Out of the water and into your arms.
Title: Out of the water and into your arms.
Group/pairing: Arashi/ Sakumiya
Genre: Romance, Humour, fluff
Length: One-shot
Chapter: 1
Summary: Nino and Aiba were hanging out at the pool when they spotted a hot lifeguard, and Nino was VERY interested in him.
Word Count: 2164 words
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I only own a LOVE photoset of Sho and the story plot- nothing else XD
Author note: Happy Birthday, Nino-san~~~ Here's 1/2 of your present. :p
"Nino-kun~" his good friend Aiba Masaki called out from the pool, "are you sure you don't want me to teach you how to swim?"
"No! You know I'm scared of water!" Nino yelled back.
"But that was the sea with sharks and all and this is only a swimming pool! Besides, this depth isn't even THAT deep!" Aiba replied, "you should see that one over there with the hot lifeguard! That depth is MASSIVE."
Nino shuddered at the thought. Although Aiba was right that the swimming pool might not be as dangerous as the sea, he still never liked the idea of swimming in anything. Once in his childhood he had nearly drowned once in the sea and that brought back horrible memories. And plus that depth over by the impossibly hot lifeguard- wait a minute.
Nino directed his eyes at the lifeguard by the rectangular swimming pool for expert swimmers. Aiba was right. That lifeguard was really REALLY hot. Aside from his chest and abs and sloping shoulders, the lifeguard had a princely face with pouty-looking lips.
"What it would be like to get CPR from him..." Nino thought.
"It'd probably be every girl's fantasy," Aiba replied. Nino jolted out of his thoughts, realising that he must have thought aloud.
Aiba grinned.
"And apparently, it's now one guy's fantasy too." Aiba stated.
"Oh shut up and get back in the pool,"Nino retorted with a laugh and shoved Aiba back inside, his friend landing in the pool with a resounding splash.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"So? What are we going to do about it?" Aiba asked as they drank their beers that night.
"About what?" Nino asked.
"Why, about that crush that you have on that lifeguard!" Aiba replied as if it was the most obvious fact in the world, "for one, you can't stand swimming. You can barely survive in the pool I was in just now, let alone those for expert swimmers.."
"Wait, isn't that the point? I should just go inside and 'almost drown', and then I can get CPR from him!" Nino said. Aiba smacked him lightly on the head.
"Don't go risking your life for some lifeguard! .. Even if he's a hot one!" Aiba scolded, "you need to at least learn how to tread water or you might really drown!"
"That's when you're supposed to teach me, just like you wanted," Nino replied brattily.
"Mou! I can't believe you," Aiba sulked as he drank his beer. Nino gulped down his, trying his best to convince himself that a CPR-kiss was worth him going down in the swimming pool.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"There, you got it? Simply try to push your body up to the surface by pushing your hands through the water in circles. Kick up your feet and imagine you are treading on a solid block. Do not use too much energy doing this or you'll get too tired to swim!" Aiba taught as he demonstrated. Nino tried his best not to shiver in the freezing pool water. Being the water felt rather new to him, but thankfully his friend had been patient with him and had helped him get used to the water.
"Aiba-kun, I think I'll just go and seduce his pants off. This is too hard," Nino complained.
"You aren't even really treading on water. You're practically standing in the water, you know!" Aiba said, "now follow me- we're going to the deep pool."
"Already?!" Nino moaned as he stepped out of the water, stopping short of worshipping the dry ground.
"Yes, because the water is so deep that you need to get used to it first. Otherwise your fake drowning might actually be real," Aiba said and tugged a reluctant Nino along.
"Ahh! Cold!" Nino yelped, earning himself a light slap on the arm.
"Hush now! See? The hot lifeguard just looked at you! Tsk!" Aiba mock-scolded.
"M-m-maybe t-that's a g-good sign..." Nino shivered in the cold water as he tried to touch the floor with his foot.
"Okay, if it's here it's not so deep. Now try to tread water," Aiba said.
Nino tried to coordinate his arms and legs to keep himself afloat. After a long while of kicking and many lunges for the wall of the pool, Nino finally could straddle in the water about an arm's length away from the walls.
"Now, I will demonstrate how to let your body sink. I think it'll be difficult but it's worth a try," Aiba said. Nino shook his head vigorously.
"You're kidding! How can I-" Nino soon remembered the whole reason why he was learning all this stuff from Aiba.
"If you want your fake drowning act to work," Aiba whispered lowly, "you kinda need your body to sink, you know. And it's not that difficult, really!"
"Oh yeah? What's the main thing I need to do?" Nino asked skeptically.
"Keep your eyes closed,stop breathing through your nose and just blow the air naturally out of your mouth," Aiba said simply. With that, he took a deep breath and dived down the water, blowing out the air in his lungs and Nino watched as Aiba's body descended gracefully to the floor. Aiba pulled a few strokes before coming out of the water again.
"There we go! The only difference is that you need to look as if you're sleeping," Aiba said.
"I won't.. die?" Nino asked. Aiba laughed and patted Nino on the head.
"You can survive for at least a minute without air," Aiba said before pausing a little, "and at most about 3 minutes, so do be careful. Lifeguards won't leave it for that long until they save you, so no worries."
Nino took a deep breath as he pieced up the plan in his head. He would try to venture out into the middle of the pool to familiarise himself with the depth, and then soon enough he would start struggling in the water and take in sharp gasps of air before following Aiba's example of sinking down to the bottom of the pool. And then praying that the smoking hot lifeguard noticed him.
