Disclaimer: I do not own Free! nor any of its precious characters that break my heart.

This was a very hard chapter for me to write, so I hope you'll enjoy it despite it's state. I really tried guys, but this is the best I could do. Anyway, thank you for reading!

For those who have been fortunate enough to have never experienced the agony of finding out where your relationship stands after a confession, let me tell you this: it is a time of constant anxiety, self-doubt and sweaty hands.

And to say that things between Rin and Ai were awkward is in fact, quite a big understatement.

Hearts and brains battle each other for control, leaving behind, two very nervous teens with their hearts on their sleeves.

After their very unexpected confessions and an even more unexpected first kiss, the boys had to face reality. For as much as they wanted to escape it and stay in their perfect little world under the stars, it was time to get back to the dorm and face the facts.

The walk back to the dorms was quiet, both boys too immersed in their thoughts and bracing themselves for what was yet to come.

They both knew that they had to have "the talk", meaning that they would have to yet again, expose themselves and try to figure out where this new turn of events would take them.

So when they entered the room, door shutting behind them, they were much too aware of the awkward and tense atmosphere weighting them down.

They stood in silence, unable to speak their troubled minds; too worried to even chance a stolen glance.

Too many insecurities filled their heads, and too many doubts were eating at them to actually see that they were both in the same situation.

So after a good ten minutes had passed and neither of them dared to talk, Nitori decided that this was too much for him and finally spoke up:

"Well, I think I'll just change and go to bed now" He tried his best to fake a confident smile and shrug off all the awkwardness that was suffocating them.

Rin, not knowing what to do, just nodded, and headed to bathroom to change, too eager to get under his sheets and ignore the awful feeling in his chest.

He was so out of it that he was oblivious to the fact that Nitori had just implied the exact same thing, and ended up bumping into the smaller boy.

Both of them were quick to apologize and distance themselves from the other. It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that they were secretly freaking out inside their heads.

Nitori squeaked something before running towards the bathroom and locking the door while Rin quickly turned on his heels and dived under his covers, too certain that pajamas were overrated and unnecessary at this point.

Rin was still under his covers when Nitori got out of the bathroom and stepped back into the dorm. Trying his best to not make a sound, he got to his bunk, safely pulling his own sheets over him, too aware of the faint smell of Rin that still lingered on them.

He snuggled even more into them, breathing in the scent, oddly making him feel better after the eventful night they just had.

He wanted, more than anything, to just crawl his way into Rin's bunk and rest his head on his warm chest as he had done earlier today. The feeling of being held by Rin and sharing that false sense of security was something that Nitori could hardly forget. And now that he knew the feeling, he was absolutely sure that he not only needed it, but he was addicted to it.

But little did he know, that just under his bunk, under warm and comfy blankets, a certain redhead was thinking the exact same thing.

Rin on the other hand, was having other dilemmas playing with his mind. Rin always knew he had problems sleeping, some kind of side effect from his hard time back at Australia. But now, he was debating if having Nitori sleep between his arms, limbs tangled with his own, would help to relax him and lull him to a peaceful slumber. Even if it didn't work, he wouldn't mind trying it. Like, right now. Because, despite how hard he tried to deny it, Rin could still feel the tingling sensation all over his body where Nitori had pressed his small and precious body against him.

But after tonight events, he doubted that would even be an option any time soon, so Rin did the closest thing to it, bringing one of his pillows closer to his heart and hugging it tightly.

He had gambled his heart tonight, and he hoped that for once in his life, things would go his way. Because this had been an all or nothing kind of bet, and he wasn't sure how he would ever recover if he ever lost.

Overwhelmed by all of these concerns, Rin fell asleep, missing the small "Good night Rin" that sneaked out of his kouhai's lips only to fall on deaf ears.

The next morning was, to their great misfortune, still very awkward. They were both too aware of the other and kept involuntarily bumping into each other. I was driving them crazy how ridiculous this situation was, but they couldn't think of a solution to save them from this hell.

