"Haru…..Lost…." Makoto could barely say the words. He saw his team mates each had an equal shocked look on their faces. Makoto glanced at the pool and saw that Haru put his head back down, as if asking the water why it betrayed him in his time of need. "I'm gonna head down there" Makoto told the other. Nagisa made a move to follow but one look from Makoto and Rei grabbed Nagisa's arm to stop him, when Nagisa tried to pull away Rei just shook his head, he knew that Haru needed Makoto at that moment.
Makoto started walked down the stairs but as soon as he hit the bottom step he started running through the hallway. He used his long legs to push his way through the swimmers that just got done the race. Rin was getting out when he got to pool. Makoto began walking over to help Haru out of the water, give him a smile, tell him that it's ok because he did his best, then tell Rin congrats for the victory. However when Rin started talking Makoto stopped to listen.
"Haru!" Rin said, "I win. This means I'll never swim with you again." Makoto heard a gasp come from Haru. "Never." Rin stated. Giving a grin that showed his sharp teeth Rin walked to the hallway with a little spring in his step. The look on Haru face was heartbreaking; Makoto couldn't believe what he just heard. Rin either didn't notice that Makoto was near the hallway, or just didn't acknowledge him.
He didn't know what caused it: Haru's heartbroken face, Rin's attitude since he came back, or what but something in Makoto snapped. He was mad, no, he was pissed. Before Rin's team came down to celebrate his win and before Haru or the other came looking, Makoto went up behind Rin, grabbed his arm and pulled him into the bathroom. Seeing that no one was there he locked the door.
"What…What the hell!?" Rin shouted at him. Makoto turned around so his back was to the door and he was facing Rin. This would have been the first time they really talked, Hell, it would have been the first time they were alone since Rin came back to Japan. "Makoto?" Of course Rin was surprised. This wasn't something that he would do. Rin tried to reach for the door but Makoto blocked his way at every turn. "What do you want, Makoto? Come to cry to me about hurting your friend?" He looked around "You know, people are going to start talking, us all alone in a bathroom" Rin said trying to get Makoto to drop his guard.
Makoto didn't even blink; he just glared at the guy in front of him. His glare was so out of place and unusual for Makoto that Rin started to feel uncomfortable. "Were you ever our friends, Rin?" He asked. The wide eyes and the confused look on Rin's face told him that he didn't understand what Makoto meant. "Don't give me that look. When we were kids, did you ever feel any friendship for us?" Rin looked down, not knowing what to say. "Or were you just using us?"
"What?"
"Oh come on Rinrin, or should I say, Leader" Makoto spat the word at him, making Rin think of all the times when they were kids training for the relay and he kept telling them he was their leader. "What's the real reason you wanted to swim with us? I thought it was to become friends and win the relay, just like you wanted, to win like your dad did," Rin looked at the wall to his left when his dad was mentioned. "But now, you just wanted to swim with us to beat Haru didn't you? You didn't give a fuck about me or Nagisa. We were just people that came with the prize. I thought it was a good idea swimming with you in the relay. I overcame my fear of the pool, Nagisa made more friends, and even Haru came out of his shell a bit. But then you left for another country and we never heard from you again! Didn't even know you came back for New Years—" At the mention of New Years Rin jumped in.
"Did Haru -?" Rin started to say but got cut off.
"No! He didn't tell us shit. I had to find out from our old couch a month ago."
"What is this about, Makoto?" Rin asked, trying to get to the point.
"This is about you telling Haru that since you finally beat him that you aren't ever going to swim with him again!" He yelled. "That's what this was all about wasn't it? When you joined the club you heard about him being the fastest swimmer and you thought that if you were ever going to make it to the Olympics that you had to beat him. So you got close to him and that made us and Nagisa also close as well."
Rin started to think back to when Nagisa asked him if he was friends with Haru, he replied 'We are rivals. We swim against each other'. But did that mean that he wasn't their friend? He always said that they were team mates, but did Makoto really think they weren't friends?
"You come back after years of being away and don't even give us a proper greeting. You either insult or ignore me or Nagisa and you've been obsessed with racing Haru. You've….you've been a real ass!" Makoto said. "You know as well as I that Haru just want to swim, he doesn't care about winning or times and for you to say—"
"Yeah! He doesn't care! That's the whole point! Why does Haru get to have this amazing talent when he doesn't want to do anything with it!? I've been training and working hard and it still was never good enough. He was always better." Rin shouted back. Rin was getting mad. What gave Makoto the right to talk to him like he was the bad guy? "I wanted to beat him so I could be faster for once"
"This isn't about wanting to beat him! Or even beating him!"
"Then what is this about?!" Rin asked again.
"Were you our friend? Or were you just using Haru to make you a faster swimmer? Are we not friends anymore? Or were we never friends?" Makoto asked. Rin didn't know how to answer that. Makoto sighed, "I sometimes still get nightmares of when Haru almost drowned in the river" He said quietly "I always thought 'good thing we had our friend Rin to be there for us'"
The look on Rin's face told him that Rin was thinking about that day. Makoto was so scared that he was shaking, he just kept yelling at Haru to wake up but the cold body wouldn't open his eyes. Rin had never seen anyone shake from fear that much in his live. He wonder if any of his friends would be that scared for his life if this happened to him. A small voice in the back of his head said that Makoto would act the same way if it was him that was being pulled out of the water.
"Rin" Makoto started, and then looked down as if thinking of what he was going to do next. Then suddenly he slapped Rin across the face. "You've been a jerk to us since you came back; you haven't acted like a friend at all."
"Makoto…." Rin looked up shocked and put his hand over his face that was red from the slap.
"However, we are your friends. Even if you don't want us to be, even if you never wanted to be. All we wanted was our friend back. So stop acting like a jerk and take back what you said to Haru, because all he wanted, all we wanted, was for us to swim together again"
Rin open is mouth to say something but then there was a noise at the door, someone was trying to get in. Makoto gave one last glace at Rin to give him a chance to speak but Rin closed his mouth, not yet knowing what to say.
"We are here if you need us." That was the last think Makoto said before opening up the door and walking back to find his friends. He didn't have to go far before he said his team at the end of the hallway. He walked over to them.
"Makoto! There you are. The next race is going to start and then our relay is after that" Nagisa said as he hopped over to him. "Where did you go? Haru said you didn't meet up with him at the pool" Makoto looked over Nagisa's head and saw that Haru wasn't looking at him, he was looking at something behind him. Rin must have come out of the bathroom. Makoto turned around and saw that he was right. Nagisa stopped in mid-sentence to look too. Haru glanced over at Makoto, his face was as calm as it always was but his eyes asked the questions he wanted to know. Rin stared at them for a few seconds, his face wasn't as red as it was before, he gave Makoto a nod and turned away.
"OK team" Makoto said before Nagisa could ask anything "We should get going."
"I'm kinda nervous" Rei said pushing up his glasses embarrassed.
"It's ok to be nervous, but we are a team. We can make it through anything" Makoto told his friends and gave him his winning smile. Even though Haru was still hurting from what happened, looking at his team mates, his friends, he felt better.