[HMFarmer]

Winter 16th, Year 06

Seth just bought a whole Strawberry Shortcake. The reason? He doesn't even know. He wanted some cake, ok, but a whole cake? No. That was pretty stupid, but of course, he COULD just eat it over time.

He walked up to the edge of the beach and placed the cake folded in a big napkin beside him. Well, at least he could fish. Pulling out his fishing rod, he assembled it on the spot and began casting right away.

[Alouette]

Wrapped up in a long, tan wool coat, earthy leggings and an orange beret, Nikki was prepared today for this Winter cold that she knew had to be coming, or at least, should be coming. And out here on the beach with the sea wind and stinging sand blown up in the wind, extra coverage was vital. Crunching out across the grainy landscape in boredom, the girl wondered what could possibly be fun while just walking down the… Cake. Hiff hiff, went Nikki's nose, stopping in her tracks, furrowing her brow to get a better smell. Frosting. Cake. Yellow cake… with… with… Something fruity. Nikki couldn't tell, but was sure as the sea knew that there was a cake somewhere near. Taking off in a quicker walk than before, she caught the scent on the air and followed it further down the shore until she caught sight of a familiar blonde head. Seth… has… cake? Blinking unassuredly, then seeing the round object beside him on a large white napkin-towel of sorts, confirmed this thought. Licking her lips delightfully, Nikki crept up the shore, not really wanting to disturb his fishing… but oh, that cake looked magnificent! "Er, hey, Seth! What 'cha up to?" As if the answer wasn't obvious enough. Fishing and enjoying some… cake. Closing in on said delicacy, she noticed the little red berries on top and couldn't help but smile. Oh, my. Strawberry shortcake. Delightful.

[HMFarmer]

Seth was staring out on the ocean when Nikki popped out of nowhere. "Oh, hey, just fishing.", he said glancing for a second. He reeled back in his line and casted again, hoping to get a bite or something. He was super bored, and hopefully Nikki could cure this.

[Alouette]

Breaking her trance with the delectable looking baked good at her feet to look at Seth re-casting his line, she nodded dimly and muttered, "Ah, cool, cool." And stuff. Yeah, real good conversation there. Adjusting the collar of her coat a little, Nikki decided, Oh heck, why not, and plopped down in the sand on the opposite side of the cake as Seth, careful not to disturb the Berlin Wall of cakedom. Staring out at the bobber in the sea for a moment, a thought smacked the girl out of her frosting-scent-induced daze and squeaked, "Oh!" Reaching into her back pocket and speaking in muffled tones, she happily said, "Remember how we were gonna swap photos or whatever? I brought along my camera this time, and some of my older shots. You bring yours, or," She grinned, looked up at Seth devilishly. "Were your hands too full carrying this cake here to bring them?" Not like she was dissing the cake or anything--she liked the cake well enough. A lot, actually. She'd so make out with that cake. Yeah. Pulling out her bright yellow film-based camera and laying it in her lap, she smoothed out about four of her better photos and arranged them neatly in a pile on one of her knees. They included a decaying house's sideboards hauntingly depicted before a gnarled tree branch, a jumping fish, a lone daisy in a patch of wheat & grass, and finally, the disgruntled face of a middle-aged woman, stooped and ready to yell at her from her porch. The expression was classic. But also one of the images was secretly double-sided--hiding a cutesy picture of herself, or at least, a very zoomed in shot of the right half of her face. A secret bonus image to add to the collection, right?

[HMFarmer]

Seth looked over at Nikki and saw her camera and a small pile of photos on her lap. He then reeled in his line and put down his fishing rod to the other side of him. "Oh yeah!", he said pulling out his camera. He then pulled out photos too, it was much harder with a digital one, but somehow he got it done.

Seth's photo's included frozen flowers sparkling, a shot from the sunset and a shadow of a man in a tree(Kozunai), the clouds putting a face on the setting sun, and there was one of seth in there too. Dunno how it got there, but hell, it looks good.

