DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Everything except my imagination belongs to Ouji Kouji, Yumi Unita, and the rightful owners.

The Bellflower Girl

He opens his eyes to find himself blanketed in a sweet warmth.

Standing on a long, long path framed by trees and the scent of pine, his heart feels at ease. He doesn't question the light atmosphere, nor his reason for being there. For a while he stands, breathing in the calm air and letting it sink into his skin. Magenta irises flutter open once more to glance at the road in front of him. It almost looks as though it just stretches out into infinity.

But when he squints, he can just barely see it; two figures with their backs facing him, and one is noticeably smaller than the other. Is that… a child? Their hands are joined as they slowly make their way down the road, but their silhouettes are shadowed in a gray light.

Subconsciously he takes a step forward towards the duo. The moment his foot touches the ground, the smaller figure turns to meet his eyes.

"Rin."

The next time he opened his eyes, he did not find a road lying out before him, but rather the wooden ceiling of his bedroom. While he blinked, still dumbfounded, the world slowly came back into focus before he came to the realization everything he saw was just a dream. That was weird. It felt like it had lasted for hours, somehow.

With a groan, he rubbed at his weary eyes with the back of his hand and rolled up from his futon. "A dream, huh…?" Was it Grandpa and… his mom? Everything was too fuzzy to have made any sense out of it. A long yawn escaped his throat as he went on with the usual routine of his day.

Living alone really did have its benefits. There was no one to fight with over the bathroom or who ate whose desserts. Everything he did was for himself and only for himself, and he appreciated the privacy and quiet peace having his own house gave him. At first there was a sense of freedom in knowing that everything under this roof was his own, but after a while it started feeling more like he was just working a machine after the first year or so. His life went on regardless, commuting back and forth from the clothing company he now worked at. He had a good laugh on the first day he arrived at his new house. Just seven years ago he had gone on and on about how much he had wanted to pursue a career in swimming, and yet all of his awards were now stowed away in the back of his closet and untouched since then. It had taken some time to adjust to his new lifestyle after graduation, but he was content for the most part.

Well, until a certain encounter then proceeded to flip everything Matsuoka Rin had ever known upside down on a metaphorical frying pan.

The day started out the way it always would- going to the bathroom, washing his face, and then maybe making himself a quick breakfast- and then the phone call came from his mother and in half an hour he found himself on the train towards his family home with two bags of personal belongings in tow.

She sounded awfully lifeless, a stark contrast to the usual feisty nature Rin was so used to hearing from his mom. Though given the fact that she was the giver of bad news, it couldn't have been helped. His grandfather on his mom's side had died last night and preparations were being made for a funeral. It seemed as though he'd lost all contact with his relatives, and quietly departed. The redhead was silent for only a moment to process the news before nodding and making arrangements, adding a few reassuring comments before hanging up. It wasn't like it was unexpected by any stretch of the imagination, but at least being able to say goodbye would have been nicer. Well, that's the whole point of a funeral, though.

On the way down the familiar roads leading to his grandfather's house, a brisk autumn breeze blew flakes of orange through the streets. Rin pulled at the navy blue necktie at his collar and glanced around the neighborhood. It really has been a while since I've been back… What's Grandpa been doing this whole time?

When the tiled roof came into view, a sigh deflated his chest. "Jeez. I come back after all this time and it's for a funeral..." He pushed through the waist-high red gates and made his way over to the front door. Nostalgia began to pour in already just at the sight, and his gaze traveled left and right. Memories and hours spent digging and playing and hiding were lying in this place, and he couldn't help but reminisce over the past despite having just arrived.

But his eyes caught a flash of something black and all those memories were wiped from his mind instantly.

A girl.

A little girl who couldn't have been older than seven or eight at most, was standing a few meters away from his side. Had she come from the garden? Why was she here? His brain had no recollection whatsoever of ever seeing her face before, and he drew a blank in seconds.

Straight black hair was tousled in the wind, and a pair of bright cerulean eyes stared into his red ones. A simple dress that nearly matched the shade of her hair fell a bit above her knees, and classic white socks and mary-janes adorned her feet. For some reason a single bellflower was gripped in her right hand, and a single blue ribbon was tied in a bow at her dress collar.

