Hey guys, sorry for not posting yesterday. I'm kind of going through it right now, but I'm going to try to post day 4 today as well. Today (or yesterday), we're switching over to Curtisson, and the theme of the day is: beach! See you at the bottom of the page.

Burt blew a sharp breath through his lips as Sven groaned and opened his eyes. "Welcome back, Mr. Lobster."

Sven squinted at him, confusion evident on his cherry-red face. The two of them were in a small foldable cabana, the constant seabreeze attempting to blow it out into the ocean. Sven was lying on a pale yellow beach towel someone had nabbed from a nearby hotel, shirt unbuttoned, shoes off, and top hat off to the side. Burt could still feel heat radiating off of him in waves, and he leaned over to the water cooler next to him. Sven yelped as Burt placed a cold pack on his neck. "V-vad händer just nu?" He managed, struggling to sit up. "Varför är jag på marken? Var är min tröja-?"

"Sit down." Burt pushed Sven back down firmly, knocking a little "oof!" out of him from the impact. Sven glared at him, though whether it was because he was mad or because his brain was trying to reset to English, it was hard to tell.

"What… happened?" Sven pronounced the words carefully, taking deep breaths between sentences. "What is the status of the heist?"

"The status," Burt said, rising to his knees and adjusting the towel Sven was sprawled on, "is none of your business."

Sven gaped at him. "E-excuse me?"

"It's none of your business," he repeated. He turned away from Sven just far enough to keep him in the corner of his vision, and typed out a brief command onto his laptop. "Your business right now is to rest and drink water, and nothing else. You're not leaving that spot until your temperature is back to normal. Understand?"

Sven was silent, eyes wide. Burt knew that in any other scenario, the third in command would blow his top hat off after being spoken to like that by a subordinate. Luckily- or unluckily, he corrected himself- the state Sven's body seemed to finally be catching up to him, and it was clear he wasn't going anywhere. The fact that Burt was the one to talk to him that way also seemed to incline him to shut up."...May I at least have something to cover myself with?" Sven mumbled weakly. "I'm… indecent…"

Burt closed his eyes and counted to five. Leave it to Sven to worry more about someone seeing his bare chest than the fact he'd nearly died half an hour ago. "No," he answered, then paused as a thought occurred to him. "Do you remember what happened?"

Sven squinted, eyes darting around as he tried to remember. "The Atlantean Aquamarine," he said after a moment. "The Coastal Division located it. I came to observe the retrieval."

"Right," Burt nodded. "Anything else?" He was met with a blank stare, and he pinched the bridge of his nose. "You ignored the Coastal Division Leader's advice and wore your full suit and tie to the beach, then overheated so much that you passed out in front of everyone. What were you thinking?"

Sven made a face. "I was not going to wear such a tacky outfit!"

"Sven-"

"The pants practically displayed my legs entirely! The shirt was the tackiest thing I've ever seen, and those… flipped-flops… I wouldn't be caught dead in-"

Burt smacked his hands on the ground beside Sven's head, silencing him as he loomed over the smaller man. "Sven," he emphasized. "You got heat stroke. You didn't listen to what everyone was telling you and made yourself sick. You could have died."

They stared at each other for a moment. A particularly strong breeze knocked Burt's hat askew, and he took it off in frustration. The sweat that had accumulated on his neck and in his hair dried up almost instantly.

Sven seemed to be processing his words slowly. He was still so pink, all over his body, and Burt practically felt his heart pounding without even touching him. Sven eventually lowered his eyes. "I'm supposed to be the chief someday," he said quietly. "I have to maintain the clan's image. I can't just wear any random thing for my own comfort. The clan comes first."

Burt took a long breath and exhaled slowly. He knew how seriously Sven took his role as the third in command; he worked hard to prove he was worthy of the honor, giving everything he had to become the ideal leader for the clan. He just wished Sven had the common sense to not give literally everything to his work. He was worth so much more than that.

"There's no dress code for being the chief. You can do whatever you want once you're in charge," he said, "but you can't be the chief if you're- if you're not here." He swallowed thickly. "Go to a mall. Borrow from someone, hire a tailor, anything; just please get some clothes that aren't suits. And please," he leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Sven's. Sven grunted at the touch. "Be kind to your body. You're more than just the third in command. You mean so much more…"

Waves pounded against the shore outside the cabana in deep, rhythmic hushes. Sven's eyes were a bit like the ocean; whenever Burt had the chance to be this close to him, he always felt like he was swimming in those deep blues.

"...I'm sorry," Sven whispered, "I'll… take what you said… into consideration."

Burt sighed and sat back up, turning towards his laptop to see if the Coastal Division had made any progress with the retrieval. A hand settled on his knee, and his eyes snapped back to Sven.

"You confuse me," Sven said. His face was still pink, but it might have been from more than his temperature. "But I appreciate your words. They are… nice thoughts."

Burt gently squeezed Sven's hand. "I'll make you believe them, some day."

Sven shook his head slightly, a look of wonder on his face. "You say such things…"

Burt brushed Sven's hair out of his eyes and he grunted again, leaning into the touch. Burt adjusted his set up so that he could pet Sven's hair and monitor the heist on his laptop at the same time. As he went back to work, he let himself bask in the moment. Though it wouldn't last much longer as he recovered from overheating, Burt was going to enjoy every second of running his fingers through Sven's hair. It was soft, like sand on a beach.

Yeah, I think you can tell this one was written while I was in a bit of a mood; I originally planned this to be a little funnier, but sometimes things don't turn out that way. Sven is absolutely the type to wear a suit and tie to the beach. Luckily for him, Burt's always quick to come to his aid.

So like I said, I'm going to try and post day 4 today as well; hopefully it'll be a little more cheery, but we'll see. Thanks for reading; leave a review and tell me what you think. See you soon, until then!