skip, step, turn♪
「tenshouin eichi x vivian // kiteichi」 ↳ commission for @yumebait ! wc: 1842 a/n: yay more kieichi! some angst lingering between the lines, but i hope you enjoy all the same! thank you for commissioning me, viv!
“Eichi—Eichi, are you awake?”
Wispy and nearly muted, Vivian called out to her childhood friend settled next to her in the king-sized bed; and when she heard silence, she knew she had to make the venture out of the bedroom alone.
The incredibly daunting venture.
What if she ran into one of Eichi’s family members? Or the on-site staff? They’ll look at her like she’s a nugatory bug worth no more than the dirt beneath their shoes as they always do whenever their haughty eyes meet hers.
Swallowing anxiously, the seam of her throat exacerbating in dryness, Vivian slowly slipped out from underneath the covers and left the only safe spot she knew in this mansion.
Vivian still hadn’t retained the layout of Eichi’s capacious home, and she knew for a fact that she was going to get lost at some point.
Crystals and ornate glass sculptures reflected purity all around her—or rather, perhaps, it was a lack thereof as it all felt so hollow. Even if her countenance was mirrored in the pellucid ornaments, Vivian surmised it didn’t seem right because she knew that Eichi truly doesn’t feel at home here.
Continuing to wander the contrived hallways with a sense of wonderment for the decorations, trying to navigate each lengthy stretch, Vivian felt utterly hopeless.
All she wanted was a glass of water⋯!
Vivian peered into a random room, discerning what appeared to be a bedroom within—although it seemed as if it was memorialised with the clear tarpaulins enveloping each piece of furniture. It clearly hadn’t been used in a long, long time.
And she kept discovering more and more rooms like that.
The entire house felt so empty, unlived in. The thought made Vivian sad, believing that even Eichi’s home imitated the vacant hospitals he was often confined to against his own will. Were all rich people so thoughtless with their homes? Aren’t homes supposed to parallel a feeling of solace and closeness?
Upon meandering some more, Vivian made her way into a grandiose room—veneered on the walls were ostentatious designs of unbridled luxury, golden and white in colour. Of course. Multiple chandeliers were casted from the high-rise ceiling; it was almost too much.
With the beams of moonlight filtering through the diaphanous curtains, Vivian for a moment felt like an itinerant princess in olden fairy tales.
Ambling into the middle of the space, Vivian couldn’t help but twirl fatuously to revel in the ambiance that would never belong to her. Yet the daydream was interrupted by the creaking of the doors, the clamour resounding and echoing not only throughout the room, but in the crevice of her chest.
Preparing to throw herself to the floor in shame and apols, Vivian scrutinised Eichi as the one stepping inside. Wasn’t he asleep?
“Vivian, here you were,” Eichi laughed, padding into the ballroom to come closer to her, “I woke up and you weren’t there. I was lonely, you know.”
“Not worried?” Vivian bantered back with a sheepish chortle, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she realised he caught her playing around like a child.
“Well, I know you’d be safe in the Tenshouin home, so no; I wasn’t worried♪” Eichi said as he marvelled at her alluring movements, the sight of her embarrassed visage made his skin tingle with a featherlike ripple.
Once Eichi reached her side, Vivian could perceive the lurid exhaustion rimming his blue irises; and she thought that he shouldn’t have gotten up to look for, even if the gesture made her nerves burst with exultation.
“I see you found the ballroom.”
“Are you sure you don’t live in a castle?”
Shaking his head, Eichi swept his gaze upwards; an almost wistful glisten shining in his eyes. “It must feel like that to you. What do you think? Do you like it?”
There seemed to be some sort of implication in his question, with how he spoke it so subduedly and yet with a barely concealed yearning.
“Do I like it? Well, I don’t think it matters?” Vivian softly began, although she knew she always dreamed of being like a real princess⋯ walking through the halls earlier just made her sick to her stomach. “I think I’d only like it if you were constantly by my side.”
Quickly, Vivian realised what nuance those words might’ve held, and got flustered over the notion that Eichi might catch on to the wrong idea. “L-Like, or a staff member? Who needs big hallways like that to make yourself just feel smaller, you know?!”
A gale of effervescent laughter oozed from Eichi’s vocals, the noise resonating with Vivian’s timorous feelings and making her heart flutter. “That’s a good way to put it,” Eichi couldn’t help but affirm her thoughts, “it’s like imagining an idol on stage with no one in the audience.”
“That would never happen to you!” Vivian felt the overwhelming need to reassure Eichi, a firm and staunch worry laced in her voice; so completely protective over his well-being. “I’d always be watching you! I promise!”
A genuine smile curved on Eichi’s lips as his precious childhood friend avowed her loyalty to his career; to him.
Eichi strode further into the ballroom, admiring it for all that it is—and isn’t. A snapshot of a desolate venue coruscated across his vision, his gut twisting with wretched inquietude. For Eichi, it wasn’t only himself he concerned himself with⋯ it was all idols.
