The Warm and Sunny Vacation [Caro]

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

A little rest and relaxation couldn't hurt. Right?
July 28, 2010
----------------

It was ten hours later on Ain's ship, silently it reached it's destination and stopped short of landing. As if on cue, Ain awoke from his sleep and rolled off the couch to his feet. They had arrived without wasting any time, it was a vacation from the terrors of the worlds and heartless that he seeked out. He had never thought of taking a break before, so this was the first of many times he had forsaken his mission to indulge his blond-haired friend. This time however, he did not mind. Had he continued without rest, he could easily pass-out from exhaustion.

Yawn. He really should have slept longer then he did, but work needed to be done. Thanks to his work however he was able to ready the ship before the morning. They would have a chance to rest more on the beach, visit the bar, sleep at the inn and even go for a swim like he wanted to. The water had a way of relaxing him like nothing else could.

Ain straightened out his body and did a few stretches. After a few minutes he slid his hand through his long dark hair, even he had started to see that it was getting too long for him to operate properly. His dull dark eyes stared forward with a single blink and his face was stiff. Glancing over at his gauntlet on the coffee table, he decided to leave it for once. Then he looked at his torn white tux, really, what was he thinking wearing this. Surely it was clothing but perhaps he could have found something better in one of the older dressers.

Walking down to the kitchen, he grabbed a leftover apple from the pie and took a bite out of it. Taking it with him he made it back to his room and walked in. His eyes glanced at Caroline who was still asleep, and nodded. He was glad that she was still asleep and walked over to a old dresser that was tucked away behind a curtain in the most right part of the room. There he found some clothing. Why he didn't think of it before was beyond him but he found it now so everything was alright. Quickly while Caroline still slept he changed into a a blue shirt and black pants, and threw his suit on top of the old dresser. There was also a swimsuit so he grabbed that, and put it under his arm without really looking at it.

Turning towards a wall, he pressed a panel on it to reveal a console. Pressing a few buttons the ship shook and started to land at the world, Costa Del Sol. Turning again, he walked over to Caroline. Leaning over her, he gave her a little shake. "Caroline, we arrived." he said simply.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I've never been so mortified...
--

Caroline woke from a night full of bad dreams with a start.

She had been exhausted and slept so deeply that there was no escape from the nightmares. When Ain shook her, it was someone in her dream shaking her. When he spoke, they spoke. She couldn't draw the line between dreams and reality and when she finally came to, she was terrified.

She recoiled, pulling away from him with a small yelp, and pulled the blankets over her head.

Wait... blankets? A bed? The real world came crashing back down around her ears and she breathed in deeply. She was in Ain's room, but how? She remembered very specifically falling asleep in the arm chair. Now, she felt terrible. If she was in his bed, where had he slept? Under the blankets, her cheeks burned with guilt and embarrassment.

She pulled the blankets down and looked at him. He was wearing something different now but how had he changed clothes if his dresser was in... she choked and pulled the blanket back over her head. She had also realized her boots were gone.

"Where exactly have we arrived?[/color]" she asked, finally getting out of the bed.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Did I do something wrong? Must be over thinking things.

Taking a step back, he didn't mean to startle Caroline. Standing still as can be at a distance from the bed, his stance was no different then he had always held himself. He didn't notice anything wrong with waking, though in retrospect he probably shouldn't have shook her. As she stood from the bed, he listened to her eventual question and wondered if she had forgotten what she said last night.

"We arrived at the resort, Costa Del Sol." he stated without so much as a emote, his serious unmoving face masked by his increasingly long dark hair. The dark eyes peeked though the strands. "You asked to go to a place that we can relax, that is warm and sunny. Lucky for us, this place was nearby."

He nodded, satisfied entirely with his answer.

Ain's eyes glanced down at her bare-feet, then to the wall where he had placed her boots. Twisting and turning his body like a small dance he passed Caroline. Ducking down he grabbed the boots and hopped back to where he stood similar to how he used the Dancing Feint ability- only not as fast and done using more practical movements- he then placing the boots down by her feet. Standing up straight again, he took out the apple he had still in his hand and took a bite. "There is several places to relax on this resort." he stated quietly. "A beach, a bar, a hotel, and many other things."

