Warning: Some Suggestive Material Ahead . . .

Elle followed Dick up the stairs and was surprised when they came out from behind the grandfather clock in Bruce's study. She gaped as Dick slid the antique piece silently back into place.

"That is awesome," she grinned.

Of course, a huge mansion like this one was bound to have a secret passage or two! If Bruce hadn't, she would have told him to give her his money because he wasn't spending it right. But there was the best secret room of all behind that clock, and Elle was impressed in spite of herself.

"We should let Alfred know we are here. He's probably in the kitchen," Dick said, taking her hand to lead her out.

"Wait," she requested.

Dick looked back at her in surprise, but Elle tugged him into a different direction.

"Today's been exhausting, and with everything that's happened, I'm just too hyped up to sleep right away," Elle explained. "Do you think that the pool has been finished yet?"

It took him a second, but Dick smiled. "Yes, that's right! He mentioned it. You father's company was extremely efficient. It was done in a day!"

Elle's excitement was contagious.

Dick remembered how impressive she had been even swimming in a chlorinated pool. He wondered how much more so she would be in something that didn't cause her to shed blistered skin?

"We'll need bathing suits," he reminded her.

Elle smirked. "It's almost two-thirty in the morning. No, we don't."

His eyes widened and he followed meekly in her wake.

The smell was different. Her lungs didn't burn as they entered the pool room; her eyes didn't water. Elle grinned and gripped her sweater, tugging it over her head and tossing it on one of the chairs. Dick flicked on the lights that illuminated the pool, giving the water a greenish cast and it looked incredibly inviting. Her shoes went next, followed by her slacks. She left on her periwinkle-blue bra and panty set.

She glanced back at Dick who was standing with his mouth agape and his t-shirt halfway off. She placed two fingers under his chin and closed his mouth for him.

"Are you coming?"

"I just might," he stammered.

Elle laughed.

"Blue is my new favorite color," he announced.

She walked backwards to the pools edge. "It's called periwinkle, and blue has always been your favorite color," she retorted.

"Not periwinkle blue," he clarified, quickly shucking his clothes. "But it is now."

He left his briefs on, just in case. Alfred didn't go to bed until Bruce was back for the night, and he might come looking for them since being given the heads up that they were going to spend the night. Not that Alfred hadn't seen him naked, but it had been a while since the time he had broken both his arm and leg and needed help bathing. At fourteen, that had been a humiliating eight weeks for him. Having Alfred seeing her naked was an experience that he didn't think Elle would appreciate sharing with him.

He ran to catch up to her, and Elle laughed, spun on her heel and dove into the shallow water. Dick stumbled to a halt. His jaw dropped once more.

My God, he thought. She is magnificent!

Elle made it across the length of the pool in record time. He knew he would never be able to keep up with her in a race. To imagine he could was laughable. As he watched, Elle flipped over beneath the water and sped back to him. As she broke the surface, joy seemed to permeate her entire being.

"You did that without having to take a breath," he managed to say. He impressed himself. He had been certain that he had been rendered speechless.

"Why would I take a breath," she asked, puzzled. "I was only under for a minute."

"The exertion alone should have required it, if nothing else," Dick told her. "I couldn't have held my breath while doing it."

"What exertion," Elle asked, allowing herself to float; luxuriating in the feel of the water caressing her body. She had missed this.

"The effort it took to swim the length of a fifty meter pool and back in a minute's time."

Elle opened her eyes and smiled. "Dick, I wasn't racing. I was just playing around."

"Just how fast are you?"

Elle grinned and set her feet down. "You have a stop watch nearby?"

Dick picked up his watch from the top of his pile of clothes. "I have one right here. Are you going to get out and dive in?"

Elle stood in the water by the side of the pool. "I'm good here," she said, putting one foot on the wall to push off with.

Dick raised an eyebrow and set his watch. "Okay," he said, hesitantly. "On your mark, get set, GO!"

Elle shoved off the side and immediately went underwater. Dick forgot the watch as he stared, stunned at her speed. She suddenly popped back up at her starting position seconds later.

"So," she asked, shoving her hair back. "How'd I do?"

Dick started, and glanced down at the watch. He hit stop belatedly and gaped at the time. Twelve point twenty-two seconds. But that included the time it took him to get his head back in the game and stop the timer. Elle was faster than that.

"I was . . . I kind of forgot to hit stop," he admitted sheepishly. "Want to go again or are you too tired?"

