~*Frost Taming Fire*~

A SosukexRin fanfiction

by A Midnights Dream

**I didn't make this artwork. I take no credit for this artwork. I tried in earnest to locate the original artist but couldn't. If you are the artist of this work, or know the person. Please message me and I will take it down immediately.

Rin's wine colored eyes scanned the labels of the dietary supplements on the shelf, half lidded and similarly half interested.

"What the hell." He grumbled, squinting to try and decipher the jam-packed fine print on the backs of the bottles. "None of this shit is even written in Japanese."

"Of course they aren't." Commented a baritone, sultry voice from beside him. Sosuke had his own fiercely blue eyes trained on the back of a package as well. "All of these products were made in Germany."

Rin made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. "If they were at least in English I could read them."

He sighed and moved on to the next row of products. He didn't mean to act like a brat. After all, it was his idea to come to the sports shop to look at performance enhancing supplements today. He just didn't have the patience for this sort of thing. Well, for shopping, to be specific. They were also running short on time before practice, making Rin's agitation a bit more pronounced. He hated being rushed.

"Let's look at this stuff from America."

"Okay."

Rin pressed a button on his cell phone to bring up the clock on his screen. God damn it, they would have to leave in the next ten minutes if they were to make it to the bus stop on time and then walk the rest of the way to their school's pool. As captain, he not only had to be at every single practice, but he also had to arrive there early. No one would expect anything less from the captain of the prestigious Samezuka swim team.

He needed to hurry up and pick something. It was a damn trip getting all the way out there to the shopping mall. He rarely had time to step away from the school and come out this way, so he likely wouldn't be able to go back there for a long time. There was no way he was going home empty handed.

"Here, I'll just get this one." Rin said, grabbing one of the products off the shelf.

"Hold on." Sosuke urged. "You really shouldn't just buy stuff like that without reading the back label first. You don't really know what's in it or what side effects it has unless you do."

"It's fine. I'm pretty sure I read an article about this stuff in a sports magazine a while back. It had pretty good reviews, or whatever."

Sosuke raised a dark brow. "Or whatever?"

Rin scowled. "You mocking me?"

"No."

"Well hurry up and get in line. We're gonna miss the bus if we keep dragging our feet like this."

"Fine." Sosuke sighed, but followed after his redheaded friend without any further argument.

Rin's arms thrashed through the water rhythmically and with purpose. His fingers stabbed through the surface and then were swiftly brought down through the thick of it to propel his body faster and faster through the liquid. He cut through the water like the katana immortalized in his school's symbol, sharp and merciless. He felt nothing but fire burning inside of him as he approached the wall. Instead of feeling fatigued he felt a burst of energy that surged him forward. With one last extension of his arm he slapped his hand on to the cold wet tile with a satisfying smack that resounded through the spacious pool building at Samezuka Academy.

The entire swim team gasped and cheered in amazement.

"Incredible, Rin-Senpai!" Nitori gushed. "That's a new personal best for you!"

"Thanks." Rin huffed through a toothy grin and pulled himself out of the pool. His underclassman continued to praise him but he couldn't make out a word of it as he tousled his fiery locks dry with a towel.

"~'s really no limit to your talent, is there!"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far…" But one thing was for sure. His performance was improving steadily over these past few days. The only thing he'd been doing differently was mixing in some of that dietary powder into his drink about an hour before practice and workouts. He had to admit he was a bit skeptical about the product's effectiveness at first, but he supposed his times were more than enough proof that it worked.

Rin's eyes glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Oi, guys, listen up. Practice is just about over for today…" Rin addressed a few concerns about the upcoming regional tournament, and commented on a few members, where they could improve and what they should be focused on. "...Tomorrow is the weekend, so make sure to get some rest."

"Yes, sir!"

"Alright then, you're dismissed.

"Hey, I'm going out for a bit."

Rin paused reading his health and fitness magazine for a moment to glance over the pages at his friend Sosuke from the bottom bunk in their dorm room.

"Getting something to eat?"

"Yeah, I'm starving." Sosuke closed the packet of homework he was working on at the desk and stood up from the roll-away chair. He grabbed his Samezuka swim team jacket and headed for the door.

"Fine. See you later. Hey! Grab me something to eat too while you're out." Rin joked and smirked when he got the anticipated terse reply.

