Chapter Text
You aren't sure what instinct drove you to this place, but you're here now, and there's no undoing that.
You have never seen a human being before, not even from a distance. You have never touched a human artifact. You have never breached— your head has never left the safety of water. Maybe that's why you're here. Over twenty years of unfulfilled curiosity have finally driven you to disobey.
Maybe it's what your father said earlier. He was telling your younger siblings about the evils of the human world. You tried to argue that it isn't right to hate those you've never met, and he laughed at you. He dared you to take a look at their world.
"They drive in machines of metal that spit black smoke into the air," he said. "They throw waste into our waters that kills us and the fish. They take more fish than what they need to survive. They capture dolphins and whales to display them in little tanks and force them to perform tricks for their amusement, and they cut the fins from sharks for a simple bowl of soup. You mean to tell me that they are not destructive? Go and see it for yourself. When you return, you will apologize to me for your ignorance."
He dared you to go, but you're certain that he'd punish you if he knew you were here. He's a hypocrite in that way. He's a hypocrite whenever and however he can be, but that isn't important right now.
You take a deep breath to steel yourself. You've decided to do it in one quick motion. You shut your eyes and force yourself up with all of your strength, and before long you feel a solid dry against your skin that prompts you to take another gasp. This time, your lungs fill with air. It's an unfamiliar sensation, but not painful.
You stay frozen with fear for a long minute. You lift your eyelids slowly, and the first thing you see is a cliff. There, at the edge, is a short metal fence, and beyond that a patch of grass. The grass ends at a thin strip of grey. Haruka told you that that's called a "road".
You look around. The sky is dark, the kind of blue-grey tinged with purple that it is just before dawn. Perhaps you should have come during the day, when you could see more. You know, deep down, that you didn't do so because you were afraid to get too close to a human.
Your heart does not want to hate, but that doesn't prevent the fear.
Just then, you see it: one of the driving machines. It's loud. You know that a person has to sit in it to make it move. The front of the machine casts a dull yellow light that illuminates the road. It hums quickly forward. They don't notice you. And why would they? They're so high up, and likely not looking down at the water.
The machine passes. It's too dark to see whether or not it does, in fact, spit smoke. You sigh as your head retreats beneath the water.
You feel very silly. What were you hoping to prove by coming out here? You're too afraid to get close enough to get any answers. Maybe you should just ask Haruka. Maybe your father is right. You feel your shoulders lower as you resign yourself to returning to the castle.
Suddenly, you hear something loud and whining. It's a series of high-pitched and unnatural screeches like nothing you've ever heard. You stop, turning back to face the cliff, and poke your head up above the water, just enough that your eyes can see the road.
You see several of those driving machines, and they're approaching much faster than the other one did. One of them is emitting a series of notes, and has lights flashing at the top, a repeating pattern of red and blue. The others are surrounding it. There's a person in there, right? Don't they realize that they could hurt them if—
One more second, and you realize that that's exactly what they intended. With the deafening sound of metal on metal, one of the cars rams into the side of the flashing one and sends it through the fence.
You cry out helplessly. The machine rolls down the rocky hill, each impact so loud, a chorus of metal and shattering glass. There's a pop, and the inside of the machine is filled with bubbles of white. You think you hear someone shouting. A man.
You don't know what to do, so you hide behind a rock. The machine plummets into the water. You hear sounds, a repeated clicking and thumping. That's when it dawns on you:
There's still a person, a human, inside. And he cannot get out.
You feel a wave of terror and panic. Can you watch him die? You're not allowed to touch him. You're not supposed to. But what happens if you don't? Humans can't breathe underwater, right? Haruka said he heard that they can't hold their breath any longer than three or four minutes.
The thumping stops, and you hear a horrible sound. It's surely the sound of a person choking on water. You peek out from behind the rock. You can see him perched inside of his driving machine, and there's red on his face and the side of his head. Blood. His eyes have closed, and he is still.
You don't have time to worry about your father or the rules. If you don't act now, he'll drown, and you can't let that happen. You rush to the side of the machine, and you remember those old texts you read, the ones you weren't supposed to read, that talked about restoring air to humans who were submerged for too long.
