Aki gasped for air as she broke the surface of the water. She pushed soaking strands of hair away from her face, wiping the water away from her eyes as she did. She looked behind her in time to see a large wave tower over her before crashing down and sending her tumbling toward the shore.
She popped her head out of the water again, this time in a more shallow area than before. A chuckle escaped her lips.
Currently she and the Host Club were at a beach in Okinawa – more specifically, Nekozawa's private beach. Apparently Haruhi said she wouldn't have minded going to a beach over a water park, and the hosts took it as her saying she really wanted to go to a beach. So, they had the girls pack their things the day after exams and then they all hopped on a plane down to Okinawa. Well, a private jet, really, but that's beside the point.
And, not only had the hosts and Aki gone to Okinawa, but so had some of their regular guests. Aki didn't understand why the guests had to come too, but she didn't care all that much. Their being there only affected the club, not her. She only wished Kasumi and Nobuo were there, too, or Rei and Emiko. Everyone was busy, unfortunately, and the trip was too much of a late notice for Kasumi and Nobuo. Hell, it was a late notice for Aki, too!
Aki swam to the shore and walked out, wringing out her hair. She felt like the only one having any fun. Not that she didn't think the hosts were having fun in their own way, but she felt alone in her fun. Like it was...free. She was free from responsibilities. They weren't. They were having on-the-job fun. She was having vacation fun.
Aki had just finished wringing her hair when Kaoru called out to her. "Aki! Come over here!"
He waved to her from his spot on a lounge chair. Aki headed over to him and Hikaru (who was on the chair beside Kaoru's). Hikaru held out a glass to her as she approached, filled with some type of green, fruity drink.
"Want a sip?" he asked.
"No. That's yours isn't it?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So your gross spit is already on the straw."
"What's so bad about that? It's just a little on the straw."
"It's like an indirect kiss. With you."
"Ouch. Aki, you're so mean!" he said, pouting.
She stuck her tongue out and sat on the arm rests of his and Kaoru's chairs. "What'd you call me over for?" she asked Kaoru.
"You looked lonely," he said. "Like a sad little puppy."
"You okay, Puppy?" Hikaru asked, patting her head with Kaoru.
"I'm not lonely," she said, waving them away. "How about you two? Having fun?"
They shrugged. "I guess so," Hikaru said. "But why did we have to come to the East Sea instead of the Caribbean Sea? And why does it have to be Nekozawa-senpai's private beach?"
Tamaki let out a high-pitched screech nearby. Aki noticed Nekozawa stepping away from Tamaki, Belzenhef on one hand and a black umbrella in the other.
"Kyoya!" Tamaki yelled. "I told you I wanted to borrow your private beach!"
"It was a sudden plan," Kyoya said with a shrug, walking to the little group. "And Haruhi wanted to go somewhere close by domestically. She doesn't have a passport, either. Was anyone else able to provide a suitable location?" No one said anything to that.
After a moment of somewhat awkward silence, Nekozawa started speaking. "The Cat Rock is where each generation of the Nekozawa family's offerings are placed to worship our family's guardian diety." Just the way he spoke made it seem like he was really trying to freak everyone out. "There's a legend that says if you jump off into the sea from there, you will never again come back up – Ah. It seems there's a brave challenger over there."
Everyone turned toward the rock. Aki didn't even need to see who the "challenger" was, because Tamaki and the twins were already screaming out Haruhi's name. They dashed up to the rock and grabbed her, then ran back to the beach.
"So, Kyoya-senpai," Aki said while the others caught their breaths.
"Hm?"
"I'm guessing this whole 'bring the guests' thing was your idea, right?"
He let out a small chuckle. "Actually, no. It was Tamaki's idea."
"Huh?"
"He said it had something to do with keeping Haruhi's body hidden."
"O-kay..." Tamaki was weird.
Kyoya looked Aki up and down. "I see yours is hidden," he said, nodding to her tank top and board shorts.
"Of course. I'm not – This is as much as anyone'll be allowed to see." She almost tried to make a joke, but then remembered that he wasn't into her humor. That was more of a joke for Hikaru and Kaoru.
"I see you aren't even a little bit wet," she said.
"I have duties to attend to, I don't have time to go swim."
"Or...is it that you can't swim? Because when we were at your park you weren't swimming."
"I can swim just fine."
"Oh really?" she asked, giving him a dumb grin. "Prove it."
