*Trigger Warnings: mentions of child abandonment and drowning.

{ii. present: first wave}

∫rin∫

Rin wakes up too early and he blinks in the darkness, the beginnings of new rays of sun just barely rising above the windowpane. He lets out a deep breath, hearing Haru's soft and steady breaths besides him. He blinks. Once. Twice. All the way to nine before he's finally managed to convince himself that this indeed is happening and if Haru's clock is correct, it's happening in less than five hours.

Rin doesn't know how he should feel about that. He's had days to figure out what to feel, thinking the panic would settle in on the day of, but here he is, letting short and slightly shaky breaths into the air for it to disappear into the world that's soon to disappear soon as well.

He loathes feeling like this. He turns over, his body facing Haru and studies the other boy's smooth and toned structure wondering how he'd think about him if he met him before all of this happened. Would he look at Haru any differently? Maybe, he'd feel more like the stranger he is rather than the partner he's already imagined him being.

Rational emotions are definitely difficult in times like these.

"I want to escape," Rin finally breathes out, his reasoning long gone as to why he said it. He knows it's true, but he doesn't know how saying it aloud will help him. How will anything help him now?

He turns back around, the light a quarter of an inch higher than it was before and he closes his eyes, sighing softly.

"Me too." Haru's voice travels through the room like honey and when it finally reaches Rin, he's already half asleep.

He's noticed that over the course of the past few days, escape has become the useless, unspoken words that everybody yearns for, and yet hearing it come from Haru, he also realizes that some of the underlying fear has managed to escape from him.

Maybe the word does work after all.

∫haru∫

Haru tries to forget that the supposed soon-to-be first wave is happening in three hours. He tries to forget it when he wakes up for the fifth time, but this time gets out of bed, warm feet hitting the cold wood, yawns echoing through the house at a slow pace. He tries to forget as he walks down into the kitchen, absentmindedly rubbing at his head. He tries to forget as he pulls out a water bottle and sits down on his couch. He automatically moves to turn on the television, but he stops himself, remembering that the Japanese broadcast system hasn't been working over the past couple days.

He glances at the clock again.

2 hours and 52 minutes until it hits noon. What can Haru possibly do in 2 hours and 52 minutes?

Absolutely nothing.

Maybe he'll make some food.

As he aimlessly starts to flick his light on and off, wondering briefly if this will be the last time he'll get to experience electricity, he hears soft steps making their way down the hall and Sousuke walks in, looking like he had the worst night. His eyes are puffy, his hair sticking up everywhere, and Haru watches as he glances around, eyes glazing over with resignation as he takes everything in.

It's one of the saddest things Haru has seen in a while.

"How much longer?" Sousuke asks, taking a wary seat next to Haru.

"Two hours and forty-seven minutes," Haru responds immediately, sighing a bit.

Sousuke nods, looking around once more. Haru wonders what he's thinking about. "Is Rin still sleeping?"

"I guess," Haru responds. "He hasn't gotten out of bed, but I'm not sure if he's actually asleep or not."

"I wish I was still asleep," Sousuke says. "I wish I could just sleep through all of it and wake up when everything is like how it was."

"Don't we all, kid," Rin says, walking into the room. Haru can't help but notice that he looks like shit as well. He bets he looks the same too.

"Hey, Rin," Sousuke greets him, smiling a bit at his appearance. Rin nods at him before shifting his gaze to Haru who hasn't said anything.

"So not even three hours, huh?" he asks, lowering himself on the floor, crossing his legs.

"Yeah. It's happening pretty soon," Haru responds.

"Huh," Rin says. "How you holding up, Sousuke?"

Sousuke shrugs. "It's not like I can stop it."

"I wish we could," Haru finally allows himself to mutter. Their gazes snap to him. "I wish we could stop it. I wish it wasn't happening at all."

"Yeah, well, wishful thinking doesn't always turn out for the best, you know?"

"Mhm," Haru responds. That's just too sad of a thought to even consider. This is all pretty sad. He thinks about how other families are holding up—the true kind of families—not like his that's for sure. Not like this. He wonders if mothers are crying or if children are screaming. It's too tragic to think about it. He hopes the Tachibana family is doing well.

"Any regrets?" Rin asks the two of them, leaning back on his hands.

"Not holding onto my mom," Sousuke says. "I think I'd rather be with her right now even if she didn't want to be with me."

Rin nods slowly and then looks at Haru who doesn't know what to say. His regrets? What are his regrets? He thinks about his mother and his father and about all of the friends he's lost and then he knows.

"Not saying anything," Haru says. Both wait as if he'll say more but Haru doesn't want to. He doesn't see a need to.

Rin still nods though like he gets it. Maybe he does. Haru doesn't even know him after all. He sighs.

"What about you, Rin?" Sousuke asks and Rin stills, blinking rapidly. Haru stills as well. Tension fills the room and Rin cracks a smile.

"I guess I regret not making my own choices," he says. Haru thinks over his words somehow getting the suspicion that even if he were to make his own choices he wouldn't be able to. It's a depressing thought.

Then again, the entire is depressing.

∫rin∫

The power goes out just as there are twenty minutes left on the estimated countdown. Alarms were blaring for twenty minutes prior but now they're thrown into a dead silence that Rin still isn't used to in this city. Silence is something that never and shouldn't exist here. He sighs.

They've all come closer together, their breaths and the rain outside being the only sounds in the room. Everything else is almost like static, Rin thinks.

Sousuke's pulled his knees up to his chest and his breaths are loudest, coming quicker then his or Haru's. Rin wishes he knew what to say to the kid but he doesn't and that's that.

The lights flicker for one brief second and they all startle but then they go out again with a loud and dangerous pop. Now, the bolts are just shattered. Great.

