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Under the Moonlight (12) : In an ever persistent desire to get people out of the city and into nature, Destiny City is hosting guided tours on the water at the Reservoir. Kayaks can be bought or rented, and a very generous sponsor has even covered the cost of several kayak rentals per day throughout the month. Away from the city lights, you can leave with a tour group at dusk or take a kayak out on your own. As you near the caves at the reservoir, you may even find that with each stroke of the paddle, the waters around the cave glow with bright, bioluminescent lights. If you’re lucky, the trip is peaceful, but you’re not so far out of Destiny City that you’re not at risk for at least some oddities. While you can be happy that there seem to be no mosquitoes biting, sometimes something large might bump under your kayak, or you may hear a strange, clacking wail from deep in the forests around you. Sometimes large trees rustle, and sometimes you see strange eyes just staring at you. No reports have come out about anyone being hurt or attacked, but the forest can be a scary place–especially if you’re not used to it. All kayaks must be returned by midnight or you risk being hunted by some very unhappy park rangers!
After having a good time at Hindsight the other night [well what he could remember that is….Was there something involving lips? He hoped so.], the next activity Emili decided to[well more like a certain someone decided they would do…Not that he minded] do with Leah was kayaking. Whenever he was near or in the water he preferred to surf but this was pretty darn close at least. He checked himself over just to make sure nothing was amiss[Cass helpfully reminded him to wear boxer briefs and not his usual boxers], Emili looked over to Leah who was apparently matching his color today. He tried not to stare yet again and wanted to remain a gentleman. However he has come to find that Leah made this extremely hard. Either way, he would be up for another challenge today.
Welp, the test to control his hormones begins yet again.
“Ready to go out to the water Leah?”
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Leah chuckled when she made it to the parking lot and noticed Emiliano and her were wearing matching short sets. “I guess today was the day to wear gray huh? Nice set though.” She gave him a big smile and turned to check her purse to make sure she had everything she needed.
“The place said the kayaks are supposed to be returned by midnight, so if we leave now we can get there just after sunset and have most of the night to enjoy being out on the water and hopefully get to see the water that glows by the caves.”
She nodded when he asked if she was ready and headed out of the parking lot toward the kayak rental. “If we dont stay on the lake to long, we can visit Hindsight again, do a few more round of karaoke.”
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That sounded good to him, he wasn't sure they would be making it out of Hindsight if they went in again but that was something for future Emili to worry about. The walk to the kayaks wasn't very long, and he was actually looking forward to seeing the glowing water that everyone kept talking about. Maybe he would get in a couple of tiktoks showcasing how pretty it was. Of course he was sure Leah was going try and photo bomb them but he didn't really mind. For some odd reason the ones that she did show up in gave him more views but also increased a bit of weird controversy.
Why is it that two people of the opposite gender couldn't just hang out? Why did they have to be dating in order to show up on each other's social media? It was for this reason that he didn't bother really tiktoking with some of his female friends back home. Rowing in a kayak wasn't as much work as he thought it was going to be but he could also see the appeal of rowing as an exercise. So far the kayaking was nice, if not maybe a little boring but they had to get to the cave first before anything exciting could happen. It also had to be dark so there was that.
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“I'm so glad it's night already or we would certainly be getting sunburn right now,” Leah said with a laughed as they paddled the kayak. She was enjoying being out at night and not seeing anything crazy. She looked up at the stars in the night sky and briefly wondered where her moon was before she looked at Emiliano. “It's nice to actually be able to see the stars. You never really see them good in the city, but what I wouldn't give to be on the ocean. Maybe Ill go on a mini cruise this summer …”
She grinned seeing the cave coming up in front of them, “oh are you not going back to Italy this summer?”
She was smiling though her smile fell away hearing a wailing and turning toward the forest and shivering at the sound. She did not like the sound of that … she really didn't want their outing to be ruined.
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“Yeah, I am not fond of sunburn. It's a b***h to just wait it out and the aloe vera stuff doesn't always work to soothe it.” he took a deep breath to take in the night air, looking up at the sky. It really was nice to see the stars…It did make him wonder some odd things, like what kind of knight would he be if he were on the opposite side. He’d like to think he would be some bad a** Mars knight or something. Eh, maybe in another life perhaps? Granted he wasn't fond of how he came to be in the negaverse, but that didn't mean he hated the people he worked with.
