Wallflower Blush sat in the passenger seat of Aria's Jeep, looking out at the beach parking lot. It was pretty crowded. With the clear blue sky and summer heat, it was a perfect day for going to the beach. Although that often meant that other people would have the same idea as well. Most of the parking spots were full, showing off a variety of cars, trucks, SUVs, and even a few old-school vans.

Wallflower's gaze drifted over to Aria Blaze. Aria's eyes were narrowed and jaw was clenched tighter in a scowl as she looked at the parking lot. Her grip on the steering wheel was tight enough to turn her knuckles white.

Reaching out, Wallflower placed a gentle hand on the other girl's leg. When Aria looked at her, she gave a small smile. Aria did not smile back, but her scowl softened, and she relaxed her grip a little.

After driving around for another minute, they managed to find an empty parking spot they could use. As soon as they had pulled to a stop, Wallflower unbuckled her belt, grabbing her beach bag.

"I'm going to go to the restroom and get changed," she announced as she opened the door.

"Change?" Aria asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not wearing it under my clothes," Wallflower answered, holding up the bag. "Actually have to go and change into it."

Aria gave a slow nod. She then leaned across the seat, eyes narrowing as she smirked.

"If you want to change here, I won't mind."

The comment got a blush from Blush, holding the bag tight against her chest as she looked away. It would not be the first time that she had been naked in front of Aria. They had changed in front of each other before, showered together, and even... been physically intimate. Still, it was not entirely something she was comfortable with. Still, even changing in her underwear took Wallflower some time and needed her to work up the courage. It was not something was going to be casual about. Especially in public, where someone else might see.

That was not how she wanted to be noticed.

The thought did stick in her mind, though.

"You would if someone else saw," Wallflower replied.

Aria considered a moment, lips pressing thin, then gave a nod.

"Yeah," she conceded.

Leaving the conversation at that, Wallflower made her way across the asphalt parking lot to the nearest building. She went into the furthest stall of the women's restroom, and quickly changed into her swimsuit. While not a one-piece, it was a pretty conservative suit. It was a high-neck bikini top with a pair of swim shorts. A bolder woman could have worn them as regular clothes if she wanted. Both parts were a deep rose red, with the occasional white flower accent.

After changing, she took a look at herself in the bathroom mirror.

A small sigh escaped her.

It was a reminder of how easily she could be forgotten: nothing about her really stuck out. She was of average height, and mostly average build. Her chest was admittedly below average, but not so much that it would be notable or give her any sort of benefits. Straightening out, she sucked in her stomach, then sighed and let it out. While not fat, she did have a bit of a belly. It was supposed to be normal, but she still felt self-conscious about it.

Closing her eyes, she looked away. This was not why she was here today. She was here to have a nice, fun date on the beach with her girlfriend. The were going to enjoy swimming, sun, sand, and snacks. Maybe some snuggling if they both could get over their own anxieties about doing so.

Aria was not comfortable with public displays of affection, being a "tough," and "a bad girl," and all.

Speaking of Aria, she was waiting as Wallflower came out. Aria was dressed in a two-piece thong bikini, the outfit an aquamarine color that matched the streaks in her hair. A black beach towel rested over one shoulder, a small bag (which Aria would never call a purse) peaking out from beneath. She held an ice chest in her hands, her arms pressing against the side of her breasts, and framing her washboard abs. Wallflower was pretty sure it was not intended to be sexy or show off her body, but she could not help but take notice.

Aria's eyes narrowed as she looked Wallflower Blush up and down. She then met Wallflower's eyes, and raised an eyebrow.

"That's your swimsuit?" Aria asked.

Wallflower looked down at herself, shifting one foot.

"I thought it was cute."

"Yeah, it's..." Aria shifted, looking away. "Yeah. It is." Her pale pink cheeks took on a deeper red as she turned away, letting out a small cough.

"Come on," Aria said as she started walking. "We better hurry or we won't be able to find a spot on the beach either."

Wallflower followed, smirking to herself. The smirk shifted into a smaller, more amused smile as she watched Aria walk ahead of her, admiring the toned, muscular body.

The pair made their way, walking along the soft sand in their flip-flops. The area was pretty crowded, forcing them to make their way around beach chairs, blankets, and the occasional sand castle.

There was a flash of movement that Wallflower caught in the corner of her eye, making her turn to look.

