A/N: Ah, this is three weeks overdue and I am so sorry! Anyway, I love all of you guys and the support you've been giving me! You're all such sweethearts and amazing! I'm so sorry for this late update, but this chapter is twice as long as the first one to make up for the late update! I hope you enjoy it!

"What do you mean he's sick?!" Gou exclaimed, clearly panicked about the missing member of their little swim club.

Rei had his arms crossed, looking as formal as ever. Makoto was trying to console a furious Gou, and Haruka was in the pool, looking as though he was trying to drown himself unceremoniously.

The events of last night had been stuck in Haruka's brain and they repeated themselves hours upon hours. He couldn't sleep at all, and so he settled with sitting in the bathtub, waiting to finally get a sense of drowsiness and go to sleep.

Thankfully at one point, he did. By the time he woke up, the sun was peeking through the bathroom window and he was still sitting in the corner of the bathtub in his swimsuit. Makoto had come several minutes later – as always fretting about being late.

Nagisa had skipped school, claiming he was down with fever, but all of them were a little skeptical about it. It wasn't uncommon for the blonde boy to lie to get his way. But it seemed that Gou had not been aware of this, and so when the time for practice came around, she questioned where the blonde boy was, only to find out he was supposedly sick at home.

It seemed that considering how small of a team they were, it was obvious one member should never miss a minute of practice. Even if they happened to be on the verge of death – or so the manager had so kindly put it, all the while with a menacing look on her face.

The moment practice had begun, Haruka dived right into the blue waters, and the sun reflecting off the surface gave it a warm aura. He stayed underneath for a long time, never minding the muffled voices of the team manager screaming in pure rage or a close friend trying lull him out like he was talking to some cat.

Joint practice with the Samezuka team was always placed on a Thursday. Thankfully, Haruka could relax for another seven days until the fated date came around once more. It would become a routine, or so Haruka supposed.

Go train with Samezuka and then have a certain brunette follow him around for the entire evening, who, Haruka had to keep in mind, was ready to peel his raven hair out at any moment's notice if he made a single wrong move; then relax for seven days.

It was a simple rinse and repeat process.

Remembering how the tall man kept referring to Rin during their one-sided conversation last night made Haruka skeptical about their relationship. It was obvious to the raven how much Sousuke drowned Rin in his somewhat warm affections. Haruka pondered more than once on just what level their relationship was.

He sighed, bubbles quickly littering the water, and then slowly floating to the top. He felt his chest begin to hurt and he rose out of the water, taking a large inhale of oxygen. Whatever was going on with Sousuke and Rin wasn't his business, but Sousuke sure wanted to make it his.

Haruka waited a while, just standing in the water, before turning around. He looked up and saw a certain male sitting on the edge, his ankles in the water and swimsuit now on; his green goggles hanging around his neck loosely.

They stared at each other for a long time, and Haruka felt his face heat up at the expression the other had on his face. The raven quickly turned his head but nevertheless waded his way towards the other.

"Everything okay?" Makoto asked softly.

Gou was now yelling at Rei, blaming him for allowing Nagisa to stay home. The noise was loud, but Haruka merely blocked it out.

His eyes gazed down to the pool, and Haruka could feel Makoto's eyes on his face.

"Yeah." Haruka said, and it caused a sense of déjà vu all over again. He sighed internally – Makoto deserved so much more than a one word reply. He felt guilt eat him up all over again and he continued to stare at the pool, if only harder.

His hands tightened at the hum Makoto gave. It was clearly unimpressed. It was off. It wasn't warm and understanding and Haruka wanted to say something else, but what else could he say?

Silence overtook them and this time it wasn't the same comfortableness that was always there. It was different and unusual. Haruka didn't dare look up.

"I-" Haruka began but was cut off when Gou intervened.

"Okay! So," she began, clearly irritated, "since Nagisa isn't here, we'll just train without him." She checked her clipboard, and ordered them to stretch and do their laps. Practice had started, but they hadn't been swimming at all since it did.

