#marukaprompts

"I see…" She thought over something momentarily. "How about we meet at the station around 3:30 since it'll take a while to walk to the theater at that time?"

"Sounds like a plan." He agreed to it enthusiastically.

"Alright," She began to walk off, waving, "See you Saturday then, Mikoshiba-buchou!"

After the first year had turned a corner and the sound of a door clicking echoed, Seijurou just about exploded in some sort of celebration dance. A date with Gou-kun! A date with Gou-kun!

The only obstacle now would probably be the other Matsuoka sibling, but as long as he tip-toed around the topic, he'd be fine.

After a few moments, he decided on some laps in the pool. He had to something with all the energy he had now. And practice had ended, so nobody was around to interrupt him. At least that's what he thought...

As Seijurou walked into the dorms, he hummed happily; he was still going crazy over the fact that Gou had said yes to the date.

I wonder what she'll wear… He thought. Anything would look cute though… What should I wear? He turned into the hallway of second floor, and noticed a certain someone waiting at his door. Ah, crap.

"Hi there, Matsuoka. Need something?" The captain came to a stop in front of his kouhai.

He stopped leaning against the 201 door to face his taller classmate. "I heard you were going on a date with Gou on Saturday."

"Look Matsuoka, I wasn't forcing her, I asked, and she said yes by her own will. I promise you-"

"Have fun, and show her a good time. That's all I wanted to say." Scarlet eyes looked over the buffer teen, a bit cautious, but up-curved lips easing his expression.

"-I will never hurt her, or even try to- wait, what?" He once again was dumbfounded by a Matsuoka.

"What did you think I was going to say? Back off my sister or I'll eat you alive?"

"Something along those lines." The captain chuckled a bit.

"Well, she sounded pretty excited when she called me, so I'll allow it," Rin's smile disappeared and his voice became low as he started in a whisper, but found his voice growing "But I'm telling you, if you dare harm a hair on her head-!"

"I know, I know!" The redhead put his hands up defensively. "You'll really eat me alive then!"

"You've got that right." He grabbed the doorknob to his own room before walking into his own room, not easing his glare at all until the door clicked shut.

...

"Ai, we're going out on Saturday.?" Rin announced as he plopped down on his bunk.

"E-eh?" The younger teen had been slumped over a packet of work and books, but now lashed his head around to meet his senpai's eyes. "L-like a date?"

"Well, it's going to be somebody's date." He flashed his teeth as a smirk found its way onto his face.

"O-okay, Rin-senpai!" The first year quickly turned back to his work to hide the growing blush on his face. A date with Rin-senpai! He didn't know what had brought this up all of a sudden, but he was too overjoyed to care. The boy buried himself in his work, planning on getting it done in record time.

"Mikoshiba-buchou!" The girl called from a ways off, waving one hand.

"Hey there, Gou-kun!" He waved back with more excitement, practically glowing. "How're you doing?"

"I'm great," She smile, before glancing off to the side, seemingly looking for something, "You?"

"Me too! And please, there's no need to call me buchou, especially outside of school." He addressed.

"Mikoshiba-kun then?" She returned her attention to him, craning her head upwards to even make eye contact.

"I would say yes, but then you'll probably meet my brother next year at Samezuka, or maybe even sooner." He trailed off, "How about you just call me Seijurou then?"

"I like the sound of Sei-kun better." She stated. "That okay?"

"Oh, yeah, that's fine." He felt himself getting slightly flustered at the nickname. The way she just went about giving him it was too cute. "How about we leave now so that we make it on time?"

"Alright then… Sei-kun." It came out sounding a bit awkward, but it went ignored. She easily fell into step beside the other redhead after another side glance.

…

"Rin-senpai, what are you-"

"Shh!" He placed his index finger to his lips.

"There's no way they could hear us from this far away though." The younger teen piped up.

"Still." The redhead barked back, before getting quieter again. "We at least need to stay out of sight."

