AN: Better late than never. Yep, gonna try co-writing this with Abnormal Functioning of Neurotransmitter Systems.

Haru was about to walk out the bedsit to take a walk on the beach when he was stopped by the man who worked the desk.

"Excuse me, are you Tsukino... something or other, from room 2C?" he called over to Haru. He'd almost said "no" but remembered he'd given a fake name when he got there and had avoided writing down a given name, somehow.

"Yes, my name is Tsukino, Haruka. I'm staying in room 2C. Why do you ask?" he walked over to the man working the desk. The man avoided Haru's eyes for a moment and scratched the side of his head. Shit, please tell me it's nothing to do with the bill.

"Uh... last night we received some complaints about a large amount of noise coming from your room. We know that beforehand the second floor has been empty but we've had someone book room 2B so if you would try to keep your private time more... well, private, it would be a real help."

Oh no...

He was not going to admit to that. What was he supposed to say to that? Was he supposed to say he would...? Was supposed to say he had been...?

"I wasn't doing what you're implying I was doing last night. I was playing video games."

"Your room doesn't have a TV, sir..."

"I mean on my laptop."

"So, you're saying you have a laptop?"

"Yes, I do."

"The maid hasn't seen a laptop in your room before."

"That's because I hide it when I'm out."

"You say some odd things while you're playing video games, sir..."

"Yeah, well, a lot of gamers talk like that when they're really into a game."

"Rin, do you know any... hotels in this town?" Haru asked as they sat in the local cafe, near the shopping centre. Rin had asked Haru to come with him today because he wanted to go clothes shopping. They'd had to take the bus in, they'd sat shoulder to shoulder in cramped seat with a man holding the holding strap who had had his armpit in Haru's face for the vast majority of the bus ride.

"Well, there's a bedsit by the beach," Rin replied as he attempted to make a pyramid with a bunch of napkins he'd pulled out of a metal container which was full of them before they sat at the table.

"Yeah, I know, I've been staying there. Is there anywhere else?"

"You've been staying there for the past two months? Haru, what the hell? I thought you had a flat around here somewhere."

"I was only travelling but after the first week my parents cut my money off so I have to try get a job. Anyway, I can't afford to stay at that hotel anymore so I was wondering if there's anywhere else I can stay."

"If you're short on cash, you could stay at my house," Rin said as he tried to roll the napkins into a cylindrical shape

"Are you sure... I mean-"

"Sousuke, right? We've talked about it and he isn't pissed off at us anymore."

"Wait, he was pissed with you?"

Rin blushed and his hand stilled before he put his pyramid making to a complete halt.

"Well, beforehand, I'd kind of lied about what happened. I was like 'it was a heat of the moment kind of thing, Haru kissed me and I was like "what?" ' And Sousuke thought was what happened. Then when you two met and you said it was mutual he asked me about it and I told him it was true. That you asked to kiss me and I nodded and I kissed you back, quite a bit."

"How did he come around, after all that?" Haru said, attempting to move the subject on from the fact that time he and Rin kissed. Well, the first time he and Rin kissed.

"We talked it out and he said he didn't want to break up over something like that so yeah..."

"That's great but... I wasn't actually going to ask about if it was okay because of Sousuke."

"Figures."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, just... I mean, if I liked someone, I probably wouldn't be interested in how their significant other is doing."

"I would... I mean, if their significant other wasn't happy, they probably wouldn't be very happy and I... well, I wanted to ask if you had enough room. I don't mean to be rude but your house is a little on the small side?"

"My house is plenty big."

"For three people, yeah."

"We have a guest room... if you consider having a pull out sofa in the living room a guestroom."

"Not particularly, but I'm not in a position to be picky."

"Great, I'll talk to my mum about it tonight."

"Excuse me," someone had walked up to the table, holding a pad and paper. "You've been in here for nearly an hour now and you haven't ordered anything. Please order something or leave."

When Haru woke up, he found his phone glowing ominously again, alerting him of a text message.

"Mum says you can stay. See you soon!"

Haru took a deep breath, trying to give his brain enough air to think properly, not that it was a particularly simple task.

"Can I come over today? I think it would be good to move out soon before my bill starts piling up."

"Sure."

Haru went to packing his backpack immediately, grabbing the fake legal documentation from underneath his mattress first. Then he gathered various jumpers which were scattered about the room and then grabbing the two pairs of jeans he wasn't wearing from the wardrobe. Then he grabbed his copy of 'Le Portrait de Dorian Gray' from his bedside table. He'd found that the French translation was better than the Japanese translation, despite Japanese being his first language. He supposed it was because the first language the book had been written in was English, another Latin based language like French would have a smoother translation from the original piece.

