#THIS IS SUUUUUPER LONG AND ALSO ITS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. HI IM SO TIRED SO .. YEAH please excuse any weird errors i am running on one

[lovecre]

first meetings - edemasu

the first thing masumi ever said to eden was “get out of the way.”

eden was walking down veludo way, luggage in hand, when he was pushed out of the way by a dark-haired boy around his age. the first thing eden noticed about the boy was his face. he had pretty purple eyes, with a beauty mark near his mouth.

his train of thought was shattered when the boy glared at him and snapped at him to get out of the way though. the boy hurried off, not even giving eden a chance to reply.

eden stood there, stunned by the boy’s rudeness. he shook his head trying to not let it get to him. it still stung a bit, but he wasn’t the same kid who would cry at everything.

he kept walking, until he came across his destination. “mankai company. this should be the place.” he muttered to himself. he approached the doors to the theatre dorm, knocking hesitantly.

“excuse me?” he called. “is izumi tachibana there?”

there was a hushed chatter from behind the door, and a tall, brown-haired woman opened the door with a smile. “eden! you’re here!”

he smiled at his older sister. “hi, thank you so much for letting me stay here.”

“of course, of course, come in!” she gestured for her brother to come in. “misumi, can you help eden with his luggage?” she called over her shoulder.

“yeah!” came the enthusiastic reply from an athletic-looking boy. he picked up eden’s bags with ease, and happily rambled about how his luggage had triangles on it.

a pretty man with white hair approached eden with a welcoming smile. “you must be my new roommate, i assume? i’m azuma, it’s lovely to meet you.”

“oh, um, thank you! it’s nice to see- meet you, too!” eden stammered. he always was weak to beautiful faces.

“come on, masumi, you have to greet the director’s brother!” a round-faced, dark pink-haired boy dragged someone familiar into the living room.

“you!” eden stared at the rude boy from before.

“oh, you two…know each other?” izumi asked.

“kind of.” eden stared daggers at masumi. masumi looked away, glaring at the carpet.

izumi, sensing something was wrong, clapped her hands and changed the subject. “um, anyway, i’m making curry for dinner, if anyone’s hungry!”

another boy behind eden groaned dramatically. “that’s the third time we’ve had curry this week!” eden turned around to see a brown haired boy (who, by the way, was wearing the most tacky outfit eden had ever seen,) with a frustrated look on his face.

“well, banri, would you rather make dinner for the whole troupe?” izumi countered.

“pff, i could do it, easy. i just don’t want to.” banri scoffed.

“i’ll make dinner!” another man poked his head through the door. (just how many people were in this dorm, eden wondered?) the man had short, dark brown hair and a scarred face. “really, izumi, i don’t mind. does anyone have requests?”

“i’ll eat your curry.” masumi gazed at izumi, obviously lovesick. “i’ll eat anything you give me.”

eden felt sick. this rude boy was crushing on his big sister? (who, by the way, was way too old for him.) “ah, i’m not very hungry, but thank you for the offer.” he said quietly.

izumi turned around to eden, brows furrowed. she knew that he was usually raring to go for a good meal. “are you alright?”

“just tired from the trip here. i think i’ll go to bed early and get ready to help out with the theatre tomorrow.” he assured her.

izumi frowned. “well, alright… masumi, can you show him to his room? he’s sharing rooms with azuma.”

“but i want to stay with you.” masumi looked like a kicked puppy.

“well, eden needs to get to his room. so help him out, would you?”

“i guess…” masumi sulkily turned around to walk out of the room, motioning for eden to follow him.

“gee, thanks.” eden muttered under his breath.

the walk to the room was completely silent. eden could feel the tension in the air. really, just what in the world had he done to this boy to make him hate him so much?

once they had made it, masumi stalked off, obviously in a bad mood. eden sighed. already off to a bad start.

the next morning, eden was sent to sort out paperwork in the mankai office for the next spring troupe play. the troupe that masumi was in. honestly, how did everything end up tying back to this boy? he sighed to himself. he was sighing a lot nowadays, he found.

the door to the office busted open, making him jump in surprise.

“izumi, i made—“ it was masumi. as soon as he and eden locked eyes, he stopped short. “you’re not izumi.”

