"I'm so stoked for this Beach Party Luau!" Sun said as he and Neptune left the hotel restaurant. After the dance that Weiss and Yang planned at Beacon he couldn't wait to find out what kind of party they'd be able to pull off with Blake on planning too. It's a little strange that Weiss wasn't at lunch though.
"You know party luau is redundant, right?" Neptune asked, much less enthused by the idea of a party on the beach. He sucked it up when Weiss said she wanted to spend time on the beach and they got to stay away from the water, but that's not going to be an option tonight. Maybe I should just skip it…
"Or maybe it's to emphasize what a great time we're going to have!" Sun responded, elbowing his partner in the side.
"Well, then you can have fun, bro." Neptune answered as he reached for his room key. "Because I'm going to be right here."
"What!" Sun exclaimed, cornering his partner as he braced his arms on either side of Neptune.
"Um," Neptune drew out.
"Hey, get a room boys!" Yang called as she walked past their hallway with a laugh. Grumbling Sun swiped the door key and pulled Neptune in behind him.
"What do you mean you'll be here during the party? If this is about your fear of water this is the last straw."
"Dude, no!" Neptune tried countering his friend. "It's not because of the water. I'm just not feeling up to going to a party."
"How can you know if you're feeling up to it? It's two days away." Sun asked.
"But I'm not feeling well. And I wouldn't want to go to a party ill." Neptune answered, holding his hand to his head.
"Ok, that's a bigger lie than when you said that you didn't go behind my back and tell Scarlet and Sage that I used to have a crush on that cougar faunus." Sun responded crossing his hands over his chest.
"I just don't want to go to a beach party." Neptune said, looking down at the floor.
"Listen, dude," Sun sighed, placing his hand on Neptune's shoulder, "the most effective way to overcome your fear of water is by gradually and repeatedly exposing yourself to it in a safe and controlled way. This way, you can learn to ride out the fear until you realize nothing bad is going to happen."
"Dude, where did that come from?" The blue haired boy asked, raising an eyebrow
"I read it one of these informational pamphlets." Sun answered, pulling out a piece of paper from out of nowhere. "So, who's ready to stop being afraid of water?" He asked, punching both of his hands in the air a little too enthusiastically for Neptune.
"I know you want me to say 'me', but it's not happening." Neptune responded, folding his arms over his chest.
"Good enough!" Sun said, grabbing Neptune's wrist and dragging him over to bathroom. "Now put on your swim suit. That'll be step one in overcoming your fear." Neptune resisted grumbling as he put on the swim trunks.
"Alright, now what?" He asked as he walked out.
"Now, we go to the pool!"
"The pool?" Neptune shouted, wondering if his friend got too many bananas in his brain from lunch. "How is that a gradual exposure?"
"Look dude, you already have made it past looking at water from when we went to the beach Monday, and I know that you take showers, just not with your eyes open. We just need to combine looking at water with touching water."
"And why can't we do that in our hotel room?"
"Because the ultimate goal is to get you fully into the water." Sun answered with a wide grin. Neptune could feel himself freeze. Get in? Into, water? Me? However, before he could run out of their hotel room himself, Sun had already grabbed Neptune's arm and was dragging him to the pool.
"No, no! Please, no water. Sun!" He pleaded and cried as he tried to free himself from Sun's hold, but it was just as successful as when Ren dragged him through the airport. Eventually, they had made it to the indoor-outdoor pool.
"Alright, so according to the pamphlet, after each exposure you will gain more confidence and control over your phobia, rather than the other way around." Sun explained.
"Great." Neptune squeaked as he backed away from the pools edge.
"So, let's start with this." Sun walked over to a small fruit bowl on a table and dumped out the contents. He then stooped down and scooped up some of the pool water into the bowl. "Start by looking at this." Sun said holding up the bowl and walking toward Neptune.
"Alright, I'm looking at it. Mission accomplished, let's go." Neptune quickly sputtered out as he inched himself along the wall away from Sun and his bowl of nightmares.
"Great! Now I want you to touch it." Sun continued, walking even closer to Neptune.
"Touch it? No way dude."
"Neptune." Sun groaned.
"No, it's not because it's water. There are a million germs and things in that water. Bacteria and waste particles."
"Dude, they make the water so that none of that junk is in there. That's why pool water always smells so, fake." Sun finished, clearly unhappy with the smell of chlorine in the air.
"Maybe, but stuff always gets in." Neptune continued, moving more away from Sun as he talked. "I've heard stories of kids and things peeing in pools. And I could get a bad reaction from the chemicals!"
"We're the only people at the pool right now. Any bodily fluids that might have been left behind have been filtered out. And people don't have negative reactions to pool water."
"You probably just haven't heard of the cases." Neptune screamed the last word of his sentence as Sun tripped on a discarded pool towel, causing the bowl to fly toward him. The contents floated out of the container, hitting Neptune right in his side. "Ach! Ok, ok. See? I touched it! Now we can go." Neptune grabbed a towel to wipe himself dry again.
"I suppose that could count as a success." Sun sighed, rolling his eyes as Neptune dried himself off. "Next is to put a body part in the water. Like your hand or foot."
"Why don't we call it a day? Besides, you aren't supposed to swim until an hour after you eat." Neptune said, wrapping himself in the towel for protection.
"Uh, dude, we ate lunch at noon and it's nearly one thirty. You're good." Sun said glancing at the clock.
"No, we sat down for lunch at noon. We didn't finish eating until at least 12:50." Neptune corrected him.
"Well, with our luck it will take you twenty minutes to get into the pool so we'll be fine. Now, do you want to swing your leg over the edge or dip your hand in the pool?"
"Is neither an option?" Neptune asked, eyeing the exit.
"Of course." Sun replied. "Except the third option is going all in at once." Neptune's smile that had formed quickly disappeared.
"You know, Sun, I was wondering, why are you doing this?" Neptune tried stalling so he could make it to the exit.
"Well, because I care about you bro." Sun said, walking over to his friend and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Vacuo was a rough and tumble place, but moving to Mistral could have been the scariest thing I had to deal with. If you can live in Vacuo, people generally accepted you, faunus or not. Meeting you and you not batting an eye at me meant a lot."
"Wow dude," Neptune choked slightly, "and you're willing to help me because of that?"
"Yup. And I hope you don't kill me for doing it?" Sun said, placing his other hand on Neptune's shoulder.
"Why would I do that?" Neptune asked confused. As his answer, Sun turned Neptune around so his back was now to the pool and gave him a push. Neptune stumbled backwards until he felt his heels no longer touch the cement. He frantically tried pin wheeling his arms to regain his balance but lost his footing on the slick ground. He fell backwards into the water with a resounding thud that was sure to leave a red mark on his back. After being submerged for about half a minute, Sun reached into the pool and grabbed Neptune's arm.
"See? That wasn't that bad?" He said with a smile after he pulled Neptune halfway out of the pool. Neptune's pupils were like the tip of a ballpoint pen and he looked into space, unresponsive. "So, you want to do that again?" Sun asked. With that, Neptune bolted for the door, leaving a wet trail behind him.
"Don't make me do it again! Not again!" Sun cussed as grabbed a towel and he ran out the door to try and catch his friend.