At the sound of the whistle, he engulfed himself in the cold water. Steady strokes pulled him forward and powerful kicks propelled him, faint noises of his teammates' chanting detectable beyond the churning of liquid that filled his ears. Faster, faster; he had to do it. He was so agonizingly close that a loss at this point seemed unbearable. He reached the first wall and did a half-summersault, thrusting himself back in the direction he had just come. Just a little more, just a little more. His muscles ached from exertion, his lungs burned slightly from the small spurts of air he was just barely managing to breathe in his haste. He couldn't stop, he couldn't slow. New voices that were more familiar mingled with the chanting, their cheers more erratic and unrefined yet so much more encouraging to him. He could hear him, that voice that had pulled him out of the darkness when he had thought it had no end. His shining light.
His hand slapped the wall. It was over. His head whipped out of the water, his eyes flying to the board.
Next to his name, a yellow 1 shone.
The chants turned into cheers.
He had won.
He had done it.
Looking up to where he knew that voice had come from, he saw Haru smiling that beautiful small smile of his.
He didn't want to wait. Pulling himself out of the water, he raced out of the pool area, ignoring the audiences' murmured confusion and the throngs of people who tried to talk to him and congratulate him as he ran.
The last of the racers in his heat were just reaching the wall as Rin bounded up the stairs, reappearing amongst the audience where he finally stopped. Hundreds, if not thousands, of eyes fixed on him, but he didn't care. The only ones that mattered to him were the two he was staring back into, their colour so blue that it surely even the ocean envied them. Haru was still smiling, but now there was a hint of confusion mixed into his features.
God, how he loved that smile. How he wanted to protect it. How he wanted to see it for the rest of his life.
He strode forward, fighting back the hesitation and focusing on the high of winning that was still so fresh in his veins. Haru opened his arms to him, inviting him in for a hug like the one they had shared after the relay over a year ago, but Rin betrayed his expectations. His own shaking hands found the boy's shoulders, melting into him as he kissed him, keeping his lips soft despite wanting to crush them against his. Around him, he faintly noticed that the cheering of the crowd had quieted, but he didn't care. Let them stare. Let them judge. None of it mattered to him right now.
He pulled back and stared at Haru with a toothy smile that he couldn't seem to wipe off his face and the boy stared back at him with stars in his eyes. Recomposing his features to return them to their earlier smile, Haru leaned forward and rested his forehead against Rin's. "You did it," he whispered too quietly for anyone else to hear. Haru didn't need to say the words "I love you." They resonated in his simple statement, in his actions as he accepted Rin.
This was it.
This was Rin's dream.
He had done it.
A/N: Really simple fic that I got down in half an hour and I'm sure a million other people have already done, but I hope you liked it.