Spending More Time Together. Part Two.

As soon as Abby and Rin's astonishingly inconspicuous coach closed the apartment door behind them, Rin walked back to the loveseat Haru was still lounging and knelt in front of it before letting his head fall forward so his face nuzzled into the edge of Haru's chest. He then let out an exhausted and frustrated sigh.

"Such a pain." Haru muttered softly.

"I'm sorry." Rin's voice strained in a way that Haru could tell he was sincere about it.

"For what?" Haru asked.

"Everything" Rin groaned into his chest.

"It's not your fault, I just think this is stupid. Just because we're good swimmers doesn't mean our lives should be open public commentary."

"That's true" Rin said gloomily.

Haru tenderly wrapped an arm around Rin's shoulders and rubbed up and down Rin's arm. Rin gave him an appreciative smile. "Hey Haru?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you thought about what you're going to do when you retire swimming?"

"I have actually."

"Really?" Rin tilted his head up so Haru could see him smirk "that's unlike you."

"Well I learned the first time it's not the best idea to wait till the last moment to decide things like that."

Rin's face turned to embarrassment, he probably should have learned that too after he saw what Haru went through during their senior year in high school. "So what'd you come up with?"

"I want to be a chef, and open my own restaurant." Haru had small hints of a smile as he said it. It wasn't a grandiose or very exiting dream, but he felt like it was a path that suits him.

"You can't have a restaurant that only serves Mackerel." Rin teased.

Haru flicked Rin's forehead. "Hey. I've learned to eat other things. You haven't been seeing me starve myself to death while staying at your apartment that is completely devoid of fish. Besides," Haru looked away and softly pouted "there are a lot of Mackerel recipes out there. Definitely enough to make a menu out of."

Rin chuckled, knowing his guess of Haru's type of restaurant was dead on. "So it's still your favorite dish I see. But you're right, I didn't notice till now you've been getting better on handling abstinence from your Mackerel addiction, I am so proud of you." Rin ruffled Haru's hair. Haru stared at him with a slightly annoyed expression, knowing he was being patronized. "Well then, once you start a restaurant you'll offer me a job right?"

"I'll make you a waiter." Haru teased back.

Rin scoffed but then grinned. "That's fine, I'll just be the sexiest damn waiter in your whole staff."

"Just for that, I plan to only hire extremely attractive men for my wait staff."

"I'll still beat them."

"Are you sure?" Haru raised an eyebrow challengingly.

Rin narrowed his eyes at Haru for a moment in response to hearing such a challenge, but then just laughed. "You're just unaware of how beautiful and charming the general population thinks I am."

"The general population has yet to get to know you." Haru smirked.

"Oi! That was uncalled for Haru."

"Nah, you asked for it. Anyway we should eat, we have a televised event announcing your retirement in three hours."

Rin sighed and stood up, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. "Damn Abby can book things quick." Rin paused to sigh and offered his hand to help Haru up from his awkward laying position. "But I guess it can't be helped. I didn't mean to drag you so much into this but I'm kind of glad I'm not doing this alone."

Haru simply nodded after he was pulled to his feet. He knew Rin was hiding just how much he was really scared of retiring without someone who cares by his side. Even if Rin had forgotten that night in the village, Haru knew Rin was just as vulnerable now as he was then. As if to comfort that crying boy still in his head, he leaned close and caught Rin by surprise with a soft, kind, kiss. Then he quickly he turned away without any explanation and started to make them a late breakfast.


Haru knew that publicity responsibilities were the devil. It wasn't just a matter of his antisocial personality. Even Rin, who usually handled these situations with relative ease still looked to be exhausted after a day like this. The TV interview that was planned to be an hour, ended up being three hours by the time Rin gave up answering questions. There were also plenty of questions for Haru as well, which he wasn't expecting. After all why would a bunch of Australian reporters care about someone who swims for Japan?

Haru simply gave his preplanned speech of how much the swimming world will lack without Rin's presence, even though internally he didn't feel like he was qualified to be an ambassador of the whole swimming world. He then finished his speech with some words of comfort that Rin would be amazing in whatever he tackles next, and how he expects great things in his best friends future. The more sentimental attendants of the press conference absolutely loved it, and didn't hold it against Haru when he refused to speak or answer any questions after making his statement.

