Hi, everyone! This is my first Free! fanfic, so I hope you enjoy! I have to warn you that I can be a bit of a dramatic writer (in terms of setting and description and words, not the characters themselves), so it might be a bit much for some people - but I hope it's alright!

Enjoy!

Chapter 1

She was a bubbly girl with long light blue hair tied into twin pigtails that cascaded down her back as she made her way through the halls, a bright smile on her face as she went. Her eyes, the same shade of pale blue as her hair, seemed to glitter. It was a common saying among those who knew her that her eyes "held the oceans themselves." She wore the Iwatobi High School girls' uniform, and she wore it well, the outfit fitting her small but lean figure perfectly. She was a first-year, and new to the school, of course, but she turned heads everywhere she went. People whispered, "Who's that first-year? She's cute. I wonder if she'd eat lunch with us? What club is she going to join?"

Although she was considered "cute," it was her personality, more than her physical features, that gained her this recognition. She was naturally charismatic and made friends easily, and she seemed to have a shining aura around her that attracted attention.

She was headed for the rooftop because she liked the feel of air and space around her, carrying her bento box wrapped in a light blue wrap, smiling and nodding to anybody who approached her or dared to wave "hello." The number of people in the hallways diminished as she got nearer to the stairs, and she climbed them with all the ease of a natural athlete.

She pushed open the door to the rooftop and blinked as the sunlight hit her and temporarily blinded her. Once she could see more clearly, she stepped out onto the roof, where there were two or three groups eating together.

"Ah, Ikeda-san!"

Hikaru turned to see a familiar-looking red-haired girl waving to her from where she was sat with one of her friends. "Hello," said Hikaru, smiling and waving. "You're in my class, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm Matsuoka Kou – but 'Kou' is fine. Would you like to sit with us for lunch?"

"Sure," said Hikaru easily, walking toward them. Her friend was a brunette with green eyes, who smiled back as their eyes met. "I'm Ikeda Hikaru. You're in my class as well, right? It's nice to meet you both!"

"Nice to meet you too, Ikeda-san," said the brunette. "I'm Hanamura Chigusa."

"Oh, please call me 'Hikaru'," said Hikaru, unable to stop herself. She laughed as she sat down and added, "'Ikeda-san' is just too formal for me. Nope – I just don't do formal."

"Hikaru-chan, then," Kou decided, and Hikaru nodded her approval as she unwrapped her bento box. Inside, her father had packed her three onigiri and a light salad on the side.

Hikaru was about to ask the two girls about themselves when she overheard a group of boys talking, not too far away from them. "Hey, that swimming club we used to go to is finally being torn down."

"We should go visit."

"Not interested."

"Oh, come on!"

Kou's attention had been captured too, her maroon-ish eyes flitting to them immediately. Swimming, huh? Hikaru took a bite out of an onigiri.

"Come on, Haru-chan!"

Curious about swimmers as always, Hikaru glanced over to see a small blonde boy shaking and clinging onto a taller, black-haired boy with blue eyes. He had on a stoic expression, just standing there and letting the blonde shake him about, but his eyes had caught Hikaru's.

She had caught his attention when she'd first stepped out onto the roof, with her long blue hair and the graceful way she walked, but her eyes were startlingly familiar. They reminded him of water, deep and clear and peaceful, but also dangerous. She was a first-year, judging by her uniform. She had been a year younger than him, he remembered – could it be?

No, he thought. It wasn't possible. She had gone away so long ago, and he'd never seen her again. What would she be doing here, at Iwatobi High School?

She smiled as the girl next to her said something, and Haruka just felt a strong sense of deja-vu wash over him. Her aura blanketed her like a cloud, shimmering and demanding his attention.

It was just a coincidence.

Definitely a coincidence.

"Ne, are you listening, Haru-chan? We've gotta go! For old times' sake!"

Distracted, Haruka agreed before he really thought about what Nagisa was asking. Makoto, noticing his change in behavior, turned his head and followed his gaze. He'd only seen Haru's "guardian angel" once before, many years ago, but there was no mistaking that shade of blue – not to mention the very aura she gave off.

But, he thought to himself, smiling wryly, Haru would surely convince himself that it was all just a coincidence.

He couldn't do anything about that.

The next time they met was a few weeks later, at the school's old, run-down pool. The boys had been cleaning it out, and they'd come back the next afternoon to find a girl, dressed in her P.E. uniform, spraying disinfectant and bleach everywhere.

"Eh? Who're you?" Nagisa blurted out, and she gave a particularly difficult spot one final spray before turning around and beaming at them.

"Well, I heard you were starting a swim club, and that you needed to clean out the pool, so I thought I'd give you a hand," she said cheerfully, raising one hand – and bottle – into the air. "You don't want to swim in dirtied water, right? Ew."

