Lena: Hi guys! Sorry that I didn't upload. School's just poo that way, giving me two speeches in one month :( And then I've got some other stuff to do too. Plus, I was just so addicted to to Kyou wo Koi Hajimemasu that I couldn't leave it unfinished. And then I got to the end finding out that it wasn't completed yet! :( Well, I'll try to update within a month.
Kukai: Well, I heard I'm in this chapter!
Lena: Yeah, you guys are going to a beach! That's number 7 for Amu! ^^
Kitsu: Hentai... -_-
Lena: Going to the beach does NOT mean I'm a hentai!
Kitsu: Well, I know you very well and this is a perfect chance for you to make Ikuto do something perverted to Amu.
Lena: Oh too bad... -_- By the way, where's Ikuto?
Kukai: He's at home sick because of the lack of Amuto fluff. You know, your late update? Amu's taking care of him.
Lena: Well... he might die after he reads this then...
Kukai: Why?
Lena: Uh... look at the title of this chapter ^^ Oh, but you'll be happy!
Kukai and Utau: Really?
Utau: Will I be happy?
Lena: Uh... I think it'd be best for me not to answer that...
Utau: What going on? And the title sounds fishy...
Kitsu: If you want her killed, I'll be here... ^^
Lena: Note! Nami and Nemi are in this chapter! They're the twins from Episode 78!
░▒▓▒░10 Things to Do░▒▓▒░
Her best friend nudged her lightly and held up a red swimsuit. "What about this one?"
"Ew, that's so…revealing," she said the word like it was the most disgusting thing in the world and dismissed the bikini Utau suggested. Amu walked to another rack, the blonde rushing to catch up. She hated being picky, but if she was forced to wear something that resembled undergarments, then she had to be picky.
"We've been looking at these for over 2 hours! You've gotta have at least one that you like!" Utau complained. "You don't even look like you want to go."
"Because I don't. And maybe I'd find something I like if we got out of this bikini store," the rosette countered.
"Everyone wears bikinis to beaches! And this is the perfect chance to relax and hang with the guys."
Utau held up another one, this time purple, but Amu dismissed it immediately, since it was a string bikini, and she made an annoyed face, shoving the hanger back on the rack.
"No, this is the perfect chance for Mr. Hentai to try something perverted. Especially if I showed up in one of these." Amu gestured to the bikinis around her.
"And girls only wear bikinis to seduce some guy." She saw Utau's cheeks flush a little. "I want to do the exact opposite."
Now the blonde was silenced, concentrating on the bikinis on the rack on front of her, and probably trying (not successfully) to hide her blush. She inspected each one carefully, shaking her head at the ones she didn't like and taking the ones she did like. Amu dismissed all of them, saying that they were all too slutty.
Well, all bikinis were slutty. That's why she hadn't been excited about bikini shopping. Nor had she been excited about the beach trip they'd been invited on. But she just had to go since it was on her list. Sure, Amu loved the sun and sand and the beach was really pretty at night, but there were three very bad things about going: One, Amu hated the water. She couldn't swim and had the feeling she'd drown if she tried. Everyone else could swim, and no one knew she couldn't. Two, shirtless guys and half nude girls—that was scary, especially with Ikuto there. And finally, three, well, Ikuto. There was nothing more to it.
"I'm gonna go try this purple one on," Utau told her, interrupting her train of thought. "And you're coming. I need someone's opinion on this."
"Fine, fine, fine. Let's just get it over with." Amu sighed and followed her best friend to the change rooms.
Utau was walking far ahead of her but Amu still heard the loud and almost dramatic gasp that came from the stalls. Her name was called and she rushed over.
"What? What happened?" Amu whipped her head back and forth frantically, looking for a sign of danger.
"Forget about me! You, go and try this on." She shoved a blur of blue into her hands and pushed her into the stall.
Still confused about what was going on, she took a look at what she was holding.
"Utau! Was this really that important? Why this? It probably looks as slutty as the…"
As she took a look at the swimsuit, an actual good look, her sentence trailed off.
"…Others…" she finished, taking back her words.
The midnight blue bandeau bikini in her hands was screaming out: Try me! It was the only bikini that had captured Amu's interest that day, and the only one she was willing to try.
After hesitantly putting on the swimsuit, Amu found herself staring at a gorgeous result and she admired herself in the mirror, many more times than usual, before stepping out to show Utau.
Midnight blue was her colour. The darkness of it seemed to slim her body and the two sakura blossoms, on the left of both pieces and a slightly lighter colour than her hair, gave a delicate and fragile touch. Both pieces hugged her body, making her curves noticeable yet not too obvious and revealed. The overall look was…beautiful and, okay, she admitted it—sexy.
"It's…it's…" she trailed off again, at a complete loss for words.
"It's perfect!" Utau squealed happily, getting unwanted attention from the other, very few, shoppers.
"We're getting that right now." And she pushed her back in to change out of her perfect bikini.
"You are totally going to seduce Ikuto!"
"I-I-I don't want to do that! M-Maybe I shouldn't buy this after all…"
"No Amu! That's the point of the trip. We are buying that no matter what!" she called from the other side of the door.
Amu sighed and slumped on the wall.
A beach trip with half nude girls, shirtless guys, a shirtless Ikuto (not that he wasn't a guy, he just seemed more important), and her in a sexy bikini… As Amu admired her reflection in the mirror again, a smile crept to her lips and she couldn't help but think: Maybe this trip won't be that bad after all…
"So, did you get a sexy bikini for me?" The bluenette whispered into Amu's ear, causing her to flush an adorable pink that seemed darker than usual.
"N-No you perv!" she stammered in that crazily cute way, slapping him on the arm and looking down at her feet as they walked to the change rooms.
He thought he heard her mumble a quiet 'maybe' to herself.
He chuckled and called, "we'll see when you get out," over his shoulder as they went their separate ways.
After a long time of searching, Ikuto spotted Kukai and Nagihiko standing by a locker, putting their shirts away. He sauntered over to them, also bringing his t-shirt over his head, revealing his muscular chest.
"Hey man!" Kukai slapped his back as he threw his shirt into the locker.
"Yo." Ikuto did the same.
"Are the girls here?" Nagihiko asked, also mimicking them.
"Yup. Probably putting on their bikinis," he emphasized the word and smirked while the other two grinned.
When he started to walk towards the door, an idea suddenly came to him and he stopped, turning around to face his friends. "What kind do you think they'd have on—their bikinis?"
"Is that a bet?" Nagihiko challenged.
"Winner gets the losers as servants for three days," Kukai decided. "Utau has got to have a string."
"Rima's got a classic."
"Amu's a classic too." Then he thought about what he thought he'd heard her say. "No, a bandeau," he corrected.
For some reason, he was sure he was right. "Okay, bet's done. Now you wanna see 'em?" His smirk got wider.
"Hell yeah!" Kukai and Nagihiko cheered as they jogged out of the change rooms, exposing themselves to the warm afternoon sun.
They had walked for a bit until they found the three girls already chatting away, probably changed but towels were wrapped around their precious sight. All they saw were the coloured straps.
"Took you long enough," Utau said when she saw them and placed a hand on her hip.
"We were even afraid of making you guys wait…that's why we changed quickly…" She was mumbling it to herself but made it loud enough for them to hear it.
"You've got towels on you. How are we supposed to know if you're actually changed or not?" Nagihiko shot back.
Nice one Nagihiko!
"We are," Rima replied firmly and shot daggers at him.
"Then show us." The couple glared at each other, you could practically see the electric sparks flying between them. Though the most amusing part was that they were fighting over nothing at all.
Ikuto was paying more attention to his little Strawberry more than anything else. She was squirming under his gaze and pulled her towel tighter around herself when Utau huffed.
