9 – dreamscape
If Rin did not stop it very soon, he was certain his incessant pacing would wear tracks in the entranceway. His decision needed to be resolved, his wait ended.
It wasn't impatience that caused this restlessness, nor any degree of shyness. Rin had never been fond of either of those things. The root of the issue was not so simple, even though he wished it was. The matter was, however improbable, that his anxiety was crippling him.
The worst bit was that it was all over going to Ayaka Shibata's house.
He stood there now, pacing across her front yard. The door loomed before him, imposing, causing him to entertain the possibility of having forgotten something he should have brought with him. But, of course, he had his maths homework and even a box of biscuits to trade for her time. There was also no plausible reason to ditch Ayaka. She would only send him several angry texts later that afternoon for it.
Rin shuddered at the thought. It was better to just go through with it – a thought that finally led to Rin pressing down on her doorbell.
"This is dumb." He muttered to himself, staring off to the side.
The door swung open a moment later, and he found himself first assaulted by words. "Matsuoka! What a surprise!"
Ayaka was being blatantly sarcastic. "You knew I was coming." Rin retorted, glaring at her.
She stood in her doorway bathed in sunlight. She looked the same as ever, imperfectly perfect, aside from two unusual differences. The first was her hair, which had been pulled up into a loose bun, the second was regarding her red cheeks.
"Are you sunburnt?" Rin wondered, perplexed.
"Shut up," she retorted, though not unkindly, "Get inside."
He stepped in as if he had never been nervous about the whole situation, full well knowing he should never have been nervous in the first place. What he noticed first was that, for the home of two people, it was surprisingly large.
Ayaka noticed his staring and ignored it. She had a bigger issue to address. "Rin, I just have to warn you that I'm incredibly popular."
"Doubt it."
"Well, I do have more friends than you, and-!"
"Shibata, do you have," Rin paused, tilting his head as if it made the distant sounds any clearer, "A pool?"
"Yes," the blonde nodded quickly, leaning forward earnestly, "And please shut up and listen. I probably should've told you earlier, but I have some friends around right now. Not-," Ayaka felt it necessary to add, "-that I was ditching out study session. It was sort of an unplanned thing."
"Who is it?" Rin interrupted, eyebrow jerked upwards.
"Your sister, Satsuki, Nagisa," as she listed them, she counted them off on her fingers, "Makoto, and Haruka."
"Haru?"
Rin pressed forward, leaning across the space between them. Ayaka was so close she could see every furrow of his brow, could have counted his eyelashes, and he must surely feel the heat of her blush. Taken aback, she could only blurt out, "Yes!"
He nodded resolutely, before his bag fell from his shoulder to the ground with a thump. The moment Rin walked around Ayaka, she followed and reached across to grab the sleeve of his jacket. Rin allowed it, suffering the contact without complaint, if only because he needed her to guide him towards the pool.
"Matsuoka, I don't think this is-!"
"Through here?" he interrupted, ignoring her as he gestured towards the hallway.
"If you wait, I can have them out in a few minutes!"
Rin proceeded without answer. Wooden floors creaked under their weight, family photographs passed by unnoticed. He barely even glanced at the postcards tacked to the walls, sent home by Ayaka's well-travelled, but notably absent, parents.
"Seriously, Matsuoka!" Ayaka sighed impatiently, "Did you even bring any food for me?"
"Yeah," he replied, surprising her, "It's back in my bag."
"Maybe you should turn around and go get it."
"No."
By process of elimination, Rin decided upon the door to the backyard. Ayaka neglected to acknowledge it, ignoring the blinding sunlight. With Rin guiding her like that, it was almost as if she trusted him. Wanting, though never needing, anyone to get the wrong impression, Ayaka's realisation was quickly followed by the release of her fingers from his.
The following exclamations were, despite the few different voices, all of the same meaning. "Rin!"
Surprise was most prominent, confusion second only to that.
Ayaka's gaze collided with Satsuki's critical look. In a way of offering an apology, the former declared, "I did give you all fair warning that I had someone coming over."
Satsuki's shoulders moved in a jerky shrug, her hazel eyes soon falling away to her book once more. "Sorry about intruding." She called back disinterestedly, more an apology on Haruka's behalf.
Water cascaded down noisily as Haruka pulled himself out of the pool, muscles taunt with the strength of his arms. All eyes returned to him and Rin, flickering between the two in suspended apprehension. As the tension grew thicker, Ayaka only grew more amused.
