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RPF. Real Person Fiction. A genre of fiction written about real people, turning them into your very own puppet that will dance and sing and laugh and cry and fuck some other real person at your whim.
How disgusting. How fun.
Shu Yamino presents himself as someone who frankly couldn't care less about the gossip and the shipping that happens in their school. He’s the star student, the student council president, the funny charismatic guy, but not the shipper.
Shu Yamino is, however, bananafudanshi on the Nijisanji High School’s Student Platform, amassing thousands of followers with a specific genre of fanart.
Yaoi of his schoolmates. Specifically, of his juniors Vantacrow Bringer and Yu Q. Wilson.
From hilarious meme bases to passionate kisses with running storylines, bananafudanshi was hailed as THE vantayu shipper, captivating everyone with his confident lineart strokes and popping, bright colours.
Bananafudanshi’s identity was, of course, shrouded in mystery, known by none other than Shu himself. The people understood. It was a hidden rule for the fujoshis and fudanshis alike to never attempt to expose the mysterious creator behind the mask, lest it lead to consequences akin to the end of the world. No, worse than the end of the world. They would overthrow the entire alien race that sought to overtake their world if it meant that they could go back home to RPF on their table.
“Which idea should I draw today…”
Shu sat down at his desk in his dorm room and opened his drawing software. Tonight was another Vantayu all-nighter.
♡
For a person who has an account with such a massive following, Shu is very offline. If he was not studying, fulfilling the responsibilities that came with his fifty gazillion titles, hanging out with Luca, or drawing Vantayu, then he was probably sleeping.
So enters another account, a profile by the name of coolguy_shuca.
The name was tacky at best, boring at worst, but it was the only account on the web page that could rival bananafudanshi in numbers and in hype.
The account’s existence was almost a juxtaposition to bananafudanshi. A writing account, filled to the brim with drabbles, oneshots, full-on 60k word fanfiction of Shu Yamino and Luca Kaneshiro, posting almost daily either to publish another masterpiece, or just to scream about just how cute and adorable Shu and Luca were at the cafeteria today oh my god they have to be dating did Luca just feed Shu his food is this okay can I watch this for free?
Yet, to some with a keen eye, there was a sort of pattern, a schedule to coolguy_shuca’s seemingly erratic and spontaneous posts.
If bananafudanshi posted art that day, coolguy_shuca would definitely put something onto the table for the squealing students to feast on, as if trying to take the spotlight at the banquet with an extravagant dish to one-up the other. Mysterious, indeed, but a welcome type of competition.
So, the students of Nijisanji High School sat before their screens, drool barely kept within their mouths, fingernails digging into their thighs, waiting for their gods to grace them once more with their rays of homosexual light, caressing their skin with righteous sin.
♡
“And if both of you would kindly stop gazing deeply into each other’s eyes and help pack my orders, it would be great!” Wilson snapped.
Claude shoots a cheeky look at Wilson and cups his hands around Zali’s face, diving in for a peck at his cheek.
“Not. On. My. Bed. We share a room! Your bed is a few steps away!”
“What,” Zali grins, “I thought you liked men kissing.”
“Not when I have to pack them! That’s 60 paperbacks of the vampire AU just for tomorrow!” Wilson gestures at the towering pile of printed fanfiction by his side, each attached with a carefully illustrated cover of vampire Shu sinking his fangs into Luca’s neck, his eyes fierce yet droopy, glaring straight towards the reader, asserting dominance over the blonde in his grasp, “That penskydragon user ordered 30 of these. 30! Are they reselling this? Who’s buying this? You can just access it at my fucking store!”
“Vanta is packing your orders,” Claude says, matter-of-factly, “Are you jealous you can’t do this?”
Wilson rolls his eyes as he hears a soft thud from his bed as Zali shoves Claude towards the mattress, his mattress, whispering stuff he wouldn’t even write in his works, nor expect Zali to ever say.
