Archive of Our Own ^beta

The car comes to a stop and Rui’s head hits the window when it lurches into park. His eyes flutter open lazily and he groans, lifting a hand up to rub his head. His fingers massage the bumped part of his head as his lavender hair fountains out between them and he looks up.

He squints and blinks rapidly at the bright afternoon light that pours in from just about everywhere in the car. Palm trees offer a sliver of shade in the otherwise colourful and airy day. Cerulean skies stretch far above his head with cotton-like clouds that etch themselves into ever-shifting shapes. 

A yawn pries his jaw apart as Nene turns the key to off and pulls it out with a metallic tink. The key jingles as her keychains all dangle and hit each other. Rui feels a yawn come on and he opens his jaw wide through a deep breath, stretching his arms out towards the dashboard. 

“Is this the place?” He asks sleepily through the end of his yawn. He brings his arms back in and lazily glances out the window to the beach house they’d pulled into the lot of. The massive house was painted a soft butter yellow and trimmed in a clean white, windows and balconies abundant. 

“Yeah, this is the address Emu sent.” Nene says, looking at it from her seat. She pulls her door open as Rui undoes his seatbelt sleepily. 

The girl with seafoam hair gets out of the car and steps onto the sidewalk, lined with tropical bushes and vivid flowers. Volcanic glass tiles are mixed into the path, making it sparkle when it catches the morning summer sun just right. 

Rui groans and kicks his door open tiredly, nearly tumbling out of the passenger seat. He stands up and stretches his whole body this time, face scrunching as he reaches as tall as he can get and bends his back. Nene’s already pulled open the back of the car and is pulling their luggage out.

She drops his bag on the ground and pulls her own small suitcase out. She places her own luggage down a little easier on the ground, shutting the door and moving sunglasses from the top of her head to her face. Rui leans down and picks up his bag. 

“Did you tell Emu we were here?” He asks, rubbing his eyes. 

“I told her when we were 5 minutes out.” Nene says, looking at the house. She presses the lock button on her car keys. “I let her know we already ate breakfast– At least, I did, anyway.”

Rui idly wipes the syrup stain on his shirt. They switched drivers in a  restaurant parking lot at 6 in the morning after Rui drove all night as Nene slept. She was a little relieved to see he hadn’t crashed or made any exotic changes to their vehicle as she slept in the passenger seat. A credit to his insomniac tendencies, he made it just fine and was still wide awake while they ate pancakes in an empty restaurant. 

“Then we should be fine to go straight to the beach after Emu shows us–”

“Nene!! Rui!” 

On cue, the cheerful voice calls out to them. 

The screen door to the beach house clacks back into place as a beaming Emu runs over, arms wide. She pounces on the two and pulls them into a massive hug. Her infectious laughter quickly spreads until all three are at least smiling and she lets them free of her trap. 

She looks at her girlfriend and their awkward third wheel with a huge smile. She’d gotten into the beach house the night before to get it ready and stocked up with food and supplies for their getaway vacation at her family’s beachfront property.

“Glad to see you made it safely! ” Emu says, tilting her head so her bubblegum bob sways. She reaches her hand out and takes Nene’s wrist. “I’ll show you around! C’mon!”

“Emu, wait, let me get my bag.” Nene laughs softly, pulling the handle out of her suitcase and rolling it behind her. It makes a loud rumble over the slap of everyone’s sandals as they walk towards the front door. Rui trots behind the girls, and Emu punches in the door code that lets her in with a cheery beep.

The house is absolutely massive– three floors, with the top and bottom sporting its own set of bedrooms and a bathroom, the second floor hosting a kitchen, living room, and a large balcony. Each room had a miniature version of said balcony. The decorations were all reminiscent of the nearby sea.

Emu puts him in a room on the third floor. As he’s dropping his stuff off inside, the door to the other bedroom on that floor creaks open. In the doorway, standing there in all of his 5-foot-tall glory is the Emu’s bodyguard, Mr. Mascot.

He grumbles under his breath and scratches his stomach. He seems reluctant to talk to Rui. With a weary sigh, he resigns himself to doing it anyway. He has to entertain his client’s whims.

"Hello, Mr. Kamishiro,” His gruff voice says hesitantly and dryly. “I see Miss Emu has put your room across from mine.”

“It would seem so, Mr. Mascot.” He smiles at the short, bulky unit of man who’s still in his pajamas at 9 in the morning. In all honesty, nobody knows Mr. Mascot’s real name, so everyone calls him that. Rui has a suspicion that’s how he likes it. He looks at the bag lying on his bed and chuckles. “Don’t worry, the only potentially dangerous thing I brought is a lack of sunscreen. No explosives.”

“I should hope so. I don’t feel particularly inclined to confiscate anything from you on vacation,” He grumbles. “And should you need sunscreen, there’s plenty stocked in the first floor closet with the beach toys.” 

“I see, thank you!” Rui says, offering his kindest smile. He remembers their plan and looks at the bodyguard curiously. “Are you coming to the beach with us later, Mr. Mascot?”

“I go where Miss Emu goes.” He repeats what could almost be his tagline. Rui swears it comes up at least once in every conversation he’s had with the bodyguard in the few years he’s known Mr. Mascot and Emu. 

He nods. “Well, if I were you, I would get ready soon. Emu said once we’ve settled in and we’re ready, we can head down to the shore.” 

Mr. Mascot huffs, gives him a thumbs up, and closes his door. Rui watches the man dressed in pink and white vanish behind the white door and briefly wonders if it was he or Emu who made such a decision on the colour of his pajamas.

Rui slides his own door shut and changes out of the cozy clothes he drove half the night into a more vivid, tropical print pair of swimming trunks and a comical Hawaiian patterned shirt. He tops off his absolutely ridiculous outfit with a green bucket hat and looks in the mirror with a chuckle. He narrows his eyes and smiles deviously at his attire. It was fabulous. He looked disastrous.

He strides back downstairs to reconvene with the rest of his friends, finding Emu and Nene sitting on the couch together looking through a guide to all of the attractions and tourist traps nearby. 

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” Rui hums as he strides downstairs. Emu and Nene perk up and him, and Nene shakes her head calmly. This wasn’t one of the times where he catches them by surprise while they do something cheesy and completely embarrassing Nene. Next time, maybe. 

“Nope! We were waiting for you to get ready!” Emu says, leaning into Nene’s shoulder with a smile. 

“You look like ass .” The singer quips, expression so grim you would think her whole family just died. Rui lights up.

“Excellent! That’s how I know this outfit is wonderful!” He cackles, adjusting the brim of his hat. He lets Emu take a look at his hideous abomination of fabric that could be called an outfit and sees her eyes light up.

Nene grimaces and looks away, mumbling under her breath bitterly. She pretends to scoff. “All of that time in the closet just to learn nothing .” 

“Now you sound like Mizuki,” He tuts. Finally, he bothers to notice her outfit. “You look lovely enough to make up for me, wouldn’t you say, Emu?”

Nene did genuinely look nice as opposed to him. She’d pulled a white sundress over her bathing suit, which wasn’t much other than a matching, simple white one, and had a large sunhat on the couch beside her. Emu, on the other hand, had a vibrant yellow and blue frilly skirt and halter top combo. Even their shoes could show their personality– Nene had simple brown sandals on and Emu had bright pink flip-flops.

“I like Rui’s goofy outfit,” Emu puffs her cheeks out. “He looks like an American stereotype.”

Rui claps his hands together, then points to Nene’s bubblegum girlfriend. “You get it! Really, Emu, you get me so much better than my own neighbour and childhood friend…” 

Rui digs his phone out of his pocket and checks the time. He feels the need to point out that his shorts are just as comical as his shirt is, black with a bunch of tropical flowers and parrots all over them. He looked like a jungle wildlife field guide.

“It’s eleven, how about we hang around the beach until noon and get some lunch then?” He offers with a smile. Emu and Nene nod and chirp their agreements, and a few moments later Mr. Mascot waddles his way down the steps. 

He adjusts a pair of pitch-black sunglasses over his eyes. He was dressed in all black for what he did have on, which was limited to a T-shirt and shorts. The only non-black part of his outfit was the drawstring to his shorts, which was grey, and not that much of an improvement.

“Miss Emu, are we all ready?” He asks. The girl nods and springs to her feet, and Nene slowly gets up after. 

“Yup! All good to go-go-go!!” She cheers, slinging a tote bag over her shoulder. Rui catches the way his neighbour smiles fondly at her and finds himself smiling when they take each other's hands idly. He won’t deny he’s overjoyed for them, especially since he hasn’t seen Nene this happy in his life.

Mr. Mascot treads off down to the first floor’s back door. He stops and pulls open a closet tucked by the door and pulls out a plethora of things; A canopy, a sandcastle kit, sunscreen, and a few colourful beach towels. He holds all of it in his arms, closes the closet door with his foot, and still manages to open the back door.

“Can I get any of that for you…?” Rui tries. Mr. Mascot shakes his head and holds the door open with his heel. 

“I have this under control.” He says, stubborn as ever. Rui nods and slips outside, girls behind him chattering about the attractions they read about. 

The wooden walkway from the back of the Ootori family beach house leads directly to the sandy beach. Tall grass sways in the sea breeze and rustles against itself, creating a quiet symphony with the waves as they crash into the sand. The far-off chatter of beachgoers and birds create a distant chorus to accompany the orchestra that the coastline makes.

Each steady footstep and creak of aging, solid wood draws the three closer to the beach, before the grains of a pale golden sand become more abundant on the boards. Soon it becomes buried beneath the dunes and Rui sets foot on the grain. 

It makes a crunch beneath his sandal. He takes in the sight.

Very few people were on the beach– it was almost like a private beach, where only a few people bothered to show up. He can count a handful of people on the sand or in the water. Everyone is scattered and leaves plenty of open space.

“Where do you want to set up base camp?” Rui asks, looking at the girls behind him. Emu steps forward and points to a spot nearby.

“Right there!” She says, then hands Nene her beach bag. She charges forward at a full sprint and goes directly into a cartwheel in the sand, landing on her feet and pointing at the ground beneath her. 

Nene shakes her head. “I don’t know how she does it.”

“She’s a stunt acrobat,” Rui reminds her with a laugh, following the overly energetic girl. “Your girlfriend could quite literally spin circles around us without breaking a sweat.” 

“It’s still impressive.” Nene says, trotting behind him. She steps up beside her girlfriend, who grins and gives her a big hug. 

Mr. Mascot drops everything in his arms before them, then gets to work on setting up the canopy. This time, he doesn’t complain when Rui tries to help. Emu and Nene lay out their beach towels and sit down together. 

Rui pulls the canopy’s tarp over its framework as Nene shakes the sunscreen bottle and squeezes it out onto her fingertips. He and Mr. Mascot open it up and raise the legs while Nene rubs the sunscreen into Emu’s arms. He kicks sand over the foot of the canopy to keep it in the sand as his neighbor smothers her girlfriend in sunscreen. 

He sits down and has to apply sunscreen by himself, alone, while they switch and Emu gets to put copious amounts of SPF on her girlfriend. Nene fusses at her for putting way too much on and having far too much excess on her.

“Don’t worry! All the extra can wash off in the water!” Emu says, snapping the lid to the sunscreen bottle shut and running her hands over her own knees to work in the sunscreen on her hand. The singer wipes her hands on the towel and takes her sunglasses off before she climbs to her feet.

She holds her hand out and helps her girlfriend up as Rui smears a glob of sunscreen onto himself. All alone, the poor third wheel. 

Well, not totally alone, because Mr. Mascot is standing with his arms crossed at the edge of the canopy. He carefully watches the girls as Emu pulls Nene off by the hand into the ocean and begins to splash her. 

“Are you not going into the water with them?” Rui asks, rubbing the glob of sunscreen into his arm. It smells strongly of a coconut scent and makes Rui grimace a little as it wafts into his nose without an invitation. “Surely you’d want to remain close.” 

“I don’t want to disturb Miss Emu’s time with her girlfriend.” The bodyguard answers. “I can watch her from a distance and she remains safe.” 

“I see.” 

“And what about you? Are you going out there with them?” 

“I’m quite alright in the shade.” Rui says, still pouring sunscreen into his hands and coating his skin with enough sunscreen to repel any UV rays for the next week.

