Work Text:
A sunny day at a beach not far away from the agency. Three people were sitting around a plastic table like they are customary for common beach snack bars everywhere around this planet, protected from the summer sun by a huge parasol with the local ice cream brand’s logo on it.
They were two young men and a young woman, typical clients for such a place. Looking at them, nobody would have guessed that they had never come here to just have fun like everybody else. And somehow, somewhere along the way, even they themselves seemed to have forgotten that this was supposed to be a business trip in the first place. Did it matter? In the end, it probably did not. Right now, however, the fact had made the situation feel a little weird, at least.
“Uhm… those are definitely some really beautiful pictures.” Anzu-san, the producer, said while looking at the selection of polaroids spread out on the table in front of her. There was, however, something in her voice that betrayed that there was a ‘but’ to her statement. A tint of amusement, but also a little bit of… embarrassment?
“I cannot help but wonder what the magazine which requested the photos will think though. I fear that they might consider them a little… misleading?” she tried to explain herself while doing her best to spare the two boys on the other side of the table the awkwardness of the truth.
Because the truth was that nothing about those pictures was misleading in the slightest. In fact, they were the opposite. Obvious. Screaming in the face of the viewer that they were not just taken by two guys having a fun day at the beach. Instead, they looked like one of those photo love stories which had been very popular a few years ago. At least that was how Mayoi felt about them, and, despite being the god-fearing creature he was, he prayed for whatever entity out there to open up the ground underneath him and just swallow him right here and now.
***
It had all started with a request from a popular lifestyle magazine for teenage girls. They had planned to make a classical summer special. Fancy summer-accessories. Skincare for sunny days out. Must-try ice cream flavours of the year. And, as an extra, a cute photo story. The plan was to send two idols to the beach and let them take pictures of their day. And for some reason Mayoi did not understand at all, the readers had voted that they wanted to see Tatsumi and him in this article.
In the beginning, he had been determined to turn the offer down. He was not a beach-person - not that he had ever actually been to the beach for real, but there were some things he just knew about himself - and he was not a summer-person. He was not a taking-pictures-of-somebody-else person either, let alone a taking-pictures-of-himself one. He was just not the right person for this job at all.
But somehow, there had been this thing with Tatsumi being there and all excited about all of this, and however this had happened, Mayoi’s resolve had just crumbled at the sight of his happy unitmate. And so, just a few days after Anzu had sent them the proposal, Mayoi found himself confronted with the fact that he had somehow agreed to all of this. And when this realization had really set in, he was confronted with so many follow-up thoughts that he had almost felt himself breaking down from the anxiety.
Mayoi usually avoided being out in the sun. He was not prepared for something like this at all. First of all, he would need a truly strong sun blocker. And did a day at the beach mean having to go into the water? He did not own any swimming clothes. Which had never been a problem because he could not even swim anyway. And what kind of bag did a boy bring to the beach? When he thought about beach bags, those big braided straw-bags came to mind, but they were only for girls, weren’t they? And what about a straw hat? Too feminine? Or would it on the contrary let him look like a mixture of a wannabe pirate king and a peanut farmer in Texas? So many things to consider, so many things to mess up.
And then, in the end, a lot of those thoughts and worries turned out to be unnecessary because once the big day arrived, Tatsumi just made them disappear. It made Mayoi wonder if he was some sort of wizard.
The moment he started to feel insecure about his outfit - nothing fancy at all, just a pair of black jeans, a long-sleeved white shirt and a straw hat with a wide brim, no bag at all - his unitmate told him that he found his looks both fashionable and practical.
When the wideness of the beach and the sea in front of him made Mayoi’s anxiety well up inside of him, Tatsumi just grabbed his hand, encouraged him to take off his sneakers and enjoy the soft warm sand underneath his feet, successfully distracting him from his panic.
Later, when Mayoi started to feel physically unwell as a result of the heat and all the new impressions around him, Tatsumi bought a popsicle for them. It was one of those made for sharing between two people, the blue ones with the two wooden sticks, which made Mayoi’s heart brim with excitement for he had always dreamed of sharing one of those but never had the chance to.
Everything felt so nice and fine that taking photos came almost naturally. Still, Mayoi did not pay much mind to the kind of pictures he actually took, and he did not even notice many of those Tatsumi made in return.
