Krem reached up and flipped the hair out of Thomas's eyes, away from his forehead. He let his touch linger there a moment, softly affectionate, before he went back to holding his hand.

"I'll sacrifice myself to the cause off testing the water first, I promise. And I won't even throw you in, though jumping in is the best way to get used to how cold something is."

There was a curve in the beach ahead, an outcropping of rocks. It was not, Krem knew, the little cove that Thomas and he had swum in last summer, nor the one where Balthier berthed his airship, which meant it was likely to be empty. He smiled at Thomas. "But you don't have to take off anything you don't want to. I figure I'll already have to wash the sand out of anything, I don't want to have to wash the salt out too."