“It wouldn’t hurt for you to spend some time in the sun. You’re the same shade as the chalk I use in the gym.” Mr. Mascot says a little smugly.

Rui winces. Yowch. Okay. There were nicer ways to call someone pale. 

He looks at his legs. Were they seriously that pale? Did he really have no drop of melanin nor any shade of tan on his body? He kicks his leg out to compare it to the sand. 

His face drops and he pales in comparison. In fact, his skin almost looks like a light shade of blue compared to the golden grains. He shudders and decides that just maybe his vampiric sunbathing habits needed to change. 

He quietly pulls a towel out from underneath the canopy’s shade and sits on it like a small child. And like a small child, he spots the sand castle set the bodyguard had taken from the closet. A grin crosses his face and he grabs the miniature shovel, the colourful plastic castle mould, and begins to pile sand into it. 

Small shovelful by shovelful, he fills the bucket to the brim. He pads it down and flips it. He hits the mould lightly to let the sand free from it, then lifts it up carefully.

The sand pours back into the dunes like a broken hourglass. He pouts at his collapsed fortress. Alright. So he has to go get water for this build. That’s fine, that’s okay. 

With a sigh, he climbs to his feet and carries the castle-shaped mould to the water’s edge. He kneels down and scoops some saltwater into his castle mould, then digs his fingers into the wet sand and slaps it down into the container with a wet slap . Tiny bits of shell are buried in the golden sand and mixed in with his castle now. 

He scoops two more handfuls of wet sand in and drops them in his mould with a loud and watery noise. Grains of sand cover his hands and have found their way under his nails, but he has plenty of wet sand. 

Satisfied, he trots back to his previous attempt and shovels some of that leftover sand into his mould, pats it down firmly, and flips the mould. He lets it sit on the sand for a second, presses it down into the ground, then gingerly pulls it away to reveal a perfectly sculpted sandcastle.

Rui grins proudly at his creation and sticks a little, tiny nearby piece of driftwood into one of the turrets. He notices the sideways glance Mr. Mascot gives him and the lingering gaze on his masterpiece. When he looks at the unreadable barrier of sunglasses, there’s a quiet huff and the bodyguard turns his head away. 

Rui snickers. He’s about to pipe up and say something about inviting the bodyguard to build sandcastles with him, when the sound of a wagon rumbling its wheels on the sand approaches. He looks over to the source and he swears something in his chest goes wrong, because his heart stutters and then begins to double its rate. 

Walking towards him is this absolute visionary. Initially, Rui would mistake him for a model walking towards him. He feels his jaw slack as the wind ever-so-slightly picks up and blows this boy’s blond hair in the breeze. It dances across his face where it sticks out beneath his white baseball cap.

He’s got a red jacket over his shoulders with a lifeguard symbol on the breast. The shorts have the same symbol on the bottom of one leg, hanging right above his knees where the sun has clearly left its mark on his skin. A little sourly, Rui looks at his snow white legs again before he glances back at the lifeguard’s sunkissed skin.

He looks at the boy’s face again and meets his eyes this time– and oh. They’re gorgeous. They’re amber, glowing and shimmering in the summer sun. He looks like he belongs on the beach, on the cover of a summer magazine, or in a summer blockbuster. 

But here he is. Rui feels his mouth run dry and suddenly the summer heat is unbearable.

"Hey there!” He says, smiling at Rui as he strides closer with his wagon in tow. Suddenly he’s this loser sitting here with a generic sandcastle and nothing to show for himself. Sweat begins to bead on the back of his neck.

“Hi!” Rui sputters, looking at the blond with beady eyes. He offers a smile.

“Do you need any water? It’s hot out today, so they’ve got me passing it out.” The boy says, pulling a few bottles out of his wagon. Rui looks at him blankly and furrows his brow, then glances over at Emu and Nene where they were in the water. 

Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to get those two some water. He looks back over at the boy, who’s looking at him with those pretty amber eyes. They gleam at him and practically sparkle in the sun. Rui watches them gleam and sparkle.

He loses his train of thought. He loses all sense of everything, really, and just stares at this lifeguard. A warm feeling settles itself in his chest and he allows it to resonate within him, bringing a warm smile to his face as he looks at the blond. 

“We’ll take a few water bottles.” Mr. Mascot says, snapping Rui out of his daze. He looks up at the bodyguard, who’s standing over him with his arms crossed. “Five should be plenty.” 

The lifeguard grins and nods, pulling out five bottles in his arms. He hands them off to Emu’s bodyguard. One slips from his grasp and falls in front of Rui, right onto his sand castle. 

“Oh! Jeez, sorry about that!” The blond says, leaning down to pick it up.

“It’s alright, I got it–” Rui starts, reaching out for it.

He almost dies. His hand brushes the lifeguard’s hand, and it’s so unbearably soft and gentle that it sends an electric shock through him that sends his heart rate to dangerous levels. He feels his face burn and sear with a heat that was not the summer sun. 

It’s almost like fireworks go off when the lifeguard laughs and picks up the water bottle, hands it to Mr. Mascot, then pats the stunned Rui’s shoulder. 

“Sorry about your sandcastle, that was my bad,” He grins apologetically, then grabs the handle of his wagon and begins to walk away. “Have a nice day! Stay safe in the sun!” 

Then he’s gone, taking his wagon of water bottles and his beautiful face down the beach and away from Rui. A pout slips onto his lips as he watches the footprints and tire tracks in the stand stretch farther and farther away.

Rui looks at his destroyed sandcastle and decides it's better off unrepaired. 

He sits there looking longingly at the footprints in the sand around his castle’s ruins until Emu and Nene come back, picking their towels up and drying their wet and stringy hair. Nene wipes her face off and wraps her towel around her, looking at Rui with narrowed eyes.

“What’s with you?” She asks. He gives her a blank look. “You’re bright red.” 

“Rui looks like a crab! Snap, snap! ” Emu makes claws with her hands and pinches Nene’s cheeks from behind. The singer flushes red.

Rui feels his cheeks and glances back at the footprints in the sand. With a pathetic excuse of a chuckle, he looks up at the girls with an embarrassed smile. 

“It’s just the sun,” He lies. He gives a warning glance to Mr. Mascot, who’s too busy cracking open a water bottle for Emu. “I may be a little burnt.” 

Nene suspiciously nods, giving him a wary look before she turns back to her girlfriend. Rui feels the heat on his face again and silently curses himself. Then he curses that lifeguard. 

It doesn’t last long– in fact, he takes it back immediately. He was too enchanting to dislike. It was all in the way his peachy hair framed his face or the way his eyes gleamed when he smiled or the way he didn’t even slightly upset Rui when he accidentally destroyed his sandcastle or the sincerity in his strong voice when he apologized for it. 

Rui savours the memory of his interaction with– 

…Wait. 

He didn’t even get that guy’s name. 

Waking up in the beach house the next day was pure bliss. The bed was perfect, the air was cool and not hot or stuffy in the slightest, and it was still dark.

Rui yawns and checks his phone. 5:47 .

He’s up early. Nobody else seems to be up judging by the relative silence of the house. He leans back into the pillows and tries to close his eyes again, tries to go back to sleep, but it won’t work. His eyes won’t shut and he needs to be upright now.

He drags himself out of bed reluctantly, out of the soft comfort of the blankets to start his first true day on vacation. His rest was well deserved after yesterday’s events– the beach trip, his encounter with an angel, and exploring nearby beach shops for souvenir shirts or beach items.

He digs another shirt out of his bag and a pair of shorts, changes, then grabs his toothbrush and crumpled tube of toothpaste and waddles to the bathroom.

He looks at his reflection. His eye bags were gone for the time being, but his eyes looked naked without his favourite eyeliner coming out from the corners of his eyes. With a sleepy hum, he turns on the water and squeezes out a glob of toothpaste onto his toothbrush. 

He runs the brush over his teeth until he’s got them clean, rinses it off, and sets it down beside the sink. His hair’s a mess. 

He shuffles back into his room, grabs his hairbrush and eyeliner, and looks in the mirror again. He brushes his hair in every direction– up, down, upside down , and then takes his bangs and ruffles them with his hand until they fall into their usual place. 

He twists open the liquid eyeliner, wipes the excess on the rim, and makes his neat lines out from the corner of his chartreuse eyes. He blinks once or twice, looks at himself, and gives a thumbs up to his reflection. 

Since it’s still early, he can go take a walk on the beach and collect some shells or something for Nene. He quietly waddles downstairs and goes to the back door, slips his sandals on, and quietly escapes to the ramp. 

The morning air was fresh and crisp. There was a gentle breeze, light and barely noticeable, blowing his hair out of his face. Low light makes every bit of the beach seem calmer, waves eating away at the shore in a much gentler fashion than it had during the day. 

He stands on the wooden ramp and admires the morning when he hears the fussing of two girls in the house nearby. He spares a glance up to see a tall girl with baby blue hair spilling over her shoulders as another with a short navy bob trying to help her figure out a camera.

"Okay, now aim it where you want your picture…” The girl with a bob says. Rui swears he recognises her voice. “And then press that button!” 

The tall girl fumbles for a moment, presses the button, and her camera makes a click! audible even from where Rui stands. She gasps.

“There you go, Shizuku, good job!”

“Oh my! Thank you, Haruka, this is beautiful! I’ll have to show Airi and Minori!” 

Rui blinks flatly. It was far too early in the morning to wonder how Emu had managed to get them in a beach house beside More More Jump. He turns back to the ocean.

He looks at the beach again and considers taking his own pictures. It’s a beautiful morning. His eyes can the shore. In the distance, he sees a figure running along the water’s edge towards him. Steadily, the silhouette approaches until it becomes a recognisable figure.

Rui’s heart betrays him when he sees just who it is jogging in the sand. It’s the lifeguard, on what looks like a morning run. 

Rui begins to slowly walk to the beach as he gazes at the figure, wood turning to sand beneath his feet as the lifeguard comes closer and closer. The morning sun breaches the horizon and casts long shadows on the sand, two lonely figures drawing closer to each other. 

The golden sun paints an outline on the lifeguard. It highlights him, marking his beautiful existence and making him glow. The waves wash away the trail he leaves in the sand. The sky’s pastel hues blend with the sun’s fiery glow as it paints the clouds and it dyes the sea’s surface in its colours.

Rui steps forward slowly, watching carefully, as the lifeguard runs to him. God Rui wishes it was him this boy was running to. And Rui really wishes he knew his name, as well. 

He looks down at his feet as the blond runs towards him, and he’ll run right past Rui without a second glance. He swallows hard and sighs. He wants to meet this angelic guy one more time. He has a single ace in the hole, one hail mary, and he’s gonna use it. 

He strides forward into the sand, digs his shoes in the sand, and in a desperate bid to garner the lifeguard’s attention, elegantly and gracefully face plants into the sand with a yelp. 

He waits, face buried in the golden grain, until he hears the telltale footsteps of someone approaching in the sand. He groans into the dirt and pushes himself up to see sand-covered running shoes.

“Are you alright?” The boy asks, kneeling down to his height. Rui scrunches his throbbing face and manages to sit up, looking at the boy. The sun frames him as it rises over the horizon. It draws a line around him, making a halo around the lifeguard as he hovers over Rui carefully.

The light frames him like a priceless masterpiece, a work of art that puts the Mona Lisa to shame. The curve of his face, the dip of his collar, the ways his hair neatly falls but the ends stubbornly flick up at angles that make it gorgeous nonetheless– all of it traps Rui and draws him in. 

He meets the blond’s eyes. His brow is furrowed in worry. The way he looks at him with attentive care– even if they’re strangers– makes his heart flutter. The pools of halcyon golds and flamelike oranges draw him in like a siren’s call, beckoning him to drown within them. Rui would gladly die a poor sinner’s death in this boy’s heavenly eyes.

It takes him a moment to snap out of his trance.

“Yeah, I…I’m good.” He gushes, wiping his face off. Grains of sand stick to his face and fall back to the beach. The boy grins at him and stands up, offering his hand out to help him up. 

“Oh, good! I was worried when you didn’t move!” The lifeguard says. Rui feels grains of sand in his nose. He reaches up and takes the boy’s soft hand. This is the second time they’ve touched and it has the same effect on Rui.

His chest sears with a new feeling. His heart pounds. He gives a wimpy smile back at the lifeguard, who seems to light up.

