Full Summary: After the prefectural meet, Rin went back to Australia. Soon after, an earthquake struck Iwatobi, followed by a tsunami. Rin received a call and a few texts from Gou after the earthquake, but he sent his sister's call to voicemail and didn't bother to look at her texts until four hours later. He hasn't heard from her, or any of his childhood friends since. Rin used to think that swimming and improving his times was the only thing that mattered. Now he knows better, but is it too late?

Rated T for Rin's potty mouth and mention of some bad injuries obtained during and after the earthquake.

When you run the numbers it looks so clinical and detached. Rin didn't exactly find it easier to deal with what happened that way. It was just the only way he could deal with it. For so long, the only thing important in his life had been his swimming, and had been measured by times, by minutes, and seconds, and fractions of seconds. So it made sense that when he realized what was really important to him, and realized he might have lost it all, his mind started applying his usual standards of measurement to the events that made up the tragedy. For example:

It was four hours and fifty-seven minutes after the earthquake that Rin learned about it.

He would have learned about the earthquake approximately forty-two seconds after it ended if he'd just picked up his damned phone.

Rin hated himself for that so much over the next week. He fought back angry tears at the thought of his baby sister, scared and alone, trying to call him, and him never answering. When he saw it was her, he sent her call straight to voicemail then turned off his phone.

"Brother, please pick up. Please. I just . . . I just want to hear your voice." That was the first and only message Gou left him. Two minutes later, she started sending him texts.

Cell network down. Can't get calls. Please text back.

Please? I'm scared.

I need to know you're there.

I'm not alone now. Haru found me. Looking for the others.

Love you.

Fifty-four minutes after the earthquake ended, the tsunami struck. It was small as far as tsunamis went, or so said the geologists on the news. That meant absolutely nothing to Rin, who hadn't heard from his sister since.

But it wasn't until four hours and six minutes after that damn tsunami that he actually learned she was missing.

"Hey, Matsuoka!"

Rin sent a bored look toward the other students. They were both native Australians and pronounced his name wrong. "What?"

"You're Japanese, right?"

Obviously, thought Rin, but he told them politely, okay, maybe a little impatiently, "Yeah."

"You're not from near that place though, right?"

Oh no, don't bother being specific. I'll just read your mind and find out where you mean, Rin thought at them. But he asked, "What place?"

"Where that earthquake hit."

Dark, instinctual fear gripped Rin right then. The fear that any sensible person has of natural disasters that frequently affect the areas they live in, or lived in at one time. His little sister's face flashed through his mind, quickly followed by his childhood friends.

"Earthquake? What earthquake?" he asked, and was proud how steady his voice came out.

"That huge one that hit Japan today."

"What island?" asked Rin. "What prefecture?"

"Hell if I know. You must not be from there. Well, that's good. Because the tsunami that followed the quake wiped a whole town off the map."

Then the dick laughed. He laughed like it was funny that thousands of people lost their lives and homes. Rin clenched his fist. He almost hit the other student, but stopped himself. It wouldn't do to get so worked up.

Instead he looked at the bastards like they were scum. His glower actually startled them so they stopped laughing and beat a hasty retreat. Then Rin took out his phone and turned it back on.

He remembered that call from Gou that he sent to voicemail.

But there was nothing unusual about that.

It didn't mean anything.

Gou called him every day, usually multiple times. And he almost always ignored her calls.

Rin saw that he had one missed call and five missed texts. He didn't know if that was good or bad. It would be lying to say that his hand didn't shake as he played his message and held the phone to his ear.

"Brother," said Gou, and Rin heard a warble of fear in her tone, "please pick up. Please. I just . . . I just want to hear your voice."

No. No, no, no. Please, no, prayed Rin. He checked his texts. He knew then it had been Iwatobi that was hit but he still held some hope that he was wrong. Gou's texts crushed that hope. They weren't specific. They didn't confirm it beyond a shadow of doubt or say what had happened in so many words, but given the context . . . there was no way they meant anything else.

Cell network down. Can't get calls. Please text back.

Please? I'm scared.

I need to know you're there.

I'm not alone now. Haru found me. Looking for the others.

Love you.

Rin immediately dialed her number. He didn't give a damn about international call charges. He wanted to talk to his little sister. That last text sounded far too ominous. Rin wouldn't even deny how scared he was now. He could feel sweat beading below his hairline and both his hands were shaking now.

His call didn't go through.

He tried again. And again. Seven times.

Then he typed a text with quaking fingers.

Just heard what happened. You OK?

Twenty seconds passed without a reply. Each one felt like an hour.

Then he sent another text.

Answer me.

But she didn't answer. He even waited forty-five seconds this time.

Rin wanted to be mad. Well, he guessed he was mad. But not at her. Not at his baby sister.

Please be OK.

Only two seconds later, he sent another text, saying what he should have said in his first one, what he should have picked up the phone just to say when she called him earlier that day.

I love you.

Calls to Makoto and Nagisa didn't go through either, and texts to them went unanswered as well. Rin desperately wanted to call or text Haru, but he didn't have his ex-friend's number. He wasn't even sure Haru had a phone.

I'm not alone now. Haru found me. Looking for the others.

That gave Rin hope for his sister. Haru might not seem like it, but Rin knew he was a dependable guy. If he found Gou, then he was taking care of her. And he knew that Gou had survived the earthquake. The tsunami . . . he had no way of knowing if she survived that. But if she'd been with Haru . . . It was ridiculous to think that Haru could swim through a tsunami and save himself, let alone someone who'd be little better than dead weight. But somehow Rin thought that maybe . . . maybe . . .

He prayed that it was true. Or better yet, that Haru had gotten Gou away from the danger, and the dangerous water didn't come close to his baby sister. But . . . they'd gone looking for the others. Had they stopped to think about a tsunami at all? Stupid, stupid . . . they hadn't had they?

Love you.

Her last text seemed so ominous. So final. Like she was expecting it to be the last thing she ever said to him. And like she didn't have much time to type it. Her messages were usually longer. She didn't keep them blunt and to the point, or cut out words when she didn't have to. It was almost like she'd seen some danger coming, and rapidly typed off that text, realizing it might be the last thing she ever did . . .

so what do you think? this is the first thing i've written in years so i'm not sure if it's any good. please r/r and let me know if you want me to continue or if you see how i can improve. if nothing else, writing this was fun and i think i might keep going and try to get better lol