He's Mine
Pairing: Nagisa/Rei
A/N: Chapter 6 is finally here! College life has been pretty busy these few weeks, but I tried to find time to write~
Disclaimer: This is a fan fiction of Free!, a light novel originally written by Kouji Ouji. If I own it, I will never let it end!
When taking into consideration the tremendous difficulty his mother had to endure every morning in attempts of waking him up on time to go to school, one could easily know that Nagisa was definitely not a light sleeper. He was blessed with the ability to sleep anytime and anywhere, so insomnia was never in his life's dictionary. On normal occasions, the moment he laid his head on the fluffy pillow and switched off the lights, his mind would shut down automatically and he'd fall asleep instantly.
Nonetheless, tonight was an exception.
No matter how many times he tossed and turned on the queen sized bed, he could never find a position comfortable enough for him to rest peacefully. The main cause of his sudden restlessness was in the form of a bespectacled blue-haired boy who had conquered a substantial part of his thoughts ever since the day Nagisa had fallen in love with him.
Rolling over to lay on his side once more, his line of vision caught the stack of magazines well organized next to the nightstand and he let out a long sigh. He would have to hide those before his parents find out that he had been wasting money on magazines which he had no need for. That would surely anger them. And if they knew the real cause as to why Nagisa bought the magazines, well, he'd get an earful of nagging.
Nagisa ran a hand through his golden locks and sighed. "If Rei-chan finds out about this possessive side of me… What will he do?"
The classroom was almost empty except for a few other students who were packing their bags, ready to go home. Amakata-sensei had bought the materials needed for repairing their school's pool, so there would be club meeting in the evening. Rei-chan had gone to the library to return the books he had borrowed (which he refused to show Nagisa for certain unspecified reasons), and Nagisa figured it was the right time to carry out his plan.
"Hello there!" Nagisa put on the sweetest smile he could and approached the girl's table. She was with her usual group of friends, laughing about something insignificant. That screeching laugh was the one haunting him last night. "Do you, by any chance, still have the magazine you read yesterday?" He tilted his head a little in an attempt to appear innocent; a technique he had perfected over the years.
"Ah, of course, Nagisa-kun! You were in it too, right?" The brown-haired girl, whose name Nagisa was struggling to recall (was it Hikaru? Hikari?), answered enthusiastically.
"Yes, that's why I would like to see it!"
"Hold on, I'll get it for you." She rummaged her table, looking for the said magazine. It took quite some time for her to find it and when she finally did, she handed it to the blonde boy and smiled sheepishly. Her other friends had resumed their previous conversation, engrossed in their world of shoes, manicure and hairstyle.
"Hmmm… The photos turned out really nice, don't they?" Nagisa's fingers ran over the pictures, unconsciously tracing over the outlines.
"Yeap, and look at Ryugazaki-kun! I think his pose is the best. He looked sooooo handsome!"
Handsome? Well of course Rei-chan is handsome. Dashing, flawless, attractive, mesmerizing, beautiful.
'But only I am allowed to call him that.'
Collective giggles were heard before one of the girls hopped off the table she was sitting on and approached Nagisa. With a shy smile on her rosy face, she slipped an envelope into his right hand and fidgeted a bit. Nagisa could already guess what she meant with the letter. The last girl he had dated back in middle school had also done the same; confessing through words written with cursive fonts on sweet-scented paper. It was surprisingly common for girls to confess first, and sure, the girl was cute and lovely, but Nagisa was not interested. The blonde boy was about to retaliate and reject the letter (because his heart belongs to Rei-chan now) but the girl started first.
"Umm, Nagisa-kun… You are best friends with Ryugazaki-kun, right? Could you please… you know… p-pass the letter to him?"
Nagisa's eyes widened in realization upon hearing her request. 'Oh hell no, she did not just ask me to help her get together with Rei-chan…'
Something snapped in Nagisa. To admire Rei-chan and idolize him was one thing, but to directly attempt in seducing him? That was taking things a bit too far.
The cheerful boy's fake smile faltered in a split second, twisting into some kind of maniacal grin instead. Hikaru did not notice the sudden change in atmosphere as she went on and on about how she had never thought that there would be such talented and good-looking boys in her class. Nagisa's grip on the letter tightened and he slowly slipped the other hand into his pocket, taking out a lighter.
And the next thing they knew was that the magazine and the letter were on fire.
