"Eli. Eli. You're staring again. God, at least wear your sunglasses when you do that."

Two whole seconds pass before Eli turns to acknowledge Nico, her mouth slightly open unwittingly. Nico kind of wants to slap that dopey look off her face; it looks so… dumb. Embarrassing. Mortifying. Why is she even friends with this hot mess?

"Ah—" A bit of saliva drips over her lower lip and Eli hastily wipes it away. "Sorry-"

"Are you serious right now? You're drooling?!"

"It wasn't on purpose!"

The urge to slap her only grows stronger. A bit ways off is the lifeguard tower where that lifeguard who basically ruined their summer stands vigilant. Or seemingly vigilant, at least. Nico had spoken to her once or twice and she didn't exactly seem very reliable.

Eli, on the other hand, hasn't said a single word to her because she's dumb and embarrassing and too gay to get her shit together. Nico knew what was coming the very first time Eli saw that lifeguard, when the other woman had lowered her sunglasses just to give her a wink (who even does that?) and Eli basically burst into flames on the spot. Ever since then they've been coming to the beach every single day, and every single day Eli insists on bringing Nico along with her, because obviously it'd look weird if Eli came by alone all the time.

As if it wasn't weird enough already.

She's only lucky that neither of them are overloaded with work and Nico is such a kind, adorable, flawless, caring, perfect best friend. To say the least. At least the beach isn't a bad place to be during these summer days when the mercury rises.

"Is she looking this way? I think she's looking at me."

"No, you moron, she's watching the swimmers."

"Ah, right. Of course."

Totally embarrassing. Nico rolls her eyes and flips a page in the book she brought. Appropriately enough for the situation, it's some cheesy romance novel about a girl who's too afraid to talk to her crush. She didn't pick it out herself, but Hanayo had insisted she read it.

The girl's crush in the novel is secretly a werewolf, incidentally. Hopefully that isn't the case with this lifeguard, because this real life romance chick flick is already getting to be too much to handle and Nico could do without random fantasy plot twists being tossed in.

"I think she's looking at me now."

"No. She's still watching the swimmers."

"Oh."

Her name is Nozomi Toujou. Nico had to go get her name on the third day because Eli was too nervous to ask her herself, and it looked like she had been about to bury her head in the sand before Nico relented and went to strike up a chat. The worst part is, Nico can actually see why Eli is such a mess over this woman. She's got a sweet smile, a great body, and even her hair somehow looks flawless even when it's tied back and coarse with saltwater and sand.

"Do you think she'll notice if I go for a swim?"

"I have no idea." Nico says sarcastically.

"I think I'm going to go for a swim. Er, wish me luck?"

"No."

Eli sighs. "Thanks for your support, Nico."

"Anytime."

Anyone else wouldn't take that kind of shit, but Eli knows that that's just Nico being Nico. She takes her time meandering over to the water, stealing glances at the lifeguard tower now and then as Nico watches, cheesy romance novel put aside for now. A couple of kids race by too close to Eli and she stumbles in the wet sand rather ungracefully. Smooth.

She swears, if Eli pretends to drown just to get mouth-to-mouth from her, Nico's making her do all their chores for the rest of the summer.

But Eli just wades out until the water is up to her waist. She's looking out to the open sea when another lifeguard goes bouncing over to the tower, a short woman with messy orange hair and energy rolling from the top of her head to her toes. Nico leans forward. Eli still hasn't noticed that Nozomi's shift is ending, swimming even farther out until she's treading water.

But when she does finally look around and see the new lifeguard taking Nozomi's spot and Nozomi walking away, Eli moves too quickly and— something happens, maybe she got a cramp or something, because she's flailing and trying to get back to shallow waters, but the currents won't allow it. She yells. Gurgles on seawater. The new lifeguard blows her whistle and sprints across the sand as other beachgoers curiously watch on.

Nozomi stops and turns around at the same time Nico stands up. That idiot.

By the time Eli is brought back to shore by that small lifeguard, leaning against her and panting hard with blonde hair plastered over her face, Nozomi had returned and Nico is standing among the scanty crowd that gathered.

"And that's why you always do stretches before going for a swim!" The lifeguard is saying to Eli, supporting her weight.

Eli's eyes meet Nozomi's and she debates leaping back into the ocean.

"Are you alright?" Nozomi is sincerely concerned but there's still an edge of amusement in her voice. When it's clear that Eli isn't on the verge of death the crowd loses interest and begins to disperse, leaving only Eli, Nico, and the two lifeguards.

Eli doesn't respond. One of her arms is draped around the lifeguard's shoulders so she settles with covering as much of her face as she can with just one hand.

"She's fine, just really gay," Nico steps forward. Nozomi raises an eyebrow and Eli violently sputters, and the other lifeguard quickly sets her down on the sand.

"If you have some water in your lungs-"

"Didn't I just say she's fine? Stand up, you gay baby." Nico lightly kicks a bit of sand over Eli's leg, and points accusingly at Nozomi, who still looks too amused for this. "You've noticed us, haven't you? We've been coming here every single day because someone doesn't have the guts to say what she wants to say!"

"N-Nico!"

"Oh, I know you have a crush on me." Nozomi smiles brightly and Eli promptly slams her face down into the sand. The other lifeguard looks too baffled to do anything else and rapidly looks between the two. "Rin-chan, you can go back to your post now. I've got it covered."

"If you say so," Rin stands up and runs a hand through her hair. "Make sure she doesn't drown in sand or anything, at least?"

"Don't worry, don't worry~" Nozomi waves her off and kneels beside Eli, who still has her face planted in the sand. She noticeably stiffens and shivers for a moment when Nozomi rests a hand on her back. "I know you can hear me. Say something, won't you?"

"Better grab her before she starts burrowing underground," Nico helpfully chimes in with a smirk.

Eli can only hold her breath for so long though and she sits up with a gasp and coughs, rubbing the sand off her face with transparent shame. "I'm sorry, I…"

"I think it's cute!" Nozomi is laughing, but not at Eli's shame. "Why're you being so shy? It's not like I'm gonna bite ya~"

"She'd probably like that," Nico coughs into her fist.

"Nico!" Eli looks at her pleadingly, but Nico obviously has no intention to stop butting in. "Ahh, T-Toujou-san—"

"Just Nozomi is fine!"

"Nozomi," Eli clears her throat, still rubbing grains of sand away from her face. She's struggling to regain her composure, but it's hard to look dignified after slamming her face down in the sand like she did. "I… might have thought something like that, about talking to you…"

"Like I said, I don't bite," Nozomi brushes a strand of hair behind Eli's ear, smiling coyly. "That is, unless you're into that sort of thing."

Eli chokes on whatever she was about to say and her face turns bright red.

"I don't work tomorrow! Let's meet up then~" Nozomi pulls Eli up to her feet and brushes sand off her— physical contact, which means even more choking on Eli's part. She pulls her phone from her jacket pocket and pushes it into Eli's hands— fingers touching, it's a miracle Eli hasn't suffocated yet. "Put your number in and I'll call you later."

"Sure. Yes! That sounds wonderful," Eli says a bit too loudly, fumbling. Nico groans. This is so dumb.

Predictably enough, Eli continues visiting the beach every day after that. At least she stops dragging Nico along every time.

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A/N: i posted this on tumblr a while ago (the prompt was a beach au where eli has a crush on lifeguard nozomi or something) but forgot to put it here too. yep!