Omake 8: At the Pool (C)

"Share your smile with the world. It's a symbol of friendship and peace." – Christie Brinkley

Little Weiss was staring at the nice-looking swimming pool that her family had been invited to enjoy.

It was a nice day in Vale, and the temperature was good enough to allow her to wear her pretty swimming suit and floaties so that she could try and enjoy the lovely body of water as much as her excited mind wanted her to.

…

There was just a single problem preventing her from actually doing so.

Starting from the fact that the one that invited her family to enjoy this nice private place was none other than the man responsible for putting her father in jail. Maybe that was an excessive reach, especially considering the ones that had organized the entire trip were friends of her mother, some of which looked incredibly kind and were the parents of children mostly her age.

She was mostly neutral to faunus, having been taught by her grandfather and mother that they weren't that different from normal humans. But when Weiss spotted Blake, she felt a need to ask and see how fluffy her cat-like ears were. It was just a sudden desire that almost had her blurting out that request, thankfully her common sense prevented her from opening that mysterious box of unknown and fluff-exploration.

Yang was… also nice. But still roguish at best considering how blunt she was when she spoke to someone she liked. The blonde was more than interested in chatting with everyone, but for some reason seemed to like speaking with Winter the most.

Maybe it was because both were big sisters, and… that would also translate in Whitley playing around with Ruby. Which was indeed the case since both were spotted running around instead of trying the swimming pool, both being still too young to try and swim.

Weiss was just old enough to know the basis of swimming, yet she still needed her floaties to properly move around without problems. It was an infuriating issue that had a brilliant solution if she actually decided to drop her dislike for the man.

"Come on now, Nora. Almost there..." John calmly encouraged his daughter to hold onto him as he helped her get hold of the ways she was supposed to move to swim properly. The fellow girl was a little afraid of that situation, but she was giving her best in conquering that sense of fear currently dampening her cheerfulness.

Her cousin Ren was already swimming with ease, having understood the simple steps required to move around in that pool way faster than other children his age and was now helping both Ilia and Adam with their own issues about it.

"Okay, don't push yourself too hard. There is no rush-"

"There is! How can I teach Weiss if I don't know how to swim myself."

A cute frown adorned Weiss' face.

What?

Why would Nora want to help her to swim? Sure, the girl had been incredibly friendly with her from the very beginning and, if it wasn't for the fact she didn't like how her father was in a bad place, then maybe she would be open to even consider that idea.

It wasn't like she really hated him. As much as she wanted to be angry at the person, pretty much everyone in her family considered him a friend even though he had done that to her father. It was absurd and yet… the words that her mother had given her about what wrong Jacques was doing still lingered in her mind.

It just felt unpleasant to believe that. Her father never did anything bad to her- actually playing with her sometime by giving paper to draw to while he was busy chatting with that nice lady at the Scroll.

As she lost herself in these thoughts, she barely noticed that the orange-haired girl had finished with her own exercises and was now slowly moving around the pool. Soon Nora approached the edge where the fellow child was contemplating her entire situation.

"Weiss! Come on, I wanna play!" The giddy girl exclaimed. "I can help you swim, so we can have fun together!"

Despite her lack of knowledge over proper physics, Weiss was mostly aware of the fact that Nora couldn't just drag her around without pulling them both to the deepest bit of that pool. And that was far from ideal.

"I-I can swim," She decided to answer, almost pouting at herself for stuttering in that instance.

"Then why aren't you jumping in?"

He was looking at her with a genuine promise, and she knew even her mother was watching this whole exchange. She just needed to hope and pray that Nora knew what she was doing right now.

"I-I was waiting. I didn't… want to swim alone."

Nora seemed to vibrate at that response. "Really? Were you waiting for me?"

…

"Yes?"

"YAY!"

Maybe I shouldn't be this easy to push around.

Sadly for her, the situation quickly turned much worse than expected. The very moment she entered the pool, she was swiftly swooped in a close embrace as Nora started to assault her with rapid compliments and requests, ideas, and suggestions. The sudden hug had her tense up and allowed the surprisingly strong orangette to pull her left and right much to the amusement of their respective parents.

In a normal circumstance, Weiss would've been much annoyed by this development, yet there was something about the embrace that 'pulled' her even closer.

Maybe it was her bubbly personality, or her bright eyes, or her dazzling smile or… her nice scent.

Why does my face feel like it's burning?

For some reason, that reaction of hers only ended up fueling more chuckles out of both John and Willow, driving more confusing thoughts on poor little Weiss' mind.

In the end, this visit ended up being quite interesting.

"Sienna, it's your turn now."

"I-I'm fine here, watching out of the pool."

"You said you would've put an effort," John mirthfully said.

"I-It's fine!"

He shrugged. "Then I guess it's time for a stronger request."

It was in that very moment that his devious plotting now manifested as he emerged from the water to lift up the panicking Tiger Faunus before jumping with her back in the pool much to her howling and ferocious struggling. Sienna learned to swim at the expense of delivering a couple of hits to her still-chuckling fiance.

Truly interesting.