A tale of two whales

Part Ten: A shoulder to cry on

Insert shoulder pun here.

I'm guessing you can already tell from the mention of shoulders that this part has to do with Sousuke, or at least his shoulder.

Also I'm speeding up the story, so it's after the prelims. Iwatobi and Samezuka are both going to nationals, like in the actual series. I'm trying to follow the show's plot line, so yeah. This takes place during and after nationals.

But I'm adding a bit of my own twist after the race.

Enjoy!

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Nationals
(Sousuke's pov)

This was it, Samezuka's most important race. Nationals. It's truly an honour to be racing in such a race and with my best friend Rin. I also get to race with Makoto, but it's more of racing against him than,with him since we belong to different teams.

The race is a relay race, where each member of the team races their own part and is then followed by another teammate. It's like a relay race on land, where you race one part and then pass the baton to another teammate and they continue in but you don't. That's the best way I can explain it.

Rin is swimming freestyle, Momo with the backstroke, Nitori with breaststroke, and I'm swimming butterfly. My shoulder was acting up a bit earlier, but I don't care. I have to win this race. I have to win it for my team, I can't let them down.

The race was brutal, but I swam my hardest. I was so hyped up that it came as a shock that we lost. Well we weren't last, but we weren't first either. Iwatobi came in first and Samezuka was second. At least the race was a good race, so I didn't feel too bad about our ranking. Makoto was happy, so I felt happy for him.

I don't know if it was the adrenaline or anything, but all of a sudden my head felt like it was spinning and my vision got a bit blurry. I smiled to cover it up, but it didn't really help. Then not a moment or two later, my vision went dark and I felt myself fall onto the floor with a thud. Before I completely blacked out I could hear everyone yelling my name, wanting to see if I was ok. But the voice I heard best was not one of my teammates, but the one belonging to Makoto.

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Nationals
(Makoto's pov)

The biggest race of my life was today, nationals. I was so hyped up for the race, I was practically shaking. All was going well, my team even came in first! Sousuke's team wasn't too bad, they came in second. Sousuke was even smiling. Though not a moment or two soon, I saw Sousuke fall to the ground. That was definitely not normal for him. Everyone was rushing over to see if he was alright, his teammates were yelling his name to snap him out of his trance. Even I couldn't help but run over and yell his name. Rin gave me a bit of a confused look, but I didn't care and I could tell he didn't either. We were both worried about him.

A moment later some people took Sousuke away to the hospital. So everyone was left standing there. To not cause too much of a commotion, they told us to go back to the locker rooms and change since the race was over anyway. Reluctantly, I went back with my teammates. Haru and me exchanged a look, since haru is the only one who knows that me and Sousuke are in a relationship. But maybe I'll tell the others soon anyway. Especially since they might question me in why I acted like that in front of Sousuke. Most of them haven't even seen us talk at all together, so they must wonder why I seemed to care so much.

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Hospital
(Makoto's pov)

We were all in the waiting room. Rin was pacing around a bit, Momo and Nitori were looking at a magazine, Nagisa and Rei were talking about who knows what, and Haru was sitting next to me in silence.  Rin must have remembered something, since he walked over to me.