He bursted out in tears. Not quiet sure what the reason was, but he cried. A strong feeling of relief appeared in his chest, and lifted the darkness off his mind and chest. He had longed for his beloved senpai to say his name, longed for the time where Rin would think of him as important matter too, see him as an equal. To be close with Rin. To be noticed.
"Nitori, what's the matter? Man, you really cry a lot these days, huh?" Rin carefully shook the small boy, and looked into his eyes. Two deep, red eyes stared into Ai's light baby-blue, as if they were depending on telepathy. His tears seemed to affect Rin too, as the corners of the red eyes revealed some tears that began to drip. Trying to play it off cool, he whiped his feelings off with the sleeve.
"Ai," he said smiling. Rin ran his hand down Ai's wet chin and let out a pleasant sound. Pulling Ai closer as he lead the head onto his shoulders, Rin hid his crying face.
"Senpai is crying for me.. I'm really lucky, ain't I?" Ai's muffled voice was only hearable for Rin, and held a whole life of love in one sentence. To think Rin would notice me, he thought.
"Shuddup," Rin said with a giant crack in his voice. The older's cheeks became burning red as fire and kept hiding from his young boy.
"It's not cool when a badass cries. It's sad and should be respected, so you should stay quiet or I'll kick your ass.."
Nitori laughed, happy that his senpai could still be til dorky after all the things that happened.
"After all, senpai will always be senpai. And the only senpai I'll ever love," Nitori muffled, almost unhearable.
"Is you."

"Eeh? Rin-senpai?" The second-year looked confused at his younger dorm-mate. The words his friend let out didn't appeal to him at all.
"What do you mean he's in the hospital?" Ai felt his heart was about to burst and kill him, but he tried his best to keep it all under control. Momo raised his shoulders, looking away from Ai. He knew these news wouldn't appeal to his senpai in any way.
"I just heard from my older brother that Rin got into a fight, and got hospitalized after that. I don't know why or with who, but it seemed serious. My bro and Gou is there right now, so we'll just wait here until new information comes by, okay?" Momo didn't seem very glad about the situation himself, but he knew there was nothing more for him to do than wait. He absolutely disliked this task that Gou gave him; telling Ai.
"Are you telling me that Rin is hurt, and nobody told me until now? I understand Gou, but Sei?! Why are YOU the one telling me this? Is Rin unable to speak? Is he conscious? What more do you know, Momo?! What hospital is it?!" Ai's voice started trembling, shaking with uncertanty and anger. Who the hell decides to give THIS little information and just expect others to accept and keep calm about it? Momo seemed to be frightened a bit by Ai's harsh talk, and tried to calm him down.
"Nitori-senpai, let's just wait here for Gou's reply, okay? I know this is kinda frightening and unexpected, but we have to keep calm and do whatever we can, right? If we keep worrying like this, nothing good will happen from it, so-"
"I care the fuck about Rin-senpai, and I CAN do something about this! I'll go visit him right now!" Ai's words seemed harder than what he meant, and resulted in Momo making a little jump and stay stiff. Ai snorted and turned around, walking in the direction of the school's front gate. He picked up his wallet in the dormitory and texted Gou and Sei at least 10 times each. As his phone kept silent, with no new messages, he got on a buss and went to the closest hospital. The buss was an older model, and only a few passengers was spread between the seats. Nobody talked, and nobody smiled, like there was a dark cloud over them all, raining on them. Ai felt that HE was the reason they all felt so depressed in life.
When he only had 15 minutes left until he arrived the hospital, Seijuro called him.
"Nitori? Hi bro, where are you?" There was no background noise on the other end.
"I'm alone. What's up, where are you and Rin? How's he doing?" Nitori intentionally avoided the question and went right into his own must-know-questions.
"Huh? We're at X hospital, and Rin is doing fine. He's conscious, but he really needs to rest. I don't know the details, but the doctors says it's no danger anymore. He'll be fine." Nitori felt his heart was about to sprout from joy, and it felt like two titans finally lifted from his shoulders, feeling much lighter. He didn't notice it, but his eyes started crying like a river, and his vision turned blurry. He saw the colours as much brighter now, and the depressed people on the bus seemed happier than what he'd thought the first time he glanced at them. Seijuro kept talking, but Ai just couldn't keep up with the words he heard. His happy time came to and end, and when he finally calmed down on the bus, Sei was still talking.
