Losing Makoto

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Rin honestly did not know what Makoto was planning for his PV as all they got him to do was swim a few laps of butterfly. Rin and Haru also ended-up having a 100m free race just for the hell of it, which also did get filmed. Although Rin wasn't sure if they were going to use that. Haru too swam a few laps of the front crawl before just taking to soaking in the pool and just swimming free. Makoto seemed to have arranged it so that they could have the pool all to themselves after the production crew had got what they needed. So Haru could just enjoy the water for some time to come. Since this was the first time in weeks he got to just be in the water without coaches yelling instructions and stuff like that, Haru couldn't care less how they were going to use the footage and instead, just let all thoughts go as he become one with the water.

"Are you just going to sit and watch Haru swim?" demanded Rin as he came-up to Makoto, who was sitting by the pool side.

"Yep," replied Makoto, "I feel too lazy to keep swimming and watching Haru swim relaxes me," he confessed, "It's like watching a dolphin play."

"You are so weird!" commented Rin, sitting down next to him.

"What does that say about you, since you are friends with me?" wondered Makoto.

"I need new friends?" offered Rin.

Makoto laughed, "I am sure you have tons in the National team," Rin winched, "And probably will have more in time and forget all about your old friends," he said with a smile, "Well maybe not Haru but certainly me. Especially if this modelling and pop star thing doesn't work out and my face isn't plastered around the place."

"Makoto, do you really think you are that easy to forget?" wondered Rin.

"I honestly have no idea," replied Makoto, "I haven't put enough time and distance between the people I want to remember me forever. But honestly who knows who would remember me past high school. Maybe even Haru-chan and I would have lost touch in college. I wouldn't have wanted it of course and done everything in my power to be Haru-chan's best friends forever. But time and distance will work their ruin," he admitted sadly.

Rin didn't have a response to that, so instead he asked, "So tell me about this PV."

"It's a secret!" replied Makoto, "But its about swimming."

"I guessed that much!"

Makoto laughed, "Just wait, it'll be released soon enough."

As the preparations for the Asian games trials heated-up, even Haru had to stopped going to Makoto's apartment as the swim team instigated a strict curfew. Haru didn't like it one bit. Especially when he saw Makoto's overpacked schedule and wondered if Makoto was eating right or just surviving on chocolate, whether he was getting enough sleep.

For his part, Makoto fretted about Haru's forced confinement with other people. Indeed, that's all Makoto could chat about when once again the two of them had been reduced to communicating electronically.

Makoto: I hope you are getting sometime to yourself.

Haru: I am fine. The curfew doesn't leave me time to go to your place and come back but I have enough time to go for walks. There is a park nearby that's quite and secluded. I feed the ducks there.

Makoto: Haru, you don't jump into the pond do you?

Haru: Of course not! It's no fun when you are not around.

Makoto: What's that supposed to mean.

Haru: If you are not here, all it means is that I'll get to go straight into the water.

Makoto: Isn't that what you want to do?

Haru: Yes but being able to get into the water just like that is boring! It's more fun to be held back, pulled against your broad, strong chest while I am half-naked, fighting against your iron grip to get to the water… being able to best you and get to the water, now that's a challenge!

Makoto:.

Makoto: You know Haru, if anyone read what you wrote, they would think you were flirting with me and had the hots for me.

Haru: And what do you think.

Makoto: I think Haru is cruel for teasing me.

Haru: One of us is cruel.

Makoto: What's that supposed to mean?

Haru: It means you lost this round of mind reading. As penalty for losing, you have to take me to a cat cafe that serves mackerels.

Makoto: I would have done that even if I won. (^.^) Anyway, Haru, I have to go. The quiz show is about to start

Haru put away his phone and absently wondered how Makoto was going to go on the quiz show. Well to be precise, it was the quiz portion of a popular nightly variety show. The segment Makoto was filming wouldn't be aired until tomorrow but Haru wasn't sure if he would get a chance to see it. He hadn't been to the dorm rec room yet and didn't know if he would be allowed to just flip the channel to Makoto's quiz show. But unfortunately, they didn't have a TV in their room. Haru sighed and checked the time. He needed to get back to the dorm.

Competitive swimming at the national level was as awful and restrictive as he always imagined it to be. But for now, it was the only thing he could think of doing. Not that he didn't have options. A casual mention of university got his email flooded with helpful information from Rei, who even went so far as to create lists of top universities for fine art and graphic design, including information on part-time jobs that would be beneficial to his career and not just be a source of income, such as work as an assistant to a manga artist.. A comment that Haru didn't think he could work for anyone but was considering opening his own business resulted in being flooded with even more information but this time on how to start a business and the likes.

