Work Text:
Set sometime during 07x02
“Hot?”
“What?” Nic must have sidled up behind her at some point, but Olandria wasn’t sure she’d heard his greeting right.
“Oh- I just was asking like, are you hot? Like since you’re standing…in front of the freezer…”
“Oh. Yeah. It’s truly too hot for the devil himself to be outside today and they got us out here just roasting.” Nic laughed at what he assumed was a southern saying, judging by the way her accent thickened around the end of sentence.
“Yeah. Who knew Fiji was like this, right? I was expecting paradise.” He’d been to Australia before, so he was actually assuming it would be this hot. She didn’t need to know that, though. “I was actually going to go cool off in the pool if you want to join me?”
“Join you?” Olandria quirked a brow, like she was expecting him to elaborate.
“Yeah.” Nic said, shoulders raised. There wasn’t much more to it.
“Okay, yeah. Better than the freezer I guess.” She smiled and he turned to lead the way. He didn’t look back, just sort of trusted that she was following.
Nic was nervous. Ola was proving to be a tough nut to crack. She’d picked him to kiss on the first night so he knew she was at least a little bit into him. He’d been nervous then, too. And kissing her hadn’t helped at all, just made him more nervous about messing things up.
There was something about her that keyed him up. It was like she was a battery and when she got close to him there was an energy that buzzed around. It was kind of annoying, intensifying and dulling based on her presence. At least if she would have picked his heart to stand on night one then it would just always be on. Being in limbo with her just translated to him feeling nervous and jittery almost all the time.
He scratched at the top of one arm with the other as they neared the pool and stepped right in. Not quite a jump, it was more like he had walked off the edge and stopped for a second mid-air before falling all at once.
“You need help with those?” He asked when he resurfaced, nodding towards her feet.
“My shoes?” She looked down at her feet and wiggled her painted toes in the confines of her heels.
“Yeah, they're all tied. Here” He reached for them, and easily undid the knots. He made quick work of the corded strings around her ankles and backed away, deeper into the pool.
Olandria slipped out of the shoes and managed not to flinch at the heat seeping into her soles. She untied the scarf she’d draped around her waist as a cover up today and laid it deliberately on the ground at the waters edge. She sat down, careful not to get the scarf wet, and sighed as she let the cool blue water lap at her legs.
“Your shoe game goes crazy by the way.”
“Thanks.” O glanced down at the pair in question, they were a bit more “sexy” than she’d normally go for day to day but they made sense here.
“You always wear heels to the pool?” He teased, floating a little ways away from her. She let a half-hearted laugh escape at the thought.
“When I’m on TV, yeah.” She could give it as good as she got it.
“Fair enough.” He didn’t offer up another line, so she threw him a bone.
“They’re the most important accessory. Shoes and hats.” She sets the trap effortlessly, a true master at work.
“Hats?” He asked, incredulous and floating closer.
Hook, line, and sinker.
“Yeah, or like scarves, headbands, all that.”
“My mom always says that earrings are the most important accessory. They frame the face.”
“Well obviously. Earrings go without saying. That’s basic.” She laughed. A real one this time. “I see you got your little holes pierced. Cause your mom told you to?”
“No, she actually told me not to. But I did it anyway. I forget about them most of the time. You like them?”
“They’re okay.” She scrunched her nose like she wasn’t so sure, but they both knew she liked them.
“They’re okay?” Nic said, chuckling. ”I’ll take it.” With that, he stood up in the water, wading closer with his hands outstretched for hers. Even with Olandria seated on the edge of the pool he still towered over her. The water clinging to his forearms dripped onto her thighs as she looked from one hand to the other, confused. “Aren’t you coming in? The cooling off properties of the pool work much better when you’re actually in the water.”
“Boy, do you see this full beat? I’m not swimming.”
His head tilts back and the laugh that comes is loud. Louder than she’s heard it so far in here. It makes her laugh too. Heads turn to look their way, curious and wanting in on the joke. She sees Belle-A’s head turn and has to remind herself not to dwell on the twinge of guilt. They had talked yesterday and Olandria had been honest about being open to getting to know Nic past their initial attraction. Hell, Belle-A was planning on talking to Taylor too before all the hideaway drama.
“At least move over here then, there’s more shade on this side.” He grabbed her shoes by their ties and floated towards the corner of the pool where the sun’s rays didn’t quite reach yet.
Once she was settled comfortably on the lip of the pool again, he spoke.
“I like that bikini.”
“Thanks. I like it, too.” She said with a smirk. She thought the quip would get a laugh out of him and it was so satisfying when it did.
He shook his head in silent appreciation and kept talking. “So, what do you like to do for fun down in Alabama?”
She doesn’t comment on the fact that he remembered where she was from but she does notice.
“Well, I live in Houston now but it’s mostly the same stuff I like to do. Read, watch movies, see friends when I can.
“Oh, Houston? All the baddies come from H-Town.”
“Whatchu know about some H-Town, Nic?” Olandria asked, laughing again. She wasn’t sure what she expected him to say but it wasn’t that. He seemed to do that a lot. Say things she doesn’t expect.
“Hey, I know! I know what’s up. Beyonce, Meg, Normani. Houston is like, the bad bitch capital.
She’s glad she’s not in the pool because she just about falls over at that. Why does he know where Normani is from? She doesn’t give him the satisfaction of being outwardly flattered by the comparisons, it’s safer to make him squirm. It’s painfully obvious at this point that he’s attempting to chat her up, that he’s running his little game.
“Normani? She doesn’t even have an album yet.”
“No but when she does, my ass is going to be there. Front row.” He breaks out in a little dance, humming an off-key rendition of ‘Motivation’ that sets them both off laughing.
“Stop!” Her hand covers her mouth but her wide smile is impossible to hide. Her laughter is unfettered and every time she starts to catch her breath, he does it again. Doing more of the song and trying to dance despite the water slowing him down.
She resorts to splashing water at him with her feet in a last ditch effort to shut him up long enough to get a deep breath and rest her abs. He dodges each splash, ducking underwater and diving out of the way with too much enthusiasm.
“Hey guys.” Cierra seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She’s just there, crouched next to them and leaning forward on her hands to hold herself steady. The position places her bikini-clad chest conveniently in Nic’s direct line of sight. “Nic, do you want to meet me at the ping-pong table after lunch? You did promise me that rematch…”
Her tone is unmistakably suggestive and draws attention immediately. Olandria feels like a bucket of cold water has been unceremoniously dumped on her head. The splashes stop and the giggles get stuck in her throat. Her smile freezes on her face with practiced control but there’s no levity to it anymore. There’s no shine or sparkle in her eye and her perfect posture just reads as stiff.
“Yeah, sure Cierra.” Nic doesn’t notice the tension in the air right away, just pushes his water logged curls out of his eyes to respond. “I’ll meet you over there.” It’s a clear dismissal but it was still interest, still agreement.
“Bussin’.” She says in response and Olandria resists the urge to roll her eyes at the nonsensical use of AAVE. “And I love that bikini, girl!”
Cierra smiled as she said it and then stood up to leave. Ola scolded herself for being petty and tried to say thank you before the taller woman was out of earshot. When she turned back to Nic, he was already looking at her.
“So…Normani. Front Row. Would you want to go?”
“Oh for sure, yeah. I’m grabbing all my girls. We’re definitely going to be there.” She knew what he really meant to ask. Would she go with him? She played it purposefully obtuse, it really was easier this way.
“Your girls. Yeah.” Nic caught the tension now, and didn’t push further. “So besides Normani, what kind of music do you listen to?”
“Oh you know, anything I can dance to.” It was an answer without really being an answer at all.
“I bet you can dance real good.” Nic said with a grin and an appreciative glance at her figure then ducked quickly underwater. He couldn’t help it. It had been going so well with her before. Their chemistry from the first night in the villa was still there, he just had to get back to it. He came back up for air after a moment, then slowly sank deeper again leaving only his eyes above the water line.
They sat like that for a second. Just looking. Each sizing the other up.
After a few seconds, Olandria’s eyes narrowed. She had expected him to need to breathe by now and something about the way he was just sitting there, half underwater was unnerving.
At some point, the burn in his lungs stopped being pleasant and started to turn painful. Nic stubbornly refused to quit. He kept his expression carefully neutral. Olandria was looking at him like she was trying not to be impressed and it only made him want to impress her more.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed like that, how long he was holding his breath and staring like a statue. After what felt like a full two minutes she couldn’t help her eyes widening with confusion and concern. Was this guy trying to drown himself or something? They do always find weirdos for these types of shows.
He stood up just as she started to worry and sucked in a gulp of air.
“What the fuck, bro? Are you an amphibian or something?” He pulls a face at that. ‘Bro’ is new but he tries to just be happy that she’s cracking jokes again.
“Or something.” He replied with ease, smooth as ever. Nic ventured closer to her at the edge of the pool and pulled himself up to sit next to her. She doesn’t look at him, but it’s just as well- this way he can look at her.
He can’t remember ever seeing skin that looked as soft as hers. She was starting to tan already too; he could see that the rich tones of her dark skin faded to just a shade lighter where her top tied behind her neck. Sitting this close, he could see the script across her collar bone clearly. He didn’t recognize the language but he was sure it said something beautiful. God, she was beautiful. He wished he had something to give her.
Where that urge came from, he wasn’t sure but it was there. The thought rattled around in his brain and stuck itself between the memory of her laughter and the feeling of her lips against his.
He’d been waiting for the right time to tell her that he’d kissed her during the blindfold challenge. He was planning to pull her for a chat that night anyway, but then there had been the challenge and the hideaway with Cierra. This was the first opportunity he’d had to tell her since it happened.
It’s almost like she can hear his thoughts, because she looks up at him then. Her big brown eyes meet his automatically, and he has to take a deep breath again before he speaks.
“You really do look great today, Ola.” He doesn’t bother trying to hide his intentions. There’s an intense and sincere weight to his tone that he couldn't mask if he tried. He’s not trying to be coy, or cool, or smooth- he just wants her to know. The nickname leaves his mouth a little clumsily, he only realized as he was saying it that he’d only ever called her that in his head.
“Awww.” Olandria, still looking at him, leaned away and punched Nic on the shoulder. Jokingly, but kind of hard. “Thanks, Nicky-pooh! You look great today, too!”
Nic froze. He blinks hard. Once, twice, and then again as he tilted his head in confusion. He doesn’t manage to get a word out before she’s speaking again.
“Well, I think I’m all cooled off now. I’ll see you later?” She doesn’t wait for his response before she’s standing up and out of the pool completely. She grabs her shoes and thinks for a second about putting them on before deciding to brave the hot pavement instead.
She walks away without looking back.