Chapter Text
The wind was blowing, the sun was shining, and I was stuck at a furry convention.
Do I hate furries? Of course not. But would I go to a convention to celebrate a three month anniversary? Definitely not. Yet that’s what Rui had planned for our three month anniversary.
A few hours ago:
“Tsukasa, is there anywhere you would want to go today?” Rui asked me.
I paused. “Well…the sekai wouldn’t be that great… I know Emu and Nene are practicing there so it wouldn’t be ideal. Is there a restaurant or event you know of?”
Rui laughed. “Well I certainly know a place that would be quite interesting.”
I looked at him in dread. “Interesting in a good way or in a you way?”
Offended, he pouted and went on his phone. “Well you want to go or not?”
As it was the closest thing to a date since our first one, due to our practice being daily, I wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity.
“I, TSUKASA TENMA, DO NOT QUIT!” I announced loudly.
“Tsukasa why are you yelling so loudly.” Saki muttered from her room.
Rui giggled in a Rui-ish way as he went to go check out his ‘interesting’ event.
Present:
Well, at least he didn’t lie when he said interesting. The entire place freaked me out a bit, with all the costumes and… fur.
Rui guided me towards one of the booths. “Hey, Tsukasa, you think this would match my hair color?“ pointing to a head that was a purple color, similar to Rui’s.
I just frowned. “This isn’t the romantic outing that I expected… wait Akito is that you-“
It was indeed Akito, wearing a shirt with the convention logo, sitting at the booth, giving out merchandise.
“Well- I- it’s not what you think- I promise- please Tsukasa senpai- I’ll just-“ he stammered, proceeding to rush out the building.
With Rui and I just staring at each other, then Rui just dragged me to the rest of the booths. We had earned some money doing shows, and Rui wanted to waste it. Typical Rui.
Browsing the keychains that costed around 400 yen, it seemed Rui was quite invested with the merchandise. Even more than me, Tsukasa Tenma, the radiant pegasus soaring through the heavens-
“Should I buy the teal keychain or the yellow one?” Rui spoke, interrupting my train of thoughts.
I carefully examined both of the keychains, and decided on the teal one.
“Hm I really thought you would choose the yellow one…” Rui muttered, as he went to give the money to the cashier.
What a weird thing to say, but I, Tsukasa Tenma, the radiant pegasus soaring through the heavens, had to defend my case. Even if I didn’t need to defend it.
I spun around him, which was kind of awkward, since i bumped into the booth. “I actually picked the teal to match the strands in your hair,” trying to flirt but also lying because I chose the teal one because that was an ugly shade of yellow.
He didn’t seem surprised, shocked, or lovey-dovey. “Oh… that’s very thoughtful of you! Thanks!” He smiled.
…Wait why was he being so nice to me… He would usually say something about how his teal strands of hair were actually chunks, or about something entirely off-topic. But he was being genuinely happy, and dare I say, pleased? Hmm…
Purchasing the keychain, Rui guided me over to a poster showing events that would happen during our time at the convention.
“See Tsukasa, there’s so much things we could do here. Let’s see…” Rui examined. “What about this? It’s an arts and crafts station where you can paint. What do you say Tsukasa?”
That event was… surprisingly normal. I agreed without hesitation.
“It starts at… 11.” Rui looked at his watch. “Right now it’s 10:30… say, what do you want to do to pass the time?” He looked at me eagerly, expecting some exciting thing to do while we wait.
I hesitated. Lunch, made by Saki, was going to be served at 1:00. So we couldn’t go to a nice lunch or at least have a snack.“Bathroom.”
Rui smirked. “Already? It’s only been a mere 3 months since we started dating… That’s quite scandalous of you, I didn’t expect that from you, Tsuka-“
I was proudly smiling, but confused. What did he mean by scandalous? I laughed it off. I replied back. “We’re just going to the sekai. Though I guess the rest of the troupe members would learn we’re dating, which could be scandalous indeed.”
Looking back at Rui, his smirk was gone, he looked disappointed, and was blushing like crazy. “That’s what you meant-“
“Well, what else did you think I meant?”
“Uhm-“
“We can’t get lunch or snack because Saki is cooking later, and the bathroom would be the most private to go to the sekai!”
“I was actually thinking of ah…”
Rui went close to my ear, for only me to hear, and whispered what he was thinking.
“YOU WERE THINKING OF US MAKING OUT?!?”
Rui smirked and ignored me entirely. “Let’s head over to the bathroom now.” He dragged me over, and I had no choice but to follow his command.
Rui pulled out my phone tucked in my pocket, and got us into the sekai.
In the sekai:
“WOAH WHERE WERE YOU GUYS?” I heard Emu screech. She ran towards us, with Nene sprinting behind her.
