The Shark and the Stingray

Chapter 8

"Woah, a rest house, cool! What is it?" Nagisa looks at the sign, "A house where you rest," Rei replies, "Let's go inside," Rin starts walking, "Are we actually gonna do this?" Rei asks nervously, Nagisa, Mako and Haru already following us, "You know, if this were a horror movie, you two would be the newly wed couple that dies in the first five minutes," Nagisa points at us, "Like come on dude, why would you bring your girl with you in a sketchy looking light house?" Nagisa points at the door, we all shivered, we slowly walked in, I gripped onto Rin's arm, never letting go, "Ahh!" Nagisa says loudly, everyone jumps, "It's a flashlight! Awesome," He grabs it from the wall, "Can you reel it in just a bit?" Rei hisses at him, hiding behind his kick board. "Not much here," Rin points it into a room, "How the hell aren't you scared, I'm getting chills down my spine every time we take a step," I grabbed into his arm, "Careful, you'll cut the circulation off my arm and it'll die!" He shines the light under his face, I screamed, "Looks like this used to be a kitchen," Haru looks in, "Wait, you think there's still some food in here? I'm starving," Nagisa asks, "Does there exist a situation where you aren't starving?" Rei asks, Nagisa rubs the back of his head, "That wasn't a compliment," Rei gives Nagisa the side eye, "Alright, divide and conquer men and woman, I'll check that cabinet there, Haru and Mako can look under the sink, Yuki and Rin look under the benches and Rei you take the gross looking fridge," Nagisa checks off, "What?! Why do I have the job that'd most likely uncover a dead body!" Rei freaks out, "Your destiny's tied to your name. Refrigereitor!" Nagisa winks, "No, don't even, you can't make me do it, who knows what's in there, something putrescent will ooze out of my fingers," He wiggles his fingers, "Stop, you're scaring Yuki," Rin looks at him, I was shaking like a leaf, "Fine, rock, paper, scissors, loser gets the fridge," Nagisa points his finger, "Or third option we can leave the damn thing closed," Rei says, "It's the likeliest place for food," Nagisa points at it, "Yeah but there's no electricity," Haru points out, "So? Modern technology can keep food fresh for like hundreds of years! Even when the power's off! One, two, three!" We all throw our hands in the middle, Mako, Haru, Nagisa, Rin and I put out paper, only Rei did rock, "And we have a winner! Go Rei!" Nagisa flaps the kick board in the air with a cheer, Rei inched towards the fridge, everyone was holding their breath, he gripped onto the handles, everyone was waiting in anticipation, "Oh thank goodness," Rei sighed in relief, "All that for nothing? What a waste of time," Nagisa sighed. We all went out to the foyer, there was a table and some seats we lit a light up and we all sat around, "Bingo!" Nagisa brings out four more aprons he found lying around, "I'm not wearing that," I say bluntly, "Same here," Rin nods, "Is that really necessary? I mean we're dry now Nagisa so it's fine," Mako chuckles. "Pineapple, mackerel and hot water," Nagisa blows on his up of warm water, "Don't complain you were the one who said they were starving," Haru finished his without a second thought, "Yeah you're right, I can always rely on the good old imagination, you know to the unsophisticated pallet this might taste like a cup of warm water, but it's actually rich Kosame soup from the pot!" Nagisa closed his eyes and took a sip of his water, "Actually the more you talk the more pissed I get," Rin grumbles and sips his water, "And that's a shame for people who don't have an imagination." Nagisa waves his finger at Rin, "It's warm, that's for sure, now if the rain would stop," Mako looks out the window, "Speak for yourself," I sniffed my nose, still shivering, "Something tells we we'll be stuck here till morning," Rei says, "Well guys, what do we do now?" Nagisa asks, I raised my cup of warm water and tipped it over my head, "What?!" All the guys were confused, "So... warm..." I sighed in pleasure, I felt the warm water trickle down my body, "Hey Yuki's right, if we really are freezing we can boil some water and add some cold water to make it warm and splash it over ourselves," Mako points his finger up, "Or we could just go to sleep," Haru finishes his cup of water, "What? But we're stranded on a deserted island, we should be out harpooning for fish, looking for bugs and harvesting some mushrooms," Nagisa whines, "This isn't reality television," Rei looks at him, "Sleep does sound the best but this place doesn't look all that comfortable," Rin looks around, "Wait a sec, I've got it!" Nagisa runs off and comes back with a cardboard box. 

