Guess who's back again! And this time, with a vengeance!
This is only my second fanfiction ever, but I am confident that it has a much deeper plot than my first work haha. The pairing may be a turn off for a few since it is relatively unpopular (I guess it's slash then?), but I hope the plot is enough to convince people to read it c: The idea honestly came to me at such a random moment, I was just in the car thinking 'what if Rin was a mailman?' and over a few days I added a bunch of other ideas together until voila! This fic was born.
I won't ramble too much, but I would just like to thank my wonderful beta Amelie Nockturne! Her feedback helped me out a lot with this chapter, so enjoy :)
Title: Chasing Butterflies
Author: Me
Fandom: Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club
Rating: T (will later progress to M)
Pairing: Rin/Rei
Summary: Rin/Rei AU. Rei is a young man who obsessively collects butterflies. Rin is a postman who was recently assigned to Rei's neighborhood. What happens when these two meet for the first time? How will Rei's hoarding affect the relationship between them? Rating will eventually change to M.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, and neither is the fandom they are from! All characters belong to their respective owners, I'm just using them to fulfill a plot bunny of mine.
The sound of the front door could be heard opening and closing as the woman entered the home. In her hands was a large box, one that she held delicately. The distinct pitter-patter of footsteps could be heard down the hallway as a small boy with large red glasses and dark blue hair ran towards the woman.
"Mommy, mommy! Is it a new set that you got today?" questioned the child, so excited that he could barely keep still.
"It sure is, Rei! And this time I brought three new cases!" the mother exclaimed, eager to set the heavy box down on the floor in the living room.
Rei could only gasp and stare in awe as his mother opened the box, revealing three glass cases stacked on top of each other. In each display was a number of butterflies, each with its own exotic and intricate wing designs.
As careful as a ten-year old could be, the boy picked up the case laying on top, holding it up so it was right in front of his face. There were six of the fragile insects inside, with varying hues of blue and green. After several minutes, he placed the case on the table, still admiring their beauty.
"The wingspans are all between four and five centimeters...and the bodies are a light brown instead of the typical black, not to mention each set of wings have ten to thirteen times the surface area as the body. If my theory is correct, then these species are from...Nicaragua?" Rei looked up to his mother to see if his reasoning was correct.
"These were imported from Nicaragua just this morning," his mother confirmed. "And if you look closer"-she pointed to the antennae-"you'll also notice that the left antennae is shorter than the right, a characteristic native only to that region."
The boy's face lit up as he agreed with his mother's observations. "You're right!" He couldn't wait to look at each species in detail under his microscope in his room.
His mother gazed lovingly at him as he peered at the other two cases in the box. She was glad her son shared her love of butterflies, something that managed to bring the two ever closer.
When she realized that he was prepared to stay in this spot for hours, she shooed him along to do his homework.
"Don't worry, they'll be here when you're done," she promised. Rei pouted slightly, but knew his mother's word to be true. "Okay..." he acquiesced, turning around and heading upstairs to his room. His mother left the butterflies where they were, as she, too, headed to her room to do some work.
The light from the window shone down on the cases until later in the evening when the pair sat down to the kitchen table, delightedly studying the butterflies under the microscope and giggling all the while.
The sound of the front door could be heard opening and closing as the young man entered the apartment. He carried a series of small boxes, trying and almost failing to balance them as he leaned against the front door. Easing down to the floor, he placed the boxes down, eager to rest his back and hands. He had just come from an antique shop a few blocks down the street where he found new figurines to add to his collection, but he needed to find space to put them.
With a spot in mind, Rei picked up the boxes and walked towards his room, being careful not to hit his head on the myriad of glass butterflies hanging from the ceiling. Light from a nearby window passed through the glass, showering the room in different shades of blue and purple. The figurines swayed lightly as wind entered the apartment, causing light clinking sounds to fill the entire residence.
He passed the dining room table, which was rarely ever used for its purpose as it was covered with butterfly mugs and cups. The coffee tables in the adjacent living room were the same, used only to house the ever growing collection of knick-knacks.
Rei swiftly used the tip of his foot to slide the door to his room open, and finally placed the boxes down in his "study."
The "study" in question had become more of a butterfly zoo, containing more than 1,000 figurines, menagerie, and knick-knacks.
He sat down on the floor, determined to sift through the contents of the room to find the perfect positions for his new found treasures. Next to him was the roster he used to keep track of all of his butterfly items. For the next few hours, he meticulously unloaded the boxes, made notes on his roster, and rearranged trinkets in his study.
By the time Rei was done, he was nearly starving. He made his way to the kitchen, carefully stepping over butterflies here and there.
