wave after wave 🌊 [rini au]

fall ; 26

"Nina, babe, wake up, we gotta meet Seb and Carlos at the Pipeline today," Ricky tugged on her arm, drenched in sweat from the morning run and physical training he did earlier that morning. Old habits die hard, a short vacation couldn't stop him from his daily fitness regime. Nini's hair was strewn across her face as she starfished on the bed, groaning at his sweaty touch. She managed a "gross" before burying her face into the pillow, pulling away from him to wipe the sweat. Ricky stood at the foot of the bed, looking at the girl who was stubbornly still asleep; he ended up giving in to her slumber, slipping away to the bathroom for a shower to rinse the sweat of his body, he couldn't blame her for being tired, they were up all night talking anyway.

When they had returned to the BnB after his grandparents had sent them off, they took a shower and hung out on the lounge chairs surrounding the villa pool. Ricky opened up about his family more, telling her almost every story possible; Nini listened attentively, her touches every now and then showering him with affection. She asked him about his friends and high school life. He told her more about the incident and his dynamic with Hailey, once again assuring her that he was way over her. Although Nini was pretty sure that he was and didn't actually need convincing, she let him pull her into a passionate kiss, pinning her down on her lounge chair as he hovered over her, his body pressing against her own. She had wrapped her legs around his waist, a step into greater intimacy with him. Ricky carried her back into their room, with Nini kissing his neck ever so often, and they continued making out on the bed, only pulling away to catch their breath. They settled next to each other, talking about their ideals: ideal proposal, ideal wedding, ideal house, ideal family life and the friends they would want to keep as they moved along in life — Nini opened up about fantasising of becoming a pro-surfer as a young girl and it would have been her ideal career. It was barely 2am when they started talking about Ricky's life guarding and if he was ever considering returning to Oahu. Earlier in the trip, the topic came up but they never really talked about it. But, they discussed it seriously, talking about the possibilities and permutation if they were to stay together for a long period. Tension was heightened when Ricky got lost in Nini's eyes and was the one instead to tell her he might want to spend his life with her, giving her a green light to tease him like he teased her in the evening. He snapped a photo of her cheeky smile, and she insisted that they take a selfie of the both of them and so they did. She changed her wallpaper then, to the picture of them looking at each other, hair messy on the pillows. He kissed her good night when her eyelids grew heavy at 4am, a contrast to when he would usually fall asleep way earlier than her. Ricky smiled as she nuzzled into the warmth of his body in her sleep, pressing a kiss below her ear before succumbing to sleep himself.

In a half-awake state, Nini could hear the shower start running and she rolled over to the bedside table to scroll through her phone, whilst still wrapped up in the covers. She smiled as she thought of last night, low-key regretting that they'd slept so late but also basking in the fact that it was a really good day. It would seem to anyone that she was reading some messages and routinely scrolling through her Instagram feed but her mind was constantly drifting to which bikini she should wear that day. Nate had helped her, like always had, and packed her three sets, assuming that she would use one set for each day. However, she'd only worn the floral one on the first day and the whole of the previous day was spent at the Bowen grandparents' celebration. Nini had to choose between a black and white tribal set and a maroon set, she loved both equally and had received compliments in both sets too. The scrolling through her phone didn't last long as she threw the device on to the bed and tugged the bikini sets out of her bag, laying them on the bed. Nini tried to recall if she'd worn the black and white set in front of Ricky before, because she was super sure that he'd seen her in the maroon one before. That day was rather memorable; he couldn't take his hands off her, a playful hand snaking down from her waist to rest on her bum ever so slightly. The brown-hair girl was stuck in a dilemma until the Nate brain awoke in her, deciding to wear the tribal top and maroon bottoms. Fashionista, Nini thought to herself as she took her shirt off, putting on the halter top. Nate and Kourtney would have scoffed at her epiphany, they would have told her that mixing and matching was the most basic skill to have when styling.