His bed is unusually soft.
Meguru frowns, clenched fists coming up to rub away the remnants of his sleepiness. There’s a vague ringing he could hear from a distance, and his ears feel clogged and his vision is hazy, filled with too much sunlight. He’s reminded of swimming towards the bottom of a lake and facing up, his big eyes in awe of the sun’s rays breaking through the surface of the water and casting a muted glow on his face.
Then as though he shot up from the water, droplets draining from his ears, the ringing suddenly feels much closer and louder. It’s an alarm , Meguru finally registers and wonders when he changed his alarm tone. He rolls over to the source of the sound and reaches out with a heavy arm, but then there’s pain blooming on his nose and the rest of his front side.
He exclaims an “ouch,” as he turns around to lie on his back, palms rubbing at his nose in a frenzied attempt to make the pain go away. At once, Meguru realizes that he fell on the ground as he was trying to turn off his alarm. He shoots up into a sitting position and stares at the wall before him for a few seconds with his mouth agape.
“Impossible,” he muses, “I sleep on the ground…”
Meguru’s thoughts skid to an abrupt pause. A voice much deeper than normal, definitely not his . He looks at the bed he just woke up on. It’s modern and soft, raised on a bed frame, and definitely not his as well.
His gaze slides over the room slowly, taking in everything. There’s an organized desk at the other side of the room, books and papers lined up neatly. An old, worn soccer soccer ball sits sadly in one corner, hidden behind a bookshelf that’s half full. Not much to notice.
“What the hell are you doing?” His door swings open to reveal a dark red-haired boy, a mug on his hand and the doorknob on the other.
That’s weird too, my door should be sliding...
A frown returns on Meguru’s face as he blurts out, “Who are you?”
The other boy mirrors his frown at that, his cat-like eyes narrowing even further at him. He takes a sip from his cup, obscuring the lower half of his face so Meguru is forced to stare at his unsettlingly quizzical eyes. “Try hitting your head again, Rin.”
He spins on his heel and leaves the door open as he retreats. “I leave home for a while and you forget about me. How cruel!” His monotone voice gradually turns inaudible and Meguru assumes he’s walked away.
Rin? Did he call me Rin?
There’s a slow panic building in his chest, like a drum beat getting faster and faster by the second. Meguru quickly struggles to stand on his feet, which seem longer than they should be, and jams a finger on the home button of his phone to stop the steadily ringing alarm. It goes away and reveals his homescreen, a standard picture of the galaxy that can be found in the phone’s settings, instead of a picture of him and his mom on his 7th birthday. His panic shoots up to his throat, transforming into a ball that makes breathing difficult.
That’s not his phone. That’s not his voice. This is not his bed. That’s not his door.
His numb thumb slides left on his screen and it brings him to the camera. He quickly switches it to the front camera and nearly drops the phone in shock. A different face looks back at him through the screen—cheeks and jaw sharp, lips thin, obsidian black hair falling onto eyes as blue as a cloudless morning sky.
A confused scream echoes throughout the room.
————
Meguru bounces his leg in a steady rhythm as he looks around a tiny and modern kitchen. It’s a bit too small for his liking and too bare of anything homey—of anything at all, actually. No recipes scribbled on torn pages taped to the walls or funny magnets pinning memorable pictures to the fridge, not even a single sticky note stuck anywhere. His palms dig into the sides of the chair he’s sitting on as his grip gradually gets tighter the more his confusion turns into excitement.
He has to hide the small smile resting on his lips every time his eyes meet those of the red-haired boy sitting across the small table. Meguru notices he looks much like the boy he saw on the camera earlier—the boy whose face he’s wearing. It’s like he’s seeing the same face, but with more grown features. They must be brothers , he thinks.
Meguru decides to test it out. “Hey, nii-chan,” he calls out shyly, the term foreign on his tongue. The other seems to have frozen in place, fingers tightening around his mug’s handle and eyes unreadable. Meguru thinks there’s confusion in them, and he bites on his lip as he realizes he might have been mistaken.
“Just,” the not-brother starts, putting down his mug a bit too forcefully that the coffee spills a little, “just call me Sae.” He looks away abruptly, opting to stare at something to his right.
Meguru finds it odd. He tilts his head and stares at the boy—Sae—until he clears his throat and looks back into Meguru’s general direction, not quite meeting his eyes. “Are you not going to eat or... or what?” Sae’s voice is frigid but shaky, withdrawn, like he’d rather not be talking to him. It could just be the case.
“Oh! Yeah,” Meguru chirps as he realizes he hasn’t taken a single bite of the toast Sae had prepared for both of them. He digs in and chooses not to comment on its dryness or its bland taste.
“Do you not have school?” Sae asks him once he’s finished, and there’s an odd hesitance to his question. As though he’s actually uncertain, instead of the chastising tone he’s disguising it under. Almost like he doesn’t know if this Rin person even goes to school—doesn’t know him, or anything in his daily life.
Meguru is filled with a gnawing disappointment in his stomach without not knowing why. His guts tell him there’s a lot—too much—to unpack here, so he ignores it and puts up an innocent look. “Hm, I’m not sure either,” he replies after thinking about it. Is he supposed to go to school in this dream? He has never lucid dreamed before, and he doesn’t know what exactly he should do. Also, this weirdly vivid dream is lasting much longer than he thought it would.
Sae stares at him with a visible frown. Meguru is sure he’s just as confused as he is.
————
After leaving that awkward apartment, Meguru is immediately struck with awe at the city landscape stretching infinitely before him. Tall buildings that seem to meet the sky, trains zooming by so quick he could hardly see them through the blur, and so many people walking on the sidewalks, all on their phones and most in a rush. Meguru feels like he’s discovering a whole new world, one he only sees through films or in his daydreams. He leans over the edge of the hall, his eyes wide and mouth drawn into a big open grin as he watches everyone zoom by.
Hastily, his long legs carry him to the stairs and he descends the building at lightning speed. He jumps the last step towards what he assumes is the lobby, spares the woman behind the desk a brief greeting and bursts through the exit.
Tokyo. This must be Tokyo.
There’s a cheer forming at his throat, but he smothers it down and instead, mentally pats himself on the back for conjuring such a beautiful and lifelike depiction of Tokyo.
This is his dream, isn’t it? Certainly wouldn’t hurt to explore it while it’s here.
He completely forgets about the classes Sae reminded him of. From dawn until dusk, he wanders around the beautiful city with the same awestruck expression never leaving his face. Tokyo has so much to offer him. He could barely feel the soreness in his legs, too distracted with the busyness around him.
