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“—hey rui, come here and look at this!”
in the distance, the sun had long dipped down into the ocean, away from the world, sinking at the edge of the horizon and leaving the remnants of its warm, golden glow reflecting in the calm waters. its hues paint the sky above in broad, yellow strokes and smaller, detailed pink ones. the lifeguards at the coastline take this as a cue to blow their whistles, breaking the peaceful lull that blanketed the vicinity to coax people out from the gradually rising waters.
by the time the sun fully sets, most of the afternoon’s crowd have dispersed to the restaurants lining the beach, lighting up the darkened sky with its festivity.
rui finds himself standing in a corner far away from all the noise, nestled away between a cluster of trees near the ocean, the heels of his shoes digging further into wet sand the longer he stays put. laughter echoes alongside the steady wave, tsukasa’s in particular, trailing away in the distance, leaving only the two of them at the beach’s corner under the gradually-darkening sky.
where tsukasa was entranced by the dying light that basked the private beach in its radiance, rui had his gaze firmly planted on the sandy ground, eyes narrowed and ignoring the breathtaking scenery that would make anyone else pause and stare at the sight for.
if he were honest, rui wasn’t really sure why tsukasa had such a particular liking for the beach, to the extent that it took up all his focus with such intensity. rui had lost count of all the times that tsukasa would practically drag him to the beach as soon as the weather wasn’t too fiery for the occasion, often taking him in the late afternoon when the strength of the sunlight wasn’t too strong. rui had half-expected that vivid sunset would surely captivate such an enthusiast for the beach, yet tsukasa had been running up and down the shore during the entire sunset, while he stays rooted to the sand.
the longer rui spends crouched on the ground, the more tsukasa tries to engage him, and to no one's surprise, he gives up after a while of rui blinking at him through sweat-soaked hair. it was more logical to just go to him instead of wasting his time anyway, tsukasa reasons to himself, so now he’s back to the trees and grinning at rui.
“are you alright?” it seemed like the logical thing to inquire first. however, in the fleeting silence that rui took to answer, tsukasa wondered if this blinking being before him had finally succumbed to heat stroke. “did the heat wave finally get to you? i told you to pack more water for this weather, you know.”
however, the serene expression gracing rui’s face said nothing of an individual who had fell to heat stroke, so tsukasa crouches to his level and eyes him up and down with more scrutiny.
rui tilts his head. “why, is tsukasa-kun worried about me?”
“..you didn’t even answer my question!”
he laughs, catching tsukasa off guard and giving no room for tsukasa to hide the red that blooms on his face, now that he’s face to face with rui, squatting on the sand as well. he has half a mind to push rui off balance just for that little stunt, until another wave crashes into the shore beneath their feet, carrying a layer of foam that was quick to fizzle and, oddly enough, a bunch of rocks in its wake.
coin-sized, colourful pebbles that made rui’s breath hitch sharply at their arrival, ducking down in a swift motion to scoop them up before the ocean could lay its claim on them again.
beaming, rui gathers each stone and shows a palm-full of glimmering, shiny rocks at tsukasa. “this is what i’ve been fervently waiting for, tsukasa-kun!”
and whatever retort that tsukasa had prepared was silently dragged away by the retreating wave, vanishing the moment that his eyes glance up from the colour-rich stones. rui’s eyes practically glow with a golden sheen as the remaining daylight showered him in its sparkle, excitement twinkling in the yellow of his eyes. like a mesmerising melody, the once gentle smile on rui’s lips stretch further into a blinding, heartfelt one when their eyes meet.
tsukasa swallows, the air in his lungs knocked out of him, along with his very soul, establishing now, more than ever, of how badly he was wrapped around rui’s fingers.
that fundamental, simple fact he’s grown accustomed to doesn’t surprise tsukasa, but how fond of rui he felt still did, in the light of the setting sun, leaving his head reeling from the way his heart had skipped a beat at the sight. the words to reply were elusively avoiding his desperate grasp, so all that he could utter as a reply was a weak, shaky “pebbles?”.
the wide smile dancing on rui’s lips soon turned into a cheeky one, and tsukasa looks away, bracing himself for the teasing jab waiting to spill from them, with how he was embarrassingly caught admiring him red-handed. he recalls how nene made a good point when she joked about tsukasa losing all of his subtlety and wit whenever it came to rui, despite being an actor for so long.