"It's even harder to stay out of sight when you're wearing sunglasses and a have a hood up on a cloudy day." He deadpanned.

"Nope, nobody could suspect a thing. We blend right in."

"Why are we even following them?" Sapphire eyes looked into red ones hopefully. "I thought you asked me out on a date today."

"Oh, um…" Rin felt guilt hit him like a train, but just as he was going to say something to his roommate, the couple they were following started to walk away. "Ahhh! They're getting away! Let's go, Ai!" He grabbed his hand as he started running.

Ai just sighed and smiled as he tried his best to keep up.

"Oh geez," As they approached the theater, they noticed quite the line of people. "I'm glad I bought these tickets in advanced."

"Yeah…" The girl had done a side glance again before smiling and waving, which went unnoticed by Seijurou thankfully. "Hey, were you that confident that I would say yes, or were you going to go with somebody else?"

"Oh, I was going to go with my younger sister, but something came up, so she couldn't. And so I thought it would be a good opportunity to invite you…" He began weaving his way around the many people around them, before long starting to get a little far from Gou.

"S-sei-kun! Wait up!" She knew if she needed, her brother would burst through the crowd to "save" her, but he needed to get going on his own date.

"Hn?" He turned to see the spot beside him filled with some stranger yelling into his cell phone about deadlines and being sick. "Gou-kun?"

"Over here!" He heard the yell and was easily able to spot her bright hair in the crowd with his height.

"I'm sorry! I didn't notice you were falling behind." He apologized, before continuing. "Maybe this will help." He offered his hand.

"Good idea." She nodded, allowing him encompass her own. It's so big and rough... She thought, momentarily distracted from her brother's antics.

"She waved at us!" Rin pointed out, panicking slightly.

"Just calm down…"

"OH MY GOD."

"What now?" The first year turned to see Seijurou pulling ahead of Gou, not even noticing. Eventually they got back to each other, but...

"What was he thinking?! She could've gotten lost! Hurt! Or worse-"

"Calm down, Rin-senpai!" Ai interjected. "She's fine and look, they're-"

"Holding hands?! What is buchou thinking?!" Rin was practically pulling his hair out.

"Senpai…"

"Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart." Sudden squeals erupted all over the theater.

Variations of "Go kiss Kristoph!" and "Go kiss Hans!" echoed all over the place.

Rin found himself beaming at this development; he was very vocally rooting for Hans.

Ai was shaking his head silently, wondering how the other swimmer would react to the incoming scene where… you know.

Gou was also rooting for Hans and was earning a smile from her date. Her dramatic reactions were too cute to be real, and Seijurou found himself pinching himself because this was too good to be true.

…

"Oh Anna, if only anyone loved you." Now it was gasps erupting all over, the betrayal being totally unexpected by most of the first time movie-goers.

"You're KIDDING me!" Rin stared at the screen for a moment before looking to his roommate. "Did that really just happen?" He creaked out.

"Just watch, senpai." He pointed to the screen.

…

Gou's reaction had been equally if not more hilarious. Her mouth fell agape and she stared at her date with wide eyes. She was too invested in the movie to care about her brother's yell from a higher seat.

Admittedly, Seijurou had seen it coming, but played along. "I can't believe it."

"I know!" She was now pouting at the screen, very angry at Disney at that moment. "They could have been so cute together!"

"Yeah, but her and Kristoph would be too…"

"I guess…"

…

"No… she can't die... this is a Disney movie!" RIn was being held in his seat by Ai, who was holding back laughter at the redhead's tears. Never had he seen such a strong reaction to an animated movie.

"Rin-senpai, calm down… people are staring." Seijurou included.

"B-but… oh, ohhhh! That's it!" He had broke out smiling, seeing Anna beginning to come out of her ice form.

"That's the act of true love!"

"Yeah…" Seijurou nodded, smiling at the two sibling being in sync.

