🌞Sunshine Arc👙
Written by EmtenDew
Edited by P. serrulata
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Author's note :
PS: Over the last couple months, I played through all of my HALO games on "heroic", which is harder on some of the games than others, and I was glad to take some time to play the whole series again.
HALO: Reach has been my favorite HALO title since it came out, and they'll have to do something pretty special to top it.
Also, I'm currently replaying the Gears of War games and the Killzone series (I even pulled out the PS2), so I'm hitting the games hard.
Maybe I'll play the more recent South Park games too. Everything prior to The Stick of Truth sucked scrote. The Turok Engine couldn't remedy everything.
Once harvest and winterization is totally out of the way, and I'm off the videogame bender, I'll put more time into Cherry Blossom Palette.
I just wanted some time in front of the Xbox instead of Microsoft Word.
I'm glad to say it's a good year for sugarbeets! High quality beets and high sugar content this year!
Would you believe that many people in Minnesota and the Dakotas use two weeks of annual paid-vacation a year to drive sugarbeet trucks to processing facilities and stockpiles? It's an extra $4,000 for two weeks of work.
...
But now, it's time to kick Senpai's summer up a notch.
Grab your suntan lotion and your other lotion too, because it's time for the first beach chapter of the story! Keep at least one hand where I can see it, but otherwise, do what you feel!
There's snow everywhere, but it's not that cold yet, so I'm gonna head outside and grill steak and drink beer! Story's all yours!
ED: Hey, guess what! The chapter starts with a little bit of "gross Naoto". It takes a while to get through.
This chapter is just over 5K words.
...
Wow, I let Naoto's and Sakura's phone call get big and detailed. I really should stop moving so much stuff around. A lot of the phone call and the Art Club (and friend) shopping day events could've waited until after the beach stuff, but like I said, I REALLY wanted to include all I did.
There WAS a smidgen of dialogue I moved back to after the beach, since PS and I both decided it fit better there.
I think the next chapters will be enjoyable to many readers. A good beach episode is a bonus to any series that does it right, so I hope mine turn out well.
...
My editor hasn't steered me wrong when it comes to TV and movies, so I'm going to take a chance and watch The Boondocks.
I guess I'm actually going to CONTINUE to watch it. I saw the first three episodes, and I couldn't believe some of the stuff I heard and saw.
It's too bad that Season 4 was apparently a bust. PS said there are a couple elements worth seeing, but he has very little good to say about it.
If I like the show, I might give the last season a try.
...
I'm not sure I'm going to continue Rick and Morty or any new Adult Swim shows. I'm sure that Justin Roiland was an unpleasant person, but he never saw his day in court before being fired behind closed doors from his various projects.
...
Since my editor mentioned video games, I replayed the Mass Effect trilogy over the summer. PS has been through the series a few times, and he completed most of the male Shepard romances, meaning he didn't let Kelly get turned into collector jelly. We talked about the series a little. It was fun.
And the final scene between Shepard and Anderson is always just so touching...
I played through with male Shepard and chose Tali because best girl. I've never played as fem Shep, but I think most of the romantic partners are still available, at least in the third game.
I figured Tali'Zorah vas Bestgirl would be PS's waifu too, but it turns out that he's a Miranda fanboy (why...?), so he wasn't down with my fangirling over the energetic Quarian cutie whose face and body we never get a proper look at.
I just like Tali's story arc. A smart, tech-savvy engineer with a lot to live up to sets out to see the galaxy, gets tangled up in galaxy sized problems, meets many strange and wonderful people, says funny drunk things, and helps you fry dangerous robots when they try to kill you.
She also has the funniest mission/downtime dialogue of all the companions. I didn't know she was scared of spiders until I took her on a certain mission, but her shotgun dealt with them.
But it would really stink being stuck in a protective suit or bubble your whole life, being stuck eating dextro-amino nutrition paste because you'll die if you eat human food.
And your ship's doctor even tells you to not exchange certain body fluids because that could kill both of you in a physical relationship.
...
PS has told me about the South Park games. Since the show's creators' are shorting us the last few years as far as content goes, and I can get the games for my PS5 for a few dollars, I might play those.
