A/N: It's YouRiko's Middle Birthday! And it lands on my own! Isn't that like the absolute luckiest? Lmao but for real I love them so much, I wish for more content in the future ((which with J winning we just might!)). I couldn't do anything more than a simple chapter today but I have other plans for them in the future so no worries! Anyways, I'm celebrating the heck out of YouRiko's half birthday and I hope you do, or did, too!

Who knew girls could look so beautiful when they were drowning?

The days had recently grown longer as You had begun taking up more tasks than she could handle on her fathers boat. She felt as if the crewmen were just dumping any work on her since she was the newbie.

It was her turn, once again, to clean the deck before they were to set sail for the umpteenth. They had recently traveled to the town of Numazu. It was quiet and small with barely anything going on, yet her father was dead set on coming in.

You rolled her eyes as she figured he was probably looking for some random ship-in-a-bottle to add to his on-going collection at home.

As she worked out in the harsh sun, You could feel her energy dying away as she scrubbed the floors away. They had become so dirty within their last few trips it's no wonder everyone kept passing the job around. Anyone would think that the ship would clean itself with all the water that would get in during the harsh storms but that only seemed to make it worse. The sea water found the dirt within the cracks of the ship and brought it to the center of the deck for You to clean.

You's treacherous chore was cut short though as she heard a splash off to her far right. Taking her eyes off her job, You walked over towards the noise.

Surely her crew-mates wouldn't have jumped in the water as it would be too much of a hassle to get their uniforms dry cleaned before the next day.

As she leaned on the railing of the ship, You tipped her hat up, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She wanted to get a better look but all she could see were the ripples of whatever had fallen in the water.

They were near a dock as well as a small beachline, maybe someone was just going for a swim?

Yet no one had resurfaced in a while.

It was a bit worrying but at the same time, maybe it was on purpose? Perhaps they were a scuba diver?

You's idea was cut short though as a flurry of hands attempted to break the surface before sinking down to the ocean. Not taking a moment to spare, You dropped her mop while quickly jumping off the boat.

Hitting the water was like a breath of fresh air. It washed away the heat of the summer sun, putting You in her element. Quickly looking around, she spotted her target. You could see a girl, her red hair blocking most of her face as it danced around in the water, surrounding her. She was still attempting to breach the surface but she just wasn't making it.

You immediately took off towards her, silently praying for her to not give up. The ocean floor was far too dark to see anything but where the girl was at brought in the perfect amount of sunlight to be seen. With her slow decent You grew closer and closer. The red haired girl didn't seem to notice though as she kept reaching upwards.

With a final cry for help, she young girl screamed out but the water simply masked her pleas. She could see the air bubbles ascend before her as she reached out for the surface. Her body had begun to grow numb during the ending of her struggle. The pain of the water in her lungs slowly faded. However, there was a light tug on her arm but she was far too tired to see what it was.

Maybe it was an angel, guiding her to the light.

You, on the other hand, had began swimming upwards towards the surface with the girl in her grasp. Where she had fell wasn't short of the beach line, but getting her there in time was going to be the hard part.

You was the first to breach for air. She took a large gasp, heavily winded from all of the physical activity, before she threw the red haired girl over her back. You was desperate for her to obtain any type of air she could get.

As they reached the shoreline, You dragged both of themselves onto the higher dry sand. She grunted in pain as her muscles screamed at her to stop. She had already been working all day only to drag herself and a random girl onto a beach with the weight of their wet clothes on top of it all. Those factors weren't going to stop her though.

Once she was high enough, You fell to her knees. The young sailor immediately began pushing down at the red-haired girls chest, doing her best at what she could remember in her brief CPR classes at training. She felt a bit bad as she put so much force on the delicate girl but she had to get her through this.

Closing the girl's nose, You quickly muttered an apology before putting her mouth on hers to blow air into her.

After several tries, the young girl began to spit up water. You tiled her head to the side away from herself to allow any excess to fall out. The girl fully laid on her side though with You's motion, curled up as she switched from coughing to gasping for air.

Softly patting her back, You let her get out everything. She was too tired anyways to do anything else now.

