"C'mon out, Rox!" Marlon shouted, waving his hands to the empty pool room just on instinct. "I'm already in the pool, waitin' for ya!"

"You wear swim pants everywhere you go!" came an irritated voice from behind a screen, echoing all around the pool. "All you had to do was take off your shirt, so don't complain about needing to wait."

"You're done gettin' ready, you're just nervous. Come on baby, don't be embarrassed." In his impatience, Marlon had begun doing a lazy backstroke with only his feet. "I've already seen ya naked, so what's there to be embarrassed about?"

The sound of Roxie's bare foot slamming down on the wet tile floor was audible, but the force required for it meant her curse was as well. "That doesn't make this any better. Quit it or I'll just get my dress back on and walk out right now."

"Remember our deal! You don't get any of that if you don't come in the pool. I'm sure your bikini is wicked."

Heaving a heavy sigh, Roxie stepped out from behind the screen, revealing her newly bought swimwear. It wasn't really a bikini at all, but instead a much more modest two-piece outfit. It was purple, with a long, normal-strapped top piece that only exposed the bottommost inch of her midriff, draping over her like a shirt. The bottom was also fairly conservative, including a frilled skirt portion that obscured most of her upper thighs. In addition, her white hair had been pulled out of its high ponytail, hanging loose around her shoulders and even including the bangs she had always pulled up. She'd tried to tame it and get it out of her face, but it was stubborn and kept creeping back to where it wanted to be, so she gave up.

Marlon was surprised by her choice in clothes, and showed it on his face. "Oh," he said, not disappointed, but Roxie took it as such anyway. "Well don't worry, modesty can be hot, too."

Roxie's fingernails dug into her palms and she had to actively keep herself under control as she took cautious steps toward the pool. So much had gone wrong already that she wouldn't have been surprised if she slipped on some water and fell headfirst in, cracked her skull, and spent the next month wearing something on her head that kept her from opening her mouth properly or singing. There was nothing punk about wearing a bandage like that.

"This isn't meant to be hot!" she shouted at him, glaring daggers at her boyfriend as she approached. She left out the part about how she ended up having to shop at the kids' section, exacerbating her frustration, and that there was nothing there qualifying as 'hot'. He'd probably make a well-meaning joke about it and it would only further ruin her mood.

When she got to the ladder, she kind of regretted not falling over and needing to be hospitalized, as it would be far preferable to this. She'd been cursing under her breath the entire time, until she dipped her toe into what felt like ice water, at which point she recoiled and exclaimed, "Fuck! No, this isn't going to happen."

Marlon approached slowly, his hands beneath the water and a smirk on his face. "Just take it slow, man. It's been a couple years. You just need to get used to it again." He occasionally jumped a little, and it showed off his tanned, very toned body to Roxie, a hopeful incentive to get her in the pool.

"A couple? It's been four. And I've taken baths, you know." She hadn't so much as looked at a pool by choice since an incident wherein a public pool life guard mistook her for being younger than she was and told her that kids weren't allowed that far past the shallow end. She felt so ashamed and outraged that it absolutely ruined swimming for her.

Since she was a preteen, her size had been a major source of irritation. When all the other girls began puberty, her mom assured her that her time would come. Roxie remained untouched by it until fifteen, and when it finally hit it wasn't very much. She didn't hit much of a growth spurt, never gained hips or breasts or even different facial features. She was nineteen, but looked several years younger. She had absolutely no idea how, since all the women on both sides of her family had large breasts, wide hips, and all looked very grown-up. Their faces were mature and refined. Roxie still had a row of freckles across her cheeks and nose that sat vivid and unfaded. It was maddening.

Which was largely why she didn't ever go to the pool. Most every other girl there wore clothes that accentuated and flaunted, while Roxie was embarrassed by her lack of anything to flaunt or accentuate. Guys told her she had a really nice ass, but it wasn't an area she personally found attractive on guys or girls, so she hid that, hence the skirt on her swimsuit. It just wasn't a body part she was comfortable with. In the music scene or the battling scene, she could out-play or out-battle any girl, which made her confident in places she was good at. Looking good in a bikini was not a contest she would ever win.

Her plan worked rather well, until she started dating Marlon. The guy's gym was a pool, he wore swimming pants and often lacked a shirt wherever he went, and often got around Humilau by swimming. There was absolutely no way she could get away from it at that point, and indeed he'd convinced her to get in the pool again, this date just being fooling around and getting familiar in it again, maybe re-teaching her how to swim if she had to. Of course, she was stubborn, and managed to arrange a deal; she'd go in the pool only if she got sex in return. Lots of it.

Again she tried to take a step in, this time letting her foot rest in it and swirling it around a little. She knew that it would be easier to jump into it in one go, but it was really cold and she was averse to that, especially in the event that there was a fire alarm and she didn't have to get wet at all.

In retrospect, she really should have bribed one of the gym trainers to pull the alarm on their way out.

Watching her move too slow and again getting impatient, Marlon took matters into his own hands. Effortless switching to be on his back, he began to kick at the water, sending it splashing up and frothing wide, hitting Roxie with several waves of it. He smiled at her, remaining in place and progressively getting her wetter and wetter.

Snarling profanely, Roxie leaped off the ladder and went right for Marlon. She didn't land gracefully in the water at all, but didn't care, bringing her hand to the back of his head repeatedly and shouting at him. "Why did you do that? The water was cold, and I was trying to get used to it! You owe me big time for that shit!"

She didn't slap hard enough to do much damage, and certainly not enough to keep his grin from getting larger as she hit him. "Well, I got you into the water, and you're so angry you didn't realize how cold it was and now you're cool, right?"

Stopping the slaps, Roxie's eyes widened and she looked around. She was indeed in the water now, and didn't feel all that cold anymore. Lowering her hand, she nodded slowly and sighed. It was a rare moment of insight for Marlon, and she had to concede that occasionally he pulled off something clever.

"Radical, my plan worked." He levelled off again, standing upright, and smiled even wider. "You really do look cute, Rox."

Roxie averted her gaze to hide the glowing blush in her cheeks, feigning a shiver and trying to kick up so that she could float on the surface. She was clumsy with it, and instead just came back down. "S-shut up," she said, though the anger was out of her voice. "You're just saying that."

"No, really," he said, swimming out to her and wrapping his arms around her. He was so natural in the water, underlining how rusty Roxie was, even though she never approached his level of grace to begin with. "It's a sweet look for you, I dig it." He kissed her cheek, knowing she was blushing because it felt warmer than usual even with the droplets of cold water on it.

"I look like a kid," she muttered, adjusting her hair again. Now that it was wet, it was a bit more malleable, but it was still refusing to stay in place for very long.

"Ya weren't complainin' when you got into the movie for cheap."

She narrowed her eyes and punched him a again. "Fringe benefit. It's the universe's way of trying to repay me for not being able to reach the top shelf, which I'd gladly pay the extra two dollars for." She looked down at her body, feeling how the clothes, now wet, clung to her slender form, revealing her absolute lack of curves.

He kissed her again, then let go. "C'mon, let's get you ready to hit the pool again."

"So far, all I'm ready to do is never step foot in a pool again," she sneered, inching away from him.

"If you do that you aren't gettin' any of that sex we agreed on." Marlon kept up his joking demeanour, swimming circles around her like a shark mocking its prey. "But really, Rox. We need something we can do together. You even admitted you had a lot of fun as a kid at the pool, so give it a chance."

"Ugh, fine," she groaned, hating that he was weaponizing sex against her like that. It was probably the one thing he could properly use against her, because she couldn't actually stomp her way into getting it out of him. "But let the record show that I don't 'have fun'." She stopped moving away and instead dove at Marlon.

On instinct he caught her, but he didn't see the kiss coming. Her lips were on his in an instant and he held her upright. She was too short to be able to kiss her with her feet on the ground, but when he had an arm around her waist and the other hand holding her butt he could manage just fine, and was strong enough to do so even out of water. As much as it surprised him, he didn't do anything to cut the kiss early, instead enjoying her being affectionate again. She could turn on a dime sometimes, and he wasn't receptive enough to always figure out when she was just being herself and when she was actually mad at him. One of her energetic, eager kisses always did the thinking for him in that department.

"Sex now," she said. It came with her best attempt at a sexy glare, but she just didn't have the face to make it work, especially with soggy bangs covering her eyes. It didn't even necessarily come off as cute; just strange.

Marlon shook his head, still holding her up against his bare chest. "Nah, sex later. You gotta earn it with a few laps first, you dig?"

"Fuck that," was her succinct reply. To keep up the attempt at seduction, she nibbled at his lower lip. "You splashed a bunch of water on me and now I'm in the water and freezing my fingers off." Her voice dropped deeper, and though her natural voice was fairly in line with her appearance, a lustier, more seductive tone was something she could do very well. "Baby, please warm me up?"

