Thanks for the continued reviews, everyone! It reminds me that I'm not alone in this ship haha.
I also wanted to explicitly state that while I am trying to keep to the same basic story, I really need to stretch out the timeline to fit in everything I want. So events that happened within a few days of each other in the show won't necessarily lay out like that in the story. It's because I don't want to downplay the big events, but I'm not willing to rush the story either. If it helps anyone put it in perspective, I imagined Rei switching to Samezuka right after the ocean incident, but I still write them as if there's plenty of times before the tournament (cause in this story, there is)
The dark walls looming over him were more intimidating than they should have been, an eerie glow cast from the weak light of his phone. Looking up one side of the hallway was the stairs, leading to the second floor where Rei had excused himself to the bathroom to gauge his wounds. The other side, at the end of the hallway, laid the room where Rei's unconscious father was. Rin paced feverishly, the conversation he had just had with Rei playing over and over again in his head.
He had stared completely shocked at the picture on Rei's dresser, but he knew he couldn't blink away those faces. "Are you..." Rin swallowed his words, picking them carefully before starting again. "Are you on the Iwatobi swim team?"
Having composed himself, Rei replied, "Yes, I managed to pull some strings to stay on the Iwatobi team since I still live in-district for the school. They didn't bother pressing it since Samezuka's team is filled anyway. " Rin felt something creep up inside his chest, but he couldn't put a name on it.
"Are... are they good team mates?" The razor tooth teen had managed to croak out. It took a while for an answer to arrive, but when it did, Rin felt a knot in his chest.
"I think they're the best team mates and friends anyone could ask for."
Blood pounding in his ears, grip way too tight on the phone, Rin finally pressed call. He cringed when that goofy, annoyingly strong voice finally picked up.
"How did the love confession go? Did it leave him breathless? Works every time in the movies, ya know. I'm sure it patched up whatever rough spot you went through earlier."
"No," Rin growled in a low, dangerous voice, "it was a fucking wreck."
Seijuro laughed on the other end and teased, "Sounds like you got yourself into a bit of trouble."
Bit of trouble was the fucking understatement of the year. They were absolutely cornered, no escape in sight. Rei had said the police refused to get involved, they were convinced that the fights must have been two sided since there's no way a boy so physically fit could be a victim. His brother had cut contact with the family once he got out of the house, and if Rei's grandparents found out the extent of what was going on, Rei would be forced to join them abroad and there went his chance to the dream school in Tokyo. Rin knew he wouldn't be able to get away with keeping Rei in the dorms for more than a few days at best. Their options were slowly slipping away.
Then the picture of the Iwatobi swim team flashed in his mind, but Rin felt himself sneering.
"I can handle everything myself!" He barked into the phone.
There was no way he was going to show up on their doorsteps asking for help. No, he wanted to be free from them, he wanted to walk to the other end of the earth to be as far away from them as possible, and if this meant taking care of Rei himself, so be it. He never wanted to see Nagisa, Makoto, or Haruka ever again.
'And if I had my way, neither would Rei.' A little voice whispered maliciously in the back of Rin's skull.
"Hmmm, what was that?" Seijuro teased.
"I can fucking do this myself! I can fix everything myself! I don't fucking need anyone else's help!" Rin yelled back, fist colliding with the wall. Unlike those soft bastards, unable to do anything on their own without their circle-jerk of friendship, Rin was independent, Rin got shit done. That's why he was going to go places those guys couldn't even dream of. He heard a soft chuckle from the other end of the line.
"I'm sure you can," Seijuro smiled (mocked?), "And I'm sure you're making that decision with Rei's best interest in mind, right? It sounds like this is about Rei, so I'm convinced you took great care in making sure you considered his needs and comfort."
Right through the heart. A sharp thorn just shot directly through his chest at those words. Rin, eyes panicking, trying to pull any excuse to justify himself out of the air, could only sputter unformed words. Guilt tore through his body when he couldn't find any way to deny that Seijuro had hit the nail on the head.
"I-" Rin started and trailed off, head burning with shame at the thought of even considering wanting to cut off Rei from his team mates. Dread pooled his stomach as he finally groaned out, "I didn't sign up for this."
"Then leave." Seijuro drawled coldly. "Whatever it is, I'm sure there are people out there more willing than you to help him. If you're wasting his time, leave it to people who will stick around when things are just as bad as they were good." The line went dead.
