"Just where do you think you're going?"
I stared the man down, still gripping MOMO's hand in my own. She held an overlarge beach ball with her other arm. She looked up at the man barring our path. He seemed unaffected by both of our stares. MOMO shifted on her feet. I slid my front foot forward a bit, inching closer to our obstruction. I could see Gaignun's private beach only yards ahead of us, and I glared threateningly at the man.
"We have an invitation from Gaignun Jr., and we are to meet him on that beach," I said through my teeth. MOMO seemed surprised, and so did the man, "If MOMO and I are not on that beach within five minutes, it won't be only Jr. who will be irate, if you follow me. If you don't believe me, go ask him yourself. He'll only confirm what I've told you. Now, let us through." The man was frightened visibly, and the sight made me smirk. He moved aside, mumbling some sort of thrown-together apology. I motioned to MOMO to come, and she did so, smiling. After we were out of hearing range, MOMO moved up onto her tiptoes, and I leaned down to hear her.
"You were great!" She said, in a tone that made me think she had been giggling the whole time. "But did you really have to scare him like that?" I squeezed her hand lightly, emphasizing the point I was about to make.
"Jr. did want you to come to the beach with him, and he would have come to the gate if the guard had asked him to. I told only the truth. And besides," I said, looking out at the fast approaching glittering water, "you DO want to go to the beach, don't you?" The Realian laughed, and nodded.
"Yes!" she said, also looking out to the beach. As we rounded the building in front of the beach, we could make out the forms of Jr., Shion, Allen and chaos. MOMO looked up at me, her eyes glittering in admiration, then she looked to Jr., then back to me again. I looked at the boy, feeling that same feeling that was almost like jealousy, then nodded. She giggled lightly and released my hand, running off in the direction of Jr. and chaos. I slowed to a stop, watching as she ran from me, off to join the others. Jealousy. That was what I felt. It wasn't just akin to jealousy... It was... I took another step forward, only to stop again. I didn't belong here, I thought. This was a place for swimming, and laughing, and playing, none of which I was very capable of doing. I stood still, contemplating whether to go back to the Durandal, leaving MOMO in the others' hands, or staying, and basically hiding myself away. My mind was made up for me when Allen looked up from his fishing pole and saw me standing aloof. I heard his voice from far off, carrying an echo.
"Ziggy, hey! What're you waiting for?" he called. MOMO looked up from where she was playing ball with Jr. and chaos. She smiled. I could see her smile from far off, even when I could hardly distinguish any one person from another at that distance. It was almost as if I could feel her smile instead of seeing it.
"C'mon, Ziggy! You'll miss all the fun!" her voice carried just as Allen's had. I took another step forward, and after that, my feet seemed to carry me to where the others stood, rather than making me move myself. I stood there without purpose, feeling slightly embarrassed. MOMO took my hand and started leading me to where Allen sat on the wooden dock, clad in his ridiculous green bathing suit. A fishing pole in hand, he sat, staring intently, at the point where the water and his bobber connected. MOMO snickered, and tapped him on the back. He jumped, making the bobber disturb the water. MOMO laughed, and hugged him, and assured him that she was just joking. Allen, grumbling, went back to staring at the water. MOMO, on the other hand, tugged on my arm and leaned against my side. Her golden eyes looked out to the artificial sunset. I looked to where her eyes traveled too. Her grip on my arm tightened.
