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“Rui! We are not supposed to be here.” Tsukasa’s hushed and hurried tone was hilarious. It was always hilarious seeing Tsukasa trying to be quiet when he was overwhelmed with any sort of emotion.
Right now that emotion was stress. Emotional and physical, since Tsukasa was also carrying Rui on his shoulders.
Rui ‘tskd’ and continued rummaging through the box at the top of the closets “They took my star tipped screwdriver. I need it back before we go to Phoenix Wonderland.” It wasn’t the first time he got any of his tools confiscated. Usually the teachers took them for a day, maybe a week if they were really annoyed with Rui’s behavior during the class. Rui didn’t mind, they always gave it back, and he had tools to spare back at his garage.
This time, though, he really needed it back. They’d been working on another show, and Rui had been working on a few last minute adjustments to the mechanics. He’s been working on a much smoother scenery change with the walls, but his work was left half done the night before. If he didn’t fix that as soon as they got to PXL, they wouldn’t be able to practice correctly today.
“You brought this upon yourself. Tinkering in class always gets you in trouble.” Even with the strenuous work of having to carry Rui on his shoulders, Tsukasa still found a way to scold Rui’s habits.. “Why not get one of the screwdrivers that change tips?”
He had one, but he didn’t bring it. “Just hoist me up.”
Tsukasa grumbled. “I can’t get taller.” That was true. Rui decided to put his knee on Tsukasa's shoulder, trying to look over the shelf. There was no reason this shelf needed to be so tall. “Ouch! You’re- Crap, my hair, you’re pinching it!”
Tsukasa almost lost his balance, having more than half of Rui’s weight weighing down on one side of his shoulders had started to give Tsukasa back pain, and Rui kept moving like the blond was an annoying staircase.
“Sorry.” Rui definitely wasn’t sorry, and he didn’t plan on moving yet. He’d finally managed to get the box of confiscated items open.
“Then move your leg! Ouch, ouch, ouch,”
“I’m still looking! Move closer.”
“It feels like I am merging with the wall, Rui!”
“It’s a closet.” Rui barely managed to hide the small chuckle he managed to make at his own joke.
“That wasn’t funny.” Tsukasa said, still attempting to hold Rui still even with all his complaining.
“I guess we can agree on the fact that art is subjective.”
All Rui could find inside the box were pairs of hairbrushes, maybe a few books, two video game consoles — which are expensive, it should be illegal for the school to confiscate these —, but still no sign of his screwdriver.
“Not subjective, simply bad and lackluster, I expect better from you, Rui.”
“Not in a creative mood right now— Aha!”
Finally! Almost at the bottom of the box, he found his screwdriver.
“Found it? Now can you get—“
“What are you two doing here!?!”
Being startled from the door suddenly slamming open, with a very hurried and panicked An bursting through asking questions, sent Tsukasa falling down to the floor, with Rui’s taller frame falling on top of him.
All Rui could think was how lucky they were that neither of them broke any bones.
An, being the kind girl that she is, quickly rushed to at least help them stand up, even if she kept looking around in a panic.
“We were looking for something I lost, no big deal.” Rui didn’t stand up, stretching his back and putting his screwdriver back in his deep pockets. No use in getting it confiscated again, really.
“No big! You can’t be in the dean ’s office.”
There was a faint sound of conversation, to which An quickly pulled Rui up to his feet. Rui barely had any time to process being impressed by her strength before he and Tsukasa were shoved inside one of the closets together.
“Hey! Just because we may have slighted the rules a little doesn’t mean you get to shove us in a closet.” Tsukasa said, trying to open the door and get out.
“The dean is coming! If he sees you then the three of us will get in trouble! Just stay here until he leaves!”
“I don’t think-“
“Shhh!” Came An’s rushed command before the deep voice of their dean was heard. Rui could feel Tsukasa tense right next to him.
“Miss Shiraishi, what can I help you with?” The voice of the dean was calm, not accusatory as it would’ve been with Rui and Tsukasa if he had caught the two notorious trouble makers. Tsukasa might argue that it was only Rui, and that he simply got dragged along with his plans, but they both knew that wasn’t the case at all.
