Chapter Text
"I move slow and steady, but I feel like a waterfall."
Sousuke carved the shoulder of the wave, turned his eyes towards a sunset-sky the color of Rin’s hair and swallowed his laughter as he watched Rin pitch over for the tenth time in an hour. It was easy enough to drown his amusement in the pleasure of riding out the swell, easy enough to slip off his board and into the warmth of the ocean and wait for Rin to emerge from his sea-soaked defeat. Sousuke kept his eyes on a long blue horizon that bled into evening red and wondered how someone who was good at swimming could be so very bad at surfing.
Rin came up spluttering and frustrated, clinging to his board with his mouth pinched in a determined frown.
Sousuke wanted to kiss the corner of his lips, wanted to taste the salt of Rin’s frustration, curl his tongue around it and give back something sweeter.
He chose, instead, to paddle out to Rin’s side and ask:
“How can you be so bad at this?”
Rin turned his angry face away from Sousuke’s smile and muttered, “Jerk, this is only my second time out.”
Sousuke had always liked it when Rin’s cheeks flushed such a pretty color; even if he’d never had the chance to make Rin blush the way he really wanted, he couldn’t help but love the shamelessness of Rin’s face, the way his cheeks burned so hot and his eyes filled so readily with tears.
He’d often wondered if Rin would ever want to read the secrets in the soft looks and even softer smiles that Sousuke risked when his heart was too full of Rin for stoicism.
“I managed to pop-up my first time on the water,” Sousuke said, stroking the waxed surface of his board.
“Asshole,” Rin grumbled, laughter catching in his throat. “Just because this is your new dream doesn’t mean I’m going to be a natural at hanging ten and getting stoked.”
It was especially hard in moments like this—when Rin tried and failed so hard to sound cool, when he was within arm’s reach once again after two years of thousands of miles between them—not to drag Rin beneath the ocean’s surface and kiss him until they couldn’t breathe.
Sousuke bailed from that dangerous line of thought, the board quivering beneath his chest as the waves rocked against him.
“Seriously, Rin. All that grace and power in the pool, and you can’t even manage to pop-up for more than thirty seconds. Such a shame.”
Rin flicked water into Sousuke’s eyes and grinned. “If Haru were here, he’d probably say something about the water hating me.”
The water stung almost as much as Rin’s wistfulness, but Sousuke didn’t blink. “Nanase isn’t here.” Rin’s smile faltered. Sousuke sighed. “And the water loves you. You just have to let yourself trust in the board. Trust that it can carry your weight as you ride the break that’s going to bring you back to shore.”
“Trusting the board, huh?” Rin arched forward, fingers curling around the rails.
“That’s right,” Sousuke said, remembering what a patient surf-coach had said to him so many months ago when he was trying to forget his bitterness and anger in the swell, still clutching a shoulder that ached and wondering how he was supposed to find his way back to Rin.
“That’s a pretty romantic notion, coming from you,” Rin said, the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement.
Sousuke drowned the desperate need to thread his fingers through Rin’s tangled hair, press his lips to ears that refused to listen to all the things he still couldn’t say and whisper:
“I spent the better part of two years re-learning how to surf well enough to compete so I could have an good enough excuse to move to Australia and be near you.We paddle out for lessons at sunset because I like the way you look when your body is lit up red and orange and gold. Everything I feel for you is a romantic notion, you idiot.”
Sousuke looked away, shielded himself from Rin’s bright gaze. Sousuke watched the sun dip ever lower, knowing that their time on the water was almost up, and that he still hadn’t found a way to tell Rin that surfing wasn’t his new dream, that his new dream was just a variation on the dream he’d always had….to be Rin’s.
If only because it bought him more time to find the words he needed to say, Sousuke was incredibly grateful that Rin sucked so much at surfing.
Sousuke took a breath and dove back into the fray. “And I don’t want to hear that kind of shit coming from you of all people.”
“Alright, alright, fine.” Rin’s hand closed around his shoulder, wet and warm and familiar. “Enough talking. You ready to show me how to trust the board?”
Sousuke turned, giving up the horizon for the openness of Rin’s easy smile. He tilted his head towards the chop, forever ready to ride as many waves as it took until he could break on Rin’s shore.
“No, I’m ready to show how you to love it.”