Disclaimer: I do not own Free! or any of its characters.

A few weeks later:

It was lunch time at Iwatobi High. Unlike most students, the swim team wasn't fortunate enough to get a peaceful one. Gou had gathered them on the roof to lecture them about getting their bodies in shape, as usual. This time she was getting more carried away than she normally does.

"You guys are getting too lazy during practice! We need to up our training regimen! Tomorrow, you guys are going to run 16km!"

Everyone spit out their food, "16km!?"

Rei spoke up first with sweat dripping down the side of his face, "Not that I mind running but, don't you think that's a little overboard? I mean, we don't even have school tomorrow."

Gou smiled and shook her head, "Nope. We're going to start at dawn."

"Ehhh!? We can't do that Gou-chan!" Nagisa said in a pleading voice.

Makoto laughed nervously, "Yeah, I'm not really for it either. We've never run that much all at once."

Gou puffed out her cheeks, "Oh stop being babies! If you can swim it then you can run it."

"I'm not doing it," Haru said with a frown.

Gou looked down at him with a shadow cast over her eyes, "You're doing it. End. Of. Story." They all jumped a bit at her expression and slowly backed away. At this point, there was no use in arguing. Gou had clearly won and anyone who didn't show up was going to pay the consequences, whatever they may be.

9 pm:

There was a mass text:

"Sender: Gou Matsuoka
Received: 9:41 pm
Subject: Practice

Guys, we'll be meeting in front of the school at 6 am! Don't be late!"

Haru was laying on Makoto's bed at the time. He held the phone above himself and read the text. As soon as he saw the time, he grimaced. He turned his head towards Makoto who was sitting on the floor playing video games, "6 am."

"Huh?" The orca paused the game and looked at Haru.

"Gou wants us to meet at the school at 6 am."

Makoto sighed, "I guess we really don't have a choice."

"I'm not going," Haru said bluntly as he turned over onto his side with his back facing Makoto.

"Haru you know you have to," Makoto said in a pleading tone.

"That's too early."

The orca grew a small smile on his lips as he stood up and leaned over his lover to get a look at his face, "C'mon Haru-chan. It might be fun. Besides, we've done things in the morning that took more ener-"

"I'll do it and drop the 'chan' already." Haru was determined to cut Makoto off before he could finish that statement. His eyes were shut and his face was red. His lover just stared and smiled for awhile before he leaned in closer to kiss Haru's ear. The warmth of Makoto's lips sent shivers down his spine. Haru shot Makoto a glare but Makoto could easily tell that Haru didn't completely dislike it.

"Haru, you know, you're taking up all of my bed, right?" he smirked. He watched while Haru started to get off the bed. Soon as he sat up, Makoto rushed in with a kiss on the lips. Haru's whole body seemed to become hot. Makoto pulled away slightly and smiled, "I'm kidding."

6 am:

The four boys stood there in front of the school while Gou was giving directions for their run. Makoto was listening intently. Haru looked dead tired. Rei stood there impatiently tapping his foot. He was absolutely prepared. Nagisa on the other hand was bouncing up and down full of energy but not at all prepared for the run. Gou stopped in the middle of her lecture, "Haruka-senpai!"

The sleepy head jumped, "H-hai."

"Wake up! You're about to start!" She took a deep breath and blew on her whistle which no one knew she even had on her.

They began to run. Nagisa started off in his usual sprint with all the extra energy he had going on. Rei was already calculating the number of breaths he took between each step and measuring the distance in his strides. The couple stayed a little further back. On top of Haru being the slowest runner in the group anyway, he was too tired to even try to put all his effort in so Makoto stayed behind with him, not wanting to make him feel bad about it.

After running almost halfway, each one of them had slowed down a bit. Rei was still going pretty strong but he didn't want to leave his team. Nagisa was trying his best to still keep up with Rei, regardless if Rei wasn't running as fast anymore. The other two were still running side-by-side, like they always have since they were kids. Before long, Haru put his hands on his knees and was breathing heavily. Makoto stopped in his tracks when he saw the poor dolphin gasping for air.

"Haru, are you all right?" He walked over then put his hand on Haru's shoulder.

Haru nodded, "I'm fine." He stood up straight and began running again. Makoto started back up again as well with Haru only a few inches away from him. He kept glancing over at Haru's face. He raised an eyebrow at what he saw. I know he's tired and all but, he shouldn't look this bad. Maybe I kept him up too long last night. Maybe he didn't eat this morning, wait no, my mother made sure we ate before we left. He sighed. Even if I ask Haru if anything's wrong, he'll say he's fine. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if he says anything.

Once the boys passed the 15km mark, they were pretty much in the clear. The hard work was over; now they were in the home stretch. That was until Haru blacked out. All the boys quickly turned around to see Haru laying on the ground. They all dashed over to him. Makoto nudged his shoulder repeatedly, "Haru! Haru!"

Nagisa stood next to him, "What's wrong with Haru-chan?"

Makoto shook his head, "I don't know. Come on Haru! Get up!"

Rei suddenly became a nervous Nellie*, "I'll go get he-"

Before he could finish his sentence, there was a soft but rasp voice coming from the body on the ground, "Why are you guys so loud?"

"Haruka-senpai!"

"Haru-chan!"

"Haru!"

The little penguin bent over him, "Haru-chan, what happened?"

Haru steadily sat up and rubbed the spot of his head that he hit, "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Haruka-senpai, you passed out while you were running."

Haru took a look at all of their faces, especially Makoto's usual worrisome expression. "Guys, I'm fine."

Nagisa pushed further, "Then why'd you faint?"

"I didn't sleep enough last night." Haru ended up blurting out the first thing that came to his head. He wasn't actually sure if that's what caused it but it seemed like the most likely reason seeing as it was the truth.

At that, Makoto's face was as bright as a stop light. Rei caught this in his peripheral vision, "Makoto-senpai, what's wrong?"

Makoto jumped, "A-ah nothing. Nothing at all." He proceeded to help the boy off the ground and regain his balance. Rei just shrugged it off.

7:45 am

They all made it back safely to the front of the school where they found Gou standing there looking at her watch with her other hand on her hip. "You guys are over the time. We're going to do this again next Saturday as well and this time I want you to beat this time. Easy!" The boys looked at each then nodded in unison. Haru convinced them not to tell Gou what happened. If she would've found out, who knows what kind of crazy thing she would have Haru do. She might have even told Haru not to swim for awhile and that was the last thing Haru was going to allow. "I guess you guys are done for the day," she waved, "See you guys on Monday with a new swim training regimen!" All of their faces were grim. They only had one thought, This can't be good.

When the lovers made it to Haru's place, Makoto took off his shoes in the entrance and sat in the living room. Haru was in the kitchen getting water bottles out of the refrigerator. Haru came into the living room and sat next to the orca then handed him the bottle. Makoto took it out of his hand and looked up at Haru, "Hey, are you sure you're okay?"

Haru stopped drinking his water for a moment, "I told you already, I'm fine."

"Yeah but, I've seen you do more exercise with no sleep before and you didn't pass out that time."

"I was mentally tired that time. This time was physical," he said as he took another gulp of water.

Makoto blushed, "Ah, I'm sorry."

A/N: I'm so sorry for the delay guys, especially if you're reading my other story "I Quit"! I'm drowning in a lot of college stuff right now that needs to be taken care of before I go to school. I hope you all understand and I hope you liked this! See you in the next chapter! xx

*nervous Nellie is someone who's worrying excessively.