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The drive to the beach was hell.
At least Kris and Ralsei behaved, chatting quietly in the back of the car. It was amazing how they managed when Susie and Lancer were making all the noise.
Splat sounds, stock fart noises, seeing who could bark the loudest, and the dreaded ‘99 bottles of beer’ song. TWICE.
All in the span of thirty agonising minutes.
Rouxls was one splat sound away from tearing his hair out when Queen loudly announced “WE’RE HERE!”, causing Lancer and Susie to cheer and scramble to get out of the car. Rouxls had to hold himself back from bursting into tears and thanking Queen a million times for ending the cycle of torture he had been forced to endure for what felt like years.
Once everyone was out of the car, and a miserable Lancer had reluctantly left his MP3 player in the glove box at Rouxls’ desperate request, the Lancer Fan Club plus the two dads made their journey down to the beach.
While Lancer babbled on about how excited he was to play in the sea, Queen and Ralsei set up the picnic blanket and chairs as Rouxls ‘helped’ by standing there doing absolutely nothing supervising.
“Hey, Kris, are you gonna go in the sea with me and Lancer?” Susie asked the lanky teenager, tying her hair back into a ponytail to get it out the way, “It’ll be fun, dude.”
Kris shrugged their shoulders, uttering a quiet “maybe”, as Susie crossed her arms.
“Alright, man. Come in if you want to. I’m gonna get changed. I’m wearing my swimming costume under these clothes. It’s smart, huh!”
She accidentally on purpose left out the part where Ralsei told her it would be a good idea to wear her clothes over her swimming costume to save time changing.
Before Kris could even begin to answer, Lancer came bounding over with Ralsei close behind him.
“Susie! Are you ready to taste the salty water of defeat?! I’m gonna splash it in your face!”
The small puppy, now wearing a pair of spade patterned swimming trunks (with a small hole for his tail), cheered, his ears perking up in excitement.
“No way, man! I’m gonna splash you so hard you won’t even know what hit you!”
“Umm…water?”
“Well, yeah, but it was just, like, a- HEY!”
Lancer had taken off running before Susie could finish her sentence, tail wagging so fast it was barely visible.
“Catch me if you can!”
He shouted back, Susie quickly changing into her black swimming costume and throwing her shorts and t-shirt at Ralsei.
“Take these back to our blanket and stuff-“
Was all he heard, as she had bolted off to catch up with Lancer before he could hear the rest.
“Umm…so, Kris…what do you want to do?”
He asked as they both walked back over to their little area, Queen playing Annoyed Chicks in the shade as Rouxls looked as if he was about to fall asleep in the hot sun.
“…sandcastle.”
They murmured, watching as Ralsei neatly folded Susie’s clothes and left them to sit in the sun, then deciding to fold Lancer’s clothes as well.
“A sandcastle? I’m not entirely sure how to make one of those, Kris…”
“Could teach you.”
They replied quietly, a small smile on their face.
“…Well, okay, Kris! Teach me how to make a sandcastle!”
-
Meanwhile, Susie was trying to get Lancer to come to her as she stood in the cold seawater, having caught up with him fairly quickly.
“Susie, I’m not sure about the shore anymore. It’s really cold.”
He called to her, flinching back when the water came up to his foot.
“Aw, come on, little dude! Are you sure you’re sure about the shore? It’s not that cold once you get used to it!”
“I’m sure I’m sure about how sure I am about the shore!”
“You sure?”
Lancer looked down at the sho- WATER, and huffed. He had been so excited! It was just a little tiny Atlantic Ocean of cold water! Now he wasn’t sure if he was sure about being sure about the sho-
He took a few steps back, and ran up to the sea, not stopping until he ran straight into Susie, who toppled over into the water with Lancer clinging onto her. After a few moments, both of their heads popped out, and they began to laugh.
“Hell yeah, man! You showed that…water…?!!!”
She ruffled his wet fur, leaning back as he shook his head of the water.
“Yeah!”
He grinned, slamming his paws down into the sea.
“Take that, water!”
He giggled, purposefully splashing Susie at the same time.
“Hell yeah man! You show it!”
She cheered, also pounding her fists on the surface of the water, making sure to splash him back. They did this for a little while, Susie having to kneel down to be at the same height as him. After a while, they started playing It, only stopping when their legs started to ache from trying to run in water.
“…So, what now?”
He asked, the water that reached Susie’s knees already reaching his chest.
“…do you have, like, a ball? Or something?”
“There’s a beach ball in the bag.”
“…should we ask Ralsei to get it?”
“…yeah.”
-
But Ralsei was too busy with Kris to hear the two troublemakers calling him. Kris’ small smile had turned into a large grin as they piled up the sand to make the biggest sandcastle they’d ever seen! Ralsei collected shells and various other small items to decorate it with. It was big enough for him to stand inside if he crouched, probably big enough for Lancer to stand on his tiptoes in. People all over the beach were watching in awe as they built the sandca- no, sand MANSION, until…
“HEY, RALSEI!”
Everyone watched in horror as Susie threw Lancer over like a ball, directly at the sand mansion.
It was over in seconds. A collective groan was heard, and everyone went back to whatever they were doing before.
“Sorry…”
Lancer frowned, his little tongue poking out of his mouth.
“No, no, Lancer. It’s not your fault. It was made of sand, this was bound to happen at some point.”
Ralsei mumbled, brushing a tiny pile of sand off the top of the small boy’s head.
“Hey Guys We Heard The Sound Of Many Disappointed People What Happened”
Queen seemed to appear out of nowhere, Rouxls at her side.
“We had’st a Huncheth that it hadeth somethinge to do With thou.”
He sighed, his arms crossed behind his back.
Susie had trudged over by this point, murmuring a small “sorry” as she kicked a lump of sand.
“Um, well, that was kind of rude…but-“
Ralsei started, before Lancer interrupted him.
“We accidentally knocked over their awesome sandcastle…it was huge! With shells and bits of fur and sand and sand and more sand and a little bit more sand and-“
“Well Why Don’t We Just Make Another One”
Queen interrupted, like it was the obvious solution, a bright red ‘????’ flashing on her screen.
“Well- because it took us ages!”
“Yeah But It Was Only Two Of You”
“Yeseth, there art six of Us nowe.”
“We Can Rebuild It Easily LOL”
“And maketh it even Bettere!”
“With An Awesome Giant Robot Inside?”
“Maybe noteth.”
“Why”
“Tis impossible.”
“No It Isn’t”
“Umm…YES it is.”
“No”
“Yes!”
“No”
“Yes!”
“No”
“Ye-“
“OH MY GOD LET’S JUST REBUILD IT ALREADY!”
Susie yelled, grabbing a handful of sand and dropping it back down on the ground in a different place. It was a sad sight.
“…
Okay Let’s Rebuild It”
-
And so, after an hour of trying desperately to get the sand to hold together and trying even harder to get it to stay when they had to put the shells in, and stopping halfway for a lunch and ice-cream break, the new sand palace was complete. It was beautiful. After they had all taken a group picture with their creation, they all ran off to play in the sea.
Queen couldn’t get in the water, and Rouxls just didn’t want to, but they watched from a safe distance, taking a few photos of all the kids having fun together. They played the wave game for a bit, Lancer struggling the most. It was kind of hard to jump over waves when you were his height. After he’d been smacked in the face by salty water and fallen over far too many times for Rouxls’ liking, they all ran into the water and played catch with the beach ball that had started all the trouble in the first place.
The two dads took a few photos of all the kids having fun together. They would frame the photos they took…maybe give a couple to Toriel as a Christmas present. It was a wonderful day out.
Rouxls decided that the car ride was worth it.