Fucking freaks. Please someone send him the account name to the mediclaw fan account so he can block and avoid them. He was totally not going to like fifty of their posts before blocking. Yeah.
“Oh, wait, no, you do that with Vanta already.”
Zali’s quip yanked Wilson out of his mediclaw thoughts and sent him rushing across the room, playfully tackling Zali onto the ground, “No I don’t!”
“Bananafudanshi says otherwise.”
“Bananafudanshi is a fucking liar!”
Crimson flushes across Wilson’s face as he pushes Zali down harder, his friend flailing as Wilson’s grip hardens around his wrists. There was nothing between him and Vanta, nothing, nothing, nothing! It was all works of fiction, it’s called RPF for a reason! Real Person Fiction! FICTION! (Though Shuca were real. They’re real. They’re definitely real.)
“Oh, is he.”
A deep, sultry voice Wilson only uses in his head when he’s imagining the next scenario to write for Shuca slips into his ears. Wilson’s heart skips, surely from shock. He falls back, only to be caught by a pair of muscular arms around his waist.
“Vanta! Don’t scare- hey!”
Zali holds back a laugh and Claude holds back a screech as Vanta easily lifts Wilson off the ground like his newlywed bride, with Wilson’s arms haphazardly wrapped around Vanta’s neck to retain his balance.
“Go back and pack your orders, will you?”
“Okay! Okay! I will! Put me down!”
Vanta props Wilson down before his scattered packages, and bends down, smirking like the devil. Zali and Claude sit up, readying themselves.
“That’s a good boy…”
Wilson howls and lurches, falling off his chair and backing away from Vanta, who looks extremely proud of himself. His dick is going to explode out of his pants zipper and shoot through the ceiling, but that’s not important.
There are tears in Zali’s and Claude’s eyes.
♡
Shu thought he saw Elira hiding something under the table the second he opened the door to the student council room.
As someone who also held a humongous secret, he never really bothered to try digging out others as a form of mutual respect. It also didn’t really help that the last time he tried, he had to witness a comic panel of the Discipline Committee's Sonny Brisko impregnating the Rhythm Game Society’s president Alban Knox doggy style. He was a yaoi fanartist, but there are things he would rather avoid.
“Oh, god, Shu, uhm hey! Hi!”
She’s definitely hiding something.
“I just left my charger here,” Shu shrugs, heading towards one of the lockers on the side, “You remember the meeting that we scheduled soon, right?”
“Hold on, let me check my agenda.”
From the corner of his eye, Shu could see Elira take out her schedule book. He could also see something else.
Though not clear and cleverly obstructed by the similarly sized book, a flash of purple and yellow entered his vision, along with a small trail of red. Blood, perhaps?
These weren't Sonnyban’s colours. What did Elira get into now? Why was it purple?
He jogged his memory, wishing he had been more online when he had the chance. It was definitely not Vantayu, that was not their shade either. There’s technically choir lead vocalist Enna Alouette and Millie Parfait from Chemistry, but there was too much purple and yellow for it to be correct. His only hint was that he could recognize the brush artist patheticangel always used from 50 miles away. She had been commissioned for an older artist alley, so could this be one too?
“No, Shu, the meeting is the day after tomorrow! There’s no way I would agree to a meeting today, bananafudanshi is posting tonight!”
Shu’s spine jolted so hard he thought it would jerk out of his body. Shit. Was he supposed to post tonight?
It was Shu’s turn to get his tongue all tied, “Well! I… must have messed it up! Have fun with whatever you’re doing! Whoever that is!”
He gave a little wave with his phone charger in hand, closed the door behind him, and bolted towards his room.
Was he actually supposed to post tonight?
♡
“That’s the second time someone has tried to hide a book from me,” Shu deadpans, pointing at whatever Uki scrambled to sit on the second he entered his peripheral vision.
“And that’s the tenth time I’ve seen you with Luca today, but we all have things we enjoy doing, don’t we.”
