Chapter Text
When Ren returns from work the next day, he looks much cheerier than usual.
Normally, he has the same blank, dead-eyed stare of any twenty-something working full time - given than his job is much better than most - but today he’s got a pep in his step, a weird little grin on his face, which Ryuji takes instant notice of as he pops up from where he’s been scrubbing the floor.
“Hey, dude,” Ryuji stands up, stretching - god, he hates cleaning the floors, but if he doesn’t have a (steady) job right now he’s at least going to do some housework. “Why are you so cheery?”
Ren hangs up his keys like he normally does, before crossing the gap and practically shoving his phone in Ryuji’s face. “We got paid,” He says, grinning toothily.
The phone reads out a direct deposit of 15,000 yen.
15,000 yen?!
“Holy shit,” Ryuji’s eyes widen. This can’t be real, right? “For real?”
“For real,” Ren parrots teasingly. “You should read the comments, they’re gold -”
Ryuji swallows as anxiety blooms in his chest. “Um, nah, I’m good I think-”
“ Dude, the other guy looks so hesitant. This is so hot.” Oh, he’s just - he’s just gonna read them to him anyways. With a sigh of defeat, Ryuji pulls out one of the stools at their counter plops himself into it, idly fiddling with the sparse basket of fruit there (a housewarming gift from Haru - neither of them want to eat the peaches yet, they’re for a special occasion). “ Dude’s pretty lean, you think he’s flexible too?”
“Dude,” Ryuji sputters uselessly.
“Hey, fifteen thousand yen is fifteen thousand yen. That’s more than enough to cover rent and then some.”
Well… he’s right, and Ryuji hates that he’s right. “Why was it so much? I thought the minimum was five-thousand.”
“We got enough views to get a little more for it.”
“...Just how many views?” Ryuji asks, his voice small.
“Um, let me see…” Ren scrolls through his phone, biting his lip. “Five-thousand or something? Pretty good.”
“ Five-thousand? ” Ryuji chokes briefly on his own spit. Five- thousand people have seen that, have seen him… choking Ren’s chicken. Oh, god. At least no one knows who they are?
“I know, right? It’s awesome, with enough content we could both quit our day jobs.”
“You’d never quit Leblanc, and you know it,” Ryuji scoffs, shaking his head. Why could Ren have asked him to do normal porn? Normal porn would have been fine, or at least easier to wrap his head around. This is… this is advanced porn territory and he doesn’t even know how all this gay stuff works.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Anyways - let’s go out.”
“...Out?”
“Yeah!” Ren’s eyes are positively sparkling and god, Ryuji can’t say no to that face. “We have the extra money. Let’s go get ramen or something, I’m tired of convenience store onigiri and shitty beer.”
“I like that onigiri,” Ryuji pouts, “But I wouldn’t complain about some nicer beer…”
By all rights, they should just save the money, but once Ren has a plan there’s no stopping him. He wants to… celebrate , so Ryuji supposes he’ll just have to go along with it. Not to mention if the excited look on his roommate’s face was dimmed in any way it would kill him inside. He’s done it before and the kicked puppy look Ren gets is never, ever worth it.
“Alright, alright. Let me get dressed.”
---
A shower and a train ride later, they’re sitting at Ryuji’s favorite ramen place, and oh god is Ryuji in heaven.
“Sho good…” He mumbles dreamily around a bite. It’s so salty and greasy and delicious, and the noodles are cooked perfectly. Maybe this porno stuff isn’t so bad after all. It’s perfectly legal, right? As long as no one finds out, they could eat like this every day. Now that would be a dream come true. Ren is watching him from across the table as he picks at his own food - he’s never been as enthusiastic about food as Ryuji, but he definitely seems to be enjoying watching him.
Ren has a weird look on his face, too, like he’s… fascinated or something. A strange tingle traces its way up Ryuji’s spine and he shivers a little because his friend’s stare is… intense sometimes, to say the least, even behind the glasses. Why’s he looking at him like that, anyways?
“So, I was thinking,” Ren mumbles around his drink. “Wanna try filming again tonight?”
