Hi guys! So, um... what can I say? I wrote this pretty quickly, though I did take my time with it, so just read it and see how you like it.
Summary: "Hey, do you wanna come home with me?" Makoto asked, smiling. "Okaa-san asked me this morning if I could see if you wanted to come over for dinner. Ren and Ran miss you." Haruka shrugged, turning down Makoto's road. The olive-haired teen grinned, following his best friend's lead as they headed for home. Based off of Episode 4's end card.
Disclaimer: I don't own Free! Iwatobi Swim Club.
"So, Haru-chan, Rei-kun's getting pretty good at swimming, isn't he?" Tachibana Makoto asked. He and his best friend, Nanase Haruka, were headed back home from their third successful swim practice that week. "Their third successful swim practice" as in the third practice they'd had since their newest member, Ryugazaki Rei, had learned how to swim.
"I think the water is starting to like him more," Came Haruka's bored reply. Makoto stifled a laugh. Typical Haruka.
"Hey, do you wanna come home with me?" Makoto asked, smiling over at his best friend and teammate. Haruka looked at him, one eyebrow raised. Makoto's smile widened.
"Okaa-san's been really worried about you," Makoto explained, an image of his mother with a troubled look on her face coming to the olive-haired teenager's mind. "She asked me this morning if I could see if you wanted to come over for dinner. I thought the walk home would be the best time to ask. So, what do you say? Ren and Ran miss you, too."
Haruka shrugged, turning right to go down Makoto's road, showing that he'd agreed to his friend's proposal. Makoto grinned. I'm glad he agreed so easily. It's been a while since he's been by the house.
Nodding, Makoto whispered a quiet word of thanks before letting their conversation drop, continuing on in a comfortable silence.
Then it started to rain.
"Ah, shoot! I didn't bring my umbrella today!" Makoto uncharacteristically hissed under his breath, bringing one hand up to cover his head from the falling raindrops. Not two seconds later, however, the teen was moving his hand to hover over Haruka's head instead, causing the other boy to scowl. Haru reached up, swatting Makoto's hand away and grabbing his friend by the wrist.
"If you wanna get out of the rain, then just hurry up," Haruka said rather nonchalantly, starting to jog lightly up the street Makoto lived on, eventually letting go of the taller teen's wrist. Makoto immediately found himself missing the contact; Haru's hand on his skin had been the only thing that felt warm, because the rain pouring down on them was cold. The Tachibana household wasn't too far off now, though, and soon the two teens had arrived at their destination.
"Okaa-san!" Makoto called as he slid open the front door to his house, allowing Haru to go in before him before following suit. The two deposited their shoes at the front door and Makoto glanced forward at the nice, polished wood flooring that lined the hallway in front of them. The boy reached up, cupping his hands around his mouth.
"Okaa-san! We got rained on on the way home; could you bring us some towels?" Makoto called out to his mother, focusing his voice towards the kitchen, where he was sure she'd be. Otou-san must not have been home yet.
Soon enough, a woman with long, darkish green-brown hair appeared, smiling and carrying with her two white, fluffy towels.
"Welcome home, boys," Mrs. Tachibana said as she smiled, handing them each a towel. "Thanks, Okaa-san," Makoto thanked his mother lovingly, taking the towel she offered him and beginning to dry himself off with it. Beside him, Haruka gave a simple bow of his head, which left Mrs. Tachibana's smile to widen. She had known Nanase Haruka most of his life; as a mother, even if she wasn't his, she could read him like a book at this point.
"Dinner will be ready in a few, boys," Mrs. Tachibana said, already turning away from the two, surely to go back to work on said dinner in the kitchen. Halfway down the hallway, however, the woman stopped, pointing upstairs with a grin. "I already told Ren and Ran that Haru-kun was coming. They've been upstairs playing games the last hour, waiting for you two to get here."
