Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 25: Summer Sunlight

The two teenagers bit their lips as they could only see sea around them. The night had fallen and they still trapped there. Although Takeru had a thought to swim to the surface, but he remembered that the weather got colder and colder and they would freeze as they reached the surface. So, all the things they could do was waiting for someone to rescue them. But, as far as they knew, they had trapped there for almost two hours.

A moon had appeared and was surrounded by the stars and dark sky. Even thought it was another hot summer, but they didn't deny that the wind was blowing hard. If they hd enough woods, and maybe if they had Agumon beside them, they'd made a bonfire already and had warmed themselves.

"Where are them?" Hikari said as she rubbed her palms together.

She noticed that Takeru though he was stupid for not realizing that she didn't wear her full outfit and pretty sure that she was feeling very cold, which was true. She rubbed her hands, and widened her eyes when she felt a warm clothes around her body.

"I didn't realize that you are not wearing your full outfit. Sorry," Takeru said.

She blushed as she noticed his outfit on her body. "It's okay Takeru-kun, I –"

But she cut her statement as she sneezed. Takeru could only chuckle with that, and ruffled her hair, giving her a signal that she should wear it. She blushed before nodding, and wore it.

Then, she glanced at Takeru and blushed as she realized that, even though they had been best friends for almost 6 years, but this was the first time for her to look him without a single clothes to approach. She looked at him, noticing that he didn't have a muscle yet and didn't have a big chest, even though he was a basketball player and an athletic boy. She stared at him for a few seconds and looked away, shaking her head rudely and blushing, hiding herself with his clothes as she could smell his scent towards the clothes. A bit sticky and smelt sweaty, but warm enough for her.

She noticed that Takeru had been yawning several times, and wiped his tears away. His eyes looked heavy, and he just needed to shut it down and he will go into slumber. He had been sneezing several times like she did before, and it told her that he was feeling cold. Biting her lips and forgetting about her dirty mind, she took off a half of his clothes and shared it with him, that made him open his eyes.

"Hikari-chan? What are you doing? You don't need to –"

"It's okay," she cut him off. "you look so cold and sleepy,"

Hikari then realized that her shoulder was bumped with his one, and their skins met to each other so that she could feel how soft his skin was. For the next minutes, they just looked at the sea and enjoyed a tiny wave on it. Unconsciously, she felt that his hand was grasped with hers. His hand and shoulder were touching hers and all of this really made her heart beat faster like she had always felt.

"When will they come?" Hikari said softly.

But she got no response. Hikari took a glance and noticed that Takeru had closed both of his eyes, sleeping innocently and subconsciously put his head on her shoulder. She smiled, remembering that he had done a lot of things today, such as playing volleyball with the others, and searched for her. She put her hand and rubbed his cheek softly and fondly, and brushed his hair. As she brushed it, she noticed that he squeezed her hand tighter than before, and opened his eyes and met hers. His free hand took her hand which was brushing his hair for a few minutes.

"Am I waking you up?" Hikari asked softly.

"No," he said as he shook his head. "I haven't been sleeping yet,"

"Ah,"

Both of them could do nothing, except feeling each other's touches and warmth and only a moon looked at them. While enjoying the moment, they suddenly could hear a quick step. Widening both of their eyes, they already had negative thought about bad creatures. Why not? This was an empty island and everything can happen. They opened both of their mouth awkwardly as Takeru took off his clothes and wore it to Hikari fully, and set the hoodie already, and he wrapped her body as quick as he could, to protect her.

"It's okay," Takeru said as he wrapped her with his whole body.

On the other hand, Hikari could only blush with this. Now, he really embraced her protectively and made sure she was in a safe zone. Another thing was, she could hear his heartbeats which was as fast as hers, and his skin through his chest and she can't be concentrated with everything that will happen to them soon. The step came closer, and they got even panicked than before. Hikari realized that Takeru had held her tightly and wouldn't let her go, and will protect her no matter what, no matter how.

