hot bear summer

It was another beautiful summer evening, and Sawyer loafed in Kelly’s hot tub. Eyes closed as the early evening sun beat down on her fur, as the pressure of the jets relaxed her body. She’d already gone for a quick dip in the pool, but relaxing in the hot tub? Perfect way to end her evening before she had to climb out of the backyard and wander off somewhere else. She knew that she could easily stay here all evening and all night, but she had agreed that she’d only use the pool and hot tub when no one was home. Kelly may have flipped her off in response, but she took that as a deal. So that’s what she did: snuck in when she thought no one was home. 

Completely relaxed and zonked out in the hot tub, she didn’t hear anyone come home until she heard a door open for the backyard. She lazily opened one of her eyes and saw a figure. Ugh! Last time, Kelly was so annoying about the whole bear thing, and she could almost sense him being obnoxious about fur in the pool and tub—he seemed like the type to care about something like that. She shifted back into her human form, though she was now awkwardly loafing in a much smaller form with human limbs. She pushed herself up and back onto one of the seats—though she was quickly distracted again by the jets beating into her back. Maybe she should use the hot tub in her human form too.  

“I promise, I’ll leave soon! Just five more minutes!” Sawyer called out. Maybe she’d need more than five minutes. Maybe ten. She’d figure it out once he started yelling at her to get out of his yard. She looked towards the figure in the yard and tilted her head at the random man standing there. This was definitely not the annoying ranger. “You’re not Kelly.” 

—

Jade’s comments about pool parties had made Zack realize he hadn’t been taking full advantage of the pool at his disposal – despite living in the poolhouse. While it was hot enough, finally, to go swimming in the outdoor pool, it had felt like it wasn’t his place. It was Kelly’s house and pool. (Kelly, of course, had insisted that he should use the pool whenever he wanted.) He would be moving out soon, though, and his chances of using the pool were dwindling. So he picked a night when the heat was making him lazy, changed into trunks and brought his towel out.

The call from the hot tub made Zack jump, fear rippling down his spine. Someone was in the hot tub and it was someone who was decidedly not Kelly. But whoever it was, they didn’t sound very scared about being caught. Carefully trailing closer, he saw that the person was very much not Kelly, was the opposite of Kelly in that they were a woman. A naked woman. In the hot tub. Zack looked around, as if he expected to find himself in some other backyard. That was the only explanation, he had ended up in someone else’s yard with someone else’s identical hot tub. 

But he knew that wasn’t possible since he came from the poolhouse, where he lived. And this mystery woman (who was, again, naked) apparently knew Kelly. Maybe they had an arrangement? But why wouldn’t Kelly tell Zack about it. Oh, fuck, maybe this was a girlfriend. That would explain why she was so brazenly naked in the hot tub at dusk. “No,” he agreed, “I’m not Kelly. And neither are you.” Really stunning work so far, Zack. “And I know you don’t live here because I live here. So. What are you doing here? And also, who are you?” He didn’t ask why she was naked, but he did come close to it. He hoped the “what are you doing here” would cover that. 

Speaking of “cover,” should he close his eyes? Or turn around? Or offer her his towel? Zack briefly tried to do all three, tripped over his feet, caught himself, and settled for just turning around so his back was to the woman. “Also, also, how do you know Kelly?”

—

Who all lived in this house? It was a rather large house with a poolhouse in the back, so Sawyer guessed it made sense for there to be a lot of people. It’s not like she and Kelly talked to one another when she decided their arrangement. All she knew about was a mysterious kid that might be interested in playing with her. Not some other mysterious man, who looked like he was ready to go for a swim. 

She laughed when he pointed out that she wasn’t Kelly, and she leaned her arms up onto the side of the hot tub. “You’re right, I don’t live here. I didn’t know Kelly had a roommate,” she replied. “Well, I was just swimming in the pool, before I decided that the hot tub sounded like a nice end to my evening. I didn’t realize anyone else was around though.” She clicked her tongue. “Oh, Sawyer, that’s me. Kelly knows who I am.” Sort of. They swam in the pool together just that one time before she shifted back into a bear and climbed over the fence to get back home.

