Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

A lot had changed since middle-school. For starters, Chifuyu, Baji, and Ryusei were all now second years in high school. It was currently two months into their second year, both Ryusei and Baji were 17 and Chifuyu was still 16 (he hated having a December birthday).

Baji was now taking his studies much more seriously, not just to keep his mother happy, but because he was determined to get into veterinary school. Rysuei had been back for just over a year now, having moved away for almost two years in middle-school. He had moved back in time to start high school with everyone else. Even Takemichi was attending the same school as Chifuyu now, along with his girlfriend, Hinata.

Chifuyu felt as though he was the only one who hadn’t really changed all that much in the years since middle-school. He still had Peke J, he still loved reading shoujo manga and had an ever-growing collection, he even kept the same hairstyle Baji had given him back in middle-school. The only thing he could say for sure had changed were his feelings towards a certain someone. Feelings that he had only realised a few months after he had moved away.

Ryusei leaving had left Chifuyu with a mass of confusing feelings. At first, he wasn’t sure how he felt about Ryusei’s absence. He wasn’t massively upset, but he wasn’t happy about it either. It was around 2 months after Ryusei left that Chifuyu started to feel lost without Ryusei around. He missed the petty squabbles they would have almost daily, and the harmless pranks Ryusei would pull on him, the borderline flirty teasing he would receive. It took him 3 months to realise that he missed all of this because he had feelings for Ryusei, and then another month to fully accept those feelings and confide in Baji who said verbatim, “it’s about fucking time you realised, ‘Fuyu.”

After that, Chifuyu had missed Ryusei immensely. They texted each other daily, Chifuyu would always send him photos of Peke J and talk about the latest manga he had been reading. Ryusei would always indulge him and talk about the soccer scores of his favourite team, and Chifuyu would listen happily. Chifuyu hadn’t known Ryusei was moving back until the day he returned, when he decided to show up in his bedroom whilst he was studying with Baji, having been let in by his mother.

Chifuyu had found himself overwhelmed with confusing emotions once again. On one hand, he was overjoyed to finally see Ryusei again, he wanted so badly to drop everything and hug him. On the other hand, he was almost angry that Ryusei hadn’t told anyone he was coming back, and Chifuyu had thought he might not see him again anytime soon. Instead, he resorted to another petty fight with Ryusei about Peke J’s name, and whether or not he had missed Ryusei.

It's been a year since Ryusei returned and he and Chifuyu were closer than they ever had been before he left, although not much had changed in their dynamic either. Ryusei was still falling asleep on the school roof and scaring Chifuyu who, after those two years, had still not learned to check his surroundings before talking to himself. He was still teasing him with flirty remarks, although now they earned him a pretty crimson flush that spread across Chifuyu’s face like wildfire. They still argued over the most trivial things, mostly Peke J’s name, although Chifuyu suspected Ryusei was doing it just to get a rise out of him now (and it worked every single time).

Recently however, Chifuyu was noticing a shift in Ryusei’s behaviour. Something was different about the way he was acting around Chifuyu, but no one else, and Chifuyu couldn’t quite place why.

“Y’know, one of these days you’re gonna have to tell ‘Fuyu how you feel ‘bout him, Ryusei.”

Ryusei grimaced, “it’s not that simple Keisuke and you know it.”

Ryusei was stood on Baji’s balcony watching Chifuyu, who had just returned from the local convenience store judging by the carrier bag he was holding. He was bent down petting Peke J in the courtyard of their apartment block. Baji had apparently gotten sick of being ignored and came to see what Ryusei was doing that he believed to be more important than their math homework.

“Literally what about this is complicated? It’s ‘Fuyu, all you’d have to do is say something out of one of those shoujo manga’s he likes so much, and he’d fold.”

“I want it to be genuine though, I don’t want to just copy something some shoujo main character does, that’s not me.”

“Well, why don’t you try and find out what he does like? Everyone has a love language, I’m sure you can find his out.”

“Love language? What the hell is that?” Ryusei was confused.

“How is it that you texted Chifuyu for almost two years straight about his shoujo manga, but you still don’t know what a love language is?”

Baji’s patience was wearing thin with both Chifuyu and Ryusei. He’d had to listen to Ryusei talk about Chifuyu non-stop since middle-school, and then Chifuyu wouldn’t shut up about Ryusei either while he was gone.

