Divine Madness [Free!] [2]

🌸 Prologue🌸

"Haru-Kun, it seems like Makkou really likes Taiyaki, too," Heisuke mused as she dangled a bit of it low and Makkou jumped up to take it from her hand. She laughed gleefully and Haruka gave the two of them strange looks.

It was the winter holidays for the students of Iwatobi Middle School and Makoto had gone away with his parents, and Ran and Ren. That left Heisuke and Haruka behind to play around with themselves, and thus the two of them found themselves together that evening at the stone steps that led up to the graceful shrine.

Following their excellent tournament, Granny Chiharu had invited Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa, Asahi, Ikuya, Aki, Satomi and even Kisumi for a little dinner at the Shidarezakura House. It had been a brilliant day, and Heisuke wished they would do that once more, too.

"Makkou likes anything," Haruka said as he sat on the dry patch of the stone steps, for the rest of them were drenched in snow. "Just like Hei-Chan,"

"Yeah," Heisuke said, ending up agreeing happily to this assessment. Haruka gave her a quizzical look but she was too busy fooling around with the puppy in the snow.

"You'll slip and fall, Hei-Chan," Haruka said when Heisuke started to rush up and down the snow-clad stone steps with Makkou. Heisuke glanced over toward him.

"I'll be fine, Haru-Kun," Heisuke said, frankly happy to hear him worry about her. She liked that, but she also wanted to play with Makkou, who seemed rather excited today for some reason.

Makkou jumped at Heisuke and she hurriedly grabbed him in her arms, reaching around to gently scratch him over the head as she giggled. Heisuke ignored the noise Haruka made when she just sat down in the snow without any care. She was more interested in playing around than if she got her clothes dirty. She could wash them later.

"It looks like it is going to snow again," Heisuke acknowledged as she looked up toward the sky that was heavily clad with grey clouds, rolling deeply. "Or do you think it is going to be a thunderstorm?"

"Snowstorm," Haruka said and Heisuke sweat-dropped at him slightly before laughing. Haruka felt the corners of his lips lift slightly in amusement, too.

The three of them descended in a comfortable silence and Heisuke glanced toward the black-haired boy who was staring up at the sky. She smiled slightly to herself as she continued to pat Makkou all over his body to appease him. And then, the quiet was broken by the sound of feet crunching the snow. Heisuke turned to see who it was at the base of the steps and froze –

Matsuoka Rin was standing there, grinning up at them with his sharp teeth. He was clad accordingly to the cold stormy weather and he seemed to be holding onto a bag. Heisuke could not see how he was here.

"Rin-Kun?" Heisuke whispered, shocked. She knew without looking that Haruka was just as surprised as her to see the redhead back from Australia. They had not heard that he would be coming back.

"Sakura-Chan!" Rin called out as he hurried up the stairs to where the two of them were sitting. "You look really nice!" Heisuke stared at him, why was he acting like they met every day? What was going on?

"Rin-Kun, when did you get here?" Heisuke asked as she let Makkou go on the stone steps and herself stood up. "I thought you were going to be in Australia..." Rin grinned wider at her, grabbing her hands.

"I came back for New Years," Rin explained. "And since I was in Japan, I thought I could come and visit you, too," Heisuke gulped down her shock and a grin broke out on her lips.

"It's so nice to see Rin-Kun again!" Heisuke cried out, throwing her arms around Rin's shoulders to hug him. Haruka stood up as well, watching Rin's face turn as red as his hair as he hurriedly hugged Heisuke back.