A Great Pickup Line

"Oh my god, get down! You're gonna break your face or something!"

Nina stretched her arm out a little higher to retrieve the kite that she'd gotten stuck on, of course, the highest branch of one of the trees on campus. She and Victoria had been required to fly one outside and document the ordeal for a class experiment. So far, so not good.

"Nina!" Victoria shrieked from the base of the tree. "I'm serious! We can get another kite! Do you know how lame of a college student you look like right now?"

"I almost have it," Nina said, ignoring the pleas. "Would you relax?"

Victoria folded her arms huffily. "I'll relax when you're back on the ground, Nina. Seriously! The kite was only like, five bucks. Get down."

Nina rolled her eyes and lifted herself up further before grabbing the kite with her fingers. Snapping the tangled string off, she began to descend. "You can breathe again, Miss Paranoid. It's not a big deal. Oh, we have an extra string spool right?"

"Not a big deal enough for you to climb freaking twenty feet! Oh my gosh, take your time. You're gonna slip!"

"I'm okay. Please do not start freaking out again."

"Oh, yeah, fine," Victoria said, waving a hand. "But I get to be the first one to sign the freaking BODY CAST THAT THEY PUT YOU IN."

Nina paused on a branch to scowl down at her friend. "You're hilarious."

"I try."

"When I'm back on the ground, I am so going to stuff my sock in your big mouth." Nina let the kite drop to the grass so she could use both her hands to climb down. "I'm halfway right?"

"Yeah, about."

"Will you just re-tie the kite already?" Nina snapped, bending one knee and stepping on another branch.

Victoria picked up the object of concern and walked over to where their backpacks were to retrieve the spare string.

"Where'd you put it?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. Check my purse and if not, it's probably in the front pocket of my ba-AH!"

"NINA!" Victoria shrieked, whipping around.

BAM SNAP.

Nina's foot had slipped clean off the limb she'd been standing on and she'd tumbled downward. A tree branch and a lot of leaves had whipped her forehead as she fell (that was gonna leave a mark) and she would have landed flat on her face if it hadn't been for another body cushioning her fall…well, sort of cushioning. Ace Sadon, in all honesty, had been walking by. A complete innocent victim. He definitely had not been planning to rescue any damsels in distress today. Especially the ones that fell from trees.

"Shit…" he grunted.

Nina had to admit even though she hadn't landed smack on the ground, landing on another set of limbs from ten feet up probably caused the same or more amount of pain. For the both of them. She'd heard a snap that sounded sickeningly like a breaking of a bone.

Yeah, Ace was in a lot of pain. Definitely the snap.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Nina coughed, rolling off her victim as fast as possible. It was hard work. She could positively feel the bruises beginning to blossom all over. "Are you…of course you're not okay, I just gave you a vertical body slam…oh god, I'm so, so, so, so sorry…"

Nina helped him sit up. He looked a little worse for wear; there were a few leaves stuck to his head and his white shirt was now grass-and-dirt-streaked.

Victoria was still clutching the kite, her jaw dropped in gleeful shock. Whoever her best friend had just landed on, he was hot! Oh, right, she'd better make sure Nina was okay and all…

"It's fine," he said shortly. He winced when he tried to move his wrist. "Uh…"

"The snap was you!" Nina practically mourned in guilt. "Oh god, I broke you!"

"What just…happened?" he asked, wincing again as he tested his hand.

"I fell out of the tree. Our kite was stuck- we were doing this stupid assignment. I'm so sorry! We have to get you to the nurse or something…"

"You scared the shit out of me," he coughed. She'd completely knocked the wind out of him.

"I'm sorry…I don't usually fall out of trees," Nina said lamely as if she usually scared the shit out of strangers a different way. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Ace replied. "I'll go…see the nurse on my own. It's fine."

"But I fell on you!" Nina said, bright red. "I fell…you're in my class aren't you? I fell on my classmate…this is so embarrassing." She smacked her palm to her face in distress and immediately felt stinging pain followed by a warm, damp touch.

Her forehead was bleeding.

"Oh, just great."

Ace at last caught his breath long enough to focus on the person who'd just scared him half to hell by falling out of nowhere. He blinked at dark red blood trickling down her face.

"I, uh, think we both need to get to the nurse."

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"A girl fell on top of you."

"…yes."

"A girl."

"…"

"Fell. On top of you."

"Do you have a point to your ridiculous articulation, dumbass?" Ace hissed. Nick, his good friend, immediately backed up in his chair, hands raised in defense.

"I'm only repeating what you told me," the blonde said quickly. "A girl fell out of a tree and landed on top of you."

"Stop saying it like that!" Ace snapped, ears turning pink.

Nick grinned, but his eyes were feigning puppy dog innocence. "Like what, Ace-y?"

"Stop calling me that. You know…like—!"

Ace was going to tear his own hair out in rage. Seriously.

"Screw you, pervert," he scoffed, turning the other way. He was currently sitting in the nurse's office occupying one side of the dividing curtain and examining his just-bandaged broken wrist. On the other side of the curtain was the girl who was getting a bandage too. On her forehead.

It was a little funny.

