Note: this story is set during the summer of Haru's second year at university; Rin has come home for the break and plans to stay at Haru and Mako's apartment. Rei, Nagisa, and Gou are also students at their university, now in the midst of their first year; Gou is an art major.

XX

There wasn't a part of Haru's perfectly sculpted body that Rin didn't know intimately well.

That's what he would have told you, anyway— that's what he hadn't realized he'd thought— that after years spent at his side in little more than skin-tight swimsuits, he'd come to know the precise outline and firmness and dimensions of every bit of him.

However, a triad of realizations hit him in rapid succession while he stood in the living room of Gou's university apartment: firstly, there were a few perfect bits of Haru which he'd definitely never seen; second, it appeared he'd not given his sister anywhere near enough credit where her proficiency at art was concerned; and third, through some turn of events he could not fathom, it came to pass that Haru had willingly agreed, of his own accord, to be painted by Gou.

In the bloody nude.

Also, fourth— for some reason, this made him quite upset.

That Gou would want to paint Haru in the nude was understandable; as a matter of fact, apart from the large painting proudly suspended in her living room, Rin later discovered several others throughout the small apartment, which featured Makoto, Rei, and Nagisa as well— all wearing exactly as little as Haru had in that first one.

But none of those annoyed him as much as that one did.

Clearly it was her pride and joy; it was larger and more spectacular than the others, and Gou had even gone through the trouble to have it framed, in what seemed like a pretty expensive piece of work.

It appeared she had taken her studies as an art major as seriously as she had her love for young males' muscular bodies.

When Rin confronted Haru about it, it occurred to him he ought to have expected his response: Haru spoke to him with casual indifference while disrobing for his bath— his soak, rather, the one he took with his swimsuit on—and said that he didn't care one way or the other.

Just like he didn't care one way or the other if Rin stuck around while he had his soak.

"She needed a model," he said simply while sinking under the water; "I was free that day."

In truth, however, he did care quite a lot.

Not about being painted, that he didn't mind— but that Rin saw the end result.

He'd completely forgot that Gou had hung the piece in her living room, and that, naturally, Rin would visit his sister before coming to stay at his and Mako's place; it only mattered that Rin saw.

For some seconds the after-effect of Haru's words lingered in the air between them, Rin regarded his familiar outline from over the water's surface; without his discretion his thoughts wandered to what it might have been like to paint him this way.

He coughed and looked away moodily, and huffed in irritation; "Oh," he laughed in dangerously quiet tones, the calm before the storm.

"Simply because you were free."

At that, Haru flushed; Rin's feelings had a way of carving through his indifference.

Without meaning to he sunk a little more beneath the water, his dark hair floated round his face while he watched silently; Rin appeared decidedly upset.

Before Haru could say anything more Rin made for the doorway and announced he was going to finish unpacking, that he was feeling jetlagged and wanted to go to sleep soon; he proceeded out of the room and left Haru in the water's comforting presence, uncertain why exactly he felt so cross.

He couldn't get the image of him out of his mind.

To be continued…

A/N: I would love to find someone interested in roleplaying any m/m pairing from Free! (If this is still on here then I'm still looking, haha!) I don't mind at all if you haven't RPd these guys before, if English isn't your first language, if you're a little shy, or if you're new to this fandom or to RPing; I just like writing with someone else who's passionate about the same stuff =) If you feel like giving it a go, then please reach me either by PM or through the contact info on my profile. Thank you! ^^