Titolo: Arrows
Fandom: Free!
Personaggi: Sousuke Yamazaki, Rin Matsuoka
Genere: ??? boh.
Avvertimenti: future fic, in inglese, shounen-ai
Parole: 446
Note: Questa cacchina cortissima è per il giorno 1 della sourinweek @ tumblr col prompt "Rock: In The Pool", e per la M1 della seconda settimana del COW-T, con il prompt "Arrows - Fences feat. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis" ove il prompt è "Arrows" perché ci è stato detto che si possono usare anche solo i titoli quindi yoooo k

When he is in the pool, he becomes unrecognizeable. When Rin slaps his swimming goggles on and stares down at the placid water awaiting someone to give him the signal to go, he's not angry or happy or heartbroken, he's not a crier, he's not a tall beautiful man and he's not a boy without a father, he's not snarky laughter coming from the bottom bunk, he's not a tidy and methodical perfectionist; in those moments he is nothing like Sousuke is used to defining him as. He's pure, he's focus and muscles and tension, he's slow breaths and quick reflexes, he's elegant when he pierces the water's surface like an arrow does and is lethal the same way. He's a graceful weapon of his own building, made to win and grasp at violent explosions of joy.
When Sousuke dives, he feels different. He conveys sheer, calm power. His arms cut the air above water and his eyes are aggressive and dangerous, Rin tells him he's scary all the time, even when he knows they are going to play videogames all day right after practice, and the way his body moves seems to scare the water off as well because it moves around him. And one can tell that swimming is a link, a thread keeping them together because Sousuke has been pulling at it until he became undone, but that bond didn't break, it threaded around them, stole them from home, took them far away together one way or another.
When Sousuke looks at Rin now from the bleachers as he dives in a glorious, gigantic pool with a full stadium watching him, he sees it different, and he sees the arrow but he also sees the rest as well. Hope and pride, years of training, smiles, tears - so many of them -, pain, happiness, afternoons spent double-guessing himself, those spent sweating as he ran towards this; he sees focus, determination, muscles obeying immediately, and just for a split second, Rin's expression seems to be different from the usual as well, because he's smiling.
Sousuke crosses his arms, leaning forward in his attempt to be closer like he could swim in the lane right next to Rin's and challenge him as they've always done. Sousuke's grin is light, and as he looks at the team of kids he's coaching for, he points at the speeding figure of Rin and smiles down happily at them.
"That's my best friend," he announces with a proud voice and since the feeling is authentic he allows it to fill him up quietly. What he doesn't say and never said though is, that's the guy I love the most.