AN: long time no see. Sorry. When I wrote this chapter I had just been to see 'Horns' so thats how long it took me to update.

"Hello, Mr Tsukino," the man at the desk greeted as Haru walked through the front door of the hotel. Haru nodded. "You're dressed nicely for the interview."

"Oh, yes, a friend lent them to me."

"I didn't know you had friends in the area."

"I've made ones," Haru replied dryly. It was a lie only in that Haru had used a plural. The room seemed slightly dimmer than it usually would be. It wasn't strange as the winter was encroaching upon the small fishing town. The man at the front desk grinned.

"I suppose that explains why you were always in and out. Well, I'll take you to the owner's office, of sorts," he said with a smile as he moved from the desk and walked with Haru through a corridor on the left of the stair case. The walls were lacquered with wood and hyper realistic paintings, the western sort Haru had seen in Paris, hung busily upon them.

The desk attendant knocked the door at the very end of the corridor.

"Come in," a low, guttural voice called from the other side. It was a voice that didn't fill Haru with confidence, rather the opposite. Nervousness was the best word to use. And yet, there was a strange foreshadowing. It was a voice he had heard countless times before from demonic and vampiric types attempting to achieve glory from taking Haru's so-called gift of immortality. They had a tendency to be stocky men with redness in their faces and an innate need to domineer.

Haru realised that the desk attendant was looking at him so Haru reached out for the door knob and opened the door slowly. He felt a nervous twitch with every creak he heard coming from the door. At the desk, Haru could see a man with shoulder length black hair and a pair of thick black glasses.

"I'm here for the interview," Haru began.

"Fantastic news," the new boss began, Haru noticed his head was focused in the direction of the door but his gaze was sturdy and unchanging. His smile was so wide it could've been imported from Glasgow. "You have the job."

"Really? I haven't been interviewed for it all?"

"Well, when you're desperate for staff, and only one person applies for the position then it's not a huge issue. Besides, if you're terrible, I can fire you."

"Oh, alright," Haru replied. He peered around the office noticing hunting trophies dotted around the room and a large faux fire place. There was an antique red rug in the middle of the room that Haru suspected was more likely to be of Chinese origins than Japanese. The room was light by the fire in the fake fire place and a few candles. What the actual fuck?

"You start tomorrow, we'll discuss the arrangements of your pay tomorrow as well."

"Okay, then."

"The boss is a little eccentric," the desk attend said as soon as they reached the foyer. "He inherited the business from his father but due to his blindness he hasn't made any change to much of the building's aesthetic. I never worked for his father but he was allegedly a very strange man."

"This place had no other offers on the position… actually, what position was it?"

"Yes, the hotel has a bit of a reputation. People think that the boss' father haunts the hotel since he was murdered in the attic. People say it was suspicious but I've heard he was involved with some strange sort of organised crime syndicate."

"You have crime syndicates in a small town like this?"

"We did in the seventies. There was all sorts of strange things happening in the seventies when our town was booming in business from the fishing industry and tourism. Things started going south though after Mr. Fukui, boss' dad, was murdered."

"I see, I suppose less people would want to holiday in a place with a murder, especially if it got its appeal from being a calm fishing town."

"Yeah, we only ever tend to get drifters and runaways around here nowadays, like yourself, really."

"I'm not a runaway."

"No, but you are a drifter."

"I'm planning on staying, for a bit."

"But you're not planning on staying for a long time."

"Depends on how things play out, I might stay here forever," Haru answered. He put his hands in the pocket's of Rin's jeans and peered out of the window from the corner of his eyes. He saw the blue sea and the pier where he met Rin.

"I had you pegged as someone who came from a nomadic family or a travelling community."

"I'm not, I'm just a bored teenage boy who had too much money and too little sense."

The Matsuoka household was warm, their fire place was lit and a pot of tea was brewing in the kitchen. The tail of the bitter wind followed Haru into the cosy house but was stomped out when he shut the door. Haru could hear heavy footfalls, easily identified as Rin's when he ran, as soon as the door shut.

"Did you get the job?" he called as he stopped running.

"Aren't you enthusiastic?" Haru replied with a click of his tongue. Rin did that thing that he did with his eyebrows that Haru thought was too adorable. "Yes, I got the job, though there wasn't much of an interview."

