#sousuke and rin would go from best friends to brothers

[innovativestruggles]

SouGou theories, thoughts and speculations based on canonical evidence

Alright, I know I am so epically late to the party just like I was with Haikyuu and TsukiYachi but I am here now and I am so sad that a lot of the SouGou shippers have...disappeared...

Regardless, I still want to put forward my own thoughts and speculations on these two because they have given me brainrot over the past few weeks. 

So much like the earlier post I did with TsukiYachi, this one will be similar, except I am basing everything on the anime as I have not read the light novel (tbh light novels aren’t really my thing so...). Just to reiterate, when I make any speculations and theories, they are always based on canonical evidence, and of course my own interpretation. I put forward solid evidence so people can see where I am coming from and what I am yapping on about. People are free to draw their own conclusions of what they see in canon, so just because I have a theory with evidence, it does not invalidate another person’s theory of the same evidence...if that makes sense?

Every time I watch a new anime, I always come in with a very neutral mindset. I have a fascination with relationships (hence my ship heavy blog) so I ship characters based on their level of chemistry and compatibility.

Because I am so fashionably late to the party, a lot of the speculations below have been discussed by other SouGou fans. Essentially when I read some of their posts, they pretty much validated what I saw. So I want to credit all those SouGou stans who did the hard yard first on their speculations of these two. This post may already have what was speculated, but it’s nice to have it all in one big post. I will of course add my own thoughts and interpretations as well. So, happy reading!

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST

Gou’s Relationship with Other Characters

Sousuke did not make his debut until Season 2, so for all of Season 1, the focus was on Gou and the other characters. To be honest, nothing stood out to me in terms of shipping potential with Gou in Season 1. I do not go into watching anime with the intention of shipping characters - the shipping just automatically occurs when two characters have good chemistry. So with Gou in Season 1, all I saw was a manager being incredibly supportive, friendly, strong willed and determined to see her friends through the swimming club. You may have read my other post on Free! and toxic masculinity, but I did mention in there that what I loved most about Free! was the friendship and the emotional vulnerability. Because Gou is a side character, we never get to see too much of her and how she would develop as a character outside her obsession with muscles. But as viewers, we get the gist of her sweet personality.

Kyoto Animation

Before I dive into the speculations, I want to point out something with KyoAni. For starters, this studio is known for its amazing adaptational works of manga and light novels. When it comes to anime that does not purely focus on romance, they are so so so good with romantic undertones. As much as I do enjoy romance anime, I enjoy ones with subtle undertones of romance even more. I have watched a large portion of anime from KyoAni and I can definitely come to the above conclusion. Although Free! is not a romance genre, there is very subtle light teasing of potential developments between certain characters. Like I mentioned in my Free! post on toxic masculinity, I will disregard that just because the male characters are hugging, crying and showing vulnerable emotions to each other, it does not necessarily mean that there is a romantic development. The very subtle undertones of romance I could see is mostly between Gou, Sousuke and Momo (I will explain more later). So what I am trying to point out in this paragraph is that Free! does have minute traces of romance, because based on what other anime KyoAni produced, there are similarities in how they portray romantic undertones.

SouGou Initial Meeting

The initial meeting did not particularly stand out to me until I watched more scenes and interactions between SouGou later on in the series. What I noticed was the level of admiration Gou has for Sousuke. Again, this was not apparent when I watched the initial meeting scene on its own. I had to see a culmination of scenes between them to realise.

Oh gosh just look at how happy she is seeing Sousuke. If you go back and watch this scene again, she legit just shoved Momo out the way and ran to Sousuke. Lmao poor Momo!

Also....

Momo still staring at SouGou the whole time...

Momo getting pissy lololol (and super jelly)

Gou just looking so happy staring after Sousuke...ughh my heart....

Middle School

Just something I picked up. When Rin transferred to Iwatobi during middle school, it sounded like Gou did not go with him. So she stayed behind in the same middle school together with Sousuke after Rin left. See below.

Because Gou is one year younger than Sousuke, the scene above just sounded like he stopped talking to her when he left for Tokyo when he was a first year high school student and she a third year middle school student...and then the below scene confirmed when and the reason...

In the above scene, Sousuke explained that he hurt his shoulder in the summer of his first year of high school, and then he heard from Gou that Rin was visiting Japan at the time, so I am guessing SouGou must have stopped talking to each other around that time when Sousuke injured his shoulder. The injury was most likely why he stopped talking to her because he knew the consequences...that if Rin found out through Gou... then yeah... so to him it was better to cut off contact with both siblings...omg my heart...my poor baby Sousuke...

Anyways, point is they were definitely still talking when Rin went to Iwatobi and then later Australia. So I wonder how close they were to each other...? They do sound very close...wonder if they walked to and from school together...omfg my heart hurts again...aaaahhhhhhh

Childhood Friends

This trope is so cute and I really like the whole ‘he is my brother’s best friend’ kind of thing. Because we all know how overprotective Rin is of Gou and if there is anyone who is good enough for her, Rin would definitely think it be Sousuke.

LOOK AT HOW PRECIOUS THEY ARE OMG. Love this official artwork of all three of them. And Sousuke has such a sweet gentle expression when he is looking at Gou...

Best part also is that subtle teasing of these two. Anime is always about camera work and specific panels as well, so it just looked like to me that they really wanted to emphasise this scene between SouGou. The snow, the Christmas tree, the childhood friends - all in one frame.

Indirect Moments

These are the moments that started me on the SouGou ship! 

Gou sees Sousuke at the train station right after he has been brooding about his shoulder injury

Gou sees Sousuke at the hospital

What I really really liked about these scenes is that every single time Sousuke was having a down moment, or a vulnerable moment in relation to his shoulder injury, Gou happened to be there and witness it. It may be coincidental that she always happen to be in a place and time when Sousuke wasn’t feeling great. I was initially wondering why she never approached him in the moment and then you look at Sousuke’s pissy face and that’s probably why lmao. Regardless, Gou probably knew his state of mind, and hence decided to leave him to it. The look she gave him was more out of curiosity rather than concern but because the anime never went into detail about what she was thinking at the time, it’s hard to tell. Most important thing is that Gou was there during his vulnerable moments, before anyone knew of his shoulder injury...

Jelly Momo

Ngl, I absolutely love Momo, not only because he’s a hilarious character but because Sousuke always unintentionally cockblocks him when it comes to Gou. I just find it so funny. The poor thing. And Gou just has absolutely zero interest in him....

The thing is, Momo knows that Sousuke constantly gets in the way...it has happened several times already and I think he is also beginning to realise that Gou is probably quite fond of Sousuke, hence his very vocal comment about paying attention to him. i just love it how the anime framed it like this because you know it’s a running gag going on between all three.

Also, the look on Sousuke’s face in that above scene...you can’t see it but if you go back and watch it, and it’s only a split second when Momo moves his head, it’s absolutely hilarious. He legit has a “wtf” look on his face 😂

Just going to put this above scene here where Momo gets dragged away. Poor thing. I think at this point, Gou is catching on to something with Sousuke...

After Momo bombarded Gou with his hilarious hobbies, these two just ended up alone together ❤️

Season 3′s ending credits depict a lot of parallels between characters as well as some level of competitiveness between them. So maybe it is just a coincidence here but Sousuke and Momo together probably continues to depict the hilarious running gag between them and Gou. LOL!

Gou’s Concern

No really, when Sousuke walked out and decided to swim with his shoulder injury, the concerned look on Gou’s face. This was the first time in the whole entire series (season 3 included) where Gou showed this much concern...my heart. 

When there are problems in the Iwatobi swim club related to a character, a lot of the issues and concerns revolved around the other characters helping each other (Gou would be excluded). She is just a supporting character that does not get a lot screen time. Aside from her managerial duties, we don’t see too much of her during important/significant moments for a main character - unless she is interacting with Rin in some way. So her very minimal “interactions” with Sousuke during his vulnerable moments are considered somewhat significant (even if she just saw him walking by) because they are more symbolic than anything.

Off Screen Interactions

Okay, the amount of times Sousuke talked about Gou...they clearly talk a lot off screen and whether that be through text messages, phone calls or meeting up, I believe they are a combo of all three. I have several reasons to believe that they do hang out together quite a bit. 

1. The amount of times Gou keeps bumping into Sousuke randomly (ngl the times the audience sees is probably only a fraction to what actually goes on behind the scenes) 

2. In the later episodes, they have been seen walking home together. 

3. Some of the things Sousuke said to Rin about Gou would warrant more of a face to face conversation rather than something through text message. I mean unless they talk on the phone (that would be so fucking adorable aaaaahhhhhh) 

4. In the CD drama, they have been shown to hang out just the two of them over mediocre stuff so I am sure that would have met up and talked more about other more deeper things with each other

Gou obviously confided in Sousuke how lonely she felt because her older bro was neglecting her

LOOK AT THE AMOUNT OF TIMES HE TALKED ABOUT HER! That obviously indicated they do interact quite some bit off screen. Judging from the things they talked about, it sounded like she was filling him in with what’s going on in her life..and you know just every day stuff... I love it! They are so casual and so comfy with each other <33333333

Platinum Abs

Not counting the fact that I almost choked on my drink when I saw this for the first time, but I was curious to see what Gou thought of them. So I waited....and waited...and waited...and it never came, despite the fact that she was in his presence multiple times when he was looking like this....

And I came across several older posts that pointed this out and it totally validated what I felt as well. Gou, the muscle obsessive freak has not spoken a word about Sousuke’s nationally ranked swimmer’s perfect body. WILL YOU JUST LOOK AT THEM? HE’S FUCKING MASSIVE!! Like..all over....holy shit just look at those guns...like damn fine man.... anyways... so Gou, why have we not heard a single word from you about them? To her, they are probably the best of all the characters in the series ...

And my guess is... Sousuke is most likely special to her. She does not see him as merely an object of muscles (much like she does with the other characters including her own bro) but something more. And whether that is consciously or unconsciously, the outcome is still the same. Because when someone means a lot to you and if you like someone in that way, you are less likely to see them as an object of some fantasy...

The OVA

Yo not gonna leave this one out and if there is anything that really pushed this ship further, it was definitely the OVA.

Sousuke is so pedantic about what people call him (unless you are Nagisa...which he has almost no words for ...). So the only one who can add “kun” to his name is Gou <333333

I’m not going to delve too deeply into this as

1. It is self explanatory

2. A lot of people have already discussed this topic

But, overprotective Sousuke being a sweet guy and lending Gou his jacket is something out of a shojo manga. Even more shojo is that he;

1. Did it himself and not just giving the jacket to her

2. Got overly pissed off at Ai for drenching Gou

3. COULDN’T LOOK AT GOU WHEN HE GAVE HER THE JACKET....like the whole time....ksfklafkhgdshgjdsh

Sousuke isn’t very good with expressing himself, so this scene, out of his own sheer awkwardness, really played into the intimate nature of this potential ship. I’ll explain more later...

P. S. LOOK AT HOW ENORMOUS THE JACKET LOOKS ON GOU...she so schmol (and Sousuke is just massive...). Legit they look like a couple on a date...

Sunset Meeting

Ngl when I first started watching Season 3, this scene came out so unexpectedly I had to replay it just so it would process in my mind that it happened. But aside from the fact that it was framed in a shojo manga kinda way i.e. Gou running towards Sousuke, then walking together in the sunset and then talking about deep and meaningful stuff...you get the drift...I absolutely loved it how Gou was the very first person Sousuke told about his surgery’s success. Omg..swimming and the success of the surgery just meant so much to him and he was already telling Gou about it...

Everything about the particular scene was so so intimate. The scenery, the conversation, the tone of voice, the colours used......everything! Just look at how happy Gou is....

And damn they walked home together ... my heart cannot take it anymore aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

Running Gag

I did notice this trend going on but it didn’t cross my mind until I read a post that it was like a thing between SouGou. Honestly it is so so cute! Gou has this excited pitched, giggle-ish, admiration-like tone every single time she calls out and runs to him. It’s so sweet. You actually never hear it ever when she talks or calls out to any other characters in the series, so Sousuke is indeed very special to her <3

Also...something about Sousuke walking alone and Gou either noticing him or running to him...

Gou and Momo’s Mistaken Date vs. Gou and Sousuke’s Mistaken Date

In Part 4 of the Free Take Your Marks movie, Rin walks by a burger shop and noticed Momo and Gou sitting together and having lunch. He mistakenly thought they were going out on a date, and before the rest of the Iwatobi team could come to the table after order their food, Rin gets a call from Sousuke telling him that he cannot find his way. So Rin dashes off to save Sousuke still with the misunderstanding. The episode is absolutely hilarious on Rin’s part.

Then in the CD drama, there is a story titled “Sousuke and Gou’s secret date.” Of course it is a case of ‘mistaken identity’ but as I stated earlier, these two would hang out with each other to discuss superficial things, so I am certain that they do hang out with each other on occasions to talk about other more deep and meaningful things as well. Considering the things Sousuke has been telling Rin about Gou, you can make an educated guess that SouGou do have their alone times quite a bit off screen.

Anyways, so this is the part where I believe Free has its subtle romantic undertones. I mentioned in my toxic masculinity post that when the male characters were being vulnerable, hugged or cried, that it does not necessarily mean they are gay, or that there would be any romantic development between the characters. You could say the same with SouGou as well, however, the difference lies in how the anime framed it, and the biggest tip that pushed from just a friendship kind of thing to a teasing of a potential romantic thing is the “secret date” part and the running gag between Gou, Sousuke and Momo. We know Momo clearly has romantic interest in Gou, and the interesting thing is...Sousuke being placed in between Gou and Momo numerous times throughout the anime to signify that there is a potential triangle going on. Does this make sense? It is the nuances as a viewer that you can pick up, and it is even more so if you can understand Japanese. I sometimes switch the subtitles off and really just watch what they say and it’s a completely different view. Hard to explain...but that is the vibe I get.

Extras

I just had to put this scene in. JUST LOOK AT GOU LOOKING AT SOUSUKE OMG. She totally loves him <3 YOU CAN’T TELL ME OTHERWISE!!!

I always love me some official artwork of these two, and disregarding the fact that there are four other guys around and Nagisa just being the little helper he is, SouGou wrestling is something I just need to have in my life <3 I just love the light subtle tease between these two. Thank you KyoAni! And them holding hands... I’m ded...

Sousuke’s Feelings

This is purely interpretation based on what I have seen so far and of course when I am writing a full post like this about SouGou, it does help piece the puzzle together a little more. Tbvh, I strongly believe that Sousuke has repressed feelings for Gou. My reasoning is quite complex. Sousuke is a bit of a difficult character. He is aloof, serious and can be standoffish. He is not good with expressing his emotions and feelings, yet he does questionable things if he thinks it is for the best for those he cares about. Obviously noticeable when he lied to Rin about his shoulder injury, and of course completely stopped talking to Rin and Gou after being injured. But he deeply cares for those around him, and will go out of his way to help, even if it is to the detriment of his own welfare. 

Sosuke hanging out with Gou and talking to her and being around her is already an aspect of his kindness, that he would do this to anyone he cares about. But what I meant about repressed feelings for Gou was more evident in the OVA, and I think that is where the slight nuances come into play. Sousuke is overprotective of Gou and he most likely sees her as a little sister, considering he grew up with her alongside his best friend. But I think when it comes down to more intimate moments i.e. giving Gou his jacket and just not being able to look at her, I think that small nuance does give a small insight into Sousuke’s feelings for Gou. It may be minute but it’s there, and the way the anime framed that scene, it evoked a host of response from the viewers. That in itself is enough for viewers to make a determination as to what Sousuke might be feeling towards Gou at the time ... and it was probably more than a platonic kind of way...

Just to let you know that Sousuke most likely would not act on these feelings because of who he is as a person. And if there is any possibility that things could go awry between him and Rin that concerns Gou, Sousuke would not put their friendship in jeopardy. So if there was ever a way that Sousuke’s repressed feelings for Gou could surface, it would be if Gou initiates.

Gou’s Feelings

If you read through this entire damn thesis so far I think you could see that Gou’s feelings for Sousuke is a lot more overt. She is so incredibly fond of Sousuke and it is just the way she behaves around him, speaks to him and looks at him. It sends a different vibe comparatively to when she interacts with any of the other male characters. Because Gou is a side character, as viewers we don’t get to see much of her, her development or her thoughts and feelings, especially in relation to Sousuke. 

Concluding Thoughts

What an incredibly long post. I didn’t realise how long it was until I scrolled back up. But really, this was so fun to write. I enjoy writing about side characters and the little hints that anime and manga give us as viewers. This is the best thing about storytelling, that is so much more than what you see before you.

The great thing about SouGou is the incredibly compatibility they have with each other. They have a lot of the common tropes found in anime that sets them up for a future pairing. I mean,, Free is not a romance genre so there wouldn’t be any emphasis placed on how one character feels about another in a romantic sense. So the anime has placed some gentle teasing in the background with its frame (usually what you see in shojo manga for example), official artworks, and CD dramas. It’s a very subtle undertone that the viewers would have to dig through and pick up out of the mass of fanservice and the storylines of the main characters. Yet this is the reason why I love KyoAni because of its numerous layers of stories and undertone!

In my opinion, if there was ever any pairing that comes out of Free, it would definitely be SouGou - it’s because the way the anime (and probably the light novel as well) set them up and emphasised on important aspects of their relationship without going into detail about it.

I gotta say, the reason why I love these two so much is because they remind me so much of TsukiYachi pairing from Haikyuu. There are parallels between the characters and I think I just enjoy shipping ones with that level of complexity and compatibility - the whole opposites attract kinda thing (and the height difference).

So what do you think? Are there any SouGou stans out there left? I’m keen to see what the 2021 Free movie will entail for these two and the potential release of Season 4 (most likely in 2022).

Fingers crossed for some excitement!

Also...I had to crop this <3

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Am I the only one who doesn’t get why some (tw) are shitting on Haru and Rin separately just for the fact that they reciprocate each others feelings? Because it’s not the feelings they wanted them to reciprocate? Just curious because I'm new and recently entered the fandom. And since when miscommunication in between means that they don't deserve to be happy at the end? Because you're an idiot when it comes to love, doesn't mean you're a bad person. I came from chinese bl and it's weird to me.

Hehe welcome to the madness, perfect time to join! Yeah, tbh that's the thing in the fandom that always bugged me the most. The fact that some act like if you don't reciprocate someone's feelings, it makes you a bad person. I always found it incredibly cringy when ppl in real life for example make ppl feel guilty for not feeling the same way and make you feel like shit bc of it. I don't get why you have to apologize for that or feel bad, if you never ever gave him any hope or anything in the first place.

Nowdays it's thankfully a rare sight already in this fandom, bc most already grown and see perfectly what's truly healthy and unhealthy, it's just tbh only the same 3 accounts ppl keep sending me that are still on that, who also think that Haru is literally possessed in the last movie so I don't see the point of like arguing with ppl like this. It's just they're always getting extremely angry when Haru wants Rin as if it's his fault that he feels this way and always go about it like he is inconsiderate of Makoto's feelings. Implying that they're mad that he doesn't feel that way about Makoto, while Makoto does. I'm same as @tododeku-or-bust for example said here (idk what fandom brought this on, but just in general) also do not get what's appealing about this kind of relationships in the first place.

If they shipped it in terms of like it's mutual I'd get it, but they go on about how Rin or Haru are bad friends bc they're not in love with their best friends... like ?????? I didn't know you owe it to your friends to have romantic feelings for them.

In real life if you found out that your bestie feels that way for you while you don't reciprocate, it's a burden, that'll make you feel uncomfortable and at times guilty when you shouldn't technically feel that way. So putting on someone a burden of "I was pining for you all along", when you know they don't feel the same is giving me this feeling of cringe. So I personally do not get what's enjoyable at seeing it like that in Free. But to each their own kink lmao.

It's like... is Haru at fault for the fact that he was Ikuya's first love too? I do not get it really. Like he doesn't have to take responsibility for everyone who falls for him and he doesn't owe anyone to reciprocate their feelings. Even to Rin. Like if he didn't feel the same way for Rin, it wouldn't be his fault either. But since he does feel the same way for him, it's like... good, great, happy for them.

Like once again if someone believes that Makoto and Sousuke are unrequitedly in love with Rin and Haru, that's not rinharu fault. Haru literally never ever lead Makoto on EVER. He never ever did anything that would make Makoto believe that they're more than friends. He was always honest about everything. Like when Makoto thought that he went out to see him, but Haru just wanted to see the sunrise, he told him just that. He never encoraged anything, he refused to live with him and never wanted. I do not get why it's supposed to be his fault that he doesn't like his friend in that way. If Makoto has some unrequited feelings for him and decided to hang up on this, it's his own life choice in my opinion.

