The novelty of spending time with Paul hadn’t worn off for Callie, not at all. In fact, even when she wasn’t with him, she found herself thinking about him. She knew she was in deep and, as much as she felt like she should be cautious with her heart, she had no idea how to stop herself from falling so she’d decided just to go with it and enjoy the ride.
They’d arranged to meet up that afternoon for coffee but, after seeing the wonderful, warm and clear day outside, another idea had struck Callie. She’d sent Paul a quick message to say she’d meet him at his house instead of the coffee shop then enlisted Emilia’s help to prepare a picnic basket full of delicious food from Snoozle. Callie had magically extended and reinforced her linen tote bag and tucked the basket, complete with a few bottles of fresh lemonade and elderflower wine, into it with her camera case and wand. She had the straps slung over her shoulder, supporting the weight of it, as she stood outside the door to Head 7 and knocked.
Paul had given himself over to it as soon as he had woken up to find her hovering over him. He had the ability to suppress his feelings, make himself cold, but Atlantis didn’t seem like the place for that. It wasn’t something that he wanted to do there. He had this one small chance to live life the way he always wanted to and he was going to take it.
As soon as he heard a knock sounding on the door, he hurried toward it, flinging it open and stepping forward to greet her with a kiss before using his words. “Good afternoon.” His gaze lowered to the basket. “What’s this?”
Callie grinned. She was still getting used to being greeted with kisses by anyone but her Nonna, although Paul’s kisses were far from familial.
She shifted the bag on her shoulder, the glass bottles chinking slightly as they moved against each other.
“This is lunch,” Callie replied brightly. “There’s somewhere I’ve wanted to show you for a while now and it’s the perfect place for a picnic.” Like the mountainside, where she’d taken him the first time they’d talked, the place she had in mind was somewhere she’d found through her compulsion to find beautiful scenery to photograph. She had an inkling that Paul might find this particular place especially captivating, however, and she was genuinely excited to take him there, to see his reaction to it.
“When you’re ready to go, I can apparate us there.”
Paul had never been on a picnic before. He couldn’t be certain what it was, exactly, only that it must be another thing like dating that people in this time period did. “Is it a date thing?” he asked, stepping outside and shutting the door to the house behind him. He really ought to read a book or something to learn more about the customs.
He didn’t relish the idea of the momentary sick feeling that apparating gave to him, but the last time had been worth it and he trusted her to bring them out whole again. “Ready. Magic us away.” He smiled, holding his hand out for hers.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Callie replied. “But this one is.” She smiled warmly then took his outstretched hand and stepped close to him. It didn’t make it easier to concentrate, being this close to him, but she made herself concentrate on where it was she wanted to take them and, after a centring breath, she disapparated, taking him with her.
When they reappeared, Callie lifted her head, glancing first at Paul then out over the incredible scenery beside them. She had brought them to a small, sandy beach on the edge of a crystal clear, turquoise pool, into which water cascaded down from Atlantis Falls. A smile of anticipation spread across her lips as she lifted her gaze to Paul’s face again.
“I thought you’d appreciate the beauty of this place,” she breathed. She knew how captivated he was by water and, in her opinion, there was no water on the island quite as breathtaking as the Falls. “Do you like it?”
After Paul recovered from the momentary sick feeling he got from being apparated, he took a look around. Immediately, he was reminded of his birthplace. He had not been born on Arrakis. Caladan had been his first home - a planet known for sea power, not desert power. The waterfall brought him back to his early childhood before he had gained prescience, before he had more titles than he knew what to do with.
The roar of the water filled his ears and he could not help but smile. “It’s perfect. It reminds me of my birthplace. Seems like so long ago now.” He tore his eyes away from the cascading water to fix her with his blue stare. “I love it.”
Callie watched Paul’s face as it was lit up by a smile, exactly the reaction she had been hoping for. Her own face mirrored it and she met his gaze with a feeling of pride bubbling up inside her.
“I hoped you would,” she breathed happily.
Pushing herself up onto her tiptoes, she pressed a lingering kiss to his lips before stepping away from him and lowering her bag to the ground. Out of it, she pulled a folded, tartan blanket, which she fanned out onto the ground, followed by the picnic basket and bottles. She knelt down beside it and motioned to the space beside her, inviting Paul to sit, then loosed the straps holding the basket together and lifted the lid.
