Chapter Text
Kimi wakes up to the first rays of morning sunshine filtering through the thin curtains which frame Ollie’s window. The warmth of the sun has not yet soaked into the room, leaving his cheeks and ears faintly pink from the cold.
He tries to wriggle to face the edge of the bed, having fallen asleep pressed close to the wall. As he turns around, he comes face to face with a certain brunet head of hair.
Kimi’s breathing becomes shallower as his eyes scan the dimly lit surroundings, and register the solid feeling of Ollie’s arm around his waist. The taller boy is still fast asleep, the dappling sunlight from the curtains yet to have reached his eyes, leaving his limbs locked around Kimi. He must’ve accidentally shifted it there when he was sleeping, Kimi thinks, slightly flustered from the contact. If he could see himself, he would’ve seen the beginnings of a blush starting to creep upon his cheeks, not at all related to the cold.
He continues to lie as still as possible, trying to imagine what it would be like to awake to this vision everyday, a train of thought that only his sleep-addled brain would allow to happen. He doesn’t dare to try to extricate himself, unwilling to let a moment like this slip through his fingers yet again.
His eyes trace the delicate features of the other’s face, going over his messy brown hair, the bridge of his nose, his heart shaped lips, intimate in a way that he wouldn’t dare do in their waking hours. He knows that by the morning he’ll be denying the sense of fulfillment that settles over him in this moment, but it feels good to pretend, to allow himself to simply be, and exist in this moment.
But alas, the calming lull of sleep pulls him under, and he succumbs to the nothingness that ensues.
———
Kimi awakes a second time, with the sun shining directly into his face. He shields himself with one arm, using the other to shift himself into a more comfortable sitting position against the wooden headboard.
He brings an arm to his face, rubbing his eyes with the back of his palm. Through his blurry eyesight, the first thing he notices is the lack of another person in the bed. The second is that it’s well past sunrise, and that they’ve missed the best part of the day to be at the beach. He scrambles to change into suitable attire, keenly aware of the time slipping by as the sun slowly climbs towards its apex. Kimi attempts to wrestle his sleep mussed curls into as presentable a form as they can be in order to head to the beach, spending far too long in front of the bathroom mirror as they refuse to cooperate.
Shoot, he thinks, dragging his fingers through the coils.
As he continues to get dressed in record time, the distinct scent of browning butter wafts through the hallway. He abandons the already-lost battle with his hair, allowing it to fall around his face as he digs through Ollie’s closet for some towels.
Walking into the kitchen with their bags, he catches Ollie loading a plate full of chocolate chip pancakes.
“Good morning, Mr Sleepyhead,” Ollie teases, as he flips another pancake.
Kimi stifles another yawn as he walks towards the island bench where Ollie has some of the breakfast ingredients laying out. Today is Saturday, so it’s Ollie’s turn to make breakfast for the family. Kimi doesn’t mind helping, and it’s the least he can do for them, as they so graciously host him yet again.
He sets down the bags he packed, grabbing an old pan from under the counter. The hiss of the gas burners fill the kitchen as he grabs some eggs from a carton. He cracks them with one hand as he snatches a pancake from the already towering stack that Ollie is steadily growing.
“Oi!” Ollie scolds, smacking his wrist with the spatula. “Stop that, or you’re not getting any for breakfast!”
Kimi throws a shit eating smile his way as he whisks the egg mixture with half a pancake sticking out of his mouth. It’s endearing, really, how much Ollie has to pretend to be annoyed at him, when he can obviously see Ollie fighting back a grin. He’s definitely not going to follow through with the threat though, he wouldn’t dare deprive his best friend of breakfast, would he?
What surprises him though, is when Ollie reaches over to snatch the pancake from his mouth. It’s now his turn to be indignant as Ollie takes a large bite out of the offending piece.
“Hey!” Kimi shouts.
“Well,” he starts, “Let me finish making all of them BEFORE you eat any more!” waving the offending piece around like an overzealous telemarketer with a laser pointer.
Kimi nudges Ollie’s arm with his shoulder as he reaches over to take the spatula from his hand to stir the slightly overcooked scrambled eggs.
