Ivan had always dreamed of beaches as a child. Having grown up in the Russian tundra, he'd longed for the ability to lounge on a towel overlooking the calm blue ocean under the gentle caress of a warm sun.
What he did not anticipate was the threat of sunburn from an unforgiving ball of gas and chafing from invasive sediment. Not to mention the pounding aqua waves and obnoxious tourists that had no concept of personal space.
Needless to say, the childhood dream was quickly expelled upon the Braginsky-Arlovskaya family's move to Florida last year.
"And that, dear sestra, is why I hate the beach," Ivan concluded, pretending to overlook the disappointed expression on his younger sister's face.
"But big brother, mama i papa said that I cannot go alone," Natalya pleaded.
Ivan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why can you not go with Katyusha?" he asked in a vain attempt at passing the baton to his older sister.
The repulsed look that crossed Natalya's face answered him before she opened her mouth. "No, I want you to take me! Besides, Kat said something about having to go to work."
Ivan sighed, scooting his rolling chair from under his desk and standing up. "Fine, just give me a minute to get ready and we will go."
Natalya threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. "I knew I could count on you, Ivan!"
The platinum blond shrugged out of his step-sister's embrace. "Yeah, whatever, just go wait for me by the door."
She smirked and glided to his bedroom door, settling comfortably against the door frame.
Ivan resisted the urge to slap his forehead. "I meant the front door, Natalya."
The girl giggled and complied, blowing a kiss to him as she sauntered down the hall.
Ivan shook his head at her retreating figure before closing the door and gathering his beach attire.
Having abstained from the beach since that first visit last summer, Ivan was a little lost as far as appropriate checklists went. He haphazardly threw a pair of boxers, some shorts, an extra T-shirt, two towels, and an umbrella into a bag before changing into his violet swimming trunks, (that thankfully still fit), a white V-neck, and white sandals.
"Ivan, what's taking so long?" his sister called, sounding suspiciously close.
Ivan rolled his eyes and grabbed his keys and a pair of sunglasses from his desk. Slinging the bag onto his shoulder, he exited his bedroom, only to bump into his older sister, Katyusha.
"Ivan!" she smiled, taking in his attire. "Finally trying the beach again?"
He shook his head to recover from the collision. When his eyes focused, he noticed that she was, indeed, dressed for work. "Something like that," he blushed, recalling her reaction to his last visit. "I have to babysit Natalya."
Katyusha's smile faded slightly in poorly masked disappointment. "Ah, well try to have fun! You never know, you may just meet someone!" she winked and sent him off with a playful nudge.
Ivan blushed harder at the comment. Shaking his head again, he continued into the kitchen, grabbing a banana off of the counter to eat on the way.
Natalya was bouncing impatiently at the door. "Finally! Come on, I have friends waiting!"
"Yes, yes, I am right behind you," he called after her as she bounded toward his car.
Ivan took his time locking the front door, dreading the probable long day awaiting him at his least favorite place. A little voice in the back of his head reminded him that he could just put up with a whining Natalya instead. He paused to rationally weigh the options. Beach... or Natalya? Either way he was screwed, so opting for the lesser of two evils, he made his way to his car.
* * RusAme * *
Of course, there was no parking along the beachfront, so they had to park across the highway and walk. That was strike one.
On the drive over, as he drowned out Natalya's rambling with the stereo, Ivan mentally established a three-strike tolerance system. If he reached three strikes before any enjoyment was had on his part, he was gathering Natalya, kicking and screaming, and going back home.
Already, the beach had one strike.
The second would've immediately followed had Natalya's friends not already been there and kept a spot for them. The beach was packed; Ivan had to crane his neck to glimpse even a sliver of unoccupied sand.
"Nat! You made it!" one of her friends, a spunky strawberry blonde named Emma, greeted. Her green eyes settled on Ivan and her grin widened. "And you brought your brother! It's great to see you again, Ivan!"
He nodded politely, mumbling a faint greeting back. Emma was not fazed in the slightest.
"Lili, Mich, Mei, and Eliza are already in the water, feel free to join us when you're ready!" With a little wave, the blonde disappeared into the sea of bodies.
Ivan turned to lay out one of his towels, setting it down neatly on the sand. He smirked, impressed at his success, until a gust of wind flipped it over, flicking sand onto his sweat-slicked legs.
Strike two.
He wrestled with the towel for another two minutes, throwing his bag on one corner, the left shoe opposite it, the right shoe adjacent to both, and his own body on the final edge.
Natalya studied his antics with thinly veiled amusement.