I tried to think up a good cover story, as it’s slightly embarrassing to explain that Rui and I are dating, with their only thought of our dates is that we do weird things. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they would assume we would have a date where we rob a pet store. But as I was about to intervene, Rui stepped in.
“We were at a furry convention to celebrate our third month anniversary.” He explained.
Emu looked at Rui, then me. “You two are dating? That’s pretty wonderhoy!”
Nene laughed. “Wow now the school will REALLY think you guys are going to blow up the school, ehe”.
I scoffed. “We would never- wait what do you mean they’ll really think-“
Rui grinned. “You didn’t know? I have a feeling they may deem us the weirdest couple for the yearbook by the end of the school year.”
Suddenly, I could hear footsteps dashing towards us. “DID YOU SAY FURRY CONVENTION-“ it was Rin, dragging Len alongside her.
“It’s his fault,” I said, pointing to Rui.
Rin laughed. “It’s not that, it’s just that Len here is a furry-“
Len cried. “it’s true…”
Rui seemed deep in thought. “I know we could carry you around with one of our phones, but we need a way to try and hide it at least… I know! I could put you in a bag and place a camera monitor to watch what’s happening with the camera being attached to my remote control drone!”
He seemed giddy, and excited for this small project. However, I think a drone would attract more attention than a hologram. Then again, at least we wouldn’t really be questioned how the hologram works.
“I would love to see how the hologram works though,” Rui spoke, eyeing Len, as the blond boy whimpered in fear. I should be glad I wasn’t the test subject. This time at the very least.
Rui managed to assemble the contraption pretty quickly, taking a mere 8 minutes.
“Bye bye Tsukasa! Bye bye Rui!” Emu exclaimed.
“Have fun you furries-“ Nene muttered, loud enough that we could hear.
In the real world:
We magically popped back into the bathroom stall. Using our buddy Len, we made sure no one was there to look. And once that time came, we sprinted out. We had attached a microphone for Len to connect to a small earpiece, so he could understand what’s going on.
I snatched a map from a stand showing the locations of each event. Scanning it, I guided Rui to where the arts and crafts event was taking place in.
“So if we go quickly, we could get to the arts and crafts section with a few seconds to spare.” I announced.
Rui laughed. “So we would need to hurry, and we would have to go now.”
Unexpectedly, Rui lifted me up onto his shoulders, proceeding to run through the crowds of people as I anxiously clung on his shoulders, trying not to slip off. He was also managing to operate the Len drone. I would be surprised, but he’s Rui. He puts so much dedication in the things he enjoys, which is quite endearing.
After minutes of me clinging on Rui, maybe suffocating him, we arrived at a small room. It seemed no bigger than my room, but definitely bigger than Rui’s room. It didn’t seem very crowded, but there was a decent amount of people. The layout consisted of six tables with three chairs on each side parallel to each other. Canvases were provided on each seat, along with a few brushes and acrylic paint.
I saw a little pamphlet placed on a stand at the front. “Look Rui, this shows the materials available and a challe-“ I paused.
“Hmm what’s wrong Tsukasa?” Rui asked.
“Well… it seems the challenge is to draw your partner on the opposite side of your table…”
“Well we did this during art, no big deal. Unless you, the great Tsukasa Tenma, are too afraid of these challenges?” Rui smirked, and I could tell he was taunting me.
I proudly laughed. “Hate to burst your bubble, but I, the world’s future star, does not quit challenges!”
Rui seemed pleased with himself, as he sat at a table with me following him. He tossed me a pencil, for what I was assuming was the sketch. Rui also detached the drone’s camera to make his set-up less bulky.
Now I wasn’t the best artist, like that one artist named after the TMNT character, but I was able to pass art with… passing grades. At least I understand the basic idea of painting, and drawing.
So first I had to plan out a rough outline. First would be the head, which is a circle, with some lines… I learned this from Wiki How which truly shows my skills as an artist. Now, Rui’s hair was kinda spiky. So I drew on triangles like icicles sticking onto Drawing-Rui’s scalp. Now despite me being right next to him due to how crowded this place is, I still forgot what Rui’s clothes looked like. No biggie, I could always take a quick peek…
Oh wow- Rui was staring so intensely at me, probably just for his drawing but I couldn’t help but feel all warm inside. His eyes felt ‘I will pin you on the wall shojo anime style and proceed to flirt with you until we end up kissing,' but also 'I want to strap you to a rocket ship fueled by all my uneaten veggies."
Back to the topic of drawing Rui, today he was wearing a nice pastel rainbow hoodie, and grey pants. So I gave Drawing-Rui the hoodie and pants.
Now, I had to paint. First was his hair, a nice purple color. Squirting out the paint, I dabbed my paintbrush in it and began painting. I realized I forgot all about Rui’s teal strands of hair. Frantically washing off my brush, I dipped my brush in teal paint and painted a few strokes over the purple i painted.
