I'm back! Here is your last bit of fluff before the pain begins!

The big day had finally arrived.

Rin was sure he'd had the happiest couple of weeks he'd ever experienced. Sousuke had adapted to letting Haru into their lives, and had started joining him on about half of his visits to the cave. Haru had filled him in on everything he'd missed, and Sousuke had finally decided on exactly what he wanted Haru to say to Makoto for him.

Haru had delighted in making the two humans race one another through the water, and would often cheekily refuse to tell them who had won, which left it to the two of them to bicker about who touched which rock first. Haru had tried to take Sousuke underwater like he'd done with Rin, but Sousuke wasn't quite trusting enough, and refused to admit that he couldn't hold his breath as long.

Sousuke had set up a better projector for his phone, and they'd watched videos and movies with Haru under the starlight. Rin was still saving The Little Mermaid for the right time, but just about every other ocean-themed movie and TV show had been watched, and it was funny to hear Haru correct certain things. Haru decided that Finding Nemo, despite "its few inaccuracies", as he put it, was his favorite movie. Rin took a strange pride in hearing that, and was happy to finally have an excuse to make Disney and Pixar references.

"We still haven't watched Sousuke's favorite," Rin said once, and he received a swift punch to the gut. "Mulaaaaaan," he croaked through the pain, and he didn't get a chance to explain what that was.

At least, not until he had the audacity to suggest that Mulan was not technically a princess and therefore couldn't be Sousuke's favorite, and then Haru had laughed and laughed as the two got into a heated argument over which princess was best. Rin's loyalty had always been with Ariel, and Sousuke would accept no other than Mulan.

"Ariel gave up her home and family for a dude she didn't even know, and Mulan defeated the goddamn Huns and saved all of fucking China," Sousuke always said.

Sousuke would always pretend not to like "kiddie movies", but their early friendship had formed around using the films as a way to help Rin with his English, so his emotional fondness for them was easy to understand. They'd had sleepovers in which they'd watch a film first in English and then switch it to Japanese to help Sousuke, and those were happy memories.

Every night, Rin would practice his speech on either Sousuke or Haru, and sometimes he'd have them both for an audience. Both were great for this, as they were blunt with their critiques. Never mean, but honest. Rin needed that. Soon, he had polished a speech that Sousuke insisted was worthy of the halls of speech fame, a compliment Rin had furiously blushed at.

Now, it was the morning of the festival, and Rin hopped out of his bed an hour before the alarm went off. He'd been too excited to sleep, so he put on a pot of coffee as he gathered all of his materials and finalized his choice of outfit.

Text messages started pouring in early, and before long he had messages of encouragement from just about the entire department. Apparently everyone planned on going, and he felt immediate suspicion. How had they all managed to get the day off? He'd question the Captain about it later.

Sousuke was apparently excited, too. He got up not long after Rin, and was grateful to find the coffee already being prepared. He got to work on breakfast and turned into a nagging mother as he reminded Rin of all the things he'd need. Rin groaned as he promised he hadn't forgotten anything.

When he had a moment to spare, he called Haru. Haru promised he'd stay in the cave all day, so that Rin could drop by whenever he was ready. At one point, Sousuke pulled the phone out of his hand and went to another room to whisper something at Haru. Rin furrowed his brow. Everyone was hiding things from him today.

At seven, he got a call from his parents, who surprised him with the announcement that they'd both taken the day off to come to the festival. Rin's mother rattled on and on about all the research she had done, and he heard his father's embarrassed laughter in the background.

"You guys are the best," he warbled though teary eyes as he said his farewell and hung up the phone. The moment he'd ended the call, the phone rang again.

"We're totally gonna be there, just you wait!" Nagisa screamed into the receiver. He heard a muffled "don't you have an inside voice?!" from Rei.

The answer to that question was a sound no.