The box rolled and it landed on my name, "Well, tell us an embarrassing story Yuki!" Nagisa leans over, I flinched and sweatdrop, "Hey, I don't think it's all that interestin-" I rubbed the back of my head, "You're stalling~" Nagisa says, "Well..." I prodded my fingers together, "It was in year three. I can't believe I'm telling you this," I flopped onto Rin's lap, he perked up when I said year three, "We were at camp and... I forgot something," I covered my eyes, Rin burst out laughing, "I know exactly how this ends," He wipes a tear that was forming, "RIN!" I sat up straight, "I-I forgot my underwear in the cabin and the teacher held it up towards the entire year asking who's it was," I buried my face into my hands, "Hey they were cute, they had little sharks on them," Rin nudges me, I flushed even redder, "W-Well it's all in the past now," Mako says, I look up and all the boys had a steady stream of blood running from their noses, "PERVS!" I slapped each one of them. "Well, looks like Haru's up," The box face had his name on it, I sighed in relief and held my heart, "Give us the details on a personal romantic encounter," Nagisa points at him, all the boys had a roll of tissue hanging out their nostrils, "Romantic encounter?" Rin, Mako, Rei and I all say at the same time, "Whatever, this happened in grade school, I was with my folks we were hiking up a mountain all of a sudden, out of no where, there she was." We were all eagerly waiting, "Like nothing I've ever seen, beyond perfect, smooth, undulating, crystal clear," He closes his eyes, we all deadpan, "Haru if this is a waterfall it doesn't count," I groaned. "Right! The cube picks me, I have to do an impression and you have to guess what it is," Nagisa starts waddling on the spot, "What are you doing?" Rin looks up at him, "Isn't it obvious? Rockhopper Penguin. You didn't even try," He pouts, "I don't get it," Haru says, "Looked like a normal penguin to me," Rei says, "Come on look again you can totally see the difference! See! Hey pay attention!" Nagisa does the impression again, I giggled, "Hey you smiled, it's good to see you loosen up you've been a bit down all night." Nagisa crouches back down, my eyes widen and I smiled, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you worry," I look at the ground and smiled, "Uh, mind if I ask you a personal question? When you tried to save me earlier, you, how do I put this? You were acting somewhat out of character," Rei looks at me, my breath hitched, "Not something we're gonna discuss Four Eyes," Rin glares at him, "But I-" Rei tries to speak, "Drop the subject!" Rin shouts, everyone was silent, "Rin it's alright, but thanks anyway," I pet his arm, his eyes soften, "Truth is one way or another it's something they should know about me. When I swam out I was absolutely terrified," I leant on Rin's arm, "Of Rei drowning?" Nagisa asks, "That too, but mainly of the ocean. I lived by the beach, ever since I was a kid back home in Australia, there was one boy I'd always go swimming with, we'd always have fun, swam like there's no tomorrow. Except one day, we were swimming at another beach, the shark alarm went off and everyone rushed out of the water, the tide was strong and kept pulling me out, I can't even tell you how much water I probably inhaled out of panic and fear. If it wasn't for Rin that day, I might be dead. Since then I've always been afraid of the ocean, it's like a monster that can reach out and grab you at any second," I hugged my knees to my chest, "That's enough, okay?" Rin kisses my head, "You're terrified of the ocean but you dove in to save me anyway?" Rei's eyes softened, we were all silent for a while, "Hey look, the rain's stopped," Nagisa walks out, we all follow after him, "Wow this is amazing! Look at all the stars!" Nagisa looks up at the night sky, "I don't think I've ever seen it this clear," Rei says and starts listing constellations, all of us looking at the sky, "Hey, look guys," I look at the floor, we were standing in a large puddle, the reflection of the star-filled sky underneath us, it was beautiful, all of our mouths hung open.

"We aren't actually as far away as we thought we were," I shaded my eyes from the sun, the main island was just in the distance, "How do we get back? Should we wave our arms and make a racquet until Kou or Miss A find us and get a boat to bring us back?" Rei asks, "No way are they awake yet, especially Kou," Rin scowls, "I can swim back if you want," I peek my head out, all the boys were shocked, "Just look at it, I don't think I'm scared anymore, after all, I'm not alone, I've got all you and besides, if anything happens, I've got a Shark to ride on!" I jumped on Rin's back, "Giddy up Horsie!" I threw one of my hands into the air, "Oh you'll regret that!" Rin smirks and runs into the water flipping me off, "Come on guys, let's race back!" I turned around, the four of them blinked and ran in after us. We all made our way back to the shoreline and before we even knew it, we all fell asleep, "What are they doing? Big brother?" Kou looks at all of us, "Maybe they're working on their tans?" Miss A had her umbrella up, "Alright, sleepy time's over, time to wake up!" Kou sings, "Hey I'm talking to you! Wake up and start your training!" She runs over to us and splashes a handful of water into each of our faces, we all woke up with a jolt, "Kou..." Rin towers over her, "O-Oh... good morning... big... brother!" She screams and runs away.