Calmly hanging around...

[Crypt]

Liam's wings flapped happily, spraying water all around. The water wasn't so bad, he supposed. It seemed to be resisting the urge to swallow him whole, at least, and for that he was grateful.

"Okay! Are you ready for the next step?"

Liam's smile dropped rapidly. "There is 'nother step?" he asked slowly, his brow furrowing.

[Loa]

"There is 'nother step?"

Alani laughed, both at his innocence and to cover up her own nervous jitters. She was going to help him more than just talking to him, wasn't she? And that meant...touching him. But she wanted to, didn't she? Hadn't she thought about...touching him? Yes, she had, and not always in the innocent setting they were in now. Alani was young, but she wasn't without her own daydreams - especially during math or chemistry class.

She reached out and put a hand on each of his shoulders.

"Do you know how to hold your breath?" she asked. It might be a silly question for most people, but for someone who had such an obvious aversion to water, she doubted he had spent much time around it.

[Crypt]

The thumbs on top of his wings twitched as she laughed, and Liam shuffled from foot to foot unsuredly - at least until he realized that he'd taken his foot off the bottom of the pool, giving the water just the chance it needed, and slapped it back down, one eye wincing slightly at the jolt that rushed up his leg.

It was the feeling of her hands that brought his mind away from the water. Her hands were cool from the water, but he barely noticed. So many people were afraid of him and unwilling to even come close to him that he always had an illicit thrill at physical contact. It wasn't quite the same as with Hannah, though, or with Bobby... something felt different with her hands against his skin.

And there was that strange heat in his face again. His brow furrowed in confusion. He really needed to ask someone what it meant.

Blinking, he realized he had been holding his breath ever since she'd set her hands down on his shoulders. Releasing it slowly, he nodded, scratching his leg self-consciously.

[Loa]

Alani could tell Liam was more nervous than she previously thought. The idea that her touch was playing a part in that nervousness never crossed her mind - Alani didn't have the body issues that many girls do (feeling self-assured enough to get the extensive tattoos that covered her from face to feet), but she never thought of herself as particularly beautiful or aluring either.

"Okay, great! I think the next thing to do is to try to hold it, but underwater." She smiled reassuringly.

She pushed down lightly on his shoulders, indicating her intent.

[Crypt]

Liam blinked. Underwater? He'd only just made it INTO the water, and now she wanted him to go under it?

He'd picked up a book in the library once, and he hadn't been able to understand most of it, but he'd gotten the general gist of the book. It had numerous long words, strange phrases, and seemed to talk mainly about mental illnesses.

He started to wonder if Alani suffered from any of those.

And yet, when she pushed down on his shoulders, he started to sink into the water, keeping his wide eyes protected behind his goggles on her smiling face. A muffled sound caught in his throat, sounding like a squeak kept down, when he had to drop to his knees, the water up to his chin, and he barely managed to keep his breath down as his face went under, long strands of hair floating on the surface. But his goggles sealed the water out, and he looked down at the bottom of the pool in surprise.

[Loa]

Alani had a brief frightening vision of Liam drowning, her hands on his shoulders, holding him beneath the water. She knew in her head that the thought was unrealistic, he had only been under for ten seconds, but her heart still clenched. Who was she to be teaching him? Did she really know anything? I'm prolly just going to end up looking dumb, she thought. She was glad he couldn't see her worried face and conflicted eyes from under the water.

She moved her hands down a couple inches and gently squeezed his arms. Her thoughts of inadequecy - both in her head and heart - were immediately forgotten when she felt his thin but firm muscles. Her eyes went wide and she quickly pulled upwards, bringing him up from the water.

"See? That wasn't so bad!" She knew she was blushing, but she hoped he was too involved with the lesson to notice.

[Crypt]

It was taking forever.

Liam didn't know how long he'd actually been under, and he didn't really care. It felt like he'd been holding his breath for forever. It was such an unfamiliar sensation, and he could feel his chest tightening with the urge to take in air.

But there was no air to take in down here.

He was about to flail his way out of the water again when he felt her hands shift down on his arms and tug up, and he rose quickly. Wet hair streamed down over his face and neck, water dripping everywhere, and he exhaled, blowing droplets off his upper lip.

[Loa]

Alani was briefly reminded of the whales she often saw breaching off of Poipu beach as Liam burst back up from the water. Then the spray of water droplets splashed across her face and upper chest and she remembered what she was doing.

She laughed and wiped the water from her face. "That was great! You did an awesome job."

Alani didn't know if Liam had had enough for the day, but she didn't want to push him too far too fast. And something else was weighing heavy on her mind, dredged up by the memory of the whales...

She wished she could ask him to do this again the next week, and the week after. She wished they could continue lessons like this, she wished she could keep hanging out with him and talking to him.

"Liam...I have to tell you something..."

[Crypt]

Liam wiped his hand across his face, pulling long strands of hair away from his goggles, and he tried to wipe the water from the lenses, blinking as the drops just smeared. Spreading his wings, he shivered as a breeze blew over the water sliding down the membranes.

Apparently he'd done something right with the lesson, because Alani seemed pleased. He flipped his hair over his shoulders, not caring if it got tangled, and brushed water from his shoulders.

"Liam... I have to tell you something..."

Liam looked at her curiously. It was a phrase he wasn't familiar with, certainly. People had certainly told him things before, but they had always "decided to tell" or "wanted to tell" or even "thought he ought to know." Having to tell him something was new.

[Loa]

Liam said nothing, though Lord knows why Alani expected him to. He was a man...or boy...of few words. And she really liked that. She hoped he would open up one day, but for now, it was cool. Mysterious.

If only she had more time right now to get him to open up.