Ryuji stutters a little in his eating. “Um - huh? Tonight?”
“Well, the power bill is due on the eighth and I don’t get paid until the tenth -”
Shit. Ryuji forgot about the power bill. It’s gonna be high, too, it’s been so hot and they’ve been running the AC constantly to try and stay at least nominally cool. “...Right,” He says, now eating his ramen with much less gusto. “Damn, way to take the wind out of my sails, dude. I was just starting to enjoy this.”
“Well, if we film again, we wouldn’t have to worry and we can go out and get ramen again.”
Ryuji sighs. It’s not like there would be any harm in it, right? It’s just a little filming. For a porn website. Y’know, just a regular Wednesday. He is regretting losing his job more and more, but fuck if this whole arrangement isn’t easy money. All he has to do is set up that tripod again…
“We’ll get a six-pack on the way home,” Ryuji says, “Then I’m game.”
---
The six-pack is acquired, their train home secured, and then Ren and Ryuji are sharing a drink on the patio just like usual - as if they’re not about to go back inside and film themselves doing The Sex for the world to see. At this point, Ryuji’s just trying not to think about it, despite Ren probing him about it every five minutes on the way home.
He’s never seen Ren so pumped for something in his life . It’s weird. Normally he’s the calm, cool and collected type, but this whole situation has turned him into an excited middle schooler.
Okay, maybe a middle schooler isn’t the best metaphor, but… it’s weird. Ren is acting coy, cagey almost, so unlike how straightforward he usually tends to be. He doesn’t talk much, but it’s in the way he moves, the way he holds his beer. Ryuji has known Ren long enough to be able to pick up his little nonverbal signals and the way he’s ruffled his hair in front of his face makes him seem almost… shy? In the back of Ryuji’s mind, he has to wonder if maybe Ren is actually -
No. There’s no way. He went through girls back in high school like chewing gum. He’s definitely not gay.
“You good, Ryuji?”
“Huh? Yeah,” He realizes, now, that his can of beer is empty and it’s probably a good time to head back in, but yet he still hesitates even as he sort-of crushes the aluminum in his hand. It’s not like he’s nervous or anything, but there’s still this strange feeling in his stomach, at the base of his spine. It’s a feeling he can’t name and doesn’t know how to handle - shit , why is this tangling him up so much?
Just - fuck it. Get it done, get paid, ignore the weird feelings. “Let’s get this over with.”
Ryuji is the one on camera this time - or, at least, he’s meant to be the star of the video. He’s in a similar position as Ren last night - sitting against the wall wearing only his boxers - but he feels decidedly less confident than his friend looked sitting here. He… lounged languidly. Ryuji sits stiffly, awkwardly.
“You’ve gotta relax if we’re gonna do this.”
“What? I’m totally relaxed,” Ryuji lies.
“Bullshit. I don’t think you could get hard if you wanted to.”
Ren talks about this stuff so easily - like it’s second nature, like he’s used to it. Ryuji doesn’t have nearly the same amount of experience to back it up - hell, he has no idea where Ren got the experience, what kind of porn does this freak watch? Or maybe it just comes with every girl in high school basically falling over themselves to be with you?
Ren was never popular. Not at all. A delinquent with a record, he was much more at home with Ryuji’s crowd, but girls seemed to like the ‘bad boy’ aura about him for some reason (but they never seemed interested in Ryuji? He never understood it). In reality, Ren was the least-baddest boy Ryuji’s ever met - well he’s a little bad at taking care of himself, but he’s clean and tidy and, unlike him, is never late. Regardless, though, Ren was pretty good at picking up girls whereas Ryuji didn’t even know how to approach talking to one. After high school, he had his own small handful of one-night stands but nothing ever really worked out. Same for Ren, albeit with maybe a slightly higher body count.
Just slightly.
“Ryuji,” Ren’s tone is leaning into ‘I’m worried about you’ territory, and Ryuji snaps back to reality after his little walk down memory lane. He shakes his head, blinking a few times. Right. Porn. That’s - that’s what they’re doing, and - oh, Ren’s between his legs.
“You need some help?”
