Out of anything, my sister just had to drag me swimming. Considering any summer outdoor activity was a pale person's worst nightmare, paddling around half naked was probably the worst case scenario.
"You haven't left your room since you got home! What kind of summer break is it if you spend all your time at your desk?" Ultear rambled as she rubbed a copious glob of sunscreen onto the middle of my back. By the time we were done today, the entire freaking tube was going to be gone.
"For the last time, I have summer classes! This isn't a break for me and you're just making my life harder by dragging me away from all my assignments!"
"Oh hush! I'm pretty sure your perfect grades can handle you spending a few hours in the sun," she said matter-of-factly.
I sighed as I tossed the sunscreen aside and tried not to think about how much studying I was going to have to do when I got home. Why I decided to take calculus II online, I'll never know.
Ul was already stretched on her plastic chair as I waited impatiently for my skin to stop feeling so sticky. Her eyes were hidden beneath a large pair of silver sunglasses as she reclined in her far from modest purple bikini. I'd learned a long time ago that I didn't need to be a protective brother for her. She was more than capable of waving off random poolside creepers so I left her alone and headed off to one of the pools.
I was supposed to be swimming after all.
Deciding that the wave pool looked the least crowded, I sauntered over and grabbed one of the large blue inner tubes sitting around before wading my way through the gobs of people. The water was relatively calm at the moment, therefore I figured that I must have joined in between the cycles of waves that were pumped into the pool about every ten minutes.
Just resting my upper body on top of the tube, I kicked myself forward with my legs out to the deepest part of the pool where the crowd was much thinner. However, the only people swimming in the deep end were bratty kids. They were splashing and screaming and dammit Ul what part of this was supposed to be relaxing?
I'd about had it when a dark haired girl shoved a scrawny boy under the water but he was holding onto his tube with one hand, so he quickly resurfaced after a few seconds. Before I could shuffle away, a shrill whistle sang through the air. I whipped my head towards the noise where a pink haired lifeguard was poised on a watchtower.
"Hey, no dunking!" he shouted with an authoritative tone that I wasn't really listening to.
Though his arms were crossed over his legs, I could tell from his toned chest that he had a hidden six pack. His bronze skin gleamed under the harsh summer sun and man did he look good in those form fitting red swim trunks. Despite his stern voice, his face was only serious enough for the kids to see it before it stretched back into a smile that I momentarily got lost in.
However I was jostled back to reality when the water beneath me began to significantly rise and I had to swim forwards to keep the swells from carrying me towards the shallow end.
Apparently the waves were back.
Once I grew accustomed to the current's pattern, I relaxed slightly. It was almost peaceful coasting atop the hills, although if that was what I really wanted I would've picked the lazy river to begin with.
Not having to swim for my life anymore, my thoughts began to drift back to the sexy lifeguard overseeing the pool, but I quickly shook my head. There was no use in getting my hopes up when my trip was the first and last visit to the little water park for the entire summer.
Settling my gaze on the crazy group of children, I briefly wondered if their parents were off sunbathing instead of watching them, before I saw one boy slip right through the middle of his tube.
I wouldn't have thought anything of it, if his friends didn't look at each other with shocked faces.
"Can your friend swim?" I shouted over at them as I fought the waves to move closer to them.
When a few of them shook their heads, I decided to act first and think later.
Sliding down out of my inner tube and into the water, against my instincts I blearily opened my eyes as I tried to find the boy. I spotted almost instantly, frantically swinging his limbs around himself in a futile attempt at swimming only a few feet away. Quickly grabbing a hold of him, I pushed off the bottom of the pool and propelled us to the surface.
Once we broke free, I tried to tread water with him in my arms, but it was pretty hard using only my legs. I'd never really had a lot of lower body strength considering I'd never played any kind of sport that required it.
"You alright kid?" I asked him though he seemed too shaken to answer.
"I'll take it from here."
It was him, the lifeguard, merely inches away from me with his arms outstretched. Damn, he was even hotter up close…
I handed the kid over and watched as the guy's strong arms carried him over to the edge of the pool despite the swells. Another lifeguard helped to get the boy out of the water and onto the concrete. The little guy was coughing but conscious and in good hands, so I figured he'd be fine.
