Persona 4 Golden: Yu and Yukiko's Full and Happy Life 24

“WOW!” Nanako shouted in awe. While she and her big bro had taken some time off to head down the beach to try the volcano sundae her big sis had raved about to her, everyone else had remained hard at on the sandcastle. However, what had started as a little girl’s fun beachside project had quickly taken on a life of its own. It could hardly be called a “sandcastle” anymore, akin more to an entire palace complex, and by the way the building team was smoothing out a nearby patch of sand, it looked like things could expand further into an entire city! Sat in the very center was the original undersea themed castle, punctuated with various shells and draped in seaweed, that Nanako and Ai had constructed, but now it had some new additions to it. Surrounded by an “impenetrable wall” about half a foot high, it was lined with multiple guard towers and battlements to repel any pesky invaders. That is, if they could get passed the moat that was nearing completion. The trench surrounding the area was about as deep as the wall was tall, the sand dredged up during it’s construction serving as material to build it and some of the other buildings and castle wings the others were currently working on. Another person who had stopped to gawk at the endeavor was Chie, who had returned from her shoreline jog.

“Geez! Is this what you guys have been working on the whole time I’ve been gone?” She asked the returning pair in amazement. Nanako’s face lit up. “Uh huh! It was just me and Ai at first after she knocked my first sandcastle down. But then everyone saw how much fun we were having so they wanted to help too! Do you think it looks good?”

“Why of course it does!” Chie said. As if she could have said anything different to the eager little kid bouncing on her toes. Really though, it was a sight to behold. At the very least it was the best sandcastle she had ever seen.

While Yosuke and Kanji seemed to be debating what should go where with Naoto watching nearby, and Teddie digging up the last of the moat, Chie spied a hunched over Ai. Smiling smugly over a certain bit of information she heard, Chie decided to tease her a little. “So, I hear you get your kicks on the beach destroying little kids’ sandcastles?” She was all in good fun, and although their relationship had grown warmer over the past few months, it still felt good to push the rich girl’s buttons a little.

Ai shot Chie an annoyed glance. “Uhh, Shut up,” she said in a dismissive tone. Immediately, without skipping a beat, Nanako jumped between the two of them. “That’s a bad thing to say. You shouldn’t do it!” Ai reeled back in surprise from the elementary schooler’s sudden scolding. Nanako could actually have a pretty commanding presence when she wanted to! Even though it was something she said often and was something that in her own opinion wasn’t that bad, Ai found herself feeling a little ashamed. Not wanting to disappoint Yu’s little nephew she quickly spat out an apology. “Sorry, it just slipped out…”
Kanji, who was working nearby, smiled. He too had learned to watch his language in front of Nanako.

Nanako turned around and pointed her waggling shame finger at Chie, “And Ai didn’t knock down my castle on purpose. It was an accident. She is a nice girl and you shouldn’t blame her for that.” Slightly embarrassed and gripping her shoulder, Chie offered her own apology. “Uh...sorry…” Nanako looked to her big bro for conformation of a good job and absolutely beamed when he gave her his thumbs up of approval. Though she didn’t seem to quiet understand that ribbing on each other was something friends did, Ai felt touched that Nanako came to her defense. However, this feeling faded when Ai had to ask herself if this meant she considered Chie a friend now too!

Brushing that aside, Ai got back to the task at hand. “Oh hey, Nanako, why don’t you come and help me with this thing I’m working on?”

Like what had just occurred never happened, Nanako cheerfully exclaimed “Okay!” and bounded over to where Ai was, making sure to take care to not disturb any of the sand while stepping over the wall. “What are you doing?” Ai showed her the pile of shells and stones she had gotten the other boys to collect for her that she was using them to decorate the castle’s courtyard. Like a mosaic art piece, Ai had been carefully arranging them all into a decorative array that gave a certain vibrant life to previously barren enclosure. “Sure! That sounds like fun.” Looking through the pile, Nanako found a particularly tall conical shell she liked and taking a few more moments to look over what Ai had already done, stuck it in a spot she thought looked best. “Wow, you’re really good at this,” Ai grinned “It’s nice to have another girl here with some aesthetic taste.” The younger girl smiled right back at her before the two of them started to rummage through their pile again for the next one.

Watching as the two girls went at it, Chie and Yu began to talk. “Where’s Yukiko?” Chie inquired. “Resting. She decided to head down to the beach to check out some of the vendors and it took a lot out of her. She’s just napping some of it off.” Chie found Yu’s choice of words a little funny. With how things were going, what with her appetite and how he himself seemed to make it his duty to make sure Yukiko didn’t have to lift a single finger if he could help it, Yukiko wasn’t going to be getting much of anything “off,” especially by sleeping. Chie figured it must have been around the same spot where she had stopped for her after workout snack. She didn’t think it was so far up the beach that a rest was warranted afterwards.

After all, Nanako and him had just gotten back from getting some ice cream and the 7-year-old didn’t seem tired at all. But then again, she really had no way of knowing how tiring the trek would be with a new person literally growing inside you. It didn’t help that Yukiko had grown rather rotund, but from the few more “normal” pregnancies she had seen, moving around still looked arduous and awkward. Maybe she could get a tougher, more intense workout if she had some sort of harness that went around her stomach that she could place a couple of weights into…

“I trust your run went well?” Chie snapped out of her daydream before her silly little idea for new exercise equipment progressed too far. “Huh? Oh yeah! It went great! Not as many uphill climbs like back home but running on all this loose sand really works your calf muscles. And the burning on the bottoms of your feet just make you want to run faster! Also a change of scenery is always welcome.” Chie went for a swig of her water bottle when Yu said something that made choke on it. “I’m sure you turned quiet a few heads as you made your way down the beach.”

Chie’s eyes bulged out of their sockets and Yu had to dodge out of the way as some of her water escaped her lips. He was taken aback by the girl’s response to his question, and maybe it was a bit of an overreaction in hindsight, but it really did catch her by surprise. Chie’s face started to get hot, but it wasn’t from the summer heat. “W-w-what do you mean?”

Yu shrugged, calm as ever. “I’m just saying you probably had more than few boys who wanted to get to know you better.” Chie started to twist the bottle in her hand and laugh nervously. “Really? What makes you say that? Hahaha…”

“Well, I mean, you’re a cute, toned, physically fit. All that hard work you put into exercising is really starting to pay off. You come across as someone who is strong and really motivated. What guy could resist such a girl?”

Normally, Yu’s words would have only served to further Chie’s embarrassment. To say she was pretty so brazenly while also implying he was checking out her body! But as Yu talked, Chie instead found herself calming down. If this was when they first met and he was saying these things, Chie would have thought he was hitting on her, but now, the “feeling” was different. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the way he talked reminded her of her father! It was like whenever he would mention how beautiful she looked before she left for school.

Something she was sure all fathers said to their daughters. It was a reassuring yet still genuine tone. Strange coming from a friend her own age, but Yu had always been rather mature for his age. Of course, it also helped to know Yu was in a loving relationship with her best friend and of his love for her particularly “untoned” body, so she didn’t get the wrong idea.

“Well maybe a few guys stopped me to ask for my number…” Yu could tell from the brunette’s smile that she somewhat enjoyed the attention, although she may be reluctant to admit it, and this made him smile in turn. He had gotten to know Chie very well over the last year including her some of her insecurities. Being around someone as amazing as his wife was hard enough, but with their also famous idol and a well know detective also in the mix, and when comparing herself to them, it must have been especially difficult to feel “special.” He was happy that she was gaining more confidence in herself and all the things she had to offer.

“So, was anyone successful?” Yu smirked. He thought he already knew the answer, but her asked anyway. Chie waved her hand “I don’t have time for a couple of beach bums. If I want to get into the police academy, I can’t be bogged down by anything or anyone!” Chie stopped herself for a second and made a quick correction to what she just said, “Except for you and Yukiko! When that baby comes, I’ll be right there to help with whatever you need!”

Yu chuckled, “I’ll keep that in mind. Believe me though, the last thing me and Yukiko want is to interfere with what you or anyone have going on. But I’m sure Sanada-san would love to hear you say you turned down those boys.”

Chie face grew hot again, hotter than it had been all day. “W-w-what? W-w-why bring him up!?”

“You know, I thought he would be love to hear his pupil has been working hard and keeping her goals in focus. Have you shown him your progress?”

Chie adverted her gaze to the ground, “I-uh-um-well I text him from time to time. And I told him about how my grades were improving…” You couldn’t describe the joy Chie felt when she could finally tell her master that she had reached the first academic goal she had set. It was nice to hear the praise from her friends and family, but the congratulatory message that her master gave her sent her positively over the moon. She had to do 50 sit-ups just to quell her energy rush. “…but he can get pretty busy sometimes, so we only talk every once in a while! And it’s kind of hard to describe your physical gains without resorting to a bunch of numbers like how far you ran or how much you lifted…” Yu laughed to himself. He could think of quite a few lovely descriptive terms to describe his Yuki’s own “gains.” Massive, doughy, heavy, thick, squishy, fat…

“Well if that’s the case, why don’t you send him a picture?” It was yet another simple solution that seemed to be obvious for someone like Yu, but she couldn’t do something like that! Send a boy picture of herself? What if he gets the wrong idea? But as Chie knocked the notion around in her head, she started to calm back down. What was she getting so worked up about? It wasn’t like she would be sending any lewd pictures like she heard some girls do with their boyfriends. It was just two “gym partners” exchanging valuable workout information! Not that she could even be considered in the same league as her master to be considered his “partner.” That implies some sort of equivalence and in her mind she still had a long way to go before she could come even close to matching her master. But she would get there eventually! Nothing was going to stop her. Least of all the fear of sending one innocuous picture of herself! And even if it was something she'd rather not let most people see, she could trust her master to keep it to himself.

Yu could see the look on Chie’s face slowly turn to one of determination. "Okay!" She said to herself. Maybe she could send him one tiny snapshot in her workout attire to give him a better idea of her progress? Then maybe he could even give her some pointers like what level of intensity he thinks she should be working at or what muscles she needs to work out more? And of course, if her master wanted her opinions on how his own quest for physical perfection was going, she would be happy to help…

Before Chie had a chance to get herself flustered yet again, a shape appeared behind Yu and grabbed him by the shoulders. “What are you guys doing over here? There’s still work to be done!” Yu barely got a peep out before Yosuke was leading him away toward his current work area on the team’s continuously expanding black sand fortress. “You see, me and Kanji were thinking about making an archway over here to connect these two gates, but we can’t get it to stay up and we were hoping with your expertise…”

“Uh Hello! We were having a conversation here!” Yosuke turned back to look at the Chie staring daggers at him, but he was unfazed. “Whatever it is it can wait. You guys can talk whenever but we got to finish Nanako’s sandcastle before dinner time!” Chie did a scan of the entire area. She could see what was most definitely the castle Nanako had originally started to build herself but considering all the other additions branching off from it, it was really only one small portion of what was now a continually growing structure. “Are you sure it isn’t just your guys’ castle now?” she said in a mocking tone. Yosuke got a bit defensive, “What? No! Nanako’s still helping. And we always as her for permission before we add anything.”

Chie still wasn’t entirely convinced, but soon she let out a sigh and relented. “Well okay, what can I do then?” Out of nowhere, Kanji appeared holding and passed Chie an empty bucket.

