You're My Playground Love - Sam/Leah

A/N: This was orginally gonna be a short drabble, but I didn't notice how much I had written until I was done. LOL. So, now it's a short fic. I'm not sure of Leah's age, but I made her a year younger than Sam because that's what I usually imagined. I got the prompt from Livejournal's thealmostlovers community, for their weekly drabble. Hope you like it!

He was ten when his first met Leah; she was nine. He had been running to meet Paul and Jared at their secret hiding place in the woods, the one they had recently discovered and were planning on camping there tonight. They were going to build a campfire and eat marshmallows and everything.

He was just passing under a tree when he heard a gasp, and stopping, had glanced up. There was a girl in the tree, hanging by a branch, desperately trying to keep her hold and hoist herself back up.

Sam could tell she wasn't going to make it. Without thinking twice, he had dashed the last few steps until he was directly under her, and called up, “Don't worry! I'll catch you!”

She had looked down, and screamed back, “Go away! I don't need a boy helping me!”

“Well, there aren't any girls here to help you out, now are there?” he had hollared back, scrunching his eyebrows together. What was wrong with her? Didn't she realize the danger she was in?

“I can do it myself!” she had stubbornly yelled back. And then suddenly her hands slackened, Leah was screaming, and Sam flung out his arms to catch her. Her body slammed into him, sending them both to the ground, but breaking her fall.

“Oof-” he let out as an afterthought. Sam looked into her face and saw she had her eyes shut tightly. “Hey, you okay?”

Her eyes snapped open, and she hurried to stand up, but she stumbled on the way up. He grabbed her waist to steady her. Once she was balanced, she threw his hands off. “I'm fine!” Her eyes flashed angrily. She twisted around to stalk off, her long hair flying into his face, sending the smell of bark and cinnamon towards him.

“Where are you going?” Sam had asked, rushing after her. “You could at least thank me for catching you.”

“You didn't catch me! You were in the way!”

“Broke your fall, didn't I?” He had retorted, irritated that she had shrugged off his valiant effort. He could've been hurt for saving her, and she didn't even care!

“Whatever!” She was moving in the direction of their hide-out, so Sam ambled along with her.

“I'm Sam, by the way,” he had told her.

Huffing, she had lurched to a stop, and turned around. She was blushing. “Why are you still following me?”

“I was going this way before you stopped me,” he had snapped, “I'm not following you.”

Annoyed, she had crossed her arms, “Oh.” Then, “I'm Leah Clearwater.”

“What were you doing climbing that tree, anyways?” Sam asked curiously, and they started walking again.

Leah shrugged, then mumbled, “Just felt like it.” They walked in silence for a bit, when he stopped to turn. She walked a few steps before realizing he wasn't with her, and turned around. “What?”

“I gotta turn here,” he said, pointing with his thumb to his destination.

“Oh, right,” Leah said, glancing away, “um, thanks Sam. For catching me.”

“No probl-”

“Not like you saved me, or anything,” she continued hurried. “I guess you better be off, huh? You going to meet friends?”

“Yeah,” he said, feeling bad. She looked lonely. He suddenly didn't care about campfires and marshmallows, he wanted to stay with her. Before thinking it through, before worrying what Paul and Jared would think, he offered, “You wanna come? We're going to build a fire, and cook hotdogs and marshmallows. Maybe tell ghost stories. It'll be a lot of fun.”

She took a step towards him, then stopped. “I don't know-”

“Come on, it'll be great!” Sam had insisted, reaching towards her to hold her elbow, more enthusiastic now about the idea. Sure, she was a little annoying in her stubborness, but she had the prettiest brown eyes, and long brown hair. Plus, she smelled good. “Please?”

“Well,” Leah had said, “okay. This once, though! Because I'm bored.” She had been smiling softly as she said it, though.

“Awesome,” Sam had uttered, staring into her eyes. He led the way, hiding his smile from her, happy.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think. All feedback is appreciated.