Chapter Text
Haru wanted to surprise Makoto. So he decided not to call him to let him know that he was coming to Tokyo. Haru’s time trial was scheduled for the following Friday. Haru decided to stay at a cheap hotel near the training centre on thursday night ahead of his time trials. Then once he had passed his time trials and got into the national swimming program, he would surprise Makoto at his apartment and they would have the weekend all to themselves.
Well, Rin did usually spend the weekend with Makoto but he would understand Haru's desire to have Makoto all to himself for sometime. Besides, Haru was still convinced Rin would lose all interest in Makoto and focus wholly on competing with Haru once Haru had settled into the national training program. If anything, Rin would probably spend that weekend training fiercely so that he could race Haru at peak condition come monday. Whichever way, Haru was certain he and Makoto would have plenty of time to just chill-out and get back in the grove of always finding each other when they reached out.
Even though Rin's swimming future was no longer uncertain, Makoto could not help but worry about him. What was Rin going to do starting Monday for the week he was still suspended? Was it okay for him to just sit in Makoto's six tatami apartment where there was nothing much to do? Makoto had internet and Rin access to Makoto's laptop and Rin's own tablet and laptop but that's about it. That could not be enough distraction for someone like Rin. Makoto stifled a sigh so as to not alert Rin to his gloomy thoughts as he watched him cook while humming softly.
"You really love cooking don't you?" asked Makoto with smile.
"Too much Master Chef," replied Rin, "Not that I think I could ever be a chef myself. I don't like cooking fast and I don't think I could deal with the whining customers and stuff," Rin went on, "But I did think about maybe studying culinary arts in a technical school along with swimming training after high school and doing recipe development and testing. Maybe eventually write a cookbook or something."
"I would buy your cookbook," declared Makoto.
Rin turned around and grinned, "And be one of those people that never cook a single recipe from it!"
Makoto pouted, "I would try and cook at least one!" he protested, "If there was mackerel recipe, I would try cooking it for me and Haru."
"I wouldn't have mackerels," replied Rin turning back to his cooking, his mood dropping a bit, "Just good ol' meat and vegetables!"
"Eh? No seafood?" asked Makoto.
"Seafood makes you sad," Rin pointed out.
"Only because I am away from Haru, I would be okay if I am with Haru," said Makoto.
This line of conversation wasn't exactly making Rin happy, so he decided to change the subject, "Maybe I'll look into the whole culinary school think while I am still suspended. Not like I have anything better to do and it is probably high time I think about my future."
"You could also help me keep training to be a merman," suggested Makoto, "The shoot is next Friday. So I have lanes bookings all week for training."
"I would like that," admitted Rin, "Besides, I should keep training on my own and so I'll probably end-up spending a lot of time at that sports center anyway."
Makoto grinned, everything seemed in control, "Great!"
"What about you?" asked Rin, "What do you have going next week apart from merman training and the merman shoot?"
Makoto sighed, "Doing a bit part in a movie," he said, "Or maybe I am an extra, I am not sure."
"What's the difference?" wondered Rin.
"The way Shiori-san described it is that in a convenience store scene, extras are all the other customers in the background who don't have any lines or interaction with actors on whom the camera is focused but there simply to make the store feel busy or just well attended. While the bit part is the check-out clerk who interacts with one of the stars or at least supporting actors and might even have a line or two," Makoto explained, "I am supposed to be a samurai retainer but I think I am sort of just in the scene and don't have any lines. But I am not exactly in the background. Probably a bit of a grey area, I think."
"You sighed before," Rin pointed out, "Not looking forward to it."
"The production is supposed to be troubled and so everything is a bit confusing. All I know is that I am on the call sheet for monday and that's it. I understand this is pretty normal and that when I get to set I'll see the continuity sheet and know which scenes are being shot and what I have to do," explained Makoto, unconsciously slipping in movie production terminology but Rin could follow without difficulty.
