Defcon 1

Who: Thom and Kaysen
Where: Graevaret School and St James residence
When: Late afternoon

Thom had enjoyed the day spent lazing around in the park - which, in fact, was what he did most days this summer, but eventually he had to head home. Not because he had to be home at any set time - like as not his mom would still be at work and would be at work until long after dark - but he was getting hungry and the afternoon was getting on some. His intention had been just to head straight home, but somehow he ended up taking a diversion round to Graevaret. And, oh look, there was Kaysen on her board. And damn, didn't he just feel so much better for seeing that? Which was wrong on so many levels. This was stupid, he didn't know what he was doing here. He should just go. Shaking his head, he hefted his guitar further onto his shoulder and made to walk on by, even if the 'ignoring her and walking on by' thing wasn't really working for him as he kept casting glances in her direction to make sure she was wasn't doing anything stupid that was going to get her hurt.

Kaysen was nearly always doing something stupid that might get her hurt. She was a skateboarder, and she did it constantly. And even the very best skateboarders fell over and scraped themselves up. She was damn good at it, really, far better on her board than on her feet, but that didn't stop her from completely biffing it when she noticed Thom, and not only noticed him, but he was looking at her. So not allowed. So that microsecond of lapsed concentration lead to her finding herself face first on the sidewalk, hurting in several places at once. Awesome. This was her best. Day. Evar.

He saw it as she fell - which totally put paid to the whole 'ignoring her and carrying on my merry way' thing. Oh no, the moment she pitched he was running, crossing the street and by her side. "You okay?" he asked, dropping the guitar off his shoulder and lowering it to the ground so that he could take her arm and help her up, already looking her over to make sure that she hadn't broken anything or anything.

Cue internal alarms. It was Defcon 1 was going off in Kaysen's brain. Which meant internally she was running around, screaming her head off and panicking. She pushed herself up, and had a scrape on the side of her chin, both knees, and her right forearm looked brilliant now, lacking skin. Of course she had to ditch bad right now, didn't she? But then she'd been going down steps, or more accurately, the rail on the steps. "I'm fine!" she said, already sort of half pushing him away even if she wasn't in the least bit sure she was okay.

"No you're not," Thom said, noting the scrapes and cuts. There was blood - blood did not equal fine in his book. Especially not with Kaysen . He was, in fact, officially Worried. "Come on, sit down - let me have a look at you," he said, trying to get her to sit down on the steps. It's probably worse than it looks - they're probably just scrapes. Some skin loss. She's probably fine. You're worrying over nothing. You're worrying. Shit, but she's bleeding!

Kaysen batted at him again, and sat down. Ohhhhh was she not fine. Mostly because after the initial OMGWTF her body had gone into immediately after she hit, it was now informing her that she'd left a good lot of skin on the ground. Where it clearly did not belong. She was tough, however! She'd fallen before! Lots of times! "God, I'm fine!" she said impatiently, but it didn't come out nearly as fine-sounding as she would have liked. In fact, she sounded hurt. And she had the stunningly stupid urge to burst into tears, because she was hurt and embarrassed, and Thom was there being all lame and he needed to go away now!

He frowned at her, taking much more away from her tone of voice and the vaguely pale look on her face than what she said. He knew Kaysen well enough to know that you could, a lot of the time, ignore what she said - it was how she said it that was important. He turned away for a moment, reaching into the side pocket of his guitar case and pulling out half a bottle of water. "Here," he said, handing it to her. It'd probably be a little warm from being out all day, but it was all he had. "Have a drink," he added as he turned back to root around again, looking to see if he had anything that could pass for tissues. Note to self: always carry a first aid kit with you, he thought, before blinking. Where the hell had that come from? Oh yeah,Kaysen being accident-prone. But, still...

Kaysen looked very much like she wanted to refuse, but she didn't in the end, taking the water. She noticed that she was shaking a little bit, and she hid that right away. She shouldn't be shaking! She wasn't scared or anything! What the hell? She downed some of the water, then rubbed at her chin. Her hand came away bloody. Her knees were bloody too, though they were more or less in a constant state of hamburger. That was nothing new at all. Her elbows too, though she usually avoided skinning her whole arm. She didn't even want to look at that. It was stinging really bad, and she was firmly of a belief that if she ignored it, maybe it would go away. "I'm fine." she mumbled again, still trying to get past that stupid silly moronic urge to tear up. "Happens all the time. Go away."

