A/N: Just a quick little piece I made for my two favorite sport-anime characters.

Rating: K

Warnings: slight OOCness, takes place after season 1 of Free! and set sometime before the Winter Cup in KnB, may contain vague spoilers, some swearing, incorrect verb tensing (I suck at present tense), grammar and spelling errors, etc, possible MakotoxKagami later but just solid friendship for now

Summary: They weren't shinigami or mages or shinobi or alchemists or mafia bosses or whatever other type of shounen manga heroes there were. They were just two teenage boys that loved their favorite sport, but even though they weren't going to change the world, they could change each others.

The first time Makoto and Kagami meet, it's at a grocery store.

Makoto's sort of lost, to be honest, since this isn't his usual shop. Or district. Or town. Or city, since he and his club members are currently a few dozen kilometers away from home for an away match. The inn they're staying in is nice but, unfortunately, they don't seem to have mackerel anywhere in the vicinity (which is mind boggling because they're in Tokyo) and Haru's been in a quiet mood and they're all kind of nervous about the match tomorrow and yeah, Makoto really needs mackerel right now before he finds Nagisa, Rei, and Rin's bodies floating down the local river.

Absentminded, he ends up bumping into someone, pulling him from his wandering, half-serious thoughts.

There's an apology on the tip of his tongue until he sees the person he ran into, kind green eyes clashing with fierce red, and the first thing Makoto thinks is fire.

The man he runs into growls something at him, more a grumpy warning than aggressive attack, but Makoto's kind of not there, a little amazed and distracted to find someone taller than him and by a good five centimeters and just as muscular but maybe the lack of sleep and exhausting job of watching his friends have something to do with it too. The guy looks a little unapproachable, but Makoto's never let that kind of thing stop him before, and it turns out the redhead doesn't sound as scary as his appearance suggests.

Before Makoto knows it, the guy's giving him directions to the fish section of the small store Makoto had wandered into (he really didn't want to risk getting lost in such a huge city let alone a huge market) as they talk about foods and recipes – and honestly, Makoto's not a cook at heart but his mothers proficiency in the kitchen and having two little siblings made him pick up a few skills and he's learning all kinds of neat tricks to use the next time he cooks dinner. They shop and talk for a good hour and Makoto nearly brings up his teammates several times before he realizes he's late for dinner and excuses himself as politely and slowly as he can because, well, he kind of likes talking to new people and the gruff redhead, Kagami Taiga, seems pretty cool. He loves his friends, but Makoto can admit they're hard to take out in public – Haru's silent awkwardness, Nagisa's overwhelming exuberance, Rei's standoffish attitude, and Rin's hotheaded belligerence make it hard to interact with other schools besides Samezuka or people in general. This person kind of reminds him of Rin at first, but then he's reminded of Nagisa as well, and it's a little strange but familiar and the conversation is easy and interesting.

They don't know each other well enough to exchange numbers and Makoto assumes Kagami lives in Tokyo, nearby judging by how at ease he is in this particular store, ruling out the chance of meeting again in the same place, so it's with some lighthearted reluctance they part at the checkout counter, leaving it up to fate to decide whether or not they meet again.

When he gets back to the inn, Rin's ranting and Rei's irritated and Nagisa's whining and Haru's even moodier than earlier, but Makoto just smiles as usual and makes the food so Haru will finally stop pouting about the inn not having a pool and everyone settles down for the night.

The next day, Makoto keeps the impression of fire with him as he swims his races and wins first place.

A/N: Not a serious piece, updates will happen when a chapter is written. Thanks and enjoy!