I slowly swam my way back across the pool to the shallow end. My body was kind of tired from working to keep the kid afloat and from being able to stand on solid ground which meant that the lazy river was definitely calling my name.
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Ul was in the exact same position she'd been in when I last saw her when I returned to reapply more sunscreen. About an hour had passed since we arrived and the bottle claimed that it was water resistant for ninety minutes, but I figured better safe than sorry.
As I was drying myself off, she finally decided to acknowledge me.
"Having fun?"
I shrugged halfheartedly. The wave pool hadn't been very enjoyable even if it wasn't boring and I almost passed out on my inner tube in the lazy river until I remembered for the fiftieth time that I had so much schoolwork waiting for me when I got home.
She tilted her sunglasses down enough for me to see her glare, as if I couldn't already feel it through the shades.
"Gray, I brought you here to take your mind off of school. Can you really not manage that for a couple hours?"
My silence was all the answer she needed.
"Ugh c'mon, we're going down the slide!"
She practically dragged me the entire way to the line but her enthusiasm certainly wasn't contagious. It wasn't like I hadn't gone down it at least twenty times over the course of my life.
There was a sizable wait considering the place only had one slide, which meant of course that we had plenty of time for her to prattle about what I should be doing with my summer. If she brought me here to relax, then why was she trying to lecture me? I mostly tuned her out while I people watched and eavesdropped on the conversations going on around us.
When we finally got to the front, a blonde lifeguard whose chest barely fit inside her clingy one piece, waved Ul towards the top.
My sister actually looked pretty ecstatic when she hopped up to the entrance and slid down. There was even a distant squeal of laughter that I pretended I didn't hear as I walked forward to wait for my turn.
It was a few more seconds before the lifeguard flashed me a thumbs up and I shoved myself forwards to get my momentum going.
The slide was an enclosed tube all the way down to the bottom with only a few small holes every so often to provide some light. So it was practically all around disorienting when I was shooting downwards and side to side. My only sense of balance was the solid wall beneath my back, except for when I shifted too fast and nearly flipped onto my stomach. At least the ride itself was pretty short and before I knew it, I was crashing into the water at the bottom.
Unfortunately I'd hit the water harder than I thought and at a horrible angle because my swim trunks were gone!
Glad that I'd realized before I'd broken the surface, I fumbled around underwater to see if I could find them until I ran out of air.
I gasped and coughed slightly as I stood up in the waist high water. Why the hell did karma have to do this to me after I'd gone out of my way to save that kid?
"Hey, looking for somethin'?" said a familiar voice.
Well shit, the sexy lifeguard was back with one hand on his hip and my trunks in the other.
One look at his smirk and I was practically melting.
I was surprised that the water wasn't simmering around his hot body because damn, those were the abs I'd been waiting for…
Moving cautiously in hopes that I wouldn't attract any extra attention, I waded out of the way of the slide and over to him. If Ul caught me naked in the pool I'd never hear the end of it!
"Uh thanks," I muttered as I reached out a hand for him to hand my clothes back. However he hesitated as his eyes swept over me and flickered back up to my eyes.
"Honestly I think you look better without them."
Well fuck me. Literally.
He laughed at the stupid face I was probably making and finally handed over my shorts, which I promptly stepped back into.
"So you are capable of emotion! I thought you were a total ice block, man!"
I snorted as I tried to gage whether or not he was being serious.
"Seriously though, you saved that kid, totally stole my thunder, and you walked away like it was nothing. And just now you were strutting across the pool completely butt-naked as if there weren't like a hundred people around."
Well the guy did have a point, but I wasn't about to admit that.
"It's not that weird."
"Yeah sure, whatever man," he laughed as he threw an arm over my shoulders and started leading me elsewhere. Honestly at that point, I would've gone anywhere he led me.
"I've got someone that wants to meet you, thinks you're a damn hero."
I raised an eyebrow at him but he didn't say anything else until we were standing in front of an awe-struck looking blue haired girl.
