Butter: Thanks for the feedback! I know that I probably didn't describe his apartment well enough, but when I say that he has his collection in any space available, I mean that in the most organized way you can imagine. He just has so much stuff that he's running out of space haha. Sorry about the Makoto thing, I didn't do much research before I started writing but thanks for the tip about his lack of cooking skills! And I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors, along with OOCness, but I don't have much experience writing fanfiction so this stuff is bound to pop up. Even my beta and I can't catch all the errors XD Hope this chapter is better, but I would love feedback on this one too! :)
And here is chapter 3! I hope everyone enjoys it, but I am a novice at this kind of writing so try to bear with my spelling, grammar, and characterization errors :/ But I would like to thank my amazing beta Amelie Nockturne once more, she really is great!
Title: Chasing Butterflies
Author: Me
Fandom: Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club
Rating: T (will later progress to M)
Pairing: Rin/Rei
Summary: Rin/Rei AU. Rei is a young man who obsessively collects butterflies. Rin is a postman who was recently assigned to Rei's neighborhood. What happens when these two meet for the first time? How will Rei's hoarding affect the relationship between them? Rating will eventually change to M.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, and neither is the fandom they are from! All characters belong to their respective owners, I'm just using them to fulfill a plot bunny of mine.
Rin was a little freaked out. He had arrived at the apartment where the package was supposed to be delivered, and the door and windows to the place were almost buried under stickers.
Butterfly stickers.
'Alright, that's weird, but I've seen weirder,' Rin thought to himself. 'So, this person really likes butterflies. Not a big deal.'
He proceeded to maintain his cool, even when he could clearly hear voices whispering in the apartment without someone coming to open the door. Fine, that's alright, he could wait patiently.
Turns out he didn't have to wait too long, though. Before he could really register what was happening, the door to the apartment opened and closed in a matter of seconds, and Rin was face to face with the owner of the residence.
He then made a few observations.
One, the person standing in front of him was a guy—or at least looked like one—meaning that this is a guy who likes butterflies a little too much. This point was further proved by his second observation, which was the fact that said guy was wearing a rather large butterfly broach on his cardigan.
However, the third observation was perhaps the most important one, the one that made Rin forget how to breathe for a little bit, the one that made a small blush dust his cheeks and neck.
This guy was extremely attractive.
He had dark blue hair that complimented his eyes, although the orbs had a tint of violet in them. They were framed by red square glasses, and as Rin let his eyes rove over the rest of the guy as he took a step back, he could tell that the man worked out too. 'Even better,' he thought to himself with an inward smirk. As much as he would love to look at this guy for the rest of the day, he came here for a reason, plus he didn't want to creep the guy out.
"Sorry. Are you"—he checked the name on the box—"Ryugazaki Rei?" he noted that the man's name was a little on the feminine side, just like his. Interesting.
It took Rei a little while to respond—Rin noticed he was staring intently at his teeth—but when he did, he said, "Ah y-yes, that's me," stammering a little bit as he slowly pushed up his glasses.
"Well, I have a package here for you, but I need your signature first." Rin pulled out the electronic mail pad from his utility belt and handed it to Rei.
As the blue-haired man signed the pad, he said, "You know, this package is awfully late. It was supposed to be here a week ago, and—actually, where is Maurice anyway?"
It only took a few seconds for Rin to feel annoyed with Rei, and it only happened the second time he opened his mouth. 'Great, just when I thought I would like this guy.'
"Maurice retired, and I'm his replacement. Your parcel's late because the guys from the inspection department don't know how to do—my bad for the language—their fucking job. It's not my problem since I only deliver, so if you want someone to go complain to then take it to the main postal office building twenty minutes from here. Otherwise, I can carry this package into your apartment."
Rei was speechless, saying nothing as the man with unbelievably sharp teeth picked the box of his new decals up from the ground and proceeded to open the door.
But Rei jumped in front of him, closing the door once more. He was proud of his butterfly collection, and there's no way he'd be embarrassed to show it to anyone, but...he knew that strangers usually misjudged the purpose of his figurines because they didn't understand.
The mailman was giving him a real confused look that soon turned into one of annoyance, so he quickly covered his bases by saying, "That's okay, I can handle the box. There are fragile items in there anyway, so I'd rather carry it myself." He hoped that lame explanation was enough to get the guy to back off.
Unfortunately, he was the persistent type. With an arched eyebrow, Rin said, "I've been delivering fragile packages for a while, so I think I can handle it. Besides, it's my job." He was starting to get a little frustrated with the guy now—all he wanted to do was drop off this heavy ass box and get on his way, but no, it couldn't be that simple. He tried to push his way through, but Rei stopped him again and this time he took the box right out of his hands.
'Damn, this box is heavier than I thought.' Rei was struggling, his muscles nearly screaming for him to get over how his apartment looked and let the deliveryman bring in the box for him but he couldn't give in, not when he was the one who started this whole thing. As long as his pride was at stake, he had to keep up the act until the guy left.
"S-see? I have the package, so you don't have to worry about it. You can—"he fixed his grip on the box—"you can leave now."
Rin could obviously tell the guy was struggling, but hey, it really wasn't his problem anymore. He checked his watch, and after seeing the time decided to let the guy do what he wanted with the box. "Alright, but I'm not responsible for any damage to the contents. Have a nice day," he said tersely, lightly jogging back to his truck and pulling out of the complex in no time.
