Hawke returned to Skyhold with Fenris, Dorian, and Varric. He'd left Holli with Solas, Bull, Cole, and Cassandra so they could travel across the desert and close the rifts Scout Harding's people had found. It felt a little strange to be travelling without Hawke; they'd done a fair bit of it together since he'd become Inquisitor.
The heat was starting to bother her a little, but she kept her mouth shut. The cold was worse. She'd even cut a pair of her jeans into short shorts to try and help against the heat. She had no sandals, unfortunately. But Cole had managed to pilfer her a hat from somewhere. Not quite as wide-brimmed as his own, but wide enough to keep the sun off her face and neck. They didn't ride the horses, unsure how they would fare in the heat. Those stayed at camp, where there was shade and water.
Harding's maps were super accurate, though; the rifts were exactly where they had been marked, and enough landmarks jotted down to make finding them easy. Some of Harding's scouts accompanied them, extra weapons against the demons they had to slay before closing a rift. Though Bull was basically an army on his own. And there were other hostile creatures and people in the area. They'd come across pockets of Venatori, though they had yet to figure out what they were doing all the way out here. Harding had mentioned her own people had also come across them from time to time.
"Do you hear that?" Holli asked Cole.
He was walking right beside her, and he tilted his head to hear better. "Water", he said after a few moments.
She had thought so too. Running water. A river, or a waterfall or something. They hadn't seen any water since getting here, aside from what they had at camp.
Holli sped up, eager to check it out, Cole keeping pace with her.
"Don't go too far," Cassandra called after them.
They rounded the cliff they'd been following to find an oasis further down the path. She wasn't sure if it was down to the last few days in the desert or not, but it was beautiful. Water was pouring from the cliff face above. The pool of water was clear and inviting, half covered by the shadow of the cliff, with more shade from the trees surrounding it.
"Do you think there are crocodiles?" She asked, looking between Cole and Bull, who had come to stand beside her.
"Nah," Bull replied, breaking into a run towards the water as he stripped off his armour.
Holli started running as well, stripping down to her bra and shorts as she ran. Bull jumped off the rock and into the water. She paused a moment to make sure Bull came back up – didn't hit the bottom of the pool and get knocked out or eaten by crocodiles. He came up, laughing and splashing water up at her. She grinned and took a few steps back before running and cannonballing into the water. The water was lovely, cool enough to fight the heat, not so cold that it was unpleasant. She floated on her back, looking up at the sky.
"This is nice," she muttered.
So Bull had to ruin it. She was suddenly dumped with water; it got in her eyes, nose, and mouth. She started coughing and spluttering, regaining her footing and wiping her face. Bull was laughing, her suffering amusing him. She started splashing him back, putting some magic behind it until she had full-on breakers battering against him.
"Magic is cheating!" Bull told her while biting back a laugh.
She sent one last massive wave his way with a cackle, nearly washing him ashore.
"Truce?" She offered.
"Truce," he agreed.
Holli looked around, realising she and Iron Bull were the only ones who had gotten into the water entirely. The others were settling in to take a break; Cassandra and Solas had waded in knee-deep, rolling up their pants to do so, the pair in quiet conversation and an occasional indulgent smile cast Holli and Bull's way. Cole was sitting on a rock nearby watching her and Bull. Some of Harding's people were sitting down sharing food; a couple of others were stripping down to their underwear and taking their time getting in. For a second she had wondered if there was something wrong with the water.
Holli doggy-paddled over to Cole, climbing up onto the rock and sitting beside him.
"Don't like swimming?" She asked.
"I've never tried."
"Do you want to? It's not too deep around here, and the water's really nice."
"Maybe..."
She nodded, standing up and getting ready to jump back in. She wouldn't push him. He hadn't pushed her with the horse; she could extend the same courtesy.
"You have a gem in your belly button," Cole said, looking at it.
Holli looked down. "Yeah, I got it pierced a couple of years ago. Emerald, my birthstone. It's supposed to bring good fortune. It's really dropped the ball recently. Give me a yell if you want to swim too."
She dived back into the water, swimming back over towards Bull, who had found a higher place to jump and into deeper water. She climbed up the rocks and joined him, both looking down. Though the water was clear, it was deep enough below them that it was just dark blue.
"Ladies first," Bull said. "If we want to get loose with the word."
"Ooh what a cop out. Scared, The Iron Bull?" She taunted.
He reached out and effortlessly pushed her off the edge. She let out a startled shriek of surprise as she fell over the edge and hit the water. She pulled herself back to the surface, taking longer than she would have thought.
"Did you hit the bottom?" Bull asked from his place on the jutting rock.
"Yes, I broke my leg and it's all your fault," she called back, treading water.
Bull jumped, pulling off his own, far more massive cannonball. It washed her a fair way back. Not quite as big as she'd managed with her magic, but still pretty decent.
Harding's people were fully in the pool now as well, enjoying the cool water. Soon enough there was a line waiting to jump off the ledge and dive into the water.
After a few turns, Cole called out to her, and she swam back over, looking up at him curiously.
"I think... I'd like to try," he said.
"Cool, I'll come round to where it's shallower," she told him.
She met him at the shore; he'd taken off his boots but nothing else.
"It'll be difficult to swim with all that clothing; the weight will drag you down," she warned. Though it was valid, she kind of felt like a perv for saying it, like she was looking for any excuse to get his clothes off. "If you're not comfortable, you could just go knee-deep like the others."
