Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)This is a really stupid idea, Joshua thought for the tenth time, but that didn't stop him pulling the window open and slipping on through. There were a million questions running through his head that he had to have answered: why it looked like she didn't live in her own house, why she'd had places taped off from visitors she seldom had, and most importantly, why she had gotten so weird when he had asked her out for real. She'd said 'maybe,' yes, but if he didn't press the issue she would never answer him at all. Granted, climbing in through her second-story window after their Valentine's Day "not-date" was probably a terrible way to go about making a good impression, but he'd already made that dumb decision-- by now, there was no reason not to compound that foolishness with more foolishness.
Of the many possibilities he'd been expecting when he stepped into her house, though, this was not one of them. The room stretching out before him was massive, stretching out a great ways ahead and a long ways in either direction. The decor was nothing like the relatively spartan quarters he'd roamed around in her house-- the place was rich and sumptuous, something between a Victorian parlor and a feudal Japanese estate out of the movies, open to the February night sky, but the strangest part about the whole thing was that the floor... mostly wasn't. There was a small walkway on the edges, yes, but most of the floor space was taken up by a massive pool. What was weirder was that this looked more like an aquarium than any swimming pool he'd ever seen-- a thick mesh of aquatic plants obscured most of the bottom from view, and what he -could- see was an irregular, uneven rocky floor.
All in all, it was a gorgeous, if more than slightly bizarre arrangement. These must be the rooms she had locked and warned off, he realized-- there was one across the hall, and the one on the first floor must lead into the pool itself. Taking a deep breath, Joshua mustered his will and made himself go around the walkway, taking care to avoid the expensive-looking furniture and art hanging on the walls. Weird as it was, he needed an answer; maybe, he thought, he could get one about this, too...
...and the thought died in his head as he recognized the shirt and skirt she had worn earlier, laying almost casually discarded on the floor. She was in here-- she must be taking a late-night dip. He took a breath and turned back around, facing the pool, and moved closer to the edge. She was here, and he was going to get an answer out of her one way or another... but he wouldn't mind the chance to get a peek at her beforehand.
Of the many possibilities he'd been expecting when he stepped into her house, though, this was not one of them. The room stretching out before him was massive, stretching out a great ways ahead and a long ways in either direction. The decor was nothing like the relatively spartan quarters he'd roamed around in her house-- the place was rich and sumptuous, something between a Victorian parlor and a feudal Japanese estate out of the movies, open to the February night sky, but the strangest part about the whole thing was that the floor... mostly wasn't. There was a small walkway on the edges, yes, but most of the floor space was taken up by a massive pool. What was weirder was that this looked more like an aquarium than any swimming pool he'd ever seen-- a thick mesh of aquatic plants obscured most of the bottom from view, and what he -could- see was an irregular, uneven rocky floor.
All in all, it was a gorgeous, if more than slightly bizarre arrangement. These must be the rooms she had locked and warned off, he realized-- there was one across the hall, and the one on the first floor must lead into the pool itself. Taking a deep breath, Joshua mustered his will and made himself go around the walkway, taking care to avoid the expensive-looking furniture and art hanging on the walls. Weird as it was, he needed an answer; maybe, he thought, he could get one about this, too...
...and the thought died in his head as he recognized the shirt and skirt she had worn earlier, laying almost casually discarded on the floor. She was in here-- she must be taking a late-night dip. He took a breath and turned back around, facing the pool, and moved closer to the edge. She was here, and he was going to get an answer out of her one way or another... but he wouldn't mind the chance to get a peek at her beforehand.