He says you can get between 20 and 30 hours of play out of each game, and I like the sound of that.
Turn based RPG has never been my thing, but this might be good.
I hear you even have to fight a giant killer dead baby that Khloe Kardashian didn't want in one of them.
And you can fight Morgan Freeman, but he's the strongest enemy in the games.
...
Also, with South Park, we both watched the new wokeness/AI special.
They tackled too many subjects for one 50 minute episode, and the stuff they covered was overshadowed by small moments that were a lot funnier. Cartman's and Butters' "multiverse" doppelgangers carried the episode, the female voice actors really getting the mannerisms.
Kenny's alternate universe design was probably my favorite.
Seeing all the characters behaving the same way they always do in the bodies of "diverse women" was just hilarious.
Trey and Matt should just return to the "kids being kids" thing. Reality has gotten so nuts that they seem to have trouble parodying it anymore.
...
Naoto in canon! Don't tell Nagatoro that you love her! And don't kiss her. She doesn't deserve you, and you don't deserve to settle for someone like her!
She even mocked you to your face when you wanted to lend her your strength. It was her immediate reaction, doing that. That's where she'll always go first. You should've walked away and left her to regret her actions.
Canon Naoto should go after canon Gamo-chan. Taiga doesn't like women anyway, much less teenage girls, if my editor is correct, and he's been correct in many things.
There's another fic out there that may see Naoto following this better path, going the way of the Maki, but that depends on the next chapter.
...
Ask us anything, and we'll add a Q&A section in the next chapter.
It's good to know that you keep reading, so I would be happy if you drop comments and ask questions.
Please enjoy what I wrote.
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Saturday, July 28, 2018
'~Oh... wow~!' Naoto was enraptured. 'That feels really good~!... What's going on...?'
It took a moment for things to come clear, but considering his hands were cradling the girl—the one lying beneath him, on his bed—and not pulverizing his poor dick, he concluded that he wasn't dreaming.
Naoto was doing it—actually doing it, kissing a girl~, their tongues wandering about the other's oral mucosa.
Everything was all warm and fuzzy and wonderful~...!
His hard-on was attaining biblical proportions in size, but lil' Naoto was just doing his own thing, big Naoto able to concentrate on kissing.
A guy unconsciously popping wood, kissing a girl, was as wonderful and natural as the blue sky on a pleasant day~...
'Woot~!' He felt out-fucking-standing.
It was nice to finally be doing this for real...
In fact, he felt so good about the world in general, he decided he'd try his luck, violating a certain convention!
It was good manners to keep one's eyes shut while smooching, so he'd heard...
Naoto had his eyes closed; he was a good boy and wanted to do this right!
But he also wanted to see those sharp, amber-colored eyes, taking in his eyes as well!
Would she open her eyes too...?
He supposed she would, the girl having about as much respect for convention as roadkill has awareness of the feeding maggots.
Whatever, it wouldn't be the same if that connection wasn't made...!
So, breaking decorum, he felt comfortable enough to open his eyes, and he beheld the blushing, tanned cheeks, the long eyelashes of the girl below him.
Now, all she had to do was open HER eyes and croon in his ear the name he SO loved to hear from her...
"...~!" He could already hear it in his mind, the girl murmuring, "Senpai~..."
So many times he'd dreamed of that, the girl he loved whispering her favored nickname for him, the two of them canoodling... and gazing into the other's eyes when they needed to come up for a breath~.
She had to open her eyes at some point...
Naoto held off on kissing her a few seconds, just to see if she'd react.
Deprived of his lips, unable to find a place for hers, she did react, opening her big, soft, brown eyes, beneath eyebrows of fool's gold.
"Senpai-kun...?" She shifted, stretching luxuriously and snaking her arm up behind her head, her shoulder-length blonde hair lying about the bedspread. "What's wrong...?"
'What the...?!' Naoto felt turned-around and upside-down to boot. 'Hey, this isn't...!'
She blinked, cracking a bleary, tired smile. "What is it~...? Why'd you stop, buddy~?"
...
...
...