“I don’t know! I was just happy he was talking to me,” Ryusei said sheepishly.

“Christ you are so down bad,” Baji sighed. “Okay, there are five types, ready?”

“Hit me!”

“Do not test me, I might take you literally.”

“Alright, alright I’m listening” Ryusei threw up his hands in mock surrender, “please enlighten me, Sensei.”

“I don’t have to help you, y’know.” Baji looked at him pointedly. “Right, first there’s quality time, so like just spending time together. Then acts of service, that’s basically just doing stuff for each other that the other person might not like doing themselves or if you just wanna help them out, I think. Physical touch is pretty self-explanatory, even for you.”

“Hey!”

“Then words of affirmation, I think ‘Fuyu said that’s like giving compliments and saying nice things about each other? And then there’s gift giving, some people show affection through giving gifts and other people prefer affection through receiving gifts. Your job is to find out which one works on ‘Fuyu the most if you wanna get it across to him what you mean.”

“How would I do that though? I can’t just ask him, he’ll be suspicious of me,” Ryusei whined.

“And who’s fault is that dumbass? You’re the one who’s never serious with him,” Baji sighed again. “If you want him to know that you mean it then you have to show him that you’re serious first. Stop playing dumb tricks on him all the time, and try sounding genuine when you flirt with him because it just comes off as a joke all the time.”

Wow, Baji can be surprisingly profound, Ryusei thought to himself.

“Alright, serious. Yeah, I can do serious. I’m super serious, this isn’t scary at all.”

Ryusei watched as Baji pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

“How about you start small? Quality time is a love language that even you can’t fuck up, just spend some time with him, offer to do something with him that you know he loves doing.”

Ryusei had just the idea for ‘operation: spend super serious quality time with ‘Fuyu.’

“Thank you, Keisuke, I owe you one~”

“ceasing your insufferable pining in front of me is payment enough.”

Ryusei had the perfect idea. Chifuyu always went to the bookstore on Wednesdays, when they had a student discount for middle and high schoolers. He would simply ask to tag along, really what could go wrong with it?

It turns out, simply asking was not as easy as he wanted it to be. He had spent all afternoon trying to get Chifuyu alone so he could ask him, but he was always either with Baji or Takemichi. As it happens, Baji was a very unhelpful wingman past his improvised intervention, and Takemichi was just plain stupid when it came to Ryusei’s attempts to subtly get Chifuyu alone for a second.

Ryusei settled for just ambushing Chifuyu after his last class of the day, instead. Not that he knew his entire school schedule or anything. He figured that he would just tag along with Chifuyu on his way to the bookstore.

So here he was, waiting directly outside the door to Chifuyu and Baji’s class, instead of sleeping in some forgotten corner of the school (it was raining today, so the roof wasn’t an option, much to his disappointment).

He heard the telltale end-of-school bell, suddenly feeling slightly nervous for once. He spotted Baji leaving the classroom first, who shot him a puzzled look.

“Aren’t you usually dead asleep at this time of the day? Me and ‘Fuyu were about to come wake you up.”

“Well Keisuke-Sensei, I took your advice and I’m waiting for our beloved ‘Fuyu right now to sweep him off his feet.”

“If you call me that again I will tell him about the time you cried on the phone to me for an hour because he sent you a selfie of himself with Peke J, you degenerate.”

“Whoa Keisuke, who got your panties in a twist today~” Ryusei, although he knew fine well Baji always followed through on his threats, was not above pushing his buttons.

“You did, you fucking idiot!”

“What are you two arguing about now?” ah there he was, the most perfect person to ever grace Ryusei’s life with his mere presence.

“We were arguing over ways to make you taller, ‘Fuyu~”

“Fuck off, I’m not that short, you dick!”

Truth be told, Chifuyu really was that short. At least in comparison to Ryusei and Baji. While they both had grown to around 6’3 since their time in middle-school, Chifuyu had only hit a measly 5’8, and had barely grown at all in the last year.

“’Fuyu, I have like five inches on you at least, just admit you’re tiny~”

“Oh you wanna fight!? We’ll see who’s short then, asshole!”