"Get it yourself." The door closed with a click, leaving no opportunity for a catty remark from the other party.

Rin waited until he heard his friend's heavy footfalls fade down the hallway and out into the corridor before he picked up his magazine again. His eyes returned to the last line of text he'd been reading and continued on. Rin kept reading, but after a while of laying down and being absolutely alone there came a sensation from his lower body that made it a little difficult for him to concentrate.

"Nnnn...the hell…" Rin grumbled and shifted his hips, seeing if perhaps it was just a random spell of hardness. He went back to the beginning of the paragraph and attempted to read the content again. But instead of that warmth dying away he felt another pulse from his member, pumping it up and making him semi-hard.

"Hnnnn...again with this…" He grumbled and sighed as he stroked himself through his sweatpants. His member twitched in response and grew harder under his hand. Rin got up and locked the door to his dorm room before he went any further. The last thing he needed was Nitori or Momo bursting into his room while he was busy jerking it.

He crawled to the farthest edge of his bed against the wall and sat back against it with his legs splayed out, hanging over the edge of his mattress. Rin closed his eyes and played his fingers over his abs and down beyond to between his legs. He grabbed a bulge that rested below the base of his member and rolled it around in his palm. He felt a flush of warmth go through his loins which made him quiver and his brow furrow upwards. His member strained hard against the soft material of his boxers, demanding freedom and attention. Hooking his fingers under the elastic bands of both his boxers and pants, he pulled them down just enough so that his needy extremity sprung out. It stood high and parallel to his taut abs, stiff and twitching, meekly asking to be tended to.

Rin wrapped his hand around his shaft and started stroking. His heart rate and breathing accelerated from excitement and from that a light blush dusted his cheeks. Behind his eyelids images started flashing that were brought about by his ministrations. They only fueled the growing fire in his loins and accentuated his pleasure. Rin mentally honed in on those images, trying to refine the vague shapes he saw dancing behind his eyelids into clear forms and then from there into erotic fantasy. He tried thinking of rounded hips and generous bosoms. Long hair and wide eyes, soft pillows and folds between two deliciously curvy thighs…

...but he felt nothing from it. His hand continued to stroke but the hot pleasure that had pulsed through his body moments before abandoned him.

Why…

Rin stopped, pausing to clear his mental slate, and started over. Playing with himself, leading into the strokes, calming breaths to take him into those moving pictures...But it was no use. Everytime he tried to escape into an erotic fantasy involving women...it was as if it wasn't satisfying. No part of their bodies that he could imagine could make him hungry, even though he knew that it should.

"Damn it…" He hissed and slumped back on to his mattress, defeated and half hard. "Why the hell does this keep happening? This is like the third time now..."

His foot bumped something off of his bed and it landed on the floor with a soft thump. Rin glanced over and saw his crumpled sports and fitness magazine lying on the floor with its pages open.

"Haaa...what a pain," He muttered and sat up to retrieve it. Once he sat up and could see the image spread out on the pages he froze. It was a male olympic swimmer posed in a playful yet suggestive position on a two-page spread. The photograph of the athlete was shot in such a position that emphasized his lower body: his legs were parted, skin-tight swimsuit clinging to his nether regions. His sun-kissed skin was beaded with water and the snarky grin on his face made his dark eyes seem mischievous...and inviting.

Rin's hand found itself on top of his member again, slowly stroking up and down.

"Aaaah…" He sighed. Looking into the eyes of that man elicited a primal and insatiable desire deep in his core that fanned the simmering embers in his loins to a steady flame.

He kept pumping, thinking of running his tongue across that wet, tanned skin. Fisting his fingers in short dark hair. Feeling a hard and flat body pressed up against his own-

Rin released himself, almost as if in shock, and looked back down upon the smiling picture of the athlete on the floor. Rin's brow furrowed in confusion.

What….was...?

Still reeling from what just happened, Rin pulled up his pants and pretended he didn't feel his rock hard cock knocking against his clothing. With an irritated noise, Rin stood up from his bed, snatched the magazine from the floor and tossed it on to his bed. He snatched a towel out of his bureau and stormed off to the bathroom to go take a cold shower. Again.

