Dealing Hearts: An Academy FF Short Story (Completed)

Chapter 6

My phone woke me up from a dream about me reaching out toward Raven's back and never able to reach him. Eventually he just walked away, never looking back.

My phone rang again.

"'Ello?" I answered.

"Miss Hayward," Raven answered, his accent a little extra thick. I smiled, his voice alone making all my nightmares disperse into nothing.

"Yes, who is this?" I asked.

"My name is Raven. I am to be your companion today. I'll be there in an hour."

"I was just planning to stay in the hotel today. They have so much to do here and I want to explore more."

"Great, put on a bikini then. I'll be there soon. Goodbye, my little one." With that, he hung up and easily pushed away my nightmares. Even a simple conversation with him made everything better.

I was so screwed.

I hopped in the shower to shave and wash away the stress from the long night before getting out and throwing on a chocolate brown bikini. I was just finishing with getting ready when someone knocked on the door.

"Hold on!" I called out and pulled on a dark pink cover-up. I walked over to the door and smiled at Raven as he took up the entire space of the entranceway.

"Come on in," I said, stepping to the side.

He slipped by, brushing past me. He wore a black t-shirt stretched over his massive frame and light brown cargo shorts. His dark eyes focused on me, taking in my features. Slowly his frown dipped down and he bit on his lip ring as his eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just tired."

"Why didn't you sleep?"

I shrugged. "This mission is just getting to me is all. Come on, let's get moving. Did you guys catch anything?"

"Kevin is keeping watch. They didn't do anything special. We took note of everyone Sheppard met with last night other than you and Marc, and now we're just waiting on Corey to finish looking into them."

I nodded and went over to fill up a tote bag with beach stuff, making sure to have my sunglasses and sunscreen.

"Sang, are you okay?" Raven called through the door to the bedroom.

"Yeah," I said and came back out.

I stared at my face again before sighing. "No you are not. I'm asking one more time, what is it? And do not lie to me."

I glanced at the ground, my finger twitching, wanting to go to my lip, but that was a dead giveaway and a habit I fought to break. I wasn't about to pick it up again.

"I don't want to say," I answered honestly. "I'm not ready to talk about it."

He nodded in understanding. "That's okay. I'm here when you're ready. Come. Let's go fetch some sun."

I giggled as he reached out and grabbed my hand, leading me out of the suite and to the elevator. I pressed into him, enjoying his comforting warmth as we went down to the first floor and then to where all the pools were.

"Lazy river?" I asked.

He grinned, his eyes lighting up with mischief. "Da. I'll grab the tubes. Go find a place to put our things." With that, he strolled away, heading to the small shed where they kept the tubes for the lazy river. I walked along the winding river. It even went through a tunnel and under a couple of bridges. A couple of people were already in it despite it still being early out. Now would be the perfect time to relax in it before everyone got up and the river got crowded with bodies following the flow of the water.