The funny thing, Rinko thought, was that Haruto really didn't seem to notice.
In her experience, good-looking guys were hyperaware of the admiration they received. They knew when a woman (or man) was looking at them and they responded with flirtation or disdain or whatever their personality dictated under the circumstances.
But Haruto never got a strut when a head turned to watch him. He never tilted his head just so when a recently saved Gate flung themselves at him. He didn't run a hand through his hair or give flirtatious smiles.
If she hadn't seen him surreptitiously staring at a beautiful woman, she'd wonder if he was asexual. But she'd definitely seen him looking...which was a sign (as if she needed one) that she spent too much time looking at and thinking about Haruto.
Perhaps he'd been an awkward teen, she thought. A gangly youngster who never learned to expect admiration?
"Do I have sugar on my face?" Haruto asked, dabbing with a napkin.
"Hmm?"
"You were staring."
"Oh, sorry." She felt her face warm. "I was thinking. About the Gate."
He accepted her explanation and went back to his doughnut.
*****************************************
Rinko saw how Haruto tried to use magic for good things as well as fighting. How he could take pleasure in doing tricks for small children.
She watched him try to push her and Shunpei and Kousuke away and saw him fail. He wasn't as lonely any longer and that was good for him.
She saw how his life could go from dangerous to ridiculous and back.
*****************************************
"How are we going to get near him?" Shunpei asked, arms flailing.
Rinko peered over Shunpei's shoulder at the unassuming door of the very exclusive club.
"We can't leave the Gate alone in there," Haruto said, mostly to himself.
"Can you overhear the password next time someone enters?" Rinko asked. "Use the air to bring you the sound or something?"
Haruto blinked a few times. "Er, yes. I never thought of that."
"Too used to brute force," she muttered.
"I can change my clothing," Haruto said, touching the Dress Up ring.
"And mine."
"What?" Shunpei and Haruto asked.
"I'm not sending you in there alone. You'll be so busy fending off the predatory women you'll never get close enough to protect the Gate."
"Oh." Haruto's face crinkled in confusion.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "A wife won't keep them all away, but I should be able to keep their numbers down."
Haruto and Shunpei gaped at her. "Wife?" they said in unison.
Impatient, she flicked her fingers at them. "Yes. Now let's get on with this."
Despite some less than pure thoughts, Rinko managed to focus as he put the ring on her hand and touched it to his belt, turning her professional pantsuit into an attractive sapphire gown she'd seen in a shop window the other day. Shunpei and Haruto were both momentarily struck dumb, so she considered it good enough.
She had to look away as Haruto happily spun around in his perfectly tailored suit, almost child-like in his glee. Tugging at the dress, she waited for him to listen for the password to enter.
"Got it!" he said finally, holding out his arm.
It took Rinko a moment to realize what he was waiting for, then she threaded her arm through his and they strolled up to the door.
Haruto gave the password with the utmost confidence, but the bouncer still looked hesitant, probably because he didn't recognize them. Rinko leaned forward and channeled the snootiest witness she'd ever interviewed. "Darling, Miyazaki will be waiting for us. Do let's go in."
The bouncer still looked dubious, but he stepped aside.
Past the vestibule, they entered a room full of people eating, drinking, gambling, and...doing some other things in a far corner that she was carefully not looking at. She could only hope that—
Haruto tripped over his own feet and almost fell. She caught him, flashing an extremely fake smile. "Keep moving and don't look surprised."
"But they're—"
"I know."
"In public."
"I think that's sort of the point for them." Sighing, she tugged on his arm. She couldn't see the Gate anywhere in this room, so they had to keep moving.
One more step and...that's what she'd been afraid of. A woman whose scarlet dress was barely there stood in front of them, eyeing Haruto like a particularly tasty mochi. "Hello," she drawled. "Whose little boy are you?"
"Mine," Rinko said flatly.
Haruto was having trouble keeping his eyes on the woman's face. "Uh..."
