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It was a fantastic day to be at the beach.
The surf was perfect, just enough to be fun but not quite enough to knock people all over the place. The weather was beautiful, hot but not so much that it was unbearable, the occasional drink plenty to stave off the heat in addition to being in the water. There were enough clouds in the sky to provide some occasional cover from the sun as well, but not enough to stop it from regularly shining down onto the shimmering waves below.
That last part wasn’t all good though, honestly having more cloud cover might have been better. It’d mean a little less need for sunscreen, and the beach would probably be even less busy than the area they’d found mostly to themselves already was.
That just meant taking more breaks though, really, and Kaoruko could certainly use them with how sore she was from all the rebuilding she’d had to put up with following Enormeeta’s weird infighting thing they’d had going on, especially the whole slime monster invasion thing. A day on the beach was certainly nice after all that, but it was also still physical activity when half her damn muscles were still tired from all the manual labor.
The time away from the water was a good chance to get away from Kiwi, too. The girl was being fuckin annoying, chasin her all over the place. Messing with her had been a little fun at first, but it still hadn’t taken too long for the idiot’s presence to wear on her nerves.
So: break time.
Some rest in the umbrella’s shade, a cool drink, and another layer of sunscreen all sounded like heaven at the moment. As she headed over it seemed like she’d showed up just in time for Sayo to leave, which was a little unfortunate.
The gal had been acting kinda strange lately though, so she didn’t let it bother her too much.
There was one other person still there when she sat down on one of the towels that’d been laid out under the umbrella, but she was far from worried about it. It was just Utena, after all. She doubted the girl would even say anything to her while she was there, shy as she was.
The purple haired gal seemed a little flushed, strangely, and Kaoruko thought about that while she took a long drink from one of the water bottles they’d brought along.
Sayo had just left... Had she said something weird to the girl?
She lowered the water bottle, eying Utena, who seemed to flush a little more at the attention. Poor gal, she got flustered way too easily. “Did Sayo say somethin’ to ya?”
“W-wha-? Um...” She turned her yellow eyes down to look at one of the beach bags, a bag that Kaoruko dimly recognized as one of those Tres Magia raffle prizes that’d been done. “We just... talked a little about Tres Magia...”
Oh, yeah. The gal was a fan, wasn’t she? Kaoruko could remember seeing a few Tres Magia knick-knacks with Utena’s things, the one that’d stood out to her was a Magia Sulfur keychain she’d had hanging from her backpack only days after it’d come out. She’d been a bit flattered at the time, actually, cause she’d still been pretty new to the whole magical girl thing.
“Ah, that makes sense then.” Didn’t explain why Utena was blushing so much, but the girl was timid enough that she wasn’t gonna really read into it. Probably just social anxiety or something.
It was quiet for a bit after that, just a couple of gals relaxing on the beach under an umbrella to the beautiful view of their respective friends having fun and making fools of themselves.
“So, umm...” Huh, shy gal was talking more than she’d expected. She supposed she sorta brought that on herself. “Are you also a fan? I thought, maybe, because you’re friends with Sayo...”
She shrugged. “Ain’t nothin’ against ‘em, but I wouldn’t call myself a fan.”
“O-oh...” The girl seemed to shrink into herself a bit at that, disappointed. Maybe she should throw her a bone, but how to do that exactly... Ask her something about the group, maybe? Actually, there was something she was wondering about.
“Kinda curious actually, what do ya think of that villain that showed up recently? The pervy one.” What would a long time fan like Utena think of all that...
“T-the pervy- O-oh gosh...” The gal turned bright red at that line of questioning, which she probably should have expected honestly. Baiser wasn’t exactly shy about doing her thing publicly. “Um, I think Tres Magia is brave for fighting her?”
Huh, she really didn’t sound confident in that answer. Kaoruko had a guess for why. “And the pervy stuff?”
“U-umm-...” Utena struggled to meet her eyes, somehow turning an even brighter red. Yeah, about what she’d expected, the girl had definitely seen something that Baiser had done.
Fuck, now her own face felt warm. Maybe she shouldn’t be grilling Utena like this, she hadn’t even really meant to.
“Ah, sorry. My bad, ya don’t have to answer that.” She felt a little uncomfortable just having asked, actually. Maybe she should hurry up and jump back into the sea, she could drown the uncomfortable feeling in salt water.
Yeah, that was a good plan.
She grabbed a bottle of sunblock from one of the bags, squeezing a bit of it into her hand and rubbing it together with her other one, before beginning to work on coating her legs in it. She paused in that application of sunscreen a little later though, when Utena unexpectedly spoke again.
“I think they’re strong for putting up with what Baiser does.” And her voice was strangely firm, too, like she really felt strongly about what she was saying.
After a moment, she resumed working on coating her skin in sunblock, starting on her arms and thinking about what Utena had said. It was... weirdly nice to hear, she’d half expected to hear something disparaging for some reason, but she supposed that wouldn’t really make sense coming from Utena.
“Guess that’s a lot to deal with, eh?” She granted as she finished up with her arms and started working on her stomach.
Utena nodded, seeming satisfied that she’d agreed. She was a good person, Kaoruko thought, for keeping such a positive view of them even over something that would put a lot of people off. It had put a lot of people off, actually, among other things that had led her to avoid social media in recent weeks.
