Situation

Chapter 37: Splish Splash No Kanda Not in the Bath

         "What do you want to do first?" I ask excitedly, wanting to go get wet. Straight in front of us was a dry area between the walk-in wave pool to the right and play area for the little kids to the left. Closer to us on the left was the Surf Rider, a ride that you basically get to go surfing only on a contraption, and on the other side of it was the Magnolia Grove, a steamy hot tub with coves where you can be alone with your family, or in my case, my boyfriend. Across the water park were two staircases, the larger splitting when it got high enough, the shorter one going to the tube slides and the taller to the group slides. To the right of where the tube slides end, there was an enclosed area, inside keeping a gigantic foam snake that kids were pushing each other off of and water basketball.

Kanda looks around and grumbles, "The hot tub."

"Other than that!" I say, tugging him towards the wave pool that hadn't started yet in hopes of getting a double tube. "What else do you want to do?"

He chuckles at my obvious attempt to make him choose the wave pool and says, "You choose."

"Okay, this way!" I tell him, leading him towards the water. We leave our jackets and shoes on one of the lounge chairs, and I slowly walk into the water, the cold liquid barely lapping at my ankles. There were probably twenty people towards the deep end, but I could tell from the lifeguards' at ease composure that it was normally a lot more. Good, it's not as crowded.

I glanced at the tubes lying on the bank, trying to decide if I wanted to float with Kanda or not, but eventually continued walking into the water. There was a huge rock in about a foot that had little jets coming out of the sides and a support beam sticking out from the top, and I stepped in front of one of the water streams, letting the cold water wet my white shirt. Looking back, I notice Kanda was still only in the first few inches of the water, glaring at it like it was going to open up into an abyss and swallow him up. Was Kanda scared of water? Now that I think about it, I'd never seen him swim, but why would he bring me here if he didn't want to?

Leaving the rock, I go back towards the bank, latching onto my boyfriend's arm and asking, "Kanda, can you swim?"

He doesn't reply, but looks away, hiding a slight dusting of pink across his cheeks, and I press, "Tell me. I won't laugh if you can't."

"I can, I just don't like to that much, but I knew that you would like it so..." he trailed off, still not looking at me.

"Kanda," I say, "do you want to go somewhere where the water isn't so deep? We can go to the hot tub for a while."

"No, I want to do what you want to," he protests, but I'm already pulling him towards the Magnolia Grove, wanting to make sure Kanda enjoys the water park as much as I do.

When we get to the hot tub and through the little gate, I notice that there was an opening that you can go through to go outside, and considering that all the coves were taken inside, I decided to try it. Maybe thirty degrees won't feel bad in a hot tub. My foot slides into the steaming water, much hotter than my showers normally are, and resist the urge to jerk my foot back and run to the wave pool.

Easing into the water, I slowly got used to the temperature and found it soothing, and I think Kanda did, too since his face relaxed incredibly. We continued into the water until it lapped at our waists, and I led the bluenette beside me outside, pushing through the shredded film and looking around.

The outdoor part of the hot tub was a desert, if you can say that about a pool of water, but you get what I mean. No one was out there.

Maybe it was the fact that as exorcists, Kanda and I both have had to endure much worse conditions, like the Leaf of Revival mission. There were probably seven different coves, and I made my way into the first, where I sat on the underwater bench, waiting for my boyfriend to join me. It didn't take long for him to wrap an arm around my waist and pull me closer to him, and I did so willingly, resting my head on his strong shoulder and letting my own arms circle around him. I mutter, "Are you going to tell me why you don't like swimming?"