After three long years… Rintori Week is back! 🎉
From March 20th to 26th, we're celebrating our favorite pair with the theme "Blooming Spring" — because just like the sakura, they always come back more beautiful than ever 🌸🫧
Seven days, seven prompts full of petals, warm festivals, yukatas, rain, and fireworks lighting up the night sky. Are you ready to create?
💌 Share your art, fics, edits and everything your heart desires using the hashtags
🌸✨ ¡El amor florece de nuevo! ✨🌸
Después de tres años de espera… ¡Rintori Week vuelve! 🎉
Del 20 al 26 de marzo, celebramos a nuestra pareja favorita con la temática "Blooming Spring" — porque igual que los cerezos, lo nuestro siempre regresa más bonito que antes 🌸🫧
Siete días, siete prompts llenos de pétalos, festivales, yukatas, lluvia y fuegos artificiales bajo las estrellas. ¿Estás listo para crear?
💌 Comparte tu arte, fics, edits y todo lo que tu corazón quiera usando los hashtags
Thank you for participating, although today ends, until next Sunday I will still be sharing the contributions, in case someone wants to continue with them 🥺
_________🦈♥️🦆__________
Gracias por participar, aunque hoy termina, hasta el próximo domingo seguiré compartiendo los aportes, por si alguien quiere seguir con ellos 🥺
“I swear to God,” Rin grumbles, wiping sand off of his chin with the back of his hand. He drags in a harsh lungful of air, eyes on his and Ai’s opponents. “I remember beach volleyball being a lot less intense.”
Across the net, Shouyou grins, and doesn’t look like he’s even starting to sweat. He looks absolutely unrepentant when he says, “Sorry. Occupational hazard, I guess. Neither Kageyama nor I are really known for being able to just,” he shrugs, “be normal about volleyball.”
“By which you mean you’re crazy competitive, even in the most casual of settings,” Rin throws back, and if it feels a little like pot calling teakettle, well…
Ai snorts beside him. “Rin-senpai, you’re one to talk.”
Rin’s cheeks burn, but he’ll swear up and down it’s from the high noon sun. “Hush, you.”
Ai grins up at him, and it’s blinding.
“I guess we could try,” Tobio says from where he’s just drank half a bottle of water. “Going a little bit easier on you guys.” He looks like it actually pains him, the thought of taking volleyball easy. Going by the look on Shouyou’s face, he has the exact same mindset. It’s honestly as hilarious as it is emboldening.
And he can now understand why these two are the stars of Japan’s national volleyball team.
He rolls his shoulders, then drapes an arm around Ai’s own, tilting his head until it touches the side of Ai’s. “I think we can take you without you needing to go easy on us. Right, Ai?”
Ai nods, as much as he can. “Right.”
Shouyou raises a surprised eyebrow at them. Then, with a quick, yet very loaded look at Tobio, he nods. Tobio does, too. “Alright. You’re on! Get ready to eat some more sand, then.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Free!
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nitori Aiichirou
Characters: Nitori Aiichirou, Matsuoka Rin
Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, Getting Together, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Post-Canon, Weddings, Canon Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Succubi & Incubi, Crossover, haikyuu!! - Freeform, KageHina - Freeform, RinTori Week, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, (just a touch though), (of smut I mean)
Summary:
Ai takes a shaky breath, and opens his eyes. Rin’s smile is so soft, when Ai sees it, that it makes his knees almost turn to jelly. “If-” he starts, swallowing heavily past the knot in his throat. “If Senpai really wants me there, then… Then, of course I’ll come!”
Rin nods, his smile widening. “It’s a date, then.” He winks, ruffling Ai’s hair once more.
He washes the dishes, and he hums along to the song from the radio, stomach full and heart warm.
It's been quite the pleasant little Friday evening in, just him and Rin and a table full of food and drinks between them, conversation flowing easily, and smiles and kisses exchanged as casually as breathing. Honestly, between Ai's college courses and Rin's training and swim meets, it's been a while since they've been able to just sit and talk and enjoy each other's company without any rush or exhaustion or interruption. Ai, personally, isn't ready to call it a night just yet.
