Kiernan & Cyrus | afternoon
The sun was already at its highest point when Kiernan pulled himself out of bed, and though he was excited for a beach day, he still took his sweet time making his way to the festivities. It was the hottest part of the day, perfect for being in the cool water, less perfect for being in the sun. Not that Kiernan couldn’t handle it after all his years with the Rangers and Riders, of course, but that didn’t make the idea any more appealing to him.
About an hour later, he found himself at the beach with a large shaved ice drizzled heavily with strawberry syrup, and he forgot why he’d protested. He strolled along the beach to keep an eye out for Mag or his friends, and finally, he spotted one.
“Hey, Cy!”
Hip deep in water, Cyrus threw the last of the gleefully shrieking kids that had surrounded him up and into the surf. The girl shrieked and came up splashing and laughing, and then he spent the next minute or so begging off from his duty as makeshift cannon. He left the kids in the water as he made his way out of the sea, hand raised in a friendly wave and eyes squinting against the sun.
“You’re looking a bit pale, there, Kiernan!” he joked, grinning at the other man. “Did you forget your parasol, or was the one from that dessert of yours just too small?”
Kiernan laughed and took the tiny umbrella in question out of the ice and held it over his head, sighing with mock disappointment. “They just don’t make them like they used to.”
Sticking it back into the ice, he gave his friend a once-over. “Looks like you’ve been enjoying yourself. Been out here all day?”
“Pretty much!” Cyrus all but beamed as he added, “It’s strange to go swimming without worrying about something unfriendly coming out of the water or wandering down the beach; magicks are pretty impressive.” And as far as he was concerned, that was the whole of it -- some of the furor around mages had died down recently, or so it seemed to him, and anyway, it was awfully nice of them to do this for everyone. Someone had mentioned that they might just be trying to look good, but Cyrus didn’t think so. Hadn’t someone mentioned that they’d done this last year, too?
“Too bad Lucy couldn’t come,” he added. Kiernan’s ‘lady friend’ was now a grand joke between the two of them. “Though I guess it might be a bit crowded for her around here.”
“That, or she’d see this place as a buffet.” It’d been some time since Lucy was last by the ocean that Kiernan was aware of anyway. Who would have thought that all that trouble was only the start, and not some random, isolated incident? “And I’m talking about more than just the humes, too. I think she got a taste for some of the underwater creatures the last time I took her here. What can I say, though: she likes seafood, I do not. Such is the life.” Again, he mock-sighed.
Which reminded him… “How about you? I heard you might be seeing someone lately. Spill it, Colle.”
Cyrus had been about to make another friendly jab -- soft city folk and their picky palates -- but at the next words out of his friend’s mouth, he stopped and looked immediately discomfited. People were mostly done ribbing him about that, but in this case, it was well-deserved, and the idea of lying never really occurred to him.
“I think I’d rather talk about seafood,” he said. “That’s a done deal.”
He’d been an idiot, and he’d been burned. That story was over.
A kick of his foot brought an arc of water up to splash against Kiernan’s leg. “Why don’t we have a race instead?” he asked, clearly trying to change the subject and keep the mood cheery. “Out to the edge of the paling and back. Unless you’ve forgotten how to swim, living in the city.”
Kiernan had raised an eyebrow over Cyrus’ short answer, and he knew there was a much bigger story than the man was letting on, but he let it go; if Cyrus wanted to tell, he would. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t, and as long as this wasn’t something that was going to come back later to haunt the guy, Kiernan didn’t mind leaving it alone. He was a grown man, after all.
So, he smirked, eager to accept Cyrus’ challenge. “All right, you’re on,” he said. “Loser buys drinks.”