"Who even told you two? I certainly didn't," Rin grumbled. It wasn't that he didn't want them there. He liked them both. But Nagisa was a bit difficult to handle at these kinds of events, and Rei always ended up embarrassed somehow.

"Ai told me!"

Rin frowned. He was even more confused now. Ai, as in Officer Aiichirou Nitori?

"Wait, how do you know him? And you call him Ai?!"

He heard a shuffling as Rei apparently seized his phone back. He wondered if Nagisa even had one, or if he simply bummed off of Rei's all the time. It certainly seemed that way.

"Perhaps he's never mentioned us because we've never come up in conversation, but Nagisa and Ai were on the same high school swim team. The one he forced me to join later. We go back a ways," Rei explained, and Rin felt his jaw drop in shock.

He would definitely have to pester Ai about that later. He laughed as he tried to imagine Nagisa and Nitori interacting.

By seven-thirty, he and Sousuke had gotten showered and dressed and had their coffee and breakfast and gathered up packs full of water bottles and granola bars and whatever else they would need. Rin laughed when he saw Sousuke's t-shirt. Support your Rainbros. Sousuke had apparently had it for a while, but hadn't found any excuse to wear it before now.

The officers packed into their car and sped off, and it wasn't hard to spot the festival destination. What caught his eye first was the crowd waiting near the entrance for him. He waved and jogged towards them.

"Why are you all here?!" He demanded, and Momo forced a casual laugh.

"We just happened to have the day off!"

"I don't believe that for a second."

"The important thing is that we're here to offer support," the Captain said, slapping Rin's back affectionately. Rin sighed. He couldn't be upset, he just didn't like being kept in the dark, and for a normally stone-faced person, Sousuke was pretty lousy at pretending not to know things.

Rin chatted with the squad for a short while before moving on, and soon he found his parents, who were eating near a hot dog stand with Nagisa and Rei. Rin grimaced, as it seemed his mother had befriended a group of drag queens and was asking way too many loud questions, mostly about where they found high heels big enough to fit their feet. They didn't seem to mind, thankfully. Actually, they seemed to be having the time of their lives.

"Oh— the redhead over there, that's my son," he heard her tell them, and one of the taller queens winked and blew a kiss at him. He returned the gesture with an awkward laugh, and was pulled into a conversation with the other two about whether or not his hair color was natural. The shortest of the bunch refused to believe him.

"I like the shirt," Rei laughed as Sousuke approached. Sousuke grinned proudly and pointed at Nagisa.

"Tell him, he got it for me."

Nagisa flashed a wink and a thumbs up, and introduced Rin to a pink-haired man and his younger brother, who had tagged along with the blonde. His college roommate, apparently, who had also coincidentally turned out to be gay and who Sousuke apparently already knew. His brother was there only to offer support, and looked a little overwhelmed by everything.

"It's lots of noise and bright colors and flamboyant people, I know it can be kind of in-your-face at first," Rin reassured the boy. "It's just that this is the one time everyone can be themselves, when they don't have to afraid of what people will say or do, so they tend to go a little overboard sometimes." The boy smiled gratefully and nodded.

"I understand," he said with a soft giggle. He was a cute kid. Shy, but that was okay. His brother more than made up for his quiet nature with his blatant flirtations.

"If you wanna know how I already know that guy, it's because he used to hit on me all the fuckin' time," Sousuke muttered about the pink-haired man as they walked away, and Rin laughed hysterically.

"You must give off some kind of signal. The gays are just drawn to you."

"Obviously. I got stuck living with you, didn't I?"

"That you did!"

The duo continued on, having to force their way through crowds (and, in Sousuke's case, drive off some interested parties by explaining that he was only there as a friend), until finally they reached the stage area. Off to the side of the stage was a little camp area where the speakers would wait for their cues. Derek stood atop a table and waved his arms around to catch Rin's attention. Chris looked mildly embarrassed.

They only got to chat for a moment or two before Derek dropped a bomb on him.

