"You alright now?" Rin said with the others ready to go.
"Sorry about that, it started yesterday, I tried to push you off before you threw me in there but…"
"It's my fault, but seriously, you ate too many tomatoes? What kind of excuse is that?"
"You know when you eat too much beetroot that your urine becomes a reddish purple colour?"
"Yeah….."
"I just say that I ate too many tomatoes, it's the perfect excuse"
"Yeah right, but Rin what are we going to do with Kazuki? Haru said, we both know that he's actually a girl" Haru said.
"HE'S A GIRL? Then Wait- You were having that sort of conversation?!" Sousuke exclaimed, "Ewwwww!"
"Shut up, you're at a mature age, don't be such a little kid" Rin said, "Besides, I trust Kazuki. We're cousins. We just have to learn how to work together with a deaf member of the team. We just have to know the first step"
Then they all go into wonder.
"Ah, let's go to the facts first. I have a wider eye view than you guys have, so we can use vision as a focus"
"Great, we can use that as an advantage. Maybe we can experiment with something…."
"Hold on, that gave me an idea!" Kazuki paused them for a bit and got out some earphones from his bag but they had a different plugin.
"Weird earphones…."
"There is something special about them though" He plugs that input into his cochlear, turns it off and turns it on again, then he gives the earphones to Rin. "Here, try them on"
"Err…okay…." Rin puts them on without expecting anything, but when he does put them on he exclaims with a "whoa!"
"What is it Rin? Are you okay?" Haru asked.
"It's….it is so loud! What's going on?!"
"You are hearing what I am hearing now Rin"
"Whoa…I can hear everything…..especially the birds and cars passing by outside….but it's so damn loud…." He takes a moment to get used to it and gives them to Sousuke, "Try em"
Sousuke them tries them on, "So loud….I am gonna take em of before I get deaf too" He takes them off and Rin chuckled, "Referring to your shoulder eh?"
"Yeah" He passed them onto Haru which he calmly put them on, he was surprised. "Wow…."
"Here, when I rub my microphone, you can hear it. You hear?" Kazuki rubs against his microphone of the cochlear.
"Yes, I can hear it…." He listens for a while before taking them off, "I'm kinda jealous"
"Hah?! You're jealous?!" Rin said.
"Kazuki can feel the water better than I can, he has a better connection, and a better relationship with it"
"Eh? I don't think so…." Kazuki chuckled. "No, it's true, you connect to it better than me"
Kazuki smiled at him as he took the plug out and put it back into his bag.
"So Kazuki, how do you know when to go at the start of a race?" Rin asked.
"Well…..I ask the people to give me a sign, a gun or loud whistle is alright because I can hear it just fine"
"Guys, I don't think that we need to worry about Kazuki. He is just like us" Sousuke said.
"You're right" The others agreed and Kazuki smiled at them.
"But what about the girl part?" Haru asked, "We definitely cannot let our coaches find out that he is a girl"
"That's right. If they find out, our team is done for"
"And we have public showers now"
They all went into thought and Rin put both hands on Kazuki's shoulders. "Kazuki, first of all, make sure that your tampon is shoved down a good distance and make sure that string attached doesn't show for now"
"…..Yes" Kazuki said and Sousuke was half red in the face, "Rin, how can you say such embarrassing stuff?" He asked and Rin pointed at Haru with his thumb behind him. "His fault"
"Huh?! Me?" Haru exclaimed, wondering what it is he did.
"I've moaned too much in a high volume to have the courage to say such stuff"
Sousuke chuckled, "I'm not surprised".
"When is competition day?" Rin asked Haru, "It is in three weeks" Haru said.
"So that is no problem" Kazuki said.
"Alrighty, let's get practicing!" Rin said and the others cheered after him. They went straight into the pool for practice, they all did some individual training but it wasn't long until Rin glanced at Kazuki.
He's a bit slow….
As Rin was just in the lane next to him, he splashed the water as Kazuki swam by so he could get his attention and it worked like a charm.
"What is it Rin?" he asked and Rin started to sign to him. "You are slow" Rin signed, but he only knew the alphabet, but it didn't matter because according to his research, when Australian sign language was first made, the alphabet was only used. Kazuki replied like a charm but slowly for Rin.
"You can sign Rin?" Kazuki signed, "Yes but for your sake dumbass" Rin signed back and Kazuki laughed, they were having good fun with their new secret language.
"You said that im slow right? Care to teach me how to go faster?" Kazuki signed back.
"My pleasure" Rin smirked and he goes over the lane rope to teach Kazuki.
In the afternoon their three coaches came together to watch them, and they all practiced some exchanges before doing some good relay runs and timing each other. The coaches had a good time ordering them around and making Kazuki swim faster until he ran out of fuel, when Nagisa finally came they completely took over after, he then decided to cheer for them instead. At the end of the day as they hit the showers, they were all tired out.
"I'm all out of fuel….." Rin puffed as he turned on the hot tap and the warm water calmed down his skin, "Ahhhh…." He sighed.
