Work Text
It was a quiet Sunday night, and Shou was just about ready to crash for the evening. This whole “going to school like a normal kid” thing was great in a lot of ways, but he could really do without having to get up at the ass of morning. He was already up way later than he should be; one minute, he’d been telling his mom he’d just finish one more dungeon in his game and then he’d go to bed, and then the next minute, it was two in the morning and his mom had gone to bed hours ago. Whoops.
He yawned and pushed his bedroom door open, ready to fall in bed and have a peaceful, restful night, and-
“Suzuki.”
Shou did not jump or scream, but he did drop into a defensive position, aura at the ready to charge a blast. A flash of another esper’s aura lit up his room, throwing up a mosaic of blue and purple. Hey, wait, Shou knew that aura.
“What the
hell,
Ritsu?” Shou stopped charging an attack, and once he was certain he wasn’t about to get punched in the face, Ritsu dropped his barrier. “What are you doing in my room in the middle of the night? How did you even get in here?”
“Through your window.” Ritsu pointed behind himself, and sure enough, Shou’s window was wide open. He sure as hell did not leave it like that earlier.
“Did you break in?” Shou exclaimed in an affronted shout-whisper, extremely aware that his mom was asleep on the other side of his wall.
“It’s not like I broke anything,” Ritsu said, defensive. “I just opened it with my powers.”
“Dude,” Shou let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “When I want to hang out, I knock on your door like a normal person.”
“Yeah, the door that you burnt down.”
“I put it back together eventually!” Ritsu snorted, and Shou couldn’t bring himself to be mad at him for long. Still, he was confused as to what the fuck Ritsu was doing there at two in the morning. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have school in the morning?”
It was dark in his room, but there was enough light for Shou to see the glint in Ritsu’s eyes. Shou was a fan of that particular look on Ritsu’s face. It usually preceded him saying something uniquely unhinged or doing something impulsive. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, Shou was always happy to be along for the ride. “I need you to help me steal a snake,” Ritsu said with the blunt, matter-of-factness he delivered all his unhinged nonsense with.
Shou blinked. He knew Ritsu liked snakes; they’d gotten on the topic of pets when Shou introduced him to his hamsters, and Ritsu had mentioned wanting a snake someday. In the moment, Shou thought he’d said it as a joking threat to the hamsters' well-being, but he soon realized that no, Ritsu genuinely really liked reptiles, snakes in particular. That still didn’t explain why he’d be at Shou’s house in the middle of the night, suggesting snake theft, though. “Like, from the woods? Wouldn’t it be easier to do that in the daytime?”
“What? No, not from the woods.” Ritsu crinkled his nose like
Shou
was the weird one here. “From the pet store.”
“Okay.
Why?”
“Because,” Ritsu said, scowling, “They’re keeping a ball python in a tank that’s way too small, and we need to rescue it. And you’re the only person I know who can turn invisible.”
“You only want my help because of my powers and not because you want your best friend along for shenanigans? You wound me, Ritsu!” Shou cried out, clutching his chest dramatically. Ritsu rolled his eyes, but a grin pulled at his lips anyway. Shou snickered. Ritsu might be the one more likely to come up with insane best friend activities, but Shou was happy to enable him. “Alright, give me a second to get myself together, and then we’ll head out.”
It took no time for them to pull on their shoes – Shou was amused to notice that even though Ritsu saw no problems with breaking into his house in the middle of the night, he was still polite enough to take his shoes off when inside – and then Shou was following Ritsu out the window. Although it was cooler outside than it had been earlier in the day, it was still muggy with the humidity that warned of a thunderstorm coming soon. For now, though, the sky was clear, and running after Ritsu created enough of a breeze to ease the humidity. Ritsu had mentioned asking Teru to teach him how to use his powers to move quickly about a month ago, and Shou finally got to see the outcome of those lessons.
Damn,
he could be fast when he wanted to be. Shou was almost out of breath when they skidded to a stop outside the pet store.
