"Here's the program!" Miss A commented, handing Makoto the schedule for the day, as the other surrounded him to take a look at it too "It's packed" as they looked down at it, they heard voices approaching them, and all of them looked up to see Rin and Nitori heading their way.
"I don't know if you got the memo, but you need four people to compete" Rosa said mockingly, her arms folded in a smile as she looked at Rin "Don't tell me you're backing off already"
"Never" he said with a grin, before turning around and yelling "Hurry up, Lance, we don't have all day!"
"You certainly had time to wait for me, two more minutes won't kill you" the other boy replied calmly, walking some metres away from them. Everyone opened their eyes wide, they certainly weren't expecting Nate of all people to be there.
"Just how desperate were you to reclute this one?" Rosalya couldn't help asking, as she looked at Rin in amusement. The team they found for the main event was Rin and some people from Samezuka academy, but nobody had any idea that Nathan was included in it.
"Very" Nathan replied for the captain "You should've heard him over the phone, he was practically crying. I'm sure he was on the floor, too" Rin clenched his teeth in annoyance upon hearing his mocking. He usually played along with other people, but whenever Lance was involved his mood instantly dropped. He was completely irritating "'Please, Nathan, you're the only one that can do this, we need you!'" the brown haired put on a crying voice, in an effortless attempt to imitate the other guy.
"You know, there's still time to kick you off the team" Rin replied sharply, turning to look at him, his eyes glimmering with annoyance "If I were you, I'd be more careful"
"You know what? You're right" Nathan stated, his playful demeanor being replaced by complete seriousness, which again, took everyone by surprise "I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies, I didn't mean to offend you" he added, bowing exaggeratedly "Can you forgive me, Captain?" the maroon haired clearly didn't expect that to happen, and it showed in the way he stared at Nate for solid two minutes trying to process what he was seeing.
"Whatever" he resorted to say when he couldn't come up with anything else.
"Well, he's certainly a wild card" Rei commented meekly to his teammates.
"Have you met Nathan?" Rosa questioned "Wild card is his MO. He's even more unpredictable than Mikoshiba"
"Seems to me he just likes to joke around" Mako replied "Nothing wrong with that" if Nathan was around, there was no time to get bored. He always had some sort of antic to pull.
"We really appreciate you guys being here" Makoto commented, pulling him out of his thoughts, as the Iwatobi team approaching him, Nathan and Nitori.
"No problem"
"This is much better than reading a chapter on the cold war" Nate stated "Even if Rin here only called me as a last resort. I'll try not to feel offended" Rin just rolled his eyes at that comment.
"Thanks for asking us to come" Nitori commented sweetly "I've been looking forward to it"
"Cool, it should be fun!" Makoto replied with a smile.
"Here, take a few programmes" Gou indicated, handing the three of them two schedules.
"Thanks, these look great"
"You must've really wanted to be here if you called Nathan" Rosa said, approaching the maroon haired.
"You're not going to let that go, are you?" he commented unamused.
"Not a chance" she replied with a shake of her head, which only confirmed Rin's suspicions.
"You're lucky I love you" he said openly. The others were too far away to hear their conversation, all their attention placed on the programmes. Rosa's heart skept a beat upon hearing those three words, it felt as if she was hearing them for the first time every time, even though that was a long time ago. Probably around six months after they began going out.
It was the first Saturday morning of winter break. Gou and Miyako were out of town for a girl's weekend at a nearby spa, so Rin had the house for himself. Him and Rosalya had gone out the previous night, and she had slept over. Now, she was taking a shower while Rin waited in the kitchen to have breakfast together.
"I'm gonna go ahead and say it" he heard her voice behind, and when he turned around, he saw her approaching him, clothes on and towel on her head "Shower curtains should be illegal" Rin frowned upon hearing that unusual statement.
"Where did that come from?"