“You could start by bringing us some more wet sand, my arms are starting to get tired running back and forth.” Yosuke nodded in agreement, “there you go, the perfect job for you!” Chie glanced down at the bucket for a few moments, processing what Yosuke meant by the “perfect job” for her before dropping it, “What? I’m not some work horse you know! What if I want to help build something? I know how to make a sandcastle!” Yosuke crossed his arms, “What are you complaining about? I thought you liked a bit of exercise! And you make something? I saw those centerpieces you tried to make for the culture festival. It looked like an elephant stomped on them a few dozen times! Your about as good with your hands as Teddie is!”

“Ted's on moat digging duty after he melted the entire east wall while trying to install a swimming pool…hey! HEY TED! WATCH WHERE YOUR THROWING THAT SAND!” The three of them watched as Kanji bolted over to their over excitable friend and almost tackle him before the “sand bombs” he was throwing around while shoveling leveled the whole complex. “There you go. If you want to build something you can help Teddie with the moat.”

Yosuke and Chie started to bicker at each other saying things like “who died and made you king of the beach” and “who was the one clumsy enough to get stuck in a trash can.” Yu took the chance to step away from the two and go get started on that archway. “Here! I’ll show you!” Chie dropped to her knees in front of one of one of the black towers and picked up a nearby shell. But whether it be from her agitation or her natural roughness, the moment she tried to insert it into the tower’s side, it all came crashing down into a sandy pile. “Ehehehe...you know, after all that running maybe I should work on my arm strength a little...”

With a “master craftsman” like Yu in their midst to lend his skills and with Chie offering a steady stream of building material with her fast pace bucket runs, the sandcastle got even more elaborate than it had been before. Judging by the position of the sun in the sky, Yu figured they had to have been working for at least another hour The only breaks that had been taking were brief ones to take a dip in the ocean to cool off. Yu had just finished gathering a large pile of sand together to begin yet another new addition to the castle, when he heard a distinct sound coming from the nearby canopy. It was the creaking of four wooden couch legs given a sudden reprieve. The others didn’t really notice.The sound was too faint, and they were too engrossed in what they were doing. But for an responsible and attentive husband like himself, it was clear as day and something he had been waiting for.

A yawn coming from inside the tent further confirmed his suspicion that his slumbering wife had awaken. She didn’t emerge right way.It took some time for her to find the strength to rock herself out of her lounge and even more to waddle herself outside. But when she did, the first thing to appear from the shade was the same thing that always first appeared whenever his pregnant pearl entered a room lately, her child heavy orb of a belly. And like the most beautiful of pearls, she was absolutely glistening. The sun hitting the smooth pale white skin of her middle made it look like she was positively glowing, as if her pregnancy didn’t already make her do that already. It took two more heavy steps for the rest of her to appear in view of her husband and another one and a half steps for her generous behind to clear the canopy’s threshold. Even with a bit of bed head, to Yu she looked absolutely divine.

Squinting and trying to block the bright sun with her hand she let out a tiny whimper that almost made Yu want to run over and apply some of his patented comfort but he stopped himself when he saw her slowly shuffle herself around. Reaching back inside her beach tent, she pulled out her large sun hat and placed it back on her head. Smacking her lips and giving the underside of her belly a scratch, her lazy content smile returned. Stretching a flabby arm above her head and arching her back, forcing out her still swollen belly from her afternoon beach stand binge even more, Yukiko could feel another yawn coming on.

*Yaaaaaaaaaawwwww-UUUUUOOOORRRRRPPPPP!*

“Oh!” Yukiko squeaked, bringing her hand to her mouth before softly giggling to herself. Her sudden burp had caught her by surprise, but things like that didn’t really bother her anymore, especially when she was alone. All it meant was her and her son had eaten very well earlier. However, she wasn’t alone and when she turned to her right and saw all her friends looking right at her, a wave of embarrassment hit her. They may not have heard her get up at first, but her loud belch had certainly done the job of making her presence known.

“Uh, hey Yukiko senpai. Glad to see your awake.” Kanji waved shyly.

Chie couldn’t help but smirk. “Geez Yukiko. You weren’t snacking in your sleep, were you?”

Trying to save face, Yukiko quickly apologized. “Oh! Um! Excuse me! How could I forget my manners…” Her gaze wandered to her hubby who she caught just grinning up a storm. Her husband’s teasing smile was all it took to get her to start smiling and happily rubbing her gravid tummy once again.

“BIG SIS!” Bolting up from her crouched position, Nanako made a beeline straight for the expectant mother. Nanako was so excited to be able to give her big sis a “tour” of all they had done while she had been sleeping, she hadn’t even noticed Yukiko’s embarrassing outburst.

“Hey! Wai-“ Ai reached for what had been her sandcastle partner as she ran to Yukiko before quickly retracting her hand. Another thing that Ai had to learn that that the others had to come to accept when it came to Nanako was that Yu and Yukiko always took precedent.

Nanako slowed down to avoid crashing into her big sis, though Yu jokingly thought that even if she did, no harm would have come to either of them given his Yuki's ever thickening protective padding. Nananko did her best to give her big sis a big wake up hug while Yukiko gently pressed the girls head to her large tummy and stroked her hair. It was yet another image that made Yukiko look that much more motherly and mature beyond her years. An image that one day both parents secretly hoped would have Nanako swapped out with their son while his current spot would instead be filled by one of his siblings.

“Come on! I want to show you what we did!” Nanako took her big sis by her hand and gave it a mighty tug but even someone double her age would have trouble making the large woman budge. Yukiko couldn’t help but find the girl’s strained face and futile attempts to move her just as cute as her enthusiasm. “Okay. Okay. Just give me a minute. No need to rush,” Yukiko said calmly. Taking another step out of the shadow of her tent, Yukiko grimaced and quickly retreated back. The sand had only gotten even hotter and it was too much for her poor delicate feet to bear!

Nanako continued to bounce in anticipation as Yukiko slowly changed directions and waddled to the sandals she had left outside the canopy. Carefully lifting her foot as to nor lose her balance, she started to kick at one, trying to get her toe to catch its strap. Unfortunately, the delicate condition she was in that kept her from bending over to put her sandals on also kept her from seeing where her feet were which resulted many failed attempts. It didn’t really matter to her how long it took though. She just continued doing what she always did and that was Smiling while rubbing her swollen stomach and comforting the life within. Finally, after ten attempts, Yukiko managed to get her first flip flop on and began to work on the second.

“Um, Do you need help?” Nanako asked. Yukiko shook her head, “Nope, I got it.” Nanako was really starting to get antsy but luckily Yukiko managed to get her second sandal on in only half the other’s attempts. Rushing over to take her big sis’s hand again, the two girls made their way to where the others were waiting with Yukiko giving the girl a small pat on her head to commend her for being so patient.

It was another slow going for the expectant mother. Still working off all she had eaten that afternoon and walking on the shifting uneven surface of the beach made it so the engorged heifer looked that much more lumbering than usual.

Not to mention her being in her swimwear meant she had that much more doughy flesh bouncing and wobbling completely unfettered. The bountiful swaying of her flaring hips, her wide gait to try (and fail) at getting the pale pillars made of marshmallow fluff she called her thighs to not rub together, the gentle bobbing of her heaving breasts atop her tummy shelf, all of it seemed like it was finely tuned just to appeal to her husband. Yu knowing that this was all Yukiko just being herself and not her consciously trying to be teasing or enticing probably made it even more stimulating for him than if it had been done purposely. His wife’s breathtaking maternal curves was something he got to experience up close and personal every single day, and yet here he was, still wishing he had a better vantage point so he could see his Yuki’s bulging profile and widening matronly rump as she toddled along…

The first place Nanako led the waddling mama was where the castle stood that started it all. Yukiko had seen it before, but her and Ai had continued to make changes to it while she was asleep, including their current seashell arrangement project. “My old sandcastle was pretty good, but I think this one Ai helped me with is much better! Don’t you think so? Teddie helped find these little sticks to use as flags…” Yukiko watched and nodded as the girl jumped from side to side, pointing out every window and decoration adorning the castle. It was obvious she was immensely proud of her work.

“This is what we are working on now!” Nanako beamed, scampering over to where she had left Ai. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Yukiko carefully stepped over, having to stand a little bit further away to get a full look at what Nanako was pointing to without it being cut off by the view of her own swollen gravidity. The mural the two had created was nearing completion. Nanako and Ai had placed their biggest shell in the center and then surrounded it with their other shells in a radiating star like pattern, each star getting bigger and bigger as it moved away from the point of origin, like a ripple in a calm pond. “It’s very beautiful,” Yukiko said, patting the little girl’s shoulder with her free hand.

“Glad you think so.” Ai chimed in rubbing a bead of sweat from her forehead. After working so hard under the hot sun it was almost time for her to take a short swim in the ocean to cool off. “Ai is the one who thought up the design and stuff. I really just helped a little.” Ai placed a hand on her hip, “What are you talking about? You did a lot more than help “just a little.” We’re partners right? I may have thought of the design, but you were the one who decided which shells to use where. And very well I might add. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought you were a professional decorator!” Nanako smiled sheepishly, feeling a little awkward from all the praise being showered upon her. “Umm…If you say so…”

“That’s very high praise coming from someone like Ai, Nanako. She knows everything about things like fashion and making things look pretty. So, if she says your good at it you must be REALLY good.” Nanako’s eyes lit up, “Really?” Now the compliments Yukiko had sent Ai’s way was starting to make her feel a little awkward. Ai cleared her throat. “*Ahem*, yes, but you know we still aren’t done yet.”

Nananko recoiled and frowned like she had done something wrong, “Oh, um, Sorry for running away like that…I just got so excited wanting to show big sis the good job everyone else was doing.” Ai’s warm smile helped put any fears Nanako had to rest. “It’s alright. This will all still be here when you get back. Besides, I had to go send Teddie out to find us some more shells so we can’t really do much until he gets back. Who knows when that will be knowing him. He’s more unreliable than Yosuke.”

“Okay! Come on big sis, this way!” Nanako took off in another direction, leaving the two older girls in the dust. “I never knew you were so great with kids,” Yukiko said with a chuckle, “maybe you can babysit this one sometime.” Yukiko gave her stomach a quick rub to clarify who she meant, as if Ai didn’t know already. “Oh shoot! Chie has first dibs though…” Ai scoffed, her face growing redder. “Well normally I’m not really a fan of dealing with little kids. They’re just so loud, obnoxious, and gross. But Nanako is alright I guess. She is very mature for her age!” Ai’s voice got a little quieter, “Although I suppose…if your kid ends up being like her and Chie’s unavailable, I may be able to help you out…If I’m bored or something!”

Yukiko took her time following where Nanako went and arrived at the section of the construction zone where Kanji and Naoto were working together. “Oh, hey Senpai. Didn’t notice you were awake. Yu told us you were feeling a little beat and needed a rest. Did you sleep well?” Yukiko nodded. “Uh huh. I was feeling a little tired after my walk. Sometimes it feels like all my energy just goes to this little one right here.” Yukiko gave her stomach a tiny pat for emphasis and received a tiny kick in return.

Naoto overheard this and narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t exactly sure that Yukiko’s pregnancy was entirely to blame for her fatiguing so easily, but Kanji seemed to accept what she said as fact.