"What the heck are you doing?! That's mine, you know!" Hikaru shrieked out, staring at the flames rapidly swallowing her magazine whole. The letter –being only paper thin and made out of much more vulnerable material- had long since caught the fire completely and reduced to ashes. The strawberry scent emanating from the letter was quickly replaced with the choking smell of smoke.
"I'm sorry, but you're wrong. He's mine."
As the fire threatened to reach Nagisa's fingers, he dropped the burning magazine and it left a charred mark on the floor. The other girls had run out of the classroom, yelling and shouting in panic, unable to withstand the suffocating smoke filling up the air. Nagisa smiled in satisfaction as he watched the girl who had given him the letter fall onto her knees, coughing and sobbing loudly while clutching the remnants of her letter, her palms tainted black from the carbon.
"You're crazy!" She cried out, hurling bits of ashes at Nagisa. The boy merely snickered and chuckled lightly before putting a pleasant smile onto his face once again.
"Maybe you're right, but I'm crazy only for Rei-chan!" He winked playfully and stuck out his tongue; his words sharp and mocking though his face innocent and childlike. It was enough to evoke fear and hatred in the girls, and that was exactly what he desired: for them to know the consequences of messing with his things. Grabbing his backpack from his seat, he rushed out of the classroom, ignoring the wails of the terrified girls.
Well, that should teach them a lesson.
As soon as Nagisa arrived at their school pool, he was greeted with a sight of an angry Rei holding a bucket of water in one hand and a packet of white-greyish powder in another. He was frowning, and Nagisa knew that he was going to get some scolding.
"Nagisa-kun, you're late! Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai have already started plastering a part of the pool!"
Still panting and huffing after all that running, Nagisa took a few deep breaths before finally speaking, muttering an apology. He made an excuse of being caught up with helping a teacher carry books on his way, and Rei accepted it without any suspicions. Surely he couldn't tell Rei-chan that he had just burned, crushed and trampled on a girl's hope because he was jealous, right?
Explaining his actions would mean telling Rei-chan the truth about his possessiveness, about the way he yearned to monopolize Rei, to make him his, and his only. It would be creepy, almost as bad as the disgusting feeling you get when you realized that you have an obsessive stalker. Well, if you count barging into one's house, taking secret photos and looking at one's returned library books to see his reading preferences as stalking, then yes, Nagisa was a stalker as well.
"Come on, then. We need to mix the plasters first." Rei dumped the packet he was holding into Nagisa's arms and proceeded to slowly descend into the dry pool. Though it had been deserted for quite some time, the ladder, the diving board and the pumps were still functioning. The only things that needed repairing were the chipped walls and removing the disgusting seaweed-looking outgrowths appearing from the cracks. Luckily for them, the gross parts of the job had been well taken care of by Haruka and Makoto (thanks to Haruka being eager for once and insisting on them starting the works one day earlier) so all that's left was the plastering.
"Listen, Nagisa-kun. We are using a mixture of cement and marble sand, so the suitable ratio of water to cement is 1 to 1. Add too much water and it will be less durable and more prone to cracking in the future." Unconsciously slipping into the 'know-it-all-Rei' mode, the blue-haired boy rambled on and on about the composition of the mixture, skilled hands applying adequate pressure onto the trowel, making sure the two materials homogenized in the bucket. Nagisa stared in awe, not quite sure whether to feel impressed or annoyed by Rei-chan's extensive general knowledge.
"…Excessive cement, on the other hand, will affect the movement of water in the pool, so be careful and don't—"
"Rei-chan."
"Yes, Nagisa-kun?" When Rei halted halfway and looked up to see Nagisa, he certainly did not expect the smaller one to dip his finger into the bucket and smear the grey liquid onto his nose. It took a while for Rei to digest what had happened as the cool spot on his nose gradually hardened. Nagisa smiled mischievously, his naughty hand already at the brink of dipping into the bucket once again. Rei grabbed his hand to stop him.
"Don't. You. Dare." Gritting the warning through his teeth, Rei tightened his grip onto Nagisa's hand, but the self-proclaimed genius was forgetting that a normal human has two hands. By the time he realized this fact, that other limb of Nagisa is now already fully covered in plaster mixture, smearing some of it onto his cheeks. Some even got on his glasses, partially obscuring his view.
"Ahahaha! Look at you, Rei-chan! Your glasses are white!" The blonde chuckled heartily, clutching at his sides at he broke into a fit of laughter. Had the circumstances been different, seeing (more like half-seeing, since his glasses are dirtied) Nagisa laugh with such childlike joy would have made Rei's heart flip in unexplained happiness, but this time was different.
