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“Are you coming now?” Crosshair was lazily floating in the water, clearly impatient. Tech only sighed and kept checking his gear. It was imperative that everything worked fine - even more so now. It was his first time diving in the open water. He wasn’t worried, not with Crosshair there, and yet he wanted to be safe.
Once everything was up to his standards, he rechecked the boat’s anchoring, then pulled on his dive jacket and sat down on the edge of the boat to pull on his fins. Crosshair used that moment to reach up and try to tug him in.
“No,” Tech complained and swatted his hand away. “Stop it. I’m not ready yet.”
With a scoff, Crosshair splashed him and drifted away a little. “You are taking too long.”
Tech didn’t answer, instead checking if all buckles were closed, then putting on his dive mask and lastly the regulator.
He checked if Crosshair was out of the way and then did a back roll from the boat.
Hitting the water was always a shock. It was quiet down here. The water was cold, not too cold but still so different from the warm air. It took him a moment to orient himself and face the right direction.
The sun filtered through the water, casting everything in a soft light. Way down he spotted the reef Crosshair had promised and then searched for Crosshair and - there he was, floating in the open water like this and hit by the sun, he looked beautiful. His golden eyes flashed and with a grin, he darted over to grab Tech’s hand and pull him along.
Tech signed ‘slow’, but let Crosshair do it nonetheless. They glided through the water, towards the reef. It was small, but Tech could already see that it was brimming with life and he spotted the first rare fish. Crosshair hadn’t promised too much - it was perfect.
Crosshair slowed down when they got closer and the fish began to hide, hovering a few meters over the reef. Tech fiddled with one of his pouches, pulling out his camera. He needed to take so many pictures.
It didn’t take long for the first animals to appear again. There were not only fish, but crustaceans, shrimp, even a small shark. This was perfect.
Being underwater, once you got over the initial shock, was perfect. It was quiet, the light was dimmed and the water surrounded you like a blanket. Tech loved to be here.
And with Crosshair at his side, he wasn’t preoccupied with not getting lost.
He let the other pull him around the reef, towards all the interesting animals. To Tech, everything was interesting, but he appreciated being shown the rare ones. Ones you wouldn’t necessarily notice if you didn’t know where to look.
If he wasn’t on a limited air supply, Tech thought he could spend days down here. His camera was clicking by the second and he tried to commit everything he saw to memory too, just in case. He wanted to research them later. The only thing that bothered him a little was the inability to talk, and, with his hands preoccupied by the camera, also the inability to use hand signs. He resigned himself to just talk about it later.
At one point, he was following a sea turtle that was idly swimming along when something deeper down caught his attention. Forgotten was the turtle and he drifted down, eyes set on the strange thing. At first glance it might have been a log, washed out by the ocean. It was a light brown, riddled with spots that resembled those of a leopard. And then it moved.
Curiously, he swam closer.
He didn’t get far until Crosshair yanked him back. Tech gave him a confused look, and Crosshair shook his head, trilling something.
Those trills were still a mystery to understand. Tech was trying his best, but he hadn’t gotten the hang on it. And Crosshair was a bad teacher, especially since the trills sounded differently on land than in the water.
Nonetheless, Tech let Crosshair drag him back towards the reef. His eyes fell on the turtle who was swimming towards the … thing, which suddenly appeared much bigger than it had before with the turtle for perspective. He flinched, when it moved, almost too quick and its maw revealed razor sharp teeth. The turtle escaped, barely; and Tech filed away that the trill might have meant ‘dangerous’.
Time had flown by. They had spent hours here already, he wasn’t ready to go up yet. But Tech was running low on air, and eventually the point came where they had to. They ascended slowly, ever so slowly. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but Tech was dragging out the inevitable breach as long as he could.
Crosshair led him back to the boat, slowly ascending with him. They breached the water only a few meters from the boat.
“That was perfect!” were the first words that left Tech’s mouth once he spit out the regulator. Crosshair gave him a satisfied smirk. “I told you so.”
“There are so many endangered species here! I can’t believe I got to see them. That reef needs protecting.”
Crosshair floated in the water while Tech kept talking excitedly about the reef, listening intently. Tech had taken off most of his gear by now, his ramblings only interrupted by yawns that grew more frequent the longer he talked. Huh, he hadn’t realised how tiring it could be. Usually this had never happened. But he had been diving longer than ever before.
Tech stopped talking for a moment, looking at Crosshair. The way he floated looked so nice and for a second Tech imagined how it would feel to take a nap on him, the warm sun shining down on them and the soft waves - Well, they were here now.
Determined, Tech climbed down the ladder and dropped in the water, making Crosshair make a confused noise.
“What are you doing?” he asked, watching Tech swim over and try to climb on top of him.
“I want to take a nap.”
“Huh?” Crosshair didn’t push him down when Tech finally managed to climb on top of him, settling against him and resting his head on his shoulders. And when one of Tech’s hands started running through his hair, he started purring.
“You’re like a cat,” Tech mumbled, eyes already closed. It was just as comfortable as he had imagined it.
“Am not,” Crosshair complained, but Tech only hummed and let the purring and the waves drift him to sleep.