"Okay, I think I'm ready. If I don't make it out alive, please tell mom I love her," Nino said. Aiba giggled and ruffled his hair fondly.
"You will. I think you treasure your life enough to save yourself if you need to," Aiba teased and stepped out of the water.
Nino took a few deep breaths and focused on the middle of the pool. He stepped cautiously, noting that the water was reaching up to his neck by that time. Before long, knowing that he might be in the line of sight of the lifeguard, he slipped on his feet and fell head-first into the pool, kicking his legs up desperately as if completely panic-stricken.
"HELP-" Nino called out as he gurgled out water that he had unintentionally swallowed, coughing a little. He struggled with his hands to keep himself afloat, but realised that he might be using too much energy to do so.
"HELP ME!" Nino called as he coughed out more water. He was beginning to feel as if he was really about to drown for real- the only thing being comforting was that his feet could still touch the bottom of the pool with his height.
"CLEAR OUT NOW!" a voice shouted sharply and before long he heard a splash and the sound of someone swimming quickly towards him.
"Now!" he thought and blew the air out of his lungs as he felt his body sink towards the bottom of the pool. His eyes closed themselves tightly as he relaxed his body. It felt... strangely comforting, surrounded by the water. However, he felt himself being tugged strongly by the arm and dragged towards the pool wall.
The lifeguard lifted him out and set him down on the floor, leaning close to check for any breathing. Nino held his breath as he felt the man's face rather close to his. The man started to press down on his chest once, and Nino stopped short of wincing in pain, his body tensing up. Suddenly, the man stopped and stared right at his "drowned" form. Nino's thoughts were panicked now when he felt the man's hands leave his stomach.
"He probably knows I'm faking the drowning," he thought hurriedly, "Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh what the heck am I going to do now? I'm probably going to get questioned and then I'm gonna-"
His thoughts were cut short when he felt a pair of lips press against his own. Nino tried not to respond as the lifeguard's lips pushed on his a little harder and blew some air into him. He choked on the incoming air and coughed out a little, signalling to worried swimmers that he was revived. The onlookers applauded the lifeguard, who supported Nino up with a shy smile on his face.
"Are you alright, sir?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm.. I'm fine..." Nino spoke between fits of coughs, "I'm fine now, thank you so much."
"You're welcome. You do need to be careful of the middle of the pool though. It's very dangerous with no support to help you along," the lifeguard advised, smiling kindly as he helped him up.
"I'll take note of that," Nino replied, breathing deeply as he staggered with some help to the nearest bench.
"Sho-kun! Are you okay?" one man in the distance called. Nino assumed that he was another lifeguard.
"Jun-kun, I'm fine," the lifeguard beside Nino said, " I'm about to take care of this guy and advise him on some things, so could you take my shift for me? You're so early after all!"
"Jun" gave them a thumbs-up before heading to the lifeguard post that had been taken a while ago. Nino relaxed on the pool chair, with his saviour-also-known-as-Sho sitting beside him.
"Say, what's your name?"
Nino looked curiously at the lifeguard, who was now staring earnestly at him after asking the question.
"N-Ninomiya Kazunari," Nino managed.
"Well, Ninomiya-san. Can I ask you something?" the lifeguard asked, smiling at him. When Nino nodded slowly,he leaned close to whisper into Nino's ear.
"You were faking it, weren't you?" he asked. Nino looked at him, completely shocked. The man chuckled.
"No need to look so surprised. If I can't tell who's really drowning and who isn't, what kind of a lifeguard would I be?" the man laughed.
".. When did you notice?" Nino asked, pouting lightly.
"You were quite tense in my arms when I was saving you. And your eyes were tightly shut. Usually that's not the case for a drowning person. And plus, I could see you attempting to breathe very discreetly the moment we surfaced out of water," he explained.
"Then, you knew I wasn't drowning..." Nino froze as he replayed the event over in his head
Wait. A. Minute. The lifeguard clearly knew that he was faking. And yet he... Nino looked at the lifeguard and then looked away quickly, now completely embarrassed. The lifeguard grinned.
"Let's get you changed," he suggested, tugging Nino lightly to the men's changing room, carrying Nino's stuff as they walked off. They entered the room to find that it was quite empty.
"Actually, er... erm.." Nino paused as he tried to get the lifeguard's name.
"Sho. Sakurai Sho," the man introduced himself.
"Sakurai-san, you knew that I wasn't drowning, right?" Nino asked, and Sho gave a nod. "Then why did you..."
"Do you really want to know why?" Sho asked. Before Nino could respond, Sho dropped Nino's things on the long bench beside them and pushed Nino in one of the shower cubicles, locking the door behind them.
"Wait,what ar-" Nino's words were cut short as Sho pinned him against the wall and captured his lips. This time, Sho was not breathing life into him- he was sucking it out of him. Nino closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the man who had caught him guilty. Sho slowly drew apart from their liplock, leaning his forehead against Nino's.
"Let's just say that your attempt to get my attention was rather... intriguing. And dangerous." he spoke the last word in a solemn tone, "make sure you don't ever do that again. You could have really drowned."
Nino looked down at his toes. "I'm sorry," Nino apologised. Sho smiled and pecked him lightly on the lips again.
"To make up for my trouble.. you'll bring me to dinner later." Sho grinned and left the shower cubicle. Nino was catching his breath, slapping himself to make sure he was not dreaming.
"I'll wait for you at the entrance of the swimming complex!" Sho called as he stepped out. Nino grabbed his shower gel and took the fastest shower in his entire life. Sure, it had been rather dangerous in going to such an extent to get that lifeguard's attention, but we know what they say- No venture, no gain.