Rin had thought he was done with the awkward family dinners, and for the most part, he was. This particular one was an entirely different kind of awkward: Rin's mother had made the mistake of asking Sousuke if anything was new with him.

"Why would you ask me that?" Sousuke snapped, and Rin stifled a groan.

That morning, he had taken Sousuke with him on his morning run to visit Haru in the cave, and they had gone through Haru's sketchbooks and scrapbooks. Sousuke had spent most of his time articulating exactly what he wanted Haru say to Makoto in his stead. He'd kept up forced conversation, and even managed a smile or two, but it had been apparent that it was too much to spring on the man at one. Sousuke had clearly been overwhelmed.

And then, on the car ride to his parent's house, Sousuke had suddenly asked him what the consequences were of merfolk and humans interacting. Rin had stiffened and tried to insist there were no such consequences, but Sousuke had always been too sharp— "Haru said that Makoto could get in trouble if anyone knew he helped me," he argued, and Rin couldn't think of an excuse.

Rin had been left with no choice but to admit that Haru could be punished if it was discovered that they were friends, and at that, Sousuke had fallen silent.

Sousuke had spent most of the dinner in silence as well, clearly going through everything in his head. Concern was etched into his features, and at first Rin assumed it was for Haru, but there was something else, something far more grave, in his eyes that he could not place.

"Well, I guess he doesn't want to talk about it," Rin's mother said through an awkward laugh, and Sousuke winced. Rin shot him a glare before jumping in to save his friend.

The officers piled into the car again and drove home, still in frustrating silence. Rin managed to keep his outburst contained until the moment the apartment door slammed shut behind him.

"What's with you?!"

"I don't know what you mean," Sousuke replied. His tone was completely flat, like he wasn't even bothering to put any effort into his lie. Rin snorted.

"You've been acting weird ever since this morning."

"I'm sorry, was I supposed to respond completely normally to finding out that mythical creatures are real?"

Rin went blank for a moment. He'd become so accustomed to seeing Haru that he had nearly forgotten how bizarre it actually was.

"Okay, I'll obviously grant you a little bit of forgiveness for being overwhelmed, but at dinner you were acting a different kind of weird. You looked like you'd just seen someone get shot, for christ's sake."

Sousuke frowned and avoided Rin's eyes. Rin continued to prod at him, refusing to let him zone out or pretend he hadn't heard, and cut off his path when he tried to leave. After a couple of minutes, he relented.

"Why shouldn't I look upset? You've gotten yourself in pretty deep this time," Sousuke grumbled. Rin froze and felt his brow furrow.

"...What's that supposed to mean?"

"On top of all the stuff you've taken on lately, you're keeping this kind of secret?"

"It's not that difficult. I like having him to myself."

"Now, see, that's exactly what I was afraid you would say."

Rin reflexively stepped back before he had even fully processed the statement, and he felt his mouth fall open somewhat.

"...Huh?"

"Don't play dumb. You like him."

Well, shit.

"O-Of course I like him, we're friends," Rin stammered.

"You know damn well that's not what I meant," Sousuke said, his voice going about as low as it could. He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms. Rin attempted a casual laugh and waved a dismissive hand.

"No, no, you read too much into these things because you're worried about my hopeless romantic tendencies," he insisted. His tone wasn't convincing. He'd always had a habit of becoming infatuated rather quickly, usually with people he hardly knew, and it had come back to bite him more than once.

"I'm worried for good reason. Is this going to end up like all the rest of your failed crushes, or is it gonna be even worse?"

It won't be the same, because Haruka isn't one of my fleeting crushes, the voice in the back of Rin's head grumbled. He was careful not to say this aloud.

Then, Sousuke said something that set Rin off more than it probably should have.

"I don't know if you can handle that right now."

Rin felt his hands curl into fists and drew back his shoulders, already feeling a gnawing guilt in his gut and a familiar wet sting at the corners of his eyes.

"...Can't handle it? What do you mean by that?"

Sousuke looked taken aback by the sudden shift in Rin's demeanor, and he backed away slightly.