“Huh?” Ryuji’s mouth is suddenly bone-dry. Ren’s laid out lazily on his stomach between his slightly-spread legs; when he looks up, he can see the recording light on his roommate’s phone is blinking. When did he start the video? “Um,” Ryuji stammers, wetting his lips nervously.
Ren’s giving him a rather flat look. “Dude, don’t look a gift blowie in the mouth.”
Wh - wait, what did he just say? “A what? ” Ryuji tries to scrabble back a little but he’s met with the wall, and he outright flinches when Ren’s hands slide up his thighs. “Dude, for real? I’m - you-”
Ren’s hands stop in their conquest of Ryuji’s… parts and his roommate looks up at him through long lashes. Where’d his glasses go? Ryuji spots them a few feet away, discarded neatly by the tripod.
“I can stop if you want,” Ren says, and his tone almost makes it seem like a challenge.
A challenge - god, Ren always knows how to push his buttons. They’re already here, in front of the camera, why should they stop now? And Ren’s right - Ryuji is definitely way, way too nervous to get it off right now without… without… help.
Part of him wants to ask if Ren’s done this before (because it certainly feels like he has ) but Ryuji is also terrified of the answer because that might imply other things, things he doesn’t want to think about, things he can’t think about because it would clash so harshly with the image of Ren Amamiya that has been so meticulously projected to him for so many years. A part of him, too, is curious, maybe even excited. He’s gotten head before, any self-respecting guy over twenty has, but… getting it from someone who knows how it feels, how it’s supposed to feel? That’s - well, it’s a little gay, maybe, but it’s a tantalizing thought.
“Fine,” Ryuji grumbles finally, having made up his mind. “Just - I swear to god, if you make this any weirder than it has to be -”
“Dude, shut up,” Ren mumbles, already trying to shuck Ryuji’s boxers off - he yelps a little as Ren pulls them over his ass and down his thighs.
Don’t look down, don’t look down, he tells himself, but he can’t help it - when he flicks his gaze southwards he finds Ren with a finger pressed to his lips in a gesture of quiet, eyeing the camera behind them. Right. They’re filming. If he doesn’t want to get caught, he’d better not say anything else -
Oh, but then there’s this exquisite sensation and Ryuji stiffens as a shocked sort of pleasure rockets up his spine. “ Sh-shit, ” He hisses under his breath because - wow , that’s good. He doesn’t ever remember blowjobs being this good. In what feels like a split second he’s gone from flaccid to completely hard and he’s reeling, lightheaded even.
There’s a lewd, slick sound as Ren takes him all the way - oh fuck - and he just… holds him there and Ryuji can feel his throat convulsing a little around him. His heart’s going a mile a minute, he feels like he’s hyperventilating - but then Ren pulls back, Ryuji feels his lips and tongue around his head, and it’s all he can do not to blow his load right then and there, god that feels good.
The world recedes into fuzzy static as Ren continues. Ryuji’s gripping the futon for dear life, and Ren - fuck him - he’s teasing him, just laving his tongue over the tip of it, and he wants more.
He’s always been told he’s a selfish lover, and Ryuji can definitely see it now as he reaches up, haltingly, to bury a hand in Ren’s hair to try and urge him down again. The sputtering sound Ren makes does make him feel a little bad about it, but then there’s a soft vibration all around him - a moan, maybe - and Ren deepthroats him again like a fucking champ . Dully, he remembers last night, how his roommate had touched himself - not his cock, but the rest of his body, and Ryuji’s not sure why he does it but his hands are running over his own chest, his sides, his stomach.
A rough palm grazes over a nipple and he gasps at what feels like lightning surging through his nerves, his skin. He never thought that could feel so good, but even the smallest of touches is starting to make him unravel. Normally, knowing the squelching sounds were coming from Ren would probably make him sick (or, at least, he thought they might), but somehow it just makes it all so much hotter.
