hello there. Of course you may.
Based on characters from @koyuki-tan‘s “Peace Sign” and @hamliet‘s “The (Mis)adventures of Goat.”
“Auntie Koharu, do I have to wear sunscreen? It feels so icky.” Miki juts out her lower lip as they arrange blankets on the hot sand.
Koharu winces. Shit. There’s no avoiding being the bad guy here. “No, because you’ll get sick otherwise.”
Shio smirks at Koharu, who responds by sticking out her tongue.
“Wait, you can stick out your tongue? Can I? Daddy doesn’t let me.” Masanori sticks out his tongue at Miki.
“Hey!” she yells, responding by poking out her own tongue.
“I’m cool again,” Koharu whispers to Shio. He scowls. “Hey, as soon as Auntie Koharu finishes with the sunscreen, wanna search for shells?”
“Oooh, yeah!” The kids bounce up and down.
Half an hour later, Shio holds up shiny mussel shell. “Look, it’s like a mirror. Miki, you can see your pretty reflection.”
She giggles as Masanori runs around stomping on the shells.
“Masanori, look at this giant clam shell you can smash.” Koharu waves it around.
Shio pouts. “I gave him like ten.”
“But I gave him the biggest,” Koharu says.
Later on, as they swim, Koharu revels that she is, for the moment, still taller than Shio. That means she can tow her niece and nephew into deeper water, hold them over larger waves.
“I like being splashed more,” Masanori says with a shrug, running over to Shio’s side.
“I don’t.” Miki clings to Koharu. “I don’t wanna be p – pull -pulllized.
“Pulverized?” Koharu says with a giggle.
“Yeah. Wheeeee!” Miki cheers as Koharu leaps in unison with the waves, and Shio and Masanori go tumbling head-over-heels.
As they head back to Koori and Hairu’s, they stop for ice cream. Miki frowns, chocolate smeared across her face. “Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh what?” Shio wipes his flushed face. Ow.
Masanori bursts into laughter. “You both were so focused on putting sunscreen torture on us, you forgot it for yourselves!”
Koharu whimpers slightly. “Shio. How long were we in the sun for?”
“We’re gonna die,” he replies, already texting Yusa and Rikai for aloe.