Pull Me Under: Haruka Nanase x Reader

Requested By: @crystalwolf098

DD: Stalking, Over-Protective Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Assault, Attempted Murder

-

For as long as any of Haru's friends could remember, his one and only passion had been swimming. Ever since they were kids and every single day since, Haru spent more time thinking about swimming than anything else. When Haru had his mind on something, he dedicated himself to it 100%, even becoming obsessive with it, but this had never been an issue.

Not until now.

Until now, he hadn't become obsessive with anything besides swimming, and certainly not a person. The only people he ever really cared about were his teammates, and he gave a second thought to his swimming rivals. That's all that really mattered to him. Nothing else really caught his attention.

Enter ______.

Midway through the year, during one of their usual Literature lectures from Miho, a student walked in the door, catching the attention of the entire class and causing Miho to turn to her before smiling. "Ah, I was told you were going to be here today!" she smiled. "You're a little late."

"I had a little trouble finding the school," the student told Miho, looking embarrassed to be late in front of the entire class.

"It's alright, introduce yourself," Miho looked at her, nodding her head towards the rest of the students.

Do I really have to introduce myself in front of everyone? Why can't I just take whatever seat is free? She sighed, looking towards the class and giving a small smile. "My name is ______ ______. I'm the transfer student."

A few people muttered, but other than that, there was no response. However, Haru couldn't take his eyes off of her. She's... beautiful, Haru thought, looking her over. She was wearing the standard uniform with a dark green coat around her waist and looked uncomfortable introducing herself in front of everyone.

Suddenly, Haru heard his own name, pulling him out of his thoughts. "You can take the free desk behind Haruka."

______ looked over the class. "Where does she sit?"

A few people in the class laughed, and like on the first day of school, Makoto was the first one to correct her. "Um, ______, Haru sits here, and he's... not a girl."

"Oh, uh..." without saying another word, ______ just headed over to the seat by Haru, right next to the window, and sat down. As soon as she did, she leaned forward a little bit, whispering to Haru. "Sorry for calling you a girl. Though, with a name like Haruka, I'm sure this isn't the first time."

"It's okay," Haru told her, keeping his calm. He wanted to turn around and face her so maybe he could see her again, but he didn't want to draw attention to them and get the both of them in trouble. Especially since it was ______'s first day. "Most people just call me Haru."

"It's nice to meet you, Haru," ______ told him before sitting back in her seat. Haru wished she kept talking to him, even though he knew it might've gotten the two of them in trouble. Makoto couldn't help but look over at the two of them. Ever since the moment ______, half of the guys in the class couldn't take their eyes off her, even Makoto caught Haru staring at her longer than he paid attention to anyone else. It was as if he and half the class were completely captivated by her, something Makoto never saw Haru pay attention to.

It was strange, to say the least about it.

Eventually, Makoto's attention went back to the lesson, and his eyes went back to the front of the room. Meanwhile, Haru made it look like he was paying attention, but he couldn't really manage it. All he could think about was ______ sitting right behind him, and he kept trying to come up with ways in his head to talk to her. His attention never went off that until the bell rung, and he heard Makoto start to talk to him.

"Haru... it's lunch. Aren't you going to come up to the roof?"

-

The second time that day that Makoto noticed something off about Haru was during swim practice, and this time, he wasn't alone. Even Gou had noticed that Haru was distracted, causing him to get a slower time, and she was on his case about it.

"Haru, what is up with you today?" she asked in an annoyed tone. "First you show up to practice late, you take forever getting changed, and now you can't even bother to give it your all at swimming! What's wrong with you?"

"I'm just tired," Haru told her in a monotone voice. In all honesty, that wasn't the truth and he wasn't a fantastic liar. He just didn't want to tell them that he had waited for the new transfer student to get her shoes so he would know which box hers was, just so he could know where she would be in the morning. Maybe then he could show her around. That was one of the ways he had thought up to get to talk to her, but as he saw her get her shoes changed, he thought that it wasn't the best way. He didn't want to seem like a creep, standing around and waiting for her in the morning.

Makoto went up to Gou. "Haru still has the best time out of all of us, Gou. Who cares if he's a few seconds slower today?"

Gou looked over at Makoto and gave him an empty smile. "I guess that means the rest of you want to swim laps and catch up then?"

Rei, notorious for being the worst swimmer out of all of them, looked at Makoto and shook his head. Sorry, Makoto thought, and next thing he knew, the four of them were all swimming laps.

About an hour into practice during one of their brief breaks, Makoto spotted ______ beyond the swim gate sitting on a bench, all alone. he turned to Haru, who was sitting next to him but seemed to be off in his own world. "Haru, isn't that the new student from our class? What's she still doing here?"

Haru whipped his head up and looked in the direction Makoto was pointing, ______ catching his eye. She was sitting on a bench underneath a tree, her backpack next to her and messaging someone on what looked like a flip-phone. Haru smiled a little bit, something about just seeing her made him happy. "I don't know," Haru told Makoto. "But I'm going to go find out."

