The Shore

[Bryce Andrews]

"Exactly like that," Bryce said, grinning as she talked about her friends, ones that he'd gotten to know through her stories. He'd met Sarah briefly, knowing the elusive performer was one of Naomi's dearest friends, and he hungered to know bits and pieces of Naomi's life, just as he knew she longed to know pieces of his. He only hoped he had the courage to let her in the way that she wanted, the way that she deserved.

She talked of missing him and his smile softened as memories filled his mind. To those who knew the truth of their past, they might write off their past encounters as the romantic notions of strong-willed teenagers, but Bryce knew better. Naomi had crawled into his mind, into his very soul, that evening and never let go. Foolish or not, there wasn't another woman for him and he knew it. "No need to miss me any longer...I'm here now, baby doll."

[Naomi Talbot]

She flashed him a smile and set her forehead against his chest. Needing the touch before she pulled back, locking her delicate fingers with his. Though her eyes never once left his face, she wanted to see him clearly. She needed to see him clearly.

"Walk me home?" she couldn't hide her smile, nor did she want him to pull away. Never did she want to feel like he was out of reach again. He said she could have him, now she wasn't about to let him go.

[Bryce Andrews]

Bryce lifted a hand to cup the back of her head as she leaned into him, his fingers tangling into her hair and marveling at the simple sensation of holding her like this. After a moment he tugged gently at her hair, causing her to look up at him so he could lean down and capture her in a kiss, tender and firm and altogether kind of wonderful.

"It would be my pleasure," He said softly when they drew back and he took her hand, tucking it into his arm and turned towards Caprice before smiling down at her. "I hope you have a boatload of patience, baby doll...I'm not real experienced at this whole thing."

[Naomi Talbot]

She had to laugh as her fingers closed over his arm, her hair loose in the wind as they started to walk. There was nothing more to do or to say at that point, she was head over heels and never wanted to be parted from him. Never again, ever, ever. "I've got all the patience in the world, Bryce. After all-- I waited for you."

[Bryce Andrews]

He settled his hand over top of hers for a moment, squeezing her fingers before dropping his hand away and shoving it in his pocket and relishing in the feel of her arm tucked through his. He smiled at her comment, a wide grin that was rarely seen on his face as he looked down at her. "So you did, Naomi...so you did." And he didn't know that he'd ever be able to imagine why. What twist of fate had granted him the privilege of this woman by his side, what would have caused her to wait all those years while he made choices that would only serve to push her away.

"Perhaps on the way back to Caprice we could stop and get some dinner," He said after a long moment of debate with himself, feeling almost shy at the thought and then chiding himself for being ridiculous.

[Snoddy King]

((New Day -- Reserved for Half Pint and/or Luna))


With the weather getting warmer and a need to get back into a normal life, Snoddy had decided that today would be the day he made good on his promise to teach Half Pint how to catch mullet barehanded. Shucking off his shoes and socks at the shore, he rolled up his pants legs to his knees and waded out into the chilly water. Stalking quietly through the water, lifting his feet and stepping down again slowly and carefully so as not to disturb the soft sand and raise a telltale sand cloud to frighten the fish off, Snoddy crouched in the shallows, hovering over the water to block the reflection of the sun off the lapping waves.

"Come on, kiddo!" he called back to the shore. "It's not that cold! Just roll up your pants so they don't get wet!"

[Half-Pint Dantès]

Half Pint couldn't contain his excitement to be out of the house. Ever since he had walked out the front door to the Lodging house, he had been running here and there and bouncing all over the place--letting loose all the energy that had built up during the winter months. He was also excited to be out with Snoddy, learning to fish barehanded.

"Come on, kiddo!" he called back to the shore. "It's not that cold! Just roll up your pants so they don't get wet!"

"Okay Snoddy!" Half Pint replied, as he plopped himself down on the grass and quickly removed his shoes and socks, throwing them behind him carelessly. Then, he stood up and rolled both pant legs up to his knees and rushed down to the shore line--stopping abruptly before wadding into the water. Remembering Snoddy told him to disturb the ground as little as possible, he stepped carefully into the water and made his way over to stand beside Snoddy, mimicking his stance. "Now whadda we do, Snoddy?" He asked, looking into the water--imitating Snoddy--not exactly sure what he was looking at.

