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Water rushed all around Tomoichi as he let his body fall deeper and deeper. Bubbles tickled his nose as they escaped through his nostrils. He opened his eyes, which was useless but he did so purely out of habit. When he landed at the bottom of the riverbed, he felt a cloud of dust escape as he pushed against the buoyant pressure trying to force him up again. He let his feet rub against the rocks and greenery, feeling its mix of stony and squishy texture against his bare skin.
He smiled as he let the water pull him back up, gasping as he broke the surface. He flipped onto his back, allowing himself to float so his hands could push the loose, stringy hair away from his face. After that, he paddled closer to the riverbank until he was at a point where his feet could comfortably reach the bottom.
“You don’t have to jump like that of course,” Tomoichi called out to his friend. “You can just walk in.”
Inu-oh stood on the riverbank, scratching at the dry earth below him with his long hand. Normally he would pick at his mask if he was nervous, but it had been discarded with the rest of his outer clothes, strung up on a nearby tree along with Tomoichi’s - blue and red flags staking their territory.
Tomoichi wasn’t used to Inu-oh being this nervous, but given he had never gone to the ocean or even a lake before in his life, Tomoichi understood. He didn’t understand completely, of course. He couldn’t, given his background as a diver in a village where everyone, even the small children, knew how to swim. While he was always aware of the risks that came with being at sea, the idea of being uneasy around water was completely foreign to him.
They weren’t anywhere near the coastline; that was miles away. While the massive lake near the capitol was known as a freshwater sea, it didn’t behave like a real ocean. It could be hostile in its own right, obviously, especially in murky areas, but the many rivers and creeks that spilled from its borders into the nearby forests, pooling into smaller lakes and clearings had a continuous sense of calmness and serenity.
Tomoichi could barely feel any current in the water around him. It was a river, technically, but it might as well have been a pond. Despite the flow from the north heading south for unimaginable miles, this water was calm where the earth had swollen into a small pool. The river was virtually still, and Tomoichi could imagine the frogs or waterfowl that would lay their eggs around here if it wasn’t the blazing hot mid summer.
Tomoichi held out his hand, not moving any closer because he knew Inu-oh’s arm could still reach him despite the distance. His friend did just that, holding gently onto Tomoichi’s hand as he began to step into the river.
“I’ve never been near this much water before,” Inu-oh remarked with awe. “I’ve seen the canal in the city and the well at the Hieza place, but neither were ever like this.”
Suddenly the sound of splash rung out as Tomoichi was hit by a large wave. Inu-oh had fully submerged himself right away, getting his whole body wet as soon as he could. Tomoichi wiped the water out of his face as Inu-oh jumped back up to the surface.
“It’s so cool!” Inu-oh exclaimed with a smile, before suddenly snatching his hand away from Tomoichi’s grip, wrapping his arm around himself. “Too cool, actually.”
Tomoichi laughed. “It’s easy to get cold when you’re all wet. Just get back into the water and you’ll be fine.”
Inu-oh did just that, kneeling down so only his head was above the surface. He waded into the deep, making his way to Tomoichi’s side.
“Woah! Look at this!” The water swished back and forth as Inu-oh kicked his legs out in front of him one after another. “I can stand on one leg without any effort at all!”
“Come on!” Tomoichi bounced on his feet as he skipped deeper into the water, eventually changing to a simple paddle, keeping his chin above the surface. “It’s way more fun out here.”
Inu-oh tried to follow before he must have noticed the water had become too deep for him to reach the bottom. He panicked, splashing about rapidly before he was eventually able to thoroughly push himself back to a shallower area.
Tomoichi rushed towards him, “Are you ok!? I’m sorry, is this too deep?”
“No, no, no, I’m fine,” said Inu-oh, slightly too firmly. “I’ve got this, let me try again.”
This time Inu-oh leapt forward, splashing right onto a deeper patch. He tried to paddle, emulating what he had just seen Tomoichi doing. However, no matter what he tried, his body began sinking anyway. He pushed himself back again.
