Sitting Under Water (open)

She sat on the floor in the center of the water tunnel, knees hugged to her chest, her gaze lost in the drifting menagerie before her. She'd begun her new job just under a week ago, and this was the first time since the tour the first day that she'd been able to leave her office and commune with the fish.

She'd learned that she could keep whatever hours suited her, as the aquarium, like most businesses in Nachton kept long hours, closing only between 4 and 6 to clean the floors and feed the fish. Except the sharks, they were fed during the day so the people could watch, awestruck and slack-jawed.

So Kai, sat in the middle of the floor beneath the pressing weight of the water, held back only by glass, in the midnight quiet of an aquarium empty of every one but the staff and a few night owl guests. Her hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, her legs bare to mid thigh where her navy shorts began, and her arms bared by a light pink polo shirt. She looked more like a college kid escaping the crush of exams, than the head of a university aquarium.

Drew 13 years ago
His eyebrows rose. For a moment, Drew gave over to some professional jealousy. She was damned young to be running a place like this. Kem too was young for his position. Drew could not help but growl to himself. He was starting to feel like he wasn't going to get any where in life. Like everyone was going to pass him by.

The cloud didn't last long though and Drew recovered his good humor quickly. He couldn't help but comment on it though.


"Child prodigy?"Â?

He did approve of being a good distraction though and was happy for it. One could almost see his tail wagging. This was fun.

"See you're missing the best part here. I have -no- clue about fish you could totally make stuff up and I'd buy it."Â?

Deciding he was keen on this game he picked one of the rays and pointed at it.

"Like I'll bet that one glows purple during the full moon and if it happens to be a blue moon day glow orange unless the full moon falls on a Tuesday and then it has to swim backwards."Â?
Kai 13 years ago
Kai felt her smile falter a little at that quiet little growl. Had she said something to upset him? How odd. ...Oh. She often forgot she looked nearly a decade younger than she was. At her age she could blame it on good genes, later...well she had no idea how she was going to maintain her age versus her looks without lying. That was going to be difficult.

She shook her head slightly.
"Hmm, I'm not sure what you consider a prodigy. I was home schooled, so I could go at the pace I wished and graduated a few years early, then college was the same. I did my bachelors over the internet, so I could go as quickly as I wished." Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. "I'm not so young really, but I think that people forget you can live a lifetime in a short amount of time when you choose to. I chose to."

Not one to mince words, Kai was perhaps more blunt than needed, but she wasn't going to hide who she was.

His next statement restored her good humor and she chuckled softly.
"But I am not sure I wouldn't think less of you if you believed such a thing as that."
Drew 13 years ago
Drew was mostly happy enough to take that explanation as is, but part of him was still in super sleuth mode and thought he might... might, might, might look into things a bit more. But it was way down on the list. Cracking the case at Meridan took priority.

"I -never- could have managed on line classes. It is way too easy to get distracted and 'catch up later'."Â?

He'd tried one and totally forgot to do a unit. Just forgot. Fortunately, the professor had been understanding, and he hadn't been the only one to.. er... skip a unit that semester and he just dropped the lowest grade. Thank god, he couldn't have afforded to lose his scholarship.

"If you tell me you graduated suma too I'm going to question how much living you actually did."Â?

Drew teased. He had a private theory, that Reign oddly enough shared, that those who graduated suma had no life

Scratching his head, he nodded thoughtfully.


"Hmmmm... you might have a point. It was the orange glow that put it over the edge wasn't it?"Â?

He said totally serious.
Kai 13 years ago
"It wasn't so difficult really, as most of my entire high school years had been via internet classes. My mother's knowledge sort of petered out at around tenth grade so she left it up to my virtual teachers. It was really better, as I was able to pursue what I wished so long as I could pass the standardized tests."

Kai studied him a moment. He was definitely an odd duck, and she found she liked him, but it was in a kid brother, you could really get on my nerves kind of way.

"Then I shall not tell you and you can draw whatever conclusion you wish."

Turning her attention to the ray in question, she watched him glide his spotted body over the sandy bottom of the tank, flushing up little whorls of sand behind him. "Yes, I think it was the orange. Though the backwards swimming was a nice touch."

