This story just came to me and I had to write it. Started off as my first attempt at a "10 minute fic", but evidently failed.
Drowning for You
Jason watched as the tall girl emerged from the ladies' changing room, accompanied by a blonde and a guy with messy black hair, the latter two obviously a couple. Jason's sharp blue irises followed the girl from his perch. She wore a deep purple one-piece suit which showed off her long, long tanned legs, and her… aesthetically pleasing figure. She swept her long wavy raven hair over her shoulder, running deft fingers through it and weaving the strands into a braid.
No, Jason was not being a creep. Yes, the girl was beautiful (even if he hadn't yet glimpsed her face), but he wasn't watching because he was horny. Jason was in fact a lifeguard at the university swimming pool, because he desperately needed a job. Unfortunately, one of his psycho ex-girlfriends had swiped his debit card and had successfully rendered the boy near-bankrupt. Besides, being a lifeguard had its perks—one of them was standing right in front of him.
She dove into the pool, impressing Jason with her perfect form, the arch of her back and the curve of her body flawless. The impact made barely a splash. Momentarily, Jason forgot his duties to the rest of the swimmers, focussing on "protecting" this girl.
How had he not noticed her before? She looked about his age, and most of the students knew each other in some way or another. Jupiter University was for elite students only, and you had to have an invitation to even be considered. In other words, it was small. Maybe they hadn't bumped into each other because they had no classes together.
Pay attention, Grace!
Right, he had a job. Jason refocussed on the swimmers (read: he refocussed on the enigmatic girl). The girl in question was currently swimming swiftly through the water and looked to be racing against her black-haired guy friend, who Jason recognised as being the captain of the swimming team. She lost by a matter of two seconds (not that he was counting)—very respectable when one was racing the Percy Jackson.
Jason briefly wondered if the girl had heard about him before—he himself was captain of the football (soccer) team. They had had a pretty good record so far, and had made their way onto the leaderboard of university football teams at a good ninth place. For a relatively young and new team, Jason was proud of that achievement.
Suddenly, he was snapped out of his thoughts when he realised that the girl wasn't in sight anymore. His eyes frantically searched for her, landing on a vague purple blur over at the deep end of the pool. The blur was not moving, and was submerged.
Shit! She's drowning!
Jason all but leaped off his chair, rushing over and diving into the deep end, unaware of the stares that followed him (mostly female). He kicked over to her, ignoring the sting of the chlorine in his eyes. Tilting her chin upwards like he had been taught, he grabbed hold of her arm and kicked upwards strongly, bringing them both to the surface of the water.
He confirmed that yes, indeed, his hypothesis that a girl with a beautiful back had a beautiful face as well was correct.
She wiped the water out her eyes before opening them. Instead of the "oh my god, you saved my life, you're my hero!" Jason had expected, her dark pools of mesmerising brown glared at him, flashing dangerously and turning obsidian.
"What was that?" she questioned, cocking a perfectly-shaped brow at Jason in irritation. He suddenly found it very hard to concentrate on her words instead of the movement of her lips.
"I was… saving your life?" he returned, a little intimidated but ever the more intrigued. Even with water dripping down her face, her tanned, olive skin glowed under the fading sun.
She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest (which made it even harder for Jason to keep his eyes on her face like a gentleman). "I don't need saving, thank you very much. I'm not a damsel in distress. Because of you, you idiot, I lost a bet with Annabeth!" She gestured to her blonde friend, who bobbed at the shallow end of the pool.
Jason grinned sheepishly, dragging a hand through his damp hair and down to scratch the back of his neck, a habit he had when he felt awkward. "Sorry about that. In my defence, you kind of looked like you were drowning from where I saw it."
"Fair enough, but Annabeth was doing the exact same thing over there. Why not save her?"
Because she didn't catch my eye like you did.
Jason's mind scrambled to find a legitimate, believable reason. "Well, she was at the shallow end, whereas you were at the deep end. Threat assessment determined that logically, I should come to you first."
The girl smirked. "And then, you neglect your position to talk to me?"
"She's fine now, isn't she?" Jason grinned, knowing he had won. She chuckled at this, and Jason caught a whiff of coffee and vanilla. He decided that her laugh and smile had to be among the natural wonders of the world.
"Look at you, all smug with your puffed-out chest."
"You've been looking at my chest?"
The girl rolled her eyes again, but Jason caught a wisp of a smile on the edge of her mouth. "Kidding," he amended, hoping not to scare her away. "Tell me about the bet."
"Annabeth and I were betting on who could stay underwater for the longest time. Thanks to you, I lost even though I clearly should have won, and now I have to buy her hot chocolate." Her tone was accusatory, but her eyes shone with amusement.
"Let me buy you a hot chocolate to make up for it, then," Jason replied sincerely, hoping it didn't sound overly flirtatious or too forward. Though, he was a little proud of how smoothly that came out. "My shift is over soon. I'm Jason, by the way."
"Reyna. Make it a coffee and I'll take you up on that offer."
With that, she turned and disappeared underwater, leaving a starry-eyed, stunned Jason in her wake.
Thanks for reading :) Follow me on FF and leave a review! Also, follow me on Tumblr (donot-notdothis dot tumblr dot com) for all things PJO, Jeyna, Flash, Snowbarry, Marvel, Romanogers/Captasha, Stitchers, Camsten, GMW, Lucaya... the list of ships and fandoms never ends.
I'm in exam season, so haven't had much time to continue my multichap fics. However, I am trying very very hard to do the 10 minute fics, just to keep inspiration up. I'll probably post those on Tumblr instead.
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