notes: because i'm ready for summer and all that comes with it. and also, i love this pairing.
dedication: to summer, ice cream pops, flower crowns, the click five, and fun-colored umbrellas.
thoughts: please note: i am not a hipster.
disclaimer: own nothing
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red velvet dreams
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she's just the girl i'm looking for
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It all started when they went out to get ice cream.
Because Nagisa was complaining about it being too hot, and Rei looked like he was more than prepared to strangle the blond after the fiftieth time he started to whine, and Haru was being, well, Haru. So after prying the water-lover out of his bathtub and making him get dressed, the four friends had headed out to downtown Iwatobi to obtain some cold frozen cream.
If there was one thing that anybody who came within a five mile radius of Nagisa needed to know—other than the fact that he was probably crazy—was that he had an almost insatiable sweet tooth. Sometimes his friends wondered if he was on a fast track to becoming diabetic because of all the sugar he practically inhaled.
Something else that didn't make sense was that he still performed at one hundred and ten percent during swim practice.
Maybe he was an alien.
That would explain so much, actually.
Anyway.
The point was, Nagisa had wanted ice cream, and really nobody had the heart to deny him because it was one hundred and five frickin' degrees outside. They were melting, or, at least they would have been if humans could melt. But it felt like they were melting, and so they had dragged a reluctant Haruka out of his bathtub and out of his house in search of relief.
Which they found in a double freezer at the nearest local convenience store.
"I feel like a new man." Nagisa sighs as he attempts to cram his strawberry cream cycle into his mouth for the fifth time.
Rei looks a little disgusted. "You were never a man in the first place."
"Hey, that was uncalled for." the blond waves his forefinger at his friend and classmate. "I paid for your ice cream, so I can take it back."
"You did not!"
Makoto smiles as he watched his friends. Haruka is slumped on the bench next to him, dejectedly switching his gaze back and forth between his popsicle and the direction of the ocean. It's nice sitting under the store's awning because the shade makes it feel at least five degrees cooler. And they haave ice cream.
It's so much better than lying immobile on the floor in front of a fan with your sweat pooling around you.
So much better.
Makoto's gaze turns from his friends to his surroundings. The residents of Iwatobi didn't really go out much on such scorching days, and so foot traffic was light. There are a few cars that pass by them, and the occasional passerby who looks like they're on the verge of heatstroke, but not much of anyone else.
"I should have just gotten a whole quart." Nagisa laments, glancing down at the remainder of his treat.
Rei swivels around to look at him in a mix of horror and disgust. "What the hell would you do with a quart of ice cream?"
The blond raises a slender brow and leans back a little to give his friend a judging look. "Eat it of course. What do you think?"
Makoto is about to politely interrupt what could be a disaster, when something catches his eye. Parallel to them is a girl standing at the corner, waiting to cross the street. She's dressed in short turquoise shorts, a flowing white blouse, and gladiator sandals. Her long burgundy hair is swept back into a ponytail, and her violet-carmine eyes are sparkling.
There is a flower crown perched atop her hair, a mixed one with delicate white roses and forget-me-nots, and in her hand, she holds an open umbrella.
Makoto glances up at the powder blue sky. There is not a single cloud in sight, and the sun beats harshly down on the earth's inhabitants instead.
He glances back at the girl with the umbrella—parasol, probably, because it's made of lacy white material that doesn't look like it could keep out a drop of rain. She quickly looks both ways both hurrying to the other side of the crossing, and ends up on their side of the street.
Nagisa finishes off the last of his ice cream and tosses it into the can beside the bench. "Okay so—hey, is that Gou-chan?"
All three of his friends turn to look at him.
"Who?" Rei questions.
The blond waves a dismissive hand at him. "Before your time, Rei-chan. But look Mako-chan, Haru-chan. I swear that looks just like Gou-chan."
Haruka leans forward so that he can peer around his friends, and Makoto blinks. The girl is coming closer, and he can see that her nails are painted to match her shorts. It's then that she looks up, sees them all staring at her, and completely stops.
She blinks her pretty eyes, and suddenly they fill with recognition.