"Really, why not?"

"Well," Haru began but paused and he removed his coat and hung it on the clothing hook. "No one else applied for the job. The desk attendant has a theory that it's because everyone is under the delusion that the building is haunted."

"I've heard that rumour, come on," Rin ushered Haru into the front room. "It's warmer in here."

Haru nodded and entered the room and took a seat on the couch next to Rin. The TV in the corner was playing re-runs of a generic looking Korean drama about something dramatic.

"So does this rumour have any weight in particular?"

"Um, probably not. It's just that the old owner got killed but the details are really sketchy. I heard from one person it was a ritualistic sacrifice. Someone else said it was a monetary dispute. Other people have said it was his wife or a mistress. There are so many theories. The thing is, no one ever found out who did it. Someone even said that it was Yakuza which makes no sense given how small this town is…"

"I heard an organised crime theory from the desk attendant at the hotel," Haru responded. Rin chuckled and picked up the cat mug from the table and took a sip of tea, a flash of his sharp teeth just visible as he took a swig of it. He lowered the cup and then his eyes lit like Christmas tree lights.

"I'm going to the cinema with some friends today, do you wanna come with?"

"No money."

"I'll pay for you, idiot."

"I wanted to pay for our first date," Haru joked. There was a slight cold jerk in his heart because he then realised he'd just made another comment relating to the fact he liked Rin romantically but he felt that Rin didn't reciprocate that feeling.

"Oh ha-ha, Haru, when we first started hanging out you paid for all our little outings and those were just you and me more often than not which is far more date like than hanging out with… eight other people. Possibly nine, actually."

"Who's number nine?"

"Me and Sousuke, our childhood friend is in town so he might be coming along," Rin explained as he leaned forward to grab the remote and change the channel. "Oh this it!"

"This is what?"

"The trailer for the film!"

Haru looked at the TV and saw a flash of imagery running across the screen with a deep dramatic voice narrating: "Mystery, murder, romance… Will Hikari unlock the secrets of her secret shrouded past? Premiering today, the long anticipated adaption of outstanding hit novels 'Wings' ."

The advert shut with the surprised face of a pretty young woman, whose face Haru had seen on a few magazine covers, as she sprouts a pair of wings.

"Is it a supernatural style of film?"

"Um, sort of… I think. Gou read the book and she said it was really good, I could ask her to lend you the book."

"Oh, no, that's not really necessary. Could you just give me a bit of a summary?"

"Well, it's sort of like… this girl called Hikari's family is massacred and she's the sole survivor but the killer meant to kill her, she just miraculously survived. When she comes round she's got like no injuries or memories of what's happened but her back hurts a lot. So everyone thinks she's the murderer but there's no proof and so she goes to stay with her grandmother in the countryside while the investigation is carried out and then she sprouts a pair of wings and realises that this was the pain in her back. She finds that the wings have some sort of magical property and so she sneaks back into the city and she uses her wings to find out who killed her family and stuff. I dunno, it's weird."

"Is it good?"

"The book was written by the child of a famous author and apparently it's won a lot of prizes. It's Gou's new favourite book and she has a pretty good taste in books."

"I guess I'll come, it sounds pretty interesting."

"Do you only wear jeans and jumpers, Haru?" Rin asked as Haru stepped in Rin's pristine bedroom.

"Yes," Haru replied curtly. Rin howled with laughter, his cheeks turning red and dimpling. Haru crossed his arms and waited for the redhead to calm down. "Why did you call me anyway?"

"What do you think of my outfit?" Rin asked.

"You always look wonderful," Haru replied.

"Oh, ha-ha, Haru," Rin rolled his eyes. "Do you like this jackets with these clothes or what?"

"I wasn't being sarcastic. And I don't know the first thing about fashion, you've said so yourself. Why don't you ask your sister?"

"Ugh, she always makes fun of me for this kind of shit, though…" Rin whined. Haru sighed.

"Okay fine, um, do you have any other jackets?"

"Yeah, I've got a lot," Rin replied cheerily, opening up his closet to reveal a listless amount of clothing. Haru's eyes latched onto a grey draped wool jacket, he picketed it up and found that it was quite soft wool. The colour perfectly matched Rin's outfit and created less harsh lines than the tight fitting leather one he was currently wearing.

