They were at the top of the falls in a flash, with Poppy leading the way. From above the waterfall the view was incredible and he was lost for words. That moment didn't last long as she pulled him towards the falls' edge. "Lys, TRY NOT TO LOOK DOWN. " She said as there was no longer ground beneath their feet. "Wait wait wait–! AHHHHH!!" Immediately he started panicking and flailed his arms half shifting trying not to fall. He hit the water with webbed wings and struggled as they floated up, arms shifting back when he saw Poppy smiling. His rapid breathing went to a nervous laugh when he finally realized what she had planned. "I didn't know we were going to jump." Under the falls was a perfect little nook big enough for the two of them, a curtain of water surrounding them. Her red curls were like a soaked scarf and the water made his blond curls straight. 

The small rock shelf gave them a place to stand and the jitters he had at first were gone. Holding hands with her here hidden away from the rest of the world, words couldn't describe this feeling. They were shoulder to shoulder, leaning against each other, laughing together. Looking at Poppy he couldn't help but smile. Then out of the blue–he kissed her. He was more surprised than she was, he didn't even know how it happened. Right away his face was redder than a tomato and his ears burning up. 

Poppy laughed at him lightly. “I guess I should have told you. I’m sorry Lys.” She had forgotten about how shy and nervous he could get.

Her delicate fingers were not entangled with his as they laughed together. She felt safe there with him for a long time and then the kiss happened. Her face was mostly expressing a shocked expression but when he went to back up from her she pulled him back. Her lips met his again as they shared a very tender moment together.

“Wait,” it was Poppy who broke the kiss off and looked around him with suspicious. “Lys, I think someone is here.” Maybe she was just overreacting about it. Maybe there wasn’t really anyone there at all. "Maybe I'm just imagining things." She shrugged her shoulders and kissed him again. She liked it and as far as she could tell no one was really there with them.

The thought hadn't crossed his mind until Poppy mentioned it, but as soon as she did he narrowed his eyes. He was behind the twins before he was pulled away; they probably noticed by now. And knowing them–Belen especially, the moment they'd find out he was gone they'd start meddling. He didn't see anyone at first, at least until he heard a suppressed snort. "BELEN!!!" Lys shouted catching a brief glimpse of the brunet hiding in plain sight before he bolted. His voice was loud enough to be heard over the rushing water followed by more yelling as the blond went after the half-fey with a vengeance. 

Belen was one step ahead of Lys thanks to his infuriating use of teleport, barely keeping out of his grasp. He could hear Poppy not far behind but he had one more thing to do before leaving. "Get in the portal–go go go go!" Belen cried grabbing his brother with a furious Lys in hot pursuit. His invisibility had worn off off sometime between his little telekinetic push that edged the older boy into the red-head and him being discovered. If he hadn't been so focused on watching the two lovebirds kiss he might've gotten away with it too. Both twins dashed into a portal that closed as soon as it appeared, likely back to Sularia or elsewhere. "GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE–" Were the last words the twins heard. Lys was red this time for an entirely different reason. "I should've known they'd follow us. As soon as I find them they are so dead." He fumed. 

Suddenly Poppy was covering herself a bit more. It was different when it was just Lysandre. He was invited and it mattered that she didn’t know Belen had been there. But if Belen had been there… Her face went red. “Lys, Belen, and Cyril both saw me.” They had been uninvited and that was a huge no-no.

While Lys was on the hunt Poppy got dressed and gave chase just behind Lys. There would be hell to pay. They only wanted a little bit of alone time. What was so wrong about that. “BELEN!” She roared and a wild cat noise left her lips behind it as her foot speed picked up. She caught up to Lys in no time since speed was something she excelled in.

“ALL I WANTED WAS TIME ALONE WITH YOU.” She shouted and there was the badger everyone knew. Her fists were balled up by her side. “You know what. Lysandre concentrate on those two idiots. We’re going to get them.”

Soon she portaled them to wherever they were and she felt a bit colder. “BELEN,” she let out another wild cat cry as they portaled by them. Lysandre was already almost on top of them.

He thought he was in the clear now that they were back home. Breathing hard, he cracked a grin at Cyril. Then another portal opened and the twins' eyes went wide. Poppy and Lys were on the warpath dropping down on them. Belen let out a high-pitched shriek as Cyril hid in his shadow, leaving him the only one visible for the incoming attack. The next moments were him getting pummeled while spastically teleporting around to dodge a few hits. His screeching was so loud that the automatons heard it and soon Lys' parents were rushing in. Nerine and Sylvain walked in on their eldest beating on the brunet with along with Poppy. Pulling them apart, Sylvain demanded an explanation. Before Lys could get a word in Belen was blabbering half running on self-preservation and adrenaline. "I didn't see anything while you were skinny-d–swimming, I swear!" That little slip of the tongue wasn't missed by the two adults unfortunately. "What did you say?" The vampire asked again, pulling him off the floor.

