Tachimukai's family was quiet and very traditional. It had completely absorbed the unhurried aura that engulfed his hometown Fukuoka. He guessed that he himself was not much different, his parents always knew their son was the more quiet type. The more they were surprised when he asked them at the dinnertable one night if they would allow a friend to stay over the summer holidays. When a slightly surprised look passed his parents' faces, Tachimukai had immediately thought that it was not okay with them. Taking in somebody for two whole weeks was a lot to ask for, he knew that, but he had looked forward to it. Trying not to get the disappointment get to him, he studied his hands in his lap.

He was surprised when he was met with smiles on their faces when he looked up again.

His mother immediately started to pester him with all kind of question who the guy was she would offer her house to.

"No way! Your parents said yes? Cool! They're pretty chill, aren't they?" Tsunami's voice sounded just as cheerful over the phone as Tachimukai remembered it.

Tachimukai laughed. "Well, I would not put it exactly like this, Tsunami-san, but I didn't think they would give me consent. Mom asked me all kind of questions about you though."

"What did you tell them about me? Nothing bad, did you?"

"Mom wants to get you to eat carrots by the end of the holidays", the younger one teased.

"N-no problem! I can eat them! I ate Fuyuka's weird pudding-stuff, remember?" Tsunami was slightly panicked, no matter how he tried to not let it on.

"Raw."

Only pained cries could be heard from the other line while Tachimukai laughed openly at his older friend's antics.

Two weeks before summer holidays always meant that the teachers decided to write a mass of surprise tests so you had to be prepared for whatever subject there was. For that reason Shika, Matsubayashi and Tachimukai thought it best to study together so they would be at their best whenever a test came.

"What exactly have you marked in your calendar so brightly? You going somewhere nice this summer?", asked Matsubayashi as his eyes fell onto the calendar that decorated the goalkeeper's wall (it showed landscapes).

Tachimukai blushed a bright red. He had been so happy when Tsunami had asked him if they wanted to spent the summer together that he had framed the fourteen small boxes that represent every day he got to spend with the defender. Of course he had used a bright textmarker. And the only one he currently possessed was bright pink. It was Tsunami's hair colour but it looked more like a school girl hat framed the day of her first date.

"So-somebody from Inazuma Japan is coming over for the holidays", he managed to stutter out.

Shika grinned brightly at his reaction. "Ohooo, did our little goalkeeper pick up the cute manager?"

"N-NO! Kidou-san would kill me!"

Tachimukai had no idea why he knew they meant Haruna, he definitely had not talked a lot about the time she (and the other first-years AND Tsunami) had helped him with developing Maou the Hand. Nope, not at all.

"So, who's it then?"

He muttered something.

"What was that~?", Shika said in a sing-song voice.

"Tsunami-san is coming over!", Tachimukai practically screamed. He did not even know why he got so worked up over this. It was just a friend coming over. A very fun and nice-lo, STOP, nice friend, that is.

The two other boys just raised his brows at him.

Exactly at that moment his phone made a small noise to let him know that he just got a text message. Glad for the diversion from the somehow embarrassing topic, Tachimukai scrambled up from the ground to grab his phone. He opened the message and froze.

"A little message from Tsunami-san?", mocked Shika.

Matsubayashi knocked the other over the head, sensing that something was wrong. He quickly got up and stood next to Tachimukai. Even though he normally respected privacy, he took a tiny peek at the message that had gotten his classmate so shaken up. His mouth fell – how irresponsible could somebody be?

"My mom threw a tantrum because I only just told her that I would go to your place. She needs to take chill lessons with yours."

Tachimukai slowly turned towards Matsubayashi so the other was able to see his panicked face, actually, Matsubayashi was sure that the goalkeeper would start crying any moment. But to his surprise Tachimukai just threw the orange object onto his bed and practically ran downstairs.

A few seconds later he ran back up, tripping while doing so, holding the house telephone in his hand and frantically dialing a number. He held the phone against his ear, anxiously waiting for somebody to pick up.

Just as Tachimukai was about to nervously chew on his nails, somebody picked up.

"H-hello!", he nearly screamed into the receiver, "T-Tachimukai here! I know that Tsunami-san made some chaos by not informing you that he would visit me in the holidays and you probably are mad at him but I wondered if it would still be okay if he came over since we won't have any other opportunity to meet up?" Tachimukai gasped for breath since he had said the monster-sentence without taking a breath.

Whatever the person on the other line said, it had made the goalkeeper smile.

"Thanks a lot!"

Pause.

"I'm going to look for her, just a moment." With these words he stood up again and made his way downstairs into the kitchen.

Matsubayashi slowly turned around to look at Shika who just shrugged his shoulders.

Tachimukai appeared in the doorframe and look very proud of himself. "I think I buttered her up!"

Who knew the sweet little boy could be that headstrong if he liked?

"I swear, that woman is just terrible! There was no need for all the drama!"

"Tsunami-san, I don't think you would have been able to arrive if your mother had not planned the whole trip and bought the right plane ticket."

"Are you sayin' that I can't ride the plane? I'm your senpai!"

