Title: One Sentence and Everything Changed

Characters: Heath Carroll, Fiona "Fly" Watson & Matthew Leyland

Pairing: Heath x Fly, mentions of Anna x Joe and Edge x Bec.

AN: This takes place after Dreams and Dramas but before Joker's Wild. Also for the sake of the story I decided that they were seventeen or in Fly's case sixteen.

Word Count: 2, 562

I don't think of you in a brotherly way. Heath Carroll couldn't help but think of those words as he sat on the beach with the camera in his hand and his eyes fixated on the lone figure sat on her board in the perfectly blue sea. That had been the truth. He didn't think of Fly in a brotherly way. He cared for her in a completely different way than a brother would have. Heath put his camera on the dry surfboard next to him and ran his fingers through his black hair. He was in awe of her and everything that she could do.

Everyone at the academy was talented when it came to surfing, that was after all the requirement for getting chosen. But everyone had their own way of surfing and their own way of looking at the sea. Bec looked at the sea as if it was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen but she had seen it plenty of times. She had grown accustomed to it and Heath could tell when he watched her surf. Perri was calmed by the waves and Heath had captured many pictures of her looking at the sea with a faraway look on her face. But Fly was different. She was in awe of the sea and looked more comfortable there than anywhere else in the world. When she was surfing, Fly was on top of the world and she adored every second of it.

"Are you just going to sit here or are you going to join her?"

Matt Leyland asked as he sat down on the beach next to Heath who flinched and took a deep breath. His blond, short hair was dry for once and his surfboard was nowhere to be seen.

"You scared me," Heath merely commented but didn't answer the question. "Where's everyone else?"

"Bec's parents called and said something about a barbeque so she went home and took Edge with her…"

Heath smirked at Matt. "So, Anna's gone too?"

"Obviously, Joe had even called her so she knew about the barbeque before Bec did."

Heath considered himself being friends with everyone on the academy but he couldn't deny that he got better along with Matt than he did Edge and better with Fly and Perri than he did Bec. The blond young man was so intense. Heath almost wanted to describe him as a robot even if he had to respect the discipline that came out in everything that he did. He was the type of person whom believed that coming in second was equalled to being first loser. Heath, although he loved surfing and competing, couldn't say that he was that competitive. Matt had a calmer attitude towards the entire thing albeit not as calm as Heath who believed that everything would eventually work out but calm never the less. Bec was the mother of the group and most of the time tried to stop people from doing things that she thought were reckless. Heath had been on the receiving end of one of her "mom-looks" more than once.

"That's cute," Heath said, referring to Joe's call to invite Anna to the barbeque before Bec had been told. "Do you think that they'll invite us to the wedding?"

Matt rolled his eyes but didn't bother hiding the smile on his face. "You're funny."

"Hilarious," Heath nudged Matt's shoulder. "I'm surprised you haven't realised that until now."

Again, Matt rolled his eyes and Heath almost felt like telling him what his mother or teachers used to tell him which was that his eyes would get stuck like that if he didn't stop. But Matt started talking first.

"Is she just going to sit there?"

"Probably."

"And you're just going to sit here and watch her sit there?" The tone of Matt's voice made Heath look over at him and the slight raise of his friend's eyebrow in combination with the questioning tone made Heath smile sheepishly and shrug his shoulders. "You two are completely hopeless."

Heath could have argued that. He could have said that they weren't hopeless and then rant for as long as he needed to come up with any kind of proof which would support what he was saying. But he didn't. Partly because he couldn't help but think that Matt was right. They were hopeless. Heath didn't think of her in a brotherly way. It was ironic really how much those words meant and yet they had led to very little changes. They were still the best of friends and they were still training as much as they did before. Heath still adored watching her surf. He could see the strength and confidence practically radiating from her as she showed, not only herself, but the world and the sea itself that she was in control. And she did it all with a smile on her face and the golden hair pushed back in a loose braid. That smile was deceptive because she looked too kind to be powerful and Heath was probably one of the few people in the world who looked at her smile without missing the look of fierce determination in her eyes.

"Everyone knows how you feel about each other," Matt continued within seconds with a soft smile. "Why don't you do something about it instead of pining after each other like two love sick teenagers?"

Heath wanted to tell his friend that they were love sick teenagers. But instead he thought of something else. Something that he had never said out loud. Him and Fly had never done anything about their feelings because something had stopped them from taking that step from friendship to that thing that they shared. It wasn't about another person or even about them; Heath didn't know what exactly was stopping them but it felt as if he was standing one step away from the change that they both wanted and still couldn't move forward.

"Wow, no joke! I was sure that you would have some brilliant comeback for that one."

Heath muttered idiot under his breath while pushing Matt's shoulder. Then something caught his attention. A movement out of the corner of his eye and when he looked at it Heath saw Fly paddling towards them. He reached for the camera and followed her movement until the light was absolutely perfect and then he snapped a picture. Most of the time, Heath would take thirty photos to make sure that at least a few of them turned out good but this time he didn't need more than one. And a thought whispered from the back of his mind, why watch her surf through a camera when he could see her in real life. Heath never thought that he would ever enjoy watching someone surf as much as he enjoyed surfing himself. But watching Fly was almost as amazing.

"She's amazing."

"Yeah," Heath nodded as he leaned back onto the palm of his hands. "She sure is."

Fly balanced on the wave as if she had never done anything else in her entire life with her arms stretched out and her legs slightly bent. She was the youngest, the shortest and smallest in the group, yet she controlled that board as if it was no one's business.