When night comes, his entire body feels like he’s swimming in molasses as he lies down on the same bed from earlier. Meguru finds the exhaustion weird, thinking he should have been an omnipotent figure in his dreams, but shrugs it off as realism. He can’t wipe his grin off as he blinks at the ceiling despite the soreness in his bones.
“Goodbye, Tokyo,” Meguru murmurs as he finally succumbs to the exhaustion and sleeps.
————
Who are you? The big and neat letters that’s inked on one of his notebooks look up at him, demanding an answer.
Meguru frowns at it. He flips the page, counts to five, then opens the previous page again. He expects it to be a trick of the eye, yet the same question leers up at him when he returns to the page.
He peeks at his seatmate, a boy named Chigiri Hyoma, and sees him scribbling down notes, head resting on his palm and looking bored out of his mind but still managing to pay attention to the discussion.
“Hey?” Meguru calls out to him in a whisper, barely audible. Chigiri spares him a quick glance that seems annoyed, his long pink hair falling on his face when he faces front again. He hums his acknowledgement. Meguru remembers the boy being friendly with him before, and his frown deepens because of the bordering-on-hostile reaction.
Meguru decides to ask about the note another time and quickly rephrases what he says next. “Are we good?” He asks instead, hoping that Chigiri will understand that he’s referring to his unusually icy demeanor towards him.
“Dunno,” is Chigiri’s clipped response. A few seconds pass by before he decides to add without even looking at Meguru, “you gonna yell at me to leave you alone again?”
“What?” Meguru blurts out in surprise, and Chigiri finally looks at him properly again. “Why,” Meguru starts, unable to find the words he wants to say, “why would I?” He hears the uncertainty in his own voice, tries to swallow it down.
When had he done that?
Chigiri gives him a thoughtful look, staring straight into his eyes and Meguru can’t look away from his searching gaze, like it’s pinned him in place. Finally, Chigiri seems to have found his answer—Meguru isn’t sure what—and gives him a little smile. “Yeah, we’re good,” he whispers.
“Oh, and, Bachira?” Chigiri calls out again quietly, mindful of the teacher in front. “Making friends won’t be so scary now that you’ve got me.” Chigiri winks before jumping right back into his earlier pose like nothing happened.
It’s a simple sentiment, yet it means the world to Meguru.
Despite the sweet exchange, Meguru realizes later that it didn’t help at all; in fact, he’s got more questions than answers now. He pouts at the big, bold "who are you?" written on his notebook, tuning out everyone into background noise.
————
Meguru awakes with a gasp, his shock coming from a familiar feeling of haziness in his senses. He stares up at the cream ceiling, the shrill ringing of an alarm getting louder by the second. He rolls towards it before he could remember that this is an elevated bed. His eyes fly open in panic, but his body is already slamming onto the wooden floor again, not even giving him time to pause.
He hears the squeak of his door opening, and at the corner of his eyes he can see the redhead—Sae, a thought supplies—giving him a little disapproving shake of his head.
Not this dream again.
“Morning,” he greets instinctively, although a bit sheepish. Sae seems startled, clearing his throat before he replies with a greeting of his own. He leaves the door open again.
Meguru blinks rapidly, tries kicking himself, but he’s still there, on the floor of a room that he’s starting to remember clearly. He sits up and reaches for his phone again to turn off the alarm and gulps with dread at the “GO TO SCHOOL” flashed across the screen. He could recall skipping school the last time he was here, but didn’t think it would matter that much.
As he’s buttoning up the fancy uniform blazer he found in the closet, Meguru takes a moment to pause and stare at the face looking back at him through the mirror. He could remember these eyes the most clearly among all the things in this weird dream setting; the rest of everything is blurred and vague once he wakes up as himself again. But how could he forget those sharp blue eyes that have already been ingrained to his mind? The same pair of eyes would flash through his vision every time he looked up into Hida’s clear sky, always so quick Meguru had sworn it was just a figure of his wild imagination.
But now he’s looking straight at them again, and this time they don’t disappear after he blinks. They’re beautiful, he thinks, beautiful but empty.
Meguru reckons his fascination with Tokyo would never get old. He walks through its streets again, only half his mind paying attention to the directions to school on his phone screen.
He raises a hand to shade his face as he admires the sky, tries to point out its differences from what he sees in his hometown, Hida. Meguru supposes it could be the huge buildings obscuring most of the view. But aside from those, he feels as though he’s under the same sky, like he’s living in the same world, just a little different.
Meguru looks up at the sun still completing its rise for today and grins. The sky is painted a bright blue with a dash of yellow blooming under it. It makes him think of the mysterious Rin’s bright blue eyes clashing with his stark yellow. His grin grows wider.
That night, Meguru gazes out of his room’s window. He’s puzzled on why he didn’t do this the last time he dreamt of this place; Tokyo at night is another beauty in itself. It even seems to become much more alive with all the glaring lights of the cars, signs, and buildings. Meguru directs his gaze upward when the fluorescence becomes too much and his eyes begin to burn.
He’s a little disheartened to see that clouds had covered the spill of stars in the night sky. Dazed, he wonders how it would’ve looked like in Hida. Would the clouds be hiding the stars from him too?
Is it possible that this Rin guy is looking at the same night sky through my eyes? Meguru chuckles at the strange thought, shaking his head.
He retreats from the window and buries himself under the soft blankets. However, sleep doesn’t come easy and he’s stuck on his last thought. Everything does feel too realistic in this little dream of his—too lucid.
Ah, overthinking this much won’t do him any good.
He snags a marker from his nightstand and uncaps it with his teeth. A little frustrated, he scrawls down on his pale arm.
Are you real? — Bachira Meguru.
————
Rin stares down at the ugly scribble on the inside of his forearm.
Bachira Meguru.
His mind supplies him with hazy images of a round face, medium black hair, horrible yellow highlights—then comes the striking yellow, almost animalistic, irises that haunt the back of his mind. He scowls in an instant and starts rubbing on the ink with his palm. He finally has a full name for the third year boy that’s been messing with his life.
When he notices the ink has only smudged, he stops rubbing and sighs. He leaves his room, makes sure to close the door behind himself, and makes his way towards the bathroom. The doorknob jiggles under his hand, locked. He spins on his heel and starts walking away when Sae’s muffled voice from inside the bathroom says, “Just a minute.”
Rin falters in his step. “Don’t bother,” he replies quietly, as loud as he could without his voice shaking.
