We weren't able to start supper until around 7pm, since we had to send people out to get supplies for us. By the time we actually got it started the sky was already starting to grow dark with the pretty pastels of twilight. To compensate for the impending darkness the lights of the pool had been turned on and candles had been placed here and there for not only additional light but also ambiance. Once the food was placed on the table it was obvious we were all ravenous because we went after the food like we hadn't eaten in days.
Once I'm finished, I sigh and fully lean into the back of the wicker chair I am seated at. "I think I ate too much."
My plate isn't even empty and when I notice Jk eyeballing the remains on it beside me I pass it over to him without hesitation. I really don't understand his appetite. I've seen it happen more than once where he would be complaining that he was full and five minutes later he would be stuffing his face again. Although, somehow the way he eats food is exceptionally charming. Hell, I've seen fan compilations claiming they were cute Jk moments and like 90% of that video are of him eating. I don't disagree with the fact that he is definitely cute while eating, but there is a lot more cute content available of him. Granted I guess I do sort of have a front row seat to nearly all Jk cute moments.
We are all sitting at the table and just conversing about pretty much anything. It's probably my favorite time of day where we are all spending time together and just enjoying each other's company. "Do you want to go swimming, Angel?"
The boyish excitement on his face has me grinning immediately in response. "I think we should at least wait a half an hour so our food can digest some." My stomach is that uncomfortable level of full, and I'm sort of afraid because of it, despite buoyancy, that I might just sink like a stone with how full I am right now.
"We could soak in the hot tub for a bit instead before swimming." Joon suggests. I glance over at him on the other side of me and wonder if he is thinking of the last time we were in a hot tub together. He was addressing the whole table but when he feels my eyes on him he turns to me. At first I'm not sure that the memory occurred to him. His expression is simply composed, relaxed, and happy. Then for a brief moment I see something flash in his eyes. It's gone really quickly but it made me realize how good he is at veiling exactly how he is feeling.
Luckily I don't even have to go upstairs since the suit Jiwoo bought me is still in the pool house. Of course when I come out wearing the one piece Hobi is pouting at it. He sighs and takes my hand to help me into the hot tub, but once I enter the water it's Yoongi that pulls me to him.
"What better way to relax in the hot tub than to be on the comfiest lap here?" The smile he gives me is anything but coy. He is being a rascal and he knows it, but I have no reason to complain about such sound advice so I shrug and snuggle in close. He laughs at that, and I actually catch him smirking at the others.
My lower half is angled toward Joon and apparently he decides that he needs his hands on me too. He reaches up and places my feet in his lap. When he begins to massage my arches I find my body slightly bowing in response. "That feels heavenly, but just remember how ticklish my feet are."
The heated look he gives me makes the heat of the hot tub pale in comparison. "I will do my best not to tickle you. I definitely don't want to get kicked in the face." He grins. Eventually once he thinks that he has fully attended to my feet he navigates higher and concentrates on my calves.
I don't know the exact amount of time that we linger in the warm, effervescent water. I only know when someone suggests to relocate that I feel like I have turned into a gelatinous mass. My body has completely molded to Yoongi, and I'm not convinced that my legs will support my weight with how well Joon attended to my feet and calves.
"Come on, Honey." Yoongi whispers in my ear.
I try my best to stand, but I wasn't completely, mentally exaggerating when I told myself that I felt like a pile of goo. The minute my feet plant on the bottom of the hot tub I start losing my balance. Yoongi is quick to change strategies and lifts me in a princess hold and carries me to the stairs of the pool. I pout when he sits me down beside him. He chuckles at my expression. "I think you need to get your legs working again."
Jin must overhear that statement because he comes over. "I think I can help with that." He holds his hands out to me, and because moments like this with Jin are rare I immediately place my hands in his without a second thought. We walk around the perimeter of the shallow end a few times before I'm reminded by Hobi that I should probably do a few laps if I am wanting to continue exercising.
Jk and Tae even offer to assist by keeping pace with me as I do them, and although Tae does keep pace with me I'm not surprised that Jk has mentally turned this into some kind of race. "I win!" He shouts when he finishes the last lap. Tae and I were only starting our last lap at that point.
Once I get to the wall myself. I lean over the side and attempt to regain my breath. "It wasn't a race, Bunny."
That's the first moment I hear it. The rumble has me shifting to look at the glass windows that surround the pool. The sky was not only growing darker due the hour, but from the ominous clouds covering the night sky. I bite my lip and watch those clouds for a few moments. The minute I see the telltale white bolt of light I pull myself out of the pool and hightail it up to my room. Not caring if I am leaving puddles of water in my wake.