Haru was grateful and the information Rei had sent him certainly gave him a lot to think about. But one thing was clearly, Haru needed a portfolio of his work. Haru had helped Makoto put together a portfolio and while a modelling portfolio and an artist's portfolio were not the same, they both needed to demonstrate that the person whose portfolio it was had a range of abilities and show how developed those abilities where. In a nutshell, Haru had a lot of work to do before who had something to do in Tokyo that wasn't competitive swimming.

"It's fine," he said to himself, "I get to be in the same city as Makoto again, with more chances to see him and be with him, its fine for now. If worse, comes to worse, I'll use the money grandmother left me live on while I work on a portfolio," because Haru wasn't certain about anything where his parents were concerned and did not know if he could count on them to support him, should he just decide to just work on his portfolio. His mother would most likely understand but his father… he wasn't so sure. At any rate, Haru had his own reasons to want to become totally independent of his parents as soon as possible.

"He's handsome," commented the female manager of one of the idols who was going to be on the quiz segment with Makoto as she and the idol in question watched Makoto text on his phone, sitting quietly on one corner of the green room.

"He's big," replied the idol in question, the lead singer of a visual kei band whose physic would be described as scrawny, "You know what they say about big guys?" they kept their voices low but Makoto had his large orange headphones on, so there was no danger of him overhearing them.

"They are fun to ride in bed?" offered the manager.

"They're stupid!" corrected the idol.

"Why can't they be both?" wondered the manager, "I mean, I don't care if he's stupid as long as he can get it up and keep it up until I am satisfied."

The idol laughed, "You have a one track mind. But I am pretty sure they don't call him St. Tachibana because he's experienced in the bedroom."

"I don't know, have you seen that ad for 'Seduction' he was in? That was steamy!" she replied, "Plus a friend of a friend is part of the cast on a film where he has a small part. They said that the actress he had to kiss praised his skill."

"A friend of a friend heard he was a good kisser and a kiss for a 30s ad is not enough evidence that he's not a blushing virgin," replied the idol annoyed. He really didn't like Makoto. Mostly because some of his (relatively unsuccessful) friends who were making a living as studio musicians were working on Makoto's debut album and wouldn't shut-up about how good Makoto was. Not that he cared about his loser friends opinion.

"He's an idiot," said the idol, with more passion than he intended, "He looks like an idiot. A smiling idiot who probably has vast amounts of empty space between his ears. His debut album will probably suck, music wise, maybe it'll sell a bit because he has a pretty face but that's about it."

The manager blinked, that seemed really harsh, "He could have a good voice and I also hear they are getting him to write some of his own material. So maybe he'll turn out to be a musical genius! I mean, you haven't even heard him sing."

"Just whose manager are you?" demanded the idol, "Besides, there are a lot of musical geniuses who can't do anything in front of the mic. Music is about the whole package! Image, music and everything. He's got no image."

"St Tachibana isn't an image?" wondered the manager. The idol glared at her but before he could reply, an assistant came into greenroom to call everybody to the quiz set.

"Good luck," Makoto said to the idol with a smile, as they passed each other.

"Good luck to you too," replied the idol, coldy.

But Makoto replied with a genuine smile, "Thanks! I am not very good with general knowledge, so I'll need it," he said honestly, "But I hear there is a literature and history category, so hopefully I won't be at zero."

The idol smiled politely at Makoto as he gave his manager a look. His manager correctly interpreted as meaning, "See, big and stupid."

There were four celebrities for a the roughly 18 minute quiz segment consisting of five 3 minute rounds book ended by a one minute rapid fire round. The person with the highest score at the end of the starting rapid fire round got to pick the question category for the first 3 minute round and then the person with the highest score at the end of the round got to pick the category for the next round and so on, until it was time for the ending rapid fire round.

Makoto didn't do too well in the starting rapid fire round. Managing to only buzz in for one question, "What's the capital of Australia" and that he only knew because of what Rin had told him. Makoto couldn't help but wish he had Rei's breadth of knowledge. Fortunately for him, the first category picked was "food & drinks" that was mostly questions about what various dishes and drinks were called, as well as some questions on names of cooking techniques. Makoto was, as Haru put it, all paws when it came to cooking, but Rin didn't just love cooking he also loved talking about cooking. So Makoto ended-up knowing a lot of the answers.

