Sandcastles and Smiles

Posted on Mon Oct 5th, 2026 @ 2:44pm by Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa & Yaeka Sakuragi

1,879 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Futou Fukutsu
Location: Okinawa, Japan, Earth
Timeline: April 11th, 2397

"Kurumi look!" Yaeka's voice called out.

Kurumi lowered the book she was reading. The bright sun shone down on the younger girl as she played in the soft sand of the Okinawan beach. Kurumi smiled at seeing the mound of sand that her adoptive daughter had assembled. Apparently this was Yaeka's sand castle. Not that it remotely resembled a fortress or castle in any way, shape or form. However in the eyes of Yaeka and in her imagination, this was the best sand castle in the entire world.

"Its starting to come on a lot." Kurumi smiled. "Are you going to add any flags to the top?" she asked. Indeed there was a small packet of paper flags that were attached to little wooden sticks sat on the sand next to Yaeka. One with the UFP logo on, another with a Klingon Logo and some with various old Earth nations and their flags on.

"Yeah!" Yaeka nodded.

Kurumi couldn't help but smile. As Yaeka turned back to her sand castle, she lifted the book up again. Occasionally she glanced over the top of the pages, ensuring that Yaeka was still there and within a safe distance. She found that in the months since she had taken Yaeka in, it had reawakened her maternal instincts that had been dormant since the loss of her own son. Not that she complained about it, she actually enjoyed being part of Yaeka's life.

Meanwhile Yaeka was happily dotting flags around the sand castle. However upon pushing one in too far, part of the assembled 'castle' collapsed. "Oh no!" she said with a slight pout.

"Oh no!" Another voice called.

A boy had stopped, after picking up a brightly coloured beach ball. "Your castle is falling down!"

"Yeah, it fell down!" Yaeka said sadly.

The boy placed the ball down on the soft sand. Then he came to a crouch opposite Yaeka on the other side of the sand castle. "Can I help you rebuild it?" He asked softly.

Yaeka nodded. "Yeah! We can rebuild it together!"

Yaeka passed him a small plastic spade and they began to work together on the sandcastle. Kurumi looked over the top of her pages, and at first she was a little confused. A young boy had joined Yaeka, and was now sculpting and shaping the sand with her. He looked around her age. Her eyes darted left, then right, and there was no visible sign of his parents. But there was no way a child this age was here alone.

Then she spotted it. About forty feet away was another set up. Just like her own, it was a simple beach chair, with an umbrella and blanket. A man was leaning back in the chair, and seemed to be occasionally checking the young boy. "Ah that explains it," Kurumi muttered to herself. Both children were being supervised, just from a distance. Enough space to play and explore, but not far enough away to get into any danger.

Her eyes met the man's for a moment. Suddenly she felt a little conscious as he gave her a warm smile. Nothing flirty, nothing inappropriate, just friendly. In response she smiled back, and turned back to her book. She tugged lightly at the translucent white shirt she was wearing over her purple bikini to cover herself up a little, making it look like she was simply adjusting her position.

'I guess he was just noticing that someone was watching the kids,' she thought as she idly flicked over the next page. She really wanted to look back at him. The temptation to observe him from this distance was hard to resist. But she couldn't be seen staring, that would be creepy.. What if he had a girlfriend? A wife? He had a child, so it was more than possible he was already in a relationship. Plus, Kurumi wasn't even looking for such a thing at a summer beach.

She shook it off and returned to her book.

Meanwhile, Yaeka and the young boy were busy now rebuilding the entire layout of the sand castle.

"We need a gateway here!" The boy said as he drew a square in the sand. "And we can make a moat here! So the bad guys can't get in!" he explained. He used his hand to dig out a very shallow gulley that ran alongside the mound of sand that they were building.

Kurumi looked up. 'A moat huh... Good idea kid. But not the best tactically in that location...' she thought to herself. She wanted to chuckle, the castle they were building was far from realistic. 'Wait! I'm on holiday! Not at work! Stop thinking like that!' she scolded herself mentally. She shook her head very slightly and returned to her book.

"How do we put in a bridge?" Yaeka asked.

"I'll show you!" The boy replied. "Help me dig the moat! We need to dig it all out first!"

"Ok!"

Yaeka and the boy began to dig a small trench around the mound of the sandcastle. "Here, you can use this." The held out the plastic spade to Yaeka. She took it and began to dig with it. Instead of using a space, he began to dig it all out with his fingers. Luckily for them the sand was soft and fine, it wasn't sharp or contained any ocean debris. It was perfect for digging with your hands when it came to make sand castles.