[Alouette]

"Sweeet, you remembered! Let's have a look-see, then," Nikki squealed, handing over her pile of photographs to Seth while exchanging them for his, hovering ever so slightly over his hands. When she had them in her mitts, her shoulder shrunk up to her chin, the polaroids just in front of her nose since her eyesight was absolutely awful (in reading and seeing small details). Her face was covered in that silent excitement and anticipation a child has when opening a Christmas present. Nikki hummed so softly to herself while she shuffled through the pictures one could barely hear her, thinking through each photo with care. Mmm, pretty flowers--is that the Glade where we met? Nah, probably not. Was it that icy? I barely remember. Sunset, it's so pretty here. Creeper in a tree--I hope that guy doesn't hang around here. How weird would it be to have some guy just chillin' up in a tree watching you? And then, Nikki reached the middle of the stack and caught a flash of golden hair, Seth's hair, and his emerald eyes staring up at her. Biting her lip, she exhaled through her nose and didn't feel quite so much like a weirdo for including a picture of herself in the mix. She mentally giggled, thinking, Heehee, great minds think alike. This is definitely going on my bulletin board. If I had a bulletin board. Looking up from the photos, Nikki winked and said, "Ah, just as I thought, amazing pics from you. You need to show me some time how you get such great shots." With that, she neatly put the photos into her coat pocket and adjusted some hair that had tickled her eyelids. The big, round hazel eyes flew back to the cake, smile curling into a smirk once more. "Soooo, Seth. Were you maybe planning on eating this whole cake yourself," she purred, paused then met his eye challengingly. "Or were you going to use it all for bait?" Nikki had swerved around the obvious end to the sentence, which would have invited her to share the cake, but figured she'd throw it in there anyway. Leaning to one side, she laughed and chirped. "Cause if you weren't, I could, y'know, help you in 'disposing' of it," complete with air quotes.

[HMFarmer]

Seth glanced through Nikki's photos, and they were good. Obviously she'd been at this for years. "Well duh.", he thought. Didn't she already tell him she did? He couldn't remember, and didn't really care. Point is, her stuff was good. "Nice photos here, Nikki. These are really awesome." Then he caught one of her, her chocolate brown eyes stared into his. She looked beautiful in this picture. Seth stored the photos in his pocket.

Nikki commented on his cake, and he felt a bit stupid. When she said she would help him finish it he said, "Oh, sure go ahead. I bought way too much."

[Alouette]

As if she had just won a prize or trophy, Nikki jeered and gave a mighty fist pump into the air, more excited than was healthy to have gained access to the wonderous baked good of cake and strawberries of shortness. Nearly bouncing, Nikki chanted, "Thankyouthankyouthankyoooou!" Licking her lips hungrily, the girl then noted the lack of a knife or plates or napkins, but shrugged anyway and forfeited neatness for sugar. She messily cut a slice out of the cake with her pinky finger, lobbed the somewhat triangular slice into her cupped hands and whiffed the cake for good measure. Nikki hmmmed with delight and took a first hesitant nibble at one end of the cake, then went about devouring the rest of the slice with much eagerness. The icing proceeded to stick to her fingers and cheeks, the strawberries coloring the lips that mmmed with each new bite. About halfway through her pile of cake, the girl blinked, looked up at Seth with a cake-stained grin and piped, "It's gooood. You need to taste it! Great choice of cake." And with that, Nikki went back to munching the cake away, licking at the tips of her fingers and falling deeper in love with the sweet, sugary treat. Oh, if I wanted to make out with this cake before, I'm not sure I can keep my hands off of it at this point.

[HMFarmer]

Seth didn't know whether to feel good or frightened. Nikki was going absolutely crazy over the cake. He wondered if it was that good. He decided to cut a slice himself. He ate about a quarter of it in one bite. Munching on it, he decided it was really, really good.

"Oh wow, this is really good. Best cake ever.", Seth said. He wasn't lying either, it was amazing. The strawberries were the best, and definitely complemented the cake extraordinarily.

[Alouette]

Nikki nodded at Seth's remark, nibbling up the last of her cake, happily attempting to clean off her white-stained fingers with her tongue. Thank the Goddess for bakers and their confections. Looking up from her hands for half a second, Nikki scanned Seth over, then added, and for sweethearts who share said confections. Blinking back to her fingers, then being distracted by a crashing wake, Nikki cocked her head and sniffed. Without much of an explanation, the girl shrugged herself out of her coat and stood, making her way over to the edge of the shore where the waves were rolling in, now revealed to be wearing a rust colored pencil skirt atop her leggings and a thermal shirt-vest crossover beneath her coat. Kneeling down to the water, Nikki rinsed off her hands in the near freezing water with a simple smile. She shivered a bit, but the wind felt nice, just like the winter winds of New York used to be. After washing her hands off of the sweet, sticky icing, Nikki's hazel eyes looked up and out onto the sea, where suddenly an insane, spur-of-the-moment idea hatched in her head. Reaching up, grabbing her beret, and frisbee-tossing it back towards Seth and her coat, the girl grinned and kicked her boots off in the sand right there. And just like that, she was in the water, floating around, letting the cold water seep into her skin, laughing all the while. When she had splashed around enough, still close enough to shore for Seth to hear her, Nikki called out to him, waving her arms to signal him to come towards her. "C'mon in; the water's just peachy!" To this she continued to laugh, rolled over on her back and kicked in the sea, her feet flashing like white-washed gulls tossing on the water's surface.

