Hello! I am so sorry that I took so long to write this chapter! Things have been kind of hectic lately, and I haven't had the chance. But enough of my lame excuses, onto the story. Enjoy:)

I don't own Free

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP"

Somewhere deep in Ai's subconscious, he heard the blaring of his alarm clock, but rather than turn it off, he snuggled in deeper under the covers and threw the pillow over his head. There was no reason to get early on a Saturday, anyway. He didn't have school, and the cafeteria didn't open until later. He could relax until it was time to go to...

SWIM PRACTICE! Ai sat bolt upright and stared at the clock. It was 8:35, five minutes after practice began. He dove out of bed in a panic, fell flat on his face, and scrambled to locate his swimsuit. Once it was on, he flew down the hallway, goggles in his hands. How had he forgotten practice? He was always there at least ten minutes early, what would Rin think of him now? If only he hadn't stayed up so late last night, mulling over what Makoto had said to him, this never would have happened. Oh well he thought as he raced towards the pool I'll just have to work extra hard today to make up for arriving late. Ai burst through the doors to see...

Noone. The pool was entirely deserted. Nitori bent over to catch his breath. What was going on? Had something happened to the team? Or what if today was actually a joint practice at another school and they had already left? Or-

"What are you doing here?"

Ai jumped and whipped around. Rin had just come out of the locker room.

"R-rin-Senpai!" I panted, still not fully recovered from his mad dash to the swimming pool "I was just... Isn't their...?" He trailed off. Rin stared at him for a moment before rolling his eyes. "Don't you remember? There is no practice today. I told everyone last week AND reminded you yesterday."

Oh. Right. Ai blushed and looked at Rin with wide eyes. The captain just smiled and shook his head. "Well, it's good you came, anyway." He said in a voice that sounded almost... shy? But that was crazy. The captain wasn't shy. Ai must have been imagining things. "I actually kind of wanted to talk to you."

"Oh. What do you want to talk about, Rin- Senpai?" Rin opened his mouth to speak, and no sound came out. He stood, gaping for a moment before turning his head away, suddenly bright red. Now this, Ai wasn't imaging. He immediately began to worry about what could be wrong. Frowning slightly, he stepped a little closer. "Senpei?" He asked carefully "Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? I have no reason to be anything but fine. Why would you think I wasn't fine? Did someone say something about me being... not fine? Because if they did, they were lying, 'cause I am perfectly fine. See? Fine."

All through this strange speech, Rin seemed to be edging away from Nitori and becoming even more red, which caused Ai to worry more and more. Following Rin, he reached out gently "Senpai are you running a fever? You look really red." This only caused Rin to back up faster. "I'm not red or... um... fevery. I told you I'm fine."

"Just let me check and make sure you don't have a fever."

"Ai, I said I was fine." Rin continued to move backwards. Straight towards the pool.

"Senpai-"

"I'm fine!"

"Alright, but Senpai-"

"Ai, don't worry about me!"

"But-"

"No."

"Rin."

"I'M FINE!"

"LOOK OUT!"

Ai's warning came to late. Rin took a final step back and went crashing into the water.

"RIN-SENPAI!" Ai ran forward, reaching the edge just in time to see his friend resurface. Once he was sure the redhead had suffered no real injury, Ai began to smile. Then he began to giggle. Then he let loose a loud laugh that echoed through the empty building. Rin looked up at him from his spot in the pool "Are you laughing at me?" He said in a voice that was meant to be menacing, but ended up sounding rather comical. Ai struggled to catch his breath "I'm sorry Senpai" he said between giggles "You just looked so..." And with that he doubled over again, clutching his sides.

"Oh really?"

Ai nodded, unable to speak because he was laughing so hard.

"Well then, you'll probably think this is funny, too!" And with that, Rin grabbed his ankle and dragged him into the pool.

Ai burst from the water, gasping. He looked over at Rin, who was grinning like a maniac, and splashed him as hard as he could. Rin splashed him back, and soon they were having an all out war in the shallow end. After almost ten minutes of this Ai, breathing heavily and still laughing, raised his hands in truce.

"So." Ai said after they had both calmed down "What was it you wanted to tell me?" Rin swam a bit closer and took a deep breath "Ai." He said, his voice seeming to shake slightly "Um. I've been thinking. And I know that this sounds stupid but..."

Ai suddenly couldn't take his eyes off of the shark. Rin was turning as red as Nitori felt, and he began to wonder if this was all just a dream (that wouldn't be too surprising. He had had this dream before many times). It looked like Rin was about to say-

"Would you time me? I need to get ready for the freestyle race."

"Oh." That wasn't exactly what Ai had been expecting, and he felt like he had just come crashing painfully back down to earth. He swam towards the edge of the pool, trying to hide his embarrassment and disappointment. "Of course I will, Rin-Senpai? Why would that sound stupid?" He reached the edge of the pool, but rather than grabbing his watch and coming back, he just kept walking. "Actually, do you think we could do this another time?" He said, never looking back "I'm not feeling too well."

"Yeah, sure. That would be-"

"Ok. Bye!" Ai ran for the door. On the walk back to his room, he wiped at his eyes furiously with the back of his hand. This was ridiculous. He shouldn't care. After all, he knew Rin didn't like him that way, so why had he gotten his hopes up? There was no way anything could ever happen between them.

That ending was really annoying to write! They will be getting together in either the next chapter or the one after that, though, so there will be no more silly misunderstandings. After that, I may or may not continue this story. I have a few ideas for dates and such, but I kind of want to end it right when they get together.

Because I've been so horrible about getting chapters up this past week, I will be attempting to post two tomorrow, but they might come kind of late. Thank you for reading:)