Whoosh!
The sound of moderately-sized, yet somehow loud waves filled the brunet's ears as they crashed against the shore, darkening the white sand of the beach to a dull grayish color as they washed over it some fifty or so feet from where he stood, the eleven year old clad in one of his trademark pink shirts, a pair of blue swimming shorts, and a pair of black, velcro-strap sandals. And completing the look, of course, was his favorite pink baseball cap.
"Phew..." The boy sighed, readjusting the strap of the beach-bag he carried by rotating his left shoulder, while at the same time tightly gripping the handle of the heavy red-and-white cooler in his right hand, his fingers beginning to ache from the weight of it and its contents. "Urgh… H-How… How much farther…?"
The seventeen year old with a head of fiery-red hair done up in a ponytail shot her charge a flat look, her mouth betraying the barest hint of an exasperated frown. "Twerp, we haven't even walked twenty feet from the car!" She pointed her right arm, index finger extended, at her bright red sports car, which sat in the parking lot not fifteen feet from where she stood. The girl bent over slightly as she spoke, her left hand balled up into a fist and settled on her hip.
Much like Timmy, Vicky was similarly decked out in her own beach attire, consisting of white, slip-on sandals, a pair of equally white cut-off shorts, and a loose-fitting, lime-green tank-top, the left shoulder of which had slipped down her arm, revealing a thin strip of black fabric that swept up from her chest, over her shoulder, and down her back; the redhead's bikini, or at least what little of it Timmy could see.
"Hah…!" The boy hung his head with a dramatic and loud sigh, his arms subtly shaking under the heavy burdens they both carried.
Unseen by the brunet, his babysitter rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, the teenaged girl turning her gaze toward the deep blue water of the ocean. "Tch, even when I try to be nice, I still have to listen to you complain..." She muttered to herself, quietly shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"Huh? You say something, Vicky?"
"Grr..." The redhead quietly growled as she turned to face her charge again. "I said-" She cut herself off upon catching sight of Timmy's bright blue eyes. Where once those same eyes had held nothing but contempt for her, and seemed to challenge her authority as his babysitter at every turn, now there was a certain… Softness to them. To her, someone who spent the better part of her day around this boy, it was a marked and obvious change, his looks going from disdainful to… Maybe curious? He was certainly more inclined to listen to her ever since that incident involving Tootie and Francis… "I… Was just thinking that… That spot over there-" She nodded at a palm tree just a few dozen feet ahead of the boy, the trunk heavily curved to the point of being nearly horizontal, with the wide fronds forming a generous amount of shade from the mid-morning California sun. "-Looks like a good place to set up, right?" She offered Timmy a little smirk as he quickly turned his head to look in the direction she was pointing, then whipped his head back around to face her, a wide, beaming smile now plastered across his face.
"Yeah! Perfect!" Instantly forgetting how exhausted he'd felt just moments before, the brunet made a beeline for the shade of the palm tree, his feet kicking up small clouds of white sand as he sprinted away from the redhead.
"Pff-Hehehe!" Vicky covered her mouth as she shook with subdued chuckles, her feet slowly but steadily carrying her forward as she trailed after her excitable Twerp. "Ah… I shouldn't give in to him so easily, but..." The girl brought her hand up to gently scratch at her cheek, noticing an odd warmth that had suddenly decided to make itself known. "That look he gives me… And when he smiles..." Her eyes refocused on Timmy, who laid on his back across the trunk of the palm tree, his arms and legs lazily dangling over either side. "...I guess being nice has its perks."
"Ahh! Finally..." The eleven year old draped his left arm across his face, covering his eyes as he relaxed, only to slowly slip said arm up onto his forehead as he heard his babysitter approach, the older girl's face coming into view as he gazed skyward.
She quirked up an eyebrow at him, her ponytail gently brushing against his right cheek. "Comfortable?"
Timmy shifted about on the trunk of the palm tree, before going still again and shrugging. "Well I'm not carrying anything, so..."
"You're also lazing around instead of setting up our little beach camp, Twerp." Vicky stood up straight, again crossing her arms as she nodded over at the cooler and bag Timmy had been carrying, both now resting in the sand under the shade of the tree.
"Aw… But I carried everything over from the car! Can't you let me relax for just a few minutes?" He whined out childishly, voice befitting his less than imposing(even for an eleven year old) stature.
