Haru was currently lounging around in his bedroom, tired out of his mind. Just half an hour ago, all five of them- meaning Haru, Rin, Makoto, Nagisa and Rei- had finished a video game battle of a sort. Each of them had brought their own games that they wanted to play, surprisingly including Rei, who had found some… Beautiful…? Games to play.
Although it took a lot of convincing on Haru and Makoto's part, they had finally gotten the excitable group to return home where they should be. It was well past two in the morning, after all. Well, all except Rin of course.
"Hey, Haru, can I stay the night? I think - no, I'm definitely sure that I missed the train back to Samezuka, and tomorrow's Saturday anyway."
"..Mm. Suit yourself."
"Thanks."
Rin laid himself down beside Haru on the latter's bed, sighing in comfort. His eyes soon drooped closed, his tiredness fueled by being enveloped in the warm heat of the bed as well as the heat of summer. He was so very close to falling asleep when-
"…Rin, can I have your necklace?"
"Haah?!"
Jolting awake, Rin quickly sat up to face Haru. His expressions openly portraying his confusion and bewilderment, he stared at the raven with a lifted eyebrow, waiting for more explanation.
"You want my necklace? The one I always wear?"
"Yeah."
"..Why?"
"To remind me of you."
"Uh. Sorry, I might have misunderstood..?"
Rin scratched the back of his head, even more confused than earlier. Haru was seemingly being straightforward as always, but the red-head was having trouble understanding him. Seeing this, Haru sighed, briefly shaking his head before sitting up and properly looking at Rin.
"You're always leaving to places, and we don't even go to the same school anymore, so…"
"So you want this necklace to remember me by.. Or something?"
For emphasis, Rin held up the necklace in question, which he was currently wearing around his neck.
"Yeah… Something like that."
"Hn. Something like that, now is it? …But you know, Haru, we see each other enough already. I mean, you guys always invite me over for this kind of thing -"
He gestured around the room, which was littered with video game consoles, food and whatnot.
" - and I always invite you guys over to Samezuka for joint training."
"…True, but it's not the same."
"Ahhh, you're so complicated, Haru.."
Rin said with a small frown, lowering his head a bit. He was having mixed feelings about this. After all, it was a necklace that he'd taken quite a liking to… Not that he disliked Haru, or thought he would do a bad job of taking care of it, but still. He held up the silver necklace, running through his choices of what would happen if he did decide to give it to Haru.
"…Please?"
Ah. Now here, Haru the ever-cunning dolphin used his charm. His head was tilted the slightest bit downwards, resulting in him having to look up at Rin. On top of that, his eyes, his blue, bright, swirling watery eyes, were open as wide as they could go. All of this Haru did without actually realizing that he was doing it.
'Crap… How can I refuse now that he brought his damn eyes into this?!'
Using all of his strength to at least make an effort to struggle against Haru's (naturally irresistible) charms, Rin bit his lip and tried not to keep on staring into the dolphin's eyes until -
"Argh! Alright! I'll let you keep it, so stop looking at me like that!"
With that exasperated outburst, Rin took his necklace off and sheepishly handed it to Haru. The mentioned teen stared at Rin then at the necklace before carefully taking it, bringing it up to his lips with a small smile.
"…Thanks. I'll take good care of it." He said with his eyes nearly closed, seemingly content.
"..Yeah, you better."
Rin, slightly startled from the way Haru had acted, could not keep his blush away from his face. But then he gently took the necklace from Haru's hands, and moved closer to the raven.
"Uh, here… I'll put it on for you."
He slipped the thin chord over Haru's head and around his neck, nearly pulling him into a hug during the process. As he pulled back, he noticed that Haru was staring at him again.
"Hey, it actually suits you. A bit too manly for you though, if you know what I'm saying."
"What are you talking about, emotional romantic shark?"
"What?! How am I a-"
Rin's sentence was never completed, interrupted by Haru's quiet, but definitely audible laugh. Rin widened his eyes; Haru laughing was usually a very rare sight to see.
"Hm… You know, you should do that more often."
"Do what?"
"Smile and laugh."
The faintest blush settled on Haru's cheeks, which did not go unnoticed by the shark. Grinning in triumph, Rin let out a chuckle before leaning back on his hands with his head tilted towards the ceiling. Haru stayed quiet for a moment before a soft smile graced his lips, surprising Rin, who was pleased that his request was actually listened to.
"Alright… I can do that. But only for you, since you asked me to."
With that statement, Haru gave Rin the brightest smile he could ever hope for.
"Hey, Haru, can you do that thing again?"
"What thing?"
"The… Super-bright-sparkly-Haru-dolphin smile?"
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting now, Rin? And here, I thought that us swimming a race together would calm you down a bit…"
"Those two are completely different matters. I just want you to smile for me again. Come on, you promised…"
Rin pouted, poking Haru in the ribs while putting his head on the dolphin's shoulder. Haru looked slightly miffed and amused at the same time, turning his head to regard the teen.
"Yeah, I did promise."
"Then why won't you smile for me?"
"It's because I promised that I'm not smiling for you right now."
"Hah?! That makes no sense whatsoever."
Rin slumped even farther against Haru, annoyed that the raven was constantly confusing him with his straightforward but peculiar way of speaking.
"I promised that I would smile for you, and only you. Since there are many other students here because of practice, I don't want to smile here."
Rin looked completely baffled, straightening up from Haruka's shoulder to stare at the teen.
"Haru, you… Can be really romantic sometimes, you know that?"
Haru raised an eyebrow at the red-head, his eyes twinkling in mischief.
"Sure, but we all know that I'll never be able to beat the romantic expert here."
"Will you cut the 'romantic' crap?! Besides, seeing how you're wearing my necklace even in the pool, you're not too far from me yourself."
Rin was waiting for another smart comeback from Haru, but he soon realized that one will never come. Since the aforementioned raven was looking away, obviously blushing.
"Oi, Haru.. You smiling is nice and all, but you blushing rivals that."
Rin grinned, moving back to rest his cheek against Haru's shoulder.
"…Shut up."
Haru dived into the pool without waiting for a reaction, making Rin lose his balance and trip into the pool as well. He sputtered and coughed, glaring after the freestyle swimmer.
"I'm going to catch you, Haru! Just you wait for it now~!"
A smirk on his lips, Rin raced after Haru, knowing full well that this will end up as another competition between the two; a competition fully welcomed by both of them.
