This takes place during the February 17th DADA Class - permission given by Kit.

---

It wasn't really anger that coursed through Dax's veins - not really. Annoyance, maybe. Definitely curiosity and, just possibly, and outlet for his disappointment over how Valentine's Day had gone. Either way, Erin Harper getting what was coming to him was far more interesting in his mind than the class.

There was also the thrill of a fight, which he hadn't gotten into with anyone but Dion in...quite some time. And Harper was a fighter, too; Dax's heart beat with the hope that their wands wouldn't get involved. There was nothing quite like the feel of fist-on-face. Especially when the face you were...fisting?...had caused your crush to be upset. That made it all the more satisfying.

In his horse form, he thundered off into the brush, leaving the cries of his team behind. Horses had a better sense of smell than humans, but still not a great one - but it was enough he could follow the scent into the other team's territory, skirting around the edges of it so as to avoid the main group.

He was assuming Erin would be on offense. From what he knew of the boy, it seemed the most likely thing he'd have done.  Rustling in the bushes to his left made him slow his gallop to a walk, snorting loudly. Thankfully Dion was on Erin's team; if he was lucky Erin would assume he was his twin...

Erin was indeed on offensive, and having the time of his life. He'd been in the Forest a handful of times over his years at Hogwarts, but rarely this deep. The thought didn't bother him - only the opposite. Erin was a city boy, from the edge of Newport; this was exciting even if he hadn't gotten the professor-sanctioned opportunity to hex anyone yet. It almost made him wonder if he was in too deep; he hadn't seen or heard anyone. Well, he'd surprised a trace of rabbits earlier, but that didn't count.

He'd stopped to tie his trainers behind a bush when he first heard the hoofsteps. His first thoughts were centaurs; his second was Dion Fayette.  Trying to see through the foliage was not as sneaky as he thought it would be; it was too thick and the dry leaves rattled like bones. Very unsubtle. He finally emerged from the bushes like a scowling forest spirit, with the frank disregard for his potential safety of the very confident and the very stupid. Hoofbeats = not one of his classmates about to curse him. That was all he was really concerned with.

And there he was, standing around like an idiot and peering into the bushes of his own team - Dion. Or was it Dax? They were twins, but Erin had no idea whether twinship applied to animagus forms too. One of the two, either the one who was apparently to be avoided or the one whose impromptu leadership had assigned him a place he had already assumed; either way, they weren't about to talk to him with a horse-mouth. And Dax couldn't hex him without hands.

Erin gave the horse a look that hovered between mild reproach and extreme skepticism, and backed into the bushes again.

Erin walked out of the bushes almost in front of him, and when their eyes met Dax sat for a moment, considering his next move. Then, without too much thought, he leaped.

Thankfully - and really only via luck - he didn't land on Erin. His front hooves pounded into the ground a few feet away and he lunged his head forward, teeth sinking into the fabric of Erin's jumper and hauling him off his feet.

He could hear fabric ripping as he swung Erin sideways, the smaller boy's body crashing into the nearby bushes when Dax released him. Moving largely on adrenalin, Dax lunged again, transforming back as he did. He landed on Erin still partially covered in black a white fur, his face a nightmarish mask of half human and half horse features. He straddled Erin, sitting on his legs and seizing one of his wrists, Dax's other hand grabbing his neck.

"Right, Harper. You n' me are gonna have a little talk. And a good fight. It's up to you which order those go in."

Erin was just too damn slow. It was hard for him to connect a horse with the Fayette twins, and harder still to see one as a danger; he hadn't even drawn his wand from where he'd put it to tie his trainers when the thing leaped. Facing it, he was in little position to start, and the horse's reach was phenomenal. Before he knew it he'd gone crashing into the rattling-bone bush, and then some sort of nightmare was on top of him. Erin put up a hell of a fight going down until he realized it was just Dax who, for all his resemblance to a tan, attractive barn, was at least human. He watched with fascination for precisely one half second the way the fur rippled and receded from the Hufflepuff's face; it took him another half a second to realize that an attack like this was probably far beyond the aggressive standard of most of their classmates. Between his twin's warning and Dax flinging him into a bush, Erin had twigged long before the threats spewed out of Dax's throat that this was personal.