"They were s-swimming! Yeah!" He threw a nervous look at Poppy and Lys while attempting backpedal while he still could. "Where?" Nerine asked, her tone more out of curiosity. "Uh-uh I dunno? The jungle?" "Were they alone?" Belen clammed up knowing any more and he'd really get it once they were let go. He looked at the two again. "Lys, why were you hitting Belen?" Even if his mother wasn't angry at the sound of her voice the blond boy stiffened. "He followed us without asking…" He was hesitating to say more about what happened. "I know he can be a bother sometimes, and I'm not upset that you wanted to spend time with Poppy. But you still shouldn't hit him. If you wanted to go skinny dipping you could've told us." Her husband then looked like someone had just kicked him in the shin. "–They what?!"

Having been an Adelunian native a half of a milennium ago, the thought of two young people swimming alone together…potentially nude was absolutely unthinkable to Lord Albaret. His wife seemed much less surprised. Cyril emerged out of his older brother's shadow now that it sounded like they were safe for the moment. Seeing that now was a good time to hightail out of here before the barrage of questions started, the twins made themselves scarce leaving behind Poppy and Lys.

There was a growl from Poppy as Belen let out the slip. “THEN HOW DID YOU KNOW.” She let out the wild cat scream again. She was seeing red and for a moment she had thought about wailing on him herself but Lys was doing a good job at defending her honor.

Poppy realized soon that this was the first time she had ever met Lysandre’s father and boy what an experience this would be. “Well, we can’t ever get away from the twins. We’ve tried. Belen always follows us and ALWAYS gets in our business. In Arri, if one goes skinny dipping you must be invited to look. AND YOU WERE TOTALLY PEEPING!” She growled again.

She waved her arms towards Sylvian and Nerine though. “Lys wasn’t the one skinny dipping. It was me. I didn’t realize he didn’t know it wasn’t common for Sularia. We went to Laeto to try and get away from Belen.” There was a hiss that left her lips as she watched the twins take off.

Though she realized that the parents would probably want to know more. She gently bowed towards Sylvain as Lys calmed her down. “I’m sorry… My name is Poppy Rose-Porthyrius.” She didn’t know if Sylvain had heard of her or if he knew what Lys and she had been up to. “It’s good to see you again Lady Nerine.” She bowed towards his mother too.

The anger Lys had towards Belen's invasion of their privacy died down once he saw his father's face. Although he was still annoyed that the twins had gotten away, there was bigger fish to fry. Poppy was boiling mad and the way things were going it was going to be an uphill battle if he and his mother couldn't convince his father that he hadn't done something indecent. "Poppy…" He whispered to her, his eyes telling her things would be ok. In the end, Belen and Cyril didn't mean to do anything hurtful and if they were in danger they'd be the first to come running to help. They just didn't understand that the way they did things wasn't necessarily what others wanted. Bracing himself, he breathed in slowly as he faced his father's crossed arms and intense gaze. "Lysandre, exactly what were you two doing in Laeto?" His mother was listening, but allowing his father to ask what he wanted to know.

"Poppy and I went to Laeto to go swimming. We didn't want Cyril and Belen to know so we left on our own." Lys knew that the best way was to be upfront about things, as doing otherwise would make things worse. He didn't say that skipping out on the twins to go to Laeto was originally Poppy's idea since this was his father's first time meeting her. There was also the issue of her being Lady Angela's daughter, and he wasn't sure how his father would feel about that. "Sylvain, they're not children anymore. It's alright if they want to explore outside of Arri and spend time with people other than family. Yes they could have let us know in case of an emergency, but everything turned out alright didn't it?" The vampire lord staunchly disagreed. "Leaving without permission or supervision is one thing, however I cannot accept the possibility of either of them exposing themselves to each other in such a manner. And that includes swimming in the nude." The blonde woman turned to her husband quizzically. "What's wrong with swimming in the nude?" There was a brief silence before he replied. "It isn't something that young men and women should be doing, even if they are engaged."

"Oh come on Sylvain, everyone in Arri's done that at least once. It's not like we swim in the nude with just anyone. My cousins and I used to take afternoon dips in Kirika Lake during Ignius while Alistair and I used to sneak out past midnight in the moonlight together. We can go for a swim there sometime." Lys kept quiet while his parents were having a friendly argument, with his father exasperated that this was considered normal. Getting nowhere on his side of the argument, Lord Albaret turned his attention back to them. "Regardless of what your mother says, that sort of activity should be strictly kept between lovers." 

"We are, actually." He said, his legs starting to shake the moment the words left his mouth. "What?!" Taking Poppy's hand, he added: "We–Poppy and I have been seeing each other for two years now." Right away he held his breath as his father was thrown for a loop while his mother was more pleasantly surprised.