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Ren was trying very hard to keep Kuon on a leash. If joining the pack had opened the box, starting to court Kyoko had ripped the sides off. And now, staring out at the sparkling ocean, he felt the bottom of the box vanishing. Because he'd always loved the ocean. And now he had to be Ren… all day… at the beach… with Kyoko. He would not be having this problem had the rest of the cast and crew of Swords also not been present for a cast bonding party.
His frustration was somewhat alleviated when Kyoko informed him that she would do his sunscreen. He stripped off his shirt, sat down, and turned his back to her, eager for the feeling of her small hands on his skin.
Pssssht.
He let out a yelp as cold spray-on sunscreen hit his back.
"Sorry, I forgot to warn you that it'd be cold!"
He looked back at her with wounded eyes. "I thought you were going to use the lotion type I brought."
She tilted the can she was holding so he could see the label. "This has a higher SPF."
He pouted but did not protest as she proceeded to protect him from the sun. When she was done, Kanae walked over. "Do me next." Chiori strode over and asked the same.
While the pack was protecting themselves from the sun, Potato was living her best life. She was floating in a tide pool in a polka-dot pool ring, star-bedecked floaties on each arm. A pair of large, round sunglasses were perched on her snout. A large, floppy hat decorated her head. She sipped on a drink through a twirly straw. This image, captured by Kyoko, would go viral, and is the entire point of this chapter.
While the pack was protecting themselves from the sun, Potato was living her best life. She was floating in a tide pool in a polka-dot pool ring, star-bedecked floaties on each arm. A pair of large, round sunglasses were perched on her snout. A large, floppy hat decorated her head. She sipped on a drink through a twirly straw. This image, captured by Kyoko, would go viral, and is the entire point of this chapter.
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Today was the day. Koga could feel it. Today was the day that he was going to catch a photo of Tsuruga and Kyoko and finally bring the bastard down. He just had to wait for the perfect opportunity.
The first one came almost as soon as they'd gotten settled. Tsuruga, apparently forgetting all decorum now that they were on Potato's private beach - seriously, what was up with that raccoon - honest-to-god picked up Kyoko and ran into the water. He spun her around, making Kyoko shriek with joy, before tossing her into a deeper part of the water. She emerged, sputtering, and tackled him into the surf. Meanwhile, Koga had just gotten out his phone -
- only to be distracted by the goddess that was Kotonami Kanae, stretching in her black bikini juuust in his line of sight. And honestly, who could blame the guy? Certainly not Kijima, who promptly forgot Chiori's warning and walked up to her with his tongue practically hanging out of his mouth. Whatever line he used on her was muffled by Potato loudly sipping on her twirly straw, but Kanae's response needed no words. She simply looked him up and down. Once, then twice - not appreciatively, but as one might examine a worm you were planning to dissect for a science project. A chill ran up Kijima's spine; he did finger guns and backed away - promptly tripping over a stray beach ball.
By the time Koga had stopped laughing, the moment was over, and Kyoko and Tsuruga were swimming normally. He cursed. He needed to pay better attention.
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About an hour later, the waves picked up enough for some surfing. So Koga, being the little hater that he was, immediately challenged Ren to a surfing competition. This was a mistake. Not that Koga had any way of knowing this - he didn't know that Kuon had grown up on the coast of California, and had gone surfing whenever the waves were good. He didn't know how much Kuon loved the ocean. He didn't know exactly how humiliated he was about to be. But that's utterly predictable, so instead we're going to focus on Kyoko, who was busy preparing to fight one of her packmates to the death.
Pool noodle death.
Chiori had casually brought up the idea while Koga was goading Ren into the surfing competition. Kyoko, always down for Pack Bonding Activities, had jumped at the chance. Literally. She'd jumped out of the hole she'd been digging and snatched the offered pool noodle from Chiori. Then they nodded at each other, deathly serious, and assumed dueling positions.
So fortunately for Koga, his utter humiliation didn't really have any witnesses. The cast and crew was far more focused on two Uesugi-trained fighters battling it out with pool noodles. Kanae, sitting a safe distance away, filmed this for her alpha's Insta. No, she wasn't bitter about Chiori capturing the viral Potato-Kyoko meme, and she'd be insulted if you asked.
Kyoko moved first, swinging her pool noodle at Chiori's side. She parried (or tried to) with her own noodle. They wobbled against each other for a moment like so many floppy bits of pasta. Chiori swung next, sweeping low at Kyoko's legs. She jumped just in time, bringing her noodle down as she landed. Chiori swung upwards, batting it away.
Potato sipped on her beverage, very pleased with her fellow director's casting choices.
Then Kyoko snagged the other end of her own noodle and pounced. She brought the noodle down around Chiori from above, trapping the smaller girl's arms against her sides. She squirmed and struggled, but Kyoko had been training more - she was stronger. Defeated, Chiori dropped her noodle onto the sand. The gathered crowd cheered for the triumphant Kyoko.
Unnoticed, a seaweed-covered Koga stormed onto the sand to sulk. A completely oblivious Kuon kept riding the waves.
