Chapter Text
A long yawn forces it's way past Rin's lips as he carries his cereal bowl through from the kitchen into the bedroom, settling himself on the bed amongst an abundance of plush cushions and making himself comfortable.
Morning light slips through the gaps in the blinds that cover the window, creating a calm atmosphere within the room. The noise of the big city outside kind of ruins the peace, but Rin doesn't mind, in fact, he takes pleasure in it's presence. Cars and people alike can be heard from here, only slightly muffled by the windows and walls, even from as far up in the building as he is. Despite it's loudness, he loves it; he loves the way it contrasts with the quietness he was always used to in Iwatobi. Even in Australia, it was never quite like this, it never quite made him feel so at home. When he moved to Tokyo, he'd never expected the noise to be a comfort, he had thought it'd be a nuisance and that it would keep him awake for hours at night. Now, however, he knows that if he was offered the opportunity to make his apartment soundproof for free, he wouldn't take it. Home in Tokyo wouldn't be the same without the noise.
Rin smiles as he thinks about this, closing his eyes and listening to the sounds of the city for a few moments longer and appreciating them. Then, he opens his eyes and brings himself back to reality, realising that he needs to check his phone. He thrusts his free hand beneath the sheets and begins to search for it, patting the mattress carelessly in an attempt to seek it out. "Aha!" Rin breathes as his fingertips come into contact with the device, pulling it out into open air and clicking the on button.
He sees that he has a new text message from Haruka. Recalling the conversation he and his friend had had the previous evening, Rin feels his heart thumping with anticipation as he opens the text.
And then he gasps, for he cannot believe what he has read. The announcement is simple, as expected, a fleeting statement in the form of a simple sentence to match Haruka's somehow charmingly plain personality. It's so dull that Rin can imagine him saying it, his voice monotone and his face seemingly expressionless to the eye of an outsider, but Rin would recognise the emotion in his eyes.
"MakoHaru is canon." Haruka had texted.
Rin reads the words on the screen over and over until he slowly begins to giggle to himself. The timing of it had been impeccable. In fact, you might even say that it was fate.
Slowly, Rin's giggle increases in volume, his cereal bowl wobbling in his grasp dangerously, milk threatening to spill over the edges and dirty the sheets of his bed.
"What's so funny, Rin-san?"
Rin's eyes move upwards from the screen of his phone to the man standing in the doorway. Blue hair, red glasses still perching on his nose, even when he is wearing so little else. Rei, a towel around his hips, notices Rin's attention on him, and a pretty flush rises to his cheeks, then, interestingly, spreads down his neck and colours his chest as well. He is adorable, just adorable. And now, he is Rin's.
"Oh, Rei-chan. I was just admiring the perfect coincidence of our situation. I mean, what are the odds that you decided to get on a train to Tokyo to tell me how you feel on the very same evening that our Makoto and Haru got together at last?"
"Who's Makoto?" Rei asks, then he answers his own question. "Oh, you mean Nanase-senpai has someone he likes too? A girl?"
"A girl? Never. Haruka is as gay as me!" Rin laughs. "Makoto is actually a man, a darn beefy one that that."
"Oh, I see." Rei glances downwards and appears to think things at the floor for several seconds. Rin swears he can actually hear the cogs turning in his head. "Maybe that's why he looked so nervous yesterday."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing."
Rin shrugs and looks back at his phone. He can see Rei begin to fumble around for some clothes to put on out of the corner of his eye.
Meanwhile, Rin is hard at work attempting to think of a witty reply for Haru which both congratulates him for his relationship with Makoto and reveals his change in relationship status with Rei, but he cannot think of anything. He decides it'd be most effective to reply with the same blunt and simple style, and ponders over it for a second, before finally sending this:
"Your number one shipper is satisfied. For the record, RinRei is canon, too. Coincidence? I think not!"
Again, he laughs.
**
Rin's text arrives just as Haruka is leaving for work.
As he reads it, his eyebrows rise on his forehead and he wonders how on earth Rei can be attracted to someone so obviously different to him. Well, Haruka supposes, he and Makoto aren't all that similar, either.
Maybe that's just how the world is.
**
December
In Yuki's opinion, the dark-haired, blue-eyed human she lives with is a curious creature. All humans are curious, but she feels that hers, in particular, is the most curious of all.
In the space of mere months, his entire aura has changed, in the way he carries himself and in the way he interacts with those around him. Where he used to be reserved, he is now confident; where he used to be quiet, he is now talkative. The changes aren't extreme or obvious, per say. To humans, they're actually rather subtle, but they are evident enough for Yuki to notice and acknowledge them. I mean, the fact that she notices and acknowledges the subtle changes isn't at all surprising, considering the fact that she has come to constantly worry about him and therefore feel obliged to ensure his safety and emotional stability at all times. Observing him has become a habit, and since her human met Miki's human, she has observed these changes and watched them develop. To say the least, Yuki finds them, well, curious.
Honestly, for her, the character development she has observed is positive, as it seems his trust in Yuki herself has increased. The two of them have grown closer over the last few months, the stiff distance that had lurked between them when they first met practically non-existent these days.
Back then, in the early times, when Yuki and her human were just housemates "for the time being", they didn't have the pet-owner bond which most animals seem to have with their human upon their first meeting. Yuki had been grateful that her human had given her a new home, but she'd missed her previous owner deeply. The small cat had lived peacefully with the delicate old woman and her husband for countless years before she'd come into contact with her new human; she had seen the lady's fragile health deteriorate after her husband's death and watched how it'd made her suffer, her memory fading, her bones weakening. Yuki had seen her fall down the stairs and fled in her panic, though it didn't take long for her to realise she had no where to go. Her original aim was to find someone to help the lady, but she soon found herself lost, wandering through country lanes, vast fields of grass and several different neighbourhoods in search of something - anything - a sign of hope.
Luckily, she stumbled upon a doorstep one day and felt the urge to wait for someone to find her there. It was this impulse that lead her to her new human, the sad-looking man with dark hair who saved her, fed her and loved her. Of course, she was upset and jarred by the old lady's death, but her new human took good care of her, and she soon overcame her grief, settling in and finding her place in her new home.
When she met Miki, though, things only got better. She now has a gentle feline companion to keep her company, one who she feels understands her like no other cat she's ever met, and her human has become friends with Miki's owner, who treats him well and makes him happy, too.
It appears they have developed what humans call a "romantic attachment", which, in all honesty, just makes them more entertaining to observe. The main reason why Yuki thinks humans are so curious is because they express affection in ways that cats don't. Yuki finds this particularly fascinating to see. She likes to watch the two of them as they lay on the sofa with their arms wrapped around each other, pressing kisses to each others' lips and staying close together, even as their cheeks flush red. It's cute, indeed, but Yuki has noticed that the two of them only act this way in the privacy of their house, and their affections are more reserved when they are in public, limited to only the holding of hands and, in very special situations, the brief pressing together of lips.
After observing the two for a suitable amount of time and drawing up a conclusion from her research, Yuki decides this:
Humans are curious, curious creatures, but Nanase Haruka and Tachibana Makoto are the most curious of all, for at first glance it seems like they were made for each other, but, in reality, they were just brought together by the mischief of cats. And stuff.
(For the sake of justifying a shitty title.)