It's like saying that Onodera and Takano for example don't deserve to be together just because they unintentionally hurt each other and got separated for 10 years bc of misunderstanding. This argument is like typical Yokozawa life position aka "but I was there when he left you heartbroken for several years, that means you MUST pick me". As I've said before, that's just not how it fucking works. And just bc they couldn't explain things to each other normally, doesn't mean that they don't deserve be happy now. Being idiots is not a crime.

Or if you came from chinese bl, lets go "Guardian" for example. Zhu Hong also was on about how "why you love Shen Wei, not me, I always did everything for you and I was always there, I even wore heels bc you once said you liked those etc". Like he never asked her to do this, he never gave her any hope, he was beyond rude and open about the fact that he's not interested, he never did anything to make her think she had a chance since the beginning. Just bc she decided to dedicate her life to false hope that maybe one day something might change is not his fault. It was her choice. Why Yunlan should feel like shit bc of that I do not get personally.

I'm just buffled bc like Haru for example is the most caring about other ppl's pain person, but they call him selfish and rude bc of the way he is with Makoto at times, not even realising that it IS in fact what means being kind sometimes.. to not give someone a chance when you know you don't feel it. I was always saying this like since forever, being kind doesn't mean for example giving everyone second chances, loving everyone, wanting to be friends with anyone etc. In some situations it's not being kind, it's being stupid or even not being a good person. Once again... offering someone friendship after he openly dissed your friend and you see that he's not in any position to talk back is not kind. Or if someone cheats on you constantly, but you always forgive them it's also not you being kind. It's you being stupid. Sometimes you have to be harsh. It's for the greater good.

And like I saw several times stuff like someone under scenes where Rin has his eyes for Haru only, commenting like "oh great, look at Rin being inconsiderate of Sousuke's feelings again. Can't believe you guys find this romantic." I mean, if in their opinion Sousuke is in pain from being Rin's friend, he can end it, it's his choice. It's not Rin's fault that he thinks of him as just his friend. So thinking that Rin is an asshole bc each time he simply hangs out with Sousuke he's a selfish bitch is fucking insane. I'd feel extremely bad if my best friend was seeing it this way for example. It's like hella ugly.

This annoys me also bc of the fact that Rin, the person who at the age of 12 single-handedly saved his family from falling apart after his father's death, who's an amazing friend to Sousuke and did everything to make his happy after he found out about his trauma and always checks on him first and cries about his shoulder, who in the late evenings taught Rei to swim, when everyone else gave up already xD, who was looking after Nitori during his training, who pretends to walk the same road, just because he's scared to let Gou return alone in the evenings, the most amazing son and brother, is suddenly an asshole just because Haru is in love with him, but not with Makoto. I mean, thats just... huh? Like I dont mind you ship what you want to ship, it's like to each their own crayons for real. But like dissing them and call them selfish just bc they only see their friends as friends and don't want anything more is weird to me.

As for the fact that bc of the misunderstanding they don't deserve to be happy, that's just idiotic. I mean, lets punish Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan too just bc Lan Zhan couldn't voice his real feelings back then and bc WWX misunderstood him. Lets ship WWX with Wen Ning instead. Nezumi is cancelled, he doesn't deserve to be with Shion. He left him. Takano should stay with Yokozawa, Onodera is trash. Wu Xie is trash for wanting to be with Zhang Qiling too. It doesn't matter why he leaves, it only matters that he always does. I can't believe he doesn't see that Pangzi is there with him all along xD. What an ungrateful trash of a human being I can't even.

And anyways btw both Rin and Haru are not ideal human beings in any way (otherwise I wouldn't love them this much tbh xD). But their flaws are definitely not what for example mh shippers usually blame them for. You can argue about their other imperfections easily. Like being stupidly stubborn for example. I won't point fingers here, Haru lolz. Or literally anything else.

My point is you can find what to trash them for logically, if you wanna. Do it smartly tho. Otherwise you make your ship look bad.

And I once again say what wise person said about his relationships and about the fact that not being able with someone he loves hurt him and 'why is he doing this to himself' he answered: "it's not on him. my happiness and my pain is for me to handle". Everyone decides for themselves. This is why for example Haru was so broken about voicing this to Rin and didn't have any intentions to tell him that in the first place. Bc it's not right, if you're not sure that it's requited. Technically he has no right to blame Rin for making him fall in love with him and then leaving in the first place. It's not Rin's fault really, that he made him feel what he feels for him, it's ultimately Haru's problem. That's why he feels has no right to blame him in the first place. I mean, he doesn't know that Rin feels the same, that means saying to him "you break my heart each time you leave" and making him feel bad about it is technically wrong. That's why Haru to himself said "no, please, don't say such things to him". Everyone for himself decides who deserves your 5, 7, 800 or 10000 years of your pain. It's your decision. It's your life. If Haru feels like Rin is worth it, then you have no say in that matter really. The only reason we call Rin an idiot or Haru an idiot is because we know they feel the same, so we can. But blame someone else for not feeling what you're feeling is not right.

So like even if you feel like Makoto and Sousuke have feelings for their friends, blaming Haru and Rin for having feelings for each other and not for them is beyond weird. And there's nothing wrong with putting someone you love first, every bro/sis gets it. You can say bros before hoes all you want, but like Lan Zhan might just drop his bro for his hoe, if he was given a choice. Would it make him a bad person? The fact that Wu Xie chose to save Xiaoge before Pangzi makes his a bad person? My point is it's not all that easy.

I just feel like many ppl in this fandom are very weird about many things. Either because they do not get what it's like to go through some things or maybe they just do not get that no matter how cheesy this sounds love is not that simple. I mean, for example not all selfish is bad, sometimes like in Haru's case for example not being selfish is also bad. Bc if he finally asks for what he wants, he will make both himself AND Rin happy.

To be angry at Rin bc of the aftermath of his father's death and s1 I never had it in me, after knowing everything and how adults handled it. If some of Sousuke's fans bc of Yakusoku and the fact that Rin found his salvation in Haru bc he helped him to move forward after getting his family out of this hell alone and that Haru was the safe haven that made him happy in this moment of his life, want to trash Rin for the fact that he "neglected" Sousuke, its like your opinion. I personally do not get it. Rin doesn't owe Sousuke anything. It's not his fault again that Haru's existence helped him to feel better.

Just like not everyone will get why Haru in 1x12 was so happy about the fact that he could help Rin. To be that special somebody for someone who can "save" you in moments of your life like this, especially if you love them is an incredible feeling. And no, your bestie isn't always the person for this job, no. I don't see why people do not get that I guess, that's all. But we all have our own opinion on everything, so...

We same as you do not get it since forever, but its like it is what it is in this fandom. I personally just have another life position on stuff, so I'm very far from that point of view they have.

[caffernnn]

Haru’s hopelessness - an extensive rambling.

Watchers of Free! Eternal Summer - y’all remember this moment, right? 

Throughout S2, as some of the boys now have to seriously think about their lives and paths after high school, Haru struggles to think past what he’s always known: swimming for his friends/himself, eating mackerel, and being free. Things arguably take a darker turn once Haru cannot run from the question anymore and breaks, lashing out at Rin and saying he doesn’t have a dream or a future. 

There are so many things that can be unpacked from this quote alone, and my thoughts on the matter will probably be sporadic, but here are a few key things I’d like to try diving into in this post:

My interpretation of Haru’s, Makoto’s, and Rin’s characters’ mindsets

What Haru is likely trying to say

How Makoto and Rin interpret his words (based on their mindsets and experiences)

I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on it all as well, so please feel free to add on :)

DISCLAIMER: This post will reference material outside of S2 itself to explain my insight/interpretation of the characters (S1 episodes, High Speed novel), but I won’t be putting full links to all of those materials in this post. If you’d like a specific link to anything I’m referencing, let me know and I can try to dig one up.

When first hearing Haru say that he doesn’t have a dream or a future, it is shocking and concerning, especially to his friends. However, as broken as lost as Haru is in this moment, the weight of his words and what he’s verbally trying to convey is most likely different than what his friends hear. I feel as if a big reason for this comes down to the different ways the characters perceive time and approach general goal-setting. 

Here is a video that can give a frame of reference for what I mean by “time perception,” but I’ll still try to explain my thinking ---> https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJsdVUhu/

Rin and Haru butt heads on many occasions throughout the series due to having opposing characteristics and approaches to life. The big difference that comes into play during S2 is how they both approach goal-setting and time. As soon as we’re introduced to Rin, it becomes apparent that he is someone who is a visionary that has always set his sights on the future. From boldly proclaiming his Olympic goals in elementary school to encouraging their team to put their relay trophy into a time capsule, Rin establishes himself early on as a dreamer that puts his all into his long-term goals. Being someone who thinks about things in this manner isn’t inherently good or bad, but it does lend a hand to many of the issues we see Rin go through in S1 (having tunnel vision on his goal that isolates him from his friends, being prone to catastrophize when confronted with road blocks along the way [like when he breaks down after losing to Haru in middle school], etc.). However, all of that dreaming puts him at an advantage now when preparing to move forward into post-high-school life. He has a frame of reference for most of his next steps (winning races, talking to scouts), and now he just has to make it a reality.

Haru, in essence, lives his life in the moment. If he wants to swim, he’ll try to swim; if he wants mackerel, he’ll try to make mackerel. He lets the people around him (usually Makoto) worry about the possible consequences for his actions (swimming too early in spring might get him sick, swimming in a fish tank might get him kicked out of XYZ place, cooking mackerel after a long bath might make him late for school, etc.). The way he thinks about all of his “tomorrows” beyond acting freely on impulse is through having a consistent routine or norm to cling onto. When swimming, he’ll swim freestyle. When given a choice, he’ll default to eating mackerel. He’ll find a way to get in a swim or a bath most days because water is safe. He’ll walk with Makoto to and from school, sticking to the side of the path closest to the ocean and anticipating sharing the same split popsicle. This is about as much thought as he lends to the future, usually: he’ll keep doing the things that make him happy and comfortable, whatever that’ll mean to him in the moment. In opposition of Rin, this frame of mind based in immediacy and short-term goals helps him in S1 (teaching Rin to appreciate the moment, connecting with his friends, not getting lost in the overly analytical or competitive side of swimming), but it makes the challenges that come with his looming graduation in S2 much harder to cope with. 

The reason that it’s important to understand how both Haru and Rin frame their perceptions of time is because it plays right into what Haru is saying during their argument. He is frustrated with Rin because Rin doesn’t understand the way Haru thinks/lives moment-to-moment (he yells as much in this fight) and he is tired of hearing people for years try and push him into long-term thinking about his future when he doesn’t naturally approach life that way. Think back to one of the first things Haru said in S1: 

“When you're ten, they call you a prodigy. When you're fifteen, they call you a genius. Once you hit twenty, you're just an ordinary person. About three years until I'm ordinary. Man... I can't wait to be ordinary.”

Because of Haru’s swimming abilities, people have looked at him as a prodigy and have had their own visions about his potential or his future ever since he was young. Even if it seems like flattery, Haru feels boxed in by all of this. Being considered a prodigy comes with expectations that put him on a pedestal he never asked to be placed on -- if he’s going to swim, he’s expected to swim well; if he swims well, he’s expected to capitalize on his abilities in a competitive manner or expand his horizons to other forms of swimming; if he’s going to live his life tied to the water, people view him as a swimmer before they view him as anything/anyone else. Haru has been frustrated with all of this since he was younger (as expressed in S1), but it gets even worse as people close in on Haru from all sides with advice and sentiments that compound in Haru’s head as belonging to the echo chamber he hates so much. 

So... what does this all mean in relevance to Haru saying he doesn’t have a dream or a future? Here’s my line of thinking: all of the internalized frustration Haru has with long-term thinkers (from his perspective) speaking over him and not taking time to understand his in-the-moment intuition-led mindset comes out in this line. What Haru is trying to say is that he doesn’t have a detailed long-term plan because he isn’t a romantic visionary like Rin. He wants to stick with his relatively free lifestyle (y’know, the one where he can do what he wants, but still ultimately sticks to a routine) because he sees no point in forcing himself to put effort into big changes if 1) he’s satisfied and 2) the system isn’t broken.*

*we learn later, especially through Haru and Makoto’s later fight, that these two points are up for debate, but this is what Haru has convinced himself to believe at the time of this specific confrontation.

However, with the way Haru vocalizes this frustration, it is vague enough that Rin and the others hear something much different. It’s written right on their faces. Like I mentioned earlier, being a long-term thinker prone to catastrophizing, Rin interprets (and possibly misconstrues) Haru’s words to mean that he doesn’t think he has the potential or abilities to strive for something. Rin feels Haru’s words like a punch to the gut because he relates Haru’s hopelessness to the times he has felt lost and hopeless, like when defeat after defeat led to him breaking down after his middle school race with Haru. It’s shocking and it stings for Rin to hear, because as much as he’s learned to believe in himself and his own future, he’s also held onto those dreams and hope for his friends. I’ll admit, his dedication and borderline obsession with swimming lends to him mostly vocalizing the dreams he has for his friends that are related to swimming (Makoto and Haru getting scouted, Sousuke returning to swimming), but the love is still there. 

The idea of long-term vs short-term thinkers I’ve presented isn’t completely dichotomous or black-and-white, even though Haru and Rin tend to fall on the far opposite sides of the proposed spectrum. So, where does someone like Makoto fall? 

Makoto is an interesting case. From how I’ve come to understand his character, I would say he also looks to the future, albeit in less idealistic or extreme ways than Rin. Makoto’s forward line of thinking presents itself through both his people-pleasing tendencies and his caring disposition. When Makoto interacts with people, he is often observant and calculating, trying to figure out how he can navigate a conversation in the most complimentary or polite manner. This ability and tendency to understand/empathize with others ties into a lot of the roles he takes on: team captain, big brother, part-time position as a swim coach, full-time position as Haru’s impulse control... he is inclined to think about the future and all of the possible consequences for his actions. This also ties into some of the other things we know Makoto’s character for, such as being a scaredy-cat (aka, someone who overthinks consequences in fear of the unknown) and a ray of sunshine (aka, someone who wants to see the best in people and holds onto optimism/hope for the people he loves, even if it sometimes means not saving enough for himself and his own abilities). 

Despite being more of a forward-thinker, Makoto has definitely been influenced by his close relationship with Haru. Makoto has spent most of his life observing and learning how to read Haru, and it has been shown time and time again that Makoto is one of the people (if not, the person) that understands Haru best. He understands that Haru values the freedom of choice and harbors a desire for unconditional appreciation. He understands that Haru puts stock in consistency/reliability and needs time and space to process or reflect when life deviates from that carefully-crafted norm. Makoto’s actions towards Haru over the years all reflect him trying to be respectful of these observations. Even when he can tell something is bothering Haru, Makoto tries to let Haru work it out on his own first, not prodding him for information but letting his presence/support be known all the same. I digress, being best friends, their lives and routines are tightly woven together. Because of this, Makoto spends a lot of time also living in-the-moment with Haru -- he is a large proponent in Haru’s “free” lifestyle. 

Since Makoto has a foot in both Haru and Rin’s respective worlds, how does he interpret Haru’s declaration that he doesn’t have a dream or a future? Surely, since he understands Haru and his position so well and has always been respectful of his mindset/wishes, he gets what Haru is trying to say... right? 

Unfortunately for Haru (or fortunately, depending on who you ask), Makoto is immediately concerned by those words in a way similar to Rin. Like I mentioned earlier, Makoto holds deep optimism and hope in his chest for all of the people he cares about. Even though he never forced lofty expectations onto Haru to swim or be anything other than himself, he still holds so much care and hope for his best friend. For Makoto to hear that Haru might not have that faith in himself or the belief that he is worth a bright future, it breaks his heart. Similar to Rin, he is probably thinking back to his own moments of hopelessness, and I can’t help but think back to the lost and scared Makoto fighting with himself during the middle school days. When entering middle school, Makoto struggles with his identity, trying to figure out just how dependent he is on Haru’s friendship. One of his darkest moments in my mind comes from Chapter 8 of the High Speed! 2 novel, when Makoto is beating himself up especially hard after being frozen by his fear of the ocean yet again. Haru finds Makoto alone on a secluded part of the shore, where he says this:

“Will I be alright even if Haru isn’t here? …..I wanted to make sure of that.”

Raising his eyebrows, he shows a lonely smile. Makoto was fighting all along. He was suffering, all along. In a place where Haruka’s thoughts couldn’t possibly reach... 

“Would Haru be alright even if I weren’t here?”

If Makoto’s internal struggles throughout their middle school days reveal anything, it is that Makoto has experienced a hopelessness that he wouldn’t ever wish on his friends. To think that Haru might now be at war with himself in a way that makes him question his own place in the world, his future... it is the ultimate catalyst for Makoto to step in and try to talk to Haru. Sadly, we all remember how that confrontation went...

ENTER: THE FIREWORKS FIGHT (S2E11)

(Since this post is already super long, I might go more into my thoughts on how this all plays into the misunderstandings about the fireworks fight in a separate post. We’ve talked about the fight at length on multiple occasions and you can definitely find my thoughts on the matter if you look under the “#fireworks angst night” or “#meta” tags on my profile.)

If you’ve made it this far into the post, thanks for sticking with me. I’d love to hear about how you interpreted Haru’s words or how you think the others took in his breakdown. 

[mak0to]

Thank you very much for posting some spoilers of The Final Stroke! Do you have any speculations for the second part?

Hello! This is a very old ask, I'm sorry it took me so long to answer but it's been hard to process the whole thing that is Free! ending.

I'm not going to lie, I've read a bit of spoiler (accidentally) but I still don't know where the actual movie is going so my speculations still are honest.

Here is a list of things that I think will happen (Spoiler-free, of course, oh but maybe some spoilers if you haven't watched Part 1) (under the cut because I didn't notice this is now a long post):

Sousuke giving a step forward in his rehab process? Honestly, I'd hate if the movie doesn't show us Sousuke finally achieving his dream, or at least being close enough, I really expect to see him shine and smile living his dream.

Asahi swimming! We already saw him supporting Ikuya and hanging out with Kisumi and Hiyori but if Asahi is one of the characters that keeps swimming, then I guess we'll get to see him trying his best in the pro world!

PLEASE Kisumi playing basketball, and boys from the gang supporting him and/or playing with him. PLeAse, it's the most unfinished goal/arc in Free!

Ikuya and Natsuya getting along! No more angst for any of them. NO. MORE. We had enough.

Iwatobi and Samezuka graduation? I wish we knew what they're going to do after school! I'd love to see more of Rei, Nagisa and Kou, I hate that they're getting so little time on screen since S3, so if TFS2 needs to "bring Haru back" then I think Iwatobi gang is perfect for it!

Makoto helping Haru to come back to his senses. Hated that they cut Makoto off in the last scene they shared, it was so ooc :-( I hope they did that way so we see Makoto finally speaking his heart out in the second part. I could write a whole essay about it but maybe some other time.

Albert kinda came out of nowhere and his troubles are being shown so I guess we'll see him getting his own arc? I don't think of him as the villian of the story, at all, but he definitely has his own stuff going on and knowing Free!, a little bit of Power of Friendship will bath him and we'll get to see him happy, maybe even being friends with Kaede or Haru, or the rest of the group even!

More details about what happened between Kaede, his brother/cousin, and Azuma. Like. You owe us.

Azuma retiring? Maybe not a speculation but a wish JAJAJ jokes aside, I would love to see Makoto taking a stand on Haru's training in a more serious way. Maybe as an athletic supporter? I don't know if they're actually called like that in English but you know, maybe not his coach coach but close enough (I'd love if Makoto was the coach for Haru but I get that he's still a student and it'd be a little bit unrealistic).

Rin. Winning. A. Medal. Kou and their mom supporting him.

Oh, of course, a reconciliation between Haru and Rin. ACTUALLY SPEAKING, not only by swimming. But again, I guess that's more of a wish than speculation.

There's gotta be hella flashbacks. Like. Tons.

Everyone getting a happy end, resolving their problems and taking steps forward in what they want to do, in who they want to be :-) if they don't, I'm throwing hands.

Makoto succeeding at cooking at least One (1) Meal. As a treat... Don't look at me like that, a person can dream.

Oh sorry, this post was longer than expected :o

Please do not comment on this post saying what actually happened in the movie if you have read spoilers or watched the movie, I'm trying to stay away from more spoilers until I get to see the movie for myself (in a month)! Instead, you can comment here your own speculations, I'd love to read what you think will happen or want to happen.

[rinharu-purple]

Can we please talk about SouGou for a sec?

