Er... sorry about this... rather paltry offering, but it comes with good news! We got Internet installed back in my house today! Combine that with Free! Eternal Summer being right around the corner and that should mean a ton of updates again! Especially since except for more chapters to fill them out, I basically have every upcoming arc planned. The summer-before-third-year was literally my next project but I absolutely don't want to trod on canon (well, much more than I already have, I guess I should say...), hence my waiting for the new season. Be that as it may, depending on how much the new season covers, I should be able to figure out how to mess with the rest of this and wrangle it all into place. Anyway, apparently the Internet being back sparked something in me, because I wrote this little thing out in like an hour to two hours XD Forgive the odd style, I know it's a mess, but it wanted to be written how it wanted to be written.

(And Lavareef, whenever you get back, I missed you!)

Chapter 31- Of Memory and Phones
Rin's phone held everything.

After he had found himself in a rocky relationship with two of his primary school friends- the recalcitrant Nanase and friendly Tachibana- he had taken to capturing any and every moment that struck his fancy with a quick press of a button and the overly exaggerated sound of a shutter.

Haru glaring at him as he held a plate of mackerel just out of arms reach?
Picture.

Makoto laughing, head thrown back, holding his sides, tears dewing at the corners of his eyes as he laughed without restraint?
Picture.

Haruka stripping off his shirt, already down to his swimsuit, Makoto's flailing hands just barely in frame, the composition blurry because Rin had just been laughing too damn hard over it all?
Picture.

The creamy expanse of Haru's abdomen blurred by Rin's hands shaking with excitement?
Picture.

Rin hiding his flushed face and blissed-out expression in embarrassment as Makoto grinned and flashed a peace sign at the device, a satisfactory reward photo for a job well done?
Definitely a picture he kept, regardless of the echo of embarrassment he suffered every time he thought of there being digital evidence of the way Makoto's gentler lovemaking could ruin him.

Rin loved every picture he'd ever taken of the two, no matter the subject or setting: it was his lovers being candid and there was nothing he could appreciate quite like honesty... except perhaps Makoto's back. He'd grouped most of them into galleries geared toward each of the pair.

Haru floating on his back in the pool with an expression of utmost serenity, Haru tilting his face into a showerhead, Haru glaring at Rin for interrupting his bath, Haru holding Akiha and waving her paw for the camera with an absolutely stoic face, Haru regarding a sand castle on the beach speculatively (it was his and he had been sure it was lopsided), Haru's long fingers partially covering the lens but between the gaps a glimpse of red and black hair weaving together because Haru had kissed him, Haruka sleeping curled up with Akiha in a similar but mirrored pose, Haru with that small but meaningful smile on his face as he looked (for once) directly at the camera on purpose, Haru's face again but this time only half as the blue blue blue of the sea offset the vivid shine in his own eyes and the emotion Makoto swore he read as love, Haru trying to accomplish homework without jostling the kitten pillowing her head on his arm, just Haru, Haru, Haru.

And then there was Makoto.

Makoto's warm smile (so much of his gallery was Makoto's smile), Makoto laughing, Makoto holding Akiha as she paddled water in the tub, Makoto staring at the ocean with a wistful look on his face, Makoto's back in the midst of a stretch (another of Rin's fetishes, not that he could be blamed), Makoto with Ren and Ran hanging off him, Makoto directing his club with an uncharacteristically serious expression, Makoto wearing that expression again but with an edge of liquid sex to it as he leaned dripping against the wall of the Iwatobi locker room's showers, Makoto's butt sticking out from underneath the covers he had tried to dodge beneath to escape the horror of a ghost game he hadn't realized was a ghost game, Makoto looking so sweet and sleepy Rin had taken a kiss right after he'd taken the picture, Makoto soaked in sweat and splayed over pale sheets with only one verdant eye open to regard the camera above him, Makoto toweling a bedraggled Akiha dry with an exasperated good grace, Makoto mid-yelp with the sleeve of an Iwatobi uniform fluttering to the ground just at the edge of the frame, Makoto asleep with an absurdly large orca plushie, Makoto with his glasses on (dear god those glasses) and wearing that same serious 'I am going to dominate you and you're going to like it' face underneath them, Makoto shyly posing in Rin's legskins (and barely fitting) and bashfully looking at the camera, Makoto's hand joining Rin's in holding the phone at arm's length while they kissed and tried to keep an eye on it at the same time, Makoto making an amusedly exasperated face with Akiha draped asleep on top of his head, just Makoto, Makoto, Makoto.

But the favorites were ever going to be the ones of those two together.