The woman glanced at Rinko briefly before dismissing her and looking back at Haruto. "Sweetie, I think you need an experienced woman to show you the ropes. There's a room upstairs—"
"He doesn't need anyone else, thank you," Rinko said, holding out her hand and Haruto's. "We're married."
The woman looked down at the large magic rings and did a visible doubletake. "How...interesting," she managed.
"Come, dear. Let's move on." Rinko gritted her teeth and dragged him away.
"Uh, did you know what kind of club this was before we came in?"
"Yes."
"Do I want to know how?"
"Police business."
"Oh." His arm relaxed a bit in her grip.
Rolling her eyes, Rinko opened the door to the next room. "Let's just find the Gate and get him out of here before the Phantom shows up. I don't know what kind of despair he's going to generate here, but I guarantee we won't like it."
Haruto gulped. "Right."
*****************************************
When Haruto lost his magic, he looked utterly bereft. Rinko imagined he must have had a similar expression after his parents died, like someone adrift in the middle of the ocean.
She found him, when all was said and done, on a bench by the fountain, watching the water flow. She automatically checked that his new ring was properly in place, then sat beside him, letting the sound of the water flow over her.
"I still feel it sometimes," she said eventually. She didn't turn to look, but she felt his head turn to look at her. "The despair, I mean."
"I—"
She rode over whatever he was going to say, probably some lie about being completely fine. "At least I'm not a Gate any longer, but the helplessness, the fear, those are still with me. Especially when you're fighting Phantoms and all I can do is watch."
He was silent for a while. "Who am I without my magic?"
"Who am I if I'm not a police officer?" She shrugged. "Who am I if I can't protect people?"
"It was..." He shivered.
"I know." Reaching over, she took his hand, which felt cold. "I know."
*****************************************
Over months of fighting, Rinko saw Haruto beaten, drained of mana, half-drowned, totally right, and completely wrong. She saw him smiling and frowning, awake and exhausted, and every state in between.
She refereed endless battles between Haruto and Shunpei and Kousuke. She exchanged long-suffering glances with Koyomi and Wajima when the boys were too rambunctious or obnoxious.
She fed Haruto endless doughnuts and occasionally healthier food, chased him down filthy alleys and into vile sewers, and helped drag him half-dead up the steps to his room. She did her paying job and then came to Remnants to make sure everyone was still alive.
She gave up everything else in her life because she knew that what she was doing was right, even if it was only a small contribution. If Haruto lost...that didn't bear thinking about; Rinko knew better than anyone how terrible and dangerous the Phantoms could be.
*****************************************
Rinko slammed the car into park and almost toppled out in her haste, running around the back of the house, where she could hear the unmistakable sounds of fighting. A glance gave her a familiar sight, Haruto whirling around a Phantom and Ghouls, while the Gate knelt nearby in despair.
"Kaori," Rinko shouted, running toward the young girl, whose school uniform was streaked with red. "Hang on. Hang on, it's going to be okay."
"No. No no no no."
The ominous cracks started on Kaori's face, leaking their otherworldly energy that buzzed along the skin like tiny needles, but Rinko grabbed her and held on. "Please. The wizard will help you. Don't give up."
Arching her back, Kaori screamed as spider legs burst through her sides. The energy released threw Rinko a few feet away onto her back. About to rise, she saw what had been hidden behind a bush upon her arrival. Three bodies...Kaori's mother and father and best friend.
They were indisputably dead and almost certainly the source of the blood on Kaori. Kaori screamed again as the spider Phantom's body burst through her back.
Knowing it was probably futile, Rinko crawled back toward her. "Hold on! We can help you. Please, don't give up! Haruto!"
He gave a desperate wordless shout, pushing toward them, but the Phantom blocked him at every turn.
A blinding flash pushed everyone backward and in place of Kaori was the spider creature, which immediately turned toward Rinko. "Oh look, they brought me a snack."
Rinko screamed and a flash went past her to hit the Phantom Haruto was fighting. And Kousuke was there, screaming defiance. The spider took a step toward Rinko and she scrambled backward. Then Haruto was there, a whirling sword dance of death for the newly born Phantom.