"Honestly..." The redhead sighed out, rolling her eyes as she grasped the hem of her tank-top and began to pull it up. "You're starting to take after me, Twerp..." She lifted her shirt off completely, revealing the black bikini top she wore underneath, then laid the shirt across the trunk of the tree, further down from where Timmy currently occupied it.
Timmy turned his head to look at his babysitter, the black bikini she wore sharply contrasting with her light, barely tanned skin. It wasn't the most modest swimsuit he'd seen her wear, and the string-like quality of it certainly showed off plenty of skin, but then, he regularly took off his shirt when he went swimming, meaning he definitely exposed more skin than Vicky did… Though why she(and pretty much all girls, now that he thought about it) didn't go topless when they went swimming still eluded his young mind.
Deep down, he thought it may have something to do with those two… Roundish… Things, that girls had on their chests, but why cover those up? Was there some secret to them that girls kept from boys? Was there a rule in place that said girls had to cover up those odd chest-mounds? Again, he was simply too young and inexperienced to understand their significance, and the one time he asked Tootie about them, she just got all red-faced and flustered, much to his confusion. "Maybe Vicky and Tootie… And all girls, I guess, are just… Embarrassed by them? So they cover them up?"
Noticing that her charge was either lost in thought, or distracted by her decision to undress right in front of him, Vicky opted to continue as she undid the button and zipper on her shorts, allowing the article of clothing to pool around her ankles, in turn revealing the black bikini bottoms she wore that matched her top. With that done, she slipped her feet out of her shorts and picked them up, tossing them onto the tree to join her tank-top. "And by now, you should know better than to take after me..." A wide, catlike grin spread across the seventeen year old's face as she slipped her sunglasses out of her hair and over her eyes. "After all, I'm a bad influence!"
"Mm." The boy responded with a noncommittal hum, continuing to shoot his babysitter a neutral expression as his eyes looked her over, at the same time doing his best to ignore the faintly oppressive warmth settling on his cheeks. "Considering you pretty much made me skip school to come here..." Timmy turned his head to face skyward again, his eyelids drooping closed as certain unwelcome thoughts pervaded his consciousness.
"Alright-" Vicky huffed, moving to take up residence a bit further down the palm tree's trunk as she sat down, using her discarded shorts as a makeshift cushion. "-You've got five minutes to rest, then you're helping me set up the blankets and stuff. After that, you're free to do what you want, deal?"
Timmy silently raised his right hand and gave the girl a thumbs-up, then settled both hands behind his head to use them as a pillow.
Before long; however, he slowly peeked one eye open, his gaze falling on Vicky as she stared off into the distance to the right of him, the older girl's attention seemingly focused on just taking in the view. The unwelcome thoughts returned in full force, though without her looking right at him, he didn't feel the need to try and drown them out, at least for now. "It's so weird for her to seem so… Nice. The old Vicky never would've called my school and lied to them about me being sick so I could take the day off, and lately, she's been asking me to do my chores, rather than telling me..." Again, Timmy looked up towards the sky as a gentle breeze made the palm fronds above him rustle and brush against each other. "But the weirdest thing is-" The brunet's thought was cut short as he heard the girl sharing the tree with him begin to hum lightly, her legs kicking back and forth below her as she hummed a little song to herself that he didn't recognize. "Vicky's actually… Kind of pretty." His subconscious finished the thought for him, making Timmy's cheeks blush a bright shade of pink.
"Okay, break's over." The redhead hopped off the trunk as she spoke, casting a quick glance at her charge as she stepped past him and over to the beach bag.
"That was a quick five minutes..." Timmy complained only half-seriously as he rolled off the palm tree and landed on all fours, then pushed himself to his feet. Once upright again, he gripped the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it up, the article of clothing taking his hat with it as he pulled it off, though he was quick to retrieve it from the confines of his shirt and place it back on his head. "So… I meant to ask..." He began, tossing his shirt onto the tree much like Vicky had with her own clothes. "How come you didn't bring Tootie too?"
"Why? You missing your girlfriend already?" The seventeen year old, now crouched down by her beach bag, glanced over her shoulder, speaking in a sly, teasing tone. "Or are you some kind of ladies' man now? Tryin'a get all the pretty girls for yourself, Twerp?"
"I-! I didn't say that! I was j-just wondering w-why..." The brunet blushed a deep shade of scarlet, his gaze dropping to his sandals, which had suddenly become far more interesting than his conversation with Vicky.
