Henri took off his boots at the bank of the lake like the others, readying to step into the water fully clothed.

"Are you alright, Henri?" Louis gave into his worry and blurted out.

Henri glanced up to find him taking off his shirt, after a full year of being subjected to Alphas who were a little too quick to take their shirts off, he had sort of grown an immunity to it. As long as he didn’t stare too long.

"Of course!" He straightened up, grey eyes sparkling as he stared at the gleaming surface of the lake.

Louis had to quickly backtrack on his words, Henri looked just fine. If anything, he was more animated than usual, he had just been worried over nothing.

"You don’t have to watch over me, you know," Henri’s voice interrupted his thoughts, "You can go fishing and swimming with the others."

"I beg to differ, you’re the one watching over me." Louis deadpanned, pointing right at the scene a distance away from them.

It involved Audie trying to drown Jacques right beside Valentin who ignored them and talked over their yelling to Dio who listened intently to whatever he had to say.

Even further from them was Alois who was chasing Cecil around with the intention of taking off his shirt, the shorter Alpha screaming bloody murder as he splashed through the water, clutching his soaked through cotton shirt.

After giving Henri enough time to absorb the chaos, he moved his finger to the other side of the lake where Alexander and Claude were... were wrestling.

Both Alphas were causing big splashes from constantly tackling themselves in the water, it really looked like someone would get hurt.

"You were saying?" Louis cocked a brow.

Henri laughed shortly, rolling up his sleeves, and once again relieved that he wasn’t in charge of the group. He glanced over to Claude and Alexander again, the red-haired Alpha seemed to have the upper hand in the fight.

If the fact that Alexander was buried under the surface of the lake with bubbles popping out was any indication.

Henri rolled up the legs of his pants, undoing a couple shirt buttons so that it didn’t cause him discomfort before wading into the water. Louis stuck right to him like Henri was the only thing protecting him from the rest of group.

Henri happily went deeper into the sun warmed water, finding a quiet spot to float around in. He glanced at Louis who wore a grumpy expression next to him.

"Don’t you want to fish?" He suggested, trying to distract him.

Louis dragged his gaze from the escalating scenarios all around them. Having such a harmless conversation with Henri felt like stopping to have a cup of tea when your house was on fire. But he wasn’t the one burning, neither was he the one that set the house on fire so he would be taking that cup of tea.

"We’d have to go deeper still, want to come with me?" He asked already swimming deeper.

Henri was already being lulled into a light doze by the sway of the warm water against him and the sun overhead. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Louis chuckled, the lines of his brows smoothening out. "I’ll take that as a no," He decided for himself, leaving Henri behind.

Dio caught sight of Louis swimming deeper and immediately started heading for him, Valentin inadvertently coming along.

This separated Audie and Jacques, Audie going after Valentin while Jacques tried to catch his breath, a grin on his wet face.

They passed by Henri on their way to join Louis to fish and that was the beginibg of the chaos.

Audie sighted Henri floating peacefully from afar and immediately sped up in his direction, jumping and doing an elaborate move before flopping on Henri, sinking the poor unaware Omega.

Dio had just gotten to his boyfriend’s side only to lose him again when Louis went for Audie. Louis caught the blond by his legs and dragged him off Henri who resurfaced sputtering.

Audie laughed at this, ending up taking in mouthfuls of water because his head was under the surface but he wasn’t to be outdone because he caught a hold of Louis and pulled the Alpha down with him.

Dio didn’t let this slide, joining the fray. Valentin also joined to try to stop Audie and soon it was filled with them all running around trying to indiscriminately drag others down. Even Alois and Cecil joined in after a while, their running around causing big waves and splashes.

Claude and Alexander who had been in their own little world were soon distracted by this, both of them watching on curiously. Their nonparticipation only lasted for a short while though, because Audie went straight for Claude with his legs out for a take-down.

Cecil had also not been looking at where he was going while being chased by Alois so he smacked into Alexander from behind, sending the Alpha into the water much to his horror. This only added more people into the game of chase and drown.

Henri that had been the start of it all was gradually left behind as he struggled to find his footing. It was easier for the others because they were so tall, it was an unfair advantage.

Audie had almost everyone gunning for him so he did the only thing he would do, and that was to go again for Henri who just finally found his footing.

The Omega went down again with a yelp, catching Audie before he could swim off and putting him into a chokehold. Henri ignored his taps for surrender on the surface of the water, gasping again when he was plunged into the lake for the third time.

Audie used this chance to break free, laughing so hard that he couldn’t escape when he was jumped by about five Alphas at once.

Henri panted and blinked furiously, trying to get the lake water out of his eyes and also manage to find his footing at the same time. He went stock still when he felt a hard body behind him, and hands wrapping around his waist to steady him.

He knew without checking that it was Alexander and all of the excitement he had gotten from playing around drained away. Did the Alpha have no knowledge of personal space?

Henri found his freedom in no time when someone dragged Alexander off him and he look around for the first time to find Claude trying to drown the Alpha again. He didn’t expect Alexander to be laughing though, was it him or did those two seem closer than they usually were?