Waves {Tronnor AU}

Chapter 1

The pier on which Connor stood was crowded. If he was being honest with himself, he wasn't sure why that was a surprise to him. It was a Thursday afternoon, right at the beginning of June, just three days after school had let out in the tiny town of Primrose, North Carolina.

At least until September. All in all, he supposed his high school career wasn't too bad, and it definitely could be worse. A lot worse.

Connor was shaken out of his thoughts as he was lightly but insistently tapped on the shoulder by someone. He was so startled that he almost dropped his camera, yelping as he scrambled to catch it. As he secured his grip on it, he quickly searched it for any damage. His Polaroid was his most prized possession, and definitely the most expensive thing he owned. It had taken him two full summers' worth of minimum wages to purchase, and he treated it like it was his child.

"C-Can I help you?" Connor asked, still a little scatterbrained. Pull yourself together, he told himself. He barely registered the teenage girl in front of him as she talked.

"--icture of me and my boyfriend, please?" she asked, voice lilting a little too much and smiling a little too wide. Connor nodded.

"Of course," he said, running a nervous hand through his brown, wavy hair. He kind of regretted not doing anything with it today, but he had been late out of the house as he was. Connor stepped back a step to look at the girl and her boyfriend for a moment. The girl was petite and blonde, with wide blue eyes and long, dark lashes; her boyfriend was much taller, about 6'0", with sandy blonde hair and a white smile as he watched his girlfriend.

"Move a little to the left," he murmured, gently moving the boy's shoulder so he shuffled to the left. He took a moment to consider the lighting and angle, then got onto his tiptoes to make himself that much taller to make sure the seaweed floating just off the edge of the pier wouldn't make it into the shot. He snapped two photos and waited while they printed out, then shook them quickly so the ink would dry. He examined them closely, chewing his lip slightly. Perfect.

"That'll be five dollars, please," Connor stated, tucking one of the photographs into the back pocket of his jeans as the girl started to rifle around for her wallet. The boyfriend spoke up and told her he'd take care of it, then handed Connor the money. They thanked him and walked away.

Connor sighed, leaning against the side of the booth near the end of the pier. He couldn't say he hated his job; in fact, photography was the thing he loved most in the whole world! But he would be lying if he said he wanted to spend the rest of his life taking pictures of giggly teens silhouetted by the blue ocean. Not to mention that it was incredibly hard to get business, now that technology was picking up speed. It was 1989, after all, and cameras would only continue to get more and more accessible, which, if Connor was frank with himself, would mean that in a few years this job would be virtually payless.

Connor glanced down at his right wrist at his watch--the second most expensive thing he owned, a family heirloom given to him on his seventeenth birthday eight months ago--and saw that it was almost time for his shift to end.

"Thank god," Connor murmured under his breath. Even though it was still early June, this summer was predicted to be the hottest in years. Connor was already sweating, and he'd been in the shade most of the day. He'd only taken two pictures today, one being the one he just took and another of an older couple, holding hands and looking out over the ocean. He drew the saved Polaroid out of his pocket and looked it over. He grabbed a pen from the table in the booth and scribbled down the back:

June 3rd, 1989

He flipped the photo back over and analyzed it again. The girl's hair was a little messy, but okay looking. But the boy...he had possibly the brightest smile Connor had seen in a while, and nice, broad shoulders--