“Yay!” You cheered gleefully, hugging his shoulders, “you’ll be fine.”
“When would you like to start?”
“Right now,” you stated, tearing your arms off of him.
He turned his torso around to gawk at you, “Now?”
“Yeah, silly, come on, it’ll be fun!” you exclaimed, slipping off your boots.
Murtagh’s face only buckled more at this, his gray-blue eyes wider than before, “What are you doing?”
“Taking off my boots,” you looked at him curiously, placing one boot off to the side, “its pretty obvious…”
“I-I know that, but why?” he asked, turning around fully.
Dropping your second boot next to the first, you gave him a humored expression, “Well, Murtagh, it is a lot easier to maneuver in water without boots.”
He nodded slowly, getting his brain functioning again as you pulled off your socks as well.
“All right,” you said, standing straight up, “your turn.”
“Okay,” he hesitated doing as you had instructed, standing in front of you afterwards, “what are you going to teach me first?”
“Well, for starters,” you looked down at his attire, “you’re going to have to take this off, all of it.”
“(Y/N),” he reacted in disbelief.
“Not all of your clothes,” you reasoned, stepping around him toward the lake to give him some sense of privacy, “you can leave on your …under-trousers.”
Murtagh watched you for a moment as you walked away, still fully clothed as you had requested him not to be. Thorn entered his Rider’s mind with some guidance, You should trust, (Y/N), Murtagh.
I do trust her, but—
You don’t want to wear such little clothing with her.
Yeah, Murtagh sighed, observing you sit and poke a finger into the lake.
Not yet anyway… Besides, you will be in the water, Thorn reasoned, and she is only trying to be helpful; she loves you, Murtagh.
I know, a ghostly smile appearing on his lips, and I can’t keep her waiting.
Your eyes were transfixed on the clear lake as the sunlight reflected on the water’s surface like little twinkling lights. Internally, you could hardly wait to help Murtagh learn how to swim. But, you figured that baby-steps were likely needed for this situation, being that he might be timid about learning this new skill. After all, water was both wonderful and dangerous.
Thankfully, you only had to wait a minute or so before Murtagh stepped up beside you.
“So, how are we going to do this?” He inquired as you focused your eyes on his, as opposed to his very well-trained physique.
“For starters, I’ll have you learn how to float on your back. No worries though, we won’t be in deep water,” you specified with hands on your hips.
“Waist deep?”
“Sure, if you’re comfortable with that.”
Murtagh gave a firm nod and took up your hand in his.
“Here we go,” you smiled encouragingly at him, pulling him along with you as you stepped into the water together.
“Ah,” you giggled, squeezing his hand, “the water’s cooler than I had expected.”
“Eh, it’s not too bad,” he shrugged.
“Ha, you say that now,” you commented, your legs now sloshing through the water. The moment you both had reached waist-deep water, the pair of you staggered as the cool water seeped through your clothing. “Told you,” you hopped closer to his warmth, bumping into his hip.
“That you did,” he let out a shiver, a multitude of goosebumps noticeably appearing along his tan chest and arms.
“Well,” you announced, “it’s either now or never.”
“I doubt that, but I’m listening.”
“Good, now I want you to lay on your back.”
Murtagh blinked, looking to you for further instruction.
“Oh, um, lean back onto the water and I’ll help support you from there.”
He nodded quietly, letting go of your hand to crouch down in the water, steadily leaning backward.
Gently, you placed one of your hands to a shoulder blade of his while with the other you coaxed him down from his chest. “Lift up one leg at a time,” you directed, watching him concentrate.
When he had managed to prop up both legs, you quickly moved your hand from his chest to his lower back to help hold him as he floated.
“How are you feeling?” You thought you should ask since you could feel his muscles tense beneath his skin.
“Weird,” he stated, letting his arms float outstretched to his sides.
“I call that progress,” you smiled down at his hard and unsure face, “and for practice, we’re going to keep you like this for a little while.”
“How long is a ‘little while,’ exactly?”
“Until I say otherwise,” you retorted, lightly pinching his lower back.
“(Y/N),” he squirmed, losing his focus and earning a sinking feeling in its place.
“Sorry, love,” you hastily apologized, helping him balance his weight properly.
“It’s okay,” he mouthed, wrapping one anxious arm around your waist, his fingertips fusing to your hipbone.
After a couple of minutes of wading in the water, Murtagh’s body shockingly seemed to compose. Even though that was the case, you remained in skin contact with him to give him some sense of security. Added that his grip on you still held firm.