Haru licking Makoto's ice cream cone as Makoto beamed at the camera unawares of the theft, Makoto wandering down the path to the school's pool and retrieving the long line of Haru's haste-scattered clothing, Makoto pinning Haru to a wall and all but devouring him, Haru sitting in Makoto's lap with a stick of Pocky in his mouth and a challenging look on his face that Makoto looked scared of but Rin would've leapt at, Haruka and Makoto lit with cyan light and tangled up at the edge of the pool half in and half out with hands roaming everywhere and mouths connected, Makoto asleep on the table as Haru played with his hair and smiled like a lovestruck fool, Haru teaching a fumbling Makoto how to cook, Haru smug as he wiped his palms on his pants while a soaked Akiha stampeded all over a freshly yet rudely awoken Makoto, Makoto stumbling after a scowling Haru dragging him off to parts unknown, Makoto's concentration to Haruka's wanton pleasure and the both of them washed pale when naked under the moonlight, Makoto pulling Haru out of the pool wearing that smile, Haru standing waist-deep in the ocean gesturing for Akiha to go from Makoto's hands to his, Haru munching watermelon on his porch as Makoto napped on his shoulder, Haru and Makoto in their large bed with legs and fingers intertwined in their sleep (this was what happened when he wasn't in the bed with them), Makoto's shoulders slumping upon finding Haru in the bath for the umpteenth time prior to a date, Haru and Makoto making out passionately while keeping their gazes locked on a point above the camera, Makoto and Haruka shoulder to shoulder cleaning dishes in the Tachibana's kitchen, Makoto pinning Haru to their mattress but both of them paying close attention to their beloved third party, Makoto and Haru holding Akiha right up to the camera so the picture was a pink nose and two different heads of hair, his boyfriends, his, his, his.

The pictures of all three of them were few and far between but they were the ones treasured most. Smiling, Rin reached for his cell, determined to find the last-
Gone.

Rin jerked upright, looking wildly left and right, but his phone was nowhere in sight.
"Fuuuck, I left it in Iwatobi, didn't I? Right after the joint practice..."

With a sigh the redhead heaved himself off his bed- after a full day's workout his muscles were satisfactorily aching- in search of his roommate to borrow his phone.

Fifteen minutes of searching found him sliding onto the bench across from Nitori and Sugimura and unceremoniously holding his hand out. Nitori blinked at the gesture a moment before Rin realized this wasn't Makoto and he'd have to clarify.

"Need to borrow your phone, Ai. Left mine in Iwatobi and if Nagisa got a hold of it, my life is over."

"Because of all those pictures of Nanase-senpai and Tachibana-senpai?" Nitori asked with a smile as he handed over his mobile.

Rin was frozen, hand still outstretched, and still smiling Nitori gently placed his phone in the cradle of Rin's palm.
"...how do you know about those..?"

Nitori laughed. "Senpai, you only look at two people that way. And it's normal to take pictures of your loved ones," Nitori added, nudging Sugimura's shoulder. "So of course it's them! Oh, and Aki-chan, of course."

Rin grumbled and roughly spun on the bench to a stereo laugh from his underclassmen. He slid Nitori's phone open and searched through the younger boy's contacts for his own name (looking for 'Matsuoka-senpai' and 'Rin-senpai' before he realized he'd probably just be under 'Senpai' by now) and clicked to send a message.

'Okay, which one of you has my phone? Nagisa, if you picked it up, please turn around and hand it to Rei. Rei, do not let Nagisa have it. Gou, I'm disappointed in you for not giving it back already. If it's Haru or Mako, I'll be over tomorrow to get it.'

He waited anxiously for a response, tapping his foot, and finally Nitori's obnoxious text tone jingled and he hurried to check the results.

Please not Nagisa please not Nagisa please please-

'Interesting how many photos you've actually taken so far.'

And rapid-fire, right after the painfully cool message, another.

'What Haru means is, we really liked going through the photos and seeing us... well, I guess that's how you see us, huh? We need more of you, Rinrin!'

The redhead felt the flush to his cheeks and had no doubt his hair matched his face but before he was even halfway done with a reply another message came in.

'What Makoto means is, we need more of you blushing and recovering from'

It devolved into gibberish and Rin couldn't be more relieved, for a moment, that evidently Makoto had stepped in to curb Haru's speak-his-mind tendencies. This was Nitori's phone, after all, and Rin didn't want his underclassman with the knowledge that there were definite pictures of a post-coital Rin out there.

'I'm so sorry Rin! Anyway, we'll hold onto it and we won't mess with it. These memories are precious to all of us, after all!'

There was a lump in his throat but he wasn't going to acknowledge it.

'You'll have more by tomorrow.'

A final message, a promise from Haru, and Rin's throat now just felt dry at the notion of what they'd be doing tonight and the realization they'd be using his phone to record it all.

"Here." With shaking hands he returned the borrowed phone and tottered back to his room in a daze.

Stupid hormonal dolphin-boys.

Er, so yeah. Short, I know, but better than nothing..? And just so you guys know, it meant a lot to me to have you come back and stick with this and just... you're amazing, every last one of you, and you don't know how much I appreciate your support ;-;