Makoto looked over at Haru, but before he could even ask why, Haru was up and leaving swim practice. Gou isn't going to be happy when she finds out Haru is ditching.

Haru went past the gate and headed towards ______, not caring that he was still only in his swim trunks. He hadn't even given it a second thought. He went up to her, catching her by surprise when he was the first one to speak. "______, right?" he asked.

______ nearly jumped out of her skin and looked over at Haru, recognizing him as the guy who sat in front of her in Literature. However, she had not expected to see him in just his swimsuit, and piled on top of the fact that she already found him attractive, she fought a blush from rising to her face. "Yeah, you got it. What're you doing here? Especially dressed like... that." Her eyes briefly went up and down Haru's body.

For the first time, Haru thought about what he was wearing, but still didn't really care. "I'm on the swim team we have practice every day after school," he explained shortly. "I could ask you the same thing. May I... sit next to you?"

"Oh, sure," she said, moving her bag to the ground and making room for Haru.

"Thanks," he sat down, wanting to get closer to her but knowing he should probably keep her distance. Even though his mind was screaming at him to get closer to her, he pushed those thoughts down and went back to the topic on hand. "So, what're you still doing here? You're new, right? Are you already in a club?"

"That's a lot of questions at once," ______ tried to joke to easer the tension before sighing. "To be honest, I kind of live far away. My dad got me a variance to go here since it was the public school with the best feedback in the area, and he said he wanted nothing but the best for me... but now I have to wait for him every day so he can pick me up after work and we can go home. So, I guess all of my days are going to be like this."

"I'm sorry," Haru told her. He didn't really know what else to say, he couldn't really tell if she hated waiting or not.

"It's no big deal," she told him. "It's just... kind of lonely. It sucks being the new kid in the middle of the semester, everyone already has their friends' groups and their clubs, and I'm just kind of... alone."

Haru looked at her and smiled. "Well, I'm here. I can wait with you until your dad arrives."

______ didn't look at him, still kind of flustered. "It's alright, I don't want you to waste your time waiting here too. Besides, don't you have swim practice?"

Haru looked back at the pool, seeing Gou making the other three continue laps. "... No." he eventually answered. "Actually, it just ended. I don't mind waiting with you, I live close enough to walk home after school. It's no big deal. Besides, I know how it can feel to be lonely." Haru turned his attention back to her.

______ turned to him, and after taking one look in his deep blue eyes, couldn't think of a single reason why she would want him to leave. Being alone with him certainly beat being alone with anyone else. "Thank you," she told him. "As long as I'm not an inconvenience... I would like that."

Haru couldn't help a smile spreading across his face, and he couldn't remember ever being this outwardly happy any other time in his life. ______ brought it out of him, and as long as she was around, it felt like there was more happiness to find.

Who cared about swimming when ______ was around?

-

After weeks of hanging out after school and after swim practice, skipping lunches to hang out with ______ and even sometimes skipping swim practice, Haru and ______ started dating. The second that ______ told Haru "yes" to be his girlfriend, Haru called Makoto and told him. Makoto had never heard Haru get so excited about anything besides swimming.

However, ever since then, things had been... different.

Rei was the first one who brought it up, Makoto hadn't been wanting to think about it. It was on a Wednesday during swim practice while they were on a break. It was just four of them: Gou, Nagisa, Makoto and Rei. Haru had ditched again, he never really told them when he was going to be there and when he wasn't. It was beginning to bring the rest of them down, and Rei was the first one to get sick of it.

"Haven't you guys noticed that somethings off about the way Haruka has been acting?" he asked when the conversation started to dwindle.

"What I've noticed is he doesn't even bother to come to practice half the time anymore," Gou replied in an annoyed tone. "It's getting obnoxious."

"Not just that," Rei continued. "It's about ______. Have any of you really met her? I don't think I've ever spoken to her or seen her when she's not around Haruka."

"Now that I think about it, you're right Rei!" Nagisa jumped in. "He never really used to ditch practice before unless it was something really important. Does Haru even care about swimming anymore?"

"Of course he cares about swimming!" Makoto jumped into the conversation. "He's just... distracted, y'know? I'm sure that if we just talked to him about it, he'll come back. Maybe he can bring ______ to practice? That way we'll all get to meet her, and maybe it'll make Haru start coming back to practices."

"When would we ask this?" Rei pointed out. "He's always around ______."

"Maybe that's for the best!" Gou started. "If we invite both of them to practice when she's around. maybe she can help convince Haru to come back."

"We can ask them tomorrow, at lunch. They're always together, they eat outside under those sakura trees in the quad." Makoto was excited to get Haru back at practice.

"I've never liked those trees, there's too many bees always hanging around," Gou said, standing up. "I guess though if it gets Haru back on the team, it's worth it. Now, enough of the break. Back in the pool!"

