In the Middle of Summer

Wolf smiles back at her slightly.

"Well, I didn't want to toss the cookies into the water..." he says to her, "But... if you aren't holding them anymore..."

"Yeah, if I'm not holding them anymore, I can focus on holding on to you!" Reena warned.

She hurried up the beach, taking the paper basket and setting it on the table, along with her camera. Her sandals were shuffled off as well before the dog turned to look at Wolf again. She crouched down a bit, flexing her fingers and gearing up to head back towards him. Her tail had yet to stop its back and forth behind her.

"Here comes trouble!"

Wolf watches as Reena heads over to the nearest table and unburdens herself of a few belongings. He raises an eyebrow as she crouches and looks like she's gonna charge at him. He smirks at her statement.

"For me? Or for you?" he asks.

"Both!" the dog replied as she started running forward at Wolf. She didn't go towards him at full speed, still clearly just playing. As she drew near enough, she tried to get her arms around Wolf's middle.

Wolf spreads his arms wide and braces himself to absorb the impact of Reena running into him and grabbing hold of him.

Reena latched onto Wolf once within reach of him, getting her arms just under his. She didn't stop at just trying to grab him, however, as her feet dug into the sand and she started to push him backwards more towards the water. The dog grunted through her giggles a couple of times as she strained to move the wolf.

"Yeah, see who gets dunked now!"

Wolf digs in his feet as Reena tries to push him backwards. He slides back about a foot through the wet sand before coming to a stop. He looks down at her.

"I think you're going to have to push harder than that." he says.

Reena kept at him, scraping her feet through the sand as she continued to try and push Wolf backwards. "I'm tryingggg!" she insisted. She would lessen the pressure she was pushing with for a moment, then try to make him budge by shoving harder suddenly again.

Wolf slid back another couple of inches when Reena threw herself against him again. He smirks a bit at her effort.

"Gotta put more behind it than that." he says.

"Well...! In case you haven't noticed! I don't have a whole lot to begin with!" Reena replied, accentuating words as she would shove harder against Wolf. After a couple more attempts, the Klee Kai finally slumped down against her 'opponent', holding herself up just by her arms still wrapped around him.

"Phew!" the little dog breathed out, "Why can't you just be an easy pushover?"

Wolf pats Reena lightly on the back with one paw.

"Probably because I don't feel like it." he replies.

He then puts his other arm around Reena and begins to push her back across the beach.

Reena snorted a bit at Wolf's response at first. However, her ears perked up and she let out a short, "Eek!" as he started to push her backwards. Immediately, the dog braced her legs against the attempt. Her feet were still in the shallow holes they'd made during her own struggle to move Wolf, but with him pushing her back now, it was fairly clear just how easy it was to move the smaller canine.

"Nope nope nope!" Reena protested as she began fighting to keep Wolf from pushing her back any farther, "Not without a fight!"

Undeterred by her attempts to stop him, Wolf continues trying to push Reena backwards. Every time he goes to take a step, he makes sure that his other foot is dug into the sand a little for better traction.

"Nnno fair!" Reena protested, "I'm at a weight disadvantage!"

Realizing she couldn't stop herself from being moved back through the sand, the dog decided to shift her strategy. Rather than try and resist any further, she adjusted her arms where they were wrapped underneath Wolf's and then gave a little hop. Her legs wrapped around behind Wolf and she held on tighter with her arms to keep from just sliding down to the ground.

"Now I gotcha!" Reena teased, tail wagging away behind her.

Wolf keeps pressing forward right up until Reena jumps up and latches onto him. He looks back down at her.

"Oh do you?" he asks, "How about if I fall forward onto the sand? Or into the water?"

"Then I might bite 'cha!" Reena warned, wriggling a bit to secure her hold around Wolf. She didn't exactly try to look up at him, keeping the side of her head against him for now instead.

Wolf raises an eyebrow slightly. He starts carrying Reena back over to the picnic table she'd dropped her belongings on.

"Oh! I know what I could do." he replies, "Since you're not going anywhere."

He tucks his head down a bit closer to Reena's.

"I could tickle you..." he whispers.

Reena's ears perked up as Wolf whispered to her. Her tail wagging faltered briefly and she tilted her head to look up towards his face.

"If you tickle me, I will make so much noise and then people will really start staring!" she pointed out.

"They are already staring. But if I tickle you, they'll at least know why you're making so much noise." he says.

"Don't you do it!" Reena insisted, "I'll yell for help!" There was a little pause. "...The fact that it's me that's clinging on to you means nothing!"

"Should we test that theory?" Wolf asks.

He moves his paws over to Reena's sides, and lightly presses his fingers against her.

The Klee Kai tensed, making her limbs squeeze a little tighter around Wolf as a result. "No, we should not!" she replied quickly.

"Well, are you going to hop down then?" Wolf asks.

"Nope!" came the reply, "I just have to get where you can't reach me!"

With that, Reena began to shift and shuffle in her grasp on Wolf, awkwardly and very little by little trying to wriggle her way around towards his back. Mostly she was just disheveling his clothes, though, and looking exceptionally strange as she tried to not just slip down into the sand below.

Wolf slips one arm around Reena as she starts shifting around. It keeps her from really being able to move around behind him, as he's just trying to keep her from falling. He then pokes her in the side with his other paw.