Day twenty three: late

"Rin, what time is it?" Haruka asked, looking at the empty seat at the table as he set down silverware.

Rin glanced at his phone. "...a bit past six. Why?"

The black-haired man frowned. "That's...weird."

"What are you talking about? What's weird, that we have clocks everywhere in this house and you didn't look at one before asking me?"

"It's just...Makoto. He should have been home by now." Rin's eyes widened, fumbling for his phone he had set down on the couch to call Makoto's cell.

Haruka peered over Rin's shoulder, hearing the rings clearly and then Makoto's cheerful voice of asking to leave a voice mail and he'll get back to you as soon as he could. He hung up, calling Makoto's classroom next and having the same effect but hearing the same message in a more professional manner.

"...Haru." Rin said, putting his phone down, looking into blue, worried eyes. "We...didn't forget anything did we? Like we didn't plan anything to do today or said or did anything to make him mad at us at all?"

"Not that I know of, his birthday was weeks ago and date night isn't until friday." He gripped Rin's hand, taking a deep breath. "Rin, what if-"

"You're just going to the worst outcome, Haru." Rin sighed, running fingers through his hair and letting it fall back down on his face. "We'll go out and see if we can find him, okay? Everything's going to be fine. We'll go to the school, see if anyone's there, and we'll find him even if he's not there. There's no way that he'd go anywhere else without telling us, you know that."

Rin also noticed that Haruka's expression hadn't changed, tipping off to the redhead that he was still thinking about the worst scenarios.

"Haruka, Makoto is an adult, and bigger than most. There's no way that any bastard would attempt to do anything without thinking their ass would get handed to them." he tried giving the black-haired man a reasurring smile, but again, no response. "Haru?"

"Let's go, then." Haruka grabbed his coat and Rin's hand, rushing towards the door and grabbing the house keys off the hook.

Haruka and Rin greeted the woman in the school office, saying that they were going to go to Makoto's room as they grabbed their visitor's passes and were on their way in seconds, passing rows of doors.

"What if he's not there, what if he's gone and we can't reach him and he's gone for days and we'll have to file a missing person's report and there's some sick bastard doing things to our Makoto and-" Rin stopped pulling Haruka, pressing him against the wall to kiss him, trying to calm him down.

"Haruka." Blue eyes watered, making Rin's heart ache. "I told you, we're going to find him no matter what."

Nodding, Rin laced his fingers with Haruka's and as they got closer to Makoto's room, with every step they both got more nervous. Rin put his hand on the handle, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he heard it click as he turned it, slowly opening it and heard a sigh of relief from Haruka behind him.

Peeking open a red eye, Rin dropped his hand from the handle upon seeing Makoto, papers scattered across his desk, sleeping peacefully, glasses askew, and pen still in hand.

"Sensei Tachibana, I have a question!" Rin loudly called out, making the teacher immediately jump up with a yelp, eyes wide. "Thanks for almost giving Haru a panic attack." He rolled his eyes.

"I could say the same thing!" Makoto pouted, fixing his glasses and pausing. "Wait, what time is it?!"

"It's seven, Makoto."

Rin thought that Makoto's heart was going to explode, by how his face looked. "I'm so sorry! I planned to just get a few essays out of the way here so I wouldn't have to bring them all with me and I guess I fell asleep." Makoto's face was now a light shade of pink as he rushed to tidy his desk up so that they all could leave. "And I forgot I left my phone on, on silent too, so the battery ran out."

"You've been working too hard, love." Rin sighed, sitting on the corner of the large desk and ruffling brown hair, making him whine. "I've noticed you've been staying up late. Even Haru knows better than to do that, even if he has a chapter to finish."

"But-" Makoto's words were halted when Rin pulled him out of his chair by his tie.

"Come on, you're probably starving and Haru already made dinner." Rin smiled, letting the tie fall from his hand and grabbed Makoto's bag for him, walking out of the classroom. "By the way, he thought you got adultnapped." Rin tilted his head towards Haruka.

"H-Haru!"

He just shrugged, taking Makoto's hand.

"Well it's true."

Author's note: yet another last minute change! Sorry if it's...a bit dull...