The ocean was beautiful and dim, quiet and mysterious, strong and full of life.
Fushimi didn't particularly hate or love it. That was just where he existed. The house in that small ocean city of Shioshishio was mostly empty - and it was better that way. The people in the city didn't talk to him much; liked to whisper when he walked by (he was part of the disgraced family, after all, whose mother had rejected the sea and no longer had the ena on her skin that allowed her to live underwater), but he didn't care about them.
There's no point in conversing with idiots, after all. Better to be alone.
It wasn't like he hated the idea of the surface, either - it was just another place in this useless world, no better or worse than any other - but there were only so many places Niki could disappear to for weeks on end, and so his suspicions lead him to avoid it for the most part.
That was why he didn't really know what possessed him on that day, when he swam up there.
Well. He sort of did. Will anything change?
The refracted light from the sun still reached Shioshishio, but it was brighter as he rose. Almost blinding.
Will my thoughts change?
There was a shadow at the edge where water met air, and he gave it a wide berth, moving more slowly - warily - as the sound of voices started to reach him through that barrier.
Will this boring existence change?
He thought about turning back. If he wanted to hear obnoxious idiots chattering at each other, he could do that just as well under the sea. But then...
Will I change?
When his head broke the surface, and he had to squint in the harsh light from the sun, the first thing to reach his senses was a loud voice, " - easy, see? Just... like... this..."
"Yata-san... you shouldn't stand here..." The second voice was more timid, full of concern, and Fushimi had just enough time to register that, frowning in the general direction of the sounds and the blurry shapes, his vision slowly starting to clear a little before there was an alarmed cry and a loud splash, and the water around him rippled.
"Yata-san!"
Fushimi blinked a few times, adjusting to the bright light, and took in the scene in front of him. There was a heavyset kid in a small, dangerously swaying boat - at least, he assumed that was supposed to be a boat; it wasn't like he'd ever seen one in person, and to be honest, this one looked kind of like a floating shipwreck. The kid was peering anxiously into the water over one side where the settling white froth indicated that something - or someone - had fallen in. He looked about Fushimi's age, give or take a year.
Are the kids up here all this stupid?
"HAH!" Another head popped up out of the water, drawing in a sharp, obnxiously loud breath. The second kid was grinning almost before he'd gotten air into his lungs, chestnut hair plastered to his face and neck, expression vaguely sheepish as he tread water. "Oops."
"Yata-san, don't scare me like that!" the first boy protested, sinking back into his seat with relief.
"My bad!" the second boy responded carelessly, propelling himself back a little so that his body was almost flat. "It's not like you don't know I can swim, though! Seriously, it's no big - " As he turned his head, his eyes met Fushimi's, and they widened a little, the rest of his sentence seeming to die in his throat.
A small prickle of alarm spread across Fushimi's skin, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to move. The eyes that met his were a color he'd never seen before on another face - almost pure amber - and they sparkled like the tiny reflections of light that reached the deepest places in the ocean. The kid's skin was lightly tanned, a little burnt around the edges of his ears, and even drenched in water and mostly swallowed by the sea, he looked somehow like he was made for the sun.
It was kind of fascinating in a way, and something in Fushimi's chest gave a little squeeze.
The kid blinked at him slowly, legs and torso sinking again as he shifted to face Fushimi in the water. "Hey," he said, almost tentatively, staring back with equal interest and maybe a tiny bit of awe. "Um... sorry, but... who are you?"
That question was enough to snap him out of the daze. Stupid! Fushimi jerked his gaze away abruptly and dove without answering, just catching the startled yelp of "wait!" before his head and then his body were underwater and he was kicking himself down, back to the cooler, dimmer places beneath the water. He didn't look back to see if the kid tried to follow him. A person who lived on the surface couldn't keep up with someone who had ena.
What was that about, anyway?
It wasn't until he was settling back onto his feet in a quiet corner of the city, with the rush of panic from earlier mostly dissipated, that he stopped to consider the tiny thread of disappointment. Fushimi turned his gaze upward again, past the buildings, to where the rippling light from the sun came down through the water.
Those sparkling amber eyes were still clear in his mind, as if he was looking right at them, and his heart was racing even as he stood perfectly still.
... Did something change?