"So, listen, we got a call from Sarah, and..."

Rin felt the chill of approaching dread.

"Well? What happened?" Sousuke asked for him. He always put a hand on Rin's shoulder at times like this, an oddly cute habit that directly reflected his overprotective nature.

"Th... The last speaker cancelled."

Rin's eyes widened, and Sousuke couldn't help but tighten his grip.

"B— but I'm scheduled for second to last!"

"Not anymore. You're the finale now."

Rin just about fell over, and Sousuke somewhat forcibly guided him to the table and sat him down on a chair. He put his head in his hands and felt his lungs tightening, fighting for oxygen.

"No, no! I can't do this, I can't close! Th-The finale... That's supposed to be the best of the best, the speech everyone's gonna remember and talk about—"

"Which is exactly what it is," Sousuke interjected sharply. His compliments were always as blunt and unrefined as his insults were.

"The speeches don't even start for an hour," Chris said softly. "And you're up last. That gives us over two hours to plan."

"To plan what?!" Rin whined.

"Well, your speech is great, but it wasn't intended to be the closer, right? The finale needs to feel more... Well, final. We can make some amendments, add some paragraphs here and there, and then it'll be perfect!"

Rin didn't look up and continued to make low whining sounds, his arms folded around his gut as if he had a bad stomachache. But he was as resilient and stubborn as ever, and after a few minutes of soothing, he took a deep breath.

"Well, between the three of us, I'm sure we can manage something, right?"

Derek and Chris were happy to hear it, and Derek contacted Sarah to let her know everything was under control. Chris immediately got to setting out their papers and armed himself with a highlighter and a pen.

"Now don't worry, there is a podium up there. People tend to wander away from and back to it so it seems less like a valedictorian speech," Derek explained, and Rin nodded as his eyes scanned the pages. He was already absorbed in his work, as if his earlier near-anxiety attack hadn't even happened.

That guy just keeps on trucking, Sousuke thought with a smile. He watched them work for another minute before speaking.

"If you're gonna be busy, Rin, I actually have to do something before the speeches start."

Rin looked mildly surprised, but didn't have the time to object.

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

Haru nearly jumped into the water, expecting an unwanted intruder, when instead a familiar giant ducked his way into the cave.

"Sousuke? Aren't you supposed to be at the festival with Rin?"

Sousuke shrugged. There was a smirk playing on his lips, like he knew something he wasn't ready to tell yet. He wasted little time on introductions and took a seat by the pool, right beside Haru, but facing the cave's largest and flattest wall.

"I know you wish you could be there, but I can't go lugging you around all day, and someone would ask questions. I've got the next best thing for ya."

Haru watched as Sousuke set down a small tablet (Rin had clarified that it was NOT just a big phone, though he still didn't understand the difference) and propped it up with some kind of stand. He unlocked the device and started typing something.

"This is gonna put me way over my usual data usage for the month... But you can't exactly get wifi in here."

Haru didn't understand what most of those words meant, and didn't ask. Sousuke adjusted the tablet and hit a few buttons, and then a static image of a rainbow-colored flag was cast upon the cavern wall. Haru blinked at it.

"It's a live feed," Sousuke explained. "That means that you can see things that happen at the same time they're happening, even if you aren't there. The event hasn't started yet, so there's just a static picture right now. But when everything begins, this screen will show the stage at the festival."

"I can see Rin?!" Haru squeaked, and he coughed awkwardly at how high-pitched the shouted question had been. Sousuke snickered at him, and then nodded.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "You will. You can watch the speech. Other speeches, too, because he's the last speaker of the day. At two, hit the button that says 'street view', and you'll get to see the parade. There's a little surprise there. Rin doesn't even know yet."

Haru couldn't hide his smile or his blush, and Sousuke have him an odd look that he didn't know how to describe. His eyes narrowed and his mouth tightened into a hard line for the briefest of moments before he managed a smile of his own.