Just judging from the way she was dressed, she couldn't have wandered in… right?

Still, he couldn't come to any sort of logical explanation as to why she was just standing there staring, and his eyebrows arched in confusion as he stared right back.

"Eh?"

Almost as if she'd just noticed he was looking at her, the girl blinked.

Before he could even say or ask anything, she spun on her heel without a word and ran around the corner to the back of the garden, where she must have gotten the bellflower in her hand. She almost looked like a rabbit who had been spotted by a predator as she darted away.

"What was that all about?" He grumbled to himself before shaking his head and sliding the door open.

Rin was rather fond of his grandpa's house. It smelled a little like incense and the scent of wood and sound of creaking floorboards were nostalgic. Most of the same framed pictures stayed hung up on the walls, and he remembered looking at them often as a child. He wasn't even aware of the faint smile on his lips even as he turned the corner to enter the small kitchen, where he was greeted by both his mother's face and the sound of running tap water.

He rubbed the back of his neck and leaned on the doorframe. "Hey."

A head of slightly faded crimson hair rose from the sink to look at him. "Oh, Rin. You got here fast."

It was a well-known fact that Matsuoka Sachiko was well in her years, and yet she went about as loud and caring as she was when she was a teenager according to Grandpa. Despite the well-worn wrinkles on her face, her spirit was just as bright, though understandably not as vibrant today of all days. She had yet to change into her formal clothing, so she stood by the soapy dishes in an apron, striped shirt, and yoga pants.

"This kitchen is so cramped and inconvenient." She huffed, rubbing a sponge across another plate and lathering it with foam. "But for now, just put your luggage in Grandpa's room, alright?"

"Yeah, I will." Rin craned his neck behind him, looking over the hallways. He could've sworn he heard footsteps just then. "By the way, there was some girl in the garden or something. Was that Chigusa's kid? I can't remember."

With a small sigh, his mother shook her head and shut her eyes with a bit of a troubled expression. "No. That wasn't Reina-chan."

The confusion doubled, and Rin played at the strap of his bag impatiently. "Then whose kid is she?"

She opened her mouth to respond before a stack of clean plates in the sink nearly toppled over, clinking loudly. "Oh, there we go again… I'm really not used to this kitchen."

"Here, I'll help." He ducked into the kitchen and stripped himself of his coat, placing his bags on the floor and rolling up his sleeves as he scooted next to his mom and took the sponge from her.

"Thanks." That same troubled face stayed on even after she dried her hands and rubbed her face. "I wonder what I'm supposed to do from now on."

Catching the drift of where the conversation was going, Rin tried to put on a reassuring smile while he ran a bowl under lukewarm water. "Come on. He was seventy-nine and died a peaceful death, right?"

Her eyes closed again as if bracing for impact. "Apparently that little girl is Grandpa's illegitimate child."

His hand stopped moving and for a few seconds the only sound in the room was the tap.

"Huh?!" Rin nearly jumped two feet in the air and hit his head on the cupboards. "Grandpa's kid?!" It felt as though someone had just slapped him in the face with a brick. What? What was going on? Grandpa's… child?! How?! He shook his head frantically like he was trying to fling the words out of his mind. "Wait, wait, no no no no no no, you've gotta be kidding, aren't you?!" He waited for his mom to back out of it and just say that he was right, she was just pulling his leg, but unfortunately such comforts didn't come to pass.

"Grandpa didn't say a single thing about it." She sighed and placed her hands on her hips, and Rin turned his head to see a single sock-clad foot run away from the doorframe and suddenly regretted everything he just said. "And his lover ran off, to make things worse."

Knowing full well that his mom wasn't joking anymore, he lowered his voice in case the kid was still hanging around the kitchen and attempted to see how the situation could have possibly went down. So now… technically she was an orphan? Where was she going to go?

Rin shook his head again. "Don't call her his lover or whatever, he was seventy-nine!"

"I can't believe it." She groaned and put a hand to her cheek in thought. "I had no idea your grandpa could ever do something so shameful, not to mention embarrassing. I have no idea what we're supposed to do now."

