Claus had thought that one meek boy who couldn't handle the heat and was afraid of bugs was enough, but it turned out his kind-of friend, Nichol, was another dose. He reacted less than Lucas when it came to bugs since his arms and legs were covered by long sleeves, but he complained about the forest heat more. Lucas didn't mind the heat as much in his shorts and T-shirt, but whenever a bug would land on his arm or hop up his leg he would scream and plead for Claus to peel the slimy thing off of him.
What felt like forever to Claus was only ten minutes, and from what he gathered, Fuel was about a half hour into the forest. It was moments like these when he wondered why Lighter and Fuel lived in the heart of the forest for. As Claus sighed, he took notice that Lucas had stopped walking and sighed again. He knew there was another bug near by, and when he looked in the direction Lucas did, it was a praying mantis.
"…That's the biggest I've seen," Lucas whimpered.
"It may be big, but it's still weak as ever, watch," Claus said and gave the bug a swift kick with his blue shoe.
Nichol cringed at the sight of the bug being kicked off to a distance and splatter onto a rock.
"It may have been gross, but…"
"Ouch," Lucas finished and hurried past the stained rock.
Claus remained the lead, ready to kick away anymore bugs that were to come in the way of his and his meek friends path.
"Whew…it really is hot," Nichol sighed and fanned himself with his little pale hand. He was so hot, that his glasses could get steamy any minute.
Claus sighed hearing him speak of the heat again and suggested, "How about taking off the formal shirt..jacket…thing?"
"But I just have an undershirt under this, Claus," he replied, as his already heated pink cheeks warmed up to a red.
"As far as I know, only girls need to have their chest and arms covered," Claus replied and shrugged. He had his shirt off many times and never had troubles, so he couldn't see why Nichol would.
Nichol bashfully took off his shirt and wrapped it around his waist. He admitted, "Well, it does…feel better already."
"See? Great being a guy, ah?"
Lucas rolled his eyes and shoved Claus on ahead to avoid him getting into a ramble on why boys rule and girls suck. Things went well for the three for the remainder of their walk to Fuel's house. No more huge bugs, heat wasn't as bad as trees covered out the sun more, and they could see Fuel's house. As always, Lucas was excited to see Fuel, more so than Claus was because they weren't rivals like he and his red-headed twin were. He was the first to arrive at the door and knocked on it a little louder than he usually does. He was anxious to see his friend and to hurry up into the cool lake. When Fuel opened the door, the three outside could see that he had a wet cold towel around the back of his neck, and one on the top of his head with water droplets dripping down his forehead.
"Hey, Fuel!" Lucas greeted.
"Hey, Lucas. Happy birthday," Fuel greeted in return and with a smile. He peered over Lucas and grinned mischievously when he spotted Claus. "Happy birthday to you too, Ginger snap!"
"I'll have you know that it was this "Ginger snap's" idea to invite you to the swimming party! And I can just leave you behind for that one!"
"But I want Fuel to come with us!" Lucas whined.
"See? You wouldn't want to deny precious Lucas his good friend would you?" Fuel egged on playfully. Unaware that Claus did not take this as jest.
Claus sneered and walked on ahead.
Fuel stepped out of his home and closed the door with a fond chuckle.
Though Claus and Lucas had their major differences, there were somethings that they loved equally, and swimming was one of those very things. When Claus took off his shirt and shoes, Lucas followed after immediately along with Fuel. Nichol on the other hand just watched. Claus noticed this and turned around to ask Nichol, "You're not gonna swim?" When Nichol declined, Claus tried his best to convince otherwise. He didn't want to have brought someone over just to watch everyone else do something fun.
He pointed up to a near by cliff over the lake and said, "We're gonna dive off of that! It's great fun, Nichol!"
Again, Nichol declined.
The three boys frowned but headed up the hill's cliff regardless; resisting it was far too hard. Claus was the first to jump. As he ran up the hill, he didn't need to steady himself or anything, he just ran and dove in head first. Lucas and Fuel ran over to the edge and looked down to see Claus waving from down below. Fuel motioned for Lucas to step back and did as requested. "I'm gonna go for a…" Fuel trailed off as he steadied himself over the cliff.