Uki gave no real answer to Shu’s trailing “What the freak…”, watching with a much more curious intent than usual as he and Luca slipped onto the cafeteria bench, food tray in hand. Luca teasingly shoved his plate of food into Shu’s glass, earning a yelp as he elbowed Luca back. Great. Now Uki’s weird look was digging even deeper into his skin. Wonderful.
“Have you guys ever tried not flirting in front of people?” Uki’s silky voice was laced with playful passive-aggressiveness. Shu felt the heat creep up on his cheek.
“We’re just friends,” he grumbled, taking a sip of his orange juice. He can’t speak when he’s drinking. He won’t be able to answer any questions.
“Do friends spend so much time together?”
Before Shu could retort back, Luca’s muscular arm wrapped around his waist, pulling Shu close to his chest, his beating heart ringing against Shu’s ears, “Yeah! I love hanging out with Shu!”
Heat rose to Shu’s ears, and his eyes began to dart side by side, his heart racing with that exaggerated doki-doki that he would layer onto his art pieces between Vanta and Wilson as they covered their faces with their hands after running away from their unexpected encounter. Luca’s cheeks were dangerously close to his face. If Luca turned around right now, could his lips give him a gentle kiss?
Uki’s crow-like caw of glee pulled Shu back into his senses. He must’ve been drawing way too much Vantayu to the point that purple and yellow became the synonym of yaoi. That’s it. It has to be. He was not into Luca. At all. Ignore all brain-frying commands about a love life that will never come to be, draw Vantayu naked.
“I… I need… some air…” Uki struggled to hide his upturning lips as he stood up and stumbled off to the other corner of the cafeteria, slowly breaking into an ecstatic jog, dropping a book behind him.
“Wait, Uki!” Shu reluctantly pushed off Luca’s arm from his shoulders, rushing to grab the book off the ground. His fingers glided across the shiny surface that felt just too familiar. He could recognize this texture in his sleep; it was the cheapest high quality print paper for doujinshi covers that could ship to their school. Shu had literally ordered from this shop four days ago for his upcoming online sale.
He picked it up, only to be flashed by the two colours that had been bugging his thoughts. Except this time, he had a clear view of it.
It was him. It was him and Luca. Covered in blood. He had fangs. Luca had a vampire bite on his neck.
“Crimson Encounter. Written by coolguy_shuca. Cover illustrated by patheticangel. A… Shuca fanfiction.”
The cafeteria went silent, and all the students suddenly found the mundane everyday tiles of the ceiling extremely interesting, or began counting how many grains of rice were in their bowls.
“Shu! What are you standing there for!”
“It’s… It’s nothing!”
♡
Wilson locked himself into a bathroom stall.
Fuck. This wasn’t good.
Direct messages bombarding his inbox was nothing new, he was open to dms from people telling him how amazing he was and how addicting his new work was, but none of the messages he received now were good news.
Shu had found out about Shuca. Holy fuck was he cooked beyond belief. One of the rules of thumb was to never, ever, ever let the original person in question see you shipping them. Usually, the shipping accounts would just block the person and everything would be solved, but Shu was literally never online! He had no internet presence at all! Nobody knows what his account is! That’s why Wilson didn’t block him! He couldn’t! How did he find out about the shuca fanfiction. Who dropped it. Oh my god they are so going on the ban list.
Wilson did this whole thing as an experiment. He didn’t get why bananafudanshi was having so much fun drawing all that! He had to try it himself too! He picked shuca literally just because these two were both offline as hell and had a dedicated fanbase. No, he totally did not see the yaoi potential even before the concept of creating RPF even crossed his mind. It was all for the jokes. This was not supposed to happen.
Yet, he got it. He understood why bananafudanshi was posting so much. Writing and fantasizing about people near you is fun. Blurring the line between fiction and reality where everyone is kind of okay but also shocked that it would happen and having your line toed only to try toeing someone else’s and getting the thrill of it is fun.
He didn’t want to stop being coolguy_shuca.
