Washed Up

A/N: Momo's birthday! The fire dance will be later in the evening, and is not played out in a log.

Authors: Celianna (Momo) & Happiestwhen (Kaidoh)

Rating: T

Events leading up to this log:
- Set a day after the last log

Date: July 23, 2012

It's Momoshiro's birthday today and Kaidoh is up at dawn, not because it's Momoshiro's birthday, at least not entirely, but because Kaidoh always wakes up that early to train.

He might have gotten up a bit earlier than usual today out of nervousness.

He sets out running down the beach while the sun is still rising. It's quiet out and he doesn't see any people. This is the time of day that Kaidoh likes best, when he can train on his own without distraction, or potential social interaction. This morning, instead of running continuously, he stops every few minutes to pick things up from the beach and pockets them in his shorts—cool-looking shells, round beach pebbles, smooth twigs of driftwood.

Kaidoh thinks it's a bit dumb, but Momoshiro is the biggest idiot he knows, so maybe he'll like it. He'd thought about making Momoshiro a real cake of course. After all, he's heard there's an oven on the island now... But Kaidoh isn't sure where it is, and he doesn't know how to bake anyway, really, and he sure as hell isn't going to go to someone he barely knows and ask for help baking something special for Momoshiro. That would just be … weird. People would … think things. Not that they'd be wrong.

His running course ends up taking him half an hour longer to complete, and his pockets are full of a bunch of small, random things off the beach by the time he's finished. When he returns to his hut, he empties his pockets of their contents. He's collected twenty-one shells, the coolest ones he could find, iridescent undersides, none of them cracked. One for each year.

He builds a large, primitive pile with the sand, using his hands to mold the corners and smooth over the top until it starts to resemble a cake. Or a tower. Or a hill. Then he dots the pebbles he collected around the edge, and puts the shells in the middle, trying to form them into a peach pattern. It ends up kind of looking more identifiably like a heart, which makes Kaidoh's own heart do a weird flip-flop and he pulls them off and replaces them in the shape of a star instead. Because hearts are stupid and Momoshiro will think he's lame. Or that the cake is supposed to be some weird mushy love thing and Kaidoh doesn't do weird mushy love things.

Finally, Kaidoh sticks the driftwood on the top of the cake for candles. At least, they're supposed to be candles. It looks more like twigs stuck in sand, but whatever.

He steps back, unsure if it actually resembles a cake at all, or just a really pathetic sandcastle. He pulls one of the twigs from the top and draws a few swirls and strawberries around the side of the cake and then places it back again. That looks a little better. He hasn't done anything like this in a really long time and it kind of makes him feel childish. He used to be so good at it though, making elaborate multi-level cakes. Then one day he decided it seemed kind of silly. People grow out of stuff.

Once he's satisfied with his strange sand cake creation, Kaidoh grabs a larger piece of driftwood and scrawls Happy Birthday into the sand. It doesn't look complete, so Kaidoh adds Momoshiro underneath it. There; it'll be the first thing Momoshiro sees when he wakes up and steps out of the hut.

Then Kaidoh remembers his stupid agreement to not call Momoshiro by his full name anymore. Why had he said he'd do that again? Oh, right, because Momoshiro has figured out that he can make Kaidoh do anything he wants and Kaidoh is helpless to resist. Stupid dumbass.

Kaidoh shuffles his foot over the end of Momoshiro's name in the sand to erase it, and uses the driftwood to write -chan instead.

He steps away. It looks fucking weird and makes Kaidoh feel even weirder, like there's a pendulum swooping back and forth inside his stomach. He wants to switch the name back.

Instead he just walks off into the jungle, half to clear his head—maybe it'll be less weird when he gets back—and half to forage up some fruit for breakfast. He's still not the best fisherman, and Kaidoh has no idea how to even begin trying to make a fish burger... since he hasn't eaten burgers in a while anyway and doesn't know how it should taste, but he can find fruit so he'll give Momoshiro that instead. Momoshiro's never been a picky eater.

He comes back and sets his findings down on the steps of his hut—something that resembles a banana, a couple coconuts, and some berries he'd learned weren't poisonous.

He looks over his sandy birthday message again. It's still weird, but it's what Momoshiro wants so Kaidoh will indulge him, at least for today. He tries reading it out loud. "Happy Birthday, Momo—" He stops. What the hell is he doing? It doesn't sound right, and it makes Kaidoh feel weird. Maybe he can just point at the words and Momoshiro can read them himself.

Whatever, he thinks. He could just kick over the cake and erase the message and pretend it never existed. That would be easy enough. Just go inside and wait until Momoshiro wakes up and tell him, "Happy birthday, dumbass," and have that be it. But the truth is Kaidoh likes making Momoshiro things. It used to be just that, making the things, but recently it's turned into actually giving them to him, and Kaidoh has discovered that that feels even better. He likes seeing the way Momoshiro looks when he's all surprised and happy. It makes Kaidoh feel happy too.

