The boy next door - Ruki/Uruha - 10/20
Title: The boy next door
Chapters: 10/20
Author: buildingonlove
Genre: drama, romance, angst, AU
Rating: PG-13/R (depends on chapter)
Pairing: Ruki/Uruha
Warnings: unbeta’ed, depressed thoughts, cursing
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I got other presents for Christmas last year.
Summary: Takanori falls in love with the pretty boy next door who just moved in. Discovering all his secrets, he isn’t sure if he’s the right one for him, and he’s not sure if it’s good or wrong to discover even more of this guy.
Comments: down there *points*
Previous chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9
Even though they both told each other they were stil friends, Kouyou hadn’t seen Takanori in almost a week. Maybe Yuu tried to convince Takanori that it wasn’t right to stay friends after all. Maybe Yuu did have such a big influence on him. But Kouyou could hardly believe that Yuu, who looked so nice and friendly, would do something like that.
But to be sure, Kouyou decided to visit Takanori. Only as friends, right? It was Saturday now, and Kouyou knew Takanori wouldn’t be at his work, but home instead. Maybe Yuu would open the door and shutting it right in his face as soon as he saw the blonde, but Kouyou decided to take that risk.
Why did he suspect Yuu like this all of a sudden?
He pressed the doorbell, hearing the loud ring from outside. It was four in the afternoon, probably nobody was still asleep. It only took a few moments before the door opened and a small, blonde guy stood in front of him. “Takanori?” Kouyou asked confused.
The smaller guy smiled sheepishly. Did he dye his hair? Blonde? It wasn’t the same kind of blonde as Kouyou’s hair - Kouyou’s was more natural, looking a little more darker, while Takanori’s hair was now obviously bleached. “Wow… That’s different,” Kouyou said, “but it looks really good on you!”
“Thanks,” Takanori smiled while stroking through his hair. “You want to come in?”
Kouyou nodded and stepped inside. “Who gave you that idea? Yuu did?” he asked.
Takanori shook his head. “It was mine. I wanted to do something with my hair, but I didn’t know exactly what… I wanted to dye it, but I also wasn’t sure which colour. I thought about black with here and there some red, but that was too… You know.” He smiled nervously.
Now his hair was blonde, Takanori looked twice as innocent as before, in Kouyou’s opinion. Even more… adorable. Even more cute. Kouyou bit his lower lip as he studied him.
“I’m pretty satisfied with it, though,” Takanori chuckled as he noticed Kouyou’s surprised gaze.
“You better be,” Kouyou smiled, “you look-“ He wanted to say he looked cute, but after everything that happened it may could hurt him - since when did he care? “-good with it.”
“Thanks again!” The smaller man smiled broadly, his lips parted as he spread them in a warm, welcoming smile. “Want something to drink? I just got back from the mall so we have a lot.”
“Sure, whatever you drink too,” Kouyou smiled before setting himself on the couch.
It has been a while since he sat here on this couch without having any trouble. Now he sat here because Takanori wanted him to. Because he wanted to have his company. Not because they needed to talk things out, think things through, not because they had a fight or something. Maybe seeing Takanori as nothing more than a friend - depsite his confusing feelings - would be much, much better. He knew that if he and Takanori would get into a relationship, it wouldn’t last for long. He just knew that from the bottom of his heart. There wasn’t enough love for that.
When Takanori came back with the drinks, he placed himself next to Kouyou - for the first time. Usually he sat on the couch across from the one they were sitting on now. Did it mean something? Closing the distance between them?
“So, how are you?” the now blonde asked smiling. Kouyou had missed his voice sounding like this; happy and cheerfully, as it used to be. Seeing him sad did broke a part of him, though he was too proud to admit it.
“I’m doing great,” Kouyou smiled, “I quit working at the mall. It was really too boring for me. Now, every time I go there, I got angry glances from coworkers thrown at me. They’re really glaring at me, while they never spoke to me when I still worked there!”
Takanori laughed. “Sometimes people can turn out completely different than you expected.”
Kouyou looked at him from the corner of his eyes, but only to see the smaller guy was still smiling - for a moment, he thought Takanori had this concerned and sad look on his face. It sounded so heartbreaking, coming from him. “And how are you?” Kouyou quickly added.
“I’m fine,” Takanori simply answered, “Yuu finally found a job, but his shifts are from noon till late in the evening, so I guess I’m going to see him less.”
“Oh, that’s not so good. Where does he work now?”
