The Shark and the Stingray

Chapter 24

"Alright, get ready," I blow the whistle and Haru dives in, "Ah! Still at it I see," Kou and I turn around, "Oh hey Coach Sasabe." Kou greets him, "Sorry, had work at the pool so I couldn't come to regionals, but you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be at nationals screaming my lungs out." He smiles, "Thanks, I still can't believe we qualified to be completely honest. It hasn't quite sunk in yet." I rubbed the back of my head. After school that day, Mako, Haru and I walked home together, "Well, it's almost New Year. We'll get a week off soon." I look up at the dark sky, "Yeah, it'd be nice to have some time off and spend it with family." Mako nods, "When will your parents come home?" I look at Haru, "Not till the end of Summer." He says, Mako chuckles, "They're free spirits, just like you." Mako looks at him, we stand in front of a bill board, "Firework festival and Spirit Boat festival?" I read the flyers, "Hey, why don't we head to the firework festival? We'll invite Nagisa and Rei too," I look at the two boys, "That sounds fun." Haru had a light smile. We finally reached our neighbourhood, "Well bye," Haru and I say as Mako reached his lane, mine was a little further ahead the stairs, "Big brother!" Ren and Ran grabbed onto Mako, "Hope you're hungry cause dinner's ready!" Ran chirps, "Hey you should come eat too," Ren looks at Haru and I, "Yeah! We've got plenty of food!" Ran nods, "Today's not a good day for me," Haru smiles, "Yeah, I'd hate to intrude but thank you for the invitation," I crouch down and pet their heads, they pout, "Promise you'll eat with us next time?" Ren asks, "Promise," I wink, "Deal." Haru nods and we turn back around, "Goodnight Haru. Goodnight Yuki." They drone out with a sad tone. "I'm home!" I slid my shoes off, "Hey darling, how was school?" Mum asks, "Normal." I dropped my bag off and rubbed my shoulder, "Geez, these things never get lighter do they." Dad picks it up and hangs it on the hook, "Thanks dad." I kiss his cheek and we all sit at the table and have dinner, "Itadakimasu." We clap our hands together.

"Everybody pay attention, Kou and I took the liberty to create a chart that shows all of your race times," I hold our a spreadsheet, the boys crowd around, "I guess our times aren't really improving much." Rei furrows his brows, "Exactly, these stats are from regionals individual times have improved quite a bit but for some strange reason your relay times have levelled off." Kou sighs, "I don't understand how is that possible?" Haru says, "Does that mean we do worse when we swim together?" Nagisa sulks, "That can't be true!" Rei says, "Whatever's the reason it is a problem, so start with, Coach Sasabe is going to adjust your training regiment let's hope we can pinpoint the root of your problem and deal with it before nationals next week." I sighed.

"Have a nice break guys, see you in a week." We all parted ways for our New Years break, I was home lounging on my bed, scrolling through my phone, I hear the doorbell, "I've got it." I hear dad's voice, he started cackling with laughter, "Hi Rin." I shouted, "Aww come on, how'd you know it was me." His head peeked from my doorframe, "I hear dad booming with laughter, it can only be you." I jump off my bed and peck his lips, "What are you doing here anyway?" I ask, he reaches into his back pocket and gets onto one knees, "Rin, we're kids, I'm not accepting the ring even if you give it to me." I put my foot on his face, he takes out a plane ticket, "Wait what?" I take my foot off, he slides it and shows a second ticket, "Oh my God! YES!" I jumped up and down and hugged him, he laughed and picked me up spinning me around, "What happened? It's like someone got engaged." My mum comes into my room, we laughed, "I was wondering if you'd let Yuki come with me back to Australia for the week break. Lori and Russell sent me tickets back home." He showed mum the tickets, "Oh that's be lovely, it's been a while since you've been home Yuki." Mum smiles, "Charlie!" She calls, dad comes up and she shows him the tickets, "Oh, this actually works out perfectly, I was going to mail some medicine for your grandma and grandpa but delivery would've taken a while, do you think you could give it to them." Dad looks at me, I nodded, "Why not, it's been a while too since I've been grandpa and grandma." I grinned, "Wait so does that mean I get to go?" I ask hopefully, they laughed, "What parents aren't going to let them go back home when they want to?" They laughed.