“Murtagh?” You broke the serene silence, removing your hand from his lower back and danced your fingers over to his firm abdomen.
“Hmm?” His hum rippled over to your steady hands.
“Want to stand back up now?”
“Hm, yeah,” he replied, somewhat out of sorts, giving a light shake of his head to come back to his surroundings.
“Taking a nap there, are we?” You teased as he brought his feet back to the squishy ground, and returning to his full height.
“Almost,” he smiled, his hand that he had on you, now caressing your back through your loose (colored) blouse.
“Ready to learn your next trick?” You taunted, patting his pecs.
“Should I be?” He rose an eyebrow at you, seeing how giddy you were today.
“Yes, now come along, we’re going to tread water,” you indicated, promptly steering your way into the depths of the lake.
Murtagh paused, restating your words in his mind before catching up to you, “And by that, you mean?”
Twisting around you flickered your feet to propel yourself backwards across the water, your shirt now getting completely soaked in the process. “Keeping your legs kicking leisurely to keep your head above the water.”
“Oh,” he stopped, the small currents of water now reaching his neck.
Swinging your arms over, you made your way back over to Murtagh, his eyes looking deep into the water and then up into yours. Those gray-blue eyes of his held so much of his emotions; he was uneasy and nervous again, pleading for you to give him the strength to accomplish such a feat. You nudged up against him, his arms instantaneously ringing around your form.
“There’s no need to be afraid, Murtagh, I’m right here for you.”
As am I, Thorn chimed in from being quiet by his spot on the bank.
“It’s just water,” you assured, taking his face up in your hands.
He nodded, holding you more protectively to him, his warm chest pressing into your own.
“Now,” you began slowly, “you saw how I was moving my legs?”
Another nod.
“I want you to bounce up a bit first, and then start kicking, okay?”
He reluctantly released his hold on you to observe your actions, analyzing the way you were keeping yourself afloat.
Murtagh’s first attempt had a little too much leg action, resulting in him looking like a flailing baby bird.
“Slower,” you recommended, seeing him struggling to keep his chin above water, “there you go.”
He ceased kicking the water so frantically and began to really find a rhythm.
“Look at you,” you cooed, continuing to watch as he treaded water better with each coming moment.
“Are you going to keep looking at me like that?”
“Like what?” You eyed him funny.
“Like I’m a baby who just learned how to walk,” he laughed, looking to you with a face of disbelief.
“You are!” You smiled brightly with a twinkle in your eyes.
Murtagh’s lips pursed together with a smirk perking up just before he launched himself at you, his arms reaching.
“Murtagh!” You squealed, letting him glom onto you, his arms wrapping around your middle and lifting you up so that you were a few inches higher than him. He held you close, nuzzling his face into your neck when you coiled your arms around his shoulders.
Not even a moment later, and there was a large splash nearby.
“(D/N)!” You shouted at your (colored) dragon as they slithered their way around you and Murtagh. (D/N) was as curious as any young dragon could be, especially when their beloved Rider was splashing around in the lake with another. They were barely riding size, wanting to take every opportunity they could to embrace their ever changing size, even if it meant acting like a complete hatchling at times.
With both you and Murtagh laughing, (D/N) nudged their muzzle against your back to push the pair of you back to the shoreline.
Back in waist-deep water, you both trudged through the water to set foot on the grass once more.
“Well, that was fun,” you noted, collapsing on the crisp green grass to dry off in the rays of the sun.
“And mildly exhausting,” Murtagh added, dropping down beside you. His wet glistening chest being a real distraction when you looked over to watch him talk.
“True, but…what did we accomplish today~?” You wiggled on your back next to him.
“I can keep myself from drowning,” he replied rather plainly but with an air of self-questioning.
“Yes, yes you can.”
“All thanks to you,” he flashed you a charming smile that you could never resist.
“Yeah, I’ll take that,” you internally congratulated yourself for meeting your goal for the day. “But could you stop looking at me like that,” you laughed, your eyes having trouble averting from his.
“Like what?” he questioned, his smile beginning to fade.
“Murtagh,” you tried to sound serious as you rolled onto your side, “you seriously have noidea how irresistible you are when you’re happy.”
If you thought that he was surprised by you requesting for him to unclothe himself before, then this compilation of words was definitely an awakening for him.
“Irresistible?” The word falling from his lips as if he had never had any use for it before.
Needless to say, Thorn and (D/N) laughed amongst themselves, much to Murtagh’s bewilderment.