Rin pressed his forehead up against the cold wall of the bathroom shower and tried to let his frustration slip away into the droning sound of the water hitting the tile. The cold water may have drenched the lingering heat between his legs, but it did nothing to calm the heavy bundle of confusion and irritation brooding underneath his wet mop of red hair.

I just don't get it…

Rin reached for his bottle of shampoo and began working it into his blood red roots.

"I'm not a very sexual person…" He muttered to himself, trying to piece things together. "I never was. I can't understand why all of a sudden I have all of these...these urges…It's been like this for about a week..." Then, his breathing caught in his throat and his eyes flew open wide. "Wait a second!"

Barely remembering to put a towel around his waist, Rin burst out of the small bathroom adjoined to his dorm, hair still sudsy with shampoo, and began rummaging through his drawers.

"Where is it? What did I do with it?"

He looked over his shoulder and there it was, sitting undisturbed from where he had left it earlier that afternoon before his workout, almost mocking him in his panicked search.

"Let me see this…" Rin grabbed the bottle of the dietary supplement off the shelf and spun it around to look at the label on the back. His ruby-red orbs shifted, translating the weird English alphabet into words he could understand. "Improved performance...protein...levels of test...wha? testos...tester-ugh, forget it." He kept reading. "Common side effects: rash...headaches...nausea…" His brow furrowed at the last symptom which was oddly set in bold letters. "Increased...sex drive?"

Rin stared at the back of the bottle as he let that information sink in. He reread it again, just to make sure he hadn't misinterpreted or translated incorrectly.

Increased sex drive...so...that's the explanation for all of my urges lately?

He slapped the heel of his hand against his forehead. Of course he should have suspected his powder, why hadn't he sooner? It turned out that apparently Sosuke was good for something. The kid gave good advice every once in a while. It really wasn't like Rin to be so careless or irresponsible about his body or what he put into it. Normally he would have considered all the information on the labels before buying a product. But lately he just had no time...he barely had enough time that day to go to that store with Sosuke. And he was so preoccupied with his swimming, his classes, his grades, his position as captain...he hadn't put two-and-two together until just that moment.

There came a knock from the door.

"Rin." Called the voice from the other side. "It's Sosuke. I'm coming in."

"Uhhh-"

Before Rin could protest or explain himself Sosuke unlocked the door with their dorm key and walked in to the scene of Rin soaking wet in a towel, hair all foamy with shampoo while clutching a bottle of vitamin powder.

Sosuke simply stood in the doorway, hand still on the door knob, and stared at his best friend with rounded eyes.

"...What are you...doing?"

"...Nothing. Just reading the back of the supplement bottle."

"Now? In the middle of your shower?" A corner of Sosuke's mouth pulled up into an amused smirk. He brought the back of his hand up to his mouth as suppressed laughter rumbled in his throat. "Isn't it a bit late for that, anyway? You already bought the damn thing."

"Tch, you don't think I know that?" He put the bottle back on the shelf. "I'm going back to my shower." Rin walked past his friend into the bathroom and resumed his shower like normal.

"Whatever." Sosuke said, still smiling.

Reading the back of that bottle had solved only one of Rin's problems.

The information on the supplement's label accounted for his increased sexual hunger...but the more pressing problem was...it didn't explain why he was so confused about what he wanted sexually.

Rin's pencil stopped its writing in the middle of his note taking in class as his thoughts drifted off on the subject once again.

I'm not a very sexual person...He remembered saying, and he stilled agreed with that statement. Before going on this vitamin supplement, Rin barely had urges, and when he did it was usually a fairly simple process of alleviating himself. Rin had always thought of girls when pleasuring himself and it worked for him just fine. Which was why he was so confused that his body was reacting in such a way when he was increasingly horny. He had considered the idea of stopping his intake of the vitamins, but with the valuable increases in his times he didn't feel like it was worth it. He needed to be as fast as he could if he wanted to compete with the swimmers from the other schools. This dietary supplement was a legal food item recognized by the sports administration, so it wasn't as if it was illegal. So while cutting the stuff out of his diet would solve one problem for him, it would only create a more pressing problem for him in the other, more important part of his life. In the mean time Rin's sexual urges and confusion was snowballing inside of him to the point where he felt like a spring under pressure, ready to lunge at someone or anything at the slightest give.

He let his fiery head come to rest in his hand and he rubbed his brow, confused. He just couldn't understand what was happening to him.

