Initially, it had probably been a pervading curiosity; wanting to know what so compelled her brother about Nanase Haruka.
He was different than first impressions led, concentrated, a little childlike and unusual. He was just so earnest and focused on the water. This boy, though he was older than her and taller too - something she was very aware of at this moment, sitting next to him on the coach with Makoto-senpai on the other side.
They had gone to the beach for the day, a prerogative Nagisa had announced compulsory to all high-schoolers and, especially, their club. She could still feel the sea-salt, stiff on her skin, and remembered how Haruka-senpai had rather leave his hair wet and dripping, until the other upperclassman inevitably pounced on him with a towel in a concerned brotherly fashion, "-you'll get sick this way, you know!" Still, a few rebellious strands at his nape now spotted the wrinkling collar of his shirt and, from the corner of her eye, she tracked a particular bead of water's progress. Then, there was a sensation brushing up faintly against the side of her fingers and her attention shifted; she turned her head a little to examine his hand, palm flat against the seat and so large resting next to hers.
Idly, she wondered; she thought about his kindness to her so far, his attention at the best of times and the not-quite-so lidded eyes he lifted to meet her own…
"Don't fall in love with him, Gou-chan."
She blinked, her hand jerking and falling in the same motion. Nagisa peered at her, over folded arms and the back of his seat. She could see the top of Rei-kun's dark hair leaning sideways against him, head drooping; the downturn of his lips and serious voice so at odds with the earlier tones of the day. So she tilted her head, failing her usual reprimand and electing to say nothing, and he continued, "He only thinks about pools."
"…I'm not in love with Haruka-senpai," she said softly.
And, for a moment, wondered if he would echo that iconic line ("he would only make you cry") but no, he merely regarded her for a very long moment with unreadable eyes before straightening and turning back in his seat. She did not exhale, but sunk back very slightly in her own seat. When she returned to her previous musings, she startled even more, magenta eyes widening -
Haruka-senpai gazed back at her, awake and with those not-so-hooded intensely blue eyes.
Her hand instinctively flexed and vaguely, she realized she had unconciously placed it atop and was now holding onto his, the tips of her fingers slipped under his thumb to touch his palm and now gripping slightly. In her growing flustered embarrassment, she wondered if and how much he had heard of the just-occurring conversation -
and he just looked at her.
Then he slid his eyes shut again, and he didn't move his hand.
Most likely, he just did not care enough to. But, Kou looked at him and thought, maybe, just maybe she could -
she could fall in love with him.
AN: more warm-up fic for my OTP.