Chapter Text
“Why do we even have to do this?” Sakura asked, gritting his teeth. The two classmates in front of him shared a glance with each other.
“You see Sakura-Kun, such an activity is good for boosting morale! Especially at this time of year. Bonding is good for our class and for us as grade captains, don’t you think?”
Sakura pointedly looked away from Suo, because he didn’t know anything about group bonding activities, but this certainly shouldn’t count.
“He’s right, Sakura-Kun,” Nirei jumped in, “You shouldn't be afraid to take off your Furin uniform and have a good time!”
“Yes, I do agree with Nirei-Kun, simply doing this will increase our teamwork and even potentially help us out on the field. What do you think?”
Sakura leaned back in his chair, red faced, as he looked anywhere but the two infront of him. The mold growing on the wall to his right. The toppled desks piled into a mountain to the left. The sun piercing through the cracked window because it was getting hot outside, goddammit.
“Fine,” he relented, “we can go to the beach. But I'm not planning it, that’s up to you.”
“Thank you, Sakura-Kun!” Nirei cheered and practically jumped on top of Suo in a means to celebrate. Suo never broke eye contact with Sakura, that polite smile on his face irked Sakura, it really did.
Despite living in the town for a few months, Sakura had never bothered to check out the beach. He had never seen a beach before in his entire life and he hadn’t planned on visiting himself unless prompted, but now, once he reached the walkway of sand, he couldn’t help but feel a flutter of excitement in his chest.
He stamped it down quickly and continued to shuffle through the clearing until he could finally see the vast outstretched of the light sand, encompassed by a blue ocean crashing against it.
“Sakura-Kun, is there an issue?”
Sakura didn’t realize he had stopped in his tracks until Suo stepped next to him, eyeing him with caution and slight worry.
“It’s just hot out here,” he complained, stepping into the sand in his sandals that they had forced him to wear, lugging the heavy cooler behind him. Suo caught up quickly, chairs slung over his shoulder. He had insisted they walk together.
“Perhaps you should not have worn sweatpants and a tank top, Hmm?”
Sakura flushed at the callout. It wasn’t like he had been planning on swimming anyway, even if Nirei had forced him to wear a swimsuit underneath the sweatpants. He didn’t like showing anymore of his body than he had to, and most of all, he didn’t like the stares he got from it.
But, as the heat beat down on him, he figured that he would need to strip just to not pass out from the heat.
“You can set your stuff down here!” Umemiya announced from under the canopy. Majority of class 1-1 was already in the water, splashing around under the heat.
“Why are you even here?” Sakura asked before he could stop himself. The school representative didn’t look too mad at the question, he only smiled.
“Nirei-Kun informed me that you needed food,” he reached a hand up to reveal the cooking tongs he had been holding. Along with the steak knife and the annoyingly pink apron he adorned. “I offered to grill. The meat should be in that cooler.”
Oh, so that's why it was heavy as hell. Suo had simply shoved it into his hands when they met and insisted that he carry it.
Umemiya clacked the tongs together, “while I get started on the meat, how about you two get some sun? You both look a little pale.”
They lived in Japan, they were supposed to be pale.
Before Sakura could question as much, Kiryu and Taiga had splashed all the way from the ocean to greet them, water falling off of them. Sakura had to look away from Kiryu’s bright pink shorts and Taiga’s orange ones because they were burning holes into his eyes.
“Get in Sakura-Kun! The water feels nice!” Before he could wrench himself away or insist that he needed to stay with Umemiya and help grill (even though he didn’t know how) his classmates were grabbing either of his arms to drag him to the water.
He was forced to kick off his flip flops and the sand was hot under his feet and gave way easily under his weight. It felt grainier than he thought it would. When they reached the water, he hissed because it was damn cold, only being heated by the sun overhead.
Ahead of them, Anzai and his groups attempted to shoot each other with water guns. Sakura didn’t see the point in splashing each other with water guns when they were already in the water.
“I’m not going any further than this,” Sakura announced once the water reached mid thigh. He wanted to go home. It was overwhelming, seeing all of this stuff for the first time, and he was confident that if he went anywhere further into the ocean, it would grab ahold of him and he would for sure sink.