-

"Thank you, Haru," ______ took the box Haru offered her. One of the things she learned about Haru: he was an amazing cook. Ever since she mentioned that she adored his cooking, Haru started bringing her a lunch to school every day.

"Of course," he told her, taking a seat next to her and kissing her on the forehead. They ate mostly in silence, talking about plans they had for later in the week when ______ mentioned something Haru hadn't expected.

"Haru, aren't those your friends from the swim team?"

Haru looked up, seeing all of them coming his way: they were even all wearing the swim jackets too. That's how ______ knew it was them: she had seen Haru's jacket in his closet before. They approached them, all smiling, and Haru just moved closer to ______ and put an arm around her waist. "What's going on guys?"

"Haru, we need to talk," Gou put it simply. "You've... been missing a lot of practice. Too much, even Miss Amakada mentioned that you need to be a persistent member on the team in order for us to remain a club."

Makoto gave Gou a look reading, Miho never said that, but it seemed as if Gou had her own plan. Meanwhile, ______ was the one who was left confused. Haru never mentioned he had been skipping practice, she had no idea that swim practice was after school every day. She looked over at him. "Haru, have you been ditching practices? Why?"

Haru was silent for a moment, instead just pulling ______ closer to him. Rei, fed up with Haru's silence, broke it. "He's been skipping to spend time with you, Miss ______." Rei told her bluntly. "However, the four of us thought that maybe if you wanted to join us at swim practices, then..."

Rei didn't get a chance to finish before ______ spoke up. "I'd love to!" she exclaimed, taking even Haru by surprise. "I mean, Haru talks about swimming all the time, but the only time I've ever really seen him even remotely close to swimming was on the first day of school when he talked to me when he was still in his swimsuit. Besides, I needed to join a club anyways! I have so much time after school while I'm waiting for my dad. It's a perfect arrangement!"

Haru, seeing how excited ______ was at the idea, just gave her a smile and nodded before turning back to the rest of the group. "I'll see you guys at practice."

The rest of the group was happy and started to walk away, but Makoto stayed behind for a moment. "Haru, is everything alright?" he asked, his tone genuinely worried. As soon as ______ agreed, his entire mood turned around, but Makoto still felt like something was off.

"I'm fine," Haru told him. "I didn't realize how much you guys wanted me at practice."

"It's not the same without you, Haru. We started the club after all, cleaned the pool, everything. Practice just doesn't seem right without you there."

"I'll be there," Haru told him, and Makoto hesitated for a moment before walking away.

______ stayed silent for a moment, watching everything unfold. There was something she couldn't get off her mind. "Haru... why haven't you been going to practice? You know, if you just told me you had swim practice, I would've understood. I don't want to get you kicked off the team just for hanging out with me."

"I wanted to spend time with you," Haru started, looking at her and grabbing her hand. "For once in my life, there's something I look forward too besides the next time I'll get into a pool: seeing you. Besides, I didn't want to bore you at swim practice."

"How could I get bored?" ______ leaned towards him. "I get to see you swim. More than that, I get to see you in your swimsuit. That's a sight I haven't seen since the first day of school."

Haru laughed and planted a kiss on her lips, all the while thinking about something else. That's part of the reason I was avoiding it, he began to think. I don't want you seeing anyone else like that but me.

-

Once after school rolled around, ______ headed to the pool, sitting against the fence while Haru and the other members of the team got changed. She looked around: she had never come to the pool before, and it was peaceful. The area around the fence was pretty, trees filling the area. While she was staring off in the distance, she saw Gou going around the pool with a huge net, trying to get stray leaves out of the pool. ______ went up to her with a smile. "Do you need help?"

Gou turned around, ______ taking her by surprise. "Oh, hey _______!" she greeted her energetically. "No, I'm just about done. I don't think we've met before, my name's Gou." She reached out, offering ______ a hand.

"Nice to meet you. I guess you already knew my name from Haru or Makoto," ______ shook her hand. "I don't know the other two guys though."

"The tall one's name is Rei, the short one is Nagisa," she told me. "They'll all be out in a second. We're going to do dryland, take a break and then I'm testing their time. Do you want to help?"

"Sure! I'm not quite sure what to do, though."

______ followed Gou to her bag, where she pulled out a clipboard and a stopwatch. "When we're starting dives and times, could you time them and mark it down?"

______ looked over the board, numbers from the past few weeks filling the page. Haru's time was by far the best out of all of them, and he was also the one with the most empty spaces. The slowest one, however, was Rei. He had nearly identical empty spaces on the paper. ______ looked over at Gou. "Has Rei been skipping practice too?"

Gou went silent for a moment. "No, it's not that, he just... he isn't really confident in his swimming. Haru was helping him out for a while, but the more Haru missed practice, the more discouraged he became. I think that's part of the reason Rei insisted on getting Haru to come back more often."