♡
It’s those 1am courageous deep dives of topics you usually would refuse to get into with a fully loaded gun that gives you the most information. And that place, to Shu, was @coolguy_shuca’s profile.
Pinned to the profile is a newly posted hiatus notice, presumably because the owner’s account learnt about the incident. That wasn’t what he was interested in. Where’s the doujinshi he saw today?
It didn’t take too many frantic scrolls down the media tab for Shu to be met face to face with the cover art he saw today, accompanied with a link and giant capital letters that screamed “READ ONLINE HERE!!”.
If you held a gun to Shu’s forehead and forced him to tell the truth, he would admit that he was morbidly curious. What was this shuca ship’s, to say in an almost weird manner considering he was part of it, potential? Luca’s eyes were lightly flitting to a close, yet his gaze was still longingly focused at himself- well, the drawing of himself, while that Shu’s eyes were an unwavering stare, as if he were trying to carve that Luca’s fleeting beauty into his mind. From one artist to another, patheticangel was a master at composition, lighting, and setting the scene. Maybe he should reference her works more. Maybe art collab?
He clicked on the link.
Before he realized, the sun began to rise from outside of his dorm room window.
Shu pulled himself out of the comfy burrows of his blanket, his head pounding from the lack of sleep, his arms sore from almost not moving all night other than he had to slap his hands over his mouth or flail them around just to get the homoerotic tension and shock out of him to be able to continue to read, his bloodshot eyes failing at their basic responsibility of seeing. A content, lopsided, trademark fudanshi grin stretched across his cheek with tiny dried trails of drool tracing the corners of his lips.
Holy freak that was good. Why did he not dig into this more? Oh my god that was freaking crazy was there more?
Never was he struck by the discomfort that this was about him biting into Luca’s neck, him sliding his tongue into Luca’s mouth, even him riding Luca until he could barely scream out his name. If he was being honest, at some points he decided to put himself in the character, and unconsciously read most of the climax (be it in the graveyard or in Luca's upstairs bedroom in the cottage beside it) as a self-insert.
What?
As the thought formed into words in his mind, the delirious, thirsting smirk was wiped clean off his face. He just spent the night reading about him falling in love with Luca, biting into his neck and penetrating him. In one sitting. Without seeing fanfiction Shu as a secondary entity.
There was going to be a lot of unpacking to do.
♡
“So we are adding a RPF shipping section. Into the school artist alley.” Petra struggled to even form these words out in the student council room.
“What about it? It is a big culture, and our school is very open about all of this, and it will be in a separate section with strict rules that any RPF shipping art cannot be sold at the regular section!” Shu grinned, “Is it not good to spotlight all sorts of art?”
“I mean, yeah, but, I just… From you? Wouldn’t it usually be from the other two?” Petra gestured at Elira and Uki. Shu noticed that Uki still won’t meet him in the eye. For very obvious reasons.
If only he knew just how much of a hero he was.
He was into Luca. Of course he was. It should’ve been obvious, but when you’ve pined for 10 years being gay kind of feels like another Tuesday to you.
He had to find out more about this coolguy_shuca. He had to somehow! This goes against all hidden shipping rules of the school, but it’s hidden anyway, so breaking it wouldn’t be too bad, right? These shipping artists never got a chance to place a booth too, so wouldn’t this all just be perfect? Here, a shipping corner for all of them with disclaimers and enter-with-your-own-risk warnings, it should be perfect, right?
“Listen. We’ll allow those creators to hide their identity in all of their forms. Heck. They can put a paper bag over their head, be in costume, cover their face, doesn’t matter. We’ll release an extra ticket for the section that comes with the terms that if you buy it, you must be ready to see fanworks involving you. That way we can void the rule for even just a day.”
The council hummed in various tones of understanding, interest, and concern. Yet, there was this morbid curiosity creeping through them, a nosiness they could not ignore and a desire to physically meet the creators of their favourite fanfiction in the flesh.
“Any objections then?” Petra cut through the silence, “I think… We could try?”