The door of the machine will not open. The glass part was shattered, but this human is too large to be pulled through its crooked frame. You didn't know humans could get so big, as you were told they are small and weak. With no other choice, you fix your hands to the inside of the metal door and pull. You pull as hard as you can, feeling a surge of energy, and the whole thing pries off.
He begins to slump as soon as you've gotten the door out the way. He's tied down by frustrating straps that you're forced to tear through. You're able to pull him into your arms, and he's so heavy. His body is a dead weight. You force your own body up once more, until you've breached with him in your arms.
You find a large, flat rock and lay him out upon it. He's soaked, and he's cold. He isn't making a sound. You don't care about being spotted right now— you shift him so that there's enough room for the both of you and pull yourself up to sit beside him. You gently slap at his face and his chest, trying to see if he's awake, before you remember how to check his pulse.
You press your fingers to his wrist. There's a pulse there, but it's faint. He isn't breathing, for the most part. Every once in a while he makes a sound like a shallow gasp, and then he falls silent again. You close your eyes, trying to stay calm and remember how you can help him.
There's a technique. It requires precise compressions on the center of the chest, and creating a seal to breathe air into the human's mouth. You gulp as you realize what that will require you to do, and you take the human's face and hold it still as you lean in towards him. It's not a kiss. Of course it isn't a kiss— it's a purely medical process, a targeted breath.
Still, you can't help but wonder if this is the closest you'll ever get to being allowed to kiss another boy.
You're able to dismiss the thought more easily than you would have expected, because it becomes clear rather quickly that it really isn't a kiss. There's a clinical nature to it that removes any of the other implications. Make a seal. Start with five breaths. You have to focus. You have to make sure you're doing this correctly.
If you don't, you will have to watch someone die.
You're not capable of doing that. It would destroy you. You've always been too soft. You hear your father in the back of your head, yelling at you to grow some spine, and for a moment you lose track of what you're doing. Then you remember, and you put your hands on the human's chest.
Where is the human heart? It should be at about the same place, right? You can feel it pumping through his skin. It's very faint, but it's there. His body is fighting. You wonder what he's fighting so hard for.
You figure out the location of the lungs and the heart and use that to determine where his center is, and you press your hands there. You have to undo some of his buttons first (that's what they're called, right?), which feels like some kind of violation, but you're sure he'd understand if you explained that it was to save his life.
It's not difficult to develop a rythm. You have to press hard, but not too hard, as you don't want to damage his ribs. You have to keep the pressure firm and steady. Every thirty compressions or so, you stop to administer another couple of breaths. It's strictly medical now. You lose track of time, focusing only on the rhythm of your movements.
Finally, he coughs, hacking up water as he does. He gasps for air, a desperate and unpleasant sound, and then stops. His eyes are still closed, and he isn't moving, but he's breathing. He's breathing.
It seems that he's sleeping, perhaps allowing his body to recover from the trauma it suffered. You decide that there's no harm in watching over him until he wakes. You've done this much already. It seems that he will live to see another day. You finally allow yourself to breathe normally, to relax.
It suddenly occurs to you that you've touched a human. Stranger still, this fact isn't scary to you. He isn't scary. You wish you knew what his name was, if only so that you could stop thinking of him as "the human man". You look around and see that there are no other machines, not yet. For now, you're alone. You take this moment to cup his face and study it closely.
He really isn't scary.
He's big, and he's burly, but he doesn't strike you as a mean sort, even if his brow is heavy and low-set. His skin is darker than yours by at least a couple of shades, and his hair is a brown that verges on black. You wonder what color his eyes are. You coo at him, singing under your breath in your ancient tongue in some effort to soothe him in his sleep, as you carefully wipe the blood from his face and brush away the stray hairs. You take this moment to re-button his shirt, also, just to be polite. You were told that humans are far less casual about nudity than merfolk.
Once you have him cleaned up, you smile, feeling a little flutter in your chest that you're normally forced to ignore. He's handsome, this one. You don't know how humans measure these things, but you're still sure of that somehow. You're sure that everyone thinks he's handsome.
He stirs in his sleep, and it occurs to you that you have no more excuse to be on this rock. You don't want to be spotted, and the last thing you want to do is alarm him. So you return to the water, propping your elbows on the edge of the rock to watch him. The sun is rising over the edge of the sea, its first rays spreading across its surface. You will wait here as long as you have to. Shouldn't he have woken by now? You fear that you did something incorrectly, that he's suffered irreversible brain damage.
