Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club THERE'S A THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND ANNOYANCE

"I don't know." Makoto sighed. "I think it's just something I find a little annoying."

"Annoying? Speaking of annoying." Rin leaned his elbows onto his knees as he finally _really_ entered the conversation. "My roommate? Yeah, I don't know if I can keep this thing up."

Haru rolled his eyes. "That has nothing to do with this conversation, but okay, sure. Tell us what's wrong _now_."

"It'd be easier to tell you what _isn't_ wrong." Rin groaned, lowering his brows.

"Or we could go that route." Makoto sighed, letting the previous conversation die as he leaned against the brick wall behind them.

"I mean, for starters, he's the most _excitable person_ known to man." Rin shook his head. "And when he gets excited, he shouts a lot, and hops around our room, and it's the _worst_."

"You can't be frustrated with him for being _happy_, Rin." Makoto tried.

"Yes I can."

"Thrilling conversation." Haru added, leaning back against the wall as well.

This kind of thing happened _every time_ they invited Rin out. It was to the point that Haru would groan every time Makoto suggested bringing him. He liked Rin – of course he did, they were friends – but all he ever did was whine about this roommate of his, who was actually perfectly sweet and lovable. Rin would go on and on and _on_ for years about the guy, and how terrible he was, when he was really listing some of the most endearing traits that a person could ever even _have_. It always devolved into blabbing about the 'worst' things about him, which was really just him squabbling to find something to keep talking about. It was stupid, and Haru usually stopped paying attention half way through.

"Like, have I even mentioned his _face_?" Rin blurted dropping his head in his hands. "First of all – it should be illegal for a guy's hair to be that soft. It's so a_nnoying_. Like, what did you _do_? I can tell you what he does."

In Haru's mind, he instantly thought '_Nobody was asking' _but kept his mouth shut.

"He uses women's shampoo and conditioner. I've asked him about it and he says that he likes the way it smells better. Which is logical and all, but _really_? And then those eyes, damn it."

_There's nothing wrong with his eyes_, Haru thought, glaring at Rin around Makoto.

Rin huffed, his shoulders sagging. "Haru, thanks for having actual blue eyes. Thank you for making sense. But _his_? They're way too intense. That isn't even humanly possible. How do you do that?"

_He didn't _do_ anything. He was born with them,_ Haru tapped his feet, thoroughly bored with this conversation.

"Plus, he has this thing where he like _needs_ to walk on the left side of me and I don't under-"

He was just delving into this topic when Haru leaned over to Makoto. "Can I tell him about his crush?"

"No, Haru, you can't." Makoto whispered back, a smile to plastered across his face.

Haru groaned. "Then can I at least tell him to shut up?"

"That's not nice, Haru." Makoto shook his head. "You've got to let him get it out."

"Are you guys even listening?" Rin whined, shaking Makoto's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah." Makoto blinked, like he'd been doing his best not to fall asleep this whole time. "Cute lips and soft skin, I hear you. The worst."

"I didn't say _cute_, I said _nice_."

"My bad. An unforgivable mistake I've made."

Haru wanted to cry.

* * *

'_And I can bring Ai, right?'_

That was it. Those were the exact, excited, happy words that left Rin's mouth when Makoto invited him out to go with them to the karaoke bar. And, of _course_ Makoto said yes. Ai was always a delight to have around. But Haru mentioned how _annoying_ Rin found him, as if that were an incentive to ban the kid from coming along. And yet, here they were, trudging down the street from Haru's house to go sing some songs together.

Makoto lead the group, with Ai bouncing along behind him between Rin and Haru, with Rin standing on the edge nearest the street. Ai was easy to get on with, so Haru had no problem holding a conversation with him – it was Rin who made things kind of awkward. In a good way. A good, staring at Ai with these lovey dovey eyes and completely not paying attention to the conversation so he had to try to play it off whenever anyone tried to include him, sort of way.

At one point, Rin let out a loud sound. "Ah! Wait."

