CHAPTER 98

I do not own Skip Beat! Yoshiki Nakamura does.

~~Magical Summer trip~~

~part~3~

~~Oh dear ocean~~

He didn't stop. Just continued walking. There wasn't that much distance. But she started to curse and it slowed him down. Because he was busy laughing. At her.

"Ren, damn it, fuck it. I swear to God, I'm going to drown you if you do this. Don't you dare."

"I don't see what you mean." The scoundrel has the nerve to reply, a model of innocence. Just as his long legs started back, swallowing the ridiculously small distance still separating them from the water.

"Goddamnit. Fucking arrogant man – …. grrriugh… Let me down! For – … Cats' sake! Don't you dare! You hear me? Let me down so that – … – so that I can kick you!" She said, continuing to curse at him and he just turned his face away, his body shaking under her, from his repressed laughs.

He looked back at her, tears at the corners of his eyes. Smile splitting his face into two so large it was.

"I didn't know you could swear like that."He commented, still shaking.

She showed him teeth.

"I will do more than curse if you don't put me down."

"For cats' sake?"He questioned, his eyes gleaming with unabashed amusement, ignoring her threats.

She turned her face away, blushing. Why did she even say that?

"You heard me. .Down."

He laughed.

That's when her ears caught the lapping sound of water, and as she dropped her gaze down, she noticed the water flapping around Ren's ankles and feet.

She glared back and up at him.

"Ren…"She threatened as he grinned. His legs moved. Taking one step. Two. Three. Looking at her with an insufferable grin between each step.

Until he had water up the knees.

She smiled darkly, and spoke through clenched teeth.

"I really don't want to bath in my clothes."She tried.

His eyes danced with even more mischievousness.

"Are you proposing we remove our clothes first?"He questioned merrily.

She gaped at him. The sass of that man. She was going to-

He snorted at her face. Then, she felt him take another step. And another.

And another.

She was glaring daggers at him but here he was, just chilling and smiling in the water.

Until water eventually reached above his waist, just under her butt and where he held her.

She secured her arms around his neck, pressing herself away from the water and right on the planes of his chest, hoping he wouldn't be able to dislodge her if she kept a strong enough hold on him. She didn't care if she had to play mollusc but he would not succeed in this. For some odd reason, it seemed to please him even more, and he grinned even wider, eyes turning softer.

"Sea water is good for the health."He said with an air of professional wisdom – contracted by his eyes dancing with adoring merriment – ; she wanted to scratch that expression off his face.

She pressed her lips in a hard line. She was going to throttle him.

"Do. Not. Even. Try."She growled at him as some waves lapped around them, already wetting both his dark tee and her shirt. He pulled out his head from her arms, despite her efforts to prevent him to, and grabbed both her wrists in one of those damn huge hands, despite her best efforts to escape the capture of her wrists. She was now fully helpless. In his arms.

"Ren, damn it… You cannot be serious… That damn strength of you… Urgh… You know this will call for revenge, right?" She seethed at last, desperate and taking note slowly of her last options to convince him going up in fumes.

He blinked at her and tilted his head. Then he smirked.

"I know."

He threw her. He didn't just drop her in water. He goddamn threw her in the air and further. And to a place it was way deeper than where they had been.

She landed into the sea with a gasp, still surprised when the soft freshness of the water closed up on her. The vibrant blue of the ocean surrounded her body and she opened her eyes, blinking to see the light from above the surface. She swam through the light ocean currents and waves of a relatively quiet sea today, always glad water didn't bother her and she could keep her eyes opened. As she progressed and floated underneath, she had a mere instant to think it felt truly peaceful without the rushing harsh sounds of the outside world. Free of noise, at last. Easing her tenseness and anxiousness. Washing it all away in the mysterious never-ending blue. Then, her feet hit the comfortable sandy humid ground, and she pushed up.

She broke the surface a second later, waves reaching above breastbone, and she threw up and away her hair, blocking her sight. She rubbed her face with her hands, gathering the droplets running down before looking in his direction. She was drenched and her clothes clang to her skin. And she felt so thankful she hadn't had anything in her jeans pockets.

"You are dead."