Immediately the smell of Emilia’s delicious food wafted out invitingly. Callie took out a stack of plates and dishes, which had been fastened to the inside of the lid, and began unpacking the bundles from Snoozle onto them. She followed them with four stout, sturdy glasses - the kind that wouldn’t tip over on the uneven ground - and an assortment of cutlery. By the time the picnic was all laid out, there was quite an impressive spread.
Her wand was still tucked inside the linen bag but she leaned over and pulled it out. Pointing it at one of the glasses - the one closest to Paul - she muttered, “Aguamenti.” A stream of clear, cool water sprouted from the tip of the wand, filling the waiting glass. She offered it to Paul with a smile.
“I haven’t shown you that spell before, have I?” she asked, looking rather coy.
Paul took a few steps towards the waterfall, looking up at it, marveling at it. He could not remember the last time he had seen one. Childhood recollections seemed so distant now that he had the prescience, with so many more memories to sift through. Turning back around, he willingly received her kiss, returning it sweetly, expressing his gratitude briefly without words against her mouth.
Sitting down beside her, he watched as she unpacked the basket. More came out of it than seemed like should fit in it. He assumed there was some kind of magic involved. What he wasn’t expecting was the spell she performed after pulling her wand out.
He took the glass, unable to wipe the expression of awe off his face, his jaw slightly dropped as he stared at it. “You just…” Paul brought it to his lips, sipped it. It tasted pure and unpolluted. “You are a marvel.”
Callie couldn’t help but grin as she watched Paul taste the water in his glass. Aguamenti wasn’t an easy spell but she’d mastered it the year before coming to Atlantis and it had proved incredibly useful, what with all the potions she’d been making here for her photography.
“I’m just a witch,” she replied with a laugh, shaking her head and laying her wand down beside the picnic basket. “I’m nothing special, except perhaps to you.”
“I’m not going to lie, though, I like that you’re impressed,” she admitted, her smile becoming cheekier. “That may have been my aim.”
She reached out for one of the bottles of elderflower wine, still cold from Snoozle’s refrigerator, and poured herself a little.
“Would you like some?” she offered.
Paul drank some more water from the glass before setting it down, looking over at her with a genuine smile. “Not just a witch, but yes, you are special to me.” His smile widened into a toothy grin. “Mission accomplished.”
He watched her pour herself a glass. It didn’t look like it was the fizzy kind, which he discovered he didn’t especially like during that Atlantis Thing when all of the water sparkled. ”As long as it’s not carbonated,” he told her.
“It’s not,” she confirmed, reaching out to pour some wine into one of the remaining empty glasses. “It’s homemade actually. All of it is. My Aunt, Emilia, can turn her hand to pretty much anything in the kitchen.”
She placed the bottle down, nestled inside the picnic basket to ensure it didn’t tip over, then lifted her glass.
“To a wonderful date,” she offered in toast before taking a little sip of the wine.
“I though maybe we could go swimming after the picnic, or before, I don’t mind either way.” She hesitated. “Do you know how to swim? I know you said your birth planet had water but…” She trailed off.
“A lot of your family must be here?” he asked, at the mention of her aunt.
Picking up his glass, he raised it, clinking it against hers, then bringing it to his lips to take a sip. It was definitely different from water, which had long been his go-to. When life had been more normal, when he hadn't had to fight and think about fighting for every waking moment, he had been too young to partake in such things. "I like this date thing," he confessed. He could see himself getting used to it.
"I can swim." Paul cast a glance at the water. It looked so inviting. "I would like to swim again. It has been a very long time for me."
“I will tell you all about my family,” Callie said sincerely. Her family meant a lot to her but their history was complicated and she hadn’t delved into the subject much with Paul yet. If she was honest, it was rather intimidating.
“But, first, let's go swimming,” she said, putting off the conversation for a little while. Paul’s fascination with water in turn fascinated her and she’d rather focus on that at the moment. She knew that he felt like Atlantis was a chance for him to live a life he’d never had the opportunity to live in his own world and she wanted to be part of those experiences for him.
Placing her wine glass aside, Callie stood up and held a hand out to Paul.
