"Yes?" Rei answered tentatively. "Oh, Nii-san,"
There was a short pause.
"Hang on, she what?"
And thus began the expedition to the beach, making a short detour to Makoto's place to pick up a ladder and rope. Rei wouldn't say why, although he looked quite grumpy about the whole situation. Out of general curiosity, everyone else came along.
Twenty minutes later, everyone was standing on the sand and gathered at the bottom of a rather tall electrical pole, looking up to where Shun was sitting on the highest rung.
"How did she get up there anyway?" Rin asked, his eye twitching in disbelief at the lowest peg which sat about eight metres off the ground, then up to Shun (dressed in just her two piece swimming gear) who looked to be rather comfortably standing near the top with both her feet fixed securely on a peg each and her right hand gripped tightly on another. She appeared to be preoccupied, however, as her head was stooped over into her left arm which appeared to be cradling something. "Actually, here's a better question: Why is she up there?"
"She saw a kitten stuck up there," Yousuke explained with a sigh as Makoto extended the ladder and set it up at the base of the pole. "Next thing you know, she's stuck up there with it. As to how she got up there, I have no clue. One moment she's right next to me, the next, she's hanging from the bottom rung of the pole and complaining about splinters," he shrugged as if it was a common occurrence. Apparently, she'd done a run-up from an elevated wall nearby and became a parkour specialist for about thirty seconds.
"Fucking bat-shit insane lady," was all Rin said in response as Makoto set up his ladder at the base. How were you supposed to respond to that anyway?
Surprisingly, all Yousuke responded with was "Tell me about it."
Unfortunately for the impromptu heroine, the ladder didn't stretch the full length. Reaching six meters up, it left about two additional meters to be desired.
"Someone's going to have to go up and pass her a rope," Rei observed. "That way, she can lower herself onto the ladder and climb down,"
"They're going to have to be tall and light," Yousuke added. "I noticed that the ladder says it had a maximum weight of 140kg. Since we're all sports people, we're all packed with muscle so we're going to be pushing the weight capacity of the ladder. Shun weighs around 65 kilos so that leaves us a 75 kilo space and you typically want to leave about five to ten kilos leeway in case the ladder's old or something so preferably someone around 65 kilos as well,"
Rei blinked at his brother. "Since when were you all analytical and stuff?"
Yousuke just shot him a glare. "It runs in the fucking family, okay. You can't just miss a genetic trait like that," he grumbled. The older Ryuugazaki was never a fan of over-analysing things. But growing up in an academic family, there were just some habits that were too far ingrained to simply shake off.
Rei just "tch"ed. "In any case, it'll either be Haru or Rin who has to go up. They both have the height and weigh less than 70 kilos. Nagisa or Gou would be perfect since they both weigh probably less than 67 kilos, but they lack the height required."
Yousuke blinked in surprise. "Why can't you go? You've got the height and you're about 65 kilos,"
"I'm not saving her stupid butt," was the surprisingly short and childish reply as he crossed his arms and turned the other way. "Plus, standing up there and waving a rope at her and hoping she'll catch it whilst trying to retain my own balance will be spectacularly inbeautiful,"
"Bad grammar and making up words is also "inbeautiful"," Yousuke scoffed. "I believe the word you're after is unbeautiful,"
"So is anyone going to actually help me or am I just going to keep chilling up here?" Shun called down from the bottom of the rung hand/footholds, now with two hands holding the pegs and the little kitten balanced carefully on her shoulder.
She was promptly ignored.
"What about Haru?" Rei offered. "He's only two centimeters shorter than me and he's the lightest option,"
"There may be a slight issue with that plan of attack, darling," Yousuke said, pointing towards the ocean where Haru was already swimming with Makoto pulling his pant legs up as far as he could get them to go, attempting to wade in to retrieve his friend.
Rei sighed. "I should have guessed,"
Yousuke just shrugged. "Well, I'm definitely out of the equation because I was weighing in at about 79 kilos last I checked and I'm assuming Seijuurou is around 75 as well so that leaves…"
All eyes set on Rin.
"Are you fucking serious?" he squinted his eyes angrily at them. "Are you actually fucking serious?"
Yousuke sighed, holding out the rope. "Just go. It's getting late and she didn't dry off before she went up so she's probably got a cold by now,"
Rin just glared at them for a moment before snatching rope from his hand and stomping his way up the ladder, muttering colourful expletives the whole way up.
