The Shark and the Stingray

Chapter 25

"Dinner's ready," Lori calls, we all head to the table, "Help yourselves, it's not rude to stuff your face here." Lori smiles, "Thanks it looks delicious." I look at the spread of food, "Your thing still the IM?" Russell looks at me, I nodded, "And get this, this cheeky bugger appeared out of thin air at regionals and took home a new record. Scouts were everywhere trying to recruit her." Rin pokes my cheek, "It was nothing really. I guess I just missed the competitive element of swimming again, I hopped in the pool not actually thinking I'd place, the school I go to's team didn't actually make any individual slots for nationals but we came first in the medley relay. Beat Rin's team too." I nudged him and laughed, "I remember when you two were so young and little. Rin wouldn't stop blabbering his mouth about you. Every night once he arrived at our place it was Yuki this, Yuki that. Once we saw you race, I guess we understood his reason to keep talking about you. He really looked up to you." Lori winks, "Is that so?" I had a sly look on my face and I smirked, "Can we change the subject... please." Rin looks the other way, "Come on, don't be embarrassed. I wanna know what else you said." I snickered and wrapped my arms around his neck, "We're so glad about what you've done for yourself Rin," Lori smiles, "You had a bit of a cloud over your head for a while." Russell nods, "Hold up, you guys knew about that?" Rin was taken aback, they look at each other, "You gave it a brave face but we could tell." Russell nods, "Russell and I talked about it every night, we realised it was hard on you here so we did our best to make it feel like home. I remember, every time you two hung out together, that cloud just disappeared and we also have to say thanks to Yuki here. She'd always bring your spirits up when you were down in the dumps." Lori smiles at me, "I didn't mean to make you worried, sorry." Rin looks down, "Now we can have that change of topic." Russell nods, "Eat up, come on you two. So mate, got a girlfriend back home~?" Russell looks at Rin, "Well uh..." He scratches his cheek, "Remember that little girl with the overalls?" Lori laughs, "Oh no Lori. Don't go there Lori... please, besides." He wraps his arm around me and brings me close, "I've got my hands full already." He kisses my temple, "Honestly, it was about time you two got together, it was like you were made for each other." Lori looks at us, "Don't lump me with this idiot. It took a while for him to grow hair on his chest and ask me out." I poke his chest, everyone burst out laughing.

"Well have a great time, say hello to Mika and Charlie once you head home." Russell drives us to grandpa and grandma's house, "You're welcome anytime," Lori smiles, "Thank you very much, I'll keep that in mind." Rin smiles, we wave them off. We were on Bower street, it overlooked the Manly to Shelly beach walk and looked out to the ocean, I knocked on the door, "Nan! Pop!" I said as I knocked, the door open, "Oh Yuki!" My grandma flung her arms over me, "I missed you!" She pet my back and kissed my cheek, "I missed you too, nan, where's pop?" I ask, "He's asleep already, I'll go wake him up," She smiled, "No, no. Let him sleep, I'm here for a week anyway. I had to drop my luggage off because I went to Rin's homestay parent's house. Remember Lori and Russell?" I walk in, she scowls, "Not Rin." She frowns, I sweat, of course, I forgot, grandma and grandpa hate Rin, "Hello," Rin waves and laughs nervously, "You! What are you doing here!" She jabs her finger him him, "Nan, it's alright. We came back home together, Rin had a spare ticket and gave it to me because he thought it'd be great if he let me see you again because it's been so long!" I twisted the story to make her like him even if it was a hair more than she did previously, she huffs, "You were always a problem for my Yuki. She would always lose by a second because of you," She turns around and storms back inside, "But nan, it was because of Rin that pushed me to swim even better! I need to be able to impress you right." I smile, I was trying so hard to turn her around, "Where will we sleep tonight?" I ask her softly, "You're going into the spare room, I prepared it and steamed the quilts just how you like it," She cups me cheeks and presses a kiss to my forehead, I smile, "I love you nan." I kiss her cheek, "You." She whips towards Rin, he stiffens, "You're sleeping on the couch," She says and shuts the door to her room, it was silent again, I snickered, "You're not sleeping on the couch, I won't let you." I pull his hand after me, "Your grandparents will rip my head off if they see me in the same bed as you." He tried to stop, I push him onto my bed and I close the door as quietly as I could, I jumped on top of him, "I don't care, I'll take the blame. I wanna sleep with you." I snuggled into his chest, he chuckled lightly and pet my hair, "You're so needy sometimes." He adjusts me so I'm sleeping in the nook between his shoulder and chest.