"I-I'm just worried you're getting too attached. What if he gets hurt? What if you get hurt?"

"I'm not in love with him, Sousuke." (He was lying.)

"But he's your friend. It would still hurt if he disappeared on you—"

"Everything hurts sometimes! You can't protect me from everything!"

Rin paused to catch his breath. He had shouted far louder than he meant to, and Sousuke now looked backed into a corner, like he was on the defensive somehow. Rin looked to the ground, biting his lip and curling his hands into fists.

"Your shoulder," he nearly whispered.

Sousuke stiffened and narrowed his eyes, instinctively placing his hand over his right shoulder. The habit only seemed to verify Rin's suspicions about it. It still hurt from time to time.

"What about it?"

"It's wrecked, and that's because of me."

"It's not wrecked. I take good care of it. And besides, that's not true."

Rin groaned and tangled his hands into his own hair. He was glaring at the taller man now, who was still being as stubborn as always even with his hand still fixed to the injured shoulder.

"It is true! I've already caused you an injury, and now you wanna keep treating me like some kid? Shouldn't I be protecting you?!"

Sousuke's expression fell, and it was replaced by something Rin had never seen and didn't know how to read. After a moment, his eyes filled with hurt, and he somewhat resembled an abandoned puppy. He lowered his hand from his shoulder and moved the muscle around for a moment, mostly to prove something to himself.

"My shoulder is fine. And I'm just looking out for you."

Rin snorted again, and then he was gone. He'd always had a habit of storming out of rooms when he didn't know what else to say.

With the room now unsettlingly empty and silent, Sousuke took a moment to breathe, to reflect.

He wasn't lying. His shoulder hardly ever gave him trouble anymore. He was careful with it, and maintained constant physical therapy. Most of his current workout routine had begun simply from that need for maintenance.

Swimming had often been Rin's only source of joy in their high school days. Sousuke had joined the swim team with him, and he'd overdone it. He'd injured his shoulder, and he'd disobeyed his physical therapist and put too much strain on it too early, rendering it completely useless for a long time.

Rin blamed himself, as he often did. It wasn't his fault. Sousuke had disobeyed his doctor's orders. Even so, Rin was correct about the fact that Sousuke would likely have never joined the swim team on his own. He had joined for Rin's sake— that, he couldn't deny. And perhaps for some people that made him responsible for the subsequent injury.

But Sousuke had never thought of it that way. No one had ever forced him to look after Rin. He had chosen to do it. He still chose to do it. It was unusual for Rin to be so angry about it, as he'd mostly gotten used to the protective habits.

Maybe Rin was making his own choices now, and he'd decided that Haruka was a risk worth taking, Sousuke thought as he went to change his clothes.

------------

Rin was only mildly surprised to find Haru in the cave. It seemed he'd been lounging and admiring the moon. Perhaps he'd been unable to sleep. Haru, on the other hand, was so shocked to hear him enter that he jumped back into the water.

"Oh, sorry, Rin. I thought someone else had found me," he explained after he'd popped his head up above the water.

Rin found himself unable to articulate a response. He sighed loudly and collapsed onto the rock where Haru had lain, only mildly annoyed by the wetness. He was still too upset to think about something so small. Haru tilted his head.

"What's wrong? Did something happen with Sousuke?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"He was odd this morning. I don't know him very well, but you didn't describe him as being that awkward or serious all the time, so I assumed he was acting unusual."

Haru pulled himself out of the water and squeezed onto what little was left of the platform of rock. For all his beauty and grace, his tail always made the same very fishlike plop sound when he laid down, and it always made Rin giggle.

"Tell me about it."

"Uh, well, we argued." Rin sat up and laid his back against a nearby stalagmite, and Haru followed suit, sitting up and propping himself up by resting his weight on one arm. Rin's body language was odd. He kept his knees up and partially hid his face in them, almost as if he was shielding himself.

"...About what?" Haru waited a moment before prodding. Rin gulped.

"About this. He's nervous. He's too protective. He's sure I'm going to get hurt, thinks I've gotten too attached to ya."