He had accumulated so many butterflies over the years that some of them even took up space on the floor, after typical spots like shelves and tables were too full.
Following the path that he had marked in his head, he finally arrived at his refrigerator. He opened it, hastily picking past more butterflies to the leftovers from last night's dinner. Even reheated yakisoba noodles sounded good when his stomach was rumbling this loudly.
Just as he was about to put the container in the microwave, he remembered that it was full with various mugs that he acquired several months ago. It would be too much of a hassle to unload the microwave and reload it when he was done, so he settled for heating it up on the stove, the only place free of his invasive collection.
As he waited for the noodles to warm up, he headed to the sofa where his laptop was. Easing down on the couch to avoid the butterflies nestled there from falling over, he opened his laptop to check his favorite website: Amazon.
"I wonder if those butterfly decals are almost here..." he wondered aloud, clicking and typing away. Last week he found a set of crystal butterflies that he just had to have, and the shipping was next to nothing since they were just a few districts away from him.
It was five days late.
'Amazon says it's been in the city for the last five days...and Maurice hasn't come by at all either,' Rei thought to himself. Maurice had been his postman for the last six years, and he always delivered Rei's orders promptly. 'Maurice has never forgotten to give me something.'
He paused from browsing Amazon as he pushed up his glasses, thinking of all the different scenarios that could explain his current predicament. In the end, he could only come up with one concrete explanation.
The post office lost his package.
"Seijuurou, you've got to be fucking kidding me."
"Hey, shark boy, watch your language. And call me boss. And I'm being totally 100% serious with you."
"Tch. Why can't any of the other guys on the team do it?"
"Several reasons. One—I'm team manager, so I get paid to tell who what to do and when to do it. Two—All of the other guys are busy with their routes. And three—you've been slacking off lately. Someone has to pick up old man Maurice's work now that he decided to retire. You fit the bill."
Rin was pissed. He was already working three different routes, and to add another one on top of that would just be a pain in the ass. It was a struggle just covering his bases as it was, and taking the extra load won't make things any easier.
"Look, Seijuurou—"
"Glad you accepted the job, Rin!" the taller man exclaimed, clapping Rin harshly on his shoulder. Rin was going to refuse once more, but the menacing look on the manager's face told him to keep his mouth shut for once.
With a sigh of defeat, Rin mumbled, "When do I start?"
"Good to see you so pumped about this!" Seijuurou said with an upbeat tone. "You start the new route tomorrow, but you'll have to squeeze it between routes 1ADF and 1AWR." With that last bit of news, the "boss" slipped away, whistling all the while.
'Ahh, perfect,' Rin thought. Seijuurou had been riding his ass for the last few weeks, only for him to have more work...'It's a perfect shit-storm, like I actually need this—"
"Matsuoka-senpai?"
Rin nearly bit his tongue, but as he swiveled around he realized it was only Nitori, the guy who worked over in sorting. He quickly recovered his calm in a matter of seconds.
"Oh, Nitori, it's just you. And I told you to stop calling me that."
"Sorry, you just seemed really upset...is everything okay?" questioned Nitori. The guy could be irritating at times, but Rin felt at least a little warm since he was worried about him and all.
"Yeah, I'm good. I have to go start my routes for the day, so I'll see you later."
"O-oh, okay. Good luck senpai!" Nitori said with a wave.
"Stop calling me senpai!" Rin shouted tersely as he headed to his truck. The chart that kept track of the neighborhoods he covered had been updated, and he wanted to know what kind of area he had to deliver to for tomorrow.
'Iwatobi Lake Apartments...' he mumbled to himself. This particular neighborhood was one of the largest in this part of the city, full of pretty decent apartments as he remembers. He had a friend who lived there once, but all he knew was that the community pool was amazing.
'I guess it could've been worse,' he thought. But Rin was sure that the packages normally delivered by Maurice had been backlogged, so he'd have to make up for it the next day by working overtime. He could only thank whatever forces that he only delivered packages instead of regular mail, or he'd be fucked.
"Rin, what are you doing? You were supposed to be on the streets five minutes ago!" Seijuurou's voice startled him from his thoughts.
"Shit! My bad, I'm leaving now." He threw the chart in the truck, and quickly checked the back to make sure all the packages were loaded properly. With one final glance over, he hopped in the driver's seat and hastily backed out of the building to start his deliveries for the day.
One chapter down, and unknown amount to go! Hopefully that was good enough to get started, but there's still a lot more to cover. I only have the first few chapters of this written, but I estimate that the final product will be around 20 chapters~~
With my previous story I waited until I had a set number of reviews before I posted the next chapter, and I think that I'll keep that in place for now :P Just one review would be nice! The second chapter is already completed and ready to be uploaded! See you then~