"So ya like it?" He asked, and Haru hummed an approving note. He looked downwards, his expression suddenly melancholy.

"It's the closest thing I'll ever have to being on land," he murmured, and Sousuke's brow lowered sympathetically. He patted Haru's tail, and Haru glared at his large hand. Sousuke was a bit too gung-ho about touching his scales for his tastes. Rin always asked first.

"I mostly came here to get this set up, but I also wanted to ask you to do something for me. Just go along with it."

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

Derek and Chris ran to Sarah's side. Because of her father, she'd managed to get them seats in the small bleachers, where they'd have a better view of the stage above the rest of the crowd. She'd gotten them similar seats for the parade.

Before long, they were joined by the others. Derek was pounced upon by Nagisa, who was then corralled by Rei. Several officers trailed behind them. Derek whispered a final thanks to Sarah for securing so many seats.

"Well, at least she won't need as many during the parade," she said with a wink. Nagisa furrowed his brow in confusion, but didn't interrupt. "Where is Officer Yamazaki?"

No one had seen Sousuke since shortly after arrival, and Sarah found herself curious as to what he was up to.

"He got permission to watch from backstage, just in case Rin needs moral support afterwards. His parents are gonna sneak back there, too, to surprise him. He got lost for a while trying to find them," Chris explained. Sarah nodded in understanding. She'd been told about Sousuke's shockingly horrible sense of direction.

Meanwhile, Rin paced back and forth.

Rin had finished polishing off his speech with a half hour to spare. He'd included more material relating directly to his proffession, and planned to talk about the need for increased trust between the police and members of the LGBT community in order to better protect individuals from hate crimes.

His family and friends and coworkers had appeared briefly to wish him good luck before vanishing into the crowd to take their places in the bleachers. Their seating meant that Rin would probably be able to see them when he got onstage. Rin had been writing and watching speeches all day, and now the words were beginning to run together in his head and sound less and less like words.

A woman was onstage now, the last speaker before it would be his turn. He was backstage, where the sound crew and volunteers triple-checked the sound systems and walked around checking badges and offering water bottles, and he could see through the slight crack in the curtain.

The crowd was enormous, and very vocal. They weren't afraid to voice disapproval or disagreement. They didn't seem particularly hard to please, but Rin worried nonetheless that something in his speech could upset them and incite their wrath in the form of hisses and boos.

That strange feeling in his stomach returned. The woman's speech was in its second half. He had mere minutes left before he would take the stage, and realizing this, along with seeing just how many people were out there, made his heart rate rise again. It was beating so hard he could feel it thrumming in his eardrums.

I can't do this.

Just as he had this thought, just as he stood up intending to run away and apologize to Derek and Chris, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Sousuke?"

The larger man had disappeared for a short while, doing whatever task he'd claimed he had to do. Rin had been immediately suspicious when he'd said that. Sousuke would not have left something to be done on a day when Rin had scheduled something so important.

Before he could ask for answers, Sousuke shoved something into his hand. It took Rin a moment to register it as Sousuke's phone. It was unlocked, and the camera roll was already open.

"Got somethin' for ya. Check out the latest video."

Rin obeyed. The last thing in the camera roll was a short video, and as soon as he enlarged it, he was greeted by a familiar pair of ocean-blue eyes. He felt his mouth widen into a grin.

"Don't get right up into the camera like that— back away!"

"Sorry."

"Okay, I can actually see you now. Go ahead."

"Is it recording?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Now talk, I don't have much time!"

"O-okay. Um... Rin. Rin! Sousuke has set up a thing for me to watch you with—"

"A live feed."

"Yes, a live feed. S-So... I wanted to let you know that I'll be watching with everyone else, from right here in my cave. And even if no one can hear it... I'll be cheering you on."

