Prompt: Confusion/Blush (2023)
Ritsu blinked at the screen of his flip phone a couple times. Then he rubbed his eyes and blinked again. He had to be seeing things, right? He was hallucinating this text message? It was ridiculous to even entertain the idea of it being real.
There was a message from Saga currently staring back at him. Ritsu had only just recently gained his contact information a week ago. Ritsu hadn't dared tried to text or call him out of fear of annoying Saga - Ritsu already spent nearly every day with him, so surely his Senpai would want a break sometimes. There was also the risk of being caught talking to his crush by his parents. Ritsu knew he wouldn't be able to get away with saying he was talking to 'just a friend'. His blushing face would give away quickly that it was in fact not 'just a friend' on the other end of the phone.
This was the first message that Saga had sent to Ritsu outside of an initial 'hey' just to make sure Ritsu had his number. The text was a little...confusing to say the least.
'Come let me in, I'm outside. Do you really live here? This place is huge.'
Outside? Outside, outside? As in, outside Ritsu's home? It was currently ten o'clock at night with their weekend off from school just beginning. Why would Saga be here? Was this...some kind of prank?
'I don't understand', Ritsu texted back honestly. He was currently in his bedroom, previously relaxing in bed with a book.
'What about my message was confusing', came Saga's lightning fast reply.
'You're outside my house?'
'Yes. Though house is an understatement.'
Ritsu wanted to scream. Why?! Why would he be here?! How was he here?! Ritsu sprung up from his bed quickly, but quietly. He knew his mother had retired to her and her husband's room at this point, but if he caused enough of a commotion then she would certainly stick her head out to investigate. His father was likely down the hall in his study still and would probably be there for a couple more hours. Ritsu peeked his head out into the hallway quietly just to ensure its emptiness before he nearly tripped over his own feet going so fast down the stairs. He managed to stay upright somehow and hurriedly went to the front door, unlocking it. He cracked it open very slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. Despite Saga's texts, Ritsu was still flabbergasted to see him on the porch.
Saga himself was looking a little awestruck, not quite meeting Ritsu's gaze as he continued looking at the house.
"What are you doing here?" Ritsu asked, as quiet as he possibly could be in his panic.
"Is this a joke?" Saga asked, still looking at the house.
"I-I should be asking that!" Ritsu stepped out to stand on the porch with him, quietly closing the door behind him.
"No, I mean your house is..." Saga trailed off. "Are you a little prince or something?"
Ritsu turned red at the question, crossing his arms both in displeasure and due to the fact that it was a bit chilly out here.
"How do you even know where I live?" Ritsu asked.
"You have a tag on your backpack with your home address on it if it gets lost." Saga answered as if that were a completely normal response, putting his hands in his pockets, having seen that tag repeatedly during their time together.
"And you just...memorized it?" Ritsu asked, shocked to be on the receiving end of more stalkerish behavior.
Saga was silent for a good, long moment, staring off blankly as his actions started to dawn on him. "...Can we go inside?" He said instead of answering the question.
Ritsu huffed, surprisingly a little grumpy with his Senpai. "N-No we cannot go inside! My parents are home for one and my mother would absolutely kill me for sneaking a friend in-"
"A friend?"
"-and since I didn't know you would decide to randomly drop by tonight my room is an absolute mess. There's books everywhere and clothes-"
"What, you don't have staff for that?" Saga asked sarcastically, cutting off Ritsu's ranting rather sharply. Ritsu looked away and Saga held back a laugh of disbelief. "Holy shit."
"Th-They've gone back home for the day."
"And you managed to wreck your room that quickly? That's almost impressive. Oh my God, my boyfriend lives in a massive mansion with staff attending to him." If Saga hadn't already expected a certain level of wealth, he might have completely doubled over in shock. Still, there was a confusing amusement that accompanied his disbelief over Ritsu's living situation.
Despite the chill, Ritsu felt his whole body go warm at the word 'boyfriend', not used to being called that yet, but he couldn't allow his soft heart to distract him from his displeasure!
"Senpai, why are you even here? It's getting late and I could get in serious trouble." Ritsu complained.
"I just missed you." Saga said. "I didn't want to wait till Monday to see you. You're not happy to see me?" He asked, the slightest tilt to his voice making him sound just a tiny bit pathetic.
