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Ocean Eyes

Summary:

When Reki had woken up, he was surrounded by the others who had worried expressions on their faces. He remembered a wave had swallowed him during his time at the beach, but what he remembered so vividly was a pair of beautiful ocean eyes.

 

SK8 the Infinity belongs to Ryo Takahashi while the plot of the story belongs to me. This fanfiction is dedicated to Mer-May month!

Work Text:

"...ki!"

"R.. ki!"

"REKI!"

The red haired teenager abruptly sat up, coughing out water as the taste of salt was at the back of his throat. He gasped for air, his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen it was getting just a few moments ago.

"Are you okay?" Langa fell to his knees, looking at his friend worriedly.

"I called an ambulance, they should be on their way here." Cherry stated.

"You gave us a scare there kid." Joe said, letting out a small relieved sigh. 

"Honestly, you don't listen." Miya scolded lightly.

"You remember anything?" Shadow questions the teen.

"Uh well..." Reki furrowed his brows. 

The skater remembered going a bit too deep into the ocean, causing the waves to engulf him in it's blue vastness as the last thing he heard was the group calling out his name in a panic. There were some bits and pieces that were a bit of a blur, literally since he could barely see under the water.

"I just remembered being thrown around in the water." he stated. "And then..." soon, a pair of e/c eyes flashed through his mind as well as the remembrance of something soft touching his lips, making him flush red.

"DID..!" he startled the others as they looked over at him. "DID ONE OF YOU KISS ME?" he exclaimed, covering his mouth with his hand.

"It's called CPR idiot." Miya retorted

"Right, haha...I knew that." Reki tried to calm his flustered state while looking over at the ocean. Those e/c eyes was ingrained in his mind now. The more he thought about the eyes, the more he he remembered how he could see the ocean in them, pun not intended.

"Reki..." Langa softly called out, making him look over at his best friend.

"Yeah?" he replies.

"Your bandana, it's gone." Langa informed him. 

"It is!?" the redhead felt around on his head for the cloth, only to feel nothing cloth like. He let out a small groan. "Man, that was my favorite one too." he stated.

"Just buy a new one." Miya stated. "It's just a bandana." he added.

"It's not just ANY bandana though!" Reki exclaimed. "It's my lucky bandana that I have to wear at all times!" he explained.

"What luck?" Miya questioned smugly.

"Hey!" Reki pulled the middle schooler into a head lock, giving him a knuckle sandwich.

"Let go of me you slime!" Miya exclaimed, trying to get out of the boy's grip.

While they were all messing around at shore, a pair of e/c eyes watched them from a distance, all the way out in the sea.

—————

They were back at the hotel that they had went to last year, but this time they decided to not head to the hot springs after the incident that traumatized them all. Everyone were in the same room now, taking a long rest after their enjoyable and fun time at the beach. 

While Reki was messing with his left over food, he felt a small tug at his heart. He ignored this light tug and grabbed a small bunch of rice with his chopsticks. About to take a bite, an image of e/c eyes flashed through his mind making him let out a small sigh and set his chopsticks down.

"Where are you going Reki?" Langa noticed his friend stand up from his seat.

"I'm gonna go get some fresh air." he said and left the room. He walked around the area for a bit before stumbling upon a vending machine. While getting a drink from the machine, he got a strong sense of déjà vu when he had turned the corner, drink in hand, and saw Joe flirting with one of female employees.

Quickly, she left, making the green haired adult look over and make eye contact with Reki.

"Man, you really do have the worst timing. It's just like last time." he chuckled.

"Oh, sorry." Reki let out a sheepish laugh, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. 

Joe walked closer to the teenager. "You good? Something up?" he questions.

"Yeah! Everything's fine it's just..." the boy trailed off, finding the ground more interesting. Joe hummed, patiently waiting for Reki to continue. "You.. You're good with girls, aren't you?" he looked up at the adult who soon had a mischievous grin on his face.

"And just who's this lucky gal? Huh?" he wrapped his arm around Reki's neck and started to give him a knuckle sandwich.

"Hey! Wait..! You're gonna make me spill my drink!" Reki exclaimed, doing his best to not end up pouring his cold drink on the wooden platform. 

At some point, Joe stopped, his grin not leaving his face. "Well? Do you know her? Where'd you two meet? Does she go skating at Crazy Rock?" he bombarded.

