The kettle whistled shrilly at 7 am. Tohru was up early on the last day that the group would spend in Fiji. So far, their vacation was relatively peaceful. Tohru picked up the kettle and poured herself cup of tea. She walked outside onto the spacious balcony outside her room.
Tohru was the only girl (as usual) and was given her own room in the georgeous three room suite Momiji had picked out. The Mubadachi Trio shared a room, as did Yuki and Momiji. Kyo refused to sleep in the same room and Yuki, and spent his nights on the couch.
She took a sip of her tea, gazed out to the ocean and sighed. It was always so peaceful in the morning, before the boys woke up, that is. After that, Momiji called out requests for the day's activities, Aayame and Shigure acted . . . like Shigure and Aayame, and Yuki and Kyo would either argue over petty things, or stare daggers at one another. Poor Hatori was quiet as always, but he had come to roll his eyes quite a bit over the past week.
As the sun rose, turning the beaches shades of gold and pink smeared with orange, Tohru recalled her days and nights on the small tropical island with the boys who had taken care of her for so long. There were scrupmtious brunches, beach days, tourist hikes, trips to local villages, and for the first time in her life, Tohru drank cocnut milk. She smiled absent-mindedly as she remembered the sweet, warm milk that had come from the cocnut.
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"Oh!" she said. "Coconuts? They sell coconuts here?"
"Well, yeah," said Kyo, and Tohru blushed. What a silly question.
"Would you like one?" asked Yuki. "Here." And he handed her a few coins. "Try one."
"Oh! No, I, uh - have my own money! I'll pay."
Yuki knew all too well that Tohru was too modest to accept money from anyone, especially someone who she beleived was 'supporting' her. He sighed and placed the money back in his pocket as she wandered over to the man sitting at the shabby booth.
She returned moments later holding a cocnut that had been hacked open at the top. "Did you see?" she asked. "He used that long knife to cut it open! And he didn't even cut himself!"
Yuki couldn't help but to smile slightly at her observations. She would have cut herself had she been allowed to weild a knife as large as the one the man had used.
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The sun had risen higher over the ocean. 'Should I wake them?' she thought, glancing at the door. In the silence, she heard someone moving about in the kitchen. Tohru paused, staring at the door, then shook her head, remembering her first morning in the suite. Upon awakening, Tohru had heard sounds coming from the kitchen and, being only half awake and quite confused, she stumbled into the kitchen in a panic.
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"What are you doing here?!" she shreiked.
"Room service!" A small island woman was standing in the living room, going about her business of cleaning the room. She obviously didn't speak Japanese.
"Honda-san!" Yuki dashed into the room, alerted and alarmed by Tohru's cry. "What is it?"
"Oh! I, uh - " Tohru blushed and nodded to the cleaning lady, who was staring at Yuki. "She startled me."
Yuki looked at the woman, then at Tohru, and laughed softly, causing her to blush even brighter. "Don't worry about it, Honda-san," he said, smiling. "Just go back to bed."
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A moment later, a soft knock on her door shook Tohru from her thoughts. She set down her tea on a small table and opened the door. Shigure stood in hall.
"Good morning, Tohru!" he said warmly. "I thought you'd be up!"
"Good morning, Shigure-san!" she smiled. "How are you?"
"Oh, fine, fine," he replied. "Say, do you remember the room number of those french girls we met a few days ago?'
Tohru blinked and thought a moment. Shigure and Aayame had taken Hatori down to the beach, claiming he was too pale and needed sunlight. They were soon distracted by three young girls on vacation from France. As they both spoke french, and were natural flirts, Shigure and Aayame struck up a conversation.
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Aayame wooed a tall girl with short, straight hair and a green swim suit. "It brings out your eyes, they are . . . so vivid," he said fluently, causing the girl, whose name was Rosette, to blush.
Shigure chased young Vivienne, who was short, with pale skin and fine, blonde hair. Catching her, he planted a kiss on her cheek and whispered in her ear. She smiled, nodded, and the two spent the rest of the day together.