Ryusei laughed at Chifuyu’s outburst. It was so easy to get a rise out of him. He was almost certain he heard Baji mutter something along the lines of “fucking idiots” under his breath as he made a stealthy get away from the two of them.

“Hold your horses there ‘Fuyu, we can fight after we get back from the bookstore.” Ryusei was fairly confident in his approach to asking Chifuyu out after school. He was banking on him just blindly accepting his self-invitation without questioning him. Unfortunately, god was not on his side today, and Chifuyu chose this very moment to be more attentive to what was being said around him.

“Huh? Bookstore? What do you mean?”

“Well you always go to the bookstore on Wednesdays, right? Because you get your discount on the manga. I remember you telling me that a while ago.”

Ryusei saw a pretty flush paint Chifuyu’s cheeks as he dropped his overconfident ready-to-fight attitude, instead donning an expression of pure confusion.

“You actually remembered that? I told you that like two years ago.”

“What can I say ‘Fuyu? I remember important information about important people.” Ryusei winked at Chifuyu. “So, are we going then? It’s that one next to the nice ramen shop we go to, right?”

“Uh yeah, it is? Why do you want to come with me though, I’ve never seen you read any manga before.”

“Well I suppose I’ve just taken an interest in it recently, who better to go with than the expert himself.”

Chifuyu eyed him suspiciously “alright,” he conceded “but if you do anything to get us kicked out of my favourite bookstore, I will stop at nothing to make sure you meet a premature end.”

And so, the two of them took a mostly silent walk to the bookstore, Ryusei trailing after Chifuyu closely, just happy to be doing something alone with him for once.

Ryusei felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and he had a nagging suspicion that Baji was threatening him some more.

Keisuke

Don’t fuck it up Ryusei

Actually pay attention to what he’s saying

Show some serious interest

Ask him stuff too don’t just smile and nod

Ryusei

You don’t have to worry Keisuke

I’m not that incompetent

Have some faith in me would ya <3

Ryusei switched his phone to silent and slipped it back into his pocket after responding to Baji, determined to give Chifuyu his undivided attention. He followed him into the bookstore and watched him beeline straight for the romance section, as he expected.

Ryusei did think it was a little funny how much Chifuyu loved shoujo manga. He was just as bad as the rest of them realistically, a member of a biker gang associated with and involved in many violent and dangerous situations. He could more than hold his own in a fight against multiple opponents. Yet, he was also obsessed with feel-good romance stories, and could hardly contain his excitement when he was really into a particular manga.

Ryusei watched Chifuyu with a fond smile as he thumbed through the shelves of manga, he guessed he was looking for a specific one. He was just about to offer to help search for it when a look of disappointment fell across Chifuyu’s face.

“What’s up ‘Fuyu? Not find what you’re looking for?”

“No,” he sighed dejectedly. “I’ve been looking for the next volume of this series for ages,” he said, holding up one of the available volumes for Ryusei to see, “but they haven’t had it in stock for a while now.”

Ryusei made sure to take a careful look at the cover and title of the manga before Chifuyu returned it to its spot on the shelf. for future reference, he told himself.

“What’s it about? Must be pretty good if you’re this hung up on it.”

Chifuyu seemed surprised that Ryusei had asked, “you really want to know?”

Ryusei smiled at him softly, “of course I do ‘Fuyu, it’s something you’re interested in.”

“Oh well basically it’s about a love triangle between the main character, her best friend, and his brother,” Chifuyu began explaining. “She thinks she’s in love with her best friend at the start, but then his brother starts to show interest in her, except she’s completely oblivious to it because she hates him. He started making progress with her though and I think he’s finally going to confess to her in the next volume.”

Wow, that sounds way too familiar, Ryusei thought.

“That sounds interesting, ‘Fuyu, I might give it a try~”

“Really? I’ve got the rest of the series at home, you can uh, come over and read them if you want?”

If Ryusei didn’t know better, he’d say Chifuyu sounded nervous when he said that, but who was he turn to turn down a direct invitation to Chifuyu’s place? He almost made a teasing remark about being invited, but he didn’t want to make Chifuyu reconsider his offer (plus he was only a tiny bit scared of Baji’s threats if he didn’t make an effort to be more serious).

“Sure ‘Fuyu,” he said with a wink “I’m sure Ronaldinho will be happy to see me again.”