He didn't speak, not yet. His eyes flicked over Dax's face with more curiosity than anything else, openly fearless, even - almost - excited. He knew his choice by the end of the other boy's sentence. And Erin had been pinned more times than he could count, by more careful attackers than this one;  Dax had let him have a hand free. Throat-grip or not, that was a mistake. He wasn't holding him tightly enough not to speak, and Erin was just thoughtless enough not to care how close his wandtip was to certain... valuable personal assets.

A snarled Blasting charm - light flared from his legs - and Dax was shoved off of him by a force much more powerful than mere hands. Erin's feet scrabbled at the ground and then he was off running, leaping over the undergrowth like a particularly fleet-footed deer. His pocket had a fist-sized hole, and the charm wouldn't slow down Dax for long; nevertheless, Erin was grinning like a fiend as he legged it, shucking the mangled remnants of his jacket as he went. He let out a low whoop, to trail mockingly behind him. This was more like it.

But he did remember to recast his barely effective excuse for a Disillusionment charm as he ran, fumbled fingers and muttered words of a spell that flickered on and off as he concentrated. He stuck to the trees, too, young saplings barely grown and near strangled with ground growth. He didn't plan on tripping, and the forest would help slow Dax down should he change back to horse. Not to mention the little trees would give him more cover, and their adolescent forms were watched over by the occasional large tree. Not fully grown, not stately and huge; perfect for climbing height if he happened to be seven feet tall. (Spells would see to that.) Erin wasn't winded yet, and wouldn't be for a while. Seeker practice, as well as a regular number of endurance-testing fights, saw to that. But just in case, he kept an eye on the climbable trees that flashed past. Too tall, too short - it didn't matter. He was still too delighted with the whole situation to think of hiding just yet.
 

The blast took him by surprise, and Dax slapped himself mentally for that as he recovered. He'd been out of fights for too long; he'd too often replied on his muscles and size to intimidate his opponent. He'd expected Erin to be scared - to whimper, even, or be shocked he was under attack by a Fayette. Well, that's why arrogance was a weakness, right?

He smiled feraly. He was happy, though. This was gonna be great. They'd both likely get detention, but it'd still be great.

Erin took off as Dax stumbled to his feet, Dax healing a burn to his leg. His back was badly bruised - he'd hit a tree pretty hard - but he could put up with that. He found Erin's retreating back after a quick scan of the trees and scowled; the other boy was using the forest to his advantage, and the difficultly Dax's eyes had in locating him hinted at the beginning of a Disillusionment Charm.

Damn. Dax got his breath back as he thought, his bruised back protesting as he sucked air into his lungs. His wand had flown from his grip when he got hit; he found it in the low branches of a nearby tree and ran a finger over the silver horse on the handle before he cast a Disillusionment Charm and a Muffling Charm on himself. Wand stowed in his pocket, he returned to his horse form, taking off after Erin.

The small, close-together trees did indeed make it difficult to follow Erin directly, bulky as he was. He crashed along, following the small hints of a trail Erin left behind - a faint scent, the occasional broken branch, crushed undergrowth.

Thank Merlin it wasn't fall. Then the leaves he was crashing over would crackle and crush, the dry sticks would snap like thunder - instead the ground was damp and frozen from winter storms, and the debris he ran on had already been soaked into softly yielding submission by the elements. There was no sound except for the faintest of pounding feet and his breathing, which was only now after several minutes starting to get a bit labored. He'd fled with a spurt of energy, going fast and hard and quick, and made it quite a ways. Now he thought it might be all right to stop, at least just to listen.

He stopped. He listened. There was the distant snaps and muted cracks of something big hitting many small trees, a thread of sound curiously hard to fix on. He couldn't tell how far away Dax was, or from which direction he was coming - Erin turned his head like a dog scenting the wind, eyes wide as he strained to hear anything definite. A flicker of movement - his head snapped around again - nothing. More faint crashing; Erin began to get antsy standing in one place. Unable to pinpoint the noise or suppress the insistent urge to go, he started running again.

He wasn't laughing anymore, wasn't smiling. But this was less to do with the state of his emotions than with the intense concentration he devoted to the hunt. A fierce joy simmered just below the surface, and Erin was more content running to an inevitable fight than he had been in a long while. The act of running required a bizarrely large amount of concentration, what with having to watch the ground to make certain he didn't stumble, having to know exactly where his feet were going to land before they actually did, things like that. It was sort of instinctual, like knowing exactly where to grab to catch the gold weaving blur of the Snitch, which way to turn mid-air, how to dive to escape the oncoming whir of a bludger - split-second decisions that he made easily and with no time for regret. But there was a part of his mind that was free to think as he went, and Erin listed spells mentally, let them stumble off his lips in practice. He wasn't very good at memorization, so he needed a lot of practice.