Starting off without Caroline, he reached the door to the room and looked back at her. "I will be waiting for you in the common room." he stated before continuing out the door.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

A bar..? Oh goodness.
--

Caroline nodded. "Okay, I'll meet you out there.[/color]"

A beach resort. A normal person probably would have thought it was a privilege, but she was spoiled so this sort of thing was normal for her. Too bad I didn't pack my bathing suit, she thought as she pulled on her boots and laced them up tight. She got up from the bed and smoothed out her skirt before turning and making up the bed. No need to leave the place a mess.

Her hair brush was in her bag, which was out in the common room so she made her way out there. Ain was waiting for her, just like he'd said, but she went immediately to her bag and whipped out her hair brush. She tugged it through her curls, turning away from Ain because she was self-conscious of her messy hair after being asleep.

But once that was over with, she looked at him and smiled. "I'm following you so... whatever you want to do first.[/color]"

She pulled her bag across her shoulder and nodded pertly, ready to go and start their 'vacation'.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

All I want to do is swim...

The ship landed at the furthest most dock in Costa Del Sol, while it was pretty military in style he didn't pay much mind. The whole dock was empty, with no other ships and only a single oddly dressed man that wore a blue outfit was seen scrubbing the outer dock. He looked at him and read something on his arm that kind of looked like the word Shinra but he kept going. It was quiet on the docks but the resort itself echoed with life.

Awesome. The one most important thing that Ain wanted to do the most was go for a swim on the beach, and that is where they were going. Leading the way, Ain and Caroline finally entered the main street that connected everything that was worth seeing. People littered the street, mostly in groups and even more of them were children.

Looking to the left he saw a strange building that served as a bar, for some reason a girl kept peeking out and going back inside. Weird. Down more was some stalls that sold just about anything, most of it was scams but a few good deals were mixed in. At the end of the street was the hotel which was much smaller then one would expect in a resort but they wouldn't be staying there if they could help it.

Ain stood tall in the streets with his inexpressive style about him, not that anyone noticed. The sun shined down on him for a while, he didn't move as he was looking around. Not once did he look at Caroline during this wordless tour. None of this was what he wanted to see, turning to the right he gazed on the beautiful beach. It's dazzling sands, and sparkling water. Few people were actually on the beach today, most people were drinking in the bar it would seem. Walking out at a leisurely pace, he stopped when his shoes stepped in the sand.

"Caroline, I'm going to go for a swim." he stated dully, as he glanced at Caroline. "Do you want to come with me?"

[Oathkeeper Emi]

This is totally NOT fan service.
--

Caroline followed behind him, turning her head this way and that, trying to take everything in. She stuck close to Ain though, fearful for obvious reasons. Nightmares were still fresh in her mind, and she was little on edge. It didn't take long before she was relaxed, though, and that was thanks in part to the warm sea breeze and sunshine.

She was busy looking at the ocean when Ain asked her if she wanted to go swimming. She turned and looked at him with a horrified expression. "Not in this,[/color]" she scoffed. "And it didn't occur to me I was going to need proper beach attire. Hmm... I'll be back later.[/color]"

Caroline, the vain little creature she was, wasn't about to spend a day at the beach in this dress. It would get dirty and sweaty and that just wouldn't do. Not to mention she would stick out in a crowd dressed for a day in the sand. So, she decided to venture off on her own in search of a swim suit. It couldn't be any swim suit. Vain she may be, but she still cared about modesty...

She didn't have much money, but she managed to barter with a shop keeper. Of course, she was used to getting what she wanted. She used the same trick on the shop keeper that she used on Ain and pretty much every male she'd ever met in her life. Bat her eyelashes, pout a little... yep, worked every time. After only a few minutes she skipped off with her purchase.

After a little while, she walked back to the beach with her dress folded safely into her satchel and her bootlaces tied together and dangled over one finger. Instead of her gingham dress, she was now wearing a modest one-piece bathing suit. It was quite childish looking, with frills on the hips and a white and pink floral pattern. It suited her though.

She dropped her boots and satchel into the sand. "There, that's better.[/color]"

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

I hope no one laughs at my swimwear...

It was truly a nice day outside, with the only thing you would possibly have to worry about being a sunburn. It was a great place to relax and if no one else was there it would be perfect. The last thing he wanted was to be crowded on the beach. He was thankful that few people were actually out and about. Even though he was with Caroline on this break, he didn't know how to do group activities that much. Perhaps once they got started having fun, it would just fall into place and he won't have to actually try.