Was he...gay?

Could that happen? Could someone suddenly become gay? Just like that? Rin had never really thought about it, but he was pretty sure things didn't work that way...he figured if that was a person's preference, then it would always be that way right from the start. It just didn't make sense to him how all of a sudden he could stop wanting-

"Matsuoka."

"Ha?"

Rin was suddenly pulled back to reality by the voice of his teacher from the front of the classroom. She, as well as a few students from his class, were looking at him expectantly for an answer.

"Oh, uh. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

A few students snickered and his teacher sighed.

"That's okay, Matsuoka. Could you please read the last paragraph on the bottom of page 36?"

"Yes, of course." And just like that, his personal pondering had to be shelved again, put on the back burner so he could focus on his studies. He stood up from his seat to read the paragraph of English and for the most part everyone turned their eyes back to their books to follow along. Though Rin could still feel one pair of blue eyes resting on his back, and knew all too well who they belonged to.

The next day found the two best friends at the school's weight room.

It was leg day and Rin was on the leg press machine pumping over a hundred pounds of weight. Sosuke stood by, being ready to take off or add more weight as Rin needed it, but also standing by to give encouragement.

Sweat beaded on Rin's brow and his cheeks flushed a healthy red from increased blood flow. He grit his teeth and grunted as he neared the end of his set.

"Keep going, you almost have it." Sosuke encouraged him.

Rin wasn't sure he could do it. It was beginning to hurt and his body was quivering with the effort of pushing his muscles against the resisting weight.

Two more…"Ah!" C'mon Rin, you piece of shit! One more...He pushed with all his might against the resistance but could only extend his legs halfway. He struggled for a moment, trying to press forward but he couldn't. With a gasp of air his muscles gave out and the machine's weight plates slammed back to their starting position with a loud CLANG. He flopped back into the chair exhausted and out of breath.

"Aaaagh, fuck!" Rin growled, through gasps of air and pulled at his red strands. "God damn it!"

"It's fine," Sosuke urged. "It was close enou-"

"No it wasn't!" Rin snapped, but only felt sorry for it when he saw the look of shock register on his friend's face.

Once he caught his breath, Rin stood up from the machine and without even making eye contact he muttered. "I'm going out behind the gym to flip some tires."

Saying nothing, Sosuke simply let him walk away.

Again, as Rin made his way out of the gym he could feel those piercing blue eyes watching him all the way out.

Out behind the gym was precisely where Rin wanted to be. It was isolated, there was no one around, and there were tons of rubber tires there for him to beat the shit out of mercilessly.

The hotheaded redhead pulled on his black, fingerless gloves and popped his earbuds into his ears. The heavy, grungy guitar from his music allowed him to tune in to his inner frustration. He grabbed on to it by it's ugly horns and felt the spirit of it fill his muscles with vitality and his heart with vicious endeavors. Setting his sight on his first victim, he moved over to a relatively large tire.

Squatting down, he hooked his fingers under the large grooves of the tire and pulled upwards with all his might. His arm and shoulder muscles bulged as they strained against the activity of lifting something so large. His legs, still weak and hurting from his workout, were at a disadvantage and weren't much help. Slowly, Rin lifted the tire upright with a yell. It stood only for a moment before he shoved it back down viciously with a growl. The thing fell on the ground with a dull but resounding boom.

But doing this wasn't good enough. It was too slow. He needed to rip, tear, beat, pound anything faster to expel all his frustration. Rin saw a smaller, average sized tire and couldn't control himself. Picking it up he whipped it hard against the back wall of the building with a yell where it bounced off and went rolling into the nearby brush bordering the property.

Rin stood there for a moment breathing heavily, feeling the chemicals which had held him captive in irritability and anger slip away from his acts of violence. Rin pulled his ear buds from his ears and ran his fingers through his hair and clenched, holding them there.

His voice was breathless and defeated. "What am I doing…?"

"Oi." Came a voice from behind him, making him spin around. It was Sosuke. How long had he been standing there? Had he seen Rin's childish fit of rage?

"What is it?"

"Don't give me that. You know what. What the hell is wrong with you lately?"

Rin's mouth flattened into a line and he averted his gaze from his best friend.

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"Like hell there isn't."