Well, he couldn’t hold off from teasing him completely. He did try.

“Choke and die.”

Ryusei laughed and threw his hands up in surrender “whoa you’re feisty today, ‘Fuyu~”

Chifuyu ignored his comment “I’m sure Peke J will be happier to see me, but whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Not if I bring him treats every time I see him, I’ll condition him to like me more. Like Pavlov.”

“Huh?”

“Really ‘Fuyu, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than Keisuke. Don’t you pay any attention in psychology?” Ryusei knew for a fact that Chifuyu paid little attention to psychology, given that most of his time in that class was spent being annoyed by Ryusei. Mostly with jokes about Freud and his weird theory on children wanting to get it on with their mothers.

“Oh shut up, you know fine well that you’re the main source of my distraction in that class, asshole,” Chifuyu huffed.

“Oh I distract you, do I? I’m so flattered ‘Fuyu~”

“You know what I meant!”

Chifuyu stomped off towards the checkout with the manga he had chosen in lieu of the one he actually wanted; Ryusei could’ve sworn he saw a faint blush take over his face as he hurried to catch up with Chifuyu.

“I hope you brought an umbrella by the way, Baji made off with mine earlier when he left” Chifuyu gestured to the entrance of the store as he paid for his manga.

The weather outside had taken a turn for the worse, absolutely pouring down with rain like it had been earlier that day. Ryusei was sorely regretting not bringing a coat with him today, although he wasn’t sure it would help much in that downpour anyway.

“It’s cute that you think I’m that prepared for adverse weather, ‘Fuyu, but regrettably I do not have such forethought.”

Chifuyu raised his eyebrow at him, “those are rather big words for you.”

“I get better grades that you do, ‘Fuyu,” Ryusei deadpanned.

“Sometimes I’m not sure how.” Chifuyu glanced towards the entrance again “I’m starting to wish I didn’t live such a long walk home now,” he groaned.

Chifuyu lived a good 20 minute walk away on a good day, and Ryusei dreaded the thought of such a long walk in such heavy downpour.

“Well I live like five minutes away from here, y’know.”

“Okay asshole, no need to rub it in,” Chifuyu scowled at him.

“Dumbass, I’m saying come back to my place with me instead. You can just wait out the rain there, and it’s close enough you could probably run it if you really wanted to avoid getting too wet.”

“Oh,” Chifuyu replied dumbly, “yeah okay, how about last one there has to... do something!”

“Do something?” Ryusei snorted, “couldn’t even think of a good forfeit?”

“Shut up I couldn’t think of one on the spot! We can just decide later.”

“Alright, ‘Fuyu, you’re on~”

The two of them braced themselves for the cold rain as they approached the doors to leave the bookstore. Ryusei covered his head with his uniform jacket to protect his hair, while Chifuyu tucked his carrier bag of manga inside his own to keep it dry.

Ryusei opened the door and felt the chill of the weather hit his face. He gestured for Chifuyu to leave first.

“After you, ‘Fuyu~”

“Trying to give me a head start?”

“Well you’ll probably need it, I’m like 73% sure you don’t remember the way to my place,” Ryusei laughed.

“I do know the way!” Chifuyu huffed at him.

“Alright, if you’re so confident about that then I won’t be giving you any hints.”

With that, both boys took off running into the harsh weather. As it turns out, Chifuyu did not remember the way to Ryusei’s at all, given that he turned the opposite way from him after leaving the bookstore. Ryusei would have felt bad had Chifuyu not been the one to suggest this in the first place. It was almost like he still had something to prove to Ryusei from middle school, he mused.

Still, Ryusei wasn’t about to turn back and correct Chifuyu to save himself from getting wetter than he deemed necessary. Technically he wasn’t going the wrong way entirely, just the much longer way. He had faith Chifuyu would find his way there eventually.

It didn’t take Ryusei long to reach his front door, after all, he was quite physically fit from both fighting and playing for their school’s soccer team (plus he might’ve ducked down some little side streets that only he knew about). The rain hadn’t let up at all, Ryusei’s clothes were now soaked through completely and sticking to him uncomfortably.

Thankfully, he wasn’t waiting much longer for Chifuyu to find his way there, spotting him down the street. He came to a stop in front of Ryusei, hands on his knees catching his breath, hair literally dripping wet.

