Childhood Memories (Rin Matsuoka)

Ready To Tell

"Geeze you really scared me" Makoto sighed the next day at lunch. Apparently Nagisa had been lurking in Haru's bath this morning and scared the living day lights out of Makoto.

"Sorry, Mako-chan" he replied sheepishly "I couldn't help myself" Makoto shot him the closest thing he could manage to a dirty look. Which was a normal expression to anyone else.

"Why were you even at Haruka-kun's?" I ask through a mouthful of sandwich

"He said he had stayed the night" Makoto said, back to his happy self "Right, Haru?"

"Yeah" Haru nodded then explained to us that he found Nagisa setting up a tent near his house to watch the Leonids - which weren't until Autumn according to Rei - and Haru had let him stay over so he didn't start a camp fire. Nagisa laughed at his mistake before starting to babble on about practice. I frowned at him, he was acting suspicious.

~

Later that day I sat by the side of the pool in Samezuka, timing Rin's laps. Sousuke and Nitori were watching his laps behind me.

"You were .5 of a second of your personal best" I smiled at him and he shrugged, climbing out the pool.

"I can try again tomorrow" he said

"Great work though!" Nitori chipped in

"Thanks" Rin smiled and I handed him his towel and found myself staring at his torso - was it always that toned?

"Have you toned up more recently?" Sousuke asked, as if reading my thoughts.

"Yeah" he replied, drying his hair, I couldn't take my eyes from his bare chest and found my cheeks heating up. I really hit the jackpot "I think my current training regimen works better for me"

The three of them continued to talk, Rin looked down at me and I looked away, totally flustered at being caught staring. He smirked at me but looked away, continuing to answer Nitori's questions. Man had I got lucky.

"RIN-SENPAI!" came Momo's yell from the pool and the four of us looked round to where he was yelling for Rin to look at his backstroke. It made me smile at how much they looked up to him. He really has changed. I giggled as Mono swam into someone. Poor boy.

"Is he swimming or talking? Pick one" Rin sighed, shaking his head

"I better shoot" I said "Iwatobi's training'll be starting in a minute"

"Okay" Rin smiled, leaning in for a hug I placed a hand on his chest to stop him

"Nagisa hugs me soaking wet enough as it is" I laugh, pecking his lips and calling goodbye to them. I ran back to Iwatobi to catch the last half hour of their training. Which was looking pretty intense as they were swimming pretty late. I walked back with the four of them as they all complained about how sore they were. Accept Nagisa, who I was watching through the corner of my eye as he stared ahead, not contributing to the conversation. Which was really unlike him.

"Nagisa-kun?" I asked, nudging his elbow, he seemed to snap out his daze suddenly

"Wh-what is is?" he smiled, it seemed fake.

"What's the matter?" I asked "you're spacing out"

"Even you're tired out, Nagisa?" Makoto said

"Yeah, even me.." he said

"You're the one who said we should train hard today" Rei said with a kind smile "so how can you be so worn out?"

"Even I get tired sometimes!" he snapped

"Nagisa?" my eyes widened at his outburst and he seemed to be feeling guilty about it

"Sorry, Rei-chan!" his fake smiled returned "I think I left something at the club, you guys go ahead, I'll see you tomorrow!" and with that he dashed off, I reached out to grab him but missed. Leaving the four of us to stare after him.