Title: Trouble By Design
Rated T for mild swearing and probably violence later on, because honestly, people swear more casually than any of us like to admit… (save for those people who swear as often as they can to prove they're "something else" that is)
Disclaimer: I sometimes wish I could own some big name comic book thing, then I realize I don't have any actual skill XD
"Shouldn't have stood that close to the fire"
I shivered involuntarily, the cold nipping at me.
"Are you cold?" The Osborn heir's voice came from my right and I turned my head towards him.
"Just a tad, I mean this is better than shopping so thanks" I gave a short laugh, followed by another shiver, to which Harry gave a chuckle as well, before handing me his scarf.
"Here this should at least help a bit," I took it no complaints, I was freezing my ass off and he hadn't even cringed from the cold breeze even once. He continued speaking.
"You know if you want we can do something else? Indoors?" A fire grew in my eyes.
"Oh hell no I've waited in this line for 20 minutes already and we're more than halfway through, no way am skipping out on this now!" I stated, determination very evident in my voice. I was met with a laugh and we started up small talk, him asking me about my classes and me asking him about his homeschooled courses. After the party, Harry (and I) had felt we needed to make up the misunderstanding between us, thus we decided to hang out (I swear it's not a date) and go ice skating outside at a local park.
Ten minutes passed and we were finally in the front of the line to rent skates, I got out my wallet to pay the twelve dollars to rent skates when Harry had already handed the cashier a credit card.
"I can pay for myself you know?" I stated, glaring at him.
"I know," he said without looking at me, only taking his credit card back, "but I want to pay for you, it's no problem," I frowned a bit but sighed.
I mean, if rich boy wants to pay, no reason for me to turn him down.
I let it go and smiled up at him as we got our skates, heading over to a bench to put them on.
"So have you ever ice skated?" I asked as I finished tying up my right skate laces, making sure to double knot them. Harry shook his head.
"Not that I can remember, what about you?" I finished tying the other lace and gave him a look.
"Really?" I exclaimed with a disbelieving grin.
"I swear," he responded with a weird look, I laughed at him.
"Ha, no worries, I've been skating maybe twice, we can be terrible newbs together," I had my skates on so I stood up, offering a hand to Harry so he wouldn't lose his balance. We hobbled on over to the ice rink, giving each other a look of anticipation as we both took a step onto the ice. One of our hands stayed connected as we struggle to keep our balance, me guiding us over to the edge of the rink. I reached out to grasp the railing, holding myself still, Harry followed.
"Soo," I started but never finished.
"So you know how to skate?" Harry inquired and I took a look around, watching how others moved around in order to get a grasp of what to do.
"Maybe," I'm sure he rolled his eyes here, "it looks like you have to keep you legs bent, and kind of alternate which foot is on the ground, gliding forward." My eyes fell to some pro guy, who was doing all kind of fancy spins and skating backwards, I pointed to him.
"See how that guy's keeping his balance?" Harry hummed a yes, "I think we should try to imitate that okay?" I turned back to him with a lopsided grin, holding my hand out for him to take. He took it and we disembarked from of spot with the little kids at the railing. We both focused on other pros at skating, copying their movies as well as we could, both tripping over our own skates many times, laughing while doing so. We skated for an entire hour, making fun ourselves and being jealous of the many small kids who could skate better than us. Eventually the cold got to us, and we agreed to stopped, returning our skates to the rental place just in time for the Zamboni to come out.
"So dear Harry my main boi," he laughed a bit a my antics, "what do you think we should do now?" I finished, peering up at him.
"Well dearest Adeline, my gal," I couldn't resist my smile, "how about we go for some hot chocolate at a local place, I could have my driver come and take us there?" I nodded.
"Yes please, but how about we just go the the place right across the street over there," I pointed, Harry looking over at the direction spotting the place covered in Christmas decorations.
"That could be a bit easier," he gave the place another once over, "it doesn't seem too popular either, hopefully I can stay unnoticed by any press there as well." Harry said.
"Honestly I'm surprised that no one's noticed us here yet," I responded as we started making our way over to the christmas infection. I noticed a cheeky smile on Harry's face, "what're you grinning about?"
