Free! does not belong to me. Neither does High Speed!

After the wedding

.

Cherry blossoms glow in the trembling light of the streetlamps, dance with the wind before reaching the ground, where they beam like stars floating over a concrete sky two pair of feet walk on. There is nobody else on the street; only the sea at their left makes some noise in the black night, the salt coming naturally to their senses as they both breathe in the absence of judging glares directed to their intertwined hands.

Every now and then, Haruka's thumb brushes over the back of Rin's hand. Every now and then Rin tears his gaze off the ocean and loses himself in the blue skies looking at him, and only the absent-minded caresses on his hand bring him back to reality.

Rin can't wait until they arrive to the house to kiss Haruka; judging by the content sigh glossing over his lips in the tiny second when time stops so they can catch their breath, that's exactly what Haruka wanted.

So many years together, and Haruka is still too proud to simply say what he wants aloud.

(It's not that he never says it; but not even an eternity together will make them stop making the mistake of just expecting the other to guess their wish. They've gotten better throughout the years, though.)

When they arrive to their bedroom there's no rush to take their clothes off; Rin giggles at Haruka's sleepy kisses, then at the half-hearted glare that is all his boyfriend can muster at the moment. It's not like he is any more willing to be awake for a moment longer than necessary, though, so he disentangles his limbs from Haruka's to get rid of the rest of clothes forming the suit. Haruka mimics him between yawns and uncooperative fingers that refuse to free his neck from the lopsided bow tie.

Rin laughs again, even after Haruka's heel makes contact with his shin.

"You were the one who wanted to stay longer," he pouts, almost tearing his shirt off in his haste.

"Sorry, sorry," Rin apologises despite not being truly sorry. He didn't mean to stay until this late, but it's not often he sees all his friends together; and five minutes turned into ten, and then he was dancing with Makoto's girlfriend and Haruka fell asleep leaning on Sousuke's bad shoulder and somehow Nagisa's it's my wedding! excuse had successfully convinced Rei to dance the limbo.

But not every day your little sister marries one of your best friends, right?

"It was nice, wasn't it?" Rin mutters some minutes later, with the lights off, a blanket over him and an already half asleep Haruka grabbing his little finger.

(It's something Haruka does often, as if he needed to make sure Rin won't leave while he's asleep. Rin has never asked him about it, but since a particularly nasty flu that had Haruka bedridden for almost a whole week he makes sure to be close when his boyfriend awakens. He doesn't want to see Haruka that frightened ever again.)

"Mm," Haruka agrees, forehead leaning against Rin's shoulder. "You cried."

"I didn't– Only a bit." Haruka lets out a snort, the closest sound to a laugh he can emit at the moment. Rin can't help a smile that soon vanishes in a yawn. "G'night, Haru."

Rin is about to drift off when Haruka's voice echoes in the silent room again.

"Would you want to?"

Rin's eyes snap open. Haruka is leaning on one elbow, blue eyes fixed on Rin. There is no trace of his former sleepiness.

"Huh?"

Rin knows Haruka is blushing, despite the darkness surrounding them, because of the way his boyfriend jerks his head away for a moment before finding the resolve to look into his eyes again:

"Getting married. Like Nagisa and Gou."

The bedroom isn't that big, but Rin can swear his speeding heartbeat echoes within the walls. He opens his mouth, only to close it again; he repeats the action twice more, until he realises he looks like a fish out of water and purses his lips together instead, trying to think, to remember how speaking works before making a fool of himself.

"Haru," he finally breathes out, chest flooding with affection and an odd urge to laugh as the realisation of the furious pink colouring his cheeks kicks in, "we can't get married in Japan."

Haruka, who strangely has managed to keep himself from laughing at Rin, frowns.

"That's not what I asked."

Rin sighs. "Well, yeah," he admits, a smile spreading across his face. Haruka nods. "Why?"

Haruka sits up, lets go of Rin's finger. He climbs off the bed, leaning back down to kiss Rin's temple.

"Wait here."

Rin doesn't have the time to ask before Haruka rushes out the bedroom.

So he waits.

At some point he must fall asleep, because when he comes round to Haruka padding into the room again, a faint, grey light filters through the curtains and sprawls over the floor. He looks up and immediately worries: Haruka resembles a ghost, pale, with his eyes sunken in dark bags that make him seem on the verge of fainting.

(And Rin knows Haruka's natural reaction to other people's concern is pushing them away, but he also knows Haruka needs to sleep. Urgently.)

"Have you stayed awake all night?!" is what comes from Rin's mouth, a half-angry, half-scared rhetorical question.

Haruka falls down on the mattress rather gracelessly, letting out a tired groan before turning around and sitting up in what seems like a Herculean effort.

"I had something to do," he mumbles; it's then that Rin notices his left hand is closed tightly around something. "You said you want to get married."

Rin blinks.

"Uh… Yeah, I did. I mean, I did say it. I do want to– Yeah."

Haruka nods, opens his hand to show Rin what's inside.

"We can't do it in Japan, but we can somewhere else," he says, and Rin finds himself unable to look away from those exhausted eyes that glow with everything but tiredness (urgency, anxiousness, excitement). "And unless you have rings, we can wear these until we find them."

Rin looks down, at what looks like– like–

"Are those–" But he chokes on his words, because they are, actually–

(Haruka gave a thread bracelet to Rin for the first time sometime after their trip to Australia during their last year of high school, before Rin left again, this time alone.)

"You don't have to," he adds quietly, fingers curling loosely around the two bracelets –one red, the other blue. "Plus, I was half-asleep and I think it's too long for your wrist."

Rin wants to laugh, and cry, and kiss every patch of Haruka's skin. In the end he brings his boyfriend close and holds him, presses his lips against the base of his neck.

"They are perfect. I can wear it on my ankle."

He can feel the tension leaving Haruka under his fingertips before his boyfriend draws back.

"The red one was supposed to be yours, since you like it more," he explains. "But it ended up being shorter."

Rin smiles. "Then you keep that one. I like blue, too."

Blue means you're close.

There's a sort of reverence in Haruka's movements when he pulls the blankets back to uncover Rin's feet, when his fingertips brush Rin's ankle as he secures the bracelet around it. As if he didn't know every corner of his body by now.

(As if Rin were even naked to begin with.)

As for Rin, well– his fingers may be as uncooperative as Haruka's were when he tried to get rid of his bow tie, and he almost gets his face kicked when he accidentally tickles his boyfriend. He wraps Haruka in his arms and gently lays him on the bed, noticing his slack grip on Rin's Northern Stoplight Loosejaw-kun t-shirt.

"You didn't have to stay up all night," he mutters.

Haruka shrugs. "Do you like it?"

"A lot," Rin whispers. "Do you?"

Haruka may be sleep deprived, but he understands perfectly what Rin means.

"What else would I have stayed up for?"

So this all came from the anklet Rin's figure is wearing.