Hello again! So thank you for waiting patiently. Here is Chapter 3!
Disclaimer: Once again I do not own Free! Iwatobi swim club. I own my OCs nothing more.
Chapter 3: Catching up, making friends, and starting school again.
The group of seven left the cafe a little while after with the first year trio introducing themselves and wanting to get to know the two girls their senpais had known as children. Nagisa kept asking questions left and right and the two sisters tried to answer the best that they could with Nagisa speaking a mile a minute.
"What do you both like to do? Oh wait! Do you both like to swim? We're on the swim team so-" He was cut off by Rei putting a hand over his mouth and hushing him.
"Nagisa-kun you can ask questions but slow down! Izaya-senpai and Mizuno-san can barely understand what you're saying." He said to the shorter blonde. Mentally Izaya was thanking him for that. She could barely make out what Nagisa had been saying.
"Oh fine Rei-chan!" Nagisa pouted but asked again this time slower. The sisters were able to answer this time.
"Well I like art alot and nee-chan is into music." Mizuo said answering Nagisa's first question.
"Second of all we do like to swim." Izaya then turned to Haru and Makoto. "I didn't know the high school had a swim team." she said.
"We just started at the beginning of the year actually." Makoto explained. Then he went on to explain how they got it started and Izaya began to crack up when he told them about the time they were trying to get new members to join with Gou's campaign. Mizuno was holding in her own snickers as Rei looked beyond embarrassed, Haru looked away for a moment with a frown on his face and Makoto just blushed.
"Hey! It would've worked! They just don't have an appreciation for your muscles..." Gou muttered in protest. "But Izaya-senpai, Mizuno-chan, did you both have a swim club in your old school?" she asked them. The two could be potential new members for their club and could fill in the girls' competitions. Plus they were both very nice so Gou didn't mind if they would be around.
Mizuno shook her head while Izaya muttered 'Nope'. "The school didn't have a pool. Nee-chan and I like to swim a lot but that usually consisted of us going to the public pool once in a while."
"Then it would either get too cold to swim or the pool would get crowded in the summer." Izaya muttered huffing. "At least now we can go to the beach more often."
"You should come by practice on Monday then! Then you could be new members!" Nagisa said cheerfully.
"Maybe we will." Mizuno said chuckling at Nagisa's childish behavior. Throughout those past hours Mizuno and Izaya found that Nagisa really loved sweets, Rei had a strange but funny sense of beauty that left Izaya trying to hold her snickers back with Mizuno scolding her about laughing, and Gou had a muscle obsession. It became a little crazy when they had to run after Haru though, to keep him from going into a fish tank.
Time flew by and Izaya checked her phone again. "Mizuno we have to go. It's 6:30 and kaa-san wanted us home by 7."
Nagisa pouted. "Awww...You can't stay a little longer? I wanted to ask you something about Mako-chan and Haru-chan."
"Drop the -chan." Haru grumbled and didn't show it but Makoto could see disappointment in his eyes that Mizuno and Izaya were leaving.
"Do you want one of us to go with you?" Makoto asked. "You just came back so the neighborhood is probably unfamiliar."
"Nah, we know the way back. Thanks for asking though Mako-chan." Izaya assured him and walked over only to give him a hug. Makoto stiffened at the contact for a second but then smiled warmly at the dual colored head against his chest and wrapped his arms around the smaller body.
"I'm glad you didn't move out. I missed you." He heard her mumble into his chest and he felt his cheeks warm up.
"I wanna hug Mako-chan too nee-chan!" Mizuno said and squeezed her way into the hug as Izaya let go. Makoto chuckled and then smiled even more as Mizuno made her way to Haru and hugged him as well.
"I'm not leaving Haru-chan out." she said. Haru just went stiff. Izaya began to chuckle again and went to get her sister off of the stotic boy.
"Mizuno you might want to get off. Haru looks like a statue." She laughed even harder as Haru gave her a look that said 'shut up'.
"Hey I wanna hug too!" Nagisa yelled tackling the two sisters who just laughed giving him one each. Gou went in for a hug too while Rei just said something about not wanting to mess up the beautiful moment.
"Well it was nice to meet you!"
"See you guys in school on Monday!"
The rest of the group watched as the two left. Then Gou asked Nagisa a question.
"Nagisa what was it that you wanted to ask them?"
Nagisa smiled impishly. "Well remember when Mako-chan's okaa-san said that they came back all red after Izzy-chan and Mizu-chan left? I wanted to know what they did to get like that."
"Izzy-chan?" Gou inquired
"It's my nickname for Izaya." Nagisa explained
"Nagisa don't give nicknames to people without their permission. Makoto-senpai Haru-senpai? Are you both ok? You look like you just saw a ghost." Rei said and the other two looked at their senpais. Makoto hid his face in his hand and Haru was just looking away.
