IV: Here Comes a Wave, Darling
"Wow," Kushina said as she looked up at the sky above her.
"Pretty cool, right?" Minato smiled.
The six of them had parked among the other cars and vans by the beach, and blankets and beer had been put out on the sand for star gazing. The sand was cold and blue in the night shades.
"This is pretty normal back home, though," Keigo admitted and took a sip from his bottle.
"We never have anything like this," Kushina said and had not even opened hers. She seemed to be fascinated by the fact that the town had shut off the lights for one hour just for the sake of the stars, and she seemed to be fascinated by the view as well. They too had turned off their torches to make it dark enough to see everything.
"Is it possible to get any food at the moment?" Rina asked when her stomach started rumbling.
"Well, yeah, you can walk the town with a torch light," James said. "And the food stalls only dim their lights this hour."
"We haven't eaten since breakfast," Rina said. "Anyone else as hungry as I am?"
"Let's find some pizza or something," Keigo replied. "They should have lots of stalls around here, or so I've heard."
"I'll stay here," Kushina said with a spaced-out gaze on the sky. She would not miss this for the world. Chad looked at her for a brief second before an idea came up in his head.
"Minato, how 'bout you two stay here and watch the stuff while we grab some food?" he suggested. His plan worked out well, too; the rest got up without complain and they headed off to hunt for pizza.
A silence fell between them, but Minato had no problem starting a conversation again.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said, and Kushina nodded in agreement. "My Mum knows a lot about constellations and stuff, she tried to teach me some of it. But I don't remember much."
"Really?" Kushina said. "Show me something."
Minato let his eyes shift between the various stars. "I know that one," he said and pointed out a pretty crooked line of stars. "Aquarius."
"Do you know Cancer?"
"Nope. Why, is that your Zodiac?"
"Yeah."
"Ah. Aquarius is mine," Minato said with a small nod and searched the sky again. "I used to know stuff about Sirius too, which was pretty cool, but I forgot."
"How does your Mum know all about this?" Kushina asked.
Minato frowned a bit. "I think it was my father who taught her. He studied it or something."
They fell silent again. Then -
"Are you curious about him?"
Minato looked at her and smiled. "I've heard I look more like him than anyone else, that I look like a typical Swede or something," he said. "Dunno. Sometimes I wonder. But he's never been there, you know? We've done fine without him, so it's not like I need him. And, well ..." he snorted a bit, "It's not like he did anything against us, it's just ... They sort of made an accident, that's all."
Kushina looked at him and realized what he meant. "You," she said.
"Pretty much."
"I'm a bit jealous," Kushina admitted with a sigh and leaned forwards to rest her chin on her knees. "You all seem to have all you need, like you don't have any worries at all."
Minato only laughed.
"What?" Kushina said. "Think I'm a spoilt brat who gets everything I point at but are still not happy because I'm rich?"
"What? No, no!" Minato said quickly and sat up. "I wasn't making fun of you or anything, I just – I didn't mean to -" With the difficulties that came with not knowing what to say, Minato just ended up sighing.
"Sorry. It was inappropriate."
Kushina started laughing and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Relax, I was joking."
"Damn you," Minato smiled and lay down on the sand again. Kushina's eyes were still glued to the shining stars above them. But Minato's eyes were on her. He gazed at her for a while without her noticing. The longer he stared at her, the faster his heart beat. After about fifteen seconds of silent staring, he felt a sudden urge to hold an arm around her and drag her close to him -
"Hope you like seafood!" Keigo's voice interrupted.
It was as though Minato suddenly woke up. He noticed he was about to sit up with an arm barely stretched out to Kushina, and quickly withdrew it – thank God they had returned, who knew how she would react if he suddenly tried to hug her?
They turned their faces to see the others come back. They did not seem to have noticed anything going on.
"Seafood is good," Kushina smiled and stretched out a hand to receive a slice of seafood pizza.
"Good, 'cause James ate most of the pepperoni ones."
"Thanks," Minato mumbled when Keigo gave him a slice.
"Not a big fan of seafood," James explained with a wink.
The night went on with chattering, drinking games and trying to keep Chad from taking a night bath, and ended with an empty pizza box, empty beer bottles and the whole gang spread out on the sand in their sleep.
When they woke up early the next morning, it was because of the extreme heat of the morning sun. They had been wrapped in sweaters and blankets during the night, which did not suit well with the glowy red run. People had already started coming to the beach; some walking their dogs, some going for an early surf. At their own spot on the beach, sweaters and blankets were now desperately thrown away on the sand, and a nice, cool morning breeze hit their faces much to their delight.
"I feel like surfing today," Chad said cheerfully as he looked at the pretty good surf. "You in, Minato?"
But when Chad turned to where he remembered Minato had fallen asleep that night and he saw an empty spot, his face fell a little.
"Huh? Where's Minato?" he asked his sleepy friends while he looked around him.
"He's already out there, mate," Keigo replied in a drowsy voice. He was still lying on his back with his eyes closed. The others looked out on the distant sea and searched through the small crowd of surfers and true; his blonde hair was not to be mistaken. He was sitting at his surf board looking for a good wave to catch.
