Work Text:
Zoom In.
Zoom Out.
Hmmm
A little More.
Over just a tiny little bit.
And-
“Perfect” She let out as the shutter clicked once, twice and then once more. Lowering the camera down from her face, she looked up at the scenery with her own eyes. Somehow they ended up on the coast about an hour ago; one of Seiya’s many spontaneous ideas that Taiki surprisingly readily agreed with, as she slowly removed her glasses and ran her hand down her face. It had been a slightly stressful week for the 4 of them, with seemingly endless politics floating back and forth between the palaces of neighboring planets, constant appearances and a mountain of papers to read.
Lot and lots of papers.
Getting Kinmoku back to the beautiful strong planet it was before was very much well on its way and making a great comeback, but it had a long tiring way to go. A day away, if allowed, was more than welcomed. And with Kakyuu’s approvals and the four’s immense disappointment that they couldn’t whisk her away with them; they ran back to their rooms, grabbed all the things they deemed necessary and set out on their way with Seiya forever in the lead.
And her lead had landed them here, among other places.
As the breeze caressed her skin; she breathed in the smell of the ocean.
Seiya might have had awful ideas sometimes, but this one... This one was a good one.
Hearing a loud exclaim, Yaten quickly stood up from her crouched position, careful not to drop the camera in her hands and turned towards the sound. A laugh abruptly escaped her lips as she watched as Taiki jumped up from her laid out position, quickly stripped off her thin, now wet, collared shirt and flung it straight at Seiya’s grinning face. Barely managing to dodge it, Seiya caught it and ran off into the water, waving the hostage shirt around as some sort of victory flag.
Her camera clicked as she snapped another picture.
"Come on Taiki, you can't just stay in the sand all day! You're at a beach! You needed to get wet, thank me later!” She turned to watch Taiki mumble something to herself before standing up and slowly making her way to the edge of the shore; a little smile on her face that spoke of possible revenge. The shutter snapped again.
They left a few hours later when the sun had set, all sporting a little less clothes then when they came with; hair pulled up and pinned in various style to keep the water from dripping down their backs. Yaten sat in the back seat, her finger steadily tapping the next and zoom button on her camera as she flicked through her photos. With how busy they've been, practicing her shots weren't top priority, so a lot of them have been just that: wide shots, long shots, angled, strictly landscape-
"Hey, can I see?"
She sharply looked up, briefly thrown off by the sudden sound when the car ride had been nothing but silence and then nodded, sticking out her hand to pass the camera on. She stiffened in protest as Seiya climbed from the passenger seat, grabbed onto the camera and flopped into the space next to her.
"Because that wasn't dangerous or anything..." Yaten let out.
Seiya smirked and started to scroll.
"These are really good, Yaten"
"I know"
"Seriously!" Seiya poked her in the side. “We should frame these somewhere! Especially the evil looking Taiki one, that one is golldddd. Man, I'd sure like to know what she was angry about"
Taiki rolled her eyes in the mirror.
As she continued to scroll through them one by one, Yaten leaned over and rested her cheek against the taller girl's shoulder, looking at the rest of the photos with her.
And then everything stopped.
She barely remembered when it happened. It was a moment so brief and seemingly irrelevant but to the camera, it wasn't.
As the sun was starting to make it's descent, Taiki had opted to take her rightful space back at the base of towels and bags as Seiya and Yaten started a lazy walk across the shoreline, occasionally picking up small shells that crossed their path. Somewhere along the way, Seiya had offered to help her put her hair up, standing behind her to carefully lift her hair into a high ponytail. But it was the moment when Seiya turned her around to fix her bangs that the camera caught.
Her own hand pushing a piece of hair behind her ear. Seiya's gently brushing back the other side.
The look she didn't realize she had given her when their eyes briefly locked.
The look she was given back.
Yaten suddenly realized, she forgot how to breathe. Why was she so nervous?
Seiya lightly trailed her finger against the screen and in a voice she hadn't heard in a really long time, asked "This one.... Can you send this one to me?"
Exhaling slowly, she let her gaze shift to the side and lightly scoffed.
"I don't know why you'd want it..." She glanced back at the screen "...But sure"
Seiya quietly laughed and continued scrolling.
-------
Healer leaned against the doorway, staring into the room with disdain as Fighter scattered her belongings. "Leader... Seriously we have to go. If I get another snarky response from their guard again because you're holding us up, we might not have peace on this planet anymore. Let's. Go"
Maker may or may not have snickered from the hallway.
"Alright alright alright. Finee" Fighter threw the pile she just shifted to the side, back to its rightful spot before straightening up. "You know, you'd think I wasn't the Leader with how much you two get on my case... " She mumbled as she hurriedly walked pass, Healer impatiently waving her out the room.
As she turned to close the door behind her, her eyes landed on the set of framed pictures on Seiya's dresser: A selfie style photo of all three of them with Kakyuu smiling brilliantly in the middle, a group photo of the Sol Senshi; the Inners dramatically posing with a certain Outer looking less than amused (she no doubt acquired that from the Moon Princess' visit a few months back) and the last-
She couldn't stop the smile if she tried.
The door clicked softly behind her.