It's really shameless for me to be updating so much, but I'm on a super Rin/Rei kick right now! There's a lot in this chapter so I probably won't be updating for a few days, so feel free to leave a review of anything you want to see happen in the future while I continue to work on the outline for the rest of the story
Everyone else had changed and gone to lunch, but in hushed voices the two swimmers hid in the pool locker room, partially because Rin loved to see how much it riled up Rei, the prospect of getting caught. Rei would never admit it, he probably wasn't even aware himself, but Rin could tell by the bodily reactions he always got.
"Your butterfly stroke is getting better." Rin chuckled into Rei's ear, slowly grinding his hips into the bluenette's as Rei bit his lip to conceal a hiss. Rin couldn't help but smirk into the younger man's neck. Rei could read up on intimacy and foreplay as much as he wanted, but that didn't change the fact that he was an awkward, nervous virgin and Rin had a bit of experience from Australia under his belt. Knowing Rei had never touched someone- or been touched by someone- like this, Rin would have to force himself to cool down and keep things limited to making out, gropes, and strokes through their clothing.
"Rin-sempai, we shouldn't keep doing this here, what if someone comes in?" Rin smirked and ran his hands gently over Rei's muscular chest as he bucked against Rei's hips again, earning another soft grunt. "Why, so no ones sees you burning redder than a bitch in heat?" Rei bit his lip and shuddered, but forced himself to fight for dominance with Rin, murmuring against the redhead's mouth, "Rin-sempai, don't treat me like a bottom." Rin's eyes flashed, a menacing smirk against Rei's skin as he retorted, "Well you're sure as fuck not going to be the top." More fumbled gropes and a few pants and moans later, Rei stuttered that he couldn't take it anymore.
"Weak. Well, come on," Rin said, giving him a peck before sauntering away as if nothing had happened, "let's see if we have enough time left of lunch to actually eat." Rei stared confused at how quickly Rin had shut off, but begrudgingly caught up. He adjusted his pants accordingly but snuck a look at Rin to see if he could read anything from his face, but there was nothing.
XX
Rei strolled along the dusky roads towards his house, the sun setting and his shadow cast long against the houses that he passed. His body was worn out beyond belief. The high intensity morning jogs, Rin pushing him in swim class, their heavy petting sessions that left both of them breathless but unsatisfied (but Rei was thankful that Rin didn't pressure him into more), the swim practice at Iwatobi with his team mates, and then the jog home. Every day left him tired to his bones, but things were better than they had been recently. Or at least Rei thought they were. He thought of the peck Rin gave him today and went the slightest bit red as he touched his fingertips to his lips. After they confessed they liked eachother, the kisses and feeling up started happening regularly, though Rei wasn't exactly sure where they stood in terms of a relationship.
They hadn't established they were boyfriends... Rin wouldn't use him as a fuck buddy, would he? Rei cursed that there wasn't any textbok that could give him a definite answer to something like this. Debating for a minute, he knew he had to be straight forward, wondering if it was bad that this had gone on for so long without clarification.
"Good evening, Rin-sempai. I wanted to ask, do you actually like me?"
His phone clicked shut after he sent the message, heart pounding harder than he thought it would. He flung it right back open as soon as it vibrated.
"Wtf of course I do. What's this about, is something wrong? ?"
Rei stiffened and tried to calculate a smooth reply.
"No, nothing's wrong. I just want to make sure that you're not just doing this for the physicality."
A few moments passed by before getting a message back and Rei felt a twinge of nervousness.
"You think I'd use you? ?"
"I hope not."
There was no reply after that. Rei sighed and pocketed his phone. He was over-analyzing. As usual. Caught up so deep within his jittery thoughts, he entered the house louder than he meant to and froze when his father met him in the hallway.
"Otou-san, good evening."
Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. It was Friday night. His father should have already been blacked out from his usual hard weekend drinking. When his father smiled, the overwhelming scent of ingested alcohol hit him right in the nose.
"Rei, I've been waiting for you." He smiled happily, distance between them closing.
XX
Trash spewn across the ground, Rin breathed deep growls between his clenched fangs, giving the already over-turn garbage can another kick. He took his phone back out and re-read the messages between him and Rei before huffing and raising his arm to throw it on the ground.
"Lovers quarrel?"
Rin hesitated, phone still in hand, and turned to his grinning taichou.
"I don't need that from you, Mikoshiba." Rin glared again at his phone. He couldn't believe the conversation he had just had. Rei must have really thought he was an asshole to believe that Rin was just looking for an easy lay. 'That loser must think I'm some sort of heartless bastard'.
"It's Friday night!" Seijuro offered. Rin scoffed and barked, "What of it?" The captain grinned that annoying grin and said, "Rin, you're too harsh! If you play tsun one moment and dere the other, you're only going to confuse people. That stuff only works in anime."
Rin raised and eyebrow at him and slowly asked, "What are you getting at, Mikoshiba?"
Seijuro chuckled and said, "Nothing. Just that Friday nights are great for going on excursions, especially when your practice isn't until the afternoon the next day." The fire headed taichou pulled out his own phone and sent Rin a message, before aloofly mentioning, "I got it from the records in the coach's office, good thing Rei had swimming for gym this semester or it wouldn't have been there." Without another word, Seijuro turned tail and waved himself away.
Once Seijuro disappeared behind the school's building, Rin flipped his phone open to find the address of one Rei Ryugazaki. "How much does that asshole know?", Rin asked himself. He didn't want to admit that maybe Seijuro was right, though. Showing up in the middle of the night to someone's house was too fucking cheesy.
