(Author's Note: Prompt request: "love me"- a fluffy drabble about two characters. Nine/Theron.)
Love Me
It's not that she doesn't know how to swim.
She learned well enough in her school days, but properly: a swimming pool, indoors, with walls and a bottom you could see. The lakes and oceans of Dromund Kaas were strictly off-limits- lightning storms were a constant and even if one was lucky enough to escape electrocution the water beasts had claws and teeth just as sharp as their terrestrial cousins. Odessen, in contrast, has few predators and even rarer storms, and after hours of scouting in the spring chill the hot spring looks terribly enticing, but-
"It just seems," Nine says, setting the last of her clothes onto the pile beside Theron's and lowering one bare foot tentatively toward the surface of the water, "like a very bad idea."
"Oh, come on." He's already chest-deep and as she watches he dives underwater, emerging a few moments later with steam rising from his skin and hair slicked back to rub the water from his eyes. "See? It's completely safe. No lake monsters or-"
He disappears.
"Very funny, Theron." She pauses, waiting for him to resurface. And waits. And- "Theron?"
She knew this was a bad idea.
After thirty seconds she's actually getting nervous, and she's nearly convinced herself to jump in after him when something latches itself around her ankle and pulls and she goes flying off the edge, landing with an undignified shriek in a tangle of splashing limbs. She flails, righting herself, searches for the bottom with outstretched toes.
The little pool isn't so deep, actually, only up to her shoulders, the bottom solid stone underfoot rather than mud or sand and the water delightfully warm, already drawing the cold out of her half-frozen hands- not so bad, really, except that Theron's still nowhere in sight. Her hairband's come loose; with a shake of her head she clears her hair from her eyes and turns, fingers splayed beneath the surface, searching. "All right. This isn't funny."
"Not even a little?" Somehow he's behind her, arms folded, grinning, water running in little rivulets down his body and- ugh. She can never stay cross with him for very long, not when he looks at her like that. (Or when he looks like that, full stop. One might call it superficial of her and she's guilty as charged, but Force help her, she could study the lines of his shoulders for days.) "You're warmer now, aren't you?"
"I'll admit it does feel nice after all that- wait. Did you plan this?" In retrospect he'd certainly seemed to have a destination in mind, leading down the trails instead of letting her choose the route as he usually did.
Theron nods. "You've been extra tense lately, and short of breaking my fingers on your back muscles I thought this might help you relax. Not exactly a luxury spa, but-" he shrugs- "it's a start. I may also have altered the scouting report a little to keep the secret from getting out, so if you see something about an acid lake feel free to ignore it."
"I assume, per report, it's also full of tentacled horrors?"
"Obviously. I mean, something pulled you in."
"Something. Mm-hm." Unconvinced by his best innocent look (she knows better, by now), she laughs and spreads her arms to the side, tilting backward, and for a moment she's weightless, borne up by the water. Her hands and feet flutter as she tries to keep herself afloat; soon enough, though, she's sinking and she probably just kicked water in Theron's face. "I think I might be bad at this."
He closes the distance between them with a few graceful strokes. "Hang on. Let me-" one hand under her back, the other behind her head, holding her at the surface easily as her hair fans out, a halo in the slow current. "There. Better?"
She nods.
With her ears beneath the surface the noise of the world fades, lulling her into calmness with the slow-shifting movement of Theron's fingertips on her skin. Eyes closed, she drifts, her tension easing, her mind clear, breathing steady and slow-
"Time to wake up," he says, and she opens her eyes again.
"I wasn't-" The sun's half-gone from the sky above them, so she must have been. "Stars, why didn't you say something?"
He half-shrugs, right hand shifting from her back down behind her knees until she's folded against him, still suspended in his arms. "You needed it- relaxation, remember?"
"I must have." She winds her own arms around his neck, turns her head to brush her lips against his chest just above the waterline. "You're a darling. I- thank you."
"You're welcome." Lifting her a little higher until her face is level with his, Theron smiles. "Besides, you're cute when you snore."
"I do not- "
She loses the rest of her retort between the warmth of the water and the heat of his mouth.