“Why isn’t it working!?” said Inu-oh, clearly frustrated.
“Can you not swim?” Tomoichi asked.
“When would I have learned how to do that?” Inu-oh said, annoyed. “I just told you I’ve never been to the water. Do people from coastal towns just assume everyone knows how to swim?”
Tomoichi turned away, feeling like a complete idiot for overlooking something so obvious. “Maybe.”
Inu-oh tried to jump in again before Tomoichi reached out and grabbed him. “Stop trying that!” he shouted. He pulled Inu-oh back, able to carry him off the ground with ease.
“See?” Tomoichi shifted his friend around, holding him in a bridal carry, and hoped his blush would go unnoticed.“If you trust the water and don’t fight so hard, you’re basically weightless.”
Tomoichi slowly removed his hold, allowing Inu-oh’s body to float to the surface. “Just relax. If you feel your legs start to sink, kick them back up. If you feel your top half start to, push with your arms- arm, I mean.”
Tomoichi stepped around, placing his hands just behind Inu-oh’s shoulders to act as a guide. After a while, when Inu-oh was able to breathe softly with his face just above the water with no issue, Tomoichi removed his hold.
“Now you can do that whenever you’re in too deep,” Tomoichi said. “It doesn’t work when there’s big waves or strong currents, but calm water like this doesn’t want to hurt you.”
Inu-oh giggled, flapping his shorter arm as best he could. “You’re talking like the water is a person. Like you’re an old sailor or something.”
Tomoichi laughed in turn and swam back out into the deeper water. “How ‘bout you use that arm of yours to keep yourself above the surface?” Given its length, he assumed it’d be able to reach the riverbed at all times. “How long is it again?”
Inu-oh stretched it out as far as it could go, resting his forearm against Tomoichi’s shoulder. “Something like this,” he said.
Tomoichi nodded and dove into the water, searching around the river floor until he found the deepest point. Once he did, he pushed himself back to the surface, catching his breath. “Yeah, you should be fine,” he said, “there’s nothing around here too-“
“That was amazing!” Inu-oh shouted.
“What?”
“You were under there for a really really long time! And you started over there and ended up all the way over there!” Droplets sprinkling around told Tomoichi that Inu-oh had just waved his arm around across a wide range. “How did you do that?” Inu-oh said, his voice filled with excitement.
Tomoichi snickered, swimming to the shallow place where Inu-oh was standing. “You should have seen me when I was a kid, then! I’m pretty out of practice now, but back then I used to dive for treasure and sell it. That’s actually how this happened,” he pointed to his scarred eyes, “I messed with something I wasn’t supposed to.”
“Were you able to see underwater back then? Before that?” Inu-oh asked, reaching out to hold his friend’s shoulders and guide him towards him. “I can’t open my eyes when I’m under there.”
“It took me a while to learn how to do that, actually,” Tomoichi admitted. “But before I could, I ended up teaching myself to navigate the sea by touch alone. That sure ended up handy.”
“You mean you can still dive for treasure even without being able to see it?” Inu-oh asked.
“I mean, I haven’t tried in ages, but I might be able to.”
“Hold that thought!” said Inu-oh as he ran back to the shoreline, the water splashing around him as he trudged through it.
Inu-oh fiddled with a tree branch, its leaves rustling as he raised it into the air. “Do you think you can find this underwater?”
Tomoichi shook his head. “I don’t know what that feels like, I wouldn’t think it any different from any of the other sticks and branches that have fallen in here.”
Inu-oh hummed, the dry leaves and twigs on the ground crunching as he paced back and forth. Eventually he spoke up, “How ‘bout my mask? You know it, right?”
“I would hope so!”
