Chapter 27- Of Fighting and Notes
Something soft poked him in the face.

Rin groaned and dragged the blanket over his head. A tiny unhappy mew sounded from somewhere above the disrupted covers and he reached a hand out to find the kitten. He had to feel around for a moment and finally closed a hand around her collar. His fingers fumbled over the bell, causing a merry jingle he did not at all agree with this early, then a piece of folded paper.
Rin shifted his grip and snatched the kitten around the belly to shove her under the blankets. Sea-colored eyes blinked at him in a confusion so visceral he laughed. Scratching under her chin he freed the note. Blue- Haru.

'Get up. Breakfast is ready. Don't let the mackerel get cold.'

"Idiot," Rin sighed, dragging Akiha up so he could boop noses with her.

She wriggled and pawed him in the nose and tried to get away but he caught her before she could and he realized a second note was trapped under her collar. Green this time, so Makoto.

'Good morning! (=^ェ^=) - It's Akiha! Cute, right? Nagisa's been showing me how. I just wanted to tell you I love you and have a good day and don't kill Haru while I'm at work please! Love you!' Followed by a heart.

Rin groaned and buried his face in his pillow. "Cute idiot..!"

He eventually shrugged the blankets off. Scooping up Akiha he headed down to the bathroom; he had a shower to get to. Sunday was his day of rest: no workouts involved unless he grew too bored. Akiha squirmed until he let her climb onto his shoulder and she perched there like a stereotypical pirate's parrot. She kindly helped him pick out which towel he ought to use and raced into the bathroom ahead of him, hopping up to the tub's rim and gazing expectantly into the tub itself.

"Have to shower before we soak, you silly beast," he sighed.

She didn't budge. Rin rolled his eyes and set the tub to fill. Not one second later a small splash sounded; he didn't have to look to know she was in the tub already.
He set to washing his hair while their kitten made a general uproar in the water, leaping and pouncing on ripples in the tub, swimming eagerly once it was deep enough for her paws to churn through the water. Red eyes watched her with fondness as Rin washed the shampoo out of his hair. By the time he got to the tub it was deep enough for him to sit in and for Akiha to stand in if she stood on her hind legs. Which she had taken to, paws hooked over the edge, giving him a demanding look that ordered he join her.

"All right, all right..."

The moment he arranged himself in the tub he found a small Bobtail on his knee regarding him with big oceanic eyes.

"What?" He said.

"Mew!"

He cocked an eyebrow at her reply. "You kidding me?"

"Mrrrw."

With a quiet groan Rin got back out of the tub. Akiha hopped out after him, fur slicked down to her small ribcage and big fat belly, the pair of them trailing water across the floor. He recovered the small plastic red ball from the shelf of Haru's bath toys (Haru had bath toys. What kind of grown man was he..?) and crouched next to the kitten. Big blue-green eyes watched the toy like a hawk. Rin made two fake throws the kitten wasn't fooled by and launched the plastic ball on the third throw- right into the bathwater.

Akiha took off running. Slipping and sliding, tractionless with wet paws on the tiled floor, Akiha dashed after the ball and leapt into the tub with a fantastical leap that resulted in a truly impressive splash. Rin burst out laughing but made his way back over and slid back into the tub. Akiha was chasing the ball around in the water, nosing it, batting at it, knocking it into Rin's chest so he'd throw it again. He stayed in the bath with the kitten so long that he came to the abrupt realization that his skin was pruning.

He snorted and brought Akiha face to face.

"You're turning me into Haru." He said with a laugh.

A drying Rin and a partially wet Bobtail wandered into the dining room about five minutes later. The redhead plopped heavily at the table and Akiha made a beeline for Haru. She wound around his ankles mewling for food. With a quiet chuckle Haru passed down a thin snippet of mackerel for her. She munched on it happily but the second it was gone she was crying for more.

"Is it just me or is she getting fat?"

"She's not fat." Haru said, sounding almost petulant.

Rin sighed and stretched his arms out over the table, dropping his forehead to the surface and feeling the slight burn of his neck at the position.
"When's Mako coming home?"

"Sometime tonight." Haru said.

"Fucking adorable, Haru. I'm serious. When is he coming back?"

"Past six, I think."

Rin groaned.

"Who the fuck works on a weekend?!" He growled at the table.

"He's been trying to get as many hours as he can."

