Work Text:
It feels idyllic to fall in love on the beach, Chiaki thinks. The steady peacefulness of the waves lapping into shore, the salt spray making the air sharp and dull at the same time; she couldn’t play a better dating sim if she looked for it the rest of her life. Of course, this isn’t like a dating sim - there’s only one mainline romance for her to play, and there’s no time to research conversation outcomes on forums before she selects her response.
Also, the fact that she’s pretty good at this.
The sun is close to setting and she and Hinata are still on the shore in their day clothes save for socks and shoes, sitting on a blanket he found at Rocketpunch and wiggling their toes into the sand. He invited her this morning after breakfast. Since then, he’s taught her how to skip rocks (or tried - it doesn’t work in waves, which he was disappointed to realize), they’ve built three sandcastles of varying intricacy, and they’ve picnicked peanut butter sandwiches they made together. Chiaki is sure Hanamura’s food would have tasted better, but come with the added caveat of the whole island thinking they were having weird freaky sex, which no delicious food can make up for.
A hand bumps into hers - Hinata’s obviously, his fingers feeling around for hers as he stares out at the waves, his face growing pink. She laughs. “You can just say if you want to hold my hand, Hinata-kun,” she tells him as she takes his hand in her own.
“I know,” he replies. His gaze is still fixed out at the horizon.
Chiaki knows he isn’t the smoothest person - he hasn’t quite figured out this whole “relating to people” thing, but then again, neither has she. Sometimes he’s too blunt, sometimes he skirts around topics entirely, which occasionally makes conversation maddening, but he makes an effort and sometimes, he can be really all too sweet and it throws her for a loop. Like now, how he’s rubbing his thumb over hers. The way he’s staring out at the ocean, Chiaki thinks maybe he’s not even aware he’s doing it.
“I really like you,” he says quietly.
She smiles. “I really like you, too.”
He takes a deep breath and turns to look at her. “What do you think you’re going to do after this field trip is over?” There’s a look in his eyes that tips her off to the fact that he’s not actually asking that. After a quick second of trying to figure out what kind of answer he’s looking for (also, what he’s really trying to get at) Chiaki decides to just throw in the towel and be honest.
“I don’t know,” she says, shrugging. “Just regular school stuff, I guess. Maybe replay Ace Attorney, but I’ve done it so many times already.”
Hinata wets his lips, a small subconscious gesture Chiaki shouldn’t stare at so much. “Do you want to keep hanging out with me?” he asks.
Oh, okay. That was what he was really asking. She laughs and nods, because of course she does, what was he thinking? School field trips weren’t isolated from the rest of the year. She tells him just that, adding, “I’m not going to not like you the second we get back to Hope’s Peak.” Really, he’s kind of stupid sometimes.
“I know.” He sounds a little defensive, but more embarrassed than anything else, and Chiaki maybe regrets teasing him a little bit. “I just wanted to make sure. I thought maybe you had other, more important things to do.”
She regrets it, but it’s so easy. Raising her finger to her bottom lip, she hums a little in thought. “I don’t know… Tetris is pretty important. Do you know they have multiplayer out now?”
He rolls his eyes. “Very funny, Nanami-san. Ha ha ha.”
“I’m serious! It’s a multiplayer battle royale.”
His laugh this time is genuine, light like sunshine as he bites his lip to try to stop himself.
Is he teasing her now? She puffs up her cheeks, squeezing his hand in indignation. He normally squeezes back, a signal that she’s got his attention, but he’s laughing too hard. “What’s so funny?” she asks, feeling his laughter starting to infect her too.
He laughs even harder. “You’re just cute, is all,” he manages to get out, and she turns red.
“I’m not!” Does she want to be?
“Yeah, you are.” His laughter fades but his grin is still plastered wide over his suntanned face.
Now she’s just protesting for the sake of protest. Totally not embarrassment. At all. Because Chiaki Nanami doesn’t get embarrassed, because she’s a level-headed professional gamer, cool as a cucumber, and absolutely not curling her toes in suppressed delight. “Am not!”
“Are too.”
This is going to be ridiculously childish, but now that it’s started, Chiaki can’t be the one to stop it. At the same time, though, he sounds like he means it and he’s going to die on this hill, so maybe they’ll just keep saying it to each other until they die on this beach.
“Am not!” She uses her free hand to tuck some of her hair behind her ear where it’s fallen in front of her face.
A weird look falls over his face and he pauses, interrupting their back-and-forth to just… look at her. Did she do something wrong? No, she doesn’t think she did, because that’s not an angry look. It seems like he’s gathering the courage to do something, and Chiaki might have an idea of what it is.
“Would I do this if you weren’t?”
Ding ding ding. Chiaki was right, because Hinata has let go of her hand and is leaning forward, nervous but steady - he’s committed to it, and that’s all it’s going to take for him to try it. She feels butterflies erupt in her stomach and leans in as well. They’ve held hands and cuddled and curled up together in the sand and on his bed. They eat their meals sitting next to each other, and sometimes Nanami will fall asleep with her head in his lap if she’s really tired. But they’ve never kissed properly before.
Their lips connect and it’s nothing really like Nanami was expecting. No fireworks like the movies, no passionate groping, just the salt-dried warmth of their lips as they press together, his hand burning-hot where it’s moved to cup her cheek. Or maybe her cheek is burning hot. She can’t really tell. They move together slowly, just a few seconds, before Hinata pulls back, pleased by her response. He’s breathing a little heavily.
“That was… nice, right?” he asks, just to make sure.
She smiles. He’s so considerate. “Yeah… it was nice. But you know, the first time is always the worst.” He looks nervous, so she doesn’t leave him hanging and finishes, “So maybe we should do it again and see if it’s better.”
And they do.