Shallow Waters

1

Rin was sitting at the bar stool, drinking by himself.  Lately he had started going to the bar directly after work.  His son Haru was depressed and he didn't know what to do, he usually relied on Makoto to help with these sorts of things but lately everything had been strained.  So Rin decided it was easier to drink away his problems at the bar instead of try to fix the relationship issues with Makoto and their son's depression.

Rin swirled his glass of scotch on the rocks, he didn't used to start on hard liquor so early in the evening.  He knew he had a problem.  He picked the glass up, downing the rest of the contents.  When Rin slammed the glass back down on the counter he felt a hand rest on his shoulder and heard a familiar voice say, "Hey Rin, if you keep putting those back, they're going to cut you off."

"Stop worrying about me Sousuke," Rin didn't have to turn around to recognize that low, husky voice.  He had left Sousuke a long time ago but somehow Sousuke would keep reappearing.  That was part of the reason Rin had left in the first place.  Rin got off his bar stool, leaving cash to cover his tab.  "I'm going home."

"You can barely walk."  Sousuke was right but Rin was not about to admit it and ask for help.  Rin had only had a few drinks but everything moved when he was walking and his feet wouldn't go straight.  He was about to fall over when Sousuke wrapped an arm around him and forced him into a seat at a table.  Sousuke sat down across from him, "Why are you drinking yourself to death?"

"Because life sucks!"  Rin couldn't help spilling everything out.

"It can't be that bad," Sousuke tried to help.

Rin just glared at Sousuke, his word slurring together, "It's been two weeks since I've had sex and I'm supposed to be married to a sex addict he says."

Sousuke gritted his teeth, he hated the idea of Rin being with anyone else.  But Rin was too drunk to notice Sousuke's reaction and kept right on talking, "N on top of that, our teenage son is depressed... He keeps saying he wants to just die..."

Sousuke's eye started twitching, he was trying so hard to control his temper, "Then why aren't you there with your husband and son?  Drinking here isn't helping anyone."

"S helping me..." Rin leaned forward, "I can 'scape for a couple a hours..."

Sousuke couldn't hold back this time, he reached forward, grabbing Rin by the collar, "You make the problems worse by being here.  Man up and face them."

Rin did his best to push off Sousuke's hand and lean back in his chair, "I was going to until you stopped me..."

Rin started when he heard a clang and looked up to see Sousuke looming over him with his hands slammed down on the table.  Sousuke leaned closer, "I can't keep sitting here listening to you go off on the problems that you're creating."

Without thinking, Rin brought a hand up and slapped Sousuke across the face.  They both froze there for a second, Sousuke was shocked at first.  He closed his eyes, trying hard to not get angry the way he used to with Rin.  But Rin just stood up and turned to leave.  Sousuke lost his control, he grabbed Rin by the shoulder and forced him back around.  Without warning, Sousuke's fist collided with Rin's face.  Before Rin had time to recover, Sousuke brought his fist back and slammed it into Rin's face again.  He vaguely heard the bartender say something but he ignored it and hit Rin again.  He let go of Rin's shoulder and Rin immediately crumpled to the floor.  Sousuke dropped and knelt with his knee on Rin's chest, forcing him to stay down.  He lifted Rin by the collar, but Rin was barely conscious, he couldn't even keep his head up.  But that didn't stop Sousuke.

He would've kept hitting Rin more except for someone in the bar coming up behind Sousuke and pulling him off Rin.  People instantly flocked to Rin's aid.  He was just laying there unmoving but Sousuke knew he'd be fine, he'd survived worse before.