The cerulean water lapped rhythmically at Ryan's ankles, just teetering on the edge of too-cold and raising goosebumps on his skin. The soft squish of the pale sand as he dug his toes in was satisfying, though, and the pleasant warmth of the golden sun was a delightful contrast to the ocean. He rolled his shoulders back and tilted his head to the sky, eyes fluttering shut and a smile crawling its way across his face. He let a pleased hum escape him. To his right a familiar low chuckle rumbled outwards.

"Enjoying yourself there, Ry?" Akmazian teased, squeezing their interlaced hands. Ryan cracked open an eye and smiled at him.

"Absolutely. I mean, it's not like I have the chance to bask in the sunshine very often back on EOS 10," he replied lazily. Akmazian ducked his head in acknowledgement. 

"Yeah, I'll bet that's true," he muttered, eyes gleaming. "Just look how pale you are!" His other hand reached out to pinch Ryan on the ribs, making him yelp and jump away, subsequently splashing Akmazian with frigid water and colliding with Maddox on his left. David stumbled slightly, but recovered quickly and disentangled his hand from Ryan's left in favour of wrapping it around his waist. Ryan glanced upwards and leaned easily into the taller man, eyeing Akmazian warily.

Akmazian stared at the recently soaked hem of his shirt, then back up to Ryan. His eyes narrowed.

"Oh, that's it," he started, and shifted like he was about to kick water over onto Ryan and David.

"If you get me wet, Ak, I swear to god I will ruin your life," Maddox warned, glaring. Akmazian paused and gazed at him calculatingly--Ryan just knew he was trying to figure out exactly how to splash Ryan without hitting David. Ryan raised an eyebrow daringly at Akmazian, waiting to see if he'd follow through on his threat. Apparently David also knew exactly what Akmazian was thinking, because he tugged Ryan closer and wrapped both arms around him, dropping a quick kiss into his pink hair.

"Also, you're not allowed to get my human shield wet either," he smirked. Ryan gaped at him.

"Wha--human shield?! I'll show you human shield!" he yelled, wriggling out of his boyfriend's grip and stomping hard, making a tiny splash of water and sand flick its way up Maddox's legs. The man just gave him an unimpressed look, when suddenly a wave of cold splattered against Ryan's back. He turned, spluttering, and levelled his most murderous glare at Akmazian, who held a cheeky grin and dripping hands.

"You're dead," Ryan warned, and lunged towards him, kicking up a storm of salt water.

Akmazian laughed and fended him off with upsetting ease, splashing Ryan back with vigour.

"Shit!" Ryan shrieked after a particularly big splash. "You got my shirt soaking wet!"

"Why don't you take it off then," Akmazian leered, and flashed a flirtatious wink. Ryan narrowed his eyes, but... well, he was drenched anyway, what harm could it do? He ducked his head and pulled his shirt off in one swift movement, chucking it onto the sand and turning back to face his boyfriend. Behind him, Maddox's manic laughter was abruptly cut off with a choked wheeze, which made Ryan smile. And, judging by Akmazian's stunned silence and wide eyes, he hadn't actually expected Ryan to go through with it.

Ryan kicked a huge wave of water at Akmazian. The other man flinched and snapped out of his shock, a downright dangerous look appearing on his face. Never one to be outdone, he quickly tore his own shirt off and chucked it in the sand before rounding on Ryan.

“Oh, crap, David?” he began backing away further into the sea and away from Ak’s outstretched hands.

“Yeah?” Maddox replied dazedly, and when Ryan looked over he was still staring at Ryan’s chest.

“Protect me!” Ryan screeched, and stumbled further away into the gentle rolls of waves when Akmazian lunged. David laughed as Akmazian grabbed at Ryan, then pulled his own shirt off and threw it on the dry sand before wading in after them. Ryan fought Akmazian off, the other man grinning with wild determination, but couldn’t help the burst of shocked laughter that escaped him when Akmazian managed to get both hands around his waist and lift him into the air.

“Oh my God!” he exclaimed, clutching at Akmazian’s arms.

“Hold your breath!” he hollered. Ryan’s eyes widened.

“No, no, don’t you dare! Ak, I swear, if you drop me--” he struggled to get out of his boyfriend’s arms, and Akmazian stumbled.

“Whoa, good doctor, calm down,” he laughed, “I’m not gonna dunk you!” Ryan shot him a glare, then leaned to the side to see where Maddox was standing waist-deep in the water. He looked at him pleadingly.

“Babe, help me out!” he whined. David just laughed at him, the traitor. Ryan scowled and wriggled around, but froze when Akmazian’s grip on him slipped.

