Mason awoke sitting up straight, covered in sweat, his pulse fast. The nightmares he had every night consumed him even now, even here. He thought it would be different here, but the visions were just as powerful and as memorable.

He wanted to believe he was used to the terrors that plagued him in the nights, but he'd never gotten over them, not even close. A soldier's experiences on the battlefield never leave him, and Mason had many years as an ODST, each filled with the memories of many battles.

His mind alternated which memories he would be forced to relive–as soon as he got used to one nightmare, his mind would switch to a new memory.

Bright light shown through the crack between the curtains in his room, and Mason reached over to grab his wristwatch. 11 a.m. He could not remember the last time he slept this late. His stomach could not remember the last time it ate anything either.

Mason got dressed and left his room. At the rotunda, he took the path leading to the dinning area again, and he settled on a fancy restaurant that was serving a breakfast buffet.

His mouth watered as he saw the table of food. He grabbed a plate and took a large helping of everything that was horribly bad for his body.

What did he care though? He wasn't on duty. After Mason stuffed down his plate of food, his body voiced its disapproval, and he instantly regretted it.

He wanted to go for a run, but then he remembered that his family wanted to have a video chat with him, it would be the first they'd seen of him in at least half a year. When this was done he starred at his watch again to see it was 6 p.m. and he was hungry again.

After filling his gullet with more unhealthy food, he could almost hear his gut protest at having so much stuffed into it, and he knew he had to go on a run to relieve some of the guilt he had for overindulging on the buffet and now dinner.

A few minutes later, Mason was back at the rotunda, dressed in a light t-shirt, and shorts. He decided to run out on the beach, and was heading for it when he saw her.

She was dressed nearly the same way as he was, wearing a light t-shirt and shorts, and he held her small tablet in her hand, looking intently at it.

She was about to go out for a run too.

"Well—"

"Hello Mason." The female Spartan said, well aware that he stood behind her.

"You know, that's a bit creepy."

"Sorry..." Lindsay said as she turned to face Mason, "It's a habit of mine to do that."

"It's fine, you're not the first Spartan I've met that does that...So, you eat too much at the buffet too?"

"Yeah."

"You don't mind if I go running with you, do you?"

"I figured you would ask–only if you can keep up." Lindsay said back at him.

Mason waved one of his hands. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. You running out on the beach?"

"It seemed like the best place."

Lindsay turned and headed for the beach, with Mason close behind her. When they finally exited the building on the beach, the view was incredible.

The bright light from this planet's nearby star was intense, and Mason held up his hand to let himself adjust to the glare.

One of the reasons this planet was such a popular tourist destination, was because the days of this planet were extremely long, close to 18 hours in daylight. Even at 7, it was plenty bright enough for a run.

The temperature was a hot 29 degrees celsius, but the wind blew at just the right speed to make the temperature feel impossibly pleasant.

Every now and then, the clouds overhead would cast a cooling shadow on the beach, dropping the temperature further.

It was unreal.

"Wow. This place is amazing." Mason said after he had adjusted to the glare after a few moments.

"Yes, it is."

Lindsay started moving down the ramp towards the beach, and he followed her.

"How far you thinking of going?" He asked her.

"Till my hands start shaking."

He gulped.

"You–you serious?" Mason asked with slight regret for deciding to run with her.

"Hey, you said don't worry about it when I asked if you could keep up."

"Yeah, but–"

She was already off running on the sand. Mason sighed and started running.

Mason stood bent over, his hands gripping his legs tight, panting like a dog. The wind really picked up ever since they left the beach and ascended into the foot hills.

Ascended was a key word there.

He was hard pressed to keep up with Lindsay on the uneven, but still mostly flat ground of the beach, but when Lindasy decided to take a turn and head up into the hills about half a mile from the beach, he couldn't keep up anymore.

He finally recovered enough to look up to see her standing there.

"It's fine…you can…go on…without me…" He gasped.

"Well, I normally would, but I'm impressed you've managed to keep up with me this far. I'll wait."

She was impressed by him, again. Every time Mason felt like he was way out of his league, she kept dropping clues that she was interested in him. At least, it seemed that way to him.

He recovered enough to think of a good response.

"You should have seen me running in my glory days…I could go forever."

"Glory days? Mason I truly doubt you're old enough to refer to any part of your life as "your glory days" yet"

Mason held up his hands, innocent. "Hey I'm telling you, I was amazing."

She scoffed. "You're just messing with me."

He shook his head. "I'm serious."

She looked at him closely, "No, you are not."

"Yes, I am. I was the fastest one in my unit at finding and grabbing cover from touchdown during an orbital insertion."

