Finally some Rin/Rei action! I'm really impatient when it comes to reading over fanfictions, but for some reason I always take a few chapters myself before establishing anything. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy, feel free to review or PM me

"Your boyfriend's pretty cute, Rin, how'd you manage to bag a guy like him?"

Rin coughed on his water bottle and glared indignantly at Seijuro who snickered back at the flustered razor tooth. The pool glittered behind them, slowly becoming still as the last few members pulled themselves out.

"He's a good athletic partner, that's all."

Seijuro laughed that friendly laugh of his and patted Rin on the back. "Right, you won't even look at anyone not on the swim team, but this guy comes along and suddenly you take him under your wing, huh? Running together in the morning, eating lunch together, if I read your phone correctly you were texting him yesterday after practice, too."

Rin pushed him away and snapped, "Yeah, because texting is the biggest romantic commitment known to man. Practice is over, I'm outta here." Slinking away to the locker room as Seijuro chuckled and shook his head, Rin changed and stood still in front of the locker while letting out a irritated sigh. He stood in silence for a few moments trying to even his head, when a small voice whispered "Sempai" behind him and Rin nearly jumped out of his skin, spinning around to see a sheepish little Nitori standing there.

"For fuck's sake, Nitori, don't sneak up on people! One of these days someone will deck you in the face."

Nitori fidgeted, fingers intertwined nervously, and it took him a few trieds before he could actually open his mouth and stutter what he wanted to say.

"Matsuoka-sempai, do you really like the transfer student?!"

Rin stumbled over his words, taken aback. He couldn't think up a lie fast enough, but he wasn't willing to admit that when he had first saw Rei, it was just the back of his head and for a split second he had mistook Rei's dark navy hair for Haruka's ebony black. And right now, he wished it would have been that piece of shit. If it had been Haruka, Rin could have just saved him from getting his ass kicked and tell him he better not get hurt before they raced again or else it wouldn't count. He hadn't expected for it to be a sarcastic mega-nerd. Rin had to say something, though, because Nitori was leaning in closer and closer, face becoming more distraught by the second, big aquamarine saucer eyes boring into Rin.

"He reminds me of someone I used to know, okay? So I just tried talking to him and he seems... alright."

Nitori blinked back for a moment before putting a slender finger up to his mouth to think. Finally, he said quietly to himself, "That makes sense... he reminds you of your ex."

Rin's jaw fell open as stomped past a flinching Nitori, yelling "I hate that asshole and I don't fucking like Rei!"

XX

Already hypersensitive to his surroundings, Rei took immediate notice to the snickers that Rin's captain would give them when they arrived at school after their morning jog, or when they walked out of the pool together after gym on the way to eat lunch. Of course, he also noticed how fidgety this made Rin. Every once in a while when they caught eyes, Seijuro would give Rin a thumbs up and Rin would absolutely lose his head. Rei would stare quizzingly at Rin, but Rin would avoid his eyes, storming ahead of the younger boy.

Sitting against the cool chain link fence on top of the school roof, Rei chugged his water as he whipped through his textbook, drinking down the words even faster. Rei had finished his own lunch, finally having time to start packing them again, but Rin was violently ripping apart his own food, grumbling angrily to himself. Peeking up a few times at the loud and messy eater, Rei finally rubbed his temples, sighed, and said, "Are you in a foul mood because your dive today during gym swimming was 13 degrees off?"

Rin slammed his bento on the ground and sneered, "Yes, Rei, I'm in a foul mood because my dive was a few degrees off."

Rin's gaze met with lavender orbs, crinkled with anger that spelled out 'I dare you'. Rin bit his tongue, but instead of apologizing for lashing out, he just scoffed and finished his bento. Rei raised an eyebrow at the rice stuck around Rin's mouth before simply sighing, "Not beautiful at all" and absent mindedly moved to wipe it away with a napkin when Rin's hand shot out to slap it away.

Fire flared behind the lavender eyes again as Rei shot up in his place, shoulders tense, and he gritted his teeth as he shouted, "Why have you been acting like this recently?!" Rin jumped up as well and pushed Rei into the fence, a rage behind his own eyes that Rei had seen before many times within someone else.

"Because," Rin yelled, shoving him up against the fence over and over again, sending violent shakes throughout it. He thought about the slick comments Seijuro kept making, he thought about the accusing giggles from Nitori, he thought about how he needed to focus on swimming but he couldn't, "Because you keep fucking making me confused!"

Rei's instincts took over and he shut down, curling inwards and raising his arms to protect his face. Rin paused and felt Rei's tremors in his hands, his eyes clenched tightly, biting his lip to keep any noise from escaping. Rin's eyes widened and eyebrows furrowed with a miserable, sinking feeling, but rage flashed through his veins just as quickly. He pulled Rei to his level, heads colliding with a painful thud, forehead to forehead, eye to eye. Rei's terrified eyes met Rin's uncontrollable fury.

