Note: Mostly disregarding canon. NitoRin. Fluff. For my account-partner/best friend/happy account birthday to Jared!
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Or, the most common ways Rin Matsuoka says 'I love you.'
Because Rin doesn't say 'I love you' like a normal person. But that's okay – because Nitori got it, even if the lack of words ghosting along his skin or the silence made him feel a little cold sometimes, he knew that Rin meant what he did, not what he said.
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1.
Rin says it in the way he says good morning – which is, not at all. Just with a yawn and a stretch as he pulls his shirt on (Nitori tries not to stare, because, even now, three months deep in whatever it is he's fallen head-first into, Rin's too beautiful for before the comes up), and a ruffle of Nitori's hair on his way out of the room, an afterthought of "you'll be late" tossed over his shoulder as he tugs his hair out of the collar of his track jacket, hair leaving cross-hatches of dampness on the shoulders from his shower. He doesn't even shut the door behind him.
Even though he always waits for him at their dorm's entrance, thirty seconds from 6:59 or not.
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2.
It comes in the way Rin walks different when he passes Nitori in the hallways – he doesn't even get a hey or a smile, just a nod, but there's something; something warmer in the way the upperclassman's heels hit the ground, maybe. His pace slows down, like the frantic beating in his head had slowed down a little, too. He actually looks up instead of staring at the ground like it had done him a personal offence (it's not water, and it's not getting him any stronger, so, then Rin probably thinks it has). And Nitori might be wrong, might be, but there's also something in the way that Rin's hips move that makes it really hard to concentrate on biology.
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3.
"I love you" is written in the lopsided dimples of Rin's smile, the way it comes like beads of rain – slow and quiet and small, disappearing almost before you saw it, but there, and leaving a trace like a flush on your skin.
Leaving a wordless murmur against Nitori's collarbone when Rin leaves a trail of kisses there before darting out the door to after-school swim practice, because damn them both if some of the hormones that are mandatory when lingering around each other half-naked don't go straight their heads.
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4.
It's not how Rin growls in irritation, it's how he lets Nitori take the first shower anyway and how he sings along to what he hums in the shower, almost absent-mindedly; it's how Nitori's pretty sure they're both grinning on cue, no matter how cheesy it is, and no matter what the unspoken agreement between them – mention it and die.
Though there's not much time to grin when Rin joins him, on occasion.
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5.
"I love you" is also when Rin doesn't smile – when he doesn't roll his eyes at the way Nitori tears the left side of his brain down (I'm sorry I can't get this equation… It's just – you know, the uselessuselessuseless why are you even still breathing going unspoken but understood, somehow, and proved wrong by how Rin pulls Nitori away from his homework and kisses him, dissolving angle addition postulates and midpoints between them for a little while, pulling back until the only reflexive property he sees is the furrowing of Rin's eyebrows, making his eyes shine a little bit more).
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6.
Nitori can feel it in the slide of Rin's calloused palm cupping his shoulder, drawing him closer under the covers as their cold feet and sore legs tangle together.
The only good night he gets is in the whisper of Rin's sheets against both of their skin, but that's okay.
It's the only good night he needs.
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/end.