Washed Up

by Celianna

Five years later since they last spoke to one another, Momoshiro and Kaidoh meet up again under strange circumstances; washed up on an abandoned island. MomoKai. Roleplay.

19. Important Discoveries

Washed Up

A/N: Kaidoh still has a surprise left for Momo before his birthday is over. A pretty important log for Momo! The fact that cellphones still work on an abandoned island is handwaved (I think we have a generator running somewhere ...)

Authors: Celianna (Momo) & Happiestwhen (Kaidoh)

Rating: T

Events leading up to this log:
- Set after the fire dance (this is not logged)
- While they were still on the ship (set months ago), Ryoma thought it'd be funny to organize a prank on Momo, and to make him think he can 'catch the gay', and got a bunch of people to join in. He cancelled the prank after he felt guilty, so it never came into fruition, but the post is still there

Date: July 23, 2012

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It's late, and it's sort of cold, and Momoshiro's birthday is almost over. To be honest, his birthday already felt over; the party was done and he had his fun and danced around with Kaidoh. There might have been someone else there as well, but it's not like Momoshiro was paying attention when he was having so much fun. Echizen even came as well, and that made Momoshiro feel a lot better, since they were sort of … fighting. And he didn't want that on his birthday.

Surprisingly he did not set himself on fire a couple of hours ago. Many people thought he would, but Momoshiro thinks he did pretty awesome. He messed up a few times, but hey, it was fun, and that's all that counts. At least he made a good memory out of it. The memory is burned into his mind forever, and a lot of it is because Momoshiro seriously can't forget the image of Kaidoh in a hula skirt, twirling around a staff of fire.

He almost looked sort of cool like that. Almost.

Momoshiro was always cool, of course.

After the party ended, Momoshiro sauntered back to his hut. Or well, Kaidoh's hut. Not his. He was too lazy to even get rid of the leafy skirt, so he kept it on. Bandana included, the one with weird flying meatballs on it. Or perhaps they were comets. Either way, Hazue ended up giving him some flimsy paper that he picked up somewhere for his birthday (he was smiling really weirdly, as if he wanted to tell him something, but didn't), and Momoshiro had an idea.

That idea was formed two hours ago, and he still couldn't make it work. Momoshiro figured the paper could make a good lantern, those that would float into the sky. It would be the perfect way to end his birthday for real, but with the speed he's going at, he's probably going to finish after it's already midnight. This simply makes him more agitated and impatient. He's been fiddling around with the paper, and some metal hoop thingies, but he's already failed three times, and he's running out of paper.

Maybe he should give up on the idea, a floating lantern. Yeah, it's a stupid idea anyway.

But Momoshiro likes stupid things. It's probably why he can hang out with Kaidoh so much and not get sick of it.

Where is Kaidoh anyway? Momoshiro didn't see him anymore after the party. Maybe he went running again. This makes Momoshiro scoff out loud and he throws some sand at the hut behind him, as if this would somehow magically transfer onto Kaidoh, so he'd know Momoshiro doesn't approve of him running on his birthday. Stupid running freak. How could he even still have the energy to run after all that dancing? Momoshiro's own muscles were aching like hell from that dance; he's going to have such sore muscles tomorrow morning, it's going to be a dreadful day. Maybe he can stay in bed all day long and no one will notice.

Though he's sure Kaidoh will kick him out, or douse him with water if he sleeps in for too long. Asshole.

After another five more minutes of trying to shape the paper around the metal hoops, Momoshiro huffs out loud and he leans against one of the wooden poles from the hot, sticking out from the sand. Great, he's never going to finish this in time. He might not even finish it tomorrow! Why is it so hard? It's just a paper lantern, sounds easy enough. Stupid lantern. Stupid Kaidoh, he should be here and helping Momoshiro. Or Echizen should, but he's probably already sleeping. Kaidoh never sleeps early. In fact, Momoshiro hasn't even seen Kaidoh go to bed, because he's the one who falls asleep first.

"This sucks!" yells Momoshiro. He throws the white paper into the air, then lies back down into the sand to watch the starry sky.

Kaidoh has been busy too.

He's found a palm tree some ways down the beach that hangs out over the ocean, bent at a lazy swooping angle. He'd first noticed it when they were running back from the cove the day before and it, coupled with something Momoshiro had said then, gave Kaidoh an idea.

So now Kaidoh is building a swing. Or a hammock. Or something. Kaidoh isn't really sure what, but he's been working on it on and off through the afternoon, in the time he can sneak away, pretend he's going out to lift weights or gather food or run. Running has always worked as a good excuse for anything, and usually it's not even a lie. Kaidoh runs a lot.

Now, it's almost finished. He's sewn pillows onto the fabric to make it more comfortable, rather than just the nylon netting it was originally, and it's hanging looped over the tree branch, stretched out with poles of bamboo at the ends.

Kaidoh has tied a string of jars between the two ropes, each one holding a small flickering candle for light, because Momoshiro had said this morning how he'd wanted birthday candles. These aren't quite birthday candles exactly, nor are there a full twenty-one of them, but they cast a nice glow over the hammock, like little fireflies in the air. Actual fireflies would have been harder to catch, and Kaidoh would have felt silly trying. He's probably done enough silly things for one day.

He tugs at the hammock, pressing down firmly on it to test the strength. It seems secure enough, and hopefully comfortable enough for Momoshiro's liking.

It's also pretty big, the reason for which Kaidoh will probably lie about and say is because Momoshiro's a fatass, but really it's just because Kaidoh has this stupid idea that maybe they could sit out here together and maybe that would be nice. Lately he's realizing more and more that it usually is. Nice, that is. Just to be there with Momoshiro. Kaidoh likes it. He likes it a lot.

After adjusting the ropes a final time, Kaidoh heads back towards his hut, hoping that Momoshiro hasn't tired himself out from the party and gone to bed already. He wants to show this to him before it turns to midnight and his birthday is over. Momoshiro doesn't know that Kaidoh still has presents for him. It's not that Kaidoh had wanted to wait this late to give them, but he hadn't found a good opportunity earlier. Giving Momoshiro things makes him nervous, and in the past it had always been much, much easier to just chicken out and run away. It's harder now that Momoshiro is here living with him, but maybe better too. It's forcing Kaidoh to be a little braver.

As luck would have it, Momoshiro is still awake and outside even, doing … well, Kaidoh isn't sure really. Right now, he's just lying in the sand. Kaidoh wonders if he's planning on sleeping outside.

"Hey, dumbass," Kaidoh calls out as he gets closer, and gives Momoshiro a nudge in the side with his shoe.

Momoshiro jolts upright, feeling his heart almost jump out of his throat. He whips his head around to look at Kaidoh, and he can feel his pulse slow down again, but not by much.

"Damnit Kaidoh, don't just sneak up on me like that," he says. And don't give him any heart attacks while he's at it. He tries to calm his beating heart down, which is still racing a thousand miles per hour, and he glares at Kaidoh, since it's all his fault of course.

"You done running?" asks Momoshiro. Maybe Kaidoh always runs this late. Momoshiro isn't really sure, since he usually falls asleep before this time anyway. Today was special though, since it's his birthday, and he had a party not too long ago, and he's been fiddling around with paper for the past two hours—so yeah, he's up later than normal. He wonders just how long Kaidoh usually runs. He's always gone when he wakes up, and Momoshiro goes to bed alone as well.

It's actually kind of lonely like that.

Not that he'll ever tell Kaidoh this.

It's not like he wants Kaidoh to be there when he wakes up, or goes to bed. Because that sounds weird, and needy, and kind of nice—and that's weirder! But it was sort of nice when he woke Momoshiro up this morning to give him his birthday present. He wishes all his mornings were like this.

"Yeah," Kaidoh replies, as though he's been running up and down the beach this whole time, instead of thinking about Momoshiro, and presents, and how much of a weird person he probably is for constantly connecting the two. He smoothes his hand up over his bandana, feeling a little nervous. He's felt nervous all day, but in a good way, like a constant, exciting crackle of energy.

"What are you doing?" he asks, and crouches down in the sand next to Momoshiro. He picks up one of the metal hoops and examines it skeptically.

"I'm trying to make this Chinese lantern thing—you know, the floating ones," explains Momoshiro. He gathers all the white paper that he's thrown around to toy around with it again. "I did it once. Elementary school, I think. It was some stupid project, but it worked! But that was so loooong ago, I don't really remember how to make it. I can't get the metal hoop to stick with the paper and not tear it apart. I've got the burner part done at least." He points to a small cardboard piece in the sand.

Hopefully, Momoshiro looks at Kaidoh. "Hey … you're crafty, right?" After all, Hazue told him so. "Got any ideas?"

"It shouldn't be too hard if you treat it gently and don't force it," Kaidoh replies, and gingerly picks up one of the sheets of paper. It flutters in the air; it's really thin. Kaidoh hasn't tried to make a lantern in a while, but he can do it. He knows how. It just takes patience and a delicate touch, two things Momoshiro lacks.

"Let me try," he says, and sits down in the sand, spreading the paper out in front of him. His eyes narrow in concentration as he stretches the corners out carefully, movements deliberate and careful to make sure it doesn't tear. He lifts a second sheet of the same white paper, then a third, and fourth, and lays them flat on top of the first. The layers will meet to create seams, four sides that will allow the lantern to open up.

Kaidoh looks up at Momoshiro and asks, "Do you have glue?"

"Oh yeah, somewhere," says Momoshiro. He quickly scans around the sand; he brought in a bunch of stuff to make the lantern, so he grabbed just about anything. Glue, tape, rope, scissors, more paper, markers … and why is there a bottle of golden glitter in the sand? Momoshiro knocks that one away as he reaches for the bottle of glue, and hands it over to Kaidoh. It's not superglue or anything, but it should work, maybe.

While Kaidoh can go ahead and do his thing with the paper, Momoshiro returns to the burner that was half finished. A small piece of cardboard that was waxes—that's basically all he remembers from making a Chinese lantern. That, and he has to tie a string to it. A really flimsy wire made out of metal should do the trick. Luckily, Momoshiro has found enough supplies on his multiple trips to the ship (plus he liked bringing back random crap that might have been useful later on).

Lacking any delicacy, unlike Kaidoh, Momoshiro takes the wire, and spins it around the cardboard piece in a hurry, so that it's in the middle and secure enough to not topple over. He lifts his hand up in the air, holding the end of the wire with his index finger and thumb.

"Got the burner ready, I think," he says slowly. He's not really all that confident in it. "You know how to do the rest?"

While Momoshiro is finishing the burner, Kaidoh sets to work gluing the sheets together, taking his time so that the paste doesn't seep through and tear the paper any.

He nods in response to Momoshiro's question, but doesn't look up, just continues gluing a careful, meticulous line along the paper's edge.

Before he finishes, he says, "If you want to write something on it, you should do it before I open the lantern up. It'll be easier that way." His voice is grumbly like he thinks writing on it is a stupid idea, but he remembers when he made lanterns before and his mother told him it was nice to write messages and wishes on them for good luck. Maybe Momoshiro thinks that kind of thing is nice too.

Momoshiro's eyes start to sparkle. "Oh, that's a good idea! I even have some markers here …somewhere … where are they." Momoshiro crawls across the sand to look for them, and it takes him a minute to spot them, half buried underneath the sand, and half covered by a seashell. How it ended up in that position, Momoshiro doesn't know. But he wouldn't put it past himself that he might have done it on purpose himself.

"Okay, got one. Move over." Momoshiro scuffles back and sits right next to Kaidoh, pushing him out of the way a bit so he can reach the paper sheets. He puts the end of the marker in his mouth, and tears off the top so he can start writing. He bends over it and happily writes Momo-chan on it in capital roman letters, the lines thick and sort of sketchy, and it becomes all wobbly when he doesn't really have a flat surface to write against, except for some sand.

"That does say Momo-chan, right?" he asks, just for confirmation. He wasn't all that great in writing anything but Japanese, but he remembers that Kaidoh was pretty good in English back during middle school.

Kaidoh hisses. "Yeah," he grunts in agreement. "Don't press so hard or you'll rip the paper."

"I won't, I won't!" Momoshiro pulls away with the marker, and he starts to tap it against his bandana, something which he's still wearing. "Should I write S.O.S. on it too?"

"Write whatever you want," Kaidoh replies flatly. It doesn't seem particularly likely that anyone will find the lantern, let alone know who 'Momo-chan' is and why he needs saving, but the idiot can go ahead and knock himself out trying to turn it into a distress signal.

"Eh, they wouldn't find it anyway," says Momoshiro. Though he sort of wants to write something else on it anyway.

"Oh, I know." Momoshiro leans forward again, taking the marker and pressing it down against the paper, right underneath the big M, and starts to write Kaoru-chan. It's always a good idea to use Kaidoh's embarrassing nickname whenever he can. The letters are not straight, and the N of 'chan' could barely fit on it anymore, but it's there. Momo-chan and Kaoru-chan.

It's really fucking stupid, but it makes Momoshiro smile and laugh anyway.

"What the hell," Kaidoh says, scowling. "I told you not to call me that." He looks and sounds a lot grouchier than he feels. In fact, he kind of likes seeing their names together like that, even if the letters are all terribly misshapen. He likes knowing that Momoshiro was the one to write them.

He sighs, trying to sound impatient, like this is all a waste of time, because he doesn't want to let on that, to him, it's anything but. "Are you finished?" he asks.

