Swimming in the lake (Char and Cobie)

Cobalt let go of the portkey as it deposited both himself and his daughter, Charlotte, onto a private and secluded part of the lakeshore. Waving his wand a few times, Cobalt set up privacy wards to make sure this area of the lakeshore remained private. He was dressed only in swimming shorts and a t-shirt but thankfully it was unseasonably warm,

"Let's get to relaxing!" he declared happily as he carried a picnic basket and two towels closer to the water's edge. Lying the towels down flat he put the picnic basket between them, "There we are... nice and cosy if I do say so myself."

Charlotte sighed, she had pretended to be happy about going swimming but the truth was she still hated being in a swimming costume because it showed her scars off too much for her liking, wearing tshirts normally covered them up.

Smiling a little at Cobalt she sat down on one of the towels that he had set out for her and she reclined on it, gazing up at the sunny sky, it was warm, which was lovely and she shrugged off her Cardigan, leaving Charlotte in her bathing suit and shorts alone, her flip flops cast aside on the towel.

"It's very nice daddy, you picked a nice day to come here."

With that Charlotte took out her sketchpad and began to draw out the outline of the lakeside, the trees surrounding it and the odd pier to one side.

"What you going to do?"

Cobalt laid down on the towel he'd set down for himself. He knew now that Charlotte was rather self-conscious about showing skin, specifically her scars. This wasn't something Cobalt had thought about but that was mainly because he was just so used to his own scars. He smiled a little as he took some of the cherryade out of the expanded picnic basket,

"Well thanks Char-kitty." he looked up at the cloudless sky, "A day like this is too good to waste being stuck indoors I think."

Seeing his daughter beginning to scetch the lakeside and the surrounding area, Cobalt smiled a little bit. He thought about it for a few moments,

"Mmm... I suppose I might go for a swim."

Charlotte saw that Cobalt was taking some drink out of the picnic basket and moved her head to see what it was better, it was one of her favourite drinks, Cherryade, biting her lip she placed her sketchbook back in her bag and smiled at him, taking a cup out of the box.

"Mind if I have some? I think I'm going to need it."

With that she poured out a little bit of the fizzy liquid into a plastic cup and sipped at it happily, sitting next to Cobalt on his towel.

"Swimming hmmm? I might join you...I guess..."

Biting her lip Charlotte had an idea and tugged at Cobalts top, a bright smile on her lips and she looked at him with the best puppy dog eyes that she could manage, pouting out her lips cutely so that it might be extra effective.

"Can I have your tshirt? PWEESE?"

Charlotte moved to see what he was drinking ever so carefully, a fact that made Cobalt chuckle lightly. She was like a squirel, tentatively looking around. He smiled at her and shook his head,

"Be my guest." He replied casually, "I brought it along for you mainly. All of the sugar can give me a headache sometimes."

He looked at her with a warm smile and ruffled her hair affectionately,

"You don't have to if you don't want to Char-kitty." he smiled and nodded to her sketchbook with a smirk, "You could always sketch me."

He looked down at Charlotte to see why she was tugging at his T-shirt and fell right into her trap; the dreaded puppy dog eyes. Cobalt mentally sighed as he relented immediately to her request. He really needed to figure out how to resist that. He smiled at her and took off his shirt, showing his muscular but scarred body as he handed her his t-shirt,

"There you are Char-kitty."

Charlotte heard Cobalt chuckle and immediately her car ears pricked up, they tended to do that when she got embarrassed, she didn't think that she had done anything especially funny so she looked at her lap, her ears against her head and pouted.

"Whats so funny Cobie?"

When her hair was ruffled Charlotte poked out her tongue at Cobalt, moving her head away with a small grin on her lips. She always secretly liked it when he did that.

"I've already sketched you like 5 times, you're getting boring to draw now. I'd rather draw the lake, or that mouldy peir over there."

