AI FISHIby Jink

    “Rowan, come down here this instant!”

    Rowan flinched. Sai stood below him in the waist deep pool, his arms folded and tense across his chest. The drops on his skin glittered like angry diamonds in the powerful sun, matching his eyes. Indeed, he did not look like a happy Merfreak. Rowan knew quite well that he was being a coward, hovering in mid-air above the calm surface. He was dressed in bathing shorts and looking very apprehensive, the bluish tint of his power glowing faintly around him. Sai’s nose and cheeks were stained pink from the summer heat, his agitation accenting the rosy hue.

    “Rowan, this is embarrassing! What if someone were to see you hanging about in the air like some idiot?” The famous pout was dangerously close to becoming furious. Furious meant no sex for a week at least. Rowan cursed. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. Without lifting a finger, Sai sent a moderately-vicious blast of water jetting past his ear. Rowan yelped like a little girl and dodged, his body cutting neatly through the air.

    “Hey, quit it!”

    “Look, I promised I’d teach you,” Sai sighed, “but I can’t do a thing unless you enter the water first!”

    “Couldn’t ya just give me a demonstration and I could just take notes?” Rowan begged. He shuddered in his black bathing shorts, doing his best to look pitiable. Sometimes it worked. But Sai dunked a fist below the surface, sending another spray of water in his direction.

    “Blast it Rowan this isn’t algebra! I already KNOW how to swim! You’ll never learn by watching me.”

    “I could try?”

    Sai huffed. Without another word, he disappeared below the surface. Rowan watched the silhouette of his body distort and quiver with the erratic movement of the water making Sai’s own motions indiscernible. It barely looked like he was moving at all but soon enough, he surfaced again at the deeper end of the pool.

    “There, I’ve swum for you.” Sai shouted over, treading the water easily and hardly out of breath. “Now, let’s see you do it! Come here!”

    “Uh-uh! Uh-uh!” Rowan shook his head furiously. “I can’t, I’ll drown!” Sai closed his eyes, a small infuriated smile on his face. His voice was low and venomous.

    “Rowan, come here. Now. Or I shall send this entire pool into a tsunami!”
Rowan tried to deal with the threat, his heart beating faster.

        “You wouldn’t!”

        “Oh?” As he spoke, the water began to boil, threatening to rise. Sai’s green-blue kanji shimmered faintly from underneath his bangs. He was serious, the gig was real. Sai usually never allowed his kanji to flare outdoors, even in potential public.

    “Ahhh! No!” Rowan skimmed lightening-quick through the air and hovered frantically over Sai, begging him not to unleash aqueous disaster upon him.

    “I’m only 23 years old! My mom is dying! I have a secret wife and 3 cats at home! PLEASE DON’T DROWN ME!” Suddenly, Sai’s eyes snapped open, the roiling water slowing to a gentle lapping. Rowan breathed loudly in relief.

    “Don’t scare me like AAAGGGHHHHH--”

    It happened so laughably quick, that he barely had time to piece together the event....until he was spitting up water. Sai had surged up from the deep water surrounding him. Small, cold hands locked firmly around his ankles and yanked him down into the pool.

    “AAAKPTH!” <SPLASH!>

    Terrified, he reaffirmed once again that he could not swim.

    On the surface, Sai giggled turning lazily onto his back, his smug hands behind his head.

    “Ro-chan, you are SO funny!” After a few seconds, he straightened himself in the water, bobbing up and down.

    “Well now Rowan, just move your arms and legs like a paddle so you can surface.” He kythed the command just to make sure Rowan would get it under the water. He rolled his eyes when he got no response, thinking Rowan was sulking at him.

    “If you don’t MOVE Rowan, you’ll do quite nicely sinking!” he huffed impatiently. But again, there was no response from Rowan. Not even so much as a ripple in the water.

    “Rowan?” There was a pause. “Rowan?”

    Oh dear.
   

    In less than 10 seconds, Sai was supporting Rowan, dragging his dripping, unhappy form to the edge of the pool. Rowan leaned against the side, coughing and sputtering, heaving an occasional mouthful of clear pool water from somewhere in his body--he knew not where. Sai whacked him on the back, clicking his tongue in a very annoying and indignant manner.

    “THIS is why you ought to learn to swim, Ro-chan.”

    Rowan controlled his coughing long enough to splash a weak, unkind wave towards Sai’s face.

    “You STUPID!” He gasped. “Ya almost made me drown!”

    “I did not!” Sai flushed angrily, water dripping down his face. “It was all your fault the whole time!”

    “You coulda warned me!” Rowan let his head rest in his arms, his elbows scratching against the rough, cement surface. Sai gave him a look of pity. Poor humiliated, drowned-rat, Ro-chan. Rebuking him now wouldn’t make things any easier for him. He imagined how frightened he would be if Rowan one day decided to teach him how to fly. Compassionately, he swam up behind him, placing the same two small hands that had tried to drown him onto Rowan’s shoulders. He rubbed them, easing the tension there and warming his skin. He pressed up against him, leaning his cheek against Rowan’s back apologetically, his head moving with Rowan’s pants, one foot rubbing gently against his shin.