[Nike Kennedy]

Nike walked along Rockaway beach, her shoes dangling from one hand, her pants legs rolled up a few scandalous inches above her bare feet, and her mind a million miles away. Daydreaming was one of her many pastimes and she did it whenever she was alone (or just bored). As Nike walked, she made patterns with her footprints and occasionally looked behind her to watch as they were washed away by the incoming tide. She untied the ribbon that held her ponytail in place and allowed her long blond hair to move freely, going in whichever direction the wind took it. A smile crept onto her face at the feeling of sand between her bare toes and sun-warmed wind through her hair.

A familiar pair of voices broke Nike out of her reverie and she looked around quickly, her heart skipping a few beats in excitement. She spotted Snoddy and Half Pint wading in the shallows ahead of her and giggled at the site they made. Snoddy, serious and intent on what he was doing (smiling of course), and Half Pint, trying to mimic his idol’s every move (his face screwed up in concentration). She deliberated for a moment on whether or not to interrupt them, biting her lip and wiggling her toes in the sand, before deciding they wouldn’t mind.

“’Hey, boys!” She shouted over the roar of the waves. Jogging over to where they were, Nike stopped just close enough to the water so that it lapped at her feet and grinned (mostly at Snoddy). “What’s new?”

[Snoddy King]

Snoddy slid his gaze toward Half Pint and suppressed a chuckle at the way the little man was hunched over the water, face drawn in complete seriousness as he contemplated the rippling water without even knowing what he was looking for. "Okay, now you hold real still, and you wait... There's a lot of waiting in this, but the payoff is good. You can catch fish with your bare hands, you can catch damn near anything."

Snoddy looked to the water again, squinting into the shallows and speaking low so as not to frighten off any critters he could snatch. "Just gotta wait for 'em, they'll come. Little silver fish, about this long--" (He held his index fingers a few inches apart.) "--and wide as a man's thumb. They'll come right up to you and nip your ankles..."

Standing there above the water, watching the waves roll in and out, Snoddy could feel someone coming up the beach in their direction, a talent he credited to his tracking abilities. Looking up, he recognized the form of Nike, Styx's sister, the girl he'd rescued from the warehouse himself. Raising upright just a bit, he waved back to her.

"Hey," he called, trying to keep his voice low but still be heard, "you wanna learn to catch fish with us?"

[Half-Pint Dantès]

"--and wide as a man's thumb. They'll come right up to you and nip your ankles..."

Half Pint listened and watched, with a look of awe on his face, as Snoddy described the fish. "Wow! You think if I get really good, Snoddy, I could catch a shark with my bare hands?" he asked naively--unaware of the danger in that. "That'd be so cool!" His face lit up thinking about catching his shark. He stared down at the water imagining the little fishes they were catching were great white sharks.

Half Pint heard Nike's voice before he saw her, being as he was so wrapped up in fishing with Snoddy. “’Hey, boys!” He turned to face the girl and waved enthusiastically. "Hey Nike! Snoddy's teaching me ta catch fish with my bare hands! Where's Styx?! Maybe he would wanna learn too!" Half Pint looked around but didn't see his other friend anywhere, so he just shrugged and turned back to stare in the water waiting for Snoddy to show him the next step. He crouched down lower in the water getting the bottom of his folded pant legs wet, and scrunched up his face in concentration.

"you wanna learn to catch fish with us?"

Half Pint stood up straight and looked up at Snoddy, frowning and crossing his arms in front of his chest. "She's a girl Snoddy. Girls can't fish. Fishing is just for boys." He liked Nike well enough. For a girl, she was cool. But, lately he had been noticing a slight change in Snoddy and the way his best friend seemed to smile more with the girl around. He didn't like it. When any of the older boys started acting that way with a girl, he noticed they tended to spend more and more time with the girl and less and less time around the Lodging House and their friends. Snoddy was his best friend.

