Shark Bite

The new student.

Haru's POV

The sunlight from the window gleamed through the water I was lying in, it shines on my skin making weird patterns from the water. I want to stay here forever but I feel that familiar burning in my airways and I'm forced to sit up for oxygen. Droplets drip from my hair into the bath as I follow them with my eyes, I wish I was free like that.

"Hard come on we're going to be late!" Makoto calls from downstairs, rousing me from my thoughts. He comes into the bathroom with that kind smile on his face.
"Ah, there you are. We have to go or we're going to be late," he says. Well he is right. As much as I don't want to, I get my self out of the water. Makoto stares at my waist, he thinks I don't notice but I do. I'm wearing my form fitting black and purple swimsuit and I know Makoto likes the way it fits over my slender frame.
"Alright, let me get dressed," I say non-commitdedly.

We leave my house and catch the train to school, I'd rather just go to the pool and stay there until the days over but I can't. Nagisa and Rei are waiting at the station for us, and Nagisa, being the bubbly little guy that he is runs over to greet us. Rei on the other hand waits till we're over by the bench he's at before he greets us.
"Haru-chan are we going to swim practice after school?" He asks. Nagisa's got memory like a seive. I look at Makoto to answer, I like that we can communicate with little words it makes life so much easier and I like that he knows me well enough to know when I don't feel like talking. Cause let's face it, I'm not the most social guy in the world.
"Yeah, practice is after school," Makoto says to Nagisa. Nagisa grins and says he thought it was tomorrow. Rei looks at Nagisa and shakes his head in dispair.
"Nagisa I thought you knew the timetable for practice!" He scolds.
"It's fine Rei," Makoto tries, "he just forgot that's all, not the end of the world."

Rei looked like he was going to say something but is cut off by the train coming into the station. We all get on and sit in our usual seats and wait for the stops a few yards away from Iwatobi High. We all go to the gates and join the crowds milling into the school building. Me and Makoto go to home room where we sit down and wait for Miss Amakata to come in.

"Sorry I'm late!" She says as she rushes in, clearly flustered with all the paperwork she's carrying. We all give sympathetic smiles or glances towards her but no one really says anything. She settles into place and starts her morning announcements, the usual blabber about the clubs and exams but everyone's attention is grabbed when she says we have a new student transferring in from Australia. Australia? Didn't they speak English there?
"You can come in now Matsuoka," she calls to a shillouete outside that I never noticed before, tall with a lean but muscular build, the new student had longish dark red hair and crimson eyes. He had a commanding presence, all eyes were on him. He seemed indifferent from this effect he had on a room. But he looked like someone I knew but I couldn't remember who. It'll come to mind later, maybe.
"My name is Rin Matsuoka, I was studying in Australia for a while but decided to come back to Japan for my second year. I have a girly name but I'm a boy."
After he finished his speech that sounded like he had used a million times before, he went to find a seat but the only seat available was beside me. He didn't look at all bothered by this, everyone here was a stranger to him as far as I knew, but I had a feeling that I had met him before. I was racking my brain thinking far back into my memory when it hit me, it was THE Rin Matsuoka, Gou's older brother and the kid who had me on his team in that relay when we were kids with Makoto and Nagisa. Oh god it really was him, it should have hit me earlier, he had the Matsuoka family looks and Gou talked about him a lot but I was too focused on the churning feeling in my stomach. Why did he make me feel this way?

Sup guys, I hope you like the story so far. If you don't like HaruRin and prefer MakoHaru that's fine I won't take offence cause I ship both of them. But no matter what you ship in Free! there will always be one ship everyone can agree on: Reigisa.
-Alex