It was the hottest day they'd had all summer. The sky was gorgeous and the sun was almost too bright; Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo had organised to go to the beach together. Ranboo was pretty good friends with Tubbo by now and thought Tommy and Tubbo were close too. The others were mainly in it to cool off in the ocean, and Ranboo didn't like water much, but still wanted to do something with the beautiful day and thought it would be a good way to warm up to Tommy.
The beach was just across the road from Redport Apartment Complex, where all three of them lived. When Ranboo had gathered his things and was about to leave his phone buzzed with a notification from his friends. They'd set up a group chat to communicate with, mostly just for this occasion, but Ranboo was hoping they could use it more in the future.
Tubbo: Hey I'm gonna be waring my binder at the beach if that's ok?
Tommy: Oh yeah that's all good king
You: Yeah no worries :D
The walk to Redport Beach and along to the spot they'd picked was short, and Tommy and Tubbo were already waiting for him. Both of them had swim shorts on and Tubbo was wearing a white chest binder. Ranboo waved and dropped his stuff on the sand, and sat down.
"You're really not swimming?" Tubbo asked him incredulously.
"No, sorry," they said, much more excited to sit down on the sand and do mostly nothing. He hadn't worn anything to swim in either; just a button-up floral shirt, shorts and sunglasses a little darker and more functional than the ones he usually used as a fashion statement.
"Alright, well, I'd like to get going," Tommy declared, they waved and he and Tubbo began wading into the water.
Ranboo lay down on the sand and closed his eyes, vaguely anxious about whether they'd remembered to sunscreen. They'd managed to bag a spot all to themselves and he could hear his friends yelling and splashing each other beyond him.
...
Ranboo was unsure how long they'd slept. Tubbo and Tommy were still messing around in the water; he sat up and yawned sleepily, checked their phone and although they couldn't quite remember when they all came here, he didn't think he'd napped for long.
Ranboo stood up and took a walk along the beach, picking up shells and rocks on the way. He left them in the sand with his journal, water bottle and a volleyball he'd brought and checked on Tommy and Tubbo; they were both standing on a high outcropping of rock overlooking a dark patch in the water, and the crags trailed back to the beach where Ranboo was standing — they could probably manage a way to get to the others while keeping dry. Ranboo clambered along the stones finding handholds and platforms where he could; they were lucky he was flexible and decently athletic, and had enough experience from dancing to move with some sort of coordination. When they got there, Tubbo and Tommy seemed to be in the middle of an argument about who would jump in first.
"Come on, don't be a pussy," Tommy teased him.
"You haven't jumped either," the older boy shot back.
"That's because I'm waiting for you to do it."
" 'Cause you're scared."
Ranboo carefully came to the edge of the rock they were on; it wasn't a height he'd like to fall from and definitely not into water — though probably safer than without it.
"You wanna have a go, Bossman?" Tubbo teased.
"No," they laughed nervously, slinking away back to the drier, safer rock. The ocean was pretty, especially today when the sun was full on it, but Ranboo still didn't like swimming or getting wet.
The two boys kept daring each other to jump until one of them did — or Tubbo pushed him, all Ranboo got was Tommy screaming and his head bobbing up above the water, gasping.
"How was it?" Tubbo grinned, leaning over the ledge to look at him.
"Don't act like you're not coming too," Tommy demanded.
"Fine," he complied, and Tommy had to scramble back onto a lower half-submerged part of the rock to avoid Tubbo landing on top of him. The smaller boy came up laughing, almost too much to focus on keeping himself afloat.
"You dick," Tommy said, smiling, and splashed water over Tubbo's head. His friend spluttered and came to hold onto the same rock Tommy was sitting on, still laughing, splashing him with water back.
The two of them took turns jumping a few more times as well as yelling and fighting in the water, while Ranboo sat above them looking over the ocean, watching clouds and teasing their antics. Eventually they were tired, cold and wet enough to head back to the beach. Tommy decided he'd swim and jeered at the others for being scared, while Ranboo helped Tubbo along the rocks he'd walked to get here.
"You're good at this," Tubbo remarked as Ranboo effortlessly made his way across the first outcroppings.
"It's not that hard, you can just walk most of the way," Ranboo promised, "come on." Tubbo saw them wince as he grabbed their hand. "Sorry," he said genuinely.
"It's alright," Ranboo answered, pulling Tubbo along with them quickly and drying his hand on his shorts.
"What's your thing with water anyway?"
"I dunno, it's weird, it feels weird," They explained. "And it's cold."
"That's why it's good in summer," Tubbo argued, "aren't you hot?"
"Yeah," they answered, "but I don't mind it that much."
Ranboo was guiding Tubbo along the rocks while Tommy tried to swim to the beach; they were getting farther away and he was starting to wonder if he should've gone with them. Something brushed his leg in the water and Ranboo and Tubbo turned around when he screamed in surprise. "You okay?" Tubbo called, hurrying closer to where he was.
"There's fuckin' fish in here or something!" Tommy yelped.
"You're in the ocean," Tubbo said drily, stopping and relaxing. "It's probably fine, but you can come up here if you want."
