CRASH

Nitori Aiichirou jerked awake, and straight out of the chair he'd unknowingly fallen asleep in.

"Urgh, what the heck?" He mumbled as he tried to pick himself up. His body was stiff from having fallen asleep at his desk, and it took a lot of half-awake groaning and grumbling to coax it back onto its feet.

NItori rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he tried to get his bearings. He'd fallen asleep at his desk, with the lights still on, and still wearing the jeans and t-shirt he'd worn all day, and, yeah, it looked like he'd drooled all over his diary – journal – and the entry he'd been working on was ruined, and –

'What woke me up?'

He froze in the middle of his bedroom, staring out of the window into the dark lawn outside. He'd heard a noise, right? A crash? Did someone break a window? Were they in the house? Were they going to kill him?

Nitori felt the last of his just-awake drowsiness ratchet up into full-blown panic, his palms starting to sweat and his shoulders tensing up, until all at once he relaxed completely and let out a shaky laugh.

He was willing to bet his life that the person hammering on his door and screaming "AIIII-CHAAANNN!" at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night was (probably) not a psychopathic murderer; although the jury was still out on whether Nagisa qualified as a psychopath or not.

Nitori quickly made his way downstairs to let Nagisa in before his neighbors called the cops for making so much noise. He reached the door and flung it open just as Nagisa started to hammer on the door again, earning himself a thump on the chest for his trouble.

"Ai-chan!" Nagisa chirped happily when Nitori opened the door, then threw his entire body into Nitori's arms, making them both stumble into the entry way and onto the floor.

"Oof! Nagisa-kun, what the heck are you doing?" Nitori huffed from underneath the broadly grinning blonde. He shoved him to the side, stoop up, again, a rather painful process, and shot a questioning glance at Rei, who had followed Nagisa into the house and was shaking his head in exasperation.

"I'm dreadfully sorry for the intrusion, Nitori-kun," Rei apologized as Nitori shook his head and shrugged to show that it was fine, really. "We were on our way home from a party and Nagisa-kun insisted that we come to your house, because, and I quote 'Going home is stupid and boring and for losers and babies.'"

Nitori laughed. It sounded like something Nagisa would say, although he wasn't sure how that argument had managed to convince Rei to let him come. "So, uh, what's wrong with him, exactly? And… what was the crashing noise I heard?" It seemed like something had to be wrong. Nagisa was currently rolling around on the floor trying to get his shoes off, and singing something that could have been English, but was probably just gibberish.

"Well, since it was our first party as 'free men' Nagisa-kun decided to have a few drinks."

"A few? He's totally plastered, isn't he?"

Rei re-settled his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Yes, well, since when has Nagisa-kun ever exercised caution and moderation in anything?"

Nitori shook his head a little at the spectacle of a drunken Nagisa before bending over to help Nagisa with his shoes and shepherding him into the living room and onto the couch, with Rei following closely behind.

He continued as Nitori tried to get Nagisa to settle onto the couch.

"As for the crashing, Nagisa-kun thought it would be 'cute' to throw rocks at your window until you opened it. And then, in a fit of drunken stupidity, he picked up a lawn gnome and threw it straight into the wall."

"I don't even know what to say about that."

Nagisa grabbed his hands. "It's okay, Ai-chan. I'll buy you new garden gnome. A better garden gnome. It'll be magic."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, Nagisa-kun."

When Nitori tried to pull his hands away, Nagisa wrapped his arms around his shoulders and dragged him face-first onto the couch. "Ai-chan," he draped himself across Nitori. "You haven' done anything since we graduated have you? Not a party, or, um, uh…" He got stuck trying to think of something else – apparently the only thing worth doing after graduation was partying. "Anyways. Since Rei-chan and I are your best friends, we brought the party – hic! – We brought, uh, we brought it to you." Nagisa nodded emphatically after this grand and eloquent speech, and looked expectantly at Nitori, apparently waiting for showers of gratitude for his thoughtfulness.

Rei was rolling his eyes again. "It's amazing he still tolerates us after all of the nonsense you force him to go along with, let alone that he willingly calls us his friends."

Nagisa snorted. "Of course we're his friends, Rei-chan. What you call nonsense is what normal non-cyborg human beings call fun. And we have all the fun. All of it."

Nitori had to laugh, at Nagisa, who was still clinging to his torso, and at Rei, who must have had his fill of drunken Nagisa by now.

They were both right, though. Most of Nagisa's ideas for a fun time were absolutely insane, like the time he'd convinced them to hide in the aquarium until after closing and they'd almost gotten arrested, but they did, to his credit, usually end up being fun. He felt lucky that the "Oddball Duo," as the rest of the Samezuka swimming team had named them after a particularly interesting joint team practice, had been okay with becoming a trio. In all honestly, although Nagisa found a lot of joy in teasing Nitori and embarrassing him in public, and although Rei was a little weird and inscrutable at times, he felt a lot closer with them than with anyone at school, except maybe Momo. Either way, he'd spent a lot of time with them over the last school year, and he supposed it wasn't fair that he hadn't even bothered to call them since school had let out. But it wasn't really his fault! He was moving into an apartment at the end of the week, so he had to pack all of his stuff up, and he had to make sure he was prepared for college, and, most importantly, tomorrow, well, today, Rin was coming back from a FINA competition in Sydney, and Nitori had planned all sorts of romantic clichés to make up for the three months he hadn't seen his boyfriend.

