The Sun Will Come Up

Fourteen

Whatever his motivation was, Sae heeded the warning and those two idiots went into town and made themselves scarce. Bachira didn't seem to care. Or if he did, he didn't comment on it. Rin was relieved, mostly because even though the initial moment of rage had passed, it would take all of one poorly toned word for him to make good on that promise, and he wasn't quite sure what the repercussions of straight out punching his brother in the face would be.

Meanwhile, Rin and Bachira made themselves busy. They ate, watched another movie, went out to the yard to kick one of the infinite soccer balls that seemed to appear out of any corner in any Itoshi household around. That was nice, because they weren't talking about the night before, the confrontation or afterwards, and when they were actively ignoring something, soccer was always a safe haven to go back to.

Rin was ignoring something, anyways. He was ignoring a lot of things. Or trying his best to. He was ignoring every single Rin-chan, every laugh, every smile flashed in his direction, how Bachira looked when he tied the little bit of his hair up at the nape of his neck, the way he wiped a sleeve across his forehead, all of it.

"If I score this goal on you," Bachira said, flicking the ball back and forth between his feet. It was nice that he had such great footwork. It gave Rin something technical to focus on. "You have to kiss me."

"No," Rin said automatically. He would have said it almost regardless of what it was, but when he realized what it was, he was only more thankful for the reaction.

"Still scared, huh?" Bachira joked. Or it seemed like he was joking. But it really didn't matter whether he was or not.

"I'm not scared," Rin said. And if he was being honest, he might have followed up with, I'm terrified. And honestly? I'm not sure if I could handle that. "Stop trying to kiss me."

"If you kiss someone else before me," Bachira said, swerving to try to move past him. "I'm going to be so mad."

Rin blocked it. Just barely. "Why?"

"I'm just so curious," Bachira answered.

There was a possibility of reading something into that interaction, but Rin talked himself out of it, solely because that was just how Bachira was. He had no sense of personal space, boundaries, or filter. He just said and did these things and thought nothing of them. He'd always been like that, even back when they'd first met. So it's not like it meant anything.

Rin swiped and stole the ball right out from under him and sent it right into his makeshift goal at the other end of the year. Bachira's eyes went wide and he turned just in time to see the goal. He looked just as pleased as if it had been his own and not scored on him instead.

"Wow," he said. "You really are amazing, Rin-chan."

"Stop flirting with me," Rin said.

"It's not flirting if it's true," Bachira said.

Rin was pretty sure that wasn't true, but he wasn't in the mood to continue this conversation. It wasn't just the mood. This too was something he felt he could just barely handle.

And then all of a sudden, it was over. The trip came to a close without incident, and they'd survived the ever ominous trip up to the Itoshi cabin. A little worse for wear, as far as Rin was concerned anyways, because he felt whatever lived in his chest in place of a heart was battered and bruised more than he thought possible. But it hardly mattered. They needed only to survive the drive back, and they were home free.

Despite the poor car seating arrangement, Bachira lived closer, which meant he was who was getting dropped off first. They stopped at the address given, and when Rin saw the front door to his house open and Yuu step out onto the porch, waving way over her head, he decided he'd get out too, to say hi.