Connect-the-Dots

A Free! drabble

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The Free! characters belong to Oji Koji-sensei, not to me. A little stupid something that came about from looking at the splash images. Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

It's a night like any other night in the dorms.

As per usual, Aiichiro is cleaning the room. Rin wonders absentmindedly if Aiichiro does it because he's always in need of something to do. Aiichiro is like that critter on TV, the whatsit…the Energizer Bunny. He keeps going and going and going.

Even now, Aiichiro is talking happily about something. He's almost chirping. Before, it used to wear easily on Rin's nerves. Now? Now, after realizing that Aiichiro has his back, that Aiichiro is someone he can trust without a second thought, that Aiichiro is someone who loves him unconditionally, it's something that makes Rin smile.

Ah, Aiichiro has turned to look at him. He's saying something. Oh, great. Rin hasn't been paying attention to anything Aiichiro's actually said, and now the smile begins to fall from Aiichiro's face, and Rin frowns. Never before has someone else's smile or lack thereof ever affected Rin—until Aiichiro.

Rin now scrambles to think of something to say. He stands up straight and takes a step closer to Aiichiro, who now pouts as his sorts a small box of candy his mother had shipped to him. Rin searches Aiichiro's face as he tries to think of something, but he's not even sure calling him "Ai" right now would work, and—

Great, now Rin's distracted by the beauty mark on Aiichiro's face. But it's not a bad thing. Rin likes the beauty mark. Really, Rin likes it. Sometimes he thinks that he can draw a curved line from the left corner of Aiichiro's mouth to that beauty mark and, poof, there's that smile that so naturally reigns over Aiichiro's features.

Now Aiichiro is smiling again, because it turns out that Rin, while spacing out, has in fact drawn such a line on Aiichiro's face with his fingertips. Oh, good. Aiichiro is even laughing now. Apparently Rin can subconsciously fix things, he cares for Aiichiro that much.

(And it's a good thing to remember, this game of connect-the-dots, because Aiichiro is even more appreciative when Rin draws the line not with caresses but instead with kisses.)

- ^-^3

;3 Really silly, but still quite nice. RINTORI! That is all.

Thanks for reading, and please review!

-mew-tsubaki ;P