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Mikoshiba Seijuurou was a man of love, or so he believes to be. He was the kind to easily charm girls with his gentlemanly personality (although he could also easily scare them with his assertiveness but he personally counts that as a plus, his assertiveness, he means). If it’s a really cute girl, no doubt he’d try to woo her in all ways possible.
But the next time his heart was tested, he was never prepared for that moment.
It was because no one taught him how.
-
It was the summer vacation just before he would be officially a working-class adult, the last year of his university life. One more year before finally becoming independent.
For now, he was tasked by his mother to take care of his little brother, Momotarou, who was ten years old. Not that he’d complain at all, he loves his brother to bits. But now that college demands more and more of his time, stress built up on his nerves that he can’t seem to hold on to himself every time he had to look out for Momo.
“Sei-nii, hurry up!” His ball of energy of a brother started hopping around him as they walked through the entrance of his brother’s swimming school. It was his first time coming here after he has graduated from his high school, which makes that about three or so years already. Children with their parents were running around the place, the usual chitter-chatter over the background. (There was even one kid crying over the corner and being soothed by who seems to be an employee of the place, but that doesn’t matter.) He sighed as he slumped on his backpack, filled with books and papers to study and work on, before giving a grin to his little brother.
“Yes, yes, Momotarou. Y’sure you have all your gears?” He did a look over those wide, excited eyes as the younger waved about a knapsack of his own, the things seemed to rustle messily inside.”
“Goggles, swimming trunks, swim cap, Pyunsuke, all check!” Momo gave a grin of his own while Seijuurou looked shocked.
“Leave Pyunsuke!”
“Eh, but nii-chan, he’d feel lonely.”
He gave a pout. Seijuurou gave a disapproving look in return.
“Did you teach the beetle to swim?” Small shoulders jerked in realization, the older smirked in thought but schooled his expression with a stern face. “He’d drown if you’d bring him along.”
Momotarou’s frown deepened in resignation. “No fair, Sei-nii.” A zipping sound was heard as small hands brought out a bottle with the black beetle, Pyunsuke, seemingly seeping lazily on the panacea. It was hesitantly raised up towards him.
Smiling at his little brother, he kneeled down at his eye level and covered the small hands with his own around the glass.
“Let’s make a deal,” the teary eyes looked up to his own, “On our way home, we’ll find a companion for Pyunsuke, maybe we could catch a bigger beetle.”
Sparkles came out from the younger’s eyes in excitement. “Then we’ll name him Pyun-pyun?”
Upon his brother’s reply, he laughed while thoroughly ruffling his little brother’s hair, the younger complaining about his big brother’s rough treatment but nevertheless smiling through it. Unbeknownst to him, soft, green eyes were watchful over him.
-
In Samezuka Academy, Seijuurou became the captain of the swim club on his last year of high school. He’s not boasting, but he admits to being a great, if not decent, swimmer. May it be freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly, they were deemed to be of a competitive degree. Plus, he once set a tournament record for freestyle. With his swimming and the desperate scouts, he easily got into the university of his choice.
But he’s never proud of himself more than the pride he has for his brother
From the view deck of the swim club, he peered over to see Momo being coached for his backstroke. The instructor was saying something and Momo kept nodding his head enthusiastically as he prepared his stance and taking off in a dive. Observing his form, Seijuurou could see that it’s almost perfect, the smooth transition of the strokes flowing through the lithe body. He grinned to himself, thinking how his brother seemed to have so much promise in his swimming and how he seemed to be like a sea otter (amazing in backstroke, energetic, and undeniably adorable).
Upon Momo’s touch on the end of the pool wall, with that 200-meter swim, his coach snapped his stopwatch and quickly offered a hand to lift him from the pool. Seijuurou can see the brunet praising his brother so much as he kept doing random poses, earning giggles and stares from his peers.
