Heroes on Vacation
Tougou and Yuna were side by side, submerged into the water right up to their necks, secretly observing Fu and Karin, who were just walking past this particular pool, towards the area with the slides.
It wasn't quite on Tougou's level but Fu was producing a, for Karin, most satisfying bounce with every step because of the swimsuit she was wearing. "Do you see this, Mimori?" Yuna grinned and looked at her love from the corner of her eyes.
"I do see it. I even recognize where that swimsuit came from. It was sold in the shop we went to when those two were following us." Tougou figured that Fu didn't but a swimsuit that risque herself. "Karin must have bought it with the money the Taisha sends us."
"Daring." Yuna wanted to whistle but she thought it would be really inappropriate somehow. "She's super nervous. Just look at how much she looks around."
"I don't think that's because of the swimsuit. Ah, look, Karin is trying to take her hand. God, they're so adorable together." Tougou was not going to be able to take watching them much longer. When Karin gave up after Fu didn't notice her attempts, Tougou wanted to shout.
"She was so close. Fu you blockhead! Notice her already!" The words notice me, senpai came to mind but Yuna couldn't quite place what manga she got them from.
Both of them kept watching as if they were enchanted. Just as Fu and Karin were about to leave the area, a bunch of guys walked up to the two and one of the guys, a tall foreigner, talked to them. "They're being hit on, aren't they?" Yuna was worried that Karin might hit someone.
"Totally being hit on. Oh wow." Tougou got up so fast that the resulting boing was quite captivating but Yuna remained fixed on Fu and Karin, the former having taken Karin's hand and quickly walking back the way they had come.
The guys now walking after them, Fu stopped as they were halfway around the pool and Tougou could hear her shout all the way to the middle of the pool, right through the ambient noise of water and people playing in the water. "Leave me and my girlfriend alone, jerk!"
When a gust of wind hit Tougou she finally realized she was standing upright and in full view of Fu, if the girl had turned, and quickly got back on her knees, hiding in the water. "Fu just shouted that Karin is her girlfrien- oh oh, Yuna, we better go- Yuna?"
One of the guys had grabbed Fu by her wrist and not three seconds later had let go of said wrist because Karin had kicked him off his feet and thrown into the water. "Step back, Fu. People like those don't get it until you beat... it... into..." Karin's words were trailing when the remaining guys literally ran away, terrified of the brute girl.
"You didn't have to throw him, you know." Fu was now seriously blushing over Karin being protective of her and it was embarrassing her to the bone.
"I can't stand types like that and I was gonna kick his ass if he came back." Karin wasn't quite as embarrassed by the actual act but seeing Fu make a big fuss over it did wonders, and now she was uncomfortably taking Fu's hand and pulling her away.
Yuna breathed a sigh of relief that things had not escalated and almost shrieked when someone groped her from behind. "You were right there, ready to step in, right?" Tougou put her arms around Yuna's waist and pulled her backwards. "Looks like Fu is in capable hands." Tougou mused and earned a happy smile from Yuna.
A good hour later, Itsuki was lounging near a rather quiet pool, reading a book until a distraught and restless Fu sat down next to her. "This is bad. This is really bad." Fu muttered.
Itsuki, full in her role of the mute to drive away guys that were hitting on her, reached for the scratch book before remembering that she could actually talk. "What's wrong, Sis?"
"It's Karin. It's just... I don't know, in any case, it's bad." Fu realized that she wasn't making much sense but the words just didn't come together.
"Sis, I'm pretty sure that Karin being stronger than you is not something so terrible." Itsuki knew that look on her sister's face. She wasn't actually distraught about anything, just making a big deal out of nothing. Cutting Fu off when she opened her mouth, Itsuki raised her finger. "And don't even start about being older and stuff! You should be glad you even found a girlfriend!"
Fu's expression changed to slightly annoyed. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Itsuki was suddenly put on the spot. She hadn't quite meant to say it like that. "Well, you're popular as a helper and friend but as dating potential..."
"That's not the case at all! How would you even know that?" Fu was not getting real curious about this.