Maybe this time he'll be surprised by how completely idiotic Kaidoh is, and maybe he'll complain that it isn't a real cake, or maybe he won't even realize that's what it's supposed to be anyway, but even if he thinks it's dumb, maybe he'll get what Kaidoh was going for.

He hisses and leaves it, turning to go back into the hut. Momoshiro is still asleep, which isn't surprising. Kaidoh's learned pretty quickly when Momoshiro wakes up and falls asleep because Kaidoh is always still awake for it. Kaidoh runs early and runs late. Momoshiro's never awake when he gets back, which Kaidoh doesn't mind.

Now, he sits down on his side of the hut and watches Momoshiro, who is drooling into his pillow, and completely sprawled out. He looks like a moron, but a really peaceful one, and it makes Kaidoh's face feel warm as he watches him.

After a few minutes, Kaidoh starts to feel less warm, and more guilty. Momoshiro isn't wearing a shirt after all, and he's scratching lightly at his stomach. Kaidoh thinks maybe he's having a food dream, which makes his mouth curl up with a smile, but it's probably creepy to sit there and think about Momoshiro dreaming. Momoshiro would probably freak out and punch him hard in the face if he knew Kaidoh was doing this. Because he really shouldn't be.

Not that that's ever stopped him before.

Maybe he should wake Momoshiro up. The sun is fully up now, and Hazue might come and accidentally trip over Kaidoh's cake and ruin it if he waits too long. That and if Kaidoh wakes Momoshiro up, then Momoshiro won't wake up on his own and catch Kaidoh staring at him. Because that's not really the kind of birthday present Kaidoh had intended to give, and Momoshiro thinks Kaidoh is enough of a freak already.

"Hey," Kaidoh says cautiously, but his voice ends up sounding really loud in the quiet hut, and Kaidoh's cheeks go red like he's just blurted out a secret.

Momoshiro scratches his stomach, licks his cracked and chapped lips, and continues to drool onto his pillow like nothing happened.

Kaidoh grumbles aloud, then slides off his bed so that he's kneeling on the floor in the middle of the hut.

"Hey," he says again, and it doesn't come out so much like a shout this time. He isn't sure if he should move any closer. Part of him wants to, but the rest is saying, Kaidoh, you dumbass, that's a terrible idea.

Instead he grabs the pillow off his bed and stretches his arm out, poking the soft corner of it into Momoshiro's cheek. He must look idiotic, and sure hopes his brother doesn't choose right now to drop by for a visit.

Momoshiro crinkles up his face, and bats his hand at the annoying object poking his face. "Hnnmpf." Slightly his eyelids start to move open, and he blinks them lazily a bit, before turning over and glomping the pillow Kaidoh was poking him with. He buries his face into it and continues his sleep.

Kaidoh tries to tug the pillow back, but even while asleep, Momoshiro's grip is pretty tight and Kaidoh eventually just lets go of it with a hiss.

"Fine, then. Take it," he growls. He creeps a little closer and nudges Momoshiro in the side with his fist. Wake up, idiot.

Momoshiro flails his hand around to hit whatever was bothering him, and he makes contact with Kaidoh's face. "What—what," says Momoshiro, a bit bewildered. He opens his eyes and his vision is all blurry so he sits up and rubs at his eyes.

"Kaidoh?" he asks.

"Who else would it be?" Kaidoh replies in his usual grumpy voice.

"Shut up," whines Momoshiro. "Don't just do weird shit to me when I'm asleep." He stops rubbing and looks at Kaidoh, who has been sitting close to him. "Did I hit you in the face?" Momoshiro can't really remember, he's still half asleep, and he breaks out into a huge yawn.

"I wasn't doing anything weird!" Kaidoh argues. "I was just trying to wake you up. You sleep too late." He rubs at his face. "And you didn't hit very hard, just kind of swatted at my nose. Moron."

Momoshiro nudges the blue pillow. "Right, nothing weird. And I don't sleep in late at all." He stretches his arms outright, and then suddenly remembers; it's his birthday. He sticks out his hand in front of Kaidoh's face when he's done stretching.

"Give it," he says, and makes a beckoning motion with his fingers.

Kaidoh blushes, then scowls as though that'll help hide it. "Yeah, well," he says, "you have to go outside to see."

"Oh? Is it too big to give it to me inside?" That thought certainly makes Momoshiro more excited. "Okay, okay, I'm getting up." Momoshiro stands up from his newly made bed and looks around for his shirt.

