Under the Willow [closed]

"First class, huh?" she asked, smile twisting. He'd mentioned something about Ireland before, family or some shit, but fuck. Anywhere in the world, and he'd vacation there, huh? "What's so great about Ireland anyway?" Kayla leaned back, propping herself up on her elbows, eyes flicking up toward the sky. White fluffy clouds scuttled across the sky, a rare glimpse of blue after all these dreary months of gray and rain and snow. She'd never traveled much before she came to Beata. Missions, to Athens and Tokyo and New York, those were her first trips to the outside world, outside Beata and her apartment back home.

"We used to go every summer t'e visit mi dear famileh 'ome, 'nd all t'e cousins 'nd cousin-cousins..." he let the accent roll out, well versed from a life time around his precious mother.

From the moment he closed his eyes, Preston could practically see the old farm they'd been dragged to year after year. It was far too familiar to him. At first, when he was a kid, he'd always hated it. Dublin made off with all their cousins, Verona spent all her time with the horses, and he just sat around, doing absolutely nothing, being bored out of his wits because he hadn't been allowed to touch his gameboy or bring any video games or tablets or fucking nothing with him. It got better, in time, once he'd found his new favorite hobby. "Lots of green, windy fields, fucking sheep everywhere, and tons of huge cliffs hanging over the ocean."

He held back a yawn, glancing up at her with an eager smile. "Go with me and I'll show you."

She'd been practically half-dozing off, between the good food and the cool grass and that nice spring sun and all his boring ass stories, but her eyes shot open as wide as dinner plates as another person's voice rolled out. Kayla sat up, stopping just short of glancing around for another person while he kept rambling on about fields and sheep or some shit. It didn't matter. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," she cut in, staring at him. "Hold on. Back up. What the fuck was that?" Her grin was twisted in disbelief. "You sound like the midget off the Lucky Charms box. Since when—...?"

...Ugh. Forget it. Kayla leaned back again, rubbing at her face. "You know what, nevermind." She sighed, running her fingers up through her hair. "I mean, hey, I won't complain about a vacation, but don't we got enough cliffs and grass and shit here? What's there to see?"

Preston couldn't help it, flashing a grin to mirror her own as she sat up and stared at him in disbelief. It was far too much fun to fuck around with her and he wasn't about to drop the act so easily, not when he got such a damned adorable reaction out of her. The Autumn pulled himself up, sitting closer and leaning in towards her as she fell back herself. "Don' kno' what yehr talkin' about," his smile was crooked, ocean-like eyes gazing over her. "There's onleh one way t' find out."

With an eager smirk growing, he crawled up on his knees, pushing his face in closer to hers. "Where's yehr sense o' adventure?" His eyes shot aside towards the cliff before blinking back again. "I sho'd leave yeh surprised."

She could've bristled, sparks popping around her head in something like alarm as another person's voice came out from someone she'd thought was familiar. Kayla flushed, flustered, but there was only so far you could lean back while propped up on your elbows, and he was basically hovering right over her. The Autumn showed him a flash of teeth with her crooked, exasperated grin, face scrunched up. "I don't trust your surprises," she managed back. This was enough surprises for one day, between whisking her away up here, and now this. No thank you.

Kayla gazed up at him, defiant as she could manage in a position like this. She wasn't sure how she felt about the way he was leering at her...

He held her sharp gaze, his stare hard on her and his cheek starting to sting from his own sharp smirking. She didn't trust him? After everything they had been through together? Now, didn't that just hurt him like a bitch. Preston dropped his smile, for a few seconds anyways. "Y'ehr no fun. Stupid." The Autumn muttered the words under his breath. In resignation, he dragged himself back, planting his ass down on the blanket again. "Táim i ngrá leat, y'eh know..." With an exaggerated huff and flick of his hair, his stupid grin had returned, and he made quick to finish off the rest of his food.

"I'm dragging your happy ass out anyways. You don't have a choice." Preston finally dropped the accent, already plotting in the back of his mind.

She snorted. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Yeah, sure. Táim i ngrá leat yourself." Sparks ran through her hair, cascading down her neck and across her shoulders. Was he so adamant about it? Sheep, hills, leprechauns? Hell, it wasn't like she knew any place better. Or had anywhere to go. Kayla sighed, letting her head droop back, watching the clouds scuttle past overhead. "Fine. Fiiine. You can take me along on your little Irish getaway and treat me to first class and all that fine living. I can be yer sweet li'l Irish lass." She put a hand over her heart, affecting a mock accent, her voice high as reed pipes. "Do you like playing butler that much? If you want to spoil me, just say so."

And he snorted right back, dusting the bread crumbs off his chance and shooting a quick glance behind him, admiring the gleam on the far-off lake. It had been too fucking long since he's been home or visiting old family. When was the last time he'd seen the ocean? Actually see it, not vaguely make it out in the dark before he had to run off and save a certain Pikachu's was? He cracked a smirk. Yeah, whatever." He pulled himself up, slow and lazy, crawling back into his feet. "You'd just be company. Shit, if you're going though, you need an initiation." He reached up behind him, yanking at the back of his collar and tugging his shirt off. One of his favorites. He didn't want to ruin it. For her sake, he had a plain white tank underneath but, all the same...

"Up and off your add now, Pikachu."

Kayla watched him rise, sparks popping in her hair. He blocked out the sun, his shadow stretching out across her. Uh, initiation? What the fuck was he going on about now? Color tinged her cheeks as he reached up, pulling his shirt off in one fluid motion, and she forced herself to turn her head, even if she still watched him out the corner of her eye. "What the hell are you doing now?" she grumbled as she shifted up onto her knees, then pushing herself to her feet in a lowered, defensive kind of stance, unsure of what to do or how to handle this. "And I told you not to call me that." Whatever he was thinking, or planning, or doing, she didn't quite trust it, something about that old smirk on his face. Kayla shifted a step back, toward the trail where they'd come up the cliff face. Were they leaving already? She stared up at him from behind her bangs, brows knit together.