But he was getting even antsier now. The woods were lightening, the brush clearing away. There were less little saplings and more graceful adults as he ran on. He'd been counting on them to slow Dax down, just like he'd been counting on the play of light and shadows in the thicker growth to help disguise his faltering Disillusionment charm. Dax would be able to run faster here, as horse or human; Erin had less places to hide. (Not that heneeded to hide. He was not coward. Definitely not. Right.) But he could hardly turn around to try to circle back around - although he couldn't tell for sure, although the winter forest seemed relatively peaceful, Erin didn't think he had enough time for that.

Indecision slowed his steps. For the first time, Erin felt a flickering of unease. Blows were part and parcel of his restless reckless nature; although he was impressively stubborn, possessing wiry muscle, manic energy, and absolutely no moral fighting code, there were still plenty of guys stronger than Erin. He was familiar with defeat, familiar with pain, barely familiar with fear. He'd been beaten up before, too many times to count, hexed and humiliated and threatened since he was old enough to get himself into trouble that he couldn't get back out of. But that didn't mean he liked it, and it certainly didn't mean he wanted to get his face remodeled by one Dax Fayette.

The guy was huge, after all. Erin knew his thoughts kept coming back to that, but he couldn't quite manage to focus on anything else. Dax probably worked out every day to make his muscles nice and big. Spoon-fed them applesauce laced with protein and enlarging spells, or something. It was going to hurt like bloody hell if he caught Erin.

So, faced with an environment slowly turning to his disadvantage, Erin did the one thing he'd been considering ever since he entered the forest. He put on a spurt of speed again, spurred on by the nagging feeling that Dax was about to burst out behind him at any second. His wand he slipped into a pocket, the one without the hole. Then he leapt, hands outstretched for a low-hanging branch of his intended tree. His fingers caught on frozen bark, and he hauled himself up in one easy swoop before gravity caught on to what he was doing and tried to stop him.

Then he kept going, slipping a few more branches higher up the tree until he was more than 12 feet off the ground. Well above the reach of even a particularly long-necked horse, he figured. And if the idea of being stuck in a tree, in plain sight since all the leaves had left the branches, made him uncomfortable... well. That was what Shield charms were for. He cast one quickly, holding his wand in one hand and a higher branch with the other as he balanced on the balls of his feet and peered down for signs of pursuit.

Even with the muffling charm his own hoof beats pounded loudly in his ears, the snap of twigs and slap of mud filling his ears. He tried to focus - tried to keep his nose strained for the faint smell of Harper, the waft of shampoo and sweat and... miscellanea. He was getting off track, he was sure of it.  Random glances of movement, of an out of place color - that was what he had to go on other than the scent, and it wasn't much. The small trees were slowing him down, too; an awkwardly timed leap landed him badly and he nearly fell, snapping a sapling in half as he crashed into it sideways.

Wind knocked out of him, sweat forming on his hide, his side protesting; all these factors he focussed in on his anger, keeping his motivation alive. Yet more than anger, a curiosity was gnawing at him - and that was motivator enough.

The forest opened up after an entirely too large stretch of small trees, and he slowed as the the undergrowth receded. In theory, he should be able to see if Harp was here, but his eyes picked up nothing but what could be a few footprints in the soft ground. With the leaf-litter, though, he couldn't tell for sure.

His nose was telling him Harper was here, though. He lifted his head high, inhaling deeply. It smelled fresh, too, so Harper couldn't be -

A tree's branches were moving in a way that hinted whatever was causing it sure as hell wasn't the wind. Dax grinned, an odd expression for a horse; then, because he was feeling particularly manly at the moment, he opened his mouth and roared, the scream echoing through the trees.

Then he charged, thundering to the base of the tree. He'd have to act fast - the flicker of light in the tree indicated a shield charm. Well, fine; if Harper wanted to play it that way, Dax would just make him come down.

He reverted to his human form when he reached the tree's base, scrambling to retrieve his wand. He nearly tore his pants pocket in his haste to draw it; but when he did...

"Come down from there, Harper! Are you a man or not?!" He wanted nothing more than to beat his chest, but that would have been silly. Instead he pointed his wand towards the tree trunk and began to cast gouging charms, the spells cutting into the base like the blows of an axe.

