YOU could feel your heart pounding in your chest as you climbed into the number 3 starting block. The cool air was sending goose bumps across your damp skin. You could faintly hear the cheers as people from the crowd were encouraging the swimmers. You glanced over at Nicole as she stood on the number 4 starting block with her matching swim cap and goggles. She gave you the same encouraging smile that you were now giving her.

"Swimmers take your mark." The announcer said.

You reached down and grabbed the front edge of the starting block with both hands. You locked your right toes over the edge and had your left foot slightly back. You leaned back like a rubber band getting ready to be fired. You looked ahead as you focused on your entry point in the water.

HOOOOOOONK! The horn sounded to signal the start of the race.

You launched yourself forward and off of the starting block as you threw your arms up by your head and clasped your hands together with one hand over the other and locked your thumbs as you entered the water with a smooth skim dive. The starter block slight shook from the motion as the cool water enveloped your body as you completely entered the water. Then after your three powerful dolphin kicks to get you started, you rose to the surface and immediately started flying down the lane. Your hands smoothly and swiftly entered the water as they alternated between pulling the water down past your sides to coming out of the water so that it could enter again. Your feet were thundered behind you as they propelled you forward with their swift kicks.

You watched out of the corner of your eye as you saw that Nicole was keeping up with you. Within a few strokes you were approaching the wall. Then after a tight somersault, you rocketed off the wall after you slammed your feet against the wall as you launched yourself off again. The speed of the turn caused the water to splash over the side of the pool as you did three dolphins kicks again before coming back up for you swift stroke.

You tried to glance over to the other lanes when you were taking your breaths to see if you could spot any of the other swimmers. But so far the only one you saw was Nicole who was slowly starting to fall back. You kept your speed as you approached the wall for a second time. Then as you slammed off of the wall you caught sight of someone on the other side of Nicole who was starting to pass her as she fell further back.

Seeing this, you started to pick up some more speed. You weren't about to lose this heat. But about half way across the other swimmer passed Nicole and was racing to catch up to you. You picked up more speed just before the wall. Then after thundering off the wall for the last time, you pushed yourself to your limit to keep up the lead as the other swimmer increased her speed as well. You could hear a roar in the water as the wall fast approached you. You held your breath for the remainder of the lap as you push yourself harder than you ever had been.

Your hands flew in front of you as fast as they could leave the water and your feet thrashed the water and they pounded forward. The wall was fastly approached, but so was she. You pushed harder until you slammed both hands against the wall ending the race. Your whole body froze from the sudden stop in motion. All that remain was the slight wave that had followed you down the lane.

You grabbed onto the wall and lifted your head above the water to hear a deafening roar from the crowds as they saw the times on the board. Your heart was pumping in your chest as hard as your breaths were coming out. You couldn't see the times through your goggles as you tried to catch your breath. Then you heard Nicole scream from behind you.

"(Y/n)! You did it!" She shouted then reached over the lane and hugged you as she screamed in your ear. "You just set a new team record!"

"What?" You barely said as you felt your heart leap out of your chest. "Are you serious?"

Then coach came running over to you.

"(Y/n)! That was incredible." He said as he extended a hand towards you.

"Thanks." You said as you took his hand as he helped you out of the pool.

Once you were out of the pool you looked over to see who had been the other swimmer. You saw her give you a stern look, then she pulled off her swim cap and let her long curly blonde hair fall around her shoulders. Your heart stopped as you realized that it was Gwen.

You didn't know that she was on a swim team. When the hell did that happen? She shot you daggers as she walked away. Your heart was still racing as your team cheered for you as you watched her walking down the pool deck as she headed for the locker room.

"Congratulations." Noctis said after you had broken away from the crowd and joined them again by the side of the pool.

"Well deserved." Ignis chimed in with a smile.

"Thanks." You returned as you sat down beside him. "Did you know that Gwen was on the other swim team?"

"No. I was rather surprised to see that as well." Ignis said as he looked down as he thought about it. "I had hoped after seeing her, that you knew. But apparently that's not the case."

