Chapter Text
It was the morning after Seijuurou had been touched by an angel, and had technically felt up said angel's leg (score, second base, almost, kind of) and he was in a deep state of deliberation whilst performing his morning ablutions.
He industriously scrubbed his teeth - gotta keep that smile beautiful for my Mako-rel - as he reflected on the previous night's events. After Seijuurou's future had irrevocably been altered by a pair of shimmering green eyes, Nanase and Matsuoka had practically hauled Makoto out of the Samezuka swimming area, hadn't even allowed him to shower poor baby and dragged him off home... wherever that was. And it had dawned on Seijuurou that he had no idea where Makoto lived or what his phone number was.
As soon as he'd hopped out of the shower yesterday he'd hit Facebook and tried to find him, but his precious dumpling was not on Facebook. That was good in a way, it wasn't like Seijuurou wanted this to be easy. This was a quest for love right, hardships had to be endured. Awesome. Only he had kind of wanted to call Tachibana (Tachibaby, hehe) up immediately because all he'd been doing was fidget and think about him and his head was just chanting Makoto, Makoto, Makoto, but yeah, no, too easy, the things in life worth having were worth fighting for or something, yeah. Even his dreams hadn't rewarded him with slightly T-rated visions of Tachibana, instead he'd dreamt of a very disturbing purple dragon with malevolent red eyes and sharp teeth.
Oh, a subconscious manifestation of Matsuoka, he realised belatedly, gargling noisily and spitting into the sink neatly. Aah, clean teeth rocked hard.
In any case, the path before him was clear, he had to acquire Tachibana Makoto's phone number. He didn't want to wait for next Thursday and joint swim practice, that was no good, Seijuurou was do'er, once you wanted to do something, you had to do it and do it fast, sitting around and waiting for stuff to fall in your lap wasn't his thing.
Obviously, the fastest way to get hold of that number was via Matsuoka, but Seijuuro wasn't an idiot, like hell was Matsuoka going to relinquish it to him.
He swept a brush back through his hair and flashed an exaggerated grin at his reflection in the bathroom mirror - it was time for the morning team run, not like he had to look extra-gorgeous for that, this would do - and left his room, jogging through the dormitory. Still, wouldn't do any harm to try and get the number from Matsuoka right? If he didn't get it, at least he'd have tried. He nodded to himself decisively. Absolutely.
A couple of sleepy looking swimmers were already gathered on the lawn outside the dorm when Seijuurou got there, and he brightened when he spotted Matsuoka sulking next to a bleary-eyed Nitori. Acknowledging the yawning greetings and "Morning buchou,"s from his team with nods and waves, he charged over to the first years, sneakers dampening in the wet morning dew coating the grass.
Rin noticed him advancing and his eyes narrowed.
"No," he said.
"Nice morning isn't it, Nitori, Matsuoka," Seijuurou said with a disarming smile.
"No," Rin repeated, scowling.
"Morning buchou-senpai," Nitori offered, glancing at Rin uncertainly.
"Say, I need to get hold of the Iwatobi swim team to discuss, uh, forthcoming joint practices..."
"No no no."
"So I'll need Tachibana's number," Seijuurou barrelled on determinedly, barely holding onto that casual grin.
"No," Rin's arms crossed over his chest. "Never."
Fair enough, not like he'd thought merely asking would work.
Rudeness was no excuse though. His face relaxed into its usual irritated-by-Matsuoka expression. "Insurbordination. Ten extra laps for you," Seijuurou barked and stalked away.
Captain's perks. Wasn't like Matsuoka wouldn't love the extra running anyway.
The school day was long, and Seijuurou dutifully got on with it. He was a good student, a fact that seemed to surprise some people, and he didn't even allow himself to drift into Tachibana-flavoured daydreams during algebra. Seijuurou could see the bigger picture, the future, and Makoto deserved a husband and a provider that hadn't flunked algebra in his third year, simple as that.
After school swim practice was a different matter entirely, and an excellent opportunity to procure his sticky toffee pudding of love's number. He slyly stood by the door of the locker room, arms folded across his chest watching his team-mates swim, and more importantly waiting for the moment when Rin would stop eyeing him suspiciously and just get into the damn swimming pool already.
Matsuoka did slide into the pool eventually - but sheesh, the bastard was sharp - he made a point of watching Seijuurou even in the water.
Didn't matter, as long as he was in the pool. Matsuoka would have to swim to the poolside, haul himself out of the water and run into the locker room (and be punished for it, no running by the poolside), whereas the only thing Seijuurou had to do was slip into the locker room nonchalantly – like so - and grab Matsuoka's phone where it was conveniently lying on his gym bag on a bench. He did so.
Snooping through other people’s possessions was wrong, he knew that, but did heroes balk in their quests for love? They didn’t. Didn’t they sometimes enter the realm of morally grey areas for the ultimate greater good? They did. Hadn’t Romeo trespassed on enemy property to see his Juliet? He had.
He pressed the phone’s ‘on’-button reverently.
Damn thing was pin-locked.
He stared at the phone for a while, pondering its glorious secrets. Okay no, it was tempting, but he wasn’t going to play guess-Matsuoka’s-pin-number. That was somehow not so much morally grey (fine, dark-grey) as it was, well, sad. He was about to carefully place it back onto the gym bag when the locker room door swung open.
“Put the phone down buchou.”
Damn. Matsuoka was glaring at him from the doorway, one sharp tooth somehow resting on his lower lip and making him look less threatening than he was probably hoping for, and more cute, like a vexed puppy.
Seijuurou put it down.
“I wasn’t going to give you the number anyway, but now there’s no chance in hell,” Rin said. He was dripping water, obviously hadn’t bothered drying himself off.
Seijuurou nodded, chastened but not embarrassed. He’d been going about this all wrong. Sneaking around trying to acquire the phone number of a heavenly being, that wasn’t how you did it. It wasn’t romantic, or chivalrous. “I’m going to ask him for his number myself,” he announced. “Tomorrow.”
“Hmm,” Rin said noncommittedly, and then sauntered into the locker room to sit on the locker bench, wet body and all. “I’m not going to make it easy for you, you know.”
“I know,” Seijuurou said levelly. He hadn’t even bothered to refute the dumb rumours that he was some kind of man-whore skirt-chaser. Matsuoka was the type of guy who had to learn things hands on, with experience, simple denial wouldn’t sway him. “And I’m going to give you twenty more laps if you don’t dry yourself off before coming in here.” This was said without hostility, and Matsuoka seemed to accept it as such.
“It’s on then,” Rin rummaged for a towel, located a very gay red spotted one and started rubbing his hair with it.
“Fair enough.” It was. All’s fair in love and war and swimming, and all that. He didn’t care what Matsuoka thought right now. “There’s still half hour of swim practice, and I’m your captain. Get in the pool.”
Rin grumbled under his breath but he went, slamming the locker room door a little harder than necessary, and Seijuurou smiled to himself.
Tomorrow he’d go to Iwatobi High. To see an angel. Yosh.
“Attention special agent RinRin @=@. Superspecial agent Hazuki on standby. Over.”
“ignoring u.”
“Aaaaw, come on special agent RinRin, it’s more fun this way! :D”
“why u superspecial anyway?”
“Duh bcoz I am :D Over.”
“only playing if u call me superspecial agent matsuoka.”
“Superspecial agent Shark-chan then :D Elite superduperspecial agent Rockhopper on standby. Over.”
“urgh. fine… over.”
“Yaye! What’s the status on the target, superspecial agent Shark-chan? Over.”
“target has left school. heading south by south-west for train station.”
“You didn’t say over. Over.”
“I’ll bite u… Over.”
“:D <3. Elite superduperspecial agent Rockhopper sooo on standby, special agent Dolphin-chan swimming by too. Initiating project cockblock. Over and out.”
“Yoohoo, RinRin’s captain! Over here!”
It was tomorrow, and Seijuurou had undertaken the journey to Iwatobi. It hadn’t been epic or the stuff of legends really, though there’d been an old lady on the train who chewed gum in an epically fascinating and also amazingly loud way.
Now Seijuurou stared, somewhat nonplussed at the bright, beaming blonde boy standing at the entrance of Iwatobi High school, waving at him. ‘Hazuki Nagisa,’ he reminded himself. ‘Breast-stroke swimmer, likes to crawl all over his teammates, especially bellyflop-boy, something about him seems imminently dangerous. Keep your distance but be polite.’ Those were his mental notes on Nagisa.
Hazuki looked like he was waiting for someone, and if Seijuurou were the paranoid sort, he’d say Hazuki was waiting for him. But that was impossible. Noone knew he was here.
“You took longer than I thought. I’ve been expecting you!” the blonde boy said cheerily. Oh crap. “Welcome, welcome.”
“Hi, uh Hazuki,” he ventured, trying to hide his trepidation. Never show weakness in front of a predator, he reminded himself. All his instincts were screaming that this small blonde bundle of smiles and eye twinkles was indeed a predator. Man up Sei, he scolded himself. This is your trial of love. “Is, uh, Tachibana-kun here?”
Nagisa beamed and leaned in conspirationally so that Seijuurou could be treated to a closer view of his effervescent grin. “Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t,” he said, and winked.
Oh geez. I’m going to get you for this Matsuoka. “So you don’t know where he is.”
“Maybe I do,” Hazuki leered, charming smile still in place. “But you know RinRin’s captain, Mako-chan’s whereabouts is classified information. I won’t just give it out to anyone, you know.” His tone of voice and the pout contorting his lips was deceptively cute, the operative word being deceptively.
“Can you give me his phone number then?” he hazarded.
“Sneaky, RinRin’s captain!” said Hazuki, and proceeded to offer no explanation as to what that baffling remark might mean.
“I’ll search for him myself then,” he said determinedly. He couldn’t help grinning goofily at the thought of finding Makoto, possibly helplessly tied up and half-naked for some reason (his active imagination supplied), and rescuing him and holding him in his arms and Makoto saying, “Thank you my prince, I will love you forever,” in a breathy voice with adoration in his eyes and…
“Nuh uh,” Nagisa waggled a forefinger in front of his face. “You won’t find him. Ever.” His eyes somehow became even rounder. “But I might remember where he is if you do something fun with me. Do we have a deal?”
Okay, well. Fun. There was nothing wrong with fun, right? Fun was totes harmless, yeah? And he sensed that things would work out much better for him if he played along with this guy, scorning his beloved’s friend was a classic arsehole dumb move. And the end result would be seeing Makoto pocky stick angel of heavenliness, yes? It would mean staring at those captivating pools of iridescent green again. He ignored the little voice in his head chanting, Don’t bargain with demons, and stuck out a hand. “Okay.”
Nagisa glowed, eyes glinting an alarming red, and shook the proffered hand enthusiastically. “I like you RinRin’s captain!”
He wasn’t entirely sure if this was a good thing, but being liked by My-koi(bi)-to, heheh, good one’s friends surely wasn’t bad.
“Call me Mikoshiba.”
“Okay, then Miko-chan. Come with me!” Hazuki was practically bouncing as he walked off into the school grounds, and Seijuurou bravely set off into the unknown realms of Iwatobi High.
Three hours later Seijuurou was staring at the pack of cards in his hands blearily. “Do you have any sevens?”
“Nope. Go fish!” said Nagisa giddily.
Seijuurou went fishing with a scowl and fetched up an ace of spades. Useless. It was dusky outside, promising the advent of the night. “Are you ready to tell me where Makoto is yet?” he asked, trying to hide the strain in his voice.
“Oi Miko-chan, one more card and I’ll have won against you again. You’re so bad at this. I might tell you if you win against me.”
“But it’s getting dark,” he pointed out, practically, patiently.
“That’s right, Mako-chan must be home by now,” Nagisa said thoughtfully. “Too bad the last train to Samezuka leaves in half hour right, you won’t have time to see him. Hmm, do you have any aces?”
Must not strangle future betrothed’s friend, Seijuurou took a deep breath and tossed his short-won ace of spades to the blonde.
“Yaye, I won!” Nagisa proclaimed, flourishing his last cards. “Seriously Miko-chan, it’s like you weren’t even trying in the end.”
“I’m not good at card games,” he said, still holding his temper (a lie, he was so a champ at poker, but he sensed this was not something Nagisa should ever know.) Anyway, it never worked to lose your temper.
Nagisa smiled at him, bright perceptive intelligence dancing in his eyes as he sized Seijuurou up. “You know what Miko-chan, you’re a good guy.” His tone of voice was entirely genuine now, and there was no hint that he was playing games. “You might even be a good friend for Mako-chan, and Mako-chan deserves lots of good friends. Tell you what, if you come play with me tomorrow I might really tell you where he is.”
Seijuurou sighed and mentally recited the quotes his dad had drilled into his head when he was a kid. Be patient, my boy and you will be rewarded. Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy. A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else. He let out a deep, slow breath. For love.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said, offering Nagisa a smile. “Anyway, want to walk to the station together?”
Hazuki’s smile widened. “You’re making this really difficult Miko-chan. Okay, let’s go!”
