Summer vacations have begun here so I'm going to make this an extra long chapter and my apologies for uploading after such a long stretch of time. Please forgive me and please leave a review.
I hope you all are alright and remember if you ever need someone to talk to, I am here.

Love you all deeply,

PokemonTanya

-x-

Chapter 4 : Introductions

I walked down the road towards school, I remembered that Haruka had once mentioned that he had a tough time getting out of the bath because of his love for water. It was a good thing that his home was on the way to school. I quickly diverted my path, which was actually a shortcut to school, walked for a while and ended up in front of his door step.
I knocked on his front door and no one opened. I pushed the door slightly and it opened. I left my shoes at the front and walked further into his home. I reached his bathroom, knocked softly on the door as I entered I saw that Haruka had emerged himself into the water right till a little below his nose (obviously so he could breathe)

I leant my hand forward so he could get out of the bath, trust me, I had to imagine my grandmother in a swimsuit in order to prevent me from having a boner. Haruka got out of the bathtub and he was wearing swimming trunks.

"You remembered ?" He asked me softly, not wanting to meet my eyes.
I chucked lightly, "Well yeah, I'm the best kind of friend you could ever have so." And I remembered that I had only sent a text to him for his birthday seeing how the storm came back that day.
"Ney Haru, you free today ?" I asked him, he was drying his hair off while he answered yes.

"Do you want to go for dinner today then ?" I asked him through his bedroom door whilst he changed on the other side. I waited for a moment and then he reappeared in front of him, looking nice and fresh in his uniform.
"Sure, I'm up for food." Haruka said as he wore his bag. We both walked to the front where I had left my shoes, I slipped them on as did Haruka.

He locked the door and we walked our way to school, I could see Nagisa kun talking to another boy in the same grade as him, he looked familiar, I think he was on the track team. The other boy seemed defeated as he shook an ecstatic Nagisa's hand. Just then I saw a flash of red hair appearing in front of me and hugging me tightly, it took me a few seconds to realize that my best friend Rin Matsuoka was engulfing me in this monstrous hug.

"Oh my god ! Rin !" I squealed happily as I hugged him back.

"You forgot me, you baka!" Rin said equally excited as he continued hugging me. He smelled like oak wood mixed with lemon, that was a wonderful smell that I was so accustomed to.

"I could never forget my best friend. What are you doing here but ?" I asked Rin while holding his hand.

"Oh, school was cancelled today because we lost electricity in the morning, they've been trying to get it running for hours, all the fans, air conditioning, everything went off around one in the morning today, so our principle told us seniors and juniors we could go anywhere, everyone else is kind of stuck in the auditorium, the kids are being taken to water park though." Rin said, not letting go of my hand.

"Oh Rin, this is my friend, Nanase Haruka, Haru," I said while looking at Haruka, pulling Rin closer, "this is my best friend, Matsuoka Rin." Rin put his arm across my shoulder and smiled at Haruka as he put his other hand for a handshake, Haruka extended his hand as well.

"Onegaishimasu Nanase kun." Rin said, "Or can I call you Haruka ?"
"Onegaishimasu Matsuoka kun, gomen but I only allow certain people to address me by my first name." Haruka said as they shook hands firmly.

"Well anyways, Makoto you have school, I'll meet you after school then! Janaa!" Rin said as we walked away… Was he smirking at Haruka ?

"Makoto lets go, we're getting late." Haruka said in the same monotonous voice but it felt different this time… Like he wanted to say something but he wasn't going to say it, like he was suppressing it.

"Haaai Haru." I said while smiling brightly at him.

Nagisa approached us as we made our way to the gates of the school along with the boy who was on the track team (or maybe athletics).

"Makoto chan how rude of Rin chan not to even wave at me." Nagisa said while pouting and crossing his arms.

"Nagisa kun, he didn't see you," I said while ruffling his hair, "and besides who is this ?" while smiling at the boy with the glasses and lean stance.

