lewthur by the pool side or at the beach?
((Ship Warning: This drabble contains Lewthur (Lewis x Arthur).
Content Warning: This drabble contains mentions of, scenes similar to, and allusions to drowning/fear of water. Reader discretion is advised.
*purrs* I love me some good Lewthur.
Anyway, I ended up taking a bit of a weird/unorthodox approach to this, since you didn’t really specify a plot or anything in particular for this request. I hope it’s still to your liking, dear.
Anyway, have a drabble where Lewis finds out Arthur doesn’t know how to swim, and thus gives him lessons like the big, precious, supportive bara he is.
Enjoy.))
“C'mon Artie, jump in!”
Arthur stood, his feet stuck in the sand, waves lapping up to just about under his knees, his arms crossed over his chest.
The sound of people talking and kids playing and splashing farther up the beach mingled with the calls of seabirds and the crash of the waves…
…and out in the water stood Arthur’s boyfriend, motioning for him to join him.
Arthur frowned and took a deep breath, going to take a step forward then hesitated, staring down into the clear, cold water, then out at Lewis, then back down again.
He…didn’t want to go in.
“Eheh, not right now Lew!” he yelled out to his bae, “Maybe later!”
He stepped away from the water’s edge, letting out a shaky, relieved sigh, plopping down under his umbrella and returning to his book, safely away from the crashing waves. He hoped Lewis was having fun, and maybe he’d go back into the shallows later, after lunch. Maybe.
Arthur was reading along quite comfortably when the sunlight filtering down from above dimmed, the confused mechanic looking up, expecting to see a cloud obscuring the sun, but instead saw Lewis, standing in front of him, water dripping off of him, a cunning smile on his face.
“Oh, hey Lew, you come in for lunch?”
“Nope,” he replied, bending down, gently taking Arthur’s book out of his hands, grabbing them half a second later, exclaiming: “I came back for YOU!”
Arthur squeaked with suprise as he was quickly pulled to his feet, Lewis moving back towards the water, tugging Arthur along with him.
Realizing what was going on, Arthur stuttered:
“L-Lewis, c'mon man, it’s almost noon and-”
“Aw, come on Artie, the water’s great! I saw you starting to come in earlier and-”
“L-Let’s just go back and eat, eh?”
“C'mon, it’ll be more fun out here with the both of us…”
Arthur suppressed a whimper: he was up to his waist in the water now, and with Lewis continuing to pull him in, the waves began lapping up against his stomach and now towards his chest and-
“LEWIS, STOP!”
Lewis immeadiately released Arthur’s hands, his magenta eyes widening with terror, the man obviously startled by Arthur’s sudden outburst:
“Holy crap, I’m sorry Artie! I didn’t hurt you, did I? Did you step on a rock or-”
“N-No, no…”
Lewis looked into Arthur’s eyes, the spiky-haired man looking away from him a moment later as a slight red flush began creeping across his cheeks.
“I…I don’t know how to swim.”
They were both silent for a moment before realization crept across Lewis’ face and he spoke, his tone full of apology and concern:
“Holy crap Arthur, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Arthur waved his hand dismissively.
“No no, it’s fine. I should have told you a long time ago, big guy.”
Lewis was silent for a moment, then suggested:
“…let’s head back in.”
Arthur shook his head.
“No, I mean, you can stay out here. I don’t wanna put a damper on your fun. I’ve got a book and maybe I’ll wade through the shallows or something later.”
Arthur gave a reassuring smile, but Lewis frowned: he knew EXACTLY what Arthur was trying to pull.
He stepped forward and gently held one of Arthur’s hands, cupping the side of his much shorter boyfriend’s head with the other. Arthur didn’t look up at him, but did nuzzle into his hand a little, his fingers tightening around Lewis’.
“It’s okay, Arthur, really,” Lewis explained, smiling down at him: Arthur always put such a burden on himself, always felt that he was doing something wrong…
Lewis leaned down, planting a kiss on Arthur’s forehead and pulling him into a gentle, loving embrace.
“Let’s go back in and have lunch, okay?”
“…no.”
“What?”
Lewis looked down, seeing a bright spark of determination lighting up in Arthur’s eyes, the mechanic sounding suprisingly certain as he demanded:
“Teach me how to swim!”
“What?”
Arthur puffed up his chest a little, continuing:
“I’m out here, I feel like doing it…w-we better do it now before I change my mind.”
Arthur gave an affirmative nod, looking up with a slightly worried expression. Lewis tilted his head, then smiled, chuckling good-naturedly, knowing exactly what he was thinking.
He forgot how brave Arthur was at times, and hoped Arthur would come to understand that himself one of these days.
“Alright, first thing’s first,” Lewis said, releasing Arthur’s head and hand, putting on his best teacher voice (or at least, his best impression of what he thought a teacher voice should sound like) and beginning his lesson: “treading water. C'mon.”
Lewis nodded out towards the sea, stepping backwards as Arthur followed, motioning for him to stop and wait a good 10 feet back from him as the water started to get deeper and darker.
“Okay, watch me first.”