It lands often under the radar, but SouGou has a lot of canon potential. I mean...I don’t see SouMako happening , besides I think both Makoto and Sousuke are rather into women than men and Haru and Rin belong together so no MakoHaru or SouRin for me. Sousuke and Gou are quite close to each other and spend lots of time à deux while Rin is away. So just a couple of observations right off the bat.

First of all Sousuke is very attentive of Gou. He is watching after her and staying in close contact with her. Sure it could be because he feels himself responsible for taking care of his best friend’s sister while he is away, but it could also be because he is kinda fond of her. If he’s brotherly sisterly with her, than why should he show some kind of embarrassment when he lends her his jacket during Samezuka festival? It would be only natural for a brother to do that, but Sousuke is not only deranged  by the fact that Ai soaked Gou in water but also very tender in his handling of her. But love is not a one sided thing right? Gou is also different around Sousuke.

Gou, as a full fledged muscle enthusiast, who literally swoons over any sort of trained muscle, appears to be oblivious to Sousuke’s olympic level abs and treps and pecks and co. You cannot tell me that she is not drooling her ovaries out dry for this:

There could be two explanations for her ignorance to Sousuke’s perfectly trained muscles: 1) She sees him as a brother, but we all know that she has no problem with going crazy about Rin’s muscles, so this cannot be it or 2) She is not only enthusiastic about him but also has a more serious perception of him as well. 

Momo is also aware of this closeness, since he shows a certain level of jealousy about Sousuke and we also see Sousuke drawing Momo away from Gou a couple of times. So this sparkly potential doesn’t go unnoticed in the Free! universe.

So what do you think? Is SouGou a thing? Could it get somewhere? Don’t you think they look good together? 

The last edit is from @adorafics​

[incensuous]

sick shark babies

fandom: free! characters: rin & gou, sousuke rating: G, gen words: 3265

read on AO3

When Gou got sick as a kid, nothing made her feel better than sleeping next to her big brother. So, when Rin gets sick, Gou takes it upon herself to take care of him.

Whoa, I guess I had never cross-posted this on tumblr. I can’t believe I wrote this in 2014. It was before I had this blog!! Not sure if it’s worth it to post here, but I still have a soft spot for this fic, even if the writing feels clunkier.

A seven-year-old Rin frowns as his sensitive ears pick up a muffled cough for the thousandth time in the hour.

“Gou, you’re sick,” he points out bluntly. “You need to take medicine.”

His sister petulantly shakes her small head. “No, I feel fine.”

He turns around at his desk to stare at Gou, all curled up in her bed, trying to read her favorite book, the one she always begged their mother to read to her, even when she could do it herself. He’s made the effort to shift his body just so she can get a full view of his spectacular eye roll.

“Take the medicine or else you’ll get worse and then you’ll get everyone sick. If I get sick, Mom won’t let me swim,” he grumbles, as he stands up to walk out of their shared bedroom. He figures he’s getting too old to be sharing his room with his baby sister but it seems like Gou would never be able to take care of herself if he’s not there.

He asks his mom where the cold medicine is and Gou frowns. How could he betray her! She’d done a good job of not coughing too loud so their mom wouldn’t realize her daughter had been feeling under the weather.

Just as Rin finishes asking their mother, she comes in herself with a stern but gentle look with the tell tale small plastic cup, filled with purple liquid.

“Gou, it’ll make you feel better, I promise,” their mother insists. “I’ll let you eat some candy afterwards, okay?”

“Mom, I feel fine,” Gou refutes and backs her small body up to the edge of her bed, as far away as she can get without falling off.

Rin bounds into the room and tries to sweeten the deal for his sister. “I’ll let you pick the next TV show we watch.” He adds, almost reluctantly, “For a whole hour.”

Gou’s red eyes flit between the two. She purses her small lips and breathes deeply before grimacing as only a six-year-old can.

Sensing her daughter relenting, their mother swoops in and holds Gou’s mouth open.

“Pinch your nose, it’ll help,” she gently warns.

When Gou doesn’t move, Rin knows from experience their mother speaks the truth, and reaches over to pinch Gou’s little nose for her.

Gou fidgets, threatening to have the cough syrup spill, and she whines but manages to swallow it all. Her face is mottled in her displeasure and as soon as she gets her mouth clear, their mother knowingly pops a candy into her daughter’s mouth.

Rin watches as Gou sucks on the treat, still seeming unhappy from her traumatizing ordeal. Regardless, by the time they’re getting ready for bed, Gou’s coughing lessens significantly. When their mother measures her temperature, she’s displeased to see Gou’s fever is still high, and instructs her to get a lot of rest.

Therefore, after Rin brushes his teeth, he climbs into bed. But instead of his own mattress, he’s situated himself next to Gou in her pastel comforter and she’s surprised by the sudden intrusion from her brother. Rin wants to explain to her he knows she likes to sleep next to him, so it’s only natural as her big brother, he’d help her get the best rest.

But rather than questioning it, Gou simply puts on her animal-printed face mask and happily snuggles close to his side. Rin huffs before closing his eyes and dozing off.

His slumber is so peaceful when he wakes up the next morning, he almost doesn’t mind when his sister declares, “I want to watch Sailor Moon!” Almost.

. . .

Samezuka is a good enough distance away from Iwatobi that try as she might, Gou honestly feels out of touch from her brother’s life. On a beautiful Friday afternoon, she decides to surprise her brother with a visit.

She texts him briefly, hoping he isn’t too busy. Are you in your room?

She waits outside the dorm building, staring at her phone’s screen. She beams when the screen lights up. It is only recently Rin has been replying to her texts. She doesn’t even mind they’re barely a few words and very sparingly given; she’ll take what she can get.

Yeah, why?

Come down and let me in!

What? Why are you here?

Gou is just about to type up a reply when another follows. Never mind, be down in a minute.

The dorm building’s door opens, and Gou widens her eyes at the sight. Her brother looks terrible.

Well, as terrible as Rin can when he possesses muscles like his, which are strangely covered up by a large sweater on a warm 70-degree day. “Onii-chan!” Gou exclaims, running towards him, her hair bouncing behind her.

He frowns. “What are you doing here, Gou?”

“I just wanted to visit,” Gou pouts before peering closer at his face. “Good thing I did. How long have you been sick?”

Rin looks at her in surprise. “What do you mean? I’m not sick.”

His little sister stares at him, entirely unconvinced. “If only you had told me, I would’ve asked Mom to make some soup to bring over.”

For a second, Gou thinks her brother is going to try and keep up the charade, insisting he’s only tired from studying and not suffering from the flu. Instead, he sighs and shrugs. “It’s okay, I can take care of myself.” Gou realizes he must really be sick if he let the topic go so easily.

“Of course I know that, but you don’t have to,” she retorts haughtily before dragging him towards the proctor to have her signed in.

Once they make it to his dorm room, Gou spies Sousuke reclining on the top bunk. “Sousuke-kun!”

At the sound of his name, the dark-haired teen peers down. Smiling, he greets her. “Hey Gou. So that’s who Rin was texting.” He hops down onto the floor. “Did you stop by because he was sick?”

Gou shakes her head. “I had no idea.” She turns to glare at her brother, who pointedly looks away.

“I’m the older one here, Gou,” he argues, wincing as a cough breaks his sentence. “It’s not even that bad.”

Gou turns to face Sousuke again. “And you!” She points an accusatory finger at her brother’s best friend. “You didn’t tell me!”

Sousuke is caught off guard. “Wha—?”

“Gou,” Rin places his hands on her shoulders to calm down his sister. “Hey, I told him not to tell you, okay?”

She falters, eyebrows creasing. “But why didn’t you want me to know?”

“He didn’t want you to worry,” Sousuke supplies, helpfully. “He always says you have a lot on your own plate.”

Upon hearing this, Gou spins around. Rin expects to hear something along the lines of “thanks Onii-chan, you’re the best,” but instead, she smacks his arm. Hard.

“Hey! Gou, what—”

“Stupid Onii-chan,” Gou scolds, while frowning and the expression reminds Rin of himself. “You’re my only brother, I’ll always worry!” She whirls back to Sousuke who looks like a young deer facing a well-armed hunter. “Sousuke-kun, how long has Onii-chan been sick?”

“Three days.”

“Sousuke!” Rin squawks at being given away so easily by his friend. He doesn’t get a chance to say much else before small hands are pushing at his back. The red-haired Samezuka captain finds himself being steered towards his own bed and Gou peers around the room once she’s done shoving her brother around.

“Have you been getting any rest at all? Don’t tell me you’ve been running around half-naked when you’re sick, Onii-chan.”

“Things have been really busy, Gou, I’m the captain—”

“What about taking medicine?”

Suddenly feeling like a child again, Rin purses his lips when Gou lands her prying gaze on him.

Again, Sousuke feels it’s an opportune moment for him to intervene. “He hasn’t.”

Rin fixes a death glare on his friend. “Why, you…”

“I’m going to the store right now,” Gou declares, before turning to Rin with a pleading expression. “Try to get some rest, I’ll be back soon.”

Rin is about to argue, I have a paper due, I have a test next week, regionals are coming up… but he makes the mistake of looking at Gou’s face, with her large, glossy eyes and small pout. His words die on his tongue and he sulks before nodding and lying down.

As Gou happily beams and turns away, Rin plans on the ways he’s gonna kick Sousuke’s ass the second his sister is out the door.

“Sousuke-kun, do you mind coming with me?”

The man in question startles at being addressed, his attention being on warily eyeing Rin. “Me?”

“Who else?”

Rin gapes. Why was she asking Sousuke to come with her?

Oh, that’s right. They must’ve gotten quite close in elementary school, after he had left for Australia. But still, if anyone is going to go with his sister to the store, it should be her own brother!

“Wait, Gou, let me come,” Rin protests, shoving off the covers he’d bundled around himself.

Gou swiftly fixes him with a stern glare. “Where do you think you’re going?” She presses a hand to his forehead. “You’re burning up and you’re shaking. Stay in bed.”

For years to come, Rin will fervently deny pouting when his sister instructs his eighteen year old self to take a goddamn nap and refuses to let him tag along with her and Sousuke.

He resigns himself to the mattress to wait, mulling to himself he’d have to threaten Sousuke within an inch of his life to never let the rest of the Samezuka team find out about his predicament.

It takes almost twenty minutes for them to return and by then, Rin has fallen into a fitful sleep, his fringe clinging to his sweating forehead.

Gou gently shakes her brother awake to coerce him into taking some medication. She makes a mental note to take a trip to the grocery store on her way home.

For the next hour or so, Gou finds herself fussing over Rin and he is too tired to care. She finds topics to chatter away about to Sousuke and Rin, who occasionally pitch in. Eventually, Rin drifts off to sleep again and Gou decides it’s getting late. She says goodbye to her childhood friend then presses a kiss to Rin’s forehead, when she thinks Sousuke isn’t looking.

. . .

When Gou returns to the Samezuka dorms the next afternoon, she’s again worried her brother will be too busy to reply to her. Instead, a familiar face appears at the doorway to invite her in but it’s not the face she’d been expecting.

“Sousuke-kun? Where’s Onii-chan?”

“Rin’s taking a nap,” Sousuke grins down at the girl he’s practically adopted as his sister. “I saw his phone was vibrating. Figured it was you.”

“Onii-chan? Napping?” Gou repeats in disbelief. The eighteen year old glances at the large pot she has in her hands. It looks heavy, so without even asking, he takes it easily from her grasp.

She gives him her thanks and they quietly make their way to his and Rin’s dorm. True to Sousuke’s word, they find Rin tucked into his blankets. At least he looks a little more comfortable than last night.

“He slept in this morning, barely made it to practice. Then, he came home and fell asleep again,” Sousuke informs her.

“He didn’t even go for a jog?” Gou inquires, incredulously. If she knew one thing about her brother, he always stuck to his exercise regimen.

Sousuke shakes his head, his expression grim. “It’s that serious,” he agrees with her shocked expression.

Gou sighs. “I hate to wake him up, but he should take his medicine and needs to eat.” She gently shakes Rin’s shoulder through the blanket and instead of the usual no-nonsense waking up Sousuke had come to expect, Rin burrows further into his sheets.

With some more nudging, Rin finally blearily opens his eyes.

“Wha…? Gou?” He furrows his brows. “What time is it?”

“It’s four P.M., Onii-chan,” she whispers, treating him as if he was a child. Rin doesn’t pay her delicate attitude any mind, and instead groans.

“I didn’t even do my morning jog…”

“That’s not important,” Gou waves his concerns over the loss of muscle tone away and brandishes two pills and a bottle of water. “Take these.”

He obliges and finally pushes himself into a sitting position. His skin is flustered and sweaty from the slumber spent under thick blankets, the cool evening air making him shiver.

Gou frowns and sets to microwaving some of the soup. It’s only then Rin notices the large pot sitting on his desk. He blinks as the smell wafts to him, reminding him of his childhood. He probably hadn’t had that soup in years.

“Did Mom make that?” he asks, his voice raspy from sleep.

He watches as Gou blushes and for a second he’s worried he’s infected her with his flu. Then she shakes her head. “No, I made it.” She turns around with the bowl. “It’s probably not as good, but it’ll be easier to digest than the food from your cafeteria.”

Rin takes the ceramic from her hands and sips at the liquid. He feels the warmth pool in his stomach and the tendrils of heat curling around his body.

“It tastes like Mom’s,” he says nonchalantly before taking more spoonfuls. Gou lights up as he says this, taking it as a rare compliment from her precious brother.

The two red-haired siblings are sitting on Rin’s bottom bunk, while Sousuke is at his desk. Much like last night, Gou rambles to Rin, who tries to pretend he's indifferent when she does this. Sousuke knows better though and listens to the two of them talk. Sometimes, they’d include him, but after all these years, he still remembers how close the two were when they were younger.

Part of him is annoyed at Rin for ignoring Gou all this time. He remembers when she had eventually turned to him and asked if he’d heard anything from her brother. And it was then Sousuke realized Rin was desperately trying to distance himself from something from Japan, if he’d even taken to ignoring his sister.

As Gou is the manager of the Iwatobi swim club, it makes sense a lot of their conversation revolves around its members. Sousuke isn’t blind—he is completely aware Gou is hardly athletic and it’s far too coincidental she just so happened to join the swim club full of the very same people Rin had transferred to Iwatobi for. Then he ponders to himself absently if his friend is aware she’d done all of it just for him.

Gou mentions how she’d been trying to learn how to cook more things recently. When Rin asks what had brought on this new curiosity, she beams and informs him the Iwatobi swim club is aspiring to ingest healthier meals.

“Huh?” Rin blinks. “Then that means you cook for all four of them?”

She nods excitedly. “But Nagisa-kun is the only one who actually likes the protein powder,” she pouts.

Rin grimaces. “Even I don’t love protein powder.”

“Not even the strawberry banana kind?”

The two male teens gag at the very mention of the supplement. “That’s the worst!”

Pitying his old relay team, Rin decides to give his sister tips on incorporating healthy protein into meals fit for any swimmer and how to better use the powder.

“I can’t believe you make lunch for four grown men,” Sousuke comments. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Rin pouting. Gou is oblivious as she is seated right next to his side. He can’t help himself from adding, “You shouldn’t feel jealous, Rin. She made you soup, after all.”

The Samezuka swim captain’s face colors and he barks, “As if, Yamazaki!”

Gou giggles and holds her brother’s arm tighter. “I’ll visit you more often then,” she announces.

“No! You don’t have to do that,” Rin unnecessarily shouts, before having a coughing fit. Gou’s face is horrified.

“Oh no, how could I have forgotten? You’re sick, and I’ve been keeping you up instead of letting you rest,” she fusses, before maneuvering her six foot tall brother into a supine position on the bed.

He attempts to protest but realizes it would have been futile. He’s feeling a little sleepy anyways. Gou makes sure he’s completely covered by his sheets before lifting up the corner and tucking herself in beside him.

Rin blinks, surprised and is about to tell her she should go home, they might get in trouble, but Gou anticipates his arguments and refutes them the best way she knows how. She clasps her hands and stares pleadingly into his eyes. “You’ll sleep better this way, remember?”

For a moment, he’s about to ask what she means, but then he remembers a week of listening to Gou’s coughs and sneezes, nights spent curled together in the same bed, coupled with several mornings of “in the name of the moon, I will punish you!”

His eyes soften before sighing and simply says, “Go get my mask.”

Gou lights up and rummages through his desk before returning and loops the strings of the plain black face mask behind his ears.

She texts their mother informing her she’d be staying the night at her brother’s dorm. Then he tells her to take one of his shirts to sleep in and she eagerly looks through his drawers, making a mess he’d have to clean up tomorrow, before fishing out one of his old black tees. She slips into the bathroom to change and when she returns with her hair down and her clothes draped over her arms, Sousuke has already made his way to his own bunk, turning off the lights.

“Good night, Sousuke-kun,” Gou chirrups, worming her way into Rin’s side and resting her head on his chest, like when they were children. In response, he curls his arm underneath her to wrap around her shoulders.

“Night, Gou,” Sousuke replies, his tone amused. “Night, Rin.”

Rin grunts in response, already feeling the effects of a long day spent battling his illness. “Night.”

“Good night.” Gou leans up to press a kiss to his cheek.

Rin cracks open an eye to peer down at the top of her head. “Night,” he says again, but in a softer tone. When she returns to duck her head under his jaw, he turns his head so his lips press gently against her forehead through the thin fabric covering his face.

Gou’s eyes widen slightly before sighing happily and drifts off to sleep, but not before murmuring, “Love you, Onii-chan.”

She isn’t sure if she’s already dreaming when a moment later, her brother mumbles, “Love you too.”

[bonkers-4-hatter]

Snow Day Pretend (Kid Gou, Rin and Sousuke Story)

--

This was a commission for a lovely dear! I enjoyed writing this! I don’t really write for kids or about kids that often, so it was a nice change and I hope to write another story like this again.

Hope you guys enjoy!

If you enjoy my work, please consider buying me a coffee.

If you’d like a commission, please message me.

--

“It looks so cool out though mom, why do we have to stay in and play”? A seven-year-old Rin was pouting, his eyes staring outside at the falling snow blanketing the already white ground. It was winter break and the kids were at home. Rin had his best friend Sousuke over to play, but when the snow started falling harder, they were ushered inside to play.

Pitter patter of feet were heard as Rin’s younger sister, Gou ran down the stairs her giggles being heard by the two young boys. She bounded over to her brother and started to jump around him and his friend.

“We can play pretend! It’s so much fun, please, please, please!” The energetic child kept jumping around them both until Rin finally sighed and nodded. Gou was so happy, she grabbed both Rin and Sousuke’s hands and dragged them up the stairs to her room.

“You both will love pretend! It’s much funner than stupid soccer!” Both boys groaned as they were led into Gou’s bright pink room, the overabundance of the color making their eyes hurt a bit if they stared at something for too long.

“What now?” Rin was still pouting, his arms crossed across his chest and bottom lip out to show his distaste at the whole situation.

“We pretend, silly!” Gou’s shrill laugh rang out through the room as she ran to her toy chest, her little hands rummaging through the giant box, clearly on a mission to find something specific.

“W-What’re we pretending t-to be?” The shy, timid voice of little Sousuke only made Gou grin as she started pulling out hats, swords and other toys and setting them to the side.

“Princess and Dragon!” Gou proudly proclaimed this as she pointed the toy foam sword into the air like she just proclaimed the sentence of the century. Sousuke stood silent as he silently giggled at Gou’s silly stance. However, Rin only scoffed and stood to the side looking bored and not interested.

“So, you’ll be the Princess and we’re the Dragons that sounds so boring; come on Sousuke, let’s go do something else!” Before Rin could make it to the door, Gou stood in front of it, a giant smile on her face as she tossed him the bright pink Princess hat. It was tall, pointy and had a glittering pink mesh hanging down in the back.

“I’m not the Princess, you are! I’m the Knight in shining armor and Sousuke’s the Dragon! Now put the Princess hat on, Princess Rin.”

“I’m not gunna be the Princess, I’m not a girl!” Rin only kicked the bright Princess accessory and glared over at his sister who still had the foam sword poised in an attacking position. Sousuke was silent as the siblings continued to glare at each other, he didn’t like it when they fought like this so, always being the voice of reason, he stepped in between the two and picked up the Princess hat and put it on.

“I-I’ll be the Princess and Rin can be the Dragon…d-does that work?” Both siblings just stared at Sousuke who had flushed cheeks. Gou was the first to break the silence and throw her hands up in the air and hugged Sousuke.

