He's Mine

Pairing: Nagisa/Rei

Disclaimer: This is a fan fiction of Free!, a light novel originally written by Kouji Ouji.

Thanks to Nagisa and Makoto's amazing persuasion, Amakata-sensei had recommended their names to the swimwear designer she was once acquainted with (or rather, worked for), and the man had agreed immediately. However, the poor guy must had mistaken them for being girls judging from their names, because the shocked look he had upon seeing four boys entering his working space was absolutely priceless.

"You're Amakata-chan's students?!"

The boys nodded, and the horrified expression on his face worsened.

"B-but I thought you were girls!" His voice screeched. It was obvious that he was disappointed, feeling that he had been conned. Here he was, expecting to have landed a good catch consisting of high school girls endowed with nice racks, pearly white skin and soft silky locks, but these boys Amakata-chan had sent defied his wishful imaginations.

"Trust me, we get that a lot. It's really just our luck." Makoto smiled apologetically. The middle-aged man stopped whining and stared at them with judgmental eyes; his brownish orbs scrutinizing, skimming up and down each of their bodies. Rei swore that the guy surely had X-ray vision of some sort, because as soon as those lecherous eyes landed on him, the designer's facial expression morphed into one that was creepy and perverted, like he had some naughty ideas in mind.

Rei was not wrong, not at all.

"Hey, you… Come over here for a sec. The others can go to that changing room. The photographer will give you further instructions."

Nagisa almost instantly went into protective mode, not wanting to be separated from his Rei-chan. After all, the impish look that old fart had when he saw Rei did not go unnoticed. He wanted to follow them, but the violet-eyed boy gave a look that said "I'll be fine". Nagisa still could not chase away the worry and uneasiness he felt (the old guy was ogling Rei-chan for crying out loud!) but decided that he'd trust Rei's words.

Makoto and Nagisa were halfway through changing into their respective swimming trunks, while Haruka was inside the studio, already posing for photos when Rei entered the room with a handful of vividly colourful garments. A few of them were in dark hues and most were painted with bright colours (there was even a jarring neon green one) but all shared a common characteristic: they were all speedos. Tiny, scanty and uncomfortable-looking speedos. He dropped the bunch on a dressing table and picked one up, scrunching his face in utter repulsion.

"Is he kidding me? Did he expect me to wear this?" Rei complained exasperatedly, holding up a striking red and white striped speedo between the tips of his fingers as if it was something disgusting and revolting.

"Don't you think it's a good thing, Rei-chan? It means that the designer thinks you're sexy enough to wear those!" Nagisa winked playfully at him and Rei grumbled in frustration.

It was bad enough that he had to agree to Nagisa's preposterous idea of modeling for swimwear. To make matters worse, now he was the only one stuck with speedos, while his other three teammates were given much less revealing swimming trunks.

"By the way, Rei-chan… Did he… touch you, or anything?" For some reason, Nagisa's smile had faltered, only to be replaced with a concerned expression instead.

"What?! No, of course not!"

The breaststroke swimmer sighed in relief. 'If he dares to even lay a finger on my Rei-chan… I will probably castrate him.'

"Next, please!" The photographer's voice rang from the studio and Haruka appeared (clad in a black swimming trunk with purple strips on it… 'Wait, didn't he wear a similar one that time at the pool?!'), taking lazy steps before plopping down on the bench. He tapped Makoto lightly on the shoulder to signal that it was his turn. The taller one nodded and stood up to get his photo taken.

When Makoto left, Rei expected that the freestyle swimmer would proceed into changing back to his casual clothes, but the latter remained seated.

"Umm, Haruka-senpai? Are you not going to change now that you're done?"

"No need for it. I am going for a swim later." The black-haired boy answered curtly.

"Oh." Rei was rendered speechless. It was clear that Haruka-senpai's obsession with the two molecules of hydrogen bonded to single oxygen had reached a critical and precarious stage. There was no cure to it.