Haru furrowed his brow.

"Too attached?"

Rin blushed, though Haru could only barely see it, and his eyes widened slightly.

"H-he doesn't like me getting too close to anyone, you see, and I stop by to see you almost every day."

Haru knew Rin was leaving something out, but he decided not to dwell on it. He shook his head and pressed on.

"Is he possessive of you?"

"No, not really. Just protective. He's like a paranoid dad sometimes."

Haru frowned. Rin had said this many times before, but something seemed off. It was one thing to be protective of a friend. It was another thing entirely to loom over a person in the way that Sousuke did, to devote oneself so wholly to making sure no harm befell another person. Sousuke seemed to treat it like a responsibility. More than that, he seemed to think that Rin needed it.

"Did you get hurt in the past?" Haru asked, and Rin twitched like he'd been struck. He tried to feign normalcy, but quickly realized it was too late. He sighed.

"Yeah," he said bluntly. "And Sousuke had to take care of me when that happened."

"Take care of you? Were you injured?"

Rin gulped. He looked like he wasn't quite sure how to answer the question for a moment.

"I guess you could... I mean... I guess you could say I was ill, yes."

There was a pause where Haru tried to read Rin's tone and expression, but he'd been far too vague. After a moment his expression went from completely blank to incredibly pained, and his face twisted like it did when he was trying not to cry.

"You don't have to be so upset about it, Rin. Taking care of a sick person can take a lot out of someone. If he had to run all of your errands for you for a while—"

"No, no, it wasn't errands, nothing that simple. When I say I was sick, I mean that I was—!"

Rin's own throat seemed to cut off his words as it tightened, and he tangled his hands into his hair and breathed rapidly through his mouth for a moment. Haru could only watch, and eventually Rin resumed normal breathing. It seemed that he had memorized exercises to help him do so, and Haru couldn't help but wonder why.

"...What were you?" Haru asked after several long moments. Rin sighed.

"I was like an invalid," he said quietly.

Haru felt that he was finally beginning to understand.

"So when you say that he took care of you, you mean... You mean everything."

Rin chuckled, though he didn't find anything particularly funny.

"I've always managed to use the bathroom myself, but that's about as far as it went for a while." He looked up at the moon, and Haru saw the small tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

"...Once..." Rin began, and the tone of his voice indicated that he was telling a story. Haru leaned forward. "Once, I hurt him. I hurt him pretty bad, too."

"...Where did you hurt him?" Haru coaxed more from him.

"I cut his face," Rin admitted through gritted teeth. "I... Had been sleeping for about five days—"

"Days?!"

"Yeah. ...It was all that I felt I could do. Anyway, I was starting to stink."

"I would imagine so."

"Sousuke kept insisting that I take a bath, or take a shower. But... I didn't want to undress."

Haru knit his brows together at that remark. What an odd thing to say, and what a strange way to say it, he thought. He said nothing.

"Sometimes I would enter trancelike states, and when I was like that nothing Sousuke did or said affected me. So once, when I was like that, he decided... that he'd bathe me himself."

"...That can't have gone well."

"It didn't. ...I came to after he'd already gotten me in there and started scrubbing. I freaked out. I grabbed the razor and I slashed at him. It... It wasn't a deep cut, but... I hurt him really badly." He meant it metaphorically, and Haru nodded to show that he understood.

"And so... He's still overprotective. He's afraid to see you get hurt because he's seen you at your absolute lowest," Haru guessed, and Rin confirmed it with a quiet grunt.

Haru hadn't expected this. Sousuke had seemed stern, almost parental, and now it made perfect sense. What didn't make sense to him was that someone like Rin had ever been like an invalid. Rin was full of life. To be anything else was to be... not Rin. He couldn't fit the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind, and it left him with a distorted picture of someone he thought he knew.

"...Is it me?" Haru asked in a squeaky whisper when Rin said nothing more. He hadn't noticed his own throat tightening. Rin sprang up, snapping out of his dreary fog to wave his arms in front of him in adamant denial.

