Graffitti Free Zone

[blueburnshotter]

Who: Hayato and his class and anyone who decided to tag along for funsies
What: A TROPICAL GETAWAY
When: A WEEKEND IN JANUARY.
Where: Isle Delfino
Suggested Listening: NO ESCAPE.

Winter sucks, right? Hayato sure thought so. Well, he didn't hate it, but after a month of cold and dark he decided it was high time for a change. While he could have easily done the selfish thing and fled the city for the entirety of winter break, he liked to consider himself a more generous man than that. Surely his students would love the chance to get away from winter for a few days, too. And if any staff happened to stow away for the trip, well, that was their decision.

So, under the guise of having a swimming class while the school's outdoor pool was out of use, our hero whisked everyone away to lovely Isle Delfino. Once plagued by darkness and vandalism, the whole island had since been kept clean and bright and shiny and boasted a number of tourist attractions. With the only real requirement for the gym class being to get at least some swimming in, there would be plenty of time to explore everything else. Between abandoned eggs that hatch water-soluble yoshis, a giant mall, human pachinko, an amusement park, and the hotel with an abundance of ghost stories, there's bound to be something to do.

All in all, not a bad way to ease in to the new semester. The hardcore classes could start next week, he promised, before setting his class free.

Comments

[tempus_fixit]

She was new to this as well, and her movements are tentative and not exactly graceful either. It was movies that gave her the idea, ironically, but now she was following her impulses.

...Was it getting hot in here?

The gondola sways as the ride moves them in the great circle of the ferris wheel. Lucca breaks the kiss in order to breathe, a hand running up his back and an unapologetic smile on her face.

[megabuster]

Rock was so caught up in the moment that little else mattered to him. He smiled like a total goof, watching her happily. "That was..."

He stopped. Now that he was paying attention again, he finally realized his sensors had been blaring heat warnings at him for the last little while. It wasn't just his imagination. It was getting hot in there.

And then he detected smoke.

"...Hot! Hot!" he declared, as he realized that where she rubbed his back, his shirt was now on fire.

[tempus_fixit]

"Wow thanks, I didn't know you felt thOH MY GOSH!"

The embrace devolves into frantically patting out the fire she'd started. "Oh nononono!" Then when that doesn't work fast enough, she pulls it off in a single rough tug over his head so it can be a smoldering pile of polyester on the corner of the gondola and away from both of THEM.

The mood now broken despite the bodice-ripper treatment of Rock's hawaiian shirt, Lucca turns back to Rock and fidgets with her glasses worriedly.

"Are you okay, Rock? I'm so sorry! Oh, I shoulda known..."

[megabuster]

"No, no, it's okay! Really!" Rock tried to reassure her, pulling her in for a hug to prove to her everything was okay. "I'm a robot, remember? I've been built to handle worse than that!"

Of course, he was now shirtless while hugging her. Some people might have gotten the wrong idea.

Like the ride operator, clearing his throat at the open door to the gondola. While they were in a panic, the ride had ended.

[tempus_fixit]

He can feel her sigh of relief against him once he convinces her that he's okay, that she hasn't roasted her own boyfriend. She hadn't thought to check his temperature ratings yet, so she had no clue he was mostly-fireproof until now. That was good, because lurid connotations aside, she was probably going to wind up setting him on fire sooner or later anyway...

The small, polite a-HEMM of the ride operator once again brings her back to the here and now, and she takes in their situation and everything that it suggested.

Had that shirt still been on Rock, it would probably be ash now. Lucca is extremely pink.

"Ah... uh... um... It, I, we, there was..."

[megabuster]

The pianta tapped his foot impatiently. Rock just laughed nervously. "Ah... We'll see ourselves out..." He quickly grabbed Lucca's hand and ushered her out of the gondola car. The remains of the shirt smoldered away as they hurried out of the queue.

When they were finally out of earshot of the ride operator, Rock, face red, said, "Sorry about that..."

[tempus_fixit]

Lucca is still pink and radiating some serious heat waves, but she's calmed down a little. "I'm the one who's sorry. It looks like I don't have complete control over my magic after all... At least you're not hurt!"

The two of them begin to walk, and she seems pensive. "Just... uh... how fireproof ARE you?"

[megabuster]

"Not COMPLETELY," he explained. "I can withstand high heat up to a certain point, just don't ask me to dive into lava," he added with a laugh.

[tempus_fixit]

"Huh..." That's the kind of noise a girl makes when a boy says something very interesting... and rather convenient.

"So, d'you want to try anything else while we're here? Get our picture drawn? Try our luck in the water-shooters on the midway?"

[megabuster]

"That works for me!" Rock said with a smile, completely missing the hidden meaning of Lucca's noise. He didn't have that much experience with girls, after all. "We've still got light out, so we'd better make the most of the park!"

"Ah... But first we should probably stop at the gift shop so I can pick up a new shirt," he added.