Marlon groaned in frustration, noting the immediate tightness in his pants. "Aw, fine," he groaned, surrendering to her will. He trusted her not to go back on the deal once she got her part and suddenly refuse to swim every again. "One position, but then you've gotta do the laps."

Roxie bounced off of him, shouting in excitement. "Finally, you're speaking my language. Besides, I'm sure some long, satisfying pool sex will really help me get comfortable again." As she spoke, she pulled off her embarrassing swimsuit, letting them float away carelessly as she kicked up a little and lay flat on the surface of the water. That much was still second nature to her. She looked over and saw Marlon was pulling his pants off, and she shook her her head. "Nuh-uh. You're gonna eat me out, Captain Tan Lines. And if you want me to do laps, you'd better make them worth it." She parted her skinny legs for Marlon and smiled.

Giving his girlfriend an exasperated look, Marlon nonetheless complied, moving swiftly over to her, feet firm on the pool floor. He bent his knees so that his head was nearer the surface and he didn't have to lean in so much. Her crotch was very tidily kept, with a neat patch of wispy white hair above her slit. As much as her attitude wore on him, he couldn't help but smile as he sank down a little further, only his eyes above the water as he got beneath her legs. When he came up, they rested on his shoulders, letting him lift her rear above the surface a little and better get at her.

His head dipped forward and he started to kiss her slit, his arms snaking around her slowly and reaching in, resting on her inner thighs where they could come in to use at a second's notice. The fingertips pressed into the soft skin, just to add a little, knowing how much Roxie appreciated being squeezed all over-anywhere but the cheeks-as he touched her.

Roxie just appreciated being touched, to be frank, but Marlon added a surprising amount of finesse and awareness for someone usually so focused on one thing. His hands seemed to move autonomously as he dragged his tongue up her slit, ending with a sloppy kiss on her clit that made her wriggle a little. "I bet you wanted to do this before, didn't you? Have sex in a pool. You seemed a little too natural coming over; you're so weird." One thing she had mastered was keeping her voice level no matter what, intoning the exact way she wanted to, ensuring Marlon only ever heard her authoritative, mocking tone when he went down on her. It was how she preferred receiving; in control and always picking on little things. It ensured Marlon would throw more effort to try and make her eat her words; he was so easy to play with. He'd never actually managed to fuck her senseless enough to where she faltered, but boy did he try, to her intense satisfaction.

Her legs tightened, crossing behind his head, and she pressed her crotch up against his mouth, laughing. "Come on, put some work into it. You can swim all day, but you can't be assed to bother using your tongue? If I don't cum I'm not stroking anything." She smiled to herself at the clever little double-entendre she came up with, following it up with a stretch of her arms and a fake yawn.

Marlon saw through the act, but indulged her anyway. He knew he was making her feel damn good, but liked the encouragement and liked her being playful. He found her attempts to be assertive despite her size to be cute and played along with it, not in the least because he enjoyed her legs wrapped tightly around her head and how fiery she got. He looked up at her along her bare body, seeing all the drops of water that formed on the skin, up to the eyes that lay set on him. He smiled, leaning in to kiss her thigh as the hand on the other side of his head crept inward. As his lips caressed the soft skin of her leg he slipped a finger into her already slick and primed vagina, immediately pumping with gusto.

A jolt of pleasure rushed up Roxie's spine and she twisted, arm swinging up and coming back down with a loud splash that sent drops of water into the air. Before she could turn it into a bratty gesture and demand he actually please her or insist that he knew how to kiss so his crappy kissing practice had no place between her legs, a loud moan tore out of her throat and she couldn't hope to hide how it felt. She cursed and bit her lip, wiping some wet hair out of her face and looked down her body at him. She saw his kisses draw inward, coming closer to the middle again, and she took a sharp breath to level herself out. It worried her, how easily he threw her off her guard.

It reached a new level as his lips met her clit in coincidence with a press of his finger against a sweet spot she never knew was there. In a sudden burst of intensity, she leaned up, shouting and grabbing at his head for support. Before she knew what was happening, she was straddling his head, heels digging into his shoulders, and her fingers were clenching his dumb blue hairdo. She'd never been upright on his shoulders before, and yet as she leaned forward a little, her mind racing in excitement, her only thought was to take the situation to its logical conclusion. As his hands cupped her butt to keep her steady in his strong grasp, she began to rock her hips, tightening the hold and fucking her boyfriend's face.

