Everyone seemed happy.

Haruka Nanase would not have looked away from the water if it were a normal circumstance, but something about this seemed different. Everyone just seemed so happy, from Nagisa and Rei to Kou and Seijuurou to Rin to Makoto, who was looking at him like he was the best thing in the world.

Haruka supposed that Makoto had looked at him like this for a while. He'd never noticed before. He wasn't quite sure how, and felt a bit bad about not seeing it. It wasn't that Makoto was secretive about it, because looking back on it, he wasn't – Haruka just hadn't noticed. He'd been too focused on swimming.

Even Momotarou looked happy.

Then again, in the day and a half Haruka had known Momotarou, he'd really never looked sad.

"So what about this dead body?" Sosuke asked from his spot on the sand. Haruka glanced at him. Sosuke wouldn't meet his eyes. Nobody else seemed to be paying attention to him. "We just going to leave it here? Bury it? Come on guys, this is the entire reason you're out here."

Haruka turned his attention back to things that mattered to him. Nagisa latched onto his back and he turned his head. "Haru-chan!" Nagisa said. He beamed. "Isn't this fun? We should come here all the time!"

Rin dove into the water next to him and surfaced, grinning. "You can use my pool when you're not up to making a trip out here," he said. "We'll swim together, right?"

He held out his fist and Nagisa fist-bumped him for Haruka.

Rei and Makoto joined them, Rei shoving his glasses up on his face and holding them there with his finger. "Perhaps I could learn how to swim," Rei relented. Nagisa cheered.

"Yay, Rei-chan!"

Makoto just smiled.

Nitori, Momotarou hanging off of him, joined the group. "Are we heading back soon?" he asked. "If we hurry, we could not have to spend the night in the desert."

"Good thinking, Ai," Rin said. He glanced at the sky, then at the oasis. He hesitated. "Maybe… we'll swim for a while longer."

"Yay, Rin-chan!"

Haruka slipped out of Nagisa's grip and Nagisa immediately pulled Rin into the water. He yelled and twisted a little, but once he was underwater all of that was just ripples in the pond. Then he surfaced, sputtered, and glared at the smiling Nagisa Hazuki.

Makoto laughed, and Haruka watched him laugh. He found himself smiling; not at Nagisa's antics or at Rin's talk of swimming, or even at the fact that they were at the oasis. It was because of Makoto.

Makoto's laughter eventually died down and he caught Haruka looking. He flushed and looked away. "I do think Nitori's right, though," he said. "We should get back. I need to get back to the shop."

Haruka nodded. "Okay," he said. He got out of the water, though he really didn't want to, and held a hand out for Makoto. "Let's go, then."

It took them all a while to get their stuff together. Seijuurou and Kou had put together a small tent for themselves, and that had to be disassembled. Sosuke had disappeared at least, so all of his things were gone, but Momotarou was still there wreaking havoc. Haruka worked quickly at trying to get everything packed up.

Part of it was so that Makoto could get home. The other part was the promise of Rin's swimming pool.

Eventually, they got all of their things packed up and on the camels. Seijuurou sighed and looked at the sky. "Hello heat stroke, I will see you soon," he said. Nagisa clapped him on the back and he moved away, giving Nagisa a strange look.

"Don't worry, Sei-chan!" he said brightly. "I'm sure heat stroke will be glad to see you, too!"

Seijuurou sighed again.

"I promise we won't leave you to die in the desert if you fall off your camel?"

Seijuurou just shook his head and walked away. Nagisa looked after him. "I get the feeling he doesn't like me much," he said. "I really get that feeling a lot."

Nagisa sighed, looked downtrodden for a minute, and then bounded off to annoy Rei.

Haruka glanced back to Makoto, who was looking sickly at the dead body wrapped in sheets. Oh yeah. They should probably do something with that.

He joined Makoto to stand beside the body and looked at it. The desert heat had not done wonders for the smell. "What are we supposed to do with this?" Makoto asked. Haruka shrugged. They were joined by Rin.

"Maybe we can just… leave it right here," he said. Makoto thought for a minute, then glanced at Haruka.

"How do you feel about that, Haru?"

"It's fine."

"Maybe… we could move it behind a sand dune. So that if Haru wants to come swimming, he doesn't have to swim with a dead body."

Makoto looked green.

Haruka was not quite sure what to do, so he continued packing.

"I love you guys, you know?" Nagisa said. Haruka glanced at him.

"I think you've said so before," Rei said, and Nagisa laughed. He grabbed Rei with one hand and reached out the other to Makoto and Haruka. He looked at Rin.

"You too, Rin-chan," he said. "You come join our group hug, too."

Haruka let himself be pulled up and let himself be crushed between Makoto, who apologized with every other breath, and Rin, who looked like he was about to die of embarrassment.

But he didn't mind.

Because, like Nagisa, he loved them too. He loved Makoto and he loved Nagisa and he loved Rei and he even loved Rin. It was a hard thing for him to even think, and he didn't know if he'd be able to say it out loud, but it was true. He loved them.

And he would be looking forward to swimming in them in Rin Matsuoka's pool.

I do sort of apologize for the quality of this going way downhill in the past few chapters. It happens when I lose interest in a fanfic, but this one I decided to stick through until the end anyway. So here we are! Sosuke has disappeared never to be seen again and everyone else is happy.