"Hehehe! I can feel the heat of that blush from here, Timmy!" The girl remarked teasingly as she dug through the beach bag, before finally producing a pair of blankets and a bottle of sunscreen.
"Pblt!" Timmy responded in the most adult way he could think of: sticking his tongue out and blowing a raspberry at his babysitter.
"And you wonder why I call you 'Twerp' so much more often than your actual name..." She shook her head and absently tossed a light-blue blanket over her shoulder, the brief trip through the air causing said blanket to unfold and engulf the boy behind her, making him look like a cheap Halloween ghost, sans eye-holes. "Anyway, I didn't bring Tootie because she's kind of a liability."
"A… Liability?" The boy yanked the blanket off himself and bundled it up in his arms, his bemused expression going unnoticed since it was directed at the back of his babysitter's head.
"Tootie's bad at keeping secrets." Vicky explained as she stood up straight, a minty-green-colored blanket bundled under her arm as she spun around to face her charge. "I mean, she'd keep quiet about something the day it happened, but sooner or later she'd let it slip that I let the two of you skip school to come with me to the beach, and then I gotta explain myself to my parents, your parents, and probably our schools, since I'm skipping today too." She quickly unfurled her blanket and set it down flat on the sand, then smoothed it out, before plopping down on it and nodding at the ample remaining space under the palm tree.
"And you're so sure I won't tell my parents that you let me skip school?" Timmy questioned as he set the slightly smaller blanket down in the sand, the space between his and Vicky's blankets being just wide enough to accommodate the cooler and beach bag.
"Ha! What, you'd really rather be at school than at the beach with a pretty girl?" The redhead quirked a knowing eyebrow up at the boy, causing him to blush and glance away rather evasively, though not quite for the same reason she thought.
"I- W-Well no, but-"
"And besides that, I'm almost positive your parents wouldn't really mind me letting you skip anyway, they kinda think I'm awesome, in case you haven't noticed." The seventeen year old remarked confidently, basking in her own praise.
"...Guess you've got a point..." Timmy lazily smoothed out his own blanket with his feet, then, once satisfied, purposefully began to make his way toward the ocean, and out from under the shade of the palm tree.
Yet before he was able to take even a single step out onto the sun-warmed white sand, his babysitter sprang forward, catching him by the back of his bathing suit and hooking her fingers into the waistband. "Ah-Ah!"
"Wha-Gyah?!" The brunet yelped in surprise, his forward momentum and the sudden backward yank by his babysitter briefly knocking the wind out of him as the waistband of his bathing suit tightened against his lower abdomen. A second later, and suddenly he was pulled through the air in reverse, his legs flying out from under him as he landed on Vicky's blanket with a muffled thump. "Oof!" He groaned out, his back colliding with the older girl's front, though she seemed unfazed by said collision. "H-Hey! What was that for?! I was just gonna go down to the water!"
"Not without sunscreen you're not." Vicky craned her neck forward and around the right side of her charge's head, their gazes meeting as Timmy turned his head to face her, then shied away at her sudden closeness.
"Aw, c'mon! How'm I gonna get burned if I'm in the water?" He whined out childishly, crossing his arms and pouting as he sat practically in his babysitter's lap.
"You'd be surprised, Twerp." The redhead spoke in a tone that easily told the boy that any attempts to argue would fall on deaf ears as she reached over by her bag and retrieved the pale pink bottle of sunscreen. "Right, lemme see your hands."
Reluctantly, the eleven year old held out both hands to his right, allowing Vicky to squirt a generous dollop of the cool lotion into each. "Mngh..." He grumbled, disliking the feel of the somewhat greasy liquid as it pooled in his hands.
"Quit bellyachin'. I am just doing my job as your babysitter, y'know. Not to mention, this way neither of us'll have to explain why you're red as a lobster despite supposedly being sick in bed all day." She squirted another glop of sunscreen into her right hand, then set the bottle down and rubbed her hands together, before finally getting to work rubbing the lotion into Timmy's skin, a few light snickers escaping her as she felt the boy cringe and tense up under her touch. "I'll get your back and neck, you can get your legs and chest, right?"
"Yeah… Eugh..." Timmy shuddered at Vicky's touch, though more from the feeling of the cool-ish ooze being massaged into his skin, rather than from the redhead herself. It wasn't as if this was the first time she'd done this for him, and he knew deep down that she was just looking out for him, he'd just never liked the feeling of sunscreen on his skin.