Better not to think too much about that though, she mused, carefully applying the cream to her face and rubbing it in.
And when that was done, all that was left was... Her back, fuck, that’d be annoying to do herself even if she wasn’t already sore. ‘But then again...’ She eyed Utena, considering for a moment.
“Hate to ask, Utena, but would ya mind helping me out?” Kaoruko pointed at her back over her shoulder with a thumb.
It took a second or two for the golden eyed gal to figure out what she was talking about, distracted as she’d seemed before she’d been called out to, but when she did another blush spread across her cheeks. This time Kaoruko was not unsure at all about what was causing the flush in the girl’s cheeks, and strangely it looked kinda cute when she knew Utena was red-faced because of her.
“I-I-, um, if- if you’re sure?” The way she was struggling to meet her eyes was cute this time, too.
Kaoruko turned to face her back towards the gal, smiling a little to herself. “Whenever you’re ready, hon.”
For a few seconds there was silence, and she imagined the flustered gal was working up the nerve to go through with the request. Then, the sound of the cap on a bottle of sunblock opening and footsteps as the other girl stepped closer.
“It might be a bit cold...” The voice was quiet and right next to her ear, and Kaoruko’s eyes widened in surprise at that even before the feeling of hands bringing cool sunscreen to the small of her back, pressing into her warm skin as they moved from the middle out to her sides in gentle circular motions, rubbing the cream in thoroughly and carefully.
She bit her tongue, forcing herself to not make a noise as fingers pressed into a part of her lower back that had been sore all day, before pausing and pressing in more firmly in such a way that she couldn’t stop herself from gasping out at the rhythmic way the ache was slowly pressed out of her flesh, the mixed sensation of mild pain and the low pleasure of relief. Maybe this had been a bad idea, actually, she really hadn’t expected-
“Your muscles feel awfully tense, did something happen?” The question was perfectly innocent, casual, there was nothing there to be concerned about, but the way it was spoken was so smooth and silky that it almost felt like a flirt, and was so close to her ear with their current positions that she was struggling to be normal about it.
“I had-” Her words were interrupted by a low groan leaving her lips as Utena’s fingers found another source of tension in her lower back, before she managed to steady herself enough to continue. “I worked out the other day.”
“You are in pretty good shape, huh?” The words were punctuated by hands gliding up her sides on the way up to her shoulders, and holy shit she had not expected the gal to be even half this bold. She wasn’t really doing anything that fell too far outside the scope of applying sunscreen, sure, but the way she was going about seemed far more sensual than she would have ever imagined. Was she meaning this to be as flirtatious as it felt, or was Kaoruko just reading into it too much?
And then a pair of thumbs pressed into the meat of her shoulders, and an involuntary moan escaped her lips as the built up strain there slowly melted under the other girl’s touch.
“You know, if you wanted an actual massage...” The rest of the offer went unsaid, but it really didn’t need to be with the way that the words were punctuated by Utena’s hands moving to her shoulder blades, pressing into the knot of tension there with all the same precision her fingers had displayed so far.
And fuck, really, it was tempting. She was way too good with her hands, Kaoruko was half convinced she had magic fingers or something. She just seemed to know exactly where and how to press to make damn near any muscle loosen up and relax under her touch, or maybe that was her own lack of experience with massages speaking, but it felt incredible even just standing up as they were. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if the girl actually had leverage on her side...
Kaoruko stiffened in surprise as fingers suddenly slipped under the lower band that held her swimsuit top in place, lightly pressing into her skin as they moved from her sides to the middle of her back, before returning to her sides and pulling back out.
“Ah, I um, should have warned you first. Sorry.” Utena’s voice was genuinely apologetic and, fuck, that was right, she was just rubbing sunblock into her back. It was normal to put sunscreen under swimsuit straps, it made sure that if the straps shifted during movement the skin underneath wouldn’t be burned when it was exposed. “I’ll get the other strap too?”
Fuck, she was just being weird, wasn’t she? Utena didn’t mean anything by any of this, not really, she was just helping out. Kaoruko, trying her best to shift how she was feeling to align with that more innocent perspective of what was happening, nodded in response to the question.
No matter how much she believed that, though, it didn’t stop the sudden intake of breath when those fingers slipped beneath the tied upper strap of her swimsuit, the hands rubbing sunscreen into her skin feeling far from innocent as they wrapped most of the way around her neck and pressed lightly into her tired muscles.
But then they simply pulled away, and those hands weren’t touching her skin anymore.
Huh, it was over, just like that. It felt strangely anticlimactic, which was... Had she really expected it to go further? It was just sunblock, she really shouldn’t have gotten so worked up in the first place.
And when she turned back it was just Utena, innocent as ever. A slight flush decorated the gal’s cheeks and she was giving a tentative smile, those little fangs of hers poking out of her lips. It was a cute look on her, she realized, but...
Not quite in the same way as before. It felt less like an idle observation and more like...
“‘Preciate the help, Utena. Think‘m just gonna get back out there, uh, see ya ‘round?”
She got a nod in return and Kaoruko turned to make her escape, perhaps a bit hastily.
“Oh, and that offer’s open!” Utena called after her.
Kaoruko nearly tripped.