If he went by himself, Rin had a feeling that the aquarium might actually be an okay place to visit. He liked watching animals and watching the way they swam in different ways. But he really liked heading down from the main area into the lower level. All the muted blues and greens from the hallways with the glass walls where you could look into the animal habitats reminded Rin of the colour of the ocean in Australia. It was soothing in a strange sort of way.
Unfortunately, there had been nothing soothing about dodging crowds of little kids and keeping a death grip on Haru's shirt collar.
Rin groaned and took his baseball cap off, pulling his hair out of a messy ponytail. He accepted the cold drink that Makoto offered him and pressed it against his forehead as he sat on a bench in the park nearby the aquarium. Makoto sat down next to him as they watched the younger boys ask Haru about the animals. Rei was animatedly going through the booklet of postcards Haru had bought, while Nagisa peppered the stoic boy with questions about if he had seen the penguins.
Makoto laughed quietly. "Did you have fun?"
"Fun?" Rin repeated, and snorted. "I almost had to pull Haru out of the dolphin tank."
Makoto laughed again, but it was strained. "Haru does love water."
"Tch! Understatement."
Rin grumbled, and cracked open the green tea as Makoto sympathetically patted the redhead on the shoulder. Makoto probably understood better than anyone how difficult it was to keep Haru under control whenever there was enough water to swim in.
It would have been easier if they could have all gone together, but Makoto had been helping out at the Iwatobi Returns swim club for the morning and Nagisa couldn't go for some reason Rin still hadn't figured out. And Rei pretty much wouldn't go anywhere without Nagisa, so that left Rin as the only person to keep Haru from stripping.
"Do you want to come with us for lunch?" Makoto asked, taking Rin's empty drink can along with his own and disposing of it in the recycle container behind them.
"Yeah!" Nagisa cried, having come close enough to hear. "You should come and tell us about the penguins and everything else!"
"Sorry, I have something to do."
Ignoring Nagisa's immediate whining, Rin put his hair back up and jammed his hat on. With a sigh he stood and stretched, trying to loosen up his shoulders. Trying to keep out of sight of the security and keep Haru fully clothed had really stressed him out.
"Can you hand me my bag, Makoto?"
Makoto automatically picked the bag up from the ground and handed it to Rin, but once he let it go he paused and looked at it again with curiosity.
"That's from the aquarium? You're not usually one for souvenirs, Rin."
Rin blushed and shouldered the plastic bag nonchalantly.
"It's nothing important."
It looked like Makoto was going to say something, but Rin started walking away before the taller boy could. He waved to the others, and made a casual getaway toward the train station.
Standing on the train, the bag bumped repeatedly against Rin's back with every little movement. The sunny weekend had brought a lot of people outdoors, and the train was fairly crowded. Rin eventually ended up with his back to a wall near the windows, his purchase almost squished. Good thing it could handle it.
A couple of teenage girls about his sister's age were next to him, giggling over their phones and whatever messages they were receiving. Almost on cue his own phone alerted him that he had a message, from Gou even. It seemed the others had told her he had gone with Haru to the aquarium and the rest of her message was some sort of nonsense about taking her with them and muscles.
His stop finally came, and he pushed his way through the people and got onto the platform. He breathed a sigh of relief and started back towards the dorms.
Out of habit he swung by the pool and looked in the windows. Sousuke was sitting on a diving block with a water bottle in his hand, saying something that Rin couldn't make out. Ai was standing in the pool listening avidly, so Rin could only assume that it was coaching stuff.
Judging by the equipment neatly lined up by the poolside they had just started, so Rin hurried toward the dorms to take advantage of the time. He'd rather not have anyone around for a little bit. Most of the students were still out for the day, very few choosing to be back at the school in the early afternoon. He didn't run into anyone on his way through the hallways, although he could hear music playing from a couple rooms and scattered conversations.
He scuffed his shoe against the floor, and sighed. He must be crazy, but he may as well get it over with since he already spent the money. So he scowled, and he knocked.
"Oi! Momo!"
There was a thump followed by a crash, and Rin winced for whatever object had just met its end. A pause that went long enough to concern him was broken by another thump, and then the door opened.
"Ahh! Rin!" Momo grinned and bounced on his toes, throwing the door fully open. "Nitori is with Yamazaki at the pool, but did you want to see my beetles? I was just taking care of them!"
Rin put Momo in a one armed headlock and looked into the dorm room. About half a dozen occupied jars were set out over the floor along with odds and ends that he didn't recognize. A couple jars were empty and a broken one was clearly the victim of the earlier crash. All in all it was a fair bit cleaner than Rin had been expecting of his hyper younger teammate.
"I'll pass." Rin said finally, letting Momo go and ruffling the boy's light auburn hair. "I've had enough looking at creatures of nature for one day."
"Whaaaaat? Where did you go? You went somewhere fun without us?"
The questions continued piling up, and Rin was surprised by how long Momo could keep talking without stopping to breathe. After about the tenth question he rolled his eyes and without making eye contact he held out the bag.
"Tch, shut up. I brought you something."
Momo's mouth dropped open before he shut it with an audible click. He took one of the bag's handles from Rin's hand and pulled it open so he could peek in without actually taking the whole bag.
"Wahoooo!" Momo whooped gleefully, pulling the gift out. "Sea otter plush! Sea otter plush!"
Rin, who had still been avoiding direct eye contact, was taken completely unawares when Momo threw himself on the older boy for the most enthusiastic hug Rin had gotten from anyone apart from Nagisa on a sugar high. It was unsurprising when he lost his balance though, and they both toppled over.
"Thank you Rin!" Momo said brightly, completely unfazed by the tumble. The otter plush was squished between the two of their chests, and Momo gave the older redhead another tight hug, laughing.
Rin sat up, and Momo simply moved with him, refusing to relinquish his hold. Rin's hat had come off and had even been knocked out of reach, and he was pretty sure he was going to have a bruise on his hip the next morning.
But he just groaned, and ruffled Momo's hair again with a smile.
"Yeah, I thought you'd like it."
(I thought of this during class today and wrote the outline down on my phone while my professor was droning on. I ship MomoRin in a very affectionate just barely romantic kind of way, and really I think this fic and the last one were a direct result of having seen 18+ art of the pairing and being a bit shocked. I hope other people enjoy! Huzzah for late night writing!)