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Millard and (Y/N) had been friends for a while. Not too long, maybe about a year. At first they had been the ordinary girl-guy-friendly pair, sparing each other the talk over dinner and some of their tastes and points of view on certain topics , a few games of ball every once in a while, sharing their reading sessions but nothing too close to heart. After a while though, they started sharing a lot more: secrets, hopes and dreams, entire nights of stargazing and quite talks. About the world, the sun, the sea, and all the wide empty roads to travel and discover. They became closer as the hours of every September 3rd rolled by. And after every reset they grew more and more inseparable.
Still, they were friends.
Neither dared say a word, neither dared give more signs for ever wanting more of that relationship, because neither wanted more, or at least that's what they wanted everyone to believe. Yet no one did.
Miss Peregrine usually noticed such bonds before they even happened, and even though she once tried to stop them from happening in the hopes that she could keep her children as childish and innocent as possible, she realized that they will eventually want to grow up. In this case though, she seemed to, as the new girl would probably put it, ship it, as she made constant attempts to bring the two together, whether by making the two do chores together or pretending not to see the two of them occupy the love-seat in the library together, both deeply engulfed in the worlds the books they were reading uncovered, so different, so far away, yet so close at the same time.
Yet the two never made a move. Neither took a chance, neither uttered a whisper about it.
The entire house was tense. Miss Peregrine, the younger kids, Jake and, for goodness' sake, even Enoch, were always on their toes when the two were together in a the same room, listening closely to every word they say, watching for any movement, any gesture, any sign of the two of them finally taking the next step, yet it never came.
Until another sunny September 3rd.
That had been the last straw! Enough!
The tension had been building and building for a long time but that had just been too much.
The situation was simple: (Y/N) had been trying to get down the stairs to take a walk outside, something from behind her had startled her, she had turned, stumbled, and had almost fallen down the steps until strong arms wound around her middle and pulled her back to the solid isle of the stairs. And there they stood, the energy-sensitive girl and the invisible boy, staring into each other's eyes, her hands on his shoulders and his arms around her.
"Thank you, Mill." she'd mumbled as she'd pulled her arms away from him, "If you hadn't been there I was surely going down those stairs wrong-side-up."
He had been startled into silence by the closeness of her face, the way she knew where his eyes were, saw them. He had asked her about it a thousand times and she seemed to give a similar answer every one of them, yet he kept asking out of curiosity. She told him that everything had its individual energy, that it formed figures, shapes, and that eyes were where energy was the most concentrated. That's how she knew exactly where he was, how she saw him.
As the two stood on top of the stairs staring closely at each other, held each other, deeply engulfed into the other's embrace small and not so small feet tapped their way into the hall.
"Oh, just kiss already!", groaned a feminine voice from the bottom of the stairs, as if sending a wave through the air and separating the two, who stood far from each other not braving to look into the other's eyes. Fiona regretted the complaint she made as soon as it had left her mouth, followed by the disappointed groans of the rest of the spectators, namely, everyone besides Miss. Peregrine.
(Y/N) was so embarrassed. How could Fiona say that? Out loud? In front of everyone in this home? How rude!
And then again how could she assume such things? Her and Millard kissing? Ridiculous! Absolutely out of the question!
She had to get out. Immediately! She whipped past the invisible teen, running down the stairs, taking three in one, shoving everyone else out of her way, as she grabbed the door open and ran away to an unknown location.
Meanwhile the house inhabitants felt the crashing disappointment of a put-off field trip, but none knew the pressure like Millard did.
She ran away? No, she just straight out bolted! Was the idea of kissing him THAT disgusting to her? Enough to make her run fast enough down the stairs to almost break her neck? Surely, that felt like a stab in the back, he had thought they were friends at least. Yes, he may have fantasized about them being more, being like Emma and Jake, later realized that it will possibly never happen, but still they were friends. The best of friends actually. But after she had almost lit the floorboards on fire he had started to doubt that. Millard was unused to her reacting so rashly.
When the others teased them about being joined at the hip she would just blush, or giggle, or make a snark comment back. But to run? Never.
But then his head filled with flames and accusations.
"Thanks, Fiona. Thank you guys a lot. " he seethed lowly, storming his way down the stairs and through the crowd, "Thanks to you my best friend ran away from me as if I'm a wildfire!" he barked, going through the widely opeded door and slamming it shut.
(Y/N) was a raging mess. She was furious. How could they, the inhabitants of the home, ruin this for her. For them.
But not a thought crossed her mind.
'There's no way it would have happened. He doesn't like me that way.'
But then again she wasn't blind either. She noticed that, even though Millard was a gentleman and was naturally pulled back when things between them got too intimate, he would utter soft words when he thought she‘d fallen asleep on the loveseat, the little glances, the soft touches. But she could just be projecting her feelings onto him.
„There you are!“
And of course he knew her well enough to know where she would go, and that would be down by the rocks where people who were scared of heights wouldn't date to look and notice another edge right under the cliff. And that's where she would usually be when life got too tough, with her legs dangling off the actual edge, sea water spraying her and the winds created by the crashing waves shoving her hair in all directions, some strands sticking to her teary cheeks.
It took him a minute to get down and sit down next to her on the space that seemed to be able to only contain the two of them.
For a second he sat there next to her unsure of what to say or do, until he noticed her averted face and her sniffling and put two and two together. Boy, she was truly upset by the whole ordeal. What do you say to the best friend that you thought excepted you for all your weirdness and all of the sudden showed such a disgust towards his person? What could he possibly do to fix everything and put it back he way it was?
"Look, (Y/N), I... I'm so-"
"Please don't say you're sorry." she chuckled somberly.