"Do you think that she is still trying to get close to you?" You asked Ignis. "Cause if that's the case you should have a personal guard for yourself."

"I'm not sure now. I've never seen her be this aggressive about it before." Ignis thought as he kept his head down.

Just then Coach Rick came up.

"Prince Noctis, it's your turn to warm up, your highness." He said to Noctis.

"Right." Noctis said as he got to his feet. "Looks like it's my turn."

"We'll be cheering for you." You smiled back at him.

"(Y/n)." Coach Rick yelled back at you. "Great race." He said with a smile.

"Thanks coach." You beamed back.

You and Ignis both sat there for a few minutes before Nicole joined you again. You smiled up at her as she sat down beside you.

"I thought I was going to get you that time." Nicole said as she smiled at you.

"You still did good." You said back. "You gave me a run for my money."

"Really?" She beamed back.

"Most definitely." Ignis chimed in.

"You were both very impressive." Ignis said then he gave you an flirty glance. "Most impressive."

You dropped your head as you tried to hide your cheeks as you felt them heat up. Then you felt his hand on yours. You glanced at your hand as his interlaced his fingers with yours as they sat in between the two of you and out of sight of prying eyes. You blushed more as your grin widen at his warm touch. Then you slightly squeezed back as you leaned closer to him and enjoyed his presence and strong touch.

The first half of the meet went very well for your team and for the four of you as well, since all of you at least placed in your individual races. You hadn't had this good of a meet since the end of last year after all of those practices and long hours in the pool as you tried to drown out your loneliness. Perhaps all of the practice that you had done with them at the Citadel, before the swim season started, was paying off.

You just hoped that this would pan out for Ignis as well as he prepared for the diving competition. You had watched as he had gone through and performed a few practice drives while under the guidance of the Dive coach during practice. But you hadn't really seen him do any of the hard dives since the test he did to join the dive team.

In fact you hadn't seen him practice any of his dives since that day. For after the initial tryouts, you were always doing something else while he was practicing. You were either cooking dinner or playing basketball with Noctis at the Rec Center. Which explained why you sat there now watching him with butterflies in your stomach. This would be his first time performing any of them in front of a crowd.

Now he didn't seem the type to be disturbed with stage fright, but he was a perfectionist when it came to everything that he did. You had seen part of that when you had watched him the first time. He didn't scream or anything, at least not out loud. But you could tell that certain things bothered him just by how his body would tense up and his eyes would narrow as he tried to find the solution in his head.

Since this meet only had a few divers competing, they decided to keep the number of dives down to seven dives each. They were still divided in scoring as far as being judged within their age and gender. But they had them go based on the age factor first, to where the youngest started off each dive. This would mean that Ignis was last since he was the oldest.

Each diver was required to do six standard dives which included the forward pike, forward tuck, reverse pike, reverse tuck, back pike, back tuck, and then one dive of their choice. They could do the dives in any order. But they had to do all of the required dives in order for it to count in the final score. You weren't worry about Ignis doing most of the dives since you had already seen him do these to near perfection.

But there was a couple that made you nervous since you hadn't seen him do these and one was the reverse tuck. Then there was the last one. You weren't even sure what he was going to do since you hadn't seen him perform anything other than the ones mentioned already.

As each diver took their turn going off of the 1 meter springboard, they all seemed to be performing the dives in the order that the judges had listed them. All of them were doing good. But two of them really stood out among the rest. One was Ignis, of course, and the other was one of the girls from the other team. Her skill was perfect compared to Ignis' as they both were executing perfectly flawless dives. Of course this seemed to be amplified by the fact that she had the perfect body to watch her perfect dives. Her brown hair was put in a perfect bun and her slim, well defined body was perfectly outlined in her tight swimsuit. This was continued down to her perfectly shaped legs as they stretch out from the suit and into the air with each dive

They both almost seem to be competing against each other, oppose to competing within the restraints of the boy vs. boy and girl vs. girl standard. For the whole time you noticed that Ignis kept his eye on her, oppose to anyone else in the pool. Even with you, Noctis, and Nicole cheering for him. He never once looked over at the three of you. You started to feel your heart break as you felt like you were losing him to her. Not that you were dating or anything. But still..... Was he really interested in her or was it something else?

