Sunny Horizons [Closed]

There was something strangely relaxing about Tsubine patting her on the top of the head. It was something that many did to children, but it didn't feel that way when coming from him. "It's never too late to learn, especially when you're so young." he said. She looked up to him worried. She wasn't sure she wanted to do this, but something was preventing her from saying so. She assumed it was probably that same something that made being pat on the head feel comforting. Kaminari felt that now was as good a time as any to learn to swim, so why not have him teach her? It seemed he accepted the job because the lesson began. He stepped back and her nerves got the better of her. She tightened her hand around his, quickly regretting it. She was showing too much fear here. A Shinigami Captain should not fear something as simple as learning to swim, whether she had or hadn't done something like this before.

"You're going to be fine. You're already doing the basic part, which is just floating." Basic? Basic?! Floating on the surface of the ocean was basic?! No, a pool was basic. She had so many possibilities going through her mind. A larger than normal wave, a tsunami, a shark, an eel, a jellyfish. She had no idea what was lurking in the bottom of these waters. If something decided it wanted her, it'd get her. She couldn't fight it! "D-Don't let me go!!" she said quickly, as if she were in a panic, and tightened her grip on him even more. She wouldn't be surprised if her little hands were cutting off blood circulation now. He was changing their position again. He was standing on shallower ground while her feet couldn't reach it without ducking her nose under water. The current continued to pull on her,  making her more nervous with every passing wave. Now that she had her back to the incoming waves, her level of nervousness was raising.

"Now, relax your body a bit more... and let it float up. Let your back float up, and make sure to keep your head angled where you're not going to breathe in water." She tried doing as she said by not kicking her legs like she thought you were supposed to. Her body did indeed begin to float up, but it felt odd with the water moving around her so much. "D-Don't... l-let me go. Promise?" she said, keeping her head angled up as he said so she wouldn't be stupid enough to breathe in water. The taste of salt wasn't exactly wanted right now, but little drops kept leaking into her mouth with the passing waves. And now that her back was turned to the water and she couldn't see, of course this was the time for a much larger, 'surf-able' wave to come in onto the shore. As it came in, it got bigger and bigger until it raised up even higher than Tsubine's head was and wasn't too far from breaking over the both of them.

It was probably a little shocking to see someone like Kaminari so reliant on someone else, especially asking him to promise not to let her go. No matter the way his replies sounded, Kaminari was so nervous about being swept away and drowning in her stupid gigai that she didn't notice it. "See, you're doing fine." he said and she forced a nervous smile. Yeah, for now things were going okay. Well, yeah, they were. Kaminari relaxed a bit and began kicking her legs just a little, trying to get used to the current. "Shit." What? Shit? What? Kaminari stopped kicking and looked up to him to see where he was looking. She turned her head back, and as she did so, her eyes widened at the incoming wave and she was being pulled into Tsubine. Not caring at all about embarrassment or nervousness, Kaminari wrapped her arms tightly around him and clung. And then the wave came crashing down over them...

Kaminari pressed herself as close into Tsubine as she possibly could, closing her eyes while their bodies were being knocked around. It was a little surprising that Tsubine was actually moved, but the ocean water wasn't exactly an easy thing to resist. After being washed around a bit, the torture came to an end and they were in much, much shallower water. Kaminari still clung to him. Her body was shaking a lot more than one would expect. She hadn't been able to take a breath before the water took them, so she went through that without being able to breath. She began coughing as she tried to catch her breath. "Sorry about that... I didn't expect one of that size to be here. Are you okay?" Kaminari didn't move for a while. Once she was able to finally catch her breath, she looked up to him with a dazed expression. She blinked a couple times and then took a deep breath before realizing the position that they of them were in.

"I'm done." she said with red cheeks, pushing herself off of him and rolling over on her back, "I have no need to learn how to swim. It's useless." Now whether she meant the swimming skill was useless or the idea of teaching her was useless was unclear, but she had no plans of getting back in the water. She placed a hand over her stomach and the other arm over her eyes and just laid there, her jaw tightly clenched as she tried calming herself down.

It wasn't something she could expect him to understand, not when she kept the truth from him. She was debating whether she should just speak up and explain to him why this frightened her so much. "I don't know whether it's because you're embarrassed or something, but giving up is just going to make you feel worse." He had sat up, but she continued to just lay there. Since she kept her arm laying over her eyes, she did not see his piercing glare. That doesn't mean she didn't know it was there. She knew. She knew all to well how he was looking at her now. She didn't want to see it. One thing he could see though was her clenched jaw and gritting teeth. "You don't understand..." she said very very quietly, actually not wanting him to hear her mumbling to herself. "Be glad I'm not teaching you how I was taught—which was being pushed out of a boat and forced to swim or else I'd drown." he told her and she tensed.

