More Fun in the Sun

Lydia reached the edge of the water, unaware that Muika had dropped her bag, or that she was distressed beyond her standard shyness. She reached the water's edge, then took a few steps back, trying to account for the tide before dropping her bag. She knelt down, still keeping Muika's wrist held in case she tried to bolt, snatching a excessively large beach towel out of the bag and unfurling it with a snap of the wrist on the sands, creating a sizeable relief from the sand. She stood and turned back to the other girl. "Will you relax? We're here to have fun. I'm not going to make you swim if you don't want to.... Even if I think you'll be bored just sitting here.". With that she reached out and quickly unzipped Muika's jacket for her.

"It's...It's not that I don't want to swim..." She tried to say as Lydia unzipped the rest of her cover, showing the bright red of her own swimsuit underneath. "I just..." She looked to the side, her face reddening deeper. "...c-can't." She finished, the final word coming out in barely a whisper.

Lydia, who'd been in the middle of trying to pry Muika's jacket off paused. Well. That would certainly explain hwr hesitance. "umm... Okay.." she said, thinking what to do. She didn't want Muika to have less fun here... Hrm... Well.. "Okay... Well.. what if we just stayed in the shallow end. Didn't go over your head or anything. Besides, we can have fun out here too. I mean, there's always tanning, or playing in the sand, right?". She was just listing fun activities at this point, not wanting her friend to become discouraged.

"Y-yeah....shallow would be good." Muika answered. "But...isn't it weird? That I can't?"

It was on her list of things to learn how to do...she just hadn't exactly...gotten around to it yet. She wanted to learn, especially so she wouldn't have to rely on something like that embarrassing inner tube.

She paused. Lydia might not always be the most serious person, but she could tell when a friend wasn't okay. "Hey... Muika.." she said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. I mean... It's unusual, but its not WEIRD. And even if it was, weird is good. I like weird. But uhh.." she paused. Hrm... Did she want to offer to... Well.... She felt bad and she couldn't just... "Okay! Muika... I'm not going to make you... But if you want... I will teach you to swim." She said, entirely to seriously.

"You...You could!?" She asked, her previous shyness pushed back by a spark of interest. She'd spoken before she realized it, now feeling a tinge of embarrassment, having been looking up with widened, hopeful eyes and reddened cheeks. "S-sorry."

She looked back at Muika's face. Good lord. Shed never seen the girl show that much enthusiasm. It took her a moment to realize she was staring before she cleared her throat. "Totally." She waved her hand dismissively. "Dont even worry about it. I'll have you swimming by the end of the day. Question is just how to do it. We can start in the shallow end but when we go out to the deep end we'll need something to keep you safe. Any ideas?"

Ideas....

"Um..." She glanced towards her bag. "Uh..." She didn't want to say it. It was embarrassing. On children, sure, it would be cute but she was nineteen...

"I have a..." Muika let out a huff. "It's so embarrassing though..."

With her few glances towards her bag, she knew with Lydia's smarts she'd catch on...and find that thing.

Lydia tilted her head, perplexed. Well, did she have an idea? C'mon.. out with it... Ohh. So it was something embarrassing? Now she HAD to know. She followed Muika's eyes, landing on the bag. Aha! Without waiting for approval, she darted over and reached for the bag, zipping it open and digging quickly through, expecting it to be obvious. And it was. She saw it before she took it out of the bag. Freezing up awkwardly, she slowly zipped the bag shut without removing it before solemnly turning back to Muika. "no. No, we will not he using that."

"It was...cheap...." She looked to the side. "I only got it because...Emergency reasons." If she hadn't of been thinking of that she would have never gotten it in the first place. "Any other ideas...then?" She asked, looking up at Lydia with a raised brow.

She gave a sad smile. "You don't need to justify yourself to me, Muika sweety." She said, reaching up to pat the girl on the head. "But don't worry. I'm not letting you March around the beach in.... THAT... You're a grown ass woman and you're gonna look like it... But we can't go out there without a safety measure... Hrm...." She tapped her foot, crossing her arms as she thought. "OH! I'VE GOT IT!". She exclaimed, crouching down, she tore a long thin strip of the beach towel out. She snatched Muika's wrist and held it to her own, before she quickly wrapped the strip of thick cloth around their wrists, crossing it over and deftly knitting it tightly. "There! You should be able to turn your wrist and stuff, but there's no way you'll be sinking like this!" She said, very proud of herself.

'I, huh?' She looked down at their wrists, well she certainly wouldn't be sinking with this safety measure. "I've never heard of doing it like this before." She supposed it would work though, so long as she didn't drown. She was sure if she did sink though Lydia wouldn't let her croak.

She watched the confusion on Muika's face before acceptance came surprisingly fast. "C'mon Muika... You trust me to keep you safe, right? If you don't, it can just be a day of sandcastles and burying each other." She said, doing her best to make that sound pleasant. "Or... I can teach you to swim~".