"It's beautiful, isn't it, Ziggy?" she asked quietly. Despite the sunset being artificial, I had to agree that it was, in fact, quite beautiful. I sighed. The last time I had seen a sunset as wonderful as this... The last time I had been standing next to someone I cared about... I looked down at MOMO, and her eyes still gazed out past the water. With a suddenness that startled me, she hopped to attention, looking at me now, and started running down the dock, pulling me in tow. I couldn't stop her. She was running straight for the water, and pulling me with her. Fright shot through my body. What if I landed on her? What if I electrocuted her? What if my legs rusted? What if-
I didn't get to finish. She jumped off the wooden dock, and I went after, all the possible consequences flying through my head as I went flying through the air. I could hear Jr. and chaos shouting words of encouragement and excitement. Shion was yelling in horror. Just before we hit the water, I closed my eyes and pushed MOMO to the side in attempts to not accidentally fall on her as she went underwater. I heard her hit first with a loud splash, and then I was engulfed in water, feeling coldness surround me. My eyes shot open with the shock of the cold water. I could clearly see MOMO in the bright blue water. She was swimming toward the surface. I realized then that this was something I could not do. My feet took me to the bottom, sand billowing up around me. My breath was going. I walked as swiftly as I could along the bottom. I could see the surface. I didn't think my lungs could take too much more pressure. Just as I felt as if they were going to explode, my head broke the surface. I gulped new air into my lungs. After the initial breaths, I began walking to shore. When the water came only to my ankles, I stopped.
I stood there for minutes on end. I looked behind me to see MOMO swimming in my direction. A look of deep concern was plastered on her face. Shion, chaos and Allen also were running up to me. MOMO made it to my side first, and she hugged herself close to my wet body.
"Oh, Ziggy, I'm so sorry!" she said. "I forgot... You couldn't swim..." I could feel my wet hair plastered to my face as I knelt down to her size and returned her embrace.
"It wasn't your fault," I tried to tell her. It was then that Shion decided to march up, arms akimbo. I tried not to look directly at her, seeing as her bathing suit was quite revealing. She stared me down, eyes ablaze.
"What were you thinking?!" she cried. I cringed. I saw now why Allen was afraid of her. "You could have hurt MOMO! Did anything like that run through your mind? What if you crushed her?! What if you-" She stopped, looking at my face. I held an expression akin to hurt. She stared.
"That's all I thought about," I told her quietly. MOMO looked up, her golden eyes now glistening wet. "The only thought of me was the thoughts of how many ways there were I could possibly injure her in my fall. I wanted to make sure she was unhurt. That's all I thought of." MOMO, by my side, nodded.
"He tried to push me out of the way as he fell," her tone was awed. Shion, her face still set and angry, turned away, discomfited. She looked as if she was going to say something more, but she walked back to where she had been sitting. My posture slumped again, and, now noticing my hair was hanging around my face, scooped some water up in my hands and slicked it back once more. Jr. and chaos remained, asking if both of us were all right. I nodded, and MOMO gave them her best reassuring smile. When they both had gone, I turned to MOMO, her face red and humiliated. I leaned down and, with one deft blow, splashed a handful of water at her. She seemed mortified at first, but she then laughed. It was an understanding, then. It was no one's fault. We both walked out of the shallows and to the beach, where we both tried our best to dry ourselves off. MOMO sat in the sand near the water's edge, and asked for me to join her. Jr. glanced over his shoulder, and both he and chaos joined us as well. The Realian had with her two buckets and four shovels.
"Who wants to have a sandcastle building contest?" she asked. Jr. and chaos both agreed, and I slowly nodded my head. MOMO picked me to be on her team, which seemed to unnerve Jr., but both he and chaos began work on their castle. MOMO filled our bucket with wet sand and swiftly overturned it, making a singular, bucket-shaped mound. I took my arm blade and smoothed the sides so that the shape became a rectangle. We added four smaller rectangles around the main one, each topped with a stick for a flagpole. I looked over my shoulder to take a glance at Jr. and chaos' work, and was amused to find that chaos had accidentally caused a mound to topple over, and Jr. had been harping on the subject for five minutes.
"You said you just brushed it! How can a whole castle fall down just by brushing it! You're lying to me!"
"Settle down, Jr.," chaos begged. Our structure became more and more elaborate, until, after a good twenty minutes, the castle itself contained four levels, each with two tiers, and a surrounding wall that contained a dry moat. Shion was about to call "time up," just as Allen came staggering by, holding a fish of monstrous proportions. We tried to warn him, but it was too late.