He could really only doggy paddle from when the group had forcefully thrown him into the school's lake three years ago and left him to fend for himself.
Kiryu and Tsugeura were saying something to each other, laughing and diving back into the ocean to return to the others. He stared down at his feet, visible through the blue water, and watched the water lap upwards to breach past his knees. It felt nice.
A little too nice.
It made his skin pinprick with uncertainty.
“Sakura-Kun, Are you enjoying your first time at the ocean?”
Sakura jerked, turning over his shoulder to see Suo with his swim shirt and shorts. It was, perhaps, the most form fitting thing he had ever seen on him. Of course he knew it was Sakura’s first time, he was probably staring like an idiot, so instead of yelling at Suo, he shrugged. “It’s… weird.”
Suo hummed, as if he had been expecting the answer. “It can be a bit overwhelming. Would you like to come sit with me?”
Sakura studied him, open and honest with a relaxed frame as he pointed to the umbrella with two towels underneath it, only a few feet from Umemiya’s canopy. Sakura blushed when he realized that Sup had probably planned for this…. But it was an offer out of the ocean, so he would take it.
With a nod, he trudged back out of the water and plopped down, much less delicate than Suo, onto his towel. He shuffled around to get to a comfortable lying position, staring upwards at the dark maroon umbrella. He spared a glance to Suo, who was thumbing through the pages of his book, ignoring Sakura.
Even with the shade, it was still hot.
He shuffled out of his sweatpants and hot clothes to be in his bathing suit before he settled down once more.
He guessed this wasn’t too bad, with the distant sound of his classmates splashing in the water along with the sizzling of the barbeque and crashing of waves. The breeze brushed his hair like he imagined a mother would and that in itself was enough to force his heavy eyes closed.
He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, too anxious about going to the beach.
He had been too stressed to sleep all of the other nights. Stressed about his new job as a grade captain and having to plan a trip and live up to his job.
“Why don’t you have a rest, Sakura-Kun. The beach isn’t all about playing, but relaxing too.”
Sakura was too tired to reply to Suo.
By the time his breathing finally evened out, Suo looked away from his book to stare at him.
“Man, he is out,” Anzai bit into his steak, the juice falling from his lips. Kiryu scooted away from him. “He hasn’t even gotten into the water once, and Umemiya-senpai is practically done with the stake!”
“Your gluttonous ass had to go and take the first piece.”
“Hey! Take that back, I was hungry!”
“Um guys, this is supposed to be a bonding activity so… so please stop growling at eachother.”
“Sorry Nirei-kun,” the two at least had the remorse to look slightly guilty.
And while they argued, Kiryu, of course, was taking pictures of Sakura slumbering under the umbrella while Suo and the majority of the class were in line to be served food by Umemiya.
Suddenly, Anzai perked up with a bright idea. “Hey! How about we give Sakura-kun a dip in the water as a wake up call!”
Kiryu’s thumb paused over the photo button on his phone and he stared back at Anzai as if he were gum on the bottom of his shoe. “If you wish to be killed by Sakura-chan, then by all means, I’d love to see it!”
“Sakura-Kun, wakey wakey!” Anzai poked his cheek, only for Sakura to respond with a small sleepy noise, unconsciously swatting his hand away.
“Wow, he must really be tuckered out.”
“Look at his sunburn, isn’t he laying in the shade?”
“Let’s kidnap him!”
Kiryu, as he watched a small portion of class 1-1 carry Sakura off to the water, did not think it was the best course of action.
Sakura woke up to hands moving him, grasping him, and forcing him.
It was not a nice experience.
They were like tendrils, snaking around him and capturing him even if he did attempt to struggle out of them. When he forced his eyes open through heavy pants to regain his breathing, the blue sky above him (tauntingly pretty) moved as he was dragged into the water.
“What’re you-” he didn’t get a good look at his attacker's face, only that they were laughing at him and his suffering. He wriggled his body, attempting to roll away like a fish out of water, but their grip tightened on him.
How many were there?
