Work Text:
Illuminated under the streetlights, Shou sure had a way of looking enticing. Staring at the snowflakes, he looked like some other worldly being. Ritsu was pretty sure his eyes were glowing, sky blue standing out against the dark of the night. Ritsu could probably stare at them until he’d grow old and wrinkly.
“Ritsu,” Shou whined, “I’m hungry.”
Shou also had a way of getting Ritsu out of his head, for better or worse.
“It’s the middle of the night. Where are we going to find anything?” Ritsu replied.
Shou visibly brightened, “Actually, I just know the place!”
Ritsu thought he looked like a puppy trying to show his owner the dead bird he had killed. Ritsu had definitely seen enough metaphorical dead birds. And real ones, but he wasn't going to think about that if he didn't have to.
“Are you sure you’re not just going to drag me to some abandoned shack?” Ritsu said “If we go to another one I think we’ll freeze alive”
“Hey! That was so not my fault! I didn’t know it would be like that!” Shou said, aura flaring at the offence, “Besides, I’m not gonna get cold!”
“That was true,” Ritsu mused.
He really had no idea how Shou was surviving the winter with just his bomber jacket. Maybe he had found a way to control body temperature? Ritsu should ask next time they meet up, hopefully not at night.
Ritsu followed where Shou went, weaving between alleyways, dead shrubs and the occasional weirdo hanging out at midnight.
Ugh, he was one of those weirdo’s. He should be doing his pending homework instead of being here. Well, not really, but double checking his answers for the second time was something he needed to do. The tennis club needed new rackets but the soccer club wanted new equipment to better prepare for their out of state competition. What was needed more? The soccer club already had equipment, but all the tennis club did was stare at Tsubomi, which was even more useless now that Tsubomi moved. Not only that-
“Yo, Ritsu,” Shou said, breaking Ritsu out of his spiral, “I think I can hear you overthinking”
Ritsu stared at Shou.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Ritsu kept staring.
“You’re the one who brought me out here, so why are you pouting?” Shou asked.
Ritsu really didn’t remember exactly why he decided to climb out his window and get Shou to walk around the streets of Seasoning City with him. Companionship? To clear his head? Ritsu supposed it didn’t really matter, as long as Shou was with him now.
Ritsu smiled at the ground for a moment before shoving Shou into a precariously made snow man.
Predictably, Shou stopped himself from falling with his powers. Ritsu thought that with Shou’s shock of red hair in the snow, the snowman would look only slightly worse than before.
“I’d start a snow fight, but I’m not because I’m the bigger man.” Shou grumbled.
Shou was definitely not the bigger man, at least height wise.
They walked on in comfortable silence. It was nice, not having to keep up appearances. Shou seemed to like the quiet too. Ritsu would have never pegged him as the type, but he was learning more things about him every time they met up.
“We’re here” Shou said, pointing at- Was that an ice-cream parlour?
“We’re getting ice-cream?” Ritsu said incredulously, “I’d rather take my chances with the abandoned shack.”
“Awww, come on!” Shou exclaimed, “It’ll be great, trust me!”
“I think this is a bad idea.”
“You say that to everything!”
“Usually because it i-”
Shou pulled Ritsu into the shop. It was homely, plush red seats and yellow wallpaper. The type of store that would be jam-packed if it wasn’t the dead of winter and also midnight. The worker seemed to share his opinion, considering they were fast asleep on the counter.
“The guy is literally fast asleep, what are we gonna do?” Ritsu asked, fidgeting lightly.
Shou smiled mischievously, eyes glinting with the promise of fun.
“No way.”
“I’ll pay!”
Ritsu quietened down, if only to see the intricacies of telekinesis. Yeah, definitely the reason.
Shou stuck his hand out, orange aura opening the glass door to the ice cream and lifting an ice-cream scoop towards the strawberry ice-cream. Shou tongue peaked out when he went to scoop it. The first try left a tiny amount, the rest falling out. The next couple tries had similar results. Finally on the fourth try, a full scoop of ice-cream was ready.
Ritsu quickly floated a cup and spoon over and the ice-cream was swiftly put in.
“Thanks Ritsu!” Shou said, a grin stretching across his face.
Ritsu couldn’t help but return one.
