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The Duck and the Penguin	By : 3phemeral Category: +. to F > Free! Views: 1633 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Free! or Free! Eternal Summer, nor do I own the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Rei arrived shortly thereafter, and Nagisa finally felt free. Rei hung around the familiar Nagisa, and Nagisa laughed with him, and they swam with the handful of Samezuka swimmers. Gou was energetic the whole time, and Nitori helped her give the practice some structure, but Nagisa was keenly aware that the atmosphere was… awkward at best. After the pool had emptied, Rei, Nagisa, and Gou sat on the edge, feet dangling in the water.
“Well, that was hardly beautiful,” Rei said.
“That’s a little harsh, Rei-chan…” Nagisa said.
“But it wasn’t.”
“Well, it’s our Iwatobi High,” Nagisa said.
“We offered it proudly,” Gou said. “We should have done more mingling.”
“They didn’t really want it, though,” Nagisa said. “It’s hard to pry that out of people.”
Gou sighed and leaned back on her hands. “Can’t get new members, can’t improve relations with Samezuka… what’s gonna happen to us after this year?”
“Well, we can always keep swimming,” Nagisa said. “Even if the school club is gone, we still have ISCR. There are still plenty of competitions.” He smiled at Rei. “We can still swim together!”
“And maybe Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai will be there too!” Rei said.
“We’ll have to see, I guess,” Nagisa said.
“We could try transferring,” Gou said.
The door to the locker room opened and Nitori walked back into the pool area. He padded along the edge in his casual clothes and swim team jacket and stood next to the the trio.
“Thank you very much for hosting us!” he said with a bow.
“Thank you very much for coming!” Nagisa said, beaming.
“We apologize for our humble accomodations!” Rei blabbered, leaning forward and bowing over the water.
“Thank you for obliging us,” Gou said.
“So… with that, I guess I’m off,” Nitori said.
“What about the others?” Rei said.
“Oh, I sent them home ahead,” Nitori said.
“Well, travel safe!” Gou said.
“Actually, I think I’m gonna take off too, guys,” Nagisa said, standing and smiling at Nitori.
Nitori wrinkled his brow, took a half-step back and looked him over. “Thank you again, everyone.”
“Thanks,” Gou and Rei echoed.
“C’mon, let’s go, Nitori-kun!” Nagisa said. He waved back to the other two. “Bye!”
“Bye!”
They walked quietly around the pool and back into the locker room. Nagisa walked over to the showers and turned one on. Nitori stood next to the area, looking out into the rest of the poolhouse.
“How long were you going to make me wait?” Nitori asked.
“Hm?” Nagisa asked as he rinsed himself off. He slid his trunks off and draped them over a towel rack. Nitori caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and glanced over with a sliver of discomfort. His hands clasped together down in front of him.
“It’s rude to let someone wait if you want to hang out with them.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean today,” Nagisa said.
“Oh…” Nitori trailed off.
The shower squeaked off and Nagisa stepped to the doorway. He peeked his head out and beamed. “But we can hang out if you want to!”
Nitori blushed and looked down at Nagisa’s bare shoulder, his hair dripping water, then hurriedly looked the other way. “N-n-n-no, that’s alright! My mistake!”
“No, really! We can! We can go get burgers or cake or something. Do you like burgers, Nitori-kun? It’s on me! You were planning to hang out with me anyway, right?”
“I, uh… We can do that if you like,” Nitori said.
“Great! Just let me dry off and get dressed!” Nagisa chirped as he took his suit from the towel rack and casually strode across the room.
Nitori gulped and looked away, before stealing another glance and turning to remain looking at the other wall. “Okay.”
“You’re really uptight, Nitori-kun,” Nagisa said as he toweled off his hair. “You’ve been around other swimmers plenty of times.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” Nitori said. “You’re too cool to understand.”
Nagisa laughed. “I’m not that cool, Nitori-kun. You’re the one going to a school like Samezuka.”
“If I can’t even make the relay team, I can’t be that cool either.”
Nagisa looked over to him and smiled. “So we’re equals, then!”
“I’m not sure if that’s cruel or comforting…”
Nagisa dried off his body and stepped into his shorts. “You’ll make the team eventually, Nitori-kun. Hard work always pays off!”
Nitori glanced over and saw that Nagisa was decent. He relaxed. “That’s easy for you to say when your club only has four members…”
“Well, maybe.” Nagisa stuck his tongue out in jest at himself. He stepped into his track pants and shrugged on his yellow shirt. He packed the rest of his things into his bag and slid on his Iwatobi jacket. “I’m ready if you’re ready!”
Nitori nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”
———
The commute to the burger joint was quiet, and Nagisa didn’t really know what to say for the first time in his life. Nitori was this unknown quantity, and all he had to go on were his instincts. He was confident in them… until a month ago, so he was reluctant to put too much faith in them.
They found a place and agreed to it, and Nagisa reassured Nitori that whatever he wanted was okay.
After they were seated, Nitori ordered the smallest burger on the menu and some water.
Nagisa thought it was cute. He had a double cheeseburger, some fries, and a soft drink.
“That’s a lot of food, Hazuki-kun.”
