themorninglark:

Ahhh NagiHaru, how do I love you? I can’t begin to count the ways.

Nagisa and Haru have a very fascinating friendship - because on first glance it seems like it shouldn’t work. Well, on Nagisa’s end it’s pretty straightforward. The first drama CD has the utterly adorable account of their first meeting, where Nagisa’s sister swapped his swimsuit for a girl’s one and Haru came to his rescue by wearing it for him. In High Speed! we also get plenty of backstory about how much Nagisa admires Haru, and when we meet Nagisa for the first time in Free! S1E1 he freely talks about how much he was looking forward to swimming with him again.

But Haru famously has issues with people he finds pushy, noisy, too bubbly and enthusiastic or overly showy, such as Kisumi and Asahi, and to a certain extent HS! Rin (he expends a lot of internal monologue grousing about what an annoying guy Rin is, even though it’s ultimately obvious that he values their growing friendship).

So when you think about it, Nagisa should fall into this category. Haru should find him annoying too. But he doesn’t. There’s a lot more NagiHaru in HS!, so let’s look at it there to start with. When Nagisa asks if he can run with him every day, he’s okay with it. And when he notices that Nagisa is pushing himself to his limit to run with him, Haru actually slows down for Nagisa’s sake, even though he keeps saying out loud that he’ll leave him behind if he can’t keep up.

“I’m gonna leave you behind if you chatter.”
Haruka sped up a little. Nagisa earnestly keeps up. If he stays at this speed, he might not be able to keep running beside him anymore. That’s how it happened yesterday. Nagisa’s breathing getting harder, as he sees him fall behind by a step, Haruka slightly cast his eyes down.
—— So this is as far as he can go.
A sigh mingles inside a long breath. And then, Haruka’s feet slow down just a little.
“Oh.”
Rin said in a tiny voice. “Nanase sure is kind.” (x)

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