Tsukasa faced towards the door of the closet, while Rui stood sideways, staring directly at the blond boy. He could feel the top of something pointy digging at the bottom of his back; and with the light filtering from the gaps of the door, he could also see the boxes containing, what Rui assumed to be, documents from the school, were pushing Tsukasa forward.
All in all, it was pretty cramped, and it was starting to become uncomfortable.
Rui tried to shift his body so the stick — really, what was digging in his back!? — could move away, only to garner a glare from Tsukasa. The words ‘don’t move’ were gathered from his eyes. Rui moved his arms up in mock surrender. Which was a mistake because he bumped his elbow against a sharp wood corner.
He hissed in pain.
‘Stop moving!’ Tsukasa mouthed the words. Rui could hear him being loud even if there was no sound coming from Tsukasa.
‘I hit my elbow!’ Rui mouthed back.
‘Your own fault.’
They stayed still, trying to follow the conversation between the dean and An.
“I came to drop off some stuff from the discipline committee. I was planning to keep it with the secretary but she sent me in.” Rui knew that An wasn’t that great of a liar, so that must’ve been the true reason as to why she came into the office.
Tsukasa was looking through the tiny gaps of the closet, not resting his body against the doors in case they fell open. Rui tried to lean forward towards the door, trying to see through the gaps just as Tsukasa, only for Tsukasa’s hand to be placed in his chest.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Trying to see.’ it was obvious.
‘You will make noise. Stop.’
Rui wanted to find amusement in the situation: the way they were both stuck in the closet, which was resulting to be very uncomfortable, was hilarious. The way they had to mouth words to each other in an exaggerated manner even more so.
He didn’t mind if he got in trouble again. He was quite good at avoiding severe punishments, and his parents weren’t too concerned with his disciplinary record. Tsukasa looked like a deer in headlights, the kind that stayed frozen still.
Tsukasa kept his hand against Rui’s chest.
There was no reason to keep pushing Rui back, he stopped trying to lean forward.
“Well,” the dean spoke. “Just put them in the club section.”
“Would you mind if I finished signing the club attendance papers here?” An asked. “I wasn’t exactly done now that I checked them over, if it’s-“
“No problem at all, Miss Shiraishi, you’ve been here plenty of times before.” the sound of the door closing echoed through the room, Rui and Tsukasa waited patiently for An to open the door for them once the coast was clear.
After around a minute of silence, An spoke.
“Okay! He’s gone.” Rui could hear the relief in her voice. This whole situation was entertaining to Rui, how both Tsukasa and An were shaking their knees over something so simple. Well, to each their own.
“Can we open the door now?” asked Tsukasa, placing his hands against the closet door.
“Sure, just give me a second—“
Rattle. Nothing.
A more aggressive rattle. Nothing again.
“Uhm, can you try pushing it from the inside?” An’s voice was nervous.
It couldn’t be.
Tsukasa did so, gently pushing the doors, trying to open them, but they showed resistance. Tsukasa pushed again, this time with a bit more force, still nothing.
“Let me try.” Rui said, trying to move so he could place his weight against the doors. “On the count of three, Tsukasa and I will push, and you will pull okay? Maybe they’re just lightly jammed.”
“Okay.” Came An’s voice.
“One, two, three!”
It was funny how in less than two seconds, the layout of an entire situation could change. The aggressive movement of the pushing and pulling made the boxes of documents that were neatly — not really — stacked up behind Rui fall on top of him, which pushed him closer to Tsukasa just so he wouldn’t break his neck when three boxes fell on him.
Oh and apparently the stick digging into his back earlier was a broomstick without a broom. Nice.
Rui had his forearms pressed against the two tier cabinet — really? A cabinet inside a closet? It was already cramped in here, for fuck’s sake — and his chest against Tsukasa’s.
Tsukasa’s ragged breathing was hot on Rui’s chin, and both their heartbeats were way too fast due to the sudden panic.
“Oh! Oh no!! Are you two okay!? What happened!?” An tried to open the door again, and it still wouldn’t budge.
“A bunch of boxes fell on top of me.” Rui said.
“We are fine!” Tsukasa followed up, being as loud as always, but it missed the usual passion. Being cramped and locked inside a closet would do that to you. It was beginning to get quite uncomfortable.
