Oh my god this chapter took ages to edit! But that's only because I wanted to try and make this perfect.
I don't think I mentioned this, but Haruka's parents are in this story, and like Makoto I have my own view of them. So my image of them may be completely different from yours.
Anyway, this chapter contains a lot of RinHaru, so I hope you enjoy it! (Also may be some OOC Haruka in this, but that's just how you look at it I suppose.)
Disclaimer: Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.
Haruka sat at his desk, feeling his eyes droop as his vision was slowly going dark. He was in geography now, and god was it boring. The only classes he really stayed awake in were art and home economics, since those are the two subjects he's best at. He also stayed awake through most of music, since most lessons would be lively and sometimes even interesting.
His desk suddenly shook as someone kicked it and he sat up with wide eyes, turning next to him to see Rin giving him a slight glare. Haru sighed and turned back to the front to see the teacher with his back to the class and going on about god knows what.
When the bell finally rang, Haru yawned and stretched. That was the last lesson, which meant he could finally go home and sleep since swimming practice wasn't on that day. The raven haired teen felt someone looming over him and looked up to see Rin with his arms crossed and a stern frown on his lips, his red eyes staring down into blue ones.
"You know, the reason you're failing classes is because you keep falling asleep" Rin stated "Maybe I should sit next to you in all your classes just so I can keep you awake."
"You're too smart for my classes" Haru retorted sarcastically, although he knew it was true. Rin was surprisingly smart, as was Gou. Maybe it was just natural for a Matsuoka to have a good brain...?
Rin scowled at the teen "You could be in my classes if you tried. I'm not born smart you know, I study"
"Of course" Haru yawned, no longer caring. He never believed that someone was born smart, but he always believed that someone was born with the endurance and dedication to study. Haru knew he wasn't born with that capability, since he would get distracted too easily or simply fall asleep.
That was the weird thing when he was being tutored by Rin though, he wouldn't lose focus on the work he was doing. He had no idea why, but he would always pay attention to Rin's words and usually wouldn't forget a thing he said. Haru could even remember some conversations he had with the redhead from when they were children, which kind of freaked him out.
"I'm serious Haru" Rin frowned "you're actually pretty smart, you just need to try!"
Haru's brow furrowed "How many times do you think my parents have said that to me...?"
Rin was about to answer until he remembered what Makoto had said;
"Haru isn't on good terms with his parents right now."
The redheads mouth shut and he watched as Haru stood up and packed his books away. Rin sighed and shoved a hand into his pocket while the other slung his bag over his shoulder.
"Well, I'm tutoring you tonight. We have some lessons to catch up on, so we're probably going to be studying late."
Haru groaned and Rin frowned, leaned forward and flicked the smaller teen in the forehead. Haru made a noise of complaint and put a hand to where he had been flicked.
Rin smirked slightly "It's for your own good, so make it sound like you appreciate it or I'll feel like I'm wasting my time on you."
Haru pouted but didn't say anything, instead he picked up his bag, walked out the door and ignored the redhead. Rin chuckled and shook his head, then quickly followed the teen.
While they were walking home together, Rin turned to Haru and asked "Is Makoto going to be coming over tonight?"
Haru shook his head "No, he has an extra afternoon class today. So he will be going straight home after that and is always too exhausted to come over afterwards."
Rin held back a sigh of relief and instead responded with "Oh" then continued to normally chat with his best friend.
Once the two of them reached Haruka's house, the raven haired teen looked down at the door handle and stared at it for a while. Rin stared at him as he stared at the door, making him raise a questioning eyebrow.
After a few minute's of standing there, Rin asked "What's wrong? Is it broken?"
"It's unlocked" Haru instantly responded.
Rin's eyes widened "Haru...there could be some dangerous person in there..."
Haru nodded to show he had acknowledged what Rin said, but put his hand on the door handle and slid it open anyway.
Both Rin and Haru's eyes widened as they saw a tall woman with long black hair and sky blue eyes talking on the phone in the hallway. She turned when hearing the door open and hung up the phone when seeing the two boys standing in the doorway.
Rin was about to ask who she was until Haru said "...mother"
The redhead turned to Haru to see his eyes wide and bright, and his eyebrows raised in surprise. Rin recognised it as a look of...happiness. A look Rin hadn't seen much of since the teen would have a poker face on most of the time.