"Well, no! But..." Reki let out a long sigh, trying to figure out how to explain it to the grown up. 

They decide to sit down while Reki tries to explain his somewhat interesting and difficult situation that he was in. He decided to tell Joe from the very beginning when he had been swallowed by the sea and not remembering much except for a pair of e/c eyes which he guessed belonged to the person that had saved him.

Joe had listened intently to the boy, not taking a single word of his as a joke as he soon finished his explanation.

"And so now I'm like, getting this tugging feeling and it's just all weird and I'm not really sure what to do, ya know?" he scratched his head a bit and looked over at the adult with slight nervousness.

"Hm..." Joe clasped his hands together and leaned forward a bit, his elbows resting on his thighs as he seemed to be thinking taken that his eyebrows were a bit furrowed and he wasn't saying much.

At some point, Joe slapped Reki on the back, which earned a small 'Ouch!' from the teen as Joe sighed.

"Well, it seems to me my friend that you have yourself..." the man paused for dramatic effect, "A mysterious savior." he smiled while his chin was between his thumb and pointer finger.

"That..." Reki paused, taking in his words. "Doesn't really help..." he slumped a bit, making Joe shrug to his response.

"Well there's not much else that I can say really. You were drowning and before you end up passing out you were saved by this mysterious person who didn't even speak up about how they saved you." the muscular man explains. "You might just have to give up on them if they don't show up their faces in the end."

Reki sighs. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks anyways." 

The two stood up from their seats and started to make their way back to the others who seemed to be doing their own thing now. 

"Welcome back." Langa smiled as Reki nodded, giving him a smile back.

"Yeah." he responded. 

Reki and Langa started a conversation about skateboards and learning new tricks. This lead the two to want to try out new moves, and even though the incident that happened the first time they came scared them, their passion for skating tempted them to go out.

"Man I really want to go." Reki muttered while looking out the window. The sun was almost gone as the night sky was making its appearance.

"Maybe just a quick race?" Langa suggested.

"Yeah! We'll be back before those smelly monster things come for us!" Reki grinned.

"Only slimes don't learn their lessons." Miya commented while passing by them.

"If you want to end up smelly again be my guest. But know that you won't be stepping foot in any of the rooms." Cherry added, also passing by them.

"We'll leave futons outside for you guys." Joe trailed after Cherry.

"Have fun." Shadow snickered.

The two teenagers sat there together in silence, feeling multiple stab wounds.

"Maybe it'd be better if we just not go, there's always tomorrow. Haha..." Reki stated.

Langa nodded in agreement. "Uh-huh.."

Everyone all took a quick shower before heading off to their designated rooms to sleep him. It only took a few minutes for almost everyone to go to bed, keyword: almost. Reki was tossing and turning in his sleep, unable to get the mysterious savior out of his head. 

His whole body felt weird, especially his stomach since he knew absolutely nothing about his rescuer. 

Unable to fall asleep, he sat up with tired eyes and looked out his window. He stared at the moon that was high in the sky, with the stars twinkling next to it. The natural lighting from both the moon and stars illuminated his room, especially where his skateboard lay.

It was ridiculous but, it felt like the gods were trying to tell him to go look for his rescuer. So with being unable to sleep and having nothing to do, he grabbed his skateboard, left the building as quietly as possible, and skated off back towards the beach.

"This is such a bad idea..." Reki muttered to himself, glancing at his surroundings every two seconds, making sure that no one was following nor stalking him on his way to the beach. 

Finding the path using the flashlight on his phone, Reki started to walk around on the beach, shining his phone so he wouldn't accidentally step on something and hurt himself, better yet hurt some sort of animal.

He walked along the shore, his skateboard tucked under his arm, while humming along a random tune his brain had made up for him. At some point, he gave up and decided to let his feet rest, so he in turn plopped down onto the sand and set his board wrong side up so no sand would get in his wheels or trucks.

Closing his eyes, Reki listened to the sound of the small waves lapping over the sand before retreating back into the larger body of water. But it wasn't until a large and unusual splash made him flinch.

'There's no way that was the water. It's too calm to make that big of a splash..' he thought to himself. 