_{(I'm just going on the assumption that you still plan on Snoddy and Nike liking each other. If I'm wrong I'll modify this. and fyi Dani, Hp is just pouting. Not trying to make you go away.}

[Nike Kennedy]

"Hey Nike! Snoddy's teaching me ta catch fish with my bare hands! Where's Styx?! Maybe he would wanna learn too!"

Nike laughed quietly, taking the hint from Snoddy’s lowered voice, and shoved her hands in her pockets. “I think he’s somewhere in ‘hattan, cub, he was lookin for some good Dutch food.” Flashing a grin at her brother’s little admirer she added, “I’m sure he’s jealous of what you’re learnin though… an’ from a pro too, lucky you!” Nike winked discreetly at Snoddy

"Hey, you wanna learn to catch fish with us?" • "She's a girl Snoddy. Girls can't fish. Fishing is just for boys."

As much as she wanted to jump in and learn how to catch fish with her hands too, Nike wasn’t going to take this moment away from Half Pint. She knew Snoddy had been promising to teach him for a while and felt bad for interrupting it. Shrugging nonchalantly, she laughed it off. “Don’ worry bout it, short stuff, I jus came out here ta get some sun and some air that didn’t smell like soot. I think I’d rather jus lay back here and watch, anyway.” Nike sat down on the sun-warmed sand, legs stretched out in front of her and arm propped back behind her, smiling at the two of them to prove her point.

[Snoddy King]

Snoddy, with a grin he couldn't shake plastered across his mug, nudged his little friend with an elbow. "Don't go tellin' girls what they can't do, kiddo. Then they get all snippy and won't talk to ya. Probably wouldn't mind so much now, but when you're older... you will." But Nike turned down his offer anyway, choosing instead to sit on the shore and watch. "Have it your way, but don't get mad at us if you wind up with a fish in your lap!"

Still smiling, he turned back to Half Pint and the task at hand, instructing him on how to get into position. "You gotta hunker down like this, see?" He crouched down in the water, the waves lapping just shy of his rolled-up cuffs, poised so his body blocked the sun's reflection off the water directly in front of him, allowing him to see through the clear water to the gravelly sand. "Keep the sun at your back, so you can see into the water, and then you wait for the fish to come to you. Just hold still... and you should... start see 'em coming back..."

As he spoke, the first few sentries of a small school began to edge back into his field of vision. Nervous and uncertain, they darted here and there at first. "You see 'em? Don't move, or you might scare 'em off again. When they're movin' like that, they're testin' things out. They see your legs and don't know whether they oughta be afraid or not. So just wait..."

As they stood perfectly still, the fish began to calm, their silver bodies drifting with the current as they stopped fighting against it to stay alert. A few more moved into Snoddy's shadow, and some of them came right up against his ankles, nipping experimentally at the hairs on his legs.

"When they start biting like that, it means they think we're not a threat, now they're seeing if we're food, and that's when you gotta grab 'em. Pick one of 'em out with your eyes, follow it, don't take your eyes off it. Bend down, and slowly put your hands in the water. Go slow, don't scare 'em off again." He demonstrated as he spoke, slowly sliding his hands into the water, inching them deeper knuckle by knuckle until his hands were submersed up to the first joint of his thumbs. In this position, with his face much closer to the water, he dropped his voice to a whisper to try and keep from alerting the fish to his presence as a predator. "Wait for your fish to come close... and when he gets right under you... grab 'im!" He lunged, tense and fluid at once, only his arms moving as he snatched at the fish, enclosed his fingers around it's slick body and yanked it free of the water with barely a disturbance to the surface.

Holding his quarry aloft, he displayed it to Half Pint--a small, narrow fish, about the length from his wrist to the tip of his fingers, and an inch wide, give or take a bit as it wriggled this way and that, trying to escape. "See? Easy as that. Just takes a little practice, and you'll be snatching fish outta the ocean in no time, short stuff."

[Half-Pint Dantès]

“Don’ worry bout it, short stuff, I jus came out here ta get some sun and some air that didn’t smell like soot. I think I’d rather jus lay back here and watch, anyway.”

Half Pint smiled at Nike, relieved that the girl wouldn't be joining them in the water. The shore was a good place for her.

