Age: Undetermined, it is Reader's Choice, meaning decide for yourselves. Character names: Not given, either, but there are some good guesses of who it might be. Placement according to Original Show Canon: An unspecified time after the Final Episode. Placement According to my Fanfic Canon: Alternative Reality of AR. This is a fan request for some sultry skinny dipping. Reader beware, rated M for adult themes.
He smelt as good as a ponderosa pine on a hot summer's day, when the green needles baked overhead and the vanilla-like amber oozed from its bark. She smelt as spicy as the cinnamon gum she chewed, and both of them, on this summer's night, looked for something almost eternal. They looked for love in each other's eyes. But as ever, love was tightly moored to that country called lust.
He was the one who started it. The boy with the golden hair. He had lingered long in his thoughts informed by dreams. Lately, the dreams of lust had come a lot and he wondered, severely, what it meant he was to do with himself. Chastise himself? Tear away the longing he felt by burying himself in some distraction? Or should he sink into these strange dreams that had haunted him of late?
The first dream he had dreamt was of his cousin's girlfriend, offering to cheat on his cousin by giving him a private swim. But the dream since then, had shifted. Most of his dreams were all about a certain girl in his class. She was taller, bolder, and more difficult. But her lips had also been on his once and so, unbidden, when dreams flooded his mind again, her visage had come with them. It was only she who had invaded his dreams, undressing beneath the moonlight to swim for him. Moments before his alarm clock rang, it was always she who began unhooking his buttons, her mouth and small breast pressing against his chest.
Right on cue, the alarm clock rang, and the boy with the golden hair sat up. Sweat plastered stickily in his hair. Today, just like every day, the summer heat of July baked his room and he opened the window to let the hot air roll out. But the stagnant air over the entire city meant that even opening the window brought little relief. It was already nearly eighty outside.
Sitting up, the boy wasted no time. He pulled on his socks, then strode across the room to count out money for the bus. It was possible to walk, but the bus had air conditioning, even if it was mediocre. He pulled out his swim bag with a towel and a pair of blue swim boxers in them. Blue was one of his favorite colors. He wanted to look good while swimming, especially if he met the girl of his dreams.
The boy with the golden hair trotted up to the bus stop, then waited for the city bus to come to its squeaky stop. He dropped his coins in the change box inside and sat in the first open bus seat. There weren't many. A lot of people had ideas like him to avoid walking in the full, bright sunshine. The whole bus smelt like sweat from all the persons perspiring in it. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.
But soon he arrived at the city's public pool and the boy with the blue cap celebrated his cleverness by adjusting his ballcap so that it sat even more perfectly on his head. Then he strode inside. He had learned long ago that "the key" as his best friend would say, was to get there first as the pool was first opening, or else there would be no room. Everyone was desperate to find respite from the heat on days like these.
The gates were only just opening when he arrived, so with a grin that was so wide it was almost maniacal, he scooted inside and tossed off his shirt. The boy with the golden hair made for the nearest diving board and did a back flip off it before the older and more aggressive boys and grownups could bully him away from it. He sank into the water like a seal off ice pack, then reemerged to the surface, soggy and triumphant.
Throughout the day, his friends came and went. He breaked for lunch and a milkshake, sipping it through a straw from a diner nearby. But then, unlike the others, he headed back to the pool. Something about the water mesmerized him. The haunting dreams whispered unlikely promises to him here, and it was just as much sense to remain here as anywhere else until the afternoon sun began its decline. Then, the air would cool, and he could go home to watch television in the cooler aftermath of a moth-filled evening. The afternoon shadows were only just beginning to lengthen and he was planning his return home. And then, he saw her.
She rarely swam, he knew. Unbound, her flaxen hair as fine as autumn wheat dripped down the length of her back, falling far past her shoulders. Most girls her age kept their hair short for practical purposes but she kept hers long but tied up instead. He was profoundly glad for the choice as he saw her. Soaked in the water, the ends curled up a bit as rings against her pale, gently freckled shoulder. Inwardly, he sighed.
He could have spent all day watching her. Instead, he greeted her with a hello, then let her ignore him as she continued her brief swim. Then in a flash, the love of his dreams pulled herself out of the pool. Gallons of chlorinated water dripped off her, and then she was wrapped up in a fluffy towel, gently padding away with a backwards glance in his direction. He sighed.
"Hey, kid!" said one of the men running the pool jerking a thumb in the gate's direction. "The pool's closing soon! Get outta here!"
"Alright," he heard himself saying before heading to the locker room. That was one of the last things he remembered, for the the next minute, he encountered two older boys and accidentally butted in their conversation.
