@howthesleeplesswander || cont.

In most cases, Ryunosuke was not one to blatantly lie. For any occasion, any reason, any amount of gain for himself or the receiving party (truly, even “white lies” were of a foreign nature). And so, exactly how he let the Captain talk him into this… he was still internally puzzling out. Long and hard. Strenuous, even, to the point of that already-lacking filter on his tongue being utterly nonexistent with his eventual verbalized musing. And when Kaeya, with that ease and debonair attitude of his, answered the comment as seamlessly as if he were pondering the evening weather, Ryunosuke noticed his mistake.

More importantly, noticed it was exceptionally too late to sew his own mouth shut now.

Worth it? he wondered, marked by a fretful twitch between his brows, an unconscious nibble at his lower lip. As his gaze wandered behind him, twisting his torso to get a look at the lively establishment they had left, Ryunosuke couldn’t help the thought that those free drinks must have had an awful lot to do with the conundrum he found himself in now: astonishingly guiltless, sure, but beyond that… Certainly, the lingering warmth in his face couldn’t be wholly blamed on substances, could it?

A simple explanation. Maybe even preferable. But even now, out in the cooler night air, back to just Ryunosuke and Kaeya—no fabricated strings attached—he struggled to shake the way his companion had looked at him. Talked to him. Treated him.

By the time he finally spun back around to watch where he was going, he heard a squeak. … And seconds later realized it had been himself as he came close to stumbling right into his pretend date.

His breath hung in his throat as that solitary eye shamelessly drank him in. A shudder having nothing to do with the nighttime chill or his company’s Cryo Vision (presumably) skated mercilessly down his spine as he dared to scoot just one meager inch back. Before Ryunosuke even knew what his own face was doing, Kaeya had to remark on it, and only at that precise moment did he find his voice again. Something, that is, more than just an impressively shrill noise.

“M-mean it?” Step One, it’d seem, was mimicry. “I— Why, that’s not exactly…” He paused in a second attempt to collect himself, revealed through a heavy breath and a downward glance as he carefully moved past the blockade. His shoulder lightly brushed Kaeya’s arm as he went. “I’m only impressed that it worked,” Ryunosuke stated, possibly to convince himself. “Really, I think they would’ve just accepted our words as true without an entire show, Kaeya. That’s all.”