The merman almost grumbled this. He wasn't one for flattery, and never looked comfortable saying such sweet things. Even so, he did say it. Rin laughed at Haru's grouchy expression, one that was ever so slightly tinted with blush. What a tsundere, he thought. It was a word the English language didn't quite have, but it summarized him perfectly.

The video ended, and Sousuke took his phone back. His face had settled into a gentle smile, and he shrugged.

"I know you get nervous, so I thought this might cheer ya up a bit."

Rin couldn't form the words to thank him, but he didn't have to. Sousuke knew.

Rin no longer cared about the crowd. It could contain the entire world and he wouldn't care. Haruka was watching. This was for Haruka, if for no one else. He'd show him his absolute best— he could do it. He could do anything if it was for Haruka.

"Thanks," Rin managed to whisper, and as usual Sousuke waved it off. He was determined to one day get the man to accept thanks from somebody, but that would have to wait. The deafening applause just outside signaled the end of the woman's speech, meaning that it was Rin's turn. Sousuke put up his hands and stepped back to make sure he couldn't be seen when the curtain parted.

Rin held his breath, and then remembered to breathe. He breathed deeply as the woman appeared on his side of the curtain and signaled him to take his place. He cast one final thankful smile at Sousuke before he took his place.

Rin had changed into his uniform at some point, hat included. He'd elected not to wear it the entire day because he'd get too hot, but since his speech had a lot to do with law enforcement, he'd felt he should wear it then. As Sousuke listened, he heard a few whistles from the crowd, and heard Rin snicker under his breath at that.

A pause, and almost complete silence. Rin drew a breath.

"Now, I know what you're all thinking, but I promise you— I am a real cop. Not a stripper."

The joke landed perfectly, and the crowd laughed, genuinely laughed, and Sousuke breathed a sigh of relief. He snuck to the side of the stage to let Rin's parents through.

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

Rin was pounced upon as soon as he made it to the bleachers. Nagisa was actually on his back at one point before Rei removed him. Ai hadn't yet stopped crying, and Sousuke argued with Rin's mother that he most certainly had not cried at all, not a single tear. Rin could easily see that he was lying.

The occasional person would stop to congratulate him or compliment him, and at some point he'd ended up with a few slips of paper with hastily-scribbled phone numbers that Sousuke almost immediately tried to confiscate. Rin laughed gleefully as he shoved them into his pocket.

"I've gotta get changed, guys. Sarah's got some seats in the bleachers for the parade. You can all head back to work."

Rin moved to leave, fully intending to spend the rest of the day with only his parents and Sousuke and Rei and Nagisa, but Sousuke stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"Whoa, where are you headed? You're with us!" The captain shouted after him. Rin turned, clearly confused. Sousuke smirked.

"...Aren't you guys gonna go back to the station? I was planning to—"

"No, we're not leaving."

Rin waited for the captain to elaborate, but he did not. He seemed too excited to talk. Momo took over for him, and proudly patted his chest. Nitori was nearly glued to his side, and they held some kind of fabric between them.

"We aren't leaving because we're marching," Momo declared.

"...What?"

At that, Momo and Nitori split apart from one another to reveal their brightly colored banner. Rin immediately burst into tears upon reading the message.

Your Police Department Stands with You!

"Well, what are you standing there for? Let's go, the parade starts in fifteen minutes!"

Rin turned to the new voice to see that some of his previously absent coworkers had arrived, most notably Noble and Gomez. He also recognized their wives and children, apparently ready to watch from the sidewalk.

Rin looked around incredulously, and then he fixed his eyes on Sousuke, who blushed and immediately hid his face.

"You knew about all of this, you son of a bitch!" Rin said through a laugh in slightly broken Japanese. He was almost too overwhelmed to switch gears properly.

"I do apologize for hiding it from you, but I was sworn into secrecy," Sousuke replied after a moment of flustered thinking.

"We're thinkin' this should be an annual tradition," Captain Mikoshiba added as he guided his squad along to the parade's starting point.

