Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 48th cycle. Now cycle 49!

"Bring That Irish Charm"
(Beiste &) Ewan (Damian McGinty)/Sugar
Ewan & Beiste series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

He didn't know he could feel this nervous about something that didn't involve school, or being caught in a screw up… This time he was nervous about a person, a girl… Sugar.

He was already growing aware of his feelings for her before that day at Breadstix, when she had up and kissed him, and then she'd home him he could kiss her. He had said no, if only because he wanted the moment to be right.

But no he wasn't sure really how to proceed. He liked her, and part of him was ready to pull together everything he had experienced with her so far to assume that she liked him back, which would make asking her out a valid option, but… what if he had it wrong.

He had no experience with girls, this was properly established where he was concerned. What little experience he had in attempts consisted in him getting shot down, without fail, back in Ireland. That kiss at Breadstix had been his very first, and he'd barely had time to know it was happening before it was over.

Sugar was the one girl he was solid with. There was Tina, sure, but she'd only ever been a friend to him, just as he was to her. By his track record, he should have been a mess when he tried to talk to Sugar, but he wasn't. And now she'd kissed him, saying she'd wanted to, offering him to kiss her back…

What if all this was nothing but a fluke, and the moment it got serious he would lose it again… lose her. He was no coward, but in love, oh… Even thinking the word was making his knees buckle. Somehow he had to be brave even there, and he had to say the words to her.

It sort of brought back memories… his father… Ewan had one girl he'd had a crush on back home. Her name was Fiona. He remembered there had been a thing at his school, and he'd wanted to ask her to come with him, but he was too nervous. His father had known this, and he'd told him fear didn't have to be a bad thing, it all depended on what you did with it.

If he let the fear keep him from getting closer to Sugar, like he wanted to, then that wouldn't be using the fear, it'd be getting used by it. So now he knew… He was going to ask her out.

He just had to figure out how… He wasn't just going to go up to her, ask her, and walk away, just like he wasn't going to hire out a plane to write it in the sky… If he was bolder, he might have done it with a song, in Glee Club, but if he was going to be rejected, he'd rather it be in private.

His aunt must have thought something was wrong with him, according to her he looked preoccupied. He could have told her, but he could never talk to his mother about these things, and if he looked into his aunt's eyes he saw his mother, so… he couldn't. He thought of asking Mike, or Tina, but really he wanted to figure it out on his own.

He was at the mall one day, in the music store, and as he was browsing through the new releases, a pair of hands had come around and covered his eyes. He dropped the DVD he was holding. "Sugar?" he guessed, and she laughed as she let go.

"Who else would it be?" she told him as he crouched to put the DVD back. "I didn't know you'd be here," she told him.

"Last minute," he explained.

"Oh… Well, do you want to go to the arcade?"

"Sure…" he said, as he was bound to. He would follow her, whenever, wherever…

So they'd gone to the arcade. She was surprisingly agile on precision games, whereas he was usually hit or miss… which made the idea seem even more foolish when it came to him. They had gone to the basketball game, and as he had picked up the first of his five balls, he'd stopped and he'd looked to her, and he'd heard himself.

"If I sink all five… will you go out with me?" She hadn't expected it, but seeing her surprise turn into a smile was definitely helping him breathe better.

"Sink four and you're on," she patted his arm. "I'll give you one do-over," she declared, and he smiled.

Looking back at the basket though, that was when the silliness of the idea had really sunk in. He wasn't some ace at basketball. Sure, this basket was not that high or far, but even then, he would probably be lucky if he got two in. Now he had to do four.

"Wait!" she told him, kissed the tip of her finger, and pressed it to the ball. "For good luck," she told him. He let out a breath, and he let the ball fly.

When it went in, Sugar squealed and side-hugged him. He was still kind of shocked, just watched as she took the next ball, repeated her good luck – with a different finger, and put this one in his hands. He aimed, shot… and missed.

"That's okay," she told him. "You have a do-over," she reminded, repeating with her third finger. "Focus," she told him, so he did… and it went in. "Yes!" she hugged him again. He was handed the fourth ball and he was terrified, but he shot… and it went in. By this time, Sugar was unstoppable, and though he didn't look he had a feeling they had an audience.

"Last one," he sighed, looking at it as she pressed her thumb to it before handing it to him.

"Get this one and we have a date."

"And if I don't get it…" he was saying to himself.

"Still a date," she declared, "But… no kiss goodnight." He looked to her, saw her smile, and then… his arm had gone around the small of her back and he'd brought her closer before pressing his lips to hers, gently. He felt her gasp into the kiss, before she responded. When they pulled back, they were breathless with surprise at one another. She smiled, and he did, too. "Okay… I see what you meant now, about the… the…" she gestured, speechless.

"Hold on," he told her, turning back to the basket. He aimed, shot… and the ball went through. He took a deep breath, feeling his father's words had been right all along… fear had helped him.

"Four shots, you win…" Sugar told him, smiling and maybe even blushing.

"Can I ask you something?" he spoke when they'd later leave the arcade. She nodded. "If I hadn't made the shots, or if I'd just asked you out, without…"

"If you hadn't, I would have. A girl can only wait so long," she smirked, and he laughed.

They would split up in the parking lot. They both had to get home, both had a date to get ready for…

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!