“What are you working on?” Yukiko asked, peering over the delinquent’s shoulder to see Nanako on her knees, getting a better look at Kanji’s work. “Wow! It looks like Hi-me-ji Castle!” Nanako said slowly, making sure she was remembering the name correctly. Sure enough, when Kanji stepped aside, Yukiko saw what was a replica of a distinctively eastern styled castle made of sand. Kanji rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, I saw it on a postcard one of those souvenir stands was selling and thought maybe it be fun to try doing something similar. I know it doesn’t really match everything else everyone is doing, so I hope it’s alright…” Nanako was quick to come to his defense. “I like it. I think it’s good!” Yukiko agreed while inspecting the piece of beach art, “Yeah, Kanji you have some real talent.” Of course, it wasn’t a perfect recreation. Some of the “windows” were spaced too far apart, a few of the awnings were misshapen, and it was missing a lot of the real deal’s more ornate details, but not everyone could be perfect like her hubby and it was way better than anything she could do herself. It was clear that Kanji’s steady and patient hand when it came to his sewing and knitting translated well to working with a delicate material like sand. “Yu has pretty nimble fingers himself…” Yukiko said, the recollection of her Hubby’s past exploits causing her to graze the fabric of her left bikini top with her hand, coming to her senses before she could give her tingling breast a full squeeze. “…Naoto must consider it a godsend to have someone so good with their hands too.”

The usually dense Kanji normally would have thought Yukiko was still referring to his skills in arts and crafts, but the inflection in her voice as well as her face displaying that “up to no good” expression like during the king’s game in the dance club tipped him off that she was referring to something else. “Hey, wait a minute! Wha-What are you getting at!”

Naoto strolled up next to Kanji, having missed the last part of the conversation. “See Kanji, I told you no one would mind if you decided to do something a little different from everyone else.” She hadn’t actually been sure if that was the case when she said that. In her opinion, the best thing for the sandcastle would have been for everything to conform to a general “theme.” But sticking by each other was something boyfriends and girlfriends did, right? She ended up being glad she did too once she saw her boyfriend’s vision start to take shape.
Yukiko grinned when Naoto had stopped and ended up standing next to her man closer than she usually did, despite his choice of swimwear. It was still a far cry away from throwing his arm over herself, placing a hand on his chest, and giving him a kiss on the cheek like she would have done with her hubby, but that would come in due time. Still, Yukiko couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated with how slow the two liked to take things. After all, in a few more months they would have been dating almost as long as her and Yu had before they conceived their first child!

“And what are you working on Naoto?” Yukiko asked after her and Nanako finished appreciating “Castle Tatsumi.”

“Oh, nothing special,” she stammered, ushering the girls over to her own area a few steps away from Kanji’s. She was actually pretty confident in what she had made, it was just showing off anything you created to a group could still feel a little daunting.

Always one to be prepared, she had done a little “research” in her free time after having learned of where they would be going on their trip. What the area was like, “proper” swimming form, what to do in case of a shark bite... and of course, some articles on sandcastle building from the professionals with details all the way down to the best water to sand ratio to use. She was sure she had gotten the technique described down pat.

“Yours is pretty good too Naoto!” Nanako said excitedly.

“Yeah, good job.” Yukiko said with a thumbs up.

The always chipper Nanako’s praise made Naoto want to puff out her sizable chest with pride, and yet she didn’t feel like she got quiet the same reaction that Kanji’s castle got. Looking over the example of beach time engineering, Yukiko thought Naoto’s castle technically sound. The walls connecting the four spires were all the exact same length, like they had been measured with a ruler, each and every corner forming a perfect right angle. The main tower was centered dead in the middle with it no sitting to closer to any one side. It was made high but not too high as to make it unstable. And like the wall and guard towers it was very clean, not a single grain of sand out of place. It was essentially perfect. But not that “hubby” type of perfect. There wasn’t very much else to make the castle stand out besides it being flawless. It was almost like it had been made by one of those plastic beach toy molds in the shape of a sandcastle you could buy. Kanji’s and Nanako’s castle had their imperfections, but it was also those imperfections that also helped make them unique. With no decorations to speak of either like flags, seaweed banners, shells, or even tiny little designs carved into the sides, the whole castle just seemed lifeless. Very well made, but also sterile.

“Keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see what it will look like once your finished,” Yukiko said politely before happily waddling off with Nanako to wear she could see her hubby was, leaving the bewildered Naoto behind to try and think about what she could have possibly forgotten. “Wait! What do you mean? I thought it was done…”

“Come on! Look! This one is bigger see?” Yukiko waddled straight past Teddie and whatever he was doing and put what she was just preaching to herself into practice. With her hubby in her sights, she picked up the pace from her usual ponderous plodding and made a straight shot right to him. The momentum that her bulkier breeder body carried meant that even coming to stop after what would still be considered closer to a normal speed than a brisk walk took an extra step or two. It was an extra step she did not take and she ended up bumping right into her spouse. Before he had the time to register his low speed collision with what must have felt like a walking ball of dough, Yukiko squeezed herself under his arm, put a hand on his chest, and gave him that smooch on the cheek.

Maybe the beach had her in a romanceable mood but during her kiss Yukiko also tried to lift her leg up behind her as high as her thickening thighs and expanding behind would allow. It was something she had done before but the combination of the unstable ground they were on and the fact she was at the highest weight she had even been in her life meant she was in danger of toppling over. Yu quickly wrapped his arm around his wife and held her steady, and in doing so his baby mama’s gooey sides oozed right between his finger tips.

“OH!” Yukiko yelped, pushing off her hubby’s chest. She believed her hubby was getting a little “playful” with her instead of it being a simple accident. But who could blame her? Her bulging curves were just all so sensitive now and when her prominent love handles are given a squeeze it is usually during a certain “act” or at least a lead up to it. Her face immediately turned tomato red and she turned it halfway away, but the expression she wore was not one of embarrassment but a sultry one. She placed her hands on her hips and whispered “We can’t do that now hubby. Later…”

She tried to act as though she was disappointed that he would try such a thing now, but the smile on her face said otherwise as did the small bouncing and hip shimmy she did when she said it.

Yu stood quietly and nodded as Yukiko’s hand shot to her face to hold in a burp, her sudden burst of speed earlier and her teasing display causing too much churning in her still digesting gut. He decided it best to just play along. He didn’t think he would be able to form a coherent sentence anyway. The image burned in his brain of his wife’s pale motherly body wobbling and rippling in her swimsuit, the soft sounds of even softer flesh slapping against each other, the bobbing of her bountiful udders, and knowledge that with each passing minute they continue to swell bigger and fuller with milk all had him wondering when exactly “later” would be.

Before anymore flirting, or as some would say, foreplay, could occur, Yu and Yukiko suddenly found themselves being hit with a torrent of water. “Oops. I was trying to give you guys some more wet sand to work with,” Yosuke said unconvincing while tossing the empty bucket aside. Nanako frowned, “Hey! You did that on purpose. That wasn’t very nice.”

“Believe us Nanako, it was the right thing to do,” Chie sighed, and they left it at that. “*Pfft* *pfft* Yosuke! I can't believe you'd do something like that...” Yukiko said in an annoyed tone. She cuddled up next to her hubby again, “I don’t have a towel but here, I’ll help you dry off.”

After Yu had managed to calm his wife down, Nanako turned to her blonde friend who was still muttering to himself. “Teddie what are you doing?” Teddie let out a frustrated sigh. “Argh! I’m sorry Nana-chan. I was hoping I’d be done by now. You see I was looking for more shells like Ai-chan asked so you and her can finish your shell picture thingy and I saw this really good looking one. But when I tried to pick it up this thing crawled out!” Teddie scooted back to reveal a hermit crab scuttling in the sand. “I tried to give him some of the other shells as a trade, but he isn’t cooperating!”

“Hey man, what did I tell you about heckling the wildlife? Knock it off already,” Yosuke berated. “Ohhh. But I can’t give up now! Look at it! The shell it has doesn’t have a single chip on it. And it’s so shiny too. The ones I have may not be as nice, but I do have some that are bigger so it’s a fair trade, right?” Teddie’s lessons with Kashiwagi had really helped Teddie open up his mind and expand his knowledge on certain things, but it was obvious he hadn’t taught him the lesson on crabs not understanding the concept of “fairness” yet. Still, there was a certain humor in seeing the boy trying to haggle with a crustacean.

“Umm. I think if he doesn’t want to trade you should leave him alone.” Nanako said sitting next to her friend. Grabbing his bucket, she gave a quick look over all the other shells he had collected. “The ones you have already are good. We should have more than enough to finish now.” Teddie looked conflicted for a few moments on giving up but then he slowly nodded, “Yeah…I just wanted to get you the best shells I could find to really make your castle shine.” Nanako tried to cheer him up by giving him a pat on the back, “It already does because I’ve had all of you guys help me with it silly.”

This seemed to make Teddie feel better. Nanako, tilted her head as she watched the crab move about. “That is a pretty shell. But I think it looks better if it stayed on him.”

“I guess so. Yosuke said that shell is like its house. I guess I wouldn’t really appreciate someone coming and taking away my home from me.” With the shell issue out of the way, the two took the time to watch and admire the animal.

“He is pretty cool looking huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, How fast do you think I’d be able to run if I had that many legs?”

“Haha! Probably really fast! Like faster than my dad’s car. How strong do you think those claws are?”

Yu watched as the two talked amongst themselves, laughing together. Teddie may be a bit clueless sometimes but that same childish ignorance he possessed for certain things meant he had an uncanny ability to connect with children and think like them. It was what made him such a popular and lovable mascot at Junes and what made him such a dear friend for Nanako. And, maybe even a good father himself one day.

Yu rubbed his forehead. It was a little weird to think about, given his strange origins, but since gaining his human body he now ate, breathed, bled, and slept like everyone else. So, him having children was well within the realm of possibility? Right?

“AH! Nana-chan help! It’s got my finger and it won’t let go!”

Although, it be probably be best if they didn’t find out for sure for a good long while…

“So Yukiko, Nanako’s been showing you around huh?” Yukiko nodded, “Yeah, you guys certainly seemed to have been very busy while I was asleep.” Yosuke puffed out his chest. “Yeah, I run a pretty tight ship around here. But as you can see the results speak for themselves.” Chie looked annoyed, “What do you think you're some sort of foreman now?”

“Well someone has to keep everyone in line! And I have plenty of experience at work keeping Teddie from wandering off to take a nap in the meat freeze or hit on a group of cute girls. And hey, didn’t I ask you to go try and find a good piece of driftwood or something?”

“You’re not my boss. And you never told me what you needed it for anyway!” Chie said. Yu knew exactly what Yosuke was thinking and chimed in in a calm voice. “We need a drawbridge over the moat here.” Chie looked confused. Why not just make another bridge out of sand like the one one you did over there?” Yosuke shook his head, “If you make a permanent bridge like that then anyone could get into the castle! You need something that can be raised and lowered! Like a drawbridge.” The two young men looked at each other in disbelief that they would even need to explain something so obvious. “It’s a sandcastle! No one is getting in! Your taking this thing way to seriously! Can you believe these guys Yukiko?”

