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Furina de Fontaine loves to swim.
Yet swimming is not quite the word, it is too shallow of a description. She loves to dive, to make droplet-spraying splashes into refreshingly clear and cool water. In fact, some may say she makes a spectacle out of it. A performance. Why shouldn’t she? Hydro is her element and she’ll be damned if she does not make the best out of it.
And if she wanted to enjoy a peaceful, uninterrupted beach day, she would.
It's a beautiful cloudy day in Fontaine, not too warm nor too humid. The weather conditions are perfect, a slight summer breeze sings through all the nation. As luck would have it, Furina has no engagements for the entire rest of the day. It was like the stars have aligned and are shining directly above her, she feels the luckiest she’s ever been. Furina will not let this opportunity go to waste…
All is perfect before she steps out of her front door, Furina feels on top of the world. Effortlessly confident and beautiful in her own right. She put together her own snacks without help and her dress made her look like she stepped out of the Little Mermaid fairytale Fontainians love.
The problem was when she opened her door.
Her eyes tick with frustration. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’ve never kidded about anything in my life.” Hat Guy grins, it resembles more of a predator baring its teeth than a smile.
———
So in the end, Hat Guy—Scaramouche? Kunikuzushi? Balladeer?—tags along. Forever talking (and insulting) her ear off, why he chooses her to bother, she doesn’t know.
Does he not have friends?
Her day might not be perfect anymore, but she’s not going to let anyone ruin her day completely. If he speaks, she’ll just drown out the sound. Furina chooses kindness over violence, always!
That’s a lie.
Right now, she’s at her limit.
“How much longer are you going to paddle around?” he tsks, annoyed. “You look like a sopping wet mutt.”
“Okay, harsh.” Rolling her eyes, Furina pushes damp strands of hair out of her face. “I’m sorry, who invited you again?”
“I don’t need an invitation. Especially from you.”
“Well then,” she huffs, dipping her torso lower into the crystal waters. “I wouldn’t have invited you anyway. Off you go.”
“Fontaine’s waters don’t all belong to you,” he snarks. “I can go wherever I well please.”
Annoying. Furina cups some of the cool water in her hands and flings it over at him. Hat Guy hisses when the water comes into contact with his shorts. She hears him grumbling and laughs when he shoots a concentrated stream of air at her from his seat on the wave-weathered rock.
“Don’t tell me Kusinali sent you to the nation of hydro and you still can’t handle a little water.” she laughs. Furina delves deeper into the lake, she stands on her tiptoes, the water reaches slightly below her shoulders.
“Whatever Nahida sent me for should not be any concern for you,” he snips.
“It causes some concern to Neuvi,” she comments. Her mind drifts to Neuvillette, who probably is up to his neck in paperwork at the moment.
“He doesn’t quite like you, you know.”
He gives her a blank look. “I don’t care.”
“I think it’s because he’s a dragon,” she says, ignoring him. “Maybe he can sniff out the bad eggs.”
“Do not compare me to an egg,” Hat Guy hisses. He fixes her with a vicious glare, yet it doesn’t really give the heat he might think it has. “Unless you want to never resurface from the water again.”
“That’s if you even get in.”
“I will not.”
“Are you afraid of water? Hydrophobic?”
“Watch your mouth.”
“So you are—”
“No.” Hat Guy says lowly. “Your little pea-brain must be forgetting that both Sumeru and Inazuma are rich in water forms.”
“Yadda, yadda,” Furina wades through the water, stopping right below the rock he’s perched on. “I don’t want to hear your justifications.”
He raises a brow, she gives him a cat-like smile.
“I want to see you paddling around in the water too,” she taunts. “Or did you never learn to swim?”
“Why you—”
Furina raises her hands in mock defense, her skin breaks out in goosebumps as the wind chills her damp skin. Her wet dress sticks to her skin and flows freely around in the water.
“Listen Hat Guy, I’m not one to judge…”
She knows that he knows that whatever she’s implying—that he can’t swim—is going to wake up the ‘I will prove you wrong!’ side of him. Predictable, because he can’t ever back down from putting her in her place or proving her wrong. She catches the way his fingers twitch and how his jaw ticks with irritation.
Gotcha.
Hat Guy starts to remove his hat (Furina thinks, does that just make him Guy?) and the sandals on his feet. He stands up confidently and a healthy dose of haughtiness as he looks down his nose at her. The sun is shining behind him, giving him a filtered glow, Furina’s breath stutters a tiny bit. She clears her throat.
He looks silly without that obnoxious hat, but at the same time less threatening. Furina brings her fingers to press against her lips—attempting to quell the laughter threatening to bubble out of her.
He sneers at her, but she can clearly see the pink tinge of his cheekbones. “You better get ready, idiot.”
“C’mon Hat Guy,” she laughs lightly, Furina floats up and spreads her limbs like a starfish on the surface of the water. “Take your time, we have all—day.”
She hears him respond twice as angrily at her, Furina ignores him in favor of floating aimlessly on the water’s surface, the warm sun shines down on her front. When he stops speaking, she opens one eye to peek up at him and is almost horrified.
Hat Guy jumps into the water, he curls into a fetal position mid-air and Furina can only watch in amazement. He collides and drops deep in the cool water, droplets upon droplets of water rain down on her from his impact. She stands upright again in the water, but splutters with all the water entering her eyes and nose.
Furina chokes on a wet cough. “Archons—”
He resurfaces, already so smug. Hat Guy pushes wet indigo bangs out of his face. “Would you look at that? You were wrong about me, Furina.”
Furina stares at him, eyes wide in disbelief, she can feel her heart start to pick up at the sound of her name on his lips. She flicks her wet fingers up his nose, the stray water droplets get into his eyes. He brushes her off with a biting warning—obviously, she isn’t listening—but his touch is soft, a warm weight against her own hand.
She shrugs, bringing a water-cooled hand to her cheek—it's unbearably warm. Furina jolts at the extreme difference of temperature. “Yeah, yeah. So you can jump in and cannonball. Even a child could do that. Where’s the paddling, Hat Guy?”
She sees his shoulders relax slightly with the lick of the water. “I’m not doing that.”
“Pleeeease?”
He doesn’t even bother with answering her. Furina bites her lip to calm her almost-crazed smile. Teasing this easily angered man is definitely one of her favorite pastimes.
Just to see him react, Furina blathers on. “Hey, at least I wouldn’t have’ta bring you a floatie next time we go out—”
Hat Guy splashes her face with water, cutting her off mid-sentence.
Furina splutters again, but her laugh is bright, like a tinkling bell resounding around both of them.
Truly, swimming is more enjoyable when your company is too.