[Generally speaking, there's a recipe for getting Ryuji to follow anyone around indefinitely or catch his heart in a box, and it's pretty simple. Something like, one part affection, one part of making him laugh, and one part assuring and validating him. Mix until combined and let sit until room temp. Caution: melts in hands really easily. Anyway, Dave just did all of that in one sweep, again, and he's left standing there, shoulders slumped, posture still abhorrently shitty, and he smiles. Can practically see three music notes jutting the hell right out of his head.

Because, really, the more it happens, the easier it is to just fall into it comfortably and wrap himself right up in it. The easier it is to stop being so hard on himself over the little things, too, like thinking he's going to come up just short of the mark.

Ryuji looks at the heart in his hands, and wow, okay, that's a wild fucking thing to have to think about, and then drives his vision up towards Dave.]

It was just a sentence or two, the replicator's the dumbass that---

[...]

Oh.

[If he's being honest about it, which is pretty much always, then... yeah. He thought about it a good deal; pretty much ever since he found the picture book to begin with. The other details just started filling as time went by, and he found himself building up to an actual date. And maybe Dave's thinking about something along the same lines, but Ryuji just goes right out and says it, unashamed of it as anything he's ever felt or said before.]

Yeah. I think about you, like. All the goddamn time.