[AQ] splish splash boys [Nao/Dainan]

[Nao]

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{AQ JUNKS}It's time for training

+ Description: No more slacking. Your club captain requires everyone to get stronger and practice for the upcoming matches against other school's.

+ Train with your friends. Unity equals strength!: +2 Guardians

+ Disregard teamwork and train by yourself. You know what's best for your growth: -1 Guardians, +2 Roost

+ Ask a mentor/club captain for a training routine specially made for your needs, and practice with them: -1 Guardians, +1 Faberge, +1 Roost

+ As a club captain, help your club members: +2 Faberge, -1 Roost

+ Who needs training? You're confident in your current skills: +2 Guardians, -2 Faberge

+ Requirements: Must belong to a sports club.

+ Submitted by beta

Nao didn’t know exactly how he of all people was being expected to compete to represent the honorable Seiyo swim club when he was clearly the worst swimmer on the team. “Swimmer” was a word he used very loosely in reference to himself. What was he really? 

A splasher. A float-arounder. He’d loved water and swimming as a child, but since he’d gotten older and his narcolepsy began to worsen, his affection for the activity began to wane in kind. Trying and failing at something countless times began to make that thing terribly difficult to do after a while.

Despite all of this, the last thing Nao wanted was to drag the team down. He dreamed idly of being a great swimmer and winning a gold medal, all of those wonderful things, but knew his best bet was to ask one of the better swimmers in the club just to help him learn not to drown. 

He was reluctant to ask Juon or Aomi; they were much too serious and intense, he feared if he asked he’d only either disappoint them or end up injured. He would have asked Keiko but she was busy, and it was too strange to ask anyone else, so…he had settled on Dainan. He knew that Aomi was friends with Dainan, and being in the same club together he could gather the courage to ask for his help. 

Sitting on a bench in the pool locker room, Nao was playing a game on his phone as he waited for the other members to show up, hoping to catch Dainan alone.

[Dainan]

Dainan enjoyed the swim club, mainly because it meant access to the pool all year round and he could swim whenever he’d like to. It didn’t hurt that he was also actually pretty decent at swimming and he was actually of use in the club. Some of the other members were just there to be there, to slack off or mess around in the pool (he wouldn’t admit that was his original reason for joining,) so he was happy to be of some help.



What he didn’t like was the early practices. Really, why did they have to practice so early? Who was awake enough to swim? He was fine in the afternoon, but in the morning he could easily doze off in the water. Today was one of those days, where he wished he could’ve just stayed in bed but he knew he’d get an earful if he didn’t show up without a good reason.



He was already untying the bandanna from his head and getting ready to change into his swimsuit as he walked into the locker room. He stopped when he saw his teammate sitting on one of the benches and fumbled with the bandanna in his hands, he hoped he'd be the first one there so he could swim in peace before everyone else showed up. “Oh, good morning…” He paused, racking his brain to remember the teen’s name for a moment, “Good morning, Nao."

[Nao]

"Good morning good morning to you too, Dainyan," Nao teased, but his voice was kind. He was intent on calling the boy 'Dai-nyan' whether they were good enough friends for nicknames yet or not. To Nao, everyone was a good enough friend for nicknames. Not only that, Nao also privately felt a sense of connection or perhaps sympathy with Dainan--Japan was a very hard place for a foreigner, and even Nao, who had been born and raised in Japan, often felt like an outsider because of his appearance. He was never truly allowed to belong, and Nao guessed it could only be many times harder for Dainan. 

Pushing himself up from his perch on the bench, Nao gave a wide yawn and reached for his locker to change, deciding to broach the subject of swimming lessons maybe after he'd buttered Dainan up a bit. Removing his hat from his head, he opened his locker and tossed it in as he peered at Dainan. 

"Hey...You're from Australia, right, Dainyan? So you speak English?" Talking to Dainan was much easier than talking to some of his other classmates; Dainan was one of the few people at Seiyo who was actually tall enough to be at Nao's eye-level. "Is it hard never getting to talk in English anymore? I could speak English if you wanna. My mama is from London." He smiled, hoping Dainan didn't think he was implying that his Japanese was bad. 

[Dainan]

Dainan waited for Nao’s greeting back before walking to his locker, he didn’t think it’d be too polite to turn away from him while he did. Maybe that was just his own thinking, though. He opened his locker and pulled his swimsuit out before replacing it with his bandanna. He set the swimsuit on the bench closest to him before pulling his shirt up and over his head, lazily folding it before putting it in the locker.



He glanced at his teammate out of the corner of his eye as he asked his question, pausing and taking a moment to think. “It’s not too bad… Sometimes English will slip into conversations if I'm not paying attention. My dad is Japanese, though, so he taught me the language starting when I was young so it’s a little easier for me to get used to it,” He shrugged and stepped out of his loose fitting cargo pants along with his black boxer-briefs, replacing them quickly with his swimsuit. “Thanks for offering, but you don’t have to speak English for me,” He sent him a friendly smile, sitting down on the bench next to him and waiting for the other teen to get ready. “Plus, it’ll be better for me to stay in the habit of speaking Japanese since I’ll be here a while.”

[Nao]

"Well, that's lucky," Nao laughed in response as he pulled his swimsuit from his locker, "because my English is really rusty!" He spoke it only so often at home to his parents, after all, and he hadn't seen them since the school year began. Nao prided himself greatly on that fact. Pulling off his sweater and shirt, he was careful to fold them and place them neatly in his locker as he'd always done at home, careful to avoid wrinkles. 

"It can be hard to fit in here, when you're different," Nao began delicately, wondering how best to broach the subject of the swimming practice he'd been hoping to ask Dainan's help with, "but Seiyo has all kinds of people, so it's easy to make friends..." Once his clothes were folded he turned around to eye Dainan with a thoughtful expression.

"And friends help friends, riiiight?" After wiggling himself out of his remaining clothing, Nao sat back down on the bench to yank the legs of his swimsuit over his long legs, a struggle he went through every morning before practice and every afternoon for club activities after school. "So could you..." he huffed and puffed as he struggled with the swimsuit, "help me practice, Dainyan? As you can probably imagine, I'm not a very good swimmer, but I don't want to bring the team down. Ah!" Finally, he managed to hike up his swimsuit to its proper positioning on his body. Now they could spend the whole morning training together and swimming and having fun!

[Dainan]

Dainan eyed Nao suspiciously as he stretched out the initial question, all the while holding back a stifled laugh at the other teen’s struggle to get his swimsuit on his legs. After hearing his full question he put on a quizzical look, acting as if it was the hardest thing to answer. “Hmmm… Well…” He rested his chin in his hand before nodding. “Yeah, I guess I could help you out,” He pushed himself up and off of the locker-room bench. “I don’t know if I’ll be the best teacher though,” He shrugged as he walked towards the door that led out to the school’s pool, pausing in the door way.



“You can tell me what you’ll need help with when we’re out in the pool,” He put his hands on his sides and leaned back a bit, a popping sound escaping his spine. “Of course we have to warm up first, I don’t want you getting a cramp in the water,” Dainan said in an attempt to tease Nao.