Alice recalls their family traditions in Denmark, which may or may not involve getting nude.
"There's no need to be shy, Erina! It's just us girls here, after all." Alice carelessly tossed her towel, leaving herself completely in the nude. She skipped over to the onsen room, not at all bothered that she was totally in the buff. Erina watched her, quietly muttering something about Alice being so shameless.
This went on for the rest of their onsen time. Almost all the girls sat still, and modestly covered up their bodies if they had to get up or expose themselves. Alice, however, had no care for that at all, even acting as if the onsen was a swimming pool.
"Alice! You're being improper!" Erina reprimanded her cousin, who was making kicks into the hot spring. "Have some modesty-all of us can see your butt, you know!"
"Yeah, and so what? It's just us girls here." Alice said nonchalantly. "The Japanese are so shy, I swear. In Denmark, plenty of people go swimming on beaches in the nude."
"W-What?!" Megumi said, shocked. All the girls together looked plenty surprised as well. "Naked?! In public?!"
"Yeah," Alice said. "Sometimes, even mom and dad go swimming in the buff-"
"Uncle Soe and auntie-NO! Noooo!" Erina said, her face turning red. "I hate you, Alice! Don't put such images in our heads!"
"Huh, but it's just so normal in Denmark. No one's gonna bat an eyelid at you for doing that," Alice said.
"Do you mean to say you also did it?!" Yuki asked, looking quite scandalized.
Alice simply smiled. "Well, well. Wouldn't you like to know?"
Alice's family went to the beach in Denmark at least once a year, as was their family tradition. When Ryo was "adopted" into the family, he too was forced by Alice to come along every year, despite his protests. The Nakiris in Denmark were a bit more forward thinking than the ones in Japan, as Soe and Leonora more often took the kids to public beaches, giving Alice somewhat of a glimpse into life as an ordinary girl.
There was a kid-friendly area of the beach that had a wading pool, where Alice and Ryo often stayed in during their earlier years. Alice was more often occupied with building a sandcastle than she was with the water. Ryo stuck around to humor her. This was somewhat of a yearly ritual, and they had yearly sandcastle photos to show for it.
"...Oh." Ryo said one year, as if spotting something in the distance. "Looks like your mom and dad are out swimming naked."
"Ryo!" Little Alice seemed scandalized, getting up from her sandcastle to stand and pout at him. "You pervert! Be a proper gentleman and stop looking at them!"
"I wasn't looking at them, it was just-yeah, nevermind." Ryo said, plopping down on the sand and turning back to the castle. By this time, he had already learned it was somewhat pointless to try and explain himself to Alice, and that conversations were a lot easier if he just nodded and said yes.
"You were just looking at mommy's-"
"No, I wasn't!"
"I haven't even finished what I was saying!" Alice said, huffing a little, looking down on her chest. "When I grow up, I'm gonna have them too, you know!"
"Gee, now you're the one being inappropriate," Ryo said, looking flustered as he stuck a shell on their castle wall. "Don't go talking about that stuff to boys. You gonna give 'em the wrong idea."
"Oh, it's just you anyway, Ryo," Alice said, putting more sand into a plastic bucket. "You won't hurt me, right? A dog doesn't bite his own master."
"Stop calling me a dog!"
Alice just giggled at him. "You can tell me that when you win more food battles against me!"
This only riled up Ryo, and Alice ran away, laughing as Ryo chased her across the beach.
Five years later.
"Ryoooo! This looks like a nice spot!" Alice had already ran ahead of them into the beach, waving as she jumped up and down. This year, the Nakiris opted to rent a private beach. The short expanse of beach has been cordoned off for them, and surrounded by Nakiri international security.
Ryo went ahead to Alice, carrying their beach bags, a cooler, and beach umbrella. For years, he and Alice were just off finding their own spot, be it in the kiddie pool or elsewhere, while Alice's parents went on their own at times, only occasionally checking on them. Ryo went ahead to Alice, ignoring Soe and Leonora out of habit.
He finally stopped in front of Alice, planting down the beach umbrella according to Alice's instructions. Then came out the beach towels. Setting up was something the adults used to do for them before, but as time passed and they grew up a bit, they looked after themselves more. Or to be more accurate, Ryo looked after Alice.
"Hurry up, Ryo!" Alice chided him, as she just stood there watching him set up. She wasn't sure when or why, but Ryo mellowed down a lot over the years, and began to start acting like her actual aide-and a pretty competent one, at that. He talked a lot more politely now too, rarely missing a beat when it came to calling her 'miss'. He still had outbursts of talking like an unrestrained sailor now and then, but they were so much rarer.
"Done." Ryo said, unpacking the last beach mat for Alice to lay down on. She got on it, laying down under the shade of the beach umbrella. Unlike Ryo, Alice hardly changed-she was still the same excitable, curious little girl that walked into Ryo's pub many years ago.