“So, what’s the plan?” Shou asked, bouncing lightly from one leg to the other. He wasn’t sure if it was the giddiness of being up in the middle of the night or the adrenaline of knowing they were about to get up to some grade-A mischief, but based on how Ritsu was subtly rocking on his heels, they were in a fun little feedback loop of excitement.
“You turn us both invisible. I’ll unlock the doors with my powers. I already figured out where the security cameras are, so we should make sure those aren’t working once we’re in.”
“Ritsu!” Shou exclaimed, just barely remembering to keep his voice down so as not to wake anyone up in the nearby apartments. “Have you been casing this place?” he asked, delighted.
“Obviously,” Ritsu said, though Shou could tell he was embarrassed even in the low light. “It would be pretty stupid to do this without knowing anything about the place.”
“Right, like nothing else about this is stupid and impulsive,” Shou teased, earning him an eye roll. Shou laughed and reached out for his hand. “Alright, lead the way.”
Ritsu took his hand, and Shou bent the light around them so they’d be invisible. He followed Ritsu’s lead towards the doors and watched the lock glow blue before clicking unlatched. Once they were inside, Ritsu quietly indicated the security cameras, and they made quick work of disabling them. Certain they wouldn’t be seen, Shou stopped bending the light, and Ritsu tugged him over to the snake section.
Shou was not a snake expert, but even he could tell the tank was way too small. He wouldn’t put his hamsters in an enclosure that small, much less a four foot long python. Ritsu slid the tank open, then reached in and gently extracted the snake. It curled around his hand and forearm and curiously flicked its tongue out at him. Ritsu stuck out his tongue in response.
“I think it likes you. You’re like a damn snake whisperer,” Shou said, reaching over to run his fingers over its scales. Ritsu rewarded him with one of his rare grins. “So, what now?”
“Now we take it back to my place,” Ritsu said, still mostly focused on watching the snake wind its way around his arm.
“Are you just going to let it roam around your house? Bold move, Ritsu. I’m sure that won’t freak your parents out at all.” Though, to be fair, he wasn’t sure there was much that fazed the Kageyamas these days.
“What? No, don’t be an idiot. I already have a tank and everything.” He lifted up the python and draped it over his shoulders, still not really paying attention to Shou.
“You have a snake tank but no snake?” Shou asked, puzzled.
“My parents got it for my birthday. They said they’d provide the supplies if I got the snake myself.”
“Your birthday,” Shou repeated blankly. He blinked, then grabbed Ritsu’s arm. “It’s your birthday?!”
“Shh!” Ritsu hushed him, gesturing to the snake on his shoulders. “You’ll scare her!”
“Your dad’s a jerk,” Shou told the snake, then continued shaking Ritsu with a slightly more hushed yell. “You didn’t tell me it was your birthday!”
“I thought you knew!” Ritsu protested, trying to shield his snake from getting caught in the crossfire.
“Why would I know if you didn’t tell me?!”
“You knew where I lived without me telling you!”
Shou opened his mouth, then closed it. He groaned and leaned his head on Ritsu’s shoulder, avoiding crushing the snake’s tail. “I didn’t even get you a gift,” he whined.
“You don’t have to get me something, Suzuki. It’s not like I’m having a party or anything.” Shou peeked up at him and found Ritsu avoiding his gaze. “I, uh. I was kind of thinking of this as my birthday celebration.”
Shou stared at him, then slowly smiled. “You were?” Ritsu nodded, still pointedly not looking at him. “Aw, Ritsu! Of course you’d celebrate your birthday by using your powers to break and enter.”
“Shut up,” Ritsu grumbled, more embarrassed than anything. “Are you going to come with me to get her set up at my house?”
Shou considered it for less than a second, then agreed. He was already going to be running on too little sleep the next day. Might as well commit!
