Hot and Dangerous [Ashton]

[Juliet Michaels]

The clock read 2:30 am. Juliet stared at it accusingly, wishing she had the power to speed time up. Also wishing she could sleep. But no, her body decided that it didn't want to do what her mind wanted. She couldn't get comfortable, and after hours of tossing and turning and probably pissing off a few of her roommates, she unwillingly got up. Sometimes she had nights like this, where her power had exhausted her mentally but physically she was restless.

Jovi lifted her self from bed and flipped her light on, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. She pulled a brush through her hair and pulled on some jeans and a black hoodie with Nike logo in bold white letters on the shoulder of it, followed by her shoes. She knew that once she got up she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep until the next night, so unfortunately this was her morning. Talk about early rising.

It was still dark out so when she shut off the lamp in her room and crept out of the door, it was pitch black. She was as quiet as possible, trying not to bump into anything with fear of waking up anybody. She had learned from her years of living with people that they didn't like being woken up in the middle of the night for no good reason. Somehow she managed to get to the hallway, of course after running into something hard and sharp and a series of quiet cursing. Oh well. So much for stealth.

She walked down the hall and down the stairs, making her way to the student lounge. She had one main goal right now: coffee. Her saving grace. With the horrible energy draining side effect that her power caused, it had kept her awake and alert a numerous number of times for dance or track, or even some classes. Although she tried not to drink to much of it, only when it was absolutely necessary.

She poured herself a cup of hot black coffee and carefully lifted it to her lips, pouring it into her mouth. Already, just by the smell, she felt better. Jovi sighed and glanced around, seeing nobody else in here at the moment. Most likely because everyone was sound asleep in their comfortable beds. She took another sip and turned around to suddenly, running straight into a male that she hadn't heard nor seen come in. Before she could even flinch, dangerously hot coffee dumped all over both of them, causing her to gasp and drop the cup, jumping back a few steps.

"What the hell?!"

[Ashton Harper]

2:30 am. It was late as hell, or early, or whatever! It was just not good for Ashton to be up. He'd been up for a while, never actually going to sleep. His roommates were crashed already, women and their beauty sleep (eyeroll). He envied them a lot at this point. All he'd thought about was his girlfriend that he'd admitted to loving, though he was a little confused about it and the fact that his parents were going to be getting a divorce soon. Why was it that at night he was stuck thinking about this stuff?! Ugh.

He was sick of sitting in his room staring at the wall with nothing to keep him occupied. So, he pushed himself out of bed, his hair in slight disarray and only wearing a pear of sweatpants that were low on his hips. He didn't really care what he looked like, it was unlikely that anyone would be up besides him. And if one of his roommates was up, they wouldn't mind seeing him like this. They were girls.

Call it stupidity, but it was only 2:30 and he wasn't up for thinking. He skipped out on the shirt and headed out of his room and into the common area. Part of him was tempted to just sit there and do something productive, but the idea bored him. He made his way to the door and as he opened it, he cracked himself in the head. It was just not his day. After a few mother's and ow's, he made his way down the hall and nearly tripped down the stairs. 'Cause he's smooth like that. The boy was clumsy as all get out and wouldn't have been surprised if he'd woken up anyone that lived close by.

He walked towards the student lounge in hopes of just watching tv for a bit and once he actually got tired he'd go back to his dorm. Or, he'd go back up to get changed for the day to begin because he doubted any sleep was in his future. There was just no way he'd be able to fall back asleep. He was awake.

The smell of coffee gave him a slight headache from withdrawal, but he decided that coffee at 2: 30 was not the best idea. He hadn't had much coffee since he left home after the holidays. He was glad to be back at his dorm and not mooching off of Tae anymore, though she was still looking after Max. He was trying to get the smell of coffee far away from him and was walking into the room with the big tv's.

As he turned the corner, he felt someone run into him. That wasn't a huge problem, especially because it was a girl. The problem was that this particular girl was the one with the coffee. It wasn't cold coffee either. Nope, it was scalding hot coffee that got dumped on his shirtless chest. Ow.