The climb was relatively short but Rin somehow gave himself many things to think about, like why the fuck does it have to be me? and what if she falls? and what if I fall? None of these thoughts were out of the ordinary, of course, but it didn't help to settle his uneasiness at all.
"Be careful, Nii-san!" Gou called up at him from the base of the ladder where Seijuurou and Yousuke were holding it steady.
"Yeah Rin-chan-san," Shun mimicked from where she was now hanging single-handedly from the lowest peg, the kitten currently sitting and mewling unhappily on the same peg that she was hanging from. "Be careful~"
"HE TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT?" He yelled up at her incredulously as he reached the highest rung that he felt comfortable standing on. He didn't say anything about it, but he wasn't happy about her hanging so carelessly. You be careful, idiot.
"Sure he did, now toss me that rope," she said, left hand extended towards him, ready receive the package.
Remember how earlier Yousuke mentioned something about Shun complaining about splinters? Well, up to now everyone, including Rin, took it as a joke. Even Yousuke wasn't completely serious in the matter. Rin had imagined maybe a couple small ones here and there, not a fucking gash big enough to fit a pen cap. At the very least it seemed to have stopped bleeding.
Shun must've noticed because she broke him out of his trance with "Your concern is touching and all, Nyan Shark," Ugh, that fucking nickname from earlier. He'd hoped she'd forgotten it by now, "but I could really do with getting down pretty soon,"
"Yeah, whatever" he replied indifferently, tossing it up.
She caught it with her left hand just fine and secured the rope quickly, all the while reassuring the grey speckled, white kitten who stopped its whining and appeared to be much less distressed now that her attentioned had returned to him.
Originally, Rin had been looking up to keep an eye on Shun and make sure she didn't do anything stupid or lose her footing somewhere (not that he had a plan of exactly what to do if she did) but after a while he was surprised to find himself (but will never admit to being) completely transfixed on her wagging buttocks and she wiggled around to fix the rope on the peg. She had (unsurprisingly) toned calves and thighs and while she wasn't the slimmest girl he'd ever seen in a two-piece, she had one of the finest bodies to be in one. Or he thought so at least.
He mentally shook himself. What in the hell was he thinking? This was Shun. The older cousin of Ryuugazaki Rei. Like, four years older than he was. And she was a bit of a bitch to boot. A good cook, but still a bitch.
Well… she was selectively nice.
Rin almost slapped himself. He was doing the stupid monologue thing again.
"So uh, are you going to move down or something?" Shun's voice came from further up. In the time he'd distracted himself with his own thoughts, Shun had created some method of lowering herself and the kitten with just one hand and was very close to being able to stand on a rung. "Actually, don't. Here," she said passing him the kitten with her left (injured) hand. "Let him sit in your jacket," she instructed him and Rin fumbled around with the purring ball of fluff as instructed. "Good. Now, move your ass,"
The excitement was all over and done with relatively soon and with both Rin and Shun planted firmly on solid earth, the latter fawning over the saved kitten who seemed to refuse to her command of "Be free my child! Be free like the wind!".
With Haru finally having been coaxed out of the ocean water by a very tired looking Makoto, everyone was assembled once more.
"Well… Rin and I should probably be getting back to Samezuka," Seijuurou spoke up after a short while of casual merriness. "The team's still got an on-land training routine to do on weekend evenings so I've got to be there for that,"
Shun finally tore her attention away from the kitten. "I can drive you two if you want. Makoto, too, since he's got a ladder with him,"
They'd originally planned to drop Makoto off at his place with his ladder, but he quickly made the excuse of wanting to spy on their training. Shun had the inkling of an idea that that wasn't the case, but said nothing more of it. Just another person to show her 'beauty' off to, then they dropped by Rei's to unload the trailer. There was some unusually high traffic due to a road block of some sort, but as soon as they got out of the town square, Shun just took off.
And thus, Makoto found himself gripping the passenger seat in Shun's noisy mustang for dear life as she tore down the countryside road to Samezuka. Seijuurou appeared to be enjoying himself, but Rin looked a little greener than usual. The kitten (named Spot after Data's cat from Star Trek) didn't seem to mind though. The trip that would've normally taken thirty minutes was done in nearly twenty and when they pulled up to Samezuka's training field where the swim team was patiently waiting, the Mustang's engine thundering like a hundred impatient stallions, jaws dropped. Shun shot through the roof in popularity, and the fact that Samezuka's (pathetically tiny) track team was there as well didn't help at all.
