(D7 MA) Swim Lessons

[Susaki Tanabe]

Tanabe had nothing so important to arrest his attention while Yasu stripped down. It was such a bizarre thing, he had seen her take her clothes off a number of times, seen her laid bare before him multiple times but no matter how often he saw it each stitch she shed brought warm thoughts, each new space of skin revealed enflamed passions as if the first time he had ever seen a woman. It was so enjoyable it was mildly maddening.

His expression had gained a touch of a familiar hunger and appreciation of her solid but distinctly feminine form but as she knelt by the river his gaze turned more inquisitive. He had watched her put the paint on many times but hadn't seen the removal as often. It was an interesting experience he noticed she went around the eye and erased it last.

He had been about to ask about it when she offered him a gift. His tongue stopped short and for once in the eight days they had known eachother Tanabe seemed off balance "Um oh yes ok." He said vaguely pleasant in the sight of her exposed face but also that sort of uncomfortability that came with an unfamiliar situation.

[Kuni Yasu]

She works the jade bracelet from her arm and holds it out to him. "It's meant to be an engagement gift, but...if that's not you, I'll figure something else out. I want you to have this, because we chose each other, regardless of what happens."

[Susaki Tanabe]

Tanabe is fully speechless He was not used to receiving gifts, people did not often give to Otters they usually had to take what they wanted. His eyes grew swimming as he looked down at the braclet. His smile was full of warmth but could not form words could not summon the words he would need to convey his shock and gratitude.

"I...." He knew he should reject it, should at least as formality refuse it but he couldn't bring himself to it. His large hands surrounded hers a small happy tear rolling down his cheek as his eyes broke from their joined hands and met hers "it is the nicest thing anyone has given to me." He said with a thin voice that was unlike anything she had heard from him before.

He would slip the braclet on and stare at it for a moment "If jade is the gift you give for engagement I cannot buy it. It is a precious stone and we are not a rich people especially my family." He reached up and slipped off his jade pendant "but I chose you and I want you to have this so everytime you see it you think of me." He said holding the leather strap as to slip it over her head.

[Kuni Yasu]

It was the most vulnerable she'd felt in a while, no mask, jade beads no longer against her skin. But that tear and the tone in his voice warmed her, chasing away the moment of unease. Smiling gently, she brushes at the damp track down his cheek.

As he lifts his pendant over her head, she brings her hands up to wrap around his, her eyes fixed on his. "It is the gift _we give_. I didn't expect the same in return. And this is a gift from your school that can't be replaced. Are you sure?" It's not the standard refusal, it's the sincere worry that spawned the tradition in the first place. Will the giver suffer for giving a gift they can't afford to lose?

[Susaki Tanabe]

He smiled slipping the leather loop over her head his hand coming to the side of her face "Yes it has great meaning to me. But you mean so much more. It is a gift of one of two things, either I will be with you forever and so have not truly given it away or the worst will come to pass and it will be my way of giving you a piece of me, something to look at or touch and remember the man you once called the sun." He said speaking in a soft voice full of emotion, love, warmth, happiness and at the end just the very edges of sadness thinking on that outcome.

[Kuni Yasu]

There is no final word of acceptance, no thanks. Instead she curls her fingers around the pendant resting at her collarbone and rises up a bit on her toes to kiss him with a tenderness that's fully aware of how fleeting everything they're sharing can be. With the warmth of shared skin, and her bare feet in the damp earth, tenderness grows to heat, inevitably. Heat that still laces her voice when she manages to pull away with a soft moan. "My sun, my love."

Resting her head against her shoulder, she laughs, low and warm. "You're right, might stop caring who wanders by to see at this rate. Never manage to swim at all.

[Susaki Tanabe]

It was likely this moment, no matter what the future held, that Tanabe would look back on if he ever found himself cold and alone. On the river, or on the wall, in a far away castle in the night, it would likely be this memory he reached for for warmth. Sun light on his skin, the woman he loved in his arms as they professed their love for one another. It was here he knew he was unlikely to experience love like this again in his lifetime.

"My Rock, My Solid ground when the waves of life throw me, my love." He said back to her after they kiss broke.

"That indeed sounds fun but who knows when the rains will return." He said grinning his hands running down her body gently "we should swim at least a little before we take to the grass with gentle sighs." He said both playfully and with a heat of passion as he kissed her forehead.

[Kuni Yasu]

"Gentle?" She says with a laugh, her hands skimming down his chest. "Well, I suppose we don't want to startle the wildlife."

Turning to the riverbank, she walks to its edge, considers jumping in, looks at the water's height and murk and simply walks in instead, eyes widening at the chill. She pauses as the water comes up to her knees, feeling the pull of it against her skin as everything goes to goosebumps. "The shallow things near home are a lot warmer!"

[Susaki Tanabe]

"I'd have to restrain myself somewhat. We aren't that far from town." He said grinning.

He watched her get in and chuckled as she was shocked by the temperature "Yes the water is always a bit cooler after a rain much less a week of it."

He moved a bit down from her and dove in without hesitation disappearing beneath the murky surface for a few seconds before popping up a couple of feet from her shaking the water from his long curly hair.

[Kuni Yasu]

Yasu just watches for a long moment with a distracted smile, before taking a breath and plunging in far less gracefully, to pop up sputtering nearby. "hoo! Yep! Bit cooler!" She treads water with the exaggerated motions of the inexperienced, noting their drift with a small bit of calculation. "I am definitely awake now." she laughs. "Ok so...I'm probably about as good at this as your toddlers, maybe."