They were then whisked away to a radio interview which, unsurprisingly, wanted more details on the moment the intimate photo was taken. That was another hour of the two of them twisting the truth, and managing their stories. Haru had to talk more in this interview as the DJ was real interested in hearing each moment of the story from both their viewpoints. Rin was still holding his hand during that interview, despite the fact there was no camera's to see it. This only confirmed Haru's beliefs that him staying close wasn't only for the sake of the public story they were portraying.

He couldn't help but wonder if Rin would have seriously broke down by now if he was doing this alone. Telling the world over and over in intimate detail about how he's giving up everything that possibly ever mattered in his life, with no hand to hold onto. Nothing to look forward to, just an abyss of time ahead of him with no meaning or direction. This caused Haru's chest to tighten and his breathing to come up short as suddenly it looked like Rin wasn't the one who was teetering on a break down.

He was broken from this spell of fear by noticing Rin's eyes met with his. Rin looked to be concerned and confused by Haru's sudden change. No, that isn't right, the last thing he wanted was to be comforted when it's supposed to be the other way around. He wanted more than anything to keep Rin away from that imagined abyss. Once again it felt like he wanted to comfort that crying boy that Rin was hiding inside himself, but they were at a radio studio so the most he could do was show Rin a reassuring smile that everything was alright and softly squeezed their hands together. Rin smiled back and the show continued.


Now its ten pm as they finally stumbled back into Rin's apartment, take out dinner in hand. They were both too exhausted to bother cooking. They felt like they managed to survive hell on earth. At least it was over. Abby decided the most merciful tactic was to get all the interviews done on one day. That way they can enjoy the rest of the short period of time Haru was there. Though Rin had a feeling at least the next few days they'll be in recovery mode from being picked apart from the media. At least now they have a valid excuse for spending most the day binge watching Netflix. Rin smirked at that thought, probably the first real facial expression he's put on for hours.

"I'm going to go shower first." Rin grumbled, he wasn't grumbling at Haru, it was just hard to be chipper when he was drained both physically and mentally.

Haru silently nodded permission and then watched Rin drag himself into the bedroom. After Rin was out of sight he let out a tired sigh and dragged himself to the kitchen, placing the bag of take out on the table before getting out plates and silverware. As he was setting the table there was a knock on the door.

"Now they're invading his apartment as well? Vultures don't know when to give up." Haru somewhere found the energy to be furious at the idea of the media still digging deeper into their private lives. This is no way to treat any human being. He wanted so bad to open the door and yell into the face of whatever dumb reporter thought this was okay, but he knew his outburst would only cause another flair of bad publicity for Abby and Yuki to deal with. Of course this thought only angered him more. Somehow his and Rin's lives were up for mass interrogation and speculation, and yet him defending his own right to privacy makes him the bad guy.

Knock. Knock. Knock. There it was again, more persistently, but Haru refused to answer. If he can't yell at the guy the least he could do is not give the reporter the satisfaction of an answer. Guy could wait out there all he wants, he will not ask another question or flash another picture.

The knocking stopped, in the silence Haru could hear the doorknob start to turn. "Really?! This idiot is so desperate he's going to trespass to get a story?" Haru crossed over to living room where Rin happened to keep a digital camera and picked it up to turning it on. Whoever this idiot was Haru was going to get a picture for a police report.

As Haru's eyes focused on the preview screen, the only thing his mind was able to register was that whoever was trespassing wasn't a reporter. Instead he saw something much worse. It was a very large man who was barreling towards him.

"Who the hell!?"

As if immobilized by confusion, Haru stood still until he was slammed into a wall, which created a reverberating cracking sound. The camera fell out of his hand and skidded across the floor. The next sensation he noticed was both his arms being pinned to walls, pressed down by this mystery man's elbows. Lastly he noticed a pair of dead teal eyes glaring into his sapphire blue ones. Haru thought this man had the expression of a dead fish.

"Rin!" Haru cried out, even though it was unlikely to be heard over the shower.

"I told you not to get in his way again." The man spoke for the first time with an almost deadly calm to his voice. "What the hell did you do to him Nanase?"

