Just Another Sunny Day

"What hour is it, Roku-kun? I was just about to take out the boat. Why are you calling so early?"

"Maybe I just wanted to hear your soothing voice, Oji-san." Lachlan ran a hand through his hair, not quite summoning a smile. Didn't really know what hour it was, either.

Oji's pause made him wince. "Is everything fine, Roku-kun?"

"Of course." He took a deep breath, idly flexing random shapes with his hand. "How's the boat coming along?"

"You asked me only two days ago, boy. What's happened?"

He exhaled, propping his head against the wall of the booth's corner. "Nothing's happened. I just... I need to know you're all okay. That's all. That's everything."

"Ah." There was a faint noise in the background. "A bad night?"

Sighing, he closed his eyes, the coolness of the plastic seeping into his scalp. "Hai."

"Mm. I understand. The ghosts of our mistakes come to us in our dreams." The man paused. "You need your own beautiful wife to comfort you in the middle of the night instead of this old fisherman."

He snorted. "Don't you start."

"I only speak the truth, Roku-kun. My beautiful Tsuma is doing very well. Her cooking is as good as ever."

"You torture me, Ojii-san."

"The children have also almost forgotten what you look like. Tobira may shriek when you come back looking like a ghost."

A crooked smile came out. "There's still sun in Edo, old man."

"Ah, but not nearly as much as there is on the sea."

He had to admit he had paled a bit. Usually by now he'd be almost as browned as Oji, but his skin still hadn't quite lost its lighter winter tan. "You'll be happy to know we're heading out to the sea tomorrow for our day off, then."

"You're not coming home?"

Home. A ghost of a smile pulled at his mouth, a strange kind of warmth driving off the tightness still sitting in his stomach. "No, turns out it's more of a group-bonding day, by order of our kami-sama. Besides I—" he cleared his throat— "I don't really have enough money for a round trip."

As it turned out, that night-out had put a massive hole in his wallet. If he really tried, he might be able to scrape together enough, but it'd be close.

"Ah, has Roku-kun been sampling the pleasures of the city, hm?"

"I have a trustworthy source of manga, if you'd like to sample some of your own," he said blandly.

"Hmm, Tsuma might be harsh on me if you did. Maybe not."

"I didn't take you for a coward, Oji-san." He smiled. "Anyway, that's good to hear. Say hi to the others for me."

"I will, Roku-kun."

_________________

The sun nearly blinded him as he squinted against it, the sand scorching his bare feet. Somehow, he'd managed to forget that when sea and sun met, the intensity of their love for each other—as Oji poetically put it—could knock a man flat on his arse.

"First in the water!" Drake dashed straight past him like a wildman, whooping his way across the burning desert to the waves.

"Oi," he laughed. "Someone's in high spirits."

"The dragon's right, and you're slow." Ariake smacked him on the bare shoulder on his way sprinting past, yelling, "Last in has to set up the net!"

Kids. He shook his head, clapping a judgemental Eden on the shoulder as a few from the other teams joined in. "When you spend all day fishing in it, it just loses the sparkle." And he grinned. "But I'd rather not set up the net. Oi— wait for me!"

Dashing off, he out-sprinted half the others, splashing in through the breakers and diving headlong into the waves. He surfaced in a fountain of spray next to Drake, shaking his wet hair all over Ariake to the lad's spluttering protests and starting a half-splashing, half-wrestling match that ended with Drake as the victor, and the rest of them half-drowned. Excluding Eden, who hadn't set foot in the water.

"I'll get you next time, gaijin," Ariake gasped as they lay out like smoked trout on the beach, levelling a finger at him threateningly. The effect was slightly ruined with his face pressed to the sand.

"You can try." He smirked back, flicking sand in the lad's face. "But I think Drake'll still win."

"You—!" Ariake miraculously summoned a burst of energy and launched at him.

By the time they'd finished their second round of wrestling, Drake also winning that one in spite of members of other teams joining in, the girls had retreated from the water, enjoying the sun, or—in the case of Tenne, Umiko, and one of the girls from Matsuo's team—constructing a sandcastle.

"Where'd you get the seashells from?" Lachlan flopped down nearby, shaking wet bangs out of his face. Hirano had stolen away Ariake and a few of the other lads to mess around with a barbecue, the distant chatter drifting on the breeze.

"My uncle sells oysters," the third girl—Deko, he thought her name was—said with a smile, her eyes flicking briefly to his arms. "I keep them for when I go to the beach."

"And she has them all decorating her parents' house," Tenne nudged at her shoulder teasingly. "They live under the sea there."

He chuckled. "Reminds me of my little siblings. They're always picking up shells and rocks. Drives the parents crazy."

"How old are they?" Umiko eyed him sideways, colder than the others.

"Five and eight." He smiled at her. "Tobira'll be six in another couple of months. They're a pair of little demons."

Deko cocked her head. "Did your family move here?"