This fear is quickly shattered. Just as the sun leaves the surface of the water, he groans and pulls his heavy arm to his own head, hissing through his teeth. You perk up. He's awake! He's moving! He sits up and turns to you, looking dazed, and you explain as best you can where he is and what happened to him. Your explanation is clearly insufficient, and he looks at you suspiciously.
You don't get to speak with him for very long. Other cars like his (he muttered something about "where the car went" as he was waking, so you figure that's what those machines are called), the ones with the strange lights, come for him. You don't stick around and wait for him to thank you— you know that he must be grateful.
You do get to see, before you leave, that his eyes are teal, like warm tropical waters.
"Come here and sit down already, they're about to announce the ruling!"
Rin shouted impatiently from the couch, and Sousuke groaned under his breath as he hurriedly picked up the six-pack of beer and shuffled to the couch with it. Two people already took up the center cushions, leaving only the edges for Sousuke. He squeezed as close to the arm of the sofa as he could. The two of them needed their space right now. Rin leaned forward so far that he nearly fell off of the couch. His boyfriend's arm linked with his was really the only thing keeping him balanced.
It was a big day. Australia's Supreme Court was currently deliberating over the nation's future in terms of marriage equality. In only moments, they would announce a decision that could potentially change the lives of everyone in the apartment.
Sousuke was unsure of how he should feel.
Of course he wanted Rin to have the right to get married. Everyone deserved that much. But he wasn't sure he was ready to face that reality— that things couldn't stay this way forever, that they were eventually supposed to go their separate ways to start their own families.
Rin was family to Sousuke. He had this thought in mind as he glanced over at the couch's other occupant, saw his blue eyes wide and excited.
It had been nearly a full year since Haruka had earned his legs and joined the duo on land. They lived in the same apartment that they always had, and Rin had chosen to simply invest in a queen-sized bed for the two of them to share. Sousuke was thankful for the building's thick walls— for the most part, he'd been spared from overhearing anything.
Haruka was finally beginning to act like a normal human being. It had clearly been a bit of a culture shock, and that much was to be expected, but Sousuke had found himself frustrated many times upon trying to explain things to him. Haru had nearly gotten himself killed a few times, doing things like not bothering to look before crossing the street or being tempted to touch everything with a warning label on it.
Of course, if he was being honest, Sousuke had to admit that he was happy. He was happy because Rin was happy. He'd never been happier, in fact. Rin was completely smitten, and this time it was more than one of his crushes, because it was mutual and wholesome and fulfilling. It seemed like Rin's smile had permanently widened. Haruka, too, had changed. He wasn't so stoic all the time, and he'd developed a sarcastic and witty sense of humor. It had been a year full of wonderful firsts, full of laughter and joy.
At the same time, Sousuke couldn't help but feel an underlying anxiety. It was something akin to jealously. He and Rin had been a team, had lived alone together, for years, and had been like brothers since their early childhood. He wasn't sure how to feel about sharing him, about watching him grow up with someone else. He knew he'd have to let go eventually, but it wasn't going to be easy.
"Okay, here we go," Rin chanted under his breath. The camera angle on the screen had changed and now showed a government official sitting at a desk with a microphone and being handed a stack of papers. He adjusted his glasses, and Sousuke could see the reflections of many camera flashes in the lenses.
It was time. Sousuke, like Rin had earlier, leaned forward on the couch, his greater weight tilting the cushion so far forward that Haruka nearly toppled off. He clung to Rin to support himself. Rin was now frozen in place with his spine pressed tight against the back of the couch.
"...Congratulations, everyone," the official said through a fond smile. "The court has ruled unanimously in favor of the proposal."
Sousuke and Haru stood up to cheer at the same time as everyone else in the government building on the TV screen. Sousuke could actually hear people outside of their apartment building celebrating. The only one not to join in, it seemed, was Rin— he was too busy sobbing and curling up on the couch, exactly as Sousuke had expected.
"Crybaby."
Haru said it teasingly, perhaps tenderly, as he sat beside Rin and tried to unfold him. Rin's arms were practically glued to his face, and Haru wasn't strong enough to pry them away.