"Guys! Chief! Look at this fish I-" As he rambled, Allen's foot caught on the castle MOMO and I had worked on, and he fell forward, both his face and the fish falling flat on the sand. Our castle was now an indeterminate pile of sand underneath Allen's body. MOMO and I looked at each other, at once horrified. Then she laughed. It rang clear as a bell, and it echoed through the air. At such a pure sound, I couldn't help but smile. It formed on my lips slowly, then parted in a gruff sound that may have been taken as a laugh. Shion and Jr. looked up at me, astonished. I had just laughed. The last time I had laughed...
Jr. sighed and looked to the horizon. The lights on the opposite bank, those of the city, were shutting off one by one. I had noticed this as well. Shion threw her jacket on over her bathing suit, and Jr. offered his coat to MOMO. chaos sighed, wrapping his arms around himself.
"I guess... it's time we head back, then?" he asked. Jr. nodded.
"Yeah, I guess so." There was a mutual feeling then, like we had all experienced something that day that we didn't want to leave behind at Gaignun's private beach. The Vector employees and chaos walked off first, leaving Jr, MOMO and me. Jr., his thermal signature heating up, turned to MOMO.
"Hey, uh... Thanks for coming down to the beach today," he told her. She nodded.
"It was nothing. I had a great time. Thank you for inviting me."
"Now that I think about it," Jr. said, now turning to me, a smile on his face, "I never remember inviting the bodyguard." Before MOMO could protest, Jr. shrugged and turned around, "I guess he felt he had to protect you even here. I'll see you two at breakfast, then." He left us standing there. MOMO looked to my eyes, but I avoided contact, feeling suddenly ill at ease in the fading light.
"That's why you were outside my door?" she asked. I nodded slowly. She smiled. "I'm glad." She made as if to whisper something, so I leaned down, but instead I felt her lips touch my forehead. She laughed quietly and ran down the beach after Jr. I stood there a moment more. She had tricked me again, I thought, smiling. With that parting thought, we left the beach, not knowing that we would never be the same as we had been on that day we spent together.
I stared the man down, still gripping MOMO's hand in my own. She held an overlarge beach ball with her other arm. She looked up at the man barring our path. He seemed unaffected by both of our stares. MOMO shifted on her feet. I slid my front foot forward a bit, inching closer to our obstruction. I could see Gaignun's private beach only yards ahead of us, and I glared threateningly at the man.
"We have an invitation from Gaignun Jr., and we are to meet him on that beach," I said through my teeth. MOMO seemed surprised, and so did the man, "If MOMO and I are not on that beach within five minutes, it won't be only Jr. who will be irate, if you follow me. If you don't believe me, go ask him yourself. He'll only confirm what I've told you. Now, let us through." The man was frightened visibly, and the sight made me smirk. He moved aside, mumbling some sort of thrown-together apology. I motioned to MOMO to come, and she did so, smiling. After we were out of hearing range, MOMO moved up onto her tiptoes, and I leaned down to hear her.
"You were great!" She said, in a tone that made me think she had been giggling the whole time. "But did you really have to scare him like that?" I squeezed her hand lightly, emphasizing the point I was about to make.
"Jr. did want you to come to the beach with him, and he would have come to the gate if the guard had asked him to. I told only the truth. And besides," I said, looking out at the fast approaching glittering water, "you DO want to go to the beach, don't you?" The Realian laughed, and nodded.
"Yes!" she said, also looking out to the beach. As we rounded the building in front of the beach, we could make out the forms of Jr., Shion, Allen and chaos. MOMO looked up at me, her eyes glittering in admiration, then she looked to Jr., then back to me again. I looked at the boy, feeling that same feeling that was almost like jealousy, then nodded. She giggled lightly and released my hand, running off in the direction of Jr. and chaos. I slowed to a stop, watching as she ran from me, off to join the others. Jealousy. That was what I felt. It wasn't just akin to jealousy... It was... I took another step forward, only to stop again. I didn't belong here, I thought. This was a place for swimming, and laughing, and playing, none of which I was very capable of doing. I stood still, contemplating whether to go back to the Durandal, leaving MOMO in the others' hands, or staying, and basically hiding myself away. My mind was made up for me when Allen looked up from his fishing pole and saw me standing aloof. I heard his voice from far off, carrying an echo.
