Tutoring Session ( Closed to Jet )

Jet took his time swallowing the potion. He grimaced slightly, the stuff tasted awful, but it started to work immediately. Already the splitting headache turned to a dull throb, which subsided and began to slip away completely. Glancing over at the bedside table, he put the vial down and decided how he should answer. His first instinct was to say 'Yeah, I picked up on that.' But he didn't want to get defensive. Everything in him was calling for it. Something to protect himself. Didn't he remember what it felt like the last time he got his heart stomped on?

Jason rubbed his hands together and studied them, rather than looking at her.

"Can't do... what exactly?" He asked, wanting to make sure he knew what he was up against.

"You and me... like this..."

Knots were already twisting in her stomach as she spoke. Feelings... emotions... putting herself out there in spoken words wasn't something that she did. This was the whole reason that she liked poetry and writing. It was easier for her to say what she was feeling. That was when the idea struck her. It was simple, really.

"Hold on."

Standing, she made her way back across the room to grab her bag that she had dropped on the floor. If she couldn't say what she needed to for fear it might come out wrong... then she would write it. He was probably the only person that she had ever met that was like her in that respect. He would understand the poetry in a way that would make sense. Rummaging through her things, she produced her notebook then returned to his side. Flipping to an open page, she started to scribble without pausing.

It was the "like this" that caught his attention. That she didn't stop after "You and me." Which was what he had expected. "I can't do this anymore," usually meant that things were over. That she didn't want to see him anymore. That the cost had started to outweigh the benefits and it was time to move on. But those two simple words "Like. This." They changed the game.

Jet watched as Sky pushed up from the hospital cot and strode across to where her bag lay abandoned by the door. Tilting his head slightly, he surveyed her body language as she sat back beside him and took out her notebook, furiously scribbling without so much as a word. Huh.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips and he twisted around to where his messenger bag was tossed behind him on the bed. Jet unsnapped the flap and pulled the black notebook from between his others smoothly, laying it next to him on the bed and waiting for her to finish.

Without realizing the habit, Sky bit at her lip in an effort to focus her thoughts on what she was trying to put into written word. Rarely did she put pen to paper in front of someone else. It was an odd sensation, on that was so personal. If she was going to share it with anyone though, she wanted it to be him. After a few moments, she turned the book so that he could read it. Her eyes never lifted and no words were ever said. All she did was wait for his response.

Slow
Painstakingly so
Afraid to give to much
For fearing you won't get in return
Yet committed
To each other
With every breath
Heartbeat, flutter, twist
I can't continue like this
When you are in my every thought
Unhinging my mind
To the point of recklessness
Give me every piece
Because if you're all in
Then so am I.

Jet watched her intently as she wrote, struggling not to read as each word poured itself onto the page. He wanted to wait until she was finished, see the whole thing at once. So he distracted himself by watching her face: the way she bit her lip and how her eyes scanned her work, re-reading even as she went. Finally, the excruciating wait was over and she slid the notebook toward him. He remembered how she said she never let people read it. This was a big deal. He made sure to take note of that.

Jason's eyes read each line carefully, then re-read, then read once more. It was like she had reached inside his head and plucked out exactly what he was feeling, putting it down and exposing it to the light of day. And when he'd worked so hard to protect it, hide it, pretend it didn't exist. These feelings. Feelings that they both had weighing heavily on their mind.

The last three lines he stared at for what seemed like ages. Give me every piece...because if you're all in... then so am I. Sky had no idea how near she'd hit the mark. He was all in. Already. It had taken no time at all for him to be completely consumed with her. Even as he fought it, he had known it was a losing battle. From the first day when he'd taken her to the library. That place that was special and his. That place where he never took anyone. Something in her had pulled at him and he'd trusted that instinct that told her she was the right one.

Without a word, Jet picked up his notebook from where it lay beside him and handed it to her.

"Anything you want to read is yours." He said quietly. "But I suggest starting.." He flipped the book open and turned a few pages, "..here."

Jet pointed to a single line on a page: Why waste time on pretty words when all their beauty, your beauty pales? Pretty words are not always true, and true words are not always pretty.

From that point on in his notebook the poetry and words started taking a certain tone. Slowly at first, subtly, but becoming more and more obvious until the one he'd written in study hall earlier that same day.

Her.
Her everything.
Forget eyes, smile, lips, hair, body, legs, skin, all sweet.
All obvious.
All there to pull you in.
Beneath the surface.
Beneath the typical.
Beneath the world they all get to see.
A discovery.
More than others.
More than hoped for.
More than expected.
Poetry.
The way she captivates me.
Stories and laughter and something so vulnerable.
Precious, rare and fragile.
I want to protect it.
Protect her.
Be that one who she shows herself to.
Exposed.
Giving her my damaged.
My breakable.
My lost and unused and forgotten and feared.
I want her.
I want to show her.
To see and be seen.
What is this madness?
How does she do it?
Make me think of her.
Make everything remind me.
Pull at my insides and guide me to her.
She is poetry and music.
She is fire and ice.
She is my complete and utter undoing.
But I don't care.
She is everything I would willingly unravel myself for.
She is everything that could turn my head and my heart and my world around.
She is everything.