You tried to play it off like it was nothing. But the more you watched them, the more convinced you were that there was something other than a friendly competition going on between the two of them. Finally you couldn't stand it when you watched her give him her foxy eyes as she walked past him as she headed for the board. Oppose to him looking away, he seemed to be enjoying himself as his eyes followed her as he narrowed them at her.

"I'm going to get a snack." You said as you abruptly got up and turned away from the pool.

"Are you sure you want to leave now?" Noctis asked as he gave you a questioning look. "They only have a couple dives left?"

"Yeah." You said without turning around. "I need some fresh air too, before we get started with the team relays."

And with that you walked away.

You didn't want to lie to Noctis. But you had to get out of there before you said or did something that you were going to regret. That, and you did want to get some fresh air. The heat and humidity from the pool area was starting to make you a bit dizzy.

But as you walked into the locker room you were greeted with something that you never expected, but probable should have. For right as you entered the locker section of the locker room you felt someone slam their hands on your back as they shoved you against the closest locker. Then they grabbed your right wrist. And twisted it behind you and held it fast in the center of your back.

"Well look what we have here?" You heard Gwen hiss from behind you.

"And here I thought that I would only have to see you at school. You know what?" She said as she pushed you harder against the locker.

"I'm getting a bit tired of you getting in my fucking way. Perhaps I should just take care of you here and now." She growled right in your ear.

You tried to wiggle out of her grip, but you couldn't seem to get away from her. After a moment, she twisted your wrist back and against your back which caused you to crumb to the floor before she broke your wrist. You hissed out in pain as your wrist was being pushed close to the breaking point.

"Although, I much prefer you in this state." Gwen hissed in your ear as you grunted from the pain in your wrist.

"Fuck you Gwen." You spat back at her as your temper was starting to rise as she had you pinned to the ground. "He's already moved onto someone else."

"Your lying." She hissed back. "He wouldn't give up on you like that."

"No?" You replied with a hurt look. "Haven't you been watching the diving competition?"

"What do you mean?" She asked as she slightly released you.

"There's some girl on YOUR team now that has his attention now." You said as you tried to struggle out of her grip, but to avail. "You don't believe me? Go look for yourself."

"Fine." She said then smashed you into the ground as she released you.

"I will." She said then turned away as she headed out to the pool deck.

You laid there for a moment trying to catch your breath. Then you slowly brought your now injured hand around in front of you. You looked at your wrist and could see the signs of bruising starting to develop on your hand. You knelt there on the ground cradling your wrist for a few moments as you felt the feeling start to leave your hand.

You started moving your fingers to try and keep the sensation from spreading. You were glad that she hadn't broken it. But that didn't mean that she hadn't done some damage. You sighed as you got up and slowly walked out of the locker room.

Once you were out of the locker room, you heard cheers shatter the quiet entrance as they came bursting from the pool area. You tightly closed your eyes as you felt your heart fall to pieces as you pictured him coming back up to the surface from his dive to see her giving him her foxy look as she clapped for him.

When the hell had you lost him? Was it really that easy for him to fall out of love with someone? Was he even in love with you to begin with? You weren't even sure if he really liked you or if he was playing with you.

You walked along cradling your wrist as tears started to stream down your face.

Love sucks! You said to yourself as you absently walked towards the main entrance without thinking about it.

Once you were outside you were welcomed with the cool air as the afternoon brought with it cooler temperatures. You walked over to the wall that ran along the front edge of the building and sat on top of it as you tried to gain control of yourself again. You sat there trying to clear your mind of the images of him and her. You weren't sitting there long though before you heard your name being called.

(Y/N)?" You heard Nicole calling. "(Y/n)! There you are." She said as she spotted you on the wall. "Please tell me you saw Ignis' last dive?"