"I am used to not finding out what the concept is or what I have to do exactly until I turn-up at the shoot but I would like to know a bit more about the movie. But it doesn't seem like anybody knows what the movie is about any more,” Makoto sighed before continuing on with his explanation, “It started off as a straight samurai period piece but then they decided it was too boring as a straightforward historical drama. So they decided it would be an alternate reality and so no one has to have topknots and can speak with more modern dialect," Makoto went on, “But apparently that’s all there is to the alternate reality. So Shiori-san thinks that one of the stars decided that he didn’t look good in a topknot and used his star power to have the script changed. But others are saying that there is magic and steampunk in the story now and the director is very demanding and wouldn’t let any stars steamroll him. It’s all very confusing.”
“Sounds like it,” said Rin, “But as long as you get paid right!” Makoto agreed and since food was done, they sat down to eat.
“You can come too if you like,” Shiori told Rin when she came to pick-up Makoto on Monday, “They are still desperate for bodies and I am sure they can stick you in a role that won’t require you to return.”
Rin thought for a moment. He should really start training again but then again, “Why not,” said Rin, “I’ll be a movie star for the day!”
Rin piled into the backseat of Shiori’s car with Shiori’s other charge, Toko Retsu, who was also going to be part of the shoot. Makoto took the front passenger seat at Shiori’s request. Toko shot Makoto a dirty look but kept his mouth shut. But the look didn’t escape Rin.
Shiori spent much of the car ride talking to Makoto about his debut single and album. Including the number of songs recorded, which songs Shinji wrote, which songs Makoto wrote and about the other songs that had been forwarded to him from various sources. “The latest song I got was Splash Free,” said Makoto, “It was written for a group but Shinji thinks it can be modified so that it won’t sound totally terrible sung solo.”
“Well don’t just waste time recording things for the sake of recording,” said Shiori, “The cost of the studio time is being added to your account you know.”
“I know,” replied Makoto with a smile, he was back up to his eyeballs in debt again. Not that it could be helped but it did depress Makoto to think how true the old saying of “you must spend money to make money was”.
Rin was paying close attention to Makoto and Shiori’s conversation as Makoto wasn’t one to talk about himself and generally didn’t volunteer information about his work unless, like the merman thing, he had to. Rin generally had to ask and even then Makoto didn’t elaborate as much as Rin would like. So it was all new and interesting to Rin. Still, Rin didn’t fail to notice that Toko’s mood was getting darker and darker at the conversation between Makoto and Shiori went on. But then again, he was thoroughly ignored, so Rin figured it was just that and put it out of his mind.
They arrived at the movie set and Shiroi took them to the casting manager to sort out paperworks, especially for Rin who quickly got cast as one of the random village thugs who would get killed of in the very scene they are introduced. Rin was a little annoyed at how quickly he got cast as a thug and whispered to Makoto, “It’s the teeth isn’t it?”
Makoto smiled and replied, “Nay, its your muscles. With a body like that you can’t exactly pass for a farmer.”
“You're always so positive,” mused Rin, “Just be my boyfriend already,” wait, did he just say that out loud!
Rin started to blush, to get nervous, to say something more but, Makoto laughed, “I am not that positive,” he replied, “Plus your criteria for a boyfriend should really include more things than ‘is positive’.”
Of course Makoto thought he was joking, Rin started to feel unreasonably irritated but what was he expecting given where they were and how casually his tongue slipped out words he’s often been thinking. He sighed, “Being positive is an important quality,” he said simply, “I mean, I can be pretty gloomy and negative so really, I should totally be with someone positive.”
“Good point,” agreed Makoto. Further conversation was halted when they were met by an assistant producer, who despite their fancy sounding titles were basically the odd-jobbers of the set, with continuity sheets and instructions as to where to go and what to do.
“I am sure you have all heard bad things about the production, well I am here to let you know its all lies!” said the young girl, told not only Makoto, Rin and Toko but a few other people who were extras and bit part actors, “It’s just that the director demands heart! We have a script, a perfectly good script but he’s okay with you going off script! He wants you to really get into the characters head and be the character!”