Still, he couldn't deny that, while she was quick, Vicky did seem to go out of her way to be gentle with him, and he even kind of enjoyed these little moments at the beach or by the pool, though he'd probably never admit it.
"Ngh… You done yet?" Timmy glanced over his shoulder, already having finished haphazardly covering himself in what he saw as unpleasant white crud.
"Mm… Yeah, I guess you're free to go." The girl rubbed the last bits of sunscreen into his shoulders as she spoke, at which point her charge near-instantly rose to his feet. "Got your face too, right?"
"Ugh…!" Another groan escaped the boy as he brought his hands up to his face and vigorously rubbed what little of the lotion remained on them into his skin. "There! Happy?" He spun around to face the redhead, earning him a contemplative stare as she looked him up and down for a few seconds.
"Eh… Yeah, yeah..." She waved him off dismissively, hoping the bottle of sunscreen's claims of being 'waterproof' were genuine. "Go nuts."
"Finally!" Timmy beamed in excitement, then tore off down the beach, making a beeline for the water.
"Hey! Remember: don't go out too far!" Vicky called after him in a commanding tone, but quickly rolled her eyes as he reached the water and leapt into a wave. "I'm sure he heard me." With that, she tipped over backwards onto her blanket, the sand beneath it providing ample cushioning as she stretched out comfortably. "Hah… It's like keeping an eye on another Tootie..." The seventeen year old sighed out, realizing her actions made her seem(and feel) more like Timmy's mom than his babysitter. "Or at least an overprotective big sis..."
Indeed, seeing as how his parents were entirely unaware of this little trip(and thus, she wasn't being paid to keep an eye on the young boy), the little 'outing' they were on really was just a nice little thing she'd decided to do on a whim.
A nice little thing for herself… And maybe Timmy too? It occurred to the girl that she wasn't really sure what had possessed her to bring him along in the first place, going and picking him up at his house just felt like second nature to her, somehow.
"Hah..." The redhead sighed, sitting up a bit and propping herself up on her right elbow as she lifted her shades and looked down the still empty beach at the water, her charge's small form easily being pushed back towards the shore by the waves as he paddled about in the relatively shallow blue water. "Kid's making me soft, I know he is..." She let her head drop back down onto the blanket with a huff, her gaze trained towards the palm fronds overhead as they rustled in the gentle breeze. "So then… Why am I so… Okay with that?"
That was what perplexed her the most: that being nice(though most people would be more likely to consider it as simple human decency) to Timmy didn't bother her as much as she knew it should've. In fact, it had almost begun to feel like more of a chore to treat him like a burden, a hassle, an inconvenience. And in turn, treating him pleasantly, like Tootie, like someone she maybe even enjoyed being around, that had begun to feel more natural…
"Ugh..." The redhead blinked her eyes closed as she brought her left hand up to her face and gently rubbed them. "This heat's making me-Haugh… Drowsy..." She yawned, allowing herself to relax amid the sound of the waves and the warm breeze of the beach…
A few minutes later…
"Hey!"
"Gah!" Vicky sat bolt upright on her beach towel, the familiar voice of her charge startling her awake. "Wh-What!" She snapped unintentionally, whipping her head to the left to face the eleven year old, who was currently squatting next to her blanket, his posture making him look a bit like a frog as he pressed the palms of his hands into the sand.
Every inch of his body was soaked with seawater, from the tips of his toes to his now darkened brown locks of hair; even his pink hat had not been spared. Despite this; however, Timmy smiled at her, either in greeting, or because he'd gotten the jump on her, the older girl really wasn't sure. "Were you sleeping?" He tilted his head curiously.
"J-Just… Resting my eyes..." She felt her cheeks heat up and glanced away evasively. "What's up, anyway?"
"I'm bored!" The brunet remarked cheerily, his smile widening.
"Tragic." Vicky deadpanned, her lips forming a slight frown.
"Wanna… Help me build a sand castle?"
Timmy leaned in a little as he spoke, which, she had to admit, was kind of endearing. "I don't keep shovels and buckets in my car, Twerp." She watched as his face momentarily fell.
"Oh… Well then… How about coming down to the water and swimming with me?" The boy nodded toward the ocean, his bright blue eyes briefly leaving hers, only to refocus on them with a hopeful little glimmer.