They sneaked into Ritsu’s room via his balcony, since he’d left his door conveniently unlocked. Just like he said, he already had a huge tank set up next to his bookshelves. While Shou watched him set up the heat emitter at one end of the tank, he was struck by an idea. “Hey, do you have any blank journals?” he asked, keeping his voice down so as not to wake the rest of Ritsu’s family. Ritsu sent him a suspicious glance, then indicated a stack of journals on his desk. Shou grabbed the one on top, stole a pen, then plopped down on Ritsu’s bed and got to work.
Ritsu took his time making the tank as perfect as possible, then watched his snake adjust to her new environment for a few minutes, but Shou still wasn’t done when Ritsu finally flopped down on the bed next to him. He angled the journal away from Ritsu when he tried to peer over at what he was doing, making Ritsu huff in annoyance.
If Shou had his way, he probably would’ve spent hours on this piece. Unfortunately, his best friend for some reason decided that mentioning his birthday wasn’t important, so he couldn’t fuss over it for too long. He drew the finishing touches, then ripped the page out of the journal and presented it to Ritsu: a candid sketch of him and his new snake, captured when he was peering fondly down at her exploring her new tank.
“Is this for my birthday?” Ritsu sounded surprised, staring down at the drawing.
“Yup. Since you didn’t give me any time to get you anything good, you’re stuck with a lazy drawing,” Shou said, scratching the back of his neck.
“This is really good,” Ritsu said, so genuine it made Shou’s cheeks pink. Of course, he had to go and ruin it by pointing at himself in the drawing and saying, “Is my hair really that spiky?”
“Don’t act like you don’t do it on purpose, Ritsu,” Shou teased, back in more comfortable territory. “I bet you spike it up with your powers every morning.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ritsu said
far
too quickly.
“Wait, seriously? I was joking, do you really do that?” Shou laughed, and Ritsu put his whole hand over his mouth to make him shut up.
“Be quiet!” Ritsu hissed, looking mortified. “You’ll wake my family up.” Shou lowered his volume, but he still grinned at him.
“It’s okay, your secret is safe with me. I use my powers when I’m out of hair gel too,” Shou said, unable to resist getting one more tease in.
“You have no proof.” Ritsu shoved him bodily and they both flopped back onto his bed, Shou still snickering. They laid there in silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company despite the teasing. Shou began to get the sinking feeling he was going to fall asleep right there if he wasn’t careful, but for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to leave yet.
“What are you gonna name her?” he asked instead, hoping that getting Ritsu talking would help keep him awake.
“Hm?” Ritsu barely lifted his head, clearly also fighting sleep.
“The snake.” Shou pointed in the tank’s direction, and Ritsu turned his head over towards it.
“Huh.” He finally said. “I didn’t think that far ahead.”
“Seriously? Come on, Ritsu. Names are like step number one when getting a pet.”
“You named your hamsters onomatopoeias,” Ritsu said with obvious judgment.
“Yeah, and they’re great names! Come on, you’ve met them. You know it fits them.” Shou prodded him in the side, and Ritsu grumbled sleepily. “You should name her Spoon.”
“What?” Ritsu gave him an incredulous look. “Why would I name her Spoon?”
“Because you’ve got that thing with spoons,” Shou said as if it was obvious. Ritsu had an expression on his face that said he was regretting ever confiding in him. “Plus if you get other pets, they can all be utensil themed. You could have ones named Chopsticks or Knife or something.”
Ritsu screwed his face up, then sighed, too tired to argue with him. “I’ll think about it.”
Eventually they both got too close to sleep to avoid it any longer, and Shou reluctantly pulled himself to his feet to leave through Ritsu’s window. Ritsu was already mostly asleep by the time he left, and Shou was amazed he managed to make it to his own bed before passing out too.
He was, predictably, barely functional at school the next morning. It was worth it, though, when Ritsu texted him that afternoon and sent a picture of his drawing pinned on the wall behind the tank, telling him that Spoon enjoyed her new decorations. Shou decided there were worse reasons to stay up all night than helping his best friend with shenanigans. It’s not like he planned to Ritsu-proof his window, after all.