The next day, he didn't see or hear from Rin at all until he saw him on the block for his 100 meter free. Again, guilt stabbed him in the gut when he witnessed how terribly Rin performed likely because of the news that he wouldn't be swimming in the relay. He could only watch those events unfold with his jaw clenched. It took all he had not to run down there to help him out of the pool when he struggled to do so alone.
Mikoshiba was sure the other redhead had retreated back to the bus after that race, so his shock was considerable when he spotted Rin on the block to compete as Iwatobi's member for the butterfly leg of the relay. "The bastard's lost his mind!" he snarled almost to himself as Nitori reacted in similar surprise next to him. The animalistic quality of that shout seemed to surprise Ai since the silver-haired first year flinched away from him slightly.
His tune quickly changed, however, when he saw how well Rin was performing. As well as he'd seen his boyfriend swim in the past, this was something else entirely. "Look at him go . . ." he breathed in awe.
After the race was over and Iwatobi clearly won, Seijuurou watched the four interact. Rin looked legitimately happy for once. In all the times he'd seen the younger swimmer laugh, it'd never been that carefree. It'd been close, but never quite the same. That was enough to make Mikoshiba's heart soar. Before Ai could even turn to comment to his captain about the amazing scene they'd just witnessed, Seijuurou was bolting down the stairs to meet up with the group.
He caught them in a rather empty hallway. They'd all put their jackets back on, leaving them in the same thing that Mikoshiba was wearing (swimsuit and jacket with no shirt), and Rin had his usual post-swim towel just sitting on his head. "Rin!" he called as he jogged towards them.
Matsuoka turned around with a look that appeared to be vaguely fearful. To his surprise, he was greeted by Seijuurou—who was obviously in boyfriend mode rather than Captain mode—pulling him close via a hand on the back of his head and one resting on his shoulder. The taller male could only grin at Rin as their foreheads rested against one another. Rin's hand rested on Seijuurou's chest, clenched ever-so-slightly in the fabric of the jacket that covered the tanned skin.
"Sei . . ." he breathed out his surprise.
"That was a great race!" Seijuurou laughed, his smile so wide that his eyes squinted shut.
The Iwatobi team just watched the two, shocked. Mako and Nagisa looked at each other with wide eyes over Haru's head. Haru looked as disinterested as always, and Rei was just standing there with his mouth hanging open like a fish. Mako was amused to notice the blush that was forming on Rin's cheeks.
"You're not . . . mad at me?" Rin asked, looking up into Seijuurou's bright yellow eyes.
"We'll talk about that later. Right now, my boyfriend just swam an amazing race, and I wanted to congratulate him."
"Boyfriend?" Nagisa echoed, calling attention to the fact that the couple did in fact have onlookers.
Mikoshiba simply turned to smile at the other team. "Yep!" he beamed. "We kept it quiet since it wouldn't exactly look good since I'm his captain and all, but yeah."
Rin took that as an invitation to throw his arms around Sei and kiss him soundly. That was a gesture that Sei answered with equal vigor. In that time, Ai jogged into the hallway and froze at what he saw.
"Captain?" he called quietly. "Matsuoka?" After all, their two profiles were pretty hard to mistake.
The two separated quickly, jumping apart in surprise at their teammate's familiar voice.
"Nitori!" Rin gasped, hurriedly wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. It was one thing for his best friends—despite everything that'd happened in the last few months, that's exactly what they still were—to know about the morally questionable relationship between the captain and his teammate. It was another for a member of said team to know. It takes a couple seconds for Rin to be able to school his expression into his usual scowl.
Behind Sei and Rin, the Iwatobi team were trying their hardest not to laugh at Rin's reaction. They'd never seen their friend look that embarrassed about anything.
Mikoshiba cleared his throat. "Yes, Nitori?"
"I knew it!" Ai shouted abruptly, a happy grin on his face.
That earned a moment of Seijuurou blinking in surprise. "Huh?"
"I'm sorry, Captain," Ai laughed as he tried to cover his mouth to disguise it. "You and Matsuoka aren't as subtle as you think. The guys have been making bets about when you two would hook up."
Seijuurou could only blink while Rin let out a strangled, "What?"
"Yeah. It was obvious when you check out Captain Mikoshiba when he's getting out of the pool. And, Captain, no one that's just a person's superior cares that much about what his teammate is going through. Especially not enough that that subordinate would go to his room in the middle of the night. So how long have you two been together?"
Sei coughed. "Since he came to Samezuka," he admitted with a blush that almost matched his hair. "We met when he moved in."
"Really?!" Nagisa exclaimed. "That's awesome! Congratulations!"
Finally, Rin seemed to recover from everyone he cared about—except Gou, thank God—finding out about his formerly secret relationship. "Okay, enough. Yes, we're together. Yes, it's been for a while. That's the end of it."
The Iwatobi team just shrugged.
"Okay," Makoto agreed. "We were thinking about having a cookout tomorrow night to celebrate. Do you guys want to come? Ai, you're welcome too."
"Sure!" Mikoshiba grinned.