"Hhmmm." Momoshiro writes one last thing, in the top left corner, he writes 21, since there's not much space left. It's how old he turned today, so that makes sense at least. And hey, Kaidoh's the same age. He pulls the marker away and puts the cap back on, and he sits back and looks at the writing.

"There, all done!" Then he pokes his elbow into Kaidoh's side. "And I'm not calling you like that, I was writing it!"

"That's just as bad!" Kaidoh retorts, no immediate challenge behind the words. He picks up the lantern and starts to open it up into a bell shape, careful not to tear the paper or pull it unglued as he does. The marker bled through a little and now their names, backwards and faded, are visible on the other sides of the lantern as well, like some weird pattern. Kaidoh's mouth twitches as he looks at it, not with a frown but with a small smile. Momoshiro is an idiot, he thinks.

He takes the metal hoop and slides it under the lantern. It doesn't quite fit perfectly—the paper sheets are too wide, but Kaidoh can fold them around the metal and glue them in a way that should hold together.

Once he's done pressing each edge firmly to the hoop, he says to Momoshiro, "Now you have to tie that burner between the hoop's edges." It's something Momoshiro should be able to do. Metal isn't delicate.

"Uhh," stutters Momoshiro. "Uhm … do I like, poke a hole through the paper? I can't exactly wrap the wire around the hoop now that the paper is stuck to it." He's holding the burner in one hand, and with the other he's scratching the back of his neck, feeling really slow and stupid. And it's even worse that Kaidoh has to witness this as well.

"Here," Kaidoh says, and holds the hoop up. He takes the burner out of Momoshiro's hand and starts to weave one end of metal around the hoop, under the paper and over again, like he's sewing it into the still sticky glue. Then he presses it tight against the hoop and paper folded over it. He repeats this on the other side as well, so that the metal is now secured under the glued paper and wrapped around the hoop.

He lifts the lantern above him, the bell of paper catching the wind and billowing lightly, making air flutter against his name on the paper.

"I think it's done," Kaidoh says. "It should float like that."

Seeing it finished, and it's still standing up in that bowl-sized shape without deflating, or looking like cotton candy that's been left out in the sun for too long—Momoshiro is actually quite happy Kaidoh helped him out. He's been trying to do this for two hours! And he just swoops in here and makes it in less than fifteen minutes.

Actually, that should really piss him off, since Kaidoh isn't better than him in any way, shape or form.

But he's not pissed, he's not even insulted or disappointed in himself, Momoshiro is simply happy. After all, it's his birthday, people are allowed to make things for him, and he can be happy about it. Especially if Kaidoh is the one doing it, who seems to be arguing and struggling against any commands Momoshiro gives him less and less each time. He wonders why this is, why Kaidoh is so lenient with him, but then pushes it to the back of his mind; he doesn't really need to think about it. If Kaidoh feels like doing things for him, then he sure as hell isn't going to stop him!

"That looks awesome!" Momoshiro finally says. He gives Kaidoh a few hard pats on his back, laughing at him, and showing all his teeth as he smiles. "I knew you had it in you." Not really, but the next time he's making something like this, he'll be sure to ask Kaidoh first.

Though that's kind of weird, Momoshiro asking things of Kaidoh. But he realizes he's been doing it a lot lately. Again, he doesn't quite know why this is, but it's not like it's a bad thing, not when Kaidoh agrees, and especially not when it makes him smile like this. That's all what really matters; if he's happy, then why does he care—no need to stress over it.

"Come on, let's go find a nice spot to launch it at!" Momoshiro stands up and quickly picks the lantern out of Kaidoh's hands. He's got a lighter in his pocket, so really the only thing he has to do is find a cliff or something. At least away from trees. He wouldn't want to catch the island on fire. He tugs on Kaidoh's arm so he can get up too and find a good location with him. That's also when he notices that he's still wearing that silly hula skirt, and not much else—and it is sort of chilly in the night without a shirt on.

"Uh, here, wait a minute, I'm going to change in my regular clothes real fast." Momoshiro pushes the lantern back into Kaidoh's hands, then quickly hops back inside of the hut.

He strips himself of the leafy skirt, then grabs some black shorts and his old yellow t-shirt. As he wrings his head through the collar of his shirt, he remembers the bandana he's wearing. Momoshiro smoothes his hand over his head, trailing his fingers across the fabric. He can't help but smile a little, he doesn't really feel like taking it off because it feels nice and sort of warm. But it's Kaidoh's bandana, not his, so eventually he takes the ends and slips it off his head, his black hair falling back into his eyes, and he unties the knot and sloppily folds it into a square.

Through the small opening between the bamboo blinds and the doorway, Momoshiro sees Kaidoh's head sticking out above the wood. He's not doing much, just sitting there, waiting for him to be done. It's quiet, kind of eerily so, and it's making Momoshiro a little bit more aware of himself, and of Kaidoh. The slit is small enough to not let Kaidoh know he's being watched, and Momoshiro feels sort of weird looking at him like that, as if he's some sort of stalker. He shakes his head and started walking towards the entrance.

"Hey, Kaidoh," says Momoshiro as he finally exits the hut again. "Here's your bandana." He descends the small stairs and stands next to Kaidoh to offer him the small red sheet of fabric. When Kaidoh turns to look at Momoshiro, his fingertips start feeling very warm holding the bandana, as if there's a warm breeze being blown from across the sea despite the chilly night.

There's this lingering feeling inside of Momoshiro, and he feels the need to say thanks, but thinks that if he does, that it's not really about giving the bandana, but more for the entire day. Kaidoh's pretty much been with him for the entire day, save for the times he went running, but he stuck with him, and even did things for him—it's been really fun. Should he really says thanks? He says nothing instead, deciding to keep quiet, and digs his fingers into the soft fabric, as if he doesn't really want to give it back.

It'd be nice if it was his birthday every day.

Kaidoh lifts his arm and pushes his palm back against Momoshiro's outstretched hand. "You keep it," he says, voice low and gruff. He wants Momoshiro to have it. He likes it when Momoshiro wears it. It makes Kaidoh feel good knowing Momoshiro has something of his, like it connects them somehow.

He looks up and meets Momoshiro's eyes, and his gaze softens. "Keep it," he repeats quietly.

Momoshiro looks at him thoughtfully, and then back down at the bandana in his hand. He shifts his gaze back to Kaidoh. "Only if you promise to tie it each time," he says while grinning. The prospect of being able to bug Kaidoh daily to do something for him was very appealing to him.

Kaidoh huffs. "Yeah, I guess I'll have to, since you're so hopeless at it," he grumbles, but he doesn't look all that annoyed.

"Shut up!" Momoshiro stuffs the bandana into his pocket, then quickly leans forward and stretches out his hand towards Kaidoh's head, until he's got a hold of his scalp and he ruffles up the bandana on his own head, and makes a hasty retreat. He takes the lantern out of Kaidoh's arm and starts to skip away from any repercussions.

"Let's go find a spot!" he calls out. Momoshiro quickens his pace in case Kaidoh feels like tackling him.

Kaidoh hisses, reaching up to try and smooth his bandana back into place, but it's all wrinkled up and hopeless now, so he just pulls it off and stuffs it into his pocket before getting to his feet and jogging to catch up with Momoshiro.

Momoshiro starts to think about Dumbnuts Cove; it had a really pretty view of the ocean, and the cliffs surrounding the place was pretty high. He thinks that would be a great spot to launch it at. Though he's starting to regret it a little walking out in the dark of the night, and only the moonlight is giving them a little bit of light. Well, it's not that bad, it's not like Momoshiro is afraid of the dark, or he'll run into something he can't see. His eyes shift over towards Kaidoh, who is now walking besides him, quiet.

Afraid of the dark, hm. Momoshiro knows how much of a chicken Kaidoh is, but being afraid of the dark is probably not one of his fears. After all, he goes running late at night each day. Obviously he has build some sort of tolerance against it. It sort of saddens Momoshiro though, it would have been fun to tease Kaidoh about it. Maybe even scare him a little bit, and once Kaidoh would punch him, he'd simply laugh and say he'll stop, and protect him from the evils of the night!

Hah. Why is he being so stupid. Momoshiro chuckles lightly at himself and shakes his head. This day is making him think about strange things.

"You sure this will float?" asks Momoshiro. It feels too quiet if neither of them are talking, and Momoshiro likes it when people talk, he also likes the sound of Kaidoh's voice sometimes. A bit gruff, a bit deep, a bit scary, but it's nice to know he's there. It's almost reassuring.

Momoshiro lowers his arms down and takes the lantern in his right hand, clutching it at the top, and keeping it next to his side, away from Kaidoh so it doesn't bump into him. He looks at Kaidoh, waiting for him to reply, and he's sort of strangely aware of how close they are. In fact, he's close enough to Kaidoh to feel the heat of his hand against his own, but far enough to not accidentally brush their knuckles against each other. It's a rare sight to see Kaidoh get so close to him on his own accord.

It's starting to make this chilly night feel a little bit warmer.

"It should float," Kaidoh replies flatly, "if you made the burner right." His expression is a little distracted as he stares ahead of him, like he's busy searching for something in the distance. He's aware of the direction they're going in, since he'd been down here just a short while earlier, and as they've been walking along, he's been trying to steer them closer to the shoreline without it seeming like he's doing anything deliberate. Assuming the candles haven't all burnt out yet, they should be able to see the tree with the hammock soon.

"Of course I made it right," says Momoshiro defensively. It's the only thing he remembered how to make from back in elementary school. "Stuff I make never fails," he boasts proudly. "After all, your hula skirt stayed on tight." He jabs an elbow into Kaidoh's side for good measure. "And you wore it too!"

Kaidoh glares at him. "Moron," he says simply, because he can't really do much to argue the point. He does however jab Momoshiro right back.

Not even hesitating, Momoshiro steps on Kaidoh's foot in return while he laughs out loud. He quickly turns his walking into a sprint and runs away from Kaidoh, the lantern swaying back and forth at his side, and his bare feet sink deep into the sand, getting in between his toes. It's annoying, but he's not really paying attention to it while he's running away from Kaidoh.

"Can't catch me!" Momoshiro hollers back at Kaidoh. It's not even true though; Kaidoh is the master at running, he'd have no problem catching up to him and simply punch his face in if he really wanted to. If. He knows Kaidoh won't.

"Asshole!" Kaidoh yells as he tears after him. Momoshiro may have started with a lead, but Kaidoh closes in on him easily, and when he catches up, he lunges at Momoshiro from behind and pulls him to a stop. His arm wraps around Momoshiro's neck in a headlock and his other hand forms a fist and knocks into Momoshiro's shoulder.

"Caught you, loser," Kaidoh pants against Momoshiro's ear, his voice hitching as he catches his breath. His heart is racing, invigorated by the chase. He feels kind of smug … Maybe if Momoshiro bothered to run more this wouldn't have been quite so easy.

"H-hey," says Momoshiro as he's stopped dead in his tracks—and he doesn't know if it's because Kaidoh is restraining him, or simply because all his muscles stopped functioning due to his brain being turned to mush. Maybe a little bit of both.

It's suffocating, it's getting harder to breathe like this, what with Kaidoh's arm around his neck. But it's not that he's strangling Momoshiro, it's the close proximity of their bodies, and then there's Kaidoh's breath hitting against his ear, and that's sending all his senses into overdrive. Like his skin is being pricked by a thousand needles, and he's getting goose bumps at the same time. Why is his ear so sensitive, and why does Kaidoh's warmth make him feel all tingly like this? It's insane, it's Kaidoh for god's sake, and he's not supposed to stand there like a mouse trapped in a stupid cage, unable to do anything but feel Kaidoh against him, to feel his breath at his ear, to feel the hairs on his arm brush up against his neck.

"Let go," says Momoshiro, and he tries to squirm out of Kaidoh's hold.

In front of them, the lantern swings precariously in Momoshiro's hand, and Kaidoh knows the glue isn't dry yet, and it's delicate enough that Kaidoh doesn't want to chance ruining it with a fight, so he abruptly lets go and pulls away. He made his point, anyway. The point being that Momoshiro isn't going to win against him.

He still ends up punching Momoshiro lightly in the jaw a second later, just in case he missed the point the first time. And because Kaidoh feels like doing it.

Momoshiro rubs his jaw and growls at Kaidoh. "Jerk." But Kaidoh is mostly just a jerk for glomping him from behind and triggering all these weird feelings. It's confusing.

To distract himself from these stupid tingly feelings that are still crawling on top of his skin, Momoshiro's hands ball up into fists, and he's about to punch Kaidoh's face in, when he notices something. Two flickering lights in the distance, they look like candles.

Immediately the warm tingly feelings drain from his body, and Momoshiro tenses up, on the alert and ready to run away if anything happens. "Stay back Kaidoh, there's someone there," he says in a very low voice, and stretches out his arm so Kaidoh can't continue to walk. Who was it? Who was on the beach this late and this far? No one else but them came this way … maybe it was Kite again. Kite was back for more.

The prospect of seeing Kite again out on the beach heightened Momoshiro's paranoia, and he quickly snatches Kaidoh's hand and pulls him aside, behind a huge rock near the edge of the beach and the start of the jungle. He crouches down, and forces Kaidoh to do so as well.

"Shh, it might be Kite!"