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

It had apparently taken the captain a long while to find a restaurant that could seat everyone. In the end, they had to pull several tables together. Rin sat between Sousuke and his parents, and across from Nagisa and Rei. Nagisa had gotten a seat next to his old friend, Nitori, who had Momo and the Captain to his right. Derek and Chris and Sarah rounded off the group. They'd tried to get closer to Rin, but had relented and allowed his parents and old friends to surround him instead. Rin waved at Derek as best he could, having to lean forward to see past Sousuke.

He was thoroughly exhausted, both mentally and physically. Speaking had taken a lot out of him emotionally, and the parade route had been much longer than he'd expected it to be. He'd attended the city council meeting immediately afterwards, and he and the cabinet members had shared a laugh at how plainly tired and out of breath he was.

He had high hopes. His points had been well-received, and he got far more questions than disagreements. In typical governmental fashion, they'd been concerned about funding, but Sarah's work had taken care of most of their concerns. It was a labor of love indicative of the strong support offered by the local community.

Everyone was finally settling down, and had ordered their food. Nagisa had already received his order. He heard Sousuke laugh, and he whispered to Rin, asking him if he was still tired.

"I am," Rin replied. "But it's a good kind of tired."

"...Yeah," Sousuke agreed.

Rin did his best to snap out of his fog and cleared his throat loud enough to get everyone's attention.

"So for those of you who didn't already get to meet them today, these are my parents," Rin began, nodding at the couple beside him. They had been talking to him and to Sousuke and amongst themselves and hadn't had a chance to introduce themselves.

"I'm Lori," Rin's mother said, and then gestured at her husband beside her. "And this here is my husband Russel."

"I look just like them, don't I?" Rin asked in response to the confused stares he got. Momo, strangely, was the first to understand, and he laughed.

"Oh, okay, I get it. You're adopted! I was a bit, uh, confused for a second there," Nitori admitted through a laugh.

"I was gonna say! For a second there I thought 'damn, those are the whitest Japanese people I've ever seen!'" Captain Mikoshiba laughed and slapped his knee. Nitori gave him an exasperated look, and then cast an apologetic glance at Russel and Lori, who didn't seem to mind.

"Oh, that's quite alright. We used to get a lot of confused looks," Russel said, flashing a fond smile in Rin's direction.

"Everybody used to think I was his brother, or his cousin," Sousuke grumbled. "We were the only Asian kids in our class for a while, so we obviously had to be related."

"But you don't look anything alike," Rei said through a chuckle. Sousuke shook his head.

"No, we don't. I managed to dispel the rumors by the time we hit high school, though."

"So how about you two? How long have you been together?" Lori asked the spectacled man, and he smiled fondly at Nagisa.

"Since our sophomore year of high school, actually," he answered. "Nagisa forced me to join the swim team when we were freshmen, and by the next year we were an item. Being open about it was difficult, but I think it was worth it."

"Things have certainly changed, huh?" Russel mused aloud, and Nagisa nodded as he swallowed down a fistful of fries. Everyone else's food was arriving quickly, but Nagisa was already halfway finished his.

"They sure have! It was reaaally rough back then— sometimes I wonder if I'm so short because because I was stuck in lockers all the time! Rei here helped me out. Got a copy of the janitor's master key for the lockers. If I got stuck, I just had to call him, and he'd come and let me out!"

He'd said it with a laugh, but it was actually quite a dark statement. Nagisa had a strange way of doing that. Lori and Russel wore matching horrified expressions.

"How'd ya swing that?" Sousuke asked through a mouthful of food, and Rei grimaced at his table manners before responding.

"The janitor was lonely, that's all. I took the time to befriend him." He shrugged and turned to Rin. "I never got to ask, but how did you handle that speech? Were you nervous?"

Rin laughed sheepishly.

"If I can be completely honest, I almost ran out of there. Sousuke caught me just in time and, uh... Gave me a pep talk."