Sousuke would normally have made fun of Rin, but he couldn't pretend not to understand, considering everything the man had gone through. As soon as Haru managed to pull the man up high enough and he dropped his arms for half a second, Sousuke seized them both and pulled them into a crushing hug. Haru's face was a bright pink, and Rin sobbed into his shoulder.
Sousuke smiled, feeling tears in the corners of his own eyes— tears of joy for his friends. He wondered what Rei and Nagisa and Nitori and Momo were doing right about now... if they, too, were celebrating with their loved ones.
He was happy. In this moment, at least, any feelings of jealousy or bitterness had fled him, leaving nothing but gratitude in their place.
The phones and computers in the apartment started blowing up within minutes. Sousuke fielded calls from family and friends, and Rin spoke to his hysterically crying parents on Skype while simultaneously speaking on his phone to coworkers and to his partners in the project he'd been involved in last year. Every five minutes or so, Rin had to take a break to cry again, and it seemed that only Haru could get him to stop. (Usually with kisses, and Sousuke had long ago gotten used to ignoring that.)
"Anyway, we're throwing a bit of a last-minute party this evening," Lori explained. "We're inviting all of our friends and neighbors. Would you boys like to come?"
Rin exchanged a long glance with Haru, and Sousuke watched their silent conversation.
"I guess we could do that. We were just gonna hang out in the apartment and drink champagne," Rin admitted. He turned to Sousuke. "Is that alright with you?"
Sousuke shrugged.
"Sounds like a plan. We should take the bus, though. I refuse to be the designated driver this time."
That, and the trio's only car had been acting up lately, making Sousuke reluctant to drive it if he could avoid it.
"That settles it. We'll get there as soon as we can!"
Rin ended the Skype call with his parents, and he immediately turned to Sousuke and perked up.
"Aren't we gonna call your parents? I wanna talk to—"
"I already tried. Can't get ahold of them. They must be busy. Both of 'em."
Rin frowned, for a moment, at Sousuke's oddly dismissive behavior, but chose to ignore it for now. He gently shoved Haruka.
"Everybody get dressed! Get a move on!"
Haru disappeared into the bedroom that he shared with Rin. Sousuke didn't bother to get up right away. He knew how long Rin took to get dressed up. Normally, he'd groan about it.
He couldn't manage it right now.
The second time you feel the dry air of the world above, the circumstances are very different.
Last time, you were here by choice, driven by curiosity and later by the urgency of saving a life. This time, you were suddenly thrust here, and your body is in excruciating pain.
Did it hurt this much for Haruka? Did you cause him this kind of pain?
The bleeding has stopped, but your new limbs feel like they're on fire and there's an itchy lump in your throat. Your lungs feel so shallow, and your breaths are still coming in panicked gasps.
You spin in a circle, looking all around you. You don't know where you are. You can't see the shore. The sky is dim. It must be early morning, like it was the last time you breathed air.
You're not sure how long you can keep this up. You'll drown at this rate. Wouldn't that be an ironic way to die? Your muscles ache. You try to calm yourself and focus on your surroundings, and you manage to spot a rock in the far distance. It takes everything you have to get that far. You pull your body onto it and cough aa you do so.
Haruka was closer to the shore when you transformed him. You're certain that he was able to get into his little cave on the beach. But he's a stronger swimmer than you are, and you can't even see sand. You suddenly feel very naked and wish that you had something to cover yourself with.
You roll over and start to sob. You still don't understand what happened. You're free, free after months of a dark and lonely place, but was your freedom worth this? You couldn't possibly find the words to explain the ache in your heart if you had a thousand years to try.
You don't know how long you sit there like that, pitifully crying into your hands, but it's long enough that the sun hangs in the sky. Then, like a ray of hope, you hear a shout.
"Hey! You! What are you doing out here?!"
You look up. Somehow, without you noticing, a boat has pulled up beside you. It's a fishing boat, you think. There's only one man on board, and he's frantically running about and grabbing something. He throws you a colorful ring attached to a rope and a heavy cloth. You gratefully wrap the cloth around your body, and he shouts at you to cling to the "life preserver" so that he can pull you aboard.
