prompt: swimming lessons

prompt theme: john mayer - vultures

anime & pairing: free! - makogou

genre: humor/friendship

a/n: had a little trouble with the upload earlier, should be fixed now![7/16/14]

The last bell of the day had rang throughout Iwatobi's campus signifying the end of the school day. Though for the swim club this meant the beginning of their usual daily swim practice. It didn't take long for pool area to become an active area with its members showing up quickly enough. Miss Amakata would always show up first seen laying out in her lounge chair under an oversized umbrella. Gou would follow almost moments after her clipboard in hand ready to instruct the boys. Generally Haruka and Makoto showed up next with Nagisa and Rei following last.

Today all four swimmers showed up at once, huddling into the locker room to change. The two waiting outside couldn't really make out any talk except for Nagisa's giddish chatter. What was that boy up to now?

Haruka exited first only sending them a mere stare before diving into the pool in a matter of seconds.

"Eh? Haru I haven't even given out the new regimen!" Gou half-shouted at him but it turned into an annoyed grumble.

"Are you even really surprised Matsuoka-san?" The teacher spared a short, light laugh to her crouching student. Gou merely rolled her eyes in response before hearing a few sets

"Ah, good afternoon!" Gou chirped happily quickly to the three, she stood back on the balls of her feet, preparing to show them the new regimen

"Afternoon Gou-chan!" Nagisa immediately spoke back causing him to receive the evil eye from Gou.

"It's Kou-chan! Kou!" She fired back at Nagisa.

"Nuh-uh Gou!" Nagisa spoke as if Gou's anger and despair for not being called her desired name didn't affect him.

"Kou!" This time there was the makings of a fire in her eyes but before the argument could continue Makoto had interrupted.

"Now Gou-chan, if you we don't get in the pool soon we won't be able to finish the workouts you assign us." Whether it was in fact true or not, Makoto simply wanted to deviate from the forming argument as painlessly as possible. Gou seemed to recognize his logic and began explaining the workout without another peep against Nagisa. That didn't stop her from giving him the 'this isn't over' look though.

When they were done and began to dive into the pool, enticing as ever with the day's heavy heat, Nagisa seemed to have a mischievous look on his face.

"Oi, Gou-chan, why don't you correct Mako-chan when he calls you Gou?" He had turned back around, walking closer to Gou, speaking to her in a sing-song like voice. Sure as day he had that little childish smirk on his face when he was up to something.

"Oi," She began as if she were going to mimick the other, turning to face Nagisa, and retorted momentarily before what he had said fully registered in her brain, "I said to call me Ko-Wha-what?"

She could feel the heat in her cheeks and stuttered partially upon realizing what he had questioned but pressed her lips together grumpily, "Well that's because he's not teasing me like you do! Now get to practicing Nagisa!"

Nagisa didn't seem to push further on the incident than that, oddly enough, leaving her slightly mystified. In fact he complied with her and practically skipped back off to his lane to work on making his breaststroke the best that it could be. Gou returned to sitting beside Miss Amakata who either didn't hear a single word of what just happened or she was pretending not to witnessed a single bit of it. Gou was betting on the latter.

Aside from Miss Amakata her Gou realized that no one had actually heard what Nagisa said so she sighed with relief. She wasn't really sure why she was even stressing about anyone overhearing them. Honestly, it didn't even mean anything that she corrected Nagisa but didn't reprimand at least it wasn't that big of a deal. It was only a tiny crush on senpai. Just a tiny one.

Being that it was a Friday and no one else had really scheduled any plans the practice ran a bit longer than it normally would have. The sky had broken into the beginnings of an orange-like glow that had been coated generously. Miss Amakata had already headed home a bit earlier leaving them to lock up.

Rei, Makoto, and Nagisa had just gotten out of the pool and were beginning to dry off courtesy of towels with cute little animal ears on them that Gou had gotten as a joke. Meanwhile Gou, who was so easily sidetracked at times, had spotted a frog that had found their little oasis. She had followed it casually, her curiosity piqued by the random creature, to the edge of the pool.

As if it were afraid of being captured by her it hopped into the pool but simply floated on the surface of the water carelessly. She had chuckled and lowered herself down to get a better look the frog. She heard the surfacing of Haruka a few lanes down to which the frog croaked.

A few moments had passed and the frog hadn't really done anything else though Gou didn't notice since she had started to daze.