"People talk, Sis..." Itsuki sighed. "They especially talk when someone walks around with an eye-patch and does chuuni quotes all day." And they didn't care about me listening because they thought I couldn't say anything.
"That eye-patch is super fashionable! And who the heck's a chuuni?! I'll-" Fu went Kyah when something cold touched her back. Karin had returned with drinks.
"Karin!" Flying into her girlfriend's arms, Fu sought confirmation that she wasn't someone with eight grader syndrome. "I'm not a chuuni, am I?"
"No comment." Even Karin could see a landmine the size of a football field. "Here." Putting the cold drink against Fu's cheek, Karin didn't quite get the response she hoped for.
"I'm never talking to the two of you again." Fu let go of Karin and stomped off, only getting about ten meters away before stomping back, grabbing both of the drinks Karin had brought and stomping off again, frowning as hard as she could.
"She isn't serious, is she?" Karin was still very helpless at the whole dating business but she felt like she was definitely getting the hang of it.
"Let her be for an hour and she'll be fine." Itsuki said and went back to her book. A minute later, she had read the same passage four times because Karin was just standing there, looking in the general direction of where Fu had walked off to. "Uhm, Karin, she'll be fine. Don't worry."
"I'm not worried." Karin lied right through her teeth.
Itsuki didn't feel very comfortable asking but she thought that it was her job to fix the kinda broken Karin before Yuna and Tougou would show up. "What do you like about my sis, Karin?"
"What do I like about her..."
Itsuki realized immediately what a horrible question that was to ask Karin. The poor girl was visibly overheating trying to find the right words and those same words refusing to come out because she didn't want to admit them to herself.
A good two hundred meters away, Fu sat at the edge of a pool and sulked. "That stupid Karin... I'm totally not a chuuni. It just went well with the eye-patch and we are the hero club, so what's the arm in acting like it for a bi-" Fu fell right into the pool because someone shoved her. Surfacing and glaring at the offender, Fu cursed. "Why you little- Yuna! What was that for?!"
Tougou pinched Yuna's cheek and gave her a scolding look. "She's upset you just walked away from Karin like that."
"That's between Karin and me. That's none of your business." Fu pouted and averted her eyes.
"Yuna, could you get me something to drink? I'm completely dehydrated." Tougou felt that this needed a delicate touch and Yuna was a bit too upset right now to be diplomatic with Fu.
Fu climbed out of the pool, reluctantly taking Tougou's hand when she offered it, and sat down on a bench with Tougou. "How do you and Yuna do it?"
Tougou blushed a bit and her body language made it clear to Fu that she got the wrong idea. "Not that!" Fu blushed even more. "How do you agree so much with each other?"
"I feel that this conversation should wait until you've actually had a real fight with Karin. You just ran off because she said something you didn't agree with, right?"
"She took Itsuki's side. I think." Fu pouted again and suddenly felt rather silly.
"You tease Karin out of all of us the most and when she doesn't take your side once you run off. That's not very much like a club president, Fu."
Rather silly became very silly and was joined by a stinging embarrassment. "I know. It's just kinda... isn't it weird if things between Karin and me stay the way they were before we came here?"
"You mean before we caught you kissing in the hotel room?" Tougou grinned and a very embarrassed Fu glared. "Don't worry, we won't tell a soul at school. And to answer your question, it's great if you can go on like before. You shouldn't try to imitate Yuna and me." Although Karin is likely trying exactly that.
"I feel like an idiot now."
There was an awkward silence of about fifteen seconds before Fu looked to Tougou, who was politely looking away. "Ah, I get it, I'm a big idiot!"
"You and Karin make a nice fit, Fu. Just stop trying to rush into things and force yourself to act all like a couple." Tougou spotted Yuna coming back and finished up her little talk with Fu. "There's no need to apologize to her, just buy something to drink, go back and give it to her." Smirking, Tougou whispered something before getting up. You might even get a kiss out of it.
Forty minutes later, Karin and Fu were panting heavily, barely able to stand. "I think... that was... one time... too often." Fu's sides were killing her.