The Iwatobi swimmers flashed across his mind again. Rin's mouth went dry when he knew there was no way to dispute it. Makoto, Nagisa, and Haruka would burn down with a building if it meant proving their loyalty to someone. Rin only became more fevered, knowing he was stuck between two hard places. He pulled Rei's phone out of his other pocket, having picked it up after undressing Rei. He stared at the now cracked screen, biting his lip until the iron of the blood stained his tongue. He cursed God, he cursed Rei's father, he cursed Rei and Haruka and Makoto and Nagisa, and he cursed himself, but he still worked back to the same floating thought, 'You know what you have to do now. What else is there?'.
Stomach tightening, fire through his veins, Rin wish he could unroot his feet from the ground and walk out of there, walk out on Rei. But something made him stay, and you don't stay for nothing.
"Hey Rei, what's up? It's pretty late, is everything okay?"
"It's me."
Both ends of the phone were silent, Makoto's stunned and Rin's resentful.
"What are you doing with Rei's phone, Rin?" Makoto hushed out dangerously. Rin prickled at the voice and almost chuckled nervously to himself, not sure he wanted to be cross with a killer whale.
"Are you at your house or Haruka's?"
"... Haruka's."
"I need to bring Rei over. Something... happened."
Rin couldn't read Makoto, but then again no one other than Haruka ever could when Makoto got serious. There was murmuring in the background and Rin only caught a sliver of Haruka's voice before Makoto boomed, "I want to know exactly what's going on as soon as you get here. Come quickly." A second hang up in one night. Rin slowly dragged his feet back upstairs, searching for a way out of having to face angry Momma Bear Makoto but only turning up empty handed. Rei was back in his room, further inspecting the split lip he had just tended to. Rei only managed to glance up, out of habit, before looking away, eyes narrowed in self frustration.
"Why didn't you ever tell your friends?" Rei's head snapped up, eyebrows drawn together, meeting Rin's stony eyes. He grumbled to himself and turned a cold shoulder to Rin. "I don't want them to know." The navy haired teen said begrudgingly. "I didn't want you to know, either."
"They'd do anything to help you, you know." Rin said through slightly gritted teeth, eyes cast downwards. Rei looked back at him, confusion in his eyes and lips slightly parted, but it softened as he said, "You can tell they're those kind of people just by their photo, can't you?"
Rin bit his words back, not sure how to admit that he once stood where Rei was now, that it was his team. He glanced around the room, desperate to change the subject. His eyes hit the supplies in the partially opened closet. Medical supplies, stored food, emergency supplies that seemed better fitted for a storm shelter.
"How long has this been going on?"
Rei looked away again, eyes crinkling while he reflected. "Years." He said simply. Rin took in the body turned slightly away from him. The dark bruises stuck out in sharp contrast to his pale skin, the marks the same scale of colour as his navy hair. Rin couldn't have imagined what having this many bruises and marks could have look like, the way they wrapped up Rei's body and threatened to consume the entirety of his skin. Bandages were wound tightly around the wrist that Rei had feared was broken or seriously hurt, and both ankles were wrapped due to the twisting they had endured when Rei stumbled over his feet during the fight. The worst, though, was the wounds to his face. How Rei's face could go from flawless to a battleground with the swipe of a cloth and some remover would never leave Rin's memories. Hours ago he could have never been able to picture what Rei would look like with a beaten face, let alone entertained the idea.
It was only then that Rin realized what was missing from Rei's face, pulling the glasses he had picked up after Rei passed out from his pocket, stepping forward to put them on Rei. Rin didn't know why he didn't expect it at this point, but the same flinch, the same tripping over feet to put distance between bodies, the same defensively raised arms. They both stood a split second in the heavy tension, Rei's eyes wild with instinctive fear and Rin's desperate with a concern that he was none too good at verbalizing. Swiping the glasses out of the maroon haired sempai's hands, Rei limped to turn his back on his companion.
Blood rising again, Rin barked, "Rei, I'm trying to help-"
"I don't need help." Rei cut coldly as he adjusted his glasses strictly. "I won't accept help from anyone who looks at me with such pity. You look at me like a damsel ready to fall over at any moment; my body is strong, I have tuned myself to as functional as a human body can be. I can hold my own. I've been doing fine for years. If you're not going to take me seriously, then leave me here."
Rage nipped at the base of Rin's neck, throat filling with words of why Rei couldn't see how hard he was trying, or how Rei should just shut up and accept his feelings and actions, but something clicked that caused his throat to swallow it away. There was an uncanny familiarity in Rei's words. Rin didn't need help either. Rin also wanted to impress. Rin was just as much of a loner as Rei beyond the Iwatobi team mates. He forced his anger down, really really had to force because Rin's temper was as hot as his crimson eyes, before swallowing and finally demanding, "Then leave with me."
Rei turned (limped) towards him with furrow eyebrows, becoming visually agitated. "I told you. I can't. There's nothing I can do. There's nothing you can do. All I can do is wait until I can get out."