Her nerves started to get to her as she knotted her hands together as a distraction. The poem wasn't that long, but it felt like eternity passing as he read it. Maybe he was going to laugh at her and say that she was just a pretty little fool like the rest of the girls. That he had fianlly beat her at the game. It was her that had always insisted that she didn't get attached. That she would never been one of those love sick puppies. After awhile, he finally spoke as he handed her his own notebook. Confusion washed over her face when she accepted it and he turned to a certain page. It was from the first time that they had really met. The stupidly ridiculous line that he had tried on her. The one she had shot down.

Taking her time to flip through the pages, she took in the meanings of everything that he wrote. At first it was slow to be able to be picked out as to what he was referring to, but it quickly became clear the more that she read. He was talking about her. Taking a sharp breath in as it dawned on her, she looked up at him and stared.

"But you said..." He had said slow. That he wasn't ready to settle down.

"I know what I said." Jet responded in a quiet voice, examining his hands. "Sky..." He glanced up at her, his eyes flicking to hers. Blue meets green. "I'm an idiot." He laughed slightly. "I've known... for a while now... that I didn't really want to take it slow." Shaking his head, Jet drew a breath and sat up straight, his quiet confession becoming stronger, more solid.

"I was... scared." He admitted. "I haven't done this... felt this way... in a long time. I haven't met anyone who was worth feeling this way about.

"...Until I met you."

He wasn't sure what to say, how much to let pour out. Jet supposed that the poem had already spilled so much of his emotion. Everything. He had called her his everything. What more damage could he really do?

"I'm scared too, you know. This isn't exactly something that I do either. I get how you are feeling. Obviously..." She smiled, holding up both of their notebooks. Writing was always easier for both of them. Maybe they should have switched notebooks awhile ago.

"Mine is the same way. After every time we would hang out... I would go back to put quill against paper. It was easier that way since you said you wanted to take things slow. Less of a chance of real feelings slipping out when I was actually around you."

Closing her notebook once again, she tucked it under her leg. Unsure of what to say or do next, she let her eyes roam the room. He had more experience with this sort of thing than she did. Okay, no. That was a lie. Neither one of them had any clue what the unicorn they were doing. "I was jealous. It's why I hit you with a spell."

"Huh." He shook his head. "I really am an idiot." Taking a breath, Jet looked at her. "When you... weren't interested in talking to me in class... didn't even look at me.. I thought maybe you were having second thoughts about..." He gestured back and forth between them. "..this.

"I thought you regretted saying some of the things you said and I panicked. I thought it was the last time all over again. So, when you ignored me... I did what I could to try and... pretend it didn't matter."

Swallowing, he reached over and captured her hand with his. "The truth is I fell hard, Sky. Really hard."

"Some of the Ravenclaw girls were talking about us before class. You were late so you didn't hear it. Needless to say, they were less than flattering things about me. I'm not used to dealing with that kind of catty behavior." If no one was every jealous of her then of course she would never have encountered that sort of situation. It really wasn't so unreasonable to believe that she wouldn't know how to handle it. Not to mention almost anyone would have been pissed at the situation.

"So... what happens now?"

"They're just jealous... because they know they could never be as amazing as you are." He let it slip out without over thinking. All of the things he'd wanted to say to her when they were together, he could feel them lying it wait to be said.

What /did/ happen now? It was a good question. He didn't honestly know. It had been so long since he'd had anything real, since he'd wanted anything real... since he had a ... girlfriend.

"I don't know." He admitted. "I guess we just... do what we've been doing, but... only with each other? We've already stopped hiding, I mean... people know. So. Just you and me." He looked at their clasped hands and ran his thumb over the back of hers.

A chill crawled over her skin in a ripple effect caused from the feeling of his thumb rub across the back of her hand. It was an odd sensation, leaving her unsure if she liked it or not. Furrowing her brow slightly, she nodded as he spoke. Just continue what they have been doing... just with each other only. It seemed simple enough.

The only thing that sat in the back of her mind was if this would make things more stressful. Putting a label on what they actually were. Isn't that the point where everything starts to go to hell? Change... good or bad, nearly always ended in complication. No. That was negative thinking and definitely not the mind set to have going into this.

"Okay. You and me... against the world. Bring on the jealous fangirls."

"... and the angry Slytherin fanboys." He grinned. He could take them all. He didn't care. "Hang on..."

Plucking his notebook back out of her lap, he turned to a fresh page and started writing. It didn't take long. "If anyone gives you shit..." He began, while his pen still flew across the page. "And you feel like ripping some girl's throat out. Well, first of all... make sure I'm there, because that's kind of hot." Looking up, he winked at her before turning back to what he was writing. "But just take this out... and read it... and remember that it's true."

unicorn them all
Girls, boys
Green, Red, Yellow, Blue
Yes, No
unicorn them all
One for one and that's the decision
Me for you and that's the direction
You for me and that's dedication
unicorn them all

Ripping the page out of his book, he handed it to her with a playful smile.

She laughed and nodded. That was true, he had just as many people to combat as she did when it came to a fanclub. People weren't keen on the idea of change. Sure, some people would never accept them being together, but others would come around eventually. They just needed some time to get used to the idea. A Hufflepuff halfblood playboy and a Slytherin pureblood princess. Quite the pair that they made when you put them together. Maybe that was the whole reason that it worked, though.

Taking the piece of paper from his hand, she skimmed the words with a smile. "Unicorn them all. By the time we are done they will be begging for us to be together."