"So...? Whaddya think?" Vicky questioned in an expectant tone, a proud smirk still gracing her lips.
"Th-This is..." Timmy, still completely awestruck by natural beauty of the lagoon, Vicky's 'secret spot', as she called it; set the cooler in his hands down just to his right in the soft sand. With his hands now free, he brought both up to his eyes to rub them, just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from the heat, which felt close to ninety degrees, even as close to the ocean as they were.
"Really, Twerp? I know you're kinda sheltered, but this isn't some heatstroke-induced hallucination. This little slice of paradise is as real as they come, and we've got it all to ourselves!" The older teen turned away from her charge to instead look upon the pool of crystal clear water just a short walk down from where they were. She hadn't been to it since the end of summer, the year before, but everything was just as she remembered it. The sand was still a nearly pure shade of white, free of the bits of dried seaweed you'd normally see at the beach, the water itself was clear and free of trash, having just a few small scatterings of seagrass here and there, and the line of trees that grew along either side of the lagoon ensured that it always got just the right amount of shade.
"This place is... Amazing!" The brunet finally exclaimed, his mind recovering enough from when he first laid eyes on the lagoon to allow him to speak. "How does someplace like this even exist?" He wondered aloud as he looked to his babysitter, noticing now that she had her back to him.
Granted, Timmy had seen far more than the average eleven year old boy, thanks to Cosmo and Wanda, but many of the places he'd seen were either heavily influenced by magic, or existed due to technology that easily outclassed anything on Earth. Yet even taking all that into consideration, this place existed thanks to neither magic nor technology. Nature, along with what had to be only very slight human intervention, had made this place; and that fact alone absolutely boggled the boy's mind. Just when he thought he'd seen it all, his babysitter, the queen of mean and bane of children everywhere(or so he once thought, prior to recent events), of all people; had shown him something new and incredible, and it was only around an hour's drive from his house!
"I'unno." The seventeen year old shrugged. "Nature does some pretty amazing things, I guess?" She slipped her beach bag off her shoulder, tossing it onto the beach of the lagoon just a few feet away, where it miraculously landed upright without spilling its contents. "The cooler?" Vicky pointed at the red and white cooler by Timmy's feet, her right eyebrow just barely peeking over the rim of her sunglasses.
"Hm?" The boy followed the direction her finger was pointing, his eyes eventually settling on the already forgotten cooler. "Oh right. Where should I put it?" He gave the lagoon a quick once-over as he picked the container up, hoping the seventeen year old wouldn't tell him to carry it too much farther.
"Over next to my bag is fine." Vicky nodded at her discarded beach bag, then watched as her charge swiftly carried the cooler over to it, and placed it down in the sand next to her bag, pushing down on it slightly so the cover was flat and level, should they want to use it as a makeshift table. "Y'know, I can't help but notice you're kind of... Dying." She remarked with a grin, a quiet chuckle escaping her.
"What... Phew..." The buck-toothed boy paused, bringing his hand up to wipe some of the excess sweat from his brow. "What do you mean by that?"
"That." She pointed at him, thankful that he'd inadvertently emphasized her point for her. "You're sweating up a storm, Twerp. I know it was a bit of a hike to get here, and the cooler does have a few cans of soda, some food, and ice in it, but you might wanna think about... Eh..."
"Eh?" Timmy parroted back, tilting his head a little in confusion. "What- What were you gonna say?"
"Well... I was gonna tell you that it might be a good idea to try to build up your stamina, but for one, you are still pretty young, and two, me teaching you to swim should do just that, anyway. Swimming is a full body exercise, you use most of the muscles in your limbs, chest, and stomach to do it... Or... To do it right, at least." The red-head tapped her chin in thought for a few seconds, then shrugged and reached for the hem of her white jean-shorts to begin undoing the button and zipper.
"Um!" The brunet suddenly chimed in, his voice going up several octaves and coming out as more of a squeak before he quickly slapped his hand over his eyes, his cheeks flushing a rosy pink color.
"What are you 'Um'-ing at over-" The older teen looked up at her charge, who continued to face her direction, but was now standing still as a statue, his right hand covering his eyes. "...What are you doing...?" She asked, sounding more exasperated than confused.
