𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐀 - TMR, Gally ¹

𝟢𝟥𝟣，𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬

CH. THIRTY - ONE
┗━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━┛

"Woman, you nearly drowned last time you went there," he grumbles straight after she shared where she's going. "Let's not."

"I can swim," she defends. "And I'm going, no matter what you say. Besides, I went swimming the other day, too."

"Alright. But I'm coming with you and your stubborn ass," he decides, following along. "Can I get a towel first?"

"Nope." With a grin, she wraps her arms tighter around her towel. "You're lucky."

"Yeah?"

Her grin grows. She can't help it. "I'm wearing your favorite color."

"It is not my favorite color," he mutters. "And it is no longer funny."

"I think it has some humor to it. Now stop walking that fast, I can't keep up."

"If you stop about the navy blue thing."

"Never."

They arrive at the lake. Joan puts her towel down beside it, along with her shoes, socks, pants, and shirt. Though she wouldn't want to show the whole Glade this, she isn't embarrassed either. Just the same as a bikini!

"Can you even swim?" She then wonders, turning around.

Damn.

Carrying wood and building for over two years for sure worked in his benefit. Broad shoulders, great biceps, visible muscles. Not bad at all.

"Now who's staring?"

"Not me." She turns to the lake. "Let's go. Don't drown, though."

"You'll have to mouth to mouth me."

She hums in reply. "I'd prefer just kissing you because I can, not because you're dying. Now come on!"

Taking his arm, she leads them to the lake, until their ankles are completely underwater.

"Maybe you should just walk in first. I mean, if you don't know if you can swim—"

Then water consumes her. Her mouth opens to let out a yelp, but she chokes, and spats around until oxygen fills her lungs again.

"Gally!" She gasps. "I didn't tell you to push me."

He stands there, laughing, with twinkling eyes. "Well, you can push me back."

"No. Imagine you drown," she says. "I can't carry you out of the water if that happens!"

Gally dives into the water, just like that, and then his head appears above the water, shaking the wetness off. "Looks like I can swim."

She smiles. "Good."

And now she hopes those creatures won't show up.

"It's a tad cold, though."

"Oh, don't be weak." A chuckle. "It's perfect!"

Instead of replying, he sends a wave of water over her with his hands.

Scoffing, she does it back.

Three seconds later, they're splashing water on each other, attempting to get the other underwater, and laughing so hard that their mouths fill with water.

It would look ridiculous to anyone watching, but they can't give a shit.

After a few minutes, she finally manages to push his head underwater.

Then he doesn't come back up.

Panic immediately rises. She dives underwater, opening her eyes in the clear water, but it's hard to spot him. When she comes back up, she yells for him.