"Fine, we were going to show you anyways."
Utau and Rima both dropped their towels to the sand, revealing their swimsuits. Utau was wearing a classic purple bikini and Rima had a red string.
It captured Ikuto's attention for a few seconds, but he was uninterested in them. He noted that Kukai and Nagihiko lost though. He looked back to Amu eager to see her bikini as well but, to his disappointment, she still didn't have the courage to expose herself. Ikuto knew that it'd just take a few seconds of persuading for her to give in, though.
He stepped a little closer, invading her personal space.
"Aw Amu," Ikuto whined, mimicking a little kid.
"The other two did it. Why not you? It's not fair." Then he lowered his voice so only she could hear him. "And I only want to see you in yours. Not anyone else." Tugging on her towel, he spoke with what he hoped would sound like a pleading voice. "Please?"
"B-But," she paused for a while, probably trying to resist the face Ikuto was making. It was futile, of course. "F-Fine! Geez!" She finally flung her towel off, revealing herself in a midnight blue bandeau bikini decorated with two pink sakura blossoms.
Ikuto took a step back to take in the sight and found himself drawn to her gorgeous body, resisting the urge to step even closer than he had before. Well, he wasn't mainly drawn to that—he was drawn to her. She looked different in a bikini, like it had flipped a switch in something inside her. When she had that straight face she had now, she suddenly didn't look naïve and adorable anymore. Okay, maybe she still did look adorable, but most of that was replaced by sexiness. Even her hair had seemed to change, the soft pink strands swinging swiftly at her every move, cloaking her back like a veil or a cape. The thought of taking a picture crossed his mind for a second but he dismissed it with a smug: She'll be showing me this again real soon.
"Oi." Nagihiko waved a hand in front of Ikuto's face after he showed no reaction. "Earth to Ikuto? Are the lights on up there?"
He only blankly nodded a couple times.
"I-I knew I shouldn't have worn it Utau! I probably look hideous!" Amu shouted, taking Ikuto's silence the wrong way.
She bent down to pick up the towel, obliviously giving Ikuto a perfect view of her chest.
He snapped out of it just as she was about to cover herself up.
"Drop the towel," he commanded.
Amu obeyed immediately at his firm voice, the sand in front of her rising a bit from the contact of the dropped towel. Her expression was blank for a moment, and then expression finally found their way into her eyes.
"What?" It almost sounded like a snap, but he knew it wasn't.
"You look…"
Ikuto was just about to continue his sentence and finish with a smirk but the voice of his friend continued for him.
"Sexy."
He saw Amu's eyes widen as she stared pass Ikuto into the emerald eyes of Kukai. The bluenette turned to shoot him a glare for hitting on his girlfriend, but a voice whispered quietly: But Amu's not really your girlfriend, she's just acting like it because she has to.
"All of you do," Kukai quickly added with a slightly pink face.
But Ikuto couldn't help but notice that Kukai didn't, or couldn't, take his eyes of Amu. That wasn't the fact that angered, dare he say envied, him most. It was that Amu didn't take her eyes off Kukai either. Both of them seemed to be having a long staring contest and didn't seem to notice that everyone was watching them.
He was used to Amu staring him and only him. What was that look in her eyes? He couldn't tell.
Envy—jealousy. Was that what he was feeling? If it was, he'd most definitely never admit it. But Kukai would know he'd been caught and get a punishment if he tried it again.
"Why don't we go find a spot to sit?" Ikuto moved closer to his Amu, blocking Kukai's view of her and sending him a sharp glare telling him he'd been caught.
He turned away guiltily and mumbled a 'sure', taking Utau's hand. She also seemed to have a hard look on her face, showing that she'd seen the little scene. Nagihiko and Rima followed behind cluelessly.
Once the towels were spread and relaxation settled over them, the girls started taking out their sunscreen.
Grabbing Amu's bottle of sunscreen from the sand, the bluenette squirted some onto his hand and snuck up behind her. He then pressed the white cream onto her back, causing her to flinch in surprise.