"I-I didn't kn-know you w-were gonna t-take your shorts o-off without any warning..." Timmy muttered out nervously, his middle and index fingers separating for just an instant so he could peek out between them, only for the newly formed opening to close just as fast when he made eye contact with his babysitter. "I-I'm just trying to be p-polite..."
"Timmy, there's polite, then there's being a prude." Vicky responded with a roll of her eyes, unzipping her shorts the rest of the way to allow them to slip down her legs and pool at her feet. "And don't get me wrong-" She stepped out of her shorts, then bent down to pick them up before making her way toward her charge. "-It's not like I just go around, taking my clothes off for anyone..." She moved closer, stopping just a few feet in front of the boy. "But for one-" She tossed her shorts past Timmy, causing them to land next to her beach bag. "Any boy your age should have at least some interest in a girl's body; it's only natural. And two-" Vicky reached for his wrist, gently curling her fingers around it before pulling it away, revealing the curious blue eyes the brunet was so known for. "You've already seen me in this very swimsuit, Timmy!"
Timmy looked his babysitter up and down, first noticing the amused grin playing at her lips, then allowed his gaze to travel further down her body, causing him to quickly realize she was wearing the lime green bikini bottom that matched the top she currently wore. He'd never really paid much attention to it before now, as it was fairly plain in appearance, but somehow, it was only at that moment that he noticed the string-like design of the girl's swimsuit around her hips. Each side bore a little bow-like knot, and as he thought back to when the girl had had her back to him, he remembered that her top had a similar stringy design, with a little bow at the middle of her back, and another above it, on the back of her neck. In his mind, such a design seemed quite strange, as if the strings ever got caught on something... There wouldn't be much to stop the swimsuit from coming right off.
"I mean, what'd you think? That I didn't bother putting the bottoms on under my shorts? You have any idea how uncomfortable it is to wear jeans with no underwear?" The older teen questioned, her hands now positioned on her hips as she stared down at Timmy.
"Huh?" Timmy looked up to meet her pink-eyed gaze, her voice snapping him out of his reverie. "Oh! Uh... Y-Yeah, actually... Eheh... Good point." He rubbed the back of his head shyly, remembering a few(thankfully brief) situations where he'd needed to 'go commando' as Chester had once put it.
"Exactly. Not a fun experience, I'm sure." Vicky remarked absently as she moved past the boy, her focus already shifted back to their current situation. Crouching down in front of her bag, she moved Timmy's towel, carefully placing it next to her as she withdrew a somewhat oversized beach blanket out of the bag and stood up to lay it out on the sand. "Hope you don't mind sharing the blanket. This bag's big, but it was either one big blanket, sunscreen, and snacks; or two smaller blankets, no sunscreen, and no snacks."
"Eh... No, I guess not." The brunet walked over to the blanket and plopped down on it with a muffled thump, then slipped his sandals off to sit cross-legged; leaving his footwear in the sand at the edge of the blanket. "So..."
The red-head knelt back down again, this time on the blanket. "Yeah?" She shifted about in an effort to get comfortable, eventually deciding on sitting on her legs, bent beneath her; then slipping them out from under herself to drop down on her rear end, her legs from the knee down at either side of her thighs and feet pointing behind her so she wasn't cutting off the circulation of blood to them.
Timmy waited until his babysitter appeared content with her position before he continued. "Ah... I was just wondering, when you... Um... Wanted to get started...?" He spoke hesitantly, suddenly feeling a bit nervous as he realized he was actually at the beach. Considering how his last interaction with a sizable body of water had gone, the buck-toothed boy wasn't exactly looking forward to what came next.
"Well first, you need to calm down. You might not be shivering, but I can tell you're nervous about going back in the water." The seventeen year old reached into her beach bag again as she spoke, pulling the sunscreen out of it after a moment or two of feeling around. "Second, I didn't pack a shade umbrella, so unless you wanna be red as a lobster by the time we leave, you're gonna have to put some of this on." Vicky held up a light pink bottle with the word 'Sunscreen' and the number fifty in big, eye-catching font. She then wasted no time in popping the cover open and squeezing a modestly-sized glob of the white lotion into her free hand. "You want me to do you first, or me?"
"Eh... You go ahead." Timmy gestured for his babysitter to go first in applying the sunscreen, figuring that, seeing as how she was a girl, she should go first, hence the term 'ladies first'. That was something Timmy found himself still having a bit of trouble wrapping his head around. The babysitter he'd once thought to be so evil, was in fact, a girl. A very pretty one at that. A very pretty girl that made him feel... Confused. And happy. Content too, when they were just... Enjoying each others' company; along with a fair number of other emotions he didn't quite yet understand.
"Heh... You just wanna watch me put it on, don't ya Twerp?" Vicky shot him a sly smile as she set the bottle of sunscreen down on the blanket and held it between her knees, then started to rub her right hand up and down her left arm, covering it in a thin layer of sunscreen before switching off to the other arm and giving it the same treatment.
"Oh, sorry. If you don't want me to watch..." Timmy began to pivot his body toward the ocean, his head being the last(and for some reason, most stubborn) part to turn away from the red-head.
"Wha-? N-No, I didn't mean-... Jeez, you really are naïve, aren't you?" Vicky couldn't help but let out a few giggles at how modest the boy was. It was a refreshing change of pace compared to how the last boy she spent any significant amount of time around, Ricky; had acted. If he wasn't staring longingly at the wad of cash she got from Timmy's parents, he was ogling her whenever she wore... Pretty much anything that revealed even a little bit of skin. It was flattering, in a way, since someone checking her out did mean she must look pretty good, but knowing what she did now about the teen, it was fairly apparent there was only one thing on his mind. "And then there's this kid who still doesn't seem to get that I don't mind if he stares..." The girl released a low sigh and hung her head once she was sure her charge was no longer looking at her, which in turn caused her gaze to fall on the bottle of sunscreen held between her legs. "Hehehe... Maybe a little fun will help him calm down... Or not."
Grinning evilly, Vicky snatched up the bottle of sunscreen again and carefully slid it across the blanket, after which it came to a stop just over a dozen inches behind Timmy. With that done, the red-head reoriented herself onto her hands and knees, then stealthily crept over behind her charge, moving the bottle out of the way before plopping down on rear end and sitting cross-legged like Timmy was.
And despite looking out toward the ocean, the eleven year old was still able to hear the muffled thump that came from behind him, and moved to peek over his shoulder, only to feel slender, strong arms loop around his midsection, then pull him backward. "Ah! Wha-What the-?" Before he could get another word in, the boy felt his butt land squarely in his babysitter's lap, followed by the girl's roaming fingers slipping down to his waist and curling under the hem of his shirt. "Ack-! H-Hey! What are you doing?!" Timmy yelled in half-hearted protest, while at the same time putting his arms up enough to allow the older girl to yank his pink t-shirt off and toss it aside.
"Helping you out of your shirt, obviously." The seventeen year old responded in a matter-of-fact tone, speaking as if helping Timmy out of his clothes was a fairly normal routine for them both.
"Obviously! But why are you helping me out of my shirt?!" The brunet shouted as he tried to squirm out of Vicky's lap, which only ended with him being held in place, this time by her right leg as she raised it up over his own and half-curled it around his waist, surprising the boy with just how flexible she was. "Ngh! C'mon!" He grasped her thigh and shin with his right and left hands respectively, trying in vain to free himself from Vicky's seemingly iron-like grip. "Ngah! Hah..." Timmy sighed after one last burst of exertion, giving up once he realized he hadn't gotten the older girl's leg to even budge. "...You have really strong legs." He drummed his fingers against her skin, then gently pinched it between the thumb and fingers of each hand. "Really-Um... Really soft, too..."
"Well believe it or not, I do exercise from time to time... Though you're the first person who's ever told me they're soft... Then again, you're also the first person who's ever sat in my lap like this, so I guess that makes sense." Vicky spoke in a mostly calm tone of voice, though there was little she could do about the goosebumps breaking out across her skin as Timmy continued to pinch and poke at her thigh and now, her calf. "You done squirming around now?"
"Mm-mm." The boy absently hummed in the affirmative, frowning slightly as his babysitter released the grip her leg had on him, and slipped it back under his.
"Good, just hold still... Well, mostly still." The red-head grabbed the bottle of sunscreen once again, squeezing a roughly half-dollar sized glob into her free hand before closing the bottle, placing it at her side, and rubbing both of her hands together.
"Oh... If you wanted to help me out sunscreen on, all you had to do was-"
Splat!
Timmy flinched as the cold, ooze-like substance was pressed into his back by his babysitter, making him grimace at the feeling. "Eugh... I was gonna say ask, but that's probably not your style..."
"Was more fun to do it this way." Vicky replied nonchalantly as she continued to spread the sunscreen across the boy's back and rub it into his skin, smirking to herself as he shivered and fidgeted at her touch. "Lean forward a bit."
The brunet did as he was told, bracing himself by holding his ankles to keep from falling forward as he sank toward the blanket; an odd chill running up and down his spine as the older girl's hands moved ever lower, eventually reaching the waist of his shorts, at which point both of her hands moved apart to apply sunscreen to his hips, then up again over his sides. "Y-You're... Pretty good at this, huh?"
"Should I take that to mean you're enjoying yourself?" The older girl questioned, her smirk growing just a bit wider.
"...A little..." Timmy admitted with a slight pout, casting his gaze back toward the ocean as his cheeks pinkened yet again. "I guess since you're... You, I just wasn't expecting... Um..."
"For me to be nice? Friendly? Gentle, even?" Vicky rolled her eyes in amusement, realizing Timmy was evidently still trying to get used to the fact that she wasn't quite as mean or evil as she usually fronted.
"N-No offense..." The boy shrugged his shoulders nervously, only for them to tense up a little as Vicky slid her hands up his back and onto them, giving both a little teasing squeeze.
"You'll have to try harder than that to offend me, kid... But I am curious, did you think I was just some mean girl with a one-note personality? I mean, by now it should be pretty obvious that I can be nice, when I want to be." The red-head took a moment to look her charge's back up and down, before nodding in approval at her sunscreen-application skills. "You're all set, by the way."
"Oh! Um, a-alright..." The brunet gingerly crawled out of his babysitter's lap, then turned back around to face her; dropping down on the blanket to sit cross-legged again. "But then... Why not just be nice all the time?"
"Easy." Vicky responded as she picked up the bottle of sunscreen again and squeezed another glob into her hand. "I don't want to be." Again, she remarked in a rather matter-of-fact tone, rubbing sunscreen onto her face, neck, and chest.
"But why not?" Timmy asked, quirking an eyebrow up at the older girl curiously. "You've been nice to me lately, so...?"
"I'm only nice to the people I like." The red-head thought to herself, but opted against vocalizing the thought, as her charge would probably take it the wrong way... Or the right way, she wasn't sure which, at the moment. "And you're usually nice to me, even when I'm acting like an unbelievable bit-... Witch. I figure that entitles you to a little... Well okay, maybe a lot of slack." She admitted with a grin, knowing deep down that she was being far nicer to Timmy than she'd planned to initially.
"And... That's it?" The boy asked hesitantly, a tinge of disappointment in his voice.
"Well, no... I'll admit the past couple days have been... Interesting. Aside from the part where you almost drowned, and running into Heather, I've been having... An alright time hanging out with you." The older teen squeezed out more sunscreen for herself, this time rubbing it across the back of her neck, and(with just a bit of difficulty) her own back, coating the rest of her abdomen with the white, lotion-like substance. "...And that's not something I admit about someone lightly, Twerp."
Feeling like he should have some sort of response, Timmy opened his mouth to speak up. "Ah-I um... I've been having fun too! It's... Nice to get to... Actually get to know you?" He stammered out sheepishly, blushing again as he tried to match the girl's compliment with one of his own. "A-And like I said, you are... Y'know, p-pretty..." Timmy felt a distinct burning in his cheeks; not necessarily painful in any way, but definitely uncomfortable.
"Oh really? Just when I'm smiling though, right?" Emphasizing her point, the pink-eyed teen shot her charge a teasing little smile, causing him to look away and cross his arms in embarrassment; and thus her, to giggle at his flustered reaction.
"N-No... I don't know why I said 'when you smile'... I meant you j-just are pretty..." The brunet admitted quietly. Were it not for his babysitter's proximity to him, she more than likely wouldn't have heard him over the sound of the waves just a short distance away. He chanced a quick look at her out of the corner of his eye, noticing she was now applying sunscreen to her upper thighs, her hands occasionally slipping down and gliding over the inner area of her thighs as well. It didn't take him long after that to look away once more, as watching the older girl rub herself down with the white lotion made him feel... Strange. It was similar to the feeling he got when he first realized he enjoyed Vicky's company, and that she was pretty, yet it was somehow wholly different, too. Rather than the now familiar warm tingling he got in his chest, this sensation felt like it was somewhere... A little lower. Somewhere near his stomach, or maybe even his gut.
