"What could you possibly do indoors?"
Yixing rolled onto his side.
"It such nice weather out there! Look, the animals are out, it's so sunny, such a nice day."
Yeah right, Baekhyun thought; it was way too hot, not even a bird was flying around in that weather. Yixing shut his eyes. Great, he's not even pretending to listen anymore. But Baekhyun was fed up with staying in the house. There had been two weeks of consecutive rain and finally, it was sunny again. He was stuck indoors that entire time and he was done. He was determined to go outside, who cared if its was almost 40 celsius, nothing could hold him back. Well, almost nothing. Asking, demanding, begging, Baekhyun tried all sorts of ways to persuade Yixing to go outside with him. No reply. The heat seemed to diminish any type of desire for Yixing to be outdoors. He was all sprawled out under the fan and stared at the ceiling.
"We could swim?" Baekhyun suggested, "It wouldn't be too hot because we are in the water."
Yixing opened his eyes. Great, at least some kind of response.
He continued, "We could go to the small islet? Luhan said that there's a wrecked pirate ship, how cool's that?"
A muffled cough. Yixing seemed to consider the suggestion. No? Maybe? Please yes? Baekhyun looked at Yixing with hopeful eyes.
"Fine."
That, in Baekhyun's opinion, was the best thing he had heard that past horrible two weeks. They darted towards the ocean. Mostly Baekhyun, Yixing trailed behind. The sun that hung right above made Baekhyun's skin itchy again so he hurried up even more. The seawater at that time began to turn a little warm, which was a little weird for swimming, but it will do. In the water, Yixing seemed a little more woken up. They directly headed towards the islet.
The heat was endurable in the water, it was actually pretty comfortable. They swam along the coastline of their little island before going off into the wide open sea. They had only passed there once, with a boat, and that was five years ago when they were still in elementary. It was definitely an adventure and a risk, but they were good swimmers, they took pride in it. The sun seemed to have eased off a bit so their heads did not feel like a furnace anymore, and the birds returned as well.
A seagull followed them above for a short while, "Does he think that we are fishes or something?"
"Probably, your wet hair looks like a seal."
"That's not a fish."
"Same difference," Baekhyun said and paddled off ahead, splashing water onto the seagull. It flew away to one of the islands nearby.
Their journey was a little longer compared to their expectations, but they arrived nevertheless. It was worth it though, the islet was amazing. There was fresh water running through the streams, edible berries budding between the bushes, and the pirate ship stood right in the middle. How awesome is it to actually see a pirate ship? They shook off the water as much as they could and ran to the pirate ship. It seemed quite old already, the metal rudder was rough and rusty. They climbed up onto the ship and explored, leaving trails of drops behind over the decaying wooden floors of the ship.
To their disappointment, there wasn't much to see. The ship must have suffered from a pretty bad storm because the interiors were all in ruins. Baekhyun was hoping for something like an eyepatch or maybe like a hooked hand. But Yixing said that those were only in Hollywood movies, real pirates probably do not have them. Baekhyun told him to stop being smart.
A colony of seagulls swarmed onto the islet. The sudden flock of birds took them by surprise and automatically, they turned their heads towards the direction they flew. The birds hovered over the woods for a few rounds and went in.
"Could it be..."
"Oh, no."
Not even a minute later, the sun dimmed and a rumbling roar sounded. Baekhyun and Yixing fled the pirate ship and ran into the forest. They climbed up a tree many seagulls were resting on, they were never wrong. Snuggled up to each other, they stared out into the endless skyline. We're gonna be here for some time. The clouds by then already oozed across the sun. In the faint light, they searched for lights on the water, with hopes of their parents would know that they were here, on an islet, in the middle of nowhere.
"Should we try to swim back? Our parents don't even know where we are."
The wind screamed beside their ears, it was barely audible, "What?!"
"I said swim back!!"
"What?!!"
"Nevermind, we'd probably drown and die!!"
A bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, the split second of light reflected onto a side of Baekhyun's face. It was filled with terror. Yixing held him tighter as if the tiny warmth he provided could combat the madness of the storm. Another one, horrifyingly close to them. It threw itself onto one of the taller trees. The tree fell to the ground. They watched the whole thing happen through blurred vision.
"I...so sorry...shouldn't have..." Baekhyun said, his face filled with rain and tears.
"Shh," Yixing patted him softly on his back, "it'll be okay."
It lasted for a long long time, maybe hours, maybe the whole afternoon. Eventually, the downpour had lessened into drizzles, and the sun re-emerged from the clouds. The wind stayed, though; it was still too much to swim back, but at least it wasn't howling next to them.
"I guess we'd have to stay here tonight."
"Yeah."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry." Baekhyun looked up, meeting Yixing's thoughtful eyes that stared right back at him.
Yixing held him closer.
He is so beautiful. A thought suddenly popped up in Baekhyun's head. Strangely, it did not scare him as much as he thought it would.
Baekhyun fidgeted madly with the edges of his shirt and studied the buttons on it closely. Yixing was way too close to him and it is affecting him in ways he never thought he would react to boys. He glanced at Yixing out of the corner of his eyes. Yixing shifted his weight and Baekhyun swiftly looked back down.
Yixing had said something about swimming but Baekhyun's heart was pounding a little too loud for him to focus, so he nodded along to whatever Yixing was talking about.
"...So you agree to be my boyfriend?"
"What?!" Baekhyun was horrified to know what he had just agreed to.
"Hah, just kidding, you weren't listening to me."
"Ah." Oddly a little disappointing.
The sun was then slipping away and the sky was dyed purple-tinged gray.
"...Five...Four..."
They counted down the seconds as they watched it sink down into the abyss.
"...Three..."
Baekhyun scooched closer.
"...Two..."
His hand brushed Yixing's face and turned it towards him.
"...One..." He breathed.
Tiny lights lingered and seeped through the intimacy of their lips.
Little by little, inch by inch, closer and closer.
The light between was gone.
