Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club 1. Math

Anna was entirely used to being stared at. She was a tall foreigner, not to mention she was the new kid – like that wasn't already enough. She stuck out like a sore thumb wherever she went: shopping, the post office, the station...

But as she looked down at her now soaked school uniform, her wet hair sticking to her face, she felt herself burn up underneath the gaze of the three guys watching her from the edge of the pool. Especially the one who had invited her there.

–

"Your Japanese is so good!" her classmates giggled as everyone began to settle in the class room. Anna had been attending Iwatobi High School for just one day and she'd already made friends. That was a personal best. She hadn't been great at that – she actually had a terrible track record. "How long have you been here?"

"Iwatobi?" She asked. "Oh, we moved here about a week ago from Sendai," she explained. "But I've been in Japan for... hmm. It's been two years since we left Australia?"

"Sendai?" the girl asked. Her name was Taya, and she'd stuck to Anna like glue since spotting her the day before. "Wow, it must be so weird moving here from such a big city."

Anna shook her head. "Not really. My father is an English professor. I'm used to moving."

"Well, your Japanese is perfect." Anna smiled at this as the teacher began to give the lesson. That was a lie. A well intended one, sure, but a lie. She could hold most conversations, sure. But her accent was nearly painful, and she struggled with kanji. In fact, if you asked her to read under pressure, she struggled with _everything._ Luckily for her, though. This was math class. At least that made sense, and now that it was time to work through their text books, it was clear sailing until lunch time...

Oh no.

She opened her textbook and her eyes widened. Whatever the book was asking her to do, it was asking her using a kanji she had never seen before, and there wasn't anything else to indicate what it meant, either. She quickly turned the page back. She _hated_ asking for help reading. She was 16, and nothing made her more embarrassed than having someone read for her like a child. Maybe there'd be an instruction that she could go off, or an example, or... _or..._

"Do you have a pencil sharpener?"

She gave a little jump, so tense that the polite question from the guy on her right scared the _hell_ out of her. She quickly reached into her pencil case, taking a sharpener and offering it to him, not actually looking up from her textbook as she did so.

"...Are you okay?" He asked, before carefully taking the sharpener out of his hand. His voice became lower. "You'll hurt your back with that kind of posture."

"Erm. Right." Anna shook her head, closing her eyes and sitting back up properly. She just had to focus. If she focused, she could remember where she'd seen that kanji before.

She stared at the page, listening to him sharpen his pencil before he placed the sharpener back on to her desk. "...Do you need help?"

"Help? No, I'm ok."

"You've been staring at the page for 3 minutes, 20 seconds," the voice pointed out, even quieter than before, as though he could sense her embarrassment. Had it really been that obvious? She felt her stomach tighten. Oh god, if she didn't work it out soon the entire _class_ would figure it out, and then they'd all think she was dumb and...

Reluctantly, she pointed to the kanji responsible, turning to finally look at him with a pleading expression. Blue hair, glasses... she'd seen him before, but he was quiet and they'd never actually spoken. His eyes drifted to where her finger sat, fixated for a moment before he pushed his glasses back up his nose and tilted his work-paper towards her so she could see it. Oh. Oh _that's_ what it was asking her to do! "Thanks," she whispered, looking around to check if anyone noticed. If they had, they weren't letting it on. With that, she returned to her own work.

It wasn't until the lunch bell rang that she so much as looked at him again, she was _that_ embarrassed. He must have thought she was such an idiot. "Thanks for before..." she mumbled as she rose from her seat, not wanting to look him directly in the eye.

"If you are struggling, you should ask for help."

She paused, the firmness in his tone surprising her. Was he... was he _telling her off?_ "Thanks, but I don't usually have a problem with-"

"I've seen you do it before," he interrupted, closing his book. "Yesterday, during literature. You skipped a word in a verse while reading aloud."

"You noticed?" Anna winced.

"If you'd asked for help, you wouldn't have had to skip it. Your Japanese is almost perfect, even with your accent." He paused. "Not that your accent is _bad_, but you don't sound like a native speaker. I mean. Uh." To her surprise, he followed this with a small smile, and she was a little taken aback by how nice it was. "Sorry."

"No... it's um. It's fine." She returned the smile, if not weakly. "Anna Welsh. Nice to meet you."

"Ryugazaki.. uh. Rei." People never seemed sure what order to give their names to her. It was almost as awkward as she was. "I'm Rei." He gave her another smile. "How do you like it here?"

"It's... um... nice," Anna shrugged, looking around. "Quieter than my old school, and everyone's been really friendly. ...Although I'm not sure if they're just doing that because they want me in their clubs." She brushed some of her hair back behind her ear.

