Tropical Off-Topic NicoMaki
"Hey Maki-chan, these ones look like your eyes!" Nico held up two narrow, purple sea shells over her own eyes.
"They do not!...But this one looks like your brain.", Maki collected a tiny, pink, oval shell from the sand beneath her and placed it on top of Nico's head.
Nico quickly removed the shell from her head and shook her hair to get out the extra debris.
As usual, our favorite tsundere couple began fighting but this time they had the vast expanse of the ocean as a backdrop.
"You just got sand in my beautiful black hair!"
"This is a beach, expect there to be sand here."
"My head isn't a beach...More importantly, are you saying that my brain is the size of this shell?"
Nico held the shell in the palm of her hand and pointed at it with the other.
"I didn't mention anything about the size of the shell now did I?"
"You wanted to."
"Yeah, I wanted to but I didn't."
Out of anger, Nico whipped the shell at Maki who caught it but just barely.
"Then that means that you think that shell you've got there is my brain."
"A shell is not a brain Nico-chan. Go back to preschool."
"I never went to preschool."
"My point exactly."
"There are plenty of smart people who didn't go to preschool."
"I know, but you aren't one of them."
"You're starting to piss me off Maki-chan. Can we just enjoy being by the sea without arguing? I was really looking forward to going somewhere with you. We haven't done anything together lately."
"What do you mean by 'done anything'? We 'do it' all the time. I'm actually kinda sick of it."
"Don't be that way Maki-chan. You know you love it."
Maki blushed like a school girl. (She is one after all).
Nico continued, "But no, that's not what I'm talking about...what was I even talking about anyway?"
"Dunno.", replied Maki.
They both let things be until Nico initiated another conversation.
"Don't you just love vacations Maki-chan?", asked Nico who gazed up at the sun with her hand shielding her eyes from its brightness like a visor.
"More or less. I've gone on so many of them that their appeal has worn off quite a bit."
"Yup, that was totally a typical rich girl answer..."
"Are you jealous of me Nico-chan?"
"ME jealous of YOU!? Please, you should be jealous of me because I'm the number 1 idol in the universe!", said Nico with a false sense of confidence.
"Whatever you say Nico-chan, but I still think you're jealous, especially about how much money I have."
"That's not true because when we get married, your money will also be my money."
"Was that a marriage proposal? If so, that was the worst one I've ever heard."
"It was the worst one you've heard? Does that mean someone else proposed to you already!?"
Maki bent down and started to draw spirals in the sand with her finger. It was just another nervous habit of hers.
Nico did the same even though she hated stooping down to other peoples' level.
"Answer me Maki-chan!"
"Not officially. My parents have a man from a wealthy family picked out but I don't want to marry him at all. I only want you...but not if you just love me for my money."
"Being rich would be nice since I've been poor my whole life but even if you were broke I'd love you just the same as you are now. The only difference would be that we'd have to work a little harder to keep up."
"So was that a marriage proposal or not?" Maki might not be straight but she likes to get straight to the point.
"Um...well...I don't know. We're still pretty young yet."
"You're right Nico-chan. If you do propose to me someday at least plan it out first."
"Well duh! Anyway, let's do something kinda childish after all that mature talking we just did."
"Childish huh? What do you have in mind?"
"I was thinking that we could build sand castles!"
"Absolutely not."
"Come on Maki-chan it would be fun."
"Sounds boring to me."
"You aren't very pleasant to be around, you know that?"
"I do know that, so why don't you go somewhere else if I'm bothering you?"
"Good question. Maybe it's because I'm codependent with you. We don't have a healthy relationship... Ugh, enough grown up talk! This is your last chance. Do you want to build a sand castle with me or not?"
"I'll pass."
"Fine, I'll just build one by myself."
"Go for it. I'm going to sit on a lounge chair and read a book."
"Don't say that like you're rubbing your maturity in my face! The truth is that I'm two years older than you and I always will be."
Maki ignored Nico and opened her book. Once she knew that she was being ignored, Nico pouted and made a "hmph" sound. With her arms crossed she walked in the opposite direction and started constructing an architectural masterpiece (according to her, that is). It did look impressive though. She carved out little holes in it to create windows and decorated it with shells and seaweed. There was even a mote filled with water around the castle's perimeter with a piece of driftwood acting as a drawbridge.