Just as he finishes washing away the marker ink in the kitchen sink, Sae comes in and heads straight for the coffee maker. Rin tenses when their gazes meet, something akin to expectation visible in Sae’s eyes, but Rin doesn’t know what the bastard is expecting of him.
It lasts only for a second, and then he’s already moving away and towards the fridge. However, it’s nearly empty, only bottles of condiments left along with a few pieces of yogurt milk. Rin exhales frustratedly through clenched teeth. He’ll have to grab breakfast on the way to school, then.
“Ah, I’ll be getting groceries later. Just… text me if you want anything.” Rin could feel Sae’s gaze on the back of his head. He shuts close the fridge door a bit too forcefully and starts to walk away, mumbling, “Don’t have your number.”
“You asked for it yesterday,” Sae remarks, an eyebrow raised at him curiously. “Your dialect’s gone.”
Yesterday? Dialect? Rin frowns at his brother. Then it strikes him: Bachira Meguru.
He storms away before he could let his frustration show on his face. Back in his room, he lets the door slam shut with an echoing bang, his mind focused on cursing this Bachira Meguru with all the foul words he could muster.
Are you real?
Rin snatches a pen and a pad of post-its from his desk and starts scribbling away without bothering to sit down. Once he’s done, he sticks the notes on his door, sure that Sae would never see them here because he wouldn’t ever dare enter his room. He sticks them on a little too vigorously, and he supposes it’s because of his irritation. He doesn’t know when Bachira Meguru will see these, so he tapes them for extra measure.
Are you stupid?
Then on a separate note, My rules:
1. Stop talking to Sae while he’s here.
See AlsoA Changeling Invasion - Very_SleeepyRemnant Lost - Chapter 1 - ProblemChild7Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Return to the Temple of Elemental EvilSeason of the Fire - BunnyMemo2. Don’t skip my classes ever again.
3. Don’t talk in your dialect.
4. Don’t even try spending my money.
5. Don’t leave my room as ugly and messy as yours.
If you could kindly stop spawning into my body, thanks.
Itoshi Rin.
————
Meguru giggles, plucking the little notes from the door. He could almost imagine the frown Rin is wearing while setting these up, judging from the passive aggressive nature of his words.
“Jeez, what great timing!” Similarly, he had left a list of his own reminders in his journal at home.
To the Rin-chan who’s stealing my body,
How to be Meguru 101
1. You have to hug my mom before you leave the house!
2. Eat lunch under the big tree beside the basketball court. It gives really good shade.
3. Give a quarter of my bento to Hime (the orange cat that will approach you at lunch).
4. Stop being mean to Chigiri, the pink-haired BOY (Stop calling him princess. That’s the cat.)
5. I really meant #4. He’s my only friend, I suppose… Don’t be rude to him or I’ll be sad, and you’ll be sad too because you’re technically me!
6. If you happen to wake up as me on a weekend, you have to bike around town at 8AM or else my mom will be suspicious!!
7. You’re a second year, aren’t you?! I’m a third year! Please don’t fail my classes!! I’ll make sure to write down our topics so you can read in advance!
8. Drink a glass of milk before you sleep!! I really need to grow taller… ( 〃．．)
He hopes his comprehensive list would help Rin become more like himself. Chigiri is starting to notice his unusualness and opts to refer to it as “Bachira’s grumpy kitty friend taking over his body.”
Meguru slides down Rin’s chair and starts doodling on a post-it. He alternates between looking at Rin’s face through his phone’s camera and drawing a chibi little Rin, barely holding back his laughter. He adds two cat ears on top of the black mop of hair and a pair of fangs sticking out of the chibi’s frown. As a final thought, he adds smoke coming out of the tiny ears to allude to the irritable attitude Chigiri mentioned.
Rin-chan, Chigiri thinks you’re a grouchy cat like Hime when you’re me~
Perfect. He sticks the post-it on the door with a resounding slap and finally lets the laugh he’s been holding bubble out of him. Wiping the wetness from his eyes, Bachira punctuates his giggles with a pensive sigh.
These spontaneous switches with Rin finally begin to click with him. Rin—Itoshi Rin, as his note says—is an actual, real boy living in Tokyo who wakes up in his body when Meguru wakes up in his. Meguru can’t tell if the universe is playing with them or bringing them together. He’s leaning more towards the latter.
Don’t call me a cat, the note read. Meguru has to suppress the laugh that nearly comes out of him the next time he wakes up in Rin’s body.
————
“Why is everyone glancing at me?” Rin crosses his arms, tiny now that he's in Bachira. He keeps his chin held up high as they walk through the open space behind Bachira’s tiny school, though he doubts it gives nearly as much effect as it does when he's himself.
“Err,” Chigiri’s ginger friend, Kunigami—Rin thinks, clears his throat, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. Rin raises a brow at him.
“They’re just jealous that the coolest duo is now a trio ,” Chigiri replied in a sing-song tune, an arm wrapping around his tiny shoulder. Kunigami ruffles his hair lightheartedly and makes it an even more mess than it already is.
“Get off me!” Rin grumbles, pushing both of them away with his forearms. sh*t, he curses in his mind as he remembers the unnecessarily long list of reminders Bachira left for him.
He’s my only friend, I suppose… Don’t be rude to him or I’ll be sad, and you’ll be sad too because you’re technically me!
Rin supposes this Kunigami guy could be another good friend to Bachira, and he’d hate to ruin the chance for the poor guy. Anyway, he doubts Chigiri would want to hang out with Bachira anymore if the Kunigami guy didn’t like how he acted. He wants to groan in frustration; why does he have to make friends that won’t be his anyway?
“Hehe,” he tries for a lighthearted chuckle, forcing a smile, and he immediately wants to punch himself for how fake and unusual it sounded. Rin burns red in embarrassment.
“Heh, you sure are a weird guy,” Kunigami comments with raised eyebrows, and Chigiri bursts into boisterous laughter. Rin’s positive that his terrible social skills are being ridiculed and he blushes even redder in shame.
“Shut up!”
Chigiri’s thumbs make its way to the corners of his mouth and he pulls, forcing his lips into a wide stretch. Rin stares at him dumbfoundedly, and when Chigiri takes back his hands, the stretch on his lips reduces into a little smile, not quite disappearing.
“Oi, Kuni, where are you even taking us?” Chigiri asks once he’s simmered down.
“A café!”
“A café?!” Chigiri whirls around so quickly, Rin has to take a step back in surprise. Starry eyed, the other boy crowds into Kunigami’s space, hands gripping his shoulders and shaking him back and forth lightly.
Rin watches in mute awe as a faint blush blooms on Kunigami’s cheeks, and he rubs at his nape—a nervous habit, Rin picks up.