It never had a chance.
Haruto sank to his knees, his transformation slipping away, and Rinko crawled over to him as fast as her shaking hands and knees allowed.
Behind them was the unmistakable sound of Kousuke getting in a good meal of Phantom, but Rinko only had eyes for the man who stared blankly at where a young girl had been so recently.
"I'm sorry I was—" Kousuke started, but he stopped as Rinko furiously waved a hand at him to go away. "Right. I'll just, uh, go talk to Shunpei."
It was doubtful that Haruto even heard him leave. He looked like a statue, kneeling, head bowed over the scorched patch of grass. Only the shaking of his hands betrayed his living state.
Groaning to herself, Rinko yanked her phone out to call a Section Zero colleague. "Miko? We need a cleanup. Three bodies." Her voice almost broke on the last word. "At the house I warned you about. We didn't—" This time her voice did break. "We were too late. Give me some time before you come."
She barely heard her colleague acknowledge her request as she closed the phone and crawled closer to Haruto. She wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault. She wanted to say he shouldn't blame himself. She wanted to say a lot of things she knew were useless, so she kept her mouth shut and just sat next to him.
"She was 14," Haruto said eventually, his voice sounding calm.
Rinko clenched her fists.
"The Phantom killed her family before I even arrived. She had to watch."
Rinko concentrated on breathing evenly, knowing her own breakdown would have to wait until later. This was only the second time they'd failed to save a Gate, so she wasn't certain...
Haruto's body seemed to collapse in on itself, his long limbs wrapping around each other as his body was wracked with sobs. Flinging herself forward, she held him as best she could, not trying to talk, just holding on.
His body heaved with the force of his tears and she knew she and the others would have to half-carry him back to Remnants to sleep this off. The good news, she supposed, was that due to shock, he probably wouldn't remember his collapse in the morning, so he wouldn't be awkward about it.
And if she shed a few tears on his neck as she held him, there was nobody else there to tell.
*****************************************
Rinko used her police connections, Section Zero, every person she'd ever had contact with during a case. If it could possibly help Haruto find or protect a Gate, she used it.
She spent more time in hospital corridors than she'd ever imagined, sometimes sitting next to Haruto and sometimes waiting to see if he was going to be okay.
She drank terrible coffee and ate excellent doughnuts. Sometimes she went without food or sleep for longer than she'd thought possible.
And she watched him ride away after Koyomi's death and Sora's defeat and she wondered if he would really come back as he'd promised. She'd been watching him for a year, but this time she didn't know what she was seeing.
*****************************************
Months later, she stepped out of Section Zero's headquarters, tired after a day of bureaucratic idiocy and generally annoyed with the universe. She was halfway to her car before she recognized the figure leaning against it, arms crossed and watching her.
She almost fell over in surprise, sure she looked like an idiot gaping and pointing, but she couldn't help it. "Haruto!" she finally managed to get out.
"Rinko," Haruto said with a nod. "You were watching me."
"No!" she said automatically. "No, I didn't know where you were!" She shook her head furiously.
Taking a few steps closer, he smiled softly. "That wasn't what I meant."
She could barely breathe. "Oh."
"I meant you were watching me all along. Watching over me, I suppose. And I wanted to thank you. I couldn't have survived without your help."
"You're...welcome?"
He chuckled. "I've missed you."
"Everyone will be glad to—"
"I meant you. I've missed you," he said. She couldn't look away as he held her gaze, walking until they were almost nose to nose.
His smile broadened into a laugh and he put his strong hands on either side of her head, ring catching in her hair as he drew her into a kiss.
Her arms slid around him as if they'd always been there and she kissed him back, desperate to show what he meant to her.
After an eternity and nowhere near long enough, he pulled back. "So..."
"So?" Her smile felt wider than her face.
"Would you like to go get doughnuts?"
Laughing, she put her head onto his shoulder and said, "Of course I would."
-end-