way home from work) and flung it with all his might at his boyfriend's head. "It's fucking valentine's day! It's normal for couples to plan something nice together!"
"And when have I ever been normal!?" Vanitas managed to dodge the paperback barely, glaring at the couple on the cover as the book hit the floor. "That's why you started dating me!"
"I'm not asking for rose petals on the fucking bed and a starlit, bloody, boat ride! All I wanted was dinner and a movie. That's a normal, Friday night!"
"We'd miss Revenge! This is the night everyone finds out her secret! Do you really wanna miss that?"
Riku wanted to throw something else, sadly he had run out of books and utensils, all the rest having been thrown earlier in the night. Usually his boyfriend was difficult to the point where Riku felt like he was raising a six year old instead of dating a twenty year old, but this time, he was unfathomably more angrier at his lover than any other time he could recall.
When the two had moved in together, Riku had sat Vanitas down and laid down some ground rules. Vanitas had promised with a grin and a kiss to uphold those rules. Riku should've guessed how much of a liar Vanitas could be; after all, he planned to smooth talk his way out of trouble for a living.
There were only really three important rules Riku had set, the rest were mundane habit breakers more than anything: don't leave wet towels on the ground, pick up your socks, soak dirty dishes when you're done. Yet three rules stood out from the rest, Riku having emphasized them several times and had come close to making Vanitas sign a contract ("In blood?" Vanitas had joked).
Rule one: Never ask for sex at an unreasonable time. Riku was all for for kinky shit, he had to admit being dominated while tied to the head board was a major turn-on. He was even okay with sex in public, as it turned Vanitas on and transformed the usually dominant beast into a submissive bitch that Riku never got to see inside the four walls of their apartment. But when Riku was shaken awake at 5.30 in the morning for a quick rump and no cuddles afterwards, it pissed him off enough to send an (albeit, satisfied) raven to the couch for the rest of the week.
Vanitas had broken that rule within a month of moving in.
Rule two: Never invite relatives over without notifying the other a week in advance. Vanitas had come from a rowdy family, even so, Riku usually enjoyed their company. But it was when he had to come home without warning to four year olds hanging from the ceiling and Vanitas' mother destroying (re-organising in her opinion) his kitchen that Riku found himself spending the night at a hotel, leaving Vanitas to share the bed with all six of his family members.
Vanitas had broken that rule within a week of moving in.
Rule three (and perhaps the most important rule): Never, ever, in the time they would be together, forget a date. Anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, Easter and Valentine's Day were all marked with fat red crosses on every calendar they owned. Vanitas didn't have to plan anything but he had to at least take his head out of his ass for one evening and treat Riku (more like thank him) for all that he put up with on a daily basis thanks to the raven-head who had tornadoed his way into the silverette's life.
Vanitas had broken the final rule.
"Revenge?! I'll show you revenge you impertinent, self-righteous, dick head! You don't want to go out? Fine!" Riku let out a final huff, his brows so furrowed over his eyes that only aqua could be seen beneath the thick, silver bangs. "You can stay in, watch your fucking soap opera, see if I care. I'm going out, I'm going to have a good time and see you be asleep on the couch when I get back, or I'll tape over every episode of Sherlock and Doctor Who; with The Bold and the Beautiful!"
Vanitas stopped frowning, straightened up and gave his boyfriend a hurt and puzzled look. Maybe this was it, maybe the importance of the situation had finally sunk in and Vanitas was willing to relent and give Riku peace of mind for the evening. Instead, an obnoxious tone left the boy's mouth, with something that he would definitely regret saying the next day.
"You're going to enjoy Valentine's Day by yourself? Isn't that a bit sad?" The next thing Vanitas knew, he was lying flat on the floor with a quickly swelling left cheek and a black eye forming just as fast; Riku had let his anger fly out through his fist this time.
"I'll see you when I get back!" Riku left, wrapping his scarf tightly around his neck and stomping down the stairs, hearing cries of 'thank God!' and 'it's about time!' from all the neighbours who had to listen to their tirade. Riku made a mental note to send them all fruit baskets in the morning.
Vanitas did what he usually did when Riku got mad and left; watched his show and fell asleep on the couch. Riku returned home and went to bed alone, thinking of all the ways he could punish his boyfriend within the week.
~O~
The next day, Vanitas realized he should at least make it up to Riku somehow (whether he felt guilty about it or not). So he made Riku breakfast in bed and woke him up by kissing him softly on the forehead, which only resulted in another punch to the same cheek.