"I had no idea..." as ______ trailed off, there was the sound of a door opening, and you could hear three distinct voices as they all came out, Haru being the only silent one. ______ looked over at them and called out, getting their attention. "Hey! I'm going to help out today!" she told them excitedly, gesturing to the clipboard.

"First though..." Gou stole their attention before any of them got to say anything. "Dryland."

______ had no idea what that meant before she heard them all groan except Rei, who moved to the front. "We should always stretch before getting into the pool," he told them in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's good for you."

"We know, we know," Makoto sighed. "I just was looking forward to getting into the water."

______ and Gou took a backseat while Rei led the exercises. Gou leaned over to ______. "Rei used to be on the pole-vaulting them, so he really likes to lead this part. I didn't want to argue; I sure didn't want to lead it."

______ laughed a little, trying to imagine anyone besides Rei leading it. She couldn't imagine Haru trying to lead them in the exercises Rei was doing, Haru just looked bored as he carried out each one.

Haru looked over at ______ and smiled once he realized she was the looking at. That's good, he reassured himself in his head. He knew it probably shouldn't bother him as much as it did, but there was an awful feeling that bubbled inside of him when he thought about her having eyes for anyone else.

Twenty minutes later, Gou called for a five-minute break before they got into the pool. Haru walked over to ______. "You're not bored yet?" he asked.

"Not at all," she reassured him. "In fact, I'm excited to time you guys. I'm glad to be involved at all, really. It's something that you care about, so I want to be involved too."

Haru smiled at her and took her hand. "I'm glad that you're here. At least with you here, I know that I'll never get bored."

"You? Bored of swimming? Never," she teased him, and then the others started to walk up to them. Haru looked at them and squeezed ______'s hand a little tighter, pulling her a little towards him.

"Hey ______!" Nagisa was the first to speak. "I realized you probably don't know who Rei and I are since we don't have any classes together."

"Your name is Nagisa, and he's Rei, right?" She asked, pointing the two out. "Gou told me. I kinda have to know, since I'm timing you guys today. It's nice to meet you guys."

Rei spoke up. "It's nice to finally meet you too. It's a little strange that we've never met before, considering the amount of time that you and Haruka have been seeing each other."

"Yeah, Haru, why didn't you ever bring her before? It's not like we would've kicked her out," Nagisa turned his attention from ______ to Haru.

You didn't need to meet her, Haru thought to himself. "We haven't been dating that long," was the reply he went for.

"Maybe, but you guys have been spending time together for weeks," Makoto pointed out. "No one here is upset, we're just wondering why."

"Hey, I'm here now, right?" ______ jumped into the conversation, hoping to ease the tension. Rei was still looking at Haru quizzically, as if trying to find out what he thought was wrong about the situation. "That's what matters."

Before anyone could say another word on the matter, Gou blew a whistle. "Your five minutes are up!" she told them. "Nagisa, you're first! ______, are you ready to time?"

______ let go of Haru's hand, much to his dismay, and grabbed the stopwatch and clipboard. "Ready, Gou!"

"Good. The rest of you, just wait. We're going one at a time so ______ will have an easier time getting an accurate time for each of you."

How hard can it be to work a stopwatch? ______ thought, getting ready to press it as Nagisa got ready to dive. She moved closer to the pool, standing next to Gou. Makoto stood next to go, then Rei, and last was Haru. Gou stood next to her and whistled, marking Nagisa's dive into the pool.

______ wrote down Nagisa and Makoto's time, each one getting a nearly identical time to their record. Gou looked over. "The point isn't always to beat your time, sometimes the point is to make sure that you're consistent."

______ nodded and Rei got up to the dive, looking slightly nervous. Nagisa looked out with a worried expression: he had on insisted on trying his dive and swim without a board today. In all honesty, he didn't feel like he needed it anymore. He wanted to move on from using it. He prepared a stance and Gou blew the whistle.

Rei wrecked the dive.

While his form wasn't the problem, the problem was he wasn't travelling well once he was in the water, and his dive didn't take him far. He looked a little like he was sinking to the bottom of the pool like a rock. Gou sighed, remarking, "I thought he had been getting better..."

Rei stood up suddenly, muttering something and getting out of the pool. "Rei, wait!" Gou called out, but it was no use. Rei just walked away from the group, heading into the changing rooms.

I feel kind of bad for him, ______ thought. He really needed Haru here, didn't he? I kind of took that away. ______ turned to Gou, handing her the clipboard and stopwatch. "I have to use the bathroom real fast, where are they?"

"Same direction Rei was heading, the girl's door is right next to their door," Gou replied, taken aback suddenly. She had a feeling that this wasn't about the bathroom, but before she could say anything, ______ was out the door and heading towards the bathrooms. Haru watched her as she left, and right as he moved to go follow her, Gou called out to him. "Don't even think about it Haru, she's using the bathroom. I'll be timing you, now get up there."

Haru hesitated for a moment, then got up. The sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can go check up on ______, he told himself, preparing his dive.