A splash echoed out somewhere a good distance from Tomoichi's left-hand side, alerting him as to where the mask had been tossed. He dove in after it, pushing through the murky water. While he had to surface a few times, his sense of direction underwater being nothing like it once was, he was eventually able to find the gourd’s smooth texture nestled in the dirt. He lifted it to the surface, waving it above his head as Inu-oh clapped for him.
“Bravo!” Inu-oh shouted, reaching out to take the mask back, before he hung it back up onto the tree.
After that, the two of them continued to play in their own little corner of the world. While the pair may have been a little too old to be acting so immaturely, being teenagers by now, they didn’t have much care about that. With Tomoichi’s childhood ended so abruptly, and Inu-oh never having been allowed to have one, the two of them rarely, if ever, got to experience the little games and innocent moments children have with their friends.
After a while though, their peace was broken. Tomoichi heard the distinctive sounds of hoofsteps echoing from around the bend in the nearby path. While Inu-oh continued splashing around, Tomoichi’s mind filled with panic. Under no circumstances would Inu-oh be comfortable with the idea of some random strangers looking at him in this state. This was meant to be a private space, Inu-oh wouldn’t be doing this with any human other than his best friend.
Tomoichi tried to think of what he could do. They were too far deep for him to quickly move Inu-oh against the riverbank, hiding him against a wall of dirt. He didn’t know how long these strangers would be around, so he couldn’t shove his friend underwater. Plus that would be so rude. He also couldn’t just grab Inu-oh and try to turn him around, making him face the opposite direction. If he did, Inu-oh would start asking questions and try to turn back around, accidentally facing these passersby.
Instead Tomoichi went with another solution. He grabbed hold of Inu-oh’s shoulders and brought him close, holding him in a tight embrace. Their bodies were fully pressed together - Inu-oh’s face being held firm against Tomoichi’s shoulder. Inu-oh let out a slight yelp as Tomoichi’s hand made its way to the back of his head, deep within his loose wet hair, holding his skull squarely in place. He held as solidly as he could even as Inu-oh squirmed around trying to leave his grasp.
The hoofsteps were much closer now, having made their way around the bend. A man and a woman were coming by with their horses, squabbling between each other in hushed tones.
“Excuse me there, young man!” the male voice shouted, “My wife and I are trying to get to Kyoto but we’re lost, are we going in the right direction?”
It was obvious that the man was pointing down the path, having assumed Tomoichi could see him.
“Yes, that’s it,” Tomoichi shouted back. “If you go down that path for long enough you’ll leave the woods, and then the capitol is right nearby.”
The husband and wife bickered amongst themselves again, but it was too far away for Tomoichi to discern what they said.
The husband turned back to the two in the river. “Thank you. And might I ask, what’s that you’re holding? A mess of seaweed?”
Seaweed? He had never considered what color Inu-oh’s scales or hair were before. Were they green or brown like seaweed was? Tomoichi suppressed a giggle, thinking about how a dull-coloured outer shell on his back was exactly what a turtle would have too.
“No this is just my friend,” Tomoichi responded. “He just got some water up his nose, don’t worry.”
Inu-oh then did a very convincing fake sneeze to enhance the story. He was nothing if not a performer.
The traveler man laughed. “Ah, that’s a person! My mistake, with all that hair and with that grime on his back I assumed otherwise. My apologies.” The man paused, likely to bow slightly. “Best of luck to you both.”
The hoofsteps continued after that until the couple made their way around the other side of the bend. Tomoichi’s hold loosened to allow Inu-oh to leave his arms, but he didn’t remove his hands entirely.
Inu-oh didn’t move.
“Sorry,” Tomoichi said in a quiet voice. “I knew you wouldn’t want people to see you like this and I didn’t know any better way to hide you.”
“Oh,” said Inu-oh. “Thank you for that.” His voice faltered as he spoke, likely frazzled by the experience.
Tomoichi moved his hands up yet again, holding nicely onto Inu-oh’s back. It wasn’t particularly comfortable - the scales’ sharp edges pointed into his forearms - but he wouldn’t ever dream of complaining.