The women started walking towards them and Haru stepped forward, only to have her walk straight past him, almost as if he were a ghost who had been walked through.
She stopped once she was outside the doorway, turned back and said "Your father and I are here for business, but your father is still at work. A hotel is expensive, so we will be staying here for a week...who is this person that's with you?"
"My name is Rin Matsuoka" the teen answered, bowing deeply "I am a childhood friend, and I am also Haru's tutor"
She stared at him for a while. Looking him up and down once, then twice, then raising a judgemental eyebrow before saying "I don't remember you, you don't even look familiar." Rin wanted to say it was because she was never there, but instead let her continue "But, if Haruka's grades go up, it doesn't matter. If I don't see improvement I am finding him a new tutor."
With that she was gone, and Rin realised she hadn't even greeted her son. The redhead turned to Haru to see his eyes quivering, a pained expression across his face. Rin noticed it was the exact same expression as when he told the teen he wouldn't swim with him anymore as children.
"Haru..." Rin muttered, stepping forward and putting a hand on said teens shoulder.
Haru flinched and let his hair fall over his eyes "...we should get on with the tutoring now" he mumbled before shrugging the hand off him.
Rin watched him walk off with a look of worry, and quickly followed him into the living room where the raven haired teen was already taking his books out.
"Haru...are you okay?" the redhead asked, knowing there was something different about his friend.
"Of course I'm okay..." Haru answered, still searching through his bag "Today was a good day, everything went fine. So why are you asking me if I'm okay?"
There was a choked sob and Rin's eyebrows furrowed. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed the teen's shoulder, then roughly turned Haru to face him. Rin's eyes widened as he saw tears falling from ocean blue eyes, something that he had never seen before.
Haruka's body started shaking and he slapped the teen's hand off him "Don't touch me!" he yelled, making Rin stumble back.
The teen put a hand over his eyes and started sobbing, trying to hide his face from the redhead as he did so.
"H-Haru..." Rin stuttered, slowly walking towards him.
"Don't look at me!" Haru yelled, now covering his face with both hands "Stop it! Stop looking at me!"
Rin stopped and stared at Haru as the teen repeated this over and over, watching as tears fell through his fingers and onto the floor.
Was this what it was like for Haru to watch Rin cry? Was this what it felt like? Because...it hurt. It hurt to see Haru cry, and Rin could feel his chest tightening as the sobs and yells got louder. He had never seen Haru cry before, the teen had always hid his emotions. But now it felt like everything was coming out, it felt as if all of Haruka's emotions of sadness and anger were being held in a tight glass container, and the container had finally shattered to let those emotions flow out all at once.
How...how could one women make him have such a reaction? It made Rin so mad, it made him want to punch her. It was wrong for him to think that, and he knew it, but he couldn't stand watching Haru cry, it was too painful. It was even Haru's mother, it was his mother that made him cry. But...that's not how mother's should be, so why did seeing her make Haru like this?
The redhead stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Haru's shaking, sobbing form. He felt Haru stiffen slightly, but then he started shaking even more and sobbed louder.
Rin hated that sound, god did he hate that sound. He'd do anything to stop that sound, the sound of Haru in pain. It was horrible, it was horrible to hear his friend in pain, and he almost felt like crying himself.
The two sat in each other's embrace, and no matter how many times Haru told Rin to leave, Rin would sit still and comfort him. He just wanted the sounds of pain to stop, he would do anything for them to stop...
...
Neither teen knew how much time had passed, but Haru sat still with red, tear stained eyes. Rin was sitting next to him, not saying a word.
Eventually, Rin could no longer hold in his curiosity and muttered "Please...tell me about your relationship with your parents"
Haru sat quietly, staring at the floor and feeling his eyes still stinging from the tears he had shed. He felt like he should tell Rin, but...he didn't want Rin to worry about him.
"Haruka, please" Rin begged "It seems Makoto knows, so why won't you tell me?"
"...Makoto doesn't know," Haru mumbled "he just knows that I'm on bad terms with them..."
"Then please tell me why you're on bad terms with them" Rin begged again, giving Haru a worried look.
Haruka was quiet once more, but after a while decided he needed to tell someone. He knew he couldn't keep it from Rin much longer, so he might as well tell him now.
