"Love Letters In Swim Bags"

(disclaimer: own nothin' except for dumb fic ideas!)

It was just a crush...right?

A harmless crush that probably wouldn't get anywhere, and Makoto could just leave it alone and it would go away within a month. Two, three tops. But it didn't help that with a glimpse or with a simple thought of red hair and golden eyes paired with a wide grin and a deep voice that would continue to ring clear in his ears after joint practice had ended and all he wanted was to listen to him speak for hours about endless things, interesting or otherwise. And with every shared practice, every glance and smile made Makoto's cheeks heat up and quickly look away from the Samezuka captain and act as if something else caught his attention.

As more time went on, Makoto tried to gather up the courage to tell Seijuurou how he felt, how easy it would be to just do it and get it over with, but every time that he wanted to go up to the redhead and tell him face to face Makoto got cold feet and only gave the other captain a slight smile with flushed cheeks. He had multiple thoughts in his head, each a different scenario leading to the hopeful acceptance of the confession that would end up with Makoto thinking of what he should wear to the agreed date for a Saturday afternoon or early evening. He wondered how easy it was for other people to just go up to their person of interest to tell them how they felt, and in each case he greatly envied those people and wished that it was that easy for himself.

With the direct, verbal approach, there were so many ways that Makoto could take it. He could be forward, say it outright with his heart beating right into his throat and hopefully Seijuurou would love his confidence along with other things and understand his jumbled words. Or, he could lead into the confession; bring up a topic that he was sure (or just hopefully sure) that Seijuurou would be interested in and then when he was comfortable talking to the redhead, and then say it. Say, "Seijuurou, I like you, would you want to go out to do something if that isn't weird to you?" or something along those lines, Makoto hadn't quite figured everything out yet.

Of course with wanting to confess to let the captain know his feelings, there were also the thoughts of rejection. Makoto didn't know that Seijuurou even liked men, as far as he knew he was sure that he was still interested in Gou and that maybe that because of that he shouldn't even say his feelings about Seijuurou to him at all. Which is why once his friends and teammates had began pestering him about who his 'secret crush was' (mostly being Nagisa), he figured that he should ask their opinions on his...situation.

"Mako-chan, people like it when they get told that someone likes them!" Nagisa had said, smile wide. "I mean sure, there's the times where confessions get told from people that the person of interest doesn't like or whatever, but still, it's really flattering either way!"

"I'm sure either way Captain Mikoshiba will appreciate knowing." said Rei. "He seems like a really open individual and your chances of being embarrassed are close to none."

Makoto groaned and rubbed at his temples. "But I'm embarrassed either way! When I tell him I'll be embarrassed and if he shoots me down I'll be even more embarrassed!"

"But what if it's a positive end result though? What if he feels the same and he decides to take you out on a date?"

"Guys, I appreciate everything, really, but...maybe I should just keep this one to myself." Makoto sighed, staring at his shoelaces rather than the faces of his friends, cheeks burning. "I mean, who knows what could happen if I get brave enough to tell him. It's nearing the end of the year and he's probably going to go somewhere like...Tokyo, somewhere great for uni, and just..."

"Makoto." The brunette's head turned at the tone of Haruka's voice. "Just do what you think is right."

It had been days since that last conversation and Makoto had been right, it was nearing the end of the school year and it would be over before he knew it. Makoto was running out of time to even talk to Seijuurou aside from more than a few exchanged words rather than a full conversation, and Nagisa had been more than willing to help Makoto out much to the brunette's refusals.

And his first advice, which wasn't something drastic but still nerve-wracking, was to actually talk to Seijuurou.

The next joint practice Makoto stood awkwardly to the side, fingers messing with the strap of his goggles. His eyes went from Seijuurou talking to the group of butterfly swimmers to Nagisa, who just winked and made motions with his hands towards the captain. Taking a deep breath he stepped towards Seijuurou, hands dropping from near his neck to at his sides, trying to calm himself down. When he was an arms length away from the other captain the group of other swimmers had walked away to take their positions at the lanes and Makoto's instinct told him to turn on his heel and walk the other way before-

"Tachibana, hey!"

...Before he was noticed.

"H-Hey, Mikoshiba, uhm." Makoto tried swallowing the lump in his throat.

"How're you doing, how's your team?"

"It's...everything's been really good, really." Little by little, Tachibana. You can do it. "We've been improving a lot!"

"I've noticed! And that's fantastic!"

The next thing Makoto knew that the conversation had to stop due to someone else needing Seijuurou's attention and a rushed "Ah, talk to you later Makoto!" was said that made Makoto want to jump into the pool to cool his face down and go talk to Nagisa about the confession progress he had made.