"We'll figure out something-" Rin bargained, slowly cupping Rei's face with both hands to force him to maintain eye contact. "I know the Iwatobi team from.. swimming. We could go there tonight. We could go there right now." Rei bit his lip but let out a small yelp when it re-opened his split lip, blood instantly pooling. Rin instinctively leaned in and sucked the blood from his lip before drawing back to run light fingers under the glasses over the black eye, the bruised cheekbone, the spotted jawline.
"There's nothing I can do, and there's nothing you can do," Rin echoed, "but-" He felt something clench in his chest and he desperately wanted to avoid saying those words, but, "those guys are the kind of guys that can do anything."
Rei searched Rin's eyes for any sign of relenting, any weak spot that he could target to convince the older teen that this wasn't the way, that he couldn't do this, but all he found was a hot, demanding stubbornness. Rei sighed out a long, shaky sigh.
XX
Rei had leaned on Rin the whole walk there, limping painfully and incredibly slow. He had refused to let Rin hold his bag of necessities but the shark mangled it out of his hands before urging him down the road. Dressed in pants, a t-shirt, and his Iwatobi swim jacket, Rei felt horribly, terribly naked with his marks open for anyone to see. He felt Rin's concerned glances after each strained puff he let out, but Rei was nothing short of persistent. Once on the street where Haruka's house laid they stopped multiple times, for Rei would hyperventilate, body shaking, insisting that he couldn't do this, begging Rin to let him go back. When packing, Rin had found a bottle full of anxiety control medicine and mulled over how for someone as stressed and emotionally pushed as Rei was, Rin should have been able to guess, but all the medicine in the world couldn't help them in that moment. Each time Rin would shakily insist on going further (Whoever entrusted him with this 'comforting' stuff was an idiot because he was bad at it and he knew it, but each time Rei miraculously found it in himself to trust the shark all over again. Maybe after all of this, Rin would show Rei his own secrets).
As they stood in front of Haruka's door, Rei's shoulders fell, feeling like the death sentence had just been placed upon him. He jolted at the loud knocks Rin rapped on the door and tried to listen for steps towards the door but couldn't hear anything past the rushing roar in his head. When the door opened he caught a split-second look at Makoto's even, collected face before their eyes locked and Makoto's face twisted in horror.
"Rei!" He cried with the same cold fear that had echoed into the dark stormy sky on the night Rei almost drowned. He lunged to grasp onto Rei's shoulders, to check if he was okay, but Rei violently shuddered, hunching over into himself as Rin made himself a human barrier between the two Iwatobi swimmers. When Haruka saw past Makoto's shoulders, a terror-stricken look that Rei had never seen, or imagined possible for the apathetic swimmer, infected Haruka's face, a panic large enough to compete with Makoto's filling his body. He lashed out, grabbing violently at Rin's collar.
"What did you do to him?!" Haruka roared with protective rage into Rin's startled face, when Rei's hand shot out and firmly grasped Haruka's wrist. Dropping the shark immediately, Haruka and Makoto turned their full attention to the megane.
"Oh my God, Rei..." Makoto gasped out, resisting the urge to cover his mouth with his hand in shock. "Oh my God..."
Rei burned under both of their wild eyed looks, but before he could turn and force himself to run through the pain like the track runner he was, he was ushered inside by dolphin and killer whale. Makoto supervised with nervous concern as Rin helped Rei up the stairs to Haruka's bedroom where the two teens had been previously while Haruka rushed to the kitchen to make tea, make food for Rei, to do anything tangible and productive at that moment.
The three made it to the room and settled to sit at the kotatsu, but they only sat in harsh, uncomfortable silence for a few moments before they hear the downstairs door slam open. Rei jumped back, mind filling with the worst possible scenarios, but they heard fevered voices talking in the kitchen before footsteps scrambled up the stairs and Nagisa burst into the room. Nagisa went wide eyed and breathless at the sight of Rei, barely managing to let out a whimper of "Rei-chan".
He staggered forward a few steps, face shocked but otherwise blank, until he crumpled to his knees and crawled closer to Rei. He reached out a slow hand cautiously, as if he wasn't sure if Rei would actually be there, but as soon as his hand made contact with Rei's chest, hot tears poured freely from Nagisa's eyes. Rei leaned forward to say something, to comfort Nagisa, to apologize, but his own throat tightened too much the bear.
I couldn't bring myself to leave Makoto, Haruka, and Nagisa out of this because I value the friendship between the boys so much TTwTT But now another problem arises on how they'll take to Rin suddenly re-entering their life under such extreme circumstances after he treated them so badly, ohoho. Expect more Rin/Rei action in the next chapter