The stars were out - not that you could see more than, say, 5. Light pollution wasn't something Tapendra was really used to, as he'd come to realize. True, Cambridge had plenty of it, but he'd never tried to stargaze in a brighter place like London. And after months of the utterly clear skies around Hogwart's rural location, the sad, faint glow of the stars above Cairo was a bit disheartening.

He lay on one of the deck chairs, trying to ignore how sore he was. Camels! Aside from getting spit on, he hadn't ridden anything in years and the jolting gait, odd saddle and long ride had done none of him any good. Every time he shifted one of his long legs the muscles of his thigh would seize up.

And a long soak in the hot tub hadn't done that much good, either. Now, having changed back into his jeans and a nice sweater (the night air being chiller than expected) he lay and waited quietly for the back of his left thigh to stop twitching. He could have gone to the massage parlor but that...was out of the question. Not for the places he was sore, that was for sure.

Cigarettes helped, of course. As much as he hated the taste and swore to himself repeatedly that once this trip was over he'd toss the things into the waste bin, they did help him relax. And smoking only one or two and then washing his clothes seemed to be keeping Cyhirae from cluing in, which was his major concern.

His cell phone beeped away as another bird missed its target. He sighed and let the phone fall onto his stomach, taking a long drag. He was about to blow a smoke ring when footsteps made him suck his breath in and start coughing as he snubbed the cigarette out.

For a muggle hotel, Aileen had to admit this place was fantastic. Everyone had their own rooms, which she had hoped would cut down on the students’ rambunctious antics after curfew, when the SNAP! of card games and cheering filtered through the walls. Her hopes were dashed when hotel doors slammed one after the other as the kids flitted from room to room instead. Scolding them several times, Aileen soon gave up and sought solitude on the rooftop pool.
 
As she stepped out into the open night air, she wrapped the white shawl around her shoulders snugly, surprised by how cool it got when the sun went down. After riding a camel in the heat all day, the night seemed especially chilly. Underneath the shawl, she wore dark trousers, a blouse, and swimsuit.
 
Aileen wrinkled her nose at the cigarette smoke before she spotted the lean figure lounging on a deck chair. BWAK BWAK! The Angry Birds let loose their battle cry. Lovely. It was Tapendra. Tapendra was smoking. Somehow this appalled her more than the muggle mobile he carried with him everywhere.
 
Shaking her head, Aileen walked closer, reasoning that she was too sore and tired to check if the other, indoor pool was open.
 
She draped her towel over a chair, and was just about to sit and offer an unenthusiastic hello when Tapendra was struck by a coughing fit. Aileen put her hand over her mouth in a half-hearted attempt at stifling her laughter. The man had the worst luck. He’d spent the entire Cairo boat ride hanging over the railing, his camel had spit at him this morning, and now, of course, he nearly choked on his own cigarette.
 
“Filthy habit,” she chastised him cheerily, perching on her chair and waving a hand in front of her face. She eyed the cigarette butt glowing by the pool and gave him the amused, smug look of a nonsmoker.
 
“Don’t let that silly little game get to you too much,” she went on, her eyebrows drawing together in mock concern. “Losing a lung isn’t worth the victory.”
 

He thumped his fist against his chest as the itch at the back of his throat started to die down. Of course it was Aileen; it couldn't be Myrni or Cosmos or....anyone, really. Nope. Had to be Reid.

Of course, Aileen was bizarrely comforting in her own way, mostly for getting his kicks in a bit. There was something about frustrating the woman that made it easier to sleep at night. And, well, she was so bloody wound up. It was hard not to want to pull her pigtails, figuratively speaking.

He tried to ignore the quip about the smoking. If he ignored it, she might forget. Of course, the soft wheeze-like coughs that he was still dealing with weren't helping there.

"The same silly game," he said pointedly, "That you decided was so interesting you had to ram your hands down my -" he paused for a fraction of a second, and the way he censored himself was audible in the shift in his tone to less tease and more of a sheepish mutter. "You stole my phone to play it," he finished, setting his phone on the glass table next to his chair as he sat up.

If there was ever a time when Aileen's eyes widened in shock, it was now. Tapendra wasn't even drinking and he sounded as crude as Bombay. She was speechless for a few seconds, deciding the smoke inhalation had clearly muddled his brainwaves.

"Someone thinks highly of himself!" Aileen shot him a look and plucked her towel from the back of the chair.

"You were supposed to be sleeping," she muttered, then paused as she realized how awful that sounded.

"I did not - it was sticking out of your pocket!" That sounded even worse.

"Oh for- I am moving chairs," Aileen got up abruptly, draping her towel over her arm with a dramatic flourish.