Seijuurou tried to get them past it quickly, although unsuccessfully. The boys were all busy crowding him and demanding her number that he'd promised them the night before, some simply eyeing her (or her car) dreamily. The Samezuka captain, instead, hurriedly introduced Makoto as his assistant for the day and got to work, hollering instructions at everyone. Someone was set as the pace keeper for the jogging exercises and after that, they were off for a good fifteen minutes.
"Are you sure it's okay for Shun and I to be here?" Makoto asked as he stretched with Seijuurou, glancing over to Shun who was sitting on the roof of her car, hoodie donned over her two-piece, Spot sleeping in her lap, and picking splinters out of her hands. The university student claimed she wanted to chill outside a little longer before returning to her brother's apartment and agreed to wait for the training session to end before sending Makoto back. Knowing Yousuke, he'd probably find an excuse to get everyone drunk all over again since it was a Saturday and Shun was all for avoiding those kinds of things. Plus, she enjoyed seeing Seijuurou and Makoto interact. Kinda like puppies meeting for the first time, she laughed to herself.
Seijuurou glanced over as well. "Nah, it'll be fine. The boys get a little extra motivation when she's around anyway,"
"It's kinda funny seeing them try so hard just because she's there though, isn't it?" Makoto laughed. "She's hardly paying them any attention anyway,"
Seijuurou laughed along. "She is pretty attractive though,"
Makoto felt a squeeze in his chest at that. "You think so?"
"Yeah, I mean, she's physically, y'know, attractive, and she's funny and sporty and a little weird and stuff. I think a lot of guys on the team would really fall for her if they got to know her," Seijuurou replied.
The squeeze started to feel heavier. "And you?"
Seijuurou shrugged and his cheeks went a little pink. "She's nice but… I'm a little… set on someone else," he replied as he refused to make eye contact.
Set on someone else, Makoto thought. Somehow, that made him feel a little better. He was all for Seijuurou finding love and dating whoever he wished, but somehow it still made him a little upset. Almost possessive. It was odd. He'd never really thought into it before, but now, faced with the possibility that Seijuurou may have affections for someone else, Makoto almost wanted to grab him and make a run for it.
It was a rather sudden realisation, but he supposed it was a little like how he and Haru became best friends. At first, they just saw each other a lot, and after some time, it was just an unspoken reality that they were best friends. So what did it mean between him and Seijuurou?
Makoto peered over to him as they finished up their stretches, the pink now faded from Seijuurou's cheeks but still he looked a little bashful nonetheless. Cute.
From her perch upon her bright red, white striped steed of steel, Shun released a pent up giggle, picking Spot up from her lap and kissing him soundly on the top of his little head.
"Look at them, Spot," she said to the little feline, "Look at them dance around each other like they're totally not into each other," she barked out a laugh, "It's like a live high school romance drama,"
Spot just mewed back.
"Yeah, I know right? Idiots," she chuckled before kissing the little cat again and putting him back on her lap.
She was finally done with picking out the infuriating splinters in her hands, or the big ones at least, and set to work at wrapping a bandage around the gash. She could still feel the pricks of some-twenty other smaller splinters in her hand as she curled and uncurled her fingers like getting pins and needles, but she figured they'd fall out eventually. Being a mechanic, she'd had worse accidents in the past.
But it wasn't even just Shun that was picking up on the affection between the two captains. Around an hour into the training, Seijuurou called for a break and Nitori immediately took off in Shun's direction.
"Shun-nee-san!" He chirped, waving as he ran up to her.
"Hey kiddo, how are you feeling?" she asked.
"I'm doing well," he replied in the same bashful kind of voice that he always had as Shun offered him a hand to help him onto the roof of the car next to her. "Thanks for dropping me off so early in the morning again," he added.
Shun just waved it off. "Don't even think about it, babe."
Nitori blushed at that. Shun had randomly announced last night (or very early this morning) as she was driving Nitori back to Samezuka that she had unofficially adopted him as her younger brother and insisted on nicknames like "babe" and "darling" and a whole range of other endearments. Additionally, she locked the doors and refused to let him out until he agreed to call her "Nee-san". Nitori had thought of it as a rather odd exchange, but he just brushed it off as just her being affectionate. Plus, he didn't mind that much.
"Ah, I actually wanted to ask, did something happen to Seijuurou-senpai last night?" he asked. "He's a little… odd today,"
Shun snorted loudly and went into a fit of giggles. "Oh, babe, everything happened last night,"
Nitori frowned in concern. "Nothing bad I hope?"
"Honey, c'mere," she said, motioning for him to lean his ear closer to her where she then proceeded to tell him about everything she saw between the two captains.
