Tightrope

"You're older than him!" I protested.

"I just think he'd be a really good father," Knight continued. "He'd probably play catch with me. Teach me to drive. I can see him coming to my parent-teacher interviews. But now you've corrupted him. He'd probably never return from the supermarket with the milk, and I'd have to eat milkless cereal."

I looked fondly at Jace. "Should we kick him out?"

"No, wait!" Knight protested. "I'll be quiet!"

He zipped his lips dramatically and sat in resolute silence.

Which was nice for the thirty seconds it lasted, because it had given me the opportunity to pull Jace in for a kiss and murmur, "Yeah, you can take me out on a date. But you should probably try to make it special, because I plan the next one, and it's going to kick your date's ass."

Jace's eyes danced. "Are we competing over best dates now?"

"We're completing over everything, always, you should know that by now, Hartley," I said against his lips. We had been fighting for over a decade, and I hardly saw any reason why we should stop now. I quite liked defeating Jace Hartley. "Including this."

And then I'd kissed him properly, and he'd gasped two words against my skin that made me smile. "You win."

***

"Holy shit," said Daria, in an uncharacteristic display of profanity. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. I know you can't see my right now, but I'm dancing. There are pirouettes involved. Jace, I swear, if you're lying to me."

Jace smiled fondly at the phone. "I am not actually lying."

I wanted to grab his hand. Daria's excitement told me just how long this date had been coming. Since the very inception of his friendship with Daria, really. Years and years of wasted time. 

A squeal came from down the line, and I heard the unmistakeable sound of springs coming through Jace's speakerphone as Daria jumped on her bed. "Guys. Guys. Tell me everything. Holy shit, Jace, I have to be your best man. I would rock a suit."

"You would look very hot," I said. "I would probably try to marry you instead."

She sighed dramatically. "And it is tragic that our love story must come to an end. You can never date a friends ex."

"It's been an hour," I pleaded hopefully. "It hardly counts."

Jace looked down at me. "It definitely counts."

A gasp. Daria seemed to be doing a jig around the roof, if her sharp intakes of breath suggested anything "So cute. So perfect. I'm coming over, I need to witness this in 4D. Knight, tell me you took pictures. I'm just assuming he's there, you guys will never have alone time."

"Very rude of you to assume I have nothing better to do with my life," said Knight, folding his arms over his chest. At my expression, one of complete disbelief, he sighed. "But, yeah, I have nothing better to do with my life. I have pictures."

Jace kissed my forehead swiftly.

"I got another one," said Knight, holding his phone up victoriously.

Daria clapped her hands together. "I knew something would be different," she said softly. "When you came back to school this year. I just felt it."

"What did you feel?" I asked her. 

"I'm not sure," said Daria. "Maybe just that in the face of all your pain, you were ready for something good. And that maybe, just maybe, it would spur my best friend to get his head out of his ass, and finally realise that his elaborate version of pulling your pigtails in the playground wouldn't quite suffice anymore."