"No, it has nothing to do with you! Or... It does, but it isn't anything specific about you. He would be upset no matter who I was seeing."

"That's not true. If you made a new human friend, would he stop you? He's upset because he knows what could happen!"

Rin froze, and something flickered in his eyes. Haru's widened in disbelief. Had he really forgotten?

"I... I guess I forgot about that during the argument," Rin began, confirming Haru's suspicions. "I thought he was just being weirdly paranoid about you suddenly deciding you didn't like me anymore. I've been having so much fun with you that I forget sometimes about all of the the risks you've been taking."

Upon further reflection, Haru realized that he couldn't fault Rin. Haru had made a conscious effort to avoid talking about the monarchy and to keep the tone of things cheerful and casual. That Rin had fallen for his bluff was only to be expected.

"Don't your parents protect you?" Haru asked. He wasn't sure where the question had come from, and Rin made a strange face. "I— I mean, I was just wondering why Sousuke had to care for you instead of your parents. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"Well, uh, it's my fault, really. I shut them out. Sousuke was the only one left, and he wouldn't really take no for an answer."

Haru turned oddly serious at that, and looked sadly at Rin.

"Are things okay with them now?"

Rin shot up from his relaxed position against the stalagmite.

"O-oh, yeah! Yeah, things are good now! I... Actually, remember when you took me to see all those stars?"

Bringing up that night felt somehow inappropriate, considering the realization he'd had then. He tried not to acknowledge his feelings for fear of scaring Haru away, but it was almost impossible to think about the stars without thinking of his affections for Haru.

"I remember."

"Well, I got a lot of thinking done when you were taking your nap, and after I went home I called them—"

"Wasn't it really late?"

"Yeah, I know, I know! But it was important. I called them to ask them to meet me the next day, and when we met I explained everything and apologized. ...We're okay now. We're good. And I guess... I guess I owe that to you," Rin concluded. He smiled, his eyes watering.

You cry way too much, Haru thought. It wasn't a criticism, merely an observation, and he wondered when that had changed— when things he'd have considered flaws before simply became character quirks.

"...Thank you. I'm glad things are okay with you and your parents now."

"You seem awfully concerned about that."

Haru stiffened, his expression going blank for a split second. He forced a sad smile.

"I don't have any. Wish I did. It makes me sad when people don't get along with theirs."

There was pause as both men tried to read the face of the other, as Rin breathed softly and wondered whether he should ask for more detail. He apparently opted against it, and looked quietly at the moon.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. He didn't say anything else.

Haru didn't know what he was thinking, why he felt the words bubbling in his throat like he couldn't help but speak, why he so badly wanted Rin to know. He'd always gone out of his way not to tell anyone. It had taken Makoto years to pry his secret from his lips, and even then he'd given very little detail.

With Rin, it was different.

"My mother was killed by humans."

Rin didn't react for a moment.

"...What?"

The redhead's expression was pained, perplexed. He looked guilty, and Haru shook his head.

"I'm so sorr—"

"You don't have to apologize for it, idiot. You're not like them. I said that already, didn't I?"

Haru huffed, though he was only mildly annoyed, and Rin took a moment to imitate the merman's pose. He pulled himself up next to him and laid on his stomach, and then propped his head up with arms. He kicked his feet up in an imitation of Haru's tail, which Haru decided to ignore for now.

"We used to live off the coast of Japan. The monarchy doesn't really have any control there, and mother wanted me to be myself. That's what she always said."

"I wondered why your Japanese was so fluent," Rin murmured.

"Yes, well, that's what the humans spoke around there. ...I would talk to them from time to time, though I never let them see my tail. Mother didn't discourage me from it, but she did want me to be careful. She wanted me to learn, but she didn't want me to get caught. She used to scold me quite a bit... I was too free-spirited, did whatever I felt like doing."

Haru took a moment to take a deep, shaky breath. Rin was watching him intently. The glow of his red eyes was intense and distracting, but he'd gotten used to that by now.

"I should have listened more. Japan... They still eat dolphins, and whales, and shark fins. Anything with a large tail is..."

