Open Waters

Chapter Twelve

Memories

Well, it felt like forever, well, but the weather's finally warming up. And the boys haven't hesitated to organise training.

Hana stood beside Gou, smiling at the boys as launched into her mini-speech. "Okay! We officially have four members now, and it's warming up outside, so we will finally begin training in the look today..."

Gou didn't even get to to finish her sentence before Haru ran forward. He moved so fast, it was almost a blur, taking the least amount of time possible to get into the water. Hana laughed as she felt drops of water sorry on her back, managing to find her neck, the only part of her back that wasn't covered by her jacket and trousers.

Gou, however, wasn't amused. "Hold on!" she yelled, turning around to see Haru swim away, "Can't you listen to what I have to say first, Haruka-senpai? Haruka-senpai!" She groaned, shoulders slumping forward. "Come on..."

Hana placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, holding back chokes of laughter. "Ah, I'm sorry to say this, but with water nearby... you don't stand a chance of getting Haru's attention."

Gou sighed. "But he won't be able to train properly if he all he does is jump into the pool without second thought!"

"Ah, I'm sure he'll come around," Hana tried. "He just hasn't been in the water for a while so..." She trailed off, only chuckling as she looked at her friend. Obviously, Gou wasn't convinced by her answer. Then again, she didn't know Haru as much as Hana did.

"Just, let him be for a while," Hana said, amused. "I promise you, you won't get anywhere if you try and pull him out of the water. Do you remember what happened on the day the swim club officially opened?"

Gou chuckled lightly, remembering. "I didn't get that net, after all."

"After Makoto and I convinced you not to."

"Hey! It seemed like the best idea at the time."

Hana snorted. "Yeah, well, Haru wouldn't have been impressed, let me tell you."

Gou allowed herself to laugh as well. "I guess not," she mused, and Hana joined in on her friend's laughter.

"Yep. Anyway, this is a solid training regimen. Did you come up with this yourself, Gou-chan?" Nagisa's loud voice caused Hana and Gou to turn around, where they found Nagisa inspecting the regimen Gou had found the other night.

"Can you stop calling me Gou?" Gou exclaimed. After staring at Nagisa for a moment she sighed, deflating. "Forget it," she mumbled tiredly. Hana smiled to herself, knowing that Gou realised she had been fighting a losing battle with Nagisa. "I found that when I was cleaning the house. It was my brother's old regimen."

Makoto and Nagisa froze, and glanced back down at the sheet. "I see," Makoto said quietly.

Seeing how distracted they were becoming, and how Rei just looked a little left out and confused, Hana grinned and stepped forward. "Well, I guess now it's time to start training," she said brightly.

"I suppose so," Makoto murmured. He and Nagisa walked on over to the edge of the pool ready to dive in, while Rei stayed on land. Hana was about to ask why, but then shut her mouth as she realised: Rei was stretching.

Instead of asking Rei, Hana turned to the pool and saw Makoto and Nagisa jump in. As they did so, Haru left the water, walking over to the regimen Nagisa had left on the floor. Hana frowned thoughtfully. Is he looking at that because he wants to follow the regimen, or because it's something of Rin's?

Gou popped over by Haru's side. She stared at the paper in Haru's hand and then glanced back up at him. "Are you that interested in my brother' old regimen?"

Haru glanced across at her, and then handed it back to her. "Not really. You can write down a regimen and not follow it."

Haru dove back into the pool, once more sending water flying everywhere. Hana frowned and walked over to stand next to Gou.

"Gou... how close were Haru and Rin exactly, when they were kids?" she asked quietly.

"Huh?" Gou looked up at her friend. "Oh, they were pretty close. He, Makoto and my brother were all in the same class and swim club. They did spend a lot of time together, and they did swim that relay, so they were very close."

"I see." Hana bit her lip. "I hear a lot about that relay."

"Oh, it was the last time those four swam together," Gou explained. "My brother left for Australia the next day. It took a lot of convincing to get Haru to join the team. They were all overjoyed when they won."

Hana nodded distantly and glanced back at the pool. Makoto and Nagisa were leaving the pool, both of them looking fairly cold. The pool doesn't warm up overnight, I suppose.

"Rei-chan, you're still stretching?" Nagisa exclaimed.

Hana glanced over, and rolled her eyes a little to find that Rei was still stretching. "I want to be as safe as possible," Rei retorted.

Makoto approached him. "You going to be okay?" he ventured cautiously. "You can take it slow..."