Paul didn’t want to rush her into conversations about her relatives, especially given he had his own complicated relationships with his mother and sister. There was Chani, too, and talking about the mother of his child would only make things awkward. He was glad for the immediate subject change.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Before we fill our bellies.” He took her hand and rose to his full height. There was no evident embarrassment as he peeled off his clothes and took off nimbly toward the water, letting out a childish squeal of joy as a foot hit the water. Paul was graceful, he always would be given his training, and he dove in with barely a splash once he was at an appropriate depth.
Callie grinned and stood up with Paul to begin wriggling out of her clothes, casting a few lingering glances at his long, lean body as he stripped and headed for the water. She was just a few paces behind him, wearing the small, black bikini she’d had on under her clothes, and she slowly eased herself out into the sparkling, clear water until it came up to her waist.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the heat in the air from the sun shining brightly overhead, the water felt refreshingly cold against her skin and she gasped as she ducked her shoulders down beneath the surface, keeping her head above water. It took her a moment but once she’d acclimatised to the temperature change and the tingling sensation it caused all over her body, she lifted her feet from the sandy bed of the pool and propelled herself through the water towards the point where she expected Paul to surface.
The cool temperature of the water felt refreshing to Paul as he cut through it. He could, through nerve mastery, make it more comfortable for himself but after spending so much time in the desert, he found the crisp cool of it wasn’t something he wanted to numb himself to. When he broke through the surface, he immediately noticed that Callie had joined him. She was nearby and he swam the remaining distance between them.
“It feels so good.” He never thought he would be able to do anything like it again. Swimming, submerging himself in plentiful water, clear and cool. She had given him a great gift, taking him there.
Callie reached out to wrap her arms around Paul’s neck as he moved close to her. His skin felt slippery against hers and she enjoyed herself for a moment, trailing her fingers across the back of his neck.
“It does,” she replied. She knew he was talking about the water but she meant it in lots of ways: the warmth of his body close to hers in the cold of the pool, the cozy knowledge that someone other than family loved and cared for her and the glowing pride that she had brought that beautiful, toothy smile to his face.
She smiled warmly and brushed her nose against his before letting go of him and leaning backwards into the water. It received her easily and she let herself float on the surface, her eyelids fluttering shut. Her ears were just beneath the surface and she could hear the sound of the falls reverberating from the other side of the pool, feel the gentle misting of spray on her face. It was incredibly relaxing.
His eyes went half-lidded as their skin connected, her fingers against the back of his neck. The tiny sensitive hairs stood on end, not out of discomfort but as if they wanted more. He had been tempted to go in for a watery kiss, but he watched as she leaned back to float on the water instead.
Paul swam in lazy circles around her, enjoying both the way that the wet liquid he had been without for so long was all around him, parting for him, and the way it glistened and sparkled against Callie’s skin. The way her hair fanned out around her head. The whole picture was a vision of beauty. He stared intently, committing it to his memory before he stopped his quiet laps, leaning down to press his lips against her forehead.
Callie could feel the swell of the water around her as Paul drew close and she opened her eyes to watch him as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. It felt lovely and her eyelids fluttered shut again as she enjoyed the sensation. After a moment, though, the teasing closeness of him became too much and she turned, righted herself in the water and kissed his lips, lifting wet hands out of the water to run through his dark, curly hair. The water made her feel buoyant and, as she kissed him, she wrapped her legs around his slim waist, allowing the water to take her weight.
It was, perhaps, the greatest kiss he had ever had. There was water on her lips, he could taste it on his tongue. The pure water combined with the familiar way that she normally tasted. His arms wrapped around her, anchoring her upper half to him. After parting from her lips, he kissed other surfaces of her skin until he had his fill and he dunked himself underwater again, just to feel it all around him again.
Callie broke away from Paul and drifted back in the water, grinning. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, still able to feel his lips on her, the places where they’d touched her skin. She hadn’t been on many dates before meeting Paul but, so far, this one out-did all of them.
After a moment, she headed back for the shore and began wading back in until she was on dry land again. She’d brought towels for them both but the sun was so warm that she wasn’t sure she’d need it. Crossing back to the picnic blanket, she picked up her glass before turning back around to look at Paul. The wide smile crept back onto her lips and she took a sip of wine. Being here, like this, it was easy to forget that they were in the midst of a war. This… this was like paradise.