Bzzzzt.

Haruka looked away from the train's window as he reached into his pocket and slipped out his phone. Looking down at his its brightly lit screen, he could see that Makoto had texted him. He quickly unlocked it, reading the message.

Sorry, Haru. I forgot one of my books in my last class, so I'm going to be late getting back. Just let yourself in and I'll be there soon. Hopefully you've got your phone on you today. Sorry!

Haruka sighed, reading through the text again. Makoto really didn't need to apologize, let alone twice. It wasn't a big deal. He swayed in his seat as the train eased its way around a curve, punching a reply onto his screen.

In that case I'll just meet you on campus and we can head back together. Where should I meet you?

Haruka hit send, then slid his phone back into his pocket. Makoto's university was on the way to his apartment, anyhow—he could just get off two stops early.

Bzzzzt.

With another sigh, Haruka pulled his phone back out of his pocket, regretting having put it away in the first place. Force of habit, he supposed. Irritated with himself, he punched in his keycode and opened the new message blinking on his screen.

Really, Haru? Thanks, you're too nice! ^^ Then please wait for me at the main fountain and we can head back together!

Haruka stared at the message for a long moment, thin lips pressing together. He exhaled, not quite sure how he should reply. He could just imagine Makoto's grinning face, ridiculously happy over something so simple.

It wasn't the first time he had noticed it. Haruka wasn't even sure when he had first started to realize that there might be something more to his friend's reactions. They were all little things—his doofus smile, or the way that even Haruka's grumpy silences could make Makoto chuckle. Truthfully, Haruka had probably had these suspicions for a long time now. Still, he was having an increasingly difficult time brushing off all of these little hints as if they didn't matter.

The problem was that those little hints didn't matter. Or, more accurately, they shouldn't. Makoto was Makoto, and Haruka was himself, and neither was quite the same without the other. They just were. Nothing more, nothing less.

But lately, Haruka had been wondering if that really was true. Because all these little hints seemed to indicate that maybe, just maybe—okay, probably—Makoto liked him. Without even trying to, Haruka had been growing more and more sure of this. And yet, he truthfully couldn't say with any firm certainty.

And that was irritating.

This was Makoto, after all. Their friendship wasn't supposed to be confusing. Haruka had come to assume that, after all of the years of trying to puzzle out his best friend's thoughts, he had finally reached a point where thinking about it was unnecessary. He liked it that way.

The fact that Haruka couldn't fully convince himself of Makoto's feelings towards him was a nuisance. He just wanted things to be simple between them. The way it should be.

Exhaling in aggravation, Haruka punched "K" into the text box, then stubbornly hit send.

Satisfied that the conversation was over, he shoved his phone back into his pocket yet again, then returned his attention toward the train's window.

His frustration at not quite understanding Makoto aside, Haruka had been looking forward to this evening. Since classes had begun that past April, neither of them had gotten to see each other nearly so much as they had back in Iwatobi. Haruka supposed that was to be expected—his swim practices soaked up most of his time outside of classes, after all. Makoto's evenings always seemed to be laden with piles of homework, from the sound of it. Add to the equation that their universities were on opposite ends of Tokyo, and the end result was that the two of them were lucky if they snagged a chance to meet up once a week. They texted back and forth, which helped bridge the gap somewhat. Haruka had even begun to carry his phone on him more often than not, tired of coming home to find a slew of missed texts from Makoto.

This restricted schedule left Haruka feeling empty, though he tried not to dwell on it too heavily. He was happy that his best friend was pursuing a career that so obviously made him happy. And unlike his original fears, Haruka now understood that Makoto had no intention of leaving him behind. The feeling was mutual.

The thought stopped Haruka short, and he frowned out the window.

Was it mutual? Haruka knew where his feelings, at least, lay. Yet again he was forced to consider that Makoto's feelings were different than his own. As the speakers announced the approaching stop at the university, Haruka forced the thought from his mind. He would not worry about this. Not tonight.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I hope you're enjoying it so far :3 I should have the next chapter up relatively soon—possibly tomorrow, since it's a Sunday. Please read and review!

That said, things are kind of crazy in my life right now. And on top of that I'm planning on doing Camp Nano for an original story of mind in April, which is all of—y'know—two days away at this point. So starting THIS fic on top of all of that seems like a pretty stupid idea. But I've had the story plotted out for a few days now, and I really, really love the idea. And since it's the weekend, and since I really want to write it, and since I've got the time now, I just decided, "Aw screw it. Why not?"

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can't promise a very regular schedule. I'll do my best, particularly since I'm so excited about this story in the first place. And I do already have the entire plot mapped out, so I shouldn't have to worry about hitting too many barriers in the writer's block department. But there's a lot of stuff in life that's going to have to come first. I just wanted to give fair warning.

Anyway, I started watching Free! last weekend and fell head over heels in love. I wound up watching 19 of the 26 episodes in one straight marathon, starting Saturday night and ending at 6am Sunday morning. I've been obsessing over it all week. I became an instantaneous MakoHaru fan. Not that I have any problems with any of the other ships—I'm pretty much all for all of them. But MakoHaru is definitely my OTP.

This story turned out WAY DIFFERENT when I plotted it out than I was originally intending. I meant for it to be a short fic about how Mako is too patient, and Haru using that against him. And instead it turned into something much more than that. If everything goes according to plan, this should be a 14 chapter fic, possibly 15. But we'll have to see, I guess.

I'm going the fictional route for their schools and where they're located in Tokyo. Part of me is screaming that I should just do some quick research and make it accurate, but the rest of me doesn't care enough to bother. Besides, it's easier just to make up my own fictional schools and conveniently place them where I will. Not sure if most people pay attention to those kinds of details, but this choice weighed on my mind a bit.

If you're curious, you should totally check out PHOX's "Noble Heart." That song came on randomly while I was beginning to write this chapter (it's one of my favorites), and it just resonated so perfectly with the feel I was going for in this story. It's quiet, and heart achingly beautiful, and bittersweet, and I love it. So naturally I put it on repeat for the entire rest of the chapter. lol

If you're still reading at this point, thanks for putting up with my rambling. I'll try to restrain my after-chapter rants, but I seriously can't make any guarantees.

Feel free to check out me out on Tumblr. My url is Konekat. (My blog has become completely overrun with Free! spam in the past week, although it's also filled with tons of my favorite BL/yaoi manga/anime as well—definitely nsfw, so be warned.)