SouMako

SouMako is the slash ship between Sousuke Yamazaki and Makoto Tachibana from the Free! fandom.

Canon
The two interact very little in the series thus far. Their first real one on one interaction is in the OVA when they discuss Nagisa's ability to coerce people into doing what he wants and when they battle each other briefly. In ''Free! Dive to the Future'' they are seen talking to each other over the phone, showing they are friendly with each other.

Fanon
What originally started as a seeming "crack" ship grew to have quite a large fan base despite it being considered a "rare" pair. Ever since Eternal Summer's ending, the pair grew a large number of followers of all kinds, and not just ones that ship RinHaru, showing the ships appeal to numerous different people.

Souske and Makoto tend to serve as a second focus couple in RinHaru fics. However, due to the ships soaring popularity, the pair have numerous fics dedicated to them and only them, and are not just a secondary to RinHaru fics.

Some of the reasons people ship them is because of their opposing personalities (Sousuke being slightly intimidating and the dark-broody type, while Makoto is the easy-going, friendly type). Thus, the two's personalities are seen complementing each other, playing off of their strengths and weaknesses. The fact that both of them are also currently not going into competitive swimming and that each of their best friends are friends with each other makes it easy to imagine them hanging around each other and building up a relationship.

On AO3 it is both Sosuke and Makoto's second largest ship. It is the fifth largest pairing in the Free! tag.

Fandom
AO3

Tumblr

Trivia

 * Makoto's animal is a killer whale/orca while Sousuke's is a whale shark.
 * Makoto main stroke is backstroke.
 * Sousuke's main stroke is butterfly.