Luke had arrived at the beach a few minutes early and was enjoying the sensation of being surrounded by water again. He licked his three-scoop, rocky road ice cream cone as he waited, his eyes continually flicking upward as he waited for Mao. Luke might have enjoyed the sound of the surf and the soft sea breeze, but he certainly did not enjoy the solitude. A month without any of his friends, or any regular means of contacting them, had made him miss even the most annoying of Mao's immature stunts. When the other boy appeared over the ridge, Luke's eyes lit up and for once he didn't fight the butterflies rising in his stomach. If nothing else, his month of "vacation" had given him a lot of time to think and to sort out his feelings. It wasn't a completed process yet, but at least he was getting somewhere.
Luke couldn't help but smile as Mao danced around him and when he was punched his "ow!" was more playful than annoyed. He deserved more than just a punch in the arm for what'd he'd done, that was for sure, so he couldn't blame Mao for wanting to scold him. "Watch it, you'll make me lose my ice cream!" The light tone and the smile on his face softened the warning, and as he rubbed his shoulder he added, "I'm really sorry about that, Mao. It was stupid. I thought..." he trailed off, looking at Mao with a concentrated, hard to read expression. "Well, you know. It's over now."