Eye Candy [Crit]

Another day of practice for the Academy swim team, another day of Jacob having to endure the hungry gazes of horny students and a few teachers. The practice had become so commonplace for him, that he hardly thought about it anymore. The swim team, for all their initial hooting and catcalls, had also grown accustomed to the way Jacob attracted ogling eyes and had settled into focusing on practice. Jacob appreciated their growth in that particular area because he always tried to keep practice time focused solely on the practice, with minimal distractions.

The only time that focus was interrupted was the rare occasion when someone managed to muster enough courage or psyche up enough foolishness to approach Jacob, or sometimes one of his swimmers. Now Jacob was no fool. He was aware of his looks and how it made other people feel and think. He worked hard for his body and he appreciated the attention, just not during practice.

Very fortunately on this day, the interested party did not take time away from practice to get his attention. Whether or not she intended to do so was mostly irrelevant. When the woman raised her sun screen body at Jacob as he approached her, aiming to pass by on the way to the locker rooms, he chuckled and shrugged.

"Heh. I suppose I can do that for you now. Just don't expect a happy ending."

For once it was not a student, though it was not the first time someone had tried the sun screen ruse on him. What made this particular and voluptuous woman stand out was that she had a noticeable tummy bump, one Jacob recognized as indicative of pregnancy. He made sure to be extra gentle in light of that.

"Y'know, it's pretty rare to find someone lounging beside the pool on a weekday. Folks usually wait until the weekend, when I'm not using the pool for my team exercises."

"Erm, well... Nevermind about that."

Jacob was against the idea of explaining a "happy ending" to a massage. Vlad's inquiry about it was not the first thing that put a flag about her to Jacob. He instantly knew that Vlad was "not from around here" when she referred to the sun screen as a "salve". After many years of teaching at the Academy, Jacob was familiar with the concept of having students, teachers, and other people come from places that were more than off-island. The only detail he would need, eventually, was where exactly Vlad was from, so he could mentally place her among the other folks he met and interacted with.

"Correct. I'm Jacob. A pleasure to meet you Vlad."

He was as professional as he could be in the application of her sun screen. It was all too easy to misplace a hand or let his touch linger too long, which could then give off the wrong signals to Vlad. Worse yet, it could give the wrong impression to the students around them. Gossip traveled fast in a school, and he wanted that at a minimum.

The dress of a few female students caught his eyes, and Jacob wanted to go and tell them to change into something more school appropriate. But his situation--that is, his hands on the back of a curvy woman--robbed him of credibility and, in their defense, the pool had just opened up for everyone since his swim team practice ended.

"Bikinis. That style of bathing suit is called a bikini. And yeah... I guess it is kind of strange when you think about it, but it's accepted here. As.. lewd as it can be sometimes, many are fine wearing it and seeing it."

But god... Some of the girls were wearing next to nothing. Jacob hoped his own daughter was not wearing something like those.

"Oh! So, uh, how far along are you? Do you know if it's a boy or girl yet?"

There was a girl, probably a senior or junior, nearby that was getting particularly bold around Jacob. She was making no attempt to hide the suggestive nature of her dripping sun screen on her tummy and lower abdomen. Still another girl was desperately trying to hide her ogling of Jacob, and failing because he caught her every time. Jacob had to wonder if Vlad's presence was making the students more competitive, or if he just needed to go ahead and schedule all future practices to be in private.

As for Vlad herself, there was little he could add as she explained how she saw everything given her past experiences. He was starting to guess that she was some kind of time traveler, or from a different dimension(?) that was medieval themed.

He had just finished applying the sun screen to her back when she placed his hand on her exposed belly. Though momentarily taken aback by how forward it was, he settled down once he felt the kicking. He smiled nostalgically.

"Y-Yeah. I have a little girl of my own. Heh. Well, she's not so little any more. She's almost eighteen now."

So far, Vlad had been a calm and respectful woman to him. Despite him having his bare hands on her exposed skin, they seemed to be on the same wavelength on what was appropriate and was not. Considering that, Jacob was still momentarily panicked when Vlad took his hand to move around to somewhere else, somewhere lower. For just a moment, he thought things were changing. Until she stopped and let him feel more kicks. He immediately calmed back down.

"Oh! I see! Well, I hope the little one is feeling okay."

He gave the spot the lightest pat before she stood up to do something, leaving Jacob a little bewildered and curious after helping her up.

"Excuse me? What are you--"

Jacob was cut short by the sudden blocking of the sun by Vlad's wings, and her declarative voice to everyone around them. He was thankful that her wings were blocking him from view. Not because she was hiding his modesty, but because she hid his embarrassed face as she spoke so boldly about him. He wished she could have been more subtle about them knowing that they were ogling.

He was blushing quite brightly as Vlad sat back down.

"Maybe you shoulda been a little softer on the kids, eh? Heh."

A throat clearing later and Jacob was recomposed again.

"I-I do! I have a girlfriend: Lenn. And... Well, I'm just gonna say it. It's not like I have any absolute disinterest in older women. I mean, Lenn is several, several years younger than I am."

He thought it was better to bring that up himself before Vlad met Lenn, or learned of Lenn from someone else, and started getting thoughts in her head. Everyone was going to eventually learn that Jacob was dating a woman nearly half his age. It was better if he was the one to acknowledge it first.

After Vlad's display of intimidation to the students, and after everything she said to him, Jacob was less inclined to believe that anything she was doing was in the name of courting him. She seemed to simply a woman of a different time. A time when women were a little more formal, and the times had different standards for relationships and courting. So when she leaned against him in the hopes of relieving her back pain, Jacob flinched less and even allowed her to take whatever pressure she needed off of herself. After all, they seemed to established the right distance between them at that point.

However, Vlad spoke of a time that was so different that he was at a loss for words for most of what she said. He listened intently and respectfully of course. But there was little he could add when it came to the subject of her family life. Everything about pregnancy had been put behind him after his own daughter was born, and he had been stereotypically thick-headed man even during the pregnancy.

"You, uh, have my sympathies, Vlad."

He could offer her understanding though. His hand went to her shoulder for comfort.

"Yeah, I know. I love her and that's all that matters. It's just kind of a hard feeling to shake. Especially when my ex-wife came to visit. It was, at best, awkward to have my daughter and ex-wife meet my new girlfriend."

His hand did not from underneath her's. He understood the gesture.

"They got along eventually. But still, y'know... It's like... Hey, Chiru! Meet the woman I'm dating now! She's only a few years older then you!"