“…Mbe we shld let Miko-chan c Mako-chan.”
"Agent Rockhopper, do not compromise the mission. I repeat, do not compromise the mission, over.”
Seijuurou reported for duty at 4’o’clock at Iwatobi High School the next day, and Hazuki stood waiting at the school gate as promised.
“Miko-chan you’re late,” he scolded.
“Huh? Really?” He’d been distracted by some pretty flowers on the way there, and had wanted to pick them for Mako-chan (because today is the day I will see Mako-chan, his determination was like a roaring fire, god he was kind of cool) but an old lady with a broom had chased him away and he’d lost his bearings a little. Still, he was only, what, half-hour late. Hazuki didn’t have to look so vexed.
“Mah, never mind, we’re going to have such fun today!” Nagisa’s eyes gleamed, and Seijuurou braced himself. What would it be, Uno, Donkey Kong, Scrabble? Please let it not be Trivial Pursuit, that shit made his head hurt.
“We’re playing a game called ‘Where’s Mako-chan?’” Nagisa announced gleefully.
Hmm. More interesting. Seijuurou listened hopefully.
Nagisa leaned closer. “Mako-chan is somewhere in this school building,” he clarified. “And you have to find him! But he might be on the move, so don’t think it’ll be easy!”
“Wait a minute, is he in on this game?” That would be kind of disappointing. Making a game of someone’s feelings was unbecoming of an angel. No, couldn’t be. Not my honey pot of love. But okay, if he was, Seijuurou would go with it, maybe Mako-baby had a teasing side, and that could be a good thing, right.
“Of course not, Mako-chan would never do this knowingly, he’s a good person,” Hazuki reassured him with an expansive wave of his arm. “Haru-chan is dragging him around. Rei-chan doesn’t want anything to do with this, so Rin-chan had to bribe Haru-chan with mackerel and extra sessions at the Samezuka pool. Haru-chan thought this would be too much effort, but he would sell his soul for mackerel and pools so it’s all good.”
Nagisa beamed.
Seriously, Matsuoka was getting fifty extra laps at swimming practice tomorrow.
“Anyway, there are rules. You have a time limit of one hour. If you catch Mako-chan it’s up to you what happens next, but you have to shout “Mackerel!” if you see him. If you pass a fire alarm you have to spin in a circle three times and say “I’m on fire.” I’ll stop you when the hour is up and you have to treat me to pizza. Make that two pizzas.” Wut. “I’ll know if you’re cheating. Got it. Okay, ready, go! Go Miko-chan! Fight-o!”
This game was contrived, and weird, and dumb, but Seijuurou sprinted towards the school building with all his might. Cute school girls scattered in his wake, gasping at his rapid advance. For love, and for green eyes and for Japan. And well, he kind of didn’t like to lose.
Two hours later, Seijuurou was next to the Iwatobi school pool, brooding in a melancholy fashion.
He had not found Mako-chan. He hadn’t even seen a hair on his lovely head. Where’s Mako-chan? Gone. Gone.
Hazuki had just departed with the news that he’d lost the game, looking severely disappointed (“I was secretly rooting for you Miko-chan”) and reminding him that two pizzas were due next Friday sharp.
Was this what despair felt like?
He stared at the pool, wondering if it held any answers. This melancholy brooding thing was hard, it wasn’t his natural mode. It was kind of depressing, really. Still, he was trying gamely to look as if he was about to break out into angsty poetry, because it felt like the right moment for this.
Oh crap I probably look like Matsuoka right now.
That totally wiped off any vestiges of sulking from his face, and he sat up straight.
Hell no. He wasn’t giving up, ever. He’d hunt down Makoto’s phone number to the ends of the earth, into the pits of hell, no doubt finding it in heaven and finding bliss along with it. Yeah! It was going to be awesome. He could do this. It had only been three days, he could do this for years! Right, time to go on home and plan his next move.
“Huh? Miko…Mikoshiba-san? Is that you?”a gentle tenor voice startled him out of his personal pep talk, and he whipped his head around.
It was… it was Makoto. Makoto, his angel, was standing at the door of the pool locker room, looking at him in confusion. He was wearing jeans and a striped top and he looked like a slice of angel food cake, and Seijuurou’s heart expanded in his chest, it felt like it would never stop expanding. He drank in the boy’s features and felt an immense sense of peace, like he’d come home. Hell yeah, he would never stop fighting for this. Let lightning strike him down if he ever doubted this for a milli-second.