"What the fuck was that for!?" Vanitas screamed, wiping the residue of the spilt breakfast off his boxer shorts before standing up, taking on his cat-like stance again, his hair already a mess from the maple syrup that had found its way into the strands.
"I'm still mad at you, so don't touch me," Riku said plainly, getting out of bed and walking right past the hissing raven without so much as a glance.
"But the touching was me trying to say 'sorry' for last night!" Vanitas (stills hissing) claimed, following after Riku, who promptly shut the bathroom door in his face. "Fine! Be a prissy, little bitch! I have to go to work!"
~O~
When Vanitas got home, Riku was nowhere to be found. Vanitas called his mobile, only to have to yell through the receiver so he could be heard over the laughter and loud music on the other end.
"Riku! Riku, where the hell are you! No, I said where! Are! You! No! Dammit, I'll just text you!"
{Where the hell are you?
It took all of Vanitas' willpower to not add about a thousand exclamation points to the end; it wouldn't do if both of them were mad at each other.
Yet it was still half an hour before his phone beeped with a reply.
{I'm at a club with Sora, Axel and the twins. Might be a while, don't wait up for me.
This was a sting even Vanitas had trouble coming to terms with. Though Sora and Riku had been friends since they were in diapers, and Roxas was Sora's little brother, Axel and Ventus were usually associated with Vanitas before Riku. So why was Riku going out of his way to hang out with Vanitas' friends and not even bothering to invite him along? There wasn't even a clue as to what club they were at so Vanitas couldn't tag along.
Vanitas sat on the couch, staring at the text and wondering if this was still about last night. Usually Riku had cooled off by now, ready to pick up the relationship where it had left off, usually with some mutually needed make-up sex.
There was nothing Vanitas could do but wait for Riku to come home, try apologizing again and hope Riku wouldn't be so cold hearted as to make him sleep on the couch two nights in a row. But when midnight rolled around and Riku still wasn't back, Vanitas had to relent and sleep on the couch in case Riku came home still angry.
As Vanitas lay on the couch, trying to spread out as much as he could on the two-seater, he pondered over the argument that had ensued the day before. He remembered Riku's facial expressions, how hurt he had seemed under all the anger that was bursting forth, how annoyed he was he couldn't have a boyfriend who wanted to share just one special night. As the night progressed, Vanitas felt more and more like an ass, his empty apartment only agreeing with him.
~O~
Morning came, and Vanitas was distraught to find the bed hadn't been slept in; Riku had never come home. Panic over took him, images of Riku being crushed by a bus in his drunken state, his silver hair dyed red, his broken body lying in a hospital bed somewhere, or worse, a morgue.
Vanitas wasted no time in grabbing his mobile and smashing in the numbers to Sora's apartment, who picked up after Vanitas had gotten message bank twice, sounding groggy with a scratchy throat.
"Sora! Where the fuck is Riku?! He better be with you!" Vanitas shouted into the receiver.
"Vani! Don't shout so much, it hurt's mah head!"
Vanitas wished he was there to punch the idiot, who was still drunk somehow.
"Riku is here, he slept in my bed. Axel and Roxas and Ventus are here to. We had a slumber party after the 'tards took over the club for the night. I'm surprised you didn't come, but Riku said you'd prefer to stay home and watch your soaps. That surprises me, why would you wanna stay home when you could be out, having a good time, with your boyfriend?"
With each passing word, Vanitas was rendered more and more speechless. Now he understood. Riku had been trying to teach him how it had felt to be rejected for something so meaningless, and by giving him exactly what he had wanted.
"Riku, you clever bastard," Vanitas muttered. "Put Riku on Sora, I need to talk to him."
There was silence for a few moments, some chatter in the background, before Sora's voice came back on the line.
"Sorry Vani, Riku went straight to work from here. He had already packed an overnight bag with his work clothes." After Vanitas had blurted out more questions he already knew the answers to, Sora complained he wanted to go back to sleep. Vanitas called him useless out of anger and hung up, looking glumly at the fading mobile screen, cursing his 'clever bastard' of a boyfriend.
Vanitas usually enjoyed his days off, but today he hated the fact that he had to stay home and await nervously for his boyfriend to come home. Vanitas decided he would do more than apologize, he would cook a nice dinner and set up the kitchen table with candles and flowers, the T.V. wouldn't be touched for the entire night and he would make sure to listen to everything Riku had to say, insults or otherwise.