"My parents are workaholics, they've been like that since I was a child. Ever since I was born, they were never there, and when they were there, it would be for some work related get together. They'd introduce me to the other employees like I was some object, and everyone would always ask if I had any hope for the future. They would always say the same thing;
He is still young, but he doesn't seem to be excelling at anything. The only thing he is good at is art, which is useless. We are hoping he will change as he gets older.
Because of them, I was never proud of my art skills. It made me feel useless, like I would never achieve to anything in life. The only person who really admired me for my art skills was my grandma, who would always look after me. She taught me how to make some dishes and showed me other drawing methods, which my parents strongly discouraged.
Because my parents both worked at the same job, they would go away for work together. Sometimes they would be gone for a day, other times it would be weeks. My grandma couldn't look after me all the time, so I was alone most of the time. I ended up having to cook my own meals, wash my own clothes, and not have to rely on anyone.
Then, when I was thirteen, my grandma died. That was when I decided I didn't need to rely on anyone, that was when I decided I was truly on my own. My grandma was the only one to look after me, to care about me, and she was gone.
That was also around the time...when you told me you quit swimming..."
Rin felt a sharp pain stab through his chest, his eyes widening as he looked at Haru's pained expression. He was going to say something, but Haru continued with his story.
"I gave up on school after that, I saw no point to it. I thought If I'm not good at it, what's the point in trying?
My parents told me over and over that if I tried, I would be successful. But even though I was trying through all of elementary school, I never was successful, and my grades never got better. So they continued to get mad at me, and the only conversations we would have would be about how I would get nowhere in life.
I told myself it was true, I knew I would get nowhere in life. I would always think what the point of life was if life was just working until you die. So every night I would lock myself in my room to block everything out, and my parents just started to ignore me.
When they had another one of their work parties, the new employees would ask who I was, and my parents would say;
He is no one, just ignore him. He won't amount to anything in life.
People would tell my parents that what they were saying was harsh, and I thought people cared about me, but when they explained how I was they took my parents side. No one was going to defend a junior high school student that wouldn't even try, and they were right not to do so. I was pathetic, after all.
After that I was getting lonelier and lonelier, so after a while I wanted my parents attention. One day, when it was a day off for both of them, I asked if we could have dinner together, and they walked straight past me. They didn't say anything to me, they completely ignored me.
I started trying to talk to them, I tried to have conversations with them, but they kept ignoring me. I was treated as if I was no one, like I wasn't even there.
I began to get more and more frantic and I would start yelling at them, I would beg to do something with them. But all they did was yell back at me or just shrug me off, then just continued to ignore me.
They eventually both got sick of it, and when I was sixteen, told me that they both had a promotion and had to go to Tokyo. I thought I was going with them, and I was going to protest because I still had Makoto, but they told me they were leaving me here and that...that really hurt.
They didn't give me an option, they didn't make me come with them, they just left me here. They made it seem like they didn't want me anymore...so after seeing my mother after two years, I remembered what it was like to be ignored by her like that. I thought things might have changed but...I was so stupid to think that..."
Haru started shaking again and Rin could see him trying to force back the tears that were forming in his eyes. But before he could do anything, Haru spoke once more.
"But...that's why I was so happy to see you had come back! I thought;
This guy...this guy keeps forcing his way into my life, he keeps knocking down these walls that I have built around myself. Why does he do that? Why does he want me to swim for him? Why is he so obsessed about swimming with me?
And I realised...I realised there was someone on this earth that couldn't handle being ignored by me, I realised you couldn't stand it when I wouldn't answer you or just turned my back to you! It made me so happy...it made me so happy to know that! To know that you needed me to speak! To know you needed to race with me! That you needed to swim with me!
For the first time in my life, instead of me trying to gain someone else's attention, someone was trying to gain my attention! No one has done that before, not even Makoto! Makoto was always by my side, but he would never force me to do or say anything, he would never get mad if I ignored him...but you would! You always did, and that made me so happy!"
Haru turned to Rin with shining eyes, feeling his heartbeat speed up as he stared into the redhead's wide, crimson ones.
"I am so, so grateful to you! Rin! Thank you!" Haruka bowed deeply, making Rin sit back slightly and look down at the teen. He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing, he had never seen this side of Haruka.
