I rested my head in my hands, breathing in deeply. Raphael and Finn sat silently to my left, each with their arms crossed and faces of stone.

The hospital wing of Gabrian was a mixture of tan and white, overwhelmingly neutral with a vase of white lilies on a plain coffee table. I rubbed my hands together before resting my forehead on my forearms. My head was spinning and I found it hard to breath, worry wrecking havoc on my body.

Both of the two men beside me could hardly sit still, fidgeting with their fingers or clothes while incessantly tapping their feet against the floor. Raphael was rocking slowly back and forth with a cold look in his eyes as Finn kept glancing at all the doorways around us.

After lots of shifting and foot tapping, Finn finally stood to his feet, letting out a breath. Running his hands through his hair, he said to no one in particular, "I'm going to get some food." He then looked to both of us. "Want anything?"

I shook my head, offering him a small smile. Raphael didn't move at all; he was studying the wall across from him very acutely, but it was very obvious his mind was in an entirely different place.

"Will you be ok... if I'm gone?" Finn asked me, biting the inside of my lip.

I knew who he was referring to with a knot in my chest. "I'll be fine, Finn."

"That fucker is locked up where he belongs." Raphael hissed, surprising me as he responded from his depth of silence. "Even if he some how manages to walk through that damn door, he won't get past me."

Finn clenched his jaw as he studied his friend before letting out a breath. He turned and slipped through the doorway, letting it close softly behind him. In our silence, I finally worked up the nerve to ask the question that had been spinning inside my head.

I turned my head to Raphael, who had begun to study the floor tiles. Clearing my throat, I spoke, "you and Samaria..."

"Don't say it."

"You like her, don't you?"

"You just had to fucking say it, didn't you?" Raphael snarled, shooting me a glare.

"It's true, isn't it?" I said anyways. He hesitated, licking his lips. "Wow, I never saw that coming."

"We are not in a relationship. We are not any sort of item or group or unit or thing." He reiterated through gritted teeth.

"But you like her. In an item, group, unit sort of way."

Raphael turned sharply to face me. "Keep your voice down! If there are even rumors about this, I am dead meat! An instructor and his student!"

I raised an eyebrow, "so you can't say a thing about it? Just like Finn and I..."

"Samaria and I aren't like you and Finn so don't draw the comparisons."

A smile formed on my lips. "But you are together, just not in the same way I am with Finn."

He blew out air in frustration. "I am getting fucking nowhere with you."

"You don't have to hide it from me, Raphael." I added, resting my hand on his shoulder. He flinched at my touch. "If she makes you happy and you do the same for her, then I support you both fully."

"There is nothing to hide and nothing to admit, Kate." Raphael retorted, "just butt out of my business."

"How does she feel about you?" I asked, "she's one of my good friends, and I guess she couldn't tell me about you even if she wanted to."

"I don't know." He replied, his voice softer this time as he swallowed. "I don't know how she feels."

Patting the back of his hand, I took in a breath. "Now that I know about you two, I can kind of make sense of it. She was more dedicated in training and she got really good so fast. Probably your work, huh?" When he didn't answer, I grinned. "She missed you when you were gone. I was wondering what was wrong with her this week, but now I've figured it out. You should probably talk to her about..."

"No." Raphael cut me off sharply. "I am not having that conversation."

"Why not? A conversation about your feelings?"

"Precisely. I am avoiding anything related to my feelings and her revolving around the future and commitment. I don't do relationships or girlfriends; that's not who I am."

I breathed in, "then what are you doing with her? What's the purpose?"

He raised an eyebrow at me, "you really haven't guessed how we started this? Or what we do?"

Heat rose on my cheeks as I put the pieces together. "Oh Fates... well, alright." So they were together on a sexual basis. That didn't surprise me about Samaria and all her special comments. "Are you sure she doesn't like you more than just for sex? Because if she does, then you need to talk to her. If she thinks this is going somewhere, you either have to break it off or start to think about your feelings too. I don't want you both getting hurt."

"I don't want relationship advice from you, Kate." He rolled his eyes.

I snorted, "you don't sound any more experienced than me considering you don't do girlfriends."

"Obviously you don't know me well enough to realize that you should be the student instead of the teacher."

"If you actually decided to open up and let me get to know you, then maybe I'd know more."

Raphael's fingers dug into the chair on either side of him. "I'm done with all the opening up shit. None of you ever seem to realize that I like to stay shut."

I smiled, "well there, you just opened up a little without knowing it. I have one more Raphael fact: he has a hard shell that he doesn't want cracked."

Raphael let out a deep breath of air before resting his head in his hands. He looked tired and worn, most likely a combination of his week long battle and his worry.

With bravery I leaned my head against his shoulder. This time he didn't flinch. "I think you both are good for each other." I said softly, my voice barely above a whisper. "You bring out such a strength in her, one that I think people overlook because of her humor. She's bringing out kindness in you too or else you wouldn't let me do this." I laughed, lifting my head from his shoulder.

"Raphael, I consider you one of my good friends, and you should know that I want you to be happy. I want someone in your life that makes you as happy as Finn makes me, and don't give up on the girlfriend thing too quickly. I have faith that you'll find her, the one you're looking for. She may have even found you."