"Now, now, Rei-chan… Hurry up and chaaaaange!" The cheerful blonde pushed him towards one of the stalls with a grin on his face. To tell the truth, Nagisa was extremely curious to see how Rei-chan would look like when donned in complete swimming attire. He had imagined how Rei-chan's flawless velvety skin would glisten with beads of water and how his wet dark blue hair would appear mussed and disheveled after a swim. When he saw the anxious look on Rei's face, his grin transformed into a small reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Rei-chan. You look beautiful in anything that you wear."

That made Rei's cheeks heat up involuntarily, but he managed to grudgingly grab a piece of red swim brief before disappearing behind the curtains.

'Again, he is teasing me with these embarrassing words… Has he no shame when saying it to me? Surely he didn't mean what he says…'

While changing into the offensive red speedo that barely covered anything (with much difficulty, really, how does one fit into these?!), Rei thought of Nagisa's words. Though he was getting used to receiving these little compliments from the hyperactive boy on daily basis, he still couldn't completely get rid of the lukewarm blush creeping onto his face whenever he hears them. It made his heart race for no reason at all, and Rei hated not being able to explain a phenomenon scientifically. The first time he felt his heart threatening to leap out of his ribcages when one day Nagisa had said that his lilac eyes were enchanting and mesmerizing, he had gone home and frantically scoured for his father's medical encyclopedias, trying to find a logical justification on the occurrence but to no avail.

Something at the back of his knowledge-saturated mind deduced that there was only one plausible explanation for the things he was feeling. Maybe it was that one thing scientists had never been successful in describing the way it worked or how it came to be.

Maybe it was love.

It turned out that Rei did look beautiful in the swimwear. As a matter of fact, he looked downright breathtaking; with his chiseled triceps, well sculpted biceps, prominent shoulder blades, defined washboard abs and that tight, tight ass perfectly fitting into the bright red swim brief. Heck, even his thighs looked firm and taut, and as soon as Nagisa saw him, he had to suppress the urge to jump on Rei-chan right there and then. Thank heavens for Rei-chan's strict fitness training schedule.

"God, that ass looks edible…" The shorter boy did not realize that he was licking his lips and saying his thoughts out loud subconsciously. Rei, whose cheeks were bright pink from embarrassment, pretended to not hear the remark (all the while thinking 'was that a compliment or what?') and avoided Nagisa's hungry gaze. Meanwhile, Haruka sat quietly on the nearby bench, indifferent to the state of undressed Rei was in.

"W-will you please stop staring, Nagisa-kun? It's indecent."

"I'm sorry, Rei-chan, but you just look so delicious!" He replied humorously, hoping it sounded like a stupid joke, though it really was the truth.

Nagisa finally snapped out of his daydream (involving a flushed Rei-chan writhing underneath him and other rather inappropriate fantasies) when Makoto called out for Rei.

"I-it's my t-turn now." Flustered and desperate to just get away from the awkward situation, he made a run for the studio, stumbling and almost knocking Makoto over in the process.

Once in the studio, he was completely surrounded by white backdrops and had to squint his eyes at the bright light coming from the flash lamps. He knew that sufficient light was vital in producing crisp photographs with high resolutions, but he never knew 'sufficient' meant this much. There were also a few assistants running around adjusting the set.

"Ah, so you are the one Mizuno-san was harping on about. He said you're a rare gem." The photographer, who was cleaning his lens, greeted Rei with a smile.

"I wouldn't know about that..."Rei replied, wanting to add "So Mizuno is that old pervert's name?" but decided against it.

"Well, let's see what you've got. Stand over there please."

The cobalt-haired boy walked over towards the spot in front of the camera, trying hard to calm his pounding heartbeat. 'Calm down… I have gone through this chapter in the book. Just stand with legs slightly apart, torso slanting at 35 degrees and relax…'

The make-up artist hurriedly went to apply touch-ups to Rei's already blemish-free face, lightly dusting bronzer on his jaws and highlights on his cheeks and nose. She did not have to do much, anyway, considering that Rei looked stunning even without make-up.

"Now give me your best pose."

"Like this?" He tried flexing his biceps according to the steps described in 'How to be A Model: Volume 1'. He had spent the whole night diligently reading the how-to book, and he could only hope he was doing it right, because being in the center of attention was not something Rei appreciated as it made him less alert and focused.