His time had never been better, and before Gou knew it, Nagisa was asking for another chance to do his dive. She didn't even notice Haru disappear into the same direction Rei and ______ had headed.

-

As soon as ______ walked away form the group, she ignored the signs, walking into the guy's bathroom with her eyes closed. "Rei, it's ______!" she called out. "Please have clothes on, I have my eyes closed but I want to talk to you!"

What is _______ doing back here? Rei asked himself shortly before replying, "I'm clothed. I'm going home for the day."

______ opened her eyes and headed towards him. "Hey, leaving so soon?" she asked, trying her best to block his way to the door. Rei was a fair amount taller than her and could probably easily get past her, but he didn't like confrontation, so he hesitated.

"I can't swim," he told her. "I thought I could, but I guess I can't."

"Okay, I'm not going to lie to you, I've seen your times," ______ started out. "You're not the fastest swimmer here, sure. You can swim though. I don't understand why you have all of those blank spaces, you're here every day, right?"

Rei paused for a moment. "I wouldn't ditch a club that I dedicated myself to."

"So why the empty spaces?"

"If I tell you, will you let me past?"

"I'll think about it," she teased him slightly. "So, what's wrong?"

Rei sighed, hesitating before deciding that the truth was the best option here. "I don't know, I really don't. Some days I'm swimming fine, and other days, like today, I just sink. I get distracted, and I just... float down. I can't focus today, that's all. I'm sure I'll get over it, but I need to get home, clear my head."

"Distraction sinks you?" she asked, confused. In a way, she kind of understood it, but she didn't understand what was different about today rather than other days. "What distracts you?"

"It depends on the day. Tests, homework... personal things," he said the last part quietly. "I just need to go home, that's it."

______ nodded. "Okay, I get it. I just wanted to make sure everything was alright. You and Haru aren't too different, you know. He gets too much in his head sometimes, and I find that talking usually helps, and I wanted to help."

Rei smiled. "Thank you, ______."

"No problem," she told him. "Oh, before you leave, you might want to remember your bag," she pointed behind him, his bag still on the bench. Before Rei could say anything else, she just smiled at him, turned around, and headed back outside towards Gou.

Haru had seen everything. As she left, he made sure to be completely still and quiet just so she wouldn't look his way. He gave himself a few minutes of time, just enough for _______ and Gou to notice he was gone, wait a little, and look for him. In that time, he wanted to talk to Rei. Listening to the conversation, the awful feeling he felt before was back. It wasn't jealousy, per say, because he wasn't envious of Rei about how ______ acted towards him. She was far more affectionate towards Haru all the time.

It was more about the fact that he could tell Rei felt something towards her. No matter how small, Haru didn't like it. Rei didn't get to feel that way towards ______, he didn't have the right. ­______ was his, not anyone else's. Just Haru's, to have and to keep close.

As Rei finished getting his things together, right as he turned to leave for a second time, someone else was in his way this time. Not ______, but Haru. "Oh, Haru," Rei was surprised. "How... how long have you been in here?"

"Long enough," Haru told him. "Let's talk, Rei."

Rei was taken aback and confused. Nothing had happened, if Haru had been there for as long as Rei suspected he had, he would've seen that was the case. Something was wrong about the way Haru was acting, his behavior was stranger than usual. "Is something wrong, Haru?"

"Nothing, I'm just putting two and two together. You didn't have any tests today, did you?"

Rei was confused but decided answering any questions was probably for the best. "No, I didn't."

"Any projects or big assignments due tomorrow?"

"No."

"Well, nothing from today's practice was different than usual. Nothing besides ______."

Rei scoffed, surprised to think that this was about her. "Whatever you're thinking Haru, you're wrong. Nothing happened in here between ______ and I, she adores you. I'm sure you know that."

Haru smiled for a brief moment. "I know she does," he told Rei. "I know nothing happened in here. What I'm talking about is the reason you couldn't swim today, I heard you were distracted. Was it because of ______?"

Rei went silent. "Haru, my bus is coming soon. I have to come home."

"Answer my question," Haru moved, blocking Rei from leaving.

Rei sighed. Once again, he knew he was physically fitter than Haru and could easily get past him, but that wouldn't fix the issue. He had a feeling Haru wasn't going to let this go, and Rei had never seen Haru so dead serious about anything before. "No, it wasn't," he told Haru. "______ may be attractive, but-"

Before he got a chance to continue and explain that he was not interested in her, Rei was met with something he never would've expected: Haru's fist meeting his face. He knew Haru was fit and should've expected him to be strong, but he hadn't expected the amount of force that Haru put in the punch. He stumbled back, nearly falling over. Haru just stood in front of him, stoic. He began to speak as Rei put a hand to his face and felt blood on his lip. It had been cut open by one of his teeth, and he could taste blood in his mouth.

"Stay away from her," Haru told him, his tone stern and his expression unchanging. "She wants to be here, and I don't need you or anyone else giving her eyes. She's not yours."

