“that’s what you think.”

they were soon at it again. bo was laughing and carrying on, not noticing that willow had snuck up behind him and was plotting another strategic maneuver. just as he was about to throw the dart…

“hey!” he missed, dart sticking partially into the cork before its weight pulled it downward and it fell unceremoniously to the floor of the booth.

“ro, did you see that? she keeps cheating.” but he was grinning. they couldn’t hang with the big dog. that was fine. splashfest was his time to shine and they had to cope somehow.

“you guys wanna go surfing next?”

willow atkins

☉

"it's not cheating. it's strategy," roman says and grins wickedly at willow. oh, she is absolutely going to regret that later. but right now, here with the two of them, all she can do is laugh and nod and look at bo like see? it's strategy!

when it's clear they're not going to win any games or prizes, she's more than happy to agree to go to the beach. not surf because she's pretty sure she'll manage to make more of a fool of herself than she did when they had their training battle.

"when did you learn how to surf?" she says with a raised brow as they head down towards the beach accesses. rustboro was decently close to the coast, but it didn't have any beaches, especially none where surfing was the norm. 

"that a requirement for being a ranger?" she teases. 

boruta maher

☉

”ah.”

now roman thought that cheating was ‘strategy’. bo looked over, finding himself immediately corrected by the mischief in the boy’s smirk to his mother. no, roman knew this wasn’t valid strategy, he’d just also likely taken this as a pass for the future anyways.

as much fun as games were, bo was happy when they both agreed that the beach was their next prime destination. at willow’s question, he grinned.

”i mean, i tried a couple times like fifteen years ago.” nothing stellar about those attempts, but to be fair, he hadn’t had any instruction. it had just been kids having clueless fun with stolen boards.

”no, but it’s a requirement for being cool, obviously.”

willow atkins

☉

"fifteen years...damn, we're getting old." despite the words, her tone is light. spoken fondly. she looks up at him, giggling at his childish remark and shakes her head. "okay, maybe not that old."

roman is running down the boardwalk and once or twice, he disappears from view, only for willow to spot him again, looking impatiently at the pair. when they finally get to the beach access, sand shifting under willow's sandals, roman strips off his shirt and hollers as he tears towards the ocean.

when they're closer to the shore, away from the hottest part of the sand, willow slips off her sandals and reaches into her beach bag. she unfurls a towel, plops the bag on top of it, and neatly steps out of her sundress. 

she folds it neatly and stuffs it in her bag, trading it for her sunscreen. after squirting some of the lotion into her hand, she holds the bottle up to bo. "you gotta drag roman out of the water. i don't want to deal with him complaining about a sunburn for the next week."

boruta maher
swimsuit uvu

☉

”nah.” yeah. they were definitely getting old. still, being in her presence felt timeless to him.

he watched with a grin as roman bound through the sand toward the waves ahead. a beeline, with predictably little attention paid to those that might step in his path. he couldn’t be stopped until he hit water. it was funny. it reminded bo of himself when he was younger.

as willow set up, bo slid off his bag onto the sand, and shrugged off his shirt. when he looked over to take the lotion, it was hard not to notice skin he hadn’t seen in thirteen years.

sheesh.

he took the bottle with a smile. ”thanks.” and squirted some into his hand, spreading it on his arms and looking back out at the ocean, towards roman.

”he’s cute sometimes, i guess.”

willow atkins

☉

she notices him looking. of course she notices him looking. (it's not like she'd realized she didn't have a swimsuit and spent way too much time finding one she thought bo lance would like.) roman, actually, was the one to call her out on it and now that she's thinking about it, she hopes he doesn't forget their deal.

'don't say anything to dad and you can stay up and play videogames until 1 am.'

she's hoping it's a tantalizing enough offer to stop him from spreading lies. 

"huh?" she says, realizing she's kind of zoned out while staring out at the water, fingers rubbing circles in the same spot on her forearm. "yeah. yeah, he's cute sometimes." she plops down on the towel so she can lotion up her legs. "we stopped making the trips when dad got sick, but before that, he loved when we came to the beach.

"every time we did, he made us build a bigger sandcastle than the last. he got pretty creative with a lot of them. seaweed flags and driftwood drawbridges." she sighs. and absentmindedly twists as much as she can to stretch some lotion to the parts of her back she can reach.

boruta maher

☉

he wouldn’t have thought in a million years that she’d picked it out for him.

hearing about the past that he wasn’t there for was bittersweet. over the past year, he’d gotten better at looking past his guilt and just embracing these little bits of information in her moments of reminiscing. it made him happy, now.

as he unfurled a towel and laid it down in the sand, he grinned. “that’s awesome. i wonder if he’d still be into it.” he wasn’t going to run over and offer to build a sandcastle at that very moment, but maybe after a little while.

lowering onto the towel, he looked over to see her contorting awkwardly, and decided to ask, ”need any help?”

willow atkins

☉

"probably, but i don't think he'd admit it," she says. it's been years since they'd done anything like it. he makes a face whenever she asks him to help around the farm, but that's work. and also usually involves manure. and maybe, with bo here to share it with him, he'd agree?

