Title: A Day to Remember

Author: mollipwarriorchic

Rating: PG for language.

Characters/Pairing: Nanase Haruka & Matsuoka Rin. Sharkbait.

Summary: June 30th, otherwise known as Nanase Haruka's eighteenth birthday. So, to celebrate the momentous occasion, Rin decides to take him out for a day of friendly, completely platonic fun. Yet, they somehow end up handcuffed together in a completely criminal way at the end of the day. And, despite Haruka's protests, he enjoyed every minute of it.

"This all your fault, Nanase," Rin growled at Haruka, who was currently less than a centimeter away from his face. Why, you ask? Not because of a romantic encounter. Not because of a hug that had lingered a little bit too long. No; they were current handcuffed together. Sitting on a bench. At the police station, waiting for Rin's stepfather to come pick them up. A grumpy looking secretary was half-glaring at the two boys, and half online dating whilst obscenely slurping coffee.

"My fault," he fired back, his blue eyes flashing with indignance as he learnt nothing but a nanometer closer to Rin, which meant their cheeks were smushed together now. Water from his slightly dampened hair trickled onto Rin's lap, causing him to squirm. "how is any of this my fault?!"

It sounded like something he should be screaming in a defensive manner, but that's not how Haruka worked. He was more so akin to body language (see glares and eyerolls) rather than screaming.

Rin...Rin was a different story.

"Uh, yeah, it's totally your fault, birthday boy. I took you where you wanted to go...mostly," he added on the last part quickly when he saw Haruka open his mouth. "okay, now to be fair; I did sort of kinda plan everything, so I think that I should've gotten to decide everything that we did. One thing that you didn't have to do was make a big scene over their not being free water at McDonald's and get us arrested." At this, Rin jingled his arm, pulling Haruka with him.

"HEY," the secretary looked up from her prehistoric computer to scold the boys, who muttered 'sorry' and sat down like they had just been kicked.

I wonder, Haruka looked over at Rin, who was silently seething, where the day went wrong.

Rin practically skipped (scratch that, trudged masculinely and confidently) up the long, cinder steps that lead to the Nanase household, with a card in hand and a large smile on his face. School had allowed the students a very, very small holiday during the weekend, and the weekend just so happened to Haruka's birthday. So, instead of using the time how he was 'supposed to', i.e. visiting family and catching up on your laundry, he was visiting his 'close-enough-to-call-family-but-it-would-be-creepy-if-he-called-him-that-because-he-wants-to-screw-him-rival-frenemy-crush-person' and celebrating his birthday. He took a second to stop and look around at the beauty that was Iwatobi's seacoast. He had, quite frankly, missed Iwatobi. Even though he had loved Sano with a passion, he still liked Iwatobi. But walking past the ocean still panged for him a little bit, only because it had been his father's watery grave. He missed the guys, he missed his mother and his sister, hell, he even missed Mister Fujimoto, the old man who owned the drugstore under the abandoned flats. Because if Rin wasn't sentimental and too easily clingy, than who was he? As he approached the Nanase household, his feet stopped as his shoes touched the doormat. The doorbell was inches away, and if Rin wasn't an emotionally distant anime character, he wouldn't have made a big deal about ringing the doorbell. His finger hovered above it, other hand behind his back clenching the obscenely colorful card he had made for his close-enough-to-call-family-but-it-would-be-creepy-if-he-called-him-that-because-he-wants-to-screw-him-rival-frenemy-crush-person, sweat drenching his face, eyes peeling wide. He grinded his teeth so quickly that he was sure that they would become a pile of white powder if he kept this up for another minute.

He was just about to ring the doorbell when the door swung open, revealing a very annoyed looking Nanase Haruka.

He looked what could only be called nauseatingly adorable. His hair was ruffled in adorable bedhead, like it was falling into his eyes but still sticking up. He was blinking in a very doe-like manner and rubbing one of his eyes. He had quite obviously been lazing around. And Nanase fucking Haruka had pink frosting on the side of his lip. His free hand was unclenched and swinging lazily next to him. Feet tapping impatiently, he mustered the most annoyed look he could at Rin besides being practically asleep.

"Rin...why are you here? It's eleven in the morning..." His eyes were blinking even slower as he stared at the redheaded sharkboy, who now was biting into the side of his cheek (which hurt a lot when you had shark teeth), trying not to squeal from the sight in front of him.

This was definitely a sight he'd never seen before...nor did he ever think that he'd see it. Ever.

"Umm," Rin, in his complete eloquence and social skills that he developed in Australia, "I hear it's your birthday…" He internally shot himself in the foot. Fuck me.

"Yes. It is." Haruka, who surprisingly hadn't told him to leave him alone and slammed the door in his face, responded.

"Uh…." He whipped out the card from behind him and shoved it in the poor boy's face. Haruka's eyes went wide and he pulled back quickly, blinking slowly at the card that was now obscuring his vision.

He didn't snatch the card, but he didn't exactly take it with the care of a small and tender baby dove. His eyes skimmed it quickly, lighting up with subdued joy. "Thank you, Rin."

Once again, Rin choked.

"Uh...Haru, I was wondering...if...for your birthday...I could maybe perhaps...take you out... for your birthday." How Rin was able to keep himself from screaming will never be known.

"..." Haruka's gaze was cold and calculating, looking as though he was choosing between mass murder and hugging him.

"We can go out for ice cream. Or the park. Or the aquarium. Anywhere you want, 'cause you're the birthday boy!" He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

"Okay," Rin choked as he stared at the shrugging boy before him. "just let me get dressed." He walked away and left the door open, so Rin stared into his back.

