"Always"

Fandom: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club

Pairing: Seijuurou Mikoshiba/Makoto Tachibana

Summary: With Seijuurou entering his first year of university, and Makoto in his final year of high school, the couple goes through their fair share of ups and downs with the added distance between them.

Disclaimer: I don't own this series or these characters!

Months before the end of their respective school years, Seijuurou Mikoshiba, captain of the Samezuka swim team, asked Makoto Tachibana, captain of the Iwatobi swim team, on a date before joint practice one afternoon.

Seijuurou had practiced countless times in front of the mirror in his dorm beforehand, signature grin on his face and fixing his hair, variations of 'will you go out with me' being spoken, figuring out what the best option was and trying to decide which would have the best results (that wouldn't end in a painful 'no' from the other swimmer).

"Makoto, hey, you, me, date? This weekend?"

"Do you want to grab something to eat after practice? My treat!"

"Mind spending some time with me, captain to captain?"

"I really like you, please go out with me!"

"Oi, Tachibana!" he called, seeing the tall brunette emerge from the locker rooms with the rest of the Iwatobi team, ready to get in the water. "Come here for a sec?"

Makoto looked up, a smile on his face as he walked towards the redhead, towel draped across his shoulders. "What's up, Mikoshiba? Need anything?"

Seijuurou inhaled, closing his eyes and exhaling, opening his eyes again.

"How...does a movie sound this weekend, just the two of us?" He had finally asked, absentmindedly playing with the stopwatch around his neck, keeping golden eyes fixed on widening green, trying to keep his composure. He's going to say no, isn't he...? "Seven?"

Makoto was too surprised to even answer, cheeks slowly (but surely) turning more pink.

"He says yes!" Haruka had shouted from across the room, rolling his eyes when Makoto shouted back at him and just resumed his swimming with Nagisa and Rei.

"Seven it is, then." Makoto sighed, smiling slightly at the older. "I'll give you my number after we're done here?"

"Sounds perfect. It's a date."

Numbers were exchanged before Makoto had left and plans were made for the weekend, saturday at seven. And on the day of, hours before he was supposed to meet Seijuurou, Makoto had begged Haruka to help him get ready.

"You got me into this mess, Haru! A...date? With Mikoshiba?" Makoto frowned, rummaging through his closet to find something to wear. "You have to help me! What if I wear the wrong thing, or say the wrong thing? What if he-"

"Oh please, you'd say yes anyway." Haruka threw a pair of pants at the panicing brunette, making him yelp. "I just sped up the proccess, and I'm sure that he won't care about what you wear or what you say."

"Haru!"

"It'll be fine, Makoto. It's just Mikoshiba." The oldest paused. "...you do like him, don't you?"

"I..."

"Makoto." Haruka's blue eyes narrowed.

Makoto sighed, hiding his face in the flannel shirt he was holding.

"...and what if I do?"

They had just decided to meet each other at the theater to make it easier with no extra traveling to make the designated movie time without having to rush, and the younger captain was more than surprised to see the older already waiting for him by the ticket kiosk, a wide smile spreading on his face as he saw him.

"Hey, you made it!" Seijuurou beamed, waving.

He looks really nice today, I rarely see him in regular clothes and his smile really is nice... Makoto thought as he stopped beside Seijuurou, a smile blossoming on his face as well. Wait...

"Were you waiting long? I'm sorry, I was running a bit behind because I didn't know what to wea-" Makoto paused, fumbling to change his words. "-my siblings needed help with something so I had to deal with that, I'm sorry if I made you wait at all!" Seijuurou had just shook his head and let out a laugh.

"I got here maybe five minutes ago? No worries, Makoto. I already bought our tickets and everything."

"You really didn't have to-!" Frowning, Makoto pulled out his wallet to get a few bills to pay back Seijuurou, but the redhead just laughed and shook his head.

"You don't have to pay me back. It's fine, really."

"B-but-"

"It's the gentleman thing to do, Tachibana." Seijuurou winked as he opened the door, holding it open for the blushing Makoto. "You also look really nice today, even if it made you a bit late."

"Ah, I'm sorry, saying that I was almost late because of my clothes was embarassing! But thank you." Makoto smiled, stepping inside with Seijuurou following behind. "You look really nice too, Mikoshiba."

"You can call me Seijuurou, Makoto." Good god this kid is too cute, he thought, walking beside the brunette to the designated screening room after getting popcorn, to share, from the concessions counter.

"Ah, a-alright..."

During the movie, when both pairs of eyes were fixed on the large screen, both swimmers would occasionally reach for the popcorn at the same time.

"S-sorry!" Makoto blushed, pulling his hand away quickly as soon as his fingers brushed against Seijuurou's, eyes darting everywhere else but the swimmer beside him.

"It's alright, no big deal." Even though it was a big deal, because all he wanted was to hold the younger's hand ever since their date started. It would be so easy, so simple, too. Just a simple brush of the fingers made Seijuurou's heart flutter, but actually holding his hand? It would send him right over the moon.

They made casual hushed banter about what was going on in the film, like how the plot was overdone and they must've been desperate to find actors because the acting was awful, making each other laugh and enjoy themselves, also succeeding in breaking the nervous tension a bit. Sure they were friends and fellow captains, but in this environment, on a date, everything was different. Seijuurou had noticed that halfway through Makoto looked way more relaxed than before the date started, making him feel extremely relieved that the backstroke swimmer was having fun after all. And that maybe, just maybe, Makoto likes him, too. Also noticing that he hadn't stop smiling also was a big relief.

Seijuurou had also insisted that he walk Makoto home afterwards.

