Summer came in on a long white cloud. The gulls on the wing had caught a headwind, ostensibly hovering in place as the breeze swept a glissando over their feathers. Auron was experienced enough now to know the best spot on the beach, and sat in the sand with the sun at his back and his toes in the surf.
His book lay face-down on his lap, abandoned as he observed the peeping sandpipers bobbing up and down the strand, poking holes in the loam, catching the midge flies which congregated on the sundried kelp that littered the coast in great heaps. Gossamer beach grass popped from the sand in little coteries, and here and there a fiddler crab would cautiously scuttle from the water to make a home in the umbrage. Auron scanned the horizon, finding himself missing the curly palm trees that grew in abundance on Besaid, more partial to the lush vegetation of the island than to the gravelly Zanarkand shore where, unless one had the foresight to bring along an umbrella, shade was scarce.
A few fishing trawlers drifted past, their sails round with the wind, striped blue and white like the pimpled surface of the blitzball propped under Tidus' knobby ankles. A magazine tented over his face, the boy was snoozing in the warmth of the sun, arms folded comfortably behind his head. He jolted suddenly as his guardian plopped a cold daub of sunblock onto his belly.
"Eee!"
"Sunscreen. You're getting red," Auron dictated, turning his attention back to the mellow rhythm of the tide, watching the fishing dinghies bobbing in the surf. There in the hot sand, for a moment, he forgot; lost in the blue of the day, his gaze wandering the cerulean expanse of the horizon where sea and sky coalesced into one. A balmy aroma of sea salt and lemon grass lingered on the wind, and Auron sucked in a hearty breath. He shut his eyes to the sun and lay back in the sand, tugging his collar down from where it touched the base of his throat.
The soft splashing of the water against his feet and the sound of a faraway guitar lulled him into a drowsy quiescence, and for the first time in years he drifted into a sound sleep, undisturbed by troubling visions, dreaming only of the subtle rustling of swaying reeds.
Auron wasn't sure how long he had slept, waking gradually under the shade of Tidus' shadow, who was sitting cross-legged with his elbows balanced on his knees, watching the distant fisherman casting nets over the sides of their skiffs. On his nose were perched an oversized pair of sunshades, which Auron quickly recognized as his own. He yawned and folded his arms behind his head, startling the boy who was lost in thought.
"Oh, sorry," Tidus stuttered, nervously slipping the shades from his face and folding them neatly, "I borrowed your glasses. It was kinda bright and you were sleeping…"
Auron raised his eyebrows, pressing his lips together in an inconsequential expression. "Hm. That's alright," he chuckled, squinting against the sunlight as he sat up, brushing the layer of sand from his skin.
Tidus looked towards the water with a longing countenance, pursing his lips. It had been a little over a year since his last trip to the beach, the boy having only recently found the energy to return since the loss of his mother. His eyes moved to Auron, who was watching him expectantly.
"It's been over a year," Auron's voice broke the momentary silence.
Tidus' expression fell, annoyed by the bluntness of the reminder, though he was unsurprised, having grown accustomed to Auron's characteristic insensitivity.
"Yeah," the boy sighed, circling his arms around his legs and pressing his mouth against his knee, turning his face away which glowed warm from the beginnings of a sunburn.
Auron smiled somberly, chiding himself for yet again being too brusque. Admittedly, he was still acquainting himself with the proper way to speak to a troubled eight-year-old.
"Auron?"
"Mm."
"I wanna swim. You have to come with me," Tidus rested his chin on his knee and furrowed his brow.
"Alright."
Auron peeled off his undershirt, a size too small, which he had scavenged from the armoire in his room, and the two of them waded into the shallows, Tidus clutching his guardian's hand with an almost phobic apprehensiveness. They advanced; Auron paused as Tidus slowly accumulated the courage to submerge himself in the briny surf, lifting the scrawny kid up by his wrists when the waves came in fast and smacked against Tidus' face, and when at last the boy was belly deep in the surf, he refused to go further.
"No more?"
"Wait…"
They stood together for a long while, salty hands tightly clasped together, until Auron remarked that he was sore, and promptly sat down in the water, the waves beating lightly against his chest and frothing around him as if they were crashing on a cliff face.
Without a word, Tidus freed his hand and gingerly climbed onto Auron's shoulders, careful not to knock his knees against his head, wrapping his arms tightly around Auron's neck much like a infant monkey might around its mother, perching his chin on the mop of peppery hair which had begun to curl from the salt in the air. They sat together in the surf like a totem pole washed out to sea until the breeze ran cold and the sand crabs began investigating Auron's shorts.