"Your bathroom is already creepy enough with that ghost ship staring at me" she stated, and Rin figured she was talking about the painting hanging from the wall, that showed a pirate ship in the middle of a storm. It was his father's idea to place it there and while he didn't have the courage to take it down, he had to admit it looked pretty eerie "You add the shower curtains? Picture perfect murder. That's how every person taking a shower in horror movies dies, because the don't see who's behind the curtain. I don't want my death to be something so cliche"
"You'd rather I kill you?" he questioned, following her lead "We can sit down and discuss how"
"Mmm….Tragic and beautiful, but still very cliche"
"Well, there really isn't any pleasing you, is there?" he asked with a lopsided grin.
"What can I say, I'm a girl with really high standards" Rin just chuckled upon hearing that, before approaching the kitchen counter and grabbing the pot sitting on the stove "Coffee?" he offered, giving her a glance over his shoulder.
"Of course" she replied, taking a seat at the small kitchen table. The boy raised a questioning eyebrow at her.
"What?" she asked, seemingly not noticing her appearance.
"You're going to drink it like that?" he asked, motioning to the towel on her head.
"Why not?" she replied, shrugging "If I can't wear a towel over my head on a saturday morning while I'm with the guy I'm going out with, then this relationship is all sorts of wrong" Rin blinked, staring at her askance, for a moment not really knowing how to react, before bursting out laughing.
"God, I love you" he said unconsciously, pouring coffee on the mug in front of her. She opened her eyes wide upon hearing those words, and just stared, her heart beating wildly, wondering if he had even realized what he had just said.
And just seconds later, seemed he did, cause his smile was soon replaced by the panic in his eyes.
"I-I mean…" he tried to come up with an excuse, while mentally smacking himself for being so...Careless about it. They had been going out for several months, but he still didn't even know if Rosalya was as serious about him as he was about her. How could he spill those words just like that?
Worse, how could he spill those words while pouring coffee to a girl with a towel over her head? That was definitely a bad idea. What if she thought he was mocking her? There was no way she'd want to look at him again after that.
He rummaged through his brain in search of anything he could say to make it better, when her voice interrupted him.
"You do?" she said, almost in a whisper, afraid the words floating in the air would fly away if she spoke too loudly.
Rin paused for a second. She didn't sound mad, or upset, or embarrassed.
Maybe he hadn't messed up afterall?
"Well…"
"Towel, coach mode, more pictures than clothes and everything?" she kept asking, pleading to whoever could hear her that she wasn't dreaming.
"I…" he took a deep breath. There was no going back now, his next words could make or break everything Rosalya and him had been working on for the past six months "Yeah, I do. You've helped me so much, Rosa. In ways that you can't even begin to imagine. I don't know where I'd be right now if you hadn't reached out to me when I returned to Iwatobi" the girl felt tears in her eyes, Rin had never been so open about his emotions with her before. She was sure it took a lot of courage for him to do it "And I know that we're not even officially dating, so maybe it's too soon to say that, but…"
"Rin" she interrupted him softly, standing up to approach him. She was done with the 'not dating officially' thing. Since the beginning of June, she and Rin had met up every week, had gone on several dates throughout town, texted each other until late every day, spent nights together, and none of them had met or been with anyone else. The fact that nobody knew about it didn't mean it wasn't real "I love you, too" a small gasp escaped the boy's lips.
"R-really?"
"Really" she assured with a nod "And let's face it, we are officially dating, we've been for, at least, four months. I'm standing on your kitchen with a towel over my head" she said, as if that was enough proof.
And funny thing was, it actually worked. And it brought a watery chuckle to Rin's lips.
"The reason I didn't say anything before was because I didn't want to freak you out, but I loved you even before we started this whole thing" Rin couldn't stop himself, he kissed her, right there and then, completely ignoring the towel, their pajamas and the fact that the two of them had just woken up.
Rosa smiled as she relieved that memory again.
From then on, everything changed. It was no longer 'Rin, the guy I'm going out with' but 'Rin, my boyfriend'. And she couldn't be happier about it.
"Earth to Rosa" Rin snapped his fingers in front of her, pulling her out of her thoughts "Still with me here?"
"Yeah" she nodded, looking up at him.