"But the weekends are the only time I can spend with you two and now he's not even here for most of them."

"We have lives outside of you, you know."

Rin shot a dark look at Haru's back. "I fucking know that. It just... sucks."

"He's doing it for his family. Deal with it."

"How come I'm not allowed to be lonely but you are? What makes you so special?" The redhead spat.

They were on the edge of a loud and dangerous fight and their usual buffer/mediator wasn't around. Haru had gone rigid at the stove and Rin had risen to his knees, hands on the table, red eyes narrow.

"...I didn't say that."

"Sure sounded like it."

"It's not like you'd know."

"What, because I'm not a magical mind-reader?"

"Don't. Drag Makoto. Into this."

"I didn't."

"When you said-"

"I didn't default mean Makoto but then you two are special, aren't you?"

The burner snapped off and Haru whirled, blue eyes narrow, to face Rin.
"If you have something to say, say it."

Rin offered up a sardonic and mocking grin. "Read my mind."

Haru growled something under his breath but instead of pursuing the fight he plated his food and stomped toward the stairs, flinging a spare "You're an asshole, Rin," over his shoulder.

"I'm home!"

Only a tiny meow greeted him, and a small cat to match it. Akiha sat in the hall, head cocked, staring at him. She mewed again, standing on all fours now, tiny poof of a tail vibrating.

"Hey, Akiha!" He greeted. At least one of the house's occupants (Rin was still home; his shoes were in the entryway) had wanted to greet him. The brunette stashed his work bag by the door and picked up the Bobtail. They nuzzled noses as he headed through the house. Haru's old bedroom door, open a tiny bit. Unusual. Their bedroom, closed. Also unusual.

Makoto sighed. "They fought, huh?"

Akiha peeped.

"Of course they did. Well, I suppose I only asked they not kill each other, not necessarily get along."

The brunette headed back down the stairs. He grabbed up his bag and rummaged around until he found the small green notepad. He penned a pair of identical quick messages- 'Think you two can patch things up? What even happened?'- and folded them up. He slid the first through Akiha's collar.
"Take that to Haru, would you? We'll see what he says first."
Akiha blinked big blue-green eyes at him.
"...you have no idea what I mean, do you?"
She mewed at him.
He scratched behind an ear to watch her eyes close with happiness. "Oh well. Come on."
He picked her up and tiptoed back up the stairs. He dropped her before Haru's ajar door and, when she looked back at him with evident confusion, pushed her butt a little to force her into the room. He knew she'd make a beeline for Haru if he was in the room. He crouched there to wait with a wistful smile. While he wished Rin and Haru would get along more often without him to grease the wheels, it wasn't exactly a bad thing to be needed so much.
The bell on Akiha's collar tinkled and she bounded out of the room with eyes bright and in a playful mood.

"Hey you," Makoto laughed, scooping her up and nuzzling noses. The note had been removed from her collar but no response had been added; Makoto sighed. That meant Haru wasn't up for forgiving Rin yet. The brunette brought the Bobtail two doors down to the threesome's bedroom. He wedged the second note under the kitten's ornate collar and cracked the door open enough for her thin frame to work through. Akiha ran gleefully into this room: she knew who usually inhabited it and knew she would be petted most of the time.

He had to wait significantly longer for Akiha to appear this time and it brought a soft smile to his lips. No doubt Rin was being his normal cat-loving self and indulging their kitten in her quest to be petted. Makoto was happy to wait, if it meant Rin was enjoying kitten-therapy. The redhead's heart and uneasy emotions meant he needed more time to recover from fights (lest he get worked up again) but Akiha had proved a boon to his mental and emotional health.

She did reappear eventually, though again without a return note.

With a dejected sigh Makoto scooped up Akiha and headed down the stairs. If neither of his lovers was willing to talk to each other he didn't have much recourse other than to let them be and hope they worked each other out. He was exhausted after working the back room all day and the only thing he'd wanted when he'd come home had been some time with his boyfriends- with Rin especially, seeing as the younger of his pair of lovers would be gone back to Samezuka by tomorrow night- but with those two fighting again it easily meant a long lonely night of sharp words and harsh glares. Makoto fell to the couch, groaning at the burn of his muscles, and plopped Akiha on his chest. She purred at him, turning small circle after small circle, curling to rest on him. He pet her as he lay there only to smile at the soft purr it earned him.

