Matsuoka Rin:

Rin only had one goal in his mind as he entered the old deserted swimming club: Find the trophy then get out. His footsteps echoed along the floor, clack tap clack. It was an eerie feeling in the middle of the night, in a place that held so many memories.

There were rumors about this place sure- about the ghost of a child crying and moaning in the building, haunting it since it was closed, in despair that their home was being destroyed. What nonsense was that! There were no such thing as ghosts! He shifted the garden spade in his hand, making sure it wouldn't slip. Ghosts were figments of people's imagination. That's all.

It wasn't very hard for Rin to find the place where the trophy was buried. He stared down the spot with slight disdain, and sniffed. Squashing down any thoughts of even trying to wait for the others is just...a pipe dream. He's done with them! He needed to move on; he shoves the digging tool into the dirt, and piles away the earth to the task is easy, far too ease he thinks, wrinkling his nose in detest at the hidden prize in the soil. He stood up to examine the trophy. Whipping off the grim, the paint hadn't peeled off at all and it was still shinning like the day they had won it.

There was movement.

Rin looked up, opening his mouth- ready to yell at whatever intruder dare come here only to see- Haru. No older than the last time he had seen him. Just at short, just as emotionless. Rin rubs furiously at his eyes with the back of his hand- hoping. Hoping that it was just a dream, this couldn't be the real Haruka Nanase. The mermaid idiot who didn't care about swimming times, the arrogant prod who rarely smiled. But here he was- a kid wearing shorts a hoodie and a pair of goggles around his neck like he was about to go dive into the water.

Is this how this was going to end? Never to be able to settle that damn score? Something agonizing welled up in Rin's chest, and he fell to his knee's under the weight of...whatever he was feeling. The trophy dropped from his hands, clattering to the ground. Rin tugged at his pants, a poor attempt at trying to anchor himself. This wasn't real. Rin thought to himself This was a dream, a hallucination. Right?

Rin trained his eyes on the ground but couldn't help but see in his peripheral vision as the small specter darted forward to grasp the trophy. Latching onto it and holding it closely to him- like it was some lost toy that had only recently been found.

Rin lifted his head slightly to observe the boy. The Haruka he knew didn't care at all for the trophy. The Haruka he knew wouldn't have even bothered ...and a ghost should not be able to hold onto something solid!

"Are you really Nanase Haruka?" His voice wavered, his eyes stung but was it from anger? Sadness?

The black haired boy stared stoically at him. "Yes." He responded. Looking straight at Rin with a strange expression Rin couldn't quite but his finger on.

Rin shuddered out a sigh. Not good, not good at all. There were hundreds upon thousands (perhaps an exaggeration) of questions boiling inside of him, but Rin latched onto the most prudent-

"Are you...a Ghost?"

The little Haru just shook his head, looking sad, almost miserable. His arms dangling at his sides, one hand still holding the trophy in a firm grip as the small kid looked down and away. His normal bright sapphire eyes were dull.

"Haruka didn't want me. So he pushed me away." Rin pressed his lips together. The answer was a little to simple to answer the question but this was a kid. A kid Nanase in fact. What would he expect a straight and clear answer?

The swimmer sighed, rubbing at his eyes to make the stinging go away. "I gotta get outta here..." He muttered to himself. This was just too crazy, even for him.

The young specter didn't answer. Just stared at him, when Rin looked he thought he saw the glimpse of curiosity. Rin paid it no mind as he stood, readjusting the cap and smacked off the dirt that had gotten on his pants. "Damn place..how long has it been since its been cleaned?"

The red head didn't get an answer and he hadn't been expecting one, time to get going to the dorm. He couldn't waste any time on a miniature version of his rival, one that is apparently not his ghost. He stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets, walking away from the hole he had created as well as the specter; but for some reason he had this strong urge stay, each step was heavy- like walking through muddy water. Rin powered through though.

As Rin continued down the path he had come he heard voices echoing in the hall's. Three. Three voices, and Rin was positive there were only three idiots that would be in this deserted place. Well, if he was going to make an entrance he decided to do it like a cool guy, deliberately making his steps just a BIT louder, enough to make them aware of his presence.

