a time to gain, a time to lose {Hermia}

[jim]

The not sleeping was getting to him. Or to be more precise, the black outs were getting to him. He HAD to be sleeping. He just had to, or he'd die or something. But since he never remembered sleeping, it was really getting to him. He wanted sleep. He wanted to remember the feeling of laying down in his own bed, pulling a cool sheet over himself and letting his head fall onto a hugely soft pillow, instead of sitting on his bed staring at the pillow willing himself to be tired. He sighed deeply and flipped a page over in his textbook. One might think that the droning of aged professor would prove soporific, but not so for Jim. He looked up at the clock, noting the time and realizing he had a good hour to go before the class was over. Looking back at the teacher, he blinked -

and opened his eyes to find himself standing in the cafe, staring into the eyes of a barista who looked so cheerful she had to have been sampling her own creations.

Coffee?? That was the LAST thing he needed. "Do you have anything that makes you sleepy?" he asked desperately. "I know this is a coffee shop, but I'm really wide awake and I just want to take a nap. And I want some sandwiches. Three of the ham and cheese please. No, four. " Maybe eating a lot of food would make him sleepy.

[Deleted]

So Mia was learning rather quickly that she and sunglasses just didn't mix. In spite of her run in with Tulio at the movie theatre, she had tried going to the mall, trying some on in hopes that it would stop all of the staring and drooling and flirting and just general unpleasantness that had been going on for half of a year. Really, shouldn't this have worn off by now? Her promiscuous lesbian phase had ended by now last year...then again, it was possible that since it didn't take full effect until Valentine's Day...perhaps it'd be over by next month? If the whole sunglasses thing worked, she would have been okay with that. And for a while, it had actually worked, so it at least helped her theory that this whole spell was all about the eyes, and so long as they were obstructed, she was fine...

Except for the fact she wound up crashing into yet another person on her way out, and the cheap things had lost one of their lenses, and, well...you know how the rest of this story goes. She supposed that if she had splurged, she might have had better luck, but then again, what was the point if she was going to be so insanely clumsy that apparently, those glasses just weren't going to stay on her nose?

Exhausted and frustrated, she managed to head towards the school cafe (it was getting to be around time for her fix, and maybe a little caffeine with whipped cream on top would make her feel better) with only one proposal under her belt (her sympathy for the poor schlubs that tried and failed was growing thinner by the day)...and then she realized there were people who were literally pressing their faces against the coffee shop window as soon as she began to head towards the door. Face falling, she muttered to herself, "Good gods, doesn't anyone have any dignity anymore?" before wincing and daring to enter.

"No, that's really okay--no, I can get my own coffee, Ma'am, and the same goes for your husband...sweetie, you're five, I can't marry you." Somehow, in spite of all of the chaos that was going on, she made it to the line, just behind a guy that had just bought four sandwiches...and he didn't seem to be accompanying anyone. Well, fine, she wasn't going to pay much attention to that, seeing as there was currently a family of four that was fighting over who chased her away (the true answer was all of them)..."Madness. Sheer madness," she all but whimpered.

[jim]

Madness. Sheer madness.

Oh no. Not another voice. He had enough going on that he didn't need more crazy. He talked to himself enough as it was without adding a whimpering female voice to the chatter in his head. He gathered his sandwiches into his arms very deliberately, and grabbed a hold of the cup of steaming hot milk, which was apparently the best the barista could come up with in terms of 'drinks that make one sleepy'. He turned to find a booth, and almost tripped over the woman behind him.

"Sorry, sorry, whoops, my bad," he fumbled for words as he fumbled with his sandwiches, trying not to drop any and trying not to scald himself at the same time. It was around that time that he noticed all the commotion. Oh bugger. He would find himself in the middle of a riot. Or a protest. Or whatever. Who would want to protest coffee?

"What's all this about?" he forgot his own issues and his growing phobia of talking to people for a moment as he looked around at the crowd by the door and spoke to the girl, who, now that he was looking right at her, looked more than a little perturbed.

[Deleted]

Hermia was so busy staring at the chaos going on that she didn't even realize the man in front of her had moved, so the yelp that she let out when he nearly tripped over her was pretty piercing. She even jumped about a foot in the air. All in all, very dignified. What was with the past few months and her grace levels dropping like an anchor? Wincing, she brushed it off with, "It's fine, it's fine," just really hoping that she didn't have him throwing himself at her too.

Except...wait a moment, was he actually asking what all the commotion was about? As in...he didn't know? He wasn't finding himself lost in her big brown eyes or wanting to play with her silky raven hair or whatever it was that was causing people to go positively gaga over her? Needless to say, aforementioned chocolate brown eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as she glanced from the riot to the boy and back...

You know what? Coffee could wait.

"Come with me!" And without much other warning (she wasn't usually this rude, she was just horrifically desperate at the moment! This could be the first intelligent conversation she would have in months!), she led him out of the coffee shop, taking care to not let him drop his sandwiches.

Once they were safely outside, away from the crazy riot that was going on, she blurted out, "So you're not madly in love with me? You have no desire to propose to me, to sweep me in your arms, serenade me, nothing like that? Because if that's the case, you might just be my new best friend."

[jim]

Jim jerked in surprise as the girl suddenly seized his hand and with surprising alacrity for someone of her size, hustled him out of the shop. "But-but- my milk!" With a little juggling, he managed to swipe his cup off the counter before she both pushed and half dragged him out of the shop. Once they had reached the relative safety of the street outside, he clutched his sandwiches to his chest with both arms and attempted to bend his head low enough that he could sip from his cup. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work very well, and he imagined that it looked ridiculous. He gave up and stared down at the girl, noting again absentmindedly how much shorter she was than him. She still looked flustered far beyond the point of any normal level of agitation. He raised one eyebrow in a measure of disbelieve as she spoke.

