SA-SA-MI
Beach Beauty
Pu-chan: Can anyone spell l-o-n-g v-a-c??
Well anyway Hiki-chan and I are back from "Bella Italia" and….
KnH: Well yeah, I had no internet and all and when I returned I had to start learning for school and all and eversince then I've not been having a lot of time, so please excuse the long period of time you had to wait, anyway here's chapter four.
OK so, every fic-author is entilted to at least one lame chapter in every 10, so ta-daa, here it is --!! It didn't quite turn out the way I expected it to, due to the fact that I've never seen an actual photo shoot, down't know how things are gone about with and have absoluetly no idea about make-up but bleh (yeah I know, shame on me!)
Someone mentioned that this story is an original tale, well as a matter of fact it is, but it seems like I tagged it as a logical aftermath of occurances right after the Digimons return, apparently, it isn't so please accept my apology if I might have confused anybody here reading this!
Please bare with me…
Once more I want to thank Cqueen for beta-reading my fics and a big thank you to all my reviewers, I love to hear from you, domou arigatou gozaimasu "bows"
Oh yeah, before I forget! Say how much are 28.000 authors who do NOT own digimon plus one?? 28.001 authors who do NOT own digimon: Disclaimer!!
p.s.: get's my spacing, the paragraphs and some symbolds messed up, so it doesn't quite look as i expected it to do either..... "sigh"
Ryou and Ruki went into their separate cabins, where they met a large arsenal of swimsuits in all shapes and sizes, each of them numbered.
"There are so many, when will we get done?" she spoke to herself.
Then she briskly skimmed through all the various pieces hanging on the rack. They were all by Hoshihana the number one fashion label in Japan which debuted this year. Some were pretty, others pretty much OK and some were just pretty damn impossible. Noticing the tags attached to them, she quickly figured that she had to wear them in a certain order, but one thing she didn't quite get was that some of the tags had the letters PL written next to the numbers.
"Now what could PL stand for?" Then taking a closer look at the piece attached to the PL tags, she had to grimase with disgust, at the pink and pale blue one piece. It was some kind of old fashioned kiddy swimsuit with a checkers pattern that looked somewhat like a picnic blanket covered with kitshy yellow daisys and broad baby blue straps, which were crossed at the back.
"THIS is a joke right? Satô has to be joking! Whoever "designs" crap like this deserves to be punished…severly!! He can't expect me to wear this!" She hung the disgusting little piece of shame back unto the rack. In sum, there were 6 of those PL swimmsuits, one kitshier than the other, but at least two of them were agreable in Ruki's opinion, even though she still wouldn't be caught dead in the streets or at the beach freewillingly wearing one of those.
After the little excurse to what lay ahead of her and pushing the PL labled ones to the back of her mind, she grabbed the first piece which had a tag with #1 written on it, quickly undressed and put it on. It was a turquoise triangle two piece with large yellow-orange petaled flower on the right cup and on the slip. She turned arround to take a look at herself in the full-body mirror in her cabin.
"Aggreable! At least it's my color." Usually she preferred swimsuits to bikinis, not that they looked better (given the fact that they didn't have any likeness to some "picnic blanket"), it's just that she abhored the looks guys usually gave her when seeing her in those skimp-rags, as she preferred to call them, eventhough she didn't have a bustline like Kotomi to "present". But it still was a reason to avoid crowded beaches and even more crowded indoor pools. "OK, I think I'm done." She gave her mirror one last exasperated frown, before stepping outside the cabin only to meet another sight which simply begged her to roll her eyes.
Ryo, readily dressed in his swimtrunks, waited for her outside, with a warm, expecting smile. Sure he was done faster than her but first of all he was a guy and how long does it take to wear swimtrunks, moreover if they're labled and you don't have to waste time searching for one. Besides his father was the photographer and it wasn't his first time doing this, so he knew what to do and how to go about things.
"You ready?"
"I won't get anymore ready by standing arround here." she cyncally sneered at him.
He grinned. "That swimsuit fits you well, you look good in it." He remarked with genuine honesty.
"Cut the sweet-talk, Akiyama. Let's get this over with." the coldness in her voice was only topped by her freezing look which sent unpleasant shivers down spines in all shapes and sizes.