In fact…

"Hey, Rei-kun, what time is it? I think Rin-san's plane is supposed to land soon."

Rei went to pull out his phone to check, only to discover that he was, in fact, missing him his phone. Nitori could practically see his exasperation meter tick a few notches closer to "total mental breakdown."

"Never mind, I'll check in the kitchen," He paused as he untangled himself from Nagisa's limbs. "Do you guys want anything?"

Rei started to say he'd appreciate some water before being interrupted by Nagisa's jubilant cries of "Juice! Juice! Juice!" as he clambered over to Rei's section of the couch and straight onto his lap.

Nitori snorted. "Try not to kill him while I go get it, okay Rei-kun?"

"No promises." But he was smiling, so Nagisa's life was probably safe for now.

Nitori made his way into the kitchen, taking a second to look around him at the blue and white walls, the shiny steel refrigerator, and the timeworn wooden cabinets. It had been happening all week, the need to study the house he'd be leaving in a few days. The bittersweet nostalgia had been striking at odd moments since he'd come home from the dorms. Now he shrugged it off and went to get his friends their drinks.

Before he headed back, he checked the time. Two forty-five.

When he made his way back into the living room, Nagisa had his head in Rei's lap and was taking up all of the sitting space on the couch. He'd either fallen asleep or passed out. Rei didn't seem to care which it was, as long as Nagisa wasn't spazzing out anymore.

He handed Rei his water, then put Nagisa's glass of orange juice on the small table in the middle of the room before sitting down in front of the couch.

"So?" Rei asked. "Has the plane landed yet?"

Nitori nodded, then looked down a little shyly. "I thought Rin-san would call when they landed but I haven't heard anything."

And then Nagisa was back, roused from his daze by the opportunity to tease Nitori. He rolled off the couch and grabbed Nitori's hands.

"Oh, poor, love-sick Ai-chan! Your precious Shark-chan has been neglecting you hasn't he? It's all right though! I know just what you need, Ai-chan!" And then Nagisa pressed his lips against Nitori's.

Since Nitori had been about to protest, his mouth was open, and Nagisa took full advantage and slipped his tongue into Nitori's mouth. It slipped over Nitori's tongue, then traced along his teeth, and Nitori, too shocked by the sudden intrusion to do anything, just let him do what he wanted until Rei suddenly yanked Nagisa backwards, leaving Nitori red-faced and spluttering and on the verge of embarrassed tears. Nagisa just laughed over Rei's angry lecturing and Nitori's late squeaks of protest.

"See? You're not thinking about Rin-chan at all, right? Right?"

Nitori flushed. "You're a maniac, Nagisa-kun."

Nagisa just grinned, grabbed his glass of orange juice and downed it before turning back to Nitori. "Ne, Ai-chan, does Rin-chan know you call him 'Rin-san' when he's not around? I bet it'd really piss him off. Ahh, it used to be so cute when he'd frown and tell you to 'just call me Rin already' and then, when you finally did, his ears would always get all red, and you'd be blushing. So cute." Now, smiling deviously, he delivered his final blow.

"Ai-chan, you taste like peppermint candy, so it's no wonder Rin-chan is always all over you when he thinks no one is looking."

"W-well, you taste like a drunken asshole, Nagisa-kun." A pretty weak retort, considering Nitori felt like his face had burst into flame.

So, red-faced, he started to hit Nagisa with a cushion from off the couch to help make his point. He didn't want to be reminded of when he and Rin had started dating. They'd both acted so embarrassing, like a couple of dorky shy assholes. Though they only clung together so much because their times together were always too short. Long-distance relationships were hard.

He only stopped whacking him when Rei cleared his throat, and the two bickering boys on the floor both looked up at him. He looked like he wanted to beat both of them upside the head, with something a lot harder than a couch cushion.

"I suggest that, since it's so late – "

"Early, actually, Rei-chan, it's the morni-"

"Early then. Either way, we should settle down. I suggest we watch a movie or something and get some sleep."

"Ahh, that's a pretty good idea, Rei-kun. I can get blankets and we can sleep down here." Nitori went quickly upstairs to grab blankets and pillows for the three of them, taking a minute to change into sweats before heading back downstairs.

It sounded like they'd turned the TV on, and were listening to the news. When he got back into the living room, he paused nervously at the sight of his two friends. They were staring wide-eyed at the screen, not blinking. He turned his attention to the TV, feeling himself get panicky and not knowing why, until what the news lady was saying and the images finally clicked in his mind.

A plane had crashed somewhere north of town. That was what the anchor was saying. The burning, hulking mass on the screen, then, must be the plane. And yes, the anchor was saying, it's just been confirmed that this inferno was, in fact, Flight 114 from Sydney to Tokyo. And Nitori didn't hear anything else, because someone was screaming.

He was screaming.

That was Rin's flight. Rin's plane. So, somewhere in that pyre was Rin, and Haru, Haru was on that flight too.

And all he could do was watch them burn.

Well, here you are. The second installment that's actually the first chapter. I hope my vapid attempts at humour were enough to distract you from the awful thing that happened there at the end.

Anyways, I do hope you enjoyed. I'll throw out another thank you to the DANCE TEAM SUPER STAR (she knows) who keeps proofreading my work like a boss.

If you enjoyed it, would you consider leaving a review? Even a one word "nice" or a five word "I hate this so much" is better than total silence.