Sawyer laughed as she watched him trip over himself before fully turning away from her. She hadn’t expected to run into anyone else while here, but at least now she knew that more than just Kelly and a kid lived here. She’d be smarter next time she broke in and went for a swim. “Oh, Kelly and me? Well…” She trailed off, trying to think about how she should answer that. She wondered if he was a ranger, like Kelly, or something else entirely. He wasn’t yet yelling at her about being a shifter, so she guessed that maybe he wasn’t. If he was a ranger too, Kelly would’ve probably warned him about the bugbear that broke into their yard, right? 

“Okay, so, Kelly and I… So I told him that I really like to swim, and he has a pool, so I’m allowed to swim here whenever no one is home. I totally didn’t realize you were home though, or else I wouldn’t have stopped by today.” Sure, that made sense. Though now she’d have to figure out a way to explain how she got into the backyard. An explanation that didn’t involve her trespassing without Kelly’s knowledge. “Also, you’re allowed to face me. Unless you want me to, like, cover up or whatever.” She didn’t exactly have clothes anywhere though…or a towel.

—

Instinctively, Zack made to correct her about the roommate comment. He wasn’t Kelly’s roommate, but his tenant. That was an important distinction so he wouldn’t forget that there wasn’t an equal balance of power here. There was no lease or deed that had Zack’s name on it. Not that he thought Kelly would ever hold a thing like that over his head of course. The reminder was for him and him alone. He couldn’t let himself think otherwise about this arrangement. But this strange, naked woman didn’t need to know all the many nuances and intricacies of his relationship with Kelly. Actually, Zack shouldn’t feel beholden to explain the many nuances and intricacies of his relationship with Kelly to a naked stranger.

Which– It sounded like maybe Sawyer was basically a stranger to Kelly too? (Aside from that lingering pause that has stretched out after Kelly and me? Well… that had perked up Zack’s ears. Were they dating? That pause sounded like the kind one might have as they tried to come up with the words for an as yet undefined relationship.) If it weren’t for the fact that she knew Kelly’s name, Zack would think she was making this entire thing up. Honestly, as weird as it was, it also sounded like something Kelly might do. He let Zack move into the pool house just because he had needed a place to stay. Why wouldn’t he offer his pool to someone just because they liked to swim and didn’t have any other place to do it? 

“Does he know that you’re swimming naked?” Maybe he did! Maybe they were dating or hooking up. Maybe Kelly was into that. When Zack turned at her prompting, he kept his eyes shut. It wasn’t often that the sight of a naked person had him flustered, but this was less about the nudity and more about the situation overall. At least that’s what he would claim if he ever told anyone about this which was not going to happen. Well, maybe Kelly. He should probably tell Kelly about this. 

Somewhere along the line, Zack had decided that turning around and walking back into the poolhouse, leaving Sawyer to her swim, would be rude. So he set his towel on one of the lounge chairs and made his way to the edge of the pool. “You don’t mind if I still swim, do you?” She was confined (nakedly) to the hot tub, so the pool would be safe.

—

Sawyer hummed as she thought through her answer. Technically, Kelly would know that she swam naked because he could probably assume she’d swim in her bear form. The only issue was that this was a very one-sided deal between the two of them. Maybe he expected her to trespass in her human form while wearing a swimsuit next time. “Yeah, he knows. And the problem is that I don’t own a swimsuit,” she answered, deciding that was all as truthful as possible. Even the swimsuit. It wasn’t as though she had ever needed to buy anything like that. Her fur was the only thing she needed while swimming.

She kept her eyes on the man as he got ready for his own swim. She moved around in the tub, leaning her arms against the edge and resting her chin on her crossed arms. “No, I don’t mind at all,” she replied. Though now she was a little jealous that he had the pool all to himself. Sawyer enjoyed swimming with others sometimes, splashing around or just relaxing together. She used to swim around with her younger siblings or sometimes even Darcy on occasion. 