"I'm not dressed –"
"Senpai, you're wearing board shorts and a shirt! All you need to do is whip off your shirt and glasses and jump into the water."
Kyoya smirked and for a moment Aki thought she was in trouble. "Aki, are you saying you want me to take off my shirt?"
It took her a moment to respond. "What? No, not like that!" she snapped, a bit flustered. "You're awful, Kyoya-senpai." He only smiled, irritating her further. "I'm gonna go for a swim," she grumbled.
Aki turned and walked back toward the water. If he wanted her to stop talking, he could have just said so! That's what she got from what he'd said, anyway. Teasing her surely meant he was done talking.
She stopped just at the point where dry sand met the damp sand. Honestly, she didn't really want to go swimming now. She's just said that to leave, but...now what?
Aki sat down in the sand and started running her fingers through it. It was pretty warm, not all that hot seeing as the sun had been beating down on it all day. After a moment of just playing with the sand around her, she started putting piles of it on her feet, making a little mound of sand from her ankle to her toes. Once she was satisfied with the pile, she freed her feet, now covered in sand.
Two shadows were suddenly looming over her. She looked back to find Honey and Mori standing behind her with buckets in their hands. Upon closer inspection she realized the buckets were full of different kinds of sea animals.
"Hiya, Tomi-chan!" Honey said brightly, beaming at her.
"Hi," she said. "Where did you guys get all of that?"
"Over there." Honey and Mori pointed down the beach to an area just under the Cat Rock. A group of girls were already leaving the spot. "We got the beach stocked with stuff like these! Nekozawa says he'll have his chefs cook them for us!"
"That so?"
"Yup!" Honey then set the bucket down and knelt beside Aki. "So whatcha doin', Tomi-chan?"
"Just burying my feet."
Honey paused, thinking. Then he started to smile and turned to Aki. "Hey...can we bury you, Tomi-chan?"
Aki shrugged. "I guess so."
Honey jumped to his feet and turned to Mori. "Wanna help, Takashi?" Mori nodded.
Aki, Honey, and Mori immediately set to digging a hole large enough for Aki to lay down in and deep enough that they could adequately cover her. Soon enough they had a large, deep hole, just big enough for Aki's body. She laid down and Honey and Mori started pushing piles of sand onto her until only her head stuck out. The building pressure on her body actually felt pretty good, as well as how warm the sand was.
"Make sure her feet are covered," Honey said to Mori as they smoothed out the sand. Mori gave him a thumbs-up.
Honey turned to her and smiled. "There ya go, Aki-chan!" he said, patting her head.
"Thanks you guys," she said.
"Hey, Honey-senpai! Mori-senpai!" Hikaru and Kaoru called out to the two seniors, waving them over.
"Ah! We have to go, Aki-chan!" Honey said. "Do you want us to dig you out?"
"Nah, you just buried me! I can get someone else to do it. You guys just go and do whatever you need to do."
"O-kay! Bye Aki-chan!" he called, leaving with Mori.
Aki leaned her head back, as much as she could, basking in the sun. If she closed her eyes and just listened to everything around her, it felt like she was in some sort of dream, laying in a soft, warm bed.
"Enjoying yourself?"
Aki opened an eye and looked up at Kyoya. He pushed up his glasses as they were beginning to slip down the bridge of his nose.
"Yes I am," she said. "You look sweaty. How about you take off your shirt? You'd be less hot that way."
"You really want me to take it off?"
"Hey, I said you'd be less hot. That has a double meaning, Senpai."
A small smirk made its way to his lips. "So you found a comeback."
"Yeah. But one that only works if the wording is correct. I'm sure you'll come up with something next time."
"I'm sure I will. If there ever is a next time."
"Which there probably won't be, right?"
"Right...So tell me, Aki, do you know if Haruhi has any fears?"
Aki raised an eyebrow. "No. Why?"
"Hikaru and Kaoru came up with a game to figure out Haruhi's fears since she seems to have none."
"No one's fearless."
"I know."
"I'm guessing you joined the game?" He nodded. "Well wouldn't you want to find out yourself?"
"Of course. I was just seeing if you knew."
"Ah."
With that they fell into an awkward silence. Well, it felt awkward for Aki, anyway.
"So...want to dig me out?" Aki asked.
"Not really."
"Kyoya! Come over here! I have a plan!" Tamaki called.
"That's my cue to leave."
"See ya, Senpai," Aki said as Kyoya walked off.