She didn't appear tired. Her eyes were sparkling in the pool lights.

"Will you remember to hit stop this time," she teased.

"Uh . . . Yeah, I'll remember this time," he promised.

She moved back into her previous starting position.

"On your mark, get set, and Go!"

She was off like a shot, and Dick held up the timer. He hit stop as soon as she slapped the side of the pool. He shook his head in disbelief despite the proof in his hands.

"Nine point nine seconds! That's incredible! That's almost equal to the world record for the hundred meter sprint! You swim as fast as a man can run!" Dick sputtered.

"I'd bet Flash wouldn't be as impressed," she laughed.

He sat down on the side of the pool and dangled his feet in the water. "So how long can you hold your breath?"

"Underwater or on land?"

Dick blinked. "Is there a difference?"

"Yeah, but I don't completely understand all the ins and outs of it." Elle shrugged and looked over her shoulder at the diving boards. "Hey, want to dive with me?"

"Sure," he said, scrambling to his feet.

Elle swam back across the pool and was pulling herself out of the water before Dick had made it halfway around.

"Come on, slowpoke," she taunted him.

She grabbed the ladder of the tallest diving board, which was about five meters, higher than the normal three meter springboard used in competition, and started up. Dick paused at the bottom, wanting to actually watch her dive. Elle walked a couple of steps and then three bounding leaps, and jumped. She twisted twice and then bent her body into a perfect pike position as she completed two somersaults only to straighten in time to enter the water smoothly. There had hardly been a splash.

Dick blinked. This was the same woman who sprained her ankle tubing and ran her face into a glass door just last night! She was a strange contradiction, he thought. Able to be the epitome of grace and poise on a stage or a diving board and then trip over her own feet walking from the bedroom to the kitchen. One thing of which he was absolutely certain . . . She would never bore him!

He watched as she streaked through the water and swam down, down, down to the very bottom of the pool. She touched the bottom and turned her body; settling into a cross-legged position in the deepest part of the pool. She wasn't coming up! Dick hesitated, wanting to run back and grab his watch, and wanting to dive in after her. Instead he slid into the water from the side. He held his nose to equalize air pressure in his ears and then began to dive down after her. He continued to equalize the pressure every meter or so to prevent ear pain.

As he approached her, Elle smiled at him and grabbed his hands, pulling him down next to her. As Dick approached his three minute mark, he pointed upward. Elle leaned forward and mimed blowing out his air. Dick frowned and shook his head at her. Elle smiled and repeated the motion.

He was going to have to go soon if he didn't want to run out of oxygen on the way up. Blacking out a mere two feet from the surface would be embarrassing. He pointed up and started to rise. Elle gripped his hands and pulled him back down. She seemed a little stronger in the water than on land, he noticed, and wondered if it were related to her Atlantian heritage. He pointed upward more vigorously. He was getting into a dangerous position remaining here.

Elle mimed blowing out his air. She smiled and place her hand over her heart and then over his. He must be out of his mind. She must be out of hers. She was asking him to trust her, he knew. She was very aware that if he died, she would die with him. She hadn't seemed suicidal.

He blew out his air in a rush of bubbles.

Elle leaned toward him and paused a few inches from his face. She slowly blew out some of her own precious air into a growing bubble between them. She tugged his face in as she created this little pocket of air. As his lips met the bubble, Dick sucked in the air instinctively until his lungs were filled. His mind seemed to clear immediately, telling him that he had been feeling the first effects of oxygen deprivation.

He stared at Elle, worried now that she had given up her precious oxygen. She continued to smile at him unconcerned.

How long had they both been down here? Elle had been in the water at least two minutes longer than he had, and he had long since passed his own three minute mark. As he began to feel the slightest lightheadedness, he pointed upward again. Elle mimed blowing out his air again. Dick's eyes widened and shook his head, pointing at her and then to the surface.

She placed her hand over his heart and after the slightest hesitation, Dick blew out the air that Elle had fed him. She leaned forward and blew another air bubble. He frowned, surprised. How did she have anything left to share? Unwilling to waste it, in case he needed to rescue her should she pass out, he leaned in and repeated the action of sucking the air into his lungs. Again his head cleared. He started to pull her up so they could surface together, but Elle tugged him back down to her.

Suddenly he seemed to understand. Somehow Elle could breathe underwater and she was feeding him her excess oxygen. He waved her hair away from her neck, fully expecting to find gills where there had previously been none. Perhaps they showed up much like the webbing between her fingers did when she got wet? But his gaze met smooth skin.