“Sadly no. My parents want me to spend as much time with my cousin as I can. Personally I think they just want me out of the house, not that I wasn't working on that anyway…” With how…..romantic his parents were towards each other, he wouldn't be surprised if he was suddenly an older brother out of the blue. Emiliano’s ears did not miss the wail nor did he want to explain the eyes staring at him, looking to Leah with concern.
“Do you want to go back?”
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Leah nodded when Emiliano explained why he wasnt going back to Italy, then shook her head at his question about if she wanted to go back. “No, it's okay. Just a noise, probably just some animal … it's not like we're in the city right now…”
She turned and looked back to the cave, “beside I can see the glowing water just there.” She pointed and grinned, “paddle fast Captain Emiliano.”
She put a little more effort into paddling, but not much as it wasnt going to take much more paddling for them to reach the cave. She ignored the next wail, as long as it didn't sound like it was getting any closer to them, it was fine. She sincerely hoped it wasnt a youma, because she wouldnt be able to ditch Emiliano to power up. A wailing youma would be one hell of an introduction to the night life in the city and she wondered if it would send him packing back to Italy.
“Look its so beautiful, isn’t it?”
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True, it could be an animal, either way he was prepared to do whatever he needed to protect Leah. God forbid it was a youma…How the hell do you explain that to someone? THen he would have to call Wither for corruption and it would just be one hot a** mess. He looked over her shoulder, spotting the glowing that was not too far from where they currently were. “Aye Aye Queen Leah~” He then started to paddle faster so they could get to their destination.
The eyes were still following him, but he was going to ignore that along with the wailing that was going on every once in a while. Once they made it to the cave's entrance, Emili had to agree. The cave looked wonderful but… “Yeah, you're ******** gorgeous.” wait…Silver eyes looked up to the ceiling of the cave, clearly he didn't mean to say that out loud but whatever…Cats out of the bag and it wasn't like he was trying to hide it anyway. ******** couldn't help but lean over the boat's edge a little and touch the glowing water. It was really cool and she was in awe … well until Emiliano asked her and she turned to him, cheeks flushed but not fully sure she heard him. He wasn't even looking at her, which made her give him a look.
“Cheesy much Emili,” she said with a laugh even though she was blushing, he couldn't see it in the low night light anyway. She turned back to look back at the glowing water and said softly, “ … thank you. You're not so bad looking yourself.”
Looking into the water she frowned because she was sure she saw a shadow, “... whaaa.”
She gave a loud squeak when their boat was bumped from underneath like something was trying to turn it over. She spun looking wide eyed at Emiliano, “I think its time to get out of here.” She was nervous to put the paddle back into the water, but it was the only way to get out of them, so she quickly started trying to turn them around.
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Emili did nothing but chuckle, shaking his head, “Yeah that’s exactly what I was thinking, took the words out of my mouth.” Of course he did know he was good-looking and he wasn't about to toot his own horn about it either. Instead he gave Leah a toothy grin, “Thank you.” he was about to say something else cheesy when the boat rocked from being bumped underneath. Did he squeak? No. But that didn't mean he didn't agree when Leah stated that it was time to get out of there, quickly helping her to turn them around so they could get back to the city.
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Leah didn't think she could paddle any harder, and the damn boat still got bumped again from the back. What the hell … she hated this city sometimes. Why couldn't they just have a nice peaceful night. “Faster,” she shouted, trying to paddle harder herself.
It took them a quarter of the time to get back as it had to paddle to the cave and Leah was all too happy to drag the damn boat ashore and drop it off with the rental people. Another wail had her looking at Emiliano, like she was then interested in sticking around.
“Let's get the heck out of here … meet you at Hindsight … and this … let's not ever do this again … the glowing water was pretty, but not that damn pretty.”
She motioned to the damn reservoir shaking her head and heading to her car. Hopefully some karaoke could save the night.
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Had this been a different scenario he probably wouldve made a joke about going faster. But since this was not the time or place, Emli moved his arms as fast as they could go, growling in irritation at the stupid thing bumping their kayak. If it was a youma he would definitely try to dust it himself if he was alone [he wasn't sure if that was allowed since he was negaverse but worry about the consequences later he supposed], but since he wasnt , he had to keep his slowly growing irritation in check, helping Leah to drag the boat back to the rental place.
“Agreed. I'll see you soon.”
The glowing water was a bit worth it…He now knew Leah found him just as attractive as he found her…Perhaps there was potential for something there. Maybe he would talk to Cass about it later.
Viva Viola