It was with that line that Haru managed to decipher who this person was. Sosuke Yamazaki. Their first meeting started like that, a warning for him to stay out of Rin's way. Which was of course, a massive misunderstanding, and yet here again with their first meeting in a decade, Haru finds history to be repeating itself. What was Sosuke angry about this time anyway? That Rin quit swimming? That the two of them are obviously dating despite best attempts to persuade people otherwise? Both? None of that is his fault! Everything that's happened so far is because of Rin's decisions, though he wasn't sure if he could really convince Sosuke to believe that message. He wasn't really in a good position here to anger Sosuke any more, no matter what the truth is.

"Answer me Nanase!" His calm broke as his voice now sounded more frustrated.

"What are you talking about Sosuke?" was all he was able to say with a bit of non-terrified dignity. "That's right. Just keep him talking. Just long enough for Rin to come out."

"Don't give me that shit Nanase! I saw the damn press conference, and I found that damn picture on the internet. Rin quit and I bet you're the one to blame."

"How do you recon that?" Haru spoke a little calmer now, seeing as his plan is somewhat working.

"Because Rin would never quit swimming on his own. You must have gotten into his head, you always do you bastard. I bet after you beat him in freestyle you used his loss against him. Convinced him that it was time to quit, and then offered him the chance to have whatever twisted love game you're playing as a consolation prize. You rather like having my best friend wrapped around your finger don't you? Well I won't let you! I'll get him to see the light, and get him back on track to his life's goals."

"You mean your life's goals, dontchu?" A strangely quiet but stern voice spoke as both Sosuke's and Haru's heads turned to see Rin standing at the edge of the living room with just a towel wrapped around his hips. He had heard what sounded like an argument as soon as he turned off the shower, so he hurried to see what was going on, leaving the rest of his body dripping wet as he stood there. After a few seconds dragged on of the two of them looking at him, Rin took a few steps forward, staring Sosuke down with an almost dead and hardened expression that could rival the face Sosuke gave Haru earlier. "You. Get the fuck off my boyfriend."

The pressure of Sosuke's elbows pressed against Haru's arms lessened, but suddenly Sosuke was the one frozen in place under somebody's glare. Rin just continued to close the gap between them and firmly planted him palm against Sosuke's gut, roughly pushing him away and then seemingly ignoring his presence as he slowly took Haru's arms and lowered them, his expression turning concerned as he looked over his mate for any possible injury. "Are you okay?" His eyes asked.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just take care of him" was Haru's facial reply.

Rin turned around to face Sosuke, his face once again cold as ice. Whether or not it was intentional, it seemed as if he was brutally punishing Sosuke by giving his 'enemy' something he couldn't have. Haru got Rin's affection and concern, but those beautiful caring eyes were reserved only for Haru. Meanwhile the looks Sosuke could see were devoid of any kindness or weakness. Rin was silently building a wall to keep him out. The harshness of it made Sosuke unconsciously take a step back away from the person he came to talk to in the first place.

"So you admit it then? That you two are dating." Sosuke asked softly. He was almost sure of it in the first place but it seemed to send a shock threw his system to hear Rin clearly admit to it.

Rin raised his eyebrow, still coldly staring at him. "And if we are? What is it to you?"

"I don't like him Rin." Sosuke nearly whispered, now in his own way trying not to rattle his attacker too much.

"Well no duh. We established this years ago didn't we?"

"He's not good for you." Sosuke continued, as if the words running through his mind couldn't help but be spoken, no matter what the circumstances. "Whenever he's involved you get irrational. He distracts you from your life. From your dreams. Whenever he's involved in something you just lose track of yourself, and lately he's around you all the damn time. You can't see clearly, and now you're so wrapped up into him that he's done something to make you want to quit swimming again."

By the end of his list of grievances Sosuke's voice was trembling with desperation for his friend to see the light. The situation eerily mirrored an intervention, where Sosuke confronts Rin for getting hooked onto a heavy drug called Haruka, and now he's slowly watching his best friend fade away from this world to become a junkie. This was his desperate plea to Rin to wake up and go to rehab before it's too late.

Despite the obvious raw desperation that Sosuke displayed, Rin refused to even once show a flicker of emotion. He knew he had to be strong and draw the line. This day was too emotionally exhausting as it was without Sosuke's visit, and now with his old friend barging into his apartment and assaulting his boyfriend, he just really wanted to cry. Cry, and scream, and possibly hit something. But first he must handle this. "Be strong. Don't cry. You will not cry. Just get him the hell out of here."

