Future
The years did not change anything.
Every time, in the warm glow from the water beneath, Haruka is made sure. No expectations, no sounds, no eyes weigh on him anymore; there is just the infinite silence, and in it, like he was always meant to, he lets himself fall.
All he ever wanted is right there, flowing between his limbs. There is no swaying him from that.
It is true — for his own sake, he must wear the looks of a winner. From the outside, the image fits him like his second skin; it is a lie and a protection, in its own way. Like that, he has learnt to make the most of it.
Yet — under the layers of training, of fastest times, of being too good and not good enough — his feelings are always unchanged, right there for him to see.
Finding his dream intact never stops being refreshing. All the times of doubt and fear are erased in a flash, as his body cuts the air in a dive — then sky and water melt in an embrace, and it is in the blue of his eyes that they cross the line.
In the water, Haruka is no longer a caged animal; he becomes a dream in the flesh, a taste of freedom. The pressure is gently washed away from his muscles, the sheer weight of his career forgotten. It was the first thing he accepted — not even his dreams could come true for free. But he knows the balance between costs and rewards, and that much is enough.
He is perfectly fine with this. In every passage he goes through, he finds the strength of the ocean. To spread his arms in flight, to carve his way to the end, and see the shine in the eyes of his friends — no medal could ever compare to the thought of doing this forever.
This, Haruka knows, is his own miracle.
What he lives for is making it happen.
A little gift for the friends I watched this wonderful anime with. Thank you tomtenadia and tenitchyfingers! It was a beautiful adventure, if a short one.