#Pogue goes west AU heh

[dhampiravidi]

"Just relax. Let me take care of you." (Pogue to Jayn ❤️)

One minute, some asshole on an electric scooter made her the victim of a hit-and-run, slamming into her before they mumbled an apology and zoomed off. Of course, Jayn was shocked and angry during that minute, not to mention teary-eyed because she'd hit the ground hard. Her butt and her hands weren't going to be happy when she went to her 90-minute Comp Lit lecture. At least her messenger bag had been zipped up when she fell, so she didn't lose or break anything. Except maybe her poor MP3 player, which she'd dropped when she fell, earbuds and all.

And then, he found her.

She was sniffling, trying to hurry and get to her feet, because she was so embarrassed, and shit, did my thing break? Sophomore year was stressful enough already; Jayn had had "an explosive incident" (literally) a couple months ago, thanks to the sudden inheritance of magical powers that her family had never once told her about (apparently they thought it died out after it skipped a generation). On top of that, one of her professors was RUDE, and she hadn't really found anyone to hang out with other than her dorm-mates and two classmates. Jayn was thinking about all of this and scrambling on the concrete when someone's sneakers stared her in the face. Someone had stopped in front of her, squatted, actually.

"H-huh?" She looked up and saw one of the hottest guys she'd ever had the pleasure of meeting. The sunlight played with his hair, making the brown glow, and his beautiful, concerned eyes were some mix of green, brown, and amber. He was toned and pretty, somewhere between an Abercrombie model and a Disney Prince.

"Are you OK?" he asked. His voice was lower than she'd expected, but it was pleasant, too.

"Yeah, I'm OK," He took her hands without asking, turning them over to show her scraped, angry pink palms. He did a cute thing where he bit his lip, trying to figure something out.

"D'you have a class right now?"

"No, I was going to lunch..." she whispered. Jayn blushed a bit, realizing that lo and behold, a cute person was holding her hands, and gently pulled away from him. She sort of got to her feet, enough to grab her MP3 player and stuff it in her bag. Then she slung her messenger bag over her shoulder and stood. When the guy stood up, he towered over her by almost a full foot. He also smelled like French fries, which was oddly comforting, and there was only a small space between him and her.

"You wanna go with me?" he asked, flirty smile on his face. The closest she'd ever gotten to a real romance was hugging someone who casually discarded her months later. But why would he even like her that way? After all, her private interactions with attractive people were fairly rare.

"Uh...no, it's cool. Bye." She hurried off, deciding to let nature take its course. He could go find his cheerleader girlfriend or clever actor boyfriend, while she went to get a cold drink. Something cool would feel nice against her hands.

About a week later, she got an email from a professor she'd had the semester before for a Philosophy class. They were asking if she would tutor a student who was taking a Classics class for money. Jayn had free time and no reason to turn down free cash, so she said yes. So that Saturday, she went to Stubler Library, a couple minutes before 11 AM.

[Jayn]: Hi, I'm here! Standing in front of the statue, outside.

[Pogue]: So you're the cute girl who turned me down? 😋

Confused, Jayn looked around. The library doors opened and IT WAS HIM--the Abercrombie-blessed Disney Prince!

Oh. She'd texted Pogue Parry a few times over the past few days, just to understand what exactly he was studying, what he was having problems with, and where they could easily meet. She never once imagined that he was the one person who'd stopped to see if she was OK when she got hit.

"...hi. I'm Jayn," she managed, blushing again. He chuckled, hands in his pockets.

"Hey. I'm Pogue."

Their tutoring session was only supposed to be an hour long. That was all she was getting paid for--one session each Saturday. But he always asked about some myth that sent her into a rant, or they got off track completely and muffled their laughter so the librarian wouldn't scowl in their direction. Eventually, they stopped meeting at the library, because Pogue finished his class. He decided to pay her back by asking her out (again, but that time she said yes), and down the line he started tutoring her in magic.

Pogue had made the choice to escape his suffocating, horrible parents by going west, instead of staying in Ipswich and enduring. But he still met Jayn, and they still fell in love.