Notes & disclaimer: this work was submitted to RinHaru Week 2017 Day 2 (Prompt water). It's a short one, but I hope you'll like it. Thanks for reading it!

And yeah, you should know by now that Free! doesn't belong to me, but rather to its authors, right? :)

Savior

He was drowning.

It felt as though he was a sinking ship; his limbs felt awfully heavy and that heaviness was weighing him down. He wanted desperately to breath, yet he knew he mustn't fight against the water: As long as he accepted it, he'd be accepted as well. In his mind he was screaming, "Don't fight it, just release yourself and the water will set you free!" Still, the wet grasp on his ankles kept pulling him down, down, down.

Is this the end?

He shut his eyes tight, then tried once again to relax. He just couldn't, though; he was falling into unknown waters. He was reaching the bottom and the bottom was pretty deep.

Then, he heard a voice call his name. That person couldn't be screaming inside the water, he would gasp and drown as well. Don't!

Fighting for a strength he seemed to be lacking by then, he lifted his head; it felt heavy, heavy, tons of heaviness. He opened his eyes for a fraction of a second. They itched, they hurt.

Still, he had opened them for long enough to see him. He was coming for his rescue, he had his arm stretched out and the tips of his fingers were brushing his shoulder lightly. He had to lift his arm and try and take that hand.

"Haru!"

He wasn't shouting, yet he was. He wasn't going to drown as well, yet he might if he, the drowning one, took his hand.

"Rin!"

He yelled, truly, literally did. As a result, he swallowed a large gulp of salty water. He coughed and felt the wet, threatening grasp pulling him down once more.

No!

Their hands were barely touching; just a bit more, just a bit harder... If he motioned his body upwards, they would touch. He didn't want to risk dragging Rin down with him, but he also didn't want it to end that way.

But if your face is the last thing I get to see, then, it's not so bad.

Something connected to him. A warm touch, it was palm against palm, their hands were touching, their fingers were entangled in each other's.

Now, just accept them both. The water, and Rin.

Electricity rushed through his veins; he was being pulled upwards in a fast motion.

"Don't let go, Haru."

Rin wasn't actually saying it, yet he was.

Haru just held his hand tighter and went with the flow. They clashed against a bright, blinding light. He felt like the air had been stolen from his lungs.

He opened his eyes.

He was alive.

There was no water, only wet sheets under his barely naked body. The sheets were drenched with sweat, just as his body was. He was still panting; the dream had felt so real!

Slipping the back of his hand on his forehead, washing away that cold sweat, Haruka inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. He then turned around, and his heart calmed. Rin was beside him, sound asleep, his strong, bare chest going up and down with every breath.

Haru felt something coming to his eyes. He almost couldn't keep the uninvited tears from falling. It felt weird.

Then it hit him. That was relief. He just had to get hold of himself; that had been nothing but a dream, after all.

Rin woke up to a sweaty Haru clinging to him as he supposedly would never do, not even in Rin's craziest dreams.

On top of that, his eyelashes were wet with recent tears.

"Haru?" A puzzled Rin asked, unsure of whether he should simply hold his boyfriend tighter or check if he had a fever.

He was kissed once, twice. He was kissed until he was certain Haru had gone insane.

Then the dark haired boy just lie down on his back again and whispered, "It was just a dream."

"Eh?"

"Thanks, Rin. You saved me."