Rin walked into work on Monday with a huge smile on his face. He finally felt as though his life was coming together. He had a great job that he loved, was starting to make friends with people in this town and had a boyfriend that he cared for deeply. Well… he said boyfriend, but nothing was official yet.

'It will be soon.' He thought to himself, remembering the plan he had to ask the raven haired male to be his boyfriend. It was soppy really, but hey, Rin had always been a hopeless romantic.

He nodded to his co-workers as he walked cheerfully into the staff room. He sat down with a black coffee and started to mark some of the work his students had been doing recently. He had decided to start them on animal's next lesson. Not at all inspired by his date to the aquarium with Haru… he smirked remembering the way Haru had smiled at the sea creatures, the way his eyes lit up when he saw the dolphin hat, that way his breath hitched in his throat as he came.

Rin cleared his throat as he crossed his legs, calming himself down with Kisumi's work sheet, chuckling when he saw the pink haired boy had translated blue into blew.

He noticed a tall figure had stopped in front of him. Looking up he saw the principal of Iwatobi middle school- Goro Sasabe. He was standing with a folder full of paper and a massive grin that could challenge his own.

"Matsuoka! Glad I ran into you, I needed to talk to you about class 8B." He said loudly, his voice booming loudly.

"8B? May I ask why sir?" Rin said with a slight frown. He hoped there was nothing wrong with his favourite class.

"Don't look so worried Matsuoka! And no need to be so formal, Goro is fine." He sat down next to Rin with the folder sitting in his lap. "It's just that a new student is starting in 8B and they just so happen to come in when your lesson is running. So, I'm going to ask you a favour. Do you mind introducing him to the class and maybe giving him a buddy to hang around with for his first day? He's only been home schooled before and his mother says he is a really shy boy so, if you don't mind then please help a fella out?" Goro said, holding the hefty folder out to the English teacher.

"Of course I will, I'd be honoured too Goro." The burgundy haired male said with a beam. He couldn't believe he was being trusted with a task so big after such a short period of working there.

The crazy head teacher gave over the folder and quickly rushed of out of the room bidding Rin good luck with the new boy.

Rin put the marking aside and opened out the folder. There was a picture of a small, skinny boy with silver hair and a mole under one of his eyes.

Aiichirou Nitori

Attached was the boy's data, his levels in each subject and medical information. Rin skimmed through the important things and went to put the folder down when he saw a small note slipping out from between two sheets. He pulled the square out and began to read.

For Iwatobi middle school,

I ask whoever is reading this to take good care of my boy. His father sadly passed away around a month ago and Ai is still struggling to come to terms with it. I ask you to make sure he is happy and around people who will treat him kindly. As I'm sure you know already I have home taught Ai for as long as I can remember. However, I feel he needs to be around others now, to help him progress and become the bright young boy he once was.

Thank you ever so much,

Mrs. Nitori

Rin read thought the letter about three times, feeling worse and worse for the child with every word. Rin could relate to the feeling of having no father, he too had lost his as a young age and it had really affected him. He folded the note and pushed it into his front pocket. He glanced at the clock. Time for work to start.

Gathering up all his things Rin headed for the door, almost bumping into someone of the way.

"Sorry abou- Sousuke? Oh… hey." He said upon seeing the tall man. He felt nerves flood his body as he remembered the harsh glare the PE teacher had given him at the aquarium while saying that the two of them needed to talk.

"Rin." Sousuke acknowledged as he moved past the red eyed man. As he poured himself a drink he looked up and Rin. "Can you come to the pool at lunch today? I'd like to discuss something with you, if that's okay." He smirked slightly, noticing Rin's discomfort.

"Sure, I'll see you then. Sorry I have to go there's a new kid starting today and I don't want to miss him!" Rin said as he rushed out of the room. He knew exactly what the chat would entail. Either Sousuke would tell Rin to stay away from his friend, or he would tell Rin that if he ever hurt Haru he will hurt him.