Rei didn't even have a reply, still in shock from the punch. He trusted Haru, he considered him his Senpai when it came to swimming, and right now he just felt betrayed. Rei grabbed his bag, and without another word, ran out of the pool room.

Haru went up to the mirror in the locker room, making sure that nothing on him looked out of place. Satisfied, he left the room and spotted ______ sitting with Gou, Nagisa and Makoto, looking like they were on a break. Haru went up to the group and sat next to ______, putting his arm around her waist and smiling at her. "There you are," she sounded relieved. "Rei just ran out of here like his life depended on it, and he seemed upset. Did something happen?"

"I don't know, I was just using the bathroom," he told her. Satisfied with his answer, she put her concern about Rei to the side, rested her head on Haru's shoulder and turned back to the rest of the group.

-

The next day, ______ insisted that Haru went to practice. "I think it's fun," she told him. "Besides, your friends are counting on you. I don't want to get in the way of that."

"You're not in the way," Haru reassured her as they were walking towards the pool after school. "I just really like spending time with you, and I feel like sometimes swimming can get in the way of that. I care about you so, so much ______."

She looked back at him. "I care about you too, which is why I'm insisting on going. Once you're in the water, I'm sure every other thought will fade away, I promise."

Only if you're there with me, Haru thought, picking up the pace to the pool. ______ had to talk to Miss Amakada about assignments she missed before she transferred to get her grade up, so they were running a few minutes late. Once they got to the pool, Haru realized everyone was already changed and ran to the locker room to put his stuff away and get changed. "There you guys are!" Nagisa exclaimed as he, Makoto and Gou went up to ______ happily once Haru left. "We were worried that you guys weren't going to show up today."

"Oh, trust me, Haru will not miss another day," ______ told Nagisa, and Makoto and Gou seemed relieved and happy to hear it. ______ looked over at Rei, who was just sitting at the edge of the pool with his feet hanging over the side, kicking at the water. "Is something wrong with Rei?"

"I have no idea," Gou said, looking over at Rei for a moment. "He's barely said a word all day, and he told me that he doesn't want to lead today. I don't think he's feeling well."

______ walked away from the group and sat next to Rei. Rei's eyes went wide when he looked at her, and he looked around the pool. "Where's Haru?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

"You're not even going to say hello?" ______ replied in a joking tone. "Getting changed, probably trying to decide what swimsuit to wear. Is something wrong?"

Rei was refusing to look at her, and something felt off. He was taking a completely different tone with her today than he had yesterday. "I'm fine, just please, leave me alone."

"No, not until you talk to me," ______ pushed the subject, trying to get Rei to look her in the eyes. That's when she finally saw his face, noticing his split lip. "Woah, Rei, what happened?"

"Nothing concerning you," Rei looked away and stood up, getting his feet out of the pool. "Please, ______, just drop it."

______ stood up as well, grabbing his arm before he walked away. "Rei, if something happened, you can tell me. I'm just worried about you; you were fine last time I saw you."

Before Rei could reply, he spotted Haru coming out of the changing rooms. His heart nearly stopped, he didn't want a repeat of what happened yesterday, and this looked even worse than an innocent conversation. "______, please," Rei started, pulling his arm away.

Except he accidentally used just a little too much force, underestimating the grip ______ had on his arm.

Thanks to the puddle that formed around Rei when he got his feet out of the pool and the force he used when he pulled his arm away from ______, once she did let go, she slipped. Unlucky for her, unlike everyone on the swim team, she still had everything on her. She fell into the deep side of the pool fully clothed with her backpack still on her back with all of her binders and books, including the textbook Amakada had given her to catch up on all the work. Everything was weighing her down, and due to the element of surprise and shock, she didn't have very much air as she fell backwards and splashed in, getting everyone's attention.

"______!" Gou shouted, and everyone stood in shock for a moment except Haru. Right away, he ran towards the side of the pool they were on and pushed a shocked Rei to the side, diving in. No one moved as he started heading to the bottom of the pool, and Rei's heart completely dropped. If he didn't think Haru had any reason to be mad at him before, he just handed Haru a reason to be angry on a silver platter.

Right now, however, anger was the furthest thing from Haru's mind. All he cared about was getting ______ out of the water, and at the moment, she was struggling to get her straps off as she was laying on her back on the bottom of the pool, already low on air. Haru didn't care how bad it was for his eyes to keep them open, he just swam down and grabbed ______ by the backpack straps, lifting with everything he had. Once he got her off her back, he pushed the backpack off her hastily, knowing it would just slow them down. Although ______ was disoriented, she knew someone was grabbing her and clung onto them. Haru used the bottom of the pool as a boost, powering to the top.

You could hear a gasp of relief when they got back to the top, and Makoto and Nagisa headed to the side, helping Haru get ______ out of the pool by taking her arms and lifting her out. Haru got out as soon as possible, sitting by her side and placing his hand gently on her cheek. "______? ______, please, are you alright?"