Grabbing his skateboard, he turned his flashlight back on and pointed it towards the ocean. There, he saw an average sized boulder about knee deep in the ocean. His eyes looked everywhere on the rock, wondering if there was some sort of bird or something that had made the noise.

His eyes traveling down, he jumped back when he saw a glimpse of a large f/c colored tail go behind the boulder.

"A SHARK???" he exclaimed while swinging his phone around, trying to find the tail once again. Continuing to look, he soon made eye contact with the same e/c colored eyes, making him stop and stare at the head that was peeking out from the boulder.

Eyes widening, they soon gleamed as a large smile made it's way to his face. "Hey! It's you!" he called out, taking a step closer towards the person. Reki watched as you scooted backwards, seeming a bit startled by his sudden movements and loud voice.

"Hey..." Reki furrowed his brows, a bit confused and shined his light towards you. You slightly squinted your eyes from the sudden light, making you slightly cover your eyes while your pupils tried to adjust to the sudden brightness.

It was then that Reki had noticed a tail near you. Following it, his eyes trailed up the fin, to the middle part of the tail, and all the way to where it was connected to a human torso, yours to be exact.

His mind began racing, trying to figure out what exactly was happening until his brain finally caught up and gave him the answer that he needed.

"You're...YOU'RE A MERMAID!" he yelled in surprise. 

The both of you had startled one another as Reki fell back, looking at you in disbelief as you held onto the rock tightly, ready to flee if you felt yourself in danger.

You stared at each other for a long moment, as Reki was trying to calm his beating heart and racing mind. You on the other hand, after staring at the weird redhead, you had recognized him as the creature that had been carried away by the ocean on accident.

Slowly, you part ways from the boulder that gave you a sense of safety and made your way over to him cautiously.

Seeing how you were the first to make a move, Reki snapped out of his small panicked trance. Pulling himself up on his feet, he made his way over to you, maybe a bit too fast. You froze where you were before backing up a bit when he took another step towards you.

Seeing your defensive state, Reki put his hands up. "Oh uh, I'm not here to hurt you." he reassured. "See? Don't have anything." he smiled.

You stared at him for a moment, you didn't understand him all that well but you found his smile quite charming.

Finding that he was trustworthy, you made your way back towards him as he too made his way over to you, this time a bit more carefully. 

The two of you were close enough that you could see each other just a bit more clearly. You stared at each other in astonishment until he gave a smile.

"I'm Reki." the redhead introduced himself and stuck out his hand. He watched as you stared at his hand before looking back up at him, giving a small tilt to your head. He started to feel awkward, seeing how you weren't giving him a handshake.

"Uh, right. You guys probably don't do handshakes.." he said to no one in particular. He was about to pull his hand back before feeling something soggy with a bit of weight in it. He slightly cringed at the texture before his cringing expression turned into one with delight.

"My bandana!" he exclaimed, seeing the dark blue headband in his hand. He grinned, looking at you. "Thanks a lot!"

You stared at him, tilting your head once more. The two of you stared at one another, the air feeling awkward, to him anyways. 

"So what's your um...What's your name?" he questions looking at you. He wasn't surprised that you didn't understand him.

"How am I going to do this..." he sighs, rubbing his temples while hanging his head.

Thinking for a moment, an idea popped in his head, making him quickly lift his head up, startling you.

Taking a handful of sand, he stared straight into your e/c eyes and pointed at the grainy particles. 

"Sand." he said. You blinked, confused as to what he was doing.

"Uh..." letting it slip from his fingers, he dug around before finding an almost smooth rock that was buried beneath the sand. "Rock." he said to you. Your response was to still stare at him, but you were trying to figure out what he was doing.

You watched as he continued to dig around in the sand before finding a shell. He picked it up and showcased it near his head.

"Shell." he stated with a smile.

You watched as a small creature popped out from the shell, it's eyes, antennae, and legs moving around. You pointed out the creature to the peculiar redhead.

"Huh? What is it?" he looked over to what you were pointing at before making eye contact with a black eyed beady hermit crab that he quite clearly remembered wasn't there before.

"OHMYGOD" startled, he threw the crustacean in the air, scared by it's eyes that were staring straight into his eyes with it's weird antennas and gross looking legs that were moving around.

Watching the hermit's limbs flail around in startlement and distress, you safely caught it in your hands. 