Makoto stood up and went to another lane, and Haruka stared after him. He sighed and let whatever concern was there disappear. All that mattered now was swimming, and he was content with that.

The rest of the day passed as it usually did, and Haruka walked back home with Makoto, staring at the ocean the entire time.

Haruka laid on his bed, sheets sprawled all over the bed. He was facing downward, yet his face was turned to the side facing the wall. He cringed as he turned to face the other way; his neck was hurting due to the awkward position he was in.

He had spent an hour and a half in his bed, waiting for sleep to come, but it didn't. Haruka didn't want a repeat of yesterday – what with the bathtub and sleeping in there for about three hours until he had to go to school and then getting pulled out of it by Makoto.

He hadn't seen Sousuke in a day and the memories still bothered him. The fact that the man hadn't already punched the lights out of him when he had the chance – which he looked more than ready to do so – bothered Haruka.

Sousuke was obviously ready to pick a fight, and why he didn't pick one earlier made no sense.

And to add to all these issues, Makoto went and acted just a tad colder than he usually did. Of course, Haruka had no one else to blame but himself. He was lying to Makoto and what better way to show disapproval of his lies than to brush them off like nothing.

Sighing, Haruka shut his eyes closed, hoping he'd just fall asleep. He didn't want to spend five hours attempting to make himself sleepy and then running out of fuel at school. Yesterday, he'd been running on five of hours of sleep – and if that was just a tad stressful and exhausting, he didn't want to know what three hours felt like.

At this point, the raven didn't bother wiping at the drool trailing down his cheek. If feeling the wetness of saliva made him sleepy, then let it drip.

He was staring at his spacious room the entire time; trying to focus on something, anything to lull him to sleep. It was all in vain and he gave up trying to make himself drowsy. None of his lousy attempts at doing so were working, and so he settled for repositioning himself to look at the ceiling.

And all he did was stare until he fell finally asleep, completely unaware of it.

But when he jolted awake at five in the morning, he still felt tired. Of course, it wasn't as bad as waking up in a cold bathtub, and his ass painfully hurting.

He sat up, drool still on his cheek and hair out of sorts. He glanced around his room, until hauling himself out of his warm bed with a light groan and making his way to the bathroom, not bothering to clean his face.

All he wanted right now was water; and so he turned on the tub faucet, stripping down to just his swimsuit.

He waited impatiently for the tub to fill and when it did, he jumped right in.

The water was soothing and warm. It embraced Haruka; and Haruka loved it for that.

Sitting there, he waited for an hour to pass by. He saw the window slowly brighten, indicating the sun was awakening. The birds began chirping and he sat there, waiting for Makoto to come in and force him out of the bathroom – because who else would?

After some time, in which Haruka drifted off at least more than once, he heard a soft voice coming from downstairs. He closed his eyes and curled up tighter.

The footsteps were getting louder and louder until they stopped in front of the bathroom door.

Haruka waited for the door open, and when it did he looked up to see Makoto standing there like he always was.

"Good morning, Haru-chan." Makoto said, walking closer to the bathtub, fully aware that Haruka wouldn't get up unless he was persuaded or forced out. He held his hand out, knowing Haruka would reach for it.

"Lay off the -chan." Haruka pouted, but regardless grabbed the hand in front of him. He was pulled up, but Haruka stayed in the tub, staring intently at the other's face.

"Um, Haru?"

Makoto had taken off the girly honorific, Haruka noticed, but he always did that after Haruka told him to.

Haruka stood there silently standing in the tub, staring at the taller man. He saw the other questioning his actions, but he didn't care. He was looking for something. He was searching for the other's warmth, his understanding, his caring; all the emotions he'd ever had for Haruka.

After some time staring intently at the other's eyes, he sighed. He was overthinking this. Of course those things were still there. Those millions of words that Makoto held only for him were still there, and reluctantly Haruka stepped out of the tub.

