Entwined | 𝘠𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘤

Play Ball!

~CHARLOTTE~

Kahono drew her last breath, ending the song with a whisper of a note that faded into nothing. Her trembling vocals had almost caused tears to spring out of Charlotte's eyes, but she held back. She had to stop the thoughts assaulting her, for Yami's sake. If he saw her crying it would only worry him. That, or he would tease her later about it, and she wasn't fond of either of those options.

Kaito rested on two feet again, bowed, then approached them. "All is at peace now. Our job is finished."

"That was breathtaking," Charlotte complimented the siblings.

"We are sorry you had to witness such a sad scene on your day off, but are grateful you gave your respects all the same," said Kahono.

"I prefer the short and sweet funerals to masses of people losing their shit anyways," Yami said, earning him a jab from Charlotte's elbow.

"What'd I say this time?" He complained, feigning injury.

"It was our pleasure," Charlotte said, turning away from Yami, who only pulled her closer and squeezed the sensitive spot on her sides. She squealed, and Kahono and Kaito laughed.

"It's wonderful to see you two finally enjoying yourselves," Kahono commented.

"Shall we meet the others at the beach then?' Kaito asked, already scanning the shoreline for a platinum blonde royal.

The four companions called to the rest of the vacationers, who were currently engaged in an intense game of beach volleyball. Of course, nothing could be normal with the Black Bulls involved, so instead of using a regular volleyball or blow-up beach ball, they were whacking around one of Magna's large fireballs.

"Earth Wall!" Sol shouted as a pillar of dirt rose up, spiking the spinning fireball over a singed net. Charlotte clasped a hand over her eyes, scared to see the results.

"This looks fun," Yami said.

"It looks dangerous!" Charlotte exclaimed, to which he just laughed. Clearly she hadn't spent enough time around his rowdy bunch to expect this kind of stuff on the daily like he did.

However, her Vice-Captian, Sol, seemed right at home. Peeking through her fingers, Charlotte watched as Asta dove with his sword, perspiration dripping down his brow, and taking a swing at the blazing ball.

He wasn't fast enough and fire exploded right on the boundary line. Noelle was quick to react, putting out the flames with a spray of her water magic. Noticing the newcomers, she waved in their direction before going over to chew out Asta. Something about burning the whole beach down.

"Char!!!!!!" It was Sol. Magna trailed behind her, greeting Yami with a punch in the arm.

"You and Captain Charlotte score a goal of your own out there, eh?" Magna teased. Charlotte blushed a bright red.

Yami smirked, Magna needed to watch his tongue- he knew how to hit back. "So you and Sol?"

"What about me?!" Sol released Charlotte from a bear hug and came over to put Magna in a headlock. "You better not be talking about me, you jerk."

"Ow, let go! I swear I wasn't- Hey!!" She rubbed her knuckles into his already messy hair, laughing at his sorry predicament. Yami huffed, noticing that despite his struggling, Magna was enjoying his head being so close to Sol's ample chest.

"That's enough playing with fire, kiddos," he told them. The two broke apart and smiled, their rivalry temporarily forgotten.

"We found Kahono and Kaito on the beach as well," Charlotte said, hiding her 'sunburn' from the others.

The others had gathered around by now, everyone greeting the ocean siblings with open arms. They were dragged- along with Charlotte and Yami- to a pile of blankets laid out on the sand. Charlotte let herself relax, for the first time being comfortable around a large group of people without giving orders or advice.

Yami sat beside her cracking another joke, this time at Asta's expense. The group laughed, taking turns telling exaggerated stories about their various expeditions and treasure hunting. At one point someone handed out coconuts poked through with straws as a refreshing drink.

It's nice to relax with these people. I think I've finally found a group of friends who don't see me as some stuck up royal or a simple, prissy woman.

Her own squad was her family, there was no doubt in that, but today that family had expanded. She lovingly saw how the two squads blended together, complimenting each other's strengths and weaknesses. Several of her ladies seemed much more relaxed with the carefree attitude of the black bulls; and several members of Yami's squad learned new techniques and strategies from the blue rose ladies.

Smiling, she put her hand over Yami's, which had settled permanently on her thigh. It was a possessive gesture that she wouldn't dare accept from anyone else, but with him it felt right. Even in this relaxed setting, with no clear objective or guidelines, would normally stress her out. Yet she felt at home- happy.

Prior to this day she had worried about how to present herself in front of the others, how to make her squad feel comfortable, what she'd need to do to include everyone... but it all had happened so naturally. All she ended up needed to do was be herself, and she couldn't remember the last time that had been the case.