"Huh?" You asked as you saw a twinkle in her eyes.

"It was incredible. He did a forward 2 1/2 somersault pike dive! I didn't know that he could do that?!" She said as she had a twinkle in her eyes. "The whole crowd went crazy after he came back up. He WON because of that dive. It was incredible."

That explains the cheers that I heard coming from the pool. You thought as you slightly smiled for Ignis.

But it was quickly replaced with a frown as you slowly rubbed your injured wrist. You should have been there cheering him on, oppose to being pinned against the locker. But you couldn't stand watching Ignis and that girl looking at each other like that. It hurt more then your wrist did.

"Well anyway," she said as she dropped her head to your lack of response. "It's time for us to warm up for the relay races. Do you still want to race with me?"

You looked back up at her with a strained smile. "Of course." You said then stood up and followed her back inside.

You didn't bother to try and join Noctis or Ignis as they stood on the deck watching you. Instead you stopped right by the edge of the pool. You then got out of your warm-up suit and got in the water to start doing laps. You didn't want to see them right now. You still needed to clear your head before you saw them.

"Looks like she's still a bit out of sorts." Noctis said as he was taking off his warm-up suit while watching you.

"Now why is that?" Ignis asked as he watched you for a moment before starting to remove his warm up suit as well.

"Well, you were practically drooling all over that female diver." Noctis said as he tossed his pants on the deck by his bag.

"I would be pretty upset with you too, if I was her. Especially since, I think she really likes you." Noctis shot back as he tossed his jacket on his pants.

"I wasn't drooling." Ignis shot back at him as he neatly folded up his jacket and set it on his bag.

"Say what you will." Noctis said as he looked Ignis right in the eye. "But that's not how it looked."

Ignis was about to protest as he looked at Noctis. But Noctis gave him a stern look that stopped him. Noctis then turned away as he grabbed his goggles and walked over to the pool's edge without looking back. Ignis stood there in shock for a few moments as he watched Noctis entered the pool and started to do laps with the rest of the swimmers.

While removing his pants, Ignis dropped his gaze as he thought about what Noctis had said. The whole idea of him being interested in her, puzzled him. He hadn't been drooling over her. He wasn't even fluttering with her. He had been watching her closely because she seemed to be a bit too skilled to be in school still. He thought as he set his neatly folded pants down on his jacket.

There was something about her that bothered him with how well she performed all of the dives. They was too perfect, which seemed impossible for someone who is still learning them. Even he had had a few minor demerits against his dives. And he had had a private coach to get him started.

But she hadn't received a single hit. With those perfect dives of hers, it seemed as if she had been competing professional for quite some time. But that was impossible. Only kids between 14 - 18 could compete with the dive team for the rec center.

Ignis wondered if she somehow deceived everyone by making them think that she is younger than she actually is. Ignis recalled how young she looked, with her short stature and almost childlike facial features. But then again, her body did seem to be more defined then the others. And that was even compared to yours, which he had memorized at this point.

There wasn't a curve on you that he didn't know. He looked over and watched you for a few minutes as you seemed to smoothly glide through the water. And even though you were partially submerged in the water as you swam, he could still see your delicate curves as you moved. He felt his body start to heat up as he fingers itched to touch you again. He shook his head then traded his glasses for his goggles in his bag before he made his way over to the edge. Now was not the time or place for that.

But right as Ignis was about to get into the lane closest to him, he stopped in his tracks as he thought about what it must of looked like to you as he kept watching her like that. Where you jealous? Did you honest think that he would be interested in her? Not that she wasn't attractive, but it took more than that to get his attention. He had even told you as much.

But perhaps it did look different from where you had been sitting. He had to find out and get this straight. There was no way that he was going to let this go until he was sure that you were fine. He was not about to go back to being ignored by you again. One time had been enough torture to him. He didn't want a repeat of that anytime soon.

With that, Ignis walked over to the lane that you were in. Then he waited until you were coming back down while he got ready to get in. Then right after you pushed off form the wall, he got in and fell in sink with you as you both headed down the lane. He had to talk to you and he knew that you usually took a break after each 100 yards. That would be when he would catch up to you so that he could find out what was going on.