How was she doing this?

The next time he needed fresh air, he merely released what he had. At the presence of the escaping bubbles, Elle leaned in again. This time instead of blowing a bubble for him to breathe from; she met his lips with hers and blew the air directly into his mouth. She didn't pull away, however, but remained pressed into the life-giving kiss. When she continued to give him air when his lungs were full, he released some through his nose, and repeated the process of accepting more air from her through the kiss.

This was amazing!

After a short awkward stage, Dick was breathing almost normally as if he were scuba diving. It was then that the kiss changed from mere oxygen sharing to passionate. Elle's hands moved to unhook her pretty periwinkle bra; tossing it aside a minute later. Her hands slid from her breasts over her stomach and to her matching panties. They separated briefly as Dick followed her lead and removed his own boxer-briefs. She grabbed his face and pressed her mouth to his. His hands slid around her body as Dick pulled her in to straddle his.

It was another first for him . . . Making love underwater as his lover breathed for him. It was transcendent and surreal; the water caressing him with every move they made. He lost his air when his climax came, but Elle was right there for him.

Later, when they surfaced, Dick was laughing breathlessly at Elle's frustration. They had brought up her bra and his briefs, but they couldn't find Elle's underwear anywhere!

"It's not funny, Dick," She pouted at him.

"I'm not laughing at you," he told her. "I'm laughing with you."

She stopped and turned around. Her luxurious, dark tresses were plastered over her breasts as if preserving her modesty. For the first time, Dick saw the Atlantian in her. She looked exactly how he imagined a beautiful Siren might look as she seduced unwitting sailors to their doom. He knew he wouldn't be immune to her lure either. She wouldn't have to sing a note to have him follow her willingly into the deep.

"Do I look like I'm laughing to you?"

"It'll turn up eventually," he promised. "I'm pretty sure there isn't an interdimensional portal hidden in the bottom of our pool."

Although the idea of someone on the other side of such a portal scratching his head in confusion at the sudden, unexplained appearance of Elle's periwinkle underwear had his lips twitching in amusement.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Elle groused and then paused with a curious look on her face. "An interdimensional what?"

"Never mind," he said, and asked the question that had been on his mind since she had first blown him that air bubble. "How did you know how to do that? The air bubble and breathing underwater, I mean. You don't have gills, and yet you repeatedly replaced my air as well as your own. I thought you could only hold your breath."

"I've been chatting a little with Arthur Curry," she admitted.

That surprised him, although it shouldn't have. "Really? And he told you how to do this?"

Elle shrugged. "Sort of. He explained that Sirens don't actually have gills like most other Atlantians. They are able to absorb oxygen directly through their skin. He thought I should be able to do it also based on the fact I can hold my breath for five minutes and surface without a difficulty. He said, I wasn't actually holding my breath per say. That I just didn't need to inhale and exhale to breathe.

Dick wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her against him. He kissed her thoroughly in a way that his previous need for air had prevented while they had been underwater. Out of the water, however, both of them became breathless in a few short minutes. Elle's pupils were wide and she looked dazed. He wanted to take advantage of her arousal once more, but he had caught a glimpse of the time when he had picked up his watch; it was 4:45 in the morning. Bruce would be coming through the clock at any moment.

He would save it for later, he decided, picking up Elle's clothes and handing them to her; after they reached the privacy of his room. He felt bad that Alfred had taken the trouble of making up both rooms, but he refused to pass up an opportunity to share a bed with the woman he wanted to marry.

He smiled at the thought and glanced over at his bondmate and, if all went according to his plans, his eventual wife. She was dressing; completely oblivious to the thoughts currently running through his mind. Elle had no idea what he had in store for her.

Bruce toweled his hair dry and stopped by the Bat-computer. Pulling up the security feed, he doubled checked the house before retiring. It was more habit that necessity, but the routine made it easier for him to fall asleep.

Views of all the public rooms and halls flashed across the screen. Lights in the pool room caught his eye and he stopped; bringing up the security feed to the room.

Curious and a little concerned, he changed the view to another angle.

There! A shadow in the deepest part of the pool! He zoomed in and as the focus adjusted, Bruce was able to make out something small floating in the water. After a moment, he was able to recognize what it was he was looking at.

Bruce swung by the pool on his way up to his room. Breakfast tomorrow, he decided with a grin, should be a far more interesting affair than usual.

REACTIONS?

Never a dull moment . . . ;D