Suddenly she was coughing and opened her eyes, glad to see Haru's eyes looking back at her. "Haru?" she asked, relieved.

He nodded and smiled, pulling her up and into a hug. "______, I'm glad you're okay."

She hugged him back, shivering. Right now, her clothes were only making her colder, even Haru was warmer than she was. She rested her head in the crook of his neck. "I'm okay, you got me. Thank you so much."

Nagisa looked back into the pool. "Your backpack!" he exclaimed, diving into the pool. A few seconds later, he emerged, throwing the backpack up. "That thing has to weigh at least ten pounds."

______ looked over at her bag. "My books..." she looked upset, then looked down. "My uniform, too. I'm soaked."

"Don't worry too much about your books, maybe your backpack blocked some of the water," Makoto told her hopefully. Even he didn't believe his words.

Haru looked back at her. "My house is closer than yours, I'll have some dry clothes there. You can wear whatever you want," he told her. "I'll stay here, and I'll lay your books out in the sun. They'll start to dry."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I've never been to your house without you, and I don't want to snoop around your room and break your privacy or anything, and I don't know what I'm going to do with these clothes..."

Haru put his hands on her shoulders and looked her right in the eyes, trying to calm her. "I'm inviting you over, you're not invading anything. Pick out whatever you want, put your uniform in my bathtub and I'll wash it when I'm home. I just want you to get some dry clothes on. My spare key is under a rock next to the front door. Now, go, ______. I don't want you to get sick."

______ calmed down a little, nodding. She wrapped her arms around Haru again, hugging him tightly. "Thank you, Haru. I don't know what I'd do without you."

As they both stood up, the others stood there, unsure what to do. Nagisa had gotten back out of the pool and was still holding ______'s backpack. Gou was the first one to speak as ______ began to walk away. "Haru, you can go with her. This is the one time I'll actually understand if you ditch practice."

Haru's tone went flat again, a complete 180 from the way he was talking to ______. "It's fine," he pushed away the idea. "I want to stay."

As he said that, he looked right at Rei, who had stayed completely silent through everything. Rei felt a huge chill go down his spine, and he looked away from Haru. I didn't mean to, he thought. It never was supposed to end like this.

-

Only an hour later, almost everyone had left. Practice ended early that day, everyone still slightly on edge from what had happened. Makoto helped lay out ______'s books in the sun, and Haru told them he was going to wait behind for a while since ______ was going to come back, and her things still needed to dry. Nagisa and Gou were the first to leave, then Makoto after helping Haru, leaving Haru and Rei alone.

Rei knew it was probably best to get out as soon as possible, but there was so much on his mind, it felt like everything he was doing was in slow motion. He just got done rinsing off and was about to grab his things, but right as he went to grab his bag, he saw Haru sitting next to it, his back turned. Rei froze, and Haru noticed his footsteps stop. They were both silent for a moment, and Haru was the first to speak up. "I'm sorry, Rei."

That was the last thing that Rei expected to hear. "What?"

"I'm sorry about yesterday, I over-reacted. I shouldn't have punched you in the face."

Rei took a moment to let the situation sink in. Haru, who hadn't changed at all, had been sitting here waiting to apologize to Rei. Rei, who nearly drowned ______ earlier that day. As much as every single nerve in his body was screaming that something was wrong, Rei wanted to believe it. "It's... fine, Haru. I'm sorry for what happened earlier today with ______."

"That got me thinking," Haru stood up from where he was sitting and turned around, looking Rei in the eyes. "You should know how to dive in and get somebody if they're sinking like that. You just froze up today, but I can help teach you."

"I... I don't know how much help I'd be in another situation like that, but sure," Rei replied, finding Haru's proposition odd. Haru was helping him learn before, but not through direct lessons. The entire situation was off.

Haru turned back around. "Follow me," he told Rei.

"You meant right now?"

"No better time," Haru stated already walking out. Rei left his bag behind and followed Haru, curious as to where this was going. Once they got outside, Rei wished he had at least put on his shoes. The sun was out and the area around the pool was scorching the bottom of his feet. Haru went right to the deepest end of the pool. "I need to show you here, it's a deep dive," Haru looked back at Rei. "Are you paying attention."

Rei pushed his glasses further up his face. "I'm watching," he assured Haru, who just gave him a nod.

Rei watched as Haru backed up a few feet. "The trick isn't to dive perfectly, it's to dive directly to where they are."

Rei watched as Haru took a deep breath, took a small head-start, and jumped into the pool. It gave off a bigger splash than Rei was expecting, and water stained his glasses. He flinched back, and when he opened his eyes again, Haru had swam up to the side of the pool, mumbling something. "Excuse me?" Rei asked. "I can't hear you, Haru." Haru just mumbled again, and Rei repeated the same thing, this time coming closer.

I've got you. Haru thought.