When he was gone Aki decided to break out of the sand as it was getting a little too warm, as was her face. She moved her body, breaking up the sand and knocking it to the side with any free limb until she was able to stand up. Now she was just left with a very sandy body. Aki brushed some of the sand off, but soon just walked into the water to get the rest off. Afterward she swam around for a bit before going back to shore. She walked around a little, spotted a pair of water guns (she recognized those to be the twins'), took one, and ran around attacking everyone. Some of the girls laughed and were good sports about it, but others weren't happy with her. They complained but calmed down when Aki apologized. She even got Tamaki who was also a good sport about it.
Then she spotted Kyoya with his back to her. A mischievous smile crept onto her face as she began pumping the gun. She aimed it at him and pulled the trigger. Aki had pumped the gun enough so that Kyoya was drenched when the water was sprayed at him. Aki let out a laugh, but it was soon replaced with a girlish squeal when Kyoya suddenly snatched the gun away from her, moving so fast it was scary.
"Enjoying yourself?" he asked with a scary smile, pinching her cheek much too hard.
"Ow, ow! I'm sorry, Kyoya-senpai! Forgive me! OW!" she exclaimed as he began to tug.
Eventually she freed her cheek and tried to leave, though Kyoya soaked her with the gun before she was completely out of harm's way. She went to an empty spot on the beach and caught her breath, then laid on the sand, hands behind her head and one leg propped up on her knee. She closed her eyes to get the feeling of being in a dream again. It was very soothing.
Soon enough, she actually fell asleep. She hadn't meant to, but it crept up on her. Aki didn't even realize she had been sleeping until she actually woke up. And what she woke up to wasn't exactly pleasant.
It was the screaming that got her. She woke up with a start, immediately sitting upright. She looked around, searching for the screaming.
At first all she could make out was that it was the girls screaming. Then she faintly heard the names: "Haruhi" and "Tamaki". Her heartbeat sped up a little. What had happened to those two?
Aki jumped to her feet. By now everyone at the beach was running toward the ocean, still calling for Tamaki and Haruhi. Aki hurried toward the large group, looking at the water for either of the other two.
"Hey!" Aki grabbed Hikaru's arm just as she reached him at the front of the pack. "Hey, what's going on?"
His words came out in a panicky way at first. "Haruhi...some assholes...and...Tamaki..."
"You aren't making any sense you know!"
"Haruhi fell!"
He didn't say any more, but he didn't need to. Aki was pretty sure she had a general idea: Haruhi fell and Tamaki went after her.
Now Aki's heart was really beating fast. She looked towards the water, as did everyone else. It wasn't long before Tamaki rose out of the water with Haruhi in his arms, Haruhi coughing up a storm. A collective sigh of relief went through the crowd of people gathered in front of the water, but there was still a feeling of fear in the air.
Everyone was silent, watching Tamaki walk to shore. Kyoya met him with a towel that he soon wrapped around Haruhi.
"Those bastards?" Tamaki asked quietly. His serious tone honestly freaked Aki out.
"I just confiscated their IDs and politely asked them to leave," Kyoya responded.
"Yeah?" Tamaki let out a sigh. "Kyoya, Hikaru, Kaoru, Aki, prepare to take the clients back to the hotel."
"Yeah, sure," Aki said before turning around with Hikaru and Kaoru and shooing the girls.
"Okay, okay," Hikaru said.
"The cars are about to come so let's go," Kaoru added.
"What about Haruhi?" one of the girls asked.
"Haruhi will be fine," Aki said. "Don't you girls worry, alright?"
After lots of coaxing and promising that Haruhi and Tamaki were going to be okay, they finally got the girls to start heading back to the road. A line of cars were already waiting when they got there. Hikaru, Kaoru, and Aki saw everyone off before turning and jogging back to the beach.
"So, what really happened?" Aki asked.
"According to the girls, Haruhi and a few of them were up on that Cat Rock when some local men appeared," Hikaru said.
"Probably through the cave," Kaoru added. "Anyway, the guys started some trouble with the girls and Haruhi tried to defend them, but one of them ended up throwing her off, and Tamaki jumped in after her."
Aki gritted her teeth. That sounded scary from any perspective. Just hearing it made her heart jump again.
"Well, it's a good thing she's alright."
"Yeah..."
They were just reaching the others when Tamaki started to yell at Haruhi. "Then do whatever you want! I'm never talking to you again until you recognize your mistake!"
He stormed off. Aki stopped in front of the little group, staring after him. What had she missed this time?