"You okay?" he asked, giving her a curious glance.
"Perfect" she assured, and it was then that she noticed that there was someone else standing besides them. Someone that wasn't there when she went on her trip down memory lane.
It was a guy, at least, two heads taller than her and one head taller than Rin, with black hair and deep blue eyes. He was staring at her intently, as if trying to analyze her. She felt a bit intimidated all of a sudden.
"This is Sosuke" Rin introduced, placing a hand on the guy's shoulder. Rosa frowned, trying to figure out why that name sounded so familiar to her.
And then, it came to her.
"From Sano elementary?" she questioned. Rin had told her about him, they were best friends as kids, practically brothers. They swam in the same team and everything, but due to some differences, serious differences, in opinion, they never did that again.
Her boyfriend nodded.
"Nice to meet you" she said, turning to look at Sosuke and sticking her hand out for him to shake "I'm-"
"Rosalya from England" he finished the sentence for her, and she was surprised to see that he knew who she was "Pleasure's mine" he shook her hand, a friendly smile replacing the stern expression he had on just seconds ago "Rin's told me all about you"
"Oh, that's never good" she said with a small chuckle.
"Shut up" replied her boyfriend, rolling his eyes.
"I'm looking forward to swimming with you eventually" Sosuke commented, making her smile. She knew that was not gonna happen today, since there were already four people, but some other time, specially if he was part of Samezuka now.
"Likewise"
Maybe the guy wasn't so bad as he appeared to be after all.
"So?" Rin questioned to Rosa, as they walked back to the main area of the swimming club after grabbing two drinks from the vending machine at the entrance. There were quite a few people outside, the posters around town had definitely done the trick "How much?"
"0.5 Seconds" she replied, taking a sip from her soda "But don't get too cocky, I'll catch up to you before you even notice" Iwatobi had won the medley, but Rin had beaten Rosa's time for only a few seconds. And Sosuke was super close to Haru, all that talk about 'world class badass' that Mikoshiba did that final day was definitely not a bluff. The way Sosuke swam and moved in the water, it was as if he owned it. Rosa knew that the guys and her would have to train very hard if they wanted to beat someone like him.
"I'm counting on it" the bustle and hustle of the main area got close, and soon the two of them were back there. The amount of people had increased exponentially, most of them probably arrived just before the medley started, it being the main event and all.
Rosa looked around, in search of the guys in between everyone, and pretty soon she saw them, talking with the guys from Samezuka and Gou.
Or, rather, standing with them, as Nagisa and Rei talked fervently with Nathan, who looked like he had no idea of what he was hearing.
"What's going on there?" Rin questioned with a frown.
"I don't know, but if Nagisa's involved, it can't be good" she replied half-joking, just as Nathan raised his gaze, meeting her.
"Rosa, you didn't tell me we were dating!" he said loudly, pulling Mako, Haru, Gou, Nitori and Sosuke from their respective conversations. Rosalya arched her eyebrows upon hearing those words, and exchanged looks with Rin, who was as lost.
"What?" she questioned, utterly confused, looking at the youngest members of Iwatobi, who were avoiding her gaze not so subtlety. This was definitely their doing. The rest of the guys seemed equally confused.
"These guys" he motioned to Nagisa and Rei "Are under the impression that you have a secret boyfriend" Rosa couldn't say she was surprised, Nagisa did seem pretty interested in her dating life "I didn't know it was me, you're good"
Rosa looked at Rin once again, wondering if it was even possible that their friends were so clueless.
And then, they bursted out laughing. This was too much, things had gone too far. Rosalya dating Nathan? That was not going to happen, not even in a million years.
"What's so funny?" Rei questioned, kind of annoyed at being left out of whatever they had going on.
"You are hilarious" Rosa said once she had calmed down, though she still let out a giggle every once and again "Nathan is not my boyfriend"
"But then who else could it be?" Nagisa wondered, and Rosa gave him a 'seriously?' look. She stared at the other faces present there to see if any of them had figured it out, but nobody seemed to have a clue.