    “I’m sorry, Rowan.” He said timidly. Rowan’s skin was now warm despite the cold water drenching him. He didn’t say anything, just shut his eyes.

    “You were actually quite brave, love. I didn’t know that you could hold your breath that long.” He exclaimed. Rowan’s voice was sick and pathetic.

    “I swallowed, Sai.” Sai could feel him shuddering as he smirked into his shoulder.

    “Oh, thank you Rowan.”

    “My pleasure.” said Rowan caustically.

    “Come now, you really should learn to swim, I can’t keep dramatically rescuing you like this, people will want to film us.” He smiled, feeling Rowan’s breaths slow. “Are you ready to go at it again?”
Against his will, Rowan nodded, uncaring. Sai wrapped his arms around Rowan’s waist, clenching his fists together at his stomach. Gently, he began to tug Rowan away from the wall.

    “We’ll start out slow and THIS time, no swallowing!”

    Reluctantly, Rowan allowed himself to be pried off the wall, his arms once again immersed in the water. Sai’s arms around his waist were gentle but strong and Rowan clung to them in a panic, his own arms feeling trembly.

    “Ro-chan, you’re shaking!” Sai exclaimed, gliding effortlessly to the middle of the pool. Rowan turned around in Sai’s embrace, reaching out to fold himself desperately around Sai’s neck.

    “I’m really getting freaked out by this Sai!” he hissed. “Let’s go back, please?”

    “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you. Now...” Sai let out his breath to enunciate himself clearly. “...let go.”

    Rowan’s eyes widened, his grip around Sai’s neck growing tighter. So fierce was his hold that Sai had to use his power just to stay above surface. He was a little alarmed to discover that Rowan actually thought he might drown.
   

    “Rowan,” he began. “It’s alright, just let me go.”
   

    Rowan shook his head, burying his face in Sai’s neck.

    “Uh-uh! No way! No way! No way!”
   

    Sai laughed nervously. What a baby he was being!

   “Honestly Rowan, if you don’t let me go, I shall disappear and LET you drown!” Rowan’s body stiffened at the threat. Uttering a small, scared noise, he clutched Sai tighter, nearly choking him in the process.

    “UNF!” Sai gagged. Relaxing his body, he let himself slip quickly and silently under the water.

    Rowan promptly freaked. With his only life buoy gone, he thrashed wildly, cursing blue and green and sending fierce splashes of water helter skelter. He was so distraught that he barely noticed Sai’s slender form swimming beneath him, supporting him from below.

    Hush Ro-chan, you’re alright!

    Taken aback by the firm support of Sai’s mind and hands, Rowan’s thrashing skidded to a jerky halt. By measures, he realized he was not drowning, nor even sinking. Sai was directly underneath him, supporting his body, and trying to ease him onto his back. Rowan resisted. He had never felt like a bigger fool in all his life.

    “Oh SHIT, Sai what are you tryin ta do ta me???” he demanded, his voice practically a whimper. He knew Sai could not hear him but his kythe came calm and steady anyway.

    I won’t let you fall, Ro-chan. Just inflate your lungs, hold your breath...

    Rowan did not buy it.
   

    “Inflate your MOM!” he cried. “Get me outta here!”
   

    Lie down.

    Sai’s hands worked beneath him, gently prodding him onto his back. He jerked mildly as the water hit his ears, threatening to wash onto his face and blind him. But that didn’t happen.
   

    Hold your breath, Ro-chan.

    It was too vulnerable a position to argue in so he did as he was told.
   

    What am I doing? By themselves, his thoughts reached Sai below him, surrounding the Merfreak in an echoing sensation of fear. He squirmed, feeling the brush of many tiny silver air bubbles hitting his back. Sai was laughing at him.
   

    You’re only floating, Rowan.   

    Floating???
   

    “AAHHHHH!” Rowan yelled, his composure scattered. Instantly. he felt himself starting to sink. But Sai was still there, holding him, his voice sharp in his brain.
   

    Don’t let your breath out!

    “ACK!” Rowan gasped, inhaling a large gulp of air as if he were about to swallow it. His ears filled with the cold water again, plugging out all other noise save for the thunderous rhythm rushing through his body. It was the oddest feeling in the world, reclining on water and unable to breathe. Tentatively, he opened his eyes, squinting at the sun’s hard rays in his face. He began to realize that he was not in any real danger. It was just uncomfortable not breathing.
   

    Are you alright Rowan?

    Somehow he managed to relay to him that he was. He was still too disoriented to be confident about that. Sai must have felt that too because he kythed again, letting his thoughts go calm and easy. Like aspirin to a headache.
  

    Just relax and don't be scared Ro-chan. The water won't you drown if you understand how to act in it. Etiquette applies here too, you know.
   

    Rowan kythed back to him, relaying that that was all swell to know and now that he had mastered the dangerous art of floating, he could go home and dry off now, right?
   

    Why of course not, Rowan! You still don’t know how to swim!

to be continued or.....?