"Wait, hold on, so technically…" He tried to lighten the mood by pointing a thumb in the girl's direction. "Now what, she's your… little sister, and my aunt?" A clamped snort of laughter passed his lips in spite of himself.

This earned him a slap in the shoulder. "Seriously, you idiot?! How can you joke around at a time like this?! If you're already twenty-four years old, you're old enough to get your act together and think before you spurt out all these stupid comments!"

"Ouch! Okay, sorry, I get it…!"

After the dishes were done, there still wasn't anyone else present in the house. He wandered the halls for a few minutes before sliding open the door to the shrine dedicated to his grandfather, where a picture of his smiling face rested on the very top. When he spotted the incense already lit and sending a small trail of smoke into the air, he glanced around to see if that kid was still around. It was almost like she was a ghost, leaving traces of herself and then carefully disappearing after she left them. Regardless, he knelt down on the cushion and put down another stick of incense before putting his hands together and closing his eyes.

"Jeez… you died at least died in peace, didn't you, Grandpa?" He softly grumbled to himself, still wondering how he managed to conceive a child, more or less with a woman who was most definitely younger than he was.

After quietly paying his respects, Rin looked up to see the girl in the black dress huddled by the wall, hiding behind the sliding door. He jerked in shock. Since when had she been there?

She also jumped a little bit, hiding herself fully behind the screen door. However, she must've realized there was a dead end, so she just ran off down the hallway in the opposite direction.

Rin sighed loudly and rubbed the back of his neck. "She really is like a ghost."

At around noon, the funeral services and most of the other family members arrived. Black and white striped curtains were pinned up on the walls around the shrine, and numerous sticks of incense were left by the other members of the Matsuoka family as they began to fill up the house. Every now and then he'd still spot the girl, who seemed to be spending most of her time by the bellflowers in the garden, but it almost seemed like she was invisible to the eyes of his aunts and uncles.

Rin slid open the door to the dining room where most of his relatives were seated; so far five of them were here. He bowed lightly to them. "Hello. It's been a while."

"Oh, Rin. Long time no see." Uncle Kawafuji smiled and nodded at him as Rin took a seat next to him. "Have you been busy?"

He gave a small smile back. "Yes, well, busy enough."

"There you go again, Onii-chan! You always say you're busy! Too busy to even visit Mom…" The younger of the Matsuoka siblings, Gou, stepped out of the kitchen in a long-sleeved black dress with a tray of tea in her hands. "You didn't even come back for New Year's." She pouted a bit as she set down the cups on the table for everyone.

"I don't need to hear that from you, Gou." Rin grumbled back while she turned to head back into the kitchen.

There was a brief pause before a high-pitched voice and thumping footsteps echoed down the halls. "Hey, stop running! Reina!"

Another little girl popped out from the curtains that had just been set up, running recklessly around the shrine. Rin nearly cringed. She was the complete polar opposite of that black-haired girl in the garden, but who was he to judge? She was Chigusa's daughter, after all.

"Stop it right now! Reina!" Chigusa's frustrated voice came chasing after her as she also pushed through the curtains, also dressed in her dark formal attire.

"Ah, Chigusa." Rin greeted her after taking a sip of tea, and she jumped and stopped in her tracks for a minute, though she was obviously flustered by her hyperactive child stomping all over the place.

"A-Ah, Rin-chan! It's been a while!" Her eyes upturned into a sheepish smile as she gave a quick wave.

"Mama! Hurry!" Reina's impatient tone spurred her from her break, and the brunette fastened her arms tightly around the dark-haired girl, who had her hair tied up in curled pigtails.

"Sheesh! Gotcha! Now be a good girl and don't run around!"

"No, no, no! I don't wanna!"

As the two squabbled, Rin turned his head to see Uncle Kawafuji staring intently at him. "Is something wrong?"

He smiled again and shook his head. "Oh, nothing." His eyes traveled over to the shrine, fixated on the picture resting on the top. "You look a lot like your grandfather when he was younger."

Rin also followed his gaze, letting a sigh out of his nose.

"You think so?"

The sun was starting to dip down below the horizon, painting the world in a palette of oranges and reds. At this point everyone was here, and the men settled down in the shrine room to take a break and chat with each other over dinner.