*chulp-chulp*
Naoto's erection spasmodically spat forth an ejaculation for the record books, and a great stain spread across the tented, ratty pair of boxers he'd already sacrificed to a gob of petroleum jelly, its part in hopes of alleviating the painful problems stemming from this very sort of event.
And the young artist's eyes opened for real this time, back in his bed, his body snapping nearer to wakefulness.
Blinking hard a couple of times, more than vaguely aware of where he truly was at, he threw back his covers to survey the damage done.
It was a well-practiced practice, given the last week...
"Fuck..." he muttered, finding enough icing to coat a batch of strudel.
He'd fallen asleep with his lamp on, so it was plainly seen...
It was even on his bedspread, that blemish larger than what he'd customarily see, though some of it had to be from the "petrol gel".
The impending crust was such a fucking nuisance, once everything had dried...
"Damn it..." Naoto scowled at the contemptible spot.
Somehow, the old socks he'd pulled over his hands to keep them from grabbing him in particular places were clean and totally dry.
No signs of splooge on the socks... not even a hint or smell of the greasy petroleum jelly, its permeation of the boxers' fabric predating the splooge by several hours...
He reasoned he might not have touched himself, but he couldn't be absolutely positive.
Peeling off the sorry stockings, he knew he could blow a load without the use of his hands, or even much outside encouragement, so it wasn't a question of impossibility.
"Cum like a pro", they called it...
Rolling to the edge of the bed, Naoto found he ached a little, not because of any leftover troubles from his exertions that week, but because he'd slept so hard.
It wasn't a particularly LONG sleep, but it was a HARD sleep... minus the spectaculate ejaculate...
Naoto was suddenly mindful that he had to piss like a racehorse, so he pivoted, planting his feet on the floor.
"...?" He stopped.
What had he been kissing, if not one of his hands...?
One glance at his pillow told him, a saliva stain—even more impressive than the stain between his legs—was indicative of a good, old-fashioned "pillow make-out session".
'Meh... whatever...' he dismissed, clear on what he'd been "hugging".
Standing up and strategically supporting his drawers, taking care to not spill the yank-yogurt, he ambled out of his bedroom and towards the bathroom.
There was no one to see him; he just didn't want to dribble on the floor, as if his underwear were a leaky garbage bag.
The parents, blessedly, were dead-asleep, which was normal for them at 5:45 on a Saturday morning...
Prepared to deal with a mess, Naoto stepped into the bath before pulling off his boxers.
Since nothing dripped out upon removal, he exited.
There was no saving the boxers—he'd never intended to keep them or launder them, so he dropped them in the wastebasket, pulling back the other detritus, as to bury them.
On second thought...
He lifted the liner-bag and tied it shut, tossing it against the closed door.
'Mom doesn't need to find THAT...' Naoto knew she'd seen worse out of him, but there was no need to make her rotating, weekly family chore of cleaning the bathrooms any more interesting than need be.
Deciding to not even try to use the toilet, even for a sit-down, he saddled up to the tub and stepped into it; it wasn't like he hadn't done it before.
Sometimes, it was the only way to deal with this sort of thing...
He winced, gingerly taking hold of and aiming his tenderized unit. "...!"
Since all he'd walked in with were the shorts, he had nothing else to hold up or protect, and he let go towards the drain.
It was no surprise that his piss-stream existed as multiple streams, and he went about clearing the pipes, his meat-whistle's tip clogged like the dried nozzle on a bottle of non-toxic kids' glue.
'Whoa!' He pulled a foot backwards, one of the shifting tributaries straying dangerously close to his leg.
Forget a "forked-piss"... This was a "trident-piss"... or whatever you called a polearm that had four or five points to it...
He couldn't be sure of the number of tines, because the many watercourses quickly became two... became one... though it took 15 entire seconds to get a straight line.
Had he ever before seen it jet out at a 90-degree angle...?
"Mrmbl... a couple times..." He went and went and went, wondering if he'd really had that much water the evening before.
...
So much for going a night without a wet dream...
He doubted beating the bishop the night before—which he'd staunchly decided against—would've made a lick of difference, given how the week had been going in the department of self-serving carnality.
