Title: Shark Bait

Pairing: Rin x Haru

Time Limit: 20 minutes

Prompt: Arranged marriage (general AU prompt by quinnandersonwrites of Tumblr, found via dailyau of Tumblr)

Notes: I decided to try doing a "daily one-shot" thing, so I'm setting the timer for twenty minutes and we'll see what happens. I needed a little RinHaru in my day, so here we go. This is a one-shot, and will remain as such. The prompt was not mine, hopefully you can tell who I've gotten it from. Enjoy!

Six o'clock pm at the Nanase household began with a phone ringing. Haru, who'd been standing over a pan of mackerel at the stove, moved to answer it without checking the caller id, assuming it was Makoto calling to ask about today's math notes. His friend had fallen asleep in class, having spent yesterday afternoon training aggressively for their next swim meet. The voice that spoke up on the other end of the line was not Makoto.

"Haruka?"

"Dad?" Haru asked, surprise filtering into his tone. The boy rarely showed emotion, but his father rarely called home. They were even.

"Are you busy, Haruka? There's something we need to discuss," the man said. Haru's gut churned. His grades were good. What did his dad have to pester him about?

"I've got a minute," Haru replied. He prodded the mackerel. About a minute left until it was done cooking.

When his father continued, Haru was shocked to hear the twinge of nervousness in his father's voice. "A business situation has come up. I'm sorry we couldn't discuss the matter with you first, but it was urgent."

Haru did not want to fly to his father's work in the States. That meant leaving his friends and his pool behind. That would not work.

"We've arranged a marriage for you."

Haru nearly dropped the phone. The mackerel had started to burn.

"You did what?" The red-haired boy shouted.

"I'm sorry Rin, but it had to be done. The company needed help. Your education at Samezuka isn't cheap, either, you know," his mother sighed impatiently.

Rin sighed. "I know. Can you tell me the girl's name at least?"

He could hear his mother fidgeting through the phone. "Mom?" He pressed on.

"Well, this person… Isn't a girl…" His mother said softly. She didn't just… I must've heard her wrong.

"Not… A girl?" Rin repeated. His mother hummed in agreement, one of those high, whiny hums she did when she was nervous.

"What's his name then?" Rin asked.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. For a minute, Rin wondered if she was even going to tell him at all.

"His name is Haruka Nanase."

The members of the Iwatobi Swim Team were just exiting the locker room to go to practice when a startling and not entirely welcome guest barged into the swimming facilities. Strangely, Haru was the last one to leave the locker room today. He'd been oddly quiet as they changed. Not that he wasn't usually quiet, but the others could tell something was weighing on the freestyle swimmer's mind.

"Nanase!" The familiar voice belonged to none other than Rin. The four members of the swim team looked up in alarm, but none as much as Haru.

"Rin? What are you doing here?" Haru asked as Rin came to a stop a few feet away from him. The pool glittered behind the black-haired boy, as if teasing him.

"I came to talk to you about…" Rin trailed off. Usually so confident and suave, the red-haired swimmer seemed to be at a loss for words. Really, he just wasn't sure how to bring up something like this in public.

Haru's blue eyes never wavered from Rin's red ones. He said nothing; all the communication he needed to do could be accomplished by his calm stare. His teammates, however, had no idea what was going on.

"Is everything okay, Rin-chan, Haru-chan?" Nagisa asked, concern evident in the blonde boy's words.

"Don't you have practice now, Rin-san?" Rei asked. Luckily for them, Gou had stopped to talk to a teacher after school, and had yet to discover her brother's presence at Iwatobi.

Rin nodded. "Yeah, I do. But I needed to talk to Nanase about something."

"What is it?" Nagisa asked, glancing between the two rivals with wide eyes.

The two boys shifted, neither one quite sure how to answer their friend's question.

"You don't have to tell us, Haru," Makoto offered.

There was another long, uncomfortable silence. Thankfully, Haru broke it by bluntly stating, "Rin and I are now engaged."