Chapter Text
Truth was Seijuurou Mikoshiba hadn't ever really taken note of Makoto Tachibana. Not really noticed noticed him anyway.
He could recall their first meeting easily, Seijuurou's always made a point of remembering names and faces, it was the right thing to do after all. But he'd mostly been focusing on Gou-kun and Nanase-kun that day, whilst simultaneously watching the sulking Rin Matsuoka out of the corner of his eye and hoping that - goddammit Matsuoka - he wouldn't act up or kick trashcans or act like someone in a My Chemical Romance song - that was so 2007, so passé Rin.
He had sized up Makoto for a second - captain of the team, green eyes, handsome dude, friendly, almost as tall as I am, god I hope he's not interested in Gou-kun - and memorised his name, and that had been it. Makoto had been relegated to the background in favour of Gou-kun, then Seijuurou's attention had been diverted by that Ryugazaki guy belly-flopping into the pool, and then as the Iwatobians left, he'd been preoccupied by thinking that he really hadn't talked to Gou-kun enough.
Makoto hadn't largely featured in their second meeting either, or their third, or even their fourth, hovering in the background as a kind of tall smile while Rin took centre stage and angsted and Nanase pretended that he was unaffected by it. But somehow, after the relay disaster at regionals, Iwatobi and Samezuka had formed some kind of unspoken partnership it seemed, and Seijuurou had relented and let them swim at Samezuka during autumn once a week. Anything to keep Matsuoka from sulking and writing angsty poetry. Plus, yaye Gou-kun. (And okay, it was kind of nice to see Matsuoka actually smiling even if he looked like a shark about to embark on a feeding frenzy. Hell, Takeshi-kun their breaststroke genius demanded legumes with his every meal; Suzuka the back-stroker insisted on a quiet - completely quiet, no sounds please I need no disturbances do you not understand? - space for meditation during warm ups. Seijuurou had catered to these divas, organized for them, whatever, as long as they delivered. So if Matsuoka needed to hold the hands of his four friends from another school to give him a little push, Seijuurou would indulge if he performed accordingly. Plus, he'd thought at the time, Gou-kun. Yaye.)
It had been that way until the end of October.
And then one day Seijuurou had noticed noticed Makoto Tachibana.
It wasn't a big moment really. (Except that it was.)
Seijuurou had actually given thought to meeting the love of his life before - he was a romantic, absolutely, and proud of the fact. He'd imagined it would be a beautiful sunset-shoujo manga moment tinted with pink, maybe waves crashing in the background and so on. And the air would definitely be filled with sparkles and obviously, he'd imagined it would be a girl. (Wasn't like he didn't appreciate the bodies of some of his fellow-swimmers, he was probably bi and he was cool with that, but still, he wanted babies. Lots. He'd planned out his future too, and babies were a definite unrefundable must, ergo the true love was going to be a girl.)
He hadn't imagined true love would involve cramps and no females, an over-protective bastard of a redhead and a lethargic water-loving robot.
It was a kind of slow-mo moment. He'd been watching Nanase swim like something that had gills (everyone watched Nanase swim, it was mesmerising like watching the ocean or a bonfire was), and he'd vaguely noticed Nanase's taller captain ascending the diving board and diving in, but really he'd been focused on Nanase. Then suddenly there was a thrashing in the water, and Seijuurou moved and dove into the pool reflexively. Part of the reason he'd gotten the captaincy gig - besides his awesomeness of course - was his lifeguard training from last summer. Seemed the instincts he'd possessed then hadn't been blunted. Tachibana was writhing close to the pool side, so it took only one powerful kick to get to him. He was wincing, one eye scrunched closed but holding up a hand to prevent Seijuurou from cupping his hand around his jaw to drag him out.
"It's okay," he managed, one leg helplessly attempting to tread water as his arms paddled to keep his head above the waterline, "'M not drowning. Thigh cramp." His other leg seemed to be stiffly suspended in the water.
Well, he wasn't drowning yet, but having a useless leg wasn't exactly hunky-dory.
"C'mon," Seijuurou said, deftly tucking his arm around Makoto's shoulder and hauling him to the pool railing. "Hold onto the step," he said, probably unnecessarily, but Tachibana complied and clutched the pool steps, even managing a tremulous smile. He probably couldn't get up the rungs himself with his momentarily immobile leg (Seijuurou tsked in sympathy, he'd had bad cramps before, and thigh cramps were agony, and dangerous to boot.) He pulled himself out of the pool quickly, grabbed onto Tachibana's outstretched hands and pulled him up and out.
Tachibana sank on the wet tiles immediately, folding his one leg towards himself while the other stretched out in front of him, well-defined and toned and long and aching, no doubt. It probably hurt like hell, but Tachibana ignored it.
"Thank you senpai," Tachibana said, looking up at Seijuurou and tilting his head a little with a smile. "I'm sorry to cause you trouble." His gentle, so bloody gentle eyes were watering, goddammit. Seijuurou's heart did a weird squeezing thing as he stared at the lump of self-sacrifice in front of him, who would rather thank him than pay attention to his own hurt.
"Tsk," he said, trying to ignore his reddening cheeks, "Lie on your back." He didn't really give Tachibana a chance to comply and almost roughly pushed him backwards, grabbing onto Tachibana's thigh with both hands and slowly pushing it towards his stomach. That was the fastest way to alleviate thigh cramps or hamstring cramps.
Tachibana made a cute little hissing sound and tried to hide it. His abdominal muscles flexed and Seijuuro fixed his eyes on him, half hovering over him, suspended over his curled up leg.
That was when it happened.
Seijuurou noticed Makoto Tachibana. Everything around him blurred while Makoto Tachibana suddenly stood out in sharp relief. Makoto Tachibana's eyes were as soothing as a tinkling mountain spring, his skin was butterscotch smooth and Seijuurou wanted to lick it, taste it - was it as sweet as it looked, he loved sweet things - and how could his ears, how could any ears be so beautifully sculpted?
He was vaguely aware that two other people had exited the pool, and were crowding next to Makoto, kneeling. Matsuoka and Nanase, he thought, and dismissed that in favour of drinking in the sight of Tachibana's slightly open mouth. He mechanically managed to reverently pull the thigh - what a wondrous thigh - in his hands backwards again and pumped it slowly back towards Makoto's stomach, leaning in again as he did so, not tearing his eyes away from the mesmerising pools of green staring up at him.
"What are you doing?" Matsuoka asked, hostility evident in his voice.
"Makoto, are you okay?" that was Nanase, probably.
Seijuurou barely heard them, and certainly didn't see them, because somehow the world had narrowed into Makoto Tachibana's suddenly miraculous eyes, and he couldn't tear his gaze away from his tremulous smile, didn't want to either. Time stopped and it was absolutely beautiful.
It turned out true love was green eyes and a sculpted torso and cramping pain and a muscular thigh grasped in Seijuurou's suddenly sweaty palms. And okay, the air wasn't pink and there was no sunset, not even ocean waves crashing against rocks in the background but by god there were sparkles. The world was sparkly and beautiful. Seijuurou's brain made the transition from 'true love will be a cute female who will provide me with lots of babies' to 'Tachibana and I will adopt after the wedding' with alarming speed.
His future husband made another little gasping sound as Seijuurou executed another loving thigh pump - he melted, melted and considered leaning in to brush a lock of wet hair out his eyes - but reality and Rin Matsuoka rudely asserted itself in the form of a forceful shove at his arm.
"What the fuck buchou, are you molesting him?"
He would have ignored him - Matsuoka was a pain in the ass and talked crap at him seventy times a day, this kind of comment was par for the course (not that he wouldn't ding his ear for it later, captain's perks) - but Makoto squeaked an embarrassed, "Rin!" and burrowed his face in his hands. Seijuurou was deprived of the view of his intended except for impossibly cute red ears poking out from behind said enormous hands. He'd never thought his true love would have hands the size of continents, definitely comparable to his own, in fact he'd kind of always thought he'd be yearning to clasp his beloved's tiny hands and let them drown in his own sizeable paws. But this was okay, Seijuurou could work with this. Love was about fairness and equality, right, and two big hands clasping each other was a beautiful symbol of that, absolutely.
"I knew it, you fucking pervert!" Rin snarled scathingly. "Right here in front of everybody. Makoto, get away from him, I'll hold him back!"
"He's just helping me Rin," Makoto managed through his hands. "I got a thigh cramp."
"Are you okay Makoto?" Nanase's voice was tinged with perhaps 0.001% more emotion than his usual deadpan, but somehow this made Tachibana's hands slide off his own face and turn sideways to beam at him gently. Seijuurou felt his gut clench.
"I'm fine Haru, cramp's almost gone," Makoto said sweetly, and turned his eyes back to Seijuurou's, and that was good and right and where they obviously belonged. "Thank you senpai, it feels much better."
Seijuurou flushed beetroot red at the soft gaze. So damn gorgeous, so damn cute, how could he have only noticed it now? "Call me Seijuuro," he said. Call me danna, husband, boyfriend, koi, lover, anata*, call me whatever you want to call me. Just call me. As usual, Rin's disbelieving scowl bought him back to reality, and Makoto looked shocked at the thought of using his given name. Right, we don't really know each other all that well, he recalled, and grinned impishly, pretending to laugh it off. Yet. But we will.
"I mean, at least call me Mikoshiba or something, right? You can't be all formal with someone who saved you from almost drowning, haha."
Makoto gave a weak chuckle, still pinned to the pool tiles with the help of his own cramped leg that Seijuurou was still holding onto fervently. Matsuoka's eyes were narrowing into flaming red pin-points as he looked from his captain to Makoto and back, and Nanase was staring longingly at the pool.
"Mikoshiba-senpai then," Makoto offered, cheeks tinting a little pink and not entirely managing to tear his eyes away.
Nope. Wro-ong. "Drop the senpai," honey, darling, sweetheart, my Mako-chan, "Tachibana," Seijuurou cooed, immersed in the eyes below him. This was flirting, right? He was pretty sure this was flirting. It felt like flirting, his heart was making ba-dump ba-dump noises in his chest and he was pretty sure it might soon leap out of his breastbone, and possibly crash-land onto Makoto's chest. Yup, that would be great, absolutely, beautiful symbolism. I give you my heart.
"Thank you, uh, Mikoshiba then?" Makoto managed, looking as if he were being bullied into offering up his first-born. So proper, so sweet. Marry me, thought Seijuurou, gazing at him adoringly.
Matsuoka half-huffed half-growled and ruined everything. "Makoto, get up if you're okay, stop looking molestable. Buchou, you indecent fucker, get off his leg and stay away. Makoto's not one of your easy conquests... And stay away from Gou too."
The poisonous effects of those words were instantaneous. Tachibana yelped in embarrassment and squirmed away from Seijuurou on his hands like an adorable wide-eyed seal ("It's not like that Rin!"); Nanase managed to drag his gaze away from the water and moved himself in front of Makoto, arms crossed like a protector, attempting to glare at Seijuurou (he wasn't very good at it, he lacked zeal) and Rin flanked his other side, looking satisfied with himself.
He was so getting more than a ding on his ear later on.
Seijuurou stared at the trio, aghast. Easy conquests? He'd heard there were some rumours about himself floating around school, he'd laughed when he'd heard them, but had dumbass Matsuoka really believed that he was some kind of prolific skirt-chaser? Was that why he was acting like an overprotective and overzealous mother hen, reluctant Nanase in tow? And why were they flanking his future husband as if he needed protection? And what the hell Makoto - darling, baby, choco-banana - who said it wasn't like that? Of course it was like that.
He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and looked from Matsuoka's belligerent glare to Nanase's blank but suddenly alert gaze to sweetiepie candy apple Makoto, who was determinedly staring down at the pool tiles, rubbing his thigh absently.
Hmm. Perhaps it would take more time and patience than he had estimated to get Makoto to the altar. That was okay. Love took work, right? People were always saying that. And Seijuurou loved a challenge, absolutely. He'd take this slowly, yeah, he would, he could totally do that.
...And in the meantime he could look forward to giving Matsuoka's ear a very hard yank.