Alice took off her shirt and beach shorts, revealing the white two-piece bikini she was wearing underneath. She reached for something in her beach bag-a bottle of sunblock. "Ryo, can you put some on my back?"
Ryo didn't respond at all, and was just curiously staring at Alice.
She hasn't changed much, but she's definitely... Grown.
"Earth to Ryo!" Alice said, snapping him from his thoughts. "Stop staring at my boobs!"
"I wasn't looking," Ryo said, a lie. He took the bottle of sunblock, and started working some onto Alice's back.
"All of a sudden they just popped up there out of nowhere," Alice said, looking down at her cleavage. "Puberty is such an odd thing."
"I guess so." Ryo himself had an absurd growth spurt, and was all of a sudden so much taller than Alice. With his height and Alice's generous bust size, people often mistook them as older for what they actually were these days.
"Let me put some on you," Alice said as soon as Ryo was done putting sunblock on her back. He didn't respond, instead just proceeding to take off his shirt.
"Huh. When did you start getting so muscular?" Alice remarked, working some sunblock on Ryo's back. He was always lean, even as a child, being used to physical labor, but the muscles on his body were a lot more noticeable now. "Been having a lot of fun with dad?"
"I guess you can say that," Ryo said. Soe was into working out and various sports, and was enthused when Ryo showed interest in the same things, since he hadn't had much luck with Alice. "We went boxing last time."
"Can't say I relate," Alice said, finishing up Ryo's back and then proceeding to slather on more sunblock onto the rest of her body. Alice was hardly a girl for sports, and even in their beach outings, she mostly lays in the sun, while Ryo does more swimming.
They watched Soe and Leonora frolicking in the water in the distance. While some kids would be upset at her parents not giving them attention on a trip like this, Alice didn't mind, knowing how busy the two were, sometimes rarely having time for each other as well. They would get together anyway when it was time for lunch or dinner, grilling some meat and seafood that they packed for the trip.
"They're the ones who're acting like kids now, I swear," Alice remarked with a little smile, watching her parents play around on the beach. Ryo didn't say anything, but he quietly agreed. He knew Alice's parents enough by now-they could be serious and intimidating when it came to their work, and they were among the best in their field. But there were plenty of moments when they were just absolutely silly. Alice clearly got it from them. "I hope I have a relationship like that someday," she said.
Ryo didn't know what to say to that. He thought Alice had been watching too many romance movies. Instead, he took out a drink from the cooler, and took a sip. "What's the plan, miss?" Ryo asked. "Do you want to get started on your yearly sandcastle?"
"Hmm, aren't we a little too old for that now, Ryo?" Alice said, surprisingly. "I was wondering if we should go out there and swim naked."
Ryo nearly choked on his drink.
"It's a private beach so no one else is around," Alice said, with a little grin. "And besides, mom said you're more likely to get an even tan that way."
"Miss, you never get a tan," Ryo pointed out. "Neither does Miss Leonora. You just turn red. Like a tomato."
"How rude!" Alice said, pouting at him. "Anyway, you go on and do what you like, Ryo. Don't try to stop me though!" She was reaching behind her bikini top, as if to untie it.
"Alice! Not in front of me!" Ryo seemed flustered, quickly grabbing a beach towel and tossing it over Alice. Sand flew everywhere.
"Ryo! Gah! You got sand all over my hair!" Alice pushed the towel aside, trying to shake off and dust the sand that stuck all over her hair and body. "I was just teasing, you goof!" Alice said. "I'm not seriously gonna get naked in front of you! Imagine what dad would say!"
"He would kill me!" Ryo said, and he believed it fully. Since they were much older now, Ryo could tell Soe had been starting to keep a more watchful eye on them. They could no longer do things like have sleepovers together or hold hands so casually. Whenever Alice held his hand-a habit of hers since childhood-Ryo would see Soe giving them a concerned look. Swimming naked in the beach together was definitely out of the question.
"I can never tell when you're teasing or not!" Ryo said, raising his voice a little.
Alice chuckled. "Well, I could say the same whenever you talk in such a dull monotone!"
"You asked me to talk more politely, and now you're gonna complain?"
"Oh no! I'm not complaining," Alice said, getting up from under the umbrella. "It's just good to see that I can still get you riled up now and then." Alice winked at him, and then ran off to shore.
Ryo quietly groaned to himself. "...You're gonna be the death of me, Alice." He got up and ran after her.
Alice would later get tired of swimming, and go back to building the yearly sandcastle.
a/n: Prompt for this was 'changes', and I interpreted it as physical changes/body changes... and what better place to notice those than the beach. Feel free to drop in prompts/ requests! I can't promise to do all or it might take some time, but if I get an idea for something will def work on it and put it here!