"Bye mum, bye dad. I'll be back soon." I hugged them, "Bye sweetie." They kissed my head, "See ya, I'll be back soon." Rin hugged his mum and Kou, "We'll bring back souvenirs." I waved my arm and laughed. We went through security and customs fine, we were sitting at our gate eating a sandwich we bough, "I want a bite of yours." I lean over and take a bite of Rin's, he does the same and takes a bite of mine, "Swap." I hold my hand out, we both switch sandwiches, preferring with each others. The flight was nine and a half hours, it was an overnight flight, "You get some rest, we'll land at around eight in the morning," He kisses my head, "You should too, here. Take your neck pillow back, it isn't fair if I get both." I take mine off my neck, "No, it's fine, besides, why would I complain, I look to my right and I see a sky filled with stars and I look to my left and I see the girl of my dreams." He whispers, everyone was asleep on the plane, "You're such a flirt." I pinch his nose, he grins, "What? I'm a romantic," He smirks and peppers my neck and face with kisses.

I hand my passport, he looks at me then at the picture, "Welcome home." He stamps the Australian passport, "Thank you." I smile and wheel my suitcase after me, Rin was after me and was asked for his visit because he had a Japanese passport, "Reason for your visit?" He asks, "I'm with my girlfriend, visiting family." He says, the man was a little taken aback from his perfect english and Australian accent, "Lived here for a few years when I was little." Rin smiles and his passport was stamped. "I wanna catch the ferry rather than the bus," I say when we got out of customs, "Sure, I don't mind, we need to head to Manly anyway." He grabs my hand, the two of us got onto the shuttle bus and caught the train to Circular Quay, then caught the ferry towards Manly, we sat on the outdoor seats by the side of the ferry, I leaned over the edge, "Careful babe, next thing you know, you're gonna flip off and I'm not going to jump in there to save you." Rin pulls me back, I laughed and crashed into his chest, "Oh come on, yes you will. We all know you will. Help, Rin! I'm drowning! Blub, blub, blub." I pretend to sink, "How did I fall in love with a three year old." He kisses my head, I laughed. 

We sat down at Manly Beach, Rin took his shirt off and I took my shirt off too, I had my bikini top on, "Did you wear your swimmers?" I tug on the waistband of his shorts and I saw his boxers, "I guess not, idiot." I took my pants off and laid down on the sand, "I guess I am an idiot. I've gotta say, it'd feel great to be in swimmers, I'm sweating my balls off in my tracksuit pants. I should've grabbed my suit when we dropped our stuff off at your grandparent's house." Rin fans his face, I laughed, "I still remember when you first came to Australia, you were like a fish out of water. And when you first went to the swim centre, you raced against Sam and got your arse handed to you." I peeked an eye open as the sun beat down on us, "I don't need to remember that, it was embarrassing to say the least, I kept running my mouth at how I was the best back in Japan but I guess I quickly learnt that being the best in Japan meant nothing when you're surrounded by people who've swum their entire lives. That includes you." He tickles my stomach lightly, I giggled, "Come on, tell me I'm the best." I reached into my bag and brought out his tech suit, "Wha...?" He looked at me, "I knew you'd forget so I packed it in here, gimme some credit." I threw it at him, "I love you." He kisses my cheek over and over again, he ran up to the beach bathrooms and came back down, "Race you to the water," He bolted off, "What the hell! Cheater!" I chased after him, the two of us laughing.

Once the sun set, we headed to Lori and Russell's place, "Your pulling my leg, is that you?" Lori was shocked, "Oh Rin!" She hugs him, "Yuki! It's been forever!" She hugs me, "How you two been keeping back in Japan? Mika and Charlie, how are they?" Russell hugs me, "They're great, miss you too." I smiled, "I can't believe how big you've gotten," Lori looks at Rin, the three of them talked, I heard barking at my feet, "Winnie!" I picked him up, "How you been boy!" I gushed and he licked my face over and over again, I laughed as it tickled, "You two headed to the beach already?" Russell asks, "Yeah, we went to Manly for a while and dropped our stuff at Yuki's grandparent's house. We're heading there tonight." Rin nods and pets Winnie's head.