Beachside Blues
“Rena?” Kaede rapped her knuckles against the door—for a third time. “Rena-chaaan?” The seagulls squawked. The waves whispered. Chatter polluted the balmy air, humidity weighing the world itself with a uniquely gaseous dampness. Kaede flapped the little skirt of her bikini top, airing bursts of cool air against her soaking flesh.
The changing tent remained quiet as a grave.
She slammed her palm against the door. “Come on , Rena!” She smacked with every word.
“Shut up! Quit rushing me!”
At least she didn’t die of embarrassment, Kaede mused dryly. “How could I not? Coordinator-san adjusted our soul gems to change into these swimsuits, it’s easier than a literal push of the button!”
“‘Easier said than done,’ baaaka! ” Rena sneered. “Would you say that all casual-like if this button dropped a nuke? On old people?!”
The blatancy of her childishness was groan-worthy. “You’re being dramatic.” Silence. “If this’s about how it looks, then how come you didn’t hesitate last summer when we vacationed with the girls?”
“B-because!”
“...Because?”
“Baka-Kaede! Baaaka! ”
“Elaborate.”
“Don’t patronize me! How can I not be embarrassed when this is—?! Wh-when this’s,” Rena mumbled, “you know…”
“Our first summer together?” Kaede realized.
“That’s ten points for you. Full answer is worth twenty.”
Kaede didn’t think twice: “You’re afraid you can’t handle the charm of me in my swimsuit without getting an anime-styled nosebleed?”
Rena choked on laughter, which made Kaede smile. “Are you being serious?”
Not at all. “Dead serious.”
“Baka-Kaede. My feelings are serious.”
“Well, you’re not explaining them to me.” She refrained from sniping an “as usual” at the end there, for Rena was sensitive about that and honest when it mattered most. “Rena-chan, if this is about…” Kaede considered her word choice, muttered against the wood in case of passersby, “if this is about your body, you shouldn’t be so self-conscious.” That sounded so ignorant and stupid now that she heard it aloud. “I mean, ugh,” Kaede sighed to herself, “I mean, you shouldn’t care about what other people might think. None of these people matter to you, and you don’t matter to them. At the end of the day, you’re just a cute girl with a slamming body and they’re all just a bunch of no-face dummies you’ll never see again, and forget about completely once we’re playing in the water.”
Rena hummed in disdain. “Kaede… wait, did you really just say that I got a ‘slamming body?’ Are you a frat boy, or are you that entranced by my boobs?”
A little bit of both, Kaede mused to herself. “Your figure is worthy of envy, milady. Not just thy bountiful bosom.”
A groan. “You’re not taking this seriously.”
“Rena, it’s hot!” Kaede whined. “I love you and I feel really bad and awful that you’re insecure about your body, honest. But if you really don’t feel comfortable doing the beach with me, then that’s okay! But can we please leave now , and go somewhere with air conditioning and ice pops?”
There was a heartbeat of nothing but tension. Kaede feared she let the heat get to her.
And then, a short soft, “Gomen nasai.”
“Daisuke,” she chirped back.
A soft, blush-ridden grunt came from the other side of the door. “Look, It’s… s’not about how I look, okay? Not just that, anyway...”
“I’m guessing you were fine last year because we were in a big group—”
“D-don’t go thinking it’s because I feel less safe around you!” Rena snapped. “I can handle myself!”
“Hai. But your heart needs mine, yeah?”
Once again, Rena choked. “You say such embarrassing things so easily.” She added before Kaede could feel self-conscious, “Arigato.”
Her sincerity came through, so softly yet true that Kaede chuckled, kissing her forehead against the door and both hands upon the changing tent’s dry, splintering wood. “You are strong, Rena. Much more confident than me.” A statement more insulting to Kaede than admirable of Rena, all things considered, but something her girlfriend should take some pride points in, because God knows she needed them. “So, why…”
__________
“...are you so embarrassed?” Kaede’s softspoken concern was enough to get Rena’s heart to do backflips.
‘Why am I embarrassed?’ You already said it, more than once. You probably know it even despite my insistence to the contrary. As per usual with Rena, it was a metric fuckload of atypical insecurity bullshit. The same tired shit she and Kaede had danced through again and again and again and a-fucking-gain.
And she would never get out of this tent—nay, finish the day no less—without talking about at least one of her issues. And besides, history proved that Kaede had a 100% success rate with making Rena feel better after talking, even though she herself doubted it because of her own poor self-esteem.
