Rin was probably getting a taste of his own medicine when he walked into his room, and found Ai sulking at his desk. And, really, he never would have ventured to ask anything (because, you know, some people want to be alone for that kind of thing), had he not noticed the desk.

The desk that belonged to Aiichirou Nitori. The desk that was cleaner than his own.

Something was way wrong. Too wrong. What happened.

"Hey, Ai?" Rin said cautiously, softly closing the door. "What's... uh... how's it going?"

"Good evening, Senpai. Did you have a nice run?" Aiichirou didn't even look at him. His eyes were trained on the wooden surface of his desk that he probably hadn't seen since the first day of school.

And it was still more concerning that he didn't do the whole, jump up, shout, happy smile, "how can I help you?" thing. He didn't even answer Rin's question. "The run was... fine? The same as always."

Rin had seated himself on the bed and was removing his shoes by the time Ai nodded. "Good. It's good when things stay the same, I think."

"So you're... you're okay?" Rin asked, because that really was not the type of advice that Ai would give him. He'd be more like, 'Oh, well, are you considering changing your course any time soon? I could help you come up with a new one, if you'd like!'

"Yeah."

"So no, er, reason?"

"Reason for what?"

"Oh, you know. You won't look at me. Or engage in conversation."

But Aiichirou just sighed, leaning his head onto his hand. "I'm just not up to it right now."

Rin fiddled his fingers in his shoe laces. "So, I guess you don't want to talk about it?"

And that time, Ai paused. Something in him switched as he took a deep breath. "Do you actually care?"

"Well of course I care." Rin hissed. Then he got scared that he sounded too excited that Ai was talking to him, or maybe a little too angry and it might set him off, so he tried again, changing his tone. "Of course I care."

"You're going to think I'm lame."

"No I'm not."

"You will, though."

"If it's something that made you this upset, then it can't be lame. I don't care even if it is."

Ai halted again, drumming the fingers of his free hand against the desk. "Okay."

"What is it?"

The younger boy shifted in his chair to face Rin, his face sullen. "My pet died."

Rin hadn't been smiling in the first place, so his face couldn't fall. But he did narrow his eyes, and tilt his head to the side, because he couldn't understand.

"Huh?"

"My pet died."

And Rin knew he should have just been like, 'I'm so sorry, do you need anything?', because he'd never had a pet, much less had one die. So whatever else he said, he wouldn't even know what he was talking about. But his stupid mouth got ahead of him, and he started talking without thinking.

"Uh, what kind of pet was it?"

For a millisecond, Rin did not regret asking. In that instant of caring enough to ask, Ai's face lit up. "Oh. He was our goldfish."

And then Rin instantly regretted it, because he couldn't stop his cheeks from puffing up, and he couldn't stop himself from lowering his head in hopes that Ai wouldn't see him almost burst into laughter. But he stopped himself. That had to count for some points, right?

A minute later, Rin was able to look up into Ai's unamused face. He took a deep breath, leaning his elbows onto his knees as he pursued the topic. "A goldfish?"

"Yes, a goldfish."

Rin's face started to contort again, and he had to drop his head again, whispering, "Shit, Ai."

"Nice to know that you find this funny."

"It's not – it's not funny. It's sad. So sad." In more ways than one.

"Well you sure are laughing." Oh no. Rin could hear it in his voice. Ai did not like this, not one bit.

"I'm sorry." Rin tried to catch his breath. "But a goldfish? How long – those things live for like two days."

Ai nodded, but not in agreement. Like, a sarcastic nod. "Oh! Really? Because, I've definitely had this one since I was five. You know. Eleven years. About as long as a dog would live."

"A goldfish cannot live that long." Rin shook his head. He had to stop laughing. "Your parents must have replaced it."

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU EVER SAY THAT?

"The longest living goldfish was 43 years old. Many live to be at least 30 if you take good enough care of them."

"Then what did your parents do to the poor bast-"

Ai stood up very quickly and left. He slammed the door shut.

That managed to shut Rin up. That managed to cease his laughter. He did not mean for that to happen. He had literally zero social skills. He fucked up so bad. He stared at the door.

It was ten minutes later that he realised, Ai was probably not planning on coming back. He fucked up so bad.

He reached into his pocket, dialing his sister's number.

"Hey, Hey Gou?"

"Why do you sound like you've actually been smiling?"

"So, Ai's goldfish died -"

"What?"

"I know. I thought it was hilarious too. But he had it for eleven years."

"There's nothing hilarious about that! Rin, what did you do!"

"...I laughed in his face about it."

"No."

"Yeah."

He could hear her seething. "You don't deserve him."

"Believe me, I know." Rin shoved his tongue in his cheek. "Okay, but how do I get him back."

"Didn't I just say that you don't deserve him?"

"Yes but that doesn't make me want him less."

He knew for a fact that she was grinning on her end. He knew it. "You need to apologise, then."

"Great. How do I do that?"

"You've never apologised?"

"No. Because I'm always right."

She hung up the phone.

"So I gotta apologise." Rin said, setting his phone down. "How does one do that? Do you just, like, say sorry?"

Rin looked around, realising that he was mentally talking to his roommate, but oh, right, he wasn't even there.

He got up and opened his door, took two steps, and opened the door across the hall.

((It was never locked, because one of them always found one reason or another to show up in his room.))

