On the lower west side of the normally quiet fishing village of Iwatobi, a blue Honda Civic cut through after school traffic like a buzzsaw. To the native Iwatobians, only two things were more terrifying than Hazuki Keiko behind the wheel of a motor vehicle: the Yakuza and typhoons. This particular afternoon, the skies were clear and gang violence nonexistent.

"Outta my way, Grandpa!"

A delivery truck driver laid on his horn as she made a bumper-to-bumper pass in front of him and cut off a semi at the exit, earning her several more angry honks and a few rude gestures in return.

"Fuck you, too, assholes!" she shouted as her tires squealed, reaching the sharp curve at the end of the ramp. Flipping on her emergency lights as an afterthought, she gunned it as soon as the first tire hit the main highway.

Then, her phone started blaring Nagisa's favorite song. Answering calls while weaving through traffic was nothing new to her, though, and neither was hearing her little brother whine hysterically over speakerphone.

"Where the hell are you?!" He sounded so precious when he was desperate.

Setting the phone down in the driver's side cup holder, she stole a brief glance at the clock on her dash.

15:42

Cutting it close.

"Calm down, Nagi, I'm almost there."

"What do you mean almost?"

She swerved around a red convertible, narrowly missing the front bumper of a black SUV in the neighboring lane. "Move it, losers!"

"Oh my god, you're still driving, aren't you?!" he screeched with a sort of tinny echo that meant either he was standing in a small enclosed area or the call was about to drop.

As she passed another vehicle, a sign with a shark on it and some kanji she couldn't quite make out was fast approaching on the side of the road.

"Okay, where's the entrance to this place? I think I see the sign. Is there a parking area for visitors?"

"Shit, I dunno! I've never driven here!"

If she weren't flying down the highway, Keiko would've face-planted into the steering wheel.

"Hello? Keiko-san?" Someone with an unfamiliar, much deeper voice took the call. "Take a left at the next light."

Which she proceeded to do, despite the fact that it was red and heavy with cross traffic. Several motorists were reasonably outraged and expressed their displeasure in a symphony of honks and colorful words shouted out of open windows.

"Were those your tires?" the deep-voiced stranger asked incredulously as though he'd never heard anyone drift through a red light.

"Shut up, kid, unless you're giving me directions!" she snapped irritably. "I see a little green sign with an arrow."

"Turn in there."

She hung a left just in time to avoid getting T-boned by a Volkswagen. "Alright, where's visitor parking?"


"Nagiiiiiiiii!"

The shrillness of its tone alone would've been enough to catch his attention, but combined with the cacophony of high-heeled footsteps echoing across the natatorium and the resulting murmurs amongst his team, Seijuurou found the sudden disturbance impossible to ignore.

"Alright, this is getting ridiculous. Who the hell is—?"

A short, doe-eyed blonde in a low-cut top, her modest breasts bouncing rhythmically with each step.

And they were getting closer.

"Excuse me!" The girl waved a black jammer with pink stripes at him. "Could you tell me where the locker room is? I need to give this to my brother."

He pointed absently. "Hallway on the left."

"Okay, thank you." And then she ran off without so much as sparing him a second glance.

By the time she made it halfway, he belatedly realized what he'd just done. "Wait!" he cried after her. "You can't just go in there!"

But as her long flowing locks disappeared around the corner, no one made any attempt to stop her.

A minute later, she reemerged and made a beeline for him, tossing her thick curls over her shoulder. He followed the movements of her rosy painted lips very carefully as she inquired coyly, "You're Samezuka's captain, right?"

"Yes, that would be me." He made a valiant effort to not look at her cleavage.

As she picked a stray lock of hair and twirled it around her finger, he could swear she batted her eyelashes at him. "Sorry about that. There was a little mixup at home."

"So, your bro, huh?" In the excitement of the moment, Seijuurou had completely forgotten that the other Ryuugazaki was still standing next to him. "Which one of these half-pints is yours?"