Rei straightened himself up. "There's no need to worry. I've mastered the theory behind swimming in the past few days." He snapped his goggles into place. "I won't embarrass myself again!"

Hana watched apprehensively as Rei got back onto the starting block. Theory isn't practical, Rei, she thought nervously, twiddling her thumbs. She hoped he'd be okay.

When Rei dived, well, it was a little better than his dive at Samezuka's pool, Hana could give him that.

But when he entered the water, he still couldn't swim.

When Rei broke the surface again, this time on his own, he gasped a large lungful of breath. Hana closed her eyes. Poor Rei...

"I think you need to start by learning how to swim," Nagisa said, rubbing the back of his head.

*          *          *

Hana walked over and crouched down by the edge of the pool. She looked up, watching Makoto and Nagisa as they demonstrated the turtle float in a test to see if Rei could float. She sighed and dipped her fingers in the water. She instantly wanted to draw it back out, the cold triggering memories of how cold the ocean had been that day, but forced herself to keep her fingers just below the surface. Slowly, she lowered her hand so everything below her wrist was submerged in the cold water.

Hana didn't know what she was expecting to experience, doing this. She didn't know why she had been expecting to feel scared by performing this small action. But it didn't feel terrifying. It was just like putting her hand in a bath to test the temperature. Hana glanced at one end of the pool to the other and chuckled softly.

A very large bath.

Hana retracted her hand once Haru swam past, not wanting to cause him any obstruction. Once he reached the end he stopped, panting a little as he worked on recollecting his breath.

Gou was crouched down by the end, and glanced at Haru curiously when he stopped. "Haruka-senpai... why do you swim?" she murmured, earning her a glance from Haru. Hana twisted her boy to the side slightly, interested.

Haru glanced down at the water. "I don't have a reason."

Gou tilted her head a little. "My brother's dream is to become an Olympic swimmer," she murmured. "That's why he went all the way over to Australia to study."

The Olympics. Wow. Quite ambitious.

"That's got nothing to do with me," Haru said. "Besides, it's just a dream."

"Perhaps. But I think he'll be a little closer to his dream if he's with you guys. Like when you swam the relay together."

There it is again. The relay. Hana closed her eyes and sighed, bending over slightly and resting her head on her knees.

It seemed there was a lot of history between Rin, Haru, Nagisa and Makoto. And while Hana knew some of it, it was becoming increasingly obvious to her that there was still a lot that she didn't yet know. If Rin was such close friends with everyone, why would he suddenly turn on them when he came back from Australia? Why hadn't he tried to contact them? What had they done?

Not knowing just made her feel a little bit like an outsider.

*          *         *

"Wait, Mum, since when did you invite Makoto's family over for dinner?"

Hana stared at her mother, and then at the clock, and then at the dinner her mother was halfway through finished. Shock and surprise ruled her body. She'd only been at home for a few minutes, after she'd come back from the first swim practice, only to have her mother dump this unexpected news on her.

Mae smiled, looking back at her daughter from the stove she was cooking at. "We haven't seen each other in years, Hana. I think it's about time we were reacquainted."

"But that doesn't answer my original question? When?" It wasn't that Hana didn't want to see Makoto, she did. She just didn't recall ever being informed of her friend and his family coming cover until that minute.

"Oh, we organised it while you were at school," Mae said breezily, as though it were no big concern. Which it wasn't, but it could have been if Hana had something planned that night, which she didn't.

"Oh." Hana placed her hands in her pockets. "So, when are they arriving?"

"In a few minutes. They said they'd be over soon after Makoto finished his first training session." Mae paused and looked back once more, an interest spark to her eyes. "You're a part of the swim club, right, as manager? How did the training go?"

Hana shrugged. "I don't know enough about swimming to say for sure, but what I did see was pretty impressive, especially considering the fact no one has really done any competitive swimming in a long time." Hana excluded the part about Rei, knowing that it was something he wouldn't want anyone to discuss.

"So Makoto's joined..." Mae hummed. "Is that Nanase Haruka there as well? I remember hearing things about him. Apparently he used to be a pretty good swimmer."

Hana smiled ruefully. A pretty good swimmer... I guess that's one way to put it. "Yeah. He's the best swimmer Iwatobi has. Though, he'll only swim freestyle."

The doorbell rang. Knowing that it was Makoto, Hana smiled. "I've got it," she said, and dashed out of the kitchen to the door.