As soon as Charlotte saw Cobalt taking off his tshirt she grinned and stopped the puppy dog eyes, taking it from him and slipping it over her head Charlotte was now wearing a very oversized shirt which reached to her mid thigh.

"I'm ready to swim now!" she declared happily and stood up, making her way to stand with her feet in the water.

When Charlotte's cat ears picked up, Cobalt smiled widely. She looked incredibly cute when she had her cat ears up too. He reached out and scratched the back on her cat ears with a happy grin,

"Nothing much." he said with a grin, "You just look so cute sometimes."

He stuck his tongue out at her as well, ruffling her hair right up until the last second when she moved her head out of the way. Grinning, he decided to pout instead,

"Are you saying I'm boring?" He teased her before grinning and sticking his tongue out again, "Of course. Nature is much more attractive than me after all."

He knew that she was proud of herself when she had taken his shirt happily. Cobalt scratched her behind the ears again happily and stood up as well, moving to the edge of the lake too,

"I'll join you!"

Charlotte thought that she never should have done that, partly because she knew that Cobalt thought that her cat ears were just completely adorable, which would only give him license to coo over her even more. Which he did exactly on cue.

Pouting unhappily as he scratched her behind the ears Charlotte could only keep it up for so long before she purred happily and nuzzled her head into his hand.

"I'm not cute! Im sexy."

With that Charlotte nodded from the water, she indeed thought that nature was at this time more beautiful than Cobalt, but she knew someone who would disagree.

"Well that's what I think anyway, somebody else would say different, but she's not here right now."

Smirking a little bit Charlotte submerged herself in the water and came up gasping after ducking her head under in a mushroom float, happily paddling away in the shallow water Charlotte grinned and turned to kick waves of water at Cobalt

"Take that!" she chuckled.

He knew that Charlotte wasn't exactly fond of when he would coo over her like he was doing but he also knew that she wouldn't exactly hold it against him. After all, everytime her cat-ears came out he cooed over them and made sure she was made totally aware of how cute she looked with kitty ears. It wasn't as if he could even help it... she really was his little Char-kitty when she was like this! Half his little kitty and half his little girl.

Cobalt grinned as she began to nuzzle her head into his hand. Her cat ears were very sensative and when he scratched behind them it was almost gauranteed that she'd purr. He smirked a little bit at that,

"Well you're cute to me." he stuck his tongue out at her playfully, "You're sexy to somebody else. But he's not here right now."

He chuckled as they used the same terms to describe their other selves. He pouted playfully,

"Well then I guess I'll just have to play second fiddle to nature." he shook his fist jokingly at the lake in mock indignation, "Curse you nature!"

After deciding that he'd been rather silly to joke around that much, against nature no less, Cobalt waded into the water with a happy sigh. Swimming was something he really did enjoy. He spluttered with he was splashed, grinning wide as he did that,

"Why you little trouble maker you!" he joked happily as he waded towards his daughter, "I'll splash you back for that!"

Charlotte smiled happily as Cobalt came into the water, it was very strange, having your father and boyfriend being so similar but this was not something that she really had to worry about it wad her other selfs problem and shed have nothing to do with it.

Her tshirt became see through with water, but not completely so, never the less it made swimming harder and she only treads water in the shallow ends of the lake.

"I wouldn't do that Daddy, after all, nature can turn nasty if you insult it like that, you may be privy to a tsunami."

Winking she floated up on her back and kicked her feet at Cobalt, splashing him a lot as she kicked, giggling happily as he moved to get her back Charlotte quickly swam away over to the bank of the lake, hiding under a willow tree.

"Only if you can find meeeeeee." she taunted.

Cobalt wandered into the water and shudder a little bit at how cold it seemed to be. It wasn't actually cold, it was quite warm, but compared to standing on the bank it was cold. He was enjoying the playful banter they were having as they played in the water. One of Cobalt's many worries was that he wasn't a good father to Charlotte but seeing her happy made it all worth while,

"Yes... nature is a mean one." he stuck his tongue out at 'nature' before laughing happily, "And if it does then I'll apologise. Better to apologise than to ask permission."

