“The beach?”

I lifted my eyes from my Ipod just in time to catch sight of Honey’s typically cheerful smile.

“Uh-huh!”

“Oh…”

A thoughtful frown reached my lips as I drew one hand up to pull away the earbuds I’d carefully tucked in my ears. The music wasn’t playing loud enough to drown out Honey’s voice, but it was only polite to actually pay attention to what he was saying instead of letting the music continue to buzz in the background.

“Haru-chan said she’d like to go to the ocean when we were leaving the resort,” Honey added. “And Kao-chan and Hika-chan have been talking about it a lot and managed to convince Tama-chan. So Kyo-kun’s setting up the trip now!”

As he finished speaking, Honey gestured towards where I could see the club member in question speaking to someone over the phone.

“So you don’t know the beach yet?” I questioned, turning the idea over in my mind.

Honey shook his head, bracing his hands on the edge of my table as he did.

“Nope! But it will be lots of fun no matter where we go! So, what do you think, Nao-chan?”

My eyes seemed to flicker past him on my own to where Mori stood a few steps to his right. We hadn’t started the evenings at his house yet, which meant all those questions that had formed that night at Honey’s house had yet to be answered. It would be a chance to start figuring things out. The more time I spent around these two the easier it should get to find the answers, right?

“Oh! And Ren-kun is coming!” Honey said before I made my decision.

Oh. Right. There was the problem of that person.

“Where is Kimura-san?” I asked, suddenly realizing that it was strange the Red-head hadn’t come and interrupted me before now to talk about the trip.

The rest of the club members were all standing around Kyoya, talking animatedly about the idea while he was taking care of the plans. In response to my question, Honey tilted his head, furrowing his brow as he thought.

“Swimsuit,” Mori prompted him.

“Right!” Honey followed up immediately. “Ren-kun said that since the decision was made to go right away, he’d go pack your guys’ bags!”

I blanched, both of my hands immediately clenching.

“Honey… Kimura-san packing my bags is…”

“It’s okay, Nao-chan!” he reassured me. “Ren-kun said he knew exactly where everything was! So you’re coming, right?”

Now I found myself burying my head in my hands as I gave a reluctant nod. There was no way this would end up well. Last time I’d worn a swimsuit Ren had complained because it wasn’t cute enough.

Between him and Uncle Harou I had a bad feeling this wasn’t going to end up well at all.

__________________________________________

I wasn’t at all surprised that when I finally got to see what I’d ended up with as a swimsuit it was something I wouldn’t have chosen if it was the last left in the world. The simplest way to describe it would be as similar to what the twins had repeatedly attempted to persuade Haruhi to wear, well, until it was decided that the club fangirls should come along.

The bikini had frills on the chest and was just big enough that I decided to go ahead and try it on. When I peered out of the changing room to where the group gathering to walk down to the water was gathering, however, I ended up just releasing the curtain and staring at myself in the mirror again. It fit okay, but was it really appropriate to go walking out there in? Uncle was always complaining about how I looked, was this something that would just make those complaints obvious features to everyone else?

“Nao-chan~ Are you done yet?”

Taking a deep breath, I quickly searched through my things for the tie to keep my hair out of my way, as well as for the cast cover that had managed to somehow make it into my things. At least Ren had been smart enough to think of packing it, even if he’d made a stupid swimsuit choice.

“Almost!”

When I’d located both of those things, I glanced in the mirror once again. Distaste appeared in my expression this time as I caught sight of the ugly blue cast-cover. Well, at least it would distract from the bikini. Sighing, I tucked my hair over my shoulder and grabbed my things to join them outside of the changing room. The moment I stepped outside I regretted it, seeing as both boys eyes seemed to widen.

“Blame Kimura-san!” I defended myself before either one of them could say a word. “He’s the one who packed it!”

Honey shook his head, his surprise seeming to fade into an amused grin.

“Kawii!” he declared. “It’s so cute Nao-chan!”

Mori on the other hand seemed to turn slightly red and rather than agreeing with Honey, he bent down to search through the bag he’d been holding that I could easily assume had their things in it. Within a second he was holding out a shirt that I instantly recognized as the one he wore under his school blazer normally. I simply glanced between him and it, slightly confused.

“So that you’re not embarrassed,” he offered in explanation, his voice slightly gruffer than usual.

Oh.

If you really thought about it, it made more sense than me changing back. Since the girls’ uniform was a rather poofy dress it would be impossible to have fun in it.

That didn’t make it any less embarrassing.

Slowly reaching out to take the shirt, I ducked my head so that I didn’t have to meet either one of their gazes. Even I knew that my face had to have turned a rather bright shade of red.

“Thanks.”

It wasn’t until after I’d shrugged the shirt on and buttoned it up that Ren joined us. I was too busy marveling over the fact that it fell all the way to my knees to even notice he was approaching. He took one look at the shirt and gave a loud, dramatic sigh as we started down the beach. Within seconds, due to the fact that I’d rather not have dealt with the two boys hearing whatever Ren was going to say, we had dropped far behind the others.