Rena fell back on the spoken, simplest, most embarrassing first, because ripping off a bandaid stopped hurting after the initial burn: “I’m positive you’re… you look… um, you know…” Fuck this. Rena breathed deep. “You’re much cuter than me, I’m sure of it!” she declared—screamed, really—like when Kaede announced to her parents that she was gay.
She hoped the Kaede here and now would have a similar reaction as her parents did.
A soft chuckle fluttered in the ensuring quiet, drowning out the muted crash of waves and chatter of beach-goers—Kaede did, in fact, react as her parents had that needlessly terrifying dinner.
“I think you know how this conversation is gonna go, Rena.” And yet her smile was audible, her blush moreso. “My beautiful Rena-chan.”
Fuck, shit, fuck. There was just a door between them, between her lips and Kaede’s. Rena was for once thankful of her tangled ball of fears which stayed her feet, kept her borderline rational. “It’s always the same when it comes to this. Gomen, by the way… Why do you think I lied in the first place?” Rena knew exactly why, the real why: it was looking back at her in the mirror of this tent. A looking-glass not so different from the one which mocked her in her unconscious thoughts, whenever Cinderella would come out to wreak havoc.
The reflection was that of a small, ridiculous little girl, big in one way only; one that made her seem like she was trying so hard to appear mature in the shallowest way possible. A way that girls repelled by her personality glared at, and boys who knew nothing about her—sans her nasty attitude—gazed upon with hooded eyes or pitifully hidden glances.
A way that made Rena’s back hurt and her face hot when she would catch such looks.
A way that made her childishly giddy whenever she remembered the frustrated glare of Kamihama’s most famous veteran, the genuine model, Nanami Yachiyo.
A way that a small part of her was proud of for having, and wanted to show off last summer to all her magical girl friends. Even now, this time around, she wanted to see her beloved Kaede gawk in awe and bow down in love, always regarding Rena like she was a beauty queen. Not something to be despised or lus—well, yes, lusted over, but in a way that ran deep with love, envy, but above all, respect.
Respect for the girl boasting such assets, for the real feelings she had and the warts beneath.
Who understood that, despite all the negative energy channeled to her appearance, it was still something which rendered shitty Minami Rena better than all those mean girls, even if it were in the shallowest way possible. After all, a victory was a victory, regardless if it made Rena look like a twelve-year-old who got plastic surgery with Daddy’s credit card—or whatever the fuck those bitches in school had said once.
Looking at that little girl in the mirror, part of Rena wanted to think that Mitama intentionally made her swimsuit this way so as to build some confidence (being a delver of every magical girl’s innermost insecurities and private moments, she had a knack for that stuff, no?). That was probably it, honestly, given how much she helped Rena and Kaede get together.
But Rena was Rena, and the loud, defensive part of her brain had long ago concluded that Coordinator-san was a full-blooded pervert, and thrived off of the secondhand embarrassment she inflicted on her clients.
With that in mind, how did Yakumo Mitama make Kaede look?
How… just how sexy—a word Rena wouldn’t be caught dead saying, even to said girlfriend—was Kaede’s swimsuit?
Rena perked her head up, emerged from her scummy self-loathing, wondering where the hell her life partner had gone. Why was she so silent? Did she give up?
__________
Kaede balled up her fists, breathed deep, mustered some guts for good measure. For Rena.
She approached a pair of huge guys applying sunscreen to their biceps, so ripped that their bodies were near-perfect triangles. Approaching them got her guts knotting worse by the step, especially since she couldn’t tell where their eyes were looking behind their shades.
Definitely not her soft tummy. Kaede looked like a middle schooler still, even at fifteen. Her body was narrow, while Rena’s had most certainly filled out into an hourglass even more so than last year.
Thinking this, reassuring herself, let her voice be easily found. “Um, excuse me?” She came to a stop, their full attention on her.
The shaved-head smiled. “What’s up, cutie?”
“Need a beach buddy?” asked the blonde.
Kaede opened her mouth.
But the blonde continued. “Your swimsuit is really nice. Dig all the bells and whistles, too.”
“A-arigato! Etto...” Maybe they were being kind. Maybe they were hitting on her. Either way, Kaede didn’t want to waste their time: “Um, my girlfriend is being shy, and I was hoping you could help me help her come out?” she blurted out.
Surprisingly, the two guys shared a look, shrugged, and stood.
__________
“Kaede?” Rena called again, both hands on the door. Her heart sank even deeper than before to the sound of silence.
A good girlfriend would leave this dumb tent and find her partner. But going at it alone would only draw eyes to Rena—lustful and probably hateful, too. And if Kaede went off to go to the bathroom, it’d be bad if she came back only to find Rena had left. As if she would buy that Rena was zoning out in self-pity?
