Sea Foam
(or aka "How Rin Matsuoka Attempted to Ruin Haruka Nanase's Innocence")
Haruka's grandmother told him stories when he was little.
They would be beautiful, brilliant stories, some about nature and love, and his overall favorites involved the ocean. Sailors, adventure, and the sea life, all perfect things that Haruka adored. Stories that sparked his imagination and held his attention far better than any other story he's ever heard in his entire life, from any book, movie, or lesson at school. His favorite story specifically, was the original Little Mermaid tale. And his grandmother would tell it, by far better than anyone else ever has.
Blue eyes would be wide and focused, listening to his grandmother's voice even though he heard it countless times before. Grandmother Nanase was wonderful at telling stories, her tone soothing and would do special voices for certain characters that would make Haruka smile. He did many things that were memorable with his grandmother, but hearing her stories was his absolute favorite.
By the end of the story, with the mermaid's death, she would be staring into Haruka's big eyes with every word, and with all of his childhood innocence, he truly believed that the sea foam that he saw whenever he went to the beach were actual, deceased mermaids. And to this day whenever he would go to the beach, Haruka would frown when he saw sea foam wash up against the shore, remembering the old story.
When she passed, Haruka always thought of her stories on an almost daily basis. He would tell them to Ren and Ran whenever Makoto had his hands full at home before bed, mimicking his grandmother, special voices and all. Of course, after hearing them countless times, he had them memorized fairly well. Makoto would smile, leaning against the door frame with gentle eyes and watched his boyfriend who would finish up the story regardless, even after the twins would be long asleep. The brunette had heard these stories as well when he was little, although not as many times as Haruka, but would listen with the same eagerness when Grandmother Nanase would speak.
Rin was told about this one evening when he and Makoto were listening in, taking a much needed break from their homework. At first the redhead didn't believe it, that Haruka would believe in an old story that was proven to be untrue because he was seventeen now and not seven, but Makoto convinced him otherwise to let Haruka just believe in this one thing, that made him think of his grandmother.
"Just this, Rin? Please?" Makoto rested his head on Rin's shoulder, closing his eyes and continuing to listen to Haruka's soft voice lulling his siblings to sleep. "It makes him happy. And it makes me happy, too."
The redhead just shrugged, combing his fingers through Makoto's hair as the pair continued to listen.
"You know..." Red eyes glanced over to Haruka who was messing with his scarf. The two had made a detour to walk along the beach on their way home from the city after visiting Makoto on his lunch break at his part-time job, just like they always do. "I know what sea foam really is."
Haruka was silent, but turned his head to look at Rin, curious.
"You don't know?" A grin spread on Rin's face as Haruka slowly shook his head. He knew he would get an earful from Makoto later for this, but...he just couldn't resist. "It's not dead mermaids."
"...what?" It was hard for Rin not to audibly 'awwh' at the sight of Haruka's confused face.
"It's whale sperm, Haru. Definitely not dead mermaids."
Haruka didn't answer for a moment.
"...you're lying." He spoke, his eyes growing dark and his skin paled. "Rin, stop. That's stupid."
"It's true, Haru. Rei told me. And glasses knows his stuff." Rin teased, adjusting his own scarf around his neck and pushing the ends into his jacket. "Sorry, babe."
There was another pause, and Rin turned around when he heard Haruka's footsteps coming to a halt. Rin watched Haruka, blue eyes wide and staring at the water. He knew that he was looking for it, for the sea foam that he's seen so many times, trying desperately not to believe his redheaded lover for a second. RIn was surprised to see Haruka pulling out his cellphone ("You never know when you may need it, so keep it on you!" Makoto had said to him countless times), sliding it open and hitting a few buttons, hastily putting it to his ear.
"Rei? It's Haru. Listen, what you told Rin...about the sea foam-"
Shit.
"Tell me it isn't true."
RIn continued to stare, seeing the frustration on Haruka's face as he continued to speak and the faint "I don't understand, what did Rin-san say to you" coming from the speaker of the phone. Eventually Haruka hung up, lips tightened in a line as he looked over at Rin, narrowing his gaze.
"Haru-" A chill went down Rin's spine, and it wasn't from the cold breeze. "I-"
"Come here."
