Lazy Day by Pool

The training trip, Shizuka knew, was one-third her fault and two-thirds Yukimura's and Rei's fault, and while the training camp partly funded by the school and entirely controlled by the three demons was a good idea, the rest day in which they would do nothing but lounge around the pool of the semi-decent hotel they were staying in was almost certainly Niou's idea, and they were all going to suffer and die after Rikkai had won Nationals for adopting it and forcing her to play along with Niou's ridiculous idea.

"No," she said, folding her arms, implacable as rock.

"Yes," said Rei, insidious as water, holding out some scraps of what Shizuka refused to believe was clothing.

"Please, Sanada-fukubuchou?" said Akako, attempting to transmit puppy eyes from across the room, having scuttled well out of Shizuka's reach when the glaring started. Damn Yukimura for not allowing her to bring her bokken. It could poke, it could be thrown, and it would have been the perfect motivation for every time Bunto started whining about her sweets, but no… "We took such a long time picking it out for you…"

Since, as everyone knew and she constantly denied, Akako was Shizuka's favorite, this probably would have worked if Shizuka had not been thus reminded that 'we' consisted of Akako, Masaru and Rei who had disappeared last night on Yukimura's laughing permission to buy bikinis for the whole team and had gotten one for her that was so disgustingly skimpy that she was half-tempted to burn it away like the evil it was. And that they had snuck into her and Yukimura's room while she was showering after her morning workout and stolen all her clothes, leaving her to emerge from the steamy room wrapped only in a thankfully large towel and demanding that she put on that- that thing and go down to relax like the rest of them.

Never in a thousand years. "No," she said, and glared, which lost much of it's usual effect because Shizuka had her hair down, and still-wet tendrils around her face softened most of it's straight, hard lines.

Rei sighed, and gestured to herself. "I'm wearing one," she pointed out, as though her vice-captain was the one with her eyes closed.

"You have no shame," said Shizuka, which was entirely correct if also somewhat hurtful, so Rei let it pass.

"Akako's wearing one."

"Hers is a one-piece."

"A skimpy one-piece," said Rei, with the air of one delivering an absolute and unshakable argument. Akako poked an area of bare skin in illustration.

"Please," Shizuka said, face wiped very carefully blank, "refrain from reminding me of that." She didn't start on her mental lecture about inappropriateness and fourteen-year-olds and Akako in general because standing in a hotel room being coerced into wearing a bikini by her traitor best friend and junior while wearing a towel that arguably covered the twice the area of skin that the proposed item of swimwear did was more than demeaning enough as it was. There would be laps when they returned to Rikkai. In numbers above the thousands.

"I'm wearing one," came a new voice, from the door. "And so," said Yukimura, firmly and very obviously trying and barely succeeding not to laugh, "will you."

Rei, sensing weakness, pressed the attack. "It's a team-building exercise. We all need more cohesion within the team, Shizuka. So that we can know each other better."

"I don't need to know you people half-naked," said Shizuka, but she wavered, and-

"You- you people?" Yukimura teared up, and stared at her vice-captain with her hurt, betrayed eyes and-

"I hate you all," said Shizuka, and snatched the bikini to march into the bathroom to put it on and-

Every single occupant of the room burst into side-splitting laughter.

.0.

"I hate you all," Shizuka said again, sitting in the bright cheery afternoon sun with her towel wrapped around her while the Rikkai junior high's boy's soccer team roughhoused over at the other side of the pool and stared at her shameless team spread over deckchairs in various states of somnolence. Damn the boy's team for deciding to take the school's offer of a training trip too, and double-damn with extra hellfire Yukimura and Rei for having planned the whole thing.

Random boys were wandering back and forth in front of the girl's contingent, drinking in the sight of the regulars. Masaru was taking great and malicious pleasure in taunting boys by fondling Hiroko under the guise of applying sun block. Jackal was sleeping, and Shizuka envied her the blissful unconsciousness. Akako had started a water fight with several of her classmates, and was flicking chlorinated water into their eyes with glee. Bunto was sipping a colorful, no doubt highly fattening and sugary drink, fielding offers from some of her classmates to buy more. Rei and Yukimura, the traitorous manipulative pretenders, were on either side of her trying to make her take off the towel. Fat chance.

"Go away," she said, grimly hanging on to with a tenacity and wariness that Tezuka would have approved of.

"Shizuka, really," said Rei, attempting to look reproving but unable to suppress her smugness at having more or less gotten the boy's soccer team into the palm of the girl's tennis team. Shizuka had eyes, even if the boy's ones appeared to be falling out of their sockets. "You can't just wrap yourself in a towel and sit there all day."

"Watch me."

Yukimura sighed, turned her head…blinked… and shrieked. "Akako? Akako, what's wrong?"

Shizuka turned- rose, was on her feet in seconds- and then Rei yanked away the towel in a single smooth motion and caused Shizuka to stagger and crash into the bare chest of Kayama Seiji, captain of the boy's soccer team and holder of a massive crush on Shizuka (like, curiously enough, most of the male population of the school and a fair number of the female ones. It's always the unattainables).

Yukimura and Rei sniggered relentlessly and took photos.

Akako, perfectly fine, hoisted herself up out of the water and settled down to watch the fireworks. The rest of the regulars (Jackal having woken at Yukimura's scream) did the same, although Hiroko clapped a precautionary hand over Masaru's mouth.

Shizuka was pressed in one long line against Seiji, who'd flung out his hands when she had collided against him and now had one nestled in the small of her back, while the other was resting on the partially bare skin of her ass.

For precisely three frozen seconds Seiji was in heaven, Rei acquired enough blackmail to last her the rest of their school career, and Shizuka was unaccountably pliant due to what was possibly brain-numbed shock.

And then she removed herself from him, took two and a half steps back, and hit him in the face so hard he (Akako swore) flew the two feet into the pool. Certainly he made a very impressive splash, which was applauded.

Shizuka rounded on Yukimura, kept on going and ended on Rei, who had the sheer conniving gall to smile innocently.

"Yes?" she said, having had the foresight to let Yukimura take the pictures and therefore no real worries.

"You," said Shizuka. "You."

Rei opened her eyes the barest fraction of an inch. "Yes?"

Shizuka's face was a blank, bare stone…while she dragged Rei to the pool and dropped her struggling into the deep end.

"You," she pronounced with great satisfaction, "seem to be having a little trouble, Rei."

Then Yukimura hit her from behind and tackled them both into the water on top of the gasping Rei.

It was a battle to see who could drown who the longest, which escalated when Masaru pushed Akako straight into the thick of things and Bunto tipped the ever-helpful Jackal into the pool when she tried to pull Rei out.

They climbed out with water in their ears and exhausted.

"I still hate you all," said Shizuka, effectively manhandling Akako into a large towel before she could catch cold.

Yukimura smiled winningly, while Rei sneezed water out her nose.

But Shizuka deigned to join the rest of them for dinner that night, so all was well and happy in Rikkai-land, dominion of Yukimura-megami-sama (christened such courtesy of Masaru).

At least until someone leaked Rei's pictures.