“Nice of you to finally make it, Mr. “I know the way””

“I made it here without your help, didn’t I?” Chifuyu looked positively miserable, absolutely sodden and shivering.

“If you want to get technical, then yes, but you took the long way.” Ryusei took a moment to look Chifuyu up and down, “we can argue inside though, you look freezing, come on.”

Ryusei ushered him inside, hustling him up the stairs quickly to spare Chifuyu from his mother’s creepy advances. He directed him straight to his bathroom and sat him down on the toilet. “Stay here for a moment, ‘Fuyu~”

Ryusei ducked out of the bathroom and made his way to his bedroom down the hall, with the intention to grab Chifuyu some clean, dry clothes. What kind of man would he be if he let the love of his life stay wet and cold, after all? Most of his clothes would be way too long on Chifuyu given their height difference, but he made do with what he could find in a hurry. If he purposefully made sure to pick out his favourite t-shirt for Chifuyu to wear, then it was no one’s business but his own.

He grabbed a spare towel from the cupboard on his way back to the bathroom, grateful that his mother always kept plenty of spares around.

“Alright, here you go, ‘Fuyu, some dry clothes for you,” Ryusei said, as he placed the small pile of clothes in Chifuyu’s hands. “Feel free to take a shower if you wanna warm up too, there’s a clean towel for you there as well.”

Chifuyu shot him a puzzled look “You’re being awfully nice today, what gives?”

“I’m always nice, ‘Fuyu~”

Chifuyu didn’t respond to his teasing remark, shooting him an unimpressed look instead.

Ryusei rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “I know I tease a lot and might not seem like I’m being genuine, but I promise that’s not the case. I always mean it when it comes to you, Chifuyu.” He gave Chifuyu a soft smile, hoping to get across to him that he really was being serious “anyway, I’ll leave you to it, ‘Fuyu~”

Ryusei decided that his small moment of vulnerability was all worth it when Chifuyu came back from the bathroom 20 minutes later and entered his bedroom, wearing Ryusei’s favourite shirt.

Chapter Text

Ryusei was fairly confident that his attempt at spending some quality time with Chifuyu was a step in the right direction. He had been on his best behaviour, making sure to pay his utmost attention to everything Chifuyu was saying. He even kept his teasing to a minimal (lets be honest, he was only human, some teasing was bound to happen).

All in all, Ryusei considered it to be a success. After Chifuyu had taken his shower, the two of them ended up reading some of Chifuyu's newly bought manga together, and then played several rounds of Mario Kart until Chifuyu got mad at Ryusei for constantly blue shelling him. Chifuyu ended up leaving Ryusei’s place much later than intended, the rain had stopped hours before he decided to finally leave, despite Ryusei trying his best to convince him to stay the night.

Despite his confidence in his success, he decided to consult with Baji (definitely not because he just wanted to annoy him a little).

He and Baji were on the roof of their school, Ryusei had been asleep until Baji had decided to wake him up for their lunch break.

“So Keisuke-sensei,” Ryusei started “I think my date with ‘Fuyu went well yesterday~”

Baji glared at him “seriously, I will tell ‘Fuyu the most embarrassing shit about you,” he threatened. “Also, it’s only a date if he knew and agreed to it being a date, dumbass.”

“Date-schmate,” Ryusei stuck his tongue out “what would you call it then?” He challenged.

“I’d call it you being an idiot,” Baji sighed “but I’m interested in why you texted me 57 times acting like you were being murdered if you think it went well.”

“It was an urgent matter!”

Baji merely raised an eyebrow at him and waited for Ryusei to continue.

“Anyway, I don’t want to assume anything about the situation. We ended up going  back to my place, he showered there and wore my clothes, then we played Mario Kart, and then he stayed for like hours after he could’ve left.”

“And you don’t want to assume that went well?” Baji questioned. “Dude, he wore your clothes and made no effort to leave as soon as he could’ve.”

“Well it didn’t really tell me much about if that’s the love language he prefers,” he complained.

“Then just try another one, I’m sure you’ll know when you’ve found it. Maybe try the acts of service one next?” Baji suggested. “There’s probably plenty of stuff you could help him with.”

