Navia was patient while Théadan decided what he wanted to do, her dark eyes following his movements as he looked toward shore. Briefly she wondered what he was thinking, but he was soon stating he wanted to wait to walk along the surf together. His arms drew her in more and her smile widened while her arms gave his waist an affectionate squeeze. She was glad to hear it in all honesty. She was worried that he would want to give up trying to swim after ending up under water multiple times while trying to float. She wouldn’t have blamed him, it was never fun to feel like the ocean had better control of one’s body than they do, but Navia also wanted him to learn something she enjoyed.<br/><br/>He asked that she teach him to swim, pairing it with a sweet kiss to her forehead, and Navia nodded her agreement. She also hoped it would go better than trying to float, but she also knew that would require her to be a good teacher of it, which she had never bothered to try to do with anyone before. “All right, but we’re keeping your feet on the seafloor until you’re more comfortable,” Navia agreed before rising up on her toes to face Théadan as best she could. She grinned at him briefly, then pressed two quick kisses to his lips in hopes it would help cheer him up in case he was leery of the water.<br/><br/>“We can practice the arm movements first, okay? Then once you have that down, we can add in the leg movements,” Navia explained and disentangled herself from Théadan’s hold, “There are many ways people swim, but I learned this one first, so I’m best at it. You want to keep your hands cupped to help push the water and you’re going to start face down in the water. But before you do it, let me show you what it’s going to look like.” Hoping that would help Théadan understand the general idea, Navia started with her hands cupped in front of her chest, then extended her arms above her head. They parted from there, water dripping down and catching in the sun, her hands turned to mime pushing through the water as she made a wide circle with her arms, then brought them back to the center of her chest. She repeated the action twice, then let her hands drop back into the water.<br/><br/>“Just like that, over and over, and you'll lift your head to breathe every time your hands come back to your chest. You want to make sure you’re using your hands to propel yourself, so make sure to keep your fingers together,” Navia moved to stand beside Théadan, “You can bend here and practice, but if you get it well enough, you can try using just your arms to move through the water. You have the upper body strength for it.” To show him what she meant, Navia bent at the waist, submerging the front half of her body in the water to repeat the movements she’d been doing out of the water, her arms reaching out far in front of her, then making a full circle to end up just beneath her chest again. Her head lifted for breath when her hands returned to her chest, then her face lowered back into the water. She repeated the stroke a couple more times, then pushed off the ocean floor and allowed the movement to pull her through the water, her tawny legs gracefully trailing after her until she was a couple meters from Théadan. Then she stopped and turned back to him expectantly, curious to see if he would get comfortable enough with the arm movements to join her.