"What do you think of this bathing suit?"
Tai groaned as the feminine voice brought him back to reality. He had been so close to sleep, too. Tai reluctantly cracked open an eye and after adjusting his sunglasses, looked to the speaker.
Mimi smiled brightly before shoving a magazine in his face.
"See, I like the print, but I'm not so sure the cut would be great. Of course, I could totally buy fabric like it and have Sora make one in a better cut, and it would probably be a lot less expensive, and-" Mimi said all of this without pause before Tai finally interrupted her.
"Yeah, okay Mimi. That's great. But WHY did I have to hear all of this?" He asked, rolling onto his stomach in an irritated manner.
"Don't you care what I look like?" Mimi asked, sounding a little hurt.
Tai cast a look over at her. She was wearing a huge sunhat, sunglasses, a long sleeve cover up and jean shorts. Plus they were sitting under an umbrella while the rest of their friends were out actually enjoying the beach.
"Mimi, we are at the beach now, and no one can see your bathing suit. Why does it matter what it looks like?"
Mimi huffed. "Just because I am practicing safe sun habits right now doesn't mean that I won't wear only my bathing suit later when the sun isn't as intense."
"Okay! I get the point. You would look good in it. You look good in anything," Tai said tiredly, pillowing his head with his arms and closing his eyes again.
He missed the soft smile on Mimi's lips. She tucked the magazine away and turned her attention to Tai.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked, gently rubbing his back.
"Rewind time so that I don't try to side tackle that stupid player and end up breaking my leg."
They both looked down at Tai's cast, covered with friends' signatures.
"Well, I don't think I can do that. Anything else? Food? Water?" Mimi asked brightly.
'You could touch me again, anywhere really,' a voice answered in his head, but Tai squashed it before it could vocalize itself.
"I'm fine. You don't have to nurse me, you know. Just leave me to rot here as summer slips away," Tai said bitterly.
He finally seemed to hit a nerve with Mimi. She stood up suddenly, shooting Tai a glare. "Fine, Mr. Party Pooper! If you aren't going to snap out of this stupid rut, then I'm not going to try and force you!"
She tossed off her hat, shorts and shift and was walking away in a matter of seconds. Tai couldn't even defend himself, against what was obviously a totally off base comment, because his tongue seemed to be oddly glued to the roof of his mouth and his eyes oddly glued to Mimi. Who was wearing pink bathing suit that obviously was a good cut on her.
'I guess that means I do care what see looks like,' Tai concluded, and decided to throw away his dignity for a while, just so that she would come back to him.
"I'm SORRY Mimi! Please come back! I think your bathing suit it smoking- hot!" Tai yelled after her. She turned around and started walking back, ignoring the teasing jeers from their friends nearby.
Her cheeks were slightly pink and she tucked her short curls behind her ear. "What do you really want?"
Tai smiled sheepishly.
"I'm kind of hungry."
Tai drank his water with relief as he sat on a bench near the food stand. Walking on crutches was not his preferred mode of transportation. Mimi joined him a short time later, handing him a package of food which his promptly devoured.
"Tai, do you even know what that was?" She asked skeptically.
"It was delicious and there. The rest didn't really seem important at the time. Why, is it something bad?"
"No."
Tai took another sip of water as Mimi bit into an apple she bought. He had convinced her that they needed to leave for food immediately, which resulted in Mimi still only being clad in her bathing suit. Tai smiled and gently shifted so that their legs were pressed against each other. Tai was rewarded with another blush from Mimi.
"Aww, you match your bathing suit!" he teased.
Of course the red in her eyes before she walloped him went pretty well with it too.
"You aren't supposed to hurt the already injured!" Tai cried.
"Do you think it's funny to tease me?" Mimi overrode his voice.
"Not funny, so much as flattered that I have some much sway over such a pretty person, okay!" Tai yelled back, and her flurry of weak attempts at punches stopped.
She was pink again, but looking at Tai with her classic glare of annoyance.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with you," she said sternly.
'I know plenty of things I want to do with you,' that voice said in Tai's head, but he silenced it again. Somehow that wasn't the sort of thing you said to your friend.
Even if it was Mimi. Your gorgeous, silly, adorable friend Mimi. Who looks really hot in her bathing suit. And has really soft skin…
"I need a cold swim," Tai bemoaned.
"But you can't get your cast wet…" Mimi said beside him, perplexed.
Tai just grunted and started the long way back to the beach blankets.
He couldn't decide if the backrub he was receiving from Mimi was relaxing him or making him tenser. Either way, he really didn't want her to stop. She of course did, eventually, and she stretched out perpendicular to him, resting her cheek on his back.
"So if I go with you bathing suit shopping, I get to see you wearing all the different ones, right?"
Mimi laughed, and the puffs of air on is back gave him a slight shiver.
"I couldn't take you shopping because of your leg, you would only slow me down. Shopping is like a sport for me, you have to be in full health and alert at all times," Mimi explained.
Tai rolled his eyes at the comparison. "Fine, how about when I'm out of the cast?"
"Tai, it will be Fall by then, and I won't need a bathing suit," Mimi told him, smiling up at him.
"Okay, Miss Picky. How about lingerie shopping? Don't you girls need thermal bras or something for the cold weather?"
Tai was confused at the silence, but could feel Mimi shaking next to him. He turned his head and saw tears streaming down her face as Mimi tried to suppress her laughter.
"Thermal bras?" she asked, finally bursting out in giggles.
Tai shrugged. "Can't blame a guy for trying."
Mimi shook her head at him. "What's with all of the flirting today?"
Of course Mimi would be blunt about it. She was always too honest with others. She obviously didn't play coy or hard to get with boys.
"This cast has me stuck with a lot of pent up energy. I can't run it off, so I use it to tease you."
Mimi grinned, and laid next to him so that their noses were touching.
"Well, tell you what. If you can focus your flirting to only me, and not other girls, we could go out for the rest of Summer, and then when Fall comes around, I'll have no problem with letting my boyfriend of a few months see me in lingerie, when I'm shopping for my thermal bras and stuff."
Tai leaned forward to kiss her briefly. "Deal. Although I think you are getting the bad end of it, since you are the only girl I want to flirt with, and I get to see you in lingerie in the Fall. And your bathing suit all Summer."
Mimi smiled and pulled out her magazine. "So what do you think of this one?"
And suddenly, picking out a bathing suit for Mimi wasn't a hassle at all.
AN- I just really wanted to write a one-shot for some reason. I think it turned out okay. Just needed some writing back in my life.
I don't know why I chose the beach, most likely because I want to go there so BADLY. And I get to in a week! But alas, there will be no horny Tai's hitting on me. Life is so cruel.
Thanks for reading! You guys are awesome!