Kaidoh is more startled by Momoshiro's hand than anything he's saying. He knows it's not Kite. He knows it's not anyone. Momoshiro has simply spotted the place down the beach where Kaidoh had set up the hammock. But Kaidoh can't seem to form the words to say that. His palm is flaring up with heat from Momoshiro's touch and Kaidoh's scared to speak because that would only call attention to it. Or make Momoshiro pull away.

Finally he finds his voice and says, "It's not Kite. It's … Uh … C'mon, I'll show you." He attempts a reassuring kind of facial expression, since Momoshiro seems visibly wary, and then he stands and pulls Momoshiro up to his feet with their still linked hands.

Momoshiro's eyes are still locked onto the flickering lights, but he does stand up begrudgingly. "What? How do you know?" he asks. He steps closer to Kaidoh so that it's not as obvious that there's two people standing in the distance, that whoever is out there won't notice them as much. Maybe he can just whack them with his lantern and run away.

Slowly he turns his face towards Kaidoh. "Show me what?" A dead Kite buried in the ground and lit with candles? That would be a nice surprise. He subconsciously squeezes Kaidoh's hand in concern. "Nothing dangerous, right?"

Kaidoh's face flushes. "You'll see in a minute," he says evasively, and starts dragging Momoshiro along the beach. "Don't worry though. It's something good," he adds, and without thinking about it, squeezes Momoshiro's hand back. He immediately feels stupid for doing so, but Momoshiro isn't letting go, so he doesn't either. He doesn't even flinch. He just keeps pulling Momoshiro along.

The lights grow brighter and bigger until the tree and hammock become clearly visible. Kaidoh stops and looks at Momoshiro expectantly. Then he drops Momoshiro's hand because it suddenly feels weird to be standing here on the beach at night with candles around them and their hands tightly clinging.

He looks down at the ground and lets out a low hiss. "See?" he says gruffly. "Something good."

The lantern slips out of Momoshiro's grasp, and it plops into the sand silently. He doesn't know what to say. There's a hammock in front of him, with a bunch of pillow on top of it—they might be sown together, but he's not sure. On both ends of the hammock are two bottles hanging low from the palm tree, and they've got candles burning inside. It's the only source of light, and it's enough to light up the hammock, but dim enough to not be bothersome.

"Is this … for me?" asks Momoshiro very slowly. He's a bit confused. He does know asking Kaidoh about some ridiculous pillow swing only yesterday, but he didn't think the snake could pull it off on such short notice. Not to mention he already gave him that fake birthday cake this morning. So he'd been planning on this as well?

Momoshiro turns to look at Kaidoh, who's just staring at the ground, and acting like a weird cactus. Yeah. This is definitely done for him.

Kaidoh huffs. "No, it's for fucking Atobe," he replies flatly. "Who the hell do you think it's for, moron?" He stuffs his hands into his pockets. The one that had been holding onto Momoshiro's has gone all tingly and sweaty.

"Shut up!" replies Momoshiro immediately. But he's not angry at all, he's smiling like there's no tomorrow and he feels a tons of butterflies swarm around in his stomach. He gives one pathetic punch directed at Kaidoh's upper arm, then he dashes off towards the hammock.

Momoshiro clutches the net and pulls it down a bit, then he pushes one knee up and leans it down on the pillow-net thing. It's wobbly, and he almost loses balance and flips over, but Momoshiro manages to climb inside of it, and now he's hanging off the ground and staring at Kaidoh. The pillows are irregular and crudely sewn together, but it's soft, and it's really big, and the candlelight looks really nice. Kaidoh looks really nice all of the sudden.

He really can't stop smiling.

Momoshiro stretches out his hand towards Kaidoh. "Well, you gonna join me or what?"

Kaidoh looks up at Momoshiro who is lying there in the hammock, looking happy and content, arm outstretched like he wants Kaidoh there too. It makes Kaidoh's heart beat really loudly in his chest. Don't be stupid, he thinks, and turns his head to the side and shrugs.

"I don't have to, you know," he says gruffly, because he doesn't want to sound eager. He doesn't want Momoshiro to think he's weird. "It's for you, not me."

Momoshiro promptly pulls his hand back. "Fine then," he says with a huff. He twists his body around on the hammock, being a bit wobbly, so that his legs are hanging off the other side, and he's not facing Kaidoh.

"I'll just have this allll for myself," says Momoshiro arrogantly while he stretches out his arms to indicate that it's all his.

"Dumbass," Kaidoh grunts, and feels awkward just standing there so he moves forward and shoves at the side of the hammock, making it swing back and forth in a precarious movement.

"Hehe, do it again," says Momoshiro while he snickers at Kaidoh. "That's fun." He turns to look at Kaidoh. "Don't be a dick, get on, you dumbass."

Kaidoh hisses and swings the hammock again, before turning and sitting down on the edge of it. At least, that's what he intends to do, but the whole thing dips and sinks under his weight and he ends up flopping backwards and landing in a rather undignified position against Momoshiro's side. He hisses again.

"Fucking idiot," says Momoshiro as he laughs at Kaidoh's clumsy stumbling. He's such an idiot. But the idiot is pressing up against him now, his face near his hips and hand, and Momoshiro's face near his. Well, this works too, he guesses. He still can't believe Kaidoh made this for him, with lit candles included!

It's actually really cool, and it's something Momoshiro had requested only a day before. Kaidoh would have had to sneak out and fix this up while he wasn't watching. But there wasn't that much time left that they didn't spend together today. There was his birthday cake thing, and then the fire dance, and now this … it was a pretty eventful day. An unforgettable one.

Momoshiro stares up at the sky, through the leaves of the palm tree, and he sees the milky way spread out above them. It looks as pretty as the first time he saw it. Well, maybe even prettier this time, because there's something about that twinkle in the sky, and Kaidoh's cheek touching the back of his hand, and the soft sensation of the pillows. It all feels really nice, relaxing—comforting, he's simply content. And while the night is rather chilly, Momoshiro feels anything but. He feels warm, like there's a glow surrounding the hammock, a bubble that only they can exist in and bask in its glorious warmth.

Since when did he have mushy thoughts like that?

Kaidoh's hair is touching his fingers, and it's sort of ticklish, but nice. Momoshiro ends up reaching for it with his pinky, moving it ever so slightly to wrap it around a lock of Kaidoh's hair. It's subtle, and he doesn't even realize he's doing it himself.

"Can't believe you did this," says Momoshiro. He sounds awed and happy, but mostly just content. "How'd you even find time to do this?"

Kaidoh blushes a little. "Well, I wasn't running all the time," he admits, feeling a little bit like he's confessing a secret, like it's weird to tell Momoshiro just how much effort he's been putting into his birthday. It probably is.

Momoshiro chuckles lightly. "You dick. Lying to me. I guess whenever you say you're going running, you're really just saying you want to spend time alone, don't you?"

"I'm usually running!" Kaidoh protests, shoving into Momoshiro's side.

The hammock swings back and forth, and Momoshiro hastily grabs the net with his free hand to stabilize themselves, the other hand sort of ended up squishing Kaidoh's face. As if Kaidoh's face is a stove that's too hot and he's been burned, Momoshiro quickly pulls away and rests his hand on top of his stomach.

"Sorry," he says quietly. "Dumbass," a bit louder. Then he nabs his elbow into Kaidoh's side this time, being careful not to make too many unnecessary movements.

"You run way too much." How many times has Momoshiro said this from the day he had met Kaidoh? Probably a lot … He realizes something at that moment, and this makes him feel smug and arrogant, so he presses himself up against Kaidoh even more. "You're not running now," he points out. As if this is some kind of abnormal feat. And it actually sort of is, because it means Kaidoh stopped training simply so he could hang out with Momoshiro.

Or he could also have finished his training, like he said about ten minutes ago, but Momoshiro pushes that thought to the side.

"Hehe, this turned out to be a very good birthday after all," muses Momoshiro.

Kaidoh brings one hand up and rests it behind his head, looking up at the leaves of the palm tree and the sky beyond it.

"Good," he says simply. He can feel Momoshiro's whole side smoothed up against him, their shared weight sinking their bodies towards each other. But it's not suffocating. It's not even weird. Kaidoh usually hates an invasion of personal space but from Momoshiro, it doesn't feel bad at all. And it never really has, no matter how much he'll protest. No, good is the right word for it.

Momoshiro, like Kaidoh, stares up at the palm tree, and his eyes land on the glass bottles with the candle inside of them. The flame flickers nicely, and it gives off this nice warm atmosphere.

"You even added candles for light, I'm impressed," says Momoshiro. "Though it sort of looks …" Candlelight under the stars while lying in a pillow hammock? It is actually a pretty romantic setting, especially since it's a birthday gift for him, and now Momoshiro starts to feel all prickly, and more aware of the fact Kaidoh's side is touching him. That they're lying in this hammock together, and there's candlelight and stars all around them.

"Nevermind," says Momoshiro quickly. Besides, this wasn't new to him. He did this with Echizen too, and he was fine then. There were even fireflies back then! And now Momoshiro sort of wants to catch a firefly.

"You know what would have been cool? If you caught a bunch of fireflies instead, and stuffed them in a jar. I'm sure they'd give off enough light as the candles do!" Momoshiro starts to imagine Kaidoh running after a bunch of fireflies, and that's pretty amusing to him so he cracks into a wide smile.

Kaidoh snorts. "That would be dumb," he says, but there's no bite to it, because he kind of likes the idea too. It sounds like it would be … pretty, something he'd probably never admit out loud.

"It'd be awesome," protests Momoshiro. He shifts his body from left to right, marking his spot in the pillows so that the shape molds to his body and he gets more comfortable. He slightly leans his temple against Kaidoh's thigh; it feels warm and very muscular. "This is comfy," he murmurs. His eyelids feel heavy and droopy; has he really been up for that long? Or is it just so comfortable he could fall asleep? Probably a little bit of both; it had been a long day, and it is pretty damn comfy.

"Ahh, my muscles are going to be so sore tomorrow," complains Momoshiro as he swings his legs back and forth a bit. All that dancing was surely going to give him aching pains in the morning.

"Well, I guess when you're not used to regular exercise..." Kaidoh chides, and knocks one fist into Momoshiro's knee. But Momoshiro isn't just being whiny; the dance was pretty draining. And invigorating. It wasn't nearly as bad as Kaidoh had imagined it was going to be. He was actually almost glad he'd done it.

"We can stretch together tomorrow," he suggests, the words just tumbling out of his mouth on their own. He blushes. "I mean, you should stretch tomorrow." He swings his own legs out and back again. "Idiot," he adds.

"Streeeeetch," moans Momoshiro as he stretches out his arms above his head, as well as his legs. He causes them to rock back and forth on the hammock, so he stops and relaxes his muscles again. He lays his right arm on top of Kaidoh's knees, just because it's more comfortable that way.

"Yeah sure, we can stretch tomorrow," he says. Momoshiro is suddenly reminded of that day Kaidoh helped him stretch for tennis practice in the morning. That day Kaidoh told him was the day he started liking him.

What if he does it again tomorrow? What if Kaidoh is going to start liking him again?

Well.

Momoshiro thinks back; what had really changed after that day then? Once Kaidoh started liking him, did he do something to make Momoshiro feel weird? Not that he can think of … in fact, Momoshiro can say that the only thing that changed between them, was that they sort of became closer. That's mostly because they had to run the tennis club together, so of course they spent a lot of time together. Times in which Kaidoh liked him, and he had no idea.

But he didn't hate those times. He liked them. In fact, he liked hanging out with Kaidoh so much, he even continued to bother him despite going to separate high schools. Especially once summer vacation started, he bugged Kaidoh every day. And every day was fun, and Momoshiro just couldn't leave him alone. He guesses Kaidoh tolerated his excessive bothering because, well—he liked Momoshiro, didn't he? Too bad it had to stop so abruptly, and it was just a stupid mistake too.

Momoshiro's eyes flicker over towards Kaidoh, who is looking up with a slightly pink face.

If that's how Kaidoh acted because he liked him … then … Momoshiro guesses it wouldn't be so bad if he liked him again.

It's not the same with Echizen. Definitely not. It's different, different in the way that Echizen was a constant reminder he liked him and was attracted to him. It felt weird acting normal around him as a friend—and it was definitely weird hearing Echizen say he was 'hot'. That's something that would never leave Kaidoh's mouth, and he's sort of glad it doesn't. It'd be extremely weird and awkward if he did say that.

Sure, the day he found out Kaidoh had liked him during middle school, it was a bit awkward around Kaidoh, but they got over that pretty fast. And then everything went back to normal.

With Echizen it didn't. It still hasn't. It's still even weird talking to him; something that's completely normal between him and Kaidoh. Not that Kaidoh likes him right now.

Not that he'd mind that much.

Wait—why the hell does he think it's okay for Kaidoh to like him!? That makes no sense! Of course he doesn't want Kaidoh to like him. That'd be weird.

But then he remembers the nice phone conversations they had, and Momoshiro feels warm and content, and once more he flip flops on the issue. As long as Kaidoh wouldn't do anything, and just keep being Kaidoh—then it wouldn't matter, right? Besides, Kaidoh isn't the kind of guy to want to act upon those feelings anyway. It's not like he did something during those years he liked Momoshiro.

Oh, he guesses the Valentine chocolates count. But that's just one present.

The hammock doesn't count. Neither does the fake cake. Those are presents after Kaidoh stopped liking him, yeah. They don't count.