The entire group paused as Rin hesitated, stuttering a bit.

"A-Ai. Hold on a second."

"What is it?" Ai asked, eyes glittering with a smile.

"You don't like this, do you?" Rin replied, moving almost robotically.

Ai tilted his head to the side. Like a cute puppy. Oh gosh.

Rin grabbed the boy's hand with one of his own, then switched it to the other as he continued. "You like to stand on my left, don't you?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah."

"So... why don't you?"

Ai stiffened, unsure of how to answer. "I didn't think it mattered to you! And, besides, I wanted to talk to Nanase -"

"Haru." Haru corrected him.

"Haruka-senpai."

"Of course it matters." Rin scrunched his nose up, pulling Ai to the other side of him. "Oh, but, augh."

"Huh?" Ai asked, sort of in a daze because _ohmygosh hand holding is happening right now_.

"I don't want you to stand closest to the..."

Haru rolled his eyes. "I'll go over there, okay? Can we get moving again?" He asked, side-stepping around the pair so that their order was reversed.

"Is everyone alright back here?" Makoto asked, trying to get the group going again.

"Yeah, we're good." Rin replied, wrapping an arm around Ai's shoulders and burying a hand in his hair as he started walking with the younger boy.

Haru furrowed his brows as he followed behind them. He couldn't keep this up. Rin so didn't deserve that kid.

"Weird how you care. You know. Since you said the whole left side thing gets on your nerves."

Rin felt a shiver roll down his spine, and hoped that Ai hadn't heard what Haru said, nor felt the falter of his footsteps.

"And it wouldn't kill you to get your hand out of his hair." Haru added, rolling his eyes as he called up to them. "Since how _soft_ it is really _grinds your nerves_."

"Ai!" Rin blurted, looking down on the shorter boy. "You should really go talk to Makoto. The guy loves you." He said, shoving Ai forward into Makoto.

Rin stopped walking, so Haru accidentally slammed into his back. "You're the worst."

"I'm just reminding you." Haru muttered, elbowing Rin out of his way. "I thought you hated all of those things. But it looks to me like you're enjoying them an awful lot."

"It doesn't – It's not -" Rin quickly grew flustered. "It doesn't mean anything!"

Up ahead, Ai had managed to fall into step with Makoto, glancing back to the other two every now and then.

"Are you alright, Ai?" Makoto asked, poking the boy's shoulder.

Ai immediately snapped to attention, nodding. "Yeah... it's just – does Matsuoka-senpai really complain about me so much?"

Makoto blinked, then quickly shook his head. "No, no! Not at all. I don't think complain is the word to use."

"Really? Because, annoying is how Haruka-senpai said he describes me."

"Rin doesn't complain about you." Makoto patted Ai on the back. "He rambles about you. Gushes about you, really." He shrugged. "Either way, he can't stop talking about you."

"Me?"

Makoto took his turn to flick his eyes back to Rin, who was blushing and sulking with his hands in his pockets as he ignored Haru. "Yup. He just can't ever seem to get you off of his mind. I think you brighten his day."

Ai's face lit up. "_I_ brighten Matsuoka-senpai's _day_? I don't know if – I don't think that – oh my -"

But Makoto cut him off there. "He _does_ complain about you calling him Matsuoka-senpai, though."

"He _does_?"

"It gets on his nerves." Makoto nodded, sure of himself. "He wants to hear you say his name more."

And that made _Ai_blush because oh gosh, really, he wants him to say his name more? It had always been a really sensitive topic for him anyway but-

"Why _do_ you like to stand on his left side, anyway?"

Ai clasped his hands behind his back, looking off to the side. "The answer to that is kind of weird."

Makoto sighed. "It can't be any weirder than a guy who gets angry whenever he's in love."

And Makoto felt bad for giving such a blatant hint, but was also extremely lucky that Ai didn't catch it as he began talking. "It's like, I'm right handed. And I _figured_, if Rin-senpai ever held my hand, I'd want it to be that one." Ai nodded. "So I could make sure I totally feel it. All of it."

