Title: I've been climbing up the pedestal (that I put you on the first day we met, babe)
Pairings: Fai d. Flourite/Kurogane
Rating: T
Word Count: 2k
Summary: KuroFai Aquatic/Lifeguard AU | Fai was absolutely certain that his life was over the day it was announced that Kurogane was being promoted to headguard. The bastard seemed to have it out for him since day 1, when Fai stepped on the pool deck all fresh and chipper with his shiney new whistle and bright polyester hip pack. | Enemies to Lovers
Author’s Note: This fic is for @godtiercomplex for the KuroFai Gift Exchange hosted by @kageyambae. I am so sorry that this is so late!!! Work & school kinda snuck up on me, so my sincerest apologies! I hope you like it!
Background knowledge-
So I kinda got carried away with the Aquatics references, I’m sorry. Here are some helpful things:
HeadGuard -- like a supervisor but without actually being a supervisor, usually headguards take care of writing up rotations and customer complaints that regular guards can’t handle.
Rotations -- Basically like a schedule but for that specific shift on that specific day. It’s the order of rotation of stations around the pool. EX: first you go to the lanes chair, then to the slide chair, etc.
Fai was absolutely certain that his life was over the day it was announced that Kurogane was being promoted to headguard. The bastard seemed to have it out for him since day 1, when Fai stepped on the pool deck all fresh and chipper with his shiney new whistle and bright polyester hip pack. Kurogane volunteered him for cleaning duty that day and Fai had spent his first 5 hour shift mopping and sweeping and cleaning windows and literally everything else that wasn't sitting in a lifeguard chair, all while Kurogane had cleaned beside him, silent and watchful. Fai thought maybe, just maybe, that's how they initiated new guards - maybe they didn't want them on the stand the first day, wanted them to get used to the facility first - but then he spent the next 5 god-awful shifts with Kurogane. Cleaning. Every. Fucking. Inch. of. That. Goddamn. Natatorium.
And if the guy ever said anything, well, Fai didn't hear him. Finally, after the fifth day of absolute silence of cleaning next to Kurogane, Fai started talking. About his life, about why he became a lifeguard, about school, about his brother and his adorable little niece. Kurogane had grunted on occasion, but mostly the talking just seemed to frustrate him. And Fai could use that to his advantage, so he did. He blabbed on for hours, glancing over occasionally to see Kurogane scowling to himself as his face got a brighter shade of red every couple minutes. Fai noticed, after a little bit of prodding, that if he dropped in the occasional suggestive comment or mild flirt, Kurogane would turn an ungodly shade of scarlet and usually leave for a little while. Which, in the end, it didn’t get him off cleaning duty, but it did give Fai a certain sense of accomplishment to know that if Kurogane was going to make his work life a living hell, Fai could sure as hell make him uncomfortable in the process. But now, Kurogane was headguard. And Fai had a feeling his life was about to get a hell of a lot worse.
Fai had been working at the Beika Recreation Center for nearly 6 months when Kurogane got promoted. As headguard, Kurogane was unfortunately now in charge of rotations - meaning he pretty much controlled where Fai started and ended during a shift and, well, you guessed it, he was on the rotation with the most cleaning breaks, timed out perfectly so that they’d be on cleaning break at the same time, just to taunt him, no less!
“Do you think I could get put on another shift? Like, y’know, if I talk to Yuuko?” Fai asked, sighing as he took another bite of his sandwich. Tomoyo sat across from him in the break room, carefully picking through her salad. She waved her hand in a so-so motion and glanced over at the whiteboard, eyeing over the rotation Kurogane had put up a few minutes ago.
“Doubt it. She gets...petty. And Kurogane’s one of her favorites.” Tomoyo said, stabbing a large chunk of onion, “Maybe you could talk to Kurogane. Ask him why he’s being a dick?”
Fai groaned louder, sandwich dropping limp on his lunchbox, “Sometimes I just want to ring his--” Tomoyo’s eyes widened and Fai stopped, turning to look over his shoulder to see Kurogane, arms full of various buckets.
“You want to ring who now, Flourite?” Kurogane let out a long breath as he heaved the buckets onto the table. Fai sat for a minute, mouth slightly agape as he tried to think of the best course of action in this situation. And well, Fai was never one to be known for his subtlety.
“You, of course, darling. Want to put a ring on that pretty little hand of yours.” Fai’s voice dipped low, sarcasm dripping from every word, but there was a smile on his face. Kurogane’s ears burned bright red and he coughed, ran a hand down his face, and walked briskly out of the room. The doors to the pool deck slammed behind him and Tomoyo started laughing not a moment later.
“See? He just gets all frustrated and--” Fai started, but Tomoyo clapped her hand on the table and shook her head, still chuckling.
“You think he’s frustrated?”
“I mean, what else could he be?” Fai scrunched his eyebrows together, absolutely lost as to what Tomoyo may be implying. She gave him a look and sighed.
“You’re up for cleaning break next, right?” Tomoyo grinned, “I think you’ll figure it out.”
*********
Fai scowled into the bucket of musky oil-water sat before him as he lifted yet another drain cap from it. Kurogane sat next to him, a bucket of his own settled between his legs. De-winterizing the outdoor pool turned out to be a lot less fun than it had originally sounded, in Fai’s opinion. First, having to set up an elaborate system of draining pumps to get all of the leftover water out of the deep end, just because some idiot decided they needed to build a pool in the goddamn wetlands of northeast Ohio. A task, which, of course, fell on Fai, in Kurogane’s timely absence. And then taking drain caps out of water that smelled like day-old grease and sweat and cleaning them by hand. Kurogane had finally shown up then and sat next to him without a word. He didn’t even look in Fai’s direction. Thirty minutes of scrubbing passed and Fai could feel himself falling asleep from the staunt repetition.