"Have you seen my shirt?" He probably threw it somewhere when he took it off last night. Somewhere …

Kaidoh shrugs. "I don't keep track of your clothes..." he says, which isn't true, since Kaidoh is the one who washes and folds them. He glances around the hut and then spots Momoshiro's shirt flung haphazardly over on his side of the room, near the head of his bed, one sleeve pinned under his other pillow. Oh. That's a little awkward. He moves to retrieve it and hands it to Momoshiro.

"You're so messy," he says flatly, and wants to add, I didn't steal your shirt, just in case that's what Momoshiro might be thinking.

Momoshiro is still too sleepy to care where his shirt has been, and simply takes it from Kaidoh's hands and pulls it over his head, and flattens it out against his chest.

"I'm not messy," says Momoshiro. Well, maybe he is. Just a little bit. "You just don't clean up well enough." He then puts on his shoes, and he's ready to go outside.

"Okay, now what's the surprise you have in store for me …" Momoshiro is grinning with excitement as he walks out of the hut, and is immediately blinded by the morning sun in his eyes. He sees nothing but white, and suddenly he misses a step on the small stairs, and tumbles down, falling into the sand with his face first, and half his legs tangled inside the wooden stairs.

Ouch. That kind of hurt.

"What the hell?" Kaidoh mutters, as he hears Momoshiro faceplant into the sand outside the hut. He follows him outside and looks down to where Momoshiro is half trapped in the stairs and half flopped on the ground.

"Idiot. Are you okay?" he asks, descending the stairs to offer Momoshiro a hand up. "Is this how you start all your birthdays?"

Momoshiro lifts his face from the sand, a bunch of dirt stuck to his cheek, and he half glares at Kaidoh behind him. He yanks his legs away from the stairs.

"No," he spits out, "that's not how I start my birthdays at all, jackass." He sits up straight and wipes away the sand from his face with his shirt. "On my last birthday, my sister decided it was a good idea to give me a surprise visit at my apartment, and woke me up with a fucking airhorn." Momoshiro sighs; his face hurts and is throbbing a little bit.

"I'd like to have a birthday where no one is annoying me to wake up." He glares at Kaidoh as he says this. Then he wipes away at his face some more, there's even sand on his lips and he's pretty sure he's swallowed some too.

"Hey, it's your fault for not getting up earlier," Kaidoh says blankly, as though this is obvious. He doesn't put nearly as much importance in sleep as Momoshiro does.

Momoshiro rubs at his eyes this time. "What, why should I get up so early? What time is it anyway …" Momoshiro sets his hand down onto the sand, and notices weird squiggly lines inside of it. Strange. They weren't there last night. He rubs at his blurry eyes some more to clear up his vision; and that's when he noticed he had fallen face-first into some kind of lettering.

Slan

What?

Momoshiro tilts up his head to look at the entire thing, and recognizes his name. Momo-slan. He whips his head back at Kaidoh. "Momo-slan?" he echoes. What is that, like short for slander or something?

Kaidoh huffs. His sand-writing isn't that illegible. Momoshiro's rather graceless fall from his hut steps had just smudged the word into something unrecognizable. "That's not what it said a few minutes ago."

"Then what did it say?" asks Momoshiro as he rolls his eyes. He turns away from Kaidoh to look back at the writing, and then sees Happy Birthday written above it. And right above that, is some kind of weirdly misshapen pile of sand.

"What do you think it said, dumbass?" Kaidoh replies. "Your name, obviously."

"How do you get Momo-slan from Momoshiro?" He then crawls on his hands and knees towards the small pile—his knees erasing the word 'happy'—wanting to get a closer look. It's surrounded by pebbles and decorated with seashells.

"Oh, uh..." Kaidoh looks at his shoes. "Because it didn't say Momoshiro."

Momoshiro sits right in front of the pile, and it looks sort of … like a cake? It's got these weird sticks inside of the sand, as well as pretty little sea shells everywhere—and yeah, Momoshiro guesses it's supposed to be a cake. He starts to smile; it's better than nothing. Not when they're on an island and baking a real cake is simply not feasible right now.

"Hmm? Then what did it say, pray tell." Momoshiro pokes a hole inside of the sand, right at the top, and scribbles in 'happy birthday' himself. It's silly, it's kind of stupid, and it's pretty much the most pointless thing ever, but Momoshiro likes it. He likes it even more knowing Kaidoh had to get out, collect some stuff, and actually shape the sand cake. Just the image of Kaidoh doing something as silly as that makes him feel giddy, and he feels kind of important and satisfied. He's happy Kaidoh made him a stupid gift.

Turning his head to look back at Kaidoh, he shoots him a very wide smile, his eyes smiling too. "You're such an idiot," he says, but he says it like it's a compliment, like it's a desirable trait. He turns back towards the cake and pokes at the little sticks. They're supposed to be candles, he guesses.