The nocturnal emissions had been most unkind to lil' Naoto...
Even with lube, which Naoto sometimes used and sometimes didn't, he'd suffered additional abrasions to his unit from the daytime sessions, manhandling himself so much.
Hence the wincing...
He hadn't been enjoying it.
He'd done it because he felt he had to.
Waking up with a fresh-mixed batch of baby-batter, going every which way, had worn out its welcome...
He'd done it every day since the Tuesday of finals week.
He wished he hadn't, given his attempts at prevention seemingly amounted to squat.
And now, lil Naoto looked like a bruised banana... and felt like a hotdog exploded in the microwave...
Still groggy and not completely free of sleep, the young man almost thought he could hear the cries of his significant friend, yet emptying into the bath:
...
'I thought you were gonna be nicer to me...' lil' Naoto whimpered.
Big Naoto submitted, 'I'm sorry, little guy... I can't exactly help it.'
'Bweeeeh~!' the little guy mewled. 'I thought you were my friend!'
'H-hey, don't cry!' Naoto couldn't stand to see his 17 cm pal so upset. 'I, uh...'
'"I, uh", my balls!"' "Dirty Harry" wept. 'I fuckin' trusted you...!'
'I-I'm sorry...!' Naoto was near to joining him in his wailing. 'I tried... I don't think I even touched you this time!'
'Not good enough, you son-of-a-bitch!' Lil' Naoto wasn't in a forgiving mood. 'If you don't treat me better, I'm gonna go away and NEVER come back!'
'Don't say that!' The big Naoto knew this was an empty threat, but it hurt him to hear it.
Where would the respectable-sized love-pistol go?! Melbourne, Australia?!
...
Thankfully, Naoto was sane, and this was all a fabrication by the editor, just because he thought it was a little bit funny.
Maybe it worked, and maybe it didn't...
Even so, Naoto wasn't sure how much more of this his flesh-flute could take, much less himself as a person.
He began to wonder if there was actually something wrong with him.
"..." He really wondered.
...
Even so, the dream itself, the one that had stirred him to consciousness, hadn't been all that shocking.
It should've been ALARMING, but this occasionally happened...
Naoto dreamed of kissing girls, and of course, a girl would be there.
SOME sort of girl...
Just as often as he dreamed of kissing Nagatoro, he dreamt of kissing "faceless" women, holding no recallable features.
Though, there were the instances of other girls—with faces, seemingly random in occurrence...
He thought a few girls in homeroom were quite attractive and/or rather pleasant, though he couldn't say he knew them, and this didn't distress him much either.
The girl that spoke so beautifully during poetry recitations and in-class reading... the girl that looked STUPENDOUS with her short, boyish hair... the tallish, wannabee textbook yanki that hated keeping her indoor shoes on but liked stepping down the heels and every so often wouldn't wear socks...
*ahem...*
Hell, in his more naïve days, he'd dreamed of kissing the Prez... even after realizing the brief crush he had on her had fizzled away.
In fact—
That had happened, not so long ago, in another dream...
It had been a good year past, but that wasn't that long ago.
"Mm..." he stewed.
Sana, his old club president, was a friend.
She was a dear friend.
And...
Sakura was a friend... maybe a BEST friend...
At least, that's what he wanted, so very much.
Considering the pair of them had spent three-quarters of an hour on a phone-parley, he saw no strangeness that she was somewhere on his mind... in his mind...
Which was it...?
And it wasn't like he hadn't dreamed of Sakura otherwise; it was just the first "questionable" dream he'd had of her, that is, since the "orange sorbet" dream.
And that had been a much drier dream...
Otherwise, he'd dreamed a lot about Sakura, mainly their time together, studying with Hana.
But he'd also dreamed of making her laugh... and her making him laugh... and just hanging out.
It was... very pleasant...
His dreams that week hadn't all been dirty.
Those were just the easiest ones to remember...
...
Yeah, he thought that Sakura was attractive, and yeah, she kind of turned him on, but a lot of girls turned him on. It didn't mean he wanted to do that sort of thing, consciously or not.
"...!" He strengthened his resolve.
