Later that evening Truly puts a blue walking harness on her long-haired orange tabby. The poor boy's cooped up in her room, and he needs a nice walk. As she heads out, she grabs a small hand mirror and clips Nutty's leash on him before scooping him up and carrying him through the house. Once outside and in the cooler dusk air, she takes a deep breath in. The light scent of saltwater fills the air. When she steps on the front lawn, she sets her cat down and starts walking the medium-sized diva.

"Since it's dusk, and noh one seems to be around, now is as good of a time as any to try a small love spell, right?" Truly glance down at the cat that's paying her no mind and only prancing along next to her. With a nod, she agrees with herself. "Right." She walks down past Alpha Pi's house and part way down a walking path that leads to the campus lake. Truly finds a nice secluded spot where no one will notice her.

"Now, Nutty, I just need to walk backward ten paces and spin around t'ree times. When I come to a stop, supposedly me future husband will show up in this mirror." She waves the mirror to the cat to emphasize it. "When noh one shows, it'll prove t'at all those tingles I felt when Kade touched me are bogus. Soulmate indeed." She rolls her eyes at the thought.

The feline lazily blinks up at her.

"Yer a helpful little sidekick, ye know t'at?" Tru takes a deep breath in and turns around. "Here goes nothin'." Tru takes ten steps backward as she nervously bites her lip. As stupid and superstitious as it sounds, the little white witch knows this will work. The few charms she's compiled haven't failed her yet. On the tenth step, she lets out a shaky breath. "T'ink I should close me eyes, Nutty?" The cat doesn't answer but Truly nods, anyway. "Yer probably right, I should. Bigger reveal." With that, she closes her eyes and spins around three times. She attempts to keep the leash from tangling around her as she spins by switching the end on the leash in her hands. She trips over a root on the nearby Spanish Moss tree on the third spin, sending her crashing to the ground. Truly drops the leash, trying to catch herself, and sends the terrified Nutty up the tree.

"Feck me!" She curls up in a ball on the ground. The damp grass and mud soak into her clothes. Truly rolls onto her stomach to search for the mirror she dropped. "That's what ye get, ye dumbarse. Trying to cast a spell to disprove t'at ye might have found yer soulmate."

When she grabs hold of it, she gasps, seeing Kade's reflection in it. Her head jerks up to find him towering over her.

"Do I even want to know?" He tilts his head, his wet hair and bare chest glistening in the last rays of the summer sun.

"Why?" Of all the bloody people t'at could have walked by and looked in the fecking mirror, why him? I hurt meself and scared my damn cat for naught. Truly's eyes go wide. "Nutless!" She quickly scrambles to her feet and starts searching the branches. "Goddamn it. Nutless, don't make me climb t'is fecking tree."

A pitiful meow is all she gets in return, causing a very unamused look to fall over her face.

A sigh escapes Kade's lips as he slaps his gray towel against her stomach. "Hold that." His eyes briefly run down her muddied appearance. "Or use it. I'll be back." Moving to the large Spanish Moss tree, he jumps, the thick gold and silver chains around his neck jingling as he grabs the closest branch. His muscles ripple and flex as he hoists himself up and out of view. Once up, Kade eyes the tree's branches around and above him, looking for the little chicken shit. Catching sight of a flash of orange a few branches over, he climbs, only to remember just what kind of tree this is when his flip-flop slides. Slipping, Kade pinwheels his arm before he grabs a branch above to catch himself. "Mother fucker!"

"What?! Don't drop him!" Tru calls out from below.

Irked, he has to do this, and in flip-flops and trunks, of all things, Kade carefully removes his sandals and hurls them down. "We don't." he narrows his eyes at Nutless as his Russian accent increases. "Use these trees for crow's nests for a fucking reason."

The damn cat stares at him from a split in a large branch, hunched with no intention of moving.

"If I had my phone, I'd call Brandyn and have him hoist Petals up here, just to see what you do." Kade grumbles under his breath.

"What?!" The sound of Truly moving around on the ground shows she's trying to maneuver under them to get a better view.