"Couldn't you get any real candles?" asks Momoshiro. He's pretty sure there were loads of candles available on the island.

"I..." Kaidoh starts. Yeah, he probably could have found real candles, but he would have had to talk to people for that to happen... "I didn't think about that," he says instead. But Momoshiro doesn't look disappointed, just amused. More than amused, he looks really happy. It makes Kaidoh's mouth twitch with a smile too and he adds, "Whatever, it doesn't need them." It was supposed to look this way. Right. "You'll get to play with fire tonight anyway."

Momoshiro giggles like a little kid. "That's right! And you're dancing with me, you snake with two left feet." He waves his arm at Kaidoh to get him to come over and sit down with him.

"So I guess I should just pretend there are candles burning," says Momoshiro. He's hunched over the sand cake, and he's still smiling at it. The gesture alone was enough to get his mind off of other things and to make him feel happy again, like the usual Momoshiro.

He turns his head towards Kaidoh with a smirk. "I want a happy birthday song. From you. To Momo-chan. You know, that ridiculous English song."

Kaidoh crouches down next to the sand cake and gives Momoshiro a serious look. "I don't sing."

Momoshiro moves his hands around like he's a figure on an Egyptian vase. "Then mime it like this."

Kaidoh hisses. "I'm not doing that."

"Then at least congratulate me out loud!" says Momoshiro while laughing. He slaps Kaidoh's shoulder, since they're close enough now anyway. That's the least Kaidoh can do, right? Tell him 'happy birthday' instead of relying on some sand that says Harpy Birthday Momo-slan.

"Uh... Yeah... Happy birthday," Kaidoh says in a small voice. He looks at Momoshiro and his face starts to feel warm again so he looks at the cake instead. "Sorry you can't really eat this."

"Haha, what do you mean, of course I can." Momoshiro takes one of the small stick-candles out of the sand, then digs it in deeper, and drags it towards the edge, and creates a nice pie shape around a pretty cool shell. It's silly, and he's not going to eat it, but at least he could cut a slice in his birthday cake.

"There, that's your share," he says and points to the slice. "Everything else would be mine." Then he pokes the small stick right into Kaidoh's chest, and it snaps in half. "And where's that Momo-chan part you're forgetting here."

Kaidoh turns even redder. "I already wrote it out back there," he says, pointing at the sand, which doesn't really seem to say much at all anymore.

Momoshiro swoops his butt across the sand and wipes out all the wording, he throws an arm across Kaidoh's shoulder and pulls him close to mess it up even further. "What ever do you mean?" he asks innocently. "I don't see any Momo-chan written anywhere."

"Annoying idiot," Kaidoh growls weakly.

Momoshiro squishes his cheek up against Kaidoh, which actually feels really warm. "I'm waiiiiting," he says in a song-song voice. "Come on, it's my birthday and you promised!"

Kaidoh huffs defeatedly. "Fine," he grumbles, and starts rushing out his words, wanting to just get it over with. "Happy birthday, Momo..." Then he stalls out, the sounds refusing to form in his mouth. "... shiro." He hisses. "... chan." He punches Momoshiro in the stomach.

Momoshiro folds over in pain as he clutches his stomach and whines out loud. "What the hell … Kaidoh!" He sounds like he just got his breath knocked out by a damn bulldozer. Momoshiro looks at Kaidoh and wishes he could punch him back, but that really hurt! Just give him a few seconds, he'll punch back, just wait.

"Asshole," he wheezes out. Momoshiro decides to grab a small seashell within his reach on the cake, and chuck it at Kaidoh's general direction, and then he holds his stomach again, trying to even out his breathing.

Kaidoh blinks back at him and then his eyes narrow. "You're the asshole for wanting me to say something so weird in the first place!" he snarls. He hadn't meant to hit Momoshiro quite so hard though. He'd gotten flustered and his fist had decided to do that all on its own.

"What's wrong with saying Momo—" he takes in a deep breath, "—chan?" Nothing. There was nothing wrong with it at all. It's an endearing nickname that Momoshiro likes everyone to use when they call him. Well, mostly friends that is. And he thought it would be nice, and thinks it's actually sort of, kind of, adorable if Kaidoh called him like that. Mostly because he knew the snake would splutter and turn red, and maybe even refuse to do it—and a fumbly Kaidoh is fun.

A punching Kaidoh is not. Fuck. It hurts still.

"Fucking asshole. I'm going to punch you back." Once he can get up from his fetal position. "Just give me a second."

"Moron," Kaidoh replies, and that at least is easy for him to say. His face feels really hot, angry and embarrassed at the same time. He scowls.

Momoshiro growls at Kaidoh, then finally releases his precious hold on his stomach, and his hands shoot out to clutch Kaidoh's shoulders, and in a second, he's pushing Kaidoh into the sand, right where 'Momo' is written in it, and he crawls on top of the stupid moron.