She looked over her shoulder towards the locker room where Nitori, Ryuugazaki, and Hazuki had finally exited to begin their warmups. Ryuugazaki was attempting to demonstrate some kind of stretching position to the other two, but Hazuki completely ignored him in favor of watching Nanase take a dive off one of the starting blocks.

"The shorty in the black and pink," the prettier Hazuki replied with a smirk, watching the events unfold. "As you can see, he's got the attention span of a goldfish."

The more talkative Ryuugazaki chuckled. "Mine's the black and blue nerd doing a downward-facing dog next to that bowl cut kid."

"Oh," she cooed, sidling up disgustingly close to him. "I hear tell yours and mine are best friends."

They locked eyes for a solid five seconds without blinking.

"That's what I've been told," he agreed slowly, his gaze wandering down her shirt, and he licked his lips shamelessly.

Did they even care that Seijuurou was there?

She slipped both hands around his upper arm and squeezed. "Are you a swimmer, too?"

"Track and field," he answered smugly, flexing for her.

She cooed again and giggled as she traced her finger along the definition of his muscles.

"Years of pole vaulting, babe."

Yeah, this was starting to get nauseating. Seijuurou clutched the whistle around his neck, raised it to his lips, and blew. "Everybody hit the water! We've got a lot to do today!"

The elder siblings recoiled with matching bug-eyed expressions of surprise.

"Hey, you could've warned us first!" Hazuki glowered at him.

"You two can stay and watch as long as you don't distract my boys, got it?"

"No problemo, Cap!" Ryuugazaki snaked his arm around Hazuki's and proceeded to drag her off... somewhere. As long as they were out of the way, Seijuurou didn't give a shit.

Then, Tachibana snuck up behind him from wherever he had been hiding, smiling like he was getting paid to do it. "Are we still doing the relay thing today?"

"Yeah, get your team together while I round up Matsuoka and the others."

Tachibana's eyes lit up with excitement. "Right!"


When he finally caught sight of him, the other's stare shot through him like a laser beam from the opposite end of the natatorium. Despite the distance and the fact that Rin looked conflicted and irate, Rei's heart leapt in his throat and a sort of warm, tingly feeling spread from his chest to the tips of his toes. One of Rin's teammates tapped him on the shoulder and said something, to which Rin nodded, never once looking away.

It seemed absence really did do something.

"Hey, Rei-chan, are we going to practice our exchange?" Nagisa tugged his arm before noticing Rin and waving broadly to the other with unabashed enthusiasm. "Rin-chan!"

Rin cut his eyes to the pool and grimaced.

"Rin-chan!" Nagisa called again even louder.

Then, Rin sighed and skulked over to them, still visibly discontent. He gave Rei an expression of uncertainty and looked down at Nagisa. "What?"

Nagisa giggled. "Hi."

Rin glared. "That's it?"

"Friends say hi to each other."

"I'm unfriending you," Rin deadpanned and made to leave, but Nagisa swiftly caught him by the wrist.

"Rin-chan," he whined childishly.

The other stood stark still for an uncomfortable length of time before turning his head just enough to reveal a sly close-lipped smile. It was the only warning Nagisa received before Rin tackled him into the pool. A strip of the resulting spray refracted a rainbow of colors as it shimmered for a split second in the rays of sunlight filtering through the domed glass ceiling and drizzled at Rei's feet.

Nagisa surfaced like a wet kitten, all wide eyes and disheveled hair. "Rin-chan!" he whined again, though it soon gave way to a wide grin as Rin, who had poised himself like a crocodile with only his eyes above the water, snorted in amusement, sending a collection of tiny short-lived bubbles in Nagisa's direction.

Rousing laughter echoed across the natatorium, and Rei recognized one of the sources as Kaede, while the others were distinctly female.

Then, Captain Mikoshiba blew his whistle again. "Matsuoka! Hazuki! Quit horsing around and do your warm-ups!"

"Aye aye, Captain!" Nagisa replied with a mock salute.

