{SCE} Sólo Un Paseo a Caballo

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina let out a harsh laugh and nodded her agreement, “Wouldn’t put it past him,” she admitted with a wry grimace. “Especially considering the fact that he’s likely only had the horses to keep him company otherwise,” she added with chuckle. She wasn’t concerned about the old man in the slightest though, as he didn’t seem the type to cause them trouble, luckily for him. Selina sat up slowly and stretched her arms above her head for a brief second before gazing out over the water.


    “I think I’m going for a swim,” she stated simply, though she remained where she was for the moment, as she really was feeling incredibly lackadaisical about everything. She glanced at Nico and smirked, “It wouldn’t be near as romantic if I went alone,” she teased. It was partly an invitation and partly a measure to see if he really wanted to get out of here.


    She’d merely been thinking in terms of the teachers finding them, but if he felt uncomfortable with hanging around after he’d gotten his “benefits”, she understood, and was frankly surprised she hadn’t thought of it before. She’d still get in the water because she wanted to wash off, and because she loved the lake, but he could leave any time he wanted to.

[Nico Martell]

The thought did draw another wry smile out of Nico. Yeah, that old guy did seem like the sort who'd be doing just that. His smile had no trouble sticking around as Selina sat up and stretched. There was that momentary thought within him, that I slept with her one that made him feel warm down in whatever part of his body stored the pride, as well as another part of his body that had just gotten quite a bit of his own workout.

A swim. Yeah, getting in cool water sounded like a plan. Plus, despite Nico's earlier suggestion, some part of him didn't really want to be heading back anytime soon. Who really cared of the old guy reported them or anything? They'd just borrowed some horses, which was definitely allowed, and headed out for a ride. Anything else that happened was between two consenting people.

So fuck 'em.

Nico rose up and dusted himself off before steadily heading toward the lake. It was right there, and he was already figuring that was what she had in mind. he nudged the water with a toe, testing temperature as well as just letting his body adjust and get used to the idea of sliding on in there.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina grinned as he got up and enjoyed watching him, quite unabashedly for a few seconds before getting up herself. She followed him, but walked right past him into the water, not hesitating in the slightest. She got into the lake about waist deep before diving underneath and loving the feel of the cool water flowing over her body.


    Sex was wonderful, but she always loved washing off afterwards too. It was almost a ritual for her at this point, and she wasn’t entirely sure how much that had to do with the effect of the teacher. She never thought about it, and as soon as the thought ever came up she shoved it far to the back of her mind. Usually it was hot, almost scalding water, and if she sometimes scrubbed harder at her skin than was wholly necessary… well, that wasn’t so strange was it? A girl liked to be clean.


    Selina came up and pushed her hair back from her face before facing Nico again, and lightly splashing him with the water, “If you just jump in, you acclimate to it a lot quicker,” she told him with a smile as she stood, the water just barely up to her her waist.

[Nico Martell]

There went Selina. Nico watched her slide into the water effortlessly, looking like some kind of natural creature or something. Maybe she came from somewhere a lot more rural than where Nico called home. It didn't seem to quite line up with how she acted or handled herself, but Nico had been wrong about such things before.

He took another few steps into the water, letting it lap halfway up his shins. He'd paused there when she came back up. Naturally the first thing he noticed was that the water didn't quite cover everything. really not helping considering that he didn't exactly have anything to hide his reactions but a smile.

"Yeah, and the shock will kick my power on," he said, taking a few more sloshing steps forward. he'd waded in the water nearly to his thighs now, making him not too horribly far from her. "Not really looking forward to sucking a whole bunch of lake water and crap into my body," he shrugged, then stood for a bit longer. At least it wasn't taking too long to adjust. At this rate, he should be completely submerged in a minute or two. Plus, there was something relaxing in going slow; well, that and in watching as Selina splashed around. Definitely some enjoyment in that.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina had adapted quickly to the natural life up in Montana. Being in nature meant she didn’t have to speak English, deal with teachers, homework, or life in general, so the mountains around the school quickly became a favorite place for her to be. Besides, the mountains reminded her of Santiago. The creeks and the lake nearby were also favorite haunts of hers, so this place wasn’t all that strange to her. It was the reason she was supposed to be here that pissed her off more than anything else.


    Selina noticed his reaction and grinned, “Always time for round two later,” she offered with a laugh. She certainly wouldn’t mind. After all, anything to keep her away from Charity was a good thing…not to mention the fact that she’d quite enjoyed their previous time together. Selina wasn’t one to worry about much regarding their chaperones either. After all, two city-slickers getting lost in the mountains wasn’t something that was so unrealistic.


    Shit, why did she always forget about his power? Selina felt extremely lucky to only have to deal with water. Phasing the entire body… she didn’t even really want to think about what that felt like when gone wrong. “Right. Take as long as you need,” she replied somewhat seriously. Holy hell would she feel guilty if something bad happened. Not that she believed he was impulsive enough to be quite that rash, but still.