He cursed and backed up, not far enough because the cup landed on his barefoot and he let out another string of curse words. "Mother of God!" He tried to keep his voice down, but his foot was throbbing and his chest was on fire. He looked up at the girl and reached out, "Are you okay? I didn't see you, I'm so sorry." He apologized, even though he had gotten the most damage.

[Juliet Michaels]

Juliet must be deaf. Or tired. Maybe both because she hadn't heard anyone come in at all. She tried to be angry at him but decided that since it was her fault and he was the one apologizing. Sometimes she could understand that her temper was very overly dramatic and she needed to tone it down. This was one of those times. She sucked it up and swallowed her pride, although unable to refrain from the sarcastic and slightly rude remark on the tip of her tongue.

"That's okay, I didn't like this shirt anyways." She stripped it off before the coffee got to the tank top and bra she wore underneath, shoving it into her bag and glancing at the shirtless, burnt male before her. He was good looking. He would have been more good looking if he hadn't just spilled hot liquid all over them. There was, however, a small part of her that wanted to laugh. Mostly Partly because he had gotten the most damage and he was shirtless.

Her sharp expression of anger softened and she grabbed a few paper towels, tossing them to him. She wasn't going to dab his wounds and kiss them better. There was such a thing as to much sympathy, especially considered it was Jovi and she wasn't the motherly type. For example, if a little kid crashed their bike and had a scrape or two and she walked by, she'd tell them to grow some balls and learn how to steer next time. She didn't like children. They were to needy and dependent, not her style.

She looked up once more before sitting on one of the couches, "Don't be sorry. Just don't do it again." According to her, he needed a good lesson about personal space. You didn't just sneak up on someone like that.

[Ashton Harper]

Ash was always the guilty type. Even if something wasn't his fault, he was the one to apologize. That was one of the reasons so many people walked all over him as if he were a doormat. The boy needed to grow a pair and stop being so sorry all the time. Honestly, it was embarrassing. He was waiting for the anger of the girl, most girls would freak out about that sort of thing, but all that came was a sarcastic remark. Sarcasm he could handle.

He frowned, "I really didn't mean to run into you. I didn't even know someone else was here." He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ignore the pain coming from not only his chest, but also his foot. With his luck, he'd probably gotten a broken toe. Great. As he looked down at his chest, not because he thought it was badly burnt, but because she was stripping, he noticed how red his skin was. It hurt pretty bad, but he didn't think it would be that red. New rule, no going out shirtless at 2:30 in the morning. Would he remember that? Probably not.

Ash grabbed the paper towels she threw at him and started drying his skin, lightly pressing the towel to his flesh. OW! He winced, but said nothing. He needed to act like a man for once and not expect someone to baby him. Sometimes he was just so helpless and pathetic, but in a cute way. He finished drying himself off and disposed of the paper towels, his skin flaming more so. That really was starting to hurt.

He looked up as she made her way to the couch and sat down. Ashton nodded slightly and rubbed the back of his neck again, "Yeah, uh, right. Sorry." The boy had a habit of apologizing way too much sometimes.

[Juliet Michaels]

Jovi shrugged his apologies off, finding them slightly annoying. "Just watch where you're going next time. No big deal." She said, although in an obviously irritated tone she made no attempt to hide, finding it harder and harder not to be angry. Although, there was one thing he had to be sorry about: his toe. She'd had broken toes before, and knew for a fact that they hurt like hell. Too bad she didn't have a healing power.

Was he stupid? She watched him try to wipe his burns with dry crusty paper towels and shook her head. "Seriously? Have you ever had a burn before? Damn." She shook her head and got up, grabbing a paper towel and wetting it down, going to him and pressing it to his chest. "You don't use dry paper to clean raw skin. Common sense." Her voice had an edge, but her hands were tender as she cleaned his stomach with the cold damp towel.

As she finished she sighed and tossed them into the garbage. "Stop apologizing. I said forget about it." She said and sat back down on the couch, after pouring another cup of searing hot black coffee and pressing it to her lips. She glanced up and softened her gaze slightly. "What are you doing up, anyways?"

