[ttd] I don't believe in anything but myself

"Don't believe me?" Jae had asked, one brow quirked. Just three little words and that's how he had gotten to where he was, currently standing on his broom almost as if it were a surfboard, balancing himself, his arms out by his sides. He was only hovering a few inches from the ground, but with a small grin, he bent his knees and finding his center as he angled the tip of the broom slightly up to rise him the air until he was hovering about two feet off the ground.

It was a stupid hidden talent, but one that he had been working on for years even since he had realized broom riding and wizards and magic was a thing. And unlike most of his hobbies, this one survived no real purpose other than to prove, mostly to himself, that he could do it. Plus, he'd always had pretty good balance. He could hold a hand stand longer than his brothers combined and had even tried it on a broom a few times but had fallen out easily. That trick wasn't ready for an audience yet.

He was secretly pleased that some of the students who had gathered around seemed impressed, even though he knew this was a useless skill. It wasn't like he was going to stand on his broom to make save and risk breaking his neck if he fell from that height, but it was fun. And while he did love to play quidditch, he hadn't expected the informal practice session where a bunch of different students from different houses were on the pitch, probably thanks to the nice weather, to actually be fun.

Always loving a challenge, Jae grinned as someone called out to him to go higher. Except he was so focused on his feet on his broom, looking down as he balanced, that he didn't quite realize there were some in the group that were up to no good. He heard the familiar whistle of a quaffle sailing through the air, just before he felt it hit him in the gut, tipping over, his arms flailing wildly for a few seconds before he ended up on the ground in a dangerous spill, the wind knocked out of him.

(( Hope this is ok. Feel free to have Donna or an NPC have thrown the quaffle ))

@Donna West

What had started as three-way catch between Donna, her little brother, and one of his friends had become monkey-in-the-middle as soon as Matty Maverick had wanted to join in, which Donna thought was kind of mean-spirited and cruel, but not enough to throw him the Quaffle. She wasn’t really even paying attention; she and her brother were arguing, the usual sort of nonsense Marty came up with about how it was Martin and not Marty anymore. Marty, as a result, wasn’t paying attention either.

The weather was far too pleasant not to be taking advantage of the outdoors, Donna thought; she would have liked for Marty to understand that the weather was far too pleasant to argue about what was literally his name, but he was a little squealer at the best of times, and didn’t seem to begrudge her the desire to keep fighting.

But he threw the Quaffle much too fast at her; it spun almost out of reach, and then just off her fingertips where she’d tried to stretch her arm out, and into Jae Kim, who was for some reason standing up on top of his broomstick like it was a very narrow surfboard.

“Oh!” said Donna, too shocked to be apologetic yet. She took a few bounding steps after Jae and his crowd of disappointed admirers and leaned over him where he was flat on his back. “You okay?” she said, and held her hand out to help him back up. “Sorry.”

Yeah, the weather was great today, but gazing up at the azure blue sky hadn't really been in his plans for the day. Especially considering the unexpected spill had knocked the breath out of him. He tried to suck in a breath, but it felt like his body had forgotten how to function.

The titters of laughter he heard because of what probably looked ridiculous as he flailed his arms and tried to catch his balance. The sound grated against him and his cheeks felt hot. He hated that.

Then a familiar face appeared in his view and he finally managed to draw a full breath, frowning up at her as he glanced dubiously at her hand. The apology was offered easily and he grasped her hand, allowing her to help him sit up and then stand as he dropped her hand quickly and gave her a narrowed look. "Did you do that on purpose?" he asked as he smoothed his hair off his forehead and then rubbed a hand across his stomach.

It had been dumb to do that, to show off like that, so he figured he had deserved something like this to happen, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Especially when it had come from such a rival on the pitch.

Most everybody was laughing, so Donna doled out a few fierce looks, which quieted a few of them down, before she stuck her head into Jae’s field of vision, or as much of it that wasn’t seeing spots – he looked in bad shape. She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows and waited for him to get his breath back.

Immediately once he had, Jae started glaring; Donna refused to back down, but kept holding her hand out, idly thinking that she would look very foolish if he refused her help standing up, but reassuring herself that he would look very rude to do so. It didn’t matter; he grabbed her hand and she yanked him back up, then let him go as hastily as he was letting her go.

“No,” she swore, “My stupid little brother threw it too high.” Said stupid little brother was five feet away getting lost – probably he was more afraid of Jae Kim than she was, as he had to share a common room with him. “Totally accidental,” she added, in the spirit of sisterly defense.

He rubbed his stomach where the Quaffle had hit him; somebody threw the ball back to Donna, and she caught it and gave Jae a rueful look. “You good? You need the nurse?” She didn’t mean it to sound mocking, but it did anyway, rather as if she’d said, wanna call your mummy?, so she tempered her tone as much as she could and said, “That looked like a bad fall. You know, you should pay more attention to your surroundings.”

She mentioned her brother and Jae looked past her shoulder to see the younger kid, throwing a glare in the kid's direction. Purely accidental? "Mhm, sure," he told her, not believing it for a second. Jae eyed the kid for a long moment as his jaw ticked. He looked like a little twerp, no wonder West was defensive on it. If it had been his siblings, he would've been thrown right under the Knight Bus.

His ribs ached when he was hit and he wondered if it had even broken a rib. He was cataloguing his pain on a scale of 1 to 10 like he had seen in some medical books, but he stopped abruptly at Donna's question. His dark eyes slid back to her. Jae dropped his hand immediately and answered quickly. "No, I'm fine," he told her coolly before he turned away and leaned over to grab his broom, hiding a gasp as he did so.

Jesus, that hurt. He tried to school his features into a blank expression though. It felt like everyone was still looking at him, amused smiles on their faces. Jae wanted to disappear. "Yeah, yeah, a genius idea, really needed that little tip," he told her with a half-turn, the sarcasm obvious as he swung his broom up on his shoulder. He was done here anyway. He wasn't beating a quick retreat, he was just done being out here and a little hungry. At least that's what he told himself as he left, sending a dark look towards her younger brother as he passed them.

/end

Jae glowered darkly after poor Marty, and Donna arched her eyebrows, mentally preparing herself to get into a grapple over it – it was probably not good form to intervene on her brother’s defense and set him up for a lifetime of being mocked for having to be defended by a girl, but she thought it was worse form to watch him be attacked by someone she could totally take in a fair fight. “Sure,” she repeated.

He did not look fine, though he insisted hotly that he was – Donna arched her eyebrows further up as Jae began to pack his things up to flee. If he wasn’t going right to the hospital wing she would eat her hat, or – she reminded herself that boys were stupid – she would have to track him down and make sure he did. “Sorry I asked,” she shot after him as he went; she didn’t miss the sharp glance he threw at Martin, and added, “Nobody asked you to show off, anyway!”

Well – that had been a lousy interaction, but she didn’t care. He was only a fifth year, and she was bored of this anyway. She chucked the Quaffle to Matty Maverick, scooped her robes up from where she’d left them in a heap on the grass, and started the muddy trudge to Hagrid’s hut – maybe this day could still be salvaged, if he let her hang out with the hippogriffs.


END