The Little Goldfish

Free! (c) Kyoto Animation

The Little Goldfish© fhclause

Log 1: The Little Goldfish (AU version of Free!'s Drama CD 2 Track 5 )

"Aah… that's too bad," Gou pouted as she put her camera into her bag. "It would have been a good learning observation. A battle between squids, glasses and muscles."

"Just when you wanted to battle with the squid, Rei-chan," Nagisa resignedly said as he patted Rei's shoulder.

"I never said that!" Rei adjusted his glasses with a sigh. "This squid competition thing shouldn't exists in the first place. It's just not… beautiful."

"But it's a battle between squids, glasses and muscles!"

"And it's called Squid-Grabbing Heaven competition!"

"That's not the point!"

Makoto chuckled, amused as usual by his teammates' fuss over such a small thing. It was the second day of the summer festival and unlike yesterday, the Iwatobi team decided to go together instead of going by themselves. Obviously, he and Haru arrived first, what with the festival were just around their neighbourhood. They waited for their kouhai near the entrance and a few minutes later, the trio arrived with their summer yukata.

Rei greeted them politely with barely concealed enthusiasm while Nagisa practically skipped towards them with excitement. Behind them, Gou was smiling brightly as usual. When she greeted him, Makoto ignored the pointed look on Haru's face. He knew what his childhood friend was thinking, but Makoto wasn't going to embarrass himself again even if Gou's friend wasn't here this time to ask if their—her—yukata was the only cute thing he meant.

Of course, that small praise didn't mean anything. Even though there was a grain of truth in it, he was mostly just being polite. Haru gave him a look at that time too though, and Makoto had to bury his face in his pillow later that whole night when Haru was quietly but relentlessly teasing him about it.

They walked around the festival, absorbed with all the food and games. It was pretty much your usual summer festival, until Nagisa suddenly shouted and dragged Rei to a place where the people seemed to be gathering around in excitement. When the others caught up with those two, they found out the hubbub was about a competition—a squid grabbing competition.

Nagisa was trying to bully the very much protesting Rei to enter, while Gou was persuading the boys that entering the competition—practically naked except for the fundoshi, as required by the competition—was a good way for her to collect data on their strength.

It didn't matter though, because apparently, they weren't old enough for the squids—whatever that meant.

"Now, now. Cheer up, guys. There's still the Crab Festival. Maybe we can enter that one next time," Makoto said when his kouhais were still pouting over the squid competition.

Rei grimaced. "Count me out, please. Crabs are more painful than squids."

"It's not that hard, Rei," Haru glanced back. "All you have to do is to become one with the crab."

Rei blinked, making sure he heard it right but Nagisa was the first one to break the silence. "I don't get that at all, Haru-chan!"

Haru frowned, as if he didn't get why they didn't understand. "Become one with the crab, Nagisa."

Makoto chuckled. Knowing Haru, he must had been serious even when he sounded like he was joking. He glanced back, spotting the redhead girl just a few steps behind him. He slowed his pace to walk beside her. "How about you, Gou-chan? Do you want to come if we go to the crab competition?"

"Of course!" She stole a quick glance at Haru who were, strangely enough (or not), trying to make Nagisa and Rei understand how to be 'one' with crabs. "Maybe I can trick Onii-chan to come with me too."

"Yeah. I think that's a good idea." Makoto smiled. Somehow, the relationship between the Iwatobi boys and Rin had become estrange since the red-headed boy came back from Australia. Makoto knew Gou was trying her hardest to patch things up, even when she herself didn't know why her brother acted that way. When Ren and Ran fought, Makoto always tried to settle them down and talked to them how their actions can hurt others. Sure, the gravity of Gou's situation and his were different, but he could understand Gou a little bit. That's why he would give her his support when she needed it. Didn't matter if she asked for it or not. "Maybe the crabs will pinch some senses into him," he joked.

Gou giggled. "Ooh. Now I really am going to make Onii-chan comes."

They were jerked back, surprised, when they heard Nagisa squealed in delight. "Mako-chan! Gou-chan! Look, Haru caught some goldfish again!"

On cue, Haru raised his arm. There were two goldfish this time, both completely red but one with a dark spot under its belly.

"Haruka-senpai's skill…is this how you become 'one'?"

"Never mind that, Rei-chan! What are we going to name them?"

"Mackerel and…"

"They're goldfish, Haruka-senpai!"

"I know! Since the other goldfish are named after us, how about 'Gou-chan' this time?"

"It's Kou!"

"Eh… Makoto-senpai didn't name the goldfish after us…"

"Umm…I did actually…"

"You did!?"

"Then, Iwamoge and Iwato—"

"You're not good at this, are you?"

"Well," Makoto said loud enough for them to calm down. "I think naming one of them 'Gou-chan' is a good idea. That is, if you don't mind, Gou-chan."

"Oh," Gou flushed, caught off guard. Then, she smiled and shook her head. "No, I don't mind. But, umm…" She glanced shyly at the two goldfish in the plastic bag, suddenly hesitating.

Makoto smiled. He understood. "Now, the other one will be…" He looked back at everyone, quietly hoping for agreement. "...Rin?"

Guess he didn't need to worry.

"Oh, I agree!" Nagisa raised his arms in agreement.

Rei crossed his arms and nodded. "I guess he's the only choice left…"

Haru kept quiet, but then, raised his arm higher to look at the goldfish better. "The one with the black spot."

"Then, it's agreed," Makoto smiled as he looked back at Gou.

Gou smiled back. "Yup!"

When it was time for everyone to go home, Gou mouthed a thank you at him before boarding the train that made him giddy for some odd reason. Of course, Haru sensing this, stared at the plastic bag now at Makoto's hand and gave him a teasing albeit dry remark about 'Gou-chan'. Makoto had to hide his face in his pillow the whole night to burn away his embarrassment. Again.

I finally able to finish this. Couldn't decide whether to make it angsty, funny or just generally there (I'm not sure what that means either). If you're curious about Free's Drama CD, there are two of them. You can Google it for the translation version. Just Google 'Free Iwatobi Drama CD translation'.

You are welcome to leave prompts, ideas, opinion, critics or a simple review.

Thank you for reading!