Author's Notes: Warning for shonen ai, and some mature scenes (not too mature lol, just some kissing). This was written in under two hours for a writer's challenge that I'm participating in the GCPH boards. =D

Pairings for this chapter: Dio x Jin x Dio

The sun had bathed the beach with warmth and all the cheesy fuzziness that it could give to the people blessed enough to actually spend time in the beach.

But there was a certain aura of darkness and gloom in Kerrie beach, where eleven individuals were staying in right now.

To say that gloom hung in the air was a different matter of course, but it was more of social awkwardness. And while the Grand Chase knights were expected to at least be prepared to accept another person into the group at least every three or six months (since that's what the producer had told them), the latest entry to their group had them at a standstill that was quite…hard to ignore.

So while ten individuals bonded in camaraderie at the sunny side of the beach, the eleventh person gloomily sat in the shade of a coconut tree that lazily hung over the sandy area of the shore.

That was quite a contrast to the youthful atmosphere they had, where all the guys (including said new person) were wearing only beach shorts and sandals, while the girls were in their bikinis and slippers.

Elesis, Lire, Arme and Ronan were noisily playing beach volley ball in the water, while Lass was stuck on grilling duties (he lost the drawing of the sticks last night). Jin was playing the guitar for Amy, who sang like the siren that she was on a rock that stuck out of the water. Ryan and Seighart had decided to develop a tan, opting to sun bathe before it got too hot (Seighart had been bugging the druid on how to develop a good copper tone). Mari was left to her own devices, as she decided to build a sand castle, which was dangerously turning into a sand fortress of some sort.

It was Lire's motherly side that finally struck her soft heart, seeing the lonely guy in the far side of the beach. Too distracted from her thoughts, she met the ball with her face, which knocked her down and into the water.

"O-oh…" Lire sputtered, as she spewed out the salty water from her mouth and nose. "That hurt…"

"Sorry Lire!" Arme rushed forwards, muttering an apology. "It was a force of habit to use Reflector!"

"N-no." She laughed nervously. "Seawater inside your nose. My insides hurt."

"A-Amy!" Lire called out towards the one who pretended to not have been eavesdropping on them. "Can you please sub for me?"

"COMING!" The pink-haired girl all too hastily jumped into the water and took Lire's place. It took a moment for her to register that she was partnered with Elesis.

"You better not bring me down, btch!" She growled venomously.

"Hope your fat head doesn't get in the way then, loser!" Elesis spat back with equal intensity.

And while Lire left the two behind (she was oblivious to their constant bickering already) she approached Jin, who was left strumming the guitar, looking lonely.

"Hey Jin." Lire greeted the boy, who looked up, surprised.

"Hey." He greeted, though unable to say more. Both Silver Knight and Eryuellian didn't communicate much outside battles.

"I hope you weren't offended when I decided to steal Amy from you for a bit." She apologized, looking earnest.

"Ah no." Jin shook the matter off. "I'm used to her dumping me off when it's something that involves Ms. Elesis."

He strummed his guitar, looking unaffected though Lire couldn't tell if it was a bluff.

"Anyway, I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself, but there's a favor I'd really like to ask of you." She clasped her hands, like she really needed this one.

"Yes?" Jin tilted his head, a bit curious as to what it was about.

"Can you talk to the new guy over there?" Lire nudged her head a bit, then winked apologetically when Jin frowned.

"Uhm…" Jin was obviously fishing for an excuse.

Lire decided to cut off any escape route. "I'd really like to talk to him myself, but I'm afraid he's the type of person who'd take a girl wanting to talk to him in a wrong kind of way."

Jin looked blank.

"Flirting." Lire coughed, blushing a bit. "Lass is still busy grilling the armored lobsters we caught, and unless you – "

"Can't cook." Jin shook his head. Of course, Lire knew about this little fact already.

"Yes, and Ryan's busy with Master Seighart. And you'd know what would happen if I asked Master Seighart to talk to him."

Jin rolled his eyes. "He'd either mouth that guy down on how superior he is OR he'd tell you he's too lazy to do it?"

"Exactly." Lire finished.

"And…" Jin slung the guitar behind him. "…what makes me special that I should get to talk to him?"

"Oh Jin…" Lire had a ready answer for that one, although she took a moment to think just for the heck of it. "…you're probably the warmest, kindest person I know."

Yep, she said all that with a dazzling smile on her face. Lire can be one scary woman.

Jin, thankfully naïve, blushed at that compliment and coughed, looking bashful.

"So…will you go talk to him? Even at least if he could be your friend, it's a start, ne?" Lire pleaded with her voice.

Jin smiled boyishly, muttering a "fine, but only because it's you." He jumped into the water and waded towards the shade of the coconut tree with the mysterious boy underneath it.

Arme noticed something while Jin waded away.