“Let go!” He demanded, even if he sounded puny when his voice cracked in the middle of his order. “What-”
“Calm down Sakura-Kun,” one of the voices said, “We’re just going for a swim!”
A swim?
A swim.
Oh shit, Sakura couldn’t swim.
“No wait, don’t-”
It was too late, by the time he tried to vocalize his concern, he was being hefted over shoulders and thrown high up into the hair, higher than he had ever been. For a moment, it was peaceful and he made eye contact with a seagull, but then he plunged all the way down into the cold suffocating water.
Plunged back to middle school when they knew he couldn’t swim and the group purposefully tied his legs and wrist together, shooting names at him for being so ‘weird’ and ‘fucked up.’
“Let's throw him in,” one of them decided “no need to untie his wrist, only his legs. He can crawl his way back to the shore.”
“That's a great idea,” another one chorused, and Sakura thought ‘No, that is not a great idea.’
They did it anyway, despite his struggle. Counting down ‘three two one’ like Sakura was a damn party game before tossing him into the murky lake and leaving him to either drown or get eaten by any alligators or water snakes.
The feeling was all the same, of water rushing up his nostrils and mouth, of his lungs constricting with the force of attempting to keep his air in his chest and the water out. Of his eyes burning from the water and his body refusing to work with him, too encapsulated by the overwhelming and sheer panic.
There were voices from above the water this time, saying something far and distant. They were probably laughing. When he somehow got out and got his hands untied, they would probably drag him up on the shoreline and do it over again.
The ocean- or lake? Was he in a lake or an ocean? He couldn’t recall- pushed him backwards and forwards with a rush forcing his body with the tide until he couldn’t breathe and the water was burning his insides because he had accidentally inhaled it-
And then his body hit something hard and unmoving, and there were hands locking under his armpits and dragging him out of the water and into fresh air and-
He was coughing, coughing long and hard to expel the water from his lungs. As he tried not to vomit all over his savior, bright white lights flooded his vision as he attempted to crack his eyes open. The salt hurt them. He wanted to sleep.
The hands remained looped firmly around his torso like a life ring, and then there was another set of hands, larger and more assuring, patting on his back to help him dispel the water,
“-Get him to shore, Suo-Kun,” one of the voices said, deeply. “Good save out there.”
“-akura-....Know…. Go back to the grill, Umemiya-sanpai… the steak..burning.”
”Oops!” The other voice said, and suddenly, that large hand rubbing circles into his back left.
And dammit, why was he still coughing?
“It’s okay,” Suo, the one who was holding onto him, said into his ear and- oh. He could feel the sand under his feet. Suo loosened his grip and laid him down onto a towel under the maroon umbrella, and Sakura’s entire body tingled.
“Are you okay, Sakura-kun?” he asked, his singular dark eye roaming over him for injuries.
The only thing that was hurt was Sakura’s pride, and maybe his lungs. He lifted his head to check his surroundings and confirm that he wasn’t at the lakeside and that group wasn’t coming back to throw him in, when he spotted Kiryu, pink hair and shorter than the others, normally calm Kiryu, pointing fingers at the cowering class in front of him. Nirei at one of his sides and Tsugeura at his other.
“-He got caught in the tide. How could you do such a thing?” He looked and sounded significantly less calm than he normally was, considering he always minded his own business on such matters, popping an ear bud in.
Before he could dig into them anymore, Umemiya was breaking up the yelling with a stern few words of his own, the class looking like kicked puppies, before he once again smiled and presented the rest of the cooked meat.
“Sakura-Kun?” Suo questioned again, and Sakura realized he hadn’t answered him.
He tilted his head sideways to meet his eyes, and it felt like all of the energy in his body had been sapped away from him. “You knew I couldn’t swim, didn’t you?”
Suo’s lips twisted into a straight line, “I didn’t recognize them tossing you in until it was too late, I apologize Sakura-Kun.”
“No thats,” Sakura sighed, weaving a hand through his drenched hair. “That’s not what I meant.”
Suo’s eye brightened. “Oh?”
Sakura looked away just past Suo to watch the water lap onto the shore.
“Teach me.”