Every now and then Maki would peak at it by sliding her sunglasses slightly down the bridge of her nose. The sand sculpture got taller and taller and as the castle grew so did Maki's interest.
"Are you looking at me? Don't look at me!"
"W-what? What are you talking about? The only thing I was looking at was my book.", lied Maki who was caught off guard. She didn't expect Nico to notice that she was secretly spying on her.
"Why are you always looking at me Maki-chan? Was it my incredible cuteness that caught your eye? Or maybe it was my sand castle? Oh, I know! It was both!"
"I only looked at you because you looked at me first. Anyway, I was reading my book earlier! I wasn't looking at you then. Your vision must be terrible. Get some glasses or something."
"Alright, I'll take yours then!", said Nico as she ran up to Maki and almost tackled the girl off of the chair.
"Get off me! These aren't even prescription glasses!", cried Maki as she was getting trampled over. She managed to break free but not without getting her glasses stolen by Nico.
"Objective cleared! I have obtained the quest item!", exclaimed Nico as she proudly held up Maki's sunglasses.
"Hey, give those back! What has gotten into you? You're acting like an RPG character." Indeed, Nico was pretending to be a hero that protects a princess who resides in the castle she built.
"I shall return them once you have completed a brief survey."
"Survey?"
"A survey is a question or a list of questions that one asks to get feedback-"
"I know what a survey is! I just want to know why I have to take one."
"This is a free-to-play game and you can't play it without having ads or surveys."
"Messing around with my personal property is not a game! Why-"
"Excuse me madam, I believe it is my turn to ask the questions, thank you very much!"
Maki shut up and played along but only because she wanted Nico to stop being a pest as soon as possible.
"Okay, question number one: Would you rather:
(a.) Fall off a cliff with sharp rocks under it
(b.) Get bitten by a shark
(c.) Have an itch that never goes away, even if you scratch it
(d.) Make sand castles with Nico-Ni"
"This is stupid... And what's up with (c.)? It's so random."
"Hurry up and pick one or else you're gonna have the sun in your eyes all day!"
"Um, I pick (b.) I guess."
"BZZT! I'm sorry but that answer is incorrect!" Now Nico took the role of a game show host.
"How can there be an incorrect answer on a survey!?"
"Now now, don't get all worked up Maki-chan. I'll give you one more shot to answer the question."
"Do you really want to build sand castles with me so badly that you'd go this far to aggravate me to the point of pretty much forcing me to play with you?"
Nico nodded her head.
Maki stared at her for a second, sighed, and quietly said, "...The answer is (d.) then."
"Congratulations Maki-chan! You won a round trip to the beach with your most special person."
"I thought I already won that."
"You did but you didn't take advantage of it when you had the opportunity. This time you won it again but from now on you're gonna have fun, no holding back. Don't worry about getting embarrassed. Look around you. We already made a scene that attracted a lot of attention; way more than two teenagers playing with sand ever could."
Maki panned through the group of curious bystanders who were gathered around her and Nico. She leered at each one of them with a glare that could kill. It silenced the whole crowd.
Then she shouted, "Move along! There's nothing to see here!" This caused everyone in the proximity (except for Nico) to run away rather quickly in fear.
"Geez, can't we ever get a break?"
"Maki-chan, this is a public beach. There is no such thing as privacy here."
"Then why don't we go to one of my beaches? I know we're kinda far from home but I just remembered that my family owns some property near this area."
"How can you forget something like that!?"
"Papa has purchased real estate all over the world. It's not like I can recall each and every location of the land that we've acquired."
"Damn, I wish I had stuff like that that I could forget about... Now I'm even more jealous!"
"You just admitted that you were jealous."
"No I didn't! I said, 'Now I'm even more zealous' since I'm so excited that we get to go to a private beach. You should have your ears checked. You might need a hearing aid or something.", "corrected" Nico.
"Don't try these mind tricks on me Nico-chan. They won't work. I heard exactly what you said."
"You don't know what you're talking about Maki-chan."
"Believe what you want to but I clearly heard you say that you were jealous of me."
"Well I'm not so get that idea out of your narcissistic head."
"Narcissistic!? Are you sure you're not referring to yourself?"