"By the way, Rin, did you hear?" Uncle Hiroshi asked as he tipped a bottle of beer into Rin's glass and gestured over to the little girl with a tip of his chin.

"Ah, yeah, from my mother earlier." Rin nodded.

"I wonder if it's true." Uncle Jun hummed in thought from the end of the table. "I'm sure my older brother was lonely living by himself, but…"

"Apparently there's a Maternal and Child Health Handbook." One of his older cousins, Kenji, crossed his arms over his chest and sighed as if the topic pained him to discuss. "It says her name is Haruka." Now all heads were turned to the child, who was sitting diligently on the cushion in front of the shrine and appeared to be having trouble blowing out the incense since Rin spotted a tiny flame being waved back and forth in her hand.

"Nevertheless, we're talking about a seventy-nine-year-old man…" His father gave one of those gentle smiles again, and Rin set his glass back on the table to lean back on his hands.

"It's just surprising. How did no one even know she existed up until now?" Rin murmured, though he was quite positive nobody heard him.

"Rin! Would you get the cushions out of the closet for me?" His mother called from the kitchen.

"Ah, sure."

Maybe he was just imagining it, but there were little footsteps following him around as he went into a vacant room and pulled out a stack of cushions from the closet. And as he turned back around the hallway to return to the dining room… did the curtains flutter just then?

The next time he turned the corner, that girl- Haruka, if he remembered correctly- stumbled and nearly bumped into him and the cushions in his arms. Blue eyes blinked in surprise, and she almost looked like she was about to slip.

A long sigh dragged out of his mouth. He tried not to look too intimidating as he stared down at her.

"What?"

Her lips tightened for a moment before she turned back around and ran off down the hallway, disappearing once more.

Dinner was loud and bustling with adults, but Rin spent most of it at the side of the table with a cigarette clamped between his fingers. The moon had now taken the sun's place, and small garden lamps illuminated the plants outside. The sliding doors were opened, fully revealing the bellflower beds blanketing the edge of the fence.

Without even realizing it, his focus was mainly trained on Haruka, who was sitting down in the corner all by herself with a teal-coloured string tangling her fingers. For some reason, just seeing her play around with it with small, nimble fingers gave him a bit more faith. Of course Grandpa would teach her that. He'd even taught Gou when they were younger. The string bounced back and forth as she expertly removed her fingers and crossed them over, making a neat three-step ladder.

Rin watched intently as Reina, who had been quiet enough for the past few hours, ran over to Haruka with an orange string of her own in her hands.

"Hey, hey!" The brown-haired girl called, and she looked up. "Let's trade!"

Without a word, Haruka began to pull her fingers out of the thread when Reina cried out in protest. "No, no! Leave it like it is!"

She did. Reina reached in and took the string through her fingers in the exact same spot Haruka had hers in, and she pulled away quietly.

"I did it!" Reina bounced up loudly, raising the crossed string in the air proudly and giving the black-haired girl a big, toothy smile, which was answered with a nod. "Hey, hey, everyone, look, look what I did!"

"Reina, don't run!" Chigusa called as her daughter ran excitedly to the table again. Her curled brown hair looked as though it were starting to deflate.

Slightly miffed, Rin glanced over to the girl who was left behind to see if she would do anything or chime in and say she was the one who made the ladder, but all she did was pick up the orange string and silently brush through the curtains, disappearing from the room again like a gust of air.

"Oh, my, well done!"

"Is it pretty?"

"Yes, it certainly is! You're very good at Cat's Cradle, Reina-chan!"

Furrowing his eyebrows into a disapproving scowl, he lifted the can of beer to his lips. Why was everyone ignoring her?

"Next, try to make a four-step ladder!" Aunt Akemi put her hands together and laughed when Reina frowned and played around with her fingers, confused. Well, that's what you get when you take work from someone else. Rin couldn't help but think. "Oh, Reina-chan, let me help you-"

The pigtailed girl ripped the string from her hands and threw it into the ground in a tantrum. "Poo bomb!"

"Hey, Reina-!"

Rubbing his face with a hand, Rin put his cigarette down into an ashtray and walked out to the veranda with his beer still in his other hand. He wasn't sure if she noticed him, but she sat outside on the edge of the floorboards, swinging her feet back and forth.

