01. Holding Hands

''Senpai you don't have to hold my hand so tightly…'' Nitori whispered softly at Rin, whose grip was getting stronger with almost every step they took. Moments before, the redhead and his little kouhai had decided to take a day off from school and hit the town – well, actually they just called it shopping since that was all they had done.

At some point, Nitori wanted to see a couple of shops that Rin most definitely did not want to set one step in. There they had decided to separate from each other for about ten minutes – Nitori was going to the shop he wanted to see so badly, and Rin just decided to visit a shop they had already visited around two times. They would meet each other again at the lunchroom that was placed between both the shops. Easy, right?

Apparently not. Soon enough, Nitori found himself in heaven and totally forgot about the deal he made with his precious senpai, and already entered a shop next to the one Rin didn't want to visit. This continued for a couple of minutes, and the redhead himself was already waiting for Nitori to come back.

Eventually, even a waiter walked towards the redheaded teen, asking whether he wanted to order something or not. Since Rin seriously had no idea when Nitori would come back, he decided to accept the offer. ''Something cold with lemon, please.'' He ordered and continued to look around for Nitori.

In the meanwhile, Nitori was already around three streets away from the place they would meet each other again. ''Oh, it has been half an hour past the time already!'' He gasped out loud, and when he wanted to walk back, he had no idea where he was. He had never been in that street before. At that moment, the little boy couldn't help but to shake a bit – he was scared, he was at an unknown place with people he didn't know. Nitori didn't expect something like this to happen. He didn't even expect to be separated from Rin for a few minutes! And that was actually the reason why he didn't brought his cell phone with him – he thought it wasn't necessary. But oh did he regret it now…

Some other male students were pointing at him, and laughing, their gazes fixed on the little boy that stood there in fear. Nitori had noticed them, only making him shake more. The students seemed to be in a higher grade than him, causing him to think about all the horrible things that older students did with (unknown) younger students. Well at least, so he heard from people around him that just wanted to scare the little boy – no one knew how serious Nitori took it. Starting to slightly cry, he ran away to a street that was even further away from his senpai…

Rin started to get worried – oh was he worried about his kouhai. He would never forgive himself if something bad happened to him. Not because everyone expected him to treat Nitori nicely, but also because Rin actually cared about him. Nitori had always been there for him, and that made him feel something for his roommate. And of course his friend – Nitori wasn't only his kouhai, his roommate, just a teammate… No. The redhead actually considered the other student as a friend, a friend he never wanted to fight with, a friend he never wanted to hurt or wanted to lose.

''I'll be back. I have to find someone.'' The redheaded student told the waiter, who – in Rin's surprise – accepted it and let Rin leave for a while without making a big problem out of it. It was good, though, since the swimmer couldn't handle any more negative things for the moment.

Rin stood up, and ran off to the shop that Nitori said he would visit. A irritated grumble escaped his mouth when he walked in the shop – it was so colorful, so happy, so… girly! Rin hated it, no, he despised shops like that. If Gou would ever ask him something for her birthday that had to be bought in a shop like that, he would simply decline the request and buy something completely different instead.

Rin, however, didn't spot his sweet kouhai. He sighed, and decided to ask one of the people who worked there if they had seen him. A girl – very cute and good-looking – immediately nodded happily a couple of times. ''Yes! He was so cute! And he almost sparkled when he saw all of these products, it was so adorable~'' She giggled to Rin's annoyance.

The girl spoke again, ''But he left about… Twenty-five minutes ago. He was only here for a short moment. I think he went to that store over there.'' The gaze of the blue eyes from the girl were fixed at a shop across the street.

''Thanks a lot. If he gets back here, please tell him to wait. I'll be back if I still didn't find him by then.'' And with that, he hurried out of the horrifying shop again.

Nitori had found his way back, only for a street or two. After that he got lost once more. This time, large tears were flowing down his cheeks as his nose and eyes were red. He felt ashamed for getting so emotional as a student, especially in front of some kids that had passed by a few moments ago.