“That’s not fair!” he complained. “I spent a lot of time trying to decide what to bring! I even got Harou-san’s opinion on it!”

“Too bad,” I grumbled. “I’m not the bikini sort, baka.”

“Still isn’t fair,” Ren whined.

Rolling my eyes, I attempted to tune him out and focus on what was going on up ahead of us. Unsurprisingly, Ren took the silence as his cue to continue.

“That’s not even the worst of it! I didn’t pack a shirt like that, so you had to have got it from someone.”

I might have managed to keep quite in response to his words, but that didn’t keep my face from heating up once again, right after I’d finally felt that it’d begun to look normal.

“So, who’s is it? It’s not mine, but it’s obviously a guy’s,” he continued, seemingly encouraged by my blush. “There are only a few other guys here. Don’t tell me that there’s something going on between Nao-kun and one of the club members…”

“Aren’t you supposed to pretend to be nice when we’re in public?” I hissed in response.

“I don’t always have to,” he countered. “No one really thinks I am anyways. Hey, I’ve got it. You’re always around them, and the big guy looks about that size… is it Mori-kun’s?”

“Go screw yourself,” I growled under my breath.

“Woah, I’m right?” Ren asked and I shot him a glare. “Hey, does that mean I’m right about the first thing, too? You know, there being som-”

“Shut the hell up!”

He cracked up laughing, as usual seeming to be more amused by my irritation than anything.

“Fine, fine,” Ren replied, holding up his hands in surrender. “I’ll shut up- for now. Just know that I’m not letting this go.”

Without warning he sped up to spin around in front of me. I glared at him and caught sight of the fact that most of the others had already reached the water by now. How long did he expect this conversation could go unnoticed? Was he trying to be seen acting like an ass?

“After all, it just wouldn’t be me to let something get stolen from right from under my nose,” he added after cutting me off.

I gave him a confused and irritated look in response this time around.

“You’re not only an idiot, you’re a delusional idiot. What the hell are you talking about?”

That easy-going smile he wore most of the time appeared as he shook his head, seeming even more confused than before.

“Nothing, just messing around. Hey, do you think you could beat me in a race?”

“Kimura-san, if you don-”

“Fine, fine, I’m going~”

______________________________

A short time later I’d managed to ditch the moron and find a nice place to watch the host club entertaining their perspective girls. After-all, I couldn’t monopolize Mori and Honey, despite the fact that they were the only two people here that I felt like hanging out with. The host club fangirls wouldn’t be too happy if I did.

Predictably, my nice, relaxing seclusion didn’t last for long. I’d leaned back on my chosen rock and had begun to sunbath when it happened.

“Nao-chan, Nao-chan, you want to come hunt for clams with Haru-chan and I?”

“Wha-Shit!”

Startled enough by Honey’s sudden appearance, I fell off and right into the water. To their credit, neither of the boys started laughing. Sputtering and shoving my hair out of my eyes, I gave them a look that said ‘change your mind about laughing and you die’. Unsurprisingly, Honey giggled anyways as Mori walked forward so that he could offer me a hand. I allowed him to help me up then began wiping away the sand that now coated parts of my body. I could feel my cheeks burning red.

“You should be more careful, Nao-chan,” Honey informed me. “You could have hurt your wrist.”

“What were you saying about clams?” I questioned, dismissing his warning.

“Oh, right! Mori and I were gonna go ask Haru-chan if she wanted to hunt clams! Do you wanna come with us?” he questioned.

I opened up my mouth to say I would rather return to my sunbathing, but shut it the moment that Honey turned on that hopeful expression of his. There was no way I wasn’t going to end up giving into him in the end. With a sigh, I nodded and trudged out of the water and onto the dry part of the beach. It wasn’t until then that I noticed that he was holding a bucket with a small shovel in it in one hand.

“Where’s Haruhi at, anyways?” I asked as we began walking.

Honey frowned thoughtfully and cocked his head. Not waiting for his answer, I simply scanned the beach with my eyes in time to catch sight of Tamaki, Kaoru, and Hikaru dropping Haruhi to the sand in the middle of what at first glance looked to be the scene of mass murder. At second glance, however, it looked fake, like movie props. Keeping this in mind, I glanced over at Honey.

“Ov-”

“I found her! Come on!”

Without giving me a second to protest, Honey grabbed my good hand and started dragging me in that direction. We reached them just as a familiar figure showed up next to the boys. I blinked, tilting my head as I tried to figure out what in the world Nekozawa would be doing here. He wasn’t a member of the host club, and heck the only reason I knew him was because of how many times Chie’s lectured me over not knowing the names of my own classmates.

“Haru-chan~ You wanna go hunt for clams?” Honey called out.

Haruhi blinked, then joined us with a confused expression. I didn’t blame her, it wasn’t clam season after all. At the same time if I was her I would have taken it, hunting for clams had to be more entertaining than flirting with girls or being dragged around by Tamaki and the twins.

