A Little Pain Never Hurt Anyone (Tomer/Later Milan)

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

This was going to be awesome.

Harmony was sitting in the stairwell, peering over the railing for her first victim of the day. The idea had come to her sometime the night before. She'd done dropping water balloons and paint filled water balloons. So what could she drop on people now? The answer...sand.

What was more annoying than a bath of sand? Sand got everywhere. So she'd "borrowed" a bucket and some rope from the storage shed. After poking a few holes in the bottom of the bucket, she filled it with sand by the pond and set off to find the perfect spot, leaving a slight trial of sand behind her.

The stairwell in the dorms seemed to be the prime location. She could tie the bucket to the railing allowing it to swing over her victim, while still being able to see them coming. It was early enough that students were just now making their way to class and Harmony couldn't think of a better way to give them a wake up. On a whim, she stopped by a bathroom and added water to the bucket. Because wet sand was even better than plain sand, right?

So she tied the bucket up and waited.

When she spotted that annoying crippled nerd, she started smiling. Letting out a whoop and "Look out below!" she released the bucket.

Unfortunately, the rope she'd gotten had a bit of a give to it, and the bucket swung lower than she'd expected. Also the holes weren't nearly big enough to let the packed in wet sand filter through.

Still this was going to be awesome.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

Even before he knew the term for it, Tomer had been aware of and understood situational irony, and that it applied heavily to his life. He wasn't exactly okay with it, but he'd come to terms with it and could view it with a certain amount of humor. So later, in hindsight, someone choosing to target a kid covered in braces and using crutches with a bucket of wet sand would be... yes, situationally ironic.

The morning had been going reasonably well, the only mishap so far was a little bit of egg yolk on one of his sweater-sleeves. It was cold, so long sleeves and sweaters were called for, hiding his hand and wrist braces, so he was pleased about that. Everyone had seen his arm braces already, but it was nice to cover them up.

He was just adjusting his backpack when he heard the shout echo in the stairwell, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from when suddenly a large object flew at him from nowhere.

In an additional layer of irony, this would be the first time Tomer's power would have been useful in a real life, not to mention the fact that blasting the bucket would've sent it right back to its releaser.

But he'd been taken too much by surprise, and what little time he had was used to react to what was happening and try to move out of the way. Tomer managed to back up enough so that the bucket didn't catch him full in the chest, but it knocked away his left crutch and smashed his hand into the wall with a crunch that made him cry out. When the bucket swung away, bits of flesh-colored plastic clittered to the floor. The impact was so great Tomer felt an instant numbness in his upper arms and legs, and across his back.

His breath shook as he looked down at his hand. There was no blood, but it was swelling, and so quickly that Tomer had to fumble with his sleeve button and pull the rest of the shattered lower-arm brace off, leaving it hanging at the elbow joint. As the adrenaline wore off... ow. Holy... ow. Tears stung his eyes, but he remembered someone else was there and he was not going to cry in front of her. He just stood there, leaning against the wall, breathing hard, looking at his wrist, stunned. The pain of it filled his head. His other crutch fell. He didn't even notice.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

This was not exactly going as planned. Though truth be told, Harmony's pranks and other ideas seldom did. For example, she never planned on getting caught still it often came to that. She couldn't wait until she had more control over her ability and would have a easy get-away always at hand.

Still, she'd never actual hurt someone before. And from the sound of the impact, the bucket seemed to have hurt someone. But she had not grasped just how much it had. Currently she was more upset that her prank had not worked out as planned. Maybe she should have added water? Or maybe the bucket needed bigger holes? And or course next time she'd actually measure for what size rope she'd need. Or at least do a test run.

She ran down the steps, thinking she would just grab her bucket and get out of there before a staff member arrive. At least whoever she had hit wasn't wailing their head off. "Geez, ain't nobody ever taught you to duck?" she yelled out as she made her way down the steps.

It wasn't until she reached the bottom that she saw who she had hit. "Great," she mumbled to herself. "I gotta hit the biggest cripple in school." She walked over to where the boy was standing, leaning over to pick up his crutch and avoiding looking at his tear filled eyes.

"You're okay, just uh...walk it off?" she said, holding out one of his crutches to him. She still hadn't noticed the crumbled braces pieces on the ground. And was avoiding looking at his arm as much as she was avoiding looking at his face. "No reason to be a big baby about this, right?" The statement came out sounding half like a command and half like a question.

