Holly rolled her eyes and tapped her wedged sandal impatiently, silently cursing the loose sand under her feet for not providing the satisfying sound of impatient foot tapping. She had waited for what felt like ages and she was beginning to feel like a jilted fool of a girl, alone in the crowd of people on the beach for the annual Virginia Beach mid-summer bash.

"A drink for my lady," Peter whispered in her ear from behind, making a shiver race down her spine at the feeling of his breath on her skin.

Collecting herself, she inhaled and turned towards Peter, who passed her the soda she requested. "You have excellent manners for a liar and a thief," she muttered snidely, taking a sip out of the can.

Peter snorted and rolled his eyes in amusement at her predictable reaction. "I would hardly call myself that much of a liar, Holls."

"Don't call me that," Holly retorted sharply. "You told me you'd only be gone a moment, yet I waited at least ten minutes for my drink."

"Christ, you're too high-maintenance, you know that?"

"Well I guess you have to work harder to be worthy of such a high-maintenance girl then," Holly replied.

There was a glimmer of mirth in her eye that told Peter she wasn't as displeased as she sounded. Typical, he thought. "Just wait," he replied smoothly, "you'll see how hard I work."

Holly grimaced at the suggestively lewd undertone of his previous statement. "I'm sure that sounded different in your head, but, please, never say that again."

Before Peter could offer up a retort in hopes of redeeming himself for the misunderstanding, he was interrupted by the people on the beach erupting into loud cheers and applause for the band onstage. This was it, he thought, glancing at Holly quickly for confidence. She had no idea what was about to hit her.

"Now, I've had a lot of requests for the next song," the band's frontman said over the microphone, "which is surprising, considering it came out almost half-a-decade ago, but, alas, the crowd has spoken! The next song we'll be playing is 'Elenore' by The Turtles!"

The crowd erupted into a fresh round of cheers. Holly's face lit up in excitement as she turned to Peter to say, "I love this song!"

Peter grinned back at her mischievously. "I know."

"However, I'd like to invite a special young man onto the stage to win over a beautiful lady," the frontman continued with a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "So, come on down, Peter Maximoff!"

Holly's mouth dropped open in horrified astonishment as Peter appeared on stage immediately after his introduction.

Her feet stayed rooted to her spot. Peter's eyes sought her out in the crowd and smirked at her before he looked out to the rest of the crowd and greeted them excitedly. Holly never knew he could be so charismatic in front of people he didn't know at all, but, then again, he seemed to be full of surprises lately.

"I'd like to dedicate this song to the most beautiful, infuriating, and intoxicating girl I've ever met," Peter told the crowd. His confession was met with excited cheering.

The first few notes of the song played and Peter began to sing with a voice that enchanted Holly and astonished her at the same time. She had no idea he had such a good singing voice.

The crowd loved him and his stage presence, and they only loved it more, yelling "Holly" every time he replaced the name "Elenore" with "Holly" in the lyrics of the song. If she wasn't having such a good time, she might have been annoyed with the scene he was making.

After the song ended, Peter appeared next to Holly and the band began to play a different song, the frontman returning to his band. Holly could feel her entire face heating up in a furious blush as he grinned down at her. "What were you hoping to achieve with that stunt, speedy?"

Peter smirked suavely and leaned his head down closer to hers. Holly's heart sped up in response. "I was just kind of hoping you'd fall in love with me," he muttered, his voice becoming gravely in a way that made Holly's knees feel weaker and her mind go fuzzy.

"Oh, Peter," she murmured suddenly, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling his lips to hers in a passionate kiss.

Holly rolled over in her sleep, her tongue rolling over her lips in a suggestive way.

"Say my name again," Peter asked against her lips.

"Peter," Holly complied in a breathless whisper.

"Holly!"

"Holly, why is your shoulder shaking like that?" Peter asked concernedly, breaking from her and staring at her shoulder.

"What?"

"Holly, wake up!"

Holly's eyes snapped open as she felt the sensation of falling. She let out a shriek right before she hit her carpeted bedroom floor with a low thud.

"You are the embodiment of grace," a mocking voice said from above her.

Holly closed her eyes and groaned. "Why does this always happen to me?" she muttered as she picked herself off of the floor to stare blankly at Peter. "I'm not even going to ask why you're in my room right now as long as you explain to me why in Hell you think it a good idea to throw me off my bed?"

Peter collapsed onto her bed, grinning at the way it bounced under him. "Well, if you'd have woken up properly the first time I shook you, I wouldn't have had to do it harder."

Holly rolled her eyes and walked into her closet and turned the light on. "I am going to change into something else," she called out to him, "but that does not give you permission to follow me in here."

"I wouldn't dream of it, darling," he replied with a chuckle.

Holly threw on a pair of flared jeans, an off the shoulder top and a pair of flat sandals before walking back into her room. She grabbed her make-up bag and hair brush and stood in front of the mirror. Holly glanced in the mirror to look at Peter. "Speaking of dreams, I was having the most wonderful one before you so rudely woke me up."

"Oh, I heard."

The suggestive tone of his voice told Holly all she needed to know about how much he knew about her dream. She knew she talked in her sleep once and a while, and she happened to be unlucky this time. "How long have you been here?"

Peter smirked happily at her. "Longer than you'd like."

"Damn it, Peter," Holly cursed in annoyance, "you can't just come into my room for no good reason!"

He threw his hands in the air in self-defense. "Hey, I didn't say that I have no good reason. In fact, I have a good reason this time!"

Holly turned to him and narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to overlook the 'this time' remark as long as you tell me now."

Peter averted his eyes to the floor nervously. "I need to talk to you about something important."