"I'm telling you there's nothing wrong." Rin growled, getting annoyed.

"Cut the crap, Rin."

Rin's eyes lifted back up to look at his friend. His expression was stoic, and his tone was even as always, but Rin could tell he was getting on Sosuke's nerves blowing him off like this.

"You may be able to lie to yourself, you may be able to fool all the guys on the swim team, but you're not fooling me. Maybe nobody cares or says anything because your times are good and that's all they care about. But I know you better than that to know there's something seriously bothering you."

Rin made an annoyed sound and averted his gaze once more. "Idiot...it's not something I can just talk to you...to anyone about so easily."

"You can talk to me about anything." Sosuke urged, and Rin clenched his fists. He hated not being able to talk to Sosuke, and the god damn idiot wasn't making it any easier for Rin to deal with by being so caring and understanding. "It doesn't matter what it is. I promise I won't laugh at you."

There was a brief spell of silence between them until finally Rin sighed.

"Sosuke...even if I wanted to tell you I...I wouldn't know how the hell to go about explaining it. Even I don't really know…"

"You're not sick, are you?"

"No, that's not it."

"Then an injury?"

"There's nothing wrong with my body, Sosuke. It's not that simple…"

More silence stretched while Rin tried to collect his thoughts.

"Listen...I promise I'll tell you what's going on with me just as soon as I can figure it out myself."

"And just how long is that supposed to take?"

Rin narrowed his wine red orbs at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What I mean is you better not blow this off Rin." For once Sosuke's intensely blue eyes were hooded and serious. "How are we supposed to swim together at regionals if you can't even keep your act together?"

Rin took in a short breath and felt a wave of shame wash over him. Of course Sosuke was worried about more than just him. He was worried about the captain of the Samezuka swim team, the person that was supposed to guide everyone to great achievements. Maybe his times were improving, but if Rin continued to stay frustrated he might lose focus on his other members and where their needs were. Not only that, but Sosuke must have been concerned about the bigger picture, about all of them, Rin and his friends, Nitori and Momo, going to the regional competition and swimming together in the relay. How did he not realize that sooner?

"...Yeah…" Rin clenched his fists. "I know you're right. Just...give me a couple days, okay?"

"Fine. I'm holding you to it. Don't think you're going to get away from me."

"Trust me, I don't."

With that, the taller, darker of the two males stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned away.

"C'mon," He called over his shoulder. "Let's grab a soda and head back."

"Yeah."

Sure enough, two days came and went and Rin had neither the time nor the want to reflect deeper on the implications of his sexual confusion. How could there be any time for such contemplation between classes, studying, homework, work outs and practice? Even the wee amount of time he had between those things he spent doing mundane tasks such as sleeping or cooking, eating, cleaning, etc.

Rin could certainly use his busy life as an excuse for why he hadn't thought deeper on the subject. But if he were being entirely honest with himself...maybe the reason he didn't want to think about it was because he was afraid of the answers he'd find. Not that the idea of being gay scared or repulsed him. Personally, he didn't care if he was straight, gay or bi (which was something he had considered in the grand scheme of things). He was mostly worried about how the others would receive him.

He knew that these were different times than twenty, or even ten years ago. Being gay now wasn't such a big deal as it was back then but...Rin was also aware of the fact that he was the captain of a swim team where everyone had to be comfortable around each other, everyone had to be comfortable in the locker rooms, in the showers, doing exchanges and getting close together in the pool. And while he was fairly certain that none of his guys would look down on him or reject him for being gay or bisexual...he wasn't so sure that they would be entirely comfortable doing all those things mentioned before with the knowledge of their captain's sexual orientation. And that sort of distraction was something he couldn't allow to happen to his team while they were trying to focus on excelling. It was his responsibility to make sure that his team members shone brightly and succeeded in preserving the prestige of Samezuka Academy.

Rin had reached the time limit he'd asked for to gather his thoughts, and yet he still didn't know how to approach Sosuke about it. There were plenty of times when they were alone together, it was just...a very uncomfortable subject to have to talk about, and with Sosuke, of all people. He didn't know what time would be a good time to talk. But of course, finally, Sosuke decided for them one evening when they were sitting together in the silence of the dorm room, each doing their own homework assignments. Rin sat on his bottom bunk with his nose in a textbook and Sosuke over by the desk in a similar predicament. All had been silent between the two males for a good two hours, when suddenly Sosuke closed his book and stood up.

