For Polyship Week Day 1, Fluff. More headcanons about my best babbus~ This time, the beach!

"Your OT3 goes to the beach! Who can't swim? Who teaches the one who can't swim, and who sits under the umbrella laughing at them both?"

The best thing about this prompt? My headcanons are partly canon for once. [pics on AO3 sorry!]

So yeah, Tohru can't swim. Properly anyway. Kyo teaches her.

On the Sohma family trip he didn't get in the water until Tohru killed herself tryna swim ofc (and Yuki dragged him back in lolol), but turns out he likes the water and swimming and gets pretty good at it. He tries so hard not to get annoyed at Tohru but it's not really at her it's that she isn't understanding things that seem obvious to him, like breathing right or staying relaxed/letting the water help instead of tensing up. He really wants her to do well, and enjoy swimming like he does but argh– sometimes he'll just shut down bc irritation rising + it shouldn't, she's trying + not being able to complain = not working.

so anyway the first time they go as a trio (date?) Yuki's the one hanging out under the umbrella. 1: he's not gettin involved in that ongoing saga ok. 2: yeah sure they brought sunscreen but today it's broiling and he's p sure he'll start burning after 0.2 secs in the sun. oh, he reminds Kyo to bring along a floaty ring(?) but of course Kyo remembers that summer so he's like "no shit".

Kyo teaches her the breaststroke early-ish bc it's a good take-a-break kind of stroke. (Yuki's at least in the water by then but still staying out of the way). Thing is it's hard for her to get the timing right and just watching Kyo doesn't seem to do it, so he ends up taking her hands and moving her arms the right way, and does the same with her legs (holding her ankles) while she hangs onto the floatring. All the while they're both stammering and blushing all over each other

Yuki's watching all this and internally screaming because thEY'RE ADORABLE AND HILARIOUS im going to d i e

anyway the ~hands on~ method really sticks with her. It becomes her favorite stroke even though she's best at the front crawl (srsly she's really good once she gets the proper breathing technique)

Kyo's fav is the butterfly which is quite strenuous(I might be projecting lel). Tohru is fascinated and also likes the name so she wants to learn; Kyo shows her the arm motions (more blushing) but demonstrates the kick himself because where can he touch her that's appropriate and besides its a kick that you can only feel right if you do it yourself?

A lotta flailing involves but the second she does a few decent strokes she knows (Kyo exclaiming "You got it!" also helps). She's so happy and excited that, well, "Yuki-kun look, I'm a butterfly!"

and he literally falls over laughing. *sploosh* up to his chest

Kyo's all "U THINK IT'S SO EASY QUIT DERPING AROUND AND TRY IT" naturally yelling at Yuki is easier than laughing like he kinda wants to (fml she's so cute!) but he still smiles watching her bc she's actually doing it and he taught her

and Tohru's so dang proud of herself she's super-energized for a long time– until she crashes utterly and Yuki tows her back to shore while Kyo does a quick cool-down (in more ways than one ;D)

They all sprawl every which way under the umbrella and nap until someone's growling stomach wakes the others

um so! I like to swim and my fav stroke is backstroke (bc i can breathe the whole time lmao). I can do the others too (and side stroke, didn't mention that one! Yuki likes it hehehe) But I wanna get more stamina so I can actually manage a length of butterfly, and just. get better at butterfly generally, it's tough to do right ._.;