“Oh!! You’re the guy who’s sandcastle I accidentally smashed yesterday!” The blond tilts his head and laughs. “I’m really sorry about that. I should’ve helped you rebuild it.” 

“Oh, no, it’s quite alright. My friends came back from the ocean soon after, so I would’ve had to leave it if you didn’t destroy it.” Rui says, being pulled to his feet. He looks at his knees– they’re scraped and bleeding from his fall. Ah.

“Jeez, you had a nasty fall…Normally I have a first-aid kit on me as a lifeguard, but I never really carry anything on my morning runs.” The blond says. Rui shakes his head. 

“I’ll be alright, I’m staying at the house right behind me so I can patch myself up inside.” He says, noticing the way the blond still hasn’t let his hand go. He doesn’t know whether to draw away or squeeze tighter. 

“Really? Well, I guess you’ll be okay then…” The lifeguard says, still looking at the scratches on his knees with concern. “Still, I feel bad. I could try and make up for the sandcastle.”

“Really, you don’t have to worry about the sandcastle,” Rui says, and much to his dismay, the lifeguard takes hand away. “I think your kindness is enough, so thank you…er–”

“Tsukasa!” The blond says, beaming. “My name is Tenma Tsukasa!” 

“Thank you, Tsukasa.” He replies. “My name is Kamishiro Rui.”

“Well, it’s no trouble at all, Rui!” Tsukasa laughs. “Should you need something, don’t hesitate to ask me!”

Rui nods. “I’ll keep you in mind.” 

At that moment, his phone rings. He fishes it out of his pocket and checks the caller ID. It seems that Nene had gotten up, only to find there was no Rui nor any sign of him in sight. He accepts her call.

“Good morning, Nene,” He chuckles. 

“Morning. Where the hell did you run off to?” She asks, sleepy voice clearly irritated. “Emu said she heard you leave.”

“Don’t worry, I’m just down at the beach.” He says. “I’ll be back inside soon.”

“Right. Well, hurry up. I want to win Emu some prizes at the boardwalk today.” Nene says quietly. Rui laughs and smiles, glancing over at the blond, who’s retying his shoe while he waits for Rui to finish up his call.

“Of course. I won’t be long. See you soon, Nene.” He says, then promptly hangs up and shoves his phone back in his pocket. He looks back at the blond, who’s done with his shoes.

There’s an awkward pause. The salty sea air was suddenly far too brackish for his taste. The sun was climbing into the morning sky and making everything bright and back to usual. 

“Well,” Tsukasa starts, and Rui feels his face make a sad expression. The lifeguard looks around, watches the waves, and giggles when he looks back at Rui. “ Sea you later!”

The pun is so stupid that it forces Rui to crack a smile and laugh. He keeps laughing until a snort manages to worm out of him and it's enough to make the blond laugh with him.

Rui gives him a lopsided grin. “Tsukasa, shell we meet again soon?” 

Tsukasa laughs and covers his mouth. His smile is priceless. Rui never wants to forget it. He commits it to memory and puts it with the collection of invaluable sights to behold.

Tsukasa uncovers his smile and gives him a small wave. “Farewell, Rui!” 

Rui sadly brings his own hand up to wave. “Until we meet again.”

He doesn’t want Tsukasa to leave, he wants to live in the moment forever. It’s unfair how fleeting their meetings are. They’re so brief that Rui wants to catch Tsukasa’s hand as he walks away. He wants nothing more than to reach out and take hold of his wrist and maybe plead for him to stay a little longer. 

Again, the lifeguard runs away from him. He runs along the beach and moves on. It’s like a fairytale–maybe Cinderella, where Rui is the prince who keeps getting abandoned before the clock strikes midnight. 

But that’d be weird. They just met. They don’t know each other, it’s not like they’ve shared a dance among the gardens late into the night. He’s no prince charming, and Tsukasa’s no Cinderella.

He turns and makes his way back inside. Maybe he's Juliet and Tsukasa is his Romeo, chasing after something not meant to be. 

That’s still wrong. All of these are love stories, all sappy and all stories of two people who caught feelings after a brief glance. Love at first sight. Rui’s fairly certain he’s not madly in love with someone after talking to them twice, it’s unlike him. It’s just not going to happen. 

Rui’s just someone he’s spoken to in passing. He’s nothing more than an acquaintance on a list of people the blond has met.

So he ignores the traitorous heart that resides beneath his ribs and goes back inside.

“Woah! Everything is so shiny!” Emu gasps, looking at the massive metal attractions and glowing neon signs. She darts circles around everyone else, fluttering from one thing to the next in the blink of an eye. 

Nene pushes her sunglasses further up on her nose and holds her phone up to get pictures. “This place is nice. There’s no big crowds.” 

“That means we can go to all of the cool shops and stands!” Emu cheers, bouncing up on her toes and back down. Mr. Mascot crosses his arms and hovers behind their group defensively. 

“Where do you want to go first, Emu?” Nene asks, taking a look at the boardwalk’s endless games, stands, stores, and restaurants. The bubblegum girl waves her head back and forth in thought.

“Uhh,” She hums loudly. “Let’s go check out that game over there!” 

She points and takes Nene by the hand, pulling her away and leaves her bodyguard and Rui to follow. The singer looks back at Rui for a moment as Emu gawks at the bottle game. 

Nene digs some money out of her bag and hands it to Emu so she can pay for them, then hands her bag and phone to Rui. She gives him a dead serious glare as she turns her camera on and taps her phone.

“Get pictures. Make them good.” She says, then turns back to her girlfriend. Rui holds her phone up and takes a few pictures of himself while the man running the game goes over the rules, then turns it around to get a few shots of them playing together. 

Emu wins, Rui gets a few pictures of them, and she wins a mini clownfish plushie. 

Nene drags them to a basketball shooting game and loses miserably. Rui captures photo evidence of it. He says something about her “walk of shame” as she walks away from the minigame. 

By the time they’re done at the boardwalk, Nene’s gallery is full of surprisingly quality pictures. Shots of her and Emu all playing games together, sharing takoyaki, and one shot Rui snuck of Emu kissing her cheek while they look at the ocean. She blushes when she sees it and looks at Emu fondly and Rui sourly.

They leave the boardwalk and get lunch at a food truck, before they go back to the beach house. All four of them walk through the door and Rui couldn’t be more thankful for air conditioning. 

“That was so much fun, Nene!” Emu says, giggling and smiling ear to ear. Nene can’t help but do the same. Rui walks right past their lovey-dovey moment and kicks his shoes off.

He pulls the fridge open and swipes out a bottle of water and a bag of candy. He wanders to the couch and lays back with his feet propped up. 

He grabs the remote and turns on some random show– it didn’t really matter. His limbs were exhausted and it was hot. He cracks the water bottle open and takes a long drink. The plastic makes a crack and he realizes he’s already downed half of the bottle. 

He pops some candy in his mouth as the girls come over and sit on the other seat together. Mr. Mascot sits on a barstool behind them. Rui grabs his phone and opens a game while he munches on the candy.

The air cools down by the time Rui goes up to his room. The girls wanted to watch a movie together, and he wasn’t too interested in third-wheeling their movie night. He sits on his balcony and looks out at the water. 

The sun is climbing down the horizon behind him, leaving him to gaze at the darkened sky and the stars that begin to eat through the fading daylight. He quietly watches the water. 

His phone quietly plays music and he leans back in the wicker seat. It creaks as he wipes his face. He takes another drawn-out deep breath and looks back on the day.

His knees hurt where he took his great fall this morning– Emu took the liberty of covering him in bandaids, so now they’re pink and blue and yellow instead of bruised and bloody. He smiles when he looks at the cute patterns on her bandaids. 

His eyes are drawn back to the sand, to the shore and the sea, and remembers the interaction that led him to bust his knees on the sand. He can’t help but cringe when he thinks of himself and just how awkward he was. In front of Tsukasa, no less.

And his name– Tenma Tsukasa. How did such a perfect face come with such a perfect name? Impossible. This boy is more flawless than a diamond. 

Rui feels his face warm when he pictures the way Tsukasa smiled at him, the way his eyes crinkled at the edges and the way it all seemed so natural on his face. He chuckles to himself quietly. Such a smile, just for him…It’s something he wouldn’t mind to see more often. 

And, really, he was absolutely gorgeous. It made Rui feel like a lowly slug in comparison. He could watch Tsukasa for days– smiling at him, running along the beach, taking his hands, simply standing on the shore with the wind blowing his hair around.

Rui sighs and looks at the sky again. The moon smiles at him where it peeks over the horizon. He stands up and leans on the banister. Maybe one day, he could sit and watch the night sky with Tsukasa. 

“Ah.” 

Rui feels something in his mind click– or maybe his heart. He feels his chest, the pounding drum of his pulse unusually high. A swarm of butterflies eat away at his stomach. They may as well be devouring him from the inside out. He looks at the moon again.

He’s experiencing the very thing he never thought possible. It was unrealistic, but here’s Rui– the desperate prince charming, chasing the mystery princess, the helpless Juliet, yearning for the beloved Romeo.

It’s all so absolutely jarring that he has to say it out loud to understand it.

“I like him. I like a boy I just met.”

Rui wakes up burdened with knowledge the next morning. Ignorance is bliss and Rui is in misery. He feels sluggish and his whole body is exhausted. 

His phone says it’s 9 in the morning. That makes sense– it’s bright and he can’t go back to sleep if he tries. So painstakingly, he gets up, goes through his morning routine, and trudges downstairs. 

Everything’s a bit of a hazy blur as he has a crisis over his sudden and abrupt realization of his feelings. Before he knows it, they’re at the beach. He looks in his hands and he’s got a water gun, aiming it at Nene and Emu where they stand in the water. 

Emu squeals when he hits her square in the back and she tries to duck. Rui laughs and follows her with his aim. He can’t pass up an opportunity to terrorise his friends at the beach. 

He turns and hits Nene in the bangs with his water gun, causing her to shriek and retreat to deeper waters. Rui goes in pursuit of her, dunking his water gun beneath the waves for a refill. 

He laughs maniacally and shoots another stream of water at her. Nene wails and tries to splash him back. The waves are already hard enough for Rui to keep his balance in. He turns to the side, shooting from the side poorly and he manages to get a hit on Nene. 

“Nene!” Emu wails, wading over loudly. Water sprays and splashes everywhere with each step. “I’ll protect you, Nene!” 

“Emu…” Nene laughs, ducking behind her girlfriend. She clears her throat. “Oh, thank you, my knight in shining armour!”

“It’s nothing!” Emu shouts. “I’ll save you from the wicked sorcerer!” 

Rui raises his water gun to the girls with another cackle. “Oh? You truly believe that you can defeat me? I look forward to our battle, Lady Ootori.” 

“Bring it on!”

Rui wades deeper into the water and sprays Emu relentlessly. She leans down and splashes him with vigour, sending water spraying up at him. 

“Emu, I’ll assist you!” Nene says in her fairytale voice, then begins to splash Rui as well. He garbles when salt water sprays in his mouth and nearly gags. 

He coughs and moves forward in the water. He’s up to his waist in it now, and the waves are sending him back and forth. Emu and Nene are doing just fine, but Rui’s like a piece of seaweed at the mercy of the current. 

Regardless, he marches forth. His mission will not be in vain. The wicked sorcerer will not surrender. He casts his cruel hydromancy upon the girls, who return their own in tenfold. 

The tide has picked up since he first got in. He’s been thrown side to side where he stands– or maybe he’s just being dramatic, because the girls look absolutely unbothered. 

That’s when he loses his footing in the water and falls under. From there, it’s saltwater, thrashing, burning lungs, a whistle , and someone’s dragging him out of the water by the arms. He looks up, and through blurry vision, he sees blond hair and sunkissed skin. The hands around him are soft and he spits water out of his mouth with an unhealthy dose of vomit.

At that point, he closes his eyes.

Next thing you know, he’s sitting on the couch with a towel around his shoulders and ice cream in his mouth. 

“I can’t believe I got heat exhaustion.” He grumbles, spoon of ice cream in his mouth. The ends of his hair drip onto the towel as Nene points a third fan at him. 

“You also showed us that you can’t swim,” She says. “So I don’t even know why you went that deep to begin with.” 