For several minutes, nothing happened. Erin shook his head at himself, at his stupid wrong instincts - Fayette hadn't been as close as he thought, then, if the other boy hadn't shown up yet. Erin slipped his feet from underneath him, sitting on the branch and swinging his legs beneath with the ease of one more comfortable in the air than on the ground. He kept the spell strong, though, his wand spewing out that silvery, protective mist.

A roar ripped through the clearing, and Erin nearly dropped his wand. He bit his lip to keep from laughing - what a ridiculous thing to do, and how intriguing, too - but it didn't matter. Fayette still spotted him. In retrospect, the Shield Charm wasn't the least visible thing he could have chosen, but it kept him safe safe safe as Dax began gouging out the wood of the tree.

Erin drew his legs up in alarm as pale gashes appeared on the bark lower on the tree. He peered down at Dax, his face just as absent of fear as it had been when he'd been pinned, instead suffused with a mild curiosity and something unreadable, something that shuttered his expression every once in a while when Dax's wand spat a particularly vicious cut. It was not so young of a tree as to be thin or unstable; the branch he sat on now was solid as oak (and maybe that was what it was, not like Erin could tell an oak from a poplar). It would take more than a few gouges to bring it down.

"Come down from there, Harper! Are you a man or not?!"

"Sure I am," Erin said, and laughed. "Unlike you. Cutting up a tree with your temper, now that's manly..." He'd long since dropped the useless Disillusionment spell, and now his teeth gleamed as he bared them. "Maybe you should try punching it instead. I'm sure it would be just as effective and far more entertaining for your captive audience."

A pause, as if for breath, before he went on in a swell of sound.  "Speaking of your captive audience, I'm very flattered, but I am definitely not hiding the team barrel up my shirt." The muscles in his arms worked as he leaned forward on the branch, his fingers wrapping around it from behind as a safeguard to keep himself from falling. "So....?"

Might as well ask now. Erin doubted he'd get a chance later to hold any sort of conversation. He'd never spoken to Fayette before.

"Sure I am," Erin said, and laughed. "Unlike you. Cutting up a tree with your temper, now that's manly..."

Dax growled. "It's sure as hell manlier than hiding up a tree like a pussy," he said, aiming his wand upwards as he scowled. "Or running away. I'd heard you were a good fighter, Harper, so I was lookin' forward to this. Turns out you're just a weasel. Disappointing', dude."

"And this has nothin' to do with class, Harper," he continued. "An' everything to do with you upsetting Toko! Y'can either tell me what you did now - or I can make you tell me. Pick one." He went back to gouging the tree as he gave Erin a chance to reply - the deep gouges now having sliced almost halfway into the trunk.

"It's sure as hell manlier than hiding up a tree like a pussy. Or running away. I'd heard you were a good fighter, Harper, so I was lookin' forward to this. Turns out you're just a weasel. Disappointing', dude."

Erin stilled on his branch, hands curling around rough bark 'til he felt the pain. "Good things come to those who wait," he said, almost too softly for Dax to hear. "Don't worry, Fayette. You'll get your fight."

The gouging charms, which he had previously dismissed as ineffective against a tree this thick, were beginning to prove their superiority. The tree wasn't wobbling yet, but he could feel each thudding cut like Dax's wand was shooting axes. Another spell hit to shake him of his stillness, interrupting the burn of potential in his blood. Erin glanced down at the trunk with apparent disinterest, but there were calculations whirling away in his overheated little brain.

There was no way he could extend his Shield charm to cover his hidey-hole, too. He didn't have that much power, that reach, the know-how or the ability to extend the charm as he wanted. Not to mention he was already getting bored with this waiting game. The knowledge of inevitable pain met his restless hungry foolhardy nature and was pushed aside to die in the back his head where all the other things he didn't care to think about were sent. It didn't matter. He'd have to get down eventually, of his own volition or when the tree came tumbling down. Erin was stupid, and he was stubborn, but neither of these traits had anything on his pride, which was already chafing that Dax had corralled him. Stubbornly staying up here until the tree fell and Dax could pick him off like easy prey was a cringing, pride-twisting thought.

But at least he knew the reason. For the second time Dax's words put a halt to the fever of his mind.

"Toko?" he repeated, the barest breath of surprise and definitely too low for the other boy to hear. Then his puzzled expression cleared - Yumi. He'd cornered him the other week for a confession; he had to know. Now, Erin almost wished he hadn't - the memory of the bright bold girl with the chill fingertips who threw back shots and danced with him was a nice one, something he'd have liked to keep. Too bad. Too late.