"Why do you keep fucking doing that!" Rin screamed at Rei, Rei's shakes of adrenaline and Rin's shakes of anger blending so you couldn't tell where one stopped and the other one started. "Why do you keep acting like I'm going to fucking hurt you?!"

It was hypocritical, of course. In the short time that they'd known each other, Rin had already shown Rei violence, here he was, accosting him on top of the school's roof, but Rei was silent and Rin was illogical so he let words pour from his mouth like water.

"Why don't you live on campus at a boarding school?! Why are you always hiding a fucking limp?! Why do you act like it hurts whenever I grab your arm?! Why haven't you made any other friends since you got here?! And where did you really get that fucking bruise?!"

Rei's resolve broke and he stood still before he mirrored his sempai by placing the same white knuckled grip on Rin's collar. His throat filled with confessions of everything, the years of beatings, cigarette burns, his blood stained on the wooden walls and floors of the house, going hungry every day until he learned how to scrape up pennies, how he was abandoned by the police, by his older brother, by his mother-

It wouldn't come out, though. The noise had died in the dryness of his throat. His confidence- or was it desperation- sparked out as he felt hopelessness take refuge in his stomach. His father would take him out of school for good, he knew he would. He'd have to leave Nagisa-kun, Haruka-sempai, and Makoto-sempai. He'd never get to go to college. He'd never be able to get out. He couldn't tell Rin. He'd never be able to tell anyone.

A violent jab to the chest sent Rin stumbling back as Rei sprinted down the stairs and zigzagged through the twisted hallways of the dormitory building, nearly slamming into the walls as he began to lose his cool. His chest constricted as memories flooded his mind, and he began to lose his balance. Two arms wrapped around his midsection and he half-stifled a cry of pain from having the recently kicked ribs bound so tightly. The other body pulled him back down the hall and with a jingle of some keys, he found himself stumbling into one of the rooms, Rin's room.

Rei whipped around, ready for another altercation, ready to yell and break all the furniture, ready for anything except what actually happened.

Rin's arms shot out and desperately wrapped up Rei, the force sending both of them stumbling until Rei's back hit the wall. Rei whimpered from the impact but Rin held on, unrelenting. They stood like that together, panting, unmoving, unsure. Rei shook and Rin held tighter.

"I'm sorry." Rin rasped.

Trembling, Rei tried to catch his shaky breath but found anxiety spreading through his blood. They sat in a cold, deafening silence for what felt like eternity, but slowly Rei lifted his hands to grasp onto the back of Rin's shirt. Rin's embrace softened but remained just as protective. Rei bit his lip with irritation. He didn't need protecting. He wasn't a damsel in distress and he wasn't a starry eyed twink either. He thought back to their first scuffle and flushed amber at the memory of the small moan he had let out.

"If you're making fun of me, just stop.", Rei demanded in what he could manage to be slightly more than a whisper. "I'm not.", Rin murmured back.

Rei gazed over Rin's shoulder into the fuzziness of the dim, unlit room. He let out a shaky breath upon realization that if he father ever knew about this, ever found out he was in a position like this with another man, Rei was dead. His heart rate quickened as his throat became too tight to breathe through and he bit back tears. He was absolutely dead. But maybe he had been from the start.

Eyes adjusted to the darkness, Rin stepped back to see Rei's eyes shine too bright of a lilac to be possible. He bit his own lip and before he knew it, both his hands were cupped around Rei's jaw, Rei's hands grasping at Rin's wrists, and Rin kissed the glasses wearing boy deeply against the wall.

They broke breathless and Rin took the sight before him in. He had always figured this would happen his some hot, big breasted cheerleader, not with a boy equal in height and possibly just as muscular as he was. Rei peered back, eyebrows knitted together, glasses low on the bridge of his nose. Slowly testing the waters, Rei blinked back the tears he refused to let fall and gingerly returned a kiss. Both their bodies went slack with relief and Rin tentatively kissed down Rei's jawline and neck. Their grip on each other tightened and Rin cautiously hummed in Rei's ear, "Do you like me?"

He scowled at himself for asking something so juvenile sounding until he felt Rei's breath on his own neck moaning back, "Y-yeah."

Silence and darkness. That is, until Rin scoffed and said smugly, "Yeah, I totally knew it all along."

Rei pulled back and blinked at him a few times... before beginning to laugh so hard that he sunk to the ground, holding in his stomach.

"W-what's wrong?!" Rin yelled, grasping at Rei. Rei pinched Rin's cheek painfully and tugged on it, rolling his eyes with exasperated sigh.

"You're the absolute worst, Rin-sempai. If I could give you a failing grade for that, I would."