"Heh, you're just not... in good shape."
"You're as out of breath as I am!" Fu argued and coughed twice from talking too fast.
"Next!" The voice in front of them shouted and both of them moved up. "Together? Separate?"
"Together." Fu said without even the tiniest blush and they received a large inflatable double ring shaped like an eight. Moving up the last stairs, they stood in line behind tons of other couples, a few of them same gender, too.
"Rock, paper, scissors!" They decided who got to sit in front and Karin won, the third time in a row. "Aw crud, you're cheating, aren't you!"
"I have really good reflexes. But I think I'm done sliding after this, so you go to the front." Karin looked directly at Fu and the two traded places, both of them carrying the large inflatable ring together.
They were both quiet, still out of breath, for a good minute, slowly advancing in line, when they saw Tougou and Yuna on a platform below them, in line for another slide. "Can you imagine how much Tougou would bounce if she went first on this slide?"
"A lot." Karin smiled and gently poked Fu's arm, who turned around.
Without any warning, Karin kissed her right there in public. Nobody saw, as they were the last in line for now, but Fu blushed quite intensely nonetheless. "I don't really care about Tougou's chest though." Fu recovered quickly and grinned. "Maybe a little."
Tougou had been right, Fu thought. This was so much better than forcing some kind of couple behavior that she had thought she needed to conform to.
Fu notice that the large clock in the center of the park was showing that it was already 5:30. The hotel opened the evening buffet at point seven. "Dinner in ninety minutes. Wanna laze around in our room for a bit before we go eat?" Because quite frankly, Fu felt like a used sponge and she needed to treat her hair to avoid it getting too damaged.
"Okay." Karin gave a simple answer and nodded to the front. "Two more and we're up. Should we tell Yuna and Tougou that we're heading back after this?"
Instead of answering that, Fu leaned over the rail and started shouting. "Yuna! Tougou! Karin and me are going back to get dry before the evening buffet."
Yuna spotted Fu first and waved back. "We're going back too! See you there in fifteen minutes or so!" Yuna then talked to Tougou while Fu was pulled back by Karin.
"Don't do that, that's dangerous. If you slip I don't know if I could catch you without my powers."
"Speaking of which, I am gonna miss our hero outfits." Fu grinned. "You looked really good in yours. Like a knight."
"Well, I did fight with swords. You looked more like the main character of a light novel. I wish we could wear them casually every now and then." Karin didn't miss the fighting anymore, but she did miss being a real hero.
"I'm sure we could make them ourselves." Thinking about Tougou's outfit, Fu snickered. "Yuna would totally be on board with this."
"Because Tougou's outfit was really showing off her chest?" Karin stated all matter-of-fact like and only awkwardly blushed when the mental image arrived. "I see now why you would say that. You pay a lot of attention to breasts, Fu." Looking down on herself, Karin figured that this was a battle she would never, ever, win.
"Eh?" Fu was caught off guard by a statement like that. And seeing Karin act like she was questioning if her breasts were big enough for Fu, the blonde tried to be reassuring, got a little too close and whispered in Karin's ear. Why don't I show you later that I like yours even more?
When Fu backed away, expecting another matter-of-fact answer, she was even more caught off guard when Karin just stood there, stunned, with a bright red face. Goddammit, now I can't even say I was just joking to make her feel better!
At least this wasn't entirely unknown territory, but still!
One turbulent water-slide ride later, Karin and Fu handed in the inflatable ring, picked up their new towels, one yellow, one red, which they had bought at the park shop earlier, and headed towards the hotel. Most of the customers were heading to the dressing rooms instead, probably about to go home. There couldn't have been more than ten percent of the people actually staying at the hotel.
Halfway on the way back, Fu took Karin's hand and they kept holding hands all the way to their room, where Itsuki opened the door for them after Fu and Karin realized that Tougou, Yuna and Itsuki had the three keys.
The youngest of the five had already changed out of her swimsuit into casual clothes and there was a nice breeze in the room since the wind had picked up and Itsuki had opened the window. Ten minutes later, Tougou and Yuna also showed up. Karin and Fu were slouching at the table, both a bit nervous because of what Fu had said earlier and Itsuki's presence keeping them from exploring said option.