Well, she would.
But then it would become a big thing, and this was supposed to be a fun day. Even though they could find one another with telepathy, it was about the principle of the thing.
Wait, Rena paused, realizing, I made a big deal out of nothing already—
“Woah, hot damn ,” exhaled a deep, masculine voice that was very close to her changing tent. “What’s a snack like you doing out here all by yourself, huh?”
Rena’s cheeks burst into flame, because of course her stupid gut reaction would assume regular guys had x-ray vision (and given the long stares she sometimes got, that didn’t feel like such an irrational fear). Maybe there was a tear in this… this nearly pitch-dark tent she failed to notice?
Stupid. Rena was always so stu—
“You’re looking lonely, babe.” Terrifyingly, another voice had piped up, deeper than the last, equal in horniness. Terrifying because, subconsciously, Rena immediately knew who they were speaking with, and that it was her Kaede being hit on by two scary-sounding men who were definitely older than her fifteen-year-old self. “Wanna party with us? We’re nice, trust me!”
“U-um, that’s okay! Arigato! I’m really not much of a partier, though, I’m just waiting for my friend.”
Rena was frozen.
Kaede’s being hit on, she processed, realizing, Kaede’s being hit on! But… she’s standing her ground? Hopefully Rena wouldn’t have to go out there, lest she be hit on, too. Fuck I’m such a coward. She smacked her forehead against the door.
“She ain’t comin’, bro,” the first guy muttered.
The deeper-voiced one said at equal volume, “Yeah. Let me try this.” Then aloud, “Alright, girl, let me be straight with you—we don’t care about how nice you are. Clearly, though, you’re not the type to say ‘no’ twice.” Rena’s hairs stood on fucking end. “To us, you’re just some beach babe we wanna Eiffel Tower and tour around Pound Town.”
“Ara!”
The first guy barked with laughter. “Yeah!” he said. “You’re so small that I don’t think you could handle our equipment, but that’s what makes fucking you girls silly so damn fun, the way your mind breaks after a few creampies.”
Rena's leg had risen, her calve wrapped in royal blue straps and pearls, and before she could process this development a beastial part of her let it fly sandal-first into the door.
The dudes were twice her size and towering over a surprisingly calm Kaede, but she was always stronger than Rena thought. Subconsciously affirming that she wasn’t in tears with but a glance, Rena went 100% into a sprint to the turning dudebros.
The short distance from the changing tent and them was but a couple feet, but for a magical girl technically in her uniform, no feat was physically improbable, especially knocking one of them flat on their ass with a flying kick.
“Get your horny selves — ” Rena pivoted in the sand, roundhousing the other guy in the temple, “—away from my girlfriend!” The second guy fell to his knee, rubbing his head with a curse. Rena took a stance, both fists raised. “Back off, rapists! She’s fifteen and I’m sixteen, and neither of us are legal in this prefecture!”
“Oh, my goodness!” To Rena’s surprise Kaede ran not to her side, not for a hug, but a kneel at the boys’ sides, hands poised before her. “Gomen! Gomen nasai”
An inexplicable feeling of shittiness overcame Rena. She suddenly didn’t feel like a hero or a protective girlfriend at all, even though she clearly was, and not at all a total jackass who probably went overboard.
No, these doofuses were saying all those nasty things to my Kaede! The guilt was fleeting, gone completely with that thought.
“Holy smokes,” breathed the guy she hit first, propping himself on one strong arm, massaging at the red footprint on his pec with the other. “Akino-chan, you lucky duck! Your GF’s a genuine beaut!”
Now Rena was more than embarrassed, she was confused. She coughed into her fist, crossed her arms in front of her half-bared chest. “Not interested.”
Kaede’s giggling served to paint a weird but increasingly sensible picture. “Thank you, and thanks, too, for your help!”
The blonde, still rubbing at his temple, stood whilst helping his friend up. “Love a girl who could kick my ass. It’s a damn shame the two of you swing in the opposite direction.”
Whatever the hell was going on here, one thing Rena couldn’t stand was compliments from strangers—especially guys who were ogling her tits. “Get the hell out of here, frat freaks!”
Kaede planted her face to the ground in prostration. “I’m sorry my Rena-chan is so volatile!”
“Eh, no biggie. Been called worse by girls closer to me, and this was fun besides,” said the blonde. “C’mon, Ryuj. Let’s leave the young love to blossom.”