"Of course not. Only the most narcissistic people talk about how narcissistic they are because they get to talk about their own selves when mentioning that they are narcissistic."
"What?" That explanation diminished Maki's sense of reason to nothing. It was that confusing.
"Don't 'what?' me Maki-chan! You understood everything I said. You're just trying to play dumb right now and frankly, it's not cute at all."
"But I honestly don't-"
"No excuses!"
"What are we even fighting about Nico-chan? Let's go to the other beach. I'm not taking you if you keep on arguing with me though."
"Okay, but you have to build sand castles with me."
"I don't have to do anything. This is my beach we're talking about. You should be lucky that I'm so generous by letting you come at all."
"See? That's what I hate..."
"What do you hate?"
"I hate it when you act all high and mighty like that. I'm your girlfriend and you are mine right? Partners need to treat each other as equals."
"I guess so..."
"You 'guess so'!? Are you breaking up with me?"
"No, but that might be a good idea."
"Huh!? Why would you say that!? Do you not love me anymore?", asked Nico, teary eyed.
"That's not it. We just don't get along well. You said it yourself, we don't have a healthy relationship."
"Fine, let's break up then."
"Are you sure Nico-chan?"
"What else am I gonna do? I can't have you around me if you're going to be negative and treat me like you're more worthy than me, and it's not just about money. When I'm with you, you make me feel like an idiot. I know that you're much more book smart than I am but it's not like I'm a total blockhead either."
"So this is it, huh?...Thanks for taking care of me this past year, Nico." Maki gave Nico a short hug that felt like it was from a stranger or a relative that you aren't very close with.
Hearing Maki say her name in such a formal and cold manner felt so wrong to Nico. She watched Maki gradually distance herself away from the scene. It was too much for Nico to handle so she ran after Maki whaling, "I'm sorry Maki-chan! I love you! Please come back! If you do I'll make you some tomato soup!"
Maki turned around, partly because she heard Nico crying but mostly because she wanted soup. Nico made the best soup. It is so good that Maki seriously considered hiring Nico to be their family's personal chef but in the end she figured that she'd become Nico's wife and have Nico make her food whenever she wanted for free.
"Waaah! Maki-chan!" Nico leaped into Maki's arms like a kitten would, although, Nico is just a tiny bit bigger than a kitten is. Both girls were knocked over from Nico's panther pounce but the sand broke their fall.
"Ow! That really hurt Nico-chan! What's your problem? I thought we broke up..."
"Do you honestly think I could break up with you? I'm nothing without you. I know that's not a good thing and I know that I need to learn how to support myself but ever since we've been together I forgot how to function as an individual person. When you called me by my name like that I got really sad. Like, it felt scary even. I'm sorry for being over dramatic. What I'm trying to say is, I love you but I don't love it when you act like a snob and flaunt your superiority whenever you feel threatened by something I say or do. Do you understand?"
"Um yeah... I think so. Sorry if you got that impression about me. I don't mean to act like that but thanks for pointing it out. I'll try to watch what I say more carefully from now on."
Maki hugged Nico again. It felt nothing like the previous one. This one felt warm. It was a comfortable warmth, unlike the heat from the setting sun that caused them to shorten their embrace.
"That's my Maki-chan! It's rare for you to show your true feelings. I love seeing your 'dere-dere' side!"
"Deer-deer? I'm not a deer..."
"No, the 'dere-dere' side is the affectionate part of a tsundere while the 'tsun-tsun' side is your usual cranky attitude. You're more 'tsun' than 'dere'."
"I don't know what the sun and deer have to do with personality..."
"Is it really that hard to comprehend Maki-chan?"
"Probably not, but with the way you explain things, a concept as simple as finding the value of x is equivalent to finding the lost city of Atlantis."
"Since when was finding the value of x simple?"
"Are you saying that algebra is difficult for you?"
"There you go again, trying to make fun of my limited knowledge... Did you even listen to my speech just now?"
"I was listening. How could I not? You were being extremely serious. That's just as rare me being 'deer-deer' or whatever you were talking about."
"Well did you hear the part where I said that you need to stop treating me like an idiot?"
"Yeah, but I never treated you like an idiot though since then... did I?"
"You did. You were mocking my lack of math skills."
"I wasn't mocking you. I was concerned that you were having trouble with algebra and I was willing to help you with it sometime. I know you have the ability to learn things if you really want to."