"What are you still doing here? You wanted to come to play with your friends, so go play." He gestured to the group resembling her friends in the water for emphasis.
Natalya shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure you were taken care of, big brother."
Ivan sucked his teeth in response, turning away. "Well I am fine now. Go have fun."
Natalya looked slightly hesitant before shrugging, discarding her shoes, bag, and cover-up on Elizabeta's towel, and waltzing down to her friends.
"Do not forget to put on sunblock," she called back to him.
... sunblock...
"Der'mo!" Ivan swore, rummaging through his bag. Nope, he'd definitely forgotten it.
Strike thre-
"Hey, dude! Need some of this?"
A shadow suddenly loomed over him. Before Ivan could react, a bottle of sunscreen dropped into his lap. He glanced up at his inadvertent savior, sarcastic response on the tip of his tongue. He did not, however, anticipate his savior to be Adonis. Sun-kissed skin sleek with sweat rippled over expanses of finely toned muscle, briefly disappearing beneath a red tank top and red and white Bermuda shorts. A shiny whistle dangled from a thin silver chain that ran tantalizingly along well-defined collarbones. Prominent cheekbones framed a pearly white smile aimed directly at him. Sunglasses and a red visor shielded the wearer from the unrelenting sun, unfortunately disguising his mysterious eyes in the process. Golden blond hair stuck up from beyond the visor, almost shimmering in the rays of sunlight streaking through it.
"Chert," Ivan whispered, suddenly tongue-tied. He glanced nervously back down at the bottle in his hands.
"What was that, dude?" the young man asked, removing his sunglasses to get a better view of Ivan.
Opal melted into pools of brilliant sapphire that literally glittered in the light. Ivan sat, breathless, wondering whether or not he was seeing a mirage.
"I said, 'spasibo,'" Ivan smiled, hoping that the flush in his cheeks could be attributed to the sun.
The other teen chuckled, squatting to be level with his face. "No problem, dude; it's what they pay me for." The comprehension of his native tongue, coupled with the wink that followed, made Ivan catch his breath.
"You speak Russian?" he asked, subconsciously sitting up to look slightly down on him.
The teen chuckled. "I'm not fluent, but when you work on the beach during tourist season, you tend to pick up a bit of every language... among other things." He glanced at the reddening skin on Ivan's otherwise pale arms. "Need some help with that?"
Ivan followed the other's gaze and flinched. That definitely would've been strike three.
He resisted the urge to say yes, not wanting to come off as "creepy," (as his last boyfriend had worded it). "No thank you, I can manage."
He expected the lifeguard to continue about his business, but the blond did the exact opposite, seating himself comfortably on the other end of Ivan's towel. When he caught Ivan's suspicious gaze he blushed and bit his lip, glancing away. "Sorry... It's just that I'm on break and you seem like a cool guy to talk to."
Ivan almost laughed out loud. 'Cool? He thinks I am cool? I cannot even spend five minutes in the sun without burning!'
The lifeguard took his apparent silence as a rejection. "I should've asked you first, I didn't mean to bother you." He stood, dusting his shorts off. "I'll just go-"
"Net, podozhdite!" Ivan panicked and grabbed his hand, nearly yanking him back down. Startled blue eyes met his flustered expression, and he scrambled to recover. "I do not mind your company. Please stay. I'm Ivan, by the way."
The teen smirked, reclaiming his spot on the towel. "The name's Alfred F. Jones!" he replied, shaking Ivan's hand before releasing it. "Are you new here? Visiting family? Vacationing for the summer? I've never seen you before."
"I moved here at the end of last summer. I spent the entire year at the high school."
Alfred frowned. "That's strange, I never heard about a new student last year."
Ivan shrugged. "I was not exactly outspoken in my classes, and there are lots of students... It's not surprising that we never crossed paths."
"Please, I'm pretty sure I'd notice someone like you," Alfred chuckled, giving a little wink. "What I meant was no one told me about any new students when I got back."
Ivan bit his lip in an attempt to suppress the exaggerated color in his cheeks. He hoped it wasn't too obvious that this was the first remotely flirtatious encounter he'd had in over a year. "What do you mean by 'when you got back'?"
Alfred's eyes flickered almost unnoticeably from Ivan's face. "Well, I spent my last school year in Canada." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "My family is… complicated. So, to satisfy everyone, my mother, half-brother, and I migrate every year or two between my father here and his father and our mother's family in Ontario."
Ivan was dumbstruck. This teen, whom he'd only known for three minutes, had already divulged this kind of personal information to him. It had taken a year before Yao even mentioned his brothers to him! He supposed that it had something to do with the cultural differences, but still…
"You did not have to tell me all of that. A simple, 'I was in a different school last year,' would have worked."