“Momotarou, that was amazing!” He yelled in pride, his deep, loud voice made heads turn at his direction and the said person grinned at his big brother so widely, pumping a fist into the air.
The person beside him, his swim coach, smiled gently at Seijuurou. He was strangely drawn to it, suddenly feeling a sense of familiarity towards the man.
They only broke their gazes when Seijuurou was tapped on the shoulder by a concerned old woman sitting beside him and realized that the papers he was holding were scattered on the tiled floors. He swore he could feel the heat of summer in the supposedly cool area he was in.
-
The moment the swim instructors dismissed the children Momo rushed ahead of the other children, strings of apologies on his lips as he kept bumping on them on the way to the locker room. Seijuurou could only laugh at the thought that he was sure that his brother would be looking forward to beetle catching.
After packing up his papers and laptop (and seeing Pyunsuke still sleeping lazily in his jar), he headed down to the waiting area and leaned over one of the vending machines, choosing between the chocolate milk and the peach-flavored tea for when Momotarou finishes changing up. He smiled to himself, thinking of how excited his brother will be once he finds out that he'll be treated by his big brother. The red-head slipped in a thousand yen bill and the buttons blinked up, waiting for his choice. Moments passed of still being undecided of what to get, he felt another presence looming over the vending machine next to his right. Tan hand, orange watch, the mainly blue uniform of the swim club, and moss brown hair. He wasn’t expecting to see a curious gaze locked to his own golden eyes.
“Y-you are..” The man before him stuttered, noticing that the brunet just pressed on the button for a chocolate milk and the machine dispensed with a series of thuds. Weirdly enough, again, those green eyes held him and it wasn’t until giggles were heard from behind that the other averted his sight down to the vending machine.
"Good day, Mikoshiba-san," the brunet kept his eyes away, kneeling down to reach on to the carton of milk. "I was just getting a chocolate milk for Momotarou-kun."
Seijuurou blinked at his words. "For Momo? Why?" He looked again at his own vending machine, the buttons still blinking in wait for his order. The monkey character on a certain banana milk seemed to be mocking him right now.
As the other straightened up, he saw the same smile that he witnessed the man give to his younger brother. It was really warm-feeling.
"Well, I promised him so." The taller man raised his eyebrow in question, making the other laugh quietly in response. "You did see his performance today, right? He told me that if he beats his own record for his backstroke today, I should buy him a chocolate milk."
Why that little.. Causing even his coach some problems. Then again, he did beat his record. He would probably brag it over on their way home, or more precisely, the whole time they would be catching beetles for today. He stopped as he caught himself smiling at his brother's antics and tried to school a stern look.
"I'm very sorry for my brother's actions." He bowed low at the coach, not raising until he felt a series of quiet sploshes coming from the milk carton. "A-ah, it's no big matter, Mikoshiba-san!" Seiijurou peered up and saw the man waving his hands somehow frantically, looking a bit flustered at his actions. "I'm quite used to it. And besides, Momotarou-kun really did good in his swimming recently. This would be just a little award for his great efforts."
He stood back up. Now that he has looked closer he found his brother's coach to be quite a tall guy, but not as tall as he is. Well-toned body (he presumes he's a backstroke swimmer, judging by his physique), messy brown hair, a bright, dazzling smile that probably catches the girls, and those soft and clear eyes that really seems familiar, it mysteriously draws him so much that..
"Coach Mako, Coach Mako! Where's my.." Seijuurou looked behind him to see Momotarou running towards them, suddenly rubbing the back of his neck so hard and he could feel the summer's heat reaching him. Momo, upon seeing his brother and his coach, holding that prized chocolate milk, together, abruptly stopped in shock and dropped his knapsack to the ground, some of the contents spilling out.
"G-gah, Sei-nii!" With the brothers knowing each other so much, the elder's stern look meant that he found out about his deal with Coach. The younger quickly jostled his things back inside the bag, ran around the waiting area's seats and hid behind the Coach. He cringed at the sight of the crumpled towel with some candies littered around it on the hallway. He saw the coach giving a pat on his little brother's head and giving him a reassuring smile.
