Disclaimer – It's all Bamco's and not mine.

Outfits – The Swimsuits

Surf and Sand

Yuri had never told Flynn, but he'd never really liked swimming all that much. He enjoyed the splashing part, but dunking was too close to drowning and there had been times when their rough-housing as kids had put Yuri too much in mind of hands around his throat and his face being shoved into water while a Knight – Finath Scifo – broke down the door to save him... too late for his mother.

Flynn had been too young to recognize Yuri's need to sit out for awhile after they got too rough in the water as barely concealed panic and not tiredness like Yuri would usually claim. Yuri had tried to tell Flynn a few times that he'd rather do just about anything other than go swimming, but the blond always lit up at the idea of splashing around in the water with Yuri and it did get easier for Yuri to deal with swimming over time, though it was definitely an activity Yuri was only ever interested in doing for Flynn's sake.

Still it was a lucky thing he'd chosen to keep up with the skill, taking the time every summer to practice, otherwise he'd have probably drowned when he'd rescued Ioder from the burning, sinking yacht. As it was, he'd been terrified the whole time and the only reason he'd been able to focus was because this person he'd found would die if he failed.

No pressure, right?

Rita really had a point about Yuri's talent for understatement.

His experience at Zaude didn't really help with Yuri's water issues. While he didn't remember much about what happened after his fall, he had a recurring dream for weeks afterwards about the shock of hitting the water knocking the breath from his lungs, sinking into the ruins of what looked like a once impressive city even as he failed in his struggle to swim... pain and oxygen deprivation causing his vision to tunnel in... and what was probably Duke appearing at the last moment to drag him back to the surface, though the dream always ended with him still beneath the waves. The nightmare was, probably, fairly close to the actual events, his subconscious dealing with memories his conscious mind couldn't quite reach.

Still, the nightmares didn't stop until Yuri finally saw Flynn and fought a ridiculous amount of monsters with him. It was the first time since waking up that Yuri felt entirely safe and his dreams that night were warm and restful.

Naturally, the drowning nightmare came back the night after the others suggested a nice relaxing day at the beach. Yuri couldn't sleep after waking up gasping for air and promised himself he'd find a nice shady spot to sleep under while the others played in the water to their hearts content.

What Yuri was not counting on was Flynn's body suit for surfing. It was skin tight and, for all that it covered Flynn completely from the neck down to his ankles, there wasn't a whole lot left to the imagination. How could Flynn not consider this indecent? It was all Yuri could do to keep his face from turning bright red at the sight.

Of course no one else seemed to notice how Flynn looked. Raven and Karol were distracted by Judy's bikini, which was probably the only thing Judy owned skimpier than her regular clothes (though the bunny suit was close). Estelle and Rita kept glancing at one another and blushing. Patty seemed to view both Yuri and Raven's shirtless-ness as free eye-candy and she pouted when Yuri put his button-down back on, even though he didn't actually button it back up.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times," Yuri grumbled, counting off with his fingers as Patty filled in.

"One, wrong gender. Two, jail-bait. Three, obnoxious like Raven."

"Hey!" Raven was duly ignored.

"Seriously," Yuri continued, "if it isn't appropriate for him to do or say something, then it isn't appropriate for you either." Giving Karol a slight thwap on the back of his head so he'd stop staring at Judy's boobs, he added, "that goes for you too, Karol. Raven is not a valid role model."

"HEY!"

Flynn snickered, grinning impishly when Yuri glowered at him. "Sorry. It's just kind of funny watching you be the mature one in this group."

"It's a sad day indeed when I have to be the grownup," Yuri agreed, giving Flynn a smirk in return. "So does this mean you're not the mature one today?"

"Well..." Flynn frowned thoughtfully, then stuck his tongue out at Yuri, gaining a few laughs from the others. "I guess so," he agreed with a smile. Grabbing his board, he asked, "want to learn how to surf?"

"Thanks, but no thanks," Yuri gestured towards the nice shady space they'd created under a nice umbrella. "I'm going to the one place I'm guaranteed not to burn my face. I had enough sunburns as a kid to willingly subject myself to one today."

"So, you're planning on being a beach bunny?" Judy joked, pulling a pair of black bunny ears out of her bag and waving them teasingly at Yuri.