You grab his hand when he commands you to. It makes you scream in agony, but you manage to pull yourself up with one last burst of strength. You collapse as soon as you hit the inside of the boat, choking in your effort to breathe.
"How did you get out there all by yourself?!"
"I-I don't know," you stammer. You obviously can't tell him the truth. He shakes his head and whistles.
"You don't even remember, huh? Don't worry, kid. I'm gonna turn around and get ya to a doctor."
"Th-thank you," you sob.
You're certain that you've never been more grateful to anyone.
Rin and Haru both plopped face-first onto the couch as soon as they reached it. Haruka, still relatively new to alcohol, seemed a little tipsy, and giggled at nothing in particular. Sousuke blinked at the two of them for a moment before casually laying across the both of them.
"Dude, you weigh a thousand pounds! Get off!" Rin laughed as he desperately attempted to shove Sousuke off. When he fell, his head caught the corner of the coffee table. He hissed for a brief second, but assured both Haru and Rin that he was fine, that he should've put more thought into what he was doing.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," Sousuke grumbled. He was the least tired and drunk out of the three of them, after all. He did wonder who would stop by this late, and it wasn't like the tiny apartment got many visitors.
As soon as Sousuke was out of earshot, Rin sat up and did his best to sit his boyfriend upright.
"Look alive! You've got that job interview tomorrow afternoon."
Haru, who seemed to remember that fact very suddenly, shook his head as hard as he could and managed to sober himself up a bit. It wasn't a glamorous job offer, but it would be his first, and so he wanted to make a good impression.
"I could use a glass of water—"
Rin leaned forward and cut his words off with a kiss. He pulled back almost as quickly as he'd leaned in.
"I'm so glad," Rin chuckled. "You have no idea how happy I am."
Haruka took one of Rin's hands and smiled. He ignored the sound of the front door opening, and mostly ignored the long moment of confused (shocked?) silence that passed before Sousuke so much as addressed the person waiting there.
"I can imagine," Haru replied.
The two shared a quiet, intimate moment where neither said anything, or, more accurately, in which neither had to say anything. Rin's warm smile said more than enough. Sousuke's suddenly raised voice shattered the silence and interrupted their brief reverie.
"Wait, wait, hold on a damn second— I do know you! How the hell did you— what are you— I—"
"Is something wrong, Sousuke?" Rin called out. Sousuke didn't answer in words. He only continued to sputter.
Sousuke Yamazaki was not the sputtering sort.
Haruka looked above Rin's head, and as soon as his blue eyes caught sight of the door, they widened. He let Rin's hand drop from his and scrambled off of the couch.
"Is anybody gonna clue me in?!" Rin shouted incredulously. No one was speaking.
Who the hell is at my door?!
He stumbled angrily to his feet and stomped over to where the other two were. Sousuke was slack-jawed, and Haru's eyes watered as he clamped a hand over his mouth and attempted to hide his face.
"Who the hell—"
Rin began the question angrily, but froze the moment he saw the newcomer.
For an instant, he couldn't quite place the face. He knew it was one he'd seen before, probably at a distance or in a photograph. He turned on the camera that served as his memory until he found that face, and when he did, his heart swelled with joy.
It was the face of someone he considered a dear friend, even though he had never met him personally.
It was the face of the man who had saved his best friend, his brother, from certain death, and all while he hadn't even known him.
It was the face of the man who had freed his beloved from the confines of the sea and sent him to walk upon land by his side.
Crown Prince Makoto, of the Kingdom of Oceania— and in human form, walking on two legs.
"Makoto!"
Haruka was the first to acknowledge it aloud, and he rushed forward with enough force to nearly send the other man toppling over. Makoto laughed gleefully and wrapped his arms around his friend. It was one of those hugs tight enough to hurt, the kind only shared by friends— brothers, even— who hadn't seen one another in nearly a year. Sousuke was facing the other direction, now, and pretending that he had a cough and something stuck in his eye. Rin, as usual, didn't bother to hide his tears.
Makoto eventually released Haruka, who proceeded to wipe his eyes with his shirt, and turned to face Rin and laugh sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.
"I'm sorry to barge in like this, and I know it must seem awfully sudden—"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Rin interrupted. "C'mere, you son of a bitch!"