"Oh nothing much, I may have told the press that I would be on the other side of town today, going indoor mini golfing at a restricted place, where the press are probably all gathered waiting for me to enter or exit the place," I nudged him as we were crossing the street.
"You sly rascal, lying to the press," he nudged me back.
"Always, and hey, they deserve getting lied to from all the crap they put out about others," He opened the door to the shop for me and I mumbled a thanks and entered.
"Oh definitely, well I'm glad you thought ahead at least," we shuffled up to the counter and ordered some hot chocolate for ourselves, Harry began to take out his credit card again, but I rushed to take out my own wallet and hurriedly put a five dollar bill in the elf hat wearing cashier's hands, I grinned at the frowning Osborn.
"You know I could have paid," he said as I received my change before we moved to the other side of the store near the pick up counter.
"Yeah, but I wanted to pay for you, so no worries," I smiled warmly, my cheeks reddening a bit. We got our drinks and sat at one of the wood themes tables with tiny christmas trees in the middle of them. We once again began a conversation between our small sips of hot chocolate to not burn our tongues, asking about what was going on in each other's lives. I told Harry how I had been working harder than before because of the holiday season, and he lamented how he kept having to appear in his father's steed as he had no mother to do so as his father's well known ill state was only getting worse. I noticed Harry's frown at the topic, and placed my hand over his in a consoling manner, he glanced at me.
"I'm sorry Harry, that's gotta be rough, and annoying, I don't think I could imagine being in that situation," His eyes widened only slightly before giving me a weird look as an awkward silence followed.
"You're not going to pry? Or say that you understand?" He accused with venom, I tilted my head, releasing his hand and drawing it back.
"No. Why would I? If you want to talk to me I'll listen but I don't have control over your wants, and I could never understand as my situation is entirely different from yours, and I'm sure you could never really understand my life's struggles either ya know?" I responded, looking directly at his blue eyes. He coughed.
"Err, sorry Adeline, for accusing you of anything," I stopped my slight frown.
"No worries," He gave me a relieved smile.
"It's just," he turned his head away from me, focusing on the street outside, "everyone always asks for more, or tries to say they understand, try to get closer to me. I guess I just assumed the same from you." I frowned at his admission.
"Man that sucks, everyone though?" I inquired.
"Everyone." He confirmed.
"Jeez, you think some people would have respect for another's privacy," I leaned back in my chair, Harry chuckled once at this, "seriously, don't worry, I'll never pry unless I seriously think it's about something really, really necessary otherwise do whatever you want." He laughed a bit.
"Leave it to you to shatter my expectations in one date," I sputtered out my hot chocolate back into my cup, setting it down on the table quickly with a noise.
"Date?!" I almost yelled.
"Yeah, what did you think this was?" Harry asked, his eyebrows expressing his confusion.
"I don't know, like, a hang out type thing? A get to know each other better day?" I said frantically, motioning between us as I could feel my cheeks heating up. Harry shook his head as a no, "Oh man, I'm sorry I misinterpreted this and I never though that you would ever ask, you know, me, on a date, and, and, I'm just sorry," I slightly cringed as Harry leaned back in his own chair, his hands running over his hair.
"Well, you've at least surprised me again, I thought the subtext of a boy and girl hanging out alone, paying for each other would qualify enough as a date, but I can see I was wrong," I was currently rubbing my cheeks roughly between my hands, oh man was that a sight, "I can drop you off at your house and leave Adeline, don't fret over it, This doesn't have to be a date if you don't want it to be." He started to text someone, probably a driver.
"NO," this time I actually yelled, gaining the attention of Harry, as well as everyone else in the store, I glared at the unwanted attention before facing Harry again, making sure my voice was too quiet for the onlookers , "I mean, yes," I groaned at myself, "I mean, wait a moment," he put his phone down with a sure, "I'm just super, super dense, and I didn't think you would ever want to date me, so I didn't think this was a date at all, but I wouldn't mind dating you because I actually kind of like you and all because you know, you're stylish, have great hair, and you're surprisingly really thoughtful and funny and I'm going to stop there before I embarrass myself, and you, any more, forgive me?" Harry laughed at me, I buried my head in my hands resting on the table, my red brown locks.