Now as she watched him get into the pool, she thought through her options—actually thinking them through. This guy didn’t seem to be all that upset or annoyed at her presence, so that meant he probably wasn’t a ranger like Kelly. She wanted to keep relaxing in the hot tub, but there was the whole issue of no swimsuit and her getting into the backyard by climbing over the fence. Sawyer couldn’t exactly leave the same way she came. That would require shifting in front of this man, and she had no idea how he might respond to that. She turned away from him, her back facing towards the pool, as she sat in the tub, going through all the options of what to do in this situation. It was almost like she was now trapped in the hot tub until he decided to leave or until Kelly got home and…well, she wasn’t entirely sure what Kelly would do. Last time he just took off his clothes and swam with her until she shifted and climbed over the fence. 

She glanced over her shoulder and turned around just a bit. “Could I swim with you?” she asked. “I kinda wanna swim now.” The tub was boring now that she couldn’t loaf in her fur. 

—

If she didn’t own a swimsuit that meant that she had definitely been naked when she had been swimming with Kelly. Which didn’t have to mean anything! Zack was swimming with her while she was naked, after all. And the arrangement apparently was that she could swim here when no one else was home, which didn’t really sound like she and Kelly were hooking up. Unless it was some kind of kink, where Kelly got off on knowing that Sawyer was swimming naked in his pool while he was away or something. Which. It’s not like it even mattered if they were hooking up, or satisfying some kink together, or were fully dating. Why would that matter to Zack? It didn’t.

Nothing mattered to Zack, in that moment, because he was floating on his back in a perfectly maintained saltwater pool on a perfect summer evening. The only thing that would make things better would be if he had a drink in hand. One of those tropical ones, in a coconut with a paper umbrella. Or just a Natty Ice with a beer coozie. Zack really wasn’t that picky, or fancy. 

He had to tread water to shift himself around and meet Sawyer’s eyes at her question. Definitely just her eyes. “Oh. Sure. Too hot for you?” It made sense that she would want to swap – it was still pretty warm out for the hot tub. Zack paddled in an anxious circle. “Maybe I’ll stick to the shallow end, then? And you can go in the deep end?” That way there would be the whole pool between them, and the depth of the deep end would distort things under water enough that Sawyer’s nudity wouldn’t be a problem. Not that it was a problem! It wasn’t. She didn’t seem to care that she was naked, so Zack didn’t care either.

“You never actually told me how you met Kelly,” he prompted. When he had asked, she had just told him about the swimming arrangement. “You don’t work at the fire station too, do you?” 

—

"Sure! I can do that," Sawyer agreed. She climbed out of the hot tub and strolled over to the pool. She jumped into the deep end and paddled around a little bit. He seemed nice enough--much nicer than the ranger--so she stuck to her end of the pool, leaving him plenty of space on the shallow end. "Kinda funny that you want the shallow end. You look way taller than me," she commented, as she tread water. She wanted to float on her back, but...there was the whole lack of a swimsuit thing. He was already being nice enough by letting her swim on one end of the pool, so she didn't want to push it too much. 

The man asked her a different dreaded question. At least it wasn't how she had gotten into the backyard... But she wasn't sure how to answer his question. She couldn't launch into the story about how she and Kelly growled and roared at each other. That probably wouldn't make too much sense. 

"Oh, um, no, I don't work at the fire station," Sawyer replied. "I'm so not the type to be a firefighter." She racked her brain as she paddled over to the edge of the pool. She held onto the edge as she kicked her feet under the water. "We met at a party, actually. We... Well, he was there on some sort of firefighter business. I don't know. And he stayed for a while and joining the party. We got to chatting after that." All true, as far as she was concerned. She just left out the other bits about breaking and entering. "How do you two know each other?" she asked, trying to figure out if he was also a ranger or some sort of hunter. 

—

Zack was relieved with Sawyer agreed to his terms and then abided by them, sticking to the deeper end of the pool. He only offered a sheepish grin when Sawyer pointed out that she should be the one in the shallow end. Look, he wasn’t going explain to her why he didn’t want to swap. 

He never would have said it himself, in case it might have been offensive, or hurt Sawyer’s feelings for whatever reason, but he agreed with her. She was so not the type to be a firefighter. It had only been maybe ten minutes tops that they had been interacting, but Zack could already tell that about the woman. Something about the story of how she did meet Kelly pinged at his brain, though, and he sat up a little straighter. “Oh. Wait. Was that Baz’s party?” The party that, apparently, according to Jade, Kelly had gotten naked at. Hm. A lot of nudity between Kelly and this woman. Which was fine. Great, even. It almost figured that Kelly had ended up at that party because of work. It wasn’t Zack’s place at all, but he sometimes thought that his roommate (because that’s what they were, right?) let his schedule be a bit too beholden to work and taking care of Flip. “I wasn’t there,” he clarified. “Just…heard about it.”