Yukiko had been too busy looking over Yosuke’s section of the castle to notice what the others were talking about. “Like what you see?” Yosuke smiled. “I’m no expert but it’s not to shabby either if I do say so myself.” Yosuke may have been trying to act humble and downplay his skills, but his assessment was actually right on the money. It was an average sandcastle through and through. Not bad but nothing spectacular either save for a few details. With a smile, Yukiko pointed to a balcony one of the towers had, “Was this your doing hubby? It’s a lot more complicated the rest of it.”

“What? Hey! Why do you automatically assume it was him? Maybe that’s something I did!” Yukiko was quick to silence Yosuke’s protests. “Don’t try to steal someone else’s credit. It’s very pathetic.” Yu pushed past the now dumbfounded Yosuke to join his wife. “Yeah, I may have helped with a few things.”

“And this bridge too? Yukiko continued to point out things she believed her husband had done and she was right every time. She knew her hubby’s handiwork when she saw it. But then, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Given the layout, one of the towers was missing, and left in the place where it should be, was a mound of sand.

“AHAHAHA -snrk- AAHAHAHAHAa! Teddie! -snrk- Did you do that? AHAHAHAHA!”

The mound of sand looked like someone had tried to either build or fix a tower that had fallen over only to give up halfway. And then, after failing at that, they gave the hill two seashell eyes, a pebble smile, and some seaweed for hair to try and save face.

“Huh? I’m glad you like it so much Yuki-chan, but didn’t make that,” Teddie said, coming over with Nanako after letting their crab friend scurry away. Yukiko failed to notice Chie trying to hide her flustered face.

“Look! -snrk- Look! The way the -snrk- eyes are so far apart and the lop-snrk-sided smile makes it look like he’s melting! AHAHAHAHAHA!”

Once the giggles had run their course and all the tears were wiped from her eyes, Nanako asked her “Big Sis” if she wanted to try and build something too. “I don’t think I’m as good with my hands as you and Hubby are. But, I can certainly help you two with whatever you two want to make if you want.” Nanako nodded. “Okay! But I need to go finish helping Ai first. Come on Teddie.” Yukiko watched the girl scamper off with Teddie lugging his bucket of shells behind him and then turned to her husband. “Where are you working now hubby?” Placing his hand on her shoulder, he ushered her to a new spot where he had collected a sizable amount of sand to work with. “I was thinking of trying my hand at doing something more gothic…”

When they arrived, Yukiko found that behind the large sand pile there was already a big beach blanket laid out. He had already prepared a spot beforehand just for her next to where he would be working! Her hubby is always so on top of things! He then continued further by taking out another umbrella he had stashed away to protect her from the hot sun. Really, it was like she could walk around in a complete daze all day long, completely unaware of her surroundings and what was going on, and Yu would always be their at exactly the right moment to do whatever she needed like open doors for her, move things out of her way, push chairs to her as she sat down, dab her forehead after she starts to sweat from being on her feet for a while… basically anything so she didn’t have to lift a single finger herself.

Speaking of which, he already had already taken her hand and wrapped his arm around the fat of her back to help her to her seat without even having to ask. Mewing, she really got to see her strong hubby’s muscles flex as he dipped her lower and lower and they were given the task to take up more and more of the brunt of her “baby weight.” He was as gentle as he could possibly be, and yet, when he finally let go, her big padded butt still hit the sand with the softest of thuds, sending her gelatinous frame quivering for a second or two. “Oof! That didn’t bother you did it?” Yukiko asked her tummy swell. Kicking off her sandals, Yukiko wiggled her toes and let out a sigh of relief. Reclined back and sprawled out on her blanket, she looked every bit the part of the pampered pregnant bovine her hubby tried to make her, and she liked to imagine herself as. Although, because of the setting, maybe the term “manatee” or “sea cow” would be better suited for her as long as they were on vacation?

“Here. For you my Yuki.” Yukiko opened her eyes to see her hubby handing her a tall glass of lemonade. Yukiko’s eyes lit up behind her sunglasses which she then took off and hung on her bikini top, “Oh thank you hubby! I am feeling a bit parched.” It was just the type of thing she needed. A cool easy to go down drink to quench her thirst. She was still far too full to be able to suck down something as heavy and thick as another one of the milkshakes she had earlier so some lemonade was a nice change of pace. Not that she would have refused either if another milkshake was what was given to her though!

Yu lovingly began to rub her stomach, “I bet, I mean, you two walking around that much after you just woke up? It’s no wonder you needed a drink” Yukiko giggled through her straw. “Yeah…” she thought. Her hubby always knew how to make it seem like she did a lot more physical work than she actually did. But, she WAS teetering on the edge of being nine months pregnant. “Nanako was just so excited…” she mewed lazily, “I didn’t want to disappoint her.” Yu gave the top of her stomach, and by extension, their son, a kiss, causing her to squirm in delight. “I don’t think her “Big Sis” could ever disappoint her. I could tell she really enjoyed it though. But for now, you two just stay right there and take it easy while “daddy” gets to work.” Giving her stomach one last loving pat, Yu turned around and began to pack some sand together.

“Oh I will…” Yukiko said under her breath, blushing as she sipped on her lemonade and watched her hubby’s muscular back as he worked. The lemonade she had been given was loaded with lots sugar. “Made extra sweet for his sweetheart,” he said. A perfect ingredient. So, while her husband worked, she would be working as well. Working to convert it into the energy her baby needed to grow as well as replenishing her own. Then she would use what’s left to continue to add to her growing milk stores. And then, if there was some left still, store the rest in her body to become an even fatter, wider, sexier wife…

Everyone continued to do their own thing. Once Nananko was done helping Ai, she came over to help Yu with his castle, although cathedral may have been a better term to use. Laid out in a row next to him was a serious of “tools,” various splinters of wood at different lengths and widths, different shaped stones, and even a feather. He would alternate through each one, using the best one for the right job to delicately carve and chip away at the sand, creating shapes and designs Yukiko didn’t think were possible. She didn’t even want to get too close for fear that her breath would cause the more fragile looking pieces to crumble away! Chie may have thought that the boys were silly for taking something like building sandcastles so seriously, but Yukiko loved the fact that her Hubby put 110 percent into everything he was doing, whether it be his work at the inn, his hobbies like cooking, his efforts to satisfy her utterly in the bedroom…

Yukiko felt a little bad that some of his interest had fallen to the wayside what with the wedding, the baby, and his Inn duties taking precedent. He still had his cooking, but other things, like his model building, she hadn’t seen him do for months. She was glad the beach had provided an opportunity for him to do something like that again. And of course, him also getting to spend so quality time with his cute little cousin. Yukiko watched as Yu gave Nanako one of his tools, took up her hand with his, and helped guide her hand to gently start carving out the spire he had planned on top of his building’s roof. She couldn’t tell what here hubby was telling her as he did it, but it was no doubt some sort of words of wisdom that pertained to sandcastle building like having a steady hand or patience. Yukiko belly pawing began to get a little more frantic and she excitedly gulped down the rest of her lemonade in an instant.

At that moment her hubby just looked so…fatherly. He would always go how caring and nurturing she was when she could say the exact same thing to him! If she was made to be a mother like he’d like to say, then he was meant to be a father.

Yukiko was broken out of her thoughts by a timely kick from her precious bundle of joy. “Oh! Did I disturb you? Was mama rubbing too hard?,” she whispered softly. Yukiko smiled, “Or maybe your feeling a little left out and want to help your father build a sandcastle too? Don’t you worry, you’ll get to play with dada all you want very soon.”

Eventually, with the sun stating its descent in the sky and the smell of barbeque wafting in the air from Yukiko’s grandparents house, it was time to pack it in. With a final flick of the wrist, the last road connecting all the different castles and buildings together was made and Yosuke declared the Kingdom of Nanako officially completed. “Wait just one minute, let me get my camera!” Yukiko said before her hubby’s hand shot in front of her, already holding it. Yukiko leaned back with how fast the action was but quickly snatched up the camera with a smile, again noting to herself how on top of things her hubby was. Not counting the few the others took with their phones, their had to have been over a hundred pictures taken, all of them used to meticulously document the castles from every angle and distance to get shots of the whole complex together and get some of the finer details some of the buildings displayed. And of course, plenty of shots of all the builders admiring their work too. Yukiko also made sure that in any picture she was in her belly was on prominent display so years from now when they were looking at them as a family, she could point to her stomach and show her son that he was right there with them.

The last picture they took before running out of space on the memory card was one of the entire group that another beach goer was kind enough to take for them. “So Nanako, did you have fun?,” Ai asked the girl as everyone gathered up their things. Nanako nodded, “Uh huh! It’s the most fun I’ve had in like forever!”

“Well we aren’t done yet. After dinner we were all going to check out the festival,” Yu reminded her. “Yeah, and we still have tomorrow too before we leave.” Yukiko added. “It will be nice to get a little more swimming done. I was so focused on digging those moats I hardly even got wet today!” Teddie announced. “Uh Ted, you did remember to put on sunblock, right? Your looking a little red on your back…”

“And hey, maybe if we have time tomorrow, we can build a little more? The top right corner is still looking a little bare don’t you think?” Yosuke said. Naoto did a quick survey of the area and shook her head, “I doubt it. The tide will be coming in soon and looking at the beach, this spot will be completely underwater. It’s good we finished when we did.”

“WHAT!” the boys all seemed to shout in unison. “Hey! Watch it!” Ai shouted as Yosuke sprinted passed her toward the young detective, almost knocking over her beach bag. “Why didn’t you say anything before!” Naoto was shocked by Yosuke getting in her face and didn’t know quite what to say, “Well…I mean…you can’t expect…a sandcastle to…”

“Nana-chan’s castle…” Teddie pouted.

“All that work gone like that? How unfair is that?” Kanji groaned.

“No wait. We can fix this.” Yosuke said in a panic. “Kanji! Teddie! We just need to find a way to stop the water. What if we all build a series of trenches to divert the water away from the castle while the girls build a wall here? It doesn’t have to look pretty it just needs to big…”

“Come on you guys! Knock it off. Dinner is almost ready and I’m starving!” Chie complained. Everyone watched as the boys were tripping over themselves to try and muster some sort of defense against the elements. The smile that had adorned Nanako’s face had turned into a frown. Unlike her other sandcastle which she quickly got over being destroyed, this was a sandcastle that they had all made together, so she couldn’t help but feel a little sad that it was to be destroyed soon. But what really made the sensitive girl even more upset was the fact that the others were upset.

“They’re acting pretty silly. Aren’t they?” Nanako looked to her side to Ai was standing next to her. “I mean, we both know it can’t stay up forever right? It’s made of sand after all.” Nanako gave a somber “Yeah” in agreement. “Like, even if it weren’t for the ocean. That sand will dry eventually and the whole thing would crumble, Wouldn’t it?” Nanako nodded. “I guess so.”

“And what if it rained? Do they plan on staying out here with an umbrella? I wouldn’t!” Nanako thought about what Ai said and started to laugh at the ridiculousness of it. “No, me neither!”

“And the beach can get really windy. If that happens it will all blow away!”

“Yeah! And what if someone comes along and walks all over it because they couldn’t see it when it gets dark?” Ai couldn’t help but smile at the little girl’s innocence. Of course, if a person were to destroy the castle it would be because it was an accident. It would take someone really bad to do it on purpose. “See, us smart girls understand these types of things while the boys are a little slow on the uptake.” Because of her age, Nanako didn’t quite understand what Ai meant by that, but she laughed along with her all the same.