"How much longer?" Sousuke breathes out, shaking. Haru looks at the clock.

"Eight minutes until noon," Haru softly responds.

"Oh," Sousuke says. It's quiet again after that and Rin absolutely hates it. He lets out a deep breath and glances outside before remembering that the house is pretty much boarded up. Haru doesn't seem like the kind of guy to board up his house, but then again he barely knows him.

"Do any of you want water?" Haru asks suddenly, standing up, hands trembling slightly. Rin looks away. He doesn't want to know that Haru is as scared as him because it only reminds him that this is a real thing that's happening. So, he can pretend everything is okay for right now. He can try and pretend that this dreaded wait is for something else—something better. Fuck.

"Sure," Rin croaks out. Sousuke just nods, placing his chin on his knees and looking down. His hair falls over his face and Rin purses his lips as Haru walks off, his steps being the loudest sound in the house. Each step is eerie and Rin kind of wants him to come back immediately.

Haru comes back almost a minute later, three water bottles in his hands and hands one to the each of them first before sitting down again. Rin takes it and looks down at it with a grimace.

"Kind of ironic, isn't it?" he asks.

"What?"

"That the last thing we might drink is what might kill us," Rin responds and fuck, if that isn't a thought. Haru tenses and his fingers tighten around the water bottle. Sousuke just looks down at it.

"I love the water. I guess that's considered ironic too," Haru says.

"Oh, you do?" Rin asks, vaguely noticing Sousuke put the water down beside him.

"Yeah. I swim—swam, I guess. Ever since I was a kid," Haru says before heaving a sigh and looking at the door. "Only free though."

Rin cracks a grin at that and says, "Butterfly."

Haru's gaze snaps to him, shock etched into his expression. "You swim?"

Rin nods. "Yeah, I did. And I guess it is ironic to answer your earlier question. That we might drown and all…."

"I swim too," Sousuke suddenly says, voice soft and weak.

"Yeah?" Rin asks, smiling a bit. Seems they all do have something in common after all. He supposes that's a nice thing to possibly die to.

"Yeah. Butterfly mainly, but free sometimes," he replies. "I miss it."

"Me too."

"Yeah."

"How much longer?" Rin breathes out.

"A minute."

"A minute?" Sousuke asks.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Maybe we'll survive," Sousuke croaks.

"Maybe," he says.

Nobody says anything after that, just listening to the sound outside and suddenly, Haru's watch is beeping alerting all of them that it's noon.

He doesn't turn it off until more than a few seconds have passed.

Rin breathes in…out…in…out…the rain is louder now and he can hear the wind whipping at the door. Wasn't this supposed to be a tsunami not a hurricane?

In…out…screaming can be heard and Rin closes his eyes.

In…out…in…out… Haru's grabs his hand and Sousuke starts to cry.

In…out…in…he feels pressure on all sides and his eyes fling open and it's everything wrong in the world. The windows are shaking and the smell of the ocean fills his mind, his body and suddenly he is breathing the water and fuck, it's so bad it's so badit'ssobadmakeitstop and then he's floating and his arms are moving, and he's realized that the house has water in it for the first time and Sousuke is flailing and Haru is still holding onto his hand.

Rin closes his eyes and decides to just float.

∫haru∫

When the water came flowing in at the slow rate at first, Haru reached for Rin's hand automatically, needing something to hold onto if anything.

Then, it came in all at once and water was everywhere, filling his lungs, filling his soul and he remembered his first ever swimming lesson with his mother and father and then he remembered his mother screaming at him in the night, and Haru could absolutely not let go.

Haru thought Rin was awake for most of it, but then he felt Rin's hand go limp in his and he knew he had passed out. Sousuke was swimming—where, Haru didn't know, but at least he wasn't passed out. He watched items float around and he kept thinking as he grabbed onto Rin's head to bring it above water that he could hear someone screaming, but really, it was his own mind reacting to the sounds of the wave hitting them for what seemed to be entirely too long.

He wonders if his mother is safe for another brief second before his grip on Rin tightens because who cares about the mother who abandoned him when he had to make sure this person didn't die. He couldn't let Rin die.

Thankfully, it seems the water was starting to slow to a stop, but it didn't stop the aftershock of the remnants of the wave starting to pour in, starting to fill his house to a brim. They had to get out. They had to get out now—where was Sousuke? He didn't know, but he was swimming and damnit, Rin was so heavy, why was he so heavy?

Rin suddenly sucked in a loud breath and Haru watched with wide eyes as his eyes flew open, blinking at the forceful attack of the water around him and he gripped onto Haru confused. Haru was pushed down into the water for a second before Rin took hold of him and pulled him back up, panic shining through.

Damnit. Damnit. Damnit.

They were kicking and then Haru saw the door and he pulled on Rin's arm who was glancing around, trying to keep his head above the water. Haru took hold of Rin and they went under, trying to reach the door. The door—god, they just needed to get to the door and suddenly, he was pushing.

Fuck, he was pushing so hard and it opened, and they went sliding out, water mixing with the remains of the passing wave.

They coughed and spluttered, still swimming before they started to swim to the steps. Steps that they could walk up and then they were on something with a definite ground rather than floating, but everything wasn't good and Haru briefly wonders where Sousuke was and he swears he can hear his watch beeping, but then he's closing his eyes and maybe, yeah just maybe, it'd be better to just rest and wait it all out.

He just needs some rest.

*Welp.

Well, I'm updating the next chapter right now anyway because it's so short, so read those notes. Reviews on both are much appreciated though!

Bai guys :)

-DiAnna44

My FanFiction Facebook Page- DiannaFanFictionWriter

My Tumblr- iwannapandanamedchubs