[ORP] Obligatory Spa Scene and Obvious Fanservice

[Suudonym]

A single, slight, humorless laugh. "That'd probably be a miracle," he muttered in reply. He couldn't really imagine any alternative.

--

Holy hell what was even going on. Was this real life? Nate had been standing out of sight since the guys came in, not wanting to awkwardly walk past them while they were in the midst of whatever weirdass soap opera they were putting on. But come on already, how long were they gonna be? This was probably the most awkward situation Nate had had the misfortune to find himself in for a good several months at least. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't - and since he'd gone to all the trouble of getting into this place to begin with, he decided walking past these dudes was probably the lesser evil. So he drew a breath, turned a corner (hugs even, Arceus), and bee-lined for the exit, making no outward indication of paying any mind.

Finally free of the changing room, he had to pause for just a minute to recover his bearings. Yes, that really did just happen. Wow. Okay. He shook his head briskly, shrugged, and made his way towards the small group assembled at the water. Huh, Seraphine had invited him but it looked like she wouldn't be the only familiar face. He crouched near the midst of the group, not yet willing to submerse himself. All things in good time. For now, he wanted to completely interrupt everything anyone was saying, "Yo, there is like a black hole of bromance all up in that locker room right now. Wasn't sure I was gonna escape the gravitational pull, but it looks like I made it." A pause. "Also, what's up."  

[Tori Honoo]

Dove nodded at Emil's question, setting her hands on her hips. "I do. He was actually the first person I met when I moved over here..."

Moved over here? Because that's what she was doing, she told herself, still unsure if it was true or not, though it seemed as though circumstance had made her mind up for her.

When another familiar voice sounded behind her, she turned smile wide. "Nate?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera turned a similarly wide smile to the newest face to appear. Much better than Yuri, on so many levels holy crap. Turns out Dove did indeed know the same Nate. "Glad you could make it. I wasn't sure you would," she said, since he had interrupted everything so shamelessly. "And not much here, just wondering what's taking those two so long," the girl added as she tilted her head meaningfully towards the locker room he'd just come from.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Akira had been working very hard to ignore the Eevee, but when Dove came over to apologize, he felt obligated to at least nod in response.

"I'm sure there's a lot of other irrelevant things that you don't need to hear about me," he answered Sera. "But regarding you...might I ask how you came to know that young lady in the white swimsuit over there...?" He lowered his voice conspiratorially, though he wasn't even aware of this change as he spoke.

Then a new fellow showed up. Nate, if the other girl was to be believed. But it was more what the fellow said than the guy himself who interested Akira. "Sorry, 'bromance'...?" he inquired, having never before heard the term.  

[Suudonym]

"Sup," he said, raising a hand in nonchalant greeting to Dove. "Sera didn't say you'd be here." That awkward moment when you simultaneously run into two girls you've flirted with hardcore and made out with (or at least attempted).

"Yeah, I wasn't either," he replied to Seraphine, "but what do you know, I found a way." He raised an eyebrow in incredulity. "And please tell me you're not referring to the only two people in there right now because that was hella awkward, zero out of ten, would not repeat."

He didn't know this other guy, but he wasn't about to totally snub him because of that or something. "Yessir, bromance. What else you gonna call a couple of dudes hugging it out in an apparently platonic manner?"  

[Tori Honoo]

Motioning for Emil to join her at the water's edge, Dove moved closer to the group, sliding her legs into the water next to where Nate now kneeled. "I didn't know you all were going to be here," she explained with a shrug, turning her attention to the conversation at hand.

At the topic of Yuri and Luke's disappearance, her brow furrowed, her mind adding herself to the list of people concerned. They had been gone a while...
"What's going on?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"She fell off a dock in Camphoreon and Luke tried to save her, but I ended up saving both of them," the brunette said to Akira off-handedly as she raised a single finger to rub at her cheek briefly. "Then I ran into her again in the city." Sort of like how she'd met Akira.

"Yeah," Sera agreed with Dove, and gave an ambivalent shrug as she moved to cross her arms over the edge of the pool on Nate's other side and peered up at him, "I didn't know she'd be here either, I don't have her number. Should probably fix that or something later," the brunette added as an afterthought, more to Dove than anyone else.

She wasn't going to ask what way he found to get in, but mention of Luke and Yuri worried her as well, at least a little bit. Luke had probably told Yuri the same things he told her before, and she'd responded by giving him a hug as well. That was probably it; what else could it be? Instead of commenting or asking what was going on, she merely turned her gaze to the room and furrowed her brow lightly with a soft "hm."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Oh. How heroic of you," he told the green-eyed girl, trying not to smirk at the tone she used. "So it seems you two aren't all that familiar with each other."

