Summary: A day on the water for all. (Gonna at least be a two-parter.)
After the previous six chapters, I felt everyone could use a little break.
So here we go.
May be some drama, may be some stupid...but hopefully we'll have so fanning of the flames for the slow burn romance.
Also, can I just say, I am literally having to do my own [bad] Joey impersonation whenever I write lines for him so I can try to make the words reflect his way of talking.
Hearing several different variations of the words "fuck" and "hell" was not exactly what Mako Tsunami expected to hear when he had surfaced from the harbor waters...but, in retrospect, he supposed that his friends on the dock did all have a somewhat appropriate reaction to his sudden appearance, more so considering that he had appeared from 'nowhere' with his survival knife in hand. He blinked away saltwater and looked up at the group of teens standing on his boat's dock-far more curious about their unexpected presence than apologetic for the start he'd given them.
"Uh...morning, my friends. To what do I owe this most unexpected visit?" The fisherman asked before swimming over to the bit of chain ladder attached to the side of his boat and proceeding to haul himself up and out of the water.
"Just...dropped by." Yugi practically gasped out-the diminutive duelist doubled over and trying to get his racing pulse back to normal. Tea was clutching a hand over her heart-the other tight on her beach-bag purse strap-and, from what the ravenette could make out once he got on deck, the girl was swearing about her life being a 'goddamned B-list horror movie' and something about someone named 'Miho'. Ryou was breathing deeply, in and out, and seemingly repeating some kind of calming mantra about 'peace, quiet, tranquility'...though the fisherman had to wonder as to why exactly the albino teen was glaring so venomously at nothing-a small part of Mako's brain, probably survival instinct, advised that 'you do not want to know', so he kept silent.
A loud thud, followed by the faint creak of wood, sounded-drawing the entire group's attention over to Tristan, who had seemingly dropped Duke onto the dock...though the brunette looked like he hadn't exactly appreciated the unintended scare any more than anyone else. The emerald-eyed teen in question only let out a loud "oof" and an "ow" upon his rude landing, then got to his feet to argue with the other male who merely crossed his arms over his chest and argued back-yelling "why does everyone jump into MY arms when something scary happens?!" and "why am I the Shaggy?!".
Mako turned cautiously to look at Yugi, Tea, and Ryou who were all looking at the new fight with matching expressions of frustrated irritation.
Mako looked around, navy eyes finally landing on the familiar head of blond hair...that was aimed at the ground as the teen in question was crouched down and, for a terrifying moment, looked as if he were having a panic attack to the nineteen-year-old. Mako crossed the deck of the boat as quickly as he could, then stepped onto the dock and moved to Joey's side. As he reached out for the shaking blond-worry creasing his brow-he realized that Joey wasn't panicking.
The blond was laughing so hard that he wasn't making noise.
With a small sigh of mock-exasperation, the fisherman held out a hand to the blond. "Glad to know that you are fine, Joey."
"I'm sorry-but that's freakin' 'larious. Just 'aah'! Then-" Joey choked out between fits of laughter as he clasped onto the older teen's outstretched hand and let himself be hauled back up to his full height...only to fall against Mako's shoulder, one hand clutching onto the wet skin there for support, as more peals of laughter escaped from him when Tristan and Duke's latest fight began to escalate to Tristan calling the other teen out for 'always using him as a human shield' and Duke, yet again, arguing that 'it makes perfect sense' because the brunette was "tall and kinda built like a wall".
Mako shook his head in fond amusement before looking away from the blond-dutifully ignoring looking at the arguing pair of 'idiots' as Tea, fondly, called the two fairly regularly-and back to Yugi, who was honestly grinning at seeing Joey laugh like he was, and Tea who was now looking at the fisherman and the sixteen-year-old with the same utterly fond, knowing look that she had been sporting towards the two of them since not long after their group's second arcade trip.
Mako briefly wondered why she looked at the two of them like that, but decided that-if she wanted them to know-the girl would tell them.
"Well...that was certainly one way to get the blood pumping." Ryou said in a voice that was trying for calm...but missed by a mile and landed firmly in 'trying-to-not-scream' territory.
"My apologies. I was merely diving down to find my knife after I dropped it over the edge by accident."
"No harm, no foul." Yugi chimed in with his usual grin settled on his face...that appeared more than a bit flushed from his earlier attempts at staving off hyperventilation and the fight-or-flight response. "We probably asked for it since we showed up unannounced and all."
"Nonetheless, my apology remains." Mako said with a short nod-hooking an arm around the blond's waist to steady him as Joey's laughter tapered off into panting in attempt to get air back into his lungs.
