Private Finished Wet Cat vs a Water Witch

Tadashi looked as serious as he could and nodded. "I promise i'll be more careful and let you decide when i'm ok to swim by myself." After that though he let himself smile again. Zora was being the proper amount of stern but also very, very nice. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to find a better swimming instructor than someone who said they were a water witch.

At Zora's inclusion of him, Ethan grinned and made a sort of tiny squeak of happiness before covering his mouth. "Oh, um. Thank you, i'd like that a lot." He allowed Tadashi to finally release their hug but he stuck right next to the other boy. Rhode nodded at everyone before stepping back to where they had made the chairs, saying that was a wonderful idea and he would watch from the shore.

"Ok, so how do we start? I guess we get back in the water?" Tadashi asked curiously.

Beneath the now re-forming armor on Rhode's face they smiled. They were correct that Zora would be a good instructor. They could tell by the way she spoke to the two children. Watching Tadashi spend his energy learning how to swim would be better than watching him struggle in the challenge. Rhode lounged back into the chair to watch.

Tadashi and Ethan weren't holding onto each other any more but they were still pretty close together as they walked back into the water. They were already wet so Tadashi didn't do that splashing thing Zora had taught him but he did shiver a little bit in reaction to getting back in the water.

When Zora suddenly stopped Tadashi looked at her curiously and watched as she left to go back to shore. Ethan stood even closer, essentially shoulder to shoulder with Tadashi as the two of them waited for her to come back. They only separated when she plopped the surfboard down in the water

"Ok. Is the board supposed to help us float or something? I got tired trying to swim pretty fast." He said that as he tugged a little at the cuffs of his gloves. Most of the time he didn't even notice when he did that sort of thing- it was just a thing he did absently when he was nervous about something.

"The board is probably big enough for both of us to hang on right? Like a big floaty platform thing, added Ethan. Who actually seemed a fair bit happier now that the two of them were back to doing something more or less together. Especially with someone helping them to do something together.

The two boys walked with Zora and the surf board. They trusted her judgement and though Ethan wasn't able to hold onto Tadashi so much he was happy being nearby. He had no problem following the instructions and holding onto the board, but he waited to make sure Tadashi was going to do it too.

Tadashi nodded and grabbed onto the board but he hesitated, looking nervous. "Put my face in the water?" After seeing Ethan ready to do it and the other boy giving him a pleading look, he relented. Tadashi took a big breath and then reluctantly put his face down into the water. Relaxing was harder but he kicked off the loose sand on the bottom and tried to let the air make him float.

It mostly worked, though he was clearly tense about it. Ethan, for his part, followed the instructions as soon as he saw Tadashi do it. He was tense too, but mostly because he kept sneaking a glance up to see if Tadashi was ok.

Then there was a rush of bubbles as Tadashi exhaled and surfaced, gasping for air a little bit. "We're supposed to just float face down? Shouldn't we be paddling or something?" Tadashi was a smart kid but he was out of his element in the water and it showed.

Back on shore Rhode happily watched the little group gathered around the surfboard. Yes, that was much better to see than the child struggling to outswim an expert.

"Ok, I guess that might be easier. Are you ok with that Ethan?" Tadashi seemed pretty focused on making sure Ethan was alright even though the boy was clearly nervous about swimming himself.

Ethan nodded and leaned back in the water towards Zora's outstretched arms. Once he was helped he seemed to get it without too much of a problem, though he did frown a little when Zora let go. He couldn't help it- it was just how he was. He always wanted people to be helping and caring for him. Finally though he had shown how to float so he stood back up to go put a hand on Tadashi's shoulder and smile.

Tadashi sent a little smile back to Ethan and then looked at Zora with a little bit of determination in his eyes. Seeing his friend do it somehow seemed to embolden him. "Ok, I'll try it," he said as he too began to lay back into the water towards Zora. He was a bit shaky at it and squeezes his eyes shut to concentrate on trying to float. As expected Tadashi had the classic problem of naturally trying to fold his body up a little to keep his head from going underwater. But after a little bit of time and some gentle coaching he was going to be able to relax enough to float.

Ethan stood there kind of unsure what to do. He wanted to go over and hold onto Tadashi but he couldn't. So, he mostly just stood sort of near Zora as she worked with Tadashi. Not quite in the way but fairly noticeable.

Tadashi, for his part, followed the instructions he was given but kept his eyes shut. He felt like he wanted to just take big breaths and hold them in to help float but he needed to breath. Slowly and carefully he moved his arms and kicked his still sock-covered feet. He worked to relax his breathing a little and before he knew it he was floating. He was floating!

Tadashi smiled and opened his eyes. He was about to exclaim in happiness just as a small ripple of water from a wave came by and splashed his mouth with water. He coughed and spluttered and flopped himself back up onto his feet. An unpleasant surprise, but he was mostly ok. Ethan shuffled over to give him a hug. Or maybe he was taking a hug from Tadashi. It was hard to tell whether the boy was doing it for himself or because his friend was learning.

Back on shore Rhode was clapping at the two boys floating on their backs successfully. There wasn't much else he could do. He did turn to Shadow though to say, "I think your partner is a very good one. She's really helping the children."