Oh god… Sousuke was going to have the talk with Rin!

"Class you have a new student joining your class today, I want you to all make him feel welcome and happy among you lot," Rin addressed the students. "Why don't you introduce yourself Ai?" Rin asked the silver haired child,

"Uh! Yes sensei! M-my name is A-Aiichuro Nitori, it's nice to meet you!" He said loudly, but with a lot of stuttering and glancing between the other students Rin could tell he was scared. And who could blame him? This was his first school after all!

"That was great Ai, now the seat next to Kisumi is open; he's the one with pink hair." Upon hearing his name Kisumi gave a salute and wink to the new boy, making him blush. "I've set up both Kisumi and his friend Makoto to help you around the school today; I think you'll get along well with them. And remember if you have any problems, come to me and I'll sort it out." Rin said with a warm smile.

Nitori looked up at his teacher with wide, amazed eyes. "T-thank you Matsuoka Sensei." He stuttered before walking over to his new seat and sitting down, immediately being quizzed by Kisumi on probably any and every question the loud boy asked.

Rin began to teach he lesson. Thankfully a lot of the children had pets so were able to discuss their own. Children like Makoto made up their own fake pets to discuss with others. Rin wouldn't admit that he found it adorable when he heard the brunet discussing his pet dolphin that he and his dad would look after on the weekends.

As the lesson hit the midway point, Rin noticed something. Makoto and Kisumi hadn't spoken to each other all lesson, which was strange considering the two were usually inseparable. He observed how they Makoto would look away whenever he caught Kisumi's eye, or how Kisumi seemed to go to go to say something to his best friend, but chicken out and tell Nitori instead. Had they gotten into a fight? Rin hoped not. He hated to see any of his students upset, especially when one of them was his current interest's son and the other he had a soft spot for.

He was away in thought when one of his students, a boy called Shouta, called his name.

"Ah yes? Confused about something?" He asked from his desk.

"Not really Matsuoka sensei. I just wanted to ask you a question." The orange haired boy said with a tilt of the head.

"Sure. Go for it." Rin said to the young child.

"What's a faggot?" Rin stared wide eyed at the little boy's question. What the… why would he ask such a thing?

"It's… it's not a nice word. Where did you hear that?" Rin asked, trying not to sound angry, but with his short temper things weren't looking good.

"Well my dad saw you out at the weekend. And he was telling my mum about how you were holding hands with another man and kissing him and stuff and then he called you a faggot. And I didn't know what it was, but I thought you might know if you were one." The boy asked innocently.

Rin clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging in hard to the skin of his palm. He clenched his jaw tightly. "You… You should never say that word. It's horrible and mean to men who like to date other men. It's offensive. I don't want to hear it in my classroom and I'd like to have a word with you father if possible. Here- let me write a note in your book." He took the boys English book and wrote a short message telling the boy's father that he wanted to arrange a meeting.

"I'm sorry Matsuoka sensei; I didn't know it was mean." The student said apologetically.

"It's not your fault Shouta, it just… it's not a nice word to say, and I don't want you to accidently hurt someone."

"Matsuoka Sensei do you like boys then?" a girl called out from towards the back of the classroom.

"I… That is…" Rin stammered, feeling like Nitori. He could feel his face going red with embarrassment. He was about to refuse the question when a thought occurred to him-

Why was he embarrassed? If he was straight and someone had asked him if he likes girls he wouldn't be ashamed. So why should he be now?

Rin stood tall and answered "Yes. I like men." In a cool confident tone that made his entire class look up to him with wonder.

After a few seconds of silence the girl continued. "That's cool! I like boys too!" She giggled.

And then that was it. Class continued normally. But Rin didn't miss the awkward look Makoto and Kisumi shared during the conversation.