The story of how he and Kelly knew each other was simple to tell but had felt harder and harder with each pass. “Work, too, actually. I mean firefighter business. There was a fire in my apartment. He wasn’t even supposed to be there, really, so he was kinda…helping me.” Making sure Zack didn’t go into shock on the curb. “And then he found out I didn’t really have a place to stay, and offered the poolhouse.” Which was what made this story hard to tell. With enough distance it was easy to point to what had happened and call it what it was: ridiculous. All’s well that ends well, Zack thought, but that only highlighted how preposterous the start to their friendship had been. 

He wanted to ask if Sawyer knew about Flip but if she didn’t, he didn’t want to be the one to let that cat out of the bag. He had realized only recently that maybe it wasn’t the safest thing, to go telling any old person that Kelly had a kid living in his house. At least, it felt like the kind of thing that should he should keep to himself. “I guess you’ll be coming around more, to swim,” he said instead. “Now that the summer is really warming up.” That wouldn’t matter much for Zack, though. He would be all moved out long before the end of the summer.

—

“Yeah, Baz’s party!” Sawyer exclaimed, as she tried to remember if this man had been there too. He was quick to clarify his attendance, so she gave him a quick nod. “Oh yeah, it was tons of fun. I spent some of it, like, poking around in the junkyard, but the drinks were great. I’ve only known Baz for a couple months, but they’re fun.” She paused as she considered telling Zack about her and Baz’s very serious (not) campaign to ban shirts in Wicked’s Rest. Maybe he’d be into bothering the town council with the two of them. But instead she dunked herself under the water for a few seconds before popping back up. 

She wasn’t entirely sure what to say to how he and Kelly knew each other. She thought of what happened with Darcy’s family and their home—it was hard to not think about it sometimes. Sawyer never knew what to think about that, especially after she had seen what was left of the Kincaid family home, thinking about the loss of someone she had sort of been friends with. “That sucks,” she finally said. “Guess it was bad if you had to find a different place.” She looked back at the poolhouse, making a mental note that next time she came here, she needed to make sure that was empty too. She’d sniff it out better in the future. “Cool of him though. To just, like, let you stay with him.” Should she be offering Darcy the same? No, no. Darcy was fine in her treehouse. Darcy could find a cave if something happened to the treehouse. 

Sawyer grinned widely as he brought up swimming, and she nodded excitedly. “Oh, yeah, a whole lot more for sure. I guess I can probably buy, like, a swimsuit or whatever. For my next visits.” Just in case she missed that he was home. She could probably toss her swimsuit over the fencing before she climbed over it. “I guess you’ll be swimming around here a lot more too, yeah? I’d see myself mostly being here in the evenings when I get off work.” She paddled around for a bit, closing her eyes as the water swept through her hair. She looked more carefully at him. “By the way, what is your name?” 

—

“I’ve been there before, though,” Zack qualified. “The junkyard. Joel -he lives there with Baz- was teaching me to weld.” Maybe he should have gone to that party after all. He was experiencing a classic and sharp case of FOMO. “It’s cool there, isn’t it? All kinds of neat stuff.” Had the gremlins that bothered him and Joel come out at the party? Someone likely would have mentioned it by now, if so. “They are fun. Tons of. We went to this spa and hot spring place together once.” Only that had ended in almost being haunted. But Sawyer didn’t need to know that.Sure, she was a little strange, maybe, skinny-dipping in someone else’s hot tub and pool. But she didn’t need to worry about gremlins or ghosts or anything else like that.

The fire hadn’t been that bad, actually, but the kitchen had been totaled. “It was definitely gonna be unlivable for a while.” Despite there being no real danger, it had seemed like, in the moment, an unsolvable disaster. Especially once his landlord started hemming and hawing about liability and blame and insurance. But then Kelly had stepped right up to stand toe-to-toe with the guy. A knight in…flourescent lined turnout gear, offering a perfect, gift-wrapped solution. “I probably could have gone back once it was fixed up, but…” Kelly hadn’t thought going back to that apartment building was a great idea and Zack agreed - had been planning to upgrade soon anyway.