But, all of the things that they could get for the next minutes were… An evil laughter and a light from torch.

"HAHAHAHAHA! I GUESS I'VE MADE YOU SCARED ENOUGH, EH?"

It was Yamato.

"NII-SAN!" Takeru shouted. "WHAT ARE YOU –"

"AWW! SO CUTE!"

It was Miyako.

Her eyes were bright into some excitement, and interlocked her fingers as well, like a crazy fan who met their star and just needed to kiss it. Both younger teenagers froze, looked at each other, and quickly stood up and looked away, and looked at the old teenagers in front of them, who had been smirking.

"Don't tell this to Daisuke-kun… okay..?" Takeru begged hopefully. "I don't want to get into bruises. Please…"

"Hahaha! Okay, okay!" Yamato said as he laughed.

"But, is it okay if I tell Mimi-onesama?" Miyako added innocently.

"NO!" both Takeru and Hikari shouted together, blushing as well and receiving a laughter from Miyako and Yamato. Soon enough, they came back with a little ship which they had lent before and got some interview, especially from Taichi and Mimi who were very excited with this. After that, they ate their late dinner, and took a rest, even though Miyako wouldn't let her to sleep earlier, and she should answer all of her question.

Hikari yawned after having an enough sleep. A sun had been shining through the window which told her morning had come already. She took her phone to see the time, which told her it was 09:00. It was quite natural due she was very tired yesterday. She stood up, noticing that Miyako had gone away. She stood up and started brushing her teeth and washed her face with fresh water.

She used her blouse and will rip Mimi's present (bikini) into pieces later, going down and her eyes met Takeru, who was wearing a summer clothes like he usually did during summer.

"Ohayo, Takeru-kun," she said softly.

"Ohayo, have a good sleep?" Takeru asked softly.

"Well, Miyako-san kept interviewing me last night so –" she could hear a laughter from the blond boy, and sighed as well.

"Well, the same," Takeru said. "anyway, wanna have a breakfast together?"

She smiled in excitement and nodded, telling the interview from Yamato and Miyako and most of their questions were similar. They laughed, even though they felt annoyed with that.

"Hoi!" Daisuke waved to both of them, holding a big watermelon in his arm. "Wanna play Suikawari (1)?"

"Sure," Takeru said as he stepped closer to Daisuke and stopped his way. "Hikari-chan, do you want to join it?"

Hikari nodded in excitement and followed him. The first contestant was Daisuke, and Miyako had closed his eyes with clothes, meanwhile the rest just needed to support Daisuke, or maybe to fail him. When the watermelon was ready, and when Daisuke was ready to walk with a stick on his hand, he started walking.

Some of them gave him a wrong direction, meanwhile the others gave him a right direction. Miyako shrieked the loudest and gave the wrong direction, and the game ended when Daisuke fell into the sea, and he failed. He opened the clothes and came closer to Miyako, and the war started. Meanwhile, the rests just watched this amusing scene, as it was like a pretty rare movie that they rarely found out now.

After they had fun enough, and had their lunch, and had the watermelon as their desert, because Iori was capable to smash it before, some of them decided to swim, or continued their volley match. Hikari decided not to join the rest, she wanted to enjoy the beautiful view over the sea and took a photo on it. The sea and the skies were blue, but it had a different blue that any skies she had ever seen.

She decided to have a walk and took a photo, enjoying the wave as well before she could notice someone was leaning against the rock, and it was a teenage girl with her auburn hair, Sora.

"Sora-san?"

"Hikari-chan?" Sora asked, a bit surprise too. "Why don't you join with the others?"

"Well, I wanna take some photo," she answered.

"I see," Sora said as she let Hikari to sit beside her. She noticed that the teenage girl was enjoying her time and hobby, and she smiled. "anyway Hikari-chan, can I ask you something?"

Hikari nodded as she also felt curious. "Sure,"

"I was pretty curious about… well… about yesterday," she started asking. "how could you and Takeru-kun were trapping together yesterday?"

