Fic: restless (April Fic Challenge)

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: restless
Chapters: 1/1
Author:csi_sanders1129
Ratings: K+
Word Count: 967
Pairings/Characters: Jimmy Hopkins, Pete Kowalski
Synopsis: In which Pete does not come back to the dorms in time for lights out and Jimmy finds this concerning.
Comments: Written for my April Fic Challenge 2021, Prompt: Restless. Can be Gen or Pre-Slash. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

Jimmy can't sleep.

There is absolutely no reason why. His room is perfectly dark (he broke the annoyingly flickering streetlight outside his window a long time ago). It's perfectly warm (despite the biting winter chill outside) beneath the standard issue Bullworth Academy blanket on his bed. He's even tired! He'd had a long day – two difficult exams (that he actually studied for (and maybe, possibly even passed)), a grueling gym class (dodge ball is a brutal sport here, after all), and an afternoon of reining in the greasers who seemed to be enjoying picking fights with the jocks a little too much lately (probably over Lola again).

And yet, he just can't seem to get to sleep.

It definitely is not because Pete didn't come back to the dorms tonight.

Except maybe it is.

It's not like Pete to break the rules, for one. Any rules – and breaking lights out is a hell of a rule to start with. For another, Jimmy doesn't know where the hell else he could be. He's not close to anyone besides Jimmy, so it's not like he would be staying the night at a friend's place in town. And Jimmy's sure he wouldn't be able to keep quiet about it if it involved a girl. Which leaves Jimmy thinking that his best friend has gotten himself into some kind of serious trouble and that thought doesn't sit well with him at all.

Too restless to keep lying in his bed, he gets up, gets dressed, gets out.

There are no prefects patrolling the campus this late, but even still, Jimmy keeps to the shadows as he maneuvers across the courtyard toward the spot in the brick wall that surrounds the school property that he can climb over. He comes up with a plan - he'll head into town, head to the beach house, and see if he spots Pete along the way. But, as soon as he lands on the street outside Bullworth Academy's grounds, he sets that plan aside.

Pete is there.

He's sitting on a rock just a short distance away, his head in his hands. Jimmy can see from here that he's shivering in the cold.

"There you are," he says, and Pete jumps up to his feet, but then he seems to stumble over nothing and he hits the ground hard. "Shit, are you okay?"

Pete doesn't reply, just shakes his head, stays down.

Jimmy approaches, helps him back to his feet. He coaxes Pete forward, into the glow of a nearby streetlight and finds the other boy with a busted lip and a black eye. He's limping, too, Jimmy realizes, which explains the falling – even in the dim lighting he can see how swollen his ankle already is. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I… I got mugged," he mumbles, clearly trying his best to fight back tears. "On the way back from the movie theater. It was after curfew by the time I made it here and I… I couldn't climb the wall to get in."

Jimmy will absolutely be worrying about the details of Pete's mugging later – finding out who needs to pay for daring to lay a hand on Pete, making sure they never get the chance to do it again – but for now, Pete is more important than vengeance. "I'll help you over," he assures his friend. It would probably be better to go to the beach house, but he doesn't think Pete is up for the walk back in to town.

"Thanks," Pete says quietly, "I thought I was gonna have to stay out here all night."

He lets Pete sling an arm over his shoulder and use him as support as they shuffle back over to the break in the wall. Jimmy hops up, straddles it, leverages Pete up with him. Then he drops down to the school side of the wall and makes sure to catch Pete before his bad ankle can hit the ground. From there, it's just a short but stealthy hobble back across campus to the dorms.

He herds Pete into his room – avoiding the troublesome trek up the stairs to Pete's – and deposits him on his abandoned bed. He has some first aid supplies stashed in his room (a necessary precaution when one gets in as many fights as he does) and he rifles through them for something to clean up Pete's face with as well as an elastic bandage for his ankle. Upon locating those items, he makes a quick run up to Pete's room to grab some clothes for Pete to sleep in, then he ducks out of the room once more to get a few cold sodas, as close as he can get to an ice pack – and sets to work.

Fixing Pete up is the work of mere moments. He waits while Pete washes his face, wiping away dried blood and grime, revealing the rapidly purpling bruises beneath the mess. Then, he helps the other boy change. He wraps the ankle, coaxes Pete into lying down so he can elevate it on a spare pillow, settles his make-shift ice packs into place. He covers him up with the blankets to keep him warm, and tells him to sleep. The adrenaline crash has him out within moments.

Jimmy, though, still cannot.

He feels like he's bursting with restless energy, raw and angry and manic. He wants to go back out, to head into town and find whoever did this and make them pay. Pete probably wouldn't notice if he left. He could, he thinks, he could go. He could…

"Jimmy?" Pete mumbles, half-asleep.

He makes a sound of acknowledgement, moves across the dark room to perch on the beside.

"Thanks."

"Anytime, Petey," he promises.

He could go, he thinks, but he'll stay.