Sorry about the delay, I had no ideas for chapters (seriously drop off ideas, y'all! Whether on Tumblr- I'm Raelinae, for those new/didn't read the 30-Day!- in a review, in a PM, somehow! I can and probably will use them. This fic currently has no planned ending but if I want it to go as far as I feel it can, I'll need plenty of prompts!) until my lovely kohai Valeforwings gave me an idea~ BEST KOHAI!
(English is italics because I'm lazy.)
Chapter 15: Of Homework and Snacks
Makoto had shown up at the Matsuoka residence with his usual smile and a multitude of apologies that Rin's mother had waved off. She had dragged the brunette into the house, sat him down, and started chattering excitedly about his relationship with her son. Having known Matsuoka Kimiko was good friends with Tachibana Megumi, Makoto had been somewhat expecting the grilling, but it was actually somewhat amusing to reply to questions like "You make my son happy?" with a coy response like "On a daily basis, ma'am." that would garner him a shrewd look and a smirk.
"He seems much more relaxed now. I have to say I was shocked by how he acted after Australia, but you two have smoothed him right back out!"
"Haru and I are lucky to have him. Well..." Makoto laughed and rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. "I guess I mean I'm lucky to have them- lucky they allowed me to join them."
Matsuoka-san's eyes narrowed. "Oh, so it was Nanase-kun together with Rin first?"
"Yes ma'am."
"So was it Rin's idea to include you?"
Makoto actually laughed at that, had to, because it still amused him. "No, that was Haru. You know how long Haru and I have been friends." Kimiko nodded. "Well, over that time we became very close. Inseparable. And so when we started fighting over the subject of Rin in our own ways, Haru felt like we were tearing each other apart. So he asked Rin if bringing me in was acceptable and I'm blessed enough that Rin loves me too."
Kimiko smiled and leaned across the table to pat his knee. "He does. He loves you both very much. How he's changed for the better!" The woman laughed and sat back to sip her tea. "It's been a long time since he's smiled so freely."
Makoto beamed. "Yes! Kou-chan and I were talking about that just the other day-"
"I'm bac- Mako? The fu- the heck are you doing here?"
The brunette turned and smiled at the redhead. "Haru's parents are supposed to be coming back for the weekend, and-"
Frowning at her cup Kimiko interrupted, "They don't know about the three of you, do they?"
"Can you blame us?" Rin muttered, shoving his headphones into the pocket of track suit. "You know how his parents are. I don't even want to know how they'd respond to the news."
He sighed and draped himself over the brunette but Makoto took it in stride, reaching up and tugging on the tiny crimson ponytail.
"Rinrin's so cute," he purred.
The redhead flushed and his mother burst into raucous laughter.
"H-hey! Mom! Don't laugh!"
The woman leaned on her elbow and smiled at the pair. "It's nice to see you so relaxed, sweetheart."
Rin sputtered and Makoto laughed, pulling his lover down close enough to kiss. Rin yelped and ducked away before they could connect and Kimiko cackled even harder at her son's flustered retreat.
Rin whined at her until something buzzed.
The woman pulled out her cell and sighed a moment later. "Hideo can't make the evening meeting, huh? Looks like I've got an emergency meeting right now. Play nice, boys." She said with a wink as she left.
They spent an hour with Gou's Xbox and once Rin got irritable and bored because Makoto was too used to PS3 controls they turned it off and Rin snuggled into the brunette's arms, back to chest, and they switched to television. The redhead, however, continued to get irrationally annoyed until Makoto ran his hands over slender ribs. "What's the matter?"
Rin shot him a dirty look and gestured widely to the empty second half of the couch. "Hello?! See something missing?"
The brunette fought down the faint echo of pain at the loss of Haru and bit down on the redhead's clavicle. "I know, Rin, I miss him too. It's not right unless we're together."
Rin exhaled sharply through his nose and red eyes glared at the empty space on the couch like it had wronged him.
Warm breath ghosted across his ear and in a low, seductive whisper Makoto told his lover, "I'll take care of you tonight, Rin."
Rin hadn't known then that it was a promise.
{Yes, if that sounded familiar, Chapter 26 of the 30-Day Challenge goes here!}
Rin woke up gasping for breath, sucking in huge gulps of air, coughing as too much seared his lungs.