“You could say…”
“This is not a cafe!” Dejectedly, Chigiri flops on the moist grass with a pout on his lips and a can of coffee in his hand. Rin awkwardly stands beside him as Kunigami pushes buttons on the vending machine to get his own drink.
“Oi, Bachira, c’mere.”
Rin barely looks over at Chigiri when his free arm is pulled down, and he falls into a heap on the ground beside the other boy. His coffee sloshes around, and he heaves a relieved sigh, thankful that he hasn’t opened it yet.
“If you imagine hard enough,” Kunigami gently sits beside Rin, cracking open his can with a satisfying pop, “This could be our little café, yeah?”
“Mm,” Chigiri hums, the signs of a playful smile on his lips. “Okay, then you’d be our hardworking waiter!” He declares, leaning over Rin to flick Kunigami’s forehead. He winces, but there’s a grin on his lips.
“Bachira and I are your loyal customers!” He leans back to wrap his arm around Rin again, giving him a little shake. Rin thinks he’s starting to get used to it. “Make sure to give us a discount, okay, Kunigami- san ?”
The two’s laughter is loud and carefree, and Rin wishes the wind would carry it away to Tokyo—to let Bachira know that really, he has nothing to worry about.
The three of them sit there for a while, sipping their coffees and talking as the sun dives down slowly to take its rest. There, in their little café.
Everything feels so foreign, but it feels good. Rin lets himself indulge a bit in Bachira’s much better and much happier life, forgetting about his worries, and he feels so at ease.
Rin wonders if, maybe, he ran away to live in this quaint little pocket of the world, would Bachira want him here? Would these guys like him too, when he’s himself? He’s almost tempted to imagine how he’d fit in here, in Hida—away from Tokyo, from his family.
If only the universe would be so kind to grant him that wish too.
————
The switches gradually become more frequent: two or three times a week. Meguru feels like his top secret is now living a confidential double life as Itoshi Rin. It’s almost freaky how well his mind adjusts whenever he wakes up in the small lonely apartment in Tokyo.
He enjoys it, though—falling off Rin’s bed every morning, Sae coming to check on him until he’s gotten used to it, Sae being able to smile at him now, even if only a little.
Why did you fail my English test?!
Meguru can’t help but giggle in shame as he plucks the post-it from Rin’s door. With a glitter pen he had bought for himself in the last switch, he scribbles down a sloppy reply.
Bachira Meguru is so, very sorry that he is not Shakespeare! (๑•̥﹏•̥๑)
He walks around school with a cheap imitation of Rin’s scowl he had seen in some of his pictures, and it does its effect of warding off everyone. Meguru hates having to do it, but he’s a little wary of what Rin will do if he continues to mess with the way he lives his life.
Rin is a lonely boy, Meguru notes with a sigh. He supposes Rin hates having to make friends too—he’s not much different from Meguru in that aspect, then.
He breezes to Rin’s second-year classes with ease (except English), remembering vaguely the same concepts from his own last year. Meguru thanks all the gods that Rin is a year younger than him, or else he’d have even more trouble keeping up Rin’s brilliant boy persona.
Rin-chan, you’re so lonely!! Don’t blame me if you grow into a lonely old man, you grumpy kitten!! He tapes the additional note on the usual space on Rin’s door and immediately takes refuge in the bed’s soft covers, sighing in relief and contentment.
————
By now, waking up as Rin has become second nature to Meguru. He merely blinks a few times, takes in the pristinely cream ceiling of Rin’s room, and immediately comes out of his hazy stupor to dash to the door, curious to see what message Rin left for him.
The message for today sits innocently on the windowsill in front him, still unanswered, as he watches the life of Tokyo below him.
I’d seriously cave your face in the second we meet. Can you stop spawning into my body now?
Meguru purses his lips, absentmindedly stroking a cactus with his fingers, not really minding its dull prick. It’s a tiny little thing he had bought impulsively when he passed by it in another of his Tokyo adventures. "A cactus for your prickly personality! Naturally, I’m the flower~" he had said, including another chibi doodle of Rin, but with spikes coming out of his usually neat hair.
He writes down his response for today before he could think better of it.
When we meet, it has to be under a night sky!
I’d see your sky blue eyes better, and I’d know in an instant that it really is you.
————
“What?! What do you mean I got into a fight?!” Meguru asks, voice rising in pitch the more Chigiri laughs at him. Distractedly, he dumps a quarter of his bento on his tupperware’s cover before setting it on the dirt beside him. Hime, the orange stray cat, digs in with gusto the second his hand returns to his own bento.
“Eh?! You’re hilarious, man,” Chigiri slaps his back twice and wipes the beads of tears forming on the corner of his intensely pink eyes. He leans back on the tree’s trunk, both arms held up behind his head as a cushion. “How could you possibly forget your majestic right hook?! Straight into the bastard’s face!”
“Stop enabling him,” Kunigami chastises, giving a light knock on the side of Chigiri’s head. “Bachira,” Kunigami turns to look at Meguru, and he immediately sits straight with a piece of vegetable hanging from his mouth. He hums numbly, his nerves taking over for a bit.
“Although I appreciate your protectiveness over Hime, you should really not get into unnecessary fights, okay?” Kunigami puts a hand over his, and Meguru winces by reflex. He hadn’t even realized his right knuckles were sore and raw.
Kunigami doesn’t fail to notice and causes him to sigh, scratching his explosively orange hair. “Sheesh, I didn’t even expect you to be the fighting type.”
“Ah,” Meguru sheepishly replies and swallows his food before he speaks again to ask. “Could you guys… remind me what happened again? I tend to forget things after getting an adrenaline rush,” he lies, immediately stuffing his mouth with katsudon to hide its nervous quiver.
“Eh, the bastards were having fun picking on poor Hime right here,” Chigiri dispiritedly recalls, slender fingers scratching unconsciously on the fur behind the cat’s head. Meguru feels the nervous jitters in his stomach turning into displeasure and his mouth pulls into a deep frown.
“I see,” he replies off-handedly, turning his attention back to his bento.
“But hey, despite what this spoilsport here thinks,” Chigiri follows up with a cheery tune, gesturing flippantly in Kunigami’s direction, “I think you were pretty awesome! Our princess cat’s very own knight in shining armor~”
A genuine smile begins to form on his face at the thought of Rin going out of his way to protect Hime. My grumpy kitten protecting my other grumpy kitten, how adorable!
Meguru’s heart is warm with emotions he can’t quite place, so he scoops up Hime in his arms instead and snuggles her dazedly.