“You know what I think?” Ai asked. “Why wait for the ocean to have all the fun? I say since we built this, we should be the ones to un-build it.” Nanako brought her hands to her in surprise at what Ai was saying, “you mean wreck it ourselves?” Ai smirked, “Yeah. You ever play with dominos? You don’t set them up just to put them away. Knocking them over is half the fun.” Walking over to one of the towers, Ai lifted her leg and with a dainty “kick” knocked it over. Nanako looked on in awe at what the girl had just done and quickly looked around to see if anyone had seen. Ai just tilted her head and gestured her over to the next tower. Nanako looked a little unsure, but after a little more goading from her new friend, closed her eyes and slowly brought her foot down on the coastal fortification. Opening her eyes, Nanako looked to Ai and covered her mouth to hide a giggle like she had done something naughty. “Fun, right?” Ai said as she stomped over to the closest wall and kicked it down too. The next tower to fall by her hand Nanako did with her eyes open and by the third she got completely into it, taking a running leap on top of the doomed structure. Soon both girls were stomping around, laughing while laying waste to the kingdom they had just made.

“HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” Teddie screamed when he noticed what was going on, Drawing everyone’s attention to the two girls. “WHAT? WAIT A MINUTE! NO! STOP!” Yosuke yelled. However, the two girls were having too much of a good time to notice the boys’ protests. Unlike her male cohorts, Chie shouted words of encouragement. “WOO HOO! YOU GO NANAKO!” Kanji stood completely stunned looking as though a knife was stabbed through his chest when his part of the castle was next on the chopping block to which Naoto tried patting him on the back to comfort the gentle brute.

While Kanji was left speechless, Yukiko was left out of breath. “HAHAHAHA! -snrk- Nanako’s looks like one of those giant -snrk- city destroying monsters! HAHA! Nanako-zilla!” AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!” Seeing a still standing structure nearby and wanting to join in, the snickering Yukiko waddled over and gave it a nudge. “-snrk- Whoops! Hehehehe…”

Unlike the other boys, Yu didn’t make a scene. It brought him great joy to see his little cousin having what looked like a complete blast. And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to join in like his wife had. Honestly, it was a little painful to see all he had built flattened like a pancake. He liked to think himself a creator, not a destroyer. So, he just sat back and watched with a smile, if not also clenched fists.

With the last piece of the castle in ruins, Yosuke dropped to his knees, grabbed his head and groaned, “ARRRGGHHHH! LETS JUST GO AND EAT ALREADY!”

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“…and then me and big bro made another tower that was this high!” Nanako leaned back so far on the bench that she almost fell flat on her back, but she was able to recover. Sachiko sat quietly and nodded as she listened to the little girl speak. As she found out, her grandson-in-law’s cousin could be quiet the chatterbox when given the opportunity. All she had asked was if she had enjoyed her time at the beach today and it turn into an entire tale, complete with pictures! Hearing the back door to the house shut, Sachiko figured it was her husband coming, “Okay dear, it’s time to put that camera away. It sounds like it’s time to eat.” Nanako let out a slightly sad sounding “okay” before handing the camera back over to Yu but perked back up when the old woman said that she can finish showing her the pictures later.

Everyone was sat around a long picnic table with two separate grills spaced out at both ends. The two grandparents, Yukiko, Yu, Nanako, were sat near one of the grills while Teddie, Yosuke, Chie, and Ai were sat at the other. Being right in the middle of the two, Naoto and Kanji had the choice of either one. “Hurry up. Your keeping our guest waiting!” Sachiko snapped at her husband while clapping her hands together as if to say "chop chop!" It was another instance of her previous occupation as head of the Amagi Inn coming through. Even after being years removed from the job, old habits seemed to die hard. And Chie thought her job at the Inn could be demanding at time now! She could only imagine the type of tight ship Yukiko’s grandmother ran back in her heyday!

Yukiko’s grandfather didn’t say a word to defend himself. He knew his wife very well from their years of running the Inn together and not settling for anything short of perfection, that was just how she was. Besides, he knew she was excited at the chance to play hostess to a group of people again and honestly, he was too a little.

The placing of the tray he was caring in the center of the table was met with a collective “woah” from the dinner party. They could tell just by the sight that the wide selection of beef, chicken, pork, shellfish, and vegetables were of the highest quality and very expensive. Even a rich girl like Ai was impressed that Yukiko’s grandparents would go to such lengths for a couple of their granddaughter’s friends, especially when it included the likes of Chie and Yosuke. Glancing over at the older woman, Yu noticed her covering up the tiniest of prideful smiles on her face with her teacup. After setting out the dipping sauce Yukiko’s grandfather gave the go ahead for everyone to eat.

The far half of the table wasted no time in snatching up what they wanted. It wasn’t a second after they heard the words “dig in” that the sound of sizzling meat could be heard. The other half of the table had a more measured approach. Not wanting Nanako having to reach over the hot grill and potentially hurting herself, Yu helped her make up a small plate first before worrying about his own. Still feeling the effects of her earlier snacking, Yukiko was also a little slow on the draw to place something on the grill for herself as well and as the hosts, Sachiko and her husband didn’t dare think to think about grilling a thing until everyone else had gotten well underway first.

Yu continued to help Nanako by telling her how long to keep her meat cooking to get the right flavor and when it was done, the little girl carefully lifted the sliver of beef off the grill and put it in her mouth, slipping in a finger to push it the rest of the way in. “Wow, this is really good!” She beamed. Nibbling on her own piece, Naoto had to agree. “I don’t think even most restaurants could get meat this good. You must have gotten up quiet early this morning to get the first pick of the day at the market.”

Yukiko’s usually stoic grandfather grew a sly smile, “Well when you’ve been around as long as we have, running a prestigious Inn, you make a lot of friends and connections.” Batting the chicken around in his mouth to take in all it's flavor, Yu began to imagine all the dishes he could make with ingredients like this and wondered for a moment why the Inn didn’t use meat this good, although he quickly figured that even for the Amagi Inn the cost would be too great in the long run as well as there being a potential quantity problem. Still, he figured he could cook up some really great things for special occasions at least, if the older Amagi was willing to give him his source that is.

After gulping down a rather delectable shrimp, Kanji began to reach for another only for his chopsticks to collide with the sticks of Yukiko’s grandmother. Quickly retracting his hand, Kanji sat up even straighter than he had been sitting, and apologized “No…I…uh…sorry. After you.” Sachiko stared for a few moments at the troublesome looking boy before retracting her own chopsticks. “No, no, after you. You’re our guest here, remember?” Kanji wanted to again offer letting the older women have it but after realizing she wasn’t going to back down until he took it, he reluctantly scooped it up. “Thanks...you know, for the food and stuff…and for uh, letting us stay here.”

Sachiko continued to look at the delinquent inquisitively. She couldn’t help but feel she may have been too quick to judge the young man. He certainly looked the part of a rude unruly teenager what with his style of dress, crude way of speaking, and that awful hair but deep down there seemed to be a fairly considerate boy. As her granddaughter had told her, he also seemed to be dating the detective girl and she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, so she had to have seen something good in him.

Right now as well as at the wedding as he tripped over his words she could tell he was at least trying to mind his manners. That was a lot more than what could be said about some of her OTHER guests.

“UH? Teddie! What are you doing! I was cooking that!”

“Aren’t these things usually a free for all? Looks like you just weren’t fast enough!”

“This isn’t that kind of setting! Besides, that’s only before you start cooking it. Once it’s already on the grill it’s safe!”

“Hey! Haven’t you ever heard of ladies first?”

“Yeah, but I don’t see one around.”

“Knock it off, your going to knock the sauce over!”

Sachiko narrowed her eyes in annoyance while looking across the table before turning her attention back to Kanji. “You know Kanji, you’re a little rough around the edges, but I think you have the chance to become a respectable boy yet.” Kanji’s eyes widened in surprise, not really sure what she meant or how to respond. “Oh…uh is that so?” Sachiko nodded, “Of course. Really your biggest problem is your image. Get some nicer clothes without holes in them, get rid of those ugly piercings, cover up that scar, and stop doing whatever it is you are doing to that hair of yours and I think you’ll clean up quite nicely.” Kanji grew less tense and let his shoulders relax, letting out a puff of air as he did so. Funny thing was, he DID try to do what she was suggesting only to be met with laughs and ridicule by his friends.

Sachiko gaze fell upon the small bluenette sitting next to him. “"And I'm sure you'll help him be the best man he can be. Behind every great man is an equally great woman."

Naoto blushed and look down at her lap, “Thank you for the vote of confidence, but we have only been dating for a short while…” The type of advice Yukiko’s grandmother had imparted on her sounded more like something for a husband and wife than two high schoolers that had been dating for a few months. Plus, she didn’t want to say that it was her who ultimately decided AGAINST the sort of change she was suggesting and very much told her boyfriend so. She thought Kanji was fine just the way he was. Feeling as though the criticism Kanji was getting was partly her fault, Naoto whispered a quick “sorry” to her boyfriend who looked a confused at what she was apologizing to him for.

While Sachiko was trying to impart her words of wisdom on another couple she saw in need, her husband’s attention had been drawn to his granddaughter. Unlike his wife, he didn’t take any issue with his granddaughter’s “baby weight” or increased appetite. His wife could be a little on the harsher side about it but really all he wanted was for her to be happy and at every dinner during their visit she certainly seemed to be. That’s why this dinner was sticking out to him. His granddaughter didn’t look like she was eating as much as their last dinner at the Inn before they had left a few weeks ago. With her due date even closer part of him figured she would have been eating even more and prepared accordingly! She had been known to eat pretty slow if she found something particularly tasty in order to savor every bite, but right now it looked more like she was playing with the scrap of pork belly in her mouth rather than relishing in its flavor. Her movement was more sluggish as well. Not that leisurely and steady pace she usually took, but a more tired one. Yukiko had come to not be shy about reaching for that second dinner roll before having swallowed the last of her first completely, but as with the last few morsels he watched her eat, instead of going for another immediately, she would lean back and it could be minutes before she tried for something else, all the while rubbing her round tummy vigorously. It was all very peculiar and he finally decided to say something about it, “Is something the matter Yukiko?”

Suddenly, the eyes of everyone who had hear him turned to the young gravid girl. Looking over her granddaughter, the relative cleanliness of her table area, the absence of anything on Yukiko’s side of the grill and the fact that most of the various meats and vegetables closest to her, the ones she would have surely gotten to first, being almost untouched, Sachiko connected the dots.

“You’re not eating? Do you have a fever?” Before Yukiko could say a word, the old women’s hand was already on her forehead, “You’re not warm…”

Yu found it sweet and a little funny that while her grandmother was Yukiko’s biggest critic when it came to her weight, the moment she didn’t display those overeating tendencies the first thing she thought was that she must be sick. Maybe she had grown a little more comfortable with Yukiko’s weight than she realized? In any case, Yu wasn’t too worried about it. He knew exactly what the problem was. Even a big girl like her had her limits and she was even still trying to “work off” all the cavalcade of rich ice cream and thick milkshakes she had earlier.