Alfred shrugged. "I don't know why I told you all of that. It's not something I tend to bring up, especially not to complete strangers."
Ivan frowned, confused. "So why me?"
"Like I said, you seem cool. There's just something about you that immediately drew me to you. I was standing over there with a bottle of sunscreen, hoping that you'd need some." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, releasing a nervous laugh.
Ivan raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You were watching and waiting for an excuse to talk to me?"
Alfred's face erupted into an unhealthy shade of red. He stuttered for a moment, unable to meet Ivan's gaze. "So… what were you doing without sunscreen? You said you've been here for about a year, so how'd you end up forgetting it?"
Ivan scowled, glaring at the sand. "I am not a big fan of the beach," he grumbled. "Or, at least, I was not."
"Oh?" Alfred asked, confidence immediately restored. "What changed your mind?" He leaned forward in anticipation.
Ivan shrugged, throwing a sly smirk at the American. "Not sure yet. There's just something about this visit that makes it much better than the last."
Alfred giggled, leaping up gracefully. "Fair enough. I accept the challenge!" He stretched a hand out for Ivan to take. "Come with me."
Ivan studied the hand skeptically. "Why?"
Alfred rolled his eyes. "So I can give you the best beach experience, ever! Duh! Now are you coming, or not?"
It was Ivan's turn to roll his eyes. He glanced over at the water, where his sister was tossing a beach ball around with her friends. "Fine," he answered, grasping the tan hand. "Not like I have anything better to do."
* * RusAme * *
"Am I even allowed to be here?" Ivan asked, only mildly concerned about getting in trouble.
Alfred shrugged. "I dunno, actually. You're the first person I've ever brought in here."
"Aw, I am flattered, Alfred," Ivan teased, stepping over a stray beach ball. "Should it not be more organized in here?"
"Yeah, that's not my department. I'm more into the 'saving lives' bit, than the 'take and keep inventory' part."
Ivan made no further comment, content to watch Alfred's movements. The American plucked a basket off of the desk near the entrance, tossing a folded blanket and towel from the shelves behind into it. He stumbled over a life preserver that had apparently fallen off of its hook, grasping for the counter adjacent to him. After dramatically regaining his balance, he continued on to a mini-fridge plugged into the corner. He rummaged through it briefly.
"May I ask what it is you are looking for?" Ivan asked, peering over his shoulder.
Alfred jumped, banging his head on the roof of the fridge. "Dude, you can't just sneak up on me like that!" He chuckled, nonetheless, rubbing the top of his head. "I was getting some fruit. I noticed that you didn't have any packed, and that's a serious hydration issue."
"Wow, first you stalk me, then you go through my things without permission! It is like we are already married!" Ivan joked, amused by the blond's flustered reaction.
"Do you want the fruit, or not?" he asked, burying his face back in the fridge.
"Sure," Ivan smiled, patting Alfred on the back. He leaned forward, lips close to the other's ear. "And I never said that your 'concern' was unwelcomed."
* * RusAme * *
Alfred led Ivan to a less populated part of the beach, hidden by a large group of jagged, gray rocks. He pulled the blanket out of the basket looped around his right arm, fanning it out and laying it onto the sand. Ivan watched in anticipation, awaiting the sudden updraft that would no doubt undo his neat handiwork.
Alfred placed the basket in the middle, seating himself on one end. He glanced up at Ivan, still frozen in expectation. "Do you plan on sitting anytime soon?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow.
The blanket didn't even flutter. Ivan plopped down, pouting and arms crossed. "How do you do that? My towel always flips up when I rest it down," he sulked.
Alfred chuckled, meticulously removing the remaining contents of the basket. He lined them up along the center, discarding the basket behind him. Satisfied with the arrangement, his gaze fell upon a still-pouting Ivan. "Maybe you just have bad timing," he shrugged, unable to wipe the smile from his face.
"That does not make me feel any better," was the response. It proved difficult for Ivan to keep up an upset expression, though, with all of the freshly laid out food before him.
Alfred caught his gaze and blushed. "I, uh, didn't know what you preferred, so I sorta just grabbed all of the fruit we had in the lifeguard station." He paused, as if a thought had just occurred to him. "Shit! I hope I didn't take someone's snack!"
Ivan blushed, surprised at the considerate gesture. The only other people to show him such care were his sisters. "T-Thank you," he mumbled. "This is very kind of you."