"Wha…? I'd… Rather just relax over here in the shade, Timmy… You go ahead, I'll-"
"Then maybe I could bury you in the sand? I only need my hands for that!"
"Okay, what is going on?" Vicky thought to herself, the corners of her mouth dipping to form a genuinely confused frown as she quirked an eyebrow up at her charge.
He was oddly… Excited, for some reason. Sure, he was an eleven year old boy and likely filled to the brim with energy, but not usually to this extent, and he certainly never acted this playful around her, not until now, anyway.
"C'mon! We've got the whole beach to ourselves, and all you wanna do is lie around in the shade? Why not have fun?" Timmy nearly bristled with enthusiasm, his excitement evidently causing him to forget that this was the same Vicky who usually passed the time by lazing around on the couch in his living room all day.
"Oh, is that all this is?" The redhead thought with relief, before lying back down on her blanket. "Because I'm perfectly content relaxing right here in the shade. I skipped school to relax, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do."
"But-! You always relax when you babysit me! Can't you just come for a swim or something? Just for a little bit?" The boy's wide grin began to falter, his tone becoming just the slightest bit desperate.
"Twerp-… Look, I just wanna relax right now." She turned to face Timmy, giving him a stern look that commanded he leave her be. "Go… Play in the water, or… Collect shells on the beach… Or… I dunno, do something to keep yourself entertained." Vicky slipped her sunglasses back down over her eyes, figuring that was the end of their little argument.
"Mmf..." Timmy grumbled to himself, then rolled his eyes in annoyance, and finally, hung his head in disappointment. "But it's boring just doing things by myself..." He muttered out, drawing small, swooping shapes in the sand with his index finger, and flicking away the small bits of dried seaweed as he came to them. "Hm… Actually…!" He grinned as he rose to his feet, then took a few steps back from his babysitter's blanket. "She did tell me to do something to entertain myself..." Timmy thought mischievously, pulling his right foot back and giving the white beach sand a light kick, sending up a small cloud of it that landed just short of Vicky's blanket.
"Hey, watch where you're throwing that." The redhead spoke in a disinterested tone, not even bothering to open her eyes.
"Sorry!" The eleven year old replied with a playful grin as he kicked the sand again, this time sending a little more than a handful of sand onto Vicky's blanket, several of the grains hitting her skin.
"Twerp..." She spoke up again, her tone growing audibly more annoyed. "You're getting sand on my blanket, ya know..."
"My bad!" Timmy's grin grew a bit wider as he kicked the sand yet again, this time sending a moderate amount of it onto the bare skin of Vicky's abdomen.
"What the-?! Are you trying to annoy me?!" At last, the older girl opened her eyes and sat up straight, just in time to actually see her charge kick more sand at her, though he made sure to kick it toward her legs, rather than her face.
"Is it working?" The boy questioned with a Cheshire-like grin, his foot slowly rearing back as if getting ready to kick more sand at her.
For a brief moment, the breeze on the beach died down, the air becoming still as the redhead's brow furrowed in annoyance, one eyebrow peeking up from over the rim of her sunglasses as if to ask 'Really?'
In an instant, the seventeen year old scrambled to her feet and launched herself at her charge, who spun around with such urgency that he nearly lost his footing, but soon righted himself and dashed off down the beach, his babysitter hot on his heels. "Get back here, you little Twerp!" Vicky shouted, ignoring the grains of sand sprinkling against her skin that Timmy kicked up as he fled from her. "Rrgh… You know I'm faster than you!" She reached forward, intending to hook her fingers into the back of his bathing suit like before, only to grasp nothing but air as the eleven yer old dove forward and slid, planting his arm in the sand to pull a sharp turn and just barely duck under her outstretched arm.
"But I'm smaller than you!" Timmy launched himself back to his feet and took off in the direction they'd both come from, looking over his shoulder just in time to see Vicky less-than-gracefully tumble into the sand and roll, then right herself on all fours and scramble after him, the redhead eventually pushing herself back to her feet to continue her pursuit. "Heehee! See? Isn't this more fun than lying around in the shade?"
"I'm gonna bury you in the sand and see if you grow when I catch you, Twerp!" The older girl slipped her feet out of her sandals as she ran, allowing her to quickly close the distance between herself and Timmy as he headed for their little beach camp beneath the palm tree.
