The Sun Will Come Up

Six

By the time it came to leave and head to the gardens, Rin was grateful for the breather.

The gardens ended up being even more of a hit than he expected. Bachira was really into it. His photo taking habit to remember good things wasn't exclusive to food and Rin, apparently, because he was taking pictures of every plant, flower, bird, and patch of sunlight that seemed to catch his eye.

He seemed to be having fun though, so Rin wasn't annoyed.

"Rin-chan!" Bachira called out at one point from the spot he'd run off to.

When Rin looked over at him, he was waving frantically for him to come over to where he was, like he'd found something very important. He headed over to him. When he arrived, Bachira was smiling proudly and motioned to a tall, spindly plant climbing a lattice with pale blue flowers.

"Very nice," Rin said.

"These flowers match your eyes," Bachira said. He said this with incredible nonchalance, but it took Rin completely off guard. It was worse when he turned away from the plant and looked at Rin. "At least, I think so. Let me see."

Bachira walked the two steps that were separating them and put himself on his tip toes to bring his face close to Rin's, peering right into his eyes. Having Bachira this close terrified Rin for a reason he couldn't quite place, but he felt too stunned to back off or anything else, and by the time he'd even caught his breath, Bachira put his heels back to the ground and turned back towards the plant.

"Not quite," he decided before shrugging. "But there aren't that many blue flowers, so it'll have to do."

He then reached a hand towards the plant and plucked one of the blue flowers off. Rin tried to reach out for his wrist to stop him, but he'd been too late.

"What the hell?" Rin hissed in a whisper. "This is a public garden. You can't just go picking flowers just because you want to."

"It's just one," Bachira whispered back, smiling. He leaned towards Rin and slid the blue flower into his pocket. "It'll be our little secret."

Rin didn't have it in him to be too mad about that. Bachira was being playful and seemed happy and he couldn't help but take that as a win.

"I guess I should find yours now," Rin said, meaning the flower just the right shade of yellow.

"You have your work cut out for you," Bachira said, understanding immediately. "There are a lot of yellow flowers here."

"Is that a challenge?" Rin asked.

Bachira shrugged, his smile taunting him.

"Bring it on," Rin said. "Let's see what I'm looking for."

Bachira turned to Rin and opened his eyes comically wide. This time, Rin leaned down to see them. He'd known Bachira's eyes were yellow, but he'd always thought they were that aggressive lemon type of yellow. Up close, it did not seem to be the case. His eyes were a bit of a deeper colour, a warmer kind of yellow, one that held a gold undertone rather than a neon one.

Like sunshine.

After a few seconds, Rin felt satisfied and stood back upright. "Alright. Let's go."

Rin did indeed take this supposedly playful task as a critically important challenge, and Bachira indulged him throughout the entire process. Rin lead the two of them all throughout the garden, taking his time looking at each of the yellow flowers, deciding how close each colour was and what it might be missing. Bachira helped by leaning his face down close to the flowers, widening his eyes, and letting Rin compare them. They circled the garden multiple times and visited some plants more than once.