"you didn't say they had a pool!" Iris shouted at the top of her lungs, turning some a few heads from all around as the sound of a child echoed through the gym's pool complex. "Can I swim in it!?!?!" She pleaded, staring into the eyes of a hollowed soul with her own bright and vibrant eyes. Those eyes... Empty eyes... Flashing back to a darker day where the water was not so shallow, and the currents as fierce as the nightmarish demons that plagued his dreams.

Returning to mental composure, edging away from the ingrained 'Fight or Flight' response, Clock marched onwards, doing his best impression of a decent father figure, "you didn't bring any swimming cloths, and they won't let you in if your not dressed properly." Conflict avoided, all according to plan. "we're suppose to go to the -"

without a moment to spare, Iris has made her move. She was going to go swimming, and Clock would be collateral damage. "Pool Now!" She shouted, clinging to clocks shirt, and pushing off the edge of the pool. Desperate to not die a miserable death because he wanted to get into proper shape, He desperately clings to the pools edge, as a life guard makes his way over, unaware of the attempted assassination. Trying harder to dislodge clock from the edge he so desperately wished to stay on, she made the executive decision to grab him by his head, and dive into the water at full force.

With his final breathe of air, he shouted at her, "Fuck you," before getting summersaulted into the water by the tiny acrobat he'd taken care of for a short while at this point. Upside down in the water, unable to swim, Clock wait silently, hoping he'd get out of the water before it was too late. Having wasted his last breathe on cursing Iris, he didn't have much leeway in terms of time. sinking to the bottom, He turned himself over, And began crawling towards where he thought the wall was, Feeling the floor for any chance of a slight slope upward.

Despite his best efforts of probing for the wall with his claws, his head would be the one to locate the wall; knocking the air out of him. Breathless, disoriented, and in a spot of pain, a rush of water pushed against him, before an arm reached around his torso, and lifted him back up. Peaking from the water, he opened his eyes, and chlinged to the pool ladder for safety. Stood beside him, a very confused lifeguard. "Are you okay? You kinda just, stopped... Doing anything..."

Looking back at the lifeguard, He sighed, and dragged himself out of the pool, taking a few gallons of water with his soggy cloths. "I'm... fine." Halfway across the pool, in a deeper section, a child happily swims laps in plain cloths. "Can you get her out of the pool... I'm not going near that end." The worker obliged, and retrieved the wet Liyorlis from the pool. Sending them on their way.

"You need to learn to swim." The child commented, being escorted from the premise by gym security.

with a empty voice, chilled with bitterness, "You should learn how to fly."

A wave of fear overcame the child. She did not say anything for the rest of the walk home. She did not want to say anything more. She did not to remember that day. She got the message.

---

took a long time on this, and am not the most proud of it. The longer i spend on an art, the harder it becomes to finish, and the less i want to work on it unless i am constantly motivated by things. So i appologize for that. Alternativly, we messed around with Refraction highlights from the watter. Not the most visible, my software is highly limited, but a cute art of clock, and iris. Hope you enjoy. Clock didn't.