Ryuji tilts his head back, basking in the sensation - but, of course, Ren bores easily and when he feels a hand cupped around his balls he damn-near jumps out of his skin. A strong, slender hand holds him in place - Ryuji squeezes his eyes shut and realizes that the feeling isn’t even bad. It’s nice - more than nice, it’s driving him a little wild, actually -
“Hrk-” Ren maybe chokes a little as Ryuji tightens the hand in his hair. He feels Ren shiver, an unintentional reaction, maybe even a little crack in the mask that he’s always wearing - something that Ryuji will have to unpack later. He’s obviously displeased, though, because Ren reaches up to swat his hand away and the hand that was once on his balls is now running down the flat plane of his chest, catching slightly on the divots of his ribs.
Ren’s nails dig in as he takes him all the way once more, and Ryuji inhales sharply - he can’t hide the shudder that sends down his spine and the way the sensation immediately goes to his cock. And then, Ren is reaching up, and tweaking one of his nipples in the same practiced way he’d done to his own, and -
“I’m gonna-” Ryuji whispers, but it’s a little too late as he comes undone, pleasure exploding behind his eyes and his back arching - he can’t help the long, low groan that escapes him, hardly even hearing the choked, sputtering sound that Ren makes when he does.
In the aftermath, Ryuji’s ears are ringing from the sheer force of his orgasm - at the back of his mind, he wonders if it’s the best he’s ever had. He had kept telling himself to not look down but he can’t help it now, and oh.
Ren’s breathing hard, dark eyes half-lidded, pupils blown out to near-black as his lower lip still catches on the head of Ryuji’s still-throbbing cock. A thick rope of white streaks down his face at a near-perfect diagonal, and some still dribbles down onto his lip, into his mouth. His face is flushed, his hair messy - some sweaty enough to stick slightly to his forehead - and god damn that is a sight.
Ren Amamiya, Ryuji decides, could be a star porn actor all on his lonesome. Despite the strange implications it has, Ryuji thinks he could probably get off to that face every day for at least a year before it gets old.
Jesus, what is he thinking?
Ren’s backing off now, composing himself - he’s wearing that proverbial mask again, smugly straight-faced as he carefully maneuvers around the camera’s view to reach and turn it off. “I think that was better than our first go,” He says, amused, and Ryuji can’t do much other than offer a weak thumbs-up.
“How was it for you?”
“ Jesus, dude,” Ryuji breathes, and despite himself he has to ask. “Have you - have you done that before?”
“Nope,” Ren grins, obviously a little proud of himself. “Not too different from eating a girl out, though. Well, sort of.”
“Never done that,” Ryuji says, chest still heaving, and starkly honest in the aftermath of what might be the hardest he’s came… well, ever , really. “So I wouldn’t know.”
“I’ll need to edit this,” Ren murmurs to himself. His face is still a little pink as he scrubs through the footage. “Thankfully, I’m hard to recognize without the glasses.”
“You sure you’re okay with your face being in it?” Ryuji breathes.
“It’s only fully in frame for a second, and it’s blurry. I’m not worried about it.” A short silence, and then, “Fuck you, by the way.”
“Huh? What did I do?”
“Got it all over my face.” Ren sits back on his haunches, dragging a finger through the mess on his cheek and god, that shouldn’t make Ryuji’s cock twitch but it does. You’re a sick fuck, he admonishes himself, but then Ren is bringing that finger to his mouth and that’s even hotter somehow.
“Dude! Gross,” Ryuji cringes a little, trying to hide just how much he got off on that alone. There’s a flash of something in Ren’s expression, but then he just smirks, shaking his head.
“What, never tasted it before?”
“I’m - I think I’m good, thanks,” Ryuji turns away, staring at the wall. He can’t lie, he’s curious, but… not that curious.
In a flash, Ren is standing up over him - extending a hand. “Shower?” He asks, and Ryuji nods dumbly as he struggles to stand. His legs are like jelly, his limbs limp and unresponsive. Since when does sex do this to him?
They do shower together often, if only because it saves water and they’ve seen each other naked enough at bath houses that a shower doesn’t really step into the territory of weird in the same way… whatever they just did does. So, Ren washing Ryuji’s back as he sits on the edge of the basin feels more like a return to normalcy than anything else.