But he hadn't touched Toko since then. Hadn't even roughed him up when he had the opportunity; it felt wrong. So he was puzzled, now, exactly what smirch on Toko's honor Fayette was attempting to revenge. It wasn't like Erin was the one who - wait.... didn't Fayette know?

He leaned forward again, his eyes this time not on the tree trunk but Dax's furious face. A quick sweep of the other boy's expression, and Erin laughed, swinging himself back up with a smile on his face. He didn't, the poor bastard. He wouldn't be here if he did, wouldn't be asking Erin what he'd done if Dax already knew. What a barrel of laughs.

And what a good line to be fed, something like that. Erin already had a taste for leaving Dax's questions unanswered. A 10 ft drop, but that was nothing to a Seeker and an adrenaline junkie like himself. With the added momentum of pushing off from the branch, Erin hit Dax feet-first before the other boy even had time to realize Erin wasn't thinking of a reply.

He scrabbled at Dax's wand with one hand, not even minorly stunned with a Fayette twin to break his fall; his own wand was dropped somewhere in the scree of leaves.

"I didn't do anything," he hissed, with their positions reversed; leaning close, he straddled Dax's waist. "Is talking such a crime?" A flash of teeth, a laugh, as he tossed off a volley of quick punches to the face: one two three. He didn't have much breath to spare for words, not in this quick reckless gamble to stun the much bigger Dax, but Erin couldn't resist. His delight at Dax's ignorance had segued into mild, bitter outrage that it should be like this; he'd promised to keep Toko's secret, and now here would have been the opportune moment to spill. Might've saved him a beating. But no. Even if Toko didn't value his word, Erin would keep it. That stubbornness, again. Disdain dripped from his voice, or would have, if he wasn't half-strangled from breathlessness and the occasional snarl. "You clueless little sod."

Erin's weight suddenly hit him in the chest, and Dax landed hard on the forest floor, air knocked from his lungs yet again. Erin sitting on his stomach didn't make regaining his senses any easier; but he did have enough braincells firing to retain a tight grip on his wand as he felt Erin going for it.

His head spun and Erin's punches didn't help - but for some reason the coppery taste in his mouth did and Erin's words made his eyes focus quickly on the Slytherin's smirking face. "It is if he comes off feeling like he did," he growled, spitting out a small amount of blood, and struggling for a moment to free his hands before he paused - going limp and confused for just a moment. "Clueless?" He asked, eyes wide. "What do you mean-"

Dax didn't bother to finish his sentence, swinging out of a seemingly confused daze into a sudden upwards surge, hands still held by Erin's. His torso rose, lifting the smaller boy with him, and his aim became clear just a moment before their foreheads connected, Dax's swimming head almost feeling better for the pain that blossomed from the impact.

He let his momentum carry forward and wrenched one of his hand's from Erin's grip, grabbing the younger boy by the hair and jerking his head back sharply. He couldn't pull his other hand free,  not without letting go of his wand; so he settled for the next best thing and with an almost instinctual sound bit Erin's neck hard, the taste of blood intensifying.

Erin was a mighty paranoid bastard, and Dax's limp surrender underneath him didn't make him loosen his hold. Still, he hadn't been expecting Dax to act mid-sentence - maybe if he wasn't so occupied with the sudden struggle, he'd have admired the Hufflepuff's cunning. A split-second warning of tensed muscles beneath him, and Erin was cursing the strength that let Dax sit up like his weight was nothing.

The sudden upwards movement set him off balance; automatically Erin's hold on Dax's wrists tightened, became the only thing keeping him from being thrown off as his weight was tilted backwards. If Dax got him on the ground, Erin'd never get up again - he knew this with the instincts of a fighter, with the sharp eye that came from experience and pain. The upper fighter had the upper hand, a lower position bred desperation to escape, and those big fists could rain down blows like a cage. The racing of his thoughts - less thoughts, more the quickquickquick sparks of urge and intent - was derailed completely by the sudden meeting of Dax's forehead with his. Seconds later, while his expression crumpled in a grimace, sharp teeth bit deep into his tender neck.