Whe he got the sight of the trio he scoffed, no smile dawning his face- it remaining stoic, he reached up out of habit to the back of his cap- pulled the stiff cloth strap back and released, the stiff material didn't slap back like his goggles did but he was sure enough it would have the intended effect.

Nagisa would be overjoyed- Makoto would be pleasantly surprised and Haruka? Well...Haruka would only stare. Like always. But maybe they had changed like he did...maybe, maybe they would be different. But alas that wasn't so. They reacted just as Rin had expected, but strangely enough Nanase...the one who aged properly did as expected, but there was something about it was was different...that was off. Oh well, it didn't matter.

"Hey, Rin-Rin we were about to go dig up the trophy!" Nagisa gushes, motioning to Makoto who was holding their digging utensil. (why was Tachibana holding it like he was going to hit him with it?) Tachibana's face twisted into a mass of fear, and pointed just behind Rin, shouting "H-HARU?"

Rin blinked and looked behind him, to see the small spitting image of Nanase Haruka, still clutching onto that stupid trophy, he scoffed and wrinkled his nose turning away. It's not like it concerned him or anything.

"DEMON, DEMON! A demon has taken the shape of a child Haru-chan! Nooo Haruka-senpai cover your eyes or it will suck out your soul!" Shouted a flailing Nagisa, draping himself all over the older male who for all the world was just as unconcerned with the little-Haru as Rin was. Weird.

Rin notices out of the corner of his eye that when Nagisa started to freak out the little boy retreated behind Rin's legs like a shy little kid. Was...Haruka afraid of his old team mates? Rin furrowed his brows. That didn't make sense, even as children Haruka had shown a slight detachement, yes but he had seemed to embrace the antics of the relay swimming team. Something was wrong here. He shook his head again. (would he get brain damage if he did that too many times?) it didn't concern him. There was no need for such foolish thoughts!

Rin glanced back at the bigger Nanase to see that his old rival seemed to hold zero concern over the child version of himself. Again, odd. One would think that he would be the most disturbed out of all of them. No matter.

This was in fact perfect timing. This presented Rin with the perfect opportunity to wipe the floor with Nanase, and finally settle this once and for all!

"I only care about one thing right now." He announces and zeros in on Haruka, "Race with me Nanase, one last time; to see who really is the better swimmer."

Dispationently the stoic teen looked Rin straight in the eye, and sighed nodding reluctantly as though this whole thing was a bother to him. Then began to lead the way to the swimming pool.

–

Rin grinned to himself and tore off his shirt pants. Revealing the ready swimtrunks beneath. He ignored the comment of Makoto's 'eeh? Underneath?!' and expectantly looked over at Haru who too had stripped to his trunks, they sprinted for the starting points. Rin couldn't help the grin on this face, this was finally happening! No more questioning! Now he could finally-

"WAIT!" Nagisa cried, a light Illuminating the pool...that happened to be empty.

Dammit! Rin nashed his teeth together, was fate fighting against him? Rin looked over the pool, searching for any sign that there could be a way to fill it back up. But there was nothing. No chance at all.

"They drained the pool when they closed the club.." Trailed Makoto, and Rin sighed in annoyance. He would have to just wait a little bit longer before he could settle the score. He put his clothes back on. The little Nanase watched him, and it was weird. Like there was a hint of 'I knew you would do something like this'. Rin rolled his eyes, and for a moment Rin thought he had seen the little kid's lip twitch but that couldn't be it. Haru young or old didn't smile. It just wasn't like him.

Once he was fully dressed again he headed out. "Later, losers."

As Rin walked he heard the pitter-patter of small feet behind him. For a moment Rin had hoped they would get softer, like they were moving away from him but no, they didn't lessen and remained the same volume and the same pace. Just when he thought he was free of those idiots to. Whatever, like it mattered if the specter followed him.

