A/N: Hi guys! This is my first chaptered fic in a very long time! So it's gonna have hints of Mako/Haru, Rei/Nagisa but it's probably not going to go any further like the anime, so mostly just friendship stuffs :3 Anyway, I hope you like it and please take the time to review! I beg for constructive criticism. I hope you like it!
Chapter One: Ice Water
A serene smile graced Makoto's features, the sun shone down heavily upon the ground, warming his back as he walked through the gates to the swimming pool. He and Haru usually walked to the pool together, but Makoto had to run some errands for his mother before practice, so he told Haru to go on without him.
After they won the regionals, the members of Iwatobi Swim Club had realised that they needed to improve much more to get to where they wanted to be for the Nationals. Gou had them working twice as hard as they had when they were actually preparing for the regionals, because as Gou had said: They were competing against the top swimmers in the entire nation.
With Rin in the team, they were better and faster than they ever were before, and usually whenever Makoto arrived at the club, he would often find Rin helping Rei to improve his butterfly stroke so he could match up to his pace.
When Makoto arrived at the pool, he found Nagisa, Rei and Haru already there, in their swimming gear and stretching their muscles. Nagisa waved cheerfully when he saw Makoto there and bounded towards Makoto, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He had way too much energy for someone so small. He grinned at Makoto.
"Mako-chan!" He called out. "Do you know where Rin and Gou are?"
Makoto scanned the area around him. The pool was glistening with the sun on the water, and Haru looked just about ready to jump in. Rin and Gou were nowhere to be found, and that was odd since Gou was the team manager, she always made it a point upon herself to get there before everyone else did, Rin usually tagging along with her.
"Oh? Are they not here yet?" He asked, his eyebrows knitting together. He made his way next to Haru and Rei, sitting down with them.
Nagisa shook his head. "Nope! Rei and I thought you would know, since you were late too!"
"I told you. Makoto had to do something for his mother." Haru said, unblinking eyes staring at Nagisa.
Nagisa waved him off. "Oh well! Should we call them?" He asked cheerfully, walking towards the stands where he kept his duffel bag and his mobile phone without waiting for an answer.
"Might as well." Rei called out. Nagisa unzipped his light blue duffel bag, pulling out a smart phone, walking back towards were Haru, Makoto and Rei sat, with their feet in the water. He dialled a number, pressed a button and put it on loudspeaker. The dialling tone sounded, and then it started ringing. A few rings later, someone picked up the phone.
"Hello?" A drowsy voice breathed.
"Rin-chan! Aren't you awake yet? We're waiting on you and Gou!" Nagisa chided.
A groan sounded through the speaker. "Eh! My alarm didn't go off! It's a piece of junk. Gou should've woke me up or something anyway." There was the sound of the bed creaking. "We'll be there as soon as we can." He said seriously, and then the phone went off.
"Well… I suppose we'll just have to wait for them until get into the pool. We can't start without them after all." Rei said after a few moments.
"How about we relax in the pool, we shouldn't over exert ourselves before we even start though." Makoto said with a smile.
He looked at Haru, whose face brightened up and without a warning he slipped into the pool gracefully, without even a splash.
"I'm going to wait for them." Rei announced, moving over to sit near the stands.
Nagisa made a noise of discontentment. "You're so boring Rei-chan! Come into the pool!"
Rei rolled his eyes. "I'll come into the pool when I want to." Nagisa wandered over to Rei. "Eh-! Nagisa stop pulling on my arm! Hey, stop it!"
There was a splash as Nagisa pushed Rei into the pool. He emerged spluttering water out of his mouth, and calling out indignantly, pulling off his glasses, and swimming towards the edge, and swung out of the pool. "Hey! What did you do that for! You could have ruined my glasses!"
Nagisa grinned innocently, his feet at the edge of the pool, giggling a little. Rei walked towards his backpack, sitting a little while away from where Nagisa was, unzipped it and placed his glasses in, and pulled out his prescription goggles, putting them on.
"Ah, so now you want to go into the pool?" Nagisa asked.
"Only because you pushed me in!" Rei explained resentfully. Makoto noticed his mouth turn up into a mischievous grin. "Now, it's your turn." Before Nagisa could react, he pushed him into the pool.
Makoto refrained from rolling his eyes. The two of the bickered like an old married couple. It was sort of endearing. He jumped into the pool himself, Nagisa appearing from the water as he dove in.