The copy was old with yellowed pages. He'd bought one of the first French translations of it when he had lived in Paris for a year. That was probably the longest time he'd stayed in one place. He supposed he'd liked Paris a lot, the bakeries the most. He'd enjoyed Venice a lot too. Egypt had been nice, when he went, but he hadn't been a fan of the heat.

He crammed the ancient book into his rucksack and then gave his room a swift, sweeping glance. Nothing of his appeared to have been left in the room so he exited instantly and went down the sets of the stairs which lead to the hotel lobby.

"Mr. Tsukino, are you going on a hike?" the man at the front desk called, peering over his glasses.

"Actually, I'm going to be checking out today," Haru said, hand sliding into his pocket so he could get his wallet.

"If this is about that incident the other day then it's really not a big deal."

"N-no, I'm checking out because I can't afford to stay here anymore. I'm running low on cash and a friend offered to let me stay at their house."

"Oh, right, well if you'd like a job then you can come and see us tomorrow. We're actually quite low on staff."

"Really? That would be great. Um, so what is my bill, exactly?"

"That would be about 433,500 yen," he replied. Haru's eyes widened, the last time he checked his wallet he had about 430,000 yen left. "Are you alright, sir?"

"Um... I only have 430,000 yen left. I don't have enough money to cover the costs."

"Well, maybe some of your wages could go into paying it back and we'll put on some interest while you're doing it?"

"That would be great, thank you."

"Don't worry about it, 3,500 yen isn't even enough to pay for a night at the hotel, you'll pay it off pretty quickly."

"Here's the money, by the way," Haru said as he pulled all the money in his wallet and passed it over to the man who worked behind the desk. He pushed his glasses up as he counted the money before nodding at Haru and pulling out a pen and piece of paper.

"You're free to leave, sir."

"Hi, Haru!" Rin greeted him cheerfully at the front door and pulled him into his little house through the door with a smile on his face. "Have you met my mum yet?" he asked.

"No, actually, I've met your sister though," Haru said.

"Okay, well, let me warn you, she can be a little... intense. Just a warning."

"I'll keep that warning in mind," Haru responded as Rin practically pushed him into the kitchen where Rin's family were all eating their lunch.

"Mum, this is Haru," Rin called over Haru's shoulder.

"Hello, Haru. I'm Ms. Matsuoka, but you can call me Mai, which is my first name."

"Hi, Mai, I'm Haru... uh, Tsukino, Haru," he responded.

"So, you've got to tell me about yourself. Rin talks about you quite often but I can't quite figure you out."

"Haru's a bit of an enigma, mum," Rin said, resting his head on Haru's shoulder.

Our cheeks. Are. Touching! Haru thought. He felt himself blush slightly.

"Oh look, your face is all red," Ms. Matsuoka said, motioning towards her cheeks.

"Yeah, it's pretty cold outside."

"Don't tell me you walked all the way here! Why didn't you take the bus?"

"Oh, I actually spent all my money paying the money for my bedsit. Actually, I didn't have enough for that either but they offered me a job to help pay it off."

"Really, you got a job?" Rin responded. "Haru, that's great."

"Well, they want to interview me tomorrow and see what happens."

"Haru, that's great," Rin repeated with a smile, he then withdrew himself from behind Haru and walked over to the fridge. His sister, Gou, looked up from her eggs and smiled.

"Rin tells us that you like travelling. Where's the furthest you've been?" Ms. Matsuoka asked, sitting back down in her seat and re-acquainting herself with her lunch.

"I went to France for a bit. Stayed in paris for a year," Haru replied, shifting his feet a bit, noting the two empty chairs. One had a plate set out in front of it, the other didn't. Haru looked over to Rin who was pouring himself a glass of tropical juice.

"Paris! That's wonderful, when did you go?"

"When I was twelve, with my parents. I liked the bakeries the best."

"I've always wanted to go to a Parisian bakery," Gou sighed. A small bubble of laughter surfaced from Rin's lips.

"Haru, would you like something to eat?" Rin asked. Ms. Matsouka dropped her chopsticks and jumped from her chair as if it were on fire.

"I'm so sorry, Haru. I haven't had proper guests in a while. You must be starving. Can I get you something to eat? Drink?" she said with a smile and at a rate of a million words a second.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. I'll just take a seat."