I bet you looked so cool being Hime-chan’s protective knight!! Thank you. （´・｀ ）♡
He closes his journal and sets it on his desk, and he can’t quite get rid of the dumb smile on his face.
————
“Me?” Meguru’s voice wavers a bit, and his eyebrows are so high that Rin’s bangs cover them. He stares at the shorter black-haired boy in front of him. His wide, earnest eyes a deep shade of blue, much like a window to the underseas.
“Yes! I… I admire you a lot, Rin-san, so please go on a date with me!” He repeats the same words he had blurted at Meguru just a few seconds ago. Flustered, Meguru glances around the spacious hallway, and fortunately, no one seems to be paying much attention. His hand flies up to cover the other boy’s mouth, cautious of another outburst. It does its work of shutting the boy up, yet he becomes red all over, up until the tips of his ears. Meguru immediately takes back his hand in fear of suffocating him, yet he doubts that’s really the reason for the beet red flush.
“Ah, please don’t shout,” Meguru chews on his lip nervously. His left leg begins to bounce subtly, as he thinks of a response in a frenzy.
He doesn’t know if Rin will appreciate him agreeing to dates without his permission, but he doesn’t really know how to reject someone either. It might do the stupid lonely boy some good to have other people in his stupidly lonely life , he considers. He continues to weigh the options in his mind as the boy stares at him all the while.
“Okay, kid—”
“Isagi, and… I’m older than you,” the boy cuts in, burning red in embarrassment again.
“Oh!” It’s Meguru’s turn to blush shyly, looking away for a second to clear his suddenly parched throat.
“Okay, Isagi, I guess one date won’t hurt…”
Isagi’s face lights up and Meguru thinks his heart suddenly clenches a little with regret, bitterness clogging his airways. He walks away before he could puke on the poor boy.
————
ONE DATE WON’T HURT?!
Meguru winces once he sees the angry writing on the sticky notes. He could almost imagine Rin’s horrified face upon finding out about the supposed date with Isagi. Another note beside it appears much calmer, with a smaller-written, "Don’t meddle with my relationships."
He pouts, picking up the glitter pen right where he left it on Rin’s desk and starts jotting down his reply.
Rin-chan is so afraid of romance! Don’t tell me you haven’t even had your first love yet~
He’d never admit it, but he feels so relieved, like he had been doused in fresh and cool water.
Rin never replies to his taunt, though.
————
Idiot! Meguru tiredly stares at his reflection, seeing Rin’s face looking back at him with a large idiot clumsily written down his cheek. Then, at his forearms, I said, stop meddling with my relationships! First, that boy and now Sae?! Stop talking to him!
Meguru huffs, then sticks his tongue out at the mirror, as though he’s doing it to Rin himself. His blue eyes seem empty again, but beyond that there’s a mute charm in them, like a jewel you can’t seem to look away from. He shakes his head.
“Like hell I would!” He opens the faucet with a harsh flick of his hand, washing away the marker ink on his arms with a stubborn frown pulling at his lips.
“Stupid Rin! Stuupid!” He mutters under his breath, taking out a bit of his frustration on scrubbing his forearms. He feels his voice getting a bit louder, and he bites on his lip. Hopefully, Sae’s away in the kitchen and preparing breakfast. He doubts talking to his reflection is a thing Rin regularly does.
Once the writings on his arms are gone, his hand flies to his cheek and starts rubbing in aggravation. Meguru’s surprised to find it already wet, and he belatedly realizes that he’s been crying. Fat tears form under his bright blue irises, threatening to spill over.
He closes his eyes with a small sigh, inhaling and holding, then exhaling and pausing—a breathing technique his mother had taught him to help with the panic attacks he used to have. A semblance of a bittersweet smile is on his lips.
“Don’t you get it?” Meguru whispers to the reflection, pretends that Rin is actually looking back at him and hears his words. “Sae is just horrible at showing that he loves you, but he does. I know it!”
His head hangs low as he takes another deep breath. Clenching the sides of the sink, he looks back up to the foggy mirror helplessly. “Rin… You’re not unlovable, so why do you want to be so bad?!”
Meguru leaves the bathroom after a final, weak punch to his reflection.
“You’re not Rin,” Sae tells him a little later at the dining table. Meguru freezes, body rigid, and he would have dropped his chopsticks if he wasn’t picking up his egg. He pushes the metal pair into his rice and bites his lip, letting out a nervous chuckle.
“What’s gotten into you, Sae?” Meguru asks, every bit of control going into keeping his voice steady, and his leg starts bouncing under the table consequently.
“What’s gotten into you?” Sae questions back with a small laugh that breaks Meguru out of his nervous demeanor. He nearly let a sigh of relief escape him.
Sae’s intense stare turns soft and almost melancholic. “The Rin I knew would never let me find out he cried, that’s all,” he notes, reaching out in an attempt to ruffle his hair, but he stops at the last second. His eyes are wide as if he was caught red-handed.
I shouldn’t, for Rin… Meguru’s leg grows restless. No, I should, for Rin.
He reaches up, pushing Sae’s hand into his silky hair and jolts him a bit to signal him that it’s okay. Sae gives him a long, calculating stare, and Meguru hates it—hates that Rin and Sae have to figure each other out like this.
He wants to help, and he will , even if Rin doesn’t want him to.
“Although, I’m hardly sure I know you right now.”
Meguru’s tears are light, and he has to fight them back with all his might; he doesn’t even know why he’s getting the urge to cry, but his entire body feels so heavy and his throat clogged.
“Sae-nii... what happened to us?” He can’t help but ask. His curiosity has been eating away at him for weeks now, and he can’t help Rin blind.
“I’m sorry,” Sae looks pained to say it, but Meguru could feel his sincerity. “You’ve always been chasing my back,” he looks away when he retrieves his hand, tucking his arms in each other. A sign of unease. “I know you’d hate for me to admit it, but I sort of liked it. It made me feel like I was inspiring to someone.”
I leave home for a while and you forget about me. How cruel!
“And then… you left,” Meguru guesses, pushing his omelette around with his chopsticks.
He’d take the silence as a yes.
There’s a lack of any noise in the room besides metal chopsticks clinking with bowls. Although instead of comfortable silence, it’s awkward and stifling, and Meguru refuses to entertain the idea that he might have made everything worse between the brothers.
“Will you leave again?” He asks before he could stop himself, his voice small and hesitant.
