It wasn't until after that little encounter at the hundred meter free that Sei could get close enough to talk to Rin about it. As he approached the block—he may have slightly abusing his position as captain to go over there—he overheard what they were saying.
"I beat you. And that means I never have to swim with you again." Rin's voice was cold as he talked down at the Iwatobi boy that was still in the pool.
After hearing that, Mikoshiba decided to simply clap Rin on the shoulder in congratulations for winning his race and pretending that he hadn't heard what he did just moments before. The next day was when he would realize that he should have talked it out with Rin then. His boyfriend's face when he heard the Iwatobi boys were going to compete in the relay was enough to break Sei's heart.
But as it was, Rin just turned to grin at his captain and boyfriend. The delight in those scarlet eyes and sharp-toothed grin made Sei laugh. "Congratulations, Matsuoka!" he beamed. "You did Samezuka proud."
"Thanks, Sei."
And that was it.
The next day, Mikoshiba could see the hurt and conflict in the other boy's eyes when Ai told him about the relay, but on the redhead just breezed by him without a word. "Matsuoka!" he called, lightly jogging to catch up to Rin. "What was that about? It's just a relay. You weren't quite right around them yesterday, either."
"Nothing," Rin muttered, not even bothering to turn around to look at his captain. "I just didn't know they were going to do the relay."
"Bullshit. That was revenge for something yesterday. You wouldn't have entered a free event when your best stroke is fly otherwise, and I know you rigged your time because I've seen you swim outside of practice when you think no one is watching the clock," Mikoshiba snapped. He grabbed the swimmer's bicep to force him to halt. A quick glance told him that they were now in an abandoned hallway. "What's going on with you, Rin? I knew something about those guys was driving you crazy, but that was ridiculous. Talk to me. That's what I'm here for."
"Just drop it, Mikoshiba! It didn't affect my performance, so it shouldn't matter to you. Lay off, man!" Rin wretched his arm out of Seijuurou's grip and started storming off again.
That comment left Sei shocked enough that he didn't follow again. He was simply left standing there staring after his boyfriend. His eyebrows furrowed in confused anger at Rin's actions. They'd been together for months, and this was how the younger treated him? They'd definitely be having a talk about this when they got back to the dorms, Seijuurou decided. Unfortunately, he didn't come to that decision fast enough to avoid someone seeing him standing in the hall looking pissed off. A gentle hand setting on his shoulder almost caused him to whip around and punch the offender. Fortunately, Sei managed to hault his fist in time.
It turned out to be the easy-going face of one Tachibana Makoto was the one that almost got decked. "Easy, Captain Mikoshiba, it's just me."
"Sorry, Tachibana," Sei sighed. "Was there something you needed?"
"I was going to tell you that our heat for the relay is lining up soon since I saw you come out here, but now I see that something is wrong. Are you alright, Captain Mikoshiba?"
Sei sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for finding me. Sorry I almost hit you."
"It's fine. I should have known better than to sneak up on you like that when you obviously didn't hear me coming," Makoto shrugged. "No damage done, anyway. If you need anything . . . I know we don't really know each other outside of that one joint practice, but I'm a good listener if you ever need an ear."
Another sigh of frustration at no one in particular from Seijuurou. "Thanks, man. It isn't exactly something I can just talk about so. It's personal."
"Either way, the offer's still open."
"Let's just go get checked in," Sei announced as he unzipped his jacket. Fortunately, he'd warmed up before Nitori told Rin, so he was already dressed under his sweats.
Once on the block, amusingly right next to Makoto, Seijuurou glanced over to the area where the Samezuka students were sitting. Surprisingly, Rin was standing at the front right next to Nitori looking slightly guilty. The hurt and anger were still there when Rin's eyes drifted to the Iwatobi team, though. Mikoshiba had assumed the darker redhead had gone to the bus until the rest of them showed up for the ride home. Apparently, he was wrong. The little gesture brought some of the spark back to Seijuurou's eye right as he started his lap.