"This one," Haru said, holding the jacket out to Rin. Rin took it with wide eyes.

"It won't go with my hat."

"Then don't wear the hat."

"You look nice, Rin," Gou grinned when Rin finally made his way down the stairs into the front room. He had picked up a little brown leather satchel before coming down. Haru felt that it looked quite nice with everything Rin had decided to wear, well with Haru's help anyway.

"Yeah, you too," he replied like a sulky teenager. "So are we meeting everyone at the train station or at the cinema."

"Cinema," Gou replied.

"Oh, yeah, could you tell me about Wings, Gou?" Haru asked. Both Rin and Gou's eyes widened. Gou's with enthusiasm and Rin's with horror.

"Oh my God, yes! Get your coat, I'll tell you all about it while we're getting there. Oh! But I won't tell you any spoilers there's this fantastic twist! You'd never see it coming!"

Haru nodded mellowly as he grabbed his anorak from the coat hook. He grabbed his mobile from the kitchen counter whilst Gou fizzled with energy. Rin's face looked pained from the anticipation of hearing Gou rave about the film for the millionth time. Whoops.

The air was crisp outside and frost set the blades of grass on the pavements into the victims of Medusa. Haru felt he could shatter them if he stood on them. The moon hung low and full and Haru had a vague feeling of relief that he wasn't a werewolf. He'd met one werewolf in his time. A girl from Zimbabwe with birthmark like a crescent moon near her right eye and thick black curls. She'd described the transformation process as being more painful than childbirth. She also believed the process made her bones stronger but that also meant that every transformation became more painful as she needed more pressure to break all the bones in her body again.

"Okay, so Wings was written by a woman and she went under the psudonym Junsuina-bi Gurē. It's the story about this girl called Hikari Hiru and she is so cool, I'd probably say she's my favourite character from any book ever, she gets murdered but she gets a second chance to live and she starts growing a pair of wings and when people can see them they can't lie to her so she tries to use them to find out who did it but she's not in the city where her family got murdered because everyone thinks she did it so she's like runaway to be with her extended family and she starts finding out all this weird shit… there's this part where she's on the bus and she's trying to hide her face and her wings but someone sees her and they're like "that's the girl that killed her family!" so she gets thrown off the bus and she likes flies back to her house in the city with her wings and… it's so good!"

"Oh, look, we're at the train station already," Rin announced. There was a train sat stationary at the platform. "Fuck! That's our train."

After those words were yelled, they all broke out into a frantic run, limbs flailing as they tried to get to the train before it was too late. In a stroke of luck, they all just managed to get on before the doors slide shut and the train began moving.

"That was lucky," Gou laughed. "I was worried my ponytail got caught in the door for a second."

Rin looked terrified but his sister continued to laugh. I wonder what it's like to have siblings. Family in general.

The train was relatively quiet as it shuttled along the train tracks. The three walked down the aisle searching for somewhere to sit. There were a few available seats but Gou had rejected them as there were crumpled up coffee cups wedged between them. Rin and Gou ended up cramped together while Haru clung to a hanging strap above them.

"Are you okay?" Rin asked, his eyebrows knitted tightly as he looked Haru up and down.

"Yeah," he lied.

"You sure you don't want sit down?"

"I'm fine."

"Okay," Rin muttered and then allowed his sister to continue her sermon about Wings.

Standing for the entire ride made Haru feel tired and lightheaded so he felt a great sense of relief when Gou called out their stop but it dissipated when Haru was hit with the news that they then had to brave a twenty minute walk to the cinema from the train station.

The way was obscure and pitch black and there were few street lights but Rin and Gou marched on as if the route was second nature to them. They zigzagged through so many dark alleyways that Haru was sure they would get jumped at some point or another but they easily managed to get to the cinema.

"That was a long walk," Haru said trying not to sound too ruffled.

"We could have taken the bus," said Gou and Haru was glad that he didn't have one of those transparent faces that showed everything he felt very clearly, "But I wanted to get here before the crowds since it's opening night."

"I told you, you should've sat down on the train," Rin murmured to Haru under his breath before they entered the cinema. A few of Rin's friends seemed to be milling around in the lobby. The brown haired girl that seemed to be good friends with Gou was tearing through a hardback cover of 'Wings' with the cinema tickets in her hands. Upon hearing the door open her head snapped up and she broke out into a bright smile.