“I can’t just throw away my scholarship in the UK, you know,” Sae mutters, resting his cheek on a palm. “Rin,” he says, suddenly much more serious, and catches all of Meguru’s attention. “If I had known mom and dad wouldn’t let you take after me, I—”
Meguru shoots up from his seat, both hands on either side of the table. Too much, he thinks, I’ve pried too much already. He bows his head in a silent apology before dashing back towards his room.
Those last words from Sae, they had felt too personal and too genuine. Meguru wants Rin to hear them for himself and by himself; he won’t steal that opportunity away from Rin.
Later at night, Meguru stares at his reflection solemnly. He has an idea on what message he wants to leave for Rin today, but he’s a little hesitant. He goes over the words again and again in his mind until his eyes feel droopy and his fingers grow numb from gripping the sink’s edge too long.
Eventually, he picks up the marker and starts writing on his cheek: Stupid. Then, on his pale forearms: You are loved. Just remember it.
I love you, he wants to add, but his shaky fingers drop the marker every time he tries.
Meguru stares at his handwriting one last time, cheeks puffed and pink. It’s a lot more serious than their usual banter, but he has to let the stupid, oblivious boy know at least.
His arms wrap tightly around a pillow in a futile attempt to stop the shaking of his hands. I love him? The feeling is so frightening, like waging through unfamiliar territory. Meguru almost wants to shy away.
Rin, his grumpy kitten. Rin, with his irritable antics that Chigiri and Kunigami never fail to laugh at him for. Rin, the cold and mysterious boy that jumps headfirst in protecting their cat. Rin, the clean freak that endearingly yells his ass off in notes when Meguru leaves his bedroom as messy as his own back at Hida. Rin, who hadn’t even bat an eye when Meguru bought his glitter pen and the cactus sitting on his windowsill despite acting greedy with his money. Rin, with his bright, sky blue eyes that Meguru had witnessed going from empty to impossibly dazzling.
He doesn’t know if it’s love, but he’d do anything to keep Rin in his life. Meguru wants more than ever to tuck him in their own little pocket of the world, safe and away from everyone, with only the beautiful night sky and the spill of stars to watch over them.
————
Rin rubs his eyes, yet the "stupid" still remains on his cheek. Furthermore, the scrawl down his forearms.
You are loved. Just remember it.
He shakes his head and starts working on washing everything off. His lips press into a tense, thin line, his rapid heartbeat the only sound in his ears. The unusually earnest message gradually disappears into a stream of ink going down the drain, and Rin watches it go. What was that all about? He silently curses Bachira for being so out-of-the-blue and odd, yet still managing to make his heart race.
“Rin, you ran away before I could finish,” Sae jumps up from his seat the moment Rin steps foot into the kitchen. “I really did mean what I was saying yesterday…”
Rin stares at him cluelessly, his feet already itching to walk away from the once familiar wholehearted and determined look on his brother’s eyes. He hasn’t seen that for some time now.
“If I had known mom and dad wouldn’t let you take on soccer like me, I wouldn’t have accepted the offers.”
Rin could feel his world crashing down on him without so much as a merciful pause. His blood begins to boil hot and unwelcome tears crowd on the corners of his eyes, a hiccup away from spilling over.
“I don’t need empty consolation,” he responds and almost flinches from the harsh, rigid edge to his voice. Sae does it for him.
“I’m not—”
“No, you wouldn’t have!” Rin shouts at him before he could spout another lie. His resolve cracks, and he spits out the most words he had ever said to his brother in years. “Soccer was everything to both of us! You wouldn’t have... Not for me or anything else,” his voice ends in a silent whisper, hanging heavy in the silent room.
Sae takes a step in his direction, and he can’t help but flinch away.
He sighs instead. “Soccer… it really was everything to us when we were children. Days spent playing under the intense heat, nights filled with our cheers for the national team playing on our TV… Those are the things I won’t ever regret. But accepting the scholarships... I really wouldn’t have if I knew I was leaving you behind,” his voice cracks under the weight of genuine sincerity.
“In the past weeks, I hated seeing you bend over backwards, aiming for that damned business course. I always wonder… would you have stayed the same if it was you who pursued soccer instead?” Sae adds as a final thought. The silence that rings after is so deafening, Rin just wants to run away.
And so he does.
Hastily, not wasting a single second, he changes from his sleepwear to casual clothing, dark jeans and a fitted shirt laying on top of his dresser. With a backpack filled with nothing else but his jacket, wallet, phone, charger, and a bottle of water, Rin leaves his suffocating apartment without a second thought, not even bothering to close the front door.
His entire being is so on edge, on the verge of breaking down, and the only thing he longs for is Hida—its serenity, Chigiri’s reassurance, Kunigami’s dependability… and Bachira.
Rin despises that their first meeting had to be like this, but he’s not left with much of a choice. He boards the four hour train and heaves a sigh once the doors slide shut, another boundary keeping him away from Sae and the terrible memories he brings with him.
He sinks down on an empty seat, as though his legs had given out, and leans his head on the window with a thump. Now that the initial panic is gone, dread begins to fill his veins, paralyzing him on his seat.
Would Bachira even be glad to see him? Would he only be a bother to the boy? A storm that just suddenly swings by and ruins his day?
Rin forces his eyes closed and tries turning a blind eye to the doubts and insecurities plaguing his thoughts. He curls further into himself, arms wrapping around his tense frame.
No, he’d be glad to see me. And thankful that I won’t cave his face in just yet.
————
Rin steps down from the train and is almost moved to tears. He chokes on his next breath, not quite believing the scenery laid in front of him. He’s really here, in Hida, the place he could only dream of before. Endless green and browns right before his eyes, as though someone has spilled the colors. Tiny houses’ roofs dotting the landscape, each housing a peaceful family. Somewhere on the streets beyond him lies their little café. Everything seems like an image ripped from a tour magazine, except everything is real and finally not hazy.
Rin wanders in a daze in the quiet streets and alleys, still in awe of the traditional Japanese houses that he believes he’d have to see a thousand more times for the wonder to wear off.
He’s only torn away from his daydream by the rumble of his stomach. After checking his phone screen, he’s reminded that his arrival is just in time for lunch. He picks the first restaurant he spots, eager to just dig in to anything to satiate his hunger.
Once he’s finished with the heavenly Takayama ramen, he asks the old waiter for directions towards the public high school, abashed. He types them down hurriedly on his notes app, occasionally nodding while licking the lingering taste of the soup off his lips.
He departs from the friendly restaurant with a polite farewell and a sincere thank you.
