A/N: I've always wanted to explore the idea of how Makoto's almost drowning could have affected Haru, so here's my take on one of the other possible outcomes. I had a lot of fun writing this, but it's emotionally draining, too. I hope you guys enjoy. Comments and always appreciated!

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Haru had never been so scared in his life. Nothing had ever left him feeling as empty as he did now, staring at his best friend's unconscious body on the beach. His head was screaming at him to do something, anything, but all he seemed to be able to manage was staring. Staring and trembling.

He reached out cautiously to touch Makoto and suppressed a shudder at how cold he felt. Just the water, Haru told himself as he forced his body to comply finally. It's the water on his skin that's cold, not his skin itself.

He looked Makoto over once—no injuries. With a deep breath he moved his body forward, not feeling the rain on his shoulders or the way his hair stuck to his face. He couldn't feel anything beside the gap that was opening up in his heart and threatening to swallow him whole. For the first time he was thankful for how much they had been forced to practice CPR, because his body was acting on auto-pilot and that was the only way anything was going to get done.

With trembling fingers, he reached out to pinch Makoto's nose and leaned over him, ready to start his breaths. Just before he could begin, Makoto jerked to his side and began coughing. The instantaneous relief Haru felt was something he didn't think he would ever be able to describe.

"Makoto! Makoto!" He called, fighting the urge to reach out and shake Makoto.

"Ha…ru…ka?" Makoto's green eyes searched the sky for a moment before settling on Haru's blue ones.

Carefully Haru reached out to touch Makoto and in that moment, he realized nothing could ever scare him more than this. He couldn't imagine a worse nightmare.

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Nagisa was laughing loudly in the pool, splashing Rei and Gou, if she ever dared come close enough to the edge of the pool. The three of them were in high spirits as they talked and enjoyed the warm weather of the summer.

Makoto sat at the edge of the pool with his feet in the water, leaning back on his hands and looking up at Haru who was perched on one of the diving boards, legs pulled up to his chest.

"Don't you want to go in?" Makoto prompted, nodding his head towards the pool.

Haru didn't reply, but he slid his eyes to Makoto, then to the pool, and finally away from both of them and off in the distance. That was all Makoto needed to know that the answer was no. For the first time in their entire lives, he found himself unable to get Haru in the pool.

Nanase Haruka had turned down the chance to go swimming.

While Makoto sat quietly next to him, worried about Haru, Nagisa swam over and reached up, trying to get his hands on Haru's ankles. Haru backed away slightly and, when Nagisa persisted, he stood up and left entirely. He picked his backpack up and began the walk home with no warning.

Makoto scrambled up, apologizing to everyone and offering them quick goodbyes before scooping his own backpack off the ground and chasing after Haru.

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Haru had started meeting Makoto at the top of the stairs between their houses in the morning. In fact, Makoto would walk out to find Haru already sitting on the top step, watching the sky.

Haru insisted that he was fine, but Makoto was completely unnerved. He didn't mind change, but these were drastic changes. This was Haru being someone other than Haru and it was starting to really worry Makoto.

As a last-ditch effort, Makoto stopped walking on their way to school and turned to his dark-haired best friend. "What do you say we skip school today and take a beach day?"

Haru scoffed.

"I'm serious!" Makoto stepped in front of Haru, blocking his path, "You haven't been in the water as much as normal and I'm sure it's killing you. It's the end of the semester and we've both been really good with studying, we can take one day off and go to the beach."

"I don't want to go to the beach," Haru said, turning his head away. And Makoto couldn't help but notice that Haru was staring towards the town and not out towards the ocean like he always was.

"But, the water-!"

"I don't want to go in the water!" The force behind Haru's words surprised Makoto. Haru looked at him levelly, his face just as indifferent as always, but Makoto felt his heart shatter in his chest. Something was truly wrong with Haru.

"Haru…" Makoto reached out to gently touch his best friend, placing his hand against Haruka's neck. "Tell me what this is about."