"That's cute." Makoto smiled at Ai, totally meaning that.

"_What_'s cute?" Rin suddenly barged into the conversation, wrapping an arm around Ai's waist this time. "Huh?"

"He is." Makoto replied, not intimidated at all.

"Obviously. You don't need to point it out." Rin responded, tightening his grip on the boy.

Makoto chuckled. "No need to get defensive about it."

"I'm not being defensive."

"If you say so."

* * *

"_And then_, he sticks around with me after swim practice _every time_ I do it." Rin threw his arms out to the side, yelling into the sky. "Like come _on_ dude, maybe I just want some time to be alone with my self-deprecating thoughts!"

"_Makoto_." Haru growled through his teeth, watching as Rin paced back and forth from his kitchen into the living room.

"_Haru_." Makoto said in a warning tone, flipping to the next page of his book.

Haru really did his best to obey Makoto's silent orders. But after another four minutes of Rin whining about this perfectly perfect boy, he'd had enough. He stood up. He grabbed the front of Rin's shirt, pulling him close.

"Literally _every thing_ you complain about is _exactly_ the stuff that makes you love him." Haru said, doing his best to keep his anger short and to the point.

"Love him?" Rin screwed his face up, pulling out of Haru's grip. "What are you talking about? That's stupid."

Haru stared at Rin. Rin stared back. Rin got bored and began pacing again.

"And then there's his _voice_ and his _body structure_, like, how are you so small, but still normal height? You make me feel huge. And you're so lanky and your voice is _so_ high pitched – how are you even anywhere near my age? Are you like, twelve?"

Haru looked at Makoto. Makoto was grinning into his book as he shrugged.

"I told you, you can't."

"I'm so tired of this." Haru mumbled, sinking back down next to Makoto on the floor.

The team captain handed Haru his music player, letting the dark haired boy drown out Rin's complaints.

Six minutes later, Rin was still going, Makoto had finished his book, and Haru was getting kind of hungry. He removed the headphones, Makoto put the book down, and in that moment Rin came coasting back into the living room.

"And like, oh my _god_ is he pretty – _so_ pretty – gorgeous even. His face is so nice to look at. And he's so fun to touch because he _let's you_ and he giggles at like _everything_ and oh, holy shit, I'm in love with him."

Haru and Makoto's eyes shot up to Rin instantly. Rin was standing in the middle of the room, facing them, feet shoulder width apart, arms spread out, face flushed, eyes staring fearfully back at them.

"Holy shit."

"He did it." Makoto said blankly, watching Rin intently. "He finally did it."

Rin crumpled to his knees. "Holy shit."

"_Finally_." Haru mumbled, watching him too.

Rin doubled over into child's pose. "Oh man, what the fuck."

Makoto hesitated for a second, then cupped his hands around his mouth as he shouted at Rin, "You love Ai! You have for a long time!"

Haru snickered. "You call him Ai. You've been calling him _love_ for months now."

"How was I supposed to know!" Rin screamed pounding his fist into the ground.

"Now you do." The two both said in unison.

"What do I do _now_?" Rin screeched, gripping his own hair in his hands. "What? _What_?"

Makoto shrugged. "I don't know."

"I'm hungry." Haru nodded to himself, standing and heading to the kitchen.

Rin halted for a second. Then he rolled onto his back, and pulled out his cell phone. He quickly dialed Ai's number, and let it ring.

Ai picked up. "Hello? How are you Rin? It's so nice to get a call from you!"

"I LOVE YOU." Rin screamed.

Ai was silent. Rin was silent. Makoto was silent. Haru was laughing in the kitchen.

"Well alright then." Ai replied in a quiet voice.

Rin ended the call right then. "What did I just do?"

"I – I don't really know." Makoto replied, jaw slack as he stared at the phone in Rin's hand.

A crash was heard in the kitchen alongside Haru's loud laughter.

"I DROPPED THE MACKEREL."


End file.

Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, Humor, Romance