Disclaimer: If I owned Free! do you know the amounts of official RinHaru artwork you'd be getting?


It was 2:56AM on the day after the joint-practice when Gou's mobile chimed loudly, indicating a text. Grumbling, she forced herself to pick it and squinted at the message, rubbing her eyes in disbelief.

"Woken up at this hour for gibberish?" Resisting the urge to throw her phone against the wall, she deleted the text and made to switch it off, but fell back into the depths of sleep before she could quite get to the off button.

When she woke again, there two more messages waiting for her.

sorry, I fell asleep with the phone in my hand

And:

it's Seijuuro


Gou's fingers flew over the keypad.

No not me, I don't swim competitively haha

She flopped backwards onto the bed, a big smile on her face. Exchanging numbers with Seijuuro had been a great idea, even if she mistyped his number at first and never expected his first text.

They had been texting more and more over the past two weeks, and as the holidays approached Gou would sometimes entertain the idea of Seijuuro asking her out, even though she knew it would never come to that (there was also the problem of Rin. She appreciated her brother's protectiveness, but at the same time wanted to shove him backward into a pool and snap "I can handle myself, thank you very much!")

The late afternoon sun streamed in her window, warming her skin. Almost feeling like a cat basking in its glow, Gou reached lazily for her phone when it buzzed again.

kind of contradictory lol, anyway do u know what's up with ur brother?

Onii-chan? Gou frowned in confusion, thinking. She had only seen Rin two or three times since the latest joint practise at Iwatobi's pool, but those moments had been brief at the most. Rin had been his usual self toward her—abrasive and blunt, attitudes that covered the sweeter older brother she knew she had.

When she saw him, though, she hadn't had any of the other guys around her, only Hana-chan—who giggled like a mad-woman when Rin looked her way. It's no use, Hana-chan, if Rin is who I think he is, she thought wryly.

Don't tell me something happened between him and Haruka-senpai again.

She clucked her tongue as she typed. They had just resolved their fight, which was based off one huge misunderstanding, apparently, but now they were straight back in it again? Seriously, Onii-chan?

The only time she really saw the Iwatobi swim team was after school during practices, but there was little room for conversation as Coach Sasabe was too busy yelling at them and messing around with his underwater camera equipment. Her main task during these practices was to time and record them. So far Nagisa's, Rei's and Makoto's times had been fairly steady but she (and Coach Sasabe) had noticed Haru's times beginning to falter and on one occasion he just stopped swimming in the middle of the pool and started to tread water, staring into the sky.

Her mobile trilled, making her jump. Wait, why is Seijuuro calling me? The butterflies in her stomach morphed into snakes. Chewing on her lip, she pressed the 'answer' button.

"Gou-kun!" boomed Seijuuro's voice, making her wince and tear the phone away from her ear.

"Why did you call?" she asked hesitantly.

There was a short pause. "I—uh, um, I don't…know?"

"Oh." Nervously, Gou tried to bring up a topic but her mind had gone totally blank. "Uhh…" What do I say, shitshitshit don't screw this up Gou, just say something!

"I-well-oh, screw it," growled Seijuuro. "I called so I could ask you out. If I do it over texting it isn't all that meaningful, is it? This was the next best thing."

"A-ask me out?" she stuttered.

"Yep."

Her mouth flapped open and closed, words getting stuck in her throat. "I—I—"

A laugh came humourlessly over the line. "It's a no, isn't it?"

"No! I mean, yes! I mean," she cut herself off and took a deep breath. "I would really like that, Seijuuro."

"Awesome, I—" a sharp ring drowned out his next words. Gou waiting for a moment, wondering what was going on.

"Ah, Gou-kun, I just got your text. Before I talk about it though, is next Friday at the cinemas confirmed? I can pick you up at six?"

She knew she was blushing up a storm. "That would be great. But stop calling me Gou-kun."

"Alright, Gou."

That's not what I meant, she started to say exasperatedly, but Seijuuro had already plowed ahead.

"I might as well tell you about your brother, then, I didn't really want to text this."

"So did they fight again?" she huffed.

"Not exactly, I think. I'm not sure what's up, but his performance has become pretty terrible lately. Think his hundred-metre-free-in-the-preliminaries terrible."

She winced. "Don't insult my brother's swimming!"

"Oh shit," Seijuuro mumbled. "Sorry, sorry. Anyway it's not only affecting his swimming, as the captain I have to say his attitude has become even worse. He's almost started fights with several of the team members and if this goes on, I'll be forced to kick him off the team."

"No!" Gou couldn't even begin to imagine Rin's reaction to that.

"That's not all. Just yesterday I overheard him in the change rooms. It sounded like he was trying to practice a conversation with Nanase. He said, and I quote, 'About that kiss.' "

"Oh my God," mumbled Gou. She had no idea things had moved along that fast. "That would give a good explanation to their behaviour."