"I didn't know you surfed," Kushina said.
"What did you think the surf boards on the van were for?" Chad grinned.
Kushina turned and found the van in her sight. Tied to the roof along with some fluids, camper chairs and a tent were two surf boards. "Oh," she said. "Which one of you doesn't surf?"
"Me," James said and raised his arm half-heartefly. "Never really got the hang of it."
"I've never surfed in my whole life," Rina said. Kushina looked back at the ocean again. Minato had found a good wave and was surfing with ease. When the wave lost its speed, he turned to get on the other side of it, lay down and paddled further out.
During the next hour, Chad and Keigo joined Minato in surfing while James and the girls went to find some breakfast. When they were back the guys were still busy surfing, so James waved as soon as one of them turned to let them know there was food. They came running, dripping wet and well entertained, pushed their surf boards down in the sand and sat down to grab a sandwich.
"Good surf?"
"Awesome, James," Minato said through a mouthful of shrimp and mayo sandwich. The sea was quite a view; the day was still young, yet the waves were soon full of eager surfers and the sand was covered in lazy, content people. The six beach campers ended up a lot like the latter, occassionally getting up to get something to drink or some snacks. When Minato came to Kushina, James and Keigo relaxing on the sand, he sat down next to Kushina.
"Ever surfed?" he asked.
"No," Kushina replied.
Minato looked out on the waves. "Wanna try?"
"Huh?" Kushina asked and turned towards him.
"Come on."
"What? But -"
But Kushina did not get to finish the sentence before Minato had pulled her up and picked up his surf board, which had with time fallen down on the sand.
"But I don't think I'm very good at it," Kushina said slightly nervously as they walked down towards the sea.
"Don't worry, you'll do fine. Besides, everybody has to start off somewhere."
Kushina was still sceptical to the whole trying-to-surf-idea, but she followed him hesitantly out in the water after he had fastened the surf board to her ancle.
"Alright," Minato said and let the surf board float on the water next to him when he found a good, empty spot a bit away from the others. "Jump on it from the left side. No worries, I'm holding on to it, you won't be dragged along with the waves."
Kushina jumped on it and moved further up with directions from Minato.
"Don't hold on to the board when the wave comes, push yourself up with your hands. Bit further down, keep them tight up to your body right by your ribs. Yeah, like that." He held on to the board when a small wave came up behind Kushina. "It's five steps, alright? The first is to move your hands, second to push your upper body up -" Kushina pushed her upper body up, "As much as you can, your arms are supposed to be a straight line. The third is to move your right knee; depends on if you're right-handed or not, though. So your hands will lift from the board, but don't lose contact with the board, alright? And the fourth is to lean forward and raise up, and keep your feet at the middle of the board, otherwise it'll be unstable. That's a key point, your feet and your head should cross the middle, but stand at the back of the baord. And the fifth and last step is pretty much not to fall."
"Yeah, I guess that's the tricky part."
Minato grinned. "When you stand up, you should keep your knees bent, don't stand straight. The closer you are to the board, the better balance you have and the better chance you've got to stay on the board."
"Can you go go through it all again?"
"Five steps, right? Hands on the board, push yourself up, knee forward but don't lose contact between the hands and the board, stand up, knees bent. And make sure you're standing on the mid-line. Which isn't visible on this board, though. And if you know you're falling, lean backwards. Better not fall on your head."
Kushina tried to save all the information and made a mental note to especially remember the last part for now, and was about to ask if he was sure about this when Minato moved behind her, grabbed the tail of the surf board, said: "Here comes a wave, darling! Go!" and pushed her along with the wave. Kushina was surprised by the sudden move and tried with a slight rush to stand up, and Minato was actually surprised by how well it went, given the circumstances. She managed to make somewhat of a stand on the board for maybe two seconds before she fell, but had still managed to keep on the surf board while raising.
Kushina came back with the surf board floating next to her and a pretty grumpy look on her face.
"That was mean," she said. "Jerk."
"I thought you did well," Minato grinned.
"Don't laugh!"
"I'm not! I'm serious, barely anyone manages to get to the fifth step on their first go. You've got good balance, right?"
These news seemed to cheer her up, given the blush and the little smile.
"Really?" she asked with sort of a pride in her voice.
"Yeah, really. You should've seen me."
Kushina giggled and got new hope for the surfing. With a whole new determination she kept trying for the next hour until they left the water, the red-haired girl exhausted, smiling and with a good minute or two as a high schore. They chatted and laughed until they reached their home on the beach where the others had been sitting and watching the small lesson.
"You did well, mate," Keigo said. "And you haven't surfed before?"
"Not until now," Kushina replied. They kept chattering about the subject, Kushina a bit overwhelmed by the good critiques. But none of them mentioned one thing they had all finally noticed happening in the water: Minato's flirting moves and the closeness that had been increasing during that hour.
But neither of them seemed to care that they had been watched. Minato did not know what it was from Kushina's side, but he knew from his own that he was happy they had met the girls and they had tagged along. Yeah, very happy.