But they sure made Momoshiro feel happy …

He thinks back on their last summer vacation spent together. What if they continued to talk to each other after that? What would have happened? Would Kaidoh have kept it a secret forever? Or would he have eventually confessed to him? The image of Kaidoh confessing to Momoshiro makes the hairs on his skin rise, and he turns his head to the side so he's not staring at Kaidoh's thigh anymore.

It's probably best if they don't do stretching, so nothing can remind them both of that day, and so nothing else can happen. "Hey Kaidoh," Momoshiro softly calls out. "A massage sounds better than just stretching." Then again, maybe he's thinking about this way too much, probably overthinking it.

There's no way Kaidoh will like him again, and it's not like Momoshiro wants him to in the first place! But like this, it's fine. Hanging out. Literally. It's nice. As long as they can continue to do this, then nothing else really matters.

The stars are pretty tonight.

Kaidoh snorts. "Do I look like a masseuse?" He kicks his legs to knock Momoshiro's arm off them, even though he doesn't mind the weight. He tries to turn towards Momoshiro but the angle is kind of awkward and Kaidoh doesn't want to look like he's staring at Momoshiro's crotch. Not that he would be doing that anyway; Kaidoh isn't a pervert.

Instead, he just continues to look ahead at the sky above him and his face crumples into a scowl. "You're on your own if it's a massage you want, dumbass."

The wind rustles through the palm tree leaves above them and breezes against the fragile paper of the lantern that's lying on its side on the ground by the tree. It rolls a little in the sand, the metal ring catching the light of the candles and glinting in the darkness. It takes Kaidoh's mind off the awkward thought of giving Momoshiro a massage for the moment and he nudges at Momoshiro's side.

"Didn't you want to, uh …" He points vaguely in the direction of the lantern. "… launch that into the sky or something?"

Pulled out of his thoughts, Momoshiro looks into the direction Kaidoh is pointing in. "Oh yeah. I did." But right now that seems like too much effort, and Momoshiro was enjoying sitting in the hammock like this.

"How about we launch it just before midnight?" asks Momoshiro. Midnight still meant a few more minutes of lazying about, so that's good in Momoshiro's book. "What time is it anyway." He looks at Kaidoh (more or less, his nose), waiting for an answer.

Kaidoh reaches to pull his phone out of his pocket, a movement which is kind of weird when his whole leg is pressed up against Momoshiro, and he ends up jostling both of them as he fumbles to retrieve it. He looks at the display, which reads 11:23 and, wordlessly, turns the screen so Momoshiro can see too.

Not really seeing the small lettering on the display, Momoshiro lifts up his body from his previous position. He uses Kaidoh's leg for support, pressing down on his thigh to push himself up straight, until he's face-to-face with the cellphone.

"Oh, that's still pretty early," he says a bit surprised. "But I was sure we were working on that thing for a long time … hmm, I guess you're just really good at making them." Momoshiro has to admit; Kaidoh did help him out a lot. He's been trying to work on that lantern for at least two hours, and then he came in and simply took over.

Momoshiro scratches the back of his head, turning his head away from Kaidoh. "Thanks, for that," he says bashfully. Like thanking Kaidoh for anything means admitting that Momoshiro couldn't do it himself. He could! He could even do it better than Kaidoh. If he wanted to. But Kaidoh did help him out, and that was sort of neat. Even if that was a little embarrassing.

Momoshiro settles his gaze upon the wiring of the hammock, and wonders if it's really all that strong—what if they were too heavy together and it would snap? With one hand, he presses down on the pillows, making the hammock sink down more, but it feels stable and secure, and Momoshiro is once more coloured impressed. It's making him feel all happy and excited again. Actually, he wants to try lying down in it, but with Kaidoh sitting there, he can't exactly do that. He can however, pull his legs up and fold them over each other. That's exactly what he does; he swings his legs right over Kaidoh's legs, and pulls them towards himself, folding them and scooching closer to Kaidoh's waist. He leans his hands down onto his ankles and grins at Kaidoh, whose face is now much closer to him.

"This is pretty stable," says Momoshiro. He rocks his body back and forth a bit to wiggle the hammock and illustrate his point. With his fingers, he picks at Kaidoh's tank top, stretching the fabric a bit. He's always wearing those stupid things. He must really hate sleeves. Momoshiro should buy him a real shirt in the future.

"Why do you always wear these?" he can't help himself but ask.

Kaidoh glares back at him. "I like them," he says plainly. Then he adds uselessly, "Quit touching me." It's useless because they can't really help but touch right now, unless Kaidoh were to get up from the hammock and walk away, but he stays put.

"I'm not touching you!" says Momoshiro indignantly. Touching his tank top is not touching him. And just because, he prods one finger into Kaidoh's side. Now he's touching him. And he had it coming. Jerk. He pokes again.

Kaidoh squirms away with a horrified look on his face. There isn't very far to squirm though. The whole hammock wobbles with movement. "What the hell!" he growls and punches Momoshiro in the leg, since it's the closest thing he can reach.

"Ow!" Momoshiro growls, a scowl appearing on his face. He quickly pokes Kaidoh's side again, jamming it in there much harder than before. Kaidoh's reaction is immediate, and he jerks away from Momoshiro's touch, causing the whole hammock to lose balance once more.

Momoshiro flails his arms up in the air to stabilize themselves, and he end up flopping forwards, sprawled across Kaidoh's body.

Well, uhm. This is not really what he wanted.

"Your fault," he mumbles. Momoshiro doesn't make an effort to get off at all. Maybe it's because he feels like he doesn't have any energy left today, or maybe because using his muscles right now hurts, or maybe because Kaidoh's body feels squishy (well, not really, that man's got abs of steel) and oddly warm. Or maybe things have just been building up for the entire day, and Momoshiro is letting it all wind out, by not moving an inch. Kaidoh will have to push him off himself.

"Moron," Kaidoh grunts. Despite the hammock's still violent swaying, he manages to heave Momoshiro off of him and shove him away. "You stupid idiot," he adds, once the hammock has stopped swinging so much. He feels prickly and warm all over, especially his face.

"You're the moron," Momoshiro snorts back. Then he jabs his elbow into Kaidoh's side. "Now move, so we can lie down how we're supposed to lie down in this stupid thing." Generously being very patient, Momoshiro waits and sits back so that Kaidoh can pull his legs up and lie down; because lying down sounds a lot better than being elbowed in the face.

Kaidoh grumbles as he tries to reconfigure himself on the hammock, which is big, but not so big that he doesn't end up knocking into Momoshiro several times while pulling himself up. He glares at Momoshiro each time, like it's somehow his fault, but eventually they're properly side by side and Kaidoh lies back.

"There. Fine. Happy?" he asks grumpily. And Kaidoh kind of is, in spite of himself.

Momoshiro grins despite wanting to hit Kaidoh for being grumpy. "Of course." He lies down next to Kaidoh, it's pretty snug and their arms are pressed up against each other—but so is everything else, really.

It's actually kind of really close, and a bit uncomfortable now that Momoshiro's arm is being squished in between, so he takes it out from between them, and raises it up behind his head, letting his head rest on the palm of his hand. The other hand rests on his stomach. He looks up at the palmtree, at the flickering candlelight, and at the twinkling stars above them. The milky way which is half visible through the leaves still looks as pretty as ever.

"You know," starts Momoshiro, "this beats being cooped up in my small uncomfortable apartment. I mean, all I had over there was a futon, and it was a cheap one with holes in it, and it gave me plenty of backpain. But this, this is actually so much better." Momoshiro tilts his head he slightest bit towards Kaidoh's face, and he lowers his elbow so that he can rub it on Kaidoh's head (and it's more fun seeing as he's not wearing a bandana, so he can mess up his hair). He does it as a sort of playful thank you, but he's sure Kaidoh thinks otherwise.

Momoshiro stops messing up Kaidoh's hair and sighs. "It really isn't that bad out here. Not at all." Not when he's got a roof over his head, plenty of food, and he just enjoyed a fire dance spectacle, and now he's lying down in a hammock with a guy whom he'd never thought he'd see again.

Actually, he's starting to almost be grateful for crashing onto this island. What if he didn't? He'd just return home to his crappy apartment, and not talk to anyone of his past anymore. Certainly not even Kaidoh. They hung out so much five years ago, Momoshiro was bugging him every day despite going to different high schools, and after it abruptly ended, he admits that he actually sort of missed that stupid snake.

And he admitted it out loud too! Something which Kaidoh hasn't done yet still.

So Momoshiro wiggles his body to get Kaidoh's attention. "Hey, dude, you missed me, right? I mean five years is a long time to not be speaking to each other. You gotta have missed me."

"Don't say weird stuff like that," Kaidoh replies gruffly and folds his arms across his chest. He glances at Momoshiro out of the corner of his eye. Momoshiro's stupid face is right there next to him, and he's a warm and solid weight against his side and yeah, Kaidoh missed him. Of course he did. Momoshiro should know that without needing to ask.

Kaidoh socks his arm against Momoshiro's chest, a lazy, floppy sort of punch since that's all he can manage when they're lying side by side on their backs like this.

"It would be stupid to miss an idiot like you," he says. But Kaidoh is pretty stupid when it comes to Momoshiro. He always has been.

"Good thing you're stupid then, right?" says Momoshiro with a light chuckle. He rubs the spot on his chest that Kaidoh hit, it feels tingly.

Kaidoh scowls. "Shut up."

"Okay, as another birthday present, you have to tell me you missed me." He turns his entire head towards Kaidoh this time. "I missed you, Momo-chan." Momoshiro closes his eyes and purses out his lips in an over dramatic way as he says this. He knows there's a fat chance Kaidoh will do this, but it is fun nonetheless to tease him like this. It always is.

Kaidoh's eyes turn into annoyed little pinpoints and he hisses. "Don't be so disgusting." His voice is grumbly in protest. He jabs his shoulder against Momoshiro's cheek to push his face away, but it kind of ends up missing his cheek and grazing his lips instead which makes Kaidoh flinch back. "Don't you think you've already had enough birthday presents? Selfish idiot."

Momoshiro rubs at his burning lips. "I didn't ask for this," he says, and gestures towards the hammock. Except he totally did. "I didn't ask you for anything." Another blatant lie. "You just feel like giving me things on your own." Which actually, isn't a lie. "You're not hiding another present from me, right?"

Kaidoh's fist thumps against Momoshiro's chest again. "Dumbass," he says flatly. "How about I punch you in the face?"

"I'm pretty sure you've done that already today," says Momoshiro with a sigh. He can't really remember, but he does remember being punched in his stomach. His face couldn't be that far off.

"Ahh, strawberries with chocolate as a present sounds nice though. How are they growing? Fast, I hope."

"They're growing," Kaidoh replies vaguely. He's done gardening before at home, but the island seems to accelerate everything in a weird way, like the soil is extra fertile. It makes it hard to gauge. He doesn't know when the strawberries will be grown but it'll be soon, he thinks. He crosses his arms back over his chest and huffs. "I don't have any chocolate though."

Momoshiro whines out loud, then bumps his head against Kaidoh's. Kaidoh's hair almost stabs him in the eye. "God, what do I have to do to get chocolate around here?" he asks, obviously irritated. "Or burgers. I guess I just really want to eat real food again. Some pork and beef sounds good to me." Momoshiro starts to day dream about all the delicious Japanese food they left behind.

"I guess we'll have to make do with fish for now," he says with a sigh. "You better make me some hamburgers when we get off this island though. I'll stalk your house every day until you do."

"I don't know how to make hamburgers," Kaidoh says bluntly. His mouth pulls into a snarl as he adds, "Don't stalk my house!"

"You said you still live in the same house, right?" Momoshiro wonders why he never gathered all his courage to drop by Kaidoh's place and demand an explanation as to why he hadn't contacted him yet. "Whatever. Burgers aren't hard. You buy them at the store and then you grill them. Even you should be able to do something like that."

Momoshiro starts to grin. "And if you don't know how to do that either, then you're a hopeless case, and I think Tachibana should give you lessons."

"I don't need cooking lessons," Kaidoh grumbles. "I can make stuff just fine." It's sort of true. Kaidoh can make things that are … edible, anyway. Just because he doesn't have Tachibana's culinary flourish doesn't mean anything. Kaidoh's never been that fussed about food.

But now he suddenly wonders if Momoshiro would like to eat his food, if he'd enjoy it as much as all the other things he eats. Maybe Kaidoh should practice cooking more. The thought of carefully preparing dinner for Momoshiro makes Kaidoh's cheeks go pink. Which is stupid.

"Can't you cook them yourself?" he asks.

"Oh, I can," says Momoshiro in a lazy tone. "But food tastes a lot better when it's made by someone else." Which is completely true. Every time he prepared his own dinner, his food didn't taste that good. If loneliness had a taste, that's probably what it was. Momoshiro bets that the food would taste even better, if he cooked it together with someone else. Heh, cooking food with Kaidoh.

That didn't sound so bad.

"Or you could just let me mooch off of your mom's cooking, if you're not confident enough to not burn your own," says Momoshiro while he smirks. He removes the hand from behind his head, then slowly lowers his elbow on top of Kaidoh's head, and leaves it there to annoy him. "Your mom does still cook for you, right?"

"So?" Kaidoh says, half protesting. "That doesn't mean she has to cook for you, too."

