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Ryuji was not the person in his relationship with a healthy sleep schedule. He didn’t pull all nighters to play video games nearly as much any more, but if you asked any of their friends which of them was better at getting a good amount of sleep, they’d all say Ren, Ryuji included. Morgana had trained him well. That’s why it was surprising that when Ryuji had gone to bed at midnight with a promise from his boyfriend that he’d follow along shortly, it was surprising to wake up just past two alone with the other side of the bed cold and empty.
With only a small bit of reluctance, he slides out of bed in search of his boyfriend. It’s not hard to locate him with the kitchen light spilling into the hallway of their little apartment. It’s clear before he even reaches the room that he’s not the only one who wants Ren in bed. “You should be sleeping. It’s way past time for bed.” He hears Morgana insist sleepily.
“I need things to be perfect. These are my first potential clients.” There’s a frustrated sort of panic in his response.
“There’s no way it’s not already perfect.” The cat whines. “Please, go back to bed. It’s already tomorrow!”
Ryuji takes this as his sign to intervene. If Morgana, custodian of bedtime, was having trouble getting Ren to listen, he could probably use a hand. “Why didn’t anyone invite me to the two a.m. kitchen party?” He asks through a yawn.
Ren jolts at the announcement of his presence. Morgana looks relieved as he gets up with a big stretch. “Oh good, you’re awake. He won’t listen to me! It’s your turn to try and convince him to go to sleep.” The feline trots off in the direction of the bedroom. He stops to give one last pointed look at Ryuji. “I better not have to drag both of you to bed.”
“Shaddup.” Morgana ignores the protest in order to pursue sleep of his own. Ryuji just rolls his eyes and turns his attention to actual important things, like his boyfriend who may or may not be entering a panic spiral in their kitchen. Ryuji snakes his arms around Ren’s waist, resting his chin on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “So, you gonna tell me what’s so important that ya had to make it in the middle of the night?”
“I’m supposed to meet Narukami-san and Hanamura-san tomorrow so they can sample food for the catering.”
This was not news to Ryuji; the couple for whom Ren was catering their wedding were a familiar subject of conversation. “Yeah? I thought you had all the prep work done for that already?”
“I did. But I decided I needed a dessert. So, truffles.” He gestures with his messy hands to the confections in front of him. Even as he explains grabs a ball of the chocolate mixture and rolls it between his palms.
It’s only the third one finished and the large mixing bowl is still full. “How much more do you still have to do to finish these?”
“Just rolling them and then putting everything in the fridge.” He says with a shrug.
“Would it go faster with more hands?”
“Yeah.”
Ryuji starts rolling up his sleeves. “Looks we’re making chocolates, then.” Ren freezes mid roll to watch Ryuji wash his hands. He doesn’t start moving again until the blonde makes his way over to the bowl. “So, you gonna show me how it’s done, or am I just wingin’ it?” A grateful Ren walks him through it, and the two of them work in companionable silence for a while before Ryuji finally broaches the subject of why they’ve suddenly branched into candy making. “So how come you decided to make chocolates out of the blue? Isn’t the dessert usually done by someone else besides the caterer?”
“Yeah. But what if the food isn’t enough? Maybe they won’t like it and they’ll go with someone else. So I just...had to do more. If I go above and beyond their expectations, it’ll make my stuff stand out more. I mean, maybe they’ll decide they want a dessert table, and then they’ll already know I can do it.”
“Come on, there’s no way they won’t love your food, man. They’ll take one bite and be fallin’ all over themselves to get you to cater their wedding. And that’s gonna go so well, they’ll recommend you to everyone they know and you’ll be swimming in orders. I bet Boss’ll have to hire an actual part timer, you’ll be so busy.”
Ren had already looked much calmer as they worked, and even more so as they continue talking. He shoots Ryuji a rueful smile. “Can you apply some of this confidence to yourself?”
“Hey, we’re not talking about me right now. If I’m ever in a panic spiral in the middle of our kitchen at 2am, you’re welcome to come talk some sense into me. Until then, we’re talking about you.”
“You know I love you, right?”
“Course I do. And I love you, too, man.” They plop the last of their truffles on the tray, Ren’s perfect ball next to Ryuji’s lopsided creation. “Look at that! All done, and it’s not even three yet. We make a good team.” He eyes the candies. “It’s almost a shame we have to wait to see how they really turned out. Don’t wanna taste ‘em when they’re still all soft.
Ren pulls out the first tray they’d placed in the fridge. “Wanna test them out? Just to be sure they’re good.” His boyfriend asks, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
Ryuji takes the offered chocolate. “Damn, this is good. If they don’t want this at their wedding, maybe we should have it at ours.”
“Our wedding, huh? Is this a proposal?” Ren asks with a wry smile. It’s not the first time Ryuji’s practically proposed over Ren’s cooking.
The blonde puffs up his chest. “Nah, my proposal is gonna be way better than that. I’ll blow your mind with how romantic I am.” It may have been something he’d already thought about a lot, so there was no way he was gonna blow it while they’re standing in their kitchen at three in the morning with their hands covered in chocolate.
“That’s assuming I don’t propose first. Maybe I will. Maybe I’m already planning on it.” Ren teases.
“What, is this a competition now? Because I’ll totally win, man.”
“Challenge accepted.” He says leaning into Ryuji’s side as they finish cleaning up. When the two of them finally climb into bed near a grumbling Morgana, Ryuji quickly drifts back to sleep to the thought that he needs to make use of the ring tucked in the back of his sock drawer sooner rather than later. He’s not about to lose, after all.