Hikari kept silent for a while, before she dared to answer her question. "Did Yamato-san ask you for this?" she replied quickly. "Or maybe oniichan?"

Sora laughed and shook her head. "No, nobody asked me," she answered kindly. "so could you tell me?"

Hikari looked at her curiously once more, a bit doubt with her question. "I wouldn't tease you like them, Hikari-chan," Sora said calmly. "I just… want to know how far you and Takeru-kun had been through together,"

"What do you mean?" Hikari asked.

"Well," Sora said. "I just want to know if one of you, just maybe, has noticed that you are… maybe having special feelings,"

Hikari looked down and bit her lips. She didn't need Sora's advice due she'd realized it since long time ago. Sora put her hand on Hikari's shoulder friendly, before she could give her another advice like a big sister. "Hikari-chan, I won't urge you to tell me everything about it," she said. "do you remember that last year I told you the same thing, eh? If you are thinking that you like him, I think you should tell him,"

She bit her lips, and remembered that question last year, and didn't want to answer Sora's question about it. Sora smiled, and decided to leave her alone to think. "Be honest with yourself, okay?"

Hikari shook her head, leaning her head against the big rock. Again, she thought about Sora's statement. She did remember her statement clearly. Indeed, she should tell him and that was what Tailmon had always told her and for the umpteenth time, she will admit that she didn't have enough courage for it, and afraid with rejection or to lose their friendship.

She shut both of her eyes, to make her feelings much better.

She felt that someone was shaking her shoulder softly, and a pair of crimson red eyes opened before she could notice the blond boy approaching her.

"Are you okay?" Takeru asked softly. "Or are you feeling sick?"

She rubbed her eyes and nodded before yawning again. "I guess you were sleepy, eh?"

"Indeed," Hikari said. "didn't you join the others?"

"I'm tired," Takeru answered as he took a seat on the sand. "so I decided to have some walk, and I saw you here,"

Hikari felt freshened after taking a nap, and decided to have some play with the others. But remembered that she didn't want to swim, and not in a good mood to play a volleyball, she decided to turn it down.

"Have nothing to do, eh?" Takeru asked as he noticed it, receiving a nod.

"He-em,"

They looked up to the sky, enjoying the blue sky like before. Soon enough, there was a group of little kids were playing sand and make a sandcastle and laughing together. Takeru looked at them curiously, before he could smile innocently like those little kids.

"Hikari-chan," he started, in some excitement. "do you want to build a sandcastle?"

Hikari chuckled, knowing that he will ask it. Giving him a nod, Takeru stood up to get some shovel and bucket. Not taking a long time, he came back and brought two shovels and buckets which he had borrowed from Jyou. Well, Jyou really planned to make a sandcastle, but it seemed that he had forgotten it because Taichi kept asking him to come along with him to play in the sea.

"Here," Takeru gave her a shovel. "let's make it together!"

Before Takeru could receive an answer, he walked and tried to find out a good spot and sat down. He waved his hand to Hikari, asking her to join him. Hikari laughed with his cute habit and joined him. The teenagers started to take some sand and put it into the bucket, and filled the bucket with the sea water. The two teenagers went into laughter, such as they had come back to the old days when they were very innocent. Soon enough, they were succeeded making a sandcastle and they clapped their hands in satisfied.

"We did it!" Takeru laughed innocently.

"The castle couldn't take a pair of prince and princess to live in together," Hikari said as she laughed.

"Well, Hikari-chan, this is just a sandcastle," he said. "maybe you should build your own castle if you want to put a prince and princess,"

Hikari looked at him, smiling and shaking her head. "No," she said. "for me, a place names castle is a place where I could live freely,"

"I've ever read in tale story that even the princess didn't love their status as princess, because most of the members will try to put her safe and sound," Hikari said. "even though she always got everything that she wanted, and a lot of girl felt envy with her,"

"But," she continued. "but for me, a place names castle is a place… where I could live happily with my family without any reason,"

"so, I guess I don't need to build my own castle, because my house is my castle!" Hikari ended her tale.