"Pst, hey Ronan." She whispered.

"What?" Ronan turned his attention towards her.

"Lire's doing that evil cackle again when something went as planned."

Ronan was about to reply but got hit into the water by a beach ball going at Mach 2.

When Jin had first seen the guy as he was introduced by the KOG management, he made a funny face when he saw the elven ears and the rather large horns on the guy's head. Trust the management to find weirdoes from all of the continents to get them into the group.

But looking at him now, it seemed like the guy was older than him. Jin knew the rules of hierarchy, and he was the senior member compared to whoever this person is, but age was a different matter altogether.

Ah well, he decided. Lire had confidence in his sunny personality, right? Might as well blind this guy with his personality.

"He-"

"Piss off." The guy automatically bit back, cold but not harsh.

"YOU LOOKIN' FOR A FIGHT, BTCH?" Jin immediately waved his fist, berserk at the scathing comment.

Somehow, Jin suddenly felt a piercing gaze from behind him that sent shivers down his spine.

He simmered down, laughing nervously. "Sorry…that was rude."

The guy raised his knees to his chest, and lowered his head to rest on his arms.

"Can I…sit here with you?"

The guy didn't look up, but he did answer. "Do as you will."

Jin grinned, relieved at the docile answer.

"My name's Jin." He sat cross-legged, facing the boy…man, whatever.

"Dio."

Jin raised an eyebrow. "D.O.?"

"Dee-yoh." The guy, whose name was Dio, looked up, a bit irritated.

"Sorry sorry." Jin grinned again, all the while moving a bit closer. "So where did the producers pick you up? They got me from the Silver Continent."

"I'm from…" Dio muttered."…media…"

"From where?" Jin moved an inch forwards, as if straining to listen.

"A-Archaemedia." Dio clipped, before hiding his head again.

"Cool!" Jin exclaimed, making the guy raise his head a bit, with an unsure expression in his face.

"I mean, well, that's quite a dangerous place. And you've been living there! That's like, I dunno, that makes you have the coolest backstory!"

Dio reddened a bit, before hiding again.

"Because like, can you imagine? My group got decimated by lowbie monsters, and almost everyone else came from the lowbie islands too. Mari's probably the one from the highest tier continent but she doesn't remember her past, so that might as well be non-exis – "

Jin barely dodged the laser blast that was aimed for his butt. When he looked around, Mari was glaring at him, as she hid behind the still-smoking laser turret of her now-sand fort.

"Psycho woman." Jin muttered, as he covered the smoking area with a lot of sand.

"Are all of your friends that scary?"

Jin did a double take.

"Scary?" Jin didn't bother hiding his snicker. "Oh, man! Sorry, but you – the guy with horns and a claw – think they're scary?"

Jin was now beside Dio, and wanting to get cozy with his almost-friend, slung a casual arm around the guy.

"Listen, what you should avoid are the girls. The red head there, her name's Elesis. She's a hot head so I'd advise you trying to cross her way when she's mad." He tilted his head to the group playing beach volleyball.

"The blond one is Lire, and she's the mother of the group. Don't be afraid to ask her anything, but I'm not sure why I can't let my guard down around her." Jin shook his head. "The purple haired one is Arme. She's funny and all, but she goes a little insane. Try to stay away as much as possible."

"The pink-haired one is a childhood figure of mine. She's Amy and she's uh….violent. Especially when it concerns either Elesis or talks about her stardom. I'm sure you've heard of her since she does concerts everywhere."

Dio shook his head. "No. First time I heard about her."

"Wha?" Jin looked shocked.

"We don't have…entertainment in our continent." Dio grunted, though he wasn't hiding his head in his arms anymore. Jin grinned at his small observation.

"Archaemedia…" Jin grunted. "How's Sir Victor?"

"The old man?" Dio perked up, looking interested that someone knew something about his continent. "You know him?"

Jin smiled. "He's my perverted teacher. Enlightenment, my ass. He kept sexually harassing me every time we sparred. But he's a good teacher…I guess…"

Jin shivered at the memory of it.

Dio finally chuckled for once. "So you were the kid he was talking about…the cute kid that he wanted me to meet at least once…"

"Wow, really?" Jin faced him, laughing. "Coincidence, huh?"

Dio didn't answer, but he was smiling fondly.

"Are those real horns?" Jin's eyes wandered towards the bluish horns protruding from his head.

The other guy stiffened, and Jin felt the tension.

"I mean, they're pretty cool." Jin lightly punched him in the arm. "It makes you look sexier I guess…"

Dio's pointy ears, for his credit, were red up to the point.

Jin looked thoughtful.

"I just said a guy was sexy." Jin reflected. "Oh well." He laughed.

Dio muttered something.

"Yeah?" Jin wanted the guy to feel as much comfortable as possible, and he wanted to listen to what little he had to say.