[Nico Martell]

Another round definitely sounded like a plan to Nico. He couldn't help but smile at that. Of course, the water helped to fight it back to some degree, causing certain parts of him to find the idea very unappealing. It didn't help that the conversation had done that slight turn into discussing powers, which came up so often for mutants. Nico found he didn't really mind it so much.

In fact, he even shrugged at her suggestion. "You deal," he replied before going a few more steps forward. He could feel his body tensing, but he managed to take a few breaths and hold himself. "Wouldn't mind there being some magic button to turn it off," he had to admit, looking down at the water for a few moments. He knew full well that if he'd gotten some training or something his power could be useful. he could walk through stuff and people: every criminal he'd ever met would kill to have that power. They just didn't have to deal with Nico's almost complete lack of control over it though.

Well, at least his waist and the various distractions therein had been covered. He was pretty sure he was about to the point where he could duck his head down and get all that hair of his wet, but he was still going to hold position for at least a few more moments to make sure.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded. She’d felt that way at the beginning when she couldn’t control her power the way she could now. She’d likely never had the problems he had though. Selina gently ran her hand through the water, watching as the liquid moved in the wake of her contact. She wasn’t using her power at all, just watching the lake’s reaction to her movements. “Well, at least Bellefonte’s good for something,” she admitted. Without the school, she wouldn’t have the training she’d needed for the sake of control.


    Then again, there were ways of offering students access to the tools they needed without dragging them from their homes and isolating them in the mountains, but she had to deal with what she had for the moment. Maybe one day she’d work for mutant rights or something… Selina almost laughed aloud at the thought. There wasn’t any way in hell she’d risk her neck for anything less than a shit ton of money, which fighting for rights never offered much of… unless she became a charlatan, which she never would.


    Selina glanced out over the water as she thought about leaving Montana. Part of her longed to get away from everything, but she also knew the goal she was working towards was more important. She glanced back at Nico, a very handsome distraction that she would much rather focus on. “Or maybe a few things…” Selina added with a laugh as she moved closer to Nico, going a bit slow so as not to startle him.

[Nico Martell]

The comment regarding their school drew another rough laugh from Nico. He couldn't help but think more or less the same thing. Bellefonte beat out prison, if only barely. More girls and slightly more freedom, more or less. But there were days when Nico wondered just how different they were. Both were going to leave permanent marks on him, and he wasn't sure if he was totally okay with that fact.

The young man had started to brood on it, which at least made holding himself together a bit easier. He'd edged down so he was more or less into the water totally now. The chill had seeped throughout all of him, saturating him with the fairly pleasant sensation. He noticed a look and offered her a smile in response.

Yeah, there were definitely advantages.

Then he took a deep breath and ducked down, diving clumsily. He'd never been great at swimming; the whole "wetback" slur had left a distaste for it, but he managed well enough. Soon enough he was rising back up, within arm's reach of Selina now. He reached up to toss his hair back over his shoulder, offering her a slightly sardonic smile, one that pointed out that he was there now, finally fully submerged.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina watched him emerge, and god that smile… she kind of wanted to jump him right then and there. She reigned in her slightly over active libido and let her eyes slide over his body instead. She had to take him swimming with her again. Her eyes then caught the scratch marks she’d left behind, and she felt a brief moment of regret. Her selfishness had done that to him. Would she mar everything she touched? Selina blinked her thoughts away and smiled up at him, “We should do this again sometime. You’re quite the handsome devil when you’re not brooding,” she teased lightly.


    Girls were always prettier when they smiled, right? No man ever wanted to know what was beneath that. So long as women appeared happy, men wouldn’t get uncomfortable, women wouldn’t get called hysterical (maybe shallow or vapid, but not hysterical) and everyone would remain in a peaceful stasis. Whether or not that stasis ended up suffocating those caught within it didn’t seem to matter quite as much. Selina knew she was being cynical, and maybe even unfair, but part of her couldn’t help it. Besides, she did this for everyone, it wasn’t gender specific.


    Selina knew well that she chose this. She chose to suffocate rather than run the risk of sticking her neck out and getting her throat slit instead. Violent imagery perhaps, but then her life was filled with violence of one form or another. She would be brave at another time. Maybe it would be in a few weeks, or maybe in a few years, but right now she just couldn’t afford the risk. Survival was her only current goal… but maybe once things were more stable, she could figure out how to truly live.

[Nico Martell]

Nico nodded: yes, they definitely should do something like this again. At the very least they should let their hair down, perhaps literally, but definitely figuratively, at some point in the near future. He liked that there were actually people around here he felt comfortable relaxing in. Part of him did worry that he might backslide a little. His goal was to stay out of trouble, and girls like Selina definitely qualified. Then again, wasn't part of the fun of being young being able to be stupid? That and Nico wasn't really thinking as deeply about that right now, for a variety of reasons, mostly involving his lower anatomy.

There seemed to be some silence after that, and it reminded Nico of when they'd met, how Selina had lapsed into something like gloom after, well, dealing with some shitheads was what immediately came to mind. There was definitely something deep there, and again Nico felt that resonance. He could understand sliding back, "brooding" as she called it. So he just nodded and let her brood for a moment, moving around the water in front of her, testing it out, swimming.

