Written for the naked!wet!Basch battle, for the prompt "swimming"
Mutual Entertainment
Splash.
Probably a potion or an antidote from the sound of it and he knew they had found him. They usually did.
"Oh, no… an ether rolled away!"
Penelo. He smirked. Basch didn't bother to turn his head and look up at the rocks above to confirm that she was not alone. He knew she wasn't.
The water was clear as crystal and warm as a bath and the soft sand between his toes gave way the moment he dove under and took three long strokes with his arms plus one good kick with his legs. There it was: a glistening blue-green jewel. He snatched it with one hand while pushing off with the other, stirring up a fine cloud of silt that hung in the water as he folded and twisted, effortless turning without any sense of gravity pulling him down, supported by the tiny hands of thousands of undines as he ascended through muted light, at home as a merman in the sea's warm caress.
Taking a quick gulp of air upon return to an overexposed world, he could see them both sitting high on the rocks.
"You dropped something." He treaded water as his hand with the jar broke above the surface. "You should be careful with these. You know what they're worth?"
"Sorry!"
Leaning forward and then gliding for five slow strokes, his fingers touched rock. Once again it was shallow enough to stand, one hand against sun-hot stone and the other stuffing the ether into the pocket of his folded canvas pants before turning around and pushing off and swimming a few strokes out. Back, under the sun, in the warmth and treading water with hardly any effort; leaning back, floating, knowing they both have their bows if anything were to go wrong, and then letting that thought go just as quickly as it had come. Nay, there is naught any worry for the Lord of the Sea as he leaned back into the azure sun-kissed silk aglow with tens of thousands of diamonds sewn upon its surface.
Splash. Splash!
The second was so close that droplets of water sprayed his face.
"Fran? Did you drop something?"
"I never drop anything, Captain."
Giggling. Penelo. As if Fran's unhurried lilt didn't give both of them away. He didn't mind. It may not even measure an hour of freedom while the sun stood high in a cloudless sky, but it was a lifetime of liberation beyond vows of servitude. Once more into the world awash in soft cerulean light, once more toward gold dusted sands in search of discarded treasures. Once more.