A/N: So I've been wanting to do this story for a while and yes, it's a Hunter/OC story. Overrated? I suppose so. Cliché? Maybe. The OC being a ranger? No way! I don't know why, but I don't really like when the OC is an unknown ranger or something so my OC is not a ranger. Just to clarify. Enjoy!
"Guys! Look at her!" Tori points out a brunette surfing a ways down from them. Her red two-piece stood out against the blue-green, sparkling water. Tori's friends follow her finger to see the girl overcome a large wave.
"She's almost better then you, Tori," Shane teases her. Tori turns her head to face Shane, her eyebrows raised. Shane holds his hands up.
"Kidding, kidding." It was a sunny day in Blue Bay Harbor, perfect for a day at the beach. There is a slight breeze that is refreshing from the heat that had been the norm for the last few days in their town. There had been no disturbances from Lothor for awhile, so they had decided to use it as an opportunity to go on a mini-vacation to the beach. The beach was where they can relax, they can unwind, they can watch Tori try to teach Blake how to surf.
Which usually doesn't end well.
The sun reflects off the water and Dustin, shielding his eye with his hand, notices Hunter is still staring at the girl in red. His face is blank, as usually but his brow is furrowed and his eyes intent on her.
"Yo Hunter," he says trying to get the blonds' attention. Hunter tears his eyes away and looks at Dustin, his forehead smooth once more. Why does he have to be so good at that? Dustin thinks. Hunter inclines his head.
"Yeah Dustin?" His voice is pensive. Never a good sign.
"I was just wondering why you were staring so hard at that girl?" Dustin says, his voice getting higher at the end trying to conceal his laughter. The other's whip their heads towards Hunter, surprise on their faces.
"What were you doing, older brother" Blake is grinning slyly and Tori matches him.
"Is our Hunter…looking at a girl?" Shane can't hold it in and bursts out laughing as the others join in. Hunter rolls his eyes.
"Uh, yeah. She's a very good surfer. Better than you, Tori," he says, echoing Shane's earlier words. All the laughing stops as the guys look at Tori. Hunter's face is smug. He's not one to get scared of Tori, even mock-scared as the others usually pretended.
"What Hunter?" Tori's voice is soft, letting him have a chance to rethink his words.
"I said, she's better then you," responds Hunter. The others scoot backwards off the towel as Tori gets up. Hunter squints at her against the harsh sunlight.
"Better run, man," Shane mutters. Dustin nods, looking scared. Blake's face is just amused at his older brother's actions. But Hunter is always like that.
Unpredictable.
"Come here Hunter Bradley!" Tori leaps at him but he leans to the side and quickly gets up. The smirk on his face is still smug as Tori turns around, mock glaring at him.
"Catch me if you can, Tori," he teases then takes off running down the beach. Tori chases after him as the other guys laugh behind them. Hunter dodges the other beachgoers, them and the sand stopping him only momentarily. They look at him and Tori, confused yet entertained at the same time as the sand flies beneath their feet. They're both grinning as the wind tears at them, trying to stop them and blowing their hair back.
Hunter stops suddenly as Tori skids by him.
"Hey Hunter! That hurt!" she complains as she gets up, wiping sand from herself. They're standing just beyond the reach of the waves. It claws up to the sand just inches from their feet. "Ready to give up?"
When Hunter doesn't respond, she glances at his face. He's focusing on something, his eyes once again intent on the unknown object.
She sighs, way too sued to it. He stops a lot of times when he's focused on something and usually doesn't bother to explain, expecting everyone else to get it.
"What is it, Hunter?" Tori asks eventually. She notices her other friends, seeing that they've stopped chasing each other, picking their way along to her.
"You know that surfer we saw earlier?" Hunter says slowly, scanning the rippling ocean. Tori waggles her eyebrows at him.
"Oh yeah? What about her?" she asks, her voice teasing. But Hunter's not amused. He's still staring at the waves. Their rhythmic sound is haunting, alluring…it reminds him of something but he can't remember what. Just a weird sense of calling.
"I saw her fall off her board a few minutes ago. She hasn't come back up yet." Tori's breath is caught in her throat as Hunter turns to her, his eyes wide.
"Hunter…" is all she gets out before he's plunging into the waves. "Hunter!"
But Hunter's not paying any attention. He swims deeper until the water is up to his shoulders. This was right about where he had seen her. But she's not there anymore. He sees a surfboard being swept up on shore and recognizes it as the one she was riding.