"Wow! If that look in your eyes wasn't that cold, I'd tell you to chill." He meant jokingly to make her lighten up a bit. It wasn't quite working though. The "shut-up" glance she threw him said it all.
"Besides, if you're gonna be hanging arround with me for the rest of the week - 'which you're bound to do'-then it's best you stick to Ryou, 'cause Mr. Akiyama is my dad!" he laughed a little then spun arround, ready to head off to mask.
'The only thing that'll be "hanging arround" here pretty soon is you from that palmtree if you don't shut up!' she grimmly thought to herself.
" K, Mask is this way, follow me, I bet San and Noriko are already waiting for us." and with a swiping gesture of his hand, he showed her the right direction then taking the lead, he smiled a little, seeing her following him even if not at all willing to do so.
Rolling her eyes and crossing her arms in front of her chest Ruki desperately wished that this day was already over. She must have been out of her right mind that day she let her mom convince her to do this. Pondering over her current situation and how messed up this whole trip seemed to be right now, realisation suddenly struck her that all along she had been staring at his back, unnaturally fascinated by the smoothness of the movement of his shoulders, not to mention the smoothness of the tanned skin which covered said shoulders.
'Gotta hand it to the dork. His jokes are lame but he sure has nice skin!' Quickly she surpressed a smal smile which threatened to tugg at her lips. As if on que and able to perceive every single thought which crossed her mind, Ryou peered over his shoulder with half closed eyes and an impish smile.
"This is it, we're here!" They had arrived at the "mask" 20 steps later, a large white party tent with two plastic chairs standing in the middle, surrounded by various cases, stands and mirrors, giving the impression of a makeshift beauty parlor. There was nobody there at the moment.
All with a sudden, a young lady, looking much younger than her actual age, about Ruki's height stood behind Ryou and Ruki clad in a pastel green t-shirt and tight fitting hip-huggers. With a longish heart-shaped face, smooth, shiny brown hair cut to ears length in the back but leaving two chin-long bangs to frame the side of her face she somewhat reminding Ruki of the anime character Hikari Yagami from Digimon-02, with blue, mysteriously sparkling eyes hiding behing frameless circular glasses.
Appearing behind Ryou and Ruki, tapping Ryou's shoulder the brunette grinned happily.
"Hello, great to see you again, hey, Ryou." and supporting herself on his shoulders, she smacked him once on every cheek, which he warmly returned but the entire scene struck Ruki as lightly out of place. As the 'hero-boy' she assumed him to be, he was supposed to have harems of girls of all ages swarming arround him, showering him with kisses and tearing him apart limb by limb. Seeing this causual display of affection, didn't quite fit into Ruki's picture of Ryou, speaking of harem, where were all his female fans? Hadn't they caught wind yet that there was a shooting going on today at Fukuma beach, with the great Akiyama Ryou as star model? OK so this surely must have been one of the dumbest things Ruki has ever thought of, but she couldn't help it.
"Hy Noriko, I'm glad to see you again too, how's life?"
"Fine, just fine!" Then she turned to Ruki whome she had noticed earlier on, "And you must be Makino Ruki, am I right?"
"Yes, I am." she said with an outstretched arm ready to shake hers.
"Hey, honey smack to the left I'm Noriko smack to the right nice to meet you"
"Nice to…meet…you too!" Ruki sputtered, slightly perplexed, not at all expecting to receive the same 'special treatment' Noriko had given Ryou earlier on. This lady had an even livlier personality than Juri, impossible as it may seem.
"Ooooooh, look at you" - Noriko cooed - "What a beautiful girl you are. You're face is perfect and you have such nice and clear skin. I know people who'd kill to have skin like yours and would you look at that hair! Wonderful, bright auburn and sand coloured highlights, are they natural?" She nodded "Oh fortunate one, you look great already, but when we're done with you, you'll look even better. Come on in." and she marched ahead of them into the tent.
Arching her eyebrows in disbelieve he peered over to Ryou with a look that said 'what-was-that-supposed-to-be'? Grinning Ryou simply shrugged 'I don't know'. Case settled.
