WHO: Billie Trimble and Thomas McCormack
WHAT: Walking back to the hotel after the wedding
WHEN: Tonight
STATUS: Posting so it's on time and we can finish in comments :D



Billie, for the most part, had never been much a fan of weddings. She was always happy for the bride and the groom, and smiled and said her ‘congratulations’, but seeing everyone so happy and surrounded by friends and family made her think about all the friends and family she lacked. She was quite certain that the few weddings she had been invited to, she had showed up alone, never being the type to fill out the ‘plus 1’ section on the invitation response. She was always placed at the ‘singles’ table, left to sip at her champagne and watch as the people around her would dance with their significant other, or laugh with all the people they knew.

Tonight was different though – she still didn’t have a date, to Carys and Drake’s wedding, but at least she knew the people sitting at her table. She was surrounded by her teammates and their significant others, but the person she had decided to take a seat next to was the Magpie who she had become closest to over the last couple of weeks, Thomas McCormack. They talked for most of the night, mostly about how they felt about weddings as of late – his view on marriage had been a little warped after everything that had happened with his fiancée, but they shared the fact that they were both there to support their teammate. It would have looked bad, to not attend such an event – besides, who wanted to pass up an opportunity to skip practice to spend some time in Hawaii?

Billie’s heels were hanging from her fingertips as she walked barefoot through the sand, a gentle breeze rustling the bottom of her skirt, the fabric brushing against Thomas’ slacks, seeing how he was walking beside her on their trip back to their designated sleeping area. She was drunk on champagne, but she wasn’t nearly tired enough to go to bed just yet. That was when she spotted the empty, lit up swimming pool off to the side. She stopped in her tracks, and smirked to herself before looking over to Thomas, a brow arching as her lips cut deeper into one of her cheeks - the look she got when she was up to something.

“Wanna go swimming?”

His eyes drifted past her and looked toward the pool. His body was exhausted from the trip, the ceremony, and the reception, but his mind was whirling with the excitement of the past two days. Thomas had never been outside of Europe, and those trips were only for quidditch, and mostly for his sister’s quidditch antics. It really was a beautiful wedding, the ceremony and the reception. Of course he’d been a bit cynical, but it was easy to get lost in the romanticism of it all. Thomas had stared at the couple, wondering how on earth they’d been so sure after just a few months, but he could see that there was no doubt. He wanted something like that, but knew that he’d have to get over his other relationship issues before he could even think about anything like marriage.

Thomas’ eyebrows rose and he smiled. What the hell, right? They had enough money to pay off whoever they pissed off for being in the pool so late, and Drake had mentioned renting out nearly everything on the bloody island so they could all have their fun. Thomas tilted his head toward the pool and started on the pathway down it. It was a cool night, but from the drinking and dancing (only a few dances, and that was only because the girls had dragged him to the dance floor) and eating and just all the fun that had been had, he’d gained a bit of a sweat. So a nice dip in the pool was definitely something to look forward to.

They reached the edge and Thomas kicked off his sandals and dipped his foot in to test the waters, “Perfect.” He didn’t hesitate in pulling off his shirt; the casual feel of the wedding had left him in Bermuda shorts and with a few drying spells he didn’t think it would be a problem. Plus, he was sure Billie had already seen him this way; the women were always bursting into the men’s locker room to rant about the match and not pay any mind to their half dressed states.

He looked down in the water again, “I haven’t been swimming in ages.”

No words needed to be spoken to let her know that he was up for a dip in the pool, and she smiled again before following him down the path. Billie dropped her shoes down, and pulled the hair tie out of her hair, running her fingers through the loose braid that had been draped over one of her shoulders, untangling it. She placed the band between her teeth, and worked on carefully unzipping her dress, allowing it to drop to the ground, stepping out of the pile of fabric that had collected at her feet. Normally, she would have been self conscious about the scar that ran up the side of her torso, currently exposed due to the fact that she was standing in her bra and underwear (it covered just as much as a bikini would have, anyway…) but she couldn’t find it in her to care about it too much. The marking had been left by a Death Eater when she was 14 years old, but that was something she wasn’t ready or willing to talk about.

To anyone.

She’d wrap her hair tie around her wrist, once again combing her fingers through her hair as she looked over at Thomas. “Neither have I, come to think of it…” Circling the pool, she found her way to the diving board. She’d bend her knees so that it had a bit of a spring to it.

“Here goes nothing…”

Backing up, she hesitated before getting a bit of a running start, jumping once before finally diving into the pool. She swam to the top, taking in a breath of air as she pushed her hair away from her face.

“Come on, what’re you waiting for?”

She waded in the water, using her legs and arms to keep her afloat.

Of course he’d noticed the scar. Thomas tried to keep his expression neutral, but it wasn’t something that looked like a quidditch injury. Or maybe it was? He had no way of knowing, and there was no polite way of asking. Billie didn’t seem to mind him seeing it, however, and he stood by the edge of the pool as she dove in. He was definitely not jumping off the diving board; he could fly at high speeds on a tiny piece of wood, but he was not going to risk busting his head open on a slippery bouncy platform. But he wasn’t going to let her think he was scared, or anything. Nope, since the fight with Brookstanton, Thomas had a new sort of confidence that he wasn’t willing to let go of, and with a great push off he leaped into the pool with a big splash.

It was a different world, being submerged like this. He’d forgotten how much he enjoyed the water, having to be up in the air most of his life. Thomas stayed floating weightlessly under the surface for a few moments, enjoying the feeling far too much to break the moment up just yet. He sunk to the bottom of the rather deep pool, and when his feet touched solid ground he pushed himself back up and broke the water with a loud gasp for breath.