"It's you!" she cried and without warning leached her entire body around my left arm. I was never happier that we were still in the water because at least that supported some of her body weight. Even if she looked light, that would have been incredibly uncomfortable and from her grip I could tell she wasn't about to let me go anytime soon.
"Yeah it's him!" agreed sexy lifeguard number one. Now if he had decided to wrap himself around me, I would've had absolutely no complaints.
"Ice block this is Juvia. Juvia this is ice block."
I rolled my eyes at the nickname and wondered if I should even give him the satisfaction of knowing my real name. Oh who the hell was I kidding, I so wanted to hear him say it.
"It's Gray," I sighed and instantly regretted it when I felt the hold on my arm tighten significantly.
"Gray it's so wonderful to meet you! Juvia was there when you saved that boy, before Natsu even noticed he was drowning."
"Hey!" interjected Natsu, who I was pleased that I now had a name for.
"Gray was so cool!" she continued as if she'd never been interrupted and that actually was the last sentence I caught before my gaze drifted back over to Natsu.
His mossy green eyes looked slightly apologetic as Juvia kept going on and on about how great I was even though I'd only said two words to her. Up close and not in a precarious situation, I thoroughly was enjoying the view. For obvious reasons, swimmers always had the best bodies and considering he'd shamelessly checked me out when I was naked, it was only fair.
I'd just begun to admire his shapely triceps when I felt Juvia release me and look up at me expectantly.
"Huh?" I asked eloquently. It wasn't my intention to be rude, still I had been ignoring her.
I looked over to Natsu for help but he was too busy trying to hide his laughter behind his fist.
"Juvia was just asking Gray if she could have his number," she informed me with wide, hopeful eyes.
Awkward was an understatement.
"Um well you seem really nice Juvia, but I don't exactly swing that way, if you catch my drift," I stammered while hoping she wouldn't make me elaborate.
Her face immediately fell and when the tears started welling up, my anxiety went through the roof.
"Ah! I'm sorry, please don't cry." I shoved my hands into my pockets as I attempted to look anywhere but her. "You really are beautiful so if I was into…girls…you'd be perfect."
She rubbed at her nose and looked up at me through her bangs.
"Gray…Gray means it?"
"Yeah, of course," I answered with as much sincerity as I could muster.
"Alright Juvia, why don't you take your fifteen hmm?" Natsu ushered her away with a kind smile. I did all I could however I had the feeling the waterworks were far from being over.
She simply nodded at his question and waved to me before swimming away. I turned to watch her go with a wave of my own believing it was the least I could do after turning her down.
"Sorry about that, but she adores you. There was really no way around it," Natsu said behind me.
"I could see that," I mumbled as I ran a hand through my damp hair as I tried to calm my erratic heart. It wasn't the first time that I'd had to turn a girl down though they normally took it a lot better than Juvia.
When warm hands grabbed my hips below the water, I froze.
Was he actually going to make move? I mean I'd been blatantly checking him out for the last ten minutes but I didn't think it was going to get me anywhere.
I was probably just dreaming, yeah, maybe I'd hit my head going down the slide and this whole bit had been a hallucination while I was drowning or something. That was the only logical explanation for why my sides were burning hot and I was running out of air.
"Does that mean you're all mine then?" he whispered against my ear.
Yup, somebody call an ambulance.
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"So did you talk to him?"
"Talk to who?" I asked my sister as I sat down on the plastic chair adjacent to hers.
"Who else? The lifeguard that leaped in as soon as you came down the slide."
I looked at her curiously. Did Natsu seriously go out of his way to meet at the bottom? That was kind of cute.
"What?"
"Don't play dumb with me Gray, those are some pretty big hickies on your neck."
My hand immediately smacked against the side of my neck. We may have made out in the pool equipment shed for the better part of an hour with the added bonus of him slipping me a season pass and the promise of many more visits. Did I mention that his number was scrawled on the back of the ticket? My summer had definitely gotten hotter.
However, this was Ul, the manipulator and mastermind at making me spill all my secrets. Therefore, I growled out the one thing that I hoped would shut her down.
"Fucking sunburn."
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