Well, she wasn't hysterical. In fact, she was smiling at him, which was... not the reaction he expected from a young lady treading water in a Mer-filled lake. Her comment, too, threw him for a loop. Was she... flirting with him? It was so unexpected, in the circumstances, that he didn't know how to react. Luckily, he didn't have to say anything, as she managed to get her arm up around his neck (dampening his shirt collar in the meantime), which brought them too close for words or even expressions to be exchanged.
"Alright," he mumbled instead, focusing on the task at hand. He realized that the arm over his shoulders wouldn't be quite enough leverage to get her out almost immediately. The damp clothes were heavier than he'd anticipated. With a slight frown, J reached down with both arms to wrap them around her back to give him something else to work with. "Three, two, and —"
And with one fluid (if not entirely graceful) motion she was out of the lake. He was relieved to have been able to get her out, but less so by what followed: trying to hastily scoot back in order to make room for her in the boat, John lost his balance and ended up slipping down to a sitting position. It wasn't a dramatic difference from where he'd been kneeling a moment before, but it did mean that he had more or less just cradled this girl (who was still entirely a stranger, special circumstances or not) up against his chest. The position made him blush a bit, but he didn't let go of her right away. He wanted to make sure that she had her footing on the boat before he disentangled himself, because it would hardly do to send her crashing back into the water.
In the meantime, he'd gotten rather drenched by the close proximity of the still dripping-wet girl (though not nearly as much as she herself was), and a brief breeze made his skin prickle in all of the areas where he wasn't still in contact with her. "Merlin," he muttered, "You must be cold." If he felt a bit of a chill when the wind blew, after all, it was probably a dozen times worse for her, given her current state.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
"Alright," he mumbled instead, focusing on the task at hand. He realized that the arm over his shoulders wouldn't be quite enough leverage to get her out almost immediately. The damp clothes were heavier than he'd anticipated. With a slight frown, J reached down with both arms to wrap them around her back to give him something else to work with. "Three, two, and —"
And with one fluid (if not entirely graceful) motion she was out of the lake. He was relieved to have been able to get her out, but less so by what followed: trying to hastily scoot back in order to make room for her in the boat, John lost his balance and ended up slipping down to a sitting position. It wasn't a dramatic difference from where he'd been kneeling a moment before, but it did mean that he had more or less just cradled this girl (who was still entirely a stranger, special circumstances or not) up against his chest. The position made him blush a bit, but he didn't let go of her right away. He wanted to make sure that she had her footing on the boat before he disentangled himself, because it would hardly do to send her crashing back into the water.
In the meantime, he'd gotten rather drenched by the close proximity of the still dripping-wet girl (though not nearly as much as she herself was), and a brief breeze made his skin prickle in all of the areas where he wasn't still in contact with her. "Merlin," he muttered, "You must be cold." If he felt a bit of a chill when the wind blew, after all, it was probably a dozen times worse for her, given her current state.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER