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“Oh.”
Rei looked up from where he had been idly thumbing through the training camp photos, catching sight of Nagisa’s face. His eyes were wide and shining excitedly in comprehension, mouth curved into a near perfect circle. Rei felt vaguely uneasy, but he attributed it to the fact that Nagisa’s mouth wasn’t a perfect circle and therefore un-beautiful and, with a mental pat on the back for that deduction, convinced himself not to get pulled into whatever mischief that that face undoubtedly promised.
“Rei-chan,” Nagisa’s tone had taken a devilish edge, “You’re in love!”
A few minutes, some undignified squawking and an accidentally smacked away pair of glasses later, Rei calmed down and tried to regard Nagisa coolly. He stupidly forgot that Nagisa was oblivious to cold shoulders and things like that.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rei groused.
“Oho, but you do! It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t see it before!”
“Nothing is obvious,” Rei insisted, “…Is it?”
“You’ve been going back to the same picture five times already.”
Rei froze, looking down at the photograph in his hand. It was a smiling Makoto-sempai, wearing a beach dress over her swimsuit, glancing back at the camera, with Haru-sempai in the background.
“So obvious,” Rei hated the glee in Nagisa’s voice, “Then again, what counts for a soul-calming angel was the one stole your heart away, right? Oh man, Rei-chan, you’ve got a lot of competition to wade through.”
Rei’s eyebrow twitched lightly, “Competition?”
“That’s okay, though!” Nagisa slapped him on the back, “Between you and me, she’ll never know what hit her!”
“I still don’t know what’s hit me.”
“Trust me,” Nagisa ignored that comment and flashed him a thumbs up, “She’ll be all over you by the time we’re through.”
Rei really had to nip this in the bud, “Nagisa—”
“You’re so lucky I’ve known her since we were kids! I know all her likes and dislikes, and you can go be the perfect boyfriend!”
“Nagisa, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Rei stressed, although the blush on his face wasn’t completely convincing, “I… While, yes, I do admit I admire her, to say that I’ve fallen in love with her is kind of…”
“Oh.”
“Exactly,” Rei felt relieved; it was possibly to talk sense to Nagisa after all. Save the fact Nagisa was shooting him a particularly piteous look.
“Denial,” he shook his head sadly, “Too much of it is unhealthy, you know? You could stunt your growth.”
“That is completely untrue! And your statement is scientifically unsound! Besides which, your logic collapses on itself. I mean, look at you, you’re too accepting of everything and you’re not particularly tall!”
Nagisa’s pout did nothing to hide the fact that he had narrowed his eyes slightly, “I’m still a growing boy who hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet.”
But his eyes held a glint of promise and Rei wondered whether or not he was right to feel a teensy bit afraid. Clearing his throat however, Rei barreled ahead, wanting to be completely firm about this. Nagisa was excellent at messing up his pace, and he gave in for the most part, but he was not going to let Nagisa toy with the scant few interpersonal relationships he had. He adjusted his glasses sharply.
“I am not in love with anyone. If you’re interpreting my feelings to be a crush, well, let me correct you by saying that any feelings I have is admiration. Admiration for an upperclassman in the same club isn’t really unusual, is it?”
“Poor thing,” Nagisa muttered under his breath, but Rei couldn’t respond because there were voices outside the locker room and then the door opened.
“You’re doing very well,” Makoto-sempai smiled at Rei, which made him redden around the ears, “But you need to pull your hands towards your feet, and not the bottom of the pool. Like this…”
From a floating position, Rei stood up in the pool opposite her. She took his right arm and moved it along in the direction she was indicating. He nodded once, willing his muscles to remember the movement, because suddenly all he could think of was how very lovely her eyes looked as it shone with the reflection of sunbeams off the water. He was not prepared for when she dipped his hand low enough to brush along the side of his hip and nearly jumped out of his skin.
“…this is more suited to freestyle, which is why you’re not moving as fast. Got it?”
“Yes!” Rei squeaked, submerging himself quickly.
Makoto-sempai frowned slightly, “Are you all right?”
“Perfect! I’m perfect!”
“Are you sure? If you’re tired, you should take a break.”
“I am not leaving the pool!” Rei exclaimed with bravado, desperate to be left alone to practice at this point, “I love water! So much!”
That statement caused a pause followed by the sound of her soft giggling, and as he watched her with dazed eyes, Haru-sempai floated over and stood across from him, a hand on Rei’s shoulder, looking at him with purpose.
“You understand now, don’t you?”
“Eh?”
“Congratulations.”
“I don’t…” Rei blinked at Haru-sempai rapidly before it sunk in. I love water. Oh. “Thank you.”
Haru-sempai nodded once and then slithered away again. Makoto-sempai merely sighed and regarded Rei with a smile.
“It’s good that you feel this way, but don’t push yourself too hard, all right?”
Rei felt touched by her concern, “…All right.”
With a final smile, she turned around to the ladder and climbed out. Giving Rei a fine view of her ass. Her very fine ass. With spandex pulling tightly across it. Covered in drops of water. Revealing a hint of a tan line as it pulled one way.
Rei felt faint.
“Nagisa,” Rei strained in an undertone, “You win.”
“You’re hiding a boner underwater, aren’t you?”
“…”
“I knew you’d come around,” Nagisa said cheerfully, and kindly blocked the front view of Rei as he quickly scrambled out of the pool, the seniors discussing something with Gou on the other side, “Where should we begin…”