"Oh stop laughing at me," I grumbled from my position, glaring at him through my hair.
"You act so unexpectedly and I like it," he said in between his heaping bout of laughter, I could only feel my face get more lobster like from his statement, "I do think we should bail out of this place though, too much attention for my liking," he glanced around at the people in the store still taking glances at us.
"Haha, yeah, my fault for that," he gave me an "obviously" look and I made a decision, "If you want, we could go to my house and I could make us an early dinner, my way of making it up to you and to get out of the crowd," Harry seemed to think it over, "you don't have to take the offer either…" I shied away at the end, pushing my hair behind my ear, straightening it from earlier.
"I'll take you up on that offer Ada, I know my driver is already on his way here," I nodded and we both got up, making our way to the front of the store to wait for Harry's chauffeur. We made it up there when I had a realization.
"Did you just call me Ada?" I asked, standing relatively close to him.
Dang he's warm.
"Yeah, is that a problem?" He asked, a sly grin on his face, i shook my head.
"Not at all, it's almost, nice," I once again shied away at the end, my face blushing, probably.
Damnit, one mention of a date and now I can't even act normal.
Harry seemed to catch onto my now nervous state, "Relax Ada, this doesn't change how we've been acting, I mean, hell I thought from the start this was a date, no need to be nervous alright?" he said before grabbing my hand and leading my into the car that had just parked in front of the shop, I mumbled a "yeah, okay," and his grin only widened as I got into the car with no trouble, making sure to buckle up. Harry followed my process and with a quick, "Go to Ms. Namin's house please," we were on our way to my house. We got there in a questionable five minutes and I got my keys out as we walked up to the front door, the driver waiting for us to get in. I unlocked the door and we shuffled inside, me taking my shoes off and adding them to a rack in the hallway, Harry following suit as I also began to take my coat off.
"Well, this is my grand estate, for sure better than whatever penthouse you live in," I made a joking shrug like gesture to the rich kid before turning back and motioning for Harry to follow me, "Come on, let's get cooking." I led him to my small kitchen, with slightly peeling rose wallpaper and white countertops. Luckily the place was neat, as I had cleaned the kitchen just before I left. I heard some footsteps upstairs, Todd.
"HEY TODD. I'm home, Harry's here too I'm gonna make us all some dinner, where'd my mom go?," I yelled to him.
"Don't know, don't care, probably at a bar, anyways tell me when it's done I'm rendering something for my game," he yelled back, I nodded and yelled one more okay and turned back to Harry.
"Umm, yeah, so my mom's not here but Todd is, he's the kid I dragged you to Oscorp for." I sheepishly smiled, he cracked a grin back.
"Really? I didn't know he was your brother?" Harry responded to me.
"Ehhh, he's not really my brother, but his home life wasn't the best and we bonded over computers and I told him he could crash at my place for however long he needed, he's practically my little brother," Harry nodded, "he's at least annoying enough to be," I said loud enough for Todd to hear too, he yelled a "Hey!" and I started to laugh along with Harry.
"So, dinner?" Harry prompted.
"Oh yeah! Let's get started on it," I moved to the pantry, sweeping over it once and then going to the fridge, "well I haven't gone shopping for a while so how does some fancy mac and cheese with some sausage sound?" I glanced back at him, already grabbing the things needed for it.
"Why not?" I widened my smile.
"Sit down and I'll get it all started okay? I'm assuming you haven't really cooked on your own before, have you?" I grabbed the sausage, cheese, chicken broth, and milk from the fridge and set it down on the table where Harry had sat down.
"What gave it away?" I went back to the pantry, getting garlic, onion, elbow macaroni, a cutting board and a knife.
"It was a good guess," I snarked at him.
"And I'm going to guess you cook a lot," I started cutting up the onion.
"Wow, what gave it away?" I really couldn't resist my snark, and being in my own kitchen cooking had calmed me down a lot (luckily).
"Maybe it was how quickly you cut up that onion and garlic there," I grinned at him, placing the combo in a bowl before cutting up the sausage into small disks before heading over to the stove. I turned one stovetop on and threw some butter followed by the sausage into a pan, using a spoon to mix it.
