Part of Your World

Chapter 19: Recovery

"Is it difficult to be in here?"

"It's alright."

Sousuke shrugged at Rin's response and looked out at the sea.

The cavern hadn't changed much. It was significantly more empty now, but it remained otherwise unchanged. The pile of clean towels still sat on the driest flat platform, and there was still a cheap cell phone perched on a ledge. There was a pile of sketchbooks and a couple of felt-tipped pens.

"I put the scrapbooks and the camera in my closet, in case you were wondering. Anyone could wander in here. I didn't want them finding that stuff." Sousuke turned to look at Rin. "Which brings me to the question... What do you want to do with everything else?"

Rin didn't respond right away. Sousuke could tell that he was thinking, that he hadn't just ignored the question. He didn't prod Rin to answer quickly.

"I'd like to leave it here, if that's okay," he finally replied, sounding embarrassed. "I know it's kind of silly, but what if he needs this stuff?"

"...He's not going to need it, Rin." Sousuke winced. Haruka didn't need much of anything anymore. Rin's shoulders jerked.

"And I know that! I know that. But... Just let me have this, okay?"

He glared stubbornly at his friend, who sighed and shrugged again.

"Guess it can't hurt. Don't come crying to me if it gets stolen, though."

"Well, nobody else has found this place so far."

"That's true."

Sousuke grunted as he returned to his feet. He'd almost forgotten how cramped it could be in here— standing at his full height, his head almost hit the ceiling in certain spots.

Rin was only a week into his forced vacation. It had taken the entirety of said week for him to work up the nerve to visit this place. Sousuke couldn't blame him for that— every corner of this little space was stuffed full with memories. It was impossible to look at anything in there without being reminded of Haruka.

That said, he hoped this could eventually become a place of comfort for Rin... A place for him to feel close to the one he'd lost.

Sousuke reached out his hand, and after a moment Rin hesitantly took it, using it to pull himself up. Rin winced at the pain in his abdomen. A part of him wanted to stay longer, but Sousuke probably thought he was going to get overwhelmed. There was no harm in trusting his judgement every once in a while. The larger man turned and started to squeeze back though the narrow tunnel.

"How about we stop for some hot dogs?" He offered. Rin laughed.

"Sounds nice."

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The first month was excruciatingly painful.

Rin spent most of those days just lying on the couch, half-watching something on TV and ignoring most of the concerned phone calls he got. His therapist had upped his dosage of his medication and asked to see him three times a week. The emotional exhaustion left him little energy to do anything else.

But he still had Sousuke.

Sousuke made sure Rin took his pills and saw the doctor, and Sousuke made their meals and did all of the laundry. He would gently prod at Rin every once in a while, asking if he wanted to go to the beach or go get dinner somewhere nice. Rin usually refused, but after the first couple of weeks he started leaving the apartment more. Sousuke didn't try to force him to do anything more than that. Baby steps.