Prompt: Something
Pairing: Jasmine/Lief
Timeline: AU
A/N: Should I leave this as a one-shot? Let me know what you thing. It could work as a prologue for some sort of AU High School Fic. Follow, Favorite, and please Review!
~Blaze
The first time he saw her was when he was looking for his coat.
His mother had made it for him just that day for his tenth birthday, and he had somehow managed to lose it the very next evening. Fearful and worried, he ran out of the house, searching for any sign of the midnight blue of the fabric floating out in the wind.
He finally made it to the playground, taking in air and crouching on his knees. His stomach heaved and he coughed, wheezy breaths coming from his throat.
"Looking for this?"
Lief looked up, finding emerald green eyes, and he blinked, teetering as he straightened his back. She looked around ten, so his age, and she was smiling with gleaming white teeth. She lifted something up, and Lief let out a gasp.
"My cloak!" He shouted, making a grab for the material. "How'd you know it was mine?"
She pulled it away, holding it back and above her head. "Nice try, loser, but I'm not giving it back." She nuzzled into the thick fibers, smiling and almost purring. "It's so soft and nice. I think I'll keep it."
"Hey! Stop!" Lief wanted to chase after her as she leapt away, but he was too tired. "Give that back! My mom made that for me!"
It was such a short second that Lief almost believed he imagined it, but he could've sworn he saw her twitch and stiffen from those words. He dismissed it when he saw her still running.
But weirder still, as he made his way home in defeat, he found the cloth tucked neatly between the pillars of the rotting old fence posts that stuck out jaggedly through the ground.
When he tried talking to her at school the next day, she refused to even look at him. The only thing she said to him was a name.
Jasmine.
He started hating her when they got to middle school.
Lief was the captain of the boy's soccer team. He had tons of friends, the popular boy, and he always had a love letter in his locker almost every week. He had a strict but loving family who watched over him and always were there when he needed them. He was even falling for a pretty brunette in his class, Niridah, and by the looks of it she liked him back.
Jasmine was easily the best on the girl's team, but she didn't seem to want any position. She was reserved and silent, and only associated herself with a couple girls, mainly keeping her distance. She was the top in most of her classes, and where she didn't excel, it seemed that Lief did. He had later come to know that her mother had been killed in a street scuffle a week before she had met her, and her father was always out of the house. She was a beautiful girl, but nobody knew much about her.
But the one thing he really didn't get was how they both always went at each other's throats. They'd have silent competitions in class to see who'd get the better grades, and the heat-filled glares and sharp looks that passed between them turned to fiery shots of venomous arguments that escalated when their eyes met. Once blue met green all out wars would happen; thrice they had been sent to detention – together – for being disruptive in class.
The teachers soon realized that putting the two of them together in the same room would never truly keep them silent. (Ever.)
He started seeing her differently when it came to the end of eighth grade.
When school begun, it turned out that there weren't enough players to keep the soccer team for the boys, so the girls were forced to merge and become a co-ed. As if it weren't enough that Jasmine and Lief bickered in biology and math (Both of Jasmine and Lief's best and worst subjects, respectively) but now they were on the same team. The only good that came out of it was that now that beautiful and star-player Niridah had joined the team, flirting and teasing in all of her glory. She seemed to be the shining light of Heaven, while Jasmine seemed to only further ruin his mood during the practices.
But that soon came to an end.
Apparently Jasmine had been suspected for destroying all of Niridah's equipment for soccer the day before the tournament. Niridah was crying and sobbing into Lief's shoulder as she told him how much of a horrible person Jasmine was. He could only nod and stutter, feeling uncomfortable when a cute girl clung to his (mother's) coat like that. Naturally, the wild girl was sent home and forced to leave the team.
Only that night did Lief begin to suspect Niridah's intentions, but he wasn't ready to rat out the girl he had a major crush on.
Later that spring, Lief ended up fracturing his foot when he got into a hit-and-run while walking home from soccer practice. The final tournament was coming up, and now he was busted up and unable to play. Since the team had lost one player, it was impossible for the team to compete that year.
When the following Monday came, Jasmine had suddenly become quiet when she saw the bright blue cast that was around Lief's ankle. She merely brushed him off during class, and murmured a small "shut up" before going on her way.
The Coach told him in Phys Ed that Jasmine had offered to take his spot only for the tournament coming up. He was rather taken aback and quite delighted, smiling and muttering a small thank you to her the next day.
She brought home first place, taking in as mid-fielder during the second half of the final game and scoring three goals in a row.
When Lief walked home after watching the game, he gasped when he saw a bright medal hanging on the same fence-post, wondering how in the world she knew where he lived.
The next week, an anonymous note was given to the coach of the Del Middle School containing a rather shocking plot twist to the mystery of the torn up soccer equipment. Niridah was kicked off the team the following morning, and Jasmine was given a spot next to Lief as the co-captain.
The short, subtle "thank you" and "I'm grateful" came with much competition and pride, of course, but they hit home nonetheless, and suddenly there wasn't so much poison in their words, replaced with fond bickering and comedic nudges and shoves.
They were still plotting each other's doom – I mean, come on, nobody's perfect – but it was progress.
And progress was something.