Ages have been fudged a bit (I think). Katie is 15 in this and Oliver is 17.
Asexuality
"I think our first time should be tonight," Katie casually mentioned to Oliver. She had stayed after Quidditch practice one evening under the guise of helping him put away the ball crate. In reality, she wanted to let him know she was ready to go further...a lot further.
Her boyfriend almost dropped his end of the crate. "What?"
"You know," Katie shrugged, "it's been five months, I thought—"
Oliver let go of the handle and crossed his arms. The side of the box thudded painfully against Katie's leg, and she released her grip on it as well, causing it to crash to the ground. Oliver ignored this to ask, "Thought what, Katie? That I'd be gagging for it?"
"Well, I-" Katie massaged her leg as she struggled to craft her reply. "Aren't you?"
"Not really," Oliver admitted.
Katie's eyes widened. How could he not be interested in shagging her? Alicia had told her that all guys cared about was shagging!
It suddenly occurred to her that perhaps she was the reason he wasn't interested.
"Is there someone else, then?" she asked, her voice trembling. She stared down at the faded leather box they had been carrying, willing herself not to cry.
Oliver blinked. "What? No, of course not."
"Then why won't you have sex with me?" Katie demanded.
He was lying. He had to be. What other explanation was there? Unless...
"You're gay, then?" Surely that was it. And if he was gay she could deal with that, couldn't she?
"Jesus, Katie, no." Oliver let out a huff and ran a hand through his hair. "I just have no interest in having sex at all, okay? With anyone."
"Oh," Katie said. Not interested in sex? Was that even possible? She had never heard Alicia talk about anything like that before.
As if he had read her mind, Oliver said, "I talked to Percy—my roommate, you know—about it. He, erm, he's very knowledgeable, and he said—he said I might be asexual."
"Asexual?" Katie tried to make sense of the word, to no avail. "What does that mean?"
"It means basically what I said," Oliver explained. "I don't have any interest in sex."
Katie thought for a moment. "What about kissing?" They had mostly given each other modest pecks on the lips; Oliver usually shut down any attempts at deepening kisses. She had assumed that he just didn't want to get carried away, but now she wondered if there was another reason for that, too.
"Kissing is okay," Oliver said quickly. "Erm, I prefer not to use tongues, though."
So, he didn't want to shag her and he didn't want to snog her? Katie felt suddenly deflated. As if he could sense this, Oliver reached out and took her hand.
"Look, I know it's not ideal," he said softly. "I know you were probably hoping that I'd...you know. So I completely understand if you don't—don't want to keep seeing each other." He stood awkwardly for a moment, then started to drag the crate away.
Katie watched him leave. Thoughts were flitting through her head so quickly that she could hardly settle on one for more than a few seconds. She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to press pause on them.
The main thing was, did she want to keep dating Oliver now that she knew what she did? She didn't want to break up with him over the fact that he didn't want to have sex or kiss her with his tongue, and yet...she couldn't deny that she wanted him in a more intimate way. No matter how she looked at it, it felt like a lose-lose situation. Either she broke up with a boy that she truly cared for—as much as she felt that she could at fifteen years of age—or she remained with him and suffered from pent-up sexual frustration. If Alicia was anything to go by, that was not a fun experience.
She sighed and ran after Oliver. He was just coming out of Madam Hooch's office, and he had a wary expression on his face when he saw her.
"Listen, Oliver," she said, a bit out of breath. "I...I don't want to break up with you. If this is who you are, then I can accept that."
Oliver was shaking his head. "I don't want you to feel like I'm holding you back."
"You're not."
"Yes, I am," he insisted.
"Oh my God, you can be so stubborn." Katie folded her arms and set her chin. "I'm not breaking up with you, Oliver. Accept it."
"And you think I'm the stubborn one," Oliver muttered.
Katie glared at him. "I'm not letting you ruin this—ruin us. We're a team. And you know what teams do? We stick together." She was quoting Oliver's latest pep talk now, and she could see the corners of his mouth begin to twitch in recognition. Finally, he burst out laughing, and Katie joined in.
"Touché, Katie. Touché," he said at last. He looked at her, his expression and tone serious once more as he added, "Are you sure this is what you want?"
"Absolutely," she replied, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
"I just don't want you to regret—"
"Come on, Oliver, if we don't get going, all the good seats in the common room will be taken."
She turned and started to walk up to the castle, hoping he would see that nothing had changed between them. And really, nothing had. If she was being honest, she was a bit relieved to not be having sex—she had mostly mentioned it because she felt it was expected of her. She was still young and figuring things out. Sure, a part of her did want Oliver, but a bigger part of her wanted him to be happy, and if not having sex made him happy, so be it.
Oliver fell into step with her moments later. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, and she squeezed back. "Thank you," was all he said, but he didn't need to say anything more. She understood.
Word count: 1,017
A/N: I'll be honest, I don't know how realistic this is in terms of Katie being okay with Oliver's asexuality at a "young" age, but I liked the idea of her not making sex a defining thing in their relationship, especially since she kind of felt pressured into it in the first place. Also, I really tried to represent asexuality properly here, but if you take issue with it, please let me know. I don't want to offend anyone or spread misinformation.