If only she could smooth this over quickly and get outta here.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

One side leaning against the brick wall of the stairwell, Tomer's eyes were wide as he half-hyperventilated, watching his wrist redden and puff. If it hadn't been like... him... he would've been fascinated.

"Geez, ain't nobody ever taught you to duck?"

...Duck? Tomer would've loved to've ducked, but there was the whole brace situation, and there was how fast that bucket had come, completely out of nowhere. That, and well, even before he'd half-paralyzed himself, Tomer had not exactly been a paragon of coordination.

Fortunately, he hadn't heard the girl's little comment, or what little temper he had would've made him say something uncharacteristically cruel. Like 'shut up', which was pretty much as mean as Tomer allowed himself. Blinking back tears, he turned to look at the bucket bomber. Wordlessly he took the offered crutch, and manners made him croak out a barely intelligible, "Thank you."

"No reason to be a big baby about this, right?"

Well... he thought he'd been doing a fairly good job of not being a big baby, but maybe her definition of it was different. Given her attitude, Tomer didn't think she'd be any help getting to the nurse, or finding him an adult. Swallowing hard a few times, he finally said, voice shaking a bit, "I think it's broken."

His mind was trying to think up what to do. If nothing else, he could call his uncle, who in turn could call Sean.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony actually gasped when she finally noticed the boy's wrist. Man that looked like it hurt. Still her next thought was to look over her shoulder to see if anyone else was around who could pin the accident on her. Really it was only like 20% her fault...well maybe like 40%. But even that was pushing it right? How was she supposed to know the crippled kid couldn't duck to save his life?

She was again startled by his thanks. For one, Harmony wasn't used to hearing those words directed towards her. Also she couldn't believe this kid whose arm looked about ready to fall off was taking the time to thank her. What a weirdo. Still he must feel like he fit right in with the other spineless idiots in this place.

"Listen dude," Harmony said, still avoiding looking him in the eye as she gathered up her bucket. "Some teacher will be by in a second to kiss your boo boo. So I'm gonna get going. So I should...get going..." She started to back away when a idea hit her.

"And if someone asks...my name is Navi...Holmes. Okay?"

[Deleted]

Ever since Hammel, Milan had failed to get out of the ‘early mornings’ routine. He quite probably even slipped from under his covers before most of the students began to stir. As a recruiter, not being a teacher, he could easily afford staying in late. Whenever a new to-be-recruited student popped onto the radar, all Hammel had to do was give him a call and he would be there within a minute. Being a shadow walker came in very handy, and yet he hardly ever used it for selfish benefits.

Heck, he even drove to the institute instead of just saving some gas. While he had not been called in for a recruitment, the never –ending task of paper work awaited him. His plan was to get it over with as early as possible in order to be able to make the rest of his day productive as well. And his hopes were high… until he actually did decide to make a little detour to check if Ella had woken up already.

What he walked into at that moment was highly unplanned. The recruiter was only halfway out of the shadows when his gaze landed on two students standing by the side of the stairs. All he could see was the painful face of the young boy… and someone backing away. With a bucket?

Milan didn’t immediately connect the dots, but he did step forward with a frown on his face. “I really hope that your name is Navi and not Harmony.” Blue optics didn’t even bother to drift over his shoulder as he moved past her and towards Tomer. Even if Harmony tried to run, all Milan had to do was hop into a shadow and block her way.

His frown grew stronger as hands carefully reached out for Tomer’s. “That doesn’t look good.” He stated while looking at the boy’s face now.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

By the time the girl saw his wrist, everything below his palm was swollen, like he had a goiter around his wrist. The rest of his lower arm was starting to swell too, and Tomer didn't even want to touch it, let alone move it. He held it out from his body a bit, as if it could poison him or something.

Even with his right arm throbbing so hard he could see the beat of his pulse, Tomer smiled a little when the girl called him 'dude'. Doubtless it wasn't meant to be friendly, but it still amused him. No one called him 'dude'. He was too dorky to be a 'dude'. It was an experience he was sure he'd never have. So it was a little surreal to be having it in the stairwell with the person who'd just bucket-bombed him and busted his arm.

Navi Holmes was totally not her name. She needed to learn how to lie better, and to know the second Dr. Neville peeked inside his head to see what this 'Navi Holmes' looked like... it would be her. Tomer didn't say that though, she'd figure it out eventually, like when security came looking for her.

Saved from having to make a non-committal noise, oh thank everything, an adult. Harmony, huh? Maybe her parents had been going for irony, if that really was her name. Not wanting to, he still held out his injured wrist, just a little. Tomer's face was very pale, though his hand and wrist were very red.