The silence had never seemed so heavy, nor so expectedly broken.
"Haruka!" Rin announced, "Let's race!"
Before any third party could object, the request had been met. Haruka's reply was a brief, "Okay."
Satsuki responded only to him, only out of instinctive exasperation. "I should have made Haru leave earlier."
Ayaka glanced over wryly. "I'm not sure if that's possible."
"I have my bartering tools." The other girl assured, speaking in such a way as to make implication.
Though she might have been a year younger Gou understood full well what was meant. "Sneaky, Suki-chan." By no means did she object – it was a woman's right to use her God-given charms.
"Not really." Satsuki replied dismissively.
"Should Matsuoka really be swimming with Haruka?" interjected Ayaka, eyebrow poised.
The redhead had already started stripping off, though there was no objection to the sight on her behalf. Gou glanced away as quickly as possible, as it became apparent in his attire that Rin had never had any intention of swimming, but would now stop for nothing less.
Across the yard, Ayaka met Makoto's gaze and his lips began to form soundless words. "This is probably not a good idea."
She replied with an agreeing shake of her head and contradicting grin. Uncertainty of the outcome didn't lesson the comicalness of the situation.
Now, when next she looked, it was to Haruka and Rin poised on the side of the pool. Thankfully, it was the deep end, and on a more personally grateful note, she was additionally thankful that Rin was willing to swim only in his underwear.
Despite far from being one to encourage them, Ayaka's mouth acted of its own accord. "Ready," she cried out, receiving two nods in reply, "Set. Go!"
They dove in with as little noise and as much synchronization as possible. Ayaka stepped to the edge of the pool, peering in at the two figures underneath the water. They glided, outstretched for as far as it was possible – and she realised, surprising herself, that she had never seen Rin swim before.
Rin broke the surface first, gasping quickly, before returning to the water. While it might have only been in Ayaka's pool, and despite the small crowd watching them, the two boys were swimming somewhere else entirely. Their world, for a short moment, consisted of nothing else but the race and the water.
There could be no other thought for them, though Ayaka was already wincing as she saw what lay ahead. It was far too late to stop them, to do anything, and the next sound she heard – "Ow!"
"Haru!" Makoto exclaimed, though it was Satsuki who made the first move forward.
Sidling cautiously around, Ayaka felt the name perched on her lips fall out of reach. "Matsuoka?"
His eyes crossed hers, delightfully irritable. He noticed her staring at his hand on his forehead, where he, like Haruka, had hit the wall of her pool. "I'm just not used to swimming in a small pool!"
It was the metaphorical last thread, before all Ayaka's reservations vanished. She laughed loudly, without hesitation, and so violently she had to sit down or risk falling over.
"You idiots!" she gasped, clutching her stomach for support. "I can't believe-!"
"Don't laugh!" Rin's biting tone did nothing to calm her, and instead Ayaka only continued laughing at his misfortune.
The breaking point came for Rin, as it inevitably would, and in a flash he acted out on his irritation. Standing in shallow water, so close to Ayaka, it was easy to reach across. His fingers wound around her waist, tightening against her hips – and she crashed against the surface of the water with the weight of a rock.
For a second she floundered, panicking. Rin was not so dumb to let her go, and helped her break the surface. She did so with a loud gasp, reaching for the first stable thing she could find – him.
"You!"
Ayaka's eyes were wide, her lips parted in deep but fleeting indignation. At her expression, her soaked clothes and bedraggled appearance, Rin fulfilled his revenge with a wide smile of his own.
"Matsuoka!" Ayaka exclaimed. He laughed at her grumpy countenance, not able to conceive of any other reaction.
"Oh man, Shibata, you look-!"
"Shut up!" Ayaka was well aware that her makeup was now mere streaks down her cheeks, her effort black smudges against her skin. It was a waste, and it pissed her off. In fact, Ayaka's own revenge came when she pushed the two of them forward and under the water once more.
When they resurfaced once more, their expressions had been exchanged. Rin's scowl matched the fierceness of her own, and it was that alone that caused Ayaka's will to weaken and a smile to drift across her lips.
It was then, for the most fleeting of moments, she felt her fingertips brush the dream of something wonderful.
I remember having so much fun writing this chapter, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it just as much! Seeing as we've past the half way mark for the story, I really should be trying to finish up some of my other ideas. Too bad I'm being lazy as shit today.
Hopefully I don't forget to post the next chapter on time - exam time is next week :(
(but hey, you guys can always leave a review to distract me from that impending disaster).