“You’re so awesome Sou! Now, let’s play!” Rin was still a little taken aback at what his friend just did, but he only smiled and let out a big growl, lunging forward to Gou. With her trusty sword, Gou stepped back and gave a battle cry as Rin and herself had an epic battle. Little Sousuke just sat back, Princess hat still on top of his head with a small smile on his face as he saw the two siblings having fun.

“Don’t worry Princess, I’ll protect you from this mean dragon!” Gou’s high-pitched voice rang out, jumping in front of Sousuke, sword held high as she blocked Rin’s “claws” from attacking the fair maiden.

“I’m not mean!” Rin protested as he gave a ferocious growl and lunged toward Gou, deflecting her sword as they continued their battle around the room. A loud rumbling echoed through the room making Sousuke laugh. It was Rin’s stomach that growled, making the red head flush. Gou grinned and poked Rin’s stomach lightly with the tip of her foam sword, giggling.

“Your growling tummy sounds mean to me!” She continued to poke it with her sword until Rin swatted the sword away, making it tumble to the ground and out of the knight’s reach.

“Oh no!” She gasped as her weapon was out of reach, making Rin grin, his pointy teeth shinning in the light. “Quick Princess, run!” Gou quickly grabbed Sousuke’s hand and pulled him along as she ran from the room in search of another weapon to defeat the mean ole dragon with. She could hear Rin behind them, growls and all. She pushed her little legs to go as fast as they could, running into the playroom and ushering the Princess under the bed for protection.

“Umm…Good Knight, why are we under a bed?”

“To hide from the Dragon, I must protect you! I have to find another weapon to fight him.”

The Princess only nodded in understanding as their little eyes started to scan around the playroom in search of a weapon for the Knight to wield, but also on the lookout for the Dragon. That sneaky beast could be anywhere for all they knew! His eyes spotted a magical wand, decorated in pink and purple sparkles, the wand having a moon shape. Sousuke looked over at Gou, who was running around frantically, shifting through toys to find a valiant weapon to defeat the evil dragon. He always enjoyed playing with both siblings, but Rin never really invited his younger sister to play. Both siblings were like his family and when he spent time with one and not the other, he always felt bad afterwards.

Getting the chance to play with both made Sousuke happy. He enjoyed how Gou was really into the game, playing the part of the Knight well and he could tell that Rin was into it too, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Smiling at the frantic girl, Sousuke decided to join in on the fun.

“Good Knight, there’s a magic wand to use!” He dramatically pointed to the wand as Gou gasped at the find. She pranced over and grabbed the weapon from the toy chest and raised it high into the air to show it off in a heroic pose.

“Thank you, Princess, this’ll show that nasty Dragon who’s boss!” Lowering her new weapon, Gou scampered over to Sousuke quickly grasping his hand and running toward the door, not before grabbing a plastic shield that was blue and yellow in color and handing it to him. Once in the hallway, the Knight looked around to make sure the coast was clear before handing the Princess the shield.

“Here Princess, this’ll protect you while I slay the Dragon!”

Sousuke smiled at the gesture and accepted the shield, holding it up in front of him, making sure the flowing, glittery material of his Princess hat didn’t stick to the plastic toy. Gou was showing him how to “properly” hold the toy of course. Deciding to make her even happier, he mimicked a curtsey, something he’s seen on TV before. His actions made Gou laugh. While still curtsying he properly thanked her for the protection as any grateful Princess would to their Knight in shining armor.

“Thank you, brave Knight, for protecting me.”

Gou continued to giggle at the scene. “Anything to protect you, Princess!”

“You’ll need that shield after I defeat the Knight, Princess!” Gou gasped, there, on the other side of the hall was Rin, pointy teeth on display and he even had a red dragon mask on the top half of his face. In an instant, Gou was in front of Sousuke, magical wand held high, ready to slay the beast in front of her.

“Do your worse Dragon, I’m ready!”

With a mighty roar, Rin lunged at both Gou and Sousuke, slashing his claws near Gou, but thankfully she dodged the attack. Doing a few poses, Gou held her magical wand up high and shouted.

“Ice Beam!” With her attack out in the open, she pointed the wand at her brother who froze in place, arms still raised, and moth open like he was going to take a bite out of someone. With a grin, Gou grabbed the Princess and booked it to another room.

“Quick Princess, that attack only lasts 15 seconds, we have to find another hiding place!” The two ran down the long hallway and even ventured down the stairs, Gou trying not to trip while going down them quickly. Once down, Gou pushed Sousuke to hide against the side of the staircase just as Rin ran past the stairs on the second floor. Wiping her forehead, Gou made sure her bother wouldn’t come back around before taking off on the first floor, passing by the kitchen where her mother was in making something yummy by the smell of it.

“In here, hurry!” Gou pulled Sousuke into the laundry room, closing the big door behind her to act as a shield against the dragon’s vicious attacks.

“Quick Princess, you have to hide, otherwise you’ll be eaten!” Gou’s frantic voice startled Sousuke a bit, but nonetheless he nodded as the now magical wand wielding child opened the dryer and gestured for him to get in. Clambering into the machine, he was enveloped by darkness as Gou closed the door. He could hear her footsteps as she was pacing the small room, guarding him of course.

It stayed like that for a few minutes, just Gou pacing the floor as she mumbled to herself about the different ways that she could slay the dragon and what kinds of neat magical attacks she can come up with. Sousuke tried to get comfy in the dark, cramped space, his hat falling off because of how small the space was.

“There you are! Prepare to die human!” Sousuke had to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud. From the sound of it, Rin was in the laundry room now. Not wanting to give away his hiding spot, he kept quiet as he could hear the commotion going on beyond the dryer’s door.

“That’s what you think evil Dragon! I’ll slay you and then rescue the Princess! Prepare to meet your maker!” Gou gave a battle cry of sorts after her little heroic speech as a string of magical attack names came from her along with Rin’s grunts of being hit or laughs of victory as he from what Sousuke could decipher successfully dodged her attacks.

A few more minutes of the attacks went on before Sousuke was blinded by the light of the outside world, his eyes straining because he was cooped up in the small, dark, enclosed space for more than he would’ve liked. Once his eyes settled, there stood Rin with a giant smirk on his face, hands on his hips in a victory stance. The Red head held his hand out for his friend to take, which he did as he helped Sousuke out of the dryer. Glancing to the right, Sousuke saw Gou on the floor, sprawled out as if she was dead; an obvious sign of her defeat. 

“I tried to tell her, her silly magic tricks wouldn’t work on me, but she didn’t listen.” Rin continued to grin as he took the mask off. A scoff was heard as Gou jumped up from the floor, hands on her hips and magical wand in her hand.

She made her way toward Rin, a look of determination on her face before she stuck the glittery weapon in her brother’s face.

“You were just lucky, next time I’ll get ya!”

Rin only stuck his tongue out at his sister, taunting her of course. “Sure, sure, whatever you say; face it, I’ll always win I’m the big brother.”

“Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you’ll always win.” Gou pouted as she looked down at her weapon of choice before holding it up and making a declaration.

“When we fight again, I’ll be ready! I’ll be practicing my attacks, just you wait evil dragon!” With a new determined vigor, Gou ran out of the room, screaming her declaration of becoming stronger to defeat the Dragon. Rin and Sousuke looked at each other before bursting out in laughter. After gathering themselves, they made their way out of the laundry room, as Rin and Gou’s mother shouted about a snack being ready for them.

“I guess that wasn’t that bad…still would’ve wanted to play out in the snow.” Rin had a neutral look on his round face.

Sousuke scoffed at his friend. “Sure, thing Rin. You had fun, admit it, you liked playing pretend.” He nudged his Red headed friend who only scoffed and mumbled something. Sousuke heard it though not that he’d tell Rin.

Without another word from either of them, they made their way to the kitchen, the thought of a yummy snack on their mind.

[free-pool-trash]

Worth It - Rin Matsuoka x Reader

Requested by @missangelofdarkness : Hi :D just wanted to put in a request for Rin Matsuoka X reader :) something like the S.O. (reader,female pronouns) and rin go with the boys to the beach? I don't mind anything you write just as long as it's cute and fluffy 😍😍😍

Hello! Sorry this took me so long like literally 500 years :’( Hope you like it <3

Word count: 1,462

Masterlist

You sighed in content as the seaside's air hit your nose, the hint of salt calming you as it always did whenever you found yourself by the shore. The feeling of Rin’s hand intertwined with your own added to your relaxation.

The pair of you were walking along a promenade on your way to meet Haru, Nagisa, Makoto, Rei, Sousuke, Momo, Nitori and Gou, the group had decided it would be a great idea to have a reunion of sorts and what better place for swimmers to reunite than at the beach?

You knew Rin was excited by the slight skip in his step, despite his trying to hide it, you knew him too well.

It'd been about three months since Rin had seen the boys since he'd been away training in Australia, the both of you had been living together in an apartment over there since you'd been dating for quite some time and you were both too dependant on each other to be willing to go long distance for any longer than a month at a time.

You both agreed that although your schedules clashed it was worth it to be able to come home to each other at the end of the day.

The past couple of weeks had been particularly hectic for both of you, with you having to take college exams and Rin’s intensive training, a beach get away with good friends and plenty of relaxation was exactly what you both needed at the moment. So when you decided to pay the guys a visit, you were quick to agree on Nagisa’s suggestion to have a beach day.

“I can't believe the weather over here, I keep forgetting the seasons are different.” Your boyfriend grumbled out, pulling on the Hem of his tank top to try and relieve himself of the intense Japanese heat.

You let out a giggle, picking up your pace and dragging him off the promenade and onto the hot sand of the beach, recognising several heads of hair you jogged in the direction where they were sitting, dragging Rin along behind you. You turned your head toward the maroon haired boy, giving him a cheeky grin, “Guess we better hurry up and get to the water then!” and with that you picked up the pace continuing to drag your boyfriend quickly along.

After a few seconds of jogging you reached the boys you'd spent your highschool years with.

“Rin! (Y/n)!” Makoto had been the first to notice you both, the others turned to face you after hearing Makoto’s call.

The next few minutes were filled with hugs and small talk before Haru decided he had done enough talking and stripped down to his swim trunks and high-tailed it towards the ocean, to be honest you were shocked he'd waited so long in the first place. The rest of the boys, followed suit not wanting to waste anymore time even though it was still fairly early.

Rin was no exception to this, but he made sure to kiss your cheek and tell you to “come in soon, kay?” Before he rushed off, catching up to Sousuke and throwing his arm around the slightly taller boy’s, now healed, shoulder.

You couldn't help but giggle looking at their childish antics, Gou seemed to have the same reaction as she sat down on the beach chair next to yours.

Her eyes had been following Momo as he challenged all the boys to a race, his head turning occasionally to wave excitedly at your boyfriend's little sister.

“So... you and Momo, huh?” You questioned, raising an eyebrow at the younger girl as her face blew up with a blush that was as red as her hair.

“Are we that obvious?! Do you think Rin knows!?” She whisper shouted, glancing over at the boys in panic.

Her reaction caused you to laugh again and you grabbed her shoulder in an attempt to calm her, which seemed to work.

“You aren't obvious at all, I wouldn't have even picked up on it if I hadn't seen the way you were both eyeing each other up in your swimsuits.” Her blush intensified and her hand swatted at your arm.

“Whatever…” she mumbled before smiling at you again.

“So how are you dealing with living with my brother?” The soft smile you gave her before casting you gaze over to your long term boyfriend, who was currently having a splash-off with his childhood friends, was answer enough but you spoke anyway.

“It's been amazing, kinda hectic but after last year it's way better than being apart.” You told her, your voice full of honesty.

During your first year of college you'd been able to see Rin quite a lot due to how many qualifiers he had to attend that took place in Japan throughout the year and you'd both visit each other during holidays, so naturally you both figured even though you missed each other when you were apart that you could make the long distance thing work.

Come your second year in college you both realized that it hasn't been the best plan of action. He didn't need to come to Japan as all qualifiers were over or being held elsewhere, and even though there was only a two hour time difference it still meant that sometimes you missed your window of contact with each other. When you'd see each other during holidays, it was nearly impossible to get you away from each other and every single time you would part again, there would always be tears.

So that summer, Rin made a proposal.

That you transfer to a course corresponding with your own at a college in Sydney close to where Rin was training. That you spend the summer apartment hunting with him. That you rent an apartment together. That you leave Japan and come live with him in Sydney. And evidently you said yes.

So far it was the best thing you'd decided to do, pretty much ever.

You hadn't noticed that you'd been staring at the man who was currently occupying your thoughts with a smile on your face, until he called out to you with a smile as soft as yours.

“Come swim with me!” Shaking your head and standing up, you took off your sun dress to reveal your two piece swim suit before holding your arm out to Gou and motioning her to come with you as you began jogging to the water.

Before you even met the water Rin had met you half way, grabbing you by the waist, picking you up and spinning you around.

His face held a smirk as he lifted your legs to wrap around his waist, “What's got you all smiley?” he asked, probably knowing full well that he was the reason.

Looping your arms around his neck you looked at him with a smirk of your own, shrugging innocently, “Nothing in particular.”

Shaking his head, he turned around, keeping his hold on you and started walking into the water.

You sighed blissfully as the cool water met your hot skin. Your bliss was short lived when your boyfriend decided to toss you fully into the water with no warning.

A decision he would come to regret.

Slowly, you emerged from the water and as you pushed your hair away from your eyes, you silently declared war on Rin who was laughing his pretty little ass off.

“I hope it's still funny when you're in hell, Matsuoka.” You said calmly before lunging for him.

The others laughed as he muttered an “awh shit.” Before starting to swim away from you.

You let the game of cat and mouse continue for a while as everyone was having fun, but it was getting late and you weren't leaving the water until you got your revenge.

Finally, Rin had let his guard down.

He was standing chest deep in the water, his arms crossed as he chatted to Makoto about something.

As quietly as you could, you swam beneath the surface of the water, close to the sand, when you reached Rin’s legs, you quickly grabbed his ankles and yanked them forward.

The girly shriek he let out as he lost his balance and fell into the water was like music to your ears and as soon as you returned to the surface you laughed your ass off, along with everyone else.

Once Rin emerged he was quick to pull you against his chest, eyes narrowed in fake anger as you giggled up at him.

“Hope that was worth it.” He grumbled, his face coming close to yours so that your noses were barely touching.

Smiling sweetly at him you rubbed your nose against his before answering, “Oh it totally was.”

[who-i-swim-for]

Free! Ships: My Take

So, seeing as how Free! has so many characters, it makes sense that there’d be a good handful of ships that come out of it. I’m here to talk about them. I’ve done this before on my Bleach blog, but unlike in that post, I’m actually going to be talking about all of them in this one. I’ll also let you know if I ship that particular pair or not, because that’s what this post is about. I kind of just want to gush about all the different dynamics in the show, so I’m gonna do that here. I won’t talk about every possible ship that’s out there because that would take forever, but I’ll talk about quite a few. There’s probably gonna be spoilers for everything up until the most recent episode of Free!: Dive to the Future.

I’ll put the TL;DR version in bold. P.S. sorry for using the same pictures as my previous post, but I don’t have the motivation to look for more.

Makoto and Haru (MakoHaru)

I think this is the most popular ship within the fanbase statistically, right? It makes sense-- Makoto and Haru have the deepest and longest relationship in the show. I think it’s also the strongest relationship, especially now that they’ve moved on to college. There’s something very tender and touching about their interactions with each other. We know that Makoto looks after Haru and has been for years and that Haru would defend and protect Makoto to the ends of the Earth. It’s not a stretch to imagine them as more than friends. 

Personally, I don’t ship them as I enjoy watching such a whole and caring friendship, though I don’t fault anyone for seeing more there. I sort of believe that maybe Makoto had more serious feelings at one point in time, but probably not anymore. Though, mostly, I just believe that he’s really amazing friend. They may actually be my favorite relationship on this list, regardless of who I ship.

Rin and Haru (RinHaru) 

This would be the second most popular ship in the fanbase. I’ve heard it said that this anime starts and ends with Rin and Haru, and I pretty much agree with that statement. After all, Haru’s character essentially centered around Rin from the time he met him in grade school to the time they reconciled at the end of season one. It’s the same for Rin. Even now, one of Rin’s primary reasons for swimming competitively is because he wants to keep swimming with Haru.

RinHaru is the only ship I seriously ship in the series. By that, I mean that it’s the only pair that I really do want to see get together in the anime. Whether that happens or not... well, it probably isn’t likely, but nonetheless, I do want it to happen. They’re so passionate about each other, and nothing drives them more than the image of swimming next to each other for as long as they possibly can. I don’t know, I always think of hopeful things when I think of these two.

Nagisa and Rei (Reigisa)

I have a weird opinion on this ship, I think, but I’ll get to that later. This ship also makes a lot of sense since it was Nagisa who brought Rei into the world of swimming. Other than that, though, they have developed a pretty strong relationship. It’s similar to Makoto and Haru’s, in my opinion, though Rei doesn’t act as as much of mother hen to Nagisa as Makoto does to Haru. They both really care about each other, as can be seen in each of their little storylines during Eternal Summer. Nagisa seemed to be the most hurt that Rei was lying about his whereabouts, and Rei seemed to be the most worried about Nagisa running away from home. I think that their emotions are typically pretty in tune, which is why they make such a good pair. 

Here’s the thing, I don’t ship them in the same way that I ship RinHaru, but I totally believe that they’re close enough to be a thing. I mean, if they did get together in the anime, I’d be totally fine with it because I’d be like, “Well, yeah, obviously.” You know? It’s a really weird view on it, I understand, but that’s what I think.

Sousuke and Rin (SouRin)

This is another fairly popular pairing, I’d assume. Sousuke is Rin’s oldest friend, so I see the appeal of shipping them together since they have so much history. The concern they have for the each other’s well-being and success is pretty incredible. Sousuke clearly wants, more than anything, for Rin to stand on the international stage and fulfill his dream, and Rin really wants Sousuke to recover from his injury so that he can stand on that stage with him as soon as possible. I think the amount of support these two give each other is equal to the support that Makoto and Haru give to each other, but Sousuke and Rin are so intense and passionate about it. 

Speaking of Makoto and Haru, I feel the same way about Sousuke and Rin as I do about them. There’s a really resilient friendship between these two that I love. Watching Rin say he wants to swim with Sousuke again one day or seeing Sousuke really happy just because Rin is happy is beautiful to me. All that being said, I can agree with the opinion that Sousuke does have more serious feelings for Rin. I think that could go either way. Bottom line is that Rin and Sousuke’s relationship is one of the best in the series for sure.

Makoto and Sousuke (SouMako)

I did not understand this ship at all until I watched the Eternal Summer special (which is where basically all their interactions take place). I can’t make a big speech about their deep relationship because they don’t have one, but they are really entertaining together. I think it’s because Sousuke and Haru are so similar that Makoto hanging out with Sousuke seems really natural. We don’t see Sousuke consistently being friendly and getting along with many people besides Rin, but since Makoto is so sweet and disarming, it makes a lot of sense that Sousuke likes him. Plus, Makoto was really worried about Sousuke when he found out about his shoulder and looked like he might cry out of joy when Rin told him that Sousuke’s surgery was a success. 

I don’t ship them seriously, but I do ship them. I like the image of them together, though I can’t really say if that’s a romantic thing or not. Maybe they’re a BROtp to me, I don’t know. Either way, I’d sign on for more interactions between these two. At the very least, I can see them chatting once in a while when they get tired of fretting over Rin and Haru.

Hiyori and Ikuya (HiyoIku)

Ooo, a recent ship! These two met early on in their lives, separated, and met again years later in high school, though Hiyori seemed to be the only one to remember their initial encounter until recently. Something about that is magical to think about, in my opinion. Hiyori is very much the protector in this relationship as he’s been watching out for Ikuya for a long time. It’s clear that Hiyori wants the best for Ikuya, similar to the way that Sousuke feels about Rin. In Dive to the Future, we can see that Ikuya being in pain puts Hiyori in pain as well. Ikuya values his relationship with Hiyori quite a bit, especially lately. We don’t have much information on these two, but I assume we’re going to start seeing something close to Makoto and Haru in the future because that’s sort of what we’ve been getting so far.

I didn’t actively ship them until their fight. During that fight, I actually really did think that their relationship was about to take a romantic direction, or at least that Hiyori was going to confess those types of feelings to Ikuya. I do want them to end up together, though I can’t really say that I ship them seriously like RinHaru. That’s probably because I still think that it might actually happen at one point or another, so I don’t need to ship it seriously. My brain is weird. Whatever the reason, I do ship them, and I can very easily see a romantic future between them.