Something about the sight felt incredibly sad. A girl that young being abandoned by her mother and her only known father figure had died too, only for the rest of her entire family to ignore her and act like she was nothing but a ghost floating around the household. And here she sat all alone in the moonlight, staring blankly out at the sky without a single friend in sight to offer her any dinner or to play with her.

Rin's eyes softened, and he wondered if he should have said anything as he watched her from the veranda. Had she eaten yet? He didn't remember seeing her at the table with everyone else at all.

With the thought still heavy in his mind, he returned to the table for a brief minute and grabbed another plate and fork. After randomly picking a dish, he scooped what should have been equivalent to a small bowl of rice and some pieces of fried mackerel praying nobody noticed him too much when he set it on the floor outside the dining room where he'd been standing.

He was rather happy to see an empty plate with a few pieces of rice left behind sitting on the exact same spot ten minutes later.

The grandfather clock struck eleven by the time Rin returned to the dining room, which was littered with both trash, cushions, and messy dishes, but also two of his snoring family members. With a towel around his neck, Rin knelt down and shook Uncle Kawafuji by the shoulder. "Uncle. Uncle, wake up." When he groaned and wearily opened his eyes, the redhead smiled. "You can sleep ahead of me. I just took a shower, and I'll take my turn watching the incense."

"A-Ah, I see." He chuckled before turning to Uncle Hiroshi and shaking him awake; he'd been using two cushions as head pillows and was rolling over on his side. "Hey, don't sleep in here!"

"Eh? Oh, Kawafuji."

"Ahahaha, let's get some rest over there instead."

"What about the incense?"

"Rin says he'll watch it. Come on."

"Oh, okay. Take care of my big brother, Rin…"

"Yeah, I will. Goodnight."

When Rin turned around, he saw her again. He was becoming more and more convinced that she was indeed his grandfather's child; who else would spend hours sitting by his shrine in blue pajamas, even though she was wobbling back and forth from drowsiness? With a wry smile, he crossed over to Haruka, who was bobbing her head and fell back on her rear end when he knelt down in front of her.

"You go get some sleep in the other room, too." Rin told her with that smile still on.

She blinked at him, obviously trying hard to stay awake, but she simply shook her head and rubbed at her eyes with small fists. "I'm fine."

He leaned back with a sigh, looking over at her while she yawned. "You should see your face."

Twenty minutes later, he looked up at the ceiling pleadingly and then at the little girl who had fallen asleep with her head resting on the top of his hand. The towel that had previously been around his neck was now draped over her, but he wouldn't dare move in that position.

"How'd it get to this…?"

The next day, the funeral finally took place. The services came early to make any last-minute preparations, and a table and sign was set up at the front door where any friends or remaining relatives entered to join the Matsuoka family.

"All right, everyone." A funeral director clad fully in black nodded somberly in front of the shrine where the incense was still smoking. "Please say your final farewells."

Yesterday may have been a time where a few jokes were cracked and family members greeting each other, but the atmosphere had completely changed the second the sun began to rise. Tissues and hugs were exchanged, and most of the men were patting each other on the back. A black tray of white decorative lotus flowers were offered to place on the pale ivory coffin where his grandfather lay, and soon the entire family was curled around it as multiple words were exchanged.

"Rest in peace."

"I'll see you soon."

"Big brother…"

"Grandpa."

Gou said nothing but wiped away her tears with a tissue, and Rin stood a few steps away, nearly on the verge of tears himself.

"You lived a good life, Grandpa."

Chigusa took a deep breath and turned to the two girls at the back of the room, still playing with their coloured strings. "Reina. Come here."

"Okay!" Her daughter popped up from the ground and stepped over to her mother.

"It's time to say goodbye to Grandpa." Chigusa said softly, handing her a paper flower and walking over to place them on the coffin, but Reina paused to stare at the flower tray in the funeral director's hands.

"A field of flowers!" Reina giggled loudly, throwing all the flowers into the coffin after snatching them all off the tray, and the family gasped in unison.

"Stop that!" Chigusa cried, rushing over to grab Reina by the shoulders. Her husband followed shortly after, though a few members present shook their heads and sighed while they led her outside to the garden.