However, he didn't know enough to win the round. The next category picked was current affairs but ended-up being a bunch of questions about celebrities. Makoto knew a few things he had heard from Shiori but just enough to not fall too far behind. He had no hope of winning the round but fortunately, the winner of the round picked "books" as the next category.

Makoto loved reading novels, as did Haru. Although Rei, and even Rin, would have beaten them in the amount of overall books read but that wasn't the point here. The questions were mostly about novels and Makoto answered enough to not only reach par with the top scorer but edge her out by one question to have the highest score at the end of the round. So Makoto got to pick the next category and he picked history. Makoto was good with history and won the round but didn't know what to choose thing. He opted for "sports" even though, truthfully speaking, he didn't really know much sport trivia and he could pretty much guess that most of the questions would be about baseball or association football. Makoto's guess proved true but he was still able to answer a few questions. But Makoto had a good lead built-up from the previous two rounds and so entered the last rapid fire round in the lead.

He did better in the rapid fire, in that he managed to answer two questions this time. But that wasn't enough to maintain his lead and Makoto ended the game tied, which lead to the tie breaker question, "When did Japan first take part in the Summer Olympic games?"

Now this one Makoto did know the answer to, thanks to Rin, "1912 in Stockholm."

"Correct! So our winner today is Tachibana Makoto-san! Look forward to his new album, coming out in November!" before moving on to plug the drama of the actress who came second and thanking everybody for participating.

"Looks like he wasn't as stupid as you thought he was," the visual kei idol's manager could not help but say when she met-up with him back in the green room.

"Shut up," he barked and would have said a few other things to vent his anger at coming 3rd, behind Makoto and a drama actress who had been the one to tie with Makoto, but Makoto chose that moment to enter the green room and so the conversation could not continue.

"Good work today," Makoto said politely, "You were really good in the rapid fire rounds," it was true. The Visual Kei idol had taken an early lead by winning the rapid fire round and had held his own against the drama actress in the food and current affair category and again in the ending rapid fire round. It's just that Makoto had dominated the books and history rounds. Meaning that the Visual Kei idol had actually helped secure Makoto's victory by fighting viciously against the drama actress.

Perhaps it was this realisation that made the idol's reply to Makoto's polite comments clipped, "Thanks," the idol replied, doing his best to appear unwelcoming.

Makoto took the hint and after shooting another polite smile, moved on to grab his stuff and leave. "Why don't you like him?" wondered the idol's manager once Makoto had left the room.

"He reminds me of some of the kids I used to go to school with," said the idol, "They always seem to get places without paying their dues. St Tachibana is no different. Everything is getting handed to him in a silver platter and its just unfair!"

"I think you picked the wrong industry for fairness," commented the manager, "So much of what we do is based on luck and luck isn't fair," the idol didn't say anything until the 4th participants of the quiz show came in.

It was the model Hinamori Chizuru, Makoto's frequent collaborator, "Ah! Good work today!"

"Thanks," replied the idol more genuinely, "You worked hard too, so thank you."

"Ah! I didn't do so well! I kept getting beaten to the buzzer! But Mako-chan was awesome wasn't he?" she asked, "I work with him often. He's really great! So nice and handsome and smart. He's always looking out for me. I wish I could date him!"

"Oh, why can't you?" wondered the idol.

"He's not allowed," replied Hinamori with a pout, "I was in the middle of confessing to him when Yamagami Shiori-san, ah that's Mako-chan's manager, just barged in and told me he's not allowed," her pout deepened, "It's not fair!"

The visual kai idol ground his teeth while his manager commemorated, "Oh that's awful! But it's probably only until the debut and maybe the debut tour. I am sure he'll be allowed to date soon."

Hinamori visibly brightened, "You think so? That would be so awesome! I mean, well, Mako-chan would have to accept my confession but I am sure he will!"

"I am sure too!" replied the manager. Hinamori flashed a smile and went on her way, "Ah to be so young again!" The Visual Kei idol just rolled his eyes and added another reason to why he didn't like Makoto.

Haru walked into the rec room determine to hog the TV and watch Makoto's quiz performance. He had gone so far as to instruct Makoto not to let him know how he went, so as not to be spoilt. He came in to find the TV tuned to a show about stray cats lifting fish and being judged by the weight of the fish the cats were able to carry away. Haru made a mental note to watch the show with Makoto since it was something Makoto would enjoy.

"Nanase!" said someone… Kamazuka, Haru thought his name was, "It's unusual to see you in the rec room!"

"My childhood friend is going to be on TV," Haru got straight to the point, "I wanted to watch him."