XX
Tight fingers weaved taut around his neck, Rei sputtered and gasped as he was slammed into the wall only by the grip on his throat. His glasses laid abandoned somewhere on the floor, already punched off his face, but Rei's concern for them being stepped on was quickly forgotten as another fist made contact. He couldn't tell which happened first, the blood pouring out of his nose and down his face, or the split lip filling his mouth with blood. He coughed and gasped as iron devoured his taste and sense of smell.
"You thought I wouldn't find out about your new, prissy, expensive school you had your grandparents buy you?" His father taunted with sloppy, runny words. "Here I am, nearly starving myself to support you, and every morning you run off to enjoy a day of luxury." Elbow pointed and raise, his father stuck him to the ground where Rei's head collided with a deafening thud.
"Imagine my surprise today at the bar when the father of an Iwatobi student asked me how you were enjoying Samezuka. You must think your old man is a fuckin' idiot for telling him that the uniform had just changed, huh?"
Inbetween every few words, Rei's father gifted him with a kick which Rei took with a harsh grunt, no matter how he tried to keep it in. In the chest, square in the back, against Rei's forearms as they desperately tried to protect his face and neck. Blood from his wounds leaked into his eyes, vision blurred even more than usual, head pounding, Rei was a ragdoll for the beating. He fought back at first, but the blind rage mixed with the hard liquor made his father unable to feel any of Rei's rebuttals. Crouching next to his smaller son, His father grasped a fistful of hair before slamming Rei's head down on the hardwood floor over and over again until Rei could only see stars.
Rei weakly tried to evaluate how injured he was. He was currently unsure if any of his ribs were broken, and he was concerned his wrist could be, too. He was bleeding from his nose, mouth, and knees from falling so violently to the floor over and over again during their scuffle. He felt bruises spring back to life all over his body, first trying to figure out if the largest were on his chest, back, arms, or legs, before giving up and just taking the remainder of the beating as his head went fuzzy. He weakly coughed a little blood out before his father got a few more kicks and stomps in. He pause for a moment, panting and almost stumbling over his feet, before lazily pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up.
Laying on the floor, motionless and unable to see clearly, Rei felt a hand tug his hair so that the entire nape of his neck was exposed and he gasped airily. He closed his eyes and tried to bury is face into the smears of blood on the floor, knowing it would not be able to block out the raw third degree burn he was about to be rewarded for this fight. He heard a distant echo of a thump that he tried to open his eyes- but he found himself balancing on the edge of black out entirely.
Rei forced his eyes open, the little squint he could manage, that is, and slowly the world started to form around him. He was laying on his bedroom floor, sheets and a pillow cushioning him. He lifted an arm to rub his eyes but froze. Black and blue marks and few burn scars that shouldn't have been there covered his arms. Despite everything in his body screaming out not too, Rei shakily and slowly raised his body from the makeshift bed and turned to the mirror on the wall before his mouth fell agape. Dressed only in his boxers, each and every mark was proudly on display. Deep welts down his muscular legs, blossoms across his built chest and abdomen, clear hand marks from his shoulders all the way down to his wrists, defensive blobs smeared across his toned forearms. He could barely make it out from the distance, but there was no mistaking the black splotches around his eye and consuming his jawline. Gingerly touching his neck, he could feel finger-shaped bruises growing around the diameter.
Worse than his battle wounds, though, was barely being able to see the reflection in the mirror of someone sitting behind him on his bed. Misery ripped through his ever fiber as he found it impossible to turn around, only managing to look at the blurry reflection. The silence was endless.. Or, Rei wished it had been.
"I hit him over the head with a chair." Rin finally murmured. "Right before he was about to... burn you. He passed out. I dressed the wounds that I could with the stuff you have in your close. I," He tried to catch his words, "I didn't know what else to do."
Silence again. Rei stopped entirely. Stopped breathing, stopped thinking, stopped everything. He wanted to wrap himself up into the cool sheets, he wanted the floor to open and swallow him up, he wanted to run to Nagisa's house and play videogames, or to Makoto's house to join his family for dinner like he had once before, or even sit in Haruka's room reading manga while the older boy sat in his ritualistic bath. Dried blood crackled in his throat.
"You found the tattoo cover-up kit?" He barely managed to croak out. Rei saw Rin's silhouetted reflection nod, even though the answer was obvious since it wasn't like anyone else would have been around to wipe him down with the remover. Rei hummed deep in his throat, laying back down and flinging his less injured arm over his face to cover his eyes.
He sighed with a smile and chuckled out lightly, "Oh no.". Rin's eyebrows turned upwards in concern at the action. Rei bit his lip and repeated "Oh no.". Rapid, pained breaths began bursting from his chest as he murmured out "Oh no, oh no, oh no," over and over again, the dam cracking and hot tears starting to pouring down his face, his eye still hidden behind his arm.
His entire body shook, his free arm grasping the wrist of his protective arm to tightly that his nails drew bits of blood. Rin jumped up and fell to Rei's side but hesitated, not knowing how to touch the boy without hurting him.
"I-", Rin cried out, panic obviously in his voice, "I came to tell you that I don't think I could ever like anyone as much as I like you!"
A sharp intake of breath before the damn broke entirely and pained sobs of fury and misery filled the room. Rin stared, wide eyed, never hearing wails quite like these before. Hunched over his bloodied and bruised junior, Rin ran his hands through Rei's hair gently, massaging the scalp and kissing all over Rei's forehead as he cried.
"It's okay!" Rin gasped out, his own hands shaky. "I'll kill him." Rin's voice quivered out. He swallowed deeply before his eyes nearly lit on fire.
"I'll fucking kill him." Rin snarled.