"Gross gross gross!" he started to wash his hands in the ocean, feeling a strange crawling sensation on his back, making him shiver. 

Hearing clicking sounds, he looked over and saw you holding the hermit crab with slightly cupped hands while making clicking noises. You were communicating with the crab, somehow. 

He watched in astonishment as you nodded your head every now and then, a smile on your lips until out came a soft melodic laughter. 

Right then and there Reki felt his whole face flare up, his heart doing jumps, and butterflies waging war in his stomach. 

Continuing to watch you, you gently set the hermit crab down in the shallow water and waved your hand goodbye to it while it scuttled away. 

Looking over at him, you gave him a smile which was a critical hit to the poor teenage boy.

"Y.. Y/...Y/n." you said in very broken Japanese.

"Huh?" he blinked, snapping out of his small daze.

"Y/...Y/n." you pointed at yourself this time, repeating your name.

Reki stared at you for a moment until it finally clicked. His eyes lit up as a grin formed on his face.

"Y/n? That's your name?" he lights up.

You nod, a smile on your lips. You soon pointed at him, you're smile not leaving.

"Reki." you softly call out.

After that, the teen had KOed.

At some point, Reki had to head back to the hotel before the sun had risen up from the sky. But before that, he had promised to meet up with you again, though he had a bit of difficulty explaining it to you seeing that you weren't comprehending what he was trying to say for almost half an hour. 

When morning did come, Reki had barely gotten four hours of sleep. When Langa had woken him up, his whole entire body felt groggy and he was just utterly exhausted. But a part of him felt somewhat excited, happy actually. 

He had met a cute girl..? No—a mermaid—and she was willing to talk and hang out with him more. When? He doesn't know, but what he does know is that he couldn't wait to hang out with you again. 

Later on that day, when the moon made it's appearance in the sky again, Reki went back to the same place that he had first met you. Walking along the beach, the moon lit up the path for him before spotting the large boulder. 

He jogged over towards the boulder. "Y/n?" he glanced around the water, setting his skateboard down by the beach. 

Reki soon spotted h/c hair and saw your head poke out slightly from the surface of the water. Taking sight of the teenage boy, your whole face lit up and you moved closer to the redhead.

"Reki!" you chimed.

The boy sat near the shore, making sure that he wouldn't get wet from the small waves that crawled their way up to the sand. You, on the other hand, made your way over to him, your lower half resting against the soft, wet sand.

It was hard for the both of you to talk to one another with the language barrier. Reki only knowing Japanese and you making clicking noises that somehow lets you talk to other sea animals, but the two of you have made it work in a way.

The both of you resorted to drawing in the sand, using simple words to try and describe what the other was trying to say.

"Uh lets see..." Reki hummed, staring hard at the sand. "What do you...like?" he traced his fingers in the sand before shaking his head. "No not like that..." he mutters.

You watched him wipe away his drawing until seeing he drew a heart.

"That could work." he nodded to himself. You looked up at him as he looked around before reaching over and grabbing his skateboard. "Skateboard." he pointed at the board that had wheels on it. 

"I," he pointed at himself. "love skateboarding." he pointed at the heart and then to his board.

You processed his sentence before nodding with a smile. "I," you pointed at yourself,  mimicking the teenager. "love.." your finger moved to the heart. You hummed for a moment, thinking, your eyes wandering around until they met Reki's who waited patiently for your answer. You smiled. "Reki!" you pointed.

"I love Reki." you repeated your sentence with a proud smile. You watched as the boy's face turned red, his ears following suit. Tilting your head, you reached out and gently placed your hand against his face. "Reki okay?" you question.

The coolness of your hand felt nice on his face, but he quickly pulled away, nodding furiously.

"Yup! Just fine!" he gave a thumbs up before turning away from you, fanning his face with his hands. "This is bad for my heart..." he mutters.

That was the last time he ever asked you what you liked. 

But there were many more things that the two of you could talk about, and Reki took every chance he took to ask you many questions, well, however many you could understand that is. 

"Are there more of you?" Reki questions.

"More?" you echo. 

The redhead nods and draws a quick drawing of you before making an arrow before drawing more mermaids and mermen.

"Family?" he adds.

He watches your eyes light up as you give a quick nod, seeing that you were familiar with the word family. 

