Lunch went rather peacefully in Makoto's opinion. There was nothing but cheerful conversations around the table it seemed. Needless to say that neither Rin nor Haruka said a single word. Nagisa, on the other hand, was talking to Makoto's mother and Rei was listening to Makoto's conversation with his siblings.
"Are you sure they're twins, nii-chan?" Ren asked.
"Yeah," Ran added. "I mean, they look nothing alike and they act nothing alike."
Makoto looked confused. "You two don't look or act alike either," he reminded them.
"They're different," Ran said. "Ren and I are both weird but Rin is normal and Haruka is really weird. They can't be twins when they're so different. Where did you even hear that from?"
"Ran, it's not very polite to ask that so directly," Makoto corrected her.
"You're acting like a boy," Ren said.
"And you're asking way too shyly. How are we gonna get an answer if we just keep wrapping up the question?" Ran asked him.
"There are other ways!" Ren stated.
"You're such a girl," Ran answered.
"Last time I checked, only one of us were a girl and it wasn't me," Ren shot back at her.
"I'm proud of it!" Ran said, crossing her arms.
"You just put your own gender down," Ren said.
"Calm down you two," Makoto said. "No one says a gentle approach is more feminine. I would approach such a topic more gently as well. It's only polite to do so."
"I wouldn't," Rin said. "If you approach things directly, you usually reach your goals in a both faster and better way."
"Makoto, if you need Rin and Haru separated, I'll gladly take Rin in," Ran declared.
Makoto laughed. "Hopefully that won't be needed, but thanks for the offer, Ran," he said.
They continued the conversation until they were all done eating and spent the rest of the afternoon just talking. Rin started taking part in the conversations with Makoto and his family members, Nagisa and Rei excluded, but Haruka didn't talk to anyone. In fact, he only seemed to distance himself more from the others. Makoto picked up on this.
The family came home way later than Makoto had intended for them to return and therefore he sent all his children to bed. Nagisa went first, Rin and Haruka did a round of rock-paper-scissors deciding that Haruka would go first and Rin followed. Rei went last because he was the oldest. Makoto stayed up for a bit longer to read an old assignment he had written about blood-samples.
After he had finished reading, he went to bed as well. But he didn't sleep for long.
Makoto immediately knew what had awoken him in the middle of the night. It was the sound of the door to the yard downstairs, sliding open. He hurried up. He didn't know why anyone would open that door when it was in the middle of the night, so his first thought was that it was a thief who was breaking in.
But as Makoto had made his way to the hallway he thought he remembered that he'd locked the door before he went to bed. This only made him wonder even more about what it could be that had caused the door to open. Could it be one of his children?
Makoto walked downstairs and into the living room. He could then see the back of the person who had opened the door. He could see the slender body and the black hair, which the moon shone down upon. He could easily recognize Haruka.
Makoto decided then to just go and sit next to the boy. He knew he shouldn't start speaking right away. Haruka was one of those people who communicated better through actions and facial expressions than through words.
Haruka watched Makoto sit through the corner of his eye. He said nothing either as the man sat down and started just watching the moonlight above them. They sat like this for a while until Makoto broke the silence.
"You couldn't sleep?" he asked.
"Not really," Haruka answered.
"Why not?" Makoto asked.
Haruka decided not to answer that question. He didn't want to. In his opinion, that was none of Makoto's concern.
"Is something bothering you?" Makoto asked.
Haruka didn't answer this question either. Normally people would leave him alone if he didn't answer their questions. That was how it had been at the orphanage. Only Rin would try, but he would end up either provoking Haruka or getting provoked in the process and they would start fighting.
"Something is bothering you." For some reason, Haruka thought he could hear a smile in Makoto's voice. "Do you mind telling me what it is?" the man asked.
"Wha-" Haruka cut himself off. He had been about to just blurt out with his problem like he was speaking to someone whom he trusted. Why was that? Was it because Makoto had seemed to be able to read his silences correctly so far?
"It's better to say it to someone than bare it all by yourself," Makoto said, and this convinced Haruka to talk.
"Makoto, do you think Rin and I are really twins?" Haruka asked.
Makoto turned to look at Haruka with questioning eyes. "What brought this up?"
Haruka hesitated. "What Ren and Ran said earlier," he answered.
Makoto smiled. "Did it get to you that much?" he asked, concerned.
"All our lives, Rin and I were told that we were twins, related by blood, and brought to the orphanage at the same time. We grew up, relying on one another because of that," Haruka said.
Makoto understood how Haruka felt. For him, as long as he could remember, he had used Rin as some kind of stability and Haruka had probably been the same for Rin. If what Ren and Ran had questioned earlier was true, it would turn both their worlds completely upside down and they would find it harder to use one another for stabilization.
"On the day I adopted the two of you, I spoke to some women outside the orphanage. They referred to you as twins so that's what I believe," Makoto said.
"Just because they say so?" Haruka asked, doubtfully.
"There is that," Makoto said. "But it is also because you have a bond that you don't find with other people than those who are related by blood. You argue a lot, and a lot more than most siblings, but I can tell that you care deeply for one another and love each other despite the arguments. Rei and Nagisa, for example, have a strong bond, but I'm not sure it would last through an argument as it is," Makoto explained.
Haruka nodded.
"At any rate, I'm a hundred percent certain that you are related by blood, so as long as we don't know anything, it might be best if you continue to believe in that," Makoto said while smiling.
Haruka nodded once more at Makoto's word. Despite him only having known Makoto for a shorter while and not knowing if he was just saying these things or if there was truth to these words, he felt like he could rely on him and he wanted to believe that his words were true even if they turned out not to be.
Haruka was surprised to realize that he had unconsciously accepted Makoto as his guardian. He would never say it, but he even found that a small part of his mind was actually happy that Rin had demanded Makoto to adopt them the other day.
A yawn escaped Haruka then and Makoto smiled.
"You should go back to bed," he said.
"You should too," Haruka answered.
"Let's go together then," Makoto said.
In the dark in the living room, Rin silently got up. He had been listening to some of the conversation, but now he had to hurry back to bed if he didn't want to be found.
Further inside the dark, in the hallway, Rei also got up as he saw Rin stand. He quickly snuck up the stairs, not wanting to be figured out by anyone. It seemed he would have to reconsider his opinion about these new boys.