Ok, here it is (and late again! So, sooo sorry!). The story is nearing an end, which I'm pretty sure will happen in the next chapter, but I may do an epilogue or something, because I'm still really sad that the series is over, and am working on a lot of Free! related stuff because of that.
I don't own Free!
"So..." Said Rin awkwardly as they waited for their food to come "How are you?" Nitori blushed for no particular reason and said "Fine, thanks. Um... how are you?" Cue a random blush from Rin "Oh... I'm fine too." The entire night had been like this. An endless back and forth of short sentences with shorter answers, and what seemed like a contest of who could make their face redder. It was completely ridiculous. They had already confessed their love for each other, already known each other for such a long time, already kissed. So why the hell was sitting alone together so uncomfortable?! Ai couldn't figure it out, not that he was trying very hard. He was more focused on preventing his leg from shaking so hard it moved the table and attempting to recall basic phrases any 5 year old could rattle off with ease. Basically, he was a panicky mess.
Rin wasn't doing that much better. His hands shook when he went to pick up his water glass, almost spilling it everywhere, and he was having difficulty remembering his name. "How's your... um... your swimming?" he finally managed, hoping that maybe, maybe this could spark an interesting conversation (although the chances of that were slim, since they talked about swimming almost everyday, so they didn't have much more to say in that area). Ai just looked down at his lap. "I think I'm getting better. I'm still not as good as you, though."
"Mmm" Really? That was his big answer? No encouragement, no big, captainy pep talk? Just "Mmm"?! Rin resisted the urge to drop his head onto the table "I mean, your a really hard worker, Ai. You'll get there if you want to." The words sounded pretty stupid to him, but Ai's cheeks went a shade darker and he smiled a bit, so maybe he said the right thing. He hoped he had.
After that thrilling conversation, there was along stretch of silence. So long that their food came. So long that they got halfway through eating it. So long that Rin wanted to scream, but he couldn't think of anything to say.
Nagisa groaned quietly and slid down into the booth. "I can't watch this anymore." He said defeatedly "Gou-chan, your brother is a total idiot." Kou slid down next to him, too upset to correct him on the pronunciation of her name. "I know." She sighed "It's painful." Suddenly she perked up and smiled. "Maybe there's something we can do!"
"Oh no!" Rei pushed his glasses up his nose and huffed "I let you two talk me into spying on Rin-San and Nitori-San (which is wrong of us, anyway), but I will not let you meddle." Kou and Nagisa exchanged glances, and then Kou turned back to watch her big brother's date while Nagisa leaned forward across the table. "Come on, Rei-Chan!" he whined, giving Rei his best puppy-dog expression "Please? You don't even have to do anything, just leave it all to us!"Rei turned away, determined not to get pulled into another wild scheme, but Nagisa wasn't giving up quite yet. The blonde leaned so far forward he was practically lying on the table and wrapped his arms around the taller boy. "Pleeeeease, Rei-chan?" He said, burying his face in Rei's chest. "It would make me really happy if you said yes." Rei gritted his teeth, trying to hold his ground. Then he made the mistake of looking down. He saw Nagisa's big, beautiful eyes staring up at him, and his shoulders slumped as he felt his resolve crumble "Oh... Alright. But nothing to crazy, and I am not participating, ok? Now please sit properly, Nagisa. Climbing on tables isn't beautiful. Nagisa squealed and hugged Rei tightly "REI- CHAN IS THE BEST!" He crowed, causing the other boy to turn red and shove his glasses up his nose. Then, the breaststroke swimmer slid back to his side of the booth and leaned his head close to Kou's so they could form a plan. Rei sighed. There was never any peace when Nagisa was around.
The plan Kou and Nagisa came up with wasn't exactly brilliant or subtle, but it got the point across. Nagisa would go up to their table (pretending that he hadn't known they were going to be there) and distract Ai. Then Rei (who had failed to escape involvement) would sneak a note with instructions from Kou to Rin telling him to excuse himself and meet her in the hallway by the bathrooms. There, she would yell at him for making a mess of things, and then set him straight on how to act on a date.
"It's never going to work." said Rei when the other two were finished explaining. "Of COURSE it will, Rei-Chan!" Said Nagisa emphatically "Don't doubt the genius of the plan." Rei rolled his eyes. "It's not at all genius, and I can doubt it all I want because It will not work!" Kou sighed. "I suppose we could always go with plan B"
"What's that?"
"Tell him, Nagisa."
"You go up dressed as a waiter taking their order (They won't recognized you 'cause you'll have a fake mustache), then while you have Ai distracted, I swoop in and put an earpiece in Rin's ear so that Kou (who will be sitting over here pretending to read a menu that we secretly cut eye-holes in so she can see everything) can tell him what to do and say."
Rei opened his mouth and closed it again. Finally, with a sigh and a quick push of his glasses, he said "Plan A it is."
"AI-CHAN! RIN-RIN! I DID NOT SEE YOU SITTING THERE! ARE YOU PERHAPS ON YOUR FIRST DATE WHICH I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BECAUSE GOU-CHAN OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T TELL ME?" Nagisa said in a far to loud, monotone voice that made Kou and Rei cringe. "What are you doing here?" Rin asked, looking slightly annoyed, but also relieved (he would deal with anything, even Nagisa's antics if it meant breaking the awkward silence between him and Ai). Nagisa started his strange, loud monotone again "I WAS JUST STOPPING TO GET SOMETHING TO EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT WHEN I SAW YOU AND CAME TO SAY HELLO. I DID NOT KNOW BEFORE THIS THAT YOU WOULD BE HERE AND THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT WHY I CAME. THIS IS A COMPLETE SURPRISE!" he turned towards Aiichirou and continued "SO, AI-CHAN. WE SHOULD PROBABLY TURN THIS WAY, AWAY FROM RIN SO THAT YOU CAN'T SEE HIM AND TALK." Ai raised an eyebrow "What are you doing, Nagisa?"