"This one is for ______," Haru mumbled, and Rei took another step forward. Once he did, Haru moved fast, raising his hand out of the pool and grabbing Rei by the ankle, then pulled him forward, dragging him into the pool. Just like ______, Rei had changed back into his uniform and it was making him easier to pull down with the extra weight.

Rei had been caught completely off guard, and once he was in the water, tried pulling away from Haru, but it was no use. His clothes slowed and weighed down his movement, and when Haru was in the water, his movements were quick and graceful. He just kept pulling Rei under.

Right at that moment, ______ had returned to get her things. Her clothes had made her cold by the time she got to Haru's house, so currently, she was wearing a pair of his shorts, a blue shirt she found and Haru's swim jacket. "Haru?" she called out. "Gou? Anyone?" She entered the area, looking around for signs of anyone.

That's when she saw the struggle in the water.

She heard water splashing and went to the edge of the pool, looking inside. The water was so clear, it made it easy to see what was going on: it looked like Haru was trying to get Rei to the bottom, and Rei was fighting like hell. While Rei was kicking and trying to swim up with everything he had, it was a losing battle. Rei was reaching towards the surface, eyes wide open, and that's when he saw a familiar figure: ______.

______ began to freak out. She had no idea what was going on, but it looked like if she didn't do something soon, Rei was going to drown. She needed to distract Haru. She looked in the water and thought of the quickest solution she could. Too bad I just changed, she thought. She took a deep breath, took a few steps back, and took a running start to jumping into the pool.

When Haru heard another splash, he couldn't help but look over to see who it was. He didn't really plan on having any witnesses, in fact, he had no plan at all. He was acting on impulse, on anger, on revenge. When he looked over and saw ______ sinking towards the bottom for the second time that day, he completely ditched Rei and swam towards ______, quickly grabbing her and swimming up. It was a lot easier to do now than it was earlier since he didn't have to account for her backpack. The second Haru let got of Rei, he swam towards the surface, barely making it.

Rei gasped for air as he reached the top, grabbing the side of the pool. Haru reached the surface gracefully and full of air, like he hadn't even gone under. ______ took a deep breath as soon as she got back up, and Haru was getting her out of the pool right away. It took a while for Rei to be able to muster enough strength to climb the side and get out, and once he did, he was still breathing heavily and coughing. ______ was the first to speak while Rei was still struggling to breathe right again. "What the hell is going on? What happened?"

"I was getting justice," Haru said in a calm tone, grabbing ______'s hand and pulling her close to him. "For you. You shouldn't have jumped in with clothes again, ______, now you're really going to get sick."

______ tried moving away, but Haru had a firm grip on her and didn't even flinch when she tried to move. "I don't care about getting sick," she told him, looking into Haru's eyes. His eyes were so calm, and just by looking in her eyes, Haru could tell she was scared. "What was going on?"

Haru thought for a moment about how to respond, but Rei was the one who spoke next, finally being able to talk. "Haru was trying... to drown me..." he spoke through pained breaths.

______ looked at Haru. "Is that true? Why?"

Haru looked from ______ to Rei. Before he responded, he pulled ______ closer to him again, putting her between his legs and wrapping his arms and legs around her. "I'll keep you warm," he told her. "I was protecting you, ______. Rei nearly drowned you earlier, too, and I was angry with him. I just wanted to protect you, ______. I'll do anything to keep you safe," Haru looked over at Rei and glared at him. "Anything."

Rei didn't say anything, he was too shocked and freaked out about what had happened. Right now, he just wanted to get out of there. So, he stood up and ran towards the locker rooms to grab his things, then started running like hell to the bus stop. He had no idea what he was going to do when he got home, he just knew he needed to get out of there and go somewhere safe.

______ was frozen in Haru's grasp unsure of what to say back to Haru. "Haru, you're acting insane," she told him, trying to move again, but Haru's grip was as tight as a cobra. "You went too far, Rei didn't mean to hurt me earlier, you didn't see everything that happened. It was an accident."

"Well, it will never happen again," Haru told her. "He won't ever hurt you again, and no one else will. I'll be here to save you, to protect you. I'll always be here for you ______." Haru leaned forward and kissed ______ on the cheek as she sat there. A shiver went down her spine, and Haru felt her body shake. "You're freezing. Come on, we'll get your stuff then head back to my house. You can change again."

As Haru stood up, ______ moved away. "I... I'm not going with you, Haru. You need some time alone, we both need time alone, to think about what happened."

Before ______ could move another step, Haru moved forward and grabbed her hand. "______, your dad wont be here for another two hours, and your clothes are soaking. I don't want you to get sick, so you're coming home with me. I know what's best for you, ______."

She couldn't move her hand at all, Haru's grip was too tight. She took a deep breath, and all at once, she gave in. She didn't want anyone else to get hurt, and the way Haru was acting, she saw that as a possibility. Maybe as long as she stayed around him... everyone else would be safe.

"Okay," she told him, flashing him her most convincing smile. "Let's go."