"That was such a good movie!" Gou gushed as they walked around the district. "Your sister has good taste!"

"Yeah." He gave her a smile, happy that she was happy. "Do you want to go get a bite to eat?"

"Oh, sure." She did that side glance thing again, which he noted with great sadness. Was she that eager to get out of this date? "Come here for a sec though."

He complied unquestioningly, walking into the small shop. It was just a random grocery store, so it felt kind of weird.

"What are we doing?"

"Look over there." She pointed a finger at the couple that had been stalking them around for the last few hours.

"Matsuoka… and Nitori?" He squinted, unsure if he was seeing things correctly.

"Yeah. I knew oniichan would follow us around if he knew we were going on a date. I also figured he would invite Ai-kun because that would be a good cover in his opinion. And Ai-kun even came to me the other day for advice about oniichan, so I thought that something like this might give them an opportunity to get together themselves." She looked at the two fondly, who looked like they were having some sort of playful argument if you could call it that.

"So that's the only reason that you came?" Seijurou tried to hide his dejection, but was having a bit of trouble.

"Oh, no. I just figured since oniichan is back to his old self now would be as good a time as ever to get his approval on any sort of relationship. And I think he trusts you the most outside of the Iwatobi boys and Nitori-kun and Sosuke-kun. But I have no interest there…" Now she was having a bit of trouble hiding her embarrassment. "Sei-kun... how about we go to that restaurant over there next?"

"Why not?" He agreed, but not without a punch to his pride. He knew they were only going to get Matsuoka and Nitori hooked up, so...

"Look! They're going into that restaurant!" Rin had grabbed Ai's hand and was ready to run after them, when he tugged him back. "What?"

"Don't you think going in right after them would be suspicious?" He was dumbfounded by how much less Rin thought about things when they concerned "protecting" Gou. "It's not everyday you see a redhead with shark teeth."

"It's also not everyday that you see a teenager with grey hair, but nobody ever seems to question that." He jabbed him square in the chest.

"Whatever." He pouted a bit at the comment. "Why don't we just walk around and window shop for a bit? Like have our own date time?"

Rin started feeling a bit guilty about the whole date thing again and shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose that we could do that."

They walked off towards a clothing store, Rin still holding hands with Ai.

"I wonder where they went." Gou had been watching the entrance of the building ever since they'd been seated, but nobody had come in since.

"Maybe we lost them." Their idle chatter had died down as they waiting for their food to arrive, and now all their focus was on the front doors of the restaurant.

"Maybe…" Gou propped her chin on her hand. "But I have a feeling I would have gotten some sort of text asking how we doing by now."

"Mmm."

It was silent at the table again. Sure, there was the clatter of utensils around them and quiet conversations here and there, but that was it. After a while, Gou had taken enough, and somewhat awkwardly broke the silence.

"Um, just to add to what I said earlier, I didn't just agree to this because I wanted to set my brother up with Ai-kun." She did the side glance again, but this time she just couldn't meet his eyes. "I've actually enjoyed myself today, and... really wouldn't mind going out again if you wanted to."

Seijurou was just staring at her for a moment, unsure of what to even say in response to that. Did that mean she wanted to go out again? Was it out of pity, or was it an actual attraction?

When he looked up at her face though, he felt his heart skip a beat. The slight smile and the half lidded eyes unable to meet his own. And then the blush.

"Of course!" He found himself beaming again for the umpteenth time that day. "Whenever you want."

After that, the rest of the date went smoothly, without either of the pair even noticing that two other familiar couples had been watching everything go down with plenty of interest.

"So that's why she let practice end earlier today…" The blunet concluded, pushing up his glasses.

"You didn't hear her gushing about Rin-chan and Ai-chan earlier? She went on about it for quite a while." A blond informed.

"I think it's nice that everyone's getting along, right Haru?" A brunet chuckled a bit.