Takeru looked at her before laughing. "are you planning to become a story-teller?"

"No! I want to be a kindergarten teacher!" she answered.

And one more thing. For her, she didn't need to build a big castle. This sandcastle was more than enough, especially this was a sandcastle which was made together with him. Deep inside her heart, she hoped that one day, she could build another castle together with him. A bigger castle where they could live happily together.

"Anyway, Hikari-chan," Takeru said. "we haven't made a gate for this castle yet,"

"Ah, you're right," Hikari said.

"Let us destroy some part for the gate," he said. "I guess you can do it from your place,"

Takeru slowly dragged out a part of the castle with his hand and so was Hikari. They kept doing it and made a hole as a gate. Once the hole was deep enough, all the things that happened was, both of them could reach their fingers to each other without realization. Both of them were confused, and groped their hands confusingly and wondering, and stopped once their fingers accidentally interlocked to each other. They blushed as they noticed what was it, before decided to take a look from the whole, and their eyes met to each other. They quickly swapped their hands and avoided eyes to each other.

"I'm sorry," Takeru said after a long silence. "I thought it was just a little crab,"

Hikari hid her face and nodded. Secretly, she looked at her hands, which were dirty and full with sand, red as well. She did remember when he inserted his fingers against hers, even though it was just an accident. She held both of her hands tightly, blushing and her heart was beating very fast with that. She shook her head and clapped both of her hands, and decided to forget about those stuffs.

Another accident happened. Soon after she clapped her hands, she felt that the sand came inside her eyes, and scathed her eyes.

"Hikari-chan?! Are you okay?!"

She tried rubbing her eyes with her hands as she remembered her hands were full with sands. She shook her head due her eyes were itching. Takeru quickly came to her and sat next in front of her, grabbing her hands in order to avoid her from rubbing her eyes.

"Don't rub it!" he ordered. "Can you try to open your eyes a little bit?"

She nodded and followed Takeru's suggestion. Her vision was a bit blurred but she could see that Takeru was sitting in front of her. Slowly, she could feel a little wind and it came into her eyes. She probably knew Takeru's plan to erase the dust by blowing it. Once she could open her eyes and her vision returned, she could see a pair of blue eyes and met with hers, and their face were so close to each other, leaving them stoned before Hikari can blush.

"Are you still feeling itchy?" Takeru asked worriedly and received a shook. "Okay then,"

She blinked her eyes and smiled at him. "Thank you,"

After that, she took her camera and started taking the view and the castle, not to mention she tried to take a photo of Takeru, when he was in his innocent moment with the sandcastle and she did it, with a result of Takeru's grumpy face but he laughed pretty soon with that and decided to go back with the others. Before she could join him, she saw a branch and she got an idea from that. She started writing in the sand using that branch, without noticing Takeru had been standing beside her.

"Why did you write my name?" Takeru asked curiously.

Hikari widened her eyes panicky. Indeed, she was writing his name 'Takeru' in the sand and wanted to write that she really liked him, and will erase it later. Now, she should forget about it, with a plus she was wondering what should she answer.

"I just wanted to write your name," she answered after a long silence, and she got an idea and wrote it on the sand and giggled with that.

"Wait a sec!" Takeru said quickly. "How could you –"

"this is cute, eh?" Hikari asked as she giggled.

"But, I've never heard someone called me with that name! Even okaasan has never called me like that!" Takeru said. "What do you mean with that 'Takeru-chan'?!"

Hikari laughed hardly as she noticed his grumpy with that. Indeed, there was no one that had ever called him using –chan. Most people will use –chan for girls, babies, and a special person called… boyfriend.

"Your future girlfriend might call you with that, so I just want to make a good preparation for you!" Hikari said and gave him a fake smile, noticing that she was a bit frustrated with that fact. She gotta believe that one day, someone will call him using that name, or maybe another cute nickname.