“What are you doing here Mikoshiba-san?”
‘Marry me’ was probably not the way to go here. Phone number first, that was what he’d came for, right.
“I thought we agreed to drop the honorifics, Tachibana. Ohayo,” He sauntered over, smiling, until he was a foot away and could appreciate the radiant sweetness from up close. “I was looking for you, actually.” Oh yeah, go Sei, that line was totally out of one of his favourite romance movies, he was so cool.
Makoto’s plump mouth opened a little, and he couldn’t be absolutely sure in the dusky light but it looked like his cheeks were reddening faintly. “Oh well, I came back here to get my school bag. Haru dragged me home without letting me get my stuff, I don’t know why, so I guess you’re lucky you found me.”
“I sure am.”
“Uh, wh… what were you looking for me, I mean why were you looking for me?” Makoto managed. Seijuurou wanted to pull him into a hug, he looked nervous.
“I came to get your phone number,” he said easily and honestly, and now Makoto was definitely blushing. And baby you are rocking those jeans.
“Eh. Really?”
“We should be in contact, right?” Seijuurou said glibly. So smooooth, he rocked, man. “So if I want to find you, like today, I can call you.” Also, how many kids do you want. I’m thinking six, three boys, three girls, we can name them after the stars.
Makoto scratched his neck. “Uh, yeah, that’s… That makes sense. Okay well, my number is…”
Seijuurou held his phone ready, and dutifully punched in the numbers. What avatar picture should Makoto have? he wondered. Pity there are no pictures of heaven.
“Right, I’ll text you so that you have my number too,” he said when the transaction was concluded.
Makoto was staring at his feet. “Uh, yeah, great,” he offered.
He had big feet too. Somehow Seijuurou was feeling an acute attack of nervousness now. His goal was accomplished, and now it was just him and this gorgeous sweetheart, awkwardly hovering near the pool, and he had no idea what to talk about that wasn’t wedding-related. (He had lots to say about the table centre-pieces at the reception, and what their song should be, and he didn’t want grandma Yuuki sitting at the main table, guh, no, but this didn’t seem appropriate.)
He made a brave attempt. “So, how’s your swimming going?” Urgh, what a dorky question.
Makoto didn’t laugh or point fingers though. He fixed his gaze on Seijuurou’s shoelaces – good thing he’d worn his super sexy orange All Stars today. “It’s uh, going good. I mean it’s fine. Yours?”
“Yeah, swimming good too, I mean, fine.”
“…The weather was good today, wasn’t it?”
“Ah,” said Makoto, tracing an embarrassed pattern on the concrete with the toe of his sneaker, “It was. Nice and sunny.”
“Hmm, there were some nice clouds in the sky.”
“Very. There was one that looked like a fish,” Makoto offered, his eyes (pools of such magnificent unchlorinated beauty that he wanted to dive into them right there) flashing up for a brief moment to meet Seijuurou’s.
“I didn’t see it,” he was really gutted about that (how perfect wouldn’t it have been if they’d been staring at the same clouds in the sky), and he was even more gutted when Makoto’s eyes lowered again.
Seijuurou had heard somewhere that 99% of true love was acute, ear-burning, toe-curling embarrassment, and he was kinda feeling it now.
It was probably a stroke of luck that a teacher interrupted them at this point, because the next question on his lips was, “Do you like cows?” which was somehow all his brain had managed to fixate on at that moment. Luckily, the question never hit the airwaves.
“What are you boys still doing here?” Some older guy wearing glasses was striding towards the pool area. Teacher, Seijuurou presumed.
“I just came to lock up the pool, sensei,” Makoto said obediently.
“And him? He’s not from this school. He shouldn’t be here. You lock up Tachibana-kun, I’ll escort him off the premises.”
“Uh, okay,” Makoto said, glancing at Seijuurou worriedly.
“That’s fine,” he said magnanimously, trying to mentally reassure him that being expelled from school property was no big deal for him. Good thing sensei hadn’t caught him sprinting in the corridors and spinning around the fire emergency buttons an hour or so ago at Nagisa’s behest, he would have looked more than slightly annoyed.
He gave his future bride a little wave. Bye bye sweet perfection, I’ll be calling you.
Seijuurou didn’t even feel upset being torn away from his beloved as he traipsed after the annoyed-looking teacher. Inwardly he was dancing and rejoicing. I got his number, I got his number! Number acquired. Whoo! Woot. I am the master of the universe.
Life was a damn beautiful thing.