“I thought in a music store somewhere in a bigger city. It’s not in this village - he needs to take the bus every time. I think he’s going to move out, too.”
“Why that? He’s your roommate right?”
“Not completely. He lives here because he got kicked out of his parents’ house and he had nowhere else to go. So I decided to take him in - though I still payed the rent. He didn’t have a job. He does now, thank god, finally.” A small smile appeared on Takanori’s face.
After a few minutes, Takanori stood up. “Excuse me, I’m going to use the bathroom,” he said grinning. As he headed to the hallway where the bathroom was, Kouyou noticed something about Takanori that wasn’t completely right. When he got back, Kouyou carefully asked: “Taka, are you dieting or something? You look thinner.”
Takanori tilted his head to one side and knitted his eyebrows. “Do I?” he asked before looking down to his body. “A lot or…”
”Just thinner… Not that you’re fat or something but - are you alright?”
The sudden concern in Kouyou’s voice made Takanori smile faintly. They were still friends, it seemed. It wasn’t something Kouyou blurted out without thinking. “I’m fine, like I said.” He crossed his legs and emptied his glass. When he turned his head back to Kouyou, he noticed the guy was staring at him. “What’s the matter?”
Kouyou grinned faintly and muttered with a suppressed chuckle: “Nothing important.” He looked away nervously. Damn.
“No, no, tell me!” Takanori giggled, “everything about you is important!”
The giggling made it sound less serious, so Kouyou tried to ignore his teasing. “You look attractive with that blonde hair of yours, that’s all.”
Takanori stopped giggling and a small silence fell before Kouyou turned his head to see how Takanori’s face expression was like. A faint smile played with his lips, he looked flattered.
A few moments passed by in silence, and Kouyou didn’t dare to look at Takanori at all. He had to admit; Takanori did look more attractive with his blonde locks. But he needed to suppress the longing. The longing to hold him, the longing to kiss and taste him once more… It felt so good - but probably he enjoyed it more than Takanori did. He couldn’t make the same mistake again, he couldn’t hurt Takanori again.
Though these plump lips were so hard to resist…
“Not that we already prepared something, but do you want to stay for dinner?” Takanori’s cheerful voice said, putting Kouyou back to earth. He turned his head to face the smiling blonde. For a moment he wanted to say ‘yes’, but then he realized he was still in some fight with Yuu. Of course he could talk with Yuu and solve everything, but he wasn’t in the mood for it now. He could pretend like nothing happened - since he wasn’t sure if Yuu was still mad at him - but if Yuu would send him murderous glares the whole evening, it would be awkward for him too. And if Takanori would notice, it would also affect him.
On the other side, would Takanori invite him for dinner if he knew Yuu was still angry? The guy surely was smart enough to know that would cause problems then.
“Sure, why not?” Kouyou smiled nervously.
“What’s your favourite food? I’ll take that into account then!”
“Oh, that’s not necessary at all - besides, I can eat everything. As long as it’s not with blue cheese! Almost forgot to mention.”
“I’ll let Yuu cook this evening. I did yesterday, and we’re trying to arrange those things fair.”
Kouyou nodded. Yuu wouldn’t put poison in his food, right?
Takanori grabbed Kouyou’s empty glass from the table. “Want something to drink?” he asked. “Sure,” Kouyou muttered, “the same is fine.”
Takanori nodded as he turned around and walked towards the kitchen.
He sure was getting thinner…
Kouyou found himself being concerned about Takanori’s health. He heard lots of stories about people who tried to forget their problems by concentrating on other things - and food could be a good distraction; when you were only paying attention to eating, or rather not eating, you didn’t have the chance to think about your problems.
Kouyou had experience with that. He had heard a lot of stories from the people he played with. Most of them ended up in trouble, big trouble. He simply didn’t care.
But now, he did. It was Takanori, for god’s sake. It was his friend. Or rather; his ‘more-than-a-friend-but-still-not-a-lover’-friend.
And oh, he longed for him so badly. He wanted to stand up right now, walk to him, pull him closer and kiss him. He wanted to taste him once more, he wanted to feel his body heath against his, he wanted to relive it all again. Only for one more time…
Kouyou closed his eyes and sighed. He cursed his mind and the thoughts which were racing through it. This was going too far.
He came to realize that Takanori was more than someone he played with. He wasn’t some sort of one-night-stand.
He had never longed for someone as badly as now.
A/N: So now we really are halfway. xD