𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 ━ five hargreeves³

4│GO ON A ROAD TRIP, THEY SAID. . .

An amused tone filtered into his words as he spoke next: "do you really trust our brain-dead siblings to be left to their own devices?"

Alexa let out a whine of complaint but eventually conceded. "I guess not. Don't we deserve at least one day off, though?"

"Well, I suppose we could check in on them to make sure no one has an apocalypse in their schedule and then we could go do something," Five offered as compensation.

She lifted herself onto her hands so she could meet his eyes. The blonde studied him with an uncertain frown. "Are. . ." Alexa trailed off and quickly glanced away from him as she tried to gather her confidence. "Uh. . . are you-are you. . ." Dammit, why was this so hard? This was Five for crying out loud! "Are you asking me on a date?" she finally blurted out.

She knew her face was beet-red by the end over her question and she steeled herself for the laughter that she predicted would come from the boy. Thankfully, no such thing happened. (This was Five, after all— he might have been careless about feelings when they'd been kids but she had confessed that she loved him only yesterday and he hadn't laughed then. There was no reason for him to now, either.) Instead, he only paused for a moment to consider his response before he answered, "yeah, I guess I am."

She huffed. "Well, you could at least sound a little more enthusiastic."

He rolled his eyes at her chiding tone. "Wait until I've had coffee and then I can be as enthusiastic as you want."

"Whatever," Alexa said. She carefully maneuvered herself off of him and went to freshen up.

Five sat up quickly and caught her wrist before she could get very far. The action made her turn towards him with a frown as he looked up at her with a deceptively innocent expression. "What, no good morning kiss?"

Her gaze immediately dropped to the floor and she shook her head slightly to cover her face with her hair. "You have morning breath," was the only good excuse she could come up with. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest at the thought that Five wanted to kiss her again when they'd just done so yesterday.

While they'd kept their feelings— or at least, she'd kept her feelings— under wraps when their mental ages had matched their physical ones, there was no reason to hide their relationship now. All of their siblings knew and the threat of what their father would do if he found out was long gone. It would take a while to get used to this new— good— normal, especially since she was still getting used to seeing Five every day again. It was almost surreal that they could have conversations like this on a daily basis without the fear that one day she'd turn around and he wouldn't be there anymore.

The boy didn't appear to be convinced by her reply. "So do you." When she didn't answer, he observed her uncomfortable appearance with concern. He stood from the bed and stepped towards her so that he was looking down at the blonde rather than the other way around. His hand slid from her wrist down to grasp her fingers, causing her to look up at him. "Lexa, do you not want to kiss me?"

At his question, she immediately— and rather adorably, in his opinion— shook her head harshly enough to make her hair swing in front of her face. "No!" she exclaimed, then looked embarrassed by the loudness of her voice. In a much calmer tone, she repeated, "no. I— uh— I'm just not used to it yet."

"Well, the only way to get used to it is to practice," Five decided. When she met his eyes again, there was an almost playful glint to them.

Her own eyes narrowed. "You're terrible."

The dark-haired boy dropped her hand in favor of lifting both of his to cup her face. As much as she wanted to look away to keep from getting flustered further, her blue eyes were locked on his green ones. Her breath caught in her throat as he leaned towards her and as their lips met, she forgot why she'd been nervous to kiss him in the first place. She reached up to grasp the front of his sweater vest to pull him closer as they kissed soft and sweet and slow right there in the middle of the room, heedless of the fact that two of their brothers continued to sleep the morning away.