His eyes widened and suddenly he was slipping, falling, and then he was crashing and submerged in the water and fuck, that was cold! He took a moment to find his feet in the sand as a wave softly pushed him around, then burst sputtering out of the water. Akmazian’s eyes were wide with shock, but he was giggling, whereas David was practically bent in half cry-laughing. Soggy pink hair flopped into Ryan’s eyes and he swept it out of the way in annoyance, looking murderously at Akmazian.

“You dropped me,” he hissed.

"I’m sorry,” Akmazian managed between laughter, reaching out to him apologetically. “I honestly didn’t mean to, darlin’, my apologies.” Ryan crossed his arms and harrumphed, but didn’t pull away when Akmazian pulled him into a hug. It was just an opportunity to get Akmazian wet in return, and hey, he was really warm.

“Sorry,” Akmazian repeated, and tilted Ryan’s face up for a kiss. Ryan (begrudgingly) let him. Then David sloshed over to them and flopped over Akmazian’s back, pouting.

“Do I get a kiss?” he asked.

“I don’t recall dropping you into the water,” Akmazian pulled away from Ryan to say. Maddox poked his tongue out childishly, and Ryan disentangled himself from Akmazian to grab David’s arm.

“You’re my favourite now, seeing as you haven’t dropped me in the ocean,” he stated. Akmazian let out an offended puff of air, but David smiled indulgently and slid off Akmazian’s back so he could hold Ryan’s hand.

“You say that like I wasn’t already your favourite,” he teased. Ryan tilted his head up expectantly, and Maddox kissed him softly on the mouth once, twice, then pulled away and dropped a kiss onto his forehead. (Ryan wasn’t blushing, okay). Akmazian pouted at them, to which Ryan just laughed. He let go of Maddox’s hand and drifted into deeper water again, bracing himself against the cool temperature until his body slowly adjusted to it.

Ryan had been swimming since he was a child, it was practically second nature to him. Of course, on EOS 10 the only place to go swimming was a chlorinated pool, and the sea was different in a lot of ways. For example, he was constantly surfacing to rub the salty brine out of his eyes, because it stung like nothing else. There was a current here, too: it swept him up gently, trying to coerce him into floating out into the deep water; but Ryan fought it back with ease and a few lazy kicks. He bobbed on the waves as they rolled in, too calm to crash and break into white foam, but just strong enough to lift him up and down. He floated on his back, and sunk into the familiar sense of peace that came with the sound of his ears being underwater. Ryan soon realised was probably getting sunburned, though--this planet’s ozone layer left much to be desired.

He twisted in the water and flipped over. It only took a few strokes to bring him to where he could touch the ground, and when he looked up it was to a heart-warming sight. Maddox was clinging to Akmazian like an octopus, arms looped around his neck and legs wrapped around Akmazian’s waist. Akmazian held him up with ease in navel-deep water and their foreheads were pressed together, Akmazian murmuring something while Maddox smiled fondly. It made Ryan’s chest hurt in an uncomfortable, squeezing kind of way--he almost couldn’t bear it. He was really, really happy; he wondered briefly if the chip in his brain was going to kick in, because surely anything that made his heart feel like this couldn’t be normal.

He quietly swam to shore and wandered up the sand, picking up their shirts and hissing at the burning grains of sand until he reached their bags. He shoved the shirts in haphazardly and dug around as quickly as possible until he pulled out an old Earth polaroid camera. He didn’t really know why, but he loved the thing and it made this holiday feel perfect: there was just something about holding a picture in his hands and watching it slowly develop rather than seeing it projected onto a screen, something that made everything so much realer and more tangible, that truly captured the frozen moment. With that in mind he brought the camera up to his face and focused it on the pair still in the water--both still smiling, with their heads ducked down like they were sharing a sweet secret--and snapped a photo.

The film began to print immediately, and he carefully dried his hands off on a towel before grabbing it. He watched for a minute as the photo developed, taking in the individual little details: the sapphire glittering of the water, the way Akmazian’s dark skin shone in the light, the contented curl of David’s body as he was effortlessly held up. That warm, fuzzy feeling bloomed in Ryan’s chest again, and he smiled before carefully putting the camera and the photo away.

“Do you guys want ice cream?” he shouted to the pair, who looked over at him from their position in the water.

“Who’d say no to that?” Akmazian called back, and Maddox shot him a thumbs up.

“Well, are you coming? I’m not carrying three back!” Ryan yelled impatiently, but when David and Akmazian linked their hands with his and bumped their shoulders together as they walked along the shore, it became really hard to keep a stupidly-in-love grin off his face.