A.K.A. The silly stupid fluff chapter. But come on, you all needed fluff. After what I did to your feels the last few chapters? Credit is due to my bestest buddy Himesayuri Phoenix for helping me morph this into a chapter. It all started with a picture on Tumblr of Rin wearing 'the boyfriend shirt'- the one that belongs to Makoto but yet Haru is wearing in the end card of Episode 4..? Yeah. I had to. Enjoy!

Chapter 11- Of Possessiveness and Shirts
They almost never fight but when they do, it's always over what Makoto thinks are trivial matters.
This month, it began with a shirt.

Haru came downstairs from the bath wearing a familiar orange-and-yellow shirt and baggy grey sweatpants. Red eyes zeroed in on the shirt and Makoto felt tension thicken the air at his back. He turned instinctively, ready to stop the fight he could see brewing in drawn brows and narrowed eyes, but they acted like he wasn't even present.

"Isn't it my turn?" Rin growled low in his throat.

And the brunette covered his face with a hand, remembering all of a sudden that his boyfriends had the stupidest fights and rivalries over the stupidest things, like that shirt. Honestly, he didn't even understand why who wore the shirt was even something to fight over.

"Hand it over." Rin said, holding a hand out for it.

Blue eyes narrowed and Haru set his jaw mulishly.

"Haru, this isn't fucking funny. I have to go back to Samezuka soon, and I need that shirt."

Makoto pondered the virtue of wedging himself into the argument for a long minute and then finally said "Since it is mine, could I just... ask? Can I have that shirt ba-"

"No." Haru snapped.

Emerald eyes rolled tiredly. "Guys, it's like my favorite shirt-"

Rin's ruby glower flickered with thinly veiled rage. "Mine."

Haru's sapphire gaze thinned. "Mine."

The pair had devolved into a silent but charged glare-off and Makoto tried for a last attempt at peace.

"Guys, it's just a shirt-"

His lovers ignored him and he could see in the way they continued to glare at each other that if this kept going there would be a fistfight.

"You can't even hear me, can you."

Rin sneered. "Spray him with some water, he'll hear you then."

"I heard that, Rin-" Haru growled back.

The fight continued on past every one of the brunette's attempts to dissuade them.

Rin looked close to the brink of tears. "You get to sleep with him like every fucking night, Haru! I think I could get something that smells like him for myself! I'm stuck at the dorms!"

"No. This shirt is mine." The black-haired boy shot back.

"A-actually, I'm pretty sure it's mine-" Makoto grumbled for the final time.

Haru didn't even glance aside. "Not anymore."

And Makoto eventually just sighed and resigned himself to never seeing the article of clothing again... Except on his lovers.

The pair kept right on glaring until Makoto heaved a forced sigh and stood.

"I'm going to bed, join me when you aren't being jerks." He spat, disappointment and even anger- anger?!- rolling off his frame in waves. He left, stomping up the stairs, but even that didn't break the furious eye contact between the boyfriends.

A few minutes later, Rin's phone beeped his warning about the fact that his curfew was coming up and he needed to be leaving. That broke the glaring for a few seconds as the redhead felt for his phone to shut it off.

He paused with a hand halfway to his pocket though. "...what did he just call us..?"

Haru blinked and realized their lover was gone. "...he sounded mad."

"Well if you weren't being an asshole we wouldn't even be having this issue. You're so fucking selfish, Haru."

Haru scowled. "It's mine."

Though his voice sounded thick with unshed tears as he stormed out of the room, Rin let the issue drop.
"I just wanted something..."

Haru thought about feeling bad, but it was his shirt. He had rescued it from the choppy seas that morning. He was entitled to it. But maybe he could work something out, because not only did he not like it when Rin was upset, but for Makoto's sake, since the brunette being mad at his boyfriends happened very rarely but was cause for immense unhappiness every time he was.

Makoto didn't get verbally loud or angry. He simply radiated disapproval and a lingering sadness. Like he wished they wouldn't fight but was determined not to say anything.

