Revenge was typically a dish best served cold, which would be great considering their plan here, but there was no need for revenge here. Well okay, maybe he might consider dousing her with Hydro Pump to get at her for laughing at him at the beach before, but... Well, for now, he'd just focus on getting in some quality time with Izumi and the kids. Maybe they should have brought the grandparents, considering what his mother had gone and done for them after the pirate attack earlier, but... Well, maybe next time.

Josh had covered the eyes of the children when he realized Izumi intended to use her Gardevoir's Teleport to bring them there. One moment they were in one spot, the next in another. They were still a little dizzy, but Josh had at least saved them from the worst of it. It was far less disorienting than it could have been.

A watery crater? Well, it wasn't the beach, but there was sand. It'd make for a good picnic!

"Not bad, Zuzu" Josh brought up with a small smile. "Might even pop back and get the parents. What do you think?"

“Well, if you can tell them to get the hell ready and join us here as quickly as they can then you’re free to get them. I’ll keep an eye on the kids,” she replied as she gently pried his hands from the whining kids since they wanted to see where the hell they had ended up at.

Well, it wasn’t Slateport Beach, but it was far quieter. And the white rock of the city made the view even more pristine than it normally looked.

“Either way, this place is much less crowded. Shall I get the stuff set up?” she added as she took the picnic basket from his hold and began to pull things out from inside it. There would be a need for a beach umbrella later; the important thing was to get the entire place set up as soon as possible so the kids could start running for the shores of the crater lake and start swimming in the cold, crisp, clear water.

At least it’s not salt water! She added to herself in the back of her mind.

He almost as she brought up that indeed, he could bring his folks. "I can bring yours too, if you want" he teased with a grin. Referring to her mother, of course. They did live in Lavaridge Town, so getting into the Izakaya was as easy as all can be. "Aye, go get set up. I'll go take care of the extra guests" he brought up as he borrowed her Gardevoir for a moment so he could take advantage of Teleport. For a little bit, Josh disappeared.

When he returned, he had brought his mother, his father, and even Izumi's own mother as a special guest! A big family day out! He'd called her mother ahead while his own parents were getting ready, so they'd all been ready around the same time and there'd been time to get someone on manning the Izakaya and all that. So that was all squared.

Josh waved to Zu. "Hey hun! We're here!"

While Josh had temporarily gone back to pick up their parents, she’d helped the twins get ready to go swimming. The two, on the other hand, were all but raring to go into the water—and she would’ve let them do so had she not insisted on applying sun block on the both of them.

“Aw, come on!” Zach whined as Izumi started slathering on sun block lotion all over him. “I wanna go play in the water now!” he added.

“Yeah, Mom, do we really have to?” Lyra added, pouting and placing her hands on her waist.

“Look, you two,” she remarked with a sigh, “…do you want to end up with terrible sun burns? I’m sure you don’t right?” she addressed them.

“Remember the last time you went out without sun block, Lyra, you ended up with a red face for weeks!”

“Aw,” she grumbled, before letting Izumi fuss over her and apply sun block on her as well. Not too long after she’d finished, Josh had returned—and with it, more food had arrived!

“Oh, there you are,” she said as she finished applying sun block on herself and letting the kids run towards the water’s edge. “They couldn’t wait for you and headed on down. Don’t worry I got the sunblock on,” she added a few moments later as she helped her mother with the lacquer food boxes, each containing a generous amount of food meant to be enough for everyone to share—and then some.

Josh wasn't all that surprised when Izumi's mother had ended up cooking a mile's worth of food in the short time between when he had gotten in touch with her and when he had shown up to pick her up. Sure, he hadn't really seen her much until recently but how could he forget the sight of the Izakaya's owner whipping up food so fast it made his head spin? Even if he was still a bit bewildered when he saw it already all packed and ready when he got there.

It seemed that when they returned though, the kids had been too impatient to jump into the crater pool. Josh had been about to ask about sunblock, but Izumi had already taken care of it. So he snuck a peck on her cheek and headed down to keep an eye on the kids as they splashed around. Serena meanwhile immediately went to help out with the food, having brought a bit of extra spread herself. They were going to be full and fast!

The outlier was the older man with greying short blonde hair, who gingerly stepped out after being teleported. Josh's father hadn't gone out all that much since his time in custody. It had been a horrific ordeal, and it was clear that he was still recovering mentally from the scars he'd endured. Perhaps today would be the day he'd break out of his shell?

"Izumi, I can handle the rest with your mother. Why don't you join your husband and the kids?" Serena offered to Izumi in turn.

Izumi blinked—damn was her mother a psychic or some sort? How did she have so much food ready for all of them to feast on, and on such short notice to boot?!