[tempus_fixit]

"Oh. Yeah. A shirt. Eheh." Because she totally wants him to put on a shirt. Really. "Let's do that."

The gift shop is a riot of color and sparkle, all the shinier somehow because it was Pinna Park. Lucca actually has to blink when she steps into the shop.

"Wow...!" She mutters, glancing at the racks of scintillating bikinis near the entrance.

[megabuster]

"Wow... Look at all this... stuff!" Rock exclaimed, looking around at all the sparkly knick-knacks, toys, and other assorted things that filled the shop. "Where do you even start in a place... like..."

Rock trailed off as he caught sight of Lucca again, checking out the bikini racks. Yep. He could still fantasize, he realized, as images of Lucca modelling some of the bikinis for him danced through his processors. He just... stared in silence for a bit there.

[tempus_fixit]

"Like...?"

She looks over from a scintillating little number in purple, blinking at him. OH oh right! Shirts.

"I, uh, I think they're over here on the left. Next to the grass skirts and gem-covered waterproof safe things."

She leads him to another rack. Let's see, there's one that says I went to Delfino and all I got was this lousy T-shirt, there's one with a hula-dancing pianta on it, there's one with a shine on it...

"See anything you like?"

[megabuster]

"Purple..." Rock muttered, still staring blankly into space, the subject of his fantasy subroutines fairly obvious at this point.

"W-what?" he added, shaking his head and finally snapping out of it as he registered an inquiry. "Oh! Sorry, I was just thinking about something..." He looked quickly over the shirt rack, grabbing the one with the Shine printed on it. "Um... What about this one?" he asked.

[tempus_fixit]

"Y-yeah, that one's great."

Purple. Purple? What was he talking about? Lucca glances over her shoulder to try to follow his gaze, and then spies the lovely bikini on the rack again.

The lovely purple one.

"What? You..." Like it? Ah. Oh. OH. OH!

"ROCK!" She squeaks blithely, turning pink and forming a halo of mirage-like temperature change around her. "Oh you can't be serious!"

[megabuster]

Rock's sensors alerted him to the sudden temperature increase and he immediately raised his hands. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I just... I was... I got distracted! I just thought... it'd look really good on you!"

[tempus_fixit]

"You, you did? You do?"

Another glance, this time seriously trying to imagine herself in it. By extension, trying to imagine herself as the kind of girl that could shine as bright as it does.

"Oh I don't know about that, Rock..."

[megabuster]

"I'm serious!" he said, scarcely believing he was saying it out loud now. "You're really pretty, Lucca! I think you would look great in it!"

[tempus_fixit]

She bites her lip, and looks between the swimsuit and him, his compliments bolstering her confidence.

"...You think maybe I should try it on?"

[megabuster]

"W-well... Why not?" he asked hopefully. "We're here, after all! It's a good time for it!"

[tempus_fixit]

"I, uh, o-okay!" She quickly replies, sounding a little excited. She looks around and takes off to the nearby curtained cul-de-sac of the fitting room, vanishing inside after a second.

"I can't believe in doing this!" She adds through fabric rustling sounds. "I know it's silly, but this never seemed like the kind of thing I ever needed. I swim in shorts! You know what I mean, right?"

[megabuster]

Rock was thrilled. He was so eager to see, he waited leaning against a wall near the changing area, so he could still talk to her. He tried desperately to keep fantasy.exe from taking over as he listened in. "I know what you mean," he told her. "I mean... There's a lot of things I never thought I'd ever need to know or wanted to do before, but then I came to the academy, and I met you... and it's exciting to think about everything! Even things like living like a normal person, without having to worry about fighting evil for a while... I'm really happy!"

[tempus_fixit]

"I know what you mean." She agrees. There's a pert snap! and an eep. "I-it's tighter than I'm used to." She quickly elucidates. "But I think it fits!"

She steps out, shuffling a little in the purple patterned bikini, and putting on her glasses again.

"Sooooo, whaddiya think...?"

[megabuster]

Rock didn't have blood. Which was good, because it meant some of the things that came along with having blood didn't happen to him. For instance, Rock couldn't get nosebleeds. Which was great, because if he could, he would have had a nosebleed and passed out right on the spot. As it was, his jaw dropped a bit and he just had to take in the sight of her there...

"W... I... You look amazing, Lucca...!" he finally managed to stammer out in awe.

[tempus_fixit]

Lucky his coolant system was working, as well, because she still isn't quite aware of how she's taxing it right now... She blushes hotly, but bites at a smile.

"Thanks, Rock... You really mean it, huh?" She remarks as his "coolant flux" shows in a bush of his own. Wow. Wow! "Okay. I think I'm gonna buy it! Maybe even wear it out..."

She turns to grab some flip-flops, as she does there's an odd green flash as the pendant that she's wearing swings through the light, now uncovered by the half-dozen layers she usually wears.