"Nothing." Jumping across to the next branch, Kade catches the moss, his fingers slipping for a moment before he finds purchase. The Spanish moss smacks him in the face, and he sputters, his lip curling in displeasure as he pulls himself up. "She would eat you for supper," he darkly whispers at the cat.

The cat curls up more and gives a deep warning growl that sounds like a person talking. "No, no, no, no."

Seeing a blue harness entangled in the moss, Kade's lip curls. "You're mine, shark bait." He grabs the leash and tugs it free, then uses it as leverage against Nutless to drag his resistant ass towards him. Once he's close enough, Kade grabs him by the scruff and lifts him to look him in the eye. "We can do this the easy way," he dangles him over the edge, tempted just to drop him down. "Or the hard way. Decide feline."

The cat growls but doesn't seem to fight him.

Kade tucks him in like a football and makes his way down. By the time he gets to the last branch and jumps down to the ground, he's as sick of Nutless as the cat is of him.

Truly runs up to him and scoops Nutless out of his arms before kissing the top of the cat's head. Without thinking, she rises on her toes and kisses Kade's cheek in thanks, lingering a little longer than what she intended. A light blush graces her cheeks as she sets the cat down and holds tight to his leash. "T'ank ye." She holds out his towel and shoes she picked up from off the ground.

Taken slightly off guard, Kade nods and runs a hand through his wet hair, only to pull it away with a look of disgust when he finds a piece of moss. I'm going to have to swim another damn lap just to get this off. He inwardly sighs as he drops his sandals and steps into them. It's the only option. There's no way in hell he's going to walk back into Psi Omega like this. Brandyn alone would never let him live it down. "Was that Wintershall voodoo or something else?"

"T'at was me taking me cat out for a walk to the lake." She points down the path. It's not a lie. She was going to take Nutless there next.

Kade takes his towel and rubs his hair with it to dislodge whatever else is in it. "And you just happened to do it walking backwards and spinning with a mirror in your hand?" He raises a disbelieving brow.

Truly lets out a sigh. "I was casting a wee spell." She glares down at the mirror before tucking it into her jean shorts pocket.

Huh, maybe we're not so different after all. Kade's brow loses the defiant angle as he walks up to her and placing a finger against her lip. "Loose lips, Truly."

Truly pulls his hand off her mouth but doesn't let go of him. "Sink ships. Aye, I know. But ye saw me and asked. I could've told ye I was impersonating a drunk chicken, but I don't t'ink ye would've believed me."

A deep chuckle escapes his lips as an image of her just doing that pops to mind. "No, definitely not. Go for a weird haze your sisters came up with next time. You'd be surprised how many would believe you." Kade shifts on his back heel and eyes Skeleton Skerry behind him. "Try not to die to the Spaniard again." He nods to the tree. "I'm gonna go back in and swim another lap to get this off."

"Yer goin' back?" Truly eyes her cat and the path that she was planning on taking to the lake.

Having already taken a few steps, Kade pauses and turns to look back at her. The corner of his lip quirks up as he smiles. "Why? Hoping to catch a little more of me with your mirror?"

Truly gives him an unamused glare. "Noh, definitely not. I told ye. I was going to take Nutty down t'ere. If t'ere's a place to tether him to I t'ought I'd take a dip."

"There's a bench and a tree or two." His grin turns a bit more mischievous, giving him an air of danger. "You're welcome to come. I won't mind the view." Kade runs his eyes over her for reference. "Not one bit." Not expecting her to take the bait, Kade makes his way back down the grass to the two-mile-wide lake with a large rock formation in the middle.

Truly rolls her eyes and follows him with Nutless prancing along her side, his tiny bell jingling, showing that they are following along. By the time they get down to the large lake, the sun has dipped far enough down on the horizon that the sky's blanketed in lovely shades of blues and purples. The full moon dances on the water's surface as Kade dives in while Truly hooks Nutty to a nearby bench.

She had intended on taking a skinny dip, but with Kade here, she only strips out of her loose tank top, leaving her in her teal-colored bralette and revealing her under breast tattoos. One large clamshell sits just below both breasts, with a cluster of shells hugging the underside of both breasts and trailing up to a beautiful chain and pearls dangling on each side of her ribs.