"Pozhaluysta," Alfred replied, sporting a small blush of his own. 'Did I pronounce it right?' Alfred mentally inquired. 'Please tell me I pronounced it right! Wait, is that even the right word? Damn it, why am I blushing so much? I don't usually get this easily flustered.'
Ivan smiled encouragingly at him, and that was all the answer Alfred needed. They simultaneously reached for an orange, exchanging a knowing expression.
"Favorite fruit?" Alfred asked, glancing between the Russian and his orange.
"They are one of my favorite things about Florida," Ivan admitted with a fond look. "We do not grow much fruit in Russia, and the farther you live from the growers, the harder it is to get fresh produce."
"That's terrible!" Alfred exclaimed in horror. "I mean, I don't eat as much fruit as I should, but it's always there! How can you live without it?"
"I never said that I went without," Ivan corrected, amused by the American's reaction. "I said that it was hard to get. But it's okay; that just makes this fruit much sweeter."
Alfred opened his mouth to respond, but a sudden scream interrupted him.
"Help!"
"Rip current!"
"Someone's caught in it!"
"She's getting pulled out!"
Both stood to get a better look at the commotion. Cupping his hands over his eyes, Ivan was able to spy a lone figure fighting to stay close to the coast. Her pale blonde hair shone in the bright sun, and his blood ran cold in recognition.
"Natalya!" he blanched, violet eyes wide. Before he could react further, Alfred was off, flip flops flung in different directions, visor and sunglasses thrown onto the blanket. He was carrying one of those red floatation devices that Ivan thought were only used in movies, and it occurred to him that he'd been holding that behind him the entire time.
Alfred dove into the water, ignoring the shock of fully immersing himself. He cut through the water, fighting the rougher waves in the deep, approaching the weakening girl. He could see her losing the battle against the current, allowing herself to be pulled further out to sea.
He knew that it probably took less than five minutes to reach her, but he couldn't help the panic setting in that he was too late. By the time that he managed to grab her arm, she was barely keeping afloat. He tugged her out of the current with some difficulty- she may have been small, but it was a fairly wide current –and draped her over the rescue buoy.
"Hang onto this and I'll pull you in," he told her firmly, knowing that she could lose consciousness with how drained she was. He didn't move until she nodded in acknowledgement, tightening her grip.
He took care in towing her back to shore, still wary of her possibly slipping off. When his feet hit sand, he scooped her up, applause ringing out from the assembled beachgoers. He carried her back toward his blanket, Ivan meeting them halfway.
"Natalya," he cried, stroking the bangs from her forehead. His voice trembled, and Alfred saw that he was suppressing tears. "What were you doing? How could you get caught in a current?"
"Rip currents are actually pretty easy to get caught in," Alfred explained, setting Natalya down on the blanket and pulling two towels from the basket. He threw one over his shoulder, wrapping the other carefully around the girl's trembling shoulders. "They sort of spontaneously form, and when they're wide it's even harder to escape. You can literally be stuck treading water for hours, and still end up far out at sea." Alfred bit his lip and looked away. "It happened to me before."
Ivan's eyes widened, his attention momentarily drawn from his sister. "What? When?"
"I was thirteen. My mom took my brother and me to the beach, and we were playing around in the water, not even chest deep, when I was suddenly pulled deeper. My feet were literally yanked from under me, and it was too fast for me to react immediately, so Mattie couldn't help. He ran to get help, but I had been pulled out so far that they couldn't spot me for almost three hours!
"A coast guard eventually got to me before the lifeguard could even see me from the beach. I was too weak to even pull myself up into the boat. After that incident, I promised myself that I'd become a lifeguard so I could help people, and hopefully do a better job than that lifeguard who was on duty for me."
"OMG, that's so amazing!" Emma wailed, tears pricking at her eyes. Around the beginning of the story, Natalya's friends had gathered around them.
"Thanks for saving Nat!" the short blonde said softly.
"Yeah, you're a total hero!" Elizabeta cheered. Michelle and Mei stood behind her, nodding in agreement.
"Thanks," Alfred smiled politely. "I was just doing my job." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, never one to do things for the praise. The girls only found this more endearing, crowding closer to him.
"Geez, and here I thought you all were concerned about me," Natalya grumbled, sitting up and drying her hair with the towel.
Everyone laughed, grateful that there was no apparent harm done.
Alfred checked his watch. '3:20,' it read, forcing a groan out of Alfred's throat. "Hey, guys, as much as I'd love to keep chatting, my break's over."
The girls all whined in complaint, begging him for "five more minutes," and reminding him that he "did just save a girl during your break, so you can afford to take another." He caught Ivan's disheartened gaze, his own smile faltering.
