Hello! Sorry for the minor delay. Thank you so much for all your kind reviews! They make me so incredibly happy, like fangirl type squealing kind of happy. Let Sugar and Rory's not-date continue xD

The movie they'd picked for convenience turned out, in fact, to be pretty good in the sense that it carried a fairly strong plot, had no awkward sex scenes and nobody was attractive enough in it to make one of the pair jealous. A success story, they both thought as they exited the dark room, squinting slightly. They smiled at each other to fill the mildly awkward silence until they stepped out into the warm night Sugar bit her lip

"Will they have left yet," Rory asked. "Your parents' friends?"

"No..." Sugar gave him a crooked smile, throwing subtlety to the wind as they instinctively strode towards the park. "Thanks for hanging out with me," she said in a hushed voice. "People don't do it a lot."

Sugar sat down on a bench just inside the gate Rory sat down next to her, close enough to seem friendly, but not too close to invade her personal space. "It's a pleasure." Rory gave her a smile that very nearly melted her heart.

"I've always found it hard to make friends," Rory went on, "Because I'm crappy at talking to people and I get awkward and weird and, yeah..." He trailed off "Like that."

Sugar giggled at him. She realised it had been a while since anyone had been able to genuinely make her laugh, but Rory seemed to do it all the damned time, and it was usually without even trying. "I think it's endearing."

Rory blushed "I hope that's a compliment. Things were pretty difficult back at my last school, but people here seem okay."

"I used to think that, until they found out about me. I was real popular before then."

Rory could tell Sugar had tensed a little even from his gentlemanly distance. He wanted to be the kind of friend who you told about this sort of stuff, about your past and the things that kept you up at night. He had regretfully admitted to himself that he already thought of Sugar as that friend to him. He felt his words flowed more freely around her, and he already valued that more than he should.

"When was that?" He asked, and heard Sugar sigh audibly.

She turned to him "It was only last year, around Christmas time." Rory thought she moved towards him a little. "I was popular back then. I had a ton of friends, everyone thought I was really cool. I could say whatever I want, because everybody believed me about all the Asperger's shit because they had to believe me. I was their little queen bee." She laughed humourlessly to herself. "Anyway, as I said, I had a lot of friends. My best friend was this girl named Harmony, I don't know if you've seen her around- she's a cheerleader and they all look the same. But anyway, she was always so sweet to me back then. I mean it was all an act; she's a total bitch, but... I trusted her- I guess I trusted everyone back then- so I told her. I didn't even think it was that big a deal, she just asked me one day which of my parents I was related to and I told her both. The weird thing is she barely reacted, and it wasn't until I got to school on Monday that I realised it was a big deal." Sugar's voice grew quieter, and it sounded suspiciously like she was holding in tears. Rory felt a tugging in his chest and (finally) reached out to take her hand.

She looked at him in a soulful sort of way before continuing "Anyway, at first everybody just avoided me I guess. I knew something was up. So here's the best part: I went up to Harmony on the soccer field where she was doing some cheerleader thing that involves a lot of hanging around and I said 'Hey Harmony, guess what? Everyone is ignoring me and I don't know why,' and she just looked at me and said 'Sugar, everyone's ignoring you because you're a freak'".

"But you're not a freak," Rory interrupted her with a stern tone. "How can they say that?"

Sugar shook her head "I don't even know anymore. Anyway I asked why and a couple of her friends joined her and they said some really mean things, one girl said I shouldn't even exist and, shit, when the Jesus-freak club found out they went crazy and..." She looked Rory straight in the eye, her own eyes glistening with tears. "I guess you know the rest."

"That's... Rory shifted so that they were sitting next to each other and squeezed her hand "That is bollocks. But don't listen to what any of them said, okay? They're a bunch of mogs."

Sugar laughed out loud "I love that half the time I don't know what you're saying." She had a genuine smile on her face, like she truly found him endearing and Rory secretly felt a little proud of himself for cheering her up. It occurred to him that he was leaning slightly towards her, and that they were still holding hands. There was a surprisingly non-awkward silent as Sugar slowly realised the same. "I guess I should go..."

Rory let go of her hand with a start "I'll walk you home."

Sugar chuckled "It's a half hour away!"

"So? I don't want you going home on your own."

"Okay."

Rory was used to social situations in general being awkward, and that's why he hated living in care so much: where even watching TV or taking a shower was a social situation. He was mystified by the fact that being with Sugar was far more fun than nerve wracking, even after the moment they had accidentally had. The walk back was amicable, and Rory neglected to tell Sugar that it was in the exact opposite direction to his own walk home. It was dangerous, he told himself, for her to be going back on her own. It was still quite early, but it was too late to let a girl walk home alone. Or so he convinced himself. "Today was good," he said.

"Thank you." Sugar gave him a sweet smile and stopped on the corner of a dark street. She gestured with her head "My house."

It was getting darker now, but it wasn't cold and there was a streetlamp on the other side of the road. He looked at Sugar's face, which was oddly expectant, although waiting for him to say something. "You're welcome," he told her "I... I guess I'll see you in school?" He felt as though something was missing, like there was something he really wanted to tell her, but couldn't think what.

"See you in school, Rory." She started to walk off, an ethereal looking light around her which actually came from a streetlamp.

Rory had reached the end of the little road on his way home before he turned around. "Sugar!" he shouted out to the girl in the distance, running towards her in what he thought must be the least heroic fashion possible. "Do you think you'd go out with me some day? Like, you know, on a date. Maybe? You don't have to say yes."

Sugar stood smiling at him "Finally! I thought you'd chickened out there."

Rory frowned "You what?"

"Yes," Sugar said sincerely "Yes, I will."

Please let me know what you think! If there's anything you would like to happen, feel free to suggest it too!