Truly slips her jeans shorts off and tosses them on the bench. The black underwear doesn't exactly match the bralette, but it's all she's got to work with tonight. Truly takes her hair down out of the bun. "Just a quick dip to wash te mud off." She glances down at her cat, who's already curling up on her discarded clothes. "Ye know one of t'ese times, ye could reply so it doesn't sound like I'm talking to meself."

Walking up to a deep part of the lake, Truly jumps in. The coolness of the water is refreshing and makes her feel at home. Like most Atlanteans, the love for water runs deep. When she breaks the surface and takes a deep breath in, her gaze scans the lake, looking for her swimming partner.

Kade's head breaks the surface much farther out as he heads towards the skerries, intent on swimming to them like he always does. It's a challenge to get onto, and he likes those; challenges, that is. That and going places most wouldn't dare. The skerries around Atalantis are forbidden for one reason or another. His damn family's legacy's tied around a bunch of them off Ruby Point. Reaching the first one, Kade slaps it with his feet and propels himself back towards the slender little thing that seems to pop in front of him when he least expects it. She says she's a native, but he can't place her island accent to one of the three.

When he gets ten feet out from her, Kade stands on the rock he knows is just below the surface. Running a hand through his hair to stop it from dripping to his face, his eyes slide over her as she treads water. "Better?"

"Aye, not muddy anyway." Truly swims a little closer to him. "What about ye? Got all the moss off?" A smirk pulls at the corner of her lips before she hides the grin on her face just under the surface of the water.

Kade gives a small shrug. "Probably. You can come up if you like. I don't bite." His lip curls. "Often."

Truly eyes the spot he's standing as her daddy and brother's voices echo in her ear. 'Don't ye dare, lass.'

Going against her better judgment, she swims over to him and steps up on the underwater rock. "Ye seem to know the lake well." Truly checks her foot on the slippery rock. "Ye swim here a lot?"

"Every weekday, aye. It's better than the pool, but I'll switch to that if it gets too cold. I try to hit the coastal ones if I have time, but the best ones are hours away."

"T'ere's one up by Ravenwood that me family swims to every year. It's a bit of a tradition." Truly bites her lip, knowing she shouldn't have mentioned anything about her family. Her daddy doesn't want people to know that she's connected to them when living so far from home. She's not even sure why she let it slip to Kade.

Kade gives a small nod. "I prefer the one in Siren's Rock." A breathtaking grin crosses his lips as he thinks about the last time he climbed to it. "Ships the best, rigging's a bit interesting when you try to climb it. I almost ate shit and kissed the depths." He lightly laughs. It'd been quite the rush, too, considering it's at least fifty feet up to the ship itself.

"Calypso's Cruelty?!" Truly's mouth drops open in complete shock. It's difficult to swim out to, much less climb. Only an idiot or a crazy person would attempt to climb that. "Are ye mad?"

"Let me guess," Kade shifts his footing. "She's too precious to climb. Trust me, I've heard the lecture."

"Aye." Truly nods. "It is, and it's cursed." She wraps her arms around herself.

Kade rolls his eyes as he takes a step closer, closing the unwanted distance between them. "I don't believe in curses and technically, it's Bonnie Winter that got cursed. There's nothing wrong with the Calypso's Cruelty. Well, besides being fifty feet up and split open. There's some nice booty up there too." As the moonlight graces her skin, it naturally drawn his eyes to the tattoos just beneath her breasts. "These shells?" His fingers reach out and graze her side just beneath her breast and slide along, following what he can see in the moonlight. Like a sailor led to water, he can't seem to pull them away.

Truly gasps from the hum of his touch, but her body doesn't let her move away. "Aye, and pearls." Her attention drops to his hand as her mind turns to mush.

"They go all the way up like a mermaid cup?"

"What?!" Truly's attention snaps up to him before she tucks her arms around her chest. "Noh. Do ye have yer balls tatted?" She gestures to his crotch before wrapping her arm back over her chest.

