Open Waters | Free! Fan Fiction

Epilogue

Open Waters

Epilogue

Two Weeks Later

The water is alive. As soon as you dive in, it will bare it's fangs and attack. But there's nothing to fear. Don't resist the water. Thrust you fingers into the surface and carve an opening. Then you slide your body through that opening. Moving your arms, your head, your chest... 

With one last kick, Hana brought herself to the wall of the pool, slamming her hand against it. She breathed in heavily, ripping off her newly-bought swim cap and goggles as she recovered her breath.

In the past few weeks, she'd extended her swim from just fifty metres to one hundred. It was more tiring than before but she stuck at it, training after school every day. Even if they no longer had any hopes of reaching nationals, the swim team still practiced their swimming so they wouldn't go out of shape for next year. Hana had been joining in every day, even on days like today when the boys just decided to have a break, which had only happened once so far. During that time, she'd been taught, mostly by Haru, how to properly turn and made further amendments to her technique. And each day, she could feel herself getting used to the water, and each swim became a little easier and she became a little faster.

A hand was offered down to her. Hana glanced up, and smiled as she saw Haru waiting for her. "Nice swim, Hana."

"Thanks, Haru." Hana grabbed his outstretched hand as he assisted her from the pool, then handed her her towel. She smiled and wrapped it around her body to protect herself from the slight wind that was blowing, but didn't completely dry off. She knew she'd be diving back in soon.

In the two weeks since they'd kissed, exploring what it meant to be in a relationship had been, interesting, to say the least. Haru was like a fish out of water, and Hana's only experience with relationships came from what she'd seen in movies and read in books. It was uncharted waters, and they were often teased by Makoto, Rin, Rei, Nagisa and Gou, but Hana didn't mind.

She didn't mind what others thought; she just wanted to be with Haru.

"You've improved since you first started," Haru noted as they stood by the edge of the pool, little distance between them.

Hana smiled. Coming from Haru, that was high praise. "Thanks."

They were silent for a moment. Hana bit her lip. Do I tell him now? It's something I've been mulling over for a while... now or later?

Now. I'll tell him now.

Hana cleared her throat. "You know..." she began in a quiet voice. "I'm thinking of joining the swim club next year... as an actual swimmer."

Whatever she'd been about to say next, Haru hadn't expected her to say that. "Hana?" he murmured.

She chuckled, running a hand through her wet hair,"Yeah. Who'd have thought, right? But... I'm really enjoying it. So I figured... maybe I should just, go ahead and join. Train for competitions. I'll be with you guys, it'll be fun."

"Hana..." It was almost as though Haru was was unable to comprehend what he was hearing.

"Oh, come on, stop it." Hana rolled her eyes and pushed him playfully, but ended up just resting her head on his bare shoulder. "Do you want to come down to my place later?" she murmured. It sounded out of the blue, but she'd been planning on asking him all day. "Mum and Dad are out tonight, we'll have the place to ourselves."