“I was having fun, give me a break.” He frowns. He digs another scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream out of the tub and sticks it in his mouth. 

“Sure, sure, next time I’ll remember to wrap you in floaties and make you drink a few gallons of water beforehand.” She muses dryly. Rui scrunches his nose. 

“I don’t do well in the sun,” He pouts. “Cut me some slack.” 

“You’re getting enough slack eating that toothpaste ice cream in front of me. I feel like I’m your mom.” 

“My mom would’ve stuck an ice pack on me and told me to walk it off.” 

“Your mom had to deal with you for 18 years. I only have to deal with you on this trip.” Nene says, turning the fan to full blast. “Now, I’m gonna go–”

Someone knocks on the door to the beach house downstairs. Emu perks up and prances down, and Rui tries to eavesdrop on the chatter below. Nene falls quiet as well. 

“Oh! Airi! Come upstairs!” Emu shouts, and a few moments later, national idol sensation Momoi Airi is standing in their living room. 

“Thanks, Emu! I– oh, what’s with him?” Airi stops to ask. Rui feels himself turn an embarrassed red and shovels another scoop of ice cream into his mouth.

"Rui got overheated.” Emu says. Rui shrinks away. 

“Oh! Well, I hope he feels better soon. I came over to invite you three to our party we’re having tonight! It’s our last night at the beach house, and Shizuku wanted to celebrate our stay.” Airi explains. 

Emu lights up. “Ooh! Sounds fun! We’ll try to make it!”

“Great! See you guys there!” 

With that, the idol leaves without another word. Rui looks at Emu and scrunches his nose.

“Remind me how you’re friends with More More Jump, please.” He says. It was beyond him that he somehow personally knew the idol group. 

“We went to Miya Girls together!” Emu chimes. “Airi-chan and I made Valentine’s chocolates together one year!” 

Rui squints and looks her up and down, then shakes his head and scoops more ice cream into his greedy little mouth. He looks at the girls with sleepy eyes.

“Does this mean I have to get ready?” He mumbles through the ice cream in his mouth. Emu checks her watch.

“Not yet! Airi says it’ll be after the sun goes down to we can watch the sparklie-sparklies go boo-boo-boo-boom!” She says, wiggling her fingers in the air over her head. Rui frowns.

“Fireworks? I have a headache…” He mumbles. Nene kicks his shin and he whimpers, doubling over to cradle his leg. 

“Take some painkillers. Get ready at 7.” She says. “Take a nap until then. Emu and I are gonna go out for a bit.” 

Rui promptly falls to his side on the couch and shoots a thumbs up into the air. A few minutes later, it’s just him and his ice cream in the beach house. He takes the spoon out of his mouth and pulls the blanket over his head. He yawns and that’s the end of it.

Rui strides in through the door behind Emu and Nene. He scratches the back of his neck and follows the girls with Mr. Mascot in tow. 

“Emu! There you are!” Airi says, running to the door. The lights of the beach house are off and are placed by neon strings of light and glow sticks. She beams at them and waves, fangs peeking through her grin.

“Ah! Hello, you three– er, four?” Hinomori Shizuku herself greets them, head tilting when she sees Mr. Mascot behind them. He takes his sunglasses off. 

“I’m Miss Emu’s bodyguard.” He says, folding his eyewear with a sharp snap. He places them in his shirt pocket. “Please, act as if I’m not here.” 

Shizuku nods and a girl with silver hair beside her elbows her, leaning and whispering something like “Don’t you have bodyguards all the time at fan meet and greets?”, and the idol just ruffles the girl’s hair and smiles at her sweetly. 

Hanasato Minori and Kiritani Haruka waved at them from the living room. Rui still couldn’t wrap his head around the sheer amount of fame he was in the same room as, let alone being invited to spend time with them like regular college kids. 

“Come sit down! We’re only waiting on two more people now that you guys are here.” Haruka says, patting the seats. Minori nods vigorously and scoots closer to the navy-haired idol, almost pressed as close as she can get. 

“Do you guys want anything to drink? We have flavoured water, ramune, and tea– there’s going to be alcohol after we do the fireworks show tonight.” Shizuku says, opening the fridge and revealing a trove of different drinks. 

Shizuku kindly brings them all their drinks– ramune for Rui and Emu, and tea for Nene– and suddenly he’s sitting on the couch gossiping with More More Jump and Shizuku’s little sister, Shiho. 

“Our agent says we should go to summer music festivals in Tokyo this month. I think it’d be great if it didn’t overlap with Minori’s invitation to guest star on a game show that same week.” Airi says, munching on the snacks they’d set out: basic party food. 

“Yeah! I think it’d be great, but I’m pretty sure there’s a festival in Osaka the next weekend we could get! I wish my crummy luck didn’t cause us to miss the one our agent wants us at, though.” Minori sighs. 

“Our agent booked us in Osaka a few shows back, and it was brutal to get the visual effects and setlist in time. They kept triggering the wrong ones, like smoke pillars when we played ‘Flyway’ and then the screens were wrong when we rehearsed ‘Voices’ the first time. The set crew busted my bass case handle, too.” Shiho says, listing off the problems on her fingers. “Someone misplaced Saki’s inhaler at one point and her brother had to come backstage and give us the one he keeps on hand for her.” 

“Jeez, at least he was at that show.” Haruka says. 

“It’s like that time my cables snapped during a mid-air stunt!” Emu says. “I was doing a flip over some glass and two of my cables came undone! It left me going swishy swish over the set pieces for a few minutes!” 

Rui shakes his head and takes a drink of his soda. “I can’t stand incompetent set crews. They’re always a pain to work with, let alone to direct.”

The idols mumble in agreement. Nene runs a hand through her thick seafoam hair. 

“I never really have issues with set crews, but musical theater is a little different than stunt work or idol concerts.” She confesses. She smiles a little. “All I really have to do is make sure my microphone works before I get out there and do my thing.” 

Before anyone else can speak up, the door opens and two more people stride in. Rui looks up from his drink and feels like a deer caught in headlights.

“Shii!” A girl with blonde twintails bounds inside and tackles Shiho in a hug. The bassist flushes pink and pats her arm as she looks away. Shizuku giggles. 

The other person looks at Rui and waves. It’s Tsukasa. 

Suddenly, Rui is reminded of his little incident at the beach this morning. He can see himself being pulled out of the water by someone in his memory. It finally clicks– that blond hair and sunkissed skin was Tsukasa. 

Rui had to be rescued by his very own knight in shining armour. He feels his face burn with embarrassment and he looks away as Shizuku greets him. 

“Tsukasa! You’re here, excellent!” She claps, smiling at him. 

“Indeed! I couldn’t help but make an appearance!” The lifeguard laughs, striking a pose in the doorway. He strides inside and sits down beside Shizuku. He looks around at the gathering, then smiles at the poor, lovestruck boy that was clearly avoiding his gaze. 

“Hey, Rui! Are you doing any better after your bout with heat exhaustion?” He asks, head tilted with concern. Damn, Rui’s heart flutters when he sees the sincerity in his eyes. 

“I’m better now thanks to your help, Tsukasa.” He nods, weakly smiling and blissfully ignoring Nene’s sidelong glance and the way her eyebrow works its way up her face. He doesn’t dare meet her suspicious gaze. 

He still hears her when she leans closer to him and whispers. “ How does he know your name?”  

He keeps smiling at the blond and leans towards Nene. “ Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m glad you’re alright! I was worried– you felt pretty hot when I pulled you out of the water.” Tsukasa casually embarrasses him in front of More More Jump. Rui brings a hand up to his face and looks away.

“I’ve recovered fully since then.” He says quickly, then clears his throat. “So Airi, when did you say the fireworks show was again?”

“Way later.” She says, looking at him curiously. Rui grips his drink and feels his knuckles turn white. He shakes his head and waves it off with his other hand, giving her a gentle smile.  

“Oh, but we can play volleyball now! Everyone’s here!” Shizuku says, clapping. “Let’s go down to the beach, everyone!”

Rui’s heart plummets. He spits his drink out and looks at her. “The beach?”

Nene elbows him and gets up, leaving him to follow the rest of the group. Everyone filters out to the beach and, lo and behold, there’s a volleyball net set up. He feels his shoulders slump. 

“Alright, we’re gonna need teams.” Haruka says, tilting her head. She counts the group out. “There’s ten of us, so five to a team…”

“I’m good, thanks.” Shiho says, taking a seat in the sand. She pulls a pair of sunglasses down onto her face. “I’ll watch.”

“That makes it uneven, so I guess I’ll sit out too.” Nene says, waddling over to the bassist’s side and sitting down beside her. Rui quietly fumes that she beat him to it and gives her the stink eye. 

“Oh, well then!” Shizuku says. “Shii and Nene can cheer us on!” 

“Can we get back on the topic of teams?” Airi asks. She looks at the crowd. “There’s two guys, so we should probably split them up to make it fair.” 

“I understand! In that case, I’ll gladly assume the role of team captain!” Tsukasa shouts, putting a fist to his chest and standing proud. Emu’s eyes glitter beside Rui and she skips over to the blond. Rui resists the urge to grab her by the scruff of her neck and reel her back in. 

“I wanna be on his team!” She says, waving her arms. Haruka chuckles softly and walks over to Rui, standing beside him. 

“I suppose I’ll be the next one and be on Rui’s team.” She says. Her smile is charming. Especially to Minori, because she flushes a bright pink at the way she smiles. 

The girl with blonde twintails slides up beside Tsukasa. It’s just at this moment Rui realises how similar they are– in their faces, in their hair colours, in the way they talk and how they act. 

“I’ll be on Tsukasa’s team!” She says cheerfully.

“Excellent! My wonderful little sister is on my team, so we cannot lose!” Tsukasa shouts.

Ah. That makes sense. 

“I wanna be with Haruka!” Minori suddenly shouts, running over to the girl with navy hair and tackling her in a hug. The idol’s air is knocked out of her, and she pats Minori’s back with a laugh. 

Airi and Shizuku look between their teams. Shizuku wanders over to Tsukasa’s team and smiles. Airi slithers her way over to Rui’s team. He looks at the team he managed to amass. Three out of four More More Jump members. 

“Shii, where’d we put the ball…?” Shizuku asks, glancing around. The bassist looks around, craning her neck to see over the tall grass where the sand meets the dirt. She shrugs.

“Probably inside. I’ll go look.” She says, getting to her feet. She walks back towards the beach house with her hands in her pockets and keeps glancing around for their ball.

“What are your orders, captain?” Minori asks, standing at attention. She waits with expectant eyes watching him. Rui looks at his team again. Haruka and Airi cross their arms and wait quietly.

He scratches his head. To be honest, he’s never played volleyball before. “Uh, we should get our positions.” 

“Got it!” Minori shouts, standing as tall as she can. “In position, girls!”

“And can we explain how to play this game while you’re at it?” He asks tentatively. Haruka chuckles. 

“Of course! Beach volleyball is a little different from normal volleyball, but it doesn’t really matter right now. This is a casual game, so you can learn as we go.” She says. Rui nods.

He hears Nene snort and sees her phone aimed directly at him, and he makes an indignant yelp and kicks sand at her. 

“Quit getting pictures! You’re gonna hang this over my head for ages.” Rui pouts, crossing his arms. Nene grins.

“I’m going to put this in your Hall of Shame.” She says. “Maybe I’ll post it, too. I’ll caption it something like, ‘Idiot can’t play volleyball, embarrasses himself in front of idols’ and post it everywhere.” 

“You wouldn’t dare.” Rui says. Nene only looks at him with her wicked grin plastered on her face. He’s about to say something else when a ball comes out of nowhere and hits him in the shin. 

He looks down at his feet. The volleyball is rolling away from him, and Airi picks it up. Shiho walks by, towel and juice box in hand, and looks at him. “Hey, heads up.” 

"Thanks.” He says dryly. 

Tsukasa clears his throat on the other side of the net. He’s got his team in places, ready to go. Everyone files into their places and Airi gets ready to serve the ball. 

She throws it up in the air. The sun’s setting and it dyes the ball in hues of gold as it goes up into the air. Airi opens her palm and her fingers cast cool, dark shadows into the sand. She hits it and it sails over the net. It comes down above Emu, who hits it up in the air over Saki. She launches it over to Haruka.