"Need help?" He whispered in a husky voice.
She took a breath to speak then hesitated.
"Okay. But only my back," she replied, her gaze flickering to him.
"Sure…"
But of course, he wasn't planning on listening to her.
He started on her back though, just to make her believe him. Once he was done spreading it out from the small of her back up to the top of her shoulder blades, he let his hands slide over her shoulders, down her arms and grab hold of her warm hands.
"I-Ikut—"
"The back's done, so are the arms. Where next Amu?"
"N-Nowhere!" she practically shouted. "I-I can do it myself."
"Hey Amu! Are you done ye—"
Rima was running towards them and stopped mid sentence once she saw their position. She quickly turned around and put up a hand as if to say 'see ya'.
"Have fun guys! We'll be waiting over there," she called over her shoulder as she pointed to somewhere far off to the right where the waves were splashing onto the shore.
"N-No! Wait Rima!" Amu called but she was too far to hear her.
"How about here?" Ikuto put more sunscreen onto his hands and placed it on her stomach.
"I…" She paused. "I guess its okay…"
He smirked.
Clueless as always…
He mentally shook his head as he spread the sunscreen across her stomach and moved up to her ribs.
Unless…she wanted this?
Instead of moving his hands higher, which was what he was originally going to do, he moved his legs so she was sitting between them and shifted closer to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. He almost felt her lean back against him.
"Amu…" he whispered into her ear.
"Y-Yeah?"
He fell back onto the sand, pulling her with him.
Amu could feel Ikuto's heartbeat against her head, she could hear it pound. And it was faster than normal. The same speed as hers; two times faster than the footsteps of people walking around them; three times faster than the waves crashing onto the shore.
Other people…
Amu suddenly sat up, her thoughts reminding her that she was in public. She was halfway up on her feet when Ikuto grabbed her hand, making her fall back on top of him. But this time they were face to face.
"Ikuto!" She hissed.
"We're in public! With people, a lot of people, around us!" Trying to get back up was impossible since he wrapped his arms around her kept a strong grip.
"I'm not letting go," he stated simply, and pulled her head down to rest on his chest.
"Besides, other people do it too. Kissing and stuff."
"Sure, maybe a quick kiss and all. But not…" She couldn't put it into words somehow.
"I bet Rima and Nagi are too."
"Wha…? Really?" Amu raised her head to get a look only for it to be brought back down.
"Respect other people's privacy Amu," Ikuto scolded with a smirk on his lips.
"They might stare at you do this." He lifted his head to kiss her.
Their mouths made contact and Amu felt the heat of Ikuto's lips pass into her body. But too soon did the cool, salty air of the sea replace it.
"Why did you move?" she found herself automatically asking, then had the urge to cover her mouth and shut herself up.
He chuckled.
"When I say kissing, I mean quick. Though we can go get a room if you want." The smirk was still there as started to get up.
"No!" This time Amu pushed him down. "Just stay like this."
"Fine with me." He chuckled again, Amu feeling the vibration from his chest.
She actually thought she was going to drift off since all the noise seemed to go in the background when she focused on the crashing of the waves and Ikuto's heartbeat. And she almost did. The ball hit her when she was half awake and her vision was a little fuzzy when she lifted her head to see what happened.
"Oi! Hinamori! Ikuto!" Kukai shouted at them.
"Are you guys gonna stay like that all day? If you're not going somewhere private, then you need to come and play volleyball! We're short a few players!" Amu felt her cheeks heat at his comment, and he was yelling, which meant anyone could've heard him.
"We're coming!" Ikuto called back and sat up.
"We'll continue tonight." He smirked. "Oh wait. I have something else to look forward to tonight."
Both confusion and a little bit of fear appeared on Amu's face, but she quickly looked away.
"I'll get the ball. Meet you there!" she told him and ran off to where the white ball was sitting in the sand.