"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. THERE IS NO PLAN. I'M JUST TALKING TO YOU."
"Plan?" Nagisa laughed robotically, a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead "Ummm..." losing some of his robotic "acting" in his panic, he looked around nervously then yelled "REI-CHAN! HOW SURPRISING TO SEE YOU HERE!" Rei jumped out from behind Rin's chair, where he had been attempting to stealthily plant Kou's note and gave Nagisa a death stare. From her hiding spot in the hallway where she had been planning to talk to her brother, Kou groaned loudly. "Just give it up, guys. Nagisa's bad acting has destroyed everything." Nagisa crossed his arms in front of his chest and pouted indignantly. "I am not a bad actor, right Rei-chan?"
"..."
"RIGHT, REI-CHAN?!"
"Yeah... um... sure, Nagisa." Nagisa grinned proudly at Kou. "See, Gou-chan? Rei thinks I'm the best actor in the whole world."
"I never said tha-"
"And anyway, the plan could have worked if you hadn't just given up like that."
"I only gave up because you had already made sure it wouldn't work!"
"I didn't mess up, you did!"
"No, YOU did!"
"No YOU did!"
"No-" the argument was brought to a sudden stop by Rin's fist slamming down on the table. "Look." he said, on the verge of exploding "I don't care who's fault it was. All I want to know is WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Nagisa and Kou both rolled there eyes and Kou said "We were fixing your date before you made a complete idiot of yourself, obviously."
"WHAT?!" Rei raised his hand and said "I was not on board with this. I just wanted to leave and get them to stop spying, but"
"YOU WERE SPYING ON US?!"
"Of course not!" Kou said "We were just... observing from a distance without telling you."
"THAT"S THE SAME THING!"
"IS NOT! BESIDES YOU NEEDED MY HELP! ALL YOU'VE DONE TONIGHT IS SIT THERE AWKWARDLY!" The two siblings stared at each other tensely, ready for a fight, when Ai coughed quietly. He had been watching the action, and although he found it a little amusing, he figured he should probably step in before something serious happened. "Excuse me?" he said "Um, I don't really mind having our date interrupted, but we really need to go now if we want to get to the movie in time. Thank you guys for your concern, but in the future, could you maybe not spy- er, 'observe us from a distance without our knowledge'?" Kou flung her hands up dramatically "Fine!" She said with a heavy sigh "Onii-chan, ruin your relationship if you like! I'm done trying to help you!" Rin started to say something, but Ai's hand tugging his sleeve stopped him, and he turned and stormed out the door. Ai smiled kindly at the others and said "It was nice to see you all. We should get together some time and hang out. Just, you know, not during my dates." And with that, he ran after Rin.
"RIN" shouted Aiichirou, out of breath "Wait up!" Rin stopped his angry storming long enough to let Nitori get to him. They continued on, Rin's mind still clouded with anger. Then he heard a snort coming from next to him. The snort developed into a breathy giggle, and then finally a full on laugh. He turned to face Ai and said (maybe a little too harshly) "What's so funny." Ai giggled some more and said "Nothing. It's just," he flashed a wide grin at Rin "that was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life." Rin softened when he saw Ai laugh, and finally, he began to join in. "They are pretty ridiculous, aren't they."
"And your face! You looked like you were seriously contemplating murdering all of them."
"I was!" They both laughed, and slowly the tension that had been felt since the beginning of the night disappeared. "Look, Rin." Ai said when they had both collected themselves "I love being around you. You make me really happy, and I hate that this is so uncomfortable. I don't think it should be, either. We're best friends, and we've known each other for over a year. I want to just talk and be ourselves without worrying about how things are different now that we're... now that we're together." Rin nodded. "I agree. I've been trying so hard tonight to think of things you're supposed to do and say on a date, I ended up just feeling awkward and like I had screwed up."
"So let's stop thinking about it. Let's just... Figure it out as we go along. Just enjoy being together." Rin smiled and took Ai's hand. "I really like that idea."
When they finally reached the theatre and sat down to watch the movie, Ai leaned over and rested his head on Rin's shoulder and Rin wrapped an arm around him. Neither knew what was happening on the screen, they were too happy just being with each other to care.
Rei and Ai walked to the train after sneaking out of the movie theatre without being seen. "See Rei-chan? The plan worked perfectly!" Nagisa said happily. Rei pushed his glasses up his nose. "That was hardly 'the plan', Nagisa, and I still say we shouldn't have followed them, especially after Nitori-kun specifically told us not to." Nagisa giggled. "You're just annoyed that you didn't think of such a brilliant plan."
"It was hardly brilliant. And besides, there are hundreds of other ways you could have done that, easier ways! Why did you have to go with the most ridiculously overcomplicated one possible?!" Nagisa winked "Because it's more fun!" Rei just sighed and nodded, he had been expecting an answer like that.
The next chapter should be up by Wednesday, but I'm not making any promises.
Thanks for reading, and please leave a review!