His response was to pull her flush to him, the water sloshing around their bodies. A wet thumb reached up to her cheek, the trickle of the water droplet that he stared at as it rolled down her jaw, onto her neck. Her feet treaded beneath her, and she didn’t realize she was wholly in his arms until his hand flattened against her back, pressing their stomachs together.
“Once we’re under, there’s something I might do… I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you. It’s just air.”
Her mouth dried as her mind worked out what he meant. “Just air,” she repeated in a rasp she hardly heard.
His lip quirked upwards at the left side, and his hands found hers. “Hold your breath, Princess.”
The rate at which he disappeared beneath the surface and pulled her with him barely gave her time to expand her lungs.
But the moment the water pushed over her head, Nyssa panicked.
Back in that room.
Head tilted back.
Water pouring over her face.
Her entire body shriveled, and she jerked on Nadir's hand. Feet kicking. She used every part of herself to push back to that surface as fast as she could. Her head burst out of the water, and she gasped.
She was drowning in that memory. Unable to rise over the surface or sputter up the water that no longer covered her.
"Hey—“ Nadir grabbed her hands, and he pulled her into him.
The world spun.
"Nyssa—“
But her feet floundered. Hands pushing over her face. She couldn't tread in the water. Unable to grasp onto her actual reality.
"Nyssa!"
His shout snapped her forward. Stilling so that she almost began to sink back beneath the ocean depths. Nadir's hands were wrapped around her wrists, and he wasn't letting go.
"Hey—“
Breath returned to her lungs, and she closed her eyes, forcing herself to count down from six. Nadir pushed his hand to her cheek. "What happened?" he asked.
Her cheeks burned, but she swallowed, knowing she could tell him and he wouldn't judge or push. "One of the things the wife would do to punish me was tilt me back and pour water on my face until I couldn't breathe," she choked, and all color drained from Nadir's face.
"Why didn't you tell me? We don’t—“
"No," she interjected. "It’s—It’s okay. I don't want that to deter me from the water. I love this water. I love swimming. The ocean. The creatures in it. I can't let what she did deter me from the things I have always loved and the things I have grown to call home. What home means to me is the only thing keeping me from drowning in this."
"What does home mean?"
Heart aching, she swallowed and met his gaze. "It means you," she whispered. "It means this place. Your home. It means my brother. Lex. Bala..."
"I'm part of what you call home?"
And her eyes narrowed at the disbelief in his voice.
"How could you possibly think you weren't?" she wondered aloud, gripping his hand.
"And my home... This place—You thought of this place?"
"Yes."
A forced exhale left him, and he closed his eyes. "Fuck, I need you to sprint," he muttered, voice straining. His gaze met the sky, and he swallowed, almost as though he were pushing the pain away from him. "We don't have to go under tonight if you don't want to," he finally said.