While Fu and Karin had gone into the bathroom to change one after another, Yuna and Tougou, now that they were pretty open about dating, just went in together. Fu was peeling a tangerine when Karin got up, took her wallet from her bag and walked over to Fu. She absolutely wouldn't lose to Yuna and Tougou in regards to being a couple! Kneeling next to her and kissing her on the cheek, Karin blushed a tiny bit before getting up again. "I'm going to the shop. I saw something I wanted earlier but didn't have enough money on me. Be back in a bit."
The moment Karin was out the door, Itsuki whistled and grinned at her sister. "You two are all love love! Woo woo!"
"I think we're having a bad influence on you, Itsuki..." Fu lamented while her sister was giggling to herself quite a lot.
Karin still wasn't back when Tougou and Yuna came out of the bathroom. Fu didn't want to think about what they were doing in there beside changing but as it turned out, so Tougou claimed, she just had trouble getting out of her swimsuit since it stuck to her chest quite a bit.
"Where's your girlfriend, Fu?" Yuna asked when she noticed the girl's absence.
"Don't tease her, Yuna." Tougou smiled. "But where is Karin?"
"She went to the shop."
"They totally kissed before she left." Itsuki whispered as loud as she could to Tougou and Yuna.
"Itsuki! My own flesh and blood, betraying me!" Fu still wasn't all that comfortable with being a couple in front of Yuna and Tougou.
"Now, now." Tougou was growing into the role of the mediator and she liked it.
In that moment, the door opened and Karin came back, carrying a small plastic bag with something light weight in it. "There's a lot of very classy dressed people about all of a sudden. I think we might be a bit lacking in clothes for this place." Karin didn't seem concerned.
"They have a rental service on the first floor. They probably don't have much in our size because we're still in school but we could always try." They certainly had enough money for that due to the Taisha.
"Well, there's still time. Anyone want to play some cards?" Fu hastily changed the topic because Karin in a dress was something she wanted to savor, later, without thinking too much about it now.
"Sure." Yuna was first on board, with Tougou a close second. Karin reluctantly sat down next to Fu and Itsuki took her place at the end of the table. It seemed just kinda right to leave the long sides to the couples.
Tougou was infuriatingly good at all manners of card games apparently and that drove particularly Fu and Karin nuts. Yuna was feeling slightly bad that her partner won every single game but what was she to do?
After thirty minutes of playing cards, Fu and Karin voted to play something else but nobody had anything other than a deck of cards with them. "We'll go to the shop and try to find something for later. When we get back, let's go to the dress rental, okay?" Fu used we unintentionally and only noticed when Tougou and Yuna grinned at her.
The two were barely out the door when Tougou leaned on the table, looking rather amused. "Karin took the small bag she brought from the shop with her. I bet there is something for Fu in there."
"Sis seemed really happy." Itsuki said out loud.
Outside, just past the lobby, Karin was walking next to Fu. There weren't many people around as most of the park's attractions were now closed albeit a select few would operate all the way through the night. Reaching into the bag, Karin put something on her face before reaching into the bag again and handing the other one to Fu. "Here. I had this stupid all medical looking one before but this time we match."
Fu needed a second to actually see what Karin was holding. Realizing it, she groaned and laughed, especially after seeing that Karin was wearing hers already. "That one looks even crazier than the one I had before!" Taking the eye-patch, Fu closed her left eye and put the eye-patch on, a familiar but slightly odd feeling.
"It suits you." Karin tried hard to think of one of those quotes Fu used to do but came up empty.
"We probably look totally silly." Fu grinned but it was a happy grin. This must be Karin's way of apologizing for not taking her side earlier that day, Fu thought. It was really sweet. "But thanks."
"Fu." Karin took Fu's hand and slowed down a little until the next corner, where she took the blonde behind a large decorative wooden wall.
Nobody could see them there and there they shared their first, real, kiss, fingers intertwined and eyes closed.