He ain't a sack of potatoes, but it doesn't make much of a difference.
Synopsis: Abandoned by Scott halfway through the X-Challenge, the Cliffhangers are forced to call it quits when Auggie badly twists his ankle. But you're too stubborn to let Scott be right about y'all not being able to finish the race.
Ship: Platonic!reader x Platonic!Auggie (can be read as romantic as well, but they don't know much about each other)
Warnings: mentions of pain, mentions of injury, typical Higher Ground attitude, touching (nothing of inappropriate nature!)
a/n: Hello! This is my first time posting any sort of writing on Tumblr, so please let me know what you think of the formatting! I'm happy to take any feedback (please make it respectful, though). This is also my first time writing something from Higher Ground, so please be kind about any missed or inaccurate details. All characters might be ooc, but any Higher Ground content is better than none! Enjoy!
Morale was down real low by the time you'd all gotten to the trail run part of the race. It stooped even further when Scott had taken off alone, forcing the rest of you to abruptly end the break you desperately needed and try to follow him. 'Try' being the keyword as Scott was soon out of sight.
The map is of little help as you find yourself in the middle of a gravel road with no idea which way to go--it seemed that the kayaking and biking had not only taken all your energy, but also the ability to read maps.
"They might as well not have given us the map with how much help it is," Shelby muttered as Auggie ripped the map from Ezra's hands. He looked at it for a few seconds before deciding to just continue straight.
Juliette called after Auggie as he set off in a run through the woods. "Auggie, slow down!" Ezra was in no better condition to run than a fawn, legs stumbling as he heaved breath after breath, somehow keeping pace with Shelby.
Honestly, this race--'X-Challenge', or whatever it was called--had as much purpose as an umbrella in a squall. You all knew you wouldn't win, probably wouldn't come close to it either. Scott had been pretty vocal about that a couple of times, and so had you: telling the other Cliffhangers that it was stupid to try to win the race. But Peter had been adamant about it being a good team exercise.
What a load of bullshit. The only thing this is doing for the group is lowering our self-esteem and embarrassing us. You think as you follow Auggie's lead.
Then, suddenly, Auggie wasn't in front of you. He disappears just a dozen meters in front of you. All you hear is his yell of pain, and the next thing you see when you skid to a stop in front of the ledge is Auggie writhing in pain and groaning on the gravel road below.
You all rush down the drop-off as carefully as you can. Auggie is leaning over his ankle, his eyes shut tightly in pain. He cries out in pain when Shelby and Juliette crowd him. "Get off me!" he groans, wincing sharply when the movement of pushing them off tugs at his ankle.
"Is it broken? Did you hear like a wet snap?" Shelby asks, completely unapologetic to Juliette's quiet 'ew'.
"No, I just twisted it." A sharp inhale leaves his lips as he tries to move his ankle, barely managing to wiggle it before the pain shoots through his stomach.
"Think you can stand on it?" Shelby asks. She and Juliette loop their arm through his at his nod and hoist him up, but they quickly lower him when a rapid string of 'ows' sounds from him.
Juliette pulls out the rescue radio from her pants, where it had been clipped to her back pocket. You stand to the side, watching as Juliette speaks into the radio, telling whoever is listening that someone on the team is injured. Shelby is bandaging Auggie's ankle, though you doubt it's doing much without a proper splint.
Standing there in the middle of the woods, not far from the finish line, you're struck by the desperate, restless tug in your gut. You hadn't cared about this race at any point--win or lose, it didn't matter. But now you feel this inexplicable urge to keep going.
You'd like to think it was pride that lit the fire inside you, but deep down, you knew it was the sheer stubbornness of not wanting Scott and the Lawrence Hanstings kids to be right. You'd always known you wouldn't win the race, but Scott had been sure you wouldn't even finish it.
He had been so selfish when Peter made him captain, bossing you all around; he'd told you that you were a hopeless team, that you wouldn't even make it to the finish line. And then he'd left you.
Getting picked up and driven to the end with so little left would only prove Scott right. He would have been right about you being losers, and the Lawrence Hastings silver-spooners would have been right that you're good for nothing.
So it was stubbornness that made you march over to Auggie and haul him over your shoulders into a fireman's carry.
"Whoa, hey! What the hell are you doing!" he exclaims, body stiffening as you wrap your left arm around his bicep and your right arm around his thigh.
"I'm not proving Scott right." Your voice comes out sharp and scarily determined. Juliette and Shelby's voices merge together in protest. "Stop! Let's wait for someone to pick us up!" Juliette pleads when you start walking down the trail. She flinches back an inch when you abruptly turn around, and Auggie's legs slam against your side at the sudden loss of momentum. He cries out in pain and protests against your hold, but your grip is firm. "Hey, I ain't a bag of potatoes, y'know!"
"We are going to finish this race. If we stop now, we're quitters. We're exactly what everyone said we are. We won't even be losers because we won't even cross the damn finish line!
"We will keep going until we pass the finish line, and no one is getting out of that. So you'll pick up your stuff, and get your butts moving, or so help me I will come back and carry each of you across it if I have to."
Ezra looks the most taken aback by your little speech, but he's the first one to get up and walk over to you. Juliette follows after a moment of silence with a sigh, and Shelby last when she's left alone, as you and the other Cliffhangers start walking down the trail.
Auggie is slowly relaxing as he lies slumped across your shoulders; it's clear that he won't be put down until you cross that finish line. "Didn't think you cared about this stupid race," he stated, repeating back to you what you'd said when you'd started the race this morning.
Your reply comes quickly, a sharp snap back against his comment, "I don't. But I'm not quitting, and I'm not leaving anyone behind like Scott."
A smirk finds its way to his lips as he takes in the firm expression on your face. "Ah, so you're secretly a softie," he teases, "I wouldn't have thought the almighty 'I-don't-care-about-anyone' had a soft side."
He doesn't get a verbal answer, but the indignant huff that escapes your lips is enough to turn his smirk into a grin.
After a minute of silence, he speaks again, this time his tone light--or as light as it could be given the throbbing pain in his ankle. "So what, you're like a secret bodybuilder or somethin'?"
"No."
"Did you train or somethin' before you came to Mount Horizon? You've been carryin' me the past mile without complainin'. I know I ain't exactly light." Auggie catches the faint spark that lights up your eyes for a second.
"I used to volunteer weekends at the fire station where I lived," you announce, shifting your grip around his thigh to pull him higher up when he starts to slip. "I wanted to be a firefighter before...well, before everything got messed up and my parents sent me here."
His grin sobers at the faint melancholy in your voice. "Oh...Firefighter's pretty cool. Guess you're the one who should be makin' the bonfire tonight, then." He tries to lighten your mood with a joke; for some reason, seeing you sad like this--genuinely upset--tugged at something deep in his chest.
The rest of the walk to the finish line is walked in silence, at least on your part. Shelby, Juliette, and Ezra had already crossed the finish line, and just beyond it they stood, along with Katherine, Peter, and Hannah, who were cheering up a storm. Scott was there, too, which surprised you. More than that, he was cheering, too. Peter must have given him a real talking to about teamwork and spirit.
"Alright then, Smoke Eater, let's do this," Auggie states while you trudge the last steps to the finish line, his lips pulling up in a smile when the corners of your lips lift.
Perhaps it wasn't so bad being losers when you were losers together.
a/n: I realise that the ending is abrupt and quite awkward, but I wanted to post this, and I know if I spent any more time trying to figure it out, I probably would have never gotten to posting it. I might edit this at some point. I hope you enjoyed it anyway! Thank you for reading!
