𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟕- 𝐒𝐓𝐘𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄
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"So..you guys were stuck on the island because Rei wanted to get better at swimming?"

"Yeah.."

"And none of you thought to come get Miss A before jumping in?"

"..well, Nagisa was supposed to-"

"I've heard enough." (Y/N) yawns from beside Makoto, who sweat dropped as he watched his friend quickly drop the topic of what happened a few days ago.

After the eventful few days spent training and racing, the team had since gone home, and dove into more training as district was but a day away.

Haru and Nagisa hit the edge of the pool, and Gōu stops her timer. She looks down, impressed. "Way to go Haru, I don't know how but you just set another personal best!" She cheers, and (Y/N) looks down at her own timer for Nagisa.

The blond emerges into Haru's lane, and looks up at his friend with wide eyes. "Give it to me straight! How am I doing?" She makes her way to Gōu and looks down at the clipboard containing their different times. She matches it with the timer and sucks her teeth.

"You could push yourself a little bit harder.." Makoto smiles from beside her, his hands on his hips and nods. "There's always room to improve, but don't forget how far we've come in such a short time."

He places his hand on (Y/N)'s shoulder, who looks up at him in question. "Just look how hard Rei is working to tighten up his butterfly!" Their attention turns to the blue haired boy currently pushing himself in the far lane.

(Y/N) grins when she sees him. "His dedication is impressive." Gōu nods from beside her, equally as impressed. "And he's in great shape, so at this rate it's his a matter of time until he's up to par."

She raises her pointer finger into the air, a stern look set in place. "However! The clock is ticking, and we can't afford to move that slow." She looks to (Y/N) for moral support, and continues. "We need someone who will challenge us to set a higher standard!

"That's why we've gotta find a proper coach!" The group stare at her, a bit confused on who that someone would be.

Nagisa frowns, "What?! We'd have to find one right now-!"

"Better late than never!" Gōu cuts him off, "Now it's not gonna be easy but I think some last minute conditioning will get you in tip top shape!" (Y/N) sweatdrops at her friend, and backs away when she goes to yell at Makoto.

She bumps into Haru, and turns around before giving him a small smile. The boy stares at her, and his eyes soften before he lowers his voice.

"I'm gonna be racing Rin at district." (Y/N) nods, a bit confused on why he was telling her.

"Yes..I know."

Haru swallows, "Will you.." he tries to form his sentence, but his words get caught in his throat. (Y/N) frowns as she watches, and gently taps his forehead with her pointer finger.

He takes a breath, and gently grips his arm with his left hand. "Will you be mad if I beat him?" The question makes her eyes widen, and quickly shake her head.

"What? No of course not Haru!" She rests her hands on his shoulders, and gently shakes him. "I'm always gonna be in your corner, okay?" She brings her right hand up to eye level, and holds out her pinkie.

"You're always gonna have me cheering for you." She grins, and Haru lets a small smile slip through.

He hooks her pinkie with his, and tugs their hands forward so her finger brushes against his lips. He doesn't say anything, and closes his eyes as they both stand there, a promise only the two of them share.

'That's what I'm afraid of..(Y/N).'

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The group all sit on the rooftop, munching away on their lunches while Haru and (Y/N) once again continued to steal small bites from each other.

They all sat in a comfortable silence, and looks up when they see Gōu enter through the rooftop door. "Hey there guys, guess who got pictures from training camp printed out?" She says cheerfully, and they all look up.

Shifting themselves to form a circle, the group all look down as Gōu sits down infront of (Y/N), and lays out a selection of different, rather well done photos.

"Ta-da!"

(Y/N) had to admit, these photos were amazing. Some were of the team swimming, while others were group photos or selfies the guys had taken together.

She looks down, and snorts when she sees a picture of her giving Gōu a piggy back ride in the ocean, the water lapping at her knees. She picks the photo up and laughs. "I can't believe you pushed me in the water."

Gōu shakes her head, her cheeks red. "I didn't! I was just scared!" She sighs before looking down, and licking up another photo. "Oh hey Mako, you and (Y/N) look really cute here!" She hands the photo to the brown haired boy, and watches his eyes shine.

It was a picture of him holding (Y/N) by the waist, laughing as he had just thrown her in the water before fishing her out only a few moments before the picture was taken. (Y/N)'s hands were placed firmly on his chest while her head was lowered, her hair falling down and forming a curtain around their smiling faces.

Makoto blushed as he studied the picture further, and holds a shriek between his lips when (Y/N) leans over him, a small grin on her face. "Aww." She hums, and points to the picture. "You look so happy!" She muses, and doesn't notice how red her friend's face was turning.

He tries to say something, but sighs in relief when Nagisa's voice cuts through his embarrassment.

"Oh, hey is that Samazeka swim team?" They look down to see Haru holding a picture of Rin stretching infront of a swimming pool.

"How did you get these?" Gōu chuckles and holds a finger to her lips.

"Let's just say on day two, someone did her fare share of sightseeing!"

Several photos of the Samazeka team were mixed in with their own. The team captain was in most of them, while others were of the team swimming and practicing.

(Y/N) looks down when she sees one that makes her laugh. It was of the silver haired boy she had met earlier on during the camp.

He had a phone in his hand, and was showing it off to the camera with a big grin while Rin lunged at him, his mouth open in protest while his face rivaled a tomato.

She examines the photo further, and her eyes widen when she sees a picture she knew all too well being presented on the phone in the picture. It was the one Gōu had taken of her all those weeks ago, with her crouched and smiling as she fed moo moo.

When she looks closer, the picture made a bit more sense. Rin was lunging at the boy in embarrassment that he had a photo of her saved on his phone that was being shown off like some trophy.

Feeling her cheeks warm up, (Y/N) puts the photo down, and clears her throat as a fuzzy feeling goes through her chest, and down to the tips of her fingers.

"Anyway!" Gōu's voice draws her away from the photo. "Along with all the snapshots, I got a tone of intel on their team lineup." This makes the group all look up in surprise.

"Here's a list of the swimmers in the one hundred and two hundred meter breaststroke with Nagisa!" She shows off a small piece of paper, written from top to bottom with information.

"These are the swimmers doing the backstroke with Mako."

"And this is who's doing the butterfly with Rei!"

"There will be more where that came from by the time the tournament rolls around. Including individual skill level and average lap times." (Y/N) fans herself at the flurry of information, a bit overwhelmed but otherwise excited.

She looks down and sees Haru taking a rather big interest in the photo of Rin standing infront of the pool, and she bumps her shoulder into his so they could look at it together.

Gōu hums when she sees them, and looks down in thought. "Oh, and my brothers swimming in the-"

"The one hundred meter." Haru cuts her off, and receives a small flick to the chin from (Y/N) for interrupting their manager.

Gōu watches them, and smiles gently. "Yeah..he didn't enter any other events, even the ones he's really good at." (Y/N) looks up when she sees Nagisa scurry to crouch at Makoto's side, and lowers his voice.

"Haru always says he doesn't care about his time or whether he wins or looses." She listens, her head down in thought. "But it seems like he really pushes himself when it's up against Rin."

The wind slowly begins to pick up, and (Y/N) gasps when she sees the picture of Rin fly out of Haru's grasp, and into the air.

She reaches for the photo, but her fingers barely graze it before it's out of reach, and left to be carried into the air and far away from her hold.

(Y/N) keeps her hand in the air, however, and waits. She waits for it to come back to her. For the picture to return as if it never left and stay with her once again.

But it never returned, it left her, and she sighed, knowing it wasn't coming back.

_____