Ritsu tried doing what Shou did, lifting up an ice-cream scoop and trying to scoop out the chocolate ice-cream. Despite the effort he put in, the scoop didn’t respond either not taking any ice-cream or missing it entirely. All his failed attempts were piling up. Why couldn’t he do this? His brother could do this easily!
“Calm down.” Shou said.
Ritsu’s face relaxed, listening intently to whatever Shou had to say. Shou was pretty good about Ritsu’s failures, always giving advice, not being condescending like Teru. He also actually had powers and didn’t pull stuff out of his ass like Reigen.
“It’s not just a… an object, you know?” Shou explained, “Ya gotta like, feel it. It's more of an extension of your body than anything, really.”
Ritsu kept his advice in mind while he tried to scoop the ice-cream. It failed, once, twice, thrice, again and again. Ritsu could feel his frustration bubbling up, about to burst open.
Calm down.
Ritsu took a breath before trying again. Rather than just skimming the surface, the scoop dug deep enough to actually get ice-cream. Ritsu brought it over, and into the paper cup that Shou had already brought him. Ritsu knew Shou had his back. He smiled about to say something grateful to Shou before-
Ritsu dropped the scoop.
A loud mix of a screech and a clang echoed around the ice-cream parlour. The worker shot up and stared bewilderingly at the two boys.
5 seconds or ten minutes passed where we were just staring at the worker before they nervously said,
“What are you doing here? Did you steal that? I’m going to ca-”
Shou dragged him out of the store, dropping two 1000 yen bills on the floor.
“It’s not stealing if you pay!” Shou shouted to the worker
“C’mon Ritsu, we don’t wanna get caught!”
Ritsu ran after Shou adrenaline allowing him to run at speeds he reserved for track and field. A smile crept up on his face as a chilly wind whipped across his face, turning his cheeks pink. He saw what looked like a park. They turned the corner and managed not to slip on the snow. The park itself was covered in snow, dead trees and brown grass. It was objectively ugly. Still, with Shou’s bright aura and bright grin and bright hair and bright eyes and all the other parts of Shou, Ritsu felt like any place would be lightened up, like a warm midday sun.
They sat down on a miraculously not snow covered bench to eat their ice-cream. Ritsu was still cold from their impromptu run, eating something cold was probably going to be one of the numerous bad decisions he made.
It tasted surprisingly good, sweet enough to have Ritsu thinking that maybe the sugar was actually melted rainbows and puppies. If that was true it would taste more like iron. Ritsu wondered if that would be something he could get. There probably wasn't a metal ice-cream flavour. Despite the obvious disgusting-ness of that, Ritsu still wanted to try some.
“Awh shit! Dropped my spoon!” Shou exclaimed.
Ritsu pulled out a spoon from his coat pocket, “Here, you can have this.”
“Do you always have spoons on you?” Shou asked, judging him just a little.
Ritsu put on his iciest glare as a response. Shou seemed unaffected. Maybe it was because of all the snow.
“Well, thanks I guess.” Shou said.
They continued to eat their ice-cream in the quiet of the night. A flap of birds, a light breeze, other than that Seasoning was peaceful. In the moon’s glow, everything seemed bleached, even Shou. Even the most powerful esper wouldn’t affect the moon’s gaze. Not even his brother.
Ritsu started shivering, eating ice-cream was really a bad idea. He puffed air onto his hands, but it still felt like ice. A few futile tries more of trying to get warm before he gave up. Ritsu shifted closer to Shou, leaning against him. Heat radiated from Shou like he was fire in human form. There was a 50% chance that was actually true. It wouldn’t even be the weirdest thing he’s seen.
Ritsu finishes ice-cream slowly, savouring the warmth from Shou. He watched idly as the clouds covered the moon high in the sky.
Wait. High in the sky?
“Shou..” Ritsu said carefully, trying not to confirm his fears, “What time is it?”
Shou took his phone out of his pocket, the new model sleek and shiny, “Uhh, like, 1:30? Why’re you asking?”
“Shit!” Ritsu exclaimed. “I have school tomorrow! I should have gone to sleep like, 3 hours ago!”
He stood up, looking for a trash can to put his paper bowl and spoon in. He saw one rather close away and rushed to it. Shou took the opportunity to throw his bowl in. It missed.
