Saturday - August 40th

When Rin woke up around sunrise he wasn't exactly sure what had awoken him, but he knew something wasn't right. Looking to Sousuke's bed he noticed it was empty but somehow he knew that wasn't it…

Rin then looked down on the floor to see the madras and that's when he remembered that Sousuke had left the other day because Haru would stay with Rin for the weekend. And Haru was gone… now why was that important again?

Rin was so sleepy he couldn't seem to remember anything but suddenly everything hit him like a brick wall and he was wide-awake.

Makoto had asked Rin to look after Haru because Haru should not get into contact with water. Now Haru was missing. He'd most likely disappeared sometime during the night and Rin had failed his task of keeping an eye on Haru completely.

Rin couldn't decide what the worst part was, that Haru had gone missing or that Rin knew where Haru had disappeared to?

No matter what, Rin knew that he had to get up and relocate Haru even if it was an easy task it couldn't wait. The sooner he found his water-loving friend, the better.

As Rin entered the pool area he could clearly hear the sound of someone swimming around. He wasn't surprised. He saw a small head moving around in the pool and this surprised him even less. He walked up to the edge and called out to the dark head out there.

"Haru! Come back here!" he called somewhat angry with the other.

Haru didn't even react to what Rin said. He just kept on swimming like he had nothing else to do.

Rin sighed. "Haru, if you don't get back here I have to come drag you out of the pool myself" he said.

Haru still didn't react.

Rin sighed yet again. He hated that he had to do this. But when Haru was like this he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. He stripped until he was only wearing his swimsuit and jumped into the water, quickly making his way to his stubborn friend.

"Haru, come on," Rin grabbed Haru's shoulder, forcing the other to face him. "You need to get out of here or you'll ruin the plaster around your wrist and strain it as well.

Haru didn't answer. He just looked down at his wrist and following his gaze, Rin could tell the plaster was already pretty much ruined.

"For how long have you been here?" Rin asked.

Haru shrugged.

"When did you get down here?" Rin asked trying his best to make Haru speak.

"Since midnight," Haru answered.

Rin nodded. At least he'd got an answer but he would admit, it wasn't exactly the answer he'd wanted. He'd hoped for something like an hour or half an hour but this was so much he couldn't believe it. Makoto had told Rin about a time when nobody could seem to locate Haru and it turned out he'd been at the pool for hours. What bothered Rin was that it had all been his fault because of something stupid he'd said to Haru earlier that same day. If Haru had been in the water since midnight – almost five hours – it could only mean that something was bothering him.

"What's wrong Haru?" Rin asked.

Haru didn't answer. He just looked down as if the water was much more interesting (which it most likely was)

"Is it something I've done?" Rin asked.

Haru shook his head 'no'.

"Has someone else done something to you?" Rin asked feeling anger rise inside. If anyone had hurt Haru he swore he would…

Haru shook his head once again.

"Then what?" Rin asked getting irritated that he couldn't figure out what in the world was up with Haru. "What's on your mind because it's obvious something's wrong!" he practically yelled out the last part.

Something about Haru changed just then. Rin couldn't put his finger on it but it seemed Haru had gotten a bit upset and all irritation disappeared.

"Come on Haru…" Rin said wrapping his arm around Haru's shoulders leading him to the edge of the pool. Both of them sat up with their legs still in the water while letting their bodies dry in silence.

"Do you wanna tell me what's happened?" Rin asked.

For a while they just sat there. Rin was waiting for Haru's answer, watching his face carefully for any sign of emotion until Haru decided to speak explaining everything that happened three days ago. He spoke for a total of two minutes while Rin just stared.

"That's why I was down here, to get it all off my mind," Haru finished.

Rin's jaw had dropped. He had never heard Haru speak for so long and didn't think it would ever happen. But there he was. Sitting by the edge of the pool a Saturday morning some time past 5 listening to Haru explain what had happened to him and Makoto just a few days ago.

"I see," Rin nodded, now looking down at his knees like they were very interesting. He didn't know what to say or how to react to this. Somehow he wanted to tell Haru that he was sorry but he also knew that Haru won't want his pity.

"We should have your plaster changed…" Rin mumbled after ten minutes of silence.

Haru nodded as the only response.

Makoto is not gonna be pleased about this. Rin thought.

Rin had been afraid the doctor at the hospital would be angry with Haru for not taking better care but all he did was asking an awful lot of questions about how the plaster got as messed up as it did. Since Haru didn't answer at all Rin had to try his best to answer the many questions while he was mentally cursing Makoto for going camping in the first place. Looking on the bright side, at least Haru hadn't strained his wrist in any way noticeable.

They'd been in the hospital for an awfully long time. Almost half the day had passed while they'd been waiting. It was in the middle of the afternoon when they finally checked out of there and started heading back to the academy.

When they made it back Rin decided to do some homework he had due to Monday. He'd got nothing better to do and it should be possible to babysit Haru and do homework in the same time. At least if Haru could do something too.

Rin sat by his desk looking over his English. It was way too easy at least for his standards. Then again he'd been living in Australia for years. Anything English was easy. He could take care of that later… Then there was literature. Just the thought of all that reading gave Rin a headache. It would be better to just leave that alone…

"Rin?" Rin was snapped out of his thoughts by Haru's voice coming from behind him. He turned his head looking at the blue-eyed. He sat there with a book in hand on his madras looking up at Rin with his usual expressionless face yet Rin could tell Haru needed help with something.

Looking at the title of the book Rin quickly caught on to the problem.

"What don't you understand?" Rin asked.

Haru's gaze turned to an irritated glare. That could only mean all of it.

Rin sat down on the madras next to Haru, flipping through the pages in the English book. It wasn't a long text, just about three pages but Rin did find a few complicated words here and there, or at least complicated for everyone else.

"Okay…" Rin said. "Read out loud to me and stop by the first word you don't understand," he said. He needed to find out exactly how bad Haru was at English and this was the only way to do it if he wanted to make sure he didn't put the level too high or too low for Haru. Both could cause their communication a few problems for the rest of the weekend.

Haru started reading but hadn't read more than a couple of words before he stopped.

"Decided," Rin read out loud and translated the word to Japanese. Haru couldn't make any sense of it at least that was what his eyes claimed.

They continued like that and Rin tried to explain things to Haru about the English language. Haru still didn't seem to get it though. But when Rin had him repeat some of the more difficult words it appeared Haru could actually remember some of it. Though his English was still terrible.

"When you have made up your mind about something then what've you done?" Rin asked

Haru hesitated for a bit before giving his answer. "Decided,"

They forgot everything about dinner. Haru's English problems had taken an awfully long time and when Haru went to help Rin do some of his homework it also took some time. It ended up being past midnight before the two were done.

I might have to explain that I didn't know exactly how bad Haru is at English. And since I'm pretty good myself (I think) it's not easy to guess how much you can and cannot when being bad at it.

Review, favorite and follow as you like. (I don't know what else to end this with!)

Jackie