Nagisa waves and grins. "Yo, Gou-chan!"
She narrows her eyes and then proceeds to lift her head in a 'holier-than-thou' manner. "That's Kou to you, Hazuki Nagisa."
"So you do remember me!"
Gou rolls her eyes and perches one hand on her hip. "How could I forget my brother's old teammates? What kind of a sister would that make me?"
"Not a very good one!" Nagisa chirps.
She sighs. "You haven't changed." her eyes wander over to Makoto and Haruka, and she quickly averts them again. "Unlike some people around here."
"Do you go to school here in Iwatobi?" Nagisa questions, bouncing from one foot to another.
Gou raises a brow. "Of course I do. I've lived here my whole life."
"Really? How come we've never seen you?"
She shrugs. "Who knows?"
Makoto smiles. "It's nice to see you again, Kou-chan."
Gou twirls a lock of raspberry-colored hair around her finger, and goes slightly pink. "Um, yeah. You too, Makoto-kun." there's a pause. "And you as well, Haruka-kun."
She gives them a wave. "I have to go now, see you around."
Nagisa waves back at her enthusiastically. "Buh-bye, Gou-chan!"
"It's Kou, stupid!"
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The next time Makoto sees her is at school.
She's carrying a different umbrella this time, an opaque one with multicolored polka dots, and she is sitting in a chair next to the pool. There is no flower crown on her head this time and no brightly-colored nail polish. Instead she is wearing the Iwatobi girls' uniform for first year students.
She smiles at them.
"So it looks like we go to the same school then, huh?"
Makoto doesn't happen to think it's just a coincidence.
But maybe.
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She becomes the swim club manager, and things really start to liven up.
He likes it that way.
Haruka isn't so quiet anymore, and he's back in the water. Nagisa is the same, and Rei is learning to swim. Miss Amakata joins them outside sometimes, and takes her place in a chair next to Gou. The latter hopes that her older brother will fall back to his old self if he joins their club, but as time passes, things don't seem to change.
Maybe she doesn't even notice that she's become part of their tight-knit group of friends. That she's irreplaceable and they would never wish to have another manager.
And as time passes, as days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months, Makoto notices a few things about Matsuoka Gou.
First of all, she's very, very pretty—and that's a fact known around the whole school.
Second, she has a muscle fetish that she thinks no one knows about.
Third, she makes a great manager.
She still wears her flower crowns, and she still carries umbrellas on sunny days. He thinks that he's seen over a dozen different ones—she has one with stripes, another covered in flower print, yet another that resembles a rainbow.
The funny things is that she always seems to forget to bring an umbrella on rainy days.
Sometimes he walks her home on days like that, or sometimes she'll go with her girlfriends.
As time passes, Makoto notices a few things about himself, too.
Probably the most important being that he's in love with the girl who wears flower crowns and uses umbrellas on sunny days. It might have started as a crush—something left over from their childhood together that never really disappeared—but it had grown into something more.
Sometimes, he thinks he sees her watching him during practice, or when they all hang out as friends. She always looks away before he can confirm his suspicions though, so there's really no way to tell.
That is, until Nagisa starts talking about couples and pairings and shoujo manga and how great a relationship 'Mako-chan' and 'Gou-chan' would have. There's also something about mutual affection in his long, energetic spiel.
After that Makoto kind of becomes distracted and isn't really able to pay attention anymore.
"I've never heard someone so long-winded. You could be a minister." Rei sighs, pushing his glasses up on his nose.
Haruka raises a brow. "I don't see it."
"Point taken. Who in their right mind would let this guy near a pulpit?"
Normally, Makoto would reroute conversations like this, but he spots a burgundy ponytail and a creamy rose flower crown outside the window, and that's when he decides.
A few moments later, Nagisa turns from his argument with Rei to gain support from the peacemaker of their group. Only, he is not sitting in the same spot on Haruka's bed as he had been previously. The blond blinks in surprise.
A few blocks away, Makoto and Gou are heading to the convenience store for ice cream.
A first date sort of thing.
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end notes: please also note that i should be studying right now. and that this is not nagisa bashing. i love that guy.