"Then, your future boyfriend will call you with –kun," Takeru said as he stuck out his tongue playfully and escaped. "Hikari-kun!"

"There's no way!" Hikari said before she could reply him and laugh.

Hikari tried to catch him as he also walked faster using his feet, and decided to get along with a little tag from him. She chuckled a little as she also realized Takeru started to slower his move, laughing as well. In a minute, she could catch him, and wrapped his waist with her arms, to stop and avoid him from escape anymore. Hikari giggled as a word came out from her mouth.

"Takeru-chan!"

Again, Hikari laughed and blushed a little, without being aware with Takeru's blush, and without being aware that she'd been holding his clothes tighter and tighter. They kept like that, until the laughter stopped and she realized her arms from his waist, and her blush had calmed down, finally.

"But, will you accept if one day your girlfriend wants to call you like that way?" Hikari asked after she stopped her laughter.

Meanwhile, Takeru looked at her curiously before he gave her an answer. "I accept everything," he said. "besides, she likes someone. It's quite impossible if she could become my girlfriend later,"

Hikari's smile flattered away as she heard his statement, biting her lips as well and felt annoyed to herself with that reminder. She did remember that Takeru didn't want to have a one-sided love relationship, which meant that he didn't want to have a relationship carelessly, and will take it carefully and seriously, and it was with a girl that he liked.

She only smiled, and hoped for the best.

Night had fallen, all of the chosen children were spending their time by making a BBQ time. Most of them were complained with Daisuke's habit to take foods as much as he could, and teased him. Meanwhile, the two lovebirds in the group, Sora-Yamato and Miyako-Ken, decided to take another place where they could spend their moment together, just the two of them while the other couldn't help shrugging.

Miyako and Yamato had been smirking without Hikari's knowledge, and their partners couldn't help sighing.

'I'm full and tired,' Hikari thought as she buried her head with pillow after finished playing cards. A lot of thing happened today, especially when she built the sandcastle back then, and when she remembered that his fingers were interlocked with hers back then by accident. She blushed and giggled a little as she tried to interlock all of her fingers by herself, and the feels were different than before. Indeed, she was interlocking her fingers by herself and there was no way she will feel as nervous as before. 'but, I'm happy,'

She started to shut both of her eyes, not until she heard a knock from her door. She wondered, Miyako still played cards with the others, and she told her that she won't come back before midnight, and she could come inside whenever she wanted without knocking the door. She stood up and came to the front door, opening the door and wondering with the guest and inviting him to come in.

"Takeru-kun? What are you doing?"

"Hmm, I was a bit worry if you're sick, so –"

She chuckled, knowing that he can be thinking like that, since she made an odd behavior during dinner, and it was not because she was sick, but she was tired. She invited him to come inside, and they took a seat next to each other. Takeru told her about the card match that was getting hotter and hotter, since Daisuke didn't want to let Miyako win.

As they talked, suddenly, they heard a key sound through the door.

"Wh… what..?" Takeru said panicky.

"Enjoy your night, my Takeru-sama!"

"Hikari-chan, I won't disturb you tonight. I'll sleep in Mimi-onesama's room!"

"Even though I don't really agree with this, but Takeru, don't hurt my sister, okay?"

"Don't worry, Ken-kun and the others had participated to help us to handle Daisuke-kun~"

Together, they said:

"We've planned for this. Have a good night, and don't forget to confess your feelings to each other!" said the victims.

Both Takeru and Hikari looked at the door and heard their steps were further away as they knew the victims. They looked at each other panicky, blushing as well.

And so, they were trapped again like yesterday. And this time, it was not only for two hours, but for one night, and they will spend this night together, in the same room.

1. Suikawari is a traditional Japanese game that involves splitting a watermelon with a stick while blindfolded. Played in the summertime, suikawari is most often seen at beaches, but also occurs at festivals, picnics, and other summer events.