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"I thought beach vacation was gonna involve a lot less math and a lot more groping each other in public."
"Why would we grope each other in public?" Adam asks from the other end of the sailboat, where he's calculating angles or wind speed or some shit, Ronan hadn't really been following it. "Were you picturing a nude beach?"
"Any beach is a nude beach if you have enough balls."
"I'm upset that that works on two levels," Adam says, but he's totally fucking laughing on the inside. "Except it doesn't work because I wouldn't go to a nude beach."
Ronan sighs, for the sake of appearances, but it's hard to be disappointed about anything when Adam is right in front of him. He'd go anywhere Adam wanted to go. Case in point: sailboat. He sure hadn't expected Adam to drag him out of bed at the break of dawn on the second day of his Cambridge visit, to drive down the coast until they found a tiny little town where they could rent a tiny little sailboat, but it's not like he minds.
"I was talking about sunscreen," Ronan says. "Pervert."
"Oh, yeah, you need more," Adam says, irritatingly tan. "Your shoulders are going pink."
"So rub it on me."
"After you tie down that rope," and when Ronan goes for the rope in front of him Adam says, "no, not that one, the other one."
"'The other one,'" Ronan mimics him. "Thanks, that helps. Don't these have names?"
"Like you know what the ropes are called." Adam walks across the boat, dodging around the sail and stepping in between coils of nameless ropes.
"Oh, and you do."
"No," and Adam has a huge grin on his face.
Ronan stops with the rope half-tied. "You have no idea what you're doing."
"I have an idea," Adam says, still smiling. "I did some reading."
"You've never done this before?"
"When would I have gone sailing?"
"We're gonna drown out here and you're being a smartass," Ronan groans. "Why did you want to do this, if you don't know how?"
Adam shrugs. "It sounded fun. Using intellect and physical strength to harness the power of the wind."
"Jesus Christ, Parrish, do you listen to yourself talk? The rich nerds have gotten to you."
"Also," he continues, "I couldn't remember the last time I did something really stupid."
Ronan snorts. "And when you think about doing stupid things, you think about me."
"Yeah, actually." That's not a joke. Adam's voice is happy and light, but it's also serious: because Ronan is the person he does stupid things with. Ronan is the person who gets to see him as this carefree, wild, reckless boy, because Ronan is the person that Adam trusts with him.
His eyes are stinging in a way that has nothing to do with sweat or sunscreen or the light reflecting off the wide open stretch of sea around them. "Fuck." His voice comes out hoarse.
Adam laughs, amusement and recognition, and he's close enough now to lean in and kiss him. Ronan kisses back, reaching his hands out to Adam's sides and dropping the rope.
It turns out that whatever that damn thing is called, it's a very important rope, because the sail swings around and smacks into them, knocks them both over the side of the boat.
They have to swim like mad to catch up to the boat. Even without anyone on it to half-assedly drive, it wobbles along like a drunk for a fathom of a furlong or however the fuck sailors say way too damn far, and once they catch it they still have to haul themselves back overboard. As soon as Ronan's got himself back over the side he collapses onto the deck, exhausted.
Adam stays on his feet long enough to roll up the sail and tie it in place with a very insecure-looking knot, and then he collapses onto the deck too. They lie next to each other, lazing in the sun and rocking gently with the boat and trading salt water kisses back and forth.
"Was that stupid enough?" Ronan asks.
Adam sparkles with delight. "That was very stupid."
"I bet the boat could tow one of us along on the lifesaver."
Adam shoots up to his feet. "There's only one way to find out."
His energy is contagious. Ronan buzzes with it, his sun drunk drowsiness completely forgotten. "Stand by the edge, I'll throw you overboard."
"Me?" Adam asks. Not a no, just surprise, free from judgment.
"What, you don't believe me that I'll throw you the lifesaver?"
"I don't believe you that you can sail the boat by yourself."
"Hey," Ronan says, "I have an idea of what I'm doing."
Adam is still laughing when he hits the water.