"I'm heading back inside to see what Perri is up to," Matt said and stood up. He patted Heath on the shoulder. "But you should definitely talk to Fly about whatever it is that you guys are or aren't."

And what we want to be to each other. Heath couldn't help but think but didn't say out loud. Instead he hummed and said that they'd see each other later. Then Matt turned around and walked up to the house. Heath didn't know how far he had gone when Fly reached the shore. Her face light up in a smile when she saw him and she carried her surfing board underneath her arm as she began jogging towards him.

"What are you sitting there for?" she asked as she dropped the board on the beach before sitting down next to Heath. Her eyes glimmered in the way they only did after she had surfed. It was as special kind of joy which nothing else could ever bring out of her. Well, almost nothing else.

"No reason," he lifted his camera for a brief moment so that Fly could see it. "I was going to surf but then I saw you and decided to see if I could get some decent shots."

"And did you?"

Of course, Heath wanted to say, I always get nice photos when you're the model. But instead he merely shrugged and said that he wouldn't know until he had transferred the photos to his computer where he could get a better look at them. Fly nodded and leaned back onto her hands which rested in the soft sand. Thoughts ran through his mind as he looked at the sea. Matt had been right when he said that they needed to talk and Heath wanted to talk about what he had said. He wanted to talk about what it meant and what it could result in. He didn't want it to just end with them being aware of the feelings they felt for one another. He wanted it to turn into something.

"I've been thinking…" Fly began with a slight tone of hesitation in her voice.

Heath glanced over at her with that same cheeky smile as always as he did his best to try and hide his curiosity. Obviously, he failed desperately but the knowledge that Fly could see right through him didn't mean that he was going to try any less to hide it. Fly's fingers moved back and forth in the sand and patterns appeared from where her fingers had been. She tilted her head to the side and bit her lower lip as wrinkles appeared on her forehead. Heath was just about to ask her to look at him when she turned her head sideways and did just that.

"About what?" Heath asked once he found his voice to motivate her to continue.

Fly shrugged again and then moved a little bit closer to him. Their arms brushed against each other and her fingertips touched his. Heath felt his heart skip a beat and the hair on his arms stood up as he felt shivers go through his body. It wasn't the type of shivers he felt before something bad was about to happen. No, it was the type of shivers that he had felt when he picked up a camera for the first time or when he managed to land his first wave. It was the type of shivers he had only felt when he came face to face with one of the various things which he knew would eventually become the loves of his life.

"I don't want us to be just friends anymore."

Heath's smile grew when he sat up straight and moved slightly to the side so that their knees touched each other. Fly copied his movements and soon they sat on opposite sides of each other. "What does that mean, Fiona Watson?"

She rolled her eyes at the teasing tone in his voice. Fly hadn't known when she first laid eyes on Heath that she would fall for him. She knew, or she thought she knew, that she would like him and she had felt a desire to be close to him. There was something about his loud personality, his contagious smile, his creativity, talent and kindness which hade made her feel drawn to him. Then one day she realised that the feelings that ran through her body every time that she saw him or when he laid his arm around her wasn't friendship. It had terrified her because what if he didn't feel the same; Fly hated the idea of what her having fallen for him could do to their friendship. So, she stayed quiet for along as she could. Then that disastrous day happened and Heath said that one sentence that changed everything.

I don't think of you in a brotherly way.

Her heart still skipped a beat when she thought about it. He hadn't told her that he felt the same way as she did but that sentence still changed everything. But nothing had come out of it and she had been the reason for that. Since then the feelings had grown stronger and she knew in the back of her mind that she was the only one who could change what they were now. Heath had already said the sentence which changed everything. It was her turn to do the same and now she had.

They hadn't kissed since that day. Fly would be lying if she said that she wasn't nervous when she scooted closer to Heath so that their knees touched. Then she lifted herself from the ground and rested her hands on his shoulders so that their faces were at the same level. Fly was thankful in that moment that they had been friends before she realised that she was in love with him. Because of that she knew that he wanted the same thing as she did. She could see it on his face. So, when their lips touched Fly knew that he would kiss her back. Heath had told her that she had a promising career in front of her in the kissing department; she hadn't told him that in spite of having nothing to compare to she had thought the same about him. Her lip tingled and shivers went through her body when she felt Heath put his hands on either side of her waist. He was an excellent kisser.

"That was nice Fly," Heath said once she sat back down with her knees folded under her body. Her hands had slid down and she were thoughtfully drawing patterns on his hands as they laid in between them touching both their knees at the same time. He gave her a teasing smile and she felt herself melt. "But you're going to have to use your words."

Everyone was aware of how they felt for each other. They were aware of how they felt for each other and in a sense, they had told each other but neither one had used the right word which could perfectly describe what they felt. It was a loaded sentence and they both knew that everything would change if either one of them said it. It was a scary thing to imagine that one sentence had that much power. But that was the truth just like with the other things they had said; one sentence and everything changed. That had scared Fly just days before but as she sat this close to Heath whom beamed at her as if his birthday, Christmas and every other holiday had taken place on the same day, she couldn't be scared. She took a deep breath, her heart was already beating faster, and she said the only sentence which could properly describe how she felt about him. She said that one sentence which would change everything.

"It means that I'm in love with you, Heath Carroll."

"Well, that's good to know," Heath's smile grew. "Because I'm in love with you too."

The end