WINEFEST, AT THE LAKE [OPEN]

[willcabot]

Bare feet padded down the small jetty, clothes abandoned in his wake as he stripped down. Discarding the Breitling watch onto the wooden boards, he grinned as he dropped the final piece of clothing between him and the water onto the short pier before diving straight into the deep, cool, lake waters. Swimming deep down into the darker waters, Will swam down brushing his finger tips along the lake bed before swimming slowly up. There were some advantages to a Siren ancestry, the attraction to the water and his speed in the water was definitely one of them.

Swimming to one of the buoys, far beneath the surface, Will swam the length and bredth of the lake before he reappeared at one of the floating platforms. Swimming slower, deliberately slowly, Will looked like any other morning swimmer. Emerging from the water, he slicked his hair back before grabbing onto the edge of the pier. Muscles straining as he pulled himself up on to the board, grabbing his towel he wrapped it round his waist before grinning as he realised he had himself an audience.

"Morning," Will began, grinning as he mock saluted them. "Nothing better for a hangover than a morning dip, don't you think?"

Comments

[lituplikeaghost]

June raises an eyebrow at the appearance of her brother and was that Fabrice Coombs holding his hand? Suddenly, she remembers the other night when he flushed at mentioning someone else knowing Frozen, and it hits her like a brick.

She smiles slyly at Demetri, like a snake about to strike.

"Okay, but big brother, if you are going to give me hell for swimming with my friend, you could at least do me the favor of introducing me to your freckly one over there. He's cute. Hi, freckles!" She calls out as Fabrice blushes vividly and squirms, in a way that makes June feel bad.

Knowing her brother, and their father, they were both probably trying to keep this a secret. But from the way they had been looking at each other before they found June in the water with Will, June knows, from experience, that keeping feelings like that a secret is only made more difficult a task, practically impossible. And beneath her teasing words, she hopes Demetri hears the approval; she doesn't care who he likes, she just wants him to find someone that will make him happy.

[second_son]

"June," he says, his voice low and full of heavy warning. This isn't the time to talk about Fabrice, Demetri's urge to protect the other man warring with the same desire to keep his sister safe and sheltered. "This isn't the place for introductions."

Not that she needed introducing, he was sure, wondering how long it would take to get back to James and if he still had time to tell his brother himself, something he likely should havedown after that damn party. But he's felt safe with his secret, revelled in time without any scrutiny from the town or his family. It seems that ends now. "Get out of the water and we'll talk."

Even if it won't be about Fabrice.

[lituplikeaghost]

June understands Demetri's tone immediately, used to it after her years of doing everything in her power to act out in ways that easily fluster her older brothers. She rolls her eyes as she makes her way to the docks, lifting herself up and out of the water, shaking her long hair to free it of any remaining droplets.

"Okay, I'm out of the water," she says, arms folded across her chest. She's hurt by the distrust she senses in his words; she wouldn't tell anyone about Demetri's secret, not even Daniel. She thought Demetri would have known that. "Let's talk."

[second_son]

There are secrets, and then there are secrets and what he has with Fabrice is definitely the latter. Only James knows for sure about Demetri’s preferences; he knows his other siblings have to suspect but it’s nothing he’s ever confirmed. That he’s involved with a Coombs makes it that much morecomplicated, the sort of secret that would set his father against him in every way possible.

“You shouldn’t be out here. Not with him.”

[lituplikeaghost]

"For real?" June rolls her eyes again. "Literally, Demetri, we were just talking and swimming, that's it."

She's tired of having to explain herself to her older brothers every time she goes out with a guy, especially when it's someone like Will, a friend she's known since her childhood and who would never actually make a move on her. She wants to tell that to Demetri, wants to reassure him that she can take care of herself, she is nineteen, damn it. But she also wants answers of her own, and if Demetri is going to insist on this tough guy act, she'll respond in kind.

"Look, let's have this chat somewhere else, shall we?" June says, marching right over to Fabrice to take him by the arm just as he looks like he's going to walk away. "You both can escort me back to my cabin; no one will say anything, they'll think he's another one of my baubles."

She gives Demetri a pointed look as she keeps Fabrice in place, a look that brokers no refusals.

"You can either continue to cause a scene out here or we could discuss this in private, away from prying eyes. Your choice."

[second_son]

"Fine," he says shortly, his terseness as obvious in his stature as it is in his voice. June has him over a barrel and she knows it as well as he does. If he's going to take her to task then he needs to do it not here, not in public. Demetri looks to Fabrice, wondering if the other man has any idea what he's gotten himself into. "Lead the way, little sister."

[lituplikeaghost]

"Good, I'm glad we can agree," she answers back just as tersely, wanting some answers from her brother, for once. She's so tense, her grip tightens around Fabrice's arm to the point where he winces. "God, I'm sorry," she tells him, before steering them to head towards her cabin. Fabrice looks back at Demetri with a confused, trying-to-roll-with-it expression.

[second_son]

"June, you're being a child." He's accused her of being a just that tonight, but right now it seems unbearable, especially because Fabrice is the one bearing the brunt of it. "Stop acting as if you're twelve and maybe, just maybe, we'll stop treating you like it."

[lituplikeaghost]

"Says the man who threw a fit over my swimming with a friend in the lake," she points out with a healthy dose of eye-rolling. She tugs Fabrice along, gentler than before once she realizes she's hurting him. "We're almost there, anyway."

Fabrice can't help but keep sneaking glances back at Demetri, trying to reassure him with a shrug of his shoulders that he is alright.