Saving Serah

Serah was overwhelmed. She had barely spent any time with her friends.

So Serah decided to do something totally new.

So she woke up early in the morning, put on a t-shirt and some shorts and headed out to the lake to swim.

There was a chill in the air, as the summer was changing into the fall. But Serah didn't mind. It was bracing.

She shivered once and hurled herself into the water.

The cold knocked the breath out of her lungs. She could swim very well, but she suddenly forgot how.

She felt herself sink down further and further. She thrashed around trying to propel herself upward but it was no use.

She lost all her energy. She was about to give up, but she felt a firm hand grab her arm and began to pull her upward.

To keep his muscles, Ryan spent his mornings on the weekends running. He traveled across the palace grounds and towards the lake, like usual. But today, he noticed something was off. He noticed that that usually calm water had waves to it. So he looked out and noticed blonde hair. "Oh shit!" She wasn't moving! He quickly took off his shirt so it wouldn't slow him down and jumped into the water.

It was freezing at first but he did what he had to do. He quickly got used to the water and swam as quickly as he could. He wrapped his arm around the blonde and swam back to the edge. He lofted her out of the water and pushed her hair out of her face. Though he had never down CPR before, he had seen people do it in movies. He wouldn't do the chest compressions in case he hurt the girl, instead he'd do mouth to mouth.

He stuck his mouth on hers and breathed into her mouth. He checked to see if her chest rose before trying once again. "Serah?" He couldn't recall a tome where he was more worried. "Serah!"

Milan. Ruby. Her dad. Her mom. Fawn. Marie-Laure. Linette. Harley. Tamara. Faces of people she loved and cared about to some extent flashed across her mind. People who made her life so much sweeter. If she were going to die, what would happen to them?

She'd fight for them. She had to. It was the only choice.

She couldn't open her eyes, but she could feel light behind them. She couldn't breathe, but her lungs expanded anyway.

She could barely hear, but when she did, she heard a boy's voice. An important voice. A voice so important that she'd recognize it anywhere.

Ryan.

Suddenly, Serah caught her breath. She opened her eyes, sat up, and began to cough.

She barely noticed Ryan watching her as she coughed up what seemed like the entire lake.

After a few minutes, Serah's coughing stopped and she looked up at Ryan. "Good morning," she greeted, her throat burning.

He let out a sigh when she began to cough up water. She was fine. "Good morning? You almost drown and al, you have to say is good morning?" He'd never understand this girl. Did she ever think things through? "You scared the shit out of me!" He had a mixture of feelings; anger, relief, happiness. At least she wasn't dead.

"What were you thinking?" He pulled the girl into a hug to help her warm up. He wasn't sure what else to do or say. So he just stayed quiet and hugged her. He couldn't believe her. What had she been thinking? Was she crazy?

Serah felt some annoyance that Ryan had to be the one to save her. She was apreciative, but she had a feeling that he would bring it up whenever he needed something.

He sounded angry, but he wrapped Serah tightly in his arms anyway.

"Well, I didn't know that there was a script for recovering from drowning," Serah answered shrugging.

She felt very awkward in his arms and up against his bare chest, but he was like a furnace compared to the surrounding air.  She scooted in a little closer to him.

"Thinking? Not quite sure. I don't really remember," Serah answered honestly.  She tried to remember only moments ago, but it was was all a blur. She coughed again. "What are you doing out here?"

He let go of the girl and grabbed his shirt. "Here, I'll turn away. Just switch shirts, you need to get dry." He turned away as she changed shirts. "You're an idiot and you scared the crap out of me," he admitted. She wasn't his favorite person, but he was still worried about her. "Think things through next time." He turned around once he was told he could.

"I've been working out." He pointed to his abs and grinned. "How else would I be able to keep these?" He knew that she liked him so he assumed she'd enjoy the sight. "Like the view?" He smirked.

Serah switched shirts quickly. Anything to warm up.

"Yeah. Thinking would be smart," Serah agreed. "I will claim the deserved stupidity on this matter. You're good," she said, when she realized that she had forgotten to tell him when she finished.

"Wow, Ryan," she said, laughing hysterically.," I'm pretty sure that you already know the answer to that. Do you need an ego boost or something?" She probably looked like a maniac, laughing at something that wasn't supposed to be funny. But his question amused her for some reason.

"Thanks, by the way. I owe you one life-saving. But only one. So don't waste it," she half-joked.

He would never admit that he was slightly amused by her ability to tell jokes after almost drowning. At least she wasn't crying and freaking out, he wouldn't be able to handle that. "Never go to the lake by yourself ever again. Unless you use your brain. Then you can come by yourself."