It seems Rin isn't, either.
"We should do this more often," he says into the skin of Ai's neck as he comes up behind him and wraps strong, warm arms around Ai's waist. "I haven't felt this relaxed in…" He huffs, the rush of hot air sending shivers down Ai's spine. "Hell, I don't even remember."
Ai hums in agreement, and lets himself lean his weight against Rin's. "You're right. This has been lovely."
Rin nuzzles him, nose nudging gently at the underside of Ai's jaw. "You know what would make all this even better?"
And ah, Ai can feel heat crawling up his neck, reddening his cheeks. "Really now, Senpai…" he starts, embarrassed but not entirely opposed to any of the ideas that pop up in his head at Rin's softly voiced question.
"My, my, look whose mind is in the gutter," Ai teases, hugging Ai closer. "I was only going to suggest some cuddling, maybe a nice little movie-"
Ai's face burns even harder. "Sure you were-" he tries to cut in.
A press of Rin's lips to the skin just under his ear cuts him off instantly, breath hitching and stuttering. "I was," Rin insists. "But now I'm thinking of other, just as enjoyable ways to spend the rest of the night."
Ai sighs, and finishes off the last plate, putting it on the drying rack and wiping his hands on a kitchen towel before he turns in Rin's arms. "Rin-senpai."
"Yes, Ai?"
"Cuddles and a movie sounds wonderful."
Rin laughs even as he leans down to press a kiss to Ai's lips. "Alright."
"...We'll see about other things later."
And the way Rin's eyes widen before he picks Ai up and spins him around with another hearty laugh warms Ai down to his very core.
“Do you believe in soulmates?” Rin asks as they dance together; a slow song, one they both love and that always makes them forget the world exists around them.
Ai shakes his head, just a bit, his eyes never leaving Rin’s. Then, after a heartbeat’s worth of time in which he seems like he’s considering it some more, he shrugs. “I never actually gave it much thought. Why?”
Rin doesn’t bother stopping the huff of fond laughter that bubbles up his throat. It surprises him, honestly, because Ai has always been the more romantic-minded one of the two of them. “I never thought they really existed,” he says, spinning them around a couple of times to a whirl of notes that always has him humming. “Never really gave into that idea that there’s someone out there that’s the only one for you. You know, the whole, ‘we’ll meet and love only each other in every single life, forever’ thing.”
Ai raises a questioning eyebrow, then turns his head to cast a somewhat pointed look at the wedding reception around them. “I don’t know how I should feel about that.”
Rin dips him then, once, and then once more, just to make Ai smile again. Brushes the tip of his nose against Ai’s. “I don’t like the idea of us being together because the Universe or whatever decided we should be.” He presses a soft, barely there kiss to the corner of Ai’s mouth.
“Oh?” Ai asks, the flush that has colored his cheeks the entire day deepening to an even lovelier shade. “Then?”
Rin twirls him out, then pulls him back in, and thinks he wouldn’t be opposed to doing only this for the rest of his life. “I like it better to think that the only reason we’re here right now, together and happy, is because we chose to be. Because we decided to be.”
Ai rests his head against Rin’s shoulder as they sway on the tail end of the song. “We didn’t actually choose to fall, though. It just happened.”
Rin hums, pulls Ai closer, as close as he can. “Yes, but we chose to do something about it, we chose to work on it and nurture it and make it what it is today.” He can’t imagine it now, a timeline, a life, where Ai gathered his courage to confess to him and Rin turned him down. Or one where they decided to see where it goes, and end up going their separate ways in the end. No. He can’t even begin to imagine it. Nor does he want to. “Either way, I’m really happy we’re where we are today.”
Ai beams, Rin can tell even though he can only see part of his face, and nods. “Me, too.”
The song ends, a new one starts, and they keep slowly dancing.
There is something the way Rin-sensei teaches, steadily, calmly, with clear instructions and endless patience, that has Ai thinking that he’s made the right choice, moving away from home just to be able to be his student.
