Summer Paradise

Pairing: Rin/Haru, Haru/Water

A/N: I have never even experienced summer in my whole life (every day is already like summer, though), so I apologize if my description of summer went horribly wrong. The fact that I can't swim is another saddening thing. :'( Just a fic to help us get through this short period without new Free! episodes. Hope you enjoy this story!

Disclaimer: This is a fan fiction of Free! originally written by Kouji Ouji. Don't ever let me own any animes, they'll turn really homo.

The long awaited summer finally arrived, and with no regards to the detrimental effects of UV rays nor the scorching heat of the sun, people from all walks of life flock at this particular beach reputable for its crystal clear sea and the waves impeccable for surfing. Usually, a great portion of the visitors were comprised of teenagers, though, as the beach was located fairly close to a number of high schools, making it perfect for a summer trip. Most of the boys planned on landing a big catch by using their tanned bodies and washboard abs as baits, while the girls flaunted their attractive hourglass figures dressed in skimpy swimsuits and bikinis in hopes of finding hot men worthy of their attention.

However, the members of the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club had other agendas far more important than flirting with girls. They were there to train for the upcoming competition, and of course, allow Haruka to reunite with his lifetime soulmate –the water.

The walk to the beach was silent, with the exception of occasional banters and verbal abuse exchanges between Gou (or Kou, as insisted by the person herself) and Nagisa. The intense and uncomfortable silence was mostly due to the alluring pheromones that Haruka had emitted, which strikingly resembled that of a male dolphin in heat. Haruka's water-sexuality was unquestionable. No one dared to comment anything about it in fear of Haruka's wrath, although Makoto was silently praying that Haruka wouldn't suddenly start stripping in the middle of the pedestrian path.

After 10 minutes under the searing sun, they finally arrived, and poor Haruka had been away from the love of his life for so long (morning baths didn't count), he practically stripped down the moment the sound of crashing waves invaded his hearing range.

"Thankfully you've got the location right this time, Haru-chan."

Makoto, who was probably the most sensible of them all, sighed in relief at his childhood friend's antics. Nagisa merely giggled in amusement as Haruka dashed with all his might towards the awaiting sea, locking himself in a passionate embrace with the warm water. Rei , being the individual with least connection to the others, had no idea that his idol –the epitome of beauty and elegance- was a chronic hydrophilic. He gaped in awe as he continued to watch Haruka glide gracefully across the water, swimming freely to his heart's content.

'Will I ever be able to swim like Haruka-senpai? It seems almost impossible, to look that beautiful while trying to break the tension of water surface. After all, the water's weight applying pressure onto one body makes it harder to move...' Rei's inferior self tattled in a lengthy monologue as his eyes followed Haruka's every move; the way his arms reached out in each stroke, his legs propelling his body forward and that beautiful, beautiful form—

He snapped out of his entranced state soon enough after he felt someone pushing him from the back towards a well shaded spot beneath a row of trees where Makoto and Gou were already setting up as their resting base.

"Come on, Rei-chan. Let's get moving! We don't have all day!" a cheerful voice rang from behind him and he turned around to see his annoying classmate flashing a blinding smile. Although frustrating and bothersome nearly all of the time, it was undeniable that Nagisa was the one who had introduced this elegant sport, and was actually far more experienced and talented than him. Rei held some respect to a certain extent for this petite blonde, if not as much as he had for Haruka.

"Alright, alright I get it. Just stop pushing me already." Nagisa did as told and proceeded to walk beside him instead, casually crossing his arms behind his head while humming softly, all the while closing his eyes to enjoy the calming sound of the waves.

Taking small steps and relishing in the feeling of soft sand sinking under his feet, Rei looked around him and noticed that the area was fairly less crowded than the other locations; in fact it was almost vacant, which was an uncanny condition. At this time of the year, the whole beach would be overpopulated and there wouldn't even be a place to lie down, but Makoto-senpai was already spreading a large white cloth on the sand while Gou was unfolding portable chairs and serenely arranging them neatly without any difficulties, as if they were on the beach during winter instead.