[Ashton Harper]

Ash nodded slightly without saying anything. It was too early dealing with an irritable girl. Especially one that was irritated at him already. He really hadn't meant to be his usual clumsy self and bump into her causing himself to get injured, but it was his fault. Or so he saw it. Talk about gullible. He was trying to ignore all the pain he was feeling so he didn't seem like a total wimp in front of a girl, or anyone for that matter. He was a guy. Guys didn't feel any type of pain. Right? Wrong, clearly, but they didn't show it.

Stupid was putting it nicely. He was half asleep, tired, drained and not thinking clearly. The fact that he was using a dry towel on fresh burns, not his brightest moment. "It's almost three in the morning. Gimme a break." He said quietly so that maybe she wouldn't hear him. He winced when she touched the cold towel to his flesh, expecting her to just throw it at him. Surprisingly enough, her hands were gentle and the pain started to slip away. He wasn't sure which surprised him more, the fact that she didn't throw something at him, or the fact that she was actually being somewhat nice for a millisecond.

Ashton bit the inside of his cheek to keep in another apology. He leaned against the wall, suddenly feeling very exposed, though it was sort of ridiculous because he was a guy and guys were able to be shirtless whenever without it being completely inappropriate. "Well, I couldn't really sleep. Too much to think about. How about you?" He asked folding his arms across his still stinging skin. Immediately, his arms dropped and he gritted his teeth. OW!

[Juliet Michaels]

So maybe watching this guy act like and idiot was slightly more entertaining than re-runs on the television, but she still didn't like him. He was to...weak. The cocky jerks of course were no better, but when someone was so submissive...well, it made her want to scream. Why couldn't they put up a fight? There was nothing more aggravating than someone who never got angry. If someone spilled coffee over her bare chest, her reaction would be much different. A lot of cussing and yelling and intimidation.

As she cleaned his stomach she could sense that he was trying not to show any pain. But the skin was irritated and red, already blistering under her touch. Oh well, nothing she could do about it now. "That's gonna hurt like hell when you get up." She commented, tossing the paper towels in the trash. "Might want to see a healer. That's all I can do for now." Yes, maybe she was feeling a little bit guilty about the whole incident. Shit, she thought bitterly, I'm going all soft.

She laughed at him when he tried to act all casual and cross his arms over his chest. Simply laughed. It was probably rude to be mocking him like this, but seriously, it was ridiculous. "My power likes to deprive me of sleep. I'm exhausted, yet I feel like I could run a mile." She leaned against the counter coolly and took a swig of her newly poored coffee.

[Ashton Harper]

It wasn't so much that Ash was weak, well okay he was, but he could put up a fight too. In fact, if this had happened with a guy, especially one he knew...well Ash probably would have flipped shit. Cussing, flailing, pushing, something along those lines. But he just couldn't be mean to a girl. His mother had taught him that women are what make the world go round, and at the time (him being very young) he didn't really understand the double meaning of her words. Now that he was older, he'd learned about reproduction and sex (thank you Dr. Neville...and Mia and Zac for that matter). So blaming Juliet for something as minor as this just didn't come to mind, there was no use.

Looking down at the blistering red irritation, Ash frowned with so little enthusiasm, it was almost funny. "Ha, when I get up? Try it hurting like hell now. Looks like I'm going to the infirmary tomorrow. For a burnt stomach due to some spilled coffee. Awesome..." He pinched the bridge of his nose trying not to get too frustrated. The fact that he got burned by coffee was so lame compared to what could have happened at a school for meta-humans. Ya know, like Pyros! That would have at least made him seem cool had he gotten into a fight with a pyro and his power didn't kick in and so he got burnt. But hell no. He got burnt by freakin' coffee!

Ugh.

Ashton was less than thrilled when he stupidly tried folding his arms across his chest. He looked at the girl as she laughed at his pain. Had it been any other time, or any other person, he would have seen it as being rude. But in this case, he couldn't help but crack a smile. It was pretty ridiculous. "Aerokinesis huh?" He asked with a shrug trying to play off the fact that he was a suppressor and he knew just about everyone's power. And he could easily get rid of the anxiety she seemed to have building up.