“not just any pebble, tsukasa-kun,” rui tells him matter-of-factly, widening the gaps in between his fingers to reveal clumps of wet sand, pieces of broken seashells, and the smaller, pearly-white rocks slipping through the cracks. with careful fingers, more of the larger ones were returned to the incoming waves as rui picks a few of them out, leaving them with only two rocks, both barely larger than his pointer finger, laying flat on top of the remaining sand.
it only takes tsukasa a second for him to connect the dots, and if the cages of his ribs weren’t already burst open before, open from the frantic thumping of his heart, they certainly were now, with how much warmth was oozing from the edges. he looks up, meeting the same shade of the pale yellow that he just saw coating one of the rocks, glinting with the same brilliance of life in his irises. the other that rests in the sand comprised of three layers of colour, each corresponding to the different colours in his own eyes.
“nature is marvelous, isn't it?” rui keeps his eyes on the rocks, uncaring of how how more colours started to bleed into the orange skyline, the golden hues that once reigned a moment ago giving way to captivating, vibrant pink and purple tones to share its stage, uncaring of how its colours reflected in the hues of his hair. the push-and-pull of the tide did a fine job at reflecting the enchanting glow, tsukasa stares, every dip and arch of rui’s facial features marked by at least a hint of the sky above. “i’ve been waiting for stones like these ever since tsukasa-kun first took me to the beach.”
tsukasa’s eyes flicker back to rui at the shift in topic, but words to reply with are still lodged snug in his throat and unwilling to move. the sand, the ocean, had bewitched him the moment that he stepped foot onto the seemingly endless beach, and for a split-second, he forgot all about why he was rushing into the ends of the shore to look at marine life, too distracted by the salty breeze and billowing clouds to simply stare. “these stones? of our eyes?”
“i simply wanted a keepsake from the beach, since we come here so often during summer,” rui laughs, gaze switching to the trees’ leaves looming over the both of them, the dark edges of their leaves of it grazed by the same pink shadows, now illuminating tsukasa’s own face.
tsukasa was utterly lost now, staring at rui, who stayed content observing the sunset and blissfully unaware of his confusion, as if he had eaten a vegetable in front of him unprompted.
“i wanted something to remember you by, you see,” rui hums, his eagerness still shining through despite the soothing, tender tone that his usually smooth voice was taking on. his eyes dart downward as he picked up the stones, staring at them like precious treasure. “so i’d have something to look at when you’re not around.”
subconsciously, tsukasa leans in to listen, akin to a fire that beckoned him to inch closer, so he bore the ache around his calves and did just that, cupping both of his hands below rui’s as another safety net to prevent the two, treasured stones from gliding away. “they seem to combination of rocks excavated from another region, perhaps a mix from many countries, even,” rui continues, unmovingly so, “rocks that would all be dumped here, along with rocks that tumble along the sea beds for decades, before eventually arriving at this very shore. interesting, isn’t it?”
the reason behind rui’s melancholic tone suddenly clicked into place, mirrored in the yellow and marigold coloured rocks that held a story of their own, reminiscent to how the trajectory of their lives would've been drastically different, if fate had never took an interest in them.
tentatively, rui takes the marigold-coloured rock and holds it next to tsukasa’s eyes, marveling at their similarity and smiling again with that glint of satisfaction in his own. “it’s miraculous.”
“i think so too,” tsukasa swallows, picking up the yellow stone in rui’s free palm to compare beside his eyes, silently fighting the urge to inch a little closer.
after a pause, he laughs at how ridiculous they both must look, causing the both of them to laugh, the pleasant melody dancing along with the sway of the waves, signaling the end of the blessed sunset with its comforting rhythm.
rui was the first to stand up, grasping the marigold rock tightly between his fingers and offering his free hand for tsukasa to take. with a serene smile, he looks down at the stone before speaking once more, “if you’d like, you can keep the yellow one. we can always return another day to find more of these stones, after all.”
without missing a beat, tsukasa takes hold of rui’s hand and gets back up on his feet, securing the yellow stone in his grip as well. if he had clung onto rui’s hand for any longer, or if he stared a little too long as the last streaks of the sunset reflected in the shiny parts of rui’s hair, perhaps the heart that threatened to spill from the seams really would have beat out of his chest.
“of course we’ll come back!” trying to match rui’s tender smile, tsukasa breaks into an uncontrollable grin seconds after anyway. “and then, we’ll find even more of the same stones to keep around together.”
“together,” rui echoes, breaking into the very same grin.