"You guys are unbelievable" Rin commented, folding his arms.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Gou questioned in offense, and Rosa couldn't believe she didn't know either. She was one of the only person that knew from the beginning that she liked her brother.
"My boyfriend is standing right here with me, and none of you notice" Rosa picked up where Rin left off.
"Right here?" Nagisa questioned, and began to look around, in search of the person. Rosa and Rin exchanged a 'seriously?' glance upon seeing he still didn't seem to get it. Apparently straightforwardness was the only thing he was able to comprehend.
"Guys, it's Rin" she finally admitted, noticing the guessing game was going to get them nowhere "I'm dating Rin" for a moment, there was silence between them, only interrupted by the sounds of the other strangers speaking in the room and some kids jumping in the water. Rosa scanned everyone's faces, and they seemed so askance that she wondered if they had even heard her.
And then, chaos broke out. They heard yells of 'Congratulations!' and 'Finally!' coming from all around, causing the passersby that had no idea of what these kids were yelling about to look at them in pure confusion. Rosa found herself being pulled from all directions, involved in different hugs of all types: front hugs, side hugs, back hugs and a particular one that crashed her ribs in a rather violent way, probably from Gou, who was upset that she hadn't told her earlier about it. The can of soda she had been holding fell down, spilling all its contents on the already wet floor. She hoped Sasabe wouldn't be too mad about it.
Amongst all the hustle, she managed to take a look at Rin, who was in the same position as her, only that he looked slightly more annoyed, probably because Nathan was teasing him again. Though she noticed his irritation was relatively low in comparison to the other times the brown haired mocked him.
She thought everyone was exaggerating, it's not like they had just announced their marriage, but at least she was glad to know that their friends were as happy as them.
"How long?" Makoto questioned once the enthusiasm subsided, and people got back to their regular conversations.
"About nine months now" Rin replied.
"What?!" Nitori questioned loudly "And you managed to hide it all this time?"
"We can be quite sneaky when we want to" the maroon haired replied, folding his arms with a grin.
"I seriously can't believe you didn't realize earlier" Rosalya spoke up.
"You never told us that you liked Rin, how were we supposed to know?" Nagisa questioned logically.
"I didn't tell you I liked Nathan either, and that didn't seem to stop you" she replied "By the way, what made you think I was dating him?" Nagisa and Rei opened their eyes wide, and exchanged nervous glances.
"Uh.."
"No, forget it, I don't wanna know" even though they didn't say anything, she could tell they certainly weren't proud about the way they came to that conclusion.
"I think that's for the better" Makoto commented with a small smile "I have to admit you surprised me" Rosalya didn't know whether he was being sarcastic or not, and if he wasn't, she wondered what planet he had been living on for the past year.
"Rin was the obvious choice" a quiet voice spoke up, belonging to none other than Haruka.
"What? Haru, you knew?" Rei questioned.
"Just a hunch" he replied, which was a lie. The truth was that he had seen them holding hands the day of the cherry blossoms, when they thought nobody was looking. And nobody was, except for one.
"Why didn't you say anything?" he just shrugged in response.
"So, when's the wedding?" Nathan questioned "I wanna be Rin's best man, it's my only goal in this life"
"Unfortunately, you're not going to be invited to that" the maroon haired replied, and Rosa arched her eyebrows in surprise upon hearing that. Usually, when Nathan made a comment like that, he didn't have a problem in replying in a very serious and annoyed manner, to show that he wasn't cutting him any slack, but now there was a hint of mockery hidden behind his fiery eyes "You'll have to find another goal"
"You wound me, truly" he replied, placing a hand on his chest in a very dramatic manner "I thought we had something going on here. We just had a very deep bonding experience, we swam a relay together. Is that not enough for you?"
"No, still hate you" his captain stated, but Rosa could see a ghost of a smile on his face.
The mood was very lively that day, everyone celebrating the very happy news of their two friends and teammates, but there was one person who couldn't rejoice about it.
And he was not going to let it slide just like that.
