Bee Mine

Fandom: Eve

Rating: K+

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Romance

Pairing: Implied Eve/Will

Word count: 1291

Summary: After her disastrous date with Zac, Will wants to cheer Eve up somehow. To his surprise, Abe supplies him with the answer. Implied Eve/Will ONESHOT.

AN: Ugh. I've been having such a bad day so far, but writing this has definitely cheered me up a lot. Writing about Will's enormous crush on Eve that he won't act upon and Abe trying to set them up together because he thinks it's so obvious that they like each other is basically my source of happiness right now. Hopefully it will make you smile too.

DISCLAIMER. I do not own Eve.

"Yes, yes, yes - No!" Abe threw his hands up in the air, banging them against the glass front of the crane machine. Lily stood behind him, arms folded.

"You know these things are most likely rigged to get you to spend more money, right?"

"Who cares?" Abe fumbled in his pocket for more change, slotting it into the machine. "Spending money in here is better than sitting in Will's house of doom and gloom." He cast a look over at Will, who was perched on one of the stools by the slot machine, lost in thought as he stared at a patch of the dark panels running across the arcade walls.

"He's just worried about Eve, that's all."

"Yeah, I'll bet he is," Abe muttered.

Lily bundled her coat around her, trying to protect herself from the cold February air that ghosted about the room. "She's not been herself after what happened with Zac."

Abe frowned at her reflection in the glass. "That was like two weeks ago now. What's she still upset about?"

"She liked Zac," Lily reminded him. "And he didn't really like her." She shook her head. "You'll understand when you get older, Abe." Patting her younger brother on the head, Lily decided to join her best friend by the slot machine. Her best friend who was still completely oblivious to everything going on around him.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Lily asked casually, cutting across his inner monologues and making him jump, sending him tumbling off the stool.

"Jeez, Lily, don't do that," he grumbled, once he'd recovered.

"Sorry. But, you were miles away. Worrying about Eve again?"

"We should have brought her with us."

"She didn't want to come."

"We should have insisted! Her being alone and miserable all the time isn't right." He ran a hand through his hair. "Why does the first person she likes have to be someone who was sent to spy on us? Why couldn't it have been someone else? Anyone else?"

"Willing to take on the job, were you?" Lily nudged him in the shoulder, grinning, not noticing the stifled cough Will let out as he tried to hide his flushed face.

"Ye - No, no, no, no, drop it, drop it - Ugh!" Abe suddenly recoiled away from the crane machine.

"Told you so," Lily said, without sympathy. "What happened? Lose all your money?"

"Worse than that." There was a clattering sound from inside the machine, as something landed in the prize hatch. Abe pulled it out, holding his prize aloft in disgust. A bright pink bumblebee was caught in his grasp, with the words Bee Mine stitched across its side. Lily snorted.

"What on earth are you going to do with that hideous thing?"

An impish smirk suddenly crossed the younger Watson's face. "Maybe Will should give it to Eve."

"Shut up," Will mumbled, staring down at the floor, pretending to be fascinated by the cola-stained carpet underneath his feet. How Abe had found out about his not-so-little crush he had no idea (he thought he was doing a pretty good job at hiding it, in all honesty), but that didn't stop Lily's brother from teasing him about it at every opportunity he got. Lily, on the other hand, hadn't seemed to notice anything - something that had surprised him. Lily was meant to be the Watson family genius, the brain-box. If anyone was going to pick up on this, he thought it would have been her.

"Oh, come on," Abe was saying, juggling his unwanted prize in his hands. "I bet this would cheer her up. You know how miserable she looked when we left."

"If you care about cheering her up, why don't you give it to her?" Lily asked, momentarily saving Will from more embarrassment. Not for long, however.

"Oh, but Will would much rather give it to her."

Lily turned to her best friend. "Would you?"

"I, uh - Well, I - I guess...so?"

"See!" Abe was grinning triumphantly. What was all the fuss about? Will liked Eve - and, despite her little dalliance with Zac, it seemed pretty obvious to him that Eve liked Will too, whether she knew that or not. As far as the young Watson brother could see, the only problem here was that Will was too shy to make any moves on Eve, meaning that the two of them carried on skating around each other, oblivious to the very clear fact that their attraction to each other was mutual.

He pushed the stuffed bee towards Will with a grin. Will took it without a word, but his glare towards Abe said enough. The younger Watson merely shook his head with a laugh. Will had it bad, but if it was left to him, he'd never do anything about his feelings for their resident robo girl.

The three of them continued around the arcade together, trying to beat each other at the different games, as they had always done on their arcade visits, but Will wasn't really concentrating on any of the amusements offered. His mind was already back at home, thinking about how he would present Eve with the bumblebee. How would she react to being given what was essentially a Valentine's present off him? Her one experience with romance had been terrible, and left her sad and hurting. Surely she wouldn't want something that reminded her of that sadness? What if it reminded her of Zac? Stupid Zac who was using her to spy on their family, who never cared about her at all?

He was still debating silently as they walked home, as they parted ways and left for their separate houses. Lily looked confused at his lack of talking, but Abe simply gave him a thumbs up and dragged his sister across the road to their own home. No doubt, sooner or later, Abe would tell Lily everything, if she didn't work it out already. He couldn't worry about that now.

Eve was exactly where he'd left her. She was curled up on the sofa in the living room, staring at the blank television screen. It made him uncomfortable to be in the same room as her. He couldn't stand seeing her so miserable and unhappy.

"Uh, hey." He gave a slight cough. Eve raised her head to look at him, sadness still radiating in her round blue eyes.

"Oh. It's you. Hello."

"Um - I, er - I have something for you." Jeez, get a grip, he told himself.

She pulled herself up into a sitting position, curious in spite of herself. "Yes?"

He looked down at the toy in his hands, before part handing, part shoving it at her. "Uh, yeah. Here you go."

She took it from him slowly, turning it over and over in her hands, analysing. "Bee Mine?"

"Yeah. It's, uh - I thought it was cute," he finished weakly, forcing himself not to hide behind his hands as he waited for Eve to say something. She didn't like it. He knew she wouldn't like it. He should never have listened to Abe in the first place -

"I love it."

He blinked. "What?"

"I love it," she repeated, a smile breaking out across her face - not one of her half smiles, the smile that meant something was wrong, but the beautiful sunny smile that filled his vision and made the metaphorical rain clouds that had been hovering over the house vanish within an instant.

"Well...good. Good. That's - that's good." He offered her his own smile in return. "I'm glad." They stayed in companionable silence for a few moments, watching each other, before Will cleared his throat. "Anyway, uh, how about we do something? Fancy another game of tag?"

Will being all bumbling and getting his words wrong when he tries to be romantic is such a cute thought, seriously. I only saw the most recent episode last night, and it's just...I'm in pain here. I do not like this Zac fellow. At. All. Writing this made my day better, so I hope it makes yours better too. :)