Then she noticed it was a volleyball. Which meant they were playing volleyball. And that meant that Amu was going to make a complete fool of herself. Damn it.
░▒▓▒░10 Things to Do░▒▓▒░
"I got it!" Rima backed up and bumped the ball to Nami, who volleyed it and Nemi spiked it over the net.
"Yes!" The girls cheered when they scored the point. "We won!"
"Girls are better at volleyball." Nami and Nemi both stuck their tongue out at the guys on the opposite team.
"We only have three people!" Nagihiko complained.
"We only lost by a few! Rematch!" Kukai declared.
"Sure, we'll just beat you again," Utau huffed as she took a swig of her water bottle and tossed it back on her towel.
Then she looked to Amu. "Are you sure you don't want to play?"
"Y-Yeah. I'm fine." Amu was sitting on a chair, watching the game. She was not going to attempt to play and send the ball flying into the sea.
"You guys play. I'll just sit here."
"Okay. Feel free to join in when you wanna." Utau walked to her position at the back as server.
She had just tossed the ball into the air when Ikuto called out, "wait!". He turned to Amu. "We're gonna have Amu on our team."
He clearly didn't know how much she sucked. Utau did though, and she smirked.
"Yeah! I bet Hinamori's awesome at this!" Kukai cheered. "C'mon!" He waved her over.
"Uh, no no no no no!" Amu shook her head. "I'm not playing."
"Why not?"
"Because… I'm not really good…" she admitted, though they must've taken it as false modesty because Kukai called her again and Ikuto got her out of the chair.
"You can't be that bad," he said as he told her where to stand.
Oh yes I am…
She heard the thwack of the ball hitting Utau's hand and a second later, it was coming straight at her.
"Ball's coming Hinamori," Kukai warned just before Amu held out her hands to try to bump it, only to miss it by a mile and let it hit the sand.
"One point for us!" The twins cheered while all the guys sweat dropped and glared at Amu.
"Maybe I was wrong…" Ikuto said just as Nagihiko gave an encouraging, "Try again. Maybe you weren't ready."
If only that was the case…
Utau served again and the ball headed, thankfully, to Kukai. Nagihiko caught Kukai's bump and hit it over the net. It had probably passed over the net ten times already while Amu was just standing there stupidly, pretending she was ready when she really wasn't. If this kept on going, the ball never getting close to her, everything would be fine. One team would win and nothing would happen to her.
The she saw Utau's spike sending the ball flying towards the sand.
"Amu! Get it!" Amu ran on instinct to the ball at Nagihiko's voice and held out her hands to bump it.
It hit her hand…just not the right place. The ball flew off to her right, the force of the hit so big that it shot right onto the road.
She watched it roll onto the middle of the one way lane before she rose her bright red face, and mumbled quickly, "I'll go get it." She ran off to the empty road, keeping her gaze on the lone white dot on the pavement. She bent to pick up the ball when she reached it and crouched there, trying to calm her heating cheeks.
The roaring of the truck's engine was only noticed when the vehicle was only a few meters away, and it was too late. Pure shock and fear held her feet to the ground, not letting her move at all. She just stared at the truck, her mind going completely blank, like someone had cut the cord to her brain.
"Get out of the way!" She was tackled to the grass on the other side of the road. Her dazed mind couldn't see who saved her, but she felt safe.
Lena: Ohhhh Ikuto's gonna be her prince charming! Well, I hope he likes the next chapter, though he probably won't ^^
Utau: LENA! You just had to make MY Kukai hit on MY best friend?
Lena: *smirks* Your Kukai?
Utau: Wh-who said my? I n-never s-said th-that... A-Anyways, Kitsu-chan! You may kill her now!
Kitsu: *snickers* Okay!
Utau: Wait... where is she? SHE RAN AWAY!
Kitsu: I'll get her at school ^^
Utau: Please R&R and tell Lena NO MORE KUKAMU!
