Hello!
This chapter is all about Nitori, enjoy:)
If I owned Free!, Reigisa, MakoHaru and Rintori would be canon. But I don't, so they're not.
Aiichirou Nitori dragged himself back to his room after a late practice and flopped onto his bed without even bothering to change. On nights like this, he was glad not to have to attempt the ladder, as he wasn't sure he would be able to even haul himself up the first few rungs.
Ai pulled his phone out of his pocket and, with a glance at the time (12:30. He was lucky he hadn't been caught, or he would be in big trouble for breaking curfew), set his alarm for 6:00. As he was putting his phone away, he wondered briefly whether he should text Rin, but pushed the idea away. The upperclassman had enough on his plate without having to deal with Nitori, and he was probably already asleep, anyway. These past few months, Ai had tried to stay out of Rin's way as much as possible, because he knew his clinginess had bothered the older boy in the past and thought he would probably be grateful for the space between them. Ai closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. Of course, those weren't the only reasons for this separation. He had tried to push it out of his mind, tried to forget and move on, but the unfortunate fact remained: Nitori was in love with Rin.
It had started almost a year ago, this strange feeling that had infected Aiichirou. It began small, noticing his Sempai in a new way, not being able to stop a blush from spreading over his face when their hands accidentally touched, and quickly escalated until the redheaded swimmer was all he ever thought about. It really did feel like a disease, the way his stomach flipped when Rin was nearby, his palms sweat and his face heated, and many times he had wished there was some sort of medicine he could take to make it go away. He hated feeling this way about Rin. He felt that by harboring this secret crush, not only had he betrayed his friend's trust, but also condemned himself to misery. Rin would never love him back, so why did his heart insist on pursuing this stupid fantasy? It only led him to further heartbreak, so what was the point? But despite knowing this, Ai could not stop his feelings for Rin, and it was made even more difficult by the fact that the shark seemed to go out of his way to be perfect. Just today he had pulled Ai aside after practice and complimented his swimming, and Ai had thought he might die from happiness. His heart had gone a million miles a minute and his face had turned bright red; it was a miracle he hadn't been found out yet when he acted like that every time Rin talked to him. If Rin would just leave him alone, he could probably completely shake these bothersome emotions.
Ai shook these thoughts from his head and closed his eyes, trying desperately to find sleep. This had become a ritual at night, thinking about Rin and keeping himself up worrying. Finally, after almost an hour of tossing and turning, he fell into a restless sleep, where images of sharks and red hair invaded his dreams.
This chapter didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to... The next one will be better. Please review, and thanks for reading!