Looking at their situation, You noticed that when she dragged the girl onto shore, she put her in the dry sand. Which meant all the sand as well as random seaweed and beach gunk stuck all in her long hair and clothes.

Very softly, You began at attempting to untangle the small object in her hair. Trying to be extra careful, You whispered out to the girl as her coughs began to softly fade,

"I'm sorry about this. I just needed you on land. I didn't really think about what I was dragging you through."

She hadn't responded but rather stayed silent, keeping her back to You. If it wasn't for her fluttering eyelashes, You would've thought she had lost consciousness again.

"Stuff like this can be pretty scary. Life flashing before your eyes and stuff. I can stay here with you for a bit, if you'd like,"

Still no response.

"Or I can go. Your choice really."

A light twitch with that choice let You know that maybe sticking around for a little wouldn't be minded. The young sailor kept combing through the girls hair until she had taken out the weeds. It was the least she could do, well besides save her life, but it would be best if she just avoided that topic.

Finally detangling the final mess, You softly ran her fingers through her hair. She hadn't ever had long hair herself, as short was much easier to contain. She couldn't help but be jealous of the young girl.

"I guess I'll be going. Please be safe."

Before You could stand though, the girl turned over, grabbing You into a tight hug to keep her from moving,

"What's your name?"

Eyes wide open in shock, You whispered back,

"Watanabe You. And you?"

The girl buried herself in You's neck as she mumbled out,

"Sakurauchi Riko."

You relaxed a bit from her position of getting up as it looked like she wasn't going anywhere soon. Sitting down on the ground again, Riko got herself comfortable in You's lap, still holding onto her.

"So, Riko, what were you doing by the water?"

Riko's voice cracked with her answer,

"I just wanted to hear the sound of the ocean."

You understood. She couldn't count the amount of times she had fell in the water when she was younger, luckily each time her father was close by to help before she had learned to swim on her own. You softly patted Riko's hair in an attempt to sooth the girl as she could feel warm tears on her neck.

"You have such beautiful hair, you know?"

Riko sniffled out a response,

"Thanks."

Rather than continuing their sad moment, You gathered her strength as she sat up, carrying Riko in her arms with her. Riko's arms went around You's shoulder, afraid that she would drop her,

"Come on, let's get out of these wet clothes and then maybe we can properly meet each other, what do you say?"

You finally turned to Riko but as she did so, her breath caught in her throat. Riko's cheeks as well as nose were a lightly tinted red from her crying. Her slightly wet hair was pushed back from her face. You felt as if she were living a scene from a fairy tale. It was the first time she got a good look at Riko but now with her so close to her, perhaps she should have waited a bit longer for her brain to catch up with everything.

You turned to look at anything else but Riko,

"Are you okay to walk on your own?"

Riko giggled at You's red face. She hadn't ever seen a sailor near Numazu, especially not such a young beautiful girl. She rested her head against You's shoulder,

"I think you should carry me, just to make sure I make it there in one piece."

"G-Got it."

As You carried Riko all around, the red-haired girl guided her towards her home to get changed. She allowed You to borrow some clothing as well. Despite the numerous refusals, Riko was able to finally slip You into some comfortable clothes.

Even after they were able to properly talk with one another over some tea, their conversation made them realize, they had a lot in common. Their small tea break with one another turn into both of them acting like kids all through town. Riko showed You all the fun little spots in Numazu throughout the day, ranging from the local arcades to the secret forest paths.

It wasn't before long that they had to part ways though. Riko, however, made sure to leave You a small note on top of her freshly dried uniform. Riko made You promise not to read it until she had departed Numazu, as it would be too embarrassing if it were any sooner.

You broke that promise though that night when she had finally gotten into bed.

The next day, at the crack of dawn, You was scolded in front of the entire crew for ditching her post the day before. The ship had to depart being only half cleaned.

You faced the ground, yet a smile graced her lips. She held onto a piece of paper within her hands. The series of numbers and a single tiny heart by her name couldn't keep her mood from being at maximum capacity. While she knew she was going to be on deck duty for the rest of the month, You happily took the mop to clean away.

There wasn't a lot of time in You's day, due to her numerous tasks, but she scrubbed hard with a smile as she looked forward to her phone call with a certain red-haired beauty in the near future.