AN: Real quick: the slang and things in this story are going to be American mainly because I'm American, sorry, but we do have honorifics and obviously it's in Japan so Japanese traditions and things are a must.
Don't really want the notes to be hella long so please just remember to tell me what you think with a review it's really really helpful I promise 3 Makes me wanna write so much. This fic is completely un-beta'd so tell me if ya see any mistakes.
Follow me on tumblr: oswwinoswald and if you wanna do fanart or reviews or anything you can tag it: 'fic: alienation', 'oswwinoswald', or 'oswwinoswald fic' Thank you very much! Please enjoy 3 This fic is also on Ao3 if you'd rather read it there just thought I'd post it here as well. All the name information same username same title so go see.
Chapter 2 – A Sight You've Never Seen Before
Haru's face was calm, as he placed the phone back in my hand, Gou was yelling something I had no intention of responding to, without a word I lifted the phone to my ear and managed to mumble, "Let me call you back." Before ending the call hastily.
A smile, something that was rare to say the least for Haru, spread across his thin lips making my heart flutter, "Is it really you?"
His eyes were so blue and hopeful it actually fucking hurt me to look into them, I sucked in a deep breath, sincerely hoping he didn't notice and played it off like it was no big deal, "In the flesh." I said with a faux grin.
When he didn't answer right away I decided to speak, "The Olympics huh? I thought competing wasn't your thing?"
"It wasn't." he said simply, "Makoto forced me onto the swim team and an Olympic scout took it from there…I still don't like it…but he said I could swim free and there were pools and…" after the mention of swimming free his eyes went alight, he glanced up at me and blushed slightly, before shaking his head, "You must be happy, the Olympics is all you ever wanted."
I laughed, slightly happy that he remembered my lifelong dream, "Yeah it's pretty unreal I guess, who'd have thought we'd end up in the same dorm…of all the places, I mean wow."
"Yeah. We sort of just stopped talking after you went to Australia."
"…Yeah…"
"Why is that?"
I suppressed the urge to come clean, I looked at him, in all his heterosexual glory, and felt a jab of pain in my heart, "I was really busy with practice and everything got all changed around so many times I just…" Please don't hate me for this, "I forgot." I bit my lip and waited for his reply. The false words burning my tongue like acid.
He just shrugged like that answer was enough to satisfy him, "Wanna help me cook up that mackerel." I had to admit I was a bit dumb struck by the response. It'd been what five? No, six years since we'd talked. I'd left without so much as a phone call the entire time and instead of being angry or asking more than one fucking question he was asking me to help him cook mackerel? I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry about his utter indifference to my antics.
Regardless I felt a laugh rising to my lips, Same old Haru, I thought before answering, "It's Nitori's actually."
"Then do you wanna go get some mackerel?"
His interest in mackerel over everything else was hilarious to say the least, I suppressed another laugh, "Where?"
"I think there's a sushi bar somewhere on campus. Sushi bars have mackerel."
"Is mackerel all you care about?"
"Yes." He was dead serious.
"Okay then, uh let me make a call real quick, is it okay if my sister comes?"
Haru shrugged, "I was going to invite Makoto anyway."
"Okay." I said looking down at my phone, "One second." I dialed Gou's number.
"What was that about?!" She demanded upon answering.
"I'll tell you over dinner, change of plans we're having sushi."
"Sushi? Where?" she sounded even more confused than regular.
"There's a sushi place here apparently."
"Uh, okay, when?"
I glanced out of my room into the living area where Haru was talking to a tall boy with dirty blond hair that had to have been the aforementioned Makoto, Haru looked in my direction raising an eyebrow, the blond boy followed his gaze to me and smiled kindly beckoning me to join them with a friendly wave, they looked ready to go. "Is now okay?"
"Sure? Are gonna explain this to me or?"
"You'll see." I assured her ending the call.
I walked out into the room to join the others, Makoto clamped a hand on my shoulder and smiled, "You're an old friend of Haru's right? Nice to meet you I'm Makoto." His voice was soft spoken and kind, the sort of voice you could fall asleep to or in love with, not that I had any plans to but, I let myself look him over again, but you totally could and without much trouble.