"Hey, last time I was there, she seemed happy to feed another mouth, you know. It was delicious." Momoshiro hums out loud and rubs his stomach, remembering the fine taste of Kaidoh-san's cooking. "But feel free to cook for me instead, if you don't want to burden your mother."

"No one is going to be cooking for you, dumbass!" Kaidoh shoots back with a scowl. It's probably a lie. No, definitely a lie. His mother would happily feed anyone who walked into their house and now that Momoshiro brought it up, Kaidoh is thinking about cooking food for him too—something simple he wouldn't mess up too badly. But he's not about to tell Momoshiro that, because that would mean admitting he … wants to. And that would be like admitting, well, Kaidoh isn't sure exactly. But he knows it would be embarrassing.

"What, why not?" asks Momoshiro.

Momoshiro tries to sound a little bit disappointed and sad, and his eyes enlarge completely against his own will—but it's not like Kaidoh can see it from this angle. So instead, he lowers his fingers down (in a pretty awkward position) Kaidoh's head, and plays around with his long hair. Longer than Momoshiro's, he doesn't know how he can stand it. But at least it feels soft, and not greasy.

"Would you do it if I asked nicely?" Momoshiro grins; he knows Kaidoh's weakness. As long as he asks nicely, Kaidoh will do anything for him, as he has come to notice over time. But it was especially prevalent today. He even got Kaidoh to call him Momo-chan (though the second attempt failed not too long ago), and remembering this, Momoshiro starts to squirm next to Kaidoh and stops brushing his fingers against his hair.

This morning was a bit … Momoshiro doesn't quite know how to put it. It's been a rather exciting day overall, but there was something different about the excitement he felt this morning when he was rolling around in the sand with Kaidoh.

Momoshiro closes his eyes. It was definitely different. This comfortableness felt different too. It was lulling him to sleep almost. It is pretty late …

"Hmm, how about I cook instead then? Using your food of course," says Momoshiro. He's still got his eyes closed, and is focused on the slight vibrations transferring to him from the hammock slightly swaying. Focused on the sounds of the leaves rustling in the wind. Kaidoh's breath heaving in and out.

Relaxing just didn't quite describe it.

Kaidoh huffs, ignoring the way Momoshiro touching his head made goosebumps raise down the back of his neck. It's just cool outside because it's getting so late; that's all.

"You can do whatever you want," he replies dismissively.

"Ok, I'll sleep in your house then."

"What?!" Kaidoh sputters, twisting away from Momoshiro and making the whole hammock swing. "No, that's not what I meant! Asshole!"

Momoshiro tries to keep the both of them in balance, and he accidentally scratches Kaidoh's scalp as he reaches for the pillows behind his head. "Watch it," he growls at him. He definitely doesn't want to topple over and land in the sand. That would hurt.

"If it's not what you meant, then don't say things like that," Momoshiro says with a disappointed sigh. He was however, sort of serious about it. By now he's been kicked out of his apartment for sure, and he knows his parents have it rough and wouldn't be able to support him (they already took care of his sister), so that didn't leave anyone but … that stupid snake over there.

"Dumbass. I'll do what I want anyway." With Kaidoh's permission. Momoshiro settles down inside of the hammock once more, finding a comfortable spot, and this time his entire arm is slung over Kaidoh's head, his fingers touching his shoulder. Well, that's Kaidoh's fault, he shouldn't have moved so much. Not that Momoshiro is making any kind of effort to pull away. His limbs feel heavy, even his eyelids feel heavy, and he doesn't feel like moving at all.

"I wonder if they'd set up a shelter for us when we come back. I guess I could hang out there for a while. Until I found a job or something. Then it's apartment hunting all over again … I am not looking forward to it."

"Don't be stupid," Kaidoh says, and lightly shoves against Momoshiro's side. "You don't have to stay at some shelter."

Momoshiro snorts and playfully shoves back. "Well, I can't stay at my parents' place. Remember the day we stopped talking? Like a day afterwards, my dad lost his job. We were having a lot of money problems by then. He managed to find a new and crappier job in two months, but all of us were so stressed. Eventually I decided to not continue with college since he obviously couldn't pay for it. They're still not doing that well, so I don't want to burden them either." It was actually really rather depressing. "Maybe a cardboard box will do …"

But then he grins. "So really, staying on this island isn't that bad at all. I've got food, I've got a place to sleep. And the best part, I can bug you all day long."

Kaidoh grumbles, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should, stupid moron." But he doesn't sound all that angry when he says it, because Momoshiro bugging him doesn't annoy him all that much. And he's sort of glad Momoshiro is here, too … and not living in a cardboard box somewhere. Because that would be stupid.

"And why the hell not. I'll bug you if you want me to or not. Remember what happened last time I stopped bugging you? Five years of silence, that's what. And that's …" Something which Momoshiro doesn't want to happen ever again. It's really stupid, he was such a moron back then. He could have done something, anything.

Call me, he wants to say—but that sounds stupid.

Text me more often, but what should he text about?

Come over to my apartment. If he still has one that is.

Cook me food.

Let's go eat burgers.

Make presents for me.

Bake me a cake.

Hang out with me.

Was it all really that hard to ask?

"Dumbass," says Momoshiro. He shuts his eyes and listens to his own heart beat for several thumps, until he slowly curls up against Kaidoh, closing the distance between them, turned onto his side, safe and warm. Fingers are intertwined with locks of Kaidoh's hair, and the others claw at the man's shoulder. He doesn't want to leave. Not again. No more stupid games this time.

It's too good to give up.

Time seems to slow down for Momoshiro, as his eyes glaze over, his vision gets blurred, simply because he's being this close to Kaidoh. All the senses in his body are heightened, magnified really. The rough skin of Kaidoh's shoulder against the tip of his fingers, it grazes against him in a way that doesn't feel annoying at all. The mane of hair that his fingers are lost in feels like his hand is wrapped in cotton candy. Fluffy, airy, bouncy—it even smells good.

The rustling of the leaves stop, the ocean waves are quiet in the distance, the crackle of the fire simmers down. Momoshiro can only hear the movements of their chests rising up and down, and the air escaping in long and drawn out breaths. Mixed feelings cross over Momoshiro once more, those prickly little whispers in his ears are back from this morning.

That glow illuminating from Kaidoh, the thumps in his chest—it's exactly like this morning. Exactly when they danced together. Wading their way through fire and trial, the excitement in their steps, in their eyes, in their voices. The sand that got stuck in his hair when they wrestled each other over and over again. Kaidoh's breath is as jittery as it was then, when Momoshiro's hand was pressed up against his chest, and he lowered his entire upper body. The thrill that came, the hitching of his breath, the widening of his eyes, but most importantly, the swirling desire of not wanting to budge an inch. Urges to get closer.

And closer.

Momoshiro's ears are ringing from the silence. The cruel and deadly silence, that's making him focus on nothing but Kaidoh.

Just like this morning he wanted to …

Just like this afternoon he felt …

And right now …

It's itching inside of him. What is it? What is this? Why is it getting so hard to pull away?

Momoshiro parts his dry lips, they stick to each other slightly before he's managed to pry them open. He wants to call Kaidoh a dumbass once more, but then he doesn't. He wants to tell Kaidoh he's actually got a slight unibrow growing, but then he doesn't. He wants to ask Kaidoh what would have happened between them if Momoshiro called him again after that certain day. He wants to ask so many things, he wants to know so much about Kaidoh. He wants to do so many things with him.

Things to him.

It's kind of a little crazy.

Momoshiro blinks his eyes, but doesn't stop looking at Kaidoh.

Yeah, just that right kind of crazy.

Kaidoh lets out a shaky breath, half a hiss but more of a nervous rattle. He's too aware of how close Momoshiro is, and it's making his neck feel prickly and his skin feel warm, which doesn't actually feel so bad, but it's the fact that it doesn't feel bad or weird or wrong that scares Kaidoh.

That and the fact that Momoshiro is making no effort to pull away. In fact, if anything it's almost like he's pushing himself closer. Is he taunting him? Testing him? What the hell is he trying to do?

Kaidoh momentarily entertains the possibility that maybe Momoshiro simply likes being this close to him, but it's a fleeting thought and one he dismisses as impossible. No, Momoshiro probably just likes the pillows. He just likes the hammock. He's just sleepy, and lazy, and stupid. He probably thinks of Kaidoh as furniture.

Maybe Kaidoh is himself asleep. He's had dreams that went kind of like this. Yeah, he's dreamt about Momoshiro before, something he'd never willingly admit. But it's happened. But Dream Momoshiro didn't ever feel this present or heavy against his side. It was always painfully clear that the dream was just a dream because Kaidoh had no precedent for how it would feel to just be close to Momoshiro; no fighting or shoving. Just close. Just there.

"Momoshiro?" he says, his voice seeming to tear through the air, breaking the delicate and deafening silence that was hanging between them. He sounds uncertain. He feels uncertain. He's still staring straight ahead, like he doesn't dare look Momoshiro in the face. But that doesn't stop him from feeling Momoshiro's eyes on him. He's always been able to feel the heat of that stare, and right now it's so close it feels like fire against his cheek, making his whole face heat up.

"What are you looking at?" he asks, his voice low and quiet. And then he scowls, more from embarrassment than anything, and quickly adds, "Stop it, it's weird." This whole thing is.

A sudden small gust of wind dashes over Momoshiro's cheeks, and suddenly he realizes that it feels really good, because they're warm. Too warm. Everything feels warm.

"Stupid," huffs Momoshiro. He'll look at Kaidoh all he wants, but instead he says, "That's Momo-chan for you."

Momoshiro can feel himself grow warmer at the anticipation of hearing Kaidoh say his nickname again. The feelings from this morning are twisting around in his gut, it's getting harder and harder to ignore. And Momoshiro is finding less and less reasons to even give a damn. When Kaidoh said it out loud, and looked at him, gazed at him—everything felt so unreal. This doesn't feel that real either, but that's Kaidoh's real body, against him, so close, close enough that he's practically hogging his entire side.

That itchiness to get closer to him, it's still nagging at Momoshiro's mind. He doesn't quite get it, and he doesn't quite understand it, but he feels like he'll never quite fully understand even if he tries, so he just goes along with it. Subconsciously his body keeps sliding closer to Kaidoh's, they were already touching before, but now it's on purpose, and closer, and warmer. The pillows feel bumpy underneath his side.

"Say it," Momoshiro says softly. There's something brewing up inside of him, and he's latching onto whatever Kaidoh will say next. If he says his name … if he says his name like that. Then he will … he will …

Don't forget to breathe, Momoshiro. Breathe. In and out.

Shit, why is he shaking?

Kaidoh opens his mouth, then shuts it again, feeling a bit like a fish. He doesn't know what to do. Momoshiro's voice has an edge to it and it's kind of freaking Kaidoh out because it's new and weird and makes Kaidoh feel really tingly in his stomach. It reminds him of the feeling he used to get before a big match, like something important is about to happen but the outcome is still up in the air. Like it's up to him to decide. Like he's waiting for it all to begin. There's nervous energy buzzing against his ears, but that might just be Momoshiro's breath.

After all, they're so close now that if Kaidoh were to turn, even slightly …

His breath hitches up in his chest and suddenly his heart is pounding, annoyingly demanding his attention, refusing to be ignored. It's too much, and it's too weird, so Kaidoh twists away from Momoshiro with a hiss. But he finds there's nowhere left to move, and he lets out a yelp of surprise as he tumbles off the side of the hammock and lands with a thud on the ground. The whole thing jostles and shakes with sudden unbalance.

Kaidoh is about to growl out an annoyed curse when the hammock tips like a bucket above him, spilling Momoshiro out too, so now they're in an awkward heap on the sandy ground. But only for a moment, because Kaidoh groans and shoves at Momoshiro to push him off and away. The feeling of anticipation starts to fizzle and dissipate, replaced by one of annoyance, but there's still a weird tickle in the pit of Kaidoh's stomach. His head is spinning.

It takes Momoshiro a few seconds to adjust to the sudden interruption.

They had just fallen out of the hammock.

Right before …

"Ahaha," Momoshiro nervously laughs. He gathers himself and stands up right, dusting off his shorts. "Idiot." He turns his glowing red face away from Kaidoh. "Moron," he says this time. "Told you to watch it," he finishes childishly. As if it'll help divert the attention away from what was about to transpire.

Which was what exactly?

Momoshiro's cheeks burn and sting, and he shakes his head to get rid of those thoughts. All of them. All weird thoughts about Kaidoh.

His eyes land upon the lone lantern that was forgotten, tucked away underneath the hammock. It's a miracle they hadn't squished it to a pancake when they both fell down. He carefully nudges the paper with his foot, and the lantern wobbles back and forth. Now's a good time to launch it. Even if it does say 'Momo-chan and Kaoru-chan' in huge black letters, and it's making Momoshiro feel nervous all over again. Why did he think that was such a great idea to write just moments ago?

Well, he couldn't have known things would end up like … well, like what exactly? Momoshiro throws his head back to glance over at Kaidoh, who is looking just as frazzled as he is.

This is just getting a bit weird now. And why do they keep being interrupted?

"Let's uhm," starts Momoshiro. He scratches the back of his head; he sort of wishes he was still wearing the bandana so he could hide his face in it. "Launch this. Now. So uhm, yeah." Words have never felt so forced before.

