Mikihisa narrowed his eyes as he got out of the car. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he opened the trunk as Yoh let out a confused babble.
It was the end of July, high summer, and the air was hot and humid, but the young family had decided to go to the beach during one of the weekends.
Keiko had returned to work two weeks ago, and, so far, she was quite exhausted, having to deal with returning to work five days a week and then having a second shift of being a mum at home. She went to bed early these days, exhausted, even though the sun was up until late evening hours.
Now, she had come out of the car, in a red summer dress, and opened the door to the backseats where the twins were in their car carriers.
Yoh looked up at her from where he was just chewing on a cookie that he got from Mikihisa, and Hao who's hair was up in a funny ponytail. It was getting longer, but it still wasn't that long, and Hao looked like a rooster on a bad day. Yoh didn't sport a similar hairstyle, his hair wasn't growing as quick as Hao's, and so didn't have much to get in a ponytail, if any.
"Come on, Yoh," Keiko said, undoing his belt and taking the child out of the car. She set him down on the sand, and moved to get Hao out.
The moment she didn't pay attention to him, Yoh turned and started wandering away. The soft sand under his feet was hot, but soft, and he was forced to lift his feet off quickly when he set them down. A beach wasn't a new thing for him. He has been there before, on walks, on the kamiari festival, he knew this thing. But the feeling of sand and sun shining onto his skin was a new sensation, and he wanted to explore.
Keiko took Hao out of the car and closed the door.
"Yoh?" she called, not seeing her child, and the older twin snorted.
I would advise you not to take your eyes off him, he said with a smirk, and Keiko spotted Yoh a few metres away, and hurriedly set Hao down and ran to the younger twin.
"Yoh, sweetie, you can't just go wandering around, you need to have one of us go with you, alright?" she said, grabbing his hand and steering him back towards the car.
Hao, leaning against the side, was still smirking.
Maybe next time, I can get out of the car first, because I can stay in one place, he remarked, and Keiko sighed.
"I'll think about it," she said, and he already knew that she would do it like that the next time they went somewhere.
Mikihisa closed the car trunk with a BOOM, and the twins moved their heads to look at him in unison.
You look funny, Hao remarked, and felt Yoh's joy at the sight of Mikihisa acting like a bag hanger. He had three bags over his shoulders, a hat, and a beach tent. He looked like a badly-made scarecrow that just got there from a field.
"Sure, sure," Mikihisa grumbled, and grunted since the bags were quite heavy. "Let's go, sailors."
He went off, and Yoh tilted his head, putting his thumb into his mouth in confusion, but took Keiko's hand when she offered it to him, and they started going after Mikihisa.
Hao trailed behind them, not happy about the prospect of being splashed some more by Yoh, because, as he had found out, Yoh loved splashing.
Mikihisa stopped at a place near a small lagoon made by the ocean water. It would be a perfect spot for the children, the water wasn't very deep and they could make sand castles and dig holes in the wet sand.
"How about here?" he turned to Keiko, and she smiled.
"It looks fantastic," she said, the sea breeze causing her hair to flow in the wind. She appeared even more beautiful that way.
The twins' tiny hair was also flowing in the wind, falling into their eyes, and Hao blew it off his face, annoyed. This was the only reason he didn't like long hair; it got in his face way too often, and especially when the wind was blowing. Otherwise, having long hair had only perks for him, plus it made him look more dashing and handsome (when older).
Mikihisa set the bags down and unpacked the tent. Yoh immediately let go of Keiko's hand and came over.
"Do you want to help dad, Yoh?" Mikihisa asked and the child nodded excitedly. Hao stood around, not going to help unless he was directly asked to.
Mikihisa started by putting in the wires to make the shape of the tent.
"Could you please hand me that one, Yoh?" he pointed at the second long wire that he needed, and the child tilted his head. He wobbled to it and took it, handing it to his father.
"Thank yo- Yoh," Mikihisa stopped halfway through thanking him when he wanted to take it and realized that the toddler did NOT plan on giving it to him. His tone changed to a stricter one.
"Give it to me, Yoh," he said in an authoritative tone, and the child let go and pouted. He wasn't happy that his new toy was taken away.
This is better than Yohmei's soap operas, Hao remarked, standing in the sand, holding Keiko's hand, watching as Mikihisa and Yoh tried to cooperate to put the tent up.
"They're doing their best," Keiko reminded. She took the bag and at least put it on the tent's floor so that it wouldn't fly away. It was a beautiful day, but there was a slight breeze coming from the ocean and it made building the tent harder than it needed to be.