He should be punching Kaidoh right now. But Momoshiro's fingers feel tense as they dig into Kaidoh's bare shoulders, and his stomach still hurts and it's making him feel a little bit nauseous as he looks straight at Kaidoh's face below him. That scowling face he's always making, but this time it's entirely red. It makes Momoshiro not want to hit him back, because this is fun too: an embarrassed Kaidoh. Or he's just really angry … well, maybe a little bit of both.

So instead of punching Kaidoh back, Momoshiro simply gives him a smug smile. "I'll let you go if you call me Momo-chan," he teases. He blows the black hair out of his eyes with a huff.

"Momoshiro," Kaidoh corrects irritably, and shoves at Momoshiro's chest until he's pushed him off and onto his back, throwing him into what was originally the 'Birthday' part of the message and tumbling forward on top of him.

Momoshiro twists a knot in Kaidoh's tank top with his fingers, and pulls him closer. He grins at him as he butts head with Kaidoh. "Momo-chan," he stresses. Then he throws Kaidoh off of him, and now they're rolling to a stop right at the birthday cake. He climbs on top of Kaidoh again with a triumphant smile. Fighting with Kaidoh has always been one of his favourite past-times. Especially since it make him feel so energized and exhilarated.

Kaidoh growls. "Momoshiro," he snarls back, and catches his knee behind Momoshiro's leg to roll them over again.

This simply ends up being some kind of game where they keep overthrowing each other, because Momoshiro sure as hell is not going to let Kaidoh top him at anything. Whether that be figuratively, or literally, Momoshiro will have none of that. But he's smiling though, he's even laughing a bit; he's having fun. He rolls over Kaidoh again, and pretty much every single body part of theirs have touched each other while trying to get on top.

"Chaaahaaan," drawls Momoshiro. He's pushing Kaidoh back in the sand, his knees wrapped around his waist, and his shirt sticking to Kaidoh's tank top.

There's this rush going through Momoshiro, something which is very familiar, a rush he always gets when he's messing around with Kaidoh. But this time it's stronger, like he's standing at the end of a tunnel and a train rushes by him, and he feels the wind hit him full force, and he can't do anything but stand there and have everything inside of him ruffled up. But it feels good, it's like this big sugar rush that's making him feel high on drugs. Good drugs that is. Not that this was ever a bad thing.

No, Kaidoh's red and half-smiling face below him is definitely not bad. Not ever. Momoshiro can't help but react to it, to have his fingers curl up in Kaidoh's tank top, to feel his blood throb through his veins, from his fingertips to his toes, and it just keeps spiraling down faster the longer they're like this. His quick small breaths match Kaidoh's; they're probably evenly out-matched. Like they always are. Never better nor worse than the other. Always the same.

Momoshiro's eyes sparkle as he laughs; it's making him feel so alive.

"Momoshiro..." Kaidoh grinds out, but it no longer sounds like a protest, doesn't sound like he's arguing anything. It's more a reaction to the proximity, to Momoshiro's hands at his collar and his legs at his sides, than anything else.

He pushes at Momoshiro again, shoving him off and quickly following after, like they're glued together, unable to separate. Kaidoh doesn't want to. He ends up on top again and he pushes back at Momoshiro, feeling his pulse leaping under where his hands are pressed against his chest. Kaidoh's own heartbeat is racing too, like it's just run a marathon, like it always is when Momoshiro looks at him like that; intense energy in his eyes whenever they fight.

It's enough to drive Kaidoh crazy, make him do stupid things. Like right now.

His mouth parts and for a minute there's only air between his lips, like his brain is trying to drum up the courage to form sounds. "Momo-chan," Kaidoh finally concedes, his voice thin and hesitant and out of breath and smaller than usual. His face feels impossibly warm and an electric current zips through him as he speaks, but in the moment he says it, it doesn't sound as weird as he thought it would. And the important thing is just that he said it. It was Momoshiro's challenge and Kaidoh didn't back down.

Momoshiro feels his entire face lift up like he's got a sugar brain rush when he hears Kaidoh say that ridiculous nickname. Eyes are on Kaidoh's lips as he forms the words, capturing the details of how it curves to produce the sound; he's entranced by it. He can feel his heart beat wildly against the palms of Kaidoh's hands.

Kaidoh lifts his hands off of Momoshiro and sits back up. "You're such an idiot," he says, his breath still shallow and his smile small.

Maybe he really is, a big damn idiot, but he's a smiley idiot who's feeling good, and pumped, and excited, like everything is going right today—and morning has only just begun. Momoshiro doesn't think he won by getting Kaidoh to say his name aloud, he doesn't really think that at all. Not with Kaidoh on top of him, breathing in sync with him, chest and shoulders rising up and down, and his eyes are not tearing themselves away from Momoshiro. He can't stop looking either—he doesn't even want to.