He moved his arms to push himself toward Billie, looking wide awake, “I can’t believe I remember how to swim.”

She snickered at his words, pushing back her hair again. “So maybe I shouldn’t rely on you to save me should I start to drown.” She splashed him with some water, grinning before she leaned back in the water, and started to float away from him.

“I don’t think I’ve been swimming since I was a kid…unless you count that one time I fell into the lake at Hogwarts.” She smirked, and then stopped floating, once again wading before an idea came to her. Being in the water definitely reminded her of her childhood, and she started to swim around him.

“You ever play Marco Polo?”

She forgot, whether he was raised with any knowledge of the muggle world.

Thomas had not thankfully been into the Great Lake, willingly or unwillingly. His roommates hadn’t been rowdy enough to send him into the waters and he was grateful for that. He did not think he could swim well enough to outrace the giant squid that supposedly lurked in the waters. He did recall the game, though, and grinned, shutting his eyes immediately.

“You’ve got ten seconds,” he said, submerging himself once again to begin the countdown. It was kind of childish, but he had just been thinking about how quidditch could be played underwater, or if there were any serious sports that were done underwater. He’d have to do some research, but for now he could settle with the childhood game. Thomas wasn’t sure where he’d picked it up, but he’d retained the information and popped back over the water, calling out for the first time.

Billie was always the type to accept challenges, so she was glad to see that he was willing to play the silly game. She swam to one side of the pool, her back pressing to a wall, making sure to not make a sound as she waited for that first ‘Marco’.

“Polo.”

She had him follow the sound of her voice, swimming around him to avoid being found. ‘Marco.’

“Polo.”

Again, she would weave about. He would call out to her, she would respond – that was just how things worked. Then he would catch her, and the process would be reversed. They played, for a little while longer, and soon it came time for her to be evasive once again.

‘Marco.’

“Polo.”

She watched him, the way he chased after her, his eyes closed, simply following the sound of her voice. He looked like he was having fun…and in her opinion, Thomas deserved to have a bit of it every now and again. She smiled at the thought, and pressed her back against the ladder of the pool, her hands used to keep herself from floating away, waiting for him to track her voice.

‘Marco.’.

He swam to her, and even though he eventually found her, his hand touching her side blindly, when he would open his eyes to look at her, she stared into those soulful eyes of his.

“…Polo.”

She whispered, her eyes dropping to focus on his lips. She remembered then, how they felt when he had kissed her that night. Her sea green eyes lifted to meet his, hesitating a moment before she moved one of her hands away from the ladder, pulling him towards her so this time, she could kiss him.

That was only fair, right?

He’d been wondering why it seemed like her voice wasn’t moving anywhere. Thomas’ hand had dropped down to the ladder, but he didn’t pull against Billie’s grip on him and was quite stunned when she kissed him. Though not stunned enough to not kiss her back, and that alarmed him even more. To Thomas, the drinks they’d had earlier in the night were once again to blame, but he hadn’t felt the slightest bit drunk since they’d entered the pool. His hands tightly held onto the bars of the ladder on either side of her, pushing himself up and against her. Thomas had definitely not kissed anyone like this in a long time, and it was easy to get lost in the feeling, especially since tonight he wasn’t upset and ridiculously intoxicated.

His foot slipped on the edge underwater and that was the only reason the kiss broke, but Thomas shook his head and looked down at the water between them. He grew red at the close proximity and couldn’t catch her eye again,

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said softly, at the moment wanting nothing more than to start kissing her again. When was the last time he’d been this close with a woman? Thomas couldn’t remember, and it was nearly killing him as he kept himself away, “I can’t do this.”

There was no way he could get himself into another relationship, there was no way that he was ready for something like that, especially with a teammate. Billie had become the one Magpie he found himself ready and willing to talk to, to hang out with, and how could he let himself ruin something like that after he’d tried so hard to gain a friendship on the team. “I can’t.”

Billie had a few reasons for catching his lips like she did – for starters, she knew she was going to have to catch him off guard if she wanted to keep his attention for a little while, seeing how he had a tendency to over analyze things as they were happening. The second reason was that she just…wanted to. It seemed like a good idea to her – she wanted to kiss him, and she wanted to be kissed back. While she had no way of predicting whether or not the latter would happen, she needed to take a chance, and that’s what she did. She knew about all his troubles with women – this wasn’t any attempt to get him to fancy her, or anything like that, though she understood why he was making such assumptions as he kept himself from her, not looking at her once after his lips were free from hers, using them to tell her about what they ‘shouldn’t’ and ‘couldn’t’ be doing.

“…I think that all depends on what you think ‘this’ is.”

Her shoulder blades shifted against the ladder, her hand moving from the back of his neck to his shoulder, keeping steady, her toes barely just touching the floor of the pool.

“I know you’re not looking for anything serious right now…but neither am I.”

She gnawed thoughtfully at her lower lip, looking down at the water before lifting her eyes to focus on him.

“I know you’re concerned, seeing how we’re teammates and you think it may bring…complications,” to say the very least, “but do you really think I would want to jeopardize either of our reputations – personal, or professional?” She lifted her hand, using it to push his saturated hair back, eventually tangling her fingers in the shorter hairs at the back of his neck, pulling herself a little closer, hoping to get him to make eye contact with her again, her voice low with her next suggestion.

“Can’t this just be…fun?”