My day with Axel continues! The reason it's starts right in again is because this was originally all one piece, and I had to split it into chapters later. Enjoy!

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"C'mon let's get to the deeper water," I said, and we splashed through the shallows, bobbing with the waves until we had to tread water to stay afloat.

"Okay, we'll go under on the count of three. I'll tap you if I have to come up before you, and you do the same to me if you can't stay under anymore. Okay?

"Whatever you say," he replied.

"One, two, three!" We both gulped in air, and plunged under the surface. I floated for a while, watching him. Now I was ready to put my plan into action, for I knew his true weakness. Kicking forward, I neared him, careful not to touch him. Then, I shot out my hands, to attack his waist in a tickling frenzy.

A burst of bubbles shot out of his mouth and he kicked up to the surface, squirming away from my hands. We both popped our heads above the water, Axel sputtering and spitting water out of his mouth.

"What'd you do that for?" He cried, but I could see he was rather amused. I was grinning insanely.

"I found out your real weakness," I replied mischievously.

"Whatever," he said, but then lunged forward and proceeded to pay me back, tickling my ribs. I shrieked. "Stop!" I laughed. "Okay, enough!"

He finally stopped, but now we were bobbing extremely close to each other. I looked up at him and felt suddenly self-conscious.

"Hey, um, let's go get something to eat," Axel said, looking away.

"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry," I replied, scratching a nonexistent itch on my neck.

"Cool." With that, we swam back to shore. As we waded through the shallows, I shook my head a bit to dry my hair off.

"Hey!" I heard a disgruntled Axel exclaim. "How do you like this?" And he shook his head and sprayed me, while his hair popped back into place. I couldn't help but laugh again.

"Wha-at? Oh, my hair," he said, rolling his eyes. "You crazy girl," he gave me a gentle shove. Except I stumbled and nearly fell over. I gave him a shove back. He kicked water at me. I kicked back. Then he started splashing me, using his hands, and I began running towards the shore, with him chasing after me. We reached the umbrella, and I plopped down on a lounge chair.

"You guys have fun?" Naminé asked from an adjacent lounge.

"Yeah!" I replied, a little too quickly. "I mean, um, yes, the water was – refreshing!"

"That's good," she replied, and went back to sketching.

Axel was now rummaging in the cooler, and I wrapped a towel around myself.

"Anyone want some ice cream?" he called.

"I do!" Roxas replied from the other lounge.

"Me too," I said.

"Alright," he replied and pulled three sticks of blue sea salt ice cream from the cooler. He handed one to me, went over to give one to Roxas, and kept the third for himself. Axel chatted with Roxas for a bit, and Naminé took this opportunity to talk to me.

"You like Axel don't you?" she asked in a low voice, looking at me over the top of her sketchbook.

"What?" I said, a bit taken aback. I paused from unwrapping my ice cream, and thought, am I really that obvious?

"Well, you clearly enjoy being around him."

"Um, yeah, I guess," I said trying to sound nonchalant.

"You should tell him. I believe the feelings are mutual," she advised me. "Plus, things wouldn't end up being quite so awkward."

"Oh, okay," I said, wondering at how she knew these sort of things. I licked my ice cream thoughtfully. How was I supposed to let Axel know I liked him? Just randomly walk up to him and say, "You are sexy and I have a huge crush on you"? Oh god…that would win the Nobel Prize for Awkwardness.

All of a sudden, Axel was walking over to me. He looked a bit uncomfortable, and his cheeks were tinged with pink. I wondered what he could possibly have been talking with Roxas about.

"Hey, Alasora, do you want to um, take a walk or something?" He asked, a bit nervously.

"Oh, sure," I replied, equally nervous. "Let me just, uh, put on some clothes…" I got up and moved to get my shorts out of my bag, but realized I was still holding my ice cream. "Umm…" I guess Axel realized what was going on because he reached out and said, "Here, let me hold that for you."

"Thanks," I said, and started to hand it to him when I realized it was about to drip. I squeaked and pulled it back so I could lick it off. I was suddenly aware of Axel watching me, and the fact that what I just did could have appeared totally dirty. I couldn't help that my mind was nearly always in the gutter…Anyway, I handed him the ice cream, got my shorts and pulled them on.

"Okay," I said, taking back the ice cream.

"All set?" He asked.

"Yep," I replied. "Let's go."

As we set off across the beach, I glanced back and saw Naminé wink at me. And was Roxas winking too? Were they planning something? I turned to Axel.

"Did you see that?" I asked.

"What, them?" he replied, jerking his thumb in their direction.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I don't know what's up with them. They both must have twitchy eyelids," he grinned. I laughed and could tell that at least Axel had relaxed enough to start joking.

As we walked under the bridge that led to the mini island with the paopu tree, we passed Sora and Kairi who were returning from their walk. I wondered if they had done more than just walking on their little excursion. Then my stomach flipped when I thought of how my "walk" with Axel might turn out to be something more...

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So what did you think of this chapter? Please review, it makes me happy!