Forcing herself to calm down, she removed her arm from her eyes and looked to him. Her eyes were red, though that was from the salt water, or was it? "My parents loved me, but they did that to prove they believed in me." She stared at him, her expression blank even ask he smirked. "So maybe I should just throw you out there, showing I believe in you." Her eyes narrowed into her own death stare, "You wouldn't dare." Her voice spoke in a hiss, as if she were truly and utterly angry with him. She knew it was a joke, or hoped it was, but her reaction was almost involuntary. "Of course I'm kidding." he said and she calmed a bit, looking away from him again. Feeling him move to lean over her, she turned her head back toward him and glanced toward his extended hand. "I'd rather teach you slowly than force you to learn. You'd get the wrong kind of impression of me." he said while bringing out that smile.

"Plus, it's just more time we can spend together." Kaminari opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't. She looked to his hand and reached out to take it, still shaking. She knew what he wanted her to do. He wanted her back in that water. Using him as leverage, assuming he'd allow that, she'd pull herself up to her feet and look out to the ocean again. "You know the worst part of fear...?" she asked him, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the crashing waves, "When you forget it exists only to remember and learn about it again." She lowered her head for a moment and bit her bottom lip. A tear dropped down the side of her cheek, only to be wiped away quickly. She set a hand on his chest and sighed. "I'm sorry, Tsubine... I just can't." she said and turned away, walking off with her head lowered. Little did Tsubine know, this entire thing had accessed a trigger within her mind that she had long forgotten about.

"It's obvious I touched a nerve..." In truth, Tsubine had no idea how sensitive of a nerve he had actually hit. Kaminari was strong, or at least tried to be. Showing weakness like this was not something she liked doing. It had been etched into her being to show no weakness to anyone, no matter who they were. Yet, here she was crying in front of a man she once called Captain. How could she have sunken so low? "for that, I am sorry... but..." But what? Her arm was suddenly grabbed and she was turned toward him. Her eyes widened, surprised at the suddenly grasp at her. He pulled her in and held her tightly; his firm embrace practically caused her to melt in his arms. She found herself lost in his words; right now there was only Tsubine. Even the ocean's waves crashing onto the shore left her mind. "Kaminari... remember this." She blinked. What did he want her to remember? What did he need her to remember?

"Fear..." Kaminari looked him straight in the eyes, her practically begging him to say it, whatever it was. "Fear just serves one purpose." A purpose? Fear? What did he mean by that? "It makes you feel alone. It makes you feel like the whole world is against you." For her, that was true, but her fear came from different places than his did. It wasn't from battle and war, nor was it from pain or injury. Her fear was a dormant volcano waiting to erupt and if it ever did, it would destroy all she called her own. "As long as I can, I'll be there for you. For as long as I can, I'll make sure that you are not alone. That way..." Was he making her a promise? It felt like it. Her heart was racing faster. She couldn't look away from him; her eyes were locked onto his. She began to feel drawn in; she wanted to be closer to him at this moment. The feeling was odd and a little frightening to her, but she didn't want to fight it either.

"whatever it is you are fearing, or will fear... you won't have to face it alone. I'll be there with you, side-by-side, hand-in-hand." Tears fell faster, her heart rate increased. What was happening to her? There was something she wanted right now. She wanted it bad, but could she go for it? No. Yes. Maybe. Yes. She wanted to relive that night without the "I was loopy" excuse. She yearned for him now and as he came closer to her that was it. Kaminari pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and helped close that gap between the two of them. Her lips met his and Kaminari found herself wrapping her arms around his back and pulling herself into him. Her eyes closed and she held her breath through out the entirety of the kiss. A few seconds later, when she could no longer hold her breath, Kaminari pulled away and slowly opened her eyes to look at him. Blinking once, she suddenly began blushing and took a step back.

"Uh... Hm..." she covered her face with her hands and looked away, "Th-Thank you. I, uh... Is that even how you're supposed to react to a kiss? I, well, don't exactly know what I'm doing. The first time this happened, I was... well... I... Mmmm..." Kaminari whined a little, her embarrassment level jumping up a few counts. She placed her hand over her heart and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. "Well that was certainly entertaining." a familiar voice spoke up and Kaminari looked over to see Eira standing there. "Oh leave it alone! I don't need you to tease me about this right now, okay?" Kaminari said and Eira just laughed. "Fine, fine." she said and shook her head, "I approve brother, I approve." Kaminari covered her face and turned toward the ocean, making sure her back was to the both of them. She has never had her heart racing like this before. This entire day had taken one hell of a turn for... the better.