# 14 Swimming

The cool water was wonders on William's skin as opposed to sitting in the sand under the hot sun. Sure it was still there and it was beating down on him and Ronald, but with them being waist deep in the ocean was cooling them down considerably. Except one thing was starting to bother him.

How far out in the ocean was Ronald planning on taking him?

With the youth being a few inches shorter than him, the water splashed just above his naval, when it barely hit his own. He held lightly onto William's hand and continued to move forward, shivering lightly from the cool liquid hitting his heated up skin. Ronald swung his arm holding the man's hand back and forth, humming contently before letting go and lowering himself so that the water went up to his neck, and started to swim forward, his feet kicking out every now and then. He smiled and beckoned William to do the same, but the man refused and stood still.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to swim with me?" Ronald tilted his head and raised his glasses so that they sat on top of his head, his vision blurred but not too terribly.

"I would rather not…" William scoffed and looked in the other direction.

"Why not?"

William refused to look Ronald in the face, but the blond could obviously tell that the man was blushing. Wait…could he…?

"You can't swim can you…?"

"…"

"William?" Ronald stood up and took William's face in his hands and made him look at him. William's face was a light red, either from sunburn or blush, Ronald couldn't tell. But he could tell the man was uncomfortable. The blond stroked his face in a comforting manner, and William closed his eyes and sighed.

"When I was very young, a very long time before I became a reaper, I almost drowned and when that happened I had a fear of swimming and refused to go anywhere near a body of water."

"Then why did you come out here with me? You could have stayed at our spot on the beach."

"I didn't want to disappoint you." William sighed and started to head back towards the shore line when Ronald grabbed onto his arm. He leaned in close and brushed his lips gently to William's and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, deepening it slightly. When Ronald parted ways his cheeks were tinted pink and he was panting slightly.

"You know, I could teach you." The blond said smiling. His smile vanished however when William started walking closer to the shore.

"That won't be necessary, but thank you for your offer."

With that William left a very confused and slightly hurt Ronald standing by himself in the water.

Opening a bag of popcorn to me is like a walrus trying to perform ballet, yeah…not a good combo. I had to open the bag with scissors I fail that hard. And this chapter *shrug* I had I few ideas at first with Ronald actually teaching Will to swim, but I changed my mind.