"Nooooooooooooooo! I'm making a field of flowers! I wanna make it!"

Rin slapped a hand to his face, inwardly groaning. No wonder he was never good with kids. But speaking of which…

He was the only person who approached Haruka, who was still sitting alone with a string of orange thread. He knelt down and tapped her on the shoulder, though she was already looking up at him before he did.

"Here. You come over and say goodbye, too."

He almost ended up glaring at the surprised faces of some of his relatives. She was his grandfather's child, of course she had to say her final words as well!

Haruka trailed behind him with her emotionless face tipped down to their feet until they reached the makeshift flowerbed covering his grandfather. The way she didn't even seem to question it saddened him somewhat, but he still tried to smile as he offered her a paper flower.

"You put these on Grandpa."

Her blue eyes stared at him for a moment before looking back to the grave.

And what she did next was what nobody had ever expected.

Her face contorted into a pained expression, and her lips tightened and her eyebrows knitted together. She honestly looked like she was about to cry, and a muffled whimper left her as she shook her head and balled her hands into fists. Her fingers didn't move to pick up the flower.

Instead, she whirled around and ran outside to the garden, and the family stared in awe and gasped.

"H-Hey!" Rin called and reached out for her.

Still in her socks, Haruka jumped off the veranda edge and into the garden, the black and white striped curtains fluttering as she pushed them aside. Mumbles and whispers of "What is she doing?" were passed around, but all Rin could do was be the only one to follow her and watch her from the porch.

He would never forget what he saw that day.

A girl, a little girl who couldn't have been older than seven or eight at most, with bright cerulean eyes and straight black hair and a blue ribbon at the collar of her dress, going into the garden with only her white socks on-

Plucking two tall bellflowers from the garden.

Bellflowers… His mind echoed what he saw. The sight was somewhat surreal. Grandpa loved that flower.

With the tiny bouquet in her hands, she slowly walked back to the shrine with her head facing the ground. As she climbed up the porch and made her way inside, she left small dirt footprints from her stained socks, earning grumbles of disapproval from her relatives while she came back to the coffin. The silence hung heavily in the air, even as she carefully placed the two blue flowers atop the paper ones.

Even though he was still shocked, Rin somehow found his heart softening at the sudden gesture, and knelt down next to her as she stared into the flowers.

"That flower would make Grandpa the happiest, huh?" He said softly and nodded.

There was a pause; Haruka was slowly releasing the stems of the bellflowers and letting her hands fall back to her sides.

"He won't wake up again?"

Rin's eyes widened. Her voice was so tiny, so quietly whispered it might have blown away if a breeze were to come in.

He shut his eyes and smiled sadly, throat feeling tight. He raised a hand to gently pat the top of her head.

"No. No, he won't."

She also cried very softly.

Small hiccups, small tears, small shivers. Black hair fell around her face, and she sniffed quietly and rubbed at her hidden eyes. Her delicate-looking hand reached out to grip the sleeve of his jacket, and he couldn't help but rub her head and feel the hot tears prick at his own eyes as well.

You really are Grandpa's kid, aren't you?

After the bus returned from the cemetery, the family still stuck around in the house for a while longer for lunch. Rin had lit a cigarette and leaned on the doorframe of the kitchen, blowing a thin stream of smoke out of his lips when Haruka had slipped into the room and grabbed the stool next to him. Surprised, he lifted up his ashtray and cigarette as to not let any smoke get into her face, but she hoisted up the chair and walked off towards his grandfather's room.

When he followed her, he peeked inside to see her set down the stool at the foot of the grandfather clock, reaching up and going on her tiptoes to try to reset the time. The hands were stuck at the nine-thirty mark.

Without a word, Rin stepped beside her and reached up, winding the clock and resetting the time that had stood still.

"Where did this Yoshii Masako woman go anyway?" Uncle Kawafuji grumbled under his breath and crossed his arms. The entire family had gathered around the dining table with the Maternal and Child Health Handbook sitting in the middle of it. "I doubt any good would come of finding the person who abandoned her child and ran away."

"How utterly irresponsible…" Aunt Ayako sighed and put a hand to her cheek.

"My big brother was also stubborn about it." Uncle Jun leaned his head into his palm.