Rin swallowed the lump in this throat, because goddamit he just pissed off Haruka goddamn Nanase (him and Makoto were at the top of his list of 'people I should never upset ever', next to Mikoshiba and his mother due to personal reasons, and he was lucky that he didn't immediately call Makoto), and was being stared down as he walked forward, joining Haruka where the waves met the shore. His and Haruka's shoes were getting wet from the waves, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind because Haruka seemed seconds away from wanting to put his head in the frigid ocean water and drown him right then and there for saying such stupid things.
And that's when Rin followed blue eyes to the sea foam, floating in the water.
"Haru, I'm-" He was cut off by Haruka pushing him to his knees, immediately shouting when the cold seeped through his jeans and his face was mere inches from the water, the tips of his hair becoming wet as he struggled under Haruka's hold. "What the hell, Haru? Let me go!"
The oldest didn't answer, instead, pushing the redhead's face into the sea foam for a brief moment, pulling him back up sputtering and coughing, foam and sea water dripping from his face.
"H-Haru you asshole, let me go!"
Haruka kept his hold in Rin's hair, getting his phone out of his pocket again. Rin glared as Haruka angled his hand, and red eyes widened when he heard the click of the camera. He let Rin go, typing on the keys a bit and mumbling something before putting it back in his pocket, crossing his arms and glaring at his boyfriend once again who was trying to get the white-yellow substance off of his face.
"You're a damn liar. Now come on, we said we'd make Makoto dinner for when he gets home from his double shift."
It had been peaceful when Makoto got home later that night.
...Until he asked why Rin was on the couch, with a slight fever and stomachache. Even with Haruka's simple, monotone explination and Makoto asking to repeat what he said, the end result wasn't too favorable.
"You did WHAT?"
Makoto's green eyes widened in horror towards Haruka, who was rubbing comforting circles on Rin's back. After what he did at the beach earlier, and some of the substance getting in the youngest's mouth along with it being winter and pushing one of your boyfriends' face into freezing ocean water probably isn't the best idea, it wasn't long before the redhead mentioned that he wasn't feeling well, and it took him dropping a pan of water while preparing dinner for Haruka to notice and check his temperature, forcing him to get out and lay on the couch.
Haruka just shrugged. "Punishment for lying and making me upset. It could've been worse, I could have just not cared when he almost fell in the kitchen."
"Haruuuu-" Makoto groaned. "You can't just do that, you know! Just look at him!" The mentioned swimmer just whined in response. "How is potentially drowning someone and making them sick an acceptable punishment for that?"
"You did get the picture I sent, right?" Haruka ignored the scolding and questions, playing with a strand of red hair instead, making Makoto groan in frustration.
"I did, but I don't see how that picture and the caption 'you shouldn't make such a mess' is relative to Rin telling you that sea foam is really-" Makoto stopped, taking a moment to think, face burning bright red when everything finally clicked together. It was times like this that he wished that he wasn't referred to as an orca by his closest friends and lovers. "HARU!"
Muffled laughter came from Rin's blanket-covered figure on the cough, slowly turning into a painful groan when Haruka pinched his side. "Don't worry, didn't even taste the same." Rin said, pulling the blanket over his head and getting comfortable. "You're way better."
"Why does that even- oh, forget it!" Makoto covered his face with his hands, rubbing at the corners of his eyes. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you two...I probably won't be surprised if I get home one day and one of you is dead or close to dying because you went too far with your stupid little games!"
The oldest moved, pressing a kiss to Makoto's forehead. "I'm sorry, I'll ask for permission next time I think Rin deserves punishing. You want to hear a story, Rinrin? Something to soothe you from your misfortune today?"
"No, not really. Especially because you were the one that attempted to drown me." Came the low, tired-sounding response with a sigh. "Just lemme sleep already."
"Too bad." Haruka got himself comfortable between Makoto's legs, his back against the broad, warm chest, bringing his legs up and setting his hands on his bare knees. "You're getting a story anyway. Lucky you."
Makoto smiled, resting his chin on the top of Haruka's head and wrapping his arms around the smaller black-haired boy. "What story were you thinking of, Haru?"
"The story of the Little Mermaid."
Rin just groaned in defeat.
Author's note: /shamelessly puts this under the category of 'things senpai makes me do'
But partially the idea came from stupid people I know in real life (sorry Rin), when sea foam is actually "a type of foam created by the agitation of seawater, particularly when it contains higher concentrations of dissolved organic matter (including proteins, ligins, and lipids)derived from sources such as the offshore breakdown of algal blooms" thank you wikipedia)
(and also not dead mermaids sorry Haru)