It was Ikuya's decision not to meet before club activities. What was the point? They'd have all night together. At least, that was his reasoning. Haruka wasn't as okay with it, but he agreed nonetheless. He passed Ikuya in the hall, giving him a brief, longing look, knowing that it would still be several hours before he could speak freely with him again.

As per the arrangement, Haruka waited at home while his mother was at work, and Ikuya, presumably, went back with his brother to pack up his things. While he was cooking dinner, he wondered if Ikuya would be impressed watching him. Other people always seemed to be, when they learned he could cook, and their praises never meant much to him. He was just following the recipe his mother left him. But he wondered, if Ikuya were there with him at that moment, if he would be impressed, and the thought made him smile.

Waiting for his mother to come home felt as though it were taking longer than ever before. He knew her schedule, and he knew he had time before her return, yet his eyes continued to wander to the clock. If she didn't stop to buy anything on her way back, he figured, she should be only another twenty minutes. If she stopped to buy something, what would she need to buy, anyway? When twenty minutes passed and she hadn't come home, Haruka began to mentally catalogue the contents of the fridge. Just about the time he had determined she may have stopped for eggs, the door opened.

"I'm home!" she called.

Haruka didn't waste any time. He felt like if he didn't leave now, it would never happen. "Does anything need to be put away before we go?"

"Just these eggs," his mother said, handing the carton off to her son. "I'm going to give Ikuya-kun's parents a call to let them know we're on our way."

With a nod, Haruka took the eggs and put them away while his mother dialed the phone. The conversation was brief- it didn't have to be long- and soon Haruka's itching feet were in his shoes and out the door.

The atmosphere in the Kirishima household was like a static shock building in socked feet. Haruka felt as though at any moment, someone would get zapped, and that someone would likely be him. Perhaps it was because Ikuya's father was standing in the doorway of Ikuya's room, watching, or perhaps it was the sounds of Ikuya's mother in another part of the house, crying, but the entire situation left him on edge. His eyes met Ikuya's, and he wondered if he felt the same.

"This is all of my most important stuff," Ikuya grunted as he hefted a very full backpack onto his shoulders. "Natsu-nii helped me sort through it… he made me leave a lot of things behind, but it'll be okay. He's going to hold onto them for me."

Taking another very full bag onto his shoulders, Haruka wondered just how much more Ikuya would have tried to bring. As it was, both boys were carrying bags, and Haruka's mother had a couple of rolling suitcases in tow. "Are you ready?"

Ikuya glanced over at his father, who furrowed his brow and turned away. "Yeah," he replied. "Just let me go say goodbye to my mom and Natsu-nii."

While Ikuya disappeared into another room down the hall, Haruka and his mother headed towards the door, followed by Ikuya's father. There was an awkward silence as they waited, where no one made eye contact and no one dared to speak their mind in front of the other. For Haruka, the only thing holding him back was his fear that Ikuya's father would revoke his permission to let Ikuya move in with them. He wondered why Kirishima-san allowed it in the first place, then looked up at his mother and remembered with admiration the way she had scolded him over the phone.

When Ikuya reappeared, his eyes wet with tears, he was followed by his mother and older brother. Haruka could tell that his mother was not taking this well, and he felt sorry for her. She leaned on her older son and tried her best not to cry in front of them, but the redness around her eyes and the coarseness of her voice as she quickly listed off some of Ikuya's favorite foods to Haruka's mother told of just how broken she was.

"Please take good care of him!" she begged. "Ikuya, you know you're welcome to come home whenever you want."

Ikuya looked up at his father, who turned away without response. "I'll come by to visit," he promised. "But as long as he refuses to accept me, I'm going to stay with Haru, where I am accepted."

"Ikuya…" His mother began to cry, leaning on Natsuya even more.

By the time the three made it home, it was approaching bedtime, and most of the unpacking was left for later. Haruka's mother bathed first, going straight to bed after, then Haruka went while Ikuya tried to remember which bag he had left his pajamas in. When it was Ikuya's turn, Haruka waited in his- no, their- bedroom, trying to reconcile an internal conflict between his desire for his own space and his love of Ikuya. Spending a couple of nights together was one thing, but living out of the same room was another, and he wasn't sure how he would handle it after a few days had passed.

When Ikuya was finished and returned to the bedroom, he plopped down on the side of the bed and rested his head on Haruka's shoulder.

"Oi, your hair is still wet!" Haruka grumbled, shoving him away.

"Sorry," Ikuya mumbled. He sat there for a moment, staring at the ground. "I still can't believe this is really happening."

Not knowing what to say, Haruka planted a kiss on Ikuya's cheek before crawling into bed. "I'm getting used to it now, so if you need to hug me in your sleep, it's okay." He pulled the blanket up so that Ikuya couldn't see his blushing face after he said it. "Goodnight."

Wriggling into bed beside Haruka, Ikuya hesitantly put an arm around his waist. "Hey, Haru?"

"Hm?" Haruka grunted.

"Are we always going to sleep like this?"

"Who knows?" Haruka buried his face deeper in the covers. "You can have the futon if you want. It doesn't matter to me." He said that, but when he thought about Ikuya sleeping on the futon, and when he thought about the arm draped so gingerly over him, he felt a little sad.