“No, I’m fine,” she said, batting her grandmother’s hand away. “I’m just not that hungry right now.” Bowing as far as her lap filling baby belly would allow, Yukiko apologized, “Excuse me for being rude. I know you went through a lot of trouble preparing all this for us.” Yukiko’s grandfather shrugged, “no need to apologize. If you’re not hungry then you’re not hungry. Nothing we can do about that.”

Yukiko was kicking herself (which given the swelling size of her maternal rear would probably have been very possible if she had the strength to lift her chunkier leg back up that high), for overeating this afternoon and not leaving enough room for barbecue. Not only was it setting a bad example for her son about spoiling his dinner, but she knew from all her other visit to her grandparents’ summer home that they always did something like this. Her grandparents would always get the best meats and fresh produce money could buy for a barbecue, but she never had let herself truly enjoy it.

The silly her of the past with her worries about things like dieting and looking thin would always cause her to hold back and go for the bare minimum, avoiding the fattier looking meats and being content with some tofu or grilled vegetables. But as she had found out this past year was that generally the fattier meats are always the tastiest! This should have been her chance to make up for all those past summers, but alas, she couldn’t eat another bite. Instead of the rumblings you’d expect her stomach to make upon smelling such mouthwatering beef and roasted chicken, the only noises it made was its groans and sounds of churning dairy as it continued to digest it’s milky contents. “Oh well,” she thought. It wouldn’t be healthy for her or her son to force it. It was the other side of making sure her baby had all he needed by eating until she was full without a care. Once she actually was full, it was time to stop. Next time she’ll just have to pace herself better.

Sachiko was a little skeptical about what seemed like a sudden change in her granddaughter’s appetite, but suddenly, it was like something “clicked” in her mind. “I see, so you finally decided to take what I’ve been telling you to heart.” Sachiko placed a hand on Yukiko’s shoulder, wincing a bit by how much her hand sunk into her softer flesh. “Why, I almost had a heart attack when I first saw how much you had grown since I last saw you, but I guess it took getting this big to finally open your eyes. It’s best to nip this “little” problem in the bud now before it gets any worse. Thin and delicate is what it is pleasing and I’m sure your husband will appreciate your efforts."

Yu couldn’t hold back his smiling from Yukiko’s grandmother’s continued ignorance. Both in his tastes and in the belief that Yukiko had somehow decided to slim down. How would she react to hear that the only reason Yukiko hadn’t consumed half of what was on the tray herself was that she had already stuffed herself with enough sweets to choke a whole cow a few hours earlier? And that she had taken a long nap afterwards on top of that! If anything, the short vacation at her grandparents house only helped ensure she was going to go back home to the Inn five pounds heavier! And right under her nose too.

“I’m guessing part of the problem is that you haven’t been keeping up with your exercises after I left so you will need to get right on that.”

Yukiko pouted, “Well, I’ve been doing my stretches, but as I’ve told you before my husband is already very pleased with how I look…”

The rest of dinner Yukiko had to listen to her grandmother’s various weight loss tips that she didn’t ask for. Once her grandmother got going it was almost impossible to get her to stop, especially when she believed herself to be in the “right,” so Yukiko’s continued attempts to tell her grandmother that her advice was appreciated but unneeded fell on deaf ears. All the tiny jabs at her weight made a part of Yukiko want to pick up the biggest, juiciest, most fattening looking piece of beef and eat it right in front her. Certainly, that would get the message across! But again, all that afternoon snacking kept that idea from going anywhere. She would just have to imagine the horrified look on her grandmother’s face. Yu noticed his wife’s eyes roll to the side and a tiny smile creep onto her face, the same thing she’d do whenever she started to zone out, and he had a pretty good idea what she was daydreaming about. He found a lot of his grandmother-in-law’s old “home remedies” for weight loss amusing to listen to. Not only did most of them sound like complete nonsense but there were one or two her could have sworn would have had the complete opposite effect!

Once everyone had their fill, Yu helped his grandfather gather everyone’s plates and take them back to the house. The second he turned on the faucet and picked up a sponge however, the robust older man shooed him away. “Now I hope you don’t have the guests back at the Inn do their own dishes.” Yu understood where his grandfather-in-law was coming from, but the responsible perfectionist in him was still a bit bothered to leave a mess for someone else to clean up. He offered to at least clean his and Nanako’s plate but was once again rebuffed. “Weren’t you all going to go check out the festival? You don’t want it getting too late, now would you?”

With the sun not having even completely disappeared over the horizon yet, it was still fairly early, so taking a few minutes to do the dishes wouldn’t matter, but Yu realized the man was trying to give him an “excuse” to leave and backed down. “Yeah, I guess so. Nanako would be disappointed if we missed the parade,” Yu chuckled. On his way out, Jiro pointed out the spot in the fridge where he had put the leftovers, “Just in case you needed it later for some reason.” Yu laughed again; his new family was beginning to know him far too well!

Outside, Nanako had once again brought the camera out as was finishing up showing Yukiko’s grandmother the rest of the sandcastle pictures. “So, I take it you all are going to check out the festival now?” Sachiko asked once Nanako was finished. Yu nodded. “Are you going to come with us too?” Nanako asked. “Me? No dear. After living here for a while that festival is nothing I haven’t seen before. Besides, I find it can get far too noisy for my taste.”

The tactless Teddie chimed in with the innocent of smiles on his face, “Too noisy? Wow, what an old person thing to say.” Muffled protests followed as Yosuke’s hand wrapped around Teddie’s face and covered his mouth. “Shut up! Do you have to say everything that comes to your mind!?” Sachiko looked annoyed. She still found herself being taken aback by some of her granddaughter’s choice of friends. Whoever this boy’s parents were obviously didn’t discipline him enough. Maybe it was some sort of charity on her granddaughter part?

She turned back to the little girl sitting next to her, “You all go an enjoy the festival. But, don’t stay out too late. I want everyone up bright and early for breakfast. My husband has something planned for you all as well.”

Chie patted her tight stomach. “Oof, sounds good to me. I need the exercise after all that meat.” Instead of taking a cue from her best friend however, Yukiko declined to go. “I think I’m going to stay here too.” Th young mother yawned, “We’re both feeling a bit tired.” Her and her son had both had a long “fulfilling” day. He had seemed to calm down significantly since dinner. It may not have been late for everyone else but it was certainly late for baby and the last thing she wanted to do was disturb him from his slumber by bumping into someone or something while waddling around and trying to maneuver through what was sure to be a crowded festival. And honestly, even if she were a “regular sized” pregnant woman, being on her feet that long might have been too much. She didn’t want to slow everyone else down by having to rest at a bench for a while and getting to the festival itself seemed like a daunting task. Even if she did make it there, by the time it was time to return back she might be too tired to make the trip! As amusing as her husband having to help roll her back to the house was to imagine, Yukiko felt a nice quiet evening at her grandparents’ house would be best for her. As with dinner however, she did feel a little saddened that she was going to miss out on all that festival food. Takoyaki, dango, crepes, taiyaki, cotton candy, candy apples, Yakisoba! It all was so unfair. With so many delicious foods out there how was a poor fat girl like her ever supposed to have room for it all?

Yu offered to stay with her, but Yukiko told him that he needed to take Nanako and that she would be fine. After receiving a long kiss on the lips and one equally as long on the top of her stomach, Yukiko watched as the part headed across the beach toward the lights of the festival, the faint sound of music riding on the wind. “It was so hot today and I did get a little sandy, maybe I should take a bath?” Yukiko mused to herself as she made her way inside the house. “Lets hope grandma and grandpa’s tub big enough for mommy’s new big butt or else we might be stuck there until dada comes back…”

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“Woow!” Nanako said with wide bright eyes as the group made it to the festival grounds. Two lines of stalls lined the area as far down as the eye could see. Many of the stalls were what they were familiar with, serving the same types of food and the offering the same types of traditional games that their own town festivals had. But there was also a plethora of events and activities available that made the event seem more like a small carnival than a festival. They even had a couple of rides for children! Yu could see Nanako was eyeing the carousel she could see spinning down the way as they got their bearings. The coastal town may have had a lot in common with there own town of Inaba, but by being next to the ocean it was still more of a vacation spot than a town in the middle of the mountains. And with more people coming to visit, that meant a larger grander festival to soak up all those tourist dollars.

“Woah! They have one of these?” Chie said in amazement as she took a few steps ahead. “Huh, what is it?” Yosuke asked. “It’s one of those surfing machine things, look!” The others stopped for a minute and watched as a guest came into view and the machine was started up. The machine shot water up a sloped tank, creating a simulation of a massive wave that the guest then rode on a boogie board. It looked like it was both a ride and a game with prizes given out to people depending on how long they could stay on the board. “Hey Yosuke? Wanna try?” Chie beamed. “No way. I don’t know the first thing about surfing and neither do you!”

“Aww. It can’t be that much different from snowboarding though can it?”

“Well I don’t want to figure that out if that’s true or not with all those people watching! Besides, I didn’t bring my swimsuit with me!”

Everyone gathered around and made the plan that if they got separated instead of trying to find each other in the crowd they would all meet back at the house.

“Right! Come on Nanako. Let’s goooooo!” Taking up Nanako’s hand, Teddie and the girl ran down the path toward the rides with Yu in hot pursuit. It wasn’t long after they had left that Ai mention something about wondering if any of the stores nearby were still open. “Typical. We come to a festival and the only thing you want to do is shop?,” Yosuke teased. “What else do you want me to do? Eat some cheap greasy disgusting festival food?” She retorted. The two started to bicker until one of them said something about “kicking the other’s ass” at one of the nearby games causing the two to walk off together. Finally, now being all alone with Kanji and Naoto and not wanting to be the third wheel while also not wanting to go with Ai and Yosuke lest she be caught as the two’s punching bag for the night, Chie turned to where Yu, Teddie, and Nanako ran off to and followed. “Hey! Wait for me!”

“I guess it’s just you and me tonight…hehe…” Kanji laughed nervously. “I guess so…” Naoto said, equally as flustered. What had at first been a night out with their friends had instead quickly turned into an impromptu date. It took a minute, but Kanji was able to take a deep breath and calm himself down. “There was nothing to be nervous about”, he told himself. He had been on several dates with Naoto at this point in their relationship. Just because this one took him by surprise doesn’t mean it would be any different. No, in fact, he would have thought up some excuse for the two of them to go off on their own at some point tonight anyway damn it!

The two took a lap around the festival grounds together. Her regular detective attire too hot for the beach anyway, Naoto was continuing to try and dress more “womanly,” wearing her sleeveless white low-cut top with blue undershirt and black pants.

She thought she could feel some the other festival goers’ eyes fall on her as she walked through the crowd, but luckily no one approached her and tried to strike up a conversation. Something she was thankful for after having heard of Chie’s encounter while at the beach. She didn’t think she could take being in that kind of situation. Not being heckled, she had found, was one of the perks of being in a relationship with someone who going only on appearance looked like they could break you over their knee.

