"What do you mean?" Haru asked arms folded, following Sosuke and Rin across the beach, with Gou, Aii, Momo, Kisumi and Hayato trailing behind them.
Sosuke sighed and rubbed at his forehead, "For the 20th time he jumped."
"From where?" Haru asked.
Sosuke pointed once again up to the cliff.
"Wh-"
"Haru!" Sosuke said spinning and putting his hands on Haru's shoulders, shaking him. "He jumped. He didn't fall. I didn't push him. I didn't threaten him to do so. He just did it. He forced the car to a stop. He ran. He jumped. Okay? I don't know where exactly he fell, by the time I got to the edge and looked out I couldn't see anything."
Haru pushed Sosuke off of him and walked past him, looking up at the cliff, adrenaline fueled by panic, unsure whether to fight or flee ran through his body.
"Hey," Kisumi said softly. "We should split up. We'll let you know if we find him. We're going to take a boat out that way. Aii and Momo are going to take another boat the other way and maybe the beach should be checked in case he's gotten to shore."
The group scattered, Haru diving into the ocean to look for Makoto.
"It's easy, come on: A real estate agent received a 6% commission on the selling price of a house. If they're commission was $8,880, what was the selling price of the house?"
"Easy? How is that easy? I don't even have paper! I'm going to fail and you're not being helpful!"
"I am too! You'd have paper if we stayed home like I suggested but no, you were hungry."
"I was, absolutely starving! You wouldn't make me starve would you?"
"I had food! We could have eaten at my house!"
"But barley tea? Salads with peppers and onions? No thanks. I wanted something that actually tastes good. What are you an old man?"
"Cake though? How is that helpful to anything other than tooth decay?"
"Sugar jump starts my brain, Rei. I'll be ready to solve problems like a pro in just a few minutes."
"Really Nagisa? Then why are we walking the beach? You've walked us as far away from my house as possible."
Plastic crinkled as it hit the ground, what was left of a strawberry cake, fell and bounced through the grass. Nagisa hit Rei repeatedly on the chest, mouth full of strawberry cake and gesturing wildly out at the sea.
"Nagisa?" Rei asked, catching his hand and holding it away from bruising his chest while peering closer towards the ocean.
"When was the last time you heard from Makoto?" Nagisa asked gravely with undertones of panic.
"No," Rei said softly running down the path, followed by Nagisa towards the inlet.
Amongst the seaweed and mud was a body. Brown hair wet and clinging to a pale face. Both Nagisa and Rei sunk into the weedy muddy water carefully retrieving Makoto and pulling him towards the shore.
"Makoto?" Nagisa asked looking from Makoto to Rei in panic.
"What's he doing here? He's not okay with the ocean. I mean for trips with Dewdrop that was fine but he usually stayed ashore, right? What's he doing in the water?" Rei whispered as they pulled him onto shore. He felt a sudden chill, as he searched for breath and life. Finding nothing he dug the palms of his hands into Makoto's chest, arms straight with rhythm, giving a nod to Nagisa when it was time for an exchange of breath. Water dripped down their arms, gravely dirt clung to their wet knees as the skies turned gray and a summer storm rolled in. They worked constantly and quietly until their legs fell asleep and their arms burned like their eyes and throats.
Lightning struck and Makoto was up, coughing up water and shaking, "Haru," he murmured before passing out into Nagisa and Rei's arms who looked at each other, tears falling from their eyes as they held him close and cried.
After sitting in the rain long enough to be soaked through and exhausted they carefully untangled their limbs. Rei walked off to make a call and Nagisa sat with Makoto's head resting in his lap, sniffing and rubbing his eyes with one hand, and running his hands through Makoto's hair with another. Waiting for his heart to calm, watching Makoto's chest rise and fall in a simple reassurance that a nightmare had been averted. Rei came back, shoving his phone in his pocket.
"It's best if we take him home, the storms worse inland, the hospitals running on back up energy, lightning's taken out the power grid. His parents didn't pick up either. We're on our own. Perfect time for a bad storm, huh?" Rei said, turning and kneeling in the mud with his back to Nagisa and Makoto, "Come on I'll carry him."
Nagisa carefully put Makoto over Rei's back who hooked his arms under Makoto and stood carefully, swaying a little. Something glittered and fell and Nagisa stopped to scoop it up, a small vial, black, silver and ornate. Rei was already working his way up back to the main path so Nagisa shoved it in his pocket and ran after him.