Finally, Mikihisa and Yoh managed to get it up, and settle all their things inside.
"Come on," the father took Yoh's shirt off, revealing a diaper that was advertised as waterproof. Keiko let go of Hao's hand, leaving him to remove his shirt as well, and she rummaged through the bags, trying to find something.
She emerged with a victorious smile, holding a bottle of sun cream.
"There we go," she said. "Come here, Yoh, Hao, I'll spread this on your shoulders and back so that you don't get burned by the sun."
Yoh tilted his head in confusion, and let out an unsure babble.
Keiko smiled.
"If you get burned, it will hurt," she explained. "Like it hurt when a bee stung you a month ago."
Yoh narrowed his eyes. He didn't like pain. Pain was bad. He wanted only nice things.
Keiko took his hand gently.
"Come here," she said and carefully but quickly put the sunscreen on her palms and spread it over her son's back and shoulders, continuing with the neck and arms. Yoh let out a wail when the cold cream touched his skin, but, despite his protests, stayed in place like a good boy.
"There, done," Keiko said when she finished with him, and motioned for Hao to come over to go through the same procedure. Letting out a sigh, Hao decided to play along.
Yoh had been trying to wait. He really was, but it took way too long with Yoh 2, and he was getting bored.
"To," he grabbed the hem of Mikihisa's sunset-coloured swimming trunks.
Mikihisa crouched down next to his son, and stroked his hair.
"Does that take too long, Yoh?" he asked, and the toddler nodded. He chuckled.
"Let's do something else, alright? Because you can't swim yet, you need arm floaties."
Yoh's confused babble told him that he had no idea what that was, and he predicted that his son might not like something on his arms. However, it was an essential part of the equipment and he didn't want to take any risks, so he got the floaties out of the bag.
He was right. Yoh didn't like the floaties around his arms at all. Once they were on, he started screaming and crying, and the other visitors on the beach turned their heads towards them, curious as to who is making such a noise on the otherwise peaceful beach.
"Sorry," Mikihisa mouthed to all of them and looked at Yoh.
"Yoh, you need to have those if you want to go into the water. You liked the pool at home," he tried to explain, and the child momentarily paused his tantrum. "This is like a big pool, a very big pool. But also deeper and not safe for little children. That's why you need to wear those, they keep you safe."
Yoh looked like he wanted to spend more time discussing babies' rights and opinions on this matter, but at least he quieted down and even more when Hao joined them.
"Your turn, Hao," Mikihisa said, already having prepared teal floaties with whales while Yoh had green with dolphins.
I am only doing this for Yoh, he was quick to remind him, and Mikihisa nodded.
"Sure, sure, but you should also do this for yourself. We don't want you to drown."
Hao huffed, but let him put the arm floaties on him, remaining his usual calm composure on the outside but feeling humiliated inside. It was below his level to wear these things. Mark his words, he was truly only doing this for Yoh.
Mikihisa patted his head when he was done.
"There, there, now only one other thing," he said, getting a real floatie out of the bag. With two mischievous kids, one never knew what would happen, and he and Keiko wanted to be double sure that if something happened, the kids would be safe. Of course, the parents would stay with their babies the whole time and support them, but they didn't want to take any risks.
Keiko had meanwhile taken off her dress, revealing a nice blue two-piece swimsuit underneath, and she also used the sunscreen to be protected from the sun. Now, she took the second floatie and helped inflate it. It wasn't a hard job, not like the whole pool that Mikihisa did, and they were soon done.
"Which one do you like?" Keiko held the two floaties up in front of the twins. One was orange with seashells, and the other one was plain white with colourful spots. Hao looked at both of them, his head tilted. He could've chosen first, taking the better one, but he waited until Yoh grabbed the seashell one and then just pointed at the leftover one.
"That's nice of you to wait for your brother, Hao," Mikihisa commented and the boy huffed.
I wasn't waiting for him, I was deciding, he replied, a little irritated.
His father lifted his hands up in defeat.
"Alright, alright," he said, laughing, and Hao wasn't sure if he was laughing at him and had a death wish.
Puffing his cheeks, Hao put the floatie around his waist. Yoh, who was flailing his arm around like a wild chicken, was caught by Keiko and she lifted him up to slide the floatie up to his waist.
"Well, shall we go test the water?" Mikihisa asked, ignoring Yoh's renewed cries about babies' rights and floaties.