Makoto squeaked— yes, squeaked— as he was suddenly seized in two separate sets of arms. Haruka laughed and closed the apartment door as his roommates practically wrestled the man into submission. A minute or two of squeezing, and then Makoto whined and tried to force his way out.
"Alright, you guys, let him go. Don't overwhelm him!" Haru pleaded, pulling on Rin's hoodie. Sousuke scoffed.
"Why don't you tell him that?! Just showing up!"
"I-I said I was sorry!" Makoto stammered. Haru chuckled fondly as he took the man by the arm and guided him away from his overexcited roommates.
"He's just kidding, Makoto," he reassured. "You'll get used to it."
There were entirely too many questions for one night, but everyone was determined to get through as many of them as possible.
As soon as the crying had stopped, Rin got to work setting out dinner and drinks (the champagne they'd planned on having that morning) and had everyone sit cramped around their tiny kitchen table. The table had really only been designed for two, and one of the chairs had been purchased just for Haru and didn't match the set. In order to fit Makoto at the table, Sousuke had surrendered what was usually his chair in favor of a stool, kept near the counter, that required him to hunch over in order to eat.
"You don't have to do that," Makoto insisted one last time, wincing at the way Sousuke had to duck his head down to take a bite of his salad. The others were eating pasta, which Sousuke had refused for reasons that Makoto couldn't understand. He just rolled his eyes and didn't bother responding.
"He's stubborn," Rin warned.
"Besides, you're our guest. A guest of honor, I'd say," Haru agreed with his distinctively quick, quiet breath of a laugh. Makoto pouted, as he didn't like feeling that he was inconveniencing someone, but kept the complaint to himself. Maybe Sousuke didn't like watching other people be uncomfortable.
Rin asked the first series of questions, almost too quickly for Makoto to understand him.
"How long have you been here? Where have you been? Do you have a place to stay?"
Makoto blinked, smiling a bit awkwardly.
"I-I've been here— on land, I mean— for a little over six months. A man found me while he was out on his boat and took me to his home. He's been taking care of me and helped me learn how to live here. He also nursed me back to health. ...I couldn't walk for a long while. I'm still staying with him at the moment, but..." Makoto's ears turned pink. "...I wanted to ask if there was a way I could stay with all of you, since my goal from the beginning was to find you. That doesn't seem reasonable, though, if the size of this place is any—"
"You're staying," Rin and Sousuke said at once. Haru shook his head, but smiled.
"The sofa opens up into a bed. You can sleep there," Rin offered. Makoto fidgeted.
"But where would I keep my things?"
"I don't have a lot of stuff," Sousuke said dismissively. "You could use some of my drawers."
"I-I don't want to have to barge into your room every time I need something!" Makoto blurted out, embarrassed. The larger man chuckled.
"I'm sure you know how to knock. 'Sides, I don't have anything to hide."
He flashed a grin. Makoto looked at him strangely. His features seemed so different now— when he'd last seen him, he'd been confused and scared and in pain. Now, he was relaxed, and smiling happily. He looked better that way, though it seemed the slant of his brow was permanent, giving his smiles an almost devious edge.
"I... I suppose it will have to do for now." The trio of roommates cheered. "BUT I do plan on getting my own place! A few of the apartments on this floor are for sale... Including the one across the hall. I do hope that it stays unoccupied long enough for me to rent it. Wouldn't it be lovely to be neighbors?"
Makoto closed his eyes, and his smile said that he was daydreaming of the future he hoped for. Haru patted his shoulder.
"That would be nice, but for now, we just want to keep you close to us. I..." Haru's features hardened. "I honestly thought I would never see you again."
Makoto shook his head. It seemed he wanted to avoid that kind of sad talk.
"So are you learning what you need to? Do you have a job? What about paperwork?"
"I help Mr. Gorou out on his boat, and I do some chores for him in his workshop, and he pays me quite generously for it. He's also helping me train for another job that I'm interested in. I'm studying some books that he got me so that I can pass for someone with a high school education. And I do have the various forms of identification that I need."
Makoto stopped to fish something out of his pocket. He pulled out a modest wallet and took out a card, which he placed on the table. Haru took it before the others could get a good look at it.
"He's almost as tall as you are, Sousuke," Haru snickered, reading the details. "Why Tachibana?"