"A what?" Lucas asked.
"Cannon baaalll!" Fuel hollered and jumped off the edge. As he fell to the water, he hugged his legs against his chest and landed with a much rougher splash than Claus's.
Lucas walked over to the edge and looked down to see both Fuel and Claus waving and cheering for him to jump down. Lucas took a deep breath and pinched his nose before he jumped in. Out of the three jumpers, his splash in was the second smallest. He was pulled up to the surface of the water by Claus shortly after he dived in. Lucas clung to his brother once he reached the top of the water; almost in disbelief that he jumped like that.
"I can't believe I did that!"
"Neither can I! That was really cool of you, Lucas!" Claus praised and ruffled his brother's soaked hair.
It wasn't very often that Claus had praised others like that, not even Lucas. Lucas grinned in appreciation of the praise and swam over to the edge to try and convince Nichol to swim with them once more.
"You don't have to dive in, Nichol," Lucas reassuringly explained to Nichol. "Just dip in, the water isn't too cold, either!"
Nichol was both reluctant and tempted. As he stepped out of his shoes, he informed the three, "I can't really swim…"
"Oh…" Lucas said and frowned in pity. Lucas couldn't remember a time of never knowing how to swim. He can remember just jumping in with Claus and enjoying the refreshing cold. "That's unfortunate…"
"No it isn't! It's as you said, all he's gotta do is dip in and cling to an edge!" Claus exclaimed.
"That doesn't sound fun," Fuel replied to Claus's exclamation. "Maybe we can teach him to swim or something…"
"I…don't mind holding onto a edge at all, really. The cold water is tempting, I don't really need to swim to cool off," Nichol tried to explain in hopes to ward off the name callings of 'wimp' from Claus. After he bashfully took off his undershirt, he really wished he wore shorts like the other three.
"Just take them off! You have underwear!" Claus shouted rather loudly to Nichol's dismay. Claus was encouraged more by Fuel's amused nudging. Lucas frowned for Nichol, he understood just exactly what he was going through right now, but he had no words of advice to give.
"No, I wear briefs!"
"Haha, briefs…" Claus murmured to himself in amusement.
"Guys, underwear choice is personal…" Lucas reminded the two and to try and subtlety save Nichol from dying from heat and embarrassment.
Nichol was now re-deciding things. He could go back home, but that would be a long walk, especially boring alone. Or he could just dive in his underwear and get relief.
Such a hard choice.
Nichol lost Claus's attention and he was glad that Claus had more fun floating around on his back and that Fuel was getting a kick out of pretending to be a floating dead body. Only Lucas kept his attention on him. Even though his attention was sympathetic, it was still embarrassing for Nichol.
"There's no girls here, at least," Lucas tried to console once more. There were sweat droplets on the poor guy's forehead now. His cheek pockets gushing with blood was probably worsening his temperature. "Come on, Nichol, you can't dip in with your knees covered. Yes, it's unfortunate you have on long pants, but its not so bad! Dive in! Cool off! Relax!"
Nichol had to admit Lucas' was subtlety teasing whether he was aware of it or not, but it was much better than what Claus or Fuel would have dished out on him and his briefs. He was almost hot enough for his glasses to start steaming and fogging up. He gave in and removed his pants, immediately getting Claus and Fuel's attention with a chant of 'go go go' echoing from them. Pants were finally gone as he quickly rushed in and clung to the edge.
"Niiiichol! Yeah!" Fuel and Claus continued in their deep 'party' voices.
Lucas gave Nichol a simple pat on the back.
For awhile, Fuel and Claus played while Lucas sat on the side lines keeping the house-and-land-loving Nichol some company in the cool water
"You boys must be prunes being in there for what I presume to be all morning!"
"Mom! Wassup?" Claus greeted with his shriveled up hands.
"You boys didn't even bring towels! I knew to bring extras with me," Hinawa continued and placed two down on a rock for Nichol and Fuel, while she had one for each of her boys in hand. Lucas crawled out of the water and took the towel his mother caringly offered him and started to dry up right away, even though he felt he could let the sun do the drying for him.