Off-white with red flowers.
He takes a deep breath before ducking under the water. The salt assaults his eyes as soon as he opens them beneath the waves, but the slight stinging he barely acknowledges. The push of the water makes him move backwards a little bit, hindering his movement. He frowns and sticks his arms in front of him, as if trying to part the water.
He doesn't know why he's so worried about a complete stronger but as a ranger, you have to help whoever's in need.
Even a pretty girl on the beach.
Come on, come on, where is she? Hunter swims deeper, the water getting colder the farther he goes out. But actually, it feels pretty good after being in the sun for so long. Where are you?
He comes up for air, still not seeing her anywhere. Where can she be? He looks towards shore and sees his friends standing in a little group at the edge of the sea. They look confused and are yelling at him to come back. He just shakes his head and dives beneath the water again.
It's peaceful down there. No sounds except the slight whooshing of the waves from underwater. He can see through to the smooth ocean floor. The fish dart away from him as he searches through the water. If he wasn't so worried, about a girl he didn't even know, he would've loved to just swim and think. But he has a job to do.
A life to save.
Finally he spots her, her red swimsuit very conspicuous in the clear water. She's struggling against something that's pulling her under. When he gets closer, he realizes it's a fishing line caught on her string anklet. She's trying to rip it off but since her eyes are closed, he's assuming it's very hard for her.
Her feet are kicking up the sand around her, the little grains combined with the bubbles she's causing making it very hard to see. But he manages.
He reaches out and grabs the fishing line, working immediately on trying to untangle it. She stiffens up when he touches her. She's scared, he can tell. But by now she so out of it that she's stopped fighting so hard.
It's harder to untie knots underwater than one might think but seeing as he's Hunter, he just has a way with that. His fingers scramble a little as he picks at the knots.
He looks up once, quickly, just to see how she's doing. But maybe he shouldn't have.
She's stopped fighting. She's drowning, her brown hair floating around her face. Hunter starts to panic at the thought that she's going to die anyway, after he tried to save her.
That he tried….and failed.
No.
On the smooth sandy floor, he spots a piece of jagged shell. Perfect. He reaches down with one hand and grabs it before sawing it through the fishing line. Back and forth. Back and forth.
He chances another look at the girl and she's still not fighting. But he sees the stream of bubbles coming from her mouth and knows she's still alive.
But he doesn't have a lot of time anyway.
He finally succeeds in cutting through the wire and quickly takes her by the waist and swims upwards, his lungs close to bursting. The surface looks so far away but he just propels his feet faster and breaks through the water to the wide open sky.
He takes in big, gulping breaths of air, his chest heaving. He looks down at the girl and finds she's still quite limp, leaning on him. But he doesn't mind. He saved her.
As he swims to shore, still carrying the girl, he sees a crowd has formed around his friends. He doesn't bother waving to him, knowing he needs all of his strength to get her to shore. Although, she is pretty light…
He shakes some blond hair out of his eyes and makes his way faster through the water until he feels his feet hit the sandy shore. His friends all run up to him but he ignores them and lays her down on the sand, out of the reach of the waves. There's yelling all around them, praise and warnings but Hunter ignores it.
"Hunter, I can't believe you saved her," Shane says, his voice worried. "And not even as a ranger," he adds softly, so only Hunter can hear. Hunter just nods, focusing on the girl who is now coughing up water. She pulls in deep, shuddering breaths, trying to clear her airways of seawater. He pounds her gently on the back as she violently coughs more.
"Eve?" Tori says, a little breathless, staring at the brunette. But Blake shushes her.
"Give her a second." He nudges her. But Hunter is tuning them all out, intent on this girl who still hasn't opened her eyes. She's leaning back on her forearms, her eyes still closed until she reaches up a hand to wipe at them. They open.
And Hunter is confronted with the most startling bright pair of hazel eyes he's ever seen.
"Are you okay?" he asks her softly, mildly annoyed at the racket the people around him are causing. Before she even says anything he feels a…tug towards this girl. A pull. There's something about her that just feels right. And he doesn't even know who she is. She blinks a few times before gazing up at him.
"Y-yeah…" she murmurs her brown hair limp on her shoulders. She looks up to see a guy above her. A good-looking guy. The guy who saved her.
And she feels this strange feeling that she knows him from somewhere. A feeling of coming home. Of comfort.