He didn't really know why, but merely thinking about Makoto not caring about him the way he always did upset him on deeply emotional levels he didn't want to talk about.

And with that Haruka dressed himself in his uniform and left his house – not bothering to cook up breakfast, and when Makoto asked if he had breakfast, he lied and said he already did.

It was already the second day Nagisa had skipped and Gou was bordering insanity. Everyone at this point was wondering if maybe Nagisa was actually sick, and not just lying to skip.

But the day proceeded as it normally did, and Rei was just a tad lonelier than usual. Gou was raging to her friends about the "nerve of that guy!" and by the time school had ended and practice had finally begun, everyone was essentially lacking the fun Nagisa usually brought with him.

Training was the usual routine, just without the same enthusiasm squeezed in there. Everyone was normally functioning and Haruka couldn't remember a single practice that was as quiet as this one.

Makoto hadn't asked if he was alright, no matter how many times Haruka had lingered under the surface of the water. While a part of Haruka was glad the brunette didn't ask – so he wouldn't have to tell him another lie – another part was slightly upset that he apparently didn't care enough to ask anymore.

Whether or not that was the case, Haruka tried to not linger on it too much.

And so when practice ended, a text was received from Nagisa.

"He says he would like us to visit him." Rei stated, pushing up his red glasses like he always did.

"Today's Saturday, right?" Gou asked, and apparently all her anger had vanished. It seemed that she had spent the last two days releasing her fury and now she seemed alright.

"Yeah, it is." Makoto intervened and Haruka looked up at him. "I don't mind visiting him. I can call my parents."

"Yeah!" Gou exclaimed suddenly liking the idea of visiting the supposedly ill blonde boy. "I can invite Onii-chan to come along!"

Haruka watched them as they all planned for the meeting, and he adjusted the strap of his bag.

"Oh, do you want me to carry that, Haru?"

Haruka looked up at Makoto once more and saw the man looking at him with the same soft expression that he always showered Haruka with. He felt his face flush a little and he looked down quickly.

"No, it's okay." He responded. "I can carry it."

"Alright."

Haruka reprimanded himself for ever second guessing Makoto's emotions towards him. It was his fault for thinking too deeply about everything the other said or did.

Rei quickly interrupted them, looking at his phone. Apparently Nagisa had texted him something else.

"Um," he began and everyone looked at him, "he says to bring food."

Gou was fishing her phone out her bag and groaned a little. "Of course he wants us to bring him food!" But she began dialing her brother's phone number and explaining to her brother that they were all planning on visiting Nagisa.

Haruka watched them. They were all busy doing something, Rei and Makoto calling their parents and Gou inviting her brother. Of course, it was when Gou asked into her phone "Oh, he's coming too?" that Haruka realized that if Rin was going to tag along, so would a certain male.

He felt his nose scrunch up at the thought.

Eventually, everyone had finished calling their parents and began making their way to Nagisa's house. And Gou had wondered briefly if Nagisa's parents had even allowed for them to be over.

As they entered Nagisa's house, it was pure silence. Clearly there were no parents in the house.

But in no time flat, footsteps were heard – and at an incredibly fast speed – and before they knew it, a blonde boy was running straight at them with a red nose and chapped lips.

"Rei-chan!"

Haruka watched as Nagisa jumped straight at Rei, who was currently yelling at Nagisa to get off him and that he'd make him sick.

"Did you guys bring food?!" Nagisa exclaimed and while it was obvious by his appearance that he was indeed ill, his overly enthusiastic actions begged to differ.

Gou sighed and glared at him. "No! We didn't bring any food! Why would we bring you food?!" She shouted and it seemed her anger with him suddenly came back.

Nagisa whined and Makoto just smiled at their usual antics, but he quickly looked around.

"Um, are your parents home?"

"Nope!" Nagisa replied and jumped off Rei, who sighed in relief. "Which is why I invited you guys!"