Lewis moved back, feeling his feet slide off into the short drop off where the sandbar ended and the open ocean began, gently kicking his legs and moving his arms slowly back and forth, keeping his head above water, explaining as calmly and clearly as possible:
“You kick your legs a little underneath you and move your arms straight out to your side and then back in again, close to your chest, and keep repeating both those motions on a loop: if you do that correctly you’ll keep your head above water, even if you’re in water that’s deeper than you are tall.”
“Re-Really?”
“Yep!”
Lewis swam back to the shallows, planting his feet on the sandy bottom, and approached Arthur, who seemed to understand where this was going…
He shuddered, staring at the vast, wavy sea.
One foot at a time, Arthur said in his head, staring at the spot ahead of him where he water got darker, kick your feet, move your arms back and forth…
“I’ve got you.”
Lewis’ voice right next to his head and Lewis’ hands next to his waist gave Arthur what he needed: he stepped off the edge of the sandbar and-
Panic.
His feet were no longer on solid ground, only cold, dark water, deeper than he’d ever been in before, his eyes snappig shut out of fear, gasping for air. Stay calm, stay calm…
Kick your feet, move your arms. Kick your feet move your arms. KICK YOUR FEET, MOVE YOUR ARMS!
…he heard splashing.
“Whoa, Artie: slower on the arms and make sure you keep ‘em a little below the surface, okay?”
A little below the surface, got it. He felt Lewis’ hands on the sides of his chest now, obviously keeping him in check, afloat. Gotta stay above water: you can do this Artie, he assured himself…
You can do this.
All of a sudden the splashing stopped and he felt his body sink a little. He gasped, opening his eyes: his head was above water, his hands just below the surface, his feet gently kicking, and his body moving fluidly up and down with the small, gentle waves.
“Lewis, am I doing it righ-”
He turned his head, and saw Lewis standing back on the sandbar, an arm’s reach away…his arms at his side.
Arthur’s eyes lit up again.
“I’m doing it?! On my own?!”
“Yep, you’ve got it!”
“OH MY GOD I’M DOING IT!”
Arthur let out a wildly bright and happy laugh, Lewis looking on with an equally bright, exclaiming:
“Told you you could do it.”
“H-How do you swim, though?”
“Whoa, um, okay: one second.”
Arthur moved himself back a bit in the water as Lewis swam in next to him, explaining:
“Okay, so basically what you’re gonna do is take your legs and angle them so they’ll push your body forward in the water…”
“Okay.”
“…then you’re gonna take your arms and do kind of the same thing, but put 'em in front of you and kind of, kind of, um…you know how Mystery swims?”
“Yea, kind of.”
“Just do that.”
“Okay.”
Arthur angled his body in the water a bit, fear creeping up in his eyes for just a moment as a wave crept up his face, close to his mouth, but as it passed he focused again, determined.
Kick your legs, angle your body, swim like Mystery does. Move forward, keep your head above water…
Splish, splash, splish, splash.
Lewis watched, a bit befuddled: Arthur was swimming alright, but had gone so far in emulating Mystery’s swimming gait that he was lifting his hands out of the water and slapping them back in with every stroke.
He coasted up next to Arthur, smiling over at him.
“You don’t have to lift your hands up out of the water every time, just keep going and keep your head above water.”
Arthur kept his head turned forward, adjusting his strokes as Lewis suggested, when he heard something: screaming kids? Close by?
He looked towards the beach, and was awestruck: Lewis’ and his umbrella was far behind them, and they had gone past at least three other groups up the beach, Arthur stopping to tread water and stare.
Lewis floated over to his side, casually planting a little kiss on the side of his boyfriend’s head, chuckling a little at how the water had made Arthur’s spiky hair droop a bit (not that his pompadour was faring much better at this point).
“So, you did it, huh?”
Arthur…slowly came out of his daze, turning to Lewis.
“…yea, I guess I did.”
Lewis smiled, opening his mouth it speak, but whatever he was going to say turned into a loud squeak as a Arthur gave him a little smooch on the nose.
“Couldn’t have done it without you, LewLew.”
Lewis let out another little squeak, ducking his head down into the water to hide his blush as Arthur chuckled.
The two swam side by side for a good long time, and when they finally did get back to their umbrella, they collapsed on top of one another in a big, wet pile, Arthur lazily reaching for their cooler and pulling out him and Lewis’ lunch sandwiches, the two of them eating and relaxing, watching the waves crashing, going out and crashing back in as they curled up under the umbrella, draped in towels and bordering on falling asleep.
“Thanks, Lew,” Arthur mumbled, nuzzling the side of Lewis’ head as they snuggled.
“No problem Arthur, but don’t sell yourself short: what you did today was on your own, I just gave you some direction.”
Lewis gently held Arthur’s hand, giving him a little kiss on the cheek.
“You’re so brave, Arthur. I love you.”
Arthur kissed him back, nuzzling into him more.
“I couldn’t have done it without you, big guy. Love you too.”
With that, the two returned to their snuggling, lulled to sleep by the sound of the sea and the warmth of their bodies snuggled up against each other, safe and sound.