"I'm …" Momoshiro takes a second to heave in a deep breath. "I'm allowed to be, it's my birthday."

He cracks a lopsided smile at Kaidoh, and he's thinking, that he's happy Kaidoh is here to spend the day with him. That he's here and making stupid things for him. That he's rolling around in the sand with him. But most importantly, he's happy Kaidoh is just Kaidoh like he's always been, and he's simply here with him, and that the snake is actually happy about that too. Seeing Kaidoh smile like that, with that intense gaze, and his narrowed eyes and open lips breathing for air—Momoshiro can't help but feel like he's being pulled in by this magnetic force, and not want to move away from him at all. He couldn't even if he tried.

It's impossible not to be attracted to this invisible force that keeps them coming back for more.

Momoshiro brings his hand up from his side, there's sand stuck underneath almost all of his fingernails, and he scrapes them up against Kaidoh's arm, leaving a faint trail of red and sand, until he stops when he reaches his shoulder. He welds his hand into a fist and bumps it against Kaidoh's chest, feeling like the tips of his fingers are being dipped in warm liquid, and he's oddly fixated on the small thumps he feels from Kaidoh's heartbeat.

"Didn't sound bad at all," says Momoshiro. No, it's not bad at all. Call him like that all the time, he thinks, he wants—keep looking at him like that. Keep messing around with him like that. Just keep that delightful expression that Momoshiro can't have enough of.

A strange current flows through Momoshiro's fingers, causing him to uncurl them from his closed fist, and stretches them across Kaidoh's chest. The fabric of his top itches slightly against his skin, and it's strangely alluring, and then his entire the palm is lightly pushing back at Kaidoh. He can feel the beat, that thumping heart beating against his hand, it's sending small shockwaves towards the pit of his stomach. He's sure his heart's going just as fast, just as excited, just as thrilling. It's accelerating, pulsing faster and pushing that rush all throughout him, and Momoshiro feels like he doesn't want it to stop either. Thump.

Has he ever wanted to in the first place? Thump. Thump.

Momoshiro looks up, with his eyelids feeling heavier, locking his gaze with Kaidoh's dark blue eyes. Thump, thump—thump.

Kaidoh lets out a shaky breath and swallows hard, suddenly feeling nervous. It's like the temperature outside has just been cranked up by several degrees and his mouth feels very dry. He stares back at Momoshiro, who's just … watching him, watching him like he wants Kaidoh to do something, and that something isn't to get the hell off of him and leave him alone. Kaidoh's pretty sure they're not even fighting anymore by any stretch of the word. Instead, it feels more like the opposite of fighting. Momoshiro's hand at his chest feels like it's driving heat into him, warm and infinite, stretching through him to his fingertips and down to his toes.

Kaidoh swallows again—this time it's more of a gulp—and starts to lean forward, Momoshiro's arm not putting up much resistance, like he wants it just as much. Kaidoh isn't even sure what it is yet, or where this is going. He just knows that he can't stop himself, not with Momoshiro.

Kaidoh might not be able to stop himself, but the massive wave that chooses that very second to crash up upon the shore sure can.

For a brief moment, there's saltwater everywhere and then it retreats, leaving the sandcastle reduced to a rather pathetic, unidentifiable mound of seashells and driftwood twigs, and Kaidoh sputtering on the ground, knocked off of Momoshiro by the force of the wave.

And there's an ugly, glassy-eyed fish flopping around on Kaidoh's cheek for no good reason whatsoever. When Kaidoh realizes what it is, a high, harsh sound bubbles out from his throat. It's not a shriek, but it's close.

Being hit and drenched by seawater makes Momoshiro snap out of his daze—especially when Kaidoh starts shrieking. He spits out some water that he almost swallowed during the whole ... fumbling around like fish. There's a fish on Kaidoh's face right now, and his reaction is priceless. Momoshiro just stays lying down in the sand, watching him freak out.

It makes him feel a little better, because suddenly he's realizing that things were about to happen. Something was. He doesn't exactly know what, and frankly, thinking about it even further scares the hell out of him, and Momoshiro's cheeks already feel like miniature volcanoes as it is. His heart is still thumping loudly, refusing to quiet down, and that sugar rush is still fizzling around inside of him. Thank god the water helped cool him down a bit, Momoshiro isn't sure what he'd do if it didn't. What would have happened.

"Stupid idiot," says Momoshiro. He's not referring to Kaidoh freaking out about the fish. He lifts himself up out of the sand, his damp t-shirt clenching close to his skin, and he saunters over to Kaidoh. He grabs the fish that has now been flung into the sand, and chucks it back into the ocean.

