Centennial Lovers
A/N: It's summer right? So here comes a summer one-shot! By the way, all the Portuguese is courtesy of Google Translate. *add sarcastic tone* The best translator in the world! All translations at the bottom!
A/N 2: I'm from the Philippines, y'all know that. Ruh-right, right. So that means I know nothing about Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, the Portuguese language, or well Brazil all in all. The only thing I know is that Rio has such cute runway clothes. So, Brazilian readers, if you find something off about this chapter feel free to inform me (and/or slap me across my face) about it. Also tell me how to correct it so you all feel more comfortable. Thanks y'all! Enjoy :)
Catch the Wave
Tom sat on the stool, slightly swiveling as he sipped his piña colada. He watched the off beat tropical scene in front of him that can only be described as truly amazing. The waters so blue, the wind so cool, the sun shining like gold. Tom sighed sadly, when the thought of spending this beautiful day alone trudge into his mind. What was he doing here again? Oh, yeah... surfing lessons. He felt really intimidated by his friends, who were Brazilian and could surf, so he felt really compelled to do it. He wasn't Brazilian, true, he spent his whole life in the colder regions of the world (England mostly) so he has no clue on how to surf. A friend of his suggested a teacher and he took it. His surfing teacher, apparently, was his friends sisters best friends brothers best friend. Just to recap, again it was his friends sisters best friends brothers best friend. No details on him (or even possibly her) whatsoever. All he knows is to look out for a mop of brown curls. Well that's surely gonna help! There aren't that many people with brown hair, only about a few hundred...
"Desculpa, você que é o Tom Fletcher?" A voice asked. Tom turned around to face a freckled man holding a surfboard. He was shirtless and Tom could make out the freckles across his body. The man was only dressed in swim trunks and flip-flops; both articles were orange, white, and blue. Tom smiles and nods.
"Sim, prazer em te conhecer." Tom held his hand out. The shirtless hunk -OH MY GOD TOM SHUT UP, HE'S PROBABLY STRAIGHT- returned a bright smile and grasped Tom's hand with his own large and rough ones.
"Prazer também. Eu sou Danny."
"Devemos ir pra água agora?"
"Claro, hã, cadê tua prancha?" Tom showed off a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head before answering.
"Sobre isso..." He started. "Eu não trouxe uma..."
Danny nodded silently and gestured Tom to follow him. The walked through the sand before reaching a black pick-up truck, parked by the sidewalk. Tom could see two other surfboards, one green and one pink, kept in the back. Danny set his own down in the back of the truck to pull out the pink one.
"Aqui, pode ficar com essa de presente." Danny smirks. He hands Tom the floral pink surfboard before retrieving his blue one. Tom frowns and pouts, playfully but slightly hurt.
"Por que eu fico com a rosa?" Tom pouts but he can't help the smile coming on. There's something about Danny's playful nature that keeps that hurt at bay and pulls cheekiness into the port. Danny walks up next to Tom and pokes his covered chest.
"É porque eu gosto da verde e você tá apenas começando. Também porque você não trouxe a sua própria." Danny replies smugly.
"Essa doeu." Tom frowns. Danny only shrugs and walks back over to the beach. "Mean bastard."
Danny turns around, smug grin on his face. "Aw! Now you've hurt my feelings, Tommy!"
Tom is stunned and his mouth opens up into an 'o'. "You speak English!"
"That is true." Danny says. "Now, are we gonna surf or what? 'Cause I charge by the hour."
"Alright, I'm coming." Tom sighs and looks at his pink surfboard, cringing at it. "Can I please change my board?"
"Not on your life, Tommy boy." Tom replies with a playful punch to the arm.
"Don't call me Tommy..." Tom pouts.
"So why are you interested in surfing?" Danny asks. Their language reverting to English for Tom only lived in Brazil for only five months, only speaking Portuguese for less than that. He actually still carries around a pocket sized translation book. The two men were currently sitting on towels they had brought along, observing the Copacabana. The two were wet and glistening, after about an hour and a half of surfing.
Tom took a long swig from his water bottle before answering. "I don't know. I just wanted to try something new. I'm in a different country with different weather and I thought, why the hell not?"