He nodded, apparently understanding her predicament. "Transfer students are always popular with club recruiters. Do you know what club you'll join yet?"

"Well, the tennis club asked me to come and watch them train today... but I think they assume I'm good at tennis because I'm a foreigner. Apparently there's a swim club, but I don't even think there's a pool here... I mean it wasn't listed in the pamphlet they gave me when I enrolled."

Rei raised an eyebrow. "You swim?" He asked.

"Not professionally or anything," she shrugged, "but I did it for fun back home. And it gets so humid here in the summers... couldn't hurt to swim after school on those days."

As Rei opened his mouth to reply, a hand suddenly came to rest on his shoulder, silencing him – although through surprise, more than anything else. "The new transfer student is a swimmer?" asked a voice as her eyes moved to it's owner. "Rei-Chan! We have to invite her to practice!"

"Nagisa!" He snapped, his face going a little red if Anna wasn't mistaken. "You haven't even introduced-"

"Nagisa Hazuki!" The blond chimed, reaching out and taking her hand and shaking it with a _little too much energy for her._ "I'm a second year and I like strawberries and horror movies." He was still shaking her hand and practically leaning over Rei by this point, and Anna decided to carefully pull it away from him before he tore her arm off. "I'm the treasurer of the Iwatobi Swim Club and you should come to practice tonight! It'll be great!"

"Oh, um, wow," Anna gave a nervous laugh, glancing between Nagisa and the obviously embarrassed Rei, who was now rubbing his temple in frustration. "But surely you already have too many people for me to come on such short notice-"

"Nope!" Nagisa responded. "If anything, we don't have _enough_ people as it is! Please come and watch? Just once? Please?"

She looked to Rei, who gave an exhale. "We _do _only have the minimum amount of members required. If you're free, it would be nice. Gou would appreciate the possibility of a new member."

"But... I only really _said_ I can swim and... and..." she glanced around. This was awkward, and she guessed she kind of owed the guy for helping her. Or, well, not owed him. But... she gave a sigh. "I guess I was going to check it out anyway, so..."

"Perfect!" Nagisa pumped his fist in the air, grinning from ear to ear. "A girl on the team! How exciting!"

Rei gave yet _another_ exhale. "She didn't say she's _joining._" Rei glanced up to her. "I can show you where the pool is when school's finished," he offered. "I mean, you might not know where it is yet, because you're new. Not to suggest that you don't know where anything is yet, or that-"

"That'd be great," she interrupted, a little amused by his babbling. She couldn't quite pin his personality. He _seemed_ confident, sure, but then there were little slip ups. Like he couldn't stop himself from talking. "I'll meet you by the cafeteria?"

–-

"Thanks for showing me how to get to the pool," Anna said as they walked across the track field, watching the track club set up a high-jump as they passed. "I didn't even know Iwatobi High _had_ a pool."

"There wasn't one for a long time. No one used it until recently, so it had fallen to disrepair," he explained as they found themselves approaching the building on the other side of the field. "The Swim club reformed repaired it last year, though."

"The _swim club_ fixed an entire pool?" Anna asked, her eyes widening a little bit at the structure they were approaching. "That's amazing. You guys must be super dedicated, huh?"

Rei smiled, reaching up to bump his glasses back up his nose. "That was before I joined... but you're right. Their determination is inspiring."

"You... haven't always been a swimmer?" She raised an eyebrow at this. It's not like she'd seen him without a shirt yet, but he was definitely athletic under there, she could tell that much from his arms when he took his blazer off.

"I was part of the track club," he explained. "But Nagisa..." Rei smiled to himself as they reached the gate of the pool. "...Nagisa was persistent." He reached up and opened the gate, holding it open for her. As she stepped past, her heart stopped.

Before her were a group of three men, seemingly around her age, shirtless. Or, well, one of them was already in the pool, doing laps. But the others were just standing there. No shirts. Talking. Without shirts. She didn't consider this. She hadn't prepared herself for this. _They were all hot._ Any shred of charisma she might have had vanished, and all of a sudden she felt like every movement she was making was wrong.

"Rei-Chan!" Nagisa laughed when they reached the poolside group, waving enthusiastically. "You brought Anna-Chan!" It took a moment for Anna to realise that Nagisa was being a little more informal with her than she was entirely comfortable with, but by the time she did, she also realised he was stepping towards her. No. _Advancing on her._ With his arms open.

