Chapter Text
It was December 9th in the town of Iwatobi. In 5 days, it will be the 16th birthday of a certain blue haired swimmer, and the deadline for his teammates to obtain presents for him. The three other boys, Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa, decided to wait until just now to start looking for their presents in order to minimize the chances of Rei discovering their gifts prematurely. Rei may have not have been part of the group as long as the other three were, but they still treat him as a valuable member of the team, no matter how quirky his swimming skills are. Regardless, the blue haired man had been feeling down recently, thinking he has been nothing but a handicap for the team, therefore, the other three wanted to give him birthday gifts in order to show how much they appreciate him, and hopefully, cheer him up.
All three childhood friends were dead set on finding a gift for their newest member, but each had varying degrees of enthusiasm for their quest, depending on how close the person in question was to the butterfly swimmer. Nagisa, of course, was the most enthusiastic of the three; being Rei's closest friend, the blonde had already came up with an idea of what to give the blue haired man. Makoto was next; while he was nowhere near as close to Rei as he was to Haruka, or even Nagisa, as he had knew the blonde for a longer time, he still saw the bespectacled man as a good friend, even if he doesn't always understand him.
And lastly, there was Haruka. While he does interact with Rei whenever the team meets up, and even spent some alone time with him for training sometimes, he doesn't really see him as anything more than just a necessity. To him, the only reason Rei was here was because his former teammate, Rin, had gotten into a big fight and left the club, and joined the Samezuka swim team instead. The club needed a new teammate in order to have a chance to compete against their friend turned rival, and Rei of all people had been the best candidate, despite not having any prior swimming experience. Since then, despite his significant increase in swimming skills since he first joined, in Haruka's eyes, he was only just another familiar face, having a minimal impact in the raven haired man's life, despite how much the blunette looked up to him.
So while the blonde and the brunette had already set off to look for their presents, and Rei went off to do his own thing, Haruka decided to hold off his search until later; he had something else on his mind. As it was well into December, the school pool was closed, and swim meets had long since concluded for the year, yet Haruka had his mind set on feeling the embrace of water, and this time, it's not going to be from his bathtub.
He took a bus all the way to a different town, its name not necessary to know, but what should be known is that it had a private indoor pool which was open year round, and since not many people knew about it, due to the town's relatively secluded location, it was essentially a private resort for the select few who knew of its existence. Of course, Haruka, with his uncanny ability to sense water, was one of those people, and he couldn't wait to dive in; he even had his trademark black and purple swim jammers underneath, though he always wears them underneath his legwear, regardless of his intentions.
When Haruka arrived, he headed straight into the locker room to put down his belongings, and took off his outerwear, revealing a pale, fit, stunning body, with only his jammers leaving something unexposed, even then, with their skin tight material allowing the form of his thighs and rear to be exposed, they weren't really hiding much.
He was so enthusiastic to get into the water, that he didn't notice the belongings of another, familiar, person lying nearby.
When Haruka finally arrived at the pool, he froze. He saw a shimmering shade of blue, but this time, it wasn't the reflection of the water. Instead, it was blue locks of the same shade of the water, glistening with droplets of said fluid. Underneath the mass of blue, there was a stunning body of peachy skin, further enhanced by the water droplets glazing it, which enveloped well built muscles which were put to good use swimming through the water, with the purpose of being the most hydrodynamic body it can be. The only thing keeping it partially hidden was the blue jammers surrounding the well built, long, legs, but even then, just like Haruka's, they were also skin tight, thus they hugged them, as well as the glutes, to the point of revealing the form of the hidden limbs which would normally be hidden underneath less revealing legwear. But the trump card it had over Haruka's, it that instead of purple streaks running down the length of them, they had streaks the same shade of blue as the owner's hair, as well as the water that also embraces them, which just so happened to further enhance their appearance.
Haruka started breathing heavily; he never thought of his teammates this way, especially their newest one. If he started having thoughts like these over his friends and their bodies, He thought that it would probably be about Makoto, or even Rin, despite him being on another team now. Chances are, he would have started thinking about Nagisa this way long before the blue haired teen. He had at least known the blonde much longer then their newest member; and said blonde had already set his eyes on the blunette. He had been alone with his bespectacled teammate before, and had even seen him swimming clad only in jammers before, so why now is he feeling this way about Rei? REI?
Maybe it's because he's training so hard by himself because he cares so much for the team.
Or, maybe it's because he's the same color like the water he tries so hard to conquer.
Or, maybe it's because Haruka only just now realized how attractive he is.
Or, maybe it's all of the above.
Haruka was so lost in thought that he didn't stop to think about how Rei even found this place, or how Rei finally noticed his presence.
"Woah, Haruka! I didn't know you came here too!" The blue haired teen responded in surprise, jolting Haruka out of his thoughts.
"..." Haruka didn't respond, only staring at the younger man in shock.
"Haruka?"
The raven started to back up, slowly, before fleeing the pool in embarrassment, ignoring the blue haired man calling for him in concern, asking if he was okay.
As soon as he gotten home from the bus, Haruka hid himself under his bedsheets, and stayed there until the next day, contemplating what had just happened.
By then, he had accepted the truth; Haruka had a crush. On Rei.