You drew many mermen and mermaids, some being just a bit bigger than others. You then pointed at the mermaid that was second to last.

"Me." you told him.

"That's a big family." he commented.

"Reki's family?" you look up at him. 

He smiled at you. "Yeah I can show you mine." he was about to draw in the sand before pausing. "Actually..." he fished his hand around in his pocket before taking out his phone. 

You stared at the strange device in astonishment. You've seen some of them at the bottom of the ocean before, but every time you messed with them it was always just a blank black screen. But this one, this one lit up, a bit too bright in your opinion but fascinating nonetheless.

Your eyes slightly widened as you scooted a bit closer to Reki, watching how he used the strange thing. 

Reki didn't mind the closeness of course. When he glanced at you and saw your curious eyes glinting from the screen light, he found it adorable. 

Swiping around, he found his gallery and pressed the app. The screen changed to small squares that were under specific dates. Scrolling down, his eyes skimmed through the multiple pictures and videos he had taken and saved before finding one of his family. 

Pressing on the small square, it became bigger as his whole family was there.

"This is my mom." he pointed at an older, petite woman. "And these are my sisters." he pointed out at the other girls who were just a tiny bit shorter.

"Reki." you pointed the boy out, his face at one of the corners.

"Yup! That's me." he grins, looking over at you.

He was a bit startled at how close the two of you were. You were facing him as well, so when he turned his head to look at you, your faces were inches away, being able to feel each other's breath.

The two of you didn't say anything, only staring into each other's eyes.

This felt oddly familiar to you. Thinking back to it, you remembered when you saw two people on the beach before when you wanted to get just a bit closer to the shore. 

You had seen them press their lips together. It was strange, it was a bit different to what your parents did, but similar at the same time.

Maybe Reki wanted to do what those creatures did as well?

Without a second thought, you leaned in and pressed your lips to his. 

Reki had fainted.

When he came to, the first thing he saw was your face hovering over him with a worried expression.

Surprised, he quickly sat up, causing the two of you to bump foreheads. He fell back down onto the sand while you pulled away, pain flaring up from both of your guys' foreheads. 

"Ouch..." he winced. 

Rubbing his forehead, he glanced over at you as your tail was curled up to express your pain. 

"Sorry, you okay?" he sat up, scooting over to you who was cradling your head at the moment. Looking up at him, tears had welled up in your eyes while there was a large red mark in the middle of your forehead.

He gently brushed the forming bruise, making you flinch.

"Sorry..." he muttered as he started to become flustered at what he was going to do. Leaning towards you, he pressed a gentle kiss to the bruise.

Looking away, he rubbed his neck in embarrassment. There was no response from you, making him a bit worried so he had turned to look at you, but when he did, he saw you now had a flustered face, your hands covering your forehead where he had kissed you.

When Reki saw you flustered, that had only made him more flustered, making him quickly stand up and grab his skateboard. 

"I'll uh, I'll see you tomorrow!" Reki exclaimed and made a run for it, leaving you to watch him retreat. 

When he had gotten back to the hotel, he made a run for it to his room. Setting his skateboard down, he pressed his back against the door and slid down to the floor. Holding his head, he soon buried it into his knees, a smile making it's way to his face.

"Ah geez..." 

The next morning when he woke, he saw everyone packing up.

"What's going on?" he questions, fear starting to take control of his body as he prayed that they weren't going to say what he thought.

"We're leaving today Reki, don't you remember?" Langa answers him.

Reki felt his heart drop, a sickening feeling in his stomach coming over him. 

"Oh uh, okay." he stated. "Do you uh, do you think we can visit the beach one last time before we leave?" he questions.

"No, the ferry comes in a few minutes so we need to get going." Cherry stated.

"Oh..." Reki muttered, panic starting to rise in him as he looked away.

Joe took notice of the boy's response as he only smiled. He soon wrapped an arm around his childhood friend's neck. 

"C'mon Kaoru! I'm sure the ferry won't be leaving once we get on, I'm sure we have a bit of time left!" Joe chimed.

"Let go of me you gorilla." the pink haired adult grumbled, gripping at the man's muscular arm and tried to get out of his grip. "And no! We need to get going!" he adds.