It wasn't until Rin tripped Nitori, quickly managing to catch him, that things got a little better.

Rin stood there, with Nitori in his arms, in a very dramatic pose, as if they just had ended a very passionate tango.

Rin, despite his bad mood, smiled at the ridiculous stance that they had managed to pull and this brought an earnest smile to Ai's face.

"This is so stupid" Rin scoffed while shaking his head in absolute disbelief of his own life.

He stood up correctly and allowed Nitori to get back on his feet. The smaller boy looked at him, a pink blush on his cheeks.

"Thank you for just now"

"Whatever. I kinda tripped you anyway so... It was the least I could do"

Nitori just looked down at his feet, small pale hands fumbling with the hem of his shirt. He wanted to saw something, ANYTHING, that could help them get out of this funk, but Rin got ahead of him.

"Listen, I'm tired of this … this thing here"

Nitori quickly looked back at him, a hurt look on his face.

"So you do regret it after all" He said, in such a small voice, that if it wasn't for Rin's proximity, he would have never heard it.

"I will get hurt if you keep thinking that way about me, you know?"

This earned a confused look from his kouhai.

"What I meant was, that I'm tired of this awkward thing between us. I meant what I said yesterday okay? I don't regret any of it. I just… I just don't understand what's happening now."

"You really mean that?"

"I can't lie. You know that." Luckily for Nitori, he wasn't the only one blushing now.

"It's just that… I… I don't know where we go from here" he continued.

Seeing at the kid next to him, Rin was quick to notice that he wasn't the only one lost and nervous, and that eased him a bit.

"Listen, what if we give it a try? Like a one week trial kinda thing?"

"Uh?"

"Like, we go on dates or something for the rest of the week, and by the time the weekend comes, we can talk where we want this to go. What do you think?"

"Uhh… well I guess it's okay."

"Your conviction baffles me Ai" Rin deadpanned.

"I don't think I quite understand it, but I trust you, so it's okay"

"Tch. You better."

Nitori giggled, but nodded his agreement and went to get his things. They were already late for class and he didn't want to get in any trouble.

"Trial week begins now" Rin said, a smirk drawing itself on his face. That alone was more than enough to make Nitori nervous, but what Rin had planned left him being an absolute mess.

Before they could get out of their room and run towards their classes, Rin quickly placed a kiss on Nitori's cheek and ran away as fast as he could.

"Don't be late" he shouted to the stunned boy.

Nitori just stood there, watching as his senpai rapidly escaped after leaving him with weak knees and holding onto the doorframe, fighting down the turmoil inside.

After a few minutes he dusted himself off and walked towards his class, trying his best to calm the butterflies raging inside of him as well as the blush that colored his face.

To say that he had trouble concentrating during the rest of the day is yet another understatement. But to be fair, he wasn't the only who would need tutoring later on to catch up on the things that couldn't get into their minds beside the one who made their hearts race.

When school was finally over, Rin hurried back to his dorm. It certainly wasn't because he wanted to see the cute face of a certain boy who also happened to be his roommate, nu huh. He just needed to get his things before swim practice, or at least that's what he was going with.

Rin decided it wouldn't hurt to look for possible date ideas beforehand just to not find himself with nothing to do once swim practice was over. Seeing that he still had a little time before Ai made his way back to the room, he searched around for tips and tricks and other…stuff. You know like, research. He wasn't planning or anything, he just wanted to be prepared in case something happened. It was healthy curiosity really. He was a teenager in development after all. That was it. Nothing else. Nope.

He was quick to close his laptop and push it away though, once Nitori entered the room to gather his things as well.

His cheeks were red, making a failed attempt to match his hair, and his eyes were wide. For some reason, he felt like a deer caught under headlights, even though it was stupid since Nitori had no idea of what he had been doing.

"How was your day senpai?"

"It was uhh… It was okay I guess?"

Rin was acting weird, and Nitori didn't fail to notice. He knew him too well by now and he knew when he was trying to hide something from him.