He gave a gasp and a jerk, flailing away like a fish caught on a hook. His eyes snapped open, wide and blue towards the dead branches above. There was a hand in his hair, twisting pain exquisite in its sharpness through his roots and scalp, but it didn't compare to the burning pain of teeth where they oughtn't be. With the snapped rip away he tore himself a deeper wound, but fuck if Erin cared; he just wanted to get away. At the same time as he twisted, he gripped at Dax's face, vicious fingers going directly for the eyes. He swung and scrabbled like a blind boxer, pushing, punching, clawing, his blunt fingernails digging into skin and an instant later attempting to rip off Dax's ear in any effort to hurt. Biting was dirty. As soon as he got a good shot Erin intended to bite back.

Dax still had his wand in one hand, but Erin didn't want him to have breath between strikes to speak any incantations. There wasn't much room to draw back for a blow without relinquishing his current hold, but he tried to hit as hard as he could with so little space. There was a pressure point at the base of the wrist; Erin dug his thumb in like he was hunting for veins, hoping to make Dax drop his wand with the pain.

His face was bleeding, his forehead throbbing, blood in his mouth. Erin jerked way from Dax's teeth and despite the boy's struggling, Dax held him tightly, feeling hairs pop out from the grip on his scalp.

Erin's thumb pressing into his wrist hard hurt, and worked; Dax dropped his wand, having enough sense to flick his fingers to send his wand some distance away so Erin couldn't grab it. Growling to suppress the pain and having to dodge Erin's fingers clawing at his face, he summoned enough strength to pick up Erin along with himself, grunting as he drew his legs under him. Erin's grip on his waist helped, as it turned out; he got to his feet enough that he was able to throw his weight forward, slamming Erin's back into the tree with Dax halfway on top of him.

He panted, managing to head butt Erin again in the shift. His teeth gritted as his forehead missed its target and slammed instead into Erin's teeth.

Dax lurched to his feet; Erin clung like a monkey, unwilling and unable, due to Dax's sudden grip, to let go. Although this was a bizarre turn of events, the Slytherin boy didn't react to the move, didn't anticipate what was coming, too mad as he was with adrenaline and anger. Everything else had fallen away except the urgent drive to hurt. Blood was trickling down his chest and back, sticking his shirt to skin, the bite already inflamed and angry. He had a pounding headache, his breath ran rough, his scalp was stinging. His side ached from where Dax had thrown him into the bush earlier. He hardly noticed.

Being slammed into a tree got his attention, though. Erin let out a ragged sound of pain and surprise, the cry mingling with the explosive whoosh of all the breath left in his lungs. He gasped for air again, eyes refocusing just in time for his face to meet Dax's forehead a second time. The sensation of bone meeting bone was astronomical, and for an instant Erin thought his teeth had snapped right out of his mouth.  His front teeth went completely numb, the chill of battered bone humming all the way up his skull under nose and eyes to commiserate with his already aching head, but as Dax bounced off his teeth Erin was viciously pleased to see the deep dent in the other's forehead, already welling with a single round drop of blood.

"So trusting, you Hufflepuffs," he spat, and for a moment it sounded like he meant their fight. But he continued, "I think you need to ask that pretty boy of yours a few pointed questions about what he gets up to at night. I told him - " A gulp of breath, as he looked up at Dax from narrowed eyes. Even half out of breath and snarling, he still sounded mocking. " - I wouldn't tell. But you ought to ask, sometime."

He retaliated immediately after, not stunned although his skull was still singing, with a headbutt of his own. Not into Dax's teeth, or forehead, but aiming for his nose. Still pinioned between the tree and the other's weight, Erin snapped his head forward, hoping to hear the satisfying crack of cartilage and bone. But Dax had room to absorb the blow, while Erin had little to build up momentum; while his forehead did meet squishy fragile nose, he didn't hear the telltale snap of breakage. A wave of muttered curses dripped from Erin's lips, the sorts of things to make a dragon tamer blush.

He jerked his head back just in time to avoid a broken nose, but his nose filled with blood and pain erupted from it anyway. He was going to look like shit after this, that was for sure.  Gritting his teeth at the pain - from his entire face, now - he slammed Erin into the tree again, driving forward with his shoulder to pound the smaller boy into the trunk.

He wrenched a hand free and grabbed Erin by the throat, snarling at his sneering face. He dug his fingers into the bite as he squeezed the boy's neck. "He's not mine, Harper! At night - what did you do? You have to have done something!" He was angry, confused; and right here was a good outlet for it. That damn smirk would get wiped off Erin's face soon enough...

"If you hurt him, Harper, I swear..."