Lindsay pondered this for a moment. "You serious?"

"Dead serious." Mason contained a laugh.

She pondered this seriously again, looking away for a moment and then looking back.

"Really?"

Mason couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing.

"Dammit Mason, what the hell?!" she said angrily.

He just laughed, but the laughing made him feel light headed and he quickly sat down on the ground.

"Something wrong?" she asked him.

"Yeah, mind slowing down next time?"

She shrugged. "Maybe, but I…oh crap."

"What is it?"

Lindsay said nothing, just stared behind Mason. He turned around and uttered the same phrase. "Oh crap…"

A massive thunderhead storm cloud was heading towards the beach. It had been at their backs ever since they'd been running into the hills. The trip back to the resort was at least a good ten minutes.

"We'd better get back." Mason said.

Back on the beach, the rain was pouring down so hard, it was nearly impossible to see. The two were forced to stop running long ago by the pounding rain and poor visibility, and they moved along at a snail's pace.

"So you didn't bother to check the weather forecasts before you planned this whole adventure?" Mason asked loudly over the din of the rain.

"What do you mean 'planned?' and how is this totally my fault, YOU were already thinking of running out on the beach! You didn't check either!?"

"I was about to before I ran into you! And it was you who decided to run off into the hills!" he said back.

Eventually, the two made it back inside, water dripping down onto the floor from their soaking wet clothes. The temperature outside was dropping, but it was far more cold inside the building than out there.

They would get sick if they stayed in these clothes.

"Hey since my room is closer, you can wait in the lobby while I go up and bring down some towels?"

Mason let this offer linger in the air for a second before he realized what a disastrous statement it was. He luckily corrected it before Lindsay could respond.

"I mean you can come up to my room and wait while I get us some towels."

Wow, dodged a major bullet there.

"Thank you. If it means anything, I do apologize for getting you wet."

"Yeah well I apologize for making you drink disgusting beer."

The two made their way into the elevator as it ascended.

"Just so you know, I don't forgive you for that disgusting drink."

"Well! I may just have to have you try it again sometime then."

"Ugh, no thanks."

Mason laughed. The doors opened and he led the way to his room. In his mind, he was an utter train wreck. He'd gotten so lucky up until this point, meeting Lindsay before she went on her run, the rain, getting her to come up with him to his room.

But his luck ended with trying to get her to come in his room with him. The elevator ride didn't help because he was distracted from thinking about what he was going to say. What he came up with, wasn't half bad actually, considering he literally pulled it out of his ass.

"I don't think the hotel staff would appreciate it if we got water on the floor of the hallway, so why don't you come in my room with me?"

He held the door open, waiting for her to step inside.

"Thank you." She said as she walked in.

Mason quickly stepped in after her as the door closed shut. He moved past Lindsay into the small bathroom and grabbed all the towels he could find. He walked back out, and gave two of the towels to her and two for himself.

Lindsay stood starring at the floor next to his bed. Mason held out two towels to her, but she was not facing him. Her eyes were fixed on the floor.

"Do you sleep on the floor?"

Mason starred down at the pillow on the floor next to his bed. He was used to sleeping on the ground, the floor of a ship, or crouched against a wall, and the bed in this room just felt to different to him. He slept on the floor merely out of habit.

"Yeah, I do."

"That's funny…so do I. You have nightmares too?"

Mason pondered this for a moment. Not the question, but what he knew was already about to happen.

"Yeah…"

Lindsay stared up at him for a moment and the two of them locked eyes. Her short blonde hair was matted together from the rain, but he didn't care, she was still beautiful to him because she understood the crap he went through. His lips met hers.

What started out as a simple kiss changed dramatically into a passionate one as he turned to put Lindsay's back against a wall as she put her arms around him tightly. He ended the kiss. This was too easy. She was acting way too compliant. That's when he realized the truth.

"Wait a second. You did check the weather earlier, you were looking at the forecast when I came up to you in the rotunda!"

She smiled, "It appears I never should have assumed you were just a pretty face."

"So, you lured me out to that field to what…have a romantic encounter?"

"That was the plan."

"You…" he shook his head. "…hey, if you wanted to get into my pants, all you had to do was ask."

"Shouldn't I be the one saying that right now?"

"Maybe, but I think we both know the answer to that question.

Leaning his head close they kissed again.

Mason realized they did not need the towels, because they sure as hell didn't end up wearing their wet clothes for much longer. Like a minute longer.

The next morning, he didn't wake up on the floor, he woke up comfortably in his bed, and with no nightmares plaguing him during the night, not that he got much sleep.