“Huh…I've actually never gotten to see that thing collapsed. It's convenient that it can go that small,” Severo said with interest while he picked up the coffee table and set it on its side on the couch.
“That it is.” Seri eyed the now mostly empty living room. “We need that much space?”
“Yes! You will see why in just a moment.” The man picked up his cardboard box and tore it open, removing a slightly smaller blue cube with a red button on the top of it, before tossing the cardboard box onto the kitchen island.
Severo cleared his throat, and placed the cube in the middle of the now open living room. “Step back, please!”
Seri stepped back beside the edge of the couch.
The Dweller let out an excited laugh and pressed the button, before rushing to his side. A ticking started at the press. After ten slow ticks, the box unfolded and then expanded. His eyes widened as it continued to grow until there was a deep free-standing empty pool taking up their whole living room, steps into it included.
“Tadaa!” Severo said, doing jazz hands.
“DADAA,” Skya mimicked, giggling.
“A pool… You got a pool?” Seri gasped, eyeing the thing. There looked to only be an inch between it, the couch, the far wall, and their floating tv.
“Yes! Do you like it?! It folds back up easily…somehow… It said how in the manual.” The Dweller frowned. “I may have left that in the car with the original packaging…”
“You re-boxed it up?”
“Well, I wanted it to be a surprise! How could I surprise you when the box gave it away?! Do you like it?” Severo asked, face twisting in worry.
Despite the insanity of having a small pool in his living room, he couldn’t help but smile. He missed the water so much. He missed swimming. Seri missed feeling water flowing fully through his gills. Water was always going through them, through the air he inhaled, but it wasn’t the same as actually being submerged while taking a deep breath in.
Ah, he missed diving down… And while there wouldn’t be too much room to dive or swim as fast and far as he wanted…it was still more than he had gotten to enjoy in the last six years. “I love it.” Seri beamed.
“Yes!” Severo laughed, pumping his fist. “I did good?!”
He chuckled. “Yes, you did good.”
“I got bathing suits, too! Skya, you are going to look adorable! Time to change!! Oh, first, let’s get this filled. I’ll get a bucket and yeah, we should have it done in no time!”
“Uh…Severo…turn the sink on.”
The man blinked. “The sink…” the Dweller said with a frown. But even before getting an answer, Severo walked into the kitchen and pressed the button, turning it on.
Seri pulled on the spark of energy that flowed through his every cell, and reached out to the water that he felt calling to him even from this distance. Glowing blue mist flying from his hands, he took control of the stream, sending it over instead of down. Through the air it continued on until it reached the pool, where he directed it to flow freely.
Skya squealed, reaching out and trying to touch it.
“Ah…” Severo snickered. “Yes, that’s much easier.”
Severo sat backon the steps inside the pool watching Seri and Skya play. He’d never seen Seri look so worry free. Skya, on the other hand…while clearly excited, was scaring the crap out of him. Every time she went underwater, Severo’s instincts screamed at him to rescue her.
He chuckled when Seri began to create bubbles. As the glowing orbs floated up, Skya squealed, batting at them, popping some while others bounced out of her reach, causing the little Nymphant to swim after them, giggling the whole way.
His cute little gummy bear was dressed in her new ladybug swimsuit. He and Seri had on matching red and black polka dot trunks.
Skya was honestly a born swimmer. The little one moved better in water than she did on land. Mind you, Skya crawled just fine, it was walking where the little girl bumped into everything. Eight months old now, Skya seemed almost too determined to walk. She had some random ass bruises from all the effort she’d put in.
By the void, had she grown so much already. From barely moving, to crawling, to the now, not so fun…scary attempts at walking that looked more like she was playing bumper cars with furniture.
Now September, it was hard to believe they’d been there for four and a half months already. Time just seemed to be moving so fast.
Severo remained there just watching them, enjoying their joy. He wasn't big on swimming. He could swim, just… Well, he wasn’t horrible at it, but he wasn’t the best either.
Severo gripped the edge of the pool when Skya dove again and remained under, grinding his teeth. His lack of skill was probably one reason he panicked when either of the two went under. He wasn’t confident he could help them if they got into trouble. Well, he could in this thing as it wasn’t that deep, but outside…in a pool or lake or ocean… He sighed.