Shit, can I come in? He left the door open, but maybe he wants me to leave. NAH. If he wanted me to leave, he would've told me to. He accepted it, Rin, just keep yourself together. It's like that one time in Australia when that girl gave you Golden Gaytime-

"Rin. If you're finished internally monologuing, we can leave." One minute he was asleep, the next he was wide awake, staring at Haruka in awe.

How long was I out?

And there they walked across Iwatobi's seaside, with their arms practically interlinked, babbling on about life, swimming, and other things.

"No, but seriously, Haru; what would you do if you had been put in that situation?" Rin was currently defending himself in yet another one of Haruka's criticism of his life choices.

"Um,. let me see...definitely not that." His tone was like it usually was when he was arguing with Rin; calm yet still angry.

And one of the quickest ways to piss someone off was to stay calm when they were yelling at you.

"C'mon, Haru! I was fucking thirteen years old-"

"That's not an excuse to get lost in the Outback because of a dare, Rin."

"I...I mean...at least I wasn't alone, right? There were about ten other people my age there and three high schoolers, so I wasn't alone." He shrugged and looked at the ocean, revealing the tangy smell that he had missed so much. "Besides; the dare was to camp in the Outback. AND I WASN'T LOST. Anyways. So...what do you want to do today? You get to decide."

"You're paying right?" Haruka cut him off, digging into his jean pocket.

"Of course; it's your birthday." And you've probably gone and spent all of your money on fifty pairs of swimsuits that are identical.

"Can we go to McDonald's?" Rin was happily surprised. He had expected Haruka to ask to go to some fancy restaurant and put him into debt for the next twenty years.

"Sure, birthday boy; we'll go anywhere you like."

"This line is twenty fucking years long." Rin grumbled as he stood next to Haruka, who had the same slightly-pissed off yet serene face that he wore everyday. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was staring at the back of a guy's head.

About ten minutes later, they made it to the front of the line. The woman working the register looked about 17, and about 17 times done with her life.

"Welcome to McDonalds," her voice was as dry as a lightly salted rice-cake, "may I take your order?" Her eyes were dull, her mouth was pressed into a fine line, and her body was tall as...an oak.

"Uh, yeah, can I get a number ten with a large Coke? What do you want, Haru?" Rin turned to Haruka, who was staring at the empty jungle-gym with a refined kind of longing.

"Do you have water?" Rin could tell that the lady was repressing the urge to roll her eyes-just as Rin was.

"Yes, sir; we have water. It's a dollar?"

Haruka's eyes went wide; his mouth hung open slightly. He clenched his fists, and Rin braced himself for the impending freakout.

"Oh fu-"

"HOW CAN YOU CHARGE FOR WATER?!" He began, throwing up his arms and attracting attention. The whole restaurant went silent, and all eyes turned towards the the drama queen and the annoyed cashier.

"Sir, sir, sir, sir. I'm going to ask you to calm-"

"Haru, knock this shit off," Rin stepped up and grabbed Haruka by the shoulder, staring at him right in the eye, "you're fucking embarrassing yourself, but more importantly, you're embarrassing me-"

"THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ME AND WATER SHALL NEVER BE PRICED." Even worse, he said it with a completely straight face.

"God damnit-"

And everything went to hell when Haruka threw a tray at the wall.

And everything went even deeper in hell when they were taken into custody.

"You both get one phone call. Since he's eighteen," he pointed to Haru, who was scowling and turned away. They had been handcuffed together and were now sitting on a bench at the police station. "he can be taken under arrest. You though, Jabber Jaw, cannot be. Because you're underage, just in case you didn't catch that part."

Rin could've said many things. He could've said 'but he did everything, why am I here?'. He could've also told the bastard off for making fun of his teeth and insulting his intelligence. But he simply nodded and waited for the officer to leave.

"God fucking dammit, Haru. Who are you calling?"

"Makoto. You?"

"My stepfather...my mom's away on business. So I guess he can pick us up." Haruka nodded and turned to the secretary, whose desk was sitting right next to their bench.

"Okay; I'll ask." He whispered. Rin shook his head quickly.

Granted, Haruka wasn't stupid.

He just wasn't patient.

"Excuse me ma'am. May we have our call now?"

The woman looked up from her computer to look up from her computer to smile at Haruka, but her face dropped when she saw Rin. His face was locked in a slightly menacing grimace.

"Of course, sweetheart," she smiled as she looked back at Haruka. Her smile dropped once again when she saw Rin. "And you too."

"Makoto? Yeah, it's me….Rin and I are in custody….they were selling overpriced water….no I don't know if it was bottled or not, does that really matter, they WERE CHARGING ME FOR IT MAKOTO...I don't care about the global economy...well why can't you pick us up?"

"Haru, we've got a limited window and I kind of want to actually get us a ride, so if you'd kindly wrap it up that would be most appreciated."

"Makoto...nevermind. See you at school." Haru handed the phone to him, and Rin gave him a smile, slightly sarcastic, smile.

"Hey...yeah...me and my friend kind of got arrested...he threw a hissy fight and the cops showed up...twenty minutes? 'Kay."

And that's how their day ended; getting driven back to Rin's house in a beat-up Mazda 6.

No matter what he said, Haruka enjoyed it.

Besides the whole getting arrested episode.

*cough cough* I have arisen from the ashes. Review and Favorite. Grammar Nazis and Flamers welcome.

Originally posted at: harusbirthdaybash. tumblr post/90168357399/fic-a-day-to-remember-by-mollipwarriorchic

So I did not steal my own work.