–

Rin didn't slow down for Ghost Nanase and the young shimmering boy clutched at the trophy without a care, the serious expression still on his face as Rin turned to check to see if the kid was still following him like some lost puppy.

Eventually they make it back to his school and into his dorm room where he enters quietly as to not wake his roommate Niitori who seemed to be fast asleep. Rin made his way silently to his bed, softly setting onto the mattress and leaned over to untie his shoes.

"There's no water." Ghost-Nanase comments and Rin looks up to see the specter looking around with an expression of slight worry, almost like he was put-out that this room wasn't to his special needs. Rin scoffed.

"There wouldn't be. This is a dorm, not a bath or pool." The specter carried on with his inspection, and looks at the space between the bunk beds and the wall. With no sound at all a round barrel tub appeared from...seemingly nothing at all!

This new addition to the room made Rin jump up to the other side, away from the barrel tub. Mouth agape and staring at Haru. (dammit, he's Nanase not Haru!) who just climbs in and sinks into the water. Water that doesn't spill onto the floor rin observed. He also observed that the kid still had that damn trophy with him, the ribbons floating in the water, as Haru held it like some sort of teddy bear.

"Weirdo.." He mutters, the novelty of the strange ability wearing off. Rin made quick work of stripping off the rest of his clothes minus the tank top, and slipping on some boxers to sleep in. He settled onto his side and closes his eyes to sleep.

–

The next day starts normally enough. Rin got up, showered dressed, not worrying about a thing. When he gathered his bag for school a little voice pipped up with: "Where are you going?"

"School." Rin grunted, and froze. That wasn't Niitori...then who...? He turned to look who had spoke and sagged, dammit. It hadn't been a dream.

Rin stood, fixing his collar. "It's what you do at this age. Just like when your a pipsqueak."

"Oh." the kid said, for a moment his face was wrought with concentration. "I'm going with." The speter announced. Rin shrugged.

"Do whatever the hell you want. I don't care."

It was only when they were IN his classroom that he realized that having a chibi-Nanase might freak a few people out... he looked around at the students, a bit wary. Just waiting for their heads to turn his way and point out the kid who was right behind him. No one did though, every last one of them continued to converse amongst themselves.

The entire day passed in this fashion.

During Math, Nanase (who was sitting beside his desk) said that the math didn't make any sense.

Rin sighed, and continued with the taking notes, but not two minutes had passed before he felt a tugging on his sleeve. Patience Matsuoka. He turned to the specter and rose his eyebrow, and pressed his lips together in a thin line. (odd expression but it wasn't like he could TELL Nanase to ask whatever dumb question he had.)

"Why's the math so hard?" Nanase asked with a dull expression that he was known for.

Rin sighed, and shuffled his notebook to a clean sheet, 'it's cause this is a HIGH SCHOOL math class. You don't look out of middle school, the math is different and more advanced.' Nanase read over Rin's shoulder.

"Oh." He said, sitting again, fingering the ribbon to the trophy. Looking for all the world a child waiting for their mama to finish work so he could go home. Dammit, he looked so pitiful.

Rin turned away anyway and continued to work. Only once again making the observation that no one noticed Haru. Or even at the very least a floating trophy.

By the time lunchtime came around Rin was ready to tear his teeth from his skull. Nanase was STILL following him around, go so far as to follow him up to the roof (which he TOTALLY had permission to be there.) Rin unwrapped the sandwich he had bought, chewing thoughtfully, looking out over the school yard, out of the corner of his eye he noticed Nanase STILL hugging the trophy.

The question of, 'Why the hell are you SO attached to that damnable thing!' burned in his gut, but Rin resisted it. Instead he just asked, "Aren't you hungry?" It was a good enough question. In the what? Fifteen hours they had known each other he hadn't seen the kid eat a scrap of food.

"I don't get hungry." Nanase responded dispassionately not looking at Rin.

"Ah." Was the only response Rin could respond with. That answered one question but opened up many more. Before any of them could make their way out of his mouth Nanase plowed right through.