"Are you sure?" Rin called as he took his glass away from his mouth, beads of tropical juice glistening on his lips.

"Maybe, I could have some water, please?" Haru replied.

"Of course," Ms. Matsuoka set about pouring the glass of water whilst Rin and Haru sat down at the table. "You'll have to tell me more about Paris sometime," she called. "I've always wanted to go myself."

Later that evening, Haru found himself sitting with Rin in Rin's bedroom. The redhead had began going through the things in Haru's rucksack. Pulling everything out and making comments on it.

"You seriously only have two pairs of jeans?" Rin asked quirking an eyebrow as he held up the second pair.

"Three, if you count the ones I'm wearing right now," Haru replied.

"I don't," Rin laughed. Then he pulled out a brown enevelope and Haru's eyes widened.

"What's this?" Rin asked.

"Private. Rin, it's private. It's a letter from a friend. Please, put it back in the bag."

"Alright, alright. Jeez, Haru, calmed down," Rin replied, recoiling slightly as he slid it back.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap. It's just, it's from a friend and it has private things in there that I don't think they would be comfortable with anyone else reading."

"What, like a boyfriend?" Rin prompted, bouncing back from his unnerved stated disconcertingly swiftly.

"No, I've never had a boyfriend, or a girlfriend."

"Wait, really?" Rin asked, his eyes wide as he turned back to stare at Haru. Haru nodded, his movements stuttered slightly. "I can't belive that. That's impossible."

"I don't tend to be interested in relationships, I'm... afraid of getting attached."

"Is it because you moved around a lot when you were younger?" Rin asked, his eyebrows had knotted slightly and he looked at Haru with a concern which Haru was sure he'd never seen displayed on his face before.

"Yeah... it's a little more complicated than that, I don't want to lie to you but... I don't want to tell you the truth about this either."

"What do you mean?"

"It's... I really like you, Rin. I like you so much. In fact I love you but you know that. But I can't tell you about this, or anyone, really?"

"Why?"

"My family is a little weird, to say the least. It's nothing I would feel comfortable talking to you, or anyone for that matter, about."

"That's kind of odd, Haru."

"You think I don't know that? Haru snapped. "It's prevented me from getting close to anyone for a really long time," he added, more softly now though.

"Wow, that's really depressing…"

"But, I am away from them now in some sense so I feel a little more comfortable getting close to people. Getting close to you. I just don't know if I'm ready to share everything about my life up to this point yet with you."

"Yeah, I understand. By 'yet' do you mean you might tell me one day?" Rin asked with shining eyes.

"I might. They keyword is 'might'."

"You sure you'll be comfortable on the couch?" Mai, Ms. Matsuoka, called from the doorway.

"Yes, it's no big deal really," Haru replied, pulling up his blankets so that they were over his shoulders.

"If the house were a little more spacious I'd pull out a futon… I could set it up in Rin's room, if you're okay with that."

"No, I'm fine on the couch, Ms- Mai," Haru replied as he dug around his bag looking for his copy of 'Le Portrait de Dorian Gray' and opened the first page, fingers stroking circles into the roughened yellow pages.

"Oh, what's that?"

"It's a… second or third addition print of 'Le Portrait de Dorian Gray'. It's a French translation of an Oscar Wilde novel about a man called Dorian Gray who makes a deal with the devil to never age as long as he can stay young forever and so that the ugliness inside of him is reflected in the portrait, not himself."

"Oh, that's sounds interesting. So do you speak French fluently?" she asked.

"Yes, I picked it up in France and I bought a few French translations of European literature when I was there, because the languages don't translate to Japanese very well, so then I made sure to learn French so I could read them properly."

"Rin learnt fluent English when he went to Australia, he's such a smart boy."

"Rin's been to Australia?"

"Oh, yes, I'm surprised he didn't tell you. He went away for… four years to train… to improve his swimming. I don't whether I should be telling you this but when he came home, he seemed so sad and withdrawn. I thought it was just because he really missed Australia but… a mother's intuition says it's something more."

"Is he better now?" Haru asked, sitting up a little straighter on the sofa.

"I think so. I hope so," she sighed and moved into the kitchen. "I'm making chamomile tea, do you want some?"

"Yes, please," Haru replied, not wanting to come off rude by reject Ms. Matsuoka's offers of food again.

"You can help, boil the water for me, I'll get the cups," she called over her shoulder. Haruka nodded and grabbed the kettle from the stand.

"How far should I fill?" he asked.

"There's symbols on the side for how many cups. Fill it to three cups."