"It's okay, Momotarou-kun." 'Coach Mako' knelt down to Momotarou's eye level and held the carton of milk up for Momo to take. He gingerly took the offer, mumbling a small "thank you" with a hiding excitement that Seijuurou was sure that his brother was trying to contain out of a little fear that his big brother might get mad.
Trying to keep a respectable stance despite the nice feeling he was getting from the sight before him, the taller man glanced back at the (still) blinking machine and pressed on a button, dropping a drink down with a small thud. The other two looked up at him questioningly as he held out a bottle of cold barley tea with his right hand in front of the coach, both unconsciously tilted their heads to the side at the same time. He can't help but smile at them. (The scene was cute, but he's not going to admit that to anyone.)
"This is our thanks for taking care of our Momotarou, Coach." He gave a short, quick bow, also seeing Momotarou give a smile along with small, hurried nods of his own to the Coach.
The brunet stood up again and he was inwardly surprised at the sudden warmth that covered his hand, contrasting the cool of the barley tea in his grasp and it made him hold on to the bottle a bit tighter.
"Thank you, Mikoshiba-buchou."
The bottle was loosened away from his grip, the distanced, high-pitched shouts of 'Makoto-nii-chan!', a quiet 'See you later', and tugging on the end of his shirt made him mumble something before completely snapping out of his reverie.
".. Buchou?"
-
It was only later that Seijuurou found out from his brother that his coach's name was Tachibana Makoto, actually a coach-in-training. (Momotarou was giving him such an earful, 'Nii-chan, I mentioned that to you so many times before but you were too busy typing on your thingamabob or flirting smiles with some strange nee-chans!') The name seemed to be familiar to him, but he really couldn't put a finger as to where he has heard of him before.
The only people who only ever called him 'buchou' were the people from his own swim club in the past but he's quite sure that there's no one named Tachibana Makoto under his captaincy.
So he decided to continue on bringing his brother to the swim club that same week, much to their mother's surprise of the lack of disinterest that he had for his initial attitude in accompanying Momotarou.
As they approached the swimming school, he quickly saw Coach Tachibana outside the building, welcoming the incoming children with a smile as he tugged on his hands with enthusiasm. He didn't notice his brother leaving his side and just saw a blur of energetic orange rushing towards the entrance, waving so much and calling out a lot of people's names ('Kimi-chan! Chii-chan! Ah, Coach! Rei-cha--' 'That's not beautiful!' 'Haruka-ch--' 'Don't you dare call me that'). Seijuurou slapped a hand on his forehead. 'Momotarou!' he grimaced in his thoughts.
Seijuurou's attempt on trying to run after Momo was stopped when he felt someone's attention on him, seeing Coach Tachibana giving a (shy?) smile on his direction. The warm feeling was there again as he jogged his way to his brother who was now chatting away with the other children.
"Good morning," a calming voice, and he was yet again looking at those green eyes, sweet smile.
"I'm ho--" Crap! "A-ah, good morning to you too, Tachibana-san!" That was such a weird slip-up. Trying to put out his self-loathing, he unconsciously pat (read as hit very hard, earning a 'OW, Sei-nii!') his brother on the back, wanting to calm his nerves.
But what was he so nervous about?
Seijuurou was going to ask Tachibana about why he called him 'buchou' but as he was about to, he found the other ushering the kids inside the building.
"Oi, Sei-nii," he looked down to see his brother peering up at him with a funny expression, grinning so widely. "You're so red. Is the heat getting to you this early in the morning?" Momo was poking at his arm before running off to catch up with his friends. Sneaky brat.
"Oi yourself, Momo!" His deep voice carried over the hallway, "Don't try to bring Pyunta with you to the pool!" He grinned at his brother's obvious disappointment. "Aw, Sei-nii!"