Rin can feel the doubts he shut away earlier beginning to make its way back into the forefront of his thoughts, and he begins to wonder if this really was the best course of action. Maybe he could’ve just spent a few hours in a park, gathering his thoughts and emotions together before confronting Sae again... Or maybe he could’ve gone to school like normal and used his studies to distract himself again...
His thought process skids to a sudden pause when the entrance of Bachira’s high school greets his vision. He’s seen this exact scenery so many times before, and it brings him comfort somewhat.
It’s really now or never.
Rin wears his jacket to seem less like a sore thumb sticking out in his graphic shirt. He rounds the side of the buildings until he reaches the open field behind the school, beside the basketball court. There are students littered around, each spending the lunch break in their own way. Some are eating their bentos while some are joking around with their friends. He spots Chigiri and Kunigami, almost asks Chigiri when he had cut his hair that short, but reins himself in. He looks away hastily; that’s not something for him.
Finally, the familiar, huge tree comes into view and Rin’s feet carry him there immediately, unconsciously, almost running but not quite. He almost feels like something’s amiss, but he pays it no mind.
Then, he sees it—the mop of black hair, the terrible neon yellow highlights—and his heart aches.
“Ba— Meguru,” Rin calls out, all worries thrown out of the window, forgotten. He wonders how the other would react first. Would his mouth drop comically wide in shock? Would he jump into his arms in an embrace? He blushes a light pink at the thought.
Striking and wide yellow eyes look up to him, and his breath is knocked out of him. But he sees none of what he’s expecting—no excitement, no surprise… no recognition at all.
“I’m sorry… Who are you?” Meguru asks with a hesitant frown. “My mom doesn’t let me talk to strangers.”
Rin feels like the last of his breath escaped him in the blink of an eye. He can’t breathe, his chest growing tighter and tighter by the second, but he forces an awkward chuckle anyway.
“Oi, stop kidding around.” Rin tells himself he’s not begging right now, but he’s not entirely above it if he could just see the bright smile he expected— wanted —to see. “I won’t cave your face in, you know?” He aims for a lighthearted comment, but it comes out as a broken mumble.
“Violent words, but you’re so timid! What’s up with that?” Meguru stares at him, puzzled, his chopsticks staying on his lips as he chews.
Rin glances down at the kitten sleeping beside Meguru, its orange fur unforgettable. That’s Hime, but why is she a little kitten?
He all but takes a horrified step back, a hand coming up to muffle the startled sob that escapes his mouth. Chigiri’s shorter hair, Bachira eating lunch by himself, Hime as a little kitten… Is he actually stupid?
All this time, had he been switching with a Bachira Meguru from the future?
Rin snaps his gaze back to the increasingly confused Meguru, and his mind completely blanks out for a second. His mouth drops open and he blinks in rapid succession, suddenly feeling out of himself.
Why am I here again? Not to mention, where exactly even am I?
Irritated, he snaps at the first person he sees, “Oi, who are—”
This Bachira Meguru is so, very sorry that he is not Shakespeare!
Rin cuts himself off with a breathless gasp, feeling like he had broken through the surface of the water pulling him down. Bachira Meguru, how could he ever forget?!
Meguru shoots up from his sitting position, a worried expression taking over his evident confusion. He reaches out and holds both of Rin’s elbows, effectively pulling him back to the present. Rin, panicked, looks at him in the eye, trusting the other’s bright vivid irises to ground him.
Hime, who had been woken up by Meguru’s sudden absence beside her, slithers close and clings to Meguru’s leg, meowing.
I bet you looked so cool being Hime-chan’s protective knight!
As soon as the memories pass by his thoughts, Rin can’t quite seem to place them right after, as though everything is sand seeping through his fingers, and he can’t pick the same grains up. Frustratedly, he tries remembering his last thought—something about this familiar cat staring up and hissing at him.
Horrified, he realizes that he can’t remember anymore.
“Hey, you okay over there? You’re turning pale,” Meguru wobbles him a bit, his foot bouncing up and down nervously.
Rin makes himself stare at the boy in front of him to calm himself down—at Meguru’s endearingly ugly hair subtly fluttering with the wind, the tree’s shadow barely casting a shade on half of his face, the unmistakable height difference between the two of them, and his pink lip caught between his teeth, gnawed raw. He shakes his head, putting his gaze back to Meguru’s eyes.
Rin-chan is so afraid of romance! Don’t tell me you haven’t even had your—
“Bachira Meguru!” Rin exclaims, startling the both of them with the desperation laced in his voice. “You are my first love!”
It doesn’t matter that he had prematurely admitted the darkest secret he’s been denying all the time. It doesn’t matter that he won’t remember the second right after. He trusts Meguru to remember if he can’t, for the both of them.
“What?” Meguru asks shakily, an embarrassed flush blooming on his round cheeks. “Are you being real with me right now? You’re so weird…”
Are you real? — Bachira Meguru.
Rin blinks and stares at this random boy in front of him dumbly, feeling like he’s missing something vital. Realizing he’s being gripped on both arms, he shrugs off the hold on him rather harshly with a frown on his face. Who does he think he is, touching me so casually like that?
The electrifyingly yellow eyes staring at him, burning holes into him, unnerves him, and he steps back, and back, and back —until he’s turned around and walking away from the boy with unsettling yellow eyes that he can’t quite read. His movements are sluggish and listless, each step moving farther away requiring tremendous effort. Rin wonders why he feels so opposed to walking away from the unfamiliar area, like he’s fighting gravity itself.
“Hey! What’s your name?” The boy shouts after him when he’s a few feet away, and Rin is inevitably compelled to stop on his tracks.
He looks back, and by some extraordinary force, decides to humor the odd question, “Itoshi Rin!”
Rin walks away, disoriented, and finally breaks down behind a tree from the crushing weight of his issues with Sae and an unbearable feeling of loneliness. His throat ends up raw.
————
His days are dull and empty, somewhat.
Sometimes Rin finds himself crying when he wakes up. He’ll wipe the flow of tears with his palm and stare at it, rattling his brain for what is anchoring him to this great loneliness and grief he carries daily.
Every day feels almost like a chore, and Rin’s not sure there’s even an escape from this. He vaguely remembers the last time he had allowed himself to feel carefree. A warm sunny day that feels so distant, yet he, for some unknown reason, holds dear and near. He can no longer remember the events of the day except for the light feeling of being on top of the world, and then the hollowness it left him right after. He doesn’t strain to remember either, choosing to regard it as a thing of its own time, better when left alone.
In fact, a certain year of his life is so odd and and all over the place, almost as if he hadn’t been in full control of himself. He just opts to attribute it to the overwhelming stress he allowed to consume him whole at that time.
