Under the Sea [FREE: IWATOBI SWIM CLUB // HARU X MAKOTO]

Chapter 1: Fully Fledged

"Congratulations, team. You fought hard over these last sixteen weeks, and I'd like you all to know that you all deserve this." Supervisor Goro Sasabe spoke with his proud, booming voice into the microphone. He stood on the stage and smiled a contagious grin as everyone there smiled along with him. "So there you have it. Our newly graduated class of firefighters 2020!" Everyone in the crowd cheered his words, throwing their firefighter helmets in the air. Lucky for their reflexes considering they all caught their helmets as gravity pulled them back down to the ground. If one had landed on someone's head, I'm pretty sure the partying would be over. 

The excited new young firefighters jumped around with glee in each other's arms in the most bro-ish way you'd ever see. However, there was one new graduate that was all too happy in his little bubble. 

Makoto Tachibana scanned around the room of people and smiled with pure joy when he spotted his family. His two younger siblings, Ren and Ran sprinted towards their big brother. They leapt into his arms, causing Makoto to flex his shoulder muscles to hold the two up. And let's just say every woman who was holding a drink in their hand had now spilt it all over the floor of the hall. 

"Big brother! Big brother!" the twins shouted in unison. Makoto squeezed the two of them close, clearly loving them dearly. His eyes were closed and he was focused and in his element with the people he loved. Makoto had very protective instincts and would do anything to protect the people he loved; that was why he had always pictured a family member in trouble when it came to firefighter drills, knowing that he'd stop at nothing to keep them safe. 

Makoto opened his slanted green eyes and flashed his parents a huge smile before setting down the twins to hug his mother. He wrapped his huge, muscular arms around the smaller woman and squeezed her just as tight as he had with his siblings. "Makoto, dear, I can't breathe" his mother gasped and the male immediately loosened his arms without completely letting the woman go. 

"Thank you, Mom" he whispered in her ear, and he truly meant it. He knew that without his parents, he'd never be standing where he was today. With that thought, he suddenly let his mother go and she dropped slightly due to the height difference, but she got her balance back pretty quickly. 

He made his way over to the tall man to his left, stuck out his hand as a gesture for his father to shake it and thanked him for everything he had done for him. Mr Tachibana looked at the hand as if it was an alien and he slapped it away, pulling his son in for a very manly hug. Makoto hugged his father just as he did the rest of his family - but this time it was different. Makoto had so much respect for the man he embraced that he almost let out a tear, despite holding it back. 

To end the hug, the two men seemed to have this code as if to say 'you can stop hugging me now' by slapping each other on the backs. Although, it clearly didn't hurt Makoto in the slightest, considering the majority of his weight was the muscle off of his back. 

After showing his family a fair amount of affection, he decided it was time to congratulate his classmates on graduating too, knowing that they'd all worked just as hard as he had for this. 

Makoto slightly awkwardly waddled over to the gang of guys who were without a doubt celebrating their hard work. "Makoto, man!" One of the guys exclaimed, "look, guys! I found him!" All of the guys celebrated having Makoto around because they all respected him, as Makoto respected everyone around him.

Suddenly, one of the tallest and most muscular men of the group went up to Makoto and wrapped his arm around him, "Listen, Tachibana: Shiina is throwing a huge congrats party at his sister's cafe tonight and all the boys are going" Sousuke explained, "you're gonna come right?"