“He wants us to improvise?” asked Toko.
“No, well yes, I mean, don’t just make random stuff-up!” she told them, “Be… the characters.”
“She’s full of shit,” Rin concluded but didn’t voice his thoughts aloud. But he was beginning to think why everybody considered this a waste of time and a movie that wasn’t going to go any where.
Still, Rin was determined to play nice, if only for Makoto’s sake. As for Makoto, he had a serious look on his face as he studied his continuity sheet carefully and the backgrounds of the characters they were supposed to be playing. For Rin, the background information consisted of two lines “Local thug, born and grew-up in village. In justified conflict with new samurai lord.”
“Justified conflict was better than unjustified conflict so that was something,” thought Rin. Rin didn’t have any dialogues for the two scenes he was going to be in. In one scene he and the other thugs were in a tavern drinking-up and listening to their leader mouth-off against the new samurai lord. Next scene happens after they leave the tavern when they are accosted by some of the samurai lord’s retainers for mouthing off against their lord, a fight ensures. Fist vs swords and of course swords win. Done dusted and Rin’s 20,000 Yen richer.
Rin just had to make sure his fist didn’t actually connect with anyone. There was an art to stage fighting and that’s why before costume and makeup, he had to attend a crash course in fight choreography. Makoto would also be getting instruction on fight choreography but since he was fighting with swords, he would be in a different group to Rin. So they separated and didn’t meet back-up until well after lunch.
By the time they did, they were both in full costume and makeup. “You look hot!” said Rin honestly, “Don’t tell me, the Tachibana family used to be samurai.”
Makoto laughed sheepishly and changed the subject, “You look great too,” and Rin did, especially when he smirked. Rin was wearing a stylised grey hakama that left his arms bare, showing off his impressive muscles. They had tied his hair up into a ponytail and gave him a cross shaped scar that reminded Makoto of Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. The overall effect wasn’t really a thug who looked like a no goodnick but a cool guy who didn’t live by society's rules.
Makoto supposed that’s what they were going for as the hero of the film was the thug leader and Rin was going to be in the pivotal scene when the leader, played by an up and coming young actor, goes from direction less agitating to focused rebellion. The change is prompted by the death of his men, of whom Rin was going to be one, at the hands of a samurai retainers, of whom Makoto was one. So even though Makoto was the samurai and Rin was the thug, it was Makoto who was the villains of the film or so Makoto gathered.
Makoto himself was dressed in an all black hakama with gold embroidered lettering. With his height and build, Makoto couldn’t help but cut a dashing figure. Especially since Makoto had perfect posture and carried his sword like he was born with it. Rin mentally resigned himself to Makoto getting even more fangirls, assuming this movie ever saw the light of day that is.
“Okay, thugs and samurai report to set 43 for scene 115!” said the assistant producer from before.
That was the scene outside the tavern when Rin gets killed off. They were going to shoot scene 115 before scene 113, which was inside the tavern. Everybody had strict instructions not to get injured as that would mess with continuity. They were joined by Toko on their way to the set, he too was a samurai.
“Try not to hog the spotlight again, Tachibana,” Toko taunted, “We don’t want a repeat of the angel and devils show.”
Rin found himself glaring at Toko but Makoto just smiled good naturedly and said simply, “Good luck to you too Toko-senpai.”
Toko gave Makoto a look of loathing before moving on. “What the hell Makoto!”
Makoto laughed, “I have been very lucky,” said Makoto softly, “Even when I mess-up, like during the devil and angel show, I manage to avoid consequences. So, its only natural that some of my senpais who have been in the industry for years would be upset,” Makoto was all sincerity, “Plus Shiori-san seems to work extra hard for me.”
“Makoto, you didn’t do anything wrong in that show,” Rin pointed out, “You did you job and you did your job well. It wasn’t your fault how things went down.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have drawn that much attention to myself,” replied Makoto.
Rin reached out and flicked Makoto’s ears, “Ouch! What was that for?”
