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Of course Alex expected to be told off a little bit, but that did nothing to wash away the grin that was still on his face. Though he didn't know that Yin was actually smiling back, since his hair was still plastered over his eyes.. He was just releasing Yin, but only with one arm, so that he could push his hair back and clear his vision, when he felt something hook around his ankle, his bone ankle, the one that he already had terrible balance on. It was not surprising that instead of pushing back his hair, he ended up flailing instead, though his grip with the arm around Yin only tightened.

If he was going down, he was taking the weremantis down with him, and he wasn't sure that Yin really understood what it meant that Alex really could not swim, that he was dead weight, and they were now both about to sink to the bottom of the lake.

He hoped Yin remembered to get his lungs good and full of air before he did this, as they both went underwater with a splash.

Of course, Alex wouldn't have been so mean as to keep a hold of Yin underwater to the point where he was desperate for air. Still, he wanted him to know that what he had done was a little bit silly, so he didn't let go right away. Nope, he just smiled at Yin, hair floating around his face once more so that now, he could actually properly see the other boil, and shook his head in amusement

This had turned out to be more fun then he thought it would be.

Alex might have tried to swim, if he even knew how. He didn't even know if he actually could, honestly. Still, as he stood up and broke through the surface of the water for a second time, his time shaking his head to get his hair out of his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that Yin was coughing, and moving away from him

Guilt. Instant guilt. He had kept the other boil underwater for too long, and had probably nearly drowned him. Alex felt awful. "Are--Are you okay?" He called out towards him, tentatively, trying to move towards him but having his skeletal foot slip on a rock, which sent him back underwater once more.

Had Alex just thought two seconds ago that this was fun?

Instead of standing up again, he crawled forwards for a ways, before resurfacing, this time quite a bit closer to Yin then he had been. He was instantly pushing his hair out of his eyes and looking at the other boil with concern.

Alex, having never actually needed to breathe in his unlife except for speaking, had no idea how easy it would be to actually drown somebody. He was, however, put almost completely at ease by Yin's reassurances. Surely if the boil had been about to drown he wouldn't look so happy. Alex was quick to smile again himself.

That was, until a wave of water that Yin had created sloshed over him, getting his face, his eyes, and causing his hair plaster down over his eyes once more. Smile gone, Alex shook out his hair like a wet cycorgi, hoping to effectively splash Yin with the droplets that went flying off of him, reaching up to brush his hair out of his eyes when he was finished and peeking just one eye open, slowly, in case another sheet of water was about to hit him again.

"Now Yin, that just wasn't very nice." He said, his voice low as he moved closer to the other boil again, almost to the point of growling, though he looked far from angry as he reached over to wrap his arms around the other boil...

...and then attempted to lift him up to flip him over Alex's shoulders and dump him the water behind him.

Of course, Alex hadn't really thought his little maneuver was going to go over without a hitch, and Yin's reflexes were too damn fast. He'd barely lifted the boil up when Yin was clinging to him, and again Alex found himself careening off balance, hands gripping into the weremantis tight to as he tried, and failed, to stay upright.

And so, once again, both of them were going down, as Alex fell backwards into the water, neither one of them willing to let the other go, though this time once they were submerged Alex did release his grip on Yin right away so as not to unintentionally harm him in some way, and he floundered around in the water as he tried to get his feet back underneath him to stand up, reaching out a hand to pull Yin up beside him, laughing. He was thoroughly enjoying himself, now, and was more then happy with his decision to have come to the lake.

But fun times had to come to an end, eventually, as the evening wore on and the pumpkin sun began it's slow descent in the sky, the air becoming more chilled, it was time to leave, and Alex found himself wading back up to the shore so that they could head back to the monster dorms, dry off, and go to bed.

And he had again forgotten all about the crazy happenings back at his dorm room.

dlsfjasdflsdgjsd Day 3:

Alex had gotten a call to ask him to go back into work the next morning, and while he was very tempted to tell them he was busy, just so he could spend more time with his boilfriend, he had a feeling that it wouldn't go down well, considering it was only his second day on the job. So, he had gone, but at least his head was still buzzing with happiness from the events of the night before. His co-workers were often commenting on how cheerful he seemed to be.

And now back at the school grounds, again feeling slightly drained from the days activities, but still able to move along with a smile on his face. This was nice, going off to work, and coming back to the exciting prospect of seeing Yin, even if he did have to make a detour to his bedroom first to check on things. He could have really gotten used to this.

