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There’s a side of Haruka’s personality that rarely shows up – a conflicting, troubled side of his that managed to fit quite well in his aloof personality, despite all the odds. It would lead him to occasional excessive sighing – like he was doing right at that moment – and furrowed eyebrows, maybe even cold responses to his teammates. Makoto himself, who was proud of knowing the nuances of his childhood friend quite well, was a little surprised and confused when he was first introduced to that annoyed, restless Haruka. Shortly after, he noticed there was only a single thing able to calm down his childhood friend.
That thing was Matsuoka Rin – most specifically, Matsuoka Rin’s attention.
Sadly, he was nowhere to be seen, and Makoto had to deal with all that loud sighing by himself.
“Calm down, Haru. I’m sure Rin will be here soon.”
The way Haruka glanced at Makoto suggested he was slightly offended – how dare you suggest something like that. Quickly, he averted Makoto’s gaze and bit his lower lip, staring longingly at the nearby pool.
“I’m not waiting for him.” There was a pause. “…He said he’d come, though.”
Makoto had to repress a small urge to laugh at Haruka’s disappointed face – the same face he’d make when there was a pool and he wasn’t allowed to swim on it. Except that Rin wasn’t a pool, and Haruka probably didn’t want to swim on him, as far as Makoto knew… Wait, that was awkward to think about.
“He will come. He never misses our joint practices.”
The soothing tone on Makoto’s voice wasn’t enough to calm Haruka down. He sighed again, and Makoto wondered if sighing too much could make a person feel dizzy.
“Everyone’s already here.” Haruka gesticulated towards the Samezuka students stretching around the pool – many of those faces were already familiar to them, but none of those guys was Matsuoka Rin. “He’s not coming.”
The final note in Haruka’s voice was almost too sad for the situation, and Makoto wished Nagisa was nearby to cheer him up properly. Taking a quick glance around, though, he didn’t see the small blond boy; Rei was a few meters away from them, chatting with two particularly cheerful Samezuka students.
Apparently, the task was up to him and him alone.
“I’m sure… I’m sure he’ll come.”
“You’ve said that already.” A dangerous note of annoyance floated through Haruka’s voice, making Makoto bit his lips nervously.
“Um, sorry. It’s just that you seem really upset about it, Haru. I wish I could help.” Makoto paused. His eyes wandered to a Samezuka student messing furiously with his cellphone, and it was like something similar to a ray of hope descended upon Makoto’s troubled soul. “Ah! Perhaps we could call him!”
“I’m not calling him.” The sudden determination on Haruka’s voice was a bit disturbing. “If he doesn’t want to come, that’s fine by me.”
With that, Haruka became quiet again, focused on his own thoughts as he pouted silently – oh God, he was pouting now. And he wasn’t even glancing furtively at the pool as he used to do – something was very wrong there.
Since their early childhood days, when Rin first showed up and messed with Haruka’s calm, boring routine, Makoto had noticed something that (probably) went unnoticed to Haruka’s own eyes – Haruka liked having Rin around. He liked him a lot, though he wouldn’t always show it. But Makoto knew his friend just a little too well – he never missed the stolen glances and timid gestures, how he’d get just a bit more nervous around Rin – maybe even a bit more aggressive? -, how sometimes he simply couldn’t shut up about Rin. Oh, and how he sulked when Rin went to Australia – he used to pout just like he was doing at that moment.
“Hey, isn’t that Nitori?” Makoto blurted out when his eyes focused on the small figure that had just arrived; a few Samezuka students greeted him.
Almost in a mechanic way, Haruka’s quick eyes rapidly analyzed the region, focusing on Nitori a few seconds later. Makoto could swear he saw those blue eyes narrowing just a little bit.
“Ai.” Haruka muttered.
“Wha?” Great, now Haruka was monosyllabic.
Ignoring Makoto’s confusion, Haruka kept staring at Nitori with stern eyes, like he was hoping the boy would notice him if he stared hard enough.
“He’s alone.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s weird, huh.” Makoto walked to Haruka’s side and finally realized why he was standing on that particular spot next to the pool: he could feel small droplets of water against his toes, thanks to a bunch of excited Samezuka swimmers splashing water around. “He’s usually with Rin.”
They went quiet for a while, until Haruka stated in a mechanical tone, like he was blurting out an important piece of information:
“Rin calls him Ai.”
“Um… does he? Haha.” Makoto wondered if Nitori – if Ai – could feel Haruka’s strong gaze on him. Oh, that poor little guy.
“Yes. They must be close friends.” Ah, there it was again. That voice. It was like Haruka was calmly trying to punch the air with his words.
“Ahaha, yes, yes… good for them.”
“Good for them, indeed.” That voice again – this time, accompanied by slightly bitter eyes.
“Um. Are you, you know, jea-“
“I’m gonna ask him about Rin.” Haruka blurted out promptly, marching to the pool’s opposite side.