Ritsu turned to stare at Shou disapprovingly, “You shouldn’t litt-”
Ritsu yelped, jumping away from Shou who was close enough to feel the breath of hot air on his skin.
“Scaredy-cat.” Shou said, staring at him with his usual indecipherable gaze.
“At least I have aim.”
“It’s called trial and error, Ritsu!”
Ritsu snorted.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m still right.” Shou huffed.
Fennel Reserve - that's where they are. He just needed to go to the train station and he’d know the way home. Ritsu was pretty sure the station was to the west of here.
He started walking out of the park, Shou following a step or two behind him. Shou thought that this was the perfect time to talk about his hamsters. Tzunz had apparently bitten him for the 300th time. Every time Shou decided to talk about his hamsters, there’d be another story about Tzunz biting him.
Ritsu kept his usual disinterested face while they walked and Shou talked, but Ritsu was listening to every word. He genuinely enjoyed hearing about Shou’s life, whether it was schoolwork or fighting off remaining claw members.
“Genal,” Shou said, pointing at a sign.
The sign was on a rundown general store. The sign itself was on its last legs, both English and Japanese LED sign’s flickering on and off. The ‘E’ and ‘R’ seemed to be permanently out.
“Genal.” Shou said again, this time with an accent Ritsu couldn’t place.
He had to stifle a giggle behind his hand.
His hand was still cold as hell, catching significantly more snowflakes than it did before. He should probably hurry up and get home, back to his warm bed.
“We should hurry up, it’ll start snowing pretty bad soon.” Ritsu said.
Shou had another mischievous smile on his face. This time, Ritsu returned it with one of his own.
They both floated above the stores, auras encasing them in colourful energy.
Ritsu thought he could see the station from here. He jerked his thumb towards it before setting off. Shou caught up pretty quickly.
Shou caught his eye, grinning before shooting up high as the skyscrapers. He stayed there for one, two seconds before letting himself go and plummeting to the ground.
Ritsu was shocked momentarily, before realising Shou probably wanted to show off.
Shou fell further, seconds before hitting the ground, when he caught himself. Shou floated back up to Ritsu.
“Hey, weren’t you meant to start screaming and save me?” Shou complained.
“If you die during that trick it isn’t my fault.” Ritsu snickered.
“Still the same as ever’” Shou said fondly.
Ritsu stuck his tongue out before turning towards his house.
While flying over to the Kageyama household, they did stupid tricks and dumber jokes. Ritsu could barely keep a straight face.
Ritsu was in the middle of a Reigen impression, one he thought was very accurate with all the crazy hand movements and poses, when Shou sneezed.
A second of silence passed before Ritsu burst out laughing.
“Shahaha, Shou you sound like a kittehahah.” Ritsu said, unable to stop laughing.
Shou looked grumpy as hell. “I do not! I sound like a very cool and intimidating tiger!”
Shou’s very cool and intimidating tiger sneeze stuck again and Ritsu’s laughter doubled.
He bent over, trying to keep it in, “Alright, alright, I’m done.”
Ritsu started laughing again the second he saw Shou’s red face.
“Hey!”
Ritsu kept laughing as he flew over to his house. Every time his laughing seemed to slow, he looked at Shou’s face again and the cycle started anew.
Shou’s attempts at stopping Ritsu from laughing (which just made him laugh harder) eventually turned into giggles.
All the way until Ritsu’s house was in view, they were laughing, finding literally everything funny.
“Ok, ok we should probably be quiet,” Ritsu said, “Don’t want to wake my family.”
“All right! Will do!” Shou exclaimed.
Ritsu winced at the loudness, hand over mouth as he tried to quell the cackle bubbling up his throat.
They got to Ritsu’s window, giggling about some stupid looking bird.
“Alright, be normal.” Ritsu said, trying to be stern. It was undercut by the goofy smile on his face.
Shou snickered.
“Shut up!” Ritsu said, but he was desperately trying to not start giggling.
Shou seemed to quiet down, smiling before waving goodbye. Ritsu waved back, a twin smile on his face. Shou turned invisible and probably left.
Finally, Ritsu opened his window. He floated through, trying not to hit his head on the windowsill. He sighed a breath of relief, thankful he hadn’t woken anyone up. He turned to put his coat away and-
“Ritsu,” Mob said, “What were you doing?”