Chapter Four: Aftermath

Three days later…

Haru, Rei, Nagisa, and Rin all stood outside Makoto's home. The four of them had a plan to kidnap Makoto, since he gave them no other option. If he left his house at all in the past few days, he managed to do it in the few times that Haru wasn't watching. It was easy to see from his home who came and left Makoto's house. Everyone had a bad feeling in the pit of their stomach; Makoto probably locked himself inside his bedroom since the incident.

That day wasn't one that any of them wanted to remember. When they came to shore, they pulled Makoto out on a stretcher. He was given an IV to help hydrate him again and covered with heated blankets to restore his warmth. Dehydration and hypothermia, the medic had said. Those were the physical ailments that Makoto suffered from being buried in the soaked sand and the saltwater being forced down his throat. The psychological analysis—well, the medic said he'd leave that to the professionals. But his guess was a severe panic attack. It was possible that Makoto depersonalized himself during that time and that was why he couldn't respond to anyone. He explained that sometimes when people go into a deep panic, they have an out of body experience. They are fully aware of what's going on, but they are watching it as a spectator and have no control over the situation. The feeling of security and safety can draw them back—sometimes.

Haru wondered if that was what Makoto was referring to when they spoke earlier that night on the island. He said that when he was supposed to save Rei from drowning, he was aware of what was going on, but he couldn't physically do anything about it. It unfortunately fit perfectly with what Haru witnessed with Makoto's panic attack at the edge of the ocean. That day, it was security that brought him back. With Rei, it was losing consciousness and waking up on shore, safe. Haru wasn't sure which day was worse; he hated the thought of both of them.

Makoto responded to the knock on the door of his home and was obviously shocked to see all of them. Everyone on the other side of the door was equally stunned: Makoto's skin was pale and white as the curtains in his living room. His hair was flat on his head and his cheek was creased with the outline of a pillow.

"Huh?" he murmured. "What are you all doing here?"

It was Nagisa who was most unaffected by Makoto's appearance. He reached out from the group and grabbed Makoto's arm. "Kidnapping commencing! Onto stage two, Rei-chan!"

"Y-yeah!" He grabbed onto Makoto's other arm and also flew away with him in their dust.

"What—What's going on?!" Makoto cried as he basically took lift-off at the force of Rei and Nagisa's firm grasps and quick pace. As Makoto screamed in protest and surprise, Haru and Rin just gave each other looks.

"He's worse than we thought," Rin said with a deep frown.

"His mother said that he's sick," Haru said in his defense. "That's all."

Rin scoffed and walked away. "Why'd you sit at your window the past three days, then?"

Haru followed without responding. Rin caught him in a lie that he could never work his way out of. Makoto was possibly sick with a cold from the island, but he was sick with a lot more than that. For the first time in his life, Makoto was drawing away from people. Even when he was upset, he always kept up his social and bubbly persona. Now, that was too much of a pain. Something was seriously wrong, and he had no clue how to fix it. At least he had an idea of how to fix another problem.

In his yard twenty minutes later, Nagisa already began their solution.

"Nagisa," Makoto moaned. "Why do I have to learn self-defense?"

"C'mon, Mako-chan, it's fun to learn!" the blond said in his eager way. "Now, duck!"

"Huh?!" Suddenly, Nagisa's arm flew in to hit the side of Makoto's head. Even when he ducked, it was a solid hit. "Ouch…"

"This isn't going well," Rin muttered from the sidelines. The other two silently agreed with him as Nagisa again ordered Makoto to duck to avoid his arm. He literally had to drop down to his knees to avoid the arm.

"What on earth is he thinking?" Rei sighed.

"He's small," Haru said obviously. "He only knows how to right like a short person."

"What are you saying about me, Haru-chan?!" Nagisa called defensively from the yard. Makoto took the opportunity to step away, but Nagisa quickly jumped on his back. "Anyone can fight like this!" Makoto either fell or purposefully allowed himself to land on his stomach in the grass. The pitiful look that he gave the remaining three was enough to spur one of them into action.

"It can't be helped," Rei said as he rose and straightened his glasses. "Nagisa-kun, let me take over. I will show him the beauty of fighting."

"Is this supposed to be an improvement?" Rin muttered to Haru.

"It'll be alright, Makoto-Senpai!" Rei cried as he puffed out his chest. "I'll teach you the most beautiful ways to defend yourself. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"And why is he so enthusiastic?" Rin heckled quietly to Haru. "I've never seen him so…"

"Exuberant," Haru filled in with a blank nod. "You get used to it."

Naturally, Rei had Makoto start with the stretches. He even tried to tell him to extend his arm and have it at a specific angle and then his right leg would be at another angle, his left at another and his left arm opposing the right in length so that the chi would flow through his body. Poor Makoto humored him, but he could hardly stay standing with how far apart Rei had him spread his legs.

"That's not beautiful at all, Makoto-senpai," he scolded. "You must desire to be beautiful."

"My desire is to find out exactly why we're doing this," Makoto complained again.

"Perhaps if you're successful with your lessons, then we'll tell you."

"You can't even let me know now because I'm still standing?" Makoto sighed faintly.

"Fight on, Mako-chan!" Nagisa cheered excitedly from the sideline. While Rei looked over and gave him a gratuitous smile, Nagisa looked over at Rin and Haru. "I don't think Rei-chan will be able to teach Mako-chan how to fight."

"At least wait until I look away to say those comments!" Rei cried as remained staring at the three. While Nagisa weakly chuckled, Rei went back to his stretching session with Makoto. He began to physically grab Makoto's limbs and stretch him in ways that the human body shouldn't have been able to move.

"Rin-chan, you should try to teach him," Nagisa suggested after fifteen minutes of stretching. "You know how to fight, don't you?"