He laughed. He was letting his hands pass through the water, all relaxed and annoying. He turned to her and his eyes remained on her, fixedly.

"What?"She growled, softly making her way to him, and plotting her payback.

He hummed, pondering something and she approached even more. Just a little closer.

"Wet look is good on you."He commented enigmatically. She didn't really listen, though.

"It is your fault, you know."She replied on automatism. Then, she dived.

The humid splash hit her face as she went underwater and held her breath. She swam further down, opening her eyes to look around, in search of glimpsing his legs through the moving swirls of undercurrents and the spinning sand, twirling to the rhythm of the waves.

She swam further, grabbing at the sand on the ground to stay to floor level and hidden, mostly crawling, and finally saw the shadows of his legs. He would not see this coming. She saw his legs moving from left to right, looking after the sight of her, no doubt. The trousers were denoting in the mild transparent aquamarine ocean. She messed with sand to turn the water blurrier and observed him turning the other way. She seized the opportunity before lack of oxygen would push her to return to the surface. She was grateful they had got deep into water. Enough at the very least. Closer to the shore, the depth of the waters would have not been sufficient to hide her.

Swimming the last inches, she latched on his left leg and pulled. Tipping him off balance.

She smirked as she saw him fall under water on her right and he opened his eyes to look at her in surprise for a second before she went up to breathe.

Now, that was very satisfying.

He tore the waving mirror of the ocean. A huge sodden – sexy, she had to admit – , mess. His clothes soaked, wrapped around his muscles like a silky veil, and droplets of water leading down his temple, his neck, the high of his collarbones before diving under his cloth fascinated her eye. He was like all those years ago. A fairy merman emerging from magical waters, the all aura saturated with wild temptation and alluring charm. Each arc of muscles, each tough curve of his body begging to be tasted, to be pressed; to be touched. An unnerving sensational male vision. She breathed in heavily. Just settling back from his fall, dripping from head to toes, he looked at her.

She shot him a pleased smile, not letting him see her trouble.

He quirked his lips.

"So, it is that way."

She humphed, and crossed her arms.

"Eye for an eye."

He let his palm rest right against the water facade, glancing down at what he was doing before eyeing her from that position. A wave passed, rolling over their shoulders as they looked at each other before the level of water dipped a tint again. Time seemed to stretch as they stood immobile, looking. Tension rose and she arched a brow. He would not intimidate her.

His stance changed, and his eyes took a hunting glint. Oh-oh. She was in trouble.

"Come here."He said ever-so-quietly. Even though they both knew she would never.

"In your dreams."She shot back, making a few steps backward but for each step she retreated he followed suit forwards.

"I prefer reality."He said and leapt. At her.

She dived in, progressing as fast she could, and not rising to the surface unless she truly needed air. She made a detour. She had dived like she was going at large but she circled under water to return closer to shore.

She cracked up at last, swallowing a gulp of refreshing air. She had come back further she imagined. She had only water up the top of her thighs now.

"Wahhh…" was the only sound she got to make as she was lifted again and thrown just as fast and back into water.

She emerged from the water, looking after him but he was already swimming away.

She agitated her fist at him, grin splitting even so.

"Stop throwing me like I'm some sort of fishnet or something!"

She splashed water at him in a huff and he retaliated in kind with a chuckle. They fooled around, firing and flinging water at each other in fits of laugher and tumbling down into the sea and up repeatedly.

A beautiful mummy duck with russet feathers passed on the beach staring at them as if they were mad, and pushed her four ducklings to hasten their gait and quacked away. (**see bottom)

She crawled after him at last, and surprised him before he could accelerate too much. She got him a minute later and tackled them both to the water just as he was standing back – certainly in hope to run rather than swim away – , since they had returned even further towards the beach and water only reached his knees. They flopped down and under sea with her attack.

When they resurfaced, he was laughing heartily and she was half lying on him while he was supporting himself on his hands behind him. She placed her hands on his shoulders, preventing him to even think about standing back.

"Got you." She said proudly with a tiny smile.

"You did."He said and showed teeth as he showed such a relaxed happy smile, closing eyes in a new chuckle.