“I really can’t get the door open.” An said. Rui almost felt bad over the pure guilt that adorned her voice. It was technically her fault they were locked in the closet in the first place, but Rui could feel she felt worse than Tsukasa and himself.
“Maybe you should get someone to help.” Tsukasa offered.
An was quiet for a few seconds, “I’ll see if I find Toya, don’t leave— Sorry.”
They were quiet as they heard the door closing after An. Assuming that they were alone, Rui spoke up.
“I’m going to move,” The boxes were now digging on his back, the edges of their cube shapes mimicking failed acupuncture on his back, and he wanted to at least let them fall completely. “Can you shift a bit?”
Tsukasa was close. So close. Rui barely recalled Tsukasa’s earlier statement, of feeling that he was merging into the wall. He understood now. He could feel the shifts of Tsukasa’s breath against him, Tsukasa’s hair rubbing against his own face.
Tsukasa nodded. “To the side? Which side?”
“Any side is okay.” Rui said, but the pressure of the boxes said otherwise. “Actually, try moving more to you left, I wanna see if-“
The small shift in movement sent the boxes crashing down on them, Rui could feel the tension and pressure the boxes were pushing on each other finally release. The problem was that they all hit his back and his side — not to mention, they simply pushed him closer towards Tsukasa.
“Are you okay!? What fell!?” Tsukasa asked, quickly grabbing Rui’s face to look for any scratches or bruises.
Tsukasa’s hands were warm, if a little clammy. Rui felt himself freeze for a split second before his brain did a reboot and he managed to continue talking as if everything was okay.
Tsukasa was so close, looking at his face so intensely. The determination in his eyes showed worry, moving Rui’s face side to side, still looking for scratches.
His hands were still on Rui’s face. Rui could feel himself blushing.
“More boxes.” he said, surprised at how he kept his voice in check, considering all he could look at right now was Tsukasa’s worried face. “There’s a broomstick that’s been digging into my back since we got locked in here.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? It’s a lot of heavy boxes pressing behind you.” Tsukasa moved a little, taking his hands away from Rui’s face now that he made sure there were no scratches or bruises in the important parts of his face. “Here, try pushing them back.”
“Bad- Uhm, bad idea.” Even with Tsukasa’s warm hands away from him, Rui remained flustered. “The boxes are also cramped, there’s no moving them.”
“Well uhm, try moving closer this way.”
“Tsukasa, we are locked in a-“
“Just move, Rui, these boxes shouldn’t deter us from moving that much.” Tsukasa’s voice was starting to come back to its usual volume: loud. The dean could walk back in and just hear the entire mess, but Rui doubted Tsukasa was even thinking about that at the moment. “Really, now that the boxes are not being held up, maybe we could even try to push the door with increased comfort.”
Rui doubted it. He still shifted a little, just to see where this led. It wasn’t like they could get in a worse situation like the one they were in at the moment. What could go wrong with trying to indulge Tsukasa from time to time?
Tsukasa stepped forward — a small step, after all, they were still locked inside a cramped closet — but in the process, he pushed Rui, making him bump against the broomstick. Rui is beginning to really hate brooms.
“Stop moving, you bumped me against the- Tsukasa!” Tsukasa made a sudden noise of discomfort and pain, falling forward after making the attempt to move. Rui reached forward before Tsukasa could fall headfirst into all the boxes; that would’ve been an awful injury. Rui now supported Tsukasa’s weight against his arms.
“My leg is cramped!” he exclaimed, attempting to stand up straight, putting weight into it, only to collapse quickly. “I haven’t moved it in a while!” there was clear pain in his voice.
Rui knew he couldn’t exactly tell Tsukasa to stretch his leg, or to massage the cramped area so the pain would go down; Rui barely knew how he was able to hold Tsukasa and not collapse himself.
Rui placed his arms under Tsukasa’s armpits, helping him stand better. “Don’t put your weight on it, you can’t stretch it.” said Rui, helping Tsukasa get closer to him.
Usually, the closeness would start to get to him, making him flustered, just like earlier, but looking down and seeing Tsukasa in clear discomfort just… wasn’t enjoyable.
“How long have we been here?”