And so he did, hearing Nagisa cheering for him before he hit the water.

"Mako-chan..." Nagisa sighed on the other end of the phone and Makoto knew that the blonde was slightly disappointed with what Makoto had just told him. "I can't believe you!"

Later in the week Makoto had been out running errands (since he was going out he figured that he'd pick up a few things that his mother needed as well), and out of all the people to run into while out and about on a Sunday afternoon, was no one other than Seijuurou Mikoshiba. Once he had spotted the redhead he froze, almost dropping the bags in his hands, and once Seijuurou had turned to smile and wave at Makoto he was frozen on the spot and only had a few seconds to compose himself and at least try to think of something to say that wouldn't make him seem like he wasn't nervous.

"So, let me get this straight." He paused before speaking. "Seijuurou came right to you-"

"Y-Yeah..."

"And he was smiling..."

"He was..."

"And he seemed...happy, to see you?"

Makoto knew that Nagisa was grinning. "Nagisa..."

"And, this is my favorite part, he asked if you had any other places to go after you said you were just out getting a few things because errands are better with someone and not alone?"

"I just-"

"Makoto Tachibana, that right there? He wanted to spend more time with you!"

"Y-You think so? He could have just been being polite..."

"Makoto, you could have just talked for a minute and then went your own way but instead you spent the next hour with him! And if you were dating, you know how that would have ended?"

"...How?"

"He would have kissed you before he had to go, Mako-chan~!"

It took awhile for Makoto to get Nagisa off of the sensitive 'kissing' topic (because just the thought of wanting to kiss Seijuurou made his face burn and words refuse to come out), until the blonde had finally calmed down and was ready to give Makoto some actual, useful advice.

"Mako, are you still uncomfortable with saying your feelings to Seijuurou face to face?"

Makoto sighed, pulling his legs up to his chest. "...Yeah."

"Because...?"

"Because, well, what if he was just being nice today? What if I were to say that I liked him and he didn't think of me the same way, having that rejection in person-"

"-Would be awful, yeah." Nagisa's tongue clicked against his teeth. "Well, how about you just write out your feelings instead?"

Once Makoto had hung up (thankfully because Nagisa had to start on his homework and he was going to call Rei), he looked at his notebooks on his desk and thought about what Nagisa had said. Taking advice from Nagisa wasn't...the best thing to do in most cases, but when it came to Makoto's redheaded problem, so far it was working better than he thought.

"Writing...shouldn't be all that hard." Makoto picked up a pen and opened up the notebook to a blank page. "Alright..."

To Captain Mikoshiba-

"Too...formal?"

Dear Mikoshiba-

Captain Seijuurou-

The only captain with red hair and golden eyes-

Makoto sighed.

Seijuurou-

Makoto paused. "...Better?"

There were a few things that Nagisa had said that stuck out to Makoto the most. Be honest, don't try to make yourself seem different in writing than you are in person. Which made Makoto laugh, because here he was, trying to get his feelings out on paper because he can't verbally say them to Seijuurou face to face. There was also the mention of making a slight joke if he felt awkward, and to always end it with positive feelings if there were any chance that it wouldn't work out.

And that Nagisa had also mentioned there were only a handful of shared practices left before Makoto's time was up to tell him.

Page after abandoned page, words scratched out and having to stop to clear his head and get back on track for a few moments, Makoto had finally gotten the letter done. In all it was about a page in a half, not quite two pages, but with it held Makoto's confession to Seijuurou. It was honest, saying how he really felt about the captain, and he would just...sneak it into the captain's locker and leave it at that.

The next joint practice soon came and Makoto had the letter in his swimming bag...but when the moment came when he had the opportunity to sneak it in, he didn't.

Same with the next.

And the next.

"Seriously? Mako, if you don't do it, I will!" Nagisa crossed his arms and sighed. "You even put it on cute special stationary, c'mon!"

"I-I wanted it to look nice!"

"So what, cute little cats are going to make a love confession look nice?"

Makoto frowned, putting his hand over the pocket in his bag that held the letter. "...Maybe I should just throw it away, just...forget about it. I had a chance today, and I blew it. Same with all those other times."

"No no no, don't you dare!" Nagisa moved Makoto's hand away from the bag, smiling at the brunette. "Makoto, I know you can do it! I wanna see you two happy doing cute things and hearing about how well your dates go and-"

"Okay, okay, I'll...I'll do it."