"-So that's basically all you have to do. If you want to visit, I'm pretty sure Rin would be happy to see-" The bus stopped, Ai jumped off and went into the hospital. He'd taken a lucky guess with the hospital, but after what Sei said, he was right. As he walked towards the front door, a red head appeared in front of him, only a few meters away. Seijuro looked at him in misbelief. He put his phone in his jacket, and waited for Ai to walk up to him. He grinned at the small high-schooler.
"Well that's what's up with Rin's stalker. Nothing less than intuition, I guess. Did your Rin-radar guide you here?" Sei was just trying to be funny, but his words was always too mean for most of his victims. Ai wasn't really used to it yet, but that's who the big idiot was. Ai looked up at the now grownup (in the papers) with a killer-face that would scare even Sousuke. Sei raised an eyebrow, but didn't seem more confident after his bad jokes.
"Okay, you're mad, I get it. Sorry." He looked sorry but hinted to a grin at the same time, and then he rubbed his hand on Ai's head.
"But seriously, how did you know we were here?" As they started to walk in, Sei looked confused, as he suddenly realised that Ai must have known where to go.
"Lucky guess," was all he said.

"Knock Knock Knock, who's there?~" Sei tried to be funny as he appeared in Rin's room. Both Rin and Gou made a deep sigh to express how tired they were of Sei's jokes.
"Oh come on guys! It's funny! I even brought company for you, Rin!" Sei began to pout, showing his lower lip and then dragged Ai into the room. He almost fell over as Sei let go of his jacket midways in his movement.
"Nitori-kun! Are you alright? Mikoshiba-senpai, you HAVE to be more careful when treating someone like that!" Gou started to shout at her older love interest, but were hasty to apologize for the ruckus. As they started a quarrel, Ai went over to Rin's side and got a look at the patient.
Rin's calm eyes signed how glad he was to see Ai, and how annoyed he was by Sei's jokes. He must have pulled jokes nonstop since he came, Ai thought. Even though his eyes were calm, his body was tense, with his right arm faintly trembling. His left arm was wrapped up in bandages, and his upper parts were covered in purple bruises. A pat was placed upon his forehead, and as Ai stared at his elder, Rin tried to look away. Even though, he put up a smile for him. Why did he look so sad? He even had a big bruise on his chin; big, purple and swelled. His eyes said "regret", his smile whispered "you shouldn't pity me" and his body shouted "collapse".
"Rin-senpai?" Ai's voice sounded weak, ready to fall into tears even though he wasn't the one hurt. He tried to control himself, but as he waited for Rin to look his way, the tears wanted to fall, so, so badly. When he then turned to look at his younger friend, his eyes widened as the image of a crying Nitori faced him instead.
"Na, Nitori-! Hey, why're crying?! Geez, for crying out loud, literally.." Rin jumped closer to the boy, moved his hand on top of Ai's head and tousled his silver-like hair. Rin put a more gentler smile on his face, but itwas still fake. He kept tousling until Nitori's tearful peak was summited. The hand then proceeded to softly cuddle the head, as if it was the softest fur he'd touched. His warm and gentle movements helped to release Ai's stress, and felt more relaxed.
Senpai's thouch..
He felt flustered as he thought of it, and his whole body started burning. His own mind began to stutter, and suddenly went blank. Rin's right arm was so warm..
"Aah, senpai.. I completely forgot why I got here.." Ai spoke faster and faster, as he had no idea what his brain had in mind for him. Suddeny he felt sleepy. The warm hand got drawn away from him, and Rin put the sad face upon his again. As Rin looked down on his own hand, Ai felt the regret dwell inside him. No senpai, don't be sad! Come back with your hand, nuzzle me, pat me, touch me with your gentle movements! Ai's heart sank, as he looked at his perfect senpai with sad eyes. In the background, they could hear Gou and Seiijuro still fight in the corridor. The silent kept hugging them.
"Rin.. senpai, why.. What happened?" Ai asked with his weak voice. He didn't dare to look him in the eyes. In his corners, Rin rose his hand to comb his hair with the fingers before he answered. He sighted.
"I fell."
A sting appeared in Ai's chest when he said that. A spear pierced him, and he knew it was wrong. He felt the need to uncover the truth, but it didn't seem right to do so. Rin had a reason not to tell, right?
"Oh. Seems like a terrible fall, right?" Nitori played along, covering his face with a sad look. Rin just nodded in silence. His bandaged arm looked unconfortable, and Ai wondered how much pain his senpai was in when it happened.
