Title: Summer Sun.
Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown or any of the characters.
Rating:
Summary: The Dragons have gone to the beach. But Kimiko isn't enjoying it. It might have something to do with a certain Dragon of the Wind. RaiKim.
Dedicated to all the wonderful people that review my 'A Dragon's Kiss.' This is a thank you for putting up with my irregular updates. Hope you like it!
It was hot.
Heaving a sigh, Kimiko adjusted the towel beneath her and closed her eyes. She didn't usually mind the heat. Being the Dragon of Fire, it never really bothered her the way it did the others. It was just that today was so hot that her make-up was getting . . . sticky.
She supposed that, as the plan had been to go to the beach on their first day off in ages, she should have suspected it to be hot. And, therefore, should have had enough sense not to wear make-up. Or at least not too much. And make it water-resistant so she could go in the sea with the others.
But it had seemed like such a perfect opportunity. A day without their teacher, away from their temple. She knew she could quite easily send Clay and Omi off somewhere and then she could have had Raimundo all to herself. And then she could have finally got him to ask her out.
Apart from the heat wasn't being very co-operative.
Nor was Raimundo actually.
He had immediately shed his shirt, much to Kimiko's delight, and dove straight into the water. Not wanting to ruin her make-up Kimiko had sat beneath the umbrella and decided to wait until Raimundo came back out the water again.
Of course, the stupid boy hadn't come out yet. Not that Kimiko would spend time with him now anyway. Her make-up had to look positively awful; there was no way she could confess her feelings for him like this. He'd just laugh in her face.
Besides, Kimiko thought to herself bitterly, he seems to prefer blondes.
The Dragon of Wind was in fact chatting with a couple of blonde surfers who had spent the last half hour latched onto Raimundo rather than surfing. Kimiko doubted that they could surf at all and had just got the boards and wandered over to Raimundo to win his attention. Because she certainly hadn't seen either of them surf at all.
Growling, Kimiko watched as one of them wrapped an arm round Raimundo's, pressing herself close. Huffing Kimiko got to her feet and reached for her purse. She needed a drink. And though she was only seventeen she was quite tempted to buy an alcoholic one along with her lemonade.
Stomping across the beach, Kimiko noticed with delight that the queue was not too long. Which meant spending less time exposing her ruined make-up to the rest of the world. Stepping into the queue Kimiko forced herself not to look back at Raimundo. She didn't need to see those blondes slobbering all over him.
"Hey."
Kimiko started at the sudden voice next to her. Turning to her right, she blinked in surprise at the sudden smiling face of Raimundo Persoda.
"Don't mind if I come join you in the queue, do ya?"
Kimiko brought her purse up to her face as she shook her head. She couldn't believe Raimundo was here. It wouldn't have been too bad if he had come to see her under the umbrella, there were plenty of ways she could have made sure he couldn't see her ruined appearance. But out here? He had probably already seen how bad she looked.
Repressing the desire to run away, Kimiko held the purse so it was at least covering the lower half of her face and desperately tried to make it seem casual.
"Um, Kim? You okay?"
Well, that failed spectacularly.
"Fine."
"Err . . ." Raimundo was giving her a confused look. "You sure?"
"I said I was fine."
"So trying to hide your face is normal?" Raimundo asked, a little on the sarcastic side, as she brought her purse higher up so it covered her nose as well.
"Shut up." Kimiko snapped, blushing a rather brilliant shade of red. The Dragon of the Wind was dense when it came to subtlety most of the time. He never really picked up on other people's emotions. It was just her luck that today was one of the day's he decided t be observant.
"Come on, Kim." Raimundo said, giving her a smile. "Tell me what's up."
She ignored him.
The brunet sighed, as they shuffled forward in the queue. "Come on. I'll even buy . . . whatever it is you're buying for you."
"Lemonade. Lots of ice."
"Alright. So tell me what's wrong."
"You're so stupid. Figure it out." She snapped at him. She was embarrassed and angry and upset. And it was all to do with Raimundo. Therefore Raimundo was going to the brunt of her anger. Even if it was unfair.
"…"
"…"
"You wanted to go somewhere else?"
"Huh?" Kimiko asked from behind her purse as they moved forward again. Surprised that Raimundo hadn't threatened not to buy her lemonade.
"I'm asking you if you wanted to go somewhere else on our day off? You don't seem to be enjoying the beach." He said, green eyes fixed on the blue ones peering over the top of the purse at him.
"No." Kimiko muttered, looking away. "I like the beach."
"Then why aren't you joining us? You're just sitting in the shade rather than playing in the water with us."
"You seemed to be enjoying the company of the girls more."
"Huh?" Raimundo asked, scratching the back of his head in confusion. "Girls?"
"The blonde ones." Kimiko muttered irritably.
"Oh, the fakes." Raimundo said, comprehension dawning. "Nah, I'd rather spent my time with you."
Kimiko blushed again, her fingers tightening on her purse. "What did you mean by fakes?" She asked, trying to stop Raimundo from noticing her blush.
Raimundo laughed. "They said they surfed so I was asking where to see if there had been any good places I had missed. But they kept avoiding the questions. When I finally got them to talk about surfing they obviously didn't have a clue what I was chatting about."