Soon enough, it was the morning of the third years send-off race. And it was Makoto's last chance to give Seijuurou the letter. Or rather, put it with his things and hope that things would go well.

While Seijuurou and most of the Samezuka swimmers were still occupied, Makoto had gotten the envelope from his bag along with a pen and carefully slipped away from the group of people. Makoto saw bursts of gold, white and black decorating several lockers and he thought that must be all the ones belonging to the third years and the rest of the team must have done it all earlier that day. Makoto bit his lip, scanning the decorations to figure out which one could be Seijuurou's, until he saw the one that had a cluster of balloons and notes stuck to the metal.

He took a deep breath, walking towards that locker and rubbing his sweaty hand against the material of his swimsuit. With that hand he reached up, gripping the handle to open the locker and saw Seijuurou's bag, several photos of the redhead with his friends and family and a few items left here and there that the captain was going to take with him after the day was over. Makoto took the letter, hesitating it to put it in the side pocket of his bag. Biting his lip he re-opened the envelope and took out the papers, clicking the pen when he flipped to the end of the last page to cross out his name printed at the bottom and quickly fumbled to fold it back neatly and back into the envelope and with a final mental push, shoved the letter into the bag and slammed the locker shut.

Makoto came back to stand next to Haruka and the others; cheeks pink, hands slightly shaking and feeling his heart thumping against his chest as he looked at Seijuurou getting out of the pool along with two others and began laughing at what someone had said and took the towel that was offered to him. He swallowed the lump in his throat and almost yelped when someone nudged his side and looked to his right, seeing Nagisa smiling at him.

"So, did you do it?"

"Y-Yeah, I did."

"I knew you could! Finally!" Nagisa's voice echoed through the room and the Samezuka team looked over at the blonde, who covered his mouth and waved in apology and waited for them to turn back around to speak again, but quieter. "Now you just gotta wait!"

That evening when Makoto returned to his room after dinner, he had gotten several messages from Nagisa, all asking about Seijuurou and if he had heard anything yet.

Anything yet?

Any cute messages or has he called?

Maybe he's just waiting to really think about it!

MAKOTO THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME PLEASE TELL ME THAT EVERYTHING IS OKAY

Please tell me that he got your number or you left it and he texted you and you have a date before he leaves PLEASE, MAKOTO.

I crossed out my name, Nagisa. He doesn't know that I left it.

As the new school year started, it was...different for practices with Samezuka or to talk about things involving the academy and to not see Seijuurou there or to not hear his name often come up. However meeting his younger brother, Momotarou, was a sure surprise. Especially for Makoto with swimming the same style, but seeing the younger Mikoshiba only made Makoto think of Seijuurou and the mistake of removing his name from his confession letter.

He was surprised that when he told Nagisa about what he did, that the blonde still sent encouraging words and even said that "maybe fate will play its cards and something good from this will happen!", and Makoto appreciated Nagisa's words. Makoto knew that Haruka and Rei were still by his side as well, there to pick him up when he felt negative about this situation and were the calming forces to balance out Nagisa's almost overwhelming support. It was just what he needed, especially with Makoto starting to think that he should just give up on the past captain since there would be no way for Seijuurou to know that it was Makoto that left the letter with his name crossed out.

While the Iwatobi team was winding down from their long practice and getting changed, Makoto heard his phone start to chime and stopped drying his hair to reach out for it. He looked at the caller ID and raised an eyebrow, seeing Rin's name, and answered, pressing the plastic to his ear.

"Hello? Rin?"

"Oi Makoto. Can you come over to Samezuka for awhile? My room?"

"...Why? Did something happen-"

"It's nothing bad, it's fine. You just got done with practice so it shouldn't be an issue, right?"

"N-No, not an issue at all, I think if I hurry I can still make the next train."

"Great! See you soon, then."

Makoto hurried, finishing getting dressed and apologized to his team when he left in such a hurry. He made the train on time with a few minutes to spare, texting Rin that he was on his way and calling his mother to say that he was coming home a bit later than planned. During his time on the train he wondered what Rin wanted and why it was so important for him to come right away instead of being able to talk about it through texts or during a phone call.

While he was on his way to Samezuka, Rin had sent him his room number and with every door that he passed made Makoto more anxious to find out why he agreed to come to his school in the first place. When Makoto had gotten to room 201 he knocked on the door, waiting only seconds before Rin opened the door and spoke before Makoto could ask any questions.

"Sousuke and I are going out with Nitori and Momo, someone's here and wants to talk to you."

