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There it was. Maebe had opened her eyes to find Otto staring at the water, contemplating his life decisions. Moments after his release, it was all he could do to question why he kept coming back for more. The beautiful in him shattered like a mirror, and all that was left was a confused, conflicted little boy.

She breathed it in, the sight of her perfect masterpiece, and leaned in to kiss his neck lovingly. He was exactly right.

"You want me to go." She wanted to hear it out of his mouth. It wasn't enough that she had him questioning himself, she wanted him to turn her away, to be the man he'd never have considered himself before her. She wanted him to refuse to look at her until his body was ready, and then she wanted him to do nothing but look at her. She wanted him to prove her right.

She wanted him to stop being special.

"Tell me." Her hands brushed down his beautiful neck. "Tell me to go away."

Did he forgot her aversion to the question of why? Her face crunched up with distaste, and she slunk down against him, her face level with his chest. "You're being stubborn. Don't do that just because I'm telling you to do something. I'm the one who knows how the game works, remember? I just want to help you see your potential."

He was so close. So close to being perfectly flawed. So close to her body. So close to her never stilling fingertips.

She felt the bump of a scar under the water, and her attention wavered, looking down to the paths they carved. She loved his scars, she realized with a start. They told a gruesome story of all he'd been through, all he'd survived, but also all he'd lost. He would never be able to forget that nothing lasted forever. Not even his own body. The impermanence of the human body was the only lesson worth learning.

"I wonder where my first scar will be." Her fingers were still tracing his own. Maybe it would be right across her face. She would lose the only weapon she wielded flawlessly, and she would be forced to learn something new. That was why she did all of this - because nothing lasted forever.

Her hands sunk lower. Was she insatiable, or simply responding to his refusal to send her away?

"I'm always serious about this, Otto." She reminded him, but her hands rose up out of the water, temporarily relieving him of her ministrations. "I'm going to get scars. Doesn't everyone here?" She knew he wouldn't want to ******** her with some scorching scar across any of her defining features, but she could always get lucky and have one somewhere barely noticeable. If she got one on her back, she could always make sure she was on top.

She liked being on top.

I probably should have a scar, right around here." She floated back to flatten herself against the wall of the pool, and her hand pressed against the flat planes of her stomach. "But I got lucky."

My name is not lucky, child. It is Thaw.

"Your scars tell me where you've been. And where you're going. I'd ask you to tell me about them all, one day.. but." But she was worried that was getting too close, and even expressing that worry felt too vulnerable. "I guess there really isn't any point."

Maebe did not chase anyone. When Otto floated away, he did so unhindered.

"They're trophies." She offered, because it was clear by the tone of his voice that he didn't like them. "Of survival. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, you survived. Look at the one on your chest. It doesn't look like you should have survived that. But you did. That mark is your victory medal, pinned to your skin for all time. Trust me, Otto - there is nothing more important, more vital than being a survivor."

She watched him swim away, feeling the ways of melancholy wash over him stronger than the water itself. She smiled, because it was -

"Beautiful."

Her smile faded, because she couldn't be sure what she'd just complimented, anymore.

With a violent movement, she turned towards the edge of the pool, and pushed herself up to sit on it. She let her legs fall back into the water, kicking childishly as she watched him swim. Her hands were pressed against the edge, and her body language read as practiced innocence. She knew exactly how to move, how to sit, how to stretch, to look as though she wasn't trying.

But she was always trying.

Her legs slowed, as she lost the thread of malice that kept every thought on target, and just watched him swim. It wasn't graceful, and it wasn't sexy. It was Otto. Just Otto.

The silence after she'd said that word disturbed her. When he broke that silence, she let the words sink in, and found it fit the expected puzzle pieces that she'd waited for. He was leaving. That was the same as asking her to leave - no, it was better, because instead of making her leave, he was choosing the submissive route. She wasn't as used to that kind of thing, but she had to make exceptions for Otto. He was always different.

"I know." She called out, moving to slide down onto the cold tiles of the pool edge floor, and lie there. Her hands moved behind her head, using them like a pillow. "Bye bye, Otto."

This was the nature of their relationship. This was who they were, who they were meant to be. What they were meant to do. This was science, this was math, this was nature at its very finest. This was a man, leaving a woman after taking her in a pool. This was truth.

This was how things were obviously supposed to be.

She didn't actually get to check her texts until twenty minutes later, because the moment Otto was out of earshot, Maebe slid back into the water and sunk as far as she could go until her natural buoyancy forced her back up to the surface. Natural buoyancy was an a*****e, she told herself, as she flipped over and floated in a perfect T, just as she had when he'd arrived, while staring at the ceiling.

But it wasn't the same.

She felt like he'd stolen something from her. Something she desperately wanted back.



She told him she was always honest with him. She wished she'd been lying.