Ritsu was stunned, looking at Saga's frowning face with his own baffled expression. "I-I-"
"Come on, Ritsu-sama," Saga said with a smirk, making Ritsu cringe a bit, "live a little. Break a rule for once and sneak your boyfriend into your parents' big fancy house."
"...W-We can't do anything." Ritsu warned.
Saga raised an eyebrow. "Anything?" He echoed with confusion.
"Y-You know! That." Ritsu whisper-yelled.
"Okay." Saga agreed way too easily.
"Senpai, I'm serious! I can't - I c-can't stay quiet." Ritsu said, mortified at such a confession, but it was important that Saga understood.
"I said okay." Saga replied. "Can we please go inside now?"
Ritsu hesitated, looking pained at the question before he slowly turned back toward the door and gently opened it as an answer. Saga stepped inside behind him, Ritsu closing the door and locking it. He held a finger up to his lips to indicate to Saga to remain silent before taking his hand and leading him upstairs to his room. He hurriedly ushered him inside, shutting and locking his own door.
"I don't get a tour of the place?" Saga whispered once the door was closed.
"If you wanted that then you should've come during the day after my parents okayed a visit from a friend." Ritsu whispered back.
"A visit from a what?" Saga pressed, just to be an asshole.
"A friend." Ritsu repeated, not having quite picked up on Saga's meaning yet.
How many times was Ritsu going to use that word tonight? It was starting to piss Saga off a bit.
"Ah. A friend. Quick question, do friends usually do this?" Saga asked, wrapping his arms around Ritsu's waist and standing way too close for someone who just agreed five minutes ago not to try anything.
"S-Senpai-" Ritsu's hands found their way to Saga's shoulders, weakly attempting to push him away, but finding himself soon swept up into a kiss.
Despite Ritsu still being just a tiny bit annoyed - which was surprising and new, he didn't know he could be annoyed with Senpai - he couldn't help but to follow his lead, instinctively parting his lips the way Saga had taught him. That alone made his face burn, but he fought past the embarrassment, one hand shyly moving up to bury itself in Saga's hair.
The slightest touch from Ritsu was enough to make Saga completely disregard any risk that fooling around may bring and he gripped Ritsu tighter, starting to move toward the bed with him. However, in a moment of uncharacteristic clumsiness, Saga miscalculated a step and ended up tripping over one of the hazardous piles of books on the floor. He ended up falling to the ground, accidentally bringing Ritsu down with him, who let out an unintentionally loud yelp as he fell on top of Saga.
"S-Sorry, I'm so sorry-!" Ritsu hurriedly tried to stand back up without causing damage to the upperclassman. Saga was still a little dazed from the fall - and from having Ritsu's body weight suddenly coming down on top of him - but otherwise was relatively unharmed. Maybe there'd be some bruising, but he decided it was worth it. Now, Saga got to witness such a cute, cherry-red expression on Ritsu's face as he held out a hand to help Saga up.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? I told you my room was a total mess-" Ritsu fussed over him and Saga considered faking some kind of injury to have even more of his attention, but the moment was unfortunately cut short.
"Ritsu? I can see your light is on. I thought I heard a big thud. Is everything okay?" A woman called out from behind Ritsu's door, the knob jiggling as she attempted to open it.
Ritsu nearly screamed.
"I'm fine, everything's fine mom, one second!" Ritsu called out, quickly pushing Saga toward his closet. Saga hardly had time to resist as he was unceremoniously shoved inside, Ritsu saying a quiet 'sorry' before he closed the door.
Well, shit, Saga thought, standing there with his arms crossed. That hadn't gone as planned.
Ritsu ripped his door open, smiling in an attempt to alleviate suspicion, but it was far too wide and unnatural. "Sorry for waking you up mom. I just tripped over some of my stuff." He said.
Youko clicked her tongue in disapproval, shuffling inside Ritsu's room and picking up some of the clothes he had lying around. "Of course you're tripping over things, your room is a mess! The least you could do is hang up some of your clothes!" She exclaimed, turning toward Ritsu's closet.
"M-Mom! Y-You don't have to worry about that, I'll do it, I promise! J-Just go back to bed!" Ritsu exclaimed, taking the clothes from her quickly.
Youko narrowed her eyes at his eagerness to get her to leave. "Are you doing something you shouldn't be, Ritsu?" She asked.