Momoshiro picks the lantern up from the top, and then he moonwalks backwards—as to avoid facing Kaidoh—and he stops until he feels his feet drenched in muddy sand. The ocean is right behind him. And now Kaidoh is right in front of him. Kaidoh whose face is hanging down low, and staring at the sand as if they're made out of diamonds, and it's the most interesting sight on earth. Momoshiro feels prickles of heat rushing through his fingers, and in his startled state, he drops the lantern.

"Uhm, ehh," stutters Momoshiro. He clumsily reaches for the lantern again, his fingers shaking, and his heart beating in his throat. "Lighter, lighter …" He drops the lantern again, looking stupider by the second, and he stuffs his hand inside of his pocket, taking out the cold metal zippo lighter that he'd found on the ship. He flips the lid open, his finger fumbling around and feeling awkward, and the metal casing is soon drowned in his sweat, and it almost slips out of his grip.

Fuck.

"F-fire, fire, fire," he mumbles, and he puts his thumb on the little wheel to create a spark, and then a flame. And then he needs to pick up the lantern again, and those two things don't go well together, so he extinguishes the flame, picks up the lantern again—and now he stands frozen still, completely uncoordinated, frazzled, and looking like a lost puppy at sea.

Uhm. Uhm. Just don't look at Kaidoh. Don't look.

The zippo lighter slips out of his sweaty hand, and lands with a muted 'thud' in the sand.

Someone, please just shoot him with lightning right there on the spot.

Kaidoh looks up then, but he's kind of horrified by what he sees. Momoshiro looks all tense and weird and nervous. He's sweating. He won't look at Kaidoh. What the hell is wrong with him?

"Dumbass," Kaidoh says. "Let me help." He picks the lighter up out of the sand and dusts it off against the hem of his tank top. Then he stands up. There's enough distance between them that Kaidoh doesn't feel Momoshiro's emanating warmth anymore, which is both a relief and a disappointment. Now the lantern is in between them too, like a delicate paper barricade.

Kaidoh flicks the lighter a couple times, the flame shooting up and illuminating their faces. Momoshiro looks like he's blushing, too, but Kaidoh's sure he must just be seeing things. Or else Momoshiro's really that embarrassed over the lantern situation. Could be. After all, what kind of idiot can't hold onto a lighter? Although the thing is starting to feel slippery in Kaidoh's hand now too. Why's he so sweaty? It's just Momoshiro. It always has been.

"Okay, hold it up so I can light it," he says, looking at the burner on the lantern rather than Momoshiro's face. He sparks the lighter again and holds it steady.

Wordlessly, Momoshiro lifts the lantern from the sand—don't look at him, don't look at him, don't look in his eyes—he holds it right in between them, so he's definitely not looking at Kaidoh, but instead at the lantern. The lantern with the stupid big 'Momo-chan Kaoru-chan' on it. He sort of wants to take his marker out and cross it out, because now it's just an embarrassing memory, right in his face. Kaidoh himself is also an embarrassing memory, doing nothing but remind Momoshiro that the palms of his hands are sweaty, and the temperature of his skin keeps on rising.

Stupid Kaidoh.

Turning his head to the side, Momoshiro lifts the lantern even higher, so that Kaidoh can reach the burner and light it. Within a few seconds, the burner is ablaze, and it's illuminating the entire lantern, casting a soft yellow glow on both of them. He cranes his neck back around, and dares to look at the lantern.

And now their stupid names are even more prominent than before! Ugh. Instead of it being something to embarrass Kaidoh with, this ended up biting him in the ass.

"Uhm—let's see if this thing floats," says Momoshiro in a hasty tone. He whirls around immediately, pulling away from Kaidoh and showing his back, facing the ocean. He stretches out his hands above and in front of him, the burner dangerously close to his hair. Well, at least it isn't spiked anymore, and thus not going up into flames.

"... Here goes," he mumbles quietly. Momoshiro lets his fingers slips away from the metal hoop, completely prepared to catch it again if it would come crashing down. But to his immense relief, the lantern glides out of his grip, and soon it's up in the air, simply floating—floating away up above them, towards the milky way.

Momoshiro takes a step back to take in the sight, it has slightly calmed him down somewhat. And then he bumps into Kaidoh, jostling them both, apparently he was right behind him.

Okay, he was slightly calm. He definitely isn't anymore.

Momoshiro hastily takes a few steps forward, away from Kaidoh, and he rubs at his arms and can't help but make stupid noises that he can't control. He can't seem to control anything right now, especially the fiesta that's going on in the pit of his stomach.

Kaidoh hisses, his breath rushing out of him. His pulse seems to jerk inside of him and then his heart beats faster.

"It looks cool," he says, voice low and level despite his racing thoughts. And it does look cool, like a glowing beacon gliding up through the night sky, growing smaller, further away, until Kaidoh can't really see the writing on it anymore, just a warm, yellow-orange shape.

This was something Momoshiro had been looking forward to ever since he conceived the idea in his head a few hours ago. When Kaidoh's little brother had handed him the paper, he immediately thought of a Chinese lantern. So that's what he spent several hours working on, but now that it's flying in the sky, looking all cool and pretty, and exactly what he imagined, Momoshiro feels sort of distracted.

Because he's not looking at the lantern flying away right now.

His violet eyes seek out the man behind him, and he watches him carefully, slowly, recording every movement he makes. Kaidoh actually looks sort of happy, maybe he really likes the lantern. Or maybe he really likes …

"Yeah, uhm, looks cool," says Momoshiro after swallowing a lump in his throat. Once more he's shaking his head to get rid of his stupid confusing thoughts. This time he forces himself to look at the glowing ball of light floating away in the distance, against the backdrop of the night sky. It is pretty, but damnit—he's not enjoying this as much as he should, because stupid Kaidoh over there is being … well … stupid. And confusing. And he looks kind of happy. And nervous too. And fidgety. Pretty much how Momoshiro is feeling. And that's a bad, bad thing.

Look at the pretty floating lantern, Momoshiro, don't look at Kaidoh.

Right, the lantern.

Momoshiro looks back at Kaidoh again.

Damnit!

Momoshiro shoves his hands inside of his pocket and kicks at the sand. He's got to distract himself somehow, but lingering around like that with the snake next to him isn't helping much at all. Not at all.

"Oh, we should like … take a picture of it," says Momoshiro. Suddenly he remembers the picture he took of them together yesterday, the one stored on his phone, and heat rushes to his face. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Kaidoh shrugs and looks at Momoshiro. "Yeah, whatever you want," he says, his voice a low grumble. Even though it's dark, there's no mistaking Momoshiro's expression, and it makes Kaidoh feel like he's intruded on a secret. He feels guilty and jittery and some small, treacherous part of him is a little excited by it too.

He mostly feels confused though. He doesn't understand. What does Momoshiro have to feel embarrassed about? Lately he's been a little weird, a little different, and it doesn't make any sense to Kaidoh. Did Kaidoh do something? Is he … doing something now? He looks down at the sand, which doesn't offer any answers, but doesn't make his heart want to beat out of his chest either, so that's something.

"Oh … huh?" Momoshiro's hand wildly searches around in his pocket, but he feels nothing but a marker in the right pocket. He searches for the other one, nothing but paper. His backpockets are empty. "Shit, I don't have my phone with me," he says a bit panicked this time.

But he had his phone! He remembered having it back ... back at the fire dance, yeah. He still had it then. Where'd he put it? He doesn't remember putting it safe somewhere in their hut, and Momoshiro has made it a point to always carry it with him, in case something happened and he needed help (not that he'd admit this out loud).

The lantern is slowly becoming a small orange dot in the distance. "Ah, it's getting smaller! Quick, give me yours," says Momoshiro. He flails his arm in front of Kaidoh to get him to hurry up, his previous nervousness temporarily pushed to the back of his mind.

"Dumbass," Kaidoh mutters, but quickly digs his hand into his pocket and retrieves his own phone. He hands it over.

"Maybe it's..." He trails off and glances over at the hammock, but it's empty, no phone-shaped shadows stuffed against the pillows. He looks around his feet but doesn't see anything in the sand either. "Where'd you have it last?"

Momoshiro is half paying attention, since he flips Kaidoh's phone open and quickly opens up the camera application. "Uhh, I still had it at the fire dance, yeah, I was taking pictures back at the buffet thing." He straightens his arms in front of him, and targets the lantern in the distance with the phone; the screen shows nothing but black. It's a bit underexposed, but after waiting a few seconds, the screen turns brighter, and he can see the stars and the lantern on it. He clicks the button and snaps the picture.

Then he takes another one, just in case the first one was bad.

"Uhh, check the hammock, do you see it? We did fall out of it …" And then once more, Momoshiro's nervous and confusing thoughts are back, and the hairs on his arm stands up straight, feeling prickly annoyed, but sort of good. He takes another picture from the lantern to take his mind off of it.

Kaidoh shakes the side of the hammock, making the whole thing bounce, but there's no phone to be found. He lets go of the netting and it drops, still swinging lightly.

He looks at Momoshiro and shrugs, and then his voice stumbles out of his throat. "I'll go look back at the bonfire," he says, and not just because he wants to help. Maybe if they have a little space from each other, things will stop being so weird and tense and exciting. Maybe Momoshiro will stop touching him and staring at him and saying things and doing things that are driving Kaidoh nuts because none of it makes any sense.

Maybe Kaidoh is imagining all of it. He studies Momoshiro's face for a moment and then looks away again. His heart pounds with a loud thump. Maybe he isn't.

"Oh … sure, yeah go ahead." Momoshiro also looks away from Kaidoh, and he especially doesn't look after him as he runs off.

It's quiet on the beach now. The lantern is nothing but a speck in the sky, and Momoshiro doesn't see Kaidoh anymore either. He sighs, feeling tension easing out of his shoulders and he cracks his neck and back. He's still got Kaidoh's phone in his hand, the idiot ran off before he could give it back to him.

He stares at it for a little while, like it's some kind of private diary he's found, and it contains all of Kaidoh's secrets. Actually, Momoshiro's morbid curiosity keeps growing, simply because he wants to know more about Kaidoh. It really is getting crazy.

"That stupid snake," Momoshiro mumbles underneath his breath.

He saunters back over to the pillow hammock, crawling on the netting again and plopping down, face snuggled between two comfortable pillows, and Kaidoh's phone right in his face. His thumb grazes over the old fashioned numberpad (it's like they were the only two guys on the island who didn't have a fancy modern cellphone), and he can hear his heart beat ringing loudly in his ears. This feels dirty, wrong, like he really is looking through Kaidoh's diary. Not that he has one, but a person's phone is pretty private, isn't it?

All the more reason to open up Kaidoh's photo album and look through it. As he had already expected, Momoshiro comes across a bunch of cat pictures. Cats being fed, cats playing on the street, cats sleeping ... lots of cats. The dates on these pictures went way back, and Momoshiro really did mean way back, like from 2005—hey, he knew Kaidoh back then! Maybe Kaidoh would have some pictures of Seigaku in his phone … maybe he'd have pictures of Momoshiro himself. And thinking about Kaidoh keeping pictures of him on his phone, makes his ears turn red.

Well … Kaidoh did like him back then … and if his phone is that old.

2006, more cats. Fucking cat freak.

Nervously he browses through the pictures one by one, feeling anxious at each passing image, as if he's just waiting for his own face to pop up. He passes the 2007 mark, still cats. His fingers start to slide across the little arrow button, since his hands are so sweaty right now. Why is he so nervous to find out if Kaidoh has any pictures of him stored on his phone? Why does he even care …

Then he freezes up. He shuts his mouth shut and stares with an incredibly red face at Kaidoh's cellphone.

Because there, on the screen, is Momoshiro himself, sitting on his bed with his shirt off, showing a box of cereal, with a lopsided grin. He looks young, he looks carefree, he looks confident—he remembers exactly when he sent this picture to Kaidoh.

And now he's starting to curse his former self for sending questionable pictures to a guy who actually liked him back then.

Wait … so if Kaidoh had a crush on him at that time … and Momoshiro sent this picture to him …

He really shouldn't continue this train of thought.

"Fucking Kaidoh," Momoshiro mumbles angrily at the cellphone. Like it's some sort of damnation device, set out to embarrass the hell out of him. Because god, this really is embarrassing.

And why the hell does Kaidoh still have this picture? Does he never delete anything? Momoshiro quickly browses to the next picture. It's some kind of wooden tablet thing … oh. Oh! It's his wish! From back then, when Kaidoh came to pick him up at the shrine because Momoshiro got lost, and he wrote this stupid phrase on a wishing sign 'Momo was here, and Mamushi too.'. Well, it seems Kaidoh took a picture of it when he wasn't looking. This guy … Momoshiro looks at the next picture, and over the course of the 2007 collection, Momoshiro sees nothing but pictures of himself he sent to Kaidoh, as well as pictures Kaidoh took while he was with Momoshiro.

Pictures from the shrine, pictures from the yakiniku restaurant, pictures of food (really delicious food …) they ate, pictures from their zoo trip … and a picture of Momoshiro's back, sitting on Kaidoh's bed. It's taken from behind a door, as if Kaidoh was hiding.

And suddenly, it really gets through Momoshiro's head right now. It truly does. Kaidoh had a crush on him, a painfully obvious love pining crush on Momoshiro.

Oh.

Well that sucks for Kaidoh …

Stop grinning, Momoshiro.