That's when he noticed the closed laptop right next to him and curiosity took the best of him. He wanted to get back at him for teasing him this morning and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for it.

"Oh. Are you feeling okay? You seem a little agitated"

When Rin noticed that Nitori was getting closer and closer to him, the started panicking internally.

"I'm I'm perfectly fine! What are you saying?" He tried his best to sound like his normal and angry self, but his voice betrayed him and his hands started shaking.

"Are you really? Or are you just lying to me? Cause I see you sweating, and your face looks a little flushed." Nitori pointed a finger at him, faking concern.

"I already told you I'm fine! We should go before we're late for practice!"

"Hmmm. I'm still not sure if should let you go. Even your hands are shaking. You don't look too well Rin"

Rin swallowed loudly, backing away slowly until he hit the wall. Nitori sat on his bed, leaning in closer and placed his forehead against Rin's.

"You're hot you know?"

Rin was squirming under Nitori's touch now; too aware of all the innuendos he was playing with.

"Is there anything you want me to do for you? Or are you okay with going to practice like this?"

Rin honestly didn't know what was happening. Nitori was too innocent to be implying what he thought he was implying. His pants certainly felt a little tighter, but he couldn't be referring to that… right?

Nitori detached himself from Rin, sitting on his legs, almost straddling him.

He passed his hand over Rin's cheeks, to make sure he wasn't actually sick. But when he noticed that he wasn't, he carried on with his plan.

"I think we should look for some advice. What do you say?"

Nitori quickly picked up the laptop and opened it, ready to search for some odd and disgusting home remedy for Rin's fake illness.

Rin tried his best to snatch his laptop back from Nitori's hands, but it was too late. The boy had seen what was on his computer and now he wanted the earth to swallow him whole.

Nitori certainly hadn't expected that when the computed was turned back to life, and now he was frozen in place, a full-blown blush covering him all the way to his ears and neck.

He abandoned all of his plans, and got to his feet, quickly grabbing his things and getting to the door.

"We don't want to be late!" he said, a tiny smile on his face.

Rin couldn't believe his luck. The one time he had looked for porn and he had to be found by the boy he wanted to convince to date him.

Way to go Rin! He scolded himself.

He picked up his bag and flung it over his shoulder, catching up to the boy who was waiting for him by the door.

The short walk to the pool was silent, just as it had been the night before.

During this time, Rin tried to gather the words to explain himself to Nitori. He didn't want him to take this the wrong way or have him thinking that this is what he wanted. Even if he did. But this wasn't the time. He just needed to say something.

On the other hand, Nitori's brain was on overdrive.

Nitori had always been so certain that Rin was straight. But if he had accepted having feelings for him, that meant he was gay right? And if he was gay it was only normal to look at that kind of stuff. He himself had some magazines lying around the bedroom. This was normal. They were teenagers crazed by hormones after all, so this was okay. He didn't need to panic over it.

But still, a tiny voice on his head kept insisting on other things. Like maybe Rin just wanted to have so fun. Maybe he just wanted a friend with benefits and that's why they weren't together yet.

But he also knew that Rin would never take advantage of him. It wasn't his style.

So… what was he going to do now? Or what were THEY going to do now?

Luckily his thoughts were interrupted when Rin spoke up.

"Look… I don't know what you're thinking, but that's not it okay?"

"What?"

"I wasn't…doing anything just now"

"Oh, I know that. Don't worry."

"And that's not what I meant by dates okay? I just want to be sure you understand that"

"Uhh, yeah."

"Really Ai. I'm not forcing you into anything here."

"O-okay"

To Rin's eyes, Nitori didn't seem convinced, but he had made his point and it wasn't in his nature to just keep nagging about it. Also, the quicker they could forget about this, the better.

So he just kept on walking, making their way to the pool.

Once practice started though, Rin was quick to catch the consequences his little research would have on him, and he was now regretting all the decisions he had made in his life.

He was grateful that all his blood had redirected itself into other parts of his body when Nitori opened his computer, avoiding him some more awkward moments. But now that they were all around the pool, things started to get tricky.

