wave after wave 🌊 [rini au]

fall ; 30

disclaimer: it gets a little hot and heavy toward the end but not too descriptive, all's good

The group headed back to the Roberts house for cake, Nini riding in her parents' car with Emma while Nate rode with Ricky. While Nini was more than happy to spend time with her parents and sister-in-law, she wore a pout when her brother chose to ride with her boyfriend, instead of her — the birthday girl. Deep inside, she knew that she was actually glad that Nate got along well with Ricky, it was rare that they were close to the point that he might favour Ricky over her.

Emma had made Nini a passionfruit cake, they put in and sang her a song while she basked in the attention she was receiving. Nic joined in the celebration on facetime, unable to be present because of the WSL season. The family had the cake over some old school board games, Mr Roberts getting everyone to play Boggle so he and his wife could thrash the children with a landslide victory. The whole time Nini sat across Ricky, glancing at him ever so often, thinking what it'd be like when they finally had the time together to be in each other's arms and talk about anything under the sun, or moon. He snuck glances at her too, but mostly because she looked really beautiful that night; Ricky also took note of the glint from the ring on her finger when the light reflected in it, wanting to just take her hand and hold it tight.

When the Roberts parents were finally satisfied with their victory, they kissed their only daughter good night, wishing her sweet dreams and a happy birthday before retiring to their room. Nate and Emma volunteered to clean up the mess they'd made, shoo-ing the youngest couple out of the house, telling them to enjoy the night. Of course, Nate hugged his sister and gave her a kiss on the forehead before letting them leave; Emma blew her an air kiss, not wanting to hold them back any longer.

Ricky interlaced his hand with Nini's as soon as he could, feeling the cool metal of the ring against his fingers and lifted her hand to his lips to press a kiss onto the back of her palm, "We've said this so many times today but happy birthday, Nins." She smiled at him, uttering a thank you then pulled his hand over to kiss the back of his palm too. The two walked hand in hand on the beach, reminiscing what her birthday was like last year, Nini highlighting how things went differently this year — mostly that her friends were off someplace else getting their college degrees, and the addition of Ricky to her life. When they came to their favourite place, the harbour, they sat down, letting their feet dangle in the cool water of the ocean, fingers still intertwined with each other. "Okay, enough about me, really. What about you? How did you celebrate your eighteenth?" He used his free hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, "As per our recent trip to Oahu, you probably would have caught on to the fact that I was a wild child. My eighteenth was nothing special, just a party, drinking, drinking games, my friends trying to set me up with girls, and Carlos telling me that no one would date my stupid ass. It wasn't half as special as yours." Nini released her hand from his and placed her arms around his waist, snuggling into the crook of his neck, "Then, I'm glad that I can spend this year's birthday with you. It's going to be so special!" Ricky rested his head on hers, "I already know it'll be special, because you being there already makes it special." She tilted her head up to kiss his neck, in assurance of her affection, earning a satisfied sigh from the curly-haired boy.

Ricky's birthday happened to fall on one of the days he didn't have a shift at Poipu, so he was able to have the whole day to himself. Nini managed to convince her brother to give her the day off, promising that she would pay him back in the form of babysitting when they finally had children — Nate wasn't really convinced but he let her anyway, so that Ricky wouldn't have to spend his birthday alone. From a long time ago, they'd already planned the day's activities, Nini taking the liberties to plan something that was exclusive to Kauai, yet something that he loved to them. They were going to go hiking in the Waimea Canyons in the morning and surf on the North Shore in the late afternoon. EJ and the lifeguard boys were planning a little party for their buddy for the evening and had requested that Nini brought him over so they could surprise their friend. Of course, Ricky wasn't aware of that, he thought that they would have dinner with Nate and Emma and then go bowling afterwards.