“So my niece, Sakura, y’know, the one who’s really into those murder mysteries -”
“Agatha Christie’s Poirot?” Kurogane interjected, and Fai stopped what he was doing for a moment, and then brushed it off. He talked about Sakura a lot, of course he would remember.
“Yeah, I think that’s it. Anyway, She’s been taking up needlepoint recently. So yesterday, my brother and I came down to the living room and found her asleep on the couch, all covered in thread and fabric. Just kinda curled up in it. It was adorable.” Fai smiled and plucked out another drain cover and set to work, “Anything fun or new in your life, Kurgie?” Kurogane didn’t respond. So, Fai moved on-
“I just started my last semester of undergrad, so my brother has been insisting I start trying to find my own place. But I’m just lost on how to do it. I was thinking somewhere around here, but y’know, I’m new and I don’t know my way around yet. You know of any good places?”
Kurogane stood to grab another bucket without so much as a nod of affirmation. Fai huffed and tossed the drain cover he was working on back in the water and turned to glare at Kurogane. Tomoyo’s suspicions from earlier had been getting under his skin and Kurogane was acting a bit off. Maybe Fai had really pissed him off earlier?
“Do you have a problem with me?” Fai stood and moved closer to Kurogane, who’d practically frozen in place at this point. There was an odd expression on his face, kind-of half surprised, half confused, like the concept that Fai thought he was upset with him was the most ludacris thing in the world.
“No,” Kurogane said.
“Then what the heck is with all these cleaning shifts? Do you think I’m a bad lifeguard? Did I insult you somehow? Is it because you think my stories about my personal life are just way too entertaining?”
Kurogane’s brow furrowed and he set the bucket on the table behind them, “No.”
“No? Just. No? Okay. Well. I guess that’s that?” Fai threw his hands up and grabbed his hip pack, “I’m going to see if Watanuki will switch rotations with me.” Before he could move toward the door, Kurogane caught his shoulder, and Fai had just about had it with whatever the hell was going on. He ripped his shoulder from Kurogane’s grasp, “What? What the hell could you have--”
“Fai,” Kurogane interrupted, his voice calm and even, “I apologize if you’ve gotten the wrong idea.”
Fai scoffed at him, the wrong idea? The wrong fucking idea?
“Well forgive me for interpreting you turning me into a glorified maid as an indication of you disliking me.”
Kurogane sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, “I didn’t--You’re hopeless. Did you ever think that maybe I just liked working with you?”
“You just liked working with me? So the first day you saw me, hadn’t said two words to me, and you were just like...hmmm...this guy looks like a really good worker and he’s going to be my new---” And then something in his head clicked, and oh, oh okay.
“You were interesting.” Kurogane muttered.
“You thought I was pretty.” Fai grinned and took a step toward him. There was that blush again, all dusty pink on Kurogane’s cheeks as he stammered through an excuse-
“Interesting! I thought you might make a good guard and-”
“You thought I was pretty.” Kurogane was backed up against the whiteboard now, and as Fai took a final step toward him, his eye caught Kurogane’s name on the rotation schedule, “You thought I was pretty and you put yourself on cleaning breaks with me so you could what? Make a move? You barely said a word to me for 6 goddamn months, Kurgie!”
“I wanted to get to know you, you idiot!” Kurogane was pointedly refusing to look at him.
“And you didn’t say anything because?”
“Didn’t want you to think I was trying to take advantage of you.” Kurogane whispered and Fai let out a deep chuckle.
“It’s cute that you think you’d be able to.”
A pause hung in the air and neither moved, though Fai was still leaning close, barely inches apart from Kurogane’s bare chest.
“I…” Kurogane began, only to be interrupted by the sound of a double whistle, effectively ripping him from his place against the wall as he rushed out of the break room. For a moment, Fai thought about following him out, teasing him all the way to the guard stand as he went to deal with whatever issue was at hand because 6 goddamn months of cleaning hell was nothing to sneeze at, even if it was because Kurogane was absolutely horrible at voicing his feelings. And Fai has to admit that, now that he considered it (and now that he was no longer convinced that Kurogane hated his guts), maybe catching a movie or going to dinner with the guy wouldn’t be half bad.
Fai cracked open the door and glanced out to see Kurogane standing by the side of the lanes and talking to a patron as one of the new guards stood by. Kurogane, on his part, looked like the ideal image of a lifeguard that one tended to only see in magazines - all tan and handsome in his dark blue trunks. Unfortunately, the guy Kurogane was dealing with didn’t seem like he was going to be letting him go any time soon - lap swimmers never wanted to give up their lane, regardless the reason- and rotation would be switching in about five minutes. Not enough time for Fai to get ready to go up and also talk to Kurogane about their possible future romantic endeavors. So, he settled on writing out his number on a slip of paper and settling it neatly amoung Kurogane’s things. Ideally, he’d catch him after work, but there was no reason not to have a contingency plan, just in case.
With that, Fai gathered up his things and started out the door, making a point to walk the longer way around the pool to get to his station just so he could pass Kurogane and wink at him as he passed by. The lap swimmer was still yelling, but Fai swore he saw a smile creep across Kurogane’s face. And yeah, Fai thought, going out with him wouldn’t be bad at all.