When Caroline ran off, he blinked slightly. It was true that they wouldn't be swimming in their normal clothing and that was why he brought some swimwear. Up to this point he had just used his shorts but even without them he was fine. For second he thought of waiting for Caroline, that thought quickly faded. He would need to change into his swimwear, on the far side he saw a few lockers and some trees. Without wasting time he headed over with his folded up swimsuit in hand and changed behind the tree.

Ain came out from behind the tree a few moments later. He was now shirtless -revealing his toned chest to the whole beach, with a new set of swim trunks that to his embarrassment were blue with dolphins on them, and was barefoot, of course. He didn't mind dolphins that much though, there was worse. As he stood there he looked at the bandages he still wore from his injuries, it was a good thing that they were waterproof. Leaving his stuff on a locker, he stepped to through the sand back to where he stood and waited for Caroline to show up.

What exactly was she doing?

It was a while before she returned but hoped she came back before he lost his patience, though Ain stood there waiting regardless without a word. Taking the chance, he bought a few towels at a vendor, it was a bit late to think about that but he did.

Turning around after his purchase, he saw Caroline. She had found a swimsuit, one that probably suited her the best. It might have been that a vendor was trying to scam her a little by selling her a child's swimsuit, however. Moving his dark hair to the side, his dark eyes opened a bit more as he looked her over. "The swimsuit you picked suits you well." he replied as he stepped next to her and handed her a towel, allowing his hair to again fall over his eyes yet again. "It is pretty cute."

Without saying much else he turned back to the water, without a doubt he wanted to swim. He almost wanted to run. Yet, he waited for Caroline.

"Let's go."

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Having some second thoughts about this...
--

Caroline walked to the edge of the water but stopped when she got there. Now that she was here, she was unsure of herself. She hesitantly dipped a foot into the water and yanked it back, backpedaling with a disgusted look on her face.

"I just don't know,[/color]" she said, mostly to herself. She could have looked out at the water and enjoyed the afternoon, but she was worried about seaweed and jellyfish now. Maybe actually going in the water wasn't such a good idea. She walked over and took one of the towels from Ain. She would not be using it to dry her hair. No, she spread it out on the sand and sat down as gracefully as she could which, honestly, in the sand... wasn't all that graceful.

She shielded her eyes with one hand and used the other to motion Ain along. "You go on ahead, I'm fine right where I am. Maybe I'll get in later...[/color]"

That was a a lie. "For now, though, I suppose I'll just enjoy the sunshine, okay? Have fun![/color]"

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

A relaxing swim by myself, maybe too relaxing.

Ain blinked as Caroline sat down on the towel. Had she gone to get a swimsuit for no reason at all except to sit on the beach, the thought of simply sitting on a beach across the sands just didn't seem that fun. Stepping next to Caroline, he glanced down at her. Even though she wasn't having fun, perhaps this was a form of relaxation while taking in the sun. He wasn't sure, however the day was still young and he was going to make the most of it.

He was waved along but he didn't move.

"Make sure you come in later then." he stated, his face not changing one bit as he spoke. "I will be back in a little while."

After finishing what he wanted to say he stepped into the wet sand and towards the coming waves. The water hitting his ankles gentle and retreating. His movements were at first slow, but soon he broke into a jog as the waves reached higher on his body. With one final jump he reached the edge of the shallow water, below was deeper and further on it was deeper still. Looking back at Caroline from the beach, he nodded and took took a breath, then dived beneath the waters. His body relaxing the second he was submerged under the clear blue, time for him seemed to stop and his mind cleared.

With quick strong motions, he pushed himself further out and deeper into the water. Allowing himself to twirl to the bottom like a dance motion with no extra movements he soon reached the bottom and spun around to kick off the stone bottom. Jetting up he burst from the top of the water, only now he was far in the distance and could barely see the beach from where he was. Grabbing onto a buoy nearby he held onto it tightly and decided to stay there for a while.

His hair was now soaking wet, and drooping much lower on his face the usual. Even he was getting annoyed by it and pushed it to the side. After a moment he pulled himself onto the buoy and found a comfortable position to sit and relax. It was too quiet all by himself out in the water. Before long however his eyes started to close and he fell asleep.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

A very late post, or 'Caroline's Issues with Intelligent Sea Birds.'
--

Meanwhile, Caroline was enjoying herself. The past few days had been so rainy and dreary, so it was nice to see a clear blue sky. She titled her head back, eyes closed, and sat like that for a few minutes as she she took in all the ambient noise... the waves, people talking nearby, distant music...