A buzz from his bedside table snaps him out of his sleepy daze, and he realizes in horror that he almost over watered the old cactus on his windowsill in the midst of his reminiscing.
He gives the cactus one final stroke of its pricks, noticing a flower bud starting to bloom on its side. His lips pull into a gentle smile.
His phone buzzes again, and his smile disappears as quickly it had stayed. Rin picks it up with his face scrunched, annoyed at being disturbed so early in the morning.
(no subject)
Itoshi Sae
to me
Tickets to my match attached. Be there or be square!
Rin rolls his eyes, and shoots his brother a simple response that he’s sure will prompt Sae into sending him a flurry of messages demanding his attention.
(no subject)
Itoshi Rin
to Itoshi Sae
Maybe I’ll be square. Don’t wanna see your face.
He’ll never admit it, to either himself, or Sae, or anyone, but the return of his brother’s affections is one of the only good things left in his life.
Rin leaves his apartment after half an hour, makes sure to lock it behind himself. He sighs, dragging his feet to start another day in college, and a familiar feeling of longing rises in his chest—an urge to run around and look everywhere, to find something he believes he never had in the first place. Sometimes the impulse is so overwhelming that he feels like digging every corner and emptying every pocket of the earth, just in search of the thing he had lost unknowingly.
He’s gotten used to ignoring it too.
Lip snagged under his teeth, Rin continues on his day the way it’s supposed to go. He never entertains the unexplained yearning anymore because every time, he ends up empty handed and feeling much more desolated than before.
He fears he’ll hollow himself out if he keeps pushing himself in this endless search of an unclear goal.
The downpour of the rain in the evening is loud in his ears. He curses at himself for being careless and so out of wits that he forgot to check the weather and bring an umbrella. Rin wants nothing more than to get home already and curl into himself, surrendering himself yet again to the depressing dreams he always forgets about, with the faint fall of rain roaring in the background.
The minute splashing of rainwater beneath his boots halt as he finds shelter under a storefront. His hands fly up to wrap around himself in a pointless attempt of keeping himself warm. He lets his weight lean on the glass, exhausted, panting, and shivering. He’ll have to wait til the rain at least calms down into a drizzle.
Rin closes his eyes and lets himself use the time to rest. He feels the lure of sleep tugging at him, and then a sudden magnetic pull of longing that has him stumbling and his eyes flying open. He gasps, and his hand comes up to clutch on his chest, above his rapid heartbeat.
Excitement that he hasn’t felt in so long leaves him breathless and stunned. His eyes sharpen like an eagle’s, swinging left and right to scan his surroundings. The fluorescent and neon lights of storesigns disorient him, and he mutters a faint sh*t as he feels the pull diminish bit by bit, leaving him overwhelmed with yearning like never before.
Rin steps out of the narrow roof of the storefront and rain immediately falls hard on him, sticking his bangs to his face, but he could no longer care; his arm pushes his hair out of vision.
And he lets his feet carry him wherever, to a place—a person?—so warm, because he’s only ever felt this warmth from one source before. He’s never letting him— him?—go again, else he’ll search every nook of the earth, anywhere and everywhere, for him.
Who’s him? He feels like screaming.
Then there it is, the barest glimpse of bright yellow eyes walking away from him, and Rin’s breathless again. It’s the same stark yellow eyes that had him freaking out in the bathroom of an old, traditional house, the same irises that remind him too much of the sun every time he looks in the mirror, the very same yellow eyes that he’s waited forever to see for himself, and the very pair that he’ll never forget.
He barely registers himself flying up the stairs of an overpass until he almost slips in his haste. Rin could hardly feel any shame in his clumsiness anymore, the only thought ringing in his head is him, just him, and only him.
Rin’s hand grabs onto his wrist, and the touch of their hands alone is enough to weaken both their knees. The boy spins around on his heel, mouth agape and eyes glassy with unshed tears. His left hand almost lets go of his umbrella.
Bachira Meguru.
His frantic heartbeat simmers down into a steady thump, yet still loud in his ears. Rin can’t help but wear a bittersweet smile—leaning on sweet—as he’s reminded of vague memories from a different time, awakened by the fierce glow of Meguru’s eyes.
“I found you.”
“It’s you… It’s really you, isn’t it, Itoshi Rin?!” Meguru’s voice cracks, a sob forcing its way out of his throat. Rin can’t help but let out a watery laugh, endeared by the clumsy way he’s wiping his tears and snot.
Meguru fists the front of his shirt, collapsing onto him so suddenly that Rin has to step back and bundle him in his arms.
“You stupid, stupid Rin!” Meguru weakly pounds a closed fist on his chest. “Why would you come see me before I even knew you?!”
The downpour of rain is muted in the background, and all Rin could hear is the warm melody of Meguru’s voice and the beats of their hearts coming together.
“I guess I couldn’t help it,” Rin reaches up to push away Meguru’s bangs flopping over his eyes that Rin can’t seem to get enough of. Meguru burns bright pink in his arms.
“And… And didn’t I tell you! When we meet, it has to be under a night sky!" Meguru rattles him, his grip on his shirt strong.
Rin rolls his eyes, using his index finger to push up at Meguru’s nose, effectively detaching the boy from his embrace as well. “Yeah, yeah, my bad,” he responds flippantly.
“You’re so annoying!” Meguru exclaims, dropping his umbrella without a care.
Rin makes a disbelieving face. “Says yo—”
The press of Meguru’s lips to his own has him swallowing his words. His small hands cup Rin’s cheeks in a painful grip, and he grimaces a little. The first push of their lips together is bordering on painful at first, both of them sparing no thought for comfort, too occupied with the overwhelming want for the other’s warmth.
Rin is the first to break away, gasping and out of breath. His entire face feels as though it’s on fire and his lips tingle with the loss of Meguru’s.
Barely a few breaths later, Meguru is back in his space again, lips chasing his in a softer, gentler kiss.
“Rin,” Meguru mutters against his lips and Rin is compelled to open his eyes at half-mast. “My kitten,” Meguru is looking at him from under his lashes, stare so earnest Rin is torn between shying away and sticking close.
“You’re my first love too,” he admits, a quiet confession between their lips, and before Rin has the chance to drink it up, Meguru pushes up to meet him in a third kiss. Rin smiles against his lips while the other giggles; neither of the two caring about the steady downpour of rain or Tokyo’s nightlife buzzing around them. And for a while, everything is alright in their own little pocket of the world—in Rin’s arms—with only the stars and the moon watching over them and the universe no longer pulling them apart.