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After lunch, the pack took a walk along the shore to gather sea shells. Or at least, that was the excuse. Kanae and Chiori exchanged a look and peeled off not ten minutes into the stroll. Never let it be said that they are not caring packmates. Let it be said that Kanae grumbled about this all the way back to her umbrella.
So the couple walked, just close enough to feel the other's body heat but just far enough apart for plausible deniability. Kuon did his best not to stare whenever she would step ahead, bend, and pick up a shell. And Kyoko would struggle to keep her eyes on his face whenever she turned around to hand him the treasure. They would both let their hands linger when he took the shells from her to put in his pockets.
(Why do men's swimsuits have pockets, anyway? To carry shells? Do the shells even stay in the pockets when they swim? Potato would study this later, or at least try to. She would instead almost pants Kijima.)
Later, Kyoko would glue the shells to a plain photo frame. In it, she would put a photo Chiori had snuck of the happy couple on this day - one of them building a sandcastle together.
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Koga almost caught the perfect picture when they smashed the watermelon. They'd all taken turns being blindfolded and trying to hit the damn thing. Kotonami and Amamiya had spun Tsuruga so badly he hadn't even hit near the watermelon, much to Koga's delight. But then it was Kyoko's turn. For a moment, Koga wondered if she'd even be able to break it.
And then she brought the bat down dead center on the watermelon, and pieces flew everywhere.
That was not the picture he'd almost gotten. The picture he'd come so damn close to getting was of Tsuruga - the open lust that flashed on his face, there and gone before he could tap the button. And then Tsuruga abruptly turned and ran into the cold water.
Because of course he did. Koga saw Amamiya elbow Kotonami and say something sly out of the corner of her mouth that made the other cackle. This led to Kyoko, spattered in watermelon, asking what was so funny. Cue another sly comment - this time from Kotonami - that made Amamiya wheeze.
Koga knew damn well that they were joking about someone wanting to lick her clean. This was further cemented in his mind when Tsuruga, who had resurfaced, took one look at Kyoko and dove back underwater.
And he still didn't get his picture.
LINE BREAK
So to work out his frustrations, he'd challenged Tsuruga to beach volleyball. Except that had gone sideways, too, because Kyoko had heard them and said with sparkling eyes, "That sounds so fun! I've always wanted to play!"
"Didn't you play in middle school on school trips?" he'd asked.
She shook her head. "No, no one liked me enough to let me actually play. They mostly aimed the ball at me."
And, well, not even he was heartless enough to deny her after that. So he told her to get someone else to join them, and she'd dragged a protesting Kanae out from under her umbrella. What he had not counted on was Kyoko wanting to be on the same team as Kanae. Meaning that he had to play with Tsuruga.
It was a recipe for failure, and boy did it fail spectacularly. Between Koga's unwillingness to actually work with Ren and Kuon's hindbrain whining about going against alpha… well, the girls swept the beach with them. Not to mention that both men were very distracted by their competitors in their swimsuits. Kuon because he is a sap in love, and Koga because… well, because he didn't know that the only fuck Kanae will give anyone is a fuck off.
Chiori captured this epic defeat on her phone. The video went viral.
LINE BREAK
As dusk started to settle, Potato crawled out of her floaty tube, shucked off her arm bands, and doffed her sunglasses. Then she let out a sharp whistle that had every head on the beach turning to look.
A horde of raccoons emerged from the nearby wilderness, dragging what appeared to be several wooden grocery store pallets. The cast and crew scrambled out of the way.
"Potato, not again!" Director Goto cried, but was unheeded.
The raccoon horde, chittering amongst themselves, made quick work of building a massive bonfire. Those humans who were not horrified by the concept of trash pandas understanding how fire worked noticed that the horde had also brought marshmallows and sticks on which to roast them. Namely, Kyoko and Director Goto. Kuon also recovered fairly quickly and plopped down onto the sand next to Kyoko to enjoy the warmth. She had already started toasting marshmallows.
Soon, the raccoons surrounded the bonfire, paws raised. Kyoko offered Potato a toasted marshmallow and was proclaimed their goddess. Completely unaware of her new deific status, Kyoko continued to toast marshmallows for the raccoons. Soon, all the criminal hands were sticky. Kuon sent a video of Kyoko feeding the horde to his parents to make them jealous. Whether that jealousy was of him for being at the beach with her or of the raccoons for being fed by her was up for debate.
As the night grew darker and the bonfire began to burn lower, ignoring typical laws of physics for how long that would actually take, Kyoko began to nod off. She tried not to - she really did. But she'd had a full, wonderful day, and there was only so much her body could handle. So she slowly leaned more and more on Kuon, finally falling asleep leaning against his shoulder. He let it happen, fighting every instinct he had to not scoop her against his chest and hold her tight - because they were in public. Because they weren't ready for people to know. Because Koga had a hate-boner for him, according to Chiori, and would stop at nothing to expose them.
And he would have in that moment, had Potato not offered him a toasted marshmallow by placing it directly on the lens of his phone camera.
So even when Kuon eventually carried a sleeping Kyoko back to the bus they'd taken here, Koga was unable to get his picture. Kanae did, though, for later.
And so the day ended with a horde of raccoons waving as the bus pulled away, and Kyoko asleep curled up against Kuon. He put his arm on the back of the bus seat, close enough to feel her warmth.
