Free! Style

Valentines day morning

Valentine’s day. Rin was walking away from the pool. Haru, having been slower on his times than usual today, had decided to stick around and do more swimming.

“Hey, there good looking.” A deep voice called out. Rin looked up. Sosuke was leaning against his bike. “You really want to be in class, today?” he asked gesturing to the bright sunlight around them.

“More than ever. I might get chocolates.” Rin grinned.

“Speaking of…I don’t see the boyfriend around.” Sosuke muttered.

“Yeah, he wasn’t happy with his times. He’s putting in some extra practice.” Rin stated.

“Oh, is that why he isn’t answering his phone?” a new voice called out. Rin looked up. He swore the man coming towards him grew taller. He frowned.

“What are you doing here?” He growled.

“Well, uh, Haru and I usually grab breakfast together. I was running late and thought I missed him, but he wasn’t answering his phone.” Makoto stated.

“Oh.” Rin glanced away. Something about how the other teen said Haru’s name got on the shark boys nerves. It was weird, but things between him and Haru seemed to be stalling. Tonight Rin was going to fix that. He knew how he felt about the blue eyed boy. As the thought entered his head, he sneaked a look at his roommate.

“Hey, don’t wait up for me. I’ll be spending the night at Haru’s.” A bell tolled out in the winter air. “Crap, gotta go, see ya!” Rin waved as he dashed away. Sosuke glanced at Makoto.

“You, come with me, we need to talk.” He ordered. Shifting he swung on to the back of the motorcycle.

“Uh, I rather …”

“Get on, now!” Sosuke ordered. Makoto looped the other strap of his backpack onto his free arm. Tentatively, he swung his long leg over the seat of the black machine. It roared to life as Sosuke pulled out into traffic. Haru glanced up.

He had just come out of the pool building. He watched the motorcycle pulling away. Why was Makoto leaving with Sosuke? He wondered. Maybe Makoto was late for class. Haru shrugged. He turned to walk to the coffee stand. He ordered a hot beverage and a sandwich. Strolling through the campus he quickly finished off the sandwich. Tossing the wrapper into a garbage bin. His thought were on tonight.

He had spent most of the morning decorating his place.  Over the past week, it felt like he hadn’t seen much of Rin. Yet, Haru had been with Makoto nearly every day. It was odd. The quite teen was keeping a tally in his head. A sort of pros and cons list about the two boys. He liked each of them, but who did he really love?

Before Makoto arrived back in his life, Haru had been planning on telling Rin tonight how much he loved the other boy. Rin was fun. He smiled, even laughed at Haru’s jokes. He was an amazing swimmer and pushed Haru to be better than ever. Honest, if it wasn’t for Rin, he probably wouldn’t still be competing.

Then again, if it wasn’t for Rin, he would never have stopped competing. It was so long ago when they met on that fate filled afternoon. No one knew they had met up. The look of utter defeat in the shark boy, seeing it on that proud face, had ruined Haru. He hadn’t known what the pain he felt was back then, but he learned. He felt guilty for taking away something the boy had loved so much.

Maybe giving into Rin now, agreeing to date him, six months ago, maybe it had been Haru’s way of relieving himself of that guilt. Rin had asked him about it. Had pushed the teen back into competition just over four years ago. It had been another fate filled day. Haru kicked at a rock.

Then, there was Makoto. Those green eyes would light up whenever they saw Haru. Makoto was steady, true. He was always beside Haru back in the day. When Haru stated he didn’t want to compete any more, Makoto stayed by his side. They still swam, but only for each other. Makoto never tried to make Haru do things he didn’t want to do. Makoto accepted Haru for what he was.