Title: Open Your Eyes
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Ryotego, Massupi
(side pairings: Tegomass, Ryomassu)
Genre: Angst, drama, romance
Summary: Tegoshi and Massu have been a couple for a while, but they start to fall into a relationship rut. Tegoshi goes to Ryo for advice and finds himself in an unexpected situation, and when Massu tries to figure out what's happening, he bonds with Yamapi in ways he never anticipated.
~
Tegoshi watched as Massu finished his lunch. His eyes then wandered around the busy restaurant, and he thought to himself that maybe they weren't being discreet enough. Even with his sunglasses and hat, it was hard to miss Tegoshi, and Massu made no effort to dress less crazy than usual.
'Ok, I'm done.' Massu said, licking his lips and smiling. Tegoshi smiled and nodded, and they both got up to leave.
As they drove back to the studio, Tegoshi tried to think of things to talk about with Massu, while keeping his eyes on the road. A lot of things went through his mind, like the song they were working on that day, how excited Koyama was for their first concert in such a long time, how Shige kept messing up his dance steps in rehearsal, or more importantly, how they were going to celebrate their 2-year anniversary as a couple, but the decision to pick a topic was proving to be harder than it should.
'What are you thinking?' Massu asked, breaking the silence. Tegoshi glanced at him quickly and smiled.
'Nothing.' He lied. After a pause, he decided to try again. 'What do you want to do this weekend? To celebrate.'
Massu thought for a second, looking at himself on the car mirror and patting his hair.
'We can go to that restaurant. With the penguin statues.' He said, still smiling.
Tegoshi nodded slowly, forcing a smile. He suddenly felt very hot, like he was suffocating, but the feeling went away when he felt Massu's comforting fingers on his neck.
~
When they arrived at the recording studio, they went their separate ways. Tegoshi watched as Massu joined Shige and Koyama, who were flipping through the new Duet magazine and analyzing their own pictures.
Tegoshi's eyes landed on Ryo and Yamapi, who were sitting on a couch on the other side of the room. Yamapi had his eyes closed, and was listening to something on his iPod, and Ryo was typing something on his cellphone. Even though the two of them weren't talking at all, Tegoshi couldn't help but notice how connected they looked, and he wondered if it would be weird if he suddenly sat on the couch with them. Since he wasn't in the mood to talk much, he decided that joining the duo was his best choice.
He boldly sat between them, crossing his arms and sighing. Ryo didn't move, but Yamapi opened his eyes, glanced quickly at Tegoshi, then closed his eyes again.
'Ryo-kun?' Tegoshi asked, resting his head on the couch.
'Hmm?' Ryo grunted without taking his eyes off his cellphone.
'Can I ask you something?' Tegoshi lowered his voice and moved closer to Ryo, who finally put his cellphone back in his pocket.
'What is it?' He asked, concerned with the look on Tegoshi's face. Neither of them noticed, but Yamapi turned off his iPod, and was now quietly listening to the conversation.
'I wanna do something special with Massu. For our 2-year anniversary. Something exciting. But I have no clue what to do.' He said, hoping Ryo would have an answer that would make everything perfect again. Even though the sensation was gone, Tegoshi remembered vividly how he felt in the car only a few minutes before.
Ryo scratched the back of his neck, and although Tegoshi was usually good at figuring out what Ryo was thinking, this time he couldn't.
'You should cook for him.' Ryo said, and Tegoshi's pouting lips curved into a smile.
'That's a great idea!' He said excitedly, 'I should've thought of that sooner.' He finished, slightly annoyed at himself for not thinking of something so obvious.
'But you have to make sure it's really good.' Ryo said.
Tegoshi pouted again.
'I don't have any good recipes.'
Once again Ryo's eyes were unreadable to Tegoshi, and there was a pause.
'Come over to my house tomorrow for dinner. I'll show you some new things I learned.' Ryo said, smiling slightly. He looked at Yamapi for a second, who met his eyes and smirked knowingly, but Ryo avoided eye contact.
'Seriously?!' Tegoshi asked happily, honored by the invitation.
Yamapi got up and stretched his arms, walking over to Koyama, who was now checking himself on the mirror.
'Where's Shige and Massu?' He asked, not seeing the two of them in the room anymore.
'Shige's recording some of his parts. Massu went outside for a minute.' Koyama answered.
'What for?' Yamapi asked, curious, since Massu had just arrived with Tegoshi.
'I don't know. He's kind of weird today.' Koyama replied honestly.
Yamapi gave Koyama a pat on the shoulder and headed outside to check on Massu. When he opened the door to the hallway, he bumped into Massu, who was coming back inside.
'Are you okay?' Yamapi asked, noticing that Massu wasn't carrying his signature smile on his face. It made him look oddly unfamiliar, and Yamapi felt an urge to make him feel better.
He gently took Massu by the arm and lead him back outside into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
'I'm fine.' Massu said, putting his hands in his pockets. Yamapi sighed, wondering how exactly he should go about this. He wasn't exactly used to having heart-to-heart talks with Massu, who had always been kind of a mystery to him.
'Well, if you need to talk about something...I'm here.' Yamapi said sincerely. Massu nodded his head once as a 'thank you', and Yamapi hoped Massu would take him up on his offer when he needed to.
~
Tegoshi knocked on Ryo's door, shifting nervously in place in anticipation. It felt strangely exciting for him to be doing this.
After a few more impatient knocks, Ryo came to the door.
'Oh. Sorry, am I too early?' Tegoshi asked, surprised with the shirtless Ryo standing in front of him, wearing a pair of worn-out jeans and drying his hair with a towel.
'Come in.' Ryo said, ignoring the question. Tegoshi smiled and made his way inside. Right away he noticed a pan in the oven, and smoke coming out of it.
'Did you start without me?' Tegoshi asked, walking towards the kitchen.
'I'm just boiling water.' Ryo said, smiling while throwing his wet towel on the couch. 'We're making pasta.'
Tegoshi looked at Ryo, tilting his head in confusion.
'Pasta? That's your brilliant recipe?' Tegoshi asked, amused. Ryo raised an eyebrow, a subtle reminder to Tegoshi not to push his buttons too much since he was doing him a favor.
'The brilliance is in the sauce.' Ryo said, approaching Tegoshi slowly, as if he was sharing a scientific discovery. Tegoshi smiled at him, and Ryo smiled back.
'Ok. Teach me.' Tegoshi said, placing himself in front of the oven.
Ryo put on an apron, still refusing to put a shirt on, and handed Tegoshi an apron, too.
The younger boy obeyed all the instructions. After a lot of dicing, cutting and stirring, Ryo took a bit of the sauce with a wooden spoon and fed it to Tegoshi.
'That...is amazing.' Tegoshi said, shocked. He grabbed the spoon from Ryo's hand and licked the rest of the sauce off. Ryo watched proudly as Tegoshi did that.
'Thanks, Ryo-kun.'
'No problem.' Ryo said, still watching Tegoshi work on the spoon. 'Oh, we have to pick a wine.'
'I don't know if Massu likes wine.' Tegoshi said, trying to remember.
'Everybody likes wine, especially with pasta.' Ryo stated, opening a small fridge next to one of the lower cabinets and picking out a bottle. 'This one.'
He poured two glasses and handed one to Tegoshi.
After eating their dinner, they sat on the couch with their glasses, and Ryo made sure to keep filling them up as they drank.