"Well, at least we're sane, huh?"

He never got an answer.

Rin ran a hand over his face and decided enough was enough. The whole reason for the fight was somewhere in the house (or perhaps had gone home when he received no answer) and Rin still yearned to see him.

Makoto had come up with the idea of the notes through Akiha's collar not a month ago during another fight, this one over the deep bruise of a bite mark Rin had left at the junction of Makoto's shoulder and neck. Despite his assurances that he was just fine Haru had been furious when ten minutes later the blood refused to stop flowing and taken his anger out on Rin, the cause, and Rin had responded with equal temper. The pair had retreated to the two separate bedrooms, exactly like now, and it was left to Makoto to patch things up. Neither had been willing to leave their respective hiding places and speak to the other so he'd come up with this proxy system.
It worked well, very well, and usually just the sight of the happy kitten was enough to make them smile. When Akiha had crawled onto the bed and come to headbutt him, Rin had grinned at once and begun to pet her. Akiha had rolled so he could scratch her tummy and he'd taken the note out. A fast scan, a little quickening of his heartbeat when he realized Makoto was home, and a souring of his expression at the thought of speaking to Haru later, he sent the kitten back out with no reply.

No doubt that had upset Makoto.

The redhead sat up, glared around the room, and snuck out of the bedroom. He passed Haru's old room and didn't even look at it. The door was still slightly open and that was answer enough as to where the older boy was.

He found Makoto sleeping on the couch in the living room- poor man didn't fit- with Akiha upside down in the crook of his arm. His foul mood seemed to evaporate upon seeing his boyfriend passed out, but then, Makoto was really damn adorable when he slept.

He crossed the room and knelt at his boyfriend's side, first scratching Akiha's fluffy belly (getting bigger by the day though- Rin knew he wasn't imagining that she was getting kinda plump) then running a hand through Makoto's hair.
"Hey," he called. "Mako? Hey. Wake up."

The brunette slept quietly on, not stirring in the least.

Rin sighed, elbow on his upraised knee and chin in his hand. While he tried to think of a way to wake his lover without too much noise Akiha stretched out her paws and uttered a high-pitched squeak. Makoto's brow furrowed immediately.

"Akiha?" He rumbled softly.

Struck by a sudden idea Rin leaned in and meowed quietly.
Makoto looked more upset than ever, but his eyes still didn't crack open. Rin pouted (something he would deny fervently) and cocked his head.

"Mew?" He tried again.

Makoto stirred more definitively this time. The hand partially over the back of the couch came down and dropped (kind of heavily) on Rin's head. A little embarrassingly, the brunette started to actually kind of... pet him. Rin started to complain the treatment when Makoto sighed.

"Don't worry, Akiha," he said sleepily. "They can't fight forever."

Guilt surged inside the stunned redhead. He bit his lip, reaching up and taking Makoto's hand, tucking it back against his lover's side.
"I'm... sorry, Makoto. We shouldn't have- it was stupid, and... Honestly I don't even remember what we were even fighting about? It's probably my fault, you know how I get with my temper..."

"It wasn't just you."

Rin jumped, glancing over his shoulder at the silent figure of Haru.

"And how long have you been there?"

"Since he called you Akiha. He should know to have better taste than that." Haru came to his side, standing behind Rin where he crouched, and looked down at his lovers. Rin was giving him a wary look that made Haruka long to reach out. He did, smoothing long bangs back from the youngest's face, watching Rin instinctively relax at a touch from his boyfriend.

"It's not only your fault," he admitted quietly. "I was at fault too."

Rin leaned into the hand curving over his jaw. "Yeah, that's true. So, what do we do?"

"We make it up to him. Green curry for dinner?"

Rin smiled. "Sounds good."

FORGIVE ME FOR CRAPPY CHAPTER. I AM SICK AND NOT REALLY FEELING THE URGE TO WRITE LATELY. (Also I got my subscription to FFXIV: ARR repaid so YAY GAMING TIME!) I dunno when the next'll be up and I'm really sorry the updates are taking so long, I've just got a bunch of other ideas to play with too and a lot of them have been demanding my attention.

Again, apologies for crappy chapter! I totally ruined my kohai's prompt... Valeforwings was the one who came up with the idea of Akiha carrying notes. A wonderful idea that a horrid writer ruined, 'm so sorry...