"Are your coaches always like this?" Kazuki signed to Rin who's a lot more tired and bothered than the others.
"Yeah" Rin signed back.
"What are you doing with your hands Rin?" Sousuke asked Rin, "Its sign language so I can talk to Kazuki whenever I want to. Haru taught me"
"How smart Rin, I'm surprised. Teach me too someday Nanase" Sousuke said and Haru nodded with a smile.
Once they all started washing their hair, Nagisa came in. "Heyo guys! Great job today~" He cheered.
"Thank you for cheering us on Nagisa, Kazuki wouldn't have survived it if it wasn't for you" Haru said and Nagisa chuckled, "Thanks, anything to help! For your times today, Haru and Rin were the fastest along with Sousuke third and shortly after Sousuke is Kazuki"
"So, from these times, Kazuki has improved his speed along with his form?" Rin asked.
"From this lesson in breastroke, he has it seems"
"Yes! This is wonderful, then we are getting better!" Rin was happy with the results and Kazuki takes a look, "Ah, I'm improving, isn't this great?"
Rin nodded, giving Kazuki a smile.
"Let's do even better tomorrow!" Rin said, pushing the shampoo back from Kazuki's hair before it slides down to his face.
After taking their shower, they all got dressed up and went back to Rin's dorm for dinner.
"I'm home~" Rin said and Haru gave him a kiss, "Welcome home" Haru said and Sousuke coughed, trying to ignore them.
"Shall we have mackerel for dinner Haru?" Rin asked Haru and Sousuke was shocked, "Wait. Mackerel?! What have you done to Rin?!"
"Nothing" Haru said. "Sousuke….be polite" Rin said, frowning. "Mackerel isn't what we all got, we have leftover pizza if you want it. And pineapple"
"…I'll heat up the pizza" Sousuke went ahead for the fridge and Kazuki smiled at them, "Don't worry you guys, I think that Sousuke isn't used to you two yet. Give him some time"
"Ok, thank you Kazuki" Rin warmed up a bit.
"Let me make some spaghetti, I can make a special one for you guys as you like it" Kazuki decided.
"Really? You'd do that Kazuki?" Haru said, surprised and Rin was pleased. "Yes, I'd love to" Kazuki said and Rin smiled, "Thank you" And Kazuki went ahead into the kitchen with Sousuke coming back out with the heated up pizza for himself, and he slumped down at the table next to Rin and Haru.
"By the way Rin, I looked into that competition that we are attending….do you realise that it's the road to Rio?" Sousuke asked Rin.
"Yes" Rin shushes, "Our coaches have come together here in the first place to get Haru and I prepared for it. We really wanna do the Olympics together but we also want to do a relay, so we wanted our friends to come with us"
"But why Kazuki?"
"Because I want to show him what he can really do, and show him a sight that he will never forget" Rin smiled. "Besides, we all had some tough training today and we are all going to do our very best to get there, we have been training all this time to get to the Olympics. Haru and I should focus on our individual events and see what we can then do as a team"
Sousuke understood their intentions and they bump fists, "Let's fly high Rin. And I must thank you for letting me join, this will make a fantastic start to my career. Thank you so much Rin"
"It was my pleasure Sousuke. Anything for a friend. Oh and don't tell Kazuki. He has good eyes so I think that he will notice once we go there"
"Will do Rin, I hope the very best for you and Nanase when you do your individual races for Rio"
"Thanks Sousuke"
Then Kazuki came out, "Oh, Rin I meant to ask you, are you going to try and get into the Rio Olympics? It might be your chance!" He asked and Sousuke winked at Rin.
"Yes, that's why we have been doing some tough training lately!" Rin said, "This competition that were going to is a warm up"
"So that training isn't anywhere close to exercising for the Olympics?" Kazuki's mouth gaped a bit.
"Yeah, Haru and I are doing individual events for freestyle so we are training twice as hard! It's good that our coaches come together, we can work together better that way"
"I see, that makes good sense. I hope the best for you guys, by the way, that relay is great for Sousuke too"
"Yes, it's all thanks to Rin and you guys" Sousuke said, beginning to eat his pizza.
Then Kazuki's smile went dark, "You're hiding something from me aren't you Rin?"
"No" Rin answered right away. "He isn't Kazuki" Sousuke said.
"I wasn't talking to you Sousuke" Kazuki and Sousuke zipped his mouth, turning away.
"Ok, then you wouldn't mind if I hacked into your phone then" Kazuki smiled and Rin gasped, "But that's private! And you can't do that I have security on it! And photos…"
Sousuke keeps quiet.
"Oh, I will find out even if there is security" Kazuki went back to cooking spaghetti. "Oh, want some pineapple with it too?" He called out.
"Yes please" Haru said.
"I am the only one who looked it up so I'll keep it safe as possible. That guy has such good eyes…" Sousuke whispered.
"Yes, please do…..and I must password my photos…." Rin groaned.
"It's okay Rin, I backed them up for you safely somewhere" Haru said, cuddling Rin.
"Thanks Haru, you're the best"