Danny nodded. "So you used to live in England?"
"Yeah, you can tell by my accent. How 'bout you? You're from America or something?"
"Mhmm. I lived in Florida my whole life. Moved down here after I finished college, that was about three years ago."
"Oh, so that's why you know how to surf. You lived in Florida." Danny nodded.
"Started surfing when I was seven." They remained silent for a while. Tom checked his waterproof watch, the time was just a quarter past 2. They sat in silence for another ten minutes after that, not really knowing if they were very comfortable with the silence. Tom took this time to observe Danny instead of the beach. The man seemed to be more buff when he was wet and glistening, the water outlining Danny's built features. Surprisingly, he wasn't very tanned for a man who said he surfed at least twice a week, so it made him stand out from most of the crowd here (okay so there were some tourists but they're more sunburned than lightly tanned). His wet hair was flat and blowing in the wind. Tom couldn't see his eyes, they were hidden by a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses. Tom blushes. Five lonely months in Brazil could really take a toll on your love life, Tom knew this and now that he's gotten this close to a man his age and knew his native language, it wouldn't hurt to try and flirt with him right?
'Right, be smooth Tom. Be smooth.' Tom said to himself. He took a deep breathe.
"So, uh, should we end the session now... or..." Danny started. Tom snapped his head in Danny's direction, then shook his head.
"I, uh, I actually wanted to do this for like, one more hour. I-if that's okay with you?" Right, smooth... Danny looked at him and smiled.
"Okay, one hour. Then we'll be done." Danny stood up and put his own water bottle in a bag. He walked over to where his surfboard was then picked up and out of the sand. He turned to Tom, who followed his actions. "Ready, Tommy?"
Tom looks at his board once and nods. "Ready... and what did I say about you calling me Tommy?"
"To do so." Danny laughs and they're both running to the water... well Tom after Danny but it's still the same thing... I think...
"Maybe you should sit this wave out, Tom." Danny says worried. The wave up ahead seemed larger than the previous ones that both had encountered during their time in the water. Danny knew that Tom might have a bit of difficulty on this one, surely he would wipe-out before he could even stand up. "It's a pretty big wave."
"Aw! C'mon, I've been doing pretty well, you said so." Tom states. "Besides this could be my challenge! I mean what are the risks of doing this wave?"
"Uh, drowning for starters." Danny frowns. Tom thinks for a moment before flipping his wet blonde fringe out of his face. He smiles.
"Race ya there?" Tom giggles then paddles his way towards the wave. Danny looks at him shocked.
"Tommy! Wait! Stop!" The wave is now close enough to Tom, he gets ready to stand, he can hear Danny behind him. What's he got to worry about? He can do it.
'Well, yet again, drowning.' Tom gulps down the idea and the fear building up in his chest. He unsteadily gets on the board and quickly balances himself. He turns his head and sees Danny next to him, lower on the wave. He's cheering by the looks of it, Tom can't hear him over the wave but Tom feels the wave of confidence rushing over him. He's riding a wave! A real one! Tom cheers for himself and shoots his hands in the air, closes his eyes and screams with joy. The roar of the blue wave fires up the adrenaline in his chest and Tom just feels so alive. So alive that the world could just suddenly disappear and Tom would just still feel this way. But then he's falling and crashing, he's underwater and YES! He opens his eyes underwater and see's the deep, beautiful blue then notices the lighter blue above his head, light, the sun. Tom's head shoots to the surface, followed by his pink surfboard. Tom cheers and once again puts his hands in the air, then he randomly punches the sky.
"Tom!" He turns around to see Danny swimming towards him, he looks slightly frantic. "Tom are you alright?"
Tom nods, he grabs his board and climbs on top of it, a wide smile ever present on his face. "Dan that was amazing! The adrenaline was just overwhelming and that was just... just...!"
"Amazing, huh, Tom?" Danny smiles.
"Well yeah!" Tom cries. "Another one just has to come again and -wait-..."
"What?" Danny looks at him puzzled.
"You called me, Tom. First time today." Tom smiles. "To be really honest with you, I think I kinda liked being called Tommy though."