Dimly, Haruka was aware of the front door slamming. But his attention was on Makoto.

The atmosphere of the bedroom- lights off and curtains open to the moonlight- was chilly and even Akiha knew not to bother the brunette, curled up in her own pet bed (bought the week before as a coming home present from Rei) and watching the human in the bed with shining ocean-colored eyes.

Abruptly Haru felt like the intruder. In his own home!

"M-Mako?"

There was no reply but the black-haired boy knew his boyfriend wasn't asleep yet. Just giving him an extremely cold shoulder.

"Makoto, I'm- I'm sorry."

Silence.

"It's stupid, I know, but-"

"Just go to sleep, Haru." Makoto bit out.

The older caught his lip between his teeth and hugged himself, trying to figure out how he could repair this rift, and went to the farther side of the bed. He slipped under the sheets and drew his knees up- it was really freezing, how had he never noticed? Makoto couldn't be that warm... Could he?- with his back to the brunette. He curled his arms under his pillow and tried to pretend he was comfortable. Haru almost felt like crying because Makoto had never flat-out refused him like this. Akiha slunk out of her pet bed and scrambled onto theirs, padding up to Haru's head. He watched her lean around his shoulder and she nudged a paw between his arms, craning her neck and sniffing his nose. He held the blanket open for her and she burrowed under, coming up and resting her head on his elbow.

Boy and cat huddled together for five long sleepless minutes until Makoto sighed heavily.

"Haru-chan. Come here."

Haru didn't dare move. "I'm sorry," he choked out. "I made Rin mad and I'm selfish, I know-"

Fingertips brushed over his shoulder blades, the furthest the brunette could reach across the distance between them. "Just come here and let's go to sleep."

"I'm sorry."

"Haru-chan."

The black-haired boy rolled over and dropped Akiha between them, though she promptly hopped up onto Rin's pillow, and Haru read green eyes for anger.
There was none- just a resigned sadness- and Haru burrowed into welcoming arms with another quiet apology.

Makoto sighed and paid for the article of clothing- a copy of his own damn shirt, no longer owned by him but claimed by Haru- with a smile. After the spat over the other shirt his boyfriends had agreed to swap it every few days, but were both still firm that the brunette was not getting his shirt back. Having already expected that Makoto had just allowed it and made up his mind to buy a replacement.
He hummed to himself, exhilarated by his small victory, as he headed home.

A week later, he couldn't find any evidence of his sleeping shirt anywhere. He riffled through the closet (even Haru's in case his lovers were deliberately hiding it from him) and both dirty laundries to no avail. He grew steadily more upset about it until Rin arrived for the weekend and that night he and Haru slipped into bed wearing identical shirts.
He had been speechless for a few moments before squawking his irritation and pointing wildly at his lovers.

"Y-you! You two! When did you-? How did you even..?"

The drowsy redhead nipped at the back of Haru's neck. "I got Haru to swipe it out of the closet and bring it to me at our last joint practice."

Yesterday, and he had spent last night at home. This had been carefully planned and that was honestly a little infuriating.

"B-b-but why would you... do that?!" He sputtered.

"It wouldn't have smelled like you right away," Haru replied matter-of-factedly. "So we waited."

Rin's eyelids were drooping. "Until the end of the week so it would absorb your scent..." He yawned. "Best sleep I've had in a while." The redhead admitted.

That doused the brunette's brewing anger- how could he be really, truly mad at them?- and he sighed. If it had helped Rin...

"So I assume I'm not getting that one back either?"

Rin didn't respond- out cold- and Haru sleepily said "No."

Green eyes rolled but he got into bed regardless, pulling his lovers close. They shared a sigh between them as they faded to sleep one by one.

Makoto was glad this clerk was different- he couldn't imagine the embarrassment of buying the same shirt from the same clerk two weeks later. He got to wear it for three long nights and then...

"All right, now it's just not funny. Where is it now?"

His boyfriends glanced up from the couch and to his dismay they both looked honestly confused.

"Where is what..?" Haru asked, sounding lost.