Oh god. She stepped back. He was trying to hug her. Without a shirt. Bare skin. Oh god she couldn't possibly... Anna stumbled back, bewildered, not noticing the Olive haired boy warn her about the pool-

Next thing she knew, she was cold. Her head was under and she kicked her legs, bringing herself to the surface. Anna grabbed the edge of the pool, gasping for breath, and when she collected herself she realised that _everyone_ was staring at her in complete silence. Rei, Nagisa, the Olive haired boy, the red head girl who'd just arrived with towels, even the one who'd been doing laps had stopped.

Great.


	2. Flex

The silence was so strong that you could have heard a pin drop had it not been for the splashing of the water around her. For an entire moment, everyone stood, watching with wide eyes as Anna looked down at herself – soaked and in the pool.

Nagisa eventually threw his hands to his mouth, trying his best to stifle a giggle, while Rei raised his hands to his head. "Nagisa!" he cried. "What if she'd drowned?!"

"I'm fine," she called to him. "Really." Anna was doing her best to hide her anger, but it wasn't the effort that was making her successfull. It's that she wasn't sure how to convery the simmering rage she felt using her limited language skills. It was then she heard a new voice, one that came from the water.

"You're in my lane."

Anna blinked, turning a little to get a look at whoever it was that had been doing laps. He waded in the water, keeping himself upright whilst staring at her. Not like the others, oh no. He was staring her _down._ "Uh..." Anna could hardly believe this guy. She hadn't even meant to fall in, it just happened, and... she shook her head. There was no point arguing. She'd already been embarassed enough. As she moved aside on the edge so that he could have his precious lane back, Rei extended her a hand.

"I'm so sorry!" he began, waiting for her to take his hand. "That was... I... Nagisa... he didn't mean..." as he helped her climb over the edge of the pool, he found himself stuttering. At least Anna wasn't the only one who was embarassed – although she was struggling to figure out _why_ he was turning so red. It wasn't like he'd-

When she stood up, it suddenly became _alarmingly_ clear why. Her clothes were saturated, and she was... well... Anna quickly crossed her arms to cover her chest, too horrified to even gasp. It was when she began to consider cutting her losses and just legging it back across the track field that she felt a towel drape around her shoulders. "_Ohkay!_" The redhead girl announced, laughing nervously. "Let's just get a towel on you and..." she glanced at the boys, unimpressed. "Does anyone have a change of clothes?"

"Here," said the olive haired boy, unzipping his jacket to reveal... _ohgodiseveryoneatthisschoolripped?_ Anna barely noticed him offer it to her. "You can borrow this." He smiled warmly as she carefully reached out accept it.

"Thank you... uh?"

"Makoto."

Before she could say anything else, the red headed towel-giver spoke again, leaning down and inspecting her backside, much to Anna's horror. "Hmmm... I _have_ some gym shorts you could borrow, but I don't think they'd fit those glutes of yours..."

"Kou!" Rei exclaimed, seeming more and more stressed by the second. "You can't just say that to a girl!"

"Yes I can!" She argued. "_Girls_ are allowed to say these things to each other!"

Anna nervously laughed, trying to just end the entire situation. "Look, it's fine, the worst part was my shirt. I can survive wearing-"

"Rei!" Gou ordered. "Go ask the track club if anyone has any spare shorts."

Eyes wide, Anna shook her head from side to side. "No, no, look, _really_ it's _fine,_ my skirt's already started drying and-" before she could continue, Gou had grabbed the towel and started scruffing her hair with it in an attempt to dry it. "Wow, you guys are really... really... _really..._" Anna wanted to say 'overbearing,' but she couldn't remember the word for it, so she gave up. Not only was she soggy and being towelled off by people who she'd only just met, but now the track club was going to know about it.

–

"Nagisa says you might be joining the swim club," Gou said from outside the changing cubicle where Anna was doing a terrible job at being glamorous. Although, really, it was probably impossible to be anything but horribly awkward when changing out of your drenched school uniform and into a stranger's clothes and some shorts that still smelled like that horrible plastic they wrap them in. "I hope the accident didn't put you off!"

"It didn't..." Anna lied. It totally _had._ In fact, all she was thinking about was finding an excuse to leave early and get away from there as quickly as she possibly could – but she didn't exactly want to hurt anyone's feelings, either. "But I'm still not sure if I'll join. I mean, it's been a long time since I've done any swimming."

Gou laughed. "That's ok! Rei couldn't swim at all when _he_ joined, and _now _look at him and his deltoids!" Anna raised an eyebrow. She wasn't sure if Gou was some kind of anatomy expert or just had no reservations about that kind of stuff. Sure, Anna had looked, but she never... well she wouldn't _say_ it out loud. "Say... you're from Australia, right?"