She had just enough time to realize it was a volleyball before it slammed into her face, knocking her backwards to land in the sand.

"Wallflower!" Aria cried out. Dropping the cooler, she ran over dropping onto her knees. Aria's cool hands reached up to Wallflower's face, pressing against her cheeks.

"You okay?"

Wallflower was not able to answer right away. The ball had managed to slam right into the bridge of her nose. It was not broken, and did not feel like it was bleeding, but the impact had sent an explosion of pain across her face. Her eyes were watering from it, and she could feel a bit of a headache from it. She was trying to blink away the tears and regain control of herself.

"Woah," a voice called out. "That looked gnarly."

Wallflower's vision returned just in time to see Aria snarl, her purple eyes blazing with rage. Releasing her grip, she stood up and stomped over to the a guy, hand clenching into fists.

"What's the big idea hitting my girlfriend in the face?" Aria roared.

Uh-oh, Wallflower thought, pushing to get up.

"Sorry, dude," the guy said, taking a step back and holding his hands up.

"Sorry? Sorry?" Aria stepped closer. "You hit her in the face. You could have broken her nose. And all you can say is 'sorry?'" One hand shot out to grab the guy by the shoulder as the other made a fist, holding it between them. "Maybe I should bust your nose. See how you like it?"

Wallflower reached out, placing her pale green hand on top of Aria's fist.

"Aria," she said in a soft, calming tone. "It's okay. It was just an accident. No need to hurt him over it."

Aria turned her head to look at her.

"Just calm down, and let him go."

Several seconds passed at Aria stared at her, scowling. With a sigh, she released her grip on the guy and turned away, fist dropping to her side. Aria turned and walked over to the volleyball and picked it up. She then tossed it into the air, and spiked it hard, sending it into the water. She glared at the guy again, daring him to say something.

When he did not, she made her way back to the cooler, picking it up.

"Woah," the guy whispered. "That girl's got a temper."

"Yeah," Wallflower conceded. "She does." She turned to him. "But as you saw, she's kind of protective. Doesn't like seeing people she cares about getting hurt."

She then ran to catch up with Aria, continuing with her along beach.

After some more walking, the pair found a place where the crowd was less, giving them more than enough space to set up.

"Finally," Aria cried out, dropping the cooler and tossing all her stuff on top. "That water's been calling my name since we got here." Kicking off her flip-flops, she ran for the water as fast as she could. "C'mon, Flower."

"Right behind you," Wallflower called out, slipping out of her own flip-flops and setting down her beach bag. She followed after the taller, more muscular girl, at a casual pace, smiling at her excitement.

Although she had not attended The Battle of The Bands finale, Wallflower Blush had heard about everything that had happened. She had seen Aria on stage with her sisters, but had not really paid attention to them on stage. When she told some of her friends about who she was dating, they filled Wallflower in with more detail about what specifically happened, and how it related to her current romantic interest.

They did not actually try to talk her out of dating her, but they did want to be sure she knew who she was potentially getting involved with.

This actually ended up leading to something of a bonding moment. The two of them wound up sharing stories about their evil days at Canterlot High. Aria -- and later, her sisters -- actually loved the story of Wallflower wiping out all the memories of friendly Sunset from all the students.

Normally, Wallflower did not really think much about what Aria had been in her home world, but there were times when she caught little things that made her think about it: the sometimes predatory way she would grin; the cool and slightly moist (although not quite clammy) feel of her skin; and her talent at swimming.

The last one she was just now learning about. As she watched, Aria swam with a speed and grace that would put gold-medal champions to shame. Although, it was doubtful they could copy Aria's method. Maybe it was a trick of the water, or Wallflower's imagination, but something about it did not seem humanly possible. Like she had sprouted extra joints or something.

Wallflower found herself enjoying the water as well. It had taken some time to get used to the cold, but she was swimming along. Nowhere near as fast or graceful as Aria could, but enough to be enjoying herself.

There was an explosion from the water behind her, and an animalistic roar. Before Wallflower could even register what was going on, Aria slammed into her back, wrapped her arms around her, and pulled her out of the water. Aria then started biting on Wallflower's neck and shoulder, causing her to squirm and let out a small moan, a bright blush forming on her cheeks.