Finding her reaction cute, an amused grin crosses Kade's face. "No. Lowest I got is this." He pulls the corner of his swim trunks down low, revealing a woman's red lipstick kiss, the skull and crossbones discreetly detailed on her lower lip as black smoke streams out of her mouth, spelling for glory and gold in its haze.

Truly's eyes go wide before her gaze darts up over his shoulder. Her cheeks turn a deep shade of red.

Kade lightly chuckles as he lets his trunks fall back to sit just beneath his hips. "You blush and gasp a lot in my presence." His eyes on instinct drop to her lips as he closes the distance again, leaving only a few inches between them. "Is that some sorta sign too, like seeing your soul mate in the mirror."

"Noh." Tru's blush deepens. "I obviously messed te spell up. I'm going to have to do another one now."

"That so, guess I better clear my schedule then just for you," he lightly teases, not believing in that sort of thing. "Even I know there's an easier way to find that sort of thing out, bruja." His voice drops huskier as he says the Spanish word for a witch like those who live on Wintershall would say.

"Oh, really?" Truly rolls her eyes. "And how's t'at?"

Kade's lip curls. "Think about, Truly," her name slips like honey from his lips. "Forget the mirrors, and little spells. I'm right here and willing. How would you do it?"

"Yer making fun of me." She huffs as about a hundred things run through her mind that she would do to him if he were serious. Things that would have her daddy ripping her out of school so fast she wouldn't know what hit her.

"Maybe a little," his lip curls up into a half-smile, "but I like to go for gold and glory so..." He licks his lips. "I'll teach you the one I know." He angles his head down as he uses the tips of his fingers to tilt her chin. Before she fully realizes what he intends to do, Kade kisses her fully on the lips.

Truly gasps against his lips. She stiffens for a moment before easing into his kiss and grips the fabric of his trunks with one hand while the other cups his jaw. A fire runs through her veins, and a sense of right falls over her. Her body craves more from him as she moans and wraps her arms around him.

Liking the feeling of her arms around him and the unexpectedly timid way she kisses him back, Kade's arm drops to her waist, pulling her flush against him as he deepens the kiss. The hair on his arms raises as a feeling of static electricity building fills the air.

The scent of the air and the clearness of the sky, though, tells him there's no squall coming. Just as he's about to dismiss the sensation, a clap of thunder loudly booms overhead, reverberating through them and making the water ripple with its proximity.

"Fuck!" Jarring back as his grip on her tightens, Kade's eyes snap up to the heavens, expecting to see a flash, but there's nothing, not even a cloud in sight.

Truly's head drops against his chest, and she mutters under her breath, "Feck me sideways." Her heart feels as if it's about to beat out of her chest, not only from the thunder but from the sparks dancing across her skin from his touch.

"Later. The sky's clear, but just in case we need to drop sail and cut the fuck out." His hand drops to lightly slap her ass. "Start moving this little ass, Tru."

"Feck." Truly look at the shoreline. "Nutless." She quickly dives into the water with Kade just behind her and swims for the shore to save her damn cat from the big bad thunder. When she gets to the bench, she finds the poor thing wrapped tight around the bench leg with wide eyes darting around. "Me poor luv. Yer gonna claw te shite out of me, aren't ye?" She goes to untangle the leash only to get hissed and batted at. "Fecker."

Just steps behind her. Kade grabs his towel off the bench and offers it to her, his eyes still on the sky as he lightly sniffs the air. "Dry off fast and wrap him in it. Water and electricity don't mix."

"Neither do cats and water." Truly takes the towel from him and wraps Nutless up like a burrito before untangling the leash and cradling the cat like a little baby. Only his orange face is poking out. She shifts the cat in her arms and looks down at herself. "Well, feck. I'm goin' to be walkin' through campus in me skivvies."

At her statement, Kade's head snaps over, and a look of heated interest fills his eyes. "Seriously? That's not a suit?"

"Noh." She sighs. "I wasn't plannin' on company."

The sudden image of her swimming naked in his head causes Kade to roll his bottom lip and gnaws it. "God that's hot."