Rin silently swam into the adjacent lane and pushed off the wall to begin a slow front crawl lap.

"You, too, Ryuugazaki! We're lining up for relays in fifteen minutes!"


As promised, the two relay teams lined up in neighboring lanes fifteen minutes later, and thank god for that because watching them swim laps and do individual time trials was starting to get boring. Not that Kaede didn't like being sandwiched between two pretty girls for extended periods of time, but that wasn't the reason he came here.

Okay, it was a reason, he'd admit it. That Gou girl was quite a looker, and maybe if he got lucky enough, she'd fall in love with his triceps and share her number with him. But he was mostly here to watch his brother kick ass at swimming because he'd sadly missed all the competitions Iwatobi had entered, and he wanted to see what this so-called dazzling butterfly technique was all about.

Despite the fact that Rei had talked his ear off about Iwatobi's victory at prefecturals, some of the finer details about how competitive swimming actually worked had still managed to elude him. Fortunately, Gou had been helpful at filling him in as they watched the boys warm up. Swimming relays and track relays sounded similar enough. The tall guy with the amazing back muscles was their first leg, Keiko's hyperactive little brother was their second, Rei was their third, and that black-haired kid who kept staring intensely at Rin was their anchor.

Then, Gou grabbed her clipboard and stopwatch, abandoning their little spectator trio as Samezuka's Captain called her over to help keep time.

All eyes fell on the racing relay teams as the back strokers took off from the starting blocks and tore through the water like large marine animals. Iwatobi's pinged Kaede as a manatee kind of guy. Samezuka's reminded him more of a walrus. Both swimmers flipped gracefully as they reached the edge of the pool, though the walrus guy had a stronger kick that propelled him just a hair ahead of the manatee guy.

Then, Nagisa yelled something, probably their back stroker's name. Samezuka's breast stroker poised still as stone as he waited for his teammate to hit the wall before diving in and cutting down the lane like a pair of scissors.

"Go Nagisa!" Keiko yelled as the little guy dived off the block.

Despite being the smallest member of the team, he fought like hell to keep up with the competition, even gaining a little after the turn. Stretching his arms out as far as they could go, Nagisa's swimming style made him look like one of those little water spiders that skied around the shallow edges of lakes and ponds.

Back at the starting blocks, Rei and Rin side-eyed each other something fierce, like nothing else in the natatorium mattered. Not even their teammates rapidly approaching them.

Hella UST.

He'd have to remind Rei to wrap it before he tapped it later.

Having also picked up on the two's poorly-timed preoccupation with each other, Keiko cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Eyes on the water, not your boyfriend!" which drew a few passing snickers from the Samezuka swimmers who weren't in the relay.

Nagisa hit the wall maybe a quarter of a second before Samezuka's breast stroker, and Rei made a perfect dive into the water without hesitation. Rin plunged in after him like a hungry great white, overtaking him before the turn and leaving him to eat waves after he kicked off the wall. This seemed to fuel Rei's determination to shorten the gap between them, but he only managed to avoid falling further behind.

It was a respectable attempt, though, and for that Kaede couldn't be prouder. If there was one great thing he could say about his brother, it was that no matter how badly Rei sucked at something, he never gave up trying to improve. Judging by the rousing cheers from his teammates as they helped pull him out of the pool, that had definitely been an improvement.

Still, Rei had left the anchor with a lot of time to make up, and those Samezuka guys didn't play around. Samezuka's freestyler hit the turn a full two seconds before Iwatobi's, but where the Samezuka guy looked like he was forcing the water out of his way to get ahead, the water itself appeared to part miraculously on its own around the Iwatobian.

Just who the hell was that guy anyway? Freestyle Jesus?

The conclusion was too close to call from a distance, but Samezuka's captain said something to Gou, and they compared stopwatches. Then, Gou turned to face the competitors, raised her arm, and announced it:

Samezuka.

No one on either side seemed to be too thrilled about it, however, and the teams lined back up at the blocks to do it again.