The cool water enclosed around him and he swam over to Haru, who was floating in the water with his eyes closed. He seemed so peaceful, like he never was when he was out of the water. He opened one of his bright blue eyes, gazing directly at Makoto. Makoto observed him.
Haru turned over onto his defined stomach, and began to swim laps around the pool slowly. Makoto sighed happily. In the water was the only place where Haru was at ease. He floated on his back, his arms and legs spread out like a starfish, the sun's rays in his closed eyes.
It was peaceful for a few moments, until they heard Gou's shrill voice.
"I'm the reason that we're late? Well, I'll have you know that your alarm broke 5 days ago! I've told you over and over again but you never listen to me, do you?" She said huffily.
Makoto positioned himself upright, kicking his legs so he stayed standing. The two siblings came through the gates, Gou with her hair hastily tied in a ponytail and Rin with bags under his eyes. They were both wearing casual clothes, but they looked like they were hastily thrown on, like they had just picked them up out of their closet or off the ground at random. Rin was wearing a white shirt that read I heart Australia in English letters and jeans with flip flops (thongs, as he adamantly called them), and Gou was dressed more decently, in a rainbow leopard patterned tank top and purple shorts with converses, she was a walking colour explosion.
Rin's booming voice called through now: "You always make blame me for everything, why don't you get your own alarm or turn on the one on your phone instead of relying on mine all the time! Not to mention how long it takes you to get ready!" Rin was fuming and his face was red, it seemed that they had argued all the way here.
"Eh? You have got to be the worst brother ever!"
He looked behind him. Rei and Nagisa stopped what they were doing looking at the quarrelling siblings, and Haru was floating in the water, a frown on his face.
Makoto coughed loudly, and the siblings stopped talking, apparently noticing that they had an audience.
"What?" They both barked in unison at Makoto.
He got out of the pool, crossing his arms. Gou's cheeks went bright red, though he wasn't sure why. "You have a swim team to manage." He reminded Gou. Rin smirked, apparently thinking that he was taking his side. Makoto turned to Rin. "And you have to help Rei improve his butterfly."
They both rolled their eyes. "Okay Mom." They shoved past Makoto, Gou sat at the edge of the pool, pouting and Rin took his bag off his back and threw it onto the ground and began to strip down to his swim suit.
Makoto looked at him with apprehension. He knew that Rin had a short temper and he wouldn't like to burn it any further, but before he could even say anything Rin jumped into the pool without a moment's hesitation and began swimming further away from him to where Rei and Nagisa were. Nagisa had somehow managed to climb upon Rei's back and had also dislodged his goggles, so he was bumping around a complaining whenever he stubbed his toe on the walls of the pool.
"H-Hey! Get off Nagisa!" He shouted. "Ouch!" He hissed as he slammed his knee into the wall, then slipped and fell backwards, Nagisa fell back into the water, and Rei regained his footing at the last moment, and as soon as Nagisa resurfaced, a grin on his face like usual, Rei began reprimanding him then snatched his goggles from Nagisa's hand and putting them on his head, not even taking a breath to pause his lecture.
Then Rin arrived between the two and guided Rei away from Nagisa to the opposite side of the pool.
"You stay there." Rin warned Nagisa. Nagisa nodded obediently. A few moments passed and then followed them to where Rin was helping Rei to improve his stroke. Rin rolled his eyes but didn't say anything, thankfully.
Makoto had walked the perimeter of the pool next to Gou, looking upon all his friends graciously. He looked towards Gou, who was frowning with her arms crossed. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that she looked tired and worn out. She wasn't her usual cheerful self.
"Gou… Is everything okay-?"
"Everything's fine." She said pertly, not looking at Makoto, she didn't even seem to realise that he said 'Gou' instead of 'Kou'
Gou was stubborn; he wasn't going to get an answer out of her anytime soon, so Makoto sighed. "Okay. Well if there is anything, we can help."
Gou didn't say anything for a while. "I'll keep that in mind. But first, we need to practise!"
Her quick change of demeanour startled Makoto. Gou stood up and started shouting for everyone else to gather around her.
"We're going to start with something easy now, okay? Just race laps across the length of the pool and try to beat your personal best!"
Makoto bit his bottom lip. He hoped that Gou and Rin would sort out whatever was bothering them, and whatever it was, he knew it wasn't over something petty like being late for swim practise.