"Don't go tellin' girls what they can't do, kiddo. Then they get all snippy and won't talk to ya. Probably wouldn't mind so much now, but when you're older... you will."

Half Pint shook his head no and scrunched up his nose in disgust. "Nu-uh. Girls aren't like us boys... I'll never be like the big guys, making 'moon eyes' at them and following them around. That's boring." He would never think of girls like that. "What's so special about girls...?" He looked over at Nike, trying to figure out what it was. Half Pint liked Nike enough--she was Styx's sister and she was different from other girls--but she was still a girl. A girl, in fact, who seemed to be catching his best friend's attention lately. Half Pint sighed and turned back to the task before him; bare-handed fishing.

"You gotta hunker down like this, see?"...

Half Pint watched Snoddy's demonstration, paying close attention to every little thing the older boy did. As Snoddy lifted the little fish out of the water, Half Pint's eyes grew in amazement and a huge grin spread across his face. "Wow! You did it, Snoddy!" he whispered excitedly. "Lemme try now."

Half Pint crouched down above the surface of the water just as Snoddy had--wetting his pant legs because of his shorter legs--and stood perfectly still waiting for the first few nibbles on his legs, his tongue sticking out from between his lips and his brows furrowed in concentration. As he felt the first nibble to his ankles, he slowly and carefully lowered his hands into the water. Just as a fish swam underneath him, he lunged for it as Snoddy had. He almost had it but just as he started to enclose it in his hands, his foot slipped and he lost his balance falling face first in the water becoming fully submerged underneath. He splashed around a bit--being taken completely by surprise--before regaining his footing and standing back up, coughing. Having lost his hat, his sopping wet hair hung down in his face, so he pushed it out of the way and looked up at Snoddy, frowning, "I *cough* almost had it, *cough* Snoddy."

[Nike Kennedy]

Nike wanted so bad to laugh out loud at Half Pint’s view of girls, but knew it might hurt his feelings (or just confuse him more). She managed to limit herself to a snort-laugh, covered up with a cough into her elbow. Poor kid, he had so much yet to learn…

"Have it your way, but don't get mad at us if you wind up with a fish in your lap!"

She smiled and shook her head, “Don’ worry, I won’t.” Nike enjoyed things most girls found disgusting and un-lady like, so getting a fish thrown into her lap would be nothing short of hilarious. Grinning wickedly, she winked at him, “Jus’ don’ get mad at me when I throw it right back atchya, boyo.” She wondered briefly if Snoddy was one of the “big guys” HP was talking about. Biting her lip, she watched the two of them and allowed her mind to mull it over. Nike applauded at Snoddy’s successful catch and at Half Pint’s gallant attempt. The two of them really were a cute pair.

[Snoddy King]

With the mullet still clutched in his fist, Snoddy brought the back of his hand up to his mouth, suppressing the grin that rose at the sight of Half Pint, soggy and pouting up at him with wounded determination. "No worries, mate," he said, offering his fishless hand to Half Pint to help him up out of the water. "Just takes some practice. You'll get it in time." Peering into the water, made murky with the silt raised from Half Pint's graceless dive, Snoddy made a face--as he expected, the fish had beat a hasty retreat for safer waters after the splashdown. It would be a long time before they found a mind to return again. And besides, Half Pint was soaked and dripping while the chill of spring hadn't quite been shaken yet.

"I say we take a break and dry out, yeah?" he suggested. "Gettin' sick ain't gonna do no one no favors." He contemplated the fish in his hand again, watched its mouth snap open and closed as it sucked air, its gill covers flexing impotently, and Snoddy frowned. Wasn't much he could do with just one fish, wouldn't even make enough meat to feed Half Pint. Giving a small sigh of indifference, he tossed the fish back into the water, watching in the same reverence he had every time he watched a fish slide noiselessly back into the water, not making more than a ring of ripples on the surface.

He spied Half Pint's hat drifting just under the surface and snatched it up, wringing it out and plopping it wetly on Half Pint's head. A hand on the boy's back to snatch him up if he started to topple into the undertow, he headed back for the shore where Nike was waiting, watching them.