Aria did not really kiss very often, being far more inclined to biting. Never enough to draw blood, but she had left quite a few bite marks and hickeys on Wallflower's skin. It had been a little strange at first, but Wallflower found it kind of pleasurable. There was also a part of her that liked the idea of the marks; like Aria was marking her territory for others to know that Wallflower was off limits to anyone else.

A small moan escaped from Wallflower Blush on one particular bite, her knees wobbling a little.

As suddenly as it began, Aria's attack ended. She pulled away and released her grip, letting Wallflower collapse as her legs gave out. She hit the soft, wet sand, the water only coming up to her stomach as she sat there.

"That was mean," Wallflower huffed, smiling.

Aria leaned over so they were eye to eye and smirked.

"You enjoyed it."

In response, Wallflower splashed at Aria, stifling a laugh.

After a splash fight and a little more swimming, Wallflower Blush had enough. Plus, she was feeling kind of hungry. So she left Aria to her swimming while going back to their spot.

As she ate, a burning sensation filled Wallflower's mouth. It was a slow-building burn, one that she had not noticed right away, but was feeling more and more. She recognized it from eating certain "hot and spicy" foods, which had a similar effect: not very hot when first chewing it, but felt on the tongue after swallowing.

Unfortunately, water did not help. No matter how much she chugged. Maybe if she sucked on an ice cube?

"Oh, geeze," Aria called out as she held up the half eaten sandwich, smirking. "Don't tell me you tried to eat that thing."

Wallflower gave a nod, her face growing a littler warmer (which was totally because of the burning of her mouth, and had nothing to do with the fact she was feeling a little embarrassed, nor was it because Aria had bent over, giving Wallflower an eyeful of her cleavage).

"Why?" she asked as best she could around the ice cube. "What is it?"

"One of Sonata's experiments," Aria answered. "Honey peanut butter and spicy pepper jelly on sourdough. Supposed to be a mix of sweet, sour, and spicy or something." She shrugged a shoulder. "Take it you're not gonna finish?"

Wallflower shook her head, and watched as Aria took the sandwich, turned around and lobbed it into the air as hard as she could.

Before the sandwich could even start to drop, a gull flew by and snatched it up.

Grumbling something about "seaside buzzards," Aria grabbed one of the other sandwiches and flopped down in the sand as she started to eat.

It led to a nice moment of the two of them sitting together quietly, enjoying the afternoon on the beach. It was like they were the only two in the world, and it was a day that could go on forever.

It was then interrupted by the sound of Aria's cellphone going off in her bag.

"Already?" Aria grumbled, glaring at her back. After turning off the alarm, she pulled out a pill case. She pulled out one pill and popped it in her mouth, quickly washing it down with most of a lemonade.

"So, how's therapy going?" Wallflower asked after Aria had finished chugging her beverage.

Aria threw her head back and groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Do we have to talk about this now?"

"No," Wallflower answered. "I'm not going to make you talk about anything you don't want." She moved closer. "But I am here for you if you want to talk about it." She then leaned in, pressing herself against Aria's arm. "Or anything, for that matter."

The tough girl disappeared as Aria sagged, shoulders slumping, and let out a sigh.

"I know."

She placed her hands on her face and rubbed up, stroking them through hair.

"It's just, frustrating and annoying."

Wallflower shifted closer, raising an eyebrow.

"Problems with the doctor?"

"Naw," Aria said, shaking her head. "Doctor Chrysalis seems okay." Her brow furrowed. "Well... as okay as someone who gets paid to listen to other people whine about their problems." She let out a snort. "At least she's not like that one guy, who was all dick, dick, dick, and when someone learned to use a toilet."

Reaching out, Wallflower placed her hand on top of Aria's.

"So what is the problem?" she asked.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the calm and forward-thinking type."

"You," Wallflower said in as flat a tone as possible. "No. I never would have guessed."

Aria let out a chuckle and moved to bump Wallflower with her arm. The grin then disappeared.

"Seriously though," Aria said. "Part of the reason Adagio was always the leader was that she could actually think more long term than either of us. Sonata gets distracted pretty easily, and I tend to kind of focus on the fastest and easiest way to deal with whatever's right in front of me." She shrugged. "Often with brute force."

Wallflower gave a nod.

"But according to Doctor Chrysalis," Aria continued, "to learn good behavior, people first need to unlearn bad behavior, and the older and more ingrained a bad behavior is the more time and effort it takes to unlearn it."