“yeah, sorry.” eden had meant for it to sound sarcastic, but it came out more genuine than he had intended.

masumi’s expression darkened. he plopped a bento box, presumably for izumi, on the desk. “don’t touch this, it’s for izumi.” he went to walk out the door and paused. “don’t get to close to her just because you’re her brother.” he added, and slammed the door closed,

eden stared at the door. what? no, seriously, WHAT? this boy was out of his damn mind.

after he proved to be terrible with paperwork, (his attention span was just too short) he was assigned to help the actors with their roles for the next two weeks.

most of the spring troupe members were fairly civil, doing their best for their roles, (chikage was… a bit difficult at first. probably because eden kept mentally laughing at his hair and couldn’t focus.) except masumi. he refused to listen to eden simply because he wasn’t izumi.

“masumi, come on, please just rehearse your lines.” eden begged masumi. “this is going nowhere, i can’t go get izumi because she has a job, too.”

“don’t care.” masumi refused to even look at eden.

eden took a shaky breath. he was so frustrated he was near tears at this point. he couldn’t cry, especially not in front of this boy. he couldn’t show weakness.

“please,” he managed. “tell me.” he squeezed his eyes shut, willing the tears to go away. “what the hell did i ever do to you to have you hate me this much?”

masumi finally looked up. his eyes were wide. “are you… crying?” he asked.

“NO!” eden blurted out. “i’m not… crying. just answer the question. please.”

masumi frowned. “i’m not telling you. i want to talk to izumi, not you.”

that was it. eden turned away from masumi quickly so he couldn’t see his ugly crying. “i’m leaving.” he choked out, quickly walking out of the room.

“what—“

eden didn’t give him a chance to finish, shutting the door in his face. he kept his head hung low, practically running to his room. a couple of troupe members tried to stop him on the way, but he ignored them. he couldn’t let anyone see him cry.

he slammed the door. thankfully azuma wasn’t there, as he was out shopping with sakuya.

he hunched over on the sofa he was sleeping on, (they hadn’t installed another bed yet) quietly trying to force himself not to cry.

after a few hours, he found himself waking up, still in his day clothes in the sofa. it was dark outside. he must have fallen asleep while crying. he sat up groggily. he was hungry, really hungry. he wandered into the kitchen, trying to be as silent as possible. he reached into the fridge to make a sandwich or something, when a voice startled him from behind.

“what are you doing?”

eden froze. he stood up, not facing masumi. “getting food.” he answered curtly.

“in the middle of the night?” masumi asked skeptically.

“so?” eden still wouldn’t face him. “what are you doing up?”

“…” masumi didn’t answer.

eden kept making his sandwich in silence.

“sorry.” masumi suddenly said.

eden turned to look at him. “sorry?” he repeated.

“for… you know. making you cry.” masumi looked uncomfortable. “uh… izumi told me to apologize to you. so. there.”

of course. of course he didn’t come to apologize on his own. of course izumi had to tell him.

“it’s whatever.” eden turned away again. he took a deep breath, and reached into his pocket for his phone. he put on some cheap earbuds and unpaused one of his playlists.

“you listen to that artist too?” masumi spoke up.

“…yeah, why?” eden paused the music.

“uh…nothing, i just noticed is all.” masumi mumbled, turning his gaze to the floor.

“…do you want to listen together?” eden questioned.

masumi’s eyes widened. “you’d be okay with that?”

“sure.” eden walked over to the couch and patted the seat next to him, holding out an earbud.

masumi hesitantly sat next to him, taking the earbud out of his hand.

the two sat quietly for a few minutes, letting the music play.

“this ones my favorite,” eden finally said.

“mine too.” masumi had the faintest hint of a smile on his face.

the duo went quiet again.

“what’s your favorite candy?” eden asked.

“i like grape flavored things.” masumi mumbled. “i also like chocolate.”

“i like chocolate too, but who doesn’t, really?” eden mused. “i also like strawberry flavored things. and peach.”

masumi started to smile again. “peach? gross.”

“hey.” eden gently elbowed him. “peaches are great, i won’t stand for this slander.”

“i’ll slander them all i want, peaches suck.”

the two spent a while going back and forth, asking the other’s favorite food, color, animal, and so on.

eventually, eden fell asleep on masumi’s shoulder. masumi let him stay there.

as eden slept, masumi reflected on what had transpired during the past few hours. izumi never asked him what his favorite things were. it felt nice to be asked these things. he liked sharing music with eden, too. izumi never shared music with him.

eden did, though. maybe eden was okay. better than he thought, at least.

maybe he would get a peach candy for him the next time he was out at the store.

maybe.

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