Makoto and Gou (MakoGou)

I think the idea with this ship is being able to pair off all the Iwatobi boys with someone, but if you ship RinHaru and Reigisa, where does Makoto go? Gou. Or, I guess there’s always the MakoHaruRin ship, but... we’re getting off track. Makoto and Gou do have a bit of a relationship since she’s the manager and he was the captain of the swim club, so they talked frequently. They’re also both very nice people, so all of their interactions were positive ones. Gou seems to worry about Makoto like she worries about all of the boys, and Makoto seems to respect Gou quite a bit. Whether that’s because he’s a big brother, and he sees Gou as Rin’s little sister or if it’s something more is up for debate.

I don’t really think that I ship them, but they would be super cute together. Maybe I ship them a little. I can’t come up with a conclusive decision on this. Like, I could see that once the anime ends, they flash forward and Gou and Makoto are together. You know? Makoto is definitely the only dude that Rin would willingly let Gou date, at least.

Momo and Gou (MomoGou)

While we’re on Gou ships, let’s talk about this one. Momo tries really hard, doesn’t he? Every time he sees her, he’s right there, trying to get her attention and affection. It’s kind of cute, too. He seems to be making some kind of progress, right? I mean, she remembers his name now.

I do ship them in a I-really-want-Momo’s-efforts-to-pay-off kind of way. I don’t know that Gou will ever recognize those efforts as she seems kind of oblivious to that stuff, but it’d be nice.

Mikoshiba and Gou (SeiGou)

These two are pretty much the exact same as Momo and Gou. Mikoshiba has tried to ask Gou out multiple times, but Rin is very protective of her so it never happened. Gou seems to like Mikoshiba well enough, even though she’s oblivious of his advances as well as Momo’s. 

I don’t really ship them, though they certainly would look like a power couple. Their interactions are pretty funny, at least, so it’s never boring when they’re together. I don’t really think Mikoshiba is the most appropriate person to be with Gou, though. They’re probably better as they are.

Sousuke and Gou (SouGou)

Okay, last Gou ship. Well, their ship name rhymes with itself, so that’s cute. These two have known each other as long as Rin and Sousuke have, so they have a similar amount of history, and I think it’s inferred that they also went to middle school together. I think the general consensus is that Sousuke sees Gou as his sister, and I think it’s clear that Gou really likes Sousuke as she worries over him almost as much as she does with Rin.

I do ship these two quite a bit. I think, should they get together, it would be a really sweet relationship. Sousuke does really care about Gou and vise versa, and I can interpret that to be romantic very easily. I don’t think either of them would actively make a move, at least not right now, but I think that they both have very sweet gestures toward the other. More so on Sousuke’s side than Gou’s, but you know.

Asahi and Kisumi (AsaKisu)

Kisumi seems to know just about everyone, so it makes sense that he’s got a ship with a lot of characters. However, I think that Asahi might be the one that he’s the most overall interactions with, especially now that Kisumi seems to spend a lot of time with Asahi at Asahi’s family restaurant. Asahi was initially annoyed by Kisumi in the beginning, but I think now they have a pretty good relationship. They both probably care about one another, though we don’t have many lengthy scenes with just the two of them to go off of.

Do I ship them? No, I don’t think so, I think I just enjoy them being together because their personalities are cute. Kisumi teasing Asahi and Asahi getting annoyed is adorable. Adorable pretty much describes their entire relationship, actually.

Ikuya and Asahi (AsaIku)

These two have a bit more of a basis than AsaKisu. They tease each other a lot... or rather, Ikuya teases Asahi a lot. Asahi seems to care about Ikuya a lot, despite how annoyed he gets because of him. In middle school, Asahi was the person that got the most worked up about Ikuya’s glum attitude, and in college, Asahi worried over Ikuya quite a bit. Similarly, Ikuya looks like he values his friendship with Asahi, which can be seen both in Starting Days and Dive to the Future. 

I like their friendship a lot, though I don’t really ship them. The quiet concern they seem to show toward each other is lovely, and I enjoy seeing it as well as their other interactions. I do hope to see more of them together in the future.

Haru and Ikuya (IkuHaru)

The reasoning behind this ship is probably similar to RinHaru. Ikuya and Rin each have similar histories with Haru, so if it’s easy to ship one, it’s probably easy to ship the other. I don’t think Haru and Ikuya have quite the same amount depth in their relationship when compared to Rin and Haru, but they do care about each other very much. Haru inspired Ikuya’s swimming, and you could even say that Haru’s influence is the reason that Ikuya is such a strong swimmer currently. On Haru’s end, he ended up swimming the other three strokes in a tournament just so that he could swim with Ikuya and keep his promise to him. So, clearly there is a lot of emotion between them as well as history. 

I think the relationship between Ikuya and Haru is something special. Although I don’t romantically ship them, I do think that they have strong feelings for one another. They both took measures to swim with each other again, and that’s pretty awesome. That seems to be the theme of this anime, actually, but I just love the raw emotion with Ikuya and Haru.

Kisumi and Makoto (KisuMako)

These two are just a couple handfuls of sunshine. They hang out a lot, especially now that they’re in college, which might be because neither Makoto nor Kisumi swim, so it might be nice for Makoto to have a friend like that. I think one of the bigger things to note about their relationship is that Kisumi seems to trust Makoto quite a bit since he entrusted Makoto to take care of his brother Hayato. 

I can see them being super adorable together, but I probably wouldn’t say that I ship them. I definitely see the appeal, though. They’re both very positive people, and I would assume that they can confide in each other about many things. I don’t know, I really like seeing them together, at least.

Natsuya and Nao (Natsunao)

I feel like we know a lot about the nature of the relationship between these two without having much actual content on it. Nao looks to be the only person that can tame Natsuya’s wild side, and he’s also the only person that Natsuya can really talk to and go to for advice. Natsuya has also been shown to have a large amount of trust in Nao as he let Nao manage Makoto, Haru, Asahi, and Ikuya in middle school. Nao seemed to have a lot of faith in Natsuya’s abilities as a captain as well. Natsuya was also very sad that Nao got sick, presumably because that meant that he wouldn’t get to swim with Nao again. There’s a lot of love and trust that runs between Nao and Natsuya. 

I feel the same about these two as I do about Makoto and Haru or Rin and Sousuke. I see their relationship as a really strong, unwavering friendship, and I enjoy it a lot. There’s probably a lot of history there that will hopefully be uncovered in the future. Nao and Natsuya have enormous potential as a pair in the anime, and I hope they’re used more in the future.

Natsuya and Rin (NatsuRin)

This ship interests me, thus I’m putting it in this post. So, this is a very fresh ship since Rin and Natsuya didn’t even know each other until Dive to the Future, though they did see each other in Take Your Marks. Rin seemed to like Natsuya, though he probably found him a little strange at first. They end up having dinner together quite a bit while Natsuya is in Australia. Natsuya confided in Rin a little bit about Ikuya, and Rin told Natsuya vaguely about Haru and Sousuke (that he wanted to swim with them again). Rin also seems to have seen some of himself in Natsuya. Natsuya’s personality made most of their interactions seem like banter to me which was cool to watch. Rin and Natsuya meeting was a nice way to tie Rin into the Iwatobi Junior High School set of characters, even if only a little.

I don’t ship them, but I do enjoy the fact that they met separate from Haru, Makoto, and everyone else that they have in common. It would be cool to see them reunite in Japan. Maybe that’ll happen soon.

Rin and Makoto (MakoRin)

They sort of play Mom and Dad to Haru a lot, don’t they? Rin and Makoto do most likely bond over Haru more than anything, but they do care about each other as well. Makoto was concerned about Rin quite a bit in season one, and Rin really wanted Makoto to find a path he wanted to take after high school. Makoto has also confided in Rin, and vise versa. It seems like they reminisce about their past together as well. I think they probably talk more now that Rin lives in Australia, so that’s nice.

They work really well together, in my opinion, but I don’t ship them. I do think they have a very mature and comfortable relationship, though. Rin and Makoto seem to always be at ease around each other, and that must be nice to have. I’m glad that they’re getting more interactions now than they were before, especially ones that don’t revolve around Haru. Though, I’m sure they’ll always fret over their little problem child.

Asahi and Rei (AsaRei)

I’m not sure if people ship these two so much, but I know that people really enjoyed their interactions in middle school and the little Easter Egg in the first and third Free! movies where Asahi walked by Rei. You can’t really say that they have a relationship, but the simple fact these two interacted is pretty cool. It’s sort of like the NatsuRin ship in a way because it was assumed that Rei had no connection to any of the characters until high school, but then boom, he’s met Asahi. Rei seemed taken aback by Asahi initially, but he obviously remembered him because when Asahi walked behind him in the movie, Rei recognized the story he was telling-- that some kid with glasses recommended some books to him in middle school. Asahi also seemed grateful to Rei for doing that for him. Rei also seemed to somewhat recognize Asahi’s voice when he passed him in Take Your Marks. Asahi mentioned that you shouldn’t give up as long as the possibility isn’t zero, and that inspired Rei, which more or less returned Rei’s favor to Asahi from middle school.

I don’t seriously ship them, but I think I do ship them. Maybe I BROtp ship them. I just really want them to meet again and be friends. It’s a cool little bit of history they share, kind of like Hiyori and Ikuya’s first meeting. I think it’d be nice to see them together again. 

Rin and Rei (RinRei)

This is a classic enemies-to-friends ship. In the beginning, Rei was very interested in Rin because of his history with the rest of the Iwatobi SC, and he eventually became very grateful to Rin for teaching him how to swim. Rin respects and admires Rei a lot for his commitment to swimming. They seem to get along pretty well, probably because of their desires to become the best in their swimming specialties. Beyond that, their personalities seem to mesh well, similar to Makoto and Rin’s. 

Ship them, I do not, but their interactions are always welcome. I think it’s cool that Rin got to be a part of Nagisa, Makoto, and Haru’s lives early on and Rei got to be a part of them in high school. That may also be another reason why they get along, but whatever it is, I really enjoy when they talk.

Haru and Sousuke (SouHaru)

To be honest, I’m surprised more people don’t ship these two. Not only because they’re an enemies-to-frenemies ship, but because they’re ship is the exact same as Rin and Makoto’s. Haru is the middle man between Rin and Makoto, and the MakoRin ship basically says forget Haru, just give us these two. It’s the same with Sousuke and Haru, except Rin is the middle man. I think the biggest thing that exists between these two is respect, especially currently. Sousuke acknowledges Haru’s abilities and respects them while Haru respects Sousuke’s. Haru also respected Sousuke’s wish to swim in the relay at regionals and vowed to give it everything he had so Sousuke’s wish wouldn’t go to waste. I assume Sosuke also respected Haru’s decision to swim competitively. 

I don’t ship them seriously, but the ship itself does interest me. At least, I’m interested in seeing more interactions between these two. I think their dynamic is something totally different and isn’t really seen with any other characters in the anime, so it’d be nice to see more of it. The Eternal Summer Special wasn’t enough.

Albert and Haru (AlHaru)

Sorry for the awful ship name, I didn’t know what else to call it. So, I saw some interest in this ship and decided to add it in. I said that I wasn’t sure how to talk about it besides “it was kawaii and then not so kawaii,” but I’m gonna try. Albert and Haru met recently in Dive to the Future. Albert looked like a cinnamon roll foreigner, so Haru helped him order lunch; there’s also a super cute moment when Haru notices that Albert doesn’t know how to use chopsticks and goes to get him some silverware, although, by the time he gets back Albert has figured it out and is totally fine. Albert then proceeds to race Haru and basically crushes him since Albert is the world record holder in the 100m and 200m free.

I don’t ship them, but they are exceedingly adorable together... or at least they were. You don’t see Haru being kind to random people that often, so it was sweet. I also enjoyed the fact that Haru had a full on conversation with Albert while Albert spoke English and Haru spoke Japanese. It was pretty funny considering Haru had such a difficult time in Australia. Anime logic. I don’t know how to sum this up, but I will say that I want to see them together again outside of competition. That being said, I do also love the fact that Albert makes Haru super competitive and motivated. This ship, like many of the others on this list, interests me a lot. If Albert the cinnamon roll can make Haru act like a cinnamon roll, then give me all the Albert and Haru you’ve got. I’m ready.

Rin and Ikuya (IkuRin)

This ship, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t exist. I’m basically making it up right now because I anticipate that there will be some interest in it as soon as Rin and Ikuya meet. There’s a lot of similarities between these two, and that will most likely be the reason that people will ship them. Both of them admired Haru’s swimming, and both of them had a falling out with Haru that was only solved once they swam with each other again. Both Ikuya and Rin want to stand on the international stage, as well. As of now, Rin has been warned by Sousuke about Ikuya’s swimming-- essentially telling Rin that Ikuya swims like Haru and will be formidable opponent. Also as of now, Ikuya has heard quite a bit about Rin, and even seemed a little jealous of his strong relationship and rivalry with Haru.

I’m not going to ship them seriously, but I am still so down for this ship because I want to see them interact so badly. My prediction is that Rin is going to accept Ikuya readily, though he’ll be wary of him as a competitor, and Ikuya will have a difficult time being friends with Rin because of his slight jealousy of him, similar to how Rei felt about Rin. I’m so ready for them to meet. Give it to me.

Well, did you make it? I know this was a lot, or at least, it feels like it. Let me know what you think of the ships I mentioned and if you ship anyone else in this series. What do you think of Ikuya and Rin? Will they be fast friends or wary rivals? Who do you ship seriously? Do you have any NOTPs? Tell me it all! Thank you for reading and see you soon!

[rinistop]

IF YOU LOVE SOMETHING, SET IT FREE - PART 5

Summary: With Rin leaving for Australia once again, Rin and Sousuke spend their last night together making memories. But all actions have consequences. Written for the Free Kink!meme

Rating: M

Contains: A/B/O, mating, knotting, mpreg, Alpha!Rin, Omega!Sousuke

He ended up with a little less time off than he'd previously thought and spent most of it in Iwatobi with Gou and his mother, feeling guilty that he hadn't done so much before, and dropped in on his underclassmen at Samezuka who were excited about his progress. A whole day was prioritised for Nagisa and Rei as well. He gave himself three days in Tokyo and met Haru and Makoto first. He saw Haru a lot in swim meets and competitions anyway, racing each other more often than not; and they had a group chat that they keep in regular contact with, but he hadn't seen Makoto since the end of school and he missed that sincere and unassuming presence.

Tokyo had been good to Makoto, who had never given himself enough credit for his own strength and ability. But it seemed he'd come to some sort of acceptance of himself, seemed more confident than the last time Rin had seen him and it made him happy to see that.

He met Kisumi next, in a teaming student hang-out that took him an embarrassingly long time to find. Kisumi steered him to the bar immediately, waving away his apologies for being late with a teasing, "Well, I was beginning to think you were standing me up, since you're usually so punctual - but you made it, after all! Now I don't have to go home and nurse a broken heart!"

Rin huffed a laugh, sheepish. "Yeah, well, I may have wandered the wrong way from the station - Tokyo can be kind of confusing and the map on my phone took a while to figure it out."

"Ha! Tell me about it - I spent my first month here glued to my map and only just made it in time for half my lectures. At the risk of sounding like a country bumpkin - coming from Iwatobi, the city can be really…distracting." He waved down someone behind the bar who he seemed to know well enough that he could ask for two sodas with minimal communication.

"Ugh, so distracting - the smell of food is the worst. I really miss Japanese food and everything around here smells like home. They have us on a really strict diet and it's fine most of the time, but sometimes I just crave other food. Nutritionally useless starchy carb food." Rin smacked some notes down on the counter before there could be any quibble over it and Kisumi rolled his eyes at him, but let him pay with a shrug.

"I think I know what you're talking about - Makoto is always complaining to me that Haru is always complaining to him about the strict diet. And every time he does it, I start craving the biggest bowl of ramen - but I've only given in three times, so far! How's that for self control?!"

Rin laughed and looked at him thoughtfully, turning to lean against the bar-top. "Do you meet up with Makoto often then? We try to vid-call every so often, but I have to admit I haven't been that great with that lately."

Kisumi looked uncharacteristically serious then, eyes seeming a little faraway. "Well, it's just…we used to be such good friends, you know. And then with you moving away and us all going to different schools, we all lost touch. But - it's going to sound kind of stupid saying it out loud," he smiled a little bashfully, "it kind of felt like a second chance I shouldn't waste when we ran into each other again, Makoto being my little brother's swimming coach and then the summer fair with you guys. So I try to make it a point to meet up."

And that was something Rin could understand very well - a lesson he'd learned the hard way after all. It was with a wry smile that he agreed, "Yeah, I know that feeling. It doesn't sound stupid at all."

In the ensuing silence he could feel Kisumi's eyes on him, appraising, and braced himself for what he knew was coming.

"You know…I see Sousuke a lot too."

And there it was. But in a roundabout way, Rin had been hoping Kisumi would broach the subject first, because he still felt…conflicted was probably the simplest way to put it. He pulled his backpack around to unzip it and reach inside. It also meant he didn't have to look at Kisumi's face.

"Hey, uh, when you go see him next - would you give him something from me? It's nothing big, just-"

Kisumi's hand over his stopped Rin from pulling his package out. When he looked up, Kisumi's eyes were endlessly kind.

"I'm going to see him tomorrow to drop off some books for entrance exam prep. Come with me." He must have seen the indecision on Rin's face, because he carried on. "You're still friends, right? I don't know what happened between you two, but I know he's missed you."

His fingers clenched once around the package, crinkling the wrapping a little before he let it go and pulled his hand out of his bag.

"Yeah. Yeah, ok."

--

It wasn't that Rin was unfamiliar with nervousness necessarily, but standing outside the blue front door of Sousuke's home while Kisumi rang the bell had him shuffling awkwardly wondering what he would do when it opened. Their last conversation hadn't exactly left them on the best of terms and they hadn't spoken since. And he'd been mean, which bothered him the most.

He stiffened at the sound of movement from within, the click of the latch an anxious sound to his ears. And then the door opened and that achingly familiar face was revealed, blue eyes widening at the sight of him, and Rin could feel all the thoughts in his head scattering like dust in the wind because. Somehow. Rin always seemed to forget how much the sight of him felt like home.

"Hey."

It wasn't until Kisumi cleared his throat, somewhat awkwardly, that Rin realised they'd been staring: drinking in the sight of each other after months of silence. His eyes dropped then, taking in the curve of Sousuke's belly that made his state obvious. And suddenly it felt painful, a lurch in his chest that Rin swallowed down as Sousuke moved to let them in.

"Uh, sorry, the place is kind of a mess. I've been studying is all so…." Sousuke led them into a cosy living room, couches turned inward toward a coffee table that was littered with textbooks and sheets of notes in his familiar chicken-scratch scrawl. It made Rin think of their dorm, of homework after a long training session with mellow music to accompany the scratch of their pens and their own murmured talk. God, why did that hurt?

Beside him, Kisumi was seated and making himself comfortable, so Rin sat too. When Sousuke took a seat across from him, he found his eyes repeatedly drawn to the bump, involuntarily, and try as he might, words escaped him. He was grateful when Kisumi filled the silence, placing some textbooks on the already full table and cheerfully warning Sousuke of his upcoming trials and which components of the entrance exams he'd found particularly difficult, with grumbles about the pointlessness of some of it in return.

It gave Rin time to compose himself a little before he could start contributing to the conversation, chatting about anything and everything  until there was a comfortable lull. Sousuke excuses himself to use the bathroom and wanders further into the building, shuffling through the kitchen to put the kettle on to boil on his way through.

"He's really having a baby." Rin said it with mild surprise, not sure what his surprise was for. "It's really…."

"Hm?" Kisumi turned, with questioning eyes.

"I couldn't imagine having a baby now, you know? I feel way too young. And to tell the truth, it kind of scares me to think about. But Sousuke's going to have a kid - a few months and he's going to be a parent. That's a whole different level and I've got to admit I've been struggling to process it. I didn't even know he wanted that."

"Yeah…I guess I know what you mean. All of that seems a little far off to get to, yeah? Strange to see someone our age jump up the ladder so much already. But I think Sousuke can do it, even it's hard to study and raise a kid at the same time."

"Oh, definitely. Nobody works as hard as Sousuke when he's set his mind on something and he wants to succeed. He'll do great whatever he decides on, I know that. Must be one hell of a guy, though."

"Huhh?"

"Have you met him?"

"Have I met who?"

Sousuke came back in then, holding a carefully balanced tray of drinks and snacks and a look on his face that suggested he was trying to be nonchalant about the fact that he hadn't brought them sooner. He'd never been that good at following ettiquette, but more out of carelessness than because he was rude. He set the tray down, asking, "What are you talking about?"

"I was just wondering - do I get to meet the lucky guy you've chosen to be with? Is he here?" They were best friends, after all - introducing your boyfriend to your best friend was as important as having them meeting your parents, right?

