Random 111

"Mmm," was all he said. He was thinking along the same lines, and as such, Sebastian lifted her off his thighs, stretched them and finally got up, hobbling a little.

After their meager breakfast, he was ready to move on again.

They followed the valley, sometimes on narrow paths that were clearly more often used by deer than people. Following the water should take them towards the river, which flowed in the general direction they were headed. It was slow going on the soft and fragrant forest soil, but at least they headed more south than east, not back into the area affected by the unnatural rain.

They did not talk much. Sylvie tried to not get too distracted from the surroundings. As thoughts went, "Could I get away from this if I wanted?" was not a comfortable one. She tried to think instead of what she could do. And what she wanted now.

As bodies of flowing water were wont to, the barely-there rivulet they were following merged with others, and eventually fed into a wider stream.

It was the stream that finally, after all that silence and general wariness, caught Sebastian's attention fully. Prior to that, he had been keeping an eye on Sylvie and feeling worried, but...

The stream.

It didn't even matter if she wasn't as excited as he was, but Sebastian ran at it, laughing, stripping clothes, throwing his satchel away and tearing off what wsa keeping his hair together.

Miraculously, the pale, scarred half-elf managed to hit the exact, deepest spot in the stream, when it began to turn wider.

He was under the surface for almost half a minute, surfacing with a content smile.

That surprising display of enthusiasm got the all-out laugh out of Sylvie he had been fishing for the day before.

Still chuckling she walked to the water's edge and made sure there was no sign of anybody else being in the area before starting to undress herself. She just walked into the stream, submerging slowly to get used to its temperature, when Sebastian surfaced.

"Were you that desperate for a cold bath?"

Sebastian laughed, palmed some water and grinned. Then, spreading his arms to catched her, he said: "You better believe it!"

Sylvie gave another laugh before holding her breath and dropping the rest of the way and into his arms.

Still grinning she said, "Scared off the fish, you!"

"No, I haven't. I'm fishy," he retorted as he catched her, grinning himself. "Want to be fishy your -- oh, never mind." Sebastian pulled Sylvie underwater with himself for a few seconds. He surfaced with a smirk on his face.

It was promptly hit by a splash of water.

Sylvie snorted and laughed. "You're crazy." Not that she minded this kind of crazy.

He bursted into laughter himself, twirling Sylvie around in the water. "I've always been crazy. Just, there is that little bit of being crazy about someone else like so."

Sebastian gave her a kiss, holding her up to the point where her waist was above the water.

And then he pulled them both underneath for a couple of measly seconds.

A bit too startled by that last trick, Sylvie pushed herself off him. When she surfaced again, treading water - a bit more than armslength away from Sebastian, but not out of reach - she coughed once or twice and snorted repeatedly.

Sebastian looked a little worried once he surfaced partially, the tip of his nose underneath the surface -- eyes wide. Soon, he was treading water again, eyes wide. "Not too crazy, I hope," the half-elf said, ashamed, as he moved a big strand of grey hair from his face.

"Just a tiny bit maybe," she answered, smiling a little nervously. "Bad timing for breathing on my side."

She raked her own hair back with her fingers and hit on something to try to bridge the awkward moment. "Could you maybe later braid my hair? I could leave it for a few days and not worry about tangles."

He put on a small, almost shy smile as he tread water. "Good idea, darling, dearest. You're talking to the braiding expert. You'll not find another one like me." The last few words very almost inaudible. Then he vanished beneath the surface again, closing his eyes and emptying his lungs until he sank to the bottom. Water. It was cruel and essential, but it felt so nice.

"That I believe," she muttered, and steered herself with a few strokes closer to land, where she could stand on the ground - slightly slippery rocks and nests of gravel between them - and keep her head above water. Trusting Sebastian wasn't drowning himself, she turned to face the gentle current, leaned back, and combed her hair with her fingers.

He remained there for a while, eyes open, lips curled into a smile. Would this be enough? Sebastian wondered, staying put on the rocky bottom for a few more seconds. No. But it could be good, he finally decided, twitched and kicked himself to the surface, where he took a long gasp of air, shook his head and located Sylvie.

His heart almost missed a beat. The pale white thing swam closer, intending to insinuate himself next to her. "Anything else you'll believe?" the half-elf finally asked, looking somewhat ridiculous what with the hair covering his left eye.

"I'm not sure. What do you have?"

"Love?" he suggested.

She straightened up and looked at him, surprised and puzzled. "Yes." It sounded a little like a question, because she wasn't entirely sure if he meant "I love you", or wanted to start a philosophical discussion, or what.

As always, being somewhat (oh, more than somewhat) quick on the uptake, he made his conclusions and basically put his face an inch from hers after he had shook off most of the water in his hair. After which, Sebastian repeated the 'I love you' Sylvie had said some nights ago, in her language. He blinked, smiled and got ready to escape -- and making a show of just how ready he was to escape.

After a second's confusion, Sylvie lunged and grabbed for his shoulders, momentarily pulling both of them under. Her first words back in the were, "Don't you dare run off on me after that!" She was grinning, but there was genuine feeling behind it.