Love

Before going to Tokyo for his probation, Ren wouldn't have said he had a bad relationship with his parents. Not perfect, or even great, but he wouldn't have called it bad.

However, ever since he had started living in Leblanc, he had started to notice things… Notice how he had never felt close to his parents at all. They didn't even call him the entire year. Not even a text message. Sojiro never mentioned getting in contact with them either.

It did hurt to come to terms with that. He did have a feeling in the back of his mind that something was wrong, but he only then realised just how bad it was.

It did sometimes get to him. But he had the perfect place to go to whenever he felt like that: Haru's house.

Once they had started dating, she had pretty much become the only person he allowed himself to be vulnerable to. He was their leader, after all. He always felt like he was supposed to be dependable at all times.

But he didn't feel that pressure around her. He felt like he could truly open up to her about his worries and anxieties. And she always welcomed him with open arms, no exceptions.

Even just seeing her open the front door made a wave of relief wash over him. Her presence was like a ray of sunshine on a rainy day.

He had grown very familiar to her house at this point. There were already two warm cups of coffee waiting for them in the living room. Haru had prepared them beforehand.

They sat side by side and started drinking. He took a sip and immediately smiled, both at the taste and at the way his body warmed up from the inside out. Every time she made him coffee, it tasted even better than the last time. He could tell that she was definitely improving.

"How does it taste?" She asked.

"Great as always. You're getting almost too good at this. You might end up getting better than me." He winked at her with a smirk.

"Oh, stop it." She giggled and blushed. It made Ren absolutely melt.

He didn't need to say what he was upset about. Haru had already known for a while that he had started to dislike his parents. They had tried to talk about it previous times, and Ren had concluded that Haru was nicer to her father than he could ever be to his own parents.

Even when her father had been responsible for the deaths of countless people, Haru had still said she couldn't truly hate him. She wouldn't say she loved him the same way she had loved him before she realised the bad things he had done, but a part of her still loved him.

Ren couldn't really understand that. Okumura had done much worse than his parents. But Ren couldn't bring himself to say that he loved them anymore. Even when he thought about the good memories he had with them in his childhood, he did notice those were pretty scarce. And there would be even less of them as he grew older.

But they could still understand why the other had reacted their own way. Ren knew Haru, and Haru knew Ren. They couldn't really say how they should react to those things.

Once they had sat their empty cups down, he moved closer to her, enough to make their thighs touch. He leaned his head on her shoulder. Her soft and sweet smell made his entire body relax, and he sighed in delight.

She brought her hands to his hair, running her fingers through his dark strands. It felt so soothing and calming.

He wrapped an arm around her waist, raising his head to get to her eye level. He held her chin, then kissed her lips. Her lips curved into a smile and she kissed him back. He chuckled.

"I love you so much. Are you sure you're not a goddess?" He winked at her.

She blushed and laughed as she gave his shoulder a light, playful slap. "Ren, stop it!"

He just laughed with her, then kissed her cheek. He truly did love her, more than anything else. And he would go even to the depths of hell just for her.