[SE] wearing that same smile

I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings

Flora shoots him a look from over his shoulder, bright and triumphant in the exact way she gets when Kaisel has accidentally stepped directly into a clsuterfuck of his own making. "Okay, wait," she gasps, scandal blooming across her face as if she has just heard something truly unforgivable. "Does that mean you’d rather one of us not be around?" Her brows rise as she looks toward Spice, inviting the dragon fully into the offence, before her mouth parts again with even deeper horror. "Or maybe you just want one of us to change??" The huff that follows comes from Flora and Spice at almost the same time, both of them shaking their heads at him with such perfect shared disappointment that it feels rehearsed, though it absolutely isn’t.

Snickering under her breath, Flora lets the accusation fade as quickly as she’d summoned it, her arms tightening comfortably around him while he carries her through the water. "No, of course not," she says, tucking herself closer against his back with shameless satisfaction. "But a good queen knows how and when to take advantage of a situation." The proof of this is immediate and obvious, given that what had begun as Kaisel throwing her into the pool has somehow become him piloting her around it while she clings to him like this was always the intended outcome. At the mention of cold plunges, her nose wrinkles, and she gives a delicate little shrug against him. "Oh, probably," Flora allows, before feigning a shiver that presses her closer still, the movement deliberately dramatic and not entirely innocent as she skims her breasts teasingly against his back. "But I think I’m more of a warm bath, silk robe, someone feeding me fruit kind of wellness girl."

Her laughter softens as he spins them, her hold staying firm even once the water settles and the movement slows. For a moment she only rests there, wet curls clinging to her cheeks and her cheek near his, letting the easy happiness of it move warm through the bond. "Maaaaaybe the Spillwave?" she suggests, brows lifting thoughtfully as her gaze drifts over the bright water around them. "Since it’s so calm." Leaning forward, she presses a kiss to his cheek, lingering there with a smile before adding, softer but no less pleased with herself, "Maybe one day I'll have a shift bigger and faster than a shark."

and I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

The look he shoots her instantly over his shoulder is twisted enough to make Picasso jealous. "Girl you sure you didn't get a rabbit shift with the way you leap to the most wild conclusions all the time?" His affront carries all the theater of someone who's fully aware of the joke but absolutely doesn't intend for it to get any breathing room. "Don't want either of you around," he mutters, more firmly jostling her through the water, air sucking past his teeth with the audacity of such a claim, even in jest. "Think you hit your head on the bottom of the pool, probably have to take you to the clinic now or at least splash healing water all over you." Much like an exorcism, it should be noted.

"The only change I wanna see is the scoreboard," he snorts, referring of course, to the household wins and losses, whereupon she and Spice (read unfair advantage) are winning by a long shot. The spirits occasionally back him up, but they're such a wild card he's loath to call them teammates, and Spice is clearly unswayable. Enzo and Mateo were his only hope on a good day, but their integrity for the spectacle is in line with the household spirits, which goes double for Enzo who he's almost certain recognizes some of the ones in the house from his time on the inside, y'know, with Mort.

"Is that right?" he hums with an interest that's too much, and it's perhaps her only hint, aside from the flare of amusement that betrays him through the bond, that she and the boobs he absolutely feels kissing his back should hold on. He clings to the idea of taking advantage of things and her preferring warm waters, even as they twirl and it strays into a future plan. Abruptly over talk of sharks, he shouts, "cold plunge this!" He says it as poorly as any CSI catch phrase just before springing up and dumping them both backwards into the water. The motion fully dunks her and himself below the surface, the pool erupting in another great swell of water and bubbles as he works to wriggle out of her perch through the surprise.

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings

"Pffffft," Flora breathes against his shoulder, entirely undeterred by the rabbit comment and every other perfectly reasonable point he might be making. "Oh sure, and then you can explain to them how you tried to drown your wife after she tried to do something festive for you and was very generously icing your muscles after a hard workout." Her grin presses into the words, bright and impossible to dislodge, and when he mentions the scoreboard she lifts her brows with all the confidence of the world’s worst winner. "Anytime, babe."

The pulse of mischief that starts to warble through the bond reaches her just quickly enough to be useless. Flora’s first instinct is to hold on tighter, arms and legs locking more securely around him as if that might somehow save her from whatever he is about to do, which proves to be exactly the wrong choice. When he springs up and throws himself backward, she only has time to suck in a breath and tuck herself against him before they slam into the water together, the pool closing over them in a cold rush that steals the rest of her laughter and replaces it with bubbles. His wriggling escape, the force of the dunk, and the sharp sting of water up her nose all conspire against her, and by the time Flora breaks the surface again she is coughing, spluttering, and glaring through the wet spill of curls plastered across her face.

"So help me," she gasps, splashing at him with both hands, petulant and breathless and already laughing despite herself, "my next ability from Safrin is going to be the ability to tickle you from a distance." She swipes the water from her eyes and lunges for him through the pool, soaked longjohns dragging around her legs while her expression sharpens with vengeful delight. "Now come here," Flora demands, reaching for his sides with every intention of tickling him into a swift and splashy watery grave.

and I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

His grin clips away every last bit of muttering and grumbling, unable to tamp it down any longer when her artistic sway with logic is on such a grand gallery display. "Is that what you were doing?" The wonder leaves him with a head tilt and a faint tsk of his tongue. "Awwwww, babe," he croons, the words cavity-sweet. "My fault. Your kind consideration totally looked like a well-crafted and hostile tag team effort. I've just never heard of the snowball icing technique, is that new?" Sport medicine these days, always changing. Right up there with the health benefits of dunking said loving and thoughtful wife repeatedly in the pool.

The element of surprise is the only lead he has when he untangles himself from her underwater. While she drives for the surface, her breath not as prepared as his, he's striving for distance. He shoves off the bottom of the pool at an angle so that he's sent forward as well as up, breath streaming out in readiness as turbulent bubbles through the water just before he breaks to back above water, sucking in a fresh breath and immediately losing it to a burst of helpless, giddy laughter. He doesn't spare a moment, run-wading through the shallow end in a series of dramatic splashes. He can hear her behind him though, and when he chances a glance back, the pitch of his laughter climbs immediately as he realizes just how close she is to catching hold of him. "No no no nonono!" he shouts with a curl of dramatic dismay, one that breaks apart into a purely feral sound of terror at the notion of long distance tickling.

"That's pure evil!" he admonishes futily, voice warping into a high and shrill screech normally reserved for when she's actually tickling him. His laughter almost takes him out, as if the threat alone has set his skin to spasm, while he scrambles up the steps and out of the pool. It's such a gangly rush of water and windmilling, reaching limbs that it's a wonder he doesn't faceplant immediately onto the concrete.

The moment he's on solid ground, he side-skips away from her, arms lifted up like an inflatable man outside a shop, side bowing away from any stray reach or suddenly long feeling she might be able to muster on the spot. His cheeks are flushed and bright, amber stare holding her in place (never turn your back on the threat), as he turns and backs up towards where the inflatable tumseas are. "You tickle me again Flo-ro and I will be forced to curse you with the taste of your own medicine." Just in case she thinks this is hollow, he tacks on much more gravely, "I swear it." An enchanted bottle of shampoo, a cursed water bottle. Whatever it takes, he'll find a way to magically make her ticklish and he will be ruthless with his use of it.

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell