It’s forty-five minutes past Rin’s bedtime when his phone’s email alert buzzes. He’s finally on his way to sleep now, and considers ignoring it, but he compromises: he’ll just see who the sender is and then put his phone on airplane mode for the night.
The email is from Haruka. Rin opens the message.
Subject: you asked Date: June 26 (4 minutes ago) Sender: Nanase Haruka Body: [link]
Puzzled, Rin clicks the link. It’s a storefront selling adult-sized, swim-ready, spandex mermaid tails. For a moment Rin only stares, wondering if his fatigue is making him hallucinate. The image doesn’t change. Rin flops back down on his bed.
He closes the tab, the app, and his eyes, and considers. 15 000 yen? For a birthday present? A birthday present as weird and ridiculous as Haruka himself?
With a sigh, Rin plugs in his phone and turns off the light. It’s late. He’ll sleep on it.
***
Morning comes. Rin buys the damn tail.
***
The week after Haruka’s birthday, Rin gets a skype call at home. He’s brushing his teeth but he picks up anyway. It’s Makoto.
“Rin!” his friend greets him, smiling with either excitement or nervousness, Rin can’t quite tell. “How are you?”
Rin spits toothpaste into the sink. “Pretty good,” he replies, and ducks to rinse his mouth before continuing. “Haven’t heard from you in a while. What’s the occasion?”
“Well,” replies Makoto, and it’s then that Rin registers Makoto’s surroundings - tile walls, lots of blue, high ceiling - “well, Haru-chan wanted to show you something.”
Distantly, Rin hears a splash, and a clear, irritated voice calling, “Drop the -chan.”
Makoto smiles and switches the camera from selfie mode to rear-facing video.
It takes a moment for Rin’s eyes and the camera’s focus to adjust, but when they do, Rin bursts out laughing. Haruka is floating on his back in the family pool at the recreation center, arms out for buoyancy, wrapped in iridescent blue spandex that covers him from the waist down and terminates in a fluked tail.
“Hold the camera still, Makoto,” Rin says, hoping to get a clearer look. The blissful look on Haruka’s face makes any regret Rin felt for the price evaporate. Haruka looks like he’s just achieved enlightenment.
“Haru,” Rin calls, “swim for me.”
Haruka lifts his head and rises out of his back float to peer up at the camera, hair dripping into his eyes. Rin feels his chest tighten at the sight of him, a feeling that no familiarity has ever dulled. “Come on,” he urges, “I want to see you swim in it.”
When Haruka does - when he rolls onto his front to take a breath and submerge, joined legs kicking slowly and steadily to propel him across the length of the pool, Rin stops feeling silly about it at all. Somehow the tail looks right on Haruka - or rather, he looks right in it. Haruka has always been more or less aquatic. The graceful undulation of this new appendage suits his style of swimming so well that Rin is surprised he’s gone so long without it.
“Isn’t it perfect?” Makoto comments. “It was such a good gift.”
When Haruka swims back to the edge of the pool where Makoto is waiting, grips the concrete edge, and peers up at Makoto’s phone, Rin’s heart catches again. He knows the face Makoto is seeing on him must be an embarrassing one. He can’t find it in him to care.
“Haru,” he calls out, hoping it will carry, “happy birthday.”
Haruka spares him a small, rare, precious smile. “Thank you, Rin.”
FILL: Team Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka, G
It’s forty-five minutes past Rin’s bedtime when his phone’s email alert buzzes. He’s finally on his way to sleep now, and considers ignoring it, but he compromises: he’ll just see who the sender is and then put his phone on airplane mode for the night.
The email is from Haruka. Rin opens the message.
Puzzled, Rin clicks the link. It’s a storefront selling adult-sized, swim-ready, spandex mermaid tails. For a moment Rin only stares, wondering if his fatigue is making him hallucinate. The image doesn’t change. Rin flops back down on his bed.
He closes the tab, the app, and his eyes, and considers. 15 000 yen? For a birthday present? A birthday present as weird and ridiculous as Haruka himself?
With a sigh, Rin plugs in his phone and turns off the light. It’s late. He’ll sleep on it.
***
Morning comes. Rin buys the damn tail.
***
The week after Haruka’s birthday, Rin gets a skype call at home. He’s brushing his teeth but he picks up anyway. It’s Makoto.
“Rin!” his friend greets him, smiling with either excitement or nervousness, Rin can’t quite tell. “How are you?”
Rin spits toothpaste into the sink. “Pretty good,” he replies, and ducks to rinse his mouth before continuing. “Haven’t heard from you in a while. What’s the occasion?”
“Well,” replies Makoto, and it’s then that Rin registers Makoto’s surroundings - tile walls, lots of blue, high ceiling - “well, Haru-chan wanted to show you something.”
Distantly, Rin hears a splash, and a clear, irritated voice calling, “Drop the -chan.”
Makoto smiles and switches the camera from selfie mode to rear-facing video.
It takes a moment for Rin’s eyes and the camera’s focus to adjust, but when they do, Rin bursts out laughing. Haruka is floating on his back in the family pool at the recreation center, arms out for buoyancy, wrapped in iridescent blue spandex that covers him from the waist down and terminates in a fluked tail.
“Hold the camera still, Makoto,” Rin says, hoping to get a clearer look. The blissful look on Haruka’s face makes any regret Rin felt for the price evaporate. Haruka looks like he’s just achieved enlightenment.
“Haru,” Rin calls, “swim for me.”
Haruka lifts his head and rises out of his back float to peer up at the camera, hair dripping into his eyes. Rin feels his chest tighten at the sight of him, a feeling that no familiarity has ever dulled. “Come on,” he urges, “I want to see you swim in it.”
When Haruka does - when he rolls onto his front to take a breath and submerge, joined legs kicking slowly and steadily to propel him across the length of the pool, Rin stops feeling silly about it at all. Somehow the tail looks right on Haruka - or rather, he looks right in it. Haruka has always been more or less aquatic. The graceful undulation of this new appendage suits his style of swimming so well that Rin is surprised he’s gone so long without it.
“Isn’t it perfect?” Makoto comments. “It was such a good gift.”
When Haruka swims back to the edge of the pool where Makoto is waiting, grips the concrete edge, and peers up at Makoto’s phone, Rin’s heart catches again. He knows the face Makoto is seeing on him must be an embarrassing one. He can’t find it in him to care.
“Haru,” he calls out, hoping it will carry, “happy birthday.”
Haruka spares him a small, rare, precious smile. “Thank you, Rin.”