Haruka stood next to Makoto, just watching the scene play out as he thought it would. There was no doubt Nagisa had somehow master mindedly planned all of this.

"Then what about your sisters?"

"Nope!" Nagisa once again responded, and his voice sounded so thick and filled with mucus.

"Why not?"

Apparently Makoto had to investigate these strange occur of events. His mother side was showing and Haruka had to stifle his laughter.

"They all went to the movies," the sick boy explained, still bouncing around his house, "and since I'm sick, they left me here!" He sounded extremely ill and Haruka flinched when he began to couch some mucus up, to which he spit out in the kitchen sink. He then proceeded to walk into the living room, indicating for them to follow.

Gou followed Nagisa into the living room, sitting down at the main table.

"So why exactly did you invite us?" She asked, politely pushing Nagisa away when he tried to sit beside her.

"Well," Nagisa said, licking his lips, "since I'm sick and getting better, I thought you all should come visit me and bring me food!"

If anything, Nagisa looked worse instead of better. And no doubt when he meant 'food' he surely meant 'junk food'.

The group was leisurely chatting away, and Rei was constantly telling Nagisa to wipe his nose. Haruka stayed quiet and just watched his friends do whatever they pleased.

It was about ten minutes until there were knocks on the front door, and it was obvious that it was Rin and his little tag-along friend, Sousuke.

"Ah!" Gou quickly stood up, racing to the front door, Nagisa hot on her trail. Haruka stayed sitting, watching her open the door to reveal the red-headed male and his teal-eyed buddy.

There were no immediate actions, just Gou and Nagisa happily inviting them in, and Haruka immediately tensed when footsteps neared with every passing second.

It seemed Makoto had noticed his friend's sudden closure, but hesitated to ask. If he did, he knew he'd get the same answer he'd been getting for the past two days. It felt completely useless to try.

"Good evening, Rin-senpai." Rei had formerly greeted, looking extremely proud.

"Oh," Rin said, "nice to see you, Rei."

Rin had seated himself in front of Haruka, and Gou sitting at the other end of Rei. Nagisa had taken it upon himself to stand, and it seemed his energy was still as high as it could be.

Haruka kept himself from looking up – fully aware of the dominating presence taking its leisurely time to go ahead and sit down. And of course, Sousuke had to sit by Rin, diagonally across from Haruka.

Sousuke wasn't one to fear, no less despise, and unless you happened to be on his 'Murder List' that Haruka was positive he had somewhere hidden in his jacket, then you were absolutely encouraged to do so. And Haruka wasn't one to cower in terror – he just avoided it, unless it was shoved in his face, in which case he would gladly take it upon himself to push back.

As the others conversed, including Sousuke, Haruka wasn't unaware of the several glances he made towards him. He knew he held a special kind of attention from the taller man, but it wasn't a very positive one.

"I'm hungry!" Nagisa had blurted out quite loudly. And everything was silenced by a loud grumbling, clearly the blonde's. His face was pouting and red.

"I guess I kind of am, too." Gou admitted, giving a slanted smile. She rubbed her tummy, indicating it was running low on fuels.

At this point, everyone was agreeing, and Haruka jumped in his skin when Nagisa suddenly shoved his face in his personal space. Feeling the warm breath of the ill boy, Haruka cringed and moved backward, trying to avoid the blonde and his snotty nose.

"What is it, Nagisa?" Haruka felt compelled to ask, but he had a slight idea of what was coming.

"I had an idea!"

Nagisa had ideas very often, of which more than half of them were not good ones.

"And what is it?" The raven asked once more, and he felt eyes following their every movement, to which he ignored.

"I was thinking," Nagisa exclaimed in his mucus filled voice, "that you could cook for us, Haru-chan!"

Haruka stayed quiet for a while, wondering if he should agree or not.

"You shouldn't ask something like that of Haruka-senpai!" Rei had blurted out, seemingly flustered at the blonde's inability to use manners.

