RinTori

"From the second I lead eyes on him, Rin's been my hero."

- Aiichiro to Sosuke, about Rin.

RinTori is the slash ship between Rin Matsuoka and Aiichiro Nitori from the Free! fandom.

Canon
Nitori is Rin's roommate in his first year with Samezuka. He has a tendency to follow Rin around and call him 'Senpai!'. During the first season, he was a vital teammate who helped Rin get back on the right track when he was going down a bad path. Even though Rin yelled at him, he followed him along and admired him. During Rin's isolation from his former friends, Nitori was the only person who would hang around him and try to reach through to him.

Nitori admires Rin badly, and can sometimes be jealous of the relationship Rin has with Haruka and the fact Rin calls Haruka 'Haru'. However, at the end of the first season Rin calls Nitori 'Ai' (his first name), which makes Nitori feel like a real teammate and friend.

In season two, Rin is no longer Nitori's roommate and the two of them interact less. However, Nitori still receives advice from Rin and talks about how much he admires Rin to other characters. At the end of the year, Rin makes Nitori captain of the swim team.

Dive to the Future
Sprouting Dive Start! First Swim in a New Country!
 * Rin receives a text, showing a picture of Nitori and Momo with a beetle. He comments on how they never change.
 * Rin has a picture of the relay team he was on with Nitori from the previous year.

Quotes
"Swimming with [Rin] inspires me. I want to make him proud."

- Aiichiro to Sosuke, about Rin.

Fanon
RinTori is a popular ship in the Free! fandom, although it's not as common as others. This is due to Rin more often being shipped with Souske or Haru. Since their interactions have a mix of childhood friends and rivalry to them. Aiicirou is also often shipped with Momo, sometimes as a side pairing to the others.

RinTori is well liked due to Aiichirou's affection for Rin coming off as a crush. A lot of shippers also love how much Aiichirou supports Rin through his angst phase. As well as Rin growing to appreciate Aiichirou more as the season goes on. Most shippers wish they had interacted more in the latter seasons.

On Ao3, Rintori is the sixth most written for Nitori and the third most written for Rin. It is also the seventh most written ship in the Free! tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Aiichirou/Rin tag on FanFiction.Net
 * Aiichirou/Rin tag on FanFiction.Net

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * The director of Free!, Hiroko Utsumi, commented that, if you left Rin alone, he would be isolated without anyone, so there needed to be a character — more like a conversation partner — who would draw him out. The character who had been born out of this need was Aiichiro. Aiichiro's role was to draw out Rin’s heart. Because Rin could understand parts of Aiichiro that were like himself, he felt like talking to him.
 * Rin made Aiichiro the swim team captain after he left.
 * Rin's animal is a great white shark, while Aiichiro's is a duck.
 * Rin swims butterfly and freestyle, while Aiichiro swims freestyle and breaststroke.

Variations

 * SouRinTori refers to the ship between Sousuke Yamazaki, Rin and Nitori