Elira and Uki’s arms rose up shakily, fighting against every internal turmoil. Oh, what would the fujoshi and fudanshi do without their ship?
♡
“You have to. You have to join. You can’t back down, are you serious?” Vanta’s grip on Wilson became tighter by the second, as if imprinting the shape of his nails in Wilson’s flesh would somehow change his brain chemistry. His face was dangerously close. Maybe in a Shuca fanfiction Shu would be doing all the pushing, an aggressive change to his usual composed demeanour, and he would be Luca, the loud excitement simmering into a flustered, frenzied quiet…
“I just announced my hiatus, Vanta.” Wilson turned away, cheeks flushing by the intimate scene he just imagined. He was beginning to wonder if his constant subbing in of his OTP when it came to interactions with Vanta and himself was a sign of some sort.
“And? People are reeling to see your works. They’re making people sign contracts so they consent to seeing themselves being shipped if they walk into that section. It doesn’t matter, Wilson, even for just a day.”
“But it’s all my fault, I broke the rule before, and now the community is-”
“Wilson. Look. At. Me.”
Vanta’s huge, calloused hands clasped against his cheeks, turning Wilson’s head back. Wilson could see his face reflected in those fierce violet eyes that he sometimes wished belonged to him alone.
“No one is blaming you. People want you back. I… want you back.”
“Huh?”
“That glimmer in your eyes when you get another idea. The way your fingers zoom and hover across the keyboard when you’re rushing a self-imposed upload deadline. The dedication to your craft, no matter how unconventional it may be compared to anything outside of these school walls. You- I mean your passion entices me, Wilson. I want it to return.”
Before Wilson could even stutter out a response, his entire body lurched forward, his face pushed into Vanta’s chest, the taller man’s warm embrace holding him firmly, closely.
“I didn’t know you were such a fan of Shuca, Vanta,” Wilson muttered, inaudible enough for it to be a personal thougth.
“Motherfucker this isn’t about Shuca!” Well, maybe not inaudible enough, “It’s about you. I’m a fan of yours. If it weren’t from your hands, I couldn’t give a damn about this ship!”
“How do you manage to switch from Shakespearean-level wordsmith to just a guy in a matter of seconds?”
“Will you be serious for a moment? I’m being vulnerable here!”
“So am I! My face is smushed into your tits as you speak!”
Silence. For a pair that have princess-carried one another, shared drinks, jokingly flirted with each other from time to time, their actions sure only felt real when deliberately pointed out. Vanta immediately loosened his grip, and Wilson backed away in tiny, shuffled steps, nearly tripping over his work chair.
“Did I… overstep?”
“No, I needed that.” No more stupid jokes. No more dishonesty. No more masking his emotions behind exaggerated shouts and inadequate quips. Yu Q. Wilson, coolguy_shuca, whatever the world wishes to call him, sought to only be honest in this fleeting moment, in this quiet room.
“Thank you Vanta. I love how you comfort me. It makes me… honest. If you will.”
Simple words, not embroidered by pretty prose and flowery verses. Wilson thought he was far from that, being able to weave worlds with his pen and tongue, but in this moment, this was all he could manage.
“Only how I comfort you?”
“Huh?”
“You said you would be honest, Wilson.”
“I am.”
“Are you?”
Wilson expected his next “I am” to sound more resolute, just for the two kindergarten-level syllables to be caught in his throat.
“I suppose I haven’t either.”
“What are you getting at, Vanta?”
Vanta buried his face into his hands, groaning long and hard, unable to face Wilson’s clueless expression without being mercilessly attached by second-hand embarrassment.
“Jesus Christ, Wilson, I’m in love with you! Oh my god! Holy shit, how do you write romantic fanfiction then come out of it as dense as a fucking brick!”
“THAT WAS YOUR POINT?” Wilson shouted back, “WELL THEN I LOVE YOU TOO. I GUESS.”
What?
