Thanks to everyone who read and to Garibaldi69 and Aileil for reviewing.
Harper grinned and kicked free of the transport current and towards the dock of his vacation room. The surfing had been good this morning, but it was getting past time for lunch. And he had a mission to accomplish. He still wasn't quite sure what he'd said wrong this morning, but it had been pretty obvious afterwards that Tyr had gotten stuck in his own head again—that, or maybe he'd never gotten out of it after the call with his kid's grandmother, it was hard to say—and that was just not going to fly. Especially while they were on a resort planet.
Unfortunately trying to drag Tyr into the water earlier had only ended in receipt of a superior look before Tyr broke his grip, grabbed him by the collar, and flung him twenty feet from the dock. And the bastard hadn't even had the courtesy to throw his surfboard and safety vest after him, either. So, plan B.
He could see Tyr lounging out on the deck recliner as he approached, pad in his hand and not even watching the ocean, but there was no chance that that happy state of affairs would hold. Well, probably not, anyway. If Harper could just get a hand around the leg of that recliner, maybe...
But Tyr looked up as he approached, no surprise there, although it was marginally later than Harper had dared think it might be. Harper kicked a bit closer, keeping his face blank as best he could despite Tyr's raised eyebrow. And then as soon as he was within range he stuck his tongue out and let his surfboard rear up before slapping it back down and sending a wave of water over the dock. He might not be able to get Tyr in the water, but he could get him soaked enough that there wasn't too much of a difference. It wasn't quite the same thing, but he'd take it. For now. Tomorrow...antigravs were a definite possibility.
Tyr rolled quickly as the water came at him, tucking his pad out of the way, and Harper backpedaled hard as he realized that Tyr had switched to swim gear. Oops. He hadn't been the only one plotting, clearly.
Harper would bet that he'd spent more of his lifetime in the water than Tyr ever had, but he'd also bet that that wasn't going to make one bit of difference if—when—Tyr got his hands on him, and a quick wriggle had him out of his safety vest. He tossed it onto his surfboard and gave it a shove towards the dock before resumig his backwards motion. This close to the docks there were no currents to carry it off, and he didn't need the extra encumbrance. Or to give Tyr anything else to snag.
There was a splash as Tyr hit the water. Ha, Harper won, although he was probably going to regret it in a few minutes.
The water was deep enough to be fairly dark, even if it was clean, and he came still again and tried to peer below him. There was no chance he was going to get away without getting dunked, but maybe if he could tell where Tyr's attack was coming from—
A hand grabbed his ankle from behind, and his yelp was swallowed by water.
Tyr shifted his grip quickly. The water would slow down any return strike Harper tried even if he could get real force behind it, which he couldn't even on his best day, but Harper knew that as well as Tyr did, and he could be admirably sneaky. At least with his arms pinned he was marginally less likely to find a way to stick Tyr with something sharp.
Harper squirmed as Tyr let them sink down through the water and nearly managed to drop free of Tyr's hold. He'd gotten out of his vest somewhere along the line which reduced options for grabbing, but Tyr snagged an arm and rolled to push him further under before he could kick away. Not that Tyr was actually entirely against swimming, it was a useful skill and perhaps a reasonable way to cool off when the sun on this planet got to be warmer than he preferred, but it was the principal of the thing. His chair was wet, now.
Harper rolled with him, trying to bring his knees around for a kick that would have some force behind it, and Tyr let him go and then planted a hand on his head and pushed him deeper. And got the distinct suspicion that the noises coming out of Harper's mouth as he swivelled to fully face Tyr were curses. Too bad he was even less understandable underwater than out in open air.
Harper tried to backpedal, but he couldn't move fast enough and Tyr had his ankle within a few seconds. He tried to dive under him and kick back to the surface, but Tyr twisted and caught an elbow and yanked him down yet again. This time Harper's response was a shove, but he hadn't miraculously acquired any muscle in the past few minutes, and Tyr pinned him a second time. And then jerked as something sharp drove under his gauntlet and into sensitive skin at the base of one of his bone spurs hard enough to draw blood. He snarled and his spurs flared as he tightened his grip automatically just as Harper began to thrash.
Even underwater Harper almost managed to bloody Tyr's nose with the back of his head, and Tyr shifted him just in time to take a kick to the kneecap. That was about enough for Tyr, and he shoved Harper downwards with more force than he'd normally have used and kicked himself back to the surface with a scowl. He had no particular argument against roughhousing, but he had no intention of taking actual injuries.
His intention was to tell off Harper when he broke the surface, but when another minute passed with no sign of him Tyr frowned and ducked back under. It was possible that Harper was planning to pull him down, but given the way he'd been behaving a moment ago it seemed unlikely. And since when did Harper willingly acknoledge that bone spurs existed, never mind target them?
Tyr was moving before he consciously thought about it as he caught sight of Harper sinking, almost beyond the range of his eyesight already. Harper was dead weight when he reached him—not much of it fortunately—and it didn't take long to get them back to the surface. "Harper!"
Harper made no response, and as Tyr heaved him onto the dock he realized that he wasn't breathing.
"Harper!"
The shake accomplished nothing, and he scanned the boy for trauma. None that he could see, which wasn't a surprise given that they were in deep water with nothing that he could have hit his head on, but they couldn't have been underwater for more than five minutes. And Harper spent more time in the water than Tyr even had. Even if Tyr's attack had been a surprise, and it obviously hadn't been, there was no way that he'd have accidentally inhaled water when Tyr had pulled him under. He still wasn't breathing, though, and his heartbeat was getting weak, so whatever had happened this was hardly the time for speculation.
Tyr glanced towards their room, but while he could call for help, the odds of it getting here in time were nonexistent. Harper wasn't coughing so pounding on his back wasn't likely to accomplish anything. He grabbed Harper's safety vest off his floating board. The little professor was no fool and knew his lungs were nothing compared to many who enjoyed his asinine sport, he had to have something—
There was some kind of modified rebreather in the top pocket, and he activated it with a touch and forced it into Harper's mouth.
