Genres: romance, humour

Rated: K

Characters: Aiichiro Nitori, Rin Matsuoka

Pairing: Rin/Nitori

Summary: ...in which Nitori demonstrates his superb matchmaking skills.

Note: This is me trying to be funny and overly dramatic, guys.

Operation "Find a Date for Matsuoka-senpai"

It all started when Nitori was alone with his roommate, Rin, in their dormitory. It was early in the morning and the both of them had just woken up when Nitori was all of a sudden very interested in Rin's love life.

"Matsuoka-senpai," the small, grey-haired boy asked, his hands crossed behind him, staring into the mirror as Rin was carefully brushing his teeth, "do you have a crush on anyone?"

Rin choked on his toothpaste. "Why do you ask?" he demanded, shocked.

"Because surely someone like senpai deserves a date!" Nitori responded cheerfully, hiding the fact that no, that was not the only reason he asked—he needed information on Rin's love life because of very important reasons.

"No, Ai, I'm not dating anyone at the moment," the redhead answered, his cheeks pink from the compliment he had just received. "Now hurry up and change. We need to get to class!"

Nitori quickly changed into his school uniform, but in the back of his mind, a brilliant idea was forming. He hated seeing his friend so tense all the time and certainly, Rin would be much happier and relaxed if he had a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It was time to commence operation "Find a date for Matsuoka-senpai"!

Plan A: Advertising

That lunch period, instead of eating his bento, Nitori decided to spend it making colourful posters and showing them to people in the cafeteria. The posters displayed a rather suggestive full-body picture of Rin in his swim trunks and these words in bold:

RIN MATSUOKA

SINGLE AND READY TO MINGLE!

BENEFITS OF DATING THIS EMBODIMENT OF ADONIS:

PERFECT SWIMMER BODY

FABULOUSLY SHINY RED HAIR

SWIMMING WITH HIM WILL NOT BE MEANINGLESS!

PLEASE CALL 264-8674 TO REQUEST MY APPROVAL

Rin found him standing at the top of a cafeteria table, waving the poster around in a circular motion—as if he was trying to hypnotize the spectators into dating the boy featured on it or something—and receiving strange looks from the rest of the students of Samezuka Academy. "Nitori! What are you-" he yelled, before catching an eyeful of the homemade posters. "Did you seriously write all this?"

Nitori grinned sheepishly, avoiding his friend's furious gaze, knowing that he wouldn't have reacted well to this idea. "Um... I may have called Nagisa and asked for some tips?"

Plan B: Compliments

Since Rin apparently did not like Nagisa's "weird ideas," as he had informed Nitori afterwards, Nitori decided to go about with his task using a more discreet method. Think about senpai's happiness! he had commanded himself.

That was why, later that afternoon, he entered Samezuka Academy's library, a popular hangout for many students, dressed in a brown trench coat, a pair of dark sunglasses, and a fake mustache.

The first person he found was a tall boy wearing a purple hoodie sitting alone at a desk. "Psst," Nitori whispered loudly, "did you hear? Rin Matsuoka has fantastic biceps."

"Nitori?!" The boy in the hoodie turned around to reveal himself to be Rin. "What the hell are you saying and why are you wearing that?"

Darn, the new plan didn't even work for a minute, Nitori thought pitifully. He peeled off his moustache. "How did you know it was me so fast?"

"You're the only boy in the school who has grey hair, Nitori." Nitori turned around to leave, deflated.

"By the way," Rin added to his retreating back before returning to the book that he was reading, "please don't think about growing a mustache in the future. Ever."

Plan C: Pure force

On the walk to the supermarket to pick up groceries for the week, the air was uncomfortable between the two roommates. Rin was unsure of what to think of his friend's antics, while Nitori was still deep in thought, so neither said a word.

Nitori suddenly remembered a scene that he had watched in a romantic comedy: the guy had accidently tripped, falling perfectly onto the girl so that they were face-to-face. Loving looks had been exchanged and making out had ensued. Spying a girl coming their way, he lit up, knowing exactly what to do.

Rin was about to say something to remedy their awkward situation when unexpectedly, he tripped on a certain somebody's foot and found himself on the pavement.

"Ah!" he heard a girl scream, and then realized that the scream came from beneath him.

He had—oh, kamisama—landed on an innocent bystander. "I'm sorry! Are you okay?" he exclaimed, bowing, after she had stood up again and dusted her clothes off. "I fell by accident."

"I'm alright!" the girl, a clumsy-looking brunette, responded, laughing a little. "Don't worry. I wasn't looking where I was going, anyway."

Rin chuckled in response. They began to engage in small talk, and Nitori started feeling left out and... jealous of the girl?

Since when was he ever jealous of the people Rin spent time with? He was only doing these things because he wanted to see Rin, his senpai and his best friend, smile all the time. Surely there was another explanation for the painful throbbing in his chest, right?

After Rin and the brown-haired girl parted ways, Rin spoke, the frown returning to his face. "Why are you doing all these things to me, Ai?" he asked, rubbing his temples.

Nitori instantly became very shy. "I-I was just trying to find you a date so that you could be happy," he stated quietly.

Rin groaned. "Stop trying to find me a date," he grumbled weakly, covering his face with his hand in both frustration and humiliation. "Can't you see that I don't need one when I like you?"

It took both of them some time to register what Rin had just said.

When Rin realized that he had essentially just confessed to his roommate, the colour of his face immediately matched that of his hair. He began to sputter and his mouth opened and closed like a fish, but no words came out.

On the other hand, Nitori's blue eyes widened, and he began to blush furiously, not daring to hope. "W-what? You really like me, senpai?"

Rin peeked out from behind his fingers at his grey-haired roommate. "Don't make me say it again," he muttered, before letting out a yell of surprise and concern. "Hey! You're crying-?"

"I'm just," Nitori replied, sniffling yet smiling, "really happy." He threw his arms around the boy whom he had always admired and—he realized this now—had always loved from a distance, because he had believed himself to be unworthy. Now he was certain that that was not what his best friend thought.

Rin slowly let his arms fall around the smaller boy, a smirk gracing his features. "I guess," he remarked, amused, "that I have a date now?"

The end

Prompt: "Nitori just kind of accepts that Rin doesn't like him back, and decides to help him get a date. He pulls all these ridiculous stunts (putting up an ad to date Rin, loudly complimenting him in public, pushing him into girls, etc.) and Rin just gets so annoyed with Nitori's embarrassing antics that he starts yelling at him to quit it, and ends up accidentally confessing to Nitori in his frustration."