[prp] we are all going forward (kim/ashton)

[toogay]

The sun was hot and the sky was cloudless.

Kim had greatly underestimated the spring-almost-summer heat. They'd rolled their sweats up to just below their knees and tied their favorite hoodie around their waist but the sun was merciless. Beneath their thin black tank, a line of sweat trickled directly down their spine and though their long hair was pulled back into a ponytail they were very aware of how dark and thick it was. Summer, without a doubt, was their least favorite season. They weren't looking forward to it at all.

The twenty-something year old huffed through the plain white medical mask they wore. They did their best to ignore the heat, focusing instead on the music that flowed from the ear buds they'd shoved in either ear. They paid no attention to the small Sunday crowd that roamed the streets, and the foot traffic seemed to shift naturally out of their way. It should've been a quick and easy trip, from home to grocery store and back again... but luck was very rarely on their side.

One moment they're walking and the next they're falling.

The tip of their sneaker had caught an elevated section of pavement and sent them sprawling. Kim's arms pin-wheeled on either side of them, the groceries suddenly propelled from their grip as they closed the space between them and the sidewalk. They hit the ground hard, their hands and knees taking the brunt of the damage. A hot white burst of pain shot up each of their appendages and they wheezed pitifully.

The groceries were scattered around them, some rolling their way into the street while others found a home in the gutter or the grass.

Kim grimaced. They could feel the eyes of everyone around them like daggers piercing their skin and anxiety mingled with terror in their chest.

"No, no, no..." They started to gather the groceries in a panic, desperate to escape.

daekie_

 

[Daekie]

"Hey --" there was a concerned-looking blonde making their way to Kim through the crowd, through the few people that were staring -- "hey, move!" and she shoved someone out of the way with a whispered sorry, sorry before she knelt before Kim, offering a hand up. "Hey, are you okay? Are you bleeding?" Ashton's voice was the kind of voice people attempted when they were trying not to be shy, when they were trying to be personable and bold, and only making it halfway there.

"Just -- give me a second --" she stretched back with one arm, slender fingers grasping some of the groceries, and pulled them over to Kim almost desperately. "The apples are a little bruised, um...do you w-want me to go get some more?" And to everyone around -- "B-back off - leave them alone, they just tripped!" She bit her lip, trying to get a closer glance at Kim's face - or their hands or their knees - one of those. If anything was bleeding, she was good at that; she was more medically trained than most strangers on the street, and this pavement really needed to be redone anyways, people tripped and fell all the time.

toogay

 

[toogay]

"I-" Kim looked at the blonde, alarmed and even more embarrassed. "I'm fine- you, you don't have to- I mean, I can get-" They dropped their gaze. They were thankful the medical mask they wore covered the hot blush that surely stained their cheeks.

"The apples are fine." They mumbled. "They're for pie, anyway. My mum... likes apple pie..."

They fidgeted nervously with the bags that had been painstakingly refilled. The ones that hadn't broken during their fall, and hopefully wouldn't break now that they were stuffed so full of the misplaced groceries.

"Thank you." They said, careful to keep their gaze on everything but Ashton's face. She was cute, and that made them all the more unwilling to look at her for longer than they had to. "For the help, I mean. I just... wasn't paying attention. It's, um, hot."

They let out a breath, obviously very out of their element.

"Would you- I mean- can I get you s-something, like, a drink or something? For helping?" Their knees and palms burned. "My house is just a couple blocks down... we've got fresh lemonade and, um, AC..." They let out a nervous chuckle that sounded more like a wheeze.

daekie

 

[Daekie]

Ashton stammered something incomprehensible and flushed pink, staring very surely at the ground; she had no idea of where Kim was looking, and might not have picked up on the awkwardness even if she had known. After all, social status wasn't the only thing on her mind at the minute, or even on her mind at all -- mostly Ashton just wanted to make sure the other was okay, that nothing was hurt, that nobody was being too pushy. "I-if," she managed to squeak out eventually, "y-you w-want me to carry the bags, um -- you looked like you scraped your hands, so." Her shoes scuffed across the pavement.

"B-but, um. F-fresh lemonade sounds really nice...I don't want to impose or anything, so, I mean, only if it's alright with you and you don't feel like I'm being pushy-" Ashton cut herself off with a choked-up sniffle.

toogay

 

[toogay]

"N-no, no, no. You don't have to. M-my hands... they just burn a little. I'll be okay." Kim kept their grip tight on the bags. They didn't want the other to worry any more than she already was, so they did their best to keep on a brave face- even as a line of blood slid down their right calf and stained their tennis shoe.

When Ashton choked up, Kim offered a look of concern.

"H-hey, you're not being pushy, not at all. You helped me. Thank you." Their tone was gentle and hopefully soothing. "My mom loves company. She may try to feed you though... and, um, ask a lot of questions maybe." They'd never brought anyone home before. "But, oh um, we c-can go on the back porch if, um, she gets to be too much. Do you like bees? Or, um, honey? My other mum harvests it from our hives herself... she- she'll be at work though. She's a nurse. Always working." Kim spared only the fewest of glances in Ashton's direction as they spoke. Mostly they looked at the ground.

"It's this way, though." They said finally, as they nodded their head in the direction they'd been walking before they'd tripped. "We should start walking. I should have been, um, b-back by now and my mom... she gets worried. I get lost a lot, so..." They moved their shoulders in a sort of half-shrug and trailed off, embarrassed by their own awkward disposition.

d4ekie

 

[Daekie]

"No, no, d-don't worry about me -" Ashton was tripping over her own words, face blotchy with embarrassment; for reasons she couldn't pinpoint, this was so difficult lately, to get the words out the way she'd planned them - not that she'd planned them, not that she ever had. It was just a stray thought, it didn't mean anything. Her cheeks felt hot - she'd gone and made a mess of it, hadn't she?

"I, um...I like honey, but I don't really eat it often. A-and bees are, um." She muttered something, too quietly to hear. "...I like bees. They're organized."

toogay

 

[toogay]

Kim nodded and let silence drift easily between them and Ashton as they walked. The people around them seemed to part for Kim just in time to avoid collision, as the brunette's eyes were glued to the ground, the groceries in their hands, and- occasionally- Ashton. Their long legs carried them quickly down the sidewalk, though they slowed their pace every now and again to make sure the blond was keeping up.

It didn't take long for the pair to reach Kim's home. They offered Ashton a shy smile as they set down a handful of groceries in order to unlock the front garden gate and allow her through. The house itself was picturesque. A three story townhouse on a corner lot, covered in flowers and green. The cobblestone path that led through the front garden passed by a marble fountain of flowing blue-green water. When the gate shut behind them, the outside world was gone and only Kim and Ashton remained; surrounded by foliage and the tall reddish-brown wood privacy fence.

"My mom, um, likes to garden... she s-swears that fountain grants wishes, if you wanna throw a penny in or s-something..."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Ashton gasped in wonderment, quietly; her own home would hardly win any awards -- one-story three-bedrooms, for her parents' side, and their own suite was bedroom-bathroom-kitchen-hallway. To know that as intimately as breathing, well, and to see Kim's lodgings - she was impressed, genuinely, with no ill-will behind it. To know someone her age could live comfortably like this gave her hope.

(Ashton wasn't clumsy in the slightest - if she'd had more confidence, her walk would have been commanding, but all it really ended up being was regulated.)

"I. Um." She bit her lip. "I don't, uh, actually have any pennies, I think, so...i-is your mom home? She sounds...nice."

toogay