Hey Everyone! A one-shot on Free is up! For those who remember I mentioned it in my last story, Dry Land. There is nothing to say that the summary hasn't said already though, so I will save the less important stuff for somewhere below the story.

A slightly important matter in this story is: Since Dry Land I started referring to Haru as Haruka only. It is only when mentioned by people calling him Haru that I go by the nickname, unlike in Dry Land where I used the nickname all the time.

It was time for the biology class to begin and Makoto led the way to the biology room. Haruka was following him, not really caring where they were going. Of course he knew it was one of their classes but he didn't really pay much mind. Especially not today. It was getting cold outside and so, it wasn't very likely he would get to swim today. He hadn't had the chance to swim yesterday either.

Makoto entered the classroom and he and Haruka found their seats. A group of girls were sitting right in front of Haruka while talking eagerly about something or other that Haruka didn't really care much for, though words of their conversation did get to him.

"Have you heard, Miyamoto-sensei is sick today," a girl said.

"Rumor has it he isn't gonna be here for a while," another supplied

"Then what about our biology class now?" a third asked.

"We'll most likely have a replacement for today and the next couple of times," the first girl answered.

Haruka looked out the window. That only meant the biology class would get more boring than it usually was, and truth be told, it was a boring class. It was a bit of a bother to him.

"Quiet down class," a male voice said and everyone found their seats quickly and looked up at their teacher as he put his back on the desk.

"Since Miyamoto-sensei couldn't be here today, I'll replace him. My name is Akiyama," he informed.

Everyone in the class just nodded, excluding Haruka who didn't respond as usual. He didn't find it needed to do so.

The teacher started calling out their names and everyone were to answer him properly. However when he made it to Haruka's name… "Nanase Haruka-san?" Akiyama asked, causing some to fight back giggles and others to actually giggle while trying to force back laughter.

"Eh… Akiyama-sensei?" Makoto spoke to the confused teacher. "Haru is a male," he informed kindly.

It was times like these that really made Haruka hate his own name. It was by far not the first time someone had done that. This was sadly also pretty common for the rare times when the class needed a replacement for another teacher.

The teacher stood awkwardly for a bit before he looked around and met Haruka's eyes. To anyone but Makoto, Haruka's face looked stoic, however to Makoto it was obvious that Haruka had taken a disliking to their teacher.

"I'm really sorry Nanase-kun," Akiyama said in an apologizing tone. Haruka said nothing and Akiyama continued on calling out the names of his students. When he finished he went right on topic without introducing himself any further like some teachers liked to do for reasons unknown to Haruka.

"Today we'll be working with ocean life. For this…" Akiyama cut himself off before pulling out a fish tank from a closet in the biology room. Haruka didn't even know the school had such a thing. "For this project we'll be needing this fish tank with lots of fish for you to study," He then lined up all the fish there were in the tank and the class took notes as he talked a bit further about them.

"Now, I'll put you into groups of three, each group will be working with one fish in this tank. That's all we'll be doing for today," he then looked through their names and started splitting them up. He ended up putting Haruka and Makoto in different groups and called Haruka by –san again, to Haruka's annoyance. None of their teachers had done that twice, no matter what.

The class got to work. Haruka was working with two girls who pretty much did the work on their own and afterwards started talking about whatever girls talk about. Hot guys or make-up, Haruka didn't know and didn't care.

He looked to the huge amount of water displayed in the middle of the room. It wasn't fair. There was just THAT much water and Haruka knew he wasn't allowed to dive in anytime soon. It looked so tempting though. It looked WAY too tempting.

Haruka would give anything to just dive into that tank and swim around for a couple of minutes. Sadly he won't be able to swim labs but so what. He would be in the needed contact with the water. He would be connected, yet not connected to it. The idea really was tempting but there was no way he could get…

Hold on a second, Haruka just spotted a way to get in. He didn't need further suggestions. He got right out of his seat.

Makoto was working with two classmates as well. All three of them were taking the work pretty seriously and kept their full attention on it. Makoto enjoyed group work like this. It was nice to get to work with others sometimes. And everyone seemed to take a liking to him.

Makoto was in the middle of explaining something about fish to a member of his group when he heard a loud scream from a girl and looked up to see who it was.

The girl had been put in Haruka's group and she and her friend were clinging to each other while Haruka was nowhere to be found. Makoto followed their gaze and ended up looking at the fish tank. Practically everyone else in the class were also looking at that tank.

It took a while before Makoto discovered what he saw inside the tank that was so strange to him. But it didn't take him long to react when he finally realized that it was Haruka, swimming around in the fish tank that freaked everyone out so much.

Makoto jumped out of his seat and ran to the fish tank. He got up on a table and reached his hand down, grabbing Haruka by the wrist and pulling him up with his full strength. Shortly after Haruka stood right next to him.

"I… I guess that's all for today…." Akiyama mumbled. "c-class dismissed…"

Makoto send Haruka a strict look and Haruka went to pull his clothes back on while Makoto walked up to Akiyama with an apologizing look.

"I'm really sorry Akiyama-sensei," he said before lowering his head. "I should've known he would do this sooner than later,"

"It's not your fault Tachibana-kun. You couldn't have known," Akiyama answered.

Makoto shook his head while smiling just a tiny bit. "I could've. See this is nothing unusual. In fact it happens all the time. Haru is simply just addicted to water," It sounded really simple. In fact it was pretty simple, yet it didn't seem like Akiyama got it.

"I… I guess…" he said before leaving the classroom, keeping in mind to never EVER accept teaching this class ever again.

Makoto looked at Haruka seeming slightly bothered. "You didn't have to go that far, Haru," he said.

"With what?" Haruka pulled his jacket back on and did his tie. He clearly couldn't tell what he did wrong in this case. Makoto understood. All Haruka had ever wanted was to be around water as much as possible.

"Just don't scare our replace teacher ever again," Makoto instructed before walking out of the classroom with Haruka in toe. They still got about half an hour before the next class. Maybe it was still warm enough for a short swim…

I hope you enjoyed this little piece of work. Thanks for reading.

I originally thought this up as an extra chapter for Dry Land (I mentioned that story several times by now right?) But I changed my mind a while ago because it doesn't really have a connection other than in my head it is set some time after the entire plot of the story.

Leave me a couple of reviews. It's always appreciated. Hope you guys have a great day and all.

That's all for now. See you later this month for more one-shots.

Jackie