The grey haired student suddenly heard some laughter again – and it was very familiar to him. But he didn't like it, not at all! He carefully turned around and saw the older students from before walking towards him – note that they were from another school.

''What's up, little guy? Lost your mother? Your father?'' One of them slightly teased, and grabbed Nitori by his right arm. ''Do we have to bring you to them…?'' The second one – also the largest of the three, spoke with a chuckle.

Nitori knew exactly what was going to happen to him, something he never wanted to happen in his whole life. Something he… Really feared for. He was scared, his legs trembling as if something worse than his current situation, had already happened. Due to all the pressure and fear he created himself, the kouhai began to yell and cry as loud as he could. ''M-MATSUOKA-SENPAIIII!'' He struggled, but the grip of the male that held him at his arm, only tightened.

Rin heard a scream. A cry. He looked around to make a statement of where the sounds came from, and hoped that he was right about the place. It had to be Nitori, no one else called him like that! And for so far he knew, no one else around there was called Matsuoka either. The redhead ran as fast as he could towards the direction where the loud cry came from, shocked about the what he saw when he finally arrived.

''Geez! Hold your fucking voice down, already!'' The third guy who never said a thing until now, slightly snarled. Nitori didn't calm down, at all. He was crying even more than before, his legs were about to give up as well.

''Oi! Bastards!'' Rin marched his way to Nitori and the three students that appeared to be trying something 'funny' with his friend. ''You fucking let him go right now, you got that?!'' He grinded his teeth out of anger.

The guy quickly let go of Nitori. ''What the hell?! We just asked him whether he lost his mother or his father, and we offered him to look around for them! Is this what you get back for helping someone, these days?'' The second guy sounded clearly offended.

''The fuck? You were holding onto that guy tightly!'' Rin returned with a loud hiss, but calmed down when the third guy defended him and his friends.

''He kept running and running! We wanted to calm him down so he could hear us out well and perhaps accept our help. That's all. We didn't mean to harm him in any way.''

Nitori only sobbed and began to blush heavily when he thought of the big mistake he had made, the big misunderstanding which caused his cheeks and ears to get a dark shade of pink.

Rin, on the other hand, started to glare to his kouhai but soon looked back at the other students again. ''Ugh. I'm sorry, he usually isn't like this – so I thought you were actually doing something…wrong.'' The redhead let out a deep sigh. ''Thanks for wanting to help, and I'm sorry for the big trouble this IDIOT caused you.''

The boys sighed in relief. ''It's okay. Don't lose your sight off him again, before this repeats itself…'' The student that held Nitori moments before spoke as he smiled.

The three waved the swimmers goodbye as they walked away.

''W-Well, s-senpai. L-Let's go back, then.. Ahaha- I'm so thir—'' Nitori stuttered but stopped in the middle of his sentence out of surprise when Rin suddenly grabbed the boy's hand. ''S-SENPAI?!'' He screamed out of embarrassment.

''I'm not letting go of you for today. I was worried as hell, did you know that?! I even stepped inside that fucking shop to find you!'' Rin looked away, hating to confess something like that.

But Nitori smiled – for other people it may sound pretty normal that some would walk to the place where they had seen the person they were looking for, for the last time. But everyone who knew Rin, also knew that the redhead would never do that. Except for Nitori, apparently.

''I'm very sorry, senpai. I-I'll either stay with you next time, or I'll bring my cell phone with me.'' A slight chuckle was heard from the grey haired boy.

Rin nodded once, and they both started to walk hand in hand, back to the lunchroom where they would meet more than an hour ago – and as mentioned before; Rin was getting a stronger grip with almost every step they took(not literally, of course) to let Nitori know how glad he was to have him back on his side again.

[A/N] Can anyone tell how freaking much I love these cuties? No? Oh well, you will see soon, then~!