"No," said Tommy, stubborn with embarrassment, and kept paddling toward dry land while Tubbo went to rejoin Ranboo. The two of them were already on the sand waiting when Tommy reached a part of the water shallow enough to set his feet on the bottom, and immediately got a sharp pain in one of them. He yelled again and Tubbo asked what it was.
"Are there crabs here?" Tommy called, holding his leg up.
"I told you I got pinched and you didn't believe me!" Tubbo shouted indignantly. Tommy laughed but still gave up on swimming, trying to haul himself onto the rocks. Ranboo began half-walking, half-climbing toward him along the path they'd taken with Tubbo, and Tommy stopped struggling and waited. Ranboo wordlessly held out a hand to him and pulled him up, and was kind even though he didn't look happy to touch his wet hand or get water flicked on him. Tommy sheepishly thanked him and apologised, and they led him along the last stretch before the beach.
"Hey," Tubbo greeted him with a hand on his back, and grinned. "Ha, now you can't say I'm more of a pussy than you."
"Yeah you are," he argued, "I still swam most of the way." He immediately got distracted by a little pile of seashells and stones sitting in the sand. "Hey, what are these?"
"I found those," Ranboo told him.
"Where?"
"Along the beach, I went for a walk while you two were swimming. They're just some cool rocks and shells I found." Ranboo sat down and started picking through them. "This one's broken glass, but I thought it was pretty."
"That's cool," said Tommy, crouching opposite them to look at the collection wide-eyed. Ranboo looked amused by how interested he was. "You can have one, if you want. Or they're all over the beach if you wanna find your own."
"Oh, yeah, thank you." Tommy smiled as Ranboo placed one of the pebbles in his hand. He held it excitedly and left it on top of his beach towel.
"So, what should we do now?" Tubbo asked, all of them currently just relaxing on the sand. Tommy was just finishing drying himself off.
"I had an idea," Ranboo offered. "There's a volleyball net farther down the beach, I brought a ball, I was hoping we could use it."
"Alright, let's go, then," Tubbo said, and Tommy agreed, and they took their things down the beach behind Ranboo, Tommy carrying the rock he'd been given in his fist. There were already people by the volleyball net, and the trio had to wait their turn to use it. Ranboo taught them the basics and played one-on-two against Tommy and Tubbo, since he had more experience. He served first and had to do so a couple of times before either boy could hit it back; Tommy was embarrassed but Ranboo was being patient and encouraging, and eventually they both started to get the hang of it.
Tommy felt nervous. He was tall, and had that on Tubbo but not Ranboo, and his smaller teammate seemed stronger than he'd expected. The duo received the ball, Tommy hit it and Tubbo jumped to boost it further. Ranboo sent it back effortlessly. It flew over both their heads and Tommy scratched his knees on the sand falling.
"You alright?" Tubbo panted, helping Tommy to his feet. He served this time, actually getting Ranboo to stretch his legs in order to slap the volleyball with his palm. They managed to keep it up for longer now, going back and forth a few more times, before landing again on the boys' side after Tommy fumbled it.
Ranboo was halfway through being smug when Tommy called for a team discussion with Tubbo. The three stood off to the side where a grassy ledge dropped off to the beach they were on, letting another group take the net for a break.
"Why are we stopping?" Tubbo asked, sitting down on the sand while Tommy paced.
"Because he's kicking our ass!" he said. "We need to figure out a strategy."
"He does get really annoying when he's better at something than you." Tubbo looked over to their opponent and Tommy followed suit. Ranboo was now sitting and drinking from his water bottle; he had gotten much more haughty as he'd kept winning.
"Exactly!" Tommy said. "So what do you think?"
"Hm." Tubbo thought. "Okay, we could have you stay closer to the front — you're taller, so you could hit the ball while it's higher in the air, I'll be your backup."
"Alright," Tommy considered.
The other group moved on, and the trio got back to the game. Tommy moved forward and closer to the net while Tubbo moved back, and they nodded to one another. Ranboo stretched confidently and set the game off — Tommy missed and could feel their bragging already, but Tubbo's plan worked, and the brunet was able to send the ball back. Tommy managed to hit it once it got back around to them this time.
Ranboo looked like he could tell they were giving him more of a challenge. Tubbo was strong, too, and was most often the one to get the unfairly tall Ranboo on his toes. Tommy wondered if he was dragging down the team; Tubbo's plan had done them justice, though, and he felt he had a part to play if anything.
This round went on for longer than any of the others. Ranboo even seemed to get nervous at times, it looked like they were finally giving him a run for his money. At last they were weakened or distracted, they skidded in the sand and the ball landed beside them.
"Ha!" Tommy shouted, Tubbo grinned and Ranboo sighed and got up laughing. They looked tired. "Alright, fine. You think that's a good time to end it?"
"Sure," Tubbo gave in, letting his shoulders down. Tommy wiped his forehead and they headed back to the edge of the beach where they'd sat as more people took over the volleyball net.
On the way home from the beach they talked between tired breaths. "You guys surprised me," Ranboo said teasingly.
"I always knew we could beat you, prick," Tommy retorted.
"No you didn't," Tubbo joined in.
"You were really good, Tubbo." Ranboo turned to him. "You're pretty strong."
"Am I?" Tubbo beamed.
"Yeah!" Tommy interjected; "You should've seen yourself back there!"
Tubbo laughed.