It was just the first time it had happened in a while, happening with a girl besides Nagatoro... or one of the "faceless"... or some "random"...
"Yeah..." he breathed, utterly convinced. "I don't need to dwell on this."
And he wouldn't worry about it...
Unless the same thing started happening with HANA...
"Heh~..." he chuckled to himself.
That'd be something to worry about~...
Having at last finished bleeding the weasel, he rinsed the unmentionable cocktail down the drain and proceeded to take a quick shower.
Then, maybe he could hook that take-out—the Mongolian pork—his parents brought home on Tuesday and hadn't touched...
He'd prefer that to the other leftovers, and it wouldn't be good by tomorrow... or Monday.
Yeah~, they wouldn't miss it...
...
...
...
Wearing his trunks and one of the new Hawaiian shirts he'd purchased at Etsuko's shop, Naoto listened to the *flip-flop* of his sandals as he walked west, the early-morning light finally peeking over the hills.
Other than the *flip-flop*, all that could be heard were birdsongs~...!
"...~!" Was he ever happy about the weather forecast.
They were looking at sunny skies with plenty of big, puffy clouds, a gentle breeze, and temperatures in the upper 30's.
"...~!" He joyfully hefted his load, barely even feeling the weight.
His backpack, filled with a change of clothes, hat, towel, phone and charger with external battery, some sketching supplies (with fixative), water bottle, sunscreen, sunglasses, and other sundries, rode alongside the half-dozen old blankets his parents had offered, rolled up and tied in a sling.
With the blankets, Naoto was good with his assignment for the day—at least halfway.
Hopefully, the whole beach would be unspoiled, the best "real estate" available to whoever showed up first~...
Sakura and Hana, one not having Line and the other away in Tokyo, had volunteered to bring a couple of luxuries and had agreed to take whatever was left over from the "master list", and Gamo-chan had given them an assignment he found fitting, given what Sakura had brought to the pool cleaning job, not that the Maki knew about that occurrence.
Since Sakura didn't have Line, Gamo-chan had been good enough to come up with a list that everyone would see.
With a little smile, Naoto reviewed what she'd sent out to their whole party by mail, Thursday morning, their online "conference" the night before:
...
Paisen: location and ground-cover
Sakura and Hanacchi: picnic brunch, raft, changing tent
Xena🤪: Frisbee, games, volleyball net, balls
Yoshi: grill
Nekoba: 3 umbrellas
Rabi-chan: cooler with ice and water
Shuu-kun: snacks
Short-pai🤭: kabobs
...
"Snrk~!" he snorted at the use of emojis, rather unlike her, not to mention the names she'd assigned Tohru and herself.
Maybe the two of them WOULD wind up being good friends~...
And speaking of friends—or "sorta friends"—
If there'd been any doubt in Naoto's mind that Rabi-chan would be joining them, the list had cleared that up.
Had anyone else known that Gamo-chan had been thinking about it...? Inviting Rabi-chan...?
He didn't know, and no one had brought it up, but as with Sakura and Hana, Rabi-chan hadn't been part of the Line discussion either.
Rabi-chan hadn't even been MENTIONED when they'd divvied out responsibilities...
Naoto reasoned that Gamo-chan simply didn't wish to deal with any drama from the rest of them and quietly included her "frenemy".
But Rabi-chan had offered to bring bottled water and ice, and that was a welcome addition, something that the big girl hadn't thought of.
And Gamo-chan SEEMED to be cool with everything...
Naoto couldn't see her joking around with nicknames and emojis if she wasn't.
...
"Meh..." He cast aside this overthought.
There was no need for it...
He had his assignment:
He'd find them the best spot he possibly could!
...
...
...
To no great surprise, Naoto found the beach quite empty at 7:00 a.m..
He saw a café, a coffee shop or two opening up on the boardwalk... a few joggers on the road... an elderly couple out walking their mini poodle...
How peaceful~...!
A part of him wanted to do it, and he found himself walking across the sand, stopping about halfway between the shore and the walk.
There, he stood.
"...~!" He took a deep breath of fresh sea air. "Ahh~..."
It was good to be alive~...!
