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Disclaimer: I do not own Free! only Hayami and Aiya.

Chapter 6: One Friend on the Run

I wake up early and look over to Hayami. Still asleep. I sigh, ready to go on my morning jog. I change into shorts and a tank top before heading out of the apartment. I look in the mirror, fixing my short pony tail. Walking through the apartment I look for my water bottle. It is on the counter with Kilala curled around it. I giggle.

"I don't think I need you to keep it warm, but thank you for the thought," I tell her.

I scratch behind her ear while she begins to purr. I grab the bottle from her and walk to grab my shoes. Putting them on Kilala begins to try to play with my shoe laces. After batting her off I move to the door. I walk down the stairs and take off.

I look around, this area is really pretty, I like looking at all the trees and being able to breathe in that fresh air. The sun is starting to come up, something that I love to watch. It gives the world a calm look, something that I never really knew about as a child.

I squint my eyes and see a person standing off in the distance. I approach them, but I won't stop running since that we defeat the purpose of running. I turn my eyes away and look forward. I know that it would maybe be bad for me to come any closer to them. I just need to keep running.

"Hey," the person says, stopping me in my tracks.

I turn and see that it is Haru. Just my luck. Say nothing to the guy walking Hayami and I home and now here we are. In the middle of the sidewalk… being awkward. Something that I should run from. I will say that he is cute, but what I said to Hayami is true. We are here to study, not to date.

"Hey, I'll talk to you later, I'm trying to run," I say beginning to jog again.

"I'll run with you," Haru keeps pace with me.

We take a route that I always use, to get to know the area a little better. I glance over at him. He only looks ahead. It is like last night where he didn't seem to want to talk but I was okay with it. But right now I feel like I should talk to him. I look back ahead.

"You run slowly," Haru says after a few minutes.

I am panting, "Really? This is fast for me."

I stop after we cross the street. I take a drink of water, regaining some strength. I look ahead of us, green trees and light post. It is straight and prefect for the next leg thing I have in mind. But Haru might have a hard time with it. He does swim. Oh well, he wanted to join me for this.

"Next thing, just follow my lead," I say.

I lung forward and begin the lungs that I do every morning to make sure that my legs are still in shape. Just because I stopped swimming doesn't mean I should stop working out and being in shape. Besides, it was pounded into me since I was little. So seeing as the dry land doesn't scare me as much I go on runs. I find it better than swimming for me.

After a while I do some high legs and we start running again. I notice that Haru is having a harder time running. Good, Lungs are one of the hardest things for a runner to do.

"Do you do this every morning?" Haru ask, he sounds a little out of breath.

I feel a smile creep across my face. I nod and try to hold back my giggles.

"Yes, I like to run. So this is what I do, better than just running," I reply.

I watch as Haru sits down on a step. I look down at him. I watch as he pants. I hand him my water bottle. I watch as he looks at me. I shrug my shoulders and push it closer to him. He grabs the water from my hands. He drink it and I look at one of the trees.

"Why do you do this?" I hear Haru.

I look back at him, his eyes are looking at me.

"I guess I want to be in shape, and it gives me something to do," I shrug.

But the results are amazing. After a while we part ways and I get back to the apartment to find Hayami has just woken up. She does not look happy, pretty normal for the mornings. I know that I will not be grilled about this morning. I won't tell anyone, and I don't think Haru will.

"Morning," I say, heading into the bathroom.

"You went on a run?" Hayami yawns.

"You know I did, running is the best I can do," I reply from the bathroom as I wash my face off.

"But it is so early in the morning!" Hayami exclaims.

"And you stay up to late, let me guess texting Mako," I snap.

I hear no response from her. I giggle to myself and change into my uniform.