Once headed towards his room, he groaned inwardly at the sight to be beheld at the end of the hallway in front of his door once more. At least it wasn't an entire shrub, and just a few uprooted flowers, but there was also some kind of sack next to it, one that was moving, wriggling, and making all kinds of strange noises.

He approached with extreme caution.

As he neared, he noticed that it wasn't just the bag of whatever that was making a ton of noise. There was a ridiculous amount of sound coming from his room as well, as his pets chittered and squeaked and scratched away at the door as if in a frenzy to escape. Carefully, the zombie bent down to retrieve the tied up sack, noticing now the many holes with bits of fur sticking out. Things were starting to make slightly more sense now, though not by much, as he pulled a key out of his pocket with his free hand and shoved it into the door handle before turning the lock and pushing his way in through a swarm of minipets who were all looking at him with unbridled hunger in their eyes.

While Alexander was still confused, some pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place. Somebody had been leaving flowers at his door, everyday, and had been coming to feed his pets. He had no idea why this would be occurring, but it seemed to be true. He couldn't quite explain the three new mini pets that had joined his horde, except that maybe whoever had been feeding the ones that he already had thought that this was some kind of shelter for wayward pets and had deposited them here as well. He was almost afraid to open up the bag in his hand, lest it contain more zombie kushi's or other pets that he would have to add to his own. He had far too many as it was, and was considering giving a few of them up for adoption as he just did not have enough time to spend with all of them.

Carrying the sack over towards his chair, he sat down, then carefully began to open it. A couple of creatures scrambled their way out before he could catch them, but his pets were ready and waiting, quick to pounce and make short work of it. Alex, in the mean time, had closed his hand around the top of the bag once more, frowning, before quickly twisting the top back up and tying it in place. He then left the bag on his chair, growling at any of his pets who tried to approach it, and made his way to his closet where he could change out of his work clothes and into his more usual everyday wear. He was just pulling his phone out of the pocket of his pants, to transfer it into the pocket of the jeans he had changed into, when a thought crossed his mind. If this was some kind of practical joke, or if somebody had been seen lurking around carrying flowers and sacks of minipets, maybe Mort would know something about it. Perhaps other inhabitants of the undead dorms were experiencing similar problems as well, though he never noticed things dropped off outside of the doors of other rooms.

Alex turned on his phone and quickly activated groanspring, ready to shoot off a question to Mort but unable to stop himself from checking his inbox for questions first. There were a few, as he scrolled down, but the one at the bottom had him stopping and staring. How do you show someone you care for them, except with many atrocious mistakes to the spelling. A public question for anyone to answer, and it had gotten several, by the looks of it.

Alex slumped back against his door, one hand sliding into his pocket, his head bowed over the screen of his phone as he scrolled through, tapped on, and read everything that had been posted, every comment that had been submitted, for his boilfriend's question. Finally, everything was able to click together in Alexander's mind. The new pets, the flowers, the hugging...oh dear jack even the humming made sense now. It was all here.

The zomboil's chest tightened as conflicting emotions raced through him. Yin was willing to try so hard, and he couldn't really be angry with him for that. Still, there was a certain amount of disappointment at the realization that his boilfriend might not have been doing any of these things because he wanted to, but because he felt like he had to. The zomboil shoved the phone back in his pocket before sliding down to the floor and burying his face in his hands. He didn't know what to do, or what to think. Being in a relationship with Yin was hard enough before, when the other boil was completely clueless. Now he was still pretty much clueless, but acting on other people's suggestions, probably without knowing the significance of them, or even enjoying the act of doing them, which completely defeated the purpose. He supposed he could give him the benefit of the doubt, and choose to believe that Yin was only to happy to be doing it, and hey, chances are he was happy to do it..but was he doing it for the right reasons? Was it more like a game of pretend to him, with no actual emotional involvement required? Alexander couldn't know the answer to that, and wasn't sure he wanted to know.

He sat there for some time, eventually moving so that he had his knees pulled up to his chest, and his arms wrapped around them. He watched his pets as they ate their dinner, then went off to hide in their nests of garbage. Watched as the sack of pets on the chair eventually squirmed it's way to the floor, bursting open and starting another frenzy as his own pets ran out of their hiding places and went on the attack once more. Watched without really watching, because he was too buried in his own thoughts, before he finally pushed himself up from where he sat on the floor, his muscles stiff, his eyes burning, not from unshed tears but just from being open for so long without blinking. The buzz of happiness that had seen him through the day was gone. It felt like such a lie. He wasn't sure why exactly it felt that way, but it did. Still, as he left his room and let his eyes slide down to the red flowers on the floor, he could feel his lips twitching up into the smallest of smiles. Alex knew his own feelings towards Yin were genuine, and that they were just as strong as ever, however strange their relationship might be. He bent down and scooped the flowers up, this time because he intended on keeping them, despite the fact that they were already beginning to wilt. He used his nails to cut through the stem near the bottom, pulling off the roots and disposing of them in the bin when he passed, among the other flowers he'd thrown away the day before.