Pulling the cord in the waistband of the shorts as tight as she could (foreigners were a little bigger, sure, but surely they didn't think she needed shorts _this_ big?) and tying it into a knot, Anna couldn't help but wonder how frumpy she must have looked right now. "I sure am."

"My brother studied abroad there. What's it like?"

Opening the door, Anna shrugged. "Hot. Dry. Full of... um..." _Racists._ Why could she never remember what the word for that was?

Gou suddenly burst into giggles. "You're so cute!" Anna raised an eyebrow as she continued, leading her out of the change rooms and towards the pool. "Your accent and the way you trail off sometimes. I bet you must have lots of guys who have crushes on you. So exotic and mysterious, with such strong glutes!"

"Erm. Thank... you?" There really hadn't been a need for that sentence to go any further than the part where it talked about her accent, but she hadn't really needed to fall into the pool, either. The more and more she thought about it, the more and more she was excited to _go home._ As they reached the pool, she started to think about excuses to leave. _I'm cold. I have an assignment. I just remembered some...thing._ Anything that meant she could get away from...

Their jackets were all off.

She watched as they dove into the water, the late afternoon sun illuminating each dip and hill as it plunged in to the water. So many muscles. Such flexing... Anna's mouth was probably open, but she couldn't really do anything about it. They all began to swim in an impromptu race, but it was Rei that caught her eye. _That_ was the mastermind that sat next to her during that math class? _That_ specimen with perfect, toned, chiselled arms and shoulders that glistened in the water?

"...So, interested in joining yet?" Gou asked, her eyes in the exact same place that Anna's was.

"Where do I sign up?"


	3. Red

She should have thought about this more.

As Anna stared at the plastic-wrapped horror by her feet in the change-room cubicle, she wondered why she hadn't realised this sooner. The reality was that, as a member of the swimming club, she would have to swim... which would involve the object of her nightmares, clinging to her, showing off all her gross parts.

A swimsuit.

Maybe she would have considered this when she'd signed up the week before if she wasn't so distracted by the other members. She was sure Gou had mentioned buying her a swimsuit at some stage. 'Something to match the others, that accentuates your superior glutes and strong upper thighs' may have been mentioned, but Mako was stretching at the time and you could guess what grabbed Anna's attention.

Anna unwrapped the plastic, wincing the entire time. This was one of her worst nightmares and she had walked right in to it. The swimsuit was a one piece, and while it wasn't a gross baywatch high-cut, it wasn't exactly a boy-leg Olympic style one, either. It was a regular bikini cut on the bottom, but that wasn't the part that had worried her. She climbed into it, gritting her teeth as she felt it cling to her skin, and as soon as it was on and she'd caught a glance at her reflection, she quickly pulled on her new swim club jacket, zipping it as high as she could.

Taking a deep breath, she ventured outside to the pool, one arm tight over her chest, grabbing her upper arm, nervously glancing around. She was tall, foreign and vastly outnumbered by boys whilst in a swimsuit. Her palms started to sweat when she realised she'd caught Mako's eye.

"Hey! You're one of the team now!" He laughed, causing the other's to come to attention. Nagisa instantly beamed, standing from his seat and clapping his hands together in celebration, while Rei sat rigidly, his face a little red. Was she making him uncomfortable? Oh god. There was something wrong. He thought she was gross. She tugged on the bottom of the jacket, hoping it would cover up a little more.

Gou gave a nod, a serious expression on her face – almost a little like a smirk, actually. Gou was planning something. "Okay!" She announced, pointing to the pool. "Freestyle! Two laps! I need to assess your technique."

Anna looked to Gou, then to the pool, giving a very meek nod before nervously stepping closer and closer to the edge. She paused when she came to the start block, turning back to look at the others. They were all watching. All of them. "Can I... Um..." Anna looked up to the sky, squinting and giving a laugh of anxiety. "You know what? The sun is _really_ bright today! I don't know if that suncreen will be enough. I might just grab a t-shirt and-"

"No!" Gou interrupted. "Your swimsuit is streamlined, a loose t-shirt will slow you down!" The coach crossed her arms. "And anyway, that sunscreen I gave you was SPF +50. Your skin is going to be _fine._"

"But..." Nagisa added. "She _is_ pale..."

"It won't even be ten minutes." Gou clapped her hands. "Come on! Let's go!"

Anna fidgeted with the zipper of the jacket. "Um... I just... really... don't... I uh..."

