Ship: Rin/Haru & Ensemble Fandom: Free Major Tags: Death (character death) Other Tags: none Square: drowning (lethal or non-lethal) Word Count: 458 words
This was meant to be just a Rin/Haru piece but somehow, his team insisted on being there along with Gou and Sousuke.
***
Haru’s parents don’t show up for the funeral. Even Makoto can’t remember the last time he’s seen them.
Gou insists on attending, as does Sousuke. With the two of them, that brings the number of mourners up to six.
It doesn’t seem like anywhere near enough. Haru should’ve become an Olympic swimmer, should have set the sort of records that had people demanding drug tests. He should have been the high water mark that everyone else measured themselves by.
He should have been famous and the world should have mourned with them.
Instead, there’s only the six of them on a boat they all chipped in to rent.
There had been mountains of forms to get through. Bureaucracy had no pity for grief. Cremation wasn’t compulsory but it was traditional; none of them could bear the thought of seeing Haru consigned to flames so they skipped that step.
They hired a nōkansha to ritually prepare the body, choosing to dress Haru in a white kimono rather than a suit. When they’d asked her to put Haru in his jammers under the suit, she hadn’t protested.
There was comfort in knowing that even now, he had a swimsuit on under the plain white kimono. Even now, he was ready for the water.
The boat slipped silently over the waves, the moonlight picking out the crest of each wave that slopped against the boat. Once they were far enough from the shore, they paused.
“Should we say some last words?” Gou asked tentatively, her hand resting on the plastic tarp they’d wrapped Haru’s body in.
“We already did all that,” Rin said, looking down over the railing. “We can say goodbye again once he’s in the water where he belongs.”
The wire they’d wrapped around him had multiple small weights attached to it. Haru’s corpse would drop to the bottom of the ocean and become food for the fish he’d loved so much.
They couldn’t give him to the flames or the earth. In the water was where Haru had always belonged.
Rin and Makoto rolled the body over the edge of the boat; it hit the water with barely a ripple and started to sink.
Gou tilted the basket of cherry blossoms over the railing so that pink petals fell onto the water and hid the body disappearing into the ocean’s depths.
“Goodbye, Haru,” Nagisa said between sobs, sniffing so hard he could barely get the words out.
“You taught me everything I needed,” Rei said, voice quivering as he wrapped his arms around Nagisa.
Rin and Makoto say nothing. They strip off their outer layers and jump overboard instead, joining Haru for one last swim.
When they climb back aboard, there are cherry blossoms pasted to their hair.
FILL: TEAM PRINCE OF TENNIS, B1 T
Fandom: Free
Major Tags: Death (character death)
Other Tags: none
Square: drowning (lethal or non-lethal)
Word Count: 458 words
This was meant to be just a Rin/Haru piece but somehow, his team insisted on being there along with Gou and Sousuke.
***
Haru’s parents don’t show up for the funeral. Even Makoto can’t remember the last time he’s seen them.
Gou insists on attending, as does Sousuke. With the two of them, that brings the number of mourners up to six.
It doesn’t seem like anywhere near enough. Haru should’ve become an Olympic swimmer, should have set the sort of records that had people demanding drug tests. He should have been the high water mark that everyone else measured themselves by.
He should have been famous and the world should have mourned with them.
Instead, there’s only the six of them on a boat they all chipped in to rent.
There had been mountains of forms to get through. Bureaucracy had no pity for grief. Cremation wasn’t compulsory but it was traditional; none of them could bear the thought of seeing Haru consigned to flames so they skipped that step.
They hired a nōkansha to ritually prepare the body, choosing to dress Haru in a white kimono rather than a suit. When they’d asked her to put Haru in his jammers under the suit, she hadn’t protested.
There was comfort in knowing that even now, he had a swimsuit on under the plain white kimono. Even now, he was ready for the water.
The boat slipped silently over the waves, the moonlight picking out the crest of each wave that slopped against the boat. Once they were far enough from the shore, they paused.
“Should we say some last words?” Gou asked tentatively, her hand resting on the plastic tarp they’d wrapped Haru’s body in.
“We already did all that,” Rin said, looking down over the railing. “We can say goodbye again once he’s in the water where he belongs.”
The wire they’d wrapped around him had multiple small weights attached to it. Haru’s corpse would drop to the bottom of the ocean and become food for the fish he’d loved so much.
They couldn’t give him to the flames or the earth. In the water was where Haru had always belonged.
Rin and Makoto rolled the body over the edge of the boat; it hit the water with barely a ripple and started to sink.
Gou tilted the basket of cherry blossoms over the railing so that pink petals fell onto the water and hid the body disappearing into the ocean’s depths.
“Goodbye, Haru,” Nagisa said between sobs, sniffing so hard he could barely get the words out.
“You taught me everything I needed,” Rei said, voice quivering as he wrapped his arms around Nagisa.
Rin and Makoto say nothing. They strip off their outer layers and jump overboard instead, joining Haru for one last swim.
When they climb back aboard, there are cherry blossoms pasted to their hair.