Haru stared as stubbornly as ever out towards the town, his mouth set in a hard line. It was clear from his expression that he had no intent of telling Makoto what was wrong. But the longer Makoto looked, the more he noticed the subtleties of Haru's expression. He could see the look in Haru's eyes—fear. He could see the way Haru was biting on the corner of his lip—a nervous habit of his that Makoto had thought died years ago.

Perhaps the habit hadn't died, it was just that Haru hadn't been upset in years.

Makoto sighed and moved his hand to Haru's shoulder, giving it a squeeze, "When you're ready to tell me what happened, we'll talk about it, alright?"

He didn't get a reply, but he could see Haru looking at him out of the corner of his eyes. He could see the relief that seemed to replace the fear in those beautiful blue eyes. Without another word they fell in line next to each other again and began their walk to school like none of this had ever happened.

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It had been a little over a week since Makoto had confronted Haruka and yet Haru still kept his secret locked away. It had been a week of Haru shutting everyone out and refusing to participate in anything social and Makoto rushing to say they already had plans or needed to take care of his siblings to cover for Haru's mood.

The others seemed to take it at face value and not push any further. At one point they had been suspicious of why Haru had stopped swimming but once Makoto had insisted that Haru had injured his shoulder and Haru hadn't disputed, they let it go.

Makoto was getting more anxious every day that passed without an explanation from Haru, but he knew that pressing the issue would never get him anywhere. He had to wait for Haruka to decide it was time to talk about it and nothing but time could help him make that decision. Makoto just hoped the time would come soon, lest he go insane from worry.

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It was the last day of school and Makoto and Haruka finished their finals at almost exactly the same time. Haru walked out of his class to see Makoto walking up, backpack on and ready to go.

Makoto smiled his usual smile (one that was growing more and more tired and worried, Haru noticed) as he raised his hand in slight greeting. "Ready to go home?"

"Actually," Haru replied, falling in step next to him, "I think we should take a detour to the beach."

Makoto agreed without hesitation, hopeful that he was finally going to get to the bottom of all that had been troubling Haru. On their way, they talked about their exams and how excited they were to be done with school. Makoto longed to mention that they could be using their free time to swim more, but he knew better than to bring it up now. Haru had to start the conversation.

They finally made it to the beach and took a seat on an outcropping of rocks, decently far away from where the waves lapped idly at the shore. They sat next to each other, so close that their knees were touching. Neither moved further away.

After a minute Haru finally sighed and spoke up, "I'm sorry," he said, "For worrying you."

Makoto didn't reply. He knew there was nothing he could say.

"I just—" Haru broke off, running a hand through his hair. Makoto watched him as he gathered his words and noticed the way he was biting his lip again. "I almost lost you." He said finally, looking up earnestly into Makoto's face, "The water tried to take you away from me."

Makoto was shocked, "Haru—"

Haru continued talking, seeming to force the words out. The look he shot Makoto pleaded with him to just listen for now. He just needed to get this out. "I was so scared. The water—you know how much I trusted the water. I knew you were afraid of it, but I never knew why. And now I know. You're right, there's something dark lurking down there. It's just waiting to claim its prey. And that prey was almost you, Makoto."

Makoto reached out and touched Haru's cheek. His eyes were shining with what Haru realized to be tears. Panicked, Haru reached out and touched Makoto's cheeks, too.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm so sorry, Haru. If only I had known. I don't want to come between you and the water. I know how important it is to you. And I—I ruined that. I'm so sorry."

"No!" Haru leaned closer, "You didn't ruin this. You don't get to apologize. You almost died. The water almost killed you and you're apologizing? Makoto, why can't you see? It's not your fault. There's nothing you could have done."

Multiple times since the incident had happened, Makoto had felt guilty for the way things had happened. He shouldn't have locked up like that. Nobody should have had to save him. He should have saved Rei. He dragged everyone else into this when he should have been able to handle it himself.

"You need the water," Makoto protested weakly.

"I need you." Haru said firmly. He scooted so he was sitting on a rock directly across from Makoto, their gazes level. "I need you, Makoto. I can't lose you."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"You don't always have control over that."

The feeling was creeping back up Haru's spine. For years he had felt like they were invincible. He knew that Makoto would never willingly leave his side and he had always left it at that. But this had been a rude awakening that Makoto didn't always have a choice in whether or not he got to stay around. That knowledge had continued to haunt Haru, popping up at the worst time to make him afraid all over again.