"Is something wrong?" Mako asked. "Did Gou buy the wrong swimsuit, maybe?"

"Oh, maybe that's why she doesn't want to take her jacket off," Nagisa mused. "Kou, why didn't you get one with legs like ours?"

"Because I don't want to restrict such powerful leg muscles," she replied, rolling her eyes, as though this was obvious to anyone but her. She frowned, putting her whistle to her lips and giving three short toots. "Come _on_!"

"I just..." Anna was bright red, now, shrugging away from potential eye contact. "I'm... everyone's looking at me and I..."

"What if we covered our eyes?" Nagisa suggested, Gou rolling her eyes.

"That's out of the question-"

"If it helps her to get in to the water," Mako interrupted, giving a smile as he raised his hands to cover his eyes, "I'm not looking! Promise."

Nagisa followed. "Me neither!"

Rei, on the other hand, instead settled to remove his glasses, folding them and placing them beside him on the bench. He closed his eyes and crossed his eyes, smiling to himself. "I can't see you from this distance without my glasses."

Uneasy, Anna looked to Gou now, who was the only one left – spare for Haru, who was doing continuous laps. She supposed he wouldn't be paying enough attention to notice her in a swimsuit, if he realised she was there at all. Gou gave a sigh, rolling her eyes and covering them with her hand in defeat. "_Fine._ But just this once!"

Glancing from person to person once more, Anna began to tug on her zipper, satisfied that no one was watching her now. She eyed the starting block. This would be like home. She used to swim so much there. Everyone swam at school during the summer, working towards the swimming carnival, nothing to worry about, not having to think about where she'd be moving next, or how different she looked, no words to remember or forget. Just her and the water and...

_Splash._

Cold. Familiar. Welcoming. Silent. Submerged in the water she was isolated, clear of everything else, beyond reach. It had been a while, but it was good to remember how calming it was beneath the water. In all honesty, she could have stayed beneath the surface for much longer if she hadn't already started to rise, her arm reaching forward to begin it's stroke like an automatic reflex. She knew this. In a country that still didn't feel like home despite her best attempts, _this_ felt as familiar as her favourite songs.

"Incredible..." Gou gasped, her eyes clear of her hands now that Anna was in the water – something they had _all_ done as soon as they heard that splash. "The power..."

"Look at her go!" Nagisa exclaimed, his eyes wide. "Rei-chan! Look!" It wasn't clear if Nagisa was actually expecting a verbal response, but he didn't get one.

Anna touched the wall, water going up her nose as she attempted to flip beneath the water. She came to the surface, grabbing the edge, sputtering a little as she turned herself around. Okay. That was rusty. Gou made a mental note of this as she watched Anna launch herself back out into the water, swimming for the other side as Nagisa and Mako shouted encouragement at their new friend.

Giving a final gasp, Anna slapped her palm against the wall of the pool, her face covered in the hair that had freed itself from her ponytail. She was out of breath. God, it had been a _while._ She quickly ducked her face back under the water, using her free hand to push what she could out of her face, and when she returned to the surface she was greeted by two smiling faces.

"That was amazing!" Mako laughed, offering his hand to her to help her from the pool.

"You were so good!" Nagisa offered his hand next.

Anna smiled up at them. "Really?" She asked. "You aren't just saying that?"

"Your technique can be improved," Rei finally spoke, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose as he approached the group. "But the force and power of your kicks... it's truly beautiful." Anna found her cheeks turning a little hot at this, but she tried to pretend it was the sun by giving a squint.

"You're like our secret weapon!" Nagisa laughed as the two helped her climb out of the pool. God, they were even _strong_. Anna was way in over her head. "You really didn't have to be so self concious, Anna-chan, you had nothing to worry abou-"

All of a sudden, the group fell silent – at the exact time Anna stood upright. For a split second, she wasn't sure what had silenced them so quickly. And then she looked down, and her face began to _burn._ She was standing in front of them in nothing but her swimsuit, still dripping wet in the sun, shining away before them. She knew what they were staring at whilst _pretending_ they weren't staring at it. She knew because all of a sudden Mako looked very uncomfortable, and Nagisa looked as though he were about to burst into giggles, and Rei... well, Rei's mouth was just kind of... hanging open.

"Oh _wow!_" Gou giggled. "So busty! The true ideal figure of a woman!" She handed Anna a towel, finding the entire thing humorous, apparently, and Anna was _positive_ she was saying it to poke fun at her. Or maybe the guys. Or both. Probably both.