"Uh…no. He's at university at Kyoto still." Sousuke didn't seem to want to look at him, perhaps feeling awkward about the subject.

"Oh. What's his name - you never told me." Rin couldn't help but press. He knew absolutely nothing about the man he'd lost to. And he needed to make it not-awkward.

"Ah, I didn't, did I? His name is Watanabe Ryuu. He was my senior on the swim team - had the smoothest breaststroke I'd ever seen - and he really looked after me when I hurt my shoulder. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time."

He looked a little lost at that, in remembering something painful, and that wasn't what Rin was trying to do. So he left it there. Where before they might have known exactly how to work around the edges of each other's sensitivities (or bulldoze over them, as the case may be), now he wasn't sure what was acceptable. That night had changed their dynamic and then his news had changed it again and Rin felt cautious now. So he turned to rummage in his bag and pull out a slightly awkwardly, but neatly, wrapped package, which he pushed into Sousuke's hands.

"I, uh, didn't know how much stuff you needed or what you already have, so I got you something - it's nothing much. Lori helped me pick it out…."

Russell and Lori were the only ones he'd told about Sousuke. They'd figured out he was upset about something when he'd cancelled on their weekly dinner and insisted, in that gentle but firm way they had, that whatever it was gave no worth to avoiding them. They hadn't pressed him on it though, just waited. He'd been feeling hurt and angry and confused about why he felt that way and also that he had no right to feel that way at all. Without talking to them, he wasn't sure he would have found his way out of that confusing mire of emotion for a while yet. But it had been Russell, straightforward as always, who had reminded him that, at the core of it all, he still cared deeply about Sousuke and didn't want to stop being friends.

Sousuke was careful opening the package, peeling back the tape to reveal the bundle inside: a little hooded towel with an embroidered kangaroo face on the crest and a little quilted cloth toy in the shape of a koala. He picked it up with soft hands, gingerly running his fingers over the soft cloth. His head was down, but his voice was full of something Rin couldn't quite figure out when he spoke.

"Oh, this is really…it means a lot. Thanks, Rin. I'll use it in the hospital."

Which meant it would be the first thing the baby would ever use. And that was one hell of an honour. Rin felt something in him loosen then - like an assurance of…something. Not something he could figure out then and there, but it was bittersweet and comforting all at once. Perhaps a realisation that they held a special place in each other's heart that wasn't capable of being replaced - which was kind of a kicker, if you thought about it, really. But there was not point dwelling on that now, when there was nothing to do about it.

Whatever their relationship was now, they would work it out.

---

When Rin left a little while later, Sousuke thought he could honestly say he felt like a wrung out dishcloth.  Emotionally, anyway. He'd had to work hard to keep them under control  around Rin, especially when he'd seen the present he'd given. He sagged into the sofa as soon as he'd closed the door, rubbing his hands over his face as he leaned back into the cushions.

"Soooo…Watanabe Ryuu, huh?"

Shit. He forgot that Kisumi was still there, and that he didn't know either. But there was no way he knew who he was talking about. He rolled his head away and bit his lip. "Uh, yeah."

"Does this Watanabe Ryuu happen to have a younger sister - about our age, really tall, voleyball player, named Riko?"

That was strangely specific and also eerily on the mark. Which meant nothing good for Sousuke. He turned to look at Kisumi, sitting a little straighter, mind whirring as he tried to figure out what to say. For his part, Kisumi only stared guilelessly back.

"We're on the same course and we've become pretty good friends." He shrugged, something in the quirk of his lips that Sousuke would poke at later. "And she hasn't said anything about becoming an Aunty, though admittedly it wouldn't be any of my business to tell it to, but…. It's not Watanabe Ryuu, is it?"

Sousuke could only stare at him, lips pressed tight, caught in his lie. Kisumi was smart enough to put the pieces together by himself, and it was looking like he already had.

Kisumi took a deep breath. "It's Rin's, isn't it? And he doesn't know."

"Don't tell him." He clenched his jaw, stubborn, waiting for Kisumi to tell him all the reasons why he should.

"No, I guess I understand why you haven’t told him." Kisumi sounded thoughtful as he said, but the words knocked the wind out Sousuke's sails easily. Just like that, all the fight drained out of him. "It's kind of a sucky situation, though, huh?"

"…Yeah," Sousuke sagged back against the couch once more, head hanging over the back. "But. I don't know…."

"Hey, you know, I had my suspicions for a while, but when you said Ryuu, it just confirmed it. Does he know you're telling people he's the father of your child?"

"No. I don't tell anyone anything about it, if I can help it. Maybe I should just tell everyone it's you from now on."

"Ha! That'd be hilarious. But I'm here for you, ok? If you need a buffer, I'll be it." He rocked sideways to nudge Sousuke with his shoulder, trying to shake the melancholy look off Sousuke's face. But there was something wistful and distant there, that seemed to have caught him.

"Kind of wish it was you, right now. It'd be easier." The words were quietly spoken, a little sad and defeated.

"Sousuke…shall I take that as a love confession?"

And that seemed to have done the trick, his voice deliberately light and teasing to get the reaction he wanted out of Sousuke. Wide eyes, laughter.

"Pfft, you wish!"

---------

I just realised I only posted this on AO3 and not here, so I am rectifying that - I hate an incomplete archive! 

[macbetha]

hi all! i’m so excited to share the playlist for chasing the dragon, the sequel to my first free! fanfic, eyes wide open all the time. as usual, these songs are what i use when writing each specific character / couple and i’ve highlighted some lyrics that might give you some pre-insight to the state of certain characters / gangs. you’ll notice there’s still a continuing theme of eyes and seeing that can change for each character given the context of their song. please let me know whatever theories you come up with, i’m very interested! 

G E N E R A L   T H E M E S

the prologue by halsey from ancient grudge break to new mutiny  our toil shall strive to mend

way down we go by kaleo oh, father tell me do we get what we deserve? and way down we go do you dare to look them right in the eye? ‘cause they will run you down, down to the dark yeah, son they will run you down down til you fall and they will run you down down to your core til you can’t crawl no more and way down we go

again by flyleaf i love the way that your heart breaks with every injustice and deadly fate praying it all will be new living like it all depends on you here you are down on your knees again trying to find air to breathe again right where i want you to be again

everybody wants to rule world by lorde welcome to your life there’s no turning back help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure nothing ever lasts forever

this is america by wunderworld

F R E E B I R D

we carry on by the phantoms this fire won’t go out though just a flicker it may be shifting through the shadows to a vision we can’t see clinging to this dying breath holding on for a fighting chance hold fast to one another we will stand to one another we will stand stranger to brother we are one we carry on

fools by emi all this money won’t make me switch up on crew we all dying, til then i’m riding with you

D I A M O N D  B A C K

copycat by billie eilish you got your finger on the trigger but your trigger finger’s mine silver dollar, golden flame dirty water, poison rings perfect murder, take your aim everybody knows my name

H O N E Y B L A D E

sixteen shots by stefflon don  they gon' put hands on a chick? eyes watchin' when I comin' through the door what i'mma do, they ain't prepared for no boy can tell me 'bout my mother round here and safe everybody need ammo if you hear that da-da-da-don bullets gon' hit you wherever you are

R O U G H  R A B B I T

railroad track by willy moon come along with me i’ll take you to a place you never did see yeah said i’mma go down to the railroad track and we ain’t comin’ back, no i ain’t comin’ back no more

B L O O D H O U N D 

wolf by skott please do not give up on us i’m a wolf howlin’ on your door step callin’ out

?????????

ready aim fire by imagine dragons off in the distance there is resistance  bubbling up and festering blood in the writing, stuck in the fighting look through the rifle’s sight how come i never seen your face ‘round here? i know every single face round here here in the heckle, holding the shackle  i was never welcome here

heaven knows by the pretty reckless won’t be pretty, won’t be sweet, just sitting there on their feet if you listen close you can hear them cry oh lord, heaven knows we belong way down below

haru tachibana

my sweet prince by placebo me and the dragon  can take all the pain away my sweet prince you are the one

popular by emi fuck surveillance please just close your cases i’m about to make it and rub it in yall faces they know i got birdies they want me in cages stay off my line baby, you know that shit’s tapped on the move, yeah i always got a pack serve it, i still know my purpose trust me i ain’t worth it you don’t got my prints, oh i got my hands so dirty

makoto tachibana

devil’s backbone by the civil wars oh lord, oh lord what do i do i’ve fallen for someone who’s nothing like you he’s raised on the edge of the devil’s backbone i just want to take him home oh lord, oh lord what have i done i’ve fallen in love with a man on the run there wasn’t a right or wrong he could choose he did what he had to do don’t care if he’s guilty, don’t care if he’s not he’s good and he’s bad and he’s all that i got oh lord, oh lord i’m begging you please don’t take that sinner from me 

solider, poet, king by the oh hellos there will come a solider who carries a mighty sword he will tear this city down oh lay, oh lie, oh lord there will come a poet whose weapon is his word he will slay you with his tongue oh lay, oh lie, oh lord

rin yamazaki

promises by jhene aiko i been comin’ home late night i been sleepin’ past day light baby, that ain’t right i don’t think i can make it then i hear you say that i better not do nothing crazy nami really needs you and i would never leave you  everything i do is for you and i really do adore you everything is all right, everything is in your mind if anything should happen, cause anything could know that you’ll be all right  promise i’ll be, promise you’ll be, promise we’ll be all right

better by banks why are you so afraid?  i can see you waiting, waiting, waiting withering away i can see you dying, dying, dead, dying how couldn’t you see? all the water’s cold, cold, cold and why, don’t you see? baby, try try to see me

sousuke yamazaki

fire by barns country  lonely shadows following me lonely voices talking to me a thousand times i’ve fallen my mother told me, “son let it be.” sold my soul to a sweet melody

soldier by fleurie soldier, keep on marching on head down til the work is done head in the dust, feet in the fire labor on that midnight wire listening for that angel choir you got nowhere to run you wanna take a drink of that promised land? you gotta wipe the dirt off of your hands careful son, you got dreamer’s plans but it gets hard to stand

gou matsuoka

love club by lorde i’m in a clique but now i want out i was in but i want out there are fights for being my best friend and the girls get their claws out there’s something about hanging out with the wicked kids i’m sitting pretty on the throne there’s nothing more i want except to be alone the love is choking me what about the kid? it’s time the kid got free

stay by zedd and alessia cara (acoustic) make it on your own but we don’t have to grow up we can stay forever young

isuzu mikoshiba

bad friends by emi lil aries with an attitude men always put her in a bad mood bad libra with the gold tan she like an angel with the snow man yeah i got some bad friends no you cannot have them they wanna doubt her, let her show them if you wanna talk to them you talk to me, yeah we don’t keep no company we do not need, yeah we don’t fuck around with just anybody, yeah

hiyori tono

you should see me in a crown by billie eilish bite my tongue, bide my time wearing a warning sign wait til the world is mine visions are vandalized cold on my kingdom side fell for these ocean eyes  count my cards, watch them fall blood on a marble wall you should see me in a crown i’m gonna run this nothing town

ikuya kirishima

waiting game by banks baby, i’m thinking it over what if the way we started made it something cursed from the start what if it only gets colder would you still wrap me up and tell me that you think this was smart? cause lately i been scared of even thinking ‘bout what we are i was in love but i don’t wanna cause any pain and if i’m feeling like we’re evil we got nothing to gain

asahi shiina

smile by mikky ekko we’re trying so hard to get it all right i wanna be somewhere somewhere just a little closer to grace when i’m quiet i can nearly hear him say: smile, the worst is yet to come we’ll be lucky if we ever see the sun got nowhere to go, we could be here for a while but the future is forgiven, so smile

miho amakata

i want to be evil by eartha kitt i’m tired of being pure and chaste  i want to be evil i want to spit tacks and cheat at jacks i wanna be nasty and tell lies i wanna be mean and i wanna be bad

nii satomi

the lament of eustace scrubb by the oh hellos brother, forgive me we both know i’m the one to blame cause when i saw my demons i knew them well and welcomed them father, have mercy i know that i have gone astray  cause when i saw my reflection it was a stranger beneath my face when i touched the water they tell me i could be set free

yazaki aki-mikoshiba

i got you by ciara  hush little baby, don’t you cry momma’s gonna love you all your life and if you ever need a friend momma’s right there til the very end if you’re feeling down or weak momma’s got the strength you need there’s nothing in the world that i wouldn’t do cause i love you

natsuya + nao

the golden floor by snow patrol tell me that you want to dance i wanna feel your pulse on mine just treat me like a stolen glance dark shape on a golden floor a sleeping planet with a molten core i’m a peasant in your princess arms penniless with only charm

kinjou

game of survival by ruelle who’s in the shadows who’s ready to play are we the hunters or are we the prey this is a wild game of survival

ayumu: breakaway by kelly clarkson

shizuru: generation why by conan grey

romio: jordan belfort by weswalker

haru + makoto

compass by zella day if we make it out alive compass point you anywhere closer to me where you are, i will be anywhere in between miles high in the sea

the good side by troye sivan i’ve got the good side of things left you with both of the rings i’ve got the good side of you sent it out into the blue the people danced, the sound of your heart the world sang along to it falling apart

i found by amber fun and i’ll use you as a warning sign i’ll use you as a focal point so i don’t lose sight of what i want  i’ll lose you as a makeshift gate of how much to give and how much to take and i’ve fell farther than i thought i could but i missed you more than i thought you would i found love where it wasn’t supposed to be right in front of me talk some sense to me

sousuke + rin

if it hadn’t been for love by the steeldrivers never would have run through the blinding rain  without one dollar to my name if it hadn’t been for love never would have seen the trouble that i’m in i wouldn’t be free if it hadn’t been for love four cold walls without parole lord have mercy on my soul

↳ namiko: boats & birds by gregory and the hawk if you’ll be my star, i’ll be your sky you can hide underneath me and come out at night when i turn jet black and you show off your light i live to let you shine ebbing and flowing and pushed by the breeze i live to make you free but you can sky rocket away from me and never come back if you find another galaxy far from here, with more room to fly just leave me your stardust to remember you by

hiyori + ikuya

loyal by 6lack i been studying you ever since we locked eyes even knew your favorite pie, said that it was key lime i don’t want this kind of life, so can you please get it right why you keep lyin’ why the fuck you keep lyin? i know i been loyal, baby showed you how to ball like a hoya, baby see them talkin’ i’m like so what have you walkin’ through the fucking party with your nose up i treat you like you royal, royal, royal tell the truth, don’t you soil, soil, soil i can tell cause i know you, know you

sunflower by swae lee thinking in a bad way, loosing your grip screaming at my face, baby don’t trip some things you just can’t refuse ride my like a cruise and i’m not trying to lose you’re the sunflower i think your love would be too much

isuzu + gou

crush by tessa violet  you make it difficult to not overthink and when i’m with you i turn all shades of pink i wanna touch you but don’t wanna be weird but i could be your crush throw you for a rush 

[truehimbo]

Why Hiyori is a bad/toxic friend

It's pretty obvious that Hiyori is kinda toxic for cutting off Ikuya from seeing Haruka, Makoto and Asahi, making decisions for him and keeping secrets (meeting Haru and the others, his race against Makoto)

but let's look at the biggest argument Hiyori uses to keep them apart: Ikuya's career.

In a way, Hiyori and Ikuya are a bit like Sousuke and Rin, just in reversed roles - reversed roles how? Well, Sousuke and Hiyori are both the protective friends, while Rin and Ikuya are the ones being protected. The difference is that Sousuke, the protector, is the one with harm: his shoulder injury from overworking himself.

On the contrary, Ikuya, the protected, is the one who almost drowned twice from overworking himself.

Though the relationship concept of SouRin and HyoIku is similar, SouRin actually had a healthy friendship. Sousuke respected Rin's boundaries and saw him as equal.

Meanwhile Hiyori keeps an obssessive watch over Ikuya, controlling the things happening around him, putting on a fake smile. Hiyori sees Ikuya as someone weak who needs his protection. Need proof? He literally says "Ikuya is very fragile" as an excuse for his own actions in Episode 4.

Now that's already a big difference in balance of friendships but the biggest and most striking one is by far... how this problem of overworking is handled.

When Sousuke overworked himself to the point his shoulder got more and more injured, Rin was worried, shocked, even cried, wanting Sousuke to be honest with him, wanting Souske to !stop!

And then we have Hiyori, who even seems to take a sense of pride in Ikuya's determination. It's obvious that Ikuya is way into swimming, way into becoming the best. Sousuke's injury only affected his shoulder & ability to swim, meanwhile Ikuya's LIFE was in danger TWICE because he almost drowned of exhaustion. What would you do if your best friend overworked themselves so hard they almost died? Definitely you wouldn't want them to keep going with that. But Hiyori wants Ikuya to keep swimming, he keeps talking about training, about how good Ikuya is, pushing him further and pushing Haruka and the others away by saying Ikuya has to train, Ikuya is working hard, he's training even on days off, on and on.

And he nonchalantly tells them that Ikuya almost drowned a second time, spending weeks in the hospital, saying "it made him stronger", even though we as viewers can see that Ikuya is still traumatized and pushes himself to his limits.

And Hiyori, his best friend, doesn't see it or maybe just doesn't want to see it, pushing Ikuya on and on. He's not helping him in the slightest.

(To be fair-- neither does Natsuya. I love Natsuya but I'm pretty disappointed in how he also doesn't realize how much Ikuya is pushing himself, after he almost drowned twice. If that happened to my little brother, I'd send him back home to our parents.)

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Actually for me it's pretty weird that the most popular ship in Free! is Makoharu. I mean, they give me like zero romantic vibes, if not Rinharu I would've definitely shipped Sourin. It's the main reason I hated Sousuke when I watched 2nd season for the first time - I saw him as a threat for Rinharu (now I just don't like him that much, but I decided to let Rin has his best friend, lol). Maybe it's just me loving rivals to lovers :)

Well.. for me Free! was never that kind of anime where there are other ships, but honestly after several years of watching anime and lately discovering that people ship Wei Wuxian with Jiang Cheng I kinda lost my faith in people lol And yes, I also truly don’t get those ships, where there are zero romantic vibes, but I got used to seeing this already.

I think I’ve talked about Makoharu only once, I usually don’t do it cause as a ship it’s so illogical to me that I just don’t see the point of wasting time on this lol I feel like it’s gonna be long answer so I’ll split it and after “***” I’ll talk about my bro-rinharu-shipper Sousuke.

I’m not gonna throw a debate if it’s the most popular ship or not, but I just want to say that I don’t think that it's really called shipping Makoto and Haru, since firstly, let’s talk about Makoto as a character (which is the main problem in this whole thing tbh) cause from what I saw the Makoto the MH fandom created has nothing to do with the real Makoto. Like the dude is scared of dogs, ghosts, bees, water and I forgot what else; covers his eyes when he sees anyone even in swim trunks and gets embarrassed easier than a nun (apparently you can’t even unbutton the collar of your freaking jacket!!!!!!!!!!! oh lord!!!!!!); crumbles under everyone in this anime including Hiyori and can’t even talk back. 

And suddenly like half of this fandom thinks that Makoto is a dominant top apparently. We seriously laughed our asses off seeing that, I mean even my mom (who’s a teacher btw). I’m like... I have a sister who’s majored in psychology and I myself in literature (like I seriously promise we ain’t stupid) and we just seriously don’t understand.. In what Tarzan’s ass does he suit this description? Dude can’t even answer properly while being offended. Like maybe they like Makoto’s twin brother? Because real Makoto does not have any dangerous dark side, seriously, this ain’t “8 dogs of the east” lmao.

I appreciate their friendship at times, but I never was a fan of him, because I don’t really like people who treat everyone equally (friends and strangers) and think that some asshole deserves as much love as the closest friend. I just don’t understand this life position and don’t like those “world peace” guys anyway. I mean, that fish died moment in the books was when my brain died honestly. Like I get it, dude is sensitive, but... seriously?

And for me being kind is not really a personality. I mean, hell, sometimes it’s no good to be kind. There is a fine line between being kind and being a mop you know.

And sometimes his behavior is really cringy to me. Like during the funeral and during Haru passing out in the book and during many things that are very serious. I just don’t think he’s the person you can rely on at times. I mean at first I thought he’s a steady shoulder, but somehow in all serious situations he doesn’t do anything useful.

Like I might be in the minority here, but to me when you know very well that you panic in the ocean you don’t go there trying to save somebody, it’s not brave, it’s just plain stupid (like it’s not like the tent was far, it was fucking next to him, all he had to do is wake up a pro) so by the end we had to rescue two instead of one, just because he’s dumb af.

