One little brown dot.

That was the first thing Haru noticed as he slipped into the bath that morning. He didn't often give himself body checks; they didn't matter to him. But today just happened to be a day that the raven haired boy did check. However, he hadn't thought about it too much, since it seemed natural enough. But when he got right down to it, it did slightly bother him. The reason why it bothered him was for one reason only: he had no idea what this was. This could be another little one of those brown moles, which was rare for him to get anyway.

Or it could be Melanoma.

But he'd never tell that to his friends. Just the thought of doing that made him cringe. He decided his top priority was to figure out a way to cover it up. After all, it was in between his chest and shoulder, for the whole swim team to see. Actually, to be perfectly honest, he didn't really care about Nagisa or Rei seeing his imperfection. He knew that he could put their worries at ease with his stoic expression and a confident answer of "I'm fine, don't worry."

No, the person who he was worried about most was Tachibana Makoto.

Makoto always seemed to know if there was something wrong with Haru. He was like Haru's translator, which Haru was okay with on normal occassions. However, this time there'd be no way Makoto wouldn't know about something being up with his friend. And who knows what kind of questions he'd ask. He sighed as he sunk lower in the water.

I think I may be getting worked up over nothing. I'm pretty sure it's not cancerous anyway. Haru thought as he stretched out. Yeah, that was it. As long as he was in water, he'd be fine. He'd let his thoughts splash around, like the ocean. For awhile, he thought that this way of thinking was perfectly fine. That was until a new thought bubbled up into his brain.

Makoto's coming over soon, he thought as he sunk even lower, nearly submerging his nose. I guess I have to get out on my own for now until I can figure this out.

When Tachibana Makoto came over to Haru's house that morning, he certainly didn't expect Haru to already out of the tub and dressed. Said man was now grilling mackerel, as he did every day. Makoto didn't understand the sudden change. But he smiled his warm smile nonetheless.

"Good morning, Haru-chan. I see you got out of the water on your own today." Haru only looked away from his dish for a few seconds, before turning back and responding.

"Drop the -chan." Makoto only laughed at the usual Haru-like response. However, what he didn't know was that in that moment, Haru had wanted to say a million more things than just "drop the -chan." But since Makoto wasn't looking directly into his eyes, he couldn't tell. He couldn't tell that for the first time in a long time, Haru was feeling truly unnerved. Almost way more unnerved than he had about Rin and where their friendship stood. Yes, his unease was caused by that little brown dot he saw that morning. He had wanted to tell Makoto about it so badly. But he couldn't possibly make his best friend worry.

It's fine. I'll just get it checked out in a week. Nobody will have anything to worry about.

"Haru-chan! Mako-chan!" Nagisa called out to the two boys at school. Makoto greeted them with a soft "good morning" while Haru simply restated the same thing he'd told to Makoto that morning.

"Haru-chan, why don't you like being called Haru-chan?" Nagisa had inquired.

"Because I'm not a little kid."

"So? Haru-chan, that's a bad reason!"

"I think it's pretty good." Nagisa only laughed at this while Rei criticized his use of 'Haru-chan.' Makoto only politely reminded them that it was almost time to get to class. Looking around, Haru realized how lucky he was to have good friends surrounding him at all times, despite the fact that they could be annoying. He smiled a small smile in spite of himself. He sure was going to miss these times with his friends...

Hold up a second.

Haru froze as he realized what terrible thought had just snaked his way into his brain. No. There was no way he'd miss these times. Because he'd still be alive to create more memories. He was sure of it.

But you can only be in denial for so long before you start to think irrational thoughts.


By the way, before I get too far into this, I seriously recommend you listen to Shiokaze no friendship while reading this fic (or any MakoHaru fic). It's one of Makoto's character songs and it's sooo adorable. You'll get what I mean when you look at the lyrics ;) Anyway, just a suggestion to everyone!