"As does our unspoken one regarding us showing up announced." Yugi said before he looked at the deck of the boat that appeared conspicuously devoid of nets and such for fishing. "Not fishing today, Mako?"
"No, not today. I wanted to give my usual fishing spots a small break, so I took up a side job of diving out at a few party boat coves to clean up trash and search for any valuables that people have dropped overboard."
That seemed to get even the arguing pair's attention as both had gone quiet and joined the circle of their friends. Duke spoke up quickly. "Wait. That kind of diving is a thing? I thought it was just something people did on YouTube."
"No, it is very much a thing, Duke. Commercial divers do trash cleanups around coves and harbors, as well as recovering lost items and even cleaning the undersides of boats-all for the appropriate fees and such. There are even dive teams that work with law enforcement to explore rivers and other bodies of water to assist in solving cases...though, I think that those divers require some manner of certification for their work-I am not certain." Mako explained-only partly aware of the fact that Joey, now breathing normally, was still holding onto his shoulder and had yet to even attempt to step out of his one-armed embrace. "I mostly just do it as a freelancing job."
"That...actually sounds kinda cool." Tea remarked, tapping a finger to her chin. "I mean, you help the environment and are trying to find people's missing items and all. But...it sounds like it could be dangerous."
"It can be." Mako said with a small, reassuring smile. "But I try to avoid overtaxing my limits for such things."
After a moment, Mako snapped his fingers. "Would all of you like to come out on the water with me?"
The group stared in surprise and the fisherman continued. "Well, this is a freelance job, but it is much safer to do dives like this with multiple people...so, would all of you like to come out to the cove with me? If anything, the cove is a beautiful spot to see and you can stay on the boat or on the shore of the cove while I dive."
A chorus of "sure", "you bet", and "let me get sunblock first" followed and Mako nodded. "Very well. I was going to leave after getting my knife back...but how about everyone heads home to get what they need and we'll cast off in an hour?"
Time agreed on, all but the fisherman and blond left to get what they needed for the day trip. Mako looked back at Joey-finally realizing fully that the blond was still settled at his side and not trying to move away from the arm encircling his waist. "Do...don't you-?"
"Nah. Not really. Ya gotta pair of cut-offs or somethin' I can borrow though?"
"Hey Mako...what got you started doing this?" Yugi asked, coming up next to the fisherman as he steered the boat towards the cove. The tri-color-haired teen had exchanged-what Mako believed to be-usual clothing for a basic black T-shirt, pair of multi-colored boardshorts, and tennis shoes. "You know, the diving for trash and treasure thing?"
"Well, aside from how it is good work...it was a way to try to, well, help myself get back in the water." Mako answered-keeping his main focus on the sea around them. "After what happened to my father, well, I am man enough to admit that I was terrified of the sea for a while. One day, I decided to dive into a pond to try to get over the fear that I had. I worked my way up to diving into lakes and rivers, and finally the sea once more and...well, it helped."
Yugi nodded, gently resting a hand on the older teen's arm. "I don't know how much it matters, but I'm glad that you were able to work your way back to getting on the water."
"Thank you, my friend. How is everyone doing out on the deck?"
Yugi shook his head-a look of amused resignation on his face. "Let me put it this way...I wish Tristan and Duke weren't such big "Pirates of the Caribbean" fans."
"Yugi, please tell me that those two are only quoting the movies or I swear, I will get my harpoon." Mako said with a small frown on his face-tone completely serious-which earned a half-awkward laugh from the shorter teen. Yugi's laugh turned into a full giggle fit when Joey came up behind them-the blond wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of Mako's cut-off jeans that, honestly, didn't fit quite right on the blond's narrower frame. "Ya gonna wanna get the ha'poon. Or Tea's gonna throw 'em both ova'board."
The nineteen-year-old shook his head then gestured to the wall. "Harpoon is right there, Joey. Please feel free to do the honors."
The grin that spread on the blond's face was positively manic and Yugi quickly turned to follow his friend out of the cabin when Joey snatched up the harpoon from its corner and headed out onto the deck to threaten the two 'fake Jack Sparrows' into good behavior.
Threats given with love, of course.
"This is going to be a very interesting afternoon." Was all that Mako said as he heard Joey's heavily accented, and rather creative harpoon-based threats just over Tristan and Duke's shouts to "calm down, man, calm down" and the loud peals of laughter coming from Yugi, Tea, and Ryou at the antics of their friends.
He should offer to bring his friends out onto the water more often after this-at the very least, it wasn't boring.
Hello everyone.
I am back with a new chapter for this story and I hope you all enjoy this.
Not gonna promise on regular updates-I don't want to disappoint people if I don't meet my own deadlines-but I will work on this as much as possible, and as much as RL and my mental health lets me.