cranes;

[rated]

The joke was that between the two of them, Masato created and Ren destroyed.

Masato's hands would make -- they would weave beautiful symphonies from the way that his fingers caressed the piano keys, would draw long strokes against the paper for his calligraphy, and would deftly fold paper into art with but a few simple creases and turns.

Ren's were far more accustomed to going off the beaten path -- his fingers were more skilled at the removal of clothes from his boyfriend's person, his hands gliding across the smooth body of his saxophone would deconstruct melodies and instead produce harmonies on the off beat with far more swing, and it was said that just one wave of his hand would be enough to end someone's career if he chose the correct time and place for it.

But it didn't exactly stay that way.

During some of their quiet nights in together - when Ren would claim to his friends "I need some time alone" and would instead retreat to his penthouse and refuse to leave Masato's side - Masato's crafty hands would guide Ren's.

At first Ren's hands were clumsy. His folds were sloppy, his creases not deep enough to truly leave a solid imprint on the paper, and for some reason none of the edges of the paper would actually line up perfectly.

Masato would just watch as his hands French-braided Ren's hair.

(It would look very nice - all elegant and yet ever so slightly disheveled after Ren slept with it - and when Ren would tease Masato later, he would blush and claim that having a little sister prepared him for this.)

Ren sort of made a crane.

If you squinted.

It went on their shelf anyway. A shelf that Masato cleared and Ren scoffed. What a lonely crane, sitting there all by itself.

"Masa, can't you make it a friend?"

But the other just laughed underneath his breath. "I think it rather likes the single spotlight, just like someone else I know."

That shut Ren up rather well.

But where Ren's idle hands were once the devil's play things - just as they created cacophonies on Masato's beloved piano once - they were suddenly newly initiated agents of creation.

Ren would claim that it's not that his memory is the best - he just has a remarkable ability to recall what comes out of Masato's mouth and that's why he remembered the instructions to make a crane out of his receipt as he waited for his coffee one day.

He left it on Masato's side of the bed -- and the other put it next to its companion on the shelf with a smile.

A week later there would be one made out of a magazine page. Masato raised his eyebrows when he brought it out, "You tore a page out of one of your magazines?"

"I was bored," was Ren's response as he didn't even look up from the scribbled English lyrics on the page in front of him.

Masato tapped him on the shoulder and Ren hummed happily as he leaned into the kiss that was offered to him in the next second.

A few weeks later, Masato wasn't having the best day.

Shooting had run long. One of the butlers back home had texted him to let him know that Mai had caught a cold. But he had a music video shoot with STARISH the next day so he couldn't go home to check up on her.

He walked into their apartment just in time to head a colorful curse.

"Ren," his own scolding tone surprised him for a moment, but it had been a long day, "what are you doi-- wait. What are you doing?"

Now that he wasn't hanging up his coat, he saw now that Ren was sitting on the floor in front of their table, a stack of papers (both origami and not) sitting close by, and he had a finger in his mouth.

"Getting my ass kicked by paper, apparently," Ren grumbled around his finger even as Masato walked closer.

Immediately, they shared a brief kiss - that was just habit.

"What are you...." Masato trailed off as he looked around, kneeling closer to his boyfriend and glancing about.

Cranes were everywhere. Some with the typical floral design and others made out of things like magazine pages, blank music sheets, and even some of them with pages of scribbled lyrics.

"A thousand paper cranes sounded ambitious and I was aiming for a hundred... but I think I'm somewhere closer to thirty," Ren sighed even as he moved to wrap his arms around Masato's waist, pulling him closer easily enough.

Masato squinted, his brow furrowed as he asked, "Is someone dying?"

"What? Is that what it's normally for?" Ren frowned. "I thought it was just for a wish."

"Ren, it's supposed to be a miracle, that's why you put all the effort into it--"

".... Oh." Ren blinked and Masato would've taken a picture to immortalize his boyfriend's surprised look. He was truly caught off guard, what a rarity. "Well.... I wouldn't call it a miracle but I think it was pretty worthy of a wish, at least."

"What was...?" Masato asked, even as he felt the tension slip out of his shoulders as he turned to rest his arms around Ren's neck.

And Ren just blinked. "It'll still come true if I tell you?"

"Are you kidding-"

"If you're asking, then yes," and Ren sealed that off with a kiss. Then he chuckled faintly and admitted, not even moving back far enough that his forehead wouldn't be resting on Masato's forehead. "I just.... wanted you to have a better day. Whether that meant today or if it meant tomorrow would be better. One or the other."

".... You're surprisingly foolish sometimes, you know."

"Excuse me?"

But Masato was smiling into the kiss that he forced upon Ren in the next moment -- and Ren's returning kiss was full of nothing but warmth.

Masato was prone to creating and Ren had a talent for destroying.

But the most important part was that Ren could tear down every barrier that Masato would build, and no one else could pull him apart into a relaxed happy mess like Ren could.

Perhaps this is what they called balance.