"Are you both ok?" Gou asked concerned. However the concern soon turned to confusion as Makoto put his hand down revealing a cherry red face.
"Wah! Mako-chan your face looks like you could cook something on it! Wait does it have to do with what I said? What did they do!? Telllll meeeeee!" Nagisa wheeled wanting to know.
Makoto began to stutter as he spoke. "N-nothing Nagisa." But Nagisa had none of that and kept pestering them. "N-nagisa! Please stop asking me that! Haru help please!" Makoto begged his friend.
Haru turned back and Nagisa was flabbergasted. "Haru-chan are you turning pink!?"
Rei finally stopped Nagisa when he pointed out that they needed to get going as well. Each of them went their way on the train. Makoto began to talk to fill the silence on the way home with Haru putting something in occassionally. Makoto then brought up Nagisa's question.
"It's a good thing that Rei stopped Nagisa from asking us. I don't think I would've been able to look at Izaya-chan in the face again." Makoto said feeling himself turn red again at the thought of the time Izaya kissed him.
"She kept it." Haru muttered.
Makoto looked at him confused until he realized he was talking about the key chain he'd given Mizuno before she had left.
"Yea she did Haru-chan. I don't think she would've had the heart to throw it out either. You know she would never throw out a gift someone gave her." Makoto said smiling warmly at his friend reminding him of Mizuno's habit of keeping whatever present she got.
Haru just huffed. "Drop the -chan. Izaya probably kept the daisy." He said and watched as Makoto's cheeks kept turning red.
"I don't know about that. The flower would have died that day anyway. I practically strangled it when I picked it. Izaya probably threw it out." They were at the steps that separated their houses when they heard yelling.
"JAZZ WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU GOING!?"
A cat began to strut down the steps and Makoto being a cat lover, bent down wanting to pet it.
"Well hello there. I don't think I've ever seen you here before." he said picking it up in his arms and looking at it. It was at least a third bigger than a kitten and it's coat was a grayish blue. It's eyes though were crystal blue and looked at him calmly. It's purrs sounded like loud rumbling as Makoto kept rubbing the top of it's head.
"Makoto? Haru?" They heard a voice come from the top of the stairs. The two looked surprised to find Izaya at the top of the steps looking down at them with equal surprise.
"What are you guys- JASPER! There you are!" she said coming and as soon as she called the name out the grey-blue cat jumped out of Makoto's arms and walked up to her climbing her hoodie and resting on her shoulder curling around her neck.
"Wait Izaya-chan what are you doing here? We thought you and Mizu-chan went home." Makoto asked the dual haired girl confused.
"We did. My cat got out and started running for the stairs though and-" she cut herself off. "Wait where's your house?" she asked carefully.
Makoto was confused. My house is over here and Haru-chan's house is up the stairs. Why?"
Izaya put a hand to her face. "Are either of your houses connected to another yard in the back?"
"Mine is but why are you- wait..." Makoto looked at her with eyebrows raised.
"I live in the house behind your's Mako. Mom told me and Mizuno that our yards are separated in the back when we got home. I wasn't really paying attention though because this one got out" Izaya said laughing a little and pointing at the cat.
Makoto chuckled too and looked at the cat wrapping itself around her shoulders. "So what's your cat's name?"
"His name's Jasper and he's a Russian Blue but I usually call him Jazz for short. Thanks for getting him by the way. I don't know why he ran." She stroked the cat's fur and he purred loudly.
Haru walked up the stairs to his house and Makoto said he would walk Izaya to her house. The girl told him she would be fine but Makoto won the argument seeing as they were going to walk the same way anyway.
"So...You guys said you're on the swim team. What type of style do you swim?" Izaya said breaking the silence.
"I swim backstroke and Haru only swims freestyle." He said "Nagisa swims the breaststroke and Rei can only do butterfly. Every other stroke he can't do without sinking."
Izaya raised an eyebrow. "It sounds like Rei can't swim all that well from what you're telling me."
Makoto laughed "Well when Rei first joined he couldn't swim at all. He was originally on the track team"
"Why did he join then?"
"Nagisa talked him into joining. He said he was like us. A boy with a girly name. After we found that he couldn't swim we tried to teach him our swimming styles but it didn't work. He kept coming with all these theories about why he was swimming so poorly too. One of them was his swimsuit. Or well it was actually one of Nagisa's penguin speedos."
Izaya stopped for a minute and them just burst into full blown laughter waving her fists in the air to keep herself balanced. The laughter was so sudden that it had startled both Makoto and Jasper. Jasper just looked at his owner like she was crazy and got off his perch whereas Makoto waited patiently for her to stop.
It took about five minutes for the girl to calm down. "A-a penguin s-speedo?" she asked in between breaths. "Oh my God...did he get a new swimsuit then?"