Rei nodded, looking mildly surprised, and Lori caught sight of Derek and Chris and asked them, too, how long they'd been together. They told her their story about having been friends since they were little, and she apparently found this adorable. Sousuke asked Nagisa and Ai about their friendship, and asked about how and why Nagisa was still in touch with Kisumi. Rin didn't talk much. He was overwhelmed as it was, and was happy to watch everyone else have a good time.

An oddly specific question from Rei caught his attention.

"Is anything new with you? Has anything of interest happened lately?" Rei asked Sousuke, and the man in question nearly dropped his fork. Rin shot him a glare and kicked him under the table.

"Nope. Nothing. I mean, there's obviously all of this, and I'm a detective now, but you already knew about that."

Rin blinked. Sousuke was a detective. He'd been working much harder, and Rin had had to cut some of his visits with Haru because Sousuke could no longer cover so many of his shifts. Not that he had to anymore, anyway, because Sousuke knew about it and he didn't have to be as secretive.

Everyone continued to chat casually as they ate, though Rin thought he saw a question brewing in the captain, one that he didn't ask with everyone else around. Occasional diners would walk up to them, ones who'd also been at the festival, to congratulate or compliment Rin. A few informed him that they'd already called to donate or get involved in the housing project, which he found incredibly relieving. Derek had probably told his story about thirty times by now, but he didn't seem to mind it one bit.

Eventually people began to head their separate ways, until Sousuke and Rin were left alone in the parking lot with the captain, who had lingered behind. Rin gave him a questioning look.

"Now, I know you've had a lot on your plate lately, but I had to ask: when do you plan on taking that promotion?" Captain Mikoshiba asked, and Rin's eyes went wide. Sousuke looked mildly concerned, like he didn't know if he should put a stop to the line of questioning or not.

Rin looked down at his feet and balled his hands into fists. He took a deep breath. He may as well jump while he still had the courage, right?

"I have been thinking about it," he said cautiously, "and I want to take the exam. I'm ready to be a detective. I might need a week or two to cram, but I'll do it."

Sousuke was plainly shocked, and the captain was mildly surprised for only a moment before he smiled somewhat knowingly.

"That so? We could really use you, but I don't wanna pressure you into anything."

"I'm ready," Rin said confidently, and the captain grinned.

He'd been studying for the exam here and there, as he'd intended to take it eventually anyway. He hadn't planned on doing it for another few months at least, but it felt like the right decision. It had to be, if he could meet more kids like Derek, if he could influence the lives of others even a little bit more.

Sousuke tried to restrain the smirk playing at his lips and the blush on his cheeks and failed miserably. He pulled Rin under his arm to ruffle his hair so that he couldn't see his face, at which Rin groaned in exaggerated annoyance.

He was ready. He could do this. He was ready, and it had been a long time coming.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it. We'll be lucky to have you," the captain said, and then he bid them farewell. Left alone, Rin turned to Sousuke and put out his balled fist. Sousuke laughed before punching it with his own. It was a 'handshake' they'd often used in high school and that he'd nearly forgotten about. Sousuke put his arm around Rin's shoulders and hummed happily as they made their way to the car.

Rin was exhausted, but he was determined to tough it out and make it to a certain cave by the ocean anyway.

Man, would he have a lot to tell Haruka about.

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

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Obviously someone has to be at the station and on call, as crime doesn't take a break for pride festivals, but mostly everyone is there. I imagine at least a few people hold down the fort at a time, and they switch places every once in a while so everyone has a chance to go.

I like writing friendly scenes with everybody together!! :'D And I fucking love Lori, she had me cracking up with how blatantly she suspects Rin in the Australia episode.

In case somebody didn't get the joke, rainbros is a term straight men sometimes use to describe their gay friends. Because rainbow + bro.

Also advance warning for some SERIOUS MOOD WHIPLASH HAHAHAHAHA (You've had your fill of fluff, let the angst begin!!)