"Nagisa-kun, don't you think something strange here? How come this place is so empty?" Stopping in his tracks, Rei adjusted his dark red glasses and fell into deep thoughts. "If the number of visitors, y, increases exponentially to the number of years, x, that would make y = e^x. Certainly the number would be reaching up to thousands, and this 15 miles long stretch of sand would be filled with at least—"

Piercing squeals resonating from somewhere further along the beach abruptly drowned Rei's next few words, and both of the boys had to cover their ears instinctively to shield their hearings from the deafening sound. Makoto, who was in the middle of changing his clothes (while being ogled by a certain biceps/triceps/deltoid admirer), promptly quickened his actions, set on searching for the source of the earsplitting noise.

"Ryugazaki-kun! Nagisa! I'm off to check what that was all about!" Makoto called out, waving at the two boys.

"I'll follow Makoto-senpai, so you two keep an eye on our things, okay?" Gou waved as well, before trailing behind Makoto towards the east, where the sound originated from.

"Hey, that's not fair! I want to see it too!" the golden haired boy standing next to him huffed angrily and pouted slightly, and for a split second, Rei thought of an adorable fluffy baby penguin. He stifled a laugh, watched the disappearing figures of his two club members and walked towards the set up place with a puffed cheeked Nagisa on tow.

Meanwhile, Haruka remained blissfully oblivious, too immersed in his fervent love-making session with the seawater to notice the oddities in the surroundings.

Gou noticed that the further they walked, the louder the shrill shrieks and squeals resounded, and that those sounds were disturbingly similar to that of fan girls' screams during a cutesy boy band concert. It turned out that her suspicions were accurate; there was a mass of girls crowding around at a particular spot, all giddy, ecstatic and emanating sickeningly sweet female hormones.

That was when she spotted a familiar tuft of wine-red hair passing through the crowd, along with a few other people following suit. In that instance, Gou recognized the boys clad in midnight black jersey as the Samezuka Academy swim team. There was no doubting it; the girls were flocking at that particular spot just to have a close view of the gifted prodigies of the prestigious boarding school.

"I wonder how is onii-chan doing…"

Ever since his return to Japan, Rin hardly ever replied her messages, let alone answer her calls. It was frustrating and downright heartbreaking, to be cast away by your own brother like that. Gou even went out of her way to organize a joint practice with the help of Captain Mikoshiba in hopes of seeing her brother again, but Rin almost always skipped practice whenever the Iwatobi High swimming club members were in the vicinity of their indoor pool.

"Makoto-senpai, I'm going to see my brother for a while."

"Oh alright… Eh? Wait, Gou-chan, you mean—"

Halfway through his sentence, he saw Gou already squeezing her way through the group of girls. When Makoto tried to pass through, however, he had it much harder as the sea of girls did not budge upon laying their eyes on his half naked body. From a small opening in the crowd, he could see the burgundy-haired girl already heading towards her beloved brother. Feeling the hungry gazes casted on him, the backstroke swimmer shivered involuntarily, becoming increasingly wary of his chastity's safety. He slowly backed away, not wanting to be victimized.

"Onii-chan!" Upon hearing the nickname, Rin turned around and was stunned to see his younger sister waving at him. He never expected to see her, after all, he did not return to their house for summer holidays as the Samezuka swimmers had to stay at the dormitories for practices. Rin stopped in his tracks, waiting for his sister to catch her breath.

"Gou, what are you doing here?"

Panting slightly, Gou inhaled deeply to calm herself down. 'I ought to train along with the others too; I'm really getting out of shape,' she mused. By now, the crowd behind them had decreased in size and slowly disassembling as the Samezuka Academy boys had walked further down the beach, some already changing into their swimwear.

"It's summer, of course the beach would be the perfect place, right?" Gou smiled cheerfully at her brother; it really felt nice to have this sort of casual conversation with him again. "Besides, I'm here with Makoto-senpai, Haruka-senpai, Nagisa and Rei! It's one of their training sessions."

Rin's ears perked at the mention of Haruka.

"So Haru is here, too…"

Furrowing his brows slightly, he stared intently at the sand as the vivid memories flashed by in his mind. Back then, summer was a highly anticipated season for Rin. Summer meant warm open waters, fresh breeze with strong scent of the sea and clear sunny sky, all of which he used to treasure. He could still recall the ice-cream stand from which he would buy two cones, saltwater for him and vanilla for Haru. The black-haired boy would accept it with a faint blush on his face, glancing once at Rin before muttering a soft "Thank you."

Nagisa would whine and complain that he did not receive one and pester him endlessly, while Makoto would laugh and get up to buy another two cones. Summer meant joy, but of course, that was all in the past. The distant connection they shared now (or the lack of it) was exactly like the one his previous 13 year old self had feared.