"Ah don't listen to him! Paying a small visit to the beach wouldn't hurt!" he grins. Joe glanced over at Reki who was giving him a look of astonishment. The adult only gave him a smile and a small wink to let him know he has his back.

The teenager grinned and quickly packed his stuff before grabbing his skateboard.

"I'm heading out first!" he quickly stated and left the hotel.

"Reki..!" Langa called out, but the boy was already gone.

'Hurry...' Reki thought as he rode his skateboard. 'Faster!' he pushed himself more, his leg startig to cramp up from giving his board more momentum.

He was going so fast that he almost lost his balance as he gave another push, but he had no time to waste, he had to say goodbye to you. 

Making it to the small path, he did a small ollie but grabbed his skateboard in midair before stumbling a bit on the sand. But he used that momentum to start sprinting down the sandy path to your guys' usual meet up place. 

The sand was making it hard for him to break into a full sprint, but he did what he could to get there quicker.

A few minutes later, he spotted the boulder from a distance, making him grin. His legs were burning, and he was starting to sweat as the sun beamed down on him.

Tossing his board on the sand, he looked around the area, seeing if he could spot your h/c hair or f/c tailfin.

"Y/n!" he called out.

You didn't respond.

Fear and panic spread through his body as he continued to look for you. At some point, he could've cared less about his clothes and went straight into the water. He took large steps since the water limited any quick movements.

"Y/n!" he called out again.

You still didn't answer.

"Reki!" someone called out to him.

Hope bloomed in his heart, but when he turned to the source of the voice, he only saw his Canadian friend jogging over to him.

"Come back before you get swept away again!" the blue haired teen scolded.

Tossing his board near Reki's he went over to his friend so the incident from the first day they got here didn't repeat itself again.

"You're clothes are all wet." he commented. He gently tugged at his arm. "Come on, lets go so you can change." he said. But Langa soon saw the sad expression on his face. "Reki? What's wrong?" he became worried.

"No, it's nothing." he muttered, looking down, his hair slightly hiding his face. "Let's just go.." he started to make his way back to land, his pants dripping with sea water as he grabbed his skateboard. 

Langa watched him for a moment before glancing over at the sea. Looking back over, he saw his friend was already leaving without him. Quickly, he marched his way out of the sea and grabbed his board, making his way to his friend.

"Hey wait up!" he called out.

The two had changed their clothes, but Reki decided against hanging around at the beach and just wanted to get back to the ferry, and so they did.

The group was sitting under he shade while Reki was leaning against the rails, staring longingly at the sea.

"What's up with him?" Shadow questions.

"Probably got turned down again." Miya comments, eyes glued to his gameboy.

Langa looked at him, feeling sad seeing that his friend was also sad. 

Joe let out a sigh before standing up. "I'll talk to him." he said. Hands in his pockets, he walked over to the boy who continued to glumly look over the horizon of the sea.

"You okay?" the green haired man questions, leaning against the rail himself.

"Huh?" Reki responded, not looking away from the sea.

"Did it not go well with the girl?" Joe questions, looking at the boy.

"No, no it did..." he trailed. "I just..." he pressed his lips together and then looked down. "I just didn't get to say goodbye is all..." he answers.

Joe stared at him before patting him on the back. "I'm sure you'll see her again soon." he responded.

That same day, the sun had slowly left the sky, letting the moon and stars take its place. As it got darker, you had made your way to the usual hang out place. You were excited to explain.

Making your way close to the shore, you glanced at the gift you had before smiling widely and held it close to your chest. The gift you had was a token of love that mermaids gave to those that they cherished and wanted to spend their life with.

You waited patiently for the boy, knowing that it took some time for him to make his way to the spot.

Patiently, you waited. 

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

But he never came.

Your excitement had died down. 

And so when you knew he wasn't coming, you left.

The next day you came back and waited again.

And the day after that you waited.

And the day after that day.

At some point, you realized, he wasn't coming back.

"Reki..?" you softly called out, hoping that maybe, just maybe he'd come to you after calling out his name.

But he didn't.

The sound of waves crashing against each other and on the shore could be heard, the stars and moon twinkling overhead.

And just under their illumination sat an opened clam near the shore. Inside that clam laid a pink pearl, the light giving it a soft gleam. 

Soon, the small waves had swallowed it. 

A token of love that will never be given.