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Makoto's lovers are like polar opposites. Like night and day, fire and ice. Especially fire and ice. Haru is not the kind of cold that kills or freezes, but neither is Rin the kind of fire that maims or destroys. Makoto has been thinking about it a lot lately, especially after they started the poetry section of their English language class this year. Translating is hard enough, but to have the right thoughts and feelings conveyed when merging from one language to another in poetry seems nearly insurmountable to him.
He sheepishly heads for Miss Amakata's desk straight away after class, because he knows just from scanning the works, he's going to need some guidance here. Haru is standing at the back of class, giving him what looks like a blank stare, but Makoto knows it means he's wondering if he should wait for the brunette or not. Makoto waves him off with a smile, and Haru hesitantly heads for the door. Maybe not as hesitantly as Makoto would like to believe, since swim practice awaits. He can talk to the teacher while they head over though, since she's still their faculty adviser. Her background in Classical Literature is actually quite helpful here.
Makoto ends up doing fine on the assignment, part of which is Robert Frost's “Fire and Ice”, not doing great, but fine... It nags at him though, because the comparison sticks in his head for weeks afterward. The way Haru is cool and calm, the way Rin adds an instant level of energy to a room that wasn't there before. It's pretty much the same in bed too. Makoto likes to see Haru taken out of his composed and controlled safety zone sometimes though, just like he adores seeing Rin dissemble for him under tender touches.
The poem itself is short and relatively easy for him to remember the gist of, if not the exact wording. The end of the world. Makoto also thinks a lot about what it would be like to live in a world where the three of them didn't have to hide everything about their relationship from 90% of the people in their lives... But then he thinks about all of those horrible death and destruction/end of the world/dystopian society movies that Nagisa is always making them watch, and he thinks that maybe their current situation isn't as bad as it could be.
“Haru, what would you do if we were stuck in a dystopian society together?” he finds himself asking one day out of the blue. To Haru's credit, he doesn't even comment on the strangeness of the request...but his answer shows it may be more from just not caring...
“I don't know” he shrugs his shoulders noncommittally. He hears Makoto make a small sound of disappointment though, and he knows this weird philosophical question means more to him than just a passing comment. Haru sighs, and tries to think of an actual answer to give him.
“I guess, if it were still us, then it wouldn't matter... As long as we were together” he tries to boil down the essence of why he doesn't really care what society does around them. “And as long as it's not a desert dystopia.”
For a long time, Makoto is very happy with that answer, and it helps make him extra warm and full of fuzzy feelings whenever he sees Haru doing withdrawn, anti-social things.
A while later, he gets a chance to talk to Rin a bit as they're toweling down after a joint practice. He and Haru are the only ones left with Rin at the end of the day, and of course Haru is still swimming. He had decided he would feel a bit awkward asking that same question of Rin in front of Haru, because he's sure any difference in their answers would spark some sort of mini-rivalry between them. You know, like everything else in their lives does. It's all mostly good natured at this point, but still, Makoto doesn't want to start problems, he's just curious.
“So, Rin, um, if we were in a dystopian society, what would you do?” he asks without much lead up. He knows Haru can't hear them in the water, so now is as good a time as he's probably ever going to get. Rin, bless his caustic little heart, brings his arm up for a fist bump, which Makoto goes to meet automatically.
“We'd burn the fucker down” he grins like he knew Makoto had secret plans to overthrow it all this whole time, “We both know Haru won't last long without the water anyway” he ads with a sharp grin.
“It's not necessarily a desert dystopia” Makoto blushes at how little Rin questioned or had to think about it. Rin leans toward him a little, conspiratorially almost, and puts a hand on his shoulder.
“It's not a real dystopia if Haru still has the water” he points out, giving Makoto a wink. Only Rin could make Makoto feel like he was getting hit on while they discuss the end of the world. He thought he probably liked Rin's answer just as much though.
Even with them both being so different, part of Makoto knew he would be ok no matter what, as long as they were all together. But also, he couldn't stand to just sit by while so many innocent people needed help, so Rin's answer rang true with him as well...
Maybe he had a little fire, and a little ice inside him too. Maybe that was what allowed it all to work so well, because all of them could get the particular doses of what they wanted in that moment from one or another of themselves.
There always ended up being occasions where it was just two out of the three of them around at a time, and when it happened to be Haru and Rin... Well, let's just say 9 times out of 10, they ended up glaring daggers at each other. That one time out of the ten though, Makoto had come over to Haru's to find them engaged in some of the fiercest, roughest sex he'd ever imagined...it had actually scared him a little... They were so oblivious, they didn't notice him back up the way he had come.
Makoto would've had to have been more than just oblivious to not notice the distance that suddenly sprung up between the two of them for a few weeks after it though. Makoto wouldn't have felt ok leaving Haru like that if his shouts hadn't very much been in the 'affirmative' at the time... But he had to wonder if once the haze of lust wore off, if they didn't feel they had maybe gone a little too far. That was the vibe Makoto got from Rin, and Haru just seemed like he didn't know what to do around him anymore.
Makoto had been very scared then, about what would happen with the three of them. Because, honestly, he couldn't stand the thought of either of them not being 'in his life' like that anymore. He had worked extra hard to sort of bring them back together after that, but subtly, because he figured the embarrassment of them knowing that he knew would just be a set back...
It was like, if Rin's fire every really got close enough, hot enough, to melt through the ice that was Haru, then in the end, Haru as they knew him would be gone, and Rin put out in the aftermath. Makoto wasn't really sure if his analogy held true with his own supposition about having a little of each inside him, but then again, he wasn't really a poet either.
“So,” Rin said to him, some days later when they were all doing homework in Haru's living room, “If you were in a dystopian society...”
“What would you do?” Haru finished the sentence for him, both of their eyes drilling into him. Makoto blushed and looked down at his math book. He should have known he'd be found out eventually for that...
“Well, uh... Haru... I'd make you help us overthrow it” he said with his head still sort of ducked down, because he knew Haru wouldn't like that answer.
“Hah! I knew I was the leader” Rin beamed.
“You're not the leader, Makoto is. You're just loud” Haru frowned at him.
“Maybe, but I show initiative, and initiative counts when toppling corrupt regimes” Rin said, crossing his arms over his chest like that was common knowledge.
“Look, Haru, you know if people are being hurt we can't just do nothing, but, you have to help too, because you were right, we do have to stick together” Makoto said earnestly, willing him to understand.
“You guys do realize we're not actually living in the 'Hunger Games' or anything, right?” Haru countered with a sigh, picking up his textbook again and shaking his head. Makoto could tell though that he wasn't as annoyed as he sounded.
“I know, I know... I just... Sometimes, I think about how different you guys are, and it's like, even though you're fire and ice, if you just worked together, you could do really great things...” Makoto offered into the settling silence. Haru looked very contemplative, but after a few moments, Rin beat him to actually speaking.
“If we're fire and ice, then you're like our oxygen, Makoto, neither of us can do it without you” he said, and for once Haru nodded and agreed completely.
“Both fire and water need it, they can't exist without it” he added solemnly. Makoto had tears in his eyes by the time they were done, and with an unspoken agreement, studying came to an end for that afternoon.
If you squinted real hard, almost, it sounded like they were saying that Makoto was like the air they breathe, and he felt in that moment like his life truly was poetic.