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ritsu considers himself a connoisseur of soft things. humans spend about a third of their life asleep - and ritsu’s not human, so he spends about three-fourths of his life in dreamland. he knows what makes for a good sleep spot, what pillows and blankets are the perfect texture and weight for perfect rest.
and he has to say, there’s no better pillow, nothing softer, than narukami arashi’s thighs. she’s embarrassed about it, but ritsu can tell it secretly makes her happy when he says she’s in his list of top ten softest spots in the whole world. she’d asked before - are you sure i’m not too uncomfortable? i’ve gotten more muscular these days - and though his answer made him want to crawl into a hole and die from embarrassment, he meant every word.
i’ve never found anything about you unpleasant, since the day we met.
it rings true, here, head pillowed in nacchan’s lap as they watch tsukippi and secchan and suuchan pelt each other with snowballs. they were a part of the fight before, until ritsu was tired of the sunlight and nacchan got waved out for having an “advantage” (aka being the only knight with athletic ability beyond dance) so they had settled under a tree with a great view of the battle. all knights really seem to do is fight, huh? at least this one is with snow, instead of with swords or songs or words (which ritsu has found can be worse than swords). the snow-covered branches provided just enough shade, but nacchan had offered up her lap for a nap spot anyway.
she’s considerate like that, in a way ritsu really isn’t. he wonders, sometimes, if he’s attracted to considerate people (see: mao, mika, the rest of knights minus secchan but also including secchan because who else would pack a parasol for their beach trip knowing ritsu would die otherwise, and also make sure said parasol is knights-branded so that he doesn’t have to seem like he’s copying anija) because he’s so high maintenance. opposites attract, is it?
nacchan’s certainly his opposite - he’s compared her to a flower, in that one interview, but he thinks if he had to pick one specific it’d be a sunflower. so bright, so beautiful, facing towards the sun itself, even a warm yellow like nacchan’s hair. she could probably be compared to the sun alone, even. everyone and everything is drawn to her, like moths to a flame. maybe ritsu’s mixing metaphors. whatever. if nacchan’s the sun, or a sunflower, then ritsu’s probably not even the moon, not even a star. just another one of the bits of galaxy stuck in her orbit.
“ritsu-chan?” she says, gentle. “are you awake?” and ritsu’s sure he can only hear her because she’s so close, as suuchan is shouting at tsukippi for hitting him in the face with a snowball. he doesn’t respond. he’s certainly tired enough to be asleep, so it’s not really lying.
“i guess not, huh. i don’t really know what i expected!” she lets out a little laugh at that. it’s not her usual airy giggles (or deep, honking chortles, when it’s late on girls’ night and mika’s making mika noises and she’s a little delirious) but something distinctly more sad. ritsu doesn’t like it. “this snowball fight’s getting pretty heated, huh? not that you could really expect anything else from knights, especially where those three are involved. you and me are usually on the outside, ritsu-chan~”
true. sometimes, ritsu’s involved, but it’s usually nacchan mediating and ritsu sleeping/panicking/catastrophizing while secchan and suuchan argue and tsukippi gets involved because it seems everything, at some point, comes back to the war.
(ritsu figures it’s the same for other units, at least a tad - ecchan still looks particularly weak around oshisan-san, nazunyan still looks a tad sick around porcelain dolls, and anija… well. anija is anija.)
“i’m glad we can do this.” he’s cut off from his thinking (the stupidest thing a person can is think, as he’s always (never) said) by the soft lilt of her voice, quieter now. wistful. it could lull him to sleep if he wasn’t hanging on her every word, another moth to the flame of narukami arashi. “i’m really, really glad. knights is my family, and i love you all so much.”
and it takes all of ritsu’s strength to bite back the what role do i play? that threatens to pop from his mouth. this isn’t about him, as much as he’d like it to be.
“this time, two years ago…. hah, it feels so silly when i say it now, because it was such a long time ago! well, this time… i suppose i don’t need to tell you, do i? you know well enough. well, you’re asleep anyway. doesn’t really matter.”
and the quietness, the smallness of that last statement almost makes ritsu break. it almost makes him sit up and shake her and say i love you! i love you and it matters what you think and feel! i love you, and we all do, but i do especially because i’ve been in love with you for the better part of two years and it kills me but it’s worth it because it’s you.
instead, he pretends to shift, letting out a very fake yawn and curling so that his face presses into her stomach. he slings an arm around her waist, trying to make it seem as though he’s missing his favorite teddy bear.
please, he thinks. please.
“oi, you brats!” comes secchan’s voice, eloquent as always. “are you just gonna sit there and get hypothermia and die, or are you gonna come inside already before kasa-kun drinks all the hot chocolate?”
there’s a distinct “sena-senpai!” that follows, surely accompanied by ears redder than a rose, and tsukippi’s giggling. ritsu hadn’t even realized they’d finished their fight.
neither, it seems, did nacchan, who hesitates only for only a moment before calling back a we’re coming! she shakes ritsu’s shoulder gently, much kinder about waking him up than anyone else ever is. he’s not too keen on “waking up”, quite yet, even though he is getting cold. he turns over, facing up towards the sun. that being nacchan, of course. the only sun he’s ever been able to stand.
what he’s not expecting is for her to lean down and kiss him on the forehead.
“ and the princess will wake, with true love’s kiss ,” nacchan mumbles, quickly giggling to herself. “though i’d much rather be the princess in this scenario. but you do make such a nice sleeping beauty, hm?”
“i,” he says, like the strategist he is.
“i knew you weren’t asleep, darling. you were too quiet. you’re only that quiet when you’re thinking. don’t worry, though, i’m not mad.”
“you-”
“mhm, now up, come on. let’s get inside, the cold winter air is horrible for my skin!”
and for a moment, he’s helpless. “you’d be pretty no matter what, nacchan.”
lucky for him, he’s in love with a knight. “i know, ritsu-chan, but thank you~ seriously though, get up.”
“sure thing, princess~”
that certainly gives her pause, a delightful flush overtaking her face as she processes. ritsu drags himself to a standing position, trying not to hiss and scream at the sun like he so badly wants to, and offers nacchan a hand.
and perhaps he shouldn’t have expected anything else - she takes it.