Even today, when Ai’s form has been atrocious to say the least, Rin-sensei has only laid a kind, gentle hand on Ai’s head and ruffled his hair. “It’s just a bad day, Ai,” he says, laughter colouring his voice and easing some of the frustration that has been weighing down on Ai since mid-morning. “Everybody has them. Hell, I had them at the height of my competitive career. It’s normal. Don’t sweat it.”
And it’s. It’s so very Rin-sensei, Ai thinks, his cheeks heating up, head ducking to hide them, to offer comfort even in moments like these, when his student is so very hopeless. “I wish days like this would happen less,” he admits, because he thinks Rin-sensei deserves his honesty, even full of self-deprecation and frustration as it is.
Rin-sensei sighs, his hand stilling in Ai’s hair, a warm weight that somehow grounds him. “Don’t we all.” It’s more a statement than a question, and the touch of sadness at the corner of his mouth makes Ai ache. Still, Sensei smiles, and Ai feels just the tiniest bit bolstered just from that.
They sit on the edge of the pool in comfortable silence, water lapping around their thighs and shoulders brushing on occasional breaths. And Ai could stay like this forever.
~
(“Come on, a couple more laps and then you’re done for the day.”
“...How about a race?”
“Oh? Someone’s feeling confident again.”
“Well, I have a good teacher who never lets me sink into despair when I feel down, so.”
He pants into Ai’s mouth, satisfaction mixed with deep, aching loss, insatiable (alway, always insatiable) hunger, and unbriddled anticipation and terror overwhelming him almost as much as the physical pleasure.
Almost there, he thinks breathless, chasing that high, chasing the relief. Dreading it, too. He squeezes his eyes shut. Bites his lip even as a different voice in his head whisper-hisses, ‘Too bad he probably won’t survive. His energy’s as delicious as his kisses’.
Rin shakes his head, just a bit, where it’s pressed into the crook of Ai’s neck and shoulder. He’ll live, he tells the voice stubbornly. Ai’s stronger than he looks. Always has been. It’s why I-
Ai whimpers into Rin’s ear, nails scrabbling to catch onto Rin’s shoulder blades, and Rin can’t help biting down into the flushed flesh under his lips.
The reaction is instantaneous, wildfire and electricity spreading between them from the point where they’re connected, and this is it. This is it. This is-
~
He blinks, and the world comes back into focus.
And the seething hunger is… both quenched, and yet still very much yawning in the pit of his stomach. Rin frowns in confusion. It's like his body has both gotten what it's needed from the encounter, but has also been drained of life energy at the same time.
He squeezes his eyes shut, and then blinks them open again. And the feeling remains.
And there's something like a confused whine from Ai under him.
“Ai,” he breathes, leaning back, just enough to hover on his elbow over the younger man. “Ai, are you-?” When he meets Ai's eyes, he looks as confused and as hungry as he, himself, feels.
Ai nods, meeting his eyes. “I’m-” he starts. Stops to wet his lips and it makes Rin dive back in for a quick kiss. “Rin-senpai, you're… alright?”
An incredulous giggle escapes Rin. “Me? What about you? Are you okay?”
Ai nods, eyes wide. “I'm okay, I just… I was afraid- I hoped you'd- But if you say you're really okay, then-”
And it hits Rin then, the complete ridiculousness of what just happened.
He smiles. “I'm fine,” he promises. Because he is. That's what's most bewildering. He drank from Ai's life force and, apparently, Ai drank from his (if Rin's really right about this, and he probably is), and somehow, even though he's still hungry, it doesn't feel like he might die from it like it did before they started. “I'm great, actually.”
Ai nods, still looking at him like he can't wrap his head around the whole thing, so Rin takes pity on him. He presses another kiss to his lips, then to just under the corner of Ai's right eye on the little beauty mark there. “I guess an incubus and a succubus can feed off each other but can't actually kill each other with sex.”
And Ai blinks at him, breath stuttering in his chest, and Rin knows right then that his hunch has been right. “Rin-senpai, you're-” he asks, and then seems unable to finish the question.
Rin nods anyway, grin sharp and wide.
For a second, they just look at each other in wonder.
And then they both dive in for round two, wilder and more unrestrained now, because thirst like theirs is never truly slaked.