Naoto had been looking forward to this morning, and not just because he took pride in his "task", wanting things to be welcoming for his friends.
There was a beach to run on~...!
That's something he'd wanted to try, even before taking up his mild summer exercising:
Barefoot running on the beach~...!
"...~!" Everything that morning got his blood pumping!
But first~...!
He needed to stake out a spot.
"And not just any spot will do..." he said to himself.
Away from crowds and foot-traffic... a good view of their surroundings... not too far from the nearby amenities...
He wanted to do this right.
It wasn't like Judah Ben-Hur, spending half the book deciding which magnificent Arabian horse rode which yoke, drawing his chariot, but this was still pretty special...
And the perfect spot jumped out at him almost immediately!
Under a three-meter retaining wall, topped by a flowerbed and not a sidewalk (people spill stuff and lean over the railings), Naoto found their homebase.
Not too close to the water and not too far away...~!
Facing west, there was a nice patch of cool shade, cast by the concrete barrier, and they would have full-protection until around noon.
And best of all, it was on a hill~, if the dunelike mound of sand against the wall, rising above the rest of the beach, could be called such.
An elevated 180-degree view of the surroundings~...!
It also struck Naoto that they'd be able to see their spot from anywhere on the shore, at least within 100 meters.
It was perfect~...!
Acting at once, he unrolled the blankets and arranged them, making sure to leave space for Hana's changing tent.
Nice~...!
Before Naoto lay 18 sq. meters of turf for their group, and once everyone arrived, they could adjust as needed and figure out where to put the grill.
THIS was where they'd have the best Saturday ever~...!
...
As much as Naoto wanted their location to be prime, he wanted to get to running.
He took a few minutes to limber up.
Again, as long as he stayed nearby, he could see the spot, so leaving his sandals, backpack, and stuff against the retaining wall, he loped down to the tideline.
"Wow~..." he said aloud, further appreciating up close what he had at half-length.
It was quiet enough that he could hear the gentle roar of the ocean, which was more of a murmur.
"Ack~!" He jumped with a squirrely laugh, the water washing up to his ankles, a wave having come in. "Whoo~!"
Shit, was it cold that day~...!
But it felt great. "...~!"
Something indescribable welled up inside of him, and he took off north, running in the tide.
Boy, was it a smart idea to take time to stretch and get in a nice walk the morning before~...!
He felt no ill effects from the not-so-arduous cleaning of the school pool.
And how great it had been to hoof it downtown with the world's best pair of girls~...!
He'd want to exercise daily if that was the reward!
...
Running on the beach was nice, but it was different.
The joints felt wobbly, loose, and a little wonky...
But Naoto liked it~!
This might have to become a regular thing~...
"..." He gave some contemplation to the coming day.
A thing actually surprising was that his immediate thoughts, considering all things possible, were relatively few in number:
...
There was the manga to be lent to Gamo-chan...
Naoto had the first two volumes of Berserk in his bag, Sakura was bringing Slam Dunk, and Hana was bringing Living Room Matsunaga-san.
Seemed like a really nice assortment of manga for someone to try out~...
He also found it as lovely as it was surprising, learning that Gamo-chan and Hana had already discussed with each other their—if not tastes, specifically—shared enjoyed series.
Who knew that Gamo-chan and Hana would both read ladies' comics AND that the two of them had agreed on a seinen series, still in its infancy, to follow together...?
To him, that was a successfully accomplished recipe for a fun commonality for the girls.
It sounded like a good time for ANYONE~...
...
And speaking of Hana, talking with her about bringing art supplies would've been nice...
If she brought a sketchbook and favored charcoal, the two of them could hold a pseudo-club activity.
There'd be plenty of great stuff to sketch...
He could always give her use of his gear, but Hana had specific things she liked.
A certain paper... a specific consistency of charcoal... a favorite work surface...
...
The sun could already be felt in the open, so... umbrellas...
He'd checked the umbrella rental place; it opened at 8:00, which was a little way off.
The staff were there, but they couldn't expect to open just because some beansprout was before their little building, standing like some goon...
But he'd still make sure he was the first in line!
...
And finally...