Eventually both of them had a small trench that ran around their sandcastle. It was no deeper than ten centimetres at most, but it looked like a moat. At least to them it did. "And now we do this!" The boy said as he compacted sand with his hands and made a dam across it.

"Once its all wet, we dig out under it and we get a bridge!" he explained proudly. Yaeka was in awe as he dug out, leaving enough sand at the top to stay in place.

"Woah!" she exclaimed. "I didn't know sand could do that!"

"Heh heh," The boy said proudly. "I am good with sandcastles!"

Kurumi looked over the top of her book again. She couldn't help but smile. Yaeka had finally started to make a friend out here. One of her biggest worries was that her assignment on a starship would affect Yaeka's emotional and social development; after all apart from the Captains baby, she was the only child on the Myogi. She never wanted Yaeka to feel alone, and it was nice to see her making a friend around her age.

"We need to make a place for the horses to live in," Yaeka said. "Castles have horses don't they?"

The boy nodded. "I think they did. They called it a stable. Lets make one! For lots of horses!"

"Lots of horses!" Yaeka repeated.

Immediately both of them got to work on making a 'stable' for their castle. Although it was more of a circle made out of sand outside the castle’s ‘moat’. Kurumi couldn't help but chuckle silently to herself at the thought of the stable for the horses. She also began to wonder if Yaeka had ever seen a horse. Perhaps she should take her riding one day, but that would mean she’d have to learn herself. She came to the conclusion that was a job for the holodeck, and not for a beach holiday in Okinawa.

"Haruto!" A voice called. Kurumi looked over at the man. "Haruto, it’s time to go!" the voice added.

"Aww..." The boy said as he lowered his head. "I have to go. My dad says its time to go." He explained to Yaeka.

'So his name is Haruto.' Kurumi thought to herself as she lowered her book enough to see Haruto stand up. He offered a hand to Yaeka to help her up. Gently he helped her to her feet and they both exchanged smiles. "Thanks for playing with me! Maybe we can play another time!" Haruto said.

"Yeah!" Yaeka said with a smile. "See you later Haruto!"

"See you later Yaeka!" he gave her a big grin.

'Wait, when did those two exchange names?' Kurumi thought to herself as she watched him trot off. 'I must have missed that.'. She followed Haruto with her eyes as he grabbed the beach ball and began to jog away with it back towards his father who had called him.

She wanted to know, mainly out of curiosity more than anything else. So she finally turned her head to watch his father. He was alone, dressed in a pair of shorts and no shirt. From this distance she couldn't deny that he looked rather good, and well toned. He folded the umbrella down, and rolled up the blanket. With a tug he picked up what looked like a cooler box.

Then, he looked at Kurumi. He gave her that soft smile once again. Then, he waved.

Kurumi wasn't sure what to do. Should she wave back? Should she smile back? Instead her body's reaction was to blush. Why was he waving at her. Surely he was involved with someone if he had a child, right? A man that attractive surely had to have someone.

He held out a hand and Haruto took it in his. Kurumi watched as Haruto and his father left the beach together, no sign of a partner anywhere. 'Maybe his mother is off somewhere else. Packed the husband and son off to the beach to get some peace and quiet? Yeah, thats got to be it...'

"Kurumi!" Yaeka said as she came pounding over. She impacted Kurumi with force as she more or less leaped on her. Even though Yaeka was small and petite, even for an eight year old, being jumped on still had an impact.

"Yaeka, hi," She said fondly looking down at the little girl. "Whats the matter?"

"I made a friend! Did you see! I made a friend!"

Kurumi smiled as she placed the book on her knee. "I did see, you did good! You go girl!" she encouraged her. "I'm happy you made a friend. His name was Haruto right?"

"Uh huh!" Yaeka replied nodding excitedly. "He said he's coming back here tomorrow to play again! Can we come back too?"

Kurumi pondered on the question for a moment. Truthfully, she had been planning on taking Yaeka on a boat trip to see the ocean. However, this seemed like it suited her far better. "Sure, why not. I could use some more time on the sand." She smiled.

"Yay!" Yaeka exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Kurumi and nestled her head into her stomach. "I love you Kurumi! Thank you!"

Kurumi's heart melted. That was the first time that Yaeka had actually said that she loved her. That was special, and it had come out so naturally. She ran her fingers through her daughters hair. "Love you too Yaeka. We can come back and play tomorrow."

Posting by:

Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Myogi

Yaeka Sakuragi
Child
USS Myogi

And Introducing:

Haruto & Unnamed attractive guy
Position yet unknown!

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