And seagulls. Their unmistakable squawking shattered Caroline's peaceful sunbathing and she opened her eyes, looking around for the accursed bird. She looked beside her, down at the ground and there was a seagull. Just standing there, staring at her with beady, unfocused eyes as if it was expecting something from her.

Caroline waved hand at it. "Shoo,[/color]" she commanded. "Go on now, go away.[/color]"

"Squawk," said the seagull. Caroline frowned.
"Well, fine then. If you won't leave I guess I will,[/color]" she huffed, getting to her feet. The seagull didn't move an inch, and it seemed to watch her as she shook the sand off her towel and folded over her arm. She turned and started to walk down the beach.

I hope Ain doesn't mind me moving, she thought. It's not too crowded on the beach today, so he should be able to find me fairly easy since...

Caroline was being followed. She stopped and turned around. The seagull had walked right along behind her, as a duckling would follow a mother duck. Caroline blinked and the seagull screamed at her, making the young woman jump. "Squwaaaak!" it said.

"What do you want from me, you dumb bird?[/color]" she asked. The gull stared at her. Caroline sighed, and looked up to the sky. "Must I really spend my vacation being followed around by a dirty seagull?[/color]"

The gull heard this and took offense. While Caroline was still addressing God about her bird problems, the offended seagull attacked viciously, going straight for her beautiful blond hair. She squealed and flailed, trying to defend herself, and the seagull pecked at her head and got its deadly talons (this is how Caroline saw it at any rate) tangled in her hair.

After a few minutes of chaos, the bird was satisfied. It had its revenge and with that, took to the air and flew away. Caroline stood there, in shock. Her hair was messed up and she was nearly gasping for breath because of the shock and the shrill screaming. Why no one had come to assist her, she didn't know.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Birds. I don't think I like them that much.

The lack of sleep from the night before played a large role in making him sleep. Despite his insistence on having fun, he was instead awkwardly sleeping on a buoy that far from the beach. His face was entirely peaceful, and his body was relaxed into place. If left to be he would likely sleep all day to make up for his three hour rest but that wasn't meant to be as a seagull flying fast from the beach landed on the buoy. At first it was quiet. Then the seagull looked at Ain, possibly mad that he was sitting in his spot and Squawked loudly.

Ain fidgeted as he was awakened abruptly from his sleep and moved slightly to the side as his eyes opened to see a dirty bird by his head. In his new position he had no foot hold and soon fell from the buoy into the water with a splash. He flailed in the water for a moment before final getting his bearings, he swimmed back to the surface and grabbed the buoy again with his left hand. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the bird, for second he just looked at the bird as he stayed unmoving in the water. His hair was again wet and over his eyes but that was the least of his worries. Not knowing what came over him, his fist clenched tightly. "Swift-" he stated quietly, as he quickly punched the seagull in the side of it's head and sent it flying. "-Blow."

Splash. The bird landed in the water.

"I just punched a bird, and I'm talking to myself." he stated with a straight face, no emotion even slightly showing.

His eyes glanced back at the beach. After a moment he realized that he had fallen asleep and that Caroline was likely on the beach waiting for him. It was time to head back even though he didn't get to swim for that long and he wanted to swim some more. With a kick from the buoy it shook as he pushed through the water with long strokes and swimmed towards the shoreline. Surprisingly it took him about three minutes to get back to the shallow water. Standing tall, he pulled some seaweed from the top of his shoulder off and stretched a bit.

Heh.

Looking around he did not see Caroline where he left her, perhaps she went swimming while he was out. Before long his eyes came across the messy blond haired girl. She looked like someone attacked her, what had happened when he was out there. Quickly running over, the sand sticking to his wet feet as he did and stood next to her. "Are you alright, Caroline?" he stated as he glanced around. Some of the people were laughing hard in Caroline's direction. "What happened?"

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Always cheerful!
--

Caroline set her jaw and took a deep, shuddering breath through her nose. She closed her eyes.

"A bird viciously attacked me. I do believe it was trying to eat me,[/color]" she said slowly, and opened her eyes. She put a hand to her hair. "Good god almighty, my hair must be a mess. That must be why those people are laughing at me...[/color]"

She blushed bright red and pressed a hand to her mouth. Her other hand was busy trying to fix her hair back to its normal perfection. "Oh my goodness, this is a disaster. I hate that stupid, stupid bird![/color]"


She plopped back down onto the towel and pulled her knees to her chest. She looked out at the ocean, and her wide gray eyes were sort of bewildered and sad. She couldn't even have a nice vacation, could she? She looked up at Ain.