“For you being an idiot,” replied Rin, “Do you ever listen to yourself, Makoto? You are in an industry where you are supposed to standout. You not standing out is like me not swimming fast because I might hurt my senpais feelings!” scoffed Rin.
“You have a point,” agreed Makoto, “But of course it’s not that simple. I can’t just stand out for the sake of standing out and I can’t stand out in a way that’s bad for the job. Besides, I have been very lucky and luck is a big factor in this industry. At least that’s what I found.”
That Rin couldn’t argue with. But it was the first time it occurred to Rin that Makoto had been keeping a lot to himself. Did Makoto too have issues with the other ‘talents’ at his agency that were similar to what Rin had been experiencing in the locker rooms? Is that why Makoto had no social life outside of Rin? But then again, Makoto wasn’t really the ‘hitting the town’ type of person. Still, surely mingling was part of his job description. Rin decided he needed to pay closer attention to Makoto. Because the last thing he wanted, was for their relationship to deteriorate into a one-sided affair where Makoto did all the supporting and Rin all the clinging. No, what Rin wanted was a situation where they could both lift each other up, while pursuing their own individual hopes and dreams.
The director must have be very good because Makoto just couldn’t see how someone this… plain spoken could keep working in Japan. “Like I told the previous set of so called actors,” he was saying, “I want you to be the characters and react naturally. That’s why I had the script writer concentrate one coming-up with backgrounds,” Well Makoto did have a lot of information on his character. “So show me what you got! Places!”
Makoto scrambled to fall in line with the other samurai retainers who were going to be following their leader, one of the supporting actors, down the path to about the middle of the set, where they would face the group of thugs, including their leader, the star of the movie and an argument would ensure and a fight would break out.
“And action,” declared the director and that was his job done. Now it was all upto the actors and the stage manager.
Makoto started walking with due determination… but no, that wasn’t right. Why would he be determine to go confront a group of unarmed “thugs” when they weren’t thugs so much as people who opposed the eccentricities of the new samurai lord. Surely his character, someone who lived and grew-up in this village would be reluctant. Especially since the new samurai lord was… crazy. It wasn’t that he set high taxes and cracked down on the villagers when they couldn’t pay. No, economically, he was great.
However, he was a pervert who took to bed anyone and anything that caught his fancy. Who ordered his random shops ransacked and burnt because of such petty reasons like the tea wasn’t good enough. Not to mention farms torn down, fields of crops ploughed into the ground because he didn’t like the look of the rice etc, etc. The economics stayed fine because his dutiful wife, the one the current Samurai lord had married to gain control of these lands, made sure shopkeepers, farmers and whoever else were compensated. But there was no compensation for dignity.
Surely the Samurai retainer that Makoto was playing would understand that. Would he really be okay to just follow his leader, a leader who had come with his new lord and thus had no connection to the local land. Would an honorable samurai really just go along with the flow? That didn’t really make sense right?
Makoto was still thinking these things when the scene moved on and the fight started. All the samurai joined the melee, except for Makoto. Who stood there frozen. Until one of the leader of the samurai retainers went to deliver the first killing blow. Makoto just moved found a way to wedge his still sheathed sword between the unarmed thug and the samurai, who turned out to be Toko.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Toko demanded.
“I…” well the director hadn’t called cut yet so Makoto decided to just reply in character, “This isn’t honorable. They are unarmed!”
Toko just looked confused but the leader of the thugs and the samurai retainer were veteran actors who too noticed that the director hadn’t called cut despite the unexpected development. So they ran with it. The thug leader, who as on the ground, rolled away from the samurai retainer leader and gaining his feet, glared back at the leader and bite out, “That’s right! You call yourself samurai? What kind of samurai attacks unarmed folk!”
“The kind that knows how to honour their master,” replied the leader as he turned on Makoto, “You are the one without honour!”