"Put me breeches on, would ya?" She nods to her shorts on the bench. If Finn sees me like this, he'll kill me. Or worse... Kade.

Caught completely off guard, one of Kade's brows shoots up. "Come again?"

"Me breeches, please. I'd ask ye to hold me feckin' cat, but he's squirmin' like a squid in t'is towel."

This is a first. Kade lightly shakes his head as he grabs her shorts off the bench and kneels in front of her with her shorts open to step into just above the ground. "You realize you're the first girl ever to tell me to put their britches on and not take them off on this island?" His cognac eyes lift to meet hers.

"Yer welcome for te experience." She smirks down at him as she steps in. "And t'ank ye."

Kade shifts his weight as he slides her shorts slowly up, his fingers intentionally grazing her skin, making her shiver. As he rises to his full height, his fingers brush her hip bones. With a quick tug to get her jeans up over her ass, he conveniently brings her up against him as he secures her shorts for her.

A low growl sounds out between them, showing what Nutless thinks of their proximity.

Dropping his gaze down to the cat who's gotten not only squished but damp, Kade's lip lightly curls. "Looks like your pussy doesn't like to get wet."

"God." Truly rolls her eyes. You're so feckin' wrong, not that I'm telling ye t'at. "T'at was bad." To calm her cat Truly sings as she picks her shirt up from the bench. "Come me luv our world's would part. Te gods will guide us across the dark. Come with me and be mine, me luv. If ye stay ye'll break me heart."

"We need to make a break for port." The words fall from Kade's lips even as the urgency to cut and run fades. They haven't heard another clap. By thunder, I really want to kiss her again. Kade reluctantly steps back. Get it together, Brovern. What the fuck is wrong with you?

Truly nods and follows him as she keeps singing since it's helping calm Nutless. "From te shores t'rough te ancient mist. Ye bear te mark of me siren kiss. Clear te way, I will take ye home. To eternal bliss."

Already fighting the urge to put his hand on the small of her back as they climb the grassy hill, Kade starts when his finger press against her soft skin, lured by the sweet haunted sound of her voice. They don't exist. She can't be one. Fuck, that thunder really messed with my head if I think she's a goddamn siren.

"Far away from te land ye knew. Te dawn of day reaches out to ye. T'ough it feels like an ole sea tale, all of t'is is true. Swim with me, have a look around. Make a life with me in the depths of me deep lagoon." Truly runs a finger up the bridge on Nutless's nose, luring the cat to sleep.

A sense of unease creeps over Kade as they crest the top and rejoin the world. She might not realize it, but there are a ton of Atlanteans intermingled within these ancient houses. She needs to stop. They'll flip, especially any from Wintershall. Kade turns on his heels and catches her arm, pulling her towards him. The sight of her wild, wet hair and plump lips make him briefly forget anything but the desire to kiss her. Like the call of the tide, he finds himself pulled to her lips.

Taken completely off guard by his sudden kiss, Tru's eyes grow wide, keenly aware that others are watching them. She can't fight the kiss, even if she wants to. She's drawn to him as much as he is to her.

An angry, "No, no, no," growls out between them from the squished cat.

When they break apart for air, Kade keeps his forehead pressed against her, uncaring of the stupid cat's discomfort. "Ya have to stop singing. The natives are gonna spook, especially if they're from Wintershall. They'll label you something worse than a Bruja." He opens his eyes, suddenly filling her vision with a sea of cognac. "We're dripping wet and you're singing of luring me to your depths."

"I was singin' to me cat." She whispers against his lips, seeking another kiss, still drunk off his last one.

"You sure about that?" His breath tickles her lips. "Cause those words falling from your pretty mouth sound like they're for me."

Tru shifts Nutty in her arms so that the damn cat doesn't get squashed more, and wraps her free hand around the back of Kade's neck, and pulls him into a heated kiss.

'What are ye doin'?!' Truly's dad's voice rings loudly in her head, causing her to jerk back, a startled expression's written all over her face.

"I have ta go." She takes several steps back, scolding herself for caving to her desires, before turning on her heels and hurrying back to her house.

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