"Who-" Makoto peeked inside the room and green eyes widened when he saw Seijuurou sitting on the bottom bunk, smiling at him. "O-Oh. Uhm-"

"See you later, okay?"

"Wait, Rin-!"

And as soon as he came into the room, Rin had left it and closed the door behind him, Makoto felt golden eyes looking right at him and he didn't dare speak. Out of the corner of his eye Makoto saw Seijuurou pat the space next to him and biting the inside of his cheek, he followed the gesture and when he sat down he was afraid that Seijuurou could feel the warmth coming from his cheeks.

"...So..." Seijuurou breathed out, his voice cutting through the silence. "I know, you're probably wondering why Rin asked you to come here and you're surprised to see me here."

"Y-Yeah..."

Seijuurou shifted to put his hand in his pocket, pulling out an all-too familiar light green envelope that made Makoto's throat tighten and his fingers clench the hem of his jacket.

"I found this the day of the send-off race. I read it when everyone had left the locker room and it was a shame seeing that whoever left it crossed their name out. And...I could have easily gotten rid of it, thrown it away and forgotten about it, but I decided to keep it." Seijuurou turned the envelope over in his hands. "I kept on wondering who it was because reading it, even reading it again for the second time, or the third...just made me want to talk to that person face to face and tell them how I felt, if anything, but. Well, with no name and all, it made things kind of hard."

Makoto nodded, still too nervous to speak, but continued to listen to Seijuurou talk.

"And one day I was just sitting in my dorm room, thinking of the letter again because how could I not think about who could write a confession on cute cat stationary, right? And at the same time I had been talking to Rin. I brought up the letter and even sent him a picture, and his response to that was...interesting." He took out the paper and unfolded it, smiling at the green cats at the bottom of the pages and the handwriting that decorated the pages. "He said, that he knew who it was, just by the stationary alone, and also the familiar handwriting."

"I-"

"You were worried that I wasn't interested in guys, weren't you?"

Makoto's eyes focused on looking down at his hands. "...Yeah. "

What Makoto didn't expect to hear, but also feared it, was a low laugh that came from his right, and a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You know you're really cute, right?"

Nagisa?

Yes, Mako-chan? What did Rin need? Is everything okay?

Guess who has a date with Seijuurou next weekend and owes you bigtime?

OMAKE:

Makoto's side was pressed against Seijuurou's chest, the redhead's arm slung over Makoto's shoulder and fingers rubbing the backstroke swimmer's arm. Mrs. Tachibana had invited Seijuurou over for dinner to meet Makoto's new boyfriend, for one, and for the two swimmers to celebrate their one-month anniversary. After the large and delicious meal complete with spiced carrot cake for dessert and wonderful conversation that assured Seijuurou that the Tachibanas liked him, they had settled down on the couch to watch a movie after the twins had gone to bed and Makoto's parents had left them alone. Halfway through Makoto had excused himself to go into the kitchen and get himself and Seijuurou some water along with a few cookies, and it would have been sooner if Seijuurou would have let Makoto up from the couch and placed light kisses on his neck.

"Mako?" Seijuurou watched as Makoto placed the small plate on the table in front of them and both clear glasses on coasters.

Makoto settled into the couch in his original place against Seijuurou again, looking up at the redhead. "Yes?"

Seijuurou's hand cupped Makoto's face, thumb rubbing Makoto's cheek that was slowly but surely turning pink. He slowly got closer, as did Makoto when he realized what Seijuurou wanted to do, and once their noses bumped together Seijuurou tilted Makoto's head back slightly to press their lips together. After the first peck and Seijuurou pulled back slightly, he leaned right back in for a slightly more forceful kiss and Makoto was more than eager to return those kisses. Makoto's fingers twisted in Seijuurou's shirt as the oldest pulled away, humming happily and kissing Makoto's forehead.

"You make me so happy, Makoto."

"Maybe if I wouldn't have crossed my name out we would have been here a lot sooner." Makoto's hand found Seijuurou's and laced their fingers together, squeezing. "I'm sorry..."

He shook his head and squeezed Makoto's hand back. "It's perfectly fine. What matters is now, doesn't it?"

Makoto's smile widened and he leaned back against Seijuurou once again. "You still want to stay over?"

"I would never say no to that." Seijuurou leaned forward slightly to break a cookie in half, offering a bite to Makoto and when the brunette took it, put the rest of it in his own mouth, nuzzling Makoto's hair with his cheek.

Author's note: Just a little somethin' that I had on my mind for awhile! I think some parts turned out better than others (especially with removing some of the original thoughts with ones that I thought seemed better), but! I think it turned out fairly okay~