Both of them were now seated in one of the two plastic chairs in the center of the tent. Meanwhile Noriko's assistant named San had arrived. San, a slightly corpulent woman of egyptian origin had hispanic traits and kinky curled long dark hair, which was interrupted by dazzling blonde streaks falling wildly down her sholders before an elastic band tried to tame them at her back. Large silver hoops, her trademark earrings, danggled close to her rosy pink cheeks, which were seperated by shapely curved lips. She was very friendly and her foreign accent made her even more likeable.
Now San and Noriko were buzzing arround like two hyperactive bees, when Noriko came and crouched right in front of them, and stared intently at Ruki's face, then at Ryou's then back to Ruki again, causing her initial scepsism about the whole issue to grow even more.
Snap of a finger.
"San, one cappuccino and one café latte, pronto!" she ordered pointing first at Ryou then Ruki.
"Uhm,…I'd preferre a cup of lemon-tea…please." Ruki politely but sternly demanded expecting to have her way, as always.
Silence.
Surpressed chuckles.
Outburst of laughter.
"Well tickle my funnybone…hahaha" that was Noriko. "OK, San one Cappuccino, one Caffee Latte and one cup of lemon tea for the little lady" she added conspiratively winking at Ruki
"What?" Ruki was totally left out of the picture, what on earth was going on? She turned to Ryou for further explanation, seeing that everyone except her, was in the know.
"Don't worry Ruki." Ryou tried to explain between surpressed laughs, "You're not going to be served any beverages here, chuckle it's just a kind of visagist-slang, or the "coffee-code" Noriko and San use to communicate with."
"Oh" came the sober reply of Ruki.
"Cappuccino and Caffé Latte are relating to our complexion, so San knows which colors to pick and which kit to prepare"
"Ah" If Ruki didn't have that much self control to keep her face straight, shame would've been visibly written all over it by now. How could she have known what was meant by the coffe-code? It sounded so much like an offer and she stupidly requested for tea and instantly made a fool of herself in front of San, Noriko and most of all Ryou, now if only they'd stop grinning like mad it would really helpt this already embarassing situation become less embarassing.
Heaven knows where that steaming cup of delicous, sweet, lemon tea suddenly came from which San was holding and handed over to Ruki, who after mumbling a quick 'thank you' had the choice to eather gulp it down in one great sip (which would be nearly impossible or very risky due to hotness of beverage) or pointedly leave it to stand and not drink it at all (which would be very impolite).
She settled with bashfully sipping it, careful not to burn her tongue (or her ego).
Noriko and San proceeded to put on their faces what they called "mask". First white napkin like tissues were wrapped around their necks and an elastic band pulled their hair out of their faces. Then all with a sudden a cloud of pale pink dust materialized before Ruki's face, blurring out the world from her vision, causing her to rapidly close her eyes. Before she knew it, she felt a new layer being placed on her skin making it impossible for her to touch it for the next two hours, one major reason why she detested make-up.
Then after the first layer, came the second one, with a bit more colours, hues, shades and different kind of nuances, laying herself on her eyelids and cheeks in light and short brushed strokes. Then a tiny comb seemed to brush her eyebrows into shape (which she thought was totally unnecessary, her eyebrows were OK as they were) followed by a short stick which's end was a spiral comb straightening out her eyelashes, making them look even more voluminous, enhancing the beauty of her eyes. After that, came a small and soft paintbrush, dipped into a shiny slightly sticky substance, which felt a bit like spit, but smelt sweeter.
Caressing her lips, the paintbrush, left it's shiny, tasty pink fluid behind on her lips, and shine they did. Afterwards Noriko applied some of the first powder to her décolleté and her upper arms. Then, loosening the elastic band, her hair dropped unto her shoulders,Noriko took another scrutinizing look at her face and emitted some 'hmhm' sounds,
"I think we'll leave the hair down, that'll suit you well." and before Ruki could object, not that she didn't mind, Noriko was in her hair with both her hands, holding and tossing it from side to side, to see which place it would be best to let her hair fall, then she picked a comb with a long and pointed end, brushed the bangs on her forehead to the right eye, and drew a line at her left side and made her hair drop to the right, applied a generous ammount of hairspray and topped everything off with a gel that left a lovely healthy-looking shimmer in her hair.
