teaic | (no subject)

WHO: Jack & ~~Briony~~ Briar, plus Theo at the end
WHERE: First Aid Class
WHEN: 12th June iirc
WHAT: Jack and Briar butt heads
WARNINGS: n/a

First Aid course had gone as well as it could go until intern Jazz Kapoor had wrapped a bandage so tight that it was nearly cutting off circulation to his arm. It had had to be cut off, and the scissors had nicked through the sleeve of his shirt as well.

He rose from the hot seat and started towards the exit, using the reason of needing a new shirt as an excuse to duck out of the demonstration for a moment. Fussing with his ruined shirt cuff, he bumped into someone, and quickly muttered an apology, only slightly cut off at the end when he realised who it was.

"Pardon m—"

“My fault.” Briar offered, mildly, with all those years of schooling her face and keeping her voice down instead just now sounding clipped, and unfriendly. She still wasn’t confident that this man didn’t deserve it, though.

Jack stared at her, slightly taken back once he realised who he had stumbled into.

"I should have been looking where I was going," he said, and struggled to find anything else to say. After a brief pause, he added, "You should get back to the class, Briony."

There was something that Briar couldn’t put her finger: the way encountering Jack filled her with an inexplicable, utterly unfamiliar feeling that was almost impossible to name. It manifested in an immediate correction, firm and almost a warning. “Briar.” She replied, the flicker of a glare in her eyes. “I thought you were also participating.”

A rare look of bashfulness came over Jack before it was quickly gone again in a flash.

"Briar." he repeated with a nod. He was never going to live that one down if their past interactions were any indication.

"I have to change." he added, an exaggeration by any count.

Briar’s gaze flickered to the cuff of his shirt; she had been witness to the institute and mercifully kept her face still appropriately blank. “The first aid course is all day. Whose to say that no further incident befalls you later?”

"All part of the job." Jack replied without missing a beat, wondering if he was only imagining the vaguely threatening message or not. It was hard to tell with this one. He scrutinised face for any hint, before adding, "Good thing our med bay is so talented."

Briar stared at him, unblinking, shoulders back. “Yes. If you’d been injured further than a shirt cuff I imagine they would’ve been incredibly helpful.”

"Yes." Jack echoed drily, standing in the same pose, without quite realising it. He wasn't usually as confrontational but something about this one was bringing out the worst in him. "Guess I'm lucky I only got my shirt nicked."

The intern nodded at him, agreeing, and yet somehow still looking like they were ready to square up for a fight. “Very lucky. How long did it take before you realised there was an issue with the bandage?”

"Right at the start, but pointing that out would have robbed Jazz the moment of realisation herself." Jack lied easily, not backing down either for someone who (in theory) should know better than to antagonise an intern.

She quirked a brow, eyes narrowed. “So you put yourself in potential harm for little to no benefit, to teach an intern a lesson they could learn in multiple other capacities with no room to pivot on result, just to have it happen?” Because Jazz was her roommate, and her new friend, and it was becoming apparent that she really didn’t like this man and how willing he was to lie to her. “I doubt that.“

"I'm not here to teach, I'm here to be a warm body-" Jack started, only for their conversation to be interrupted by another intern.

“I need a warm body,” Theo interjected, stepping forward from where he’d been lurking just out of eyeline. While he had nothing but respect for Briar’s refusal to kowtow to Callahan’s authority, it would also suck if she found herself put in whatever equivalent of the brig that they had here. “And since you’re currently indecent,” he added with a smirk sent in the direction of the other man’s sleeve, “I guess that leaves you, Briar.”

Briar’s gaze stayed on Jack for almost slightly too long, as if she was really considering what to do next. That imminent threat behind her eyes remained… until she took in a breath, and her eye contact flickered back to Theo instead; the mask slotting back firmly in place if not for a hint of ‘I could take him’ that was both petty and definitely a reason for her to visit said brig he’d been concerned about.

The sheepishness over picking a fight with a grown man over getting her name wrong was beginning to fall over her like a cloud. “Happy to help.” She said, clipped again, and just about slid past Jack without shoulder checking him.

And as she was just out of eyeline, innocently: “You haven’t known me long. Briar is a fairly easy name to remember, don’t you think?”

“Pretty unique, yeah.” Theo said in an equally innocent tone. “I can’t imagine getting that one mixed up with anything else.”

Jack knew impertinence and childish rebellion when he saw it. Partly because he was the same, if dulled slightly by the virtue of age. It was the kind of thing he would do—and quite frankly, had done—at their age and he could hardly be mad at that.

Whatever reaction they were hoping to illicit with the little display instead made Jack laugh and shake his head as he left, muttering something about 'fucking youths'.

Briar almost, almost turned on her heel to comment and then glanced back at Theo, and the door to training. And now the wind was knocked out of her sails a little, she tried to start an explanation twice and then shrugged, just as innocently as before, beginning the walk back into the training. “Shall we?”

Theo shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. Whatever was going on between these two was none of his business. Not that he wouldn’t try and figure it out, just that he wouldn’t be pushing when everyone’s hackles were so firmly raised. “After you.”