"This is Rei. He's apart of our swimming team now!" Nagisa said excitedly.
"Oh so you've swam before Rei kun ?" I asked Rei while shaking hands with him.
"No but I found swimming beautiful." Rei said and it seemed suddenly that everything around him started sparkling.

"No offense but Nagisa kun how did you pick Rei kun then ?" Haruka asked.

"We all have names that are actually a girls so yeah but but but but we can teach Rei kun to swim! He was on the athletics team before, it's like running underwater right ?!" Nagisa said while acting like he was swimming.

"Well if Rei kun's onboard then we have a team!" I said happily while throwing my hands in the air.

Rei nodded and we had a group hug.

"But what about a manager ?" Rei said.

"Don't worry, I have someone in mind." Nagisa said as he ushered us to follow him and so we did.
After a few minutes of walking and climbing stairs we finally reached an old looking room.

Nagisa opened the door swiftly and we saw… A girl with long red hair biting the neck of another girl while the other girl clutched tightly onto the red haired girl, as soon as they noticed us they stopped what they were doing and the girl with the red hair stopped, fixed her tie and so did the other girl.

They walked out of the room and the red haired girl hit Nagisa's head a little while the other girl seemed completely embarrassed. As I got a better look I realized the girl with the red hair was Rin's sister, Gou. They shared the same red-brown eyes, lean body structure and the same shark teeth.

"Ohayo!" Gou chan said in a very chirpy voice. The other girl just smiled at us in a very not nice way (if that makes sense). "I'm Gou Matsuoka and this is Arikawa Hana." I noticed that Arikawa kun had curly hair, which was really unusual and slightly darker skin, she wasn't exactly thin like Gou either or chirpy and positive as compared to Gou. All in all, Gou and Arikawa were two complete opposites but they complemented each other. Where Gou was slim and tall, Arikawa was shorter and curvier, Gou was all chirpy and happy, Arikwa seemed rather not so chirpy or happy. But, hey, looks could deceive right ?

"Are you dating ?" Haruka asked, his eyes meeting Arikawa's.

"No." Arikawa said flat, Gou's face fell, it felt like it hurt her a bit… But she recovered and said, "Well, not yet!" And she wrapped her hands around Arikawa's waist and her head sat perfectly on top of Arikawa's. Arikawa's face blushed a bit and she smiled but regained her cold exterior again.

"So Nagisa I see you have a team for me to manage, the swim team." Gou said still hugging Arikawa.

"Yes I do Gou and now all we need is a teacher." Nagisa said.

"Don't worry about the teacher, Miss Miho Amakata agreed to be our teacher in charge. Now, I have the forms ready for the filling in of the information. Give it to me by tomorrow with your parents signature, by tomorrow noon we'll be certified club or team. Tomorrow we'll go and clean the pool that's in the school's vicinity. Woop woop." Arikawa said as she pulled forms from her pocket and offered it to us. We took our forms and kept it in our bags.

"You both...look…beautiful!" Rei chan exclaimed as he pulled his phone out and started taking pictures. "The way the sunlight falls on your face Gou chan and the your cold exterior that is warmed by Gou's heart also adds to the beauty Arikawa chan. The sun and the love and the magic is all so beautiful to me!" Rei exclaimed.

Gou laughed and Arikawa had this 'I'm-fed-up-of-this' look and somehow my little pinky finger found Haru's and it clutched on tightly, in that moment, I felt happy just having this much body contact with him. It felt like this was it, like everything would be sorted out now and I didn't have to worry. Wow, small things like this made me happy. Who knew ?

The bells rang and we all made our way to our classes. The day went by smoothly, I occasionally passed notes to Haruka with drawing of me carrying him like a princess, of burgers, of walking on the beach and of holding hands. Other doodles included us stick figures, of one person hugging another, of his face and other things like flowers, milkshakes, water and things that made me happy.

The day ended finally and I walked to Haru's desk while he was still packing his bag, everyone had left our class and silence dawned upon us.