"I would like it if Haruka-senpai did cook for us, though!" Gou said happily. "I've never tasted his cooking!" She seemed ecstatic at the thought of his cooking.

Rin scoffed and Sousuke glanced at him.

"The only thing he knows how to cook is mackerel," the red-head said and then quickly glanced to Haruka who was slightly glaring at him. "I don't know if he actually knows how to make a meal."

"Oh?" Sousuke inquired, and smugly looked at the raven who was twisting his head this way and that to get away from Nagisa's sniffling nose and raspy coughing.

Haruka quickly directed to the other, giving off an annoyed vibe. But, of course, the other merely raised an eyebrow, seemingly challenging him.

"You don't have to, Haru." Makoto intervened, and he looked at Haruka, who was currently using his side as support.

Haruka looked at the brunette for a while, before looking down at Nagisa who at this point was begging him to cook, coughing and sneezing to get a little pity.

"Please!" Nagisa cried out. "Haru-chan!"

He sighed as the blonde began to nudge him with his head. He sighed and he stood up.

"Fine. I'll cook."

With that, Nagisa erupted into pure happiness, and Gou was bouncing in her seat.

Haruka glanced at Sousuke, who was chatting with Rin, but he didn't miss the smirk that was directed towards him.

"Wait. Do we even time to make a full meal for everyone here?" Makoto had asked, and he was currently the only one here, Haruka decided, who was actually thinking.

Nagisa winked and giggled, "They're watching two movies!"

"On a school night?" Rei asked, seemingly stunned.

"Silly Rei-chan! There's no school tomorrow!"

As the conversing once again arose, Haruka made his way to the kitchen, silently regretting his actions. He honestly had no idea how he was going to cook an entire meal for seven people.

He grabbed the yellow apron hanging by the door, lazily tying it.

The commotions from the living room were filtering into the kitchen and Haruka slightly smiled as he heard Makoto yell at Nagisa to stop doing whatever he was doing.

He opened the fridge, browsing for items he could make some sort of dish with. Maybe, he'd have to make more than one dish depending on the amount of ingredients the Hazuki family has stowed away.

Much to his surprise, it was overloaded with food. Whether or not this had to do with family ways and habits, or all just Nagisa buying a ton of food and shoving it in the fridge, he didn't know. But regardless, there was food – and a lot of it, too.

And so halfway through cooking, which roughly took him about forty-five minutes, was when he heard a pair of footsteps coming his way.

He was in the middle of frying the rice on the stove when someone came into the kitchen, and Haruka ignored them, fully aware of whom it was.

"So," the gruff voice began, "is it true you only know how to cook mackerel?"

Haruka stared at the frying rice, moving it this way and that.

"I don't know." The raven began. "Does it seem that way to you?"

Only an idiot would not get what Haruka was hinting at, and Sousuke looked at the several plates of food on the kitchen counter, sizzling and steaming. There was no doubt Haruka could cook.

Sousuke leaned against the fridge, staring at Haruka, who in turn was refraining from looking up. He watched as Haruka placed fried egg into the rice, stirring it up.

"Y'know, I'm allergic to egg."

Haruka's eyebrow twitched.

"Stop lying."

The raven tensed when he heard a deep, throaty chuckle erupt from the tall brunette.

"How did you know I was lying?"

He sighed, and let go of the pan, turning around to face Sousuke.

"At the restaurant, you were eating fried egg." Haruka responded, and he rolled his eyes when Sousuke exaggerated his surprise and shock.

"How could you possibly remember that?" The taller asked. "That was two days ago."

Haruka shrugged in response.

"Yeah. It was only two days ago." Haruka looked at the food. "Nothing ever happens in two days. It's not hard to remember small things like that."

Never was there a moment in his life Haruka ever found himself talking this much; much less with one person. Haruka felt uncomfortable thinking that Sousuke could get more out of him than his entire team could.

"Is that so?" Sousuke raised his eyebrows at the other's plain description of memorizing the tiniest details.

