Perception

LX

"How deep is it?" he asked her, too loudly for the darkness of the night.
She laughed and swam a few strokes away on her back before answering, knowing full well what he'd do once she said.
"It's plenty deep."
The water bomb was impressive, really, the waves rolling over her face, and she giggled as she turned around to get him.
"You're so going down!"
She front crawled over, put her hands on his protesting shoulders and pushed him under in triumph. He emerged above the water just half a second later and shook his head like a Labrador, all the while laughing raucously.
"Sure hope you can swim, lady!" he called, and he started swimming across the river at an impressive speed.
But she could swim too, and she could swim well, so she crawled after him and overtook him soon enough.
"I can, actually."
They swam side by side over the calm black surface, her pulling and stretching limbs the perfect antidote to a whole day of sitting in the little Micra. Soon they came close to the opposite bank, which was basically just a jumble of plants, and she could feel the muddy river floor beneath her feat before she reached it.
She eyed him.
"Race you back?"
"You're on!"
He didn't really give her much warning, of course, he just grinned and took a deep breath.
"Go!"
She shot forward, pumping her legs vigorously up and down, burying her face in the water now as she crawled. Her arms flew through the water as her head went back and forth. Right, breathe in, down, breathe out. There was no time to check where he was, now, that would be a rookie error that could cost her the victory. So it was only when she knew the bank must be approaching she looked up and thrust out her hands with one more great leg pump, touching the wood of the embankment with her outstretched fingers just a second before he did.
"Victory!" she giggled as she let herself be pulled into his arms.
"So, you can swim, hey?" he breathed, suddenly very close to her ear.
"Hmhm" she hummed, and this time it was she who closed the distance between them, kissing him softly as they tread water.

The darkness was there still, somewhere inside her, she could feel it lapping at the sides deep down, but she also felt straight away that this was getting easier. And when she sensed his reaction, close to her, and she heard his small grunt, she opened her mouth slightly and allowed their tongues to dance unabated.
She forgot all about why they were even there as they kissed, and she could just have been any girl, in love with any boy, kissing in a river in a soft, moonlit night, and she could have stayed there forever in this one moment of opalescent perfection.
"Wow." he breathed when they finally let go.
She nodded against his cheek.
"Wow, indeed."
She pushed away from him then, floating on her back, looking up at all the stars.
"I haven't seen this many stars in forever. The sky in Amsterdam is so light, you can't see them."
The little ladder that would take her back on the grass was right by her now.
"Shall we head back?" she asked as she reached out and held the ladder with her right hand, feeling for the bottom sport with her foot.
"Yeah, erm, I'm going to have to stay in the water for a minute longer before I can be seen in swim shorts."
He actually had the grace to look coy, and she giggled as she swam back over and softly pushed a chaste kiss to his cheek.
"Okay, let's first swim a bit more then."
She led the way, following the embankment now, away from the campsite towards a bridge that was in the distance, smiling to herself at what he had admitted.
She found she liked the idea that she'd had that effect on him.