So at midday, Vanitas was done picking out the recipes he wanted to make Riku, printed them out and headed to the store for ingredients. Halfway there, he remembered Riku had banned him from the kitchen after the great make-your-own-pizza night fiasco of '09; if there was ever a time to heed Riku's words, it would be now.
So instead he walked back home and researched take-away restaurants. He knew Riku loved trying anything foreign and new, but Vanitas had no idea what was better, French or Italian, Greek or Japanese, so he ended up ordering something from everywhere, figuring Riku would appreciate the variety.
After, he paid a quick stop to the linen store and picked out a nice, red tablecloth and then bustled over to Amart for some cheap candle stands which looked elegant enough despite their price. The night was coming together nicely, but while catching a cab back home with his treasures beside him, they past the dock down the street from their apartment, and an idea slammed into Vanitas' brain so loud he was pretty sure his skull may have cracked slighlty.
All it took was another phone call and a relocation of sorts before everything was set; all he needed now was the man. Vanitas tried ringing Riku's cell phone, but caller ID had incredible disadvantages when one was in a fight with the other. So instead he called the home phone, leaving a message on the answering machine for Riku to come down to the dock when he got home.
Riku's shift ended at six, a fifteen minute walk to the apartment, thirty seconds to listen to Vanitas' plea, another ten minutes to consider whether or not to abide, twenty minutes to shower and get into something comfortable before finally jogging back down the street so he could make the request to be at the dock by seven-fifteen; and Riku sure was glad he hadn't made Vanitas wait.
The night was clear, stars littered the sky and the ocean looked soothing and beautiful under the moonlight. Most of the boast that lined the dock looked pretty enough with their shiny paint jobs and the inside lights turned on to create a faint glow on the water's surface. But one boat stood out in particular, fairy lights littering the mast and rails, various scents that Riku could recognise as Chinese dumplings, peanut curry and lamb salad with yoghurt filtered through the night air to his nose. Cheesy, romantic music was playing from the radio and there, sitting hunched over the railing, throwing his guts up was none other than his stubborn, pigheaded, jack-ass, impertinent, self-righteous, dick head of a boyfriend. Riku remembered Vanitas' aversion to the sea and everything related to it; he couldn't even handle fish fingers.
"You're an idiot, I hope you know that," Riku jibed, jumping down onto the deck and sticking his finger into the peanut curry before making his way over to his boyfriend, who had just finished chucking up another round of who-knows-what.
"Yeah…" Vanitas' voice came weakly. "I know." Riku leant over the railing too, looking at Vanitas' face and smiling evilly, knowing his revenge was finally complete. But Riku's face turned pale when he saw tears on the brink of falling from heartbroken, golden eyes, his lips open slightly as he tried to breathe evenly through the onslaught of sea-sickness that was inevitable no matter how many pills Vanitas took beforehand.
"You can't blame me for trying. You asked for a starlit boat ride with rose petals on the bed…" Vanitas muttered, before hurling again. Riku's eyes widened in realisation, before getting up to go underneath the deck to check, and sure enough, the bed that had come with the boat for the night was decorated elegantly with rose petals and candles yet to be lit, the sheets crisp and clean and fresh out of the packet. Riku was even surprised to find the sheets had a pretty high thread count, as Vanitas didn't usually check and ended up buying the cheap, scratchy kind that always gave Riku a rash.
He climbed back up the ladder, walking back over to his boyfriend who had thrown up everything he could and was now just retching up air, belching slightly when he sucked down too much. Riku rubbed soothing circles on the raven's back, leaning down to kiss the nape of his sweaty neck before placing Vanitas' arm around Riku's neck so they could waddle home together.
"Don't you want to eat any of the food? I didn't cook it so you don't have to worry about your kitchen having blown up!" Vanitas was frantic, he really had wanted Riku to enjoy something special, something that would mean more to him than it ever could to Vanitas, for more than obvious reasons.
"Let's just go home and get you cleaned up, we can still use the bed sheets and I'll come back and pack up the food. If we freeze it all, we'll have enough left-overs to last us the rest of the month." Despite Riku's kind words, Vanitas was terrified. He fought weakly to stay on the boat.
"I'll just sit on the dock, I won't think about it when it's time to go down below, I'll try and think of flying instead! I'm good with flying!" Riku chuckled, poor Vanitas really wanted this night to happen.
"It's fine, Vanitas." Riku helped him up onto the dock and up the street, the streetlamps flickering on as they made their way back to the apartment. As they stumbled, Riku couldn't seem to wipe the smile off his face. Even though the night had taken a turn for the worse, there were several underlying elements that made up for it.