A nightmare. A nightmare, right? It had to be a nightmare. Makoto wasn't dead.
Right?
The redhead choked on a sob, remembering the whole horrid dream in too-vivid detail.
Makoto was drowning.
Haru had told him about the near-fatal encounter during the training camp and Rin's fears had jacked up after that, wondering briefly if Makoto was right and there was some malignant monster lurking under the waves. Because what kind of twisted beast did you have to be to want to take Makoto's life? He'd almost lost both his lovers to the water and it was a terrifying thought.
He'd been rooted to the sand, watching the growing tide caress the too-still form of Makoto, and unlike him Haruka had been calmly standing further inland of the motionless brunette. They were less than a foot apart. Yet Haru didn't move.
"Haru!" He had yelled, the raw desperation in his voice surprising to even him. "Save Makoto! What are you doing?! Save him, save him, please!"
Haru met his eyes blankly. "I only swim freestyle," he said emotionlessly.
And he left Makoto to drown to death and Rin to watch it all happen. Makoto had met his eyes and as he went under the ocean's wave they were all he could see. That gorgeous, warm, calming green he loved so much faded and became dull and Rin finally jerked awake.
He was soaked in a cold sweat, the sheets sticky with it, and he closed his eyes and willed the terrible dream away.
Makoto's fine.
Isn't he? Isn't he?
He couldn't quite say for sure and panic gripped his heart. But at the same time it strangled him, made him unable to get up, to leave the nightmare.
A large, warm hand rubbed the shoulder not pressed into the bed and shifted down to his back. "Rin? Are you all right?"
His eyes snapped open and he rolled so fast that bumping into the knee curled under him actually hurt quite a bit but emerald eyes stared down at him, sparking with worry, and the brunette's brow was drawn.
"Rin?"
The sound went straight into his chest and fixed his heart right up and before he knew what he was doing he had thrown his arms around broad shoulders and pulled the older boy to him.
"Makoto!" He sobbed. "Don't die, don't leave, Makoto please..! I love you, Mako, don't- don't do anything stupid, don't die, don't go!"
Effortlessly the brunette pulled him from the covers and, cradling the redhead to his chest, turned to lean against the headboard.
Rin knew he was sweaty and gross and Makoto had just taken a shower because he smelled clean. Despite it all, the older boy held him close and rubbed his back and let him cry.
"The drowning dream again?" The brunette asked softly.
He nodded.
"Everything will be fine. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here, you can feel that for yourself."
The soothing tone was having its usual effect already- Rin had managed to bring his shivering under control- but he still found himself curling a hand in his lover's shirt just to feel the steady beat under his fingers.
The rational part of his brain finally woke up and immediately jabbed him for being so weak and clingy.
He hardly cared and nuzzled into Makoto, pressing his face into the curve of his neck, and strong arms tightened around his body.
"I'm right here," the brunette whispered against the top of his head.
"I love you," he replied.
Rin wandered back from the kitchen with a plate of hastily cobbled together onigiri (they weren't very uniform and kinda looked sloppy overall but fuck it he wasn't trying to make them look nice he just wanted the damn things edible) and the remaining yakitori sticks from near his mother's place (she brought the chicken skewers home by the dozens sometimes- Rin knew that if Gou didn't know how to cook she wouldn't ever have a proper diet). He had to pause in the doorway to the dining room, though, with his breath caught in his chest.
Damn, Makoto's glasses just about killed the redhead with cute.
The petulantly concentrated face didn't help either.
"What's the matter?" Rin hummed as he padded into the room.
Makoto sighed and tapped his bottom lip with his pencil. "Just the usual trouble with the English homework I got for our break."
Rin quirked an eyebrow. "Geez, even you have trouble with that? Haru and Nitori are totally hopeless."
Makoto sighed. "My grade's worse than Haru's. English just..." He waved a hand as if to say you know except Rin didn't because English wasn't so bad.
He leaned over the table and wormed the workbook out from underneath the brunette's elbow.
"Hmm..." He parsed it upside down and nodded once. "It says: A small knife is useful for peeling apples, which is crap because it's the small ones that are tricky." He idly sucked on his thumb upon remembered the day in his boyhood when a paring knife had cut into the pad of the digit.