"That's right. I memorized every single one of your cute little quirks after all."
"Th-that's not what I meant! I was talking about scholastic subjects...And memorizing things doesn't make you smart. Memorizing is only beneficial if you actually remember the material. Cramming for tests doesn't count and it's pointless once the test is over since you'll just discard everything you studied in a matter of a few days or weeks."
"Maki-chan, don't bring up school during a vacation. And cramming isn't pointless because in the end you past the test. That's the most crucial part. Anyway, if you were a subject I'd study you all day."
"Your mentality proves that the education system is doomed. Also, that was a terrible pick up line Nico-chan."
"That's okay. I'm not trying to pick you up because I already have you."
"I'll admit, that one was actually kind of adorable."
"Everything I say is adorable because the words that come out of someone are the product of their cuteness."
"Not always. Crude or racist remarks are never cute, no matter how physically attractive the person saying them is."
"Oh, so you think I'm physically attractive Maki-chan?"
"That question is irrelevant to our current discussion. Besides, you haven't said anything crude or racist that I know of."
"Who cares! You can at least answer it."
"I have a feeling that anything I say will offend you."
"Just answer it. Are you physically attracted to me or not?"
"I wouldn't say that I'm attracted to your body but I'm attracted to your spirit, if that makes any sense."
"Sorry, it doesn't make sense. All I got out of that was the fact that you aren't attracted to my body."
"That's not true. I'm attracted to your body but only because I'm attracted to your spirit. If I didn't love you I wouldn't be attracted to you physically but because I love you I'm attracted to everything about you, including your outward appearance."
"Wow Maki-chan..."
"I knew it. I did say something offensive."
Nico shook her head in disagreement.
"That was a surprisingly deep statement you made. I like the way you think Maki-chan."
"R-really? Thanks..."
"Woah, what happened to the sky?"
Both of them became aware of the "sudden" shift in the hue of the horizon from a faint orange to a dark blue. It had become evening before they knew it.
"It's called night Nico-chan. Ever heard of it?"
"Oh shut up you!" Nico attempted to playfully punch Maki in the arm but Maki grabbed her fist before it made contact.
"Violence is not acceptable. Here, use your hands for things like this instead." Maki gently kissed the top of Nico's hand and then held it at her side. This sort of behavior was totally out of character for Maki which, in turn, shocked Nico, causing her to blush intensely.
"Wanna go back to the hotel now? We'll make arrangements to go to my beach house tomorrow but for tonight let's just take it easy.", suggested Maki while giving Nico her signature wink.
"S-sure."
[A week later, after a super lovey-dovey vacation...]
"'Top school idols Nico Yazawa and Maki Nishikino from Muse caught breaking up and making up at resort beach...' Maki-chan, have you seen this?"
"What is it?"
"I was browsing a school idol news website and there's an article about our vacation. Do you know what this means?"
"It means that people are way too involved in our personal lives?"
"No, it means that we're really popular!"
"Still, that's an invasion of privacy on their part."
"I warned you that our argument would garner lots of attention. If you would've just built sand castles with me this article wouldn't have been published."
"Not true. The media would've found something to report about us. That's their job."
"Either way, we're top idols according to them!"
"How exciting..."
"Oh Maki-chan, you're always so unenthusiastic."
"Meh."
[Afterword]
Hi everyone! It's me again, BiderSweet! Since it has been so freakin' cold and snowy here in the Midwest I wanted to write about Nico and Maki being cute and warm in a place where the only white stuff on the ground is sand so that's what I did and it turned into this story, for better or for worse. Like my other story, "Season 2 Episode 1", this story started out with a single topic (beaches in this case) and I let my imagination run wild from there and wrote whatever came to mind. That's why the things Nico and Maki talk/argue about are so random. Honestly, I have no idea how this thing got to be over 3,000 words. Also, sorry about all the unnecessary drama in an otherwise fluffy story but I think a little bit of drama sometimes makes the fluffy parts even fluffier, just like freshly fallen snow... Grr, I can't escape the snow! Oh well, spring will coming eventually and so will more Love Live! fics from me so stay tuned! I've really been into Kotori lately so maybe one will be about her? Gah! I'm rambling again! Alright, I hope you enjoyed reading this. Bye-bye!