It had been FOREVER since she'd been to the beach. And it had been ETERNITY since she'd been to the beach with Eli. Dominic Gray and Will Shane had always taken Eli and Kayla down to the nearby lake in their town on the surface whenever they could. Kayla's best memories were of searching for shells on the bottom of the lake and balancing on the rocky turf that outlined the coast.
Now finally, ten years after that dream had ended, Kayla was preparing to remake those memories. Though not exactly in the way she remembered them.
"I look ridiculous!" She whined, turning in a circle in front of the dressing room mirror.
"Oh please!" Said Trixie, tightening the straps of her friend's bikini top. "You look gorgeous."
Kayla looked uncertainly at her reflection in the mirror. She'd tied back her brunette hair as preparation for the day of swimsuit shopping, though nothing could have prepared her for the torture she was going through. The bikini Trixie had shoved her in scared her more than a canon full of ghouls. The swimsuit was a two piece, with a bra-looking top that gave her busty cleavage and a tiny skirt piece. Kayla had never worn a skirt in her life, God forbid a mini cheerleader style one.
"You should feel lucky to have such an athletic body type," Trixie continued, while trying on a green swimsuit of her own. "I could never pull off that look."
"That's what I'm afraid of." Kayla muttered, crossing her arms over her bare stomach. This was a little too much. She looked ridiculous, she felt naked, and she couldn't bear thinking about what Eli would say when they met up at the beach. She blinked suddenly, startling her brain into a sudden hold up. Wait a minute. Why did she give a can about what Eli thought? Just because he was her boyfriend, didn't mean she needed his approval to wear what she wanted. But for some reason, ever since they had started dating, Kayla had been nervous around him about almost everything. And anyway, she DIDN'T want to wear this.
"That's it," She said, reaching for the impossible-to-grasp hook on her top. "I can't wear this. It isn't me."
Kayla partly expected Trixie to do something in disapproval, or maybe gasp dramatically in horror like a side character from Mean Girls. But Trix was one of those friends who, no matter what they thought, always had your back. So she just shrugged like, Hey, it's your loss, and went back to her swimsuit.
Kayla turned back to the rack full of suits other people had left behind, and began flipping through the articles of clothing, until something caught her eye. She pulled it from the rack and slipped it on, then turned to the mirror.
"Oh yeah," She said, grinning at her reflection. "That's much better."
Trixie cautiously peeked over her shoulder. "Yeah, that looks good," She admitted, then cheekily added, "Eli's going to be blown away."
Against her will, Kayla's face paled considerably, and she could have sworn her knees wobbled.
Oh floppers, she thought. Eli.
Eli wasn't sure what he had been expecting when Trixie pulled Kayla into a shopping trip for swimsuits.
No wait. Pulling was a understatement. Pulling implied that there was little or no effort involved. Trixie had to basically drag a pale looking Kayla Grey out the door, while Eli was forced to endure several of his girlfriend's side glances that basically said, HELP ME.
Now he was sitting on the edge of the shore, with the water lapping at his toes, waiting for the girls to get back from shopping. Pronto had complained that they were taking too long, since Eli had told them to wait, so they could all get in the water together. After all, this was Eli's first time at a beach in, what, five years? How depressing was that?
Eli lay back against the warm ground, not really caring if he got sand in his hair. The beach held good memories, but he'd neglected them for as long as he could remember, mainly because they were so painful. Because although the memories were happy ones, they were ones about his parents; his father, who was missing; and his mother, who was still on the surface, probably wondering if she'd lose her son too. There was no way to contact Mom from Slugterra, so Eli had to wait until the World Beneath Our Feet was at peace and could stay at peace for more than ten minutes.
"Hey Eli!"
The young Shane turned and saw Kord waving to him. The cave troll looked even more mountainous without all his gear, which he'd swapped for a pair of swim trunks.
"Kayla and Trix are back from their mall raid!" He yelled.
"Great! They were taking forever!" Eli replied, trying not to stare at Kord's bright orange head of hair. He and Pronto had nearly fallen off their mechas when Kord had taken off his helmet, which had never happened before. Eli always wondered if there was something under there.
"You hear that Pronto?" Eli called to the molenoid, who was wearing a full piece blue-and-white striped bathing suit that Kayla had refused to look at, claiming it 'offended her eyes'.
"Took them long enough!" Scoffed Pronto. "Typical of women to spend hours trying to perfect themselves!"
"Takes one to know one!" Interrupted Kayla Grey as she pulled up on Screech, her griffin mecha.
Eli turned with a half-smile on his face, but it froze. He turned white, then green, then bright red to the tips of his ears. Kayla was dressed in a one-piece swimsuit. The fabric was the same color as the water in the cavern's beach, flecked with gold and green. The bathing suit cut away like a sports suit at her back and sides, showing off her tan skin. Everything about her seemed to jump out at him, and Eli found himself slightly out of breath for whatever reason.
Kayla grinned and put her hands on her hips. "What?"
It was lucky that Eli managed to find his words, or he might have ended up just standing there flapping his jaw uselessly. "Yeah, yeah. I'm good. You look good."
She smiled and grabbed his hand, dragging him towards the shore. "C'mon! Last one is a flopper!"
As usual, Kayla beat them to the shore. Even though the water was quite shallow, she made sure to submerge herself completely. The water closed over her head, and her world became a kaleidoscope of blues and greens. Kayla had wanted to be a mermaid when she was little, and she couldn't believe she had given up that dream. It would be amazing to spend the rest of her life careening wildly through the depths of a coral reef, or with a pod of whales maybe. She only came up the few times she needed air, before diving back under. Schools of MakoBreakers and Aquabeeks waved to her from farther down on the lake floor.
Kayla was about to see how deep she could dive when fingers wrapped around her ankle, pulling her backwards through the water. Through the bubbles, she could see two twin orbs, the exact color of the sky she hadn't seen in so long, Kayla grinned as she and Eli broke the surface.
"Can you slow down just a little bit?" He said, though he didn't sound annoyed. The exact opposite actually. His dark hair was sticking to his forehead, and whenever he swiped at it, it stood up in slicked spikes. "We've got all day!"
Kayla didn't think she'd ever smiled as widely as she had in that moment. "Never." As happy as she was, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at how hyper-aware she was feeling Eli's hands resting on her hips. Or hers on his shoulders. She didn't hate that feeling.
They might have stayed that way for a while if a body hadn't landed with an enormous splash not a foot from them. The very angry redhead came up spluttering, "KORD! Believe me, when I get to you, I'll knock you off your high horse!" It didn't look like Kord was too worried, he was busy laughing. He began to worry when Trixie charged out of the water and flew at him with enough force to knock him over backwards.
Eli would have laughed if a spurt of water hadn't caught him full on in the face. He heard Kayla snickering as he cleared the lake water from his eyes.
"Oh, you're so gonna get it!" He shouted.
Kayla grinned, and there was a challenge glittering in her brown eyes. "You'll have to catch me first!" She yelled back, then dove down into the water.
Glory of the 99 Caverns, she's beautiful, He thought, before swimming after her.
Kayla was fast. It was a miracle Eli had ever been able to catch her. But he had found a strategy. Kayla might be faster than him swimming, but he could beat her in any foot race. So as soon as they hit shallow ground, Eli popped to his feet, sprinted so that he was keeping pace with the brunette blur, then grabbed her around the waist and heaved her out of the water. A master plan if he did say so himself, but he did get one thing wrong. His momentum was off, and it sent him and his girlfriend, tumbling backwards into the deep blue.
Eli for some reason found that his breathing was slightly more irregular than usual. It wasn't the run, they hadn't been racing that long. And he wasn't nearly drowned. They were in shallow enough water that Eli could lie on his back with his head above water. Maybe the reason his breath had hitched, was because he was nose to nose with the one person he cared about most in the world above, and below.
"I win." He said.
Kayla laughed. "I'll give you it. Even though you cheated."
She nervously scrambled off him, not really sure why she was so embarrassed. He was her boyfriend, she shouldn't have to bottle up her feelings whenever she was around him. She shouldn't have to fight for breath whenever he looked at her with that ridiculously adorable grin of his.
"I couldn't have cheated if it was an unfair competition. " Eli protested, rising up to his elbows.
"Being better than you isn't cheating. " Kayla said stubbornly, crossing her arms.
"Well, being a genius isn't cheating either."
She rolled her eyes, but he could tell she was trying to hide a smile.
Some of the slugs, plus Pronto, were complaining at being splashed by Eli and Kayla's stumble.
"How is Pronto supposed to get a luxurious tan?" The molenoid complained. "If his comrades' squabbling disturbs him?"
"We're at a beach, Pronto." Kayla pointed out. "You know, by a body of water? You're supposed to get wet."
Pronto waved it away. "Pronto has no time for you lovebirds' dilly dallying."
Kayla turned to Eli and shrugged. "I tried."
He peeked over her shoulder as Pronto fixed a pair of sunglasses on his face. "Is he serious about the whole tanning thing?"
"Oh yeah." She rolled her eyes ."He hasn't shut up about it all week. Completely concentrated. I doubt he'd notice if the cavern collapsed."
Then, there was a loud explosion, and chunks of the cliffs surrounding them were blown into the air.
Kayla's instincts immediately took over, and she rolled to avoid debris, taking Eli with her. The two came up just as a web of what looked like comets exploded all around them.
"GHOULS!" Shouted Eli.
No other words really needed to be exchanged. If there was ghouls, there was Dr. Blakk, and if there was Dr. Blakk, well, it was highly unlikely that he was stopping by to join their beach party. Kayla's face scrunched up as she thought of what Dr. Blakk would look like in a bathing suit. Funny what crosses your mind when your life is in danger.
Kayla immediately went for her blaster, but someone landed in between her and her desired object before she could get that far.
"Surprise." Growled a deep voice.
Kayla made a hissing sound as Diablos heaved her up by her jaw. His fingers dug hard enough into her skin that she knew there'd be bruises. She could feel the black magic of the Dark Bane practically vibrating around him, a sick feeling that made her stomach turn.
