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To be fair, Luke was tired that day, and the Heelys weren’t exactly something he was entirely used to using yet, so maybe it was inevitable that he would fall into a bush.
It was also pretty inevitable he would fall in front of Ian, because heck, the universe probably wanted to get him back for completely guessing on every question of that quiz the other day and somehow still getting an A.
Still, it was kind of mortifying to see Ian half choking on laughter as he tumbled into the bushes. He ended up just staring at him for a few minutes- well, seconds, but it felt like minutes, probably blushing, until finally Ian stopped laughing.
“This is why I refuse to wear Heelys,” Ian muttered.
Luke forced out a laugh of his own. It kind of hurt. Actually, everything kind of hurt. “Aw, but they’re fun!”, he protested.
“You know what else is fun? Not falling into bushes.” Ian extended a hand to him and pulled him up. Luke nearly found himself falling over again. How did he retract the wheels again? Or would that be cheating?
“Where the hell did you even get those?”, Ian asked, sounding almost confused. “I didn’t think they made those, not since all those schools banned them.”
“They still make them!”, Luke exclaimed, holding out his arms to find his balance. Maybe using them when he was super tired had been a bad idea, because it kind of felt like the ground was still spinning and dull. “U-unless Wallid ordered them from some sort of black market of footwear,” he added.
Ian gave another snort of laughter. “Wallid. Of course it was Wallid. It’s always Wallid.”
“He has good ideas, sometimes,” Luke defended.
“Times that aren’t now, yes. But right now, I’m taking the twigs in your hair as proof that this wasn’t one of them.”
Twigs? In his hair? But he was wearing a- He reached up and his hand brushed against something that was not his hat and rather, was a leaf. Frantically, he looked around for said hat before realizing as he was twisting around that he was still wearing Heelys, and he felt his balance falter once more.
A pair of arms wrapped around his waist before he could hit the ground. “You are taking those off,” Ian ordered as he slowly let go.
“Okay, fine,” Luke agreed. “As soon as we get back to the dorms-”
“No,” said Ian, sounding far too serious about it. “You’re taking them off now.”
“What, and walking all the way back to Bluebell in my socks?”, he objected. “No way!”
Ian looked almost angry now. Was this him caring, or him just getting pissed off at the situation? “I will carry you back there if I have to,” he exclaimed. “Now, take the stupid shoes off before you get yourself killed!”
Before he could object, he found himself sitting down on the sidewalk, cross-legged, unlacing the Heelys. “Okay, fine, happy now?”, he half-pouted. “But you have to carry me.”
He fully expected to be given a snide remark, a “yeah right, just don’t step on any rocks”. He did not expect for as he threw the shoes off, he found Ian leaning over him, looking mildly amused. He really didn’t expect to find himself in Ian’s bridal carry before he could so much as question it.
“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Ian finally answered. “I am ‘happy now’.”
Okay. This was weird, he thought, and vaguely he remembered he’d been looking for his hat and he probably shouldn’t leave his shoes in the middle of nowhere. But, the all-encompassing thought of “what the actual hell is going on” and the fact that his eyelids had been half-closing themselves for the entirety of this conversation was enough to keep him from really worrying about that.
And then Ian started walking, and he found himself doubting his ability to carry an entire teenage boy all the way to the dorms. “D-don’t drop me!”, he half-squeaked.
"I have experience in this," Ian muttered, probably lying. "I won't drop you."
That was about as likely as Jimmy’s “long distance boyfriend Sebastian” being real. But still, it was Ian. He trusted Ian, and if he said he wouldn’t drop him, then he should believe him.
Also he’d never really noticed how cozy jackets that weren’t his were when he was pressed up against them. Granted, he’d never really had an opportunity to notice this, but the point remained that he was learning stuff all over the place today. So he let himself relax a bit. “A-alright.”
He was sure Ian made a weird noise as he closed his eyes a bit, but he really couldn’t be sure. It was warm, and he was tired, and his head felt heavy and full of nothing. He’d be safe falling asleep here, right?
But as he did that, Ian let out a protesting shout. "Oh, no, you are not falling asleep on me!”
“Why not?”, Luke objected weakly. “I’m tired!”
He didn’t get an answer, but he was too sleepy to care. Ian kind of smelled nice too, was that normal?
Honestly, he couldn’t remember whether or not he ended up falling asleep before getting to the dorm or not, just that he might have said something about Ian smelling nice out loud instead of in his head. When he woke up a few hours later, his hat and the Heelys on the end of his bed, he turned bright red upon realizing this.
Ian wouldn’t tell him if he’d said anything stupid when he asked him, but he had a feeling he had, as he replied with a flippant “You’re carrying me next time, got it?”