"Hey Gou-chan, Would you," She had heard the person start talking, snapping her back to reality, so she whipped her head around, "like to…"

It had all seemed so slow at first, she didn't even realize her mistake. Upon shifting to face behind her she saw Makoto, the top of the locker rooms, and then the glowing sky. Unintentionally, Gou had lost her balance being that she was on the edge of the pool. The frog had already fled from that area of the pool croaking loudly in distress when she hit the water with a loud splash and a faint scream.

There was an eerie silence between the moment that Gou fell into the pool and the moment that Makoto had reacted. Everybody expected her to resurface, not happily of course, being upset that she'd gotten her outfit and hair wet and that she'd embarrassed herself in front of the team. But none of those things had happened because she didn't resurface.

Being that Makoto was still in his swimwear, there was no time wasted taking off any extra clothing. He dove into the pool, the water cold against his skin at first. That wasn't what gave him the sickening chill as he almost immediately saw Gou thrashing about helplessly. He hoisted her upwards through the water breaking the surface quickly.

Nagisa and Haruka were there to take her from Makoto and pull her out of the pool. She clearly wasn't incoherent and despite the hacking cough she had for the next couple minutes she seemed unharmed from her little tumble. Makoto climbed out of the pool with water dripping everywhere but no one minded.

"Gou-chan! Are you okay?" Nagisa spoke hastily though his normally cheery tone was replaced with one that was worry-filled. Despite the fact that he had used Gou instead of Kou didn't bring their rivalry out. Gou's coughing had subsided with what had seemed like hours ago but was only mere minutes in the past. She nodded solemnly to him though she kept her head down not really doing much else.

"Gou-chan…" Nagisa frowned before looking to Makoto who had regained most of his calm composure at this point.

"Why don't you guys head home? I'll help get Gou-chan to her house." Rei had nodded though he was worried he wasn't as expressive as his counterpart, Nagisa. Nagisa's features were still laced with worry, "Nagisa everything will be fine. I'll even text you as soon as Gou-chan is home, okay?"

There was something comforting about the way Makoto had spoken to Nagisa and so with a little assurance Nagisa had nodded as well. They both began to walk away so that they could hurry and change, however, Haruka was still there. He had knelt down beside them, eyeing Makoto with a sleepy look.

"You sure you'll be fine?" Haruka raised a brow commenting towards Makoto who simply nodded.

"Yes, yes Haru-chan." There was a certain look that Haruka gave Makoto but no words were spoken beyond that. Haruka had put a hand comfortingly on Gou's back momentarily before he stood up and began his walk to the locker rooms and then, eventually, home.

It was quiet. Makoto didn't mind the silence though. Gou looked up from the ground looking him straight in the eye.

"I can't swim. I'm actually afraid to." She whispered it out feeling just plain stupid while covering her face with her hands, "It's dumb, I know."

Makoto stared at her for a moment his eyebrows creasing, "Not really. It's okay to admit that you're afraid of something."

When he said that there was a shining in Gou's eyes that came to be. That was the first time she'd ever been told something like that.

"I'm afraid of the ocean." Makoto spoke, the gentle smile on his lips never fading, causing Gou to gasp.

"But on the trip…? You never had a problem…" Gou faltered slightly aggravated with herself that she hadn't seen the true Makoto in that aspect.

"Mostly when there are storms but I'm learning to overcome that." He continued softly causing Gou to think for a moment.

"I think I liked to swim when I was younger but then my father died and I think that my yearning to be in the water died with it. Rin was the complete opposite though. He wanted nothing more than to continue our dad's dream. I think when he decided that I knew that I wouldn't swim. I thought that if I'd never be as good as Rin then why should I even try to begin with? Then again I was never really athletic to begin with." There was a soft chuckle from Gou as she finished. The her that he was used to was returning.

"Well I think that you could learn to swim if you really wanted to. In fact, I know you could!" There was a slight chill in the air though the sun was still barely hanging on to the sky, "You know...I could teach you if you like?"

Gou's head jerked up a look of hope in her eyes, "Really? You mean that?"

Makoto nodded calmly with a smile, "Of course, I mean every word I say. When would you want to start?"

Makoto could see the inner conflict on Gou's facial features. He knew that a fear of the water was no small deal.

"Can we start...tomorrow?" Gou realized that if she wanted to get over her swimming problem then she'd have to face it head on. Makoto seemed a bit surprised but none-the-less agreed to it wholeheartedly.

After fixing Gou's wet clothing situation the two headed on home to Gou's house with Gou leaning against Makoto the entire way home. When they arrived at her household they did a short bit of explaining to the Matsuoka Mother and everything seemed a bit clearer. On his way home, after sending Nagisa that promised text, Makoto could have sworn that the air was all the more fresher.

fin