He also panics a lot which I really hate on people. I’m sorry but like panicking ppl are the only worst. It reminds me of one of my life situation when my sister was badly hurt and we needed to keep our heads cool to act quickly and do what was necessary asap. And I’ve seen ppl behave like Makoto in situations like this and man it’s seriously no fun, it’s annoying. Like when you need to help somebody and someone panics beside you it pisses you off. And he does it even in little things like when he yelled Haru in the ear while driving JUST BECAUSE A CAR IN FRONT OF THEM BRAKED I mean omfg I would seriously yell “shut the fuck up, you pussy!”

And it all honestly keeps getting worse and worse like the way he’s written, his behavior just buffles me so much. Makoto in s3 just murdered me tbh. Like he didn’t help with anything, he didn’t bring anything to the plot, you can just erase him, he only sat there anyways. And the way they pulled his “dream” out of his ass was just a second-hand embarrassment tbh. And he’s not even Haru’s emotional support anymore. He’s just... I don’t get it. There were literally scenes where he was third-wheeling or just forced into that looked laughable. 

Which brings me to the second point. From what I saw many of Makoharu fans are mostly Makoto fans, so they just want what’s good for him, and since he has no life goals whatsoever (like after he dropped his “I dream of making children like swimming” thingy like a hot potato and was like “training children.. but look at Rin and Haru” I really lost my last marbles watching him) they apparently don’t care for what Haru’s dream is and that he said openly that he wants a future with Rin.

Like I get that everyone has their tastes, but like what.. two people who are crazy about each other since twelve and blossomed a dream of having a future together and the thought of being with each other got them through and they finally have what they wanted.. this is not a trend anymore? Mutual romantic love is not a trend anymore? Like I even without novelization can see that (and I quote Rin word for word here) that “every time he sees Haru his heart beats so fast he can’t calm down” and quote “Haru sees Rin and he’s shaking, he closes his eyes desperately trying get rid of the image, but the pain in his chest doesn’t go away”.

I am personally very happy that Rinharu are finally together and will be doing what they wanted in their life by each other’s side, cause they’ve been dreaming about it for too long, they’ve been thinking about it for  years. So not wanting them to have that is very weird for me. And the argument that Makoto somehow better than Rin for Haru is so invalid, I always laugh. I guess it depends on what you want for yourself. But honestly like you guys better find someone who make you want to reach for the stars and make you heart skip a bit everytime you see him.

So I as a huge fan of Haru want my boy to fly and now I have all the canon proof for those who were blind that Rin is the only one (been said) who makes him feel that way. So all those anons who kept writing to me how relay with Sosuke, with Rei and what baffled me the most swimming with Ikuya was just as emotional for them can finally shut it (lmao I’m sorry).

***

Now... Sousuke, my bro, the first Rinharu shipper on the village who helped them to get together is a threat? Okay. Well, I actually like s2, there are some dumb episodes but s2 actually to me showed how rinharu relationships are different from anyone else. There are literally two whole episodes and several scenes of how the bROMANCE prevails over BROmance.

Sousuke and Rin have typical brothers relationship. From their secret handshakes “parent trap” style to the fact that they draw them exactly the same with his real brother. I mean I don’t know if anyone noticed, but in 3x11 they drew Sousuke doing the exact same teasing move with Rin, that his older brother did to him in 3x01, and it’s definitely not a coincidence. Which means he treats him like his little bro, and not just that. I have lots of proof.

You know, I had a friend back at university who had an older brother who she was very close with and she kept telling me about how he kept testing her boyfriends if they’re good enough... I mean Sousuke was doing it with Haru since Rin has told him that he has found his one and only. And it never ever looked like he was possessive of Rin and was like “he’s mine”, it was always like “he’s yours so make sure you make him happy you loser”, he even stalked Haru to see if he still swims alright which is really funny (like okay dad), so by the end of the season when Rin lovingly looks at Haru and says it was all worth it, Sousuke looks very content like he was sure that they’re all good now.

And that moment like in Yakusoku where Rin dropped Sousuke as soon as he saw Haru, I honestly don’t think it’s the kind of jealousy people think it is. It’s like if I asked my sister “do u want to see the new avengers movie” and she’d answer “sorry, I already promised to go with my boyfriend” (not that this would ever happen, but let’s imagine that she found herself her nanase) I would be fucking upset too, but I would kinda get it (if it’s a love of her life I mean). Or like literally imagine you lived with your best friend for years and suddenly she wants to move in with he boo. I mean it happens sometimes. But it’s not the jealousy really, he’s just sad because he knows that he needs to let Rin go and he won’t spend as much time with him as he did before. Sousuke knows how much Rin loves Haru, plus after he saw that Haru is as good as Rin told him, he started to like him himself so he was worried about both of them. 

And I love Sousuke, he’s our godmother. I’d rather have him on the international team than Ikuya but he sadly he doesn’t swim breaststroke or back and we only have one butterfly and one freestyle spot xD

I’m sincerely saying as a person with two siblings that I really don’t see it. It’s just there’s a huge difference between brothers and lovers. And you can’t call Harurin bros. It’s just laughable. Even if you haven’t read anything and just watched the anime.

I mean I think it’s easier to see if you try to imagine Haru in Sousuke’s place in any Sourin scene and see how it would’ve went then. Like do you remember when Sousuke asked for cola and Rin went to get one and there was only one can left so they rock-paper-scissored it and Rin won and drank it?

Now imagine if Haru was there in Sousuke’s place. I can tell you 100% that Rin would’ve just given him the can. And then he would’ve looked at him with that face he makes when he’s content just by watching Haru eat, you know.

I mean it just how I see it. And there are a lot of comparable scenes in s2 that bring me lots of evil joy, but I won’t tell lmao.

But as I said before to me there’s a huge difference between bromances and bromances. So I mostly don’t get most of these ships. I don’t understand anything in this world apparently lol but I only see Rinharu since the first time I’ve watched it, and then I’ve read everything and realized that I’m right, so I’m ok with all this xD 

[caffernnn]

For that character thing: Hiyori & Rin 😈

Ah, the two Aquarius tragedies (same). Let’s gooooooo

Hiyori

Why I like them: even if his initial dynamic with Ikuya isn’t wholly healthy (I could write a whole essay dunking on Nat for that one oh my gOD-), he still tries to look out for him and I respect the motivation behind his choices. Also, he’s blissfully chaotic, and I dig that domestic supervillain vibe

Why I don’t: okay so I ~understand~ that there are complex reasons behind how he is super protective of Ikuya and stuff, but when this boy runs his mouth sometimes like he did with saying Haru hurts everyone he swims with, I wonder how nobody has just SWUNG on him yet

Favorite episode (scene if movie): slide scene slide scene!! The confidence he has in that scene is close to a JD from Heathers vibe where the twisted dedication is PALPABLE. I’m here for it. 

Favorite season/movie: Is it a cop-out to say I’m just excited to see more of him, hopefully in the upcoming movie? I want more of him, especially now that he’s had considerable character growth and is on the up-and-up. 

Favorite line: “I bet your smile was that kid's salvation. You were a hero to him, Ikuya “

Favorite outfit: Glasses always. We don’t have all that much to choose from but purple looks good on him! (picture attached below)

OTP: HiyoIku

brOTP: I think he’d vibe with Kisumi or Sousuke (I just like him having friends tbh)

Head Canon: He vehemently hated the idea of being “ordinary” after Ikuya fixated on it for a while and has made many questionable decisions because of it, like trying out bright blue circle-framed glasses and publicly stating that Kevin was his favorite Jonas Brother

Unpopular opinion: he is the meta voice we all need, calling out the entire series for the utter glorification/fixation on Haru. Can’t they all just SWIM for like 5 MINUTES without having a Haru-related revelation or crisis? 

A wish: Hiyori finds inner peace so that he can enjoy being by Ikuya’s side without feeling totally responsible for his wellbeing

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Ikuya pushing him away now that he is reconnecting with the other guys and/or Hiyori regressing and caving in on himself :-( LET HIYORI HAVE FRIENDS

5 words to best describe them: gay tragedy, poked bear, mystifying

My nickname for them: don’t have one, but I have a hc that he calls Ikuya “cupcake” to annoy him and Ikuya calls him “specs” in return 

Rin

Why I like them: the embodiment of passion. Even when he tries to act differently, Rin feels things so intensely and it is amazing to see how he grows throughout the series. He is exhausting in the best ways and I know his dad would be so proud of him!! I love that he’s grown into such a leader.

Why I don’t: Rin is such an intense disaster bi and I KNOW I would lose my mind being around him for too long. Season One Rin is a whole different breed. Like yeah I ~understand~ his behavior and I want to hug him at various points throughout the show, but dANG dude. 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): There are a lot tbh. I’ll always have a soft spot for the end of S1 relay. Seeing him in Australia with Haru? Impeccable. I think my top moment is with him and Sousuke in S3E10. I just rewatched it to get a screengrab for a later question and when I tell you I sobbed with Rin when he was talking with Sou about his shoulder !!!

Favorite season/movie: He is such a mom in Eternal Summer and I respect that. Also, TYM when he goes on that whole adventure with Sou, Momo, and Ai. 

Favorite line: “Back when I was young, and even now, it was because I had friends who saved me, who supported me, that I’ve managed to come this far.”

Favorite outfit: He looks good in everything and knows it. I have a soft spot for him with his hair half up, and don’t get me started on that nice coat he wore when taking Haru to Australia, S3E10 has the BEST outfit (attached below)

OTP: Sourin. I could go on for dayssss

BrOTP: Haru, Makoto, Rei, Kisumi. I think that Rin is such a presence that so many people can connect with him one way or another. I can explain further if you’re curious about a particular relationship ~

Head Canon: Gou gave him a pack of scrunchies as a gag gift once but he now finds them to be way more comfortable than his regular hair ties. He wears them often in the rare spare time he has between training and competitions, and he’s left the house on more than one occasion with one on his wrist. Yeah, it was an accident at first, but he dares anyone to say anything about it to his face when he does it now.

Unpopular opinion: good teeth. next question.

A wish: I hope he really enjoys his time taking on the world and doesn’t get too lost in the grind to the top. I just really want him to be happy.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: he has a disney channel original movie wake-up call and realizes that this was always just his dad’s dream and not his. That, or once he gets to the top, he has a crisis because chasing his Olympic dream was the main thing keeping him tethered to his dad and now he feels like he has to let go :-( 

5 words to best describe them: disaster bi, messy, loving, immense

My nickname for them: shark week, pretty boy, cherry bomb

[marigorbital]

Dumb Ducks in the Water: Part 14

IT’S FINALLY HERE. Three actual years later, but it’s here.

A lot has happened in my life for the past three years and, to make a long excuse short, I was doing a lot of life questioning and dealing with events. And once I got out of my dark cloud, I decided to return to this fic while returning with my own writing projects. So I’m here to finish this fic, though I’m not sure how long it will take (I hope within a year?)--I’m just promising not to go MIA again, is all.

Anyway, some notes on this chapter:

- Listen, I did NOT plan on returning when the 3rd season of Free! came. This is pure coincidence, honestly. That being said, SO MANY THINGS HAVE CHANGED. Side characters have personalities now... Isuzu exists (I’ll have to, at some point, change Yukiko’s name)... People are in college now... Anyway, I want to remind folks that I started this fic in 2014/2015 and I’m trying to stay true to that, so anything that doesn’t match up with the current season is kind of like oh well for me.

- This chapter features tweets. Yeah. I used some website that make them look like they were written in 2009, lol, but we’re just gonna go with it. Also, want to give a shoutout to my best friends, who spent like five hours coming up with the twitter handles.

- Speaking of which, trigger warning possibly: cyber bullying (?) and rumors. Now, I generally try to keep this fic lighthearted, so I am also touching the mentioned subjects in a lighthearted manner for the most part, but I also know that if what happens in this chapter ever happened to me in high school, I would have been mortified. So I tried to respect that and take it a little seriously, which also pertains to the rest of the plot--but this is still Dumb Ducks. No PSAs, just some self-awareness.

- I am a little worried the quality is not up to par with this chapter because it’s been a while and I just wanted to get this chapter over with because I’d rather write other scenes, so I’m super sorry if it’s only sort of funny/cute or too serious. It’ll be better next chapter! (Which hopefully comes out by December?)

Anyway.

Start from the beginning or go to the handy-dandy tag page and pick up where you left off.

Enjoy.

------

It was still Tuesday.

But worse yet, it was time for him to face the swim team.

And to be honest, if you asked Nitori, that was kind of bullshit.

There he stood, observing the pool of sharks in the distance just waiting for him to make a move. A whole lot of damage had been done in the past eight hours since Rin shouted a profound WHAT THE FUCK at Nitori and Momo’s dorm doorway, which immediately stirred up a banana telephone game of epic proportions throughout Samezuka Academy. Pair that with the fact that both of the dimwits were publicly announced to head to the principal’s office together and that something amiss had happened in the cafeteria last night—and boy, oh boy, were the rumors trending the social sphere like something straight out of Nitori’s nightmares. They had gone viral, top of the chart gossip among their peers, who were all too ready to roast the couple into infamy.

It all started with a tweet.

Some rando on the basketball team had overheard Rin catching Nitori and Momotarou getting caught in an explicit position at their dorm, and what with the rumors of Samezuka’s swim team having more tea than a J-drama now stirring, this caught the attention of several bored teenage boys before classes had even started.

The sports news network was simple. Basketball passed the rumors around to get some details. One teammate asked who found out about this and were replied to with the captain caught them. Another asked, which one’s the captain?? And another replied, the guy who cries all the time.

Once the rumors spread over to other sports teams at the academy, the Samezuka Swim Team Thot Conspiracy began. It was the volleyball team who mentioned that both Nitori and Mikoshiba were sent to the principal’s office that same day, as sourced by a classmate in Nitori’s homeroom. A peculiar detail because how did the school find out about what the couple was doing in their bedroom? Did someone rat them out?

Then someone on the tennis team who was also in the culinary club mentioned, I heard they got caught doing shit in the cafeteria.

Cue the controversy.

This made folks on the baseball team wonder just how many times the two had done it and bets were being taken about when the relationship started. Someone on the bicycle team hashtagged the gossip thread as #bombezuka, which set off a flurry of well-intentioned, damage control tweets from students who didn’t want the reputations of Aiichirou Nitori and Momotarou Mikoshiba to get tarnished.

Things like who cares if they’re banging and let them live in PEACE to they’re not gay and who are we even talking about flooded social media circles as the rumor spread outside of Samezuka’s sports clubs and into the general student body. Did things get out of control? Naturally. Details were being made up, people weren’t entirely sure who was involved in the cafeteria fucking, and lavish erotic assumptions about who had the biggest dick energy on the Samezuka swim team were battling it out for all of this side of Japan’s internet to see.

One person assumed the captain (Rin) was angry because he was in a secret love affair with “the silver twink” or something. Another person insisted, Mikoshiba-san has been bragging about being with Nitori-san since last weekend. Another student saw them nuzzling faces on the metro train, claimed they were on a date. Oh, definitely, said another, saw them on the beach making out.

Eventually someone had the nerve to try to confirm some things with the swim team by messaging Toru Iwashimizu, who only responded:

But because Iwashimizu had responded, the #bombezuka thread had popped up on the rest of the swimming team’s Twitter feeds, who righteously had mixed reactions of freaking out to defend their teammates’ honor and freaking out because their suspicions had finally been confirmed.

To no one’s surprise, Nagisa Hazuki caught wind of the frenzy, despite being from another school entirely.

And with Rin Matsuoka’s name mixed in with the rumors, it did not take long before six degrees reached his younger sister Gou, who could not believe what had unfurled throughout the day without any comment by her brother. In a desperate attempt to get him to notice the Twitter storm, she tweeted:

The only silver lining of the tweetastrophe was that at least no one was being inherently meanspirited about the potential lust blossoming between Nitori and Momotarou, which was partially due to the swimming team’s notoriety. On paper, sure, the swim team was the pride and joy of the Samezuka Academy, but that’s not why they were famous among their peers. They were famous because the rest of the school viewed the swim team as a group of guys obsessed with swimming. They did nothing but swim. The whole point of the indoor swimming pool was for the team to practice even during the winter—when they didn’t even have to swim—or whenever it rained.

Barely anyone knew anything about the students in the swim team, so many folks figured they had the stock personalities of a school of fish. All going for the same goal to be a professional athlete and not much else. They were untouchable; their schedules surrounding practices, training camps, and swim meets, with not much room for dating in between. The only other thing people knew about them was their annual tradition of hosting a maid café at their school’s cultural festival, which no one could reasonably explain.

That was it. Listen, people figured if there was ever going to be a scandal coming from the swim team, it was probably going to be about some guy shooting up steroids in the locker room or wearing unapproved swimsuits for better aerodynamics in competitions or maybe even something crazy like the students were all brainwashed and manufactured into disciples of Poseidon himself to carry on the legend of Samezuka forever. They weren’t known for actual drama, not even while people heard about Rin Matsuoka swimming for some other school’s team halfway through a competition for some reason last year (that was weird, but okay) or even this year when some folks whispered about Sousuke Yamazaki having a hurt shoulder and, like, that was sad, but he still swam in the championship, so other students figured it wasn’t so bad. Hell, if you even heard about those two so-called incidents, you had to be real close to the swim team—and the fact of the matter was, what happened in Samezuka’s swim team generally stayed with the swim team.

So, when rumors spread about last year’s swim team captain’s little brother possibly dating this year’s captain’s ex-roommate, who some said might be next year’s captain, too, things got a little bit juicy.

To the student body of the Samezuka Academy, this was like finding out the royals were having incestuous affairs behind the castle doors, which got people thinking: maybe the reason no one had ever heard of the Samezuka swim team dating anyone outside of school was because maybe the swim team was dating… each other.

Yet, while folks were reveling in the swim team’s supposed love triangle plot twists, it was all at the expense of Aiichirou Nitori’s dignity. People were quick to forget that. It was one thing to be teased by his teammates about possibly dating Momotarou, but to witness his reputation get warped into being the promiscuous sexpot darling of the swim team was a level of humiliation Nitori had never known. He read tweet after tweet, seeing his name become the butt of a thousand jokes by students who he had never heard of, let alone spoken to.

It was a wild exchange. There were positive messages at first that called him cute, saying no surprise he’s dating someone, remembering him as the second-year breaststroke swimmer, saying how quiet in school he was, saying how small he was, saying well, if he’s still on the swim team, he must be good, right? They said he must be flexible, then mentioned Momo and Rin and Sousuke and Seijuro and damn near any teammate people saw him with at some point during the school year. They got more invasive, calling him relay boy, and assumed he was experienced, assumed he was bottom, assumed he was easy.

He cried about this, locked his dorm room and wept at his desk as he used his laptop to delete his Twitter and turn all his other social media accounts private before the gossip switched platforms. And once it was done and he could finally use his phone again without notifications stalling the system, Nitori stared at his last text message, one from Sousuke that read, emergency meeting at the pool now.

There stood Aiichirou Nitori at the entrance of the indoor swimming pool, with eyes puffed red and swollen, just like his ego.

“I hate this,” he muttered, his voice hoarse.

No one wore their swimsuits, which was good because like hell was Nitori going to do some goddamn laps after all the bullshit he went through today. As he sauntered down the gym in his hoodie and sweatpants, he looked down at the tile floor and listed the day’s events in his head. He woke up at 5:30 in the morning, broke into the cafeteria to smuggle in paper cranes, got caught, kissed Momo, had a nice breakfast, kissed Momo again but in his underwear so Rin could catch them—and thus the downward spiral set off. Today was the first day he started his first relationship. He should have been happy. It should have been a good day, really. But all Nitori felt was tired.

He was so, so tired.

“Honestly, fuck ‘em,” said Toru Iwashimizu, who sat at the edge of the pool with his feet dipped in the water. “Summer break is coming up anyway. They’re going to forget all about this.”

Most of the swim team sat down on the floor as a huddled group, with a few teammates just off to the side by the pool edge or by the wall. Nitori couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with anyone, knowing what had been rumored, but he saw someone approaching him and stepped back.

“Nitori-senpai?” whispered Momotarou, still in his school uniform. Not because he couldn’t get into their dorm room to change clothes, but because he chose not to.

“Where were you?” asked Nitori. He looked up at Momo then, pointing an incredulous glance at his manic kouhai, and didn’t care if anyone noticed their confrontation.

There was no question that Nitori-senpai looked like a wreck. His eyes were bloodshot, his nose and lips cracked at the irritated dry patches he must have wiped too many times, and his skin dulled from exhaustion. Once he found out about all the rumors, Momo’s first reaction was to go straight to his dorm room and talk with Nitori, but when he heard his senpai’s sobbing and how obviously hurt he was, his next impulse was to stop the madness. For the past twenty minutes, Momotarou went to several sports teams and people whose names he recognized in the tweeting threads and made a small statement to each of them in person. He needed to come up with a better solution, he knew that, but it was all he could think of for now.

