Takeball

Worldling collapsed with a sigh beside Pyrosis. The sand clung to his skin and hair, but he paid it no mind. A smile was spread wide across his lips– the rush of physical activity was matched by no other. Who cared how long it would take to get his curls clean again? This was a fun day! He fully intended to dart back out into the water with his newly-made friends, but first, he wanted to make sure his old friend wasn’t feeling too neglected. Plus, water, snacks, whatever.

“Come out of the sea, have we?” Pyrosis asked. He turned the page of the book he was reading, and did not look up.

“Just for a sec, yeah.” Worldling pulled himself up into a sitting position. He leaned over and started rifling through the bag Pyrosis brought, and pulled out a water bottle. It wasn’t particularly cold, but hydration was probably important.

“You used to be able to go for longer before exhausting yourself– you’re getting older, Worldling.”

“But I’ll never catch up to you!” He grinned and winked, noting the special tone Pyrosis used to tease. “Besides, I’m not out yet! Just came back for a bit of water. Figured you were getting lonely without me, too.”

“Mm, not so much.” Pyrosis closed his book, and gazed out along the busy shoreline. “I seem to have a certain allure that draws all manner of strangers to my side. I’ve hardly finished a single chapter; the beach is not nearly as relaxing as I thought it would be.”

“That sucks. You should come swim with me!” Worldling took Pyrosis’ hand. “It’d be nice! Especially if you aren’t getting any reading done.”

“Well, it isn’t no reading, but… sure. Why not?”

“Wait, really?” Worldling lit up.

“I can’t concentrate, and I’m in a swimsuit, after all.”

“Yay!” Worldling pulled Pyrosis to his feet with ease. He hadn’t ever seen him exercise voluntarily maybe ever, so to see him approach something resembling that delighted him to no end. “Okay, let me introduce you to the people I’ve been hanging out with!”

“Wait, our towels-”

“No one’s gonna steal your book, Py. Let’s go!” Worldling screwed the cap back onto the water bottle, and tossed it haphazardly back into the bag.

He dragged Pyrosis down the beach, and was greeted by the new friends he had made, plus Abettance.

“Hey, everyone! I’ve got one more!” Worldling announced, kicking up water as he ran back into the sea. “This is Py! Here I was, thinking he was just going to sit on the beach all day.”

Pyrosis would have relished in the cool temperature of the water were it not for Worldling splashing unabashed. He flinched back a bit, trying to avoid getting any in his eyes.

“Hello,” he greeted. There was some on his lips. Gross.

“Py, this is Nate!” Worldling gestured to a person with tan skin, cream-coloured ears, and golden eyes. A pair of blue butterfly wings decorated their temples. Most notably, though, they had tall horns with three prongs each– one of those new envy buns, Pyrosis realised, never having met one or really even seen one in person.

“It’s Pyrosis,” he corrected, placing a hand on his chest and offering a short bow. He didn’t mind it when Worldling called him names; they were close enough. But these people were strangers. “It’s a pleasure.”

“Likewise,” said Nate, returning the gesture. A smile played at their lips– they had never been greeted like this before. They quite liked it– just as they liked how quickly Worldling had given them a little nickname. They felt no urge to tell Pyrosis their full name was really Nathair. 

“And this is Lull,” Worldling continued. He gestured to a small girl with her dark blue hair done back. She wore a black one-piece bathing suit with blue frills so vivid they almost seemed to glow, which matched the water that overflowed the edges where her earls curled.

Lull extended a hand to shake, the more sensible form of introducing oneself, in her opinion; still, Pyrosis repeated that same gesture. She nodded stiffly back. What was that? Why didn’t he just take her hand? Oh, well. It wasn’t as though it was a big deal. She knew he saw that her hand was outstretched. She slowly lowered it, and she watched him watch her do it. Okay???

“And this is Ci!” Worldling gestured to a tall man with deep eyes and a fair complexion. His swimsuit covered most of his skin, which Pyrosis figured was probably to prevent burning.

“Cipher,” he said. He didn’t mind the nickname, but his full name was Cipher, and he felt it important to say. His voice was light and graceful. He offered a short bow to Pyrosis in greeting– of course he recognized the gesture as an ancient sign of respect between demons; someone was well-read. Colour him intrigued and impressed.

“And, obviously, you know Abby,” Worldling finished. “We came here together.”