Before stepping up to the view deck above, he can't help but notice Tachibana-san laughing at his exchange with Momo, ruffling on the mop of orange with such kindness.
-
"Why'd you call me 'Mikoshiba-buchou' the other day?"
The two tall males were leaning at the wall of the entrance of the swim club, having their drinks of cold coffee and cold barley tea. Seijuurou was sipping on his coffee as he glanced to the other man, who now seemed to look at him in shock, then his expression softened as he lightly scratched on his cheek.
"I'm not sure if you remember, but back at high school I was also a swim captain on my second year." Tachibana later stared at the ground as he spoke, "My school was Iwatobi High. We weren't a powerhouse school like yours but we did get to compete with each other at the prefecturals."
Ah. Iwatobi High did spark a memory in him. Wasn't that.. "Did we get to have a joint practice with you guys?"
The other hummed in response. "Just once. Do you remember Gou-chan? She was our swim club manager." Now that he remembers. Seijuurou remembered trying to woo her. Well, she was really cute after all. One reason he stopped pursuing for her was because her brother, Matsuoka Rin, was planning to drown him, or so from what he heard from his fellow teammates. He just laughed bitterly at the thought, which earned him a warm stare from the brunet.
"You liked her."
Seijuurou was quick to turn his eyes on the other, who then, yet again, looked down. He seemed kind of.. hurt? The scarlet-haired man sighed wistfully, not knowing what caused the brunet to look like that, but he doesn't want to see that sad face.
"Just liked." He drummed his fingers on the cool can of coffee. "Nothing more. I realized that it was a quick thump of the heart." Seijuurou laughed to himself, not realizing that he was also starting to crush the can. His other reason for giving up on her, or practically any other girl he tried to woo, "Pathetic, isn't it? To like someone easily and not have that feeling of 'love' everyone dreams of."
Looking back, he realized that he was really quick to fall. Sure, he's had his own share of dates and girlfriends, but no one really stuck with him. 'A woman's gentleman', they would say, but he finds his feelings short of love that he'd rather break the relationship off than finding himself giving the lack of affection his partner should deserve. Although, no one ever held ill feelings toward him after a break up, and that made him happy anyway.
He was pulled away from his thoughts when he suddenly felt warmth creeping on his side and he found Tachibana leaning towards him, arms touching each other.
"It's okay," those green eyes held a comforting gaze, and yet again, he couldn't look away from them. "You don't ever have to rush yourself in those feelings. It might take some time, but I'm sure you'll definitely find your chosen person someday."
His hand dropped to his side and he felt the other's hand spark on his own. As if there was magnetic-like force, he stopped himself from reaching out to the hand and holding it tightly in his own.
He never felt this way before.
-
From then on, he kept on accompanying Momotarou to his swim club. When Seijuurou was not typing his time away while waiting for his brother, he found himself looking for the coach, no, Makoto-san, as the other insisted on calling him. ( Just 'Makoto' was suggested, but he still felt some respect needed in place for guiding Momotarou in his swimming, therefore the '-san'.) At the end of every session, they would have a chat with each other which seemed to lengthened after each time they meet.
Unintentionally, he started knowing more and more about the brunet too.
That he was studying in a neighboring university to his and that he was studying Education to become an official swim coach for kids. That he loved taking care of cats and that he was secretly keeping some strays well-fed at the back of the swim club every lunch time. That afraid he was of scary things and that he habitually clung into anyone near him when he suspected something eerie from just anywhere. That he has two younger siblings and that he was really good in taking care of children. That he holds on to his left arm when he's nervous and that he scratches his cheek when he's happy about something.
That he laughs with his eyes slightly closed and that, only for Seijuurou, he always smile a certain smile every time their eyes meet, even the way his head tilts makes him swoon.
