love shot { J R }

JR was panicked but trying to keep calm considering he wasn't the one who had just fallen over the cliff. "Shoot, shootshootshoot, shoot, shoot," he muttered as he fluttered his hands over her, unsure what to do or how to help. He didn't think he had ever seen Tomie cry. He couldn't have even imagined it until this moment.

He put his hand on her back, supporting her as she sat up, his brown eyes zoning in on her left hand as she winced in pain. JR gently reached out to hold her forearm from underneath, gently cradling it, careful not to jostle her. He knew she was trying to be brave, typical Tomie, but he also knew that this was serious. Plus Tomie crying? That meant she was really hurt. "It'll be all right. We'll find Teddy and he can fix you right up," he told her confidently, knowing that the counselor had to have some first aid skills. He almost wished he had his wand right now to help, but it's not like he knew any mediwizard spells himself.

He glanced over her other arm and down to her legs. "Hurt anywhere else? Think you can walk or should I.. carry you?" he asked, sitting up a little straighter. He wasn't that much bigger than Tomie and he was pretty sure she could do more push ups than him, but he wasn't going to let his lack of muscles let her down right now. He tried to give her a comforting smile back, but it came out more like a grimace as his thoughts drifted to guilt and blame. "This wouldn't have happened if I had just had the guts to ask you to the dance myself," he muttered as he shifted and glanced down the trail, trying to remember how far they'd gone away from the group.

She looked down at her legs as he did. She’d worn track shorts, of course, because it was way too hot to wear anything else. Well, except for maybe a dress or something, but this was camp and while her mum made her wear dresses at home, she would rather die than be seen in one with her friends. In retrospect though, a pair of long, thin hiking trousers might have been a better idea, since her knees were scraped into oblivion. They stung a bit, but that kind of pain wasn’t enough to make her cry or anything.

“Yeaaahh….” She said, still frowning. She didn’t really love the idea of Teddy fixing her up; he’d probably tell them off for sneaking off from the hike. Maybe if they went back down they could find someone else to do it for them instead. And she could lie and say she’d just been very unlucky on the normal path or something. There were little cuts and bruises all over her arms and legs though, she really did look like she’d fallen down a cliffside.

“Oh yeah, reckon you could?” she teased, finally wiping at her face with the back of her right hand, smiling again now, unable to resist getting a little jab in. He couldn’t be too mad about the teasing, she figured, since she was the one bleeding and all. Her arm was killing her still, and… actually it looked a bit weird now that she was really looking at it. She pulled it away from his hands gingerly, cradling her arm with her other hand. Merlin, maybe she really had broken something. “What?” she asked, glancing back up at him.

“Ask me to the dance?” She repeated, clearly confused.

His gaze flickered between her injured wrist and her expression as she drew out her response, making him frown. "Or maybe we could find Carla? It would take longer to get to camp though," he offered, thinking of how they were just talking about how they liked Carla better. She was nicer anyway. He knew his legs stung from his intentional slide down, but glancing at her, he couldn't imagine how she felt. He had gotten knocked off his broom more than a few times playing with his dad in the backyard who refused to go easy 'just because he was a kid' and that had never felt good.

JR bit his lip in worry as she pulled her arm away from him and he left his hand fall to his side, feeling useless. Her teasing made him give her an unamused look. "Sure I could," he told her confidently even though she had rightly called his bluff. He wasn't really feeling playful like they had been moments ago. You know, before he had caused her to tumble over the side of the cliff. He couldn't imagine what their friends were going to say when they found out what he had caused, even if it was an accident. "Do you think you can walk?" he asked, very aware of how his hand was against her back, how close they were.

"Oh.. err.." he mumbled as she repeated his mutterings. Shoot. Wrong timing, Hawkins! He shrugged a little like it was unimportant. "Yeah, well, I wanted to. Yknow, the note. But it's-- whatever. It doesn't matter. Let's get going if you can walk so someone can look at your arm," he told her, his tone awkward and hesitant as he avoided her gaze.

“Maybe Carla,” she agreed, wiping the last tears from her eyes, thinking that she probably trusted the american witch more than she trusted Teddy, anyway. She’d seen him on a broom!! If his medical skills were anything like his quodpot ones she’d probably end up with an extra limb or something.

“Yeah, totally,” she said confidently, wriggling her toes inside her sneakers a bit to make sure she was right. Her knees looked pretty messy, but she wasn’t really worried about them, since they were clearly superficial wounds. Her arm was throbbing painfully, but she could totally navigate the rest of the downhill climb with only her right hand. Too easy, she thought.

“Wait,” she said, touching his arm quickly, to stop him from moving anywhere. She gave him a puzzled look, feeling suddenly hyper aware of the fact that his hand was on her back. “that’s what that note was about?” she asked. Tomie felt a bit embarrassed suddenly, but her default reaction to that feeling was smiling, so a smile appeared on her lips.

