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Demands

A long time afterward he's lying next to her putting off a shower with already-fading bruises painting his neck and a wave of hair slicked dark with sweat across his temple, and he's sifting through his phone, a rude habit he frequently has that he's as apt to b***h at her for as he is to defend it when it's him doing it. His brow is furrowed with a look of distracted focus, though, as opposed to his usual idle scrolling. He is looking for something specific, and it must be buried.

He turns the screen towards her, finally, without saying anything.

Introductions

"Well, of course." Obnoxious kissy faces toward the glass and then the man ensue, followed by complaints to Filipe Pierre about the constant threat of a sink full of facial hair. She brings out her phone to show the manatee photo evidence, with many a dire look sent Taym's way. The girl spends some few minutes bitching about him, all the sort of half fond insult, half indignant praise she's prone to when it comes to one Obadiah Thompson.

falling

The fountain was much as it had been in her photos, right down to America getting caught up in the moment, distracted enough to get knocked down by a large dog that decided she was excellent friend material. The hat she was wearing flew up and away, and the girl was torn between chasing after it and returning the gesture of friendship.

Introductions

He endures all this with good-humored patience, interjecting only once, to insist that he has not shaved since promising not to--and he hasn't; the beard is becoming distinctive--and after that lapsing into silence, twining an arm around her waist, height difference be damned, to indulgently eavesdrop on her tete-a-tete, keeping his contributions to a couple of snorts and, in response to one indignant item of affection, a stolen kiss to the temple.

Most of the rest of the trip is spent on Taym auditioning candidates for his own Felipe Pierre--he refers to her as Genevieve Claudette, although at some point he loses track and she morphs through Lola Ines and Margeaux Adele before returning. The moray eel is discarded as having too bitchy a face; a duck, for having the gall to thrust her head under her wing as soon as he attempts to address America's cold feet and propensity for blanket monopolizing.

With each new attempt he casts a new line: a sly jab or an irritated fondness, a dozen little sharp-edged compliments delivered to otters and bala sharks and an especially-intrigued catfish but never, of course, to her: America once replaced fifty-two windows in two days and bragged about it. America will sing loudly even, unfortunately, when she doesn't know all the words and has to fill in nonsense lines. America is horrifically nosy, and she remembers everything, everything, and she knows just when to bring up something you'd forgotten you'd said.

"It is a constant trial," he informs a singularly un-Parisian stingray (five dollars to pet them and who is he to say no, his hands running over its back in childlike fascination), "trying to stay mad at her long enough to get a real fight in. She's too good at accidentally reminding you of how sweet she is even when she's being an insufferable--" The ray skates away. "Everything is fickle. I guess you don't get much more reliable than a manatee."

Turn the Page

Later, when she's done (and he doesn't stop her until she is, grinning against her hair at her more adventurous voice acting), he launches into an in-depth analysis of the Three Investigators' use of classical anagnorisis in the absence of hamartia. Halfway through he opens his desk and nonchalantly puts on a pair of glasses without stopping.

Introductions

She rolls her eyes and scoffs dramatically, the picture of girlish indignance, calling out apologies to the rejected creatures left in their wake while swinging his hand her grasp. Hips playfully swaying as her feet step into a not-quite dance, the hem of the blue dress gently lifts and swirls like it too belongs underwater.

America collects the playful jabs and cranky endearments like trinkets in a box, to be taken out and worn with pride and fondness and secret smiles. There is a clip in her hair, a small spangled star, taken out that morning in much the same way.

Waving at the parting stingray, the girl pats his back consolingly, "You always underestimate my taste."

Turn the Page

She watches him, smile widening into a grin and then softening into an almost painful fondness. It lasts only a moment, then she sitting at attention, hands primly in her lap, and when he pauses just the slightest, her hand is raised in the air. There are questions and requests for definitions, and once again, Obadiah Thompson finds himself confronted with an eager America Jones's ability to take notes.