He heaved a sigh. "It was a real shame. They claimed they'd been surfing in the one place I haven't been and I really wanted to find out what it was like. To see if it was worth the cash." He turned and grinned at her suddenly. "I'm saving up you see."
"Then why are you buying me a drink?" Kimiko questioned.
Raimundo shrugged. "You looked down earlier and I'm no good at comforting people so I figured the least I could do was buy you a drink."
"You did cheer me up." Kimiko murmured as Raimundo opened his wallet and began pulling out the cash for their drinks. He blinked in surprise at her, green eyes wide in confusion. Before his face broke out into a huge grin.
"I'm glad."
Dropping the cash onto the top he reached over and picked out their drinks. Making sure to add lots of ice to Kimiko's before making his way back to their spot, Kimiko by his side.
"So will you come enjoy the summer sun with us now that you're feeling better?" Raimundo asked, as they walked across the sand.
"Ah, no." Kimiko muttered as they reached the shade of the umbrella. Dropping onto the ground she dropped her purse and quickly snatched her drink out of Raimundo's hand, bringing it up to her face.
"Why not?" Raimundo questioned, not moving towards the ocean like she guessed he would.
"I . . . don't want to."
"But Kim, there's no point in coming to the beach if all you're gonna do is sit in the shade."
"I don't want to."
"Why?" Raimundo asked, dropping sown into her crouch in front of her. "You're not scared of the sea are you?"
"No." Kimiko snapped, before taking a sip of her drink.
"Come on, Kim." Raimundo whined. "Tell me."
"No."
"I'm not going anywhere until you do." The brunet said, sitting down where he was.
Kimiko scowled. "Don't do that. Go enjoy the sea."
"Not until you tell me why you won't join us."
Scowling, and blushing at the same time, Kimiko opened her mouth and muttered, "My make-up."
"Make-up?" Raimundo asked, looking fairly bewildered.
"It'll ruin it even more than it already is."
"Oh. Is that why you were hiding you're face earlier?" Raimundo asked, the beginnings of a smirk tugging at his mouth. Blushing, Kimiko looked away. Stupid Raimundo. She knew she shouldn't have old him.
"It'll wash it off, stupid." Raimundo said, suddenly and rather manner of factly.
"Huh?" Kimiko asked, turning back round to look at him in surprise.
"The sea will wash your make-up rather than ruin it more. So come on." Raimundo said, tugging on her hands as the got to his feet.
"But I can't not wear make-up."
"Why?" Raimundo asked, looking at her. "You told me you didn't wear make-up because you were ugly."
"I'm not ugly!" Kimiko snapped.
"Prove it." Raimundo said, smirking at her. "Prove to me you're beautiful under the makeup."
He had already pulled her to her feet and dragged her half way down the sea before she realised what had happened. Blushing, Kimiko tried to focus on the delighted yells of Omi and Clay , rather than on the words that were repeating in her head.
'"Prove to me you're beautiful under the makeup."'
Kimiko was snapped out of her trance when Raimundo suddenly leant over and picked her up. She shirked and went to hit him. Which is, of course, the moment he threw her into the sea. She surfaced, spluttering, her hair plastered to her face and sea water in her eyes. She could hear Raimundo laughing along with Omi and Clay.
She dove for the laughing brunet and shoved him under the water.
This meant war.
O
Hours later, when the four of them lay on their towels in the dying sunlight, Kimiko reflected that it had been a good day. She had won the water fight, mainly due to Omi's help, and had spent the afternoon playing with the three of her friends.
She couldn't remember the last time she had just cut loose and had fun. She had always worried about her appearance, even in their fights as Dragons she tried to stop her clothes getting dirty just as hard as she tried not to get herself killed.
It was refreshing to just have fun.
Kimiko grinned to herself. She couldn't imagine what her mother would say if she saw her now. Lying on the beach, hair a mess, no make-up, for all the world to see.
"So did you have fun?"
Kimiko blinked in surprise when Raimundo's face suddenly appeared before her. She fought off a blush when she realised that Raimundo had simply rolled over to face and was no lying practically on top of her.
"Err . . . yeah."
"Good." Raimundo said, glancing over at Clay and Omi who were now packing up the umbrella and the rest of their things.
Heaving a sigh, he got to his feet and began to move towards them before - "Oh."
He crouched down beside her again and leaned forward. She blinked in stunned surprised when the brunet placed a very chaste kiss to her lips.
"You really do look more beautiful without the make-up Kim."
Getting back up again Raimundo wandered over to the other two and began to help them pack up. Blushing, Kimiko rolled over, hand pressed to her mouth.
They were really going to have to come to the beach more often.
End Summer Sun.
I hoped you liked it! If not, tell me and I'll try to write a better one for you all, okay? If some of you have requests, I'll try and do them. I'm not promising anything but you've all put up with me so I think it's about time I did something to show my appreciation.
The idea behind it was Raimundo getting Kimiko to let go of her dressing immaculately thing. I think Raimundo thinks that Kimiko worries too much about her appearance when they all care about her for who she is, not what she dresses like. So he was trying to make her realise that she could be herself with them. I didn't really go into that much detail over those bits. Partly because I'm considering doing an actual '30 Kisses' theme on it. So if you like the idea I might. But it's all up to you lot.