The sun was beating down hard on Makoto’s tanned skin. Sweat glistened on his forehead yet he made no attempt at wiping it away. He wouldn’t be able to even if he wanted. Working at the docks gave you no such moment of respite. Though Makoto loved manual labour, 8 hours under the sun without any breaks was too much, even for him. Makoto would have never imagined himself working right here beside the ocean he feared so much. That was a long time ago, he thought. The fear that use to take hold of him like a vice seemed so far away, he hardly had enough time to bother with it anymore. Oh but it was there, Makoto knew. It was just waiting, lurking in the shadows of the deep water. Waiting for him. And one day, it will take him away. Just like it did with that old fisherman and Rin and Gou’s dad and...

He shook his head. It was half past 3. His shift was about to end soon. Haru was supposed to get in at around 5. He’d go home, change clothes then prepare dinner before going to get Haru. Just one more box left to...

“Oof!”

Makoto stumbled and the box he was holding fell to the ground with a bad-sounding crash that made Makoto cringe. The tape that was repeatedly wrapped around the package for emphasis read fragile. He let out a frustrated sigh.

He heard a snicker.

The tall brunette pretended to hear nothing. He picked up the package and prepared an apology in his head as he made his way to his boss. His boss had yelled at him, furious. Makoto did his best to stand his ground even when the boss’s angry spit flew across his face.

“This is your fucking third one this week, Tachibana!”

“I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”

“Don’t feed me that bullshit. Get the fuck out of here. I’ve got tons of guys waiting in line to take your job.”

Makoto who was looking down the whole time suddenly looked up in distress.

“What? You got something to say?”

‘I need that money...!’ Makoto desperately wanted to say. But the more rational side of him knew that standing up to this loudmouthed bald man with the beer-gut would do absolutely nothing for him. He bit his lips, shook his head.

“Heh. Good. Now get your things and get out.”

Makoto walked back to the storage room, frustrated but he was just glad that this time his tears didn’t make an unnecessary appearance. He’d find another way to deal with it later. He’s been in worse situations. (Though, he had a feeling he’d go drinking with Haru later tonight)

There was a figure standing by the doorway, a smug grin plastered on his face that Makoto wanted nothing more to do than to bash in. And that was really saying something coming from him. He ignored him and walked to door to the locker room.

“Butterfingers, Tachibana?” the figure called.

‘Didn’t you push me?’ Makoto wanted to say. Well, whatever. Bastard got what he wanted.

Makoto went to the locker room, collected his things before leaving the docks for good.

    “I’m home.” Makoto called out.

Before, years ago, he would always, without fail, be greeted by a warm ‘welcome home’ from his family. Sometimes it came in ones, sometimes, in twos and occasionally, all four of them would greet him back with one big resounding ‘Okaeri!’

But now, he’d be lucky to get one. Nothing but emptiness and the buzz from TV greeted him. But that was nothing new either.

Makoto left his shoes in the doorstep and went in. He went in to the living room where he had expectantly found his dad, passed out over the kotatsu. The table was strewn over with bottles of alcohol, cigarettes and horse-racing tickets.

‘He must have lost again.’ Makoto thought looking forlornly at the mess. He put out the cigarette his father was still holding loosely on one hand. He turned off the TV, cleaned out the bottles and cigarette butts and then tucked in his father underneath the mattress of the kotatsu. Makoto closed the door ever so softly so as not to wake his father up.

After disposing the garbage, Makoto made his way upstairs.

“Ren? Are you here? Ren?” he called out softly, mindful of his father and supposedly his mother too.

No response came and it was only then that Makoto remembered that he came home an hour early today. Ren was probably still at school. Makoto scoffed. There was no guarantee of that either.

Makoto made his way down the hall to his parents’ room and lightly knocked on the door.

“...Mom?”

No response. Not surprising. He peeked in and saw a lump underneath the sheet. He took a while, making sure that the lump was moving up and down before he closed the door and made his way to Ren’s room.