Tapendra's initial surprise turned to shock as he stared at her, waiting for the punchline. She couldn't have walked into that so easily. But when she seemed flustered enough that he felt safe in the conclusion she'd said it fully on accident, he reacted accordingly. As he should, of course.

He stood, and a hand rose to his chest; he eyes bugged out and his mouth opened in an expression of utterly blameless, victimized shock. "You touched - while - I do not believe what I am hearing," he said, normally deep voice cracked with horror. "Aileen! That was terribly inappropriate of you. You owe me an apology."

Really, his last line was a wonderful imitation of her; stuffy, snobbish and utterly too formal. The impression was swiftly broken by the tugging of his lips and the slight shaking that indicated he was trying with all his might not to laugh.

Aileen did not normally get so flustered. She blamed the heat from earlier today, the camel ride, the students, and of course, she blamed Tapendra.

When he stood and proceeded with his dramatics and making fun of her, she crossed her arms and tilted her chin up so she could glare at him better. Why did he have to be so freakishly tall, and why did he have a penchant for ugly sweaters? His nerdiness only made his laughter more bothersome.

"Fine then," Aileen plastered on a very obviously fake smile. "Tapendra. If I offended your delicate sensibilities or confused you when I borrowed your phone, you have my sincerest apologies," she put a hand to her heart and rolled her eyes up.

"From now on, I promise not to feed or even give a morsel to your overactive imagination. Is this," she gestured between them, "enough of a distance, would you say?"

Aileen raised her eyebrows, through with her version of theatrics for the moment.

Tapendra opened his mouth, closed it, and pressed his lips into a line. She was sniping back in excellent form, and true to Aileen had given him several openings as well as stung him. Of course, some of those openings he wasn't going to go for; the blow was too low or too childish. Or it was something that he frankly didn't want to connect with Aileen. Such as, well...openings.

He smiled sweetly. "Apology accepted," he said. "However, distance could be something of an issue, so-"

And with that, he put a friendly hand on her shoulder and shoved her into the pool, walking to the pool side with his arms crossed. "That's about the distance I'd go for!" he called into the water, as the splash sent water onto the marble floor.

Aileen studied his face, satisfied that she'd made her point. His smile didn't alert her to anything unusual. He smiled like that often when they were sniping at each other.

But the shove took her by surprise!

Aileen had the sense to suck in an offended breath before SPLASH!! Right into the pool she went, fully clothed!

As water rushed over and around her and the heels of her sandaled feet touched the floor, Aileen fumed at the bottom of the pool. Her shawl began floating up to the surface of the water, but she did not. She held her breath and waited.

If she knew Tapendra at all, she assumed he was standing near the pool with that annoying grin on his face, waiting for her to pop up and sputter and curse at him. When she didn't appear, she counted on a few things happening. Either way, he was not getting out of this unscathed (or confident of her sanity), that was for certain!

The silence from the pool interrupted Tapendra's laughter at Aileen's expense, and the chuckles faded as she stayed floating at the bottom of the pool. He tilted his head slightly. She hadn't hit her head on the pool floor, had she? He'd pushed her into 6 1/2 feet of water (according the signs, anyway) so...there was a possibility.

Her shawl bobbed to the surface and he gave in, jumping into the water - ignoring his own concerns and diving in head first, thankfully at an angle. He made the second mistake of opening his eyes, and his glasses came off his face as he rubbed them and then tried to orient himself, vision and chlorine reducing everything to blurry shapes.

Aileen did seem to be moving, but he couldn't tell if it was that she was awake, the water was making her look that way or the water was moving from his splash. He grabbed her around the waist (or what he hoped was her waist) and stood up, hauling her up with him and forcing her head into the air.

"You okay?" he asked, concerned.

Aileen's lungs were starting to burn, and she was just thinking about surfacing when a shape disturbed the water and a pair of arms snagged her around the waist. Well, damn. She hadn't thought that part through.

Startled, she let him pull her up, and took in a few gulps of air once her head was above water. Strands of hair stuck to her face, and Aileen blinked the water out of her eyes as she let her ears adjust to the very strange sound of Tapendra's concern. Suddenly, she felt embarrassed about their proximity to each other and touched by his gesture. The simple gesture of making sure she hadn't drowned or been carried away by grindylows through the drains.

Aileen met his eyes. His glasses were missing, which reminded her of the important things.

"Lovely. But you," a sly grin flitted across her face. "Are soaked," she pushed him away, then aimed a splash in his direction.

Any subtlety to her face was lost in the blur of his lack of glasses and the fact he was still rapidly blinking in an attempt to clear his eyes of the water's chemicals. Still, his concerned expression turned quickly to a confused scowl.