He trailed off, and didn't have to explain any further. Rin hummed a guilty-sounding low note and looked away. He was proud of his heritage, but didn't much appreciate that cultural practice.

"She didn't hate humans. If I had made a friend like you back then, I'm sure she would have understood. But along the coastline, most of the humans we saw were fishermen. She didn't hate them, but she was understandably afraid of them.

"One day... I disobeyed her. I stayed out late at night, watching the boats, and I wasn't being as careful as I should have. Someone saw my tail, and I think they thought I was a dolphin.

"They started chasing me... I'd never been that afraid. Not before and not since. I was small, and not very fast. They nearly caught me in their net, and then..."

He paused to squeeze his eyes shut. The image was still vivid, still clear as if it had happened only yesterday. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and hummed gratefully.

"Mother found me just in time, and she pulled me out. She told me to swim away, to not look back. ...The only thing I saw was blood, and then I never saw her again. So I left Japan, and I came here."

Rin's face fell, and his eyes glistened. Don't cry again. Not for me, Haru thought. Somehow the thought of making Rin cry upset him more than the memory.

"I-it's not your fault—"

"It is my fault. I didn't know any better, but it wouldn't have happened if I'd listened. I always thought she was being paranoid. I never listened to her when she warned me about things."

Rin's brow furrowed. It seemed he was beginning to catch on.

"...Oh?"

"Yes. She was protective. And for good reason."

Rin swallowed thickly and looked down to study the rocks below him. He chuckled, as he sometimes did when he was nervous and nothing was even remotely funny. Haru took this as sufficient license to continue.

"...When I was young, sometimes I wished she didn't smother me so much. Now... Now I'd give anything to hear one of her lectures again. But I didn't know that, that she only did it because she loved me, until it was too late."

"Yeah."

"It's easy to feel frustrated when people don't understand you, when they scold you all the time, but... It could be much worse. You could be left with no one there to worry about you."

"...Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'm... I'm sorry."

"Well, don't apologize to me." Rin looked up, and it seemed like the tears had vanished before they had a chance to fall. "Explain to him that you need some space, because you do, but make sure he knows you appreciate how much he cares."

Rin made up his mind to do just that, and thanked Haru with an awkward one-armed hug before he stood and made his way home. The apartment was dark, and Sousuke lounged on the couch watching some game show he didn't much care for. Rin heard him scoff at the TV as a contestant gave an especially dumb answer.

"...Sousuke? I'm back. Sorry if you were waiting up."

Sousuke perked up. It didn't show anywhere but in his eyes, but Rin knew how to spot it. The flash of recognition quickly passed, and then he went back to feigning disinterest.

"I wasn't," he lied.

"Oh, I see. You just had to stay up past midnight to watch this crappy game show, huh?"

Sousuke groaned in annoyance, and Rin chuckled. He had never seemed to be aware of how vocal he was, and no one ever said anything to him about it, but it was common to hear a series of exasperated groans from the direction of his desk in the middle of a particularly busy day at the station.

"Hey, uh, about earlier... I just wanted to apologize for yelling at you. I get why you—"

Sousuke cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"No, whatever, it's fine. You're gonna do what you do, and I'm gonna worry, and we're gonna piss each other off from time to time, but you and I both know it's okay. It's fine."

Rin could only blink at that for a moment. It seemed that Sousuke really wasn't mad. Perhaps worrying really was just that for him— worrying. As if only for the sake of doing it. He chuckled.

"Uh, okay. As long as you're not mad. I'm gonna go to bed."

Sousuke waited until he heard the door close to turn off the TV. He stared at the darkened screen for a moment as he tried to collect his thoughts.

Rin had probably gone to Haruka, he realized. And the merman had said something to him that made him apologize. Apologize. Rin was stubborn, especially with him, because he was just as stubborn, or perhaps worse. A heartfelt apology from him for a normal argument was rare. Sure, he apologized a lot for things that weren't his fault, but those were almost habitual.

Sousuke sighed as he stood to go to bed.

