Ren, Ran and Makoto's parents all found it strange that Makoto and his children all seemed very tired, even considering they hadn't been relaxing much on the first week. It only took a few exchanges of looks and words for Makoto's parents to decide that they would stay at the hotel today and just go to the beach.

"Then we have more time to use our cameras too!" Ran said, happily.

"I've got plenty of photos," Ren said.

"When'd you take them? I couldn't catch the right moments at all!" Ran exclaimed in a slightly whiny tone.

"And you say I'm always late for everything?" Ren asked in wonder.

For a change, no one butted in on their conversation. Usually, when the entire family was together, one member of Makoto's family would throw in a comment at some point.

"When did you return to the room?" Haruka asked Rin who was slouching over his breakfast, eyes half-closed and the plate only half empty.

"About sunrise," Rin answered in a tired mutter.

"Stupid," Haruka mumbled under his breath. Rin was too tired to even think up something to shoot back. The worst part was the fact that he might actually agree with what Haruka said. It hadn't been the smartest idea of his to stay out until morning.

After breakfast, everyone went to get their swimsuits on and pull something over before they headed to the beach. Makoto's parents brought a blanket and a parasol and towels had been brought for everyone too.

"I wanna go in the water!" Nagisa exclaimed before they'd even had the time to put up the blanket and parasol.

"Wait a bit, Nagisa," Makoto said. "We need to put this up first and I want to be sure nothing happens."

Nagisa pouted, but stayed put until the blanket was out and Ren and Makoto's father were working on putting up the parasol.

"So, can I go now?" Nagisa asked.

Makoto nodded. "But be careful. Don't go further out than where you can reach the bottom. I'd actually say that the water surface has to reach around your hips," he said.

"That's not deep!" Nagisa complained. "The water in the pool at the SC reaches around my shoulders!"

Makoto sighed. "The ocean is different than the SC," he then thought. "Okay, when someone who can swim is with you in the water then maybe around here." he held his hand where his own chest began and then put it at the same point on Nagisa's body to show what he meant. "But no further, and if no one who can swim is out there, then you have to be where the water reaches your hips, okay?" he asked.

"So can I go out with Rei-chan?" Nagisa asked.

"I can't swim," Rei stated

"Same rule applies to the rest of you, of course the levels respond to where the water-level reaches on your own body," Makoto explained, looking at everyone. "Haru, watch for it," he said, knowing that Haruka would forget to pay attention to how far he was out.

"Let's go!" Nagisa yelled as he grabbed Rei around the wrist and dragged him to the water. Rin and Haruka exchanged looks before following. Ren and Ran also followed shortly after and a water-fight got started.

Makoto watched with his parents from the blanket under the parasol, happy to see that they all seemed to be having a good time. However, it didn't take long before Nagisa came running out of the water and towards Makoto to drag him into the water with them and he took part in the fight.

After some time, Ren got a little bored and decided to go back. Ran followed shortly after with Makoto in toe.

After Makoto had seated himself under the parasol, Ran declared that she wanted to sunbathe for a bit, and Makoto's mother went along with that idea. This left some more space on the blanket and Makoto moved a bit as everyone would get more space. He then found his camera and took a few pictures of his children playing. Haruka and Rin appeared to be racing, parallel to the shore, while Nagisa attempted to teach Rei how to swim, needless to say that this didn't go too well.

After a little while, Rei decided to give up on learning how to swim and went to sit on the blanket. He quickly found a book he had brought and started reading.

Not long after this, Nagisa and Haruka could be found on the sand. Nagisa was attempting to make a sand-castle and commanding Haruka around. The other didn't seem to mind.

"Rin, come sunbathe with us!" Ran called from her position in the sand. Rin had come out of the water and was on his way up to them. He smiled as he laid down next to Ran. It wasn't that he cared about sunbathing, it was just that there was no more room on the blanket under the parasol, so he might as well.