Ai was laying face down on Seijuurou's bed, limbs spread wide as he heaved into the pillow under him. Sei was sitting on the floor next to him, tapping at his phone as they both sat in silence. This was probably exactly what Ai had been wanting to do in the first place. Sei managed to pick up on it before Rin did, and this sort of thing never ceased to annoy him.

Sei didn't bother to look up, because he knew that Rin would be showing up sooner or later. "Oh hey, there you are."

"Tell him to leave me alone." Ai muttered into the pillow.

"Ai says to leave him alone."

"I heard him."

"He says he heard you."

"Then ask him why he's still here."

"He wants to know why you're still here."

"Because I want to talk to him."

"He says that he wants to talk to you."

"Tell him he's a big dumb jerk."

"Rin, you're a big dumb jerk." Sei stopped typing on his phone, grinning before he continued. "Ai said that. Not me. At least not out loud."

"I'm here to apologise."

And that made the both of them look up. Because, shit, Rin Matsuoka never apologises. Ever. Because he's always right, or he always gets away with being wrong. Rin Matsuoka, apologising?

Sei shot up from his seat on the floor. He charged at Rin, throwing his arms around his shoulders and turning the two of them to face the door.

"So what's the plan?"

"I'm going to say sorry. Please get off of me."

"No. It's not enough." Seijuurou opened the door, pulled Rin through with him, and closed it. "That's lackluster. You need to think this through."

Rin twisted his face in confusion. "So I can't just say sorry?"

"You can, but that seems insincere. Think like, what am I saying sorry for? Am I really sorry about what I did, or am I just sorry about the consequences?" Sei nodded as he listened to himself speak, liking the fact that he made sense.

"I mean, I probably wouldn't have laughed if I knew that it mattered." Rin said blankly.

Sei swatted at Rin's head for that one. "When you walked into the room, his desk was clean, he didn't speak to you, and was clearly sulking. How, how, could you not know that it mattered?"

"Captain, you might not know this, but my ability to read social situations? Somewhat lacking." Rin rolled his eyes. "I rejected people and society and was sent to a foreign land in my developmental years, remember?"

"That's not an excuse."

"But I am sorry that I made him leave."

"Good. So, maybe stay away from the whole fish thing. Since you think it's so funny."

"It wasn't that funny. I just wasn't ready for it."

Sei nodded, totally not listening to him. "Tell him that you miss him and just didn't realise that it was that important – which I'm assuming is true." Sei turned, glaring at the younger boy. "You shouldn't lie when you apologise."

"No, I really am sorry about that stuff."

"Good." He nodded, using his grip on Rin's shoulders to turn him around, and usher him back into the room. "Now go get him, tiger."

He pushed Rin. Rin was ready. Ai was now sitting up in the bed, his legs hanging from the bed, his hands carefully folded in his lap. He had been waiting for Rin to return. Rin was ready. He knew what he was going to say. He had reviewed everything in the hallway, and he knew he was ready.

"You like fish." He said.

What? WHAT?/ whHAT? WHAT?/

"Fish are cool, I agree."

Seijuurou was staring in horror. He had given him one restriction. Don't talk about fish. Why was the fish all that he could talk about.

"It's – it – I – it – so so – it." Rin, what. "So sad. Fish is gone."

Aiichirou had furrowed his brows. What? What.

"You're gone too."

Aiichirou looked down at himself, checking to make sure he wasn't gone. He was not gone. He was definitely still sitting there.

"So sad." Rin was still barfing inconsistent words. "I'm so sorry. Please. It makes me sad. I need..."

The entire room fell to silence. What the hell.

"You?" Rin said the last part like a question, reaching out to his roommate desperately.

Seijuurou grabbed Rin's waist, covering his mouth with his hand as he whispered into his ear. "What did you just say?"

"I don't think I know." Rin mumbled back. "It's all a blur."

"A blur?" Aiichirou shouted across the room.

Rin looked back to him in time to see the boy's cheeks puff. He watched as he dropped his head, trying to hide his face in exactly the way that he'd done a few minutes ago.

"I was doing my best." Rin pleaded through Sei's fingers.

"You literally – you – you actually don't," Aiichirou was honestly cackling. "What did you say?!"

Rin couldn't tear his eyes from the boy as he began convulsing, eventually throwing his head back to laugh. Then laying down on his back and gasping to try to calm himself. But that just resulted in the convulsions getting worse and more noticeable as his entire body shook and the laughter coursed through him. He covered his mouth. Rin saw tears coming out of his eyes.

"W-was it that bad?" Rin absently asked Seijuurou, still watching Ai.

"So bad." Sei replied, finally removing his hand from Rin's face, but keeping the arm wrapped around his waist as he leaned his face onto Rin's shoulder, finally crumbling and laughing at him as well. "So, so, so bad."

Maybe, any other day, Rin would be mad that they were laughing at him. But he couldn't stop watching Ai as he curled up and continued to laugh. Because, shit, he'd seen the guy smile plenty of times, and sure he'd gotten a good chuckle out of him, but, damn, damn, he'd never seen him laugh like that. And he really, really liked it. He wanted him to be like that more often.

"I'm sorry?" Rin tried again, wondering how he would react.

Ai screamed, shouting. "Oh my god, shut up!" As his laughter worsened. He rolled onto his face, clutching his stomach.

Seijuurou still couldn't lift his head.

"You suck, you suck, you're the worst." Ai cried, still unable to straighten. "Never apologise again."

"I don't apologise because I'm usually right."

"Please stop talking."