This day! I am so TIRED! All I've done is race my heart out. I lean my head on Nito's shoulder. Everybody else are watching Hinata, Sho and Kenta in their tie breaking races. Hinata's in for the breaststroke one as his time was the same as two other swimmers, one from Sato, the other Harumi. He's in for a rough race. Kenta is in the backstroke semi finals for regional qualification and Sho's in for the butterfly semi finals for regional qualification. Whoever came first recieved immediate regional qualification.

"Aoi! Catch!" Rin tosses a can of Pocket Sweat. As I delve into my tracksuit bottom pocket for my purse I am interrupted. "It's on me."

"Thank you Rin." I smile.

"You've earned it, everybody did well today." Rin messes up my hair. "Oh, hey Makoto."

"Hi Rin, mind if I talk with Aoi for a while?" I smile at my angelic boyfriend.

"Sure, she's your girlfriend." Rin shrugs. "C'mon Ai."

"Hai Rin-senpai!" Nito' gets up and follows Rin toward the bleachers.

"Hi Makoto! You did amazingly today!" I enthuse.

"Thanks beautiful, you did too. Your form was stunning as usual."

"Thanks." I duck my head. "So, what did you need to talk about."

He sighs, looking at the floor. He murmurs something.

"Huh?"

"I said, would you like to come over for dinner tonight. Ren and Ran are pestering me to bring you over again." he chuckles, rubbing the back of hisneck.

"Sure!" I beam. "It really has been a while since I saw them. I think it was the end of the holidays."

"I think so. Shall we go?"

"Makoto, can I see how they did, Hinata, Sho and Kenta."

"Right! Of course!" he smiles. "I forgot that some of your teammates are still swimming." Makoto shakes his head, as if he feels silly.

"No worries." I grin.

Hand in hand, the two of us make our way out to see the scores. I jump up and down in glee. Hinata, Sho AND Kenta qualified for regionals!

I run to my friends and high five them. Mei's snapping photos. Fubuki is making Kaito jump about and Ami is on Hika-chan's back. Man, I'm going to have to frame one of these.

"EVERYBODY IN!" Mei-chan squeals. She uses her phone to flash a group photo. She rolls her eyes.

"Momo." she groans. "Don't photobomb my selfies!"

"Gomene." Momo pouts.

~(^v^)~ Time Skip ~(^v^)~

Makoto knocks on his door before opening it.

"We're coming in!"

"Onii-chaaannn!!!" the bell voices of Ren and Ran chime from upstrairs. It sounds like a stampede as those two make their way to Makoto. I laugh.

"ONII-CHAN BROUGHT AOI-CHAN HOME!!!!" Ren screams.

"KYAAHHH!!!! WE'VE MISSED YOU AOI-CHAN!" Ran adds.

"I've missed you both too!" I grin. Ren charges into my hold. I pick him up. It's a tad hard to hold him but Makoto seems to think its sweet. Ran is immediately on Makoto's back.

"Welcome home Makoto. Hello Aoi dear." I became a frequent visitor of the Tachibana home during the holidays.

"It's good to see you Mrs Tachibana." I grin.

"How was the tournament today Makoto?" Mr Tachibana asks.

"We all qualified for regionals in our individual events this year." Makoto rubs the back of his neck, Ran still holding onto his shirt.

"How about you Aoi dear, how did your team do?"

"Most of us qualified." I duck my head.

"Congratulations! The two of you are swimming in the relay events tomorrow, aren't you?"

"Yes." Makoto nods.

"Samezuka's entering the girls in only the girls relay. Mei and Rin argued for ages over this but Rin finally won by comparing our relay time to the guys relay team." I giggle.

"Good luck tomorrow then." Mrs Tachibana smiles.

"Makoto, son, have you written your application for the univeristy yet." Makoto stiffens. I tilt my head.

"It sucks that you're a year older." I state. Ran squirms on Makoto's back. Ren too seems to want to be put on the floor. I let Ren go and Ran clambers off of her now crouched down older brother's back.

Makoto stands up again. He frowns.

"Amakata-sensei recomended a university for me to apply to.

"Oh?" I tilt my head.

"It's in Tokyo." my eyes widen. I close my eyes and smile.

"Hey, it's only an application, that can't hurt." I encourage. "You should go for it! If Amakata-sensei thinks that you are well suited for this univeristy then apply baka." I jab him in the stomach.

"Really?" his eyes are shining.

"Of course!" I smile. "You would be writing the application for me if the roles were reversed."

Makoto blushes.

I poke my tongue out at him.

"C'mon, let's go and write your application!" I take his hand and gently tug him toward the stairs.

"Mind doing me a favour though Aoi?" I am asked.

"Anything." I smile at him. He returns the doting gaze.

"Please, please don't tell them yet. I don't want to tell Rin or Haru, Nagisa and Rei, if this is only an application."

"Of course!" I nod my head.

Does that mean that if I hadn't heard that, he wouldn't be telling me about applying to a university in Tokyo?

He wouldn't do that to me!

Would he?