Looking at her with this slightly incredulous look, she mumbled, “Sometimes, Ma, you never fail to amaze me,” before breaking out into a chuckle and seeing that Serena was going to take over keeping an eye on the kids.

“Please,” she added empathically in the brown-haired woman’s direction. “They’re… I can’t even control them anymore. The kid leashes don’t work at this point,” she continued with a huff and a mental eye roll in Josh’s direction, because it was his fault now.

Winking, she stuck out her tongue at Josh before grabbing the bottle of sunblock and squeezing a glob out on her hand before turning to face him.

“If you’re gonna go topless, now is the time to do it,” she teased, keeping an eye on the kids while they were literally screaming and splashing each other, fighting like mock-‘Waterbenders’ of some sort.

“You wouldn’t want me to waste this sunblock now, would you?” she went on, gesturing to the glob of sunblock in her hand.

Apparently she was a psychic, but Josh was less surprised than Izumi was. He had seen more than enough culinary miracles on the part of the Izakaya owner at this point to know that underestimating her was foolhardy. Both of their mothers were monsters in their own right. Underestimating them was like underestimating a Pyroar's ability to tear your damn throat out. And she would realize this as Serena gave her a look. The look. She had misheard her, which meant she should probably listen the second time. "I'm working on settling down this entire float of food your mother's brought, dear. You might want to make sure your husband doesn't let your spawn run off" she corrected real quick before turning back to her work. With how much food that had been brought, it was little wonder it was a two woman job.

But Izumi did earn a smirk from Josh for the whole child leash thing. "Of course they don't work. Considering where thye came from, I'm surprised the child leashes lasted for a whole two months" Josh pointed out cheekily with a small laugh. She then got out the sunblock and offered to lather him up. He rolled his eyes at her remarks, but nodded his head as he kept an eye on the kids that were splashing about. Amblin was there just in case they happened to look away.

The glob of sunblock was running down her hands—however Josh had presented and offered his back. Perfect.

“Don’t whine now,” she remarked as she began to slap the sunblock on and massage it liberally into his shoulders. “Loosen that up you’re fu—really tense,” she quickly corrected herself, remembering that there were children around the area now and she couldn’t just go cussing all willy-nilly.

Once she was done with one side of his back, another glob of sunblock made its way onto his back, and the same liberal massaging motions were done.

After she was done—

“Turn around, can’t have only the back covered,” she continued, lathering out another glob of sunblock and waiting for Josh to turn around and face her.

Indeed, in the end he had stripped off his shirt and presented his muscular back to Izumi, stretching out his tired limbs and cracking his neck as he waited for the inevitable cold that was to come. It was freezing to the touch, and he shuddered and shivered at first until he got used to it. Izumi nearly cursed when referring to how he was apparently really tense, and if she could see him, he had shot her a look in turn. There were kids here, Izumi!

The cold torment wasn't done with his back, of course and he turned around with his eyes-half lidded, waiting for the hell to be over. "Need me to do yours when we're done here?" he inquired quickly.

Now that he was facing her, the undeniable signs of a blush crept up on her face, before she quickly lathered the sunblock all over his front. God, why did he still have that effect on her so many years later…

Closing her eyes, she decided to get this over as quickly as possible because holy crap his topless form was making her think of some pretty indecent things (even while there were kids around).

“Yeah, get my back if you can. Of course I already lathered on my arms and neck and face. Oh right, gotta put some on your face too,” she remarked, eyes still closed as she slathered on more lotion on the front-side of his shoulders and rippling pectorals chest.

"Aye, I can do that" he agreed as he shivered from the cold of the sunblock. Once she finished, he took a glob and applied to his face and his ears, before putting on a pair of sunglasses and stretching out. He motioned for her to turn around, before he took the sunblock and got to work. As he did, he looked around to make sure nobody was looking before he leaned against her while he lathered her back, reveling in how close they were before trailing a handful of kisses down the back of her neck.

The motion only lasted a few seconds though, before he pulled back and finished lathering her back. With that, he brushed the remaining sunblock on his fingers onto his leg and headed back to the kids. "Come on Zoomi, the water's fine!" he called out to her.

Of course the kissing wasn’t missed, and she felt herself blush even hotter the more he did it while he was rubbing sunblock onto her exposed back.

Gah, you’re making me burn up! she thought as the indecent blush remained on her face.

Once he was done applying sunblock to all the parts she couldn’t reach herself, she felt him whisk by her before joining the little troublemakers who were now pretending to be full-on ‘Waterbenders’ in the shallows.

“Give me a bit, I missed my nose!” she called out, slathering on some more sun block onto her face and letting that settle in before she eventually joined them in the shallow parts of the lake.