Anna snatched the towel from her, quickly holding it in front of herself as a shield. "T-that's not true!" She quickly wrapped the towel around herself before crossing her arms again. "I'm not... I mean... ideal is such a strong word... I... um... _canwepleasenottalkaboutthis?_"

"Anna's right. We... um..." Mako gave a cough, the redness slowly vanishing from his face as Nagisa stifled another giggle. "We should talk about your technique. Rei, what did you think?"

Rei squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head quickly as though trying to break out of a state. "Uh, I... um..." he took a moment, clearing his throat a few times, much to Anna's embarrassment, before once again pushing his glasses back up his nose. "I don't know enough about that stroke to... um..." Rei stopped himself. Whatever he felt in his throat was apparently stuck.

"Your arms are weak," a voice spoke from the pool. At the edge, Haru had stopped his laps, gaze on Anna. Oh god. He _had_ been paying attention. "You're relying on your kicks."

"I did notice that," Mako agreed. "If you rely on your legs, you'll burn out quickly."

Suddenly, someone had grabbed her arm. Nagisa. Of course. He gripped up and down her biceps. "You're as skinny as I am!" He joked.

"Nagisa!" Rei cried, his face red once more.

As Gou lifted the bottom of Anna's towel and began to comment once more on the strength of her glutes, one thing became incredibly apparent: there were going to be a _lot_ more red faces before the day was over.


	4. Goals

"Again!" Gou ordered. "Try to not kick at all this time!"

Anna clenched her jaw. "I'm telling you, I _can't_ swim freestyle without kicking my legs. I need to kick to stay aflo-"

"Excuses!" Gou blew her whistle. "Work those arms! Build those triceps!"

Rolling her eyes, Anna took a deep breath and decided the humour her coach, who had insisted they held this extra drill to 'address her lacking triceps.' Just her and Gou. Just what she needed. ...Not. She began to attempt to swim with just her arms and not her legs, but she ended up just kind of doggy paddling. It was a total mystery to her how anyone could even swim butterfly, really. Maybe Rei was right. Maybe she just needed stronger arms...

"...What are you doing?"

An unfamiliar voice rung through the splashes as Anna struggled to keep her ears above water. Gou gave a groan. "What are _you_ doing here?" She asked. "This is Iwatobi Swim Club business."

"Delivery for you," the voice replied bluntly. "Who is that?"

"Anna Welsh!" Gou announced proudly, "Iwatobi Swim Club's secret weapon!" She was ignoring the fact Anna was floundering in the water right now, apparently.

"...Does she always swim like... that?" The voice paused. "...Is... is she _okay?_"

"Despite her unstoppable leg power, she has weak arms," Gou explained. "We're trying to fix that."

"...Hey. You. Stop."

While Anna didn't really _need_ an excuse to stop, whoever was speaking wasn't asking her to stop, but more or less delivering an order. Needless to say, she ceased immediately. Glad to be free of what was quickly turning into a humiliating lap of the pool, she looked to her rescuer, even if he was a reluctant one.

He was tall, lean like Haru, if not a little more built. His hair was the same shade as Gou's. Was this the brother she kept hearing about? Probably, logic _would_ suggest that...

"If you have weak arms, you need to do weight training," he explained. "Swimming like that doesn't do anything except make you look like an idiot." He turned to Gou. "Take her to a gym. You'll see a difference in two weeks."

"Gym?" Anna repeated. "I... I can't afford a gym."

"She's right!" Gou agreed, giving a nod and crossing her arms. "Gyms are expensive... and we don't exactly have a large budget. Unless you know somewhere she can use the weights for free, _my_ method will have to do."

He eyed her for a moment in silence, and Anna felt a little nervous. It felt like he was sizing her up, like he was a shark and she was a seal, just flopping around in the water, waiting to be chomped on. "...I know a place."

–

"I cannot actually stress how much of a bad idea this is," Anna stuttered, her eyes darting around the room, feeling her palms sweat as they stood in the centre of the Samezuka Academy gym. "Am I even allowed to be here? I don't even go here. I should probably just-"

Gou grabbed her by the arm, shaking her head. "No you don't!" She laughed. "If Rin says it's okay, it's okay. He _is_ the captain of the Swim Club here."

"But that doesn't make him the captain of the _gym,_" Anna protested, clutching her bag to her chest as Gou pushed her towards what at first looked like a bench, but was actually some kind of equipment. Rin watched as Gou guided her – if not a little forcefully – to the extension machine, her chest pressing against the bench part.