"He said that it was the name of his best friend from high school," Makoto explained. "Why? Is it a silly name?"
"Of course not," Sousuke replied before Haru could. "Can you drive a car?" Makoto laughed nervously and scratched the back of his neck.
"I'm still learning. They're scary!"
"Sousuke could help you out with that. He's our best driver," Rin supplied. Makoto's expression twisted oddly, flashing through many emotions too quickly for Rin to properly read them, until he settled on a concerned grimace. Makoto stared at Sousuke for a long moment without saying anything.
"What?" Sousuke grunted. Makoto opened and closed his mouth several times before speaking.
"I... don't know that I should learn to drive from you."
"He just said I'm our best driver, didn't he?
"I-I have difficulty believing such a thing!"
"What?! Why the hell—"
"Are you idiots forgetting how the two of them met?" Haru interrupted. Sousuke paused, and when he realized, he hid his face in his hands.
Makoto had literally pried his near-lifeless body from the wreck of a car accident.
After that, Haru's laughter told Makoto that he didn't need to be so serious. The group asked him many more questions, some of them silly, and the conversation was happy and light. That is, until Rin asked the wrong question.
"I know we've been kind of avoiding it, but..." Rin looked Makoto directly in the eye. "How did you get here? Haruka said they must have thrown you in the prisons, and I doubt they would have just handed you the trident."
Makoto's smile turned sad. Sousuke quickly decided that he didn't like that smile very much.
"I... don't want to talk about that. Let's focus on the positives, shall we? None of those... unpleasant things."
There was a moment of silence. Haruka tapped his friend's shoulder. Makoto leaned in, and Sousuke barely heard Haru whispering something into his ear, and Makoto's reply came even more quietly. Haru gave a nod.
"Right, then... We'll talk about something else. ...Like the court decision today." Haruka smiled at Rin.
Sousuke ushered Haruka and Rin off of bed early.
"I'll take care of him," Sousuke insisted when Haru directed his attention to Makoto. He'd arrived with only a small duffel bag containing the essentials for a few nights, but it would still be best to get him settled in and to show him how the bed worked. Rin grinned.
"You wanna talk to him alone, right? I get it. We'll leave you be."
Sousuke nodded gratefully.
"Thanks."
He closed the door behind his friends, allowed himself a moment to gather his courage, and turned to face his newest roommate. Makoto smiled. His ever-present smile was almost like magic— the moment he did it, it was like a lightbulb turned on, one that brightened the entire room. Sousuke offered a shy and fleeting one in return. He was self-conscious about smiling, and Makoto seemed to notice this, as he giggled.
"I'll, uh, get the couch ready. They're going to sleep."
Makoto watched, fascinated, as Sousuke removed all of the couch cushions and pillows and pulled out the mattress portion that made up the bed. He placed down a couple of fluffy pillows, one taken from his own bed (he always kept an extra one to put under his shoulder if it began to ache), and patted the mattress.
"It's not the softest or the biggest, but it'll do for now." Sousuke glared at its length. "I hope your toes don't stick out. You're pretty tall."
"I hope so, too."
They were both quiet for a long minute. It didn't feel awkward or strained, though— each man was simply taking the time for a quick mental rest. The apartment was bathed in mostly darkness, now. The lamp beside the couch cast an orange-tinted glow about the living room.
While Makoto off somewhere towards the kitchen, Sousuke took a seat at the end of the mattress and patted the spot beside him. Makoto took a moment too long to respond. Sousuke wondered if he made him feel uncomfortable— his intimidating form and harsh features often had that effect on people. He cleared his throat a bit louder than he'd intended. Funny— he hadn't been this nervous only a moment ago.
"What is it?" Makoto prodded when Sousuke didn't say anything. Sousuke ran a hand through his own hair, tugging harshly on it, in order to focus himself.
"Do you, uh... Remember me?"
It was silly question. Makoto had already indicated as much— that he remembered Sousuke and that he remembered the day they met. He gave a solemn nod and put a hand over his heart.
"I do. It was frightening. I did what little I could."
What little you could? Had it been literally anyone else...
Sousuke smirked.
"Haru said you have some powers."
Makoto paused, momentarily, halfway through putting a strand of his hair back behind his ear. He needed to get his hair trimmed, Sousuke noticed, as some strands fell into his eyes in a way that didn't look comfortable.