Relief washed over him and he nodded eagerly. “Yeah. Yes. That’s probably…good. I know you said you usually come by when no one’s home but–” Well, she hadn’t known about Zack living there, obviously. And someone else could easily come home unexpectedly. Flip didn’t need to see some random naked lady out in the backyard. Did Bethany know about Sawyer? Zack wasn’t sure what Flip’s regular babysitter would do if Sawyer showed up looking for a swim, not knowing there was a kid and his minder around.

And, obviously, Zack could be around without her realizing. At least for a little longer. “Um. Maybe. But I’m going to be moving out soon.” He was. He would be. He didn’t really have a solid idea of when, or to where. The whole process was kind of a lot, actually, but. He knew it had to be soon. He couldn’t just keep living off Kelly’s kindness. “Oh, fuck, duh. Sorry, I’m Zack.” Should he offer his hand to shake? No. Because then she would come closer, in her no-bathing suit and that was – where were her clothes, anyway? She hadn’t come over here naked, had she? They must have just been on some side chair that he hadn’t noticed.

—

Sawyer beamed as soon as he said Joel’s name. She knew Joel even less than she knew Baz, but she loved meeting another bugbear. He seemed nice enough to her, and she was tired of some of the other bugbears she ran into at The Chimera—especially that obnoxious leader of the shitskins (sorry, shiftskins). “Joel is great!” she exclaimed. “I mean, I’ve only met him twice, but I was poking around and looking at some of his sculptures. I want something cool for my office because it’s so drab in there. That’s awesome that he’s teaching you how to weld.” She wondered if he knew anything about what Joel and Baz were, but maybe she’d just ask Baz sometime. “Mm, spa day. See, that’s how I view this. Like a free spa.” She would’ve preferred it in her fur though. 

She nodded along as he spoke about his apartment. “Why haven’t you moved back?” she asked. The temptation to swim a tad bit closer came over her, but Sawyer stayed in her spot. “I bet it was terrifying,” she commented, forcing herself to look concerned or worried—were those the same thing? She frowned, trying to really act like any normal human. “I can’t imagine how frightening something like that was.” 

Sawyer tilted her head as he trailed off mid-sentence. She was not going to question it, choosing to let the comment end there as she pondered if she could feed off this guy. He was nice enough to let her swim around with him, but maybe he could make a quick sneaky meal. Better thoughts told her that was an idiotic thing to do, what with Firefighter Ranger Kelly living with him. If she did too much or even too little, the man might go running to his roommate and tell Kelly what happened. Then she would never get to swim her for fun. 

“Oh? Moving out?” she questioned. Maybe she could use him as a snack. No, no, she had plenty of other easier snacks around town. Plus he was friends with Joel… unless Joel was using Zack—that was his name, she now knew—as a meal too. “No worries!” Sawyer said with a light laugh. “Totally my bad for forgetting to ask.” She swam around a little more, debating what to do next with her new…something (not friend) Zack. She looked over at the tall fence, hoping that he would get out of the pool and go back inside soon. 

—

Zack beamed back, pleased that someone had appreciated Joel’s art. Enough to want to buy a piece, even. The man had seemed hesitant to consider himself an artist, or what he did as art. “I love his work, too. I don’t think anything I made was as interesting as his stuff, but it was cool to try.” The hot tub was kind of like the hot springs, to an extent. Kelly’s pool and all didn’t have that strange smell that the springs had had. And there were no half-sunken bikes and cars and haunted hotels or anything. “This might be nicer than the spa, even.”

The questions about his apartment were the last thing Zack wanted. “It was pretty scary, yeah. Luckily it wasn’t too big or anything but not the kind of thing you want to happen at midnight, when you’re just trying to make ramen.” He still couldn’t believe that the fire really had been absolutely and completely not his fault. Not even subconsciously. Just a freak accident. Though he was sure that if he told that to, say, Emilio, he wouldn’t believe him.

