Free! does not belong to me. Neither does High Speed!

This fic was written for the For the Future Festival.

Lovely

.

He'd done it.

Rin knew, when he read his name high, high up the black screen, that he'd finally made it. After years of hard work, determination and dreams –and nightmares, too–, he was there. Where he'd wanted to be since he learnt how to swim.

He felt lightheaded, like he was about to faint; he could barely feel the ripples of the water against his skin. But he couldn't care less; the only thing that slightly bothered him was Haruka's name, the only one higher than his, if only by three thousandths of second. And that… that was good, too. It meant he'd made it, too. They were in the National Team together, now.

They would go to the Olympics together, and they'd have their freestyle race there.

Trying to regain his breath, praying for his heart to stop beating so fast, Rin looked at him. Haruka's gaze was fixed on the screen, his chest heaving with exertion after the race. As he finally pushed himself up and out of the pool, Rin glimpsed a tiny smile on his reddened lips and a slight blush on his cheeks. His skin really seemed to glow brighter than the lights reflected on the water's surface.

Rin stumbled as he got out of the pool too; he wanted to kiss Haruka so badly he didn't think he could wait until they got back to the locker room's safety.

He was partly grateful when Haruka's smile grew a bit wider as he turned around to walk away from everyone. Rin still felt dizzy, legs trembling with each step, his head spinning as incoherent thoughts kept tangling and blending until he no longer could tell them apart– he wasn't able to take in that new reality yet.

As they got to the locker room to take their towels, Rin became more aware that there were fewer people surrounding them. Haruka must have noticed too, because he stopped and turned around to face him again.

"Rin."

He didn't need to be told twice. Rin closed the space between Haruka and him in two steps, craving the warmth under his wet skin, the feeling of his arms around him. He felt like he was going to fly, and he needed something to stop him to lose himself in the sky.

But Haruka suddenly stepped back, and Rin found a hand over his mouth, where Haruka's lips should be. He bit his tongue when he heard footsteps approaching them, swallowing as every what if got back to his mind with an ounce of common sense.

Right, they weren't supposed to know. Haruka looked sorry as he grabbed his towel and headed for the showers, and Rin thought he shouldn't be. After all, Haruka was the one who didn't understand what was so terrible about people knowing, but complied because he knew it was important for Rin.

While he showered, he was tempted to hit his head against the divider. He wanted to get home. Or somewhere nobody could see them.

God, Rin really wanted to kiss Haruka.

When he got out of the shower Haruka was nowhere to be seen –probably still enjoying the feeling of water running down his skin, a thought that made Rin swallow hard–, and the butterfly time trials were still some hours away, so after drying himself up and getting dressed Rin decided to wait for him at the stands, where Sousuke and Kisumi were probably wondering where they were (or maybe they had forgotten about them and found a private place for themselves).

But Rin found an unexpected obstacle when he was walking through one of the large corridors. A young woman, probably around his age, stopped him and almost hit his mouth with a ridiculously big microphone.

"Oh, Matsuoka-san!" There were more journalists, but fortunately they seemed more careful about Rin's personal space.

"Hi." Rin was used to journalists by now. He still was cautious towards them, though.

"You just made it to the National Team," she said, beaming. "How do you feel?"

Rin smiled too. He'd thought his shower had successfully helped him keep his feet on the ground, but he'd been wrong.

"Well, great," he answered, looking at the camera. "I've been working for this for many years, and it's-" but he trailed off as he heard somebody call Nanase-san, inevitably turning around.

As expected, Haruka hadn't bothered to dry his hair. He stopped for a second, clearly uncomfortable when he realized he'd have to talk to strangers. Or that was what Rin thought, until he felt Haruka's blue stare on him and found a determined glint in his eyes.

"…ka-san?"

Rin turned towards the young woman, startled.

"What? Oh, yes, um… Sorry. I was-" Haruka finally approached the journalists. "What was the question?"

"Nanase-san beat you by a hair," she said, and Rn wished she would talk about anything else. Lately, every question he got was somehow related to Haruka. Or that was what it seemed for him, "don't you feel frustrated?"

"Why should I?" Rin bared his teeth as he glanced at Haruka, who didn't seem impressed. "I'll beat him by a whole second the next time we race. Right, Haru?"

"In your dreams, maybe you'd have a chance." Haruka was looking straight at him now, a playful light in his eyes.

"You act too cocky for someone who was just lucky I had a bad day."

"You have many bad days, then."

"And you need to taste defeat more often."

"Then, if you win next time-" But Haruka stopped abruptly, his cheeks pink, and Rin wondered what he'd wanted to say.

"What?" Rin raised his eyebrows. "Too afraid to bet?"

Haruka frowned. Both he and Rin had forgotten about the journalists, who watched their bickering in silence. Rin realized too late that somehow they had gotten closer with each retort; he could touch Haruka without even having to spread out his arms.

Apparently Haruka had noticed too.

Or not, Rin thought when his boyfriend took yet another step towards him.

"Don't-"

Haruka had never been exactly a docile creature, and when his lips crashed against Rin's the redhead could only wonder how he had managed to control himself for so long. He couldn't bring himself to care, though, because he had been wanting his kiss since they had finished their race and he wasn't about to get angry now, with Haruka's hands clutching his sweatshirt and his own arms around his boyfriend's waist.

They'd just made it into the National Team. They deserved it.

At least, that was what Rin thought until bright flashes blinded him even through his eyelids. He pulled back, turning towards the journalists with wide eyes.

"S-so… You two are… together?" the woman asked, seemingly delightful with what she'd just witnessed. Haruka nodded; Rin wasn't sure if he wanted to strangle him or thank him for at least take responsibility for what he'd just done. "Oh my, that's lovely!"

Out of every possible reaction Rin had thought about for years, lovely was among the least likely ones.

"Yeah… B-but this doesn't have anything to do with swimming, does it?"

"I guess it doesn't."

"I'll beat him again regardless of what we are," Haruka stated in a monotonous voice, and Rin could only laugh.

"You wish!"