Makoto smiled a bit embarrassed. "Nagisa and I took him swimsuit shopping but it took a bit because...well let's just say that Rei's sense of beauty is a bit strange. We all wound up trying on different swimsuits and Rei somehow got his hands on a butterfly suit. It was a pretty weird day." He rubbed the back of his head.
Izaya just kept smiling. "Okay I think I'd pay to see a picture of that." she said and too soon (To both of them) they reached Makoto's house.
"Do you want me to keep walking you to your house?" he asked seeing her home in back of his. Izaya shook her head saying she just needed to head to the other stair case down the block.
The two said their farewells and Makoto headed in where he was greeted by two childish voices. "ONII-CHAN!" Ren and Ran ran into him and hugged him.
Ran pouted at him. "How come you didn't come home? We wanted to play with you and Haru nii-chan!" Ren echoed his sister's thoughts "Yeah why didn't you come home with Haru-nii!"
"Ren, Ran calm down and help set the table for dinner." The childrens' mother called from the kitchen. The twins pouted but did as they were told. Makoto walked into the kitchen seeing his mother put the finishing touches on dinner.
Makoto helped bring the food in and greeted his father and they all sat down to eat.
"Makoto how was practice today?" His mother asked.
"Practice went very well today actually. Rei improved his swimming a bit and I did too. We had trouble getting Haru-chan out of the pool though." He said in between bites of food.
"Onii-chan we saw a pretty cat today!" Ran piped up.
"Yeah we wanted to play with it but the lady behind the house said that he might scratch us." Ren pouted at not being able to play with the blue cat from this morning. The woman told them she needed to bring the cat back.
"A cat?" Their father Ryuusuke asked. "Did it get into the house?" He wanted to make sure he wasn't going to wind up sneezing.
"It was Yumiko Sakurakoji Ryuusuke. Remember? The one with the two girls Makoto and Haruka used to play with? They moved back and they live in the house behind ours. Her cat got into the yard and she brought him in but don't worry he only stayed on her lap so there's no cat hair in the house."
"Good." He sighed with relief. Then he spoke up again. "So how are they?"
"Yumiko said she and Hiroto are doing well. Oh Makoto." She said gaining the attention of her eldest child. "Did you by any chance run into Izaya and Mizuno? Their mother said they were heading down to the shopping center."
Makoto nodded smiling. "The whole team did actually. Not the way I would've wished though." He looked at his food a bit nervous.
"Did Haru try to jump in water again?" The parents knew it was going to be a yes anyway and they smiled chuckling. Haru's water obsession could be a handful but at the same time it was funny as well.
Makoto slumped. "Yes. Mizuno and Izaya caught him stripping and they screamed. Then Haru recognized Mizuno and the other girl turned out to be Izaya. The upside is we got to talk alot and Rei, Nagisa, and Gou got to meet them. Nagisa invited them to our swim practice on Monday after school and to see if they want to join." he finished. It would be really nice if they joined though. He thought.
"Well it certainly seems like you all had a good time." Their dad said cheerfully as Ren and Ran began to pester their brother about the sisters.
"Does that mean onii-chan's gonna marry one of them?" Ren asked. Oh childish curiosity how troublesome you can be.
"No! I'm gonna marry onii-chan!" Ran yelled grabbing her older brother's arm and hugging it tightly.
"You mean I'm gonna marry onii-chan!" Ren yelled back grabbing the other arm.
"Ren, Ran! No one is going to marry me! Kaa-san Tou-san please say something!" Makoto cried out pleading with his parents.
They only laughed at the spectacle in front of them. "I don't know sweetie." His mother began.
"The twins don't look like they want to give their big brother away any time soon." He father finished the thought and chuckling louder as the twins kept fighting over who would marry their brother.
After that was said and done and the twins were put to bed Makoto lay down in his bed thinking about how Monday would be. May as well sleep on it.
Haru was lying in the tub for his nightly soak before bed. His thoughts normally filled with water and swimming were also drifting to thoughts about water blue hair. He was brought out of his thoughts by a buzzing on his phone. Normally Haru didn't even bother with the device but looked at it this time and saw a message from Makoto.
Makoto: Haru-chan don't fall asleep in the tub again please. : /
Drop the -chan and go to bed. He texted back and went back to focusing on water and began to drift off. Once again Makoto would find Haru in the tub when he went to pick the dolphin up on the way to school.
*Monday*
"Nee-chan wake up." A voice along with someone shaking her woke Izaya up. Blinking the sleep away her vision became clearer and revealed Mizuno awake and still in her pjs which consisted of a light blue button up night shirt and matching pants.
