Matsuoka Rin was 99% sure he was never going to sleep again.
That damn pool light just kept blinking.
He loved his bedroom, really, he did. It wasn't the largest one in his house, and had by no means the largest bathroom, but the balcony overlooked his backyard right in the centre. It had an absolutely perfect view, three floors up, and south facing. It was pretty much perfect.
Except for that light.
But of course, it wasn't the room's fault. That light had been faulty all week, but it only seemed to start blinking right when he wanted to go to sleep. It was motion sensitive, so the first night he figured it was just some animal taking a dip in his pool, despite it only being early April. By the second night, he decided that there really was something wrong with it. It blinked too regularly for it to be an animal, almost like someone was swimming laps. He'd made sure that wasn't a possibility on the third day, when he'd done a full perimeter walk, checking for any breaks in his tall fence and even fitting a new padlock on his back gate. But it still persisted. The fourth night, he was too tired and drunk to care, but tonight?
Tonight was the night.
He was going to go downstairs and smash that thing to smithereens if he had to. All he wanted was some undisturbed sleep.
Because alcohol induced sleep just didn't count.
So that's what he was doing. He rolled out of bed and pulled on some boxers and a hoodie and made his way not-so-gracefully down his two spiralling staircases by the faint glow of the security lighting on the skirting boards, because it was too late for lights. Why didn't the universe understand that?
Although the kitchen light was a must. He really needed to clean this place up. Ew… when did that go off? Alright. The light was a mistake. His own kitchen was going to give him nightmares. But at last he was in his sun lounge and sliding open the door to his back yard and what the hell?
What the actual hell?
Rin stared for a moment, and then moved in for a closer look. The pool light flickered on again.
"Oi! Get the fuck out of my pool!" Rin bellowed at the dark haired male as he did a turn on the near side pool wall.
But his call went entirely ignored as he just took off for another lap.
Rin stared, gobsmacked, but came back to his senses just in time to reach down and grab the man's arm as he returned to the nearside wall, breaking his stroke.
"I said, get the fuck out of my pool."
The man just looked at him, and then looked around at his surroundings. His face was blank and bored looking as he met Rin's gaze.
"This is your pool?" he asked, as if stunned.
"Obviously!" Rin hissed, anger building.
"Oh. It's nice," the man replied, and Rin was too stunned at his simply words to stop him as he took off swimming again.
Rin would later reflect that he should just have called the police to get this idiot out of here. But Rin's senses seemed to dwindle after midnight, leading to the following interactions.
"Oi, kid," he said, a little less harshly. "It's fucking April. It's too cold to be swimming."
"You sound like Makoto," the kid called, after making another turn on the near wall. As he kicked off from the far wall, he added "only Makoto doesn't swear."
Rin groaned as the kid headed back towards him. With a surge of strength, he reached down and grasped his arm mid-turn, yanking him up and out of the water. They both landed with a thud on the red-stained flagstones, but the kid's outburst didn't give Rin time to care about the dull ache it left in his bottom.
"I was swimming!" the kid said haughtily, and from their unfortunately compromising position of Rin being pinned down, he couldn't help but notice his eyes more than his words. At least until the kid started struggling to stand up, already looking back at the water like he was just going to dive right back in.
"In my pool!" Rin retorted, and with an easy roll he reversed their positions. "Don't you know who I am?!"
"No," this blue-eyed, black-haired beauty says with as much enthusiasm that's written on his bored looking face, and promptly tries to push Rin off him again.
"Ha!" Rin cackles, pushing him back down. He's clearly the stronger of the two, it seems. "That's what they all say. I bet you're just another perverted little stalker."
"I'm not the one straddling a half-naked stranger," and Rin is about to go from straddling to strangling him before he realises the dumb kid is shivering.
With a sigh, he heaves himself up and drags the kid to his feet too, keeping a tight grip on his wrist.
And Rin knows this is probably how he's going to die one day, inviting shirtless strangers into his lounge with the promise of towels and a warm drink, but for some reason he's feeling guilty. Guilty like he's just broken into someone's house and used their pool without permission. Oh wait…
But still he finds himself turning on the heater anyway, and some colour comes back to the kid's cheeks. He still has a blank expression, despite the chatter in his teeth.
"I assume these are yours?" he asked, dumping the small bundle of clothing on the coffee table.