She ignored the rest of what he was saying, tilting her head a bit, trying to catch his gaze as it slid away from her face. “You were tryna ask me to the dance?” she repeated, clarifying as she leaned forward, trying to poke her face into his line of sight so he’d stop avoiding looking at her. “What, like, a date or whatever?” she sounded a little incredulous.

"Ok," he murmured as she confidently assured him she could walk. He looked at her doubtfully, not that he thought she couldn't do it. Just that she maybe shouldn't. Her knees looked pretty bad and he was pretty sure the way her wrist was laying wasn't natural. He gulped as he thought about how much pain she was in. "C'mon, let's go," he said impatiently, wanting to find Carla quick. Again, he thought of how inconvenient the no wands, no magic rule was!

Her light touch on his arm made him still as he glanced at her before he felt his cheeks get hot and he looked away again as she brought up the note. "No! I mean, yes," he said immediately, correcting himself. The original note had been about that. The one she had actually received, however, was a completely different story.

In his peripheral, he saw her leaning, trying to catch his gaze, but he resisted for a few moments as he fought with his self-consciousness. A few moments later, he huffed a sigh and turned to look at her. "Yes, alright? I was tryin' to ask you to the dance but everyone messed up the note and it doesn't even matter now. Your wrist might be broken! Let's go," he repeated again, trying to avoid talking more about the stupid dance when she was hurt because of him.

She continued to tease, the only logical response to this news. “– What, like you got a crush on me?” He cut her words off at the end though, hurriedly trying to get them to go. JR seemed so flustered – she didn’t think she’d ever seen him like this before. It was kinda funny, though, and she couldn’t stop smiling. She felt embarrassed too, but not the kind of chest-crushing embarrassment that she’d imagined she might feel in this kind of situation. More like she wanted to punch him in the arm and tell him to shut up or something, but was amused and kinda delighted at the same time.

The whole feeling just culminated in a smile that wasn’t going away.

“Okay, okay. Can you help me…?” She held out her good arm so he could help her up. She was a bit unsteady, and still a little shaky, but she did her best to hide it as they started to walk. “I’m good,” she told him, holding her injured arm out to the side as she took a big step down some rocks. They were quiet for a bit, and she wondered what he was thinking. If he was okay, that sort of thing.

After a little bit of this, Tomie paused, fishing a muesli bar out of her pocket. When he looked to see why she’d stopped, she tried to open the packet with her teeth and her one good hand, failing miserably. “Um, can you get that for me?” she asked, holding it out. She watched him as he did it. “Sooo…” She grinned again, not really able to help it.

He felt his cheeks get hot again at her question and he glanced down at the wrist she was cradling to avoid looking into her big, brown beguiling eyes. "I don't think I would've asked you to the dance otherwise," he evaded, half-answering her question, but also half-not because he was embarrassed about being called out in the most uncool way. He knew he could have played this smoother, but considering she has probably broken her whole arm or something, he wasn't really focused on being cool. Her smile, at least, was a good sign, he thought. Unless... "Did you hit your head on the way down?" he asked with a narrowed gaze. Maybe she had knocked a few marbles lose when she had tumbled over the side of the cliff.

JR nodded repeatedly as he shifted to take her good arm, supporting her and letting her lean on him as she stood and they started to walk. He was watching her like a hawk, ready to jump in and help if needed. "Let me help you," he muttered even as she jumped down a big step herself. He sighed, frustrated. He knew Tomie was the independent sort and he liked that about her, but she was hurt and he couldn't even really do anything to help.

He alternated between following her to make sure she didn't collapse on him from the head trauma he wasn't sure she had endured and rushing ahead of her to help her down the hard bits with big step downs in the rock levels. Not that she really needed his help anyway, which he sighed at. He was in front of her, saying "I think we're almost back to where Teddy was" when he glanced back to see Tomie back a bit on the trail. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asked as he rushed back before realizing why he had stopped.

"Really?" he grumbled as he took the granola bar from her and opened it easily for her, pulling down the wrapper so she wouldn't have to fight with it before handing it back. Her drawn out 'Sooo' made him look heavenward and he sighed before glancing at her. "You don't give up do you?" he replied, the smallest smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. How could she be worried about that when her arm was broken??

“Probably,” was the only answer she had for the head-hitting question. She rubbed the back of her head with her right hand before going back to cradling her other arm. Seemed fine to her.

There was a new jolt of pain every time she stepped too hard or skipped over a tree root or something, and she scrunched her face up when it hurt, but only when he wasn’t looking at her. She let him help her down some of the bigger steps, but felt a bit awkward doing it and wasn’t entirely sure it was better than if she did it herself. At one point, she sat down at the edge of a rock and wiggled her way forward so the drop was a lot smaller than it would have been if she’d jumped. She still ground her teeth at the pain, working hard to conceal a sharp intake of breath. Most of the time, she watched the ground.