"Are you sure? It was pretty close there," he continues. She nods, still a little shaky after almost drowning. And suddenly being confronted with such an attractive guy, of course.
"Well, can I take you anywhere? Home, a hotel, anything?" he offers. Her head snaps up slowly. This complete stranger is offering to drive her home? A hot stranger, but nonetheless a stranger.
Despite her feeling of familiarity…
"Hunter, what are you doing? That's nice, but you don't even know her." A guy in the crowd scolds him. The Asian guy next to him nods while the blonde girl is frowning at her. She looks familiar…
A memory hits her from years past.
Two girls playing in the water, a splash fight from long ago. The sunset reflecting off the waves as the girls laugh and play. The slight wind blowing a warm breeze towards them as they dart in and out of the waves, their shorts soaked and flecks of water clinging to their hair.
A blonde girl…her shadow running on the sand…a brunette girl…her hair flying behind her as they run down the beach…
"Tori?" she says, her voice hoarse. The blonde grins widely.
"Eve! I knew it was you!" She bends down quickly to give her a hug but Eve's arms are heavy so she just sits there and smiles. She's found her best friend again.
Friend.
"Wait, Tori-you know her?" The tan man that had spoken before asks Tori. Tori nods.
"Yeah! Eve was my best friend before she moved. I thought you looked familiar but I never would've guessed that it was you! What brings you here?"
"Tori, give her a minute," the blond, muscular guy who had saved her cautions. Tori rolls her eyes. Eve smiles, remembering how Tori never really listened to anyone and always did what she wanted-even at Eve's own expense, sometimes. But it was okay.
And it's okay now.
"Eve, these are my friends-Dustin, Shane, Blake, and Hunter." Hunter. So that was her savior's name. Seems appropriate.
The name vibrates through her mind, bouncing around. Hunter. Hunter. Why did that name sound so known, so comforting?
"It's nice to meet you," Eve says softly. She's always been shy around those she didn't know well. But especially around Tori's new friends, she is worried. What of Tori had replaced her? What if it was only the joy of seeing her again that Tori was so nice? What if after everything had worn off, that she was going to leave her again?
Like everyone else had.
She coughs up a little water as the other's look at her in concern. "Thank…thank you," she adds, looking into Hunter's clear blue eyes. "How can I ever thank you for saving me?"
"Oh, it was nothing," he mutters, looking a little sheepish.
"Are you kidding? That was a great rescue," the guy in yellow, Dustin, exclaims. Eve curves her mouth at his excitement and feels a little rush of gratitude at his next sentence.
"As long as she's okay," Hunter clears up. Inside, he's so confused. Why am I acting like this? What's wrong with me?
"Anyway Eve, what's up with you?" Tori exclaims. Eve smiles wanly, but inside she feels drained. Weary. Tired from almost dying.
"Look Tori, she seems tired. You can take her home, it's okay. We'll wait here," the Asian boy, Blake says. Tori grins at him.
"Thanks guys! I'll be back! Can you stand, Eve?" Eve nods, putting a hand to her head. She has a massive headache and also a weird sensation in her chest whenever she looks at Hunter. It's a strange tightening and a feeling of…loss.
It's nothing, she tells herself. You're just tired. It's nothing.
"Here," Hunter says, taking Eve's arm and helping her stand. She stares at him, his touch leaving a burning feel on her arm. But not like flames licking her body. Just the feeling of being out in the sun for a long time, in a comforting way.
As she gets to her feet with his help, she tears her eyes away from his and looks down. It's the glare of the sun, she says to herself. You can't stare in the sun.
Or his eyes.
"Thanks," she tells him, her head still a little messed up. She leans on him for a moment as the blood rushes from her head and closes her eyes as bright spots appear before them.
"Eve?" Tori asks, her voice laced with concern. Eve opens her eyes to find herself clutching Hunter's arm and sheepishly let's go.
"I'm fine, my head just hurts. Let's just go. Thanks again," she says to Hunter. "I'll see you around, okay?" Stupid, stupid! Why did you just say that?
"Yeah, bye," he says as they walk away. Eve…
"Don't worry Eve, when you're feeling better, we can all get together sometime. You have no idea how annoying it is when all you hang around with is guys." Tori rolls her eyes as Eve forces a laugh.
"Thanks for understanding. I'm sorry, I'm just out of it now," she apologizes as Tori waves them away.
"Don't worry about it. Now come on, let's get you home."