Chapter 13: A Delicate Bloom

SPLASH SPLASH!

"Whee!!!!!!" Cathrine's sploosh-splashing was quite a view to see. This, in odd moments, responsible young woman now took the opportunity (now that everyone was on the other side of the beach somewhere) to use the ocean for what it was intended for. A young girl on a land-mass Colony rarely had the chance for the water splashing fun she once knew.

"Hey, Trowa!! Trowa!! Come on in! It feels awfully good!" Cathrine calls out. The first moment of feeling ashamed for acting like a little child at play passed now in her flurry of enjoyment.

And why shouldn't Trowa be a part of that enjoyment? After all, he was like a brother to her.

Trowa, however, didn't quite see it that way. Cathy's long legs gave him the definite impression of someone far different than a little child.

"Cathrine, aren't you maybe, moving around too much?" He comments on her hopping dizzily about, worried she might slip and fall.

"I'm all right, Trowa! I love the ocean! I came here often as a little girl!" Cathrine recalls with fond laughter those days of pure joy and excitement. "Roll up your pants and come on out with me, Trowa! It's so much fun! I want to show you the little joys and pleasures of life! Let's put some color on your face!" She cries out invitingly. But Trowa's slightly shocked and withdrawn look at her makes her wonder.

"Oh, honestly! You're as unsociable as ever!" She breathes out, frustrated. "...But, Trowa, why not have some fun once in awhile? It'd be good for you! Where else would it be easier to put a gentle expression on your face than here?!" Cathrine giggles out, lifting her skirts above the waves below, gently splashing at her bare feet.

"Oh, yes?" Trowa's expression was almost as near laughter as he could get. "But I really don't know how to do that..." He says with that touch of emptiness only one with his nameless past could experience.

Oh, perfect!

Cathrine thinks to herself of her often-too-straight circus partner.

"No way! What kind of thing is that to say?! 'I don't know how'? Come on! Everyone knows how to smile!" The convincing smile on Cathrine's own bright face turns ditzy as an index finger rises to her pursed lips.

"But actually...actually...after all, when I think about it, when have I seen Trowa's face smile?" Cathrine queries to herself aloud. "Um...."

"What?" Trowa's lovely green eyes open wide at her strange observation.

"Mmn-hn...It's nothing!" Cathrine covers up her silly thoughts and ramblings.

She considers him, standing there. His sea green shirt was blowing in the wind, unbuttoned around his muscular chest. Those tight jeans showed off his masculine legs quite...nicely...

Cathrine idly wondered how such a perfect specimen of physical build and looks could all be wrapped up into one package she called "Trowa Barton."

And yet there was something of mystery about him that intrigues her every sense--inside and out.

Aren't you just the most fascinating man I've ever met...

She giggles the thought as he begins to walk back towards the beach.

"Cathrine, we should be getting back soon." Trowa gives up his question, deciding that maybe something in the fragrant, salty sea air was getting to Cathy's delicate sensibilities.

"Yes..." Cathrine sighs that all the fun would be ending--but it was really about to heat up. "All righhhhh--!!!!!!!!!"

Her bare feet go slip-sliding in the sandy, wet shoreline. She lets a clipped scream fly out along with her filmy skirts.

SPLASH!
CLUTCH!!
GRAB!!!
HOLD!!!!!!

"Are you...all right, Cathine?"

Trowa's eyes--Trowa's beautiful gorgeous eyes are looking down on me--Me!

So close I can feel his hot, sweet breath in my hair.

His strong chin pressed against my head.

So tight---his arms about me in a powerful embrace...

What's this?

Cathrine feels her breath escaping her, with a terrible beating in her chest almost causing pain--but it was a wonderful sensation--the kind of pain that one could look forward to, and could cherish on sleepless nights.

Why? Why is my heart pounding like this?

Cathrine tries to catch her breath.

"Th--th--thank you, Tro-" She attempts to say, but the sound of her voice was washed out by the splashing waves crashing at both their feet.

The thump, thump, thumping inside both of their hearts drowned out any noise the water and wind may have been making.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...

"--wa..." Cathy whispers. Her lilac eyes grew so wide she could envelop Trowa's entire face in them--and that's just what he wanted to do too.

Pulling her slender body close to him, Trowa feels the sudden, urgent need to touch her, to hold her, to capture her lips.

The kiss, the embrace inside of a lover's second lasts for an eternity.

And though her mind knows not why, Cathrine's pounding heart in her ears told her what to do. She leans forward on her tippy toes and up willingly into his entrancing warm lips and heart stopping embrace.

Her entire body realized finally she had been longing for this--for him, for more...

SLAP!!!!!!!!!

"Tro-tro-trowa!!!" The shock in her voice came from somewhere inside the heart of the little girl who wanted the world to never change--the world where she had a little brother who needed her help--not the world where she had a man who needed her touch...

"What made you think to do that all of a sudden?!" She lets out a surprised gasp, pulling herself back away from his tender embrace, aghast at what had just occurred.

I'm glad that was just a gentle slap...

Trowa thinks almost humorously. The red hand print still on his cheek though told quite a different story.

"Does this mean you're ready to go back now?" He offers her an escape out of this situation (and perhaps one for himself as well).

"Are you just going to walk away?!" Cathy cries out, flustered and red-cheeked as Trowa turns away to leave.

"For now...until the time you won't think of me as 'brother' anymore." He says enigmatically over his shoulder, a laugh in his eye she had never seen before today.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...

The beating thundering in her chest was as loud as an elephant's stompings. She tried desperately to make it stop, but how could she?

How could she stop her heart from pounding when he was looking at her like that?!

Trowa...Why is your face laughing...at me?

It suddenly dawned on Cathrine that his teasing smile was kind of a taunt at her, kind of some sort of something he found funny that she couldn't understand. Something he now held over her...

"Wait just a minute, Trowa!" Cathrine calls out, not caring who heard anymore. (They all, fortunately for her pride, were totally absorbed in an interesting match of water volleyball--5 players was one too many after all and Duo was voted to be the net for quite a noisy and frolicsome row)

"Right now!!" She chases him out to the shoreline's edge. "Explain the meaning of what just happened!" She calls out after him.

"I don't understand it myself all that well." Comes Trowa's once again mysterious reply.

That just didn't cut it with Cathrine when she needed her questions answered on such a pressing subject.

"Oooh!! Fine! Be that way, Trowa!" She finally cries out, frustrated that he continued to walk away and leave her to stew in her own questions of what just happened--and what was beginning to happen between them.

Cathrine suddenly realizes that somehow things were changing...

And as desperately as she wanted to keep their pleasant brother/sister thing going, life was changing...

Between me and Trowa...and our relationship...

But what it is exactly neither of us understand, do we?

I don't understand!

Cathrine feels her heart about to burst open wide. "You're laughing!!" She vents her pent up emotions on his disappearing form, shaking two fists in the air in anger at him.

"Don't try to hide it from me, I can tell!!!!" She screams out at the top of her lungs, rushing to the very edge of the shoreline--

And falls splat on her little tushie. No one was there to catch her soaked to the skin behind and drenched skirt this time.

But I liked it when you caught me...

I liked the feel of your arms around me...

I liked your lips...

Lost in her own delirium of the moments just passed, Cathrine continues to sit there, not seeming to notice her wet dress.

How could she? Not when there was so much more to think about now. The sunlight peeking through the clouds lit up her heart's way.