"Y-you can touch them, if you want." Dio shyly whispered. "I-I really won't mind."

Jin looked skeptical.

"W-well, it's fine if you don't want." Dio looked defensive. "I-it's not as if I want you to – EEK!"

Jin's eyes grew large, while his left hand was slung on Dio's shoulder, his right arm on top of Dio's head, holding his right horn.

"That was…kinda girly." Jin snickered, still not letting go of the horn. "Your squeak, I mean."

"S-shut it." Dio reddened, turning away, though with his horn still in Jin's grasp, he found it nigh impossible.

"But man, yours is so smooth and long…" Jin stroked Dio's up and down. "It's quite hard too…"

Jin grinned when he noticed Dio smiling slightly, even when the guy was blushing not-so furiously.

"Can I touch your ears too?" Jin felt embarrassed at the request. "I mean, we have Lire and Ryan but it's weird asking to touch Lire's ears, and Ryan's very…sensitive about his ears."

Dio looked shell-shocked at that one.

Jin immediately took back what he said. "Weeeeell, that was just me being weird. Please forget what I said."

"No…" Dio tucked his hair behind his ear. "It's okay…"

Jin tentatively slid a finger along the base up to the end, marveling at how it twitched when he touched it. His hand stroked it from down up, and rubbed it between his thumb and index finger.

Dio mewled softly, and shivered, closing his eyes.

"God, Dio." Jin swallowed a thick gob of his spit. "You're like a walking sex god, you know that?"

"Wait-what?" Dio growled immediately.

"Ah sht!" Jin covered his mouth. "No, that didn't come out right! I mean…"

Dio patiently waited, glaring at the boy.

"How can you be so fcking cute and…sexy at the same time?" Jin looked away, with a severe blush in his face. "Oh god…I think I'm gay for you or something…"

Jin didn't have time to properly react when he found his hand drawn close before lips crashed into his own. An obtrusive tongue sought permission to enter him, and abandoning his doubts for a second, had found his tongue participating in a lock that felt rough, alive, wet and quite sloppy.

He had no idea how long that kiss was (nor the fact that was his first kiss), or the fact that a guy just topped him in a kiss, or the fact that he kissed a guy, or the fact that he got kissed by a guy, which he probably couldn't blame because the skinship he was doing earlier was a tad too close to flirting, that or he just developed a mild form of insanity when he realized that he was lying on the sand with a half-demon something guy that pushed him down without even him realizing it because the kiss was damn sweet and strong and probably anything Jin could think of –

"Hey." Dio shook him slightly, refocusing Jin back towards him.

"So…how was it?" Dio looked away, a bit smiling and flushed as well.

"W-why did you – " Jin propped himself up by his arm, bumping his chest with Dio's.

"Sir Victor told me that's what you do if you like someone." Dio answered earnestly. "I've only seen it in one of Sir Victor's books, so I wasn't sure if I was doing it right…"

"Sir Victor?" Jin exclaimed. "Please don't tell me there was a scene where two guys just did what we did?"

Dio nodded, looking worried when Jin groaned.

Blasted old man and his yaoi manga!

From afar, Jin and Dio heard Lass banging pots and pans, yelling "Food is ready, you lazy bumpkins!"

"Well, I guess you better go now." Dio crept away, ears drooping, though his face tried its best to hide his sad look.

So fckin' cute

"C'mon." Jin stood up, brushing the sand away from his shorts. "Lass makes a mean grilled lobster."

"I'm not part of your circle of friends." Dio answered, back to sitting with his knees up to his chest.

"But you're my friend." Jin stretched his hand out towards him. "And maybe later tonight…"

Dio looked at him, eyes a bit wide.

"Uhm…maybe we could go somewhere alone so we could…get to know each other better." Jin shyly suggested, scratching his reddened cheek nervously.

Jin was surprised when a clawed hand took his own and Dio stood up with his help, with a determined smile now. Both slowly walked towards the group, with everyone smiling at them, as they made a place for the both of them.

"Hey…" Dio whispered.

"Uh…" Jin answered stupidly.

"By getting to know each other better…you mean…like our bodies…"

Jin felt a shiver run up his spine.

"Dio, how many books did my perverted teacher lend you?"

Dio thought for a moment.

"Countless."

Jin felt like someone dropped a piano on his head.

"That perverted old man…when we get to visit his fortress, I'll seriously kick his ass."

Dio didn't know what Jin was muttering about, but he slid an arm around Jin's hips, and brought them closer with each other as they walked towards their spot.

"You know…" Jin tilted his head towards the far side of the beach. "…there's a cave there where we can…crash for the night without anyone knowing…"

It was Dio's turn to redden, but he kept his head down in case anyone saw the silly grin he was wearing.

Reviews make me happy and will let me post my other fics, kthx. 3