“Clam hunting?” she asked as Mori handed her a bucket. It wasn’t until that moment that I noticed the hand he hadn’t used to help me up earlier was holding two buckets stacked on top of each other. Inside the top one were two more shovels. “Ah, thank-you. But… it’s not clam season, and it is high-tide.”

I knew very well that we were currently in high tide. Afterall...I thought, giving Mori’s soaked shirt a dirty look. The fact that it was white did me little good now that it was soaked, seeing as you could practically see the bikini through it now.

“Don’t worry!” Honey replied cheerily, drawing my attention back to the small group. “We loaded the beach!”

Oh.

Well, I should have expected that.

“Nao-chan.”

The fact that Mori said my name caught my attention more than the actual fact that he wanted my attention did. Even though it’d been quite a few days since the first time he’d done it, I could still feel the heat rising to my cheeks. When Ren was informal, it irritated me. When Honey was informal, it didn’t matter because he was Honey. When Mori was informal… it wasn’t as much embarrassing as… well, I don’t really know the word for it.

“Nao-chan?”

I shook my head to discard my train of thought and focused on Mori. He’d left Honey and Haruhi who had already begun hunting so that he could hand over the other bucket. I reached out with my good hand to take it and was surprised when he suddenly pulled it back. In return I dropped my hand and tilted back my head to give him a confused look.

“I’ll hold it,” he gave as an answer. “You can hold the bucket and dig at the same time.”

Opening my mouth to argue that I could just sit it down, I shut it before the words got out. Instead I hesitated, then shrugged.

“If you want to.”

He was being nice again, it would be rude to refuse. At the same time… despite my determination to get to the bottom of my feelings after Miku’s question, I couldn’t help nervousness at the thought. I wasn't stupid, the more I was around him the closer I’d get to the answers, but did I really want those answers?

A faint smile appeared on Mori’s face and any thought I’d still held of changing my mind disappeared- along with any other currently running thoughts. I froze for a second, just as I’d done the first time I’d seen it in response to something I’d said. Dropping my eyes to the beach, I quickly made my way towards where I could see a good assortment of things scattered around. I’d be damned if I was going to allow someone to see me blush so many times in one day. What was I, some fangirl?

Shaking my head just as I’d done earlier, I dropped to my knees in the sand and checked to make sure that Mori joined me. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized something.

He’d chosen to come with me while Honey was near Haruhi.

Stupid. That doesn’t mean anything.

I turned my attention away from him and shoved the shovel in the sand before using that same hand to start plucking creatures up and dropping them in Mori’s waiting bucket. He stayed silent as I worked and my annoyed tension died away. It was hard to feel worked up in such a nice, relaxing activity. It helped that neither one of us were people that felt the need to fill silence with chatter.

It continued like this until a sudden eruption of screams from the direction of the others caught our attention.

“What in the…” I began, jumping to my feel as Mori did the same.

A second later I realized the commotion was the fangirls running from an insect. The heartbroken look on Tamaki’s face as Haruhi stepped forward to pull it out brought a smile to my face as a laugh burst out of my mouth. I covered up my mouth, however, the moment that I realized the sound had drawn Mori’s attention to me. He actually seemed amused by it.

Needing a distraction, I seized my shovel from the sand and ran over to join Haruhi.

“That’s a centipede, right?” I asked. “What are you going to do with it?”

She looked thoughtful for a second, then shrugged.

“Get rid of it since everyone’s scared of it?”

I nodded and trailed along as she walked over to toss it into a grassy area where the ground suddenly shot up from the beach. The twins joined us a second later to begin lecturing Haruhi on her handling of the situation. Unsurprisingly, the cross-dresser just shrugged once again.

“Don’t worry, it won’t die just because of that.”

I stifled another laugh as the girls began crowding around to thank her.

“Haruhi you’re so manly~”

“We’re okay now.”

Honestly, why had they been so scared in the first place? Plus, it’s not like it takes a guy to get rid of a bug. She was a cross-dresser after all, not a real boy. Well, none of them could know that, but still…

My attention was drawn away from Haruhi, however, when the twins suddenly joined up with Tamaki, the expressions on their faces saying that they couldn’t mean anything good. I highly considered joining them, especially when they waved Ren over as well, but decided that whatever it was I could avoid it by not being there. With that idea in mind, I walked back over to my bucket, just as Mori and Honey joined the rest of the guys as Kyoya held out something for the boys to see.

Wait, are those pictures of Haruhi and I? What the hell is going on over there?

A/N: Well, it was an overwhelming vote for the beach, so he's the beginning of the beach stuff! Depending on how the next chapter goes, this might be finished in that one, or it might take another after it. Either way, things are getting fun! Hope you guys are enjoying the story!

Anyways, you know the drill! I LOVE COMMENTS.

P.S. This is off topic but... any of you guys like Naruto? I'm thinking of starting a Naruto fanfiction... I shouldn't, but I'm highly tempted and obsessed with the story...