Little Mermaid (Free! X Reader)

Ch.17: The Festival

-Next week-Saturday-

"A festival?" Haru questioned, looking at the three that stood in front of him in confusion.

"Yeah! It's the final festival of Hatchiman! Come on Haru, let's go. I promise you it'll be tons of fun!" Nagisa happily cheered.

Y/N looked at Haru hopefully, while the blue eyed swimmer hesitantly glanced away. "I'm..." He attempted to make an excuse, but it was a bit hard to do when the female was looking at him with large (E/C) puppy eyes.

Makoto, seeming to notice Haru's hesitance, smiled warmly at his childhood friend. "The cool thing is they have this shrine for this water deity, couldn't hurt to pay a visit before Regionals, if that's ok with you." Makoto told him.

"Rei's waiting and he's not going to be happy if we show up without you. 'The five of us have to pray together or there's no point'. Those are his words." Nagisa stated in a matter-of-fact tone, causing both Makoto and Y/N to chuckle at his impression of the megane.

"Nice Rei impression." Makoto chuckled.

"Okay then." Haru said, turning away from the surprised and cheerful expressions that his friends were sending him. "Let me get dressed." He told them.

____Quick Time Skip____

"Yo! Over here, Rei!" Nagisa shouted, while him and Y/N jumped up and down to get the butterfly swimmer's attention. As soon as Rei saw Haru, his expression of worry seemed to immediately vanish as he smiled as the group came up to him.

"Sorry we're late." Y/N smiled as soon as the group walked up to the megane.

"It's fine. I just got here myself, actually." Rei told the group.

"What? Nice save there, Rei." Nagisa stated, mentally rolling his eyes as he placed his hands on his hips, much to Y/N's confusion as she tilted her head. "Just so you guys know, that's what you're supposed to say if you arrive early for a date." He stated seriously.

Y/N blinked, while Makoto sighed and shook his head at the lack of knowledge the poor female had about humans. "At any rate, let's get over there and see the shrine." He stated, motioning with his head towards the shrine.

"Sounds good." Rei nodded his head in agreement, seeming slightly embarrassed from Nagisa's earlier declaration.

"Yeah, let's go!" Nagisa cheered, while Y/N joyfully punched the air with her fist.

___Quick Time Skip___

"Squid, squid, squid, candy apples, and more squid! Wow! They have so many here, it's like a squid smorgasbord." Nagisa pointed out, holding Y/N's hand so she wouldn't get lost, having learned his mistake in the cafeteria, as the group looked around the festival.

"Ex-squid-ite." Rei hummed while pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and causing Y/N to giggle while the others seemed to ignore the poor male's pun.

"Where should we go first?" Nagisa questioned, instead, as he looked at Makoto.

"Hey, I was making a joke!" Rei exclaimed, cheeks a soft pink in embarrassment.

"Well the stairwell to squid heaven is about to start." Makoto stated, pointing to an area up ahead from where they were.

"If I go with you, you have to give me a little squid pro quo, plus it's a bonafide squid pun." Rei complained.

"Ok..." Nagisa blinked in confusion.

"Shut up." Rei huffed and looked away.

"Just come join us." Makoto offered.