Pool, Thursday Afternoon

[withoutverona]

Romeo Montague did not exercise as a rule. It seemed like a great deal of effort for little gain. But even after the healing rain in Edge he could tell his left arm and shoulder were still wrong from the break and their time in the sling. They felt weak and stiff and uncoordinated, especially when he was tired.

That wouldn't do.

He made his way to the basement pool after literature class, carrying a towel and a small stereo. He put a Kanye West CD in the player, dove into the water, and started dragging himself through as many laps as he could stand.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[endsthegame]

Swimming was one of the few things Ender considered his. It was a stupid, sentimental thing, born of too much familiarity with zero-grav, he knew that. But his life didn't have a lot of stupid, sentimental things--

That was how he'd explain the sinking feeling of disappointment in his stomach when he entered the pool area, only to find someone there. And blasting a lot of sound through the room, too. "Hm." He loitered by the stereo.

[withoutverona]

Romeo finished his lap and surfaced at the end of the pool, blinking water out of his eyes. He enjoyed having the pool to himself, but if he was to have company, so be it.

"Hello, Ender," he offered, oblivious to any offense the music might be causing.

[endsthegame]

"Ho, Romeo," Ender replied, glancing from him to the stereo, then back. "Does it have to be this loud?"

[withoutverona]

"it probably doesn't need to be," Romeo wavered. "I turn it up so I can hear it underwater. But it's not as though I'm listening so hard as I swim."

[endsthegame]

"I'll turn it down a little," he offered, leaning one hand carefully on the object in question. "If you don't mind," came as an afterthought. He just wanted his peaceful swim.

[withoutverona]

Romeo shook his head. "I'll survive. Turn it as low as you like."

Bobbing a little as he treaded water, he asked, "Do you swim?"

[endsthegame]

"Every day if I find the time," Ender answered, lowering the volume considerably before he padded down to the pool. "You don't." Or he was fairly sure he'd have seen Romeo around by now.

He could be wrong.

[withoutverona]

"I can," Romeo said, a little sheepish. He was a good swimmer, rarely as he bothered doing it. "I did at home. But not as a regular thing here, no."

[endsthegame]

He sat down, his legs dangling down into the water, adjusting to the temperature. "It's good exercise," Ender replied, "And it might save your life if you wind up in a dunking booth." The carnival was on his mind.

[withoutverona]

Romeo's mind wasn't so quick to follow that connection, so he gave Ender an inquisitive look. "Or if one falls off a boat or wades into the ocean too deeply, I suppose. But this is just for the exercise -- I hurt my shoulder and need to build the muscles in the arm back up."

[endsthegame]

"What kind of an injury?" For a moment, the previous StuCo meeting and the Homecoming thing fled from his mind. They'd been distractions, anyway. Ender slid bodily into the pool. A little cold.

[withoutverona]

Well, Romeo supposed he had all but begged for the question, and he self-consciously ran the limb in question through the water as he spoke.

"Gunshot wound," he said briefly. "From my friend on that other island that visited. The shoulder broke and the healers helped it, but it's not as good as it once was."

[endsthegame]

Ender nodded; it sent a few ripples through the water. "You'll have some weeks of solid exercise ahead of you, then," he commented. He wasn't exactly a medic, but he knew about injuries.

[withoutverona]

"It seems that way," Romeo admitted, almost a sigh. "I need to be better about swimming, as this is the first real workout I've managed."

[endsthegame]

"Work it into your schedule," Ender advised, pushing off from the wall just enough that he drifted a little towards the opposite side. "After three days, it'll become part of your routine."

[withoutverona]

Romeo opened his mouth to protest, then shut it. He had enough sense to know good advice when he got it.

"Is there a time of day when you're normally here?"

He didn't want to avoid Ender. Precisely. But it was nice to have the pool to himself.

[endsthegame]

"I usually come here in the morning." Ender liked to have the pool to himself, too-- it was harder to shut out the universe for a while if someone else was making waves. "Sometimes the evening. This isn't my usual time."

[withoutverona]

"And I've not got a usual time at all," Romeo commented, kicking a little in the water as he thought. "After classes -- this time -- feels right, though."

[endsthegame]

"I needed to work off some steam after StuCo." He didn't strictly need to give Romeo an explanation, but he didn't really see why not to, either.

[withoutverona]

"The meeting went badly?"

[endsthegame]

"No," he said. There was no cause for alarm at all. "But tomorrow will be busy." He touched on the other side of the pool.

[withoutverona]

"The carnival and then the dance," Romeo agreed. "And I signed up for the kissing booth."

"I do not envy you on the council the organization, though, I'll say that much," he added, waving his hands slightly above the water for emphasis.

[endsthegame]

"I don't even envy myself at times," he said, dryly, "But I'll have to live with it."

[withoutverona]

"There would seem to be a shortage of other choices," Romeo said, voice equally dry.

He sunk deeper into the water, now submerged to his neck. "I should let you have your swim."

[endsthegame]

"Don't forget about the exercise."

Some old habits just died hard.

[withoutverona]

"I don't think my arm would let me," Romeo claimed.

[endsthegame]

"There's a lot the brain can come up with."

And he touched the other side of the pool again. "No matter how much your arm's screaming."

[withoutverona]

If Ender could swim and talk, so could Romeo; he did a neat flip into the water and glided to the opposite wall, not surfacing for air until he was there.

"This is one of those no gain without pain things, isn't it?" he asked, between gasps for breath.

[endsthegame]

Ender grabbed a hold of the edge of the pool, turning in the water so he could determine Romeo's location. He found his ears had already done it for him. Good; he was still alert.

"Most things are," he said, "Especially if they start with 'I got shot'."

[withoutverona]

Romeo switched to a backstroke. "It's hard to think of too many happy stories that begin that way," he called, halfway across. "My fault, though. I shouldn't have given him the opportunity."

[endsthegame]

"That's also usually the case," Ender agreed, happy to drift right now, his arm still leaning on the side. "Did he give you any openings?"

[withoutverona]

"I," Romeo said a bit grandly as his feet found the floor by the pool wall again, "was the idiot who was challenged to a duel and still believed we could just talk. If it had been a fair fight I would have won."

He'd won before, if a murder counted as a win.

[endsthegame]

"Fights aren't fair very often." Ender turned a little, pressing his back to the wall. He'd go for another lap in a moment. "Exploit their disadvantages and hope to god you don't have too many of your own."

[withoutverona]

Duels were supposed to be fair; that was the idea, that was why they had rules.

Not that Romeo had truly expected a proper duel from Tybalt, he mused, as he floated a little. "Or, if you have weaknesses, that they don't find them," he answered. "If I'm in such a situation again my planning would be different."

[endsthegame]

"It should be," Ender voiced. He couldn't remember the last truly fair fight he'd had. "As a friend of mine once said, you can only afford to be fair-minded before and after a battle."

[ and heading to bed, niiight! ]

[withoutverona]

"I've never quite been in a battle and I hope never to be, but your friend sounds wise," Romeo nodded. He didn't count the dragon as a battle; that was more a very strange, very loud, fight.

[OOC: NIGHT!]

[endsthegame]

"He was," Ender said, smirking at Romeo from his spot, "He said that after I beat him unfairly first."