Titolo: Someone's goodbye is someone else's welcome home
Fandom: Free!
Personaggi: Rei/Nagisa, menzione di Nagisa/Haruka (established)
Genere: malinconico, introspettivo, fluff
Avvertimenti: pwp, future fic, in inglese, one-sided
Parole: 1774
Note: questa è per la quarta settimana del COW-T, M3, prompt "troppo tardi". E non è bella tipo per niente, ma vabbè amen.

The crowd swarms around them, busy and chattery, as the sound of trolley bags and announcements on the speakers fill the air with noise and information for the busy travelers and families waiting to leave or rejoin with their loved ones.
"Send me a text after you land!"
Rei sounds like a mom, but Nagisa's is currently enveloping her blond son into her arms as if he was still a little child about to go for his first day of school. Even though he stretched in height and his body grew into a harmonious and proportionate almost adult one. He's so beautiful, it almost makes Rei melancholic.
"Yes, send us one too," she echoes, smiling at her son with a glimmer in her eyes. Nagisa's father could not make it - he's working on something important, Nagisa knows it, and despite the slight displeasure it gives him, after all it can't be helped, can it?
"Yes, yes, don't worry," Nagisa hums, sounding almost annoyed - except it's a joke. He's been sparkling with excitement all morning, from the moment he woke up next to Rei to breakfast and during the whole trip to the Tottori airport.

He's going to Tokyo. He's joining with Haruka-senpai and going to live with him. His mother only knows what's necessary, but Rei heard it all from the beginning. About how Nagisa and Haru have a long history - they go way back to elementary school, and Haruka is the first person out of all their friends that met Nagisa - and about the way Nagisa's affection towards Haru flourished slowly and silent, quiet. And Rei noticed since the beginning, from the way Nagisa just would never shut up about Haru-chan, how he'd drop his name in nearly every conversation they had; from the way his intense pink eyes would light up in a special way whenever Haru had kind words for him. From the way he cried and sobbed and kept crying the whole day, when Haru left for Tokyo - he'd been inconsolable for days afterwards, and at that point that was when Rei knew. It could have been a lot of things, it could have been that Haru was a very important friend, or a reference point in Nagisa's life, but there were other things. There was the way Nagisa's fingers always trailed searched for Haruka's hand whenever they were standing close, the complicity he'd always look for from him, a unique and flaming rage in Haruka's eyes whenever he would catch anyone even implying anything negative about Nagisa and the savage protectiveness he would show towards the younger boy. There was a long-time connection, a bubble Rei had never managed being a part of.
For a while, it had been alright. It was no bother that Nagisa had other friends - actually, at first Rei thanked the Gods for that since that meant less time spent with Nagisa incessantly badgering him to join a swim club - but then it had slowly, gradually started itching in his stomach, to the point of irritation. Sometimes, he would spend entire days not smiling, not being able to focus on his homework, simply because he'd seen Nagisa brush his hand against Haruka's. Sometimes, he would go to sleep pathetically hoping for a goodnight text from Nagisa, but Nagisa had stopped sending those at some point.
And then one day, after Haruka had left to go to Tokyo and pursue his swimming career, Rei received a phone call from Nagisa, which he spent almost entirely in complete silence.
"I think I'm in love with Haru-chan. I know he's a guy, but I can't help it! I think about it all the time, and I really miss him... Rei-chan, what do I do?"
Of course, there was one answer and it was the obvious thing.
"You should go to him and look for a job there. Maybe study too, so you can get a good job. I can help you, if you want," he'd heard himself reply. Despite the cracks letting ice in his chest, and the tightness of his lungs. Despite his affection turning into infection and flaring painfully, cold up his throat and tense down his stomach, an illness clenching his throat whenever Nagisa was around.
He'd said he didn't believe in such an illogical thing as love, but then Nagisa courted him, danced around him and wrapped himself around him. Dug a space for himself in Rei's chest with all of his noise and chaos, and made him care. But it's not his fault. It's nobody's fault.
The knot in his throat lingers, heavy and thick, it forces itself up and Rei swallows once, twice until it stays down long enough to say, "have a good flight."
His voice came out slightly scratched out and ruined. Nagisa's eyes shoot up to Rei's own purple ones, but only find a small, fond smile on his best friend's lips.
"Oh, Rei-chan, I'll miss you so much!" Nagisa whines, finally throwing himself against Rei's chest and tying his arms around the taller's body, with his head fitting perfectly under Rei's chin and his face nuzzling softly into the other's chest. And it's like they fit, it's right like that, it's a perfect alternative and– it would be so perfect. It would be simply logical. Nagisa and Rei's balance of each other is almost scientific, like they were built to give one another what the other lacks in. And Nagisa is right there, in his arms. How much would it take to keep him in Iwatobi, next to Rei, and then to take him away? Would he be able to make Nagisa forget about his deeply rooted love for blue raging eyes and mysterious, yet calm silences?
His arms tense around Nagisa, but he only allows his nose to inhale a bit of Nagisa's scent before he lets go and the warmth of Nagisa's body, the harmless electricity he seems to always bring with him, abandons him.