She turned to him and grinned. "Would you like to see my favorite place?"
Drew 13 years ago
"Some people have the knack, some people don't."Â?

He grinned. Not at all worried about it. Hell if you asked him Drew would tell you he was just a dumb jock with very few academic leanings. It wasn't true, but he'd stick to that story.

Amused by her being difficult he laughed. Yup, defiantly a suma. Some times they could be just a bit lacking in the sense of humor department. Still, ya didn't judge. Although he did mentally re-write the list of folks he'd invite.


"Really? The backwards thing sounded desperate to me."Â?

He shrugged it off, but added these thoughts to the next fish tale he'd tell.

His eyebrows rose. That was an interesting invitation. How could you say no to that?


"Lead on."Â?

Drew was curious. What did a Queenslander newly arrived in Nachton think was the best place in the aquarium? He was ready for anything though, you never knew what people would pick as something special.
Kai 13 years ago
Kai gave him a waggle of her eyebrows and looked around them. There wasn't any other staff near by, and while the cameras would catch her, she wasn't as worried about that. It was more that she didn't need an employee seeing her with a man she just met, do what she was about to do. Young people gossip much too much for her liking.

Reaching out she grabbed his hand, and pulled a thin plastic card from her pocket. As she tugged Drew toward a blank bit of wall painted to look like an extension of the tank, she flipped the card about in her hand revealing the aquarium logo, her picture, name and title. She waved the card in front of a bit of coral, a beep sounded and after a small click a door opened a bit. She pushed through and drug Drew with her.

When they were both through she pushed the door closed, and grinned at him again. A quick glace around showed her there was still no staff around.


"Ok, come on this way."

With his hand still in hers, she took them down the corridor they had entered, took the first left, then the second right, until they came to a rung ladder the same soft gray color as the walls.

"How do you feel about climbing?"

Letting go of his hand she began to climb the ladder, trusting he would follow. At the top she went left on a catwalk, that after a few steps opened up above the dolphin attraction. She settled down, one of the vertical railings between her legs, and sighed softly.

"They use these to change the light bulbs and get to the temperature controls when the water temp is out of whack."

She smiled at him, and looked out, watching as one of the six bottle nose dolphins broke the surface of the water with its head and looked at them.



((permission wasn't given for the dragging, but I figured Drew wouldn't mind. Let me know if I should change it!))
Drew 13 years ago
Drew had no issues getting pushed and pulled and drug along. It was kind of fun. Especially when she took him into what could only be an employee's only area. Too much fun, not quite a 007 adventure, but the closest he'd gotten. Hell he didn't get to do anything this sneaky at Meridian, damned AI.

He wasn't a big fan of anything with the word 'cat' in its name but somehow, he'd found, cat walks always led to the most interesting places. Why he remembered one time at school on the catwalk in the theater... well she'd been cute.

Following her example he sat down straddling one of the railings, hoping he didn't fall in. He was a pretty good swimmer but had a feeling the aquarium would have issues with him taking a dip, even if it was accidental. And even if Kai was in charge, she might have a hard time explaining that to folks, he was just a regular tourist after all.

He grinned at the dolphin as it popped up and looked at them.


"OK now this is just cool. I can see why you dig it."Â?
Kai 13 years ago
She grinned at him as she made a shooing motion to the dolphin. If the silly bugger stayed there much longer he would attract his friends. She didn't really want the staff to become curious and try to find what they were looking at. Even if she'd been alone, she'd have done the same thing.

"No one ever comes up here. The absolute quiet is the closest I've come to being in the water. The silence of the ocean is incomparable, but this comes pretty close."

She missed the water, and was hoping she'd have a few hours in the next few days to dive. Nothing long or deep, just going down. Her relationship with the water was bordering on addiction and she knew it, but didn't really care.

"When the lights go out and the fish begin to really play, the dolphins like to jump in this part of their enclosure. I think it is a bit like thrill seeking for them. I think they know it's not safe to jump out of the water in here, but they do it because they can."
Drew 13 years ago
He almost laughed as she shooed the dolphin away but didn't want to give away their location. It seemed to be something of a secret.