A wave got them by surprised as they were about to redress, pushing the air out of them by the stronger impact of the block of water. She felt Ren's arms circling her waist and bringing her closer to him, securing her from being thrown away as the excess water slowly retreated leaving her kneeling on each side of him and him sitting in the sand with water barely a foot high around them.

"I think it's the ocean that won."He said with a smile, and she turned back to him to reply but stopped in her tracks.

She blinked at the picture he was making.

"Buahahahahahaha…" She exploded. She couldn't help herself. It was too funny. Holding her sides with one hand, she raised the other to point a shaking finger up.

"What?" he asked.

She cough and shook before swallowing air in one shot, and rose a steadier finger, passing it in his hair.

"You have seaweed in your hair." She explained with a teary smile, and proceeded to remove the different parts of it, still giggling.

"Ah."Ren said very laconically as she continued extirpating the tiniest ones.

"There," She said at last, looking down at him with a gentle smile as she threaded her fingers one last time in his hair, "no more green in your hair. It would have fit your eyes, though." She teased but he didn't react.

"Thank you." He said.

She smiled in response and looked at the shimmering green of his eyes – holding the twitch it made her heart do diving into that deep green as she asked the question she had been refraining to pose since earlier.

"You didn't put your lenses."

Ren nodded with a small tilt of his lips.

"I thought, since I was coming back here, it would be at least one step towards being truer to myself."

She hummed, as she observed the colour and dropped her hands on his shoulders covered by his drenched black tee without thinking.

"It definitely is prettier."

"You think?"

She hummed again in the affirmative. She wondered if that colour could be reproduced on one of her dolls. She didn't think so. But maybe on the last jacket of her album. Palette of colours available online was much larger.

"I prefer yours." He suddenly said and she returned her attention to him as he looked at her eyes. There was an intensity in the way he was staring. It made it hard for her to open her lips to reply.

"It's just brown."She said with a shrug when she finally got words out.

There was tender indulgence in the way he smiled then, and he shook his head.

"I would say amber. Or gold, maybe."

She rolled her eyes at him, snorting.

He rubbed off some drop that had rolled down the tip of her nose.

His eyes were so soft her respiration got locked up in her throat.

"I think my interpretation is better."

She shook her head.

"The only thing closing to gold would be your natural hair."

He shook his head in the same fashion she had just done it before.

She closed in onto his face.

"I think your eyes need to be checked."

He moved forwards too and bumped his nose on purpose against her own.

"Right back at ya."He said with a silly accent and a sloppy expression.

She tried to stay serious, she really tried but he just made more weird faces as he saw her trying.

She laughed and dropped her forehead against his left shoulder. The mix of sea water odour and his own scent dizzied her. It was even better than his cologne.

"You are silly."She mumbled, remembering his funny grimaces with a snort.

"I know."He said, not sounding remorseful in the least.

She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him before she could realize what she was doing, and he froze. She was about to pull back, just coming to earth, but then he returned the hug, squeezing her a little too tight.

They stayed like that for a minute when another thing came back to her mind as she felt how her bust was glued to his chest, and she was still not wearing anything under that shirt. She pulled back and stood, giving him her hand and helping him up.

He was looking at her oddly. Like if she was a puzzle to resolve or something.

She glanced a question and he shook his head.

He had also been looking high and very up since earlier, and getting the reason, she turned away, returning to her home so they could wash and change. She was far from the most interesting look, anyway. She doubt he really cared. No matter how much that thought hurt. He was just being sensitive.

"If I look inappropriate, it's still your fault. So not a word."She grumbled on the way back.

"Did I complain?"He asked and she eyed him. That had come out weird.

She sighed internally. She was making herself ideas again. Trying to comfort her poor heart with false conceptions.

She showed him the guest shower and went to take her own in the one siding her bedroom.

§§§

After that they talked some more and ate supper but she could see, he was exhausted. It might have been jet lag but she thought it was probably more his work during these last weeks. He had said he had been rather swamped. And as expected, they had barely turned on one of the recent movies from his father -one he still didn't have access to in Japan – , and that she had proposed they could watch; that he had fallen fast asleep. He was cuddled against her. His head lying and bent in the dip between her shoulder and her head. His hair was ticking her neck but she didn't care. It was so soothing, having him here. He had gathered back one of his legs against him, bending it like he was going to sit cross-legged, the thigh of that one resting against her hip and her own thigh. While the other lied in front of him freely on the ground carpet, since they had been sitting on the plush floor again.

