Rin smiled as she saw Haru waiting at the bottom of the garden by the shut gate.
Rin shut the door after her and ran down the path to meet him.
"Hello, Haru."
He nodded, smiling gently and they both began the walk to the high street.
It was quiet. All the other 11 year olds were staying in because the spring morning had not yet warmed up enough.
They had wasted an hour window gazing and finally, Rin shivered from the resolutely cool breeze despite her jeans and coat.
Haru turned concerned, stormy grey eyes on her, "Cold, Rin?"
"Just a bit, I'm okay."
"No you're not," Haru smiled and moved his hands to rub up and down her arms creating some friction to warm her a little.
Rin flinched.
Haru raised an eyebrow, "Rin?"
With a panicked look in her black eyes, Rin tore her arms away from Haru and cradled the left one into her chest.
"It's nothing, just bumped into something…still a little sore."
Haru smiled wryly and in a swift movement grabbed her wrist again, "You know…you are a terrible liar."
He gently pushed the sleeve up her arm to the shoulder and a day old bruise was revealed. Spread over her upper arm with a clear patterning of fingers.
Haru's eyes darkened, "Were you going to tell me?"
Rin shook her head as her eyes begged with him not to make a deal of it.
"Were you?"
"Haru," Rin whispered, glancing around them.
Haru let down her sleeve but as soon as Rin felt relief course through her, it was shot down as Haru pulled her away from the group of grannies conversing by the store front and to a quiet spot at the top of the street.
He stopped under the canopy of a tree in blossom and turned to her.
"Your parents beat you, don't they?"
Rin turned her head from him, black hair falling as a curtain across her face and Haru lifted her eyes with a finger.
"Rin, please…, was it your parents?"
Rin saw the tears in Haru's eyes and nodded.
She'd never been able to keep secrets from him anyway.
Before she could do anything to take back what she'd admitted to, Haru had pulled her into his arms so she was pressed against his chest, his arms blocking out the cool spring air almost completely.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"What could you have done, Haru? They won't listen to you, and you can't make them stop."
Haru hugged her tighter, "Maybe not, but Rin…how long have you been suffering on your own?"
Rin hesitated, "Almost a year."
Haru pulled back to look at her face.
"Rin…they did just hit you, right? It was just domestic violence."
Rin's eyes widened as she picked up on the implication of Haru's words.
"Rin?!" her silence had disturbed him.
"Yes…no- it was just domestic violence…no –none of the other, type," she hastily tried to calm him.
Haru sighed in relief, "Rin…next time it happens, please tell me. Even if I can't do anything…promise me."
Rin muffled a sob into the crook of Haru's neck, "Okay."
"Promise me," Haru whispered into her hair.
"I promise," Rin breathed back.
Rin sat on her bed, the latest bruise, one on her shoulder, had mostly faded. She had been staying in her room, not coming out even for meals for the last two days. It meant her dad didn't have time to hit her and her mother didn't have time to yell at her.
She was older now, almost nineteen, but still living in the same house she had been those years ago when she had first told Haru of her beatings at the hands of her parents.
He came through her window as often as possible, the last time was four nights ago, and he would keep her company at night.
Only waking in the morning, he wasn't there.
She always woke alone with only a faint trace of his scent on the pillow next to hers.
Rin was a little worried, Haru would at least tell her if he couldn't come by in a few nights but he hadn't done that and the last trace of his scent had left her pillow three days ago.
Rin sometimes found the changes she had gone through in the past few years funny.
While she was still getting bouts of domestic violence from her father, verbal abuse from her mother and Haru the only person she really talked to, lots of other things had changed.
Her hair. When she was eleven years old it had just reached her waist but now, it fell in a shiny black curtain past her hips and her fringe had grown out a little so there were longer strands that fell into her eyes.
Her clothing too.
Instead of the innocent dresses she had been placed in like a toy doll she made her own fashion and Haru had followed her into it.
She wasn't complaining though, her fashion did look good on him.
For instance, Haru always wore a number of strange necklaces, rings and bracelets with a chains and studs style wardrobe. Rin had started wearing the small, skimpy punkish clothing in protest to her childhood dress code.
And to make matters very difficult, Rin sometimes wondered where she stood with Haru.
Most of the time she was confident in the knowledge that while their relationship had become slightly more intimate, with the sleeping side by side on occasion, it was still just a friendship.
Giggling silently for a second, Rin looked on the fact that falling asleep in Haru's arms most nights in a world that pushed her away wasn't exactly evaporating her already strong reliance on him.
There was a knock on the window and Rin looked up in shock.
Haru was watching her from the other side.
His eyes were smoky, and he looked charged with anger.
Rin rushed to the window and threw it open, stepping back to allow him in despite the fact she knew he had somehow gone black.
"Haru? What's wrong? Tell me what happened," Rin said, gently moving him to sit on her bed then kneeling in front of him.
Haru sighed, "I'm sorry…you shouldn't have to see me like this."
