Hey everyone! First time posting in the Free! fandom... I'm so nervous...

I feel as if I don't have the characters down quite right yet, so I'm apologising now for OOCness. Who am I kidding, I always make the characters act weird! HAHAHA.

Anyway, I'm actually kind of a big supporter for MomoNi! (Okay so that nickname is just weird but please excuse my horrible nicknaming.)

This is unbeta-ed. I apologise.

Please give me some feedback/feedback would be much appreciated.

Or just leave a review.

Otherwise, just enjoy this! :3

The Symptoms of a Heart Attack

-x-

Momotarou Mikoshiba has only ever really been interested in one thing: girls.

Girls, to him, are all of the seven wonders of the world. They make up his entire existence.

He has liked and dated all sorts of girls.

Tall ones. Short ones. Skinny ones. Okay, one chubby-ish one.

Girls with black hair. Girls with blond hair. Girls with brown hair. Brunettes. Red-heads. And one girl with striking pink hair.

He has also kissed a lot.

Some tasted nice. Others did not. Some tasted like strawberries, while others tasted like coffee. Momotarou has tasted a lot of flavours before.

Momotarou has dated all sorts of girls, but he can still find a way to love another. Like Gou Matsuoka, Rin-senpai's sister.

He spends the majority of his weekends either camping (with girls) or going to goukons.

But that is aside the point.

The point is, Momotarou loves girls, he will only ever love girls and girls are just the way to go for him.

Until he met Nitori-senpai.

Nitori-senpai, the senpai with silver hair and crystal-clear blue eyes. The senpai who always followed Rin-senpai around eagerly, and the senpai who was always teased in the swimming club.

Momotarou felt sorry for him, in a way.

Because Nitori-senpai wasn't such a good swimmer.

Of course, he was better than the average swimmer (he was in Samezuka, after all). But he wasn't exceptionally talented, like Rin-senpai or his brother.

Sharing a room with Nitori-senpai was easy. Nitori-senpai reminded Momotarou of a doting mother. Always clucking at him to keep his stuff clean and tidy.

It was easy having Nitori-senpai around, since he also did the laundry for Momotarou.

It was easy... for a while.

Until Momotarou started having... difficulties.

For example:

Momotarou occasionally had difficulty breathing. It happened a few times, where he had to steady himself against a wall and force himself to breathe properly.

Whether it was related to Nitori-senpai's sparkly smile, Momotarou couldn't be sure.

He also experienced a tight squeezing in the chest area. This was then followed by light-headedness and sometimes anger. Maybe. Or would 'jealousy' be a better word?

This often happened when Momotarou caught a glimpse of Nitori-senpai, following Rin-senpai around like a puppy would to its master.

And sometimes, Momotarou's face would just flush red completely, and his face would feel as if it were on fire. Some of his team-mates were concerned for his health.

But Momotarou didn't like it when his face went hot, because Nitori-senpai would walk over, inquire whether Momotarou felt fine or not, and place a cool hand on Momotarou's forehead.

And Momotarou's face would burn.

Momotarou knew what this was. Oh, he knew all too well.

These were the definite symptoms of a heart attack.

How long did Momotarou have? He himself didn't know. So he booked a secret appointment at the doctors, and prepared a will. Just in case he died on the way to the doctors or something.

He could never be too cautious.

-x-

"I can conclude that you are not going to have a heart attack any time soon." The doctor nodded confidently. "It is highly unlikely, seeing as you are in your teens and you're also taking part in a sport."

Momotarou breathed a sigh of relief. "T-that's good!"

"Yes. But it is strange, having all these symptoms... a heart attack may be out of the question, but other serious problems may not. I have an idea of what you might be suffering from, but..."

"Eh?! So I do have a disease?! Am I going to die soon?! Doctor, please tell me! I'm too young to die! There's too many girls I haven't met or groped yet, I... I DON'T WANNA!" Momotarou wailed, cutting the doctor short.

"Mikoshiba-san, Mi- MIKOSHIBA-SAN."

The near-shout from the doctor silenced a sobbing Momotarou almost immediately. Clearing his throat, the doctor continued.

"I have reason to believe that the cause of your 'problems' is this 'Nitori-san'. After all, you did mention his name a few times whilst talking to me. I think you should have a chat to 'Nitori-san' before coming back to me, okay?"

"Nitori-senpai? Nitori-senpai wouldn't be the cause of all this. He's-"

"Trust me." The doctor said, a glint in his eye. "You'd be surprised."

"But-"

"Make an appointment when you settle things with 'Nitori-san', okay? I have other patients to attend to now, Mikoshiba-san, so if you'll excuse me..."

'Nitori-senpai? There's no way he'd be related to this...'

