"You joined the swim club, but you can't swim?" Gou stammered. She then proceeded to rub her temples while grumbling about how this entire club was filled with imbeciles that had nice bodies.
"Yeah, none of us knew that he wasn't a swimmer." Nagisa forced a laugh and added a smile for good measure. Rei pushed up his glasses and glared at the younger blonde "That wouldn't have happened if you didn't force me to nose dive into the pool."
"Actually it was more of a belly flop than a nose dive." Nagisa chimed, which made Rei's glare intensify.
"This is a little bit of a problem for us though. We don't have enough time to recruit a new member, but we really need you to be able to swim." Makoto pondered for a second, before a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "If only we knew someone who was a great swimmer." He sighed dramatically. Nagisa quickly caught on and added "Someone who'd be willing to spend the entire day in the pool to teach Rei."
Haruka eyes lit up at the mention of the 'p' word. Haru grabbed Rei's shoulders, starred directly at him, and said "I'll teach you." Like Nagisa and Makoto suspected, Haru had taken the bait. The guy would do anything to have an excuse to swim.
That's how Rei found himself at the pool wearing a pool tube around his waist. "Do I really have to wear this?" Rei motioned at the childish tube. "Of course; I had to wear the same thing when I was learning how to swim! Although I was 3 at the time…." Nagisa trailed.
Having no indoor pool available, the team had to settle for the outside school pool. By the time Makoto, Rei and Nagisa had shown up; Haru had arrived early and had already been in the pool for a half an hour. "You're going to get yourself sick again." Makoto groaned. Haru simply ignored his pestering and swam over to the ledge. "First lesson: Get in the water."
To any other person it would have seemed like a simple task. To Rei it was difficult. Even though he agreed to join the swimming club, he was still hesitant about water, especially after the recent ordeal with the joint swim meeting.
Rei edged to the side of the pool and glanced down at the sparkling blue water. It would be about 15 meters from his feet to the surface. Acceleration to v. There wouldn't be much of an angle to jump in-Before he had a chance to finish calculating his approach, a firm hand pushed his back and he fell into the cold water.
For a moment he thrashed around, but found that the pool floaty kept him above the surface. Maybe the childish thing could stay after all. He looked back at the other two. Nagisa wore a grin while Makoto smiled innocently.
His attention turned to Haru as he spoke up "Lesson two: Form."
Over the next hour Haru demonstrated Rei on how to tread water. His form was perfect, but every time they removed the pool tube he sank like a rock. The more time went by, the more Rei and Haru's patience wore thin. They were just one more drowning away from loudly questioning each other's species. Was Rei actually a rock and Haru secretly a dolphin?
Meanwhile Makoto and Nagisa sat next to the pool watching the training. "Should we have them take a break?" Nagisa asked. "I brought some lunch for us, I'll go get it." Makoto responded. He looked back at the swimming duo and called out "Haruka, help me carry the bento out here."
Haru gazed from the pool to Makoto as if making a difficult choice. Finally he came to the conclusion to get out of the water and trail after his friend.
Rei was about to get out of the water too until he heard a splash beside him. Nagisa had decided to jump into the pool and soak Rei's head in the process.
His head bobbed up and he beamed "Watching you two swim made me want to get in too!"
Rei shook his head. How could Haruka make swimming look so easy? Nagisa remarked, as if answering him "Don't be too hard on yourself. Not even Makoto and I are as good as Haru and we've been swimming for just as long as him! It's like he was practically raised in the water –like a mermaid!"
The thought of Haruka swimming around with a tail suddenly sprung up in his head. He waved the odd image away as he grabbed the ledge of the pool to get out.
"I can give you a few tips If you want." Nagisa exclaimed. He noticed the pause in Rei's movements and took that as a 'yes'.
"First things first, remove the pool tube!"
Rei had grown fond of the immature tube; it had saved him from drowning a few times. To take it off meant that he'd definitely die in this pool.
"Come on you'll never be a beautiful swimmer if you keep wearing this thing." He tugged at the tube. Nagisa had a point. The pool tube would definitely get in his way if he ever wanted to be like Haruka. "Fine." He replied simply.
Nagisa practically jumped him to get the tube off and once he did successfully, Rei gripped onto the pool wall instantly.
"See, you just kick your legs a little and move your arms around." Nagisa said.
Rei stared at him blankly. If it was that easy he'd have already mastered swimming. "You're no help at all." He groaned.
"Just try it." Nagisa insisted as he grabbed Rei and started tugging him away from the pool's wall. Rei grasped the wall even tighter, but his hand slipped and he unwillingly let go. He sank instantly. Nagisa immediately grabbed Rei and hoisted him to the surface.
"Rei you're pretty heavy." Nagisa stuttered under the weight of the much taller Rei.
Before Rei knew it, his head dipped under the water again, but this time he was dragging Nagisa down with him.
The two sunk further down in the pool until they hit the bottom. Nagisa desperately tried to drag Rei back up to the surface, but it was useless. Rei was too heavy for him.
He was right. Taking off that pool tube did lead him to death. Rei looked at Nagisa struggling to pull him upwards. He looked at his determined expression, and wondered why the blonde wouldn't just let him drown, or why he didn't just go get help. Then something just seemed to click. Rei grabbed Nagisa and pushed off of the pool floor with his feet.
Both their heads broke the water's surface. Makoto's voice could be heard calling them as he and Haruka ran to the side of the pool. "Nagisa!" Rei shouted as he glanced down at the blonde who was coughing.
Nagisa peered up at him and looked at Rei's arms holding his figure. His expression went from confusion to surprise, and then he broke out into a smile.
"Rei" His smile widened "you're swimming!"
Rei's attention shot down to the water and just like Nagisa had claimed, he was in fact swimming. He looked away from Nagisa flustered and muttered "Y-you broke your promise. You said you'd take full responsibility of me joining the swim club and you almost drowned me!"
Nagisa blinked, the statement took him by surprise. The shock soon wore off as Nagisa chuckled slightly before breaking out into a fit of giggling.
Authors Note:
This fanfic is based right after episode 3, and is my take on what I think will happen in episode 4.
Although to be fair, episode 4 will probably completely blow this fanfic out of the water. (haha. you have no idea how many water puns I have saved up for this fandom...)