"Sorry, ladies, but I really do have to get back to work. Ivan, can you help me carry this stuff back to the lifeguard station?"
Ivan's expression morphed to one of confusion. The American had no trouble towing everything in the basket the first time. He nodded, regardless, allowing Alfred to hand him the basket and pile the remaining food into it. He waited silently for him to fold the blanket again and gather the rescue buoy, along with his discarded articles. Once the flip flops, sunglasses, and visor were back in place, he led Ivan back.
"I will meet you by the car, Natalya," Ivan called behind him, trusting her friends to help her back.
"Sure," she answered faintly, leaning on Michelle's shoulder.
* * RusAme * *
"Sorry that things ended the way they did," Alfred apologized, shaking the sand from the blanket over the railing of the station. His blue eyes mirrored the calming sea as they focused on the Russian.
Ivan shrugged as he replaced the basket on the shelf. "It was not your fault. If you had not rescued my sister, things would have been much worse."
Alfred nodded, turning back to the blanket. Satisfied that it was clean enough, he folded it neatly again and stacked it in a cupboard with the others. "I suppose so, but I wanted to at least finish our picnic." He pouted, pulling a journal out of a drawer.
Ivan hung the rescue buoy up with the others along the wall. "Yeah," he agreed solemnly, "me too."
Their eyes locked for several moments before Alfred coughed and glanced back down at the notebook in his hand.
"I, um, should record what happened," he muttered, fishing in another drawer for a pen. "But maybe we could, I don't know, try this again, sometime?"
Ivan's eyes widened. What?
Alfred didn't take notice, focused on trying not to stutter. "I mean, it doesn't have to be the beach again, or even a picnic, and I won't be working of course, and we don't' even have to eat, it could be a movie or something. Unless you don't want to do something cliché like that, like we can go to a gun range if you're into that, or-"
Ivan didn't realize when he'd crossed the room, but was suddenly aware of his lips melded to soft pink ones. The reaction wasn't immediate due to shock, but when it came, Ivan couldn't be happier.
They broke apart, and half-lidded azure eyes met content amethyst. "That would be cool," Ivan whispered.
A sudden beeping jolted them from their haze. Alfred glanced down at his watch, a pout crossing his features. "Damn it, now my break is really over," he groaned, turning the alarm off.
"What do you mean?" Ivan asked, checking his phone. "Are you not ten minutes over your break?"
Alfred chuckled guiltily. "Well, my break technically ends at three-thirty; I just used that as an excuse to leave."
Ivan smiled fondly. "Well I'm glad that you did. I should probably be going, too. It is surprising that Natalya has not called me yet."
Alfred nodded, sending the Russian off with a wave before sitting on the deck of the lifeguard station to write the report.
* * RusAme * *
After fetching his bag and towel from where the girls had graciously left it, Ivan caught up to his sister at his car. She had taken the keys and was seated in the front with the air conditioning blowing at full force.
"Are you trying to run my battery down?" he asked with a small frown.
She shrugged in response, taking a sip from her water bottle. "I was just trying not to fall asleep before you returned." To illustrate her point, the Belarusian curled up in her seat, using the towel as a blanket.
Ivan rolled his eyes and turned the A/C off, opting to open the windows as he pulled out.
Upon arriving home, he helped Natalya to her bed, quickly explaining the day's events to Katyusha. His older sister agreed to watch her while he took a shower and did the beach laundry.
A foreign bottle fell out of his towel as he wrenched it from his bag. Closer inspection revealed it to be the sunscreen that Alfred had given to him.
'Was I supposed to return this?' he wondered, turning the small tube around in his hands. His thumb rubbed against something scrawled on the side in Sharpie.
Don't worry about returning it. It's all yours.
- Alfred.
There was a number written clearly next to the name, and Ivan's heart skipped a beat. 'He had this written before he even approached me.'
He held a mental debate over whether or not he should 'call or text?' and whether 'now or later?' Minutes later, he wound up on his bed, laundry forgotten, sending a lone text to the number: So, about that date…
Almost immediately, his phone beeped with an answer. I thought you'd never ask!
A/N: Whoa, my first official fanfic on here (and it's not even one of my ships XD).
Translations:
sestra - sister
mama i papa - mom and dad
der'mo - shit
chert - damn
spasibo - thank you
net, podozhdite - no, wait
pozhaluysta - you're welcome
I am currently accepting requests for one-shots on my tumblr (the url is the same as this one), so feel free to find me, stalk me, and request from me. This was a request for Tumblr user randomthingieshere. I hope the characters weren't too OOC! Thanks for reading! Reviews are welcome!