Something was off, and not just the weather outside. Haruka could tell as much. It had been like this for a while but it was only now that he had been able to put some words on what he was feeling. This was part reason why he hadn't told anyone about this. For how long had it been there?

"Nanase-kun," Their homeroom teacher said, catching Haruka's attention. She also taught them literature and this was the subject they had now. "Would you please read aloud the homework for today?" she asked. "Just the first page,"

Haruka stood up and picked up the book. He read the text aloud to the class. He didn't like these kinds of tasks, but he had no good reason to refuse them, therefore he had to do it unless he wanted the school to call Makoto again…

After he finished reading he quickly sat back down and allowed himself to drift back into his trail of thoughts. Meanwhile he heard his teacher asking Rin to read the next part of the text and Rin got started.

Now where was Haruka at before he was interrupted? That was it, he was wondering about when he had started feeling like something wasn't right.

There had been occasions about a week ago when he had slight hints to this feeling, but he was sure it hadn't been the first time. Thinking back, he came to wonder how it all started in the first place and came to the conclusion that it had been some kind of unease.

The first time he had felt this unease was the first time when Nagisa had been home late, wasn't it? He hadn't been home for dinner and nobody had commented on the fact, but Haruka and Makoto had exchanged looks over the table about it, but they had both also silently reached the same conclusion that Nagisa was probably home at Momotaro's place. Since then he hadn't been home for dinner much. Haruka did remember wondering about where he went, but he had stopped giving it much thought after a week's time.

The unease had been there at that time, but Haruka had a feeling it wasn't the time he was looking for, not exactly anyway. It had been some time before then, but he couldn't point out a specific incident that could have caused this, not for the time being.

Also, now that Haruka thought about it, Rei was hiding something too and spent an awful lot of time in his and Nagisa's room without wanting to be bothered by anyone, not even Nagisa. They had been so close once, but to Haruka, it now seemed like Rei was trying to distance himself from the younger. Was it because of the gap of three years that were between them?

Kisumi had also lost his job. That had been just this Saturday when he had had his last shooting and an interview in the news that same night. Now they were only earning money from Makoto's job as a doctor, and that payment hadn't increased much since two years ago.

Aside from the strange things that had happened in the family lately, the weather was also strange. It unnerving on its own, with gray, stormy skies and a promise of a thunderstorm in the air, a thunderstorm they didn't mention in the news this morning.

"Haru, quit spacing out and let's go!" Rin said cheerfully as classes ended.

Haruka didn't realize he had been spacing out through the last class, but without him realizing it, the class was already over and it was time to go swimming with Rin. They were to train for the international tournament in Australia. They would be leaving Japan next week already.

He slowly got out of his seat and packed away his books. He stood up straight and looked at Rin, telling him that he was ready to go. However, Rin was now the one who looked like he was spacing out.

"Oi, Rin," Haruka waved a hand in front of Rin's face to regain his attention.

Rin blinked and snapped back to reality. "Sorry," he said. "I was just wondering about what was occupying your mind," he said. "You don't get so distant that often anymore," he explained further.

"Nothing really," Haruka said before walking past Rin. "Hurry up," he said over his shoulder.

Rin grinned and hurried after Haruka out of the classroom.

The sound of thunder was heard as the two teens went outside the school building and Haruka noticed as a look of discomfort appeared on Rin's face, he himself started feeling sick. Ever since that day he had always felt uncomfortable during thunderstorms. Not because of the thunder or the lightning, but because of the memories of fear they brought along.

Neither Rin nor Haruka had ever really gotten the chance to cope with what had happened then, when they ended up facing a life or death situation. Especially Haruka remembered how the weather had been that day, and Rin remembered it too.

Especially today the weather made Haruka feel uncomfortable, probably because of the feeling of unease that had been haunting him for the past couple of weeks. Yes, it had been just about two weeks since Nagisa started being gone for longer than usual, this had been as far as Haruka could trail his unease back with certainty.

Rin turned to him now, sensing the discomfort he was feeling.

"We should go home instead," Rin said.

Haruka shook his head. "This is not like you," he said.

Rin blinked. "It isn't?" He thought back it seemed. It was true. Normally Rin would say that a little thunderstorm wasn't going to keep him away from his training and drag Haruka along by saying that a pool was better than a bathtub any day, which was also true in Haruka's case. "Guess you're right," Rin laughed cheerfully.

With that statement determined they both headed off to the nearest station to board the train to the center of Tokyo, where they usually went for their swimming practice.

Above their heads a lightning struck and both Rin's and Haruka's shoulders tensed a bit at the sound of the thunder that came after. It only took one look at the other's face for them to know that they were both trapped in the same memory.

The thunderstorm had nearly passed when Rin and Haruka finished practicing, and the thunder could only be heard in the far distance once they reached their own block and headed inside.

"Hey!" Rin called as he opened the door and entered along with Haruka. Both of them quickly slipped out of their shoes and went to drop their bags in their room.

"Hey Rin, hey Haru," Makoto said from the kitchen. He was the one in charge of cooking tonight. "Where's Nagisa?" He asked.

Rin shrugged. "Don't know, probably with that Momo-kid," he said.

Haruka couldn't help but feeling the slight unease increase inside of him. He allowed the thought to cross his mind about if it was really true, but it probably was, or Nagisa surely would have said something. And at any rate, he would be back before it was time for bed for sure. He always came back around 8 as the latest. The time variated a bit though, sometimes he would be back right after dinner, and sometimes he would be back at said eight.

Today was one of the earlier days. In fact, Nagisa came back while they were still eating for a change. He took off his shoes and hurried inside to eat with the rest of them.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said and quickly gathered some food on his plate before he got started on eating. The others were already half done.

"It's about time," Rei just commented before going back to eating. He didn't seem to spare Nagisa a look. Haruka noticed, and the feeling returned.

What was up with all this, and why couldn't he just calm down already? Seriously it was all so annoying.

I'm madding a photo to the story. I also used it as cover for the previous one, although it wasn't uploaded until way after I was done publishing. It's a creation of my own. I drew it while thinking of the plot of Free Parenting. If you have anything to say about it, let me know

Jackie