"I'm wet? No shi-" he started, and got met with a splash of water as she pulled away. He shook his head, which only made the mess his hair was in worse, as his long unruly bangs clung to his face and got in his eyes. He mopped them off his forehead and finally clicked on her tone of voice, which was...odd, for her anyway. It was almost playful.

He stared at her for a long moment (or as best a stare he could manage as he kept blinking) and then wordlessly, he splashed her back. Using both hands to create something of a wave, he sent a massive burst of water her way.

"That," he said, smirking, "Was a dirty trick, Aileen. You should be ashamed," he said, laughing - half in amusement that she'd gotten him and half in disbelief that she'd pulled something even resembling a comeback or prank. "Ashamed!"

As he stared at her, Aileen wondered if perhaps he was angry. She opened her mouth, all set to argue, when he sent a wave of water at her.
 
This time, she did sputter and turn her head away. "Tapendra!" She scolded him, catching a few of his words and his laughter. But at least he was laughing, and strangely enough, she wasn't really mad either. The chlorine must have gotten into her head somehow.
 
She swam away, snagged her shawl, and hopped up on the edge of the pool, her legs dangling in the water. Aileen instantly regretted it because it was freezing out here!
 
"I'm wracked with guilt." Mimicking his dramatic tone, she wrung out the shawl nonchalantly. "I'm sure you can tell."
 
She kicked up with both feet, sending a wave at him to rival the last one.

Tapendra got hit in the face - having been trying to spot his glasses - and he sputtered, half laughing and half spitting out the water. "Evidently!" he said with a laugh, sending a weak splatter of water towards her with a swing of his arm. "The quivers of shame really sell it."

He swam to the opposite end of the pool and mopped his dripping bangs from his face and beard, blinking his now slightly blood-shot eyes. He was smiling, and couldn't help himself; Aileen was actually laughing and playing along, which was frankly far more fun than arguing with her. And...well, surprisingly refreshing.

"You're a saint, really," he said with a friendly but definitely sarcastic tone as he looked down at his white shirt, then frowned and peeled it off, wringing it out and in effort not to have the chlorine stain it. His tattoo gleamed in the pool's lights, doubly reflected on the water's surface, the gold flickering as his muscles flexed. He balled the shirt up and tossed it towards his deck chair before he turned around to look at Aileen again.

"You've got a nice laugh, you know," he said, simply, and flashed her a smile. "You really should use it more often."

Aileen let out a snicker, assuming he was mocking her, then stifled it when she saw the doofy smile. Was he serious? He couldn't be. No grown man said lines like that so sincerely!

Except Tapendra.
 
"I don't know what you mean. I laugh at you plenty," she scoffed, purposefully missing the point of the almost-compliment. "You just don't appreciate it when you're falling off a camel. Something different about water, I suppose?" Aileen shot him an amused look. Or maybe not. She'd laughed at him when he'd tried to surf, too.
 
As Aileen wrang out her hair and lamented the tangles she could already feel forming, she studiously ignored Tapendra stripping off his shirt, remembering her vow not to give even a morsel to his overactive imagination. Which according to Aileen's overactive paranoia, a glance at him or his tattoo would certainly do.
 
She was about to stand and find her wand by the deck chairs so she could dry her clothes, when she noticed something. "Have you seen-" she started, then looked at him blinking around. "Nevermind."
 
Aileen slipped back into the water and swam along the bottom for a few moments until she spotted the shell bracelet Abby had made for her. Picking up Tappy's glasses as well, she surfaced a few feet away from him and then hesitated.
 
Instead of handing them back, she carefully set his spectacles on his nose, smirking at the crooked way they sat. But he must know Reparo. It was every geeky bloke's lifesaver.
 
Aileen fastened the bracelet back on her wrist and glanced at him. "Abby's." The one word explanation she offered for almost anything that might look silly or sentimental.

The sister in question rubbed at her burning ears as she climbed the stairs to the rooftop pool. She'd offered to scout it out and make sure no boring adults (like Aileen) had invaded it, since the students were finally finished with their round of card games and looking for something new to do.
 
Abby pushed open the door with pep in her step, then shivered at the cool air. Why Egypt couldn't have a consistent temperature was a mystery to her. Too hot during the day, cold at night; it needed to make up its mind.
 
She heard the sounds of splashing, then stood there with her hand on the doorknob, blinking at the scene before her. One crazy-tall handsome man standing in the pool (was there even a deepend for this guy?) and one older sister, laughing at him. Abby stared, sure she was seeing things.
 
A grin spread across Abby's face when Aileen put the glasses back on the professor's nose. She waited just a few more moments, then raced back down the stairs, letting the door shut with a SLAM behind her.