When she flung the door open, Hana beamed to see Makoto's family standing before her. "Hello!" she greeted warmly.

"Hana!" Makoto's mother exclaimed, smiling fondly at the girl. "It's been too long. Goodness, you've grown."

"Not much," Hana said lightly, gesturing to herself to indicate her average height, which was a little on the small side. She indicated to Makoto's younger siblings, who had only been babies when she'd last seen them. "They're the ones who have grown."

"More troublesome," Makoto input, and Hana laughed.

She stepped aside and allowed them to come in. At once, Makoto's parents approached Hana's, and the two little kids went off in search of things to play with, leaving Hana and Makoto standing in the doorway.

"Hi again," Hana said, grinning. "Long time no see, huh?"

"A very long time," Makoto agreed with a grin.

A brief pause.

"So." Hana looked around the house. "What do you want to do? Dinner's nearly ready, so there's not much point putting a movie on... our parents have taken the living room, anyway... we could go to my room, I suppose..."

"Hana." Makoto interrupted her rambling with a smile. "Let's just go to your room for now."

She nodded. "Okay."

Together, they ascended the steps, up to Hana's room. Not for the first time, Hana was glad that her room wasn't pink and girlish. The light, neutral colour to the walls were warm and welcoming, and not just a girl's-only paradise.

Hana perched herself on the edge of the bed, and Makoto drew over the chair from her desk. Hana sighed and leaned back a little.

"I don't know what to talk about," she admitted. "Not much could have happened in, what, thirty minutes?"

Makoto chuckled. "Well, I did go home, was attacked by my siblings, informed that I had to get changed out of my swim gear and into nicer clothes for dinner at your house... and that's about it."

Hana laughed. "Well, then, what did I do? I came home, dumped my stuff on my bed, was informed you and your family were coming over, I talked to my mum and, yeah. That's about it. Very eventful."

"I can see."

Makoto's eyes caught something behind Hana. He froze momentarily, his usual calm green eyes momentarily replaced with something else. "Your bear..."

Hana glanced back, seeing what Makoto was staring at: her light pink teddy bear. She gasped, realising what it symbolised for the both of them. Slowly, she reached a hand out and grasped the stuffed toy, resting it on her lap.

"You still have it?" Makoto murmured.

Hana hugged the tiny thing to her chest, burying the lower part of her face in the soft material. "I - I couldn't just give it away," she murmured. Her eyes travelled upwards. "Your goldfish -"

"They died," Makoto said shortly.

Hana knew that must have been the case, since goldfish only had a short lifespan, but still felt sorry for her friend. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Makoto smiled softly at her. "There's no reason to be."

There was a small pause. This was a topic both tried to avoid discussing, and being pulled back into the memories wasn't exactly the nicest of things.

"You know," Makoto murmured, "Hana, I'm still really sorry about that day. I just froze. If it wasn't for Haru, you -"

"Makoto," Hana snapped, cutting her friend off. Once he'd stopped speaking, she walked over to his side and gave her friend a quick embrace. "Don't worry about it," she whispered. "You're my friend, Makoto, and I don't blame you for anything."

*          *          *

"Hana! Hana, wake up!"

"Huh?" The voice was as sudden and effective at waking her up as an alarm clock was. Hana sat bolt upright, in a movement so sharp she almost toppled over backwards. After regaining her balance, she rubbed her tired, bleary eyes and lazily sought out whoever had spoken.

She guessed she wasn't surprised to find it was Makoto who was standing over her. "You alright, Hana?" he asked ruefully, as Hana stretcher her arms out and yawned hugely.

"Fine," she muttered back tiredly. However, she wasn't tired enough got her cheeks to flush red. It met only be homeroom, but still it was the first time she'd ever fallen asleep during class. "It's just, last night tired me out."

Somehow, the two families had managed to stay up until about eleve o'clock last night. When dinner and dessert were finished and cleared, a movie was put on, and the parents did what parents did best: talk. And talk. And talk some more. Hana had nearly been falling asleep on Makoto's shoulder before his family decided it was prime time to leave. And even after they did so, Hana had to stay up just that little bit longer to help her parents clean up. So, with about thirty minutes to minute, Hana had stumbled up to her room and collapsed, sleeping like the dead.

And she still wasn't entirely over it.

Makoto chuckled. "I can understand why."

"Haru-chan! Mako-chan! Hana-chan! Hello!"