"Rin," I said taking his outstretched hand, "Sup." It wasn't a question it was a statement, I was acknowledging his introduction not actually showing interest in what he was doing.
Haru looked at both of them and then at the door, his way of saying it was time to go.
"Has he always been a man of so few words?" Makoto asked with a soft smile.
"Yeah," I looked at Haru, thinking back to a past I hadn't thought of in a long time, "he has."
"That's good." He chuckled softly beside me as we followed Haru out of the building, "I was beginning to think someone had broken his heart."
"No." But he broke mine. I quickly reminded myself he hadn't in fact "broken my heart" no I'd done that to myself, but it was a hell of a lot easier to blame him.
Haru turned around then, "I can hear you, you know?"
Makoto smiled, "I know."
"Then why do you keep doing it?"
"I wanna get to know your friend."
"Then why don't you try asking him about himself?"
Makoto laughed, "Good idea, so Rin, you were in a swimming club with Haru as kids right?"
"Yep, back in elementary school. We were eleven."
"I'd love to see pictures of that! Baby Haru," he seemed to think for a moment, "how cute would that be?"
Jealousy, once again, was being a fucking bitch, but I just laughed, "When did you two meet?"
"Eighth grade. A few years after you left." Haru answered for him which surprised me.
Matoko smiled at him and pointed up ahead, "There it is!" Matoko said announcing our arrival at our destination. I looked around the modern style building, spotting Gou's vibrant red ponytail even at a distance, I waved at her as she jogged towards us, a bright smile bringing her face to life, though as she noticed who accompanied me her expression switched from the comforting sisterly smile to something bubblier and a little creepy that she often referred to as fangirling.
She came to a stop before us her eyes wide and her mouth fell slightly agape, before she remembered to close it, "Uh…hi!" she stumbled over the simple words.
"Gou," I said with an amused smile, "you're drooling."
That earned me a slap on the arm and a quick 'shut up' before she actually decided to introduce herself, "Hi! I'm Kou," she used the name she preferred which made me laugh because no one would ever actually call her that, "Rin's sister."
Matoko smiled, "It's nice to meet you Kou."
Haru looked at her momentarily, "I thought your name was Gou?"
"Uh…I'm well…I mean…what?" the confusing was obvious across her soft features so I stepped in to explain.
"That is her name," I said with a smirk, "and Gou come on, tell me you remember Haru?"
"Haru? You mean Haruka? As in Nanase?"
"No Haruka as in Sailor Uranus, yes Nanase." The sentence was thickly coated in sarcasm.
"Oh my god!" Suddenly her arms were around his neck, "Haru! It's been ages!"
The green fucking monster reared its ugly head, clearly it wasn't okay for anyone to touch, look at, or say anything about Haru, okay dully noted.
Haru stood very still as if he'd been confronted by some wild animal, "Hello Gou." He said calmly.
"You're in the same dorm? Wow! How did that even happen? Must be fate!" she said as she pulled away from Haru.
Fate or gods way of shitting on my life.
"This is so exciting!" Gou continued, "You two will get to swim together again!"
Haru's face visibly lit up, though I couldn't tell whether it was swimming with me or just swimming that had done it.
"I'm sure that'll be nice." Matoko interjected with a kind smile, that made me wanna punch him in the way where someone is so nice and perfect and has everything you want that you don't know whether you hate them or love them.
"Yes," Haru said looking at me his face holding one of those barely there Haru smiles, "I'm looking forward to it."
"We should go get a table," Gou said holding the door opened for us.
Makoto clearly wasn't going to allow that, like it was against his, mister-perfect-human morals or something and ended up taking the door from her.
…
Dinner was actually surprisingly comfortable, Gou talked the most, but Haru and I seemed to fall back into our old ways easily, we laughed at old memories, I cracked a few jokes that earned me small smiles and once even a stifled laugh, Haru talked as little as possible per the usual and ate as much mackerel as he could get his hands on. I decided I did in fact like Makoto despite the fact he was mister-perfect-human and clearly knew Haru just as well, possibly better, than I did.