"Eh?!" Makoto exclaimed, frowning as he let his hands go still, pausing in his attempt to dry his hair. "But Okaa-san! How could you be sure Haru-chan was coming?" The olive-haired teen asked, to which his mother laughed and wagged her finger. "Mother knows best," The woman said simply and giggled, throwing her dainty little hand up in a wave before she continued down the hallway, taking a left through a doorway and disappearing into the kitchen. Makoto sighed. "She should've waited to see," He said, but Haruka just shrugged the whole incident off, picking at his school uniform, which was beginning to stick uncomfortably to his skin.
"Oi, can I borrow some clothes?" Haruka asked. Makoto nodded, brushing past Haru carefully and beginning to head upstairs, beckoning the black-haired boy to follow. He did.
What they found waiting for them upstairs in Makoto's room was too good for words; it would've put the cutest of children to shame. There on the eldest Tachibana child's bed, with only about two-to-three feet between them, were Makoto's twin siblings, Ren and Ran. The two were both slumped over with game controllers still in their tiny hands and Ran, Makoto's sister, was snoring quietly, the beginnings of a small string of drool wavering on her bottom lip.
Makoto chuckled under his breath before turning to Haru. The male held up his index finger to his lips before carefully creeping across the room, moving on his tiptoes. He moved towards his closet and, once there, carefully pulled it open. He pulled out some clothes for both himself and Haru, then simply left the closet door open as he tiptoed back across the room. It was fine to open, but the door made a loud banging noise when shut. Makoto didn't want to wake up his siblings.
"Here you go," Makoto said once the two were back outside the room, handing Haru a grey pair of shorts and a white-and-peach colored top that they both knew would be a bit too big on the thinner boy. "Thanks," Haru mumbled. Makoto smiled and nodded before heading for the upstairs bathroom down the hall, Haruka following in his wake.
Once the two boys were changed and a bit more dried off, Makoto slung a small towel around his shoulders to catch the water droplets still falling from his hair, then did the same for Haru. Again, Haruka brushed the other teen's hands away, scowling. And again, Makoto laughed.
"Hey, Haru. It looked like they were worn out from their game," Makoto began to say as they moved back towards his room, squinting his eyes a bit. He'd just taken out his contacts back when they were in the bathroom, before he'd changed. Sometimes after he'd had them in a while, it felt really weird to have them out. "Wanna play?" He said with a grin, looking over to his friend as they entered into his room. A small smirk spread across Haruka's face and he simply walked over towards Ren, leaving Makoto to go for Ran. Makoto knew to take that as a definite "yes."
"Mmm, Haru nii-chan?" Ren mumbled as Haruka slipped the black game controller the boy had been sleeping with out of his little hands, placing it on Makoto's bed. "Hey," Haruka said quietly as Ren yawned. "Do you wanna sit here?" Ren asked, in a daze, and Haruka didn't answer, instead taking it upon himself to pick the boy up into his arms.
Sitting down where Ren had been, Haruka lowered the much younger boy down into his lap. Immediately, as if on instinct, Ren turned around to face Haru, wrapping his short arms and legs around the teenager. The blue-eyed swimmer didn't mind, just taking the game controller he'd discarded moments before back into his hands, running his thumbs over the controls. It'd be a while since he'd played any video games; he wanted to get a good feel for the controller again.
"Best two out of three?" Makoto called over to Haruka, who looked to his left to find his friend on the floor, leaned back against the side of his bed. Ran was between her big brothe'rs legs, leaned back against his chest and still out like a light, snoring contently. Haruka huffed, turning his head away and looking at the brightly-lit up television screen with a smirk.
"How about three out of five?" Haruka wagered, upping their game time a little. Makoto laughed, reaching up onto his nearby desk and unfolding a pair of black framed glasses, slipping them on his face as he got his game face on. Haruka was already way ahead of him in that department, sitting over on the other end of the bed with Ren resting comfortably against him, like Haru was his brother, too.
"You're on."
THE END.
Annnndddd... Whadd'ya think? Sorry if it was bad or too short; I was just seeing the end card for Episode 4 a lot in the Free! tag on tumblr and this little... plot bunny, let's call it, hopped it's way right on into my head. So I hope it was at least kind of cute, because the end card is precious. Something that's not, however, is that we have somewhere around 330 more hours until the next Free! episode. My math's probably not right, though, lol. But yeah, break next week guys. Ugh.