The sidewalks are filled with people coming and going as the boys set off for the courier. Aoba seemed to be deep in thought as the boys both passed by the route in the Old Resident District that led to the hospital. Just looking at the worn out path was enough to send Rin's brain into a frenzy

'I wonder if she moved today.'

'Does her bed pan need to be changed?'

'Should I visit before I head over to Aoba?'

'What if she wakes up today?'

Those were just a few of the thoughts buzzing around in his skull as Aoba and Ren joked around about short circuiting in the background. Noticing his somber companion Aoba gently elbowed Rin in the side getting his attention. "Hey how's Rei doing these days?" he asked lightly. Rin gripped his messenger bag strap with both hands and swallowed up his sadness as he answered. "Onee-san is doing great! Just last week her finger started to twitch so that's good news!" he sounded somewhat cheerful with a wide smile on his face but Aoba knew that Rin was just putting up a front so he wouldn't worry so much about him. Rin was like that always putting everyone else's feelings above his own.

"That's good, it's really good actually but you know you don't have to pretend to be brave in front of me Rin." His smile dropped as he looked on at Aoba, surprised at being caught, and then sorrowfully at the ground. Aoba continued "I'm here for you Rin whether you want me to be there or not. You don't have to go through this alone." Just as Rin opened his mouth to talk Ren popped his little furry blue head out of Aoba's gym bag and called the boys attention.

"Aoba, if you want to take a shortcut, turn right at the next road."

"Ack. That was close I almost missed it! Come on Rin!" Aoba yelled as he grabbed onto Rin's arm and dragged him along. Following Ren's instructions they enter into a narrow side street. The walls are dirty and grimy and the whole street has a kind of dark alleyway feel to it. A group of guys leaning idly against the dirty wall talked amongst themselves, as Aoba and Rin passed them by Rin was able to pick up a few words from their conversation like 'Rhyme' 'Forced' and 'Drive-By'. Not willing to make any assumptions Rin continued on his merry way alongside Aoba.

As the reach the next street Aoba can see the sign for the courier while Rin however, being a bit shorter than Aoba, could only see the thick growing crowd in the middle of the road, there seemed to be a fight going on. Aoba grabs onto Rin's arm and attempts to maneuver them around the steadily growing crowd but he finds it difficult to get completely around them.

Just then a high pitched screamed echoed around the street, immediately drawing both boys attention to the center of the crowd.

Kind of a short chapter but yeeeeah the updating every Sunday think isn't going to work out. So from here on out it will be updated every other Sunday! Lol not a lot of Aoba/Rin moments this chapter but we did get to see a bit of sad Rin and comforting Aoba came to his rescue! We're coming up on an important character next chapter (a virtual cookie goes out to whoever can guess who that is!) Oh and I'm not 100% sure on this yet but I don't know who to have Noiz kiss when he meets our boys! So far it's looking like Aoba's gonna be the lucky guy but I don't know…let me know what you guys think!