Class ran on for another twenty minutes before Rin told his student to pack up and he dismissed them, allowing them to go to their next class. He quickly said a good luck to Nitori who left with Makoto, hanging off his arm like a monkey would a tree.

Rin sat down in his desk, ready to enjoy his free period when he felt a presence in the room. He looked up and saw Kisumi still sitting at his desk.

"Kisumi," Rin said, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his desk. "Why are you not going to your next lesson?"

"I wanted to talk to you." The pink haired joker said with a new air of seriousness about him.

"I understand that, but that's what breaktimes and lunchtimes are fo-" he began but was quickly cut off.

"But I need to talk to you now! You don't understand, I'm confused and scared and you're the only one I can talk too!" Kisumi shouted at Rin with panic in his eyes.

Rin was slightly taken aback by the sudden burst of anger, but he'd had enough of his own to know that this was a serious matter and needed to be dealt with.

"Okay, pull up a chair and let me email your next teacher. What was it you had next? Science?" Rin pondered as he opened up his email to write to his teacher.

Kisumi nodded and pulled up a chair near to Rin's desk. After the email had been sent, the teacher looked at Kisumi for an explanation.

"I-I'm sorry about shouting. I just didn't know what to do. You see… recently I've been… noticing things that I hadn't before and they're scaring me because I never thought I'd think about those kinds of things you know? And I think… I think you're the only one that can relate to my situation." Kisumi said, fumbling with his hands in his lap.

"Okay, and what situation would that be?" Rin asked the nervous boy.

"…When did you realise you were gay?" The purple eyed boy whispered, looking anywhere but Rin.

Rin's eyes widened slightly. Kisumi was gay? That one was truly shocking, Rin was usually good about working out if people where homosexual or not, but evidently he'd been wrong.

Anyway, now was not the time to be fussing over the fact that he got someone's sexuality wrong because as Kisumi sat there, nervous and fiddling with the a loose strand on his t-shirt, Rin remembered that it was at around the age Kisumi was that he found out he was gay.

"Oh Kisumi, I know it seems strange right now but trust me, it will all start making sense gradually. I was your age I think when I found that I liked men and not women. I was watching a children's TV show with my sister and thought to myself 'Wow that presenter sure is cute.' And honestly, I was scared too, terrified actually because I didn't even know what gay was! But I looked on the computer that my sister and I shared and found out about what I was. It was unexpected, sure, but you'll gradually come to see its perfectly normal." Rin said softly, watching as he saw Kisumi shake in his chair.

"But I don't want to be gay!" Kisumi seethed. "How can I change it?" he asked desperately.

"Kisumi, you can't change it. It might just be a phase but even then you can't stop how you feel now." Rin said gently, trying to help the poor student.

Kisumi's eyes were watering when he replied. "But I don't want to keep noticing him. I don't want to think he's cute, I don't want to notice how everyone loves him, and I don't want to get that funny feeling in my tummy whenever he smiles at me!" he said, a few stray tears falling from his eyes.

"Who?" Rin asked before he could save himself from his curiosity.

"Isn't it obvious? Makoto!" Kisumi said with a sob. Rin finally started to piece things together. His hands shakily moved to cover his face as he explained more. "Makoto… I… I don't want to like him Matsuoka Sensei, I don't I swear! But I do a little bit. And I did something really stupid the other day and now I'm sure he hates me. I… stole his first kiss." Kisumi said with a blush.

Rin sat in stunned silence at the huge revelation that he had just been told. He wasn't sure how to react.

"He's not going to hate you for that! You're best friends; it would take more than that to break your friendship." Rin said encouragingly.

"Maybe your right. But I'm scared Matsuoka Sensei. What if the feelings don't go away?" He cried.

Rin reached into his draw and pulled out a tissue. "Well, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it." He said, handing Kisumi the paper. The young student blew his nose and whipped his face clean.

"You can come and talk to me whenever you want, you know that right?" Rin said with a smile.