He told them, you have hurt someone I care about.

“I was trying to fix this,” he told Nitori, even though he also knew the concept of fixing their shattered reputations might have been impossible by now.

“How could you possibly fix this?”

“Oy, Ai,” interjected Rin, who like the rest of the swim team had been taking note of Nitori’s dejected state. “That’s what we’re all trying to do now. Come up with a way to fix this mess.”

Fix messes, huh, Nitori thought. It seemed like he was always caught in some mess that needed to be fixed, at least for the past four days. Eventually the escalation must stop and crash, that’s what he was learning. He just never thought it would crash on him.

Nitori looked up to evaluate the rest of the team, taking note of their worried yet puzzled expressions as they looked back at him. He saw Minami and Uozumi sitting up against the wall, their lips pursed as if holding back their own commentary until they felt safe to do so. Off to the side, where most of the team sat, lied Nakagawa on his back and yet he averted his attention up at Nitori, then began to sit up when he noticed Nitori staring down at him. Iwashimizu took his feet out of the water and turned toward Nitori, sitting cross-legged and cross-armed. They looked guilty, or maybe Nitori just wanted them to feel that way. He wanted to blame them for their casual teasing as some sort of fuel for the rumor fire, even if he couldn’t prove it as the catalyst to the day’s events.

There was a moment when he wanted to blame Rin for shouting so loud that morning, for getting involved, for being so known at school. It didn’t last long, though, because even with everything that had happened, Nitori couldn’t muster up the nerve to blame his senpai for caring about him and his reckless behavior. As he looked Rin directly in the eyes, Nitori noticed the accountability Rin felt for his part of the scandal, how much of a captain he looked during this crisis—if you could call it that, Nitori wondered, feeling dumb. God, he felt so dumb, standing dead center at an emergency swim team meeting—a meeting—over rumors about him fucking—fucking—Momo.

Over fucking Momo.

When it came to Momo, his anger was complicated. It wasn’t the rage of someone who felt betrayed or even the kind of frustration someone felt because of how stupid their friend was. His fury was much more personal, a fury that made him obsess over every bad mistake he made in the past few days because of Momo’s whims and how any sane person would have said no, would have said the line was being crossed, would have realized they were setting themselves up for a messy catastrophe, but not him. Truth was, as Nitori realized it after sobbing at his desk, that he was, in a way, having fun. And the reason he was mad was because it had been spoiled.

He looked back at Momo and weakly raised his hand with his fingers twitching in frustration, pulling the air as he pulled his thoughts together.

“Nitori-senpai,” said Momo, who stepped closer ready to accept any punishment he was about to be given. “I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this.”

Yeah, he got anxious. Yeah, what they were doing was stupid.

But it was fun.

Nitori got mad because he hated how everyone wanted to rewrite his memories. They weren’t there watching the sunset at the beach with Momo while eating ice cream after a day of dancing and shooting water guns. They weren’t there going into downtown to shop for origami paper and eating lunch while binge-watching anime in their dorm room, just hanging out together and enjoying each other’s company for like twelve hours straight. They weren’t there eating breakfast in a little kitchen shop, planning dates and dodging bashful glances on the morning of their first kiss. They had no idea how much of a big deal it was, how it felt, that first time. All they had was this idea of who they were—just a couple of zany kids, off to the side, doing nothing important, just messing around. Who were they to try to tell Nitori the story of (maybe) the first time he fell in love?

Momo and his big mouth, his stupid ideas, his dumb heart.

Nitori dropped his hand. He took one step forward and plopped his head onto Momo’s chest, letting out a deep sigh. First day of a relationship and he was mad. God, he felt so dumb.

“Is it worth all this?” he said to Momo. “How long are we going to hide this secret?”

This secret, of course, referred to the surprise party they were planning, which had clearly become the bane of their existence. What started out as a prank turned sentimental gesture had wildly spun out of a control as the basis of their public outing for all to jest—and there was still another half of the week to go through before it was even supposed to happen.

Yet, given the rumor situation, when the swim team heard “secret,” a slight misunderstanding prompted folks to speak up.

“Oh, well, you don’t have to hide anymore, Nitori-san,” said Minami from the back, a little preemptively. “We’re totally cool with it.”

“Uh,” Momo stuttered, looking down at Nitori, who merely closed his eyes and sighed further. “That’s not—”

“That’s right, Ai,” said Rin. “We’ll make sure this doesn’t get out of control.”

Sousuke also chimed in with a supportive, “You’re not alone.”

And while it was sweet how quickly the Samezuka Swim Team turned into the Momo-Ai Defense Squad, hearing the phrase you’re not alone had channeled the exact reason Nitori was furious in the first place. He wasn’t alone, was quite prophetically forced to not be alone—when that’s what he wanted. He gripped Momo’s shirt, tugged down at the neckline as his silent call for freedom, and whispered into Momo’s ear, “Fix this.”

As more teammates spoke up to lend their support, it dawned on Momotarou that despite the fact that there was no real plan on how to come out as a couple since they were originally just rolling with the team’s own suspicions, this was probably not it. This was not how anything was supposed to go. He wrapped his arms around Nitori, feeling his senpai give in the embrace and start to choke up. Things had gone too far over nothing and no amount of white lies could change the fact that Momo, frankly, messed up.

“Stop,” he announced, then groaned as he gave in to surrender. “We were just trying to plan a party.”

Huh?

Even Sousuke, who was helping plan the party, wondered why the flustered ginger had snapped out and revealed the party plans. Collectively, no one on the team could tie the connection between Momo and Ai’s relationship outing and a… party? Unless, maybe it was a coming out party? Were they gonna be that elaborate about announcing their relationship? Wouldn’t that be a little much? Was that even a thing?

“What are you talking about?” asked Rin.

But the truth had to come out, and so with Nitori still in his arms, Momo exasperatedly confessed, “It started with the bread, but then you saw the bread, so then we couldn’t use it anymore, but I didn’t want to give up on—well, see, I was trying to plan a surprise because, come on, look at this pool, it’s so big! Like, how am I supposed to be at this school and not put stuff in it, so then why not origami cranes? No one can get mad at origami cranes—because they’re beautiful—and it’s barely a prank if there’s 5000 origami cranes—I mean, that’s practically art—like, honestly, I think it’d even be a good idea for the summer festival, just putting it out there because I’ve been working really hard on making them, you can ask Yamazaki-senpai, who—actually—is the reason we started planning a party. Yeah, ugh, because it was just a really good idea and we couldn’t explain why we are on the beach on top of each other—but nothing happened! We weren’t even thinking about that yet! We were just having a good time and then Yamazaki-senpai was like oh, what are you doing, give me my radio back, you’re planning a party, right? And we were like, yeah, that’s a great idea because it was, so then we had to go through with it, which is why we were always together, but then everyone kept thinking we were together together because we took a shower together and like, yeah, okay, so I checked Nitori-senpai out, but who wouldn’t? Look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn’t—no, you can’t, because Nitori-senpai is an amazing person who deserves to be checked out and, you know what? I’d do it again, honestly.”

Momo took a moment to breathe.

“Ugh, not that it matters,” Momo continued, his confession getting louder, “because then everybody was getting suspicious because of how much we hung out and Yamazaki-senpai couldn’t take the cranes to the cafeteria, so we had to, and the freaking cafeteria manager came in too early, so we had to run and run and it was sunrise and Nitori-senpai looked beautiful and, like, that was the moment—I couldn’t just not kiss him, especially after last night’s failure, so I did and it was great and today was supposed to be a great day because today—TODAY—was the first time I’ve ever kissed someone and today was supposed to be special because I asked Nitori-senpai out on a date and he said sure and I was,” Momo panted before he calmed down and finished, “I was really happy about that.”

Nitori looked up at Momo, then softly uttered, “Momo-kun…”

“I’m angry, too,” said Momo, meeting Nitori’s gaze. “I ruined our first day.”

The team stood there, stunned.

It was a lot to digest, particularly since Momo gave no context to anything he said, just spouted out a stream of consciousness that only select people could put together in a coherent timeline. But while some team members were trying to figure out the missing details, Rin—who felt he understood most of the Momo speak—hesitantly spoke up and said, “So, you two were planning a party here in the gym?”

Momo and Nitori nodded.

“And you knew about this?” Rin asked, turning around to Sousuke.

“Yup,” he said.

“But you two,” Rin turned back to the frazzled couple, “weren’t dating until… today?”

“Right,” confirmed Momo.

“But I saw… you both… this morning,” said Rin, trying to make sense of the lewd scene he walked in on earlier in the day. Who hooks up on the first morning they’re together?

“We were trying to distract you,” explained Nitori, who stood straight while still in Momo’s embrace and motioned his hands toward their intimate hug. “And it worked really well because we ended up distracting the whole school.”

“I can’t believe this.” Rin threw his head back, trying to be respectful toward his kouhais’ newfound relationship, but also absolutely using every fiber of his being to contain his frustration over the day’s events. “You guys literally test me every goddamn day.”

Sousuke chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand.

“What are you laughing at?” snapped Rin. “This is a disaster!”

“Yeah.”

Still waiting for an answer or a punchline, Rin bucked his shoulders for Sousuke to continue.

To which he shrugged and said, “Oh, nothing. I just think they’re funny.”

“Oh my god,” groaned Rin.

A sense of freedom washed over the two kouhais, who both took in a relieved breath about not having to keep up the lies anymore. They looked at each other then and sort of smirked at each other. Nothing was fixed by confessing about the party and, now that they confirmed they were interested in each other, the dating jokes were probably only just beginning, but it was their truth and they just wanted to live in it. For a moment, neither of them wanted to feel anxious about what was going on around them, even as the team shouted more questions about why were they throwing a party in the first place or why were they showering together if they didn’t like each other then or why would they go to these extremes, dear god, and why weren’t they answering?!

Toru Iwashimizu, who knew very well that today was the first day of their relationship, called out to the team, “Let them have a day, guys. We’ll rag on them later.”

All Momo and Ai wanted was a simple moment together.

-

They lied on Nitori’s bed together on top of the sheets, facing each other with a quiet acceptance. So much chaos in one day, but for a moment, it didn’t matter. They could just enjoy being near each other. Give them a chance to get used to each other. Be with each other.

“I’m sorry I ruined today,” said Momotarou.

Nitori reached his hand out to Momo, twiddling their fingers.

“You didn’t really,” he said, accepting that fact. “You didn’t start those rumors.”

They scooted closer to each other, enough to press their chests together and nuzzle their necks like swans. Let them feel each other’s heartbeats, that’s all they wanted. Just enough to hear that they were still excited about each other even with clothes on, that their breathing was still deep for each other because they were comfortable in each other’s arms, that when it got quiet it was intimate, not awkward. Maybe they couldn’t have a first day, but they could have a first night.

“Can we kiss again?” asked Momo, who gently tucked some fallen bangs away from Nitori’s face in case he said yes and who noticed the faint blush creeping up his senpai’s ears.

“Sure.”

Their noses bumped, as they realized they weren’t sure how to tilt their heads for a kiss in bed. A soft giggle slipped out as Nitori pointed his finger to the right, and they both adjusted their heads for a second try. A sweet kiss for an evening, involving parted lips and heated cheeks.

Just a moment to relive that morning, that’s all they wanted.

Another kiss.

[yudesei]

~ Anime Review; Free! Dive to the Future ~

I haven’t done a review in a long time. Since I recently finished watching the third season of Free!, I decided to write a review for it. So here it is.

Name: Free! Dive to the Future

Episodes: 12

Genre(s): Sport (Swimming), Drama, Slice of Life

                                          ~ Spoiler warning ~

For a more spoiler-free version of this review, you can read it on MAL or anime-planet.

Story (8/10) 

Our protagonist has now started studying at the university. We get to follow him and several other characters with their respective problems. I’d say the main focus is identity - who you are as a person and what you want to be.

We get to see characters like Makoto trying to find his own path in life and Sousuke, who is concerned about a surgery that may or may not be the end of his career as a swimmer. Rei, Nagisa and Gou are studying their final year at Iwatobi. We get to see them with new recruits for the swim team.

These are only some of the sub-plots in this season.

“If these are the sub-plots, then what’s the main plot?” you ask?

To be frank, they should’ve just named it “Free! Two Lovers’ Promise” because about 65% of this season focuses on Haru and Ikuya’s romance friendship.

Although I’m overjoyed to see so much of Ikuya and seeing him (and Haru) develop as a character, it doesn’t give much time for the other characters and events. In the end, episode 11 and 12 feel a bit rushed, which is why I’m giving the story 8/10. The way the guys are trying to find their own identities and lifetime goals is not only inspiring but also touching.

Characters (7/10)

I’m very proud of Haru this season. Everyone who has watched the previous seasons or at least Starting Days are well aware of Haru only swimming free and nothing else.

In episode 7 and 8, we get to see Haru practice for- and participate in the individual medley just to keep his promise to Ikuya. Although Haru goes back to his ‘I only swim free’ way shortly afterwards, the fact that he stopped swimming only free for a moment shows how far Haru is willing to go for the people he cares about. And in episode 12, we find out that ever since Haru first got into the water, he has always swum free, which makes him participating in the individual medley even more special.

Makoto and Rei share a similar dilemma. Neither of them knows what they want to do with their lives. With some help from Nao, Makoto realizes that he wants to become a coach where he can help swimmers reach the top and encourage children to swim as well.

Rei on the other hands never got this realization. He does think about his future, but never mentions his options.

As for Nagisa, we don’t get to hear much from him at all, which is a bit disappointing. His ‘major’ development was in the first season and his character has been a bit flat since then. Yes, he has become a better swimmer and has a charming personality, but he hasn’t changed much, has he? Does he still want to become an astronaut or an adventurer?

Rin is doing fine. He’s still aiming to become the number one swimmer in the world and has gotten a coach.

Sousuke has an interesting scenario. His doctor suggests a surgery if he wants to continue swimming. The problem is that this surgery may or may not end his career. The problem is that we don’t get to see much about this.

Natsuya also gets some development. In the beginning of this season, he swims and participates in races just to get money. He uses the money to travel to another country in the world, races, wins money and then the cycle just repeats. As the story goes on, he eventually stops swimming just for the money and starts taking swimming seriously again.

Even Nitori - the only character who I couldn’t stand in the first two seasons - was okay in Dive to the Future. He didn’t do anything outstanding, but he didn’t annoy me either.

I’m also happy to see how much Ikuya has grown since childhood. Especially his swimming. I’m still surprised (in a good way) that he managed to beat both Haru and Nastuya in the individual medley.

Now for the newer characters. First we have Ikuya’s “best friend” - Hiyori (Seems a bit one-sided from Hiyori’s part). He and Nitori are the only two characters in Free! that I dislike. Like I said earlier, Nitori was much more bearable in this season. Hiyori wasn’t. In my opinion, Hiyori is a selfish, illogical, rude and manipulative control freak. In fact, he’s one of the characters to appear on my list of characters whose reasoning and ideas lack logic. He’s far too judgmental towards Haru and the others despite never meeting them, he makes decisions for Ikuya without Ikuya’s consent and goes out of his way to prevent Haru from talking to Ikuya. “Maybe he just doesn’t want Ikuya to get hurt again” Nope. After winning a race against Makoto, Hiyori clearly states that the reason why he won’t let Haru and the others approach Ikuya is because they’re too weak, not because he wants to protect Ikuya from getting hurt again. He also seems to be rather delusional as he considers himself as the little mermaid who saves the prince (Ikuya) from “sinking” (depression). Where did he get that idea from? According to Ikuya, he has been feeling like this for years. Hell, Hiyori (unintentionally) made Ikuya’s depression even worse. After Haru manages to make it past Hiyori and swims with Ikuya (which actually saves Ikuya from his depression), he does acknowledge that swimming with Haru was different than what he thought, but he never apologizes to neither Haru nor Ikuya for his behavior. His entire purpose in this season is to be a pain in the ass. That’s literally it.

Then we have Haru’s new “challengers” - the world record holder in freestyle Albert Wåhlander and the mysterious swimming prodigy Kaede Kinjou. Albert specifically enters the show with a bang as he completely crushed Haru in a race. Then he disappears until the very last scene of the season. The anime makes such a big deal about them (Especially Albert), but we never get to find out much about these two except that Albert has a coach named Ralph (Or is it Ralf?) and is a world record holder from Sweden. But Kaede? Nothing. Then only time we see him in action is in the very last episode where he easily beat Asahi and Hiyori in a race.

This category gets only 7/10. Hiyori single-handedly removed one point, one point off from the lack of development for Rei, Nagisa and Gou and lastly, one point off for showing close to nothing about Albert and Kaede.

Designs and animation (10/10)

As expected from Free!, it has beautiful animation. And somehow, the anime managed to make the guys even better looking.

Am I the only one who thought Nagisa looked a bit more…mature this season? He used to look younger and rather child-like compared to the other guys. Now he’s starting to look like a man. They grow up so fast…

I didn’t see any (major) flaws with the animation and the character designs look good. Even the clothes the characters wear for the ending look good. The hat Nagisa is wearing gets a bonus point.

Therefore, I’m giving this category a solid 10/10.

 Voice acting and music (10/10)

The ‘older’ voice actors were good, as always while the ‘new’ actors also did pretty well. Kudos to the voice actors of Ikuya, Albert and Hiyori.

Despite despising Hiyori, I think Ryouhei did a good job with portraying the character and making him sound like a real piece of shit. Especially the first five episodes.

After hearing Rin’s broken english despite living in Australia for years, I’m surprised Albert spoke perfect english. No stereotypical Nordic accent, no awkwardness. And if he has always lived in Sweden, I’ll be even more surprised.

The opening theme Heading to Over and ending theme Gold Evolution were both catchy and suited the anime. Though, I wish they could’ve “tossed the rock a bit further” with the opening theme as it resembles the opening themes of the previous seasons - Rage On and Dried Up Youthful Fame - a bit too much. Still, I must admit that I never skipped the opening or the ending of Dive to the Future. Actually, I listen to their full versions often.

Once again, I’m giving out a full score. 10/10 for the voice actors’ performances and the kick-ass music.

Ending (7/10)

As I’ve already stated, this season focuses a lot on the bond between Haru and Ikuya for the first 8 episodes. After episode 8, they’re rarely seen together, let alone talk to each other.

Why would the staff put so much time and effort into their relationship and then just be like “Their drama is over now, so let’s completely move on and make them interact as little as possible because Ikuya is completely irrelevant now”. Of course, I didn’t want Ikuya to get all of Haru’s interactions, as characters like Makoto and Rin are also important. However, I think it was rather disappointing and lame how they almost completely ignored Ikuya for the remaining episodes when they made a such big deal about him (and Haru) earlier. Most of his appearances in episodes 9-12 are just cameos with the only exception being his race against Natsuya. He doesn’t say much. He’s just standing there to show that he still exists.

I’m also a bit disappointed that the only characters who succeeded with their races were Rin and the Kirishima brothers. The others failed and the final race (100m freestyle) was left on a cliffhanger.

To be frank, if it hadn’t been for the character development of Haru, the Kirishima brothers and Makoto, I would’ve given this category a lower score. Most of the other characters’ developments stand still during the season. The only (other) characters who came close to a good development but slipped right before the finish line were Hiyori and Sousuke.

Either a new movie or season was confirmed at the end of episode 12. Hopefully, the newer characters (Hiyori, Iwatobi rookie-trio, Albert and Kaede) will get their proper developments.

Episode 11 and 12 felt a bit rushed. It was almost as if the staff was trying to test themselves regarding how many things they can make happen in just one episode. Because of this, it made episode 12 lack charm. Yes, there were meaningful moments. However, those moments were a bit less effective than intended, which is the result of what happens when you try to make too many things happen in a 20-minute episode.

For that, Dive to the Future gets only a 7 for its ending.

Summary (42/50 - Great)

Although a few things about this season left me a bit disappointed, it was overall a good season and I’m glad I watched it.

I don’t know whether their next project is a fourth season or a movie. Regardless, the bar has been set pretty high since I’m expecting the next movie/season to provide with everything Dive to the Future didn’t:

Goals in life for Rei, Nagisa and Gou

A continuation of Hiyori’s character development

Character developments for Albert and Kaede

Haru interacting with his parents

And most importantly; more Steve.

And that’s my review of the third season of Free!.

I’ll be looking forward to the next project.

Just two years left…

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Interested in watching Free! Dive to the Future? You can watch it and its two prequels on Crunchyroll!

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