"...I do. Why do you mention it?"
"Is one of those powers superhuman strength?"
"Not as far as I know," Makoto answered honestly, shaking his head. Sousuke's smirk widened.
"Well, then, congrats on your newfound power. ...After the crash, my captain called in to have the car removed from the water immediately. It can be dangerous for the fish and for beachgoers— all that broken glass."
"Haru said that he couldn't find it afterwards," Makoto recalled. "They must have already finished pulling it out."
"Exactly. When they looked at that car, they also examined it to try and determine exactly how I was hit, and they noticed something a bit strange." Sousuke looked Makoto in the eye almost suspiciously. "...They found that someone had ripped the car door clean off and torn the seatbelts up."
Makoto furrowed his brow, looking confused.
"I... did that, yes. I had to get you out of there. Why is that so strange?" Sousuke barked out a sharp laugh that Makoto hadn't expected, making him flinch.
"They're not designed to come off, Makoto. The seatbelt is hard enough to rip as it is, but a car door? No normal human being can rip one off of its hinges like that."
"Really?! I mean, it took a few tugs, but... It didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time."
It took Sousuke several seconds to finish laughing at Makoto's flushed face. He couldn't understand what the man found so embarrassing.
"Adrenaline does that, sometimes. When we're scared enough or desperate enough, we can sometimes do things we normally couldn't." Sousuke smiled to himself without looking at Makoto, apparently remembering something with a mixture of fondness and sadness.
"...That could be it. Whatever it was, I'm glad it happened."
"Wh-which is what I wanted to say. I, um..." Sousuke trailed off to fidget for a moment, rolling one of his shoulders around and wincing as he did so. "...I just wanted to thank you, somehow. In person. When I thought I wouldn't ever get the chance, I was kind of... unreasonably upset. So... Thank you."
Sousuke's eyes, more intense than ever, made Makoto so self-conscious that he had to look down at his feet to avoid turning an even darker shade of red.
"Y-you don't have to—"
"It's not that I have to, really. It's that... Well, none of this would have happened if you weren't such a selfless person. I would've died, Haruka and Rin never would have met, Haru never would have been able to join us on land... You're the reason for everything, and I honestly don't know how to repay you for that. How could I?"
Makoto felt his eyes water. He was genuinely touched. Sousuke seemed annoyed, suddenly. Probably with himself. It seemed that he'd said more than he originally intended to. After taking a second to swallow down the lump in his throat, Makoto gently patted the other man's knee.
"You can start by relaxing a little bit. I didn't save your life just for you be a nervous wreck around me."
Sousuke's eyes went wide, and he made a strange kind of choking noise. Makoto found this kind of embarrassment from him oddly cute. He fell into a fit of laughter.
"I'm gonna go to bed," Sousuke grumbled, hurriedly standing up. Makoto nodded.
"Alright, alright. I promise not to tease you in the morning."
"You'd better not." He stopped at the doorway to his own bedroom, turning back to look at Makoto one last time. Makoto could just barely see him. "We'll get all of your stuff put away in the morning. Sure you'll be okay out here all by yourself?"
Makoto turned a bit pink at that and scratched his cheek. He was sure the man hadn't meant anything in particular by it, but he couldn't help but find the comment a bit suggestive anyway. Maybe Sousuke was an unconscious flirt.
"I'm sure I'll manage. It's getting late— you should go to sleep."
"...Right. I'll see you. ...Don't go anywhere, okay?"
"Where would I run off to? ...Good night, Sousuke." Makoto curled up into the blanket Sousuke had given him to use. It smelled very faintly of someone's deodorant or cologne, and he wondered if it was his.
"Yeah. Night, Makoto."
He heard Makoto mumble something else, something slurred with the weight of sleep, but didn't bother asking him to repeat it. The man feel asleep very quickly. Sousuke closed the door behind him and padded across his room, where he took a moment to make sure that he did, in fact, have an empty dresser drawer. It looked big enough to hold at least a week's worth of clothing and undergarments.
When he was done organizing, he crawled into his bed and laid flat on his back. Sousuke smiled as he felt himself beginning to drift off.
Makoto's teasing aside, he was certain that he'd just experienced one of the greatest days of his life.