"C'mon, let's take a break and go for a run."

Rin's eyes flicked over to the alarm clock beside their bunk beds and saw that the time was 9:03 p.m. It was kind of late for a run. Sosuke usually didn't like staying out late if they had stuff to do the following morning. But...Rin had a vague idea why he was asking to take a break. He knew that Sosuke didn't really want to go out for a run. He wanted to get Rin alone, and talk. His best friend may have been in the top ten in the country for swimming butterfly, but the kid was as transparent as a pane of glass sometimes.

"Yeah, sure." Closing his book, the two males slipped into their running clothes and headed out into the dusk.

The night was brisk and a bit windy. But those were the best possible conditions a runner could ask for when going out for exercise. The wind tousled Rin's hair, keeping his bangs from getting in his eyes, and kept his brow free from perspiration. Tonight it was Sosuke who took the lead in running. Every so often they would switch it up and let the other choose where they ran to and for how long. But just knowing the nature of why Sosuke wanted to go out running in the first place, Rin keenly suggested that Sosuke lead them to where they should go.

The two males were mostly silent on their run. Sosuke in front and Rin following behind, both absorbed with their music playing and the rush of adrenaline that came with exercise. Sosuke lead them through the suburban neighborhood surrounding their school's property and then down a long stretch of highway that was flanked by office buildings on one side and the ocean on the other. The road was like the dividing line between untamed nature and confined society. The road took them straight into downtown, and from there Sosuke steered into the central park.

"Oi," Sosuke called, breathless with beads of perspiration around his dark brow. "Let's take a rest here for a sec and stretch."

"Yeah." Rin agreed. This run had actually been a bit long for him but he hadn't said anything about it. Breathless and faintly clinging with the musky scent of their sweat, the two males stretched their limbs and core muscles that were all fired up with blood.

Sosuke rolled his shoulder muscle around in its socket and grimaced when the action brought about a few pops. Without saying anything, he went over to a vending machine that wasn't too far away and put in enough change for one bottle of water and one can of cola.

"Here." He said, tossing Rin the bottle of sweating water.

"Ah, thanks." He murmured, feeling a bit surprised. It wasn't like Sosuke to buy shit for him. Did he perhaps feel sorry for what he was about to do to Rin?

Both of them took a seat on a nearby bench and finished catching their breaths. The only noise that went between them was their mingled breathing and the leaves scratching against each other in the gentle breeze.

"Okay then, start talking."

Rin's grip tightened around his water bottle as he felt a sinking feeling in his gut. He knew it was coming and yet he still wasn't prepared for it.

"Go on, you've had plenty of time to think about it." The taller of the two males tipped his head back and took a big gulp of his soda, giving Rin the opening he needed to begin.

"Idiot." Rin murmured. "I never had any intention of running away. You didn't have to drag me all the way out here." Rin's futile attempt to redirect the subject was thwarted as Sosuke remained quiet and had his intense blue eyes fixed on Rin, pinning him in place until he provided Sosuke with the answers he wanted to hear.

Fine, Rin thought. There's obviously no shaking him… "I…" He began, but his words fell flat. He had no idea how he'd possibly begin this. He certainly wasn't going to begin by admitting his failure to take Sosuke's advice about reading the back of the vitamin bottle before buying it.

You know what? Screw it, enough with trying to figure out the preamble to his explanation. This was the sort of thing that was awkward no matter how you said it, Rin realized, so he figured he might as well just get out with it.

"I'm not sure about what I want any more, Sosuke…" Rin saw his friend's brow furrow. Sosuke opened his mouth to say something, but Rin anticipated his question and spoke up before he could get a word out. "And I don't mean about my future or what I want to do with my swimming. That hasn't changed. I…" His fingers clenched tighter around the plastic of the bottle and he felt his gut raising up in his throat. "I mean...I don't know what I want any more…Sexually..."

The silence that followed after Rin's statement was nearly deafening. There was no wind or gentle breathing to fill in the chasm that now stood between them. Anything that Sosuke might have thought Rin was going to talk about had probably been blown out of the water. Steeling his nerves, Rin glanced over at his friend and found an expression of mild shock on his handsome features: Blue eyes rounded, dark brows raised and mouth popped open slightly.