"Don't you mean if you catch me?" He called over his shoulder, running straight toward the low-hanging trunk of the palm tree.
"No!"
"Ehehe… She seems really mad..." Timmy thought to himself nervously, wondering if perhaps Vicky would make good on her threat. "Ack!" Snapping out of his reverie, the boy dropped into a slide as he reached the tree, his forward momentum easily sending him under the near-horizontal trunk. "Phew…" He sighed in relief as he quickly pushed himself back to his feet to begin running again. "Hopefully that'll slow her down for a-" The brunet again chanced a quick look over his shoulder, only to watch as his babysitter lithely vaulted over the palm tree's trunk, the girl barely breaking her stride as she rapidly closed the distance between them. "Crud-Oof!"
"Gotcha!" Vicky proclaimed in triumph as she tackled her charge to the ground, causing him to faceplant into the sand as she pinned him down, which left her essentially straddling his rear-end. "Ha… Ha… Told… Told you I'm f-faster than you…!" She gasped for air and brought her right hand up to fan her face, the exertion from chasing Timmy leaving her body feeling uncomfortably warm.
"Ngh..." The boy beneath her groaned, turning his head up from the sand to look at his babysitter out of the corner of his eye. "And yet… You've still got a big butt…!"
The older girl responded with nary more than a flat, unimpressed look at first, her hands balled up into fists at her hips as she quietly panted and stared down at Timmy. "Yeah? ...Well, maybe you would've gotten away if you didn't spend so much time staring at it, Twerp..." Hesitantly, she pushed herself to her feet, only to briefly stumble as a dizzy spell hit her out of nowhere, mildly darkening her vision.
Feeling the weight of the seventeen year old come off him, Timmy instantly jumped to his feet. "Thank-"
Thumf!
"You…?" He slowly turned around upon hearing the odd noise, his blue eyes widening in shock as they fell upon the now prone form of his babysitter, her own eyes closed and looking as though she'd suddenly fallen asleep on the spot. "Vicky…?"
No response, though the older girl's chest continued to rise and fall somewhat quickly with each breath.
"Uh… Hey, you okay?" Timmy cautiously stepped over to his babysitter's left and crouched down next to her, at last noticing the beads of sweat dotting her forehead, her face flushed a shade of red that instinctively made the brunet worry. "Hey, Vicky?" He gently gripped her shoulder, giving it a gentle shake, and noticed how warm it felt to the touch. "Is she really this tired? ...Maybe I should've let her relax, after all..." He moved his hand from her shoulder to her forehead, an unsettling feeling coming over him as he realized she felt even hotter here.
"Nnh..." A sound somewhere between a groan and a whine escaped the redhead as she shifted about in place on the sand, then winced and threw an arm over her face, seemingly trying to block out the sunlight.
"Hm… It is kind of warm out here in the sun..." The eleven year old remarked to himself quietly, realizing the sun beating down on them from overhead was beginning to make him feel uncomfortably warm. "Can you-Mm..." He cut himself off, remembering his babysitter's earlier unresponsiveness. "Uh, I-Um… I'm gonna have to… Try and move you into the shade, okay Vicky?"
Again, no response, though her lips were now more clearly parted as she panted, seemingly still out of breath from chasing him.
"Guess that's… Not technically a 'no'..." Moving so he was above where Vicky lied in the sand, Timmy crouched down and slipped his hands under her arms, then lifted with his legs. "I-Oh?" He stood up straight, the older teen's relatively light weight catching him off guard. "You're… Actually not that heavy?" Despite his small stature, he lifted her a bit more, not wanting to inadvertently drag her butt on the ground and cause her swimsuit to come off. "Agh… Bet she really would kill me then..." A dusting of pink worked its way across his cheeks as he walked backwards and pulled Vicky along, her legs from the backs of her knees-down still dragging in the sand.
In less than a minute, Timmy had his babysitter back in the relative coolness of the shade beneath the palm tree, where he laid her down on his blanket, since hers was still practically half-covered in sand, thanks to him.
"Is this better?" He knelt down on the blanket next to the older girl and leaned over her, though, as before, she didn't respond. "Shoot, c'mon Vicky, what's wrong?" The brunet asked worriedly as he rocked back to sit on his legs. "Is she really this tired? No… She was chasing me just fine..." He crossed his arms, bowing his head thoughtfully. "Or… Her forehead feels warm… Maybe… The heat's getting to her?"