"You're up, then we can finally get to teaching you how to swim!" Vicky slid the bottle of sunscreen over to Timmy, causing it to lightly collide against his foot.
"Can't wait..." The boy replied sarcastically as he picked up the bottle and mimicked his babysitter's actions; carefully rubbing the white, ooze-like substance all over what of his skin was exposed to the sunlight. Once finished, he started to re-cap the sunscreen and set it down, only for Vicky to suddenly crawl over to him and snatch the bottle out of his hand.
"I almost forgot-" The red-head squeezed out yet another, much smaller glob of sunscreen, then dabbed it onto her face with her fingers before closing her eyes as she rubbed it in. "-If there's one place that sucks to get sunburned, it's your face..." She was quick to take a bit more out of the bottle, then leaned forward a little, bringing her hands up to Timmy's face. "Just close your eyes a sec."
The brunet complied with a slight nod, briefly flinching as he felt his babysitter's fingers carefully apply the sunscreen to his face, making sure to trace around his eyes and lips. "Nnh- Y-You don't have to...?" He peeked his right eye open as he felt Vicky's hands stop on his cheeks, then followed it with his left after a moment. She was staring at him. Not angrily or with a smirk, just kind of... Staring. Almost like she was deep in thought regarding... His face? "V-Vicky...?"
"This frickin' kid..." Vicky thought to herself as she stared down at the boy, his expression confused as he stared right back at her with his big, curious blue eyes. "When did this little Twerp become so damn cute?!" She felt her lip quiver a little, her inner thoughts very nearly becoming outer thoughts. It occurred to her to think back on the events of the previous day, when the boy had nearly drowned. What had scared her more? The assumed repercussion she'd have to face if Timmy drowned while in her care, or just the fact in itself that the boy she affectionately referred to as 'the Twerp' might die? "What would I even do if he..." Her thoughts came to a halt, almost subconsciously. She honestly didn't want to think about him being here one day, and just... Gone, the next. The idea hurt, somehow. It was painful and terrible and made the corners of her eyes sting a bit, just like they had when she'd laid him down on the cement walkway around his pool. "Th-This can't be... I mean, he might kind of... No, he must like me, for whatever reason, but... Do I...?"
"Uh-Um... A-Are you gonna... Say anything, or...? Vicky, this is kind of... Embarrassing..." Timmy squeaked out nervously, his cheeks blushing a bright crimson as he broke eye contact with the older girl and looked away.
"Oh!" The red-head quickly released Timmy's cheeks, pulling her hands away and allowing them to fall to her sides before leaning away, then kneeling down to sit on her legs bent beneath her. "I was... Thinking!" She exclaimed with a nervous chuckle, a slight blush appearing on her own cheeks.
"Um... Thinking about...?" The brunet, feeling fairly bemused by the older teen's overly simple answer; attempted to press her for information, and leaned toward her much like she had done with him a few minutes earlier.
"Just... Things, mostly." Vicky spoke evasively and shrugged, suddenly feeling like she was being looked at under a microscope. "W-We... Ah... We sh-should probably get started, right?" She questioned in a hopeful tone, wishing the brunet would just forget about about what had just happened. She was not at all ready to deal with... Whatever the weird fluttery feeling in her chest was. Especially because it reminded her of something that had been suggested by a certain stupid dumb blonde idiot she used to be friends with.
"Mngh..." Timmy half-grumbled, half-whined as his shoulders slumped a bit and he hung his head. "I was kinda hoping you'd forget..."
"H-Hey, c'mon..." The older teen, catching a brief glimpse of discomfort on her charge's face, slid forward a little and extended her arm toward him, bringing her hand under his chin and using her index finger to tilt his head up so he was looking at her. "Long as I'm here, you'll be fine. I won't let anything bad happen this time, I promise."
"...I know." He sighed out, genuinely thankful for his babysitter's presence; his lips curling up into a small, shy smile. "I trust you."