"Oh?" said someone else. Haru wasn't sure if he was called Murasaki or was Murashibara but he was sure the guy had 'Mura-' in his name, "Which channel and what's he going to do?"

"I bet it's the ninja show," said Nasi, a fellow freestyle swimmer who Haru did know, "Well I hope its the ninja show."

"No, he's going to be on a quiz segment of a variety show," replied Haru, "I think its on Tokyo MX."

"Ah that's boring!" replied Nasi.

"What's going on?" asked Mikoshiba coming in.

"We are about to watch Nanase's childhood friend take part in a quiz show," replied Kamazuka as he changed the channel to Tokyo MX.

"Oh? Tachibana is going to be on TV?" asked Mikoshiba but without waiting for an answer sat down on the couch in front of the TV, "This should be interesting."

"Let's make it more interesting!" commented Muraski or Murashibara or whatever his name was.

"What do you have in mind, Murai-san," wondered Nasi.

"Well that wasn't helpful at all", thought Haru as he sat down next to Mikoshiba, "Murai-san could be short for Muraski or Murashibara. Whatever, it doesn't look like I have to address him by name tonight so it's fine for now," Haru reasoned, not really wanting to say the wrong name.

"Let's play along with the quiz!" suggested Murai.

"Great idea," joined in Mikoshiba, "But we'll need buzzers."

"I have a whistle," came a new voice, Noro Masaru, a freestyle swimmer from Samezuka. Well like Mikoshiba, he had graduated but that was a detail no one paid much attention to.

"I'll use my phone!" said Nasi, "I just downloaded a buzzer app!"

"Eh! I'll do that too!" and soon everybody was scrambling to get buzzer apps or various noisemakers.

"How annoying," thought Haru but he was glad that everybody seemed to want to enjoy watching Makoto and as long as Haru got to watch Makoto, he could tolerate everybody making annoying noises.

"Haru… I got…" started Rin as he entered the rec room to find it in pandemonium, "What's going…"

"We are about to play along with Tachibana Makoto's quiz appearance," came the reply from behind Rin, "At least that's who I understand is Nanase's childhood friend. He was the captain of the Iwatobi swimclub wasn't he," it wasn't really a question.

"Kawamura…" Rin identified turning around, "... senpai," he added belatedly. It's not that Rin held a grudge against Kawamura for taking his place in the Samezuka relay team last year. He just… actually he had no idea what his problem with Kawamura was, he just didn't like the guy.

"I hope they can hear my bell," he commented absently as he passed Rin, holding a little bell charm, the kind they sometimes sold at shrines, "But its my lucky charm, so it should be okay," he continued, "I got it the day I got back my place in the relay. A place that had been stolen from me," that last part was clearly intended as a bard towards Rin.

Rin opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out. Besides, Kawamura hadn't waited around for a reply and Rin didn't want to make a spectacle of himself by confronting Kawamura in the middle of the rec room. Instead, he turned back and headed towards his dorm room. As Haru enjoyed Makoto's performance with the rest of the swim team in the rec room, Rin broke out the mini TV he had just bought, so that he and Haru could watch the show in their room, and watched by himself.

"Well at least," thought Rin, "I no longer have to feel bad about not liking Kawamura."

Makoto wasn't sure why thursday was a good day to launch a PV but Shiori assured him it was the best day of the week. So on Thursday, July 31st, Makoto's PV was officially released on the internet to various videos and received a play on a music video program on TV. The talent agency through a party, costs to be added to Makoto's ledger, for the production crew that helped with the PV and recording Makoto's single, which was also be released that day. However, Makoto's friends and family could not attend the event.

Haru, who along with Rin were forbidden from leaving their dorm on account of the Asian games trials starting the next day. His siblings had school that next day and his parents work. Makoto let them know that he didn't want to disrupt either and so they should just watch on TV or watch on the internet. He said the same to his friends, although he was half afraid that Nagisa would still convince everybody to skip school and come to Tokyo. He told them all that he rather they be at his live show on August 16th. That was the big thing, this was just the pre-event and an excuse to relax and have a party as reward for the hard work they had already put in.

Still, Makoto couldn't help but wonder if Haru and Rin would have an opportunity to see his PV. He hoped they did and he hoped they both liked it. Especially Rin since Makoto had put something special in the PV, just for Rin. Makoto wasn't even sure if Rin would even register the shots as being anything special or if the shots would do anything for Rin but he hoped it would put a smile on Rin's face, even if for a little while.