Though it had never been a problem before, just seeing his female friends in swimsuits and all the other magical stuff one might see at the beach, there was always the concern that lil' Naoto wouldn't behave himself.
Naoto hoped that little critter would obey the rules and stay hanging in the six-o'clock position, not tarrying from this.
Despite the exploitation he'd suffered in the last 10-odd days, he'd still gone the distance that morning and sounded off as fierce as a 40-pounder.
Mere swim trunks might not be ABLE to contain his tiny soldier, were he Hellbent on breaking north through the belt-line!
What a sight that'd be!
Lil' Naoto, waving his lil' gray hat, charging into Union stomach territory, giving a Rebel yell to wake the dead!
And when he'd finally had his fill of fighting, atop his mighty steed, he'd sing his song, riding into the blazing sunset~:
...
'Hi-Yo!
Hi-Yo, Silver!
Hi-Yo!
Hi-Yo, Silver!
Hi-Yo!
Hi-Yo, Silver! Away~!'
...
"...?!" Naoto's head-brain ground to a halt.
He wasn't sure what the Lone Ranger and the conflict that some guy, wearing a pointy, white hood, in some movie clip had called the "War of Northern Aggression" held in common, but his knowledge of the latter half of the 19th Century in the United States—fact and fiction—wasn't as strong as that of his own country.
'A man's imagination can be a Helluva thing...' ...says a man that pretended his hard dick was a lighthouse in the bathtub.
...
Soon enough, Naoto got tired of running.
"Phew..." Stopping, he hunched over slightly, hands on his knees, breathing hard.
This was supposed to be lower-impact exercise...!
But all he knew was a different sort of worn-out.
It WAS a different sort of running...
"..." He wondered what time it was.
The phone was tucked away in the backpack...
Thus, he meandered back to the bivouac.
And~—
"Aw, crap..." he carped.
It was only 7:30...
He'd only been running around for 15 minutes!
"Shoot..." Did he ever have a long way to go, wanting to run 5 km by summer's end.
And another stretch only killed five minutes...
Naoto pondered the ways he might keep himself occupied.
It would be great to just rent the umbrellas and have things good and ready for his fellow beachgoers...
He'd already gotten a few texts from their party.
It would be 8:45 before anyone else showed up...
Whatever way, he wasn't in the mood to sit on his duff, atop some shabby, old blanket, one he'd once vomited upon, that time he'd caught norovirus from the local swimming pool.
He'd sit there later; he just didn't feel like sitting.
Would it be a douchey thing to do, standing in line for 20-odd minutes when there was no "need" for it...?
'Oh, what the heck...?' He'd be able to see their claim, even over there.
Maybe the folks running the umbrella rental would have mercy on him... open up a few minutes early...
...
...
...
"Hey, Nao-kun!" Shuu called, waving with his free hand.
Tohru followed suit. "G'morning, Nao-kun... We the first ones here?"
Naoto had been paging through the second volume of Berserk, checking out Guts' mischief involving the Slug Count.
The second major Apostle in the series was a little more wacked out than the first...!
He was surprised but not startled, and he put the volume away, turning his attention to Shuu and Tohru.
On their backs were their bags, and suspended between them was a cooler, no doubt holding the kabobs and snacks.
"You're the first here besides me..." Naoto hailed from their spot. "You good?"
Shuu smirked. "I'd be better if 'Short-pai' over there held up his end of the cooler a little higher~."
Shuu was in lively spirits...!
"Go suck dick in the sewer, Shuu..." Short-pai grumbled.
Tohru looked tired as Hell... probably gamed half the night...
"Up your butt and around the corner~..." Shuu retorted.
Short-pai grumbled again, ignoring the silly comeback, "Don't start with my height, not this early in the morning."
Not unusual banter between the two...
"Well, glad you're both here." Naoto's little encampment now had its snacks, beef, and the rest of the male population.
Tohru nodded. "I'm glad Dad was willing to drop us off..."
Shuu whistled, he and Tohru setting their cooler in the shade, "Man, you already got the umbrellas and everything~!"
The spot was almost habitable~...!