She stayed there, watching him in deep slumber, feeling his weight against her right side. Observing his chest rising and dropping softly, his breath pushing out of his lips and in. She was tired too but she didn't want to sleep. She wanted to enjoy this. She didn't want to lose a second of it. Who knows for how long she could have those sorts of moments still. It would be too much of a waste to not treasure this instant.

She woke him a couple of hours later, pushing him to go sleep in the guest bedroom and guiding him to it before rejoining her own bed.

§§§

He was dreaming.

He knew he was. The contours were blurry. The images moving too fast. He is in front of a door. Her door. Suddenly he understands. His mind is replaying.

Yesterday.

The door opening slowly. Him entering her house. His heart jumping when he sees a form rising from a stool, the golden strands appearing in his sight, knowing already. It is her.

Then, he sees her, his glorious enchanting Kyoko. Locks a regal mess twirling around her tall lovely shape. An angelic long white shirt on herself and – , nothing else.

His breath strangles as his eyes catch the long lean legs, vibrantly tempting and evident, and there, and all too naked. Ready for him to rake his eyes on them. Imagining his hands, his fingers caressing the pulp of that smooth skin. From toe to knee to thigh…

His thoughts are cut when she turns around, catching his gaze, and suddenly there is only room for that. Her eyes looking at him. Her shock. Her joy in them. Her.

She tries to ask and he wants to explain. But he can't. He cannot. There is more important. His arms move on their own, catching her in his arms. Lifting her close. At last.

She holds him too, and he takes his first deep inspiration in a while. Happy.

The scene twirls elsewhere, later.

She tears through the sparkles of the ocean's blue like a celestial vision, cerulean surrounds her golden brightness as she throws back her hair. She is dripping water, hair in the way, clothes a mess of soaked clinging fabric. Angry.

She is sitting on him in the low water now, and he sees. Her white shirt lets him all too much and yet far from enough. Her hair is pushed backward, plastered against her skull and her back. Countless droplets are running down the sides of her face, down her neck, down her collarbones, she is petting his hair. She is laughing. Her eyes shine in the sun. A sensual deity in all its splendour.

He let his hand caress her face, run his fingers in her dishevelled shining mane, they bump noses. She gives him a soft smile. He grazes her moist tail bone, under the drenched shirt. Their faces are close. She holds his neck. Her eyes aren't leaving his.

He crushes his lips against hers. His hands roam. They drop down into the sand. The buttons of her shirt skip. His lips fall on a naked skin, pressing. He licks the water off her. It is salty. She kisses his neck. Lower. Lower. Clothes fall away. Her warmth closes in on him. He clutches at her thighs, at her waist. His chest presses against her breasts. She whispers his name.

A drilling sounds pierced through his ears, and he woke with a jump in the bed, barely repressing to crush the phone in his hand. A couple of minutes passed, spent to remember where he was. He grabbed a pillow and threw it, annoyed at his mind. He rubbed his face. Dreams sure are honest he thought to himself, as his mind unconsciously returned to what he had cooked up in his imagination.

That dream. The ocean.

That fucking dream…

He wanted it real. He wanted to destroy something. He wanted…

§§§

/**Duck reference and joke. If you know duckie, you know./

End of chapter.

PS: Hello everyone. Yes, i know, a while again. First of all, i wanna apologize for being unable to post more during December. I had planned to. But life and health, you know. I just couldn't. I'm also sorry for all the people reading this where it is winter at the moment, i know the mood doesn't really fit. I had had some hopes to finish Summer Arc and be able to be in next arc for this winter. But I guess it wasn't meant to be.

In any case, here is a new chapter that i hope you will love. It was a very fun one to write. Sorry it isn't a long one. But the end of it needed to happen here.

Kisses to everyone. I hope you had a very merry Christmas. If you celebrated it. And that you are having a joyful, full of love holidays season. Wherever you are and whoever you are.

Kisses,

Mimagfan,

AUTHOR OUT.