The brunet blanched at Nate. "'Hugging'?!" Well...not that that was any of his business, but it suddenly seemed to become a lot more evident as to why Yuri had dragged Luke out of sight. Then again, he shouldn't make assumptions. After all, all he had to go on was this loud-mouth's word, and it sounded like he was more familiar with the female portion of their little group.

"...I thank you for the explanation," he said softly, watching the other young man preoccupy himself with Sera and her friend. His opinion of this Nate hadn't changed from what he'd formed when he'd first heard of him. Seemed like a typical playboy to Akira, but he wasn't about to tell these ladies how to live their lives. Who to stay away from. He wasn't their father, their brother, their husband. It was none of his business.

But that sure as heck didn't prevent him from burning up as he watched them exchange words, folding his arms across his chest as he sat along the side of the spring and observed the on-goings about him. He would have liked to have gone to the locker room himself just to escape the emotions that were welling up inside him, but he didn't dare interrupt whatever was happening between Luke and Yuri.  

[Suudonym]

"A soap opera, I think," he said, his tone indicating no exaggeration. "Seriously though I was looking for cameras for a while there. People talking about 'oh but the doctor said it's hopeless, it's too late for me now!'" - he shifted into a falsetto for the (very) indirect quote - "getting all morbid and s**t. Can't even make this up, wow." He shook his head in slight disbelief of his own words.  

[Tori Honoo]

Dove rolled her eyes playfully at Sera's comment, leaning back to address her in defense. "In my defense, there were no warning signs on said dock. It's not my fault it was condemned." As an afterthought, she added, "And yes, we should exchange numbers. Later."

Again, she turned her attention to Nate (inadvertently ignoring Akira's comments), her brows furrowing in concern again. "Too late...?" she asked quietly.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Nate," the older male said, sitting a little straighter in the water, "How would you react if a doctor told you you were going to die?" he wanted to know. The corners of his mouth were upturned, but there was no smile in his eyes.  

[Suudonym]

His brow raised at the genuine expression of concern in her features. Damn, was he not supposed to joke about this? He raised a hand defensively. "Don't ask me; I don't know anything about it."

The stranger's question was met with a blank expression that shifted into confusion then skepticism before breaking into a building laughter. "Are you kidding me right now? Is this real life? Am I high?" Who the hell even was this guy, and what kind of question was that supposed to be? This day was getting weirder and weirder.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"He'll be fine," Sera interrupted them both, straightening up to glance between the two of them, her tone firm and completely certain. She removed herself from the water and twisted to instead sit on the edge of the pool, next to Nate, though she couldn't help but glance back to the locker room. Awfully long time, yeah. She hoped they hadn't left, but honestly Luke didn't look at all to be enjoying himself. Not one bit.

She turned back to Dove and stuck her pierced tongue out at her, hoping the mood would lighten once the subject was dropped. "Oh come on, that dock looked horrendous and you know it."  

[Tori Honoo]

At Akira's question, the girl turned her eyes to him, tilting her head. His voice sounded so familiar, though she was sure she had never met him before in her life...

As she stayed back and studied his face, however, curiosity pricked at the back of her mind. His face and form looked familiar as well...

Maybe she had met him once at a shoot or something, she told herself, not willing to concern herself with odd familiarities for the time being.

What a question, though. Not many people in her life had asked that sort of thing, so bluntly...

At Nate's response, however, she couldn't help a weak laugh--it had just been funny, though given the circumstances, inappropriate. Something about the combination of the boy's word choices didn't sit well in her stomach...

However, as Sera teased her, she shook her head, for now willing to play along and lighten the mood. "I wasn't really paying attention to the ground. I was chasing my only companion at the time to make sure she didn't hurt herself... Guess all those etiquette classes I took as a child didn't really pay off, though I'd say my fall was rather graceful."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"...You didn't answer my question," he answered with a civil smile, tilting his head and averting his gaze so as to lessen the intensity of his words. If the little punk could read deeper than his shallow mannerisms suggested, he assumed he would receive a proper reply. But if not, as Akira suspected, then he wasn't worth wasting any more time on. He either got the message or he didn't, end of story.

"Who will be?" the brunet asked Seraphine innocently. In his opinion, his own question to Nate had nothing at all to do with the boys in the locker room. However, the feel of eyes on him caught his attention and he noticed the other girl staring. He fought the horrendous urge to frown and chastise her for being so rude, looking down at the water instead. How ironic that she happened to mention having taken etiquette classes.