A Day by the Bay
Riko's eyes fluttered open alongside a sudden gust of wind. Her lips curled into a thin smile as warm air traveled over her body. For a few seconds, she lost herself in a euphoric sense of freedom. A feeling of weightlessness, like nothing she'd ever experienced, enveloped her. It was definitely a pleasant feeling, even if it was a little scary. Unfortunately, just as she was starting to get accustomed to this feeling, an equally surprising chill overpowered it, and forced her mind back into reality.
Her legs pulled back instinctively as she sat up to look at them. It probably shouldn't have surprised her to see her feet and legs soaked almost to her knees. After falling asleep right on the edge of the shore, she considered herself lucky for not waking up completely drenched.
After some contemplation, she shrugged the problem away. The sky was clear of even the smallest cloud. In the time it would take to go home and dry off, the sunlight pouring down from overhead would have already solved the problem. So, with a quick stretch of her arms and a hearty yawn, she laid back in the sand and closed her eyes, more than ready to drift back into a peaceful sleep.
"Heya, sleepy."
Riko's eyes snapped backed open in an instant. Her heartbeat accelerated rapidly as her head shot upward, only to shoot right back down when her forehead smacked hard against what appeared to be a blurry, orange blob.
"Ow!" two high-pitched voices screamed in unison.
After a rough minute was spent massaging her throbbing forehead, Riko finally sat upright and got a clear look at the cause of her sudden panic attack.
"Why am I not surprised?" she asked with a soft tone, silently hoping the light blush on her cheeks wasn't noticeable. "Are you okay?"
Her question was aimed at Chika, who was currently far too busy rolling around in the sand to answer. "Ow ow ow!" the girl cried out, in a rather melodramatic fashion. "I would be, if you hadn't headbutted me into oblivion for no reason!"
Rather than respond, Riko chose to give her friend a moment to settle down. It didn't take long for Chika's joke to grow stale, but it took quite a bit longer before the excited girl was ready to admit that. Eventually, after several grueling minutes of exaggerated emotions, Chika's rolling came to an end.
Unsure of whether a laugh or a sigh would escape her first, Riko opened her mouth. The wide smile that resulted came as a complete surprise. "Are you done?" she asked, continuing to smile as Chika crawled over to sit down beside her.
"The moment's passed," Chika answered complacently. A short, peaceful silence followed. "You've been coming here a lot lately."
Riko nodded. "This place means a lot to me." She turned her head to face Chika—an obvious mistake. Within a split second of meeting the girl's eyes, the amount of deep red coating her cheeks was literally impossible not to see. At least, that's what it felt like to her.
"Really," Chika said, sounding genuinely surprised. "Why's that?"
"A-Are you being serious?!" Riko tried as hard as she could to hide her embarrassment from her voice, and failed miserably. "This is almost the exact spot where we first met." she pointed to the small pier no more than ten feet to their right.
Chika squinted at the pier for a long time, clearly searching her mind for the memory in question. "Oh, that's right!" she exclaimed. "I remember now. When you caused us both to fall into freezing cold water."
The red tint on Riko's cheeks intensified. "Yeah...I was kinda hoping that's the part you'd forget."
A short, adorable chuckle was Chika's response. The girl then leaned forward and started to run her fingers through the sand.
Riko watched in silence. She didn't have much interest in whatever Chika was scribbling, so her focus quickly switched to that of the girl herself. Chika's round face was perfectly lit by the warm sunlight, which only made her already stunning eyes look even more so. Her noticeably squishy cheeks puffed out just a bit as a warm, content smile graced her lips. In fact, Chika's lips were a constant pitstop for Riko's wandering eyes, and that wasn't something specific to just today.
It was due in part to this incredibly embarrassing habit, that Riko had discovered a small habit of Chika's. Anytime her friend was lost in thought, like right now, she'd softly murmur to herself under her breath. Of course, her voice was impossible to hear, but if you paid extra attention to her lips, you could see them move ever so slightly. It was only something she'd noticed while being a total creep, but she found it unbearably cute nonetheless.
"Riko-chan?"
Riko's heart nearly missed a beat. She was so focused on Chika's face, yet somehow still failed to notice that her friend was looking directly at her.
"Oh! S-Sorry, Chika-chan! Were you saying something?"
Her heartbeat settled as Chika gave a quick shrug. "Eh, nothing important. I was just wondering why you were spacing out so hard?"
Riko stood up fast enough to stop the blood rushing to her cheeks. "N-Nothing! I just...uh..." a thousand possible responses flooded her mind as she frantically shook away the sand on her clothes. "It's getting kinda late. I should probably get home before it starts to get dark."
Chika stole a quick glance at her phone. "Riko-chan, it's one-thirty in the afternoon, on a Saturday."
Having gotten no more than a few steps away, Riko froze in her tracks. "That late already."
"Well, before you leave, could you at least take a second to admire my beautiful artwork. I made it just for you."
Under normal circumstances, those words would've been enough to turn Riko's face beet red. However, the moment she turned around and saw the mishevious grin on Chika's lips, she knew exactly what was going on. "Chika-chan, if I look down and it says three mermaids in the sand, I'm gonna roundhouse kick you into the water."
"Just look."
Reluctantly, Riko did what was asked of her. There, in the sand by Chika's feet, were three words Riko's brain immediately recognized.
"I love you," Riko said, reading the words aloud. Her mouth went dry within seconds, unable to form anything in response to what she'd just read. She looked back up, expecting to see Chika still smiling at her. Instead, her view was obstructed by a mass of hair as a more serious looking Chika ran toward her.
A strong grip wrapped around Riko's waist as Chika hugged her tight. The faint smell of Chika's shampoo, the heat from her body, and the spark of adrenaline Riko felt from their faces briefly touching, it all combined to create a moment that turned her body stiff from head to toe.
"I'm sorry I forgot about us first meeting here," Chika said in a soft tone. "This place means a lot to me, too."
Riko smiled wide. Hiding the blush on her face was no longer an option. "You idiot," she replied, raising one hand to gently stroke Chika's hair. "I wasn't actually mad about that."
The two girls shared a short laugh.
"Do you still wanna go home?" Chika asked, nuzzling her face into the side of Riko's neck.
It was obvious to Riko that she was being teased, but she didn't care. "No. Let's just...stay like this for a little while longer."