As for why he hadn’t gone back to the apartment… “Oh. Well, I was planning on finding a new place anyway. And then the fire happened. So it seemed silly to move back to some place that might be dangerous when I want to get out of there anyway.” At least, that was Zack’s logic at the time. He still thought that part made sense. It was the fact that he was still at Kelly’s that was harder to grapple with. “So that’s why I’m moving out soon. I’ve already stayed here longer than I should have.” In a way, Sawyer’s presence proved that. Kelly was letting a strange (nice enough, but strange) woman swim naked in his pool. He was the kind of guy who was too nice for his own good. 

—

Sawyer’s stomach growled. She pretended to shiver as if she suddenly took a chill. “Yeah, no, wouldn’t want that to happen at all. Totally terrifying,” she agreed, thinking that maybe he would taste like ramen. Not burnt ramen; she wouldn’t like that. She focused on keeping herself afloat rather than on feeding him. The voice in the back of her mind warned her that it would be an incredibly stupid idea to do that to Kelly’s roommate. She needed to have a modicum of sense. 

“Sure, yeah, I wouldn’t wanna move back to a place like that either. Gotta have some bad and frightening memories there too.” Her stomach growled again. She swam around a little more, focusing only on how the water felt across her skin and in her hair. Her stomach’s protests were loud in her mind, but it was a horrible idea. Terrible. She should focus on finding a way out of here without being too suspicious. “What? Did you somehow overstay your lease? I mean, you’ve got a pretty sweet deal here, I think. Poolhouse,” she motioned with her arm back towards the building, “hot tub, pool, big giant house.” Sawyer carefully looked at him before glancing away at the pool water. “If I were you, I’d stay here. At least until he winterizes the pool.” 

Which, speaking of staying here, Sawyer needed to go. The rumbling in her stomach was getting annoying, and she guessed she could find a quick snack elsewhere in town. Her gaze settled on the backdoor of the main house, and she wondered if it was unlocked. Possibly? If it wasn’t, maybe she could figure out how to pick a lock. She didn’t have any tools for that… Maybe she could break the glass instead. “Well, I should probably get going. Swimming always works up an appetite,” she joked with a quick wink at Zack. 

—

“Oh. No. That’s kind of the problem. There is no lease?” Which. He really should have made Kelly draw up some kind of agreement. It hadn’t even crossed Zack’s mind and, frankly, seemed like the kind of thing that the other man would be more on top of. What if Zack was some crazy guy hellbent on sponging off him? There should have been some paperwork to protect him, and Flip. So he couldn’t just stay there when he had already taken too much from Kelly. 

Not that he needed to explain all that to Sawyer. She just wanted a relaxing, evening swim. 

The wink threw him but he settled for a laugh that he hoped wasn’t too awkward in response. But it didn’t matter if it was awkward because she was leaving. Perfect. Zack decided he didn’t mind Sawyer, generally, but he would like her a lot more, he thought, when she was clothed. Or at least not randomly completely naked. “Okay! Sure. Of course.” He stood, in the shallow end, then covered his eyes. Then, for good measure, turned around too. “You can. Um. Get dressed or whatever. I won’t look.”

—

Sawyer couldn’t be bothered to dissect too much about whatever weird living arrangement that Kelly and Zack had with each other. No lease? Why was he so concerned about moving out? She would love to not have a lease. Whatever. It was all a bunch of nonsense anyway, and not something that was so not her problem. 

Zack turned away from her with the suggestion that she get dressed. At least that worked. “Sure, thanks,” she said. She dunked herself back under the water, humming to herself as the water echoed in her ears and her hair floated around her. She swam back up to the surface and hoisted herself out of the water. Sawyer glanced over at Zack who was still facing away from her. The door to the main house still seemed like an option for her, but she couldn’t be certain that it was unlocked. She huffed and flashed into her bear form. She fell forward on her front paws and looked over to Zack, who still faced away from her. Sawyer scrambled over to the tall fencing and dug her claws into the side as she climbed up the side of the fence. She maneuvered her way to the other side, but not without another brief glance at Zack. She somewhat hoped that he would be around during one of her other trespassing swims. He was neat, and maybe he’d be a good snack—nope, she scampered down the other side of the fence.