"You!" I woke up and saw my grandpa about to blow a gasket, "GET OUT OF MY GRANDDAUGHTER'S BED RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" He yells, we woke up with a jolt, "I was about to surprise her with breakfast in bed but you of all people show up! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!" He shouts, "No, no, pop! It's fine, look, I know you might not want to hear it but Rin's my boyfriend and mum and dad love him. I love him." I try to explain, "Tch, this bastard was the reason you were so upset sometimes." He scoffs, I look down, "Wait really?" Rin looks at me, "That was before I really got to know him, back when the only thing he was to me was competition. Listen, once I realised we were two sides of the same coin, I started taking losses as a chance to get better, please you've got to understand. Can you and nan just finally stop hating him so much?" I plead, he scoffs and closes the door after him as he walks out, I groan, "Sorry they hate you so much, it's all because I used to throw temper tantrums when you beat me." I put my face into my hands, "Seriously?" Rin looks at me, "Yeah, as embarrassing as it was, yeah." I open a slit between my fingers to peek at his face, "Come on, I have a plan, why don't we head to the Olympic pool today?" Rin strokes my arm, I had a spoon of oats in my mouth but nodded, "Yeah." I say, "Swallow then talk missy." He takes my spoon out of my mouth and eats a spoonful of my oats.

We got changed and headed to pool deck, I stopped, "Hang on, it's the national team. I don't wanna swim anymore, it'll be embarrassing." I flush red, "Come on, you aren't game enough?" Rin smirks, I furrow my brows, "I'll say I'm very game young man, watch me!" I swallow my pride and go up to the team where they were stretching, the blocks were on their side, I stood up on it and snapped my cap on, I flashed a glance at the stopwatch and leapt off the block, I started with backstroke, following it with butterfly, breaststroke then finished with freestyle, I pant and look at the stopwatch two minutes and thirteen seconds, I gasp as I grab onto the bar, Rin's face dropped, "What the hell are your parents feeding you, you're just getting faster and faster." He pulled me out of the pool, the national team stared at me, "That was an amazing time, have you ever thought about joining a national swimming team?" The coach walks up to me I shrug, "It sounds selfish but I don't actually plan on doing anything professional with my swimming career," I say, their eyes widen, "Rather I actually want to study sports science and physiotherapy. I want to help athletes, not become one." I smiled, my chest heaving up and down, "This one however," I point at Rin, "He's another story." I smiled as he dove in, we all watched him, he was doing a two hundred butterfly, he slaps the wall, "Two minutes on the dot shark." I grin, the teams eye's seemed to pop out, we hadn't warmed up at all and we were well past the qualifying time for any national team. 

We dried off and watched the sunset by Luna Park, overlooking the Opera House, "A few weeks ago I got a letter from the our coach, he asked if I'd ever considered coming back. It's been a long time coming and a hell of a detour in the way but Australia was always the end game for me, I need to put it to rest. It's payback time." He grins, "What do you want to do after you graduate?" He rests my head into his chest, "You really want to know?" I look up at him, "Spill it." He pokes my side, I giggle a bit, "Well I know what I want to do now. I want to become a sports physio. I know it sounds silly but watching athletes like you and Sosuke get injured, it breaks my heart thinking that you can't get back into the water, so I want to learn, I want to learn how to keep athletes at their best and making sure you're in tip top shape for nationals." I poke his chest, he chuckles, "I'm looking forward to my consultations doctor." He kisses me, "You better be a good patient otherwise you won't get a lolly after your check up." I giggled.

"Bye nan, bye pop. I'll miss you." I hug both of them, we were catching a taxi back to the airport, they cried and hugged me back, "We'll miss you too, tell your mother and father we said hello." Nan wipes her eye, "Don't cry, otherwise I'll cry."My lip quivered and I held back tears, "I'll miss you!" I hugged them tighter and cried, we all cried, the taxi driver and Rin sweatdrop.

"Boarding JP294 to Tokyo." The speaker said, we walked onto the plane and Rin put our luggage into the overhead storage compartment, we sat down and got comfy, "Another nine hours and a half, time to get comfy." Rin settles down in his seat, I rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, "I'm going to sleep, we arrive early in the morning so I wanna get some rest." I kissed his arm, "Good call." He rests his head on top of mine and we fell asleep, waking up back in Japan.