Chapter 5:

Relena quickly realized two things while she was trying to tread water: one, she was a total hypocrite for declaring they would no longer play games with each other and then leading him on a chase and teasing him about kisses. And two, she was an idiot for not taking off her shoes before she ran into the pond. She made a mental note to work on her impulsiveness.

Deciding that she could remedy something of the situation she was now in, she contorted her body until she was able to take off one shoe without sinking underneath the water. Eyeing the shore, and only glancing quickly at the figure gracefully cutting through the water towards her, she felt confident that she could get her shoe to land with a good throw. Only when the motion of her arm had reached the point of no return did she remember that the term "throws like a girl" applied to her perfectly. She didn't like to give validation to outdated clichés, but in her case it fit perfectly.

Instead of the shoe bouncing harmlessly on the sand of the lake's small beach, its trajectory put it in the path of the only other person currently in the water. Heero paused in his swimming when the projectile made a small splash as it landed dangerously close to his head. He grabbed the item and looked at its owner.

"Present?"

He was making a joke. Too embarrassed to be shocked, she tried to play her total lack of athletic skill off.

"Haha," she deadpanned. "Put some of those muscles to work and get my shoes out of the water." She then threw the other shoe to him, and he was close enough that she was roughly on the mark. "These are my favorite pair."

When he made no move to save her shoes she decided to sweeten the pot. Pushing away the thought that she was once again playing the tease, she said with a smile, "I'll make it worth your while."

That spurred him into action. Without turning from her, he carelessly tossed the pair of shoes over his head and she saw them land past the sand onto the grass near the tree line. Impressive. And by the smirk on his face, he knew it.

He came closer to her, stopping less than an arm's length away, the movement of his limbs in the water keeping the rest of him afloat. His hair was slicked back from his face, no longer hiding his features from her gaze.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out.

Heero only slightly raised one eyebrow in response to her non sequitur.

She tried her best to elaborate. "It says something about me that, right after we decide not to play games with each other, we end up not quite in the middle of a lake. It says that I'm a coward. And I'm sorry for that."

His yes widened in surprise. "You would be the last person I'd call a coward," he said. "Your fearlessness is what makes you so good at what you do. It practically borders on recklessness."

Not really sure if his statement was a compliment or an insult, she moved the conversation along with a small smile and a shake of her head. "Dodging bullets and playing politics are easy. It's the…personal stuff that I don't do so well with."

He didn't say anything so she continued in order to fill the silence. Fixing her gaze towards a point over his left shoulder she whispered, "You were going to kiss me."

"You didn't want me to kiss you." The tone of his voice brought her eyes back to his face."

"I wanted, I want, to kiss you," she reassured. "It's just, sort of, been awhile since I've kissed someone. I think I might have forgotten how to do it."

Heero would have smiled, but she looked genuinely worried, and the instinct that had recently surfaced told him that finding humor in her dilemma would not get him any closer to a kiss.

"Maybe I could help you remember?" Moving his arms towards her under the water, he slowly brought his hands to rest lightly at her waist. He didn't bring her body any closer to his, allowing her the opportunity to back away if she chose to do so.

She set her hands on his shoulders. The weight of them warmed his dampened skin. He saw the movement of her eyes as they roamed over his face.

She let out a small sigh. "You are so pretty."

He was new to this whole male-female dynamic, but he was almost certain that was supposed to be his line.

Not sure what to say to her revelation, he gave a noncommittal grunt. It had always worked well for him in the past.

"I know men are typically called 'handsome'," she said, still studying his face, her nervousness seemingly forgotten. "But the only word that really fits you is pretty." She paused, and a little furrow formed between her eyebrows as she mulled a thought over. "It's the eyes. Very pretty." She nodded as if her words settled the matter.

He saw his opening. Giving her waist a quick squeeze to refocus her attention, he said, "I'm going to kiss you now."

She nodded and he brought his lips to hers.

They tasted like pond water, and it was not entirely pleasant. Teasing her bottom lip lightly, he touched it with his tongue and it seemed she had not forgotten how to kiss, because she opened up to him immediately.

That's when things got decidedly better. She slid towards him in the water, her arms draped across his upper back. He responded in kind by wrapping his arms fully around her waist. She tilted her head in order to meet his mouth at a better angle and he felt their teeth briefly scrape together but he didn't really care. She was really good at this. And if the way her arms tightened around his neck meant anything, then he wasn't so bad at this himself.

He didn't know how long they floated there in the pond kissing, only that at some point she had stopped trying to actively keep herself afloat and he was the only thing keeping her from drowning. He nipped at her lips, chin, jaw, any part of her that his mouth could reach, and she just held on to him tighter and returned the attention with her own mouth.

The taste of pond water was now one of his most favorite things in the world.