Their eyes were wide with disbelief. Makoto was the first to recover, and smiled at her. "That's really nice of you," he said, hoping Haru would somehow connect the dots. They were by a pool, after all. Well, sort of. "You're a first-year, right? I've seen you before."

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry!" She bowed to them. "I'm Ikeda Hikaru. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Tachibana Makoto, a second-year. This is Hazuki Nagisa, a first-year, and Nanase Haruka, a second-year. We really appreciate your help."

"Yeah, thanks!" Nagisa beamed at her. "Hey, I'll help!"

He jumped into the empty pool and ran to join her, grabbing one of the spray bottles and spritzing it at a dark spot. Hikaru scrubbed at the spots she'd sprayed, and was satisfied to see the dark spot turn whiter.

"I'll scrub, you guys spray," said Makoto, coming up behind them, grabbing the brush. After a moment, Haruka joined them, a second brush in hand. Work progressed a lot faster after that, most of the conversation led by Hikaru and Nagisa, Haruka barely speaking a word.

"Hikaru-san, what made you take interest in the swim club?" asked Makoto. Hikaru grinned and sprayed another spot, as Makoto followed her with his brush.

"Well, I'm a swimmer," she said. "I swam a lot when I was in America, and so when I moved back here, of course I had to check out the swim club, right? And I overheard you guys talking about the swim club, so here I am! Besides, this is pretty fun, for some reason. I'm not really sure why."

Makoto laughed. "I'm glad you like swimming," he said. "Would you like to officially join the club?"

"Yes, please!" Hikaru was rather relieved that he'd offered. "I'd love to!"

"That's good – hey, we've got a new member!" Makoto shouted to the other two. Nagisa showed his excitement by jumping up and down, while Haruka just sort of nodded and went back to scrubbing. Hikaru laughed at his reaction.

On the other side of the pool, Haruka had a few suspicions. Despite telling himself, over and over, that there was no way she could be the same girl, there was something about her eyes that wanted to convince him that perhaps she could be the same girl, after all. He tried to clear his thoughts, but her eyes kept coming back to him.

He remembered the first time they'd met, when he'd been staring down at the flowing creek. He'd been mesmerized by its beauty, and he wanted to touch it, but he was afraid. As a four-year-old, his parents hadn't let him go to the ocean alone, either, although he thought it was rather beautiful as well.

"You're not going to touch it?"

He turned to see a girl about his age, staring at him with big blue eyes the color of water. "No," he said, not wanting to say that he was afraid.

"Why not? It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Mhmm."

"Then why not?"

He hesitated. "I'm scared."

"I'll protect you!" She beamed at him. "I'll be your guardian angel! I'm only three, but I can swim! Kinda!"

The creek was shallow enough. If they really tried, they could probably reach the bottom. Haruka was conflicted. To touch or not to touch?

"What are you afraid of?"

He gasped as he felt himself falling and he hit the cold water abruptly, the shock traveling through his body. He didn't know how to swim, and found himself staring at the surface of the water. It was peaceful down here, he thought, forgetting for a moment that he would need to breathe. The surface of the water, getting further and further away from him, was shining, glittering, a beautiful blue, not unlike the eyes of the girl who'd pushed him in –

Two hands wrapped around his torso, pulling him upward, though not without some trouble. They broke the surface, gasping for air. The girl turned to him and smiled. "See? Wasn't that fun?"

It was, indeed, and after that, Haruka found himself falling in love with the water, and with the sight that girl had first shown him.

But she had left after a few days of meeting him by the creek, saying she had to move to some faraway country, and he had never seen her again. He'd been kind of distraught – this he would admit with some reluctance – and sometimes he'd go back to the creek, but she was never there.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He hadn't changed that much throughout the years, either – surely, if Ikeda really was the same girl, then she would've recognized him already. Then again, he thought, although she'd made a lasting impact on his life, perhaps he had just been a passing memory, already forgotten, unimportant. Somehow, the thought made him a bit sad.

"Haru-chan!" Nagisa was shaking him, hard, and he flew back to reality, eyes widening. "Haru-chan, I've been calling you for ages! Did you disappear or something?"

"I was thinking," said Haruka simply, not bothering to unattach himself from the hyperactive blonde, who just sort of stared at him with big eyes.

"Well, I was asking if you wanted to go get ice cream later," said Nagisa, still holding on tight. "Please, please, please? Mako-chan, you have to come too!"

"Sure thing," Makoto replied from the other side of the pool, where he and Ikeda – he felt weird addressing or thinking of her as simply "Hikaru," since they'd just met – were apparently making good progress. "Hikaru-san, you should come along as well."

"Yeah!" Nagisa shouted, seeing her initial reluctance. "It'll be fun!"

"I don't want to intrude on you guys," said Ikeda, laughing sheepishly.

"You won't be intruding," said Makoto firmly. "You're part of the club now, after all. Well, you will be, as soon as you turn in your club request form."

Her entire expression changed into a sad frown. "That's so much work," she grumbled, as Nagisa danced over to her, spray bottle still in hand.