“If all those flirting attempts didn’t work, do I genuinely have to kiss you till you can’t breathe for you to say I love you back firmly?”
“Bring it on then, prove to me that I do love you that m-”
Wilson’s incessant, adrenaline-filled ramble was cut short by Vanta’s lips slamming into his own, cutting him off mid sentence with a touch so domineering yet so passionate all at the same. Was this the equivalent to the glimmers Vanta saw in him when he wrote? Was this the answer to all the skipped heartbeats and the unbearable shortness of breath that he crumpled up and threw away into the corners of his heart?
Maybe it was time to pull them back out. To admit it all. To admit that he had been in love with Vanta all this time.
He kissed back, starting off soft and uncertain just how to move into the rhythm, then slowly syncing his pace to Vanta’s, letting himself met into Vanta’s touch as he continued to lead him to places beyond what words could describe. He was free, finally free of all the struggle.
“Are you out of breath yet?” Vanta broke apart the kiss, though also evidently taking a gasp of air, his cheeks redder than ever.
“I think you’ve proven your point, but I want more of you.”
“Then promise me you’ll go to the con.”
“Scandalous… Coercing your favourite author through intimacy?”
“And will you accept the bribe?”
“Of course.”
“Good.”
Wilson lunged back into the kiss, earning a mischievous look of approval as they sunk into their own world once more. They sunk so deeply, in fact, that they were clueless to the door that swung open boldly then slowly creaked shut, followed by the suspiciously Claude-like and Zali-like whispers of shock and mirth in the dorm corridor.
♡
“So… yeah! I’m in love with you!”
Shu couldn’t hold back his confession anymore. Frankly, he didn’t even know nor plan when he was going to confess. Would it be during the artist alley? No, he didn’t want it to be that big of a scene. How about after the artist alley? They’d both be too tired, or maybe Luca wouldn’t even show up at the artist alley,
Honestly, thinking back, it was probably the stupidest to confess before. If he were to be rejected (Shu did expect that. The moon revolved around the Sun, yet they would never touch. Shu’s social life, entire life even, revolved around his Sun, so honestly he felt like he was already asking for too much to be able to intertwine with someone like Luca.) it would hurt seeing all that fanmerch of his never-to-be relationship in the booths.
Regardless, here he was. Under the trees, in a small, half barren grass patch at the side of the school, like those fanarts he would draw of Vantayu when the audience begged for tooth-rotting fluff. Every dot of shading, every stroke of light, all of it seemed to unknowingly prepare Shu for moments like this, yet Shu felt like he had never walked into a test so empty-headed in his life. He had vomited all of his words to Luca, everything about how safe he felt around him, how bright he made his every day, all the cliches that he would imagine as conversations that went with his fanart. They were all genuine, of course, or he couldn’t capture Vanta and Wilson’s refreshing, summer-like youth that fizzed like soda pops every time they bantered.
Yet this wasn’t about their shades of purple and yellow, this was about his and Luca’s.
“Shu…”
“It’s okay! You can say no!” Chipper. Cheerful. The same smile he put on when things got too tough but he still had to stay on stage during student council duties. A smile he never expected to find the need to use on Luca before.
The worst he can say is no. The worst he can say is no. The worst he can say is no.
“How did you find out? About your feelings?”
There were worse things he could say than no!
“Well!” Shu’s mind raced a hundred miles per hour and his heart raced even faster. What words could he say? There was no precedent of anyone reading gay NSFW fanfiction of themselves and realizing they’ve been yearning to be more than their best friend’s best friend. Was there a script? Could someone pass him one? No? Well that freaking sucked.
“I read something online! Yeah!”
“Of…?”
“Us two.”
Shu slammed his hands over his mouth, his eyes widening before he realized the words that slipped from his tongue. God, as if his chances weren’t low, he’s now put up this blaring red flag for himself. Great.
He was so ready for Luca’s face to twist into disgust, to call him a freak, to maybe report to the school board? His dream relationship was a bust, and so were his positions, his scholarships…
“Oh you mean coolguy_shuca?”
