Seashell
He carries her.
She is asleep.
Her round, tiny little chin juts over his shoulder and he wonders what she's dreaming of, with her arms dangling limp and loose over his chest.
The sound of sand against the damp, soft wood of the pier under his feet does not wake her, like he knew it wouldn't. The sky is orange, just like her, making the ocean gleam and glitter, from the smoothest glassy water in the distance to the furls of seafoam near the breakwater.
"Gumi-" He begins, not loud enough for her to hear, "-remember that one time we came here and you asked me-?"
...
"Do you want to see something incredible?"
Yuuma dusts sand off his palms against his trunks, nods warmly as she runs towards him, hands cupped, so focused on what she's holding that it's a wonder she makes it to him in one piece.
"Look at him! Or her, I don't know-" She pants, flush in the face with breathless excitement, "-it's so cute-!"
A crab.
An angry crab too, because he catches one of Gumi's sandy fingers in its claw as she looks at Yuuma for approval, for shared satisfaction-she'd always wanted to share things, anything and everything-
A sudden wail bubbles from her lips and the crab falls to the sand, scurrying quickly away into the waves. She pouts with disappointment until his hand takes hers and lifts it palm-up.
"If you hold it like this-" He uncurls her fingers and walks two of his own across the surface of her palm, "-he won't have anything to pinch next time."
He'd intended to let go of her hand-had he really?-but he instead slides his palm over hers, studying the way their hands fit together.
The waves crash around their bare feet, splashing seawater up their legs. He looks at her, looking at their hands in quiet awe, and he wants to see her eyes when he shows her-
He clasps her fingers and lifts her hand towards his face, giving a chaste brushing of his lips against the inside of her wrist.
"Gumi, I love you." Did she hear him? He musters the resolve to look into her eyes, to make sure, repeating quietly, slowly, "I love you."
The hand he's holding presses flush to his cheek, joined by her free hand on the other side, symmetric, and she pulls him down, forward by the jaw and kisses him.
She smells of salt, smoke, and sugar, of the sea and the sunset and the smores they shared earlier, and are sharing again.
Gumi is trying to stand on tip-toes, her efforts undermined by the wet sand sucking her toes in beneath her. Yuuma's arms circle her waist to ensure that they don't have to stop until they've had as much as they need.
They are dangling their legs off the edge of the pier together sometime later, when Gumi says-
"I wish I could be a mermaid."
"You do?" The 'why' is softly implicit.
"And you would be my prince-" She goes on, "-and we would just have all of this to ourselves-" She dips her feet into the water and splashes for emphasis, stirring it thoughtfully, "-and I could find that crab and say sorry."
It is such a...Gumi thing to say that it surprises him that it surprises him. He starts to laugh, quietly, until he imagines her, crab in hand, taking care to hold it properly this time, like he'd showed her, apologizing to it solemnly-
"What? What's so funny?" She puffs up her cheeks at him and the sight makes him laugh so hard that he feels compelled to scoop her into his arms so she's sitting on his lap, her legs quickly wrapping around his waist with a girlish giggle. He stands and dips her so she is dangling upside-down, fingertips almost close enough to graze the frothing sea beneath. He is strong enough to make sure she doesn't slip away.
"You want to be a mermaid?" She tilts her head back up to meet his gentle eyes, a familiar exhuberence in hers.
"Yes! And you have to be the prince, remember?"
"I do." He smiles handsomely down at her, "Shall we?"
Gumi grabs her way up his arms, until the momentum brings hers around his shoulders, lips crashing against his.
He doesn't need a clearer answer. Without breaking away from each other, they sway forward and let the translucent waves greet them.
...
Yuuma shifts her off his shoulders, cradling her in his arms, her head tucked close against his neck. The last rays of liquid sunlight are almost beyond the horizon as he takes one step, then another, into the water, until he's waist-deep in it, Gumi's lazy hand breaking the glassy surface.
...
"We have to come here again, Yuuma!" Gumi grins gleefully, latching onto his arm, "Promise you make sure I get to see this all again someday, okay?"
"Of course, Gumi."
...
He lowers her until she is touching the water, floating, but he doesn't let go.
He thinks of how he dangled her off the pier and how she'd laughed, how easy it had been to hold her-
-and how much harder it is to do the opposite.
He waits for her to become a mermaid.
...
"With you!" She grins from ear to ear, "Or it doesn't count, don't forget."
"Never." Some courage seizes him in his moment of need and he warmly wraps an arm around her tiny shoulders and manages to touch his lips to the top of her head, carefully passionate.
...
She can't be a mermaid without a prince.
Her prince.
He feels warmth running down his cheeks, and the only reason it matters is because it is blurring Gumi before his eyes.
He remembers all of her favorite stories and fairy tales as he leans down to kiss her once more.
But she doesn't wake up.
He sinks, with her, until the water swallows them both, and he doesn't break away from her.
He does not need to surface as much as he needs Gumi.
It is where he belongs. It does not hurt, and he isn't afraid.
He could not fear the death he'd already shared with her.
A/N: For Nerumi, because what better way to tell someone you love them than by killing their two favorite characters, amirite. XD Thank you so much for reading, review if you feel like it~.