"What events are you participating in?" It was Nagisa who asked while he, Rin and Haruka were running home from swimming. It was one of the last practices before the final tournament of the school year. It was a tournament on a large scale. All the swimming clubs in the area would be there and everyone at the swimming club talked about this.
"I'm entering the 50 meter breast stroke, the 50 meter free, the 100 meter free and the 100 meter butterfly event," Rin said, smiling.
"Rin-chan's amazing!" Nagisa exclaimed while sending Rin an admiring look. "What about Haru-chan?" he asked then, looking to Haruka who hadn't been looking the slightest bit impressed as Rin had listed his events.
"I only swim free," Haruka answered.
"That's our Haru-chan," Nagisa said, though he didn't feel like he had had his question answered.
"Haru is entering the 50 meter free, the 100 meter free and the 200 meter free," Rin answered in Haruka's place, to satisfy Nagisa.
"Haru-chan's amazing too!" Nagisa declared. "But why are you entering the 50 meter breast, Rin-chan?" he asked, only now wondering about it.
"I was told to try out something new," Rin answered. "What are you participating in?" he then asked Nagisa.
"I'm only in the 100 meter breaststroke event," Nagisa said with a slightly displeased look. He had wanted to be able to participate in more events like Rin and Haruka, but his coach said it might be a bad idea to participate in the 200 meter breaststroke and his time hadn't qualified for the 50 meter breaststroke.
"At least you get to swim," Rin said, sensing Nagisa's feeling of disappointment with himself. "There are others from your team who don't," he smiled, trying to cheer up the younger, and it worked.
"You're right, Rin-chan," Nagisa said.
They continued on talking while running home until Haruka told them that he'd leave them behind if they kept it up, and they all picked up the pace to make sure they'd be home as soon as possible.
The tournament was the last one Rin and Haruka would take part in before they became 6th graders. After this, they only had a year until they couldn't attend the tournaments anymore. Rei had said there was a swim club at the middle school, so Rin had decided that both he and Haruka would join it when they entered.
Now the day of the tournament had arrived. The breaststroke events were first. Rin took part and came in 2nd place. Nagisa was up next for the 100 meter breast stroke. Haruka and Rin were both watching from the sidelines as Nagisa lined up with the others and was instructed to take his mark. The tension was thick in the air and everyone held their breaths until the signal was given.
All the breaststroke swimmers jumped in the water and started swimming like their lives depended on it. Rin and Haruka had both noticed that all of them were both older and bigger than Nagisa, which gave him a slight disadvantage. If he won, it would be a miracle.
Nagisa swam. He took one stroke after another and kept on fighting. He was somewhere in the middle when they reached the turn. He was 5th upon entering, but since the one who held 4th place was slow, he ended up overtaking them in the turn and then took 4th place.
As the race progressed, Rin started noticing a change in Nagisa's stroke. It seemed he was getting faster the closer they got to finish. He was catching up to the three in the lead and within a few strokes he had overtaken 3rd place.
"It is as if his arms are stretching out…" Rin mumbled as he watched the younger boy also catching up to and overtaking second place. There were now only a few meters left until the finish line and he was almost even with 1st place.
A few moments later the race was over and as if on reflex, Rin looked up to the board to see who had won. To his surprise and joy, there was a 1 in front of Nagisa's name, and he smiled.
"And Nagisa thinks we're amazing?" he wondered.
Next up were the backstroke events. Rin, Haruka and Nagisa knew no one who were participating there but then came the butterfly event and Rin swam his 100 meter butterfly and came in 2nd place again. However, the gap between him and 1st place was fairly small.
After this came the freestyle events. The 50 meter free event was up first. Haruka and Rin were up against each other and Nagisa was watching from the sidelines, not knowing who of them to cheer for.
The swimmers were instructed to take their marks and then the signal to start was given and they jumped off in the exact same time. Due to Rin's kick, he was brought far ahead of the other swimmers. None of the others, not even Haruka, seemed to hold a candle to him, but slowly Haruka started separating from the other swimmers. He was gaining on Rin due to his fast stroke, but before he had the time to overtake him, Rin reached the other end and finished.
"So I am the better," Rin smiled as he climbed out of the pool.
"We'll see," Haruka answered while also climbing out of the water. He had had a feeling this would happen anyways. It was no secret that Rin had a strong kick. You needed a really fast stroke if you wanted to win against him in 50 meter free. The 100 meter free was a different story though.
This was the next event coming up. After a short break swimmers were summoned to the starting blocks. There were two rounds of the event because there were so many participating. Haruka and Rin were in the same, and again they were swimming in the lanes next to each other.
Nagisa was still watching from the sidelines as Rin and Haruka took their marks. He always loved watching Rin and Haruka race. They were both amazing swimmers and it created an energy between them that you would only find among the strongest bonds between rivals and friends.
The signal to start was given and Rin and Haruka jumped off again. It was like the 50 meter race, Rin was brought ahead, but Haruka was catching up again and they were almost even in the turn. However, Rin's kick brought him ahead again and Haruka had to fight to keep up. But because he had already gained a lot on Rin it didn't take him as long to catch up as it had before.
Other swimmers were trying their hardest to overtake one another, but they all knew that they were only fighting for 3rd place. With Rin and Haruka in the water 1st and 2nd place was off limits to them.
Rin and Haruka were about even. They were tying for 1st and all eyes were on them. They didn't seem to be aware of this fact though. Nagisa saw it and felt strangely happy about it. He was happy that so many people could see Rin and Haruka swim and experience how amazing they were in the water.
Rin and Haruka finished around the same time. The place exploded with cheers as both' heads surfaced from the water and Rin looked to see his time. Nagisa looked too and saw a 2 in front of Rin's name and a 1 in front of Haruka's name. Haruka had won.
"Damn it!" Rin exclaimed before climbing out of the water. Haruka did the same without saying a single word. He needed to relax a bit before the 200 meter free would start.
Rin and Nagisa were watching as Haruka swam his last event and made it to 2nd place.
"If he'd been at full strength he would've won," Rin muttered, irritated.
"Haru-chan did really good. It wasn't much time between him and 1st place," Nagisa said with a wide smile. He still thought that both Rin and Haruka were incredibly amazing.
Makoto was proud when the three came home. He had had a gut feeling that Rin and Haruka would come in at least 3rd place with their freestyle events, especially the 50 and 100 meter events he was certain of it, but he hadn't expected for Nagisa to take 1st place in the 100 meter breaststroke event. He hadn't dared to expect that Rin and Haruka would take 1st place either. He feared it would be to expect too much of them. But he was happy they had come this far in their respective events.
"I want to take a picture," Rei had said once he also heard of his siblings' victories. "Makoto, could I borrow the camera?" he asked.
Makoto gave his approval and they had Rin, Haruka and Nagisa line up outside with their medals on. Then Rei took the picture of Rin and Nagisa who were smiling happily, Rin with a proud look on his face in addition, and Haruka looking completely away from the camera.
I kinda feel like I should write an A/N around now. I mean, I used to do it all the time last year but I haven't been writing anything at the end of any chapter lately. I'm sorry if it's a bother, mostly because I'm just writing without having anything to say. Sorry.
I really want to make another cup of too sweet coffee but if I do that now, at 21:10, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to fall sleep later tonight.
Anyways, felt good to give out some useless information. Thanks for reading (in the unlikely event that you made it this far)
Jackie