This became very clear afterwards, during their awkward little meeting with Anzu. They had used a special polaroid-style app on their phones for taking the pictures, and the producer had brought a printer, so Mayoi had to witness the result of their unconscious actions in very physical form, and it crushed him how Tatsumi could just brush all of this off with a light chuckle.
Because all the pictures his green-haired friend had taken showed nothing but Mayoi - but in a way so intimate that it made him blush violently, for nobody had ever taken pictures like these of him:
There he was, standing with his naked feet in the water, smiling at Tatsumi (and his camera, of course) like it was the most natural thing in the world. His smile was so wide that you could even see his sharp teeth, which he usually tried to hide because they did not exactly represent the role model of beauty. In another picture he could be seen from behind, with his hair in the wind, holding his hat while looking out over the sea. A third one showed only both of their legs and feet - and their hands, which were just holding each other while they were walking through the sand.
But there was of course no need to put any blame onto Tatsumi, for the pictures Mayoi had taken were no better. He had felt a little shy to directly take photos of his unitmate, but had focused on the things they had done instead. There was a picture of a heart they had drawn into the wet sand close to the sea with a stick. Inside, they had written two lines: ‘ALKALOID’ and ‘T + M’. It was supposed to be one of those ‘We were here’ messages, but written into a heart like this it looked a little… different once you thought a bit closer about it. The same thing could probably be said about Mayoi’s second photo which showed their hands holding both a side of their shared popsicle against the evening sun glistening on the waves. The tips of the popsicles were even meeting, and Mayoi failed to suppress the thought that, if you squinted, this could very well be considered an indirect kiss.
Oh, this was bad.
They only had this one day. Their schedules were tight, and the deadline for the magazine was close, too. In his head, Mayoi was already thinking about how they would be able to apologize for all of this, when Anzu startled him by placing her hands on the photos with sudden determination.
“You know what? We’ll just submit those. They requested to see a day of you two at the beach, and you just spent a day together at the beach, right?”
Tatsumi did not falter at all before nodding and giving Anzu a smile. As usual, Mayoi admired his bravery.
“I’m glad they turned out fine. We are no professional photographers, after all.”
It made Mayoi wonder if he had actually grasped the problem here.
“But… what if people get it wrong?” he asked hesitantly, exchanging a concerned look with the producer. Luckily, she seemed to understand what he was hinting at - and in contrast to him, she was not shy to put it into words:
“The photos are pretty intimate, so there is a risk that people might look at them in more than a… cordial way.” she said, taking a mindful look at Tatsumi.
To everybody’s surprise, Tatsumi just laughed: “It was a beach date, wasn’t it? I’m perfectly fine with people seeing it like this anyway. How about you, Mayoi-san?”
How on earth could Mayoi have disagreed when his heart was fluttering in his chest like this?
Later that day, before driving back home to their dorm, Mayoi and Tatsumi took some time for a final little stroll at the beach. The sun had almost disappeared behind the horizon by then, and the wind tenderly cooled their skin which was still heated after the long day out.
“Can I confess something to you, Mayoi-san?”
The question took Mayoi by surprise, but he nodded anyway, curious about what it might be his unitmate had to confess to someone like him.
“I enjoyed this day with you.”
In return, Mayoi gave him a shy smile. “S…so did I.” he admitted, and it was a heartfelt truth.
However, Tatsumi was not finished yet: “I’m glad to hear that.” he replied and smiled back at Mayoi before continuing:
“But for some reason, I did not enjoy it as a job. Not as you and me doing idol work. It was more like… enjoying an actual date with you, and… uhm… well, I liked that very much.”
Now, Mayoi did no longer smile, but looked at him with wide eyes.
So Tatsumi had been aware that what they had been doing made them look like a couple out on a date?
And he had enjoyed it - just like Mayoi had?
But what about his faith? Wasn’t this some sort of taboo for Christian people?
Almost as if reading his thoughts, Tatsumi gave him an apologetic smile: “They say that God moves in mysterious ways, and I think He may just have given me an answer to a question I’ve harboured in my heart for quite some time now.”
Once again smiling like he did not know a single care in the world, he held out one of his hands for Mayoi, who took it without hesitation.
Was it really that simple? A day at a beach and a heart with their first letters against a life full of anxiety and a life full of religious indoctrination?
It probably was not, but it was a start, and right here and now, looking out over the boundless sea hand in hand, it was more than enough for two hearts to beat together in anticipation of the future ahead.