"Are you listening, onii-chan?"

His train of thoughts was interrupted by Gou's words and he looked up to see his little sister looking slight worried. Uncurling his fists (which he didn't realized he had formed), Rin tried to regain his composure and shake away all of the distracting memories. He was at the beach to train, not to reminisce on something that he knew he could never get back.

"I need to go now. Take care, Gou."

Turning away from his sister, Rin left her after giving a small wave. There was no time to waste. If Haru was finally concentrating on practice (and he meant real practice, not soaking in kiddy tubs, a habit that he had suspected Haru would be sporting judging from the boy's undying love for water), then Haru would be fit for swimming in no time. Smirking to himself, Rin proceeded to stretch out before joining his teammates in the water. Finally, he would be able to race with the real Haru; the Haru he had truly missed.

This was the freedom that he had always yearned for.

To be able to become one with the water, to reach out for the sense of calmness the water offered to him.

How long had he been in the water again?

Haruka reluctantly let go of the tight embrace the water had on him and languidly swam towards the shore. He must had been swimming for quite some time now, and quite a distance too, as he could not see any signs of his teammates in a few hundred meters radius. There was a group of boys swimming a few meters away from him, though, but he didn't recognize any of them as Makoto or Nagisa (the chances of seeing Rei swimming such a far distance was slim, the water hated that boy after all). 'Maybe I should rest for a while,' he thought to himself. Just as he extended his right arm for a stroke, a sharp pain jabbed at both of his calves. Shrugging off the pain, the freestyle swimmer then tried to use his left leg to kick the water. His leg felt extremely heavy, and the pain heightened, increasingly becoming more and more unbearable. He remembered this sensation, he had experienced it before, albeit not often: he was having a leg cramp.

The stinging ache crawled up his legs and soon his stomach contracted painfully. Haruka began to panic; did the water start to hate him now? What wrong did he ever do? He should stay calm, but the pain was making it hopeless to even move. The necessity for air grew stronger and he was so close to hyperventilating, yet Haruka still tried his hardest to stay afloat, to just hang on and survive. His strokes were rendered almost completely useless as he could not push himself forward, and Haruka felt himself slowly sinking, engulfed by the deep blue sea.

Is this really the end?

How ironic, to have your life taken away by that one thing you love the most…

"Swim for me, Haru."

He could hear that voice echoing. That voice, which used to call his name fondly, now sounded so harsh, demanding, and… was that a tinge of desperation? Haruka could not really tell. All he could sense were the warm calloused hand that reached and gripped his wrist tightly, the vague silhouette cradling his own limp body and the voice calling out his name repeatedly.

And then Haruka's world went black.

Feeling a rush of water surging up from within, Haruka snapped his eyes open and coughed out violently. The rush of fresh oxygen entered his lungs and he felt his eyes stinging from the drops of saltwater. He felt the blood rushing towards his head when all of a sudden he felt strong arms encircling his body, locking him in a bone-crushing hug so tight that he almost suffocated again. Glancing to see the person, Haruka was beyond shocked as he recognized the maroon hair and immediately pushed the other away.

"Rin?"

Haruka's heart clenched violently at the sight of the drenched Rin who had backed away a little, probably confused by his own impulsive embrace. The latter wore an expression that was a mixture of relief and distress; an expression he had never seen on the boy before. Rin's usually dazzling scarlet orbs were dimmed with gloom, so much so that Haruka had to look away and avoid the gaze, not bearing to see such a saddening look.

"I… I thought I had lost you," Rin's voice sounded disturbingly soft. "Thought I did the CPR wrongly, or something."

Recalling that he had drowned while swimming in the open waters, Haruka finally understood the situation. He had almost given up, surrendering completely to the water's desire to pull him in. Rin was the one who saved him, though he couldn't really make out how in the world Rin had been near him at just the right time.

'So, that wasn't a dream…'

At a loss of words (he was never good with words, anyway), Haruka kept silent, choosing to stare at the little sand castle a few meters away instead.

"Haru."

Something in the way his name rolled off Rin's tongue –perhaps it was the slight trembling in that voice- urged him to meet Rin's eyes. They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments, searching, asking and answering all at the same time, before Rin's flashed a hint of determination and fortitude for a moment so brief that Haruka almost couldn't catch it. But he did, he understood what that lingering gaze meant and he leaned forward to meet Rin's kiss halfway, eyes fluttering close and quivering hands resting on Rin's well-defined chest. Beneath his palms which were dusted with grains of white sand, he could feel the rapid thumps implying that Rin was just as anxious as he was.