Both were done now, Noriko with Ruki as well as San with Ryou, eventhough he didn't take that long, so he had the rare opportunity to watch her being beautified plus he could afford a cheeky grin because she had her eyes closed and even if she had wanted to punch him for watching her, Noriko mysteriously kept her bound to her chair with invisible shackles, rendering her immovable, so he was out of reach.
But then he couldn't help it, when they both faced each other, Ruki looking even more beautiful than she always did and having her hair down, that sight sent a very pleasant shiver down his spine and a bunch of hawkmons pulling kami-kaze stunts in his gut.
The slightly dazed look in his eyes, caused Ruki to pull her pretty face into a frown, which, strangly enough, as it seemed to Ryou, enhanced her beauty more than ruined it. Her sight sent hot and cold flashes up and down his system, giving him the full hardcore heebie-jeebies. For sure he had seen many pretty girls in his life before, but something about Ruki was just so different, just so out of the ordinary, rendering her incontestable that (to him) no other girl in the world could hold a candle to her.
It wasn't just her appealing looks, her deep purple orbs like an ocean you'd want to drown in, her flaming orange and golden-sand colored hair, which hung like silk strands adorning her face you'd so like to comb your fingers through, or her tomboyishly pouted lips, forming a cute frown, tempting you to kiss it away, her milk-like skin, warm and soft, covering a beautifully slim and fragile looking body you'd love to touch, hold and embrace forever, no it was also something about her attitude, the determination flaring in her eyes, the majestic grace with which she held her head high above everything and anything else, her icy coolness, signaling danger and daring you to come closer and her beast-like courage enabling her to do the unthinkable and make the impossible possible, to Ryou Ruki was simply…
"…Wow"
Usually, that statement of his would have been reason enough for her fist to instantly connect with his nose, but now that San had invested so much time in making him look better (as if that was possible nn!!) plus the embarrassement she dealt with concerning the whole "coffee-code" thing topping it too, she simply settled with sticking out her tongue. Yes it was a very childish thing to do and she felt strange doing it too but wasn't this whole day strange already, and did that really matter?
He grinned. Noriko giggled. San formed her lips to a silent 'aaawww'. Ruki aproved by rolling her eyes.
"OK kids, you done? Ah perfect, San, Noriko, you've done a good job, ok, let's roll." Satô who had sticked his head into the tent to check on the kids noticed that they had completed the make-up part.
"Shall we" Ryou asked her invitingly while getting up from his chair. Ruki shrugged and followed.
'snapsnap'
Very fine, yeah that's it
'snapsnap' OK, now tilt your head a bit higher
'snapsnap' goooood
'snapsnapsnap' move a bit to the right
'snapsnap'
that's it, that's what I want to see
'snapsnapsnap' yeah, lemme have it
'snapsnap' Good, new pose, try to lighten up, just relax, simply relax, YES, hold it, that..that's it, very good 'snapsnapsnapsnap'…
Surrounded by blinds, lamps stands, Noriko, San, her mom and Ryou Ruki stood posing tilting, stretching, "relaxing" and smiling. This wasn't quite what she hoped to be doing on a Saturday morning in Fukuoka, but then again what else was she expecting, this was a photo shoot right? And she agreed to endure this, trading it for a week of school and Satoshi now didn't she? It was all part of the deal. Now if only Ryou would stop staring at her like that, how can she relax and "smile" when people constantly keep giving her funny looks?
"OK, great that was good Ruki now you go change and we'll see to Ryou's shots in the meantime." Satô ordered and Ruki marched to her cabin.
Minutes later she was out with a new piece. It was a simple looking white one-piece, but what made it so special was a little abstract design at the bottom left, looking like the lable of Hoshihana, she wrapped the pale blue pareo with large yellow flowers on it arround her waist and put on a white sunhat which went with the swimsuit. Now it was her turn to watch Ryou being photographed. He looked pretty professional like he had never done anything else in his life before than posing and now and then, Ryou would throw her somewhat flirtatious glances in a way which were a total new revelation of a different facette of Ryou's personality, she'd avert her gaze exasperatedly and roll her eyes.