“That makes me happy. I’d be able to give it my all if you were in the audience at every performance,” airy and light, Eichi said that to her; another heap of a faraway longing glazing over his eyes. “But I know it’s impossible for you to be at every single one as much as I wish for it.”
Feeling her heart squeeze, Vivian made a silent pledge to herself to do her best to fulfil that wish—even if it seemed impossible. After all, the princesses in every fairy tale always find a way! Although, maybe her role was better fitted for the loyal sidekick⋯⋯
“What’s with that sad expression, Vivian?”
“O-Oh, nothing⋯!” Vivian hastily dismissed his solicitousness, before saying, “We should head back to bed, right? It’s not good for you to be missing sleep like this.”
“You got up from bed for a reason, didn’t you? Besides, I heard that staying up late to cause chaos is commonplace for sleepovers, fufu♪” Eichi was insouciant, impervious to the concern in her words and she didn’t know why.
“I just wanted a glass of water,” Vivian shyly laughed at the thought. “I ended up finding this place instead.”
For a moment, Eichi looked lost in thought.
“Before we head back, why don’t we take advantage of having the ballroom to ourselves?” Eichi queried, extending out a hand to her, “Usually it’s filled with both familiar and unfamiliar faces; strangers I’m supposed to pretend to know, when I never truly will.”
That statement along only accentuated the loneliness Vivian knew Eichi was endlessly plagued with, and she reached forward on a rupture of courage to seize his hand into her own as he offered it. “I-I don’t really remember a lot of the fancy dance moves you taught me, but I’d love to dance with you, Eichi!”
Those were the words he wanted to hear.
“We don’t have anyone to play music for us, so I’ll hum, how does that sound?” Eichi asked whilst gently pulling Vivian back into the middle of the dance floor.
Nodding her head eagerly, Vivian chirped, “Perfect! Your singing voice is so pretty anyway.”
Vivian was sincere in her plaudit, trying her best to stave off the embarrassment beginning to swell in her gut as she felt Eichi press his body against hers.
Guiding her hands around him, placing them on his shoulder and into her hand, Eichi leaned down and whispered in her ear, hot breath fanning over the shuddering lobe, “Are you ready?”
Humming once she quietly voiced her willingness, Eichi’s euphonious and mellow voice filled the room; imbuing grace and pulchritude in the clefts of solitude and emptiness.
The two of them were garbing their pyjamas in the middle of an exalted ballroom, streams of glorious moonlight highlighting their frames as they slowly began to move together in tandem with Eichi’s beats.
There was something so cherished and splendid about the scene.
And for a moment, with the light shining upon his mien, Vivian thought she saw Eichi blushing. Was he feeling just as self-conscious as she was? Being this close to Eichi in such an intimate setting⋯ it made her heart take flight. Was that weird of her? But what if he was feeling the same? No way⋯ they’re just friends.
“Ah, Vivian, it’s a step back here,” Eichi genteely corrected her, albeit she heard a tincture of mirth underscoring his tone. As if he was covertly amused by her faults.
“I-It is⋯?!” she squeaked, desperately trying to fix her posture and steps. How many times had Eichi taught her this simple dance? And yet she can never get it right. It wasn’t her fault, she thought, having him stare at her with such rapt attention as they dance was making her too tense and nervous. “Sorry⋯”
“Fufu, don’t apologise. It’s cute to watch you being all fidgety♪” Eichi’s voice is hushed in the air as he took a cursory moment to respond to her, his singing stopping; yet he was still able to guide her immaculately as if it never did stop at all.
Beneath her flustered state, Vivian couldn’t help but be in awe at how impressive Eichi was. Even though he looks patently exhausted, he’s still able to effortlessly swirl her around to perfection whilst talking; balancing all that on himself.
“Geez, d-don’t call me that!”
“Cute? But you are,” Eichi innocently remarked, although he was anything but. “Can’t someone compliment his favourite friend?”
Ah, right. Stop getting ahead of yourself, Vivian. She chastised herself, telling herself it was completely normal for friends to compliment each other. As a plethora of thoughts gyrated in Vivian’s head, it only magnified her diffidence.
Abruptly, and not in accordance with the dance he taught her, Eichi spun Vivian and dipped her; displaying his strength, discombobulating her and causing her to yelp.
“You’re making that face again, Vivian,” Eichi started, almost tentatively, and kept her suspended in the air as he supported her with all his might. “I suppose it’s rude to comment so often on a lady’s appearance, though. I’m sorry.”
But for Eichi, it was difficult. He was ceaselessly paying attention to Vivian’s diverging faces and expressions, but he could never tell her why.
Bringing her back onto her feet, Eichi wondered why the distance between them suddenly felt so large. Their bodies were flush against one another, with Eichi feeling her heat and how the fabric of their silken pyjamas slid together with every motion they make together, yet he couldn’t reach into her mind; her heart.
This home of his is truly lonely, isn’t it?