"Who needs towels in this heat?" Claus argued and sunk further into the water, just enough for his nose to be above to breathe.
"Boys who want to see grandpa Alec and the Dragos, that's who!" Hinawa teased as she put Lucas shirt on him for him.
Claus raced to the edge of the lake immediately and climbed out shouting, "Dragos?"
"Mmhmm," Hinawa replied while handing him a towel he snatched from her in excitement.
"I wish my grandpa was Alec…" Fuel muttered under his breath as he pouted.
"You can come with us, if you want, you two," Hinawa said as she shook out the dirt from Claus' shirt he carelessly tossed into the grassy dirt.
"No thank you, Hinawa," Nichol politely declined her bashfully. "I think I've walked and done enough today…" He chuckled weakly and sunk in a little further into the cool lake as if it were a relaxing hot-spring.
Fuel pouted further at the invite and mumbled, "Dad's not even in town today…darn it."
"Awww, there's always next time, Fuel," Hinawa reassured Fuel sweetly and gripped onto her two son's hands.
"Alright, mom! To Grandpa!" Claus sang and dragged both Hinawa and Lucas in a chain like fashion. To Claus's impatient dismay, they were stopped in town by Hinawa to go see Nan and Tessie. Nan was just Nan to the twins, but Tessie was always so weird to them both. A little too touchy and nice, even for Lucas's liking. But he politely just dealt with it.
Tessie pinched the blonde's cheek and cooed, "Happy birthday, Sweetiekins!"
"Technically, my birthday is June twenty-second because I was born at 12:01 AM while Claus was born June twenty-first at 11:57PM but… I just go ahead with the twenty-first because it's easier and less confusing…"
Claus rolled his eyes whenever Lucas pulled out the technical birthday thing. Whenever Lucas brought that up, it was like he was saying they weren't twins to him. He didn't feel like getting into the matter right now, because he wanted to go see some Dragos! Even more so than he wanted to see his grandpa! When Tessie pinched his cheeks, he immediately countered with, "Hey, hey, I am eleven years old, lady."
Nan chuckled at his words and said, "I wonder what my little ol' Alle will be like when she is the biiiig eleven!"
"I hear sarcasm, woman!" Claus retaliated, his manly ego already being scratched at by their feminine verbal claws; even Hinawa laughed. Claus huffed and asked, "Hey, you, you promised Dragos, Mom!"
"Yes, I did. But we can't go through that forest without any drinks and snacks now, can we?"
"Dad doesn't need a lot of water."
"Yes he does, Sweety. And he even has that cute canister I made him holding it all in," Hinawa cooed with a sickeningly sweet smile to bring more pain and tears to her gruff son.
"Dad doesn't do cute either!" he whined, ready to run away from these evil women he could swear Lucas was giggling at as he brushed Boney's slightly fuzzed fur from the heat.
"Men don't whine, Snookums," Hinawa sprinkled over her previous attack.
Claus whined more and wandered outside in defeat of the evil giggling women. He would get Lucas later for breaking the twin code of sticking up for the other no matter how petty and futile! He was still pouty during their walk through sunshine forest, but not enough to totally ignore Hinawa, Boney and Lucas. He loved company, food, and attention far too much to do so. The less forest he saw, the more excited and less pouty he got.
Boney sensed this, and wondered if he should grumble that he may be harassed by the energetic snapper or be joyed that Dragos were apparently cooler than he was and that he could sleep under a porch, or go back home while Claus bothered them instead. Claus was cheering and his step had a ton of pep because they were walking on a dry sandy like area which meant they were only a mere couple of yards or so away from Alec's house. If Claus was close to skipping in joy, it only meant one thing.
Get in front of him!
He got in front of the red-head the moment he sprinted ahead of them all but Boney. It hurt to have his blue shoes bump into his ribs so roughly, but it was worth it to see him fall onto an ant hill and roll around screaming. Not even Claus could deal with hundreds of tiny insects crawling on him all at once.
Probably no man could.