By Your Side - A Challengeshipping story

Chapter 9~ Under the Jacket

This sounds like a title for a Miraculous Ladybug chapter, it's awful for this book DARN IT! Slight trigger warning on self-harm... so... yeah...

[Shark's POV]

Kite was pretty rubbish at swimming. His arms yesterday were flailing around the water, almost as if he were drowning. Most of his strokes when finally swimming were pretty sloppy, slow and sluggish and out of breath when he finally made it to the other end of the pool. I laughed internally, seeing him so helpless and bad at swimming. But after mocking him a little, receiving pretty irritated glares from him, I decided on helping him swim a little more easily and... normally. I'm still confused as to why he always has to cover himself all the time, not even showing his legs or arms... not that I want to see them. It's just, wearing something that covers everything 24/7 gets uncomfortable, even if its a tracksuit. At least I wear a jacket which I can remove whenever I feel like it. It makes him even more mysterious. But one thing I knew for sure is what Kite's hair looked like when he wore his hair down... and I have to agree it looked a little cute, but I very much prefer his hair up- keeps the hair from his face and brings out the colour of his silver eyes more.

Today is day 5- 2 days to go. We had another session of Creoconnecting, which was boring as usual. Still, the last wall was challenging for the two of us, yet Kite still cracked the system, me suffering a heavy loss.

Our next activity is just some exercise in the gym, apparently sponsoring their equipment or something, which was quite a walk from here. Things between the two of us have eased in tension, now that we are... close acquaintances. It feels weird saying that, let along thinking about it. But, at least walks to our activities were less awkward. We don't talk about anything personal, mostly things like "What's our favourite colour" or "What do we want to do when we're older". Today's was "Where is the one place we want to be". I brought up the question.

"Well, I've always liked to go to the mountains," Kite answered, looking dreamily into the bleak winding hallways. My eyes follow. "Hills are high but not as high as I want. I want to go reach the highest point of a snowy mountain, watch the sky move above me, the stars sparkle at night, the wind blow on me, the world buzzing down below. A moment of solitude. I can easily do that with a hologram or a VR, but it's never quite the same. There is no icy wind blowing in your face, it just feels... fake. But that would be where I'd go." I never would've thought that Kite wanted to go to the mountains so bad. I would never go there: you need to train, and it's way too cold for my liking.

"That's nice." I had no idea what else to say after that. Socialising is not my sector, ask Yuma for further advise! "You ever want to plan going by yourself up there, or have someone take you?" He didn't seem to think before he gave an answer.

"I would definitely go up there with my brother." It looked like something he definitely wanted to do. I never knew Kite had siblings! Are they younger versions of him? Or maybe they're opposites? I hope to meet them someday. "What about you?"

I thought for a bit. Most people would assume that I want to go to the beach, or even a desert island, mostly because my desk is water-based. But actually...

"Cherry orchards." I could see from the corner of my eye Kite blink in confusion, looking at me as if he didn't hear what I said. "Cherry Blossom Orchids. They have plenty of trees on the streets and parks, but never an orchid. No one visits them, and I know it's supposed to be 'romantic' and 'girly'. But... it's the only place I think I could ever find peace and forget about... everything." I risked a look up to him, properly this time, only to meet grey eyes, glowing almost like stars. It's hard to think he's older than me, even though I'm a few inches from his height. Plus the hair adds an extra 8" or so. Usually, this gave his intimidation a slight edge to it. But now, the unrecognizable expression he showed almost made me feel... safe?