The ball goes back and forth, until it goes to Rui and he barely hits it. His poor attempt at a dig scrapes the top of the net and falls back onto their side. 

Tsukasa’s team cheers. The blond smiles, wide and shining, and it almost makes Rui’s failure tolerable. The marigold light captures him in a picturesque vision, highlighting every perfectly carved feature on his face. Seeing the blond smile so beautifully at his loss is a small price to pay. 

“Ha ha! That was only a small taste of what’s to come!” He shouts, arms in the air. He pointed finger guns down at Rui’s team, a proud and smug expression plastered over his face. 

He laughs, looking back at Airi, who’s waiting to serve the ball. He dusts his hands off. The wind blows his hair about his face. 

“Alright, Haruka, I think I got the rules for this game down.” He says confidently. He looks at Tsukasa with a devious smirk, runs a hand through his hair, and holds his arms out. “Bring it on!”

Airi serves the ball, and it lands in Emu’s section of play. She bumps it up and Shizuku smacks it over, directly towards Minori.

“I got it!” The girl shouts, running forward and bumping it back over. She trips and falls to the sand, then springs right back up like nothing happened. 

The ball comes back over to Rui, where he stands in front of the net. He quickly looks to his team and catches the navy idol’s eyes. 

“Haruka!” He shouts, and the girl nods. He sets the ball as it comes down to him, springing it back into the air above his head. 

The idol jumps up and spikes it between Tsukasa’s feet. A cloud of sand floats where the ball landed. Rui’s team cheers and gives each other high fives while the blond makes a surprised wail. 

“Uwaahh! You were so cool Haruka!” Minori says, throwing her arms around her. Haruka’s prepared this time and catches her, patting her back with a smile.

“Rui set that perfectly. We might just be able to win.” She laughs. Minori pulls away and nods excitedly.

“Don’t jinx us! Come on!” Airi says. “Focus!” 

Emu stands with the ball at the back of her team’s side, tongue stuck out in concentration. She serves it over the net and Airi bats it back over just as quickly as it came. Saki hops up to set it and Tsukasa hits it towards the ground where Haruka stands. 

It sails right past her hand. Tsukasa’s team is up by one point again.

Back and forth, the ball meets sand. Point after point, the teams stay neck and neck. Everytime Tsukasa’s team scores, Rui’s team scores right after. Nene actively prays for his downfall by way of encouraging Emu to hit him in the face. 

“Don’t be afraid! He’s got no good looks to ruin!” She shouts from the towel she shares with Shiho as Rui bumps the ball over. He shoots her a playful glare.

“Am I nothing more than a neighbor to you, Nene?” He asks breathlessly as Shizuku hits the ball back to his side. Minori sets it and Airi slams her hand into the ball. Tsukasa stops it with his forearm and Saki recovers it.

“I want to see you suffer.” Nene replies simply. Shiho snorts and takes another drink of juice. The ball lands in the sand between Haruka and Minori. 

Tsukasa laughs again, bold and boisterous, as he claps. “We’re up by two! Try coming back from that!”

Rui narrows his eyes. Airi serves the ball over again, and Tsukasa bumps it back over. Rui returns it to their side. 

The ball bounces between the boys for a minute, before Tsukasa leaps up. He hits the ball with a vicious fury, aim trained on the ground in front of Rui. It comes speeding down with an unstoppable force.

Rui’s face becomes an immovable object with a concerning crunch.

His hands fly to his face as a collective wince and ‘ ooowe…’ resonates from literally every person aside from him. His face is throbbing and the ball rolls at his feet in the sand..

“Hot damn! Rui, are you alright?” Tsukasa asks, ducking under the net and running to his side. Rui lifts his face up and– embarrassing himself again– tears well up from the pain. Tsukasa holds his jaw and looks at his face, pressing his nose lightly. 

“I’m fine,” He says, voice coming out nasally and shrill. “It’s nothing.” 

“Well, your nose isn’t broken.” Tsukasa says. He steps away. “You should be alright.” 

Rui gives his best smile at him, and the blond’s face quickly morphs from apologetic to concerned. 

“Your nose is bleeding…” He says. Rui’s smile drops and he touches the space between his lip and nose, then looks at his fingertips. The crimson rusty colour of blood resides in the grooves of his fingerprints. 

His shoulders slump. He looks at Tsukasa again, blood undoubtedly running down his face now. He looks at the smear on his fingertips again quietly, trying to decide if he wants to play volleyball or sob in pain.

“Let’s call this game and start the fireworks, shall we?” Haruka says, walking off of the court. She looks at the dazed, bloody team leader, then to the one who made him bled. “Tsukasa, can you go patch him up? I’ll get the fireworks.”

“I’ll help carry them!” Minori practically shouts. 

“I can get him all cleaned up! Come on, Rui.” Tsukasa says, starting off towards the house. He follows behind with one hand hovering below his chin, trying to catch any blood that drips down his chin.

Haruka and Minori follow behind, but they stop when they get to the firework stash. Rui follows Tsukasa upstairs and him down on the couch with some tissues.

“I’m really sorry this keeps happening when I’m around– first the sand castle, now your nose…I gotta wrap you in bubble wrap.” Tsukasa laughs. His eyes crinkle again and Rui’s heart pounds. 

He holds Rui’s jaw with one hand and wipes up blood with the other. If Rui is mouth-breathing on his hand as he does, then Tsukasa doesn’t mention it. He just wipes the blood from his face. 

He wads up the bloody tissue and puts it on the table, then rolls up another one and tilts Rui’s head back. 

“Are you okay if I put this in, or do you wanna do it?” He holds up his blood-soaking roll of tissue. Rui points at the blond. 

“You do it.” He says. Tsukasa nods and gently pushes the tissue up his nose. Rui wants to sneeze, but he’ll hold it in. Tsukasa lets him go.

“Is that better?” He asks. Rui taps his nose lightly, then nods.

“Yeah, that’s good.” He says. The blond still furrows his brow.

“Your nose is swollen, I’m going to get you an ice pack.” 

Tsukasa gets up and walks to the freezer and sifts around for a moment. Rui feels his heart beat in every inch of his body. This unusual feeling of warmth spreads through his chest. It’s warm and cozy, comforting him. 

Tsukasa tends to his injuries and looks out for him, and it makes him feel fluffy. He likes it. He would get hurt more often if it meant Tsukasa gets to take care of him at the end of the day.

“Here we go!” Tsukasa says, wrapping the ice pack he found in the freezer with a hand towel. He holds it out and Rui takes it and presses it to his nose. 

The coolness of the ice seeps through the towel and eases his nose a little. It feels better than it did a few minutes ago, at least. He gives Tsukasa a grin.

“Thanks for patching me up,” He says. “You really didn’t have to do that.”

“Nonsense! It’s my fault, so I take responsibility!” Tsukasa says, shaking his head. “Maybe this can make up for the sand castle.”

Rui blurts out a laugh– a genuine, happy laugh. He chuckles and smiles at the idea that still, after all this time, Tsukasa wants to make up for some silly pile of sand he dropped a water bottle on. 

“I don’t think you need to worry about that at all,” Rui says. “How about we go back now? I think my nose will be fine."

The blond nods, and they walk together back out the door. The sun’s gone down over the horizon now. Any shadows are fuzzy and faded from sight except for the light where someone crouches down away from the rest of the group.

The tiny light burns brighter as the one lighting it– Airi, judging by the looks of it– runs back. The light sizzles back and then it’s dark and quiet. Then the fireworks start.

Rui resists the urge to bring his hands to his ears, because he has to look cool in front of Tsukasa. He’s been embarrassing himself enough. It’s time to be cool in front of his crush. 

He still winces, but that’s overridden when they explode mid-air with a bright flash of red. Trails of smoke are illuminated by the cherry red sparkles. Another one shoots out of the box. Rui looks away and looks over at the rest of the group as it dyes the beach in more red light.

He snickers when he sees Emu and Nene, the back of the latter’s head as she undoubtedly kisses her girlfriend. He catches sight of Minori and Haruma doing the same. 

Cautiously, he glances over at the blond, who’s looking up at the fireworks in wonder as a third fires off and flares in the sky. He smiles and tilts his head, heart mellowing out. He grins like an idiot when he sees the blond’s eyes widen as the fourth and largest firework shoots into the air.

He feels his own lips part, and the red light fades. Tsukasa draws his eyes away from the sky, back to him, and he snaps his mouth shut instantly. He gives Rui a grin and turns back to the group.

“Those were so pretty!” Tsukasa shouts, walking over to everyone else. Rui’s left with a pink face and fluttering heart to catch up. He paces behind him and manages to see a flustered version of Nene he only gets when he’s caught her and Emu being cheesy. It makes him smirk a little.

Airi scoffs and holds a piece of her fluffy hair out. “I burned my hair!”

Sure enough, it was black and coiled. Shizuku gasps and covers her mouth. Airi scrunches her nose. 

“Now I have to get a haircut! Can you believe it?” She complains. Tsukasa laughs triumphantly and holds his hand out.

“Then give me the lighter and I shall continue our show from here!” He says. Airi hands it to him and he flicks it once or twice, before he finds the next firework to launch.

The final firework launches into the air with a whistle. It explodes and crackles, then dies out. It sends everyone back inside now that the fireworks are over, and that means the party is back in full swing inside.

“Ah! The drinks are here!” Shizuku claps when they get inside. More More Jump had managed to get catered alcohol at their small gathering– bartender included. 

“Try not to drink too much, guys,” Haruka says, then asks for the first drink to be made of the night. The bartender mixes up a vodka cranberry for her and she's sipping from it in no time. Even after she warned everyone to be careful with how much they drink, she’s pleasantly drinking away at vodka. 

Rui, who’s only had cheap beer at college parties, has no idea what to get. He saw Emu and Nene get piña colidas together, he watched Shizuku get a bright blue mojito, and he could see the bartender mixing together some type of sangria for Saki. 

Tsukasa approaches from the corner of his eye, as if he hasn’t tormented Rui enough today, and sits down beside him. He has a glass in hand already. He blissfully ignores the massive pink curly straw that the blond’s using to drink it with.

“Are you not gonna drink?” Tsukasa asks, taking a drink from his ridiculous pink straw. “They have a lot of western drinks– I think it’s all western stuff, actually. There’s a little menu up there.” 

“What’s that one?” Rui asks.

“I think it was Long Island iced tea,” The blond says, face scrunching a little. He hands the glass to Rui. “Try it, it’s good.” 

Rui moves the straw out of his way and takes a sip. He must’ve been really insane. Maybe he got some type of head injury when he was hit by the ball earlier, because here he is, sharing a drink with this guy.

His eyebrows raise when he tastes it though– it’s not terrible, not like the crappy beer he can only choke down half a can of at college. He looks at Tsukasa and quickly passes the drink back.

“That’s nice,” He says. “I think I’ll go get something like that.” 

And in a desperate rush to get away from Tsukasa before he can embarrass himself again, he gets up without another word and hurries to the bartender in the kitchen. 

He skims over the menu. God, what were any of these? He decides to gamble and get a margarita. Sounds good enough. 

And it was, minus the salt around the rim of the glass. Why is there salt? He scrapes it away with his thumb as he walks back to where he was sitting.

Tsukasa’s still there. Damn him. He still sits down beside the blond, because what else is he supposed to do? Leave? Awkwardly avoid him? 

No. He takes a seat beside Tsukasa and sips his drink. His nose scrunches at the bitterness of the drink. It’s sour, but it’s sweet at the same time. He still drinks regardless. 

Tsukasa grins at him, drink half-gone. “So, what’d you get?” 

“Margarita,” He says, lips still on the rim of the glass. He takes another sip before he pulls it away from his mouth and offers it to Tsukasa. It’s only fair, he reasons. “Try it.” 

Tsukasa takes the glass and Rui watches his face morph as he sips it. He raises an eyebrow and Tsukasa hands it back to him. 

“Not bad…” He mumbles, then puts the end of his crazy straw to his lips. “I like mine better.”

“I can tell.” Rui says. He eyes Tsukasa’s drink and briefly considers going back to get his own, but this one was growing on him. He takes another sip. 

Tsukasa leans back and presses himself into the cushions. He glances around the room, then takes another long sip of his tea, then looks back at Rui, who pretends to not have been watching the blond this whole time, because that would be awkward. So he didn’t do that at all, because Rui’s not awkward. Rui’s cool. He’s so cool that it should make Tsukasa fall in love with him in a cliché way. 

