Life Without Makoto

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

"You should come and stay with us during summer!" Haru's mother told him over the phone, "At least for the two weeks Mako-chan will be off camping with his family. You'll be lonely without him won't you? So might as well come spend some time with your old man and me."

"No," replied Haruka without a pause, "It's summer, I finally get to swim in the Ocean."

Unexpectedly, his mother got angry, "Well fine then!" and hung-up.

Haru was mildly annoyed as he put away his phone. The Nanase family wasn't the warm, adoring type like the Tachibana family. It wasn't that they didn't love each other or care about each other, it was just a colder kind of love. Haru would go to his parents over the winter break and during spring break. Surely that was enough. Besides, if they wanted him constantly around they both knew what they had to do. Because hell if Haru was leaving Iwatobi until he had to and he would most likely have to after he graduated from High School.

Haru signed, he wanted a life of always being in the water but couldn't really think of a profession that would let him do that. Fisherman? They didn't swim so much as be on a boat. Marine Biology? Swimming when out on the field but probably a lot of time stuck in labs and offices. Swim instructor or lifeguard? Too much people interaction. Start a undersea salvage operation? Haru was smart enough to figure that running the business would eat into his swimming time. Which just left: competitive swimmer but Haru would have to start caring about his time and need focus and determination, not to mention the "win" mentality to attract sponsors and stuff. Afterall, as his dearly departed grandmother put it, natural talent at 20 just made you ordinary. Well ordinary unless you were willing to put in the time and effort to develop your natural talents and thus remain extraordinary. Haru sighed as he lay back in the bath, what a bother!

There was a knock on the door. Haru ignored it. He could hear Makoto call him. He ignored that too. As expected, after a moment Makoto let himself in through the back door and entered Haru's bathroom. "Haru! It's already mid-day!" he pointed out, "Aren't you getting out of the bath?"

Haru doesn't reply but just stared at Makoto for a while, ignoring for now the offered hand. The other consideration, in terms of the future, was the whole life without Makoto thing. What did Makoto plan to do after graduation? Haru had never asked. Would his family be enough to keep Makoto in Iwatobi? No, Makoto's family wouldn't be so selfish. If Makoto really wanted to do something, his family wouldn't hold him back. As for Haru...

"Makoto," he suddenly asks, breaking the silence, still not taking Makoto's hand, "What are you going to do after graduation?"

Makoto blinks, "Ah? I hadn't really thought about it," he says as he starts to drop his hand but Haru takes it before it falls away completely and let's Makoto help him out of the bath.

"Do you want to go to university?" asks Haru.

"I do but I don't know what I want to do at university," replies Makoto, "Or which university to go to," he grins self deprecatingly, "I guess I haven't given much thought to my future."

"Let's go somewhere together," Haru says as he grabs a towel and starts drying himself, "Let's find a university with a swimming pool where both of us can study something we are interested in."

Makoto was surprised but readily agreed, "But why, Haru-chan," Makoto wanted to know, "Would you miss me that much if we were separated?"

Yes, thought Haru, Because I am not ready to have a life without you in it. Maybe I never will be. However, those words were unsaid. What he said instead was, "If you weren't around, I would have to deal with people and that would be a pain."

Makoto laughed and accepted Haru's reply without question, "I am glad Haru-chan isn't sick of me yet," he said before following Haru downstairs.

Author's Note: Wow! Third Free! fanfic in three days... which is surprising because its not like my fics are popular or anything. Probably goes with the whole "no shipping" stance I have taken with Free! Meh! I like writing friendship fics for Mako, Haru and Rin, so its all good!