But the worst part that had hit his ego the most was that she really, seriously scared the shit out of him. A body had tumbled out of nowhere, hit him, and he lost his cool and nearly had a stroke. And on top of that, he was now confined to a cast for the next three months.

"Can I sign it?" Nick asked eagerly, whipping out a thick black Sharpie.

For once, Ace was too exhausted to even argue. "Whatever," he muttered.

As Nick scribbled his name in childlike capital letters, Ace stared at the curtain in front of him. He could see the girl's vague silhouette as she conversed quietly with her friend.

"You know her name?" Nick asked.

"Nina."

"Nina. The Girl Who Fell On… Top of You."

Ace positively fried him with a sharp glare.

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"But he's HOT."

"Victoria, I'm begging you. Lower. Your voice. He and his friend are right there!"

The girl cackled gleefully. "This is so cute. What if you guys end up going out and then get married? Do you know how freaking hilarious of a story this will make whenever someone asks you guys how you met?" She put on a poor imitation of Ace's deep voice. "Uh…yeah, she fell out of a tree and I caught her. Seriously."

"Except he didn't catch me," Nina moaned. "I CRUSHED him. He's broken and it's all my fault."

"Yeah, but you got a wound there too, missy," Victoria mused, tapping the large bandage on Nina's forehead. "Maybe even a concussion." She gasped, thinking of an idea. "He'll have to carry you home and take care of you because you'll be so delirious from the hit—"

"Tori, stop talking. And try to keep it in your pants."

"How did it feel when you fell on him? Did you touch his abs? He looks so fit…"

"Tori!"

"But he's HOT."

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"Hey, hey," Nick piped up, thinking. "You know what line you should use to score a date with her?"

"I don't want to score a date," Ace said in obvious distaste of Nick's crudeness.

"Yeah but she's cute and you know it."

"Shut up." A small pink tinge appeared in Ace's cheeks.

"Did it hurt?" Nick began. Ace raised an eyebrow. "When you fell from heaven? Because with a face like that, you gotta be an angel!"

Ace just rolled his eyes and leaned back to lie down on the bed. "That's the dumbest line I've ever heard," he remarked dryly.

"But considering the situation, it'd be great—"

"No."

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"So are you going to talk to him?" Victoria gushed. "You should at least say hi. And maybe introduce yourself. And…then apologize for falling on him…"

"This is so embarrassing," Nina hissed. "I think I've spoken to him like only once since we've been in University and I'm pretty sure we've had more than five classes together."

"Why haven't you guys ever spoken?"

"I don't know…" Nina mumbled. "You said it yourself. Look at his face."

"He's hot?"

"…well, yeah."

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"Are you gonna say hi at least?" Nick pressed.

"I don't know."

"So yes?"

Ace narrowed his eyes. "…do you intentionally ignore everything I say?"

"Not unless it's what I want you to say." Nick actually had the gall to grin widely at this. "But seriously. I've talked to her a couple of times. We had English together. Did you have any of the same classes as her?"

"Art History, Psychology, Personal Finance, Writing and Literature, Statistics, and Economics."

A beat passed.

Ace blanched. Did he seriously just rattle those all off the top of his head?

Nick beamed.

"You liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike her!"

"Shut up."

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Victoria was tired of waiting. Pushing her long ponytail behind her shoulder, she stood up and folded her arms, facing her best friend.

"Go talk to him."

"Wha-now?"

"Yes."

"No—" Nina protested but Victoria grabbed her arm and practically dragged her to the curtain. Courteously, she waited before pulling it back (what if he were shirtless or something…oh wait, that would actually not be so bad maybe she should pull it back now to get a glimpse).

"Excuse me? Um…"

"Ace," Nina whispered helpfully.

"… Ace? Can we say hi for a sec?"

Nick pulled back the curtain, grinning widely at the two girls. "Sure! He doesn't mind." Ace gave a small wave from the bed as he sat up.

Victoria waggled her eyebrows suggestively at Nina, whispering, "Look- he has a cast. He looks even hotter when he's injured." Nina blushed.

"Hey," the boy introduced himself. "I'm Nick. This guy's best friend."

"I'm Nina," Nina replied. "This is Victoria. Um, we just wanted to see if you were doing okay…"

"Did it hurt?" Nick asked offhandedly. Ace stiffened abruptly and tried to kick him from behind.

Nina was clueless. "When I fell out of the tree?"

Ace kicked Nick again but the blonde was undeterred. "No—OUCH—when you fell—STOP IT YOU BASTARD—from heaven. Because Ace here—OUCH—thinks that with a face like yours you gotta be an ANGEL—AGH—!"

The last kick gave him a dead leg and he fell on the floor at Victoria's and Nina's feet- Nina not being able to help turning bright red. Victoria just coughed.

"I didn't say that," Ace declared immediately. "Uh…not that I think you're hideous or something…I just…that stupid line was all him…"

Nina tucked a lock of hair behind her ear nervously. "Well, it was, um, cute despite the cheesiness…"

Ace rubbed the back of his head.

From the floor, Nick rolled his eyes dramatically.

"Just ask her out already, Ace-y."