He smirked some more. "I already know I'm hot but its still nice hearing someone else say it." Then again, no one had to tell him he was hot. "My ego is already pretty big but I still like compliments." Oh, well. He didn't care if she complimented him or not. "I guess you do owe me one." He shrugged.

"I'm normally a good swimmer. I wasn't expecting the water to be so cold. But yeah. The lake is not my new hangout," Serah promised.

"Oh, we all know about your ego, Ryan," she said smiling. She rolled her eyes, not because she was annoyed, but because she was having fun.

Serah shivered once. She was slowly warming up. The sun was beginning to rise. Serah smacked a hand against her forehead. "You realize if someone saw us like this, there would be no logical way to explain this, right?"

Unless she looked worse than she felt, there really wasn't. Serah tugged at the end of her hair, which she had braided. It was beginning to be a nervous habit for her.

Ryan rolled his eyes. "For someone who has a crush on me, you sure don't act like it." He believed that he had become less of a douche by spending time with Kai. He was one of the sweetest people Ryan knew and he believed that Kao was changimg him for the better. He could be a bit nicer to Serah since he had just saved her life. "Since when do I care what others think? And besides, we can be honest and say that I saved your ass from drowning." Cursing was such a bad habit of his.

The boy let out a small sigh and looked down at the ground. "Since I saved you and I'm starting to be a better person, what to go out sometime? To the Village?" He wasn't nervous about asking her, he didn't find it to be asking her on a real date. He just wanted to be friendly.

Serah laughed quietly. "Yeah. I don't act like it. I'd rather treat you like a friend than make it awkward for you to talk to me. And it's a one sided crush." Serah explained. She was trying to get over her crush. It was getting easier and easier. After all, she had just turned fourteen. She was moving on from her former self.

Serah honestly didn't think about telling the truth. She'd been making up a ton of excuses lately. She needed to change that.

"I'm glad hat you're trying to be a better person, but I don't want you feel obligated to hang out with me. If you want to hang out, cool. But don't do it because you feel like you have to," Serah said.

Serah really did want to say yes. But she didn't want to play him. That would make her feel guilty.

Ryan was looking for a new crush, not that he had one before. Yet, Kai had stolen his attention. He wouldn't say he had a crush on his friend, cause he didn't. "One sided crushes suck though," he replied. "They take so much out of you, so much energy." Okay, maybe he did have a crush on his friend. Maybe he was speaking from experience.

"I don't feel obligated to do anything." Nothing controlled the fourth year. If he wanted to do something then he meant it. "I do want to, it would be nice to hang out with someone new." He loved his friends, but it would be nice to hang out with someone who wasn't them.

"You're preaching to the choir, Ryan," Serah replied with a smile. She was discuss one sided crushes with the person she had a one sided crush on. She found it completely ridiculous.

"Uh... Okay," she responded, biting her lip.

She didn't understand Ryan's sudden change of heart. How could one person change so much in only a a few months?

Then she started to wonder: what would she and Ryan even do? Did they even have anything in common? Could they even hold an intelligent conversation? "What do you want to do in town?"

Serah knew for a fact that it wasn't a date. But why did she feel such random anxiety?

He let out a small chuckle and tried to stick his hands into his pockets. Since his jeans were soaked, it was hard to get his hands into the pockets. He gave up and left them hanging at his sides. "Yeah, I get it," he said softly. At least he wasn't being a total jerk about it anymore. "Sorry that I was a jerk about it." A lot has happened to the young boy and instead of being a jerk, he decided to calm his personality down.

"I like the diner there," he admitted. "It's a nice place to just chat and have lunch." He liked shopping too, he could get whatever he wanted. "Their hot chocolate is nice." He loved ordering a cup with extra whipped cream. "What's your answer; yes or no?"

"It's cool," Serah replied. "But can I ask what kind of reaction you were expecting from me in the Library?" Thinking back to that library scene, she had mostly been embarrassed. Not angry. At least not at Ryan.

And even before that in detention. She was angry about Ryan being a random ass to Christine (whom she didn't even know at the time). But she stayed angry because Harley dismissed her as a 'dumb first year'' when Serah thought they were becoming friends.

So maybe her anger at Ryan was really for Harley.

Serah looked down at her hands. A decision.

Her thoughts trailed to Milan. To Ruby. To Marie Laure. What would they think?

But did it really matter what they thought?

"Yes. I'll go with you," Serah said, after what seemed like an eternity, even to her. What an awkward silence that must have been for Ryan. She couldn't help having a random epiphany.  Hopefully the self realization was easy to read on her face. Milan and Ruby always seemed to read her perfectly, so maybe her thoughts were a little too obvious.