When he couldn't see the mail truck anymore, Rei did his best to gently drop the box onto the ground, stretching his muscles and catching his breath. He didn't hear anything crack, so he hoped none of the decorations were broken. 'That was a close one,' he thought, satisfied with himself for preventing the man from seeing his apartment.
He opened his front door, sliding the heavy package towards the living room in front of his couch. Once he sat down in a chair, only a few moments passed before Nagisa pestered him with questions.
"Ooh was that a new mailman Rei-chan? How did he look? Was he cute, was he?" Rei chose not to acknowledge the shorter boy's questions as he thought of a safe way to answer them without arousing suspiscion.
Because saying, 'My new mailman is the most beautiful creature I've ever seen' would definitely cause a ruckus, from both him AND Makoto.
He decided to simply push up his glasses and reply, "He was alright I suppose. It was hard to look at his face when I was so distracted by his abnormally sharp teeth." Well, at least that was partially true.
"Sharp teeth? That is weird..." said Makoto, a little confused. "Did he mention anything about Maurice?"
"He said that he retired..." Rei answered, lamenting over his previous mailman. He was glad that his package wasn't lost, but he was missing Maurice already, especially now that the new guy seemed like he could go off at any second.
"I had no idea he was that old!" exclaimed Nagisa. He seemed sad for a moment, but quickly perked up as he cheerfully asked, "Does this mean that the hot delivery man will be visiting my apartment too?"
"Yeah, I guess he would since we are in the same neighborhood. And I never said he was hot!" Rei asserted.
"True, but you had such a look on your face when you came in that you might as well have," Makoto teased, smiling as Nagisa giggled.
Rei could only blush, thinking of anything to say that would redeem himself but coming up short. In the end, he settled for directing their attention to his computer, hoping that showing them new items that he ordered online would serve as a distraction.
After a few more hours, Makoto and Nagisa left Rei's apartment with promises to come visit again in the future. He was glad they had come over today, it was always refreshing to talk to them in person every once in a while. He was even in a fairly good mood because his decals had finally arrived, although he wasn't expecting the mailman that delivered them.
As he took each decoration of their containers, he thought back to the new guy who was supposedly replacing Maurice. 'I wonder what his name is,' he thought ruefully. Rei almost regretted that he didn't get the guy's name, but he realized he would have a chance to ask the next time he ordered something for his apartment.
Reading through the directions carefully, he applied adhesive solution to the backs of the decorations, and thought momentarily about where to place each one. However, his thoughts quickly traveled back to the sharp-toothed redhead from earlier today.
'He did look good in that uniform.' He blushed lightly, embarrassed that he could even think something like that. If Nagisa could read his mind, the younger boy would tease him for days.
Rei shook his head, attempting to focus on the task at hand. The new mailman wouldn't be going anywhere, and these new wall decorations were way more important. He stuck the first one on the wall, the others joining them as the minutes passed by.
"I don't think it was that weird. If you showed up to my doorstep I wouldn't want you let you in either."
"I'm being serious here! What kind of guy doesn't let the delivery guy do his job? It couldn't have just been my teeth."
"With all due respect, Matsuoka-senpai, your appearance is very...distracting."
"You guys are no help." Rin had gotten back to the building after dropping off the misplaced package, and the entire encounter had left him confused. Just the fact that the guy wouldn't let him in the apartment was enough to bother him for the rest of the day.
And, of course, confiding in Seijuurou and Nitori only served to make him slightly self-conscious about his teeth and red hair (yes, the drapes match the curtains).
"It's really not that big of a deal, though. Plenty of people I deliver to are antsy about people seeing their houses too, it's actually pretty common." Seijuurou couldn't quite understand why Rin would freak out over something so trivial.
"Yeah senpai, the captain is right! I'm sure there's nothing for you to worry about." Nitori didn't want Rin to get tripped up over this either.
"Wait, I'm the boss, so why do you only call him senpai?!"
"S-sorry captain! I just thought it would be more appropriate to call you that since you are the captain..."
"Will you two shut up?" Rin seemed annoyed by their playful banter, but in reality it put his mind at ease. He was probably worrying a little too much about Rei not letting him in his apartment...'and now I'm on a first-name basis with him. Great. Maybe it's because he has a girly name too?'
Rin's thoughts were interrupted however when Seijuurou called out to him, saying, "Oi, Matsuoka! Did you hear what I said?"
"Ahh, no. I actually think I'm gonna head out, Gou's probably been expecting me."
Seijuurou perked up at that. "Oh, your sister, who's still in college? Tell her I said hi," he said, smirking and blushing at the same time.
"I will do no such thing."
"Oh, come on!"
"Alright, I'm leaving now. See you later, Seijuurou, Nitori." Rin was quick to get out of there, he had a busy day after all and he didn't have the energy to deal with his boss' creepy crush on his sister. With a small salute to Nitori who was waving dutifully as he walked away, Rin hopped on his bike and rode away towards his loft in the city.
(⊃‿⊂) ⊂(⋂ヮ⋂)⊃ How was that? XD This chapter might be iffy since it's the first time Rin and Rei actually interact, but I hope it was decent, but it is only their first out of several meetings I have planned (0 3 0) the story may seem slow moving but I have a pretty good idea of where I want it to go, so stay tuned! Chapter 4 should be uploaded by sometime early next week. Until then ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)