I bent down towards Haru's ear level as I pulled his tie, "Hey Haru," I whispered. Haru nodded as he pushed me away.

"I just wanted to say, I'll pick you up at seven for dinner, dress casually. Okay ? Janaaaa!" I said as I kissed his cheek and ran away from him. I left a small origami flower on his desk and on each petal I drew a picture of me and him doing something.

In the meanwhile as I exited the school I saw Rin waiting for me outside. He was leaning against the coppice gate of our school in faded blue skinny jeans and a black t-shirt.

"I didn't think you would actually wait here for me Rin." I teased Rin as I hugged him softly.

"I keep my word Makoto," Rin answered back, "Now, let's go to the park nearby, it isn't hot so we won't sweat or anything else that might make you uncomfortable. Also, I wanted to talk to you."

"Same here. I wanted to tell you something." I said and we both walked in silence towards the park.

We sat down on a bench. As we were about to start speaking a vendor selling some juice came and Rin rushed towards him and bought us some juice.

As I sipped on my juice, I looked at Rin and studied his features. I remember for a long time a while back, I was incredibly in love with Rin, with the way he would smile and the way he would laugh, the way he would smirk and the way he would hug. I was, all in all, love with Rin Matsuoka but then I realized it was a crush and Rin became my best friend once again and around that time, I started questioning my sexuality. I thought I was bisexual seeing the way I was attracted to both boys and girls but I was so confused because somehow I was constantly attracted towards boys but I dated girls because I didn't want to be the kid that was left out you know.

"Rin… This is really hard but you're the first person I'm telling this to but I'm…" I started crying and Rin completed my words, "Gay… I am too." I looked at him and he had tears in his eyes as well and we both cried together.

"Oh god Rin, I… It was so hard coming out to you because I thought you would hate me." I said while trying to wipe the Niagara falls of tears that was coming out of my eyes.

"S-same here Makoto! It feels like a huge load has been lifted off of my shoulders." Rin said as he came in for a hug.

"Do you like any boy ?" I asked him as I drank some of the juice trying to calm myself down. He drank some of his juice as well, I noticed that a little had slipped onto his lip. I reached forward and cleaned it as I smiled at him brightly.

"There is this one guy who I've liked for a very long time now but I guess we've just started reconnecting and understanding each other again after a very long period of time. I want to take it extremely slow right now with him because he's coming to terms himself you know ? what about you ?" Rin said as he wiped his tear with the back of his hand.

"I think wait for some time, see if you like him or not and then see what you want to do. I like… Haruka san but you can't tell anyone! Not a single soul!" I said while gesturing for a pinky promise. We both made a pinky promise and it felt like Rin and I were becoming closer now to each other.

I checked the time on my watch and it was six thirty in the evening. I had thirty minutes more till I would pick up Haruka… JUST THIRTY MINUTES. OH MY GOD.

"Rin! I forgot I have to celebrate Haruka's birthday with him today! I have to go! Love you bestie! Janaa!" I said, kissed his cheek softly and ran towards my home. Luckily, I lived only a five minute run from the park. I dashed into my home, took my shoes off and hit the shower real quick. I had asked my mom to iron my clothes for me.

She had laid out black skinny jeans for me and a dark maroon t-shirt as well. It looked really good. How awesome is my mom ? really sugoi.

I wore my underwear really quickly and then my clothes. I wore black shoes and grabbed my wallet, I had saved up some money and I had borrowed some from my mom earlier hoping to use it but I hadn't so yaaay!

"Hey mom and dad! I'm leaving to celebrate Haruka's birthday, I'll be home by ten, don't wait up I'm carrying the keys!" I said as I kissed my mom's cheek and left.

I arrived exactly on time at Haruka's. I rang the bell and Haruka opened the door. He was wearing dark blue shorts and a white shirt and he had rolled up the sleeves till his elbows, he wore black toms and e had his phone and wallet in his hand as he came out and locked the door.

"Domo Haru!" I beamed at him as we started walking, he nodded his head slightly as he shoved his phone and wallet into his pockets.