Again. He lifted his hand to cover his trembling lips. That crawling feeling he has whenever he was thinking of Makoto was there again. So sure of himself, Seijuurou knows that he never had this weird, unknown feeling for anyone, not even for his past relationships. It makes him clench his fist in excitement, embarrassment, no, he's not really sure. Wanting to look more, to know more, yet wanting to hide away these wants, it was all so confusing for him. The only thing he could come up with is..
Ah.
Is this what I think this is?
-
On one of the days without a need to babysit Momotarou ('I'm just going beetle catching at the park with Nagisa-kun! Don't worry too much, Sei-nii!'), Seijuurou left home with an intention to clear out these emotions, emotions that kept niggling at his heart ever since his realization from the past week.
Yes, it had been a week for him to think through, but each passing day, each passing glance he takes from the brunet made his feelings even surer, even more wanting to overflow that he desperately, desperately needs to let them out.
And there's no better person to tell to than the person himself.
At eleven minutes past twelve in the noon, instead of passing through the usual glass doors of the swim club, he headed straight behind the building, seeing rows of trees and some smaller shacks for storage rooms.
There he found a figure crouched down, seemingly crowded over by some meowing kittens and cats and cooing over them. He was never more sure that it could only be one person.
Seijuurou gave a heavy breath in before calling out, "Makoto-san."
The other jerked in surprise, throwing tidbits of bread in the air that caused the cats to either attempt catching them or scurrying away. He couldn't help giving a hearty laugh as Makoto pouted in response, trying to dust off the breadcrumbs on his arms as he stood up and walked towards Seijuurou. "You really scared me there, Seijuurou-san. I thought Coach Goro caught me this time."
The taller man's laughter tried stopping himself, much to Makoto's bemusement. "I'm sorry, m'sorry, I really didn't mean to surprise you." He reached his right hand out to the brown hair (it seemed to tint with green along with the towering trees around them), attempting to comb off some crumbs that landed on his head. Suddenly, he noticed the soft, pleasant feeling of brushing his fingers through the other's scalp and that the latter was now looking straight at him, eyes slightly widened in surprise.
Seijuurou withdrew his hand, clenching and unclenching at that tingling feeling running through his fingers. He rubbed the back of his neck with his left, unconsciously looking away and trying to draw his attention to the cats playing at their side. "S-sorry.." He cursed at the stutter, but he didn't mind much as he heard the other laugh.
"Mm.. That's fine, Seijuurou-san," a glance at the side, the taller man could see the other combing through his own hair, seemingly flustered by the earlier action. "What I'm more surprised about is that you're here today." There was a thoughtful pause, "I'm sure Momotarou-kun doesn't have swim classes today."
He remembered his original intention, the happiness gone, the embarrassment gone, and now the nervousness was settling in. Now, he's trying to think of how he should approach this. Why didn't I think of this before coming here?
"I didn't come with Momotarou today." He tried his utmost best to look at the person in front of him, now looking at him with a questioning gaze.
Holding in a deep breath, he focused on the smile before him. Why hasn't he noticed before, back at high school, this man that could probably clear up a storm and turn everything into sunshine and rainbows. (Too exaggerated, but it's true.) He was probably too blinded to notice that the answer was right in front of him the whole time.
He gripped on the front of his shirt, so tightly that he's trying to make the feeling of his heart stop from jumping out of his chest as he steeled himself with what his purpose of coming here was for.
But it wouldn't compare to the feeling as to how his breath hitched at the sight of the sweetest, most loving smile he could ever lay his eyes on after he uttered these words.
"Would you be mine, Tachibana Makoto?"
-
Mikoshiba Seijuurou never really knew about love, or it was just so at first. He was the kind to get easily attracted to cute girls (although now he thinks of this personality of his with a little embarrassment, but if it means being a gentleman to all, he doesn’t really mind). If he would have to count the times he’d actually fallen in love, he would reply for it to be a zero.
But this time when his heart leaped to a test, he was taught how it was like to fall in love for real.
It was the time he loved Tachibana Makoto.