Success! Thom came back up holding a rather crumbled tissue. But it was clean! "Here," he said, taking the water back off her and wetting the tissue. And then looking stunningly awkward. "Erm. Did you want to... Or shall I..." He made some vague gestures which were meant to fill in the gaps in the question he wasn't sure how to phrase.

Kaysen gave him a truly horrified look, and snatched the tissue from him. "I'll do it!" she said, holding it first to her face. That seemed overwhelmingly important right now, even if she knew her arm was worse. She kind of half turned it over to brave a look at it, and saw why that was hurting the worst. There was gravel in it. Awesome. That was just great. Absolutely perfect.

Oh good, that's good, Thom thought with relief. And then proceeded to watch her clean herself up, unaccountably concerned that she was going to do it wrong, or that he could do a better job. Was one tissue going to be enough? He looked round, wondering if there was anywhere he could get more from, but the school looked closed. One tissue wasn't going to be enough. "Stay here," he told her firmly as he stood. "I'll be right back." There was a store down the street - he could get more tissues there. Leaving his guitar on the sidewalk, he disappeared at a jog.

Kaysen saw her opportunity and took it. Immediately. The second he was around the corner, she was up and gone. She hesitated a minute over his guitar, then finally picked it up and got back on her board, pushing off to get the hell home. Thom was creeping her out with the concern thing, and she wanted to just pretend she'd never seen him today. That didn't mean she wanted anyone to take his guitar. Not that anyone would, but still. She'd just leave it on his doorstep. Which she did, stopping there for two seconds to put it there before she was up and disappearing into her house to hide in her room for the next million years.

Tom got back to the school a couple of minutes after she disappeared - the Spot was only just round the corner and there'd been no queue. And she was gone. He should have known. Really, he should have - he'd known Kaysen for years. he knew what she was like. And she'd taken his guitar! At least, he hoped she'd taken his guitar.

Clutching a completely redundant pack of tissues, he headed off, not even pretending to himself that he was going home this time. Not even slowing as he walked past his own house to the St James' (though he did note with relief that said guitar had been left on the doorstep). Heading up the driveway, he rang on the doorbell and waited.

When the doorbell rang, Mrs. St. James opened up. She smiled at Thom, always pleased to see the responsible young man. "Hello, Thom." she said. "I'm sorry, but Isaac isn't home right now. Would you like me to tell him you stopped by? Or you can come in and wait a while if you want, He might not be too late."

Thom smiled back, falling effortlessly into 'parent impressing' mode. "Oh no, Mrs St James, that's fine - I was actually wondering ifKaysen was in? I saw her on her way home a few minutes ago and she dropped these," he added, holding up the packet of tissues. He didn't want the girl to get in trouble for hurting herself - he'd never hear the end of that one...

Mrs. St James blinked at him, looking utterly baffled for a minute. "Oh, I...I'm not sure she's home, actually, here, I can take them for her..." she said, holding her hand out for them. Obviously thrown, but trying to get over it.

"Any chance I could just head on up to her room and see?" Thom asked, looking past Mrs St James and into the house. "We were talking the other day about a photo she took out at the island and so far she hasn't brought it round. i thought that, while I'm here - if she's in..." He trailed off with a hopeful tone. One way or another, he was getting inside that damn house, he just didn't want to have to resort to throwing stones at Kaysen's window from the back.

"Sure, I suppose." she said, stepping back to let him in. Obviously she wasn't going to tell him no, but the behavior was strange.

Kaysen was in the upstairs bathroom. She'd snuck into the house, something she excelled at, and she was busy trying to pick gravel out of her arm. That wasn't working out so well for her, because it was awkward, and she wasn't so good with her off-hand.

"Thanks," Thom said, cheerily, heading past the woman and up the stairs. He knew where Kaysen's room was - he'd known the girl since he and Isaac had first become friends way back in grade school, after all - and that was where he was headed, until he heard little pained noises coming from thebathroom. He knocked on the door, but there was no way in hell he was going to walk in. "Squirt? you okay in there?" he asked her.

Kaysen about died. Her jaw dropped, and it was a good thing the door was closed, because she was just gaping at it. She had to have heard wrong. Thom hadn't...no! He did not just follow her home! That was insane! Seconds later she had the door open and she was staring at him. "What the hell are you doing here?!" she hissed.

Good fucking question. And stupid one as well... Thom thought as he looked for an answer. "Came to give you these?" he suggested with an air of humour, holding up the pack of tissues.

She stared at him like he's sprouted another head. "Are you braindamaged or something?!" she asked, again hissing it out so she wasn't overheard. "I have stuff here! I don't need them now! What the hell, Thom?" She couldn't figure out what he was doing there. Like, at all. It was making her brain hurt.