"I suck at this," he informed her after a bit of what essentially amounted to doggie paddling. "Not many pools in my neighborhood," he said, letting out a harsh laugh and having to almost immediately spit some water up that got into his mouth as a result.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina noticed him leave subconsciously, but wasn’t fully aware that he’d moved until he spoke up. She then blinked a couple of times as she came out of her thoughts, before finally looking his way. She suddenly found herself grateful that he wasn’t one to push. It was actually one of the reasons she felt more at ease around him than with others. Selina smiled as she saw his attempt at swimming and shrugged, “I can always help teach you if you want,” she offered. “Though, I can’t promise to stay completely focused on swimming,” she added with a smirk.


    Selina barely bit back a laugh as he spit up water, “The Ocean was only a few hours away from Santiago and my mother used to take me there in the summer when we got the chance,” she offered with a smile. “She was the one who taught me,” Selina added as she glanced back at Nico. This lake was nothing compared to the currents and the waves that she’d sometimes battled back home. But she shouldn’t think too much about Chile, or she’d start getting homesick again.


    “And you’re not too bad,” she teased. He wasn’t exactly graceful, but doggie paddling was still a sort of form of swimming. And he'd mentioned his neighborhood… had he even ever told her where he’d come from? She didn’t think he had. Then again, he seemed about as eager to share his history as she was to share hers.

[Nico Martell]

Did Nico want to be taught swimming? He wasn't entirely sure: didn't strike him as being a skill that he would use with anything like regularity. Were he on dry land, he would just offer up another of his little shrugs and leave it at that. Given his position of treading water, he mostly just made the "whatever works" expression that had become something of a standard.

It actually changed into something like mild surprise as Selina continued. Nico definitely hadn't expected her to start talking about her history: it had been something of a taboo subject up until the point. He'd known vague bits, but now he was getting specifics: Santiago. That should sound a lot more familiar to Nico than it actually was. And there was the mention of a mother.

Before Nico could say or comment Selina offered him a compliment. "Keeps me afloat," he offered, before shifting slightly, again moving into the treading water position, this time pulling his head back, his longish hair trailing in the water. "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," Nico offered. "Which is why I don't do the swimming thing. And my mom named me Angel because I'm supposed to be the good son," and he turned to her and raised his brows at that. Clearly that hadn't worked out as well as mom had hoped.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded to him, “If you ever feel like it,” she offered simply. It wasn’t like she would be leaving Bellefonte anytime soon. Though if he preferred to spend what time they had doing other things… she certainly wouldn’t object to that either.


    Selina nodded once more when he mentioned where he was born. She at least knew of Pennsylvania, if not Philadelphia. Selina smirked, “Perhaps you are the good son. Until I meet your brothers I suppose there’s no way for me to know,” she teased. Selina’s idea of what was “good” was far different than most peoples’, so she probably wasn’t the best person in the world to judge anyway.


    “The night of my birth, there happened to be full moon, so my mother was feeling creative I suppose and she named me after the goddess of the moon,” she admitted with a grimace. “Her parents were also Catholic and she wanted to show them just how much she appreciated them by naming me after a pagan god,” Selina added with a half-smile. It was probably at least part of the reason she’d never met her grandparents. The other part likely being that her mom got pregnant out of wedlock and worked as a stripper, all the while not flogging herself for sinning against the Church.

[Nico Martell]

Did Nico feel like it? Well, it would be an excuse to get to see Selina in a relative state of undress, and clearly Nico was more than willing to let his penis do at least some of the thinking for him. For now he just nodded, already well aware that he'd be taking that favor from the girl sooner rather than later. For now, they had the whole getting to know you talk.

Her comment about his position among his siblings had Nico chuckling dryly again. He shifted to float a little more easily, figuring that he might as well recline if he was going to keep doing this. Wasn't like Selina hadn't already seen everything that he had to offer anyway. His head turned slightly as Selina offered up the explanation of her own birth, and he raised a hand to flick some of the water.

"So a goddess and an angel," he said. "Sounds like one of those godawful teen movies," he looked over at her with a wry expression, more than a little teasing.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded as she thought about it. “Selene was known for sleeping around though, so maybe it fits a bit better than my mother originally intended,” she said with a laugh. “And angels destroyed entire cities if I remember correctly,” she added with a smile. “So a movie about sleeping around and destruction… still sounds like a godawful teen flick,” she agreed. “Can’t blame a girl for trying though,” she offered with a shrug.


    Selina glanced out at the lake and back to Nico, “I feel like angels and goddesses shouldn’t be sent to a camp for troubled kids…” she teased. “Being pure and holy should have its merits, right?” she asked with a devilish grin. “Where are our faithful devotees? We need worshippers,” Selina stated with a matter-of-fact tone.


    Selina was mainly talking because some part of her felt like the distraction added distance, and distance was where she felt the most comfortable. She knew that someday she might want to change that, but for right now it was what worked. She didn’t do relationships of any sort really, not even platonic ones. Keeping it shallow and indifferent was so much easier.