Their walk home was quiet, Makoto's house was closer so they went there. The white cat that always hung around was standing outside and hiding under eaves from the rain. They pushed through the gate and up to the house as lightning struck. They both stood on in the front yard looking up at the house unable to walk forward like they had a million times before. It was different, strange. No lights were on, the normal warmth of the house seemed absent, almost haunted. It was too quiet for a house so full of love and such a happy bustling family. Where was everyone?
"Rei, Do you think-"
"No, Nagisa, we can't assume. Let's go in," Rei said bowing his head and pushing forward to the front door, then turning towards Nagisa who rushed forward, grabbed the spare key from the potted plant and went to put it in the door but the door swung open.
"Rei-"
"Slam the door open," Rei said.
"What? Why?"
"Scare anything that the rightful owners are probably home and that they should run if they don't want to get caught."
"Yeah but what if someone wants to murder anyone? Then our element of surprise is gone."
"Nagisa, he's starting to slip. I've got to put him down, everything is too wet."
Nagisa frowned, biting his lower lip and grabbed the door knob and slammed it open. The echo filled the empty house but nothing moved. No birds flew from the trees in surprise. Nagisa went in, kicking his shoes off. He grabbed a big umbrella and ran through the house. He tried the lights but nothing worked and called as he went, "Mr and Mrs. Tachibana! Ren! Ran!" but no one responded. Once the house was fully empty and verified as empty he returned to Rei who was slumped in the entry hall trying to catch his breath, Makoto lying on his side. With only a big flash light to guide them.
"Safe," Nagisa said, darting over them and shutting and locking the front door.
"No one's here?" Rei asked.
"No."
"We can't worry about that now," Rei said pushing himself up, "We've got to dry off and get Makoto in better clothes or else we'll all get super sick."
Nagisa ran off to get towels and came back. They sat together drying him off and themselves and Nagisa ran off to ransack Makoto's closet for clothes. They carried Makoto to bed, tucked him in and sat in his bed room.
"Where do you think his parents are?" Nagisa asked.
"I don't know, but I don't like this," Rei murmured. "We can't leave him alone. I'm going to tell my parents we're here. You should do the same, we're not getting home in this storm."
Nagisa nodded, digging through his pockets and pulling out his phone, the vial falling out and rolling on the floor. Nagisa caught it and put it carefully on Makoto's desk before calling home. After their parents agreed it was best they sat down, leaning against each other on Makoto's floor with a deep sigh.
"Today..."
"sucked."
"He's alive though."
"I hope his parents, Ren and Ran are-"
"They have to be-"
"What was it he said when he came to?"
"Haru."
"Are you sure."
"Positive."
"Do you know a Haru?"
"No."
"Think it's his girlfriend?"
"I- I hope we didn't miss someone."
"me too."
Nagisa's hand found Rei's and gave it a squeeze. Rei sighed, took off his glasses and rubbed his face, "I'm going to make soup, do you want soup?"
"Soup sounds nice," Nagisa said softly, his throat scratchy again and eyes burning, sight blurring.
Rei gave Nagisa's hand a squeeze back and headed down stairs to the kitchen to the gas stove with matches. Nagisa pulled his legs up to his chest, reached out, into the bed and took Makoto's hand in his own, placing it atop his head, the way he was use to, he could hear Makoto's laughter in his memories and he tried to blink away the tears but couldn't. His heart ached, his body felt drained, he felt sick. But there was warmth in the hand on his head, under his own. Warmth that hadn't been there when they'd found him. He strained to listen for the sound of Makoto's breath, for Rei working in the kitchen, talking to himself to dispel the quiet.
"The Tachibana's have a gas stove. But gas stoves now use electricity to start. But that's where matches come in handy. Ow! Except when you burn yourself. That's not beautiful. Oh! There we are, that's beautiful. A welcome sight of fire. Let's see, there's a pan, and what kinda soup do they have, what sounds good. Ooh barley soup."
Nagisa laughed through his tears and sniffed, cleared his throat, "No barely soup you old man!" he called.
"No barely soup, got it. Chicken and dumplings?"
"Yes!" Nagisa said.