[HMFarmer]

Seth put Nikki's clothes aside. She asked him to join her. Seth thought about it for a minute. Back in New York, he swam in the cold, it probably couldn't be much different.

"Okay! Why not?", he said pulling off his shirt and diving straight into the water. It was cold, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. As he emerged from the water he shook off the water like a dog and grinned at Nikki. "Peachy it is.", he remarked.

[Alouette]

And then the shirt came off. The little radar in Nikki's head that screamed whenever there was exposed skin in the immediate vicinity suddenly bleeped, causing Nikki to look up and out to the shore, where a now shirtless Seth was entering the water. Hot damn. My assumptions about the bod were accurate. Flushing, then blinking a few times, Nikki was just a little flustered to see such a sight, more expecting him to consider her a mental patient and just go about his own way. She hadn't really thought he'd follow her in. What person in their right mind would? The girl sucked in a breath and submerged herself, which made coming back up all the harder since her clothes were now soaked and making her less bouyant. A glimmer of movement was what she saw while she forced her face to return to its normal hue while underwater. Deciding to pop back up, Nikki resurfaced just as Seth did, shaking his wet hair out onto hers. Making a small tch noise, her eyes peeked out from her flattened, soaking brown pigtails that lay stuck to her face. Shaking her head with great force, she shook herself dry in vain, making water droplets fly all over the place. Nikki looked up now, over to the bobbing form of Seth, collarbone visible emerging from the cold sea. She grinned and cawed, "Nothing like an ice cold swim after a fresh slice of cake, am I right?" was what she said. Using both her hands, she squeezed them together and shot a string of water Seth's way, childishly winking and giggling like a school girl. Kicking her legs and trying to escape, Nikki was submerged once more, then appeared a few feet to the left, grinning from ear to ear.

[HMFarmer]

"So that's how you wanna play it huh?", Seth said grinning. He swam towards Nikki and grabbed her leg. He pulled her towards him and splashed a bit of water towards her. He laughed at her surprised look.

After the water fight Seth floated in the water and looked up at the sky. He thought about the potential this island had, the potential he had...

[Alouette]

"Eeep--!" Nikki cried before she was under the water's surface again, her ankle yanking her under for a few seconds. Cheap shot! she thought, felt herself being pulled in the water away from her previous position, to which she didn't fight off. Moments later she appeared from the sea again, only her chin and up visible, a coy, amused face playing the emotions on her cheeks. Noticing her body was now in a closer vicinity with this now shirtless guy, some kind of salvation started in her mouth as Seth floated on his black, torso exposed before her. 'Ey! Pull yourself together, kiddo. Swallowing down the thoughts within three seconds and sweeping the raised eyebrow-grin off her face, Nikki audibly sighed contentedly and tread water beside Seth, eyes sweeping the shoreline with a sudden loss for words. However, this didn't last for long. Without particularly looking over towards the boy (no matter how she wanted to), the girl said, "Man, I need to do this more often." Pausing, she glubbed her way back underwater and popped up on the other side of Seth, stretched out and barely able to float without kicking her legs every now and again. Catching a breath and sighing again, she continued. "Spring needs to get here, quick, then Summer can come, and then I'll be hitting the beach, legit, every single day." Rolling her head to one side and glancing over the blobs of brown hair floating beside her eyes, Nikki chirped, "You like Summer?"

[HMFarmer]

Seth was laying still on the water's surface, his arms crossed behind his head. As a response to the question, he got up and stretched out a bit. "Ah, I love summer. I grew up in New York you see, it's ridiculously cold there in Winter. So I pretty much hate the cold, summer is bliss to me.", Seth said finishing his stretch and yawning a bit.