"I want to do what you're doing," he said, looking up at the ledge people were still jumping off.
"It is pretty fun," she murmured, watching one of the archers dive in. "Okay, then at least lose the top half of your clothes. Unless you've got a singlet on underneath, you can swim in that."
Cole nodded, stripping off. He didn't seem uncomfortable about it, and she really did try not to ogle. He was quite thin, too thin.
She knew he didn't need to eat or sleep, that he was a spirit taken physical form somehow. Solas said it wasn't possession, that he hadn't just taken over someone else's body.
He joined her in the water where she was standing about hip deep. The gentle breeze was cool on her wet skin; she almost didn't want to leave this place. Cole came to stand beside her, his eyes scanning the clear water. He didn't appear anxious or uncomfortable, but there was... something there. Something other than what he usually was. She hummed to herself before grabbing his hand, taking him back to shallower waters, and sitting down. He sat down beside her.
"You've been in a bath before, right?" She asked.
He'd come out of fights covered in blood and had cleaned himself off somehow, either in rivers or lakes or baths, she assumed.
He nodded. "I don't go deep, or under."
She thought back to her own swimming lessons when she was a kid. The first thing she remembered was holding the edge of the pool and learning to kick. She didn't want to treat him like a child, though. She twisted around until she was floating on the surface, Cole watching her.
"We can start with floating, if you want. Like you told me to trust the horse, you have to trust the water. It'll keep you up."
"But Sunchaser is alive and can be trusted."
"The water is sort of alive; it's filled with microorganisms too small to see with the naked eye."
He watched the way she floated. "Is that what makes us float?"
"No. We're less dense than the water we displace. We'll float as long as we keep our lungs full of air. Helps keep us buoyant."
When he made his first attempt, she stood on her knees to help him balance his body properly. He managed it fairly easily, and she had him kick his legs to get him moving. Maybe it was because he wasn't a child, but he picked it up fast. That would make it so much easier. This could be kind of fun.
It didn't take long before she had him swimming in deeper water; he was able to doggy paddle and freestyle. He was fearless, which helped; he didn't have any kind of negative associations with water, didn't fear the deep, and didn't have any problem holding his breath and ducking under. He even admitted to liking being under the water. He liked the quiet.
Holli swam with him and stayed close to him the entire time he was learning, and he even held her hands when they ducked under the water the first few times. He'd been worried he would get lost and forget which way was up, and he'd asked to hold her hands the first few times. She thought it was kind of cute and hadn't minded in the least. It was cute seeing him without his hat on too, his hair wet and falling around his face.
Every time her thoughts took her there, she would mentally scold herself. He wasn't human; he couldn't feel the same way, and her crush was going to end up super one-sided, and she'd be left sad and disappointed.
"Let's try," he told her, pointing up to the ledge.
Holli grinned. "You don't want to try somewhere lower first?"
He shook his head.
"Ok, race you!" She said, swimming towards the shore.
She was a faster swimmer, but once they left the water, he was the faster runner and beat her to the ledge. Not by much though, given she'd had a head start. When they got up there, he peered over the edge, looking down.
"It's higher up here," he noted.
Well, yes, that was generally how climbing to higher points worked.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Holli reminded him.
He looked back at her; he stared for a long time; it was almost unnerving. Finally he held his hand out to her, gaze questioning. He wanted to jump together. She joined him at the edge, dropping her hand into his.
"When you're ready," she told him.
They both stood at the ledge, and she watched him as he stared down at the water.
"Does it hurt?" He asked. He didn't sound afraid of the possibility, more curious about it.
"Only if you belly flop," she replied. "You want to go in the water, not land on top of it."
He nodded, shifting back, and she followed suit. Together they jumped from the ledge as far as they could go. She felt his grip on her hand tighten as they fell and practically cut off her circulation as they hit the water. Even as they scrambled their way back to the surface, he didn't let go. Once they were breathing in fresh air, he smiled at her, a bright one.
"I like it when we hit the water – like a thousand hands pulling us deep into its arms," he said. "Squeezing us tight."
"Like a cold hug."
"You don't like the cold," he said, concerned.
"I don't mind this kind of cold," she shrugged a shoulder.
"You like hugs too," he said, tilting his head to the side. "You wish your mum would hug you, not just your friends."
Holli sucked in a sharp breath, glancing around to make sure no one else had heard. They were far enough away that maybe only the elves would have picked it up if Solas hadn't been lying about their sharpened hearing. It wasn't so much that she wanted her mum to hug her more, or at all; it was more that she wanted her mum to love her enough. To choose her over... well, everything. The men, the drugs, the booze. But it was a desire she had never spoken aloud and had barely even thought of coherently. But yes, hugs too. When she'd had a shit day at school because she and Yvette had been fighting and Holli thought she'd lost her, she could have used a hug and some motherly advice. When she'd broken her wrist at school and been sent to the hospital, she could have used a hug from her mum. Hell, she would have settled for her mum showing up to get her.
"Please never mention that again," she muttered, swimming towards the shore.
"All right," he said, and she thought she might have picked up a note of despondency in his voice.
"I'm not mad," she said. "Just don't like it being brought up."
Cole nodded. "You are enough," he uttered quietly.
Holli paused, looking back at him, her eyes stinging a little. "Not for her," she whispered back as she turned away and got out of the water.
She was already wet; no one should notice the wetness in her eyes. She hated how he could cut to the quick with his remarks without even trying.
Ugh.