riptide | kyojuro rengoku

XII | beautiful

"Y/N," You watched Kyojuro dip his hands into the water, playfully splashing. Your lips shaped a smile as you responded with a hum, curious of what he had to say. "Can you tell me everything that happened now?" You could hear the interest in his voice and it was pretty cute to imagine that he was pouting too.

You took in a breath, sighing before explaining. "You started to turn the boat to the right and it was weird because usually, you warn me which direction we're turning beforehand. When I ended up looking in the water, there were these 'Sirens'. They're known for luring men away and making them crash their ships; I've seen them before."

"Their eyes were yellow too which means that they're really powerful; the grayer their eyes means that it's been long since their last feed, making them weaker. A lot of the time, people target the gray-eyed Sirens in order to clear them out from the area. It's too risky to let anyone get lured."

He was going to ask how you knew but fell quiet when you continued. Plus, he realized, it wasn't his place to ask. "I ended up provoking that giant creature we saw earlier so that it would attack the Sirens; it's large enough to cause chaos and get them too. While it was getting them, I moved the ship away from the fight, but I had to keep a grip on you too since the waves were huge."

"I ended up losing my grip on you and after a bit, I blacked out too. When I woke up. . . " You paused, unsure if you should tell him. Something in your gut told you not to; besides, you weren't even sure if it was your doing or pure coincidence. Yet, the look it had in its eyes told you it was far from the latter.

Still, though, you bathed in denial.

"Well, when I woke up, you were still out cold and I made sure there was nothing dangerous around. I guess all the head pain got to me a bit since I felt pretty dizzy and ended up vomiting twice." You scrunched your nose, finally done with your story as you cupped the water in your hands, pouring it back into the pool.

Kyojuro hummed, "Well, thank you! You're a valiant person and if I didn't know any better, I'd consider you a Pillar too!" He spoke as if being the Pillar was the highest honor and in a sense, it was. You just took it in stride, smiling in his direction and nodding understandingly. "When you said they had yellow eyes," He paused.

You could see him swish his hands through the water, fidgeting as he pondered. "You could see yellow, but you can't see red?" You laughed softly at his innocent question. To you, he sounded a little bit like a child, seemingly too confused to even come up with a hypothesis on his own. You nodded slowly, trying to figure out how to explain it.

"Amane, Kagaya's wife, tried to show me red before by cutting her palm, but the sea only made it look purple. We didn't have any red clothes either since it would make us look like the Fire Villagers, so we typically wore white. There aren't many red things in the sea either." You paused, realizing you had just revealed who Amane was.

He didn't prod though, pursing his lips. Kyojuro suddenly moved, catching you off-guard as he stood up, somehow managing to keep his footing on the wet rock. How he did it was beyond you considering it felt pretty slippery when you had stepped into the pool earlier. "Let me show you red then!" 

You smiled at his offer, watching as he stepped deeper into the pool. Funnily enough, he was wearing shorts with little flame designs at the tips, but he hardly looked embarrassed about it. It looked like something one of the villagers would gift him and he wore it with uncensored pride. "Can you see me?" 

"A part of you," You mumbled.

He let out a sigh of relief at that, glad that his plan was working. He stepped deeper into the pond and you realized how tall he actually was, your jaw falling slack slightly. If you had to guess, he was nearly 5'10" and you were only 5'5". No wonder he was able to reach your head with such ease.

Your face grew hotter when you realized his torso was fully visible to you, giving you an endless vision of his six-pack and the tight muscles along his arms. "I'll try to hold my breath as long as I can!" He cheered himself on and you laughed softly, instinctively moving away from where you were seated to approach him.

"Please don't. I don't need you passing out on me, Kyojuro," You advised quietly. He watched as you waded in the water carefully, his hands reaching out to your arms. Your arms fell limp and Kyojuro slid his hands down, his fingers landing on your waist. His breath hitched and so did yours, your face growing hot again.

"You don't mind, do you?"

You answered way faster than you probably should have. "No," He let out a breath of relief at that, counting boldly under his breath. "Ready? Three, two, one!" And all of a sudden, he was underwater and due to his hold, you were too. Your eyes blinked open, but you were hardly bothered by the water.

You withstood it, your eyes meeting his as your heart stuttered. He had long golden hair, red licking at the tips. His eyes would put treasure to shame, his pretty yellow irises glittering around a crimson ring. For some reason, his gaze on you made butterflies flutter in your stomach. He smiled back at you and it was then you realized you were grinning at him too.

Like some kind of lovestruck idiot.

He suddenly came up for air, gently pulling you up with him as he coughed slightly, but didn't seem to be too bothered by it. Kyojuro removed one of his hands from your waist, using it to rake his hair back and get rid of some dewy droplets along his eyelashes. "So," The Flame Pillar breathed and you could practically picture his smile all over again. "What do you think of red?"

Your lips parted and you spoke quietly, your heart still pounding in your chest.

"Red. . . is beautiful," You moved your hands from his shoulders, gliding them up his neck to cup his face. "Rengoku Kyojuro. . . you're beautiful."