He definitely needs to pay more attention to the food.
Ollie's always been the better cook, having learned how to at a younger age, along with having such attention to detail and a passion which could probably rival Kimi’s own for dance. On the contrary, Kimi had learnt it as a necessity due to his parents who were perpetually travelling. He’d eat practically anything that was cooked, resulting in some “absolutely abominable” food combinations as creatively dubbed by Ollie. Lucky for him that he was friends with Ollie in that case.
Afterwards, Ollie and Kimi sit at the island bench, surveying the fruits of their labour.
Kimi grabs a plate and piles it high with chocolate chip pancakes and maple bacon. Walking over to the fridge to grab the maple syrup in the back of the fridge, he yells, “Want some whipped cream?”
“Yes please, but please try not to wake the entire neighbourhood.” Ollie hisses.
Looking in the fridge, he also spots the butter on the top shelf. Ollie normally has his pancakes with butter, right? To be safe, Kimi grabs both out of the fridge and lays them on the table.
“Oh, you remembered?” the inflection in his voice marking him as surprised. “Thanks for the butter, I’d have forgotten to add some.”
“That’s what friends are for, right?” Kimi replies, a familiar warmth blossoming in his chest at the thought of being the one who remembered things. Ollie was always the one thoughtful one, finding his favorite flavor of ice cream he had rambled about deliriously or buying him more pens when his preferred blue ink ran out.
Alas, their friendship only extends so far. Ollie’s always teasing him about how sweet his choice of breakfasts are, from cereals to waffles to the pancakes today. Today is no different, as he absolutely drenches his plate in maple syrup.
“You’re going to die from heart disease, you know,” Ollie remarks as he adds a large dollop of whipped cream to his already towering stack.
Kimi responds by sticking out his tongue at Ollie as he carves up his pancakes. “Blame my American taste, then.” he retorts. “Anyways, it’s diabetes, not heart disease. That comes from plaque build up.” He places a piece in his mouth and as the flavours hit his tongue, he has to admit, these must be some of the best pancakes in the world.
“Oh my gosh, these are amazing,” he says, slightly muffled by the pancakes in his mouth. “I could honestly kiss you right now.”
Ollie straight up chokes on the pancakes in his mouth.
“Are you ok?” Kimi says, thumping him on the back.
Ollie manages to dislodge the piece of food, leaving his face an unreasonably bright shade of red which could not possibly be solely attributed to the lack of oxygen.
It takes Kimi a solid 5 or so minutes of silence and eating to figure out what could’ve prompted that response.
Whoops, he thinks, not at all remorseful for his actions.
To be honest, he’s noticed these little moments a bit more. It’s really adorable, the way that Ollie blushes at the moment of anything particularly amorous, especially when he’s the one doing it.
Such a hopeless romantic, this man.
He’s never going to let his obsession with rom-coms go, is he?
Regardless, he'd be a lovely boyfriend to any lucky girl, he thinks, smiling to himself at the thought of their little friendship duo expanding to become three. It’d be great to have another person in our little menagerie.
———
They finally arrive at the path to the beach, after much dragging of his feet at the thought of having to do the washing up afterwards. He draws the line there, washing up takes much more energy than simply cooking. But his parents raised a complainer, not a quitter, so he grumbles all throughout scrubbing and drying the pans.
“Ollie?” he says, seemingly snapping him out of the reaches of his brain. “Thought I’d lost you there for a moment, mate.”
“Oh, sorry Kimi,” he says sheepishly, shaking his head as if the act could physically dislodge the thoughts that had distracted him.
They continue to cycle around to find a safe space to leave their bikes. The cove that they usually go to is a bit secluded and lacking any suitable bike paths, so they leave them somewhere on the way. Kimi’s bike is pretty new, a pre-birthday gift from his parents possibly out of guilt for leaving him for such long stretches of time along with having to miss his birthday, as it evidently lacks any scratches on its shiny and bright exterior. Ollie’s is an old, battered thing, passed down from his older cousins. He won’t tolerate any criticisms of it though, as he takes much pride in its maintenance.