After a bit of talking to Tsunami's mother Tachimukai had found out that the problem with the trip had not been the fact that the surfer had planned to come Fukuoka but rather that he had not planned it out the least. First of all, he had not informed his parents that he would be leaving, second, he had not booked his flight yet. After a lot of searching Tsunami's mother finally managed to find one that still had a free spot – it took off at an ungodly hour though. But that was probably part of Tsunami's punishment. The woman was rather sadistic if Tachimukai dared to say so.

It was six in the morning and Tachimukai and his father had finally found the older boy who had had some problems with the passport check even though he was traveling in-country. Maybe Tsunami had been too glad to feel the ground under his feet again and had still been too riled up from the short flight to answer all questions correctly. He had come out of the control practically crawling because of the terrible flight.

The airport was near the sea. Its smell filled the air while the small group made their way to the parking lot.

"Don't tell me here's sea, too! I would have brought my surfboard!", the taller boy exclaimed.

Tachimukai's father just threw his son a look that could have been disbelief. The boy was 15 years old and still did not know where some of the tallest cities in Japan were located. He chose to just smile sheepishly. "I don't think you would have been able to take it on board-"

"Rubbish! I was able to take it to Liocott Island!"

"It was a private jet", Tachimukai deadpanned but the boy had already directed his attention to something else.

"Woah! That is your car? Looks pretty fancy! We just drive an old pick-up because it stands in front of the house most of the time anyway. It's not like we drive it much since you can get everything in town."

Tachimukai's father warmed up to the southern boy instantly, obviously very happy about the compliment. The car was his everything – he probably washed it more often than himself. His father had actually not been that happy about the scatter-brained boy to stay over but that one small sentence had made him change his entire opinion about him. And here Tachimukai had thought Tsunami was only good with younger children.

"I'm beat." Tsunami flopped down on the bed right when they were finally able to go up to Tachimukai's room.

After introductions his mother had served lunch right away and immediately warmed up to Tsunami when he commented that he would move here simply for the food. Apparently his own mother was not the most patient cook and his father a passionate fisherman which resulted every so often in a miscooked fish dish.

"You didn't even do that much." Tachimukai tried to make room on his own bed but gave up and sat on Tsunami instead. The other huffed and struggled to throw the younger one off. Tachimukai grinned. He had missed these carefree moments between them.

Tsunami sighed.

"I need ocean."

These words said both made their way to the beach. Since Fukuoka offered many different beaches, Tachimukai had opted for the Iki-no-matsubara Beach in hope that he could maybe bring Tsunami a bit closer to culture, too. After all, the mongols had tried to invade Japan over this very beach.

But apparently his friend was more interested in the subway which he had obviously never used before. Gladly, he did not have any problems with this kind of vehicle, Tachimukai thought when he remembered their plane trip to Liocott Island.

The ride took about 20 minutes and left them with just a short walk until the beach. And to be honest, Tachimukai kind of wished his friend did not have to still his sea-addiction now when the sun stood highest and was glaring down harshly on them. He also wished he had remembered to put on sunscreen.

Even though it was summer the sea here was dark and wild, unlike the warm, light water that you were able to see in Okinawa.

"Looks like my wife has a bad day", Tsunami stated when they finally arrived.

"W-what?", Tachimukai spluttered. Had Tsunami just called the sea his wife?

The other just winked at him and ran off kicking his shoes away half-way until he stood into his beloved ocean nearly up to his knees. "OCEAN POWER!", he shouted which resulted in most of the other visitors staring at him.

"Tsunami-san! Be careful, we don't have any spare clothes with us!" They had left the house helter-skelter and thus had forgotten to bring any or swimming trunks for the matter.

Tsunami turned around to raise his brows at him. "Jeez, don't be so stuck-up. It's not like it won't dry or anything."

"If I am supposed to be not stuck-up, I should probably also not point out that you nearly ran over a little child while greeting your wife?" Tachimukai opted to staying in the cool water only ankle-deep.

"Who says the sea is my wife?" Tsunami grinned.

Before Tachimukai retort anything (not that he knew what exactly he should say to that) a huge flood of water hit him square in the face. For a minute, he just stood there, not daring to open his eyes in case Tsunami tried to attack him again. When he finally did, Tsunami was in a splash-fighting-stance and was obviously trying not to break into laughter.

"You..." A full out water-fight erupted. Both did not care that they would get their clothes completely wet that way.

The fight only paused when Tachimukai missed Tsunami and instead splashed an old lady who did absolutely not look amused.

"I'm sorry for my junior, Mam, but you know, kids these days", Tsunami tried to to calm her down while petting Tachimukai's damp hair.

"Who's actually the responsible one here?", Tachimukai interjected loudly.

Tsunami pushed him under water.

That had caught the younger one by surprise. It had happened so suddenly that he did not even have time to hold his breath and ended up with a mouthful of salty water.

When he came back to the surface splashing he tried to cough up all of the water. Tsunami softly patted his back in order to help him but probably also to calm him down. The old lady was already gone.

"You... you did not just do that, did you?", Tachimukai was finally able to get out. He was wet from head to toes and his clothes, his only clothes, clung tightly against his body. The white shirt he was wearing had gone fully see-through now and his hair stuck to his forehead.

Tsunami looked at him oddly. "Maybe I did."

Tachimukai's mother was not pleased when the two stood, still wet, on her porch.