Makoto gestured at his bare chest. "See something missing?"

Rin was openly ogling him. "No."

"Rin!" The brunette snapped. "I'm serious, I want it back. You both have one now, there's no reason to steal the one I bought for myself!"

"Hey, I actually didn't do anything this time," the redhead muttered, hands up in surrender. "I have my own shirt and I don't need- wait. Did you actually buy this one on purpose for me?" Rin said incredulously.

Makoto lifted an eyebrow. "Well, I didn't see many other options to stop you from fighting."

Rin burst into laughter, leaning against Haru's shoulder and gripping his sides. "Mako, I love you. Even your unhappy outburst over it was a show, huh?"

Makoto leaned against the doorway with a reminiscent smile. "It worked, at least, and that's all I wanted."

Rin rested a hand on Haru's shoulder and his chin on top of it. "You have to be the most amazing man on the planet."

Haru nodded seriously.

"But truthfully, babe, I've got no idea where your shirt is this time around. Don't blame you for missing it though."

"Well they are comfortable." The brunette groused.

"We know," his boyfriends chorused.

Makoto sighed and headed upstairs, knowing his lovers would follow him eventually (or perhaps not; he'd found them entangled on the couch with Haru calling Rin's name before), and decided to check the bottom of the closet again.
Five minutes into his search he had concluded it wasn't in there. He growled to himself and closed the door, sitting and resting his back against it.

Akiha, in her pet bed kneading the layers of padding (old clothes of theirs), peeped at him. Makoto smiled and reached over to scratch under her chin and earned himself a hearty purr. She rubbed over his hand and as he kept scratching she tilted her head and rubbed her whole body down his hand only to tip onto her side and reach for him. He chuckled and rubbed her belly. The Bobtail stretched out, paws raking over her bedding, and Makoto's eye caught something orange.

"What..?"

He plucked it out and his eyes widened. "What in the..?"

It was his shirt. Somehow, some way, it had ended up in the pet bed- he trusted his boyfriends when they said they were clueless because he'd seen the honesty in their eyes- and Akiha had been sleeping on it.
The kitten mewed and pawed at it, hooking a claw in it and dragging it back down to her. She nuzzled the shirt and swatted at the hand holding it. When he released the article of clothing Akiha gathered it all up with wild swipes of a paw and regarded him with innocent ocean eyes.

Makoto laughed. "Oh, all right. I didn't need one anyway. You can keep it, okay?"

Akiha purred and purred, clearly contented, and he pulled a free corner the kitten hadn't bunched up between her legs over her and tucked her in, which she took to surprisingly well.

"Good night, Akiha."

A quiet mewl amid the purring as she fell asleep.

Haru and Rin came up some ten minutes later and the second before they came in Makoto pointed at the pet bed. The redhead bit his lip to stifle his laughter while Haru smirked and shook his head.

"How did she even get to it..?" Haru murmured.

"Good question." The brunette replied as he turned his attention back to his book.

"Have I mentioned you look good in glasses, Makoto?"

"Every two weeks, Rin." Makoto replied with a smile.

"Oh. Clearly you don't wear them enough then."

Green eyes flickered over his boyfriends. "It's not usually reading we do before we fall unconscious."

A sanguine smirk spread across the redhead's lips. "No, no it isn't."

"I'm tired." Haru said. He climbed onto the bed and curled into Makoto's side, forehead pressed against the brunette's hip, and Makoto calmly began carding his fingers through soft ebony hair.

"No fair!" Rin grumbled.

"Rin, if I pet you too, I can't read."

"I'll turn the pages for you," the redhead whined. "Come on, Mako..." He wheedled.

Makoto lost the fight with his smirk and beckoned his lover over.
The next hour passed in soft companionable silence- Rin and Haru at home in the world and Makoto safe in knowing his whole world surrounded him.

And an author alert: I am moving today. According to my sister, we may not have internet for a few days/a week. I'll try to head to the mall that's now nearby because I know they have free wi-fi, but if I can't make it, there may be some gaps between updates and I apologize for the inconvenience!