"Do.. Does it still hurt?" He asked, putting up a less depressing face, almost facing his elder. The shark shook his head, and put a weak smile on his own mouth.
"No, it doesn't hurt anymore, Ai." Senpai then tilted his head to the side and closed his own eyes. He seemed to concentrate on something, like a specific sound. Ai was speechless, not only because he didn't know what an unknowing person would do, but because Rin lied to him. The simple fact that Rin didn't share his part with Ai. The fact that he chose to keep him in the dark, despite everyone else knowing what was going on. He didn't feel furious until he came back to the dormitory.

"What the FUCK is up with Rin! Why the FUCK doesn't he tell me what happened! Why the HELL is nobody telling me this! I. WANT. ANSWERS!" Ai's punches broke a vending machine. As he kept swearing, the cola he'd chosen fell out of the machine, ready to be consumed. The pain from the wild punches was torture, and his knuckles felt like they'd been vaporized. Damnit, he kept muttering as he picked up the can with the hurt hand. It really stang him, and the cola fell onto the floor. Confused, he picked it up again with the same hand, but now he couldn't move the fingers. The knuckles slowly changed colours from red to purple. There was no pain, but he now felt numb from the fingertips to the elbow.
"I wonder if the nurse is still at school.." He rose from the floor with the can in the healthy hand, and stared at the purple colours of the other. He had now the same amount of pain on both sides of his body. The mental pain was still worse than the psysical, but he didn't feel as much sadness as before. His scars were still faintly visible, but thanks to Rin, he could join the swim practice without too much attention.
"She's gone home for the day. Only thing you can do is go to the captain. Too bad he's hospitalized.." Ai jumped by the sudden voice appearing, and turned around to stare into the pecs of his senpai. Sousuke looked down on the damaged high-schooler. He didn't say more, but waited for Nitori to take action. Everything seemed to suddenly change place, and Ai became too conscious about his own whearabouts. He tried to stutter an apology, just as Sousuke grabbed his hand. It felt like it was about to be teared apart from the rest of him. Sousuke didn't seem to have any compassion as he examined it, and Ai felt like crying from the sudden overpowered pain he experienced. Sousuke's eyes narrowed, and sent a scary-like look into Ai's blue eyes, giving him shivers down his spine. Sou's face returned to normal a second later, giving the illusion that he never went mad.
"Why are you destroying yourself like this?" He stared at the hand, refusing to let go of the evidence. Ai didn't really like the idea of being held hostage, and tried to get out of his elder's ironfist.
"I got angry because nobody tells me anything anymore," He muttered with a pouting face. Sousuke glanced down on the oh-so-cute boy, and showed a slightly amused smile.
"You're cute when you're mad like that, you know?" He looked ESPECIALLY cute when he shoved the lips out, pouting like that, Sousuke thought. Ai refused to look up, but felt a faint blush on his ears. A low chuckle came from Sou's mouth for a moment, but then returned to a more serious face. Not letting go of the other's hand, he asked to be looked at. Ai obeyed, and impatiently waited for the sharkwhale to get it over with.
"Breaking yourself really isn't the right way to help others, you know that?" The fun side of Sousuke disappeared in an instant, leaving nothing but a serious, almost tragical facial expression. His serious face. Holy crap, he looked ten times scarier like this, Ai whined inside his mind. They sat down on the bench closest to them.
A speech of "been there done that" began.
A speech where Sousuke told more wisdoms-words than any hipster-blogger on tumblr. As Ai listened, he managed somehow to stare into the other person's crotch, and with a hasty reaction with realisation, his eyes laid upon Sou's hands. Or rather, just his right hand. The wisdoms-words dissolved, and nothing stuck to his brain. What the fuck?
"Sousuke?" Ai interrupted the speech, and Sou looked down on his friend, curious.
"Did you by any chance.. hit a vending machine too?"
"Haa?" Sousuke seemed very confused by Nitori's choice of words, but when realising why, a laughter burst out of him. Ai tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, something like that.." he said, lowering his voice. His eyes layed focus upon the floor and smirked. He seemed somewhat relieved.
His right hand was tightly bandaged from his wrist up to his fingers. He must have gone to the nurse right before she went home, Ai guessed. The bandaging was neatly done, which was a relief. Ai's own hand ached.
"You're in pretty much pain, right? Let me patch you up for now.." Sousuke said, grabbing the now purple hand while he examined it.