I don't even concentrate on what I am doing once I get there. Not really. Because I know I shouldn't take a shower while there is a storm outside, but I also know that I don't want to have chlorine scented hair either. I don't even bother to take off my swimsuit. It needs to be washed too after all. I simply start the water and hide in the cubicle that is my steam shower.
Perhaps I should have expected one of them to check on me. I did after all just practically run away from the storm outside, without saying a single word to any of them. Hell, I shouldn't be surprised if they all ended up in my bedroom. I don't typically leave a room without saying anything to them. It wasn't like me.
"Daisy?" He pauses for a second. "Honey?" He covers his eyes as he walks into the bathroom which despite the trepidation in my body has me completely and utterly charmed.
"You can uncover your eyes, Bear."
The minute he sees that I am still wearing my suit he doesn't hesitate to open the shower door and come in with me. He takes me in his arms, and the minute he notices I'm shivering he pulls away to look me in the eyes. "What's wrong?"
I sigh. "Oh, just a completely irrational childhood fear creeping up on me without warning. You know, no big deal."
"You're scared of storms?" He asks.
I sigh before admitting it. "Unfortunately."
"Nearly everyone has some irrational fear. I mean, have you seen the Run BTS episodes with the zombies? I don't think Hobi, or I will ever live that down." He chuckles slightly despite the fact that bringing up the zombies brought a slight level of discomfort for him. It was only obvious to me because his arms grew a little rigid with the way he held me.
I shrug. "I am pretty sure I would react similarly. I mean not to the zombies themselves. But if someone tried to grab me and I couldn't make out their face, I would probably have been just as scared. If not more so."
We continue rinsing off. When he grabs the shampoo and massages it in my hair I don't expect him to act silly and sculpt the shampoo coated locks into silly hairstyles atop my head. I immediately chuckle when he verbally points out the faux hawk though. Then I grab the shampoo from him and repeat the process, although his shorter locks are a little bit harder to sculpt. The attempt still has me giggling.
After we condition our hair and rinse that out he sighs. "I think it's time we get out of the shower. We both have to be severely waterlogged at this point." He pauses for a second. "I should probably go back to my room, but I was curious if I could come back."
"I'd like you to come back. I want that."
He nods his head once and kisses me on the forehead before disappearing.
Once he leaves I quickly select my pajamas for the night. I opt for a long oversized sleep shirt that skims the top of my knees. I debate on wearing sleep shorts with it but decide instead to opt for a pair of boy short undies. They cover more than the bottom half of any of my swimsuits have so I am not overly worried if he happens to see them.
He comes back in wearing a pair of lounge pants and an oversized tee himself. When he sees the screenprint on my tee he immediately laughs. "Okay is that tee more about Totoro or Snorlax?" He asks just before he disappears in my bathroom. When he comes back out I see that he has my brush in hand so I immediately turn so he can work on battling the wet tangles that are trying to kink up in my hair.
"I mean why can't I love both Studio Ghibli films and Pokemon?" I shrug. "Although Snorlax isn't my favorite Pokemon."
I know he is going to ask without seeing the question form so I am already wrinkling my nose in concentration. "What Pokemon is your favorite?"
I turn to look over my shoulder and frown at him. "You do realize that there are now 890 possibile answers to that question. Plus, it depends if you are asking me about the anime or the game."
"You watch anime?"
"The answer to that is sort of difficult. I mean you know I didn't have a lot of time on my hands. If I had more time I probably would watch more. I have watched some though. But Pokemon? I grew up with Pokemon. It was kind of a childhood staple."
I can feel his nod more than see it. "You still have to attempt to answer the question though."
"Anime wise I personally love Ash's Squirtle. Especially when he wears the sunglasses. It cracks me up everytime." He chuckles along with me. "Game wise? I still tend to favor water and ice pokemon. But I like the ones with the ability to put enemies asleep too so maybe Poliwag? Oh but I would totally evolve it to Politoed, not Poliwrath. I'm not much for fighting Pokemon."
"What about Studio Ghibli films? You skirted other anime a bit, but it's pretty obvious you have at least taken the time to watch some of the movies."
"Yeah, I am pretty sure I haven't been able to keep up with them all. I will probably try to correct that at some point however. I have found a few series I have liked though."
"What's your favorite Studio Ghibli film?"
"It's a bit of a cop out answer, but I'm honestly torn between Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. I think it depends upon my mood which I want to watch. I probably do lean more towards Howl's Moving Castle a bit. Did you know that Christian Bale, who does the English voice for Howl, saw Spirited Away and basically demanded to be in the next Studio Ghibli film? He honestly didn't even care what part he played. He just knew that he wanted to be part of the next project."
