Haruhi sighed as she stepped into the bouncing water at the shoreline. The sun was still rather high in the brilliant blue sky while whatever cotton candy clouds that had been there earlier slowly began to move away as midday arrived. She could still hear the twins in the background putting on a shore for the girls who'd taken to play volleyball with them, as well as Honey's excited voice in the distance as he and Mori collected shells. And of course, as she threw a glance over her shoulder, she could see Kyouya working and just a few yards away from where Haruhi had stepped into the water she could still see Tamaki and the line of girls waiting to speak to him. She shook her head at the sight with a small smile; sometimes these boys were just a bit ridiculous.
"Haruhi!"
"Come on and swim with us!"
"No thanks!" She called out to the girls waiting in the water for them. "I'd much rather stand back and watch you girls have fun." She smiled sweetly, that and she didn't want to risk blowing her cover as a boy to them.
"Aw, come on!" One of them urged. Haruhi had opened her mouth to let out another polite decline, but she'd barely gotten a single syllable out when a big splash in the water was heard. The twins had run in heading right for the girls, kicking up the water behind them and diving to splash water at their targets.
"Haruhi may want to be a stick in the mud, but we certainly won't!" The brothers exclaimed in perfect unison.
Kaoru smiled as he trailed his twin, "you ladies will have fun with us."
"Only if you'd grant us the pleasure of course." Hikaru finished.
Haruhi smiled, glad that the twins had run in to save her. As the noise of their rambunctious play grew louder and louder, Haruhi found herself wandering down the shoreline, evading Tamaki and heading towards the rocks where Honey and more were stationed. The sigh of a tan and white shell sitting in the receding water caught Haruhi's attention. She picked up the conch shell, moving to dip it in the water to wash the sand from it. Suddenly she found a shadow blocking the sun covering her. Big brown eyes drifted up to find the Mori's much larger form waiting. "Mori" she smiled, "did you need something?" The older simply nodded and gestured to the conch shell cradled in her hands. She lifted it a little, "you want this?" He gave a solemn nod. "Well, what are you going to give me for it?" She joked, more than ready to hand it over to him.
Mori held his pointer finger up, telling her to wait a moment as he briefly walked back to where he'd left Honey. He was back seconds later, two pale's of shells in hand. He set them down before her, quickly moving to grab another two. Haruhi gave a slight laugh, grabbing his arm to stop him before he could get more. "I appreciate the gesture, but I was just joking. I don't know what'd I do with eight pales of shells." She smiled, "why don't you just pick out one to trade me with?" Mori hummed, thoughtfully shifting through one of the red buckets. He rose once more, holding a tiny shell in the palm of his large hand.
Haruhi took it, letting her fingers run along its ridges. It was a simple white shell with a slight pink color fading in from the bottom and within the grooves. She looked up with a smile, "Thanks" she gave him the conch shell and he took it to turn right around to go back to the rocks. Seconds later Haruhi smiled as Honey exclaimed in excitement how he'd been looking for one and thanking him for it.
Later, as night began to fall over the beach and dinner was finished, Haruhi made her way towards the dining room. She gripped at her dress in frustration, angry that her father had dared to repack her clothing without her knowledge; however, she could tell that her anger was over more than a simple, cute dress. She found herself getting more worked up as she kept her frustrations with Tamaki in the back of her mind. She hadn't done anything wrong in confronting those guys earlier, but if Tamaki wanted to act so childish and refuse to speak to her then she'd go right on and ignore him as well. "Yeah, that's what I'll do!" She huffed quietly to herself.
"Do what?" Haruhi jumped slightly at Mori's deep voice behind her. How could someone so large sneak up on her so easily? Mori was trailing her, slowing his usually long steps to fall just behind her pace.
"Nothing" she sighed, brushing it off. "I was just thinking out loud is all." She explained, "Where's Honey?" She found it odd not to see the smaller boy with him.
"He was hungry" Mori stated, "so he ran off ahead of me."
"Oh," Haruhi fell silent as she began to listen to their footsteps mesh together as the walked.
"Honey and I were glad that you were okay earlier."
"Thank…" She sighed, "it wasn't a big deal though, just because those guys threw me into the water doesn't mean I was-" Her breath hitched slightly and she stopped talking as she felt Mori's cold fingers brush against her neck as he gently gripped the small shell hanging around her neck. "Oh right," she exclaimed, "that shell you gave me was pretty so I put it on this string as a necklace."
Mori's thumb brushed over it before letting it lay back down flat on her chest. "Pretty" he commented before leaning over to pull open the doors to the dining room, letting her walk in before him.