"Mako-chan! Mako-chan!" Nagisa now came running up from his only half-completed sand-castle. Haruka was still sitting down there, not seeming to mind that he'd been left. "Mako-chan, can I have some ice cream?" he asked.

Makoto looked thoughtful. "Does anybody else want ice cream?" he asked.

"I'll pass," Rei said while flipping a page in his book.

"Pass," Rin muttered.

"I don't want any," Ran said and Makoto's mother agreed.

"Didn't we just have breakfast?" Ren asked in wonder.

Makoto nodded. "True enough," he said. "Can you wait a bit, Nagisa?" he asked.

"But, I want ice cream now!" Nagisa whined.

Makoto stood. "Then I'll buy you an ice cream," he answered.

"I don't want to be the only one getting some," Nagisa said.

Makoto thought about that. "Then ask Haru if he want some," he said.

Nagisa smiled widely and went down to where Haruka was still sitting. They seemed to speak for a bit before Nagisa dragged Haruka back to where Makoto was waiting and they went to buy ice cream. Haruka didn't seem to be particularly interested but he did pick a flavor of ice cream without having Nagisa dictate anything. So Makoto ordered a vanilla and a strawberry ice cream.

Nagisa and Haruka then sat and ate their ice cream. Makoto got a picture of Nagisa with ice cream everywhere on his face and then, once Nagisa was done and had washed himself, he asked Makoto if he could borrow the camera, and took a picture of Haruka eating ice cream too.

"Look, Mako-chan," Nagisa said as he showed the picture to Makoto.

Makoto looked at it and then smiled as he looked up at Haruka. "Are you actually enjoying it?" he asked.

Haruka turned away. "Not really," he lied.

"Haru-chan's cute," Nagisa declared.

"Don't add –chan to my name and don't call me cute," Haruka said, still looking away. He was happy that Rin wasn't around or he would've laughed.

Once Haruka had finished his ice cream, they returned to where the others were. Makoto's mother had moved back under the parasol and Ran had disappeared somewhere. According to the others, she had gone for a walk along the water. Haruka went to sit beside Rin who was still lying on the sand. It wasn't long before he turned to look at Makoto.

"He's asleep," he said.

"Rin is?" Makoto asked.

Nagisa grabbed the camera and went to take a picture of Rin's sleeping face.

"What should we do, Haru-chan?" he asked in a whispering voice. "Draw on his face?"

"That's a bit childish," Rei commented from the shade under the parasol.

Nagisa started thinking again, but the idea came from Haruka who noted that if Rin was to stay like this he would get a sunburn without a doubt. This triggered Nagisa's idea and he smiled.

"Haru-chan," he said. "Let's cover him with sand!"

As gently as possible, as to not wake up the sleeping boy, Nagisa and Haruka went and gathered as much sand as they could and piled it up on top of and around Rin, creating a mountain of sand. Makoto caught a picture of it.

"Should we decorate it?" Nagisa wondered while clapping the top to make it round and hard.

"It's a waste of time," Haruka said. He was clapping on the side of the pile as he spoke.

"What's a waste of time?" Rin asked, slowly waking up from his sleep. He attempted moving but failed, due to a reason he didn't understand right away. "Did I sleep?" he asked.

"A lot, Rin-chan!" Nagisa said. "So much that the sand piled up!" he smiled as Rin started noticing what had happened and an angry frown appeared on his face.

"Let me out of here!" he yelled angrily.

"Don't wanna!" Nagisa sang as he ran to get Makoto's camera.

"You won't gain much popularity for that," Makoto remarked as Nagisa stood with the camera in both hands.

"It's Rin-chan's fault for sleeping," Nagisa reasoned before he went back to take a picture of a frowning Rin. He actually took a few of those before Makoto came over and said that they should free Rin now. So he helped Nagisa and Haruka removing the pile from Rin, who afterwards went back to the hotel, too angry to speak to either Haruka or Nagisa for the rest of the day.

There is a reference to this in Future Parenting in the chapter where Gou and Nagisa are looking at a photo album. That's why I wrote this arc actually.

That's all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading.

Jackie