He didn't have to wait long though, before you decided to take a break, since you stopped as soon as you touch the far wall again. (After all, you had been going for a while already.) But you did something that he didn't expect. For as soon as you touched the wall, you decided to climb out. Once he reached the wall he stopped and went to try and get out, but was stopped by the head coach.

"I know you're tired, but you really need to warm up for the team races Ignis." Coach Robert told him as he tried to get out. "Knock out at least a 200 yard freestyle for me, then you can get out."

"Yes sir." Ignis said, then slowly let himself back down in the water.

Damn it. He thought out of frustration.

Then he sat there and watched as you walked back over to the side where all of you had been sitting. He focused as he tried to read your body language, but you walked with your head down as you seemed to carefully put on your warm-up jacket. This made it hard to read your face since you never looked up.

But he did notice that instead of putting on your pants, you just carried them while you seemed to be favoring your right wrist. Had something happened? He really wanted to find out now. But first things first, he had some laps to do. And with that, he dropped under the surface, then he flew off of the wall as he pushed hard off of the wall as he headed back down the lane to complete the 200-yard warm-up.

You silently sat there waiting for them to finish their warm up as you rubbed your tender wrist. You watched in despair as your wrist started to turn a dark blue in sections and dark purple in others. You couldn't help but think that this was going to make a few things difficult for you over the next few weeks.

For one, it's not like you could go to your family doctor or anything to be seen. You weren't even one hundred percent sure where his office was. You usually weren't paying attention when you had to go see him. And you hated to ask Noctis or Ignis for help since it was slightly embarrassing that you had kind of done it to yourself.

That and its not like they had the responsibility to keep you healthy and safe. That would all be up to you since your parents couldn't be reached. And right now you weren't even sure if Ignis would even try to help, considering who he had just met and seen.

You sighed and closed your eyes as you tried to relax and clear your head. But every time you closed your eyes, all you saw was that look that he gave her. So instead you looked around at their belongings as they sat on the deck. It was obvious whose was whose.

Ignis' warm up suit was neatly folded up and was placed on his bag, while Noctis' was just toss on the deck by his bag. You smiled at the scene. Even away from the citadel, it was the same thing with them, total polar opposites.

Just then Noctis came walking back over. You pull the sleeve of your jacket back down over your wrist as he approached. Last thing you needed was for him to cause a scene because you got hurt. Noctis didn't look directly at you as he walked up.

Instead he had his head down as he shook the water from his hair as he walked over. You smiled at the scene as he whipped his head back up and let his fresh shaken hair fall where it pleased. He finally met you gaze as he came over and grabbed his body shammy from his bag after dropping his goggles back into his bag.

"What?" He teasing asked you.

"You do know that there is an easier way to dry off your hair?" You teased back.

"I know. But that way also shakes the water out of my ears." He said then started drying off his arms and chest.

"That's not how you get water out of your ears." You said as you gave him a side glance.

"Well it's how I do it." He said as he began drying off his legs so that he could put his warm-up pants back on. He focused back over at you as he dried off. You were already dry, but you were still only wearing your jacket.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he grabbed his pants from the deck while still watching you.

"I don't know." You quietly said as you dropped your gaze.

Noctis paused for a moment as he pulled his pants back on. Then grabbed his jacket and pulled it back on before taking a seat beside you. Then he leaned back up against the wall.

"You're still picturing that girl aren't you?" He asked as he kept his eyes on you.

You felt your heart start to painfully ache as you thought about it again. You pulled both of your knees up by your chest and wrapped your arms around your legs as you fought to stay in control. You didn't want him to see you struggling to stay calm, so you kept your eyes diverted from him. But then you felt Noctis' hand on your back.

"There's no way that he would go for her." Noctis said as he slowly rubbing your back with his hand. "He has better taste than that."

"If that's the case, then why did he look at her like that?" You asked as you kept hold of your legs.

