An RP with Lemon

"Mm, no you can't." Kris states. "Sit back down."

Jess sighs, dropping the facade.

"Let me at least get home. I can't afford to go to the hospital."

"I got this." Kris says, eager to show off. "Would you prefer me to carry you like a firefighter or a princess? I don't know what else to call them, girl scouts was weird."

Jess raises an eyebrow.

". . . Princess, obviously. I'm too fabulous for a fireman carry." she replies.

"Thought so."
Kris carefully lifts Jess so as not to jar her ankle. "Which way is your apartment?"

Jess chuckles, then thinks for a moment.

She points in a diagonal direction, to the left.

"Alright. Just tell me if I'm going the wrong way."
Kris starts down the sidewalk, proud of herself for being able to carry Jess this effortlessly. Thankfully she remembered how to do it.

Jess nods, occasionally pointing down a different direction or correcting their course.

After a bit, Jess decides to start a conversation.

"So. . . is everything good? You've seemed very distracted today. Are you sick?"

"Everything's good." Kris says, keeping her eyes in front of her.
"I'm fine." She says, not entirely ruling out the possibility of a distraction. Technically not lying.

Jess pauses, considering.

"No. . . I doubt that. Just like you were able to see through my mask earlier, I'm seeing through this one right now."

"Well, I'm not sick." Kris assures her.

"If you're not sick, then something else is wrong." Jess sighs.

"That's observant." Kris says. "Seeing as we met yesterday."
In actuality, Kris felt like they'd known each other for a lot longer. She wasn't sure why. Another confusing thing to add to the list.

"You're pretty observant yourself, considering you saw through my mask when anyone else would have believed me." Jess retorts.

Kris holds back laughter. "Guess so."
"I'll be honest, I'm not sure what's up with me."

"See?" Jess chuckles.

A short pause as Jess considers the most recent circumstance of Kris turning red and ceasing to function.

"A little bit ago, you froze when I offered you some of my food, then said you were thinking of something else. What were you thinking?" she asks.

"Exactly, I'm not sure what I was thinking." Kris says, some of the heat returning to her face, but not nearly as much.

Jess looks up at Kris, noting the blush.

"I think you are sure. But I'll drop the subject - for now."

Kris nods and hopes what Jess meant was that she would forget about the entire thing until Kris pulls herself together. She hoped she would soon.

Jess looks around, and gestures for Kris to take a right.

"We're nearly to my apartment." she says, looking around and the poorly built houses around the pair.

"'Kay." Kris replies. "Just tell me when to stop walking."

Jess nods slightly, closing her eyes and inhaling, catching a whiff of. . . cinnamon.

She opens her eyes quickly, trying to distract herself, but the sharp scent still lingers. As a matter of fact, now that she was paying attention to it, she could tell it was coming from Kris.

She shakes her head slightly.

"Stop here." she says.

"Which number?" Kris asks, referring to Jess's address.

"It's on the third floor. I doubt you can carry me up there." Jess chuckles.

"Nope." Kris agrees. "How do you think we're getting up there?"

Jess kinda twists in Kris' arms, falling to the earth as a result and standing up with 0 regards to her possibly broken ankle.

"I'll climb up the stairs." she says cheerfully.

"I-I can help." Kris says. "You can lean on my shoulder. Shift your weight." She says, wrapping her arm around Jess's neck and shoulders.

Jess sighs, but looks happy nonetheless.

"Fine. But I'll have you know I walked home with a fractured skull at one point and I ended up fine. Ish. I get migraines a lot." she murmurs, starting to move forward.

Kris follows her movements, acting as a second center of gravity for Jess.

Slowly, the weird pair make their way up to the third floor, then down the hall to eapartment 31-C.

The floor was squeaking with every single step, the baseboards were rotting, and the walls were stained yellow with water.

I won't mention the ceiling. Suffice to say, that's where the water stains on the walls came from.

Jess pulls out her apartment key, sliding it into the lock.

It was clearly rusted, and the girl had to twist it violently to get the lock to open, before twisting the doorknob - which was very loose and clearly on its last legs - and stepping inside.