"You know what, I'm not going to let some dumb bird ruin this trip,[/color]" she finally resolved and she put her legs back down, dusting a little sand off her towel. "Let's do something fun... let's build a sand castle![/color]"

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

I'm not used to relaxing.

His dark eyes glanced to one side to look at the crashing waves that he had came from. The thought that he had also encountered a bird must have been merely coincidence, it was like he should mention it to Caroline or even think about it anymore. Still he had punched a bird without holding back. It was a mostly silly of encounters that made him almost want to laugh but his face remained like stone, unmoving and straight. He gave his lower bandages a bit of a wipe and pulled his hand up to the also bandaged shoulder before turning his head to look at the now sitting Caroline.

"Birds can be pretty annoying." he simply stated as he plopped down next to Caroline, trying his best not to get too much sand on it. "A sand castle?"

Ain turned his head and looked at Caroline with a puzzled look on his face. This probably was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing. A castle made of sand just didn't make much sense to him, how would it withstand attack from enemies if it would fall apart from just the wind. Plus, it would take many years to make a full castle and more sand then they had on a beach. How exactly would that be fun? He just didn't know. It was likely he was coming to the wrong conclusions on this subject and needed clarification.

"Please tell me about THESE sand castles that you speak of." he asked in all seriousness as he stared with interest at Caroline from beyond his long hair.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Does he even HAVE an imagination?
--

Caroline made a horrified face. "You don't know what a sand castle is!? What!?[/color]" she exclaimed. She grabbed his wrist roughly hauled him down to the edge of the water where all the wet, hard-packed sand was. She hit her knees and pulled him down next to her.

"All you have to do is...[/color]" she started, as she scooped up some wet sand with both hands. She piled it up and started shaping into some kind of structure-like shape for demonstration, though it didn't exactly look like a castle. It looked more like a mound of wet sand with some holes poked in it for windows.

She got up and walked over to gather up a few sticks and seashells and returned to her castle, using them to decorate. "There, you see? You just make a castle shape like this, and use shells and stuff for the details. This is a flag,[/color]" she explained, stabbing a stick into the top of one of the "turrets". It broke in her hand and hung limply in two pieces. She frowned at it. "Hmmph. Well, you have you use your imagination.[/color]"

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

I got carried away.

WAIT. It was too late to say anything. Before he knew it he was being dragged off by Caroline in a rough way that he didn't know she was capable of. He was so surprised that he just let her take him where ever she wanted to take him and it turned out that it was just to the soaked sand in front of the waves. As they arrived, he was soon pulled down and his already wet legs sunk into the wet sand.

Ain was speechless as Caroline built her tiny castle out of the little things she found around the beach. To him it wasn't a castle at all, but just a messy pile. Stretching a bit, he was glad he was wearing a bathing suit and not his regular wear. While not wearing a shirt and only wearing his dolphin swimwear, he didn't need to worry about dirtying his clothing. Not that he worried about much in that regard. Without pulling out of the wet sand, he leaned in to look at the "castle."

"That doesn't look like a castle." he stated bluntly as he leaned further closer to what was suppose to be a sand castle.

The thought of using his imagination crossed his mind for a moment. Was there something that he wasn't seeing in the pile of wet sand in front of him. As he stared blankly at the "castle" his eyes opened wider, out of habit he pulled his hair from his eyes. It was hard to see anything but he tried his best. It took him longer then most would but eventually a idea formed that was anything but logical. He then pointed at the holes that represented the windows and looked at Caroline. "These holes are the windows and the wet sand is the walls. I think I understand but It is pretty childish." he stated quietly as he was not quite sure why he was sitting in the wet sand doing this. "I don't think a castle like this will do. We MUST fortify the outer-walls so that invaders will not be able to attack the inner structure."

His thoughts were now focused on making the sand castle, everything else seemed unimportant.

"I will be right back."

Hopping to his feet he ran off to gather what he thought would help to build a better sand castle, or to be exact he was building a sand fortress. He returned with a medium sized wooden crate. Quickly he filled the crate with wet sand and lifted it up and plopped it upside down next to Caroline's sand castle. Lifting it slowly, he pulled the crate upwards trying to keep the sand molded with the crate as much as possible. Tossing the crate aside he looked to Caroline and stopped. What was he doing exactly?

"If it is bigger then we can probably shape it into something better." he finally stated with his normal emotionless face. "What do you think?"