The trip went surprisingly peacefully. Nagisa was, of course, constantly talking and constantly demanding entertainment, but that was normal. He managed to convince Ran, Rin and Haruka to play some cards with him while they were riding the train. Makoto didn't know what they were playing, he was talking to Ren, but from the loud complains from Rin, Ran and Nagisa, it sounded like Haruka won.

On the way to the flight, Rin and Haruka ended up arguing twice, first about if Haruka had cheated in the game or not, and afterwards about if pineapple belonged on pizza or not. They had stopped to buy some pizza for lunch while waiting for their flight.

But aside from these events, nothing really interesting happened and before they knew it, they were finally at Naha in Okinawa.

"Where's the hotel?" Ran asked once they exited the airport.

Makoto's father sighed. "It should be by the shore. There's a beach within walking distance."

"How far is that?" Nagisa asked, curiously.

"About a kilometer," Rin answered.

"It's only 500 meters," Haruka said.

"That's too short!" Rin exclaimed.

"One kilometer is too long," Haruka answered.

"You just hope it's only 500 meters!" Rin yelled. "Keep your water-addiction in check!"

"It's in check," Haruka answered.

"I see a pool over there!" Rin yelled while pointing in a random direction.

Haruka didn't even bother to look. "You just say that hoping to get a reaction," he pointed out.

Rin got angry with the fact that he'd been figured out. "No I don't!" he yelled, trying to cover up the obvious truth.

"Stop lying," Haruka answered.

"Start listening!" Rin yelled.

"I would if you were honest!" Haruka was now raising his voice as well.

Makoto looked uncomfortably around, noticing how people around them were stopping to stare at the two arguing boys. He had to stop them before it got any worse.

"Haru's feelings towards water aside, there is no clear amount of what a walking distance is. It's just a distance you can walk without it taking too long. It can be both 500 meters and 1 kilometer. It can even be two kilometers in some cases. We'll see exactly how far it is when we get there," he smiled like he always did when trying to make peace between the two.

Rin and Haruka both nodded. It was obviously hard for them to accept that not only one of them were right and how the argument had escalated didn't help any on their mood.

"It's this way," Makoto's father said then as he started leading the family in the direction they were supposed to go.

The beach really was within walking distance of where they would stay. They could see the ocean once they stepped out on the street. It was blue with glittering reflections of the sunlight in it. The spark in Haruka's eyes once he saw the clear blue water didn't go beyond Makoto's attention.

"This is our base," Makoto's mother said. "We won't just stay here. We will also go and see something on the rest of the island, whatever we have time for."

"But we will get time to go to the beach, right?" Ran asked.

"Of course," Makoto's father answered as they went inside to check in.

Three rooms had been booked, one with room for two, one with room for three and one with room for four people.

"How do we split this?" Makoto asked as they had looked at all three rooms. The room for three had three single beds and the other two rooms had double beds.

"We just said we would be nine people," Makoto's mother said, a little unsure of how to respond to Makoto's question.

"Mom and dad can take the two-persons room," Ren said.

"I want to share with Rei-chan, Rin-chan and Haru-chan!" Nagisa exclaimed while wrapping around Haruka's and Rin's shoulders.

"So you take the four-persons room and Ren and I take the three-persons room with Nii-chan," Ran said, smiling happily.

Makoto looked unsure. "Is that really okay?" he asked while eying his children, concerned.

"Rei-chan's 12, he can take care of us!" Nagisa said, confidently. The boy in question looked less than half as confident.

"And the three of us will be right next door," Ren said.

"You took care of us when you were 12 and we were half Nagisa's age at the time," Ran added.

Makoto sighed, finally agreeing to the arrangements and everyone seemed relatively happy with it as it had turned out. They then went to pack out.

They ate out, all together, at a nearby restaurant that specialized in seafood. Everyone ate as much as they liked and they sat and talked for a while, before they headed back, not doing anything else for the day.

Nagisa was tired once they reached the hotel and Rei declared that he should go to bed once they reached their room. Nagisa agreed, but he wanted them to decide where they'd sleep first.

"Haru and I take this bed and you take the other," Rin said while pointing to one of the beds in the room.

"But I wanna share with Haru-chan!" Nagisa whined.

Rin and Rei eyed one another. Neither of them seemed to be happy with that arrangement. Although they had learned to get along, both Rin and Rei still found it a bit difficult and they didn't feel as close with one another as they did with the rest.

"Let's pick by random then," Rei said, slightly hesitantly.

"How?" Rin asked.

"Amida!" Nagisa exclaimed. "I brought paper!" Without anyone having time to object to the idea, Nagisa went to get paper, pencil and crayons. He then had Haruka do the hard work with the reason that he was the better at drawing. Rin did remark that you didn't really need drawing skills to do Amida, but Nagisa decided not to listen and Haruka didn't mind doing it anyways.

Nagisa ended up having it his way, so he shared a bed with Haruka while Rin and Rei, demonstratively, had to share a bed as well.

Makoto was surprised by who was sharing a bed with who when he came in to see if everything was okay, about an hour later. He looked to all four boys and smiled as he saw that they were all sound asleep. They'd been traveling almost all day so it was understandable that they'd be exhausted.

"Goodnight," Makoto said softly as he left the room again.

What was interesting to do in this chapter was to write the discussion between Rin and Haru. I wasn't sure if there was a definition of a walking distance. I admit I was a little disappointed. However, it just makes the discussion more hilarious, like I'd sometimes discuss which week a certain break would be in. The reason why we'd discuss it because the break was in a different week depending on where you live in the country.

Enough about that. I'm still grateful for you all reading this story. Thanks.

Jackie