“Hey…” And as if on cue, the magical confession begins. Rui sets his drink down and shifts his whole body to face Tsukasa, because if it’s cliché romance then they need to do the staple of a bad story like that and kiss. 

“Yeah?” 

Cue the violins. Cue the rose petals, the sparkles, and the pink background. Tsukasa opens his mouth to finally confess his undying love for Rui after seeing how cool he is.

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed about me having to pull you out of the water this morning,” Tsukasa says. The violins play out of tune and the rose petals wilt. Rui deflates and suddenly just the blond’s statement alone manages to have the opposite effect. It makes Rui even more embarrassed about it. “It happens at least once a week, it’s not a big deal.” 

“I’ve never had that happen before, and in front of so many people…” Rui mumbles, taking a big gulp of his margarita. “Sorry you had to do that.”

“Don’t worry about it! Really, it’s not embarrassing at all.” Tsukasa tries to assure him. “Everyone does silly things like that.” 

Rui downs the last of his margarita. He never sees Tsukasa do anything silly. Everything he does is endearing and beautiful, not awkward and embarrassing or ridiculous and awkward again. 

“I hate to say this in the middle of our chat, but I need to use the bathroom.” Rui says, setting his glass down and trying to give an apologetic smile as he lies through his teeth. He wasn’t going to the bathroom, he was going to hide out on the balcony out of sight while he tries to save face.

He gets up and walks in the opposite direction of the bathroom, a detail he really hopes Tsukasa won’t notice. He rushes through the glass door and leans against the banister. 

He gets his phone out and does something he hasn’t had to do in his life ever– ask someone for advice about a crush. And because Nene is at the party and has seen him do all of these pathetic things in order to try and swoon this guy, he has to turn to the only other person he can trust with this.

He presses call and blows air into his cheeks. It rings for a moment, and it’s quickly picked up.“

What’s up, Rui?”

“Mizuki, I’m in a very bad situation.” Rui says gravely. “This is quite possibly one of the worst moments of my life.” 

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Where are you–” Mizuki begins to hit him with a flurry of questions, and he just hushes them on the other end.

“No, no I’m not hurt. It’s worse.” He mumbles. He looks back through the glass to make sure Tsukasa isn’t within earshot. 

“Are you ill? Like, terminally ill? Do you have cancer?!”

“Worse.” Rui says. “I have a crush .” 

There’s dead silence on the line for a moment. Rui takes his phone away from his ear and makes sure it’s still connected to the call or to make sure it’s not a data issue. He puts the phone back on his ear.

“Mizuki…?”

“You have a CRUSH?! ” They practically shout over the line. He winces. “Who’s the lucky guy? I need to see him now!”

“How did you know it’s a g…Nevermind. Yeah, I do.” Rui says. “See, I need your help because we’re at a house party with MMJ and this is my first time properly drinking alcohol and he won’t leave me be–”

“YOU’RE AT A HOUSE PARTY WITH MORE MORE JUMP!?? AREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE BEACH???” Mizuki sounds nothing short of perplexed and in shock. 

“I’m at the beach, it’s a long story. Anyway, this is a nightmare. He’s adorable, I’ll get a picture sometime soon– But I’m so lost. What am I supposed to do?” Rui asks. 

Mizuki hums on the other end of the line. There’s a distant typing sound as they speak.

“Ask for his number! Get to know him, maybe you can get with him. You won’t be on vacation forever, so it’s okay to take chances, right? Go get him!” They encourage Rui. 

He groans and rubs his forehead, gingerly tapping his nose to see if the swelling’s gone down. He sighs.

“Alright. I’ll ask.” He says, then stands up straight. “I’m gonna need another drink before I do that.”

“Don’t turn alcoholic on me.” Mizuki warns with a laugh. “Good luck, Rui! Go get your man!” 

Rui laughs and nods. “Right. Gotcha. Thanks, Mizuki.” 

“Anytime! I gotta unmute now, Enanan’s blowing up my DMs.” They say, and the call hangs up. Rui has to take a minute to prepare himself to go back out there and face this guy, all while resisting the urge to grab him by the chin and make out with him in an idol group’s beach house. 

He takes a deep breath and looks out at the water again. He’s going to go back in, he swears, it’s just…He has to build up the courage. He watches the moonlight on the water, the way it brings the tide forward and then calls it back. He listens to it roar, distant and quiet, but he hears the foamy waves lap at the sand nonetheless. 

The door to the balcony opens. Rui doesn’t know who comes to his side before he sees two tanned forearms lean on the banister beside him. 

“You know the bathroom was in the other direction, right?” 

Rui nods and can’t bring his eyes off of the water. “You caught me.” 

“What’s wrong?” Tsukasa asks, looking at him with a furrowed brow. Rui watches from the corner of his eye. He sighs.

“I got overwhelmed. Too loud.” 

Not exactly a lie. The party had been loud. But his heart had been more overwhelmed than his senses, really. He’s not gonna tell Tsukasa, though. That’s too embarrassing to admit.

“Oh, I see…I gotta admit, now that I know that you do sort of strike me as the type of guy to get overwhelmed at parties.” Tsukasa says. Rui isn’t sure whether to feel relief that his lame excuse worked or to be a little offended. “Sorry, I didn’t realise you needed to step out. I understand for next time now!”

“It’s alright. Not many people come after me when I need to get away from it.” Rui says, sticking with his story like a lifeline. “Nobody really asks.” 

The blond leans away from him and takes a step back, jutting a thumb back at the door. “No, seriously, I can go if you need some more time–” 

“Let’s go back together.” Rui says suddenly. He offers Tsukasa a smile and walks over to him. “I could go for another drink. How about another iced tea?” 

Tsukasa pauses, then grins like an idiot at him. He laughs and nods his head to the door. “Sounds great! Let’s go!”

As soon as they got inside, they got dragged into a drinking game with everyone. There’s fresh drinks for everyone, as if Rui wasn’t already getting buzzed. He and Tsukasa take their seats beside each other.

“Alright! We’re playing truth or drink!” Airi says. “Either answer the question or take a drink!” 

Rui looks at his cup. He looks around the room at everyone else, before he looks back at his drink. The idol crosses her arms and Minori raises her hand, waving it in the air.

“I’ll go first!” She says. She points at Airi. “Did you really find that movie about cats so adorable that you cried?”

There’s a beat of silence where Airi looks caught between offended and caught red-handed. She narrows her eyes.

“No comment,” She says in lieu of an answer and instead sips her drink. She looks away and sets her cup down, then asks Shizuku a question. They go around the circle and by the third time Rui’s been asked a question and the third time he’s taken a drink, he’s got enough liquid courage in him to make a move. 

In other words, he’s drunk enough to flirt. Everything he says is shameless and he’s got nothing to hold him back. Plus, he can’t really remember things that happened 5 minutes ago. 

His hand is unsteady as he sets his cup down and looks at Tsukasa. He rests one elbow on the seat armrest and puts his cheek in his hand, pointing at Tsukasa with his other hand. 

He grins and drunkenly asks his question.

“What’s your number?” Rui asks, voice loud and uncontrolled. His head droops to the side as he narrows his eyes. 

Nene howls with laughter before Tsukasa can respond. He really doesn’t get what’s so funny, but the way everyone is gawking at him and the way Tsukasa’s shade of red has gone from alcohol-induced to something else tells him he chose the wrong dialogue option.

He closes his eyes to wipe his face and he opens them again in a different chair. The drinking game is over, judging by the way everyone’s scattered around instead of in a circle. He looks around and feels something wrapped around him. 

He furrows his brow and looks down. Tsukasa’s arm is wrapped around his waist loosely while he rambles on about something to do with stars and pianos and sisters. Rui’s tired. His brain can’t tell what Tsukasa’s saying. 

He smiles anyway, nodding along to whatever he says and slurs out a few murmurs of agreement, nursing on a water bottle. He leans his head into the blond’s shoulder. 

He feels his eyes slip closed again. 

They flutter back open and he’a looking at the ground. His feet are moving. He’s walking. His legs are tiredly marching forward and he keeps stumbling. 

“Come on, one step at a time,” A majestic voice calls out to him softly. He looks up from the ground where his feet are moving to see Tsukasa, who smiles warmly at him. “You can make it.” 

The arms around him tighten and he realises he is not walking on his own. He’s in his room, and there’s his bed. The very place he wants to be. He hums with satisfaction and leans towards it. He falls face-first into the blankets and tries to kick his shoes off sleepily. 

He finds the blankets and crawls under them as they twist against where he wants them to. Gentle hands tug the covers around him and he makes a contented purr-like hum. 

Tsukasa’s saying something, but it’s too late. He’s too far gone. Whatever the blond said isn’t going to be heard, because Rui’s passed out in bed before he can finish.

Instead of something nice like the gentle sounds of the ocean or birds chirping, Rui wakes up with a sharp and throbbing pain in the entirety of his head. He groans and squeezes his eyes tighter. 

He reaches up to grasp his head in pain when the sound of paper disturbs his misery. He feels for the source and finds a sticky note stuck to his cheek. 

He rips it off and dares to open his eyes in the harsh light– what time was it, anyway? He got back late last night, past midnight for sure. The drinks had taken their toll on him and he mentally resolves to never stray from cheap beer again. 

The sticky note is covered in little star doodles. The center of it has a string of numbers and little subtext below. 

Text me!!!

– Tsukasa 

What. 

Rui checks the back of it to make sure the words ‘you’ve been pranked’ aren’t scribbled on it, and when he realises it’s probably genuinely his number, he sighs.  

Tsukasa left his number. Okay. That’s progress. 

So why’s Rui so scared? He places the sticky note away from him on the pillow and rolls onto his other side. He makes a pained noise and digs his phone from underneath his pillow, yanks the plug out, and checks the time. 

Noon. Cool. He slept through breakfast and now he’s gonna stay in bed past lunch. That’s cool. That’s fine. 

His stomach rumbles. 

He groans in misery. It's between getting up and dealing with a migraine or staying in bed and hungrily dealing with a migraine. His options were not looking good. He pushes his blankets up and forces himself to sit up.

He ignores the sticky note on the corner of his vision. He’ll add the contact later. Not when the shame of his hangover is still coursing through his veins along with a blood alcohol level that made it illegal to drive.

He shuffles into today’s clothes, slips into the bathroom and faces himself. His reflection is terrible; dark rings, eyebags, and a general paleness worse than his usual shade of vampire. His nose is swollen and a little purple. 

He wipes his eyes and washes his face to wipe away the filth from his hangover. He yawns and finally emerges from his room, sparing one last glance at the sticky note. Tonight, he promises himself.

He slithers down the stairs and finds Emu and Nene sitting together, eating salad of all things. He grimaces at the sight.

“Morning, sleeping beauty.” Nene snorts. He ignores her comment and waves. She points to a styrofoam takeout box on the table. “We got you something that shouldn’t be hard to stomach.” 

He pops the box open, and sure enough, there’s some shrimp and plain white rice. Maybe it’s a little more plain than he would’ve liked, but that’s neither here nor there. It’ll make his hunger go away. 

“We can go back out to the boardwalk this evening if you want,” Emu says, mouth full of lettuce. “We didn’t get to go to the tippy-top of the ferris wheel last time, and it was still light out so we couldn’t see everything lit up. We should do that to make you feel better!”

Rui gives his best attempt at a smile and nods along. His head was still pounding while he waited for the painkillers to hit. He poked at his rice and nibbled on it sleepily.

He gingerly cracks open the water bottle and sips it weakly. Nene periodically glances at him to probably make sure he doesn’t faceplant into his food. He understands– he was almost carried back. 

He feels shame ignite across his face and ears. He remembers the blond holding him and carrying him back the entire way back. It makes him cover his face for a moment to look at the ground. And then on cue, Nene peers back to check on him.

“Are you gonna throw up again?”

“No, I’m alright–” He furrows his brow and snaps his eyes up. “What do you mean again ?”

“You threw up all over that guy last night. That’s when we decided it was time to leave the party.” She gives him a knowing look. “He said he left you a note, too.” 

He feels his face heat up and buries it in his hands with a groan.