"I think it broke," he said, apologetically. It wasn't his fault, but it would mean someone would have to take the trouble to either call an ambulance or drive him to a place to get it treated, as well as call his parents and probably Uncle Josh.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony was ready to bolt when she turned to see a man walking towards them. Just great. She considered running anyways. After all, surely the guy would stick around to help the little wimpy boy instead of chasing her down the hall. He already seemed more interested in helping the kid and his arm.

But then he said her name. So even if she had run, she couldn't really hide forever. Since she was stuck at this stupid school.

"So what if it is?" Harmony said, still keeping her distance from her victim the other students. She wasn't sure which was worse, looking the kid in the face, or looking at his balloon of a wrist.

Still maybe she could slip away while the attention was away from her.

"So...looks like you got all this handled," Harmony said, taking another step back. "So I'll get going. Got class ya know. See ya dude. And learn to duck." She took another small step backwards, hoping she could get out of this. She wasn't worried about her uncle, or even her mom, finding out what had happened. Really she just wanted to get away from that boy and his half crying/half apologizing voice. It made her want to slap him and say sorry all at the same time.

[Deleted]

Milan frowned at Harmony’s daring reaction to his words. Was she truly heartless to the extent that she could not see the severity in the situation at hand? With a small sigh, the man opted to reply as he now squatted down in front of Tomer. “Trying to put the blame on others only makes things worse.” It was a sign of her lacking any sense of responsibility. If this had gone even more wrong, he did not want to imagine the outcome due to her not making any useful decisions.

The second after, blue eyes rested on Tomer’s swollen lower arm. “We have to get you to the hospital.” The school nurses would not be able to solve this one. While his voice was soft and soothing while speaking to the young boy, it grew more stern and serious the second he addressed Harmony again. “The only place you are going right now is Mrs. Morgenstern’s office.”

With that he rose, gently resting a hand on Tomer’s shoulder. “Okay to go?” Yes, the hurt boy was his priority right now, but that did not mean the girl would get away with it like this. It was why he fumbled to take his cell phone out, updating a fellow staff member on the matter to make sure she would get dealt with.

“Oh, and Harmony, in case you were not aware: hospital costs are quite expensive.” It being a hint that there was a chance those costs would be presented to her and those in charge of her.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

Tomer was too busy trying not to burst into tears to concentrate too hard on whether or not the girl... Harmony?... was being mean or not. Yes, she'd bucket-bombed him and probably busted his wrist, but it's not like she had to be punished right exactly then, did it? Not to be self-centered, but Tomer kind of needed something done before he got hysterical. And it wasn't like she could go somewhere Sean couldn't find her. If she wanted to run off, that was just fine with him.

But he wasn't going to say so. All of that ran through his head along with a billion other things and nothing at all at the speed of derp as he stared at his arm, almost like it was hypnotizing him. With difficulty he looked at the man. Oh. Manners. Gulping a few times and hoping his voice wouldn't crack, he said, "Uh... I'm Tomer Berelowitz, sir. You... you should probably call my uncle."

And his voice did crack. And squeak. And waver a little.

Puke.

About to say that Harmony wouldn't be paying for anything, he had insurance, he concentrated instead on the more important thing. "I... uh. Can't. I." Pride and embarrassment made the words stick in his throat. His voice lowered to a whisper as his cheeks burned. "I use crutches to walk and..."

God, please let it be obvious. So he wouldn't have to say the w-word.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

"What?" Harmony shouted. "This is so lame. It's not like I set out to cripple a cripple!" She flung the bucket she was carrying at the wall in frustration. "This place is so stupid. I'm just trying to have a little fun and some idiot has to ruin everything."

She wasn't really paying attention to the rest of what the man or Tomer had to say anymore. She was too furious to listen anymore. It was all this stupid school's fault.

However the man's last statement managed to break through her fury. Great now her mom was going to have to get involved too. Sheesh. Why didn't the school just lock her up in a closet til she was eighteen and save her mother the trouble. She kicked at the bucket again.

Looking up, she noticed Tomer. He was so freaking pathetic it was making her even more mad. If someone had broken her wrist she would be whining in the corner and being all polite. That kid really needed to grow some backbone.

She glared back at the man. Hopefully when he took Tomer out of her, she could get lost in the shuffle and avoid going to the office. Harmony was still holding onto the hope that while she'd hadn't made it away from the scene of the crime she could still avoid the blame. At least part of it anyway.