"That's right, place your left hand behind your head… Mm-hmm… Tilt your face towards the camera a bit… Yes, perfect! Now stay still!"

Rei did as told, tilting his face just a little and though he was oblivious to it, the angle of his head was exposing his creamy neck, making him look seductive without him even meaning to. The crimson-rimmed spectacles he had on matched the colour of his speedo, giving an added effect of sophisticated beauty.

Ryugazaki Rei was damn talented at modeling and the pitiable lad did not even realize it.

"Wow, you're totally rocking it, kid. You sure you've never done this before?" The photographer asked, hands still busy snapping away and occasionally asking his assistants to adjust the position of the lights. He was curious as to how this newbie could strike flawless poses, all of which were impeccably photogenic. The previous two boys were good, too, though the one with black hair had the same bored face for all shots, but this one was exceptionally first-rate.

"Indeed, I have the theory of modeling and the angles of the poses memorized, but other than that, I am inexperienced in this." Rei pushed his red-rimmed glasses further up the bridge of his nose out of habit. He was not trying to brag or anything. For him, everything must have a manual or a how-to book lying around somewhere; contents waiting to be read and techniques to be put into application. At first, he was feeling self-conscious and gawky, especially since he was so scarcely clothed, but he was definitely getting the hang of it; recalling and replicating the poses he had seen in those books he borrowed from the library for the sake of not failing miserably at this.

"You're a bookworm, huh? Your image is perfect for the new collection. Who knows, you might become famous soon!"

In the end, Rei's session lasted for a few hours (he was asked to wear various other colours, too) and they wound up going back almost in the evening. The poor boy pledged that he would never choose modeling as a possible career path.

The 'soon' that the photographer had envisioned came too fast, because a week later, the sports magazine with their photo shoot in it was released. On a particular day, Nagisa saw a few of his female classmates reading a magazine, muttering things like "I'd definitely tap that!" and "If only he was my boyfriend!" while giggling and squealing in delight. Of course, he paid them no heed; assuming that they were getting all excited about the usual male idols. It was when he saw the exact same publication displayed on the racks in a convenience store the next day and flipped through it that he realized that it was Rei-chan the girls were looking at, not any other sportsmen, singers or public figures.

Rei-chan.

His Rei-chan.

Engulfed in fury, jealousy and driven by a powerful yet selfish urge to keep the sight to himself (and really, what a sight it was! Rei-chan was too sexy for his own good), Nagisa grabbed as many copies of the magazine as he could and dashed to the cashier, not bothering if he had bumped into a few other people. He was not going to let anyone see Rei-chan like that. At school, Rei-chan was an ordinary first-year student with nothing too interesting or eye-catching, but in the featured photo, he was exuding an aura of confidence and allure, almost as if he was a professional first-class model. If Rei-chan becomes popular and makes more friends, Nagisa would lose him; just like how he had lost the people he used to love. Rei-chan would find him unbearable, clingy and annoying, like a useless burden that needed to be chucked away, a troublesome hurdle he needed to jump over...

'And then Rei-chan will leave me…'

Nagisa's train of thoughts stopped as he reached the front of the queue. The cashier glanced at the heap of identical magazines on the counter and gave a suspicious look at him.

"Are you sure you want these?"

Nagisa looked at her and flashed a forced grin. "I am… I'm giving them to my… my friends! Yeah, that's right!"

The cashier took the excuse as convincing enough and complied, scanning each copy with such agonizingly slow pace (at least it seemed that way to the currently impatient Nagisa) and once he was done paying and burning a hole in his pocket, Nagisa ran all the way back home, desperately clutching the plastic bag filled with numerous copies of the magazine close to his chest.

'Looks like those girls are going to need a little reminder to not even think of taking someone else's property.'

A/N: Uh-oh, what will Nagisa do?! Wow, I can't believe I ended this chapter with a cliffhanger (kinda). I think I exaggerated a bit on Rei's beauty and all, but really, he's just too adorable. Tell me what do you think of the story so far! Reviews and suggestions are welcomed :)