“Ah! Hey! Haru! Wait for me!” Seriously, wait for me! And please don’t murder anyone.
Even from a distance, Makoto could see how Nitori almost jumped out of his clothes when Haruka came straight to him, blocking him from anyone else.
“Nitori.”
“A-ah! Nanase-kun!”
“…You can call me Haru.” His eyes softened for a bit, but his voice was still a bit weird – oh, the horrible effects of the Matsuoka abstinence syndrome. “Can I call you ‘Ai’?”
As Haruka talked, Makoto could see how he narrowed his eyes once again – it was like he was challenging Nitori to say ‘no’. Maybe it was a “if-Rin-can-do-it-then-I-can-do-it-too” thing? Makoto decided to grab onto Haruka’s arm – the one closest to him -, just in case he felt like becoming physically aggressive. Well, you could never know. Not when his eyes were screaming something like where the fuck is Rin why he isn’t here this is so wrong someone must pay in blood.
“Oh- I-I-It’s fine by me!” Nitori was blushing furiously; apparently, that wasn’t an effect exclusively caused by Rin. That, or he was secretly taking a liking to Haruka. Maybe he was being a bit too influenced by Rin.
“Where is Rin?” Wow. So direct. Follow your dreams, Haru.
“H-He told me to go ahead. I told him he’d be late, but he wouldn’t listen to me…”
“So he’s not coming?”
“I think he’s coming! But he’s late for some reason. I asked him what was holding him back but he didn’t want to tell me…” Nitori stared sadly at his own feet.
For a moment, Haruka was divided between biting his lower lip and pouting, and Makoto would have laughed if he wasn’t worried about his friend’s growing despair. Nitori was about to say something else when Mikoshiba’s voice interrupted any possible conversation:
“Alright! Enough fooling around! Let’s start this practice for real, guys.”
The Samezuka students hurried to their Captain’s side, and Nitori followed them, saying goodbye to Haruka and Makoto with a quick bow and a shy smile. Makoto heard Nagisa yelling “Rei-chan, wait for me!” from somewhere near the locker room. And Haruka… well, he was visibly still sulking, but there was a pool right next to him, and it needed him just as much as he needed the pool. The pool will never betray me. The pool is always right there when I need it. The pool has no shark teeth. – if Makoto could hear Haruka’s thoughts, that’s probably what they sounded like at the moment.
“Haru!”
Oh, here we go.
That angry, sharp - shark-like - yelling was unmistakable.
Matsuoka Rin had just arrived, and he looked as angry as ever, proudly showing his equally angry shark teeth as a manifestation of his displeasure.
Makoto’s eyes darted to Haruka; instead of looking like someone who had his name yelled by an angry tall swimmer, he was using the pool eyes on Rin; the gaze he only used to all the pools around the world, and, apparently, to Rin too, when he was missing him enough to do so.
“Rin.” His voice was calm as ever – not excited or happy, but Makoto knew those pool eyes weren’t for everyone. Maybe for every pool, but not for every swimmer with shark teeth. “You’re late.”
“Me? Me?! You are late!” He bolted for Haruka, grabbing the front of his shirt; Makoto would always get surprised at how… physical they were. “Did you forget?!”
“Forget what?” Haruka asked curiously, his hands grabbing Rin’s and putting them away from his collar slowly; surprisingly enough, Rin allowed him to do that and did not fight back, something that didn’t fit his current angered state.
“Oh, I knew it! I knew you’d forget about it! Even though you were the one who suggested it!”
Both Rei and Nagisa glanced curiously at Makoto, waiting for an explanation from their best Haruka-Rin information source. No, don’t look at me. I’m just as lost as you guys!
“What-“ Haruka stared confused at Rin for a few seconds, then his eyes widened a little. “Oh. Wait. I remember.”
“Now you remember!” Rin growled furiously. Nitori tried to calm him down (“Senpai!” was apparently the only thing he could say at those situations) but was politely ignored. “You were supposed to pick me up at seven!”
Now the whole group of swimmers – both Samezuka and Iwatobi – was quiet, watching their little warm conversation.
“I’m sorry. I overslept.”
“Overslept, my ass! You forgot about it!”
“Because I overslept.”
“Still your fault!”
“I overslept because you kept texting me late at night.”
“So what?! I didn’t overslept because of it!”
“You and I are different.”
“This doesn’t fix anything! I was waiting like an idiot!”
“You could have called me-”
“Hell no!”
“-I was a bit worried.”
Rin opened his mouth in his best angry fashion to answer, but closed it almost instantly. He opened and closed his mouth a few times without producing any sound, and a faint blush on his cheeks denounced just how terribly embarrassed he was thanks to that last line. All of the Samezuka’s eyes were on him – Makoto couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
Silent fell around them. It was unpleasantly awkward until Rei decided to make it worse:
“Haruka-senpai, Rin-senpai. Are you two done boyfriending? Can we please train now?”