Haru nodded and began to fill the kettle with cold water until it reached the white line which was aligned with the little 3.

"If you put it on the side and flip the switch on the back it'll boil by itself," Ms. Matsuoka called as she pulled the chamomile out of the cabinet and set the tin box of it down. Haru had already done so.

"There we go," she smiled as she pulled out three mugs and wiped the inside of them with a piece of kitchen roll. "Why don't we sit at the table till the water's finished boiling?"

"Sure," Haru replied as he pulled a chair out and Ms. Matsuoka sat in the seat opposite to the one Haru had chosen.

They sat in idle silence for a handful of seconds. Ms. Matsuoka stared out of the window absentmindedly whilst Haru sat stiffly pin straight in his seat.

"Haru, can I ask you a question?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied. The steam rose from the kettle but it wasn't whistling yet.

"Are you in love with my son?" she asked. The kettle screeched. "Oh dear, that the hot water, could you get the chamomile tea bags in the cups for me?"

Haru nodded and jumped from his seat immediately so he could busy himself with something other than the conversation. What if she's homophobic? What if she's afraid I'm taking advantage of him? Does she know about Rin and Sousuke's relationship?

One chamomile tea bag in the cup with a cat on it, the one he drank from when he came to visit Rin that day and had become officially acquainted with Sousuke. The second teacup had an elephant on it and the third cup had a dog painted on. Cat, elephant, dog he thought as he dropped the tea bags in the cup.

"Thank you," Ms. Matsuoka hummed. "Which cup do you want?"

"Oh, I don't mind."

"No, pick a cup."

"I'll have the cat mug."

"Alright, how much water do you want?" she asked, looking at Haru over her shoulder. "How about you tell me when?"

Haru nodded and watched the water fill the cup to about four fifths of its capacity and then said "That's plenty."

"The good," she said, busying herself with the other cups of tea. "So are you? In love with my son, that is?"

"Well…" Haru paused and picked up the mug by the handle, feeling the smooth ceramic against his palm. "I suppose that I love him."

"How sweet," she chimed. "I think that you would be better for him than Sousuke, I don't why, call it mother's instinct but there's something about Sousuke and him being in a relationship that doesn't quite sit right with me. They grew up together, they were almost like brothers. I don't think Rin can really see him that way, I think it's stunting his view of love. It's quite sad, the way good friends so often believe they should fall in love."

"You know about Rin's relationship with Sousuke?"

"I've known you for a day and I already know you're in love with my son. Very little slips past me," she mused. "Well, I've got to take this up to Gou. Goodnight, Haruka."

"Goodnight, Ms. Matsuoka."

"You're not going to a job interview dressed like that," Rin huffed, like at Haru with furrowed eyebrows and wide eyes. He shook his head. "Let me lend you something?"

"I think your clothes might be a tad big on me, Rin," Haru replied, eyeing Rin from the corner of his eye.

"I'll give you one of my older school shirts so you don't look like a gormless teenager when you apply for the job."

"I do not look like a gormless teenager."

"You do a bit," Rin hummed as he glided over to his wardrobe. "Please just try a shirt on, looking smart is super important at job interviews."

"Fine, go ahead. I suppose it can't hurt anyone," Haru looked over his shoulder just in time to see the sweet smile on Rin's lips and the dazzle in his eyes at being granted permission to potentially style Haru. Thinking over some of the dodgier numbers Haru had seen Rin wearing -the most memorable being a pair of tight fitting totally not fuchsia pair of leopard printing leggings-, Haru groaned silently over what he'd gotten himself into.

And yet despite Rin's flair for flamboyance, Haru actually looked pretty normal. He looked smart but he didn't look wild or glitzy, he looked like someone who could easily blend into a crowd.

"See, I told you that you'd look good," Rin hummed, resting his head on Haru's shoulder. Haru was too flustered over the compliment to mention that Rin had never said that.

"I'm surprised you didn't try to wrestle me into a pair of metallic magenta jeggings," Haru jibed.

"Shut up," Rin muttered, withdrawing from Haru. "Besides, I'm the only one who looks good in that stuff."

"You look adorable in it," Haru mumbled, thinking aloud.

"What?" Rin's face had turned crimson. Haru turned around so that he and Rin stood face to face.

"You look adorable in all of your flamboyant clothes," Haru repeated. Still blushing, Rin gave Haru a kiss on the cheek.

"You should get going," Rin then said, turning Haru towards the door, "punctuality is important."

An: Haru was totally playing video games on the laptop he doesn't even have, for sure.