Now that had finally managed to get the base of it out in the open, the rest of his words started coming easier.

"I've been so sexually frustrated lately. I don't know what to make of it. Recently I've been having way more urges and feelings than I normally do, but when I go to…you know," Rin blushed and just made a motion in the air, too mortified to actually say the words to his lifelong rival.

"I can't even stay hard! It's like, I try to think about the things that used to get me off before and I...It just doesn't..." Rin ran his fingers through his hair and pulled at the strands in frustration. Just talking about the subject had him all riled up, and it didn't help his stress levels to talk about his problems to the one person who was close to him and the one person who he still actually gave a shit what he thought about him.

"I can't tell if this is just a phase or if...or if I might have indirectly found something out about myself...I'm not sure about myself any more…"

There. That was it. That was all he had to say, minus the increased sex drive part from the dietary supplement, but he wasn't about to give Sosuke credit and inflate his ego.

Rin refused to look up from the pavement, afraid of what he might see on his friend's face. Rejection, disgust, or even fear. But all he heard Sosuke utter was

"Oh…"

The two sat in silence for a few more tense moments. The longer it went on the harder it was for Rin to break it. Just as he was about to open his mouth and say something, Sosuke said that last words on earth he'd expected to hear.

"I know how you feel."

Anything that Rin had been about to say died in his throat and questions exploded in his mind. He snapped his head up to look at his teammate but Sosuke was no longer looking at him. He had his regular neutral expression fixed on his face and was staring out into the dark deserted park.

"What do you mean?" Came Rin's soft reply, and then he felt his resentment flare, tempering the edge in his words. "How could you know how I'm feeling?"

"I know because I've been through it before myself."

It was Rin's turn to have his features work through an expression of shock. What? Sosuke had battled with this exact same problem before?

"It was before I came to Samezuka Academy," The brunette continued. "My second year of high school, right before I transfered. In the middle of that year I went through the same slew of problems and questions. What did I like? Was it okay to like those things? How did I feel about it? But the most important of those questions to me was what did I like?" A breeze rolled through the park and played with both of the boys hair and kicked up a few fallen leaves on the ground, stirring them up into a small mini-tempest. "It wasn't easy, and the answers didn't come to me right away, but eventually I did figure out what I wanted and came to terms with it."

Rin was silent, unable to ask the question that hung so heavy like an anvil over their heads.

"I found out I'm bisexaul."

The words hit Rin like a blow to the chest. The news knocked the wind out of him. To say he was utterly surprised was an understatement. Here he was thinking he knew everything there was to know about Sosuke Yamazaki, his best friend for more than half his life, who told him everything and could talk to him about anything.

"You're bisexual?" Rin reiterated. "And you never told me?"

Sosuke looked at his friend side long. "Does it matter to you that I am?"

The question caught Rin off guard, making him blink. "Of course it doesn't! But isn't that the sort of thing you would tell somebody?"

Sosuke shrugged. "It never came up in conversation and you never asked. It didn't really seem like anything that was important to us being friends or working together on the swim team. So I didn't say anything about it."

Rin growled and smacked the palm of his hand against his forehead. "Idiot...how the hell could I have not noticed it?" He took a breath and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I guess I shouldn't be so surprised though. You're so laid back about everything, I should have figured that a stupid thing like gender wouldn't matter to you when it comes to sex." Rin shook his head, still reeling from the information. How could he have been living with Sosuke for so long and never even thought to ask…

"Well, whatever. Enough about that." Sosuke continued. "We're not here to talk about me. We came out here to talk about you."

"Oh, uh...yeah."

"So...what's up?"

Rin growled, feeling the light flush of embarrassment returning to his cheeks. He scratched the back of his neck, feeling awkward and looked away. "Do I have to spell everything out for you?"

"Not everything. But if you tell me what you're struggling with I can help you better."

"Alright…" Rin sighed, reluctant. "I guess you have a point." He started from the very beginning and told Sosuke everything. Even his discovery about reading the back of the dietary supplement bottle. Surprisingly though Sosuke didn't smirk and rub the information in Rin's face like he anticipated. To the brunette's credit, he listened very patiently and kept his face open, free from judgment or laughter-even when Rin was struggling to tell him intimate parts of his problem, which was hard enough for him to say just in general, let alone to Sosuke.