"Haru has nothing to do with my quitting, Sosuke." Rin's voice came out so calm he even surprised himself on how well he was outwardly managing his emotions. "I decided that I needed to move on by myself, and then I made a royal ass of myself by almost literally dragging him along in this whole mess. The same night I realized that it's time to throw in the towel as far as competitive swimming, I also had an epiphany that Haru's my effin soul mate. Then I dumped all those thoughts and expectations on him because if I didn't have him right now, well I'd be scared of whatever condition I'd end up in. Not that, that's any excuse for what I've put him through anyway. So yeah, if you want to blame someone for my choices right now, then blame me, because I made them." Rin stretched his arms out to the sides, to emphasize the fact he's ready to take a hit, whether it be physical, verbal, or both.

Sosuke had no hits left in him, only confusion and betrayal surged into his system. The facts were still the same. Rin still quit swimming, and in some weird result of it, he and Haru were around each other enough that they were practically conjoined twins. But Sosuke came over to Rin's apartment with the idea that Haru had been pulling all the strings in this shift of events. He could tell Rin wasn't lying to him that he was mistaken on who was in control, but now he didn't know what to do with that information. He still thought Rin was making mistakes in his life by doing this, but he wasn't prepared to save him from his own decisions. He knew Rin would completely shut him out if he actually did try. He had to say something though, so he decided to go with something he had the right to feel betrayed about.

"Why didn't you tell me personally about your decision Rin? Why did I have to find out by one of my students coming up to me and going 'it must be hard for you, having that friend you always brag about suddenly quit.' One of my students knew it before I did Rin, and I, like an idiot, tried to argue that he was mistaken. That he must have heard something wrong, or the news came from a bad source, because my friend would've told me if he was thinking of retirement. Well he pulled out his smart phone, found a video post of your press conference and made me a fool."

Rin let out a small frustrated sigh. "I didn't tell you because I know how you'd react. You'd vehemently try to stop the press conference from ever happening. You'd argue over and over again that I'm making the biggest mistake of my life."

"Well you are! You've trained and swam since we were kids. Twenty years of work and now you're giving it up and losing track of your dream."

"No Sosuke, I completed my dream. It's you're dream you're angry about. You need to let it go. I cannot swim for you."

"This isn't about me Rin!"

"Are you sure?" Rin quirked up his eyebrow again. Sosuke didn't respond. There were a million words running through his head but it all played out as weeping, ranting, gooblety gook. They just stared at each other. Sosuke's ever changing face of frustration, betrayal, and desperation, against Rin's complete coldness which was starting to crack.

The air in the room became thick. It felt like they were surrounded by gasoline and any word could start a flash fire. Haru's body tensed uncomfortably against the wall. He wished there was something he could say or do just to make this moment pass by quicker. Maybe Rin and Sosuke were too absorbed in what to fire back at each other, that they're blind to the fact that backing away right now is beneficial to all of them. Once again, Rin spoke as if reading Haru's mind. "Go home Sosuke, you've said all you wanted to say."

Sosuke huffed out a breath. It was against his pride to do so, but really, he knew he should take the offer to get out since he couldn't find the words to say anyway. He could probably talk till he's blue in the face and yet he knew with every passing word he'd only make things worse. Knowing that fact made it even more frustrating, but he should still go, he needs to reassess the situation and figure what he needs to come terms with. He slowly backed away into hall towards the door. He didn't break away from looking at Rin until he was a step away from backing up against the exit.

The last look on his face was apologetic. He wasn't sure what he actually expected to accomplish tonight, but this wasn't it. He then turned away and exited, shutting the door more harshly than needed, leaving Rin and Haru to silently stand there, staring in the direction of the door as the sound of Sosuke's exit rang in their ears. They mentally understood it was over. It was over and yet there was no relief.

Without consent to do so, Rin's composure completely shattered as soon as the door slammed. At first his fingers trembled, then his wrists began to shake. The tremors worked their way up his arms, into his shoulders, as his breathing pitched to an erratic dry heave. Even while breathing so heavily it felt like he had no oxygen at all. It wasn't until he saw a clear droplet roll off his chin did he realize that he was crying. He lifted a hand up to his cheek and felt the warm flow of liquid emotion, leaving his skin raw and irritated underneath.