"Okay," Rin explained. "Before you hurt yourself..." he leaned down, moving the pins in the machine to a lighter weight. "You take these handles..." he took her hands, placing them where they needed to be. "And pull up..." Anna took a breath and pulled the handles towards her, holding it for a moment before letting them back down. "Like that," he nodded. "30 more of those and then we'll move to your biceps."

Rin stepped back to observe as Anna began to follow the instructions, her face a little scrunched up in discomfort. Not physically. She was a little bit embarrassed. After all, she was in a gym at what appeared to be an all boy's school that she _didn't_ _even go to_, using their weights. No wonder everyone was staring at her...

"_Okay!" _Gou exclaimed again, her face red as she rushed forward to stop Anna. Oh god. Oh _god no._ Anna knew _exactly_ what that face meant! She looked down, and surely enough her chest was pressed against the bench, her cleavage poking right out of the top of her tank top. "Let's get you a T-shirt first!"

–

"Where in Australia are you from?" Rin asked Anna – now fitted with a spare Samezuka Academy Weightlifting Club T-shirt – as she did some admittedly light bicep curls.

"Melbourne," she replied, before doing a quick double take. "Wait... I think Gou said something about you studying abroad?"

Rin gave a nod. "But that was in Sydney." He gave a shrug, looking at her through his side-eye. "I only went to Melbourne once," he began, switching to English and taking Anna _completely_ off guard. "Too cold."

She paused, staring at him, not finishing her rep. "S-sorry," she stuttered, taking a second to revert to her native language. "It's... nice to talk to someone in English. I mean, who aren't my parents. Or, like, asking me to help them study... sorry."

"Why do you live in Iwatobi?" He asked her. "There is not a lot for foreigners there."

She shrugged. "We moved to Japan a few years ago and eventually my dad took up a job as an English professor at one of the Universities nearby... I don't know why my parents chose Iwatobi, though. Maybe they just thought it was nice."

It was Rin's turn to shrug now. "I guess it is nice. Maybe if you have not lived around here for your whole life. Although... it's very different to Australia."

"Your English is so good," Anna said, a laugh in her voice. She couldn't help but smile. It was the first time in a long time someone had spoken to her in English without repeating lines from their English Language text books at her, or giggling nervously.

"Thank you," he nodded. Suddenly, though, he crossed his arms, switching back to Japanese. "Your Japanese needs work, but it is good for someone who didn't grow up here."

"Is it that obvious, Rin?" She asked, giving a final exhale as she placed down the weight. "Oh," she blinked. "_Oh!_ I'm sorry, Rin-_Senpai_. That's correct, you're older than me, right?"

Suddenly, Gou piped up from across the gym. "Hey! _Hey!_ Don't call him that!" She waved her finger at the two. "He's not in charge, he's just letting us use the gym." Unsure, Anna glanced between the two, waiting for Rin to say something.

"You don't have to call me that," he agreed, giving Anna a tiny, barely noticeable smile.

Anna gave another of her anxious laughs, placing the weight back in it's place and flexing her arms a little. "Well, it's getting a little late and my arms feel kind of like they're going to fall off..." she glanced at him. "But thanks for letting me use the gym today."

"Anything to stop you swimming like that," Rin teased, a smirk appearing across his mouth. Anna couldn't help but feel he looked a little bit like a shark when he did that, the same way he did when he was staring at her in the pool. "You're welcome to come back, though. You should make it regular."

"Really?" She asked. "Well, I can't come every day... but I have Tuesdays and Thursdays free after school."

"Works for me." Rin gave a grin when Anna delivered him a confused expression. "You think I was going to leave you to lift weights alone? You can hardly lift your own backpack without a spotter."

"Er..." she chewed her lip, wringing her hands a little at the hem of her oversized shirt. "You uh... you really don't have to do that." Anna couldn't help but feel a little bit suspicious, to be honest.

"Don't think I'm going out of my way for you," Rin dismissed. "I'm here those days anyway. Besides," he gave an exhale, tilting his head to Gou, who was admiring _someone's_ triceps from a distance. "I owe her a favour or two."

Anna shifted a little where she sat, still unsure about this. "Well... if it's okay with you... thank you. I'll be here."

"You know," he began, his voice lowered a little, "when Gou told me a girl had joined the swim club, I thought you would have been there for the... same reasons she joined." He glanced at his sister, who was now distracted by deltoids. "What's your goal, then?" He asked.

"My goal?"

Rin gave a nod. "You're coming to the rival team's gym every week, alone – Gou probably won't make the trip here every time – to lift weights in a gym that's otherwise occupied by men." He looked to her from the corner of his eye. "Most girls would be uncomfortable with that. There must be something you want."

