Cicada
CappuccettoRosso
Beta: None
Universe: Manga
Rating: G
Pairing(s): Sawada Shin / Yamaguchi Kumiko
Genre(s): General
Warning(s): Mention of partial nudity
Disclaimer: Gokusen is the intellectual property of Kozueko Morimoto and its publisher, Shueisha. I am only borrowing its characters for my own amusement. No profit is being made in the publishing of this story.
Author's Note #1: Written for the LiveJournal' dove_drabbles June prompt: "feel the sun on your face."
Author's Note #2: I highly recommend that you listen to a lovely recording that not only inspired me in writing this story, but gives you a richer experience. I would have added the link here if I knew how to make it stick but you can find it on my profile page titled: "summer in japan."
Summary: Kumiko and Shin live in the sunshine and drink the wild air...
Golden sunlight filtered through the branches. A breeze meandered through the forest, stirring the leaves gently and carrying with it the scent of dirt and stone and growing things.
Shin leaned against a tall cypress and closed his eyes. The sounds of nature washed over him gently: the gentle rustle of leaves, and this close to the river, the sound of rushing water.
And underneath the steady roar, the song of cicada.
"Shin!"
He blinked his eyes open, and stared absently at the play of light through the canopy above. The heat of the day and the precipitation made his movement lethargic, his thoughts lazy. It would be so easy to find a spot beneath a tree and sleep the rest of the afternoon.
"Shin!"
Shin pushed off the tree with a sigh and wandered over to the edge of a steep inclined. He looked down and half smiled at the view.
Clear mountain water swirled gently around boulders bleached by the sun and smoothed down by the river over the course of centuries. Standing on one such rock, feet bare and without her shirt, was Kumiko. She waved up at him when she caught sight of Shin.
"Oi! Come down! The water feels great!" She kicked her foot into the river, sending water into a high arc.
"Put your shirt back on!" Shin shouted down at her. "Someone could see you!"
"No one is around for miles!" She braced her hands on her hips and squinted up at him. "And the only one around here is you, and you've already seen it."
He ran a hand through his hair, grimacing as he felt the damp strands at the nape of his neck.
"Come on, Shin! A little water wont hurt!"
Shin eyed the ground and slowly made his way down to the river. The soil was soft underneath his feet and the underbrush fairly thick. When he reached the river bank, Shin shrugged off his back pack and kicked off his shoes, stuffing his rolled up socks inside a pocket of his cargo shorts.
Kumiko watched him from her perched and laughed when he carefully made his way to her boulder. She sat down, leaving enough room on the rock for Shin to sit next to her. She dipped her feet into the water and sighed in pleasure. After walking for hours, the cold water felt good on her feet.
"Give me your shirt," she said. Shin quirked an eyebrow at her. "Let me dunk it in the water. It'll feel great when you put it back on."
"You should put yours back on," he said, even as he was pulling his shirt off. He handed it over to her. Now the he was out from the shelter of the trees, the sun bare down on him without mercy. "You'll get sunburned."
Kumiko half smiled. "More than likely. I burn easily." She didn't bother wringing out the excess water and simply dumped the sodden shirt into Shin's lap. She laughed when he cursed at the sudden coldness in his lap.
Shin shot her an annoyed look and grabbed his shirt. He didn't put it back on. Instead, he draped it on his neck. The excess water dripped steadily down his chest and back, cooling him down by degrees. He wiped his face with one end.
"You were right, you know," Kumiko said. She dunk her shirt back in the water and then held it over Shin's head. He sighed when she squeezed the shirt into a tight little ball. He shook his head, spraying droplets everywhere. Kumiko laughed again.
"I was right about what?" he asked. He nudged his sunglasses up his nose.
"I needed a break." Kumiko stretched her arms up and tilted her head up at the sun, seemingly savoring the sunlight on her face. She dropped her arms and leaned over. She kissed him quickly on the cheek.
In an instant, she pushed off the boulder and stood fully in the river. The river was a relatively minor one, one that inevitably emptied into the Kiso-gawa. It was not deep, the water level reaching mid-shin. However, as Kumiko clearly demonstrated, it was deep enough to submerge oneself completely if one laid down on the bedrock.
Shin watched as Kumiko did just that and huffed when she sat up with a sputter.
"I'm not going to help you peel any leeches off of you," he said.
Kumiko laughed.
Cicada sang.