"C'mon it's time to get up we have school remember?" she said and she left the room to get her uniform on. Izaya sat up and yawned. She noted that she forgot to set her alarm seeing the time on her clock and was glad that she took the time to shower and braid her hair last night. School didn't start for another hour and a half but they needed to get there early to look around and make sure that they wouldn't get lost. She got up grabbing her hair brush off her night stand and pulled her hair out of the braid allowing the chestnut and blonde strands to fall straight and she put it in a low ponytail. One thing she liked about her hair was that it stayed straight now matter what she put it in. That was also a reason to get annoyed with it too though. Izaya had bristly hair and it would go back to it's straight state no matter what she did with it. If the strands were cut rather short they would stick up too. Izaya looked at the spiky and long strands of blonde that made up her bangs and just went to get her uniform on.
The girls' uniform consisted of a brown skirt, a short sleeved white blouse, a black blazer, and a green ribbon around the neck signifying that she was a second year. Feeling a little rebellious Izaya grabbed her favorite pair of combat boots that had three buckles on the sides and a red plaid design on the inside. She grabbed her green messenger bag as well and headed downstairs to get something to eat. Mizuno had already beaten her downstairs and was at the table munching on some rice and grilled fish their father had made. Her uniform was the same save for the red ribbon around her neck signifying that she was a first year.
"Morning Tou-san" she greeted her dad. "Where's Kaa-san?" She asked seeing no signs of their mother.
"She had to go to a meeting at her firm this morning and said she'll be back by four. In the meantime eat up okay? Just because the school isn't far doesn't mean that you can stay around until the last minute." He said smiling and kissing both their heads before sitting and eating with them.
"Nee-chan can you help me with my hair really quick?" Mizuno asked her sister.
Izaya nodded and grabbed the ponytail holder on the table making quick work of her sister's signature water braid.
"Ok ready to go?" Izaya asked and Mizuno nodded. The older girl noticed that her sister was wearing her favorite light purple chuck taylors with blue stripes on the inside. Her sister nodded handing her a bento and grabbing her own light purple backpack and they headed out the door to their school.
It wasn't long before they saw Makoto's house and saw said boy heading up the stairs to where Haru's house was.
"Morning Mako-chan!"
"Hi Mako!"
Makoto turned around and waved at the two girls at the bottom of the steps. "Morning!"
"Where are you going? School's this way!" Mizuno said confused.
"I'm getting Haru first. We walk to school together. Do you want to walk with us? I just need to make sure he's awake first." The girls looked at the time on their phones. They still had more than enough time to get to school.
As they made their way toward Haru's front door Makoto stopped them. "Um...Before we go in just let me give you a warning. Haru has a really bad habit of falling asleep in the tub sometimes and I don't know if he's...you know...indecent." he finished blushing at the two girls.
Mizuno blushed while Izaya deadpanned. "Let's just get him so we're not late." Izaya muttered as they walked in. Haru had the basics in his house but the two girls were stopped by the shrine in the living room and remained silent as they both sat in front of the picture of Haru's grandmother. The two looked at each other first and then both began to pray silently for the peace of the woman they had affectionately called 'Baa-chan' during their childhood. Makoto soon came back with Haruka fully dressed and the boys found the girls just finishing and getting up.
Izaya saw them and smiled. "Morning Haru. Why are you so grumpy looking?" She muttered as she noticed that he looked more stotic than usual.
Haru just turned away and walked to the kitchen. The sound of fish grilling soon reached their ears.
Makoto just smiled exasperated. "I found Haru sleeping in the bath again and he was wearing his jammers too. He's just going to eat his mackerel first and then we'll head out.
Izaya looked at the time again. "Actually Mizuno and I need to head out now. We have to get our schedules with our classrooms. We'll see you at school though. Bye Haru!" She hollered to the kitchen.
"Bye Haru-chan!" Mizuno called out as well. Makoto walked over to the kitchen seeing Haru put the fish on his plate and both of them sat down.
"You know I'm happy that the two of them are back. Things will probably get more interesting now don't you think?" Makoto babbled.
Haru looked up at toward his grandmother's shrine as he ate. Makoto looked that way too and smiled softly.
"They were sad too. They gave their respects to baa-chan. I think mostly because they never got a chance to say goodbye. They liked her a lot too remember?"
"Makoto." Haru said and said boy looked at his best friend. Haru never showed much emotion but his best friend could read him like a book. I'm glad they did.
"Yea me too. Are you finished?" Makoto asked referring to Haru's now empty plate. Haru nodded packing the other mackerel he made into his bento and a few other dishes and the boys headed on their way to school as well.
"Hey why do you let Mizuno-chan call you 'Haru-chan' and you tell the rest of us not too?" Makoto inquired curiously.
Haru didn't say anything but began to walk faster. "Wait Haru! Wait for me!" Makoto called after him."
A/N: Well this turned out longer than I expected. Anyway I'm glad I finally got through with this chapter. Wonder how the practice will go after school. Any who stayed tuned readers!
Ja'ne-Kitsune to Tenshi-chan
