𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━ five hargreeves

21│HOOKED ON A FEELING

The boy's eyes narrowed slightly. "I'm not going to let you get out of this. Say it again."

Lola's face felt very hot right now and she couldn't meet his gaze. "I said 'c'mon, Fives.' I— uh, that was an acc—"

"No it wasn't," he cut across her softly, "I don't mind."

Oh.

Now she really couldn't meet his eyes. Her gaze flicked back towards the bed that she'd previously been excited about. As her eyes studied the furniture in front of her, some of her prior enthusiasm returned and she gave a little bounce. "Look at all the pillows! We could have a pillow fight!"

"A what?"

The question made her turn back around. "Don't tell me you don't know what a pillow fight is," she said incredulously. When the boy shook his head, she openly gaped at him. "How? I mean, you should at least sort of know what they are! You had siblings!"

"That I never really did anything remotely fun with," he reminded her. The girl's blue eyes brightened and she began to tug on his arm insistently. 

"C'mon, let's have fun, then. I'll show you!"

When he still didn't move, Lola faced him again and stuck out her lower lip slightly as her eyes widened pleadingly. She used her new leverage to her advantage: "c'mon Fives."

If she was going to be embarrassed about that, she might as well get something from it. Five sighed as he tried to ignore the sudden warmth on his face. "Fine."

She shot him a brilliant smile. "It's not like I'm asking you to clean the toilet, idiot. C'mon!"

This time, she successfully pulled him towards the bed. After climbing on to the fluffy surface— that had surprisingly maintained its original quality— she turned and grabbed one of the many pillows. Using the springs to bounce her steps, Lola took advantage of the boy's divided attention as he climbed onto the bed. She gave him a soft whack on the head that caught him by surprise and sent him tumbling towards the mattress.

"Hey! I—" he started indignantly.

"Snooze you lose!" she said cheerfully, "this is a game of speed and self-defense and seizing an opening. You gotta move faster."

Five's eyes narrowed. "You want faster?"

"Yeah, that's the whole—" the brunette started before a blue flash interrupted her. The boy reappeared holding a pillow and used it to effectively knock her off her feet. "Hey! No powers!" she protested as she scrambled back up.

"It's not my fault you don't have any. I'm just adapting!" this time when he went to hit her, the girl's pillow blocked him.

They exchanged several more volleys until he grew bored and stared using his powers again to get an advantage. Lola was a quick learner and kept trying to anticipate where he'd pop up next. She couldn't help the excited giggles that escaped her mouth as she waited for his reappearance and subsequent attacks. The girl's enthusiasm was nearly infectious and Five found himself smiling almost against his will as he admitted— to himself, only— that this was actually kind of fun.

During one of Lola's particularly well-placed hits, she sent both the boy sprawling and feathers flying as her pillow lost its integrity. Bouncing around the flurry of white, she tried to grab another weapon before the boy stood up, but he was faster and used her divided attention to retaliate from the first hit. Except— it didn't go exactly as he planned.

On her way towards the mattress, Lola's hand reached out and grabbed at the boy. Her grip fell on his sleeve, which caused him to topple down with her. He landed with a grunt on something that definitely wasn't the fluffy mattress. His face warmed again as he realized not what but who he'd fallen on top of. The girl was still giggling breathlessly underneath him at her success of his downfall as their current position had yet tp dawn on her.

 "I got you," she said happily, "it's a draw."

The teen propped himself up on his forearms to stare at the brunette intently until the last of her laughter died away. A smile was still playing on her lips and her tangled hair was spread around her head like a dark halo as her eyes sparkled up towards him. With a jolt, Five realized that this was probably the happiest he'd ever seen her and, while a part of him felt guilty that that was true, the larger part of him was more focused on her smile.

Lola was the type of person who smiled with her whole face. As her lips curved up, her eyes brightened and she became vibrant no matter how small the gesture started out as. The boy's gaze continued to remain on her lips even as he tried to pull his eyes up. Why couldn't he look away?

Underneath him, the brunette felt her face warm again as she saw where the boy was looking. She'd read about a million scenarios where the main character was kissed and had loved every single one of them, but now that— that it was happening to her (was it? Or was she just reading into this too much?) her pulse picked up and something similar to fear— but not fear, because she could never be afraid of her best friend— tightened her throat. Her hands felt frigid as they were wont to do when she was excited or nervous or scared and now all her eyes were able to do were focus on Five's lips.

The air became charged between them as the boy's face hesitantly came closer. It felt (and was) as if truly just the two of them in the entire world.

Lola's breath caught in her throat as she felt the warmth of his breath gently hit her face. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment as she pictured what it might be like to kiss him— her words from years earlier about not getting a chance to fall in love completely wrong— and then she remembered that he was going to leave.

It would already be hard enough for her best friend to abandon her, but to have her best friend and someone she cared about more than anyone else (a wordy title, but she wasn't ready to think of Five as her boyfriend) leave her at the same time? That would be too much hurt and she could never prepare herself for that. So, she panicked and said the first thing that came out of her mouth: "your breath stinks!"

The boy jerked back as if he'd been slapped. "W-what?"

Lola gently pushed him on to the bed and scrambled away from him, making an effort to exaggerate her disgust as her heart raced painfully in her chest. "Your breath stinks," she repeated.

"So does yours," he pointed out as he avoided her gaze. Had he really just been about to kiss her?

"Yeah, but I can smell yours. I can't smell mine," the brunette pressed her chilly hands to her warm face in an effort to cool it down, her gaze focused somewhere over the boy's shoulder.

"Whatever," Five said, rolling his eyes. Had she really wanted to kiss him back? What had scared her? He was glad, at least, that he had an excellent poker face (not that it helped him in the actual game) and he could hide his disappointment and sting of hurt without making her feel uncomfortable. Still, despite his efforts, there was tense silence that had never followed any of their words before.

In the following days, the brunette wasn't sure how to act around him and was very wary about being anywhere close to the boy. She often jumped and startled badly when he stood at what would've been a comfortable distance before what happened in the mansion.

Five did his best not to think about what might've been had he been able to kiss Dolores as he always found that sort of thought useless and a waste of time. It still didn't help that he felt the prick of hurt whenever he thought about how she'd avoided kissing him or the new wariness in her eyes as if she expected him to suddenly start kissing her right then and there without her permission.

Which he would never do. Surely she knew that?