"Since Haru pushed me away I don't get hungry, and I can swim whenever I want, I don't get sick either. I even need to sleep...but I do to make granny happy." (wow, when had Nanase EVER spoke that much in a single sentence?)

"Hah?" Rin began, This little pipsqueak COULDN'T be serious. "Granny? I thought she was-" Whatever words he had planned to speak were swallowed. The expression the little version of his long time rival was overwhelmingly...sad. It was an expression that said 'I beg you not to go there..I don't want to hurt'

Rin was many things, jaded, angtsy, angry...but he would never purposefully hurt a kid. Or bring up memories TO hurt one. "Yeah, never mind." He muttered, smoothly biting a hunk out of his sandwich before he could say anything further to humiliate himself. The small kid only fingered the trophy's ribbon in response, looking up at the clouds at the lazily crawled across the sky in white puffy globs.

Silence overwhelms both of them, and Rin isn't quite sure how he's supposed to handle it. Instead he just continues to eat, only noticing out of the corner of his eye the child getting up walking to the edge of the roof, and looking out over the expanse of the grounds.

"...Water..." He mumbles, reverently rubbing his thumb over the trophy. Rin couldn't see his eyes, but was a hundred-ten percent sure they were glittering. He sighs, getting up to see whatever the kid was seeing that was so interesting.

Following Nanase's gaze he saw the object of Haru; s current affections.(again slip of the tongue) "Yeah, I think that it's a duck pond."

"I wanna swim." Nanase demands, looking at Rin. 'Like you need my permission!' Rin thought to himself and sighed, shaking his head.

"Maybe later. It's too cold right now."

Nanase doesn't say anything, but the reverence abates, his thumb now only tracing over the trophy. Rin was a bit suspicious, what was that little kid thinking about?

–

The rest of the day passes without much of a hitch. Nanase doesn't cause any more of a fuss and Rin can finally work in peace.

At the current moment he's working at his desk on his pencil against the desk, reading over one off the passages for the chapter.

Imprinting refers to a critical period of time early in an animal's life when it forms attachments and develops a concept of its own identity. Birds(such as suck and geese) and mammals are born with a pre-programmed drive to imprint onto their mother. Imprinting provides animals with information about who they are and determines who they will find attractive when they reach adulthood.

Rin pondered at this. Frowning and tapping his pencil against his lips. Nanase did indeed seems to have a strange attachment to him, like an imprint. But was that possible in a specter? Of a human no less? Could humans imprint? He opened his mouth to say something to Nanase, the words were frozen in his throat though at the sudden entrance of his room mate.

"Good evening Matsuoka-senpai!" Niitori cheerful greeted. He grunted, leaning a hand against his might be a good chance to observe Nanase around others. (Now that he wasn't busy with taking notes and what-not.)

A couple of things immediately make its notice to Rin.

One: Nanase soaking body (in the tub that Rin still wasn't sure how he was able to conjure) was far tenser than normal, his eyes tracking the person in the room, what was that in his eyes? Concentration?

Two: Said roommate wasn't screaming about a little kid in a tub in their dorm room. (this wasn't much of a stretch because Niitori was a bit oblivious but seriously!)

It was little concerning to Rin about how wary Haru seemed to be around his roommate. Rin wrinkled his nose. Dammit, he just thought of this little kid as 'Haru' again instead of Nanase.

Rin brushes off his minor lapse, and continues to work, answering the given questions, taking notes for the paper due a little bit in the future.

The tenseness emitting from Nanase in the tub is almost impossible to ignore, and he stands up, knocking his chair back.

"S-senpai?" Niitori stutters, jittery from the sudden outburst.

"I'm going out for some air." He says, turning to the door to head outside. There was a call of 'be safe!' when he closed the door, and Rin didn't even need to look to know Nanase was right behind him like a lost duckling clutching at that trophy. He scoffed, and reached out, softly ruffling his hair.

"Come on, Duckling. I think you're gonna like where we're going."

So what do you guys think? Like? Hate? Leave a review!

reference:

www nature / episodes / my - life - as - a - turkey / whos - your - mama - the - science - of - imprinting / /