He held back a snicker as she made a small, uncertain shuffle back towards the trail. Pres glanced her over and took one big step forward right on after her. "Having a little fun," the young man shrugged. In a flash, his hand was clasped tightly around hers, dragging her stumbling back eerily close to the cliffside. "Humor me." It was hard to mask that stupid grin of his, wide in anticipation. Sparks danced tightly between them. He was just focused on keeping her close, glued to him, before she got the thought to snatch herself away. "One..." Another sharp step back. "Two..." His heels were hanging over the edge.

...What? She was still trying to wrangle her own confusion when her uncertainty flared into alarm, sharp and hot, his fingers closing tight around her hand. Off balance, she felt herself get wrenched forward, stumbling toward him, her heart dropping into the pit of her stomach as she caught a glimpse of that pretty glittering water below, but she wasn't exactly enjoying the scene. Kayla ground the heels of her sneakers uselessly into the dirt to try and get her bearings, kicking dust and gravel over the side to cascade down the cliff face. "H-hey, what the fuck?" she called, her voice straining an octave higher than it usually was. Electricity split out from her bangs and across her shoulders, cracking out toward the ground. Was he fucking crazy?! "Don't fuck around!"

He wasn't serious about this, was he? She knew he couldn't be, but he was grinning like a madman as he counted down, and all she could do was stare up at him with eyes wide, mouth gaping open. "Preston, don't you dare—...!"

He was so selfish. Preston was all small grins and chuckles, admiring her small little freak out. Maybe he should have felt bad, but she just didn't know what she was missing yet. She was the bravest, craziest girl that he ever knew. Something like this, after all they'd both scene, should have been a walk in the park for her. A little adrenaline now and then was healthy, right? He feigned a small look of pity, a gentle tease, wrapping his free arm around her, grabbing away at the small of her back.

"...three."

All it took was one sharp tug, one kick off the edge of the cliff, and then there was nothing. In the blink of an eye, the wind was roaring away in his ears and his stomach had leaped up as far as it could possibly reached. He couldn't feel his own heartbeat then, it might have stopped for all he knew. The only small thoughts he could fathom in that instant was to keep his hold tight on the girl in his arms and how loud his own laughs and screams of excitement were.

It took four seconds to reach the water. He'd counted when he's first found the cliffside, kicking several rocks down below, but he'd wager they'd make more of a splash than those pebbles ever did. Preston didn't bother to cease the locks of lightning that whipped around him, or lashed out from her. The heat of a thousand suns dancing across your skin, with the rush of the fall, and the sudden freeze of the lake water. It was one of the best, most amazing feelings in the world, and he'd met it with glee.

And then it was over.

Preston was breaking up onto the surface, his skin a bit sore as he squeezed out his eyes. "Shit!" He laughed. All he'd wanted to do was laugh.

Don't. Don't. Don't. Time seemed to blur for a heartbeat, a torturous pause between two and three, Pres pulling her in close. Like a boa constrictor. His strong grip around her waist made her feel like her neck had slipped through the noose. "Prest—...!"

They flew. Her shoes scraped uselessly against the dirt as she lost her bearings and he flung the both of them off the side of the ledge into open air. Her weak protest trailed down after her, stretching into a long, high, shrill scream as the wind wrapped around them, filling her mouth and ears.

"—oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!!"

Somewhere along the way, plummeting down to that glittering crystal lake below, she'd wrapped her arms tight around him, as tight as anyone could. They hit the water, snap, plunging into navy darkness, water roaring in her ears, and they came shooting back up into dazzling blurred sunlight. The ice col shocked her senses, rattling her brain. Kayla sputtered and hacked up water, red in the face, clothes plastered to her skin, arms linked around him like a buoy. A buoy she wanted to strangle. She looked like a wet cat clinging onto old wreckage.

"Wh-wh-what th-the ffffuuuuuuuuck?" she managed to cough out between his stupid fucking giggles, blinking the veil of water from her eyes. She could see him more clearly now, almost nose to nose, that smug little shit...! Kayla should've kicked away, but she just clung on tighter, a dead weight.

...She wasn't a strong swimmer... Kayla arched her neck back, struggling to bob her mouth and nose above the water.

Seeing the look on her face, there was no way he could help but laugh more, almost losing himself and letting his head bob under the surface as she clung ever closer to him - so desperate. What was her deal? Coast girl like her, she had to have known how to swim, hadn't she? He let out a low oof as she tightened his grip around him. "Hey, ey! Chill the fuck out!" Luckily, he'd trusted himself to be a good enough swimmer for the both of them, but her clinging to him like a rock certainly wasn't helping shit.

Preston let himself stretch out, floating away on his side and gently beginning to kick them back towards the shore. "I didn't realize you liked being this close to me," he muttered. Despite their awkward situation, he couldn't help the smart-assery, keeping his eyes glued to her.

Chill?! Really?! He'd just thrown her off a fucking cliff. She would've drowned him if it wouldn't have taken her down with him. She might've done it anyways, but Kayla just clung on tight, sputtering water out from her lips. "Shut up, you crazy cunt..." she hissed through her teeth, pumping her legs fruitlessly, but who could say if that was helping more than it was hurting, out of rhythm with his easy strokes through the water back toward dry land. Her clothes, her shoes, her everything was completely soaked, fucking asshole...! "Is this why you dragged me out here?!" she cried, and her voice almost came out in a whine. Fuck, happy Valentine's day...