"Ziggy, hey! What're you waiting for?" he called. MOMO looked up from where she was playing ball with Jr. and chaos. She smiled. I could see her smile from far off, even when I could hardly distinguish any one person from another at that distance. It was almost as if I could feel her smile instead of seeing it.
"C'mon, Ziggy! You'll miss all the fun!" her voice carried just as Allen's had. I took another step forward, and after that, my feet seemed to carry me to where the others stood, rather than making me move myself. I stood there without purpose, feeling slightly embarrassed. MOMO took my hand and started leading me to where Allen sat on the wooden dock, clad in his ridiculous green bathing suit. A fishing pole in hand, he sat, staring intently, at the point where the water and his bobber connected. MOMO snickered, and tapped him on the back. He jumped, making the bobber disturb the water. MOMO laughed, and hugged him, and assured him that she was just joking. Allen, grumbling, went back to staring at the water. MOMO, on the other hand, tugged on my arm and leaned against my side. Her golden eyes looked out to the artificial sunset. I looked to where her eyes traveled too. Her grip on my arm tightened.
"It's beautiful, isn't it, Ziggy?" she asked quietly. Despite the sunset being artificial, I had to agree that it was, in fact, quite beautiful. I sighed. The last time I had seen a sunset as wonderful as this... The last time I had been standing next to someone I cared about... I looked down at MOMO, and her eyes still gazed out past the water. With a suddenness that startled me, she hopped to attention, looking at me now, and started running down the dock, pulling me in tow. I couldn't stop her. She was running straight for the water, and pulling me with her. Fright shot through my body. What if I landed on her? What if I electrocuted her? What if my legs rusted? What if-
I didn't get to finish. She jumped off the wooden dock, and I went after, all the possible consequences flying through my head as I went flying through the air. I could hear Jr. and chaos shouting words of encouragement and excitement. Shion was yelling in horror. Just before we hit the water, I closed my eyes and pushed MOMO to the side in attempts to not accidentally fall on her as she went underwater. I heard her hit first with a loud splash, and then I was engulfed in water, feeling coldness surround me. My eyes shot open with the shock of the cold water. I could clearly see MOMO in the bright blue water. She was swimming toward the surface. I realized then that this was something I could not do. My feet took me to the bottom, sand billowing up around me. My breath was going. I walked as swiftly as I could along the bottom. I could see the surface. I didn't think my lungs could take too much more pressure. Just as I felt as if they were going to explode, my head broke the surface. I gulped new air into my lungs. After the initial breaths, I began walking to shore. When the water came only to my ankles, I stopped.
I stood there for minutes on end. I looked behind me to see MOMO swimming in my direction. A look of deep concern was plastered on her face. Shion, chaos and Allen also were running up to me. MOMO made it to my side first, and she hugged herself close to my wet body.
"Oh, Ziggy, I'm so sorry!" she said. "I forgot... You couldn't swim..." I could feel my wet hair plastered to my face as I knelt down to her size and returned her embrace.
"It wasn't your fault," I tried to tell her. It was then that Shion decided to march up, arms akimbo. I tried not to look directly at her, seeing as her bathing suit was quite revealing. She stared me down, eyes ablaze.
"What were you thinking?!" she cried. I cringed. I saw now why Allen was afraid of her. "You could have hurt MOMO! Did anything like that run through your mind? What if you crushed her?! What if you-" She stopped, looking at my face. I held an expression akin to hurt. She stared.
"That's all I thought about," I told her quietly. MOMO looked up, her golden eyes now glistening wet. "The only thought of me was the thoughts of how many ways there were I could possibly injure her in my fall. I wanted to make sure she was unhurt. That's all I thought of." MOMO, by my side, nodded.