"Yeah haha, since I was 13 I've been working with the catering company that was at your party, and now I'm an assistant chef there for the fact that I can't work full time," I said offhanded, putting the now cooked sausage to the side and tossing in the onion, garlic, and more butter.
"You've been working since you were 13? That's not even legal is it?" Harry said slightly shocked.
"It's legal enough if they pay you in cash," I tossed in the dry macaroni along with some broth, and placing a cover over the stove, the simmering broth would cook the macaroni flavorfully/ It would take about 15 minutes so I sat across from Harry.
"Why did you start working so early though?" he asked as I plopped down.
"Remember how Todd said my mom was probably at some bar?" I refused to look at him.
"Yes, what about it?"
"Well she's always at bars, at least six of the seven days of the week, spending all the money we have for taxes there, never keeping a steady job, so guess who started working to pay the bills?" I finished, a bitter taste in my mouth.
"You're joking," I tilted my head with a strained smile, "you're not."
"Nope," I popped the p out of habit and Harry scoffed.
"That's messed up, parents are supposed to take care of their children, not the other way around," I nodded, agreeing before I got up to check on the mac.
"Yeah, the world's pretty messed up in general, I'm just glad to have good friends to get me through right?" The mac was ready, so I added a variety of cheeses, some milk, the sausage, salt and pepper, and a bit of butter vigorously stirring before turning the stove top off. I moved through the kitchen, grabbing a few bowls and some spoons.
"TODD time to eat!" I yelled, before hearing him shuffle down the stairs and bounding into the kitchen, I handed him a bowl of mac and cheese and he began to run back upstairs, "you're not going to say hi to Harry?" He groaned and turned to face the rich kid.
"Hi Harry," they began to glare at each other, "you know my sister is rather wonderful and I really hate it when she, if she ever, gets hurt." I filled bowls of mac and cheese for Harry and I.
"Yeah she is pretty amazing, Todd isn't it?" He met Todd's stare with some weird emotion, I rolled my eyes, placing the bowls of food on the table before ruffling Todd's hair to his protest.
"Oh shut it you two, I'm hungry alright?" They broke of whatever staring contest thing they were having and I rolled my eyes, plopping down next to Harry, still shaking my head.
Boys.
We began eating and Harry's face immediately lit up. "Adeline, how can you cook so well? I don't think I've tasted something so simple and yet tasty!" I blushed.
"Practice Har, lots and lots of practice," he basically inhaled another spoonful of mac and cheese, "feel free to have seconds as well okay?" I laughed at his rushed eating, cracking up even more when he went for the mentioned seconds. We barely talked as we were eating, but when finished Harry texted his driver again and we put our bowls in the sink, I'd clean them later. I led Harry back to the front hallway and he started putting on his coat. Then I remembered the scarf, grabbing it and hastily holding it out to him.
"Don't forget about your scarf, and thanks for letting me use it earlier," he took it in his hands before holding the two ends of the scarf and throwing the lpop around my head, pulling me towards him with a mention of, "don't worry about it". I brought my hands up, ending up hugging him around his stomach. He wrapped his arms around me in response and I reveled at how warm he was. We parted slightly, his arms still around me, both of us with slight blushes.
"The hell Harry, how are you so smooth?" I asked, trying to cover up exponentially speeding heart. He shrugged, then smiled as an idea popped into his head.
"Like this Adeline," he leaned forward, pressing his soft lips to mine for a few seconds, eventually drawing back, blue eyes met brown and I'm positive I was having a freaking heart attack when he pulled away and opened the door to leave, his driver waiting faithfully. I stood stunned and perplexed, no doubt I was a disgustingly hot tomato. He waved bye as he entered the car and I raised my hand back to him. As soon as the driver pulled away I shut the door fast, taking a second to replay what had just happened as I leaned back on the door to shut it. The way his scent wafted to me from the hug. The sweet taste of his lips. The way his hands ran over my back, matching the curves of my muscles. The absolute warmth of his person. And oh god his electric blue eyes. I wanted to kiss him again, I realized with a smile that had been plastered in my face since he left.
Fuck was I falling fast, and hard for him.
lol sorry this is so latttteeeee... enjoy... (im sorry I'll be better next time)