This Means War

Peachy

"They look amazing." Sebastian sighed, staring up at the wild peach tree, standing tall in front of him. "Think they're ripe?"

"Yes." Ellie stated definitively, her mouth watering at the prospect of fresh, wild fruit.

"I can probably reach the low ones." He mumbled, reaching up to try and pull the branch lower.

"Ok, amateur." Ellie scoffed, rolling her eyes. "The ones up top are going to be better."

"What makes you say that?"

"The ones in the sun are always sweeter." Ellie informed, backing up a few paces. She got a running start and launched herself, managing to lever herself up to where the trunk split.

"What are you doing?" Sebastian laughed, his eyes wide as he watched her scale the tree.

"Peaches!" Ellie yelled excitedly, carefully working her way higher.

"Do not fall!" He cautioned, stepping around the tree as she moved, careful to always stay under her, just in case.

"I'm fine." Ellie assured, finally perching herself on a branch and plucking one of the coveted fruits, tossing it down to him.

"Ok, Miss "I'm fine", how do you plan on getting down?" Sebastian asked, laughing as realization slowly dawned on her.

You see, climbing things is easy. You can count on decreasing momentum as you make any jumps, you can secure a foothold before moving anything and make sure you have a good grip to keep yourself safe. Getting down was another story. Going down meant your momentum increased as you made any jumps. One wrong calculation could leave you in a world of hurt. Hand and foot holds had to be made faster and without prior assurance that they were steady enough to hold.

"You didn't think about that, did you?" Sebastian asked, fighting back a laugh as he fished out his phone. "This is great!" He cheered, starting the live video.

"This is so stupid!" Ellie sassed grumpily.

"Should we call the fire department? Tell them we have a gnome stuck in a tree?"

"Oh, yeah, short jokes. Real classy."

"This is the best thing to happen all day." He laughed, shifting to get a better angle.

"How is this relevant to the prank war?" Ellie griped, shooting him an annoyed look.

"If you agree to give up I'll help you get down." Sebastian offered.

"That seems unfair."

In all honesty, it was. This was more a prank of opportunity than anything else. He hadn't planned on her going all rabid squirrel and scaling the tree. The entire climb he'd assumed she had an escape plan. When she had admitted her predicament, it had just been too good to pass up. Sometimes, pranks take planning. Like when he had rearranged her house for her. A lot of planning and scheming had gone into that endeavor. Other times, the opportunity just happens to present itself, and you go with it. Such as right now, when his friend had unknowingly gotten herself stuck up a tree. Sure, he could help. Or he could let her suffer.

"I could almost reach you." Sebastian pointed out, holding his arm up to prove his point. "All you have to do is say you give up."

"No!" Ellie snapped, crossing her arms in a pout and kicking at his hand childishly. "I can stay up here for a while if I wanted to. I have food, after all."

"True, but your ass is going to get sore from that branch pretty quickly."

"I will never surrender." Ellie hissed, glaring down at him. "Besides, I know you. You won't just leave me up here."

"You think I won't?" He laughed, raising a brow at her.

"Nope."

"And why do you think that?"

"Easy." Ellie shrugged, sliding off the branch to stand on the one below it, carefully crouching down to stare at the camera in his hand. "Catch!"

Sebastian swore loudly, dropping his phone and scrambling to grab her as she tumbled from the branch. Her tiny body fell directly into his chest, knocking the air from his lungs and leaving the pair a wheezing, groaning mess on the ground.

"Told you." Ellie groaned, pushing herself up onto her elbows to stare at the man under her.

"Why?" He wheezed, grabbing her hips to lift her weight off his stomach as he tried to catch his breath.

"Hey, we could have done this the easy way, but nooo, someone had to be a jerk."

"You just threw yourself from a tree!"

"Thanks for breaking my fall."

"Why would you jump out of a tree?"

"How else was I going to get down?"

"You don't leap out of trees!"

"I was barely eight feet off the ground."

"You could have gotten hurt."

"I think I have a splinter." Ellie whined, settling her weight back on his hips as she tried to get a better look at her palm.

"A splinter? You just cannonballed into my chest and you're worried about a splinter?"

"Yes!" Ellie insisted, faint tears collecting in her eyes as she stared at her palm.

"Hey, are you ok?" Sebastian asked, his brows furrowing in concern as the color drained from her face. "Whoa, ok, nope, stop looking at it!" He instructed, grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand away from her face. "It's not that bad. Deep breath."

He gently pushed her off onto the ground next to him, grabbing his phone and hauling her to her feet. "Well, Instagram, I would like to introduce you to life with an overgrown toddler."

"That's not funny!"

"So, let's recap. In the last five minutes, you've managed to get stuck in a tree, fall out of said tree, land on top of me, get a splinter and then almost faint."

"Can you get it out?" Ellie asked hopefully, offering her injured hand.

"Yeah, I'll get it out. Just don't fall out of anymore trees." Sebastian sighed, ending the video and ushering her back to his trailer.