“Jeez.” Makoto said to no one in particular. The room was a mess. Clothes were scattered across the floor, bed sheet unmade, books and papers lying around in a pile in one corner. Makoto sighed. He’d make sure to scold Ren later. He wasn’t a little kid anymore. He was in middle school for God’s sake.

Makoto picked up Ren’s school blazer and a few more articles of clothing thrown across the floor. He’d dump it later at the laundry bin where he’d probably wash it tonight or tomorrow (depends on how long he’ll stay out with Haru)

Something fell out of the blazer when Makoto picked up a sock.

‘What…’

Makoto went to pick up the mystery item and his eyes went wide in disbelief. A pack of cigs. Scratch that. Half a pack. ‘Which means…’ Makoto’s eyebrows knit together as he crumpled the pack in his hand. He collected the rest of clothes, went downstairs to dump them in the bin then went outside. There was a trash bin all the way over at the late Miss Tamura’s place where Makoto had dumped the fags. He hoped he would never see them ever again.

Ren was getting an earful from him later, whether he wanted to or not.

Makoto made his way back to his house. He passed by Haru’s house and felt a sort of longing hit him. Makoto had missed Haru so much. He had always been Makoto’s reprieve and right now, he could really use one. Haru was coming back today which dulled the lonely ache in his chest and was replaced with an eagerness to see his best friend’s face again. Though Makoto found it curious since they were supposed to be in the middle of a term or at least that was what he heard from Rin. Haru never really talked about college but he was probably just being considerate of Makoto. Makoto laughed to himself and that ache became harder to ignore. That was just like Haru, wasn’t it?

‘I can’t wait to see him!’ Makoto thought.

Filled with newfound motivation, Makoto hurried back to his house.

With dinner made and other chores done, Makoto was all set and ready to leave for the station to meet Haru. Makoto looked at his phone at a message he got from Haru just recently.

‘Go to the station. I’m almost there.’ was the message’s simple content.

Makoto tucked the phone in his pocket with a grin he couldn’t help plastered on his face. He opened the door to the living room where he found his dad awake and TV turned on. Beside him was a bottle of beer. Makoto looked at it for moment before turning to his dad and saying,

“Dad, I’m going to go pick up Haru from the station now…”

It doesn’t seem like his father heard him since he didn’t do or say anything.

“Dad?”

This time Makoto knew he had heard because he grunted but that was enough of a response.

“I might be getting home late. There’s food on the table though.” Makoto said.

His father just flipped through another channel. Makoto tried to supress a sigh.

“I’m going then.”

“Makoto.”

Makoto paused, surprised. He had to admit, it had been a while since he had last heard his father’s voice.

“Y-Yes?”

“Don’t forget … Today is…”

Makoto’s dad trailed off. He took a swig of his beer and that was that. He was gone again. Makoto smiled and greeted him one last time before shutting the door behind him. Of course Makoto knew what today was. He wished he forgot. 4 years ago today was when everything had started spiralling downwards; the source of his nightmares for the past four years that didn’t involve the monsters beneath his bed.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t let himself succumb to it. It had already taken his parents. He hadn’t for the past four years and he wasn’t going to start now. His family needed him.

‘But… I can, can’t I? Just for a little while…?’

Makoto whipped out his phone and sent a text Haru, telling him that he’ll be a little late then tucked it back in his pocket. He put down his bag and made his way down another room where a single closet stood. Makoto opened it and it revealed a makeshift shrine. It has been a while as well since Makoto had last opened this. It was well kept probably by his mother who lit incense every morning. Though, this morning he hadn’t seen her or smelled anything.

Makoto had gotten the lighter on top of the closet and took a single stick of incense and lit it and set it on the altar. He clapped his hands together in silent prayer.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Makoto looked up at the picture on the altar and he couldn’t help but smile. He felt his eyes prickle and soon tears streamed down his face. Yet he continued to smile even when the side of his lips started to falter.