The two of them stopped to look at some of the shows going on, the parade, a musical act, a small one man play. Eventually they had come back around to where they had started and next, they began to look around at all the games there were to play. “Oh hey. It looks like they have an oversized version of Daruma Otoshi over there.” Just like the regular version, a daruma doll sat atop a tower made of five colored wooden section pieces with the object being to knock each piece out with a wooden mallet without the rest of the tower falling. The two watched as the person playing currently playing reared his mallet back and stuck at the tower’s base. The piece wasn’t hit hard enough to knock it out of position all the way, causing the tower to tip over and fall directly onto the player, much to the enjoyment of the crowd. “So, what do you say? Want to play?” Kanji asked. “Why? I have absolutely no interest in that kind of thing” she answered quickly. Kanji wasn’t really expecting that type of answer from his girlfriend. Sure, he figured she might not want to play, but he didn’t think she would be so dismissive about it. “Oh, uh, yeah. That hammer looks like it may be too heavy anyway…”

Next, he saw a game where the object was to traverse a horizontal rope ladder attached at one point at the ends. Make it to the end and you win a prize. It seemed simple enough, but yet again, Naoto not only seemed uninterested but downright negative to the idea. “There is always a catch with games like these you know.”

Walking past all the game stalls, Kanji tried to find something his girlfriend might enjoy, that’s when he saw two familiar faces, or at least two familiar heads, knelt over at the goldfish scooping game. A game more meant for kids, the two older players stuck out like sore thumbs. “Hey Yosu-“

“Sssssh!” Yosuke interrupted. He was staring intently at what looked like the biggest goldfish in the tank. With his paper net in hand he waited for the perfect moment to strike at his prey and then…only for the paper to give way as he tried to lift the fish out of the water. “DAMN IT!” Yosuke covered his mouth, hoping one of the kids around didn’t hear his outburst. Ai smiled smugly, “You really suck at this Hanamura.” Taking her own paper net, Ai went after the same fish Yosuke had and failed just as he had. “Ugh!” From the tiny piles of broken nets next to the both of them, Kanji figured they both weren’t very good. “How long have you guys been at this?” He asked.

“I don’t know. Thirty minutes? It will all be worth it once I get this fish and rub it in her face though.”

“PUH-lease. All I have to do is wait until you burn through your meager pocket money and I’ll have basically won by default.”

“Ha! You may try to come off as being graceful, but your hands are as delicate as a rhino. You’ll put your dad in the poor house before you get that fish!”

Ai took Yosuke by the back of his neck and tried to force his face into the water before the two of them got yelled at by the stand owner for horsing around. Kanji gave Naoto a look to suggest they play, but she was quick to shut that down too. “And what would I want with a fish?”

“I mean, you don’t have to keep it, you can out it back. We can just do it for fun.”

“I fail to see the what amusement could be had.”

Kanji was beginning to feel a little worried that this “date” wasn’t going so well as well as frustrated with how Naoto was acting. No matter what kind of game they came across Naoto always had some sort of flimsy excuse for not wanting to play, if that! Eventually she started to just say no to things without giving any sort of explanation at all! Each no sounded more and more annoyed than the last, like it was his fault for not being able to read her mind. Trying to goad her to try a round of ring toss with various “come ons” and promises that it will “be fun" was met with equally terse dismissals. Starting to get annoyed, Kanji eventually threw up his hands. "Don't want to do this, don't want to do that...well what the hell do you want to do then?" Naoto recoiled a bit and sent his frustration right back. “Look, if YOU want to play these childish games go right on ahead but I don’t have any interest, OKAY?” Kanji didn’t raise his voice, but he harshly said back “Well, if you don’t want to do anything then why didn’t you just stay back at the house?”

Naoto crossed her arms and with a huff marched over to a nearby bench and sat down. Kanji followed and sat down on the opposite end. The two didn’t speak to each other for a while. Kanji was initially okay with the silence. With both their emotions running high, he didn’t want to say anything he would regret later. He feared things would break down into an argument with him saying he was right, and she was being stubborn while she’d say he was being pushy. Not the correct way to mend things at all. But as time went on and he started to calm down he knew he had to say something. There was no way they could go back to the house as things were now.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to push you to do things you didn’t want to do,” he said softy.

“I just wanted for you to have a good time and I thought if I got you to at least try something you’d find you’d enjoy it. I didn’t mean to upset you or nothin.” Naoto dug into her arm with her fingernail and bit her lower lip. She knew Kanji would never mean her any sort of harm. He was far to caring and kind for that. But, her current agitation meant she couldn’t really acknowledge that right now.

Pondering about it some more, Kanji knew Naoto was a logical thinker. Whenever she did something or gave an opinion, she had very good justification as to why she did so. Maybe that’s why he had gotten so frustrated with her? Her chocking up the reasons for not wanting to participate in anything to the games simply being “silly” or “childish” didn’t sound like her at all. There had to be something else at the heart of the matter. While Naoto may have been able to infer what that was all on her own if the situation were reversed, Kanji knew he wasn’t nearly as smart as she was so he figured the best and fastest way to find out what the reason was would be to just ask her.
“So, why aren’t you interested in any of that junk?”

“Huh?” Naoto was taken by surprise by the question.

Kanji repeated himself for her. At first the young detective tried to once again sum it up as her just finding the festival games and uninteresting and foolish, but a stern look from her boyfriend made her realize that he knew as well as she did that those were in themselves, excuses.

Seeing the hesitation in his girlfriend, Kanji slide closer along the bench to her. Taking a deep gulp after hesitating for a while, Naoto finally stammered out, “Maybe, I was a little nervous about messing up…”

“Nervous?” Kanji repeated wide eyed. Naoto’s face grew more flustered with every passing second. “You saw what happened with that man playing that daruma otoshi game. What if I screwed up and got laughed at too?”

Naoto couldn’t remember the last time she had played actual games at a festival. Some of the ones she had seen tonight she had never even heard of! And she did have a tendency to over analyze the simplest of things. She figured a comical failure of her part was inevitable. “I suppose it does sound rather foolish, doesn't it?”

Kanji didn’t think it was stupid at all. He knew exactly what it was like to fear being laughed at given what some would call his “strange” hobby. But with the help of Yu he learned that to accept himself, not worry about what others thought of him, and to realize that his hobby wasn’t strange at all. He wanted to help his girlfriend but as much as he’d like to reaffirm how smart and amazing she is and that she would have nothing to fear, he felt words wouldn’t quiet cut it.

Slapping his hands on his knees Kanji rose off the bench. “Where are you going?” Naoto asked. “Watch me.” Naoto didn’t like the grin on Kanji’s face as he said it. It was the type of smile she had seen a few times while fighting shadows in the TV world and one that usually meant he was about to do something reckless. That’s when she noticed him walking over to a familiar wave tank they had seen earlier.

“Kanji! What are you doing?!” Naoto whispered loudly. She tried to wave him back over to her but he just continued on to the short queue, looking back at her with a dopey smile. “Hey, wait!” she called, jumping up from the bench after him, her sizable chest bouncing rhythmically with each step. With her chest having been bound a majority of the time until recently, Naoto still hadn’t gotten quite used to the fact that some actions and motions she had done previously before without incident could now send her freed breasts bobbing and jiggling if she wasn’t careful but she was too focused on what her boyfriend was doing to really notice right now. Pressing herself up against the small chain-link fence separating the tank from where spectators could view the riders, she waited with bated breath for Kanji to appear on the deck of the tank.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before her boyfriend appeared in swim shorts holding a board. As the machine roared to life, Naoto found herself hoping that Kanji had at least some sort of experience with this type of thing that he had neglected to tell her about. The calm assertive smirk on his face seemed to suggest he knew what he was doing, but it could have also just been impulsive foolhardiness. Scanning the crowd, Kanji was able to pick Naoto out, giving her a wink before readying his board to drop in.

The small curvaceous cutie was standing on pins and needles waiting for what happened next. Once she saw Kanji jump, she turned away, expecting him to wipe out the instant he hit the water, but with her eyes glued shut, she heard no “splash” or “smack” to suggest anything of the sort. Opening her eyes, she not only saw Kanji still on the board, but he seemed to be holding his own!

“Wow! Looks like we have a natural here!,” the event operator announced on the intercom. Kanji leaned to the right, cutting across the tank, stopping before hitting the wall, and then cut across to the other side.

Naoto was in awe as he even managed to do a tiny spin, giving a small excited clap while bouncing on her toes. When looking at the timer, she saw he had managed to stay on the board for a full minute! Everything seemed to be going well, but that didn’t last. All it took was Kanji to lean a little bit too much to the front for him to lose it. Flipping forward, he took one of the biggest faceplants Naoto had ever seen. The impact was so forceful, Naoto swore Kanji’s back bend far enough for his feet touch the ground in front of his face like a scorpion tail going in for a strike. If that wasn’t enough his swimsuit caught one of the water jets, forcing it down and exposing his behind to everyone for a split second before he managed to catch it and pull it back up. The only solace Naoto found was that she had managed to find a shop selling swimsuits earlier and convinced Kanji to change. There was a good chance he could have lost it entirely if he was still wearing his speedo.

“Woah-ho-ho! That was a wipe out for the ages!” The operator joked. Naoto could hear some of the spectators laughing to themselves after getting over the initial cringe of the crash. Naoto clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. She was just watching, and she felt embarrassed! She could only imagine what her boyfriend must be feeling right now! She quickly ran to the exit and waited for Kanji to appear, but instead of him slinking around the corner with his head hanging in shame like she expected, he seemed rather nonchalant about the whole thing.

“Kanji! Are you okay?” Naoto ran up and rubbed the spot on the bottom of his chin where he landed. “Oh yeah, I’ve taken hits way worse. You know that.” A group of middle schoolers walked by and once they noticed Kanji standing there, started to laugh all over again.

In addition to her second hand embarrassment flaring up again, Naoto actually started to feel a little angry that they were laughing at her boyfriend’s expense, but it was when they locked eyes with Kanji that their laughter slowly petered out. It seemed even when smiling Kanji could be intimidating.

Naoto was frankly perplexed by her boyfriends continued grin. “Aren’t you embarrassed? Angry?”

“Huh? Why?” Always so sincere, Naoto could tell Kanji wasn’t playing dumb. He honestly didn’t know what she was talking about. “I mean, look what happened. Doing that in front of all those people…being laughed at…”

“Maybe a little, but Eh, so what? I’m sure I’m not the first guy to do something like that. By tomorrow I’m sure no one will even remember. Besides, I had a good time despite everything.”
It might have been a little easier for someone who could get anyone to stop laughing at them by doing something as simple as walking near to them to say it was no big deal, but still, Naoto could see where Kanji was coming from. Maybe it didn’t make sense to deny herself something that could be fun experience just because a few seconds of embarrassment. After all, it was like Kanji said, with so many people of varying skill levels coming and going each day, who would really remember her if she were to mess up somehow?

Kanji had really gone far and beyond what she felt most would have done for her today. First he wore he wore that “provocative” swimsuit at the beach just so she wouldn’t feel self-conscious about her own and now he put his physical health on the line and risked being made a laughing stock of so she wouldn’t be afraid, not of her failure, but her potential for failure. And he did stuff like that for her every day! The least she could do in return was try and have a nice evening at the festival with him. Really, that wasn’t even asking much, if anything at all!

“Listen whatever hang ups you have about being laughed at…well… whenever you start to feel that way you could always just think of me. Whatever you do I guarantee it won’t be as bad as that.” That was the last thing Naoto needed to hear before she moved in close and gave Kanji a surprise hug that turned his face as red as his chin. “Uhhh…and if anyone gives you any trouble, I’ll pound them!,” he added.