"No! No, I just - um - I would feel bad if I made you clean up my mess. I can take care of it." Ritsu said, trying to calm down and behave normally for once.
"Hm. I don't mind helping." She said, though her tone suggested she wasn't so much helping as she was investigating. She turned to start picking up some books instead, examining them curiously as she did so.
Ritsu took the opportunity to shuffle over to the closet, waiting to make sure she was faced away before he opened it quickly. He shoved the clothes into Saga's arms in a panic before closing the door and blocking it with his body as he turned back toward his mom.
His mother put a few books she had gathered back on to his book shelf, going to continue her task before she noticed Ritsu's empty hands. "Where are your clothes?"
"I put them away." Ritsu said.
Youko put her hands on her hips and gave Ritsu an impatient look. "You put them away too fast. You couldn't have possibly put them away properly." She said.
"I-I did!" Ritsu insisted.
"Let me see." She replied, taking a couple strides to stand in front of him. Ritsu remained firmly planted in front of the closet.
"I-I put them away." Ritsu repeated.
"Onodera Ritsu, move away from the closet immediately." She ordered.
Ritsu winced, but accepted defeat as he stepped out of her way.
Youko opened the closet door, only to find Saga standing there with Ritsu's clothes still in his arms. She jumped back at the sight of a stranger in her son's closet and screamed.
"M-Mom, it's okay-!"
"Police! Ritsu, go call the police!"
"Mom-!"
"What do you think you're doing in my son's room, you hooligan?!" She demanded.
"Uh..." Saga blanked, understandably not sure how to handle this situation.
"Youko, is everything okay?!" Ritsu's father - Onodera Tatsuo - rushed in from down the hall, having heard his wife scream.
"We have a home intruder!" Youko shouted.
"Mom! He's my friend!" Ritsu said in a desperate attempt to cut through the panic. Saga awkwardly shuffled out of the closet and set the clothes down.
"Yup. I'm...a friend." Saga said through gritted teeth as Ritsu came to stand at his side.
"A-A friend? Why in the world do you have a friend over at this hour?!" Youko demanded.
"I..." Ritsu's mouth became dry.
"It was my idea. Ritsu didn't know I was coming over, I just showed up wanting to hang out. Sorry." Saga shoved his hands into his pockets, currently wishing he could just go back into the closet.
"Well, Ritsu, I'm very disappointed that you haven't picked better friends. I mean really, hanging around a delinquent who sneaks around at night!" Youko said, scandalized.
Ritsu looked down, tensing as he tried to fight back the tears that wanted to form. It was already embarrassing to be scolded by his mother in front of Saga, but the thought of his parents' first impression of his beloved Senpai being so terrible broke his heart.
"Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself young man?" Youko pressed.
"I..." Ritsu faltered, still trying not to cry.
"Youko, I'll handle this. You should go back to bed." Tatsuo said.
Youko hmphed and hesitated, but ultimately turned to head off, irritated at having her sleep interrupted for such a silly reason.
"Dad, I'm really sorry-"
"It's not Ritsu's fault, sir-"
Both teens tried to speak at the same time, but Tatsuo held up a hand to stop them.
"I never once snuck out to go hang out with a friend." Tatsuo said, slowly crossing his arms as a small smirk came to his face. "But, I snuck out all the time to see your mother."
Ritsu stared at his father for a few seconds before the implication fully hit him. "E-Eh?! W-What are you suggesting, dad? Hahaha!" Ritsu exclaimed with forced, panicked laughter.
Tatsuo chuckled at Ritsu's response. "Listen, your 'friend' can't stay the night, but we'll just let your mom think you're grounded for a week, okay?" He said. Honestly, he was a little relieved that Ritsu had harmlessly broken a rule. That was a part of growing up, after all. Tatsuo then looked to Saga, making the older teen stand a little straighter. "What's your name?"
"Saga Masamune, sir." He answered. Oh God, he had so not been prepared to meet Ritsu's parents, especially not like this.
Tatsuo gave a nod. "We'll have to meet again soon under more proper circumstances. Get home safe, alright? Ritsu, please show him out." He said before he left the bedroom to let the teens say their goodbyes.
"...Well, your dad seems cool." Saga said after a few moments of stunned silence.
"Oh my God, I could die right now." Ritsu said miserably.
"Did your mom call you Onodera Ritsu, by the way?"
Now Ritsu really could die.