They just needed Rabi-chan's cooler of ice and water... and the stuff that Sakura and Hana were bringing.
"Yup." Naoto, after running until he'd had his fill of it, had stood in line—alone (and there was still no line), waiting for the umbrella rentals to open up. "I could only get two. It's two per customer, I guess. If one of you'll take the other ¥1,500 I have, we could have three."
Gamo-chan had wanted three, and with nine people, it made sense...
So, Shuu picked up another.
And the boys complained about the price.
Tohru shook his head. "¥4,500 for three umbrellas. That's ridiculous."
"I guess most people just rent one," Shuu concluded. "It doesn't seem so much then."
"Well, we'll need them once lunch rolls around, and the sun comes over the wall, so it is what it is," Tohru settled.
Naoto spoke up, "Hey, guys?"
"Yeah?"
"What is it?"
Naoto just didn't think it was fair. "I never thought about how some peoples' contributions might cost a lot more than the others. It's not right that Nekoba should have to pay all that just because she got umbrellas."
"I was thinking the same..." Tohru admitted. Beef's expensive right now. The onions and the peppers were nothing, but the beef cost ¥7,000."
"Geez..." Naoto felt he himself was coming up short. "All I had to do was get here early and bring a bunch of old blankets."
And he wasn't being sarcastic either; things just weren't square in his book.
"Don't sell yourself short, Nao-kun," Shuu chuckled. "I don't think anyone else would've done what you did."
"But you see what I mean, don't you?" Naoto pressed. "Some of us didn't have to spend any money for this trip."
"I hear you," Shuu said; he turned to Tohru as well. "I think we can figure it out later, once all the girls are here. Divide things up... See that everyone pays a reasonable share."
"Someone'll have fun with that math~." Tohru didn't envy this person. "Woulda been easier if we just pooled the money in the first place and divvied it out after."
"Next time, we can do that," Naoto said, not thinking until the words came out.
"Next time?!" Tohru did a take.
Shuu ho-hummed, "I'd like that~... Wasn't expecting more~..."
"I didn't mean the beach per se... Just whatever we end up doing." Naoto hoped for more big group events, karaoke having been such a ball and the expections of the promising day they were currently facing.
Shuu moved things along, "Hey, like I said, we can talk to the girls later. For now~...!"
The boy of middling height went to his bag, near the cooler, and dug around.
"...?" "...?" Naoto and Tohru watched.
Shuu held up something Naoto hadn't seen in a long time. Tohru hadn't either, for that matter.
Naoto revivified. "Shuu, one of your old hacky sacks~?"
"Oh, yeah~..." Shuu, already out of his flip-flops, did a self-serve and began juggling it, using everything that wasn't a hand or forearm. "I brought a few of them."
Tohru smiled wide, unable to help himself. "Hey, you're still pretty good at that~."
"Just because we haven't done this together in a while doesn't mean I don't occasionally kick it around." Shuu caught the bag on the back of his head, reared up, sending it high in the air, finally catching it on his knee. "Ha~!"
Naoto smiled just as big as Tohru. "Nice!"
Shuu was pleased. "I didn't think I could do that anymore~."
...
"Hacky sack" itself wasn't a game; it was just the name of the ball.
And it was more a round, supple, knitted beanbag than a ball...
Naoto and the boys had played many games with said ball, even inventing a few of their own, but there was nothing more fun than just passing it around.
In that case, the game was simple:
-Keep the bag aloft using any part of the body besides the hands and forearms.
-Only the server may use hands and only when serving.
-Go until the bag hits the ground or the participants want to stop.
It was good fun, just seeing how long players could keep the game going~...
...
Naoto and Tohru weren't great, but they liked it.
And Shuu was the best that Naoto or Tohru had ever seen.
He was probably the best in town, for what it was worth.
Hacky hadn't ever really been a BIG thing in their lifetimes, but a lot of their male classmates had played a little...
The three hadn't played together since middle school, but that was about to change.
Their record, the three of them, was only 55 "kicks"—one-third of what Shuu could do by his lonesome, but they'd have something to shoot for until the girls started arriving.
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Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading!
Questions and comments are welcome!