Author's Note: I tried to fight it, but here I am drowning in the Free! fandom and enjoying every minute of it. I'm trash, this fic is trash, everything is trash. Let's be trash friends.
Sousuke knew it wouldn't be long. The relay was over. It hurt like hell, but he'd made it. Rin had been delighted, not that he was worried about an alternative. He and Rin were always bickering, and it always blew out almost as soon as it flared up. Nothing would change that; no amount of shouting, collar-grabbing, or tears seeping through his jacket as Rin wept for him.
But he didn't expect to get off scot-free, either.
The locker room was deserted. He'd been much slower than the others to shower and dress. It all burned, now: not just his shoulder, but his entire bicep and everything under the blade, bleeding out into his back in one fibrous mass of pain. The shoulder itself was red and inflamed. He wondered if icing it would even do any good. After his pants and shoes were on, he just sat on the bench for a while, dreading the movement necessary to shrug on his jacket.
"I can't believe you swam like that."
Like clockwork, the damn redhead. Sousuke took a deep breath through his nose.
"We already talked about this."
"Yeah." Rin approached. Sousuke wondered if he practiced his strut. It seemed thoughtless, but no one really walked like that, did they? "The others are waiting."
"I needed a minute."
Rin made a low noise of understanding. Sousuke raised his eyes to his face, but his old friend was studying his shoulder. The day's jubilation was gone from his posture. Sousuke offered a small smile.
"It was worth it."
Rin only worried his lower lip between his teeth. Thought it was his fault, surely. Sousuke supposed he shouldn't contradict him. It was mostly true. He'd done it for him. The relay. The team.
Rin bent forward. All Sousuke's remaining muscles locked with whatever strength they had left when he laid a hand against his aching upper arm.
Very soft hair brushed his shoulder. He wondered for a brief moment if that would be a better cure than ice, simply Rin's fringe gentle against the skin, and then softer lips touched him where it hurt the most. Sousuke told himself to laugh, to say Rin was being childish, but he couldn't manage it. He just watched. All that hair obscured Rin's face completely: whatever the look in his eyes might be, the shape of the mouth pressed so gently to his shoulder.
As quickly as it happened, the team captain pulled away with a gruff order to hurry, and left him alone to put on his jacket with some measure of dignity. He winced, yanked it on, and followed.
xxx
Sousuke made it back to their room first, since Rin would have to make sure all the others guys were unpacked and squared away. He collapsed in his desk chair and stared at his bed. Why had he chosen the top bunk?
That reminded him of their five-year promise. He'd won janken for the bed, and it had been easy. At that moment, there was nothing he'd wanted more. What did he want most now? What about for the last five years? It had all been to see Rin diving over him again, to feel the thrill of being so connected. So essential to each other.
He had that now. There wasn't anything else he could ask for, he didn't think. Except maybe some damn cooling spray. He gripped his shoulder with his other hand and rotated it, hoping for at least a little relief. It didn't work. The door opened with a quiet click.
"You going to ice that?" Rin asked as he shut the door behind him. Sousuke couldn't resist:
"What? It's already healed. You kissed it and made it all better."
"Shut up. I wouldn't have had to do something so stupid if you'd just told me sooner. If you'd just let me know. I could have taken care of you. I could have made you-"
"Stop swimming?" he finished dryly. Rin shut his mouth as he stood. "You think after I wrecked it, dreaming of swimming with you again, I could have told you about it? Before we got our relay in?"
"I thought we were," Rin hesitated, faltered, finished: "friends. Did you think I'd laugh at you?"
"No. But I wanted that last race. You would've made me sit it out. Now I don't have any regrets, and now you know the damage, and we can all just chill out. No harm done."
Rin still looked guilty. Whatever Seijuro had done, making him captain, had really manned him up. He tried to shoulder everything now. Sousuke wasn't quite sure he liked it. He missed a skinny, grinning, reckless little boy. His lips twitched up just slightly as he offered,
"You can kiss it again, if you feel that bad."
It had been a joke, not a challenge. He'd forgotten that to Rin, everything was a challenge, and he never backed down. Eyes narrowed, Rin closed the space between them in one deliberate stride, dipped his head, and gently kissed his swollen shoulder once again. And once again, Sousuke only watched.
"Anything else hurt?" he teased. "Sousuke?"
Yeah. Something niggling between his ribs: Would you do this for Nanase?
"No," he said.
"You never answered: are you going to ice it?"
"That depends. Are you ever going to stop talking about it?"
"I just want to make sure I'm not going to have to keep my lips on it until you can get back to the physical therapist."
"I didn't realize that was an option."
Rin blushed, but Sousuke didn't consider it much of a victory. He was the palest of them and had always been quick to change colour.
"I didn't mean that," Rin said. Sousuke let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. His chest ached a little. Was this another fight? Things felt tense, like they usually did before one of them blew.
After that good day, he wanted to tread carefully. After the thrill of the relay, the fulfillment of his dream, the unity of the team, the smile on Rin's face, the fine hair trailing along his skin. He should keep things open. He should make them feel safe.
"Do you want the top bunk tonight? I don't feel like climbing that ladder."
"You can't just change the rules like that. We played janken for it. The bottom bunk is mine." Rin was smiling a different smile now, though one just as familiar: almost predatory.
"Then let me share it."
"Ice your damn shoulder first."
"Deal."
xxx
The joint was numb, but the cold had leeched out most of the pain. If Sousuke was lucky, he could drift off before it came back. Feeling exhausted from the day, in all sorts of ways, he ducked into bed and shuffled close to the wall while its owner left to brush his teeth.
The pillow smelled like him. The tightness in his ribs came back: Nanase, tournaments, all of it. Rin would go on to keep swimming after the year ended. Where was Sousuke's place in all that? He couldn't join the way he'd always dreamed of joining. Was there another way that he could? Would Rin even want that? Someone silent and subtle, not a rival or an idol? Not a muse?
The door opened and shut. The lights flicked off. Rin's weight and warmth fell into the mattress behind him with a sigh. It would hurt too much to roll to face him, but Sousuke looked back as far as he was able.
"You aren't lying down. It's bedtime."
"Yeah, but how? I don't want to jostle you in my sleep."
"You know how."
Slowly, Rin lowered himself beside him. A warm chest pressed to his back and a strong arm slipped around his waist. Sousuke threaded his fingers through the ones that brushed his stomach and squeezed as a thought occurred to him.
Maybe he wasn't the only one. Maybe Rin was just as confused. Maybe Rin was also a little hurt. Sousuke had been silent for a very long time.
It took a bit of effort, but he was able to shift and turn his head enough to kiss his friend's hair.
"I know what I want to ask for," he whispered. "For that five-year bet."
"Yeah?" Rin's voice cracked, but he managed to pour his smirk into it all the same: "I figured you'd go there. But you know, none of that is a good idea while you're still injured."
"Not that." Not now. Not yet. "I want to go. When you go to wherever you're going. Let me come too. Or at least, just promise to consider it."
He could feel Rin's breath halt in his chest, but he was silent. Sousuke turned his head to face the wall again, feeling humiliated. The pain had started to pulse again, too.
"If you're going to say no, just say it."
"No? No?"
"You're being so quiet!"
"But I." Rin's words came as a soft breath against the back of his neck: "What if I go back to Australia? What about your family? English?"
"You can speak it, and I'll be with you. Doesn't sound like a problem to me."
"Okay," Rin said huskily. "Okay. Okay."
His lips pressed lightly on his shoulder between every word.
At first the little kisses made him shiver, and then they made his heart race like he'd gone 800 meters, and then they made his eyes flutter shut, and then he was soothed to sleep despite the pain.