"Then that means-" Nitori he pointed towards them.
"Yup,"
"And Seijuurou-senpai-"
"Mhmm,"
"With Makoto-senpai-"
"Are you sure?"
"Oh yeah,"
Nitori giggled. "That was a little sudden,"
Shun could only shrug back. "I've been here for all of about a day but my gaydar is going off the charts, but even so. Friends don't hold hands and spoon each other in their sleep. 'Suke probably has some psychological explanation to it, but that's all too clinical for me. I saw the way they were all close and stuff and that's enough for me to happily say something's going on,"
"Well, if it means that we're not going to get extra laps then I don't have a problem with it," he replied with a smile.
Shun blinked at the first-year. "But… it looks like quite a few of your teammates are still going at it," she said, pointing towards the boys who were still running laps and doing other exercises. "Rin's doing plenty extra," she added sarcastically, waving to the redhead who was standing towards the side of the field and glaring at the two of them.
Nitori giggled like he knew a secret that he'd kept hidden from the world, "They're trying to impress you, Nee-san,"
Shun blinked again to process the information before a pleased expression graced her features. "Well, what do you know…"
Fifteen minutes later (ten minutes after the break should've ended), Seijuurou jogged up to the fence bordering the field just in front of where Nitori and Shun were.
"Shun, could I borrow you please?" he asked, the top half of his body leaning over the fence as his hands clapped together in front of him in a gesture of request.
"Uh, sure?" she replied skeptically at the odd request, "For what exactly?"
"I was hoping you could maybe share a couple tips with the long distance team?" he asked.
Shun arched a brow. "Just tips, or am I allowed to bitch them around like I do with 'Suke?" she asked. "I am a very harsh trainer, just so you know,"
Seijuurou breathed a sigh of relief. "If you could take them for a little while, that would be great. I'm sure they can handle you,"
They couldn't.
Only ten minutes into her training and the fifteen strong long distance team were sweating like pigs.
"But Nee-san-"
"Don't you fucking "Nee-san" me Nitori! I want to see push-ups into squats! Twelve sets of two and two! GO!" She hollered at the team as they sobbed their way through the drills.
"She's… harsh… isn't she…?" Makoto asked Seijuurou as they overlooked the sprint team together.
"Yeah…" was all Seijuurou could manage. "I didn't expect this side of her at all,"
"It's a little… intimidating… huh?"
"Just a bit…"
"Okay, take a break you freakin' whiners," Shun finally called as they finished their last set, the whole team collapsing lifelessly.
Thankfully, Shun allowed breaks more frequently and for longer periods of time and before long, the remaining 45 minutes of the dry-land training was completed.=
Contrary to the response he'd expected, Seijuurou found that the team's respect for the little blonde lady simply continued to rise.
"You lot really are very strange aren't you?" was all she said when one of the long distance team members asked her to come back and train them again as she sat with them in their near-lifeless heap. She found herself very disorientated by the positive response since Yousuke hit her at least twice in any training session for the pain that she put him through.
"I'm glad that we could have Nee-san to train us today," Nitori managed through huffs as they lay on the grass.
"You wouldn't say that if you got this on a regular basis," she laughed back, ruffling his hair, sending sweat flying everywhere. "'Suke usually makes his way through dry-land training with cursing and threats on my life," she said as she stood up and moved to go to her car.
"Where're you going?" Nitori immediately asked.
"Chill, babe," she laughed, "I'll be back in a tick,"
Shun was surprised to find Seijuurou and Makoto already at her car. The two of them were sitting on the trunk, sitting incredibly, incredibly close to each other. Close enough for their shoulders to bump if there was a strong wind. Close enough for their hands to almost be holding. Wait, were they holding hands? Holy hell, they were. Well, they were trying. They were at the stage where their fingers were just touching.
"Ah, Mako-kun," she said as she walked up, causing them to all but leap off the car and from each other.
"Oh, a-are you going to go already?" he asked, red-faced and flustered.
"Actually," she said, ideas spinning webs in her head, "I was planning on staying with the team a little longer," she replied, pulling the trunk open to take out a 24-pack of Red Bull, "Would you mind hanging around maybe another hour?" she asked, handing them both a can.
The two captains positively beamed at the prospect. "Not at all."
Shun returned to the team giggling wildly. "Alright, you guys are going to have to put up with my horrible company for another hour because things are happening and I literally cannot explain to you the importance of it"
Nitori sent her a look and she sent it right back.
"Yes, it is exactly what you're thinking Ai. Exactly."