"Well aren't you just the very picture of moderation and humility," he quipped jovially. "No. Not at all. As a matter of fact, I find you rather average - well, all right, to be fair, I'll give you a high 7 - but I'm not really into girls who are so, how do I say, self-aware? Yeah I think that's the polite way to say. Oh yeah, so anyway, no. I'm not marriage material. And I don't sing. But we can try the friends thing. I mean if you can handle the whole thing where I'm not infatuated with you."

He squinted at her through his sunglasses appraisingly, and was suddenly realized he wasn't being fair. She had large, lustrous brown eyes and her voice was like a chiming angel. An 8, at least.

[Deleted]

Actually, yes, usually Hermia was just fine with being humble. Hell, she spent the first sixteen or so years of her life never even thinking about how she looked, because she hardly saw how that mattered until Lysander showed up and we all knew how that turned out. Then again, she did care about how she looked now, but that was because she liked feeling pretty to herself, and if that meant that someone out there found her pretty too, well great! She would be very happy with that, but this? This was ridiculous, and now of course the one person who hadn't been falling at her feet had taken what she said in the worst way possible.

"Okay, I don't even know if I should thank you or feel indignant," she noted, before sighing. "I swear, under normal circumstances I wouldn't ask, but for the past several months, people have been acting very bizarrely around me. I can't go anywhere without getting mobbed by people wanting to be with me. I'm not sure how this happened, I just know that it's driving me crazy, and you seem to be the first person who I've been able to have a conversation with without being proposed to or something like that, so, I am dead serious when I say thank you, thank you, and please keep those sunglasses on, they may be your last chance for sanity." Not to mention mine.

"So now that I've officially made myself out to be the most egocentric person in the world, I'd very much like to be friends, and my name is Hermia, though most people call me Mia..." Which wasn't entirely true. There was a disgusting array of pet names thrown at her nowadays...but he didn't need to hear about that, he already thought the worst of her.

[jim]

Jim stared at the girl. The story sounded absurd, but then, there had been that weird crowd that started in the cafe just about the time that she came in. He did a mental shrug. He'd seen some weird things since he came back here. Why couldn't her story be true?

"Jim Hawkins," he said. "Nice to meet you, Mia. I'd shake your hand or kiss it or whatever, but I seem to have sandwiches. You might've at least let me get a back before you dragged me out of there," he complained good-naturedly. "Isn't there a park around here somewhere? With picnic tables? I'm really hungry," he confessed sheepishly. "You could just keep your head down on the way, or something. Just follow my feet in front of you.

[Deleted]

Hermia found herself praying to whatever gods were listening that he would actually believe her. It wasn’t exactly fun to see that dubious expression on Jim’s face, because she knew just how crazy this whole thing sounded. Still, this was seeming very much like her last chance to really have just a friend. She hadn’t had one of those in quite some time, and it was getting lonely. She had never realized that this was even possible when people fawned over her, but now that she realized that they didn’t really love her, they were just compelled to, no matter what should happen, with no will of their own, well…yeah. “Lonely at the top” was a cliché, perhaps, but it was a true cliché.

So when Jim seemed to accept her introduction instead of trying to walk away from the crazy Greek woman, and was even making a bit of a joke. A rueful smile crossed her face. “I’m sorry, I really am, I guess I’ve just been a little desperate lately…ironic, huh?” Then she nodded, thinking for a moment. “You know what? I’ll go get you a bag, then we can go…I can…well, I can sort of handle them…” Okay, the truth was that she was secretly terrified, but she felt like she owed this boy something like that.

It turned out that not only was she able to get a bag for Jim, but that tea that she had initially came in for was now free. The only problem was that it was a miracle she didn’t wind up spilling it from the mob starting up with a vengeance until she finally got out. Letting out an exhausted sigh, she held out the bag. “Here, will that do?”

[jim]

Jim waited patiently while Mia ran off back into the cafe. He attempted to nibble on the sandwich propped on his arm, but only got plastic wrap stuck in his teeth as a result. He settled for poking the tip of his tongue in his cup and just barely wetting it while he waited for her to return. He was relieved she came back, and quite glad to see that she'd brought a bag for him.

"Hey, great job," he congratulated her as he funneled all four sandwiches into the paper bag. "I can't believe you went back in there. That crowd was outrageous. This'll work great. How about that picnic? I'll share my sandwiches. I figure you've earned it, battling through through all those people and all."

[Deleted]

When Jim commented about how outrageous that crowd was, Hermia had half a mind to tell him just how “outrageous” people had been around her lately, but she figured that she just earned at least some favor with the only sane man here, so why make things awkward? She instead brushed it off, stating, “It was the least I could do,” and honestly, in a way, it was. She probably would have battled through an orgy if it meant that she could at least keep one person who would act sane around her, if only for a little while.

Well, okay, she wouldn’t go that far, seeing as she did just meet the guy.

Then again, he was willing to share sandwiches. Clearly, the jury was still out on the hypothetical battle through an orgy.

But until then, might as well enjoy what was at hand. “That sounds pretty good, thank you. Feel free to take the largest share, of course,” she quipped as they began to head towards the park. “So I take it you’re new around here? I haven’t seen you before.”