Makoto was staring at him, pencil dropped with mouth hanging slightly open, and Rin smiled. He leaned forward and gently pushed the brunette's mouth closed.
"How did you do that?" Makoto whined. "I can't get any of these right..."
"Well. Practice makes perfect."
Makoto pouted and Rin had to laugh, scooting around the table and sitting by his boyfriend's side. He stole a quick kiss and pointed to the next problem. With a tired roll of the eyes Makoto picked up his pencil and set to work.
Which was where Gou found them an hour later as she came back into the house after her date, her brother checking over the brunette's work and sharing a rice ball.
Makoto would hesitantly sound out a sentence as Rin nibbled at the snack and in turn Rin would correct or remark on his pronunciation while Makoto leaned over to take a bite of his own.
Gou stifled a giggle and stood in the doorway, watching them together, and they took no notice of her.
Rin finished one rice ball and reached for another while Makoto slowly repeated "The sky overhead is a clear blue."
"Not bad," Rin commented, chomping into his snack. "More of an ell sound is needed though."
The brunette sighed and his lover grinned, wiggling the rice ball in the oldest's face, and Makoto laughed as he took a bite and allowed Rin to demonstrate his point.
"Blue. Not brue or burue but blue. Hear the ell?"
Makoto nodded as he ruminated.
"I know it's hard to adjust to, but it's possible. Trust me, I would know." He took another large bite of rice. "Australia kicked my ass with language."
For a second he seemed sad and Makoto leaned in, licking a stray grain of sticky rice into his own mouth and when Rin spluttered and blushed crimson the brunette kissed him.
Rin melted into Makoto with a soft sigh and the older boy wrapped an arm around his waist to hold him closer.
"Makoto..."
The brunette chuckled and broke away to nuzzle his boyfriend. "Hmm?"
"Next question."
Makoto groaned and thumped his lover's forehead with his own. "Slave driver."
"Say what you will but I need you on a swim team." The redhead muttered as he reached blindly for another rice ball. "It won't be right if- huh?"
His hand had encountered another and when he glanced up Gou looked evenly back, withdrawing her hand- and her snack- and munched on the rice ball.
"K-Kou-chan!" Makoto squeaked, blushing scarlet.
Her red gaze pointed to him next. "I agree with my brother this time, Makoto-nii-chan. It'd be a horrible example..." She paused to take another bite and chew it, "to the others if the captain got cut from the team for bad grades. So study."
Her piece said, Gou grabbed a pair of skewers and wandered off to her room.
"How long was she there?" Makoto whisper-wailed.
"Through the kiss at least." Rin replied nonchalantly, shrugging.
"Riiin! How does that not-?"
The redhead shook his head with an airy laugh. "Honestly, Mako, she knows we're doing a lot worse than kissing, calm down."
Before the brunette could complain again his phone chirped a happy tone and he blinked, pulling it out of his pocket. Rin leaned over his shoulder and regarded his boyfriend pulling up his new text with interest.
'Are you still at Rin's?'
The pair looked at each other.
'Yeah. What's wrong, Haru-chan?'
'I'm coming over.'
Rin furrowed his brow and yanked out his own phone. 'What the hell, why?'
Haru took the change of people in stride, firing off a 'lay off the -chan' to Makoto before replying to Rin with 'My parents aren't able to make it. Some Masuda guy got sick and so Father has to stay and take care of his business and Mother won't come without him.'
The redhead shrugged and nudged Makoto to finish texting their lover.
'Well, I guess Rin's okay with that. When should we expect you?'
A knock on the door made Makoto smack himself in the forehead and Rin laugh.
"Typical Haru," the younger sighed as he clambered to his feet.
The second the redhead opened the door he found a bag thrust into his chest.
"I brought mackerel."
Rin scowled at him. "We're not cooking it."
Haru frowned right back. "Yes we are."
"No we're- is that Akiha?!" He squawked when a familiar orange-and-black splotched head poked out of the collar of Haru's jacket.
"She gets lonely and Makoto gets upset if I leave her alone. Your mother isn't allergic is she?"
With a grudging sigh Rin pulled the door open wide enough for both boyfriend and eager kitten. "No, it's fine. She won't be home for a few hours anyway. And if you're absolutely sure your parents aren't going to make a surprise visit we're spending the night at your place anyway."
