Suzuki Shou groaned dramatically as he threw one arm over his face. “Ritsu, it’s so hot I’m literally going to die,” he declared.
“Don’t be so dramatic, Shou,” Ritsu replied, rolling his eyes, though it was clear he was sweating just as much. He was wearing a tank top that left his arms gloriously bare, and Shou stared out of the corner of his eye as his friend was occupied with his phone. He wanted to blame these thoughts on the heat, but this wasn’t the first time he’d noticed things like this about his best friend. It was just somehow ten times harder to deal with in the heat. Ritsu absently pulled his shirt up to wipe at the sweat on his face, revealing a strip of his flat, toned stomach. Shou barely managed to stifle the embarrassing squeak he made by stuffing his entire fist against his mouth.
“Are you okay?” Ritsu asked, looking up from his phone. Shou tried to school his face into something resembling nonchalance, but he had a feeling he failed miserably.
“I’m fine,” he managed, finally. “It’s just, y’know, hot.”
“I know,” Ritsu said. He tried to look exasperated, but couldn’t quite keep the smile off his face.
“Ah!” Shou exclaimed. “Do you have any popsicles in the freezer? Those’ll help us cool down.”
“I think so,” Ritsu answered.
It wasn’t until they had trooped down to the freezer, retrieved their popsicles, and returned upstairs to eat them that Shou realized he’d made a grave miscalculation. Instead of cooling off, he felt his face get hotter has he couldn’t help but notice Ritsu licking at his popsicle and licking his own lips out of the corner of his eye.
“Let’s watch a movie,” he suggested as they finished off the popsicles, desperately hoping it would actually be able to distract him.
“Sure,” Ritsu replied. “You can pick,” he added. Shou picked a movie he liked, hoping it would be able to hold his attention, but it didn’t quite work out. Every time he made a comment on the movie, he found himself looking over at Ritsu to see his reaction. And it didn’t help that they were pressed together from shoulder to thigh in order to watch the movie on his laptop. Once they got to the action scenes, he finally started getting into it, at least until he heard a soft huff of laughter at his side. He turned to see Ritsu looking at him and laughing quietly, attempting to hide his expression behind his hand. This was too much for Shou’s poor, overworked systems, and he thought he might pass out from heatstroke right then and there, but instead he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
“Date me,” he said, and then immediately slapped a hand over his mouth.
“What was that?” Ritsu asked, thankfully seeming to have missed that embarrassing statement. Shou removed his hand from his mouth to try over again.
“You’re cute,” is what came out. This time he slapped both hands over his mouth.
“Thanks?” Ritsu said, looking confused, but he was also blushing, so that was a good sign, right?
“You wanna, uhhhh, see a movie some time?” he finally managed to ask.
“We’re watching a movie right now,” Ritsu said, gesturing towards the laptop.
“I mean like, k’know,” he paused for a long moment, “a date.” He stared hard at the computer screen so he wouldn’t have to decipher Ritsu’s expression.
“That would be nice,” Ritsu replied finally, and when Shou looked over, his normally pale face was even more flushed. His own face felt like it was on fire as he remembered once again how close they were sitting. They looked at each other for a long moment before they leaned in at the same time, bumping their mouths together too hard to be considered an actual kiss. They both burst into nervous laughter, and Shou suddenly had a strong urge to use his powers to disappear. But then Ritsu was looking at him again with a serious expression that was somehow different from the ones he’d seen before.
“Can we try that again?” he asked quietly. Shou just nodded enthusiastically, not trusting his voice not to crack and embarrass him. Ritsu looked from his eyes down to his lips, before darting his tongue over his own lips. This time he reached over with one hand, holding Shou’s face still as he leaned in. The kiss was warm and a little bit wet and tasted of popsicles as their lips met softly. Shou sighed contentedly as he rested his hands on Ritsu’s shoulders. They missed the rest of the movie.