“I don’t agree,” replied Makoto, “I mean, look at us! We are grappling in the streets like a bunch of thugs! With…” well they were samurai and they wouldn’t think very highly of non-samurai, “With a bunch of thugs! Sullying our swords like this. This is the height of dishonour!”
The leader of the retainers smirked, he was supposed to be a sadist, “Fine, we’ll do it your way,” he told Makoto.
“My… my way,” shuttered Makoto.
“You have a problem with our lord,” the retainer leader said, “Then come with me peacefully. I’ll take you to him and you can tell him your grievances in person!”
“It’s a trap!” Rin cried because, well why the hell not!
“It’s not,” the retainer leader assured everybody, “I will guarantee that no samurai will sully their blades with your blood! In fact, there will be no blood shed. Not the single drop…”
“Cut!” the director cried, and turning to the haggard looking screenwriter ordered, “You saw what happened. Redo scene 120. Instead of the samurai lord just finding out about the brawl, he gets to hear the grievances and the promise made and then orders the thugs buried alive or some other cruel death that won’t result in bloodshed.”
The screenwriter nodded and asked, “What about the samurai who spoke out of turn?” he said looking at Makoto, “He would be punished too.”
“No, not yet,” said the director, “At least not in scene 120. The lord is eccentric. Let’s make him be eccentric and then have him die a gruesome bloody death that will leave the audience angry with us for killing the only samurai who seems to have any honour. It’ll be brilliant!”
Makoto gulped. Why did he have to improvise? Because it was beginning to sound as if he was getting a bigger role in this movie. Other people seemed to also come to that conclusion because the assistant producer from before was whispering frantically to the director.
“Well make sure we get to keep him for more then the next three days!” the director yelled at the poor assistant producer, “I mean, all I have been getting are brainless sheeps! First sign of a brain and you are telling me I only have him until thursday! Well no! I don’t agree! Go find his bloody manager and make sure I get to keep him until I am satisfied! Now go and make it happen or you're fired!”
The poor assistant producer ran towards the room Makoto knew Shiori was using as an onsite office with some of the other managers as the director order the scene to be retaken because not everybody had been able to adjust quickly enough.
As the actors pulled each other up and dusted each other off, which make-up artists rushing in to apply touch-ups, Rin found himself close enough to Makoto and Toko to overhear the seething Toko say to Makoto, “Fuck you Tachibana, fuck you to hell! I hope Shinji gets you addicted to something nasty!” before stalking off. Makoto just sighed and turned his mind to the job at hand.
Rin on the other hand was torn between telling Toko off, marvelling at Makoto’s professionalism and wondering if he should be concerned about Shinji. Afterall, Rin knew Makoto and Shinji were working closely and Shinji was being something of a mentor to Makoto. Could Shinji really get Makoto addicted to something nasty? Surely Makoto wouldn’t ever taking drugs. Even just out of curiosity. But then Rin remembered Kuza. Surely Kuza never set out to take performance enhancing drugs. Surely Kuza had wanted to achieve his dreams on his own power, with hard work and playing within the rules. Then something happened and he turned to performance enhancing drugs. What was the saying, drop by drop a water pot is filled and so little by little we can all turn to things we never thought would touch us. So even Makoto could fall into darkness if he was not careful...
The car ride back also consisted of Shiori and Makoto talking only of Makoto’s schedule, “I can arrange the recording sessions to fit around the movie shoots,” said Shiori, “But you’ll have to be super organised not to fall sick and be on top of your homework. I mean, you don’t want to drop out of high school right.”
“I would set a bad example for Ren and Ran,” said Makoto, “Plus I like school.”
“Well then get ready to not sleep much,” said Shiori, “And eat ready made meals because I don’t see you having enough time to cook.”
“Don’t worry,” Rin pipped in, “I’ll feed him proper food!”
“You are such a nice not-boyfriend,” said Shiori, “Because you know…”
“Yeah, yeah, Makoto can’t date so that fangirl hearts remain intact,” said Rin, by now knowing where the conversation was headed. Makoto just buried his face in his hands, why must he be teased to mercilessly?
