Lorcan has always my best friend. We are the outcasts of the Weasley-Potter-Scamander-Longbottom Clan – we are never really included by our cousins or, in Lorcan's case, friends. I am the shy, quiet one. He is the strange, quirky one. That's why for years we have stuck together at any social gathering involving teenagers. That's also why today, we are messing about on the beach instead of getting ready for Uncle Harry's annual summer barbeque. The tide went out a while ago, and is just starting to creep back up the sands. Lorcan, immature as he is, decided that we were making sandcastles, but apparently he has grown bored.

"Hey, come back with my bucket!" I call as he grabs the plastic receptacle and darts away from my reach.

"Never!" he shouts back, kicking up sand as he runs circles around my now-ruined masterpiece.

I leap up and chase him into the water, warm from the midday summer sun. The water stains my pretty cotton skirt to a darker yellow as the tide tugs at our ankles. We slosh about in the waves until I finally catch up with Lorcan, tackling him into the shallows and landing on his chest. I snatch the bucket back and make to get up again, but Lorcan has me sprawling back into his arms with a quick tug at my shoulder.

He has caught my chin in his palm and suddenly we are kissing and it is perfection. He tastes of salt and suntan lotion and nothing else matters but him. He sits up, pulling me properly into his lap and deepening the kiss. We are in our own personal bubble, a sphere of seawater and sand and I think I might faint from giddiness as he pulls away gently and stares deep into my eyes. His azure eyes seem to mirror the happiness inside me. "I've thought about doing that for the longest time," he whispers, gently brushing a dripping strand of hair away from my forehead. He swallows, and I barely have time to register that he's nervous before he blurts something I thought I'd never hear him say. "I love you, Lucy."

My jaw drops open. It takes a few seconds before I can manage speech again. "How... how long have you known this?"

He looks regretful, staring absently at the soaked yellow fabric of my skirt. "Too long… Much too long. I hope this doesn't ruin our friendship, Lucy, but I understand if you don't want to … be together."

I frown. "Why would us being together ruin our friendship?"

His confused eyes flash to mine in a second. "Wait, you actually want to-?"

I cut off his question with my lips on his. After a few seconds of bliss I pull away, smiling shyly. "Does that answer your question?"

The corners of his eyes crinkle as he smiles, the biggest grin I've seen on him in years. "Definitely. I imagine your dad's going to call us soon, so we'd better head up." I sigh and let him pull me to my feet, catching his left hand in a firm grip. I spot my dad just leaving the garden. He always goes to work on the morning of the summer barbeque, much as my mu tries to convince him otherwise, so I haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon. He sees us and waves, although his shout is lost in the wind of the clifftop. Lorcan and I run up the clifftop path and I love the feeling of the wind in my hair.

We reach the top and I see my dad's face darken as he takes in the sight of our clasped hands. "My dad's going to give you the if-you-ever-hurt-my-daughter speech now – good luck," I mumble to Lorcan under my breath. He swallows audibly and nods. I let go of him and run to my dad, giving him a bear hug. My dad and I are very close. "Daddy!"

"Hey, Lucy-Lou!" he says in my ear. My dad is the only one who gets to call me that. "You're soaking!" he shouts as he jumps back from my soggy clothes. Lorcan appears at my shoulder and Dad frowns. "Lorcan," he says flatly.

Lorcan looks slightly taken-aback at Dad's cold tone. "Percy – it's been a while," he says, trying to lighten the mood.

"That it has," Dad replied, reaching around me to shake Lorcan's hand. "Lucy, honey, go and get changed you must be freezing! I just need to have a word with Lorcan here, then we'll be right in, alright?" He smiles at me but gives Lorcan a look out of the corner of his eye. I smile and feeling a rare outburst of courage, I kiss them both on the cheek and skip into the cottage, my half-dried skirt clinging stickily to my legs.

I turn around at the door, just in time to see them having a quiet discussion near Dobby's grave. Someone had placed some fresh yellow daffodils there - Lorcan's mum, probably. Luckily I'm good at lipreading, and I catch my father's appeased expression as Lorcan tells him, "I love Lucy." And as I see them nod and shake hands again, this time amiably, I realise that I like nothing better than my father attempting to like my boyfriend. But Lorcan is much more than just my boyfriend – he's the only guy of many that I can actually see a future with. He's someone I might just already love.

Written for the If You Dare Challenge and the 2013 Summer Fanfiction Olympics, with the prompts -

sphere, never, circle, tide, salt, a bucket, LucyLorcan, Percy Weasley, Giddiness, Midday, "Come back with my - !", Yellow

and #91 I Love Lucy.