"Kou!" she called, waving her over to the plush seats that she had been waiting on.

"Chigusa!" Gou shrieked back excitedly and ran over to pick through the novel with her.

Nitori and Rei were also there, they were stood by a potted plant chatting. Haru couldn't hear what they were talking about but he assumed it would be about the movie. Rin approached them and Haru followed him.

"I'm not really sure if this is the right time for romantic gestures, Rei," Nitori said weakly but Rei stood tall and pompous.

"I've been reading girls' magazine all week and one thing I've learnt is that going to the movies is an expert time to flirt with someone," Rei explained.

"This again?" Rin sighed instead of greeting his friends. Rei's face dropped and Nitori's eyes filled with hope, "Chigusa will literally tape your mouth shut if you interrupt even the slightest part of this film for her."

"Keep your voice down," Rei huffed but he failed to keep the blush off of his face.

"Alright," Rin smirked before looking over to his sister and turning to Haru, "Since, Gou seems to be currently engaged, I'll go get the tickets."

Haru nodded, feeling his body go raw and all his nerve endings were live wires and then… Rin got in the queue to buy the tickets. Haru was left with Rin's two friends, Nitori and Rei. Haru noted to himself that he had to stop acting like every time Rin looked at him was the most important moment of his life.

"Hi," Nitori said sheepishly.

"Hi," Haru said back. He hadn't really thought about this component of going on a group outing with Rin. He'd imagined they'd all pile into the cinema and he'd sit next to Rin and stare at his face for the following two and a half hours.

"So, how do you know Rin?" Rei asked, trying to make conversation.

"I met him on the pier that time when he almost lost his hat," Haru said.

"Oh, I remember," Rei hummed, "You had a very odd conversation, did you really become such close friends over that?"

"It's possible to meet people in odd ways," Haru responded. He had met Makoto on a boat to Egypt after accidentally opening his casket when he had been exploring the cargo port. Haru had always found Makoto's inclination to visit warm sunny places odd given that he couldn't go out in the sun. Haru wondered if he was still in California.

"Rin said you're a bit of a nomad," Nitori added.

"Yeah, Rin told me that you also like swimming."

"Oh, he told you about me?" Nitori asked.

"Well, yeah," Haru added.

"You guys are early," Haru turned around to see the ginger brothers, Seijuurou and Momotarou, had arrived.

"Gou insisted that we "beat" the crowds," Rei explained, "She's really excited about this movie."

A look in Seijuurou's eye when he heard Gou's name reminded him that heterosexuals existed.

"Ah, yes, Gou is a big fan of the book isn't she. I read the whole thing last night," Seijuurou boasted. I wonder if I'm this annoying to my friends about Rin.

"So did I," Momotarou piped up. Is this sibling rivalry?

"Hey, Momo, why don't you go buy the tickets," Seijuurou said, ruffling his brother's hair and handing him some cash. Momotarou groaned and muttered something like "don't treat me like a kid" before trudging over to the queue. Once successfully trapped in the line for tickets, Seijuurou made a beeline for Gou and Chigusa.

"Why didn't I think about that?" Rei groaned.

"Of what?" Nitori asked.

"Finding out something that Chigusa liked and bonding over her with it, namely the book this movie is based off of."

Does this actually work? Haru looked over to Gou whose face had been quite sour looking when Seijuurou had come over to begin with but now she was smiling very enthusiastically as they discussed the book. Rei was also looking and noticing the results. It does work.

"I literally suggested that to you a week ago," Nitori responded, he looked completely tired of the situation. It seemed that Rei really was hopeless.

However, Haru had started to ignore the conversation once more as he heard Rin returning from the ticket stand. He went over to Gou first to hand his sister her ticket and to glare at Seijuurou however something Seijuurou said caused Rin to blush and walk back to Haru and Rin's other friends.

"Here's your ticket," Rin announced, looking very flustered.

"What happened to make you look so red?" Haru teased as he took the ticket from Rin.

"Nothing," Rin snapped, blushing harder than he already was. Nitori and Rei shared a look then conspiratorially dismissed whatever notion they had momentarily had and went back to Rei explaining his terrible methods of attempting to get Chigusa to like him.