“We just finished a practice! I need to recharge my body.”
“You don’t need to have that much…”
“I’ll be fine~” Nagisa said. “I have a good metabolism.”
Nitori sighed. “Another reason you’re cooler than me.”
“Aw, don’t worry about it, Nitori-kun!” Nagisa said. He paused. “Wait… are you… jealous of me?”
Nitori looked away and color flared in his cheeks. “I… I guess I have to be.”
Nagisa frowned. “But why? You have no reason to be!”
“You’re attractive, okay?” Nitori blurted. “Y-you’re attractive, and you’re so happy, and you don’t even have to try. You can just sit there and smile and eat your cheeseburger and look the way you do and it’s not fair.”
Nagisa blinked. “Not fair? Nitori-kun, we can talk about it if you want. I want to get to know you because I think we can both help each other. We both need each other. We’re both in the same place. I don’t want you to be jealous of me, I want us to both be happy.”
“You don’t even know me!”
“But I know enough about you. And I want to find out more, okay? You’re a nice guy, and you’re pretty cute too, so I wouldn’t be so hard on yourself!”
Nitori got even redder. This wasn’t really the way he expected this to go. Why did he even agree to this? “Stop toying with me!”
Nagisa sat back in his chair. “I’m not, Nitori-kun. I can be lonely too, you know.”
“Yeah, right,” Nitori said. “You’ve got your friends in the swim club.”
“Ah! But I don’t, really!” Nagisa pointed out, with his index finger. “Mako-chan and Haru-chan are together now. Rei-chan is… well, not as interested in me as I’d like, and Gou-chan does her own thing. That’s all I really have going right now, but I’d like you to change that!”
Nitori furrowed his brow. “Why?”
“Like I said-” Nagisa beamed - “because I think you’re cute! And I think we’re comrades in isolation. Rin-chan is always busy, and you didn’t seem very close to any of the other members you brought today.”
“It’s true,” Nitori said. “Mikoshiba-kun is too busy goofing off about Gou-san, Rin-senpai is busy training with Sousuke-senpai… there’s not really anyone else.”
“If you can find it inside yourself, Nitori-kun, I really would like to get to know you better.” Nagisa spoke plainly. The conversation, and their friendship, or whatever else it might become, was on the line here. And he wasn’t going to have a repeat of Rei if he could help it. “I don’t know where else to turn, and I’ll call you ‘Nitori-kun’ for as long as you like, and I won’t shove you in locker rooms, and we can visit each other sometimes, and find what movies we like, and maybe do our homework together sometimes, I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I’m a little scared.”
“Scared?”
“Mako-chan and I… were really close. He’s always been closer to Haru-chan, but… he’ll be more distant now. Rei-chan is still a good friend, but not in the way I had originally hoped.”
“You mean…”
“Probably the same thing you hope for Rin-chan.”
“So that’s why…”
“If you don’t mind, Nitori-kun.”
“This is a d-d-”
Nagisa waved it off and laughed. “No, no, no! Nothing like that!”
“But you bought me my food.”
“Sometimes friends do that. It was the least I could do.”
“You asked me to come out here.”
“Well… of course I did! I wanted to get to know you.”
“You said…” Nitori averted his gaze again. “You said you thought I was cute.”
“You are! But I also think Gou-chan is cute sometimes.” Nagisa felt himself dodging. Not again. He half-stood, pushing his chair away and put his elbows on the table, leaning a little bit too far across it, and rested his chin in his hands. Nitori’s eyes flashed back, and he flinched around, surprised to find Nagisa in his space.
“Do you want this to be a date?” Nagisa asked.
“I… I think so.”
“Then make it one.”
“How?”
“Come closer.”
Nitori gulped and leaned in closer to Nagisa’s face. Seeing the blond boy’s eyes half-closed, his smile subdued… it was different. Refreshing. And Nitori trusted him. He was humbled, and still somewhat scared that something about this wasn’t quite right, disbelieving that this rival, who didn’t even know him very well, actually wanted to get to know him. But he was craved for attention as well. He was tired of being lonely, and it was about time he did something about it.
He pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, and determinedly kissed Nagisa.
Nagisa was taken by surprise, but he closed his eyes quickly and pressed back against Nitori’s lips. Their ardor was rewarded, their shared warmth giving them what they’d each waited a long time for - willful companionship.
They separated. Nitori was blushing hard. “I guess… we’re boyfriends now?”
“I guess so,” Nagisa said. It felt significant. And easy. “We’ll have to do this again soon! I don’t even have your number!”
“Oh!” Nitori said, pulling out his phone. “Here’s my number!” He called the screen up and showed Nagisa.
“I’ll send you a message!” Nagisa said, grinning as he entered the contact information.
Nitori smiled looking at him and waited for his phone to beep. A boyfriend… -my- boyfriend, he thought. “So what do we do now?” he asked Nagisa.
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“Everything!”
He got the text from Nagisa. “Thank you for the kiss, Ai-chan! <3 -Nagisa” it read.
“You’re welcome, Nagisa-chan,” Nitori said, sticking out his tongue.
Nagisa beamed.
(End Chapter 2 - to be continued)
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The Duck and the Penguin