Inu-oh melted into the embrace, exhaling a long sigh. He slotted his head onto Tomoichi’s shoulder again, turning his face away.
“Why can’t I feel safe with anyone but you?” Inu-oh whispered.
Tomoichi clung even tighter, blinking away the small tears in his eyes. “It won’t be this way for long, remember? You’re gonna get more human friends, just you wait.”
“But when people see me like this…” It wasn’t often that Inu-oh would get discouraged, but he was, those feelings really stung.
“If you found a way to change your legs, you know there’s a way to change everything else if that’s what you want,” said Tomoichi with determination. “You’re already so friendly and talented, it’ll be easy for people to like you.”
He was adorable too. And immensely sweet. And in his own way, in a way unable to be recreated by anyone else, was beautiful. He also was kind and gentle and could never hide what he was feeling for long. He could sing like an angel and dance with more intensity and passion than anyone else. He was a friend to the animals and immensely knowledgeable of all things related to the world of beasts and nature. He had gone through so much pain and suffering within such a short life but outside of moments like this, he never let that bother him.
But Tomoichi didn’t say that.
Tomoichi knew he was in love with his best friend. Completely and truly, just as sappy as any old poetry described. He had only known Inu-oh for such a short time in the grand scheme of things, but he knew these feelings to be true. He had experienced intense crushes before but this was so much stronger, and much longer lasting. Inu-oh was the first thing he thought of when he woke up in the morning and the last thing he thought of when he went to bed at night. Inu-oh had, without meaning to, stolen his heart right out of his chest but Tomoichi didn’t mind at all. He thanked him for it, in fact.
However Tomoichi knew he couldn’t confess his feelings. Not now anyway. Inu-oh had only recently found the opportunity to become his own person; finding out who he truly was outside of his oppressive upbringing. In the meantime, he saw Tomoichi as his safety - the one person who could love him unconditionally. Tomoichi was the only one he could experiment with and be himself around.
Tomoichi didn’t want to interrupt that, forcing his friend to consider a whole other aspect of human life. Inu-oh had never mentioned any romantic interest in anyone, but Tomoichi knew he was at least aware of the concept. They never discussed it, so until they did, Tomoichi assumed he wasn’t interested.
Though, there were moments where these feelings of Tomoichi’s were difficult to ignore. Now, for instance, as Inu-oh was clinging to him with barely any cloth separating their skin from meeting together. Tomoichi felt a heat creep across his cheeks, but thankfully Inu-oh wasn’t paying attention. He felt so many details of his crush at once: the wrinkled, leathery skin of his face, the soft fur on his chest, the bare, smooth skin on his legs, the scabs and swollen bruises that littered his flesh - some of which came from little adventures gone wrong, others came from places Tomoichi refused to ask about.
Then, Inu-oh gave Tomoichi a quick squeeze and jumped back, hopping in the water a few more times.
“Alright, I’m better now!” he said, smiling.
Tomoichi smiled back. “You’re sure?”
“Yup! All I need to do is keep better track of my mask and the people around me. I shouldn’t expect us to be completely alone, even in places deep in the woods like this. As long as I keep my mask close and my eyes and ears open for any strangers, I’ll be ok!”
Tomoichi laughed to himself. This was part of why he loved his friend so much. He knew Inu-oh occasionally worried that he came across as stupid, since he was ignorant to things that many people were taught in childhood, such as how to swim or how to behave in polite society. However, he really was very smart. He could come up with solutions to problems easily, and was always quick to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.
Maybe Tomoichi didn’t give him enough credit. Perhaps he knew a lot more about love than Tomoichi had assumed. Maybe Inu-oh had already decided whether or not their bond was beyond platonic. Maybe Tomoichi was just scared of rejection, and his apprehension towards a confession had nothing to do with Inu-oh’s perceived innocence.
However on a bright summer’s day like this, neither needed to concern himself with complicated adult emotions like that. It was ok to be childish for a while longer.