He still wasn't crazy about the whole thing, but he couldn't ignore the fact that Rin had been a lot happier, and had matured quite a bit in the few months he'd been visiting his new friend. All things considered, Haruka was a positive addition to his life.

Sousuke laid down in his bed and curled into his blankets. It can't hurt to play along, he thought as he finally fell asleep.

------------

Both Rin and Haru were shocked when Sousuke entered the cave the following morning. Rin could tell he was in a rather good mood, as he'd bought himself some food from the local vendors without his usual attention to calorie content.

He joined the conversation casually and without much introduction, and offered Rin a hot dog that he refused. Haru, as casual as ever, simply went with the change and started talking mostly to Sousuke.

"There are... Quite a few Japanese officers in this area, aren't there?" Haru asked after a few minutes of conversation, his face indicating that he was confused by this. Rin chuckled and glanced at Sousuke, who nodded.

"It might seem a bit weird for Australia, yeah. But this is a northern coastal city, and there are a lot of Japanese people here— second or third generation immigrants, mostly. Rin and I feel it's important to serve a community you can actually relate to. That's why the force is so heavily Japanese," Sousuke explained. He took a bite of his hot dog.

"...What is that thing, anyway?" Haru finally asked. It has obviously been bugging him, and Rin had wondered if he was going to say anything.

"It's a hot dog. They sell them at stands and carts on boardwalks like these," Sousuke said, his mouth half-full.

"What kind of meat is it? Cow? Chicken? Pig? Or something else?"

"Yes."

"Yes to... What?"

Rin and Sousuke both laughed uncontrollably, and Haru looked hopelessly confused. Rin managed to calm himself just enough to offer an explanation.

"I think they're supposed to be made of beef, but they rarely are. No one really knows what's in them," Rin explained.

"So he was saying yes to everything, then," Haru quietly confirmed to himself.

"Oh, that reminds me," Sousuke interjected, scarfing down the last of his lunch. "What do you guys eat, anyway?"

"What do we eat? ...Plants and mussels, mostly. Also smaller fish," the merman slowly explained.

Haru looked up and to the left when he thought or tried to remember things. Rin smiled, thinking to himself that it was cute, before clearing his throat and ignoring Sousuke's suspicious glance.

"So there's a food chain? Certain fish are okay to eat?" Rin asked.

At first it seemed strange to him, but then he realized that humans were the same way with animals. No one batted an eye about eating a chicken, but no Australian would ever eat a dog or cat, and that contrast might seem strange to other species.

Haru nodded.

"I like mackerel best," he said simply.

"Where's the cutoff?"

"Huh?"

Rin waved his hand.

"Forget it," he said dismissively.

It would be too hard to explain the concept of a food chain properly anyhow. Haru, however, apparently understood his question and explained as best he could.

"Certain fish are considered 'game', like deer," he began.

"You've been reading your animal books?" Sousuke asked, grinning. Haru ignored him. For some reason, Sousuke had found the stash of children's books that Rin kept in the cave extremely amusing.

"Those fish are the same kinds humans usually use for food— mackerel, tuna, salmon, tilapia— I'm sure you understand," he finished.

Sousuke hummed with interest as he twisted open his soda.

"You really shouldn't drink this stuff— it's bad for you," the larger man said, noticing Haru looking curiously at the bottle.

"Why are you drinking it, then?"

"That's a good question."

Rin laughed again, shaking his head at his friend.

"Since when are you this goofy?" Rin asked incredulously. Sousuke only shrugged. He didn't normally drink soda, either. It seemed he was oddly giddy.

When he had finished his food, Haru made Sousuke sit still so he could draw a portrait of him. Rin took his entrapment as an opportunity to question him, knowing he couldn't run away.

"So what's up with you and Minishiba and Ai?"

Sousuke winced, and Rin chuckled. The larger man shook his head and sighed.

"I'm technically done training them, but I keep hanging around anyway. See, look, I know that officers dating other officers is generally frowned upon, but it's not against the rules as long as it's not interfering with the job. They're in this weird place where they'd probably be more focused if they were dating. Their relationship is so goddamned awkward that it hurts everyone's teamwork, something has to be done."