"Try the desert some time."Â?

Something about the desert, even the high desert, swallowed sound. If you got just a few miles from his clan's cluster of houses and outbuildings you could swear you were days from civilization.
Drew was puzzled by the idea of thrill seeking aquatic mammals. But he figured it wasn't that big of a stretch. When he had four legs and a tail there were times he did things that were a bit riskier than he probably ought to engage in. Why should it be any different for dolphins?


"Well I guess that's safer than bungee jumping."Â?
Kai 13 years ago
Kai crinkled her nose at him. "No thank you. I've been, it is way too hot for me."

The desert was sort of the anathema to her life. She did not go willingly or often and would no go on purpose again.

It was difficult to suppress her mirth, but she managed.
"True, though I doubt the dolphins would be able to pull it off very well."

She watched at a couple more swam beneath them, one popping up and sneezing all over their feet before diving back below the surface. Kai was betting that if she were under the water and could hear it, the little guy would be laughing. "I wonder what he thought that would accomplish."

She did laugh, if softly then. "So Drew, what do you do that has you out wandering the aquarium late at night?"
Drew 13 years ago
"it isn't so bad."Â?

Drew defended his desert. Yeah it was hot, and dry and most people didn't care for it but it was home and he loved it. It really wasn't that different from the ocean if you thought about it.

"Hey!"Â?

He protested, not digging the fact that his feet and lower legs were all wet. Well they'd dry, although these were some of his good work pants. Still water, even salt water, shouldn't hurt them much.

"Me? Well I'm an archivist for Meridian. Which really is more exciting than it sounds."Â?

Drew didn't see the harm in leaving the 'junior' off his title. He also automatically defended his job, which had a tendency to sound -really- dull to the uninitiated.

"I pulled the night shift though, but I wound up with half the night off and sort of stumbled in here."Â?
Kai 13 years ago
"I think that would wholly depend on what it is you archive."

Laughing softly she leaned back, resting her weight on her hands. The sound of the water in the tank soothed her and kept the smile on her face.

"Well I for one am glad you stumbled in."

A bright grin captured her face, and she turned it on Drew.

"Do you live close by too? Or will you have a commute when you leave here?"

Kai's nose wrinkled and she sighed softly. "I hope you don't think me too nosy. People fascinate me and I find I ask a lot of questions. You don't have to answer any of them if you don't want to."
Drew 13 years ago
"Whatever they tell me to."Â?

He replied with a grin.

Drew was open and honest, he only really had the one secret. But still she gave him pause when she asked where he lived. That was something to involved family, the Pack. But really, he reasoned, it was a harmless question.


"Nah I live almost outside the city. Family has a place out there and I'm too poor to be able to afford anything posh in town. The commute isn't too bad though, especially not on this shift."Â?

The question if the truck would make it or not. He'd been spending a lot of time working on it lately and thought he had most of the issues worked out.
Kai 13 years ago
"That is a very non-specific answer."
She laughed softly, it was most likely that what he delt with was sensitive material and he couldn't share, or maybe it was just so different from day to day that describing it would be more difficult.

Kai wrinkled her brow at that. From what she'd seen of this city, the stuff on the outskirts were old family homes, and the Den. So either he was the poor cousin of one of those well to do families or...nah, there just weren't that many of her pack for her to run into one randomly, were there? That would be just way way too odd for her, really it would.


"Interesting, I'm staying with friends of my family almost outside of Nachton proper as well. I had made arrangements to stay with them, when my prospects here were just as a research biologist."

She shrugged and smiled. "I could move over this way now, but I like it out there, it's peaceful, something the downtown here is not."
Drew 13 years ago
"Its kind of a non-specific job. Especially as I'm low man on the totem pole."Â?

He confessed sheepishly.

Drew cocked his head at her and studied Kai, really looked at her. Since the thing with Reign he was -really- leery of not telling people, but, on the other hand, his background didn't exactly encourage him -to- tell people.