She fell backwards, flopping into the sand and looking up at the sky.

"And we're talking about bad behavior that I've had since I was hatched, and have been using for centuries."

"Hatched," and "centuries." Two words that were a reminder to Wallflower of what she was dating. Even with all she had seen, and her own actions, it was still extremely hard to believe that Aria and her sisters were actually ancient sea monsters from another dimension. Although, that was beside the point at the moment.

"Well, I think you're doing better already," Wallflower said.

Aria looked at her from the corner of an eye, raising an eyebrow as she gave a scowl of skepticism.

"Really," Wallflower insisted. "I mean, the old you would have punched the guy that hit me with the ball, right?"

"I was going to," Aria retorted, eyes narrowing. "You stopped me. Remember?"

"No," Wallflower replied. "Well, yes, but what I mean is that if that had happened years ago, would have gotten in his face and yelled, like you did, or would you have simply punched him right away?"

The question gave Aria pause. Her lips pressed thin as she turned, looking up at the sky as she seemed to consider it.

"Punch him," she finally answered. "Probably repeatedly."

"Right," Wallflower said. "Even a couple of months ago, you probably would have thrown the ball at him."

"I considered it."

"But you didn't."

Wallflower rolled over, resting her head on Aria's chest. She smiled as she slowly moved closer, bring their faces closer and closer.

"So I'd say you're doing pretty well."

She then moved in and kissed Aria.

Aria's lips were soft, and warm. The kiss started off gentle, but became harder as she overcame her surprise, returning it. One arm wrapped around Wallflower, pulling her tighter as Aria pushed up into the kiss more.

It ended as Wallflower pulled away, gasping for air.

"We definitely need to kiss more often," she declared.

Aria gave a nod, then grabbed Wallflower and rolled the two of them over, getting a squeak as she pinned the green-skinned girl. Aria's grinned as she leaned in closer, kissing Wallflower again.

The moment was interrupted once again by the sound of Aria's phone going off again, the song "Killer Queen" filling the air.

With a growl of frustration, Aria Blaze rolled off and grabbed the offending device. She stabbed the screen with as much fury as she could do such a thing.

"It better be important, Dagi!" she snapped, the tough girl persona back in full. "I'm in the middle of a date!"

"It's one o'clock," Adagio Dazzle's voice said from the phone speaker.

Aria huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Thank you, Big Ben," she said. "I can tell time just fine on my own."

"Have you taken your pill yet?"

"Yes! I've taken my pill already! I am a functional adult, you know!"

There was a moment of quiet as Aria glared at the phone.

"Is Wallflower nearby?" Adagio asked.

As Aria threw her head back and groaned, Wallflower reached out and grabbed the phone.

"I'm here," Wallflower answered, "and I can confirm that Aria Blaze did in fact take her medication on time, and as per prescription orders."

It sounded rehearsed, but that was mainly because it was. This was not the first time that Adagio had called Aria to make sure she was taking her medication on time, and as directed, nor was it the first time that she asked Wallflower to double-check.

"Alright," Adagio finally said. "I'll let you two get back to your date then. Have fun."

Aria took the phone and tossed it back into her bag.

"That was a mood killer," she huffed.

"Probably for the better," Wallflower replied as she stood up and brushed the sand off. "Be really embarrassing if we got too into it and someone found us."

A blush formed on her cheeks at just the thought. It then grew brighter and hotter as she noticed that Aria was watching her with a hungry look.

"Don't get any ideas," said Wallflower, pointing a finger at Aria.

"Too late for that," Aria replied as she stood up as well. The smirk got smaller and her gaze softened. "Don't worry, though. I won't do anything until we're alone in private."

"Good."

Wallflower stepped closer, wrapped her arms around Aria, and slid her hands up as she pressed against the larger girl. She looked up with a smile.

"How about we race to the water?"

Aria's let out a snort as she smirked.

"You don't stand a chance."

"We'll see about that," Wallflower said softly as she leaned in close.

"Ready?"

Aria nodded.

"GO!" Wallflower shouted the same moment she yanked the lower string on Aria's top to untie it, then ran for the water as fast as she could.

It turned out that Aria cared less about having her breasts exposed than she did winning a race. So she won easily.

Although Aria did say she was proud of Wallflower for using such an underhanded tactic.

It was a great day.