The third girl was Pascale. She was not short or tall, and had thick, corse black hair and deep brown eyes. Several times Vivienne and Rosette had tried to send her to Hatori. Several times Shigure and Aayame tried to get Hatori to speak with Pascale.
All attempts failed and the two happy couples gave up, setting off to a day of romance. Hatori fell asleep under an umbrella and Pascale swam far out into the ocean. Later, Vivienne told Shigure that Pascale had floated on the water for an hour then swam back to shore. She had drifted so far that she had to walk for two hours back to the hotel.
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"Um," said Tohru, frowning, I think they said it was . . . 103. Yes, 103. I remeber because our room is 101 more than theirs!"
"Excellent!" said Shigure. It was true, afterall. The room they stayed in was 204. "I promised to give Vivienne my email so we could keep in touch. Oh, you are a gem, Tohru-chan!"
Tohru smiled at the compliment. "By the way, Shigure-san," she asked. "Do you know if Kyo and Yuki-kun are up yet?"
Shigure laughed. "Well, as usual, Yuki is not being a morning person. Last I checked he was very crabby. Give him some time to wake up. And Kyo . . . um, I think Kyo went jogging."
"Oh, all right," Tohru smiled. "Thank-you, Shigure-san!"
Tohru left her room, no longer fearing waking the others, and wandered into the kitchen. There, Hatori and Momiji were sitting at the table.
"Good morning everyone!" Tohru said cheerfully.
"Tohru-chan!"exclaimed Momiji. It was as if he hadn't seen her in weeks rather than just a few hours. "Good morning Tohru-chan! Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, I did, thank-you." replied Tohru.
Hatori, who was more likely than not a morning person, smiled gently at Tohru. "Good morning Honda-san." He said calmly, then took a sip of his coffee.
Just then, Kyo entered the kitchen. It seemed Shigure was correct and that Kyo had gone jogging. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and red running shorts.
"Good morning, Kyo-kun!" Tohru greeted him.
Bending to take off his shoes, Kyo said, "Morning." After standing again and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, Kyo asked "What are we gonna do today?"
"Hmm,"said Tohru. "I hadn't really thought about it."
"I know!" cried Momiji. "Let's go to the beach!"
"Again?"asked Kyo. "Don't you wanna do something we haven't done yet?"
"We've done almost everything the resort has to offer," pointed out Hatori.
"The beach! The beach!" chanted Momiji.
Just then, Yuki stepped into the kitchen. He stumbled over to the cupboard and pulled out a bowl followed by a box of cereal.
"Look who's finally up," said Hatori. "Would you like some coffee, Yuki?" It was hard to tell, Hatori being Hatori, but it seemed as though he found Yuki's morning blunderings quite amusing.
"Nngh," Yuki replied incoherently, and sat down with his cereal. This was made all the more amusing by the fact that he had no milk or spoon. Tohru and Momiji giggled to one another while Hatori grabbed the milk from the fridge and a spoon from a drawer. Kyo watched disapprovingly. 'Stupid Rat,' he thought.
Once Yuki had some breakfast in him, and was more alert, Tohru proposed Momiji's beach day idea to him. Yuki blinked twice as he processed the information.
"Sounds fun," he replied.
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After several an hour of packing lunches, finding towels, and applying sunblock (as instructed by Hana and Uo), the group arrived a the beach. Much to Yuki's disappointment, they were not quiet enough to keep Aayame asleep. Of course Aayame, being ever the hyper, over-reacting, spazzing entitiy of bizzarly infinite energy he is, insisted they leave immediatly. This, however, was not possible, due to the preparations needed and the fact that he kept getting in the way.
Eventually, Hatori gave Aayame seven potatoes and a small knife. "Peel them, then slice them into the thinnest pieces you can. Dry them in the sun and we'll have some chips to eat with our lunch."
"But Tori-san!" whined Aayame. "Thats boring, and who even likes potatoe chips?"
"Well, maybe Yuki does." Fortunatly for Hatori, Yuki was in another room and didn't hear. Now eager to help, Aayame set to work and was generally quiet while everyone else got ready to go to the beach.
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To be continued . . . ?