Haru suddenly became very aware of a very tall dark presence behind him.

"Hello, Rin," Sousuke said, pushing Haru aside to stand with his boyfriend.

"Is Kisumi not coming?" Rin pouted. Haru pleaded with all the magic forces in the entire universe that this cramped party of ten would not be an insane party of eleven.

"Yeah, he's in the corner shop, he decided that he was going to be in charge of snacks. Honestly, trying to sneak snacks into cinemas is such a hassle, I wish he hadn't."

Haru slowly realised that when Sousuke talked to Rin, he actually acted like a human being. The couple, though Haru would never describe them this way, started reminiscing about Elementary school after this. Mostly, they talked about Kisumi who sounded like a character. Haru just wanted the world not to destroy everything he held sacred and hoped that Kisumi was now less of a crazy person. Buying snacks in a corner shop was a sensible thing to do as they are cheaper than the ones that you buy in the cinema. It was obvious to Haru that Sousuke was a very frivolous person who did not understand the importance of budgeting.

"I bought extra large condoms!"

Gou and Chigusa groaned somewhere; Rin and Rei cringed; Sousuke rolled his eyes; Seijuurou laughed and Haru and Nitori died a little on the inside.

"Please tell me you didn't," Sousuke glared at Kisumi.

"Where's my hug? I was gone for like ten minutes," Kisumi huffed. He had pink hair and he reminded Haru of a peacock. Actually, Kisumi reminded Haru of Nagisa but Haru felt that Nagisa would have actually bought extra large condoms and, instead of announcing it, would have stretched a condom out like a catapult and hit someone in the back of the head with it.

"How've you been?" Rin said sweetly, ignoring Kisumi's earlier indiscretion and giving him a hug.

"All's been good, Rinrin," Kisumi answered.

"Will you ever stop calling me that?" Rin grimaced.

"Does the pope shit in the woods?" Kisumi responded.

Haru felt that if Nagisa were there xe would have replied with something like "He might do, you don't know his story".

"Who's this?" Kisumi said, breaking Haru out of his little reverie of all the things his friends might do if they were with him. Oh fuck, Haru didn't do well with having a magnifying glass put on him. Sousuke stiffened slightly

"That's Haru," Rin said quickly, "Have either of you bought the tickets?"

"Uh, no. Kisumi, go buy the tickets," Sousuke said.

"I already did snack duty, why should I have to get the tickets?"

"No one asked you to do "snack duty"," Sousuke responded in absolute anguish.

"Well, I refuse to get the tickets, either way, so unless you go get the tickets, then I guess we won't see the movie."

"Fine," Sousuke huffed muttering something under his breath as he left to get the tickets.

"He's so moody when it comes to Rinrin, don't you agree?" Kisumi asked.

"Are you asking me?" Haru responded, trying not to sound as irate as he felt on the inside.

"Aw, Rinrin, you didn't tell me he was cute," Kisumi cried.

"I'm not cute," Haru said. I'm thousands years old and full of latent rage. Haru's phone beeped and he found he had a new message from Rin.

"Now u kno how I feel :-P"

Haru looked over to Rin and Rin smirked in response to his exasperated expression. Rin was indeed fast at texting.

"Who's the text from?" Kisumi asked.

"My girlfriend," Haru replied.

"You didn't tell me he was dating someone either," Kisumi moaned to Rin.

"Stop acting like I send you regular updates on Haru's life," Rin huffed. Haru's phone beeped again.

This time, Rin's eloquently written message read: "Fuk u".

Before Haru could respond with "I thought you'd never ask," Sousuke and Momotarou had returned and Gou began squawking about how the screening was opening now.

Haru had been well aware that the seating arrangements wouldn't have been easy but he hadn't expected to be sat with Rei, Nitori and Momotarou with Rin in the row behind him (as dictacted by Sousuke) with Sousuke and Kisumi. The worst part of the arrangement was that Gou, Chigusa and Seijuurou were sat in front of him which meant that he would be stuck with a view of Seijuurou's attempts of flirting with his crush's younger sister for two and a half hours.

Haru decided that contrary to popular belief, the cinema was an experience best enjoyed alone. He'd been to see a lot of movies in the past, especially in Paris. They all been artistic marvels with interesting things to say and moviemaking innovations. Haru doubted this film would compare to any of them.