He rushes through some more pictures, and sees a few more of him that he doesn't even remember sending. Until he's nearing the end (he sees a picture of him asleep with Karupin's body on his face), and then he sees the picture he took of the lantern. Quickly he exists out of the stupid pictures—refusing to see even more evidence of Kaidoh's obvious stalker crush on him—and instead he opens up Kaidoh's journal. He has to take his mind off of this … this … revelation? No, that's not really the word for it … Well, whatever it was, it was annoying Momoshiro, and he'd really like to get his regular colour in his cheeks back.

He uses Kaidoh's journal to type up a post, feeling incredibly fake as he does it, because it looks like he's being peachy (haha, nice pun), but he really isn't. He's going a little bit crazy right now, as this rush in his body won't quiet down, and for some reason he's shaking and that's really not good. This stupid journal post isn't taking his mind off of anything, because he can't help but write it all about Kaidoh. Momoshiro wonders if it's obvious.

Momoshiro clicks on the button to submit the post, then he leans the phone against his chest, staring up at the candles. He can feel his own heartbeat like this, going strong and steady against his chest. Kaidoh is still gone, and Momoshiro wonders why he was so eager to run off and find his cellphone for him. It's not like he asked for it. Or maybe the stupid idiot noticed how weird Momoshiro was behaving, and was simply looking for an exit.

Asshole, if he's not coming back then … he'll punch him real good.

He pulls the phone away from his chest and looks at the screen once more. The time reads 0:03. Well, there goes his birthday, he is now officially twenty-one years old. Momoshiro looks over to his right, into the direction Kaidoh ran off in, and he stays like that for a few seconds. It's boring, so he returns his attention back onto the phone, and he starts to browse everyone else's posts, maybe somebody said something interesting.

There's nothing really interesting going on, no one posted anything today, so Momoshiro goes back to read over old entries. And back some more, until he comes across a post made by Echizen.

Screened from Momo.

Momoshiro raises his eyebrows, and brings the phone closer to his face; apparently it's a journal entry that was never visible, but only to him. He reads the entry.

Wait what—he's an immature brat!? What the hell does that mean? He reads the comments too, and sees Kaidoh has replied to it as well, calling him an ass (predictable), and Momoshiro looks at the date it was posted. Oh, that's the day Kaidoh told him he had a crush on Momoshiro, and then Momoshiro kind of, sort of, told everyone else. Fine, whatever, why the hell is Echizen complaining about it though? Couldn't he just say it straight to his face?

It's annoying him now, and his once raised eyebrows, are now lowered in a frown. He clicks on Echizen's profile, and he sorts through the old entries to see if he's ever said anything else like that before as well. He can't, right? Echizen is his best friend. And yeah … he's like, in love with Momoshiro, or something, right now, so he can't possibly harbor ill will against him.

Already he's on the entries Echizen posted while they were on the ship, and Momoshiro smiles fondly at some of them. he's pretty much replied to any of Echizen's posts, stupid brat.

But then his heart drops, when he sees two entries screened away from him. In one, Echizen says he won't prank Momoshiro anymore. Prank? What prank? He was planning on pranking him? The little devil, Momoshiro is grinning though, feeling a little bit proud Echizen had it in him to attempt to prank him.

Then he reads the next screened entry, and that grin gets wiped off of his face.

… Make him think he can catch the gay bug.

Too homophobic to be straight.

Oishi's plan …

Lots of people saying they're in on it.

What. The. Hell.

"What the fuck," says Momoshiro out loud now. He's fuming, he's seething, he's holding the phone so hard he thinks he might snap it in half.

Echizen and Oishi were planning a prank to make him think he was gay? Because what? He had a concussion and thought the water was turning everyone gay? They think that's funny? He even apologized to both Echizen and Oishi! What the hell.

What the hell!

This is ridiculous. He can't believe Echizen would plan something like this behind his back. Best friends? Best friends don't do stupid shit like that. A prank to scare him would have been funny, to make him trip and let him fall flat on his face—that would have been fine. But to rile everyone up against him and make him think he was gay? Who the hell thought this was a great idea?

Momoshiro fumes some more as he's left alone still in the hammock.

The route back to the bonfire is not long, and is made shorter by the fact that Kaidoh does it at a run, his sneakers pounding into the sand. The running helps. It always does. The cool night air whipping against his body and face helps to clear his head. He doesn't feel so painfully warm anymore, and he's not thinking about Momoshiro, not directly anyway. He's just thinking about his feet on the beach, and the phone that the dumbass must have dropped somewhere at the firedance party. Yeah, the phone. A small piece of plastic and electronics that won't give Kaidoh any weird fluttery feelings.

When he reaches the scorch on the beach where the bonfire had been, he stops and swipes his hair out of his eyes. With only the starry night sky for light, Kaidoh begins to scan the ground for any sign of Momoshiro's phone.

It isn't long before he sees the moonlight reflecting off of something shiny on the ground near where the buffet table had been set up. Of course, Kaidoh thinks. The idiot was probably too distracted with eating everything in sight to remember to pick up his damn phone. The thought makes Kaidoh smile, and he retrieves the phone from the sand, noting how it feels different from his own, and slides it into his pocket. He feels a bit weird having something of Momoshiro's there… in his shorts… but he tries not to think about it like that too much because he's on a simple mission and he's not going to let himself get all weird and flustered again. He's going to be different now. He's going to be normal again.

He jogs back towards the hammock, and against his will, feelings start stirring in his stomach as he nears the tree where he knows Momoshiro will be waiting. It's almost like Kaidoh wants to get back to him.

He clears his throat to get Momoshiro's attention. Again he brushes his hair back out of his eyes—it really is getting long and a bit annoying when he isn't wearing his bandana. He pulls the phone out of his pocket and holds it up, flipping it open so the screen lights up.

"Found it," Kaidoh says, his voice a bit breathy from running.

Momoshiro angrily thrashes around in the hammock, trying to turn and face Kaidoh. He stands somewhat upright, on his knees, and almost topples forwards because of the balance, but since Kaidoh is right there, he uses the palm of his hand to push against Kaidoh's chest and steady himself. With the other hand, he ignores his own cellphone, and he pushes Kaidoh's cellphone in his face.

"Kaidoh, did you know about this?!" Momoshiro asks, his voice sounding really agitated.

Kaidoh's eyes narrow as he tries to read the bright screen suddenly shoved in front of him. Something from Echizen. Something about a prank on Momoshiro. Kaidoh reads quickly and looks back up, meeting Momoshiro's gaze.

"I've never seen that before," he says gruffly. Momoshiro seems pissed, and Kaidoh can't really blame him. The prank sounds dumb. But then, Kaidoh thinks all pranks are stupid.

"That … that … brat was going to prank me into thinking I was gay—because I somehow deserved it because I was making homophobic comments or whatever." Momoshiro turns the screen back to him, scrolls down a bit to the comments, then flashes it back to Kaidoh. "And look how many people were in on it! It was Oishi's plan too! Can you imagine it? Oishi? And then basically everyone else who was on the damn ship with me. Fuckers. All of them. I can't believe they would stoop so low."

Momoshiro flips Kaidoh's cellphone closed, and leans his hand on Kaidoh's shoulder, gripping the cellphone in it tightly. "Everyone was in on it. They were going to do it. Apparently Echizen had second thoughts when I apologized—yes I apologized for my fucking behaviour back then!—but what the hell, that doesn't excuse the fact they were all planning this behind my back. He's supposed to be my best friend, best friends don't do this kind of shit. I can't believe he would, and he never told me about it either! He was just going to take something like that to the grave, never telling me, making me think everything was peachy."

God this was really pissing him off, and now Momoshiro simply needed a place to vent. That place was Kaidoh.

"I wonder what else he's hiding from me … I wonder what other lies he's fabricating. I wonder if he was speaking the truth when he said he was in love with me! Maybe that kiss was just a stupid prank too." Momoshiro balls his hand up in a fist, and thumps it against Kaidoh's chest. "I have no idea what's going on anymore …"

Kaidoh's eyes are wide and confused as he looks at Momoshiro, unable to do anything but stare at him and blink. What is this dumbass talking about? What happened between him and Echizen before Kaidoh got here? What did Momoshiro do? What did Echizen do? What the hell does Momoshiro mean by 'that kiss'? What the fuck...?

"Stop," Kaidoh says, voice low and irritable. He shakes his head which suddenly feels like it's spinning. "I don't know what the hell you're even talking about."

Momoshiro thought he was pretty clear. "I'm talking about Echizen, you moron. That little brat that's like pretending to be in love with me or something."

"Oh," Kaidoh says dumbly. "So he..." He isn't sure what to say, how to finish the sentence. Echizen is in love with Momoshiro? The idea makes something in Kaidoh's stomach coil and twist. So he kissed you? part of him wants to confirm, but the moment the question forms in Kaidoh's mind, his eyes are drawn to Momoshiro's mouth like they can't look anywhere else. What the hell. This is all so stupid. He wants to punch Momoshiro just for telling him.

"So he did all that," Kaidoh says instead, more a statement than a question.

"Yes!" Momoshiro's high pitched voice was a little bit too energetic, and he shuffles on the hammock one too many times, causing him to really fall forward. He crashes against Kaidoh's chest, the cellphone falls from his hand, and the hammock finally throws him out, and he's on top of Kaidoh, an awkward mess together in the sand.

But it seems Momoshiro is only half paying attention to that. Instead, he just crawls on top of Kaidoh, and he reaches for his tank top, wanting to shake him. Wanting to get rid of his frustration.

"Remember the day I got my memories back? I went to go see Echizen after I saw you, right?" He sits on top of Kaidoh and looks out at the ocean. The lantern is long gone by now. He looks back again at him. "He was … well I don't know, I was telling him I remembered stuff again, and before I know it, he's kissing me. I was just too stunned to do anything. And then he said he was in love with me!"

And Momoshiro really did believe that—why else would Echizen, his best friend, say and do something like that, if it weren't true? But now he's doubting everything. Echizen did stuff behind his back, he was planning on doing stupid pranks, so what if this was just one big stupid prank as well?

Haha, let's all prank big goofy Momo by letting him think gay people actually like him.

Fuck.

"That's why I moved out, it's why I wanted to put some space between us. But god damnit—it's probably just some stupid joke!" Momoshiro's face scrunches up, torn between wanting to yell out a string of profanity, and wanting to wail and break down into tears.

Momoshiro looks down at Kaidoh's stunned face. "Why would you do something like that … ?"

"I don't know!" Kaidoh says honestly. He huffs. He doesn't know why this is making him feel kind of riled up too. It's not his problem, so why does he even care? His eyes narrow as he looks up at Momoshiro. "What … what are you going to do about it?" he asks.

"I don't fucking know. I just feel like punching something." But for once, Kaidoh doesn't seem like the appropriate punching bag anymore. He didn't do anything, obviously. It was all Echizen … pranking him, doing things to him, getting him all mixed up. It sucks.

"... How can I even be friends with someone who does something like that?" Momoshiro asks. He knows Kaidoh doesn't have any answers, and he's probably the worst person to ask advice from, but he's all Momoshiro's got.

"Pranking me … kissing me …ignoring me ..." Momoshiro sighs. "I think I should just stay away from him for now. Fucking asshole." And everything seemed fine at the party just hours ago. Echizen gave him his present, and they sort of made up. And now …

"I guess," Kaidoh replies, because he doesn't have any other suggestions to offer—Kaidoh stays away from most people anyway—and because the whole thing is pretty bewildering. Is this the kind of thing people deal with all the time when they have friends? It's weird. It makes Kaidoh feel weird, and overly conscious of everything he's done with Momoshiro up until this point. Does Momoshiro think about all of those things too? Do any of them make him angry like this? No, if Momoshiro were angry with Kaidoh, he'd just punch him in the face. Right?

"I wonder if he's involving you too," says Momoshiro thoughtfully. "Remember what I said yesterday? About him, I don't know, he was just weirdly talking about you that day I told him I was moving in with you. But now that I think about it, it just seems so strange. As if he's got some kind of hostility towards you. It's probably all just a big joke. Everything. I wonder if I was ever really friends with him." The more he talks, the more his face looks so crestfallen. This is really wearing him down; he feels like he's not living in reality anymore. Or perhaps he was living in a dream before? Where he thought everything was fine, he had a cool best friend, and some guy he could piss off every once in awhile. And now it's all changed.

Now he's got this friend who is planning really weird pranks behind his back, lying to him, doing things like kissing him. And his rival is starting to look more like a best friend now, what with always being with him and putting up with him.

Momoshiro really hopes Kaidoh wasn't in on all this too. No, he wasn't there on the ship anyway, and he's too anti-social to talk to anyone and come up with this elaborate scheme to mess with Momoshiro. Obviously Kaidoh would just walk up to him and punch him, if he felt like messing with Momoshiro. He's simpleminded like that.

Echizen definitely isn't. That scheming sneaky brat …

"So you really didn't know, right?" Momoshiro asks. He just wants to hear Kaidoh confirm it, that he took no part in this, that he didn't know, that he was just as clueless as Momoshiro was.

"No, dumbass," Kaidoh says, as if it isn't obvious enough from his still puzzled expression.

"Good." He softly pounds his fist against Kaidoh's chest once more. "Good," he repeats. "I'd seriously kick your ass if you were ... in on this … this … stupid weird thing."

Kaidoh scowls. "You mean you would try." He can always rely on Momoshiro for that.

"Well." Momoshiro takes a second to put on an arrogant smug look on his face. "Who's the one sitting on top of you right now, huh? That's right."