“I don’t know what though,” Ryusei whined. “It’s not like he carries around a to-do list with him all day.”

“That’s why you pay attention to him, idiot,” Baji stated. “Just offer to help him with stuff if you see him struggling, stuff like that.”

“Alright, I’ll give that a try,” Ryusei agreed. “Where is ‘Fuyu anyway? He’s usually up here with us at lunch.”

“He said he was helping Takemichi with something after class.”

The metal door to the roof creaked open nearby as Chifuyu emerged from behind it.

“Ah, speak of the devil.”

Chifuyu eyed them both, looking unimpressed. “You two are weird, why are you always talking about me when I show up?”

“Well why wouldn’t we be talking about you, ‘Fuyu? You’re just so cute~” Ryusei stuck out his hand to ruffle Chifuyu’s hair.

Chifuyu swatted Ryusei’s hand away almost as quickly as it had landed on his head, clearly pissed off at the action.

“Y’know ‘Fuyu, your roots are starting to show quite a lot now.”

Of course, Chifuyu bleached his hair to achieve the warm toned blonde he had been sporting since middle-school. He usually touched up his roots every 6 or so weeks, but this time he had left it quite a bit longer, and now his roots were showing quite obviously.

“I don’t need to hear that from someone who looks like they had an unfortunate accident with a cotton candy machine.”

Baji snorted hard at Chifuyu’s clapback. “He’s not wrong, Ryusei.”

“Oh shut up, Professor Snape.”

Baji wasn’t laughing anymore, but Chifuyu was now laughing hard at his expense. Ryusei counted that as a major win, nothing felt better than seeing Chifuyu laughing that hard at something he had said.

“Anyway, I just haven’t had the time to do it yet,” Chifuyu circled back to the original topic. “And I hate doing the back of my head by myself, its hard to see it properly.”

“I’ll do it for you,” Ryusei offered without thinking.

“I mean this as disrespectfully as possible, but no,” Chifuyu deadpanned. “You don’t exactly have a good track record with my hair.”

“Aw c’mon ‘Fuyu,” Ryusei pouted. “I promise I’ll do a good job. I’ll even let you do mine?”

“Maybe.”

“Pleeeaaase? Pretty please? I promise I won’t mess it up.” Ryusei was really laying it on thick.

Chifuyu looked towards Baji, as if silently begging him to come to his aid.

“Don’t look at me, ‘Fuyu, I can’t help you. I don’t dye my hair like you two idiots.”

“Hey! That was uncalled for, Keisuke, my hair is beautiful~” Ryusei flipped his hair dramatically with his hand to prove his point.

“Alright fine! I’ll let you do my hair for me, but if you mess it up you have to let me dye your hair whatever colour I want.”

Ryusei stuck his hand out enthusiastically “deal! You won’t regret this, my dear ‘Fuyu~”

“Believe me, I already am,” Chifuyu grumbled.

The following day was the Friday, and Ryusei had found himself at the local beauty supply store browsing the shelves of hair dye and bleach after school had ended.

Chifuyu had told him he could come over that afternoon after school had finished. He had mentioned that his mother was visiting some family for the weekend and had left Chifuyu to look after the apartment by himself, so the smell of the bleach and dye wouldn’t be bothering anyone.

Chifuyu had also mentioned earlier that day, that he had forgotten to pick up a new box of bleach, thinking he still had some left from the last round of bleach he did.

Light of my life <3

Come over 2nite???

Mom isn’t home

Ryusei

That’s very forward of you ‘Fuyu

Fuck off

Shouldn’t you be paying attention??

Psych isn’t your strong suit

U literally passed me a note asking

when to come over

I never specified that you had to

answer me immediately~

Ur the worst

Just come over after school

I need 2 buy more bleach too

Ran out from last time

I’ll get it for you ‘Fuyu <3

I’ll already be walking past the shop

you get it from anyway

Ryusei could see Chifuyu was typing out an answer to his suggestion, he was watching him expertly angle his phone underneath his desk out of view of their teacher as he typed quickly.

As it turns out, Chifuyu was bad at hiding his phone. Ryusei saw their teacher eyeing Chifuyu, obviously suspicious about his lack of gaze on the whiteboard at the front of the room.

