Spoiler
Just so everyone knows, this is one of the few 12+ rated chapters. Most of them will be rated 16+. -nods knowingly- Another note, this story is a fantasy/romance and the fantasy in this story doesn't get introduced until chapter 3. But don't worry, it's not your typical romance... 
Chapter 1
Sunday, April 18th, 2010
As he ran through the waves of the ocean, I couldn’t help but smile over the top of my manga. He was very pretty, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyone so graceful. He had shoulder-length pure black hair that was kind of choppy like mine and, although I couldn’t tell from this distance, I thought he had blue eyes. I noticed that he was carrying something on his back, but I didn’t know what it was with the ocean spray surrounding him.
“Copalis Beach… Ah, I love this place,” I sighed, laying down in the cold, wet sand. I didn’t care if I got it all over me, I just wanted to enjoy this moment since I’d been really stressed at school lately.
“That’s great, honey, but you have to go and get your little brother, he’s getting too close to that guy.” My mother pointed to - well, I think it’s pretty obvious. She had pointed to the guy I was staring at. I blushed slightly but jogged over after grabbing my water bottle and manga.
I grabbed Brandon’s hand and looked him in the eyes. “Brandon, you have to stay closer to Mom. She worries too-“
Hearing him laugh, I stopped and stared at the guy again. The thing I had seen him holding was another person; another guy. He had somewhat curly blond hair and brown eyes. He looks like a surfer, I thought briefly. His head was resting against the other guy’s shoulder. They looked like a perfect couple and probably were. My thoughts were confirmed a second later with a kiss. Blushing, I looked away and back at Brandon.
“Hotaru…”
Oh, I love it when he uses my real name instead of saying my name in English.
“Hotaru, listen to me!” Brandon whined.
He was only seven so I let him get away with it. “Sorry… What do you need?”
“Today is your fifteenth birthday, right? Well, you need a date!”
Most people, including myself, would find this entirely too coincidental, but I was drinking water at that point and spit it out spectacularly. Coughing, I said, “Uh… I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”
“But you’re the best brother ever, Firefly! You deserve a pretty girl!”
Ugh. He called me my translated name, which I hate. Double ugh. He said I needed a girl. Yuck. “Sorry, kid. Not gonna happen. C’mon, its time to go back to Mom.”
“Aw...” Luckily he dropped it after that.
We had walked back in silence for a bit when I realized I had forgotten my water bottle. I looked back to see the ocean lapping against it. “Oh, crap. Brandon, go back to Mom, I’ll be there in a second.” I vaguely heard him reply something like “Okay.” as I ran back. Let me tell you, running in sand isn’t fun or easy. I don’t see how those people who run miles along the beach do it. Anyway, I was running back and suddenly I trip and fall flat on my face - in front of them. I think I might die.
“Is this yours?” he asks, holding out my water bottle.
“Y-yeah, it is. Thanks.”
“No problem.” He smiled and extended a hand to help me up. His, I assume, boyfriend didn’t look too happy about the exchange.
“Thank you… Um, my name’s Hotaru. Do you mind my asking yours?” It was always weird telling people my name. They tended to stare a bit too much.
However, he didn’t. “My name is Miyako. So your name is Firefly? That seems to suit you.”
Wow, he knows his names…
“When I think of fireflies, I tend to think of autumn and in turn I think of all the leaves falling from trees. Your hair is the same red as those leaves while your eyes are the green, too. Very pretty.” He smiled.
“Um, thank you…” I mumbled. “And Miyako … that means ‘beautiful night child’ if I’m not mistaken, right?” I have to say that his name suits him much more than mine suits me.
“It does!” His eyes - turns out that they’re green - sparkled. And I have to say, they’re not just any normal green like mine. They’re that amazing cat-eye green. “Normally I have to explain it to people. It’s kind of strange that we both have Japanese names, isn’t it?”
“I suppose it is... What was your mother and father’s reasoning for giving you a Japanese name? Mine was that they were only seventeen and were obsessed with anime and manga. I got the name Hotaru because they were reading manga together at a park late at night and fireflies were circling them. My mom was pregnant at the time. They took it as some kind of weird sign.”