To Yin's room with flowers in hand, wondering what the hell he was even supposed to do with them, considering he didn't exactly have anywhere to put them, but deciding not to dwell on that for now. Once he was at the weremantis's room, he opened the door, entering slowly and holding up a free hand to halt Yin in his tracks if he was about to throw himself into another freaking hug, because as much as Alex wanted that hug, he needed to say something first. Whether or not Yin tried to hug him, he was going to say it.

"Do not, Yin, and I am absolutely serious about this, hug me or do anything that you wouldn't normally do, unless you want to do it, and you actually enjoy it." He said it firmly, eyes boring into the other boil, pleading with him to understand, before saying, rather quietly, "I'd rather you did it because you feel like it's the right thing to do, not because somebody told you it's what you should do."

Normal boilfriends. Yes, normal. That just really drove home the fact that whatever he and Yin were, it was not normal, and maybe, just maybe Alex had been fooling himself this whole time. How many times did things have to get screwed up. How many times did he have to end up upset or end up upsetting Yin in some way? The thought of just walking away and not being with him anymore was almost too painful to even consider, but it would have been a lie to say that the thought hadn't entered his mind at least once. Yin would say he was Alex's boilfriend to make him happy, and might even go through the motions, but was it real? He felt at a complete loss of words, and had no idea what action to take now, if any. His eyes were burning again, but this time for a different reason. From complete and utter happiness to this in a matter of minutes.

"I just want to make you happy too, Yǐn Cáng." He replied, offering him a gentle smile. But the happiness just wasn't there. Instead there was a sick feeling in his stomach, and a tightness in his chest. The knife that felt like it was stabbing into his heart only twisted more painfully when Yin said that maybe he would learn to enjoy his actions as Alex did. As in, he didn't enjoy it that way now. Would he ever? Was this even worth continuing to try?

"Which is why..." this isn't happening... "..Maybe it would just be better..." no, don't say it. "...if.."

His voice was getting quieter, slowing down as he struggled through this one sentence, until it just came to a complete halt. Deep breath in, deep breath out. He reached up with his free hand to push his hair back his fingers running through that mixture of white and black and tousling it into an almost stylized mess. His throat had pretty much clenched up tight, and he knew he wouldn't be able to finish what he'd set out to say. Especially not with the words his mother had spoken to him so long ago somehow ringing in his ears.

He cleared his throat before continuing, his voice sounding a slightly low and hoarse. "If we just make sure we're on the same page. Uhm, you know..talk more about this stuff? That way maybe there won't be any more confusion, and I won't..try to do things you aren't ready for and you can just...learn to enjoy it without feeling pressured." That last part still stung. Learn to enjoy it. Learn. Like it was something that he could be trained to feel, instead of it just coming naturally.

Alexander was suddenly very glad he hadn't said what he had first thought of saying. Maybe he was getting better, at controlling the words that came out of his mouth. Certainly he felt a lot better for it, knowing that he hadn't just ruined whatever he and Yin had with a few simple words. His emotions were still in turmoil, and quite frankly he was getting a little tired of it because it made him feel like such a ghoul. But oh dear jack how badly he wanted that hug that he had turned down now! Maybe if he asked Yin nicely, he could still get it.

Yin's first few words brightened up his spirits a little, and he took a step closer towards him, still clutching his flowers in one hand. "Really?" He smiled, because it was good to know that sometimes Yin did like the physical attention. His confession was easing some of the weight off of Alex's chest, giving him some form of hope to cling on to. He still knew that there were problems, but that was something he was just going to have to deal with on his own.

"I--I appreciate that." He mumbled, feeling slightly embarrassed himself. Yin had used the word wonderful. That was a good word. More of the weight shifted and some warmth began to spread inside him once more.

Oh but then Yin just had to keep going, and Alex wanted to tell him to just stop. But no, this is what he had just asked for. Talking.

Oh jack he really was the ghoul in this relationship. Alex did a mental head desk at the realization.

"Later." He repeated, of course focusing on that one word. "Later...tonight?" Clearly Alex was having brain problems again.