He took the water to the face despite knowing any number of ways to avoid it. Spluttering at the water, he growled playfully at Charlotte. He waded after her, reaching the shore quickl before grinning,

"Mmm... I wonder where she could be..." he joked before he began to sniff the air, "Mmm... smells like paint..."

Charlotte clocked the shudder that Cobalt gave when he stepped into the water, Charlotte hadn't thought it had been that cold and thus came to the conclusion that he was being a big wuss and he needed to 'grow a pair' whatever that meant...

Staying silent by the bank Charlotte bit her lip and squished herself against the soil making her back all bitty and horrible from it's touch.

"Yeah you'd better apologise to nature!" she said quietly

His reaction to the water in the face was so funny and she couldn't help but snigger behind her hand. Charlotte however was not best pleased, he was cheating to use his nose, so Charlotte decided to cheat right back and she morphed into Cobalt.

"Hmmmm the nose knows does it Cobalt?"

He saw the look that Charlotte had given him when he'd reacted to the change in temperature and stuck his tongue out at her. Wasn't fair that she was a metamorph so her body temperature was constantly. She had it easy for cold water. He chuckled before turning to the other side of the lake,

"Nature!" he laughed happily, "I'm sorry nature! Terribly sorry!"

He had used his nose and that was a bit of a problem seeing as they both knew it was cheating. Before he could attempt without the nose, he paused for a second as she turned into him. He could smell her but it smelt half of him,

"The nose knows!"

Charlotte giggled as Cobie turned to apologise to the lake and she couldn't believe he was being so silly, after all she wasn't used to having her parents act silly around her or anything other than angry or dissappointed.

"Oh dear Cobalt, you really are too funny!"

Unable to stop giggling Charlotte was not making her hiding any more effective. As soon as Cobalt said that he could smell her even now Charlotte frowned and swam out from under the bows of the willow tree.

Pulling her Tongue she jibed:

"You can't splash me! I'm too cute to be splashed!"

Cobalt chuckled a little bit. He might have been acting a bit sillier than he normally did but she was giggling away happily at his antics so he found them to be perfectly acceptable. Cobalt stuck his tongue out at her,

"I'm just the right amount of funny thank you very much!" he protested jokingly, "It's part of the dad code."

He looked at her with a smile as she swam back out to him again. Cobalt pouted a little bit as she said he couldn't splash her,

"Damn... you are just that cute!" he stuck his tongue out at her with a grin, "Glad you admit you're cute!"

Charlotte would want nothing more than to pinch his tongue in order to get him to stop pulling tongues at her, after all it would be funny to see his reaction but she kept her hands to herself. Swimming closer to Cobalt Charlotte gently bumped against his chest.

"Well then it's part of the daughter code to do this."

With that Charlotte grinned and attached herself to Cobalts legs and chest as she looked up at him innocently.

"Ride please!" she smirked and batted her eyelashes at him.

Frowning slightly that Cobalt seemed to be getting very happy about the fact that she had labelled herself as cute, Charlotte poked him in the chest lightly and shook her head up at him, she would have to do some major damage control here.

"I only say I'm cute when I have something to get out of it."

Cobalt could see that his silliness was causing Charlotte some thoughts, probably relating to being even sillier to stop him being silly. And, even though this was only a train of thought, he was aware he'd probably used the word silly too many times. He looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and an amused expression,

"There's a daughter code?"

He raised his other eyebrow as his daughter literally attached herself to him. He chuckled lightly,

"You want a ride huh?" he paused for a minute, "Sure it wouldn't be better if you were on my shoulders or something?"