She had to smile at his grumbling though.

“Well I just – you know,” she said, amused at herself, but also latching onto the teeny little smile she could see threatening to break free. Her own smile widened. She felt the urge to gesture more; it was a bit weird being so limited. “Just wondering if that’s it then,” she teased. Tomie shrugged playfully, then had to bite the inside of her lip hard to stop herself making a sound when pain shot up her jolted forearm. She frowned, nodding through the sensation, then took a breath and exhaled slowly. “It’s okay,” she said, seeing him worry.

She cleared her throat, smoothing her frown intentionally. She sighed. “Just wondering if that’s it, you know?” she said, barrelling on as she started walking again. Tomie took a bite from her bar, and kept talking through her mouthful. “Like the note thing didn’t work, so that’s that?” She glanced at him, but then a sudden thought occurred to her. “Wait,” she said, stopping again, but only for a second before she kept walking. “Does everyone know, then? Like… Everyone?” Wendy? Benny? Shelby? Benny had drawn the hippogriff for sure, it was his style. Her eyebrows went up as she wondered how to process this.

Great. A head injury. Another thing for him to worry about. He was cataloging everything she told him for when they got to Carla, but maybe the healers cabin was a better option for her. He wondered if she was going to remember any of this anyway with her probable concussion. Merlin, he hoped so. He didn't think he could survive attempting to ask her to the dance for a third time.

And even with her probable concussion, dangly broken arm and the fact that he had caused all of it with their play fighting, JR found himself smiling back at her when she smiled at him. Maybe he needed his head examined too. "If what's it?" he asked confused and a little awkward. He wasn't sure what she was looking for and besides, the rational part of his brain told him that talking about crushes wasn't something you normally did when someone was gravely injured. As she winced in pain after shrugging, JR reached out to do.. something.. but wasn't sure how to help so his hands fluttered awkwardly back to his side as she reassured him and he narrowed his gaze at her. "We need to get you to Carla," he repeated and nodded toward the trail again, grumbling about adults who sent kids into the wilderness without their wands to help in situations like these.

As they started walking again, JR slid his gaze to her as she chatted and munched on the bar and cradled her arm, all while he was reluctant about talking about this. Part of him knew that this was his best chance to talk it out when all of their friends were off somewhere else without fear of them interrupting them, but this was so not the way he had wanted to ask her and he just felt dumb even though he was relieved she hadn't at least said no. Wait.. had she answered? Maybe she was waiting to answer him based on what he said to this question. Oh no. He cleared his throat a little and tried to gather his wits about him, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I dunno, I just thought it would be cool to go together," he told her with a furtive glance thrown in her direction.

But then she was talking about the note and he huffed a sigh, stopping with her and then restarting to walk a second later as she did. "Well, I gave it to someone to give it to you. I didn't know everyone was going to write on it," he grumbled, kicking a rock off the path and watching it skitter down the little ravine to the side.

Just thought it would be cool to go together. She was looking ahead, and missed his glance in her direction. Tomie took another bite of her muesli bar, mulling as she walked.

It was weird to think about everyone knowing before she did. Not that she was unsettled by the fact that they knew, exactly. It wasn’t like it was someone she didn’t know or wasn’t friends with or whatever had asked her out. If someone she didn’t like at all had told everyone they’d liked her, she’d probably be pretty uncomfortable. But… it was JR. She didn’t know if she had a crush on him (although she’d realised pretty recently that he was her go-to answer when asked things like “but if you had to date someone??”), but she liked being around him? Was that the same thing? At least for twelve-year olds, she thought sagely.

Ah, she’d lost him. She watched him kick a rock off the edge of the path and wondered what he was feeling. “Shoulda given it to Shelby first,” she commented. Tomie couldn’t imagine Shelby handing it all around to everyone; she was pretty sure the first time her camp dormmate had seen it was when there had been a knock at the door this morning; by then it was already unreadable. Tomie kinda wished she could check the note again now, knowing what it was supposed to say. She was sure Shelby would have brought it straight to her.

“Or just, y’know, asked me,” she added with a bit of a teasing smile as she glanced at him. This was probably why he wasn’t a Gryffindor, she thought. He wasn’t brave enough.

He shrugged at her saying he should have given it to Shelby first. "I guess," he muttered as he regretted even doing the stupid note in the first place. Why had he even done that? It definitely wasn't because he was just too scared to go up to her and say 'I like you, will you go to the dance with me?'. Yeah, definitely wasn't because of that. He was pretty someone had told him the cool way to ask someone was the note route. But clearly that had not worked in his favor.