Rui’s headache has worn off by the time they make it to the boardwalk. Once again, Nene and Emu play the prize-winning games for most of their time, before they walk off to the end of the boardwalk that was filled with gift shops and tourist traps.

“These are cute.” Nene comments, looking at a windchime made of seaglass. Little charms of sea creatures dangle from the top. Emu gasps and shakes it. The chimes ring and make a joyful ringing. 

Rui smiles at the chime and he chuckles. They stop swinging and the reverberation gives way to another noise– one he dreads when he hears it.

A familiar laugh resonates from the right and he flicks his head over. Sure enough, it’s exactly who he thinks it is. The blond head of hair fades into a peach colour that is too similar to be coincidence. Thankfully, it hasn’t turned to notice Rui yet. 

“Rui! Look! It matches you!” Emu says, voice snapping him out of his trance. She waves a porcelain fish in front of him, lavender and cyan. He smiles softly and takes it from her. 

“This is very cute, Emu,” He hums. His eyes drift upward to her smiling face, then they’re drawn to the side. He looks for the blond head, now facing him. He still hasn’t been noticed, but the longer he stares–

Rui meets a pair of amber eyes and his heart leaps into his throat. He looks away and looks back to Emu.

“Let’s go see if we can find one that looks like you and Nene!” He says quickly, ushering her inside. She cheers and they begin to hunt through trinkets.

Rui’s hands quiver and his face feels warm as he looks for a pinkish or seafoam fish. Tsukasa’s here. Tsukasa knows Rui’s here. Rui can’t face him after last night, not yet. He doesn’t have an excuse for what he said or how he acted. 

He sifts through figures a little more. He swipes up a pink fish and waves Emu over, and she brings a green fish with her. They look at the figures they”ve collected.

Purple, green, and pink. Rui looks at the three colours. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought about the colour wheel and complementary colours and all of that artsy stuff. Pink and green were complementary colours.

Purple wasn’t complementary to either of those. Sure, purple and green look nice together, and purple and pink is a cute combo, but green and pink are complementary. They’re perfect matches. They’re each other’s match. 

Purple is complementary to yellow. Purple doesn’t go with pink in the same way it does with yellow. Purple doesn’t match green like yellow does. 

Rui’s yellow wrote his phone number on a sticky note after a drunk walk home. Rui’s yellow keeps apologising for a heap of sand that he dropped a water bottle on. Rui’s yellow took care of him when he got hurt. 

Rui’s been running away from his yellow. 

He looks back at Emu and smiles. “Let’s go buy these, and then we can go see about the ferris wheel, okay?” 

“Ferris wheel!” Emu cheers. “I’ll go tell Nene!” 

“Alright, I’ll be right behind you.” He says, holding the fish trinkets gently as he wanders to the counter. As Emu bounds off, he catches sight of a yellow starfish ornament. 

His eyebrows raise and he reaches out for it– the ends of the limbs become a gentle pink. It can’t be a coincidence to find this. He swipes it off the shelf and puts it with the others.

The set looks complete. It doesn’t fix any of Rui’s problems, but at least it’s nice to look at. 

He walks out of the store with all four. Emu and Nene are standing together and chatting when he strides over. They’re holding hands and giggling while he just awkwardly stands to the side. His third-wheeling abilities truly know no bounds. 

“Rui! Rui! Can we go to the ferris wheel now?” Emu asks excitedly. He nods with a happy smile.

“Of course! The line isn’t long yet–” He says, eyeing the admission. He’s cut short when someone bellows his name.

“Rui!” 

He freezes and his shoulders tense. Really? Now, of all times? 

Tsukasa comes from out of nowhere and gives him a big smile and pats his shoulder. His hand lingers. Rui ignores the flush that creeps up the back of his neck.

“Hey! Sorry to interrupt you!” He laughs goofily. Rui really, really hopes he doesn’t look flustered. 

“Oh! You’re that guy who brought Rui home yesterday!” Emu says loudly. Nene’s face turns to a shit-eating grin and he shoots her a warning look. 

“Look, I’m sorry about throwing up all over you and for anything weird I said. I’ve never been that drunk before–” Rui begins to apologise, and this guy has the audacity to interrupt him again. 

It’s fine. Rui snaps his mouth shut at the first word. 

“It’s alright! I had fun with you yesterday.” Tsukasa tells him honestly. Rui can’t push down the blush currently spreading over his face. Is he…flirting back? Is he just trying to be nice? He can’t tell. 

Nene snickers. That means his blush is obvious. Even Emu , the kind and somewhat ditzy girl that she is, has to cover her smile this time. He wants to be mad about it, but it’s all too embarrassing. 

“You look sorta red, have you been in the sun a lot? It’s pretty hot out, you’ve gotta be burning up!” Tsukasa chatters, unable to let anyone else get a word in edgewise. “How about we go get some ice cream together? My treat!” 

Rui’s jaw slacks. He looks at Emu and Nene for guidance, who have expressions of sheer horror (Nene) and wonder (Emu) respectively. 

“Oh! Your friends can come too!” Tsukasa says, then manages to add on, “It’ll be like a double date!”

His world spins.

“A double date?!” Rui and Nene repeat in unison. The blond nods with a confident smile.

“Yes!” He says. He looks at Rui, whose head is suddenly in the clouds and he’s losing his mind. He can’t see straight, can’t think straight, he’s out of his league here. He wants to run straight into the ocean. He wants to dive off of the boardwalk.

Did he just get asked out?

“Th-That sounds great!” Rui says eagerly. He smiles with the dumbest grin he’s ever worn. Tsukasa nods towards the nearest ice cream stand and leads them away.

“Next group!” 

The ferris wheel attendant calls as the last people on the ferris wheel climb out. Emu bounds inside, Nene dragged along by the wrist behind her, and Rui lets Tsukasa in before him before they’re all in. 

Because now Tsukasa’s spending the rest of the evening with them, apparently. 

And he has to squeeze in beside Rui on the seat, because Emu and Nene were on the opposite seat together.  They’ve killed so much time that the sky’s turning dark. The lights on the ferris wheel are on. 

They flash fun and colourful patterns as the ferris wheel goes into motion. 

“Woah! I bet we can get a good view of the sea up at the top!” Tsukasa says. “I’ve never been on this ferris wheel before, this is gonna be my first time!”

“You haven’t been on it?” Nene asks. She’s a little abrasive when it comes to Tsukasa and his sudden decision to follow Rui around, but she still humours him a little. 

“Well, I’ve only been here for a summer job, really.” Tsukasa confesses. “Lifeguards get paid really well here, and there was a shortage. My sister suggested I come out and do this, and she came in to visit this week. Actually, the party was her last night here.”

"So where are you from?” Rui can’t help but ask. He has to satiate his curiosity and maybe, just maybe, he’ll get lucky.

“Oh! I’m from Shibuya!” Tsukasa says proudly. “I just graduated from Kamiyama High last year and I’m trying to get through acting school so I can someday be the world’s biggest star!”

The carriage falls quiet and he looks over the group. Everyone’s staring at him.

“I graduated this year …Did you graduate with Rui?!” Nene almost shouts, her head turning to her neighbor quickly. The blond flicks his head over to Rui.

“We’re from Shibuya too…I-I’m studying technical and stage direction and robotics,” Rui confesses. “I got a scholarship for my test scores.”

“Are you the guy that everyone was saying ‘wasted’ his insane knack for engineering on theater?!” Tsukasa asks. “That’s crazy! I’ve seen the drones you flew around the school– You’re really smart!”

“Don’t tell him that, it’ll go to his head.” Nene advises. 

“Waah!! It’s like you two were supposed to meet each other!” Emu cheers. Rui fights off what feels like the thousandth blush of the day and looks at Tsukasa, who’s looking at him with a new expression.

He looks hopeful.

“You…You wanna meet up this fall?” Tsukasa asks. Rui’s eyes widen. He gives a weak nod.

“Sure. Sure, yeah, let’s meet up.” He says, smiling. 

The ride goes up higher, and higher, until they’re at the top. The sunset paints the water a purplish red, like the colour of a particularly nasty bruise. The sun’s still bright, painting a golden, honey-like mosaic on its canvas of clouds. 

It’s quiet for a moment. Emu and Nene lean together to get pictures with it, and that gives Rui and Tsukasa a moment while they’re busy.

He nervously finds Tsukasa’s gaze. He’d just agreed to meet up after the summer. That’s a commitment. He has the blond’s number, he’s got so much in common with him.

It’s a little like it’s meant to be. That’s what he sees in this boy’s amber eyes. Something worth running after, chasing, working towards– something worth more than he knows. 

“Hey, Rui,” Tsukasa says offhandedly. His hands fidget in his lap. “Do you wanna go out for dinner tomorrow?”

“Dinner tomorrow?” Rui repeats.

“Or lunch! Or…a late lunch!” Tsukasa corrects. “Just…do you wanna go out with me? Like, a proper outing?” 

Rui feels his palms sweat. 

Tomorrow’s his last day at the beach. It’s their last chance to make something happen until the fall. He casts his haze out to the sunset, squares his shoulders, and takes a deep breath.

“Let’s shoot for lunch, I’m…I’m going back to Shibuya tomorrow afternoon.” He admits sadly. “So that's all we can do.”

“That’s fine! It’s like a sneak peek!” Tsukasa beams. Rui’s heart flutters. 

“That’s…one way to put it.” Rui says. 

It’s quiet for a moment. They’re sitting at the top of the ferris wheel, before the wheel sets back in motion. When Rui looks up and meets his eyes again, they glitter with excitement. 

“I’ll, uh, I’ll pick you up at noon?” The blond asks. Rui gives him an encouraging grin and nods. 

“I’ll see you at noon, then.” He agrees. His heart nearly beats out of his chest when the blond laughs happily. 

Yeah, this is gonna last longer than a first date.

“You need to have him back by 1:00,” 

“Unscathed,”

“ Sober ,”

“And nothing short of the happiest boy in the world.” 

Mr. Mascot, Emu, and Nene all scrutinize Tsukasa while Rui finishes throwing his bags together. They all have their arms crossed, same serious glare– even Emu , who looks one wrong move away from cancelling their date and kicking Tsukasa out before he can even see Rui. 

He sits up straighter.

“I’ll have him back on the dot, in better condition than when I picked him up!” Tsukasa promises. Nene looks him up and down sourly. 

“You have one shot. Do not ruin this for him.” She warns, then gets up and walks upstairs to retrieve Rui. 

Emu and Mr. Mascot stare him down. It’s quiet. Beads of sweat pour down Tsukasa’s neck. He grips the fabric of his shorts and watches the stairwell anxiously.

Rui emerges from the top and looks at him with a giddy grin. Tsukasa stands up and smiles back.

“Hey! Are you ready?” He asks, carefully watching his words. 

Rui nods and slides up beside him. He waves to Nene and Emu.

“My bags are packed and ready to put in the car!” He shouts on his way out. “See you later!”

Nene and Emu wave, before the door shuts and Rui’s outside with Tsukasa. He grabs the blond’s hand and prances to the blond’s car with him, a ridiculous smile plastered across his face. 

Tsukasa even goes through the effort to open his door for him. It’s one of those cheesy gestures, but it still manages to get a giggle out of Rui. That’s all the reason he needs.

“So, where do you wanna go for lunch?” Tsukasa asks. “There’s a lot of places around here. We can get classic seafood, fast food, or there’s some fancy sit-down places we could stop at.”

“We can get something to-go and sit somewhere pretty together.” Rui offers.

“Where’s somewhere pretty you have in mind?” 

“Everywhere’s pretty with you.” Rui says. Tsukasa coughs and covers his mouth. The lunatic has the audacity to chuckle afterwards, too. Insane. 

“We should go to a seafood place, I haven’t had any good tuna in ages.” The blond deflects. “All of this is on me, so get anything you want, by the way.”

“Oh? Are we flaunting our wealth now?”

Tsukasa snorts. “Hardly. I just wanna impress you.” 

“It’s working.” Rui says wholeheartedly. They both laugh for a moment, before Tsukasa pulls into the parking lot of a seafood place and they get out.

It’s got an outdoor dining area overlooking a sandbar. Tsukasa guides him by the hand.

Three hours ago, Rui had been on the phone with Mizuki as he simultaneously packed and freaked out over his date. He sorted through his clothes and tried his best to find something to wear as he tried to fold clothes. 