Rin couldn't take the images he had seen out of his head, making him all flustered and bothered.

He never really paid any attention to the abundance of half naked bodies all around him before, and even now when he was more than aware, they still didn't catch his attention. But there was one tiny motherfucker who was just messing with his mind.

It was so stupid really, if you thought about it. Rin had seen Nitori's body a thousand times, since they practiced together every single day, and he helped him with his training on a regular basis. But now, now all he could do was stare at that slim body of his like a creep.

Even when he had found out about his feelings towards his kouhai, he mostly thought about his face, and how cute and girly it was. He never really noticed his body until now, when he was wearing what Rin was sure was the tiniest pair of swimming trunks in the entire universe. It was as if the world was mocking him really.

There was also the fact that he had never liked a guy before, and it was a new and strange concept. He was used to look at a girl's cleavage like any other man, but now all he could look at was at Ai's perfect ass. He really liked it apparently, since he couldn't stop staring at it. Mostly when he was at the starting blocks and bending forwards.

He knew he needed to stop being a creep and worry about his own training, but his mind had other plans for him and he couldn't resist.

He spent half of practice just carefully taking in every inch of Ai's body while he knew that no one would think badly of him.

It was the perfect excuse to just say that he cared for Nitori's improvement, so he was simply paying close attention at his form so he could help him later on.

But it was a lie, a vile lie he would indulged in if it meant that he could keep looking at Ai's muscular legs, his lean but built arms, his broad shoulders, and the perfect curve between his back and his bum.

Of course, not everything was as perfect as that, Rin noticed, when it was his turn to get in the water and he had to remove the towel that covered his lap.

He managed to get to the starting blocks without much problem and once he hit the water, every dirty thought in his mind seemed to wash away.

He did his laps, and even managed to shave a few seconds from his time, realizing that maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all.

That was of course until his last lap, just as he was about to hit the wall. He saw Nitori waiting for him at the edge of the pool and he couldn't help but notice those pronounced hip bones and getting a little distracted. This caused him to hit the wall with his head a little bit too hard, making the entire team gasp and run to help.

Luckily for him, it wasn't a big deal, just a bump a minor headache, but he did manage scare everyone around.

After the school nurse thoroughly checked his head and made sure that it wasn't anything serious, she send him back, only to be sent back once again, only this time to his room by a very concerned captain.

He even asked Nitori to take him there, just to make sure he got there safely.

It was clear to everybody that Rin was in a foul mood, and he probably didn't want to be disturbed, so Nitori quickly helped him get into bed, and made his way towards the door.

"You're leaving?" Rin asked, quite surprised.

"I thought you would want to be alone. You look a little tired, so I figured you would go to sleep."

"I can't. We have plans for today"

"Don't worry about that! We can go somewhere tomorrow. Just try to rest a bit okay?"

"Don't wanna"

Rin was, honest to god, pouting and sulking like a 5 year old. He had managed to ruin their first day of the trial and now Nitori wanted to leave him alone.

"Don't be like that. You really scared us back there"

"Yeah well, it was all your fault"

"EHHH? How was it my fault?"

"Well, you distracted me"

"How did I even do that?"

"With your stupidly tiny shorts, that's how!"

Nitori blushed and tried to muffle his laughter. Rin wasn't looking at him, but he was sure that he was not only pouting, but he was probably blushing too.

"You are too cute, you know that?"

Nitori made his way back to the bed, and sat at the edge.

"Am not"

"Sure, whatever you say"

"Don't belittle me shorty!" Rin said as he turned around, ready to lash at him, only to find Nitori's face inches away from his own.

Nitori leaned in, gently placing his lips over Rin's. And just as the night before, time seemed to stop. Everything in the room fading to black, leaving nothing else but two hearts finally meeting again.

He then leaned back, gently stroked Rin's hair, making sure not to touch his injury.

"We could always stay in, maybe watch a movie and eat some ice cream?"