Abettance nodded her head.

“That we did,” Pyrosis nodded. “Very nice to meet you all, those of you I did not know already. So, what is it you all were doing before I arrived?”

“Well, see, I found this ball,” Nathair said, gesturing to the faded foam ball Lull was holding.

They did not elaborate.

“We’ve just been trying out different team combinations to see who can get the ball,” Abettance offered. “Just– different teams, slightly different games; it’s pretty casual. Whatever we feel like.”

Pyrosis nodded, not in particular enamoured with the lack of structure. But he signed up for this, so…

“Get the ball, and then do what with it?” Pyrosis asked.

“Well, no, it’s sorta… more like one team starts with the ball, and the other team tries to get it away,” Worldling filled in. 

“For how long?”

“Eh, ‘til it’s not fun, anymore.”

Pyrosis frowned and nodded, gazing over toward the beach as he tried to think of a better way the game could play out. Then, he snapped to attention, and ran out toward the sand.

“Wait, come back!” Worldling called.

“Is everything alright?” Lull asked.

“Probably,” Abettance answered. The group watched him use his foot to draw a long, thick line in the sand. “He’s just up to something. Pyrosis is kind of an act-first-explain-later kind of guy.”

Pyrosis caught Cipher’s gaze as he returned to the water. It was the same damn look he’d been getting all day whenever he made the mistake of looking up from his book at passersby– thankfully, Cipher seemed rather bashful about it and pointedly turned his gaze away, pretending as though he hadn’t been looking at all.

“What’s that about?” Nathair asked, tilting their head.

“That is our new goal,” Pyrosis announced, holding his hands out dramatically. “I had no intention of ruining the spirit of the game-”

“I think it should be called takeball,” Nathair interrupted. They laughed at the glare Pyrosis shot them. “Sorry, please go on. I just wanted to say.”

“Right, well, I had no intention of ruining the spirit of takeball,” Pyrosis looked pointedly at them, then turned his attention back to the rest of the group at large, “but I thought it would be beneficial to have a decided end point. And that is it over there.” He pointed to the line in the sand. “Rather than having one of the teams start with the ball, I think neither should; we should start with it floating between us. The goal is to get the ball across the line– whichever person from whichever team gets it there first wins.”

“Ooh, alright!” Worldling brightened. “I like the way you think.”

“You have made that abundantly clear. Now, how were you dividing yourselves into teams?”

“Haphazardly,” Cipher answered.

“We’ve been trying out different team combinations,” Lull elaborated. “We’ve done some splits as close to even as we could, and we’ve played with all against one. Abettance and I have tried a duo pair against the others; we’ve all teamed up against Nathair, and, when that proved too easy, we teamed up against Worldling.”

“Did you win?” Pyrosis asked.

“Obviously not,” Worldling answered, and at the same time as Cipher’s:

“Of course.”

Worldling laughed. “I thought I had ‘em for a second, but, c’mon– it was four against one. With the way Abby went after me-”

“How about we split ourselves evenly, three and three, for these new rules?” Abettance suggested, pointing everyone back on topic.

“I wanna be on Worldling’s team!” Nathair exclaimed, and threw an arm around his shoulders.

“Sounds good to me,” Worldling agreed, wrapping an arm around their waist. 

Lull and Abettance exchanged no words as they gravitated toward each other, leaving Cipher and Pyrosis to stare awkwardly at each other. Well, Cipher felt awkward; Pyrosis did not care which team he ended up on.

“You can play with us, Py,” Abettance offered. Between Worldling’s raw physical strength and Pyrosis’ mental aptitude, she worried that those two winding up on the same team would make the game unfair. Though, Nathair was something of a hindrance– still. She already made the offer.

“Very kind of you,” Pyrosis said, and waded over toward the girls.

“Cipher, you’re with us!” Nathair and Worldling cheered in unison.

The two sets of teams lined up parallel to each other– Worldling stood across from Abettance, the spark of competition in each of their eyes; Nathair, across from Lull, was offering a playful grin (which was being returned by stoicism); and Pyrosis stood across from Cipher, who seemed to be having a lot of trouble making eye contact. When, finally, he did meet Pyrosis’ gaze, Pyrosis offered a little wink that brought a noticeable blush to his fair skin.

Ooh, this was going to be fun.