Now, in Ryusei’s defence, he did try his best to warn Chifuyu about their teacher’s suspicion. He was trying to be as covert as possible, by kicking the legs of his chair in an attempt to alert him to the imminent threat.

Unfortunately, he was rather unsuccessful, probably because Chifuyu was purposefully ignoring him thinking he was just trying to distract him again. He had a rather startling realisation after their teacher had shouted his name loudly across the room, and demanded he hand his phone over for the remainder of the school day.

So now, Ryusei was stood in the narrow aisle of the beauty supply store holding up two boxes of bleach, right side facing down as he tried his best to compare the boxes based on the description and ingredients of the back.

He didn’t know which one Chifuyu used and didn’t want to get him the wrong one. He was fairly confident that all of them did the same thing, given that he typically just buys the cheapest box available for his own hair.

But this was different, this was for Chifuyu, and Ryusei was determined to get only the best for him and prove he can be trusted with his hair. You could suggest that Ryusei  simply texts Chifuyu to ask him which bleach he buys, but the stubborn part of him wanted Chifuyu to know he can be helpful without having to be told how to be helpful.

Well, too stubborn to let Chifuyu know he needed help, but not too stubborn to rope Baji into his schemes once more.

Ryusei

Keisuke

Keisuke

Keisuke

Kei

Oi

Oi

Keisuke

Keisuke

WHAT

Do you know what bleach ‘Fuyu

uses???

Did you seriously just blow up my

phone to ask me that?

Well do you know?

No I don’t fucking know what bleach he uses

I’m not a Chifuyu encyclopedia

So unhelpful :(

In the end, Ryusei just bought both of the boxes he was comparing. He figured Chifuyu could pick the one he wanted, and Ryusei would just use the other one. He picked up his regular choice of hair dye, the baby pink colour he had been using now for years. He also grabbed a bottle of toner, because even he knew the colour would never take directly on the warm yellow colour his freshly bleached roots would turn.

Truth be told, Ryusei never actually received a yes or no in response to his offer to pick up bleach for Chifuyu. He hadn’t gotten time to finish typing his response when their teacher had taken his phone, and by the time he retrieved it at the end of the school day he must’ve forgotten and never replied.

Ryusei wasn’t stupid, he imagined Chifuyu would argue and protest against any offer of help that Ryusei extended, stubborn as he is. However, Ryusei couldn’t quite bring himself to care all that much. He was going to do nice things for Chifuyu no matter how much he argued.

Ryusei stopped in front of the door to Chifuyu’s apartment, carrier bag of hair supplies in hand. He knocked rapidly on the door.

“’Fuyuuuu, your expert hair stylist is here~” he called out.

He heard a muffled response from the other side of the door.

“It’s open!”

Ryusei opened the door into the apartment, looking around for Chifuyu who was nowhere in sight.

“Where are you, ‘Fuyu?”

“In the bathroom, you can come in,” came the response.

Ryusei entered the bathroom after taking off his shoes and jacket at the front door. There he saw Chifuyu setting some old looking towels down, ones that already had obvious bleach marks on them from previous bleaching. He was also wearing-

“Is that my shirt, you brat!”

Chifuyu was wearing the shirt that Ryusei had lent to him the other night at his place. He had forgotten that he never asked for it back before Chifuyu left, so he must’ve gone home in it.

“Oh, yeah,” Chifuyu answered “it’s really comfy.”

Under any other circumstances, Ryusei would be overjoyed to hear Chifuyu say that to him.

“Not a chance in hell are you wearing my favourite shirt to have your hair bleached!”

“What?! Why not?”

“You’ll get bleach stains all over it!”

“I’m not doing it, you are! It’ll be your own fault!”

He did have a point there.

“That’s not the point, take it off!”

“Nuh uh,” Chifuyu stuck his tongue out at him.

“Did you just ‘nuh uh’ me?!”

Chifuyu remained silent, defiant look on his face and arms crossed.

“We both know I’m more stubborn than you ‘Fuyu, I’m not touching a hair on that pretty head of yours until you change that shirt.”

“Ugh fine! I’ll go change it, asshole.”

Chifuyu stomped off towards his room, already taking the shirt off on his way down the hall.

“And I better get that shirt back when I leave, ‘Fuyu!” Ryusei called after him.