“He’s so cute, Mizuki, I have to impress him! I have to do this right.” Rui groans into the phone. “You’ll love him when you meet him, too, he’s so extra. ”

“Ooh, what’s he like?” Mizuki entertains him.

“He’s another theater nerd,” Rui says. “He wants to be famous, of course. He’s beautiful, he’s perfect for the stage.” 

“Do tell me more,” The seamstress encourages.

“You don’t get it, he’s got it all– he’s blond, but his hair has this fade to it where it goes from blond to pink, and it looks absolutely ethereal when the light catches him right,” Rui rants, and Mizuki supplies him with the occasional hum of mhm . “His eyes are this enchanting shade of amber, too–”

“Quiet down, we can hear you gushing from here!” Nene shouts. Rui sighs and moves the phone away for a second.

“Sorry! Just excited!” He shouts back, then lifts up a shirt. “Oh, this one might work…”

“Don’t wear anything too casual, but make it relaxed enough to show you aren’t overthinking this.” Mizuki advises him. “Go for dark blue, maybe. And khakis, to match.” 

“I didn’t bring those.”Rui says dejectedly. Mizuki gasps dramatically. 

“You didn’t? Well, I guess find something you can wear without being embarrassed when you spill sauce on it.” They tease.

Presently, Rui silently thanks them for that as teriyaki drips onto his chest. He wipes it with a napkin quickly, and his shirt doesn’t dare reveal the stain. 

He plucks out another baby corn and sets it aside. Tsukasa takes notice.

“Do you not like vegetables?”

“Loathe them,” Rui says casually. “I can’t stand them, from taste to texture.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t like peppers, but I really like ginger fried pork.” The blond says. “My mom used to make it for me after exams, it was the best part of exam season.” 

“I like soda candy,” Rui says. “I should’ve brought you some.” 

“No, we can try it together some other time!” Tsukasa insists. Rui chuckles and gives him a nod. He takes a bite of his food and they eat between chit-chat.

The sky is darkening outside. Rain clouds threaten the sky. Tsukasa checks his phone. 12:03. He watches Rui finish up his food and gives him another smile.

“Do you wanna go to the beach?” Tsukasa asks. 

Rui tilts his head, then peers up at the sky. “It looks like it’ll rain, Tsukasa…”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Tsukasa says. “We’ll be alright.”

“If you say so. I wouldn’t want you getting struck by lightning because of me.” Rui shrugs. They get up and Tsukasa pays for him. He’a absolutely spoiling Rui at this point. 

They squeeze back into his car and they’re at the beach in no time, right where they met. Just a few days ago. The blond pulls a towel out of the backseat of his car and tucks it under his arm. Rui follows curiously.

Tsukasa strides like a proud peacock down to the sand. He finds a nice spot and lays the blanket out. He holds his arms out to present it proudly. 

“Take a seat!” Tsukasa says, and Rui sits down with a chuckle.

The blond struts out to the space in front of him. He stands, arms crossed and stance wide, before he laughs triumphantly. Rui watches with his interest piqued. He brings a hand to his chin as he awaits Tsukasa’s next actions.

“I proudly present to you,” He says, then strikes a pose. His arm raises high into the air triumphantly. “My 100 poses!” 

Rui blinks at him, eyes widening. He starts to laugh, covering his mouth and smiling at him. Tsukasa's arms drop to his sides.

“Do you…not want to see them?” Tsukasa mumbles, wilting a little. Rui shakes his head and waves his hands.

“No, no, don’t get it wrong! I’m very excited to see them!” Rui assures him. He offers him a smile and Tsukasa inflates with pride again. “Just…100 poses certainly seems like something you would have.” 

“Aha! You will love all 100 of them as well!” The blond shouts. He clears his throat and puts a fist to his chest, newfound determination gleaming in his eyes. “Number one!”

Tsukasa, in all of his glory, goes through all 100 of his poses. Rui claps and is absolutely dazzled by each one, of course, and the blond’s incredible and uncanny talent for poses certainly wins his heart.

And once he’s done, he checks his phone. He managed to show all 100 of his poses in 45 minutes. A new record!

He sits down beside Rui on the towel, grinning at him proudly. His eyes crinkle at the edges. The wind picks up and a gentle breeze blows between them. The ends of his hair blow across his face.

“Which one was your favourite?” Tsukasa asks. Rui flutters his eyelashes and gives him a dopey smile. 

“Well, I thought ‘ walking out of an explosion’ was impressive, but my favourite was your Romeo impression.” He says, leaning back on his palms. He chuckles lightly.

“It’s one of my proudest!” Tsukasa laughs. He leans his shoulder into Rui’s. “I’ve always rehearsed it without anyone to fill in Juliet for me, so I always do it alone.” 

“You don’t have to do it alone,” Rui says. He leans his head on the blond’s shoulder playfully. “Not anymore.” 

The wind picks up, and suddenly there’s raindrops on the sea. They come closer and closer, until the rain pours down on them. Tsukasa garbles and sits up, and Rui shoots up too.

He swipes the towel up from the sand, shakes it out, and holds it over his head. He drapes one end over Rui and leads him to his car. The rain picks up.

Rui dives into the passenger seat, and Tsukasa isn’t far behind in the driver's seat. They both laugh as the rain hits the windshield and Tsukasa pulls his seatbelt on. He catches the time out of the corner of his eye. 12:54.

“Jeez, I gotta get you back,” Tsukasa mumbles. He looks at Rui, who looks a little sad at the notion– or maybe it's just the rain flattening his hair down. Either way, he doesn’t want it to end. “That didn’t last as long as it should’ve.” 

He puts the car in drive. Rui sighs. 

“Sorry,” He tries to laugh. “It was a great time, though.” 

“Yeah, yeah, I guess it was worth it.” Tsukasa says.

The rest of the ride is quiet, aside from the faint sounds of the radio and the rain pummeling the car. Tsukasa pulls into the driveway of Emu’s beach house. 

Nene waits beneath the overhang of the beach house. Her arms are crossed and she taps her foot. Rui looks at Tsukasa, who grabs the towel and holds it over his head as he gets out. He opens Rui’s door for him and holds the towel over him. 

Tsukasa walks him to the front door, where Nene waits.

“You got him back on time,” She comments. “Good job.” 

“As promised!” Tsukasa grins. 

Nene looks him up and down. He pulls the towel down and around his neck now that they’re out of the rain. Rui looks between his neighbour and his date. 

“Your bag is in the car whenever you’re ready.” Nene says, violet eyes urging him to get whatever this was over with. “Emu’s already called shotgun.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Rui promises. 

Nene walks to her car without another word. He turns back to Tsukasa.

“So, I guess this is where we say goodbye…?” Tsukasa starts awkwardly. His voice is quiet and he fidgets with his pocket, unable to meet Rui’s eyes.

He just smiles. He takes the towel around Tsukasa’s neck in his hands and pulls him close, closer, until his breath lingers on the blond’s lips. His eyes shoot wide. 

Rui closes his own and kisses him. It’s long, long enough to let Tsukasa melt into it and lift his hands to cover Rui’s. His eyes flutter shut, too. It’s savoured.

It’s his version of goodbye. 

Rui inevitably pulls away, because all kisses end eventually. His eyes open and stay low, his lips stay parted, and he doesn’t let go of Tsukasa’s towel.

His mouth moves into a sad smile. 

“How about we keep in touch?” He says. “Instead of goodbye, it’ll be ‘see you later’, right?” 

Tsukasa stares for a moment, blinking at him, and then laughs. It’s happy, it’s light, it makes Rui’s heart soar. It’s something he wants to listen to everyday of his life. 

Tsukasa looks at him, and with a soft smile and a squeeze of the wrist, he nods.

“Then, I guess I’ll see you later.”

Rui sifts through the freshly-printed photos to decide which ones he wants to put on the wall. Their dorm room was bare, he decided, and filling the walls with pictures may make it feel more a little livelier. So he had a whole album of good photos printed off to hang up.

He picks up one of he and Tsukasa together in the fall. They’re at a theme park together, posing with the mascot. There’s another of them in a haunted house, with a massive fake spider causing Tsukasa to hide behind Rui. He smiles fondly. 

There’s one of them during the winter, with two snowmen together that each have an accessory from Rui or Tsukasa. There’s a snow angel in the background. The next picture is them drinking hot chocolate and Rui spilling it down his shirt. 

The next one is December 24th, where Tsukasa is feeding Rui a piece of chocolate, then wiping a smudge of it from his mouth. After that, it’s the blond asleep with Rui on the couch. There’s a new year’s celebration festival, where they have fortune slips at a shrine together. 

There’s a few pictures of Tsukasa on stage performing and taking his final bows. He’s in every sort of role– a king, a pianist, a jester, all different characters that he embodied perfectly in every production. There’s Valentine’s Day and White Day, then a few of them beneath cherry blossoms. Rui’s stealing a kiss in one. 

There’s a group photo of Emu, Nene, Rui and Tsukasa all doing karaoke together in a bar. He reaches to look at the next one before Tsukasa comes walking in with a bottle of water in hand. He puts it down in front of Rui.

“Are you putting together a scrapbook or something?” Tsukasa asks, sitting down beside him. Rui shakes his head.

“I’m going to decorate the walls a little. It’d feel more like home.” He says. The blond snorts.

“There’s only so much ‘home’ you can make a college dorm feel like.”

“It’s home when you’re there.” Rui tries, and Tsukasa makes some distressed garble. 

“You absolute sap .” He accuses. He peers at the pictures sprawled before them. Rui sees the way he softens at some, before picking one up of him facing away from the camera and striking a ridiculous pose in the light of a window early-morning. 

Tsukasa scrunches his nose but doesn’t comment, setting it down in favour of a picture of Rui tinkering away at a robot, completely lost in his craft. The actor smiles and leans against Rui.

“These are nice. I think they’ll look nice on our wall.” He says. 

“Now who’s the sap?” 

“Be quiet.” Tsukasa says, playfully smacking him. “I came to ask you something.”

“Oh? Ask away.” Rui says. reaching an arm around the blond and resting his chin on the blond head of hair. 

“Where do you want to go for vacation this summer?” He asks. “Since, y’know, spring’s gonna be over soon, I’d like to get a vacation planned.”

Rui pauses. Okay, he wasn’t expecting that one. He hums for a moment. “Where do you want to go?”

“I’ll go anywhere. I want to go somewhere you’ll enjoy.” Tsukasa says. He finds Rui’s hand with his own and laces their fingers together. His thumb runs along the side of his hand slowly and sweetly. 

Rui breathes out through his nose like a laugh. He closes his eyes and nuzzles his nose into the blond hair. 

“I know a beach with an adorable lifeguard running along the shore in the early morning.” He says, smiling into the blond hair. Tsukasa blows a raspberry.

“There’s also a hopeless romantic who can’t swim to save his life.” The actor says. Rui makes a wounded noise and pouts.

“You hurt me so…” He bemoans, leaning away. The blond playfully rolls his eyes and pushes him the rest of the way off with a smile he can’t hide. Rui feels his face soften.

His heart swells with a stronger feeling than the day they met. It burns with the same type of passion and the same butterflies swarm as they day they shared their first kiss. He laughs and cups Tsukasa’s face in his hand, leans in, and steals a quick smooch from his cheek.

“Regardless, I’m glad the tides were in our favour.” He says. Tsukasa pretends to be annoyed as he groans, acting as if there wasn’t an adorable rose dust coming to his face. 

“You truly are a sap.” He complains, which only causes Rui to smile wider. 

“And I’ll continue to wax poetic about you until my final breath.” He beams, pressing his cheek against Tsukasa’s, throwing his arms around him, and purring like a kitten. “By the way, Emu’s family has a beach house that I’m sure she wouldn’t mind us visiting again. If you’re okay with us having another double date, that is.” 

“I think that’d be nice.” Tsukasa says. “As long as I’m with you.”

“Sap.”

“Sappier.” 

“I suppose you have me there.” Rui mumbles. Yeah. He was a total sap. The sappiest, even. He continues to purr into the blond’s face and smiles. Maybe an embarrassing beach trip turned out fine in the end. Seasons came and went, and the curtain never closed on them. Rui wonders how he did it and just what he did to get such a pretty lifeguard boyfriend, after all.

He had to have done something right, after all.