"No, I'm adopted." His smile turned lopsided. "Came here four years ago and met this nice family with a pair of cute kids. The rest is history."

"You don't have any family where you came from?" Umiko said bluntly, and Tenne frowned at her, poking her in the side. The other girl only frowned back.

He pretended not to notice. "No."

"You have nice hair," Tenne said loudly. "How do you make it curly like that?"

He blinked, regarding a strand curling in front of his eye. "Mixture of seawater, sand, and burning hot sun, currently."

"It's such a nice colour."

He tilted his head with a lopsided smile. "Thanks. I think so."

"Hm, what would you call it?" Deko studied him. "I wonder if there's a dye that would match. It's not light enough to be blond."

"Gold-brown, light-brown?" He suggested, fingering a damp strand currently more dark-brown than anything else. "Something along those lines."

"Light golden-copper brown," Kyubi-sama called from her probably-glimmer beach chair, pulling her sunglasses down and smiling at them over her very revealing bikini. "Though I think adding a few blonde tones wouldn't hurt."

The girls in their more sporty crop tops and shorts lit up. Well, Tenne and Deko did. Umiko only sighed, rolling her eyes. "You don't want the same shade as him, do you?"

"It reminds me of the autumn leaves," Deko retorted. "And don't be rude, we're not competing today."

"Don't know about that," he said lightly. "I hear we're holding a volleyball championship. Winning team gets top of the class."

"I'd prefer icecream," Umiko said.

"Maybe that too." He glanced over at the net, noting a few of the others starting to gather, and hauled himself back to his feet, dusting off the sand. "Speaking of, looks like we might be starting."

They were indeed. Including arguments on how to divvy up teams. He would've thought they'd just do it in rolling matches of four to a side, but apparently most people wanted the mass chaos of splitting into two, because—as Hirano put it—going into their Samurai teams defeated the point.

So they decided on the classic boys-vs-girls, with two lads volunteered to make up the numbers on the girls' side.

"Buronnewan and Ryu, you can make up the difference," Hirano dictated with a smug smile. "You fit in perfectly."

Lachlan raised an eyebrow at Drake. "Did he just say we look like girls?"

Drake shrugged helplessly.

"Well, the people have spoken. We've been banished from manhood." He sighed and crossed to the girls' end, turning on his heel and winking at a few sly sideways glances. "Fellow ladies, allow us to join you."

Tugging the tie out of his hair and tossing it aside, he shook his beautiful girly copper-gold-brown locks free, bowing to Matsuo. "Ma'am, we offer our feminine services freely."

Ariake wolf-whistled, and he nearly died on the spot.

"Kore!" He shook his fist, barely keeping a straight face. "Treat a lady with respect!"

"You can call me Sharon," Drake said. Complete with demure falsetto.

Someone'd have to resuscitate him after this. He laughed harder than he had for a while, and only Eden serving the volleyball straight at his head managed to save him from another dislocated kidney.

"I believe you drew the worst players," Eden commented snidely. And with a name like his, he really should've wound up over here too. "A shame. This will barely be a challenge."

"Alright, let's show you the balls on the girls' team." He bopped it over. "Deko-chan!"

"Hai!" The girl grinned, and promptly passed it to Matsuo, who smashed it over hard enough that he was glad not to be over there.

In spite of the fierce competition, the track record of today held true. Drake and his brutal trick-shot won, the rest of them free to bask in the victory as the smell of dinner grilling drifted across the waves and the sun hovered above the horizon.

"Chest-bump?" He grinned at Matsuo, laughing at her flat look, and offered his hand instead with a smile. "High-five, then?"

At that, she smiled back, taking the offer. "You play better than I thought you would."

"Do my best to keep up," he said mock-modestly. "We make a good team."

She didn't argue on that, surprisingly. An August miracle, he reflected as he flopped down next to Ariake in the crowd firmly beaten back by Kyubi-sama, whose apron didn't cover up much more than her swimwear did.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Lachlan commented.

Ariake twitched away from the barbecue and its operator, turning a shade of red that had nothing to do with sunburn. "I-it's not like that!"

"Wasn't talking about the view, hentai-san." He raised an eyebrow and smirked, smacking the lad on the shoulder as he blustered. "Taking a break every once in a while is good for you. I think this is the first time in a month I haven't seen you training."

Ariake half-glared at him sideways. "And what about you?"

"Ah, but unlike you, I need to train. I don't think you give yourself enough credit for what you can already do, hawk-san."

"Psh." Ariake frowned away. "If you don't keep improving, you stagnate."

Lachlan leaned his elbows back in the sand. "You also keep pushing too hard, and you'll do more harm than good. Even fishermen have to take a break at noon."

"...Maybe. Your lazy gaijin ways have still improved you, somehow."

He smiled, pulling himself up using the lad's handy shoulder as Kyubi-sama finally announced they could eat, and unleashed the ravenous horde. Clapping him on the back, he said cheerfully, "See? I have some wisdom. Let's go eat."

They could get back to work again tomorrow.