Chapter Text
“Hey give that back!” Derek whined, reaching for his hat, but Remus held it up out of reach and jumped, hanging it off the end of the statue’s pointing finger. “This is so unfair!”
“So was telling the teacher I put paint in your hair so you could go home early,” Remus retorted, sticking his tongue out and running off as Derek stamped his foot in petulant anger.
“You’re the worst, Remus!” the shorter kid yelled after him, grumbling as he tried to figure out how he could get his hat back. He couldn’t climb the statue in the centre of the fountain because he would inevitably get wet, and he couldn’t just jump because he was too darn short. If only he had some rope, or-
Longer legs. It sounded ridiculous but the longest and nicest pair of legs he knew were walking just over the quad, and if this wasn’t the perfect opening to finally talk to Patton Sanders then what was? Everyone knew he was the nicest guy, and the pity card really played in Derek’s favour...
“Excuse me?!” He yelled, making up his mind. He waved when Patton looked over, giving him a sheepish grin. “Could you help? My hat!” Derek pointed up at the hat swaying gently in the breeze. Patton’s eyes widened with understanding and he hurried over.
“Oh gosh, what happened here?!” He gasped, looking up at the hat. Derek looked up at him because jeez, who gave him a right to be such a handsome gentle giant?!
He cleared his throat before he could voice that thought. “Oh um, just some pranking. I’m in a prank war with Remus King, see, and my hat is ah, collateral damage.”
Patton’s brow furrowed. “Is he bullying you?” He asked gently. So nice. Just so nice, ugh.
“Oh, no. Well yes but it’s completely mutual, don’t worry. But could you possibly help me get my hat back? You’re very tall and I’m-”
The tall boy laughed, stretching up and hopping to grab the dangling bowler hat, examining it curiously. “Here,” he said, placing it carefully onto Derek’s head. “It suits you.”
Derek blushed fiercely and tried not to stammer. Luckily for him Patton was apparently still in possession of all his faculties, and managed to take over the conversation for him. “Maybe you want to take my number, in case you ever need a tall person again?” He shyly suggested, fidgeting with his backpack strap and the various pins shining there.
Derek just nodded, brain erroring madly, and when Patton’s long legs wandered off after a quick wave, they left the shorter pair one set of digits the richer, hat pulled down to hide his red cheeks.