Beach Day - Gabriel

The waves lapped against the shore in a gentle lull, the sun high in the sky and scorching the sand a bright white. The wind sent a cool breeze our way, lingering against the salt and sweat that coated our skin.  It was enough to keep us comfortable under the awning of an umbrella. Or it was enough to keep me cool at least.

Gabriel had yet to take off his uniform. In the height of the day, he was sitting in dark navy pants and coat, not even unbuttoning the collar. At least he had taken his gloves off. Though, I was unsure how that was going to do anything but deepen the scars that were already there.

“It is illogical,” he stated.  There was perspiration on his brow and the gel from his hair had worn off, leaving soft curls down around his face and ears.

“Sandcastles are not illogical. They are fun,” I pointed out to him.

He was staring at the structure in front of me. I had taken a few old buckets and cups from my house, bringing them with us. He had been utterly confused when I pulled them out and started building and it hadn’t gotten any better since.

“That structure will fall.”

“Of course it will,” I laughed. “When the tide comes in it’ll go back down to the Deep.”

He glanced towards the ocean as if he expected Kamille to rise up and snatch the sandcastle from me. “Then what is the point of building it if it’s not going to be a lasting structure?”

I blinked at him over my shoulder. “For fun?”

Somehow, that always got to him. Fun. The one word I truly believed he didn’t understand. Despite the time we had spent together, I wasn’t sure what Gabriel did for fun.  To relax. Other than sometimes sipping wine and staring out at the ocean. But I was not convinced that it was actually ‘fun’ for him.

“That wall will need to move out if you wish to have it accurate,” he stated.

I glanced down at my makeshift castle. Several pillars stood tall with little windows and scalloped edges scratched into them. I had a mote on the outside and an inner wall surrounding the spires. I wanted to put a guillotine in the courtyard but didn’t know how I could make it with sand.

“I’m not going for accuracy.”

“You need to build it to be defensible,” he stated. “And if you have only that small mote in between the sea and the wall, then you are going to have a crumbling castle with the first good wave that comes your way.”  Scooting over, he began pushing sand closer, gathering wet clumps and pouring it inside.  “If you have a double outer wall with a second secret mote in between the walls, however, you’ll have a better fighting chance against the opposition. The first wall will be taken but it will act as a barrier and thus save the rest of the Keep. Let me show you.”

I was nearly pushed out of the way as his brow furrowed and he began to build the sandcastle. I watched as his fingers deftly formed another wall, adding a few archery towers. For a man who didn’t see the point of sandcastles, he was very intent on making the fiction world as strong as possible when it came to the seat.

“We should gather seashells,” he told me. “They can act as sandbags.”

“For the sand?”

“Precisely.”

Reaching out, I took his hand in mine, giving it a gentle squeeze. When he turned to me, he almost looked startled. As if he couldn’t understand how he had gotten to this point of taking over construction.  He scooted back a bit. 

“Apologies,” he murmured. “I did not mean to take this from you. Forgive me.”

“Gabriel,” I grinned. “It’s okay. I like when you get passionate.”

He sat back as if embarrassed. “I am not passionate about such silly things.”

“You are passionate about construction, it seems. I’m pretty sure if I gave you a bottle you’d have a ship built within it by the afternoon.”

He looked at me perplexed. “Why on earth would you build a ship within a bottle? That is highly inefficient”

I shook my head.  Standing, I reached out my hand to him, helping pull him to his feet.  “Would you like to go get some sea shells for defense?”

Gabriel looked at me and then back at the castle. “Driftwood as well.”

That night, as the tide came in, our structure did not stand the onslaught. He gave a valiant effort but in the end, the Deep was too strong. Gabriel sat behind me, his arms wrapped around me. He grunted in dismay, beginning to whisper all the ways our next sandcastle would be better. That it would stand once more. I leaned back into his chest, feeling the way his fingers laced together across my stomach and sighed.  I never wanted to leave this moment.