Edge of the Water

Belle couldn't exactly fathom what it was about Jonathan Toews, but something about him just got on her nerves. She tried desperately to keep her happy, guest-pleasing smiling on her face, and to deny his “helpful” instincts in the most polite way possible. But it was getting difficult. By the time she had finished trying to tell him to back off as nicely as possible, she noticed Zoey's absence. Holding in a curse, she turned to Jeff questioningly.

“Slag went off with Knight in Shining Armour's best friend, Blondie,” Jeff supplied. “He was carrying her,” he added, a helpful note to his voice.

Sighing, Belle nodded. “Thanks, Jeff.” She ran her hand down her face, not yet ready to face the world. She needed a break for once. She even considered making it to the weight room just for a few minutes to blow off some steam. But she knew she had to make sure that Slag, er...Zoey, got back to the room safely with whoever Blondie was.

She turned around and pushed passed Jon who stood quietly behind her, a confused and almost exhausted look on his face.

“Can I come with you?” he asked, catching up to her quick stride. “I need to find Kaner anyways.”

“Do whatever you want,” Belle supplied, keeping up her fast stride and taking abrupt turns down hallways, ones Jon had never been down before.

Jon had no idea where he was, what part of the ship, or even which level he was on. But Belle knew her way around like the back of her hand. So, he settled with walking a few paces behind her. He watched the way she walked; her feet barely making any noise as they graced the floor with their presence fleetingly. She walked like she was a dancer. Yoga instructor was ingrained in her bones. Anything graceful surrounded her and enveloped her essence completely. And all of that grace completely hated him.

He didn't exactly understand it. It was like being back in high school all over again, when all he did was focus on hockey. Girls found him attractive, but nothing was attractive about spending all of your time practicing hockey. Then, once he was drafted, girls just fell in his lap. He was ashamed to admit that he had become used to it and Belle's constant and incessant denial of him even being nice to her wasn't sitting well with him. She was a challenge, and he sort of liked it that way.

His entire team was seeing him get shot down day in and day out. They knew the look their captain got when he liked a girl. She was almost completely off everyone's radar because of it.

She stopped so abruptly that he almost ran into her. The door in front of her opened and out slipped Kaner.

“Holy shit!” he let out a startled whisper at Belle's presence. “I was just...I mean, she was...and I...nothing happened!” he insisted.

“Did she puke or anything?” Belle asked him.

“Uhh, no,” he shot Jon a look, as if to say that Belle was being nice and he had no idea what his best friend had been talking about with her being hostile.

“Okay. Thanks for bringing her back, I've got it from here.” She smiled at him, squeezed his shoulder then pressed passed him into the room. Immediately, soft music started to play in the room and they could hear rummaging around.

“What the fuck were you talking about? That was completely civil and nice. She's nice,” Patrick pointed out.

“You saw her explode on me before!” Jon insisted, then sighed and shook his head. “She's not your average girl. No amount of niceness is going to get her to like me,” he pointed out.

“Why don't you try being mean then?” Patrick asked, raising his eyebrows at his best friend and nodding, as if it were the best idea in the world.

“If she doesn't like me when I'm nice, what makes you think she'll like me when I'm mean?” Jon asked.

“I don't know, she's mean to you and nice to everyone else. Doesn't that kind of make you want to get her to like you more?” Patrick smirked at his friend.

Jon shot his friend a glare, then turned back the way he had come from. “I don't even know where the fuck we are. How do we get out of here?”

“I have no idea. I don't even know how I got here in the first place.”

***

Jon couldn't sleep. Everything about Belle was running through his mind. She frustrated him to no end, just like he was sure he frustrated her. But even then, everything about her intrigued him, fascinated him and amazed him. She was different than most girls. Most girls loved the chivalry; basked in the glory of a man looking after her, helping her. It was almost like a form of control that the woman had over a man, but Belle didn't see it that way. She saw it as a man seeing himself as better than she was; a feminist in any way possible. And she was amazing in her independence, as if everything she did was effortless. She wanted nothing from anyone, and gave everything to anyone.

Jon realized that he had originally been attracted to her body; her legs that went on for miles, her small waist and birthing hips that were accentuated by the lean muscle that was all over her body. Her breasts, her torso, her arms, her hair and her facial features. She was one beautiful being. Someone you wanted to take and concur immediately, but he knew she would never allow that. She was in charge of her own body and no one was getting anywhere close to it without her permission. And she wasn't going to give him permission any time soon.

Sighing, and getting out of his bed, he put on some basketball shorts, a wife beater and made his way to the ship's exercise room. If he wasn't going to sleep, then he might as well do something productive. Just because it was the off season didn't mean his muscles didn't need a workout.

He was rubbing his eyes when he walked into the room, then almost backed right out again once he saw someone else was already there.

There she was, running on one of the four treadmills, keeping up a quick pace and humming along to whatever song was on her iPod.

She turned when he walked in, gave him a half smile, and went back to her workout.

He didn't understand the girl. Sometimes she hated him, other times she was civil. What did she want from him?

He took a step farther into the room, glancing at Belle as she stopped her machine, pulled her earbuds out and looked straight at him.

“Can we start again?” he blurted out.

A small laugh escaped her lips. She even let a smile grace their curves.

“Are you going to be working on your upper body?” she asked him, seemingly not answering his question. “You boys are all very well defined in your lower body, but I've been trying to focus muscle growth in your upper body and flexibility in your lower body for the past two days. I don't think you all realize the benefits that full body muscle control and flexibility would give you on the ice.”

“Uhh, I was going to run,” Jon supplied sheepishly. He didn't want to lie to her, but he felt stupid for working out his lower muscles after her little speech.

She let out a chuckle and nodded at him. “See you later, then.” And she left the room. If that was starting over, Jon wasn't sure it was any better than they had been before.