Well, that was truly confusing him now. What could he possibly do except for... Except for apologise for something he had no idea what it was or probably wasn't his fault. Ugh, now he realized why apologising, which was the only thing he could think to do.
"Look," she started shakily, "I know I've acted rash in the past like with the whole 'ignoring you coz I didn't want to offend you' fiasco but I feel like this time I've truly reached an all time low." she hiccuped between every few words and sniffed every once in a while, pulling at the invisible boy's heartstringsbut he let her finish.
"So since that last time I promised myself to tell you the truth in these kinda situations-" Well, he didn't want to her it.
"I get it, you don't have to say it out loud. I know why you reacted the way you did." it took him immense willpower to look away from her soft features but he, knew he had to, otherwise he might spill his feelings for her.
"I still have to say it though. Be honest, remember?"
"If you really have to." Millard shrugged and looked down at the sharp rocks and crashing waves with his heart in his throat wondering if a fall down to the bottom will hurt more than having to hear her openly reject him.
"I.. I just... didn't..." here goes, the teen thought, "want it to go like this."
Huh?
"I wanted to tell you how I felt personally. Serves me right for telling Olive, we all know she can't keep her mouth shut."
"What?" was the only thing he could say at the moment, making the girl next to him flinch and look, teary eyed and confused at him.
"Why, what did you think?" I sniffed again, about twice as distressed as she used to be, dreading what he might say next.
"That you'd say you didn't want to talk to me ever again so everyone in the house will stop harassing the both of us." he quickly pushed out, looking away from the girl before he could overthink it and chicken out again.
Until he heard a snort.
His brows furrowed, his eyes squinted and his face snapped back to look at her again. Only to see, her eyes were squinted to, and her brows were furrowed upwards just like his, but rather than have distress written over her soft gentle features, there were clean lines of amusement. That made him even more confused. And then her smile split and she started laughing. More like downrigh cackling. Millard was a cleaver boy, yes, but he had never been more confused in his life.
When the girl from his dreams seemed to start losing her breath in her moment of amusement, her body seemed to collapse under the lack of oxigen and her head leaned onto his shoulder as her hand grabbed his upper arm and held tight seemingly holding on as to not fall over. He instinctively wrapped an arm around her back and front to keep her steady but wasn't sure if that was any help. After all he still wasn't sure where they stood.
"Isn't -" another genuine cackle cracked her sentence as the invisible teen was starting to wonder whether she was really okay or is every new September 3rd ha finally driven her insane.
"Isn't that... Exactly what happened last time? " her laughter had somewhat subdued itself into adorable little snorty giggles and she could almost talk properly again, which was great because he needed some explanation for her antics RIGHT ABOUT NOW, "Isn't this the second time I ruin things by holding my tongue at the wrong time?" her giggles turned into a little sequence of chuckles until she was lying still on his shoulder, with her hand buried in the sleeve covering his upper arm. "I wanted to make it special so bad that I almost ruined it. But anyway," she sighed heavily, "cat's out of the bag now so I just better out with it. I..." she took another deep breath to reassure herself that she had nothing to lose and that even if he didn't feel the same, they'd still be friends. Whether she knew that was false or not remains unknown," I like you, Millard. I like you a lot. And not as a friend, but as a... More than a friend. And before you say it and make me stay away from you, can I just...." he felt her throat move against his sweater and heard her audibly swallow, "could you hold me just for a moment. That's all I really wanted."
Now he was beyond confused. He was utterly scandalised by the thought that this beautiful, colourful, bubbly, lovely creature thought that she wasn't worthy of him - a guy who no one but her could see, and she still wasn't technically seeing him, but that's a whole different story.
The idea was utterly ridiculous.
"Why would you think I would ever want you to stay away from me?" he let out a chuckle of his own, shoulder bouncing under the girl's head. So much so that when she raised her head to look at him again, he wondered if the reason was the disturbance of her rest or the incoherence written over her face.
"Well... uhm, I mean," she seemed to be unable to form a sentence and the chuckles leaving his person weren't an encouragement in the least, "I though that, me saying all that would... You know, make it awkward between us and that... You wouldn't... Want to have me around anymore." As she sat back down where she used to be before she shuffled, or was it maybe a tiny bit closer, he felt the pull towards her, the one that made him want to have his arms around her, to be close to her, to feel her instead of see her.
His eyes could barely spare the time to blink, as that would mean splitting his sight from her features. Througt his knit sweater vest and white shirt he could feel her warmth like she could feel his presence. He was hyperaware of her next to him, so much so that his mind shut down and his body was taken over by the senses that she tickled when they were close.
"What if I prove you that it will all be okay? What if I could prove you wrong?" Millard asked lowly, eyes never straying from her downturned ones. Just then he realized how the pull he felt towards her might be more powerful than he thought as the moment she looked up, her long glossy lashes brushed his and his breath was stolen from his lungs.
"Prove me wrong then." she whispered, afraid to speak as to not disturb the atmosphere.
The air was still, the small drops of water that created a mist that filtered the light, the same ones that floated above their heads and spilled rainbow-coloured light onto her hair and face, had been stuck frozen.
Her eyes, as enchanting as they were took a backseat to another of treasures that her face hid - her lips. Soft, plush, full, and slightly parted as if she could barely breathe through their transe. No thoughts inhabited his brain, only the sensations of her. And no thought was needed when he finally leaned that bit closer and put his lips over hers.
The soft plushy skin there, with it's thin almost unnoticeable taste of the strawberries they'd had for dessert that day, with the warm and fresh essence of her made him take a deep breath through his nose to remind himself that it was really happening.
His eyes were shut now, so he could feel her to the fullest.
Her breath hitched and seconds later as well, which was followed by her hand tracing it's way to his neck to pull him closer. And just then, at that specific moment she knew.
Every thing will be alright.