"Not to mention your staring." Haruka found himself muttering, and he immediately knew that that was a bad move when the other's eyes turned hostile and his entire vibe became less amused.

"What did you say?"

Haruka moved his eyes back and forth between the food and the cabinets and the spices and the windows; just trying to avoid having to look at Sousuke. He awkwardly stood there, and the sizzling rice filled the silence.

"You heard me."

Haruka had already regretted what he said. He was just picking a fight with someone he particularly didn't want to get into a fight with.

And he wasn't very surprised when the other lunged at him. He felt a body press flush against his, and a hand grab tightly at his chin, squishing his cheeks slightly together.

"Don't you ever say a word about that to Rin."

Haruka never really understood what Rin had to with any of this, but he didn't question it. Clearly the other wasn't in a good mood to be interrogated. He could do that sometime else.

It was obvious the other was trying to get him to look him in the eye, but Haruka wasn't having any of it, and so he merely looked to the side.

The sizzling rice filled in for the missing conversation, leaving both of them quiet and inhaling an incredibly enticing aroma.

"Hey, Haru!" A voice called out and in an instant Haruka felt Sousuke get off him, leaving Haruka to rub at his now slightly red chin.

By the entrance, Makoto appeared, checking in on Haruka who was now serving the rice on the plates.

"Hey, Haru." Makoto said, but in a much softer voice. And his green eyes filtered around the room, looking at Haruka who was finishing up the plates, and Sousuke who was pouring himself a glass of water. "You okay in here, Haru? Need any help?"

Haruka didn't look up, but he shook his head.

"No. It's okay, Makoto."

"Okay, then." Makoto said, but he wasn't oblivious to the tense atmosphere in the kitchen, and so he apprehensively left, wondering what had gone on in that room.

Haruka didn't pay attention when Sousuke left.

Eventually, Haruka had come out, holding several plates of food, to which Makoto stood up and helped him with. And as they were placed on the table, Nagisa had practically drooled away his sickness – as well as the mucus inside his throat, which grossed Haruka out on several levels.

They all dug in, Gou complimenting Haruka on his wonderful cooking and quickly adding how this could be used to improve his dietary habits. Rin teasingly commented on how this could all be secretly mackerel to which Haruka pouted at. The raven stared at Sousuke, who laughed at the joke.

"Haruka-senpai, this is wonderful!" Rei said, congratulating Haruka on his successful meal.

"Oh, thanks." Haruka merely responded.

It was another while, when Makoto nudged him, and he looked up as he ate a piece of egg.

"Hm?"

"What's this?" And Makoto touched his own chin, clearly indicating the light red marks on Haruka's chin.

"Oh," Haruka said. And he looked back at his food, wondering what he should say. Obviously it was better to say nothing. His fights weren't for Makoto to barge into and fix it himself.

"It's nothing."

And he ate another piece of egg, ignoring the stares of both brunettes.

A/N: And then everyone went home and Makoto is obviously wondering what happened. He's thinking, "Why can't Haru ever tell me the truth?!" and I am thinking the same thing. Poor Makoto. His poor little heart can't take it when Haruka's not being honest with him.

This is like three weeks overdue? I apologize for the wait so much. I finally finished summer school, but I've still got my summer reading to do!

I was going to originally make Sousuke playful with Haruka in this chapter, with the whole cooking thing, but I don't think they're there yet. Something has to happen before they get to that stage.

Obviously, Sousuke is still trying to get Haruka out of Rin's "path" and obviously using brute force is going to make him do that. Sousuke is actually a big sweetheart and I love him, but don't worry this is just a phase. And Haruka just loves to provoke him, doesn't he?

Anyway, this long chapter is to make up for the missing chapters in the last three weeks! It's basically twice as long as the first chapter. I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter just as much, and I will fix any grammatical errors tomorrow, because it's 3 am.

I love the support I've been getting for this story and I adore all of you guys so much! I really hope you guys did enjoy this chapter!