"W-whatever"

Nitori giggled to himself once again. Rin trying to act cool while still wearing such an obvious blush all over his face was kind of adorable really.

"Okay, then I'll bring some ice cream after practice is over okay?"

At the sound of this, Rin lifted himself up, looking surprised, if not actually betrayed.

"You're still leaving me?"

"Well, practice is not over yet and I have to improve my time and-"

Nitori couldn't finish his sentence when he saw the sad look on Rin's face. For once Rin actually wanted him by his side, and who was he to refuse him?

"Choose a movie, I'll just go get the ice cream okay? I'll be back in a second!"

When Nitori came back, he had two big bags in his hands, way too big for it to be just ice cream.

"I got us dinner as well. I hope that's okay."

"Sure. Just get over here."

Nitori ran towards the bed, bringing the ice cream with him.

He had to admit he was a little surprised when Moulin Rouge started playing. Rin really was a hopeless romantic after all, wasn't he?

They both munched happily at the dessert, completely engulfed by the movie, until Rin started to suspiciously sniff and tug at his eyes, pretending like he wasn't crying.

Nitori decided that it was probably a bad idea to bring it up, so he just added one more thing to his list of Reasons why Rin is cute.

Later on, they decided to have dinner, never leaving Rin's bed, and watch another movie.

Not so long into the second movie, Rin fell asleep, his head resting on Nitori's chest and his arms around his waist.

When Nitori noticed this, he closed the laptop, setting it aside and tried to untangle himself from Rin's grip. He really wanted the other to rest and take care of that bump.

But his plans were ruined once he moved one of Rin's arms and woke him up.

"Where are you going" Rin asked, free hand rubbing at his sleepy eyes.

"To my bunk. You should get back to sleep"

"I am" he said, putting his arm once again around Aiichiro waist.

"Rin, I'm serious. You need to rest"

"That's what I'm doing. I don't know what you're doing though"

"Trying to let you sleep" Nitori answered, clearly not amused.

Rin just tightened his grip and nuzzled closer to him.

"Just… don't leave. Please"

Even if he wanted, Ai would never be able to resist Rin's pleas, so he just sighed and made sure to put everything else away.

Gladly, the lights were already off, so he just went back under the covers, allowing Rin to snuggle back into him.

It was kind of a funny picture if you took notice of the different heights between the boys,what with the taller one being curled up onto the smaller boy's chest.

Nitori stared up at the bottom of his bunk, slowly stroking red hair, letting it slide between his slim fingers and wondering how he ever got so lucky.

Going by the even breathing of the boy tangled to him, Nitori assumed he was dreaming by now, but was pleasantly surprised when his head moved and looked up at him.

"Can't sleep?"

"I'm not really that tired"

He smiled down at him, tracing his fingers along his face.

"You really scared me today you know? I almost passed out when they pulled you out."

Rin hugged him a little tighter and nuzzled back into his chest.

"I'm sorry"

"It's okay. It was an accident."

"Thank you for staying with me"

Nitori wanted to look at that face so badly, but being it Rin, he made sure to hide away before confessing something so personal.

"Anytime" Nitori whispered quietly. He placed a kiss on top of Rin's head, before pulling him closer and he could swear he felt Rin smile against his skin.

"Good night Rin"

"Good night Ai"

A.N: I hope that wasn't such a wreck as I feel it is. Anyway, your reviews and comments are always appreciated! Thank you so much for reading this little story of mine. And I'll see you next time :)

timii95: Ahh I'm so happy you like it! But you're being too nice to me. And YEES I am happy about it too. I am such a sucker for long and slow startings. I don't know why, but anyway I hope I made you happy with this one too :D!

ClyDaAvatarFan: ahh thank you so much! And yes, Rin is just a ball of fluff, he just doesn't like to admit it. But we all know it. 3

Abby Keeper: I'm really glad you enjoy it. :) I was not aware of my constant change in points of view, but I did knew it was kind of hard to follow at times. I think that might be it, so I am working on it. Thank you so much for your comment :)