Right. He was there too when Uki exposed the ship to him through the vampire doujinshi.
“Yeah…”
“Honestly, the algorithm is crazy! I knew about that ship before coolguy_shuca blew up because it showed up on my private account. Before you. LMAO.”
“WHAT?”
To have the energy to LMAO out loud after your best friend just admitted to reading RPF of you and then you dropping the bomb that you knew about it before most fans who claimed to be giga coolguy_shuca fan #1 is certainly a talent! Now Shu’s tongue was more tied than before, twisting into knots as he searched his mind for the correct words to match Luca’s airheaded? Braindead? Tempo.
“Did you… read? Any?” Shu cautiously murmured, testing the waters.
“No, just a cuter one like years back. It was unfinished by that time though. Oh, is that what you read?”
“Yeah! Yeah that! That’s how I knew!”
You know what? He did say he could be honest around Luca, but he didn’t say that white lies were off the table. Not in the terms and conditions. No.
“Y’know, Shu? I didn’t know it’d have to take someone to write about us being in love for us to understand everything.”
“I didn’t… think so either. I think I just thought it was all some pipe dream, something impossible, something i can’t- Wait, us?”
Luca chuckled, the beams of sunlight that slipped between the leaves reflecting on his bright, blonde hair. God, he really was the Sun of Shu’s life. “I started thinking way before. The second I saw that account. I thought of how I saw you, and I made up my mind a long time ago that I was in love with you.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was scared! I didn’t want to lose you! If you said no, what then?”
“And why would I say no?”
“I don’t know? Because you’re,” Luca gestured up and down at Shu’s figure, searching for the words to define the perfection that stood before him.
“But you’re also,” Shu did the same, his hands going up and down, finding a loss of words despite having such an abundance for it mere minutes ago.
Wordless communication. The two continued their absurd-looking mating ritual, their eyebrows shooting up and down as if powered by springs, saying nothing at all but trying to convey everything positive. The leaves rustled from the sighing wind, miffed by their ridiculousness.
Then, laughter. Bursts of merriment as Shu and Luca clutched their sides, collapsing onto the grass, smearing their white uniforms with dust and morning dew. Shu leaned over Luca, almost clambering onto him, his eyes curving like the crescent moon, shimmering from the Sun’s glow beneath him.
“Can I?” All the nervousness had melted from their bouts of laughter.
“Sure!”
Shu let himself fall into Luca’s embrace, as the two melted into their first kiss, and the many more to come.
♡
“YOU’RE BANANAFUDANSHI?”
“HOW ARE YOU COOLGUY_SHUCA?”
With the number of anime-like scenarios these two had to go through, they began to suspect whether God was a weeaboo.
To avoid identification, most RPF alley participants had mostly resorted to doing all the logistics work themselves. Same went for these two. Despite the clout, if anything because of the clout, these two especially could not search for any helpers.
Wilson never realized just how heavy it was to carry boxes of books, nor how amazing it was when Vanta just carried these with ease. Whatever. That’s his boyfriend now. He can help him lift all of it around as part of his duties. He just had to get used to the boxes blocking his entire frontal view and make it to his table. Easy enough, right?
“Look out!”
A resounding crash. Scattered books. Spilled over cardboard boxes. And a guy in a… banana onesie? Also surrounded in a mess of his own fanmerch, rubbing his head from the collision.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, let me pick up your things…”
“It’s also my fault, hold up, wait…”
As the two men on the floor rushed to help each other pick up their belongings in a haphazard scramble, they caught a glimpse of what the other was selling.
A keychain, a gag gift probably, of Wilson and Vanta sucking on each other’s lips, just like the viral Kirby GIF, with a watermark that said “bananafudanshi”.
A doujinshi. Or, THE doujinshi of vampire Shu and human Luca, Crimson Encounter, signed in gold with the name coolguy_shuca.