"As if," he scoffed. "I just put all my force behind my punches and land one hit. I'm not a fighter."

"But you have to try!" Nagisa encouraged. "And we need to save him from Rei-chan."

"I can still hear you!"

"Alright," Rin sighed. He rose to his feet and stopped next to Rei and Makoto, the latter of whom was nearly doing a split in his sweatpants thanks to Rei's stretching. "Rei, I'm taking over."

"But-"

"Come on, Rei-chan," Nagisa called from the sideline. "Rin-chan has some good ideas."

"Since when?" Rin muttered quietly to himself.

"I see." Rei straightened his glasses, giving a slight boy to Rin. "Rin-san, I leave him in your care!" He started off to the side, sitting on the ground along with the other two. While Nagisa gave him a smile of encouragement, Haru's focus was solely on Rin and Makoto.

"Alright, Makoto," Rin started. "Look me in the eye." He waited for cooperation. "Turn the left side of your mouth down in a frown."

As soon as everyone heard those directions, they groaned. Rin wasn't actually going to teach him how to fight; he was going to teach him how to look terrifying. Makto couldn't be terrifying even if he was painted in blood and gore; his harmless aura overcame any physical appearance. He couldn't even frown properly, which made Rin literally reach forward and tug his lip into the correct position.

"Now furrow your eyebrows. Don't take your eyes away from mine," Rin ordered.

Poor Makoto complied, though more than angry, he looked confused. It was hardly the terrifying expression that Rin was going for. Nobody said anything, but Haru rose to his feet anyway. His steps were silent as he approached Rin and set a hand on his shoulder. "It's hopeless."

Rin looked over at Haru, his eyebrows furrowed in the way that he described Makoto to do before. He wasn't pretending to be angry; he was seriously ticked off. He shook of the hand on his shoulder and turned around, completely ignoring Makoto in the meantime. "Oy, Haru, I thought you agreed to this idea!"

The gaze that Haru returned was equally icy. "I'm not anymore. Let it go, Rin."

"You agreed with me! I said that Makoto had to be able to defend himself in case those thugs every came back. So why are you fighting against it now?!"

Haru silently stared down Rin. That was one of the things that Rin always hated about Haru—he stayed silent at the times that he should have been fighting back. He acted so apathetic when he really should have been furious. He reached out and shoved Haru backwards, though he just calmly took a step back.

"Oy, Rin!" Makoto protested.

"Stay out of it, Makoto!" he snapped.

"Stay out of it? This is about me!"

"Don't snap at him," Haru said to Rin in an unreadable tone.

Rin met Haru's eyes without reservations. "I'll snap at him as much as I need to. You want to coddle him, but we don't have that luxury anymore. He was attacked, Haru! Accept it. Now we need to prepare for a second attack."

"Rin!" Don't talk like that in front of Makoto. Haru didn't dare look over and see the look in Makoto's eyes; he was sure that he was very unsettled by all this talk.

For some reason, the calling of his name ticked him off even more. He shoved Haru so much that he was forced to stumble back a step. He tripped over a fallen twig and landed flat on his back in the grass. The morning dew still clung to the grass until it transferred onto his clothing. He was so surprised that all he could do was stare up at the redhead who had pushed him down. Rin, so into the moment, actually knelt down over Haru as if he were prepared to keep him down and knock his lights out.

That was when a broad hand appeared on Rin's shoulder. It held on. Tightly. "Rin," Makoto said slowly. "That's enough."

"Don't tell me what's enough," Rin said as he tried to rip his shoulder out of Makoto's grasp. Although that wasn't a success, he was able to lift his other hand and draw it back so that he could punch Haru on the ground.

Makoto saw it happening and acted on instinct. He shoved Rin off of Haru and tackled him roughly, feeling the force of both of them hit the ground. It was Makoto who wound up on top, with his fist drawn back and ready to launch at Rin as soon as Rin presented any type of a threat. He took in a shaky breath as his fist began to tremble. Haru didn't know what was going on in Makoto's head, but as he sat up and looked over at the pair, he saw that Rin was half-surprised and half-pleased. Makoto though…he looked devastated.

Haru thought he understood at first what Rin was doing. He knew that Rin was trying to provoke Makoto into attacking. In the heart of the moment, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. Whether he liked it or not, Makoto did have to learn how to fight in case those thugs came back. But the cost of getting Makoto to act was too much.

As Makoto lowered his fist, he also bit down on his lower lip.

"Good, Makoto," Rin said as he recovered from the shock. "Now why can't you be that passionate about protecting yourself?"

If Makoto didn't understand what was going on before, he certainly did now. It was a set-up, and he felt betrayed. He stood up without a word and just looked down at Rin. "That…wasn't kind," he said. He stepped away without offering Rin a hand, like he often did with Haru. Maybe it was because he was angry, or maybe it was because it wasn't Haru. Either way, he turned his back to all of them and ran a hand through his brunet hair.

"Those thugs that attacked you weren't kind either," Rin argued as he rose to his feet. "You need to learn how to fight, Makoto. We don't want to see you get hurt."

Makoto lowered his hand, allowing it to limply fall down to his side. "I find that hard to believe," he said quietly, "with the stunt that you just pulled."

Of course Rin didn't have a good response to that. Even Nagisa—the king of jumping in and breaking the tension of awkward or tense situations, remained absolutely silent by the sidelines. All that any of them could do was watch as Makoto went back home.

*…*…*…*…*…*

Author's note: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Even though it is devastating for Makoto, I had a lot of fun writing the scene because it was a chance to show off all the characters and their quirks. Grey-sentry, Guest, and MarshmellowMelody, I appreciate your reviews! They all made me beam. :D Please continue to leave reviews/comments, and other followers, feel free to follow their example. It is super encouraging.

Until next week!

Peanut