Raphael grinned too. He inhaled and let himself be submerged in the water.

Beneath the surface, all was quiet except for his pulse beating in his ears. It never ceased to fascinate him how very real his body was. It needed food. It needed rest. It needed air. It did silly things like catch a fever when it saw a beautiful human like Kirby.

Speaking of needing air...
He beat his wings a couple times to propel him forward and then surfaced, breathing heavily and wiping the red hair from his face but he was still grinning as he swam to get to the finish line.