When morning came, Haruka had to free himself from an entanglement of limbs before he could turn off the alarm. Ikuya had not only squeezed him around the waist, but had trapped his legs, too. Once the alarm had been successfully silenced, he turned to his boyfriend and said, "Good morning."

"'Morning," Ikuya mumbled back. He yawned and drew in closer to Haruka. "It's kinda cold this morning."

"Yeah," Haruka agreed. He wished he could stay in bed on a day like this, but the cold draft that hit him when Ikuya pulled away and climbed out of bed made him realize it wouldn't be the same alone.

As Haruka and Ikuya left for school, they were met by Makoto. He hadn't yet had a chance to talk to Haruka about all the things that had been happening the last day or so, and his mind was full of questions. Why didn't Haru walk to school with me yesterday? Why did he come to school with Ikuya and Natsuya-senpai? Why is Ikuya here now? When he voiced all of his questions, the other two did their best to answer him, though the topic was still a little tender for Ikuya.

"So Ikuya is living with Haru now." Makoto's mouth went into an uplifting smile. "We should do a sleepover sometime." Neither Haruka nor Ikuya replied to him, but his smile remained.

Somehow, Ikuya made it the entirety of the day before without anyone noticing his arm. Today, however, was basketball for PE. Everyone was in short-sleeves; why shouldn't they be? It was an indoor court. While Haruka was changing, he kept an ear tuned in the direction of Ikuya's locker.

"Eh- Kirishima-kun, did you hurt your arm?"

"I'm fine."

"It looks like you have a bruise."

"I said I'm fine."

"I'm not gonna lose to you, Ikuya!" It was Asahi now. He and Haruka would be on the same team, against the team Ikuya and Makoto were on.

"Hey, Haru!" Kisumi was calling him.

Haruka turned to see the pink-haired boy waving at him from the end of the row of lockers. "What?"

"If we win, will you join the basketball club?" He asked with a grin.

"Not interested," Haruka refused, turning his attention to getting changed.

The game began like any other, and it continued on in the same way it usually did. After a little back-and-forth early on, Haruka's team was winning, and though he wasn't exactly dead weight, he wasn't the star player, either. It was obvious that Kisumi being in the basketball club was paying off. If he had any interest in basketball, Haruka was sure he could learn from him.

Just after Kisumi got the ball from Makoto, he passed it to Asahi. Asahi grinned and started taking the ball up the court to the net, dodging around the other team pretty well, considering he wasn't a regular player. When he got to Ikuya, who reached out to try and smack the ball away, his feet came to a stop, and his hand froze, allowing the ball to roll away. His eyes stared widely, though not as widely as the other players watching him, and he slowly closed in on him.

Though Haruka recognized what was going on, he was too far back to reach them before Asahi got close to Ikuya. He watched his boyfriend shrink away from the redhead, then watched as Asahi reached out and grabbed his arm. Both teams were looking at each other and murmuring their confusion, hoping someone knew what was going on, and slowly, those closest to the two started to notice.

"Let go of me!" Ikuya barked, tugging at his arm, but he couldn't break free. A crowd began to form around them and he could hear people talking about it.

"Is that a name?"

"What's it say?"

"Why's it purple?"

"What's the big deal? I just wanna play…"

The coach came over and started to shoo the other boys away.

"Ikuya," Asahi said, his voice low and his eyes focusing intently on the other's face. "How long have you been hiding this?" His voice cracked. "Why do you keep hiding things from me? I thought we were teammates, I thought we were friends!"

"I-"

"That's enough!" the coach roared, taking Asahi by the wrist and forcing him to let Ikuya go. "We're in the middle of class!"

"Asahi, I-" Before he could find the words, Asahi had already turned and started back towards his team.

"Haru," he called, gesturing for him to come over. When Haruka obliged, he leaned in close and whispered, "Is this why you quit?"

Stepping back, Haruka shook his head. "No."

Looking across the court, Haruka could see that Ikuya's teammates were still whispering about it. He was grateful when Makoto walked over to Ikuya and said something he imagined to be encouraging. He was also grateful when the coach allowed Ikuya to leave the game, though he was a little bitter that he couldn't join him.

"C'mon everyone, get in your places!" The coach called.

After classes were over, Haruka and Ikuya met in their usual place. In Haruka's class, the only one who knew the name on Ikuya's arm was Asahi, and he kept his mouth shut about it. He was fairly certain Kisumi had put it together, too, though he hadn't been bombarded with questions so he assumed he was going to keep it quiet as well.

"I decided to tell Satomi before she heard it from someone else," Ikuya said, glancing at his arm. "She was shocked, but she said she was relieved to finally know what was going on. I think she's sad, though."

Haruka didn't really care, but he listened, because he knew Satomi was a precious friend of Ikuya's. When Ikuya was finished, Haruka learned that, if anyone else had noticed whose name was on Ikuya's arm, they weren't talking about it, but rumors about there being a name on his arm were spreading quickly- as well as rumors about the color of the name.

"I'll see you tonight," Haruka said, giving Ikuya's hand a squeeze before letting him go. "You can get back on your own, right?"

"I can," Ikuya replied, "but I'll probably just walk with Makoto. I could be walking with you, y'know, if you'd come back to the club."

"I can't," Haruka said, turning and walking away. He was tired of hearing about it. He would go to competitions to cheer them on, but he was done swimming with others. He could only ever swim for himself now, or else he might hurt someone again.