Okay, so the joke approach didn't work. What a surprise. He let his hand drop to his side. "You were hurt. And then when I went away for like two seconds, you were gone. I wanted to make sure you were okay, okay?" he told her, honestly. "That looked like a pretty nasty tumble you took."

"It happens all the time, I'm fine and you don't have to worry." Kaysen said all in a rush, trying to cover her utter bafflement and failing spectacularly. "I'm just...getting gravel out of my arm, so can you go away now? See? All fine! Not concussed or anything." Which she'd done to herself before, so she knew what it felt like.

He shouldn't be here. She obviously didn't want him here and there really was nothing he could do. He should leave. He knew this.

Thom didn't move. "Need help with that? he asked instead. Really, he should be half way down the stairs by now. "Getting gravel out of your own arm - can't be easy." Saying good bye to Mrs St James, complimenting her on her appearance or something.

She hesitated just long enough that it was clear she was having trouble with it by herself. "I'm fine." she said, though, and belatedly she tried to hide her arm behind her back so he wouldn't see it. Which was stupid, because he'd already seen it.

He looked from her face to where she was hiding her arm and back again. "Uhuh," he said, musingly, obviously not buying it. Deciding that since he was obviously staying, he may as well take charge, he walked forward, effectively backing her into the bathroom whether she liked it or not as he kicked the door closed with the heel of his foot and put his hands on her shoulders to encourage her to sit on the side of the bath. "Sit down and let me have a look at your arm." His mom had made him take an advanced first aid course when he was fourteen and then keep up with the yearly updates - something he only found out the reason for that night when he turned sixteen. It meant he knew what he was doing though.

The whole backing her into the room thing worked out amazingly well for him. Because when he started to advance, she retreated fast. And then she was being sat on the edge of the tub, and she was staring at him. She was in a mild state of shock, so much so that she was blinking at him stupidly, enough that her arm was there and could be easily viewed.

He took a hold of her wrist and turned her arm so that he could have a better look at it. Yeah, it wasn't as bad as he'd first thought, but there was a lot of skin gone and those little bits of gravel. Not nice. Standing, he wet a cloth he found on the side and rummaged through the bathroom cupboard until he found a small pair of tweezers. After that, he joined her sitting on the edge of the tub. "This is going to hurt, I'm afraid," he warned her, before taking her wrist once more and bending to pick the bits of gravel out with the tweezers.

Kaysen hissed a bit when he started, though was still in too much of a shocked state of mind to really stop him. In fact, it still took her a few moments to catch up with the entire situation. "...Thom?" she asked, her voice hesitant as if she were sure he were going to stab her with those tweezers if she did anything more.

There wasn't much gravel there and he got the final piece out as she spoke. He paused, checking the wound over to see if there'd been anything he'd missed. "Yeah,?" he asked, sounding distracted, not looking up as he started to use the cloth to clean the scrape, taking away the bits of drying blood and general muck that was left.

She was still looking like she expected something horrible to come of this. "...um...what are you doing here?" she asked. "You don't...I mean, you don't exactly hang out with me or anything, and I fall all the time, I'm a skateboarder, it happens n stuff. So what the hell are you doing?"

"At the moment? Checking to see if you still have gravel in your arm. Which you don't, by the way," he said, standing and going to rinse the blood out of the cloth. That done, he leaned against the sink, arms crossed against his chest as he looked at her from across the room. "Am I not allowed to help?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. As though this were perfectly normal behaviour, to be expected from anyone. Yeah, right.

"Not really, no." Kaysen said, eyeing him. She was getting back her bearings now that he wasn't hovering. "You like, never talk to me. Not really, anyways, and you being crazy at that last party doesn't count! So what the heck are you doing here? I was fine! Then you like, stalk me to my house?! Did you hit your head or start heavy medication or something?!"

"You fell. You were obviously not okay - you were practically shaking-" and looked like you were about to burst into tears at any moment. "And then you disappeared on me. It could have been anyone and I would have been worried," he told her, sounding as if he believed thisshould have been self-evident. He told himself that it was also the case. He was a protector, it was in his nature. Protectors worried about people. That's what he did. And justbecause he worried more about Kaysen. or had done recently. In the last couple of weeks, really. That didn't necessarily mean...

"So? It's not like I broke anything! God, what's wrong with you? You're being all!" she made flailing hand gestures that offered no help to finish her statement. "Weird! You're being weird!"