"Having a party, are we?" He sneered, showing off pointed teeth.
"Yeah," Kayla says forcing a smile. "Funny thing, I don't recall inviting you."
"Kayla!"
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Eli swinging around, blaster in hand. He was taking aim when Kayla saw a shape materialize out of nowhere behind him. "Look out!" She screamed.
Eli started to turn, and Myra's whip cracked against his face, hard enough to send him face first into the sand.
Kayla shrieked angrily, pulling her foot back and aiming for a certain place. Because everyone knows, no matter what species you are, that there is one place that is both an easy shot and an excruciatingly painful one if you're male. Diablos grunted in pain, and his fingers loosened just enough for Kayla to wriggle free and slam her fist into his stomach. The Dark Bane went down gasping.
She turned around and saw that there were at least a dozen of Blakk's men, not very hard to fend off. Myra was another story. She and Eli were locked in a battle of hand to hand combat that she was easily winning. It was a valiant effort on Eli's part, but it didn't look good. And it was about to get worse.
Myra grabbed Eli by the collar of his swim shirt, heaved him up, then slammed him down on the sand. Putting a knee against his chest, she pulled out her blaster, and aimed it directly at his head. The action seemed to lurch Kayla back into reality. There weren't any slugs in that blaster, but the quarter sized orbs of red energy could definitely do damage, permanent damage.
Kayla didn't even bother to go for her gun, opting instead to hurl herself at Myra, knocking the other girl into the water. Myra may have been good with combat, but Kayla had years of experience on her and adrenaline pumping through her veins like she'd never known. She was lashing out at any part of Myra that came into her line of distorted vision. Things got ugly. Pinching, hair pulling, the works.
They finally untangled long enough for both of them to stand up. They were both about shoulder deep in the water. Myra was grinning, the red tendrils across her cheeks glowing with Dark Water.
"It's always so fun, fighting you," She said. "At least you're a challenge. It'll be less interesting when you're dead."
She could see Eli standing behind her, just a few feet away. They exchanged looks, and she saw him load Beaker. The idea popped into her head, and she knew what he had planned.
"You'll have to catch me first." She said, practically throwing herself backwards into the water. She hadn't expected Myra to be so fast, she doubted that Myra spent too much time practicing her back stroke. But, like everything else she exceled at, the platinum blonde was annoyingly skilled in the water. Kayla had to throw every ounce of speed she had to get far enough out to the lake. Myra expected her to eventually run out of gas, to slow down. What she didn't expect was for Kayla to stop completely and dive downward.
"NOW!" Eli fired Beeker at the center of the lake, just a few feet from where Myra was floating. The Aquabeek hit the water siphoning off a huge whirlpool that swung directly towards Myra. Realizing her mistake, she tried to swim away from the spiraling vortex, but the whirlpool effortlessly sucked her in, then spat her out, shooting her all the way back to the trees, at the shore. A human would never survive that fall, but being what she was, Myra would come out without a scratch.
Beneath the water's surface, Beeker morphed back into a tiny slug, darting towards Kayla, who had been clinging to a rock near the lake's floor. She held up a thumbs up to the Aquabeek, before swimming towards the surface to take a long needed breath.
The first thing she heard was Eli, who was swimming towards her frantically. She barely had time to wave before he grabbed her in a hug. "You okay?" He said, pulling away from her. There was an ugly looking lash mark on his cheekbone where Myra's whip had burned into his skin. Looking at that mark on her boyfriend's face made her angry and scared at the same time. He could have been hurt a lot worse.
She grabbed in roughly by the shoulders and crashed her lips down on his. She didn't really care that she wacked her forehead on his, and she doubted he did either, as he pressed his hands into her lower back, tilting his head so he could kiss her back properly. When they broke away, she didn't have to say anything to know how she felt. He pulled her closer to him and nuzzled his face into her neck. They just tread water, wet and now cold, as time had passed and it was getting later.
Finally, Kayla muttered a, "We should probably get back to the hideout."
"What?" Eli pulled away from her frowning. "Why?"
She blinked. "I-I just thought…"
Eli grinned and raised an eyebrow. "You thought that just because a bunch of goons tried to crash our beach party that we should end it?"
"No!" Kayla defended. "It's getting late, is all. We won't much swimming in."
"So what?" He said, pouting like a five year old. "We can still build a camp fire! I brought marshmallows!"
Kayla smiled fondly at him. Eli could go from the best slinger in Slugterra, to an overgrown toddler in the span of about four seconds. "I guess you really are a genius." She said.
He smiled, then boldly leaned in to kiss her again before they swam back to shore. This one was slower and sweeter. It wasn't desperate. It wasn't rushed. It was nice, and Kayla knew it was something she would remember for the rest of her life. Not because it was one of the first kisses she ever had with the boy she loved, but because of how good it was. Because it was one of the truly good things in the world. And something that is truly good, is valuable and rare.
They had all come to the beach to rediscover happy memories.
Instead, they made some new ones.