Marlon steadied his footing and pushed upward, standing upright as Roxie bucked and yelped, his tongue still working her over with the same deft patterns he always used on her. He very carefully shook his head, attempting not to rattle her as he ground his nose into her clit. Now that he was upright, it was very apparent how hard he was from the entire situation, his tight swim pants unable to comfortably hold his erection, which was reacting very appreciatively to her show of control. He was torn between loving what she was doing and being proud of himself for pulling off the difficult position. If only there were someone around to brofist at that moment. Lame.

With nobody around to hear, Roxie cut loose, howling as she writhed and bucked atop her boyfriend's shoulders, pushing his mouth harder against her sopping wet slit. She loved every solitary second of it, and knew that from now on she'd be insisting on this one more often, pool or not. He was strong enough, after all.

Then, a thought crept into the back of her head. A devilish, manipulative thought that made her open mouth close into a crooked grin. She stopped, patting him on the head and asking to be let down. She hadn't cum yet, but she didn't really want to, not when she could derail the moment entirely.

Obliging, he let her down gently, leaning forward until her back was in the water and then slipping her legs off his shoulders. "So soon, Rox? I thought you'd'a wanted to finish before we got back to swimming." He scratched his head in confusion as she evened out.

"Don't be silly," she purred, sidling up to him, rubbing a hand along his abs low, down near his tan line. "We're not going to go back to swimming yet, are we? Not with you looking so uncomfortable in those pants." The hand slipped down, rubbing the bulge in his blue swim pants. "I'd be a bad girlfriend if I left you hanging like this, wouldn't I? You always say to people, 'Don't leave me hangin', dude'. So I won't." She quoted him in a voice thick with mockery, but still laid it over her seductive tone. Or, what she thought qualified as one. Judging by her success rate in getting him into the bed, it seemed he thought so too.

Marlon was at an impasse. He knew what she was doing, but didn't know how to refute her point, or deny that swimming took a backseat at that moment to getting it on with her. After a deep breath, he stepped back and put his hands out in a 'back off' gesture. "Okay Rox, I know I'm supposed to be the 'cool' one here, but this isn't cool anymore."

Roxie sighed, leaning back into the water. "I was just trying to have some fun." She bowed her head down in shame, accepting that she'd gone too far there. Treading the water, the walked back into Marlon's arms, no pretence of fucking around or playing. She just liked it there, she felt safe nestled in his shoulder, his strong arms wrapped around her and holding her tightly. "I guess I just wanted to stall things out as long as I could."

"It's just a pool," he said, holding her tight and kissing her forehead. Even frustrated with her, he couldn't deny her a place in his arms. "What's there to be so worried about?"

In truth, Roxie's cover story had just been that she hadn't been swimming in a while and wasn't sure if she'd like it as much. She'd have gone the extra mile of calling it dumb kids stuff had Marlon not loved it so much. But there, in his arms, she found little reason to lie to him, since he was being so understand and affectionate. "I guess I haven't been too honest with you, so fine. Dummy."

She explained the whole story, about the lifeguard and about puberty, about how she felt awkward in a swimsuit and by a pool where eyes were on her in a different context than when on stage.

"I've said 'fuck you' to everything in my life that I didn't like. And I meant it, too. But then, somehow, there's my body, and I can't get over that so easily. For the most part I can just be loud and abrasive to get noticed. Fine, I overcompensate, but this is..." She sighed and buried her face in his shoulder, not even sure if he got it. "I wanted to do it so we'd have something for us, though. Because you're there with me for my music, even when I do a really shitty show just for punk cred. I want to be the same way about what you love."

He did, for the most part. "Girl stuff, I got you. Not exactly something I'm smart with, but..."

"To be fair, that's most things," she muttered, but did it softly. It was her way of saying she cared.

"But, maybe you can take this, as gospel from Humilau's hottest dude himself. You're a babe, Rox. A smokin' hot, feisty babe any guy would be lucky to have, and with a rockin' ass too. And I know you don't like to talk about it, but I've gotta, because I'm a man who can appreciate a butt. You don't have to swim if you don't wanna, if it's that big a worry for you, but don't think I'm lyin' at all when I compliment ya."

She smiled warmly and leaned her head back out of his shoulder to look him in the eye. "No, I know you're not lying. You're not smart enough to trick me like that anyhow. But it means a lot to me. So, I'll swim, long as you keep trying to take me up a peg, and I'll try to reign in your ego, you... Goofy dumbass with a stupid tan line and an inability to speak properly."

They both smiled them, free of pretence or a need to cheer the other up. They already had.

"How about we put all this aside, do a few laps, and then see about finishin' what we started?"

Roxie purred in appreciation, and hopped up off the pool floor to give her boyfriend a kiss. "Go slow for me. I have small legs."