Chapter Text
Daisuke’s dreamt about this moment for what feels like all eternity, but when he finally finds himself in Ryohei’s room, all he can do is sit mute and wide-eyed on his bed, all his daydreams disappearing like froth in the waves.
“My name is Ryohei, and I’m the prince in this kingdom. My attendant Ren and I found you unconscious on the beach by the castle. He didn’t recognise you from town so I had you brought here.” Ryohei says, and hearing his voice directed towards Daisuke for the first makes his heart clench in his chest. I know who you are, he wants to say, mouth opening before he remembers.
The mattress dips when he sits by Daisuke’s, and Daisuke has to stop his fingers from drifting out to explore that sensation. Hikaru had warned him that things would be starkly different, but Daisuke never ever considered how things would feel without the pull of the water, its drag an omnipresent force in all of his dreams.
“Can you understand me?” Ryohei adds, tentative and searching, his head ducking down so his eyes are in Daisuke’s line of sight. “Can you… hear me?” He tilts his head questioningly, and Daisuke’s seen him do that so many times before that the familiarity makes a fizzy joy rush up in his chest.
Ryohei mirrors his grin, the concern in the corners of his eyes smoothing out a little. “I must look like an idiot if you can’t.” Then, with Daisuke watching, he lifts his right hand with his index finger outstretched and waves it from left to right, then he holds it flat out and waves his forearm up and down.
Daisuke stares at him. Clearly, it’s a question but now it’s in a language he can’t understand. Does Ryohei really think he can’t hear?
He feels his brows furrow. He’d been so fixated on getting here he never even thought about what the next step was or how Ryohei would even react to him. Truth be told, he hadn’t even realised having Ryohei in such close proximity would make his heart feel like it was about to hammer right out of his chest and somersault back into the sea.
All of a sudden, Ryohei leans even closer, so close Daisuke feels his warm breath on his cheek and the intimacy, the familiarity of the action makes his skin pimple all the way down his arms in a strange sensation he’s never felt before. It feels like a wave sweeping over him.
“Can you hear?” Ryohei asks again, this time a low murmur that doesn’t feel like it was meant for Daisuke’s ears. His index finger comes up to tap lightly against Daisuke’s right ear, and if Daisuke could make a sound, they would both have heard the gasp escaping from his lips.
Instead, all that escapes is a sudden inhale that has Ryohei drawing back, the tips of his ears as red as a sea anemone.
“Sorry, that was rude of me,” he apologises, and Daisuke shakes his head profusely. “Oh. So you can hear me.”
Ryohei smiles, a little pleased thing that lights up his face like when Daisuke spotted him on the beach last week after he’d spotted something in the clouds through his favourite telescope and was telling Ren about it.
This, at least, is familiar.
Daisuke feels his lips lift. He nods, touching his fingers to his lips almost embarrassedly.
“You can’t speak?” Ryohei asks, brow furrowing, and Daisuke shakes his head. “Can you write, though? Can you at least tell me what your name is?”
Now, he stretches his hand out towards Daisuke can, the action an invitation of some kind.
“Here, you can write it out on my palm,” he says, and his other hand reaches out and curls around Daisuke’s wrist. His grasp is gentle and not at all impatient, loose enough that Daisuke would have pulled away easily if he’d wanted to.
But that’s the last thing from his mind.
Daisuke used to think the warmth filling his heart every time he broke the surface to find Ryohei on the beach was incomparable, but now he knows that that was nothing compared to the touch of Ryohei’s hand, a little clammy but so very warm where they meet, skin to skin. Warmer than even the first touch of the summer sun on his skin when he and Hikaru rush up to the surface in June, warmer than anything he’s ever felt in his life.
Daisuke wants to kiss him so badly.
“What are you staring at me for?” Ryohei’s grin is easy, lopsided, and his tone a little teasing. He lets go of Daisuke’s hand to brush at his wind-swept hair self-consciously, but it only serves to make things worse. “I’ll fix it before my meeting with the council later, I promise.”
Daisuke grins, shaking his head and giving him a thumbs-up.
“You sure?” Ryohei looks doubtful, and Daisuke nods. This time, it’s him reaching out for Ryohei’s wrist, left hand grasping his fingers while his right spells out the characters of his name on the palm of Ryohei’s hand. They don’t have a use for these characters back home, but Daisuke made Hikaru practice with him, over and over again, just for this.
“Dai… su… ke…” Ryohei spells out, and when Daisuke pulls back, he’s just in time to watch a careful grin spread across Ryohei’s face. It’s as beautiful as the first sunset of the year.
“Your name is Daisuke, is that right?” He asks, and Daisuke feels like he could float into the air just hearing his name on Ryohei’s lips.
He gives Ryohei another thumbs-up.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Daisuke.” Ryohei smiles, soft and fond and satisfied with questions resolved. “I don’t know how you ended up on our beach, but if you have nowhere else to go, you’re welcome to stay as long as you need.”