Danny pinches Tom's cheek then pokes the noticeable dimple. "Then, congratulations Tommy you just rode your first real wave."
The sun was setting over the horizon by the time they decided to leave the beach. The two were now dressed in normal clothes, just t-shirts and cargo shorts.
"So Tommy," Danny said as he took the pink board from Tom, putting next to his blue one in the back of his truck. "I was wondering if you wanted to grab some dinner with me?"
Danny smiles shyly at Tom. Tom thinks for a moment and smiles just a timidly as Danny. "Sure. When and where?"
Danny walks up to the blonde and takes his hand, holding it and swinging it. "Now and Le Ble Noir, great European place. Been there, I bet you'll enjoy it too."
Tom nods. Danny smiles at him as they're walking away from Danny's jeep. "We're walking?"
"It's not that far, we'll be there in no time. Unless you want to drive there."
"Oh, no, no." Tom shakes his head. "Let's walk, more time to enjoy ourselves."
Danny nods his head in agreement.
"I feel fat again!" Tom exclaims as they exit the restaurant, making Danny chuckle. Their giggles die down but their smiles are still active but since when did they die in the first place? They're practically glued on. "I wanna thank you for tonight, Dan. Actually, no, I want to thank you for today. I had a really great time."
"It's my pleasure, Tom." Tom smiles and pokes Danny's slightly distended stomach, while they're walking back to Danny's truck.
"You called me Tom again." Danny rolls his eyes.
"Why's that such a big deal again?"
"I don't know. Maybe 'cause I just met you today and for the past eight hours you've been calling me Tommy." Tom says. Danny nods and sighs. Their walk back to the truck was silent. This one they could identify as comfortable, they didn't really have anything else to talk about, having said almost everything about themselves over dinner. Danny just can't stop smiling neither can Tom, they're too happy and they only have a gist of the real reason why they are, so Danny wants to try something. A something he's wanted to try after he saw Tom riding that wave.
They're on the sidewalk, about ten feet from the truck, when Danny gently pulls Tom towards him and kisses him on the lips. Danny snakes his arms around Tom's waist and pulls him in. Tom just couldn't move, paralyzed by the feeling of Danny's lips on his but he does involuntarily wrap his arms around Danny's neck. They smile into the kiss and then pull back naturally, slowly.
"What was that all about?" Tom asks. His fringe just slightly falling over his eyes. The lights from across the street illuminate Tom's face and Danny just stops to admire him. Danny brushes the fringe out of Tom's eyes with his thumb, he leans in again to kiss Tom again. He pulls away to finally answer.
"Would you like to go out with me sometime? You know, like, really go out." Tom giggles.
"Sure, but I get to pick where."
"When and where then, Mr. Fletcher?"
"Copacabana Beach, bring the pink surfboard just for me." They smile.
A/N 3: That was a lame way to end it, huh? Well I hope it was still good enough for you guys. Again if you're from Brazil and would like something corrected (language, place, etc) feel free to do so. I just wanted to point out that the Le Ble Noir restaurant is a real restaurant near Copacabana. Never been there but if you have tell me if the place is good, I heard it was good.
A/N 4: (Added May 16, 2013.) Hi! Just a quick notice, my wonderful friend and brother, kbeto, has taken the time to correct my (or well Google's) Portuguese grammar. So a big thanks to you!
Translations:
Desculpa, você que é o Tom Fletcher? - Excuse me are you Tom Fletcher?
Sim, prazer em te conhecer. - Yeah, nice to meet you.
Prazer também. Eu sou Danny. - Nice to meet you too. My name is Danny.
Devemos ir pra água agora? - Should we go into the water now?
Claro, hã, cadê tua prancha? - Sure, uh, where's your surfboard?
Sobre isso... Eu não trouxe uma... - About that. I didn't bring one...
Aqui, pode ficar com essa de presente. - Here you can have this one.
Por que eu fico com a rosa? - Why do I get the pink one?
É porque eu gosto da verde e você tá apenas começando. Também porque você não trouxe a sua própria. - It's because I like the green one and you're only a beginner. Also because you didn't bring your own.
Essa doeu. - That's hurtful.