The kid apparently didn't feel the need to respond to such an obviously rhetorical question, calmly staring into his teacup as he perched on the end of the white leather couch.
"It's two-am. I need to sleep and you need to leave," Rin stated, folding his arms.
At least the idiot nodded along this time.
Again, Rin found himself faltering at the utterly blasé face of his unexpected visitor. Maybe there was something wrong with him? Had he escaped his carer…?
"Is there someone I should call? To pick you up?" he asked, finding his voice became gentler every time he spoke to the idiot.
"Makoto," was the simple response, all evidence of cold gone from the surprisingly silky voice.
Of course, Makoto, the guy had already mentioned him. Maybe Makoto was his carer? Seeing as the kid wasn't making any effort to find the phone and make the call himself, Rin took it as an invitation to rifle his pockets and found a beaten up cell with obvious water damage. Well, the idiot had invited himself into Rin's pool, so why not.
It was easy to find Makoto as his most recent – and frequent – contact, and Rin didn't hesitate to make the call, anxious to get back to bed. He was surprised when it was picked up so soon, given the early hour.
"Nanase Haruka where have you been?!" the voice on the phone screeched by way of greeting.
At least he knew the kid's name now.
"I found your friend in my pool," he was interrupted by a horrified gasp, obviously assuming the worst. "No, he's alright he's just… in my house."
"Oh my goodness, sir, I'm terribly sorry!" this Makoto apologised fervently and there was obvious background noise of him gathering a coat and shoes. "I'll come and get him right away!"
"Ok. Good. I'll text you my address," Rin grunted in response and ended the call, quickly sending the promised message.
He was a little concerned that Makoto seemed oddly used to making apologies like that.
At least the idiot – Nanase – and he was going to feel pretty guilty for calling him an idiot if he actually did have something wrong with him – had dressed himself. Quite nicely, too, in tight black skinny jeans and a blue woollen jumper. It made his long legs longer and filled out his chest muscles so he didn't look so scrawny. Not that Rin had been making any observations…
A few minutes later, Nanase's phone rang on the table. They both looked at it, but Nanase just leaned back into the leather. Rin answered it with a grunt.
"There's… uh… gate," Makoto said, apparently he wasn't good with hellos.
"I'll buzz you in, just drive up to the door," Rin responded.
"I… uh… I'm not sure if I'm at the right place…" but Rin had already cut him off as he swung the mechanical gate open from the switch in his entryway.
"You should probably put pants on," Nanase said coolly.
Rin merely grunted and shoved his hands in his front pocket to pull the fabric down a little. He would hopefully be stripping these off again in the next ten minutes anyway. Five, if Makoto hurried up.
Which he did, thankfully, and Rin had already opened the door before the first chime of the bell had finished.
"Uh… Hi," Makoto said, extending his hand automatically. "Tachibana Makoto… I think my friend is here?"
Rin lightly took his hand and met Makoto's eyes under a flop of greenish-brown hair. The man had broad, strong shoulders and was a few inches taller than he was, but he gasped like a teenaged girl.
"I must have the wrong place! I'm so sorry, Mr. Matsuoka!"
"No, he's here. At least someone recognises me…" Rin said with a yawn.
Makoto let out a chuckle, "Haru's not really into pop culture…"
"So he wasn't kidding? I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse. Nice to know he's not a stalker. Come in, you can pry him off the couch," Rin said as he lead them into the lounge.
"He was stalking something, but not you. He could probably smell the chlorine a mile off. Right, Haru-chan?" Tachibana's tone turned instantly calm as he offered a hand to the kid, who let out a grunt.
"Drop the chan," Nanase muttered, but took the man's hand anyway, allowing himself to be pulled up.
"What do you say, Haru?" Tachibana towed the kid by his upper arm back to the front door, and Rin hovered ever closer to the stairs so he could dive back into bed as soon as possible.
"Thanks. You have a nice pool," Nanase deadpanned.
Tachibana took a moment to blink at Rin. "Not quite what I was going for… Thank you for taking care of him. I'm so sorry this happened," he flashed a brilliant smile up at the reluctant host. "It was wonderful to meet you!"
Rin muttered something similar and some other lie along the lines of "no worries" and promptly locked the door, setting a fair timer for the gate, and disappeared into bed to forget this ever happened.