“That’s interesting - seriously,” he added as he saw my dubious look. “And, well, I don’t have any parents. They ... died when I was ten. I have a few memories… I think the story was about the same, minus the fireflies.” Miyako smiled sadly. Abruptly, he said, “How old are you? I’m seventeen.”
At that point his boyfriend snapped. “It’s time to go, Miyako. We’ve got to get back to the campground or my parents will realize that we snuck off to play in the ocean. C’mon. Give you a piggyback ride?” He looked hopeful.
Miyako turned slightly red and whispered, “Not in front of children, Jack.”
“You were carrying me…” he mumbled at the same time I said,
“Um… I’m not a child. I’m fifteen as of today.”
“Oh, well, otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu!” Miyako said happily.
“Why thank you!”
Okay, so you’re probably saying, “Huh?” right? Well, let me explain. What Miyako just said was basically, “Happy birthday!” in a polite manner to me. It’s great to have a main character that knows what’s going on, right?
“Miyako… It’s time to go. Now,” Jack said.
“Oh, fine, you big jerk. It was nice to meet you, Hotaru.” He bowed slightly. “I hope to see you again.”
Yes, of course I blushed. “I do, too. Bye Miyako.” I bowed as well.
As I watched Miyako and Jack hold hands while walking back to the entrance of the beach, I was slightly sad. After a few minutes I decided, since I still had a few minutes left at the beach, to go explore some caves. First I jogged over to where my twin - but in no way identical - sister was.
“Hey, Firefly. What’s up?”
“You know I hate it when you call me that,” I said with a cross expression.
“Which is exactly why I call you it!” She grinned.
“I don’t call you Cherry Blossom…” I grumbled. “Anyway, Sakura, do you want to go explore some caves with me? I’d like to before we leave…”
“Oh, I guess so. All I was doing was unsuccessfully finding shells, anyway,” she sighed dramatically.
Right… What you were really doing was checking Jack out, probably. Typical.
“Yeah, whatever. Just follow me to that cave over there.” I pointed to the cave I wanted to go in.
“Hotaru, that cave is right next to the tide. It could come in and eat us.”
I rolled my eyes. “The tide is going out, not in, Sakura.”
“You can never be too careful!” she whined.
“Ugh, will you drop it? It’s not gonna freakin’ eat us.”
“Fine, but you have to protect me.”
“Like I’d do anything but…”
“What was that?!”
“Nothing, nothing…”
Walking through the cave entrance, I couldn’t tell how far it went in. It was pretty dark and wet, too.
“Hotaru, it’s really wet… Like the tide was here just a second ago.”
Talk about stating the obvious. I sighed but didn’t reply. We had walked in about ten more feet when we came to a dead end of rocks. “Okay, if you hear or feel anything weird, run out of the cave as fast as you can without falling,” I told Sakura.
“What are you gonna do?” she asked cautiously.
“I’m gonna make a hole in the rocks, see if there’s a hidden passageway or something,” I said, half-joking and half-serious.
“Um, okay then…” She raised her eyebrows in the semidarkness.
I dug through the rocks. To my surprise, they crumbled away quickly and easily. What was left was actually a sturdy roof and a hole big enough for both of us to squeeze through at the same time.
I grinned. “Let’s go.”
“This is a bad idea. It’s dark and cold and there’s seaweedy stuff everywhere. A rockslide could kill us or we could slip on it and crack our heads open.”
“Will you just relax?! It’s okay. I won’t let you or myself get hurt on our birthday.”
Eventually I talked her into going through. Once I had, we climbed through the hole and stepped down onto a small ledge. What we saw inside shocked us both, I believe.
An open room laid in front of us with stalagmites and stalactites all over the ceiling and floor. There were even a few crystals around the place. It was beautiful - I hadn’t ever seen anything like it.
Sakura breathed loudly in wonder beside me.
And then suddenly I lost my footing and slid down the ledge, screaming and falling about twelve feet...
Spoiler
That spans about 5 1/2 pages on a 9x6 format with 1" margins, by the way. So... How'd you like it? Review if you have the time, please! 