The trip back was filled with more small talk, mostly about school and how their teams were doing, and the redhead had gotten enough courage to brush his hand against Makoto's, finally taking it and lacing their fingers together. And when Makoto didn't pull his hand away, Seijuurou felt like his knees would buckle and he would fall onto the pavement right then and there.

"Ah, this is it..." Makoto had said, stopping outside of his home, staring up at golden eyes. "T-thank you for tonight...I had a lot of fun!"

"I'm glad." Seijuurou smiled. "Could we...do this again sometime, maybe?"

"...I'd like that." The older sighed in relief, feeling Makoto's thumb moving against the top of his hand. "It's getting late, I should probably get inside and you need to get back to your dorm because you mentioned curfiew-"

"Just a sec..." Seijuurou closed his eyes, leaning over to gently press his lips against Makoto's. After a moment, the two pulled away, smiling. "I'll text you when I get back, safe and sound?"

Makoto nodded, smile not leaving his face as they said their farewells for the evening.

After that first date, there were more after that, on weekends and after joint practices. Whenever they had the time, they were inseperable. Seijuurou's crush had turn into full-blown adoration, and he finally knew that Makoto felt the same way after such a long time of thinking that his feelings might be unrequited.

However, after Seijuurou had decided on a university to attend to in a mere amount of months after graduation, it meant that the two would be even farther away than Samezuka by almost four hours. Ever since that day, while Seijuurou would be counting down the days until he would have to pack his things and leave, and Makoto was counting down the days until Seijuurou would tell him that he wanted to focus on his studies, and that having this much of a distance between them would be way too difficult to manage for the two of them, especially with Makoto entering his final year of high school.

And he was worried, because he didn't want this relationship, their relationship, to end because of it, when everything was going so well and better than he or anyone else had expected. He didn't want the dates to stop. He didn't want the good morning and good night texts to stop. He didn't want the 'I love you's to turn into distant memories just like everything else would eventually become.

He was too afraid to mention it to Haruka, because he knew what his response would be, so one evening he searched online if distanced relationships worked out and got mixed results of 'it's completely fine' to 'don't even try because it won't work out', making the brunette feel even more lost and unsure.

And after that, he went to Rin.

"Mikoshiba's an idiot, but he's crazy about you, Makoto." Rin yawned, only slightly irritated that Makoto had called and woken him up. "You're worrying about nothing, now hang the hell up and let me go back to sleep."

Makoto sighed. Maybe he was worrying about nothing? Seijuurou was...wonderful and even with having his hands full with college before it even started, the redhead still made time to be with him. The oldest never even brought it up or even mention anything related to breaking up in the slightest, but even so, it didn't stop Makoto from thinking about it.

"Is everything alright?" Seijuurou asked, running his fingers through soft brown locks. The two had just finished getting ready for bed, in Makoto's room since the oldest was spending the night after their outing to get Seijuurou more things for his new dorm. "You've been seeming...a bit off, lately. Are you getting sick? You look really worn out."

"No, I'm fine. I just..." Makoto hesitated, biting his lip, and then sighed. "...you're leaving next week."

"Yeah, and...?"

"If..." The brunette took a deep breath, closing his eyes and swallowing, feeling as if he was being choked. "If...you're going to break up with me because it's going to be too hard, then-"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Seijuurou looked down at the brunette, frowning, heart beating a million miles a second against his chest, and he was pretty sure Makoto could feel it. "What are you talking about? Breaking up with you, what? Makoto!"

"What do you mean, what am I talking about?" Green eyes avoided meeting golden, feeling guilty. "It's just...you're going to be farther away than before, and we'll both be busy a lot and may not to see each other as much as we'd like, so..."

"Makoto Tachibana." Seijuurou smiled, wrapping his arms around the younger boy, letting out a deep breath. "It's going to be rough because there's going to be a lot going on, but I never plan on letting you go anytime soon, okay? I'd have to be pretty damn stupid to break up with you."

"But-"

"No buts, alright?" Seijuurou pushed Makoto's bangs back, resting their foreheads together. "We'll work something out. We could take turns coming to see each other every week or every other week, or whenever we can. That sound alright?"

The younger swimmer was silent, biting his lip.

"Makoto..." Seijuurou's voice was low, the redhead nuzzling his nose against Makoto's. "It'll work out, trust me. You can call and text me as much as you want, and I'll have my computer with me always incase you want to see my pretty face. And then before you know it, I'll be on a train here or you'll be on your way to see me, and we'll be okay. Yeah?"

Makoto laughed, tangling his hands into Seijuurou's tank-top. "...yeah. Yeah, it will."

"Why, do you want to break up?" Seijuurou raised an eyebrow. "Is there something you're not telling me...?"

"N-no!"

"Well, neither do I so it's okay." He tilted Makoto's head up, pressing their lips together. "You're still coming with me to help me move in to my dorm, right?"

"Of course I am." Seijuurou pulled Makoto back to his chest, arms cradling the younger captain. "You need all the help you can get because you have so much stuff."

"Good." He kissed the brunette's head, closing his eyes. "And Mako?"

"Yes?"

"We're going to be okay, way, way better than okay. I love you. Always."

"I love you, too."

Author's note: I'm back, y'all! This is completely different from my 30 Day, because plot, and I'm really excited to work on it more and see how it goes! I have it all planned out, with six or so plotted chapters with headcanon/cute things in between those, with as it stands now there's about only three M parts planned, and like I said, excited! But I'll say this now, this does get a bit dramatic near the middle of it, so there's that! And as for posting, I...have no idea, so it'll probably have gaps in-between and not daily postings like the 30 Day Marinka drabbles did.

(and not gonna lie the near-end of this I'm a bit iffy about and if anything's unclear, hey, that's what the in-between chapters are perfect for ;D)

But, hey! I hope you enjoy! Happy reading, and I'll get down to business and get this done! ;)