Kaede rose, still kneeling in the sand as she waved to the brick wall of chiseled backs. “Bye Ryuji-kun! Bye-bye Gen-kun! Arigatooo!”
“Later Akino-chan! Rena-chan!”
The latter’s ears twitched, burning red. “You’re on a first name basis with those guys?”
“Oh, hush. Baka-Rena.” Kaede picked herself up. “I had to get you out of there somehow, and you stopped responding after a while.”
Rena glared. “So you decided the logical course of action was to manipulate my feelings?” She went to grab Kaede’s wrist, still feeling protective as those guys’ nasty words ensnared her thoughts.
Kaede jerked away uncharacteristically, and uttered severely, “Who practically molested me wearing Momoko’s face?”
That was totally deserving. Absolutely. But still… “Two wrongs suddenly make a right?” Maybe it was for the topic on who was in the wrong here, but the rest of what those guys had said suddenly processed: “And you told some strangers about us?!”
Scowling, Kaede stepped up, reached and clasped the back of Rena’s head and crashed their lips together. Rena gasped in surprise, allowing for something hot, thick, and moist to penetrate her lips, to encircle the inside of her mouth.
With a sloppy smack, Kaede fell away, gasping as Rena found herself seeing stars in the cloudless sky. “The hell,” she gasped, “wassat, Kaede?” She barely cared that people could have seen. She did, but, but who gave a fuck? She would never see them again and vice versa. If someone from school saw, well, who didn’t already hate the two of them; and if a fellow magical girl saw, then hey, who didn’t know about one of Kamihama’s most famous magical girl couples?
“You look amazing.”
Those three words had the same thought-stopping power as the other three.
Rena found amber eyes crowning a blush certainly not borne from the sun, boring into hers and bright with love, lust, worship, and all that heart-gooey shit she had fantasized about moments ago.
“The pearls are beautiful, and I think quite appropriate for you,” she continued, some million miles away. “Especially with the clam theme you have going on.”
“O-oh. Um, a-arigato?” Rena glanced down at the necklace she’d failed to notice amidst her pity party. Cinching her sheer skirt to her hips was a pearl chain that mirrored Kaede’s gem-embedded flowers, Rena’s own capped on either side in a pair of half-shells.
She didn’t miss a word of what Kaede was saying as these details registered: “The color scheme and pattern is like your magical girl uniform. The bow, too. It’s really, super cute, Rena-chan. Honestly. This is so much better than your swimsuit last year.”
It might have been the heat.
No, it was definitely the heat.
Without a doubt.
Because Kaede praised her often, and rarely did it turn Rena’s brain so mushy. Not usually, anyway.
“How’m I supposed to respond to that?” she asked her sandaled feet.
A hand reached into view, pulled hers out in front of her. Rena followed that which grasped her wrist, past a seriously cute floral bracelet, and found Kaede’s sweetly smiling face. “You could start with, ‘let’s set up our umbrella, cuz it’s hot as heck,’” she giggled.
It was. “F-fine. Lead the way,” she tried saying plainly.
And Kaede nodded happily, turning and leading Rena by the hand. Like a child. But only because she was her girlfriend did she allow it. But Rena could feel the stares, imaginary or not—she yanked away to no protest, because of course Kaede understood. She always did. She never got mad and she was too good for Rena, always.
“I… I like your suit, too.” Kaede slowed her pace, looking over her shoulder, one eye bright as her smile, her flush brighter. “It’s… it’s cuter than Sayu-Sayu.”
“Now that’s a compliment.”
“Shut up! I’m not good at this stuff, okay?!”
Kaede spun on her heel, hands clasped behind her, undeterred. “I was being serious. That’s big coming from you. Arigato, Rena.” She was shockingly good at keeping her eyes on Rena’s—who noticed now that they were stopped how bouncy she was in this bikini.
“Y-you look… cute,” mumbled Rena, gazing away then back to Kaede, up and down her slim yet soft figure. She swallowed. “Your top… it’s like your poncho. I like it, I… I like it a lot.” Kaede just giggled into her hand, definitely in good-nature but Rena’s gut assumed it was in mockery. She sank within her shoulders. “Please don’t make me say anymore.”
Kaede craned her head close, never taking her eyes off Rena as her lips came within kissing range. “You’re turning heads, Rena-chan. It’s not just your body—your suit oozes sex appeal.”
It suddenly felt a million degrees hotter here. “Baka! You can’t just say stuff like that!” Rena swiped for a shove or something, but Kaede leapt back, cackling, and sprinted off for where they set their towels, cooler, and disassembled umbrella.
Her laugh was infectious though, despite the heat.