A Race Between Time • RyuuxReader • Snow White With Red Hair

13 - Cold Hands and Warm Lips

AFTER THE ENCOURAGEMENT FROM KIKI you felt confident to talk to Ryuu. Nothing was going to stop you! You were ready.. until you actually got to his office door
Spikes of nervousness and stray thoughts crawled through mazes in your head, making you bite your lip to try to clear your head

You knocked on the door, reminding you of the first time you met Shirayuki at the fort. The memory comforted you

The large wooden door opened revealing the tall blue eyed boy.
His eyes slightly widened at the sight of you.
Did he think you looked bad?

"I came to talk to you," obviously why else would you be there, you clasped your hands in front of you, "is this a good time?"

Ryuu stared at you for a few seconds before nodding his head and opening to door fully. His shoulders were slouched and tired, and the bags under his eyes were heavy with darkness.

He leaned against his desk whilst looking at you, patiently waiting for you to start talking.

His office was neat but his desk was a complete mess. Papers, spilled ink, pencils, books, torn pages seemed to be scattered on and around the chair and table. 

"Shuka's letter-" you began, his facial features hardened, "-means nothing,"

Ryuu was silent for a moment, you could see him calculating a response, "Why did you write to him?" He asked quietly. His eyes remained soft.

You walked towards him, "I never did. Even if I wanted to I never had the time," you have a reassuring smile. Ryuu was constantly giving you new work and things to read and with Kiki's insight, you had came to the conclusion it was to just spend more time with you, "I think he added it to try to persuade me or something. Kiki wants to talk to Zen about it for whatever reason."

Ryuu nodded as he walked behind his desk. He was wearing the same thing he always wore just in different colors, a dark blue sweater with loose, tan pants. He glanced at you before pulling out a small stack of papers, the same one's you got upset with him about earlier, a picture of the queen and king slightly stuck out.
But drawing your attention away was the other paper on top. A letter.

Ryuu handed them to you, "You can look at all of that for yourself. It may give you some answers."

Before you opened the letter you thought back to how Kiki didn't have any emotion while reading the letter from Shuka, you wondered why at the time but now you understood. Any emotion you showed Ryuu was going to overthink about. He had previously told you about his anxiety and you didn't want him to feel that way because of you.

He watched as you read, his blue eyes darting between your face and the letter waiting for a reaction that never came.

"Why would he, if all people, request you to do research about me?" You asked, folding the letter back into the perfect squares, "And why you? You're a herbalist,"

"I don't know," Ryuu responded as you handed him the papers back, "Don't you want to read it all?"

You shook your head, there was nothing in those pages you didn't already know about yourself.
An awkward silence filled the absence of chatter in the air as Ryuu shifted his weight to sitting on the desk.

"I guess I should apologize," You laughed lightly, putting a hand behind your head, "I'm sorry Ryuu, I assumed you just didn't trust me or something."

A light blush danced across his cheeks "I'm sorry too. I probably should have just told you that he sent me that letter." Ryuu smiled his signature small smile, "Are we okay?"

And just like that, you began to overthink.
"Are we okay?" You both were back to normal and you were about to confess your feelings for him?! Would that ruin the friendship you had just healed? Would it put a dagger in your work relationship? Too many thoughts were running through your head, the manipulation of fear and the unknown was nauseating.

"Y/n?" Ryuu's voice bounced you back into reality, "Are you feeling sick?" He was all of sudden standing in front of you as he put a hand to your forehead, "You are a little warm and your cheeks are red, perhaps you're running a fever..-"

Whatever he said after that you didn't hear. If you were going to do it, you had to do it now. You looked at his lips and then his eyes, before closing the gap in between the both of you.

As soon as you did it you instantly realized this is not what Kiki meant when she said for you to TALK to him about your feelings.
He sucked in a breath as you landed your lips on his. The warmth from his mouth was shared between the two of you filling you with adrenaline. But soon you realized he wasn't kissing back, simply frozen in his spot.

You pulled away instantly, your cheeks couldn't have been hotter, "Ryuu I'm so sorry-" you began, looking at his reddened face, but was interrupted by the sudden crash of his lips to yours.
His arms snaked around you, one going to the side of your face and the other to your waist pushing you closer against him. His cold hands made your warm face tingle to his touch.

You didn't think your first kiss would be this.. passionate. It wasn't awkward or new, it felt like muscle memory as if you had done this million of times before. Maybe in a past life you had, but you were sure you had never kissed someone whilst feeling like you did for Ryuu.

You both pulled away at the same time. His warmth quickly fled from your lips as the cold air touched them. You shivered in his arms, you hadn't realized how cold his office was until you had felt what it was like to be warm.

"We're okay." You whispered

_ _ _

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Kiki, Garak, and Shirayuki swarmed you in the common room

Your face flushed, "Someone go shut the door!"

Kiki laughed as Garak scrambled to the door and slammed it shut, getting more attention than the yelling did.

"Kiki who all did you tell?!" You said as you put your hair in a ponytail, scrunching your face as you thought about the whole castle teasing you.

"Just Shirayuki and Garak," she laughed as she pointed to the two of them. You all sat in a circle in the common room floor, obviously too good for the chairs and table.

Garak grabbed your shoulders, shaking you, "Y/n you have to tell us everything all the details!"

"Oh my goodness okay! Let me go!" You laughed as you began to tell them the story starting from your talk with Kiki.

Whenever you finished Garak was wiping tears from her eyes mumbling something about young love. Shirayuki kept going "awww" in random parts of the story. And Kiki just listened with a smug look on her face, knowing that she made it happen, but that look fell after you finished talking

"Y/n, I'm happy for you and all. But what purpose does he have to want to know about your background? Especially to get Ryuu involved?"

Shirayuki put a strand of hair behind her ear, "Yeah I was wondering that too,"

You shrugged, and opened your mouth to say your concerns but Garak interrupted. Her sudden seriousness taking you by surprise.

"Well whatever you do, you cannot let him know that you know. He always has a plan and they usually don't turn out good for the people involved."

_ _ _

You went to bed that night replaying your scene with Ryuu, but also thinking about Garak's words. How she went from playfully to serious too fast and if the letter really had any major significance to your life. Anxiety and butterflies became one as your consciousness dissolved, leaving you with nothing but dreams and the songs of the wind.

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