"There, it's gone." No, it's not. Momoshiro is still feeling those pulses. It's not going away, and when he looks at Kaidoh—despite the snake being completely drenched by water as well, and looking extremely grouchy and kind of scary—it makes his cheeks grow redder.

This is not good. This is not good.

Momoshiro turns his head away from Kaidoh and opts to stare at the ruined birthday cake instead. This really isn't good … It's because everything is feeling so good, that it's scaring him. He hopes Kaidoh is too busy being scared to notice that he's actually breaking out into cold sweat right now.

"Uhm, it was a nice cake," mumbles Momoshiro. He nudges the sandy cake (what's left of it) with his shoe.

Kaidoh sits up and sees that the pile of sand he'd spent so much effort sculpting and arranging is pretty much destroyed. He probably shouldn't have built it so close to the water's edge. The star that the seashells had formed seems to be melting down the side of the cake, and all but one of the twigs has washed away or been knocked over. Kaidoh feels a little bit knocked over himself, like a wave's swooped through his insides, drenching everything and leaving fish flopping around in his stomach. He really doesn't know what came over him moments ago, or what he'd been thinking. No, he hadn't really been thinking, and that was the problem.

"It was just stupid," Kaidoh says aloud.

Momoshiro stops nudging the pile of sand and looks up at Kaidoh, temporarily ignoring those vibrations still going strong inside of him. "Huh?" he exclaims. "The cake?" Why'd he call it stupid if he's the one who made it?

"No, it's fine, just needs a little shaping up, and it'll be as good as new." Momoshiro sits down in the sand, and he starts patting the ruined cake to smoothen its edges, and picks out all the random crap that washed on top of it. He sticks back the little twigs, and manages to replace most of the seashells. Okay, so it's not as good as new, but it was a diversion from this weird feeling in his stomach, and now he didn't have to look at Kaidoh's face either.

"There." Momoshiro leans back onto his hands to look at the cake. Kaidoh is definitely better at making them …

Kaidoh moves closer to the cake to check out Momoshiro's effort. "Not bad," he says. It actually kind of resembles a cake again. Sort of. He shrugs. "I guess it can't last forever. At least you saw it before…" He trails off, his cheeks going pink again as he thinks about how things were just before that ill-timed—or perhaps well-timed—wave hit. "Well. You saw it anyway," he repeats and looks away.

"Yeah …" Momoshiro turns his head to face Kaidoh and smiles at him. "Thanks. It wasn't, ehh, bad, I guess. I'd prefer a real cake though!" Then he starts to think that maybe it wouldn't be too far off from the future, and thinking about this keeps his mind off of the thumping in his chest. "Make me one. When we get back. A chocolate cake, preferably. With real strawberries in them." Or burgers, burgers would work too. How would cake taste with hamburgers inside of them?

"I'll make you one too! You know, not just the stupid pillow." Though Momoshiro has never baked a real cake before, he just bought them at the store. It shouldn't be too hard, right?

"I don't eat much cake," Kaidoh replies with a snort. "I've never tried to make one before either..." He looks at the pile of sand. "Not a real one, I mean."

"Right, you did say that once …" Momoshiro suddenly remembers the night on Christmas eve, when he had a cake, and Kaidoh said he wasn't much fond of them. Remembering back on this memory suddenly makes him feel weird, so he stops.

"Fine, I'll make you a salad instead," says Momoshiro.

"You don't have to make me anything, idiot," Kaidoh says, but it isn't really a protest. He gives Momoshiro a light shove in the shoulder. "Salad's a lot easier to make than cake," he points out, as though it's a competition and Momoshiro is taking the easy way out.

Momoshiro glares at Kaidoh, pouting his lips at him. "Fine. No salad then." He toys around with a small pretty cream coloured seashell. "How about just an entire dinner, huh? That's not easier than cake!" But Momoshiro doesn't have any money … well, maybe he will once they get back and they start getting charity and donations and stuff. Maybe. But then where would he stay? He's pretty sure he's kicked out of his pathetic apartment already, so where is he going to stay?

Momoshiro glances at Kaidoh, then quickly looks back at the stupid cake. It's an option … sure. He could probably beg Kaidoh enough to let him stay, but it that really a good idea? Then again, it's not like they've been at each other's throats since they've been living together on the island. Surprisingly, they really haven't, and that's actually sort of weird. Living with Kaidoh isn't that hard, in fact, it's surprisingly easy. It's not what he expected, he expected a lot more fighting, and maybe even kicking him out. He almost did, in the beginning, but Kaidoh's been pretty tame lately. They've been peacefully living together. Well, not entirely peacefully, but they tolerated the other. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.

Which is just really strange.