Hana looked up slowly at the new voice, and found Nagisa in the doorway to their homeroom. He waved at them, something clutched in his hand. When he started forward into the room, they found that he was dragging Rei in behind him. Hana rolled her eyes lazily at the sight, her soft laughter mixed in with another huge yawn.

The pair ignored the fact they were being stared at quite openly by everyone, only coming to a halt once they stopped in front of the table Hana, Makoto and Haru were all gathered around. "Look at this!" Nagisa exclaimed, throwing something down on the table. "Ta-da!"

Hana rubbed her eyes so she could see clearer, and peered down at what Nagisa had thrown down. Her eyes widened with interest. "Uniforms?"

Nagisa nodded, looking rather pleased with himself. "Yep. We have a swim club now, so we should get matching uniforms."

"That's a good idea," Makoto said thoughtfully. "It'll give our club more of an official feel."

"I know right?" Nagisa leaned forward, pointing to one design, and then a a colour, which was a nice light blue. "I think we should go with this design, and this colour. And we can use an image in addition to the school emblem."

"Are you thinking of putting Iwatobi-chan on there?" Rei asked blankly.

"That was the plan."

Rei scowled. "That thing is not beautiful."

Hana couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't known Rei for long, but she did know that he had a thing for things that were 'beautiful.' Apparently he once thought that swimming wasn't a beautiful sport, which was a part of why he disliked it so much. However, Haru's swimming had changed his perspective. "Well, it might be, if you looked at it from a certain perspective," she said.

"I think Samezuka's design incorporates a shark and a kanata," Makoto hummed, leaning back as he thought.

"Theirs is pretty cool!" Nagisa exclaimed brightly. "We could put a real rockhopper penguin on ours, then. What do you think, Haru-chan?"

Haru didn't pay attention to them, instead putting all his focus into drawing something. Hana tried to get a look at what it was, but he pulled back. Deflated, Hana sat back down, folding her arms over the table and resting her chin on them, very tempted to once again shut her eyes and fall back to sleep.

When Haru finished drawing, he turned the book around so they could all see what he had been working on. Hana gasped. He had drawn Nagisa's Iwatobi-chan, but this looked a whole lot better than the original.

No offense, Nagisa. But gosh, is there anything Haru can't do?

"B-beautiful..." Rei stammered.

Hana rolled her eyes, even though she agreed with what Rei said.

"We'll have to show Gou," she said quietly. I wonder if she'll be just as enthusiastic about this as we are...

It turns out, she wasn't.

"Huh?" Nagisa exclaimed, as Gou snatched the pamphlet away from him. It was the end of the day and they were just about to start their second training practice, but first wanted to share their idea for the jackets with Gou, which she apparently had no current interest in.

"Forget about buying matching uniforms for now." Gou threw the old paper down to the floor, the light way it descended to the ground contradictory to the way she'd relentlessly slammed it down. She produced a new piece of paper and held it in front of their faces. "Here!"

"Is that a new training regimen?" Nagisa asked, inspecting it.

Gou nodded curtly. "Yes! I revamped the regimen to account for the fact Rei-kun can't swim." She shifted her stern gaze to Rei. "Rei-kun!" she barked.

Poor Rei jumped at Gou's sudden hard, snappy tone. "Wh-what is it?"

Gou looked back over something she'd noted down. "Given how much time we have until the regional tournament, you have to learn how to swim within a week."

Oh my gosh, isn't that asking a little much? Hana glanced over at Rei, feeling sorry for him. That's a lot of pressure to be under.

Rei was stunned silent for a moment, and then broke out into a bout of laughter. "Within a week? That's theoretically impossible."

Gou wasn't going to hear it. She stepped right up into Rei's face and he started, backing up and instantly ceasing his laughter. "This is no laughing matter!" she snapped.

"Yes, ma'am!' Rei said hastily.

Gou wasn't done yet. "If you fail, you won't be able to complete this training regimen!" she said, eyes narrowed.

Rei... Hana looked over at him, feeling her heart melt a little. That's a lot of pressure to be under at the moment.

Goodness, I hope he's okay.

--------------------------

welp, so, I have no idea what I just wrote, so so sorry if it's terrible but yeah... I guess I just wanted to get this chapter out of the way.

and of course I had to include some Makoto, because Makoto's a giant, adorable teddy bear and I love his character and thought he deserved more attention, and his conversation with Hana helps move the plot along so yeah. and I just love Makoto, I love all the boys, yeah. I'm rambling now, so I'll keep quiet.

please let me know what you think in the comments! I'm always interested to hear your thoughts :)