Distantly Makoto called Haru's name but instead of his boyfriend Akiha leapt from the black-haired boy's shoulders and bolted for her third owner.
"What's Akiha doing here?!" The brunette yelped aloud a second later.
Gou came clattering down the stairs, her eyes alight. "Aki-chan's here? Where?"
With a sigh Rin directed her to the living room and then steered Haru to the kitchen.
"Make your damn fish," he grumbled, "While I go rescue our kitten from my sister's clutches."
Akiha found her new surroundings incredibly interesting and wanted to get into anything and everything. Makoto had been called when she scrambled into a cabinet above the fridge. The brunette earned himself a couple of playful, no-claws-out pats on his hands for the effort but he eventually wrangled the tiny Bobtail free. He sat her on the floor and tried to chastise her but Akiha wasn't exactly listening.
In fact she was disobeying entirely.
She darted between Makoto's legs and found the step-stool again, clambering up it faster than they could catch their slippery little demon kitten, and was sequestered back in her cabinet hidey-hole within a minute. Rin tried a couple of angry yells but it was hard to be mad at Akiha when all he could see of her was a pair of small ears.
"A-ki-ha," the redhead groaned. "This isn't even funny."
"There isn't anything up there for her to hurt herself with, right?" Makoto asked worriedly.
Gou shook her head. "No, because neither Mom or I can reach it we leave it empty-"
Something came out of the cabinet at lightning speed and smacked Rin right in the forehead. He squawked and doubled over, clutching his head, Gou and Makoto asking him what was wrong.
"Fucking- walnut!" The redhead spat.
Indeed, spinning to a stop a few feet away, was a walnut.
"Wait, did Akiha..?"
Makoto cut himself off as an odd sound cut across the small kitchen.
All three turned to see Haru leaning against the stove, actually giggling, and ignoring the stares he was getting from his lovers and the young redheaded girl.
"G-good aim, Akiha!" He sputtered between bouts of laughter.
Red eyes widened past their pained squint at the sight of a laughing Haruka.
"Haru, if that weren't the most adorable fucking thing you've ever done I would be so damn mad at you right now."
Once he was done laughing- Makoto had kissed it out of him while Rin obediently held a hand over his sister's eyes- Haru coaxed their kitten out of the cupboard with a strip of mackerel. Makoto leaned up to shove it shut and Rin scooped up the Bobtail.
"C'mon, troublemaker, back into a safer area for you."
They spent the next few hours on English homework, Rin coaching all three to his dismay, and keeping a certain multi-colored kitten busy. Akiha rolled and ran and leapt, gleefully wild, and Haru balled up a page of old notes for her to play with.
Haru kept stealing kisses, which the redhead allowed but Makoto blushed and refused every time with a pointed look at Gou, but by the time it was dark the English-inept trio was finished with their work.
Gou leaned all the way across the table to hug her brother. "Onii-chan's the best!"
Rin flushed and shrugged away. "Y-yeah, whatever. It's no big deal."
"Are you going back to Haru-nii-chan's now?"
"It would be too noisy for Kou-chan if we stayed here."
That brought both of the black-haired teen's boyfriends up short and they gaped at him.
Gou burst into shrieking giggles and Rin leapt to his feet.
"That's it! We're leaving!"
Gou's laughter wasn't quieted until Rin slammed the door behind them.
"Oh my god Haru! How could you just..?"
Sapphire eyes flared with color in the dim light. "She knows what our relationship is. What does it matter?"
Rin smacked himself in his already stinging forehead, glad his normal fringe would cover the red mark. "That doesn't mean I want it publicly displayed. Stop thinking what you're thinking," he snarled a second later once he noticed the curious gleam in those brilliant blue eyes.
Makoto laughed and scratched behind their kitten's ears and then all the way down to her poof of a tail.
"Rin is right; no one needs to know what we do but us."
Haru shrugged a shoulder and refused to meet their eyes. "Sorry."
"Let's just go home and satisfy our dolphin's sex drive." Rin groaned.
So this next bit will be kinda focusing on each pairing with the third member tossed in at the end? This was MakoRin, clearly, and next is RinHaru. After them is, naturally, MakoHaru. Then more Marinka fluff because I can. AND I WILL.