And it's starting to make Momoshiro think that he could stay at Kaidoh's house for a while (since his own parents could barely care for themselves and his sister) after they get off this forsaken island. It's starting to look like a good idea. A really good idea. Momoshiro fumbles around with the seashell, suddenly feeling nervousness well up in the pit of his stomach, and the shell slips from his hold, landing on top of the cake.

"Or, ehh, no dinner," says Momoshiro awkwardly. Making dinner for Kaidoh could lead to things … things involving future plans. He shouldn't be thinking of having plans in the future with Kaidoh, but on the other hand, he actually really wants to make plans. He still wants to see Kaidoh when they get rescued. He doesn't want the both of them to ignore each other for another five years …

Momoshiro glances back at Kaidoh again. No … he'd rather not.

"Don't have the money for it," he mumbles.

Kaidoh snorts. "Don't worry about it," he says, because that's kind of how Momoshiro seems right now—worried. It's weird. Kaidoh wonders if he picked up on the whole … whatever it was that Kaidoh had been about to do earlier and got freaked out by it, by Kaidoh, and his increasingly stupid inability to keep from blushing or smiling or doing dumb things when he's around Momoshiro. He's becoming a hopeless case.

"Besides," he continues, "today's your birthday, dumbass. You're not supposed to spend it thinking about presents for other people." Least of all me, Kaidoh thinks. Because it makes his insides feel all syrupy.

Momoshiro scratches the back of his head as he slowly turns towards Kaidoh with a puzzled expression on your face. "Wait, are you telling me to be selfish today? Hah, you're weird, Kaidoh." Too weird.

A kind of weird he doesn't seem to hate.

"So—uhh, thanks," says Momoshiro. He already thanked Kaidoh before, didn't he? "I'll give you something better for your own birthday next year." He says this with a glint in his eye, something which he can't hide. Because thinking about the future, and with Kaidoh in it, makes him feel strangely at ease.

"Sure you will," Kaidoh replies, his tone skeptical, but just the fact that Momoshiro said 'next year' makes Kaidoh want to smile. He doesn't though, because Momoshiro probably didn't mean it seriously. Maybe that's just something he says to everyone. It's not like Kaidoh's ever given Momoshiro a birthday present before, so he wouldn't know.

He flicks a bit of sand in Momoshiro's direction. "And," he adds, "you're selfish everyday. At least today you have an excuse."

Momoshiro bites his lips, and tries his best to look offended at the insult, and at getting sand thrown on his shoes. But it's sort of hard, because he's really not angry at Kaidoh at all, in fact, he's really rather cheerful, and that strange rush won't leave him alone. He's still feeling high, and it's making him smile way too much.

"Am not," he tries to protest. He scoots closer to Kaidoh, then socks one on his arm. "I am always very considerate to other people. I'm as selfless as … as … I don't know, what do people call it? Mother The ... The …Yeah, whatever. I'm not." Momoshiro pouts. "You are!"

Kaidoh hits Momoshiro right back. "If I was, why did I make you a cake?" Well, maybe it was partly selfish. Kaidoh had wanted to see Momoshiro smile.

"It's not a real cake …" says Momoshiro, knowing he's just grasping at anything here. "Whatever. You're not scoring any brownie points with me for making me presents." Blatant lie.

Then Momoshiro lowers his head and purses his lips at Kaidoh. "I would definitely like a real cake though." He then winks at Kaidoh and quickly hops away from him before Kaidoh could think of punching him for being a weirdo.

"Now let's get back inside and undress!" says Momoshiro. He's already walking back to the hut; his shirt is drenched in ocean water, and so are his shorts. His shoes are also wet. He swears this happens at least once a day.

Huh? Kaidoh's whole face flushes at Momoshiro's words. Don't be a moron, he tells himself. Momoshiro is just saying dumb things as usual. He doesn't realize how much they leave Kaidoh feeling weird and flustered. Or maybe he does. Maybe he does it all on purpose. Maybe making Kaidoh blush is fun for him. Dumbass.

"Don't throw your shirt over on my bed again," Kaidoh growls after him, and rises to his feet.

Momoshiro looks back over his shoulder. "I didn't do that." He certainly doesn't remember it. "You stole it."

Kaidoh scowls. "Why the hell would I steal your stupid shirt?! Idiot."

"I don't want to know what kind of weird stuff you do with my shirt at night …" Momoshiro crinkles up his face, and then he turns his head again to look straight, and he walks up the small wooden steps to get back inside of the hut.

When his back is turned to Kaidoh like this, he feels a lot less restless. Momoshiro swallows that lump he's had in his throat for a while now, and he doesn't look back anymore. He's still afraid something might happen. Afraid if he'll look at Kaidoh again, he'll feel that weird adrenaline pump through him, and it'll make him … feel mushy. Like he wants to feel like that all the time. And that's just weird and confusing.

It's his birthday. Nothing should be confusing today.

Momoshiro's got a party to think about.