This time, it meant war.
Rational and sensible thinking long gone, Rei scooped out a handful of the liquid cement and threw it at Nagisa, who immediately stopped laughing, eyes widened in shock. It was clear that the counterattack had caught him off guard, but it took him only a second to return to his playful behavior, pink eyes sparkling in delight at Rei's willingness to go along with his game.
"Take that! You started this first, Nagisa-kun!"
"Ahhh! Not fair, you aimed at my blind spot!"
"Well, you threw some at my glasses! Now I'm half-blind!"
They continued fooling around, oblivious to Haruka and Makoto leaving the pool to get more cement packets from Amakata-sensei's car. Laughter rang in the air, with occasional banters and yells exchanged between the two boys. It was a blissful feeling Rei had never experienced before; to be so carefree and cheery. A dignified and uptight part of his mind was screaming at him to stop the nonsense and get back to work, but the lively and childish part of him (which had been hidden for so long, until Nagisa came around) yearned for this.
"Hahaha! Nice one, Rei-chan! I'll get back at ya— ahhh!"
At that moment, Rei swore that he hated the clumsy side of Nagisa with a passion. Sure enough, the floor was wet and slippery due to the spilled water and plaster mixture, and the chances of one falling down -especially if you were running around like Nagisa- were exceptionally high. But those were unacceptable excuses to explain as to why Rei was lying on the floor, back flat and pressed hard onto the cool surface, with a petite blonde on top of him, straddling him in a rather suggestive fashion. Their significant height difference served to make things worse as it made it easier for Rei to hold Nagisa in an accidental embrace (later Rei argued with himself that 'the hands wrapping around Nagisa' s thin waist was a reflex to protect him from the impact of the fall') and their faces ended up merely inches apart.
Screw that, it was probably only a few millimeters, because Rei could practically feel Nagisa' breath ghosting on his lips.
Time seemed to have paused.
Violet orbs stared into dark pink ones, and Nagisa's heartbeat was getting so loud that it echoed in his own ears, his body and face heating up at their extremely close proximity. He could have pulled away in an instant, could have sat up straight and pretended nothing had happened, and maybe that way they would remain friends. But was he contented with being just friends, and nothing more?
Something told Nagisa that no, it was not enough. He wanted Rei, in more ways than one.
So he leaned in and brushed his lips against Rei's; gently and feather-like. His small palms (which were still covered in disgusting white blobs) rested on either side of Rei's head while the stunned boy beneath him remained stoned, unable to react properly to the unexpected kiss. Though it was only a peck on the lips, it sent a surge of warmth creeping up from the point of contact, shooting straight at his heart, much like the time when Rei first held his hand. Their eyes fluttered close, and because Nagisa had yet to muster the courage to deepen the kiss, he opted to just linger on Rei's lips.
Rei did nothing to push Nagisa away, because it felt good. It felt right, like those lips were perfect complementary to his, and Rei could not fathom why.
Nagisa pulled away from the kiss and stood up abruptly when he heard faint voices approaching the pool, and his reluctant lips immediately grew cold, already missing the warmth and comfort Rei's had provided.
When Makoto and Haruka walked in, each carrying a few plastic bags, Rei was reminded of the task they were supposed to complete and finally noticed the mess they had made.
"Ryugazaki-kun? Nagisa? What happened?" Makoto asked, puzzled by the state of disarray the pair was in.
"I-it's nothing. Nagisa-kun just stepped on a puddle and slipped…"
Well, at least he wasn't lying completely.
"Be more careful next time, okay? We wouldn't want to waste the materials… That is, unless you're willing to do more modeling."
Rei shivered at the thought of having to wear speedos again, while Nagisa scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. They resumed repairing the pool in uncomfortable silence (after cleaning up, of course, since no one wanted hardened cement on their faces), both too embarrassed from the prior incident and too preoccupied with their own thoughts and inner turmoil.
It was safe to say that neither got enough sleep that night.
A/N: Sorry if I disappointed you with the lack of violence/possessiveness, because I do think that Nagisa will not be that harsh when dealing with girls. Just a little fluff added in this time. And I think I'll definitely have to raise the rating soon. Dang it, I can't believe Free is ending already! Let's hope for a second season ;) Reviews/criticisms/comments/suggestions are welcomed!