Vanitas had listened. He had listened when Riku had told him what he wanted, listened when Riku had said he was mad and he wouldn't forgive so easily, listened when Riku had told him to stop being selfish or the relationship would never go any further.
Vanitas had made an effort. When nights like these came about, it was Riku who went out of his way to make sure everything was perfect while Vanitas sat back and enjoyed all of the hard work he didn't do. Vanitas had remembered something important about his boyfriend, and had used that to give something to Riku that he genuinely would've enjoyed.
But above all, Vanitas had finally put himself after the needs of somebody else. Vanitas had to have known he could never last more than a few minutes on a boat, no matter how calm the sea was, yet he had tried valiantly to keep his stomach down and enjoy the night with his boyfriend.
Yes, all these things made Riku much happier than the date itself ever would have. He heard sniffling in his ear, turning to see the tears finally leaking down the sickly, green face, Vanitas grumbling under his breath about 'always fucking the best things up' and 'not even being able to stomach one night on the sea'.
"Vanitas…" Riku began.
"I just…" Vanitas interrupted, choking down sobs as he tried to explain. "I just didn't want you to be mad at me anymore. I get it now. I'm selfish, but I'll always be selfish, but you get that. So you don't mind, as long as every now and again you can feel important enough to stand above my needs; and that's what I was trying to make you feel. I wanted you to know that I really do love you, Ku-Ku." Riku had to stop himself from grimacing at the resented nickname.
"I know you love me, Jerkface. I love you, too. I'm glad you saw my point of view, all I wanted was for you to learn the lesson. You know I don't need rose petals and Indian food to feel better, I'm okay with an open apology," Riku kissed Vanitas' bruised eye, finally opening the apartment complex's door and braving the rickety elevator to get Vanitas up to bed faster.
"I tried to apologize. I made you breakfast," Vanitas huffed, really leaning into Riku now.
"That wasn't an apology. That was something to mask what you knew you had done but didn't want to admit, so you faked an apology and something special to make yourself feel better. My feelings had nothing to do with it." Vanitas sniffled some more at that.
Riku managed to get Vanitas out of his day clothes and into pyjamas, lying him down in the bed and covering him up lightly with the scratchy sheets, knowing tomorrow night they could use the soft ones when Vanitas was guaranteed not to throw up on them.
"Don't be mad at me anymore…" his pleas were getting weaker and smaller, his eyelids were getting heavy and Riku knew there'd be no make-up sex tonight, which he'd have to 'punish' his boyfriend for the next night.
"I'm not mad anymore, Vanitas. You've more than suffered enough," Riku leant over the grumbling figure, kissing Vanitas' forehead, his cheek, his bruised eye again before placing a quick one on the corner of his mouth. "Go to sleep, Dickhead. "
It didn't take long for Vanitas to fall asleep, leaving Riku with the strenuous task of lugging everything back from the boat to the apartment, and yet he honestly didn't mind. Maybe Vanitas would finally change for the better, he would stop being incredibly selfish and pay attention every once and a while, he would be the boyfriend everyone knew Riku deserved.
Yet as Riku risked the elevator one more time, sheets and fairy lights in hand, he realised that if Vanitas started being anything like the boyfriend Riku deserved, than he wouldn't be who Riku had fallen for in the first place. Sure Vanitas was obnoxious, loud, selfish and mean, but it didn't mean his good points didn't outweigh the bad. Vanitas had a fantastic smile, a strong sense of justice and a kind heart that would surely put Mother Teresa to shame if it ever came to light; plus he was more than legendary in bed.
So Riku couldn't help but smile when at three forty-five in the morning, he was prodded awake by something hard pressing against his thigh, arms winding tightly around his chest and soft kisses being littered all over his neck and hair.
"I promise I brushed my teeth," the husky voice flowed into his ear, causing Riku to stir and his cock to perk up in interest. "We can have make-up sex now?"
Riku had to laugh tiredly, even so early in the morning, Vanitas was still unsure if Riku's forgiveness had been genuine, his voice going higher at the end of the sentence, insinuating a question more than a statement.
"Alright, Vanitas," Riku rolled onto his back, letting Vanitas crawl on top of him so they could start at where the night was supposed to have gone. As Vanitas licked and sucked at all the sensitive points around Riku's shoulders and neck, Riku ran his fingers through the ebony locks, humming with elation and happiness.
"But don't you dare be gentle at all, or I'll put you back out on the couch," Riku whispered into Vanitas' ear, nipping at the lobe and groaning when Vanitas started biting in response. "My selfish, little, alley cat."