"Skinny dipping?" he said, repeating their words. The two boys turned their heads in his direction and scowled cruely.
"Yeah, that's what I said!" said the bully with hair as punk as his but not nearly so yellow as sunlight. He crossed his arms. "Why do you wanna join in?" he mocked, sticking his nose up high in the air.
"No. I…" said the boy wondering why he had spoken out loud at all. Perhaps it had been the surprise of coming across something else that reminded him of his dreams that had made him speak. Perhaps it was his continued longing. But one moment, he was standing, and the next he was shoved backwards amongst sports equipment, sliding along the damp floor.
"If you're too chicken for manly stuff, then shut up!" said the bully just as he fell. Grasping out with his hand, the golden-haired boy managed to knock down a whole stack of lifejackets with him as he fell, but they landed on top instead of below him. He hit his head on the floor hard enough to black out for a few minutes. The pool attendant, when he came by, failed to spot him amongst all the pool toys, life jackets, and floatation jackets that had fallen with him. He flicked out the changing room lights. But as the boy awoke in the room's darkness, he heard footsteps.
"Hel…" he blurted out loud before a hand lay across his lips silencing them. The enchanting vision of her face so close to his, near enough to kiss if he moved forward, moved into his sight. She frowned at him, looking at his forehead with concern. A slender, warm hand, touched his brow gently.
"Are you alright?" she asked, her voice quavering with a tenderness that was rare.
"Am I dreaming?"
"No. They're closed, stupid!" came the harsh, biting reply that was more her normal. "I didn't see you come out though. So I wondered."
"You were waiting?" he asked, his voice stiffening with delight.
"What is it to you?" she asked, her arms folded over as they remained seated on the damp concrete floor in the darkness.
"I dunno."
"So what were you doing here?"
"I interrupted two boys talking about skinny dipping, I guess. Dumb of me. I got the stuffing beat out of me."
"Skinny dipping?" she said lifting an eyebrow and flicking on a light. Then she knelt again and ran her fingers along his brow, making him shiver. "You'd never be bold enough to do a thing like that!" He might have agreed. But all of sudden, something feral uncoiled within him and he caught hold of his tormentor's wrist. She took in a sharp breath in surprise.
"And what if I was bold enough?" he questioned. "Would you be bold enough, too?"
"Ar…." the girl of his deepest affections began to say before his lips cut her off, silencing her. She was numb in shock. With fear building, he pressed his lips against hers once more, more tentatively than before. Was this a rejection? But then her lips recovered from their grim line and pressed more fully against his. Where they were cold before, they rapidly became hot and breath between grew steamy.
"Ar..Ar...Ar," she stuttered before forgetting to talk and simply mashing her lips against his instead. He wrapped one hand around the back of her head and used it to help guide their lips to one another's at a steady pace, as rapidly as they could manage. Then they broke apart for air. He wanted another taste of her still. Evidently, she felt the same way.
"I," she mumbled before he swooped her up, and wrapping their arms around one another as tightly as they could, both sought a deeper taste of one another, forcing their tongues into one another's mouths. When they broke apart again, she breathed deep, memorizing the musty scent of belonging that drifted in the air between them, far better than any perfume. She dropped her head against his chest for a deeper whiff.
"What's come over you?" she squeaked at last. "Am I dreaming?"
"Maybe we both are then," said the golden-haired boy not releasing her from his grasp. "But I want, I want… to dare this with you."
"Dare what?" she asked, trembling as his fingers tugged on the top of her dress as explanation. She drew in another harsh breath.
"Are you sure you want to do this with me?"
"Are you scared?"
"I'm not scared of anything, Ar," she began to rage before he silenced her with another kiss. But it only served to increase her rage, and with a pout, she reached down and tugged off her dress over head in one single, fluid jerk. She thrust the discarded dress in his hands.
"Do you have the nerve?" she dared. "Or are you chicken?"
His response was to take a deep breath for courage, then to shrug out of his swimming shorts. The girl swooned before him and he caught hold of her shoulders until she recovered. "Should I stop?" he uttered.
"No, no," she muttered trembling while he grasped the edge of her shirt and lifted it tenderly. She helped him nudge it up off her head and they both stared deep into one another's eyes, astonished at themselves. Then, quavering, she peeled off her panties herself.
"There," she said, a slight edge of doubt staining her triumph. "Now you see me. So what?"
"Now, we go swimming," said her almost lover grasping her elbow with his hand. "We have the pool all to ourselves. I say we make good use of it." And so they did.