After Shiori dropped them off at home, Makoto went to bathe first while Rin got dinner started. When Makoto got out, he found Rin staring at Haru’s drawings of the aquarium filled home that had been inspired by Makoto and Haru’s stay at the Underwater hotel in Dubai. Makoto had made frames out of cardboards for them. Nothing too fancy, just a cardboard for the backing and a cardboard with an appropriate size hole cutout to frame the picture, with everything stuck together with glue.
Makoto smiled as he said, “Bath’s free!”
“Makoto,” Rin started, his back to Makoto, still facing the pictures, “There are two things I would really like you to promise me.”
“Sure thing,” Makoto said readily.
Rin turned around a bit annoyed, “Don’t just agree without hearing what I want first!”
“Well if its important enough for you to ask, I am sure I won’t say no,” countered Makoto.
Rin sighed and just decided to press on, “Firstly, I don’t ever want you to…” there really was no better word so Rin just went with the word that had first occurred to him, “Prostitute yourself for me.”
“Huh!”
“I mean,” he gestured towards Haru’s drawing, “Don’t take extra jobs or do favours for people to get something for me. Whatever it is, I don’t want it if it means you have to…” this was difficult to explain, “Do something… more....” he finished lamely.
Makoto blinked a bit. He got what Rin was saying but he wasn’t entirely sure about Rin’s choice of words. But he decided to not get hung-up on semantics. “But I like,” Makoto started.
“No.”
“But…”
“No!”
Makoto sighed, “Fine! But I did really want to see Rin swim in a pool full of cherry blossoms,” he said with a pout.
Rin visibly started, “What…”
“Ah well, movie magic,” Makoto said with a grin.
“Fuck Makoto! Don’t tell me you took on that movie job to get me in a pool full of cherry blossoms because I once made an idle comment about how I wanted to do that?” asked Rin.
“No!” said Makoto, “I was… look don’t worry about it. I wasn’t going to do something extra.”
“Makoto…”
“Seriously! Don’t worry about it!”
Rin glared. Makoto sighed and decided to attempt to deflect the subject, “And the other thing?” he prompted..
This bit was even harder. Rin took a deep breath and said, “I am not Haru.”
“No you are Rin,” Makoto teased.
Rin choose to ignore him and go on, “I don’t know you inside out and conversely, you can’t read my mind. So, so let’s promise to… to always be honest and speak our mind when… when we are here. In this apartment,” Makoto blinked, Rin decided to speak on, even if he was rambling, “I mean, its not like I don’t hide things. Gou would say I am never honest about my feelings and I wouldn’t exactly disagree with her. Look what a mess of things I made last year!” he pointed out, “But I want to…” he trailed off, “I am scared of being honest with my feelings and I am sure you have reasons to never talk about yourself. Especially when you are troubled. But if you don’t share, I won’t be able to tell. Just like if I don’t share my feeling, you won’t know what’s going on in my head. Because I am not…” Rin sighed, “Haru. So… so let’s be honest with each other when we are alone, here in this six tatami apartment,” Rin looked at Makoto expectantly.
Makoto was silent for awhile but then he smiled and said, “Sure, I promise.”
“Great,” said Rin with a smile, but then his face hardened, “You can start by telling me what you have been planning with the whole cherry blossom thing!”
“What’s for dinner, I am starving!” Makoto said as he headed for the kitchen.
“Makoto!!!!”
Tuesday saw Makoto start juggling movies shoots, recording session, merman training, any modelling photo shoots and not to mention his school work. While Rin started his routine for the rest of his suspension - training on his own at the aquatic centre, studying to get ahead of his school work and thinking of what else he wanted to do besides swimming.
It was a strange week. Sometimes the time passed quickly, other times the time just dragged. It kind of reminded Rin of the long nights in his dorm the summer before when he would just be lying in his bunk waiting for the sun to rise, remembering in vivid details the winter of their last year of elementary school. It wasn’t always pleasant and by the time Friday rolled around, Rin was more than ready to start training again.
