White feather on your right shoulder
"Come on! These times are still to high to enter the team who will compete in the next regional tournaments!"
The only voice filling up the pool in which the young athletes were training was Rin Matsuoka's, the captain of the Samezuka Academy swimming team.
The third year boy, that day, had assigned his coetaneous teammates the role of coaches for the younger members, showing them some tricks to lower their times.
Among them there was Sousuke Yamazaki, who was taking care of the butterfly swimmers group.
The raven haired boy would have gladly avoided being a coach that day, since his right shoulder, the injured one, had been hurting for some days now and swimming he would have ended up stressing it more, but the athlete had already skipped his training in the past days and didn't want Rin to suspect anything. So he sighed, teaching the first and second year boys what he was going to do in a few minutes, so that they would lose the least amount of time that was possible while they had to turn underwater, putting more strenght in their legs.
After the explanation ended, Sousuke stepped on the block, diving in the water and swimming the whole lane, practicing whant he had just taught them. The butterfly stroke swimmer had to suppress the pangs of pain coming from his shoulder, giving his best to mantain the momentum of his strokes, managing to get back to the starting line.
A towel was given to the athlete as soon as he stepped out of the water. Rubbing it against his hair, the teal-eyed boy prompted his kohais to practice what they had just learnt and was walking towards a near-by bench, when a thump and a scream filled the momentary silence of the pool.
"Nitori-Senpai!"
It was Momotarou's voice, the first year backstroker and the younger brother of the ex captain of the team, Seiijuro, who hurriedly ran towards his silver haired senpai, currently lying selseless on the wet floor.
Aiichirou had just got out of the water, after swimming a couple of laps. He would have swum many more, if only the young boy hadn't practiced the night before and that same morning, before going to lesson, and the high number of strokes wasn't leading him to an asthmatic attack. As soon as his feet touched the tiled floor, tho, all the piled up tiredness took possess of his body, causing a strong sense of dizziness and the following collapse.
Upon hearing Momo's scream, Rin ran towards the who kohais, kneeling beside Ai and picking him in his arms, letting his head lean against his chest. Nitori was pale, but it was strange: just until the previous day, the crystal blue eyed boy was fine. Maybe, the captain thought, he had a sugar drops. But that wasn't the right moment to think about what had caused his teammate's loss of consciousness, he had to wake him up.
"Ai... Ohi, Ai! Open your eyes!"
Rin whispered, slightly shaking his ex roomate's shoulders, also giving him light slaps on his cheeks, until he saw those eyes open.
"R-Rin senpai...? Momo-kun...? What happened?"
Ai whispered, his voice sounding fleble, tired, while looking around, finding himself still leaned against the captain and noticing Momo's worried gaze.
"It seems you have fainted. How are you feeling now?"
Rin asked, helping his kohai sit and then stand up, supporting him to avoid his legs to give out again. Nitori said he was feeling better, he just felt weak for a moment, while the maroon haired boy was scanning the crowd of athletes around them, searching for a someone.
"Oi, Sousuke! Can you come here?"
Rin asked his childhood friend who, in the meantime, had joined the bunch of curious boys. If the captain himself had dashed there, it had happened something serious, the raven haired boy thought, and his suspects were confirmed when he saw Nitori laid in the older one's arms.
Nodding to his friend's request, Sousuke walked past the athletes, reaching him and listening to his words. Rin wanted him to carry Nitori back to his room to rest, exempting the both of them for the rest of the practice session, warning him that he would drop by at the end of the practice itself.
The dark haired boy did as he was told to, wrapping the younger one's hips with an arm, letting him lean against his toned body to avoid Nitori to fall down again, stepping then out of the pool and walking to the dorms.
"Well? What are you looking at? Get back to your practice or I'll choose sea turtles as team members!"
Rin shouted to the athletes, clapping his hands twice, before getting back to his captain duties.