"you could probably entice him by telling him he can destroy it after." regardless, he's definitely going to be in no hurry to start building one now. he's out in the surf, splashing about in the waves with his dewott. 

she cranes her neck so she can look up at him and after a moment's hesitation, says, "oh. yes, please." she holds up the bottle of lotion and then sweeps her hair away from her neck. 

boruta maher

☉

”yeah, you’re probably right.” he smirked, knowing roman was definitely one of those too cool for school kids. how could any kid of theirs outgrow playing in the dirt? sand wasn’t technically dirt. actually, it was made of rock, which was even closer to bo’s heart.

the need for destruction was something he almost had to force himself to smile about. if it were any other kid, it would have felt harmless—but there was just too much behind it to find it funny. ”but half the fun is leaving it for the next person to find.” who would then perhaps kick it down themselves, because people were fucked up like that.

she took him up on his offer, and bo took the bottle and squeezed some lotion into his hands before smoothing it over her skin. briefly, he was reminded of a beach trip they’d taken as kids. Instead of reminiscing about it, after a moment, he decided to just talk about parent things.

”so therapy seems like it’s going well.” for roman, that is.

maybe he should try it?

willow atkins

☉

the sand shifts behind her and suddenly she is all too aware of bo's shape looming over her. his hands find her back and the cold lotion makes her jump, but only a little. the hair she's holding draped over her shoulder knots in her anxious twining. and then he breaks the silence and she finds herself nodding. 

"yeah, but there's something special about knowing it'll only ever be your castle, right?"

her shoulders had relaxed against bo's rhythmic massage, but she tenses up again at the mention of roman's therapy. in the water, he bonks his dewott on the head and sends the otter under, only to have it pop back up behind him and return the favor in stride. 

"it is. i should've done it a long time ago. she says he talks about his days with you." she finally swivels because it's clear he's done with her back. "are you...? well, how are you? i haven't seen you much since our training day."

willow atkins

☉

”oh, totally.”

roman talked about him during therapy. it wasn’t a surprise at all, but he still felt the weight of self-consciousness in his chest. but he’d fucked up, and he could only do so much to mend the wounds himself. he sure as well couldn’t claim to know how the mind worked.

”yeah? i still wonder what goes through his head sometimes.” he sat back. ”seems like he enjoys my place more now, but we’ve had our days.” the great mac n cheese debacle of 2021, for example.

she mentioned training day, and he remembered well. his hopes had been dashed by LANCE VOLLANS —nearly. but he found that he couldn’t stop wishing, despite himself. maybe one day he’d find someone else, too, even get married, or whatever. he’d still never stop loving her.

”i’m good.” tired and depressed with little time to stop moving, which made him all the more exhausted. ”can’t lie though, splashfest has definitely been a much needed break.” not that he wasn’t on call at that very moment.

”what about you?” she’d pretty much dodged the question last time.

willow atkins

☉

willow nods along with him. roman chatters about his days with his dad to her, much more now that he's started therapy. part of her thinks he glamourizes some of it in some backwards attempt to make her jealous. he's not exactly sly as oftentimes he brings it up right after she tells him lance is on his way over. 

"well, i'm glad you're getting a break," she says. she stretches out her legs; in her shifting, the small of her back rests against bo's knee. 

"i've been good. the honey business has taken off like crazy. you know summer's my favorite, but i'm kind of excited for fall 'cause the bees will stop producing. ma's been doing a little better."

she looks down at her hands. "i'm sorry for - well, i didn't know lance was going to be there that day." she chews her lip, brows furrowing. she'd told lance he hadn't needed to explain, but it still eats at her. and she doesn't really have anyone to talk to about it. ollie morales's busy with ranger things; Greyson Connors's busy with his gym; Elisabeth Fiorelli has her own shop that's been just as busy as her own. 

and really - dumbly and stupidly - the only person she wants to talk about this with is bo.

"we weren't, um - well, i hadn't seen him for a while. he just kind of left." and hell if that isn't a sore spot for her. she sucks in a breath. "sorry, i just? i haven't been able to talk to anyone and ugh, you don't want to hear this."

boruta maher

☉

”yeah, thanks. me too.” it made him wince a little, internally. after what he’d put her through, it felt in poor taste to complain about being over-worked.

her closeness here felt like old times. the small of her back on his knee, her shifting against him. small things, but things that meant something to him all the same. he paid attention perhaps more than he ever had before.

”oh, yeah? that’s real good to hear. you deserve some nice time together. i’m glad your business is goin’ well too. wouldn’t have ever doubted you, though.” he smiled, genuine, his knee bumping into her again a little. since his mom had died, willow was the most impressive person in the world.

he shook his head about lance. ”ah, nah, it’s cool. really, we were done anyways. and i don’t ever wanna keep you from anything, y’know?” he hadn’t immediately meant anything more by it, but he supposed it was there between the lines: he didn’t want to keep her from other people.

the fact that lance had just left, and her reminder of that, did something to him that he couldn’t help. it was hypocritical. oh well. he had to hold his tongue anyways.

”hey, no, you’re fine.” he shook his head, brow creasing at the stress in her voice. ”talk about it if you feel like.”

his heart throbbed, then, and there was a moment where he mentally fumbled to find the right words, feeling like he had to say something more.

”i’m here now, will. i’ll listen to anything you wanna tell me about, anytime. promise.” he smiled, trying to lighten the mood. ”you can even tell me how stupid i am, if you’re ever having a bad day. i’ll take it.”

willow atkins

☉