Rin sat to the side with a tray of sashimi still untouched in front of him. Something about this entire discussion rubbed him the wrong way. Sure, he was glad they were actually getting to the topic of Haruka and what they would do now, but it was more of a lingering thought that they were only talking about so that they would have one less thing to do. He leaned against the wall and looked out to the garden, where she knelt down by the bellflowers in the shadow of the roof.

What were they going to do?

Just as he started getting lost in his thoughts, a stuffed sheep rammed into the side of his head, making him spit out his tea and choke on it a few times. With a deadly glare, he looked up to see Reina with the doll and jumping from foot to foot.

"Hey, watch it!" He snapped, covering the top of his cup with a hand in an attempt to not let any spill onto the floor.

"You know what? That girl can't talk!" She cried into his ear, making him flinch. "It's annoying! And she still has all of her baby teeth!"

"She can talk!" Rin argued back, uncaring of his perpetual frown. "And she's not the annoying one!"

"She cannot!" Reina waved the sheep in one hand. "That's why I'm so bored!"

"Ugh…" He groaned loudly and scooped up the handful of fruit candies at his side, shoving them into her face. "Here! You can have all of these if you go away already!"

"You're like a candy shop owner!" The pigtailed girl stared in awe as Chigusa dragged her away under the arms.

"Sorry about that, Rin-chan!" She smiled apologetically as they retreated back to the corner.

Uncle Kawafuji cleared his throat. "Setting aside the matter of future plans… who's going to take care of that child right now?"

"It'd be impossible for us, since we have to run the shop." Uncle Jun waved his hand in denial.

"If she were a little more proper…" Aunt Akemi cast a sideways glance to the little girl outside.

"And she seems to be suffering from delayed speech, too…" Aunt Ayako added.

"Mom." Rin pitched in. "You're at home. Can't you take her in for a while?"

"You know that'd be impossible!" She fired back right away. "I don't have that much free time on my hands! Besides, do you even know how difficult it is to raise a child?!" Now she folded her arms over her chest. "I've made enough sacrifices over the years…"

"It's true, Onii-chan." Gou laced her fingers together in her lap. "If she were taken in half-heartedly, it'd only be worse for her."

His eye twitched in irritation. Hold on… wasn't this supposed to be a meeting to discuss who would take care of Rin, not to talk about reasons why we couldn't?

"And you don't have any intention of taking her in, do you, Onii-chan? Think about this reasonably."

"For starters, I'm not even sure if she truly is Grandpa's child..."

"See? No reply. That's what I thought."

The pause stretched out into an awkward silence, hanging thick and heavy in the air and nearly turning it stagnate. It was a pushing scenario; just shoving ideas back and forth only to have them all turned down and forced onto someone else. And now nobody wanted to admit it. The quiet proved Rin's worst suspicion to be true.

Nobody wanted her.

He looked out at her, staring at his grandfather's favorite flowers. With nowhere to go, no parents left to take her in, and nobody willing to take her, all while dealing with the loss of her only true parental figure she'd known and had in her life. To be thought of as an embarrassment caused by a scandal, a ghost, a disappointment.

Even so, nobody wanted her?

Could nobody see it from her perspective?

His hands tightened around his cup.

The loud chiming of the clock striking four shook the silence away, and everyone at the table had their heads bowed down, trying hard not to be noticed.

"For now, I suggest we try to place her in a facility as quickly as possible-"

Uncle Kawafuji was cut off by Rin stomping over to the table and slamming his tea cup onto it. His heart was pounding in his chest and his blood was boiling, but he tried not to let his anger and disgust surface onto his face as everyone stared up at him.

"W-What?" Gou asked, blinking up at him with confused eyes.

Rin frowned and looked over his family one more time, as if silently asking if this was their final answer. When he was met with only their surprised stares, he sighed and turned around, walking out to the veranda and stopping.

He mustered all his courage on a spur of the moment and shouted:

"Haru!"

The little girl at the flowerbed slowly turned around, looking over her shoulder at him from where she knelt. She really did look like a rabbit; a sad rabbit who had lost its way.

Rin slipped his feet into his dress shoes and walked over to her. When he stopped, Haruka stood up to look at him blankly.