Mimicking Flynn's answer from earlier, Yuri stuck his tongue out at her. Then he retreated to the shade and waited for everyone else to hit the water before attempting to nap. He dozed off to the sight of Flynn riding the waves.

Yuri tried to kick against the water but the pain in his side was overwhelming, rendering him helpless as the water sucked him down into its depths. He clawed ineffectually at the water, panic flooding his veins with adrenaline, but it was no use.

His lungs were dying to suck in oxygen, but he didn't dare breathe in. Trying to breathe would kill him as surely as continuing not to breathe would.

Dark spots flickered in front of his eyes...

Yuri rolled on his side and gasped, startled to realize he was awake, on a beach, and totally fine, save for a fading phantom ache where his latest scar was.

"Hey... are you okay?" Flynn's asked, placing a hand on Yuri's shoulder. The blond was kneeling beside Yuri on the towels, the area still well shaded from the sun.

"Yeah..." Yuri attempted to smile as he sat up. The dream of Zaude's cold waters had left him shivering, however, and his smile slid off. "Okay, so... not really. Just... bad dreams, that's all."

"Bad dreams about what?" Flynn's frown turned just ever so slightly mulish, indicating to Yuri that his friend intended to push until he got answers and found some way to help.

"Just... Zaude. When I hit the water after falling..." Yuri shrugged. "I was injured before the fall and nearly drowned."

"Was coming here," Flynn gestured to the ocean, "a bad idea?"

Yuri shook his head, "it's just something I have to work through, Flynn. Mostly, I've just been really exhausted lately. No matter what was chosen for relaxing, I'd have tried to just sleep through it all," he admitted, leaning against Flynn's shoulder. "I've never really liked the water, but you always have. So... I wanted you to have fun."

"I thought you liked going swimming with me as kids."

"I liked doing anything with you as kids," Yuri countered wryly. "Didn't care what we were doing as long as it was the two of us." Flynn huffed softly in amusement and started petting Yuri's hair. "You're not getting sand in my hair, are you?" Yuri asked warily, his eyes drifting shut.

"...No..." Flynn responded uncertainly, pulling his hand away, as if to inspect it.

"You are!" Yuri pulled away and scowled at Flynn, reaching up to try and pat the sand out. His efforts didn't really seem to help, though.

Instead of being suitably ashamed of himself for getting sand in Yuri's hair, Flynn just smiled and laughed again. Then, with a mischievous smirk, Flynn pounced Yuri, rolling the raven-haired man off the towels and out of the shade into the warm sand.

"Awww! Come on Flynn! Really?" Yuri huffed and leaned back, secretly enjoying the feeling of Flynn perched on top of him. "You suck. Do you know how long it'll take to wash all this sand out of my hair tonight?"

Leaning in close, Flynn lightly bumped noses with Yuri before tilting his head to the side to brush his lips against Yuri's ear. "I could always help with that too," he murmured, moving back up for a chaste kiss against Yuri's mouth.

Yuri grabbed Flynn's shoulders and pulled him closer for a longer kiss. A loud wolf whistle split the air when they parted.

"Jealous, Judy?" Yuri called teasingly as Flynn rolled off to lay in the sand next to him.

"Oh, immensely," she replied with a laugh. "Raven won't kiss me. I've been trying to be subtle about it, but he seems to have completely missed my meaning every time."

Sitting up, Yuri grinned over at a very flustered Raven who was sputtering incoherently at what he'd just heard. "I think he gets it now," Yuri teased Judy. Beside Yuri, Flynn laughed and sat up, sliding his arms around Yuri's waist. Leaning back against Flynn's chest, Yuri muttered, "so, this is nice."

Flynn hummed in agreement and pressed a feather-light kiss against Yuri's neck, eliciting a shiver from Yuri in response. "Very nice," Flynn murmured in agreement. "Ready for lunch?" he added, pulling away and standing up, offering Yuri a hand up with a warm smile.

A/N – Yuri's reasons for disliking the water would also be why he isn't fond of having things around his neck, like shirt collars.

Also, this was originally meant to have a section from Flynn's point of view, but it didn't really fit with the rest and got cut. Mostly it was just set up and was kind of redundant.