“Ruiiiiii why is the paint mixingggggggg-“ I whined, confused on why my purple was mixing with the teal, since I didn’t want it to mix, but it mixed.
Rui looked at me dead in the eyes. “Did you wait for the paint underneath to dry?”
“Well no I wanted it to be put on quickly, but it ended up mixing even if I didn’t want it to.”
“Oh Tsukasa, sometimes your obliviousness is so adorable…”
“Is that an insult or a compliment?”
“Both, if you can say.”
Rui locked eyes with me, explaining how the paints worked in such a detailed way, most likely due to how Emu’s ‘normal’ speaking makes Rui’s seem like a college textbook.
I whimpered. “So I have to…wait?”
Rui nodded, as I sobbed. My masterpiece, ruined. At least I could work on the other parts.
I painted in his pants, knowing that the paint near or touching each other would blend. That worked out nicely. But now I had to wait in order to work on the skin or other clothes… I checked over to Rui again like the caring bf I am.
“How’s you painting going- HOW ARE YOU STILL PAINTING WITHOUT WAITING?” I shrieked. He should take at least a 5 minute break, but he’s just painting, like nobody’s deal.
Rui chucked. “I want it to blend Tsukasa… For shading, your beautiful hair color, and the rest of you.”
I blushed. “Is my hair really that pretty…?”
“W-well…” Even thought his expression wasn’t that clear, I could tell he was flustered.
At the Sekai:
Len groaned again. Rin was passing by, on her way to help Miku when she saw him.
“Why are you so emo, Len.” Rin casually asked.
“ughhhh I thought I would get to see the furry convention more but it’s just Tsukasa and Rui flirting with each other but being equally flustered when the other does the same thing-“
Rin laughed. “Deal with it emo boy.” Like the baddie she is, she ran off to her gf Miku.
In the real world:
30-ish minutes had passed, with both of us finishing our paintings. The staff had given each of us a small plastic bag to put the paintings in. Rui and I were now sitting on a bench outside the building, taking a break while we walked back to my house.
Even though my drawings look like a ‘slightly upgraded version of a stick figure’ according to Nene on my previous works, I still believed mine was good enough to impress Rui. But first he gave me mine.
Grabbing the canvas from the bag, he handed it to me. When I received it, I couldn’t help but be awestruck by just how nice it looked. The colors were so vibrant and colorful, with the shading being blended nicely. “Thanks… You never told me you could draw or paint this nicely…”
“I’m a man of mystery, don’t ever underestimate someone like myself,” Rui spoke, with a flirty tone.
“Rui, look how nice mine is!” I began. I was practically shoving my skills down his throat. “This is my best work yet-“ I pulled out my painting from the bag, and handed it to Rui.
His reaction was unexpected. His eyes looked like they were sparkling when he received the painting, and he hugged it tightly.
“Tsukasa, thank you for being so thoughtful… but this painting kinda sucks.” Rui smirked, and before I could yell back at him about my painting, he swiftly grabbed my chin and kissed me on the lips. They felt slightly chapped, considering how he never remembers about his own care while working on long projects, is understandable. But they also tasted sweet, like a strawberry hard candy.
Well that’s what I would’ve been thinking,if I hadn’t been so caught off-guard. Even after he broke away to talk, I pulled him back in by grabbing at his waist, the kiss getting hotter, as I could feel his lips melting against the touch of mine. The moment felt like forever, and time didn’t seem like it was ticking. This moment was eternal.
Until Saki drove by, ready to pick us up.
I forgot to inform Rui that she was coming to pick us up once she prepared lunch, with Ichika also being there.
She was a mess. Saki was stuttering, rambling, muttering, screaming, crying, and just in pure disbelief. “Y-You guys… andinsuchapublicplacetoo- I didn’t ever think- you guys would actually do it together wow… I assumed big brother was awkward and wouldn’t even have his first kiss… aaa” Saki was crying, and I guess it was understandable. The bench was right out there in front, very easy to notice. Not to mention I was basically underneath Rui, as he would cling onto me while our heated moment was continuing. Plus, it must seem sort of sad to watch your sibling kiss another in such a way.
“We’re so sorry Saki, we didn’t mean for you to see,” Rui and I apologized, praying in the backseat as Saki and Ichika felt mildly uncomfortable for the entire ride.
This awkward tension continued on for the next few minutes, until Ichika broke the silence. “So… Kamishiro, are you ok with some barbecue for lunch? We also have corn-“
Rui stared at her dead in the eyes, the shine removed like Mr Clean Magic Eraser Sponge. “No corn for me thank you very much. But I will gladly eat Saki’s barbecue.”
We drove home, the wind still blowing, the sun still shining, and my adventure of the furry convention was over.