"You wanna stay with me?"

She wasn't even the first one to react.

"Hey, Rin!" His mother cried from the living room.

"Onii-chan!?"

Rin still didn't back down. He stared down at her, waiting patiently for a reply.

Out of all the things he saw on that day, the other most unforgettable sight was the one of the silent Bellflower Girl running out from the shadows and towards him with a flower in her hand.

The next morning, rather than his alarm, Rin woke to the feeling of two small hands shaking his shoulder. Groaning wearily, he rolled over onto his side and cracked his eyes open to see a blurry figure sitting on the futon next to him.

He almost shot out of bed right away, inhaling sharply when he saw her, but then the memories of the previous night began to fly in and knock his brain sideways and he relaxed. Well, relaxed enough to not question why she was there.

And there Nanase Haruka sat in a ridiculously oversized shirt that he rarely wore anymore, watching him intently with those blue eyes.

"Old man, I'm hungry."

He stiffened in shock, feeling all the blood rush to his face.

Rin rolled up harshly to shoot back. "Don't call me 'old man'!"

"Why?"

"You're the one who's my aunt!"

Rin sighed and leaned his chin into his palm. Everything looked so awkward and too big for her. Though it was a given, since he'd only lived by himself up until now and had nothing fitting for a child. Even so… watching her eat in a shirt that fell past her knees and holding chopsticks that were five times bigger than her hands was nearly painful to watch.

"Is it good?" He asked.

"M-hmm." She nodded before keeping her straight face and offering the empty bowl to him.

"…You want more?"

"M-hmm."

The redhead sighed and took the bowl from her. "All we have left is rice, y'know."

"Then… I'll make a rice ball."

"Well, sure, but we don't have anything to put into it." He told her while he carefully scooped out another helping from the rice cooker.

Haruka frowned lightly and stared at her feet, thinking hard for a moment before lifting her head up sharply when she got an idea. "Salt."

"Salt?! Usually you put in sour plums or meat or something…" Rin set the bowl down in front of her, scratching the back of his neck.

After shaking a plentiful amount of salt into the rice, the black-haired girl reached in and grabbed a handful, though she winced and almost dropped it a few times.

"Hey, that's still hot! Jeez…"

When she got used to the heat, she then focused on pressing it into a round shape. "But it'll taste better when it's hot."

"Does that really change anything…?"

When the rice was nicely shaped into a small ball, she offered it out to him on her open palm. "Here, old man."

Rin deflated before shooting her a glare. "I already told you…"

"Oh, that was wrong. I mean, Rin." Seeing as how he didn't take it from her hand, she decided to go ahead and push the rice ball to his mouth.

Rin's a weird way to address me too, you know…

With a defeated sigh, he took the ball from her fingers and bit into it. Sure, it was nothing gourmet and made by the hands of a little girl, but the least he could do was eat it. No sour plums, no meat, not even seaweed, but it still tasted nice. It made him smile, to eat food that was made by someone else and with caring thoughts in mind.

He grinned at her. "It's good."

And for the first time, he saw the smallest of happy smiles on her face.

A/N: Sooooooo... I'm back? Kind of?

Yes, after taking a ridiculous 5-month break from writing and Fanfiction in general, I've suddenly come back from the dead with a new crossover fic. In commemoration of Eternal Summer coming out I thought I'd write something, so why not have a happy Usagi Drop crossover AU where no one is dead and Haru's an adorable little girl? Sounds good to me.

This story is mainly going to follow the episodic nature and plot of the original episodes, so you can go ahead and watch them for a comparison or whatnot. c:

I would add more major apologies and excuses here as to why I haven't updated my previous fic in such a ridiculously long amount of time, but this really isn't the place to do that. So anyway, please please please leave your comments in a review and tell me what you think! I'd really appreciate it, and hopefully I get better at writing Rin's personality soon... It's difficult having to compress episodes into detailed chapters, and after not writing for so long I'm pretty sure this chapter is super long and rusty and I might end up re-writing it and ogehowiafhsogheszfhwsz;f walburhgl I'm rambling.

The next chapter will be called: Pinky Promise, just like the actual episode. c:

Thanks for reading!