"Not for long," Kaidoh hisses, and twists his fingers against Momoshiro's shirt until he has him by the shoulders, giving him enough leverage to push Momoshiro to the side and roll him onto his back. Then Kaidoh claws his way on top of him and presses his fists into Momoshiro's chest.

"Idiot," he says in challenge.

This, Momoshiro can deal with. This, is always simple to understand. No pretenses, no lies, no pranks, no nothing. It's just him and Kaidoh, trying to best the other.

It never fails to take his mind off of things, and Momoshiro desperately needs to stop thinking about things that are so depressing it makes him want to cry.

But he doesn't get that chance, to stop and think about things, not when Kaidoh is on top of him, looking at him like that, as if he's better, and he's won. Kaidoh never wins. And so Momoshiro throws him off, and he's back on top, and their arms are struggling against each other, sand getting stuck everywhere on their skin. Momoshiro grabs Kaidoh's wrists, attempting to pin him down, but it all happens in a blur, and Kaidoh's back on top. Breathing, harsh, heavily—smells like fish—and he's looming right over Momoshiro. Sweat is glistening all over his skin, getting reflected because of the dim candlelight. Momoshiro takes a second or two to stare back at Kaidoh, looking equally as tired.

Echizen who?

Momoshiro doesn't know how long he does this with Kaidoh, wrestling him down into the sand, getting thrown over again, and it just repeats over and over, it's the perfect distraction because he's not thinking of anything else. He feels Kaidoh's nails scratching his arms, and he knows he digs his elbow into Kaidoh's stomach, they're giving and receiving blows every other second. Every second longer they spend like this, Momoshiro is feeling more and more elevated. Like he's got all his senses knocked out of him. His thoughts have stopped processing, and he's not really thinking of anything when he's like this with Kaidoh. It's the adrenaline in his veins that he's functioning on, that heart beating crazy fast, and that stupid look in Kaidoh's eyes that keeps driving him.

That doesn't mean he has an endless supply of energy though, Momoshiro is tired. Today had been one heck of a day, and now he's fighting with Kaidoh again. Just like this morning.

Could he really call it fighting though?

When he's sitting on top of Kaidoh, just like this, thighs straddled at the other man's waist, fingers clutched around his wrist, and the other entangled with Kaidoh's own fingers. The sweat rubbing between them, perspiration simply up in the air, that heavy pressing-down-on-his-chest air. The sand that is simply stuck everywhere, on his arms, legs, hands, toes, nose, lips, some even got in his ears. Kaidoh doesn't look any different, he looks just as roughed up, just as messy, and he's breathing just as fast as Momoshiro is.

One more time, after Momoshiro's eyelids went dangerously close, and he was loosening his grip on Kaidoh, he's flipped over. He doesn't have the energy nor will to protest, to struggle. He just lets Kaidoh have his way with him. It's what he does best; going along with whatever Kaidoh has in store.

Fingers are dug deep beside Momoshiro's head, he's trapped right below Kaidoh's body. That sweaty, sweet-smelling body. Momoshiro's eyes avert up, looking Kaidoh in the eye. He notices his face is flushed with red from their fight, and also covered in sand like they're chocolate sprinkles. It kind of looks ridiculous. But Momoshiro likes how Kaidoh looks at him, he likes how he's just as worn out as Momoshiro is. He likes how he's always there, ready to engage in a fight with him, at the drop of a hat. He's always there.

Momoshiro's arms raise up, clawing at the side of Kaidoh's thoroughly drenched tank top, climbing up, until he's got a grip on his muscular and skinny back. His thumb brushes over his spine, while the rest sink with enormous strength into his muscles, getting a pretty good grip on him. And he's about to throw Kaidoh off, to not let him win, to continue their fight, to make him stop thinking.

Right now all he can think about is Kaidoh.

He's always there …

Momoshiro doesn't know what he'd do without him.

The arms that are wrapped around Kaidoh, meaning to throw him off, are instead being used to raise his body from the sand, until it touches Kaidoh's chest. Their sweaty bodies makes it pretty easy to get them to stick, almost like Kaidoh's body is sucking him in. It sort of feels like it, because Momoshiro's mind is a whirpool, he can't think straight, not that he wants to. He places his forehead against Kaidoh's bare neck, and he's exerting so much of his weight upon the other man, that Kaidoh succumbs, and bends through his arms and knees, collapsing on top of Momoshiro.

All the air gets knocked out of Momoshiro and he gasps for air. Fuck, that was heavy.

But he's not telling Kaidoh to get off of him.

"You cow," says Momoshiro instead.

"Shut up," Kaidoh growls. His face is kind of smushed against Momoshiro's shoulder and he pulls himself up so he can glare at him properly. "That was your own damn fault." His voice is heavy and the sentence punctuated by his breath.

Momoshiro shrugs. "It's not my fault you're not strong enough to support my weight."

"I shouldn't have to, moron!"

"Well then, don't struggle." Momoshiro tenses up the muscles in his arms, then pushes against Kaidoh's back to bring him down again. He keeps him there, against his chest, against the heart beating out of control.

Kaidoh's breath drains out of him with a hiss. "Stupid..." he mumbles. One hand finds Momoshiro's side and jabs at it in a tired, half-hearted punch.

"Ow." Momoshiro flinches away from Kaidoh's hand. "Asshole." Even though he said that, Momoshiro is still not really letting go from this weird position they're in. With Kaidoh, still squished up against him, and his arms wrapped around his back. He slowly releases his stronghold on him, resting his arms on top of him now—Kaidoh can pull away if he wants to, Momoshiro isn't going to hold him back. He takes a few deep, uneven breaths, breathing it out against Kaidoh's ear.

Oh, the candles … Momoshiro tilts his head a bit to the side as he looks up at the palm tree. The flames are out.

Kaidoh disentangles himself from Momoshiro's now loosened arms and rolls off of him, lying on his back in the sand next to him. He's still so close that their arms are touching, pressed together with sweat and warmth, as though his body wouldn't let him pull away completely. Kaidoh's heart beat hasn't started to slow down at all; if anything, it's racing faster than ever now that they've stopped moving and fighting and he's aware of how they are simply lying there together.

He swipes the back of his hand across his forehead. "It's must be really late now," he thinks aloud.

"Uh-huh," Momoshiro agrees. His birthday has long passed by now. "I don't feel like moving." Meaning, he doesn't want to trek all the way back to the hut to go to sleep. It's too far, it's too tiring—he's tired now. He doesn't want to move an inch, let alone a mile. Doesn't want to get up, and leave, or think about anything, and … Momoshiro's eyes briefly dart over towards Kaidoh. Doesn't want to leave him just yet.

Momoshiro's afraid if he does, all those bad feeling will come back to him, and he'll be angry once more, and maybe he'll stomp over towards his old shack in an angry stampede and demand answers from Echizen. No, he has to stay with Kaidoh for a bit, get his mind off of it, distract him, keep him busy, keep him occupied until he closes his eyes and thinks of nothing else and falls asleep.

"Uuuhhh," Momoshiro groans out. He lifts his arm to reach for the hammock net behind him, but it's out of his reach. "Too …far," he says with great difficulty. Not to mention everything else feels heavy, his body feels so worn out. His mind feels worn out.

"Lazy," Kaidoh says, but isn't making much effort to shift his own position either. "Well. You're not sleeping out in the sand. That would be stupid."

"I'd end up having crabs in my hair," Momoshiro snorts.

Kaidoh's mouth curls into a small smile. "Yeah, you would. Stupid idiot."

Momoshiro wiggles his fingers at him, snapping them like the claws of a crab. "They'd get you first. Because. Your hair is greasier." Yup, makes sense to him.

"What the hell, no they wouldn't," Kaidoh protests grumpily. "Besides, I'm not going to sleep out here on the beach anyway."

"Oh?" Momoshiro stops looking at the hammock, and flips his head to the side to look at Kaidoh. "Still got some energy left to go back to your hut then?"

"Yeah," Kaidoh says. "I guess." He always has enough energy to run somewhere if he needs to. Not that he really wants to right now.

"Ahhh, you just gonna leave me here? Alone?" Covered in sand? He really needs to clean himself.

Kaidoh gives Momoshiro a flat look. "What do you want me to do?"

Momoshiro has enough energy to roll over once, so that he's on his side, practically lying on Kaidoh. "Carry me."

"What?" Kaidoh sputters, face all scrunched up in surprise. "All the way back to the hut? No way, idiot."

"Oh, you'd be fine if it was closer?" Momoshiro grins.

"That's not what I said! I didn't say I'd carry you anywhere!"

"Well I'm fine just staying here like this."

Kaidoh scowls at him. "With crabs crawling on your face when you wake up?"

"No you dumbass." Momoshiro shoves his shoulder against Kaidoh's face."With you." And then he realizes what he's just said, and quickly starts to stutter and come up with a different reason. "I mean. Here. With the hammock. Yeah."

"You're not in the hammock," Kaidoh points out, because Momoshiro isn't. Because he's on the ground, with Kaidoh. And he said he's fine like that, and for some reason that makes Kaidoh's insides turn to syrup.

"Yeah well, I don't see you picking me up and putting me inside of it either." Momoshiro wrinkles his nose, then he rolls away from Kaidoh, right back onto his cellphone. It's stabbing him in the back. "You hit me too hard. Take some responsibility." Kaidoh should take all the responsibility for all these weird hormonal feelings he's been experiencing throughout the day. He caused them in the first place.

Kaidoh huffs. "Fine," he says, and pulls himself up in the sand. "You spoiled jackass..." He climbs to his feet and looks at Momoshiro like he's a barbell waiting to be lifted, because if Kaidoh thinks about this as picking up and carrying Momoshiro, he'll only freak himself out. Because that would be weird, and he doesn't have a good excuse. It's not like they're teenagers back at training camp stuck climbing the side of a mountain in some twisted survival game.

Whatever. Just get it over quickly.

Kaidoh isn't delicate at all when he slides his hands under Momoshiro's legs and torso and hauls him up into the air. Then, just as abruptly, he flings him into the center of the hammock like a hot potato. A very surprised looking hot potato.

Momoshiro quickly lifts his head up, staring wide-eyed at Kaidoh, dazzled, confused, flabbergasted—impressed?

"Huh," he says lamely. He feels lame. He feels like a toy Kaidoh just picked up and slung away. "I didn't …" Mean it? "Asshole, don't just pick me up like I'm some kind of object, I'm a person too!" One with feelings. Lots of feelings. Happy feelings. Floaty feelings.

So Momoshiro reaches out with his hand, yanking on Kaidoh's tank top, and pulling him towards the hammock in one quick movement, so that Kaidoh loses his footing and falls right into the hammock as well. Except less gracefully. Like a big flopping fish, right next to him. The hammock rocks back and forth like a violent swing. It's funny. It's really funny. Momoshiro laughs as he looks at Kaidoh's behind strutting out high in the air.

You look ridiculous.

Momoshiro stretches out his legs and leans back against the pillows with his arms behind his head, lazy and relaxed. He's still laughing, because he thinks this is probably the funniest thing on earth. Kaidoh being clumsy and looking ridiculous always gets a rise out of him.

"You're stupid," says Momoshiro. He pokes Kaidoh's butt with his knee. "Really stupid."

Kaidoh fidgets around, trying to get his bearings, and finally manages to roll over onto his back, more or less right into Momoshiro's side. He glares, his mouth pulled into an annoyed frown. "You're stupider," he says. His face feels hot with embarrassment.

"That's not a real word," says Momoshiro in a sing-song voice.

Kaidoh growls at him. "Shut up. It's what you are, so of course it's real."

"Huh, what—you make no sense." Not that Kaidoh ever makes sense to him, despite being super simpleminded. He certainly didn't expect to be lifted up and thrown on top of the hammock though.

"If I am, then you're even more so," says Momoshiro. He smiles smugly and worms himself in the hammock more snug against Kaidoh. There's actually a lot of space in the hammock. "Idiot. You even made this hammock way too big for one person. I'm not that fat."

"It's just so you can … uh, stretch out," Kaidoh says, the blush in his cheeks deepening. "It was definitely only meant to hold one person though."

"Sure it was … heh, you probably made this for yourself. That's why it's so big. To hold your big inflated head."

"Asshole!" Kaidoh snarls, and reaches across his chest to grab Momoshiro's collar. He doesn't really know what to do with it though, since another fight would just land them both in the sand again, and he's too tired for it anyway, so he just kind of holds onto it awkwardly and narrows his eyes.

Momoshiro's eyes trail down his chest, staring at Kaidoh's hand. Then he changes direction and looks at Kaidoh. He feels smug all of the sudden. "What's this Mamushi, want me that close to you that badly?"

Kaidoh immediately drops his hand and yanks it away, back to his side of the hammock. "I don't," he denies.

Heh.

Momoshiro breaks one hand free from behind his head, then sneaks over to Kaidoh's side, and catches his hair, then ruffles it up.

So simpleminded, yet impossible to understand.

But at least he can count on Kaidoh being there for a distraction.

He swirls his fingers around Kaidoh's scalp, making pleasing circles.

Well, maybe he's not creating a distraction anymore. Maybe he's become a distraction himself.

This, Momoshiro thinks, is probably going to change. All of it. And he can't do anything but close his eyes, and hopes that when he wakes up tomorrow, Kaidoh hasn't gone off to run.