Disclaimer: I don't own Free!
Chapter 3
"But curses can be broken, right?"
His grandmother nods and leans forward. "But this particular curse can only be defeated when the cursed children leave the sea song behind. Only then they can become one with the sea.''
Fifteen
''I'm not coming.''
For a moment, Haru doesn't know what to say. His lips tighten and he clenches his jaw. His body is shaking, fists balling and relaxing without rhyme or reason. ''I knew you were a coward,'' he spits out, ''But congrats, you've reached a new high.''
It's quiet at the other end of the line for a moment, before: ''Young man, I do not care whether or not you are upset about your grandmother's death, I am your father, and I will not be spoken to in this manner!''
It takes all the restraint Haru can drag from his meager reserves not to hurl the phone at the wall. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. The fight leaves him, and somehow, that feels terribly sad. He's tired of the disappointment.
''You lost the right to call yourself my father a long time ago,'' he sighs, ''and it has a lot to do with the fact that you don't care.''
The words he doesn't say sound louder than the ones he does.
''Stop running, come home. I can't bury her alone.''
They carry her body through the darkness, step onto the stones in the river and walk past the seven rapids, to the bay. The sand crunches underneath their bare feet and the air smells like salt. The water is calm tonight, the waves are nothing more than little bumps that gently roll onto the shore.
The lay her down, her feet in the water.
They hold vigil over her body that night. They watch silently as the day breaks and the first sun rays touch the water, their reflection a breath-taking display of orange and red. It seems to take an eternity. But then it happens- the moment the light reaches her body, she dissolves. Great white flocks are the only thing left behind, and the ocean takes her, riding on top of the waves. Seafoam, that's what she's become.
She's beautiful, even in this form, Haru thinks. White, light and airy, and most of all: In her element. She's joining the sea.
And suddenly, his chest feels like a cage and he can't breathe, suffocating in his own mind, the pressure that's dragging him down is heavier than the pressure of water ever could be. That's what it feels like, the realization.
The curse.
His father tried to break it by leaving the sea, but he's been doing that since Haru was four, and the only thing that resulted in was a child that barely knows his parents.
Haru hates the curse as much as he loves sea song- and as he has realized by now, the only way to break it, is to die.
His father has disappeared again, desperately running from a curse Haru knows he can't hide from.
(He is fifteen, and all his hopes of being set free have turned to dust)
He has no purpose anymore, and it is almost too easy to lose himself in dreams. The sea songs jarring notes begin to hurt his ears and the scent of salt follows him everywhere.
"You only need to take one more step, and we'll be together forever." It whispers to him in his sleep, and the water sloshes around his legs. He can taste his own fear, and his heart thrums in his chest.
Nobody ever said the sea wasn't cruel.
Sixteen
He dreams of a green tail and eyes like the sunset, and when he wakes up, there's a hole in his heart. His fever dreams make him press his hands against his head in an attempt to make them stop. It doesn't work, it doesn't work, it doesn't work and it hurts.
He's never needed someone as much as he does now, so he stumbles out of his back door and runs. His sweat-soaked pajamas stick to his frame and make him shiver, but he has only one thing on his mind.
The darkness is suffocating, the air is cold and the smell of sickness hangs around him. The sound of rushing water is a balm to his soul, and when he leaps off the river bank, onto the stepping stones, he can feel his heart beating like a drum.
The stones cut his bare feet, and the blood soaks into the sand of the bay. His footprints are stained red. Just in front of the sea, he finally stops.
His knees give out, and he collapses onto the ground. There's a lump his throat, and he can't swallow it down.
Every morning afterward, he wakes up at the first light of day, only to find himself on the shore, in the exact position his grandmother's corpse was when she turned into sea foam.
It should scare him, and somewhere deep down, he's sure it is. It's just that the sea song sings louder. Louder and louder, until it almost deafens him. Until he wants so badly it hurts, but he doesn't know what he desires. It twists and turns until all his thoughts whirl around in his head like snowflakes in a blizzard. It's freezing or unbearably hot, and Haru shivers along with it.
(salt, ocean, darkness, green scales, sharp teethhatelovewaterwaves, pressure).
Exhausted, covered in sweat and sand sticking uncomfortably to his slick skin, he thinks: A siren song, that's what this is.
He lets his head fall back, breathing in sync with the roll of the waves. The call of the seagulls sounds, and he knows exactly who the sea has taken this time. He has resigned himself to his fate- his drowning is only a matter of time.
Seventeen
One morning, Makoto walks into the Nanase household and he finds Haru at the kitchen table, simply sitting, back straight, hands resting at his sides. He's staring into the distance, towards the sea, and something about the depth of his gaze unsettles Makoto. The expression on his face is almost dazed.
For a second, Makoto thought it was grandmother Nanase there at the table, instead of Haru. He remembers her sitting in that chair, the wrinkles around her eyes creasing like the folds of old knitted blankets, softened by the passage of time. One hand cradling her cheek, the other straying over the polished wood, veins clearly visible. Old, color washed out, withering like ancient people do.
The way she would sigh was so quiet, so whole, that he almost felt like it was the last flicker of a candle flame, the smoke the only thing left to spiral in the air.
He blinks, and just like that, the image is gone- only the quiet, longing sadness that she shared with her grandson remains.
It scares him, to see his friend like this.
Haru startles awake in the middle of his classes, the teacher not even bothering to try and wake him anymore, and instantly knows this:
Rin is on his way back.
Authors note
Hi, everyone!
There are a lot vague things happening in this chapter, that will be explained in the companion story (the dream sequence, for example). The side story I should have been working on while posting this, but, um, KHR said no. It kidnapped my creativity and decided it was going to do fem!Tsuna instead. I'll probably find my muse for the companion story again, though. It's far too interesting not too! ^^
Parts of this chapter were inspired by this quote: ''I'll drown in an ocean of pain and emotion'' from the song The silent scream by Anna Blue. The song doesn't really fit this story, but I heard that single sentence and it felt like it belonged so much with this story that I had to mention it.
While writing this chapter, I listened to the songs ''Cosmic Love'' and ''Rabbit Heart'' by Florence and the Machine, and several instrumental songs by Peter Gundry.
I hope you enjoyed it, and constructive criticism is always welcome!