Secrets

Christmas Morning

The kids woke up early the next day, running down the stairs excitedly. The boys, however, trudged down the stairs since they only got a few hours of sleep the night before.

The events of the night before ran through Makoto's brain and he felt his face grow hotter.
Haru noticed his boyfriends behavior and let out a small chuckle.

"Niisan!" Ran yelled from the living room. "Look at all the presents Santa brought!"

"Of course he brought so much, you've both been so good this year." Makoto smiled before walking to the closet to get the camera.

"Haru-niisan!" Ren pulled on Haru's sleeve. "Look! Look!" He pulled him over to the table and pointed excitedly at the empty plate and glass.

"I'm sure Santa appreciated the milk and cookies." Haru ruffled the younger boy's hair.

Ren did a little happy dance before running over to sit down on the floor next to his sister.

"Mako-niisan?" Ran began. "Can we open them now?"

Makoto granted the two permission and they ripped open the gifts that the boys spent so much hard work wrapping. But the looks on their faces was with it.

"Looooook!" Ran yelled at the others in the room. She held up calendar featuring a band that she had been liking lately.

The rest of the day, the small family sat around in the living room spending time together. They watched all their favorite movies and ate unhealthy food, even Haru didn't make Mackerel, but instead at cookies with the family he finally had.
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Ran sat cross legged on her bed, holding a piece of loose leaf paper. She sighed and began to write. She wrote honestly and thoughtfully before placing the paper in an envelope and decorating the cover.
Small pink and Purple Hearts littered the plain white envelope and she placed it gently in the top drawer of her desk.
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Haru too was holding an envelope. It was the envelope he had received from Rin. He was trying to be gentle with the delicate papers that he had been hoping to see for so long.

"Hey Haru,
I am on the plane on my way to Australia. It's crowded and scary and I'm surrounded by strangers. There are things that I wanted to tell you before I left but I could never think of the right words to use. So that's what I'm trying to do here.
You're my best friend. You were there for me so many times and you even competed in a relay with me even though "you only swim free". That meant the world to me. That was probably the best day of my life if I'm being completely honest. Anyway, I wanted to thank you. Because of you, I was able to enjoy some of my time back home. It's weird thinking that Australia will be my new home. It may be where I live and I may have so many happy memories in Australia, but my happiest memory will always be with you and Nagisa, and Makoto.
I can't possibly fit everything I've been thinking into one letter, but I can at least say thank you.
-Rin Matsuoka

The envelope also contained many photographs. Some taken from out of the airplane window, some pictures of sunsets in Australia. The last set of pictures were of them. The day of the relay, the day they said goodbye to each other, the sleepovers they had. All of the pictures were there.

Makoto knocked on the door after cleaning up the kitchen and living room. He opened the door quietly and was surprised to see Haru still awake.
"Hey, what are you still doing up?" Makoto asked.
"I could ask you the same question." Haru retorted.
"Fair enough....what is that?" Makoto pointed to the pictures that were spread out on Haru's bed.
"This was in the envelope from Rin." Haru explained shortly. He pushed the letter to his boyfriend and let him read.

"Wow. I never really thought that he would be so sentimental about us." Makoto pondered aloud.

"Yeah. Me neither."

Haru got up and put the pictures and the letter on his desk before climbing into bed. Makoto watched and smiled as he heard Haru say
"Well, aren't you coming to bed?"