“Why do you even choose to paint it red, anyways?” Kimi teases him. “You could choose any other colour.”
“I don’t know, why don’t you paint yours the American flag?” he refutes.
“Rude!” Kimi sticks out his tongue. “I really only lived like what, 5 years there?”
“That’s a third of your life, buddy.”
“Well, I spent the same amount in Italy, and the same amount here.”
“Maybe you should paint yours with all of those colours, then.” he snarks.
Ollie’s favourite F1 team, of course, is Ferrari. He’s devoted an entire wall to them, their vermillion red having ingrained itself into his brain. Kimi believes that Ollie’s much more of a tifosi than he ever will, even with the italian blood running through his veins, although he’ll enjoy the odd win or two.
Kimi’s always been a bit more enamoured with the silver arrows. He’s practically a traitor to his country, as you know what they say, Ferraris the second religion in Italy.
There I go again, he thinks. He has an unfortunate habit of trying and failing to stay on topic, and drifting into his own train of thought. Ollie doesn’t normally mind though, he turns it into a joke so Kimi doesn’t feel guilty for his brain.
Sometimes, his brain works faster than he can express with his words. It sucks sometimes, but with him, it doesn’t matter. Ollie makes him feel normal, like the way that he waits just that little bit longer for him to rearrange the words in his head or the way that he listens, and remembers, even when he’s rambling.
Ollie really is the best, isn’t he.
———
They continue to meander their way to the beach while playing some ridiculous game that Ollie insisted they play. It’s stupid, he knows, but it takes his mind off things.
“Is your animal a mammal?” Kimi asks, frustrated.
“Yes.” Ollie replies, rolling his eyes. “You already asked that!”
“Not my fault. Literally, what has spines, is a mammal, lays eggs and belongs to Australia? What the hell is that?”
“Do you want the answer?” Ollie raises an eyebrow.
“MAMMALS. DON’T. LAY. EGGS.” he says, punctuating each word with a frustrated clap.
“Answer?” he asks. “Yes or no.”
“I genuinely can’t guess what it could possibly be.”
“It’s an echidna.”
“What the hell?” Kimi says, outraged. “They lay eggs?”
“Yes.”
“God, you’re such a nerd.” he says, bodychecking Ollie’s shoulder. Ollie absorbs the hit, shrugging it off as if he had simply punched it.
“Hey!” Ollie looks miffed for a second. However, his eyes regain that mischievous light that they always have, and he smiles a bit.
“Race you to the water!” he says, throwing his towel down on the sand and tearing towards the expanses of clear blue water.
He thunders down after Ollie, kicking up clouds of dusty-yellow sand in his wake. The two of them are pretty much matched in pace, as although Ollie may be blessed with his long limbs, Kimi is much faster than him in raw pace. When Ollie comes within arms distance, Kimi gets struck with a “wonderful” idea.
Of course, if Ollie can play dirty, surely it’s within reason for him to do it too.
Kimi reaches out and grabs a fistful of Ollie’s shorts, yanking him backwards. As a result, Ollie stumbles backwards, falling face-first onto the warm sand.
“Hey!”
Kimi takes a quick glance behind him to check on Ollie’s condition. He’s still sputtering dry sand out of his mouth, deeming him “alive enough” by Kimi’s standards. He races on, clearing the last 10 or so meters to the beach, easily ahead of the other boy, who is still struggling to regain use of his legs.
Kimi wades in, waiting for Ollie to catch up. The water is perfectly cool, a contrast to the searing heat beating down from the sun high above. Kimi’s eyes track the waves, a surfer’s dream, as the tall crests of azure shatter violently into white foam.
Unluckily for him, a sudden figure launches out from behind, rendering him momentarily immobile as he crashes into the wet sand. It scrapes against his arms as he tries to regain his feet amid the current. He spots Ollie further in, standing above the swells, laughing heartily at the misfortune that he brought upon Kimi.
That won’t pass, he thinks.