“When should we get paid for this?” Ryuji murmurs, leaning over his thighs and staring at the water circling the drain.
“Saturday,” Ren tells him. His fingers reach into Ryuji’s hair to shampoo it roughly, and Ryuji sighs blissfully at the sensation. “Your roots are growing out, by the way.”
“Ugh,” He groans. He’s really not in the mood to get the bleach out right now. “I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”
“I’ll stay up tonight and edit the video. Do you want to help?”
Ryuji pulls a face. He’s not sure how he feels about seeing himself from the perspective of Ren’s camera. “...Do I have to?”
Ren laughs. “No, it’s cool. I’ll just do all the work.”
“I don’t know how you can do it. I think it would be weird to see myself like that.”
“I dunno. I guess I’m looking at it like -” Ren pulls his hands away, presumably to make some gesture, dude’s always talking with his hands - “Like, it’s not for me. It’s for some freaks on the internet. So, the person in that video isn’t me, it’s -”
“Joker?” Ryuji smirks.
“...Well, yeah, exactly.”
Ryuji thinks on that for a long moment. At the end of the day, even amateur porn is staged in some way. They’re just playing characters, right? It’s not serious. Framing it that way makes it a much easier pill to swallow.
Yeah. He can do this. He’ll be Skull, through the lens of that camera - porn star extraordinaire, hottest gay-but-actually-not-gay guy on the internet. That’s something he can live with.
---
Later in the night, Ren is sitting at his computer preparing to upload the final cut of the new video. The title? Cheesy, but informative enough to get someone to click, though Ren doesn’t really want to think about it too hard after typing it one-too-many times in the submission boxes.
His phone buzzes, and he grabs it off his desk, idly clicking on the notification from his friend as he scrubs through the footage for a final check.
[6/15 23:47] Ann: hey when were you gonna tell me you were doing this :U
[6/15 23:47] Ann: attachment.mp4
Ren raises a brow. Sure, Ann’s in modeling and she floats in a lot of different circles, but he didn’t think she’d find out so soon. Sure enough, though, when he clicks the attachment it’s that same first video, the one that he has dually uploaded and packed away safely in a .zip in the deepest recesses of his hard drive.
[6/15 23:49] Ren: how the hell did you even know it was me lmao. you actually watch this stuff?
[6/15 23:50] Ann: i don’t, but the agency you’re signed with does work with my modeling manager
[6/15 23:50] Ann: also i helped you move in i’d know that tear in the wallpaper anywhere
Ren scrubs through the footage for the first video once more. Yep - lo and behold, there’s that telltale scrape in the wallpaper from when they moved in and accidentally bumped a box against the wall. He sighs. He’s gonna have to edit that out and reupload… same for this new video, in fact. He’s in for a late night.
Ann messages him again as he’s settling down to frame-by-frame blend out the identifying mark.
[6/16 00:05] Ann: so who’s the lucky dude?
[6/16 00:05] Ann: also didn’t know you were into that
Ren bites his lip.
[6/16 00:06] Ren: no one important
[6/16 00:06] Ren: nd im not really, its just ez money and you know i have no shame
[6/16 00:06] Ann: true.
[6/16 00:07] Ann: howd you get moto out of the house
[6/16 00:08] Ren: skipped gym with him, said i was sick, nbd
[6/16 00:09] Ann: damn! lying to your roomie already? not a good look man
[6/16 00:09] Ren: its fine i’d rather not rope him into this so keep it quiet k
[6/16 00:10] Ann: ugh, fine
Ren doesn’t like lying to Ann, nor does he like lying about the other guy in the video actually being Ryuji, but he doesn’t want this to get out. Ann would tease both of them relentlessly, he knows her. Not to mention that… well, if Ryuji knew that Ann knows, that might mean the end of their arrangement.
Not only is he not comfortable whoring himself out online alone, but… he doesn’t want this to end.
I don’t want this to end? He thinks to himself as he starts working on the blur filter. Maybe I should do some self-examination about that line of thought.
Ren thinks about it for only a moment more before he settles into editing for the night, cup of Leblanc coffee in hand as he crouches over his computer.
…Nah.