Rin shook her head in denial and rested it on Haru's shoulder.
"Don't worry, I trust you…tell me what happened."
Haru's arms came up around her and he pulled her onto his lap with a single tug.
Rin settled into the new position comfortably.
"I got into a fight on the way to find you. It was stupid. Kids from school having a go at my hair again, and the piercings, you know."
Rin lifted her head and fingered the two studs and loop in one ear, "I like your piercings…and I love your hair."
"They went on, my taste in clothing," Haru said, his eyes locking on Rin's as she swept her fingers through his hair.
"You have pretty good taste," Rin said.
"Bet I'd like yours more," Haru breathed.
Before Rin could properly process that, Haru had kissed her.
He tore his mouth from hers when breathing became a necessity and looked to the side, "I'm sorry…It's the black side of me…I'm still angry, you shouldn't be near me like this."
Rin shook her head, still reeling from the kiss.
They had been friends for years, then the friendship had sort of jumped onto a new level instead of climbing the stairs when she asked Haru to stay until she fell asleep, now…after years of finding the only solace she knew in his arms and lingering scent next to her, she finally had a proper taste of him.
"Haru, why didn't you visit the other nights?"
"Oh, I had to do something…it took longer than I hoped, I couldn't stop by to see you because if I did I would have ended up staying."
Reading his body language, Rin realised something.
"Haru…it wasn't just your black side was it?"
Haru looked up at her and his eyes cleared, returning to the soft storm grey Rin knew so well while the air around him seemed to shift and lots of tight knit tension evaporated.
The anger charge around him dissipated as he shook his head.
"I wanted to do that for a long time…you know what?"
Rin kept her eyes steady on him.
"I'm not sorry, Rin…I lo-"
Rin pressed her hand over Haru's mouth with such force that Haru fell back onto the bed and took Rin with him so she ended up straddling him.
"Haru! Don't say things like that! If Akito could hear you-"
Now Haru was 17, he was much stronger than he had been all those years ago when she had collapsed on the sidewalk and he used it against her.
He turned them over so she was trapped under him and he pinned her wrist to the bed, dropping his head to whisper in her ear, "Akito can't hear. I love you, Rin – and there's nothing you can do about it."
Rin pressed her lips against his forehead and Haru let out a breath.
"I'm not 11 years old anymore, Rin."
"You think I don't know that?" Rin whispered.
Haru chuckled and pulled her into another kiss.
"Why have you been gone so many nights, then?" Rin asked once she had her breath back.
"Oh, that…I've been sorting something out. You're coming home with me, Rin. Right now…mum and dad agree so we made the spare room up."
Rin moved from underneath him and away, curled up by the pillows on her bed, "Haru…"
Haru shifted and sat by her on the edge of the mattress, "Don't argue with me, Rin. You're suffering here, I don't like seeing you bruised all the time…it hurts me."
"If I leave and my parents appeal to get me back, I'll be hurt more – do you want that?"
Haru yanked her away from the headboard and back onto his lap, "No, but they won't get you back. I won't lose you…come with me."
Rin glanced around the room, at the door, the window and finally back at Haru.
"…Okay."
Haru raised his eyebrows.
"Okay, I'm coming with you."
Haru breathed out in relief and hugged her tightly.
"Thank you…thank you…come on, is there much you need to bring?"
Rin shook her head and left Haru on the bed while she went to the wardrobe in the far corner. Five minutes later Rin had a small bag of clothes packed and Haru had put her bed sheets in another bag.
Rin raised an eyebrow as he tucked it into the clothes bag.
"Thought if you had sheets you were used to it'd make you feel more at home," Haru shrugged.
Rin smiled.
Another five minutes later, both were out the window and rapidly leaving behind the house of Rin's childhood for the other side of the Sohma complex.
The new room was a good size. Down the hall from Haru's it had a built in wardrobe on the same wall as the door, a desk directly opposite the door and a bed pushed into the farthest corner with a single, large window casting light over the pillows.
She was settled in by the time Haru's parents had cooked dinner but she opted to stay in the room anyway.
Rin was kneeling on the bed, arms crossed on the window sill when Haru silently entered the room and shut the door behind him.
He crept up behind her and reached round her to place a pot of gelatin on the sill in front of her.
Rin smiled, "Where did you get it?"
"I told you I wasn't going to lose you. I wasn't going to leave your home without you so I got stuff ready."
Rin turned around and Haru pulled her into his embrace again, still standing by the bed.
"It was never my home," Rin said quietly.
"Oh?" Haru said absently, tracing patterns on her back.
"This is my home," Rin finished.
Haru sighed and hugged her tighter, "You mean that, Rin?"
"Yes. I'm home," Rin whispered.
Rin's new bed would remain un slept in for the next few weeks.
AN: Completely pointless one-shot I did. I love Rin and Haru! They are the best pairing! I might continue a little way if I get enough reviews and if you want to read more…tell me if you liked it!