"T-Thank you Sensei." Kisumi said, returning Rin's smile with a grin of his own. Kisumi picked up his bag and threw the tissue in the bin. He went to walk out the door, but ran back and gave Rin a hug, his arms not fitting around Rin's waist. Rin patted the boy on the head, waving him off as he left the classroom to go to science.

All the way up until lunch, Rin debated whether or not he should tell Haru his son had his first kiss!

At lunch, Rin walked over to the swimming pool to meet Sousuke. Rin had always been a fan of swimming, and had one envisioned himself going to the Olympics. But after taking care of his sister for a year he realised his dream was too farfetched, and gave up on the idea. Besides, he realised that he could do a lot more good helping children to speak another language- lord know how scared Rin was when he went to Australia and couldn't understand anything.

He pushed open the door to the pool slowly. The Iwatobi middle school had an indoor pool so that the children could swim during winter too. This wasn't true for the high school, but the school didn't have a team anymore so it wasn't necessary. He looked around the space for the PE teacher. Finally he saw him walking out of the changing room, dripping wet and shirtless.

Now, Rin knew he would never act on it, but it didn't stop him from thinking holy shit this guy is hot! Momo was a lucky man…

"Oi, Rin," The tall male said as he walked over to him. "Sorry, I had a free period and figured I'd swim for a bit." He said, drying his hair with a small towel.

"No problem," Rin nodded, crossing his arms as he stood opposite Sousuke. "I assume you wanted to talk about Haru?" Rin asked, fumbling with his hands much like Kisumi had been doing when talking to him earlier. "Before you start I just want it to be noted that I'm not just, messing around with him, I… I like him. A lot. And I wouldn't hurt him."

Sousuke let out a chuckle at Rin's desperation. He honestly had intended to ask Rin to treat Haru right, but considering he had hurt Haru not 24 hours before, he didn't think he had the right to tell Rin to never hurt him.

"That's… Great Rin, but honestly I wanted you to know that you're the best thing to happen to Haru since Makoto. He likes you. More than he'd admit. When Hana-" Sousuke stopped himself, that wasn't his territory and he wasn't sure whether Haru had even told Rin about Makoto's mother. "When he became a single parent, he stopped doing anything for himself. Immersed himself in artwork and Makoto, but you… you're able to bring the Haru I once knew. And I thank you for that." Sousuke said with a genuine smile.

Rin was shocked. That definitely hadn't been what he'd expected to hear when he came to talk, but he was thankful for it. Without his permission he felt his eyes start to water.

"Thank you Sousuke. That means a lot. I won't let you down," Rin said with a smile. "Although I've been shitting myself since Saturday, why couldn't you've told me sooner that you weren't going to rip me a new one?" Rin joked.

"I don't know, you seemed like the kind of guy that would cry about these sorts of things." Sousuke said with a smirk.

"Idiot, I'm not crying!" He argued with the other man.

The two laughed before Rin asked "So you and Momo huh?"

Sousuke shrugged. "I guess. It's not official yet, I mean, he says he's still seeing someone else and I just…" He shrugged again. "It wasn't meant to be serious in the first place."

"Oh right." Rin nodded, not enjoying the uncomfortable silence that followed.

"Anyway, I should get ready. I have a class next period and I don't think my swim suit will be appropriate to teach in." The black haired man said as he turned to go. "Thanks Rin." He called without turning back.

Rin exited the pool building and began walking back to the main school building, when he felt a vibration in his pocket.

From: Haru

To: Rin

Do you have plans tomorrow? Thought you might like to catch a movie tomorrow night. With Makoto and I. It's fine if you say no. I just wanted him to know we were at least friends.

Rin blushed deeply. Haru wanted him to go somewhere with him and Makoto? He couldn't believe it. It was fast sure, but it was definitely something he wanted. Without hesitation he texted Haru back.

From: Rin

To: Haru

I'd love too. I'll pick you guys up tomorrow night x x