When Chifuyu re-entered the bathroom Ryusei was relieved to see he was wearing a shirt that looks as though it had been worn for this job in the past, not his precious favourite shirt.

“Alright, ‘Fuyu, come take a seat in my stylist chair and prepare yourself for the best treatment of your life~” the chair in question was a chair that Chifuyu had clearly stolen from the kitchen, but it served its purpose.

“I swear if you mess it up,” Chifuyu threatened as he sat down.

“Your hair is in the best hands it possibly could be, ‘Fuyu, you wound me,” Ryusei cried dramatically.

“I’d sooner trust Takemichi to do my hair, and you’ve seen what he does with his.”

“You’re in no place to talk with that mohawk you were so proud of in middle-school,” Ryusei scoffed. “Anyway, I picked up some bleach for you at the store on my way here. I didn’t know which one to get so I got you two to choose from.”

Ryusei grabbed his carrier bag of supplies and dug through it to retrieve the boxes of bleach, and placed them on the counter in front of Chifuyu.

“Oh you got the one I usually use, good guess,” Chifuyu responded, as he picked up one of the boxes and handed it to Ryusei.

“I’m just that good, ‘Fuyu~”

Chifuyu raised an eyebrow at Ryusei, but stayed silent as Ryusei began mixing up the bleach powder with the developer in the cute little pink bowl Chifuyu had gotten out before he arrived.

“I didn’t take you for a pink guy, ‘Fuyu,” Ryusei said, beginning to section parts of Chifuyu’s hair.

“It’s a recent development,” Chifuyu replied, sounding sheepish.

Unbeknownst to Ryusei, Chifuyu had begun to take a different view on the colour pink after he realised he had feelings towards Ryusei, as cheesy as it sounds. It’s not that he disliked the colour pink before, but now every time he saw it he thought of Ryusei.

Ryusei had already covered about half of Chifuyu’s dark roots in the thick blue tinged paste, although it helped of course that he didn’t have much hair to bleach in the first place.

“Watcha thinkin’ about there, ‘Fuyu?” Ryusei poked Chifuyu’s cheek with his finger. “You’re being awfully quiet~”

Chifuyu swatted Ryusei’s hand away half-heartedly, “What would you know about being quiet?”

“Ouch, ‘Fuyu. Have you forgotten I have the power to commit heinous crimes against your hair?”

“Have you forgotten I also have the power to make your hair like bright green or something.”

“Okay okay, lets calm it with the mutually assured destruction.” Ryusei put the now empty bowl of bleach back on the bathroom counter, “Alright, ‘Fuyu, leave that on for like 20 minutes and I’ll wash it out for you~”

Chifuyu immediately began inspecting his work closely in the mirror, clearly still harbouring some doubt on Ryusei’s word that he would not mess his hair up. Ryusei was surprised though, to see a small smile work its way onto Chifuyu’s face.

“You did a suspiciously good job,” Chifuyu stated. “What’s the catch?”

Ryusei held his hand to his chest dramatically, “what accusations, ‘Fuyu! There’s no catch involved. Unless you call helping me dye my own hair the catch?”

“There’s not?” Chifuyu asked.

“’Course not, ‘Fuyu, I just wanted to help you out.” Ryusei gave him the same soft, genuine smile he gave him the other night. “Now come on, let’s get some snacks while we wait to rinse your hair out. Then you can do mine! I’ll even let you trim my undercut~”

“I don’t have any snacks in,” Chifuyu pointed out.

“Well we can just go get some, there’s a convenience store down the street right?”

“Yeah there is, but I’m not going out looking like this,” Chifuyu objected.

“You can just sit here and look pretty while I go get you some snacks then~”

Ryusei left both before Chifuyu could object to his suggestion and before he could get a good look at the blush that had spread across his face.

Ryusei returned to the apartment 15 minutes later, carrier bag full with way more snacks than either he or Chifuyu needed. Hours later Ryusei had washed and blow dried Chifuyu’s hair for him, made him dinner (a weird combination of various snacks bought from the convenience store), and gotten a fresh dye job and undercut.

And so, when Ryusei finally left Chifuyu’s apartment, he left with fresh baby pink roots and left Chifuyu with perfectly bleached ones.

Coincidentally, he left without retrieving the t-shirt he was so determined to get back from Chifuyu.