Haru sat back up with teary eyes, then gave Rin a small, warm smile.
Rin's eyes shined as he looked at Haru, feeling his chest tightening as he stared at the warm and rare smile. It looked so out of character for Haruka, but at the same time, it looked as if that small smile fitted perfectly on the teen's lips.
Rin suddenly remembered what Makoto had said a few days before;
"And you may say you're just friends, but I can see you're feeling much more than that, you always have. You just keep denying it to yourself, ever since we were kids you've been denying it, and I have always seen it."
That's when Rin knew exactly what Makoto was talking about, he knew what Makoto was trying to tell him. These feelings he had been denying for so long, these feelings he had been trying to push back since he was a child.
Ever since he met Haruka, even as children, he felt the boy had some kind of magnetic pull around him. Haru always put him in a kind of trance, but Rin always told himself it was Haru's swimming. But slowly, very slowly, he started to go into that state of trance more and more. Even when Haru wasn't swimming, Rin would stare at him with sparkling eyes, almost as if he was hypnotised.
Even when he came back after a year, Haru still had that affect on him. Even after spending even more years away from Haruka and seeing him again as a teenager, the pull didn't fade away, it just got stronger.
Rin had just ignored it, he would continue to tell himself it was just Haru's swimming. But now, he couldn't deny it. He could no longer ignore it, not after what Haru had said. These feelings weren't something he could deny anymore, especially since he found out exactly what they were.
These were feelings of...love.
Haruka stared at Rin, now feeling shy and almost embarrassed since he wasn't responding "Uh...Rin?"
Rin blinked, stared at Haru, then blinked again. Now that he knew how he felt, he went silent. He didn't know what to do or say, so he continued to stare.
Haru looked to the side and blushed slightly "I'm...sorry if that sounded weird"
Rin couldn't stop himself from thinking "God, why is he so cute?" and shook his head before any other stray thoughts could appear.
Haru smiled once more and Rin felt himself choke, he felt as though he could look at Haru's smile forever, as cheesy as that sounded.
"T-thank you!" Rin stuttered, his cheeks slightly red "For telling me about your parents, I shouldn't have pushed you!"
Haruka gave the redhead a slight wide eyed look, not expecting to be thanked. It wasn't exactly in his character to do so, but Haru had basically thanked Rin for existing, and that wasn't in his character either.
The raven haired teen smiled to himself as he thought of how abnormal this all was, and Haruka always thought about how this strange, loud, annoying redheaded boy had managed to place himself in such an important position in his life in such little time.
Haru couldn't force back his small smile, so he stood up and said "I'm going to make cocoa...do you want one?"
Rin quickly nodded and watched as Haru walked out of the room, his eyes wide as he thought about what had just taken place.
"Was...Haru smiling? No he wasn't...but he was definitely smiling! Was it...because of me...?" he grabbed his red hair and tugged at it "What am I thinking?! Now that I know how I feel about Haru I will..." his thoughts stopped for a moment "...now that I know...how I feel...about Haru..."
Rin sat completely still for a moment, before his lips curved into a smile, realising that he was thinking about the whole situation wrong. He imagined how this would feel since he was a child, how it felt to feel this way about someone, and now...he finally felt it. He finally found that one person he can feel this way for.
His face broke out into a large grin and he fell back to the floor, his cheeks slightly flustered and his crimson eyes cloudy as he quietly admitted it to himself.
"I...I love Haruka Nanase..."
Those words sounded so strange coming from his mouth, but at the same time, they sounded too good to be true.
Yeeeah okay this chapter was quite the ride!
I just want to talk about Haruka in this chapter by saying I don't really think I wrote him out of character. He may seem it, but we have never really seen him in a situation like this. After all, Haruka is human, and everyone in this world has something that will make them break down and cry. I also believe Haruka got that silent, timid, hard to talk to personality because of his parents. I like to think the reason Haruka doesn't like to show himself to others or make friends with anyone is mostly because of his parents. Although I could be completely wrong, which I probably am, and he could just be like that because he is.
Anyways I hope you liked this chapter, and I am actually really interested to hear your opinions on this. Of course, I won't force you to say anything, and I am just happy for you to be reading this story!
Thanks for reading!