#bruisedpsyches

     Alice wanted to catch him off guard, hoping she would see him blush or even laugh. But he’s frowning and it makes her think that she might have crossed a line. She doesn’t get a chance to apologize before she’s being twirled, the kiss to her forehead making her cheeks grow hot. 

What was a pup doing here of all places? Wassim had found an abandoned wooden house in the forest, thinking no sane human would decide to ‘explore’ such a suspicious place. Wassim wasn’t worried himself, as he could more than perfectly well defend himself. A young girl however? Now that, in his eyes, wasn’t smart of her at all. 

“Ruru why are you sulking? I said that you’re amazing and I mean it.“ she is dead serious.

@bruisedpsyches

          he turned his face to meet the other’s eyes, his own pair glinting with the same playfulness and one raised brow added on top. “ no snappy remarks today, kid?”  he brought his glass of scotch on the rocks to his lips, softly humming all the while, “ what gives?”

(   ✿   ) HONESTLY, HE GETS A BIT DISTRACTED at times. It can’t be helped in the way his mind gets so caught up in what he was doing at the moment; currently it was emailing new clients and scheduling. Not the FUNNEST thing about his job, but emails pile up by the end of the week so the tattooist was eager to hop on it while still given the free time. 

However he is JOLTED from his thoughts the moment a voice rouses from behind him and Mae is laughing to himself at how startled he’d managed to get from the SUDDEN VOICE just behind him. So he’s smiling to himself before turning around in his seat to chance a glance to his companion for the evening... before their words really began to sink into him. He’s already addressing the question, motioning to his laptop and he speaks, “Fine, just emailing--” And then he really realizes what’s been said. And honestly, pallid cheeks have never been so quick to flushing carmine like the did in that exact moment. 

“The-- The most-- Ryouta...” If Ryou was awaiting a response, it would take some amount of time for it the artist to be able to make his thoughts unjumbled. Instead, they’re nothing but a bunch of FRAGMENTS & VOWELS before a raven head shakes from his own small embarrassed laugh. “Mon amie, that’s-- quite the exaggeration, don’t you think? Your kind words... really spoil me...”

“I can excuse you breaking into my apartment on accident, making Kuma love you, and destroying my blender. But I can’t excuse how you ate the last of red bean buns. You have broke this camel’s back, and you have to pay for your crimes.” Yes, she was completely serious as she folds up a thick magazine in her grip.

(   ✿   ) RYOU’S NEVER BEEN THE ONE WITH A FILTER was he? Sure, things did catch his tongue, but Mae never found anything the man to say ever be assumed false or said just to get a rise out of someone simply FOR THE HELL OF IT. No-- Ryou was someone very different; so uniquely and honestly genuine in his own charming way. He did was he did and said what he said-- and MEANT IT. Right? At least, That’s how Mae’s come to appreciate him in this unabashed authenticity.

Tonight is routine for them. They spend evening at one another’s place every now and again; this time, Mae at Ryou’s. The artist’s own type of mess of sketches and miscellaneous papers laid about as he was figuring his clientele and scheduling while Ryouta himself retreated to the balcony to redeem his own bit of sanity in the early morning. One in which Mae would have to KINDLY DECLINE-- he was never much of a smoker (honestly, his asthma wouldn’t allow it even if he was). 

So it’s with gentle curiosity that he allows his eyes to train over the retreating figure and admire the briskness of the air that decides to WELCOME THEM on that early morning. It’s about when the artist is wiping the SLEEP from his eyes when he hears the man opposite him begin to speak-- and if he hadn’t included Mae in his sentence, the tattooist would have thought Ryouta was speaking to himself with how soft his voice drops. It feels so insanely personal that even Mae himself feels like he’s LISTENING IN on a conversation that he shouldn’t...

So teeth GENTLY WORRY at his bottom lip as he rises to his feet because he feels the need to dip in close to the man who has managed to capture his full attention with few fleeting words. It made perfect sense and Mae smiles something soft in validation to the earnest question between them. Ryou is INCREDIBLY COMPLEX and he doesn’t even realize it and Mae tries his best to decipher whatever is offered to him if he allows it. What Mae feels for Ryou are a multitude of things he’d love to speak over-- but he’d never be one to impede his thoughts over Ryou’s - who clearly struggles with his own in their wake.

Instead, he’d rather take all the time in the world that Ryouta needed to figure out-- whatever he needed to figure out.  So an outstretched hand comes to gently soothe against the other’s back, 

       “I think it makes perfect sense... Wanna come back inside... and talk about it a little more...? Then we can come out and watch the sunrise together, oui?”