Olympian

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Rio De Janeiro 2016

By the time Sosuke checked into the Olympic village, the majority of the swim team had long cleared out. Sosuke wasn't sure what the Japanese Olympic Committee planned to do with the athletes who had finished their events. He knew they wanted a good number on hand for the closing ceremony. Especially medal winners. This was mostly because of Tokyo 2020. Otherwise, given there was no procession of nations at the closing ceremony, there was no official requirement to stick around for the closing ceremony, thus most National Olympic Committees were reluctant to pay to keep their athletes around, and it was up to individual athletes to pay their own way, if they so desired.

Sosuke had no plans to hang around after his event, which was in about a week. He was in the top ten in the world in triathlon but he was seen as a long shot for the gold. Sosuke was certainly going to give it his all but more than his fellow competitors, what stood in Sosuke's way was his stupid shoulder. Sosuke didn't want to dwell on how many surgeries, therapy session and other things his shoulder had, had to endure. But none of it had been enough. None of it had allowed Sosuke to return to swimming, to return to Rin. Eventually, Rin had stopped waiting and moved on, leaving Sosuke to do the same.

Since it wasn't Sosuke's nature to wallow, he had picked himself up and started walking down a different path. An unknown path to no destination in particular. Turned out the destination was the Olympics afterall, only he was here as a triathlete and not a swimmer. He was part of team Japan along with Rin but now he was wholly estranged from his childhood friend and lifelong crush. But that's life isn't it, thought Sosuke as he stretched out on his bed.

Well at least he hoped it was okay for him to have this bed. When Sosuke had arrived at his designated room, it was empty. But clearly his roommate had already been here since one of the beds had a large bag near it. So Sosuke had taken the other bed. Assuming that his roommate had used his bag to mark the bed they wanted. If not, well Sosuke thought his roommate was a twat for keeping their bag near a bed they didn't want.

As Sosuke was thinking these things the door to his room opened, "Yamazaki," called the newcomer but the tone indicated that it was more a greeting then anything else.

"Nanase!" exclaimed Sosuke, "What are you doing here?"

"I asked to be your roommate," he replied simply, heading to to the big bag that had been in the room earlier and dropping a couple of smaller bags near it, "Rin left as soon as the swimming schedule finished. He's still in Rio but he's staying at a hotel," Haru explained, "Management wanted me to stick around for the closing ceremony but I don't have as many sponsors as Rin," I couldn't afford to stay at a hotel on my own yen, Sosuke translated, "But I don't like sharing with people I don't know. So when I saw your name on the athlete roster, I asked to be moved."

"Ah okay," replied Sosuke, he wasn't exactly thrilled with having Nanase Haruka as his roommate but the envy and jealousy he used to feel towards Haru had long dulled to the point that Sosuke was able to resign himself to it. He could live with this arrangement.

"I didn't know you were going to be here," Haru continued, unexpectedly talkative, "Rin never mentioned. I only found out after management gave me the roster to let me pick my roommate."

"Rin and I haven't spoken in years," replied Sosuke, a little sadly, "Nothing really happened," he added quickly, "It just all sort of petered out. Happens sometime," Sosuke stated flatly, "But I have been following Rin's career," Sosuke explain more cheerfully, "I actually managed to get tickets for the 100m and 200m butterfly! Those were fantastic races! Pity Rin had to settle for two silvers. Although I think the fact you guys took gold in the medley relay would probably make-up for Rin missing out on individual golds," Sosuked mused, "He always liked the relay the most. Wish I could have gotten tickets for that."

"You have been here awhile then," commented Haru, effectively changing the subject.

"Yes, I have been at the triathlon training camp in São Carlos. I made day trips to watch Rin race," Sosuke explained.

"I wikied you," said Haru, "You could be walking away with gold next weekend."

"It's a long shot," replied Sosuke soberly, "I would have to be having a really good day," he said as his hand moved to his troublesome shoulder of their own accord, "And my opponents," he added with a smile, "Well they don't have to be having a bad day but they can't also be having a good day."

"I'll be cheering for you," replied Haru, deadpan, "I am sure Rin will be too."

"Did you tell Rin about me?" asked Sosuke. Wondering for the first time if there was a chance that Rin was aware that he too had managed to become an Olympian.

"No, I assume he knew. Besides I haven't spoken to him since the night of the medley finals," replied Haru, "I was busy with Makoto."

"Tachibana is here?" asked Sosuke

Haru nodded, "But he's working. He's here with a group of schoolkids. So even though I am done with my events, we don't get to see each other much. But he manage to get some free time over the last two days, so we got to do some sightseeing."

"Makoto and Haru, still best friends huh," Sosuke was not quite able to keep the envy from his voice.

Haru tilted his head and seem to consider his next words carefully, "You know Makoto and I are lover right, Yamazaki?"

Well that caught Sosuke by surprise, "Uh, you are?"

Haru nodded, "We got together in college. You don't have a problem with that do you, Yamazaki?" Haru asked.

"Why would I have a problem with you being with Tachi… ah, no, no, I don't have any problem with you being gay," replied Sosuke.

"I am not gay," clarified Haru, "I can't be since I am not homosexul. I am Mako-sexual," explained Haru in his trademark deadpan voice with his deadpan expression.

Sosuke couldn't help but laugh, "That's hilarious! I didn't know you had such a wicked sense of humour," maybe that's part of what appeal to Rin about you. Sosuke thought to himself. Since he was getting back to feeling sad, Sosuke decided to be productive, "Anyway, I am going to checkout the village. Maybe get some food or hit the gym. Want to give me a tour?" he asked, more to make clear that he wasn't running away from Nanase.

"I'll show you the pool," said Haru because of course, that was the most important thing, "Then we can eat the king mackerel in the cafeteria for lunch!"

"King mackerel?" repeated Sosuke a bit confused.

"They call it Cavala," explained Haru, "Its delicious."

"Ah, okay. Well I'll try it," replied Sosuke. Haru nodded as he turned to lead the way out of the room, deciding that age had certainly improved Sosuke and that he was glad to asked for the room change.

Author's Note: I literally have no idea if this will end Sourin. This is more me wanting to write a happy future for Sosuke independent of Rin. So yeah, don't read this if you absolutely must have this end Sourin.

Anyway, a word about the timeline and the sports background for this story. The last scene of Free! Eternal Summer was hinted to be during the 2009 Fina World Championships in Rome. Based on their cell phone models, Free! was previously dated to take place around 2007/08. Assuming that the boys graduated from high school March 2008 (Japanese school goes from April to March) Rin, Haru, Sosuke and Makoto are aged 26 in this story. This is roughly when they would be at their peaks as athletes and when they would have the most chance to win medals.

For Rin and Haru, this is also their second Olympic games after London 2012 and you can bet both of them would be under a lot of pressure to keep swimming until Tokyo 2020. Especially if no one was coming-up the ranks that could replace them. In this story, Rin does not have any individual gold medals. Always coming second after Haru in 100m Freestyle and second in butterfly in both 100m and 200m after an original character I am yet to name, who is Rin's training partner in Australia. But Rin has gold medals from medley events. Haru competes in 100m and 200m free + relays. He hasn't lost a race since 2010!