I found out Makoto had an excellent back stroke, and that Haru only swam free, though that was barely news to anyone who'd known Haru longer than ten minutes. Makoto explained how he'd gotten Haru to join the team and also how he had a TV and Xbox he was planning to hook up in the living area if that was okay with everyone. Which it was. Like really really okay. We talked briefly about our other roommates, I mentioned Nitori was really nice, and how Rei and Nagisa were a thing.
"By a thing, you mean like…boyfriends?" Gou asked careful with her words.
"Uh…" I was suddenly aware her reaction was going to be something important to my future, "yeah."
"Oh. My. God." Gou said and then she squealed, "That is so cute! How adorable is that! I bet they've been training together and aww, they're going to the Olympics together, how romantic is that?"
I had trouble finding my words after that, luckily Matoko saved me, "Very, I think it's great, ya know Rei was a track guy back when they met? Nagisa actually taught him how to swim. He only swims butterfly, but apparently it's a pretty great butterfly. It's really sweet Rei changed his whole athletic career for Nagisa, he didn't have to, I mean would you?"
"Give up swimming for a relationship? Uh…" I wasn't sure. Maybe…if it was an important relationship…maybe if it was Haru.
"No." Haru said simply.
I glanced at him, slightly offended but then I remembered I had no reason to be, he wasn't my boyfriend. He wasn't supposed to say yes. He had no reason to consider my feelings on the subject. No obligation to conform to my beliefs. He was his own person with no personal strings tied to my life aside from our short and previously rekindled friendship that shouldn't have had any influence what so ever on an answer like that. I took a deep breath as Gou continued to fawn over Nagisa and Rei and demanded she meet them as soon as possible, Haru turned his attention back to his mackerel, and Makoto, who proved to be just as much of a fangirl as Gou, indulged in my sisters antics with wide grins and excited laughs.
It wasn't until thirty minutes later Gou announced that she had to get going because apparently all the coaches had a meeting at six-am tomorrow and Gou had to go as part of her internship. She hugged us all quickly, and kissed me on the cheek, before skipping out of the sushi bar. "Sorry about her." I said after a few seconds.
Makoto's eyes were glued to the door she'd just bounced out of, "Don't be," his eyes quickly switched to meet mine accompanied by a kind smile, "she's nice." He then pushed himself up from the table, "I think I'm gonna head back, you guys coming?"
I started to get up, but I felt Haru's hand tug me back down, I tried desperately to ignore my eradicating heart, as I managed a muffled, "What the?" I looked to Haru for answers, but he was looking at Matoko.
"We'll see you back at the dorm." Was all he said.
Makoto smiled fondly, and nodded, "See you later then, have fun." Makoto waved and headed outside the restaurant without another word.
I looked at Haru and raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Mind explaining?"
"I want to swim." He said as if it was the only explanation needed.
"Swim? Didn't you do that like, two hours ago?"
"No, I want to swim with you."
Deep breaths. I reminded myself mainly to keep my heart from exploding, "Me?"
"We used to swim together as kids, and besides the competitive swimmer training center is right next door."
1…2…3…1…2…3…breathe, "Is it even opened?"
"Twenty four hours for swimmers."
Breathe before you pass the hell out. "Uh…" I guess I took too long to answer because he spoke again.
"Come on Rin, swim with me and I'll show you a sight you've never seen before."
Oh fuck it breathing is too mainstream anyway heart attacks are the new sexy. He was actually fucking quoting me, that little pretentious shit, fuck him and his excellent memory. I felt like I was melting, what the fuck? Breathing was useless at this point I was pretty sure my heart was lodged somewhere in my neck and my lungs were shriveled into oblivion. After about six whole minutes and chugging half a glass of water I finally found my confidence again. I smirked flashing him my teeth and sideways glance, "I always have loved a challenge, I've seen a lot," I leaned closer, "good luck showing me that sight."
