Welcome to Wonderland (Harry Potter/Figure Skating)

6. Recovering

Johnny had been staring at Evan reading a magazine for almost a minute before he even realised that his eyes were open. It took his brain that long to figure out he wasn't sleeping anymore. Evan looked somewhat dishevelled; his hair was not styled, he had stubble, and his clothes looked more thrown on than chosen. It was a strangely attractive look on Evan, which was the thought Johnny's mind decided to kick start while having and he finally blinked.

That was the kind of thought he hadn't had since he and Evan had really started the rivalry. It was unsettling to wake up thinking it. If his head hadn't chosen that moment to inform him it was aching, he might have been more worried.

"Ow," he said as the thumping made itself known.

"Johnny," Evan said, sounding half pleased and half genuinely concerned, "you're awake. Do you need me to get a nurse ... um ... I mean healer?"

He made a non-committal noise; he wasn't sure.

"I'll call someone," Evan decided, at which point Johnny made up his mind.

"No," he said as he came to the conclusion that was a bad idea, "I'll be okay."

His head was aching, but it wasn't too bad, and he didn't like medication. The potion Healer Gladstone had fed him tasted bad and even though it didn't seem to have had any of the side effects of normal medicine, he still didn't want any more.

"Thanks," he added as an afterthought.

His thoughts seemed to be working faster than they had been before and he blinked and looked around the room.

"Where's Patti?" he asked, surprised that Evan was there, and his mom wasn't.

"Talking to Healer Gladstone about how long you need to stay here and what after care you'll need now that you're awake," Evan said, clearly parroting off information he had been given.

It said quite a lot to Johnny's psyche that he didn't find that anywhere as annoying as he used to do. Clearly Evan had changed brackets in his head, but then when it came to people looking after his mom when he couldn't, it tended to mean a lot to Johnny.

"I hope the answer is not long and not much," he said and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Everyone seemed quite excited that you were awake," Evan told him, looking what Johnny thought was probably hopeful; he was out of practice reading Evan.

Once they had been friends, but that seemed like such a long time ago.

"Shame it's not just a matter of waving one of those wands," he replied and then did his very best not to shudder.

He was more than aware that the memory of a stick pointed at him was going to haunt his thoughts for a while.

"I heard something about a couple of days," Evan said and sounded as if he was trying to cheer Johnny up.

While appreciating the sentiment, Johnny didn't find it that easy to let go of the recollection that was bothering him. It was also clear that Evan had shadows of his own to deal with as an awkward silence fell.

"Well you'll need to get back on the ice as soon as possible to be ready for Worlds," Evan said in that earnest tone he had in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to change the subject.

Johnny was pretty sure he should be certified for finding it kind of cute. Just because Evan was being friendly did not mean it was time for any of the feelings he might have once had for his rival to surface. He was so busy thinking about that, that it took him a second to realise what Evan had actually said.