"Oh, we don't own this," Bellamy said, as though surprised by the comment. It would never have occurred to him that he would have needed to specify, but now he could see where Alistair might have come up with that. He'd lead the other man here from their house, and there hadn't been an obvious property line or fence that they'd crossed to come here. Bellamy didn't actually know who did own this land, or whether they would care that two strangers were skinny dipping on their property, but if they never got caught it wasn't likely to matter. He'd never been accosted here on any of his walks, anyway.

"We might be trespassing, for all I know. But yes, let's have a race," he agreed with a grin, trying (and failing) to swim backwards and out of the way of Darrow's splash. "To... the big rock over there," he suggested. "Then get out, run to the top, jump in, and swim back to our clothes." A more balanced race than just a swim-there-and-back; even if Darrow swam faster than him, Bell had a feeling that he could make up the time if the other man hesitated jumping back into the pond.

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Alistair stared at Bellamy Echelon for a long moment. "Bellamy Echelon. What do you mean, we might be trespassing?" He blurted out in mild shock, having fallen silent when Mister Echelon had been detailing how their race should go. Alistair had never broken a rule in his life. Had he known Bellamy Echelons middle names, if he had any, he might have included those in his outburst, too.  Mister Echelon did not seem to care much and obviously did this all the time.

Even so, he found he did not quite want to leave though his conscience was telling him to get off some random strangers property. "The things I let you get me into," he couldn't help but muse as he moved so that he was aligned with Mister Echelon in the water. ""Shall we start from here?"

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"Is trespassing a thing here? I can never remember which laws countries have," he commented in an offhand way, having entirely misinterpreted Darrow's tone when he asked about trespassing. If Alistair doesn't understand what trespassing was, however, Bellamy wasn't in a mood to explain it. It had never been relevant in this particular area in the past and he didn't anticipate it would be relevant in the future.

He nodded in agreement about where to start the race, and made his way over. Bell was surprised that Alistair edged ahead on the swimming — he wasn't particularly athletic, but then, neither was Bellamy. Not one to lose easily or gracefully, however, he reached out to grab Darrow by the ankle just as he climbed out of the water, to make him fall.

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"Yes, it very much is a thing," Alistair said. As far as he knew, some families also had magical barriers around their home. So hopefully this home was a muggle one. Not that it would make much of a difference to him. It was still technically a crime.

Alistair gasped when Mister Echelon grabbed his ankle. He laughed as he fell before scrambling back to his feet. "What a dirty trick," he mock pouted before grinning again as he tried to catch up.

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Bell grinned. "I never said I'd play fair," he pointed out, as he attempted to vault over Alistair before he could get up entirely, then scrambled towards the top of the rock. "It's more fun if you don't always play by the rules."

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"I suppose you didn't," Alistair said as Mister Echelon vaulted over him and scrambled towards the top of the rock. He chased after Bellamy and grabbed onto his leg, trying to pull him down towards himself so that maybe he could lunge on ahead.

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Alistair had caught his leg, but Bellamy wasn't going down without a fight. He latched on to Darrow's shoulder as he tumbled down and pulled him along with him, leaving them in a jumble of naked, wet skin on the forest floor. Bellamy was on the bottom of the pile, so he couldn't get up and finish the race first. Instead, he wrapped both arms around Alistair to keep him from getting up and resuming the lead, laughing as he did. "Gotcha."

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Alistair gasped as the other man latched onto his shoulder and pulled him down along with him. As if that wasn't bad enough, Bellamy now had his arms wrapped around him. The other mans laugh coupled with the feel of skin against his own had a rather unfamiliar reaction happening down south of his body. Maybe Bellamy wouldn't notice. In fact, he was fervently praying for it.

"Should we declare a draw and head on back to the party?" He asked, his voice a little pitchy as he tried not to be obvious. His head was swirling and he felt like he might actually swoon like he sometimes saw people do at work.

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"Giving up so easily?" Bell teased. He was still laughing and still holding onto Darrow, and now tried to wrestle him around so that he could pin him down on the grass instead. It was a rather clumsy maneuver — Bell didn't have much experience wrestling, at least not since he was a child having pillow fights. "You're just afraid I'll win."

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Alistair actually squeaked as Bellamy Echelon thankfully indeed did not notice anything but did see fit to wrestle him around instead. The movements were awkward and clumsy but it still had Alistair's cheeks on fire. "Um, maybe but it is also really cold, don't you think?" Alistair asked despite the fact his skin was heating up, his hair a bit mussed up from their movements. What was going on with his body? "Besides, won't someone realize you're not there?"

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"If they haven't noticed by now, no, probably not," Bell joked. In all likelihood they already had noticed that he was gone, but he didn't particularly care. If they'd wanted him to stick around, they should have made it a more interesting party. It wasn't his fault dragging Alistair Darrow into the middle of nowhere was more enticing.

He'd managed to get Darrow a little farther from the rock, and though Bellamy was still sort-of beneath him he decided to make his break. He tried, with limited success, to disentangle himself from Darrow so that he could spring back to the race.

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Oh, thank goodness, the other man was disentangling himself. Alistair moved so that Bellamy could keep going. There was no way that he was winning this race. Not when he was too embarrassed to even stand up at the moment. He didn't want his new friend (was that what they were? friends?) to think that he was some sort of deviant. "Pretty sure you're going to win," he mused. "We should have named some sort of prize."

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Bell reached the top of the rock and made his jump back into the pond. He resurfaced and grinned up at Darrow, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes while responding. "The prize is the thrill of victory," he joked. "I suppose the loser could owe the winner a favor. But do you want to tack that on now, when you know you're going to lose?" He'd paused to bob in the water for a minute and talk, but now Bellamy started making purposeful strokes towards the finish line.

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Alistair's cheeks colored. That had honestly not even occurred to him, he should have kept his mouth shut! "Never mind, I.. did not think of that fact," he said as he finally reached the top of the rock himself and managed to jump back into the pond. He was now grateful for both the cool water and the apparent obliviousness of the other man. And despite the fact it was obvious a winner was decided, Alistair did his best to be swift. "Looks like you've won," he said with a smile as he collapsed onto the grass after finally making it back out of the water.

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