The fact that Charlotte had labelled herself as cute meant that she no longer had any valid reason for saying she wasn't without contradicting herself. He chuckled and wiggled his nose slightly,

"Ah I can see your damage control here." he teased her with a grin, "It's not going to work... you're going to be my cute little Char-kitty forever now that you've admitted it."

Charlotte raised her eyebrow and looked at Cobalt as if he had three heads, surely he had known that there had been a daughter code if there is a father code then there must be one for children as well. Just made sense.

"Yes of course there is! It's very complex I'll tell you that right now."

Nodding her head wisely Charlotte raised her other eyebrow and shimmied herself slightly further up Cobie's body so she was attatched to his arm.

"Nope, that's too easy, a ride like this please, and make it good since im your cute little 'Char-Kitty' now."

Charlotte now she knew she wasn't ever going to get out of this she had better play it up to the best of it's potential, and that being, that she pulls out the puppy dog eyes for every occasion possible.

"Come on Dwaddy! Rwide!" she said in a baby voice.

When Charlotte gave him a rather unamused expression of surprise, Cobalt decided that it was probably one of those things he was just meant to know. The father code told him that there were a lot of those things now that he was a father. And it also told him that he wouldn't know them until he the first time he was supposed to know it and was unable to know it because he didn't know what to know. When he'd read that Cobalt had had to re-read it just to make sure he had read it right,

"Mmm well now that I know there is one I agree..." he laughed a little bit, "Those codes are hard... right? Especially since they're unwritten..."

Cobalt chuckled a little bit more and set about wadding through the water as fast and as smoothly as he could to let Char ride through the water attached to his arm,

"Yes you are indeed my cute little Char-kitty!" he declared before smirking, "Who has called herself cute twice in the last half an hour... and will forever be cute because of it!"

When Charlotte pulled out the puppy dog eyes trick, Cobalt groaned a little bit. Everytime. Those puppy dog eyes got him every time! Chuckling a little bit he grinned,

"Alright then my cute little Char-kitty!" he grinned as he began to spin round and round in the water slowly before smirking, "You want to see how fast Daddy can carry you in the water?"

Charlotte nodded her head, and then she realised something, her head cocked to one side and she wondered something about the 'Father Code' since Cobalt said that her code must be complicated as it's written down, then was his written down somewhere?

"Yes they're really quite hard to learn, after all they update so often and they have so many different niches."

As she rode through the water Charlotte giggled and she clutched harder to Cobalt because she didn't have any great desire to fall off into the water and get wet again, even though she was slightly cold from being out of the water.

"Now that's just silly Cobalt, you said cute far to many times in that statement for it to be considered as important and sensible."

Unable to stop herself giggling even more Charlotte smiled happily and tightened her grip even more as Cobalt began to spin her within the water, making her slightly dizzy but she nodded again.

"Faster faster! But don't let me fall off!"

Cobalt nodded in agreement. The father code was so needlessly complex... and almost all of it fell under rule number one; always look out for your daughter's best interests. But, he supposed, that was too open to interpretation. Hence the other two thousand rules,

"I know right?" he chuckled a little bit, "God... I wish there was a class at school for this kind of thing instead of a code book."

Cobalt pouted as he continued to give his daughter a ride through the lake. Chuckling a little bit he sped up slightly as he carried her,

"I only said it three times." he stuck his tongue out at her, "I hardly think that's too many times."

At his daughter's insistance that he go faster, but that he not drop her, Cobalt held onto Charlotte tighter as he began to spin just that little bit faster,

"You alright back there?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes a little bit as she was carried around by her daddy, sometimes he could be awfully annoying, especially when it came to anything involving herself.

Anything. Especially if it was something to do with her appearance.

"Well I do, so neh, and you always say that I'm right most of the time, so this is just another example."

As he spun her faster and faster Charlotte gripped him tightly, she felt dizzy like she was going to faint but she enjoyed the feeling never the less until it became almost painful to open her eyes.

"Too fast! I'm going to faint, stop!" she said in a far away voice.