"Mako-chan, Mako-chan, its starting!" said one of the girls on the production crew. The room hushed as everybody gathered around the big screen projection as the hosts of the show started their introductory banter.

Several kilometers and multiple train stops away, Haru and Rin were getting ready to watch Makoto's PV on the mini TV Rin had gotten. Rin had told Haru to just go to the rec room but since Haru knew Rin wasn't going to join, he decided to watch with Rin. Besides, it was less troublesome this way, or so Haru told himself. However, Mikoshiba had other plans.

He threw open their door just as the hosts started their banter and demanded, "What are you two doing? Come on! You'll miss Tachibana's PV! Let's go, let's go!"

Haru got up and said to Rin, "It's better to watch on a bigger screen," starting to follow Mikoshiba.

"You, you wanted to watch in the rec room all along didn't you," said Rin, Haru didn't answer. Rin sighed and followed Haru and Mikoshiba.

They entered the rec room just as the PV started with a black screen and Makoto's voice singing the intro and then came the water and the drums and guitars and Makoto's voice rocking out. It was as if he was standing in the middle of a stormy sea and singing.

Most of the time the sea was dark and scary but then the sea would turn bright and when it did, one of his friends would be in the water. Rei, Nagisa, Rin… Rin gasped out loud when he saw himself on screen. He couldn't believe it! Makoto remembered… but Rin knew he remembered but still… to actually do it…to actually see it...

The moment with Rin was over. Haru came into the ocean and everything became bright and warm. There was so much light, light and water mingling to create a beautiful calm blue. But then they switched to an actual stadium pumping with energy and raw emotions. Not unlike the atmosphere during a race and there was a race taking place. Haru and Rin were racing in the 100m in the pool in the centre of the stadium. Digital magic put Makoto between the lanes Haru and Rin were occupying. But then everything calmed again as the final lines of the song were sung. This time Makoto was in front as in the background Rei, Nagisa, Rin and Haru lined-up thanks to clever editing because they certainly had not been able to be on set together.

"Get set go," Makoto sang and in the background everybody jumped into the water.

"Wow that was awesome," said Nasi, "I am suddenly pumped and want to go swimming!"

"We should totally play the song in the locker room tomorrow!" said Noro.

"Way ahead of you," replied Mikoshiba playing with his phone, "Bought and downloading!"

"Do you think Tachibana will mind if we pump his song in the locker room?" asked Nasi, turning towards the back to address Haru, "Some artists… what the hell Matsuoka!"

Everybody turned to Rin at the exclamation, "Rin!" explained Haru, the concern permeating his voice, "Why are you crying?"

"Crying?" thought Rin, just then realising that his vision had become blurry with tears and that he had a hand over his mouth to stifle the sobs. He hadn't realised. Just as he hadn't seen anything of the PV past his first appearance. He couldn't really think of anything besides seeing himself swimming the butterfly, through a waters laden with cherry blossoms as even more cherry blossoms swirled in the wind. Beautiful, perfect, digital cherry blossoms.

It had been a stupid childhood wish, born of the moment when Rin had first seen the tall majestic cherry tree standing besides the pool at Iwatobi Elementary. He didn't really think much of the wish. He didn't even care enough to try and realise it. Always just accepting that when the cherry blossoms were in bloom, it would be too cold to swim in an outdoor pool. Then why was he crying? Why had the sight made him so happy? He didn't know and maybe, it didn't matter.

"Rin?" Haru probed again, gently, getting a little worried by his lack of response.

"I don't know," he finally replied to Haru's question about why he was crying, "But its okay. I am actually very, very happy," suddenly he smirked, "Tomorrow can't come fast enough. I ready to kick some serious ass!"

Author's Note: I kid you not, that cat lifting fish thing is an actual Japanese show I saw on TV last time I was in Japan. It was adorable and hilarious!

Incidentally, Noro Masaru and Kawamura Tetsuo are from episode 11 of Free! There names were on the final list of relay swimmers for Samezuka. Going purely by the order in which the names were presented, my guess is that Kawamura Tetsuo was the butterfly swimmer who was put in instead of Rin. I decided that both were 3rd year at the time of Free! and having graduated, like Mikoshiba, were trying their luck as pro swimmers.

Also, I honestly don't know why I went to so much detail with Makoto's quiz show but I kept thinking of all the mangas I read where there were celebrities and they all seem to go on quiz shows while getting started or even when they are established. So I am like, maybe that's a thing you do in Japan when you are starting out or just looking to promote something… and that's why Makoto ended-up on a quiz show.