"I'll do it for you!" he volunteered, clearly excited about having a new club member. "Ne, ne, you have to do it, Hikaru-chan, or you can't join!"

Ikeda clapped her hands over her eyes as though in despair. "I wanna join!"

"Then fill out a form!" shouted Nagisa, without missing a beat.

"I'll do it!" yelled Ikeda, and the two of them high-fived each other, big goofy smiles on their faces. Haruka shook his head. They were crazy. Although he thought Ikeda was interesting for several reasons, he wasn't sure if he was looking forward to having another Nagisa in the club.

Makoto was smiling at him, for whatever reason. He just stared back. When Makoto said nothing but just continued to smile, Haruka went back to his work and continued scrubbing. Whatever, he thought. He was secretly rather fond of Nagisa, so maybe he'd be okay with Ikeda, too.

After scrubbing the entire pool down, which took them several hours, the four of them changed back into their school uniforms and tossed their sweaty jerseys into their backpacks to take home and wash. They headed down the street, Ikeda and Nagisa leading the way, singing some sort of dumb children's song as they went. Makoto was watching them in amusement. Haruka felt like smiling would be giving up and conceding to their weirdness.

He wondered if Ikeda could really swim, and if so, how well she could do it. He was staring at her back pondering this issue when Makoto voiced his thoughts. "You're wondering whether or not she swims, aren't you?"

Well, he had always been good at guessing Haruka's thoughts. Makoto laughed upon seeing that he had been correct.

"She told me she swam a lot in America," he said. "Swimming's a pretty big thing there, isn't it?"

Haruka wasn't sure, so he just shrugged.

"Or you could just ask her."

Haruka didn't really want to ask her. She seemed to be having a good time prancing around with Nagisa. And besides, how would he start? That would be a bit weird, he thought. Definitely weird.

Makoto just sighed and turned away. They reached the convenience store on the corner of the block and entered, heading for the frozen aisle. Ikeda and Nagisa had already picked out a bunch of popsicles by the time they'd gotten there – a milk-flavored one for Ikeda and Haruka, and strawberry for Nagisa and Makoto.

They were also having a heated argument about which flavor was better.

Haruka sighed, took the four popsicles out of their dramatically-waving hands, and headed over to the register to pay for them. Almost immediately, Ikeda jumped in front of him, blocking his way. "I'll pay," she said firmly, but he just shrugged and tried to go around her. She moved to block him again. He moved left. She moved left. He moved right. She moved right. He faked a left and went right, but she was already there.

"Ikeda-san, I will pay for them," said Haruka, somehow unwilling to give up the fight. He wasn't really an aggressive person, but Ikeda had done them a favor by joining the club, since they needed more members in order to actually establish the club itself. He could at least repay the favor by buying her a popsicle – they were cheap, anyway.

"Don't call me that," said Ikeda, pouting. "I'm Hikaru. Okay? Hikaru. Hi-ka-ru."

Haruka blinked. "Hikaru-san, please move aside."

He was pretty sure Makoto and Nagisa were laughing at him in the background, but chose to ignore them. Ike – er, Hikaru shook her head "no."

"To celebrate you joining the club," said Haruka, hoping this would convince her.

Her frown grew deeper.

"They're cheap anyway," Haruka offered.

She seemed to be considering it.

"You can treat me next time."

She gave up, sighing. "Fineeeee," she conceded, moving to the side and letting Haruka pass. He felt a sort of pride in having won the "argument," as silly as that was. Maybe he was catching Nagisa germs.

He paid for the popsicles and handed them out outside the store. Milk flavor was the best. Hikaru evidently agreed, licking her popsicle happily as she and Nagisa chatted about rockhopper penguins – Iwatobi's mascot animal.

"Hey, guys," said Hikaru, breaking her conversation with Nagisa and catching their attention. Haruka forced himself to stop thinking about the nearby ocean and pay attention. "Since the pool hasn't been fixed yet, what do you say we stop by the gym and swim a few laps?"

Haruka's attention had been caught. Swimming. Pool. Laps. "Where?" he demanded immediately, and Hikaru's eyes glittered.

"My uncle and aunt own a small gym with a pool," she explained. "We could go there now, if you want – "

Haruka had taken her by the shoulders, moving instinctively. His eyes were shining, and Hikaru resisted the urge to laugh at his eagerness.

"I'll take you there, then," she said, beaming. "Come on!"

All three of them followed her through the streets happily. Although they weren't quite as water-crazy as Haruka, it was obvious to Hikaru that they all loved swimming, and hadn't really gotten a chance to do so recently.

She got them into the gym and provided them with extra swimsuits (Haruka had his on underneath his clothes, of course) before changing into one herself and joining them in the pool. As she floated across the pool, staring at the dimly-lit ceiling, she couldn't help but think that her sister would've been so pleased to see how Nanase Haruka had grown.