Raphael lifted his head, surprising me with a soft expression and a pair of kind eyes that I'd never seen before. He opened his mouth to respond, but the door opened abruptly.

A doctor in white stepped out into the room. "Guardian Raphael, I take it you're here for Samaria?"

Raphael was on his feet in seconds, his face back to its usual roughness that made even the doctor flinch under its intensity. "Yes, I am. Where is she? How is she doing?"

"She's stable and asleep at the moment. I'll lead you back."

Raphael glanced back at me and I nodded my head, waving a hand for him to go along without me. He gave me a nod before he and the doctor disappeared into the doorway.

Samaria was ok. A weight lifted off my chest as I rested my head against the wall and closed my eyes.

When my eyes opened, I was no longer in a desert of tan and white but an ocean of blue and grey. I blinked, my vision slowly adjusting to the dark room I was in.

I sat up, looking around the room I didn't recognize. Movement beside me made my head shoot to the side, my eyes meeting a familiar pair of sky blue orbs.

"You're awake." Finn mumbled from where he laid against the bed's headboard. One of his arms rested underneath his head, offering me a different angle of his muscles bicep through his shirt.

"Where...?" I yawned, rubbing my eyes.

"My room." Finn replied, "my bed. You were asleep in the waiting room so I took you back here. No one saw us I promise. You really needed some sleep."

"Samaria?"

"The last I heard was that she was still unconscious but she should be awake soon."

"Raphael? How is he doing?" I asked.

Finn raised an eyebrow, "fine. Why?"

I bit my lip, "I'm not sure if I'm aloud to tell."

"You're keeping secrets? From me?" He laughed, faking his shock with a dramatic inhale of air.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes, "he has a big crush on her. He doesn't want to admit it but it's obvious."

Finn licked his lips as his eyes glanced away from me. The expression on his face seemed to change as he thought.

"What?" I asked him, "you don't approve?"

"It's not that. I'm just worried that... they may end up hurting each other in the end." Finn replied softly. "Raphael doesn't do commitment well but he expects it from the other person. I have a feeling Samaria is the same. They would be great together if they can figure it out, but it makes me nervous that they might spiral."

"Raphael mentioned something to me about how he knows more about relationships than I do. What is he talking about?"

Finn glanced up to me, "you can't ever tell him that I told you or even mention it to him. He used to be married before he became a guardian."

My eyes bugged out of my head, "Raphael? Married?"

"Yes, he was with a woman named Isabelle, and she destroyed him. He was very different from the Raphael you know now. His severity was the product of their time together. He's never fully recovered from it, and it won't make he and Samaria's relationship easier."

I bit my lip, "what happened to him?"

Finn sighed, "she wasn't good to him. She cheated on him with another man and got pregnant so she told Raphael that it was his. The two of them got him killed in the end too so that they could be together."

My mouth fell open in shock, "she... killed him?"

"They set him up. He never told me how he died, but he obviously died like a hero or else he would have never gotten his wings." Finn shrugged his shoulders, "he confronted Isabelle after he came back and she told him everything, begged him to come back to her and he didn't. The other man ended up killing her and the baby; he's been a wreck ever since over if he should have protected her instead of protecting himself."

I shook my head, taking Finn's hand in mine. "That is horrible. Absolutely horrible. I can understand why he is the way he is after that. She betrayed him, and I guess he can't afford to let that happen again." Looking to Finn, I gave his hand a squeeze. "I'd never do that to you."

"Which part? Cheat on me or kill me?"

"Neither. I'd do neither. You're the only one I want, and I love you too much to hurt you."

Finn froze, his head snapping to the side to look me directly in the eyes. His hand held mine tight, his other hand laying over ours locked together. "What did you say?"

My face burned with an intense heat as I sat up straight, leaning back to look down at my lap. I'd just told him that I loved him. Oh my Fate...

Finn's hands gripped either side of my face as he came closer to me, resting now on his knees. Guiding my head up, his eyes met mine, the warmth of his chest radiating against me. His breath tickled my neck as he leaned in close, heat tingling at my ear. "What did you say?"

"You... know what I said." I stuttered, his blue eyes so deep that I found it hard to look at them any longer. Abruptly I slid from Finn's grasp, sliding off the bed and onto my feet on the floor. Finn watched me from the bed, a glow in his eyes that made me swallow as I looked from him to the sheets.

He stalked forward, eyes twinkling with gold. "You're going to make me hunt you, Kate?"

Something pooled in my abdomen, hot and raw as I took a few steps back. This only made Finn smile a little wider. I shook my head, "no..."

"Tell me what you said."

"I love you." I blurted, heat flaring on my cheeks again as I took another step forward. Finn's feet hit the floor, his height becoming more prominent now than it had ever been before as he towered over me.

"I love you too." Finn said, making me smile from ear to ear. He returned my smile with a grin of his own. "And I intend to show you how much I love you now in my bed if you'll let me."

The dark glimmer in his eyes and the heat in between us made my stomach twirl as I swallowed, feeling my bottom lip begin to quiver as I fought the urge to kiss him.

My eyes glanced down to his arms, veins running up his forearm that made me feel disoriented. When I looked back into his eyes, his lips seemed to call out to me as the static in the air electrocuted me.

In a moment of absurd courage, I said with as sultry of a look as I could make, "only if you can catch me."