"And that's the only reason you've been so involved, huh?" Rin teased. Sousuke's slightly reddened cheeks betrayed his intentions. He squirmed like he was trying to get away, and then Haru clicked his tongue and he froze again.

"I just want the little guys to be happy. Shit, is that a crime?" He admitted. His face was beet-red now. Rin waved a hand at him.

"I'm not making fun of you. Hell, I'll help you out. I'll tell Minishiba that if he doesn't say something I'll tell the captain, and god knows he'll embarrass him to death. I'm sure he doesn't want that."

Sousuke reflexively recoiled in horror at the thought, and then looked up as he pondered if further.

"That... That could work, actually. And I mean, it's gotta be Momo. Nitori's pretty oblivious, and he's too shy."

Another half hour passed, and Haru finished his portrait. As Rin was studying it, he heard Sousuke's phone ring. He chatted with someone for a moment before hanging up and turning to face Haru.

"...Look, I felt bad about being uncool yesterday, and I wanted to thank you for takin' care of my buddy here, so I, uh... I got you something to make up for it. We can only borrow them for a little while, and the owner will be back for them soon, but I thought it was a good idea nonetheless."

He stood without explaining what he was talking about and left the cave. Haru looked quizzically at Rin, who could only shrug.

Sousuke returned with a large cage, one that he could barely get through the thin cavern corridors, and Haru lit up like the sun. He heard Rin laugh.

"Bunnies!" Rin cried, and Haru quickly flopped onto the rocks and tried to pull himself towards the cage as it was set upon the ground.

"They're Nagisa's. He got a rabbit without realizing it was pregnant, somehow, and Rei's makin' him take these to somebody who can get them all good homes. He told me I could borrow them for a little while," Sousuke explained, mostly to Rin, as Haru didn't know who Nagisa and Rei were. Rin shook his head. He couldn't think of anyone else who would unknowingly buy a pregnant rabbit.

There were six of them, and most of them were black. Rin could tell by the shape of their ears that the mother was a Netherland dwarf rabbit. He saw Haru dry himself off, and then he wiggled the rest of the distance to the cage and pulled out one of the little baby rabbits for himself. He instantly marveled at how soft it was, and tenderly stroked its tiny ears.

Rin looked at Sousuke and smiled as the larger man looked away and scratched his neck.

"That was really thoughtful of you, Sousuke. They're cute. Thank Nagisa for me, alright?"

"Yeah," Sousuke mumbled.

Haru played with the rabbits for about an hour before Sousuke had to take them back to Nagisa, and then the officers took their leave.

Once the day's work had been finished, they'd returned to their home, and they had a moment to breathe, Sousuke piped up about something.

"Your speech is coming up soon, yeah?"

Rin blushed at that and pulled a tiny notebook out of his pocket. He flipped quickly through the pages, showing that he'd filled up most of them.

"Yep. I've been scribbling down notes and ideas constantly. I know everything I want to say, but I still need to form it into something that makes sense, you know? Give it a structure."

Sousuke nodded in understanding, and then he sat up on the couch and smiled.

"You wanna practice it on me?" He offered, and Rin felt his blush deepen.

"...Okay," he agreed with a wide smile.

It seemed that, for once, things were going his way, and he pulled out his laptop to find his half-formed speech.

He had more than earned a bit of peace and quiet.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES

Think it's impossible to unknowingly get a pregnant animal? Think again! My little brother got a hamster as a child that we were told was a large male, and it turned out to be a pregnant girl. My mother remembers being woken up to the question "can boy hamsters have babies?" And then, sure enough, eight baby hamsters. Obviously we had to give them away, and we put up an ad in the church bulletin for people to come take a hamster. We ended up keeping one of the babies. Also I've had a strong affection for bunnies since my early childhood. I used to twitch my nose all the time and people theorized it was because I spent too much time looking at the rabbits.

And yeah, Sousuke still has a shoulder injury in this AU. He's diligent in taking care of it, but even if it did bother him he's too stubborn to admit it.