"Know that now - didn't know it then," Thom said, obviously struggling to keep his temper right about now. He pushed up off the side. "Look - I was trying to help." He was swiftly remembering why he didn't spend time withKaysen . She was apt to scream at you for no apparent reason. Unstable - totally unstable. "But, obviously it's not wanted, so I'll get out of here."

"It wasn't wanted five minutes ago, or did you miss the part where I told you to go away!?" Kaysen asked, baffled. "It's just!!" Again she was at a loss for words. Thom did that to her something awful. "Gah! You don't just randomly do that for me! You make fun of me and laugh at me and everything when I'm not around! You don't wander home after me to make sure I'm okay!" Then, randomly, "I put your guitar on your porch."

"No I don't!" Thom exclaimed - that was just an unfair accusation! "I haven't done that for years!" At least four, he was sure - he didn't even try to deny that he'd used to. Because, when they were younger and he was a lot less mature. But that was then. Now... Well, until recently, the only thing he'd done toKaysen behind her back was to forget she really existed. "I don't make fun of you and laugh at you," he added, sounding just the slightest touch petulant. He couldn'tbelieve she thought that! That was massively unfair! He rolled his eyes slightly. "Thanks for the guitar - I saw. That was nice of you."

"I didn't want anyone to take it." Kaysen said, and she was looking at him really warily now. She guessed she hadn't actually seen him do anything like that. But... "You don't?" she asked. She supposed in her own estimation, she'd forgotten to check on things like that, because generally speaking, that's what happened. with everyone.

"...Why would I?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. The fact that his best friend was her brother, who would probably beat him to a bloody pulp if he decided to go down that route aside, it just wasn't the kind of thing Thom did.

"Why wouldn't you?" Kaysen countered. "You did before." she added, sounding more wary than ever. "And you've been acting weird anyways. But..." she was obviously confused enough that she didn't even have another retort.

"'Before' being, like, four years ago? Because that's a long time ago, squirt. Really is." And I have a life now. "Look, sorry I intruded. Sorry I'm being 'weird'. I'll go," he said, shaking his head and heading out. God, what was he doing? This was a nightmare, a total,unbelievable nightmare.

Kaysen was miserable, really. She kept trying to find an angle he was playing, and couldn't really see one. And god forbid she actually ask why, because that wasn't getting her anywhere. She didn't believe for a second that he'd just randomly grown a soul and decided to be nice to her. "...." she couldn't think of anything to say that made sense, so she shut her mouth without saying anything.

This time, Thom was definitely leaving - he was, really. Opening the bathroom door, he headed across the landing and down the stairs. This? Wasn't good - he kept trying to tell himself that this really was something he'd do for anyone, but that argument wasn't really holding water. And he had an inkling what that meant. Being reminded that he used to tease her didn't help, because that had only brought his attention to the fact that until recently, he'd been mostly ignoringKaysen St James. And now she was never far from his thoughts. And if wasn't like he was crushing on her - the very idea was... No. Just... No. No, he was worried about her. All the damn time. Shit. not good.

After he left, she felt awful, a rush of remorse hitting her hard. So she hopped up and stopped at the top of the stairs. "Thom." she called down, loud enough to get his attention, but quiet enough that he could ignore her if he wanted.

Keep walking. Just keep walking - because you know what this means, don't you? You know and the last thing you need to to have to protect the squirt. She'd hate it, you'd hate it. And you can't explain it, so you'd have to deal with Isaac. And everybody at school and... Just keep walking, maybe if you ignore it, it'll go away and someone else could come along. Except it didn't work like that. His mother had been very clear on that point. She'd been very damn clear on every point - she'd had a list that she'd gone through, trying to cram everything into that one night, since that's all she had. Their line didn't get to choose. It would simply happen, she'd said. And he'd know when it did. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned, a 'yes?' look on his face, though he didn't say anything.

"...thanks." she said. Then promptly ran away. Good thing her room wasn't that far, and she flew in there, shut her door and went into extreme hiding mode. Yes, hiding. Hiding would be awesome right now, and just because Thom had been in a shut bathroom with her for ten minutes didn't mean he'd violate the sanctity of her room. ...right? Right. That's what she thought, anyhow. He'd better not. And he'd also better get over his little charity case crap too. She wasn't some...whatever the hell he thought. This had to be a fluke. Absolutely had to be! Or...! She didn't know, but something!

Thom watched he run. And successfully didn't follow her. Instead he waited until she'd disappeared and then left, without speaking to Mrs St James. Without speaking to anyone. Just walked out of the door, down the drive and over to his house, collecting his guitar as he walked in. This was bad. This was very, very bad.