"Why don't you ask him yourself." Noctis said as he dropped his hand.

You then looked up and watched as Ignis came to a stop at the pool wall. You felt your heart flutter as you watched him gracefully slide out of the pool before taking off his goggles. Then he looked straight up as he stood by the pool side and slide his hands over his hair as he pushed the water towards the back of his head.

You tried to take you eyes off of him, but your eyes refused to move as you felt your body start to heat up at as you admired his trim chest, abs, and tight ass. He body was almost as perfect as his dives had been today. There was just one area that you weren't sure of, but here wasn't the place to find out if it was or not.

Ignis meet your gaze as he looked over at you. You quickly averted your gaze as you knew that your eyes would show him what you had been thinking. Ignis slightly smiled at the heat that he had seen in your eyes before you looked away. At least that hadn't changed. That slight glimpse of heat gave him a bit of encouragement.

He watched you as he walked back over to you. You nervously shifted your jacket sleeve over the wrist that he had seen you favor. He thought that he saw something on it, but he would have to get a closer look to be sure. This of course didn't help out his concern since it seemed like you were trying to hide it from him.

Once he reached you, he knelt down in front of you. You looked towards the pool as if you were watching the lifeguards as they were getting the pool ready for the final races. But he blocked your view as he leaned in front of you as he reached over and grabbed his body shammy from his bag.

He glanced at you again as you tried to looked away from him again. To which he stretched out his arm right in front of your view as he dried it off. You tried to look the other way, he switched arms as he continued to dry off. Then you looked down.

"Ok we're not going there." Ignis said as he reached out and lifted you chin up so that you were looking at him.

"I didn't even have my eyes open." You said as you finally meet his eyes.

"I wasn't worried about that part." Ignis said as he searched your face. "I'm more concerned about why you left the pool deck without us."

You lowered your eyes as you remembered your heart breaking as you watched him with the girl from the other team. But you couldn't tell him that. Even if it was true. You tried to look away but his hand never left your chin.

You shook your head as you tried to free yourself from his grip. But he countered this by scooting up to you so that his knees where on either side of your legs. Then he placed his hands on your cheeks so that he could prevent you from looking away.

You felt your body tremble under his gentle touch as he leaned in and gently kissed your forehead. Then he put his forehead to yours. His thumbs gentle caressed your cheeks as the rest of him stayed still. You closed your eyes as you felt tears starting to threatening to fall. Then you placed your hands on his and wrapped your fingers around the grip of his hands.

"Please tell me what's bothering you." He whispered to you. "I hate seeing you like this."

"Why would you care?" You said as tears started falling. "All you seemed to care about was that other girl. You couldn't seem to tear your eyes away from her. Not even to look at me."

Ignis felt his heart dropped as his fear was confirmed. It had looked as bad as Noctis had said. That had never been his intent. He closed his eyes as he kissed your forehead again.

"I wasn't looking at her with the sensual interest that I do when I look at you. I care about you, not her." Ignis said then gently kissed your cheek.

"Besides, she could never live up to the standards that you have set for me." He said then gently rubbed both thumbs over your cheeks as he wiped away the tears.

You tighten your grip on his hands as you slowly looked back up at him with tears in your eyes. Even with your blurry vision, you could see the sincerity in his eyes as he gave you a hurt look. You felt your heart start to break again as you saw his pain as he looked at you. You slightly smiled as you realized that he was speaking the honest truth back to you. Then as if to confirm his true feelings, he leaned in and gave you one gentle kiss before putting his forehead back to yours.

"There isn't anyone in this world that will ever take your place with me." Ignis quietly said to you. "For no one has ever meant as much to me as you do."

******Author Note******

Have you ever loved someone so much that it hurt? I know that I have. That was the one that I married. ;)

I do hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I do apologize that it took a bit to get this one out. I was slightly distracted by my new book. But I knew that I had to write down my new idea for a different book before I forgot what I wanted it to say.

Please me sure to come back for the next chapter. And I just have two words to describe that one, School Dance.

Thanks for reading. :)

************************