"Makoto." Haru was exasperated. He knew Makoto would react like this. He knew Makoto would feel guilty and insist that Haru needed water more than anything else. But Makoto didn't understand. "Do you remember how you felt when you found out about the fisherman? Do you remember that fear that settled in your stomach? You couldn't push it away, could you? I know you tried to and yet you're still afraid of the ocean. You can't control it."

"No, but—"

"I can't control this, either." At some point Haru had grasped Makoto's hands in his own and he was shaking them as he spoke, almost as if to emphasize his point. "The fear I felt when I saw you laying there is something I'll never be able to shake. You had almost drowned in the ocean and I sat there, drowning in you. I was drowning in fear and memories of you and everything we've been through, and I wasn't sure that we would get to make any more memories, and that's a terrifying feeling. You can't talk me out of this."

There was a long silence between them then. They both took shuddering breaths, trying to calm down and get back to a reasonable state. At no point did either pull their hands away, though. Something about the connection made them feel grounded to each other and it was a feeling they both needed.

Finally Makoto squeezed Haru's hands and looked up at him with the ghost of a smile, "Well I'm sorry, Haru. But whatever you decide to do, you know I'm there with you."

Those words cut straight through to Haru's heart. In that moment he overflowed with love for the boy who sat across from him. He had always cared about Makoto but suddenly he loved Makoto, wholly and completely. Makoto, who would do anything for Haru. Makoto, who almost drowned and then apologized for it.

Haru tugged on Makoto's hands until they were both standing. Haru pulled his hands free and stepped forward to pull Makoto into a hug. They embraced, still full of a mixture of emotions, and simply held each other for a few moments. Then, just as they began to pull away, Haru turned his head and planted a quick kiss against Makoto's neck.

"I know," Haru said with a small smile, settling back into his place on the rock.

They stayed there in silence, watching the sun set and enjoying each other's company.

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A few days had gone by and things had settled back into a normal routine for both of the boys. Haru continued to meet Makoto in the mornings at the top of the stairs and they would go out and spend their day together, doing whatever they felt like on any given day.

They had been enjoying each other's company more than usual. It seemed that they had managed to get closer after their long talk about their now shared fear of the Ocean and water in general.

And while Makoto couldn't deny that his heart swelled with love when he thought about the fact that Haru chose him over water, he still wanted to find a way for Haru to be able to have both.

Today he led Haru to the beach, despite the apprehensive looks he was getting from his partner. He grabbed Haru's hand and led them both right up to the edge of the water, only pausing to remove their shoes. Then, grabbing Haruka's hand again, Makoto pulled them into the water so that they were about mid-calf deep.

"Haru," Makoto turned to look at him, gripping both of his hands tightly, "I'm not going to let you give up water."

"Makoto, we talked—"

"No." Makoto looked at Haru and then out to the ocean, "When I was scared of the ocean, you are the one who got me through it. You were the reason I still wanted to swim. And now, I'm going to be that for you. I'm the reason your afraid, so I'm going to be the reason you get over that fear and get back your love."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes." Makoto turned his gaze back to Haru then, "Completely. We'll do this together."

Haru smiled, feeling the overflow of emotion again. They had been through a lot in their past and they had so many wonderful memories together, but Haru had never appreciated Makoto as much as he should have. It wasn't until he almost lost Makoto that he realized how important the boy was to him. When Makoto had woken up and looked at him, Haru had vowed to never take him for granted again.

"Thank you." Haru said, "But promise me this: no more drowning."

Makoto broke out in a smile and Haru allowed himself a moment to appreciate how much he enjoyed seeing Makoto smile. Then, without warning, Makoto reached out and cupped Haru's face, puling it closer until he was kissing his best friend. Haru stumbled a few steps forwards so that they were more level and arched back to better fit his lips to Makoto's.

After a moment they pulled apart slightly and Makoto placed two more short kisses against Haru's lips before stepping away completely.

Breathless but happy, Makoto replied, "Only drowning in each other, okay?"