"I'm going to take you to the cool new arcade-ish center that opened up here a month or so back, since it's a school day not many people should be there so yeah. Let's have fun!" I said.

"That sounds really fun actually."

Haruka and I walked and we talked on the way, I talked mostly, confiding in Haruka about things that I normally couldn't talk about. There was a small stall on the footpath, an old lady was selling bracelets and trinkets, Haruka seemed completely taken by it as his eyes widened with wonder.

"Ney Haru, do you want to buy these friendship bands ?" I pointed towards these two black, sleek beaded bracelets.

"Haaai!" Haruka exclaimed and soon realized how awkward it might have looked for a 'young man' like himself to have been so excited about this. I bought us the bracelets and I noticed that he was staring at a snow globe which had this old lady, a boy and a dog inside. I thought I would buy it for him later. Haruka was taken by the bracelet and started walking ahead. I told the old lady that I would come back to collect the globe and to save it for me. She promised me she would.

"Now, we're friends." Haruka said whilst pointing towards the bracelet.
"I thought we were always friends." I said while smiling. Soon we entered the arcade. It had some classic games like Mario and pac man and newer ones as well like just dance and stuff, it had that cool vintage metal claw game and a basketball game as well.

We both pooled in money and bought some tickets. We played the metal claw game first which was always and will always be a total bus. We next played the basketball game, I stood behind him as we started shooting the basketball. It felt nice that Haruka didn't try to move away from me, maybe it was too engrossed in the game to actually notice that I was right there but none the less, it felt nice to be there… I was controlling myself so much so that I wouldn't just stop right then and there and start to hug him. We played a few games and I finally noticed there was a photo booth in the arcade in the corner.

"Haruka! Can we please go to the photo booth ?!" I begged and made puppy dog eyes at Haruka and he finally agreed. We were taking two strips which each contained four photos.

For the first photo it was me looking at Haruka and poking my tongue out. The second, he poked his tongue out me. In the third, I tickled him and he was laughing for the first time and in the last one, we both just smiled at each other genuinely. His eyes were a deep blue and I wanted to get lost in them, actually I just wanted to keep staring at him and admire the prepossessing qualities of Nanase kun because it might have been a short time but I have already fallen for him. He was different and I liked that.

We took our photos and went to eat food. We were so tired that we ate in silence. We were done soon and we started walking back home and I could see the old lady standing there waiting for me.
"Haruka kun, I'll be right back. " I said and I ran ahead. I bought the snow globe quickly because I noticed Haruka had caught up now.

"Happy belated birthday Haruka Nanase, I wish you nothing but the best in life." I gave him the snow globe and he started tearing up.

"I don't know why you're trying with me.. I don't know why.." He said as he hugged me.

"I.. I.. don't know why either." I said hugging him back, we stood there, hugging each other for a while and then he let go of me.

"When I used to live with my grandmother, she had this dog, his name was Nana… I really loved them both because I didn't fit in with the other kids exactly but they loved me immensely and when Nana died, grandmom and I were both heartbroken and alone.. And then a few years later, grandmother died and I was all alone again and my parents weren't really.. able to understand certain things.. I don't open up to people easily or at all anymore actually.. I can't trust people either. I miss my grandmom and Nana a lot." Haruka said as he walked beside me, his eyes focused on the road and the globe. We reached his front door and it seemed… sad.

"Haruka Nanase, please trust me and believe in me. I'm here for you." I said and kissed his cheek lightly.

"I'll pick you up for school tomorrow, same time. Good night, call me if anything happens." I said and walked home. This was a good day.

Haruka's point of view:
Why was it that whenever I met Makoto I wanted to spill my secrets and my whole entity, that I could be completely naked, emotionally and physically, in front of him and I would feel safe and secure. He felt like home and safety and something I didn't want to let go.
Wait… No.. This shouldn't happen… I started thinking and slowly slumped against the door. I wanted to hug Makoto so badly right now.. Why… Nande…