The kiss was sweet and innocent at first, gradually turning into something more as their tongues danced and fought for dominance while hands grabbed at each other's hair in a desperate attempt to deepen the lip-lock. A strangled moan escaped Haruka when Rin bit onto his bottom lip; his sharp teeth grazing the sensitive skin not too lightly. It was as if the maroon haired boy was trying to confirm that this was not just one of his delusional fantasies, not just the dream he always saw at nights when he missed Haruka so badly after countless hours of staring at the only photo of Haruka he had.

The look on Haruka's usually stoic face after they parted (the need for air was too great; if they had gills, Rin doubted he would ever let go) was more than enough to make Rin's heart skip a couple of beats. That endearing rosy tint on his water-stricken face, those half-lidded sapphire orbs and those soft lips red from the kiss, all of which were tempting Rin to let loose and have his way with Haruka. He was already peppering feverish kisses along Haru's jaw -earning him another breathless whimper- and moving down to suck at the enticing area on Haru's neck when fortunately (maybe unfortunately), his common sense took over and it finally dawned upon him that they were on a public beach.

Steadying his heartbeat, he stood up, brushing the sand off his swimming trunk before extending a hand towards the now dazed boy beneath him.

"Let's go, Haru. I heard from Gou that you're here with the others. They must be looking for you."

Haruka had so many questions in his mind, so much confusion and perplexity that were begging to be answered. Why was Rin here? Why did Rin kiss him? And he questioned himself: Why did he return the kiss? He decided to save those for later though -when his mind is in a functional state and not taken aback like right now- and accepted Rin's hand, feeling himself being pulled up to his feet.

Apparently Haruka did not swim that far anyway, because after an 8 minutes' walk in silence, they reached the place where Nagisa, Rei, Makoto and Gou were resting. None of them seemed to be panicking or even noticing Haruka's absence; they all assumed that the human-dolphin would be somewhere in the water, safe and sound with his sweetheart (the H2O, of course).

Certainly they did not expect the sweetheart Haruka was with came in the form of a flustered Rin, right hand intertwined with Haruka's left and an awkward goofy smile on his face. Makoto gaped at the sight; seeing the two sworn eternal rivals holding hands was already bizarre, but the one thing that surprised him the most was that smile etched onto his ex-teammate.

'He looks so young, carefree and happy, almost like his previous self…' Makoto thought.

In the mean time, Nagisa was already latching onto Rin with a screeching "Rin-chaaaan!", getting in between Haru and the claret-haired boy, unaware of the crucial moment he was interrupting. Rei almost face palmed in frustration. He was a newcomer with no background information on the pair's history together, but even he could sense that something was going on between those two. Gou had gone into a temporary paralysis, judging from the way she was staring at her brother and senior with eyes Makoto could have sworn were like those fangirls'. None of the four had any clue that their precious swimming genius had almost drowned just a while ago.

"I guess I'll get going now. Still have some practice left," Rin said, acknowledging the others while prying Nagisa off him. Then, he turned to Haru, whose face still had traces of crimson blushes, and stuttered a quiet "Haru… I… I'll call you later."

Haru's azure eyes glittered in hope for a split second, and he nodded slightly before walking forward to plop down next to Makoto.

Makoto chuckled heartily when he noticed that he could not read Haru's mind at that moment; it was a huge jumbled mess of love, longing, confusion and affection, but he could still make out a few words like 'embarassing' and 'troublesome Rin'.

Rin wanted to apologize, to confess, to tell Haru how much he really meant to him and that 'no, I shouldn't have left back then, I was immature and stubborn and stupid' and maybe apologize to his former team mates, too, but he still lacked the courage.

'Maybe next time, I'll get my feelings across,' Rin thought on the way back to the Samezuka training base. 'Maybe then, I can defeat the water and finally become Haru's number one.'

A/N: Hope I didn't make them OOC too much? I have this headcanon that Rin had always regretted leaving in the first place, because being with Haru and the others was what made him love swimming in the first place, and without that, his passion gradually decreased. That's why he did not join the Samezuka swim team at first.

Reviews/comments/criticisms are welcomed.