"The way things are now, they can either confront each other about this 'kiss' or things are gonna go downhill."

"How are we going to get them alone together?" Gou mused. "Haruka-senpai's always got at least one of his friends around, and Onii-chan is incredibly stubborn. He'll be too proud to admit his feelings if he was called out on them."

"My cousins work at a hot springs resort. I can get a room for them, easy. It'll be up to you to convince Nanase and your brother."

"…I'll have to tell Makoto-senpai about it. Oh, and Rei-kun and Nagisa-kun. Onii-chan and Haruka-senpai will definitely suspect something's up unless everyone's in on it."

"If they can keep their mouths shut, it'll be fine."

"Just a question, Seijuuro, why do you care so much about my brother's love life?"

An awkward laugh came over the line. "I could say it's because I'm concerned for my team's benefit, which I actually am, but it's also because I don't want to risk the big-brother-fury when I take you out on a date. It'll be less violent if he's distracted, right?"

The butterflies, which had been temporarily forgotten, burst into tumbling flight again. Gou knew her face was turning eighty-four shades of red right then and there. "Uhh…"

"I have to go now, Gou."

"See you," she said quietly.

"I can't wait until next Friday."

The line went dead, leaving Gou paralysed between throwing herself in her bed in giddy excitement, or fainting in a heap on the floor.


Makoto looked sidewards at Haru, wondering what could be bothering his friend so much. Since the last joint practice, rather than his usual stoic expression, Haru had lately taken to stonily glaring at everything in sight, his eyes a cold blue fire.

The lunch bell rang, jerking him out of his wonderings. "Hey Haru, want to eat on the roof?" he asked, standing.

Haru nodded ever so slightly, with not a flicker of interest in his face.

"Mackerel bento," Makoto assured him when they were outside, handing him the box. When Haru didn't even look at him, his worry increased. "Haru-chan, what's—"

"Makoto-senpai!" Gou was running up the stairs, dragging along her brown-haired friend they had met at the Squid Festival. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" she added more softly, glancing very obviously at Haru, who rolled his eyes.

"I'll go to the roof by myself, Makoto," he assured tonelessly.

Before Makoto could react, his friend was already halfway down the hall. He turned back to Gou, his forehead creased. "Do you have any idea what's up with Haru-chan?"

"I think so." Gou bobbed her head enthusiastically.

"Lately he's been very cold, just when I thought he was opening up more because of the preliminaries. I'm suspecting something concerning Rin, but another fight? So soon?"

Gou leaned up to whisper in Makoto's ear. "We think Haruka-senpai and Onii-chan kissed."

"What?"

Gou relayed the information she said she had gotten from the Samezuka swim team's Captain. "Don't you think the explanation fits perfectly for their behaviour?" she finally finished. "The two idiots can't face each other."

Makoto nodded in agreement, the wheels in his mind going into overdrive. He had suspected before, but could it really be...?

"Should I be listening in on this conversation?" Gou's friend said, mostly to herself.

"I can trust you to keep your mouth shut about it, can't I?" Gou teased.

"Yeah, but, it doesn't really concern me…" she trailed off.

"It's alright—" Makoto began.

"Hana-chan," Gou told him.

"Don't tell him to use chan on my name!" the girl insisted, flushing. She bowed to Makoto politely. "My name is Chigusa Hanamura. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Chigusa-san. Any friend of Gou-chan's is a friend of mine."

Chigusa stared at him with wide eyes, and Makoto felt something twist in his stomach.

"Now that the formalities are out of the way!" Gou interrupted, clapping her hands. "It's time I told you about Operation Hot Springs!"


A/N: These chapters move slow don't they I'm so sorry.

Yaay for implied MakoChigusa!

As usual, please tell me if anyone is super OOC c:


Because I want to, I will show you my Free OTPs!

Haru x Rin

Rei x Nagisa

Gou x Seijuuro

Makoto x Chigusa (Because he and Haru are my BrOTP and I don't want him left out of the love)

Sasabe x Amakata

Aaand just so Nitori doesn't get left out (and because I can't stand the Rintori ship, don't ask me why):

OT3 of Rei x Nagisa x Nitori! (Headcanon: Rei has a shota-boy fetish (bracket within a bracket: this aiNT a serIOUs hEAdCANon)

And I only like MakoHaru when he's in an OT3 with Haru x Rin x Makoto :P

edit: I have changed my mind so drastically it's not even funny anymore...Makoto move your bum outta that OT3. The RinHaru is just too intense.

And I have erased Nitori from the OT3. I was looking at that official art again of Rei and Nagisa underwater and the way Rei looks at Nagi...NOPE NOPE NOPE THEY ARE MADE FOR EACH OTHER