"He tried to push me out of the way as he fell," her tone was awed. Shion, her face still set and angry, turned away, discomfited. She looked as if she was going to say something more, but she walked back to where she had been sitting. My posture slumped again, and, now noticing my hair was hanging around my face, scooped some water up in my hands and slicked it back once more. Jr. and chaos remained, asking if both of us were all right. I nodded, and MOMO gave them her best reassuring smile. When they both had gone, I turned to MOMO, her face red and humiliated. I leaned down and, with one deft blow, splashed a handful of water at her. She seemed mortified at first, but she then laughed. It was an understanding, then. It was no one's fault. We both walked out of the shallows and to the beach, where we both tried our best to dry ourselves off. MOMO sat in the sand near the water's edge, and asked for me to join her. Jr. glanced over his shoulder, and both he and chaos joined us as well. The Realian had with her two buckets and four shovels.
"Who wants to have a sandcastle building contest?" she asked. Jr. and chaos both agreed, and I slowly nodded my head. MOMO picked me to be on her team, which seemed to unnerve Jr., but both he and chaos began work on their castle. MOMO filled our bucket with wet sand and swiftly overturned it, making a singular, bucket-shaped mound. I took my arm blade and smoothed the sides so that the shape became a rectangle. We added four smaller rectangles around the main one, each topped with a stick for a flagpole. I looked over my shoulder to take a glance at Jr. and chaos' work, and was amused to find that chaos had accidentally caused a mound to topple over, and Jr. had been harping on the subject for five minutes.
"You said you just brushed it! How can a whole castle fall down just by brushing it! You're lying to me!"
"Settle down, Jr.," chaos begged. Our structure became more and more elaborate, until, after a good twenty minutes, the castle itself contained four levels, each with two tiers, and a surrounding wall that contained a dry moat. Shion was about to call "time up," just as Allen came staggering by, holding a fish of monstrous proportions. We tried to warn him, but it was too late.
"Guys! Chief! Look at this fish I-" As he rambled, Allen's foot caught on the castle MOMO and I had worked on, and he fell forward, both his face and the fish falling flat on the sand. Our castle was now an indeterminate pile of sand underneath Allen's body. MOMO and I looked at each other, at once horrified. Then she laughed. It rang clear as a bell, and it echoed through the air. At such a pure sound, I couldn't help but smile. It formed on my lips slowly, then parted in a gruff sound that may have been taken as a laugh. Shion and Jr. looked up at me, astonished. I had just laughed. The last time I had laughed...
Jr. sighed and looked to the horizon. The lights on the opposite bank, those of the city, were shutting off one by one. I had noticed this as well. Shion threw her jacket on over her bathing suit, and Jr. offered his coat to MOMO. chaos sighed, wrapping his arms around himself.
"I guess... it's time we head back, then?" he asked. Jr. nodded.
"Yeah, I guess so." There was a mutual feeling then, like we had all experienced something that day that we didn't want to leave behind at Gaignun's private beach. The Vector employees and chaos walked off first, leaving Jr, MOMO and me. Jr., his thermal signature heating up, turned to MOMO.
"Hey, uh... Thanks for coming down to the beach today," he told her. She nodded.
"It was nothing. I had a great time. Thank you for inviting me."
"Now that I think about it," Jr. said, now turning to me, a smile on his face, "I never remember inviting the bodyguard." Before MOMO could protest, Jr. shrugged and turned around, "I guess he felt he had to protect you even here. I'll see you two at breakfast, then." He left us standing there. MOMO looked to my eyes, but I avoided contact, feeling suddenly ill at ease in the fading light.
"That's why you were outside my door?" she asked. I nodded slowly. She smiled. "I'm glad." She made as if to whisper something, so I leaned down, but instead I felt her lips touch my forehead. She laughed quietly and ran down the beach after Jr. I stood there a moment more. She had tricked me again, I thought, smiling. With that parting thought, we left the beach, not knowing that we would never be the same as we had been on that day we spent together.