The two of them stared first in shock at what was in their own hands. It wasn’t every day you received the physical merch of you and your not-announced-to-the-world-yet-by-the-time-of-production boyfriend going at it.
Then, they stared at each other. A yellow face mask drawn on sunglasses was dropped next to Mr Banana-Onesie, revealing his full face.
Wilson knew this guy. Shu Yamino, president of the student council, vice president of more school clubs than he could remember. His subject, his muse, the guy who was supposed to only be in his yaoi and then to never cross paths again any more than necessary. Sure, all of that creative juices sparked when he saw how popular Shuca was, but it was also because every time Shu was zooming somewhere, Luca always tailed him like an enthusiastic puppy! Or maybe it was because he entered a classroom when he had to pin some things onto the bulletin board for Zali, only to see Shu playing some horse gacha game while Luca napped on his lap. Or maybe… Maybe… Whatever! Why did that matter! The guy who was currently tripped onto the floor with him, who, he wrote all of this gay sex of, was drawing him having gay sex? All this time?
Shu also gawked at the guy in front of him, his breath bated, as if he were going to melt into goo if he ever stopped tensing up. The guy’s flimsy hoodie had fallen back, and the back up cap that tucked all of his hair in had also failed its job, revealing bright blonde hair of the same hex code that Shu colourpicked from photos that he got by misusing his power (access to unedited yearbook photos).
Shu knew this guy. Yu Q. Wilson. Underclassman of a year below, known to be the popular guy whom so many people desired to aggravate to jokingly get a reaction out of. Shu never talked to him beyond necessary, much less once he started his whole RPF schtick, but had observed him from the corners of the many events he had to be there for, watching him cling onto Vanta like they had some sort of magnetic connection, and Vanta would encourage it by carrying him out in public as if he was staking claim of Wilson before anyone else could. He started the whole Vantayu fad. It was him. It was him! And now he was face to face with Wilson, only with the added knowledge that he was the one who wrote gay porn so good it sorted out all of his frazzled feelings for Luca.
What in the world?
“I… don’t know? What to say? I feel like I’m just saying things to fill the void?” Wilson spluttered, with every statement ending in a higher-sounding note than the last, “It’s fun writing about Shu- well, you? And Luca?”
“And it’s fun to draw you? And Vanta? I like coming up with scenarios about you guys?” Shu wanted to dig a hole into the ground and die right then and there.
The frenzied bustling of the pre-convention rush turned into a blur between them as they struggled for the second time this week to figure out what to say in a situation unique to them and them only. None of them could find any strength in them to move. The world seemed to shake and swim under their feet, impacted by their earth-shattering revelation.
Without any other words, one would guess that there’s only the most important thing left to announce, especially when it came to someone who had been playing digital cupid in the shadows long before you even realized.
“I figured out my feelings with Luca thanks to you and we’re a couple now!”
“You were right about everything, I got together with Vanta!”
“Excuse me?”
“Pardon?”
Wilson felt like he was going to puke out of an adrenaline rush. Shu was about to collapse from a heart attack.
“Did you really…”
“I wouldn’t want you to lie to me about getting together with Vanta either… So I wouldn’t lie about this…”
“And I’m not lying either… He confessed while convincing me to join the alley…”
“I was going to hunt down your booth and thank you somewhat in person for the vampire doujinshi…”
“YOU READ IT?”
“WELL YOU CAN’T SAY ANYTHING IF YOU KNOW THE EXISTENCE OF VANTAYU?”
Muffled yells. Shouts among the other convention participants, perhaps also finding out about each other’s identities, but it didn’t matter. The announcement. Something about how the doors would open in 15 minutes and if their booth wasn’t ready they were doomed. Of course the coolguy_shuca and bananafudanshi booths were not set up. That wasn’t important anymore. To hell with all of that.
The two fanartists, still unable to regain their composure, surrounded by a mess on the floor, were faced with two new truths.
One, their OTP was real. Two, their own ship was real.
Life could not get any better than this.