He'd heard of something called 'heatstroke' before, but only in passing, and he was a bit too young to have any real familiarity with such things anyway. What he did know was that Vicky appeared a bit paler than usual, and when he'd been carrying her, her heartbeat seemed fairly rapid, certainly more rapid than his own, despite the fact that he'd been running as well.
"I wonder… Maybe if I can get her to cool off?" Crawling over to the cooler, Timmy popped the cover off and dug around through the ice, before withdrawing a tall bottle of water from somewhere near the bottom. "Yeah! This should work!" He crawled on all fours back over to Vicky and unscrewed the cap, but took pause as he remembered a very important fact: she was unconscious.
While certainly young, and definitely a bit naive, the buck-toothed boy wasn't stupid, he knew just pouring water into his babysitter's mouth while she was passed out probably wasn't a good idea, so instead, he carefully leaned over her and raised the opening of the bottle to her lips, taking care to very carefully dribble small amounts into her open mouth, then give her a few seconds to swallow to ensure she didn't accidentally inhale them.
This slow process continued for several minutes, until Timmy took the bottle away from her lips with a sigh, his arm having grown tired from holding the bottle at a somewhat awkward angle for so long. "Ugh… There's gotta be a faster way to cool her off..." He absently lifted the bottle to his own lips, a bit of icy water spilling past his mouth and dripping down his chin and neck. "Brr… That's… Cold!" At that moment, an idea clicked in the brunet's mind, prompting him to look about in an almost cautious manner, making sure he and Vicky were still the only people around. "Hope this works..." Leaning back over the seventeen year old, Timmy raised the bottle over her head…
And instantly turned it upside-down, dumping the entirety of its ice-cold contents on Vicky's face and head.
"Aah!" The redhead practically shrieked as her pink eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright, her right hand shooting up and slapping the offending bottle out of Timmy's hand. "H-Holy Fu-! Wh-What the heck, Twerp?!" She glared daggers at her charge, who seemed largely unaffected, if the wide smile on his face was nay indication.
"You're okay!" Timmy sprang forward a little in a combination of relief and excitement, his now freed hand inadvertently coming down and landing on his babysitter's own left hand as he attempted to keep his balance.
"Wha…" The girl's expression almost immediately softened, the anger she felt towards the boy curiously becoming misplaced at the sight of that cute smile that always seemed to get to her lately. "Well yeah, of course I'm okay, why wouldn't I be?"
"You don't remember? You… I dunno, passed out, or something. Right after you caught me?" Timmy tilted his head curiously, pulling just slightly away from the redhead.
"I… Did I?" She looked around in confusion, only just then realizing she was back under the shade of the palm tree. "How'd I… Did you bring me here?"
"Ehehe… I-Uh… Y-Yeah..." Timmy self-consciously rubbed his index finger back and forth under his nose, his cheeks taking on a light pink hue. "I was worried you might have heatstroke, or something, so I… I brought you back here, under the shade..."
"Oh." Vicky frowned, breaking eye contact with her charge as she quietly rubbed the back of her head, her own cheeks heating up in embarrassment at having apparently fainted, and in front of the Twerp, no less!
Noticing this, the eleven year old leaned in close. "H-Hey, you're turning kind of red again. Want me to grab you another water?"
"I-I'm fine, Twerp, no need to worry so much." She waved off his concern as she leaned back, propping herself up on one arm. "I'm-Uh… Just gonna stay here and take it easy." She replied in a casual tone, slipping her sunglasses back over her eyes and closing them.
"Alright… If you say so." Timmy pushed himself to his feet, deciding it'd be nice to cool off after all the excitement he'd just been through. He started to trot off, but came to a stop just short of leaving the shade of the tree and spun around on his heel, then made his way back over to Vicky. "Here."
"Wha-" The redhead turned to face her charge and began to lift her sunglasses, only to take pause as she felt him place something on her head, something oddly, almost pleasantly, cool. Glancing up over her shades, she noticed the familiar pink visor of the boy's hat, the material darkened from being drenched in seawater. "His hat?" "Timmy, I don't-" She looked up at the boy, only to once again meet those big blue eyes and that goofy, buck-toothed smile of his. "...Thanks."
"Don't mention it!" With that Timmy spun around, and took off back down the beach towards the water.
Vicky lightly fingered the visor of the hat, a small smile playing at her lips. "Wow… Cute and sweet..."