Are We Alive?

Nine: Yellow Rose

Yellow Rose–Joy, friendship

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They actually ran into Yukio and Kinzou before they found Shima and Konekomeru. Rin latched onto his brother without hesitation.

"I got bit." Yukio murmured, muffled in Rin's shoulder. Rin froze. "It was five days ago. I'm fine." Yukio said. Rin relaxed. "We think that after the first time, the infection just doesn't pass over to him anymore. The bite even healed like a normal cut." Kinzou informed him.

Rin knew what they were trying to say. "Because I trust that you understand what I've been trying to tell you and I trust that you value my daughters' safety, I guess you can be around the kids and Torako." Rin sighed. He was practically laying on Yukio now. "Are you okay? You seem tired." Yukio wondered. Rin let out a grunt.

"I've slept." He said defensively. "That doesn't mean you actually got rest, Rin. Especially if you've been sleeping in the trees like you used to." Yukio told him sternly. Rin let out another grunt.

"I'm gonna punch you later, Kinzou." Rin told the blonde. The man nodded in acceptance. "That's fair." It was his fault they all got separated on the first place.

"Alright, Koneko and Shima should be close by in that cabin they told me about." Shura pointed in a general direction and they continued catching up on the way.

Shura and Shiemi reported what happened with them while Rin listened silently, not having much energy to expend after running more than he should have that morning and putting off way too much heat than normal for a human being.

"Rin, are you sure you're okay?" Shiemi asked him worriedly. He was pulled out of his sluggish thoughts. "Hm? Oh, I'm fine. Keep talking." He dismissed her worry. "I think he's just tired, Shiemi." Yukio tried to comfort her, but she shook her head.

"You guys didn't see that explosion. He crashed really bad. I really don't believe that he's fine. He's still limping, but that's all that's left of the injuries he should've had." She argued. "Yeah, I've seen plenty of people in car crashes. It's never pretty. You should have at least a minor concusion. There's no way you got out of that unscathed." Shura turned to Rin.

The teen rolled his eyes and kept walking. "I'm fine. I healed fast. I thought I had a concussion, but whatever it was was gone by the time I woke up after that fiasco. I think I smelled like the corpses because of all the dirt and blood, so they just ignored me when they passed by while I was out." He huffed.

"And your ankle?" Shura demanded. "I could barely walk on it and by all means, it should be worse after I've run on it so much, but it's healing pretty good so far." Rin shrugged.

"You know what, I'll check over you later when we've found everyone." Yukio decided. He didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Rin could just be numb to his injuries after living with them for a while. Rin hummed and before any other topic could come up for them to talk about, they spotted Shima carrying firewood into a small, cozy looking cabin.

"Renzou!" Kinzou ran up and grabbed his younger brother in a bear hug. "Kinzou?!" Shima cried in surprise. "Koneko! They found us!" He called into the house excitedly. Said teen walked out and smiled at them all. "Nice! We figured whoever got Shura and Shiemi would find us next." He greeted them.

"Alright, so now all we're missing is Izumo, Torako, Bon, the kids, and Paku." Shima counted them off. "Paku's dead. She got bitten." Rin told him solemnly. "Oh. Okay, so do we know where anyone else is?" Konekomeru asked.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure they all camped out on the roof of a building back at the apartments. It's nearly cleared out by now. We figured we'd find you guys first and then pick them up since they seem to be doing fine." Yukio answered.

"Good. So which way are the apartments, because I lost all sense of direction after I crashed the van." Rin wondered sheepishly. "This way." Kinzou laughed. He led them in the same direction for about an hour and a half before Rin saw the trees start to get thinner and thinner until they were in a large clearing of grass with the apartment buildings looming at a distance.

Rin felt uncomfortable shivers run down his spine and frowned. He knew he should be happy that everything was back to normal now, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

The feeling of being on his own, wild and free and able to do whatever he wanted. The feeling of not having to care about doing certain things and not doing certain things just because other people wanted him to. "Rin? What's wrong?" Shiemi slowed down to drop back with him at the back of the group.

"I....I haven't been on my own in so long. It....felt nicer than it should have. Not having to listen to anyone else's opinions or complaints or requests. I could just do what I wanted and no one gave a shit about it because no one was there." He explained frustratedly. "Ohhh, I get it." She said, patting him on the arm.

"Before, you were all alone and had no one. So that felt lonely and sad for you. But now, you're the Leader of a group and everyone looks to you. You even have a daughter to raise that you never asked for. I think that because now you're always surrounded by people with problems and you have to take care of everyone, you need to have time to yourself sometimes so it doesn't get to be too frustrating for you as our leader." She explained simply. "And honestly, we should be better about giving you that time. We've gotten too dependant on you. We need to shape up." She added thoughtfully.

Rin smiled tiredly. "Yeah? Thanks Shiemi."

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So how have yall been holding up in Quarantine? The end of May is my last few days of school and my Junior year will be completed. Time to be a senior and prepare to say goodbye to school dances and rallies. 😓 I'm gonna miss highschool.