He runs at the Ollie, keeled over and unaware due to the laughter which racks his body. Launching himself at his legs, they collapse underneath him, sending them both into the volatile surf. They swat at each other playfully, the salty spray obscuring their vision. At some point, Kimi ends up fully underneath the waves, struggling his way up from the water. He manages to locate a limb belonging to a particular someone, and clings to it as the surges threaten to sweep him out to sea.
“Get off my leg, you twat!” Ollie exclaims, trying to dislodge Kimi from his leg. He manages to push him over into the sand, and Kimi has to try and dodge Ollie’s futile attempts to splash him.
The two spend the rest of the late morning amidst the water, swimming further out to where their feet only barely graze the sand and floating on the water’s glossy surface, staring up at the near cloudless sky. The sun sits directly above them, marking the eminent emergence of the afternoon.
The waves, thankfully, don’t climb very high here, as they scull the surface. Kimi spots the outline of the rip towards their right, the waveless dark patch of water catching his eye. The ocean further out looks particularly calm today, contrasting with the white foam kicked up towards the beach.
It looks nice, Kimi thinks. We should take a swim out there today.
Ollie spots Kimi eyeing the patch of water.
“Don’t you dare try to catch that,” he says, the warning in his tone evident. “You don’t even have goggles for an ocean swim.”
It’s almost uncanny, the way that Ollie can read every single thought that passes through his head. It is kind of stupid, to try to catch a rip into even deeper water, he concludes, and he lets the thought go.
The surf continues to get rougher, so they decide to swim in closer to the sandy stretches which decorate the beach. Ollie gets spooked by a piece of sea kelp as it brushes his leg when he swims, and he runs all the way up onto the sand.
“Scaredy cat!” Kimi jeers, waving around the offending piece of brown macroalgae with much enthusiasm. He tosses it towards Ollie, who shrieks and attempts to dodge the piece, only succeeding in falling over his own feet in his haste to get away.
They continue to scrap in the water, aiding the waves in their agenda to fully drench them. Kimi runs in circles as Ollie attempts to sweep the water towards him. Towards the end, he just gives up and sends himself flying at Kimi, bowling the two of them over and rendering them helpless to the rough surf which finishes off the job for Ollie.
“Ow!” he screeches. “Get off me, you big muppet!”
Ollie sheepishly extracts himself from Kimi.
Kimi stands up, brushing the wet sand from his arms and legs. “Seriously, you need to stop trying to kill me,” he says, laughter lacing his voice.
He cards his hands through his hair. “I’ll try, Kims.” he sighs earnestly.
“New nickname,” he prods. He doesn’t really mind, in all honesty. He likes the endearments.
Suddenly, a cold draft of sea air settles upon them, whipping Kimi’s caramel curls back and forth into his face. He brushes them off, but in the corner of his eye, he can spot Ollie trying not to shiver.
Poor guy, he thinks.
Despite being a Brit in heritage, it seems like he’s much more accustomed to Australia’s balmy weather. He looks absolutely dejected, the sun highlighting the colour of Ollie’s lips, the bruised purple marking him as positively freezing.
All of this from a simple draft, huh, he snickers mentally.
He races up the beach’s distance, scanning the range for the patch of sand where they haphazardly left their things. He digs through the bags, grabbing a towel for Ollie while draping one over his own shoulders.
“Here, you look like you’re about to freeze to death,” Kimi says, holding out the towel. With one hand clutching his towel around his own chest, he shakes out Ollie’s and gently lays it over his shoulders, his hands brushing over his skin.
He really is cold. I should’ve brought warmer clothes, he mentally berates himself.
Ollie catches his hand, grabbing the ends of the towel from his hands. The contact feels slightly electrifying for a reason that Kimi can’t seem to pinpoint.
“Thanks.” he says albeit a bit belatedly, as the spray continues to tickle their legs.
“It’s looking a bit late,” he comments offhandedly, looking up at the sky, where the sun is starting to make its slow descent towards the horizon. “Want to grab a bite?”
“Sure,” Ollie says, not one to waste words as the pink slowly returns to his lips.
“Where to?”
“The diner, possibly?”