Friday morning Makoto handed Rin a pass for the aquarium for when his merman video and photo shoot was going to happen. “Come see me if you can,” he told him before rushing out the door, having inhaled his breakfast.
Rin sighed, as much as he enjoying training Makoto to be a merman, Rin was glad that after today the merman training would not be necessary and Makoto would have one less thing to juggle and worry about.
He spent the day per normal. At first he thought to go straight to the aquarium from the aquatic center but then decided to come home, strange to think of Makoto’s apartment as home, first and cook. Rin figured by the time Makoto got back, it would be late and they would probably end-up getting take-out or convenience store food if nothing was cooked and waiting. Rin was half tempted to break his no seafood rule but decided to go with good ol’ lamb instead.
Unfortunately, he miscalculated and by the time he was done, he was running seriously late. Indeed, Makoto’s shoot would have well and truly started by the time he got there. Nevermind, Makoto was likely to be there for a few hours. So it was all good.
Just as he put the keys in his pocket, there was a knock on the door. “Oh what now!” he thought, not expecting anyone, he opened the door without thinking and was confronted with, “Haru!”
Makoto wondered where Rin was but figured that either Rin was running late or decided not to come. Right about now Makoto wished he had decided not to come too because those sharks looked really scary.
“They are just reef sharks,” one of the aquarium employees who was attending to the shoot told him, “Besides all sharks have a bad rap. Unless you provoke them, they are unlikely to hurt you.”
“I’ll do my best to keep out of their way,” said Makoto with a smile.
“Also try not to damage the corals,” the attendant told him, “I understand the director wants you to swim very close to the corals.”
“Through that hoop like shape the corals have made,” Makoto said pointing to a structure about 10 meters from the edge of the tank.
The attendant did not look pleased but only said, “Watch your tail.” Makoto nodded.
He was given the order to dive in, taking a deep breath Makoto did. He swam about a bit, like he and Rin and been practicing. Gliding through the coral loop and even managing a full body twist. He surfaced about ten minutes later to murmurs of astonishment and praise. The observers were really impressed with his movements. Makoto was once again glad that Rin was a such a technical genius when it came to all things swimming.
Makoto was told to dive again and this time hold certain poses. To aid in that, he would use weights to keep himself weighted down and steady. It was a little unnerving but Makoto managed somehow. They then mixed it up and had him swimming around a bit for some video shots. Then they set up another set of photoshoots with the weights, as Makoto had a little break.
“You are doing great,” said one of the production assistants, “You really swim like a merman.”
“Thanks, I had help from a great trainer,” replied Makoto.
“We are ready for you,” said another assistant.
“Right,” and Makoto dived-in and got in position.
“Get the glow sticks ready and cut the lights,” said the second assistant.
“Oh shit!” cried the first assistant, “I forgot to tell him we were going to do that!”
Makoto wasn’t sure what was happening but just as he had hooked himself into the weights that were sitting at the bottom of the shark tank, everything went dark. Makoto full on panicked and started to fumble with the weight, trying to get himself free. Confused and panic, Makoto wasn’t controlling his breath properly exhaling too quickly.
“Haru!” he found himself mentally calling, “Haru!” the name was like a mantra and it calmed him enough to somehow undo the weights. He headed for the surface but it was too dark and he ran into something. Something soft… no! A shark! Did he just provoke a shark? He tried to swim away but then his tail bumped into something and was snagged!
“Haru!” Makoto was now screaming in his head as panic totally and utterly gripped him, “Haru!” and suddenly Haru was there. Haru was there!
Makoto didn’t know how or why but Haru was there, holding something that illuminated the darkness around him, around them. Haru touched his face and that was all it took to start calm Makoto down. Makoto was still out of breath but Haru seemed to know that. Without hesitation, Haru sealed his lips around Makoto’s and shared some of his breath with him. There was another calming touch before Haru let go of Makoto and dived down to unsnag his tail from the coral, freeing him and they headed to the surface together...