"Now where is that can opener, oh here we are. Which way does it go again? Oh I guess that works. Pah! It went everywhere. Luckily most is still in the can, but, well I guess I can't see anyway so if it's on my glasses that's okay. 5 minutes Nagisa."
The five minutes took forever. Nagisa hadn't moved, from where he sat curled at Makoto's bed with his hand in his own, feeling Makoto's heartbeat as reassurance. He didn't move when Rei came in. Rei sat across from him, placed a bowl of hot soup next to Nagisa with a spoon, lit a candle and set it nearby. The rain beat against the window and Nagisa soon pulled away, gently tucking Makoto's hand back into the bed and picked up his soup. He sniffed.
"I keep thinking."
"Don't," Rei said softly.
"I can't help it," Nagisa's voice cracked.
"What if we didn't get there in time? What if we still didn't? Like there's all those stories of brain damage if there's not enough oxygen and what if we missed someone. Where's everyone? What if, what if people are dead because we didn't see them?"
"Hey," Rei said, setting down his soup and moving to sit next to him, wrapping his arms around Nagisa, "We can't think about it. Not until Makoto wakes up and tells us himself what happened. Until then, let's just be happy we got him."
"But what if he'd been gone? What if he'd died? What if I hadn't noticed him? I was so sure when I saw him, floating like that- he was so cold," Nagisa sat his bowl down, tears coming back, holding onto Rei's shirt, crying, breathing unevenly and choppy.
"I know. I know. There are so many what if's."
After awhile his sobs subsided and he looked up at Rei, who had set his glasses on the desk and had tears running down his face. Nagisa took Rei's hand in his own and sat leaning against him, eating his soup. Rei picked his up too and finished his.
"Nagisa,"
"Yeah?"
"It's not going to be comfortable but it should be do-able, I don't want him to wake up alone. Let's sleep in Makoto's bed with him."
"Okay."
Rei picked up their bowls, set them aside and picked up the flash light. "I'm going to brush my teeth before bed."
"Ah, me to. There were onions in that wasn't there?"
"Maybe," Rei said with a small smile.
Nagisa pouted but smiled.
"I'm scared I'll have nightmares." Rei said, pulling out the packaged guest toothbrushes marked under the sink.
"Hmm?" Nagisa said scrubbing his tongue.
"I want to sleep in Makoto's bed, with Makoto because I'm scared," Rei said, shivering in the dark but weird glow of their awkwardly balanced flashlight in the bathroom, filling his toothbrush with a practiced amount of toothpaste.
"I- I want to, if I wake up, wake up and look at him and know he's okay," Rei said, putting the wet toothbrush in the cup by the sink and taking a sip of water.
Nagisa grabbed the flash light, took Rei's hand in his own, stood up on tip toes and kissed Rei gently before leading him out of the bathroom. "I understand. I'm sure Makoto won't mind. I don't want to sleep alone either. Everything is too quiet. I don't like how hollow I feel."
Rei followed rubbing his eyes.
Nagisa giggled pulling back the covers of Makoto's bed.
"What is it Nagisa?" Rei asked uneasily.
"Makoto is going to be so embarrassed when he wakes up in the morning."
Rei laughed and shook his head, following Nagisa into the bed. Nagisa made his way over to the wall and they turned looking at each other over Makoto's sleeping body.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" Nagisa asked seriously.
"I don't know. I don't know how long he was like that, how long he was unconscious, how long everything stopped working. I called the hospital and they said that once he's awake in the morning, to do a series of checks. If he responds negatively we've got to rush him over. If it's okay then he's just got to stop by sometime later in the day or the next for a check up. But I don't want to think about it. About how long he could have been out there and what could have happened. All I can do is hope," Rei said softly.
"It's all we can do," Nagisa murmured.
Rei nodded, took a deep shaky breath and kissed Nagisa gently before curling up next to Makoto on the bed, resting one arm on his chest, reassured by the instant feeling of it's movements. He felt Nagisa's hand meet his and take his on Makoto's chest and smiled softly. "Be okay Makoto," Rei whispered in the darkness.
Author's Notes:
Answer to Rei's math problem: $148,000 ( )
Note: In all cases of near-drowning it is best to visit a medical professional even if the victim seems to be okay and to have recovered, some internal problems can be delayed. The longer a person went without oxygen the worse these problems could be. Please stay safe. 3