A happy laugh escaped him when he saw his rank less than a minute later. The Samezuka team had placed second in their heat, qualifying them for the later competitions. It was only once he was exiting the pool area that he remembered the drama with Rin and realized that the other redhead had probably only watched to see the Iwatobi team race. Naturally, that soured his mood immediately. That resulted in him brushing off the congratulations from his team as politely as he could.
Soon enough, they were on the way back to Samezuka on the bus. Everybody was in their own seat, enjoying the opportunity to relax after the high of competing. Sinjuurou glanced over to Rin's seat and saw that the other swimmer was listening to his headphones and was absolutely not paying attention to anything that was going on around him. Even Nitori seemed to realize how standoffish Rin was being.
Mikoshiba scoffed to himself and stood. They'd just arrived back in front of the dorms, so he figured he'd head back to his own as quickly as possible. His earlier decision to talk to Rin upon returning was to be delayed, he decided. He was too pissed off and confused at the moment to talk to his boyfriend maturely, so nothing good could come of trying to have that conversation tonight. Besides, the adrenaline from his race had finally worn off, leaving him in a state of exhaustion that would likely lead to sleep as soon as he collapsed into bed.
"Get some rest, guys," he sighed before anyone could break off to head to their various dorms. "Great work out there today."
After the various expected responses of "Yes, sir," Sei retreated to his room without another word. It was once he closed his dorm room door behind him that he heard Rin's voice in the hallway.
"Go to bed, Nitori," the shark-like teenager murmured. "I need to talk to the captain about something before I go to bed."
"Can't it wait?" Ai asked, sounding more than a little sleepy.
"No."
That conversation seemed to be ended since Mikoshiba then heard the sound of a door closing nearby. It was only moments before a light knock sounded on the door the captain was currently leaning on.
"Sei?" Rin called quietly.
Reluctantly, the bulkier male opened the door and leaned on it with his arm above his head. "What do you want? It's late, and I need to get some sleep."
"Can we talk?" Rin hesitated. "About what happened today?"
"No."
The answer seemed to surprise Matsuoka since he blinked blankly at his boyfriend for a few seconds. "Sei?"
"No, Matsuoka," Mikoshiba reiterated. "I'm not going to talk about this with you tonight. You screwed up, and it looks like you know it. Even if we weren't anything more than just teammates, I'm still your captain, and you're damned lucky I don't kick you off the team for that level of disrespect. So, no. We're not going to talk about this while I'm exhausted as hell and royally pissed off at my boyfriend."
"Sei, I—"
"Go to bed, Rin, before I change my mind about keeping you on the team."
Even as mad as he was, the dejected expression on Rin's face as he turned to head back to his own room made Mikoshiba sigh.
"Rin," he called quietly, "maybe we can talk about this tomorrow . . . I just . . . I need some time to think about what you said to me and how we fit together since I'm your captain and all."
"Sei, I didn't mean it like that."
"That doesn't change the fact that you said it. Get some sleep. You look terrible. You won, remember? You should be happy about that, at least."
Rin nodded silently. "Yeah . . ."
Sei caught his boyfriend's hand before he could go too far. Using that hand as leverage, Mikoshiba pulled Rin in for a chaste goodnight kiss. "I'm still crazy about you, Matsuoka," Seijuurou admitted, resting his forehead against the other redhead's. "I just need to think about this for a bit."
And with that, they parted. Two doors quietly closed and two redheads fell into their separate beds tiredly.
Sleep found one of them easily since, true to his earlier prediction, exhaustion got the better of Sei's body once he was lying down. Rin, on the other hand, remained awake thinking about the events of the day. Yes, he'd finally beaten Haru, but as a result he might have just paid for that win with his relationship. And that thought was enough to keep him up. And that thought confused him to no end since he'd never had a connection that meant that much to him before. Swimming always came first. Right?
