Makoto was walking by the playground yet again. He thought it was about the sixth or the seventh time he'd been by and spoken to the "weird" boy since he told Rei and Nagisa about him. It had been a little over a week since then.

Today, the boy was standing there again, staring out at the streets. Makoto stopped as he saw him there. He couldn't help but feel that the boy was staring at him now. It felt like his gaze was burning and Makoto felt a little tense. This was unusual.

"Um… What are you looking at me like that for?" Makoto asked.

The boy looked at him and shrugged as if saying that he didn't have a reason for doing this.

"Hey… look…" Makoto stopped, not being sure of how to approach the subject. "It… It doesn't seem like you want me talking to you. Why is that? I understand it must be kinda weird that I'm a stranger and all but I'm really just curious because… you're different,"

"You're annoying," the boy said, looking directly into Makoto's eyes with a harsh glare.

"What?" Makoto asked, not really sure he understood. This was the first time the boy spoke to him and the first time he heard his voice since the day they met.

"I don't want you talking to me because you're annoying," the boy explained, to Makoto's surprise.

"Oh?" he asked, stepping back slightly. "I'm sorry about that… I… I understand," he said. He really did. He would of course have acted differently if he was in this boy's shoes, but the boy didn't seem much like him in the first place.

"Then…" Makoto smiled. "I'll be leaving now, excuse me," he said before turning away from the blue-eyed and continuing his walk. However, he could still feel the boy's gaze on his back, although, now it wasn't burning.

The following day Makoto ran into a woman he recognized. She was the exact same woman who had claimed that Nagisa and Rei were more trouble than they were worth. Makoto had stopped being a swim coach when he started his actual job, so he only saw his old class when he and Rei went to pick Nagisa up after his swimming lesson.

"Tachibana-san," She smiled at Makoto when he walked by. "I was just talking about you," she nodded to a woman that Makoto had never seen before. "This is Tachibana who taught my daughter how to swim, he also adopted that troublesome pair of boys I told you about,"

"Don't you regret that?" the other woman asked Makoto.

"Not really. They're both nice and helpful," Makoto said.

"It doesn't seem that way from what I've heard," the woman mumbled. "They sound like trouble, just like that annoying pair of twins in there," she pointed to the playground belonging to the orphanage.

"What annoying pair of twins?" Makoto asked.

"Matsuoka Rin and Nanase Haruka," the first woman said. "You see Nanase-kun over there," to Makoto's surprise she pointed to the black-haired boy with the stoic face.

"I tried speaking to him," Makoto said. "He doesn't seem like trouble, in fact he's pretty quiet if I have to say anything,"

"That's what it looks like," the second woman snorted. "And his brother is nice too, but when they are together they get into so many arguments that you barely manage to stop them before they start another,"

"Tachibana-san, don't tell me that you're considering adopting those two as well," the first woman said.

"Of course not. I figure that Nagisa and Rei are enough for the time being," Makoto answered with a smile. "Though I'd love to have them, I'm afraid I don't have the time,"

"That's-" The woman was cut off when someone exited the door to the orphanage and ran up to Makoto and grabbed his hand.

"Don't say that!" it was the maroon haired boy. "Won't you please take us in?" Makoto looked into the boy's red eyes. He remembered seeing him among the other kids playing tag, the first time he noticed Haruka.

"Why are you so desperate?" Makoto asked.

"Because!" The boy met Makoto's eyes. "I've seen you talk to Haru, you're the only one who seems to understand him. He's not doing well here, he needs someone around who understands him better than I do, he barely tells me anything!" Tears started running down the boy's face. Makoto figured this must be Matsuoka Rin, Haruka's twin brother.

He understood what the boy meant and he suddenly felt sorry for the twins and he could sense so much. Haruka just needed someone to understand him, and even if they fought all the time, Rin would do anything for his twin to be happy. Now that was what Makoto would call caring, and it was the bond between the twins that convinced him.

"My house is big enough for two more…" Makoto said. "Room won't be a problem," he then led the way into the orphanage while the two women were left behind with expressions of disbelief on their faces.

An hour later everything was in order and Makoto helped the twins gather their things while listening to warnings from a staff member of the orphanage.

"You once adopted Hazuki-kun and Ryugasaki-kun. I tell you, those two are nothing against Nanase-kun and Matsuoka-kun's arguments. They've even been into real fights,"

"I've heard that," Makoto said. "But I'm sure they'll learn to stop as they grow older, and they can't be that bad. Besides, something about them just really makes me want to get to know them better,"

Yells were then heard from one of the small bedrooms in the orphanage.

"Why'd you even do that!" a voice yelled loudly.

"Because you need someone to understand!" It was Rin answering just a bit louder than the other voice.

"I never said that!" the first yelled in the same sound-level as before.

"You hardly ever say a word except when we're fighting,"

"You're always picking the fights!"

"Oh yeah, then who was it this time, Haru!"

Makoto sighed before entering the room. "Would you boys mind stopping this argument?" he asked. "Now you stop yelling and make up or I'm not gonna adopt you anyway. It's not too late for me to back out,"

Rin and Haruka both looked up and met Makoto's eyes. Makoto did his very best to hide the fact that he didn't mean a word of what he said and that he would adopt the two, what so ever.

It worked. Rin apologized to Haruka and Haruka nodded, also apologizing in a lower voice.

Makoto smiled. He had managed to stop their argument for the time being and maybe it would last for some time until they were home, or even better, until the following day. He led the twins out of the orphanage as soon as they were done packing.

The boys didn't say much. Makoto figured they weren't really comfortable because of the strict tone he'd been using earlier to calm their fight.

"Look…" he trailed off as Rin looked up at him. Haruka kept staring off to the side. "What I said earlier… about not adopting you… I didn't mean that. I only said that to keep the two of you from fighting," Makoto tried to explain.

Rin smiled. "It's fine, Tachibana-san. I guess we both figured that was what you wanted, right, Haru?" he asked while looking at his twin.

Haruka didn't answer with other than a shrug, but Makoto could tell from his eyes that he thought the same as Rin. For some reason, this made him start smiling even more.

"I'm not sure if you two realize," he said. "But you're more alike than you think you are,"

This caused both Rin and Haruka to look at one another with a disbelieving look. Then Rin let out a small laugh and turned away. "Haru and I? We couldn't be more different," he said.

Makoto continued on smiling. "That might be true, on the outside. Your appearance and personalities are both very different, but you seem to share the same opinions and I bet you are also equal in most skills,"

"Except Haru lacks the social skill," Rin answered.

"And you lack the practical ones," Haruka answered in return.

And with that, another argument had started. It seemed the women from before had been right regarding the problem at hand. You really just barely managed to stop the first fight before the second could break out. As it turned out, Makoto learned this way sooner than he had hoped.