It would be out of place to say anything now, it would only inconvenience everybody. It would be a problem, it would tangle all of their friendships irreparably. It's too late to open his lips and let his heart show. And Haruka is a good man. He showed many times he can take care of Nagisa better than anyone else, and Nagisa can take care of him and give him what he needs. Nagisa is a motor force, and Haruka seems to need a push every now and then. They can also work.
He presses his lips tightly, in a stretched out smile, before brushing his hand on top of Nagisa's soft, fluffy, wild mane that releases a gentle scent of strawberry shampoo. He hasn't changed at all. And maybe next time they'll meet, he'll be a different person entirely... but Rei looks straight into big magenta eyes with his eyes widening just slightly.
It would be so easy to lean over just a little and press a soft peck on Nagisa's lips, just as a goodbye. For a moment, the idea of embarrassment or complications disappear completely from the back of his mind, but he takes a step back instead, with that pull fading within seconds. He sees Nagisa blinking with a confused, maybe surprised air, but he smiles a bit wider, a bit easier, and his eyes dart to the speakers announcing Nagisa's flight open for boarding.
"It's your flight, Nagisa-kun, go or you'll miss it," he says, and looks at his friend and his mother glance at one another before exchanging a quick hug.
And then Nagisa grabs the handle of his trolley - it's too late to stop him now - and smiles, giving Rei the brightest grin.
"Bye, mom. Bye, Rei-chan, I'll see you soon!" He chirps, oblivious.
"Yeah," Rei hums, while Nagisa's mom waves a hand as she looks her son trot away towards the gate.
"Are you okay, Rei-kun?" She asks him once Nagisa's disappeared.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm just going to miss him, you know? I mean, he's good company," Rei says, with a small shrug.
"I'm sure he'll miss you too," she replies, gently, and Rei glances over to the gate again, with that pull to the middle of his chest and to his throat again.
He gives her a nod, then, while the icy knot descends all of a sudden to his stomach and tears threaten to appear in his eyes. How silly. He's almost twenty by now, I'm a man. So he smiles wider, swallowing the bitter mouthful and sending it down to the most remote recess of his guts.
"He'd better miss me," he says, with a giggle, before sliding his hands in his own pockets. "So... I should go. I told my friends I would cook lunch for them..."
His friends did invite themselves over, in fact. It's really better to go home. He has things to do, food to cook, his place to clean, people to host, stories to tell. He's got his own life to take care of, even though there won't be any more of that warmth and strawberry bubbly scent around him for a long time.
Nagisa's mother nods, with a gentle smile, and after looking outside the window, to the plane that's boarding, she leaves. Rei looks as well, to try and spot a familiar blond head, but after squinting for a while they're all boarded and he didn't see Nagisa. Well, that's fine. He'll wait for his text. They'll talk over the phone. They'll think of one another, and send each other gifts, and Rei's love won't be for nothing after all.
'I won't get hung up over this,' he tells himself. 'It's not like he left forever.'
He takes a long, deep breath, and nods to the floor as he turns around and leaves.

Haruka is sitting in the waiting area, with a newspaper on his lap, sunglasses and a scarf around his neck and mouth, so that people won't recognize him and come over to talk to him uselessly. But Nagisa finds him right away, he trots over to him and smiles, with a chirp of "Haru-chan!"
Haruka looks around, to make sure nobody noticed, and finally he lets himself smile and spread his arms, to welcome his smaller boyfriend and let him chat his ear away. Closing his eyes for a moment, relief floods him as his shoulders relax, and his hand rubs circles on Nagisa's back before he looks over at Nagisa.
"Welcome to Tokyo," he hums, receiving a bright smile and an excited look. And this is only the beginning.