Or just, y’know, asked me. JR glanced at her quickly to judge her expression. Her tone seemed light and he could see the little smile on her face as she looked at him, but the thought made his hands clammy. Merlin, he couldn't even ask when they had been at the top of the outlook, the note in her hand as evidence, as an easy in to what he had wanted to ask. He plastered what he hoped was an easy smile on his face and gave her another lift of one shoulder. "Thought it would be a cooler way to ask. Yknow, with the note and all," he told her calmly despite his racing heart.

Still though, the fact that she hadn't really answered despite knowing what he had asked in the note was making him anxious. He kept glancing at her to check on her arm, but it also doubled as a check in to see if he could pick up anything about how she felt about the dance thing. "Soo.." he started, mimicking her earlier phrase. "Did you want to.."

Cooler with a note? Tomie didn’t really understand, how was it cooler that way? A part of her wondered if he’d been talking to Wendy. Seemed like a very Wendy Thing To Do, sending clandestine romantic letters or something. Tomie knew she would have just asked outright if she’d been the one asking a girl to a dance. Or, a boy, she supposed. Whatever.

JR was fun to be around, and nice, and she liked when he let his guard down a bit around her – a guard that she wasn’t sure that everyone else really saw. Or... maybe that was a bit presumptuous of her? Getting a bit too smug about being perceptive when it came to her friends? Tomie had been getting better at it this past year, better at thinking about other people’s feelings, better at seeing things from their perspectives. She had to remind herself sometimes that her intuition wasn’t always right, though.

“Did I want toooo…?” Tomie copied him, having a bit too much fun teasing him. She couldn’t commit to it though; she could tell he felt awkward, and while she wasn’t always the most tactful, she didn’t like pushing too far. “Yeah, sure” she said, before he could say anything else. She laughed a bit, shrugging again, then wincing again when the motion jarred her arm. “Why not?” she said. “Could be cool to go together.” She copied his earlier phrasing, shooting him a genuine smile.

Her stomach sank a bit as she wondered what she’d wear to the dance. She gave him a quick look, then looked away, wondering if he’d expect her to wear a dress or something. She did have that one dress in her bag, but the idea of wearing it to this thing made her uncomfortable. She wondered who she could ask for advice.

He huffed another sigh and slid his glance over to her, hearing the teasing tone in her voice and squirming under her question. He wasn't sure how else he could say it, geez. But then she agreed and he swung his head back to look at her fully. "Yeah?" he asked with a hint of a smile. "Cool," he tacked on, shrugging like her as if it didn't matter even though he felt a weight off his shoulders. That was until he saw her wince again. "Stop doing that, you're going to make it worse," he said glancing down at how she was cradling her arm.

JR inhaled a little deeper. Now that that was settled, he felt a little better. Well as better as he could considering Tomie's arm was still broken. They had gotten back down to the path where they had veered off from the group, but the path was empty, no sign of Teddy or the group. "Let's just head back to camp and find Carla," he told her with a nod to the path that would take them back to camp. He guessed that Teddy had kept the group moving, which made sense, but he had secretly been hoping that the counselor would've been around to look at Tomie's arm. He didn't trust him necessarily as much as maybe Carla or the official camp nurse whoever that was, but it had to be better than watching Tomie wince every other moment.

She smiled when he said cool, like it was all a throwaway thing and she hadn’t had him sweating a moment ago. She laughed, feeling a bit of a rush – maybe from the pain, though, she wasn’t sure. “Okay, okay,” Tomie said, but she was proper grinning now, despite the whole arm thing.

“Good idea,” she said with a nod, turning to head back down the gentle decline. It was an easy trail from here, she thought. A wide, easy walking track. She stepped a bit more lightly, making sure not to jiggle her arm. “Hey JR,” she said, glancing at him as she walked. “You wanna bite?” She held her half-eaten muesli bar out for him, feeling like it was perhaps more than a muesli bar in this particular moment.

He took it as they continued down the path back to camp, and Tomie smiled.

/end

If he hadn't seen for himself how wrong her arm had looked after she had fallen and how far she had fallen, JR might wonder if she was even hurt that much. Given the fact that she was smiling so much and in such a good mood. He could only remember that one time he and his dad had been playing in the backyard with real bludgers because Wyatt Sr had thought 'it was time he played the game like a man' and he hadn't dodged a bludger quick enough. He arm had shattered and he had been howling in pain.

As she offered her muesli bar, he hesitated but then took it from her. He didn't really want to eat something someone else had already bitten into, but she had offered and he didn't want to say no. It felt like it was more than just a bite of muesli. So he gave her a smile, took a bite, and handed it back as they continued on down to camp making a beeline for the first aid cabin and thinking of what their friends were gonna say when he told them she had said yes.

/end