"I'm leaving in a week. Right after finals." Alani looked down at the rippling blue water of the pool. She ran her hand through it, watching the small wake it made.

"I know that some kids don't have places to go, that they had to come here," she continued, still looking down at the water. "But my family really wants me to come home for the summer."

She finally looked up at him, though it was physically difficult to do so.

"And I want to, too."

[Crypt]

Liam stood waist-deep in the water, looking at Alani expectantly. Had he known about the phrase "Waiting for the other shoe to drop," that was what he would have been thinking, but instead he just waited, one wingtip twitching.

It took him a moment to realize that was all that was coming. Dragging his toes along the pool floor, he tried to understand what she was saying. So her family was calling her home again. Did that mean she was leaving for good? Liam certainly didn't want that to happen; if anything, she was his closest friend at the mansion (although that wasn't hard).

But apparently there was something away from Xavier's that she was missing. Liam's brow furrowed. "Come back?"

[Loa]

"Come back?"

Alani smiled widely and had to literally take a small step back to avoid throwing her arms around him. Not that she didn't want to, obviously, but she didn't know how he would take it. She didn't want him running into the woods again, especially after the great moments they just shared.

She laughed out loud and shook her head. "Of course I'm coming back! I love Xaviers and I love-" she paused. "I love everyone here so much, I couldn't stay away."

She didn't tell him that while she was home, she was going to have to stay inside most of the time so certain people didn't know she was back.

[Crypt]

Shuffling from foot to foot, Liam looked off to one side. He'd heard that some of the students left the school for a while during the warm time - the names of seasons still managed to elude him - and he wiped a few strands of hair off his goggles.

He couldn't understand the desire to go anywhere else. He certainly didn't want to leave the school; there wasn't anywhere else to go.

"Coming back when?"

[Loa]

Alani giggled again and reached out for Liam's hand.

"I don't think I'll be gone long. Maybe a month? I guess I'll have to see how things go once I get there."

She thought for a second, then spoke again.

"I know you don't take classes, but we still have finals week, so I'll be here till then!"

[Crypt]

Liam blinked in surprise as her fingers curled around his hand, and he slowly exhaled. It was so warm compared to the water, and he could feel the slight bet of her pulse as it traveled through her fingers.

That was just his stomach speaking, though - he was feeling a bit hungry - so he looked up at her face again with wide eyes behind the dark goggles. He worked through the numbers in his head - there was no need for concepts of time beyond the rising and setting of the sun.

A week was seven bright and dark times. And a month was... four of those? He thought it was four, but he could never quite remember. Nodding slowly, he blew water off his upper lip again as it dripped down.

[Animaux]

A fly landed on Cal's face, and started to scoot its way up towards the moistness of her closed eye. She awoke disoriented from her doze, making a sound much like a snorting horse as she jerked her head up in response to the tickle. A few chunks of chlorine-dried blonde hair flopped over her face, and the fly bolted away.

Dazed and bleary-eyed, she looked around. Where was she? Oh, the pool. Mm, the pool. Hey look, the pool.

Hey look, Lani and Liam are holding hands. Hey, look. Hee hee.

She grinned. "Hee. Hee hee," she said out loud, looking at them through her messy mane of hair. She raised a hand awkwardly and used a hoof-like fist to brush some of it out of her eyes.

"Nice day for a bit of romance, eh?" She winced up at the sun and yawned widely enough to see all the way down her throat and halfway to Arabia.

[Loa]

Alani noticed Cal waking up suddenly, but kept her focus on Liam. Cal was another student she really hoped to hang out with before she left for summer vacation - she'd never gotten a chance to get to know her all year.

She looked up at Liam as they reached the pool steps. He blew water off his face again and she couldn't help but laugh. He was really funny sometimes.

"I really gotta go study for my chemistry final right now, but this...this was really fun. I had a lot of fun with you. I mean, teaching you. In the pool. Like, swimming with you." She wanted to smack herself in the face. Just shuttup, Alani!

She let go of his hand and hopped up the steps. She suddenly felt the urge to say a lot and to say nothing at the same time, torn between telling him everything she was thinking and attempting to make a smooth exit. And like most kids her age, she fell somewhere in between, and ended up looking like a dork.

"So, yeah! And I promise I'll write while I'm away, and when I get back we'll do more lessons, okay? And...yeah!" She turned away from him, and rolled her eyes at herself. She looked back, a wide grin on her face.

"See you later!"

She ran to past the lawn chair, grabbing her towel, and sprinting back to the school, where she planned on hiding in her room for the rest of the day.

[Animaux]

Blinking lazily, Cal watched the other girl with interest. She snorted with amusement as 'Lani' left, and gave Liam a toothy smile.

"She's got it bad for you, eh?"

[Crypt]

Liam just blinked in confusion at the steps of the pool as Alani talked almost faster than he could follow. It seemed to be a manic disease with girls that their mouths got away from them. And he wasn't even paying attention at the moment to Cal; one focus was plenty for him.

And then Alani was darting away, grabbing her things and running towards the mansion, leaving Liam waist-deep in water with his mouth hanging slightly open.

He looked around with a jerky motion, his wings spraying water about, and his eyes fell on Cal as she grinned at him.

"She's got it bad for you, eh?"

His mouth opened and closed reflexively as though it was engaged before his brain sent the words to his mouth. "Has what's got who?"

[Animaux]

Cal regarded him for a moment through her long blonde eyelashes. "She likes you, dumbass." Animaux may have been raised by wolves, but she was intimately familiar with human hormones, being mostly human herself.

She yawned again and thought about it. "Maybe it's the wings. Or the accent. You have a REALLY cute accent. Where are you from?"

She flopped onto her front to get a closer look at him, letting her hair cascade down onto the ground and her legs splay out to either side.