The only place that was open and nearby was a gas station convenience store, so they grabbed a couple of crappy burritos and a big bag of chips and went up to the park to eat. It was still warm out and the park was empty, moths flittering around the streetlights that cast shadows through the trees and stuff. It was quiet, the air heavy with humidity and the echoes of crickets. Daphne had bought herself a ramune, too, and she peeled back the plastic around the top, popped out the plunger, and jammed it into the bottle to release the marble with a fizz-clink that sounded abnormally loud in the quiet. She knocked back a good half the bottle before taking a breath.

"Sugar," she said, smiling, her eyes watering with the carbonation.

"Is this the first time you've eaten since breakfast?" Rin asked, feeling a little guilty that his making, or instigating rather, her little conversation-turned-standoff with Mephisto had cut out lunch.

She nodded, took another sip and the marble clinked again. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

She laughed. "Don't be. I feel like we've apologized to each other more times in the last twenty-four hours than most couples do in a month."

Rin smiled. Couple. He liked that word. He and Daphne were a couple. Giving it a name like that made him feel all fuzzy and shit. He jumped when she leaned against him, but recovered quickly and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Did you used to come here when you were a kid?" Daphne asked.

"Yeah, all the time," Rin replied. "I got in trouble a lot and I'd come down here to hide out."

"No. You? In trouble? I don't believe it."

He scowled at her and she laughed. He didn't really have anything else to say, and the quiet was nice, so he didn't. Daphne unwrapped her burrito, but didn't eat it just yet.

"I know a lot of people miss being a kid, but I don't," she said.

He nodded, thinking. "Being a kid is hard."

"Being alive is hard," she responded, laughing a little to herself and shaking her head at her lap. "The past two years, before I came to Japan, I…I was all by myself." She looked at him and smiled. "I forgot how nice it is to have someone to be there for you."

"Anytime, Daph."

He would have said the same thing she had, except that he'd always had people who were there for him. Until now, though, they were different. Rin had always suspected that most people put up with him, dealt with his ticks because they were family or because they'd been friends too long to get rid of him now or because they were coworkers and didn't have any other choice. Yukio was a good brother, but always a little exasperated, Shura a good friend, but always a tease. Daphne was the only person Rin had met who didn't act like she had to "deal" with him. He hadn't ever thought about it like that before.

Leaning forward, Daphne gave him a light peck, and he held onto her when she started to draw away, so she kissed him again, and he kissed her, and it tasted sweet like ramune.

He ran his fingers through her hair and she brought herself toward him, pressing her lips fervently to his as he let his hands slide to her neck, her shoulders. Why was it that the world stopped when she kissed him? Why was it that all he could think about was spending the rest of his life with her and making sukiyaki together every night and fighting alongside each other and how in love with her he was.

Rin started.

In love?

He was in love with her?

Daphne was close now and his hands had started to wander and she looked at him when he pulled back. Her breath was warm on his face, her hands around his back. He could feel her heart beating in his chest because it was pressed against his. He was in love with her. Holy shit he was in love with her.

"What?"

Rin swallowed. "Nothing. Sorry."

She applied a little pressure with a gentle palm on the back of his head and brought his face forward so she could kiss him and he melted all over again. After a moment, she pulled away, looking into his eyes.

"I wouldn't trade you either, Rin," she said softly.

His heart was beating hard in his eardrums. Should he tell her? Should he tell her how he felt? She looked like maybe she was about to say something else, but she yawned and her eyes watered and she just smiled at the end of it.

"Did you, um… Do you want to head home?" he asked.

Shaking her head, Daphne let him go, but stayed close, picking up her food and gesturing with it. "Not until we're finished eating."

Rin nodded, but he wasn't exactly hungry anymore. Daphne devoured her burrito and half the bag of chips. By the time she was done, Rin had hardly taken more than a few bites, and she looked at him for a prompt, so he stood up and carried what was left of his burrito to a trash can. Daphne stood, too, and brushed off her lap, rolled the top of the bag of chips, and took his hand when he offered it. Together they started walking.

Daphne drew in a breath. "About the semicapers…"

Rin had completely forgotten about the semicapers. About Morpheus. About the grade-A shit-storm that was headed their direction.

"If I go into 'Army captain mode' again, it's all right. Don't worry about it. That's a safe space for me. Mentally, I mean."

Rin nodded. "Okay."

"Anything else, though… Anything else I'd like it if you stuck with me. Helped me through it."

She glanced at him, so he stopped walking and pulled her close, using the hand he held as an anchor. He brushed her hair back out of her face.

"Of course, Daph."

Her eyes sparkled, maybe with tears, maybe with leftover carbonation from the drink, maybe because Rin was turning into some kind of sappy dope and he'd just imagined that glint, but she smiled and pressed her face into his hand.

"Thank you."

"Sure," he said when what he wanted to say was, "I love you."