Sitting in silence, he considered and just couldn't make up his mind. He didn't know Kai hardly at all but the way she said it he was pretty sure she was Pack. Casually, as if it didn't really matter he ventured,


"Sort of a big extended family huh? But yeah, you're right. I don't think I could live out this way, I need the room to run."Â?
Kai 13 years ago
Her bottom lip slid right between her teeth, a habit of hers she absolutely hated, as she contemplated his question. What were the odds she'd meet a pack mate in the middle of the night, at her place of work, because he tripped over her? If she was a betting girl, she'd put the odds at a thousand to one, if that. Still, the way he asked that... And the way he qualified his need to remain on the outskirts of town.

"Yeah, just like that. I have a rather...large family, there are so many I haven't met them all."

This time her lip remained out from between her teeth as she very carefully picked the next words. "If you've been in town long you might know my...uncle." Well, that could work as a description of her relation to the Alpha...sort of, not really. "Aidan Xephier?"


That was pushing things a bit much, but still she was so incredibly curious. One doesn't openly say to a random stranger, 'hey are you a werewolf of my pack?' But boy what a very small world they were living in if that was the case.
Drew 13 years ago
Drew couldn't help but laugh. Too funny. And what the hell was a wolf doing working under water? Sure, they could swim but they weren't aquatic mammals by any stretch of the imagination.

"Yeah, I know the Chief."Â?

Sure, he was surprised, but after Reign, it wasn't as big a shock as you might think. Giving Kai a quick once over he didn't see any jewelry that looked like the necklace Reign always wore. But then again she kept it out of sight unless she was loafing around The Den. Still Drew assumed Kai was a wolf.

"I -must- be keeping odd hours. Usually I notice new folks when they move in. God I suck."Â?

He said it with a self-deprecating grin.

"Hey wait, does this mean we can carpool?"Â?
Kai 13 years ago
Kai turned, drawing her knee up onto the catwalk so that she faced Drew. She took the moment to really look at him. From her own upbringing she knew that wolves came in every color of the rainbow in human from and every shade of red and gold imaginable when changed, so his appearance wasn't to odd for her, she was just having a difficult time with the coincidence of it all.

"Well in your defense, I've kept incredibly odd hours myself."

She chuckled a bit. "Between arriving, and today I've met Nikhila, LT and his very boisterous group of young men and...the staff here. What with all the work that has to be done, the fullness of the moon and the overwhelming need for sleep, I just haven't had time."

Kai looked at the slim divers watch on her wrist. It was nearing two in the morning, and she decided she wasn't closing up the aquarium tonight. "I would like that. It might actually keep me from spending so much time here."

Stretching her arms up over her head, she pulled her feet up and pushed herself up on them. "If you want we can start tonight, I think I'll kick out early. Everything will be here when I get back later."
Drew 13 years ago
Drew perked up a bit at the mention of his long time, way out of his league, was never going to happen, was also involved with The Chief, crush. Yeah he still had a think for Nikhila.

"You'll like Nikhila. She's sort of a friend of the family... er the more immediate one. She can be kind of shy though."Â?

Not so much shy as reserved, but that was harder to explain. Either way he sort of wanted to encourage Kai to look Nikhila up. He had a feeling it would be good for both of them.

He taken to letting his feet swing back and forth, watching the dolphins and was a bit surprised when she stood up and declared herself ready to go.

Drew hopped to his own feet with little effort.


"Too right. I've got a ball game tomorrow. I can give you a lift back if you don't mind a bit of junk rolling around."Â?

He had some baseball equipment and some research materials, as well as a stray chewed up Frisbee floating about the cab of his beat up old pickup.
Kai 13 years ago
She chuckled softly. "I've my own car here, and I'd rather not leave it."

Tilting her head to the left she thought for a moment. "Do you have your phone with you?" She simply assumed he had one. Who didn't these days?

"I can give you my information and we can set something up through email or text or whatever."

Kai smiled and pulled her own phone, one given to her by the aquarium, a blackberry. She'd use it for now, and when she had time get a personal phone for her pack mates and friends.