-x-

"Momo-kun? Was there something that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Nitori-senpai was sitting in front of him, head tilted innocently to one side, his back straight like they were still in kindergarten.

"Um-"

Momotarou could feel his head pounding in his ears. So loud, he couldn't hear anything else.

"Um, yes. So, I went to the d-doctor's," He cleared his throat. "And the doctor said that I should have a chat with you."

"THE DOCTOR'S?! Momo-kun, are you sick? Are you feeling fine? Actually, you've been kind of spaced out during practice lately..."

"Ah, yeah, I'm fine," Momotarou lied.

He was far from fine.

His heart felt like it was going to explode.

This was definitely not normal.

"So how have you been feeling? Should I get you some pills?" Nitori-senpai looked at him with concerned eyes.

"Ah... well, sometimes... my heart feels like someone is squeezing it, and I can't breathe. My face feels really hot... and the heat only intensifies when..." Momotarou swallowed the lump in his throat. He risked one look at Nitori-senpai before his eyes darted back down to the table.

'I can't do it, I can't do it...!'

"I see. Do you... does this happen when someone is close to you, or when you're focusing on someone?" Nitori-senpai asked.

"Um..."

'Yeah.' Momotarou thought, allowing his eyes to drift back to Nitori-senpai's face before drilling holes into the table. 'You?'

He declared rather hesitantly, "Y-yes."

"Then I know what this is, Momo-kun!" Nitori-senpai grinned. "It's love!"

"L-love?!"

"Yes, love! Although I haven't experienced it a lot in my life, I can confirm that this is in fact love. The moment when your eyes land on someone you have fallen for, and your stomach clenches and your heart thumps almost painfully in your chest! It is indeed love." Nitori-senpai nodded his head.

'L-love?! But it can't be! Girls will always be my number one. My-'

"Give me a second."

Momotarou dug through the boxes that he hid under his bed until he found-

"Ah! Volume #43... bound to give me a hard-on... come on..."

But flicking through the pages, he felt nothing. The big-boobed ladies which used to make his pants uncomfortable were now merely 2D pictures.

"FUCK." Momotarou swore, throwing the magazine across the room. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Momo-kun, you shouldn't swear!"

Momotarou spun and forced himself to take a good look at Nitori-senpai.

The silver hair in slight disarray (only because Rin-senpai had forced him into a head-lock earlier). Those big, blue eyes which seemed like a reflection of the sky.

And Momotarou had to remember when Nitori-senpai blushed, when he laughed, when he cried-

'Fuuuck. My face is turning burning again!'

"Momo-kun? Are you okay? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

"No." Momotarou sulked, hidden under his blankets. "Leave me alone."

"Eh?!" Nitori-senpai crawled across the floor, until he was kneeling beside Momotarou's bed. "So, Momo-kun, who is it that you love, huh? You can tell your senpai!"

Momotarou muttered a reply, which Nitori-senpai could not hear. So he leaned closer.

"Say that again?"

"...u"

"Hm?"

For a moment, there was no reply.

"...Momo-kun?..."

There was little movement under the blankets, until-

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, SO IT'S YOU!"

The blankets were flung off, revealing a very flushed Momotarou.

Nitori-senpai just stared at his underclassman for a second, bewildered.

"...Eh?"

"You were the one I noticed, okay? Every time I looked around, you were just... OH FUCK! I've only ever liked girls, so I have NO idea, maybe because you're like a girl? But-" Momotarou took one look at Nitori-senpai's face (which was tearing up because Momotarou had just said that he was like a girl) and shut up.

"I've never really dealt with... anyone who wasn't a girl, okay?" Momotarou muttered, avoiding Nitori-senpai's sad face because he was just too cute.

"Momo-kun, you're so mean!" Nitori-senpai wailed.

"What? Wait, what?"

"Because, you just called me a girl!" He cried. He sniffed, trying to halt the tears, but they kept coming. "That's just... that's just so..."

"Wait, that's not what I meant! I meant that I liked you! Like, I-"

Nitori-senpai's sobs just grew louder. "You just said-"

"I SAID I LOVE YOU, OKAY?!"

The sentence echoed throughout the dorms. Momotarou was so dead.

He face-palmed, his face bright-red.

'What the heck was that confession?! Can that even be considered a confession?'

But Nitori-senpai's sobs quietened down.

"Y-you what?"

Nitori-senpai was staring at Momotarou, wide-eyed and still slightly confused. But a light blush was spreading over his face as he processed what just happened, and-

Momotarou reached the end of his tolerance.

He probably didn't think that much when he pulled Nitori-senpai onto the bed, their lips clashing together.

Momotarou has tasted a lot of flavours before.

But he has never tasted one quite like Nitori-senpai. Momotarou liked it immediately.

Because Nitori-senpai tasted like peaches.