He let me hover near him for a moment before standing up, "Luck has nothing to do with it." He said calmly leading the way to the center. We had to scan our ID's at the door to gain access to the building, it was a huge building, the outer walls were white painted with the red silhouettes of swimmers in various positions. The pools were all on the second floor, each in a room covered by floor to ceiling windows to allow natural light in during the day, the water was kept illuminated by the pool lights, but other than that it seemed there was no artificial lighting, I didn't mind, the glow was bright enough where you could see and dim enough to be relaxing. There was no one else there, probably because it was the first day and even Olympic athletes needed their off days, I had to admit I was happy for that too, I wasn't exactly dressed for swimming, I was pondering this when I heard a zipper unzipping, which pulled me the hell out of my thoughts and threw me head first back into a reality in which Haruka Nanase was standing before me stripping his pants off. My breath caught in my throat as he shoved his pants down to reveal a fitted black bathing suit that I immediately recognized. Oh my fucking god why does he own twelve of those? I wanted to hit myself for being liking the idiot, but refrained from it, watching him pull his loose gray v-neck over his head and discard it on the ground, I officially no longer wanted to hit myself for liking him…he was perfect. Every single feature of his perfectly chiseled body was perfect. Fucking perfect. Was I being redundant? Yes, hella redundant, but I didn't give a shit. It needed to be said, no it needed to be shouted from roof tops, Haruka Nanase was perfect.
He stood beside the pool looking at me, "Are you gonna swim in that?" he asked.
I shrugged and tugged at the dark fabric of my shirt, "Well, I didn't exactly bring anything else…"
"It's not like I'm gonna judge you for swimming in your underwear or anything. Can't say I haven't done it." I scoffed. I don't doubt that statement for a second.
I shrugged and did as I was instructed, unbuttoning my black shirt and tossing it to the ground on top of his clothes, I kept my eyes on his the whole time, unzipping my pants and stepping out of them leaving me in just black boxers. I could feel a blush rising to my cheeks, but ignored it stepping onto the starting block in the lane next to his, I looked into his eyes red mixing with blue, "On your mark…"
He smirked, "Get set."
One final look at him, "Go."
We were in the water before I knew it, I felt it wash over my skin, soak into my hair, I moved in the direction on the opposite wall, my movements swift, precise, practiced. I was speeding through the water like it was where I belonged. I managed to sneak a peek at Haru once when I came up for air. He moved so beautifully, slicing through the water like a perfectly sharpened knife, with precision and accuracy I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to achieve. His body moved as naturally as mine did through water. We'd always pretended to be sea creatures as kids, him the dolphin, me the shark, but I never imagined I could feel closer to my animal doppelganger than I did in that moment. I wasn't Rin racing Haru, I was a shark, racing a dolphin. After the first lap my hand seemed to hit the other wall faster than it ever had before. I burst through the water gasping for air only to find Haru doing the same thing in the exact same time frame.
Once he caught his breath he looked at me, a smile spread across his face. "Did you see it?"
I thought for a moment, though I knew exactly what he meant, I panted, "Yeah…I saw it."
He allowed himself a short laugh and splashed water at me playfully.
"Oh you asshole." I said with a widening grin, splashing him back. And then suddenly we were kids again, splashing around in a pool without a care in the world. Laughter filled the once quiet pool room with joyous music.
We went back and fourth splashing each other each time laughing harder than the last until finally a security guard came in and asked us to quiet down, we apologized, snickering as soon as the door shut behind him, we dragged ourselves out of the pool and pulled on our clothes which were pretty much soaked from our splash war, we were half way back to the dorm, talking about nothing and everything all at once when Haru stopped and looked at me a crooked half smile on his face, "I'm really glad you're back Rin, I missed you."
My heart imploded, "I am too, Haru. Really, really glad."
Haru looked at me for a long second and then broke into a run, I rolled my eyes, laughed, and muttered, "Fucking Christ." Before chasing Haru all the way back to our dorm, a warm smile on my face the entire way there.