“Since An left, not that long,” he paused “eight minutes, give or take.”
“It feels akin to centuries of discomfort,” Tsukasa complained. “all these boxes, this cabinet behind me and now my leg is cramped.”
“If you can’t stretch it, it’s supposed to leave in five minutes.” Rui said, letting a small smile grace his lips, “Although I imagine such a small deterrent is not enough to deter or bring down a future star like yourself, is it?”
“I see what you are trying to do, and I will let you know that you failed in your attempt at baiting me.” Tsukasa said, moving his hip backwards to give his knee a bit of a stretch. “But you know that this cramp is nothing to me, a mild temporary discomfort, but as soon as we are out-“
The sound of the office door slamming open was heard, followed by- “Are you guys still there!?” -a frantic An.
“Yes,” Rui said before being quickly cut off by Tsukasa.
“My leg is cramped! Did you find a way to open the closet door?” he asked, turning his neck trying to look at the door. Futile effort, considering that Rui was still helping him stand upright just so he wouldn’t fall down.
“We’re going to try and open the door.” spoke Toya. His voice was serious, determined. Rui knew An didn’t have to do any convincing when it came to getting Toya to help, not when it meant helping Tsukasa.
“We would help you from the inside but we are actually pretty uncomfortable!” Tsukasa spoke. He started to slowly lower his leg back to the ground, putting pressure on it little by little. The space didn’t allow for much, but at least they were close to getting out of the cramped, uncomfortable closet with the broomstick. “It got more cramped in here, the boxes fell, but we are okay!”
Rui heard Toya mutter something to An, before the door started rattling a little. “I think this door doesn’t fit in the frame of the closet, it’s jammed.” said Toya. “I just can’t find exactly where.”
“Oh, let’s try it here.” An spoke, before the door started rattling. This time, its shaking was much gentler from when they were fighting the door.
Before they knew it, the door swung open. A great majority of the boxes that were resting against the wall fell to the floor, making An and Toya have to scramble back a few steps. Rui also caught a glimpse of that stupid broomstick.
It took a second before Rui’s eyes adjusted to the light, having to close and squint them for a brief second. Tsukasa, now having more space to move, swung himself gently out of Rui’s arms, and started limping to leave the closet, a bit of a jump to his limp.
And quickly moved forward, helping Tsukasa. “Here, you have to stretch it before you actually walk.”
Rui stepped out with a slight jump, gently kicking one of the boxes out of his path. He looked at Toya, who started to put the boxes back in the closet. “An, if we leave the closet like this then you’re the one who is going to be blamed for this mess.” he picked up another box. “I’ll help you, don't worry.”
“I don’t think that dear Tsukasa and I should help clean these boxes. I mean, after all, we were tormented.” said Rui. He hated cleaning, and he was not going to clean these boxes. He now harbored a deep resentment for them, given that his back was sore.
Tsukasa gasped in indignation. “Leaving poor An and Toya to clean the mess we made just because you couldn’t help yourself and got your screwdriver confiscated is wrong!” he said, pointing a finger at Rui.
Tsukasa sat down in one of the chairs, massaging the cramp out of his calf. His eyes were focused on Rui, that permanent determined glint in his eyes shining. Rui was sure that if he just avoided cleaning, then Tsukasa would go on a spiel of being a gentleman, being elegant and act like a proper star that everyone admires.
Rui hated cleaning, and he had come face to face with his feelings around two times while he was in that closet. Besides, he had his screwdriver, he could just leave. An and Toya were part of educational committees, the school staff wouldn’t mind if they were cleaning. They could come up with a good excuse: ‘Oh I tripped and fell on top of the closet, causing it to tremble and rattle. I called Toya to help me.’
Tsukasa looked so passionate about cleaning this stupid closet. Rui sighed. He was crushing on Tsukasa, and crushing hard. Maybe he shouldn’t hate that closet so much, even if it gave him back pains for a good three days… at least he got to hold Tsukasa close for a bit.
“Be careful though,” Rui said, smirking, “There is a spider on your shoulder… that closet should be full of bugs we didn’t see.”
“What!?! AAAAAAHHHH!!!! HELP!! GET IT OFF!!”
“Tsukasa! Please!! There is no spider!!”