After 2 hours and at least 200 shots Ruki was standing in her cabin in front of the rack with the swimsuits when she realised that it was time for the PL-labelled ones. She had totally forgotten to ask what that PL stood for, well now she was about to find out.
Stepping out of the cabin, wearing that impossibly corny bathingsuit, she felt like she was being hit by a truck when she saw Ryou. All with a sudden it all made sense…
"Partner……look!" she stammered her jaw nearly hitting ground level.
Ryou was clad in a pair of swimtrunks having the same pink and pale-blue chequed picknick-blanket pattern like her suit, a yellow dasiy on the left leg and two broad, pink stripes at the his sides. He grinned sheepishly at her as she approached him, her head bowed down with her right hand covering her face. 'This is toomuch !'
This was unbelievable, now they were practically wearing the same thing, what was next? Rumiko, Noriko and San were giving them both the "oh-look-at-the-cute-couple-their-so-perfect-for-each-other" stare, it irked Ruki even the more, now it would be even harder to put up a 'natural smile' for the camera.
'Just drop everything and leave.' she thought to herself, but where to? 'Put up a tantrum' but wouldn't that be childish? 'Or simply bare it with dignity, it'll soon be over besides, how much worse can this get?' She silently glared at her mother, who smiled a smile of sweet innocence only she could smile. When all this was over, there'd be hell to pay, Rumiko really owed her now, BIG time.
"Alright kids! As you've already noticed these are the outfits for the partner look collection, so I'll ask you to look somewhat "partnery" simply have fun, enjoy yourself, be natural" Satô instructed and then specifically adressing to Ruki added:
"Ruki? I know the PL suits must have looked terrible to you but you see, Hoshihana is experimenting with the idea of total retro this year, saying that it's absolutely flashy and could be the bomb coming season and thus the swimsuits, but personally I think they're simply impossible. But nevermind, you're so pretty you make anything you wear look good" he smiled warmly at her intenting to chear her up, he truly understood her and in a way, he was right, the bathing-suit was ugly, but it was Ruki wearing it, that made the difference.
'snapsnap' Allright, that's it 'snapsnap' yeaaaahhh, gooood 'snapsnapsnap' OK now get a little bit closer….bit closer, ….a little bit more…
'A little bit more closer and we'd be siamese twins' Ruki thought grimmly abhoring the thought of getting so close to Ryou, skin to skin, and having to act like it was the best thing in the world… snapsnapsnap that's it! Now Ryou, try putting your arm arround Ruki's shoulder, yeah like that….'snapsnapsnap'
In that instant Ruki desperatly fought the urge to bite his arm of, or at least throw it away, it was so disturbing, and why did he have to smell so good, this was not really promoting her concentration!
"Great, well done, OK next piece!"
Finaly, distance!
The next 5 PL suits were sweet-smelling, bare-chested, hand-holding, water-wading, fake-smiling hell on earth for Ruki and how she prayed that this agony would soon end. Weren't there any devas or evil forces which want to destroy or at least dominate the earth, of which she has to save the world? Couldn't a gate to the digiworld just materialize and simply beam her away? No such luck.
'This was the LAST time I let mom talk me into this'
As the sun had vanished behind the horizon and the night had pulled it's star-speckled velvet covering over the barely clouded sky of Fukuoaka city, Ruki together with Ryou and both their parents were sitting in Sat's car, heading towards their "humble cottage" as he'd jockingly described it and they all had a quick laugh before it ebbed away, replaced by total silence and a common sense of fatigue.
The Ryou with whom she had been holding hands earlier on, pretending to be a happy couple at the beach, posing for the camera, was the same Ryou who was now sitting next to her on the back seat, absentmindedly staring out the window without even attempting to exchange words with her.
Everyone was so quiet, but it was better that way, Ruki wasn't in the mood for conversation and so she quite enjoyed the relaxed ride, not noticing the quick glance Satô threw them through the rear-view mirror before looking at Rumiko, who returned the glance with a conspirative smile, then he returned to focusing on the street and she went back to admiring the lovely view of the illuminated city.
tbc