"Well...I'd like to learn." Of course she was scared of getting in the deep waters, slow and steady though. She couldn't just go her entire life without knowing, she wouldn't allow that. Even if she wasn't one fore really wearing a bathing suit and being around people, she still wanted to learn. It could help her.

"Th..Thanks, for offering to teach me."

Lydia was really one of the only friends she really...well, kept up with now other than her own cat. 'Boy, isn't that sad?' She thought, even though she really did enjoy Termite's company. Having companions that would actually talk back were still good to have. She was still getting used to using the term friend, but it was growing on her.

"It's settled then. I wouldn't leave a friend without such a fun life skill. So teach you I shall." She gave a nod and raised her arm, pulling Muika's up with it. She paused though with a bit of a blush when Muika thanked her so earnestly. She stared for a second before grinning. "Muika, sometimes you are unbearably adorable, you know that?" She said, wrapping her free arm around the girl for a quick hug, forgetting Muika's personal space hangups.

Muika, as a usual reaction, froze a bit at the hug but that was to be expected. "Heh, thanks..." She responded, she wasn't exactly used to being called adorable yet, as she didn't really know what was so adorable about herself in the first place, but she appreciated the compliment.

She was going to learn how to swim today, in a sense, it excited her; not that she'd show it.

She gave Muika a firm squeeze before letting go and letting their arms lower. "Muika, you've got to learn to be less bashful. You're going to have to socialize one day, and trust me, you'll be getting too many compliments to blush at EVERY one." She said with a grin.

"I-I don't really think..." She started, she wasn't really what she'd seen dubbed among the media as attractive. She knew better than to really believe those were realistic, but they weren't that far off from the original person they'd been photoshopped after, were they?

Just as she was about to continue, she felt a cold wave of water ease up on her foot, causing her to squeak slightly as she hadn't been expecting it. "S-sorry."

She frowned. Oh Muika, you should know better then that by now. "Muika Muika Muika... When will you learn thar being modest will just make me embarrass you?" She said with a mischievous smirk. However, whatever she had planned changed when Muika squeaked. Lydia looked down at the water, feeling it lap over her feet too. She looked back at Muika and smiled evilly. She grabbed Muika's free wrist and began walking into her. The girl would have no choice but to start awkwardly walking backwards into the waves, especially with Lydia npw firmly controlling both her arms. "what's the matter. Water's cold?" She asked, wondering if Muika could keep doing this without tripping.

"Uhm, what...Um" Unable to really move anywhere back backwards, the cold water began to rise, now up to her ankles. It was cold, really cold. On a hot day like today it was great, but she feared actually being submerged in it, that would be a bit too cold; at first at least.

She didn't have long to think about that though before her fear became a reality thanks to her foot slipping against the sand underwater. "Ah!" With a splash and a small shriek following, the cold water had successfully drenched the girl.

At first, Lydia just continued to back her up. Ooh, the water feels nice. She'll thank me for this later. It wasn't until Muika was falling that she noticed the hole in her plan. She was still tied at the wrist. "HAHAHAAAAHNO!" She cried as she tumbled into the water after the girl. She struggled to get up, not wanting to pin the other girl down, no matter how shallow the water. She found the loose sand and other person bad footing for standing however.

"C-c-cold..." Muika stuttered as her body adjusted to the cold waters, she was soaked to the core now. The shorts she wore over her bathing suit bottoms now stuck to legs in a heavy mess. She shivered, not having even noticed Lydia's position yet. "L-Lydi..." Her face reddened as she moved herself to sit up in the shallow waters, "S...Sorry...I slipped." Her eyes were on her untied hand as her fingers moved about, playing the water unintentionally with their movements.

Lydia breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Muika's worst concern was the temperature. "oh, relax. It's nice, not cold. You'll adjust in a minute." She said trying to get up. Eventually she gave up and slumped down, straddling Muika's lap. She sighed, laughing at her own slip up. "Dont apologize... Not your fault I made you fall, silly." She gave a goofy grin and flicked the other girl.

Muika gave a nod, "I...I guess we...start shallow?" She asked, changing the subject to their goal in mind as she tried to not really think about their awkward position. She'd known Lydia long enough to know she wouldn't do anything bad or well...wouldn't do anything if she showed too much resistance to it. "I guess...and we'll get to...deep water later?" Deep water was what worried her, even if she didn't really have to worry about drowning with Lydia around.

Lydia paused, examining Muika closely. She gave a smirk Muika would know all too well by then. It was a sign that Lydia had found something particularly amusing to do, and it would usually mean trouble for Muika. "Yes...We should start just getting comfortable in the water. Here. Get comfy." She said, moving the tied arm back and pushing it to the ground, forcing Muika to lean back and put her weight on it, positioning her rather awkwardly in respects to how the two of them looked. "Comfy?" The ghostly tease asked, leaning closer then was necessary over her, although not quite touching.