“I umm…appreciate the offer Kanji,” Naoto said after breaking contact “but lets not do anything that will get the Amagis in trouble.” That, and she didn’t want to think she was completely helpless!

“Still,” Naoto smiled warmly, “Thank you Kanji, for doing all this to try and help me get over my fear of failure.” Kanji scratched the top of his head, “You got it, but honestly before I fell, I was kind of hoping to show you that you shouldn’t expect the worst of things by succeeding at something I’ve never done before…”

Naoto’s mouth dropped. “So, you went with something like that? Why would you ever think that would work out in your favor with no experience at all?”

“I dunno, it felt like something Senpai would have been able to do…”

Naoto brought a hand to her mouth and started to laugh, “Your nothing like Narukami, Kanji.” Her warm smile returning, Naoto start to blush and stood up against he shocked boyfriend once again. “But that isn’t a bad thing, and something I am quite thankful for. How about we try this “date” again?”

With her standing so close and not sure if he should go in for a hug this time or possibly kiss her or not, the gawking Kanji just nodded, “Alright well, the line for this isn’t that long. Want to give it a go?”

“Oh! Uh…well…I am ready to try…but ummm…even so…I think this particular attraction is a little bit too above me…”

“Oh, right.” Kanji scratched the sore spot on his chin, “Hmmm. Hey…how about we try to find one of those shooting games to start out?
That’s something you should be good at right?”

Naoto smile faded and her eyes narrowed, “Don’t you think that maybe you should have suggested something like that earlier?”

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“Try to move your arms farther apart!” Kanji yelled holding the giant fluffy blue duck Naoto had given him after winning it at the marksman game. “W-woah!” Naoto was struggling to hold the giant hammer steady at the strength tester. Rearing back, Naoto almost fell flat on her butt before stumbling forward at the last minute and connecting with the level. The lights on the tower lit up as the puck shot upward, but it was a very short ascent, coming to a stop not even a third of a way up. “Awww!” Kanji groaned. “Better luck next time missy!” the operator told her as she stepped back. As she had learned with all the other activities she and Kanji had done since the wave machine, such as the dunk tank, bucket toss, and balloon darts, there was yet again no uproarious laughter from the crowd from her failure that she had mistakenly believed would have been coming. Although, they probably weren’t expecting much from a girl her size at this particular game anyway. Even if they had though she promised Kanji and herself she wasn’t going to let that get to her!

“My turn!” Kanji said with a crack of his knuckles after passing off his duck to her. This time Naoto knew he could more than back up the confident smirk on his face as he picked up the hammer. Seeing him knock the heads of shadows with only a folding chair, a part of her thought he could play the game barehanded if he wanted! Even though there was no doubt in her mind he would win the top prize, Naoto’s heart still skipped a beat watching her boyfriend’s overwhelming strength as he slammed the mallet down and rang the bell.

“Uhh…here…I know it isn’t much...but… it was the best thing they had…and…well I thought it looked cool.” Kanji said awkwardly as he handed Naoto the prize he won. It was a faux silver necklace with a tiny skull with smoking eyes on it. It was very “Kanji” or at least what his tough guy exterior would suggest. Naoto closed her eyes and smiled, undoing the clasp on her current necklace and exposing her bare neck to him. Getting the hint, Kanji gulped, and both their hearts started to pound as Kanji put the necklace on her. You’d never think the same person who could put grown adults to shame in a test of strength could also be so gentle at the same time. The way he carefully wrapped the chain around her neck it was like she was made of the thinnest of delicate glass to him. That duality was honestly one of her favorite things about him “Thank you Kanji.” Naoto said, admiring the skull ornament in her hand. Rubbing the back of his head and not really sure when to quit while he was ahead, Kanji continued to stutter, “Uhh…your welcome…but that cheap thing isn’t really that big a deal…”

Deciding where they should go next, Naoto stopped to look at a particularly loud stall owner doing his best sales pitch to get passersbys to buy the grilled squid he was selling. While the owner booming voice was the thing to distract her first, it was the aroma coming from the stand that made her stay longer to look. It had been a while since dinner, and after all the walking around they had done, she was feeling the tiniest of hunger pangs. “You want one?” Naoto jumped in surprise from the question. “Me? No, I couldn’t.”

“Really? With the way you’re eyeing them. You could have fooled me.”

“No really. I’m good. Besides. Who knows what that sauce that man is spreading on them is or what his credentials are.”

“That’s part of the fun. The food is just as much a part of the whole experience as the games are. Who knows when you’ll get a chance to try some of these things again? And after handling that heavy hammer, you must be feeling a little drained, right?”

Before she could say anything further Kanji had already yelled out an order of two to the man. Naoto heavily examined the skewer once it was given to her like she would while working a case, trying to figure out by sight and smell what the “special regional sauce” it was coated in was. Eventually however, it was time to take a bite. It certainly tasted different a bit different from the ones she had in Inaba. The sauce had a tangy salty kick to it that eventually morphed into a sweet like aftertaste while the squid itself was grilled to perfection. Firm but chewy. “Maybe he works in a restaurant while not running the stand?,” Naoto thought to herself. “Good right?” Kanji said with his mouthful of squid. Naoto lightly nodded her head, slightly embarrassed for her hesitance before. Once they threw their sticks away Kanji used his superior height to look around. “I wonder what else they got here? I could really go for some anmaki right about now. How does that sound?”

“I…uh…never tried it before.”

Kanji eyes widened. “What? How could that be? Come on! There has to be a stand around here somewhere!”

The next hour was spent bouncing around from stall to stall sampling all the festival food they could. Naoto took what Kanji had told her to heart. In addition to promising to try new things, with the way different regions would prepare certain dishes this could be her one chance to try some of them. Cotton candy, candy apples, grilled corn, rainbow ice cream, taiyaki with strange fillings, chocolate covered banana’s the small girlfriend tried them all, allowing herself to overeat just this once.

With the speed at which Kanji dragged her along it took a while for her to actually start to feel full. But even when the feeling did start to creep in on her she continued to press on. Her poor aching stomach was subject to an onslaught of grease, salt, butter, and cream. Eventually instead of following Kanji to each stand, she found a place to sit down and he brought everything to her. She found it funny how her grandfather used to tell her that too much sugar made you hyper considering how lethargic she felt after consuming what must have been a whole weeks’ worth of the stuff. Her stomach had distended slightly from all her stuffing, nothing too noticeable, but this was the most she had ever eaten in her life and yet Kanji kept coming with more and more things to that she felt she had no other choice but to accept. After all, he had bought them for her with his own money. How would it look if she just threw it away right in front of him? He looked so happy, thinking he was doing a something nice for her, and he was, it was just getting to be a little too much at this point. Perhaps this is what happened to make Yukiko blow up so much? She certainly was begging to feel like Yukiko no with how bloated her tummy was.

“ooooooooooo…*urp*….ooooohhh” Naoto groaned, patting her stomach as Kanji came back holding two crepes. “Uhhh…Are you doing okay Naoto?” Naoto felt so swollen she couldn’t even look at the calorie bombs Kanji was holding. After the takoyaki she had just finished, she had finally had enough, and she tried to put Kanji down as gently as she could. “Sorry Kanji…I don’t think I can eat another bite….”

“Oh. Okay.” He said, not a single ounce of the disappointment Naoto was expecting on his face. Now she was really kicking herself for not saying anything one or ten dishes earlier.

“ooohhhhhh…” she groaned again when instead of throwing the extra crepe away he just ended up eating it himself. As much as he didn’t want to cut his girlfriend’s fun short, after watching his girlfriend writhe on the bench in apparent discomfort, Kanji made the call, “You know…I think maybe we should start heading back...”

“No! Wait! Please! I’m sorry! Ah! Get them away! They’re hot!” Teddie, his body buried in the sand as some form of punishment for some apparent slight on his part, tried his best to arch his head away from the trio of sparklers Yosuke had stuck in the ground in front of him. “I warned you you’d something like this could happen if you didn’t behave,” he said swishing another hot metallic wire in the air before planting it in the ground to. The Ai and Chie were nearby playing with Nanako all gathered around the dark beach with the rest of the box of sparklers one of them had won in the pull string lottery as Naoto and Kanji walked up. “Ooooo! You two are the last ones back. Lose track of time?” Yosuke teased. Even for someone as dense as Kanji, he could tell what Yosuke was trying to imply, “Shut up. It not like that. We were just enjoying the festival is all!”

“I bet.” Yosuke continued to jest. Normally Naoto wouldn’t have taken too kindly to Yosuke’s childish stupidity either, but she was far too stuffed to say anything or do anything except walk and lean against Kanji for support. “Really though, you should have said something sooner. We could have taken some of that food back with us if you wanted…” Kanji said, feeling a little guilty for making Naoto believe she had to eat everything he brought her. As Teddie’s pleas to Kanji and Naoto to help him got quieter and quitter as they approached the deck, the sounds of giggling grew louder.

Ascending the wooden stairs, they found Yu and Yukiko, bunched up on her grandparents swing bench, practically in each other’s laps whispering to each other. “Oh, your back? I’m surprised you guys were out so late.” The fact that company had stumbled upon their little romantic moment didn’t seem to bother them in the slightest, keeping as close to each other as they had been. Kanji helped Naoto hobble over to an opposite wicker couch on the patio before taking a seat next to her. “Is something wrong Naoto?” Yu asked noticing the grimace on her face. “Yeah…I just seem to have…eaten a little too much.” Yukiko silently chuckled to herself, she knew the feeling. “Well it sounds like you had a fun eventful night!” Naoto managed a tiny smile. Despite how things had started out and how she was feeling now, it wouldn’t be right to say it wasn’t a fairly enjoyable night out with her boyfriend.

Naoto slowly rested her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder, absolutely no qualms about Yu and Yukiko seeing her and Kanji being so “publicly intimate”, and continued to try and quell her upset stomach as Kanji talked with Yu about the festival. The way she carefully cradled her distended middle with both hands, slowly rubbing tiny circles into her taunt skin, happened to look very much like the way Yukiko would rub her own belly, something the young mother picked up on almost immediately. Seeing what she saw as Naoto acting “maternally,” Yukiko couldn’t help but find her mind full of ideas on what she could possibly say or do to push the couple “in the right direction.” Probably not the type of thing she should be thinking about, but it was so hard for her to have the key to absolute happiness and not want to help them attain it as well!

One naughty thought she did have was that maybe Naoto and Kanji already had taken a few steps in the right direction themselves! After all, they were the last ones back. The least she could do was get her hubby to give her own achy gut a belly rub and hope that Kanji got the hint on what he SHOULD be doing right now.

The thing was though, as Yukiko realized, her belly wasn’t as stuffed as it was hours ago. In fact, if anything, now she was feeling rather empty. So much so that the only thing she was feeling “achy” for now was something to eat. Yukiko started grinding her big bottom up against her hubby’s hip and laid her fat baby-filled tummy into his lap. “You know, all this talk of festival food and Naoto has gotten me and the baby kind of hungry.” Yukiko pouted, “You don’t think Grandma and Grandpa have anything lying around that you could fix up for us, do you?”

Naoto let out another pained moan, burying her face deeper into boyfriend. She didn’t want to hear anything about “eating” or “food” the rest of the vacation.