Chapter Text
♪There’s nothing like you and me, on the beach, moving with the waves in the sea. ♫
"Perfect! There's nobody here! We’ve got the place to ourselves!” Marik was practically bouncing in place. True to his word, the usually crowded beach was empty. It had only just opened to the public, but no one was here aside from the two of them.
It was Marik’s idea to leave as early as possible in order to get some time alone, though Bakura doubted getting their too early would have stopped them from going. The image of the two of them climbing over the small fence that was locked when the beach was closed appeared in his mind and made him laugh.
They stepped through the open gate with the few things they had brought for the trip. The sand was warm, not quite as uncomfortably hot as it would be later in the day, but Bakura could still feel some of the heat reflected off the sand.
“So, remind me again why exactly we’re here so early?” He set down their beach bag once they reached a spot close to the shoreline.
“I want to see what kind of stuff the ocean’s deposited on the beach,” Marik explained, “I don’t think we’ll find anything super valuable, but it’s kinda cool to see what sort of sea creatures have washed up overnight.”
Bakura scanned the shoreline. It did not occur to him at first that Marik was probably referring to smaller things, so he couldn’t see anything that stuck out to him. The waves were gentle, flowing lazily over the beach before crawling back, only to return again. It was almost hypnotic, and he felt he was starting to understand why many people found it so relaxing to be here.
“When you’re done staring, I’d like you to put our stuff in one the lockers over there.” Marik’s voice broke the spell the sea had upon his companion. “You put sunblock on before you got here, didn’t you?”
“I did.” He was telling the truth, though he disliked putting the strange smelling lotion all over himself, he had learned from previous experiences this was better than getting sunburnt. “Why are you asking?”
Marik smirked. “I’m making sure so I don’t have to worry about you turning beet red later. We’re gonna be out here for a while if everything goes.” He handed Bakura their beach bag, which had a few miscellaneous things such as car keys and some granola bars for later. “Now be a dear and put this away.”
Bakura rolled his eyes but took the bag willingly.
“What a primadonna,” he teased his companion before walking off to the lockers. It was probably best to keep delinquent behavior to a minimum today, as tempting as the idea might be to cause some mischief. Since he and Marik were still only the first two to arrive at the beach, none of the lockers were being used. He checked in for one and tied the rope holding the locker key around his neck.
He returned outside to find Marik was already searching the shoreline, scanning the creeping line of water for signs of anything discarded by the ocean. Bakura sneaked up behind him in an attempt to startle him, but Marik turned with a smile. It was getting a bit harder to surprise the other, but deep down Bakura didn’t mind that much.
“Did you find anything yet?”
Marik held out his hand, showings the tiniest seashells seemingly bleached white against his copper-toned skin. “I think there’s a starfish a little ways in the water if you want a look at something bigger.”
“A...starfish?” He hadn’t heard of a thing like that before.
Marik said nothing and simply pointed to a small spot in the water. There was, sure enough, a small star shape in the sand. Bakura waded in the water, having removed his sandals at the locker booth, and bent down to look at the object.
It was a deep reddish-purple, and when he reached to touch it it felt slimy, like fish usually feel. It was just barely the size of his palm. He kneeled down and scooped sand underneath it to pick it up. The sand didn’t sift out of his hands as he expected it to, but rather fell out in small wet clumps.
The starfish squirmed a little bit in Bakura’s hands, moving its appendages in a delicate manner to get a sense of this new place it was being held. Bakura found himself sitting down in the ankle-deep water to watch the creature, minding little of the salty water that lapped at his legs and not noticing Marik was now standing in front of him, leaning forward to be eye-to-eye with him, until he looked up and nearly jumped back in surprise.
“I know starfish are fascinating and everything but we’re here to collect stuff,” said Marik with a grin, “not sit around.”
“Why are you smiling like that?”
“I managed to startle you. Not something a lot of people can admit to doing.” Marik straightened back up and went back to a different part of the beach. Bakura looked down at the starfish a final time before setting it back into the water. He stood up slowly, wiggling his bare toes in the wet sand for a moment.
“Have you found anything else of interest?” He called out, though keeping his eyes down to also look for more.
“There's a whole cluster of seashells on this side of the beach!” Marik was waving enthusiastically. He didn’t seem to be pointing to a specific area, which meant they were all over where he was standing. Bakura stepped towards him, noting again how the submerged sand gave under the weight of his feet.
When he got close enough to Marik where they didn’t have to shout at each other, he felt something hard under his foot. It wasn’t painful, but the change still caught him off-guard. He lifted his foot and saw something buried in the sand--white and wavy. Marik had stepped closer and bent down.
“Oooh! You found a big one!” He scooped up the object in question, and as the clumps of sand came off it revealed a larger shell than the ones they were looking at previously, it was even more colorful than the others. While the smaller shells were mostly white, this one had specks of brown and tan.
Marik handed the shell to Bakura. “You can have this one, since you technically found it first.”
“How courteous of you,” Bakura mused playfully. He just held the shell in his hand for now, since the beach bag was sitting in a locker.
“I’d suggest you let me grab the bag we packed, since if our search continues to be fruitful we’re going to need something to keep track of what we find.”
Marik turned his head to the side. “You do have a point. Don’t take too long, or I’ll be hoarding all these seashells to myself.” He made an amusing face to punctuate the teasing manner of his statement, and went back to searching through the water.
It only took a few minutes for Bakura to return with the waterproof bag, and he immediately started filling it with the shells Marik had picked up before slinging it over his shoulder, which was the same manner his host would carry his school bag. He felt a little silly doing it like this, but it would do for now.
He looked back down at the shallow water, seeing a few small fish swim between his legs. At least he assumed they were fish, since they were too small for him to get a good look at them. He followed them into the deeper water, feeling the waves splash higher on his legs, and he could hear Marik behind him.
“You think there’s more stuff this way?” Marik asked curiously. “I don’t think there are any reefs around, but from the looks of it we have a couple of tide pools.”
Bakura turned at the mention of these words. “Reefs?”
Marik nodded. “Yeah, they’re basically underwater jungles full of all kinds of stuff. I think that’d be too far out for us to wade to, but that’s probably where these little fish came from.”
“What kind of life would you find in an underwater jungle?” Bakura sat down in the water again, which was high enough to cover most of his stomach when he sat down. He looked down at the sand, which now had grooves in it from where the water lapped at it for so long, and could see more of the smaller white shells Marik had picked up earlier.
“I’ve heard the reefs are made of this plant called coral. They come in all kinds of different colors and shapes, and there’s a whole rainbow of fish and other animals that live around or in them. When we’re done for the day I think we could look up pictures if you want.”
“I’d like that.”
“In the meantime,” Marik continued as he helped the other back on his feet, “I’d like to explore the cliffs over there before more people show up. By the looks of things it’s off-limits.”
“I’m up for a bit of trespassing.” Bakura smirked. It looked like there was enough room for some delinquent action in the day after all.
“But before we go about with that plan,” he interrupted the thought, “I would like to take a moment to eat some of the snacks we brought. It feels like far too long since we ate.” That was one of many issues Bakura had with getting up so early in the morning; breakfast was eaten before the sun even came up and now he was hungry again.
Marik shrugged. “Sure. In the meantime, we can pack up what we’ve found so far. I don’t want somebody to take these.”
They walked out of the water and back to the locker where the rest of their stuff was kept. At least for now.