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“Rin” Haru whispered between kisses “Rin, they’re waiting for us”
“That’s alright“ replied Rin “They can wait”
–
“They’re late” grumped Sousuke, checking his watch.
“Mmm” Makoto replied, standing to Sousukes left. They were waiting at the train station, watching the screens which announced the arrival, and then departure, of the train Haru and Rin should have been on.
“Maybe they slept in” Makoto added good-naturedly, not wanting to think poorly of his two best friends.
“Or they’re just screwing around” replied Sousuke.
“Mmm, well, it has been a while since they’ve been able to spend time together” Makoto said with a small smile.
Rin had been back in Japan about two weeks now, on break from his training in Australia, and was staying at Haru’s while he was visiting. During this time Makoto and Sousuke had seen their friends for all of two days before they were swept away, and neither had been heard from, apart from the odd text message, since.
“Maybe we should go on ahead, it’s awfully cold waiting out here” Makoto said, rubbing his hands together for added effect.
“I guess” Sousuke replied, looking off in the direction the train had come “who knows how long those two will be now”
The two headed out of the train station, towards the warmth of their destination. Makoto sending a text to Haru, informing him they’d would meet him and Rin there, while he walked.
They were supposed to all be going to a local cafe together, to celebrate Rin’s latest victory at a local Australian swim meet, and properly hang out for the first time in over a year. Rin had been back since first leaving Japan after graduation, but he’d only had time to visit his family in Iwatobi before being swept back to Australia in a flash to compete, and the others scheduling hadn’t allowed them any time to see Rin while he was home.
“You know, it’s kinda funny” Makoto laughed, lightly scraping his boot on the path, “Haru really only lives a few stops away, so it’s not like we’re far apart, but we still have to travel to meet each other. I’m still not quite used to that, even after all this time living in Tokyo”
“Mm” came a small hum from Makoto’s right. For Sousuke, it had been a long time since he *hadn’t* had to travel to meet Rin.
“I suppose you must be used to that by now though” said Makoto, as if he’d known exactly what Sousuke was thinking “it must have been hard, when Rin moved to our school that year. I bet you missed him a lot” Makoto said it almost sheepishly, as if in a way he felt guilty for Rin leaving Sousuke behind.
Sousuke said nothing and simply smirked with a laugh that wasn’t anything more than a puff of air from his nose. He remembered missing Rin a lot, but never wanting Rin to know, since he knew Rin was following some kind of pull, something dragging him towards whatever it was Rin was striving to do. From Iwatobi to Australia, Sousuke knew Rin had a path, and there wasn’t anything Sousuke could do to shake Rin from it. As much as some days, he wanted to.
They were approaching the cafe now, it’s sandwhich board visible from where they stood across the street. When they arrived and stepped inside, both removing their gloves and scarves, the cafe pleasantly warm and cosy after the brisk air outside, they were greeted by a friendly staff member.
“Good Morning!” she chirped, wearing her best customer service smile “Just the two of you today?”
“Ah, actually we’re waiting on our friends, they’re running a little late” answered Makoto, easily returning the girls smile. Sousuke stood just off to the side, hands in the pockets of his jacket as he looked around the cafe. He’d not been here before, this wasn’t his area of Tokyo and he’d had little time, nor desire, to explore since moving back. He knew Makoto was familiar with the area, his university was not too far from here, and he wondered if this was somewhere Tachibana frequented.
Once they were seated and menus placed upon the table with another smile and a “Let me know when you’re ready to order!” from the staff member who had greeted them, Sousuke decided to indulge his curiosity.
“You been here before? Your university’s just up the road right?” Sousuke asked, shrugging off his jacket
“Mm! Yeah it’s only a few blocks from here. I haven’t actually been to this cafe before, though I’ve walked past it a lot with Haru, and we’ve always talked about coming in here, but we never got around to it really” Makoto said with a smile “That’s why we thought it would be a good place for us all to visit with Rin when he got back. It’s nice and close to the center of the city too, so there’s plenty for us to do after we’re done here”
Sousuke hummed in response and turned to look out the window, as if to see the sights Makoto was talking about, but was greeted only with the view of the street. They were seated at a booth and had a clear view outside, where it had just began to snow slightly.
“Oh, it’s snowing” came Makoto’s voice, prompting Sousuke to look back towards him, noticing Makoto had also turned to look outside. He didn’t sound overly pleased with this, Sousuke had heard from Rin that Makoto wasn’t a fan of cold weather.
“I guess we should choose somewhere warm to visit after this” said Sousuke turning back to the window.
“Yeah, it looks even colder out there now” Makoto laughed, crossing his arms and resting his elbows on the edge of the table, leaning forward slightly as he continued to look outside.
Sousuke noted Makoto had also removed his jacket, revealing a red plaid shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, layered over a black t-shirt. The outfit really suited him, it was perfectly casual yet still seemed warm, which Sousuke guessed was what Makoto was aiming for.
As Sousuke was evaluating Makoto’s outfit, a sound came from Makoto’s coat, thrown over the seat next to him. Makoto started and reached across to fish his phone out of his coat pocket.
“Oh, it’s Haru” he said as he turned back, just as Sousuke’s phone also sounded. “Ah! He says they’re not coming! He says they don’t want to risk the snow on the train lines.” he tapped at his screen before mumbling “That sounds like an excuse Haru-chan”
Sousuke also had his phone in his hand, displaying a message from Rin. Though his held no such explanation, just a “Sorry bud not coming, meet up another day k?”
Makoto finished tapping at his screen and placed his phone down with a sigh before looking back at Sousuke with an amused smile.
“Well, we might as well enjoy our time here, even if those two choose not to grace us with their presence. Shall we order something?” he asked, handing Sousuke a menu from the end of the table.
“Yeah, might as well” replied Sousuke with a shrug.
-
Sousuke had never been alone with Makoto before, any time they’d hung out it had always included Rin and Nanase, but Sousuke found himself enjoying Tachibana’s company. It wasn’t like he thought they wouldn’t get along, they had enough in common to be able to hold a conversation - swimming, two quirky best friends who’d decided to ditch them to make out or something - but he hadn’t expected to feel this comfortable around Makoto.
Something about him make Sousuke feel at ease. Talking to Tachibana wasn’t a demanding experience, Sousuke supposed all those years of being best friends with Nanase meant Makoto knew how to hold a basically one side conversation pretty well. After a while any awkwardness had faded as the two talked about uni life, both choosing fairly study heavy topics, and dealing with galavanting best friends who clearly couldn’t be counted on to meet social events.
Several coffees and sweet treats later the two decided to brave the brisk cold once more, the snow having stopped not long after it had started.
As they reached the station the two paused, both not entirely sure how to end this impromptu “date”.
“Um” started Sousuke, hands in his pockets once again.
“Thanks for coming today, even if things didn’t quite go to plan” said Makoto with a small smile.
“It was no problem” replied Sousuke with a shrug “It was still nice, hanging out with you”
“Yeah, you too!” chirped Makoto, smile lighting up his face “I had fun today”
“Yeah, well see you around, I guess” Sousuke said and started to turn towards the station entrance, hand raised in a small wave.
Shoulders slightly hunched as he walked through the station towards his platform, Sousuke noted his face felt warm, much warmer than it should, given the minimal heating inside the station.
“Stupid Rin” he muttered, vowing to kick his best friends ass in their next showdown for this.