Anna frowned. A goal. She... well, she didn't know. She wasn't going to be an Olympic swimmer, she knew that much. Or at least she didn't _think_ she would be. To be honest, she didn't even really _want_ to be one. Really, if she were to be 100% honest with Rin right now, she'd tell him she joined because – although she was initially enticed by muscles – she felt too polite to back out now. But she couldn't say that. It didn't feel right. "I... I don't know yet," she lied. A little white lie, but still a lie. "I just... feel like I should be."

"That's your homework, then," Rin announced, standing from the bench. "Figure out your goal. You can't improve if you don't have anything to to work for."

–

"Good practice, guys!" Gou exclaimed as the team towelled off from another training session. "We finished early and Mako even beat his own record time!"

"How about we do something to celebrate?" Anna asked as she hung her towel around her shoulders. "We should go get ice cream or something. My shout."

Rei raised an eyebrow. "Your... shout?" He asked. Anna found herself burning up a little bit in the face. She'd done that thing where she'd translated an idiom again and it just didn't work.

"It um. Means I'll pay," she explained. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget..."

"Don't be sorry," Mako laughed. "It sounds like fun. But you don't need to 'shout' at the ice cream, I can pay, too. It'll be nice to go out." Anna didn't have the heart to correct him.

Nagisa grinned. "Yeah! Let's go! I haven't had ice cream in _so long._"

"It _is_ a little bit hot..." Rei agreed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt, even if it does have high sugar content."

Gou gave a nod. "I know a really nice dessert place, too. I've been meaning to go back."

"It's settled then," Anna smiled, pleased to spend a little more time that didn't involve swimming with her new friends. "You coming, Haru?"

The smile Anna had on her face suddenly vanished when the response she received from Haru was less than she expected, even from him. When he spoke – which was after a period of awkward and strained silence – it was short, frank, and a little painful. "No." He turned and began to head to the change rooms. "I'm not interested."

"...Ah... o-okay..." she stammered, her face flushing again. She cleared her throat. Admittedly, she was a little bit hurt, and it didn't help when she felt Mako's hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry about Haru," he assured her, "he takes a while to warm up to people." He removed his hand and followed his friend in to the change rooms. "Come on, let's get changed and go get that ice cream."

Nagisa almost sprinted in to the change rooms, apparently more excited than anyone about getting ice cream, which didn't really surprise Anna. Still, though, even though the rest of the team was excited about spending time together, Anna couldn't help but feel a little hurt as she head to the women's change rooms. She didn't expect everyone to like her. There were _plenty_ of people who didn't like her at Iwatobi High. But this... this felt like something else.

–

"I've figured out my goal," Anna announced once the weights session was over the next week. Rin gave her a glance as she locked the cable pull back into the machine. He gave her a quizzical look, wiping off the machine he'd been using with a towel as she continued. "I want to swim as well as Haru."

Rin paused. Not just a little pause. A visible, physical pause. He didn't speak, only turning his gaze to her. There it was again. The shark. Sizing her up.

"I need to swim on his level," she added.

Rin gave an exhale, standing upright and crossing his arms. "If you're looking to beat Haru, you have a long road ahead of you."

"It's not about beating him," she corrected. For the first time since Rin had met her, his sister's friend wasn't bearing an uncomfortable or nervous expression. She was entirely confident, she believed what she was saying. "If I swim on his level, Haru will respect me." She looked downward for a flickering second, before locking eyes with Rei. "I don't want to beat him. I want to earn his respect." It felt like it was only them in that moment, despite the final few students clearing out of the gym and pool for the day.

There was a long silence between them, and for a fleeting moment she could have _sworn_ she saw Rin's eyes widen, his face flinch, just a little bit. "...In the pool."

"...W-what?" She stuttered. That had taken her entirely off guard.

"You had swim practice before this, no?" He asked. "So you have your swimsuit. In the pool."

With that, Rei immediately began to make his way to the pool area, Anna standing in shock, still not entirely understanding what was happening. "I... sorry... can we just take a minute and slow down and-"

"You want to swim on Haru's level, right?" He asked, looking at her over his shoulder. "You can't do that unless you're in the water." The intensity of his eye contact was like a _razor._ It genuinely felt hot, like her eyes would burn if she held his gaze for too long.

Relieved that he hadn't laughed at her or dismissed her and feeling encouraged, Anna grabbed her backpack and followed Rin. "Let's do this, Rin-Senpai."

As long as he was willing to help her with her crazy goal, he could be in charge.


End file.

Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, Humor, Romance