"And that's everything that's happened so far."

Sosuke had been listening intently with is fingers poised on his chin in thought. "I see…"

"Yeah."

"Listen, Rin." Sosuke turned in his seat to fully face his friend and locked their gazes together. "If I can, I'd like to save you a world of trouble by trying to figure this out all on your own…" His gorgeous blue eyes dropped down to his hands which had been resting in his lap. His fingers curled into fists. "I wish I had had someone there for me when I was struggling with this."

"Sosuke…" Rin murmured, noticing the look of pain that ran across those steely blue orbs.

The lonesome athlete stood up then, not wanting to make eye contact at the moment, with his hands stuffed in his pockets looking away. Another breeze rolled by and pulled at Sosuke's clothes, but the broad brunette had his mind on other things and didn't even notice. Rin wondered...Just what exactly did Sosuke go through during the time that they had spent apart? Rin realized that he had matured physically, that much was glaringly obvious. But for the first time he was realizing that the Sosuke he knew back in elementary school and the Sosuke he was now where very different people, even if on the surface they seemed basically the same.

"All I'm saying is that if you need advice or need someone to talk to, you can come to me anytime." Cerulean irises slid in their sockets to connect with ruby. "You know that right?"

Sosuke...Rin felt his lower lip quiver and felt wetness forming on the corners of his eyes. He dipped his head so his friend wouldn't see his emotions getting the better of him. The last thing he needed after Sosuke had been so nice to him was to sour the mood by giving the brunette an opportunity to tease him.

Rin picked up his head and returned his friend's gaze with a steady stare. "I do."

"Good. Alright then. That's good for now." He tipped his head back and finished the remaining soda that he had. His massive hand crumpled the can and then tossed it into the recycling bin. "Let's head back."

"Okay."

The two began jogging again back towards town, one following behind the other, as if nothing had ever happened.

"By the way," Sosuke huffed, casting his glance over his shoulder. "I've got some stuff you can try, if you want."

"Uhhh…." Rin's brow furrowed. "What does...what stuff are you talking about?"

"You know, magazines, DvDs, stuff like that. I could let you borrow them just to see what you think."

"Wwwwhhhaaat?" Rin nearly stopped running. "You mean you have stuff like that!?"

"Yeah. Doesn't everybody?"

Rin never bought stuff like that. But he supposed that just came down to differences in sex drives. Before taking that supplement, Rin was never that interested enough in anything sexually to want to get his hands on stuff like that. But since they were trying to experiment and see what he liked he supposed he wouldn't be entirely reluctant to the idea. He was gonna have to get used to stuff like this if he was going to have Sosuke be his mentor...that felt really weird to say.

Well helloooooo dearies! Oh my gosh, how long has it been since I've written aaaand posted something? Literally years, I think. It's crazy how much time work and university takes up. But even besides that, I haven't really been motivated to write any sort of fanfiction all that time because I haven't been in to anything. But that kind of goes hand-in-hand with me not having time to get into anything either. When I'm in school I'm like super, radical religious about doing my homework, studying and staying focused. I know that if I start a new show/game/book while I'm in school, I'm gonna get so wrapped up in the characters and the story that it's only going to distract me from my studies, so I make it a point to abstain from all those things when I'm in school. (yeah, it sucks pretty hard. I pretty much only get to watch anime and write fanfictions and stuff like that during the summer :[ )

That being said, I literally JUST finished watching Free! - Eternal Summer the other day and all I can say is...Ishiprinandsosukesogoddamnhardomfg! I have NEVER shipped a pairing so hard in all of my days. For the first time in a long time I felt this overwhelming desire to write a fanfic for two characters. But I want to do something different with this story as opposed to my other rated-M fics and focus more on the love aspect of it and have the sexy part of it come second. There will be sexies, to be sure, don't you worry your pretty little head about that. But I just want this to be more of a love story, you know?

I'm sorry the first chapter didn't really have anything exciting or juicy in it. But Rin and Sosuke are going to take things slow, and find out that they like each other so just be patient and watch their feelings for each other flower into a beautiful blossom. Is that gay? Did that sound gay? Good! I wanted it to! Keep reading and I'll keep posting =) until next time, see you later, dearies!