Yoongi makes a noise to indicate he heard me, but doesn't really comment on the information I shared. He simply finishes brushing my hair and sets the brush aside on the bedside table before steering me around so we are facing each other again. It's with his next words that I realize the reason he didn't say anything regarding my previous statement is because he was mentally working out how to approach the next conversation. "So, let's steer the conversation back to childhood. I want to hear more about this irrational fear of storms."
I sigh. The storm is still making it's occasional noises outside, and in all honesty I would rather not focus on it. But, I can't just ignore him when he asks me a direct question. "You know how when you are a kid things look different than when you are an adult? Like your imagination is so strong sometimes you convince yourself that certain things happened that didn't?"
He nods.
"So, the story I am about to tell you is probably completely false. Well, at least the way I remember it. I was outside playing with a friend on my back porch. I don't remember why we were doing it but the porch had this really high ledge on one side that we liked to jump off of for some reason. I remember jumping, tumbling into a forward somersault (unintentionally by the way), and suddenly there was this loud ominous thunder for no apparent reason. I remember the sky still being a pretty shade of blue and no gray clouds in sight. The next thing I know a bolt of lightning shoots out of the sky at an angle and zooms right over my head. I somehow convinced myself that the lightning almost struck me and immediately ran back in the house. Leaving my friend to fare for herself. Of course when I told my mom the story she tried to convince me it had just been my overactive imagination. We even went out to the yard where I was sure the lightning had struck, but there was nothing there to indicate it had."
The thunder echoes outside making me shake. "I really don't have a problem with thunder. I know it can't hurt me. The sound just makes me jump because I know--" I'm interrupted by the lightning bolt illuminating my room. "I know that isn't far behind."
"So, I don't want to shake you up more. But, I can't help but be curious. If being afraid of storms is an irrational fear then what is your fear of snakes?"
I groan as an unwanted memory crops up. "A rational fear. A complete and utter rational fear."
"How so?" He cocks his head to the side curiously, and if it weren't for my annoyance with the thoughts running through my head I would definitely find it utterly adorable.
"You want to hear that story too. Don't you?"
He nods.
"So, my hometown, or rather the town I grew up in, is in the country. It's not big at all. In fact a lot of my family were farmers. We had a family reunion of sorts. I don't really remember if it was a special occasion or not. I just know that was the day I met my second cousin, Gerald, and I really wish I hadn't. If I recall correctly his grandfather was my Great Uncle on my father's side. Anyway, Gerald was a real nasty piece of work. I was pretty young and I don't remember why I followed him out into the cornfield. But I did for some reason. Luckily this was early July so the cornstalks weren't even as tall as I was at that time. He randomly lifted a snake from the ground behind its neck. 'Look what I found!' He had shouted excitedly. When I backed away from him he threw it at my face."
"He did...what?"
I nod. "Yeah. I don't know what happened to the snake after he threw it at me. I was lucky I wasn't bitten or it didn't fall down the collar of my shirt. But, I turned tail and ran back to the farmhouse, found my father, and told him what had happened. I guess he confronted Gerald's father, who didn't care much about what his son had done. He probably responded with something like, 'boys will be boys.' Either way, after that date we had nothing to do with my dad's side of the family at all."
Another growl of thunder sounds and my body trembles in response again. "I'm sorry I made you relive all that." He pauses for a second. "Perhaps I can find a way to get your mind off of the storm outside." He tracks my form with his eyes like a predator, and while I am wearing probably the least sexy pair of pajamas I own; it definitely doesn't seem to be the case in his eyes.
~Sneak Preview of Chapter 60~
He comes back to kiss my lips even more thoroughly than before. I couldn't care less if they end up swollen and bruised for hours, just as long as he keeps kissing me this way.
He pulls away and I whimper that my silent request hasn't been answered. Not until he whips his t-shirt off and it flutters to, hell I don't even care where it fluttered to, does my whimper turn into more of a purring-like sound of appreciation. I immediately smile at the cute daisy mark on his upper chest for a moment before becoming enamored with his pretty pale skin.
I find myself trailing my fingertips all over the pretty flesh before my eyes. I start at his neck and gently trace down to either side of his shoulders and follow a path on either side downward. Once I get to his collarbone I find myself trailing over it gently. He takes in a deep breath, and I notice his pupils are blown wide. "You like it when I touch you here. Huh? I didn't realize they were erogenous zones outside of the obvious."
A/N: I'll have a link in the comments for the t-shirt posted in the above chapter if anyone is interested in it.