A/N: This one was basically suggested to me as, "what if Aleck and Jacob met as kids?" and I decided that the answer is fluff. So much fluff. And, well, the rest is history. (Content warnings don't apply for this chapter because, y'know, they're kids.)

I think this is my favorite one so far. I don't know why. It just warms my heart whenever I read it. I hope you feel the same!

~ Dandelions ~

These days Jacob loved his twin sister to the moon and back, but as a child, he fondly remembered the one thing that had always stood between them: he always had to pout about having to share his birthday parties with Evie. "Why can't I get my own day?" he whined, and his father, who was cutting the chocolate cake he'd made the two of them for their ninth birthday, looked up and raised an amused eyebrow. "I want my own presents and my own cake. Why do I have to share it with her?"

"Because then I would have to pick one of you who didn't get to celebrate on their real birthday, and one of you would get upset," Ethan said, patiently. "That's why."

"That's not fair," Jacob complained, and looked angrily over at Evie, who was giggling and sharing cake with some of her friends. "I want my own party. I don't want her friends here."

"I asked if you wanted to invite some of your friends, and you said no," Ethan said sternly. "So no whining."

"But DAD," Jacob whined, and Ethan put the cake knife down and looked at him with his patented Dad Look that made Jacob shut his mouth at once, realizing he'd gone too far.

"If you're going to complain, then you have to do it outside," he said. "I won't have any more lip from you."

So Jacob went out into the backyard to stew, and found himself plucking angrily at the wiry yellow dandelions that infested their flower boxes, wishing not for the first time that he could be perfect like Evie. He picked up one and tore the head off, then another, spilling golden pollen all over his hands.

The screen door rasped again, and he looked up sullenly, wondering if it was his father coming to scold him for being ungrateful again. But it was a boy, probably no older than he was, being nudged gently outside by his mother. "Come back inside when you feel better, okay, Aleck?" she said, and shut the door, leaving the boy on the porch alone.

Jacob watched as the boy - Aleck, apparently - curled up into a ball and sat forlornly on the porch steps, staring out at the flower boxes. Clearly he hadn't been having any fun at the party, and judging from the way he flinched whenever a loud noise came from inside, it was because he'd been overwhelmed and needed to leave. Maybe he's shy, Jacob thought, forgetting his own frustrations at once and pondering how he could make him feel better.

In a moment of sudden decision, he knelt back down in the dirt and picked a few of the dandelions, then tromped over to where Aleck sat on the steps and and put them into his hand. "Here," he said, and Aleck looked up in surprise. "I want to show you something cool."

"Okay," Aleck said, hesitantly. He watched with wide eyes as Jacob plopped down beside him, and brandished one of the dandelions playfully for him to see.

"Do you know the coolest thing about these?" he asked.

"No," Aleck said, smiling tentatively. "What is it?"

"If you rub one under your chin," Jacob said, dropping his voice as though sharing a very important secret, "and it leaves a yellow spot, that means that you're in love."

Aleck laughed. "No way."

"Yes way. You want to see?"

"Try it," Aleck said earnestly, and Jacob leaned in and squished the dandelion against Aleck's chin, making him laugh harder. He rubbed it a few times and then pulled back and studied the area with a critical eye. Nothing.

"Looks like you're not in love," he declared, and Aleck wilted.

"Oh," he said, miserably. "I wanted to be in love."

"Maybe you have to kiss somebody," Jacob mused, remembering that people who loved each other kissed a lot. "Have you ever kissed somebody before?"

"No," Aleck said, shyly. "Have you?"

Jacob shook his head. He had held a girl's hand once in class, but that was it.

Aleck looked forlornly out at the flowerbeds. "Nobody will ever want to kiss me," he said. "I can't even go to parties without getting scared. I'm not good at talking to people."

"Well, you're doing good at talking to me," Jacob said, trying to cheer him up. "And I don't really like parties either."

"Everyone calls me a nerd." Aleck twisted a dandelion between his fingers. "I don't like it."

"A nerd means you're smart, right?" Jacob said, confused. "That's not a bad thing. I wish I was smart."

Aleck grinned sheepishly. "My mom says I talk about science too much."

"Science is cool," Jacob said, emphatically. "I like that class way better than math. Math class sucks."

Aleck's face lit up at that. "Did you learn about electricity yet?"

"No," Jacob said, giggling. "Tell me about it."

Ethan Frye, meanwhile, had just wandered away from the party and over to the screen door to check on Jacob. He peered through the mesh and found his son sitting beside another boy on the porch steps, braiding dandelions together and chatting happily. He smiled fondly. Looks like he's made a friend.

"...and that's why lightning hits tall things," Aleck was saying, earnestly. "I really hope I get to be a scientist someday and study it. I think it'd be so cool."

"I bet you'd make a really good scientist," Jacob said, and Aleck glowed, clearly delighted by the compliment. "I'll come see your lab someday and we'll be friends."

"I'd like that," Aleck said, and then started tying a dandelion around Jacob's finger, knotting it around his knuckles playfully. "I hope I get to invent things, too. I want to be an inventor."

"Can you invent a lightning machine?" Jacob said, and Aleck gasped, clearly excited by the thought.

"I hope so," he breathed.

Jacob grinned, imagining what one might look like. "I bet it'll be really cool."

"You're really nice," Aleck said, shyly. "No one ever lets me talk about science. They always get bored and walk away."

"Well, maybe we can be friends," Jacob said.

Aleck grinned widely for the first time, revealing that he had dimples. He looks really cute when he smiles, Jacob marveled. "What's your name?" he asked.

"I'm Jacob."

"I'm Aleck," he said. "Um - actually, Alexander. But everyone calls me Aleck."

Jacob smiled. "I like that."

Aleck gestured to the dandelion in his hand, suddenly shy. "Try it again," he said. "The dandelion thing."

Jacob obligingly leaned in to dust his chin, but as he did Aleck suddenly moved forward and planted a kiss on his lips. Jacob froze, startled, but then laughed as Aleck broke away and lifted his chin, showing he had a bright yellow spot there. "Looks like I'm in love now," he beamed, and Jacob giggled and marveled at the fact that he had just gotten his first kiss.

Meanwhile, though neither of them were looking behind them to see it, Ethan Frye stood frozen in place, the cake knife still in his hand. Had he just...? Had they just...?

"What are those kids doing out there?" Aleck's mother had just emerged from the kitchen, looking in surprise at the two children sitting on the porch steps together and dusting each other's chins with happy giggles. "I didn't know Aleck had a new friend. Is he yours?"

"Yes, he's mine," Ethan said, faintly. He was still watching his son, amazed. "That's Jacob."

"He's being very nice," Aleck's mother said warmly, as Jacob reached over to put a dandelion in Aleck's hair and Aleck's laughter carried through the screen. "Aleck is such a sensitive boy. He's not good at making friends. I'm glad he's finally getting along with somebody."

"Yes," Ethan said. "They do seem to be getting along."

And when the party wound down later that night, and Aleck went home and waved to Jacob as he went, Ethan decided he had no choice but to gently pull his son aside. "Jacob," he said, as Jacob beamed up at him, with dandelion dust still on his chin. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Okay, Dad," Jacob said; he looked nervous now, clearly thinking that Ethan was going to scold him for whining earlier. "Sorry I complained."

"No, it's not about that." Ethan fetched a washcloth from the kitchen and gently wiped the dandelion pollen off his face. "Jacob, did you like that boy you were talking to? Aleck?"

"Yes," Jacob said, shyly.

"Did you like him a lot?" Ethan prodded, meaningfully.

Jacob blushed. "No," he said, but he was nine years old and a terrible liar. Ethan sighed fondly.

"Jacob," he said.

And he started to say it. He was so close to saying it, to telling him that boys shouldn't go around kissing other boys and that he didn't understand what he was doing, but Jacob looked up at him with such a purely hopeful expression, such innocence and stars in his eyes, that he felt his old Assassin heart melt.

"What is it, Dad?" Jacob asked, tentatively.

"Nothing," Ethan said, with a fond feeling that he was eventually going to regret this. "Nothing at all. How about I let you have another piece of cake?"

"Really?" Jacob breathed.

"Yes," Ethan said. "Just for you. But you can't tell Evie. It's our little secret."

"Okay!" Jacob was clearly overjoyed that his father was letting him have something special that his sister didn't get; Ethan didn't have the heart to tell him he'd given Evie the same thing earlier. And he didn't have the heart to tell his son that if he had been a few years older, and somebody had caught him and that boy doing what they were doing, they would have faced much worse consequences than losing their dessert privileges. He knew Jacob would find that out eventually - someday, when there was more to worry about than dandelions and birthday parties.

But, well. If there was one thing that Ethan Frye's Assassin days had taught him, it was that they could all afford to live in innocence a little longer.