Damnit, he didn't want to cry. He promised himself he wouldn't cry. The last thing he wanted was to put extra pressure on Haru to help hold him together. He felt like once again he was inconveniencing Haru by being selfish and wanting comfort while his whole world is falling around him, and everyone from the general media, to his once close childhood friend is questioning his decisions.

Little did Rin know, not only had Haru seen him cry about this situation before, but Haru was in a way expecting this to happen. Haru of course didn't enjoy his expectations coming true, but he couldn't help but notice that maybe the images that kept running through his mind earlier was some sort of a premonition. Not that having said premonition did him any good. He wasn't able to keep Rin from breaking down, and seeing it coming didn't lessen how hard it was to watch the breakdown unfold in front of him.

It took a moment before he remembered to move. He'd been stuck in place ever since Sosuke slammed into him. As he took his first step there was a shooting pain in his back, but really considering what happened that wasn't surprising. His pain wasn't important right now, his pain could be healed with a chiropractor and a few days rest, it was nothing like having a broken heart or mind.

He limped over to Rin, who now had his head hung down with his burgundy hair hiding his face. He stepped closer and wrapped one arm around Rin's shoulder pulling him in close, his other palm already reaching up to softly pet the back of Rin's head. Rin immediately accepted Haru's embrace, and returned it tightly, making Haru wince from the pressure on his bruised back.

Rin pressed his face into Haru's shoulder, he wasn't sure if he was shedding anymore tears because the entirety of his face below his eyes was all soaked and irritated. Even while being comforted he still struggled to regulate his breathing. "It's not fair." Was all he was able to get out in a whining cracking voice. His throat burned terribly as he did so.

"I know it's not fair. Trust me I hate this too." Haru murmured soothingly into his ear. He could feel Rin's body lean even more into his, probably feeling exhausted from crying so hard. "How about we go to bed now?"

Rin weakly nodded, but didn't seem interested in loosening his grip from his only source of comfort. So Haru had to gently pry Rin's arms off him and then kept one arm over Rin's shoulder to take him to the bedroom.

Rin was snuggled up against him more than usual that night. It was just like the night back in the Olympic village, with Rin once again laying completely on top of him. He assumed Rin found comfort in closeness, therefore the more they touched the more it eased him. At this point Haru didn't mind it as much as he did that first night, even though the way Rin exhaled still caused a tingling sensation against his skin. After he spent a few minutes watching Rin sleep, he softly muttered to himself "I don't think today was what Rei had in mind, as far as spending more time together."

Little did he know, that it's the completely stressful, and enormously difficult days like today that either forge or break relationships. That being there for each other in desperate moments of emotional weakness is the start of a bond much closer than what they had before.

Step one. End.


Hello everyone! So it seems my chapter lengths are erratic. Honestly I have a general idea of everything I want to cover in a chapter, but once I start actually typing it I generally surprise myself on how detailed I get. Like midweek I thought I was nearly done with this chapter. Like "Oh, I should finish this in an hour or two, just need to write out the confrontation with Sosuke" -then finds myself finally finishing that with 3 more days typing and 5 extra pages from where I started-

So this is the end of stage one of Rei's stages of relationship. I don't know if all of them will have two parts, I'm pretty sure the second stage will, but as far as everything else, no promises. I was planning on doing the whole story in order with the list, but, without giving too much away, I realize with one chapter I wanted to do, I'd need to scramble the order around a little bit. So have part one of that stage, move to another one, and then have another chapter going back to the previous stage. I know that without context it's really confusing why I'd do that, but with the order of events going on in my head there's really no way around it.

So I have a question to my readers- should I even bother writing the chapter that will throw off the order? In other words is it more important to have it flow perfectly according to the list, or would you rather have even more material to read?

As far as review responses~

Kiriko152: I'm glad you like the cover up story! Lol publicists are pretty sneaky, years and years of coming up with excuses for the dumb things their clients do leads to a good sense of imagination.

skights: Girl I love your dedication to leave a response on everything :D It does make me so pleased. I'm glad you approve of what I done with Rei and I hope you're not to upset he's gone now! He'll come back later, but with a much smaller part unfortunately . Gotta Focus now on the RinxHaru-ness